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Page 67
"I am sorry the chair could not betake itself to some more suitable
place of refuge," said Laurence. "It was old now, and must have longed
for quiet. Besides, after it had held Washington in its arms, it ought
not to have been compelled to receive all the world. It should have been
put into the pulpit of the Old South Church, or some other consecrated
place."
"Perhaps so," answered Grandfather. "But the chair, in the course of its
varied existence, had grown so accustomed to general intercourse with
society, that I doubt whether it would have contented itself in the
pulpit of the Old South. There it would have stood solitary, or with no
livelier companion than the silent organ, in the opposite gallery, six
days out of seven. I incline to think, that it had seldom been situated
more to its mind, than on the sanded floor of the snug little barber's
shop."
Then Grandfather amused his children and himself, with fancying all the
different sorts of people who had occupied our chair, while they awaited
the leisure of the barber.
There was the old clergyman, such as Dr. Chauncey, wearing a white wig,
which the barber took from his head, and placed upon a wig-block. Half
an hour, perhaps, was spent in combing and powdering this reverend
appendage to a clerical skull. There too, were officers of the
continental army, who required their hair to be pomatumed and
plastered, so as to give them a bold and martial aspect. There, once in
a while, was seen the thin, care-worn, melancholy visage of an old tory,
with a wig that, in times long past, had perhaps figured at a Province
House ball. And there, not unfrequently, sat the rough captain of a
privateer, just returned from a successful cruise, in which he had
captured half a dozen richly laden vessels, belonging to King George's
subjects. And, sometimes, a rosy little school-boy climbed into our
chair, and sat staring, with wide-open eyes, at the alligator, the
rattlesnake, and the other curiosities of the barber's shop. His mother
had sent him, with sixpence in his hand, to get his glossy curls cropped
off. The incidents of the Revolution plentifully supplied the barber's
customers with topics of conversation. They talked sorrowfully of the
death of General Montgomery, and the failure of our troops to take
Quebec; for the New Englanders were now as anxious to get Canada from
the English, as they had formerly been to conquer it from the French.
"But, very soon," said Grandfather, "came news from Philadelphia, the
most important that America had ever heard of. On the 4th of July, 1776,
Congress had signed the Declaration of Independence. The thirteen
colonies were now free and independent states. Dark as our prospects
were, the inhabitants welcomed these glorious tidings, and resolved to
perish, rather than again bear the yoke of England!"
"And I would perish too!" cried Charley.
"It was a great day--a glorious deed!" said Laurence, coloring high
with enthusiasm. "And, Grandfather, I love to think that the sages in
Congress showed themselves as bold and true as the soldiers in the
field. For it must have required more courage to sign the Declaration of
Independence, than to fight the enemy in battle."
Grandfather acquiesced in Laurence's view of the matter. He then touched
briefly and hastily upon the prominent events of the Revolution. The
thunder-storm of war had now rolled southward, and did not again burst
upon Massachusetts, where its first fury had been felt. But she
contributed her full share to the success of the contest. Wherever a
battle was fought--whether at Long Island, White Plains, Trenton,
Princeton, Brandywine, or German-town--some of her brave sons were found
slain upon the field.
In October, 1777, General Burgoyne surrendered his army, at Saratoga, to
the American general, Gates. The captured troops were sent to
Massachusetts. Not long afterwards, Doctor Franklin and other American
commissioners made a treaty at Paris, by which France bound herself to
assist our countrymen. The gallant Lafayette was already fighting for
our freedom, by the side of Washington. In 1778, a French fleet,
commanded by Count d'Estaing, spent a considerable time in Boston
Harbor. It marks the vicissitudes of human affairs, that the French, our
ancient enemies, should come hither as comrades and brethren, and that
kindred England should be our foe.
"While the war was raging in the Middle and Southern States," proceeded
Grandfather, "Massachusetts had leisure to settle a new constitution of
government, instead of the royal charter. This was done in 1780. In the
same year, John Hancock, who had been president of Congress, was chosen
governor of the state. He was the first whom the people had elected,
since the days of old Simon Bradstreet."
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