their majority at that board, and merely to gratify a few traders, who depend on the commercial credit given them by Great Britain. Those merchants, whose large capitals enable them to trade to all parts of the World, are represented as acknowledging the wisdom of the embargo. A few men, whose politics reach no further than their own counting house, and their habitual course of negotiation, seem to think the whole world is going to overset, because they are for a little while interrupted. A very little attention would shew them how to employ their stock in a different mode, by which the community would be enriched and the nations who have interrupted our old modes of supply would be punished by the permanent loss of our customs.1 Mrs. Hilliard joins in respects to the General and you, and is much gratified to find by the friendly inquiries you made respecting her that she has not slipt through your memory. Please to present my remembrances to your Sons, who sometimes dot in upon us, but will not be prevailed on to make a visit. I intend to be better in this respect than they. I am, Madam, with much respect, Your most obedient Servant, JAMES WINTHROP JAMES WINTHROP TO MERCY WARREN CAMBRIDGE, I Octo., 1808 DEAR MADAM, -I am much gratified by a visit from your eldest son, who is now here. He did me the honor of presenting your letter, which contains a review of my book consistent with your habitual politeness. I will not teaze you with a long argument on this subject, for to be honest about the matter, we all of us have our own courses of reasoning, and I cannot expect those, who have been used to a different theory, at once to abandon it for I This situation led to the election of James Lloyd, Jr., and the resignation of John Quincy Adams as United States Senator from Massachusetts. See "The Recall of John Quincy Adams in 1808," Proceedings, XLV. 354. 2 This could refer to his Attempt to translate the Prophetic Part of the Apocalypse of St. John into Familiar Language, Boston, 1794, or Attempt to arrange in the Order of Time those Scripture Prophecies yet remaining to be fulfilled, Cambridge, 1803, or his essay, about to be published, Appendix to the New Testament. the sake of supporting mine. I confess therefore that I did not expect so many complimentary expressions, where I did not hope so much for conviction, as to lay open what I think a connected System. What the clergy consider as a political statement, I consider as the application of prophecy to the visible church comprehending the whole body of believers. The raising of the new order of things in their favor, as is now going on, I consider as the Kingdoms of the World becoming the Kingdoms of the Lord, and the resistance of the Popish and British powers as producing that time of trouble of which Daniel speaks in the beginning of his last chapter. In Justification of this mode of applying it, I will at present only state, that all the commentaries on the Revelation, that I have seen, begin with applying the prophecy to the visible church, and to human empires, until their stock of history was run out. Many of the boldest figures of the Apocalypse are agreed to apply to events that have already taken place. The beginning of the ninth chapter is agreed to shew the rise of the Mohometans, and that of the thirteenth to relate in the same manner to Popery. Yet, as if the Commentators were afraid to trust their own principles of construction, they have supposed both these powers destined to a miraculous fall. I have taken the same principles and read the whole book by them, and find them true and the book also intelligible, consistent and true. Let me ask, where would have been the surprise, if the whole matter had been expected, as it has happened? Yet you will find toward the conclusion of each series, into which John divides his book, abrupt warnings to be upon the watch. That the book shall remain obscure till toward the conclusion, when it shall become plain. Charge not my opinion with vanity, If I say the book now under consideration resolves the problem. Pardon my having trespassed so long upon your patience. It was not intended at the setting out. By Mr. Warren I send for your perusal two small volumes containing the poems of Sir William Jones.1 Knowing your taste for fine writing, I have presumed, that you will incline to look into 1 Poems, consisting chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages, 1772. the Hindoo mythology, and that you [will] be pleased at finding his elegant pen employed in giving that mythology an English dress. Please to make my respects to the General and to the Major and his family. It is not from forgetfulness if we do not communicate oftener. I am, Madam, with perfect respect Your most obedient servant JAMES WINTHROP The passion flower which I undertook to preserve was lost. I then desired Mrs. Craigie to preserve one, and she undertook it I have sent to her this afternoon for it but she has forgot, what book she put it in, but has promised to look for it and send it here. She was sorry for having mislaid it. SAMUEL LATHAM MITCHILL TO MERCY WARREN WASHINGTON, Novr. 28, 1808 MADAM, As one of the joint committee appointed by the two houses of congress to provide books for their Library, I do myself the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of your history of the rise, progress and termination of the American revolution. By some oversight of the committee, it had happened, that your excellent performance had not been purchased. It has therefore arrived in good season and is the more acceptable to us. And they who search this collection, for the history of their country, will be sure to find the Volumes of Mrs. Warren on the same shelf, with those of Gordon, Ramsay and Marshall. Permit me to assure you of my high and sincere respect. SAM. L. MITCHILL JAMES WINTHROP TO MERCY WARREN CAMBRIDGE, II Decr., 1808 MADAM, - Tho' nothing is to be expected from me, on the melancholy occasion of the death of a friend,' which is not already 1 General Warren died at Plymouth, November 27, 1808. familiar to your own mind, yet as novelty is not always to be steered for, but the satisfaction of comparing ideas, and being reminded by our friends of the consolations, which we have administred to others in affliction, I hope you will not consider my condolence as impertinent. It is impossible that the habitual exchange of good Offices between you and General Warren, which continued for half a century, with unremitted attention on both parts, should now be suspended, without your feeling an important loss of happiness. Though we all admit that the necessity of parting with our friends must at some time or other operate, yet we are seldom prepared to say, that now is the right time. But let us endeavor to satisfy ourselves, upon almost any supposition, that a different time would be better, and we shall find so much greater inconveniences staring us in the face, as to oblige us to relinquish our amendment, and to confess that Providence has contrived the event better for us than we could for ourselves and that he does not willingly afflict his children. When we consider how soon the services of a valuable man are forgotten, even by those who knew him in his best days, we can hardly form a wish, that a friend should outlive his usefulness, and should for any length of time survive that energy of mind, which made us respect him. This is an inconvenience necessarily attached to extreme old age. On the other hand, it is exceedingly grievous to lose a friend in the vigor of life, and while there was a prospect of many years usefulness to others, and of enjoyment to himself. Between these extremes is the case before us. Having lived in times that required uncommon exertion, and acquitted himself with honor, having without any remarkable decay of either body or mind surpassed the age which even but few attain, he died peaceably in the bosom of his family, wept by them, and regretted by his other friends. If death can ever be a kindly visitant, it must I think be in such circumstances. I am sensible that at the first stroke, feelings must have their way, but if we can for a moment interrupt grief by the suggestions of reason, or the still more consoling prospects of another life, every succeeding effort will be better than the former, and the mind becomes tranquillized under our loss. I know that to press these things upon your well regulated mind, would not only be impertinence but folly in me. You have so often been called by the loss of very valuable friends to fortify your mind, You are so well instructed in the doctrines of the bible, and in the principles and hopes of Christianity, that while you consider the parting of friends as an evil, you find it diminished by the idea of its being temporary. "We shall rest for a season, and stand in our lot in the latter days." Tho' death is the last enemy that will be overcome, yet he must at last submit, and we trust that ourselves with many who have gone before us, will have the benefit of the promise. I trust you have seen a tribute of respect to the memory of the General in last Thursday's Chronicle.1 It would have found its way there sooner, if I had not expected it from some other quarter. My respects to your sons and connections. I am Madam with perfect respect Your most obedient Servant JAMES WINTHROP For a rarity this letter was written without the aid of glasses and revised with them. HARRISON GRAY OTIS TO MERCY WARREN BOSTON, 4 feby., 1809 MY DEAR AUNT,- If I could allow the right of any person to interrogate me as to "what I am about," you may well suppose that there is no individual of your political party, whom I would prefer for a confessor to your much respected self. But it certainly must occur to you that if I have really turned conspirator against the State, I ought not to put it even in your power to hang me; nor even to write a letter which under the present arbitrary government, might by a forced construction, if found by accident, be construed into evidence of treason. Your enquiry therefore if it extends to my secret machinations, you must permit me to decline, and if it applies only to my overt acts, it is superfluous, as they will appear on record in the public and political bodies. with which I am associated. 1 December 8. |