T R I B U T E S T O T HE ME MOR' R BE R T I N T H R P O C . W O , ” fift s assad setts { ismrital ati t h m m B fi e p , 1 3 1 4 89 . DECEMBER , B O S T O N P U B L I S H E D B ' T H E S O C I E T ' . 1 94 8 . O HN WI ' S O N A N D S O N C AM BR ID GE U. S . A . J , , C O N T E N T S . REMARK S B ' GEO RGE E . ELLIS E L UC I US R . PAIG RESO LU TI O NS O F T H E NE W ' O RK HISTO RI C AL R E MAR KS B ' H SM I H C ARLES C . T S AMU EL A . GREEN H ENR' LEE A I T N A HI H ML O . LL WILLIAM LAWR ENC E C H ARLES FRAN C IS AD AM S LETTER O F GEORGE F . HO AR massatbusetts {Biatot ital §octttp 4 MB MEETING 189 . DEC E E R , T HE m ti n h e ld 13 th stated ee g was on Thursday, the instant, ’ i n . G . thr . Pr s d t LLI at ee o clock , P M the e e , Dr GEOR E E E S , T r la r in the chair . he e was an unusually ge attendance of members , as it was understood that the time would be specially devoted to tributes to the memory of the late Hon . O R BERT C . WINTHROP , who had died since the preceding - 1 meeting , in his eighty sixth year . h h After the reading of the record of t e last meeting, t e D PRESI ENT said that , in accordance with a vote of the Coun th t cil , e regular order of business would be laid aside , and hat ther e would be no communications of the usual character . At the close of the meeting some votes which it would be necessary to pass at the present time would be offered by the Treasurer . He then said ' We have with us here to - day the remembrance only of an associate so long identified with these rooms , and so valued and honored by us as one who brought to the Presidency of this Society distinctions won in the highest ranges of public service . There are many places , scenes , and fellowships in r e which the career and qualities of Mr . Winthrop will be viewed and commemorated . His life , lengthened through the e h i m full st span of years till its springs were exhausted, gave 1 Mr . Wi h o wa s b o in il' e e B o s o Ma 12 1809 d die d nt r p rn M Str t, t n, y , , an at 90 Ma lb o o h e e B o s o No ve m b e 16 189 4. r r ug Str t, t n , r , 6 TRIBUTES T o THE MEMORY OF S pace for the exercise of his rich endowments , attainments , and accomplishments in many and varied fields of elevated disti n c d u . e tion His full career was ivided , in n arly eq al terms of ff x e ri years , into three widely di erent forms of service and e p ence . In very early manhood he came into public life under the most favoring influen c es of opportunity and popularity . a n d With a fine personality , gifted in presence in speech , highly cultivated in scholarship , literary and classical , with - a n d w a s pre eminence in family social position , he courted and honored by rapid advancement , in civil , military , and political f o fices , in his native State . He justified the partiality shown a to him by his full ability to meet all expectations , by his elev a tion of character , his t lents , aptitudes , and eloquence , on m any exacting occasions . The second strongly marked period of his career was that which found him in honored positions in our national legisla d ture , in the convulsions and istractions of the most perilous struggle in the life of our country, a storm in which two seas met . It was a time and an occasion of trial , with glooms and re s o n catastrophes, through which no earnest and prominent p sible actor passed unscathed by party heats , acrimony , and ’ n challengi g of principle or courage . Mr . Winthrop s tempera m ent and his instructed judgment prompted him to stand for conciliation and peace to the utmost edge of the alternative presented to our country . The alternative being decided , a fervid and steadfast patriotism guided his course , without pas sion or bitterness , till the issue closed . Privileged are those among us who have lived only after that conflict . For those of us who passed thro u gh it the best we can now do is no longer to revive or agitate those strifes, but to reserve them for quiet hours of reading and thought . It was among the privileges of his lengthened life that Mr . Winthrop survived not only all his leading contemporaries , but also the most embittered d n . memories , misju gments, and alienations arisi g from them Such of them as concerned himself were kindly reviewed and conciliated . In the serenity and calm of advancing years , the 7 R O BERT C . WINTHROP . memory of them came to him only with gentle speech and judgments of charity . Politics exempted him from choosing place or responsibility in after contentions of parties . ’ The third period of Mr . Winthrop s life was that in which he was best known to most of you here . It has been , in the main , — ’ ’ one of retired dignity , the statesman s , the scholar s , the ’ honored citizen s years of retrospect and repose . Yet it has been by no means an idle term , enriched as it was by labors of the mind and pen . Our last great bereavement as a Society took from us that loved and gifted man to whom all bright occasions made their appeal for a Poem . To Mr . Winthrop like appeals were made for Prose . Besides th e multiplied r occasions on which , with learning , g ace , and felicitou s speech , he met the constant course of time in events , with successive actors , it was his privilege to rehearse and glorify the four most signal incidents in our national history , the Plymouth pilgrimage , th e Centennial of Independence , the w triumph at Yorkto n , and the dedication of the Washington Monument . More than one hundred and fifty of our own countrymen , of various distinctions , besides many of eminence h is abroad , have received from pen biographical or memorial tributes . From the four published volumes of his orations , - addresses , and speeches , might be culled a well nigh continu ous history, narration , or relation of the chief incidents , local and national , in our annals , interspersed with the agency and influence of leading characters . In the wide and c o m p r e h e n sive range of benevolent and philanthropic methods which are in action so vigorously in our own privileged community , his years of retirement were most as siduously engaged . His name and his contributions are mentioned in connection with each o fii c ia l and all of them , either as the head in their manage ment or as a generous patron . Our best organized charitable institution and method , Bible and other religious societies , the ’ Children s Hospital and other noble objects , engaged his devo tion and oversight . Chief among them was one most dear to him . 8 TRIBUTES T o THE MEMORY OF It is well known , at least to some of us here , that after h ila n th r 0 ic that p p banker, George Peabody, had exercised his own judgm e nt in disp osing his m u n ific e n t benevolence in E n g land , he visited his native country with the intent of dividing h a yet larger sum for like objects here . He found that e needed not only suggestions , but discerning and wise coun sel , intelligent advice . This he sought and received from Mr . l Winthrop , his c ose friend for many years , of whose charac ter and qualities he had the highest estimate . The largest gift our Society had up to that time received , in money , from any w individual donor was that of Mr . Peabody ; and h e ished it understood , not being himself a votary of history , that his gift was wholly a personal testimony to our President . To the last month of his life , with its feebleness and its burdens , . h is Mr Winthrop gave absorbed zeal and his patient oversight, in supervision and in detail , to the administration of the great Peabody Education Fund for the South . It was more than ’ a surmise for some of us , that Mr . Winthrop s love and labor in that service were moved by a sympathetic desire to heal the wounds of a desolating strife . The chief matter for recognition by us here in the long n a c c o m career of our late associate , in the wide ra ge of his lish m e n ts h is p and interests , is his connection with and great services to this Society .