one of the speakers on the same occasion, often alluded to it as a remarkable address.  He said, “It elicited more applause, and did more to carry the end in view, than anything that was said by more practised public speakers.  His eloquence was simple and direct, but most effective.  If he was humorous, his audience were full of laughter; if solemn, a deathlike stillness reigned; if pathetic, tears flowed all around him.  He seemed unconscious of his power in this respect, but I have heard him many times before large assemblies at our Anniversaries, and in the chapel of the State Prison, and I have been struck, over and over again, with the remarkable sway he had over the minds of those whom he addressed.”

The business of the Association made it necessary for Friend Hopper to visit that city many times afterward.  He came to be so well known there, and was held in such high respect, that whenever he made his appearance in the halls of legislation, the Speaker sent a messenger to invite him to take a seat near his own.

He often applied to the Governor to exert his pardoning power, where he thought there were mitigating circumstances attending the commission of a crime; or where the mind and health of a prisoner seemed breaking down; or where a long course of good conduct seemed deserving of reward.  When Governor Young had become sufficiently acquainted with him to form a just estimate of his character, he said to him, “Friend Hopper, I will pardon any convict, whom you say you conscientiously believe I ought to pardon.  If I err at all, I prefer that it should be on the side of mercy.  But so many cases press upon my attention, and it is so difficult to examine them all thoroughly, that it is a great relief to find a man in whose judgment and integrity I have such perfect confidence, as I have in yours.”  On the occasion of one of these applications for mercy, the following quaint correspondence passed between him and the Governor: 

  “Esteemed Friend,

  “John Young: 

“You mayst think this mode of address rather too familiar; but as it is the spontaneous effusion of my heart, and entirely congenial with my feelings, I hope thou wilt hold me excused.  Permit me to embrace this opportunity to congratulate thee upon thy accession to the office of Chief Magistrate of the State.  I have confidence its duties will be faithfully performed.  I rejoice that thou hast had independence enough to restore to liberty, and to their families, those infatuated men called Anti-Renters.  Some, who live under the old dispensation, that demanded ’an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,’ will doubtless censure this act of justice and mercy.  But another class will be glad; those who have embraced the Christian faith, and live under the benign influence of its spirit, which enjoins forgiveness of injuries.  The approbation of such, accompanied with an approving conscience, will, I trust, more than counterbalance any censure