uence in the
Commonwealth, who had kept alive the interest of the people
in public affairs. Jonathan Russell, who, with Adams, Bayard,
Clay and Gallatin, negotiated the treaty of Ghent, and who
met rather an ignominious defeat afterward in an attempt to
measure lances with John Quincy Adams; the Hastings family,
three of whom were eminent lawyers, two of them having represented
the district in Congress; were of a generation that passed
from the stage at about the time of Judge Thayer's birth.

The people were fond of discussing public questions, not
only in town meeting, but in neighborhood gatherings and
debating societies. The Judge used often to tell of the
eager interest with which in his boyhood he listened to these
encounters. There were two men, one of whom survived until
Judge Thayer came to manhood, the other of whom died recently
in an honored old age, who were less known abroad than those
I have named, but who exerted a powerful influence upon the
community and upon the character of the observant and impressible
boy. One of them was Dan Hill, the other the Reverend Adin
Ballou.

Dan Hill was one of the most remarkable men Worcester County
ever contained. He was not bred to the bar, and was without
the advantage of what is called a liberal education. But
he had a wonderful aptness for understanding legal principles
and the weight and effect of evidence. His neighbors when
in trouble instinctively sought him as a shield. He was an
unerring counsellor in the conduct of complicated affairs.
His aid was extensively sought in the preparation of causes,
in settling estates, and as guardian and trustee. He was
concerned in hundreds of cases. It would be hard to name
one in which he had anything to do that did not terminate
to the advantage of the party who employed him. He had none
of the arts of the pettifogger. He cared little for his own
personal advantage. He had a native and lofty scorn for dishonesty
and meanness. He was never better pleased than when, without
prospect of gain for himself, he was employing his talents
in the protection of poor and honest men against fraud and
oppression. He had a large public spirit. He was early an
anti-slavery man, and one of the founders of the Free Soil
Party. He was specially at home in the Mendon and Blackstone
town meetings, in the meetings of the school district, in the
caucus, in the temperance and anti-slavery meetings and other
neighborhood ga