' wmvw.mi CONTENTS. Introduction xvii Declaration of Independence xxiii John Adams — . 83 Samuel Adams 67 Josiah Bartlett 168 Carter Braxton 748 Charles Carroll 623 Samuel Chase 580 Abraham Clare 331 George Clymer 455 William Ellery. 206 William Floyd 261 Benjamin Franklin 393 Elbridge Gerry 144 Button Gwinnett 819 Lyman Hall 825 John Hancock 53 Benjamin Harrison 716 John Hart 323 Joseph Hewes 168 Thomas Heyward 793 William Hooper 758 Stephen Hopkins 195 Francis Hopkinson 317 Samuel Huntington 243 Thomas Jefferson 665 Francis Lightfoot Lee 745 Richard Henry Lee 642 Francis Lewis. 276 Philip Livingston 266 Thomas Lynch. 801 Arthur Middleton 809 Thomas M'Kean 561 Lewis Morris gg2 Robert Morris ...... 336 John Morton 449 Thomas Nelson 730 William Paca 602 Robert Treat Paine 132 John Penn ' 776 George Read 547 Cesar Rodney 529 George Ross 523 Benjamin Rush 378 Edward Rutledge 781 Roger Sherman 222 James Smith 495 Richard Stockton 288 Thomas Stone 612 George Taylor 491 Matthew Thornton 187 George Walton 828 William Whipple 178 William Williams 249 James Wilson 499 John Witherspoon 296 Oliver Wolcott 254 George Wythe 633 INTRODUCTION. The "Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence," though, with the modesty which characterised its author, given to the public anonymously, is known to have been the production of the late John Sanderson, Esq. The biographer could have found no subject more worthy of his powers, nor the subject an abler biographer. His classical attainments, his profound research, his original and sprightly genius, and, more than all, a patriotism upon which his country and her glory were reflected without a distorting partizan tint, peculiarly fitted him for the high and holy task of garnering up, and transmitting to a grateful posterity, the virtues of those who rocked the cradle of an infant empire. The result of his protracted and enlightened labours needs now no commen dation ; it is universally, and with just admiration, appreciated, and will advance in value and reputation as time obliterates the scattered recollec tions and records of those whose memory embalm his pages. The original Biography, however, comprising five octavo volumes, has been found too voluminous and expensive for general circulation ; and the publishers, aware of the general demand for an abridged and popular work on a subject so interesting to every American, determined to pre sent the public with a single volume which should contain the? substance and spirit of the original. It is sincerely regretted that this task was not accomplished by the amiable and gifted author of the Lives of the Signers, before his lamented demise. It has, however, been the object of the edi tor to retain as much, and change as little, of the original as possible. Its unnecessary and fruitless boughs have been lopped off; but it is be lieved that neither its usefulness, interest, nor symmetrical and classic beauty have been impaired. The portions omitted are documentary evi dences, the details which belong rather to history than to biography, the somewhat tedious accounts of the ancestry of the Signers, and the frequent historical repetitions incident to an account of so large a number of actors in a single drama. In the biographical narrative, though useless and uninteresting details have been dropped or abbreviated, the main, action, if we may so express ourselves, has been left untouched in volume and character, being retained, generally in the elegant diction of the author. The pruning-knife has been used oftener than the pen; and it may, a 2 xvii xviii INTRODUCTION. indeed, be doubted whether, by the excision of lifeless details and ela borate reflections, the spirit and interest of the work are not heightened, while the biography is compressed within a compass which renders it accessible to every American reader. The genius, virtues, and sacrifices of the " Signers " — are they not graven on every American heart? The editor will not presume to praise them. Their eulogy has been exhausted ; for the noblest intellects of the land have been ambitious to win the fame of successful panegyrists. Sim ply, as the founders of a structure upon which the startled world looks with admiring awe, as the authors of a movement which promises to em brace the family of the world within the holy influences of gentle justice, and peaceful right to all men — their names are star-like. But a careful review of their biography affords aggregate facts elucidating the character of the congress of '76, as a body, which, it is believed, no writer upon the subject, however painstaking, has had the patience to embody. We deem no apology necessary for presenting some of the results of such an investigation to our readers ; for the inquiry is not curious merely : in learning under what influences American liberty germinated and grew, we may be taught how to nurture and sustain it. The birth-place of the Signers, as the natal home of liberty, is an inter esting inquiry. They were all natives of the soil, with the exception of eight, who had immigrated in youth or early manhood. Among the exceptions, we find the revered names of Robert Morris, Witherspoon, and Wilson. Of those born in America, the birth-place of sixteen was in the eastern, fourteen in the middle, and eighteen in the southern, colonies. It should be remembered, however, that the representation was unequal, various and almost accidental. Congress voted by colonies, and the number of colonial representatives did not affect the result. The birth-place of the Signers may be given as follows.— Of the European signers, two were from England, three from Ireland, two from Scotland, and one from Wales; in all eight. The majority of these, were among the earliest and more ardent of the advocates of independence. Of those born in this country, one was a native of Maine ; nine of Massachusetts ; two of Rhode Island ; four of Connecticut ; three of New York ; four of New Jersey - five of Pennsylvania ; two of Delaware ; five of Maryland ; nine of Vir ginia ; and four of South Carolina. The education of that distinguished body is equally worthy the curiosity of the philosophic student. It may be doubted whether any popular po litical body has comprised so large a proportion of highly educated mem bers. The number of those who had regularly graduated in the colleges of Europe or America was twenty-seven, or nearly one half the whole number. To the honour of Harvard it should be mentioned, that seven INTRODUCTION. xix of the Signers came from that venerable institution. Twenty other mem bers may be named whose education, though not regularly collegiate, was either academic, or, by dint of unaided energy, as in the case of Frank lin, was equal or superior to the ordinary course of the universities. Nine of the members only of that august body can be set down as of ordinary and plain education ; though in that number are included men of exten sive reading, enlightened views, and enlarged sagacity. The congress did not contain one uneducated member. As further evidence of the enlightened character of these fathers of the republic, it should be stated, that many of them visited Europe and stu died, at the fountain head, the principles of British constitutional liberty. ,Of the fifty-six members, twenty-five trod the soil, and studied the insti tutions, of the mother country. Some were born in Great Britain, many were educated there, and many visited it before or after the declaration. There is no movement on record to which so large an amount of political science, observation, wisdom, and experience was brought to bear, as in the American revolution. The condition in life of most of the Signers was such as to dispel all suspicion of selfish motives in their action. Many of them were among the most affluent, as Hancock, Carroll, Morris, and others, who staked all upon the contest ; the majority were possessed of an ample compe tence ; and with the exception of Samuel Adams, " the poor gentleman," and a few others, all had, besides life, something to lose, and nothing but liberty to gain, from the conflict which they invoked. The pursuits im, life of the members of the congress afford some indica tion of their character and social position, and those of the classes and in terests which' they represented. The inquiry may dispel some unworthy prejudices as to classes. Nearly one half, to wit, twenty-four, of the Signers, were members of the legal profession, a body of whom it may be said, that they have been the original assertors and most faithful cham pions of constitutional liberty in all countries. Thirteen of the Signers were planters or farmers, the former being rather affluent land proprietors than practical agriculturists. Nine were merchants ; five, physcians ; two mechanics ; one a clergyman ; one a mariner ; and one a surveyor. Many of these were engaged in mingled pursuits, and nearly all, were more or less interested in agriculture. It will be seen that a considerable majority were professional men. The congress of independence exhibited a singularly just representation of the different stages of human life. Its youngest member was twenty- seven, its oldest, seventy, years of age. The mass of its members were in the most vigorous season of life — forty-two out of the fifty-six being between the ages of thirty and fifty years. The ages of the Signers, at the xx INTRODUCTION. date of. the Declaration may be briefly stated as follows : From twenty- five to thirty years of age, three ; from thirty to thirty-five, eleven ; from thirty-five to forty, ten ; from forty to forty-five, ten ; from forty-five to fifty, ten; from fifty to fifty-five, three; from fifty-five to sixty, two; from sixty to sixty- five, four ; from sixty- five to seventy, two. The oldest member was the venerable Franklin, who was then in his seventy-first year ; and the youngest was the ardent Rutledge, who was but twenty- seven. The average age of the Signers, in July 1776, was forty-three years and ten months. To this combination of the ardour of youth with the vigour of matured manhood and the caution of experienced age, may we ascribe the enterprise, energy, and wisdom of those councils which elicited the splendid eulogium of Chatham, secured for a feeble people the confidence of timid sovereignties, and founded a republic whose pre sence occupies nearly half a hemisphere, and whose shadow is thrown over the world. An inquiry into the history of the Signers subsequently to the Declara tion, exhibits truths over which all who rejoice in the dignity of man must exult. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour ; and not one was false to the pledge — not one ! They suffered much ; some died from hardships encountered, some were imprisoned, many were impoverished, and all were tempted by promises, and menaced by the wrath of what seemed, for a time, an earthly omnipotence : but- all stood firm. There was doubt previously to the declaration — none after. Every name shone brighter as the darkness thickened. Each patriot was a sun that stood fast, as that under the bidding of Joshua, until the battle of independence had been fought and won. Another peculiarity should be mentioned. Not one of all that sacred band died with a stain upon his name. This work contains the biogra phy of all; there is not one to blush for. Their lives, like the orbs that constitute the milky way, are one stream of light ; and the glass of the historian, as it pierces the dim lustre, only reveals stars which are brighter as each is watched and studied. The annals of the world can present no political body, the lives of whose members, minutely traced, exhibit so much of the zeal of the patriot, dignified and chastened by the virtues of the man. Nearly all the Signers rose to high stations in their respective states and in the nation. The two members most active in the declara tion of independence were elevated to the presidency of the republic ; and, by a providential coincidence, departed this life. on the anniversary 'of the day of their triumph, together, breathing the same blessing upon their common labours, and winging their way to their joint reward. The Signers while they lived justified, in the highest stations of the republic the confidence reposed in them ; and their monuments are the Meccas of INTRODUCTION. xxi patriotism, where the freeman repairs to renew his pledge to the princi ples which they established, and his faith to. the constitution which they, and their compatriots erected and consecrated. The history of the lives of the Signers is an encouragement to virtue. It would be a difficult task to collect in public life examples, in the face of danger, and under tribulation, of lives so illustrious and happy — of deaths so peaceful and honoured. Even Time seemed to relax in passing over those whose acts have illuminated all time. Their lives were passed in high and honourable action ; their spirits excited by pure and lofty sentiments. In the temper of their minds, they owned the restraints of religion ; in their habits they were, with a few exceptions, rigidly regular and temperate. Though severe, they were not gloomy ; and, from the lofty standard of principles and action which they had adopted, though they ventured all, they could lose nothing, for fortune and life were nothing to them without freedom. The peace at home, in the heart, which attends such principles, seems to minister to health as well as to happiness. - The longevity of the Signers has been made the subject of frequent remark. They lingered into an age beyond their own. It seemed a portion of their earthly reward, that they should witness the gathering of the rich and peaceful harvest which they had sown in tears and blood. The average age of the Signers at the time of their death, was sixty-eight years and four months. The oldest survivor was also the latest survivor, Charles' Carroll of Carrollton, who was, at the time of his death, ninety-five years old. " They are no more," (we quote from an eminent living statesman,' " they are dead. But how little is there of the great and good which can die ! To their country they yet live, and live for ever. They live in all that perpetuates the remembrance of men on earth : in the recorded proofs of their own great actions, in the offspring of their intellect, in the deep engraved lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of man kind. They live in their example ; and they live, emphatically, and will live, in the influence which their lives and efforts, their principles and opinions, now exercise, and will continue to exercise, on the affairs of men, not only in their own country, but throughout the civilized world. A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning bright for a while, and then expiring, giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to en kindle the common mass of human mind ; so that when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows ; but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit." Philadelphia, 1846. R. t. C. B DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. In Congress, July 4, 1776. the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of america. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and na ture's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires, that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident : — that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien able rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the go verned; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such princi ples, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all experience hath shown> that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the pre sent king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an ab solute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be sub mitted to a candid world. xxiii xxiv DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and neces sary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation, till his as sent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, un comfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into a compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise, the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States ; for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners ; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing j udiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, with out the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military, independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States : DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. xxv For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : For imposing taxes on us without our consent: For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences : For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarg ing its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments : For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already began with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has en deavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms : our repeated petitions have been an swered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably inter- 6 xxvi DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. rupt our connexions and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, ac quiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind — enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of Ame rica, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are ab solved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. JOHN HANCOCK. i . r* l)K('l..\ll.\TION Ol' IXIlKrK.VDKXC'R S^/^r^9^^ />: !/,, 4^ &LocC). Z,ccrLa,^L^C tZ^l' £ , 7- compatible with each other. Nor, with the restrictions alluded to,, did he ever fail in his re-election to any situation to which he had been once elected, excepting that of representative of New Haver* in the legislature of the state ; which office, at that period, was con stantly fluctuating. Few facts can more decisively show how emi nently and invariably he possessed the confidence of his fellow citizens. In regard to worldly circumstances, Mr. Sherman was very hap pily situated. Beginning life without the aid of patrimonial wealth or powerful connexions; with nothing but his good sense and good principles; he, by his industry and skilful management, always lived in a comfortable manner, and his property was gradually in<- creasing. He was never grasping nor avaricious, but liberal in feel ing ; and, in proportion to his means, liberal in acts of beneficence 23 240 ROGER SHERMAN. and hospitality. His manner of living was in accordance with the strictest republican simplicity. In private life, although he was habitually reserved and taciturn, yet in conversation relating to matters of importance, he was free and communicative. He was naturally modest ; and this disposi tion, increased, perhaps, by the deficiences of his early education, often wore the appearance of bashfulness. In large companies, it is said, he appeared obviously embarrassed, and his speech was often slow and hesitating. In his person, Mr. Sherman was considerably above the common stature : his form was erect and well-proportioned, his complexion very fair, and his countenance manly and agreeable, indicating mild ness, benignity, and decision. He did not neglect those smaller matters, without the observance of which a high station cannot be sustained with propriety and dignity. In his dress, he was plain, but remarkably neat; and in his treatment of men of every class, he was universally affable and obliging. In the private relations of husband, father, and friend, he was uniformly kind, affectionate, faithful, and constant. " In short," to use the language of the Rev. Dr. Edwards, "whether we consider him in public or private life — whether we consider him as a politician, or a Christian — he was a great and a good man. The words of David concerning Abner, may, with great truth, be applied on this occasion ; know ye not, that there is a great man fallen this day in Israel." /J (J/tl y-fa M t-Tl ff (0~?7 lv,l"r.wd l.v.l U I., SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. Samuel Huntington was the descendant of an ancient and re spectable family, which emigrated at an early period into this coun try, and landed at Saybrook, in the province of Connecticut. His father, Nathaniel Huntington, was a plain, but worthy farmer, who followed his occupation in the town of Windham : his mother was distinguished for piety and native talent. Being the eldest son, he was destined by his parents to pursue an humble, but certain course of life, by tilling the earth under the auspices of his father. He was born in Windham, Connecticut, on the third day of July, 1732. His opportunities of acquiring knowledge were extremely limited, and he received no other education than the common schools of Connecticut at that period afforded. Gifted, however, with an excellent understanding, and a strong faste for mental improvement, he employed all his leisure hours in reading and study. At the age of twenty-two years, when he abandoned his agricultural pursuits to engage in the study of the law, he had acquired, principally from his own unassisted exertions, an excellent common education. In the knowledge of the Latin language, his progress was considerable, but it does not appear that he directed his attention to any other foreign tongue. Having attained a competent knowledge of the general principles of law, he commenced his professional careef in the town of Windham. In 1760, he removed to Norwich: at this period his reputation as a man of talents became more extensive, and his success and celebrity as a lawyer and an advocate, made a correspondent progress. Aided by a candid and deliberate manner, which appeared in some degree constitutional, few lawyers enjoyed a more extensive practice, or attracted more general applause. From his good sense, intelligence, and integrity, his preferment was remark ably rapid : in a few years his character as a man of business and punctuality was firmly established ; his reputation as a lawyer was 243 244 SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. exalted, and his extensive practice included all the important cases of his native county, as well as of those which bordered upon it. In the thirtieth year of his age he married Martha, the daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Devotion. The consequence of this conjugal relation, although no offspring cemented the union, was the enjoy ment of pure domestic felicity, until the decease of Mrs. Hunting ton. Economical and exemplary in their habits, they, in some degree, avoided all society excepting that which courted their atten tion. Having no offspring, Mr. Huntington adopted two of the children of his brother, the Rev. Joseph Huntington, to whom, hav ing married sisters, he was doubly united. The late Samuel Hunt ington, governor of Ohio, and Mrs. Griffin, the wife of the Rev. Dr. Griffin, president of William's College in Massachusetts, were the fortunate individuals who supplied the deficiency in his family, and profited by his excellent example and instructions. Mrs. Hunt ington died on the fourth of June, 1794, in the fifty-sixth year of her age. In 1764, Mr. Huntington commenced his political labours as a representative of the town of Norwich in the general assembly ; and in the following year, received the office of king's attorney, which he sustained with reputation until more important services induced him to relinquish it. In 1774, he was appointed an associate judge in the superior court, and in' the following year, a member of the council of Connecticut. Being decided in his opposition to the claims and oppressions of the British parliament, and active in his exertions in favour of the colonies, the general assembly of Connecticut, properly appreciating his talents and patriotism, appointed him a delegate to congress, on the second Thursday of October, 1775. On the sixteenth of January, 1776, he took his seat in that venerable assembly, and in the subse quent month of July, voted in favour of the Declaration of Indepen dence. In this high station, he devoted his talents and time to the public service, during several successive years. His stern integrity, and inflexible patriotism, rendered him a prominent member, and attracted a large share of the current business of the house: as a member of numerous important committees, he acted with judg ment and deliberation, and cheerfully and perseveringly dedicated his moments of leisure to the general benefit of the country. He zealously performed the duties of this office during the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780, when he returned to Connecticut, and SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. 245 resumed his station upon the bench, and seat in the council, which had been continued vacant until his return. The estimation in which Mr. Huntington was held by his fellow members, may be properly appreciated from his appointment, on the twenty-eighth of September, 1779, to the highest civil dignity of the country. On the resignation of the honourable John Jay, who had been appointed minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce, and of alliance, between the United States of America and his Catholic majesty, Mr. Huntington was elected president of congress: in 1780, he was re-elected to the same honourable office, which he continued to fill with dignity and impartiality until the following year, when, worn out by the con stant cares of public life, and his unremitting application to his offi cial duties, he desired leave of absence, and intimated to the house the necessity of his returning home for the re-establishment of his health. The nomination of his successor was, however, postponed by congress, which appeared unwilling to dispense with the services of a president, whose practical worth had been so long and amply displayed. After the expiration of. two months, Mr. Huntington, on the sixth of July, 1781, more explicitly declared that his ill state of health would not permit him to continue longer in the exercise of the duties of that office, and renewed his application for leave of absence. His resignation was then accepted, and Samuel John son, of North Carolina, declining the appointment, Thomas M'Kean, of Pennsylvania, was elevated to the presidency. A' few days after his retirement, the thanks of congress were presented to Mr. Hunt ington, " in testimony of their approbation of his conduct in the chair, and in the execution of public business." After having thus pursued his congressional career with distin guished success, rising by the energy of his own mind and the per severance of self-instruction, from the plough to the presidency, Mr. Huntington, in August, 1781, resumed his judicial functions in the superior, court of Connecticut, and his station in the council of that state. His rapid exaltation had not proved prejudicial to his mind or manners, but he returned to his constituents in the same plain and unassuming character which had first attracted their con fidence and admiration. On the second Thursday in May, 1782, he was again elected a delegate to congress, but it does not appear that he joined his col leagues in that body during the year for which he was then ap- Q 246 SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. pointed. Having been re-appointed on the second Thursday of May, 1783, he resumed his seat in congress on the following twenty- ninth of July, soon after the disorderly and menacing appearance of a number of armed mutineers about the hall within which that body was assembled in Philadelphia, had induced them, for the pre servation of the safety and dignity of the federal government, to remove to Princeton in New Jersey.* He continued, without inter mission, to perform his duties in congress until its adjournment to Annapolis on the fourth of November, 1783, when he finally retired from the great council of the nation, of which he had so long been a conspicuous and influential member. In 1784, soon after his return from congress, he was appointed chief justice of the superior court of Connecticut, and after dis charging the duties of that office for one year, was elected lieu tenant-governor of the state. Having at all times a perfect com mand over his passions, he presided on the bench with great ability and impartiality: no judge in Connecticut was more dignified in his deportment, more courteous and polite to the gentlemen of the bar, nor more respected by the particular parties interested in the pro ceedings of the court, as well as the public in general. His name * This was altogether one of the strangest affairs that occurred during the whole of the revolution. That eighty worthless vagabonds, who had never done other service than eat the beef and drink the whiskey of congress, incited and led by an Irishman with no other character than that which he had earned as a mutineer in the Pennsylvania Jine, should frighten congress out of town, and the brave Colonel Hamilton to exhort the members to "prepare for immediate death — for in less than half an hour not a man of them would be left alive" is really strange, but not the less true. General St. Clair, then in command in Philadelphia, the executive council of Pennsylvania, and the militia officers of the city however, took matters more coolly. They assured a committee of congress appointed to confer with them, that there was nothing to fear, and that the soldiers were objects of com passion rather than of terror or resentment — had everything settled in a satisfactory manner, and congress, in a short time, returned to, and resumed their labours in, Philadelphia. Sullivan, the would-be leader of the movement, to avoid the halter, fled and got on board a vessel ready for sea at Chester, and was not heard of again for about four years, when we find him busily engaged in writing letters to some of the disbanded officers of the army, endeavouring to prevail on them to join him in establishing "the free state of Franklin" on the Mississippi river, and appro priating a large extent of country to themselves and their followers. But in this audacious attempt he was also foiled : congress, as soon as they became acquainted with his proceedings, ordered, that if he came within the federal territory, he should be apprehended, tried, and if found guilty (as he certainly would have been) hung ; and this, fortunately for the country, was the last that was ever heard of Lieutenant Sullivan. SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. 247 and his virtues are frequently mentioned by those who remember him in his judicial capacity, with respect and veneration. In 1786, he succeeded Governor Griswold, as chief magistrate of the state, and continued to be annually re-elected, with singular unanimity, until his death. This excellent man and undeviating patriot died in Norwich, on the fifth day of January, 1796, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. Although afflicted with a complication of disorders, particularly the dropsy in the chest, his death was tranquil and exemplary, and previous to the singular debility both of mind and body under which he laboured a few days before that event, his religious confidence continued firm and unwavering. In his person, Mr. Huntington was of the common stature; his com plexion dark, and his eye bright and penetrating: his manners were somewhat formal, and he possessed a peculiar faculty of re pressing impertinence, repelling unpleasant advances, and keeping aloof from the criticising observations of the multitude. But in the social circle of relatives and friends, he was a pleasing and enter taining companion. Without inflicting upon others the conscious ness of inferiority, he never descended from the dignity of his station. His deportment in domestic life was excellent ; his temper serene ; and his disposition benevolent. The whole tenor of his conversation was ingratiating and exemplary ; and although sometimes absorbed in deep meditation, he was generally friendly, cheerful, and social. Being a man of great simplicity and plainness of manners, he was averse to all pageantry and parade, and strictly economical in his expenditures : he maintained that it was a public duty to exhibit such an example as might, so far as his individual efforts could avail, counteract the spirit of extravagance which had begun to appear. Mr. Huntington was a man of profound thought and penetration, of great prudence and practical wisdom, of patient investigation and singular perseverance, of distinguished moderation and equanimity : he was cool and deliberate, moderate and circumspect in all his actions, and possessed of a clear and sound mind. It may truly be said that no man ever possessed greater mildness or equanimity than Mr. Huntington. A living witness can attest, that during a long residence of twenty-four years in his family, he never, in a single instance, exhibited the slightest symptoms of anger, nor spoke one word calculated to wound the feelings of another, or to injure an 248 SAMUEL HUNTINGTON absent person. He was the friend of order and of religion, a mem ber of the Christian church, and punctual in the devotions of the family. But the eulogy of words can never exalt the memory which is not previously embalmed in the progress of an exemplary life. For many years a professor of religion, Mr. Huntington appeared to enjoy great satisfaction both in the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel ; a constant attendant upon public worship, " he was occa sionally the people's mouth to God, when destitute of preaching." As a professor of Christianity, and supporter of its institutions, he was exemplary and devout : he manifested an unshaken faith in its doctrines, amid the distresses of declining life, until debility of mind and body, produced by his last illness, rendered him incapable of social intercourse. WILLIAM WILLIAMS. William Williams was born in the town of Lebanon, Wind ham county, in the province of Connecticut, on the eighth of April, 1731. He was descended from an ancient family, of Welsh ex traction, a branch of which emigrated into America in the year 1630, and settled in Roxborough, Massachusetts. His grandfather, William Williams, was the minister of Hatfield, in Hampshire county, Massachusetts, and his father, the Rev. Solomon Williams, D.D., was, during the long period of fifty-four years, the pastor of the first congregational society in Lebanon. William Wlliams was sixteen years of age when he entered Harvard college, in the year 1747. During the course of his studies, he displayed a large portion of talents and perseverance, and pur suing his collegiate career with diligence and distinction, was honourably graduated in the year 1751. He then returned to Lebanon, and resided more than a year with his father, who di rected his studies, which were principally theological: his fellow students were numerous, who profited by the instructions as well as the extensive library of his father. In the year 1755, during the French war, he attended his relative, Colonel Ephraim Williams, as one of the staff of his regiment, on an expedition to Lake George. At the close of the campaign, Mr. Williams returned to Lebanon. He was, at this period, twenty- four years of age, and resolved to establish his residence in his native town. He returned dissatisfied and disgusted with the British commanders : their haughtiness and arbitrary conduct, and their in attention to the interests of America, made a powerful and lasting impression upon his mind. Even at that early period, he formed the opinion that the prosperity of his native country would never be secured under the administration of officers who had no common interests nor feelings with the people; and that to enable them to profit by the means within their reach, a government dependent on themselves was necessary. 24 q 2 249 250 WILLIAM WILLIAMS. The youth as well as the riiaturer age of Mr. Williams were cha racterized by his fondness for mechanical pursuits. In architecture he was particularly interested : nor was he inattentive to the study of mathematics, and the learned languages, and, at an advanced period of life, he was still a proficient in the Greek and Latin languages. At the age of twenty-five years he commenced his political career as town clerk, to which situation he was annually elected during the long period of fortyrfive years. He was chosen, about the same time, to represent the town in the general assembly of Connecticut, although it was, at that period, unusual to select so young a man to fill that responsible station. He was soon after appointed a jus tice of the peace. It may almost be said that he was invariably, during the course of his long and useful life, a member of one of the branches of the legislature. During his services in that body, he was chosen clerk, and for many years speaker, of the house of re presentatives. In the year 1780, he was elected an assistant or counsellor, and was annually re-elected for twenty-four years until he resigned the office in 1804, at which period he yielded up all his public employments, excepting that of judge probate, and retired to private life. His attention to the public service was so close and unvaried, that he was seldom absent from his seat in the legislature for more than ninety sessions, except when he was chosen a delegate to congress in 1776 and 1777. During the greater part of the war he was a member of the council of safety, whose sessions were daily and unremitting. He was a judge of the county court for Wind ham county, and judge of probate for Windham district during the term of forty years. He held many other offices of minor conse quence, both civil and military. In fact, he spent his whole life in the service of the public, and in promoting the prosperity of his country. In 1773, Mr. Williams was appointed colonel of the twelfth regiment of militia, then very efficient, and comprising seventeen hundred men ; but he resigned his commission in 1776, upon his election as a delegate to congress. At a general assembly of the governor and company of the state of Connecticut, held at New Haven on the second Thursday of October, 1775, Mr. Williams was appointed a delegate to represent the state in the general congress ; and on the second Thursday of October, 1776, he was re-elected to that high and honourable office. He was therefore present and assisted in the deliberations of that august assembly, when the great charter of our independence was submitted to its consideration. WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 251 The acknowledged aim of Mr. Williams, in his political career, was to merit the title of an honest politician, and no one was more successful in obtaining it: he never desired any office in which he could not promote the public good. He was scrupulously honest in all the transactions of private life ; and obtained, as a merchant, the unlimited confidence of his fellow citizens. When the troubles of the revolution commenced, he embarked enthusiastically in the cause of the colonies. He settled and relinquished his mercantile concerns, and devoted himself wholly to the service of his country. His exertions were indefatigable in arousing the feelings of his fel low citizens, both by nervous essays in the public papers, and by public speaking : he was an elegant and sententious writer ; a vehe ment and ardent orator. His voice was strong and powerful, and his eloquence gathered fresh force as he became animated by the increasing interest of his subject. His political career was untainted by selfishness, unless, indeed, it was selfish to seek elevation in the public opinion, by pure and disinterested patriotism. It is related, as an evidence of his sincerity, that in the early stages of the revolution, he had more than two thousand dollars in specie, being a portion of the proceeds of his merchandize : conti nental currency would not, at that period, procure the services which were required, and Mr. Williams, from patriotic motives, exchanged the specie in his possession for continental money : he lost the whole, but it was a loss which he never regretted. This anecdote affords an example of that practical patriotism which tests the sincerity of the heart. The disinterestedness of his conduct was also apparent m the settlement of his affairs, previous to his thorough embarkation in the turbulent scenes of the revolution. His mind was so fully bent upon the one great object, that he scarcely took the trouble of col lecting the notes which he had received : he was accustomed to re mark, that many of his debtors had been impoverished by the war, some had died, and others had been killed in the public service, and that he would never enforce payment from the widow and the fatherless — more especially from those whose husbands and fathers had perished in the cause of their country. Mr. Williams, as one of the select-men of Lebanon, which then contained about four thousand inhabitants, visited almost every private family for the purpose of procuring lead, clothing, &c. but especially blankets, for the use of the army. He collected and for warded more than one thousand blankets, with many other useful 252 WILLIAM WILLIAMS. articles, including a large quantity of lead, at that time so indis pensable, which was in many instances procured by cutting off the weights from the clocks : the inhabitants, and especially the ladies, freely parted with their last blanket for the public service. Such were the unremitting exertions of Mr. Williams, in almost every grade of office; whether we regard him as a judge upon the bench, or a member of the committee of safety ; a counsellor in congress, or a select-man of Lebanon, he always appears in the same unvar nished character — a pure, disinterested, and persevering patriot. Mr. Williams was a member of the state convention of Con necticut, which adopted the existing constitution, and exerted his influence in its support. Although the people of Lebanon were opposed to it, they elected him as their representative, and he strongly advocated its adoption by the state, in opposition to the opinions of his constituents. In the year 1772, he married Mary Trumbull, the second daughter of Jonathan Trumbull, at that time governor of the state. In the domestic circle, Mr. Williams was tender and affectionate, anxious for the welfare of his children, and particularly solicitous in pro curing them the benefits of education. The death of his eldest son produced a powerful effect upon the mind of Mr. Williams, now far advanced in life, and he never recovered from the shock which it occasioned. From that moment his health gradually declined. When upon the bed of death, not having spoken for the space of four days, he called in a clear voice upon the name of his deceased son, and required him to attend his dying parent; and almost in- stanlip expired. He died on the second day of August, 1811, in the eighty-first year of. his age. Old age, and grief for the prema ture death of his son, were the causes of his death; possessed of an excellent constitution, his faculties remained uninjured until a few years before his decease, when his hearing became somewhat im paired. His person was of the middle stature and remarkably erect and well-proportioned : in his youth, his features were hand some ; his hair and eyes were black ; his nose aquiline ; his face round; and his complexion fair. His temper was naturally ardent, but his exertions to attain the command over it were, in some degree, crowned with success. He possessed, however, during his whole life, a redundancy of spirit and vehemence of expression, which frequently created in himself strong and sorrowful feelings. On ordinary occasions he was taci turn and reserved; he was involved habitually in deep thinking, WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 253 and when he had formed his decision, was tenacious of his opinion. He was, by many, considered proud; an unjust opinion, which arose, probably, from his natural reserve. He did not, however, undervalue his public services, although he was too independent to solicit a vote, and too honest to vote upon any popular occasion, in opposition to the convictions of his own conscience, or to his own proper ideas of the public welfare. In fact, his disinterested, honest and upright conduct, rendered him a model for all politicians : with out popular manners, he was semi-annually elected to public office for more than fifty years, thus reviving the observation of the poet, " that corruption wins not more than honesty." Mr. Williams was a man of piety: he entertained the religious opinions of the Congregationalists, of which communion he became a member in his youth, and through the course of a long life he never varied from his professions. In all the various situations in which he was placed, and the connexions which he was compelled to form with all classes of people, he preserved, unblemished, his Christian character, conduct, and conversation. The high opinion which his brethren of the church entertained relative to his piety and virtue, may be inferred from his election, when a young man, to the office of deacon, which he retained until his death. " At length the time that Infinite Wisdom had fjxed being come, and the stores of nature being exhausted, he gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people." OLIVER WOLCOTT. Oliver Wolcott, the youngest son of Roger Wolcott, was born the twenty-sixth of November, 1726. He was graduated at Yale college in 1747. In the same year he received a commission as captain in the army, from Governor Clinton of New York, and im mediately raised a company, at the head of which he marched to the defence of the northern frontiers, where he served until the regiment to which he was attached was disbanded, in consequence of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. He then returned to Connecticut, and applied himself to the study of medicine, under the direction of his brother, Dr. Alexander Wolcott, then a distinguished practitioner. Before he was established in practice, the county of Litchfield was organized, and he was appointed the first sheriff of the county, in 1751. In the year 1774, he was promoted to the station of an assistant or counsellor, to which he was annually elected till the year 1786. While a member of the council, he was also chief judge of the court of common pleas for the county, and for many years judge of the court of probate for the district of Litchfield. He served in the militia in every grade of office, from that of cap tain to that of major-general. On all the questions preliminary to the revolutionary war, he was a firm advocate of the American cause. In July, 1775, he was appointed by congress one of the commissioners of Indian affairs for the northern department. This was a trust of great importance. Its object was to induce the Indian nations to remain neutral during the war. While he was engaged in this business, the controversies respecting boundaries between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and between Vermont and New York, menaced the tranquillity of the colonies, and exposed them to the seductions of British partizans. Mr. Wolcott's influ ence was exerted, with great effect, to compromise these disputes, and to unite the New England settlers in support of the American cause. In January, 1776, he attended congress at Philadelphia, and 254 www® fife / i,u e^y~ "Cngraverl "by X Lciig-aeve from a. Pamtin^ in T/ela'olamej > ?3iiei;.T. OLIVER WOLCOTT. 257 remained with that body till the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed. He then returned to Connecticut, and on the fifteenth of August was appointed by Governor Trumbull and the council of safety, to command fourteen regiments of the Connecticut militia, which were ordered for the defence of New York. This duty he performed till the force, amounting to more than five thou sand men, was subdivided into four brigades. He then returned home for a few weeks. In November, 1776, he resumed his seat in congress, and accompanied that body to Baltimore during the eventful winter of 1777. The ensuing summer, he was constantly employed in superintending detachments of militia, and correspond ing on military subjects. After detaching several thousand men to the assistance of General Putnam on the North river, he headed a corps of between three and four hundred volunteers, who joined the northern army under General Gates, where he acquired a com mand of between one and two thousand militia, who aided in re ducing the British army under General Burgoyne. In February, 1778, he attended congress at York Town, and continued with that body till July. In the summer of 1779, after the invasion of Con necticut by the British, he was in the field at the head of a division of the militia, for the defence of the sea coast. In 1780, he remained in Connecticut. From 1781 to 1 783, he occasionally attended con gress. In 1784 and 1785, he was one of the commissioners of Indian affairs for the Northern department, and, in concert with Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, prescribed the terms of peace to the Six Nations of Indians. From 1786, he was annually elected lieutenant- governor till 1796, when he was chosen governor ; which office he held till his death, on the first of December, 1797, in his seventy- second year. This brief recital of the services of Oliver Wolcott proves that during an active and laborious life, devoted to the public service, he constantly enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens — a confidence alike honourable to him, and to the people of the state. He mar ried Laura Collins, of Guilford, in the year 1755, with whom he lived till her death in 1795. In the arduous duties in which he was engaged during the revolutionary war, he was well supported by his wife, who, during his almost constant absence from home, educated their children, and conducted the domestic concerns of the family, including the management of a small farm, with a degree of forti tude, perseverance, frugality and intelligence, equal to that which, in the best days of ancient Rome, distinguished their most illustrious 258 OLIVER WOLCOTT. matrons. Had it not been for her aid, his public services could not have been rendered, without involving a total sacrifice of the inter ests of his family; with her aid, his house was a seat of comfort and hospitality ; and by means of her assistance, he retained during life a small estate, a part of which was a patrimonial inheritance. The person of Mr. Wolcott was tall and erect, indicating great personal strength and dignity. His countenance manifested a sedate and resolute mind. His manners were urbane, and through life he was distinguished for modesty. Though firm and tenacious of his own opinions, which he distinctly expressed on all suitable occasions, he ever manifested great deference for the opinions of others. He was indeed a republican of the old school, and his ideas of govern ment and social liberty were derived from the purest sources. He was never idle ; dissipation had no charms for him. Though not a learned man by profession, the writings of the most celebrated his torians, biographers, poets, and orators, both ancient and modern, were familiar to his mind, and afforded him the only relaxation in which he indulged from active exertions. He was intimately ac quainted with public law, and with the works of the great lumi naries of science, who flourished in Europe, subsequent to the refor mation. His integrity was inflexible, his morals were strictly pure, and his faith that of an humble Christian, untainted by bigotry or intolerance. Mr. Wolcott was personally acquainted with, and esteemed by, most of the great actors of the American revolution, and his name is recorded in connexion with many of its most important events. It is the glory of our country, that the fabric of American greatness was reared by the united toils and exertions of patriots in every state, supported by a virtuous and intelligent people. It is peculiar to our revolution, and distinguishes it from every other, that it was recommended, commenced, conducted, and terminated under the auspices of men, who, with few exceptions, enjoyed the public con fidence during every vicissitude of fortune. It is therefore sufficient for any individual to say of him, that he was distinguished for his virtues, his talents, and his services during the age of men — " Of men, on whom late time a kindling eye Shall turn, and tyrants tremble while they read." That Mr. Wolcott was justly entitled to this distinction was never disputed by his contemporaries. TavecLl)yJ D.Lougacre from a Paratme,* >y~ C-V. }V;i1l' JOHN WITHERSPOON. 299 settled, with the universal approbation of his congfegation. In teresting and instructive in the pulpit, he faithfully fulfilled all his other parochial duties, and attracted even the fervent attachment of the people. His discourses generally embraced those great and practical truths of the gospel, which most affect and attract the hearts of an audience. In the beginning of the year 1746, Dr. Witherspoon became in volved in a very awkward situation, the particulars of which are highly interesting. The battle of Falkirk was fought on the seven teenth of January, and he, with several other individuals, who were present from curiosity alone, was taken prisoner in the general sweep which the rebels made after the battle, and confined in the castle of Doune. During his imprisonment several of his companions es caped. Dr. Witherspoon prudently declined the dangerous attempt, and patiently awaited his liberation in a safer manner. After residing a few years in Beith, he was translated to the large and flourishing town of Paisley, justly celebrated for the ex tent, variety, and fineness of its manufactures. Here he lived in high reputation and great usefulness, enjoying and deserving the affections of his people, until he was called to the presidency of the college of New Jersey. On the nineteenth of November, 1766, the trustees of the college of New Jersey unanimously elected Dr. Witherspoon to the office of president, and transmitted a letter to Mr. Stockton, a member of the board, then in London, requesting him by personal application to solicit a compliance with the wishes of the trustees. Party views and feelings were, at this period, mingled with the management of the college, and such representations of its state were made to Dr. Witherspoon, as were calculated to induce him to refuse the presi dency ; and this effect was actually produced, until his misapprehen sions were removed by an agent of the board. On the first of October, 1767, a letter from Dr. Witherspoon was communicated to the trustees, in which he declined an acceptance of the president ship of the college. Urged however by the representations of those friends whose judgment he most respected, and whose friendship he most esteem ed, and animated by the hope that he might repay his sacrifices by greater usefulness in the ministry, and in the interests of learning in the new world, he finally resolved to waive every other conside ration, to cross the ocean, and to assume the important charge to which he had been called by the concurrent wishes of all the friends 300 JOHN WITHERSPOON. of the college. On the ninth of December, 1767, Mr. Stockton, then in London, informed the board of trustees that the difficulties which had prevented Dr. Witherspoon's acceptance of the president ship were now removed ; and that, upon a re-election, he would consider it a duty to enter into that public service. This intelligence was received with peculiar satisfaction, and he was immediately and unanimously re-elected. Dr. Witherspoon arrived with his family in Princeton, in August, 1768, and on the seventeenth of that month was inaugurated at a special meeting of the board of trustees. He was the sixth presi dent of the college, from its foundation in 1746 ; his predecessors Dickenson, Burr, Edwards, Davies, and Finley, were deservedly celebrated for their genius, learning, and piety. The fame of his literary character, which had preceded him to this country, brought a great accession of students to the institution. This influence was greatly increased by the circumstance of his being a foreigner, but his reputation was widely extended, and he enjoyed an additional advantage by introducing the more recent improvements in the system of education. When he assumed his office, his prudence, talents, and weight of character not only put an end to party mea sures in the board of trustees, but greatly contributed to produce the same effect in the councils of the church to which he belonged. He continued to guide the course of education in the institution over which he presided, until the revolutionary war suspended his func tions and dispersed the college. When the academical shades were deserted, Dr. Witherspoon found himself introduced into a new field of labour, and he appeared in a character widely different from any in which he had heretofore been presented to the public. Yet this new scene gave fresh lustre to his fame ; and his talents as a legislator portrayed in vivid colours the extent and variety of his mental abilities. Casting aside his foreign prejudices, and embracing with facility the ideas and habits of a new country, and a new state of society, he became an Ameri can the moment he landed on our shores. Being opposed in prin ciple to the unjust pretensions of the British government, he adopted the views, and participated in the councils, of the colonists, in the earliest stages of the contest. The citizens of New Jersey, who knew and valued his distinguished talents, soon selected him as one of the most suitable delegates to the convention which formed their republican constitution in 1776. The professors of the law were lost in astonishment when he appeared in this respectable assembly JOHN WITHERSPOON. 301 as profound a civilian as he had before been known to be a philoso pher and divine. After having taken an active and decided part in the revolutionary committees and conventions of the state, he was summoned to the discharge of more important duties. On the twenty-first of June, 1776, the provincial congress of New Jersey, reposing special con fidence in his integrity and patriotism, elected him a delegate to the general legislature, with instructions to unite with the delegates from the other colonies, in declaring them to be independent of the mo ther country, should such a measure be considered necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties. Dr. Witherspoon took his seat in congress, a few days previous to the fourth of July, and assisted in those important deliberations which resulted in that deed of noble daring, which severed the two countries for ever. When a distinguished member of congress said that we were "not yet ripe for a declaration of independence," Dr. Witherspoon replied, " in my judgment, sir, we are not only ripe, but rotting." During the sessions of 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1781, and 1782, he continued to represent the state of New Jersey in the general congress, with unyielding zeal and perseverance. It is recorded as an evidence of his devotion to public affairs, that he sometimes at tended in his seat, without the least intermission, during the whole period of his annual appointments. Such close attendance was not required by his constituents, nor was it of common occurrence, even in that season of heroism and self-denial. The state governments duly regarded the private affairs, and provided for the relaxation, of the members, by appointing supernumerary congressional dele gates, of whom a certain number was empowered to act as their representatives. From New Jersey they were generally five in number, but two formed a full delegation : thus by apportioning their official term, the weight of political labour became compara tively light, and the division afforded to each member a remission from duty during many months in the year. This retirement, how ever, was entirely optional, and Dr. Witherspoon never permitted any personal considerations to interfere with the course of his official duties. In the month of November, 1782, he finally retired from congress, after a long series of important services. The energy, promptitude, and talents which he displayed in every branch of public business that required his attention, and the political wisdom and experience with which he enriched the national council, at tracted the confidence and admiration of his colleagues, and elevated U 302 JOHN WITHERSPOON. him, with rapidity, to the first rank among the assembled sages and senators of America. He was always firm in the most gloomy and formidable aspects of public affairs, and always discovered the greatest power and presence of mind in the most embarrassing situ ations. But the glorious struggle, in which he had participated, was drawing to an honourable conclusion, and sensibly feeling, as a sex agenarian, the advances of age, he resolved to resign his seat in congress ; and, had he not deemed his continued exertions an im perative duty, would have gladly retired, in some measure, from the burdens of the college. While he was engaged in serving his country in the character of a civilian, he did not lay aside his ministry. He eagerly embraced every opportunity of preaching, and of discharging the various duties of his station as a gospel minister, which he con sidered as his highest honour. Nor woifld he ever consent, as some other clerical members of congress did, to change, in any particular, the dress which distinguished his order. It is impossible to specify the numerous services in which he was engaged, during his long continuance in congress, but he participa ted largely in the toils of the arduous and expensive mode of pros ecuting the public business, adopted by that body, in the appoint ment of boards and committees. His talents as a politician had been thoroughly tested, previous to his emigration, as leader of the orthodox party in the church of Scotland; and he was fully prepared to play a much more important part on the theatre of our grand revolution, than by displaying his eloquence and sagacity in the presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies of Scotland. His powers of memory were of vast importance to him in congress. He often remarked that he could precisely repeat a speech, or sermon, written by himself, by reading it over only three times. The man agement of his memory, and its best application to the interests of the cause, were skilfully conducted. He seldom entered fully into any debate at first, but reserved himself for a concentrated effort : having made himself master of his subject, he methodically com posed a speech, committed it to memory, and delivered it in con gress. Being a ready speaker, and possessing a remarkable talent for extemporaneous discourse, he prefaced his written orations, by replying to some previous speaker, and dexterously proceeding with his prepared speeches, astonished the whole house by the regu lar arrangement of his ideas, his command of language, and his precision on subjects of importance. On the seventh of October, 1776, he was appointed a member JOHN WITHERSPOON. 303 of the secret committee, the duties of which required indefatigable attention, and were of the first importance in the prosecution of the war. In the following month, congress took into consideration the lamentable state of the army, which, dispirited by losses and fa tigues, was retreating, almost naked and barefooted, in the cold of November, before a numerous, well appointed, and victorious army, through a desponding country, " much more disposed to secure safety by submission, than to seek it by a manly resistance." A great number of troops had disbanded, the terms of service of many others had nearly expired, and the army was melting away under the influence of this fatal and universal cause. The national legis lature, finding the army on the eve of dissolution, and aware of the fearful results which might be produced by a dependence on militia, always a more expensive but less efficacious aid than regular for ces, resolved to use every exertion to prevent its farther dismem berment. The commanding general, commissioners, and officers, were conjured to recruit, by every means in their power, the regi ments whose terms of service had expired, and Dr. Witherspoon, Mr. Paca, and Mr. Ross, were appointed a committee to repair to head quarters, and co-operate with General Washington in this im portant business : they were also empowered to inquire into, and redress to the utmost of their power, the grievances of the soldiers. On the twelfth of December, congress retired to Baltimore, and a general expectation prevailed that no effectual resistance could be made to the advance of the enemy. But the bold and unexpect ed attacks made at Trenton and Princeton had a most extensive influence on the fate of the war, and created a confidence in the body of the people, that proper exertions on their part would be crowned with ultimate success : they saved Philadelphia for the present winter ; they recovered the state of New Jersey ; they re vived the drooping spirits of America; and they gave a sensible impulse to the recruiting service throughout the United States. When re-assembled at Baltimore, congress in their resolutions' ex hibited no evidences of confusion or dismay ; and the most judicious efforts were made to repair the mischiefs produced by past errors in the military system. They sought to remove the despondency which was seizing and paralyzing the public mind, by an address to the states, in which every argument was suggested which could rouse them to vigorous action. This nervous and eloquent appeal was prepared by a committee, consisting of Dr. Witherspoon, Mr. Richard Henry Lee, and Mr. Adams; who, at the same time, were 304 JOHN WITHERSPOON- charged with framing a recommendation to the several states, to appoint a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. In the year 1777, he continued to serve on various important committees, and was particularly active as a member of the board of war. On the twenty-first of January, 1778, the board of war submitted a report to congress, relative to American prisoners in the power of the enemy. Congress also appointed a committee, consisting of Dr. Witherspoon, Mr. J. B. Smith, Mr. Lovel, and Mr. G. Morris, to prepare a manifesto on the injurious treatment received by the American prisoners. On the thirtieth of the following October, this eloquent protestation was promulgated by the unanimous con sent of congress. From the fervid strain of piety in which it is couched, and the solemnity of the appeals to "that Being who is equally the father of All," it would seem to be the work of one of His ministers; and it may, perhaps, be safely assumed to be the production of Dr. Witherspoon, especially as it is well known that the admirable publications of congress, calling their constituents to seasons of fasting and prayer, came from his pen. It concludes in the following manner : " While the shadow of hope remained that our enemies could be taught by our example, to respect those laws which are held sacred among civilized nations, and to comply with the dictates of a religion which they pretend, in common with us, to believe and revere, they have been left to the influence of that religion and that example. But since their incorrigible dispositions cannot be touched by kindness and compassion, it becomes our duty, by other means, to vindicate the rights of humanity — We, there fore, the congress of the United States of America, do solemnly de clare and proclaim, that if our enemies presume to execute their threats, or persist in their present career of barbarity, we will take such exemplary vengeance as shall deter others from a like conduct. We appeal to that God who searcheth the hearts of men, for the rectitude of our intentions ; and in his holy presence declare, that as We are not moved by any light and hasty suggestions of anger or revenge, so, through every possible change of fortune, we will adhere to this our determination." On the twenty-seventh of August, 1778, Dr. Witherspoon was appointed, together with Robert Morris, Elbridge Gerry, Richard Henry Lee, and Gouverneur Morris, to consider the state of the money and finances of the United States, and report thereon, from time to time ; and on the twenty-fifth of November, he submitted to congress, powers to the delegates of New Jersey to ratify the arti- JOHN WITHERSPOON. 305 cles of confederation and perpetual union. On the subsequent day, he signed that feeble instrument, which, however, was not rendered complete until the accession of the state of Maryland, on the first of March, 1781. In the year 1779, he particularly distinguished himself as a member of the committee appointed to devise means for. procuring supplies for the army, in which duty he was ably as sisted by the financial knowledge of Gouverneur Morris, and the economical principles of Roger Sherman. After the first, or second, emission, Dr. Witherspoon resolutely opposed (and even hazarded his popularity by the strenuousness of* his opposition) all further issues of the paper currency which inflicted so deep a wound on public credit, and occasioned so much private distress. To liquidate the expenses of the war, immense sums were emitted in bills of credit, and the same method was adopted by the respective states to provide for their internal wants. At length this paper currency, unsupported by solid funds, and resting solely on public credit, was multiplied beyond the rules of sound policy, and having exceeded the useful demand for it as a medium of commerce, it became proportionably reduced. The arts of open and secret enemies, the disgraceful avidity of professed friends, and the scarcity of foreign commodities, were assigned by congress as additional causes of the depreciation of the currency, which in volved consequences equally obvious and alarming. On the twenty- third of June, 1775, the first emission of two millions of dollars took place ; and on the twenty-ninth of November, 1779, the date of the final issue, the aggregate of the bills, then in circulation, amounted to two hundred millions of dollars: of this sum 63,500-, 300 dollars were emitted in the year 1778, and 140,052,480 dollars, in 1779. This vast quantity of bills had been unavoidably issued at a time when no regular civil government existed, possessing suf ficient energy to enforce the collection of taxes, or to provide funds for their redemption. All the talents and influence of Dr. Witherspoon were opposed to this destructive system of emissions, in every stage of its pro gress ; and he denounced it as precisely adapted, if any thing could do it, to defeat the revolution. Instead of the issues of unfunded paper, beyond a certain quantum, he urged the propriety of making loans, and establishing funds for the payment of the interest; and deeply has America lamented that this policy had not been pursued. He subsequently, at the instance of some of the very gentlemen who opposed him in congress, published his ideas on the nature, value, .30 v 2 306 JOHN WITHERSPOON. and uses of money, in one of the most clear and judicious essays that had, perhaps; ever been written on the subject. The argumentative eloquence of Dr. Witherspoon, and his few as sociates was unable to check those measures of congress in relation to the finances, tending to destroy public credit, which, although, unavoidable in principle, he believed to be susceptible of salutary modification. Dr. Witherspoon warmly maintained the absolute necessity of union, to impart yigour and success to the measures of government ; and he strongly combated the opinion expressed in congress, that a lasting confederacy among the states, for their future security and improvement, was impracticable. He declared that such sentiments were calculated greatly to derange the minds of the people, and weaken their efforts in defence of the country. "I confess," said he, " it would to me greatly diminish the glory and importance of the struggle, whether considered as for the rights of mankind in general, or for the prosperity and happiness of this continent in future times. It would quite depreciate the object of hope, as well as place it at a greater distance. For what would it signify to risk our possessions, and shed our blood, to set ourselves free from the encroachments and oppression of Great Britain, with a certainty, as soon as peace was settled with them, of a more lasting war, — a more unnatural, more bloody, and much more hopeless war, among the colonies themselves ? Some of us consider ourselves as acting for posterity at present, having little expectation of living to see all things fully settled, and the good consequences of liberty taking ef fect. But how much more uncertain the hope of seeing the eternal contests of the colonies settled upon a lasting and equitable footing?" — " If, at present, when the danger is yet imminent, when it is so far from being over, that it is but coming to its height, we shall find it impossible to agree upon the terms of this confederacy, what madness is it to suppose that there ever will be a time, or that cir cumstances will so change as to make it even probable, that it will be done at an after season ? Will not the very same difficulties that are in our way, be in the way of those who shall come after us ? Is it possible that they should be ignorant of them, or inatten tive to them ? Will they not have the same jealousies of each other, the same attachment to local prejudices, and particular interests? So certain is this, that I look upon it as on the repentance of a sin ner ; every day's delay, though it adds to the necessity, yet augments the difficulty, and takes from the inclination." JOHN WITHERSPOON. 307 A sentiment expressed in this debate, that it was to be expected from the nature of men, that a time must come when a confederacy would be dissolved and broken to pieces, and which seemed to cre ate an indifference as to the success of the measure, produced the following burst of eloquence : " I ani none of those who either deny or conceal the depravity of human nature, till it is purified by the light of truth, and renewed by the spirit of the living God. Yet I apprehend there is no force in that reasoning at all. Shall we es tablish nothing good because we know it cannot be eternal ? Shall we live without government because every constitution has its old age and its period ? Because we know that we shall die, shall we take no pains to preserve, or lengthen out, life ? Far from it Sir : — it only requires the more watchful attention to settle the government on the best principles, and in the wisest manner, that it may last as long as the nature of things will admit." Dr. Witherspoon con cluded his eloquent arguments in favour of a well-planned confedera tion, in the following terms: " For all these reasons, Sir, I humbly apprehend that every argument from honour, interest^ safety, and necessity, conspire in pressing us to a confederacy; and if it be seriously attempted, I hope, by the blessing of God upon our en deavours, it will be happily accomplished." But although he supported the necessity of a well-organized system of union, he opposed and lamented, in the subsequent for mation of the original confederation, the jealousy and ambition of the individual states, which were unwilling to intrust the general government with adequate powers for the common interest. He passed judgment of inefficacy upon it, at the moment of its birth ; but he complained and remonstrated in vain. The ratification of this instrument was obtained with much difficulty. The various amendments proposed by the states, in some instances conflicting with each other, at length successively yielded to the opinion that a federal compact would be of great importance in the prosecution of the war. On the first of March, 1781, this interesting compact, to the great joy of America, was rendered complete. But it was not productive of all the benefits which its sanguine advocates had expected, and the predictions of Dr. Witherspoon were speedily and fearfully fulfilled. On the third day of February, a short time previous to the completion of the confederacy, he made a fresh attempt to enlarge the powers of congress, and establish a perma nent fund for discharging, in part, the principal and interest of the national debt. He urged that it was indispensably necessary that 308 JOHN WITHERSPOON. congress should be vested with the right of superintending the com mercial regulations of every state, so that none might take place inimical to the common interest : and that they should be vested with the exclusive right of laying duties on all imported articles; no restriction to be valid, and no such duty to be laid, without the consent of nine states. On the question to agree to this motion, with certain restrictions, it was decided in the negative ; and a reso lution was substituted, and passed on the same day, recommending to the several states, as indispensably necessary, to vest a power in congress to levy a duty of five per cent, ad valorem on certain im ported articles, for the use of the United States. This recommen dation was never complied with. Had the policy proposed by Dr. Witherspoon been pursued, a large share of the difficulties which ensued would have been evaded. But a disposition in the members of congress, growing inevitably out of the organization of the go vernment, to consult the will of the states from which they were delegated, and perhaps to prefer their accommodation to any other object, however essential to the whole, had discovered itself at an early period, and had gained strength with time. Hence the nation was thrown at the feet of the states, where the vital principle of power, the right to levy taxes, was exclusively placed; and it was scarcely possible to advance a single step, but under the guidance of the respective states. Dr. Witherspoon had many able coadjutors to support his parti cular and incessant remonstrances against the tardy, insufficient, and faithless manner in providing for the public exigencies and debts, by requisitions on the states. He insisted on the propriety and ne cessity of the government of the union holding in its own hands the entire regulation of commerce, and the revenues that might be de rived from that source : these, he contended, would be adequate to all the wants of the United States in a season of peace. Overruled, however, at that time, in these, and in other objects of importance, he had the satisfaction of living to see America revert, in almost every instance, to his original ideas ; ideas founded on a sound and penetrating judgment, and matured by deep reflection, and an ex tensive observation of men and things. To the judicious patriots throughout America, the necessity of giving greater powers to the federal head became every day more apparent ; as well as the im practicability of continuing the war much longer, if the resources of the country were entirely controlled by thirteen independent, sove reignties. But the efforts of enlightened individuals were too weak JOHN WITHERSPOON. 309 to correct, that fatal disposition of power which had been made in the first instance, and the impolicy of which was now in vain mani fested by experience. Dr. Witherspoon, a leader of the party op posed to the predominant state influence, might well have exclaimed in the words of Washington — "I see one head gradually changing into thirteen. I see one army branching into thirteen ; and, instead of looking jip to congress as the supreme controlling power of the United States, considering themselves as dependent on their respec tive states. In a word, I see the power of congress declining too fast for the consequence and respect which are due to them as the great representative body of America, and am fearful of the con sequences." On the voluntary retirement of Dr. Witherspoon from congress at the close of the year 1779, he determined to give particular at tention to the revival of the institution over which he presided. The immediate care of recommencing the course of instruction was com mitted to the charge of his son-in-law, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Smith, a man of distinguished genius and learning. In the month of De cember, 1779, he resigned his house on the college grounds to Vice President Smith, and retired to his country seat, situated about one mile from, and in full sight of, Princeton : but his name continued to add celebrity to the institution, and it rapidly regained its former reputation. Retirement was a happiness towards which he had long looked with pleasing anticipations. In announcing his removal to Tusculum, his country house, he makes the following remarks in a letter to a friend : " This I have had in view for some years, and intend to spend the remainder of my life, if possible, in otio cum dignitate. You know I was always fond of being a scientific farmer. That disposition has not lost, but gathered strength, since my being in America. In .this respect, I received a dreadful stroke indeed, from the English, when they were here ; they having seized and mostly destroyed my whole stock, and committed such ravages that we are not yet fully recovered from it." But he was not long permitted to enjoy the peaceful happiness of his classical retreat. The voice of his countrymen again summoned him to the national council in the year 1781, and when he finally retired, at the close of 1782, it was to resume only for a short season the tranquil pleasures of Tusculum. In the year 1783, he was in duced, contrary to his own judgment, to cross the ocean to endeavour to promote the benefit of the college. The idea of obtaining funds in its behalf, in Great Britain, when the angry sensations excited 310 JOHN WITHERSPOON. by a long war, and the recent dismemberment of the empire, had not yet subsided, was more than visionary. Overruled, however, by the persuasion of his friends, and influenced by his warm attach ment to the institution, he embarked in December, 1783 ; and in the sixtieth year of his age braved the dangers and privations of the sea, to advance the progress of learning in America. The result of his mission accorded with his expectations. Little more than the amount of his necessary expenses was obtained ; but not withstanding this want of success, his enterprise and zeal are not less deserving of commendation. He returned to this country pre vious to the commencement at Nassau Hall, in September, 1784, having been absent about nine months. Finding nothing to obstruct his entering into that retirement, which was now become more dear to him, he withdrew, in a great measure, except on important occasions, from the exercise of those public functions that were not immediately connected with the duties of his office, as pre sident of the college, or with his character, as a minister of the gospel. Notwithstanding his high talents and political character, many believed that the principal merit of Dr. Witherspoon appeared in the pulpit. He was, in many respects, one of the best models by which a young clergyman could form himself for usefulness and celebrity. It was a singular benefit to the whole college, but espe cially to those who had the profession of the ministry in view, to have such an example constantly before them. Religion, from the man ner in which he treated it, always commanded the respect of those who heard him, even when it was not able to engage their hearts. Dr. Witherspoon was a prominent member of the councils and courts of the church, and took an active part in the ecclesiastical politics of his native country. In the church judicatories of America, he was always upright in his views, firm in his principles, and ready to seize, at once, the right point of view on every question. Disen tangling, with facility, the most embarrassed subjects, he was clear and conclusive in his reasoning, and, from a peculiar soundness of judgment, and a habit of business, skilful in conducting every dis cussion to the most speedy and decisive termination. In fine, the church assuredly lost in him one of its greatest lights ; and if the term may be used in ecclesiastical affairs, one of its greatest poli ticians. As a writer, his style is simple and comprehensive ; his remarks judicious, and often refined ; his information accurate and extensive; JOHN WITHERSPOON. 311 his matter always weighty and important ; his method condensed, yet lucid, and well arranged. Simplicity, perspicuity, precision, comprehension of thought, and knowledge of the world, and of the human heart, prevailed throughout the whole of his extensive writ ings. He is said to have remarked, in relation to them, that " if they were remarkable for any thing, it must be for his attention to general principles, and not to ramifying his subject." His works have not only extended his reputation through Great Britain and America, but he is deservedly held in high repute among almost all the protestant countries of Europe. His sermon entitled " The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men," preached at Princeton on the seventeenth of May, 1776; his treatises on "Justification by free grace, through Jesus Christ," and on " The nature and necessity of Regeneration ;" and his remarks on " The importance of truth in Religion," or " The connexion that subsists between sound principles and a holy prac tice ;" are not surpassed by any theological writings in the English language. His farewell sermon, delivered at Paisley in May, 1776, and his "Lectures on Divinity," bear the same impress of a gigantic mind. The " Essay on the nature, value, and uses of money," al ready adverted to, comprised the substance of the speeches he had delivered in congress on this important and intricate question ; and is, without dispute, the best that ever appeared in this country, and was eminently successful in the development of that intricate subject. " The Druid," a series of periodical essays, published by him in the year 1781, is particularly useful and interesting : the principal themes of this miscellany are literature and morals, arts and industry ; the philosophy of human nature and of human life. His "Lectures on Moral Philosophy," notwithstanding they as sume the form of regular discourses, were in fact considered by him as little more than a syllabus or compendium, on which he might enlarge before a class at the time of recitation : thus, he once com pelled a printer, who, without his knowledge, had undertaken to publish them, to desist from the design. Not a few, however, whose eminence in literature and distinction in society, entitle their opinions to great consideration, have maintained that these lectures, with all their imperfections, contain one of the best and most perspicuous exhibitions of the radical principles of the science on which they treat, that has ever been made. The surprising resemblance which exists between his " Lectures on Eloquence," and those of Dr. Blair, both pursuing the same track, is a striking example of the effect of 312 JOHN WITHERSPOON. early instruction on the habits of thought in later life. These em inent men were class-mates under the same teacher, but no commu nications on the subject had ever been exchanged ; yet the radical ideas, but not the style, are remarkably the same. Dr. Witherspoon was a frequent contributor to the public papers, particularly on political subjects. His " Thoughts on American Liberty," written at the dawn of the revolution, depict in striking colours the depth of his political foresight, by the recommendation of a series of important measures, almost all of which were sub sequently adopted, at various periods. In the essay " On conducting the American controversy," his ideas are not less lucid than saga cious : and his remarks " On the Contest between Great Britain and America" tend to establish the fact, that the people of America, so far from being seditious and factious, entertained a strong attach ment to the mother country, and attached high feelings of pride to their descent ; so much so, indeed, than when an American spoke of going to England, he always called it going home. Dr. Witherspoon was not a man of the most various and exten sive learning. His intellectual treasures consisted of a mass of in formation well selected and thoroughly digested; and scarcely any individual of the age had a more vigorous mind, or sound under standing. He was well versed in the dead languages, being an accurate Latin scholar, and capable of speaking and reading that language with facility. He was a good proficient in Greek, presiding over the Greek recitations in Longinus, and the higher classics; and he taught Hebrew to all those in the college who wished to study it. He also read and spoke the French language with accuracy and fluency. Although not a mathematician in detail, he had the high est idea of the usefulness and necessity of mathematical knowledge. He banished systems of logic altogether from the college, observing that Euclid's elements were the best system of logic ever written. He was not versed in the details of Natural Philosophy and the Natural Sciences, of which he had learned only the general princi ples in the usual course of university education. Although not an indiscriminate and enormous reader, he had read, and thoroughly digested, the best authors in every department of useful know ledge. The eloquence of Dr. Witherspoon was simple and grave, but, at the same time, as animated as his constitutional malady would permit. It was a kind of Demosthenian eloquence, which made the blood "shiver along the arteries:" he could not speak in a loud JOHN WITHERSPOON. 313 tone of voice, but his articulation was such, that it was distinctly audible in the largest church. His discourses commanded univer sal attention, and his manner was altogether irresistible: he never indulged in florid flights of fancy, but modelled his oratory accord ing to the plain and comprehensive style of Swift. Possessing remarkable frankness of character, Dr. Witherspoon, in his moments of relaxation from the great and serious affairs of life, was an amusing and instructive companion. His rich fund of anecdote was improved by an abundant share of wit ; but he was far from affecting the character of the latter, and used it with the utmost discretion. The following anecdote presents a specimen of his good-humoured wit. When Burgoyne's army was captured at Saratoga, General Gates despatched one of his aids to congress to carry the intelligence.* The officer, after being delayed by the amusements which offered themselves on his way, at length arrived at Philadelphia, but the report of the victory had reached there several days before. Congress, according to custom, proceeded to give the messenger some mark of their esteem. It was proposed to present him with an elegant sword; but Dr. Witherspoon rose, and begged leave to move, that instead of a sword, they should pre sent him with a pair of golden spurs. Dr. Witherspoon was an affectionate husband, a tender parent, a kind master, and a cordial friend. He was twice married. He was united to his first wife, named Montgomery, in Scotland, at an early age: she was an excellent woman, without much education, but eminent for her piety and benevolence. His children, at the period of his emigration to America, consisted of three sons and two daughters; James, the eldest son, held the rank of major in the * The bearer of the despatches was lieutenant-colonel, afterwards Major-General Wilkinson. Besides the amusements on the way, there were probably other causes of detention operating upon Colonel Wilkinson. Several of the officers inimical to Washington as commander-in-chief, were at that time quartered at Reading, Penn sylvania, through which place he passed, and was one of the coterie at Lord Stir ling's on the twenty-fifth October, when General Conway's letter to General Gates, in which he said, "Heaven has been determined to save your country, or a weak general and bad counsellors would have destroyed it," was read, and the merits and demerits of General Washington in the battle of Brandy wine "severely stric- tured." On the third of November he delivered his despatches, and the same day the new board of war was appointed, consisting entirely of officers opposed to General Washington as commander-in-chief, with General. Gates for president, and Colonel Wilkinson secretary. On the sixth, Wilkin son was brevetted a brigadier- general. These facts go further towards accounting for the delay in the messenger, than the amusements by the way-side. 31 V 314 JOHN WITHERSPOON. revolutionary army, and was killed at the battle of Germantown John possessed good talents and attainments, and was bred a phy sician. David applied himself to the study of the law, and settled in North Carolina, where he became a respectable practitioner. In the year 1780, he acted as private secretary to the president of con gress. Ann, the oldest daughter, was married to the Rev. Dr. Sa muel S. Smith, who succeeded Dr. Witherspoon as president of the college ; and Frances entered into matrimony with Dr. David Ram say, the celebrated historian. His second marriage excited much noise and attention, he being at that time seventy, and his wife only twenty-three, years of age. Excepting Washington, he is said to have possessed more of what is called presence, than almost any other man: he was six feet in height, finely proportioned, and remarkably dignified in his appearance. It was difficult to trifle in his presence; a circumstance which proved highly useful in the government of the college, by abashing the impudent and presuming. He had a pretty strong Scottish accent, which, however, continued to decrease till the day of his death. Bodily infirmities began, at length, to fall heavily upon him. For more than two years previous to his death, he was afflicted with the loss of sight : which contributed to hasten the progress of his other disorders. He bore his sufferings with exemplary patience, and even cheerfulness; nor would his active mind, and his unabated desire of usefulness, permit him, even in this situation, to desist from his ministry, and his duties in the college, so far as his health and strength would admit. During his blindness, he was frequently led into the pulpit, both at home and abroad; and always acquitted himself with his usual accuracy, and not unfrequently with more than his usual solemnity and animation. On the fifteenth of November, 1794, in the seventy-third year of his age, he retired to his eternal rest, full of honours, and full of days, there to receive the plaudit of his Lord, "well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, be thou ruler over many things ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." His remains were interred at Princeton, and a Latin epi taph, commemorating his virtues, and the prominent incidents of his life, is inscribed upon his tomb. Hi SM&KS / ? y ^ ';-T;ivcil by .1 .IVT.uiurai-n-' From ;rri Oi-L'j,-iii.:il raiiLtiri'j lil flu- I'lissi'ssiim ul' Mrs. "Morris. ROBERT MORRIS. 339 at that time one of the first merchants of Philadelphia, for the pur pose of receiving a commercial education. Although deprived of the benefit of parental counsel, his clerkship was characterized by the greatest fidelity and attention, and he soon gained the implicit confidence of Mr. Willing. His extensive mercantile knowledge, and close application to the discharge of his duties, attracted the friendship and confidence of Mr. Thomas Willing, who proposed to him, some time after the ex piration of the term for which he had engaged himself, to form to gether a commercial connection. This partnership was entered into in the year 1754, and continued until 1793, embracing the long pe riod of thirty-nine years. Mr. Morris was the acting partner, and previous to the commencement of the revolution, the house was en gaged more extensively in commerce than any other in Philadelphia. The unalterable resolution of Mr. Morris, with respect to his po litical course of conduct, appears to have been formed in the early part of the year 1775 : the shedding of American blood in Massa chusetts, for ever fixed the principles upon which his resplendent services in the darkest days of the revolution were founded, and ex tinguished the last glimmering of hope that the evils and miseries of war might yet be averted. On St. George's day, twenty-third April, 1775, about one hundred guests and members of the St. ^Jeorge's Society were assembled at the City Tavern in Philadel phia, to celebrate the anniversary of their tutelary saint. Mr. Mor ris was the presiding officer. Reconciliation and a change of minis ters were the phantoms which had lulled and deluded the American community. About five o'clock in the afternoon, in the height of their festivity, when moderate hilarity alone had attended their liba tions, the news of the massacre at Lexington, which occurred four days previous, was communicated to the company. The change of scene was instantaneous and appalling : an electric shock could not have been more suddenly prostrating. The tables were immedi ately deserted, and the seats overturned. Mr. Morris, and a few members, among whom was Richard Peters, retained their seats, and viewed this extraordinary display in silent astonishment. When the fugitives had retreated, a solemn scene succeeded the merri ment and gaiety which, a few moments before, had resounded through the hall. After feelingly deploring the awful event which separated them for ever from the British government ; the small party that remained took leave of their patron saint, and pronounced a solemn requiem over the painted vapour, — reconciliation. Mr. 340 ROBERT MORRIS. Morris, in unison with his associates, at that time avowed his irre vocable decision as to revolutionary measures, from which he never deviated. The appointment of Mr. Morris, by the legislature of Pennsylva nia, on the third of November, 1775, as one of the delegates to the second congress, was his first formal entrance into public life. Soon after he had assumed his seat in congress, he was added to the secret committee, (of which he was the chairman,) that had been formed. on the eighteenth of September, to contract for the importation of arms, ammunition and gunpowder. On the eleventh of December, he was appointed a member of the committee to devise ways and means of furnishing the colonies with a naval armament ; and their report, embracing the expedience of augmenting the navy by the addition of five ships of 32, five of 28, and three of 24 guns, being adopted, a naval committee was formed, of which Mr. Morris was a member, with full powers to carry the plan into execution, with all possible expedition. In the beginning of 1776, he was conspicuous in the discussions which attended the regulation of trade, and the restrictions under which it ought to be placed. On the fifteenth of April, 1776, he was specially commissioned to negotiate bills of ex change, With a pledge of indemnity from congress should any loss arise from his responsibility as the endorser.* On the twentieth of July, he was re-elected a representative of the state of Pennsyl vania. When the approach of the enemy through New Jersey caused the removal of congress from Philadelphia to Baltimore, the national affairs wore a gloomy and disheartening aspect. In December, 1776, when congress retired from Philadelphia, a committee, con sisting of Mr. Morris, Mr. Clymer, and Mr. Walton, was appointed, with extensive powers, to remain in that city, and execute all ne cessary and proper continental business. Being in daily expectation of the arrival of the enemy, Mr. Morris removed his family to the country, and resided with an intimate friend who had resolved, at every hazard, to remain in the city. At this time, he received a let- * On the first of July he voted against the Declaration of Independence, and on the fourth, declined voting at all, considering the time premature and inappropriate. Shortly after this he wrote to the commissioners at Paris, " Our people knew not the hardship and calamities of war, when they so boldly dared Britain to arms." And to Gen. Gates, "The business of all America seems to be making constitutions. It is the fruits of a certain premature declaration, which you know I always oppo sed. My opposition was founded on the evil consequences I foresaw, and the pre sent state of several of the colonies justifies my apprehensions." ROBERT MORRIS. 341 ter from General Washington, who was then encamped with the army at the place now called New Hope, on the Delaware, in which it was stated, that while the enemy was accurately informed of all his movements, he was compelled, from the want of specie, to re main in complete ignorance of their designs, and that a certain sum specified, was absolutely necessary to the safety of the army, and to enable him to obtain such intelligence of the movements and precise position of the enemy on the opposite shore, as would authorize him to act offensively. This pressing application, and appeal to the feel ings of Mr. Morris, which, from the urgency of the occasion, was despatched by a confidential messenger, was received at a time when compliance was almost hopeless, owing to the general flight of the citizens. He frequently adverted to the mental depression which he experienced on that trying occasion, and to the means he employed to relieve the necessities of the commander-in-chief. From the time he "received the despatch until evening, he revolved deeply and gloomily in his mind, the means through which he might realize the expectations which had been formed from his patriotism and in fluence : his usual hour of retiring from the counting-room arrived, and as he was proceeding- slowly and sorrowfully home, he acci dentally met a gentleman of the society of Friends, with whom he was intimate, and who placed implicit confidence in his integrity. He inquired the news from Mr. Morris, who replied ; " The most important news is, that I require a certain sum in specie, and that you must let me have it." His friend hesitated and mused for a mo ment — " Your security is to be my note and my honour," continued Mr. Morris. — " Robert, thou shalt have it," replied the friend ; and this personal loan, causing a prompt and timely compliance with the demand, enabled General Washington to gain the signal victory over the hireling Hessians at Trenton. Such was the instrumen tality of Robert Morris, in the victory of Trenton ; and it may be truly remarked, that although his own brows were unadorned with the laurels of the warrior, it was his hand which crowned the heroes who triumphed on that day. On the tenth of March, 1777, he was, a third time, appointed by the assembly of Pennsylvania to represent that state in congress, in conjunction with Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, James Wil son, Daniel Roberdeau, and Jonathan B. Smith. During this year, the "secret committee" was dissolved, and succeeded in all its powers by the "committee of commerce," of which Mr. Morris was a prominent member. On the twenty-eighth of November, he was 34 X selected, together with Mr. Gerry and Mr. Jones, to repair to the army, and in a private confidential consultation with the comman der-in-chief, to consider the best and most practicable means for conducting a winter campaign with vigour and success, and, with the concurrence of General Washington, to direct every measure which circumstances might require for the promotion of the public service. He was frequently and actively engaged in managing the fiscal concerns of congress, a duty for which his capacity for busi ness, and intimate knowledge of pecuniary transactions, rendered him peculiarly competent. On the twenty-seventh of August, 1778, he was appointed a member of the standing committee of finance. Besides the enthusiastic zeal which he manifested in the cause of his country, and the financial talents which he possessed, his com mercial credit probably ranked higher than that of any other man in the community; and this credit he unhesitatingly devoted to the public service, whenever necessity required such an evidence of his patriotism and disinterestedness. These occasions were neither few in their number, nor trifling in their nature. Mr. Morris frequently obtained pecuniary as well as other supplies, which were most press- ingly required for the service, on his own responsibility, and appa rently on his own account, when, from the known state of the public treasury, they could not have been procured by the government. Judge Peters, from his official station, possessed the most perfect knowledge of every military transaction, and of the influence of Mr. Morris in giving efficacy to enterprise. The personal friendship which subsisted between those active and enlightened patriots, and their constant co-operation in the great work of freedom, closely united them together ; and it is by the pen of the latter statesman, that the particulars of the providential supply of lead for the army is afforded. " In 1779 or 1780, two of the most distressing years of the war, General Washington wrote to me a most alarming ac count of the prostrate condition of the military stores, and enjoined my immediate exertions to supply the deficiencies. There were no musket-cartridges but those in the men's boxes, and they were wet; of course, if attacked, a retreat, or a rout, was inevitable. We (the board of war) had exhausted all the lead accessible to us, having caused even the spouts of houses to be melted, and had offered, abortively, the equivalent in paper of two shillings specie per pound for lead. I went, in the evening of the day on which I received this letter, to a splendid entertainment, given by Don Juan Mi- railles, the Spanish minister. My heart was sad, but I had the ROBERT MORRIS. 343 • faculty of brightening my countenance, even under gloomy disas ters ; yet it seems then not sufficiently adroitly. Mr. Morris, who was one of the guests, and knew me well, discovered some casual traits of depression. He accosted me in his usual blunt and disen gaged manner : ' I see some clouds passing across the sunny coun tenance you assume; what is the matter?' After some hesitation, I showed him the general's letter, which I had brought from the office, with the intention of placing it at home in a private cabinet. He played with my anxiety, which he did not relieve for some time. At length, however, with great and sincere delight, he called me aside, and told me that the Holkar privateer had j ust arrived at his wharf, with ninety tons of lead, which she had brought as ballast. It had been landed at Martinique, and stone ballast had supplied its place ; but this had been put on shore, and the lead again taken in. 'You shall have my half of this fortunate supply; there are the owners of the other half (indicating gentlemen in the apartment.) 'Yes, *but I am already under heavy personal engagements, as guarantee for the department, to those, and other gentlemen.' 'Well,' rejoined Mr. Morris, 'they will take your assumption with my guarantee.' I, instantly, on these terms, secured the lead, left the entertainment, sent for the proper officers, and set more than one hundred people to work, during the night. Before morning, a supply of cartridges was ready, and sent off to the army. I could relate many more such occurrences. Thus did our affairs succeed, "per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum;" and these discrimina rerum occurred so often, that we had frequently occasion feelingly to exclaim, ' Quod optanti divum promittere nemo Auserat— Fors en! attulit ultro.' Events, happy or adverse, succeeded each other so rapidly, that the present almost obliterated the past ; at least the actual employment growing out of the present, often critical, arduous, and hazardous, blunted our recollection. We lived, in many periods of our strug gle, by the day; and deemed ourselves happy, if the sun set upon us without misfortune." Few public men have escaped the breath of slander. During the time that congress assembled at Yorktown, reflections were indulged by a member of that body, which tended to raise a suspicion of fraudulent proceedings to the detriment of the public, by the house of Willing, Morris, & Co.. The established character of Mr. Lau rens impresses the belief that his sole object in making these remarks 344 ROBERT MORRIS. * was to do justice; and this opinion is strengthened by his co-opera tion, however late, in the vindication of Mr. Morris. On the nine teenth of January, 1779, a committee of five was appointed to in quire into the facts set forth, in the accusatory papers which had been submitted to congress. They reported, and congress, there fore, unanimously agreed with the report, that the defence of Mr. Morris was full and explicit on every fact, circumstance, 'and ques tion, stated in the charges against him, and supported by clear and satisfactory vouchers ; that he had clearly and fully vindicated him self; and that in the execution of the powers committed to him by the secret committee, he had acted with fidelity and integrity, and an honourable zeal for the welfare of his country. — Similar asper sions were heaped upon him during the course of his financial career, which, when he deigned to notice them at all, were dissipated with .equal facility and success. In the year 1780, when the reverses in the south had produced general depression, and the increasing and^clamorous wants of the army threatened its total dissolution, Mr. Morris, with a zeal guided by that sound discretion which turns expenditure to the best account, established a bank, in conjunction with many patriotic citizens of Philadelphia, the principal object of which was to supply the army with provisions and rum. The directors were authorized to borrow money on the credit of the bank, and to grant special notes bearing interest at six per cent. The credit of the members was to be employed, and their money advanced, if necessary, but no emolu ments whatever were to be derived from the institution. Congress, while they expressed a high sense of this patriotic transaction, pledged the faith of the United States effectually to reimburse and indemnify the associatoi;s. Thus, at a time when the public credit was at its lowest ebb, and the public exigencies most pressing, an institution was erected on the credit and exertions of a few patriotic individuals, for the purpose of supplying, and transporting, to the army, three millions of rations, and three hundred hogsheads of rum ; it continued until the ensuing year, when the Bank of North America was established. The last re-election of Mr. Morris to congress, previous to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, occurred on the thirteenth of December, 1777. On the twentieth of February, 1781, Robert Morris was unani mously elected superintendent of finance. To offer a succinct view of the Herculean task which this appointment imposed upon him, it ROBERT MORRIS. 345 is necessary to state, that he was required to examine into the situa tion of the public debts, expenditures, and revenue ; to digest and report plans for improving and regulating the finances, and for es tablishing order and economy in the disbursement of the public money ; to direct the execution of all plans adopted by congress re specting revenue and expenditure ; to superintend the settlement of all public accounts ; to direct and control all persons employed in procuring supplies for the public service, and in the expenditure of public money ; to obtain accounts of all the issues of the specific supplies furnished by the several states ; to compel the payment of all moneys due to the United States, and in his official character, to prosecute in behalf of those states, for all delinquencies respecting the public revenue and expenditure ; and to report to congress the officers necessary for conducting the various branches of his depart ment. By successive resolutions of congress, he was subsequently empowered to appoint and remove, at his pleasure, his assistants in his peculiar office ; as well as those persons, not immediately ap pointed by congress, as were officially intrusted with the expendi ture of the public supplies ; to appoint agents to prosecute or defend for him in his official, capacity ; to manage and dispose of the mo neys granted by his Most Christian Majesty to the United States, and the specific supplies required from the several states ; to procure on contract all necessary supplies for the army, navy, artificers and prisoners of war ; to make provision for the support of the civil list ; to correspond with the foreign ministers of the United States upon subjects relating to his department ; and to take under his care and management, all loans and other moneys obtained in Europe, or elsewhere, for the use of the United States. He was also autho rized to import and export goods, •money, or other articles for ac count of the United States, to. any extent he should deem useful to the public service. Such is a slight sketch of the duties which this office alone devolved on him, for it would be utterly impossible to enumerate the vast variety of measures in which he co-operated for the public benefit : while to trace him through all the acts of his financial administration, would involve the history of the last two years of the revolutionary war. When the exhausted credit of the government threatened the most alarming consequences ; when the army was utterly destitute of the necessary supplies of food and clothing ; when the military chest had been drained of its last dol lar, and even the confidence of Washington was shaken ; Robert Morris, upon his own credit, and from his private resources, fur- x2 346 ROBERT MORRIS. nished those pecuniary means, without which all the physical force of the country would have been in vain. At this period, a deep gloom enveloped the prospects of America, the darkness of which may be imagined from the summary presented by Washington at the commencement of his Military Journal, on tke first of May, 1781. "Instead of having magazines filled with provisions, we have a scanty pittance scattered here and there in the several states : Instead of having our arsenals well supplied with military stores, they are poorly provided, and the workmen all leaving them : Instead of having the various articles of field equi page ready to deliver, the quarter-master-general is but now applying to the several states (as the dernier resort) to provide these things for their troops respectively : Instead of having a regular system of transportation established upon credit, or funds in the quarter master's hand to defray the contingent expenses of it, we have nei ther the one nor the other ; and all that business, or a great part of it, being done by military impressment, we are daily and hourly oppressing the people, souring their tempers, and alienating their affections : Instead of having the regiments completed to the new establishments, scarce any state in the union has, at this hour, one eighth part of its quota in the field ; and there is little prospect that I can see, of ever getting more than one half. In a word, instead of having every thing in readiness to take the field, we have no thing ; and, instead of having the prospect of a glorious offensive campaign before us, we have a bewildered and gloomy prospect of a defensive one, unless we should receive a powerful aid of ships, land troops, and money, from our generous allies : and these at present are too contingent to build upon." Such were the clouds which overshadowed the campaign of 1781; but they were gdissipated by the resources and energy of Mr. Mor ris. Uniting great political talents with a degree of mercantile en terprise, information, and credit, seldom equalled in any country, and urged by the critical state of public affairs and the pressing wants of the army, he entered immediately on the duties of his of fice, without reference to the Stipulation touching the prior arrange ments of his mercantile affairs. The occasion required that he should bring his private credit in aid of the public resources, and pledge himself personally and extensively, for articles of the most absolute necessity, which could not be otherwise obtained. Con demning the system of violence and of legal fraud, which had too long been practised, as one which was calculated to defeat its own ROBERT MORRIS. 347 object, he sought the gradual restoration of confidence, by the only means which could restore it, — a punctual and faithful compliance with the engagements he should make. Herculean as was this task, in the existing derangement of the American finances, he entered upon it with courage, and if not completely successful, certainly did more than could have been supposed practicable with the means placed in his hands. Incited by a penetrating and indefatigable mind, and supported by the confidence which his probity and punc tuality, through the various grades of commercial pursuits, 'had established, he discarded, in this threatening conjuncture, consider ations applying forcibly to his own reputation, and devoted his en tire attention to the resuscitation of public credit. Promulgating his determination to meet every engagement with punctuality, he was sought with eagerness by all who had the means of supplying the public wants. The scene suddenly changed : faithfully perform ing his promise, the public deficiencies began to disappear, and mili tary operations no longer were suspended by failure of the neces sary means. Strong in his personal credit, and true to his engage ments, the superintendent became every day stronger in the public confidence, and unassisted, except by a small portion of a small loan of six millions of livres tournois, granted by the court of Ver sailles to the United States, this individual citizen gave food and motion to the main army ; proving by his conduct, that credit is the offspring of integrity, economy, system, and punctuality. When Mr. Morris assumed the duties of his office, the treasury was more than two millions and a half of dollars in arrear; the greater part of 'this debt was of such a nature that the payment could neither be avoided nor delayed ; and Dr. Franklin was there fore under the necessity of ordering back from Amsterdam, money which had been sent thither for the purpose of being shipped to America: had he not taken this step, the bills of exchange drawn by congress must have been protested, and the tottering credit of the government in Europe, would have been wholly prostrated. Public and private distress every where existed: the credit of the government was so far destroyed, as to form a foundation on which the enemy erected the most sanguine expectations of conquest : many public officers could not perform their duties, without pay ment of the arrears due from the treasury, and without immediate aid must have been imprisoned for debts which enabled them to live. The public treasury was reduced to so low an ebb, that some of the members of the board of war declared to Mr. Morris, they 348 ROBERT MORRIS. had not the means of sending an express to the army. Starvation threatened the troops ; and the paper bills of credit had so far de preciated, that it required a burdensome mass to pay for an article of clothing. The gigantic efforts of the financier, however, dissi pated these appalling prospects with an almost miraculous rapidity. To him it was principally owing that the armies of America did not disband; and that congress, instead of yielding, to an inevitable necessity, recovered the means, not only of sustaining the efforts of the enemy, but of resuming the offensive with vigour and success. The establishment of the Bank of North America was one of the first, and most prominent, acts in the administration of Mr. Morris; and but for this institution, his plans of finance must have been totally frustrated. Previous to the war, he had laid the foundation of a bank, and established a credit in Europe for the purpose of, carrying the scheme into execution. His design, however, was de feated by the revolution, and he now devoted to the benefit of his country, the knowledge that he had acquired of the principles of banking, and of the advantages resulting to a commercial commu nity from a well-regulated bank, by enabling merchants, in cases of exigency, to anticipate their funds, and to take advantage of occasions which offered well-grounded schemes of speculation. On the seventeenth of May, he submitted to the consideration of con gress, his plan for establishing a national bank, accompanied with explanatory observations. " Anticipation of taxes and funds," he remarked, " is all that ought to be expected from any system of paper credit : this seems as likely to rise into a fabric equal to the weight, as any I have yet seen, or thought of; and I submit whether it may not be necessary and proper, that congress make immediate application to the several states to invest them with the powers of incorporating a bank, and for prohibiting all other banks or bankers in these states, at least during the war." The capital of the bank was established at four hundred thousand dollars, in shares of four hundred dollars each, payable in gold or silver. Twelve directors were to manage the affairs of the institution, who were empowered, under certain restrictions, to increase the capital of the bank. It was to be incorporated by the government, and be subject to the inspection of the superintendent of finance, with the privilege, at all times, of access to the books and papers. Such were the bases and principal features of the establishment. The utility to be derived from it was that the notes of the bank, payable on demand, should be declared legal money for the payment of all duties and taxes in ROBERT MORRIS. 349 each of the United States, and receivable into the public treasury as gold or silver. This necessary and beneficial institution received the full approbation of congress, on the twenty-sixth of May: it was resolved, with the dissenting voice of Massachusetts alone, that the subscribers should be incorporated as soon as the subscriptions were filled; that the several states should be requested to provide that no other banks, or bankers, should be established during the war ; that the notes of the bank should be receivable in payment of all taxes, duties, and debts, due to the United States ; and that the several state legislatures should be earnestly required to pass laws, making it felony to counterfeit the notes of the bank. In consequence of these resolutions, the plan of the bank was published by Mr. Morris, with a suitable and urgent address to the public. " To ask the end," he observed, "which it is proposed to answer by this institution of a bank, is merely to call the public at tention to the situation of our affairs. A depreciating paper cur rency has unhappily been the source of infinite private mischief, numberless frauds, and the greatest distress. The national cala mities have moved with an equal pace, and the public credit has received the deepest injury. This is a circumstance so unusual in a republican government, that we may boldly affirm it cannot con tinue a moment after the several legislatures have determined to take those vigorous and effectual measures, to which the public voice now loudly commands their attention. In the mean time, the exigencies of the United States require an anticipation of our reve nues ; while, at the same time, there is not such confidence estab lished as will call out, for that purpose, the funds of individual citizens. The use, then, of a bank, is to aid the government by their moneys and credit, for which they will have every proper reward and security; to gain from individuals that credit which property, abilities, and integrity, never fail to command ; to supply the loss of that paper money, which becoming more and more use less, calls every day more loudly for its final redemption ; and to give a new spring to commerce, in a moment when, by the removal of all restrictions, the citizens of America shall enjoy and possess that freedom for which they contend." Mr. Morris, from motives of official duty, as well as the conviction of its utility, continued incessantly to promote the progress of this plan ; but such was the public distress, and the gloomy prospect of public affairs, that, notwithstanding the zealous endeavours of indi viduals, the necessary sum was not subscribed until the year 1782- 35 350 ROBERT MORRIS. and it was some time after the business of the bank was fairly com menced, before the actual sum paid in by individual subscribers amounted to seventy thousand dollars. In the mean time the exertions of the financier were unremitting. Mr. Morris, finding that it was impracticable to procure the whole amount of the capital from individual subscriptions, subscribed, on account of the United States, for stock to the amount of two hun dred and fifty thousand dollars; and it was principally upon this fund, that the operations of the institution were commenced. Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars had been imported from France, and deposited in the bank, and he had determined, from the moment of its arrival, to subscribe for those shares which remained vacant; but one half the sum was exhausted by the public expenditures before the institution could be organized. At length, on the thirty- first of December, 1781, a charter of incorporation was granted by congress, limiting the capital to ten millions of dollars. On the same day, congress recommended to the several state legislatures to enact laws for facilitating the full operation of the institution; and on the seventh of January, 1782, the bank was opened, and indi viduals began to deposit their money. Mr. Morris seized this occa sion to renew his solicitations to the several state governors, rela tive to the passage of laws for the protection and promotion of the institution, the advantages of which he displayed in inviting colours' " It will facilitate," said he, " the management of the finances of the United States. The several states may, when their respective necessities require, and the abilities of the bank will permit, derive occasional advantages and accommodation from it. It will afford to the individuals of all the states a medium for their intercourse with each other, and for the payment of taxes, equally safe and more convenient than the precious metals. It will have a tendency to increase both the internal and external commerce of North Ame rica, and undoubtedly will be infinitely useful to all the traders of every state in the Union; provided, as I have already said, it is conducted on the principles of equity, justice, prudence, and eco nomy." On the first of April, 1782, the assembly of Pennsylvania agreed to, and passed, the state act of incorporation; Delaware pursued the same course, and other states enacted laws for the pro jection of the bank. The country realized an extraordinary benefit from this institu tion, as it enabled Mr. Morris to use, by anticipation, the funds of the nation ; a power of infinite value, when prudently and judiciously ROBERT MORRIS. 351 exercised. The sudden restoration of public and private dredit. which took place on the establishment of the bank, was an' event as extraordinary in itself, as any domestic occurrence during the pro gress of the revolution. Its first operations were greatly assisted by the arrival of a large sum in specie, from Europe and the West Indies ; and, although the subscriptions to the capital stock were not paid with punctuality, from the great scarcity of money, yet as the subscribers were generally men of property, and liable to the full amount of their subscriptions, the directors of the bank were en couraged to proceed in the business. The aid which the institution afforded to the country, in a period of great gloom and distress, was very extensive, considering its limited capital. Mr. Morris, as before stated, subscribed two hun dred -and fifty thousand dollars in his official capacity; but the finances were so much exhausted, that, in the following December, the bank was obliged to release the United States from their sub scription, to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars; the remaining fifty thousand having been sold, by the superintendent, to individuals in Holland. On the twelfth of January, 1782, in less than two weeks after the bank was opened, the directors loaned to the United States, - - $100,000 In the month of February following, - - 100,000 In the month of March following, - 100,000 In the month of June following, - - - 100,000 Making, together, the sum of - - - $400,000 In May, 1792,, the state of Pennsylvania being unable to pay its quota of the public contribution, the bank lent it the sum of eighty thousand dollars ; so that with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars, the bank actually advanced, for the public service, within six months after its organization, the sum of four hundred and eighty thousand dollars ; and this will appear more extraordinary when it is recollected, that the heavy losses of individuals by the depreciation of the continental money, were then fresh in the public recollection, and occasioned such a distrust of every kind of paper engagements, that the circulation of bank notes was very limited, and the bank could derive but little aid from them. These loans were not finally reimbursed until the first of January, 1784. At the commencement of the year 1781, when the overwhelming distress of the army had driven congress, and the commander-in- 352 ROBERT MORRIS. chief, almost to desperation, Mr. Morris, on his own private credit, supplied the suffering troops with several thousand barrels of flour. He thus prevented the design which had been contemplated by con gress, of authorizing General Washington to seize all the provisions that could be found within twenty miles of his camp : the sanction of this procedure by congress would have proved extremely detri mental to the cause of the country; and it was avoided solely through the private credit and resources of the financier. In a let ter to Thomas Lowrey, of New Jersey, oh this subject, dated twenty- ninth of May, 1781, he makes the following remarks and assurances: "It seems that General Washington is now in the utmost necessity for some immediate supplies of flour, and I must either undertake to procure them, or the laws of necessity must be put in force, which I shall ever study to avoid and prevent. I must therefore request that you will immediately use your best skill, judgment, and indus try, in purchasing, on the lowest terms you can, one thousand bar rels of sweet, sound flour, and in sending it forward to camp in the most expeditious and least expensive manner that you can contrive. To obtain this flour readily and on good terms, I know you must pledge your private credit, and as I have not the money ready, although the means of raising it are in my power, I must also pledge myself to you, which I do most solemnly, as an officer of the public; but lest you should, like some others, believe more in pri vate than in public credit, I hereby pledge myself to pay you the cost and charges of this flour in hard money." "I will enable you most honourably to fulfil your engagements. My character, utility, and the public good, are much more deeply concerned in doing so than yours is." — In a letter of the same date, addressed to Major-Gene ral Schuyler, the disinterestedness and purity of his exertions for the public benefit are equally apparent. In informing the comman der-in-chief of these arrangements, he observes, that the distress of his army for want of bread had been made known to him by a committee of congress: " I found myself," he continues, "imme diately impressed with the strongest desire to afford you relief. Not being prepared, in my official character, with funds or means of accomplishing the supplies you need, I have written to Major-Gene ral Schuyler, and to Thomas Lowrey, of New Jersey, requesting their immediate exertions to procure, upon their own credit, one thousand barrels of flour each, and to send the same forward in parcels, as fast as procured, to camp, deliverable to your excellency's order; and I have pledged myself to pay them in hard money, for ROBERT MORRIS. 353 the costs and charges, within a month, six weeks, or two months. I shall make it a point to provide the money, being determined never to make an engagement that cannot be fulfilled ; for if, by any means, I should fail in this respect, I will quit my office as useless from that moment." — Thus, by a liberal use of his private credit, he afforded food to, and restored order in, the army, at a period when starvation and mutiny stalked hand in hand throughout the ranks. In the same year, the talents and integrity of Mr. Morris attracted an honourable mark of confidence from the legislature of Pennsyl vania, by his appointment as the agent of the state, to meet the requisitions of congress. After having relieved the wants of the moment, by his private credit, Mr. Morris proposed, and undertook, to furnish all the specific requisitions made by congress on Penn sylvania, during the current year, on receiving, as a reimbursement, the taxes imposed by a law which had been recently enacted. On the twenty-fifth of June, the contract was agreed to by the assembly of the state, and on the sixth of July following, congress passed a resolution approving of the transaction, as having a tendency to promote the public service of the United States. Thus were sup plies, which the government found itself incapable of furnishing, raised by an individual. The services rendered by Mr. Morris to the southern army, under the command of General Greene, were as extensive as the embar rassed state of the finances would permit. It is stated by Marshall, that " the distresses of the southern army, like those of the north, were such that it was often difficult to keep them together. That he might relieve them when in the last extremity, and yet not di minish the exertions made to draw support from other -sources, by creating an opinion that any supplies could be drawn from him, Mr. Morris employed an agent to attend the southern army as a volun teer, whose powers were unknown to General Greene. This agent was instructed to watch its situation, and whenever it appeared im possible for the general to extricate himself from his embarrass ments, to furnish him, on his pledging the faith of the government for repayment, with a draft on the financier for such a sum as would relieve the urgency of the moment. Thus was Greene frequently rescued from impending ruin, by aids which appeared providential, and for which he could not account." In a letter to General Greene, dated the third of October, 1781, Mr. Morris thus unfolds the state of their finances. " To give you an idea of my situation as to money, I think I need only inform you that since I have been in Y 354 ROBERT MORRIS. office, I have received the sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds, Pennsylvania money, from the treasury of this state, and that is in part payment of advances made for them. This is all I have re ceived from the funds of America. It is true that Colonel Laurens has lately arrived, and brought with him a sum of money from France. (This occurred nearly eight months after his appointment.) And it is also true that I have made use of a very limited credit given me on France, by drawing bills. of exchange; but both these resources taken together are Vastly short of what is necessary. I have lost no occasion of showing to the several states their situation, but hitherto without success, and unless some unforeseen event turns up very speedily, it is impossible to say what may be the con sequences. However, it is our business to hope all things: and that Providence, who has hitherto carried us through our difficulties, will, E trust, continue his protection." His solicitations to the governors of the states, whose defalcation absolutely rendered it impossible to relieve the necessities of the troops, were vehement and unceasing. On the third of October, 1781, after describing the low state of the treasury, he observes, in a letter to General Greene, " your cir cumstances have long been arduous, but you have hitherto risen so superior to them, that we should be almost as much surprised now if you Were not successful, as we formerly were at your successes. I wish I could contribute to render you more easy. As far as my abilities extend, I shall do it most cheerfully: but they, unfortunately, are very limited. Accept, I pray you, my good wishes, which are almost all I have to give." On the second of November, 1781, he uses the following language: "I hope it is unnecessary to make assurances of my disposition to render your situation both easy and respectable. I am sure it is unnecessary to remark, how inadequate the provisions have been, which the states have hitherto made: at least, it is unnecessary to you. Much less need I display the detail of expenditures which have been requisite for the accomplishment of that happy event which has taken place in Virginia. I have neither forgotten nor neglected your department. I have done the utmost to provide clothing, arms, accoutrements, medicines, hospital stores, &c. and I flatter myself you will derive, through the different departments, both benefit and relief from my exertions. I have detained Captain Pierce a day, in order to make up, with infinite dif ficulty, one thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency, in gold, which he is the bearer of, and ichich will, I hope, be agreeable and useful. You have done so much with so little, that my wishes to increase your ROBERT MORRIS. 355 activity have every possible stimulus. I hope soon to hear that you have gathered fresh laurels, and that you may wear them as long and as happily as they have been speedily and worthily acquired, is the earnest wish of, duty which the subject of our memoir was now called upon to perform, was most arduous. The situation of affairs, in general, was gloomy. These were, indeed, in the classic language of the revolution, the times that tried men's souls : the battle of Brandy wine had been lost; the British had entered Philadelphia; the battle of Germantown followed ; the fathers of our country were at York; and our brave countrymen in arms, naked and houseless, were exposed to the storms of winter at the Valley Forge. No consolation could be derived by Mr. Read, from a view of the state of things in his more peculiar department: Sussex county was but slowly recovering from the intestine war which foreign emissaries had kindled among her deluded inhabitants, and obstinate men of opposite opinions as to the expediency of laws, chose to obey such only as they thought proper. Yet, under these discouraging cir cumstances, the firmness of Mr. Read remained unshaken, and he GEORGE READ. 553 employed every means which his abilities and influence afforded, to conciliate or destroy the discordant opinions that threatened to be come so inimical to the welfare of the state. On the third of February, 1779, Mr. M'Kean laid before congress sundry resolutions adopted by the council of Delaware in the pre ceding month of January, relative to the articles of confederation and perpetual union, and concurred in by the house of assembly, previously to the passage of a law empowering their delegates to sign and ratify them. Mr. Read, one of the committee appointed to take these articles into consideration, prepared the resolutions : their insertion, therefore, will not only afford an example of the po litical style of Mr. Read, but the able opinion of a sound lawyer upon a matter of deep interest. " ' The committee, to whom were referred the articles of confeder ation proposed by congress for a union of the states of America, do report thereon as follows : " ' That having duly considered the said articles, they generally ap prove of the same, but that there are particular parts of the eighth and ninth articles liable to just and strong objections ; and, should they continue unaltered, will, in the opinion of your committee, prove prejudicial in their effects not only to this state, but to the general confederacy. " ' That part of the eighth article objected to, and disapproved of, by your committee, is the manner prescribed for the supply of a common treasury by the several states ; — to wit: " in proportion to the value of land within each state granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land, and the buildings and improvements there on, shall be estimated, according to such mode as the United States, in congress assembled shall from time to time direct and appoint." Such valuation, in any mode that we can suppose to produce equality, appears to your committee an impracticable thing ; but if not, it will be attended with so great expense of money and time, and that to be frequently repeated from the sudden alterations in the value of such property, that your committee think the establishing the propor tion of each state by the number of its inhabitants, of every age, sex, and quality, would prove a more equal and less expensive mode of ascertaining such proportion. " ' Your committee also consider the confining such valuation to the granted or surveyed lands as inequitable, as they conceive the lands not yet granted have a value, and, if so, they ought to contribute fro rata towards the discharge of the great debt created by the 59 554 GEORGE READ. states, under their past united efforts in the protection of that species of property in common with others : unless all the ungranted lands shall be considered as jointly to belong to the United States, as con quered at the common expense of blood and treasure, and which your committee consider they ought to be, on every principle of jus tice and sound policy, and that joint right expressed in the articles in as clear and precise terms, as that the 'bills of credit emitted, money borrowed, and debts contracted, by or under the authority of congress, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States.' But this joint right, your committee apprehend, may hereafter be said to be resigned to each state wherein such lands lie, by certain parts of, and expressions in, the ninth article disapproved of by your committee ; to wit : by the words '¦provided also, that no state shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States,' at the latter end of the second section ; and those words in the fourth section, which prescribes the powers of congress; viz: 'regulating the trade, and managing all affairs with the In dians, not members of any of the states, provided that the legislative right of any state within its own limits be not infringed or violated.' " ' From the vague and extravagant descriptions of some of the states, in the first grants or charters for government, their claims for western limits have been to the southern ocean, including coun tries partially possessed by the kings of France and Spain. The provisional expressions in the article above mentioned, your com mittee apprehend, may and will be insisted to mean an admission of the extent of their respective limits, westward to the said sea, and all the ungranted lands within those limits, state territory, and solely in the disposition of the states claiming those limits, though, heretofore, considered as' belonging to the crown of Great Britain, and occasionally granted under that authority, with reservation of rents to a great amount. Such admission, your committee appre hend ought not to be; for that it will appropriate that to individual states, which hath been, or may be, acquired by the arms of the states-general, and will furnish such individual state with a fund of wealth and strength, which may prompt them to subdue their weaker neighbours, and eventually destroy the fabric we are now raising. To prevent which consequences, your committee are of opinion that not only the joint right in the ungranted land should be expressed as before mentioned, but that a moderate extent of limits beyond the present settlements in each of those states, should be provided for in the said articles. GEORGE READ. 055 " 'Your committee, also object to, and disapprove of, the whole of the second edition of the ninth article aforesaid, as destroying and taking away that legal jurisdiction of the courts of law established within this state for determining controversies concerning private rights in lands within the same, without fixing with precision another jurisdiction for the purpose.'" Mr. Read also prepared the act of assembly which empowered the delegates of Delaware to ratify the articles of confederation. On the eighteenth of August, 1779, he was compelled, from ill- health, to resign his seat in the legislature : in his address to the freeholders of Newcastle county, he observes that " he had served them in their general assembly for the twelve preceding years, with out any solicitation on his part ;" that " he was in earnest in de clining, and did not wish to be courted to continue in their service, having no sinister ends or views to answer by this step, which had been suspected to have been the case of some who had given notices of the like kind heretofore." In 1780, however, he again devoted his services to the state in the legislature of Delaware. On the fifth of December, 1782, Mr. Read was appointed one of the judges of the court of appeals in admiralty cases. This ap pointment was announced to him in the most flattering manner, by Mr. Boudinot, then president of congress, and afterwards the vene rable president of the Bible society. This office was filled by Mr. Read until the abolition of the court. In January, 1785, he was appointed, by congress, one of the commissioners, who constituted a federal court created by that body, conformably with the petitions of the states of New York and Mas sachusetts, for the purpose of determining a controversy which had arisen in relation to territory. In 1786, he was nominated, by the legislature of Delaware, as one of their delegates to Annapolis, to consult with commissioners from the other states, relative to the formation of a system of commercial regulations for the union. In 1787, he was a member of the convention which framed the con stitution of the United States. Immediately after the adoption of the constitution, he was elected a member of the senate of the United States. In 1792, the sentiments of Mr. Read in relation to the abilities and integrity of John Adams, of whom he entertained an exalted opinion, were fully developed in the following communication addressed to Gunning Bedford, who married the only sister of Mr. Read, and was subsequently governor of the state of Dela- 556 GEORGE READ. ware : it is dated at Philadelphia, on the thirtieth of Novem ber, 1792. "Dear sir — Recollecting that on Wednesday next you meet your two colleagues as electors of president and vice president of the United States, I have supposed that you would expect some infor mation from me respecting Mr. Adams, the present vice president, as to his conduct in the chair of the Senate of the United States, since so much pains have been taken in the public prints of the present year, to raise a general prejudice against him, in expectation of preventing his re-election. " It is but a piece of justice, due to Mr. Adams, for me to say that as chairman of the house of congress, of which I am a member from the Delaware state, his conduct at all times since his being placed there, hath appeared to me attentive, upright, fair, and un exceptionable, and his attendance at the daily meetings of the se nate, uncommonly exact. As to his having abilities equal to that station, none of his detractors insinuate a want thereof, and any thing on that head from me must be unnecessary. His various po litical publications sufficiently evidence such ability. " With respect to the objections to him, which I have heard or seen on paper, they principally existed previously to his former election, at which, you well know, his popularity was such as to in duce a portion of electors in each state of the union to throw away their votes, (but not to be done now by those who wish his re-elec tion,) by applying them to names not with a view to their return, but in order to secure the presidency to General Washington. The present change of sentiment, therefore, with respect to Mr. Adams, is not easy to be accounted for at a distance from the central scene. I have supposed the clamour raised against Mr. Adams, to have proceeded from a personal dislike of an individual, contracted, per haps, before the adoption of the present federal system ; as well as from the general jealousy that such of the southern states as are most interested in the future seat of the federal government, enter tain of the possibility, or probability, of its being changed through the influence of an eastern character, in high station. " Some pretend an opinion that a rotation in office is a salutary thing in republican governments ; but this has always appeared to me an insincere reason urged by those who use it ; but this, per haps, because my sentiments have, at all times, been uniformly other wise : to wit ; that when a fit character hath been selected for office, either by the people or by their executive authority, and he discovers GEORGE READ. 557 such fitness by an. able discharge of duty for a time, such person hath a reasonable claim to an after-continuance in office ; and I consider it as conducing to the interests of the community, for whom such officer acts, by means of the improved knowledge of the duties of office which he acquires. " You may be assured that what I have before said as to Mr. Adams, hath not proceeded from any intimacy subsisting between us ; for in the three past years, I haye, not been so many times in his residence, exclusive of the complimentary visit at the com mencement of each session." Mr. Read continued in the senate of the United States until Sep tember, 1793, when he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme court of the state of Delaware. He performed the duties of this distinguished office with extraordinary ability and integrity, until the autumn of 1798, when his long life of public usefulness was ter minated by a short and sudden illness. It was especially as a judge that Mr. Read was distinguished ; his dispassionate habits of reasoning, his patience in hearing, his deliberation in deciding, and the essential requisites of profound legal knowledge and deep experience which he possessed, enabled him to discharge the duties of his office with honour to himself, and advantage to the community. When he assumed the office of chief justice of the state of Delaware in 1793, there was a peculiar ne cessity for a judge of firmness and ability. The period of the revo lution, and that which followed its close, were marked with perplexity and confusion. The courts of justice were, in some degree, closed, and the master-spirits of the age were to be found in the cabinet or the camp. Laws were silent amid the din of arms. It is unneces sary to enumerate the effects of such confusion upon contracts and upon rights; but the duty of the judge was little less than the re organization of a legal system out of chaos. This arduous duty was performed by Mr. Read with his usual ability, and his decisions are still reverenced in the state of Delaware, as the great land-marks of the judiciary and of the profession. We have now seen this eminent individual distinguishing himself at the bar as a lawyer ; animating his fellow citizens against op pression as a patriot ; taking his seat in the national council as a sage ; and presiding on the bench as one of the judges of the land. In all these lofty stations, exposed to that strict and merciless scru tiny, to which, we trust, republicans will ever subject men in office, no blemish was discovered in his conduct. Applause at the bar did 2P 558 GEORGE READ. not, in him, generate vanity ; success in political 4ife, ambition ; nor the dignity of the bench, dogmatism. As a lawyer, a patriot, a senator, and a judge, he was alike unpretending, consistent, dignified, and impartial. His other peculiar characteristics, were an inflexible integrity of motive ; a slow and calm deliberation of his subject ; a cool determination of purpose ; and an invincible perseverance in the conclusions of his judgment. Similar traits were prominent in the course of his private life, softened, however, by those social amenities which so delightfully relieve the sterner features of the patriot, and show us the statesman in the husband and the father. His manners were dignified, and his dignity may sometimes have bordered upon austerity. He avoided trifling occupations, disliked familiarity, and could not to lerate the slightest violation of good manners, for which he was himself distinguished. A strict and consistent moralist, he granted no indulgence to laxity of principle in others; and he was re markably adverse to that qualified dependence which an obligation necessarily produces. Notwithstanding an exact attention to his expenditure, which he never permitted to exceed his income, his pecuniary liberality was very extensive. In his person, Mr. Read was above the middle size, erect, and dignified in his demeanour ; and he was remarkable for attention to personal arrangements. In fine, he was an excellent husband, a good father, an indulgent master, an upright judge, a fearless patriot, and a just man. I'lAlished bv S i' Ath'u so daring an outrage; but, sir, with the blessing of God, I will do my duty, — they may destroy my property, they may pull down my house over my head, yea, they may make a widow of my wife, and my children fatherless,— the life of one man is of little consequence compared to the prostration of the laws of the land — with the blessing of God, I will do my duty, be the consequences what they may." He gave the parties time to reflect upon the importance and propriety of SAMUEL CHASE. 593 yielding, and appointed the next day to meet them. It was observed that the morrow would be Sunday — " No better day," replied Judge Chase, " to execute the laws of our country ; I will meet you here, and then repair to the house of my God!" Not obtaining security for their appearance on Sunday, he sent an express to the governor and council, on that day, calling for the Support of the state. On Monday, he was waited upon by three of the most wealthy and respectable citizens of Baltimore, to request him to desist, and give up the point, apprehending serious consequences to the city: He replied to them with great warmth, asked if they meant to insult him by supposing him capable of yielding the law to two obstinate men. They left him, and a few hours after, as the judge was going to court, the persons charged met him in the street and consented to give the security. When the court met, the grand jury refused to find a bill against the parties accused, and delivered a present ment against Mr. Chase. The presentment of the grand jury comprises only two specific charges against the judge. First, of having insulted them by openly censuring the sheriff for returning so bad a jury. And, secondly, of having violated the bill of rights, by accepting and exercising, at the same time, two different offices, — chief judge of the criminal court, and chief judge of the general court of the state. The reply of Judge Chase was marked by temperate moderation and firmness. He gently reminded them how much they had gqne beyond the proper sphere of their duties, in meddling with such subjects as the holding two offices, and justified his censure of the sheriff as well founded, to the extent that he had actually uttered it. In the conclusion of this reply he told the jury, "you will, gentle men, continue to do your duty, and I shall persevere in mine ; and you may be assured that no mistaken opinion of yours, or resentment against me, will prevent my having respect for you as a body." In the year 1796, he was appointed by President Washington to the office of an associate judge of the Supreme court of the United States. In this exalted station he continued about fifteen years, distinguished by the dignity and ability with which he performed its functions. His decisions were seldom if ever reversed, his ability was con spicuous, his industry and integrity were unquestioned; his legal opinions and instructions to juries were marked by sound sense, clear demonstrative logic, discrimination, and learning; expressed in perspicuous language,' and delivered with remarkable impressive- ness of manner. j 594 SAMUEL CHASE. He may fairly be said to have been a great judge ; and was pro nounced by a very distinguished lawyer of the Philadelphia bar, who was not his personal nor political friend, the "greatest" that he had ever seen ; meaning, by that often misapplied term, the most prompt, sagacious, and learned. Yet with all this well-deserved reputation, and notwithstanding the gratitude due to him from this nation, he was impeached by the house of representatives, tried before the senate on charges of high misdemeanor, and narrowly escaped condemnation. The true cause of this incident in his life is to be found in his habit of unreservedly expressing opinions on national politics, and censuring freely where he thought censure was deserved. In the year 1800, he held the circuit court, along with Judge Peters, the district judge, at Philadelphia ; where among the prison ers to be tried was John Fries, who had been charged with treason in raising an insurrection against the general government. Fries had already been tried and convicted before Judges Iredell and Peters ; but a new trial had been granted on account of some irregularities on the part of a juryman. The prisoner had been strenuously defended by Mr. Lewis and Mr. Dallas, lawyers of dis tinguished talents, who had rested his cause on a point of law, and admitting or faintly denying the facts, had contended that all his misdeeds fell short of the legal definition of treason. The court had on that occasion given an elaborate judgment on the law of treason, which had been the subject of much discussion among judges and lawyers, as the trial had excited strong public interest. When the session of the court was approaching, Judge Chase having considered the subject, and made up his mind fully in con currence with Judge Iredell, and knowing that the whole argument would be repeated before him, thought it would save time and trouble to inform the gentlemen concerned as counsel for Fries, and also the district attorney, of the judgment which he had formed re specting the law. With the approbation of Judge Peters, therefore, he caused three copies to be made of his opinion, of which, when the court met, he gave one to Mr. Lewis, and one to Mr. Rawle, the district attorney, reserving the other avowedly for the use of the jury that should be impannelled. He told the lawyers, however, that he did not mean to prohibit their arguing the matter to the court or to the jury. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Dallas, knowing that their client's case was SAMUEL CHASE. 595 desperate, immediately refused to attempt any defence, declaring that the cause had been prejudged. The next day Judge Chase, finding the lawyers had, as Judge Peters expressed it, " taken the stud," endeavoured to prevail on them to proceed with the cause, assuring them of every possible privilege and indulgence ; but they thought the chance of obtaining a pardon would be better, if Fries were convicted without any attempt at a defence, and they knew there was little hope of producing a result different from the former verdict. Fries was tried without counsel, declining to allow others to be assign ed for him, and convicted; but afterwards pardoned by the president. The justification of Judge Chase's conduct, in this matter, was very plain to impartial spectators. He had no motive for desiring to injure the prisoner, or to prevent him from having a fair trial. His uniform practice had been to war against the proud, not the abject. Stern and severe as he was in the administration of justice, he never had been known to be cruel or oppressive. In apprising the counsel beforehand, of his opinions, he only did what the custom ary charge to the grand jury always does, and much more publicly, before the cases are heard, that the judge knows are to come before him. It was done with the concurrence of Judge Peters ; and to those who knew that estimable man, this is enough to show there could have been nothing intentionally wrong. , The congress were at that time in session, but even in that arena of licensed animadversion, the political enemies of the judge did not think of insinuating a censure. Yet, four years after, this was made the prominent article of an impeachment, charging him with conduct " arbitrary, oppressive, and unjust," and with having brought dis grace on the character of the American bench. In the course of the same spring, he held the circuit court for the Virginia district. One Callender had published a libel, or what was called a libel, of a very atrocious character against the president ; and was tried for it at this court. Judge Chase had, of course, heard of the man and of the publication, and did not consider himself bound by any obligation of law or morality to suppress his opinion of both. He approached the trial, however, with no wish for the success of any thing but justice. Certain technical questions arose as to the competency of a juryman, and the admission of evidence, which the judge happened to rule in such a way as was not propitious to the views of the prisoner's counsel, who, besides being disap pointed by his decisions upon these points, were offended by the energy and abruptness of his manner. 596 SAMUEL CHASE. (Whether he was right in a legal view, is a mere question of spe cial pleading; his decisions were subject to be overruled by a higher judicial power, but no appeal was taken. In June of the same year, he presided at a circuit court for the Delaware district, at Newcastle. Here it was necessary for him to give a charge to the grand jury, instructing them in the definitions of the crimes to which their attention would probably be directed. The sedition law was at this period in force ; a severe and impo litic law, it may be said to have been ; and as it proved, an unfor tunate enactment for the principal promoters and defenders of it. Still it was the law of the land, and Judge Chase was bound to carry it into execution. It may be presumed, too, that he felt no repugnance towards this performance of his duty. The law re sembled in its principles the resolutions of congress passed in 1778, which, as we have seen, were founded on a report, in the prepara tion of which he had joined, and were directed against the disaffected Quakers, whose sole offence was indiscreet or mischievous talking* and who were treated on that occasion with quite as much severity as was contemplated against the objects of the sedition law. Judge Chase had always been in favour of strong measures, in the pursuit of what he thought a good object. Thus, we have seen him in 1765, joining if not leading a mob, in the insult to the stamp distributor ; afterwards in 1777, he proposed to compel the tories to lend to congress, by making loan-office certificates a tender in all cases, so that, if A, a whig, owed B, a tory, instead of paying him money, which B would not lend to the continental government, he might pay the money into the treasury, and give B a loan-office certificate ; a high-handed measure certainly,- this would have been, but the end would perhaps have justified the riieans. So again in 1778, he recommended the arrest of the Quakers ; in 1794, he in sisted on the imprisonment of the Baltimore rioters, and it is not surprising that in 1800, he looked upon the sedition act as the wisest and most proper of all possible laws. He certainly thought it incumbent on him to direct the attention of the grand jury towards a newspaper of notoriety in the district, which he understood or had reason to believe, was constantly trans gressing the law intended to curb the licentiousness of the press. Judge Bedford, who sat with him on the bench, did not think it ne cessary to meddle with such matters, but the characteristic observa tion of Judge Chase was, " My dear Bedford, wherever we are, we must do our duty." SAMUEL CHASE. 597 Great changes were seen within a short time following this period. Mr. Jefferson was elected president, many laws were repealed, the judiciary system was enlarged and then again cut down, the Mary land constitution in some points altered ; — but party spirit remained undiminished. In the year 1803, when the disputes on political questions had been very warmly carried on, the judge, in delivering a charge to the grand jury, at Baltimore, took the opportunity of reading them a lecture on politics. This was rather out of time and out of place, but it must be remembered, that great latitude has at all times been allowed to grand juries in this country, and we have seen them often interfere in matters that do not seem to be at all within their legiti mate province ; a judge, therefore, addressing them on political subjects, did not so much lead them from the track of inquiry which it was their duty to follow, as sanction a bad practice already existing. The principal topic of his address, was the recent change in the constitution of Maryland, by the extension of the right of suffrage; an innovation which he thought of the most pernicious consequence. He also inveighed against the alteration that had been made in the judiciary system of the union, and argued fully against doctrines which he ascribed to the political leaders of the majority. In January, 1804, Mr. Randolph, incited by political animosity, moved, in the house of representatives, for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the official character of Judge Chase, and assured the house that there was ground for an impeachment. The committee made their report on the sixth of March, recom mending an impeachment ; and on the twenty-sixth, the articles of impeachment, six in number, were reported. At the opening of the next session, Mr. Randolph renewed the matter, and two new articles were added. In due process of time and form, the. senate was organized as a court, and he was put on his trial, which began on the second of January, and continued, after an adjournment, on the fourth of February, till the first of March, 1805. The accusations were all founded upon the conduct which we have mentioned, at Philadelphia, Newcastle, Richmond and Balti more, but attributed the worst of motives for that conduct which we have described as proceeding only from an earnest, and perhaps excessive love of justice, and zeal for political truth. The details of the trial could not be given here, without swelling this memoir to an unreasonable extent. The utmost efforts of Mr. 64 2S 598 SAMUEL CHASE. Randolph and the other managers were exerted to produce a con viction, and it was said that much reliance was placed on the spirit of party, and great exertions made to obtain an agreement among the majority to seize this opportunity of crushing a political foe, that had never spared his reproaches of their policy, their principles or their characters. But it may well be doubted whether any such unfair attempt was made, and certainly no such combination was formed. He was assisted by four able counsellors and faithful friends, Messrs. Martin, Harper, Hopkinson and Key, by whom the defence was managed with skill and dignity. Their arguments were all extremely cogent, but it implies no disparagement to the others, to say that the speech of Mr. Hopkinson, who was then a very young man, has not been exceeded, as a specimen of powerful and brilliant eloquence, in the forensic oratory of our, or perhaps any country. As to five of the charges, he was acquitted by a majority of the senate ; on the articles relating to the address to the Baltimore grand jury, and the refusal to admit evidence offered on the trial at Richmond, a majority of the senate voted against him, but as a vote of two-thirds is necessary to convict, he was declared to be acquitted of the whole. It is remarkable, than John Fries, the prisoner whom he was ac cused in the first article, of a desire and determination to oppress and deprive of a fair trial, some time afterwards called upon the judge, at his house in Baltimore, for the avowed purpose of thank ing him for his impartial, fair and equitable conduct on that very occasion. His spirit was not in the least depressed by the trial. He consi dered it a mere persecution, and was only the more confirmed by it in his distrust of the party which had gained the ascendency. His health was, however, at this time failing, and he was obliged to ab-« sent himself during the progress of the impeachment, on account of a severe attack of the gout, which, added to the irritation he felt towards his accusers, rendered him so impatient of the restraints which his situation, as respondent, imposed, that he could with diffi culty be withheld by his counsel from breaking out in open maledic tions and scorn, before the high tribunal that was to decide upon his official character. From this time he continued in the undistitrbed exercise of his judicial functions, which he discharged with undiminished ability; and endeared to his family and his friends by the kindness and SAMUEL CHASE. 599 generosity of his private life and the charm of his conversation, which was singularly instructive and agreeable. Among his virtues, may be included a heartfelt piety and firm be lief in the truths of Christianity. As a member of St. Paul's parish, he was at all times ready to afford his useful assistance and advice gratuitously to the vestry, on occasions of difficulty and embarrass ment. In the year 1811, his health gradually failed ; his disease was slow in its progress, but of a nature to threaten certain dissolution. In the spring of this year he was compelled by increasing debility to forego his favourite exercise of riding on horseback; but continued to take the air daily in an open carriage. On these occasions he was always attended by one of his family, and being an enthusiastic admirer of the charms of nature, he discoursed with animation on the scenes that presented themselves before him. He was well aware that he had not long to remain with his family, and frequently conversed upon the subject, expressing himself with confidence and hope as a Christian. A short time before his death, he expressed a desire to receive the sacrament, and held several conversations on the subject, with the clergymen of the Episcopal church, in Baltimore. It was ac cordingly administered to him by the late Dr. Bend, after which he declared that he was in peace and charity with all mankind. On the nineteenth day of June, he had taken his customary airing and returned much exhausted by the sultriness of the weather. His death was now manifestly approaching. After the physicians were summoned to attend him, he spoke of his domestic concerns, gave several directions concerning his household, and was perfectly calm and resigned. He expostulated with his family against indulging the grief which their countenances betrayed 5 and declined taking a draught of medicirie that was offered to him, saying as he put it aside, "God gives life." He expired so gently, that those around him scarcely knew when he had ceased to breathe. His last will bespeaks a characteristic dislike of outward show, in the direction, that no mourning should be worn for him, and the request that his tomb should have no other inscription than his name, with the dates of his birth and his death. It may be safely said that Samuel Chase was one of the most ex traordinary men of the age, and exerted over the minds of others an influence not less potent or extensive, than belonged to any of those distinguished persons who assisted in the establishment of this 600 SAMUEL CHASE. growing empire. With a mien and presence remarkably dignified and prepossessing, a lofty stature, well proportioned figure, and handsome countenance, he was gifted, also, if not with "a frame of adamant," at least with bodily vigour sufficient to support the most incessant activity ; and with " a soul of fire," as truly as the restless monarch to whom it has been beautifully ascribed. He seemed to have been born for the occasion and the crisis ; and his fine intellect, undaunted courage, and fervid temperament, all ministered to the glorious result. He arrived at manhood just as the disputes between the colonies and the mother country began ; and from that time till the Declaration of Independence, he moved about unceasingly like a flame, casting warmth and light around him. His contagious ardour and powerful rhetoric, made proselytes of his wealthy and less sanguine friends, who having much to lose, were timorous and lukewarm in the cause ; and thus were some recruits enlisted that afterwards sustained their parts efficiently and nobly. His influence over the less considerate was unbounded ; he was de scribed as moving perpetually " with a mob at his heels." This was in the very commencement of the troubles, when he was the torch that lighted up the revolutionary flame in Maryland. His father was opposed to all these movements : the son encouraged an assemblage of young patriots to compel the old gentleman, with others, to take the oaths of fidelity to the new government. Disin terested and consistent in all things, he joined in a measure which reduced his father's income ; his own he neglected in order to serve his country. We have seen how efficient were his services, and how constant his labours during the war. As a judge, he was not quite in his most appropriate sphere; a colder temperament would have better suited the judicial station. Yet his faults were those of manner only ; and happy would our country be to see always so much learn ing and excellent judgment, and pure integrity, in her judges, as marked the judicial character of Mr. Chase. The vehemence of his feelings on the subject of party politics, was to be expected in a man who never had been lukewarm in his life. He could not separate his feelings from his judgment; and though he may have been mistaken, he was unquestionably sincere and firmly patriotic. "Yes, sir," said he to a son-in-law, a few years before his death, " you are a democrat ; and you are right to be one, for you are a young man ; but an old' man, Mr. — — , would be a fool to be a democrat." SAMUEL CHASE. 601 Such a man could not fail to make enemies ; but he had the hap piness to retain through life the warm attachment of many friends whose persevering affection was a proof of his private virtues, more honourable to his memory than even the prominence of his public character. His career was so active ; the part he bore in a period of excite ment and difficulty so important ; the incidents of his long life so numerous ; that this sketch must be considered as but an outline, leaving room for a future biographer to add the interesting details in the history of a man, whose actions posterity will seek to be more intimately acquainted with, and whose character will be the more highly appreciated as it is more particularly known. 2s2 WILLIAM PACA. William Paca, the second son of John Paca, of Harford county^ in the state of Maryland, was born on the thirty-first of October, in the year 1740. His father was possessed of large estates, and held an office of trust and profit under the provincial government ; and being sen sible of the advantages of a good education, spared no expense or pains to procure for his children the best instruction that the country could supply. William was sent to the college at Philadelphia,, then in high repute under the presiding care of the learned and eloquent Dr. William Smith, and was placed under the special superintendence of Colonel White, father of Bishop White, who watched over him with parental anxiety. He was graduated as a bachelor of arts on the eighth of June, 1759, in the nineteenth year of his age, and immediately afterwards commenced the study of the law, at Annapolis, in the office of Stephen Bordley, one of the most profound lawyers of his time. Mr. Paca continued to be an industrious student for four years, in the course of which period he contracted a matrimonial engage ment with Miss Mary Chew, daughter of Samuel Chew, a gentle man of distinguished family and large fortune, residing in Ann Arundel county. To this lady he was united in May, 1761. He had the misfor tune to lose her after a few years of happy union, at the beginning of the revolution. They had five children, all of whom died young, except their son John P. Paca who still survives. Mr. Paca was admitted to the bar, at the provincial court, on the eleventh of April, 1764, and established himself at Annapolis, where he soon became eminent 'in his profession. In 1771, Mr. Paca became a member of the provincial legisla ture. This body had no power, except that of refusing its consent to the passage of laws. The power and influence of the govern- 602 1 ggWE^Mggg 4^ (Pa^fxD Eng^ ^7 I". MaTerick fi:oni a drawing ,t>y J.B.L 2 t 2 618 THOMAS STONE. the subject of debate thirty-nine times, and when concluded, after all this labour, was only an approximation towards the excellent constitution which was framed ten years afterwards. The convention of the state of Maryland, when the emphasis of the excitement caused by the Declaration of Independence had passed away, recurred to their former jealousy of their delegates in congress ; and although it was too late now to restrict them as to measures of hostility towards Great Britain, yet chose to limit their powers as to the • formation of a confederation, and also to hint to them the possibility of retracing their steps, and agreeing to an ac commodation with the royal government. The contest for freedom had now gone so far, that it was frequently called a " glorious war" — the Maryland convention still termed it an " unhappy difference," and were anxious to accommodate in on any terms, that a majority of, congress might be brought to approve. Mr. Stone was again re-elected in February, 1777, and after serving this tour of duty, and seeing the confederation finally agreed upon in congress, he left this scene of action, declined a re-appoint ment, and became a member of the Maryland legislature, where the plan of the confederation met with obstinate opposition, and re quired the aid of all its friends and advocates. His services in the legislature were important, and in the discharge of his duties there, he was distinguished by the same fidelity, earn estness, and patriotic devotedness, which had been displayed in the course of his previous career. His services in that assembly are thus described by a gentleman who sat with him there : " He was most truly a perfect man of business ; he would often take the pen and commit to paper, all the necessary writings of the senate, and this he would do cheerfully while the other members were amusing themselves with desultory conversation; he appeared to be naturally of an irritable temper, still he was mild and courteous in his general deportment, fond of society and conversation, and universally a favourite from his great good humour and intelligence; he thought and wrote much as a professional man, and as a states man, on the business before him in those characters ; he had no leisure for other subjects : not that he was unequal to the task, for there were few men who could commit their thoughts to paper with more facility or greater strength of argument. There was a severe trial of skill between the senate and the house of delegates, on the subject of confiscating British property. The senate for several sessions unanimously rejected bills passed by the house of delegates THOMAS STONE. gig for that purpose ; many, very long and tart, were the messages from one to the other body, on this subject ; the whole of which, were on the part of the senate, the work of Mr. Stone, and his close friend and equal in all respects, the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton." In 1783, he was again elected to a seat in congress, under the confederation, the adoption of which he had taken so much pains to obtain. He was present at the most interesting event of this period — the resignation of General Washington, at Annapolis ; and in the session of 1784, was appointed on most of the important committees of the congress. During the latter part of this year, he acted as president fro tempore, but declining a re-election to con gress, he lost, by voluntary retirement, the honour of being chosen to preside over that dignified assembly, which would have followed, of course, his temporary occupation of the chair. From this time, during the short interval before his death, he was actively engaged in professional duties, and continued to serve in the senate of the state, but declined an appointment as a member of the federal convention, which met at Philadelphia in the year 1787, for the purpose of forming the present constitution of the United States. In 1785, an attempt was made to establish a paper currency as a legal tender for the payment of debts. A bill for this purpose was passed by the house of delegates, but promptly rejected by the senate, of which body Mr. Stone was still a member. An appeal being made to the people, a large majority refused to sanction the project. At about the same time, Mr. Stone introduced into the senate a bill, drafted by himself, and which he advocated with all his elo quence, abolishing the right of primogeniture as previously existing according to the system of the English law. The bill was enacted by both branches of the legislature, and remains the law of Mary land; but it is remarkable that Mr. Stone made his own will in accordance with the principles of the law that he thus contributed so zealously to abolish. In the year 1784, after he had finally relinquished his seat in con gress and removed to Annapolis, his practice became very lucrative, and his professional reputation rose to very distinguished eminence. He was employed in many very important causes, and his friend, Mr. Chase, always expressed the greatest satisfaction in having his assistance as a colleague in cases of difficulty. As a speaker, his strength lay in argument, rather than in manner. When he began, his voice was weak, and his delivery unimpressive, but as he became 620 THOMAS STONE. warmed with his subject, his manner improved, and his reasoning was clear and powerful. He was a man of very strong feelings, and affectionate disposi tion ; and the tenderness of his attachment to his amiable consort, after forming the happiness of a large portion of his life, became the melancholy cause of its early close. In the year 1776, while he was attending to his public duties in congress, Mrs. Stone visited Philadelphia with him, and as the small-pox was then prevalent in that city, it was thought necessary to protect her from it by inocu lation. She was accordingly inoculated, and the mercurial treat ment, which was then deemed necessary, was pursued. From this time her health gradually declined ; and on the first of June, 1787, she died in Annapolis, in her thirty-fourth year. This was a death blow to Mr. Stone. After this he declined all business, both public and private, except such as he deemed necessary to put his affairs in order. He was brought by his friends to his seat in Charles county, and there, during the summer after Mrs. Stone's decease, every effort was made to enable him to sustain the loss. But he sunk into a deep melancholy, and to the most soothing attentions of his friends he always answered, that he could not survive his wife. Dr. Brown, and Dr. Craick, who were his physicians, finding little amendment in his spirits, after the lapse of some months, ad vised him to make a sea-voyage. In obedience to their advice, he went to Alexandria to embark for England. While waiting at that place, for the vessel to sail, he expired suddenly, in his forty-fifth year, on the fifth of October, 1787. Mr. Stone was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and a man of sincere and fervent piety. He was in figure tall, thin, and well-proportioned; his complexion pale and sallow. His manners were those of a well-bred man, not marked by ostentation or affected gracefulness, but rather reserved. His countenance, from the con stant employment of his mind, wore the appearance of austerity, yet to his friends he was quite accessible. His conversation was generally familiar and instructive. Light and frivolous subjects rarely enjoyed his attention, yet he sometimes relapsed into gay and sportive hu mours. His disposition was mild, and his heart benevolent. His appearance in early life had promised both health and strength, but his studious and sedentary habits, acquired in boyhood, and continued through life, had impaired a constitution originally vigorous. He was a taciturn man, of strong feelings, and more remarkable for terse ness of style than elegance of diction. r&t ~fci>? 4Jb, oi^-ef/1 IJvawiL >jy .l.C Loiiyviri'r' irom ,i PariUmfv m jtusst- -..vjnn » ,/-l ^Q? /ten. IJu^ravt-d hy.I.B i ,i hi^uti' tXim. a jUiimutm-e -hi. Che J-'osrfed^LLULoi"AL's.HeT\?ary J.S.Loup^cre jPikv a .1 rawing takr-n/by X \Lu"li11"t.uii from a §5-fni-)i iri fi ~F;i iml\ Picture In- Ren-jamiii "West. ARTHUR MIDDLETON. Arthur Middleton, the subject of the present sketch, was born in the year 1743, at Middleton Place, the seat of his father, Henry Middleton, situated on the banks of the Ashley. His mother's maiden name was Williams, being the only child of a wealthy and respectable planter of South Carolina. He was the eldest of a family of two sons and five daughters. As was customary among the southern planters who possessed any fortune, he was sent to England, at an early age, to receive the instruction which was so well afforded by the public schools of that country. Whilst the connexion subsisted between those who had emigrated to America, and those of the same family who continued in the parent country, the children of the former were committed to the affectionate atten tions of the latter ; and this confidential intercourse was, as may well be conceived, the means best calculated to strengthen the bonds of family attachment. Young Arthur received all the attention which could be desired from his English relations. He was placed, at the age of twelve years, at the well known school of Hackney, in the vicinity of London ; whence, at the age of fourteen, he was transferred to that of Westminster. Having passed regularly through Westminster school, he was en tered between the age of eighteen and nineteen years, in one of the colleges of the University of Cambridge. During his residence at that institution, although liberally supplied with money, he did not enter into the dissipation so generally indulged in by the students ; but being by nature of a reserved and rather taciturn habit, he more readily escaped the contagion of example, and devoted those hours to meditation and study, which his less thoughtful companions sacrificed to trivial amusements and vicious indulgences. In his conduct during his four years probation, (for such they are for youths, transferred from the rigid regulations of the English schools to the comparative ease of a college life,) he evinced the steady ad herence to good principles and taste, for which he was ever after- s * ¦ > 809 810 ARTHUR M IDDLETON. wards distinguished. He left Cambridge in his twenty-second year, with the degree of bachelor of arts, and with the reputation of a profound scholar and a moral man. As Mr. Middleton was not designed for any of the learned pro fessions, he had leisure to improve himself by travel; and his father's liberality afforded him the means. After visiting many parts of England, he passed over to the continent, and expended nearly two years in a tour, principally through the southern parts of Europe. During this tour, he passed several months at Rome, in the most agreeable manner ; cultivating his taste by the study of the fine arts, at their ancient and justly renowned seat. This is a depart ment in which excellence is to be attained by those, alone, who are endowed by nature with exquisite perceptions ; the exclusion, there fore, of many who have even received the benefit of a liberal edu cation, must enhance the value of the gift to those, who, like Mr. Middleton, possess the means of improving it. To the charms of literature, and poetry especially, he was ever exquisitely alive ; in music and painting he had attained no ordinary proficiency, in prac tice, as well as theory : and in technicalities of sculpture and archi tecture, their sister arts, he was well versed. Mr. Middleton, after an extensive tour through Europe, returned to South Carolina, and soon after was united in marriage to Miss Izard, daughter of Walter Izard, Esq. He soon determined to gratify Mrs. Middleton with a visit to Europe, and with this view embarked with her about a year after their marriage. After residing some time in England, they pro ceeded to the continent, and visited, in their tour, some of the prin cipal cities of France and Spain. In the year 1773, Mr. Middleton returned home, and took up his residence at the family seat, a beau tiful spot, on the banks of the Ashley, which his father, on this oc casion, relinquished to him. In the succeeding year commenced that struggle between Great Britain and her North American colo nies, which developed the energies of the American people, put to the test their patriotism, their talents, and their courage, and, in some measure, assigned to individuals their relative rank in public estimation. Arthur Middleton and his father, who already stood high in the public estimation, did not hesitate to stand forth in de fence of the rights of American citizens. It appears, from the documents which have been preserved rela tive to the progress of the revolution in South Carolina, that the ARTHUR MIDDLETON. gll operations of the opposition were carried on by means of various committees, appointed by the provincial congress, in the face of the royal government, under the different denominations of secret com mittees, special committees, councils of safety, &c, which were composed of gentlemen, in whose discretion and firmness the pro vincial assembly reposed unlimited confidence, and whose powers were only defined by the injunction, cavere nequid Republica detri- menti caparet. By a reference to the record of these revolutionary proceedings, we find, that on the seventeenth of April, 1775, Arthur Middleton was appointed one of a secret committee, consisting of five persons, who were authorised to take measures for placing the colony in a posture of defence. These were the persons who de termined on having recourse to force ; and, under their direction, the public magazine of arms and ammunition in the custody of the royal store-keeper, was taken possession of, and the contents re moved, and soon after appropriated to the defence of the country. On the fourteenth of June, the provincial congress of South Caro lina chose by ballot thirteen persons, who were denominated a coun cil of safety, to watch over the public interests, and to take such measures as they should judge most proper to promote the same in that eventful crisis. Of this number was Arthur Middleton; and it is well ascertained, that to his activity may be attributed much of what was effected by that body. Under its direction a military force was organised, adequate to the temporary defence of the province ; the commissions of the officers were certified by the joint signatures of its members, and other acts appertaining to sovereign authority were exercised by them. On the eleventh of February, 1776, the provincial congress of South Carolina chose a committee of eleven members to prepare and report a constitution, or " form of government which should best produce the happiness of the people, and should most effectually secure peace and good order in the colony, during the continuance of the dispute with Great Britain." Mr. Middleton was a member of this committee ; and an instrument was framed and adopted, which, however, was only temporary. Shortly after this, he was elected, by the assembly, one of the representatives of South Carolina in the congress of the United States, then convened at Philadelphia. In this capacity he inscribed his name on the Declaration of Independence. The particular share that he took in promoting the adoption of this important mea sure, is not, perhaps, known at this distance of time ; but, that it 88 31 812 ARTHUR MIDDLETON. had his most strenuous support, is beyond a doubt. He had, at thai period, contracted a close intimacy with Mr. Hancock, the president of congress ; and, having their families with them, they had a joint establishment. This domestic arrangement accorded perfectly with the taste of both parties ; for, being men of a liberal and hospitable disposition, their houses was the resort of a great deal of company. The members from the two extremities of the union were constantly assembled at their table. This social intercourse must unquestion ably have been attended with beneficial effects on the subjects im mediately under discussion, as well as in assuaging a jealousy which might have existed between men, whose habits of life, and opinions on many points, were not a little dissimilar. It suffices to say, that the friendship of these two warm patriots continued uninterrupted during the remainder of their lives. Mr. Middleton continued at Philadelphia, attending to the duties of his station, until the close of the year 1777; and although he was not a very active debater, no measure received the support of the South Carolina delegation without his concurrence — the gentlemen composing it having the highest opinion of his judgment and abili ties. As the vote in congress was, on important questions, taken by states, the subject was, of course, discussed among the members of the several delegations, and something like unanimity generally obtained. At the beginning of 1778 we find him, in South Carolina, receiving the greatest proof which his fellow citizens could bestow, of their confidence in his talents and fidelity. The assembly of South Ca rolina, which acted under the authority of the constitution of 1776, conceiving that it had the power so to do, enacted a new constitu tion, differing in many essential points from the first, and presented it in May, 1778, to John Rutledge, who was governor, for his appro bation. That gentleman, by virtue of the power with which he was invested, refused his assent to it, and gave his reasons at large for this use of his negative. These reasons were founded principally upon what he conceived to be the illegality, as well as the futility, >f the procedure. As, however, there was a large majority in fa vour of the adoption, he closed his address with resigning his autho rity into their hands, that he might not embarrass their measures. The assembly having accepted his resignation, were next called apon to fill the vacant chair. Affairs, at this time, had assumed a gloomy aspect in America, and where offices of any responsibility- were in question, intrigue and private interest were of little avail ARTHUR MIDDLETON. 813 towards advancing the pretensions of any man. A secret ballot was to decide on the merits of the individual who merited the high est confidence of the people, as regarded integrity, firmness, and capacity ; qualifications so essential to the arduous task of ffuidin°- their destinies through the unequal and perilous contest in which they were engaged. On counting the votes, a considerable majority pronounced Mr. Middleton to be that individual. So different was? the mode of transacting business of this nature at that day, from what it has since been; — so little progress had been made in the arts of caucusing, recommending, addressing, &c, which now form the basis of most elections ; — that the gentleman thus elected was not aware of the honour intended him ; and when the result of the ballot was announced, he declined an acceptance of the office. The inducements to a contrary course were great ; — the situation was conspicuous ; and the power to be given to the executive by the new constitution, was extensive. Mr. Middleton could neither be diffident of his own talents, nor fearful of the responsibility of the post : he had embarked every thing in the revolution, and his sub sequent conduct evinced, that he intended to brave all its results. He was not devoid of ambition, but his was the ambition of a lofty mind ; — that of rendering valuable services, when perfectly compa tible with his conscientious feelings. In this case he was restrained by those feelings. He coincided in opinion with the late incumbent; and declared, that if he assumed the executive station, he could not conscientiously give his assent to the new constitution. Full faith was given to his assurances ; and his non-acceptance, instead of de tracting from the esteem of his fellow citizens, was viewed in its proper light, and served to endear him still more to them. Mr. Rawlins Lowndes, who was at that time a popular character, not having the same objections to the constitution, was elected in his stead, and sanctioned the new form of government on the nineteenth March, 1779. We are not informed whether Mr. Middleton served in any pub lic capacity during the year following his refusal of the executive office. In April, 1779, the British having assembled a force at Savannah, under General Prevost, with the evident intention of making an attempt on Charleston, the governor immediately pro ceeded, with his wonted energy, to take measures for the defence of the state, and' ordered out troops from different parts of the country to the rendezvous at Orangeburgh, where he took the com mand in person. General Prevost having made a forced march, &14 ARTHUR MIDDLETON. with a view to surprise Charleston, which was then without a gar rison, and with very insufficient works, the governor threw himself, with his militia, into the place. Mr. Middleton attended him as one of his family, and was personally exposed in a partial attack which was made in front of the works. On this occasion, he dis played his characteristic intrepidity. General Prevost, not deeming it prudent to attempt the reduction of Charleston by an assault, and having an army in full march in his rear, retired to a strong position on James' Island, and by crossing over from one island to another, effected his retreat with an immense booty, consisting chiefly of slaves, who joined his standard, and lent their aid in the indiscrimi nate plunder of whatever could be transported. Mr. Middleton's country seat, together with his plantations in the vicinity, were exposed to the depredations of the army, being immediately on the great Southern road; but he took no measures to save his property, and did not even go near it. He merely sent Mrs. Middleton a direction to remove, with the family, to the house of a friend, a day's journey to the north of Charleston. He, of course, suffered immensely: the buildings at Middleton Place were spared, but every thing was rifled. Of a valuable collection of paintings, some of which were too large for removal, many were wantonly mutilated. The officers and soldiers of the British army in North America, ex hibited much of the spirit ascribed by a celebrated English traveller to the Russians, as exemplified in the occupation of the Crimea: whatever could not be converted to lucrative purposes, was de molished or defaced. On the investment of Charleston, in the following year, by the force under Sir Henry Clinton and Vice-Admiral Arbuthnot, Mr. Middleton was found amongst its defenders. Although not holding a military command, and having the option of avoiding personal exposure, or partaking it with many gentleman whom duty detained within tne lines, he preferred subjecting himself to the chances of war. In consequence of this determination he became a prisoner, together with a very large portion of the most active and zealous men, who, until that moment, had swayed the politics of South Carolina. The privilege of going at large on parole, was extended to him, and he enjoyed it until the month of November, 1780, when he was suddenly arrested, with some others, who were esteemed dangerous characters in what was then regarded as a conquered province. They were then sent by sea to St. Augustine, in East Florida, where Mr. Middleton and his fellow prisoners, although not ARTHUR MIDDLETON. 815 placed in close confinement, were subjected to mortifying and humi liating restraints, by the petty tyranny of the officer commanding that garrison. In the month of July, 1781, the American prisoners at St. Augustine were included in a general exchange, and imme diately sent in cartels, to Philadelphia. Shortly after his arrival there, Governor Rutledge, acting in pursuance of the general powers delegated to him by the legislature of South Carolina, appointed Mr. Middleton a representative in congress. In the autumn of 1781, the capture of Lord Cornwallis was effected. This officer, after the surrender of Charleston, had been left by Sir Henry Clinton in command of the British force occupy ing the state of South Carolina, and invested with all the powers of a conqueror. In the exercise of these unlimited powers, with a riew to produce complete submission, and to break the spirit of the inhabitants, recourse was had to measures not only of a rigorous, but of a sanguinary nature. Mr. Middleton had witnessed the dis tresses occasioned by the oppressive measures of Lord Cornwallis, and his soul had revolted at the horrors which he beheld around him. Actuated by these feelings, after Lord Cornwallis's surrender, he submitted to congress a motion to the following effect : " that Lord Cornwallis should be regarded in the light of a barbarian, who had violated all the rules of modern warfare, and had been guilty of innumerable cases of wanton cruelty and oppression ; and further, that he, the said Lord Cornwallis, should not be compre hended in any exchange of prisoners which should take place be tween the British government and that of the United States." This resolution, from considerations of a peculiar nature, was not adopted, but the motive which suggested it was duly appreciated. The general assembly, convened at Jacksonborough in January, 1782, after a lapse of two years, elected Mr. Middleton one of the delegates of the state to congress. He continued in the discharge of his duty, in that capacity, until the month of November, of the same year, when he obtained leave to return to South Carolina, to visit his family, from which he had been long separated, under the most trying circumstances. The momentous contest having been terminated soon after this event, by the news that the preliminaries of peace had been signed, Mr. Middleton declined any further attendance at the seat of the general government, and hastened with pleasure to that retirement which was always dear to him. Though eminent by his services and sacrifices during the hour of peril, and accustomed to move in 3i2 816 ARTHUR MIDDLETON. a larger sphere of usefulness, he cheerfully engaged in the duties assigned him within a more limited circle, and passed a life of phi losophical ease, at his country seat, in the vicinity of Charleston. There he resided in elegance and refinement, surrounded by an in teresting family, indulging in the luxury of an excellent library, and visited by numerous friends, who partook, without restraint, of his liberal hospitality. But unhappily, with a natural partiality for the place of his nativity, he thought too favourably of the climate of that part of the state in which it was situated. He took little care to avoid exposure in the autumnal season, and in the month of No vember, 1786, he was seized with an intermittent fever. Its paroxysms returned periodically for some weeks, during which time he refused to adopt the usual remedies, observing, with philo sophical indifference, that " it was best to leave nature to itself." When he consented to use them, the application came too late; he expired on the first of January, 1787. In forming our conception of the natural disposition and character of Mr. Middleton, we are guided by the opinion of those who are well qualified to decide, from early and intimate acquaintance. It is believed, that if he had lived in the days of Hampden, he would have participated thoroughly in the feelings of that patriot ; and that he would have ranked with those worthies who hold the first grade in the esteem of all who revere and cherish rational freedom. In common with men of generous minds, his temper was violent, and it is evident that he had it not under perfect control. It broke forth at times in marks of strong indignation at any exhibition of meanness, or attempt at imposition. But violence of temper is the reproach which both weak and envious minds are apt to apply to men of genius, who see their object at a distance, and are impa tient to arrive at it by hasty strides. The temporising spirits, and those who were " infirm of purpose," complained that Mr. Middleton hurried them on too rapidly; and that he always advocated what are termed desperate measures. It is known that he was opposed to the surrender of Charleston, and was anxious that the place should stand an assault. General Lincoln called a council of war, to deliberate on the expediency of a capitulation. The weather being warm, the windows of the room in which it assembled were left open, and some citizens, who had an intimation of the object in view, had placed themselves near, anxious to know what would be the result. General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who"then com manded the first regiment of the line, spoke with great, vehemence ARTHUR MIDDLETON. 817 against coming to terms with the enemy. His voice was strong, and what he said was distinctly heard by those without. After de livering his opinion, on going out, he found at the door, Mr. Arthur Middleton, who seized his hand with great eagerness, and told him that he thanked him in the name of his countrymen, for having opposed the disgrace of a surrender, and entreated him to exert himself to the last moment in preventing it. In the public bodies in which he served, he is said to have shown no anxiety to make a display of oratory, nor to take the lead in debate. His speeches were short, and he usually delivered them under the influence of strong feelings. As they were evidently drawn from him by a deep interest in the subject, they rarely failed to make a corresponding impression. No one was less solicitous about trifles, or more in earnest in matters of importance. The little value he set on the possession of wealth, was well known and was not a little at variance with his tastes, which were of an expensive cast. An anecdote is retained in the family, illustrative of this trait in his character, and Which may also serve to evince the coolness with which he could act, on occasions calculated to excite in other men marks of heat and pre cipitation. The house he inhabited on the Ashley, although large and commodious, did not altogether correspond with the appearance of two more modern wings, erected at some little distance from it. Mr. Middleton sometimes talked of taking it down, and building on another plan, but was dissuaded by his friends, on the ground of its being too large a superstructure to sacrifice to any plan of improve ment. When he was one day walking over his grounds, the roof of his house took fire, and a servant came running to him, with a message from Mrs. Middleton, to inform him of the circumstance. Looking around him, and seeing that the atmosphere was calm, and that the wings could not be endangered, he sent the servant back, with the laconic injunction to "let it burn," and continued his walk. Mrs. Middleton, however, did not view the thing quite so coolly, and took the necessary measures to have the fire extinguished. Entertaining his friends liberally, and having always a well fur nished table, he was, in an uncommon degree, plain in his own diet, and apparently so from indifference rather than from system. His pleasures were drawn from study and meditation, more than from an intercourse with society, and he had early acquired a habit of abstraction, which confirmed the natural reserve of his temper, and was perhaps sometimes mistaken for pride. 818 ARTHUR MIDDLETON. In his person, Mr. Middleton was of the middle size, perfectly well formed, with great muscular strength. His features were fine, and his countenance expressive of firmness and decision. His death was accounted a public loss ; and deprived several of the first characters of South Carolina of a friend, to whom they were attached with enthusiastic ardour, and of whom some of them could not speak for many years, without visible marks of emotion. To use the language of a writer of the times, he possessed " the plain est manners with the most refined taste : great reading and know ledge of the world, concealed under the reserve of the mildest and most modest nature; a complete philanthropist, but the firmest patriot; cool, steady, and unmoved at the general wreck of pro perty and fortune, as far as he was personally concerned, but with a heart melting for the sufferings and woes of others ; a model of private worth and public virtue ; a good citizen, a good father, and an exemplary husband; accomplished in letters, in the sciences, and fine arts; well acquainted with the manners of the courts of Europe, whence he has transplanted to bis country nothing but thei' embellishments and virtues." BUTTON GWINNETT. Button Gwinnett was born in England about the year 1732, of respectable parents, whose circumstances were moderate. He received an excellent education, and when arrived at mature age, embarked in mercantile pursuits in Bristol. Having married in England, he resolved to emigrate to America, and in 1770, arrived at Charleston, S. C, where he remained two years, during which time he was engaged in trade. At the expiration of that period, he disposed of all his merchandise, and purchased with the proceeds a number of negroes, and a tract of land on St. Catharine's Island, in Georgia, where he devoted his attention to agriculture. Having incorporated himself with the Americans, among whom he intended to pass the remainder of his life, he did not remain an idle spectator of their revolutionary struggles, but took an active and decided part in favour of his adopted country. The particulars of his early life are not known, but it is probable they were neither interesting nor important. The improbability of a successful resistance to the claims of the British government, appears to have been his prevailing belief until the year 1775, about which period he formed a close intimacy with Dr. Lyman Hall, who was subsequently one of his congressional colleagues. The arguments and representations of Mr. Hall, who was himself an enthusiast in the cause of the colonies, no doubt conduced to remove those impressions ; and this was more readily effected, as Mr. Gwinnett, however lukewarm, had always been fa vourable to the claims of the colonists. From that period, his zeal and unwearied exertions in the common cause became eminently conspicuous, and finally elevated him with great rapidity to the high- dignities of the province. The apparent indifference of Mr. Gwinnett in relation to the con tested claims of the colonies, previous to the year 1775, arose from causes, having, in some degree, a direct influence upon his own per- 89 819 820 BUTTON GWINNETT. sonal prosperity and possessions, and especially upon the peace and safety of his family. With the finest feelings of the heart thus op posed to active interference in an uncertain contest, and with the full conviction that such a procedure, unattended with success, would involve the ruin of himself and those by whom he was surrounded, it cannot be surprising that Mr. Gwinnett proceeded with caution, and deliberately observed the progress of affairs, before he per mitted his suppressed feelings to burst forth, and displayed that vigour and decision which created him a chief amongst his com patriots. The peculiar exposure of his family and property, situated upon an island where destruction was certain in case of invasion, because, in the actual posture of things, the defence of St. Catha rine's by succour from the main land would have been impractica ble, renders it rather a proud testimonial of the pure patriotism of Mr. Gwinnett, that he proclaimed his principles at so early a period, than a blot upon his fame that he repressed his sentiments at a time when the greater part of Georgia was actually opposed to the pro ceedings of the continental congress. Indeed, he actually paid the penalty of his disinterestedness, for his personal property was totally destroyed by the British. It was not until the fifteenth of July, 1775, that Georgia acceded to the general confederacy ; and no part of the colony had been previously represented in congress excepting the parish of St. John, which, separating from the province, had ap pointed a representative on the preceding twenty-first of March. Hence, in fact, although numerous meetings had been held, and the subject amply discussed, no positive union with the sister provinces occurred, in any portion of the colony, until the beginning of 1775, at which period Mr. Gwinnett himself took an active part in public affairs. But it does not appear, although resident within the limits of St. John's parish, that he took any avowed interest in those pre paratory operations, which had necessarily been for a long time evolving the bold and decisive measure that separated the parish from Georgia, and eventually led to the accession of the whole colony. If Mr. Gwinnett, previous to the year 1775, had not become a conspicuous politician, the enthusiasm with which he subsequently maintained the colonial rights soon attracted the attention of his fel low citizens. At the meeting of the general assembly held in Sa vannah on the second of February, 1776, he was appointed a repre sentative in congress. Mr. Gwinnett first appeared in the great na tional assembly on the twentieth of May, 1776. BUTTON GWINNETT. 821 At this time the idea of independence was considered visionary in Georgia: a redress of those grievances which had been imposed upon the colonies, and the permanent establishment of their just rights, demanded in a firm and decided tone, were all that was ex pected or required. This opinion was very prevalent in other sec tions of the country; but it required little foresight to determine, from the spirit which had long continued to actuate the represen tatives of the people, that some decisive measure would soon be adopted, and that the slender thread which still bound the colonies to Great Britain would be speedily severed. During the delibera tions of congress, a few members had privately discussed the pro priety of a Declaration of Independence, for some time before it was submitted to the house, which examined the expediency of the mea sure with closed doors. Zubly, one of the colleagues of Mr. Gwin nett, was opposed to any proceeding tending to a separation from the British government; but the reverend representative, not satis fied with his personal opposition to the measure, nor convinced of his inability to counteract the prevailing influence of his congres sional brethren, secretly despatched a letter to the British governor. containing a full disclosure of this important state secret, and ad vising him to adopt preventive measures in Georgia. Fortunately, however, a copy of this communication was obtained by one of the clerks, and Mr. Chase, of Maryland, openly accused Dr. Zubly of treachery. Zubly stoutly denied the charge, and challenged his ac cuser to produce the proofs. Finding, however, that his perfidy would be clearly established, he immediately fled. Mr. Houston was direct ed by congress to pursue him, and to adopt every expedient mea sure to counteract any evils that might result from the disclosure. The treachery of Zubly, however, was attended with no evil con sequences, but had the salutary effect of removing him from the congressional councils, and from the confidence of the people. Be fore Mr. Houston arrived at Savannah, the British governor had been made prisoner, but afterwards escaping, took shelter under the guns of some armed vessels then lying in Savannah harbour, near Tybee. Owing to these circumstances, the name of Mr. Houston, one of the most firm and fearless patriots of the revolution, is not affixed to the Declaration of Independence; and Gwinnett, Wal ton, and Hall, were the only delegates from Georgia, who were pre sent on that memorable occasion. On the ninth of October, 1776, Gwinnett was re-elected for the year ensuing, and, together with his colleagues, presented the customary credentials on the twen 822 BUTTON GWINNETT. tieth of December, in Baltimore, to which city congress had then removed. During the session of the provincial assembly in September, 1776, held in Savannah, a convention was summoned to meet in Febru ary, 1777, to frame a constitution for the future government of the state. Mr. Gwinnett was elected one of the members of the con vention; and the basis of the constitution, subsequently adopted, are said to have been framed by him. Soon after the adjournment of the convention, the presidency of the provincial council became vacant by the death of Mr. Bullock, and Mr. Gwinnett was appointed to fill that high and honourable office. Having now attained the highest station in the province, within the short period of a year after his first appearance in public life, it might have been expected that the ambition of Mr. Gwinnett would, at least, have slumbered for a time. But his rise in the pub lic favour appears to have been too rapid: it excited jealousies among those who had equal if not better claims to preferment, and an opposition to his views, which inflamed a temper naturally hasty, and engendered animosities which finally conducted him to his grave. During the time he represented the colony in congress, he became i candidate for the commission of brigadier-general of the continental brigade to be levied in Georgia, in opposition to Colonel Lackland M'Intosh, but was unsuccesful. This disappointment is said to have caused him great vexation, and to have made a deep impression on his mind: from that period he seems to have considered Colonel M'Intosh as a personal enemy. It was to be expected, in framing a new system of government, that the duties and powers of the component parts would bear a variety of constructions, and, in the first instance, not be properly understood. The discord, which the previous collision of interests had occasioned between the respective heads of the civil and mili tary departments, was now rapidly increasing. Mr. Gwinnett had the address to secure in his interest a large majority of the executive council, and, for the purpose of mortifying his adversary, laboured to infuse jealousy into the public mind in relation to the relative powers of the civil and military authorities, strongly depicting the evil consequences that ensued from vesting military commanders and courts-martial with powers which could be more safely exercised by the executive and judicial authorities. The necessary consequences of the power assumed by President Gwinnett over the continental army in Georgia, was contempt and BUTTON GWINNETT. 823 disrespect on the part of the officers and soldiers towards their pro per commander, and the destruction of military discipline. WheH officers were charged with offences, either civil or military, the pre sident claimed the right of trying the offenders before the executive council; and when it was necessary to despatch officers on military expeditions, he not only assumed the privilege of selecting the in dividuals, but of regulating their proceedings. In conformity with the system which he had adopted, Mr. Gwin nett projected an expedition against East Florida with the continental troops and the militia of Georgia, to be commanded by himself in person. General M'Intosh was not consulted, nor was it intended by Mr. Gwinnett that he should command his own brigade; because, after passing the boundary of the state, the rank of the general in the continental army would have entitled him to the command. According to the constitution which had been adopted, it was necessary, at this juncture, that the legislature should be convened, to organise the government. The presidential duties of Mr. Gwin nett prevented him from taking the command of the troops destined for the reduction of East Florida, and it was confided, by his orders, to the senior lieutenant-colonel of MTntosh's brigade. This military expedition, which had been awkwardly planned, experienced a dis astrous termination. The militia were surprised, and defeated with great loss, and the continental troops returned to Savannah without effecting any thing advantageous to the government. But the feel ings of Mr. Gwinnett received a more powerful shock at the meet ing of the state legislature, on the first Monday in May, 1777: he there offered himself as a candidate for the office of governor, and was successfully opposed by a competitor, whose pretensions and capacity he considered much inferior to his own, who was elected. This combination of events crushed the aspiring anticipations of Mr. Gwinnett, and terminated his short-lived political career. The disappointment and humiliation of his constant antagonist naturally proved a source of exultation to General M'Intosh, who is said to have discovered great animosity in frequent and free dis cussions of his character. Naturally ambitious, and recollecting the rapidity with which he had been elevated to the most honourable and important offices of the state, it was not to be expected that Mr. Gwinnett would descend to the station of a private citizen, with out making an effort to regain the public favour. Exasperated by the conduct and remarks of his adversary, mortified by the frustra tion of his hopes, and anxious to re-establish his popularity, he 3K 824 BUTTON GWINNETT. formed the desperate determination of forcing his way to the politi cal height from which he had fallen. A challenge was therefore conveyed to General M'Intosh, and they fought at the short distance of twelve feet. Both the combatants were wounded nearly in the same part of the body. General M'Intosh recovered ; but the wound of Mr. Gwinnett proved mortal, and he expired on the twenty- seventh of May, 1777, in the forty-fifth year of his age. Thus perished, in the prime of life, a patriot, who, during his short political career, had filled the most important stations, and eminently promoted the independence of his adopted country. The leading motive that urged him to engage in the fatal conflict of which he was the victim, is stated to have been the desire of re instating himself in the public opinion. — The complication of events which oppressed the feelings of Mr. Gwinnett, may be pleaded in extenuation of the deed which deprived his country of one of its earliest advocates. The disastrous failure of his military schemes, his sudden fall from the highest office of the state to the rank of a private citizen, the defeat of his political hopes, the success of his competitor, and the triumph of an avowed enemy, may palliate an action which no sophistry can justify, and which it is our duty to condemn. From the period at which Mr. Gwinnett engaged in agricultural pursuits, he devoted his leisure hours to political studies. The short interval of five years which preceded his death, did not per mit him to attain a thorough education in the school of policy; but had his aspiring ambition been tempered with more prudence, he possessed talents which promised extensive usefulness. He was about six feet in height, and his person was properly pro portioned, lofty, and commanding. Without possessing remarkable eloquence, his language was mild and persuasive. His manners were polite, and his deportment graceful. He was of an irritable temper, and impatient of contradiction. He left a widow and seve ral children, who did not long survive him. Although the political career of Mr. Gwinnett was short, and its termination afflicting, his memory, stamped as it is upon the char ter of our independence, must be coeval with the duration of the American republic. LYMAN HALL. Among the most strenuous advocates of the colonial cause, was Doctor Lyman Hall, a delegate from Georgia. Although he does not appear to have acted a very conspicuous part in the proceedings of congress, he was, nevertheless, a useful member, and enjoyed the honour of representing that small, but patriotic, portion of the colony of Georgia, which, in opposition to the great majority of its inhabi tants, resolved to unite in maintaining the general rights and liber ties of the country. As a representative of the parish of St. John, he possessed a peculiar claim to the attention of congress, because the example of that district, as was anticipated, proved a strong incitement to the whole colony in their final accession to the general confederacy ; this event occurred within four months after the ap pointment of Dr. Hall, and the whole thirteen provinces now stood in hostile array against the mother country. The weight of his in fluence, and his persuasive manner, mingled with a strong enthusi asm in relation to the cause which he advocated, materially influenced the parochial committee, of which he was chairman, and consequently the general inhabitants of the parish, in the adoption of that resolu tion which paved the way to the immediate accession of the colony of Georgia. He was born in Connecticut, about the year 1731, where he receiv ed a classical education : he then commenced the study of medicine, and attained a proper knowledge of his profession at an early period of life. Before the age of twenty-one years, he married in his na tive province, and in 1752, removed to Dorchester, South Carolina. During the same year he again changed his residence, and esta blished himself in the district of Medway, in Georgia, to which place he was accompanied by about forty families, originally from the New England states. He settled at Sunbury, where he continued the practice of physic until the commencement of the revolutionary con test. 825 826 LYMAN HALL. Dr. Hall took an anxious interest in the revolutionary movement; and, on the twenty-first of March, 1775, was appointed to represent the parish of St. John in the next general congress. On the thirteenth of May, Mr. Hall announced his arrival to con gress, and being admitted to a seat, produced his credentials, when it was unanimously resolved that he should be admitted as a dele gate from the parish of St. John, in the colony of Georgia, subject to such regulations as the congress should determine relative to his voting. A difficulty soon arose upon this point : during the deliber ations, it became necessary to take the opinion of congress by colo nies, when the imperfect representation of Georgia, the greater part of which was actually opposed to all their proceedings, made it a question whether the parish of St. John could be considered as re presenting that colony. After some debate, Mr. Hall arose, and observed, that the present distressed situation of American affairs had rendered" this congress indispensable ; — that it was composed of delegates representing whole colonies ; — and that, as he merely represented a portion of a colony, he did not insist upon giving his vote as a whole colony, but was contented to hear and assist in the debates, and to give his vote in all cases except when the sentiments of congress were taken by colonies. He concluded by expressing an earnest desire, that the example which had been shown by the parish which he represented, would be speedily followed, and that the representation of Georgia would soon be complete. On the fifteenth of July, 1775, the convention of Georgia at length acceded to the general confederacy, from reasons specified by their deputies. They stated that their attention had at length been aroused by the alarming and critical situation of affairs upon the continent of America ; that they were desirous of uniting with the sister colonies in the great and important cause in which they were engaged ; that the conduct of parliament towards the other colonies had been oppressive ; and that, although the prejudicial acts had not been extended to them, they could view this only as an omission arising from the apparent insignificance of their colony. The dele gates appointed by the convention, were Archibald Bullock, John Houston, the Rev. Dr. Zubly, Noble Wimberly Jones, and Lyman Hall ; three of whom attended at the adjourned meeting of congress, September thirteenth, 1775. Mr. Hall appears to have been absent until the twentieth of May, when he presented new credentials, dated February second, 1776, confirming the re-election of Messrs. Houston, Bullock, and himself, LYMAN HALL. g37 e- and the addition of George Walton and Button Gwinnett to the de legation. The appointment of Mr. Bullock to the presidency of the provincial council prevented him from proceeding to congress ; and Mr. Houston was directed, by a resolution of that body, to return to Georgia on public business, in June, 1776 ; hence only three mem bers from that state were present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The approach of the enemy having rendered it insecure to continue the session of congress in Philadelphia, that body met, by adjournment, in Baltimore, on the twentieth of De cember, 1776, when Mr. Hall presented credentials, dated October ninth, of his third re-election ; in 1780, he made his final appearance as a national legislator. But the abandonment of his profession, the devotion of his time, and the deprivation of domestic enjoyment, were not the only sacri fices that were made by Mr. Hall at that eventful period. When the British took possession of Georgia, he was compelled to remove his family to the north, and all his property was conficated by that government. He returned to Georgia in 1782, before the evacua tion of Savannah, and was, in the succeeding year, appointed go vernor of the state. He afterwards settled in Burke county, re tired from public life, and died about the sixtieth year of his age ; one of the counties in that state now bears his name. His only son died not long before, and he left a widow in independent circum stances. He was about six feet high, and finely proportioned : his manners were easy and polite, and his deportment affable and dignified ; the force of his enthusiasm was tempered by discretion, and he was firm in all his purposes and principles ; the ascendency which he gained, sprung from his mild, persuasive manner, and calm, unruffled tem per. Possessed of a strong, discriminating mind, he had the power of imparting his energy to others, arid was peculiarly fitted to flourish in the perplexing and perilous scenes of the revolution. 90 3k 2 GEORGE WALTON. George Walton was born in Frederick county, in the province of Virginia, about the year 1740. The disadvantages which he en countered in early life, serve to render his subsequent successes more brilliant and extraordinary ; and, while they command an ex tended portion of our admiration, leave us to imagine the probable expansion of such a mind, had it been nurtured and directed by competent education. He neither was educated at any public school, nor received the benefits of classical knowledge, excepting his acquisitions at a mature age. He was apprenticed to a carpen ter, who rigidly required the performance of his daily labour : nor would he allow him the use of a candle to pursue his readings at night. But his zeal for the acquisition of information was not to be checked by this privation. It was his practice to collect light-wood during the day, by the torch-light of which he diligently pursued his studies until the expiration of his apprenticeship, at which period he found himself in possession of an ample share of knowledge, both practical and theoretical. He then removed into the province of Georgia, where he prosecuted the study of the law, under the super intendence of Henry Young, Esq., a gentleman who possessed a distinguished professional, as well as political character. Having completed his studies, and attained a competent knowledge of the general principles of law, he embarked in his professional duties in the year 1774. His legal preceptor was opposed to the proceedings of the colonists, but the mind of Mr. Walton was too independent to be contaminated by his political opinions. From the commencement of the contest, he was a firm and zealous advocate in the cause of his native country. He never swerved from the principles which were, at this early period, planted in his breast, and always pre served, throughout his political career, the character of an honest, determined, and persevering patriot. While the British government was in full operation in Georgia, 828 GEORGE WALTON. 829 and the governor supported by an executive council of great talents and firmness, the annexed notice, to which were attached the names of Noble W. Jones, Archibald Bullock, John Houston, and George Walton, appeared in a newspaper of Savannah : " The critical situation to which the British colonies in America are likely to be reduced, from the alarming and arbitrary impositions of the late acts of the British parliament, respecting the town of Boston, as well as the acts at present, that extend to the raising of a perpetual revenue, without the consent of the people or their re presentatives, is considered as an object extremely important at this critical juncture ; and particularly calculated to deprive the American subjects of their constitutional rights and liberties, as a part of the British empire. It is therefore requested,, that all per sons within the limits of this province do attend at the Liberty Pole at Tondee's tavern in Savannah, on Wednesday the twenty-seventh instant, (July, 1774,) in order that the said matters may be taken under consideration, and such other constitutional measures pursued, as may then appear to be most eligible." The friends of these measures accordingly assembled at the Liberty Pole, which was planted in the centre of Broughton street, and a warm and animated debate ensued, in which Mr. Walton took a distinguished part. A committee was appointed to institute a cor respondence with the different parishes, inviting them to co-operate and unite with the other provinces in America. Governor Wright and his council, opposed these energetic measures with that mild firmness which was best calculated to counteract them; and influ ential messengers were despatched to the different parishes, for the purpose of obtaining signatures to a solemn pledge in support of the royal cause. On the twelfth of January, 1775, a meeting of the citizens was convened, at which the animated exertions and eloquence of Mr. Walton in the support of decisive measures, in unison with the other colonies, were again eminently conspicuous. But the warmth of feeling, and decision of character, which at that period characterized the incipient efforts of those who subsequently rose to elevated sta tions in the state, were not entertained by a majority of the meeting. Contrary to the wishes of the more determined patriots, they ap peared determined to pursue that temporising policy which had previously been adopted, notwithstanding the repeated proofs of its inefficacy, and of the inattention and contempt with which the re monstrances of the colony had been received by the British ministry. 830 GEORGE WALTON. The disappointment and mortification of the friends of rational liberty were complete, when is was discovered that all their exer tions would result in the preparation of a petition to be submitted to the legislature, and presented to the king, by Dr. Franklin. Mr. Walton was a member of the committee by which it was prepared ; but it participated in the fate of its numerous predecessors, and merely served to subject the inhabitants of Georgia to the same humiliation, which had been experienced in the other colonies. The legislature of Georgia assembled on the eighteenth of Janu ary, 1775, and the governor, in his customary communication, recommended the temperate discussion of such subjects alone, which related to their duty as loyal subjects, and the submission which they owed to the crown. This body at length adjourned without transacting any business satisfactory to the British governor, or taking any decided steps in opposition to the royal government. The inhabitants of the parish of St. John, at length wearied with . the numerous ineffectual attempts to induce a majority of the people of the province to unite with their sister colonies, resolved to dis play their own feelings of patriotism, and in some degree secede from the provincial government, by appointing a delegate to con gress, for the purpose of representing their particular parish. Lyman Hall was consequently elected, and admitted to a seat in that body, in May, 1775. The progress of the revolution in the other colonies, soon ren dered it necessary that Georgia should take a decided part, either in favour of, or in opposition to, the royal government. The cause of liberty proved triumphant notwithstanding the apprehensions excited by the Indians, whose friendship and support had been secured by the agents of the British goverment. Those who were exposed to the desolating fury of these barbarians, with the best inclination towards the colonial cause, entertained strong doubts of the policy of acting in conformity with their wishes. At length William Ewin was appointed president of a council of safety, with instructions to correspond with similar councils in the other pro vinces; and in the month of July, 1775, the convention of Georgia acceded to the general confederacy, and elected Lyman Hall, Archi bald Bullock, John Houston, John J. Zubly, and Noble W. Jones, delegates to represent the state in congress. The legislature again convened in January, 1776, and appointed Mr. Bullock president of the executive council. A majority of the members were now so strongly opposed the royal government, that the communications GEORGE WALTON. 831 of Governor Wright were entirely disregarded. Having threatened a resort to military force, comprehending a few infantry, and five or six small armed vessels lying in the harbour of Savannah, the members of the legislature became justly indignant, and being firm in their decision not to be compelled to act, at the point of the bay onet, contrary to their principles and sense of duty, they resolved to seize the person of the governor. Colonel Joseph Habersham, one of the members, executed this order. The parole of the pri soner to confine himself within the limits of his own house, was accepted; but becoming, in a short time, dissatisfied with this mild and liberal arrangement, he broke his parole, escaped and took refuge on board the fleet, and subsequently made an unsuccessful attack upon the town. On the second of February, 1776, the talents and integrity of Mr. Walton were fully recognised by the state legislature, which appointed him a delegate to congress : he was re-elected in the fol lowing month of October, and delivered his credentials on the twelfth of December, being the last day of the session in Philadelphia, pre vious to the adjournment of congress to Baltimore. On the twenty- first of December, the confidence reposed in him by his fellow- members was evinced by his appointment, in conjunction with Robert Morris and George Clymer, on an important committee, invested with powers to transact such continental business as might be pro per and necessary in Philadelphia, from which city congress had thought it prudent to retire. Two hundred thousand dollars were placed at their disposal, for the purpose of providing the militia going into service ; for paying the soldiers from Ticonderoga ; and for other proper public services : they were also empowered to call upon the commissioner of the loan-office for such further sums as the continental service might require. On the seventh of January, 1777, and twenty-sixth of February, 1778, he was successively re elected, and on the fifteenth of May, 1780, he again took his seat among the sages of the revolution : it does not appear, however, that he was an acting member of the delegation in the year 1778. As a member of the board of treasury, of the marine committee, and of various minor committees, he displayed much zeal and intel ligence. In October, 1781, he finally retired from the great national council, in whose proceedings he had so long and ably assisted. In December, 1778, Mr. Walton was appointed a colonel of militia, and commanded a battalion on the right of General Howe's army, when Savannah was taken by the British troops, under 832 GEORGE WALTON. Colonel Campbell. This battalion sustained the attack, and made an obstinate defence, until Colonel Walton received a wound through the thigh, fell from his horse, and was taken prisoner. He was paroled until he recovered from his wound, and then transferred to Sunbury, as a prisoner of war. The high station of Colonel Walton as a member of congress, and his signature to the Declaration of Independence, induced the British government to demand a brigadier general in exchange for him ; but the term for which he was elected having expired, he was ultimately exchanged, as a lieutenant-colonel, for a captain of the navy, in September, 1779. After the unsuccessful siege of the combined armies, under the command of General Lincoln and Count D'Estaing, in October, 1779, the state legislature was convened at Augusta, when Colonel Walton was appointed governor of the state. At the expiration of the session, which occurred in the succeeding January, he was elected a member of congress for two years. At an early period of the war, discord and jealousy had been excited and fostered between the civil and military departments of the state government then under the administration of President Gwinnett. The evils which this controversy appeared likely to create, had induced the members of congress from Georgia to re quest General Washington to order General M'Intosh, who com manded the continental troops, to join the grand army, and to supply his place with another officer of equal grade. This request having been complied with, M'Intosh was succeeded by General Howe, but the beneficial effects expected to result from it, were not pro duced. In a letter, subsequently written by Mr. Walton to General M'Intosh, he observes that " the demon, discord, yet presides in this country, and God only knows when his reign will be at an end. I have strove," he continues, " so hard to do good with so poor a return, that, were the liberties of America secure, I would bid adieu to all public employment, to politics, and to strife ; for even virtue itself will meet with enemies." A party in Savannah had formed themselves into a society, under the popular denomination of the liberty club, which had several branches in the different counties, acting under its jurisdiction. Their ostensible design was to pre vent the encroachment of the military upon the civil authorities; but the confederacy at length became so numerous and powerful, as to possess the entire control over all public appointments. During the session of the legislature in Augusta, a letter was forged, and transmitted to the president of congress, dated Novem- GEORGE WALTON. 833 ber 30th, 1779, of which the following is an extract: "It is to be wished that we could advise congress that the return of Brigadier- General M'Intosh gave satisfaction to either the militia, or con federates; but the common dissatisfaction is such, that it is highly necessary that congress should direct some distant field for the exercise of his abilities." The name of the speaker of the house of representatives was affixed to this letter, but he explicitly disa vowed it, and declared the signature to be a forgery. General M'Intosh charged Mr. Walton with an indirect participation in this imposture, by giving credence to the contents of the letter when it was submitted to congress, to the great injury of his military repu tation. The documents and proofs in support of this extraordinary accusation, were laid before the legislature of Georgia, in January, 1783, and the decision, as it is recorded upon the journals, exhibits a strange inconsistency, for which it is difficult to account. A reso lution was passed, conveying a vote of censure upon the conduct of Mr. Walton, and recommending an order to the attorney general, to institute such proceeding against him as the case required. Now the same body had, on the preceding day, appointed Mr. Walton chief justice of the state of Georgia; and, therefore, he was chosen to preside over the only tribunal in the state that held cognizance over his own trial. At this period, Judge Walton and General M'Intosh were respectively at the head of the civil and military de partments in Georgia; and it is probable that the legislature wished to terminate and adjust the misunderstanding in such a manner as might prove least offensive to either : or perhaps it was their desire to exhibit some evidences of a friendly disposition to both. It is an irrefragable evidence of the great talents of Mr. Walton, and of their proper appreciation by the people of Georgia, that, during the remainder of his life, he held, in almost uninterrupted succession, the most respectable appointments that the government could confer upon him. He was six times elected a representative to congress : — twice, governor of the state ; — once, senator of the United States; — and four times, judge of the superior courts: the latter office he held during fifteen years, and until the day of his .death. He was one of the commissioners on the part of the United States, to negociate a treaty with the Cherokee Indians in Ten nessee, and several times a member of the state legislature. One of the principal duties of the biographer is to convey an idea of the peculiar traits which mark the character of his subject. From an early period of his life to its close, Mr. Walton was as warm in 834 GEORGE WALTON. his attachments as in his enmities : he possessed no mixture of that temporising policy, so frequently successful in gaining the confidence of mankind. There was a dignified sternness in his manners, which evinced a contempt for the world in general; but towards talents and merit, he was scrupulously respectful and attentive. His tem per would not permit him to brook the slightest indignity offered to his official stations, with impunity. Mr. Walton was not very abstemious in his manner of living, and his partiality for study imparted a sedentary habit at an early period of life; hence, before he attained its meridian, he was afflicted with the gout, which caused him much suffering during his declining years. On the second of February, 1804, he closed his laborious life in Augusta. THE END. 3 9002 00491 3027