From a correspondence between Mr. John Adams, late president of the United States, and William Wirt, Esq. of Virginia, the biographer of Patrick Henry, it would seem that the declaration, "We must fight," which Mr. Wirt had claimed for Mr. Henry, was derived from a letter which he himself had shown to Mr. Henry, written by major Hawley, in 1774. Mr. Adams, in a letter to Mr. Wirt, dated Quincy, January 23, 1818, says, "When congress had finished their business, as they thought, in the autumn of 1774, I had, with Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction that our resolves, declaration of rights, enumeration of wrongs, petitions, remonstrances and addresses, associations, and nonimportation agreements, however they might be expected in America, and however necessary to cement the union of the colonies, would be but waste water in England. Mr. Henry said they might make some impression among the people of England, but agreed with me that they would be totally lost upon the government. I had just received a short and hasty letter, written to me by major Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, containing a few broken hints, as he called them, of what he thought was proper to be done, and concluding with these words, 'AFTER ALL WE MUST FIGHT.' This letter I read to Mr. Henry, who listened with great attention, and as soon as I had pronounced the words, 'after all we must fight,' he raised his head, and, with an energy and vehemence that I never can forget, broke out with 'By I am of that man's mind.' I put the letter into his hand, and when he had read it he returned it to me, with an equally solemn asseveration, that he agreed entirely in opinion with the writer. I considered this as a sacred oath. upon a very great occasion, and could have sworn it as religiously as he did, and by no means inconsistent with what you say, in some part of your book, that he never took the Sacred Name in vain.”

"As I knew the sentiments with which Mr. Henry left congress in the autumn of 1774, and knew the chapter and verse from which he had borrowed the sublime expression, 'We must fight,' I was not at all surprised at your history, in the 122d page, in the note, and in some of the preceding and following pages. Mr. Henry only pursued in March, 1775, the views and vows of November, 1774.

"The other delegates from Virginia returned to their state in full confidence, that all our grievances would be redressed. The last words that Mr. Richard Henry Lee said to me when we parted, were, we shall infallibly carry all our points. You will be completely relieved; all the offensive acts will be repeal

ed; the army and fleet will be recalled, and Britain will give up her foolish project.'

"Washington only was in doubt. He never spoke in public. In private he joined with those, who advocated a nonexportation, as well as a non-importation agreement. With both he thought we should prevail; without either, he thought it doubtful. Henry was clear in one opinion, Richard Henry Lee in an opposite opinion, and Washington doubted between the two. Henry, however, appeared in the end to be exactly in the right."

In 1819, president Adams communicated the 'broken hints, alluded to in the foregoing, to H. Niles. Esq. which are inserted at length in Mr. Niles's valuable work, entitled, "Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America," a work which ought to be in the library of every man who venerates the principles and the men of '76. We here insert an extract from the "broken hints."

"We must fight, if we can't otherwise rid ourselves of British taxation, all revenues, and the constitution or form of government enacted for us by the British parliament. It is evil against right; utterly intolerable to every man who has any idea or feeling of right or liberty.

"It is easy to demonstrate that the regulation act will soon annihilate every thing of value in the charter, introduce perfect despotism, and render the house of representatives a mere form and ministerial engine.

"It is now or never, that we must assert our liberty.Twenty years will make the number of tories on this continent equal to the number of whigs. They who shall be born will not have any idea of a free government.

"It will necessarily be a question, whether the new government of this province shall be suffered to take place at all; or whether it shall be immediately withstood and resisted?

"A most important question this; I humbly conceive it not best forcibly or wholly to resist it immediately.

"There is not heat enough yet for battle. Constant, and a sort of negative resistance of government, will increase the heat and blow the fire. There is not military skill enough. That is improving, and must be encouraged and improved, but will daily increase.

"Fight we must, finally, unless Britain retreats.

"But it is of infinite consequence that victory be the end and issue of hostilities. If we get to fighting before necessary dispositions are made for it, we shall be conquered, and alt will be lost forever.

"Our salvation depends upon an established persevering union of the colonies.

"The tools of administration are using every device and effort to destroy that union, and they will certainly continue so to do.

"Thereupon, all possible devices and endeavors must be used to establish, improve, brighten, and maintain such union. "Every grievance of any one colony must be held and considered by the whole as a grievance to the whole, and must operate on the whole as a grievance to the whole. This will be a difficult matter to effect: but it must be done.

"Quere, therefore: whether is it not absolutely necessary that some plan be settled for a continuation of congresses?— But here we must be aware that congresses will soon be declared and enacted by parliament, to be high treason.

"Is the India company to be compensated or not?

"If to be compensated; each colony to pay the particular damage she has done, or is an average to be made on the continent?

"The destruction of the tea was not unjust; therefore, to what good purpose is the tea to be paid for, unless we are assured that, by so doing, our rights will be restored and peace obtained?

"What future measures is the continent to preserve with regard to imported dutied tea, whether it comes as East India property or otherwise, under the pretence and lie that the tea is imported from Holland, and the goods imported before a certain given day? Dutied tea will be imported and consumed; goods continue to be imported; your non-importation agreement eluded, rendered contemptible and ridiculous; unless all teas used, and all goods, are taken into some public custody which will be inviolably faithful."

Major Hawley did not appear in the legislature after the year 1776, but he never relaxed his zeal in the service of his country, and was ready to contribute his efforts to the public service. By his private exertions he rendered assistance at some very critical and discouraging periods. At the season when the prospects of the American army were the most gloomy, when the Jerseys were overrun, and the feelings of many were on the verge of despondency, he exerted himself with great activity and success, to rally the spirits of his fellow-citizens. At this time, when apathy appeared stealing upon the country, and the people were reluctant to march, on a seemingly desperate enterprise, he addressed a body of militia to urge them to volunteer as recruits. His manly eloquence, his powerful appeals to their pride, their patriotism, their duty, to every thing which they held dear and sacred, awakened their dormant feelings, and excited them to enthu siasm.

Major Hawley was a sincerely religious and pious man, but here, as in politics, he loathed all tyranny and fanatical usurpation. In the latter part of 1776, he was afflicted with hypochondriacal disorders, to which he had been frequently subject in former periods of his life; and after this declined public business. He died, March 10, 1788, aged sixty-four years.

Major Hawley was a patriot without personal animosities, an orator without vanity, a lawyer without chicanery, and a gentleman without ostentation; a statesman without duplicity, and a christian without bigotry. As a man of commanding talents, his firm renunciation and self-denial of all ambitious views, would have secured him that respect which such strength of mind inevitably inspires; while his voluntary and zealous devotion to the service of his countrymen, established him in their affection. His uprightness and plainness, united to his affability and disinterestedness, gave most extensive influence to his opinions, and in a period of doubt, divisions and danger, men sought relief from their perplexities in his authority, and suffered their course to be guided by him; when they distrusted their own judgments, or the counsels of others. He, in fine, formed one of those manly, public spirited, and generous citizens, ready to share peril and decline reward, who illustrate the idea of a commonwealth, and who, through the obstructions of human passions and infirmities, being of rare occurrence, will always be the most admired, appropriate, and noble ornaments of a free government.

HAYNE, ISAAC, a martyr to American liberty, during the revolutionary war, served his country as an officer of militia, during the siege of Charleston, South Carolina. After the city had fallen into the hands of the British, lord Cornwallis issued a proclamation, requiring of the inhabitants of the colony, that they should no longer take part in the contest, but continue peaceably at their homes, and they should be most sacredly protected in property and person. This was accompanied with an instrument of neutrality, which soon obtained the signatures of many of the citizens of South Carolina, among whom was colonel Hayne. There was no alternative left him, but to abandon his family and property, or to surrender to the conquerors. The small pox was near his plantation, and he had a wife and six small children, and more than one hundred negroes, all liable to the disease. To acknowledge himself the subject of a government which he had from principle renounced, was repugnant to his feelings; but, without this, he was cut off from every prospect of return to his family.

In this embarrassing situation, he waited on Dr. Ramsay,

with a declaration to the following effect. "If the British would grant me the indulgence which we in the day of our power gave to their adherents, of removing my family and property, I would seek an asylum in the remotest corner of the United States, rather than submit to their government; but, as they allow no other alternative than submission or confinement in the capital, at a distance from my wife and family, at a time when they are in the most pressing need of my presence and support, I must for the present yield to the demands of the conquerors. I request you to bear in mind, that previous to my taking this step, I declare that it is contrary to my inclination, and forced on me by hard necessity. I never will bear arms against my country. My new masters can require no service of me, but what is enjoined by the old militia law of the province, which substitutes a fine in lieu of personal service. This I will pay as the price of my protection. If my conduct should be censured by my countrymen, I beg that you would remember this conversation, and bear witness for me, that I do not mean to desert the cause of America."

In this state of perplexity, colonel Hayne subscribed a declaration of his allegiance to the king of Great Britain; but not without expressly objecting to the clause which required him with his arms to support the royal government. The commandant of the garrison, Brigadier general Patterson and James Simpson, Esquire, intendent of the British police, assured him that this would never be required; and added further, that when the regular forces could not defend the country, without the aid of its inhabitants, it would be high time for the royal army to quit it. Having submitted to the royal goverment, he was permitted to return to his family. Notwithstanding what had passed at the time of his submission, he was repeatedly called on to take arms against his countrymen, and finally threatened with close confinement in case of a further refusal. This he considered as a breach of contract, and it being no longer in the power of the British to give him that protection which was to be the compensation of his allegiance, he viewed himself as released from all engagements to their commanders.

Colonel Hayne now being compelled, in violation of the most solemn compact, to take up arms, resolved that the invaders of his native country should be the objects of his vengeance. He withdrew from the British, and was invested with a command in the continental service; but it was soon his hard fortune to be captured by the enemy and carried into Charleston. Lord Rawdon, the commandant, immediately ordered him to be loaded with irons, and, after a sort of a mock