Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-04-24
Bancroft's American Revolution Adams
observation-disclosures

interesting, and make q most attractive feature
Of his volume.
John Adams, down to 1774, makes compare
lively but little figure in the politics of Massa-
chusctts-the leading men on the patriot side
being Samuel Adoms,J Joseph Hawley and Joseph
Warren but in June, iii, enlisted for the
war. His entrance then is thus described -
"a month before, John Adams had said, Il have
very little connection with public affairs. and |
hope TO have less For many years he had retus-
ed to attend town meetings he had kept aloof from
the committee OF correspondence, even in the time
when it concerted the destruction Of the tea. The
morning Of that day 1awned On him IN private life;
the evening saw him n representative o.: Massachu-
seits to the general congress. That summer he fol-
lowed the circuit for the last time. Great Britain
thus Sewall, his friend aud associate at the bar, ex-
posiulatei with him, as they strolled together on
the hill that Overhangs ClscO Bay, with its thOus-
ands isles, Great Britain is determined On her sys-
TEN; and her power is irresistible That very
determination of Great Britain in her system de-
termincs mine answered Adams; Swim or sink,
live OF lie, survive or perish with my country, is
my unalterable determination. The White Noun
tains Oh the one side, and the ocean on the other,
were witnesses to the patriots vow. Il see we
must part, rejoind Sewall; 'but this adicu is the
%sharpest thorn on which | ever set my foot"
joins JAY, a young lawyer Of New York, in
July, ia, is thus introduced -
DESCENDED from Huguenot refugees, educated
in the city a, its college, Of the seyerest purity of
morals, II hard student, an able writer. a ready
speaker; recently connected with the family Of Liv-
iDgston by marriage; his superior endowments, his
activity and his zeal for liberty, tempered Iy a love
for order, made him for u quarter Of a century dis
tinguished in his native state. At that time he
.-s.Al sLA I...a- = A..
youth. lie was both shy and proud, and his pride,
though it became less visible, suffered no diminu-
ton from time. Tenacious Of his purposes aud his
opinions, sensitive TO indignities aud prone to sud
den resentments,n not remarkable fol self possession,
with q countenance not trained to concealmcnt,
neither easy Of access, nor quick in his advances,
giiel with no deep insight into character, he had
neither talents nor inclination for intrigue; and
but for his ambition, in which none exceeded him,
he would have seemed formed for study and retire
ment.'
At the same time, and in a public meeting
held in The Fields" in New York city, to cheer
and sustain Boston in its day of trial by the port
bill, appeared Alexander Hamilton =
at has been kept in memory that on this occa-
sion a young man from abroad, so small and deli
cate in his organization, that he appeared to be
much younger than prehaps he really was, took
lAAN u bht uCbANt ititIt II CIONu. lucy ushtu
one another the maine Of the gifted stranger, who
shone like a star hrst seen above a haze, Of whose
rising no one bod taken note. He proved to be
Alexander Hamilton, n Wet Indian. His mother,
while he was yet n child, had left him an orphan
and poor. 4 fathers care he seems never TO have
known. The first written trace of his existence is
IN 1866, when his name appears as witness to "a le-
gal paper executed in the Danish island Of Santa
Cruz. Three years later, when he had became "A
youth he condemned the grovelling condition of
II clerk fretted at the narrow bounds of his island
cage, and to a friend Of his Owl years confessed his
ambition. 4 would willingly risk my lile,' said
he, though not my character, to exalt my station.
l mean ~ prepare the way for futurity We have
seen such schemes successful when the protector is
constant That way he prepared 10y Integrity of
conduct, diligence and study. After an aducation
as a merchant, during which he once at least con-
ducted a voyage, and once had the charge Of his
employers business, he found himself able to re-
pair 10 New York, where he entered the college be-
fore the end Of 1913. Trained from childhood to
take care of himself, be possessed a manly self re-
lance. His FIRST -ympathies in the contest had been
On the British side against the Americans; but he
soon changed his opinions; and in July, IVA, cos
mopolitan New York, where he had neither father,
nor mother, nor sister, nor brother, nor one per-
son in whose veins ran the same blood as his own,
adopted the volunteer from the tropics rs its SON.
FRANKIIN-like Samuel Adams, like Joseph
Warren, ike Thomas Jefferson, like Washing
ton, steadily grows in stature and fame. 1t is
hut simple justice TO write that the more there
is revealed about all these great characters, the
more worthy of veneration do they appear. Of
Franklin, who, in June, l774, was in England,
Mr.. Banaroft says
''The eyes of the world were rivctel on Frank
lin and George the Third. The former was envi-
roned by dangers; Gage was his willing accuser
from Boston; the hatred which Hutchinson bore
him never slumbered; the ministry affected to con-
slider him as the cause Of all the troubles; he knew
himself to be in daily peril Of arrest; but the great
friends of the colonies' entreated him 10 stay, and
some glimmering Of hope remained. that the man
utacturers and merchants of England would sue
cessiuily ~interpose their meditating influence. The
King on his part never once harbored the thought
oil concession; and len the choice Of war or peace
to depend on the obedience Of Massachusetts,"
The details which Mr.. Bancroft gives, from
time to time, of Franklin's service in England,
are intensely interesting and much of the mat
ter is new. At a time when disparaging things
have been said of Franklin by those who Ger
tainiy do not understand him, it is peculiarly
gratifying to read this truly glorious record and
the fine Judgment which is pronounced of his
service at this period. We cannot forbear to
extract the relation Mr.. Bancroft gives of his
departure from England. 1t follows a state
ment of the proceedings in the house of lords,
March Is, l175, and after a citation of Lord
SANDWICHES abusive speech on the Americans
calling them coicardS =
"Frank.in, as he heard the insinuations of Sand
wich against the honesty of his countrymen, turn
ed on his heel in wrath; nothing was left for him
but to so home where duty called him. The French
minister, who reyered his supreme ability, sought
with him one last interview. Il spoke to him.
wrote GARNER to Vergennes, 'of the part which our
president Jeannin had taken in establishing the
independence and forming the government Of the
United Provinces and the citation Of the prece-
dent cheered Franklin as prediction. But then
subjoined GARNER, they have neither a marine.
nor allies, nor a prince of Orange
A large part of his last day in London Franklin
passed with Edmund Burke, and however much he
may have been soured and exasperated by wrongs
and insults to himself and his country, he still re-
garded the approaching independence as an event
which gave him the greatest concern. He called
up the happy days which America had passed un-
der the protection of England; he said that the
British empire was the only instance of a great en-
pre- In which the most distant members had been