Mr. Stone was cut off in the prime of life, in the midst of a brilliant career of usefulness with the prospect of future honors opening brightly before him. He lived long enough to be extensively useful and earned a rich fame—imperishable as the pages of history—lasting as human intelligence. From the moment he first took his place in society to the present—the tongue of slander or the breath of detraction have never attempted to cast a slur upon his reputation as a public man or private citizen. He was a rare model of discretion, propriety and usefulness—a true specimen of the Simon pure salt of the body politic, rendering efficient services to his country without noise or parade and without the towering talents of a Henry. Such men are above all price and can be relied upon in the hour of danger as safe sentinels to guard the best interests of our nation. We have more of the same sort who are living in retirement. Let the people break them in and bring them out that our UNION may be preserved.
GEORGE TAYLOR.
A purely republican government is enrapturing in theory. To reduce this beautiful theory to successful operation the body politic must be sound and healthful in all its parts. It must be wielded by enlightened rulers whose hearts are free from guile, whose judgments are strong and matured, whose characters are without reproach, whose conduct is always consistent, whose patriotism extinguishes all self, whose virtue lifts them above all temptation to digress from the most exalted honesty and rigid morality, whose minds are stored with useful knowledge—large experience and whose souls are imbued with wisdom from above.
In such a condition and in such hands this kind of government is calculated to bring out and elevate the intellectual powers of man, unfold to the mind correct and liberal principles, promote social order and general happiness by diffusing its radiant light, its refulgent rays, its benign influence to the remotest bounds of the human family. In such a condition and in such hands it would become the solar fountain of mental improvement, the polar star of soaring genius, the brilliant galaxy of expanding science, the prolific field of religious enterprise, a shining light to benighted man. Its sunbeams of living light would warm into mellow life the ignorant, the oppressed, the forlorn. Its harmonious links would form a golden chain that would encircle earth and reach to heaven. It would be a messenger of peace inviting the weary pilgrims of bondage in every clime to a reposing asylum of peaceful, quiescent rest. This is the kind of government the Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution aimed to form and have perpetuated by posterity.
Among those who laid the foundation and commenced the superstructure of our growing Republic was George Taylor, born in Ireland in 1716. His father was a clergyman and gave him a good education. He then placed him with a physician under whose direction he commenced the study of medicine. Not fancying the idea of becoming a son of Æsculapius he flew the course and without money or the knowledge of his friends entered as a redemptioner on board a vessel bound for Philadelphia. Soon after his arrival his passage was paid by Mr. Savage of Durham, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for which George bound himself as a common laborer for a term of years. This gentleman carried on iron works and appointed his new servant to the office of filler—his work being to throw coal into the furnace when in blast. His hands became cruelly blistered but being ambitious to gain the approbation of all around him he persevered without a complaint. Learning his situation his humane master entered into a conversation with him and was surprised to find him possessed of a good education and superior talents. He immediately promoted him to a clerkship in the counting house. He filled his station admirably and gained the esteem and friendship of all his new acquaintances. He endeavored to improve by everything he saw, heard and read. His reflecting and reasoning powers became rapidly developed. He made himself acquainted with the formula of business, the customs and laws of his adopted country and reduced to practice the theories he had acquired at school. To add to his importance in society Mr. Savage was removed by death and after the usual season of mourning had passed, the widow Savage became Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Taylor came in possession of a large property and a valuable and influential wife. By persevering industry and good management he continued to add to the estate and in a few years purchased a tract of land on the bank of the Lehigh River in Northampton County upon which he built a splendid mansion and iron works, making it his place of residence. Not being prospered there he removed back to Durham. During his residence in Northampton County he became extensively and favorably known.
In 1764 he was elected to the provincial Assembly and took a prominent part in its deliberations. He was endowed with a strong mind, clear perception and sound judgment. He had not been an idle spectator or careless observer of passing events or of subjects discussed. He had examined the principles upon which various governments were predicated and became enraptured with the republican system. He had closely observed the increasing advances of British oppression. He had not imported a large share of love for the mother country. He was too patriotic to tamely submit to the English yoke. So fully had he gained the confidence of his fellow citizens that he was placed upon the important committee of grievances. He took a bold stand against the corruptions of the proprietary government and strongly advocated an alteration of the charter that peculation might be diminished and abuses corrected.
The ensuing year he was again elected to the Assembly and was one of the committee that prepared instructions for the delegates to Congress that convened in New York in 1765 to adopt measures for the restoration and preservation of colonial rights. This document combined caution and respect with firmness of purpose and deliberation of action. It instructed the delegates to move within the orbit of constitutional and chartered rights and to respectfully but clearly admonish the mother country and her advisers not to travel out of the same circle. Shortly after that the Stamp Act was repealed. Mr. Taylor was on the committee to prepare a congratulatory address to the king on the happy event. So ably did he discharge his public duties that he was uniformly placed upon several of the standing committees of great importance, assigning to him an onerous portion of legislative duties. Upon the committee of grievances, assessment of taxes, judiciary, loans on bills of credit, navigation, to choose a printer of public laws, the name of George Taylor was generally found and often the first. He was a member of the Assembly for six consecutive years. In 1768 he was upon a committee to prepare an address to the governor censuring him for a remissness of duty in not bringing to condign punishment certain offenders who had openly and barbarously murdered several Indians thereby provoking retaliation. It was respectful and manly but keen and cutting as a Damascus blade. It was a lucid exposition of political policy, sound law, equal justice and public duty. In 1775 Mr. Taylor was one of the committee of safety for Pennsylvania, then virtually the organ of government. The awful crisis had arrived when American blood was crying for vengeance. The revolutionary storm had commenced—the mountain waves of British wrath were rolling over the Colonies. Firmness, sound discretion and boldness of action were required. Mr. Taylor possessed and endeavoured to inspire these requisites in others. He was a faithful sentinel in the cause of freedom—not a blazing luminary but a reliable light. Although cautious he was not affected by the temporizing spirit that paralyzed many who desired Liberty but preferred that others should fight for it. He continued to exercise a salutary influence in the Assembly until the summer of 1776 when he became a member of the Continental Congress and sanctioned the principles of freedom he had boldly advocated by his vote for and signature upon the Magna Charta of our Liberty. Although he did not tempt the giddy height of declamation Mr. Taylor knew where and when to speak, what to say and how to vote—the highest qualifications of a legislator.
In the spring of 1777 he retired from public life crowned with the honors of a devoted and ardent patriot, an industrious and useful legislator, an enlightened and valuable citizen, a worthy and honest man. On the 23d of February 1781 he closed his eyes upon terrestrial things, bid a last farewell to earth and its toils and bowed submissively to the king of terrors. He died at Easton, Pennsylvania, where he had but recently removed.
From this brief sketch of Mr. Taylor the reader may learn that without the luminous talents of a Lee, the towering intellect of a Jefferson or the profound researches of a Franklin, a man can be substantially useful and render important services to his country and the world. In the grand machinery of human society there is a place for every individual to occupy. Let all fulfil the design of their creation and exert their best energies to preserve our blood-bought Liberty and perpetuate our glorious UNION until time shall be merged in eternity.