every thing around us was lowering and terrific. But when the Rubicon was passed, the march of all who were engaged in the conflict, was steady, cheerful, and undaunted."

It was not, however, in military matters alone, that the talents of Mr. Harrison were exercised; the same firm, steady, deliberate mind was applied with equal vigour and utility to the various other subjects which occupied congress. As chairman of committees of the whole house, he appears to have been very popular; during this session he seems invariably, when present, to have held that station. We find him in this situation, presiding over their deliberations on the despatches of the commander in chief, the settlement of commercial restrictions, the regulation of trade, the general state of the colonies, and finally the great question of national independence. During all the various and protracted debates on this important subject, he was in the chair, and gained the esteem and approbation of the house, by the uniform correctness and impartiality of his conduct. The records of this interesting discussion are, it is to be feared, lost forever, and we have little left us but the occasional anecdotes which tradition has preserved, of an event whose minutest incidents would now be eagerly listened to and carefully recorded. On the tenth of June, he brought up the resolution of the committee, which declared the independence of the colonies, and authorized the preparation of the final, and more formal instrument; and on the fourth of July he reported that instrument itself, as having received the approbation of congress. He afterwards affixed his name to it, with the other delegates from Virginia. An anecdote has been preserved of Mr. Harrison, which, if it appears somewhat inconsistent with the solemnity of the scene, yet serves, in no slight degree, to exemplify the bold and lively character of the man.

Mr. Gerry, a delegate from Massachusetts, as slender and spare as Mr. Harrison was vigorous and portly, stood beside him at the table, while signing the declaration. He turned round to him, with a smile, as he raised his hand from the paper, and said, "When the hanging scene comes to be exhibited, I shall have all the advantage over you. It will be over with me in a minute, but you will be kicking in the air, half an hour after I am gone."

The declaration of independence brought with it, as a consequence, another measure scarcely less important, the confederation of the states. It held out to the world a united sovereignty, and a united course of action, neither of which had as yet been organized. This therefore became a subject of immediate deliberation, and Mr. Harrison was called to preside over these debates, as he had been over the former ones. It is rather the duty of history, than of biography, to trace the various measures, and the difficult questions which arose in this protracted discussion. It involved all those rights, and elicited those views which were afterwards more fully developed, in the formation of the federal constitution, and which must ever arise in settling the various powers of a government so singularly constituted as that of the United States.

On the eleventh of August, the period for which Mr. Harrison had been elected, expired, and he returned to Virginia. During his absence, his native state had not been unmindful of his services. The general convention had met as usual, in the preceding June, and together with many other acts of importance, had framed a new constitution. Among the officers of the new government, were eight counsellors of state, one of whom, Mr. Harrison had been unanimously chosen. In electing the delegates to congress for the succeeding year,

however, the number was reduced to five, and the name of Mr. Harrison omitted. It has been asserted that this omission arose from a feeling against him, which had gained considerable ground among his constituents. This feeling was caused by the appointment, it was said, through his influence in congress, of a Dr. Bickman, as physician to the continental hospital in the colony, in opposition to a more popular candidate. Slight causes often operate strongly on political measures, and this may have been the reason of his omission, yet it appears extraordinary if it were so, that the same convention should have raised him unanimously, to a high office in the state; that the legislature should have passed a vote of thanks to him, as they did for his diligence, ability, and integrity in congress; and that he should have been elected to his old place, as soon as the resignation of Mr. Jefferson left a vacancy. May we not fairly attribute the reduction of the number, and the retention of Mr. Harrison, to the causes which were assigned at the time, a prudent economy, and a wish to obtain the aid of a useful and experienced statesman, in the arduous business of the new government at home?

But, whatever was the cause, or whatever feeling may have existed, like most political prejudices, founded rather on the excitement of the moment, than from the deliberate suggestions of reason and patriotism, it passed quickly away; an active and intelligent man, with wealth and family to place him beyond every temptation, was not to be rudely discarded at such a period. The resignation of Mr. Jefferson rendered a new election necessary, and Mr. Harrison was chosen on the tenth of October, with only five dissenting voices. On the fifth of November, after an absence of less than three months, he was again seated in congress. He was

received by his old associates with pleasure and approbation. He was restored on the day of his arrival, to his appropriate station in the board of war, and a resolution was immediately passed, by which he was continued in all the standing committees of which he was formerly a member. In addition to this, he was placed on a committee to examine into and superintend the situation and movements of the northern army, at that time one of the very sinews of the war. In this duty he was for some time constantly and arduously engaged. Indeed during the whole of the dreadful winter of 1776, and the spring of 1777, when many deserted their posts, he was always on the ground, and always active; he accompanied his companions in their hasty flight to Baltimore, and returned with them again to Philadelphia; he laboured with untiring zeal on that most intricate of all subjects, which claimed the attention of congress, the means o preserving the continental credit, and supplying the exhausted treasury; and he renewed his exertions in his favourite department, the support and increase of the army.

Whatever may have been his temporary unpopularity in Virginia, during the preceding year, it had now entirely passed away. On the twenty-second of May, 1777, by a joint ballot of both houses, the legislature of Virginia returned him first among the delegates to congress, and he took his seat for the fourth time in that venerable body. We find him during the summer, acting on many committees and presiding over the deliberations of the house, on questions of delicacy and importance. He was, indeed, the universal chairman of committees of the whole house. He was in the chair during the delicate discussions, relative to the admission of the state of Vermont into the Union, on the contracts made by the commissioners in France, on the articles of confederation, the

subject of difficult and protracted debates, on the ways and means for continuing the war at that gloomiest period of the revolutionary history, and various other measures of paramount importance. Let it not be supposed that this was no more than guiding the deliberations of an assembly, as in ordinary times. Far from it. The questions that constantly arose, were strongly and intimately connected with personal and local views and opinions. Patriotism, it is true, was not diminished, and disunion was not threatened or feared. On great matters all could unite, and all could sacrifice every thing. But driven as they were from one place to another, annoyed by invasion, by disaffection, by decreasing resources, and by gloomy prospects, the boldest were almost disheartened, and the timid were inclined to flinch or to desert their posts. The delegates from districts which were suffering the severest calamities of the war, could not hear the complaints of their constituents, without calling loudly for aid, which it was perhaps impossible to grant. The small states looked with jealousy on plans which might compromise their individual sovereignty. There were, indeed, a thousand circumstances which caused and excused a momentary irritation, which Mr. Harrison himself sometimes could not but feel, and which rendered it more difficult, but more honourable, to soothe the feelings, and preserve the dignity of debate.

Quos ego-sed motos præstat componere fluctus.

Not in congress only did he thus exert himself. It is well known that the religious principles of the quakers forbade any participation in the war, and there is little doubt that there were among them many excellent and amiable men, who would have preferred the surrender of some rights, rather than resort to the sword for their protection. But in