Early symptoms of disaffection at Boston--Origin of the Revolutionary War--First blood shed in 1770--Stirring eloquence of Joseph Warren--Feelings of Sir William Johnson--His influence with the Indians and Germans, and his unpleasant position--Last visit of Sir William to England--His death--Mysterious circumstances attending it--Suspicions of suicide unjust--His son, Sir John Johnson, succeeds to his title and estates--His son-in-law, Col. Guy Johnson, to his office as superintendent General of the Indians--Early life of Sir John--Joseph Brant appointed Secretary to Guy Johnson--Influence of the Johnson family--Revolutionary symptoms in Tryon County, fomented by the proceedings in New England--First meeting of Tryon County Whigs--Declaration of Rights--First meeting of Congress--Effect of its proceedings--in England--Tardiness of Provincial legislature of New-York--Spirit of the people--Notes of preparation in Massachusetts, &c.--Overt acts of rebellion in several States--Indians exasperated by the Virginia borderers in 1774--Melancholy story of Logan--Campaign of Lord Dunmore and Colonel Lewis--Battle of the Kanhawa--Speech of Logan--Its authenticity questioned--Peace of Chilicothe--Unhappy feeling of the Indians. It has been usually asserted by historians, that the first blood in the war of the American Revolution was shed at Lexington; but such is not the fact. The Boston massacre of 1770 was the beginning of that contest, so fearful in its commencement, so doubtful in its progress, and so splendid in its results. The storm had even then been gathering for several years, and the public mind had become exceedingly feverish, not only in regard to the conduct of the parent government, but in respect to the language and bearing of the officers of the crown stationed in the colonies. When, moreover, the people of Boston were subjected to what they considered a still greater indignity, by the quartering of soldiers among them, the irritation was such that but a small degree of forecast was necessary to the perception of an approaching explosion. The affair at Gray's Rope-Walk, on the 2d of March, increased the mutual exasperation; and the massacre that followed on the 5th was but the natural consequence. The first blow was then struck. The town was thrown into commotion, the drums beat to arms; and the news, with the exaggerations and embellishments incident to all occasions of alarm, spread through the country with the rapidity of lightning. Every where, throughout the wide extent of the old thirteen colonies, it created a strong sensation, and was received with a degree of indignant emotion, which very clearly foretold that blood had only commenced flowing; and although five years intervened before the demonstration at Lexington, there were too many nervous pens and eloquent tongues in exercise to allow those feelings to subside, or to suffer the