USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 44
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of Commons against the acts of Parliament and therein dutifully, yet most firmly, to assert the colonies' rights of exclusion from parliamentary taxation, and pray that they might not in any in- -tance be stripped of the ancient and most valuable privilege of trial by their peers and most humbly to implore relief. MeKean and Rodney disting- uished themselves in this Congress by the boldness with which they advocated the American cause and took a prominent part in framing the memor- ials and the declaration of rights. On their return to Delaware they received the unanimous thanks of the Assembly for their faithful and judicious discharge of the trust repo-ed in them. Thus the people of Delaware had placed themselves on re- cord regarding the fundamental principles that the colonies were not to be taxed without their con- sent, and that the colonists could not be taken to England for trial for any offenses.
In October, 1765, the merchants and traders of Delaware subscribed to a non-importation agree- ment, such as were then being signed all over the country. In this agreement the subscribers bound themselves, that in consequence of the late aets of Parliament and the injurious regulations aecom- panying them, and of the Stamp Act, etc., in justice to themselves and in hopes of benefit from their example, (1) To eountermand all orders for English goods until the Stamp Act should be re- pealed ; (2) a few neces-ary articles, or shipped under peculiar eireumstances, are excepted ; (3) no goods received for sale on commission to be dis- posed of until the Stamp Act should be repealed- and this agreement to be binding on each and all as a pledge of word of honor.
As the winter advanced into 1766, the public dissatisfaction augmented and the determination deepened to prevent, if possible, the enforcement of the hated act. Stamps were burned wherever found, and captains of vessels arriving learned that it was not safe cither to keep or carry them. In February the people very generally signed an agreement not to eat or suffer to be killed any lamb or sheep until Jan. 1, 1767, and not to deal with butchers violating the compact. Economy and frugality were enforced by examples in high and low, and steadfast efforts made to promote the market for home manufactured goods.
Later in the same year ( March 18, 1766) came the repeal of the Stamp Act by Parliament, and without forecasting the future the Assembly joined in the joy that pervaded America and appointed MeKean, Rodney and George Read to frame an address to the King, in which these paragraphs tvcurred :
" We cannot help glorying in being the subjects of a King that has made the presentation of the vivil and religious rights of his people and the estab- lished constitution the foundation and constant rule
of his government, and the safety, case and pros- perity of his people his chiefest eare; of a King whose mild and equal administration is sensibly felt and enjoyed in the remotest part of his domin- ions. The clouds which lately hung over America are dissipated. Our complaints have been heard and our grievances redressed ; trade and commerce again flourish. . . . We most humbly besecch your majesty graciously to accept the strongest assurances that having the justest sense of the mauy favours we have received from your royal benevolence during the course of your Majesty's reign, and how much our present happiness is owing to your paternal love and care for your people, we will at all times most cheerfully contribute to your Majesty's service to the utmost of our abilities when your royal re- quisitions, as heretofore, shall be made known; that your Majesty will always find such returns of duty and gratitude from us as the best of Kings may ex- peet from the most loyal subjects, and that we will demonstrate to all the world that the support of your Majesty's government and the honour and interests of the British nation are our chief care and concern, desiring nothing more than the eon- tinuance of our wise and excellent constitution in the same happy, firm and envied situation in which it was delivered down to us from our ancestors and your Majesty's predecessors."
This address was delivered by Mr. De Berdt to Lord Shelburn, British Secretary of State. " I told his lordship, " said Mr. De Berdt, " that to mne it appeared wrote with the most natural honest sim- plicity of any I had read ; he said it did, and the King was so well pleased with it that he read it over twice." Surely no government could have desired more radical expressions of loyalty ; but the itching of the British royal and ministerial palms for American gold threw affairs again into dis- order. In May, 1767, Charles Townshend, Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, submitted a plan to Parliament by which he proposed "to draw a revenue from America without giving offence ; " and soon after he introduced the acts, to take effeet Nov. 20th, imposing duties on glass, paper, pasteboard, white and red lead, painters' colors and tea imported into the colonies, establishing a Board of Customs at Boston to collect the revenue throughout America and legalizing writs of assist- ance. These measure- were felt in the colonies to be even more subversive of their rights than the Stamp Aet, and the Delaware Assembly appointed MeKean, Rodney and Head to formulate a second address to the King. The Assembly did not fail to renew their protestations of loyalty, but at the same time they freely expressed their regret at the new course of oppression which had been adopted. They said :
" The sense of our deplorable condition will, we hope, plead with your Majesty in our behalf for
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the freedom we take in dutifully remenstrating ture they touched the pocket nerve of English mer against the proceedings of a British parliament, chants with most potent results. A non-importation association was formed at Boston in August, 17os. and in the next wopr Delaware joined in ti .. agreement. The wave of this delay and some other incidents of the time are explained by a letter which George Read addressed to his fellow citizens of New Casth. County : confessedly the wisest and greatest assembly upon earth. But if our fellow-subjects of Great Britain, who derive no authority from us, who cannot in our humble opinion represent us, and to whom we will not yield in loyalty and affection to your ma- jesty, can, at their will and pleasure of right, give and grant away our property ; if they ean enforce an implicit obedience to every order aml net of theirs for that purpose, and deprive all and any of the assemblies in this continent of the power of legislation for differing with them in opinion in matters which intimately affect their rights and interests and everything that is dear and valuable to Englishmen, we cannot imagine a case more miserable ; we cannot think that we shalt have even the shadow of liberty left. We conceive it to be an inherent right in your Majesty's subjects, derived to them from God and nature, handed down from their ancestors and confirmed by your royal pre- decessors and the constitution, in person, or by their representatives, to give and grant to their sovereign those things which their own labours and their own cares have acquired and saved, and in such proportions and at such times as the national honour and interest may require. Your Majesty's faithful subjects of this government have enjoyed this inestimable privilege uninterrupted from its first existence until of late. They have at all times cheerfully contributed to the utmost of their abili- ties for your Majesty's service as often as your royal requisitions were made known, and they cannot now, but with the greatest uneasiness and distress of mind, part with the power of demonstrating their loyalty and affection to their beloved King."
This address was immediately followed by a correspondenee with the Governor of Virginia, setting forth the views of the Assembly relative to the new aggressions of Great Britain, and de- elaring an intention of co-operating with the other colonies in such prudent measures as might have a tendency to conciliate the affections of the mother country, and restore their just rights and liberties. Notwithstanding all the influence brought to bear upon the British government for the repeal of the act imposing new duties, it remained obstinate, as it was considered an improper time to yield to the demands of the colonies. It would be time enough to do this, it was said, when they had shown a disposition to yield to the authority of Parliament. Lord North declared that however prudence or policy might hereafter induce the government to repeal the act, he hoped they should never think of it until America was prostrate at their feet. Failing in these measures, the colonies revived the non-importation system which had been partially enforced in the epoch of the Stamp Act. By re- fusing to import any product of English manutae- Christians,-
"' From our local circumstances it seemed un- necessary for the people of this government to enter into resolutions of non-importation from the mother country, as we had no traders among us who im- ported goods from Great Britain except in very small quantities and in vessels belonging to Phila- delphia, which was sufficiently guarded by the agreement of her own citizens. Lately it has been discovered that a few of the traders of that city have become tired of what they call virtuous at- tempts to restore freedom to America and endeav- oured to dissolve the Philadelphia non-importation agreement. One of the principal arguments made use of is the probability of losing the trade of this government. They say that the Maryland non- importation agreement having excepted many more articies of merchandise than that of Philadelphia, the people here will form a connection with the Marylanders in the way of trade, introduced by going there to purchase such excepted articles, which trade may continue after all contests with the mother country are over. This is a plausible and forcible argument, and to remove all the weight it may have, the inhabitants of the upper part of this country, particularly in and about the towns of New Castle, Wilmington, Christiana, Newark. Newport and Hamburg Landing, have resolved to support the Philadelphia agreement. It is now in the power of the people of this government to lend a helping hand and be of real use to the general cause Some of the people of New York have de- serted it, but, it is thought, will be brought back to their duty. To prevent the like accident taking place at Philadelphia we ought to destroy the ar- gument alleged before. Let us be content to con- fine our trade to its former channels; there is our natural connection ; let us forego some trifling con- venience in hopes of greater advantage ; resolve not to purchase any goods out of the government but such as are excepted in the Philadelphia agree- ment, and fall upon some effectual measures to sup- port this conduct."
The agreement recommended by Mr. Read was soon very generally adopted. It was dated Au- gust 17, 1769, and after stating in energetic lan- guage the grievances which compelled the Dela- warean- to co-operate with their fellow-colonists in the measures best calculated to invite or enforce redress, they " mutually promise, declare and agree, upon our word of honor and the faith of
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" First. That from and after this date we will not import into any part of America any goods, wares or merchandise whatsoever from any part of Great Brit- ain contrary to the spirit and intention of the agree- ment of the merchants of the City of Philadelphia. " Serond. That we never will have any dealing, commerce or intercourse whatever with any man re- siding in any part of the British dominions, whoshall for luere or any other purpose import into any part of America any article contrary to the said agreement. " Third. That any one of us who shall wilfully break this agreement shall have his name pub- lished in the publie newspapers as a betrayer of the civil rights of Americans, and be forever after deemed infamous and a betrayer of his country."
The compact was subsequently violated by some shop-keepers, and to arrest this evil, which threat- ened a dissolution of the covenant, two per-ons, sound patriots, were appointed in each town as a committee of inspection to watch the trade. George Read was elected chairman of the general committee, and the subordinate committees per- formed their duties with such diligence and ae- tivity that they equaled the agents of the best organized police in the discovery of delinquents. The adherents of Great Britain were too few in number to shield the apostates. When informa- tion was given against them they usually appeared before the general committee, which inflicted no other punishment than requiring from the otfender a publie declaration of sorrow for the offense, a promise not to repeat it, and payment to the com- mittee of the proceeds of illegitimate sales for the use of the poor.
Events were rapidly marching to the erisis. On April 12, 1770, Parliament repealed all the obnoxious duties except that upon tea, but re-af- firmed the right of taxing the colonies.
In 1773 the East India Company, finding that the Colonies would take no tea on which the duty was charged, tried a new plan, and kindled a new flame from the smouldering embers of old exwite- ments. An act of Parliament was passed author- izing that company to export their tea- to America free of the duty enacted by the home government, and only charged with the three-penny colonial duty. It was intended to tempt the colonies by offering them tea far cheaper than it could be landed in London. The news of the passage of this aet ealled for new measures of resistance. News of the initial shipments of tea reached Phila- adelphia on the 27th of September. The ship "Polly," with " the detested plant," had sailed from London on the 12th or 15th of September, and her arrival was looked for in the Delaware about the third week in November. The patriotie inhabitants formed an association and entered into combinations to prevent the landing and the sale of the tea. Among the first measures adopted was
to issue an address to the Delaware pilots. It said, " We need not point out to you the steps you ought to take if the tea-ship falls in your way. You cannot be at a loss how to prevent, or, if that cannot be done, how to give the merchants of the city timely notice of her arrival. But this you may depend on, that whatever pilot brings her into the river, such pilot will be marked for his treason and will never afterwards meet with the least encouragement in bis business. Like Cain, he will be hung out as a spectacle to all nations, and be forever recorded as the damned traitorons pilot who brought up the ter ship. This, however, cannot be the case with you. You have proved scourges to eril-doers, to infamous informers and tide-waiters, and we may venture to predict that you will give us a faithful and satisfactory account of the tea- ship if you should meet with her, and that your zeal on this occasion will entitle you to every favor it may be in the power of the merchants of Phila- delphia to confer upon you." This address was signed by " The Committee for turring and feath. ering." On Christmas day, intelligence was re- ceived of the arrival of the " Polly " at Chester, and a meeting of over eight thousand citizens of Philadelphia compelled her to return home with- out breaking bulk. This was the first and the last of the detested tea-ships in the Delaware.
It will be most fitting in this place to say a few words in regard to the most prominent leaders of the people of Delaware in this time of approach to the Revolutionary War-of their characters and eireumstances we mean, their acts will not need comment. There were George, Thomas and James Read, Thomas MeKean, Casar Rodney, George Ross, Allen MeLane, Caleb P. Bennett, Lewis Bush, Philemon Dickinson, John Haslett, Richard Howell, David Jones, Robert Kirkwood, Shepherd Kolloek, John Patten, Bedford Gun- ning, Nathaniel Mitchell, Richard Bassett, David Hall and many others who were in the front of affairs at home or on the threshold of battle. These men, directly or by marriage, were con- nected with the leading families of Delaware of all the seets. They were all men of ability and influence, differing greatly in character, tempera- ments and political opinions, but all honest and earnest men.
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The Read family, inheriting an ancient name of honorable repute in the Oldl World, has ren- dered its patronymic historical in America by its patriotie services during the colonial and Revolu- tionary periods, and by its large contributions to the foundation and subsequent consolidation of the government of the United States.
The first ancestor in this country was Colonel John Read, a wealthy and public-spirited Southern planter, who was born in Dublin, of English parentage, in the last year of the reign of James
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the Second, 1658. His mother was the scion of an old Oxfordshire house, and his father, an Eng- lish gentleman of large fortune, then residing in Dublin, was fifth in descent from Thomas Read, lord of the manors of Barton Court and Beedon, in Berkshire, and high sheriff of Berks in 1581, and tenth in descent from Edward Read, lord of the manor of Beedon, and high sheriff of Berks in 1439 and again in 1451. One of the latter's brothers, William Read, six times mayor of Read- ing, was member of Parliament for Reading in 1453; 1460, 1462 and 1472. An older brother, Sir Thomas Read, was one of the knights who accompanied King Henry the Sixth when he held his Parliament at Reading in 1439, and they were all sons of Thomas Read, lord of various manors in Northumberland.
In the civil wars of the seventeenth century, says Mr. Charles Reade, the family declared for the erown, and its then chief, Sir Compton Read, was for his services one of the first baronets created by Charles the Second after the Restoration. A younger son of the family went over to Ireland in the same troubles, and it was his son who was the progenitor of the American house. Besides the baronetey of the 4th March, 1660, an carlier one had been conferred upon Sir John Read on the 16th March, 1641. Through a clerical error in one of the patents an e was added to the name, and was subsequently adopted by the English branches. The historical American branch re- tained the ancient form which the name had when it left England, and it figures thus on the petition to the King of the Congress of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and many other earlier and later State papers.1
John Read had a romantic history. He fell in love at an early age in the old country with his cousin, a beautiful and accomplished English girl, who died suddenly before their engagement ended in marriage. This shock so overcame the lover that, after struggling in vain against his melancholy amidst familiar scenes, he determined, in spite of the earnest opposition of his parents, to seek relief in entire change. Crossing the ocean to Maryland, he purchased lands in several counties in that province, to which he added others in Delaware. On his plantation in Cecil County, Maryland, he possessed a spacious brick mansion, subsequently destroyed by fire, with out-buildings and offices and comfortable quarters for his slaves, whom he treated with an unvarying humanity which became hereditary in his family. Groves of oak grew near the house, and tulips of great rarity grew in the gardens. Jim was the head of his house ser.
vants, as Juba was the head of those in the next generation. The produce of the wheat and tobarro plantations were dispatched to Philadelphia and t. England, and found their way back in various attractive and practical shape, for the use of the household. He was fond of field sports, and the woods rang with the sound of his dogs and hi- guns. He was both hospitable and generous. H. gave the land to endow the church in his vicinity. and his life was honorable in all its relationis. Being largely interested in various enterprises, he joined a few other gentlemen in founding the city of Charlestown, at the head-waters of the Chesa- peake Bay, twelve years after Baltimore was begun, hoping to make it a great commercial mart to absorb Northern trade, to develop Northern Mary- land, and to give a suitable impetus and outlet to the adjoining forge> and furnaces of the Principio Company, in which his friends, the elder genera- tions of the Washington family, and eventually General Washington himself, were deeply inter- ested. Tradition preserves in this connection an account of the youthful Major Washington's visit to Colonel Read at the close of the latter's active and well-spent life.
As one of the original proprietors of Charlestown, John Read was appointed by the Colonial Legisla- ture one of the commissioners to lay out and gov- ern the new town, and he was assiduons in his attentions to these duties.
After a long period of single life bis early sorrow was consoled by his marriage with Mary Howell, a charming young Welsh gentlewoman, many years his junior, who was as energetic and spirited as she was attractive and handsome. Sprung from the Howells of Caerleon, County Monmouth, her imme- diate ancestors were seated in the neighborhood of Caerphilly, Glamorganshire, Wales, where she was born in 1711, and from whence, at a tender age, she removed with her parents to Delaware, where her father was a large planter.
Mary, the only daughter of John and Mary (Howell > Read, married Gunning Bedford, Sr., who was a lieutenant in the war against the French in 1755, and took an active part in the Revolutionary struggle. He was commissioned major on the 20th of March, 1775, and becoming lieutenant-colonel of the Delaware Regiment on the 19th of Janu- ary, 1776, was afterwards wounded at the battle of White Plains while leading his men to the attack. He was likewise muster-master general, member of the Continental Congress and Governor of Dela- ware. Governor and Mrs. Bedford (nce Read, left no issue. .
Three distinguished sous of Colonel John Read were George, Col. James and Commodore Thoma- Read. George Read was in a peculiar serve the father of the State of Delaware, for he was the author of her first"Constitution in 1776, and of
1 " Read! Archives and Mummients, " "Burke's Peerage tutuler Reade olim Read, Part.," " Burke's finetal Ariany, ' " Charles finale'sPartele of his Kinsman, Chief Ju-tier John Meredith Read, of Pont-y Ivana," published in The Grapher, London, Match 6, Isis, republished in Maya- zine of American Hutory, March, Ist.
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the first edition of her laws. He figured in her ence with his friend Sir Richard Neave, afterwards Assembly no less than twelve years, was Vice- governor of the Bank of England, he gave utter- ance, eleven years before the Declaration of Independence, to the remarkable prophecy that a continuance in this mistaken policy would lead to independence and eventually to the colonies surpassing England in her staple manufactures. Finding no manifestation of change in the position towards the colonies, he resigned the attorney- generalship, and accepted a seat in the First Con- gress, which met at Philadelphia in 1774. lestill. however, hoped for reconciliation, and he voted against the motion for independence. But he finally signed the Declaration of Independence when he found there was no hope, and henceforward was the constant originator and ardent supporter of measures in behalf of the national cause. He President of the State, and at one time her arting chief magistrate. He penned the address from Delaware to the King, which Lord Shelbourne said so impressed George III. that he read it over twice. He is the most conspicuous figure in the Delaware record, for Thomas MeKear and John Dickinson were more closely allied to Pen- sylvania than to Delaware; and while Casar Rodney was prominent in the time of the Declar- ation, and afterwards as President of Delaware, his premature death in 1783 cut short his career. In person, Read was tall, -light, graceful, with a finely-shaped head, strong, but refined features, and dark-brown, lustrous eyes. His manners were dignified, and he could not tolerate the slightest familiarity, but he was most court- eous, and at times captivating : and he dressed with the most serupulous eare and elegance. He was one of the two statesmen, and the only Southern statesman, who signed all three of the great State papers on which our, history is based-the original petition to the King of the Congress of 1774, the Declara- tion of Independence and the Con- stitution of the United States. lle was the eldest son of Colonel John Read, of Maryland and Delaware, and was born on the 17th of Sep- tember, 1733, on one of the family estates in Cecil County, Maryland. After receiving a classical education under Dr. Francis Alli-on, he studied law, and was called to the bar at the age of nineteen in the city of Philadelphia, and in 1754 re- moved to New Castle, Delaware, in which province the family also had READING TABLE, SILVER CANDLESTICKS AND CHAIR Of Colonel John Read of Maryland and Delaware, less-1956. important landed interests. On the 11th of January, 1763, he married Gertrude, dangh- ter of the Rev. George Ross, for nearly fifty years rector of Emmanuel Church, New Castle, a vigorous pillar of the Established Church in America. Mrs. Read's brother, John Ross, had been attorney- general under the crown. Another brother. the Rev. JEneas Ross, became celebrated as the author of eloquent and patriotic sermons during the Re- volution ; while still another brother, George Ross, was an eminent judge and a signer of the Declar- ation of Independence. Having been appointed attorney-general under the crown at the early age of twenty-nine, Mr. Read felt it to be his duty, as a friend to the mother country, to warn the British government of the danger of attempting to tax the colonies without giving them direct rep- resentation in Parliament, and in his correspond-
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