[189a]. Not only the astronomical calculations of this once well-known and highly esteemed Ephemeris, but its poetry also, (which is said to have possessed a considerable share of merit,) were the productions of Jacob Taylor, Esq. an old English gentleman, who, for some time, executed the office of Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania. Franklin was the printer and publisher of this Ephemeris: but many of the productions of his pen, which appeared in it, and, among the rest, his “Way to Wealth,” contributed towards rendering it a very popular publication, of its kind. Franklin commenced the publication of “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” in the year 1732, when he was but twenty-six years of age.
[190]. “At no period of the war,” says chief-justice Marshall the historian, “had the American army been reduced to a situation of greater peril, than during the winter at Valley-Forge.” “More than once they were absolutely without food. Even while their condition was less desperate in this respect, their stock of provisions was so scanty, that there was seldom at any time in the stores a quantity sufficient for the use of the troops for one week. Consequently, had the enemy moved out in force, the American army could not have continued in camp. The want of provisions would have forced them out of it; and their deplorable condition with respect to clothes, disabled them from keeping the field in the winter. The returns of the first of February (1778) exhibit the astonishing number of three thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine men in camp unfit for duty, for want of clothes. Of this number, scarcely a man had a pair of shoes. Even among those returned capable of doing duty, very many were so badly clad, that exposure to the colds of the season must have destroyed them. Although the total of the army exceeded seventeen thousand men, the present effective rank and file amounted to only five thousand and twelve. The returns throughout the winter do not essentially vary from that which has just been particularly stated.”
Such was the miserable condition of the American army, at the date of the above returns! It was, indeed, sufficiently desperate in appearance, to have appalled the stoutest heart; and it required the magnanimity, as well as the virtue of a Washington, to conquer such difficulties and rise superior to them.
[191]. This sister of Mrs. Rittenhouse was the widow of Colonel Caleb Parry, a gallant officer in the American service, who was killed at the battle of Long-Island in July, 1776.
[192]. John Jacobs, Esq.—This gentleman was a brother of Mrs. Rittenhouse.
[193]. Israel Jacobs, Esq.—Another brother of Mrs. Rittenhouse.
[194]. This eclipse, which happened on the 24th day of June, 1778, was observed in Philadelphia, by Dr. Rittenhouse, the Rev. Dr. W. Smith, John Lukens, Esq. and Mr. Owen Biddle, at the College in that city. The result of the joint observations made by those gentlemen on that occasion, as drawn up by Dr. Smith, but never before published, will be found in the Appendix. W. B.
[195]. To this lady, who is yet living, Mr. Barton was married in the year 1776. She remains his widow, and enjoys the very affectionate respect of Mr. Barton’s descendants and relatives, to which her great worth and many virtues justly entitle her.
[196]. Colonel Samuel J. Atlee, formerly a parishioner of the Rev. Mr. Barton, had written two letters to him, to inform him of his son’s arrival. The second of these only had got to hand, and was acknowledged at the same time as Mr. Rittenhouse’s. Col. Atlee, who was a steady friend of Mr. Barton’s family, was a valuable officer in the American army, in the earlier period of the war; and afterwards served as a delegate in congress, for the state of Pennsylvania.
The difficulty of Mr. Barton’s returning to Pennsylvania, and which he alludes to, in his letter to Mr. Rittenhouse, arose from the terms of his passport to New-York, from the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania: it permits him to go to New-York, “not to return.” A letter which Mr. Barton wrote to John De Hart, Esq. of Elizabeth-Town in New-Jersey, on the 30th of January, 1779, will sufficiently explain the conscientious scruples which actuated the writer’s conduct; and they were such as, it is presumed, will have weight, when dispassionately and liberally considered.