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had no advantages of early education; but such was his energy of character, that he soon attracted notice. The west was new, and he grew up with the society around him, and early took a leading part. He had been engaged in political life, acted for a while in a judicial character, and afterward become a politician again. He was a soldier from a child, and attracted attention from his high and heroic qualities in the discharge of his duties. The fighting on the frontiers has been more calculated to make daring, prompt, and chivalrous men, than regular fighting in large armies; for in these Indian hunts every individual has an opportunity of displaying his prowess, while in a large and regular army, individuals must be restrained by the great mass, and each has, in a good measure, to share with them in good or evil report. Men grow hardy and adventurous who have to keep arms in their hands for defence. General Jackson was a terror to the Indians from the Ohio to New Orleans, and westward to the Rocky Mountains. He annihilated the Seminoles, and terrified all those friendly to them. When the war broke out in 1812, General Jackson was a Major-General in the militia of Tennessee; and as soon as it was found that Great Britain would probably attack New Orleans, he was sent to the relief of that place.

He had many difficulties to encounter in organizing his forces. They came, many of them, from more than a thousand miles up the river, without arms, and depended on finding them at New Orleans; but government had been remiss in sending them. When General Jackson heard that the British forces had made good their landing, he marched out and met them, that same night, as they were at supper. The conflict was a very sharp one, and succeeded in putting the British General on his guard; and, in fact, checked the march of his army from the 23d of December to the 8th of January. By this time the American army was prepared for them. On that day General Jackson fought them, and obtained a signal victory. Call it what you please, chance or a miracle, it was a wondrous fight, and the gratitude of the American nation was unbounded. It was of incalculable service to his country in general, and to that part of it more especially. It will not be denied that he is a lover of military discipline, and probably has sometimes carried his love of martial law too far. It was too critical a moment to carry a statute book in one's pocket, or to square every march by the doctrines of trespass quare clausum fregit. He had a people to save, and it was not in his nature to do it gently. There was something in the boldness of the veteran soldier that was attractive to most men, and particularly to the young. The suggestions of those who preferred a civilian to a soldier were lost in the huzzas of those who panted for military distinction; and at every pause and return of the shout he gained popularity. In most States the change was rapid, and he came into office by a large majority. If he was not as perfect and capable a man as his friends represented him to be, he was a much better man than his enemies described him to be. The fire of his temper had become a flame less wild than when he was earning his military laurels. The hatchet had been buried and the wampum exchanged, and most of his enmities were gone. He has now administered the government for nearly three years,

and has shown nothing of a disposition to act the military chieftain. No gens d'arms guard his door, no halberdiers his person. He has never as yet amused the good citizens of Washington with a military execution, himself preceded by laureled lictors with their fasces and axes, and with the Master of the Horse at his heels. If the apprehensions of those who foretold such things were honest, they are happily disappointed. If they mistook not the man, as I believe they did, they certainly misunderstood the genius of the people. They forgot the omnipotence of public opinion in a great and a free country. Every thing political must be shaped by it, every thing exist by it. Public opinion may be as volatile as the air around us, but nevertheless as vital to republican institutions as that is to animal life. Mind in this country is operating upon mind, and opinion struggling with opinion for light and knowledge. Every faculty of man is in a state of improvement. Intelligence meets with and combats ignorance, and ignorance becomes illumined by the conflict, infidelity is overcome by faith, and truth elicited by error. In such a state, while every man is testing his own powers, and examining the rights and capacities of others, and attempting to place all things on the basis of philanthropy and justice, although there may be a good share of evil abroad, yet the dread of the talents, fame, or influence of any one man, is not one of these evils.

If military ambition once burned in the breast of General Jackson, it should be recollected that he has reached that period of life, when the flame would begin to diminish. He is more than double the age of Alexander when he died, and much older than Cæsar when he fell. Age always holds on what it has gained, but seldom desires to make exertions for new honors, particularly military ones. I have entered into this subject more particularly, not that I ever thought he would give the nation a military cast of character, any more than a civilian, but because the politicians in England, and in fact in all Europe, affected to believe that this nation was rapidly passing to a military despotism, because they selected General Jackson for their President, and argued from it the downfall of the liberties of the country, citing ancient instances of the insatiable appetite of military chieftains. There is no parallel between the cases-there is no force in the argument.

LIVES OF THE SIGNERS.

SAMUEL ADAMS.

THE memories of few men will perhaps be cherished, by their posterity, with a more jealous and grateful admiration than those of the patriotic individuals, who first signed the political independence of our country. They hazarded by the deed not only their lands and possessions, but their personal freedom and their lives; and when it is considered that most of them were in the vigor of existence, gifted with considerable fortunes, and with all the offices and emoluments at the disposal of royalty within their reach, the sacrifice which they risked appears magnified, and their disinterested patriotism more worthy of remembrance. Although many of them can rest their sole claim to lasting distinction upon the one great act with which they were adventitiously connected, still their lives present a valuable transcript of the times in which they lived, and afford examples of inflexible honesty, heroic decision, and noble energy of mind, quite as interesting as any records of the eccentricities of genius, or the grasping efforts of ambition.

Not one of the least ardent and uncompromising asserters of the rights and liberties of his country, was the subject of our present sketchSAMUEL ADAMS. This gentleman, descended from a respectable family, which emigrated to America with the first settlers of the land, was born at Quincy, in Massachusetts, September 22d, 1722. In 1736 he became a member of Harvard College, and took his degree of Master in 1743. On this latter occasion, he proposed the following question, in which he maintained the affirmative: "Whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot be otherwise preserved ?""

On quitting the university, he commenced the study of the law; but soon afterwards, at the request of his mother, became a clerk in the countinghouse of Thomas Cushing, at that time an eminent merchant. The genius of Adams was not suited to commercial pursuits. His devotion to politics, and his interest in the welfare of his country, diverted his attention from his own business concerns; and he retired from his mercantile connexions poorer by far than when he entered into them. In 1763, when a committee was appointed by the people of Boston to remonstrate against the taxation of the colonies by the British ministry, the instructions of that committee were drawn by Mr. Adams, and gave a powerful proof of his ability and zeal. He soon became an influential leader in the popular assemblies, and was bold in denouncing the oppressive acts of the mother country.

In 1765, he was chosen a representative to the General Court of the State, from the town of Boston. Here he soon made himself conspicuous, and became clerk of the legislative body. About this time he was the author of several spirited essays, and plans of resistance to the exactions

of the British ministry. He suggested the first Congress at New York, which was a step to the establishment of a Continental Congress, ten years after.

In 1770, two regiments of troops were quartered in the town of Boston, apparently to superintend the conduct of the inhabitants. This measure roused the public indignation to the utmost, and soon gave occasion to a quarrel between a party of soldiers and citizens, in which eleven of the latter were killed or wounded, by a guard, under the command of Captain Preston. This rencontre, which is well known under the name of the "Boston Massacre," and will long remain memorable as the first instance of bloodshed between the British and Americans, did not tend to allay the excitement caused by the presence of the troops. On the following morning a meeting of the citizens was called, and Samuel Adams first rose to address the assembly. His style of eloquence was bold and impressive, and few could exercise a more absolute control over the passions of a multitude. A committee, of which he was one, was chosen to wait upon Governor Hutchinson, with a request that the troops might be instantly removed. "The Governor replied that the troops were not under his command: but Adams, with his usual intrepidity, would brook no prevarication or excuse, and declared that if he permitted them to remain, it would be at his peril. The Governor, alarmed at the personal danger which threatened him, finally consented to the demand, and further hostilities were, for a time, suspended.

The injudicious management of his private affairs rendered Mr. Adams poor. When this was known in England it was proposed to bribe him, by the gift of some lucrative office. A suggestion of the kind being made to Governor Hutchinson, he replied, that "such was the obstinacy and inflexible disposition of the man, that he could never be conciliated by any office or gift whatever." A higher compliment could not have been paid him. The offer however was made, it is said, and rejected. About the year 1773, Governor Gage renewed the experiment. Colonel Fenton waited upon Mr. Adams, with the assurance of Governor Gage, that any benefit he might ask would be conferred on him, on condition that he would forsake the popular faction; while, at the same time, significant threats were thrown out of the consequences which might ensue, if he persisted in his opposition to the measures of the ministry. The reply of the undaunted patriot was characteristic: "Go tell Governor Gage," said he, "that my peace has long since been made with the King of kings; and that it is the advice of Samuel Adams to him, no longer to insult the feelings of an already exasperated people.".

Under the irritation produced by this answer, Governor Gage issued a proclamation, which comprehended the following language: "I do hereby, in his majesty's name, offer and promise his most gracious pardon to all persons, who shall forthwith lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects: excepting only from the benefits of such pardon, SAMUEL ADAMS, and JOHN HANCOCK, whose offences are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration but that of condign punish

ment."

Mr. Adams was a member of the first. Continental Congress, which

assembled in Philadelphia, in 1774; and he remained an active member of that body until the year 1781. During this period, he was one of the warmest advocates for the declaration of American independence. After that declaration had been irrevocably adopted, and when the subsequent gloom which overspread the land had depressed the spirits of the most ardent advocates of liberty, the firmness and enthusiasm of Mr. Adams were unchanged. His example contributed in a high degree to inspire his countrymen with a confidence of their final success. The following encomium upon him is from a work upon the American rebellion, by Mr. Galloway, published in England, in 1780: "He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, thinks much, and is most indefatigable in the pursuit of his object. It was this man, who, by his superior application, managed at once the factions in Congress at Philadelphia, and the factions of New England."

In 1781, Mr. Adams retired from Congress: but having already been a member of the Convention which formed the Constitution of his native State, he was placed in the Senate, and for several years presided over that body. In 1789, he was elected Lieutenant-Governor, in which office he continued till 1794; when, upon the death of Hancock, he was chosen Governor, and was annually re-elected till 1797, when he retired from public life. He died October 2d, 1803, at the advanced age of eighty

two.

In his person, Mr. Adams was only of the middle size, but his countenance indicated great decision of purpose and an energetic mind. He was a sincere and practical Christian; and the last production of his pen was in favor of Christian truth. His writings were voluminous, but as they chiefly related to the temporary politics of the day, few of them remain. He always manifested a singular indifference to pecuniary considerations. He was poor while he lived; and, it has been said, that had not the death of an only son relieved the poverty of his latter days, Samuel Adams would have had to claim a burial from private charity, or at the public expense.

JOSIAH BARTLETT.

JOSIAH BARTLETT, Governor of New Hampshire, and the first from that State who signed the Declaration of Independence, was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, in 1729. Without the advantages of a collegiate education, but possessing a competent knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, he commenced the study of medicine at the age of sixteen. After devoting himself for five years to the acquisition of the necessary knowledge and experience, he commenced the practice of his profession at Kingston, in the year 1750. Here he soon obtained very considerable reputation, and introduced many efficacious changes in the treatment of several diseases.

In the year 1765, Doctor Bartlett was elected to the Legislature of the province of New Hampshire, from the town of Kingston. In his legis

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