NELSON, THOMAS, governor of Virginia, was a distinguished patriot in the revolution, and uniformly ardent in his attachment to liberty. He was among the first of that glorious band of patriots, whose exertions dashed and defeated the machinations of British tyranny, and gave to America, freedom and independent empire. At a most important crisis, during our struggle for American liberty, when Virginia appeared to be designated as the theatre of action for the contending armies, he was selected by the unanimous suffrage of the legis lature, to command the virtuous yeomanry of his country; in which honourable employment he remained to the end of the war. As a soldier, he was indefatigably active, and coolly intrepid. Resolute and undejected in misfortunes, he towered above distress, and struggled with the manifold difficulties to which his situation exposed him, with constancy and courage.

In the year 1781, when the force of the southern British army was directed to the immediate subjugation of that state, he was called from the helm of government, and took the field, at the head of his countrymen. The commander in chief, and the officers at the siege of Yorktown, witnessed his merit and attachment to civil and religious liberty. He was an intrepid soldier, and an able statesman. He died in February, 1789.

OTIS, JAMES, a distinguished patriot and statesman, was the son of the honourable James Otis, of Barnstable, Massachusetts, and was graduated at Harvard college, in 1743. After pursuing the study of the law under Mr. Gridley, the first lawyer and civilian of his time, at the age of twenty-one he began the practice at Plymouth. In 1761, he distinguished himself by pleading against the writs of assistance, which the officers of the customs had applied for to the judges of the supreme His antagonist was Mr. Gridley. He was in this, or the following year, chosen a member of the legislature of Massachusetts, in which body, the powers

court.

of his eloquence, the keenness of his wit, the force of his arguments, and the resources of his intellect, gave him a most commanding influence. When the arbitrary claims of Great Britain were advanced, he warmly engaged in defence of the colonies, and was the first champion of American freedom who had the courage to affix his name to a production that stood forth against the pretensions of the parent state. He was a member of the congress which was held at New York, in 1765, in which year his Rights of the Colonies Vindicated, a pamphlet, occasioned by the stamp act, and which was considered as a masterpiece, both of good writing and of argument, was published in London. For the boldness of his opinions he was threatened with arrest; yet he continued to support the rights of his fellow citizens. He resigned the office of judge advocate in 1767, and renounced all employment under an administration which had encroached upon the liberties of his country. His warm passions sometimes betrayed him into unguarded epithets, that gave his enemies an advantage, without benefit to the cause which lay nearest his heart. Being villified in the public papers, he in return published some severe strictures on the conduct of the commissioners of the customs, and others of the ministerial party. A short time afterwards, on the evening of the 5th of September, 1769, he met Mr. John Robinson, one of the commissioners, in a public room, and an affray followed, in which he was assaulted by a number of ruffians, who left him and a young gentleman who interposed in his defence, covered with wounds. The wounds were not mortal, but his usefulness was destroyed, for his reason was shaken from its throne, and the great man in ruins lived several years, the grief of his friends. In an interval of reason he forgave the men who had done him an irreparable injury, and relinquished the sum of five thousand pounds sterling, which Mr. Robinson had been, by a civil process, adjudged to pay, on his signing an humble acknowledgment. He lived to see, but not fully to enjoy, the independence of America, an event towards which his efforts had greatly contributed. At length, on the twenty-third day of May, 1783, as he was leaning on his cane at the door of Mr. Osgood's house

in Andover, he was struck by a flash of lightning; his soul was instantly liberated from its shattered tenement, and sent into eternity.

事

It is a singular coincidence, that he often expressed a wish for such a fate. He told his sister, Mrs. Warren, after his reason was impaired, "My dear sister, I hope when God Almighty in his righteous providence shall take me out of time into eternity, that it will be by a flash of lightning;" and this idea he often repeated.

There is a degree of consolation blended with awe in the manner of his death, and a soothing fitness in the sublime accident which occasioned it. The end of his life was ennobled, when the ruins of a great mind, instead of being undermined by loathsome and obscure disease, were demolished at once by a bright bolt from heaven.

His body was taken to Boston, and his funeral was attended with every mark of respect, and exhibited one of the most numerous processions ever seen in the town.

Mr. Otis was one of the master-spirits who began and conducted an opposition, which, at first, was only designed to counteract and defeat an arbitrary administration, but which ended in a revolution, emancipated a continent, and established by the example of its effects, a lasting influence on all the governments of the civilized world.

He espoused the cause of his country, not merely because it was popular, but because he said that its prosperity, freedom, and honour, would be all diminished, if the usurpation of the British parliament was successful. His enemies constantly represented him as a demagogue, yet no man was less so. His character was too liberal, proud, and honest, to play that part. He led public opinion by the energy which conscious strength, elevated views, and quick feelings inspire, and was followed with that deference and reliance which great talents instinctively command. These were the qualifications that made him, for many years, the oracle and guide of the patriotic party.

As in every case of public or private oppression, he was willing to volunteer in the cause of the suffering, and in many instances, where he thought the occasion

would justify it, he employed his talents gratuitously; his enemies were forced to acknowledge his liberality.

He was a man of powerful genius, and ardent temper, with wit and humour that never failed: as an orator, he was bold, argumentative, impetuous, and commanding, with an eloquence that made his own excitement irresistibly contagious; and as a lawyer, his knowledge and ability placed him at the head of his profession; and as a scholar, he was rich in acquisition, and governed by a classic taste; as a statesman and civilian, he was sound and just in his views; as a patriot, he resisted all allurements that might weaken the cause of that country, to which he devoted his life, and for which he sacrificed it. The future historian of the United States, in considering the foundation of American independence, will find that one of the corner stones must be inscribed with the name of JAMES OTIS.

PRESCOTT, WILLIAM, was an officer distinguished by the most determined bravery, and became conspicuous as an American officer, from the circumstance of his having commanded the American troops at the battle of Bunker's Hill, on the memorable 17th of June, 1775. He was born in 1726, at Goshen, in Massachusetts, and was a lieutenant of the provincial troops at the capture of Cape Breton, in 1758. The British general was so much pleased with his conduct in that campaign, that he offered him a commission in the regular army, which he declined, to return home with his countrymen. From this time till the approach of the revolutionary war, he remained on his farm in Pepperel, filling various municipal offices, and enjoying the esteem and affection of his fellow citizens. As the difficulties between the mother country and the colonies grew more serious, he took a deeper and more decided part in public affairs.

In 1774, he was appointed to command a regiment of minute men, organized by the provincial congress. He marched his regiment to Lexington, immediately on

receiving notice of the intended operations of general Gage against Concord; but the British detachment had retreated before he had time to meet it. He then proceeded to Cambridge, and entered the army that was ordered to be raised; and the greater part of his officers and privates volunteered to serve with him for the first campaign.

On the 16th June, three regiments were placed under him, and he was ordered to Charlestown in the evening, to take possession of Bunker's Hill, and throw up works for its defence. When they reached the ground, it was perceived that Breed's Hill, which is a few rods south of Bunker's Hill, was the most suitable station. The troops under the direction of colonel Gridley, an able engineer, were busily engaged in throwing up a small redoubt and breast-work, which latter was formed by placing two rail fences near together, and filling the interval with the new mown hay lying on the ground. There was something in the rustic materials of these defences, hastily made, in a short summer's night, within gunshot of a powerful enemy, that was particularly apposite to a body of armed husbandmen, who had rushed to the field at the first sound of alarm.

As soon as these frail works were discovered the next morning, the British commander made preparations to get possession of them. General Howe, with various detachments, amounting to near five thousand men, was ordered to dislodge the "rebels." The force which colonel Prescott could command for the defence of the redoubt and breast-work, was about twelve hundred men. Very few of these had ever seen an action. They had been labouring all night in creating these defences; and the redoubt, if it could be so called, was open on two sides. Instead of being relieved by fresh troops, as they had expected, they were left without supplies of ammunition or refreshment; and thus fatigued and destitute, they had to bear the repeated assaults of a numerous, well appointed, veteran army. They destroyed nearly as many of their assailants, as the whole of their own number engaged; and they did not retreat until their ammunition was exhausted, and the enemy, supplied with fresh troops and cannon, completely overpowered them..