BRIEF AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
In compliance with the earnest request of the publisher
of this
volume, I have, with a reluctance that I find it difficult
to
overcome, consented to furnish a brief sketch personal
to myself.
Although my name has been constantly appearing for
some twelve or
fifteen years, yet I have lost none of that, shrinking
from
notoriety and observation which made me timid and
retiring when a
boy. The necessity to write as a means of livelihood,
and to write a
great deal, has brought me so frequently before the
public, that I
have almost ceased to think about the matter as any
thing more than
an ordinary occurrence; but, now, when called upon
to write about
myself, I find that the edge of a natural sensitiveness
is quite as
keen as ever. But, I will call the feeling a
weakness, and try to
repress it until I have finished my present task.
I was born in the year 1809, near Newburgh, Orange
County, New York;
and my eyes first opened on the beautiful scenery
of the Hudson. My
earliest recollection is of Fort Montgomery, some
six miles below
West Point, on the river, where my parents resided
for a few years
previous to 1817. In the Spring of that year,
they removed to
Baltimore, which became my place of residence until
1841, when I
came to Philadelphia, where I have since lived.
My early educational advantages were few. There
were no public
schools in Maryland, when I was a boy, and, as my
father had a large
family and but a moderate income, he could afford
to send his
children to school only for a limited period.
He knew the value,
however, of a good education, and did all for us in
his power.
Especially did he seek to inspire his children with
a regard for
religious truth, and, both by precept and example,
to lead them into
the practice of such things as were honest and of
good rest. In all
this, he was warmly seconded by a mother who still
survives; and for
whom, it is but just to say, that her children feel
the tenderest
regard—and well may they do so, for they
owe her much.
At school, I was considered a very dull boy.
My memory was not
retentive, and I comprehended ideas and formulas expressed
by others
in a very imperfect manner. I needed a careful,
judicious, and
patient teacher, who understood the character of my
mind, and who
was able to come down to it with instruction in the
simplest and
clearest forms; thus helping me to think for myself
and to see for
myself. Instead of this, I was scolded and whipped
because I could
not understand things that were never explained.
As, for instance, a
slate and pencil were placed in my hands after I had
learned to
read, upon which was a sum in simple addition for
which I was
required to find an answer. Now, in the word,
“Addition,” as
referring to figures, I saw no meaning. I did
not comprehend the
fact, in connexion with it, that two and two made
four. True, I had
learned my “Addition Table,” but, strangely
enough, that did not
furnish me with any clue towards working out the problem
of figures
set for me on my slate. I was then in my ninth
year; and I can
remember, to this day, with perfect distinctness,
how utterly
discouraged I became, as day by day went by, and still
I had not
found a correct result to any one of my sums, nor
gained a single
ray of light on the subject. Strange as it may
seem, I remained for
several months in simple addition before I knew how
to sum up
figures, and then the meaning of addition flashed,
in a sudden
thought upon my mind, while I was at play. I
had no trouble after
that. During the next week, I escaped both scolding
and “belaboring”
(a favorite phrase of my teacher’s), and then
passed on to
subtraction. Five minutes devoted to an explanation,
in some simple
form, of what “Addition” meant, would
have saved me the loss of
months, to say nothing of the pain, both mental and
bodily, that I
suffered during the time.
With such a mind and such a teacher, it is no wonder
that I made but
little progress during the few years that I went to
school. Beyond
reading and writing, Arithmetic and English Grammar
included the
entire range of my studies. As for Arithmetic,
I did not master half
the common rules, and Grammar was to my mind completely
unintelligible.
In the end, my teacher, declared that it was only
wasting time and
money to send me to school, and advised my father
to put me out to a
trade. This was done. I left home and entered
upon an apprenticeship
shortly after passing my thirteenth year.
If I found it extremely difficult to comprehend ideas
as expressed
in ordinary written forms, I was not without thoughts
of my own. I
had an active mind, and soon after entering upon my
apprenticeship
the desire for knowledge became strong. As food
for this was
supplied, even though in a stinted measure, the desire
gained
strength, and I began a system of self-education that
was continued
for years afterwards. Of course, the system was
a very imperfect
one. There was no one to select books for me,
nor to direct my mind
in its search after knowledge. I was an humble
apprentice boy,
inclined from habit to shrink from observation, and
preferring to
grope about in the dark for what I was in search off,
rather than
intrude my wants and wishes upon others. Day
after day I worked and
thought, and night after night I read and studied,
while other boys
were seeking pleasure and recreation. Thus, through
much
discouragement, the years passed by; and thus time
went on, until I
attained the age of manhood, when, defective sight
compelled me to
give up the trade I had been acquiring for over seven
years.
Beyond this trade, my ability to earn a living was
small. My efforts
at self-education had been guided by no definite aims
in life. I had
read, studied and thought, more to gratify a desire
for knowledge
than to gain information with the end of applying
it to any
particular use. The consequence was, that on
reaching manhood, I
entered the world at a great disadvantage. My
trade, to learn which
I had spent so many years, could not be followed,
except at the risk
of losing my sight, which had failed for the three
preceding years
with such rapidity that I was now compelled to use
glasses of strong
magnifying power. I had but slight knowledge
of figures, and was
not, therefore, competent, to take the situation of
a clerk. At this
point in my life, I suffered from great discouragement
of mind.
Through the kind offices of a friend, a place was
procured for me in
a counting room, at a very small salary, where but
light service was
required, and where I found but few opportunities
for acquiring a
knowledge of business. Here I remained for over
three years, almost
as much shut out from contact with the business world
as when an
apprentice, and with plenty of time on my hands for
reading and
writing, which I improved.
The necessity for a larger income caused me to leave
this place, and
accept of one in which a higher ability was required.
In 1833 I went
to the West as agent for a Banking Company; but the
institution
failed and I returned to Baltimore, out of employment.
During all
this time, I was devoting my leisure moments to writing,
not that I
looked forward to authorship as a trade—nothing
could have been
more foreign to my thoughts;—I continued
to write, as I had begun,
prompted by an impulse that I felt little inclination
to resist.
At this point in my life, I was induced, in association
with a
friend who was as fond of writing as myself, to assume
the editorial
charge of a literary paper. And here began, in
earnest, my literary
labors, that have since continued with only brief
periods of
intermission.
As an author, I have never striven for mere reputation;
have never
sought to make a name. Circumstances, over which
I had little
control, guided my feet, and I walked onward in the
path that opened
before me, not doubting but that I was in the right
way. If other
employment had offered; if I had received a good business
education,
and been able, through that means, to have advanced
myself in the
world, I would, like thousands of others who had an
early fondness
for literary pursuits, soon have laid aside my pen
and given to
trade the best energies of my mind. But Providence
guided my feet
into other paths than these. They were rough
and thorny at times,
and I often fainted by the way; yet renewed strength
ever came when
I felt the weakest. If my earnest labor has not
been so well
rewarded in a money-sense as it might have been had
I possessed a
business education at the time of my entrance upon
life, my reward
in another sense has been great. Though I have
not been able to
accumulate wealth, I have gained what wealth alone
cannot give, a
wide-spread acknowledgment that in my work I have
done good to my
fellow men. This acknowledgment comes back upon
me from all
directions, and I will not deny that it affords me
a deep interior
satisfaction. Could it be otherwise? And
with this heart-warming
satisfaction, there arises ever in my mind a new impulse,
prompting
to still more earnest efforts in the cause of humanity.
My choice of temperance themes has not arisen from
any experience in
my own person of the evils of intemperance, but from
having been an
eye and ear witness to some of the first results of
Washingtonianism, and seeing, in the cause, one worthy
the best
efforts of my pen. The temperance cause I recognized
as a good
cause, and I gave it the benefit of whatever talent
I possessed. And
I have the pleasant assurance, from very many who
have had better
opportunities to know than myself, that my labor has
not been in
vain. Thus much I have ventured to write of myself.
Beyond this, let
my works speak for me. I can say no more.
Philadelphia, May, 1850.
T. S. A.
