tonians, either by assassination, mob law, or public

execution.

In the meantime, the meetings in Faneuil Hall and other large public edifices were spreading the most salutary influence over the country. The town-meetings and provincial assemblies were the arenas wherein the people were trained and armed intellectually for the great battle of independence. It was then that orators, fitted expressly for that preparatory work, like Otis and Henry, appeared, and consummated their exalted task. Driven at the points of British bayonets from Williamsburg, the noble band of Virginia patriots were still loyal to the highest duty. The Old Dominion continued to respond to the Bay State; the "Old Church" at Richmond echoed back in tones of thunder the patriotic cries that rang from Faneuil Hall.

Hallowed are the associations connected with that venerable church in Richmond! Often has the writer sought its precincts alone, and pondered there on the scene when, within the walls yet standing, Henry, as the embodiment of the Revolution and all its sublime results, rose like one inspired, and delivered that speech unequalled in the history of man, ending with the ominous words, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" It was in the same burst of transcendent eloquence that the phrase, "After all, we must fight!" first broke on the popular ear, and fired the universal heart. The history of that expression is interesting, as showing the close relations that subsisted between the north and south in all the Revolutionary struggle. They are the expression of a quiet Puritan in the interior of Massachusetts, given

to the world on wings of fire by the bold Cavalier of Virginia. The facts are stated as follows, in a letter from John Adams to William Wirt:

"When Congress had finished their business, as they thought, in the autumn of 1774, I had with Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction that our resolves, declarations of rights, enumeration of wrongs, petitions, remonstrances and addresses, associations and non-importation agreements, however they might be expected in America, and however necessary to cement the union of the colonies, would be but waste paper in England. Mr. Henry said they might make some impression upon the people of England, but agreed with me that they would be totally lost upon the government. I had but just received a short and hasty letter, written to me by Major Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, containing a few broken hints,' as he called them, of what he thought was proper to be done, and concluding with those words, After all, we must fight!' This letter I read to Mr. Henry, who listened with great attention; and as soon as I had pronounced the words, After all, we must fight,' he raised his head, and with an energy and vehemence that I can never forget, broke out with 'BY GOD, I AM OF THAT MAN'S MIND!' I put the letter into his hand, and when he had read it, he returned it to me, with an equally solemn asseveration that he agreed entirely in opinion with the writer. I considered this as a sacred oath, upon a very great occasion, (and would have sworn it as religiously as he did,) and by no means inconsistent with what you say,

in some part of your book, that he never took the sacred name in vain.

As I knew the sentiments with which Mr. Henry left Congress in the autumn of 1774, and knew the chapter and verse from which he had borrowed the sublime expression, We must fight,' I was not at all surprised at your history, in the hundred and twenty-second page in the note, and in some of the preceding and following pages. Mr. Henry only pursued, in March, 1775, the views and vows of November, 1774.

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The other delegates from Virginia returned to their State, in full confidence that all our grievances would be redressed. The last words that Mr. Richard Henry Lee said to me when we parted, were : We shall infallibly carry all our points; you will be completely relieved; all the offensive Acts will be repealed; the army and fleet will be recalled, and Britain will give up her foolish project.'

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ment.

Washington only was in doubt. He never spoke in public. In private he joined with those who advocated a non-exportation, as well as a non-importation agreeWith both he thought we should prevail; without either he thought it doubtful. Henry was clear in one opinion, Richard Henry Lee in an opposite opinion, and Washington doubted between the two. Henry, however, appeared in the end to be exactly in the right."

It is evident that John Adams and Patrick Henry parted on the above occasion with a perfect identity of sentiment, and returned to their respective colonies to urge on the crisis which they saw was inevitable. Henry acquitted himself of his duty at Richmond, as has been

already described. Adams rejoined his distinguished colleagues in the popular movements in Faneuil Hall. To describe the immediate and remote consequences of those movements, we cannot do better than by employing the following extract from Daniel Webster: "No where can be found higher proofs of a spirit that was ready to hazard all, to pledge all, to sacrifice all, in the cause of the country. Instances were not unfrequent in which small free-holders parted with their last hoof and the last measure of corn from their granaries, to supply provision for the troops and hire service for the ranks. The voice of Otis and of Adams in Faneuil Hall found its full and true echo in the little councils of the interior towns; and if within the Continental Congress patriotism shone more conspicuously, it did not there exist more truly, nor burn more fervently; it did not render the day more anxious or the night more sleepless; it sent up no more ardent prayer to God for succor, and it put forth in no greater degree the fullness of its effort and the energy of its whole soul and spirit in the common cause, than it did in the small assemblies of the towns."

Those primary meetings, we remark again, which soon began to prevail throughout the country, served to enlighten all classes, and became the firmest cement to bind them together, when a comprehensive and combined effort was demanded. The source and model of those assemblies was in the "Cradle of Liberty," happily yet extant. Long may it remain one of the most hallowed spots on the globe. What men have there spoken, and what events have therein tran

spired! What American can ever ascend to that Forum without standing enthralled by the intensity of thrilling associations? Here, as in the famous area where the masters of the world were wont of old to address the Roman people, the applause of venerated patriots mingled with the tones of kindred orators, cheered and fortified them in the exposure of crime, the vindication of justice, and the defence of freedom. Here, too, as there are palpable reminiscences of the heroic past. Every foot of the Forum at Rome was hallowed by the memory of some great domestic or national event. Columns and arches and temples testified on all sides the devotion of individuals and the triumphs of the republic. Standing in Faneuil Hall, one sees not only the colonnades, the galleries, the floor and the ceiling of the vast gatheringplace of early patriots, the battle-field of consummate elcquence, but there, too, are the artistic forms of some who mingled in the sternest strife of our country's darkest days. Would that the walls were all granite, and the roof iron, firm and enduring as the souls whose memories are for ever linked with the locality, and that, from niches all round this theatre of most glorious deeds, the marble forms of all the chief actors might look down upon interminable generations of American freemen.

We come, finally, to consider the most glorious battlefield of all; the Congress of '76. Everything has been prepared for the grand and decisive blow. Providence. summons the whole country to a general council in Philadelphia, and the choicest spirits of every section are prompt to obey. What were the thoughts that accompanied those patriots, as they turned their backs upon