this in view, a person of integrity will pass as sound a judg ment on subjects of this kind, by consulting his own heart, ag by turning over books and systems. The chief use of books and systems is to apply the principle to particular cases and suppositions, differently classed, and to point out the practice of nations in several minute and special particulars which, unless ascertained by practice, would be very uncertain and ambiguous.

But, sir, I must beg your attention, and that of the House, to the nature of the case before us at least, as I think it ought to be stated. I am afraid that some members may be misled by considering this declaration of General Burgoyne as an irregularity of the same species, if I may speak so, with the other indiscretions, or even frauds, if you please to call them so, of withholding the cartouch-boxes, or hiding or stealing the bayonets.

The question is not whether this or the other thing done by the army is a breach of the convention. I have, for my part, given up all these particulars, and declared my willingness to ratify the convention after I have heard them, and believe them to be true. But we have here the declared opinion of one of the parties that the public faith is broken by the other.

Now, the simplest man in the world knows that a mutual onerous contract is always conditional, and that if the condition fails on one side, whether from necessity or fraud, the other is free. Therefore we have reason to conclude that if Mr. Burgoyne is of opinion that the convention is broken on our part he will not hold to it on his. He would act the part of a fool if he did. It is of no consequence to say his opinion is ill-founded or unjust, as it manifestly is in the present case, for whether it is just or unjust, if it is really his

opinion (and we should wrong his sincerity to doubt it), the consequences are the same with respect to us. Men do often, perhaps generally, adhere with greater obstinacy to opinions that are ill than those that are well founded, and avenge imaginary or trifling injuries with greater violence than those that are real or great. Nay, we may draw an argument for our danger from the very injustice of his complaint.

If he has conceived the convention to be broken on so frivolous a pretence as that his lodging is not quite commodious, after the just caution inserted by General Gates in the preliminary articles, what have we to expect from him as soon as he shall recover his liberty and the power of doing mischief? It shows a disposition to find fault and an impatience under his present confinement, the future effects of which we have the greatest reason to dread.

The more I consider this matter, sir, the more it strikes me with its force. General Gates says, upon the subject of accommodation, "granted as far as circumstances will admit.” Was not this proper and necessary? It was very natural to suppose that General Burgoyne, accustomed to the splendor of the British court, and possessed with ideas of his own importance, would be but ill pleased with the best accommodations that could be obtained for him and his numerous followers in one of the frugal States of New England. It was also in the neighborhood of a place not expecting, in the least, the honor of such guests, which had been long the seat of warwhich had been exhausted by our army and plundered by theirs.

One would have thought that the recollection of the ruin of Charlestown, the burning of which, if I mistake not, in a letter of his from Boston to England, he calls a glorious light, might have prevented his complaints, even though he had

less elbow room than he wished for. But as circumstances stand, by what conduct shall we be able to satisfy him? When will pretences ever be wanting to one seeking to prove the convention broken, when it is his inclination or his interest to do so?

It has been said, sir, that we ought not to take this declaration of his in so serious a manner, that it was written rashly and in the heat of passion, and that he did not mean that we should dread such consequences from it. All this I believe to be strictly true. It probably fell from him in passion, and very unadvisedly. But is he the first person that has rashly betrayed his own mischievous designs? Or is this a reason for our not availing ourselves of the happy discovery? His folly in this instance is our good fortune. He is a man, sir, whom I never saw, though I have been more than once in England; but if I should say I did not know him, after having read his lofty and sonorous proclamation and some other productions, I should say what was not true.

He is evidently a man showy, vain, impetuous, and rash. It is reported of General Gates, from whom I never heard that any other words of boasting or ostentation fell, that he said he knew Burgoyne, and that he could build a wall for him to run his head against. I do not by any means approve of boasting in general. I think a man should not boast of what he has done, much less of what he only means to do; yet I cannot help saying that this was a most accurate prediction, which, with the event that followed it, plainly points out to us the character of General Burgoyne. Do you think that such a man would not take the advantage of this pretended breach of the convention on our part, and endeavor to wipe off the reproach of his late ignominious surrender by some signal or desperate undertaking?

SAMUEL ADAMS

SAMUEL ADAMS, a second cousin of John Adams, was born at Boston, September 27, 1722. He entered Harvard College, but, owing to his father's failure in business, had to leave before completing his course. He received a B. A. degree, however, and it is an interesting fact that his thesis was a defence of the affirmative reply to the question, "Whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved." After an unsuccessful attempt to make a living in trade, he be came the tax collector for the City of Boston, whence he was called by his political opponents "Samuel the Publican." Throughout the movement, of which the Declaration of Independence was to be the outcome, Adams was a conspicuous actor. He took part in numerous town meetings; drafted the protest which was sent up by Boston against Grenville's taxation scheme in May, 1764, and, being chosen in the following year a member of the Massachusetts General Court, he soon became a leader in debate. Subsequently, having received the appointment of clerk of the House, he exercised much influence in the arrangement of the order of business and in the framing of State papers. He is gen erally credited with the invention of the "caucus, ," and the importance of his opposition to the British Government is attested by the fact that he was specially excepted from General Gage's amnesty proclamation on June, 1775, on the ground that he had "committed offences of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment." Samuel Adams was one of the delegates from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He was a member of the convention which settled the State Constitution of Massachusetts, and became President of its Senate. From 1789 to 1794 he was Lieu. tenant-Governor of the State, and Governor from the last named year to 1797; then retiring partly on account of age and partly because the Federalists were in the ascendant, while he himself was inclined to the Jeffersonian or Republican party. He died on the 3d of October, 1803. It was Samuel Adams who in an oration on American independence, delivered in Philadelphia on the 1st of August, 1776, described the English as "a nation of shopkeepers." The oration was translated into French and published in Paris, and it is therefore not unlikely that Napoleon borrowed the phrase from Adams.

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

Countrymen and Brethren:

WOULD gladly have declined an honor to which I find myself unequal. I have not the calmness and impartiality which the infinite importance of this occasion demands. I will not deny the charge of my enemies, that resentment for the accumulated injuries of our country, and an ardor for her glory, rising to enthusiasm, may deprive me of that accuracy of judgment and expression which men of cooler passions may possess. Let me beseech you, then, to hear me with caution, to examine your prejudice, and to correct the mistakes into which I may be hurried by my zeal.

Truth loves an appeal to the common-sense of mankind. Your unperverted understandings can best determine on subjects of a practical nature. The positions and plans which are said to be above the comprehension of the multitude may be always suspected to be visionary and fruitless. He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all.

Our forefathers threw off the yoke of Popery in religion; for you is reserved the honor of levelling the popery of politics. They opened the Bible to all, and maintained the capacity of every man to judge for himself in religion. Are we sufficient for the comprehension of the sublimest spiritual truths, and unequal to material and temporal ones?

Heaven hath trusted us with the management of things for eternity, and man denies us ability to judge of the present, or to know from our feelings the experience that will