that you will support them; and as you have particularly fought under the banners of the Union, inculcate, in your several circles, the necessity of preserving the unity of the national character. Fortify your minds against that foe to integrity, that bane of republicanism, an immoderate thirst for popularity." Hon. John Brooks was born at Medford, June 6, 1752, and received a town-school education. He was an indented apprentice to Simon Tufts, M. D., at the age of fourteen, until he became of age. He early settled at Reading, in medical practice, and married Lucy Smith, an orphan. While at Reading, he became captain of a company of minute-men, and it being at the period when Boston was in the possession of the British troops, under pretext of going into town for medicine to be used in his profession, he engaged a drill-sergeant of the regulars to secretly instruct him in the manual exercise; and he often remarked, it was of this British soldier that he acquired the rudiments of military tactics. He was not at the battle of Bunker Hill, but was engaged in other services on that day and night, at Cambridge. His daughter Lucy was prematurely born, at Reading, on that memorable day; and, being remarkable for active and energetic habits, her brother Alexander observed to her, one day, when she was bustling about the house, "Why, Lucy, you was born in a bustle, and I believe you will die in a bustle." Mr. Brooks was a schoolmate with the eminent Count Rumford. Hon. Loammi Baldwin, of Woburn, was his early friend; and each was destined for college, but neither of them ever received a literary education, being diverted from their purpose by patriotic ardor. Capt. Brooks was in the battle of Lexington, and, meeting the British force on their return from Concord, he ordered his men to post themselves behind the barns and fences, and fire incessantly upon them. Col. Brooks, in the battle of Saratoga, at the head of his regiment, stormed and carried the intrenchments of the German troops. In the battle of Monmouth, Brooks was acting adjutant-general. After the battle of Saratoga, he thus laconically wrote to a friend: "We have met the British and Hessians, and have beat them; and, not content with this victory, we have assaulted their intrenchments, and carried them." Col. Brooks detected a conspiracy of officers at Newburgh, early in 1783. He kept them within quarters, to prevent an attendance on the insurgent meeting. On this occasion, which was probably the most anxious period in the career of Washington, who rode up to him for counsel on this point, Brooks said, "Sir, I have anticipated your wishes, and my orders are given." Washington, with tears in his eyes, extended to him his hand, and said, "Col. Brooks, this is just what I expected from you." What a scene for an artist! In 1780, Col. Brooks delivered a Masonic oration at West Point, in the presence of the noble Washington. He was commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1786, and major-general of the Massachusetts troops in Shays' insurrection. In 1788 he was a member of the State convention for the adoption of the federal constitution. Was president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. In 1795 Gen. Brooks published an oration for the Massachusetts Humane Society. In 1800 he published a eulogy on Washington, delivered at Medford. He had, previous to this period, been appointed a U. S. marshal, and supervisor of the direct tax. He was vice-president of the first temperance society in New England, on its institution, in 1813. He was the State adjutant-general under Caleb Strong, and Governor of the State from 1816 to 1823. We well remember the beautiful scene of August 25, 1824, when Lafayette stood on the balcony of the mansion-house at the head of Park-street, attended by Gov. Eustis on the right, and his immediate predecessor, Gov. Brooks, on the left side of him, each in full military dress amid the cheerings of the gathered multitude, and the escort of the Boston regiment, on retiring to their quarters. When Lafayette visited his old companion-in-arms, during this month, one of the arches displayed, on his entrance into Medford, this inscription, "Welcome to our Hills and BROOKS." Gov. Brooks died at Medford, March 1, 1825. Lieut. John, a son of Gov. Brooks, of youthful beauty and generous enterprise, fell in the battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, on board Perry's flag-ship Lawrence. Alexander S., his other son, entered the U. S. army. Lucy married Rev. Geo. O. Stuart, of Canada. "In the character of this estimable man," remarks his pastor, Andrew Bigelow, D. D., "there was a junction of qualities equally great and good. Great qualities he certainly possessed. The faculties of his mind, naturally of no inferior order, had been unusually strengthened by culture and exercise. Separately, they were all entitled to respect on the score of power; and, had the entire assemblage centred in some one not endued with his genuine goodness of heart, or in whose breast a baleful ambition reigned, they would have clearly proved the possessor to be a talented man, in the popular sense of the phrase. In the case supposed, they would have stood all naked and open, and have glared upon human observation." The best memoir of John Brooks extant is that written by his pastor. HARRISON GRAY OTIS. JULY 4, 1788. FOR THE TOWN AUTHORITIES. In this spirited and elegant oration of Mr. Otis, it is remarked: "A review of the history of the North American settlements exhibits an early and almost a continual struggle between tyranny and avarice upon one side, and an ardent sense of native liberty upon the other. Those are mistaken who think that the original source of oppression may be traced in the ordinance of the Stamp Act. The first colonial institution established in Virginia was subjected to an arbitrary council, dependent upon the capricious pleasure of a king. Patience and enterprise at length had discovered to the inhabitants a staple production at that period peculiar to the colony, when the harsh mandate of a tyrant foe had the cultivation of it, and condemned commerce to defile her infant hands in the fruitless, ignoble drudgery of searching after mines. In other southern colonies, instances are not wanting of inquisitorial writs and of violated charters. "It must, however, be allowed, that, sheltered by the canopies of their paramounts, they were in general less exposed than their sister provinces to the scorching rays of supreme majesty. Advancing into New England, the system of oppression becomes more uniform, and the resistance consequently more conspicuous. No affluent proprietary appeared to protect our hardy ancestors. The immeasurable wild had yielded to their industry a vacancy barely sufficient for their household gods. At the same moment, the pestilential breath of a despot blew into their country a swarm of locusts, commissioned to corrode their liberties to the root. Even in those early times, not only the freedom, but the use of the press, was prohibited; new taxes were imposed; old charters were abrogated; citizens were impressed. The crown of England restrained emigrations from that country, discouraged population upon this side of the Atlantic, confiscated estates, suppressed the habitual modes of public worship, and precluded the wretched privilege of complaint. Oppressed in a manner so irritating, so unworthy, how did our forefathers sustain these accumulated miseries? Did they crouch, dismayed, beneath the iron sceptre? Did they commit treason against themselves, by alienating the dearest prerogatives of humanity? No; we find them persevering in decent, pathetic remonstrances, in the time of Charles the First, refusing to surrender their patent to Cromwell, and exhibiting a bill of rights at the time of the restoration. After the abdication of James, the triumph of liberty in Britain became complete. Ministers naturally grew fearful lest her pervading influence should extend to the colonies; and from the era of the Revolution until the gloomy hour of the Stamp Act, the plan of our slavery was always resumed in the intervals of domestic peace. Affairs now assumed a more serious aspect. The minds of men became vehemently agitated; and, after a sad variety of disappointment, the citizens of these provinces were compelled to draw their swords, and to appeal to the God of armies. What, then, may we hence infer, were the principles which actuated the high-spirited Americans, placed in a situation so critical and disastrous? They were elevated, patriotic, godlike. They induced a voluntary sacrifice of ease and fortune, a contempt for danger, and inspired confidence in leaders chosen by themselves. What were the manners? These consisted in honor, temperance, fortitude, religion. What were the feelings? These, no power of language can describe. Had they still continued to animate our bosoms, they might have supplied the want of a new government, which now alone can save us from perdition." Harrison Gray Otis was a son of Samuel Alleyne Otis, a native of Barnstable, who married Elizabeth, the only daughter of Harrison Gray, Receiver-general of this province; and second to Mary, the widow of Edward Gray, Esq., and daughter of Isaac Smith. His father was early in mercantile life, settled in Boston, and was active in the cause of liberty, but was too youthful to become eminent in the Revolution, like his brother James, the great advocate. He was, however, a representative from Boston in 1776, and member of the State convention of 1780. He was a member of the Board of War, and Speaker of the House, 1784. In 1787 he was appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate regarding Shays' insurrection. He was elected a member of Congress in 1788, and after the adoption of the federal constitution was chosen Secretary of the Senate of the United States, which he filled with scrupulous fidelity, blandness and courtesy,- without, it is said, being absent from his post a single day during a period of thirty years, and till his decease, amid the collision of party strife, to the approbation of all parties. He died at Washington, April 22, 1814, aged 73. The grandfather of the subject of this article - Harrison Gray, Esq. -adhered to the royal cause, and removed from Boston, March 17, 1776, with the British troops, on their evacuation. John Adams once impulsively said of Harrison Gray, that he has a very tender mind, and is extremely timid. He says, "When he meets a man of the other side, he talks against him; when he meets a man of our side, he opposes him, so that he fears he shall be thought against everybody, and so everybody will be against him." And at another time, Mr. Adams remarked: "I went in to take a pipe with brother Cranch, and there I found Zab Adams. He told me he heard that I had made two very powerful enemies in this town, and lost two very valuable clients Treasurer Gray and Ezekiel Goldthwaite; and that he heard that Gray had been to me for my account, and paid it off, and determined to have nothing more to do with me. O, the wretched, impotent malice! They show their teeth, they are eager to bite, but they have not strength. I despise their anger, their resentment, and their threats; but I can tell Mr. Treasurer that I have it in my power to tell the world a tale which will infallibly unhorse him, whether I am in the house or out. If this province knew that the public money had never been counted these twenty years, and that no bonds were given last year, nor for several years before, there would be so much uneasiness about it that Mr. Treasurer Gray would lose his election another year." And Trumbull, in McFingal, satirically says: "What Puritan could ever pray In godlier tone than Treasurer Gray? And shut his eyes, and vent his moan, Bold imputations having been declared that Treasurer Gray had appropriated funds of this province to private purposes, the grandson prepared a clear refutation of the unjust accusation, from which we |