Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/177

pointed in 1755 joint commissioner with Thomas Pownall to negotiate with the colonies of New York and Pennsylvania for aid in erecting a frontier barrier against the French, at Ticonderoga. He was a friend and correspondent of Franklin and Washington, and erected the mansion seen in the

accompanying illustration, which is still occupied by his descendants. Josiuh's second son. Samuel, lawyer, b. in Braintree, Mass., 13 April, 1735; d. in Antigua in 1789, was graduated at Harvard in 1754. He was an intimate friend of John Adams, and the two were admitted to the bar on the same day, C Nov., 1758. Samuel Quincy became eminent in his profession, and rose to the dignity of solicitor- general of the province. His official position in- fluenced his political views. He became a Tory, and at the end of the siege of Boston in March, 1776, he left the country with other loyalists. By way of compensation for his exile and losses, he was appointed attorney-general of Antigua, which office he held until his death. Josiah's third son, Josiall, lawyer, b. in Boston, 23 Feb., 1744; d. at sea off Gloucester, Mass., 26 April, 1775, was gradu- ated at Harvard in 1703. Three years later, on taking his master's degree, he delivered an English oration on " Patriotism," which exhibited his won- derful power as an orator. Heretofore the orations had been in Latin. He studied law with Oxen- bridge Thacher, and succeeded him in his exten- sive and lucrative practice. He soon rose to the foremost rank in his profession. At the same time he gave much attention to politics, and on the oc- casion of the Townshend measures of 1767 he pub- lished in the Boston " Gazette " a series of extreme- ly able articles, signed " Hyperion." After the so- called " Boston massacre" he was selected, together with John Adams, by Capt. Preston as counsel for himself and his soldiers who had fired on the crowd. The popular excitement was such that it required not only moral but physical courage to perform this duty. Mr. Quincy 's own father wrote him a letter of passionate remonstrance. That he should undertake the defence of " those criminals charged with the murder of their fellow-citizens " seemed monstrous. " Good God ! " wrote the father, " is it possible! I will not believe it !" The son, in reply, maintained that it was his professional duty to give legal advice and assistance to men accused of a crime but not proved guilty of it. " I never har- bored the expectation," said he, "nor any great de- sire, that all men should speak well of me. To in- quire my duty and do it, is my aim." After the ex- citement was over, Mr. Quincy's course was warmly commended by nearly everybody. During the next two years his business greatly increased, but he still found time to write stirring political pamphlets. He wrote in " Edes and Gill's Gazette." over the signa- tures of " Callisthenes," " Tertius in Nubibus," " Edward Sexby," and " Marchmont Nedham." He was also the author of the " Draught of Instructions to the Boston Representatives in May, 1772." and the " Report of a Committee chosen by the Inhabi- tants of Petersham, 4th January, 1773." All these papers are characterized by clearness and boldness. He was one of the first to say, in plain terms, that an appeal to arms, followed by a separation from the mother-country, was inevitable. It had by this time become evident that he was suffering from pul- monary consumption, and in February, 1773, by the advice of physicians, he made a voyage to Charles- ton, and travelled through the Carolinas, returning to Boston late in May. He was present in the Old South meeting-house on 16 Dec., and as the men, disguised as Indians, rushed past the door on their way to the tea-ships, he exclaimed : " I see the clouds which now rise thick and fast upon our ho- rizon, the thunders roll, and the lightnings play, and to that God who rides on the whirlwind and directs the storm I commit my country." In May. 1774, he published his most important political work, entitled " Observations on the Act of Parlia- ment commonly called the Boston Port Bill, with Thoughts on Civil Society and Standing Armies." In September of that year he sailed for England as a confidential agent of the patriot party to con- sult and advise with the friends of America there. He was politely received by Lords North and Dartmouth, as well as by members of the oppo- sition, such as Shelburne and Barre ; but the Karl nf Hillsborough declared, in the house of lords: " There are men walking the streets of London to- day who ought to be in Newgate or at Tyburn." The earl meant Mr. Quincy and Dr. Franklin. In March, 1775, the young man, wasted with disease, sailed for Boston, bearing a message, which died with him, from the Whig leaders in England to their friends in America. As he felt the approach of death, while almost within sight of his native land, he said again and again that if he could only talk for one hour with Samuel Adams or Joseph Warren, he should be content to die. Mr. Quincy's power as an orator was very great, and, .in spite of the weakness of his lungs, his voice was remarkable for its resonant and penetrating quality as well as for its sweetness. He married in 1769 Abigail Phillips, and had one son, Josiah. See "Memoir of the Life of Josiah Quincy, Jr., by his Son " (Boston, 1825 : 3d ed., edited by' Eliza Susan Quincy, Boston, 1875). His son, Josinh, statesman, b. in Boston, 4 Feb., 1772; d. in Quincy, Mass., 1 July, 1864. He was fitted for college at Phillips academy, Andover, and was graduated at Harvard in 1790 at the head of his class. He studied law with William Tudor, and was admitted to the bar in 1793. His practice was not large, and he had considerable leisure to devote to study and to politics. In 1797 he married Miss Eliza Susan Morton, of New York. On 4 July, 1798, he delivered the annual oration in the Old South meeting-house, and gained such a reputation thereby that the Federalists selected him as their candidate for congress in 1800. The Republican newspapers ridiculed the idea of a member of congress only twenty-eight years old, and called aloud for a cradle to rock him in. Mr. Quincy was defeated. In the spring of 1804 he was elected to the state senate of Massachusetts, and in the autumn of that year he was elected to congress. During his senatorship he was active in urging his state to suggest an amendment to the Federal constitution, eliminating the clause that permitted the slave-states to count three fifths of their slaves as part of their basis of representation. If such a measure could have had any chance of success at that moment, its effect would of course have been to break