ome
to see me at Seal Harbor, where we had the opportunity to discuss the
subject in all its bearings. It will be quite evident from this
narrative that my choice for editor would be no other than Professor
Bourne, and I was much gratified to learn that the President from his
own observation and reflection had determined on the same man. Mr. Adams
had been accustomed to see Bourne at meetings of the American
Historical Association and at dinners of their Council; but, so he
informed me, he was not specially impressed by him until he read the
essay on Marcus Whitman, which gave him a high idea of Bourne's power of
working over material, and his faculty of trenchant criticism. We
arrived readily at the conclusion that Bourne would be an ideal editor
and that the position would suit him perfectly. Relieved of the drudgery
of teaching, he could give full swing to his love of books and to his
desire of running down through all the authorities some fact or
reference bearing upon the subject in hand. The work would be a labor of
love on which he could bring to bear his knowledge, conscientious
endeavor, and historical training. It would have been a case of mutual
benefit. He would be fortunate in securing such a position, and the
Society might be congratulated on being able to get a man so peculiarly
qualified for editorial work. But there was the question of Bourne's
health. We both knew that he had been failing, but we were not aware
that his case was hopeless. The President did not wish to present his
recommendation to the Council until there was a reasonable chance of his
recovery, and I undertook from time to time to get information from a
common friend in New Haven of his progress. But there was no good news.
While Bourne, with the help of his devoted wife, made an energetic fight
for life, it was unavailing. In his death Yale lost an excellent teacher
of history and this Society a candidate who, if he had been chosen,
would have made an accomplished editor.

[163] Bourne also revised the manuscript of my fourth volume, but the
conditions did not admit of our being together more than two
days, and the revision was not so satisfactory to either of us
as that of the first three volumes.

THE PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE

Printed in _Scribner's Magazine_, of February, 1903.

THE PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE

The English Constitution, as it existed between 1760 and 1787, was the
model of the Ame