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284 preferably advocated an unbounded scope to democratical principle, or rather license, in a government pliable to every gust of popular will. Adams was termed the Cato, and Hancock the Lucullus, of New England. Among the first generations of the inhabitants of this country, the severer virtue of Adams, in competition with the gayer character of Hancock, would have carried almost all the suffrages of their fellow-citizens; and even at no distant date retrospective from the present era, the manners of Hancock would have been rather tolerated and pardoned., than generally approved. But a change, gradually arising in the taste and opinion of the public, had latterly been so widely developped, that Hancock was now by far the most popular character in Massachusetts. He was, indeed, the idol of the great mass of the people, and openly preferred to Adams by all but a small minority of the community, consisting of stanch Puritans and stern republicans.

Gushing was less distinguished by energy or talent than by his descent from a family renowned in New England for ardent piety and liberal politics. Bowdoin, one of the wealthiest persons in Massachusetts, was also a man of great information and ability, regulated by strong good sense; liberal, honorable, and upright; a prudent and moderate, but firm and consistent patriot. Cooper, pious, eloquent, and accomplished, was first prompted to unite the character of a politician with the office of a minister of the Gospel by the tidings of the Stamp Act, which suggested to him, he declared, that tyranny was opposed not more to civil than to religious liberty. From that period, he took an active part in behalf of the liberties of his country, both as a contributor of political essays to the periodical publications of Boston, and as a correspondent of Dr. Franklin. He was eminent as a scholar, and ardent as a patron and coadjutor of every institution for the advancement of learning, liberty, piety, or virtue; and, doubtless, his previous character as a divine contributed to promote the efficacy of his exertions as a politician. Quincy, a distinguished lawyer and orator, the descendant of one of those English barons who extorted from King John the signature of Magna Charta, showed that the spirit displayed by his ancestor at Runnymede was transmitted to him, unimpaired by the eclipse of family grandeur and the lapse of five centuries. He was the protomartyr of American liberty, in defence of which, both with his tongue and pen, he exerted an energy so disproportioned to his bodily strength, as to occasion his death a short time previous to the Declaration of American Independence. Robert Treat Paine, one of the most eminent lawyers in Massachusetts, held a high place in the public estimation for intelligence, firmness, and zeal. Ever prompt, active, and decided as a champion of American liberty, he was universally admired for the brilliancy of his wit, and respected even by his political opponents for his pure and inflexible uprightness. Winthrop, who inherited one of the most venerable names in New England, revived its ancient honor and still farther