the Dr. Church who wrote the Times is now a writer
on the side of government. ¹ This was when the patriot
cause was at the lowest ebb, and the Governor was employ-
ing all the talent he could procure to refute the essays of
the patriots in the Boston Gazette. Church had already
risen to eminence as a physician and surgeon, as well as by
his eloquence as a writer and speaker, and he possessed
poetical talent of no mean order. Having built an expen-
sive house at Raynham, near Nippahouset Pond, where he
resorted for the pleasures of country life, and particularly
of fishing, he contracted debts which probably induced him
to accept the tempting bribes of Hutchinson. His style as
a writer was nervous, correct, and elegant. It would appear,
however, that he very soon repented of his treachery; and
that not one of his patriot friends suspected him is evident
from the fact that, in November of the same year, he was
selected to write the letter to the other towns to organize com-
mittees of correspondence, and at the time of the Tea Party,
a year later, he was an active member of the Boston Com-
mittee. But, with all his brilliant gifts, he was a creature
of fortune, and lacked those steadfast qualities which carried
the Revolution to a successful close.

Samuel Adams and Pemberton, whom we have seen search-
ing for an orator for the occasion, selected Church without a
suspicion of his true character, and with a view to his effec-
tiveness as a speaker. The choice was well made. Church
pronounced an oration perfectly adapted to the occasion, elo-
quent and logical. Looking forward to a plan which had
already been discussed in Boston, he thanked God that the
alarm had gone forth, by the Committees of Correspondence,
to the people, who now esteemed their charter rights "to be
the ark of God to New England; and," said he, "like that
of old, may it deal destruction to the profane hand that shall
dare to touch it." ...."The general infraction of the
rights of all the Colonies must finally reduce the discordant

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