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with the consolations of religion, he expired, after a brief illness, at New Haven, May 28, 1843, in his eighty-fifth year.*

Of Webster's plain habits of living, and of his time given to study, there is a quaint account in a letter from his pen, dated November 21, 1836, addressed to Dr. Thomas Miner, in answer to an inquiry as to his mode of life, in which he says:

I have never been a hard student, unless a few years may be excepted; but I have been a steady, persevering student. I have rarely used lamp or candle light, except once, when reading law, and then I paid dear for my imprudence, for I injured my eyes. My practice has usually been to rise about half an hour before the sun, and make use of all the light of that luminary. But I have never or rarely been in a hurry. When I first undertook the business of supporting General Washington's administration, I labored too hard in writing or translating from the French papers for my paper, or in composing pamphlets. In two instances I was so exhausted that I expected to die, for I could not perceive any pulsation in the radial artery; but I recovered. While engaged in composing my Dictionary, I was often so much excited by the discoveries I made, that my pulse, whose ordinary action is scarcely 60 beats to the minute, was accelerated to

80 or 85.

My exercise has not been violent nor regular. While I was in Amherst I cultivated a little land, and used to work at making hay, and formerly I worked in my garden, which I cannot now do. Until within a few years, I used to make my fires in the morning, but I never or rarely walked before breakfast. My exercise is now limited to walking about the city to purchase supplies for my family. For a part of my life, the last forty years, I have had a horse of my own, but I never rode merely for health; and a part of the time, more than half, I have not been able to keep a horse. My eyes have, from a child, been subject to a slight inflammation, but the sight has been good. I began to use spectacles when fifty years of age, or a little more, and that was the time when I began to study and prepare materials for my Dictionary. I had had the subject in contemplation some years before, and had made memorandums on the margin of Johnson's Dictionary, but I did not set myself to the work till I wore spectacles.

When I finished my copy I was sitting at my table in Cambridge, England, January, 1825. When I arrived at the last word, I was seized with a tremor that made it difficult to proceed. I, however, summoned up strength to finish the work, and then walking about the room I soon recovered.†

NOAH WORCESTER

His

Was born at Hollis, N. H., November 25, 1758. He was of an old ecclesiastical family in New England. His father, of the same name, was an influential magistrate of New Hampshire. brother Leonard was bred a printer, and for a time edited the Massachusetts Spy at Worcester. Noah, who in later life was called "The Apostle of Peace," was in youth a fifer at Bunker Hill, and was also in the battle of Bennington. At eighteen he was teaching in the village school of Plymouth, N. H., and pursued that calling for nine successive winters. To accomplish himself in penmanship, in the scarcity of paper during

National Portrait Gallery, ii. Ed. 1854. + New Englander, i. 568.

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the war, he wrote over a quantity of white birch bark. In 1778, according to the primitive usage of an agricultural and thinly peopled region, and the old Puritan religious ideas of the family, he purchased of his father the remainder of his minority, and left for Plymouth. In 1782 he removed to Thornton, where he was a preacher from 1786 to 1810. He had commenced his career as a writer with a controversial letter to the Rev. John Murray, on his sermon on the Origin of Evil." In 1810 he published his Unitarian essay, which he entitled Bible News of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in a series of letters, in four parts. This work brought upon him much opposition, to mitigate which he wrote his letters to Trinitarians in favor of tolerance and personal kindness among those who differed in religious opinions. He wrote at this time for the journals: for the Theological Magazine, in New York, a series of papers, The Variety; in a periodical at Concord, and in the newspapers.

In 1813 he removed to Brighton, near Boston; his friends, Dr Channing, Dr. Lowell, Dr. Tuckerman, and the Rev. S. C. Thacher, having made provision for him as editor of the Christian Disciple, which grew afterwards into the present Christian Examiner. It was a monthly periodical, "for the promotion of spiritual and moral improvement." It was conducted by him to the

In

close of 1818. He here uttered his ideas on the Peace Question, which he had publicly stated in the war of 1812, in a sermon on the pacific conduct of Abraham and Lot, in avoiding hostilities between their herdsmen, delivered on the day appointed by Madison for a national fast. 1814 he published his tract, A Solemn Review of the Custom of War. The Massachusetts Peace Society was founded in the following year. In pursuance of his views he began the publication of The Friend of Peace in 1819, and continued it, in quarterly numbers, for ten years. It was mostly written by himself. In 1829 he resumed his theological publications with a small volume,

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Important Subjects; in three parts. 1. Man's Liability to Sin; 2. Supplemental Illustrations; 3. Man's Capacity to Obey. He was now at the extreme period of life, in the enjoyment of a happy, tranquil old age. Channing, who has celebrated his career in his noble eulogy entitled the Philanthropist, speaks of the serenity of his life, in the midst of his reformatory opinions and controversial writings, and of the "sufficiency of his mind to its own happiness."* His personal appearance was remarkable, of a large frame and benign expression. He died at Brighton, Massachusetts, October 31, 1837, aged 79.

His chief reputation rests on his Peace Efforts, and his position in the transition stage of Puritanism to Unitarianism.

JOHN ARMSTRONG,

THE author of the "Newburgh Letters" and the historian of the second war with England, was a native of Pennsylvania, born at Carlisle, Nov. 25, 1758. His father was an officer of distinction in the war with France in 1755. On the breaking out of the Revolution young Armstrong, then a student at the college of New Jersey, joined the camp as a volunteer at the age of eighteen. He was appointed aide-de-camp to General Mercer, who was borne in his arms, fatally wounded, from the field at the battle of Princeton. He was next invited to become aide to General Gates, and served with him through the campaign which closed at Saratoga. 1780, he was appointed Adjutant General of the Southern ariny, but retired from this service in consequence of illness before the battle of Camden, resuming his position with General Gates, as aide, with the rank of Major.

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When the war was ended he had an opportunity to give proof of his ability with the pen in his authorship of the celebrated Newburgh Letters, dated from the camp at that place. The design of these addresses was to arouse the army to a vigorous assertion of their claims, which in the imperfect organization of the general government it was necessary should be loudly urged to obtain a hearing. There were two of these "addresses," one dated in the camp at Newburgh, the 10th March, 1783, inviting a meeting of officers for the consideration of measures to redress the army grievances, in the neglect of pay by Congress, which employed this bold language:

"If this then be your treatment, while the swords you wear are necessary for the defence of America, what have you to expect from peace, when your voice shall sink, and your strength dissipate by division; when those very swords, the instruments and companions of your glory, shall be taken from your sides, and no remaining mark of military distinction left but your wants, infirmities, and scars? Can you then consent to be the only sufferers by this revolution, and retiring from the field, grow old in poverty, wretchedness, and contempt? Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of dependency, and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity, which has been hitherto spent in honor? If you can, go, and carry with you the jest of Tories and the scorn of Whigs; the ridicule, and

Channing's Works, iv. 887.

what is worse, the pity of the world Go starve and be forgotten. But if your spirits should revolt at this; if you have sense enough to discover and spirit sufficient to oppose tyranny, under whatever garb it may assume, whether it be the plain coat of republicanism or the splendid robe of royalty; if you have yet learned to discriminate between a people and a cause, between men and principles; awake, attend to your situation, and redress yourselves! If the present moment be lost, every future effort is in vain; and your threats will then be as empty as your entreaties now.

I would advise you, therefore, to come to some final opinion upon what you can bear, and what you will suffer. If your determination be in any proportion to your wrongs, carry your appeal from the justice to the fears of government. Change the milk-and-water style of your last memorial. Assume a bolder tone, decent, but lively, spirited, and determined; and suspect the man who would advise to more moderation and longer forbearance. Let two or three men, who can feel as well as write, be appointed to draw up your last remonstrance, for I would no longer give it the suing, soft, unsuecessful epithet of memorial. Let it represent in language that will neither dishonor you by its rudeness, nor betray you by its fears, what has been promised by Congress, and what has been performed; how long and how patiently you have suffered; how little you have asked, and how much of that little has been denied. Tell them, that though you were the first, and would wish to be last, to encounter danger, though despair itself can never drive you into dishonor, it may drive you from the field; that the wound, often irritated and never healed, may at length become incurable; and that the slightest mark of indignity from Congress now must operate like the grave, and part you for ever; that, in any political event, the army has its alternative. If peace, that nothing shall separate you from your arms but death; if war, that courting the auspices, and inviting the direction of your illustrious leader, you will retire to some unsettled country, smile in your turn, " and mock when their fear cometh on." But let it represent, also, that should they comply with the request of your late memorial, it would make you more happy and them more respectable; that, while war should continue, you would follow their standard into the field; and when it came to an end, you would withdraw into the shade of private life, and give the world another subject of wonder and applause; an army victorious over its enemies, victorious over itself.

Washington, who was in camp, met this inflammatory proceeding by his general orders forbidding the meeting, and calling an assembly of officers to hear the report of the committee sent to Congress, when a second address appeared turning to account this apparent sanction of the gathering. Washington overruled the threatened embarrassment by himself attending the meeting. securing the quiet of Gates by placing him in the chair, and rallying his faithful brother officers to his support.*

Washington read an address to the officers at the meeting, in which the whole matter was treated with dignity and feeling, and in the

Hildreth's U. S., First Series, ill. 431. Curtis's History of the Constitution, i. 168, where the style of the Newburgh Addresses is highly spoken of:-"They are written with great point and vigor of expression, and great purity of English. For the purpose for which they were designed-a direct appeal to feeling,-they show the hand of a master."

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course of which, while the arguments and proposals of "the anonymous addresser" were answered with respect, it was intimated that he was an insidious foe-some emissary, perhaps, from New York, sowing the seeds of discord and separation between the civil and military powers of the continent."

At the time of making this address, Washington was not acquainted with the anonymous author. He afterwards, in writing to General Armstrong, Feb. 23, 1797, expressed his confidence in the good motives which had dictated the letters, as "just, honorable, and friendly to the country, though the means suggested were certainly liable to much misunderstanding and abuse."*

After the war Armstrong held the post of Secretary of Pennsylvania, under Dickenson and Franklin. In 1787, he was elected member of Congress. In 1789, upon his marriage with a sister of Chancellor Livingston, he took up his residence in Dutchess County in the State of New York, where he occupied himself with farming. In 1800, he was elected senator of the United States, and in 1804, was appointed by Jefferson minister to France, an arduous position, which he filled till 1810, during which time he discharged the duties of a separate mission to Spain.

When the war of 1812 was declared, he was appointed brigadier-general in the United States army, and commanded the district including the city and harbor of New York. In 1813, he was called by Madison to the Secretaryship of War. The difficulties which he encountered in the management of attempts against Canada, and the destruction of Washington, led to his resignation in 1814. He suffered at the time the odium resulting from these disasters, which threw into the shade his undoubtedly honorable and faithful services.

In his retirement at Red Hook, where he passed the subsequent years of his life, he wrote treatises on Gardening and Agriculture, a review of Wilkinson's Memoirs, several biographical notices, and Notices of the War of 1812, the first volume of which was published in 1836, and the second in 1840. In this work he reviews the conduct of the war with a forcible and discriminating pen, sharpened by the official experiences of his own career as secretary. It possesses the interest of an original critical disquisition on a most important period of our history, and its points will continue to furnish the text for prolonged comment.

Gen. Armstrong died at his country residence on the Hudson, April 1, 1843, in his eighty-fifth year.t

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brated Master Lovell; completed his course with the highest honors at Harvard, in 1778: and on taking the degree of Master of Arts, delivered the valedictory oration in Latin, which was much admired for its eloquence and purity of language.

Geo. R. Minot

He studied law with Fisher Ames in the office of William Tudor. Soon after commencing practice he was made, in 1781, Clerk of the House of Representatives, under the recently formed constitution; in 1782 he was appointed judge of probate for the county of Suffolk; and in 1800, of the Municipal Court in Boston. In 1783, he married Mary Speakman, of Marlboro'. In 1788, he published the History of the Rebellion in Massachusetts in 1786; a work which attracted great attention from its interest, its dispassionate tone, and the elegance and purity of its style; and in 1798, the first volume of a History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, from 1748 to 1765, in continuation of that of Hutchinson. The second volume was printed from his manuscripts shortly after his death, which occurred after a short illness on the second of January, 1802. He was also the author of an oration on the Boston Massacre; of a highly finished and impassioned discourse on the death of Washington; and an address before the Massachusetts Charitable Society. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and edited three of the early volumes of their collections. His history is a well written, laborious, and impartial work. Its author was noted, in addition to his writings, for his fine taste, elegant personal appearance, the amiability and uprightness of his character, and the hospitality of his mansion.*

TREATMENT OF THE ACADIANS, 1755.

The French force in Nova-Scotia being thus subdued, it only remained to determine the measures which ought to be taken with respect to the inhabitants, who were about seven thousand in number, and whose character and situation were so peculiar, as to distinguish them from almost every other community, that has suffered under the scourge of war.

The allegations against them as a people, and which were undoubtedly just against many of them as individuals, were these: That being permitted to hold their lands, after the treaty of Utrecht, by which the Province was ceded to Great-Britain, upon condition of their taking the oath of allegiance, they refused to comply, excepting with this qualification, that they should not be called upon to bear arms in the defence of the Province; which qualification, though acceded to by Gen. Phillips, the British commander, was disapproved of by the king: That from this circumstance they affected the character of neutrals, yet furnished the French and Indians with intelligence, quarters, provisions and assistance in annoying the government of the Province, and three hundred of them were actually found in arms at the taking of fort Beau-sejour: That notwithstanding an offer was made, to such of them as had not been openly in arms, to be allowed to continue in possession of their land, if they would take the oath of allegiance without any qualification, they unanimously refused it.

The character of this people was mild, frugal, in

* Loring's Hundred Boston Orators, p. 146.

dustrious and pious; and a scrupulous sense of the | indissoluble nature of their ancient obligation to their king, was a great cause of their misfortunes. To this we may add an unalterable attachment to their religion, a distrust of the right of the English to the territory which they inhabited, and the indemnity promised them at the surrender of fort Beau-sejour. Notwithstanding which, there could be no apology for such of them as, after they had obtained the advantages of neutrality, violated the conditions on which they were granted, and without which, from the nature of the case, there was no just foundation to expect they would be continued.

Such being the circumstances of the French Neutrals, as they were called, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia and his Council, aided by the admirals Boscawen and Mostyn, assembled to consider of the necessary measures to be adopted towards them. If the whole were to suffer for the conduct of a part, the natural punishment would have been to have forced them from their country, and left them to go wherever they pleased; but from the situation of the Province of Canada, it was obvious to see that this would have been to recruit it with soldiers, who would immediately have returned in arms upon the British frontiers. It was therefore determined to remove and disperse this whole people among the British Colonies, where they could not unite in any offensive measures, and where they might be naturalized to the government and country.

The execution of this unusual and general sentence was allotted chiefly to the New England forces, the commander of which, from the humanity and firmness of his character, was the best qualified to carry it into effect. It was without doubt, as he himself declared, disagreeable to his natural make and temper; and his principles of implicit obedience as a soldier were put to a severe test by this ungrateful kind of duty, which required an ungenerous cunning, and subtle kind of severity, calculated to render the Acadians subservient to the English interests to the latest hour. They were kept entirely ignorant of their destiny until the moment of their captivity, and were overawed or allured to labour at the gathering in of their harvest, which was secretly allotted to the use of their conquerors. The orders from Lieutenant Governor Lawrence to Capt. Murray, who was first on the station, with a plagiarism of the language without the spirit of scripture, directed that if these people behaved amiss, they should be punished at his discretion; and if any attempts were made to destroy or molest the troops, he should take an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, and in short, life for life, from the nearest neighbour where the mischief should be performed.

The convenient moment having arrived, the inhabitants were called into the different ports to hear the king's orders, as they were termed." At Grand Pre, where Col. Winslow had the immediate command, four hundred and eighteen of their best men assembled. These being shut into the church, (for that too had become an arsenal) he placed himself with his officers in the centre, and addressed them thus:

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The part of duty I am now upon, though necessa ry, is very disagreeable to my natural make and temper, as I know it must be grievous to you who are of the same species.

But it is not my business to animadvert, but to obey such orders as I receive, and therefore, without hesi tation, shall deliver you his Majesty's orders and instructions, namely,

"That your lands and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the crown, with all other your effects, saving your money and household goods, and you yourselves to be removed from this his Province."

Thus it is peremptorily his Majesty's orders, that the whole French inhabitants of these districts be removed, and I am, through his Majesty's goodness, directed to allow you liberty to carry off your mo ney and household goods, as many as you can without discommoding the vessels you go in. I shall do every thing in my power, that all those goods be secured to you, and that you are not molested in carrying them off: also that whole families shall go in the same vessel; and make this remove, which I am sensible must give you a great deal of trouble, as easy as his Majesty's service will admit, and hope, that in whatever part of the world you may fall, you may be faithful subjects, a peaceable and happy people.

I must also inform you, that it is his Majesty's pleasure that you remain in security, under the inspection and direction of the troops that I have the honour to command.

And he then declared them the King's prisoners. The whole number of persons collected at Grand Pre, finally amounted to 483 men and 337 women, heads of families, and their sons and daughters to 527 of the former, and 576 of the latter, making in the whole 1923 sonls. Their stock was upwards of 5,000 horned cattle, 493 horses, and 12,887 sheep and swine.

As some of these wretched inhabitants escaped to the woods, all possible measures were adopted to force them back to captivity. The country was laid waste to prevent their subsistence. In the district of Minas alone, there were destroyed 255 houses, 276 barns, 155 out-houses, 11 mills and 1 church; and the friends of those who refused to come in, were threatened as the victims of their obstinacy. In short, so operative were the terrors that surrounded them, that of twenty-four young men who deserted from a transport, twenty-two were glad to return of themselves, the others being shot by sentinels; and one of their friends who was supposed to have been accessary to their escape, having been carried on shore, to behold the destruction of his house and effects, which were burned in his presence, as a punishment for his temerity, and perfidious aid to his comrades. Being embarked by force of the musquetry, they were dispersed, according to the original plan, among the several British Colonies. One thousand arrived in Massachusetts Bay and became a public expense, owing in a great degree to an unchangeable antipathy to their situation, which prompted them to reject the usual beneficiary but humiliating establishment of paupers for their children.

The campaign ended with no small disgust on the part of the New England commander and his troops, on account of distinctions in service made between the regulars and them, to their prejudice; and enlistments being made out of his corps to fill up the standing regiments, which prevented his fulfilling his promise to bring his men back to their towns at the expiration of a year, a promise much relied upon and necessary to be performed for future exertions

SARAH WENTWORTH MORTON-WILLIAM DUANE.

SARAH WENTWORTH MORTON.

SARAH WENTWORTH APTHORPE married, in 1778, Perez Morton.* She was a constant contributor of short poems to the Massachusetts Magazine, and obtained a vaunted reputation in those days under the signature of Philenia, part of which was no doubt due to the vigorous laudatory exertions of her friend and poetical correspondent, Robert Treat Paine, Jr., by whom she was styled the American Sappho. She was also the author of Quabi, or the Virtues of Nature, an Indian Tale in four cantos, published in 1790, and of an octavo volume which appeared in 1823, entitled My Mind and its Thoughts, made up of proverb-like reflections in prose, arranged with great formality, and a number of poems. Her chief production, Quabi, is a pastoral, the characters of which are Ouabi, the chief of an Indian tribe, Azalia an Indian maiden, and Celario a young Englishman. Celario, who has joined the red men, is perplexed by a divided duty between his affections for Azalia and his respect for the noble Quabi, to whom she is betrothed. Fidelity prevails over passion, when Ouabi, having been taken prisoner by a hostile band, is rescued while singing his death-song by Celario, resigns his mistress to his deliverer, and is soon after slain in battle. The pamphlet of fifty-two pages closes with a few "Lines addressed to the inimitable author of the Poems under the signature of Della Crusca” productions of which Mrs. Morton was an admirer and imitator.

SONG FOR THE PUBLIC CELEBRATION OF THE NATIONAL PEACE.

Not for the blood-polluted car

Wake the triumphant song of fame,
But for the Chief who spares the war,

Touch'd by a suffering people's claim.
Hail Columbia! Columbia blest and free,
The Star of Empire leads to thee.t
Let the rich laurel's baneful green
Bright on the warrior's front appear,
But olive in his path be seen,

Whose genius gives the prosperous year.
Hail Columbia! Columbia blest and free,
The Star of Empire breaks on thee.
Diffused around the sacred skies,

The electric ray of hope extends,
On every wing of commerce flies,

And to the earth's green lap descends.
Hail Columbia! Columbia blest and free,
The Star of Empire beams on thee.
Empire, that travels wide and far,

Sheds her last glories on the west-
Born 'mid the morning realms of war,
She loves the peaceful evening best.

Perez Morton was born at Plymouth, November 13, 1751. He was a graduate of Harvard in 1771, was a member of the Committee of Safety in 1775, and an active public man during the war. On the eighth of April, 1776, he delivered a funeral oration over the remains of General Warren, which were identified as the British were engaged in burying the dead after the battle, by the barber who had been accustomed to dress his hair, and on their exhumation, on the evacuation of the British troops ten months after, by a false tooth. The oration was an animated, although somewhat too ornate production. At its close, he commenced the practice of the law. He was Speaker of the State House of Representatives from 1806 to 1811, and Attorney-General from 1810 to 1832. He died at Dorchester, October 14, 1837.

+ It will probably be perceived, that the chorus of the above song is in allusion to Bishop Berkeley's prophecy :-"Westward the course of empire," &c.-Author's Note.

Hail Columbia! Columbia blest and free,
The Star of Empire rests on thee!

Then let the pledge of Freedom pass,
While every patriot bosom glows,
And o'er the elevated glass

The amber of the vintage flows.
Hail Columbia! Columbia blest and free,
The Star of Empire falls with thee.

WILLIAM DUANE.

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WILLIAM DUANE was born in 1760, near Lake Champlain, New York, where his parents, natives When of Ireland, had shortly before settled. he was eleven years old his mother returned to her native country, taking William, her only child, with her. The father had died several years before. Possessed of property, she brought up her son as a person of leisure. At the age of nineteen, by a marriage with a Presbyterian he offended his parent, a Roman Catholic, and was at once dismissed from her home, nor was any reconciliation ever after effected. Forced to provide for the maintenance of his family, he learnt the art of printing, and was engaged in that trade until the year 1784, when he went to India to seek his fortune. He was successful, and in a few years established a newspaper entitled The World. In a dispute which arose between the government and some troops in their employ, the paper sided with the latter. Soon after this the editor was invited by Sir John Shaw, the governor, to breakfast. On his way to accept the invitation, he was seized by sepoys, placed on board a vessel, and carried to England. His valuable property was confiscated. He endeavored to obtain redress from Parliament and the East India Company, but without success. Again forced to provide for a livelihood, he became a parliamentary reporter, and afterwards editor of the General Advertiser, a newspaper which subsequently became the London Times. He sided in politics with the party of Horne Tooke and others. 1795 he came with his family to Philadelphia, where he had passed a few years when a boy. Here he prepared a portion of a work on the French Revolution, and became connected with the Aurora newspaper, recently established by Benjamin Franklin Bache, and after Bache's death of yellow fever in 1798, became editor. Under his vigorous management the journal was known throughout the country as the leading organ of the democratic party. Jefferson attributed his election to the presidency to its exertions. In 1799 the editor was tried with others for seditious riot. They were charged with placing at the doors of a Roman Catholic church printed notices requesting the congregation to meet in the church-yard and sign a petition against the Alien Law. The notices were torn down, replaced and defended, and a disturbance thus created, during which Reynolds, one of the parties accused, drew a pistol against one of the congregation, which was forced from his hand. The parties were acquitted.

In

On the removal of the seat of government to Washington, the Aurora became a less influential journal, and was gradually superseded by rival publications at the new city. Duane continued in the editorship until 1822, when he sold out and went to South America, as the representative

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