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ble integrity; honest patriotism, which despised all state tricks; an unbounded and immoveable courage. For the sphere of practical utility and public benefit he was well fitted; born with little brilliant embellishment, he had all the qualities for real and substantial service, without regarding the influence of faction and party; but loving the general principles of civil liberty, his feelings were always on the side of his country. His heart was the abode of that patriotism, which, spurning parties, cleaved to the constitution of the nation, as a holy ark, which contains at once the evidence of our glory, and the charter of our liberties.

He died at his seat in Culpepper county, Virginia, on the 17th day of August, 1820.

THOMAS, JOHN, was a native of Kingston, Massachusetts. He was in military service in former wars against the French and Indians, where he acquired a high degree of reputation. He was among the first to espouse the cause of his country in a military capacity, in 1775, and during the siege of Boston, and on the heights of Dorchester, he was distinguished as an active, vigilant and brave officer. In March, 1776, he was promoted by Congress from a brigadier to the rank of major general. When Boston was evacuated he was sent to Canada to take command of the troops which Montgomery and Arnold led into that province. On his arrival there he found innumerable difficulties to encounter ; the small pox frequently breaking out among the troops, and the soldiers being in the practice of inoculating themselves, to the great injury of the public service. The general deemed it necessary, for the safety of the army, to prohibit the practice of inoculating, and not excepting himself from the injunction, he unfortunately received the infection, which proved fatal to him, and deprived the public of a valuable general officer. He was held in universal respect and confidence as a military character, and his death deeply deplored throughout the army.

A more brave, beloved, and distinguished character, did not go into the field; nor was there a man that made a greater sacrifice of his own ease, health, and social enjoyments.

THOMAS. THOMAS, took an early and decided part with his country in opposing the tyrannical acts of Great Britain. He commanded a regiment in the year 1776, and was in the battle of Harlem Heights and at the White Plains. In the autumn of that year, the enemy burnt his house, and took his aged and patriotic father a prisoner to New York ; confined him in the Provost, where he died, through their inhuman treatment, a martyr to his country. General Thomas was an active partisan officer, continually on the alert and harras

sing the enemy on every occasion, until he was taken a prisoner, when his captors stripped off his regimentals, took his hat from his head, and in that degraded manner, compelled him to march through the streets of New-York. Notwithstanding this, he found some friends who interceded with the commander in chief, and he was put on his parole on Long Island. After he was exchanged, he did not slacken his zeal in his country's cause, but continued harrassing the enemy, and defending the peaceable inhabitants of the country against the depredations of the enemy, until peace was proclaimed. Afterwards he was repeatedly elected a member of the legislature, and always evinced himself an advocate for the people's rights.

He died at his seat in the town of Harrison, West Chester, county, New York, in July, 1824, aged 79.

VARNUM, JOSEPH B. was among the earliest patriots of the revolution, and sustained important offices connected with the army. At the termination of the war, he retired to his paternal seat in Dracut, and immediately re-commenced his political career; and, during his long life, was continually called by his fellow citizens to fill high civil and military offices. At his decease he was senior member of the senate, and the oldest major general in the commonwealth. In this period, beside militia appointments, he sustained the office of representative, senator, and councillor of Massachusetts, and representative and senator in the congress of the United States; and for many years filled, with approbation, the arduous station of speaker of the house of representatives, in times of the utmost political excitement. He was a member of the convention of Massachusetts which ratified the constitution of the United States in 1787, and was in the foremost ranks of those statesmen who advocated the adoption of that instrument, and for their zeal to cement the federal union, obtained the name of Federalists. He was also a leading member of the late state convention. In all the offices he sustained, general Varnum exhibited an assiduity which never tired, and an integrity above all suspicion. Though of late years he differed in some points of political economy from a majority of his fellow citizens of the state, it may with truth and justice be affirmed, that, at his death, Massachusetts did not contain a more honest and independent man. He possessed a strong mind in a sound body. His decease was sudden. He rode out on the day preceding it, but being indisposed, speedily returned, and found his dissolution rapidly approaching. He called his family and friends around him, acquainted them with his situation, gave directions that his funeral might not be attended with any military or civic parade, ap

pointed his pall-bearers, and closed his eyes in peace the same evening. He died on the 11th of September, 1821, in the seventy second year of his age.

He enjoyed in a high degree, and deservedly, the confidence of his immediate constituents, as is evinced by their repeated elections of him to represent them in congress, and in the general court of Massachusetts, up to the day of his de

cease.

WARD, ARTEMAS, the first major general in the American army, was graduated at Harvard college in 1743, and was afterwards a representative in the legislature, a member of the council, and a justice of the court of common pleas for Worcester county, Massachusetts. When the war commenced with Great Britain he was appointed by congress first major general, June 17, 1775. After the arrival of Washington, in July, when disposition was made of the troops for the siege of Boston, the command of the right wing of the army at Roxbury was entrusted to general Ward. He resigned his commission in April, 1776, though he continued some time longer in command at the request of Washington. He afterwards devoted himself to the duties of civil life. He was a member of congress both before and after the adoption of the present constitution. After a long decline, in which he exhibited the most exemplary patience, he died at Shrewsbury, October 28, 1800, aged seventy three years. He was a man of incorruptible integrity. So fixed and unyielding were the principles which governed him, that his conscientiousness in lesser concerns was by some ascribed to bigotry.

WARREN, JOSEPH. a major-general in the American army, during the revolutionary war, was born in Roxbury, a town which bounds Boston, Massachusetts, in 1740. In 1755, he entered college, where he sustained the character of a youth of talents, fine manners, and of a generous, independent deportment, united to great personal courage and perseverance. An anecdote will illustrate his fearlessness and determination at that age, when character can hardly be said to be formed. Several students of WARRENS' class shut themselves in a room to arrange some college affairs, in a way which they knew was contrary to his wishes, and barred the door so effectually that he could not, without great violence, force it; but he did not give over the attempt of getting among them, for perceiving that the window of the room in which they were assembled was open, and near a spout which extended from the roof of the building to the ground, he went to the top of the house, slid down the eaves. seized the spout, and when he had descended as far as the window, threw himself into the chamber among them. At that instant the spout,

which was decayed and very weak, gave way and fell to the ground. He looked at it without emotion, said it had served his purpose, and began to take part in the business. He was educated at Harvard college, and received his first degree in 1759. Directing his attention to medical studies, he, in a few years, became one of the most eminent physicians in Boston. But he lived at a period when greater objects claimed his attention, than those which related particularly to his profession. His country needed his efforts, and his zeal and courage would not permit him to shrink from any labours or dangers. His eloquence and his talents as a writer, were displayed on many occasions, from the year in which the stamp act was passed, to the commencement of the war. He was a bold politician. While many were wavering with regard to the measures which should be adopted, he contended that every kind of taxation, whether external or internal, was tyranny, and ought immediately to be resisted, and be believed that America was able to withstand any force that could be sent against her. From the year 1768, he was a principal member of the secret meeting or caucus in Boston, which had great influence on the concerns of the country. With all his boldness and decision, and zeal, he was circumspect and wise. In this assembly the plans of defence were matured. After the destruction of the tea. it was no longer kept a secret. He was twice chosen the public orator of the town, on the anniversary of the massacre, and his orations breathed the energy of a great and daring mind. It was he, who, on the evening before the battle of Lexington, obtained information of the intended expedition against Concord, and at ten o'clock at night despatched an express to Messrs. Hancock and Adams, who were at Lexington, to warn them of their danger. He himself, on the next day, the memorable 19th of April, was very active. It is said in general Heath's memoirs, that a ball took off part of his ear-lock. In the confused state of the army, which soon assembled at Cambridge, he had vast influence in preserving order among the troops. After the departure of Hancock to congress, he was chosen president of the provincial congress in his place. Four days previous to the battle of Bunker's or Breed's hill, he received his commission of major-general. When the intrenchments were made upon the fatal spot, to encourage the men within the lines, he went down from Cambridge and joined them as a volunteer, on the eventful day of the battle, June 17th. Just as the retreat commenced, a ball struck him on the head, and he died in the trenches. aged thirty five years. He was the first victim of rank that fell in the struggle with Great Britain. In the spring of 1776, his bones were taken up and entombed in Boston, on

which occasion, as he had been grand master of the freemasons in America, a brother mason, and an eloquent orator, pronounced a funeral eulogy.

In this action, the number of Americans engaged amounted only to fifteen hundred. The loss of the British, as acknowledged by general Gage, amounted to one thousand and fifty-four. Nineteen commissioned officers were killed, and seventy more were wounded. The battle of Quebec, in 1758, which gave Great Britain the province of Canada, was not so destructive to British officers, as this affair of a slight intrenchment, the work only of a few hours.

The Americans lost five pieces of cannon. Their killed amounted to one hundred and thirty nine. Their wounded and missing to three hundred and fourteen. Thirty of the former fell into the hands of the conquerors. They particu larly regretted the death of general Warren. To the purest patriotism and most undaunted bravery, he added the virtues of domestic life, the eloquence of an accomplished orator, and the wisdom of an able statesman.

Thus was cut off in the flower of his age, this gallant hero, loved, lamented, the theme of universal regret; a loss, any time deeply, but then, most poignantly felt. Though he did not outlive the glories of that great occasion, he had lived long enough for fame. It needed no other herald of his actions than the simple testimony of the historian, that Warren fell, foremost, in the ranks of that war which he had justified by his argument, supported by his energy, and signalized by his prowess. The monument erected by his fellow citizens, on the spot where he poured out his latest breath, commemorates at once his achievements and a people's gratitude. Though untimely was his fall, and though a cloud of sorrow overspread every countenance at the recital of his fate, yet if the love of fame be the noblest passion of the mind, and human nature pant for distinction in the martial field, perhaps there never was a moment of more unfading glory offered to the wishes of the brave, than that which marked the exit of this heroic officer. Still, who will not lament that he incautiously courted the post of danger, while more important occasions required a regard to personal safety.

Perhaps his fall was useful to his country, as it was glorious to himself. His death served to adorn the cause for which he contended, excited emulation, and gave a pledge of perseverance and ultimate success. In the grand sacrifice, which a new nation was that day to celebrate in the face of the world, to prove their sincerity to Heaven, whose Providence they had invoked, the noblest victim was the most suitable sacrifice.

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