as a merchant. Thus early,
however, he evinced the untiring industry that marked his whole career.
He had a decided political turn, and, with uncommon natural talent, had
the capacity and the ambition for public life. An irreproachable private
character, pleasing manners, common-sense views of things, and politics
rather adroit than high-toned, secured him a run of popular favor and
executive confidence so long that he had now (1769) been thirty-three
years uninterruptedly engaged in public affairs; and he confessed to his
friends that this concern in politics had created a hankering for them
which a return to business-pursuits could not overcome. He had reason to
be gratified at the tokens of public approbation. He was so faithful to
the municipal interests as a Selectman that the town intrusted him with
an important mission to England, which he satisfactorily executed; his
wide commercial knowledge, familiarity with constitutional law and
history, decided ability in debate, and reputed disinterestedness, gave
him large influence as a Representative in the General Court; he showed
as Councillor an ever ready zeal for the prerogative, and thus won the
most confidential relations with so obsequious a courtier as Bernard; as
Judge of Probate, he was attentive, kind to the widow, accurate, and won
general commendation; and as a member of the Superior Court, he
administered the law, in the main, satisfactorily. He had been Chief
Justice for nine years, and for eleven years the Lieutenant-Governor. He
had also prepared two volumes of his History, which, though rough in
narrative, is a valuable authority, and his volume of "Collections" was
now announced. His fame at the beginning of the Revolutionary
controversy was at its zenith; for, according to John Adams, "he had
been admired, revered, rewarded, and almost adored; and the idea was
common that he was the greatest and best man in America." He was now,
and had been for years, the master-spirit of the Loyalist party. It Is
an anomaly that he should have attained to this position. He had had
practical experience, as a merchant, of the intolerable injustice of the
old mercantile system, and yet he sided with its friends; he had dealt,
as a politician, to a greater degree than most men, with the rights and
privileges which the people prized, conceded that they had made no ill
use of them, and yet urged that they ought to be abridged; as a patriot,
when he loved his native land w