the 28th of June, of procuring a new set of instructions, which secured the vote of the important province of Mary. land in favor of the independence of America.

On the same day on which the great question was decided in Congress, in favor of a declaration of indepen dence, Mr Carroll was elected a delegate to that body from Maryland, and accordingly took his seat on the eighteenth of the same month.

Although not a member of Congress at the time the question of a declaration of independence was settled, Mr. Ĉar oll had the honor of greatly contributing to a measure so auspicious to the interests of his country, by assist ing in procuring the withdrawal of the prohibiting instructions, and the adoption of a new set, by which the Maryland delegates found themselves authorized to vote for independence. He had the honor, also, of affixing his signature to the Declaration on the second of August, at which time the members generally signed an engrossed copy, which had been prepared for that purpose.

A signature to the Declaration was an important step for every individual member of Congress. It exposed the signers of it to the confiscation of their estates, and the loss of life, should the British arms prove victorious. Few men had more at stake in respect to property than Mr. Carroll, he being considered the richest individual in the colonies But wealth was of secondary value in his estimation, in comparison with the rights and liberties of his country. When asked whether he would annex his name, he replied, "most willingly," and seizing a pen, instantly subscribed "to this record of glory." "There go a few millions," said some one who watched the pen as it traced the name of "Charles Carroll, of Carrollton," on the parchment. Millions would indeed have gone, for his fortune was princely, had not success crowned the American arms, in the long-fought con

test.

Mr. Carroll was continued a member of Congress until 1778, at which time he resigned his seat in that body, and devoted himself more particularly to the interest of his native State. He had served in her Convention in 1776 in the latter part of which year he had assisted in draft

ing her Constitution. Soon after, the new Constitution went into operation, and Mr. Carroll was chosen a member of the Senate of Maryland. In 1781 he was re-elected to the same station, and in 1788, on the adoption of the Federal Constitution, was chosen to the Senate of the United States.

In 1791, Mr. Carrol! relinquished his seat in the Na tional Senate, and was again called to the Senate of his native State. This office he continued to hold until 1804, at which time the democratic party was successful in electing their candidate, to the exclusion of this long tried and faithful patriot. At this time, Mr. Carroll took leave of public life, and sought in retirement the quiet enjoy. ment of his family circle.

Since the date of his retirement from public office, few incidents have occurred in the life of this worthy man which demand particular notice. Like a peaceful stream, his days glided along, and continued to be lengthened out, till the generation of illustrious men, with whom he acted on the memorable fourth of July, 1776, had all descended to the tomb. He died in 1832.

"These last thirty years of his life," says a recent writer, "have passed away in serenity and happiness, almost unparalleled in the history of man. He has enjoyed, as it were, an Indian summer of existence, a tranquil and lovely period, when the leaves of the forest are richly variegated, but not yet seared; when the parent bird and the spring nestling are of the same flock, and move on equal wing; when the day of increase and the day of the necessity of provisions are gone; when the fruits of the earth are abundant, and the lakes of the woods are smooth and joyous, as if reflecting the bowers of Eden. Such an Indian summer has this patriot enjoyed his life has been thrice, yea, four times blessed; blessed in his birth and education, in his health, in his basket, and in his store; blessed in his numerous and honorable progeny, which extend to several generations; blessed in the protracted measure of his days, in which have been crowded the events of many centuries; and blessed in the won derful prosperity of his country, whose population has since his birth increased from nine hundred thousand

souls to more than twelve millions, enjoy ng the blessings of freemen. It is, perhaps, from the fact, that the world think it quite enough for one mortal that he should be virtuous, prosperous, and enjoy a green old age, that an analysis of his intellectual powers, or a description of his rare attainments, has seldom been attempted; but ta.ents and attainments he had, that made him one of the most successful of the business men of the momentous period in which he lived-a period when that which the head conceived the hands were ready to execute. There were too few at that time, and those too zealous, to make the proper division of labor. The senator armed for the field, and the soldier met with the Conscript Fathers. "Mr. Carroll was an orator. His eloquence was of the smooth, gentle, satisfactory kind, delighting all, and convincing many. It is not pretended that, like John Adams, he came down upon his hearers, as with the thunder-blast from Sinai, raising the tables of independence on high, and threatening in his wrath to break them if they were not received by the people; nor that, like Dickinson, he exhausted rhetoric and metaphysics to gain his end, and was forever striving to be heard; but Carroll came to his subject well informed, thoroughly imbued with its spirit, and with happy conceptions and graceful delivery, and with chaste and delicate language, he, without violence, conquered the understandings, and led captive the senses of his hearers. All was natural, yet sweet and polished as education could make it. He never seemed fatigued with his labors, nor faint with his exertions. His blood and judgment were so well commingled that his highest efforts were as easy and natural as if he had been engaged in the course of ordinary duties. This happy faculty still continues with the patriarch, for his conversation has now that elegant vivacity and delicacy that characterized the sage Nestor of elder times, whose words fell like vernal snows, as he spake to the people.

His serenity, and in no small degree, perhaps, his longevity, may be owing to the permanency of his principles. In early life he founded his political creed on the rights of man, and reposing his faith in the religion of his fathers, he has felt none of those vacillations and

changes so common in times of political or religious agitations. It were good for the nation that he should long continue among us, for in his presence all party feuds are hushed; and the demagogue, accustomed to vociferate elsewhere, in his vanity to be heard, talks not above his breath when the aged patriot is near. In a republic where titles are not known, we ought to make a peerage of talents, virtues, patriotisın, and age, that every youth may learn to admire, respect, and imitate the wise and good. With all our wishes for his stay here on earth, the patriarch must soon be gathered to his fathers, and his name given to the historian and the poet. The bard shall then strike his harp and sing, in strains not light nor melancholy,' but with admiration, touched with religious hope,

"Full of years and honors, through the gate

Of painless slumber he retired.

And as a river pure

Meets in its course a subterraneous void,

Then dips his silver head, again to rise,

And rising glides through fields and meadows new
So hath Oileus in those happy climes,

Where joys ne'er fade, nor the soul's powers decay
But youth and spring eternal bloom."

The name of Carroll is the only one on the Declaration to which the residence of the signer is appended. The reason why it was done in this case, is understood to be as follows: The patriots who signed that document, did it, almost literally, with ropes about their necks, it being generally supposed that they would, if unsuccessful, be hung as rebels. When Carroll had signed his name, some one at his elbow remarked, "You'll get clear-there are several of that name---they will not know which to take." "Not so," replied he, and immediately added, "of Carrollton."

In 1827, the Editor of the Philadelphia National Gazette published a biography of Mr. Carroll, which appeared in the American Quarterly Review. He records the following fact:

In 1825, one of Mr. Carroll's grand-daughters was married to the Marquis of Wellesley, then Viceroy of

Ireland; and it is a singular circumstance that one hun dred and forty years after the first emigration of her ancestors to America, this lady should become vice-queen of the country from which they fled, at the summit of a system which a more immediate ancestor had risked every thing to destroy; or, in the energetic and poetical language of Bishop England, "that in the land from which the father's father fled in fear his daughter's daughter now reigns as queen."

From the same publication, it appears that Mr. Carrol, some years before our revolutionary war, wrote to a member of the British Parliament as follows:

"Your thousands of soldiers may come, but they will be masters of the spot only on which they encamp. They will find naught but enemies before and around them. If we are beaten on the plains, we will retreat to the mountains and defy them. Our resources will increase with our difficulties. Necessity will force us to exertion: until tired of combating in vain against a spirit which victory cannot subdue, your armies will evacuate our soil, and your country retire, an immense loser, from the conNo, sir we have made up our minds to abide the issue of the approaching struggle; and though much blood may be spillea, we have no doubt of our ultimate success."

test.

His whole career, says Mr. Walsh, public and private, suited the dignity of his distinctive appellation-the Sur viving Signer. He was always a model of regularity in conduct and sedateness in judgment. In natural saga. city, in refinement of tastes and pleasure, in unaffected habitual courtesy, in vigilant observation, vivacity of spirit and tone, susceptibility of domestic and social happiness in the best forms, he had but few equals during the greater part of his bright and long existence. The mind of Mr. Carroli was highly cultivated; he fully improved the advantages of an excellent classical education and extensive foreign travel; he read much of ancient and modern literature, and gave the keenest attention to con .nporary events and characters. His patriotism never lost its earnestness and elevation. It was our good fortune, in our youth, to pass months at a time under his