deem impertinent. Do you remember
who was the author of a little pamphlet entitled, _The Group?_
To your hand it was committed by the writer. You brought it
forward to the public eye. I will therefore give you my reason
for naming it now. A friend of mine, who lately visited the
Athenaeum [a Boston Library], saw it among a bundle of pamphlets,
with a high encomium of the author, who, he asserted, was Mr.
Samuel Barrett. You can, if you please, give a written testimony
contradictory of the false assertion.

This letter was written long after the Revolution, when she was not
loath to let it be known that she was the creator of this little play,
and is clearly indicative of the general attitude the public had
toward Mrs. Warren as an author. Her appeal instantly called forth a
courteous rejoinder from Mr. Adams, who wrote:

What brain could ever have conceived or suspected Samuel
Barrett, Esquire, to have been the author of "The Group"? The
bishop has neither the natural genius nor the acquired talents,
the knowledge of characters, nor the political principles,
sentiments, or feelings, that could have dictated that pungent
drama. His worthy brother, the Major, might have been as
rationally suspected.

I could take my Bible oath to two propositions, 1st. That Bishop
Barrett, in my opinion, was one of the last literary characters
in the world who ought to have been suspected to have written
"The Group." 2d. That there was but one person in the world,
male or female, who could at that time, in my opinion, have
written it; and that person was Madam Mercy Warren, the
historical, philosophical, poetical, and satirical consort of
the then Colonel, since General, James Warren of Plymouth,
sister of the great, but forgotten, James Otis.

According to Adams, he immediately went to the Boston Athenaeum, where
his nephew, W. S. Shaw, was Librarian. He drew from the shelves a copy
of "The Group", which had been bought from the collection of Governor
Adams of Massachusetts, and forthwith, on looking it over, wrote down
the original names of the people satirized therein.[5] This copy is
still a valuable possession of the library.

While Mrs. Warren was writing "The Group," she sent it piecemeal to
her husband, who was on the field of battle. He, being proud of the
literary attainments of his wife, sent it around to his friends, under
se