VIII Dr. Kirkland’s Discourse in Commemoration of 
with the utmost care for many years; but stepping into the 
midst of civil dissensions, when I first entered on the stage of 
life, it was impossible for me to avoid having an opinion of my own, 
and principles like those of the majority of my countrymen. These 
principles I frankly professed, at all times, and in all circumstances, 
however critical and dangerous; which involved me in an unayoida- 
ble necessity, when the times grew more tempestuous, to step 
on board the ship and to take my fortune with the crew. It is, 
and will ever be, the sweetest reflection of my life, that I did so.” * 
I need not detail the particulars of his course till the declara- 
tion of Independence, including the publication of his treatise on 
Canon and Feudal Law, which has been justly said to breathe 
liberty throughout ; his removal to Boston in 1768; his election 
to the Massachusetts House of Representatives two years after; 
his stepping forward under the sense of official duty with Josiah 
Quincy, Junior, as the counsel of Preston and his men, in disregard 
of the popular effervescence ; his appointment to the council, and 
rejection by the governor. 
Being chosen to the first Continental Congress, he took his 
seat there on the first day of the session, and gave all his time 
and powers to the great concerns upon their hands. Soon after 
his return, he wrote a series of numbers under the signature of 
«“ Novanglus,” against the able and plausible essays of “ Massachu- 
settensis ” (Jonathan Sewall), his private friend and _ political 
antagonist. On the 10th of May, 1775, he took his place in 
the second Continental Congress. 
It devolved on this Congress to appoint a commander-in-chief 
of the armies raised and to be raised for the defence of American 
* Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee. Vol. ii. p. 137. 
