"You need no new assurance of my interest in, and respect for, yourself, and the loved ones around you. I enjoy life as few old men do, I believe; for my family seem to live around and for me. My nephew by marriage, Franklin Pierce, seems to be a prominent candidate for the 'White House' for the next four years. He is the soul of honor, and an old-fashioned Democrat, born and bred, and to be depended on as such; but, as I am an old-fashioned George Washington, John Jay Federalist, from my earliest days, and hope to continue to be, I shall prefer one of this stamp to him. * * *
"With a heart overflowing, I hardly know where to stop. We shall meet in the presence of the Saviour, if we hold fast to the hem of his garment; and I hope may be of the number of those whose sins are forgiven.
During the summer, a small volume appeared, entitled "Uncle Toby's Stories on Tobacco." Mr. Lawrence read it; and the views there inculcated so nearly coincided with his own, so often expressed during his whole life, that he caused two editions, of some thousands of copies, to be published and circulated, principally by the boys of the Mather School. On this subject, he writes to President Hopkins, under date of Aug. 5:
"My two last scraps told their own stories to the children, and to-day you will receive a package by express that may require explanation. Uncle Toby has hit the nail on the head in telling his tobacco stories to American lads; and I think your students will do good service in carrying them among their friends wherever they are, to show them how much better it is to prevent an evil than to remedy it; and, taking school-boys as they are, these stories will do more good than any that have been published. I met the author yesterday accidentally at the American Sabbath School Union Depository, where I had just paid for the fifty copies sent to you, and he was very earnest to have me write a few lines for him to publish in his book; but I referred him to the three hundred boys of the Mather School, who are full of the matter to help other school-boys to do as they are doing. However, I may say to him, that, as a school-boy, I was anxious to be _manly_, like the larger boys; and, by the advice of one, I took a quid, and kept it till I was very sick, but did not tell my parents what the matter was; and, from that time to this, have never chewed, smoked, or snuffed. To this abstinence from its use (and from spirit) I owe, under God, my present position in society. Further, I have always given the preference to such persons as I have employed, for more than forty years past, who have avoided rum and tobacco; and my experience has been such as to confirm me that it is true wisdom to have done so. The evil is growing in a fearfully rapid ratio among us; and requires the steady course of respected and honored men to prevent its spread, by influencing the school-children of our land against becoming its slaves. You will please use the fifty copies in the way you think best. If my life is spared, the Mather School boys will be allowed to tell their own experience to the boys of all the other public schools in this city and neighborhood. In short, I look to these boys influencing three millions of boys within the next thirty or forty years. Is not this work worth looking after?"