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302 Documents appears that they were not transmitted to him, as has repeatedly been affirmed. During the Revolution he was a frequent and pow- erful writer on the patriotic side ; but, apart from sermons, letters, and a few political essays, there are no writings preserved, which can now be distinguished as his. "The characters the most con- spicuous," writes John Adams' in l8i8, "the most ardent and in- fluential in the revival of American principles and feelings from 1760 to 1766 were, first and foremost, before all and above all, James Otis ; next to him was Oxenbridge Thacher ; next to him, Samuel Adams ; next to him, John Hancock ; then Dr. Mayhew ; then Dr. Cooper and his brother." "Dr. Cooper was a fine scholar. . . . He wrote with elegance, and his delivery was eloquent. He had a readiness of thought and flow of language, that gave him great command over his hearers, whether in the pulpit or in conversation. His manners were pol- ished and courteous, and in the peculiar functions of his office he liad great power to impress and to soothe. These qualifications secured to him the private affection and admiration of his parishion- ers ; while his knowledge of the world, and the active part which he took in public affairs procured him the esteem and confidence of many eminent public characters."^ "To his uncommon endow- ments," says Palfrey, " he joined an address and what is called a talent for affairs, which, if he had not been the leading divine, would perhaps have distinguished him as the most accomplished gentleman and adroit statesman of his country and time." He married, September i i, 1746, Judith, only daughter of Dr. Thomas Buifinch, a prominent physician of Boston. By her he had two daughters, one of whom married Gabriel Johonnot (often men- tioned in the pages of the diary), and the other Joseph Sayer Hixon, of Montserrat. There are several portraits of Dr. Cooper, some of which are by Copley. Beside those in the possession of his descendants, there are two belonging to the Massachusetts Historical Society. Another painting, evidently a Copley, was owned by the late Oliver Wen- dell Holmes. Yet another likeness hangs in Memorial Hall at Cambridge. Dr. Cooper, as we learn from the diary and elsewhere,' left ^Wor&s, X. 284. 2 Tudor, Life of James Otis, p. 151. 3 It appears that there were earlier leaves of this diary, now missing, from the follow- ing passage in the History of Brattle Street Church, by Lothrop, p. 102 : " ' On the l6th of April, 1775,' writes Dr. Cooper, in a journal, some fragments of which have been preserved and which I have been permitted to see [but which the present writer has failed to trace], ' the troubles in Boston increasing, and having received several