186 THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



Richard Daoa 

 Patriot 



Resisting the 

 Stamp Act 



Francis 1743 



Public Spirit 

 and Service 



among the belongings which the refugee had carried with 

 him out of France. In view of the fact that the name 

 does not occur in England, and that no documentary 

 proof has come to light, the family tradition must be ac- 

 cepted. 



Among Richard Dana's numerous descendants there 

 have been many men of eminence. It will be possible to 

 mention only a few of them here. Richard Dana, grand- 

 son of the emigrant, was born in Cambridge in 1699. He 

 was graduated from Harvard in 1718 and practiced law 

 in Boston, becoming one of the two acknowledged leaders 

 of the bar in that city. He was a staunch patriot and 

 took a prominent part in the opposition to British oppres- 

 sion. All the offices which lay in the people's gift were 

 his if he so desired, but he wished no titles. Between the 

 years 1763 and 1772 he called and presided over many 

 patriotic meetings of Bostonians. He was one of the first 

 members of the Sons of Liberty, and in 1765 acted as 

 chairman of the citizen committee which devised ways 

 and means to thwart the Stamp Act. His death in 1772 

 was felt to be a distinct loss by all the patriots of Massa- 

 chusetts. 



His son, Francis, born in 1743, devoted himself to the 

 cause of colonial rights. He was a member of the first 

 Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. In 1775 he went 

 to England with confidential letters bearing on the state 

 of feeling in America, in the hope of persuading Parlia- 

 ment to retract. A year later he was elected to the ex- 

 ecutive council of the colony, and was also sent to the 

 Continental Congress, where he became chairman of the 

 committee on the reorganization of the army. He was 

 one of the embassy which negotiated for peace in 1779. 

 In 1780 he was sent as minister to Russia, remaining there 

 in an endeavour to get Russia to recognize the independ- 

 ence of the United States— a task in which he was unsuc- 

 cessful. After further service in the Continental Congress 

 he became a justice in the Supreme Court of Massa- 



