REVOLUTIONARY HEROES, AND OTHER HISTORICAL PAPERS

 HISTORICAL CLASSIC READINGS--No 10. 

 BY

 JAMES PARTON, AUTHOR OF

 "LIFE OF HORACE GREELEY, " "LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON, " "LIFE AND TIMES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, " ETC. ETC. 

 GEN. JOSEPH WARREN SIGNING THE DECLARATION OF CAPT. NATHAN HALE INDEPENDENCE. GEN. WASHINGTON'S SPIES. ROBERT MORRIS. VALLEY FORGE. JOHN JAY. JOHN ADAMS. FISHER AMES. THE PINCKNEYS. 

INTRODUCTION. 

James Parton was born in Canterbury, England, February 9, 1822. Whenfive years old he was brought to America and given an education in theschools of New York City, and at White Plains, N. Y. Subsequently heengaged in teaching in Philadelphia and New York City, and for threeyears was a contributor to the _Home Journal_. Since that time, hehas devoted his life to literary labors, contributing many articles toperiodicals and publishing books on biographical subjects. Whileemployed on the _Home Journal_ it occurred to him that aninteresting story could be made out of the life of Horace Greeley, andhe mentioned the idea to a New York publisher. Receiving the neededencouragement, Mr. Parton set about collecting material from Greeley'sformer neighbors in Vermont and New Hampshire, and in 1855 produced the"Life of Horace Greeley, " which he afterwards extended and completed in1885. This venture was so profitable that he was encouraged to devotehimself to authorship. In 1856 he brought out a collection of HumorousPoetry of the English Language from Chaucer to Saxe. Following thisappeared in 1857 the "Life of Aaron Burr, " prepared from originalsources and intended to redeem Burr's reputation from the charges thatattached to his memory. In writing the "Life of Andrew Jackson" he alsohad access to original and unpublished documents. This work waspublished in three volumes in 1859-60. Other works of later publicationare: "General Butler in New Orleans" (1863 and 1882); "Life and Times ofBenjamin Franklin" (1864); "How New York is Governed" (1866); "FamousAmericans of Recent Times, " containing Sketches of Henry Clay, DanielWebster, John C. Calhoun, John Randolph, and others (1867); "ThePeople's Book of Biography, " containing eighty short lives (1868);"Smoking and Drinking, " an essay on the evils of those practices, reprinted from the _Atlantic Monthly_ (1869); a pamphlet entitled"The Danish Islands: Are We Bound to Pay for Them?" (1869); "Topics ofthe Time, " a collection of magazine articles, most of them treating ofadministrative abuses at Washington (1871); "Triumphs of Enterprise, Ingenuity, and Public Spirit" (1871); "The Words of Washington" (1872);"Fanny Fern, " a memorial volume (1873); "Life of Thomas Jefferson, ThirdPresident of the United States" (1874); "Taxation of Church Property"(1874); "La Parnasse Français: a Book of French Poetry from A. D. 1850 tothe Present Time" (1877); "Caricature and other Comic Art in All Timesand Many Lands" (1877); "A Life of Voltaire, " which was the fruit ofseveral years' labor (1881); "Noted Women of Europe and America" (1883);and "Captains of Industry, or Men of Business who did something besidesMaking Money: a Book for Young Americans. " In addition to his writingMr. Parton has proved a very successful lecturer on literary andpolitical topics. 

In January, 1856, Mr. Parton married Sara Payson Willis, a sister of thepoet N. P. Willis, and herself famous as "Fanny Fern, " the name of herpen. He made New York City his home until 1875, three years after thedeath of his wife, when he went to Newburyport, where he now lives. _The London Athenæum_ well characterizes Mr. Parton as "apainstaking, honest, and courageous historian, ardent with patriotism, but unprejudiced; a writer, in short, of whom the people of the UnitedStates have reason to be proud. "

The contents of this book have been selected from among the great numbercontributed from time to time by Mr. Parton, and are considered asparticularly valuable and interesting reading. 

REVOLUTIONARY HEROES. 

GENERAL JOSEPH WARREN. 

A fiery, vehement, daring spirit was this Joseph Warren, who was a doctorthirteen years, a major-general three days, and a soldier three hours. In that part of Boston which is called Roxbury, there is a modern houseof stone, on the front of which a passer-by may read the followinginscription:

"On this spot stood the house erected in 1720 by Joseph Warren, ofBoston, remarkable for being the birthplace of General Joseph Warren, his grandson, who was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. "

There is another inscription on the house which reads thus:

"John Warren, a distinguished Physician and Anatomist, was also bornhere. The original mansion being in ruins, this house was built by JohnC. Warren, M. D. , in 1846, son of the last-named, as a permanent memorialof the spot. "

I am afraid the builder of this new house _poetized_ a little whenhe styled the original edifice a mansion. It was a plain, roomy, substantial farm-house, about the centre of the little village ofRoxbury, and the father of Warren who occupied it was an industrious, enterprising, intelligent farmer, who raised superior fruits andvegetables for the Boston market. Warren's father was a beginner in thatdelightful industry, and one of the apples which he introduced into theneighborhood retains to this day the name which it bore in his lifetime, the Warren Russet. 

A tragic event occurred at this farm-house in 1775, when Warren was aboy of fourteen. It was on an October day, in the midst of the apple-gathering season, about the time when the Warren Russet had attained allthe maturity it can upon its native tree. Farmer Warren was out in hisorchard. His wife, a woman worthy of being the mother of such a son asshe had, was indoors getting dinner ready for her husband, her fourboys, and the two laborers upon the farm. About noon she sent heryoungest son, John, mentioned in the above inscription, to call hisfather to dinner. On the way to the orchard the lad met the two laborerscarrying towards the house his father's dead body. While standing upon aladder gathering apples from a high tree, Mr. Warren had fallen to theground and broken his neck. He died almost instantly. 

The _Boston Newsletter_ of the following week bestowed a few linesupon the occurrence; speaking of him as a man of good understanding, industrious, honest and faithful; "a useful member of society, who wasgenerally respected among us, and whose death is universally lamented. "

Fortunate is the family which in such circumstances has a mother wiseand strong. She carried on the farm with the assistance of one of hersons so successfully that she was able to continue the education of herchildren, all of whom except the farmer obtained respectable rank in oneof the liberal professions. This excellent mother lived in widowhoodnearly fifty years, saw Thomas Jefferson President of the United States, and died 1803, aged ninety-three years, in the old house at home. Untilshe was past eighty she made with her own hands the pies forThanksgiving-day, when all her children and grandchildren used toassemble at the spacious old Roxbury house. 

It was in the very year of his father's death, 1755, that Joseph Warrenentered Harvard College, a vigorous, handsome lad of fourteen, notedeven then for his spirit, courage and resolution. Several of his classone day, in the course of a frolic, in order to exclude him from thefun, barred the door so that he could not force it. Determined to jointhem, he went to the roof of the house, slid down by the spout, andsprang through the open window into the room. At that moment the spoutfell to the ground. 

"It has served my purpose, " said the youth coolly. 

The records of the college show that he held respectable rank as astudent; and as soon as he had graduated, he received an appointmentwhich proves that he was held in high estimation in his native village. We find him at nineteen master of the Roxbury Grammar School, at asalary of forty-four pounds and sixteen shillings per annum, payable tohis mother. A receipt for part of this amount, signed by his mother andin her handwriting, is now among the archives of that ancient and famousinstitution. He taught one year, at the end of which he entered theoffice of a Boston physician, under whom he pursued the usual medicalstudies and was admitted to practice. 

The young doctor, tall, handsome, alert, graceful, full of energy andfire, was formed to succeed in such a community as that of Boston. Hisfriends, when he was twenty-three years of age, had the pleasure ofreading in the Boston newspaper the following notice:

"Last Thursday evening was married Dr. Joseph Warren, one of thephysicians of this town, to Miss Elizabeth Hooton, only daughter of thelate Mr. Richard Hooton, merchant, deceased, an accomplished young ladywith a handsome fortune. "

Thus launched in life and gifted as he was, it is not surprising that heshould soon have attained a considerable practice. But for onecircumstance he would have advanced in his profession even more rapidlythan he did. When he had been but a few months married, the Stamp Actwas passed, which began the long series of agitating events that endedin severing the colonies from the mother country. The wealthy society ofBoston, from the earliest period down to the present hour, has alwaysbeen on what is called the conservative side in politics; and it waseminently so during the troubles preceding the revolutionary war. Thewhole story is told in a remark made by a Boston Tory doctor in thosetimes:

"If Warren were not a Whig, " said he, "he might soon be independent andride in his chariot. "

There were, however, in Boston Whig families enough to give him plentyof business, and he was for many years their favorite physician. Heattended the family of John Adams, and saved John Quincy, his son, fromlosing one of his fore-fingers when it was very badly fractured. SamuelAdams, who was the prime mover of the Opposition, old enough to be hisfather, inspired and consulted him. Gradually, as the quarrel grewwarmer, Dr. Warren was drawn into the councils of the leading Whigs, andbecame at last almost wholly a public man. Without being rash orimprudent, he was one of the first to be ready to meet force with force, and he was always in favor of the measures which were boldest and mostdecisive. At his house Colonel Putnam was a guest on an interestingoccasion, when he was only known for his exploits in the French war. 

"The old hero, Putnam, " says a Boston letter of 1774, "arrived in townon Monday, bringing with him one hundred and thirty sheep from thelittle parish of Brooklyn. "

It was at Dr. Warren's house that the "old hero" staid, and thitherflocked crowds of people to see him, and talk over the thrilling eventsof the time. The sheep which he brought with him were to feed the peopleof Boston, whose business was suspended by the closing of the port. 

The presence of the British troops in Boston roused all Warren'sindignation. Overhearing one day some British officers saying that theAmericans would not fight, he said to a friend:

"These fellows say we will not fight. By heavens, I hope I shall die upto my knees in their blood!"

Soon after, as he was passing the public gallows on the Neck, heoverheard one of a group of officers say in an insulting tone:

"Go on, Warren; you will soon come to the gallows. "

The young doctor turned, walked up to the officers, and said to themquietly:

"Which of you uttered those words. "

They passed on without giving any reply. He had not long to wait for aproof that his countrymen would fight. April nineteenth, 1775, word wasbrought to him by a special messenger of the events which had occurredon the village green at Lexington. He called to his assistant, told himto take care of his patients, mounted his horse, and rode toward thescene of action. 

"Keep up a brave heart!" he cried to a friend in passing. "They havebegun it. _That_ either party can do. And we will end it. _That_ only one can do. "

Riding fast, he was soon in the thick of the melée, and kept so close tothe point of contact that a British musket ball struck a pin out of hishair close to one of his ears. Wherever the danger was greatest therewas Warren, now a soldier joining in the fight, now a surgeon binding upwounds, now a citizen cheering on his fellows. From this day he made uphis mind to perform his part in the coming contest as a soldier, not asa physician, nor in any civil capacity; and accordingly on thefourteenth of June, 1775, the Massachusetts legislature elected him"second Major General of the Massachusetts army. " Before he had receivedhis commission occurred the battle of Bunker Hill, June seventeenth. Hepassed the night previous in public service, for he was President of theProvincial Congress, but, on the seventeenth, when the congress met atWatertown, the president did not appear. Members knew where he was, forhe had told his friends that he meant to take part in the impendingmovement. 

It was a burning hot summer's day. After his night of labor, Warrenthrew himself on his bed, sick from a nervous headache. The booming ofthe guns summoned him forth, and shortly before the first assault he wason the field ready to serve. 

"I am here, " he said to General Putnam, "only as a volunteer. Tell mewhere I can be most useful. "

And to Colonel Prescott he said:

"I shall take no command here. I come as a volunteer, with my musket toserve under you. "

And there he fought during the three onsets, cheering the men by hiscoolness and confidence. He was one of the the very last to leave theredoubt. When he had retreated about sixty yards he was recognized by aBritish officer, who snatched a musket from a soldier and shot him. Thebullet entered the back of his head. Warren placed his hands, as ifmechanically, to the wound, and fell dead upon the hot and dusty field. 

The enemy buried him where he fell. Nine months after, when the Britishfinally retreated from New England, his body, recognized by two falseteeth, was disinterred and honorably buried. He left four children, ofwhom the eldest was a girl six years of age. Congress adopted the eldestson. Among those who contributed most liberally toward the education andsupport of the other children was Benedict Arnold, who gave five hundreddollars. A little psalm book found by a British soldier in Warren'spocket on the field is still in possession of one of his descendants. 

CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE, THE MARTYR-SPY. 

General Washington wanted a man. It was in September, 1776, at the Cityof New York, a few days after the battle of Long Island. The swift anddeep East River flowed between the two hostile armies, and GeneralWashington had as yet no system established for getting information ofthe enemy's movements and intentions. He never needed such informationso much as at that crisis. 

What would General Howe do next? If he crossed at Hell Gate, theAmerican army, too small in numbers, and defeated the week before, mightbe caught on Manhattan Island as in a trap, and the issue of the contestmight be made to depend upon a single battle; for in such circumstancesdefeat would involve the capture of the whole army. And yet GeneralWashington was compelled to confess:

"We cannot learn, nor have we been able to procure the least informationof late. "

Therefore he wanted a man. He wanted an intelligent man, cool-headed, skillful, brave, to cross the East River to Long Island, enter theenemy's camp, and get information as to his strength and intentions. Hewent to Colonel Knowlton, commanding a remarkably efficient regimentfrom Connecticut, and requested him to ascertain if this man, so sorelyneeded, could be found in his command. Colonel Knowlton called hisofficers together, stated the wishes of General Washington, and, withouturging the enterprise upon any individual, left the matter to theirreflections. 

Captain Nathan Hale, a brilliant youth of twenty-one, recently graduatedfrom Yale College, was one of those who reflected upon the subject. Hesoon reached a conclusion. He was of the very flower of the young men ofNew England, and one of the best of the younger soldiers of the patriotarmy. He had been educated for the ministry, and his motive in adoptingfor a time the profession of arms was purely patriotic. This we knowfrom the familiar records of his life at the time when the call to armswas first heard. 

In addition to his other gifts and graces, he was handsome, vigorous, and athletic, all in an extraordinary degree. If he had lived in our dayhe might have pulled the stroke-oar at New London, or pitched for thecollege nine. 

The officers were conversing in a group. No one had as yet spoken thedecisive word. Colonel Knowlton appealed to a French sergeant, an oldsoldier of former wars, and asked him to volunteer. 

"No, no, " said he. "I am ready to fight the British at any place andtime, but I do not feel willing to go among them to be hung up like adog. "

Captain Hale joined the group of officers. He said to Colonel Knowlton:

"I will undertake it. "

Some of his best friends remonstrated. One of them, afterwards thefamous general William Hull, then a captain in Washington's army, hasrecorded Hale's reply to his own attempt to dissuade him. 

"I think, " said Hale, "I owe to my country the accomplishment of anobject so important. I am fully sensible of the consequences ofdiscovery and capture in such a situation. But for a year I have beenattached to the army, and have not rendered any material service, whilereceiving a compensation for which I make no return. I wish to beuseful, and every kind of service necessary for the public good becomeshonorable by being necessary. "

He spoke, as General Hull remembered, with earnestness and decision, asone who had considered the matter well, and had made up his mind. 

Having received his instructions, he traveled fifty miles along theSound as far as Norwalk in Connecticut. One who saw him there made avery wise remark upon him, to the effect that he was "too good-looking"to go as a spy. He could not deceive. "Some scrubby fellow ought to havegone. " At Norwalk he assumed the disguise of a Dutch schoolmaster, putting on a suit of plain brown clothes, and a round, broad-brimmedhat. He had no difficulty in crossing the Sound, since he bore an orderfrom General Washington which placed at his disposal all the vesselsbelonging to Congress. For several days everything appears to have gonewell with him, and there is reason to believe that he passed through theentire British army without detection or even exciting suspicion. 

Finding the British had crossed to New York, he followed them. He madehis way back to Long Island, and nearly reached the point oppositeNorwalk where he had originally landed. Rendered perhaps too bold bysuccess, he went into a well-known and popular tavern, entered intoconversation with the guests, and made himself very agreeable. Thetradition is that he made himself too agreeable. A man presentsuspecting or knowing that he was not the character he had assumed, quietly left the room, communicated his suspicions to the captain of aBritish ship anchored near, who dispatched a boat's crew to capture andbring on board the agreeable stranger. His true character wasimmediately revealed. Drawings of some of the British works, with notesin Latin, were found hidden in the soles of his shoes. Nor did heattempt to deceive his captors, and the English captain, lamenting, ashe said, that "so fine a fellow had fallen into his power, " sent him toNew York in one of his boats, and with him the fatal proofs that he wasa spy. 

September twenty-first was the day on which he reached New York--the dayof the great fire which laid one-third of the little city in ashes. Fromthe time of his departure from General Washington's camp to that of hisreturn to New York was about fourteen days. He was taken to GeneralHowe's headquarters at the Beekman mansion, on the East River, near thecorner of the present Fifty-first Street and First Avenue. It is astrange coincidence that this house to which he was brought to be triedas a spy was the very one from which Major André departed when he wentto West Point. Tradition says that Captain Hale was examined in agreenhouse which then stood in the garden of the Beekman mansion. 

Short was his trial, for he avowed at once his true character. TheBritish general signed an order to his provost-marshal directing him toreceive into his custody the prisoner convicted as a spy, and to see himhanged by the neck "to-morrow morning at daybreak. "

Terrible things are reported of the manner in which this noble prisoner, this admirable gentleman and hero, was treated by his jailer andexecutioner. There are savages in every large army, and it is possiblethat this provost-marshal was one of them. It is said that he refusedhim writing-materials, and afterwards, when Captain Hale had beenfurnished them by others, destroyed before his face his last letters tohis mother and to the young lady to whom he was engaged to be married. As those letters were never received this statement may be true. Theother alleged horrors of the execution it is safe to disregard, becausewe know that it was conducted in the usual form and in the presence ofmany spectators and a considerable body of troops. One fact shines outfrom the distracting confusion of that morning, which will be cherishedto the latest posterity as a precious ingot of the moral treasure of theAmerican people. When asked if he had anything to say, Captain Halereplied:

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. "

The scene of his execution was probably an old graveyard in ChambersStreet, which was then called Barrack Street. General Howe formallynotified General Washington of his execution. In recent years, throughthe industry of investigators, the pathos and sublimity of these eventshave been in part revealed. 

In 1887 a bronze statue of the young hero was unveiled in the StateHouse at Hartford. Mr. Charles Dudley Warner delivered a beautifuladdress suitable to the occasion, and Governor Lounsberry worthilyaccepted the statue on behalf of the State. It is greatly to beregretted that our knowledge of this noble martyr is so slight; but weknow enough to be sure that he merits the veneration of his countrymen. 

GENERAL WASHINGTON'S OTHER SPIES. 

The reader would scarcely expect at this late day to get new light uponthe military character of General Washington. But, in truth, scarcely amonth passes in which some of our busy historical students do not add toour knowledge of him. Recently Mr. H. P. Johnston published in the_Magazine of American History_ some curious documents, hithertounknown, exhibiting Washington's methods of procuring intelligence ofthe movements of the British army. 

Like a true general, he knew from the first all the importance ofcorrect and prompt information. How necessary this is, is known to everyone who remembers vividly the late war, particularly the first fewmonths of it, before there was any good system of employing spies. Someterrible disasters could have been avoided if our generals had obtainedbetter information of the opposing army's position, temper, andresources. 

An attentive study of the dispatches of Napoleon Bonaparte will show theimportance which he attached to intelligence of this kind. He kept nearhim at headquarters an officer of rank who had nothing to do but toprocure, record, and arrange all the military news which could begleaned from newspapers, correspondents, and spies. The name of everyregiment, detachment, and corps in the enemy's service was written upona card. For the reception of these cards he had a case made withcompartments and pigeon-holes. Every time a movement was reported thecards were shifted to correspond, so that he could know at a glance, when the cards were spread out upon a table, just how the troops of theenemy were distributed or massed. Every few days, the officer in chargehad to send the emperor a list of the changes which had taken place. This important matter was intrusted to a person who knew the languagesof the different nations engaged in the war. 

It was Bonaparte's perfect organization of his spy system which enabledhim to carry out his plan of always having a superior force at the pointof attack. These two were the great secrets of his tactical system, namely, to have the best information and the most men at the decisivemoment. 

Bonaparte was a trained soldier; but when Washington took command of thearmy in July, 1775, he had had very little experience of actual warfare. That little, however, was precisely of the kind to prove the value ofcorrect information. For the want of it, he had seen General Braddocklead an army into the jaws of destruction, and he may have stillpossessed in some closet of Mount Vernon the coat with four bullet-holesin it which he had himself worn on that occasion. There are no warriorsso skillful either at getting or concealing information as Indians, andall his experience hitherto had been in the Indian country and withwarlike methods of an Indian character. 

Hence it is not surprising to discover that the first important actwhich he performed at Cambridge was to engage a person to go into thecity of Boston for the purpose of procuring "intelligence of the enemy'smovements and designs. " An entry in his private note-book shows that hepaid this unknown individual $333. 33 in advance. 

A person who serves as a spy takes his life in his hand. It is a curiousfact of human nature that nothing so surely reconciles a man to riskinghis life as a handsome sum in cash. General Washington, being perfectlyaware of this fact, generally contrived to have a sum of what he called"hard money" at headquarters all through the war. Spies do not readilytake to paper money. There are no Greenbackers among them. In theletters of General Washington we find a great many requests to Congressfor a kind of money that would pass current anywhere, and suffer nodeterioration at the bottom of a river in a freshet. He preferred goldas being the "most portable. " He wrote in 1778 from White Plains:

"I have always found a difficulty in procuring intelligence by the meansof paper money, and I perceive that it increases. "

It continued to increase, until, I suppose, an offer of a milliondollars in paper would not have induced a spy to enter the enemy'slines. In fact, the general himself says as much. In acknowledging thereceipt of five hundred guineas for the secret service, he says that forwant of a little gold he had been obliged to dispense with the servicesof some of his informers; and adds:

"In some cases no consideration in paper money has been found sufficientto effect even an engagement to procure intelligence; and where it hasbeen otherwise, the terms of service on account of the depreciation havebeen high, if not exorbitant. "

The time was not distant when paper money ceased to have any value, andGovernor Jefferson of Virginia paid his whole salary for a year (athousand pounds) for a second-hand side-saddle. 

During the later years of the war, the city of New York was the chiefsource of information concerning the designs and movements of the enemy. General Washington, as early as 1778, had always two or threecorrespondents there upon whose information he could rely if only theycould send it out to him. Sometimes, when his ordinary correspondentsfailed him, he would send in a spy disguised as a farmer driving a smallload of provisions, and who would bring out some family supplies, astea, sugar, and calico, the better to conceal his real object. Often thespy _was_ a farmer, and sometimes quite illiterate. As it wasunsafe for him to have any written paper upon his person, he wasrequired to learn by heart the precise message which he was to deliverin the city, as also the information which he received from the residentcorrespondent. 

The messenger frequently entered the city in the disguise of a peddler, a fact which suggested to Horace Greeley, when he was a printer'sapprentice in Vermont, the idea of a story which he called "The Peddler-Spy of the Revolution. " I once had in my hand a considerable package ofhis manuscript of this tale; but even as a boy he wrote so bad a handthat I could not read much of it. It is possible that this manuscriptstill exists. 

These methods of procuring intelligence in New York were all abused byreal peddlers, who, when they were caught selling contraband goods tothe enemy, pretended to be spies, and so escaped the penalty. At lengththe general chiefly depended upon two persons, one called "CulperSenior, " and the other "Culper Junior, " who may have been father andson, but whose real names and qualities have never been disclosed. General Washington's secrecy was perfect. His most confidentialofficers, except one or two who had to be in the secret, never knewenough of these men to be able to designate them afterwards. WhenBenedict Arnold fled to New York after his treason, the American spiesthere were panic-stricken, as they very naturally concluded that Arnoldmust have been acquainted with their names and residences. GeneralWashington was able to assure them that such was not the fact, and it iseven probable that only one individual besides himself knew who theywere. This was Major Benjamin Tallmadge, a native of Long Island, whofrequently received the dispatches from New York and forwarded them toheadquarters. The letters were commonly taken across the East River toBrooklyn; thence to a point on the Sound about opposite to Rye orPortchester; and were thence conveyed to camp. 

The dispatches from the Culpers were generally written in invisible ink, which was made legible by wetting the paper with another liquid. It wasa matter of no small difficulty to keep the spies in New York suppliedwith the two fluids, and also with the guineas which were requisite fortheir maintenance. At first the spies wrote their letters on a blanksheet of paper; but that would never do. General Washington wrote:

"This circumstance alone is sufficient to raise suspicions. A muchbetter way is to write a letter in the Tory style, with some mixture offamily matters, and, between the lines and on the remaining part of thesheet, communicate with the stain (the invisible ink) the intendedintelligence. "

The Culpers served faithfully to the end of the war, and finally had thehappiness of sending to the general the glorious news that the Britisharmy, the fleet, and the Tories were all evidently preparing to departfrom the city, which they had held for seven years. Who were theseadroit and faithful Culpers? The secret seems to have died withWashington and Tallmadge. 

AN HISTORIC CHRISTMAS NIGHT

"Christmas Day, at night, one hour before day, is the time fixed uponfor our attempt upon Trenton. "

In this confused way, December 23, 1776, General Washington wrote fromhis camp, near Trenton Falls, to Colonel Reed, who was posted atBristol, a few miles further down the Delaware, guarding an importantford. 

Before crossing over to the safe side of this wide stream, about twelvehundred feet wide at Trenton, he gave an order so important that, if hehad forgotten or omitted it, nothing could have saved Philadelphia frombeing captured by the British. 

He directed that all the boats and barges of the whole region, forseventy miles, everything that could float and carry a man, should betaken over to the western bank of the river, and there carefullyconcealed, or closely watched. 

All the boats and canoes in the creeks and tributaries were alsosecured, and hidden where they could do an enemy no good. There weremany large barges then upon the Delaware, used for transporting hay andother produce, some of which could have carried over half a regiment offoot at every trip. 

All of these were hidden or guarded, and as soon as General Washingtonhad got his own little army over, he posted a guard at every ford, andkept trustworthy men going up and down the river, to see that the boatswere safe. 

If any one desires to see General Washington when he displayed hismanhood and military genius at their best, let him study the records ofhis life for the month of December, 1776. The soldier, the statesman, the citizen, the brave, indomitable man, each in turn appears, andshines in the trying hours of that month. 

Only the River Delaware separated the hostile armies, and the enemywaited but for the ice to form, in order to add Philadelphia to the listof his summer conquests. 

Congress had adjourned from Philadelphia to Baltimore. New Jersey wasravaged by ruthless bands of soldiers. Disaffection was on every side. The winter, prematurely cold, threatened to make an ice-bridge over thestream in ten days, and within about the same time the terms of most ofGeneral Washington's troops would expire, and he might be left withouteven the semblance of an army. "Dire necessity, " as he said, compelled amovement of some kind. 

Christmas had come. It was a cold, freezing day. There was already alarge amount of ice floating by, and heaped up along the shore, in manyplaces rendering access to the water impossible, and in all placesdifficult. 

About four o'clock in the afternoon, the troops were drawn up in paradebefore their camp at Trenton Falls. They were about twenty-four hundredin number. Every man carried three days' cooked rations, and an amplesupply of heavy ammunition. Few of the soldiers were adequately clothed, and their shoes were in such bad condition that Major Wilkinson, whorode behind them to the landing-place, reports that "the snow on theground was tinged here and there with blood. " The cold was increasing. The ice was forming rapidly. The wind was high, and there were signs ofa snow-storm. 

Boats were in readiness, and about sunset the troops began to cross. Thepassage was attended with such difficulties as would have deterred menless resolute. The current of the river was exceedingly swift, the coldintense, and, although it was the night of a full moon, the thick snow-clouds made the night dark. 

Colonel Knox, afterward General Knox of the Artillery and Secretary ofWar, rendered efficient service on this occasion. Soldiers from YankeeMarblehead manned many of the boats, and lent the aid of their practicedskill and wiry muscle. Every man worked with a will, and yet it wasthree o'clock in the morning before the troops were all over. 

It was four o'clock before they were formed in two bodies and began tomarch, one division close along the river, and the other on a parallelroad, some little distance in the country. 

It had been snowing nearly all night, and about the time when the troopswere set in motion the storm increased, the wind rose, and hail wasmingled with the snow. The storm blew in the faces of the men and theyhad nine miles to go before reaching Trenton, where fourteen hundred ofthe Hessian troops were posted under Colonel Rahl. 

Soon after, it was whispered about among the men that the fuses of thebest muskets were wet and could not be discharged. Upon this beingreported to General Sullivan, he glanced around at Captain St. Clair andasked: "What is to be done?"

"You have nothing for it, " replied St. Clair, "but to push on andcharge. "

The gallant Stark of Vermont was in command of the advance guard, andperhaps near him marched the father of Daniel Webster. Colonel Starktold his men to get their muskets in the best order they could as theymarched, and an officer was sent to inform General Washington of thismishap. 

"Tell your General, " said the Commander-in-chief, "to use the bayonetand penetrate into the town; the town must be taken, and I am resolvedto take it. "

The soldiers overheard this reply, as it was given by the aide toGeneral Sullivan, and quietly fixed bayonets without waiting for anorder. 

About eight in the morning both parties arrived near the village ofTrenton. General Washington, who rode near the front of his column, asked a man who was chopping wood by the roadside:

"Which way is the Hessian Picket?"

"I don't know, " replied the Jerseyman, unwilling to commit himself. 

"You may speak, " said one of the American officers, "for that is GeneralWashington. "

The man raised his hands to heaven and exclaimed: "God bless and prosperyou, sir! The picket is in that house, and the sentry stands near thattree. "

General Washington instantly ordered an advance. As his men marchedrapidly toward the village with a cheer, Colonel Stark and his bandanswered the shout and rushed upon the enemy. 

The Hessians made a brief attempt at resistance; first, by a wild anduseless fire from windows, and then by an attempt to form in the mainstreet of the village. This was at once frustrated by Captain T. Forest, who commanded the battery of six guns which had caused much trouble anddelay in crossing the river. 

At the same time Captain William Washington and Lieutenant James Monroe, afterward President, ran forward with a party to where the Hessians wereattempting to establish a battery, drove the artillerists from theirguns, and captured two of them, just as they were ready to bedischarged. 

Both these young officers were wounded. Colonel Stark during the briefcombat, as Wilkinson reports, "dealt death wherever he found resistance, and broke down all opposition before him. "

Colonel Rahl, who commanded the post, was roused from a deep sleep bythe noise of Washington's fire. He did all that was possible to form hispanic-stricken and disordered troops, but soon fell from his horsemortally wounded. From that moment, the day was lost to the Hessians. 

During the combat, General Washington remained near Captain Forest'sbattery, directing the fire. He had just ordered the whole battery, charged with canister, to be turned upon the retreating enemy, whenCaptain Forest, pointing to the flagstaff near Rahl's headquarters, cried, "Sir, they have struck!"

"Struck!" exclaimed General Washington. 

"Yes, " said Forest; "their colors are down. "

"So they are!" said the commander. 

General Washington galloped toward them, followed by all theartillerymen, who wished to see the ceremony of surrender. He rode up towhere Colonel Rahl had fallen. The wounded man, assisted by soldiers oneach side of him, got upon his feet, and presented his sword to thevictor. 

At this moment Wilkinson, who had been sent away with orders, returnedto his general, and witnessed the surrender. Washington took him by thehand, and said, his countenance beaming with joy: "Major Wilkinson, thisis a glorious day for our country!"

In a moment, however, the unfortunate Rahl, who stood near, pale, covered with blood, and still bleeding, appeared to be asking for theassistance which his wounds required. 

He was at once conveyed to the house of a good Quaker family near by, where he was visited by General Washington in the course of the day, whodid all in his power to soothe the feelings of the dying soldier. 

This action, reckoning from the first gun, lasted but thirty-fiveminutes. On the American side two officers were wounded, two privateswere killed, four were wounded, and one was frozen to death. Four standsof colors were captured, besides twelve drums, six brass field-pieces, and twelve hundred muskets. The prisoners were nine hundred and forty-six in number, of whom seventy-eight were wounded. Seventeen of theHessians were killed, of whom six were officers. 

We can scarcely imagine the joy which this victory gave to the peopleeverywhere, as the news slowly made its way. They were in the depths ofdiscouragement. There had been moments when Washington himself almostgave up Philadelphia for lost, and it was from Philadelphia that he drewhis most essential supplies. 

The capture of the post at Trenton, a thing trifling in itself, changedthe mood and temper of both parties, and proved to be the turning-pointof the war. It saved Philadelphia for that season, freed New Jersey fromthe ravages of an insolent and ruthless foe, checked disaffection inminds base or timid, and gave Congress time to prepare for a renewal ofthe strife as soon as the spring should open. 

It was a priceless Christmas present which the general and his steadfastband of patriots gave their country in 1776, and it was followed, a weeklater, by a New Year's gift of similar purport--the capture of theBritish post at Princeton. 

JOHN ADAMS AND THE QUESTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

It was an act of something more than courage to vote for Independence in1776. It was an act of far-sighted wisdom as well, and it was done withthe utmost possible deliberation. 

The last great debate upon the subject took place on Monday, the firstof July, 1776. Fifty-one members were present that morning, a numberthat must have pretty well filled the square, not very large, room inIndependence Hall, which many of our readers visited during theCentennial year. 

No spectators were present beyond the officers of the House. JohnHancock was in the chairman's seat. In the room overhead the legislatureof Pennsylvania was in session. Out of doors, in the public squares andgrounds adjacent, troops were drilling, as they had been every day formonths past, and a great force of men was at work fortifying theDelaware below the city. 

This day had been set apart for the final and decisive consideration ofIndependence. The draft of the Declaration, as written by Mr. Jefferson, had been handed in three days before, and lay upon the table--perhapsvisibly so, as well as in a parliamentary sense. 

The question had been discussed, and discussed again, and againdiscussed, until it seemed to the more ardent minds a waste of breath toargue it further; but it requires time, much time, as well as greatpatience, to bring a representative body to the point of decidingirrevocably a matter so momentous, involving their own and theircountry's destiny. 

_Ought_ we to sever the tie which binds us to the mother country?That was not so very difficult to answer; but there was anotherquestion: _Can_ we? Britain is mighty, and what are we? Thirteencolonies of farmers, with little money, no allies, no saltpetre even, and all the Indians open to British gold and British rum. Then there wasanother question: Will the people at home sustain us?

At nine o'clock President Hancock rapped to order. The first businesswas the reading of letters addressed to the Congress, which had arrivedsince the adjournment on Saturday. One of these, from General Washingtonin New York, contained news calculated to alarm all but the moststalwart spirits: Canada quite lost to the cause; Arnold's army in full, though orderly, retreat from that province; a powerful British fleetjust arriving in New York harbor, three or four ships drifting in daily, and now forty-five sail all at once signalled from Sandy Hook. 

"Some say more, " added General Washington, "and I suppose the wholefleet will be in within a day or two. "

The whole fleet! As if these were not enough; and, in truth, the numbersoon reached a hundred and twenty, with thousands of red-coats in themabundantly supplied with every requisite. Washington's own army numberedon that day seven thousand seven hundred and fifty-four men, of whom, ashe reported, eight hundred had no guns at all, fourteen hundred had badguns, and half the infantry no bayonets. Add to this fifty-three Britishships just arrived at Charleston, with General Clinton's expedition onboard. 

We must bear this news in mind in order to appreciate what followed inCongress that day. When General Washington's letter had been read, theHouse went into committee of the whole, "to take into consideration thequestion of Independence. "

The boldest man upon that floor could not avoid feeling that the crisiswas serious and the issue doubtful. As if to deepen this impression, there soon rose to address the House John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, agood man and a patriot, an able speaker and better writer, but rich, notof robust health, and conservative almost to timidity. 

From the first, while opposing the arbitrary measures of the King, hehad been equally opposed to a Declaration of Independence; and to-day, refreshed by the rest of Sunday, and feeling that it was now or neverwith his party, he spoke with all the force and solemnity of which hewas capable. 

"I value, " said he, "the love of my country as I ought, but I value mycountry more, and I desire this illustrious assembly to witness theintegrity, if not the policy, of my conduct. The first campaign will bedecisive of the controversy. 

"The declaration will not strengthen us by one man, or by the leastsupply, while it may expose our soldiers to additional cruelties andoutrages. Without some preliminary trials of our strength we ought notto commit our country upon an alternative where to recede would beinfamy, and to persist might be destruction. "

In this strain he spoke long, urging all the reasons for delay which aningenious mind could devise, and clothing his argument with the charm ofa fine literary style. 

He ceased. There was a pause. No one seemed willing to break thesilence, until it began to be embarrassing, and then painful. 

Many eyes were turned toward John Adams, who for eighteen months hadbeen the chief spokesman of the party for independence. He had advocatedthe measure before Thomas Paine had written "Common Sense, " and when ithad not one influential friend in Philadelphia. Early in the previousyear, when it first became known by the accidental publicity of a letterthat he favored the Declaration of Independence, the solid men ofPhiladelphia shunned him as if he had had the leprosy. 

"I walked the streets of Philadelphia, " he once wrote, "in solitude, borne down by the weight of care and unpopularity, " and Dr. Rushmentions that he saw him thus walking the streets alone, "an object ofnearly universal scorn and detestation. "

But he was on the gaining side. The cruel burning of Falmouth on thecoast of Maine weaned New England from the mother country, and theburning of Norfolk completed the same office for Virginia. 

To-day he stood with a majority of the people behind him. To-day hespoke the sentiments of his country. To-day he uttered the words whichevery man on the floor but John Dickinson wished to hear uttered. 

Yet he did not immediately rise; for he wished some one else, some oneless committed to Independence than he was, to take the lead in thatday's debate. At length, however, since every one else hung back, he gotupon his feet to answer Mr. Dickinson. 

The speech which he delivered on this occasion was deemed by those whoheard it the most powerful effort of his life, though he had made nospecial preparation for it beforehand. He had thought of the subjectfrom his college days, and had never ceased to regard the Independenceof his country as only a question of time. During his professional life, it had been the frequent theme of his reflections, and he was perfectlyfamiliar with every phase of it. 

"This is the first time in my life, " said he, "that I have ever wishedfor the talents and eloquence of the ancient orators of Greece and Rome, for I am very sure that none of them ever had before him a question ofmore importance to his country and to the world. They would, probably, upon less occasions than this, have begun by solemn invocations to theirdivinities for assistance. 

"But the question before me appears so simple that I have confidenceenough in the plain understanding and common-sense that have been givenme to believe that I can answer, to the satisfaction of the House, allthe arguments which have been produced, notwithstanding the abilitieswhich have been displayed and the eloquence with which they have beenenforced. "

Proceeding then to the discussion of the question, he dwelt stronglyupon the point that, as the colonies had gone too far to recede, as theyhad already been put outside of British law, the Declaration ofIndependence could not possibly make their condition worse, but wouldgive them some obvious and solid advantages. 

Now, they were rebels against their king, and could not negotiate onequal terms with a sovereign power. The moment they declaredIndependence, they would be themselves a sovereignty. The measure, hecontended, would be as prudent as it was just. It would help them inmany ways and hinder them in no way. 

We have no report of this celebrated oration, and can only gather itspurport from allusions scattered here and there in the letters of thosewho heard it. We know, however, that Mr. Adams dwelt forcibly upon thisone position, that the king himself having absolved them from theirallegiance, and having made unprovoked war upon them, the proposedDeclaration would be simply a proclamation to the world of a state ofthings already existing. 

Many members followed. When the debate had proceeded for a long time, three new members from New Jersey came in: Richard Stockton, Dr. Witherspoon and Francis Hopkinson. These gentlemen, on learning thebusiness before the House, expressed a strong desire to hear arecapitulation of the arguments which had been brought forward. 

Again there was an awkward silence. Again all eyes were turned upon JohnAdams. Again he shrank from taking the floor. Mr. Edward Rutledge ofSouth Carolina came to him and said:

"Nobody will speak but you upon this subject. You have all the topics soready that you must satisfy the gentlemen from New Jersey. "

Mr. Adams replied that he was ashamed to repeat what he had said twentytimes before. As the new members still insisted on hearing arecapitulation, he at length rose once more, and gave a concise summaryof the whole debate. The New Jersey gentlemen said they were fullysatisfied and were ready for the question. It was now six o'clock in theevening. The debate had continued all day, nine hours, without the leastinterval for rest or refreshment, and during that long period, as Mr. Jefferson wrote at a later day, "all the powers of the soul had beendistended with the magnitude of the object. "

Mr. Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, then rose, and asked as a favorthat the voting be deferred until the next morning, as he and hisfellow-members wished still further to deliberate. 

The request was granted; the House adjourned; the hungry and exhaustedmembers went to their homes. 

The next morning members met in a cheerful mood, for it was wellascertained that every colony was prepared to vote for Independence. When Mr. Adams reached the State House door, he had the pleasure ofmeeting Caesar Rodney, still in his riding-boots, for he had ridden allnight from Delaware to vote on the momentous question. Mr. Adams, it issaid, had sent an express at his own expense eighty miles to summon him, and there he was to greet him at the State House door. 

The great question was speedily put, when every State but New York votedfor declaring independence, and that State's adherence was delayed a fewdays only by a series of accidents. 

What a happy man was John Adams, and what a triumphant letter was thatwhich he wrote to his noble wife on the 3d of July, telling her thegreat news that Congress had passed a resolution, without one dissentingcolony, "that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, freeand independent States. " Then he continued in the passage so oftenquoted:

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in thehistory of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated bysucceeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to becommemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to GodAlmighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end ofthis continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore. "

But, no; not on July second. The transaction was not yet complete. Assoon as the vote was recorded, Mr. Jefferson's draft of the Declarationwas taken from the table, and discussed paragraph by paragraph. Manyalterations were made, thirty-four in all, most of them for the better. This discussion lasted the rest of that day, all the next, and most ofthe next, which was the fourth. Late in that afternoon the memberspresent signed the document, and so the day we celebrate is the FOURTHOF JULY. 

ANECDOTES OF JOHN ADAMS. 

The first office ever held by President John Adams was that of Roadmasterto his native town. The young barrister, as he himself confesses, was veryindignant at being elected to a post, with the duties of which he wasunacquainted, and which he considered beneath his pretensions. His friend, Dr. Savil, explained to him that he had nominated him to the office toprevent his being elected constable. 

"They make it a rule, " said the Doctor, "to compel every man to serveeither as constable or surveyor of the highways, or to pay a fine. "

"They might as well, " said Mr. Adams, "have chosen any boy in school, for I know nothing of the business; but since they have chosen me at aventure, I will accept it in the same manner, and find out my duty as Ican. "

Accordingly he went to plowing, ditching, and blowing rocks and built anew stone bridge over a stream. He took infinite pains with his bridge, and employed the best workmen; "but, " says he, "the next spring broughtdown a flood that threw my bridge all into ruins. " The blame, however, fell upon the workmen, and all the town, he tells us, agreed that he hadexecuted his office with "impartiality, diligence, and spirit. "

Mr. Adams was an extremely passionate man. One evening, just before thebreaking out of the Revolution, while spending an evening in companywith an English gentleman, the conversation turned upon the aggressionsof the mother country. He became furious with anger. He said there wasno justice left in Britain; that he wished for war, and that the wholeBourbon family was upon the back of Great Britain. He wished thatanything might happen to them, and, as the clergy prayed for enemies intime of war, that "they might be brought to reason or to ruin. " When hewent home he was exceedingly repentant for having lost his temper, andwrote in his diary the following remarks:

"I cannot but reflect upon myself with severity for these rash, inexperienced, boyish, wrong, and awkward expressions. A man who has nobetter government of his tongue, no more command of his temper, is unfitfor anything but children's play, and the company of boys. A charactercan never be supported, if it can be raised, without a good, a greatshare of self-government. Such flights of passion, such starts ofimagination, though they may strike a few of the fiery andinconsiderate, yet they sink a man with the wise. They expose him todanger, as well as familiarity, contempt, and ridicule. "

One of the most interesting events in the life of John Adams was hisnomination of George Washington to the command of the Revolutionaryarmies. One day, in 1775, when Congress was full of anxiety concerningthe army near Boston, and yet hesitated to adopt it as their own, fearing to take so decisive a step, John and Samuel Adams were walkingup and down the State House yard in Philadelphia before the opening ofthe session, and were conversing upon the situation. 

"What shall we do?" asked Samuel Adams, at length. 

His kinsman said: "You know I have taken great pains to get ourcolleagues to agree upon _some_ plan that we might be unanimousupon; but you know they will pledge themselves to nothing; but I amdetermined to take a step which shall compel them, and all the othermembers of Congress, to declare themselves for or against_something_. I am determined this morning to make a direct motionthat Congress shall adopt the army before Boston, and appoint ColonelWashington commander of it. "

Samuel Adams looked grave at this proposition, but said nothing. WhenCongress had assembled, John Adams rose, and, in a short speech, represented the state of the colonies, the uncertainty in the minds ofthe people, the distresses of the army, the danger of its disbanding, the difficulty of collecting another if it should disband, and theprobability that the British army would take advantage of our delays, march out of Boston, and spread desolation as far as they could go. Heconcluded by moving that Congress adopt the army at Cambridge andappoint a general. 

"Although, " he continued, "this is not the proper time to nominate ageneral, yet, as I have reason to believe that this is a point of thegreatest difficulty, I have no hesitation to declare that I have but onegentleman in my mind for that important command, and that is a gentlemanfrom Virginia, who is among us, and is very well known to all of us; agentleman whose skill and experience as an officer, whose independentfortune, great talents, and excellent universal character will commandthe approbation of all America, and unite the cordial exertions of allthe colonies better than any other person in the Union. "

When Mr. Adams began this speech, Colonel Washington was present; but assoon as the orator pronounced the words "Gentleman from Virginia, " hedarted through the nearest door into the library. Mr. Samuel Adamsseconded the motion which, as we all know, was, on a future day, unanimously carried. Mr. Adams relates that no one was so displeasedwith this appointment as John Hancock, the President of Congress. 

"While I was speaking, " says John Adams, "on the state of the colonies, he heard me with visible pleasure; but when I came to describeWashington for the commander, I never remarked a more sudden andstriking change of countenance. Mortification and resentment wereexpressed as forcibly as his face could exhibit them. "

Hancock, in fact, who was somewhat noted as a militia officer inMassachusetts, was vain enough to aspire to the command of the colonialforces. 

They had a fashion, during the Revolutionary war, John Adams tells us, of turning pictures of George III. Upside down in the houses ofpatriots. Adams copied into his diary some lines which were written"under one of these topsey-turvey kings":

 Behold the man who had it in his power To make a kingdom tremble and adore. Intoxicate with folly, see his head Placed where the meanest of his subjects tread. Like Lucifer the giddy tyrant fell, He lifts his heel to Heaven, but points his head to Hell. 

It is evident, from more than one passage in the diary of John Adams, that he, too, in his heart, turned against Gen. Washington during thegloomy hours of the Revolution. At least he thought him unfit for thecommand. Just before the surrender of Burgoyne, Adams wrote in his diarythe following passage:

"Gates seems to be acting the same timorous, defensive part which hasinvolved us in so many disasters. Oh, Heaven grant us one great soul!One leading mind would extricate the best cause from that ruin whichseems to await it for the want of it. We have as good a cause as everwas fought for: we have great resources; the people are well tempered;one active, masterly capacity would bring order out of this confusion, and save this country. "

Thus it is always in war-time. When the prospect is gloomy, and whendisasters threaten to succeed disasters, there is a general distrust ofthe general in command, though at that very time he may be exhibitinggreater qualities and greater talents than ever before. 

John Adams tells us the reason why Thomas Jefferson, out of a committeeof five, was chosen to write the Declaration of Independence. 

"Writings of his, " says Mr. Adams, "were handed about, remarkable forthe peculiar felicity of expression. Though a silent member in Congress, he was so frank, explicit and decisive upon committees and inconversation (not even Samuel Adams was more so) that he soon seizedupon my heart; and upon this occasion I gave him my vote, and did all inmy power to procure the votes of others. I think he had one more votethan any other, and that placed him at the head of the committee. I hadthe next highest number, and that placed me the second. The committeemet, discussed the subject, and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and me tomake the draft, because we were the two first upon the list. "

When this sub-committee of two had their first meeting, Jefferson urgedMr. Adams to make the draft; whereupon the following conversationoccurred between them:

"I will not, " said Mr. Adams. 

"You should do it, " said Jefferson. 

"Oh no, " repeated Adams. 

"Why will you not?" asked Jefferson. "You ought to do it. "

"I will not, " rejoined Adams. 

"Why?" again asked Jefferson. 

"Reasons enough, " said Adams. 

"What can be your reasons?" inquired Jefferson. 

"Reason first--you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear atthe head of this business. Reason second--I am obnoxious, suspected, andunpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third--you can write tentimes better than I can. "

"Well, " said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well as Ican. "

"Very well, " said Mr. Adams; "when you have drawn it up, we will have ameeting. "

Thus it was that Thomas Jefferson became the author of this celebrateddocument. Mr. Adams informs us that the original draft contained "avehement philippic against negro slavery, " which Congress ordered to bestricken out. 

Mr. Adams relates an amusing story of his sleeping one night with DoctorFranklin, when they were on their way to hold their celebratedconference with Lord Howe on Staten Island. It was at Brunswick, in NewJersey, where the tavern was so crowded that two of the commissionerswere put into one room, which was little larger than the bed, and whichhad no chimney and but one small window. The window was open when thetwo members went up to bed, which Mr. Adams seeing, and being afraid ofthe night air, shut it close. 

"Oh, " said Doctor Franklin, "don't shut the window, we shall besuffocated. "

Mr. Adams answered that he was afraid of the evening air; to whichDoctor Franklin replied:

"The air within this chamber will soon be, and indeed is now, worse thanthat without doors. Come, open the window and come to bed, and I willconvince you. I believe you are not acquainted with my theory of colds. "

Mr. Adams complied with both these requests. He tells us that when hewas in bed, the Doctor began to harangue upon air, and cold, andrespiration, and perspiration, with which he was so much amused that hesoon fell asleep. It does not appear that any ill consequences followedfrom their breathing during the night the pure air of heaven. 

THE WRITING AND SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

We happen to know what kind of weather it was in Philadelphia onThursday, the Fourth of July, 1776. Mr. Jefferson was in the habit, allhis life, of recording the temperature three times a day, and notunfrequently four times. He made four entries in his weather record onthis birthday of the nation, as if anticipating that posterity would becurious to learn every particular of an occasion so interesting. At sixthat morning the mercury marked sixty-eight degrees. At nine, justbefore going round to the State House to attend the session of Congress, he recorded seventy-two and a half degrees. At one, while he was at homeduring the recess for dinner, he found the mercury at seventy-six. Atnine in the evening, when the great deed had been done, the instrumentindicated seventy-three and a half degrees. 

From another entry of Mr. Jefferson's we learn that he paid for a newthermometer on that day. The following are the three entries in hisexpense-book for July fourth, 1776:

 "Paid Sparhawk for a thermometer. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. £3 15s. Pd. For 7 pr. Women's gloves. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 27s. Gave in charity. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . 1s. 6d. "

The price that he paid for his thermometer was equivalent to abouttwenty dollars in gold; and as Mr. Jefferson was not likely to spend hismoney for an elaborately decorated thermometer, we may infer thatinstruments of that nature were at least ten times as costly then asthey are now. An excellent standard thermometer at the present time canbe bought for five dollars, and the sum which Mr. Jefferson paid in 1776was fully equal, in purchasing power, to fifty dollars in our presentcurrency. 

Mr. Jefferson lived then on the south side of Market street, not farfrom the corner of Seventh, in Philadelphia. As it was the only housethen standing in that part of the street, he was unable in after yearsto designate the exact spot, though he was always under the impressionthat it was a corner house, either on the corner of Seventh street orvery near it. The owner of the house, named Graaf, was a young man, theson of a German, and then newly married. Soon after coming toPhiladelphia, Mr. Jefferson hired the whole of the second floor, readyfurnished; and as the floor consisted of but two rooms--a parlor and abed-room--we may conjecture that the house was of no great size. It wasin that parlor that he wrote the Declaration of Independence. 

The writing-desk upon which he wrote it exists in Boston, and is stillpossessed by the venerable friend and connection of Mr. Jefferson towhom he gave it. The note which the author of the Declaration wrote whenhe sent this writing-desk to the husband of one of his grand-daughters, has a particular interest for us at this present time. It was written in1825, nearly fifty years after the Declaration was signed, about midwaybetween that glorious period and the Centennial. It is as follows:

"Thomas Jefferson gives this writing-desk to Joseph Coolidge, Jr. , as amemorial of affection. It was made from a drawing of his own by Benj. Randolph, cabinet-maker, at Philadelphia, with whom he first lodged onhis arrival in that city, in May, 1776, and is the identical one onwhich he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Politics as well asreligion has its superstitions. These, gaining strength with time, mayone day give imaginary value to this relic for its associations with thebirth of the Great charter of our Independence. "

The note given above, although penned when Mr. Jefferson was eighty-twoyears of age, is written in a small, firm hand, and is quite as legibleas the type which the reader is now perusing. There is no indication ofold age in the writing; but I observe that he has spelt the mostimportant word of the note French fashion, thus: "_Independance_. "It certainly is remarkable that the author of the Declaration ofIndependence should have made a mistake in spelling the word. Nor can itbe said that the erroneous letter was a slip of the pen, because theword occurs twice in the note, and both times the last syllable is speltwith an _a_. Mr. Jefferson was a very exact man, and yet, like mostmen of that day, he used capitals and omitted them with an apparentcarelessness. In the above note, for example, the following words occur, "Great charter. " Here he furnishes the adjective with a capital, andreduces his noun to the insignificance of a small letter. 

The Declaration was written, I suppose, about the middle of June; and, while he was writing it, Philadelphia was all astir with warlikepreparation. Seldom has a peaceful city, a city of Quakers and brotherlylove, undergone such a transformation as Philadelphia did in a fewmonths. As Mr. Jefferson sat at his little desk composing theDeclaration, with the windows open at that warm season, he must haveheard the troops drilling in Independence Square. Twice a day they wereout drilling, to the number of two thousand men, and more. Perhaps hewas looking out of the window on the eleventh of June, the very dayafter the appointment of the committee to draw up the Declaration, whenthe question of independence was voted upon by the whole body ofPhiladelphia volunteers, and they all voted for independence excepttwenty-nine men, four officers and twenty-five privates. One of theseobjectors made a scene upon the parade. He was so much opposed to theproceeding that he would not put the question to his company. Thisrefusal, said the newspaper of that week, "Gave great umbrage to themen, one of whom replied to him in a genteel and spirited manner. "

Besides this morning and afternoon drill in the public squares of thetown, preparations were going forward to close the river against theascent of a hostile fleet. Dr. Franklin, as I have related, had twentyor thirty row galleys in readiness, which were out on the riverpractising every day, watched by approving groups on the shore. Men wereat work on the forts five miles below the city, where, also, Dr. Franklin was arranging his three rows of iron-barbed beams in thechannel, which were called _chevaux de frise_. In a letter of thatday, written to Captain Richard Varick, of New York, I find these Frenchwords spelt thus: "Shiver de freeses. " Committees were going aboutPhiladelphia during this spring buying lead from house to house atsixpence a pound, taking even the lead clock-weights and giving ironones in exchange. So destitute was the army of powder and ball that Dr. Franklin seriously proposed arming some regiments with javelins andcrossbows. 

Mr. Jefferson was ready with his draft in time to present it to Congresson the first of July; but it was on the second, as I conjecture, thatthe great debate occurred upon it, when the timid men again put forwardthe argument that the country was not yet ripe for so decisive ameasure. Mr. Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, a true patriot, but a mosttimorous and conservative gentleman, who had opposed Independence fromthe beginning, delivered a long and eloquent speech against the measure. 

The author of the Declaration used to relate after dinner to his guestsat Monticello, that the conclusion of the business was hastened by aridiculous cause. Near the hall was a livery stable, from which swarmsof flies came in at the open windows, and attacked the trouserless legsof members, who wore the silk stockings of the period. Lashing the flieswith their handkerchiefs, they became at length unable to bear a longerdelay, and the decisive vote was taken. On the Monday following, in thepresence of a great crowd of people assembled in Independence Square, itwas read by Captain Ezekiel Hopkins, the first commodore of the AmericanNavy, then just home from a cruise, during which he had captured eightycannon, a large quantity of ammunition, and stores, and two Britishvessels. He was selected to read the Declaration from the remarkablepower of his voice. Seven weeks later, the Declaration was engrossedupon parchment, which was signed by the members, and which now hangs inthe Patent Office at Washington. 

ROBERT MORRIS, THE FINANCIER OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Robert Morris, who had charge of the financial affairs of the thirteenStates during the Revolutionary War, and afterwards extended hisbusiness beyond that of any other person in the country, became bankruptat last, spent four years of his old age in a debtor's prison, and owedhis subsistance, during his last illness, to a small annuity rescued byhis wife from the wreck of their fortunes. 

Morris was English by birth, a native of Lancashire, where he liveduntil he was thirteen years of age. Emigrating to Philadelphia in 1747, he was placed in the counting-house of one of the leading merchants, with whose son he entered into partnership before he had completed histwenty-first year. This young firm, Willing, Morris & Co. , embarkedboldly and ably in commerce, until at the beginning of the Revolution itwas the wealthiest commercial firm in the Colonies south of New England, and only surpassed in New England by two. When the contention arosebetween the Mother country and the colonies, his interest was to takethe side of the Mother country. But he sided with the Colonies--to thegreat detriment of his private business. He served in Congress duringnearly the whole of the War, and was almost constantly employed in astruggle with the financial difficulties of the situation. 

I do not see how the revolution could have been maintained unless somesuch person could have been found to undertake the finances. When allother resources gave out he never refused to employ his privateresources, as well as the immense, unquestioned credit of his firm, inaid of the cause. On several occasions he borrowed money for the use ofthe government, pledging all his estate for the repayment. In 1780, aided by the powerful pen of Thomas Paine, he established a bank throughwhich three million rations were provided for the army. Fortunately, hewas reputed to be much richer than he was, and thus he was several timesenabled to furnish an amount of assistance far beyond the resources ofany private individual then living in America. 

His greatest achievement was in assisting General Washington in 1781 totransport his army to Virginia, and to maintain it there during theoperations against Lord Cornwallis. In the spring of that year therevolution appeared to be all but exhausted. The treasury was not merelyempty, but there was a floating debt upon it of two millions and a half, and the soldiers were clamorous for their pay. The Superintendent ofFinance rose to the occasion. He issued his own notes to the amount offourteen hundred thousand dollars by which the army was supplied withprovisions and the campaign carried on to the middle of August. 

Then General Washington, in confidence, revealed to Robert Morris hisintention to transport his army to Virginia. To effect this operationthe general required all the light vessels of the Delaware andChesapeake, six hundred barrels of provisions for the march, a vastsupply in Virginia, five hundred guineas in gold for secret service, anda month's pay in silver for the army. When this information reached thesuperintendent he was already at his wits' end, and really supposed thathe had exhausted every resource. 

"I am sorry to inform you, " he wrote to the general, "that I find moneymatters in as bad a situation as possible. "

And he mentions in his diary of the same date that, during a recentvisit to camp, he had had with him one hundred and fifty guineas; but somany officers came to him with claims upon the government, that hethought it best to satisfy none, and brought the money home again. Afterunheard-of exertions, he contrived to get together provisions andvessels for the transportation. But to raise the hard money to complywith General Washington's urgent request for a month's pay for thetroops, was beyond his power. At the last moment he laid the case beforethe French admiral, and borrowed for a few weeks from the fleet treasurytwenty thousand silver dollars. Just in the nick of time, ColonelLaurens arrived from France with five hundred thousand dollars in cash, which enabled Morris to pay this debt, and to give General Washingtonfar more efficient support than he had hoped. 

To Robert Morris we owe one of the most pleasing accounts of the mannerin which the surrender of Cornwallis was celebrated at Philadelphia. Herecords that on the third of November, 1781, on the invitation of theFrench Minister, he attended the Catholic Church, where _Te Deum_was sung in acknowledgment of the victory. Soon after, all the flagscaptured from the enemy were brought to Philadelphia by two of GeneralWashington's aids, the city troop of Light Horse going out to meet themseveral miles. The flags were twenty-four in number, and each of themwas carried into the city by one of the light horsemen. Morris concludeshis account of this great day with affecting simplicity:

"The American and French flags preceded the captured trophies, whichwere conducted to the State House, where they were presented toCongress, who were sitting; and many of the members tell me, thatinstead of viewing the transaction as a mere matter of joyful ceremony, which they expected to do, they instantly felt themselves impressed withideas of the most solemn nature. It brought to their minds thedistresses our country has been exposed to, the calamities we haverepeatedly suffered, the perilous situations which our affairs havealmost always been in; and they could not but recollect the threats ofLord North that he would bring America to his feet on unconditionalterms of submission. "

When the war was over, the finances of the country did not improve. Inconjunction with General Washington and Robert R. Livingston, Secretaryof Foreign Affairs, he hit upon a plan to recall the State legislaturesto a sense of their duty. He engaged Thomas Paine, at a salary of eighthundred dollars a year, to employ his pen in reconciling the people tothe necessity of supporting the burden of taxation, in setting forth, inhis eloquent manner, the bravery and good conduct of the soldiers whosepay was so terribly in arrears, and in convincing the people of the needof a stronger confederated government. 

"It was also agreed, " says Morris in his private diary, "that thisallowance should not be known to any other persons except GeneralWashington, Mr. Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, and myself, lest thepublications might lose their force if it were known that the author ispaid for them by government. "

The expedient did not suffice. The States were backward in votingcontributions, and, in 1784, Robert Morris resigned his office afterdischarging all his personal obligations incurred on account of theGovernment. He then resumed his private business. He was the firstAmerican citizen who ever sent to Canton an American vessel. This was in1784, and he continued for many years to carry on an extensive commercewith India and China. 

Unhappily, in his old age, for some cause or causes that have never beenrecorded, he lost his judgment as a business man. About 1791, he formeda land company, which bought from the Six Nations in the State of NewYork a tract of land equal in extent to several of the GermanPrincipalities of that time, and they owned some millions of acres infive other States. These lands, bought for a trifling sum, would haveenriched every member of the company if they had not omitted from theircalculations the important element of _time_. But a gentleman sixtyyears of age cannot wait twenty years for the development of aspeculation. Confident in the soundness of his calculations andexpecting to be speedily rich beyond the dreams of avarice, he erectedin Philadelphia a palace for his own abode, of the most preposterousmagnificence. The architect assured him that the building would costsixty thousand dollars, but the mere cellars exhausted that sum. Heimported from Europe the most costly furniture and fine statuary forthis house. 

But ardent speculators do not take into consideration the obvious andcertain truth that no country enjoys a long period of buoyancy in moneyaffairs. Hamilton's financial schemes led to such a sudden increase ofvalues as to bring on a period of the wildest speculation; which wasfollowed, as it always is, by reaction and collapse. Then came thethreatened renewal of the war with Great Britain, followed by the longimbroglio with France, which put a stop to emigration for years. TheWestern lands did not sell. The bubble burst. Robert Morris was ruined. He was arrested in 1797 upon the suit of one Blair McClenachan, to whomhe owed sixteen thousand dollars, and he was confined in the debtors'prison in Philadelphia, as before mentioned, for four years. Nor wouldhe have ever been released but for the operation of a new bankrupt law. A paragraph from one of his letters, written when he had been in prisontwo weeks, few people can read without emotion. These are the words of aman who had been a capitalist and lived in luxury more than forty years:

"I have tried in vain, " he wrote, "to get a room exclusively to myself, and hope to be able to do so in a few days, but at a high rent which Iam unable to bear. Then I may set up a bed in it, and have a chair ortwo and a table, and so be made comfortable. Now I am veryuncomfortable, for I have no particular place allotted me. I feel likean intruder everywhere; sleeping in other people's beds, and sitting inother people's rooms. I am writing on other people's paper with otherpeople's ink. The pen is my own. That and the clothes I wear are allthat I can claim as mine here. "

Released in 1802, he lived with his wife in a small house on theoutskirts of the city, where he died in 1806 aged seventy-two. 

It was often proposed in Congress to appropriate some of the moneybelonging to the industrious and frugal people of the United States topay the debts of this rash speculator; and many writers since havecensured the government for not doing something for his relief. Thesimple and sufficient answer is, that Congress has no constitutionalpower to apply the people's money to any such purpose. The governmentholds the public treasure _in trust_. It is a trustee, not aproprietor. It can spend public money only for purposes which theconstitution specifies; and, among these specified purposes, we do_not_ find the relief of land speculators who build gorgeouspalaces on credit. 

JOHN JAY, THE FIRST CHIEF-JUSTICE. 

It was the tyranny of Louis XIV. , King of France, that drove theancestor of John Jay to America. Pierre Jay, two hundred years ago, wasa rich merchant in the French city of Rochelle. He was a Protestant--oneof those worthy Frenchmen whom the revocation of the Edict of Nantesexpelled from the country of which they were the most valuableinhabitants. In 1685, the Protestant Church which he attended atRochelle was demolished, and dragoons were quartered in the houses ofits members. Secretly getting his family and a portion of his propertyon board of a ship, he sent them to England, and contrived soon after ina ship of his own, laden with a valuable cargo, to escape himself. 

It was not, however, from Pierre Jay that our American Jays wereimmediately descended, but from Augustus, one of his sons. It sohappened that Augustus Jay, at the time of his father's flight, wasabsent from France on a mercantile mission to Africa, and he wasastonished on returning to Rochelle to find himself without home orfamily. Nor was he free from the danger of arrest unless he changed hisreligion. Assisted by some friends, he took passage in a ship bound toCharleston in South Carolina which he reached in safety about the year1686. Finding the climate of South Carolina injurious to his health, heremoved to New York, near which there was a whole village of refugeesfrom his native city, which they had named New Rochelle, a village whichhas since grown to a considerable town, with which all New Yorkers areacquainted. His first employment here was that of supercargo, which hecontinued to exercise for several years, and in which he attained amoderate prosperity. 

In 1697 Augustus Jay married Ann Maria Bayard, the daughter of adistinguished Dutch family, who assisted him into business, and greatlypromoted his fortunes. The only son of this marriage was Peter Jay, who, in his turn, married Mary Van Cortlandt, the child of another of theleading Dutch families of the city. This Peter Jay had ten children ofwhom John, the subject of this article, was the eighth, born in New Yorkin 1745. In him were therefore united the vivacious blood of France withthe solid qualities of the Dutch; and, accordingly, we find in himsomething of the liveliness of the French along with a great deal ofDutch prudence and caution. 

After graduating from King's College, [Footnote: Now Columbia] John Jaybecame a law student in the city of New York, in the office of BenjaminKissam--still a well-known New York name. An anecdote related of thisperiod reveals the French side of his character. He asked his father toallow him to keep a saddle horse in the city, a request with which theprudent father hesitated to comply. 

"Horses, " said he, "are not very good companions for a young man; andJohn, why do you want a horse?"

"That I may have the means, sir, " adroitly replied the son, "of visitingyou frequently. "

The father was vanquished, gave him a horse, and was rewarded byreceiving a visit from his son at his country house in Rye, twenty-fivemiles from the city, every other week. 

Another anecdote betrays the Frenchman. Soon after his admission to thebar, being opposed in a suit to Mr. Kissam, his preceptor, he somewhatpuzzled and embarrassed that gentleman in the course of his argument. Alluding to this, Mr. Kissam pleasantly said:

"I see, your honor, that I have brought up a bird to pick out my owneyes. "

"Oh, no, " instantly replied Mr. Jay; "not to pick out, but to open youreyes. "

Inheriting a large estate, and being allied either by marriage or byblood with most of the powerful families of the province, and beinghimself a man of good talents and most respectable character, he maderapid advance in his profession, and gained a high place in the esteemand confidence of his fellow-citizens; so that when the first Congressmet at Philadelphia, in 1774, John Jay was one of those who representedin it the colony of New York. He was then twenty-nine years of age, andwas, perhaps, the youngest member of the body, every individual of whichhe outlived. 

Some of the best written papers of that session were of his composition. It was he who wrote that memorable address to the people of GreatBritain, in which the wrongs of the colonists were expressed with somuch eloquence, conciseness, and power. He left his lodgings inPhiladelphia, it is said, and shut himself up in a room in a tavern tosecure himself from interruption, and there penned the address which wasthe foundation of his political fortunes. 

At an early period of the Revolution he was appointed Minister to Spain, where he struggled with more persistance than success to induce a timidand dilatory government to render some substantial aid to his country. He was afterwards one of the commissioners who negotiated the treatywith Great Britain, in which the independence of the United States wasacknowledged, and its boundaries settled. Soon after his return homeCongress appointed him Secretary for Foreign Affairs, which was the mostimportant office in their gift, and in which he displayed great abilityin the dispatch of business. 

Like all the great men of that day--like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Patrick Henry, John Randolph, and all others ofsimilar grade--John Jay was an ardent abolitionist. He brought home withhim from abroad one negro slave, to whom he gave his freedom when he hadserved long enough to repay him the expense incurred in bringing him toAmerica. 

Mr. Jay, upon the division of the country into Republicans andFederalists, became a decided Federalist, and took a leading part in thedirection of that great party. President Washington appointed him Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, an office which he soon resigned. The mostnoted of all his public services was the negotiation of a treaty withGreat Britain in 1794. The terms of this treaty were revolting in theextreme, both to the pride of Americans and to their sense of justice;and Mr. Jay was overwhelmed with the bitterest reproaches from the partyopposed to his own. No man, however, has ever been able to show thatbetter terms were attainable; nor can any candid person now hold theopinion that the United States should have preferred war to theacceptance of those terms. If a very skillful negotiator could have donesomewhat better for his country, Mr. Jay did the best he could, and, probably, as well as any man could have done. 

Never was a public man more outrageously abused. On one occasion, a mobparaded the streets of Philadelphia, carrying an image of Mr. Jayholding a pair of scales. One of the scales was labeled, "AmericanLiberty and Independence, " and the other, "British Gold, " the latterweighing down the former as low as it could go, while from the mouth ofthe effigy issued the words:

"Come up to my price and I will sell you my country. "

The effigy was finally burnt in one of the public squares. 

Notwithstanding this storm of abuse, Mr. Jay was elected Governor of NewYork, from which office he retired to his pleasant seat at Bedford, where he spent the remainder of his life. He lived to the year 1829, when he died, aged eighty-four years, leaving children and grandchildrenwho have sustained his high character, illustrated his memory, andcontinued his work. 

FISHER AMES, THE ORATOR OF THE FOURTH CONGRESS. 

And who was Fisher Ames, that his "Speeches" should be gathered and re-published sixty-three years after his death? He was a personage in histime. Let us look upon him in the day of his greatest glory. 

It was April 28, 1796, at Philadelphia, in the Hall of the House ofRepresentatives, of which Fisher Ames was a member. The House andcountry were highly excited respecting the terms of the treaty whichJohn Jay had negotiated with the British government. To a large numberof the people this treaty was inexpressibly odious; as, indeed, _any_ treaty would have been with a power so abhorred by them asEngland then was. Some of the conditions of the treaty, we cannot deny, were hard, unwise, unjust; but, in all probability, it was the best thatcould then have been obtained, and Mr. Jay had only the alternative ofaccepting the conditions, or plunging his country into war. One greatpoint, at least, the British government had yielded. After theRevolutionary war, the English had retained several western posts, tothe great annoyance of settlers, and the indignation of the wholecountry. These posts were now to be surrendered, provided the treaty wasaccepted and its conditions fulfilled. 

President Washington and the Senate had ratified the treaty--withreluctance, it is true; but still they had ratified it; and nothingremained but for the House of Representatives to appropriate the moneyrequisite for carrying the treaty into effect. But here was thedifficulty. The treaty was so unpopular that members of Congress shrunkfrom even seeming to approve it. There had been riotous meetings in allthe large cities to denounce it. In New York, Alexander Hamilton, whileattempting to address a meeting in support of it, was pelted withstones, and the people then marched to the residence of Mr. Jay, andburned a copy of the treaty before his door. 

"Blush, " said a Democratic editor, "to think that America should degradeherself so much as to enter into any kind of treaty with a power nowtottering on the brink of ruin, whose principles are directly contraryto the spirit of Republicanism!"

A Virginia newspaper advised that, if the treaty negotiated by "thatarch-traitor, John Jay, with the British tyrant, should be ratified, "Virginia should secede from the Union. Indeed, the public mind hasseldom been excited to such a degree upon any public topic. 

It was in these circumstances that Fisher Ames rose to address the Houseof Representatives, in favor of the treaty. There was supposed to be amajority of ten against it in the House, and the debate had been forsome days in progress. Madison and all the leading Democrats had spokenstrongly against it; while Fisher Ames, the greatest orator on the sideof the Administration, was suffering from the pulmonary disease fromwhich he afterward died, and had been ordered by his physician not tospeak a word in the House. Inaction at such a time became insupportableto him, and he chafed under it day after day. 

"I am like an old gun, " he wrote, in one of his letters, "that isspiked, or the trunnions knocked off, and yet am carted off, not for theworth of the old iron, but to balk the enemy of a trophy. My politicallife is ended, and I am the survivor of myself; or, rather, a troubledghost of a politician that am condemned to haunt the field where hefell. "

But as the debate went on, he could no longer endure to remain silent. He determined to speak, if he never spoke again; and the announcement ofhis intention filled the Representatives' Chamber with a brilliantassembly of ladies and gentlemen. Vice-President Adams came to thechamber to hear him, among other persons of note. The orator rose fromhis seat pale, feeble, scarcely able to stand, or to make himself heard;but as he proceeded he gathered strength, and was able to speak fornearly two hours in a strain of eloquence, the tradition of which fillsa great place in the memoirs of the time. The report of it which wepossess is imperfect, and the reading of it is somewhat disappointing;but here and there there is a passage in the report which gives us somenotion of the orator's power. One of his points was, that the faith ofthe country had been pledged by the ratification of the treaty, and thatconsequently a refusal of the House to appropriate the money would be abreach of faith. This led him to expatiate upon the necessity ofnational honor. 

"In Algiers, " said he, "a truce may be bought for money; but whenratified, even Algiers is too wise or too just to disown and annul itsobligation. .. . If there could be a resurrection from the foot of thegallows; if the victims of justice could live again, collect togetherand form a society, they would, however loath, soon find themselvesobliged to make justice--that justice under which they fell--thefundamental law of their State. "

This speech was afterward called Fisher Ames' Tomahawk Speech, becausehe endeavored to show that, if the posts were not surrendered and notgarrisoned by American troops, the Indians could not be kept in check, and would fill the frontier with massacre and fire. 

"On this theme, " the orator exclaimed, "my emotions are unutterable. IfI could find words for them, if my powers bore any proportion to myzeal, I would swell my voice to such a note of remonstrance, it shouldreach every log-house beyond the mountains. I would say to theinhabitants, Wake from your false security! Your cruel dangers, yourmore cruel apprehensions, are soon to be renewed; the wounds yetunhealed are to be torn open again; in the daytime your path through thewoods will be ambushed; the darkness of midnight will glitter with theblaze of your dwellings. You are a father--the blood of your sons shallfatten your corn-fields. You are a mother--the war-whoop shall wake thesleep of the cradle. "

He continued in this strain for some time, occasionally blazing into asimile that delighted every hearer with its brilliancy, while flashing avivid light upon the subject; and I only wish the space at my commandpermitted further extracts. The conclusion of the speech recalledattention to the orator's feeble condition of health, which the vigor ofhis speech might have made his hearers forget. 

"I have, perhaps, " said he, "as little personal interest in the event asany one here. There is, I believe, no member who will not think hischance to be a witness of the consequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to reject, and a spirit should arise, asit will, with the public disorders, to make confusion worse confounded, even I, slender and almost broken as my hold upon life is, may outlivethe government and constitution of my country. "

With these words the orator resumed his seat. The great assembly seemedspell-bound, and some seconds elapsed before the buzz of conversationwas heard. John Adams turned to a friend, Judge Iredell, who happened tosit next to him, as if looking for sympathy in his own intenseadmiration. 

"My God!" exclaimed the Judge, "how great he is--how great he has been!"

"Noble!" said the Vice-President. 

"Bless my stars!" resumed Judge Iredell, "I never heard anything sogreat since I was born. "

"Divine!" exclaimed Adams. 

And thus they went on with their interjections, while tears glistened intheir eyes. Mr. Adams records that tears enough were shed on theoccasion. 

"Not a dry eye in the house, " he says, "except some of the jackasses whohad occasioned the oratory. .. . The ladies wished his soul had a betterbody. "

After many days' further debate, the House voted the money by aconsiderable majority; a large number of Democrats voting with theadministration. Fisher Ames was not so near his death as he supposed, for he lived twelve years after the delivery of this speech, so slow wasthe progress of his disease. He outlived Washington and Hamilton, anddelivered eloquent addresses in commemoration of both. 

The great misfortune of his life was that very ill-health to which healluded in his speech. This tinged his mind with gloom, and caused himto anticipate the future of his country with morbid apprehension. WhenJefferson was elected President in 1800, he thought the ruin of hiscountry was sure, and spoke of the "chains" which Jefferson had forgedfor the people. When Hamilton died, in 1804, he declared that his "soulstiffened with despair, " and he compared the fallen statesman to"Hercules treacherously slain in the midst of his unfinished labors, leaving the world over-run with monsters. " He was one of the most honestand patriotic of men; but he had little faith in the truths upon whichthe Constitution of his country was founded. 

He died at his birthplace, Dedham, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July, 1808, in the fifty-first year of his age. His father had been thephysician of that place for many years--a man of great skill in hisprofession, and gifted with a vigorous mind. Doctor Ames died when hisson was only six years of age, and it cost the boy a severe and longstruggle to work his way through college to the profession of the law, and to public life. If he had had a body equal to his mind, he wouldhave been one of the greatest men New England ever produced. 

THE PINCKNEYS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

In the political writings of Washington's day, we frequently meet withthe name of Pinckney; and, as there were several persons of that name inpublic life, readers of history are often at a loss to distinguishbetween them. This confusion is the more troublesome, because they wereall of the same family and State, and their career also had a strongfamily likeness. 

The founder of this family in America was Thomas Pinckney, who emigratedto South Carolina in the year 1692. He possessed a large fortune, andbuilt in Charleston a stately mansion, which is still standing, unlessit was demolished during the late war. A curious anecdote is related ofthis original Pinckney, which is about all that is now known of him. Standing at the window of his house one day, with his wife at his side, he noticed a stream of passengers walking up the street, who had justlanded from a vessel that day arrived from the West Indies. As theywalked along the street, he noticed particularly a handsome man who wasvery gayly dressed; and turning to his wife he said:

"That handsome West Indian will marry some poor fellow's widow, breakher heart, and ruin her children. "

Strange to relate, the widow whom this handsome West Indian married wasno other than Mrs. Pinckney herself; for Thomas Pinckney soon afterdied, and his widow married the West Indian. He did not break her heart, since she lived to marry a third husband, but he was an extravagantfellow, and wasted part of her children's inheritance. Thomas Pinckney, then, is to be distinguished from others of the name as the_founder_ of the family in America. 

The eldest son of Thomas, that grew to man's estate, was CharlesPinckney, who embraced the legal profession, and rose to be ChiefJustice of the Province of South Carolina, and hence he is usuallyspoken of and distinguished from the rest of the family as "ChiefJustice Pinckney. " He was educated in England, and was married there. Returning to Charleston, he acquired a large fortune by the practice ofhis profession. A strange anecdote is related of his wife also. After hehad been married many years without having children, there came toCharleston from England, on a visit of pleasure a young lady named ElizaLucas, daughter of an officer in the English army. She was anexceedingly lovely and brilliant girl, and made a great stir in theprovince. She was particularly admired by the wife of the Chief Justice, who said one day in jest:

"Rather than have Miss Lucas return home, I will myself step out of theway, and let her take my place. "

Within a few months after uttering these words she died, and soon afterher death the Chief Justice actually married Miss Lucas. This lady wasone of the greatest benefactors South Carolina ever had; for, besidesbeing an example of all the virtues and graces which adorn the femalecharacter, it was she who introduced into the province the cultivationof rice. In addition to the other services which she rendered heradopted home, she gave birth to the two brothers Pinckney, who are ofmost note in the general history of the country. The elder of these wasCharles Cotesworth Pinckney, born in 1746, and the younger was Thomas, born in 1750. 

When these two boys were old enough to begin their education, theirfather, the Chief Justice, like a good father as he was, went with themto England, accompanied by all his family, and there resided for manyyears, while they were at school; for at that day there were no means ofeducation in South Carolina. The boys were placed at Westminster schoolin London, and completed their studies at the University of Oxford. After leaving the University they began the study of the law in London, and were pursuing their studies there, or just beginning practice, whenthe troubles preceding the Revolutionary War hastened their return totheir native land. They had been absent from their country twenty-oneyears, and were much gratified on reaching Charleston to witness itsprosperity and unexpected growth. The elder of these brothers couldremember when the first planter's wagon was driven into Charleston. Thiswas about the year 1753. Pointing to this wagon one day, his father saidto him:

"Charles, by the time you are a man, I don't doubt there will be atleast twenty wagons coming to town. "

Often in after life, when he would meet a long string of wagons in thecountry loaded with cotton or rice, he would relate this reminiscence ofhis childhood, and add:

"How happy my father would have been in the growth and prosperity ofCarolina!"

These young men from the beginning of the Stamp Act agitation, when theywere just coming of age, sympathized warmly with their oppressedcountrymen on the other side of the ocean, and soon after their returnhome they entered the Continental army and served gallantly throughoutthe war. In 1780 we find Charles Cotesworth Pinckney writing to his wifein the following noble strain:

"Our friend, Philip Neyle was killed by a cannon-ball coming through oneof the embrasures; but I do not pity him, for he has died nobly in thedefense of his country; but I pity his aged father, now unhappilybereaved of his beloved and only child. "

To one of his young friends he wrote soon after:

"If I had a vein that did not beat with love for my country, I myselfwould open it. If I had a drop of blood that could flow dishonorably, Imyself would let it out. "

It was the fortune of both these brothers to be held for a long time bythe enemy as prisoners of war. The elder was captured upon the surrenderof Charleston. The younger was desperately wounded at the battle ofCamden, and was about to be transfixed by a bayonet, when a Britishofficer who had known him at college recognized his features, and criedout in the nick of time:

"Save Tom Pinckney!"

The uplifted bayonet was withheld, and the wounded man was borne fromthe field a prisoner. 

After the peace, General C. C. Pinckney was a member of the conventionwhich framed our Constitution. During the Presidency of GeneralWashington, he declined, first a seat upon the bench of the SupremeCourt, and twice declined entering the cabinet. During the last year ofWashington's administration, he accepted the appointment of Minister toFrance, and it was while residing in Paris, that he uttered a few wordswhich will probably render his name immortal. He was associated withChief Justice Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, and their great object was toprevent a war between the United States and France. It was during thereign of the corrupt Directory that they performed this mission; andTalleyrand, the Minister of War, gave them to understand that nothingcould be accomplished in the way of negotiation unless they wereprepared to present to the government a large sum of money. The honestAmericans objecting to this proposal, Talleyrand intimated to them thatthey must either give the money or accept the alternative of war. Thenit was that the honest and gallant Charles Cotesworth Pinckney utteredthe words which Americans will never forget till they have ceased to beworthy of their ancestors:

"War be it, then!" exclaimed General Pinckney, "Millions for defense, sir; but not a cent for tribute!"

On his return to the United States, war being imminent with France, hewas appointed a Major-general in the army, and in the year 1800 he was acandidate for the Presidency. He lived to the year 1825, when he died atCharleston at the age of seventy-nine. 

His brother Thomas was the Governor of South Carolina in 1789, and in1792 was appointed by General Washington Minister to Great Britain. After residing some years in England, he was sent to Spain, where henegotiated the important treaty which secured us the free navigation ofthe Mississippi. After his return home, he served several years inCongress on the Federal side, and then retired to private life. Duringthe war of 1812, he received the commission of Major-general, and servedunder General Jackson at the celebrated battle of Horseshoe Bend, wherethe power of the Creek Indians was broken forever. 

He died at Charleston in 1828, aged seventy-eight years. 

Besides these Pinckneys there was a noted Charles Pinckney, a nephew ofChief Justice Pinckney, who was also captured when Charlestonsurrendered, remained a prisoner until near the close of the war, andafterwards bore a distinguished part in public life. He may bedistinguished from others of his name from his being a democrat, anactive adherent of Thomas Jefferson. He served as Minister to Spainduring Mr. Jefferson's administration, and was four times electedGovernor of South Carolina. 

Finally, there was a Henry Laurens Pinckney, son of the GovernorPinckney last mentioned, born in 1794. For sixteen years he was a memberof the Legislature of South Carolina, and was afterwards better known aseditor and proprietor of the Charleston _Mercury_, a champion ofState rights, and afterwards of nullification. During the nullificationperiod, he was Mayor of Charleston, an office to which he was threetimes re-elected. 

Thus the Pinckneys may be distinguished as follows: Thomas Pinckney, thefounder; Charles Pinckney, the Chief Justice; Charles CotesworthPinckney, the Ambassador and candidate for the Presidency; ThomasPinckney, General in the war of 1812; Charles Pinckney, the democrat;and Henry Laurens Pinckney, editor and author.