USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Independence Hall : from the earliest period to the present time : embracing biographies of the immortal signers of the Declaration of Independence, with historical sketches of the sacred relics preserved in that sanctuary of American freedom > Part 12
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ness of his profession increased, and his acquaintance among distinguished politicians extended so rapidly that he became an active public man, and in 1765, when the Stamp Act had raised a perfect hurricane in America, he wrote and published his "Essay on the Canon and Feudal Laws." This great work soon won for, and placed him in high public esteem. The same. year he became associated with James Otis and others, in demanding, in the presence of the Royal Governor, that "the Courts should dispense with stamped paper in the administration of justice."
Some time during the year 1766 Mr. Adams married Abigail Smith, daughter of a pious clergyman of Braintree, and soon afterward he removed to Boston. There he was actively associated with Hancock, Otis, and other prominent men, in the various measures which had been proposed in favor of liberty, and the general welfare of the people, and was very efficient in the endeavor to have the military removed from the town. Governor Bernard tried to bribe him to silence, at least, by offers of lucrative offices, but he disdainfully rejected all his overtures-thus showing himself a patriot in principle as well as in name. How would some of our present political patriots compare with him? Mr. Adams was applied to for the pur- pose of defending Captain Preston and his men, when they were arraigned for murder, after the "Boston Massacre ;" and although popular favor on one side, and the demands of justice and humanity on the other, were the horns of the dilemma between which Mr. Adams was placed by the application, he accepted it, and defended the prisoners successfully. Captain Preston was acquitted, and notwithstanding the in-
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tense excitement that existed against the soldiers, the patriotism of Mr. Adams was too pure to make this, his defense of the enemy, a cause for withdrawing from him the confidence which the people had already placed in him. He was esteemed the higher by his friends for the noble act, and the people were satisfied, as was evident by their choosing him, that same year, a representative in the Provincial Assembly. Mr. Adams became very obnoxious to both Governors Bernard and Hutchinson. He was elected to a seat in the Executive Council, but the latter erased his name. He was again elected when Governor Gage assumed authority, and he too erased his name. These things increased his popularity. Soon after the ac- cession of Gage, the Assembly at Salem* adopted a proposition for a general Congress, and elected five delegates thereto in spite of the efforts of the Governor to prevent it. John Adams was one of those dele- gates, and took his seat in the first Continental Con- gress convened in Philadelphia on the fifth of Sep- tember, 1774. He was again elected a delegate in 1775, and through his influence, George Washington, of Virginia, was elected Commander-in-Chief of all the forces of the United Colonies. Mr. Adams did not nominate Washington, as has been frequently stated. He gave notice that he should "propose a member of Congress from Virginia," which was un.
* The " Boston Port Bill," so-called, which was adopted by Parliament, closed the port of Boston, removed the Custom House therefrom, its laws, courts, etc., and the meeting of the Provincial Assembly was called at Salem. This oppressive act was intended to have a twofold effect-to punish the Bostonians for the tea riot and awe them into submission to the Royal will. But it effected neither.
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derstood to be Washington, but for reasons that do not appear upon the journals, he was nominated by Thomas Johnson, of Maryland.
On the 6th of May, 1776, Mr. Adams introduced a motion in Congress "that the Colonies should form governments independent of the Crown." This motion was equivalent to a declaration of independence, and when, a month afterward, Richard Henry Lee intro- duced a motion more explicitly to declare the Colonies free and independent, Mr. Adams. was one of its warmest advocates. He was appointed one of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence,* and he placed his signature to that document on the 2d of August, 1776. After the battle of Long Island he was appointed by Congress, with Dr. Franklin and Edward Rutledge, to meet Lord Howe in conference upon Staten Island, concerning the pacification of the Colonies. According to his prediction, the mission failed. Notwithstanding his great labors in Congress, he was appointed a member of the Council of Massa- chusetts, while on a visit home, in 1776, the duties of which he faithfully fulfilled. During the remainder of the year 1776, and until December, 1777 (when he was sent on a foreign mission), he was member of ninety-nine different committees, and chairman of twenty-five.
In 1777 Mr. Adams was appointed a special com- missioner to the Court of France, whither Dr. Frank- *- lin had previously gone. Finding the subject of his mission fully attended to by Franklin, Adams re- turned home in 1779. He was immediately called .to
* The committee consisted of Dr. Franklin, Thomas Jeffer- son, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston.
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the duty of forming a Constitution for his native State. While in the discharge of his duty in Convention, Congress appointed him a Minister to Great Britain, to negotiate a treaty of peace and commerce with that government. He left Boston in the French frigate La Sensible, in October, 1777, and after a long pas- sage, landed at Ferrol, in Spain, whence he journeyed by land to Paris. He found England indisposed for peace if American Independence was to be the sine qua non, and was about to return home, when he re- ceived from Congress the appointment of Commis- sioner to Holland, to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce with the States-General. The confidence of Congress in him was unlimited, and he was intrusted at one time with the execution of no less than six missions, each of a different character. These com- missions empowered him, 1st, to negotiate a peace with Great Britain ; 2d, to make a treaty of commerce with Great Britain; 3d, the same with the States- General; 4th, the same with the Prince of Orange; 5th, to pledge the faith of the United States to the Armed Neutrality ; 6th, to negotiate a loan of ten millions of dollars. In 1781 he was associated with Franklin, Jay, and Laurens, as a commissioner to conclude treaties of peace with the European powers. In 1782 he assisted in negotiating a commercial treaty with Great Britain, and was the first of the American Commissioners who signed the definite treaty of peace with that power. In 1784 Mr, Adams returned to Paris, and in January, 1785, he was ap- pointed Minister for the United States at the Court of Great Britain. That post he honorably occupied until 1788, when he resigned the office and returned home.
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While Mr. Adams was absent, the Federal Consti- tution was adopted, and it received his hearty ap. proval. He was placed upon the ticket with Wash- ington for Vice-President, at the first election under the new Constitution, and was elected to that office. He was re-elected to the same office in 1792, and in 1796 he was chosen to succeed Washington in the Presidential chair. In 1801 he retired from public life. In 1816 he was placed on the Democratic ticket as Presidential elector. In 1818 he lost his wife, with whom he had lived fifty-two years in uninterrupted conjugal felicity. In 1824 he was chosen a member of the Convention of Massachusetts to revise the Con- stitution, and was chosen President of that body, which honor he declined on account of his great age. In 1825 he had the felicity of seeing his son elevated to the Presidency of the United States. In the spring of 1826 his physical powers rapidly declined, and on the fourth of July of that year he expired, in the ninety-second year of his age. On the morning of the fourth it was evident he could not last many hours. On being asked for a toast for the day, the last words he ever uttered-words of glorious import -fell from his lips, "INDEPENDENCE FOREVER !" On the very same day, and at nearly the same hour, his fellow-committee-man in drawing up the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, also died. It was the fiftieth anniversary of that glorious act, and the coincidence made a deep impression upon the public mind. His portrait graces "Independence'Hall," and is numbered sixteen.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.
"Whoe'er amidst the sons Of reason, valor, liberty and virtue, Display distinguish'd merit, is a noble Of nature's own creating. Such have risen, Sprung from the dust ; or where had been our honors ?" -Thomson.
THE subject of this memoir, who was one of the noble patriots whose name gave vitality and efficiency to the Declaration of Independence, was born in Windham, Connecticut, on the second day of July, 1732. His ancestors and relatives were among the first settlers of that State, and located themselves at Saybrook. The father of William Huntington was a farmer, and at those times when educational advan- tages were of an inconsiderate character among the hardy pioneers, the only opportunities he was able to allow his son, were those derived from the common schools in his vicinity, and these were few and not very important. But, nevertheless, William mani- fested a great desire for learning, and studiously ap- plied himself to his books. In this way the active energies of his mind surmounted the many impedi- ments to his advancement interposed by a want of proper educational advantages for developing his in- tellectual powers. By dint of persevering industry
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and hard study, in the course of a few years he ob- tained considerable knowledge of the Latin language. When he arrived at the age of twenty-two, he selected for his vocation in life the legal profession, and com- menced studying law. Like Sherman he was obliged to pursue it from borrowed books, and even without an instructor. But notwithstanding all these diffi- culties and disadvantages, he succeeded in mastering its intricacies, and before he arrived at the age of thirty years, he had good practice in his native vil- lage. After perfecting himself in the law, and se- curing great popularity in the town where he had pursued his legal studies with so much ardor and attention, he removed to Norwich, where he had a wider field in which to exhibit his talents, and where he soon acquired a practice commensurate with his skill and attainments.
In the year 1764 Mr. Huntington was chosen by the people to represent them in the Assembly of Con- necticut, and the year following he was made a mem- ber of the Council. Whatever position in which he was placed, he discharged its duties with fidelity and ability ; while in the various callings of political sta- tion his labors were such as to elicit the confidence and esteem of his constituents. In 1774 he was made an Associate Judge of the Superior Court, and the next year he was appointed one of the Connecticut Delegates to the General Congress. In this capacity he remained until the subsequent year, when he at. tached his signature to the instrument declaring the Colonies "free and independent States." He continued a member of that Congress nearly five consecutive years, and won the reputation of being one of the
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most active and efficient men in that body ; for it was soon discovered by his opposers that his integrity was stern and unbending-that offers of high position, and glittering bribes from British emissaries could not lure him from the path of rectitude-and so con- spicuous became his sound judgment and untiring in- dustry, that in 1779 he was appointed President of Congress, at that time the highest office in the country. This appointment was to fill the vacancy occasioned by the sending of John Jay as Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty of amity and commerce with that nation. He held that office until his health became so enfeebled that he could not discharge its arduous duties without en- dangering his life, and he was finally compelled to send in his resignation, which Congress very reluct- antly consented to accept.
After his resignation he returned to Connecticut, where he resumed the responsibilities incident to the offices he held in the Council and on the bench, both of which had been continued while he was in Con- gress. In 1783 he again took his seat in Congress, but left, it again in November of the same year, and retired to his family. We find it recorded in his biography, "that soon after his return, he was ap- pointed Chief Justice of the Superior Court of his State. In 1775 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor, and was promoted to the Chief Magistracy in 1786, which office he held until his death, which occurred at Norwich, on the fifth day of January, 1796, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. Governor Huntington lived the life of the irreproachable and sincere Chris- tian, and those who knew him most intimately, loved
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him the most affectionately. He was a thoughtful man, and talked but little-the expression of his mind and heart was put forth in his actions. He seemed to have a natural timidity, or modesty, which some mis- took for the reserve of haughtiness, yet with those with whom he was familiar, he was free and winning in his manners. Investigation was a prominent cha- racteristic of his mind, and when this faculty led him to a conclusion, it was difficult to turn him from the path of his determination. Hence as a devoted Chris- tian and a true patriot, he never swerved from duty, or looked back after he had placed his hand to the work."
The cultivation of such a decisive faculty is worthy of emulation by our rising young men, for it is the strong arm that will lead them safely through many difficulties, and win for them that sentiment of reliance in the minds of others, which is so essential in securing their esteem and confidence. It was this very neces- sary and predominant faculty which constituted the chief aid to William Huntington in his progress from the humble calling of a plow-boy to the acme of official station, where true greatness was essential, and to which none but the truly good may aspire. In all his dealings with his fellow-men, whether in a social or political capacity, he never allowed partisan feel- ings to overbalance his judgment, or lead him into the support of measures at variance with true republican principles, or the demands of moral duty. In,this re- spect he was a model of greatness, and will, therefore, maintain an honorable place in history and in the warm affections of the people, while the stars and stripes of our happy country float majestically over a
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nation of freemen. By the side of Richard Henry Lee and Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, in Old Inde- pendence Hall, his portrait hangs, as fresh and vigorous as when it left the hands of the artist, and in every lineament of its features may still be read that stern decision of purpose which characterized his whole career through life. Although the artist's skill has transferred to canvas an inanimate semblance of that once living patriot, his noble efforts in the cause of Independence would have transmitted his fame to im- mortality, and Independence Hall would forever echo his name.
" How sleep the brave who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blest ! When spring with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallow'd mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than fancy's feet have ever trod. By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is sung, There honor comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; Freedom shall awhile repair, To dwell a weeping hermit there." 16*
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CHAPTER XIX.
OLIVER WOLCOTT.
"His deeds stand brightly on the scroll of fame, No patriot has a more exalted name."
THE name of Wolcott, says Mr. Lossing, appeared among the early settlers of Connecticut, and from that day to this, it has been distinguished for living scions, honored for their talents in legislation or literature. It appears, however, that his English ancestor, Henry Wolcott, first settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, after his arrival in 1630. Six years afterward, he, with a few associates, moved to Windsor, in Con- necticut, and formed a settlement there. He was among the first who organized the government of that State, and obtained a charter from King Charles II. But the subject of this brief memoir was born in the town of Windsor, on the 26th of November, 1726. His father was a distinguished man, having been Major-General, Judge, Lieutenant-Governor, and finally Governor of the State of Connecticut. Oliver Wolcott entered Yale College at the age of seventeen years, and graduated with the usual honors in 1747. He received a captain's commission in the army, and raising a company immediately, he marched to the northern frontier to confront the French and Indians. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle terminated the hostili-
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ties, and he returned home. He arose regularly from Captain to Major-General. Young Wolcott now turned his attention to the study of medicine, under his distinguished uncle, Dr. Alexander Wolcott; but when he had just completed his studies, he was ap- pointed Sheriff of the newly organized county of Litchfield. In 1774 he was elected a member of the Council of his native State, and he was annually re- elected until 1786, notwithstanding he was during that time a Delegate to the Continental Congress, Chief Justice of Litchfield County, and also a Judge of Pro- bate of that District. Mr. Wolcott was appointed by the first General Congress one of the Commissioners of Indian affairs for the Northern Department; and he performed excellent service to the American cause by his influence in bringing about an amicable adjustment of the controversy between Connecticut and Penn- sylvania concerning the Wyoming settlement, a con- troversy at one time threatening serious effects upon the confederacy.
Toward the close of 1775, Mr. Wolcott was elected a delegate. to the second General Congress, and took his seat in January, 1776. He took a prominent part in the debates respecting the Independence of the Colonies, and voted for, and signed that glorious Declaration of American disenthralment. Soon after this act was consummated, he returned home, and was immediately appointed by Governor Trumbull and the Council of Safety to the command of a detach- ment of Connecticut militia, consisting of fourteen regiments, destined for the defense of New York. After the battle of Long Island, he returned to Con- necticut, and in November of that year he resumed
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his seat in Congress, and was in that body when they fled to Baltimore on the approach of the British toward Philadelphia, at the close of the year 1776. During the latter part of the summer of that year, he was actively engaged in the recruiting service; and after sending General Putnam, who was then on the Hud- son River, several thousand volunteers, he took com- mand of a body of recruits, and joined General Gates at Saratoga. He aided in the capture of General Bur- goyne and his army in October, 1777, and soon after- ward he again took a seat in Congress, then assembled at York, in Pennsylvania, where he continued until July, 1778. It will be remembered that, during the Revolution, Congress held its sessions in Philadelphia, but on several occasions was obliged to retreat to a more secure position. At the close of 1776 it ad- journed to Baltimore, when it was expected Corn- wallis would attack Philadelphia, after his successful pursuit of Washington across New Jersey. Again, when Howe marched upon Philadelphia in September, 1777, Congress adjourned to Lancaster, and three days afterward to York, where its sessions were held during the winter the American army were encamped at Valley Forge. In the summer of 1779, Oliver Wol- cott took command of a division of Connecticut mili- tia, and undertook, with success, the defense of the southwestern sea-coast of that State, then invaded by a British army. The British force was led by Gen- eral Tryon, of New York, and was characterized as a plundering and desolating expedition. Fairfield and Norwalk were laid in ashes, and the most cruel atrocities were inflicted upon the inhabitants, without regard to sex or condition. Houses were rifled, the
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persons of the females abused, and many of them fled half naked to the woods and swamps in the vicinity of their desolated homes.
From that time until 1783, Oliver Wolcott was al- ternately engaged in civil and military duties in his native State, and occasionally held a seat in Congress. In 1784 and 1785 he was an active Indian agent, and was one of the six commissioners who prescribed terms of peace to the "Six Nations of Indians," who inhabited Western New York. History informs us that the five Indian Tribes, the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, had formed a confederation long before they were dis- covered by the whites. It is not known when this confederation was first formed, but when the New England settlers penetrated westward, they found this powerful confederacy strongly united, and at war with nearly all of the surrounding tribes. The Onondagas seemed to be the chief nation of the confederacy, for with them the great council fire was specially de- posited, and it was kept always burning. Their un- disputed domain included nearly the whole of the present area of the State of New York. They sub- dued the Hurons and Algonquins in 1657, and in 1665, they almost annihilated the Eries. In 1672 they destroyed the Andastes, and in 1701 they pene- trated as far south as the Cape Fear River, spreading terror and desolation in their path. They warred with the Cherokees, and almost exterminated the Catawbas, and when in 1674, they ceded some of their lands to Virginia, they reserved the privilege of a war path through the ceded domain. In 1714 they were joined by the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, and
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since that time the confederacy has been known as the Six Nations. They uniformly took sides with the British, and entered into a compact with them against the French in 1754. In the war of the Revolution, " the whole confederacy," says De Witt Clinton, "ex- cept a little more than half the Oneidas, took up arms against us. They hung like the scythe of death upon the rear of our settlements, and their deeds are in- scribed with the scalping-knife and the tomahawk, in characters of blood, on the fields of Wyoming, and Cherry Valley, and on the banks of the Mohawk."
In 1786 General Wolcott was elected Lieutenant- Governor of Connecticut, and was re-elected every year until 1796, when he was chosen Governor of the State. He was elected again to that office in 1797, and held the station at the time of his death, which event occurred on the first day of December of that year, in the seventy-second year of his age. As a patriot and a statesman, a Christian and a man, Gov- ernor Wolcott presented a bright example; for in- flexibility, virtue, piety, and integrity, were his promi- nent characteristics. In every respect, he was a man of exemplary conduct, worthy of our esteem and emulation.
He lived a hero in the cause of right, Humble in peace-unyielding in the fight ! . He spurned the tyrant's proffered bribes of gold, And died as he had lived-unbought, unsold.
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CHAPTER XX.
ROBERT TREAT PAINE.
Where Freedom stood on Plymouth Rock There stood this Patriot too.
BOSTON is distinguished as being the city in which many valorous acts of patriotism and loyalty to the cause of Independence were performed, and where stern resistance to encroachments of European aggres- sions was made. But, perhaps, for no one incident is it more celebrated than for being the birth-place of so warm and uncompromising a patriot as the one whose name stands at the head of this memoir. In this cir- cumstance alone it has acquired a reputation favorable throughout the country as it is over the Common- wealth in which it is situated, and which will remain a bright spot in its history so long as she respects the name of Liberty and the Constitution which binds the Union together. Robert Treat Paine was born in 1731. His father was a minister of the Gospel, and an active officiating clergyman, and his mother was daughter of the Rev. Mr. Treat, of Barnstable County. Governor Treat, of Connecticut, was his maternal grandfather. It will, therefore, be readily seen, that his connections on both sides, were of the most pious and religious character, and in those days of puri- tanical discipline, must have exerted a salutary effect
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