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In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED BY
HOBART & ROBBINS,

NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY,

BOSTON.

A WORD TO THE READER.

THE editor, after a careful research, pursued with an intense devotion during a period of nearly four years, presents this volume to the public, and here takes occasion to dedicate its pages to the glorious memory of Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Thomas Cushing, a noble triumvirate, and among the foremost of the great promoters of the American Revolution. Aspiring to no higher claim than that of editor, he remarks, in addition to what has been stated at the close of the introduction on the Boston Massacre, of which event Daniel Webster emphasizes, "from that moment we may date the severance of the British empire," that he has embodied a great mass of materials in relation to our own political and national history, after poring over valuable manuscripts, newspapers printed for more than a hundred years past, every variety of periodicals, pamphlets, and a multitude of other authorities essential to the completion of his design. The editor has generally been careful to cite authorities; but sometimes through inadvertence, sometimes for the reason that writers have adopted the language and statements of others as original, he has not

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designated authorities. A great disparity in the sketches of the orators will be observed. In the gathering of materials, the editor has mostly been thrown on his own resources. While, by interviews with parties interested, a great body of original matter has been obtained in relation to a large number of the orators, very meagre materials only, like a monumental inscription, could be gathered in regard to others; and this is an apology for what may, at the first blush, appear an act of injustice to some of the most worthy politicians in the catalogue; - but there runs through the volume such frequent allusions to the same person, that they partially atone for the scanty materials of a separate article. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the editor, many errors appear in the work; but, to adopt the language of Cotton Mather, "it seems the hands of Briareus and the eyes of Argus will not prevent them."

BOSTON, March 5, 1852.

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