and there being no money in hand to pay the bills, he could find no one who would furnish it on the credit of the Commonwealth, and he was obliged to pledge his own personal responsibility for the amount! The credit of this humble but honest and patriotic Messenger of the General Court was thus better than that of the Commonwealth itself! But an appeal was made, where it has never been made in vain, to the merchants and other men of property of Boston, and was seconded by the liberal example of Bowdoin himself, and funds enough were speedily raised, by voluntary subscription, for carrying on the measures of defence, which had now become necessary for the safety of the State. A special session of the Legislature was convened; the militia in all parts of the Commonwealth were called on to hold themselves in readiness for service, and many of them summoned at once into the field; and after a few months of vigilant and vigorous exercise of the whole civil and military power which the Constitution and the laws intrusted to him, Bowdoin had the unspeakable happiness to find Order again esta blished, Peace restored, and Liberty and Law triumphantly reconciled. He had excellent counsellors about him, and gallant officers under him, in this emergency; and he knew how to employ them and trust them. The brave and admirable Benjamin Lincoln, to whom the chief command was assigned, and who, in conducting the principal expedition against the insurgents, gathered fresh laurels for a brow already thickly bound with the victorious wreaths of the Revolution; the gallant John Brooks, afterwards the distinguished and popular governor of the State; the chivalrous Cobb, who, being at once chief justice of the Bristol courts and commander of the Bristol militia, declared he "would sit as a judge, or die as a general;" the prudent yet fearless Shepard; these, and many more whom the accomplished Minot, in his history of the rebellion, has sufficiently designated, rendered services on the occasion which will never be forgotten. But nobody has ever doubted that, to the lofty principle, the calm prudence, the wise discretion, and the indomitable firmness of Bowdoin, the result was primarily due, and that his name is entitled to go down in the history of the country, as preeminently the leader in that first great vindication of Law and Order within the limits of our American Republic. In the course which he was obliged to pursue, however, for this end, cause of offence could hardly fail of being given to large masses of the people. An idea, too, extensively prevailed, that Bowdoin would be sterner than another in enforcing the punishment of the guilty parties, and stricter than another in exacting the payment of the taxes still due. During the latter part of the year, too, the Legislature had passed a bill reducing the Governor's salary; and Bowdoin, holding this measure to be inconsistent at once with the true spirit and with the express letter of the Constitution, had not scrupled to veto it. He clearly foresaw that this act would conspire with other circumstances in preventing his reëlection to the executive chair. He resolved, however, not to shrink from the canvass, nobly declaring, that "his inclination would lead him to retirement, but if it should be thought he could be further serviceable to the Commonwealth, he would not desert it." Defendi rempublicam adolescens; non deseram senex. His predictions were realized, and at the next election, Hancock, having accepted a nomination in opposition to him, was again chosen Governor of Massachusetts. It would have been an ample compensation for any degree of mortification which Bowdoin could have felt at this defeat, could he have known, as he doubtless did before his death, and as is well understood now, that the ratification of the Federal Constitution by the Convention of Massachusetts was unquestionably brought about by this concession on the part of his political friends to the demands of their opponents. He would have counted no sacrifice of himself too great to accomplish such a result. But Bowdoin was to be permitted to aid in the accomplishment of that result in a more direct and agreeable manner. Once more, and for the last time, he was to be employed in the service of the Commonwealth and the Country. A Constitution, embodying the great principle of the Regulation of Trade by a General Union, was at length framed by the National Convention at Philadelphia, and submitted to the adoption of the people. The Massachusetts Convention assembled to consider it in January, 1788. Bowdoin was a delegate from Boston, and had the satisfaction of finding his son by his side, as a delegate from Dorchester. Both gave their ardent and unhesitating support to the new instrument of government, and both made formal speeches in its favor. The elder Bowdoin concluded his remarks with a sentiment, which will still strike a chord in every true American heart, "If the Constitution should be finally accepted and established, it will complete the temple of American liberty, and, like the keystone of a grand and magnificent arch, be the bond of union to keep all the parts firm and compacted together. May this temple, sacred to liberty and virtue,-sacred to justice, the first and greatest political virtue, and built upon the broad and solid foundation of perfect union, - be dissoluble only by the dissolution of nature! and may this Convention have the distinguished honor of erecting one of its pillars on that lasting foundation!" It was Bowdoin's happiness to live to see this wish accomplished, to see the Federal Constitution adopted and the Government organized under it, and to welcome beneath his own roof his illustrious friend, General Washington, on his visit to Boston in 1789, as the First President of the United States. He was now, however, a private citizen, and had transferred his attention again to those philosophical pursuits, which had engaged him in his earliest manhood. Indeed, his interest in literature and science had never been suspended. A little volume of verses, published anonymously by him in 1759, proves that poetry as well as philosophy was an object of his youthful homage. He was long connected with the Government of Harvard College, and always manifested the most earnest devotion to her welfare. In 1780, he was foremost among the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was their President from their first organization to his death. To the transactions of the Academy he contributed several elaborate Memoirs, in regard to which I borrow the language of the accomplished Lowell, who, at the request of the Academy, pronounced the eulogy from which I have already repeatedly quoted, and who, undoubtedly, gave utterance to the judgment of his learned associates. "The first, (says he,) was an ingenious and perspicuous vindication of Sir Isaac Newton's Theory of Light from objections which Dr. Franklin had raised. The two others were also on the subject of Light; and an attempt to account for the manner in which the waste of matter in the sun and fixed stars, by the constant efflux of light from them, is repaired. "These Memoirs (he adds) afford conclusive evidence that Mr. Bowdoin was deeply conversant in the principles of natural philosophy; and though the latter memoir suggests a theory which may be liable to some objections, yet the novelty of it and the ingenious manner in which he has considered it, discovers an inquisitive mind, and a boldness of ideas beyond those, who, though learned in the knowledge of others, are too feeble to venture on new and unexplored paths of science." The correspondence between Bowdoin and Franklin on questions of science was now renewed, and it will be interesting, I am sure, to follow them once more, for a single moment, in some of the speculations of their closing years. "Our ancient correspondence (says Franklin, in a letter dated 31st May, 1788,) used to have something philosophical in it. As you are now free from public cares, and I expect to be so in a few months, why may we not resume that kind of correspondence?" And he then proceeds to suggest some fifteen or twenty questions, relating to magnetism and the theory of the earth, for their mutual consideration and discussion. Among others, he inquires," May not a magnetic power exist throughout our system, perhaps through all systems, so that if a man could make a voyage in the starry regions, a compass might be of use?" Bowdoin, in his reply of June 28, 1788, after expressing his doubt whether Franklin would even yet be spared from the public service, proceeds to say,-"If, however, you choose to recede from politics, it will be a happy circumstance in a philosophical view, as we may expect many advantages to be derived from it to science. I have read, (says he,) and repeatedly read, your ingenious queries concerning the cause of the earth's magnetism and polarity, and those relating to the theory of the earth. By the former, you seem to suppose that a similar magnetism and polarity may take place, not only throughout the whole solar system, but all other systems, so that a compass might be useful, if a voyage in the starry regions were practicable. I thank you for this noble and highly pleasurable suggestion, and have already enjoyed it. I have pleased myself with the idea that, when we drop this heavy, earth-attracted body, we shall assume an ethereal one; and, in some vehicle proper for the purpose, perform voyages from planet to planet, with the utmost ease and expedition, and with much less uncertainty than voyages are performed on our ocean from port to port. I shall be very happy in making such excursions with you, when we shall be better qualified to investigate causes, by discerning with more clearness and precision their effects. In the mean time, my dear friend, until that happy period arrives, I hope your attention to the subject of your queries will be productive of discoveries useful and important, such as will entitle you to a higher compliment than was paid to Newton by Pope, in the character of his Superior Beings; with this difference, however, that it be paid by those Beings themselves." Little dreamed these veteran philosophers and friends, how soon the truth of their pleasant theories was to be tested, and how almost simultaneously they were indeed about to enter upon an excursion to the stars! On the 17th of April, 1790, Franklin died, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. On the 6th of November, of the same year, at the earlier age of sixty-four years, borne down by the pressure of severe disease, Bowdoin followed him to the grave. The death of Bowdoin was in admirable keeping with his life. "Inspired by religion, (says the obituary of the time,) and upheld by the Father of Mercies, he endured a most painful sickness with the greatest firmness and patience, and received the stroke of death with a calmness, a resignation, and composure, that marked the truly great and good man." He had not contented himself with a life of unstained purity and unstinted benevolence; nor had he postponed the more serious preparations for death to the scanty and precarious *"Superior Beings, when of late they saw |