INTRODUCTION. BY F. B. SANBORN. I HAVE Complied willingly with the request of Mrs. RoвINSON for a few pages introductory to her full and interesting Memoir of our dear friend, and the friend of every good cause, WILLIAM S. ROBINSON; though it would have been more appropriate for some older acquaintance, who had known him from boyhood, to undertake this friendly task. My own intimacy with him began in his native town of Concord, soon after I went there to live, in 1855; and consequently covered but about twenty of his fifty active and useful years. He had been a journalist for sixteen of those years when I first met him; and he was in the full maturity of his talents then, though neither so distinguished nor so powerful as he afterwards became. Although I must have seen him earlier, my first distinct recollection of him is at themelon-party" of which Mrs. Robinson speaks, given by Mrs. Thoreau, the mother of Henry Thoreau, one evening in September, 1855. It was the custom of the Thoreaus then to raise fine melons in their garden, and once a year to assemble their friends at a reception, where the melons that Henry and his father had grown formed the principal feast. On this occasion, I recall the small and slightly stooping figure of William Robinson among the guests. His jesting manner and ready laugh were in sufficient contrast with the ix grave bearing of his schoolmate, the poet-naturalist of the Concord woods and waters. But the two men were alike in their courageous support of unpopular opinions, their neglect of the cheap prizes of life, and in the steadiness of their friendship for those to whom they were allied. "They were of a lineage That each for each doth fast engage." I did not fairly come to know Robinson, however, until we met frequently, from 1858 onward, at the Bird Club in Boston, of which he was one of the earliest and most constant members. IIe used to say that he meant to earn enough by his "Warrington" letters, which then began to be famous, to pay for his weekly club dinners. But they did more than this: they made him so much a power in Massachusetts, that when the time came, in 1860, for his tablecompanions of the Bird Club to take control of political affairs in this Commonwealth, he was found to be among the most important of their number. He entered, with Sumner, Andrew, Wilson, Bird, the Howes, Claflin, Wright, Stearns, and the rest, into that council of friends, which, until it was broken by "time and chance which happeneth to all," gave wise and brave direction to the policy of Massachusetts both in state and national affairs. This unrecognized cabinet, composed of both official and unofficial persons, came into power with Gov. Andrew in 1860–61; and its last powerful stroke was the defeat of Butler for governor in 1871. In the ten intervening years, the pen of "Warrington" was as potent as any single influence, except the great soul of Sumner and the great heart of Andrew, in maintaining the steady course of Massachusetts on all grave issues. Something of this potency yet survives in the pages here selected from the mass of Robinson's journalistic writings, though much of the force then felt has disappeared with the emergency that called it forth. The wit, the sagacity, the broad humor, and strong sense, independence of the man,—these above all, the dauntless all shine forth, and may be read in future years. But that which has passed away, never to return, is the ardor of the generous contention for freedom and a broader national life; the common impulse, thrilling from man to man as by an electric shock, when we stood side by side in the ranks, giving and taking blows, and more eager for the victory of truth than for the glory or the spoils of conquest. This must be to others but a dim tradition, growing fainter with time: to us it is a warm and cherished memory, which the passing years will seek to efface, but cannot obliterate. Mrs. Robinson has well preserved the spirit, and many of the incidents, of that long warfare with evil; and the invincible, unassuming courage and resource of her husband during that whole period gleam out in her narration as we saw them then, but with details of self-denial and self-sacrifice that are now first made public. It was in this period that the reminiscences of Gov. BULLOCK begin; and they may here be fitly introduced. Ile "My relations with Mr. Robinson were intimate during four years (while I was speaker of the House of Representatives, he being all that time its clerk); and his solid, personal qualities made upon me an enduring impression. I found the temper of his nature amiable, generous, and confiding beyond any thing I had conceived from his writings. He was far more capable of sustained friendship than many persons whose manners are, on the surface, more attractive than his. I never knew him to do an ungenerous thing, or to approve a mean act. Acquaintance brought out a broad and deep humor which his appearance did not indicate to a stranger. He had the laugh of a large-souled man, which came out of the heart, and carried magnetism into his conversation. He abounded in wit of a pleasant flavor. From standard authors, and from the transient literature of the day, with a quickness which has rarely been surpassed, he extracted all the sweetest graces; and, under his nicelyshaded perception, they kindled into soft and mellow light. I A familiar friend could not fail to observe the two sides of his character; for, while his life was apparently rather a stern and severe one, in social intercourse he was one of the best interpreters I ever knew of the finer qualities of a humorist. Though he was somewhat abrupt in manner, delicacy of feeling was his most striking characteristic. mention this particularly, because he was thought by many to be moody, or even cynical. He did like satire; and any man who deals much in that seldom gets credit for the better parts of his disposition. Mr. Robinson's lot was not one of ease, but, on the contrary, it was one of constant and miscellaneous intellectual struggle for support; and I take pleasure in bearing my testimony to the serenity with which he bore it, without discontent, without envy and suspicion, always justly towards others more favorably situated. "He had signally an honest mind. There was no sham in his own make; and he never practised sophistry or charlatanry, or tolerated it in others. IIis was not the custom of saying Yes' for the sake of assenting; nor of saying 'No,' unless he thought and felt it. Without bias, he criticised right and left the opinions and actions of his friends; and he yielded free approval to those of his opponents, if his judgment so determined. He looked for the merits of men and things; and mere title, distinction, fame, weighed with him very little. I recall numerous instances of the entire independence and uprightness of his opinions at a time in which most men surrendered their individuality without reflection to the popular tidal wave. Although radically attached to the administration party, he criticised Sumner as freely as he criticised Vallandigham; and many a time. during the war he expressed to me his sympathy with those whose personal rights and liberties he thought were unduly infringed under the shadow of the war power,' as it was called. And his heart was as honest as his intellect. To say that he was beyond corruption is saying little for him. He worked hard all his days, and never wanted for his labor more than it was worth. I do not know anybody who has done contentedly so much literary work for such moderate pay. In the war-time, in which all salaries were raised under the general inflation, when we came to that of the clerk of the House, I fixed upon a sum which could easily have been carried; but he insisted upon lower figures, which, he said, were all the office was justly entitled to ask. He was a model man for public economy, and could not be tempted from the simplicity and purity of living which marked him to the end. "Intellectually, Mr. Robinson was both broad and acute. His mind went out after principles, passing by technical methods. I never could induce him to pay much reverence to parliamentary authorities. His Manual, published two years ago, really contains all the essentials of parliamentary law; and it ought to come into general use. It is a book of principles, and is sufficient to suggest all the necessary forms; but, because it deals in principles instead of forms, I doubt if it is so popular as it ought to be. His wise discernment and his retentive memory were conspicuous in his studies and reading, and made him an authority within the range of his knowledge, which was remarkable for his opportunities. Ilis reading was miscellaneous, covering wisely the best of modern authors in the English language; and he was especially eclectic in all that he preserved and treasured from his reading. He was a natural and pure writer, vigorous, penetrating, and incisive. Considering that he was a born critic, and that he indulged his ply with like freedom towards those whom he favored and towards those whom he censured, we must all of us acknowledge, that an aim for justice and truth predominated in his writings to a degree uncommon in the compositions of criticism. I do not think it was known, save by a few of his friends, how well-read he was; and certainly very few readers could throw aside the chaff, and appropriate the real grain, more rapidly than he did. - "Mr. Robinson has seemed to me one of the pioneers of the INDEPENDENT PRESS. In high party times, he was one of the earliest, most pronounced, and most fearless of all our |