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which alone, America, in the nature of human affairs, can be secure against the craft and insiduous designs of her enemies who think her prosperity and power ALREADY BY FAR TOO GREAT. In a word, our piety and political safety are so blended, that to refuse our labours in this Divine work, is to refuse to be a great, a free, a pious, and a happy people!

"And now having left the important alternative, political happiness or wretchedness, under God, in a great degree in your own hands, I pray the Supreme Arbiter of the affairs of men, so to direct your judgment, as that you may act agreeably to what seems to be his will, revealed in his miraculous works in behalf of America, bleeding at the altar of liberty." This being anterior to the declaration of independence was bold language. Several publications appeared from his pen, explaining the injured rights of his country, and encouraging his fellow citizens to vindicate them. He has also left a manuscript history of the American revolution in three folio volumes, brought down to the end of the year 1778, which he intended to continue and publish. His country, pleased with his zeal and talents, heaped offices upon him. He was appointed a member of congress in 1778 and 1779. Soon after he had taken his seat, British commissioners came to America, with the hope of detaching the states from their alliance with France. Drayton took an active and decided part in favour of the measures adopted by his countrymen. His letters published expressly to controvert the machinations of the British commissioners, were considered as replete with irresistible arguments, and written in the best style of composition.

He died in Philadelphia, in 1779, while attending his duty in congress, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. He was a statesman of great decision and energy, and one of the ablest political writers South Carolina has produced.

DYER, ELIPHALET, distinguished for his civil and military employments, was born on the 28th of September, 1721, in Windham, Connecticut. He was educated at Yale college, where he received his first degree in 1740. Soon after this, he entered upon the study of law, which he pursued as a profession. In 1743, when he was but twenty two years of age, he was appointed a justice of the peace; and in 1745, he was chosen a representative of the town in the general court, and continued to be elected to this office, a few sessions excepted, until the year 1762. At the commencement of the French war, in 1755, he was appointed to the command of one of the regiments raised by the colony of Connecticut for that service. He continued in the service, having the command of a regiment, during most of the war, and acquired considerable reputation as a faithful and brave officer. In 1762, he was

elected a member of the Council, and continued in this situa tion for several years. In 1763, he went to England, having been constituted the agent of the Susquehanna Company, to prosecute their claims in Great Britain. At this period a spirit of jealousy and hostility to the rising prosperity and the rights of the colonies, began to disclose themselves in the parent country; of which, and of the ultimate policy and designs of that country, colonel Dyer discovered clear indica tions, and communicated his views and apprehensions on his return. He was appointed a delegate from that state to the continental congress, holden at Philadelphia, in 1766. He was also appointed a delegate to the congress of 1774, which preceded the commencement of the revolutionary war; and during the interesting period of this momentous contest, he was, a considerable portion of the time, a member of that dignified and important body. He was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of the state, and subsequently Chief Justice, which office he held until the year 1793, which closed a very protracted public life.

He died in 1807, aged eighty-six years, having lived during a very interesting period of our history, and taken a part in many of the important events by which it is characterized.

ELLSWORTH, OLIVER, chief justice of the United States, was born at Windsor, Connecticut, April 29, 1745, and was graduated at the college in New Jersey in 1766. He soon afterwards commenced the practice of the law, in which profession he attained an acknowledged eminence. His perceptions were unusually rapid, his reasoning clear and conclusive, and his eloquence almost irresistible. In the year 1777, he was a delegate to the continental congress. He found himself in a new sphere; but his extraordinary powers did not fail him, and he met the exigencies of the times without shrinking. In 1780, he was elected into the council of his native state, and he continued a member of that body till 1784, when he was appointed a judge of the superior court. In 1787, he was elected a member of the convention, which framed the federal constitution. In an assembly, illustrious for talents, erudition, and patriotism, he held a distinguished place. His exertions essentially aided in the production of an instrument, which, under the Divine blessing, has been the main pillar of American prosperity and glory. He was immediately afterwards a member of the state convention, and contributed his efforts towards procuring the ratification of that instrument.

When the federal government was organized in 1789, he was chosen a member of the senate of the United States. This elevated station, which he filled with his accustomed dignity, he occupied till in March, 1796. He was then nominated by

president Washington, chief justice of the supreme court of the United States. Though his attention had been for many years abstracted from the study of the law, yet he presided in that high court with the greatest reputation. The diligence, with which he discharged his official duties, could be equalled only by his inexhaustible patience. His charges to the jury were rich not only in legal principles but in moral senti ments, expressed in a simple, concise style, and delivered in a manner, which gave them a tenfold energy and impression. Towards the close of the year 1799, he was appointed by president Adams envoy extraordinary to France for the purpose of accommodating existing difficulties, and settling a treaty with that nation. With much reluctance he accepted the appointment. In conjunction with governor Davie and Mr. Murray, his associates, he negociated a treaty, which, though it did not answer the just claims and expectation of the American public, was undoubtedly the best that could be procured. Having accomplished the business of his embassy, he repaired to England for the benefit of the mineral waters, as his health had suffered much in his voyage to Europe. Convinced that his infirmities must incapacitate him for the future discharge of his duties on the bench, he transmitted a resignation of his office of chief justice at the close of the year 1800. On bis return to Connecticut, his fellow citizens, desirous of still enjoying the benefit of his extraordinary talents, elected him into the council; and in May, 1807, he was appointed chief justice of the state. This office, however, he declined, from apprehension that he could not long survive under the pressure of his distressing maladies, and domestic afflictions.

Mr. Ellsworth was admired as an accomplished advocate, an upright legislator, an able and impartial judge, a wise and incorruptible ambassador, and an ardent, uniform, and indefatigable patriot, who devoted every faculty, every literary acquisition, and almost every hour of his life to his country's good. He moved for more than thirty years in a most conspicuous sphere, unassailed by the shafts of slander. His integrity was not only unimpeached but unsuspected. In his debates in legislative bodies, he was sometimes ardent, but his ardor illuminated the subject. His purposes he pursued with firmness, independence, and intrepidity. In private life he was a model of social and personal virtue. He was just in his dealings, frank in his communications, kind and obliging in his deportment, easy of access to all, beloved and respected by his neighbors and acquaintance. Amid the varied honors accumulated upon him by his country, he was unassuming and humble. His dress, his equipage, and mode of living, were regulated by a principle of republican economy; but for the

promotion of useful and benevolent designs he communicated with readiness and liberality. The purity and excellence of his character are rare in any station, and in the higher walks of life are almost unknown. He died November 26, 1807, in the sixty third year of his age.

FLOYD, WILLIAM, one of the signers of the declaration of independence, was born on the 17th of December, 1734, in the county of Suffolk, upon Long Island. He received a liberal education, and in his young days was passionately fond of hunting.

He embarked, at an early period, in the controversy b>tween Great Britain and the colonies, and as it grew more animated, became conspicuous for the zeal and ardour with which he espoused the popular cause. There was in his conduct, both in public and private life, a characteristic sincerity which never failed to inspire confidence; and which, combined with the warmth and spirit with which he opposed the usurpations of the British government, had acquired for him an extensive popularity. It was, doubtless, from these considerations, that he was appointed one of the delegates from New York to the first continental congress, which met in Philadelphia, on the 5th of September, 1774. In that patriotic and venerable assembly, he was associated with men, whose names are identified with their country's birth, and will long be cherished in grateful remembrance. Their proceedings had a powerful effect in arousing the attention of the colonists, and in directing it to the true points on which the controversy with the parent country rested; they were also admirably calculated, by their moderation and firmness, to conciliate the minds of moderate and reflecting men. It may, perhaps, be observed with truth, that with all the light which experience affords, the most consummate wisdom could hardly devise a system of measures better adapted to the situation of the colonies at that time, than those which are recorded upon the journals of the first continental congress.

Previous to his attendance in Congress, Mr. Floyd had been appointed to the command of the militia of the county of Suffolk, and upon his return, he found Long Island menaced with an invasion from a naval force assembled in Gardiner's bay, with the avowed object of gathering supplies. When the landing of the enemy was reported to him, he promptly assembled the force under his command, and marched to the point of attack. It was, perhaps, fortunate for his little army, composed of raw and undisciplined militia, that the terror of their approach left nothing for their arms to accomplish. The activity displayed, however, had an important effect, in inducing the enemy to abandon their design.

In April, 1775, having been again chosen by the provincial assembly of New York, a delegate to the general congress of the colonies, he took his seat in the second continental congress, which met in Philadelphia, on the 10th of May following, and continued a constant attendant for more than two years. As a member of this congress, general Floyd united with his illustrious associates in boldly dissolving the political bonds which connected the colonies to the British crown, and co-operated in the arduous and responsible task of arraying them in hostility to the British empire. Under circumstances of danger and distress, with difficulties almost insurmountable, and embarrassments the most complicated, they were raised from the posture of supplication, and clothed in the armour of war.

During his attendance in congress, Long Island was evacuated by the American troops, and occupied by those of Great Britain. His family, in consequence of this event, were driven from their home in great haste and confusion, and were removed by his friends into Connecticut. The produce and stock of his estate were seized by the enemy, and the mansion-house selected as a rendezvous for a party of horse, by whom it was occupied during the remainder of the This event was the source of serious inconvenience to him, as it precluded him from deriving any benefit from his landed property for nearly seven years, and left him without a house for himself and his family.

war.

On the 8th of May, 1777, general Floyd was appointed a senator of the state of New York, under the constitution of the state which had then been recently adopted. On the 13th of May, the provincial convention passed a resolution, that the thanks of the convention be given to him, and his colleagues, "delegates of the state of New York in the honourable the continental congress, for their long and faithful services rendered to the colony of New York, and to the said state."

On the 9th of September, 1777, he took his seat in the senate of New York, at their first session under the new constitution. This being the first constitutional legislature since the colonial assembly was dissolved, it devolved upon them to organize the government, and adopt a code of laws, suited to existing circumstances. Of this body he became a leading and influential member, and attended in his place, with some short intervals, until the 6th of November, 1778, when they adjourned.

On the 15th of October, 1778, he was unanimously reelected a delegate to the continental congress by a joint ballot of the senate and assembly, and on the 2d of January follow

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