James Sullivan Sprague's Journal of Maine History Vol. VII FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL 1920 No. 4 Page 171-187 James Sullivan (BY JOHN FRANCIS SPRAGUE.) There appears to be ample authority to substantiate the claim that the Sullivans of Maine descended from the O'Sullivans of ancient Ireland. They were a powerful septa, who dwelt in the southerly part of Ireland and are now extensively multiplied on both sides of the Atlantic. Many of them have acquired fame in all fields of American activities. In common with other Milesian families, they trace their origin to a remote period in Irish history. The bards and chieftains of the ancient Irish preserved their national annals from the beginning of organized government under the sons of Heber down to the days of anarchy and confusion resulting from English invasion. Irish historians assert that it is a well authenticated fact that under Queen Elizabeth, one measure adopted for the more perfect subjection of Ireland was an order to collect from the national and private repositories these records, that by gradually weaken- ing, through their destruction, the spirit of clanship, the land might become an easier prey to the spoiler. Fortunately, however, this order was only partially obeyed and in many of the ancient chronicles, or psalters which escaped this authorized vandalism frequent mention is made of the O'Sullivans, and their chieftains. For centuries prior to 1170 when the English invasion first began upon its shores, Ireland had been as highly civilized as any part of western Europe. During those times and to a more recent date the O'Sullivans, who were hereditary princes, possessed large tracts of lands in the Province of Munster, and along the shores of the Bay of Bantry and around the beautiful and celebrated Lakes of Killarney. Their chieftains exercised an independent sovereignty and their domains for a long time remaining unmolested by the invaders they lived more peaceful lives than some of the neighboring clans. But the power of the conquerors increased with each successive century until the brave O'Sullivans early in the seventeenth cen- tury were with the rest of the Irish nation prostrated by ruin and devastation. To follow the vicissitudes of this once powerful clan to the time when John Sullivan left Limerick in Ireland and sailed for America would be a recital of one of the darkest chapters in the history of Great Britain. This was in the year 1723. Exactly what his destination was is not now known. The ship in which he sailed was driven by adverse winds on to the Maine coast and he landed in York. 0n this stormy voyage was the beginning of an interesting romance. On the vessel was a pretty and attractive child named Margery Brown, then only nine years of age. The circumstances of her parents emigrating to America may never be known as it appears that they were lost at sea. John Sullivan, when far advanced in years, wrote out and left with his family the following statement: I am the son of Major Philip O'Sullivan, of Ardea, in the county of Kerry. His father was Owen O'Sullivan, original descendant from the second son of Daniel O'Sullivan, called lord of Bearehaven. He married Mary, daughter of Colonel Owen McSweeney of Musgrey, and sister to Captain Edmond McSweeney, a noted man for anecdotes and witty sayings. I have heard that my grandfather had four countesses for his mother and grandmothers. How true it was, or who they were, I know not. My father died of an ulcer raised in his breast, occasioned by a wound he received in France, in a duel with a French officer. They were all a short lived family; they either died in their bloom or went out of the country I never heard that any of the men-kind arrived at sixty, and do not remem- ber but one alive when I left home My mother's name was Toan McCar- thy, daughter of Dermod McCarthy of Killoween. She had three brothers and one sister. Her mother's name I forget, but that she was daughter to McCarthy Reagh, of Carbery. Her oldest brother, Col. Florence, alias McFinnin, and [its two brothers, Captain Charles and Captain Owen, went in the defence of the nation against Orange. Owen was killed in the battle of Aughrim. Florence had a son, who retains the title of McFinnin. Charles I just remember. He had a charge of powder in his face at the siege of Cork. He left two sons, Derby and Owen. Derby married with Ellena Sullivan, of the Sullivans of Bannane. His brother Owen married Honora Mahony, daughter of Dennis Mahony, of Drommore, in the bar- ony of Dunkerron, and also died in the prime of life, much lamented. They were short-lived on both sides; but the brevity of their lives, to my great grief and sorrow, is added to the length of mine. My mother's sister was married to Dermod, eldest son of Daniel O'Sullivan, lord of Dunkerron. Her son Cornelius, as I understand, was with the Pretender in Scotland, in the year 1745. This is all that I can say about my origin. It is a well authenticated tradition that he left his home by rea- son of his mother violently opposing his union with a certain young lady that ;he was deeply attached to. Although his mother was a woman of wealth and high standing in Limerick he was nearly penniless when he left home and entered into an agreement with the master of the vessel to work for him after his arrival, to pay his passage to America. Unaccustomed to labor he applied to Parson Moody, of York, whom he had been informed was a man of benevolence, for aid. The interview resulted in his obtaining a loan of money from Moody and can- celing his obligation to the captain. John was well educated and tinder the advice of Parson Moody and some of his friends he opened a school at Berwick and became successful school teacher in York County. He sympathized with his little friend, Margery, who had been indentured in accordance with the colonial custom of providing for distressed children. As soon as his earnings would permit he redeemed her from indenture and adopted her and brought her up and educated her as his own child. When she had reached the period of maidenhood she is said to have possessed unusual charms and attractions. One day, while drawing water with the old well-sweep, a young man, clad in city attire, came by and engaged her in conversation. Fascinated by her charms. he then and there proposed marriage She referred him to her father. The lover stated his case to Mr. Sullivan. He consulted Margery who frankly admitted that she had been a little coquettish with the good looking youth, but much to his joy, he assured him that she had no thought of anything serious. But the circumstance revealed to him his own sentiment towards her, which he had discovered was other than paternal. Her foster father made known his love. It was mutual and although he was twenty years her senior, so far as any records or evidence of the matter is now accessible it was a happy union. He soon after purchased a farm in Berwick, to which he devoted his attention when not engaged in teaching. Much of the time he had two schools under his charge. He has been described as "a marked man in his personal appear- ance, of great natural abilities and mental cultivation." He was reared in the faith of the Catholic church. Amory (1) asserts that he did not attend religious services in the neighbor- hood where there were only Protestant churches, and for that reason "it has been conjectured Master Sullivan kept steadfast to the faith of his childhood." He lived to the venerable age of 105 years and was beloved and respected by all who knew him. Writers have portrayed his wife as an excellent woman of great energy and firmness of character. Amory (supra) says: " Her sons very probably inherited largely from her the ambition and industry that made them useful and dis- tinguished." James, the fourth son of John Sullivan. was born in Berwick, Maine, April 22, 1744. As a boy he worked on his father's farm attending to duties common to such a life, which then included a constant watchful- ness to guard against the predatory forays of the Indians. His father designed to rear him for military service but an accident which happened to him when a lad changed the course of his life. This was the complicated fracture of one of his legs while felling a tree. His foot, while pressed upon a branch to secure better play for his axe, accidentally slipping, the bent tree sprang into place. James was thrown down, and his leg, caught in the cleft, was badly broken. The usual version of the story adds that, while thus prostrate , he cut his limb free with his axe, and, dragging himself along the ground to the stone-drag, contrived to work his way on to it, and drive the oxen home, the distance of a mile, to his father's house. This accident led to a long illness and the consequence was lameness for life. (2) John Sullivan, Jr., the oldest brother of James was a lawyer of ability in Durham, New Hampshire. He was a revolutionary gen- eral of renown, prominent in the Continental Congress, once gov- ernor of his state, and was a man highly respected and honored at home and throughout the country. (1) Amory's Life of James Sullivan (Boston, 1859) (2) Ib. 21. About 1764 James entered his office as a student at law. While living there he became acquainted with Hatty Ordiorne, daughter of William Ordiorne a ship builder, and also commissioner under the royal government. He was married to Miss Ordiorne Feb. 22, 1768. As soon as he had completed his course of legal studies he went to Georgetown in his native state and commenced the practice of law. It was only a small village with poor business prospects. It is related that some one asked him why he had chosen such a place for the beginning of his legal career. His answer was that wishing to break Into the world somewhere, he had concluded to assail it at its weakest point. Not far above, on the bank of the Kennebec river in what is now the town of Dresden is still standing an ancient building, long since used for other purposes, which was then the court house for the county of Lincoln. It had been erected some years earlier by the Plymouth Company, who were proprietors of extensive tracts of land on the Kennebec, under the supervision of Dr. Sylvester Gar- diner. Within its walls have been heard the eloquent voices of James Otis, John Adams, the Quincys, the Sewalls and other emi- nent lawyers of those days. It was here that James Sullivan argued his first case before a jury. He did not however long remain at Georgetown. Biddeford and Pepperrellborough, now Saco, were more promising towns for a young lawyer and thither he removed locating ill Biddeford. " Riding the circuits " of the courts was then the universal custom. Through this system unknown to any one of this or even the past generation in Maine, the attorneys of Boston and other large towns in the province held the professional, business of Maine towns; for when riding these circuits they not only attended to the litigation where they not been retained, but secured new cases at the same time. In other words the Boston lawyers by its means held what was practically a monopoly of the desirable law practice in Maine. It was naturally the smaller class of business and law cases hat fell to the local professionals. Yet it appears that young Sullivan was making progress acquiring an enviable reputatior. as an advocate and building tip a good practice. But for some years prior to the revolution litigation throughout, the Colonies almost ceased. This War caused by the universal opposition to the measures of the mother government. Men whose, minds were on problems which were to change the history of the world for centuries lost interest in disputes with their neighbors. Business generally was paralyzed and none suffered more than the lawyers. The courts were virtually suspended. Through his family he owned real estate in what is now the town, of Limerick. The gloom which political eruptions cast over others did not affect laid aside quill, paper and wafers, and took instead ax, shovel and plow, and joined the settlers who had started to build a new town in York County. He labored on his land during the week returning every Saturday on horseback, a distance of thirty miles to his home and law office in Biddeford. He was popular with these settlers who named their town Limerick in honor of his father who was born in Limerick, in Ireland. John Adams who frequently attended the courts at Saco formed Sullivan's acquaintance. He and other leading lawyers on the eastern circuit were pleased with him and kind in their attentions to him. Mr. Adams mentions in his diary under the date of July, 1770, 1 visit made to the house of Mr. Sullivan. He was in company with Farnham, Winthrop, and David Sewall; the latter after- wards an associate with Sullivan on the supreme bench. Farnham and Sewall started somewhat earlier than their companions, that they might order dinner at Allen's Tavern, at the Biddeford Bridge; and towards noon Adams and Winthrop joined them at the dwelling of James Sullivan. After refreshing themselves with punch then the usual beverage, they all adjourned to the tavern to dine; and, when they had finished their repast, Sullivan pro- posed to the party a visit to an ancient crone in the neighborhood, who, from her great age and accurate memory of things long past, was one of the wonders of that part of the country. She was one hundred and fifteen years of age, having been born in 1655, near Derry, in Ireland. She remembered events in the reign of Charles the Second, having lived under seven English monarchs. (3) In a letter to his wife, dated York, 29th June, 1774, Mr. Adams makes further mention of both John and James Sullivan: There is very little business here, and David Sewall, David Wyer, John Sullivan and James Sullivan and Theophilus Bradbury are the lawyers who attend the inferior courts, and, consequently, conduct the causes at the superior. I find that the country is the situation to make estates by the law. John Sullivan, who is placed at Durham, in New Hampshire, is younger, both in years and practice, than I am. He began with nothing, bat is now said to (3) Ib. 433. be worth ten thousand pounds, lawful money; his brother James has five or six, or perhaps seven, thousand pounds, consisting in houses and lands, notes and mortgages. He has a fine stream of water, with an excellent corn-mill, saw-mill, fulling-mill, scythe-mill and others, in all, six mills, which are both his delight and his profit. As he has earned cash in his business at the bar, he has taken opportunities to purchase farms of his neighbors, who wanted to sell and move out further into the woods, at an advantageous rate, and in this way has been growing rich. Under the smiles and auspices of Governor Wentworth, he has been promoted in the civil and military way, so that he is treated with great respect in this neighborhood. James Sullivan, brother of the other, who studied law under him, without an academically education (and John was in the same case), is fixed at Saco alias Biddeford, in our province. He began with neither learning, books, estates, nor anything but his head and hands, and is now a very popular law- yer, and growing rich very fast, purchasing great farms, and is a justice of the peace and a member of the General Court. Sentiment in Maine towns like Biddeford and Pepperrellbourgh began early to formulate against the policy of Great Britain to arbitrarily govern the colonies through a parliament in which they were not represented. A study of such of the old records of these towns of that period which are now extant disclose the grad- ual yet steady growth of the spirit of American independence. The New England town meeting was then, and is today the forum of a real democracy is a small republic in itself. It was the one American institution that first demonstrated to the world that man was capable of self government. It was that net work of the committees of safety organized in the beginning by Samuel Adams and his associates, and who were elected in town meetings in which every voter was a sovereign, that gave cohesive strength to the patriots. As early as 1774 James Sullivan embraced the cause of American independence and his ability and popularity made him a power of strength in the movement with the inhabitants of the Maine settle- ments. In the spring of that year he was elected a representative to the General Court. On the first day of June the tyrannical and hated Boston Port Bill went into effect. Samuel Adams and James Warren were the recognized leaders of the court which 'had con- vened at Salem. Upon the standing committee on the state of the province were four men whose loyalty was distrusted by Adams and Warren. They selected a few men whom they believed were true for conference, and Sullivan was one of these. For three nights they met in secrecy and devised measures for future opera- tion. The third evening a plan was matured for the initiation of a general congress for the continent to meet the following Septem- ber at Philadelphia. The delegates were selected, funds provided, and letters prepared to the other colonies requesting cooperation. James Sullivan was one of these delegates. Behind closed doors, Samuel Adams having a key to it safe in his own pocket the report was accepted, although the messenger of Governor Gage was then reading outside on the stair case the proclamation dissolving the court. After Mr. Sullivan's return to his home on the 30th day of July. a spirited town meeting was held in Biddeford, fully endorsing the course of their representative and adopting resolutions that placed them in entire accord with the patriots of the colonies. On September 1st, 1774. Governor Gage issued his precept for the General Court to convene at Salem on the fifth day of October. Sensing the strong sentiment for resistance that was daily increas- ing among all classes of the people, on the twenty-eighth day of September he made proclamation postponing it indefinitely. The delegates many of them not hearing this had arrived and came together. They waited a day for the governor to appear before them which he did not do. They then resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress, choosing John Hancock president and Benj. Lincoln clerk. This was the beginning of the Continental Con- gress of which Mr. Sullivan was an active and influential member. On the twenty-second day of December he was moderator of a town meeting in Biddeford, and was chosen a " member of the com- mittee of Safety and Inspection and empowered to correspond with other Maine towns. Because of his lameness he could not, like his brothers, take part in the military resistance of the coun- try. But the effect of his voice and pen in behalf of liberty was felt not only in Maine but throughout the colonies. The second session of the Continental Congress convened Feb. 1, 1775, at the meeting house in Cambridge. A committee of its members was appointed to publish in a pamphlet the doings of the late Congress, and to prepare an address to the inhabitants. Mi. Sullivan had a place on that committee and wrote a report and address. Through his efforts the Congress passed measures for the pro- tection of the settlements in eastern Maine and he was appointed to consider the expediency of enlisting Indians for the war. He issued the following letter to the eastern tribes: Friends and Good Brothers: We, the delegates of the Colony of the Mas- sachusetts Bay, being come together in congress to consider what may be best for you and ourselves to do to get rid of the slavery designed to be brought upon us, have thought it our duty to write you the following letter: Brothers: The great wickedness of such as should be our friends, but are our enemies we mean the ministry of Great Britain, has laid deep plots, to take away our liberty and your liberty. They want to get all our money; make us pay it to them, when they never earned it; to make you and us their servants; and let us have nothing to eat, drink, or wear, but what they say we shall; and prevent us from having guns and powder to use, and kill our deer. and wolves and other game, or to get skins and fur to trade with us or what you want; but we hope soon to be able to supply you with both guns and powder of our own making. We have petitioned to England for you and us, and told them plainly we want nothing but our own, and do not want to hurt them; but they will not hear us, and have sent over great ships, and their men, with guns, to make us give up, and kill us, and have killed some of our men; but we have driven them back and beat them, and killed a great many of their men. The Englishmen of all the colonies, from Nova Scotia to Georgia, have firmly resolved to stand together and oppose them. Our liberty and your liberty is the same; we are brothers, and what is for our good is for your good; and we, by standing together, shall make those wicked men afraid, and overcome them, and all be free men. Captain Goldthwait has given tip Fort Pownall into the hands of our enemies; we are angry at it, and we hear you r,: angry with him, and we do not wonder at it. We want to know what you, our good brothers, want from us of clothing, or warlike stores. and we will supply you as fast as we can. We will do all for you we can, and fight to save you, any time, wid hope that none of your men, or the Indians in Canada, will join with our enemies. You may have a great deal of influence over them. Our good brothers, the Indians at Stock- bridge, all join with us. and some of their men have enlisted as soldiers, and we have given THEM that enlisted, each one, a blanket, and a ribbon, and they will be paid when they are from home, in the service: and, if any of, you are willing to enlist, we wiil do the same for you. Brothers: We beseech that God who lives above, and that does what is right here below, to be your friend and bless you, and to prevent the designs of those wicked men from hurting you or us. By this means, Indians from the Penobscot tribe and from other parts of Maine were soldiers in this war. He drafted the act passed by the Massachusetts General Court Nov. 11, 1775, for fitting out armed vessels to protect the sea coast; authorizing the issue of letters of marque and reprisal, erecting courts for the condemnation of prizes. John Adams in a letter to Elbridge Gerry under date of April 10, 1810, mentions it as one of the most important documents in history as it was the first actual avowal by any deliberative body in America of intended offensive hostilities to be found in the annals of the revolution. (4) All accessible sources of :Information of the revolutionary period Whether in books of history or in old documents and records attest to the fact that, from the first to last, James Sullivan stood high in the confidence of the leaders in that great struggle and was admitted to their most intimate council's. And none were more fearless and active in the cause then was he. He served on the general Committee of Safety from its incept- ion until the close of the war. It is related by Colonel Paul Revere, that, in the winter of 1774-5, he was one of thirty patriots. who formed a committee for the purpose of watching the British soldiers, and learning of their intended movements. When they met each member swore on the Bible not to reveal any of their transactions but to Warren, Hancock, Adams, Church and one or two others. (5) It was largely through his efforts that the Judas of their little band, Dr. Benjamin Church was detected in revealing their secrets to Governor Gage and summary punishment therefore adminis- tered to him. He had great influence with the council and always exerted it, whenever necessary in aid of Maine interests. When Captain Mowatt reduced Falmouth to ashes, his power at the seat of government was a great blessing to its distressed and homeless inhabitants. It was also largely through his efforts that immediate action was taken by the council to more safely fortify and protect that fort. Three admiralty judges were appointed under the act above referred to. These were: Nathan Cushing, for the southern; Timothy Pickering for the central and Mr. Sullivan for the eastern district. As we trace his career from 1774 to the close of the Revolution we see General Washington ever placing the utmost confidence ill his integrity, his ability and his devotion to the cause of freedom and seeking his counsel. About eighteen months after he had taken his seat in the Pro- vincial Congress he was appointed by the Council, it being then (4) Ib. p. 62 (5) Ib. p. 57 clothed with executive as well as legislative powers, to a seat on the bench of the Superior Court of judicature. This was the highest or supreme court of the province. His letter of acceptance dated March 27, 1776, was as follows: I am informed by the secretary that the honorable Council have appointed me a justice of the Supreme Court, and that they request my answer thereto, Since the appointment forbids my saying that I am entirely incapable of transacting the business incident to that office, I beg leave to acquaint you that I shall cheerfully accept of, and studiously endeavor to qualify rnyself for, the honorable and important seat assigned me The present relaxation of government, and the many difficulties in straightening the reins thereof at this critical juncture, would be very discouraging, were it not for the great abilities of the honorable gentlemen I am to sit with. This appoint- ment is the reason of my begging to resign the office of judge of the mari- time court for the eastern district of this colony, to which some time ago I had the honor of being appointed. His associates were William Cushing, afterwards appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States under the federal consti- tuition, Jedediah Foster, Nathan Peaslee Sargent and David Sewall -It was a high honor for this youngman who had not completed his thirty-second year. Yet it required courage to serve in that capacity. Some writer has said that those early judges "sat with halters around their necks." These builders of a new government called themselves patriots and the world has ever since known them by that name, but the British government hailed them as rebels. And had the rebellion proven a failure the members of the highest court in rebeldom would undoubtedly have been among the first to mount the scaffold. The first problem that confronted the court was how to quickly assemble a law library for their use the possession of which was an absolute necessity. They could not very well order one from London. The lawyers of the colony who had turned their backs upon the patriots and remained loyal to the crown were of the high class of attorneys who owned valuable libraries. They had fled, many of them going to England and in their haste had left their law books behind. These were promptly confiscated and purchased from the new government by the new court. Eben Sullivan the younger brother of James as well as his older brother John, one of the famous generals of the Revolution was now captain of a company that he had raised at Berwick of which Nathan Lord was lieutenant. This company had been in the engagement at Bunker's Hill. He was in the Canadian expedition and was at one time taken prisoner by the Indians of Canada, held as prisoner for some time and experienced suffering and cruelty at their hands but finally escaped. As the problems of war times multiplied and perplexities became more complex his judicial duties increased and he began to realize that it was necessary for him to reside nearer the seat of govern- mente. He loved the neighborhood of his nativity. In Biddeford and Pepperrellborough he had trusted and tried friends always devoted to his interests. He loved them and loved the grand ocean side where he had grown from boyhood to mature manhood; and the old fishing and hunting grounds of his youth were dear to him. But feeling that duty called him to make this sacrifice, in February, 1778, he sold his house at Biddeford to Joseph Morrill and moved to Groton, in the county of Middlesex. A few years later he settled in Boston which was his home during the remainder of his life. Having no written constitution they then did things which would today seem strange to us. The people of Biddeford and Pepper- rellborough reposed such confidence in him-and there being then no organic law to prevent a member of the court from sitting in the Legislature, that after this change of abode he was re-elected as their representative for 1778-9. When the question of changing their form of government by adopting a constitution entirely independent of their charter was agitated by the colony, he was chosen to represent Groton in a constitutional convention an took a leading part in all of its deliberations. At this period of our history England had not abolished the slave trade and black men were bought and sold like cattle in all of the colonies including the District of Maine. From the dawn of our political emancipation the glaring inconsistency of this con- dition with our pretensions to equality and freedom was apparent to many. James Sullivan was one of the earliest to call public attention to it. The black man was then as he has ever since been in all of our wars, loyal to his oppressors. A black man was one of the victims, of the Boston massacre in 1770; and the shot which killed Major Pitcairn at Bunker's Hill is said to have been fired by a black slave owned by one of the patriots. Judge Sullivan improved every opportunity in his judicial capac- ity, as a legislator and as a publicist to put an end to the slave traffic. The name of John Quincy Adams shines forth in glorious splen- dor as the first great American to make a successful fight in Con- gress in the Anti Slavery cause, when he contended for the right of petition. We are however proud of the fact that a Maine man, Tames Sullivan, was his predecessor in this crusade. The differ- ence was that fate gave Mr. Adams the opportunity to be with the in the struggle. In 1775 he was sent on a difficult commission to Ticonderoga in company with W. Spooner and J. Foster, for whose services the Provincial Congress passed a vote of thanks. On the fourth of July, 1782, Samuel Adams, Nathaniel Gorham, William Phillips, James Sullivan, George Cabot, Stephen Higginson and Leonard Jarvis, were appointed by resolve, to consider- What measures were to be taken to reduce 'the expenses of government, show the best method of supplying the public treasury, and reforming the state of the finances. Towards the end of 1784 he was present at the Congress, then sitting at Trenton, as commissioner for prosecuting the claim of Massachusetts to the western lands. He resigned his seat on the bench and returned to the practice of the law in Boston, but yet was never entirely disengaged from public and political affairs. In 1788 he was appointed Judge of Probate for Suffolk County. In 1790 he resigned this office and became Attorney General. Our forefathers' interest in preserving a history of their state and country was great. It was so in the early days of Maine and remained so until recent years. Then the most eminent citizens holding the most honorable positions, governors, federal senators, congressmen, etc., were the founders of our historical societies. How regrettable it is that many at least of Maine's leading men of this day and generation view this subject from such an angle of cold indifference as they do. James Sullivan was one of the organizers of the Massachusetts Historical Society and its first president. In 1792 this Society celebrated the third centennial anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus. Jeremy Belknap delivered the address at its meeting at Brattle Street church. Dr. Thacher offered prayer. That evening Hancock and Adams, the governor and lieutenant governor, with the council dined with Mr. Sullivan, its president, whose residence was in Bowdoin square. The government at Washington, May 31, 1796, appointed him as agent for the United States, to maintain their interests before the Board of Commissioners, who were to decide what river was the river St. Croix, according to the fifth article of the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation, with Great Britain. In the instructions from the government to judge Sullivan accompanying this notice appears the following: Your researches as the historian of the district of Maine, your reputation as a lawyer, and your official employment as the attorney-general of Massa- chusetts, the state directly and most materially interested in the event, have designated you as the agent of the United States to manage their claim of boundary where their territory joins that of his Britannic Majesty, in his province of New Brunswick, formerly q part of his province of Nova Scotia. The decision of this commission as to what was the true St. Croix river occasioned much discussion at the time and has ever since been a fertile theme of controversy among historians. The late Honorable Israel Washburn (Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol. 8, pp. 3-103) attacked it severely claiming that the findings of the commission were wrong and that the State of Maine thereby lost a valuable territory which rightfully belonged to it. The writer has given the subject considerable study and is now of the opinion it was a correct decision. Politically judge Sullivan stood with Washington and Adams, and was in accord with most of the federalist policies but later was more closely allied with the Republicans. He never was how- ever as far as we can understand in sympathy with the sedition laws enacted and supported by the Federalists. And yet as attor- ney general it devolved upon him in 1799 to prosecute one Abijah Adams for libeling the Legislature. Sullivan prosecuted and he was indicted at common law, con- victed and sentenced to imprisonment. As a writer for newspapers and periodicals his record as an earnest advocate for freedom of the press is clear and certain. In that time the troubles in France had an abiding influence upon American politics. Sullivan's entire political career evidences the fact that he was a friend -to France. His enemies accused him of taking this position because he was of Irish descent and France was then assisting Irish rebels. Undoubtedly there was some truth in this. At least we do not find anything to show a desire on his part to deny it. At the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries the powerful Federalist party was disintegrating. It had served the country well during the construction days. But later its policies were un-American and it was doomed to fall. judge Sullivan was twice the Republican candidate for governor and was elected in 1807. Both campaigns were bitter and acrimonious.- What we would today term "dirty politics" prevailed to the limit. His administration though brief was wise and statesmanlike and never assailed by his enemies. His love for the people of Maine was exemplified by his persistent efforts to secure for them the Betterment Act, or Squatter law. It was finally carried through the legislature under the leadership of William King of Bath, as proposed by Governor Sullivan. He was re-elected governor in 1809 and died December 4th of that year. James had four brothers, Benjamin, an officer in the British Navy who was lost at sea before the Revolution; Daniel who was a captain in the Revolutionary War and the founder of the town of Sullivan in the State of Maine; John, already men- tioned, Who was a major general in the Continental army and Gov- ernor of New Hampshire; and Ebenezer, an officer in the Revo- lution and a lawyer in Berwick, Maine. He had one sister, Mary, who married Theophilus Hardy. As an author, writer and historian he will be best remembered by his "History of the District of Maine," published in Boston in 1795, and the first history of Maine to be published. This was followed by " A History of the Land Titles in Massa- chusetts." The early volumes of the Collections of the Massachu- setts Historical Society contain others of his writings which are valuable contributions to our colonial history. His death was mourned 'by the entire commonwealth. Resolves relating to his record as a public man were passed by the Legisla- ture and an address of condolence signed by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House was sent to his widow, Martha Sullivan. The Rev. Mr. Buckmore delivered a funeral sermon in which he said: not the place to detail to, you minutely the progress of his eleva- tion, from the time when he first drew the observation of his country. every step is marked with labor and with vigor; with increasing confidence in the public, and with unabated zeal and activity in the man. There is hardly a station of trust, of toil, or of dignity, in the commonwealth, where his name does not appear, though now only as a part of former records; and, in the regions of science and literature, where we should least expect them, we find the most frequent traces of his efforts, and of his indefatigable industry. Samuel L. Knapp at that time wrote of him: Our country has a property in the characters of its great men. They shed a glory over its annals, and are bright examples for future citizens. Other nations, too, may enjoy their light. The flame of liberty has been caught from the patriots of Greece and Rome by men who were not born in those lands. while the descendants of those patriots have forgotten the fame of their ancestors. And should it happen, contrary to all our prayers and all our trusts, that the inhabitants of this country, at some period hereafter. should lose the freedom and the spirit of their fathers, the history of our Adamses, our Warrens and our Sullivans, shall wake the courage of patriots on distant shores, and teach them to triumph over oppression. James Winthrop said: As governor lie was remarkably successful in mitigating the severity of the political parties which divided the state, and their leaders generally and sincerely regretted his death, * * * and was buried with the honors conferred on his exalted station, and which were acknowledged to belong to his distinguished merit. 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