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Massachusetts forces," Cambridge, directing him to apprehend certain persons, giving their names, who, on the pretext of searching for fire-arms, were charged with committing robbery; and to hand them over to the committee of safety, in order that, if guilty, they might meet with condign punishment. Warren was this day appointed the chairman of a committee to examine such persons as were recommended for surgeons in the army.

On the 9th, Warren was appointed on a committee "to prepare a spirited application to General Gage respecting his treatment of the inhabitants of Boston;" also on a committee to see what provision could be made to supply enlisted soldiers with effective fire-arms.

On the 10th, the session of the congress was long, and the business that was transacted was important. So direct was the intelligence from Boston, that the regulars would soon take the field, that a committee considered the expediency of removing the cannon and stores at Cambridge farther back into the country. On this day, the committee on remonstrating with Gage, of which Warren was a member, reported a letter, which averred that Congress had endeavored to carry into effect the treaty which he made with the selectmen on the removal of the people, and closed with expressing the hope that His Excellency would no longer permit a treaty with a distressed people to be violated.

On the 11th, the congress held three sessions. At this time, the official papers addressed to Warren, or having his autograph, are numerous. The committee of safety passed the following vote: "That

Mr. William Cooper, jun.,1 be, and he hereby is, appointed a clerk to Dr. Warren, president of the congress."

1 William Cooper, senior, the town-clerk, lived to a venerable age. The "Independent Chronicle" of Nov. 29, 1809, has the following notice :

"Last evening departed this life, after a short illness, the venerable William Cooper, Esq., aged eighty-eight years, lamented by his numerous connections and friends and by the citizens of his native town generally. As the first testimony of respect, his death was announced by the tolling of all the bells in the town. His character will hereafter be delineated by some person fully acquainted with its merits: at present, it becomes us only to state, that he has been honored with the suffrages of his fellow-citizens as town-clerk forty-nine years successively; and it is worthy of remark, that, during the whole of that time, he was never absent from his duty at a town-meeting."

The same paper of Dec. 7 has the following communication:

"To record the death of a man eminent for his public and private virtues is a painful duty. The subject of the following lines was truly worthy of the universal admiration and esteem which was manifested towards him. His merits will long be cherished with veneration and respect, and oft will the genuine spirit of patriotism bedew his remembrance with a pearly tear :

MONODY

ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM COOPER, ESQ.

Spirits of drooping woe!

Bid the sad numbers flow,

And touch with sympathy the weeping lyre;

Let silent grief pervade the breast,

Each ruder passion sink to rest,

And quench the flame of glowing, fond desire.

Oh for a Shakespeare's or a Milton's pen,
Thy virtues, Cooper! faithful to portray;
Then would I raise a deathless song,

In mournful notes to glide along;

And whilst I struck each trembling string,

Soft Melancholy, wild, should sing,

And musing tell, in sweet and pensive lay,

The bright perfections of the best of men.

Though ne'er ambitious for the "wreath of fame,"

His was the pride of an unsullied name!

A feeling soul, with sentiment refined,

A clear perception, and a noble mind:
In his kind heart did nature sweetly blend
The tender father and the faithful friend;
Whilst on his words persuasion ever hung,
And sage instruction issued from his tongue;
Fair Virtue's mandates he with joy obeyed,
And e'er by Honor were his actions weighed ;
In Duty's path his steady course he ran,
True to his God, benevolent to man;

On the 12th, congress was occupied with the vital subject of assuming a civil government for Massachusetts; Warren being in the chair, and this question being the order of the day. After the absent members had been called in, it was moved, "That the sense of the congress be taken on this question; viz., Whether there is now existing in this colony a necessity of taking up and exercising civil government in all its parts." Congress resolved itself into a comImittee of the whole for the consideration of this question, which placed the president on the floor. It is only said in the journals, that the committee considered the question. It is not said that Warren spoke, so provokingly barren are the official details; but there is the following record: "The president, on a motion made, resumed the chair. The committee then, by the Hon. Joseph Warren, Esq., their chairman, reported that a committee be raised for the purpose of reporting to the congress an application to the Continental Congress, for obtaining their recommendation for this colony to take up and exercise civil government as soon as may be; and that the committee be directed to ground the application on

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the necessity of the case." The report was accepted by a large majority, and Warren was appointed the chairman of this committee. Thus, great as the emergency was, the patriots were not prepared to take so important a step as creating a new government, without the sanction of the Continental Congress or of the American Union. On this day, Warren wrote the following note, here copied from the original in his handwriting:

To the Honorable the Committee of Safety.

WATERTOWN, May 12, 1775.

GENTLEMEN,— Mr. Pigeon is now sick. His business must be attended to. He requests that Mr. Charles Miller, the bearer hereof, may be appointed his assistant, and immediately directed to go upon business. Pray desire the young gentleman you were pleased to appoint to be my clerk to attend here, as I have much writing to do, and want a number of papers copied for the use of the congress. I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,

J. WARREN.

On the 14th, Sunday, Warren signed his name as chairman of the committee of safety. The meeting of this body, on this day, was uncommonly important. It resolved, that all the live stock be taken from Noddle's Island, Hog Island, Snake Island, and that part of Chelsea near the sea-coast. Warren sent the following note to Mr. Gill, of the committee of supplies:

Mr. MOSES GILL.

CAMBRIDGE, 14th May, 1775.

SIR,- The committee of safety are informed that the iron pots provided for the army are immediately under your care, and by your letter are advised that 1,500 were prepared and 500 making. By the account from the commissary, there has been but 800 received. We would inform you, the operations of the army are, on this account, obstructed, and [this] occasions considerable uneasiness. You'll critically examine into this matter, and forthwith order said pots into the

number.

camp at Cambridge, in such quantities as to complete the above Jos. WARREN, Chairman. P.S. Should be glad to be informed if the pots are disposed of agreeable to the enclosed vote of 18th of April.

On this day, Warren was communing with Samuel Adams, on the great subject of taking up government, in the following letter:

CAMBRIDGE, May 14, 1775.

DEAR SIR,- We are here waiting for advice from the Continental Congress respecting our taking up government. We cannot think, after what we have suffered for a number of years, that you will advise us to take up that form established by the last charter, as it contains in it the seeds of despotism, and would, in a few years, bring us again into the same unhappy situation in which we now are. For my part, after the termination of the present struggle, I hope never more to be obliged to enter into a political war. I would, therefore, wish that the Government here might be so happily moulded, that the only road to promotion may be through the affection of the people. This being the case, the interest of the governor and the governed will be the same; and we shall no longer be plagued by a group of unprincipled villains, who have acted as though they thought they had a right to plunder and destroy their countrymen, as soon as they could obtain permission from Great Britain for doing it.

We have some very striking instances of the perfidy of one man, who has been raised by the people to power and trust, in the letters of Hutchinson, many of which I have now in my possession. When he had obtained all the people could bestow, it is probable he would have remained firm in their interest (because it would have been for his advantage to have remained so), had there not been a higher station to which his ambitious mind aspired, which was not in the gift of the people; in order to obtain this, he judged it necessary to sacrifice the people, which he has endeavored to do in the most vile and treacherous manner. I send some extracts from his letters, and intend speedily to have many of them published.

General Gage, I fear, has trepanned the inhabitants of Boston. He has persuaded them to lay down their arms, promising to let them remove with their effects; but he suffers them to come out but very slowly, contriving every day new excuses for delay. It appears to

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