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234 hair. He had the manners and polish of a gentleman, with fascinating ways, and an ability to make himself agreeable. So diligently, too, had he used his opportunities of culture and reading, that he might well have shone even in a circle socially more exacting than that to which he was now introduced. We may anticipate here the conclusion to which the review of his whole career will lead us, that, as boy or man, he was never one to allow an opportunity of advancement to escape him." At Concord, when nineteen years of age, Mr. Thompson married Sarah Walker Rolfe, a wealthy widow, aged thirty-three, and by whom he had a daughter.

The Revolution was now fermenting, and alienations and discords were springing up among the people. Young Thompson had made the acquaintance of Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire, who, discerning his genius and promise, gave him the military commission of major. This aroused a bitter feeling of jealousy not only in the subordinate officers over whom he had been sprung, but also with his superiors, who were all turned into effective enemies. His independent manners, his intimacy with the royal governor, and, perhaps, inconsiderate words in a time of excitement, led to the suspicion and the charge that Thompson was unpatriotic and sided with the royalists. By the potency of gossip and tale-bearing he was brought under suspicion of Toryism, and threatened with that dignified discipline of outraged patriotism, tar and feathers and riding on a rail. Thompson indignantly denied the accusation. He called for proof, and a meeting of his townsmen was called to consider his case. But no evidence of any kind was produced against him. Nevertheless the adverse feeling in Concord was so strong that he found it necessary to leave. There can be little doubt of the brutal injustice with which Thompson was treated. His biographer writes with evident impartiality, and presents the case in all its aspects, and, admitting that nothing bearing the character of evidence was to be found against his patriotism, he says that "Major Thompson insisted from the first, and steadfastly to the close of his life affirmed, that he was friendly to the patriot cause, and had never done or said anything which could be truthfully alleged as hostile to it." The simple fact seems to be that while young Thompson entertained, and probably expressed, his doubts about the issue of a conflict with the mother-country, as many other independent-minded men must have done, he was nevertheless in sympathy with the patriot cause, and was not only willing to devote himself to it, but earnestly sought the opportunity by petitioning the Provincial Congress for a position in the army. But he was defeated through the machinations of the officers who resented his appointment by Wentworth. His biographer says: "He lingered about the camp. He devoted himself zealously to the study of military tactics. He continued his experiments on gunpowder. He strolled between Woburn, Medford, Cambridge, and Charlestown, learning whatever