It was painted by Charles Wilson Peale, and occupies the identical frame in which hung the king's portrait. The annexed sketch is an outline of this interesting picture. In the back-ground is seen Nassau Hall, and in the middle and fore-ground a sketch of the battle of Princeton, in which the death of Mercer is represented.
The portrait of Mercer there given was painted from his brother, who sat for it, and who greatly resembled him. It was considered a good likeness by those who knew the general. The portrait given below I copied from Peale's picture, in which I have preserved the languid expression of a wounded man, as given him by the artist. On the left is seen a portion of the skirt of Washington's coat, and his chapeau. Many pleasing memories crowd upon the mind of the visitor to this aneient seat of learning, where so large a number of the active young men of the Revolution who lived in the Middle States were educated.
Under the guidance of the learned and patriotic Dr. Witherspoon, who in the pulpit, academic hall, or legislative forum, was the champion of good, it was the nursery of patriots. He was a lineal descendant of John Knox, the great English reformer, and, like that bold ancestor, he never shrunk from the post of danger, if called to it by duty. Like Yale under Daggett, and Harvard under Langdon, the College of New Jersey, under Witherspoon, made its influence felt in the council and the field during the war for independence.