Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/71

 Matthezv Harvey.

��67

��be brought together all the diametri- cally opposite elements of the anti- Federalist party at home, and, so far as liis infliience extended, abroad. In this he confirmed the proposition we have already announced as necessa- rily active in the experience of a popular man. It was highly essen- tial that Matthew Harvey should be popular at home in Hopkinton. If he had not been, he could not have represented the town in the state leg- islature from 1814 to 1820, and been speaker of the house the last three 3'ears ; neither, probably, would he have been a member of the national house of representatives from 1821 to 1825, and afterwards in the state senate three years, being president the last two ; nor, most likely, would he have been a member of the New Hampshire executive council in 1828 and 1829 ; and he could hardly have been governor of the state in 1830. Practical politicians take diligent note of such contingencies as these. With a republican form of government, im- plying many elective officials, it is of eminent importance that there be men who can be popular, but it does not therefore follow that it is every one's duty to try to be popular ; nor does respectability necessarily imply pop- ularity.

In personal stature, Matthew Har- vey was of medium height and propor- tions, and erect. In style, he was tidy, dignified, and gentlemanly. In social nature, he was geuerous, kind, and sympathetic ; in moral character, honest and truthful ; in religious life, fervent and liberal. His whole per- sonal identity partook more of the ideal than of the actual, though he was not so ideal as to be impractical.

��He possessed that gentleness of spirit and manner that enables one to be active without appearing to be ag- gressive. A tendency to the predom- inance of the ideal in human nature affords the most pleasing traits. In Matthew Harvey's case, it revealed tenderness truly touching. In 1836, his only daughter, Margaret Eliza- beth, died. She was a lovely and promising girl. This bereavement was a terrible one to her father, of so susceptible a nature. He buried her in the village cemetery, enclosed the grave with an iron fence, planted a flowering shrub, and erected a small marble monument — the first of its kind ever in town. It is said it was his custom annually, on the anniver- sary of her death, to write some sen- timent in a book of remembrance. In one instance he wrote the following: tender tribute :

" Daughter, I love thy grave;

The rose tree, with its blossoms fresh and wild, Waves o'er thy bed : soon shall it wave O'er me, my child."

At home, Matthew Harvey lived in the house in Hopkinton village now occupied by John S. Kimball. It is situated just west of the Congrega- tional church. In 1830, being gov- ernor of the state, he lived in an oth- erwise unoccupied and larger house a mile and more east of the village, on the so-called turnpike. The house is now occupied by Elijah Spencer. In- dustrially, Matthew Harvey confined himself mostly to the duties of his profession. He showed no particular interest in the cultivation of an estate. In 1807 he was taxed in Hopkinton for one poll; in 1850, the last time he was taxed here, he possessed $1,200 in land and buildings, $1,000 in bank stock, and a neat creature

�� �