The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne | Page 7

if he were a ghost himself, gliding noiselessly in the walks of
men, and wondered that the sun should cast a shadow from him.
However, we cannot imagine him as seated in jurisdiction at a criminal
tribunal. His gentle nature would have recoiled from that, as it might
from a serpent.
In the Charter Street burial-ground there is a slate gravestone,
artistically carved about its edges, with the name, "Col. John Hathorne
Esq.," upon it. It is somewhat sunken into the earth, and leans forward
as if wishing to hide the inscription upon it from the gaze of mankind.
The grass about it and the moss upon the stone assist in doing this,
although repeatedly cut and cleaned away. It seems as if Nature wished
to draw a kind of veil over the memory of the witch's judge, himself the
sorrowful victim of a theocratic oligarchy. The lesson we learn from his
errors is, to trust our own hearts and not to believe too fixedly in the
doctrines of Church and State. It must be a dull sensibility that can look
on this old slate-stone without a feeling of pathos and a larger charity
for the errors of human nature.
It is said that one of the convicted witches cursed Judge Hathorne,--
himself and his descendants forever; but it is more than likely that they
all cursed him bitterly enough, and this curse took effect in a very

natural and direct manner. Every extravagant political or social
movement is followed by a corresponding reaction, even if the
movement be on the whole a salutary one, and retribution is sure to fall
in one shape or another on the leaders of it. After this time the
Hathornes ceased to be conspicuous in Salem affairs. The family was
not in favor, and the avenues of prosperity were closed to them, as
commonly happens in such cases. Neither does the family appear to
have multiplied and extended itself like most of the old New England
families, who can now count from a dozen to twenty branches in
various places. Of John Hathorne's three sons only one appears to have
left children. The name has wholly disappeared from among Salem
families, and thus in a manner has the witch's curse been fulfilled.
Joseph Hathorne, the son of the Judge, was mostly a farmer, and that is
all that we now know of him. His son Daniel, however, showed a more
adventurous spirit, becoming a shipmaster quite early in life. It has also
been intimated that he was something of a smuggler, which was no
great discredit to him in a time when the unfair and even prohibitory
measures of the British Parliament in regard to American commerce
made smuggling a practical necessity. Even as the captain of a trading
vessel, however, Daniel Hathorne was not likely to advance the social
interests of his family. It is significant that he should have left the
central portion of Salem, where his ancestors had lived, and have built
a house for himself close to the city wharves,--a house well built and
commodious enough, but not in a fashionable location.
But Daniel Hathorne had the advantage over fashionable society in
Salem, in being a thorough patriot. Boston and Salem were the two
strongholds of Toryism during the war for Independence, which was
natural enough, as their wealthy citizens were in close mercantile
relations with English houses, and sent their children to England to be
educated. Daniel Hathorne, however, as soon as hostilities had begun,
fitted out his bark as a privateer, and spent the following six years in
preying upon British merchantmen. How successful he was in this line
of business we have not been informed, but he certainly did not grow
rich by it; although he is credited with one engagement with the enemy,
in which his ship came off with honor, though perhaps not with a

decisive victory. This exploit was celebrated in a rude ballad of the
time, which has been preserved in "Griswold's Curiosities of American
Literature," and has at least the merit of plain unvarnished language.
[Footnote: Also in Lathrop's "Hawthorne."]
There is a miniature portrait of Daniel Hathorne, such as was common
in Copley's time, still in the possession of the Hawthorne family, and it
represents him as rather a bullet-headed man, with a bright, open,
cheery face, a broad English chin and strongly marked brows,--an
excellent physiognomy for a sea-captain. He appears besides to have
had light brown or sandy hair, a ruddy complexion and bright blue eyes;
but we cannot determine how truthful the miniature may be in respect
to coloring. At all events, he was of a very different appearance from
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and if he resembled his grandson in any external
respect, it was in his large eyes and their