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support, the few remaining years of my life. It was by a distant connection that I was informed that my brothers had many years since removed to a distant part of the country-that having credited a rumor in circulation of my death, at the decease of my father, had disposed of the real estate of which he died possessed, and had divided the proceeds equally among themselves! This was another instance of adverse fortune that I had not anticipated! It was indeed a circumstance so foreign from my mind that I felt myself for the first time, unhappy, since my return to my native country, and even believed myself now doomed to endure among my own countrymen (for whose liberties I had fought and bled) miseries similar to those that had attended me for many years in Europe. With these gloomy forebodings, I returned to Providence, and contracted for board with the gentleman at whose house I had lodged the first night of my arrival in town, and to whom for the kind treatment that I have received from him, and his family, I shall feel till death under the deepest obligations that gratitude can dictate; for I can truly say of him, that I was a stranger and he took me I was hungry and naked, and he fed and clothed me.

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As I had never received any remuneration for services rendered, and hardships endured in the cause of my country, I was now obliged, as my last resort, to petition Congress to be included in that number of the few surviving soldiers of the Revolution, for whose services they had been pleased to grant pensions-and I would to God that I could add, for the honor of my country, that the application met with its deserving successbut, although accompanied by the deposition of a respectable gentleman satisfactorily confirming every fact therein stated-yet on no other principle, than that I was absent from the country when the pension law passed— my petition was rejected! Reader, I have been for thirty years, as you will perceive by what I have stated in the foregoing pages, subject, in a foreign country, to almost all the miseries with which poor human nature is capable of being afflicted-yet, in no one instance did I ever feel so great a degree of depression of spirits, as when the fate of my petition was announced to me!

To conclude: Although I may be again unfortunate in a renewal of my application to government, for that reward to which my services so justly entitle me, yet I feel thankful that I am privileged, after enduring so much, to spend the remainder of my days among those who I am confident are possessed of too much humanity to see me suffer; and which I am sensible I owe to the divine goodness, which graciously condescended to support me under my numerous afflictions, and finally enabled me to return to my native country in the 79th year of my age. For this I return unfeigned thanks to the Almighty; and hope to give during the remainder of my life, convincing testimonies of the strong impression which those afflictions made on my mind, by devoting myself sincerely to the duties of religion.

The preceding narrative of one of the more humble sufferers from our revolutionary contest, we trust, has been found interesting. A literary gentleman wrote down his memoirs from his lips, as here given, slightly

abridged. These were published in a small book, with a title nearly identical with that which heads this article. A friend at our elbow, recollects when a boy-more than thirty years since-seeing a little, crooked, longbearded old man, leaning on a cane, accompanied by a young lad, traveling about the country, peddling this "Life and Remarkable Adventures." Of his subsequent history, we are uninformed; but he must long ere this have been gathered to his fathers-and a neglected spot, in some isolated country church-yard, is, probably the resting-place of the mortal remains of ISRAEL R. POTTER, “a native of Cranston, Rhode Island, who was a soldier in the American Revolution."

THE

TWO ORATOR S

OF

OUR REVOLUTIONARY ERA;

JAMES OTIS, OF MASSACHUSETTS, AND PATRICK HENRY, OF VIRGINIA.

ORATORY is an art more practiced by the American, than by any other people; and because by none is it so much required. The nature of their institutions demands it, the business of government being with all, and open to all for public discussion. Their facility in extemporaneous oratory is the surprise of other people. That American embassador and historian who astonished English gentlemen at a public dinner in their country, by the force and polished beauty of an unexpected, unprepared speech, only supplied an example of what others of his countrymen could have equaled.

We give in these pages sketches of two of the most eminent orators of the era of our revolution-JAMES OTIS and PATRICK HENRY. The history of the latter has been made widely known by the genius of Wirt, but of the former few memorials remain : many whose eyes trace these lines, herein, for the first time, learn his name. Yet before the year 1770, no American, excepting Dr. Franklin, was so well known, and so often named in the colonies and in England. His papers have all perished, none of his speeches were recorded, and he himself was cut off just on the eve of the revolution, so that his name is not associated with familiar public documents. It is owing to this that the most learned, eloquent, and influential man of the time is now so little known, that the following language of President Adams seemed exaggerated, although Chief Justice Dana, and other eminent characters, used commendation equally strong. Says President Adams: "I have been young, and now am old, and I solemnly say, I have never known a man whose love of his country was more ardent or sincere; never, one who suffered so much; never, one whose services for any ten years of his life were so important and essential to the cause of his country, as those of Mr. Otis, from 1760 to 1770.”

JAMES OTIS was the son of Colonel James Otis, and was born at West Barnstable, Massachusetts, February 5, 1724. He was educated at Harvard, studied law, and settled in Boston, where he soon attained to the highest rank in his profession.

He came upon the stage at a time when the mother country had determined to enforce her "Acts of Trade,"-laws of parliament which bore with crushing force upon the industry and enterprise of the colonies, especially

those of New England. These people were descended from that virtuous, but stern and inflexible part of the English nation, who, determined not to bear the chains of religious and kingly tyranny, had sought and found a home in the wilds of a new continent at a vast expense of blood and suffer ing. They owed nothing to the royal government but their charter, yet the moment they began to overcome the first great trials of their new settlement, they were doomed to submit to a system of restrictive laws, calculated to crush them to poverty. Having no great staple of agriculture, the only resource for accumulating the comforts and luxuries of life were commerce and manufactures; but here their exertions were impeded by these laws. These forbade them to manufacture, because the manufactures of England would be injured; they were restricted in their commerce, because the English shipping-interest would suffer. Even the fish they caught off their own coast, they were not allowed to sell for French and Spanish molasses, because the English sugar colonies in the West Indies would be thus deprived of the monopoly of supplying them with the finny tribe. They could not import teas from Holland, because it interfered with the East India Company; in fine, they could not trade with Spain and Portugal, nor with any other nation. Everything brought to the colonies must be in English-built ships, owned in England, and manned by English sailors. The boasted protection of the mother country was, to use the language of Sir Edmund Burke, "perfect uncompensated slavery."

Immediately after the conquest of Canada, in 1760, the custom-house officers, in compliance with instructions from England, began to take measures to strictly enforce all these obnoxious laws, some of which had remained a dead letter. As a preliminary measure, an order in council was received to carry into effect these laws of trade, and to apply to the Supreme Court of the province for writs of assistance, a species of search warrant to be granted to the officers of customs, to search for goods on which duties had not been paid.

Hutchinson, the Lieutenant Governor of the province, was at this juncture appointed by the crown Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; thus, for the time, having united in his one person the highest judicial and executive offices in the province. This extraordinary power conferred upon one man, evinced the unfriendly designs of government, and was a cause of just alarm to all reflecting minds. Otis was at this time Advocate General: believing these laws were illegal and tyrannical, he refused to give his official assistance, and at once resigned his office, which was not only very lucrative, but, if filled by an incumbent of a compliant spirit, led to the highest favors from the crown.

The merchants of Boston and Salem engaged Otis and Thatcher to make their defense. The trial took place in February, 1761, in the council chamber of the old Town House in Boston, before Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson, as Chief Justice, with four Associate Judges. The court was crowded with the most eminent citizens, deeply solicitous in the cause

The case was opened for government by Mr. Gridley, the old law tutor of Otis, and very ably argued in all his points he made his reasoning depend upen this consideration-"if the parliament of Great Britain is the sovereign legislator of the British Empire, then, etc." He was replied to by Mr.

Thatcher, in an ingenious, sensible speech, delivered with great mildress. "But," in the language of President Adams, "Otis was a flame of fire; with a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eyes into futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him. American Independence was then and there born. The seeds of patriots and heroes were then and there sown. Every man of an immense, crowded audience, appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take up arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition, to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child INDEPENDENCE was born. In fifteen years, i. e. in 1776, he grew up to manhood, and declared himself free."

In opening this case, Otis said, "I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand, and villainy on the other, as is this writ of assistance. It appears to me the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberties and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was found in an English law book. He then went on to speak of his resigning his office of Advocate General, that he might argue this cause, of the enemies he thereby had made, and how from his very soul he despised them. "Let," added he, "the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed. The only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man, are to sacrifice estate, ease, health, and applause, and even life, to the sacred calls of his country. These manly sentiments, in private life, make the good citizen; in public life, the patriot and the hero. I do not say that, when brought to the test, I shall be invincible. I pray God that I may never be brought to the melancholy trial, but if ever I should, it will then be known how far I can reduce to practice, principles which I know to be founded in truth.” He then proceeded with the subject of the writ, which the officers of the revenue were afraid to use without the sanction of the Superior Court. That it was impossible to devise a more outrageous instrument of tyranny, one which naturally led to such enormous abuses.

"This writ," said he, "being general, is illegal. I admit that special writs of assistance, to search special places, may be granted to certain persons on oath; but I deny that the writ now prayed for can be granted. In the first place the writ is universal, being directed to all and singular justices, sheriffs, constables, and all other officers, and subjects; so that it is in short directed to every subject in the king's dominions. Everyone with this writ may be a tyrant in a legal manner, also, may control, imprison, or murder any one within the realm. In the next place, it is perpetual-there is no return. A man is accountable to no person for his doings. Every man may reign secure in his petty tyranny, and spread terror and desolation around him, until the trump of the archangel shall excite different emotions in his soul. By this writ not only deputies, but their menial servants, in the daytime, may enter our houses, shops, etc., at will, and command all to assist them; and thus lord it over us. What is this but to have the curse of Canaan with a witness on us; to be the servant of servants, the most despicable of God's creation? Now, one of the most essential branches of English liberty, is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle; and

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