Author Of "Life Of Horace Greeley," "Life Of Andrew Jackson," "Life And Times Of Benjamin Franklin," Etc. Etc. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. REVOLUTIONARY HEROES. GENERAL JOSEPH WARREN. CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE, THE MARTYR-SPY. GENERAL WASHINGTON'S OTHER SPIES. AN HISTORIC CHRISTMAS NIGHT JOHN ADAMS AND THE QUESTION OF INDEPENDENCE. ANECDOTES OF JOHN ADAMS. THE WRITING AND SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. ROBERT MORRIS, JOHN JAY, FISHER AMES, THE PINCKNEYS OF SOUTH CAROLINA....

James Parton was born in Canterbury, England, February 9, 1822. When five years old he was brought to America and given an education in the schools of New York City, and at White Plains, N. Y. Subsequently he engaged in teaching in Philadelphia and New York City, and for three years was a contributor to the Home Journal . Since that time, he has devoted his life to literary labors, contributing many articles to periodicals and publishing books on biographical subjects. While employed on the Home

A fiery, vehement, daring spirit was this Joseph Warren, who was a doctor thirteen years, a major-general three days, and a soldier three hours. In that part of Boston which is called Roxbury, there is a modern house of stone, on the front of which a passer-by may read the following inscription: "On this spot stood the house erected in 1720 by Joseph Warren, of Boston, remarkable for being the birthplace of General Joseph Warren, his grandson, who was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17

General Washington wanted a man. It was in September, 1776, at the City of New York, a few days after the battle of Long Island. The swift and deep East River flowed between the two hostile armies, and General Washington had as yet no system established for getting information of the enemy's movements and intentions. He never needed such information so much as at that crisis. What would General Howe do next? If he crossed at Hell Gate, the American army, too small in numbers, and defeated the we

The reader would scarcely expect at this late day to get new light upon the military character of General Washington. But, in truth, scarcely a month passes in which some of our busy historical students do not add to our knowledge of him. Recently Mr. H.P. Johnston published in the Magazine of American History some curious documents, hitherto unknown, exhibiting Washington's methods of procuring intelligence of the movements of the British army. Like a true general, he knew from the first all th

"Christmas Day, at night, one hour before day, is the time fixed upon for our attempt upon Trenton." In this confused way, December 23, 1776, General Washington wrote from his camp, near Trenton Falls, to Colonel Reed, who was posted at Bristol, a few miles further down the Delaware, guarding an important ford. Before crossing over to the safe side of this wide stream, about twelve hundred feet wide at Trenton, he gave an order so important that, if he had forgotten or omitted it, nothing could

It was an act of something more than courage to vote for Independence in 1776. It was an act of far-sighted wisdom as well, and it was done with the utmost possible deliberation. The last great debate upon the subject took place on Monday, the first of July, 1776. Fifty-one members were present that morning, a number that must have pretty well filled the square, not very large, room in Independence Hall, which many of our readers visited during the Centennial year. No spectators were present bey

The first office ever held by President John Adams was that of Roadmaster to his native town. The young barrister, as he himself confesses, was very indignant at being elected to a post, with the duties of which he was unacquainted, and which he considered beneath his pretensions. His friend, Dr. Savil, explained to him that he had nominated him to the office to prevent his being elected constable. "They make it a rule," said the Doctor, "to compel every man to serve either as constable or surve

We happen to know what kind of weather it was in Philadelphia on Thursday, the Fourth of July, 1776. Mr. Jefferson was in the habit, all his life, of recording the temperature three times a day, and not unfrequently four times. He made four entries in his weather record on this birthday of the nation, as if anticipating that posterity would be curious to learn every particular of an occasion so interesting. At six that morning the mercury marked sixty-eight degrees. At nine, just before going ro

Robert Morris, who had charge of the financial affairs of the thirteen States during the Revolutionary War, and afterwards extended his business beyond that of any other person in the country, became bankrupt at last, spent four years of his old age in a debtor's prison, and owed his subsistance, during his last illness, to a small annuity rescued by his wife from the wreck of their fortunes. Morris was English by birth, a native of Lancashire, where he lived until he was thirteen years of age.

It was the tyranny of Louis XIV., King of France, that drove the ancestor of John Jay to America. Pierre Jay, two hundred years ago, was a rich merchant in the French city of Rochelle. He was a Protestant—one of those worthy Frenchmen whom the revocation of the Edict of Nantes expelled from the country of which they were the most valuable inhabitants. In 1685, the Protestant Church which he attended at Rochelle was demolished, and dragoons were quartered in the houses of its members. Secretly ge

And who was Fisher Ames, that his "Speeches" should be gathered and re-published sixty-three years after his death? He was a personage in his time. Let us look upon him in the day of his greatest glory. It was April 28, 1796, at Philadelphia, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, of which Fisher Ames was a member. The House and country were highly excited respecting the terms of the treaty which John Jay had negotiated with the British government. To a large number of the people this trea

In the political writings of Washington's day, we frequently meet with the name of Pinckney; and, as there were several persons of that name in public life, readers of history are often at a loss to distinguish between them. This confusion is the more troublesome, because they were all of the same family and State, and their career also had a strong family likeness. The founder of this family in America was Thomas Pinckney, who emigrated to South Carolina in the year 1692. He possessed a large f