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 16
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my only son ; and not only deserted, but to find him taking up arms against me in a cause wherein my good fame, fortune, and life were all at stake." In his will, also, he alludes to the part his son had acted. After making some bequests, he adds : " The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of." The patriotism of the father stands forth all the brighter when contrasted with the desertion of his son.
* Tes Phuseos grammateus en, ton calamon apobreron eis noun .- He was the writer, or interpreter of Nature, dipping his pen into the MIND.
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it meets with a knave to stop its progress. This is a trick of mine to do a great deal of good with a little money. I am not rich enough to spend much in good works, and am obliged to be cunning, and make the most of a little."
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
FRANCIS HOPKINSON.
" Stimulas dedit æemula virtus." He was spurred on by rival valor.
THE Declaration of Independence is rendered im- mortal by many strong and endearing associations, not only from the intensity of patriotism that brought it into existence, but from the signatures of the great men attached to it at a time when it was jeopardizing the lives of those who performed so bold an act of political duty. Among the names of those heroes is that of Francis Hopkinson. His parents were English residents of Philadelphia, his mother being a daughter of the Bishop of Worcester. Both she and her hus- band were highly educated and accomplished, and moved in the politest circles. Francis was born in Philadelphia in the year 1737, and, as a matter of consequence, was blessed with every advantage which social position could give him in his early life. At the age of fourteen, however, he met with a very sad bereavement in the loss of his father, by which the entire care of a large family of children was thrown upon his mother, whose income was quite small, and incapable of supplying her with means sufficient to give to her children those advantages of education which she, in her paternal anxiety, desired. She man-
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aged, notwithstanding, with great prudence and pa- tience, to impart a primary education to Francis, and prepared him to enter the College of Philadelphia. While in that institution he exhibited a strong in- clination to become a lawyer, which profession he adopted, and commenced the study of, soon after- ward, and was admitted to practice in 1765. He be- came proficient in the general principles and applica- tion of law; but in the same year he paid a visit to his friends in England, under the impression that, by coming in contact with the eminent professors of law there, his mind would become materially improved. On his return in 1768 he married Miss Ann Borden, of Bordentown, New Jersey." His superior knowl- edge of law, his versatility, his -literary and humorous turn of mind,t soon became the subjects of favorable comment, and the ministers of the Crown bestowed upon him a lucrative office in New Jersey. He held this appointment until the minions of British power became exasperated at the boldness with which he advocated the cause of the Colonies and republican sentiments, when he was superseded by the appoint-
* Many descendants of the same family reside at that place still, and the name is highly esteemed in the State. Some of the family occupy prominent public positions.
t Mr. Hopkins was gifted with vigorous poetical powers, which, although not classic and precise, were possessed of ad- mirable humor, and made him very popular. Most of his effu- sions delineated local scenes and events at the time of their occurrence. Among the most admired of these humorous epics was his "BATTLE OF THE KEGS." Various other poems of his were received with much enthusiasm, because they hit forcibly at well-known men and circumstances.
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ment of another incumbent. But his popularity was constantly increasing among the people, and they elected him to the General Congress from New Jersey in 1776. In that body, the most important convoca- tion that ever met, he supported with his voice, and by his vote, the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, and boldly attached his signature to it. This he did under a full sense of the duty he owed to himself, his con- stituency, and his country. For a number of years he held the office of Loan Commissioner. He was Judge of Admiralty for Pennsylvania, having suc- ceeded George Ross, and held that office until 1790, when President Washington appointed him District Judge of the same State. He was a quiet, unobtru- sive, and modest man, and yet a genius of no ordinary character. He was an ardent patriot, and keenly alive to the stirring events of the times, but apparently shunned participation in debate. He was father of the late Judge Joseph Hopkinson, an eminent lawyer, politician, and writer. Francis Hopkinson died on the 9th of May, 1791, in the fifty-third year of his age, leaving a wife with five children, and a community of friends to mourn his loss.
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CHAPTER XXIX.
CHARLES CARROLL, OF CARROLLTON.
A vigorous arm of patriotic sense, He lifted up in Liberty's defense.
THE ancestors of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton,* were of Irish descent. At an early period in the set- tlement of Maryland, and during the governorship of Lord Baltimore, his grandfather, Daniel Carroll, emi- grated from Littemourna, in Ireland, to this country, and became possessor of a very large estate. In 1702 he had a son born to him, whom he named Charles, and who was the father of the subject of this biography. Daniel Carroll died when his child was twenty-five years of age, leaving him sole inheritor of his fortune. The subject of this sketch, and the patriot of the Rev- olution, was born on the twentieth of September, 1737. His father, being Roman Catholic in his faith, entered him as a student in the Jesuit College of St. Omer, when he was only eight years of age, where he re- mained until he was fourteen. Thence he was removed to Rheims, and having spent one year there, he was received into the College of Louis le Grand, from which he graduated two years afterward, when he
* He signed himself "Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, " when he attached his name to the Declaration of Independence, in order to distinguish his signature from "Charles Carroll," that of his cousin.
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commenced at Bourges the study of law. From Bourges he went to Paris, where he resided until 1757, when he visited London with the intention of pursuing his studies. He remained in that city eight years, and then returned to Maryland. With all these advantages he could not fail to become a ripe scholar and gentleman.
After his return to Maryland he became deeply in- terested in the politics of the day, and the passage of the "Stamp Act" gave a more active impetus to his vigorous mind in espousing the cause of the colonists. He saw and felt that the exigencies called for action on the part of stern patriots, and he at once associated himself with Paca, Stone, and Chase, in devising the best plans to advance the interests of the American patriots. This led to a sharp and bitter newspaper war with the governmental officers of the Province, who, finding themselves overcome by the mighty talent against which they had to contend, sought respite behind the royal prerogatives of the Governor. In the controversy, Mr. Carroll won for himself an enviable reputation as a political essayist and writer. He took strong ground against the assumption of the British Government to tax the Colonies without their consent; and in 1772 he met in discussion the Sec- retary of the Colony, who was soon compelled to leave the field ingloriously defeated. The essays which he wrote were signed "The First Citizen," and for a long while the author's name was unknown. The people, however, were so much pleased with their bold and noble defense of their rights, that they in- structed the members of the Assembly to extend,
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through the public prints, a vote of thanks to the unknown author. The moment it was ascertained that Mr. Carroll was the writer, he was cordially thanked by large numbers of influential people, who visited him for that purpose, and he soon arose to uni- versal esteem and popularity. He was looked to as a directing spirit; and so clear and logical were his judgments, that, in every important question, he was appealed to as umpire. As an instance of the confi- dence reposed in him, a little anecdote will illustrate .: " When in 1773-4 the tea excitement was at its height, a Mr. Stewart, of Annapolis, imported a large quan- tity of tea into that town. The people became exas- perated, and threatened to destroy it if landed. The Provincial Legislature was in session at the time, and appointed a committee to superintend the unlading of the obnoxious article. This movement increased the indignation of the people, and Mr. Stewart appealed to Charles Carroll to interpose his influence. He in- formed him that the public mind could not be appeased under the circumstances, and advised him to burn both the tea and the vessel, which advice was followed, and thus an apparent violent exhibition of indignation was averted.""
That a resort to arms in defense of colonial rights was unavoidable, Mr. Carroll distinctly foresaw, and expressed himself accordingly. The activity he ex- hibited in the cause of freedom, secured his appoint- ment as a member of the first Committee of Safety of Maryland: and in 1775 he was elected a member of the Provincial Assembly. Maryland was opposed to extreme measures, and the warm part Mr. Carroll took for independence was the reason he was not sooner
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sent to that body. While the Continental Congress was in session in 1776 he visited that body, in order to see and become acquainted with its members; and while there he was placed upon an important com- mittee to visit Canada, in order to enlist the sympa- thies of that Colony with the other thirteen, and to act conjointly with them in striking for independence.
In this the committee* were unsuccessful; and, on their return, Carroll found that Mr. Lee had intro- duced a resolution in Congress declaring for freedom, when he hastened to Maryland to obtain a removal of the restrictions placed upon her delegates. He suc- ceeded in getting the prohibition annulled, and was immediately elected a member of the Continental Con- gress. Mr. Carroll did not arrive in Philadelphia until the eighth of July, and therefore had no chance to vote on the final passage of the resolution; but he unhesitatingly affixed his signature to the document declaring the "Colonies free and independent States." All through those troublous times Mr. Carroll occupied various public positions, and having passed through them all with honor to himself, at the age of sixty- four years he sought the repose of domestic retire- ment. For many years afterward he was regarded by the people of the country with the greatest veneration ; for, when Adams and Jefferson died, he was the last vestige that remained on earth of that holy brother- hood who stood sponsors at the baptism in blood of our infant Republic. He lived honored and revered by the country with whose existence he was identified
* The other two committee men appointed on that mission were Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Chase.
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until the year 1832, and was the last survivor of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence. He departed this life on the fourteenth of November, 1832, aged ninety six. During the whole of his bright existence he had few equais in all the social relations of life.
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CHAPTER XXX.
JOHN HART-ABRAHAM CLARK-JOHN MORTON- GEORGE CLYMER.
In freedom's cause these Patriots stood, And braved King George's scorn.
JOHN HART was a farmer in New Jersey, and was one of the most uncompromising patriots of the Rev- olution. He was the son of Edward Hart, who was also an industrious farmer. His father was a loyal sub- ject to his king, and in 1759 he raised a company of volunteers which he named the "Jersey Blues," and marched with them to the aid of Wolfe at Quebec. He reached there in time to participate in the battle of the Plains of Abraham, where Wolfe was killed, but the English were victorious. After that battle he returned to his farm and was highly esteemed by his neighbors. It does not appear definitely what year his son was born in, but most likely it was 1714, for most of his contemporaries represent him as about sixty years of age when he was first elected to Congress. Mr. Hart pursued the avocation of his father, and was in quite independent circumstances when the Stamp Act and its train of evils attracted his attention, and aroused his sympathies for his oppressed countrymen in Boston, and elsewhere, where the heel of tyranny was planted. Although living in the secluded agricultural district
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of Hopewell, in Hunterdon County, yet he was fully conversant with the movements of public affairs at home and abroad, and he united with others in electing delegates to the Colonial Congress that convened in New York city, in 1765. From that time till the open- ing scenes of the war, Mr. Hart was active in promot- ing the cause of freedom ; and his fellow-citizens mani- fested their appreciation of his services, by electing him a delegate to the first Continental Congress, in 1774. He was re-elected in 1775; but finding that his estate and family affairs needed his services, he resigned his seat, and for a time retired from public life. He was, however, elected a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, and was Vice-President of that body. The talents of Mr. Hart were considered too valuable to the public, to remain in an inactive state, and in February, 1776, he was again elected a delegate to the General Congress. He was too deeply impressed with the paramount importance of his country's claims, to permit him to refuse the office; and he took his seat again in that body, and voted for and signed the Dec- laration of Independence. Nothing would have seem- ed more inimical to Mr. Hart's private interests than this act, which was the harbinger of open hostilities, for his estate was peculiarly exposed to the fury of the enemy. Nor was that fury withheld when New Jer- sey was invaded by the British and their mercenary allies, the Hessians." The signers of the Declaration
* After the capture of Fort Washington, on York Island, in November, 1776, Lord Cornwallis crossed the Hudson at Dobb's Ferry, with six thousand men, and attacked Fort Lee, opposite. To save themselves, the Americans were obliged to make a hasty retreat, leaving behind them their munitions of war and all their -
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everywhere were marked for vengeance, and when the enemy made their conquering descent upon New Jer- sey, Mr. Hart's estate was among the first to feel the effects of the desolating inroad .* The blight fell, not only upon his fortune, but upon his person, and he did not live to see the sunlight of peace and independence gladden the face of his country. He died in the year 1780, (the gloomiest period of the War of Indepen- dence), full of years and deserved honors.
ABRAHAM CLARK .- The nativity of Mr. Clark was
stores. The garrison joined the main army at Hackensack, which for three weeks fied across the level country of New Jersey. before the pursuing enemy, at the end of which a bare remnant of it was left. The troops, dispirited by late reverses, left in large numbers as fast as their term of enlistment expired, and returned to their homes; and by the last of November the American army numbered scarcely three thousand troops, inde- pendent of a detachment left at White Plains, under General Lee. The country was so level that it afforded no strong posi- tion to fortify ; indeed, so necessarily rapid had been the retreat, that no time was allowed to pause to erect defenses. Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, and smaller places succes- sively fell into the hands of the enemy ; and so hot was the pursuit, that the rear of the Americans was often in sight of the van of the British. On the eighth of December, Washington and his army crossed the Delaware in boats, and Cornwallis arrived at Trenton just in time to see the last boat reach the Pennsylvania shore .- " 1776, or the War of Independence," page 209.
* Mr. Hart's family, having timely warning of the approach of the enemy in pursuit of Washington, fled to a place of safety. His farm was ravaged, his timber destroyed, his cattle and stock butchered for the use of the British army, and he himself hunted like a noxious beast, not daring to remain two nights under the same roof. And it was not until Washington's success at the bat- tle of Trenton, that this dreadful state of himself and family was ended.
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at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, at which place he was born on the fifteenth of February, 1726. He, like Mr. Hart, was a farmer ; and being an only child, he received many advantages which doting parents be- stow upon such offspring. But he was made so much of in his younger days that, to some extent, his educa- tion was neglected. He did not possess by any means a stalwart frame, nor a robust constitution; and the rough labors of agriculture, therefore, were not suita- ble for his health. He, accordingly, turned his atten- tion to law and mathematics. He became proficient in surveying, although not very learned in the law. Yet, for a number of years, he transacted considera- ble legal business in Elizabethtown. He was called the " Poor Man's Counselor." Mr. Clark held sev- eral offices under Royal appointment ; but he sided with the Republican cause, and was placed upon the first Vigilance Committee ever organized in New Jer- sey. He was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776, and there voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence, although he knew it jeopardized his property, his life, and the lives of his family. He remained in that body until 1783, except one term. In 1788 Mr. Clark was again elected to the General Congress. In the interim he was a mem- ber of the State Legislature, and an active politician. He early perceived the defects of the old Confederation, and was one of the delegates elected by New Jersey to the Convention that framed the present Constitution of the United States in 1787. He was, however, pre- vented from attending by ill-health. He was appointed one of the commissioners for settling the accounts of New Jersey with the General Government, and ably
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did he discharge the arduous duty. He was elected a member of the first Congress under the present Fed- eral Government, and continued an active member of that body until near the close of his life. When Con- gress adjourned in June, 1794, Mr. Clark retired from public life; and early in the autumn of that year, he died of inflammation of the brain, (caused by a coup de soleil, or "stroke of the sun,") in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was buried in the church-yard at Rahway, New Jersey. Mr. Clark was a warm parti- san, and his feelings of attachment or repulsion were very strong. He had witnessed so much of the cruelty and oppression of Great Britain, in her war upon the declared freedom of the Colonies, that his feelings of hatred could not be soothed by the treaty of peace, although he patriotically acquiesced in whatever tended to his country's good. He therefore took sides with France when questions concerning her came up in Congress ; and early in 1794 he laid before Congress a resolution for suspending all intercourse with Great Britain until every item of the treaty of peace should be complied with. It was not sanctioned by Con- gress.
JOHN MORTON .- The ancestors of John Morton were of Swedish birth, and came to this country in the beginning of the seventeenth century. He selected a spot on the Delaware River, a short distance from Philadelphia. He was the only child of his father, who died before John was born, which event took place in the year 1724. His mother, who was quite young, afterward married an English gentleman, who" became greatly attached to his infant charge. Being highly educated, and a good practical surveyor, he
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instructed young Morton in mathematics, as well as in all the common branches of a good education. His mind was of unusual strength, and at an early age it exhibited traits of sound maturity. Mr. Morton first accepted official station in 1764, when he was appointed justice of the peace under the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania. He was soon afterward chosen a member of the General Assembly of that Province, and for a number of years was Speaker of the House. So highly were his public services appreciated, that the people were loath to dispense with them. He was a delegate to the "Stamp Act Congress" in 1765; and in 1766 he was made high sheriff of the county in which he resided. He warmly espoused the cause of the patriots, and on that account, when, after the Lexington tragedy, military corps were formed in Pennsylvania, he was offered the command of one This he declined, on account of other engagements, for he then held the office of presiding judge of the Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas, and about the same time he was elevated to the bench of the Su- preme Court of the Province. In 1774 the Assembly of Pennsylvania appointed Mr. Morton a delegate to the General Congress. He was re-elected for 1775 in December of the same year, and he was also elected in 1776 to the same office. His election did not take place until some days after the Declaration of Inde- pendence was adopted, but he had the privilege of signing it in August." He was very active while in
* By virtue of his previous election, Mr. Morton was in his seat on the memorable Fourth of July, 1776. The delegation from Pennsylvania then present were equally divided in opinion upon the subject of independence, and Mr. Morton was called
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Congress, and the committee duties which he per- formed were many and arduous. Among other com- mittees on which he served, he formed one of that which reported the Articles of Confederation for the States, which were adopted, and remained the organic law of the nation until the adoption of the present Constitution in 1787. Mr. Morton did not live to see the blessings of peace and independence descend upon his country. He died in April, 1777, in the fifty- fourth year of his age, leaving a widow and a large family of children. His death was a great public calamity, for men of his genius and patriotism were needed at that time. His career presented another instance of the triumph of virtue and sound principles in rising from obscurity to exalted station.
GEORGE CLYMER .- The subject of this sketch was born in Philadelphia, in the year 1739. His father died when George was only seven years of age, leav- ing him an orphan, as his mother had died previously. George was taken into the family of William Coleman, brother to his mother, where he was treated in every respect as a son. His education in the branches of or- dinary English was carefully guarded, and in a short
upon officially to give a casting vote for that State. Thus was a solemn responsibility thrown upon him-it was for him to de- cide whether there should be a unanimous vote of the Colonies for independence-whether Pennsylvania should form one of the American Union. But he firmly met the responsibility, and voted YES; and from that moment the United Colonies were declared independent States. We have said the delegation from Penu- sylvania were divided. It was thus: Morris and Dickenson were absent, and Franklin and Wilson were in favor of, and Willing and Humphrey were opposed to, the Declaration; and Morton gave the casting vote.
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time he was taken into the counting-room of his uncle, and prepared for a commercial life. Mr. Clymer was not partial to a mercantile business, for he deemed it a pathway beset with many snares for the feet of pure morality, as sudden gains and losses were apt to affect the character of the most stable. For himself he pre- ferred literature and science, and his mind was much occupied with these subjects. At the age of twenty- seven years he married a Miss Meredith, and entered into a mercantile business with his father-in-law, and his son, under the firm of Meredith and Sons. His uncle died about the same time, and left the principal part of his large fortune to Mr. Clymer. Still he con- tinued in business with his father-in-law, until his death; and with his brother-in-law afterward, until 1782. Even before his marriage, when none but old commer- cial grievances were complained of by the Colonies, Mr. Clymer expressed decided republican principles ; and when the Stamp Act aroused the resistance of the American people, he was among the most ardent de- fenders of the republican cause. He was a zealous ac- tor in all the public meetings in Philadelphia; and when, in 1774, military organizations took place pre- paratory to a final resort to arms, which seemed inev- itable, Mr. Clymer accepted the command of a volun- teer corps belonging to General Cadwallader's brigade. When the oppressions which Boston experienced at the bands of British power, after the "Tea Riot,"" aroused
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