merely his arguments, but a liberal contribution from his limited resources. His Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of the Africans; showing it to be the Duty and Interest of the American States to Emancipate all their Slaves, was published in 1776, with a dedication to the Continental Congress. In literary industry he was of the school of Edwards, having been engaged at times eighteen hours a day in his studies. His publications are three sermons-Sin through Divine Interposition an Advantage to the Universe, and yet this no Excuse for Sin or Encouragement to it, 1759; An Inquiry concerning the Promises of the Gospel, whether any of them are made to the Exercises and Doings of Persons in an Unregenerate State, containing remarks on two sermons by Dr. Mayhew, 1765; on the Divinity of Christ, 1768, and several other discourses, embracing points of his peculiar views, which he set forth systematically in the System of Doctrines, contained in Divine Revelation, in 1793. He wrote also the Life of Susannah Anthony, 1796, and of Mrs. Osborn, 1798, and left sketches of his life, written by himself, and several theological tracts, published by Dr. West, of Stockbridge, in 1805. SAMSON OCCOM. SAMSON OCCоM, a Mohegan Indian, was born at Mohegan, on the Thames river, Connecticut, about the year 1723. He wandered through the vicinity with his parents, who lived after the vagrant manner of their tribe, until during a visit to his neighborhood by several clergymen of the adjoining settlements, he became subject to religious impressions, and was induced to devote his future career to the spiritual education of his people. He was at the age of nineteen an inmate of Mr. Wheelock's school at Lebanon, for the education of Indians, an institution which led to the foundation of Dartmouth College, where he remained four years. In 1748, he taught a school for a short time in New London, and then removing to Long Island, again taught a school, and preached among the Montauk Indians, residing at East Hampton, where he eked out a living by hunting and fishing, binding books, making wooden spoons, stocking guns, and working as a cooper. He was regularly ordained, Aug. 29, 1759. In 1766 he was sent by Wheelock with Mr. Whittaker, the minister of Norwich, to England, in behalf of the Indian Charity School, endowed by Moor. From February 16, 1766, to July 22, 1767, he preached in various parts of the country, from three to four hundred sermons, to crowded audiences, and received much attention. On his return he remained for some time at Mohegan, and in 1786 removed with a number of Indians of that neighborhood to Brotherton, near Utica, New York, where a tract of land had been granted by the Oneidas. He afterwards resided among the Stockbridge Indians, who had been previously instructed in Christianity by Edwards, and received a tract near the lands of the Mohegans, where he died in July, 1792. His funeral was attended by over six hundred Indians. Occom published a sermon on the execution of Moses Paul, at New Haven, Sept. 2, 1772, and Wet Lis ingetor of Livingston, by patent dated July 22, 1686. He took an active part in colonial affairs, and died about 1726. His son Philip succeeded to the estate and married Catherine, daughter of Peter Van Brugh of Albany, in which city their fifth child, William, was born in November, 1723. A year of his boyhood was passed with a missionary among the Mohock Indians, during which he acquired a knowledge of the language and manners of the tribe which was of much service to him subsequently. In 1737 he entered Yale College, and was graduated at the head of his class in 1741. He studied law in the City of New York with Mr. James Alexander. Two essays, which he published under the signature Tyro Philolegis, in *Wheelock's Brief Narrative of the Indian Charity School. A letter from the Rev. John Devotion, of Saybrook, to Rev. Dr. Styles, in closing Mr. Occom's account of the Montauk Indians. A.D. 1761. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., First Series, x. 106. Parker's New York Weekly Post Boy, August 19, 1745, probably his first published compositions, on the mode of studying law, which then and now prevails, offended his instructor, and led to his withdrawal to the office of Mr. William Smith, with whom he completed his course. While a student he married Susannah, daughter of Philip French. In 1747 he issued his Poem entitled Philosophic Solitude. In 1752, in pursuance of an act of the legislature, he published, with William Smith, Jr., the first digest of the Colony Laws; and in the same year commenced a weekly political and miscellaneous journal of four pages folio, containing essays and correspondence on the model of the Spectator, The Independent Reflector. It was conducted with spirit, and made a stir, being on one occasion denounced from the pulpit. It entered warmly into the discussion relative to the religious formation of the Board of Trustees of King's, afterwards Columbia College, seven of whom were, by the act of November, 1751, vesting the funds raised by lotteries for the future institution, to be of the Episcopal, two of the Dutch, and one (Livingston himself) of the Presbyterian denominations. The publication closed in consequence of the outcry made against it, with the fifty-second number. In 1754 he published several of a series of communications entitled The Watch Tower, in Hugh Gaine's Mercury, on the still agitated topic of King's College. In 1757 he issued a work, first published in London, entitled, A Review of the Military Operations in North America, from the commencement of French hostilities on the frontiers of Virginia in 1753, to the surrender of Oswego on the 14th April, 1756, in a Letter to a Nobleman. It was written in defence of Governor Shirley. In the same year he published a funeral eulogium on the Rev. Aaron Burr, President of the College of New Jersey. In 1758, Livingston was elected from his brother's manor a member of the Assembly, as a representative of the opposition to the De Lancey or church party, which the King's College controversy had contributed to form. In 1765 he published a series of Essays entitled The Sentinel, in Holt's New York Weekly Post Boy. One of the most striking of these is entitled, A New Sermon to an Old Text. Touch not mine anointed; in which his design is to show that the "anointed" are not the monarchs but the people. These extended to twenty-eight numbers. His next publication was a pamphlet on the proposed American Episcopate, in answer to some strictures on the colonies by the Bishop of Llandaff. He also wrote some of the articles on the same subject which appeared under the title of The American Whig, in the New York Gazette. This subject was one fiercely contested in New York and Philadelphia, as well as New England. The opposition to the measure was based on political jealousy of a union of church and state, which it was feared would follow the introduction of bishops, more than on sectarian grounds, a fact proved by the unopposed establishment of the American Episcopate after the revolution. In 1770, Mr. Livingston published A Soliloquy, a pamphlet reflecting severely on Governor Colden. In 1772 he retired to a country-seat, to which he gave the genial name of Liberty Hall, at Elizabethtown, New Jer sey. The progress of the Revolution did not, however, permit the fulfilment of his long cherished desire for rural retirement. In 1774 he was elected a delegate to the continental congress. He was reelected the following year, but recalled on the 5th of June to take command as brigadier-general of the militia of his native state, at Elizabethtown Point. In 1776 he was elected governor of the state. During his administration he published several essays under the signature of Hortensius, in the New Jersey Gazette, a paper established to oppose Rivington's Royal Gazette, which was especially virulent against the "Don Quixote of the Jerseys," as it unceremoniously styles the Governor. He also wrote under the same signature, in 1779, in the United States Magazine, published in Philadelphia, but soon after ascertaining that several members of the Legislature had expressed "their dissatisfaction, that the chief magistrate of the state should contribute to the periodicals, he discontinued his communications altogether." Governor Livingston's correspondence shows the high estimation in which his services to the nation throughout the war were appreciated by Washington and his fellow patriots, and the repeated attempts made by the enemy to surround his house and capture his person, bear a like honorable testimony to his efficiency. He supported not only the military, but what was perhaps more rare, the financial measures of Congress, declining, on one occasion, to appoint an individual to the office of postmaster on the ground that he had refused to take continental money. In 1785 he was elected Minister to the Court of Holland, but declined the appointment. In the next year he resumed his contributions to the press under the title of The Primitive Whig, in Collins's New Jersey Gazette. In 1787 he exerted himself in obtaining materials for Morse's Geography, and in correcting the sheets of the work, which appeared at Elizabethtown, 1789, with a dedication to the governor. In 1787 he was also appointed a delegate to the Federal Convention. He was an active member, though not a prominent debater, of that body. In June, 1790, he was attacked by a dropsy; which put an end to his life, while still governor of the state, on Sunday, July 25, 1790. FROM THE POEM, PHILOSOPHIC SOLITUDE. Let ardent heroes seek renown in arms, And dunces cringe, to be esteem'd at court; Far from the painted belle, and white-glov'd beau, Full in the centre of some shady grove, By nature form'd for solitude and love: On banks array'd with ever-blooming flowers, Near beauteous landscapes, or by roseate bowers, My neat, but simple mansion I would raise, Unlike the sumptuous domes of modern days; Devoid of pomp, with rural plainness form'd, With savage game, and glossy shells adorn'd. No costly furniture should grace my hall; But curling vines ascend against the wall, Whose pliant branches should luxuriant twine, While purple clusters swell'd with future wine: To slake my thirst a liquid lapse distil From craggy rocks, and spread a limpid rill. Along my mansion, spiry firs should grow, And gloomy yews extend the shady row: The cedars flourish, and the poplars rise, Sublimely tall, and shoot into the skies: Among the leaves, refreshing zephyrs play, And crowding trees exclude the noon-tide ray; Whereon the birds their downy nests should form, Securely shelter'd from the battering storm; And to melodious notes their choir apply, Soon as Aurora blush'd along the sky: While all around th' enchanting music rings, And ev'ry vocal grove responsive sings. Me to sequester'd scenes ye muses guide, Where nature wantons in her virgin pride; To mossy banks, edg'd round with op'ning flowers, Elysian fields and amaranthine bowers, To ambrosial founts, and sleep-inspiring rills, To herbag'd vales, gay lawns, and sunny hills. Welcome, ye shades! all hail, ye vernal blooms! Ye bow'ry thickets, and prophetic glooms! Ye forests, hail! ye solitary woods! Love-whispering groves, and silver-streaming floods: * A Memoir of the Life of William Livingston, Member of Congress in 1774, 1775, and 1776: Delegate to the Federal Convention in 1787, and Governor of the State of New Jersey from 1776 to 1790, with extracts from his correspondence, and notices of various members of his family. By Theodore Sedgwick, Jun. New York. 1883. Ye meads, that aromatic sweets exhale! No trumpets there with martial clangor sound, Gay, rosy-bosom'd Spring, and April show'rs, The ruffling cares, which the vex'd soul annoy, Th' insidious foe, and false, designing friend, And S's rage, that burns without controul; FAVORITE BOOKS. - But to improve the intellectual mind, Embroidered purple clad the Tyrian queen, Thro' the thick squadrons see the hero bound! The far-fam'd bards that grac'd Britannia's isle, Eternal adamant, and burning gold! Then tuneful Pope, whom all the nine inspire, Who scorns th' applause of the licentious stage rage, Compels my thoughts to wing th' heav'nly road. To paint Religion in her native light, Not then with plays the lab ring press would groan, These for delight. For profit I would read Him whom ungrateful Athens doom'd to bleed, And scann'd the unfathomable works of God! A WIFE. By love directed, I would choose a wife, To improve my bliss, and ease the load of life. Hail, wedlock! hail, inviolable tye! Perpetual fountain of domestic joy! Love, friendship, honour, truth, and pure delight Harmonious mingle in the nuptial rite. In Eden, first the holy state began, When perfect innocence distinguish'd man; The human pair, the Almighty pontiff led, Gay as the morning, to the bridal bed; A dread solemnity the espousals grac'd, Angels the witnesses and God the priest ! All earth exulted on the nuptial hour, And voluntary roses deck'd the bow'r; The joyous birds on every blossom'd spray, Sung hymeneans to the important day, While Philomela swell'd the spousal song, And Paradise with gratulation rung. Relate, inspiring muse! where shall I find JAMES OTIS. Lo! round the board a shining train appears When last at church the gaudy nymph was seen; The fragrant unguent, and the ambrosial shower; Not so the lass that should my joys improve, The flatt'ring coxcomb, and fantastic beau. Or where cool shades imbrown the noon-tide bow'rs I'd reign the happy monarch of her charms; CONCLUSION. And when decrepid age (frail mortals' doom) JAMES OTIS, THE first writer of the Revolution, was born in successor. |