One reason of Sam Adams' prestige with the masses was his common and familiar intercourse with mechanics and artisans. Hancock, Otis, Bowdoin and Curtis, on account of their wealth and ideas of aristocracy, kept more or less aloof from the workmen ; while Adams, plainly clad and with familar but dignified manner, was often found in the ship yards or at the rope walks engaged in earnest conversation with the homely craftsmen. Indeed, nothing pleased him more than to be talking with a ship carpenter as they sat side by side on a block of oak, or with some shopkeeper in a sheltered fence corner. Most of his writing was done in a little room in his Purchase Street house where night after night his busy mind and quill were kept at work on his trenchant letters for the "Gazette," which were signed with significant nom de plumes in Latin.

The year 1768 was made notable by the arrival in Boston from England of the 14th and the 29th regiments. The main guard was quartered in King (now State) Street, with the cannon pointed toward the State House, and the troops occupied various houses in the vicinity. In the next year the Governor, Bernard, was recalled, and Thomas Hutchinson, although remaining nominally lieutenant governor, became acting chief magistrate. He now appeared the most conspicuous figure among the royalists, and Samuel Adams became more distinctly the leader of the patriots. Neglecting all other affairs, he was content to live on a pittance, which he was enabled to do by a frugal and helpful wife.

Affairs were now approaching a crisis. A consignment of goods from England, sent in defiance of the non-importation agreements, was not allowed to land and had to be returned. One importer, a Scotchman, would not sign the agreements, so after much remonstrance, Samuel Adams arose in town meeeting and grimly moved that the number present, about two thousand, should resolve itself into a committee of the whole, wait upon the obstinate merchant and use such persuasion as should be necessary to secure a compliance. But no vote was needed, for the Scotchman was present, and rushing to the front with knees trembling and in a squeaking voice, rolling his r's like a well-played drum, exclaimed: 64 :- Mr. Mode-r-r-rater, I agr-r-ree, I agr-r-ree!" greatly to the amusement of the people.

It was early in the next year, 1770, that the hostility between towns-people and soldiers led for the first time to the shedding of blood. In February a boy, Christopher Snyder, was shot and killed during a disturbance, and in March occured the "Boston Massacre." The story has been many times told. Quarrels had grown frequent between the soldiers and the rope-walk hands, the soldiers usually getting the worst of it. On the evening of the 5th, an altercation began just below the Old State House, between the sentinel of the guard and a crowd of townsfolk. An alarm was rung from one of the steeples, and many citizens hurried to the place, most of them thinking that a fire had broken out. A sentry was at the corner of King and Exchange streets, where the Custom House stood, and he was assaulted by the boys with snowballs. Captain Preston with seven or eight men rushed to the scene, loaded their muskets and made ready to fire. The mob hooted, struck their muskets and dared them to fire. At last a volley came. Three were killed and eight wounded. At once there was a tumult.

The

beils were all rung and the populace hurried to and fro. The bodies of the slain lay on the ground which was sprinkled with a light snow, serving to plainly reveal in the clear moonlight the stains of blood.

The 29th regiment repaired to the spot prepared for firing, and there would have been a fierce contest but for the excellent conduct of the acting governor, Hutchinson. He took Captain Preston severely to task for firing at the people without the orders of a civil magistrate, and then, quickly working his way to the State House, took his stand in the balcony of the council-chamber looking down King Street, and made an address promising that the law should prevail and justice should be done to all. The next morning Hutchinson was

waited upon by the selectmen who informed him that there would be no peace until the soldiers should depart. Hutchinson claimed, however, that the regiments were not under his command.

A mass meeting was soon held in Faneuil Hall, and was addressed by Samuel Adams. It may readily be believed that he advocated no compromise, and a committee of fifteen was immediately appointed of which Adams was a member. According to instructions, they at once repaired to the council chamber, and demanded the instant removal of the troops. At three o'clock a regular town meeting assembled in Faneuil Hall, but, owing to the great number present, adjourned to the Old South Meeting House. Then the committee of fifteen

appeared making their way from the council-chamber to the meeting-house. Samuel Adams was at the head, and as the crowd made way on either hand he bared his head, and, inclining to the right and left, as he passed through the line, kept repeating: "Both regiments or none!" "Both regiments or none!"

In the presence of the dense multitude in the Old South, the governor's reply was rendered: the 29th regiment should go to the castle, but the 14th

must remain. Then the cry arose, "Both regiments or none !" and as the shout echoed from every quarter it was plain that the people had caught the meaning of the watchword, given shortly before by Adams. A new committee, also including Adams, was appointed and sent back to the governor, and as they stood in the council chamber the scene was one that John Adams pronounced long after as worthy a historical painting. A few sentences from Adams' address to Hutchinson are clear enough to show the intense earnestness and patriotism of the

man.

"It is well known," he said, "that acting as governor of the Province, you are by its charter the commander-inchief of the military forces within it; and as such, the troops now in the capital are subject to your orders. If you, or Colonel Dalrymple under you, have the power to remove one regiment, you have the power to remove both; and nothing short of their total removal will satisfy the people or preserve the peace of the Province. A Multitude highly incensed now wait the result of this application. The voice of ten thousand freemen demands that both regiments be forthwith removed. Their voice must be respected, their demand obeyed. Fail not then at your peril to comply with this requisition! On you alone rests the responsibility of this decision; and if the just expectations of the people are disappointed, you must be answerable to God and your country for the fatal consequences that must ensue. The committee have discharged their duty, and it is for you to discharge yours. They wait your final determination."

Hutchinson for a long time stood firm, but yielded at last and the troops were removed. It is not the purpose of this paper to follow Samuel Adams through his active career in the years of the Revolution and the succeeding period. It is always Samuel Adams, the unswerving patriot, the adroit leader, the man of the people. It had long been felt in England that his was the most active spirit in the cause of the patriots, and there was much talk of effecting his arrest and bringing him to trial on the charge of treason, but the move was never made. Adams' courage never failed. He had long given up the idea of any compromise between the colonies and the Crown, and there is nothing conciliatory in his words or acts. When the tea was emptied into Boston Harbor it was easily

understood that Adams was the real leader in the action. No one familiar with the life of the great town meeting man, as Prof. Hosmer likes to call him, can doubt that he had the esssential qualities of an adroit strategist. Cromwell once locked Parliament out, Adams once locked the Assembly in. He had secured a majority of the members to vote for a Continental Congress, but could the resolve be presented and brought to a final vote before Governor Gage could prorogue the Assembly, as he would use all speed to do, the instant the first knowledge of the scheme reached his ears? On the 17th of June, just one year before the Battle of Bunker Hill, that question was answered. The resolve was offered that day providing for the appointment of delegates to such a congress. Tory members at once essayed to leave the hall to dispatch the news to the governor, but the bolts were fast, and Samuel Adams had the key in his pocket. Two months later the delegates were on their way to Philadelphia,- Thomas Cushing, Samuel and John Adarns and Robert Treat Paine.

Events then transpired rapidly. So far, Samuel Adams was almost wholly alone in the idea of independence, but it was declared by Congress less than two years later. For more than twenty years longer, Adams continued in public life, but his greatest work was before the Declaration of Independence rather than after. There were times when the cause of the patriots must have fallen through but for the nerve and skill of this man. Bowdoin, Cushing, Hancock, Otis, and even John Adams could not have been thoroughly trusted in the last years of the colony to bring affairs to a successful issue. But Samuel Adams was fitted by intellect and character, adroitness and courage, tireless energy and by never failing devotion to the public good, to be the man for the time.

When America had become a Republic, and Adams had returned from Congress to his native town, he served as presiding officer of the Senate, then as lieutenant governor, and, upon the death of Hancock, governor, to which office he was several times chosen by the people. He died in 1803, and his dust lies to-day in the old Granary Burying Ground, close by the common grave of the four victims of the Boston Massacre.

The statue in bronze now standing in Adams Square is noble in design, and appropriate for situation. It is in almost the busiest position of the great city, and daily across its shadow pass tens of thousands of mechanics and artisans the class of men with whom Samuel Adams used to love to hold intercourse. The Old State House and Faneuil Hall are only a stone's-throw distant from the statue, but the face is not looking in the direction of either; it is turned directly toward the visible shaft of granite on Bunker Hill - the monument which marks the first great battle in the struggle for that Independence toward which, in all his labors for so many years, the eyes of Samuel Adams were ever turned.

AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE OF THE CIVIL WAR.

BY GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN.

II.

THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth President of the United States: together with His State Papers, including his Speeches, Addresses, Messages, Letters, and Proclamations, and the closing Scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added Anecdotes and Personal Reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter, with a steel portrait, and other illustrations. I vol. octavo, pp. 808. New York: Derby and Miller, 1865.

During the Presidential canvass of 1864, the author of this volume prepared a work upon the administration of President Lincoln. That canvass resulted in the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, whose death occurred soon after his second inaugu ration. As the editor of the New York Times, Mr. Raymond possessed at the time ample facilities to prepare such a book as was needed to interest the public in the life of one whose work was at once as great as it was successful. Up to the day of its publication, this book was the best and most authoritative that had been published. Twenty years have since elapsed, and in many respects it still maintains a just superiority and a historical value that cannot be questioned. Its errors are of omission, rather than of commission; while its merits are so great as to render it indispensable to all future writers on the subject. Every public speech, message, letter, or document of any sort of Mr. Lincoln's, so far as accessible in 1865, will be found included in the volume. The rapidly occuring events of the civil war, with much of their secret history, are tersely and graphically described. The "Reminiscences" of Mr. Carpenter, covering about thirty pages, add interest to the volume.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE TRUE STORY OF A GREAT LIFE. Showing the inner growth, special training and peculiar fitness of the Man for his work. By William O. Stoddard. Illus trated. I vol. octavo, pp. 508. New York: Fords, Howard & Hurlbert, 1884.

Mr. Stoddard was one of President Lincoln's secretaries during the civil war, and very naturally his work ought to have strong claims upon the interest and attention of American readers. His book is not of a profound or critical character; but a singularly honest and candid and strictly personal biography, simply written for readers of all ages and degrees of intelligence. It sheds considerable light on the political history of the civil war and on the events which led to it. With the military history, it deals but little. Still its brief, vigorous and vivid sketches furnish an exceedingly fascinating bird's eye view of the great struggle. But its most valuable feature is the clearness with which it depicts Lincoln, the man, his sagacity and patience at critical moments, his keen perception of "popular" sentiment and disposition, his individuality, his distinctive fitness for the tasks and burdens which fell upon him. This work, at once so accurate, so comprehensive, so discriminating and so well written, is one for all Americans,