In his youth he fell among skeptics, read Bolingbroke's works five times through, and esteemed himself a profound metaphysician, but he had only skimmed the speculations of others; though at first destined to be a minister, he became a rebel to Calvinism, and never had any fixed religious creed. For all that, he was a stanch man of New England, and his fond partiality to its people, its institutions, its social condition, and its laws, followed him into congress and its committees, tinctured his judgment, and clinched his prepossessions; but the elements in New England that he loved most were those which were eminently friendly to universal culture and republican equality. Son of a small freeholder, bent on making his way in the world, at twenty years old beginning to earn his own bread, pinched and starved as master of a "stingy" country school, he formed early habits of order and frugality, and steadily advanced to fortune; but there was nothing niggardly in his thrift, and his modest hospitality was prompt and hearty. He loved homage, and to those who flattered him he gave his confidence freely, and often unwisely; and, while he watched the general movement of affairs with comprehensive sagacity, he was never a calm observer of individual men. Of the choleric temperament and of a large and compact frame, he was singularly sensitive; could break out into uncontrollable rage, and never learned to rule his own spirit; but his anger did not so much drive him to do wrong as to do right ungraciously. No man was less fitted to gain his end by arts of indirection; he knew not how to intrigue, was indiscreetly talkative, and almost thought aloud; his ways of courting support were uncouth, so that he made few friends except by his weight of character and integrity; and he was unapt as the leader of a party.

Hating intolerance in all its forms, loving civil liberty as the glory of man and the best evidence and the best result of civilization, he, of all in congress, was incomparable as a dogmatist; essentially right-minded; loving to teach with authority; pressing onward unsparingly with his argument; impatient of contradiction; unequalled as a positive champion of the right; compelled to utter his convictions fearlessly by an inborn energy which forbade his acting otherwise. He was

now too much in earnest and too much engaged by the greatness of his work, to think of himself; too anxiously desiring aid to disparage those who gave it. In the fervor of his activity, his faults disappeared. His intellect and public spirit, all the noblest parts of his nature, were called into the fullest exercise. Combining, more than any other, far-sightedness and fixedness of belief with courage and power of utterance, he was looked up to as the ablest debater in congress. He was redundant in words and cumulative in argument; but his warmth and sincerity kept him from the affectations of a pedant or a rhetorician. Forbearance was no longer in season; the irrepressible talent of persevering, peremptory assertion was wanted; the more he was hurried along by his own vehement will, the better; now his country, humanity, the age, the hour, demanded that the right should be spoken out. His sagacity rose with the approach of danger, and he dared to inquire after the system of permanent government best suited to the colonies. He looked for the essential elements of government behind its forms. He studied the principles of the British constitution not merely in the history of England, but as purified and reproduced in the governments of New England, and as analyzed and reflected in the writings of Montesquieu. "A legislative, an executive, and a judicial power comprehended the whole of what he meant and understood by government;" and, as the only secret to be discovered was how to derive these powers directly from the people, he persuaded himself, and was fast persuading others, that, by the aid of a convention, "a single month was sufficient, without the least convulsion or even animosity, to accomplish a total revolution in the government of a colony." His warmth and positiveness had not the air of passion, but appeared, as it was, the clear perception of his task. When, in the life of a statesman, were six months of more importance to the race than these six months in the career of John Adams?

On resuming his seat, he found a less able delegation from South Carolina. In zeal and decision Chase of Maryland kept always ahead of his friends. That province had wished to preserve its proprietary system, but only so far as was consistent with the unwavering resolution to resist to the last the usurpa

tions of parliament. The members of congress listened with impatience to Wilson when, on the thirteenth of February, from his committee appointed the day after the publication of "Common Sense," he presented a long draft of an address to their constituents, in which they were made to disclaim the idea of renouncing their allegiance; and its author, perceiving that the majority relished neither its style nor its counsel, allowed it to subside without a vote.

On the sixteenth the great measure of enfranchising American commerce was seriously considered. "Open your ports," said a member; "your trade will then become of so much consequence that foreigners will protect you." "In war," argued Wilson, "trade should be carried on with greater vigor than ever, after the manner of the United Provinces in their struggle against Spain. The merchants themselves must judge of the risks. Our vessels and our seamen are all abroad, and, unless we open our ports, will not return." Sherman wished first to secure a protective treaty with a foreign power. Harrison said more explicitly: "We have hobbled on under a fatal attachment to Great Britain; I felt that attachment as much as any man, but I feel a stronger one to my country." George Wythe took the lead. A learned and able lawyer, he cultivated poetry and letters; not rich, he was above want; in his habits he was as abstemious as an ascetic; his manners had the mirthfulness of innocence. Genial and loving, he blended gentleness with unswerving obedience to the law of duty. From 1774 his views coincided with those of Jefferson; and his artless simplicity of character, his legal erudition and acuteness, added persuasion to his words: "It is too true our ships may be taken; but we may authorize vessels to arm, and we may give letters of marque and reprisal. We may invite foreign powers to make treaties of commerce with us; but, before this measure is adopted, it is to be considered in what character we shall treat. As subjects of Great Britain? as rebels? No: we must declare ourselves a free people." With this explanation he moved: "That the colonies have a right to contract alliances with foreign powers." "This is independence," said an objector. The question whether the resolution should be considered was adopted by seven colonies

against five; but the debate on opening the ports was prolonged through seven weeks of hesitation.

On the day of this discussion the assembly of Pennsyl vania formed a quorum. It still required of its members the profession of allegiance to King George; Franklin had therefore never taken his seat and now resigned it.

Washington's advice to enlist soldiers for the war, and the solemnity with which it was enforced, arrested attention. Samuel Adams proposed to take up the question of lengthening the period of enlistments. But opposition to a standing army had long been the watchword of liberty; the New England colonies had from their beginning been defended by their own militia; in the last French war, troops had been called out only for the season. "Enlistment for a long period," said Sherman, " is a state of slavery; a rotation of service in arms is favorable to liberty." "I am in favor of the proposition to raise men for the war," said John Adams; "but not to depend upon it, as men must be averse to it, and the war may last ten years." England was sending over veteran armies; and they were to be met by soldiers engaged only for a year.

The debate branched off into a discussion on the pay of officers, respecting which the frugal statesmen of the North differed from those of the South; John Adams thought the democratic tendency of New England less dangerous than the aristocratic tendency elsewhere. Danger hung visibly over every part of the country; on the twenty-seventh the five middle colonies from New York to Maryland were constituted one military department; the four south of the Potomac, another; and, on the first of March, six new generals of brigade were appointed. In the selection for Virginia there was difficulty; the prevailing opinion recalled Patrick Henry to civil life; in the judgment of Washington, "Mercer would have supplied the place well;" but the choice fell upon Andrew Lewis, who still suffered from "the odium thrown upon his conduct at Kanawha," where he had lingered in his camp, while the officers and men whom he sent forth, with fearless gallantry and a terrible loss of life, shed lustre over Virginia. In less than a year congress forced Lewis to resign, by promoting an inferior officer over his head.

To meet the expenses of the war, four millions of dollars in bills were ordered to be struck; which, with six millions already issued, would form a paper currency of ten millions. A few days later a committee of seven, including Duane and Robert Morris, was appointed on the ways and means of raising other supplies for the year; but they never so much as made a report. A like committee was appointed, continued, and enlarged; and their labors were equally fruitless. Congress had neither credit to borrow nor power to tax.

Congress was about to send commissioners to Canada, and their instructions, reported by John Adams, Wythe, and Sherman, contained this clause: "You are to declare that it is our inclination that the people of Canada may set up such a form of government as will be most likely in their judgment to produce their happiness." This invitation to the Canadians to form a government without any limitation of time was, for three or four hours, resisted by Jay and others, on the ground that it "was an independency;" but the words were adopted.

Early in the month congress received the act of parliament prohibiting all trade with the thirteen colonies, and confiscating their ships and effects as if they were the ships and effects of open enemies. The first instinct was to retaliate; and on the eighteenth, after an able debate, privateers were authorized to cruise against ships and their cargoes, belonging to any inhabitant of Great Britain, though not of Ireland or the West Indies, by the vote of all New England, New York, Virginia, and North Carolina, against Pennsylvania and Maryland.

On the nineteenth, Wythe, with Jay and Wilson, was appointed to prepare a preamble to the resolutions. Wythe found himself in a minority in the committee; and when, on the twenty-second, he presented their report, he moved an amendment, charging the king himself with their grievances, inasmuch as he had "rejected their petitions with scorn and contempt." This was new ground; hitherto congress had disclaimed the authority of parliament, not allegiance to the crown. Jay, Wilson, and Johnson opposed the amendment, as severing the king from the thirteen colonies forever; it was supported by Richard Henry Lee, who seconded it, by Chase, Sergeant of New Jersey, and Harrison. At the end.

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