all the fanaticism and absurd and vulgar violence, that often disfigure them. On the minds of the citizens of the capital where it was convened, it had a most happy influence. All parties seemed to be satisfied. The personal character of the members, who were known to be, without exception, men of commanding intelligence and unquestioned respectability, was such as to inspire unlimited confidence. The mystery with which their deliberations were conducted, and the unanimity with which it was believed that all their resolutions had passed, although, as in the case of Mr. Galloway's proposition, which was adopted by a majority of but one Colony, there had been little harmony as to questions of policy; the manifest cordiality which marked their personal intercourse; the firm, but temperate tone of their published addresses, the most decided of which was the answer to the Suffolk County resolutions; all had a tendency to compose the previous political agitation, and to assuage the bitterness of feeling, which had before been manifested. It is remarkable, considering the result, that the various views of all parties in the Province should have been so happily met. The zealous patriots, who, in case of extremity, looked directly to the last resort, knew that whilst temporizing measures were sanctioned by the Congress, in which body there were many as ardent as themselves, they could have no reason to complain. Those, again, who felt an equal interest in the support of Colonial rights, but who deemed temperance of language and action the safest and best policy, were satisfied with the moderation and caution of the Congress, and with the conviction, that those whom they regarded as their proper representatives, had great influence in that assembly. Even the timid and disaffected had less reason for discontent than they had anticipated. They, too, had their representatives, who, as in the instance of Mr. Galloway, were distinguished for talent and influence; and they found consolation amid their fears and forebodings in a decided preference of the counsels of the moderate party, with whom they had some sympathy, to those of the ultra patriots, with whom they had none. Such was the state of feeling in Pennsylvania on perceiving the success of this first experiment of independent legislation; and the satisfaction which all expressed was realized in the apparent cordiality with which the non-importation and non-consumption agreements were adopted and enforced. When these measures of peace

ful, but resolute opposition were recommended by Congress, it was not done by ordinary legislative resolutions, but by a solemn compact signed by the members, by which they bound themselves and their constituents by the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of country,' to the performance of the requisitions it prescribed. Public opinion fully sanctioned this obligation, and the loyal as well as the liberal portion of the citizens of Philadelphia, the tories as well as the whigs, immediately acceded to it.

In the Congress of 1774, there was one man, of whom his native State has especial reason to be proud, and whose memory we hope she religiously cherishes. We refer to the first of a triumvirate of patriots, to whom only we shall be able to allude at this time, John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, the author of the Farmer's Letters. From the period of the first Colonial discontents, in consequence of the restrictions on the West India trade in 1763, and the Stamp Act in 1765, to the final catastrophe, Mr. Dickinson was the determined and efficient advocate of popular principles; and long before he was known beyond the limits of his native Colony, he had acquired a high and honorable distinction there by the part he had acted in the animated contests of local politics. The position he held was a singular and a fortunate one. He was friendly to the continuance of the proprietary form of government, which, in the peculiar circumstances of the times, he believed to be the one most conducive to the welfare of the community, and was at the same time intimately connected with the Friends, who, as we have said, were desirous of a change in the Colonial charter. From this peculiar relation, independently of the consideration of his commanding talents and unblemished private worth, his sentiments and conduct derived great influence. His constitutional moderation and deliberative disposition were remarkable. This distinction was not destined to be confined to the sphere of local action. The publication of the Farmer's Letters actually formed an era in the history of the times. They were republished and read throughout all the Colonies. No one of the numerous publications of the day acquired greater celebrity, and many, which, from peculiar circumstances, enjoyed for a time equal repute, were of far inferior merit. They are the finished product of the scholar's labors, and contain the genuine expression of the patriot's aspirations. In them, the student of revolutionary

history will find a strain of simple and fervent eloquence suited to the theme, and an aptness of illustration and force of reasoning the most admirable and conclusive. If beauty of style and interest of subject form the essence of the distinction, they are part of the classical literature of our country. Their effect at the time of their publication was inconceivable, and the Pennsylvania Farmer was at once ranked among the most eloquent advocates of resistance that had then appeared. Yet who reads the Farmer's Letters now, and how many are there, we ask the question mournfully, of the multitudes of well-educated young men in our country, who have drunk largely of the poisoned stream of foreign political literature, and are familiar with all the gilded heresies which have been coined in the mint of British toryism, who are ignorant alike of the object and the author of these once celebrated productions? We will venture to express the hope, that some of those who peruse these pages will credit the cordial praise we have bestowed, and be induced to ascertain for themselves that our encomium is not undeserved. The tribute of admiration paid by Dugald Stewart to the early American state papers, is as justly due to the occasional publications of the day, of which the Farmer's Letters were beyond comparison the most distinguished. Mr. Dickinson was par excellence the writer for the first Congresses, and it is to his pen that we are indebted for a great portion of the addresses, which embodied in language so appropriate the resentment of an injured people. He wrote what the thunders uttered.' The addresses of the various conventions of his native Colony, the instructions from the people of Pennsylvania to their delegates in the General Assembly, the letters of Congress to the Canadians, and to the inhabitants of Bermuda on the Quebec Bill, the address to the King, and many other papers, which our space will not permit us even to mention, were written by him. It is known that Mr. Dickinson was opposed to Independence at the time when it was decided on by Congress, and that he did not sign the Declaration. It is not our duty, in this place or at this time, to vindicate his fame. In his doubts, let it be remembered, he was not singular. Caution and deliberation, perhaps too uniformly operating, were his characteristics, and it is apparent from the detached portions of his private correspondence, which have met the public eye, that, as the crisis approached when the destinies of his country were to be deter

mined, his constitutional temperament did not soon enough yield to the exigencies of the times, and that he hesitated a moment too long, and allowed others to adopt the decisive measure to which time would have reconciled him. His unpublished correspondence on this subject must be peculiarly interesting.

In strong contrast, in this particular, with the individual to whom we have just referred, was his early associate, Joseph Reed, subsequently President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania. Of the character and temperament of the latter, we cannot convey a better idea than by describing him as the confidential and intimate friend of Warren and Quincy, and the one of their numerous correspondents to whom they seemed to write with the least reserve. Theirs was the intercourse of minds perfectly congenial, and confident, not merely in each other's faith, but in each other's zeal and enthusiasm. 'I congratulate you,' says Mr. Reed in a letter to Mr. Quincy, which has been published, 'on the rising glory of America; our operations have been almost too slow for the accumulated sufferings of Boston; but should our bloodless war fail of its effect, we are ready to make the last appeal rather than resign our liberties into the hand of any ministerial tyrant.' And it was in reply to this assurance, that his correspondent, filled with romantic enthusiasm at the prospect of events in which his hard fate prevented him from participating, made his prophetic declaration; I look to my countrymen with the feelings of one, who verily believes they must yet seal their faith and constancy with their blood. This is a distressing witness indeed. But hath not this ever been the lot of humanity? Have not blood and treasure in all ages been the price of civil liberty? Can Americans hope for a reversal of the laws of our nature, and that the best of blessings will be obtained and secured without the sharpest trials? Adieu, my friend. My heart is with you, and whenever my countrymen command, my person shall be also.' Mr. Reed belonged entirely to the era of the Revolution, the commencement and termination of his public life being coincident with the beginning and the end of the contest. His career was a short but a brilliant and eventful one, crowded with incidents worthy of ample illustration at the hands of those on whom the care of his memory has devolved. His private correspondence in 1774 with Lord Dartmouth, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, commenced

by the young American at the suggestion of some foreigners friendly to the Colonial cause, encouraged by the minister, and abruptly terminated by Mr. Reed on the occurrence of hostilities at Lexington, must possess great historical value. The other features of his biography are marked with equal interest. In the early stages of revolt and opposition at Philadelphia, he was the orator of the patriotic party, and the individual on whose eloquence the friends of liberty principally relied. The commanding position which he then assumed was not subsequently abandoned. As the confidential Secretary of Washington during the opening campaign in New England; as the bosom friend and destined biographer of Greene;* as the Executive head of his native State during the gloomiest period of the Revolution, when her counsels were distracted by faction, and her great energies paralyzed by the discord of her rulers and the temporary secession of her troops; as the valued military counsellor of the Commander-in-Chief in the anxious hours which preceded the attack on Trenton; as the successful prosecutor of Arnold for rapacity and peculation, whose treason he was the first to suspect and denounce; as the associate of Morris and Laurens in repelling the insidious attempts of the agents of ministerial corruption, the detailed history of which has never yet appeared; and as the author of the reply so often recorded, and never to be forgotten, that he was not worth buying, but that such as he was, the King of Great Britain was not rich enough to do it ;' in all his relations to the history of the times, his character and actions are clothed with peculiar interest. A shade of gloom attended the close of his honorable career. The termination of the war found him with a constitution impaired by exposure to unremitting anxiety and fatigue, and at the early age of forty-two, when the powers of his brilliant mind had reached their full developement, and at a period of public affairs, when he might have won new honors in a new career, he sank a broken-hearted man into a premature grave, dug for him by the restless hands of political malignity. The record of his virtues and his actions has, we believe, never been attempted, and in the allusion we have made to them, we have been guided principally by the imperfect information which general history affords. We are aware

*President Reed actually commenced a biography of General Greene, as well as a history of the Revolution, in neither of which works did he live to make much progress.