“Here was another great man,” remarked Laurence, pointing to the portrait of John Adams.

“Yes; an earnest, warm-tempered, honest, and most able man,” said Grandfather.  “At the period of which we are now speaking, he was a lawyer in Boston.  He was destined, in after years, to be ruler over the whole American people, whom he contributed so much to form into a nation.”

Grandfather here remarked, that many a New Englander, who had passed his boyhood and youth in obscurity, afterward attained to a fortune, which he never could have foreseen, even in his most ambitious dreams.  John Adams, the second president of the United States, and the equal of crowned kings, was once a schoolmaster and country lawyer.  Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, served his apprenticeship with a merchant.  Samuel Adams, afterward governor of Massachusetts, was a small tradesman and a tax-gatherer.  General Warren was a physician, General Lincoln a farmer, and General Knox a bookbinder.  General Nathaniel Greene, the best soldier, except Washington, in the revolutionary army, was a Quaker and a blacksmith.  All these became illustrious men, and can never be forgotten in American history.

“And any boy, who is born in America, may look forward to the same things,” said our ambitious friend Charley.

After these observations, Grandfather drew the book of portraits towards him, and showed the children several British peers and members of Parliament, who had exerted themselves either for or against the rights of America.  There were the Earl of Bute, Mr. Grenville, and Lord North.  These were looked upon as deadly enemies to our country.

Among the friends of America was Mr. Pitt, afterward Earl of Chatham, who spent so much of his wondrous eloquence in endeavoring to warn England of the consequences of her injustice.  He fell down on the floor of the House of Lords, after uttering almost his dying words in defence of our privileges as freemen.  There was Edmund Burke, one of the wisest men and greatest orators that ever the world produced.  There was Colonel Barre, who had been among our fathers, and knew that they had courage enough to die for their rights.  There was Charles James Fox, who never rested until he had silenced our enemies in the House of Commons.

“It is very remarkable to observe how many of the ablest orators in the British Parliament were favorable to America,” said Grandfather.  “We ought to remember these great Englishmen with gratitude; for their speeches encouraged our fathers, almost as much as those of our own orators, in Faneuil Hall, and under Liberty Tree.  Opinions, which might have been received with doubt, if expressed only by a native American, were set down as true, beyond dispute, when they came from the lips of Chatham, Burke, Barre, or Fox.”

“But, Grandfather,” asked Laurence, “were there no able and eloquent men in this country who took the part of King George?”