Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by WILLIAM C. ARMOR, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. J. FAGAN & SON, PHILADELPHIA. PRINTED BY HENRY B. ASHMEAD. THESE MEMOIRS OF THE Governors of Pennsylvania, IN THE IIOPE THAT AN EMULATION OF THEIR VIRTUES MAY BE INCITED, Are Inscribed BY THE COMPILER TO THE YOUNG MEN OF HIS NATIVE STATE. ili PREFACE. A DEEP interest is universally manifested in the personal history of any citizen who, by talent, enterprise, and virtuous devotion to an honorable calling, and the prompt and willing discharge of civic and social duties, acquires extensive fame. To gratify this feeling, and thereby perform an important duty to all classes, but particularly to the young, has been the aim in the following pages. The material has been collected under many difficulties. Strange as it may appear, biographers and historians have failed to give any adequate notice of the lives of our Governors. This neglect has been deeply felt by the compiler of this volume. His researches have extended over a broad field, and, with the exception of those whose fame is world-wide, only meagre sketches of a few of the Chief Magistrates could be found. What at first was thought would be but the labor of a few months has extended over a period of six years. During this time, wherever lineal descendants of any of the Governors could be traced, they were applied to for information concerning their ancestors; files of old newspapers have been scanned; historical and biographical works gleaned, documents in the archives of the State carefully examined, and, besides the numerous works consulted, many facts have been obtained by conversations with aged citizens. In collecting and writing these biographies, however, in addition to the duty that I felt I was performing in placing in a permanent form much that would have soon passed into oblivion, I have experienced a personal gratification suf |