gloomy periods of our national struggle, when others were desponding, he always kept up cheerful spirits, gently rebuking the fears of others, and expressing his unwavering reliance upon the protection of an overruling Providence, who he had felt assured from the first, would conduct the country through all its trials to deliverance and prosperous repose. As a patriot, he toiled incessantly, without complaint; as a Christian, he trusted in God, and was not confounded.

Grattan said of Fox, that "He stood against the current of the court; he stood against the tide of the people; he stood against both united; he was the isthmus lashed by the waves of democracy, and by the torrent of despotism, unaffected by either, and superior to both; the Marpesian rock that struck its base to the centre, and raised its forehead to the skies." And such, too, was Samuel Adams. He was the most puritanic of all our statesmen. Others were endowed with the more splendid gifts, and more flexile powers of popular harangue; but he, above all his cotemporaries, glorified with his incorruptible poverty the Revolution which he was the first to excite and the last to abandon.

In 1781, Mr. Adams retired from Congress, with the desire, in the near prospect of peace, to withdraw from all public labors. But he was repeatedly pressed into the service of his country. He was a member of the convention which formed the constitution of Massachusetts, and of the committee which drafted it. He was successively a member of the Senate, president of that body, and member of the convention which adopted the Federal Constitution. In 1789, he was elected lieute.

nant-governor, in which office he continued until 1794, when he succeeded John Hancock as Governor of the State. To this office he was annually elected until 1797, when his age and increasing infirmities compelled him to retire from public life altogether. He died on the 3d of October, 1803, in the eighty-second year of his age. At the close of his life, and from a much earlier period, he had a tremulous motion of the head, which probably added to the solemnity of his eloquence, as this was, in some measure, associated with the wonderful melody of his tones.

Samuel Adams was the last of the Puritans—“a class of men," says Governor Everett, "to whom the cause of civil and religious liberty, on both sides of the Atlantic, is mainly indebted, for the great progress which it has made for the last two hundred years; and when the Declaration of Independence was signed, that dispensation might be considered as brought to a close. At a time when the new order of things was inducing laxity of manners and a departure from the ancient strictness, Samuel Adams clung with greater tenacity to the wholesome discipline of the fathers. His only relaxation from the business and cares of life was in the indulgence of a taste for sacred music, for which he was qualified by the possession of a most angelic voice, and a soul solemnly impressed with religious sentiment. Resistance to oppression was his vocation."

He was a Christian. At an early age he was imbued with the spirit of piety, and the purity of his life verified tho sincerity of his profession. The last production of

his pen was in favor of Christian truth, and the light that cheered him in death emanated from the Cross.

"He is a freeman whom the truth makes free,

And all are slaves besides."

CHAPTER IV.

JOSIAH QUINCY, JR.,

ORATOR OF REFINED ENTHUSIASM.

"His

THIS distinguished patriot was born in Boston, February 23d, 1744. His temperament was ardent, and his sensibilities were extremely acute. He acquired the rudiments of a classical education at Braintree, and, in 1759, entered Harvard College, where he distinguished himself for upright conduct and ripe scholarship. He graduated in 1763, and in due course took his second degree, with very high reputation. His theme on the occasion was "Patriotism," and is said to have been remarkable both on account of its composition and delivery. taste," says his biographer, "was refined by an intimate acquaintance with the ancient classics, and his soul elevated and touched by the spirit of freedom they breathe. His compositions during this period also prove, that he was extensively conversant with the best writers of the French and English schools. Above all, the genius of Shakspeare seems to have led captive his youthful imagination. In his writings, quotations, or forms of expression, modelled upon those of that author, perpetually occur. There still exists among his papers, a manuscript of the date of 1762, he then being in the junior

class of the college, of seventy closely and minutely written quarto pages of extracts from that author.

Mr. Quincy read law in the office of Oxenbridge Thatcher, the distinguished advocate who was associated with James Otis against the Writs of Assistance. Mr. Thatcher died in 1765. Mr. Quincy had not then completed his preparatory studies, but remained the residue of his student's term, took a general oversight of the business of the office, and therein succeeded to a lucrative and extensive practice. He early made himself conspicuous by the ardor with which he wrote and spoke against the encroachments of the mother country.

The boldness with which Quincy entered upon the great contest is indicated by the following sentiments published by him in 1770, in the midst of great excite. ment, and only twenty days previous to the Boston

massacre:

"In answer to the question, 'What end is the nonimportation agreement to answer?' I give the following reply:

"From a conviction in my own mind, that America is now the slave of Britain; from a sense that we are every day more and more in danger of an increase of our burdens, and a fastening of our shackles, I wish to see my countrymen break off-off for ever!-all social intercourse with those whose commerce contaminates, whose luxuries poison, whose avarice is insatiable, and whose unnatural oppressions are not to be borne. Americans will know their rights, that they will resume, assert, and defend them, are matters of which I harbor no doubt. Whether the arts of policy, or the arts of war

That

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