most foolish and inconsistent of all conduct, in rejecting it, entail on themselves and on their posterity, endless infamy.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallowness.".

If you embrace not the golden moment now before you, and refuse to receive that which only can establish the dignity of your towering Eagle, this and generations yet unborn, will curse, with an anathema, your dying fame, and breathe, with imprecations and just indignation, vengeance and insults on your sleeping ashes! But should you, on the contrary, with energy and vigour, push your fortune, and, with earnestness and gratitude, clasp to your arms this great blessing which Heaven has pointed to your view, posterity, made happy by your wisdom and exertions, will honour and revere your memories. Secure in their prosperity, they will weep for joy, that Heaven had given them-Fathers! CASSIUS.

THE LETTERS

OF

AGRIPPA.

ACCREDITED TO

JAMES WINTHROP,

AND PRINTED IN

THE MASSACHUSETTS GAZETTE,

NOVEMBER, 1787—JANUARY, 1788.

NOTE.

THE letters of Agrippa were the ablest anti-federal publications printed in Massachusetts, and showed especial ability in arguing the dangers and defects of a plan of government which was both so peculiarly needed, and so specially advantageous to the State of Massachusetts, that its adoption was only endangered by certain questions of local politics, which could not even enter into the discussion. They were noticed, or replied to, in the Massachusetts Gazette, Dec. 21, 1787, by "Charles James Fox;" Dec. 28, 1787, and Jan. 4, 1788, by "Kempis O'Flanagan," Jan. 22, and 25, 1788, by "Junius," and in the letters of Cassius, printed in this volume.

At the time of publication they were accredited to the pen of James Winthrop, of Cambridge, and he was repeatedly attacked as the author, without denying it; while his supposed authorship and general opposition to the Constitution contributed to defeat his election by Cambridge to the Massachusetts Convention for considering the proposed government, receiving only one vote in the whole town. On the contrary, the writer, in his tenth letter, states that the surmises as to the authorship are not correct, and in the Massachusetts Gazette of Dec. 21, 1787, the following appeared:

"I feel myself greatly hurt at the liberties lately taken by certain scribblers with the characters of the hon. E. Gerry and James Winthrop, esquire, of Cambridge, two gentlemen, no less distinguished for their honesty, patriotism, and extensive abilities, than a Washington or a Franklin.

*** In regard to J. Winthrop, esquire, (of said Cambridge) it has been insinuated, that that gentleman is the author of the pieces in the Massachusetts Gazette, signed Agrippa-but every one who can boast the pleasure of his acquaintance, must know that insinuation is grounded on falsehood.

The heterogenous compound of nonsense and absurdity with which the compositions of Agrippa are so replete, are certainly not the productions of a man so celebrated for his superior knowledge and understanding.

In short, mr. Printer, I hope you and your brother typographers will be very careful how you are guilty of exposing such exalted characters in future.

OCRICO.