234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



burn hair. He bad the manners and polish of a gentleman, with fas- 

 cinating ways, and an ability to make himself agreeable. So dili- 

 gently, too, had he used his opportunities of culture and reading, that 

 he might well have shone even in a circle socially more exacting 

 than that to which he was now introduced. We may anticipate here 

 the conclusion to which the review of his whole career will lead us, 

 that, as boy or man, he was never one to allow an opportunity of 

 advancement to escape him." At Concord, when nineteen years of 

 age, Mr. Thompson married Sarah Walker Rolfe, a wealthy widow, 

 aged thirty-three, and by whom he had a daughter. 



The Revolution was now fermenting, and alienations and discords 

 were springing up among the people. Young Thompson had made 

 the acquaintance of Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire, who, 

 discerning his genius and promise, gave him the military commission 

 of major. This aroused a bitter feeling of jealousy not only in the 

 subordinate officers over whom he had been sprung, but also with his 

 superiors, who were all turned into effective enemies. His independent 

 manners, his intimacy with the royal governor, and, perhaps, incon- 

 siderate words in a time of excitement, led to the suspicion and the 

 charge that Thompson was unpatriotic and sided with the royalists. 

 By the potency of gossip and tale-bearing he was brought under sus- 

 picion of Toryism, and threatened with that dignified discipline of 

 outraged patriotism, tar and feathers and riding on a rail. Thompson 

 indignantly denied the accusation. He called for proof, and a meet- 

 ing of his townsmen was called to consider his case. But no evidence 

 of any kind was produced against him. Nevertheless the adverse 

 feeling in Concord was so strong that he found it necessary to 

 leave. There can be little doubt of the brutal injustice with which 

 Thompson was treated. His biographer writes with evident impar- 

 tiality, and presents the case in all its aspects, and, admitting that 

 nothing bearing the character of evidence was to be found against 

 his patriotism, lies ays that "Major Thompson insisted from the first, 

 and steadfastly to the close of his life affirmed, that he was friendly 

 to the patriot cause, and had never done or said anything which could 

 be truthfully alleged as hostile to it." The simple fact seems to be 

 that while young Thompson entertained, and probably expressed, his 

 doubts about the issue of a conflict with the mother-country, as many 

 other independent-minded men must have done, he was nevertheless 

 in sympathy with the patriot cause, and was not only willing to devote 

 himself to it, but earnestly sought the opportunity by petitioning the 

 Provincial Congress for a position in the army. But he was defeated 

 through the machinations of the officers who resented his appoint- 

 ment by Wentworth. His biographer says: " He lingered about the 

 camp. He devoted himself zealously to the study of military tactics. 

 He continued his experiments on gunpowder. He strolled between 

 Woburn, Medford, Cambridge, and Charlestown, learning whatever 



