an officer in the late war, and served with great distinction on the
Canadian frontier. Jonathan, being desirous of a liberal education,
commenced his studies at Atkinson Academy, at about the age of
seventeen, and became a member of the freshman class of Bowdoin College,
Brunswick, Me., in 1821. Inheriting but little property from his
father, he adopted the usual expedient of a young New-Englander in
similar circumstances, and gained a small income by teaching a country
school during the winter months both before and, after his entrance at
college.

Cilley's character and standing at college afforded high promise of
usefulness and distinction in after-life. Though not the foremost
scholar of his class, he stood in the front rank, and probably derived
all the real benefit from the prescribed course of study that it could
bestow on so practical a mind. His true education consisted in the
exercise of those faculties which fitted him to be a popular leader.
His influence among his fellow-students was probably greater than that
of any other individual; and be had already made himself powerful in
that limited sphere, by a free and natural eloquence, a flow of
pertinent ideas in language of unstudied appropriateness, which seemed
always to accomplish precisely the result on which he had calculated.
This gift was sometimes displayed in class meetings, when measures
important to those concerned were under discussion; sometimes in mock
trials at law, when judge, jury, lawyers, prisoner, and witnesses were
personated by the students, and Cilley played the part of a fervid and
successful advocate; and, besides these exhibitions of power, he
regularly trained himself in the forensic debates of a literary society,
of which he afterwards became president. Nothing could be less
artificial than his style of oratory. After filling his mind with the
necessary information, he trusted everything else to his mental warmth