general health," continues Mr. Otis, "during the time of my intimacy with him, was good, though occasionally inclined to be a malade imaginaire, an ordinary symptom of ardent temperament and ethereal genius." He was known to be one of the confidential advisers of the measures that were successfully adopted to suppress that formidable outbreak of Shays' Insurrection, and was appointed judge of the District Court U. S. by Washington, on its institution. John Lowell, Jr., was born in Newburyport, Oct. 6, 1769. Soon after the town and harbor of Boston were evacuated by the royalists, in 1776, his father removed to the city with his family, where his residence was in the dwelling afterwards occupied by the late Samuel Eliot, Esq., directly opposite King's Chapel. He was for a brief period in the Latin School, but was fitted for college in Phillips' Academy, and graduated at Harvard College in 1786. On this occasion his part was in a forensic dispute on this subject: Whether the happiness of the people consists most in the constitution or administration of government; and in the year 1789, when a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts, he engaged in another forensic dispute, with Isaac Parker, afterwards the chief-justice of Massachusetts: Whether a law making administration between an insolvent by vice and one by misfortune, would tend to the good of society? He studied law with his father, and was admitted to the bar before he was twenty years of age. In preparing arguments, he was laborious and searching. In his manner he was animated, eloquent, vehement, rapid, and highly logical; his memory was tenacious. In his person he was a great contrast to his father, being very short and slender. On June 3, 1793, Mr. Lowell married Rebecca Amory. He was a representative in the He was a member of the cor State Legislature from 1798 to 1801. poration of Harvard College from 1810 to 1822, and was an overseer from that period to 1827. He was an honored member of the State Senate. Mr. Lowell's articles in Russell's Centinel, over the signature of the Boston Rebel, in opposition to the war of the United States and Great Britain, were of a character the most inflammatory of any political writings of that day. His productions were in a highly nervous style, abounding in piquant philippics. His remarks on Madison's war, in a large pamphlet, exhibited the most exciting attack on the democratic administration that emanated from any political writer. His fervid genius and rapid pen poured forth pamphlet after pamphlet, and column after column in the newspapers, replete with spirit and force and purpose, on the side of the Federal party, in warm opposition to the general government. In these exciting times, a rumor was circulated that some of those who had been exasperated by his political remarks had threatened to burn his house in Roxbury to the ground. This rumor was so far believed, that some of his friends went out or sent out from Boston to offer themselves as the guard of his person and property for the night. Mr. Lowell expressed his belief that his fellow-townsmen were incapable of such an act, and insisted on declining the offer of defence. Indeed, no assistance beyond the limits of the town would in any case have been required; for several of the most respectable inhabitants of Roxbury itself, and of both political parties, voluntarily offered to stand ready to defend to the last extremity. Indeed, Mr. Lowell was an extraordinary man, adapted to exciting times. He was a tenacious sectarian in theology, and wrote with fervent severity. He entered with delight on the pursuits of agriculture. To hear him converse in his farm or his garden, one would suppose that his entire occupation was farming and gardening. He would discuss the qualities of a fruit-tree, or an exotic plant, with the same earnestness, copiousness and tact, that he would have given to a question of politics, law or divinity. Horticulture was also an object of devoted interest, and the periodical was enriched with articles for the florist from his ready hand. His residence in Boston was directly opposite Horticultural Hall, in School-street. Amid the violence of contending parties, Mr. Lowell's sincerity and integrity were never seriously questioned. His motives were manifestly pure. "He never sought a political office, and never would accept one. Amid all the buffets of the conflict, he never cherished one spark of malice," says Greenwood, "or one root of bitterness, in his heart, which was no place for one or the other; and, as I lately glanced over some of the pamphlets of which he was the author,—not with all the attention they deserved, but with all I could spare,- entertaining the common impression that the zeal of the times and the zeal of his own nature had betrayed him into offensive and uncharitable statements, and remembering also, as I well remembered, the language of mutual exasperation which was everywhere to be heard during that tempestuous period, I was surprised to find how little there was of an objectionable description in these writings; and was rather struck with their power of argument and store of rich illustration, than with their heat. That night has gone by; and, though the side which he espoused so disinterestedly did not prevail, I am disposed to think that his and his friends' efforts, with all the deductions which may be made from them, contributed to restore the morning." By resolute opposition, they most probably modified the measures of the other party to beneficial results. The winter of 1839 was spent by Mr. Lowell in the West India Islands, which he had visited for his health. He returned with improved health, but very much enfeebled. On the 12th of March, 1840, as he was reading a daily paper in his residence in the city, the summoner came; the paper dropped from his hands, and he expired that very hour, without suffering. He was buried in Roxbury. Dinsmore thus emphasizes : "Lowell and Channing may debate, As politicians wise and great Predict their country's future fate, By reasoning clear, And show blind rulers of the State What course to steer." ROBERT TREAT PAINE. JULY 17, 1799. ON THE DISSOLUTION OF THE TREATIES AND CONSULAR CONVENTION BETWEEN FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES. FOR THE YOUNG MEN OF BOSTON. "Ir is a day," says our orator, "which will forever be illustrious in our annals. It is the completion of our liberties, the acme of our independence. The Fourth of July will be celebrated by our latest posterity, as the splendid era of our national glory; but the Seventh will be venerated as the dignified epoch of our national character. The one annihilated our colonial submission to a powerful, avowed, and determined foe; the other emancipated us from the oppressive friendship of an ambitious, malignant, treacherous ally. The former asserted our political supremacy, which preserved to us our country from subjection, our liberties from encroachment, and our government from foreign control; the latter united to the same momentous object a declaration of our moral sovereignty, which rescued our principles from subjugation, as well as our persons from slavery; which secured our cities from massacre, as well as their inhabitants from debasement; which preserved our fair ones from violation, as well as our religion from bondage. In fine, the Declaration of Independence, which dissolved our connection with Great Britain, may be correctly denominated the birth-day of our nation, when, as its infant genius was ushered into political existence, a lambent flame of glory played around its brows, in presage of its future greatness. But the period which sundered our alliance with France may be pronounced the day of our nation's manhood, when this genius had become an Hercules, who, no longer amused with the coral and bells of liberty and equality,'no longer 'pleased with the rattles, tickled with the straws,' of 'health and fraternity,'-no longer willing to trifle at the distaff of a 'lady negotiator,'- boldly invested himself in the toga virilis, and assumed his rank in the forum of nations. "It will, therefore, in all ages be pointed to as a luminous page in our history, when the patriotic statesmen of America, with a decision of character which has shot a ray of enthusiasm into the coldest regions of Europe, cut asunder the inexplicable knot of so contagious a connection, and forever abolished the impolitic and deleterious instrument which had created it; when that memorable treaty, which had linked together two heterogeneous nations in an unnatural, unequal and hateful alliance, after an attenuated life of twenty years, was ignominiously committed to the grave, where, in the language of French philosophy, 'its death will prove an eternal sleep." " Robert Treat Paine, whose name was originally Thomas, and changed in 1801 by an act of the Massachusetts Legislature, as he was desirous of being known by a Christian name, abhorring an association of the man who, in his Age of Reason, lost his Common Sense, was born in Taunton, Bristol county, Mass., Dec. 9, 1773. His father was the celebrated Robert Treat Paine, who acted as counsel for the crown, in company with Samuel Quincy, in the trial of the British soldiers for the massacre in King-street; and was, moreover, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, whose residence was at the corner of Milk and Federal streets. Young Robert was early in the school of Master James Carter. In the year 1781 he entered the Latin School, under Master James Hunt; he graduated at Harvard College in 1792, on which occasion he delivered an oration on the Nature and Progress of Liberty,—a theme naturally expected from a scion of the Revolution. He was stimulated to a taste for poetry by the famous Joseph Allen, the laureate of his class, who inscribed on the collegewall several abusive satirical verses on Paine, who fearlessly repelled him in rhyme; and he once remarked, that if it were not for this circumstance, probably he never should have undertaken a couplet. On leaving college, he entered the store of Mr. James Tisdale, a Boston merchant; but his mind was so much absorbed in poetry, that he made entries in the day-book in verse, and once made out a charter party in the same style. He soon became devoted to the theatre, which, contrary to law, had been established in Board-alley, in 1792, by a small party of actors from England, "And plays their heathen names forsook, - The law was abrogated, and in 1793 an elegant brick theatre was erected in Federal-street, on which occasion the prize medal was awarded to him for the best prologue on the occasion. His mind was so averse to mercantile pursuits, that he left Mr. Tisdale in 1794. In October of that year he established a political and literary paper,"The Federal Orrery," in which appeared "The Jacobiniad," a political poem, and also "The Lyars," from both of which passages appear in this volume. So caustic and personal were these productions, that it drew upon him the summary vengeance of a mob, who attacked the dwelling of Major Wallach, with whom he resided, and who gallantly defended his castle, and compelled them to retreat. The son of a gentleman at whom the shafts of wit had been aimed called upon Paine for satisfaction, which was denied. The parties accidentally met,- Mr. Paine presented his pistol, but the assailant fearlessly rushed forward, and violently assaulted him. In 1797 Mr. Paine married Elizabeth Baker, who was a retired actress, and they were forbid his father's dwelling. They were hospitably sheltered in the family of Major Wallach for the period of fifteen months. With tears of gratitude Mr. Paine once remarked, "When I lost a father, I gained a wife and found a friend." In the year 1798 a reconciliation was effected; and it is related that at a congratulatory party the forthcoming sentiments were publicly advanced, "The love of liberty and the liberty of loving;' "Champagne to real friends, and real pain to sham friends." Paine was bold in his views, quick at retort, and sometimes fearfully sarcastic. His genius was certainly of a high order, and his imagination prolific. His talents always commanded |