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larity, and fired the people with indignation. Adams wes among those who secretly matured the plan of proposing a general Congress, and appointing delegates thereto, in spite of the opposition of Governor Gage.* Mr. Adams was one of the five delegates appointed, and he took his seat in that body on the fifth of September, 1774. He continued an active member of Congress until 1781,† and was among those who joyfully affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Adams retired from Congress in 1781, but not from public life. He was a member of the Convention to form a Constitution for Massachusetts, and was on the committee who drafted it. He was successively a member of the Senate of that Commonwealth, its President, Lieutenant-governor, and finally Governor. To the latter office he was annually elected, until the imfirmities of age obliged him to retire from active life. He expired on the third day of October, 1803, in the eighty-second year of his age.

* The governor hearing of the movement in the General Assembly, then sitting at Salem, sent his Secretary to dissolve them, but he found the door locked, and the key was safely lodged in Samuel Adams' pocket.

The journals of Congress during that time show his name upon almost every important committee of that body. And probably no man did more toward bringing about the American Revolution, and in effecting the independence of the Colonies, than Samuel Adams. He was the first to assert boldly those political truths upon which rested the whole superstructure of our confederacy - he was the first to act in support of those truths - and when, in the General Council of States, independence was proposed, and the timid faltered, and the over-prudent hesitated, the voice of Samuel Adams was ever loudest in denunciations of a temporizing policy, and also in the utterance of strong encouragement to the fainthearted. "I should advise," said he, on one occasion, "persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from Heaven that nine hundred and ninetynine were to perish, and only one of a thousand were to survive and retain his liberty! One such freeman must possess more virtue, and enjoy more happiness, than a thousand slaves; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what he hath so nobly preserved."

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of Connecticut.

HIS distinguished patriot was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1731. His father was a clergyman, and his mother was the daughter of the Reverend Mr. Treat, of Barnstable county. His maternal grandfather was Governor Treat,

Thus connected with the honored and pious, the early moral education of Mr. Paine was salutary in the extreme, and he enjoyed the advantage of instruction in letters, from Mr. Lovell, who was also the tutor of John Adams and John Hancock.

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Young Paine entered Harvard College at the age of fourteen years, and graduated with the usual honors. For a time after leaving college he taught school. He then made a voyage to Europe, and on his return he prepared himself for the ministry, in which calling he was engaged as chaplain in a military expedition to the north in 1755. Not long afterward he relinquished theology, studied law with Mr. Pratt, (afterward Chief Justice of New York,) and was admitted to practice at the bar.

He commenced law practice in Boston, but after a short residence there he removed to Taunton, where he became a powerful opponent and rival of the celebrated Timothy Ruggles.* He early espoused the popular cause, but so prudently did he conduct himself, that he retained the full confidence of the Governor. In 1768, after Governor Bernard had dissolved the Assembly,† and a provincial Convention was called, Mr. Paine attended as a delegate from Taunton. In 1770, when the trial of Captain Preston and his men occurred, the District Attorney being sick, Mr. Paine was chosen his substitute, and he conducted the case with great ability. He was chairman of the Committee of Vigilance in Taunton, in 1773. The same, and the following year (1774) he was elected a member of the Provincial Assembly, and was one of the commissioners appointed to conduct the proceedings in the case of the impeachment of Chief Justice Oliver.‡

Mr. Paine was an advocate for a Continental Congress. He was a member of the Assembly, when, in spite of

* Timothy Ruggles was President of the Colonial, or "Stamp Act Congress," in 1765. He was opposed to some of its measures, and when the Revolution broke out, he took sides with the King and Parliament.

The governor dissolved the Assembly, because with closed doors they adopted a circular to be sent to all the other colonies, inviting them to send delegates to a General Colonial Congress, to be held in New York.

Justice Oliver was impeached on the ground that he received his salary directly from the crown, and not from the people of the province, and thus was made independent of them.

Governor Gage, it elected delegates to the General Congress, of whom Mr. Paine was one. He was elected a member of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1774, where he was very active. He was deputed by the General Congress, with two others, to visit the army of General Schuyler at the north for the purpose of observation. It was a delicate commission, but one which Mr. Paine and his colleagues performed with entire satisfaction. The same year, John Adams was appointed Chief Justice of the province of Massachusetts, and Mr. Paine was chosen a side judge. He declined the honor, and in December was again elected to the General Congress, where he was very active, and on the fourth of July, the following year, (1776,) he voted for the Declaration of Independence, and was one of its signers. In 1777, he was chosen Attorney-General of Massachusetts, by a unanimous vote of the council and representatives, which office he held until 1790, when he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court. He was a member of the Convention that framed the Constitution of his native State, which was adopted in 1780. For fourteen years, he discharged his duties as judge, and in 1804, he left the bench, on account of the approaching infirmities of age. He died in 1814, at the age of eightyHis long and active life was devoted to the public service, and his labors were duly appreciated by a grateful people.

four years.

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Elbridge Gerry

LBRIDGE GERRY was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on the seventeeth of July, 1744. His father was a merchant in extensive business, and he resolved to give his son an excellent education. When his preparatory studies were concluded, he entered Harvard College, and graduated with the title of A. B., in 1762. He soon after entered into commercial pursuits, amassed a handsome fortune, and by his intelligence and good character, won for himself the esteem

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