...ral Ward nor any other authority could be consulted, and when the destinies of an empire seemed to tremble in the balance. In that dread crisis Putnam acted solely on his own responsibility. Says Dr. Increase N. Tarbox in his remarkable (1876): ‘We have his own express statement on this point, made to the Committee of Safety not long after, at a time when he had the burdensome grievance on his mind. He say...