Transcriber’s Note: Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
A BIOGRAPHY
OF THE
SIGNERS
OF THE
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,
AND OF
WASHINGTON AND PATRICK HENRY.
WITH
AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING THE
Constitution of the United States
AND OTHER DOCUMENTS.
BY L. CARROLL JUDSON,
A MEMBER OF THE PHILADELPHIA BAR.
“The proper study of mankind is man.”
PHILADELPHIA:
J. DOBSON, AND THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & CO.
1839.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, A. D. 1839, by Timothy Caldwell, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
E. G. DORSEY, PRINTER,
LIBRARY STREET.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE. | |
| Declaration of Independence, | [9] |
| Thomas Jefferson, | [13] |
| John Hancock, | [25] |
| Benjamin Franklin, | [30] |
| Roger Sherman, | [38] |
| Edward Rutledge, | [45] |
| Thomas M’Kean, | [49] |
| Philip Livingston, | [55] |
| George Wythe, | [58] |
| Abraham Clark, | [61] |
| Francis Lewis, | [64] |
| Richard Stockton, | [66] |
| Samuel Adams, | [70] |
| Dr. Benjamin Rush, | [78] |
| Oliver Wolcott, | [83] |
| George Read, | [85] |
| Thomas Heyward, | [88] |
| Robert Morris, | [92] |
| John Witherspoon, | [97] |
| Thomas Lynch, Jr. | [102] |
| Matthew Thornton, | [105] |
| William Floyd, | [108] |
| William Whipple, | [112] |
| Francis Hopkinson, Esq. | [115] |
| Josiah Bartlett, | [117] |
| Arthur Middleton, | [122] |
| James Wilson, | [126] |
| Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, | [132] |
| William Williams, | [136] |
| Samuel Huntington, | [139] |
| George Walton, | [142] |
| George Clymer, | [146] |
| Carter Braxton, | [152] |
| John Morton, | [155] |
| Richard Henry Lee, | [158] |
| Stephen Hopkins, | [164] |
| Robert Treat Paine, | [170] |
| George Taylor, | [174] |
| Francis Lightfoot Lee, | [177] |
| Thomas Stone, | [181] |
| Lewis Morris, | [184] |
| John Hart, | [188] |
| Button Gwinnett, | [191] |
| William Ellery, | [195] |
| Lyman Hall, | [200] |
| John Penn, | [203] |
| Elbridge Gerry, | [208] |
| William Paca, | [215] |
| George Ross, | [219] |
| Benjamin Harrison, | [223] |
| Cæsar Rodney, | [230] |
| Samuel Chase, | [236] |
| William Hooper, | [248] |
| Thomas Nelson, | [253] |
| James Smith, | [260] |
| Joseph Hewes, | [267] |
| John Adams, | [273] |
| George Washington, | [292] |
| Patrick Henry, | [303] |
| Appendix: | |
| Washington’s Farewell Address to the People of the United States, | [313] |
| A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North America, setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms, | [325] |
| Articles of Confederation, | [330] |
| Constitution of the United States, | [337] |
| Amendments to the Constitution, | [348] |
| The Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, | [350] |
ADVERTISEMENT.
The proprietor of this book, now verging on four score years, presents it to the public with an anxious hope that it will be instrumental in doing much good. To place within the reach of all classes of persons who desire it, the history of the venerable sages who wisely conceived, nobly planned and boldly achieved the independence of these United States, is believed to be a matter of great importance, especially to the rising generation.
Of those who signed the Declaration penned by Jefferson—the Articles of Confederation adopted by the Continental Congress, and the Federal Constitution—not one survives to aid in directing the destinies of our country. Like leaves in autumn they have descended to the earth—the winter of death has shut them from this world for ever. But they have left their bright examples, their shining lights, their luminous beacons, to guide their successors in the path of duty and of safety.
Having had the pleasure of seeing all the signers of the declaration before they made their last bow and retired from the stage of action, and having had the satisfaction of a personal acquaintance with many of them, the proprietor has long felt a strong desire to have the history of the prominent traits of their lives and characters reduced to a single portable and cheap volume, that should not be an onerous tax upon the purse or the memory. Such a volume is now presented to the American public, carefully and impartially prepared—plain in style, simple in arrangement and republican in its features.
If all obey the precepts suggested, and imitate the examples delineated upon the following pages, our republic will continue to rise sublimely, until it reaches an eminence of power and grandeur before unknown among the nations of the earth.
That this may be the happy lot of our country, and that our free government may be preserved in its native purity, is the sincere and ardent wish of the proprietor.
TIMOTHY CALDWELL.
Philadelphia, February 22, 1839.
PREFACE.
The present is emphatically an era of books. The march of mind is onward and upward, bold and expanding. The soaring intellect of man, rising on the wings of investigation and experiment, is seizing upon the elements in all their varied forms, threatening to unveil and reduce to subjection the whole arcana of nature. The flood gates of science are opened, and its translucent stream, rushing through the magic channel of the press, is illuminating the world with rays of light, as multiform in their hues as a rainbow. Like that beautiful phenomenon, some of them attract the delighted gaze of many for a brief period, then vanish from view for want of reflectives, or dissolve in thin air for want of stamina—an ominous hint to the present writer.
He, however, has not aimed at brilliancy or high refinement in composition, nor has he attempted to create a literary GEM to induce admiration. He has aimed at brevity in the impartial statement of plain matters of fact, avoiding verbiage and extracting the essence of the history of the sages of ’76. His work is not designed for the diffusive crucible of the critic, or the empirical hauteur of the cynic. To make a useful book has been the ultimatum of his efforts. It has been his constant purpose to incite a love for moral rectitude, a veneration for unsophisticated religion and pure patriotism, and a lively interest in the perpetuity of our union as a free people, by reflecting the precepts and examples of the revolutionary patriots upon the mind of the reader, from the truth-telling mirror of their history. To preserve, in its pristine purity, the liberty they purchased with years of toil, streams of blood and millions of treasure, is a duty imposed upon us by the law of nature, and by the great Jehovah. To imprint this deeply and strongly upon the heart of every reader, the author has interspersed many practical remarks, and, in some instances, compared the past with the present time.
If the amputating knife, the scalpel and the probe have occasionally been used, a sincere desire to do good has prompted their application. To remove the unsound parts of the body politic—should be a desideratum with every freeman. By shrinking from this duty, we jeopardize our elective franchise and court the domination of designing men, who smile that they may betray, and flatter that they may destroy.
The author has laboured to be concise without being obscure, to inform the understanding without burdening the memory. He has introduced many apothegms, intending to improve the mind and mend the heart. The causes that led to the revolution, its interesting progress, its happy termination and the formation of our federal government, are all amply delineated. The character of each of the individuals who signed the declaration, and of the illustrious Washington and the bold Patrick Henry, is fully portrayed. The most prominent acts of their lives are also clearly exhibited. But few of the biographettes are encumbered with documentary extracts, although they will be found sufficiently full for all ordinary purposes.
To write the biography of fifty-eight individuals, all engaged in the accomplishment of a single object, although that object may be shrouded in refulgent glory—and preserve an interesting variety without being prolix or verbose, is a task no one can realize without attempting it—a task that the author does not claim the credit of having performed. To compensate for any want of diversity, the reader will find all the important facts contained in more expensive, ponderous and voluminous works, placed in so small a compass, that they may be referred to with greater facility than in them.
In the order of the names, it seems most appropriate to place the author of the Declaration of Independence first. In some instances, a character of high classic attainments has been placed by the side of one whose literary advantages were extremely limited, that the reader, when admiring the dazzling splendour of the former, may contemplate the equal patriotism and substantial usefulness of the latter. The names of Messrs. Gwinnett and Ellery, are placed by the side of each other because of the contrast in their demise.
The Appendix is considered an important affixion, and renders the work more full and complete. The Farewell Address of Washington is one of the happiest productions ever penned by mortal man. It should be read often, not only by the young, but by all—the rich and the poor—the public officer and the private citizen. It should be rehearsed in every school and declaimed in every lyceum.
The Constitution of the United States should also be better known; it should be familiar to every farmer and mechanic, that it may be better understood and more faithfully adhered to.
Finally, to carry the reader back to first principles, and point plainly and clearly to the land marks of ’76, as fixed by the signers of the declaration of our independence, and to rouse the patriot to a just sense of our blood-bought privileges and the necessity of preserving them pure and undefiled, has been the constant aim of the author.
If his humble, but honest and earnest efforts shall prove instrumental in adding one inch of time—one happy hour to our political existence, or in strengthening one single link of the golden chain of the glorious Union of these United States, he will deem the months of severe labour devoted to the preparation of this work—AS TIME WELL SPENT.
L. CARROLL JUDSON.
Philadelphia, February 22, 1839.
Declaration of Independence,
BY THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED,
July 4, MDCCLXXVI.
“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 of nature’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 inalienable rights; that amongst 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 governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, 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 present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
“He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
“He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent 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, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into 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 meantime, 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 for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations 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 judiciary 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, without 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:
“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 enlarging 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 begun, 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 endeavoured 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 answered 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 interrupt our connexions and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce 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 America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, Do, in the name, and by 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 absolved 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.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Josiah Bartlett,
William Whipple,
Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS.
Samuel Adams,
John Adams,
Robert Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE ISLAND.
Stephen Hopkins,
William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT.
Roger Sherman,
Samuel Huntingdon,
William Williams,
Oliver Wolcott.
NEW YORK.
William Floyd,
Philip Livingston,
Francis Lewis,
Lewis Morris.
NEW JERSEY.
Richard Stockton,
John Witherspoon,
Francis Hopkinson,
John Hart,
Abraham Clark.
PENNSYLVANIA
Robert Morris,
Benjamin Rush,
Benjamin Franklin,
John Morton,
George Clymer,
James Smith,
George Taylor,
James Wilson,
George Ross.
DELAWARE.
Cæsar Rodney,
George Read,
Thomas M’Kean.
MARYLAND.
Samuel Chase,
Thomas Stone,
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA.
George Wythe,
Richard Henry Lee,
Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Harrison,
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.
NORTH CAROLINA.
William Hooper,
Joseph Hewes,
John Penn.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Edward Rutledge,
Thomas Heywood, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton.
GEORGIA.
Button Gwinnett,
Lyman Hall,
George Walton.