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   Historical Mag.December, 1857.
 
 
1857.1                        HISTORICAL  MAGAZINE.                        363
order, it  is said, to respect his  feelings —females
being allowed to vote in that religious society —
the act was so drawn by the committee as to read
" he or she " when referring to the qualified voter ;
and although this act was repealed in 1797, anew
act passed on the 22d February of that year, and
which took effect on the 1st March, 1798, retained
the same phraseology.  Under  this  law, and  not
before, Mr.  Parker states that some females voted
in Elizabethtown at a contested election for Coun-
cilmen;  and in the Presidential contest of 1800
there were many instances of their voting in differ-
ent parts of the State ; and thereafter, until the
passage  of the act of 1807, to which  I have  re-
ferred, the  practice continued  in various places
when contests were  animated  or close.   At an
election in Hunterdon county in 1802 even some
women  of color were allowed to vote, and their
votes elected a member of the Legislature.
                                  W. A. W-
THE   RELICS  OF  GENERAL  JOSEPH
                  WARREN.
  A paper read before the New England Historical and
Gonealogical Society, Wednesday, November 4, 1857.
          BY JAMES S. LORIXG,  ESQ.
  It is  good to be here, and  for  an hour  turn
aside from  the financial agitations of State  Street,
and the political contests  of Faneuil Hall, which
shake the old Bay State to its very centre — and
indulge in  early historical associations.   I  regard
it as impossible to have cognizance of any warlike
weapons of our glorious  Revolution that  are of
more intensely absorbing iinpressiveness than the
sword of the great AVashington, and this veritable
sword  or rapier of our noble  Warren, [Here the
sword  of Warren  wk exhibited] tarnished, black-
ened and  rusted though it be, by the neglect of
four score years, wielded as it was on the field of
Lexington  and in skirmishes around Boston.  This
relic has been  loaned for exhibition here  by Dr.
John Mason Warren,  who is  a lineal descendant
of the brother of the martyr of Bunker Hill.  Ah,
valiant  Warren, even  at  this  moment thy scour-
ing rapier to its very hilt, is tinged with the blood
of Britons; and braver champion never unsheathed
from its scabbard " the sleeping sword of war," in
the cause of liberty.
  The  consecrated oration now in my hands [Here
the   autograph  manuscript of Warren's  Motion
Massacre  Oration was  exhibited]  which the  first
grcif martyr Warren  bore  through  the  pulpit
window of the  Old  South Church;  and, amid
the officers  and  soldiers of  garrisoned  Boston
delivered to  an indignant people,  was brought
here by ihe only sun of the present  Doctor War-
ren,  a'youth of fifteen.  May  lie  prove a worthy
scion of this patriot stock.  In every age of the
world, great reverence  has been  attached to the
relics of great  men and great events.  The coun-
cil of Constantinople in Trulio ordained that those
altars should be demolished under which no relics
were deposited.  In the autograph scrap-book, of
the son of Dr. John C. Warren, on the table be-
fore  us,  is preserved this original  manuscript of
General Warren's  Massacre Oration, which is of
greater value than  all the relics of ancient super-
stition when arrayed together.  This quarto man-
uscript of Warren  is  written on  white  English
laid  post, as  you   see, in  a  handsome round
hand, with very few interlineations; and is in  a
black  paper  cover.  This   antiquarian  rarity,
every sentence of which  burns  with  the fire of
patriotism, and which greatly accelerated the vig-
or of the people,  is perhaps of equal  value  to
Washington's  last legacy to his  countrymen, pur-
chased by the princely James  Lenox,  of New
York in  1850, for  the  sum  of twenty-three hun-
dred dollars.   May these great national relics ever
be preserved.  " I  will have  America at my feet,"
boasted  Lord  North.  " Were I  an American,"
nobly declared Lord Camden, " I would resist to
the last drop of my blood."  Warren was such an
American.
  It  is  stated by Rees, in  his Cyclopaedia, that
Warren himself hastened  to the  scene of action
at Lexington,  and was engaged in the hottest part
of the contest.   Moreover, Dr. John Eliot relates
that " at  the Battle of Lexington, General War-
ren was, perhaps, the most  active man in  the field.
His soul beat to arms, as soon as he learnt the in-
tention of the British  troops."  Warren said to
the last person with whom he conversed in Bos-
ton near the ferry, just as  he was  about  crossing,
in reply to a question regarding the political as-
pect, " Keep up a brave heart.  The British have
begun  it — that either  party could do; and we
will  end it — that only one can  do."   Accord-
ing  to  Frothingham,  Dr.  Warren,  about  ten
o'clock, rode on horseback through Charlestown.
He had  received by express, intelligence of the
events of the  morning, and  told the citizens  of
Charlestown that the news of the firing  was true.
Among them he met Dr. Thomas Welsh, one  of
the orators of the  Boston  Massacre, who said to
him,  " Well,  they  are  come out."   "Yes," re-
plied Warren, " and we will be up with them be-
fore night."  Shortly after this,  Warren was upon
the field at Lexington, and  Dr. James  Thacher
states that the  people were delighted with his cool,
collected bravery there, and already considered him
as a  leader whose gallantry  they were to admire,
and in whose talents they were to confide. Doubt-
less the valor  of "Warren  could be measured by
no instance short of that related by General Lamb
in reference to Alexander Hamilton at the storm- 
364
HISTORICAL   MAGAZINE.
| December,
  ing of York town, when the palisades were scaled :
  who  placing one foot on the shoulder of a soldier
  who  knelt for that purpose, sprang upon the para-
  pets, and was the first man within the wall, an act
  worthy the days of chivalry.
    In the cabinet, of this society we have  the  do-
  nation of the sword, epaulets  and military  sash
  worn by  General  AVilliam  Heath,  of Roxbury,
  during his service in the war of the  Revolution.
  [Here  these  relics  were  exhibited.]   The  well
  burnished blade of his sword glitters on this table.
  It  did good  service  at Lexington.   As General
  AVarren rode beside him in that fight, we will cite
  a passage from Gen. Heath's narrative of the bat-
  tle.  Gen. Heath on the morning of the 19th Apl.
  17 7.">, proceeded to  the  Committee of Safety, of
  which Gen.  A\rarren was the vigilant chairman.
  From the committee Gen. Heath took a cross road
  to AVatertown, the British being in possession of
  the Lexington road.   At AVatertown, finding some
  militia who had not  marched, but applied for or-
  ders,  he sent them down to  Cambridge, with  di-
  rections to take up the planks, barricade the south
  end of the bridge, and there to  take post;  that in
  case the British should, on their return, take that
  road  to Boston, their retreat might be impeded.
  He then pushed to join the  militia, taking a cross
  road  towards Lexington,  in which  he was joined
  by  Dr. Joseph AVarren, afterwards a major gen-
  eral, who in  the language  of Gen. Heath, " kept
  with  him."   Our General joined  the militia just-
  after  Lord Percy had joined the British ;  " and
  having assisted in forming a regiment, which had
  been  broken  by the  shot from the British field
 pieces ; for the discharge of these, together with the
 flames and smoke of several buildings to which the
 British nearly at the same  time had set fire, opened
 a new and  more terrific  scene ; and the British
 having again  taken up their retreat, were closely
 pursued."   On descending from the high grounds
 in Menotomy, on to the plain, the fire was brisk.
 At this instant a musket ball came so near to the
 head of Dr. AVarren as to strike the pin  out of the
 hair of his earlock.   Here we must digress for an
 allusion to a singular oversight  in  the  Hundred
 Orators where we state that  this event occurred
 on the day after the Battle of Lexington, when it
 should read  on the day of the battle.   How evi-
 dent is it that authors  are responsible to the liter-
 ary tribunal for every error stated.
  Soon after, the right flank of the British was
 exposed to  the fire  of a  body of militia, which
 had come  from Roxbury, Brookline, Dorchester
 and  other towns.   For a few minutes, the fire
 was brisk on both sides ; and the British had here
recourse to their fieldpieces again ; but they were
now  more familiar than before.   Here the militia
were so close on  the rear  of the British, that Dr
Downer, an active and enterprising man, came to
  single  combat  with a British soldier  whom he
  killed with his bayonet.
    On the day succeeding the battle of Lexington,
  where was first shed the blood of the Revolution,
  Joseph AVarren, who had but just eseaped with his
  life, felt it his duty as president of the Provincial
  Congress, to address a dignified letter to General
  Gage in reference to our besieged, degraded, and
  garrisoned Boston.  Here we must take occasion
  to allude to a  passage in the prize essay of the
  Abbe Raynal on " The Revolution  in America,"
  written for the Academy of Science, Polite Liter-
  ature and Art, at Lyons. France, in 1783,  for which
  he was awarded the sum of fifty Louis d'or.  Ray-
  nal  thus defines  the  powers  and duties of  the
  President of the Provincial Congress : "  The exe-
  cutive power was committed to ks president.  His
  rights and obligations were to listen  to every ap-
  plication from any of the people ;  to call them to-
  gether when circumstances might require it,  to
  provide for the arming, and subsisting of the troops,
  and concert the  operations of them with their offi-
  cers.  He was at the head of a secret committee
  which was to hold a continual correspondence with
  the general congress."  I will now quote a portion
  ofAVarren's letter to Gage.  '• Your excellency,"
  remarks ATarren, "knows very well, I believe, the
  part I have taken in public affairs; I ever scorned
  disguise.   I think I have done my duty; some may
 think otherwise; but be assured' Sir, as far as my
 influence goes, everything which can be  reasona-
 bly  required of us to do, shall be  done,  every
 thing promised shall  be  religiously performed,  "i
 should now be very glad  to know from von, Sir,
 how many days you desire may be allowed for
 such as desire to remove to Boston with  their ef-
 fects, and what time you will  allow the people in
 Boston for their removal.   AVhen I have receh ed
 that information, I will  repair  to  Congress, and
 hasten, as far as I am able, the issuing of a procla-
 mation.  I beg leave to suggest that the condition
 of only  admitting  thirty wagons  at  a time into
 the town, appears to me very inconvenient, and
 will prevent the good effects of a proclamation in-
 tended to be issued for encouraging all wagoners to
 assist  m  removing the effects from Boston with all
 possible speed.  If your excellency will  be pleased
 to take the matter into consideration, and  favor us
 as soon as may be, with an answer,  it will  lay me
 under a  great obligation, as it nearly concerns the
 iceljare oj my friends in Boston."
  "I ever scorned disguise " — savs the ingenuous,
 magnanimous AVarren, to Thomas Gage^the  op-
 pressor of Boston.  Here we have AVarren's opin-
 ion of Gage ma letter  to Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.
 After stating that Gen.  Gage had rendered  the
entrenchments at the entrance  of Boston as formid-
able as he  possibly could, he states : » I have fre-
quently been sent to him on  committees, and have 
1857.]
HISTORICAL  MAGAZINE.
365
several times had private conversations with  him.
I have thought him a man of honest, upright prin-
ciples, and one desirous of accommodating the dif-
ference  between  Great Britain  and her colonies
in a just and honorable way.  He did not appear
to be desirous of continuing the quarrel in order to
make himself necessary, which is too often the case
with persons employed with public affairs ; " but a
copy of a letter via Philadelphia said to be written
by him to Lord North, gives  a very  different cast
to his character.   His answer to the Provincial
Congress, which was certainly ill-judged, I suppose
was  the work of some of that malicious group of
harpies whose disappointments make them desirous
to urge the governor to drive every thing to ex-
tremes ;  but  in  this letter, if it be  genuine, he
seems to court the office of a destroyer of the lib-
erties, and  murderer of the people of this province.
But you have doubtless read the paper and thought
with indignation of its contents."   AVarren said
to Quincy of the Bostonians in  1774, that " they
take an honest pride in being  singled out by a
tyrannical  administration as  the most  determined
enemies of arbitrary power."
   Having exhibited the visible and tangible indi-
cation of the devotion of General AVarren to the
independence of his  native land, which  was far
dearer to himself than his  own  life's  blood,  I in-
vite your attention to an indication of his devotion
to his God, in the possession of  the book of pure
piety, now before us, which was printed within one
year of three centuries  ago.   [Here  an  antique
book was exhibited.]   Perhaps the proof that this
volume was actually found in the pocket of War-
ren  after the Battle of Bunker Hill, is not so posi-
tive as is the evidence in relation to the sword, yet
we think it highly probable.
   A British soldier,  on his return from Boston to
London, exhibited a Psalm Book to the Rev. Dr.
 Samuel Wilton,  of that city, stating that he took
the  volume from  the  pocket  of  General AArarren,
after the Battle of Bunker Hill.  The title of this
great rarity  is as follows : " The Boke of Psalmes,
wherein are contained Praires, Meditations and
 Thanksgivings to God for his Church, translated
faithfully according  to the Hebrew.   With brief
and apt annotations  in  the  margin.   Printed at
 Geneva, by Rowland Hall, 1559."   It  is a sweet
little 32mo. volume.   On the inside  cover of this
 book is  written — " North America.   Taken at
 y Battle of Bunker  Hill,  June  17,  1775, out  of
 Dr. Warren's pocket."  On the inside cover, at
 the  end  of  the  volume, is  written  " Thomas
 Knight," probably the  name  of the  regular who
 found the  book. * I  was  informed  by  Dr. John
 C.  Warren, that  General  Warren's  autograph,
 which was on a  blank leaf, has been  abstracted.
 I <ri!her further information of this  relic from
 "fhe Genealogy of  AVarren,'by  Dr. John  C.
Warren," of Boston.   In  the  year  1776,  Dr.
Gordon, the historian, then of Roxbury, of whom
we have many animated reminiscences, received a
curious, ancient small book  of  Psalms from  an
English clergyman.   The edition, one of the ear-
liest translations of any part of the Bible, was ex-
ecuted during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and
printed at Geneva.   The typography is very fine.
The binding is in  a beautiful and  peculiar style,
being composed of goat skin, and  studded over
with gilt fleurs-de-lis, and is in every part still per-
fect.   The book is about two by three inches.  It
contains another inscription  on the back  of  the
title page, which informs us that it was purchased
of a private engaged in the Battle of Bunker Hill,
by an English clergyman, Dr. Samuel AVilton, who
gave ten  times its value, lest, as he says, it should
be exhibited in triumph as the spoil of a Presby-
terian rebel.   Dr. AVilton  sent it to Dr. Gordon,
with the  request, that it  should be  delivered to
surviving relatives, if any there were.  Dr. AVil-
ton died within three months after.  Dr. Gordon
faithfully executed the commission, consigning the
book to Dr. John AVarren, from whom  it passed
into the hands of Dr. John C. AVarren, its  recent
possessor.   It  is  now transmitted to Dr. John
Mason AArarren, who has kindly loaned it  for the
inspection of our antiquaries here.  I shall ever re-
member  my agreeably surprised sensation, when
the venerated  Dr.  Warren,  now  deceased, very
cautiously  presented this highly antique relic to
my view, when preparing the Hundred Orators,
before I had heard of its  existence, and  his ex-
treme care to prevent a copy of Dr. AVilton's  in-
scription from being taken.
   The fourth,  and  last ATarren relic  which  we
have here is, the  bullet that the Hon. Alexander
H. Everett exhibited at  Charlestown, June  17,
1836  [here  the  bullet was exhibited] on  the  de-
livery of an  anniversary  oration, which, he in-
formed the audience, was the identical ball that
killed  Gen. AVarren.  " The cartridge paper," ex-
claimed he, " which still partly covers it, is stained,
as you see, with the hero's  blood."  AVhile I re-
gard the evidence that the bullet was  one of the
balls  that entered  Warren's body as being  as
strong as that regarding the  identity of either the
Rapier or the antique Psalm Book, I see no evi-
dence that it was the actual  ball  that occasioned
his death.  The blood stains upon it will ever sanc-
tify the precious relic.  It is important to examine
the testimony of  the Rev. AVilliam Montague, for-
merly rector of Christ Church, in  Boston,  regard-
in" Arthur Savage, of London, who stated that he
removed the ball from the body of AArarren, after
 the battle, for evidence upon this subject.
   I would here enter a protest against  the un-
controllable passion among  our countrymen, and
| even  among  antiquaries,  for  the  varied relics 
^66
HISTORICAL   MAGAZINE.
[December,
 of eminently noted persons, or of great or singu-
 lar   events  in   the  world,  either  ancient  or
 modern.   AVere  every institution of  this char-
 acter to appoint a committee like the  Papal Court
 of Rome, which has its Congregation  of Relics, or
 Council of Cardinals, to superintend  the relics of
 every age, it would frequently be as impossible to
 separate the spurious from the genuine, as it ever
 has been with the Court of Rome.  Indeed I verily
 believe that  were  all the reputed relics of the Pil-
 grim Mayflower, of the year 1620, and of but 180
 tons burthen, carefully gathered on Boston Com-
 mon, they would  accumulate  to such  an immense
 extent that  the British steamer,  Great Eastern,
 could not contain  them.  Moreover, is not the au-
 tograph enthusiast quite liable to be  the most fre-
 quent victim of imposition ?   A lithographic fac-
 simile of Patrick  Henry, AVilliam Penn or  Alex-
 ander Hamilton may be palmed upon him  for  a
 round sum, as a pure original, and when redress is
 obtained, who next becomes the purchaser of the
 same  imitation V
   Admiralile, indeed, is it for the historian and
 the  biographer, that while conversational tradition
 is ever  changing  with the varying  memory of
 man, authentic autograph letters and other  docu-
 ments of past time give confirmation and rich de-
 velopments  of important  principles  and events,
 that otherwise could not be  established;  and it
 would be well for every household before they de-
 stroy the old letters and other  manuscripts in their
 dwellings, to take them to an autograph collector,
 or some learned neighbor, who will know  how  to
 estimate their value ; especially  those written by
 persons who  have  figured in  public life.   Those
 of the most ancient date will generally be the most
 highly valued.
   That noble patriot,  the ever  to be venerated
 John Adams, whose bust is in this Hall, in writing
 on the practice of the Provincial Congress of Massa-"
 chusetts, when they first formed their army, remarks
 of Joseph Warren, their president, that he was ac-
 customed to  make a harangue  in  the form of a
 charge in the presence of the assembly,  to every offi-
 cer, upon the delivery of his commission;  and he
 never failed to make the officer, as well as all  the
 assembly, shudder upon those occasions.  There is
 no question that his eloquence at such times, could
 be measured  by nothing short of his valor on the
 field of battle.
   " It is the  united voice of America," said AVar-
 ren  to Quincy, when alluding to  the Provincial
 Congress —" to preserve their  freedom,  or  lose
 their lives in defence  of it.  You would  have
 thought yourself in an assembly of Spartans or an-
 cient Romans had you been a witness to the ardor
 which  inspired those who  spoke upon  the  busi-
 ness they were transacting.  An  injunction of se-
crecy prevents my giving any particulars of their
 transactions, except such as by their express order
 were published in the papers ; but in general you
 may be assured that they approved themselves the
 true representatives of a wise and  brave people,
 determined at all events to be free."
   Our great  chronicler, Mr.  Adams, further re-
 marks on the decease of AATarren and  Quincy, in
 1775, that they were two characters as great in pro-
 portion to their age, —the former being but thirty-
 four, and the latter but twenty-five years of age. —
 as any that he had ever known in  America.   In-
 deed he was animated by them in the painful, dan-
 gerous course of opposition to the  oppressions
 brought upon our country, and  the  loss of them
 had wounded  him too deeply to be easily healed.
 Moreover, John  Quincy Adams, in the  biography
 of his own noble father, relates, that as the strug-
 gle  for  independence  approached, his beloved
 mother was accustomed to recite to himself and
 his brothers, as applicable to the fall of  Warren,
 the following impressive lines of Collins, address-
 ed  to  a lad\r, on the death of Col. Charles Ross.

     " O'er him, whose doom thy virtues grieve,
      Aerial forms shall sit at eve
      And bend the pensive head ;
      And fallen to save his injur'd land,
      Imperial Honor's awful hand
      Shall point his lonely bed.
      The warlike  dead of every age
      Who fill the  fair recorded page
      Shall leave their sainted rest;
      And, half reclining on his spear,
      Each wandering chief by turns appear
      To hail the blooming guest."

   In Force's  ponderous American  Archives we
 find among the revolutionary papers for the month
 of June, 1775, " An eulogium  sacred to  the me-
 mory of the late Major General AVarren, who fell
 June 17,  1775,  fighting against the Ministerial
 Army at Boston."  The peculiar fervor of style
 in which it is written indicates that  its author was
 James Allen, the famous poet of that day, yet we
 have no other evidence.   It pours so warmly from
 the  spirit of Bunker Hill that we will quaff a few
 libations.   " Say, illustrious shade,  what  new re-
 sentments kindled in thy bosom at the prospect of
 executing vengeance upon the  foes of liberty ?
 Say, what were the transports of thy mind, when
 the  twice repulsed enemy fled before thy powerful
 arms ?   But, when, alas, borne down with num-
 bers, thou wast forced to retreat, and death showed
 his commission to the ball that pierced thy bosom,
 say,  what  joy thrilled after it, at the prospect of
 having  thy brows encircled with  the   patriot's
crown of martyrdom'?   Tell me, ve brave Ameri-
cans who beheld our hero fall, did he not, in  his
last moments,  pour forth his usual expressions of
loyalty to the  crown of Britain, and his wonted
prayers for the welfare  of his country ?  Did he 
1857.]
HISTORICAL  MAGAZINE.
367
not in faltering accents, call upon his fellow sol-
diers to forget his death, and to revenge his country's
wrongs alone ?  Ah ! he breathes his last!  Crowd
not too closely on his shade, ye holy ministers of
Heaven.   Make room for yonder spirit!  It is the
illustrious Hampden who flies to embrace him,
and pointing to the  wound  that deprived him of
life in a conflict  with arbitrary power, above an
hundred  years ago, he  claims the honor of con-
ducting him to the regions of perfect liberty  and
happiness.  * * * * Come  hither, ye  American
fathers and mothers, and behold the sad earnests
of arbitrary power !  Behold your friend, your
fellow-citizen, one of the guardians of your coun-
try, the  pillar  of your  hopes;  behold this illus-
trious hero covered with blood and wounds !  But
pause not  too long in  bedewing  his body with
your tears.   Fly to your  houses, and  tell your
children  the particulars of the melancholy sight.
Chill their young blood  with histories of  the cruel-
ty of tyrants, and make their hair to stand on end
with descriptions of the horrors of slavery !  Equip
them immediately for the field.  Shew  them the
ancient charter of  their privileges.  Point to the
roofs under which they drew their first breath, and
shew them the first  cradles in which they were
rocked.  Call upon Heaven to prosper their arms,
and charge them with your last adieu, to conquer,
or, like AVarren, to die in the arms of liberty and
glory."
   A  thousand benedictions on the appeal of the
blood-stained pavements of the Boston Massacre,
and the conflicts of the  Battles of Lexington and
Bunker Hill, which forever crushed the  power of
Britannia  over Columbia!  AA'e may very prop-
erly adapt to AVarren the sentiment of our patri-
otic Robert Treat Paine in reference to Washing-
ton, that the temple of freedom can never  be de-
molished ; for

          " His sword from the sleep
           Of its scabbard would leap.
           And conduct with its point,
           Every flash to the deep."
latutm  anil  ttyix Pnwcftmp.
            MASSACHUSETTS.

  American  Antiquarian- Society (Officers
No. 1, p. 18). — The annual  meeting was held at
AVorcester, on AVednesday, October 21st, k being
the anniversary of the  discovery of America by
Columbus.   Hon.  Stephen  Salisbury  presided.
The report of the  Council,  prepared by Judge
Barton, and the reports of the Librarian and Pub-
lishing Committee,  were read,  accepted, and re-
ferred for publication.  The officers  of the past
year were unanimously reelected.   [See a  list of
these officers in the January number of the II. M.]
Rev.  Chandler  Robbins  of  Boston,  Dr.  Geo.
Chandler of AArorcester, and Mr. R. Impey Murch-
ison, President  of   the  Geological  Society  of
Great Britain, were chosen members.   The vari-
ous reports of the Society represent it to be in a
flourishing condition as to funds, accessions  to the
library, and literary  productions of its  members.
—Boston Courier.

  New England Historical and Genealog-
ical Society (Officers No. 2, p. 46). — A meet-
ing was  held at Boston, on AA'ednesday Nov. 4,
Hon. Timothy Farrar, Vice President, in the chair.
Mr. Trask, chairman of the Library Committee,
reported  a  number  of donations.  Mr. Drake,
Corresponding  Secretary, read letters  of accept-
ance  from Daniel Henshaw,  AVilliam  Emerson
Baker, and  Daniel  Bates Curtis, all of Boston,
who had been previously elected resident members
of the Society; also a letter from J. Y.  Akerman,
Esq., of London, Secretary of the Society of An-
tiquaries, announcing that certain publications of
that Society had been  forwarded through the
Smithsonian Institution, to this Society.   Five res-
ident and three corresponding members were, on
nomination of the Directors, elected.
  Hon.  Timothy Farrar, who has been chosen a
Vice President of the Society, for five years, stated
that having lately received a note from the nomi-
nating Committee informing him  that they had
selected  him as  a  candidate for reelection, he
would improve the present occasion to announce —
what he had before determined to do — his inabil-
ity  to serve longer  in that office.  He returned
thanks to the Society for the repeated testimonials
of their approval of his services.
  Rev.  Joseph  Richardson,  of Hingham, then
read a paper on the influence of hereditary laws
upon the formation  of character, which he illus-
trated by examples drawn from ancient and mod-
ern  history.  The main  argument of the  paper
was directed against the assumption that talent or
greatness is principally attributable to  hereditary
descent.
  Frederic Kidder, Esq., exhibited a cannon ball
found on the battle-field of Bladensburg, which he
presented for  preservation in the cabinet of the
Society.
  James Spear Loring, Esq., next  read a paper
on the relics of Gen. Joseph Warren, the revolu-
tionary  martyr.  He exhibited  the swords and
other relics of Gen. AVarren and  his friend Gen.
William Heath, who was with him at the battle of
Lexington.  The relics of  Gen. Heath belong to
the Society; those of Gen.  AVarren (except the
ball taken from  his corpse at Bunker Hill) had
been loaned for the occasion  by Dr. J. M. War-
ren, a grand nephew of the General.   The paper 
368
HISTORICAL   MAGAZINE.
[December,
was quiie interesting, and was listened to with deep
attention.
  Col. Samuel Swett followed with some  reminis-
cences that he had gathered of General  AVarren
and his appearance at the battle of Bunker Hill.
  One who saw him early on that  day states that
having presided in a public assembly, he was much
dressed.  He wore a light cloth coat, covered but-
tons worked with silver, with his hair curled up at
the sides.
  Col. Swett  afterwards spoke of Aaron Burr and
stated that  beyond doubt Aaron Burr worked his
passage home from Europe  to  Newburyport, on
which  occasion the ship was driven by stress cf
weather into Boston.  Neither Burr nor his  biog-
rapher have stated this fact, but Col. S. considered
it well authenticated.
  The thanks of the society  were tendered  to
Messrs. Richardson and Loring for their papers —
copies of which were requested for the archives —
and to Dr. Warren for the loan of the relics.
NEW  YORK.
   American  Ethnological  Society. — On
 the evening of Oct.  13th, this Society held their
 first meeting since the summer recess, at the house
 of George Folsom, Esq.
   It has been in existence about twelve years, and,
 under the presidency of the late Hon. Albert Gal-
 latin, published  two large volumes of Transactions,
 which are known in  Europe as well as in America.
 The  first part  of the third  volume, which  was
 printed three or four years ago, was unfortunately
 destroyed by fire before its publication.   The So-
 ciety now propose soon to commence the publica-
 tion of frequent bulletins, to contain their original
 papers  and foreign correspondence.  The Society
 have directed their researches primarily to Ameri-
 can  antiquities, customs  and languages, as their
 first duty ; and, by confining themselves to facts,
 and  passing by theories,  have  done their part to
 repair the faults of  past times, and to lay a solid
 basis for future investigations in  that interesting
 department.  They have  availed  themselves  of
 some of the  facilities offered  by the  commercial
 position of New York, to obtain information from
 remote and secluded portions of the human family,
 from which individuals are sometimes brought by
 vessels visiting the centre of American commerce.
  At the late meeting, in the absence of the presi-
 dent, Professor Robinson, Mr. Figaniere, the Por-
tuguese minister, was called to the chair; and after
some  preliminary business, a paper was  read by
Mr. Hodgson of Savannah, describing and  com-
menting on a curious manuscript volume, which he
exhibited.  It had been obtained from a gentleman
in Texas, who had removed thither from ATirginia,
and it was the production of one of his negroes, a
 native of Africa.  Although it was written in I he
 Arabic  character, Mr. II. discovered, af.cr studi-
 ous  attention, that it was  a  part  of  the  Gos-
 pel by John in the Negro English dialect spoken.
 through the Southern States.  The writer, who
 seems to have been a  Mandingo, and had received
 an education in Africa, became a con vert to Chris-
 tianity in the United Stales, and undertook the
 difficult task of writing down in Arabic characters
 a portion of the  New Testament, probably from
 the lips of some fellow slave, who could read Eng-
 ligh, though in an imperfect manner.
  Mr. Hodgson gave some  interesting particulars
 of the  application of several  alphabets  to books
 originally written  in  others;  as  Arabic  works
 in the Gothic character, taken to Africa in the
 16th century, by " Nuevos Cristianos," or convert-
 ed  Moors, who  were driven from Spain with their
 Mohammedan brethren. He then suggested the im-
 portance of our missionaries applying the Arabic
 alphabet to the negro  languages in Northern and
 Middle  Africa,  and the European  alphabet  to
 those in the southern part of that continent, on the
 ground that they have been  already so far estab-
 lished in those regions respectively, as to render it
 easy to extend  them, and  difficult  to  introduce
 others.
  Mr. H. then exhibited a page of Arabic writing,
 from the pen of an  aged negro, named Rahman
 Abdel,  who was manumitted  by his master  in
 Mississippi, and sent  back  to Africa in  1835, by
 the  Colonization Society ;  and  he referred  to
 another African, lately living in Fayetteville, N. C,
 who writes Arabic with facility.
  The Recording Secretary  then  informed the
 Society that he happened to have in his  pocket a
 specimen of the writing of the individual  last re-
ferred  to, written in 1831, which  he  had laid
before the Society several years ago,  with a trans-
lation made by the  Treasurer, Mr. A. J. Cotheal.
 Although the author (Omar ben Said,  a Moro)
stated  that  he  Avas  ignorant of Arabic gram-
mar, and had been in America twenty-five years,
he gave a few interesting particulars  of his life, in
a style which, with all its difficulties, the translator
succeeded in comprehending.   The MS. was dated
in 1831, and was obtained by the  Secretary in
 1835.  It stated  that  the author was a native  of
 Futa Toro, taken prisoner in war, sold and carried
to Charleston, where he had a hard  master, from
whom he ran away, and after reaching North Car-
olina, found  a  kind  master  with  whom he had
lived ever since.
  The Secretary  informed the Society,  that Rah-
man Abdel, (above mentioned) was the man from
whom he obtained the information he laid before
the  Society several years ago.  He was called Paul
in this country,  and by the Serecules (his people,)
 Lahmen Kebe.   A brief notice of him  published
in 1836  had excited interest in Europe, and ap- 
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