8552
"It was," said Burgoyne, who, with Gage and other British officers, was looking on from a secure place near Copp's Hill in Boston, "a complication of horror and importance, beyond any thing that ever came to my lot to witness. Sure I am that nothing ever can or has been more dreadfully terrible than what was to be seen or heard at this time." But it is profitless to dwell upon the gloomy scene. Time hath healed the grief and heart-sickness that were born there; and art, in the hands of busy men, has covered up forever all vestiges of the conflict.
Many gallant, many noble men perished on the peninsula upon that sad day; but none was so widely and deeply lamented, because none was so widely and truly loved, as the self-sacrificing and devoted Warren. He was the impersonation of the spirit of generous and disinterested patriotism that inspired the colonies. In every relation in life he was a model of excellence. "Not all the havoc and devastation they have made has wounded me like the death of Warren," wrote the wife of John Adams,Ju]y 5, 1775three weeks afterward.
"We want him in the Senate; we want him in his profession; we want him in the field. We mourn for the citizen, the senator, the physician, and the warrior."
8553
General Howe estimated his influence, when he declared to Dr. Jeffries, who recognized the body of
* Joseph Warren, son of a Massachusetts farmer, was born in Roxbury in 1740, and graduated at Harvard College in 1759. He studied the science of medicine under Dr. Lloyd, and rapidly rose to the head, or, at least, to the front rank of that profession in Boston. Sentiments of patriotism seemed to form a part of his moral nature, and courage to avow them was always prompting him to action. He became necessarily a politician, at a time when all men were called upon to act in public matters, or be looked upon as drones. He was one of the earliest members of the association in Boston known as the Sons of Liberty, and from 1768 was extremely efficient in fostering the spirit of rational liberty and independence in the wide and influential circle in which he moved. His mind, suggestive and daring, planned many measures, in secret caucus with Adams and others, for resisting the encroachments of British power. In 1771 he delivered the oration on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre. He solicited the honor of performing a like duty on the 5th of March, 1775, in consequence of a threat of some of the British officers that they would take the life of any man who should dare to speak on that occasion. The old South meeting-house was crowded on the appointed day, and the aisles, stairs, and pulpit were filled with armed British soldiers. The intrepid young orator entered a window by a ladder, back of the pulpit, and, in the midst of a profound silence, commenced his exordium in a firm tone of voice. His friends, though determined to avenge any attempt at assassination, trembled for his safety. He dwelt eloquently upon the early struggles of the New England people, their faith and loyalty, and recounted, in sorrowful tones, the oppressions that had been heaped upon them. Gradually he approached the scene on the 5th of March, and then portrayed it in such language and pathos of expression, that even the stern soldiery that came to awe him wept at his words. He stood there in the midst of that multitude, a striking symbol of the revolt which he was leading, firm in the faith of that sentiment, "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Looking at him, it might be said, as Magoon remarks, in classic quotation,
"Thou hast seen Mount Athos;While storms and tempests thunder at its brows.And oceans beat their billows at its feet,It stands unmoved, and glories in its height.Such is that haughty man; his towering soul,Mid all the shocks and injuries of fortune,Rises superior, and looks down on Caesar."
* When John Hancock went to the Continental Congress, Warren was elected to fill his place as president of the Provincial Congress. Four days previous to the action on Breed's Hill, that body gave him the commission of major general, and he was the only officer of that rank engaged in the conflict; yet he was without command, and fought as a volunteer. "He fell," as Everett has beautifully expressed it, "with a numerous band of kindred spirits—the gray-haired veteran, the stripling in the flower of youth—who had stood side by side on that dreadful day, and fell together, like the beauty of Israel in their high places!" Warren's body was identified, on the morning after the battle, by Dr. Jeffries, who was his intimate acquaintance. He was buried where he fell, and the place was marked. After the evacuation of Boston in 1776, his remains were disinterred, and, on the 8th of April, were carried in procession from the Representatives' chamber to King's Chapel, and buried with military and masonic honors. The Reverend Dr. Cooper offered prayers, and Perez Morton pronounced an oration on the occasion. "Warren's remains now rest beneath St. Paul's Church. He was Grand Master of Freemasons for North America at the time of his death. A lodge in Charlestown erected a monument to his memory in 1794, on the spot where he fell. It was composed of a brick pedestal eight feet square, rising ten feet from the ground, and supporting a Tuscan pillar of wood eighteen feet high. This was surmounted by a gilt urn, bearing the inscription "J.W., aged 35," entwined with masonic emblems. On the south side of the pedestal was the following inscription: "Erected A.D. MDCCXCIV., By King Solomon's Lodge of Free-masons, constituted in Charlestown, 1783, In Memory of Major-general Joseph Warren and his associates, who were slain on this memorable spot June 17,1775. * None but they who set a just value upon the blessings of liberty are worthy to enjoy her. In vain we toiled in vain we fought; we bled in vain, if you, our offspring, want valor to repel the assault of her invaders. Charlestown settled, 1628. Burned, 1775. Rebuilt, 1776." This monument stood forty years, and then was removed to give place to the present granite structure, known as Bunker Hill Monument. A beautiful model of Warren's monument stands within the colossal obelisk, from which I made the accompanying sketch.
** On the 8th of April, 1777, Congress, by resolution, ordered "that a monument be erected to the memory of General Warren, in the town of Boston, with the following inscription:
In honor of Joseph Warren,Major General of Massachusetts Bay.He devoted his life to the libertiesOf his country;And in bravely defending them, fellAn early victim,In the battle of Bunker Hill,June 17th, 1775.The Congress of the United States,As an acknowledgment of his services,Have erected this monument to his memory.
Congress also ordered "that his eldest son be educated at the expense of the United States."* The patriotic order for the erection of a monument has never been obeyed.
The Energy, Boldness, and Patriotism of Warren.—Masonic Honors to his Memory.—The old Monument on Breed's Hill
Warren on the field the next day, that his death was worth, to the British, five hundred of the provincial privates. Eulogy and song have aided history in embalming his memory with the
Character of the Troops engaged in the Battle on Breed's Hill.—Monument to Warren ordered by Congress.
immortality that rests upon the spot where he fell. He was a hero in the highest sense of the term, and so were Prescott and other compatriots in the struggle; but all were not heroes who surrounded them. Unused to war; some entirely ignorant of the sound of a cannon; inferior, by two thirds, in number, and vastly so in discipline, to the enemy, the wonder is that the provincials fought so well, not that so many used their heels more expertly than their hands. Many officers, chosen by the men whom they commanded, were totally unfitted in knowledge and spirit for their stations, and a few exhibited the most arrant cowardice. They were tried by court martial, and one was cashiered for disobedience and for being a poltroon. * But they have all passed away; let us draw the curtain of charity around their resting-places, remembering that
"Hero motives, placed in judgment's scale,
Outweigh all actions where the heart is wrong."
Here let us close the volume of history for a time, and while the gentle breeze is sweeping the dust and smoke of battle from Bunker Hill, ** and the tumult of distress and alarm is subsiding in Boston, let us ride out to Lexington and Concord, to visit those places consecrated by the blood of the first patriot martyrs. We have had a long, but, I trust, profitable consultation of the records of the past. I have endeavored to point out for consideration the most prominent and important links in the chain of events, wherein is remarkably manifested the spirit of true liberty which finally wrought out the independence of these American states. In brief outlines I have delineated the features of those events, and traced the progress of the principles of freedom from the little conventicles of despised and persecuted, but determined men, toward the close of the sixteenth century, who assembled to assert the most undoubted natural right, that of worshiping God as the conscience of the creature shall dictate, to the uprising of nearly two millions of the same people in origin and language, in defiance of the puissance of the mightiest arm upon earth; and the assembling of a council in their midst, of which the great Pitt was constrained to say, "I must declare and avow that in all my reading and study—and it has been my favorite study; I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world—that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general Congress of Philadelphia."
* This was Captain Callender. The court sentenced him to be cashiered, and, in an order of July 7th, Washington declared him to be "dismissed from all further service in the Continental army." Callender felt much aggrieved, and, confronting the charge of cowardice, remained in the army as a volunteer, and fought so bravely at the battle of Long Island, the next year, that Washington commanded his sentence to be erased from the orderly-book.
** This battle should properly be called the battle of Breed's Hill, for there the great events of the day occurred. There was much fighting and slaughter upon Bunker Hill, where Putnam chiefly commanded, but it was not the main theater of action.
* Journals of Congress, iii., 98
Boston Common.—Trip to Concord.—Major Barrett—His Connection with the Revolution.
"How suddenly that straight and glittering shaft
Shot thwart the earth! in crown of living fire
Up comes the day! As if they conscious quaff'd
The sunny flood, hill, forest, city spire
Laugh in the waking light."
Richard H. Dana.
"War, fierce war, shall break their forces;
Nerves of Tory men shall fail;
Seeing Howe, with alter'd courses,
Bending to the Western gale.
Thus from every bay of ocean
Flying back with sails unfurl'd,
Toss'd with ever-troubled motion,
They shall quit this smiling world."
Military Song, 1776. *
9555
T was a glorious October morning, mild and brilliant, when I left Boston to visit Concord and Lexington. A gentle land-breeze during the night had borne the clouds back to their ocean birth-place, and not a trace of the storm was left except in the saturated earth. Health returned with the clear sky, and I felt a rejuvenescence in every vein and muscle when, at dawn, I strolled over the natural glory of Boston, its broad and beautifully-arbored Common. I breakfasted at six, and at half past seven left the station of the Fitchburg rail-way for Concord, seventeen miles northwest of Boston. The country through which the road passed is rough and broken, but thickly settled. I arrived at the Concord station, about half a mile from the center of the village, before nine o'clock, and procuring a conveyance, and an intelligent young man for a guide, proceeded at once to visit the localities of interest in the vicinity. We rode to the residence of Major James Barrett, a surviving grandson of Colonel Barrett, about two miles north of the village, and near the residence of his veneratedOctober 1848ancestor. Major Barrett was eighty-seven years of age when I visited him, and his wife, with whom he had lived nearly sixty years, was eighty. Like most of the few survivors of the Revolution, they were remarkable for their mental and bodily vigor. Both, I believe, still live. The old lady—a small, well-formed woman—was as sprightly as a girl of twenty, and moved about the house with the nimbleness of foot of a matron in the prime of life. I was charmed with her vivacity, and the sunny radiance which it seemed to shed throughout her household; and the half hour that I passed with that venerable couple is a green spot in the memory.
Major Barrett was a lad of fourteen when the British incursion into Concord took place. He was too young to bear a musket, but, with every lad and woman in the vicinity, he labored in concealing the stores and in making cartridges for those who went out to fight. With oxen and a cart, himself, and others about his age, removed the stores deposited at the house of his grandfather into the woods, and concealed them, a cart-load in a place, under pine boughs. In such haste were they obliged to act on the approach of the British
* This song of forty-eight lines, by an anonymous writer, is entitled "A Military Song, by the Army, on General Washington's victorious entry into the town of Boston."
Concealment of Stores at Concord.—Concord Monument.—The Village.—Ride to Lexington.
from Lexington, that, when the cart was loaded, lads would march on each side of the oxen and goad them into a trot. Thus all the stores were effectually concealed, except some carriage-wheels. Perceiving the enemy near, these were cut up and burned; so that Parsons found nothing of value to destroy or carry away.
8556
From Major Barrett's we rode to the monument erected at the site of the old North Bridge, where the skirmish took place, and I sketched, on my way, the residence of Colonel Barrett, depicted on page 526. The road crosses the Concord River a little above the site of the North Bridge. The monument stands a few rods westward of the road leading to the village, and not far from the house of the Reverend Dr. Ripley, who gave the ground for the purpose. The monument is constructed of granite from Carlisle, and has an inscription upon a marble tablet inserted in the eastern face of the pedestal. * The view is from the green shaded lane which leads from the highway to the monument, looking westward. The two trees standing, one upon each side, without the iron railing, were saplings at the time of the battle; between them was the entrance to the bridge. The monument is reared upon a mound of earth a few yards from the left bank of the river. A little to the left, two rough, uninscribed stones from the field mark the graves of the two British soldiers who were killed and buried upon the spot.
We returned to the village at about noon, and started immediately for Lexington, six miles eastward.
Concord is a pleasant little village, including within its borders about one hundred dwellings. It lies upon the Concord River, one of the tributaries of the Merrimac, near the junction of the Assabeth and Sudbury Rivers. Its Indian name was Musketaquid. On account of the peaceable manner in which it was obtained, by purchase, of the aborigines, in 1635, it was named Concord. At the north end of the broad street, or common, is the house of Colonel Daniel Shattuck, a part of which, built in 1774, was used as one of the depositories of stores when the British invasion took place. It has been so much altered, that a view of it would have but little interest as representing a relic of the past.
The road between Concord and Lexington passes through a hilly but fertile country. It is easy for the traveler to conceive how terribly a retreating army might be galled by the lire of a concealed enemy. Hills and hillocks, some wooded, some bare, rise up every where, and formed natural breast-works of protection to the skirmishers that hung upon the flank and rear of Colonel Smith's troops. The road enters Lexington at the green whereon the old meeting-house stood when the battle occurred. The town is upon a fine rolling plain, and is becoming almost a suburban residence for citizens of Boston. Workmen were inclosing the Green, and laying out the grounds in handsome plats around the monument,
* The following is a copy of the inscription:
* Here, On the 19th of April, 1775, was made the first forcible resistance to British Aggression. On the opposite bank stood the American militia, and on this spot the first of the enemy fell in the War of the Revolution, which gave Independence to these United States. In gratitude to God, and in the love of Freedom, This Monument was erected, A.D. 1836.
The Lexington Monument—The "Clark House" and its Associations.—Tradition of the Surprise—Abijah Harrington.
which stands a few yards from the street. It is upon a spacious mound; its material is granite, and it has a marble tablet on the south front of the pedestal, with a long inscription.' The design of the monument is not at all graceful, and, being surrounded by tall trees, it has a very "dumpy" appearance. The people are dissatisfied with it, and doubtless, ere long, a more noble structure will mark the spot where the curtain of the revolutionary drama was first lifted.
8557
After making the drawings here given, I visited and made the sketch of "Clark's House," printed on page 523.
There I found a remarkably intelligent old lady, Mrs. Margaret Chandler, aged eighty-three years. She has been an occupant of the house, I believe, ever since the Revolution, and has a perfect recollection of the events of the period.
9557
Her version of the escape of Hancock and Adams is a little different from the published accounts, which I have adopted in the historical sketch. She says that on the evening of the 18th of April, some British officers, who had been informed where these patriots were, came to Lexington, and inquired of a woman whom they met, for "Mr. Clark's house." She pointed to the parsonage; but in a moment, suspecting their design, she called to them and inquired if it was Clark'stavernthat they were in search of. Uninformed whether it was atavern or a parsonagewhere their intended victims were staying, and supposing the former to be the most likely place, the officers replied, "Yes; Clark's tavern."
"Oh," she said, "Clark's tavern is in that direction," pointing toward East Lexington. As soon as they departed, the woman hastened to inform the patriots of their danger, and they immediately arose and fled to Woburn. Dorothy Quincy, the intended wife of Hancock, who was at Mr. Clark's, accompanied them in their flight. Paul Revere soon afterward arrived, and the events already narrated then occurred.
I next called upon the venerable Abijah Harrington, who was living in the village. He was a lad of fourteen at the time of the engagement. Two of his brothers were among the
* The following is a copy of the inscription: "Sacred to the Liberty and the Rights of Mankind!!! The Freedom and Independence of America—sealed and defended with the blood of her sons—This Monument is erected by the Inhabitants of Lexington, under the patronage and at the expense of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to the memory of their Fellow-citizens, Ensign Robert Monroe, Messrs. Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Junr., Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John Brown, of Lexington, and Asahel Porter, of Woburn, who fell on this Field, the first victims of the Sword of British Tyranny and Oppression, on the morning of the ever-memorable Nineteenth of April, An. Dom. 1775. The Die was Cast!!! The blood of these Martyrs in the Cause of God and their Country was the Cement of the Union of these States, then Colonies, and gave the Spring to the Spirit, Firmness, and Resolution of their Fellow-citizens. They rose as one man to revenge their Brethren's blood, and at the point of the Sword to assert and defend their native Rights. They nobly dared to be Free!!! The contest was long, bloody, and affecting. Righteous Heaven approved the Solemn Appeal; Victory crowned their Arms, and the Peace, Liberty, and Independence of the United States of America was their glorious Reward. Built in the year 1799."
** This view is from the Concord Road, looking eastward, and shows a portion of the inclosure of the Green. The distant building seen on the right is the old "Buckman Tavern," delineated in Doolittle's engraving on page 524. It now belongs to Mrs. Merriam, and exhibits many scars made by the bullets on the morning of the skirmish.
Incidents of the Battle at Lexington.—Jonathan Harrington and his Brother.—Anniversary Celebration at Concord in 1850.
minute men, but escaped unhurt. Jonathan and Caleb Harrington, near relatives, were killed The former was shot in front of his own house, while his wife stood at the window in an agony of alarm. She saw her husband fall, and then start up, the blood gushing from his breast. He stretched out his arms toward her, and then fell again. Upon his hands and knees he crawled toward his dwelling, and expired just as his wife reached him.
8558
Caleb Harrington was shot while running from the meeting-house. My informant saw almost the whole of the battle, having been sent by his mother to go near enough, and be safe, to obtain and convey to her information respecting her other sons, who were with the minute men.
His relation of the incidents of the morning was substantially such as history has recorded. He dwelt upon the subject with apparent delight, for his memory of the scenes of his early years, around which cluster so much of patriotism and glory, was clear and full. I would gladly have listened until twilight to the voice of such experience, but time was precious, and hastened to East Lexington, to visit his cousin, Jonathan Harrington, an old man of ninety, who played the fife when the minute men were marshaled on the Green upon that memorable April morning. He was splitting fire-wood in his yard with a vigorous hand when I rode up; and as he sat in his rocking-chair, while I sketched his placid features, he appeared no older than a man of seventy. His brother, aged eighty-eight, came in before my sketch was finished, and I could not but gaze with wonder upon these strong old men, children of one mother, who were almost grown to manhood when the first battle of our Revolution occurred! Frugality and temperance, co-operating with industry, a cheerful temper, and a good constitution, have lengthened their days, and made their protracted years hopeful and happy. * The aged fifer apologized for the rough appearance of his signature, which he kindly wrote for me, and charged the tremulous motion of his hand to his labor with the ax. How tenaciously we cling even to the appearance of vigor, when the whole frame is tottering to its fall! Mr. Harrington opened the ball of the Revolution with the shrill war-notes of the fife, and then retired from the arena. He was not a soldier in the war, nor has his life, passed in the quietude of rural pursuits, been distinguished except by the glorious acts which constitute the sum of the achievements of a good citizen.
I left Lexington at about three o'clock, and arrived at Cambridge at half past four. It was a lovely autumnal afternoon. The trees and fields were still green, for the frost had
* The seventy-fifth anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord was celebrated at the latter place on the 19th of April,1850.In the procession was a carriage containing these venerable brothers, aged, respectively, nearly ninety-one and ninety-three; Amos Baker, of Lincoln, aged ninety-four; Thomas Hill, of Danvers, aged ninety-two; and Dr. Preston, of Billerica, aged eighty-eight. The Honorable Edward Everett, among others, made a speech on the occasion, in which he very happily remarked, that "it pleased his heart to see those venerable men beside him; and he was very much pleased to assist Mr. Jonathan Harrington to put on his top coat a few minutes ago. In doing so, he was ready to say, with the eminent man of old, 'Very pleasant art thou to me, my brother Jonathan!'" He died in March, 1854.
Ride to Cambridge.—Early History of the Town.—Washington's Head-quarters.
not yet been busy with their foliage and blades. The road is Macadamized the whole distance; and so thickly is it lined with houses, that the village of East Lexington and Old Cambridge seem to embrace each other in close union.
8559
Cambridge is an old town, the first settlement there having been planted in 1631, co-temporaneous with that of Boston. It was the original intention of the settlers to make it the metropolis of Massachusetts, and Governor Winthrop commenced the erection of his dwelling there. It was called New Town, and in 1632 was palisaded. The Reverend Mr. Hooker, one of the earliest settlers of Connecticut, was the first minister in Cambridge. In 1636, the General Court provided for the erection of a public school in New Town, and appropriated two thousand dollars for that purpose. In 1638, the Reverend John Harvard, of Charlestown, endowed the school with about four thousand dollars. This endowment enabled them to exalt the academy into a college, and it was called Harvard University in honor of its principal benefactor.
Cambridge has the distinction of being the place where the first printing-press in America was established. Its proprietor was Nathen Day, and the capital that purchased the materials was furnished by the Reverend Mr. Glover. The first thing printed was the "Freeman's Oath," in 1636; the next was an almanac; and the next the Psalms, in meter. * Old Cambridge (West Cambridge, or Menotomy, of the Revolution), the seat of the University, is three miles from West Boston Bridge, which connects Cambridge with Boston. Cambridgeport is about half way between Old Cambridge and the bridge, and East Cambridge occupies Lechmere's Point, a promontory fortified during the siege of Boston in 1775.
Arrived at Old Cambridge, I parted company with the vehicle and driver that conveyed me from Concord to Lexington, and hither; and, as the day was fast declining, I hastened to sketch the head-quarters of Washington, an elegant and spacious edifice, standing in the midst of shrubbery and stately elms, a little distance from the street, once the highway from Harvard University to Waltham. At this mansion, and at Winter Hill, Washington passed most of his time, after taking command of the Continental army, until the evacuation of Boston in the following spring.
Its present owner is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, professor of modern languages in Harvard University, and widely known in the world of literature as one of the most gifted men of the age. It is a spot worthy of the residence of an American bard so endowed, for the associations which hallow it are linked with the noblest themes that ever awakened the inspiration of a child of song.
"When the hours of Day are number'd,
And the voices of the Night
Wake the better soul that slumber'd
To a holy, calm delight;
Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
And, like phantoms grim and tall,
Shadows from the fitful fire-light
Dance upon the parlor wall,"
—Longfellow
* Records of Harvard College.
Description of Washington's Head-quarters at Cambridge.—Phillis, the black Poet.—Washington's Letter to Phillis.
then to the thoughtful dweller must come the spirit of the place and hour to weave a gorgeous tapestry, rich with pictures, illustrative of the heroic age of our young republic. My tarry was brief and busy, for the sun was rapidly descending—it even touched the forest tops before I finished the drawing—but the cordial reception and polite attentions which J received from the proprietor, and his warm approval of, and expressed interest for the success of my labors, occupy a space in memory like that of a long, bright summer day.
This mansion stands upon the upper of two terraces, which are ascended each by five stone steps. At each front corner of the house is a lofty elm—mere saplings when Washington beheld them, but now stately and patriarchal in appearance. Other elms, with flowers and shrubbery, beautify the grounds around it; while within, iconoclastic innovation has not been allowed to enter with its mallet and trowel to mar the work of the ancient builder, and to cover with the vulgar stucco of modern art the carved cornices and paneled wainscots that first enriched it. I might give a long list of eminent persons whose former presence in those spacious rooms adds interest to retrospection, but they are elsewhere identified with scenes more personal and important. I can not refrain, however, from noticing the visit of one, who, though a dark child of Africa and a bond-woman, received the most polite attention from the commander-in-chief. This was Phillis, a slave of Mr. Wheatley, of Boston. She was brought from Africa when between seven and eight years old. She seemed to acquire knowledge intuitively; became a poet of considerable merit, and corresponded with such eminent persons as the Countess of Huntingdon, Earl of Dartmouth, Reverend George Whitefield, and others. Washington invited her to visit him at Cambridge, which she did a few days before the British evacuated Boston; her master, among others, having left the city by permission, and retired, with his family, to Chelsea. She passed half an hour with the commander-in-chief, from whom and his officers she received marked attention. *
* Phillis wrote a letter to General Washington in October, 1775, in which she inclosed a poem eulogistic of his character. In February following the general answered it. I give a copy of his letter, in illustration of the excellence of the mind and heart of that great man, always so kind and courteous to the most humble, even when pressed with arduous public duties.
"Cambridge, February 28,1776.
"Miss Phillis,—Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my hands till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope wall apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me in the elegant lines you inclosed and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it a place in the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient, humble servant, Geo. Washington." *
* "I have not been able to find," says Mr. Sparks, "among Washington's papers, the letter and poem addressed to him." Her lines "On the Heath of Whitfield," "Farewell to America," and kindred pieces, exhibit considerable poetic talent. The following is a specimen of her verse, written before she was twenty years of age. It is extracted from a poem on "Imagination"
"Though winter frowns, to fancy's raptured eyesThe fields may flourish and gay scenes arise;The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,And bid their waters murmur o'er their sands;Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,And with her flowery riches deck the plain;Sylvanus may diffuse his honors round,And all the forests may with leaves be crown'd;Showers may descend, and dews their gems disclose,And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose."
* in 1773, when she was at the age of nineteen, a volume of her poems was published in London, dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon. They give evidence of quite extensive reading and remarkable tenacity of memory, many of them abounding with fine allusions to freedom, her favorite theme. After the death of her master, in 1776, she married a man of her own color, but who was greatly her inferior. His name was Peters. She died in Boston, in extreme poverty, on the 5th of December, 1781, aged nearly thirty-one years.
The "Riedesel House."—Description of the Place by the Baroness Riedesel.—Attestation of the genuineness of Phillis's Poetry.
A few rods above the residence of Professor Longfellow is the house in which the Brunswick general, the Baron Riedesel, and his family were quartered, during the stay of the captive army of Burgoyne in the vicinity of Boston. I was not aware, when I visited Cambridge, that the old mansion was still in existence; but, through the kindness of Mr. Longfellow, I am able to present the features of its southern front, with a description.
8561
In style it is very much like that of Washington's head-quarters, and the general appearance of the grounds around is similar. It is shaded by noble linden-trees, and adorned with shrubbery, presenting to the eye all the attractions noticed by the Baroness of Riedesel in her charming Letters. ** Upon a window-pane on the west side of the house
* This is from a pencil sketch by Mr. Longfellow. I am also indebted to him for the fae-simile of the autograph of the Baroness of Riedesel. It will be perceived that the i is placed before the e in spelling the name. I have heretofore given it with the e first, which is according to the orthography in Burgoyne's State of the Expedition, &c., wherein I supposed it was spelled correctly. This autograph shows it to be erroneous. Mr. Longfellow's beautiful poem, "The Open Window," refers to this mansion.
** She thus writes respecting her removal from a peasant's house on Winter Hill to Cambridge, and her residence there: "We passed three weeks in this place, and were then transferred to Cambridge, where we were lodged in one of the best houses of the place, which belonged to Royalists. Seven families, who were connected by relationship, or lived in great intimacy, had here farms, gardens, and splendid mansions, and not far off orchards, and the buildings were at a quarter of a mile distant from each other. The owners had been in the habit of assembling every afternoon in one or another of these houses, and of diverting themselves with music or dancing, and lived in affluence, in good humor, and without care, until this unfortunate war at once dispersed them, and transformed all their houses into solitary abodes, except two, the proprietors of which were also soon obliged to make their escape. "On the 3d of June, 1778, I gave a ball and supper, in celebration of my husband's birth-day. I had invited all our generals and officers, and Mr. and Mrs. Carter. General Burgoyne sent us an apology, after he had made us wait for him till eight o'clock. He had always some excuse for not visiting us, until he was about departing for England, when he came and made me many apologies, to which I made no other reply than that I should be extremely sorry if he had put himself to any inconvenience for our sake. The dance lasted long, and we had an excellent supper, to which more than eighty persons sat down. Our yard and garden were illuminated. The king's birth-day falling on the next day, it was resolved that the company should not separate before his majesty's health was drank; which was done, with feelings of the liveliest attachment to his person and interests. Never, I believe, was 'God Save the King' sung with more enthusiasm, or with feelings more sincere. Our two eldest girls were brought into the room to sec the illumination. We were all deeply moved, and proud to have the courage to display such sentiments in the midst of our enemies. Even Mr. Carter* could not forbear participating in our enthusiasm."—Letters and Memoirs relating to the War of American Independence, and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga: By Madame De Riedesel.
* The following curious attestation of the genuineness of the poems of Phillis is printed in the preface to the volume. Many of the names will be recognized as prominent in the Revolution. .
** "To the Public.—As it has been repeatedly suggested to the publisher, by persons who have seen the manuscript, that numbers would be ready to suspect they were not really the writings of Phillis, he has procured the following attestation from the most respectable characters in Boston, that none might have the least ground for disputing their original: 'We, whose names are underwritten, do assure the world that the poems specified in the following page were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young negro girl, who was, but a few years since, brought an uncultivated barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is, under the disadvantage of serving as a slave in a family in this town. She has been examined by some of the best judges, and is thought qualified to write them.
"'The Hon. Thomas Hubbard,The Hon. John Irving,The Hon. James Pitts,The Hon. Harrison Gray,The Hon. James Bowdoin,John Hancock, Esq.,Joseph Green, Esq.,Richard Carey, Esq.,His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, GovernorThe Hon. Andrew Oliver, Lieut. GovernorThe Rev. Charles Chauncey, D.D.,The Rev. Mather Byles, D.D.,The Rev. Edward Pemberton, D.D.,The Rev. Andrew Eliot, D.D.,The Rev. Samuel Cooper, D.D.,The Rev. Mr. Samuel Mather,The Rev. Mr. John Moorhead,Mr. John Wheatley (her master!.'"
Autograph of Riedcsel.—The "Washington Elm."—Bunker Hill Monument.—Desecration of the Spot
may be seen the undoubted autograph of the accomplished general, inscribed with a diamond point. It is an interesting memento, and is preserved with great care. The annexed is a fac simile of it.