Page:Poems of home and country (IA poemsofhomecount01smit).pdf/14

 a mature patriotism and a ripe piety have uniformly characterized his life.

The tributes of his friends, Whittier and Holmes, who have so recently passed from earth, and of Washburn, who, at the age of eighty, gives to the world his "Vacant Chair and Other Poems," are fitly associated with this greeting to the public.

The following is the poet 's letter: