uprightness, he that does that, will at least have the approbation of his own conscience, and merit that of the public."... Mr. Wharton was a warm supporter of the principles of the Revolution, and risked his life and fortune in the cause. He owned a country-seat, called Twickenham, situated near Abington Meeting-House, in Montgomery County, where he occasionally resided; and on the lawn, in front of his dwelling, occurred a sharp skirmish between the British and American troops. His funeral was a public one, being conducted by a committee of the State Government, and the carriers and pall-bearers were from among the members of the Assembly and Council, by whom he was greatly respected and loved. He was buried with military honors as commanderin-chief of the forces of the State; and, at the request of the elders and vestry of the Evangelical Trinity Church of Lancaster, his body was interred within the walls of that edifice.

GEORGE BRYAN,

VICE-PRESIDENT AND ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.

BY

May 23 to December 1, 1778.

Y the decease of Thomas Wharton, Jr., the Vice-President, George Bryan became the acting President of the Council. Congress, which had been in session at York during the invasion of the State by the British army, upon its withdrawal returned to Philadelphia, holding its first session there on the 24th of June, 1778. The Council, which had been at Lancaster, also returned, and convened on the following day. Major-General Benedict Arnold, on account of wounds received in the second battle of Saratoga, being unfit for field-duty, was assigned to command in Philadelphia, and marched in with a regiment of veterans on the day succeeding the departure of the British. It is related that "when the American army entered Philadelphia there was a great scarcity of ammunition, and cartridge-paper being particularly wanted, the whole city was ransacked for a supply. At length, in a garret once occupied as a lumber-room by Dr. Franklin, when a printer, a vast collection of waste paper was discovered. Among the mass was more than a cartload of 'Sermons on Defensive War,' preached by the famous Gilbert Tennant during the old British and French war, for the purpose of rousing the Colonists to exertion. These appropriate manifestoes were immediately worked up into musket-cartridges and distributed to the army, which fired them away at the battle of Monmouth against the retiring foe." The city was no sooner clear of the enemy than the loyal inhabitants, who had been exiles for nearly a year,

began rapidly to return. The destruction of property, in many cases purposeless and indiscriminate, was everywhere painfully apparent. Elegant mansions and costly shops had been destroyed piecemeal, and grounds, filled with varieties of shade and shrubbery, had been utterly ruined. "The damage done by the enemy," says Westcott in his history of Philadelphia, "had been as wanton as it was extensive. The royal troops found Philadelphia a cleanly and handsome city; they left it reeking with filth, ruinous, and desolate." Christopher Martial has the following entries in his Remembrancer, on his return from Lancaster, quoted by Westcott: "June 25. Took a walk by myself to our once rural, beautiful place near Barracks, now nothing but a wanton desolation and destruction, that struck me with horror and detestation of the promoters and executors of such horrid deeds. My mind was so pained that I returned into the city. June 26. ... Yet grief seized me on beholding the ruins; houses quite demolished,— of which ours, near the Bettering-House, was quite gone,with the brick walls, chimneys, doors, cases, windows, and roofs either destroyed or carried away entirely."

D'Estang, finding the British fleet inaccessible in Raritan Bay, where it had taken refuge, concerted a plan with Washington for reducing the enemy in Rhode Island. He accordingly sailed thither, accompanied by Generals Lafayette and Greene, with veteran troops; and the militia of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island flocked to the standard of Sullivan, who had for some time been in command of the American forces in that quarter. The British fleet, which had in the meantime been reinforced by some powerful vessels, followed D'Estang. Upon their arrival in the Narragansett, the two fleets prepared for action; but while manoeuvring to open the engagement, they were overtaken by a terrific storm, which disabled many of the French vessels, and prevented further hostile operations. D'Estang took his shattered fleet to Boston for repairs, and subsequently departed for the West Indies, there to operate against the English. The British fleet followed, leaving Sir Henry Clinton without

support, and preventing all active campaigning for the remainder of the season, save in Georgia, whither Colonel Campbell was dispatched with two thousand troops.

On the 1st of December, 1778, the term of one year, for which the President of the Council was chosen, expired, and George Bryan was relieved of the duties of that office by the election of a successor, though he was himself re-elected Vice-President, and continued to hold that office until the 11th of October, 1779, when he resigned.

George Bryan was born in 1731, in Dublin, Ireland. He was the eldest son, and in early life emigrated to America, settling in Philadelphia. He was at first engaged in mercantile pursuits, in which he was unsuccessful. He was early employed in the public service, having been a member of the Colonial Congress which met in New York in 1765, and repeatedly a member of the Assembly under the Proprietary Government. After that was at an end, he served in the Supreme Executive Council for three years, the maximum period in seven permitted by the organic law, as Vice-President, and a part of that time as acting President of the Council. Soon after retiring from this office he was elected a member of the Assembly, where he at once took a leading part. He was a sincere patriot, and, by voice and vote, gave his powerful support to the popular cause. It was at a time when the most vigilant and ceaseless care was requisite to maintain the new Government, both State and National, in their struggle with one of the leading powers of the earth; but his was a nature that could not be exclusively absorbed by the ordinary duties of the hour. His heart was full of sympathy for the weak, the lowly, and the suffering of every class; and while he was active in resisting tyranny from abroad, he was equally interested to remove every vestige of oppression at home. Frequent attempts had been made to put an end to African slavery in the Colony, but none had hitherto been successful. In his message to the Assembly of the 9th of November, 1778, as acting President of the Council, in calling attention to this subject, he said: "This, or some

better scheme, would tend to abrogate slavery, the opprobrium of America, from among us; and no period seems more happy for the attempt than the present, as the number of such unhappy characters, ever few in Pennsylvania, has been much reduced by the practices and plunder of our late invaders. In divesting the State of slaves, you will equally serve the cause of humanity and policy, and offer to God one of the most proper and best returns of gratitude for His great deliverance of us and our posterity from thraldom; you will also set your character for justice and benevolence in the true point of view to all Europe, who are astonished to see a people eager for liberty holding negroes in bondage."

Being now a member of the popular branch of the Government, where it was held that such measures should properly originate, he early matured and brought forward a bill, which, after setting forth in touching terms the wrongfulness of slavery, provided that no child born thereafter in Pennsylvania of slave parents should be a slave, but a servant until the age of twenty-eight years, when all claim for further service should cease; that all slaves should be immediately registered, and unless so registered, should be deemed free; and that slaves should be tried as other persons, and if capitally punished, the master should be paid from the public treasury. "It was passed," says Westcott, "on second reading by a vote of forty yeas to eighteen nays; and, upon third reading, on the 1st of March, 1780, by thirty-four yeas to eighteen nays." Thus by a law, simple in its operations, with little inconvenience to any, was a great act of justice consummated, striking with withering effect at the roots of a great social evil, and securing a perpetual blessing in its farreaching consequences. "There is very little doubt," says the authority above quoted, "but that George Bryan deserves the credit of originating, and finally of urging this humane measure to a successful vote. He was aided by others, but he seemed to make the passage of the law his especial care."

In 1780, he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, which office he held for eleven years, and until