By these instructions, directly from the people, we can judge of the feeling that pervaded the great mass of the yeomanry at that time; and by referring to the instructions given to the delegates appointed by the assembly of the province to Congress, it will be seen that royal influence still pervaded that body, as they contain scarcely a definite feature or point similar to those from the primary convention of the people.[E]
[E] See them at large in the biography of George Ross.
So fully convinced was Mr. Smith of the issue between the colonies and mother Britain, that on his return home he immediately raised a company of volunteers, and was elected its captain by acclamation. This was the pioneer company of Pennsylvania, raised for the purpose of resisting tyranny. This company was organized about nine months before the bloody affair at Lexington; showing deep penetration and sagacious foresight in its original. He introduced thorough discipline in the corps, and imparted to its members the same holy fire of patriotism that was illuminating his own soul. Around this military nucleus accumulating force continued to increase, until it formed a regiment. Mr. Smith accepted the honorary title of its colonel, but imposed the actual commanding duties upon a younger man. He had given a momentum to the ball, and was gratified to see it rolling onward towards the temple of liberty with an increased impetus.
Mr. Smith was a member of the next convention that convened in January, 1775, at Philadelphia. He was among the foremost to oppose force to force, and peril life for freedom. He was then called an ultra whig, and considered as treating the government of his majesty with disrespect. His patriotism had carried him six months in advance of most of the leading men, and no one could outstrip him in zeal for the cause of equal rights. His course was onward—right onward to action. For this the time soon arrived. During the year 1775 he took a conspicuous part in public measures, and in the spring of the ensuing year was appointed upon a committee, with Dr. Rush and Colonel Bayard, to organize a camp of four thousand five hundred troops, to be raised in Pennsylvania. No man was better calculated to render efficient aid in this important business. The committee immediately prepared, and, under the sanction of Congress, published an address to the volunteer and yeomen military of Pennsylvania, urging them to rally under the standard of liberty. In order that the reader may have a sample of every kind of proceeding and address that characterized the revolution that gave to us freedom, I insert an extract from this.
“We need not remind you that you are now furnished with new motives to animate and support your courage. You are not about to contend against the power of Great Britain in order to displace one set of villains to make room for another. Your arms will not be enervated in the day of battle with the reflection that you are to risk your lives or shed your blood for a British tyrant, or that your posterity will have your work to do over again. You are about to contend for permanent freedom, to be supported by a government which will be derived from yourselves, and which will have for its object, not the emolument of one man or class of men only, but the safety, liberty and happiness of every individual in the community. We call upon you, therefore, by the respect and obedience which are due to the authority of the UNITED COLONIES, to concur in this important measure. The present campaign will probably decide the fate of America. It is now in your power to immortalize your names by mingling your achievements with the events of the year 1776—a year which, we hope, will be famed in the annals of history to the end of time, for establishing, on a lasting foundation, the liberties of one quarter of the globe. Remember the honour of our colony is at stake. Should you desert the common cause at the present juncture, the glory you have acquired by your former exertions of strength and virtue will be tarnished; and our friends and brethren, who are now acquiring laurels in the most remote parts of America, will reproach us, and blush to own themselves natives or inhabitants of Pennsylvania. But there are other motives before you. Your houses, your fields, the legacies of your ancestors, or the dear bought fruits of your own industry and your liberty, now urge you to the field. These cannot plead with you in vain, or we might point out to you further—your wives, your children, your aged fathers and mothers, who now look up to you for aid, and hope for salvation in this day of calamity only from the instrumentality of your swords.”
This appeal had a most powerful and salutary effect, and met with a response from the people that drove the royal power from Pennsylvania like chaff before the wind. Simultaneous with the preparation of the declaration of independence in Congress, delegates were elected to raise the arch of a republican constitution and government over the keystone state. The members of the convention for this purpose convened on the 15th of July, and in the declaration of rights just promulged from Congress Hall, had a polar star to guide them—a master piece for a pattern to direct them.
In this convention Mr. Smith took his seat, and was immediately placed upon the committee appointed to prepare a declaration of rights. His ultraism had become an admired quality, and assumed the baptismal name of patriotism. His worth and zeal were now duly appreciated, and he became one of the most influential men in his state. On the 20th of July he was called to higher duties than those of the convention, by his appointment to the Continental Congress. This was as unexpected to him as it was pleasing to his friends. He immediately enrolled his name with the apostles of liberty upon the chart of freemen. Anxious to see the foundations of the new government firmly laid in Pennsylvania, he continued his services in the convention until the constitution assumed a visible form. He was one of the committee that remodelled the penal code. He was as humane in his feelings as he was ardent in the cause of his country. Justice and mercy were blended in his heart.
Early in October he assumed fully his congressional duties. The first part of the instructions to the delegation of the keystone state is worthy of particular notice; and if general obedience could be enforced, would be quite apropos at the present day. It is as follows:
“The immense and irreparable injury which a free country may sustain by, and the great inconveniences which always arise from a delay of its councils, induce us, in the first place, strictly to enjoin and require you to give not only a constant, but a punctual attendance in Congress.”
At the commencement of our free government, the will of the people was respected and obeyed. Their public servants were not then their political masters. Committee rooms were not then diverted from their proper use by partisan caucuses. The halls of legislation were not then the forum of personal recrimination and unparliamentary procedure. The mantle of infantile purity was then spread over those in high stations. Pro bono publico was the order of the day—pro libertate patriæ was the motto of each freeman.