,
posterity, made happy by your wisdom and exertions, will honour and revere
your memories. Secure in their prosperity, they will weep for joy, that
Heaven had given them--Fathers!

CASSIUS.

THE LETTERS OF AGRIPPA, ACCREDITED TO JAMES WINTHROP.

Printed In The Massachusetts Gazette,
November, 1787-January, 1788.

Note.

The letters of Agrippa were the ablest anti-federal publications printed
in Massachusetts, and showed especial ability in arguing the dangers and
defects of a plan of government which was both so peculiarly needed, and
so specially advantageous to the State of Massachusetts, that its adoption
was only endangered by certain questions of local politics, which could
not even enter into the discussion. They were noticed, or replied to, in
the Massachusetts Gazette, Dec. 21, 1787, by "Charles James Fox;" Dec. 28,
1787, and Jan. 4, 1788, by "Kempis O'Flanagan," Jan. 22, and 25, 1788, by
"Junius," and in the letters of Cassius, printed in this volume.

At the time of publication they were accredited to the pen of James
Winthrop, of Cambridge, and he was repeatedly attacked as the author,
without denying it; while his supposed authorship and general opposition
to the Constitution contributed to defeat his election by Cambridge to the
Massachusetts Convention for considering the proposed government,
receiving only one vote in the whole town. On the contrary, the writer, in
his tenth letter, states that the surmises as to the authorship are not
correct, and in the Massachusetts Gazette of Dec. 21, 1787, the following
appeared:

I feel myself _greatly hurt_ at the liberties lately taken by
certain _scribblers_ with the characters of the _hon._ E. Gerry
and James Winthrop, _esquire_, of Cambridge, two gentlemen, no
less distinguished for their _honesty_, _patriotism_, and
_extensive abilities_, than a Washington or a Franklin.

... In regard to J. Winthrop, _esquire_, (of said Cambridge) it
has been insinuated, that that gentleman is the author of the
pieces in the Massachusetts Gazette, signed Agrippa--but every one
who can _boast the pleasure of his acquaintance_, must _know that
insinuation_ is grounded on _falsehood_.

The heterogenous compound of nonsense and absurdity with which the
compositions of _Agrippa_ are so replete, are certainly not the
productions of a man so celebrated for his superior knowledge and
_understandi