^:^:^-5.A: ,'. ^i^l -^1^^^;- *.:>**: 5 ^ , >*1C 'V. , ^ -"^ •IRKIIIY LIBRARY uNivERsin or CAUfOtNU J ^.^. ' V .^* II • • • J^m^^ LO^N STACK Hannah Logan Smith A Collection of Religious Memoirs and Extracts. Vfritten or selected by H. L. Smith Philadelphia 1839 ■mi£»: k'^^^V^-i^^ Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation sxfiqio http://www.arcliive.org/details/acollectionofrelOOsmitricli _) 2^, • PREFACE Dear Children: I present to you a volume containing a short memoir of your father, and some account of several persons in some way or other connected with our family. There are also many extracts from books of a religious tendency, which I was induced to copy from a hope that they might, by the Divine blessing, be made of use to some of you when I can speak to you no more. I trust that there is nothing in the book which will give offence to any one, however differing with me in religious opinions; for it is in truth my belief that God is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation they who fear Him and walk in the path of duty by the support of the Holy Spirit, will be accepted through the Atonement of our blessed Lord. Although it is not so material in a book which is more of the nature of a manuscript, not being in- tended for sale or general circulation, yet it may be well to state that when I first thought of printing, it was merely to make a few more copies of the memoir of my beloved husband, there being but a single one remaining. It then occurred to me to add the testimony concerning my dear friend Deborah 722 ••• • Darby, and' I went on from time to time to add other matters which I thought might be useful, till the book has grown to its present size. While it has been in progress, several changes by death and marriage have taken place. The decease of the greatly respected Deborah Logan, and the marriage of my daughter Esther to Dr. Wistar, are noticed in another part of this book; but I may here men- tion the marriage of my husband's grandaughter, Margaret Wharton Smith, who was married on the Sth of 1 1th month, 1838, by Henry J. Morton, an Episcopalian Minister of the Gospel, to George Harrison White, son of Thomas H. White. I trust that nothing has been omitted which ought to have been here, although this may have happened, as the work has been long in hand. If it be so, it is not intentional, but the contrary, and I hope no one will think there was any want of respect or affectionate attention. I offer to you, dear children, the contents of this little volume, conscious that I have prepared it in much weakness and infirmity, but hoping that you will receive it and read it with a teachable spirit; for it will then, whatever its defects, be blessed to your improvement. It may, at a time not very remote, be a memorial to you of your affectionately attached mother. Hannah Logan Smith. Philadelphia^ ith Month, 1839. CONTENTS. A Testimony for Deborah Darby, - - - 13 A Testimony, &c., respecting Rebecca Byrd, - 23 A Testimony respecting William Byrd, - - 32 A Testimony concerning Ann Brewster, - - 42 Mary Prior, ------ 47 Sarah Fisher, ----- 48 Sarah Stephenson, ----- 51 Epistle to Thomas Fisher, - - - 55 James Logan Fisher, ----- 58 Papers concerning the Banishment of Friends in the Revolutionary War, - . - - 64 Epistle to Sarah G. Dillwyn, - - - 99 Testimony concerning Hannah Fisher, - - 100 Benjamin Ridgway Smith, - - - 103 Nicholas Wain, - - - - - 104 To the Memory of Mary Dickinson, - - 149 Lydia Dean, ----- 150 Hannah Powell, ----- 154 To the Memory of Peter Yarnall, - - - 156 Wife of Robert Barclay, - - - - 158 John Estaugh, - - - - - 160 In Memory of Sarah F. Corlies, - - - 167 A Memorial concerning Hannah Smith, - - 168 Some account of John Smith, - - - 172 James Logan to his son William, - - - I74 To the Memory of Joseph Brown, - - 177 Parson Peters to Anthony Benezet, . - - 179 VI Samuel Fothergill, - - - - 180 Faithfulness in Little Things, - - - 182 On the Importance of Religion, - - - 186 On Passing Meeting, - - - - - 193 On Love to God — Extracts from Joseph John Gurney, 195 Memoir of the Fisher family, - - - - 237 Visits of European Friends to America, - - 272 Visits of American Friends to Europe, - - 283 Testimony concerning Hannah Lindley, - - 291 Testimony concerning Jacob Lindley, - - 294 Last illness of Benjamin Ridgway Smith, - 297 Memoir of James Smith, . - - - 301 Eulogium on Benjamin R. Smith, - - 306 Deborah Logan, , , , , - 319 A Testimony from Shropshire Monthly Meeting, for Deborah Darby. Many Friends having applied for copies of the following Testimony, Friends of Coalbrookdale have printed a few, for their satisfaction. In pass- ing it through the press, they have no other view, than to economize time, and labour, and to secure correctness of copy. Though printed, it is not pub- lished. Into whosever hands, therefore, the follow- ing sheet may come, they are requested to consider it as being only a substitute for manuscript commu- nication. Coalbrookdale, 6th Month 22nd, 1810. <not expect such comfort before he went hence; and in much brokenness of spirit, he added; ^'Oh, what shall I render to the Lord for all his mercies?" On another occasion, in grateful retrospect of the good- ness of God towards him, he observed; ^'Great have been the mercies of my Heavenly Father from my^ youth up: had he not placed his fear in my heart, I had long since been a cast-away." On being in- formed that it was First Day, he said, '^0 that it may be well spent." A little afterwards, ^*I can- 40 not keep up the exercise I could wish; I have great weakness both in body and mind." On being helped up in bed, he remarked, *^A posture for dying: see with what peace a Christian can die — there is no- thing in my way:" and having spoken in testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus, he concluded with the language of praise, **Bless the Lord, my soul; and all that is within me bless his Holy Name." Such expressions as the following, uttered at dif- ferent times, indicate that his mind was still stayed on God: ''Oh, the sweet peaceful feeling I have this evening, I would not exchange it for all the king- doms of this world." At another time: ''A calm and peaceful mind: how precious!" and again: "Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Thus it was evident, to use his own words, that ''death had no terrors for him." He continued in the same ten- der, submissive, hopeful, and child-like state to the end; and at length suddenly and unexpectedly passed away, with very little apparent suflfering. Our dear departed friend having loved and ho- noured his Lord and Saviour upon earth, and it hav- ing been his chief concern in life to watch and to keep his garments, we reverently trust that, through the riches of redeeming grace, it has been given to him to join the spirits of just men made perfect in the presence of God and of the Lamb. Read, approved, and signed in our Monthly Meeting, held at Shaftesbury, the 5th of 4th month, 1836. [Here follow the signatures of men and wo- men Friends.] Jit a General Meeting for Dorset and Hants, held at Poole, the 1th of Ath month, 1836, The foregoing; Testimony respecting our dear de- ceased friend, William Byrd, has been read, with 41 which this Meeting fully unites, and desires that the example of our dear friend in his Christian life and conversation, and in his peaceful end, may con- tinue to live in our remembrance. Signed in and on behalf of the General Meeting. Samuel Hannam, Clerk, 42 Ji Testimony of Kingston Monthly Meeting, in the County of Surrey, concerning Ann Brew- ster, of Clapham, deceased. [The following Testimony was appended to the preceding concerning William Byrd.] In the remembrance of the humility and dedica- tion to the cause of truth and righteousness which characterized this our beloved friend, evidenced by yielding obedience to the restraining and tendering operations of Divine grace, we feel engaged to give forth a testimony concerning her, in the hope that her example may have an animating influence on survivors, holding forth this language, Follow me as I have endeavoured to follow Christ. She was the daughter of Edward and Sarah Shewell, and was born in London in the year 1762. The religious care exercised by her parents over the minds of their tender offspring appears, as she expresses it, to have been ^'so far blessed to some of them that it proved as a nail fastened in a sure place." We cannot more appropriately set forth the experience of our dear friend, than by some extracts from her own memoranda. In these she remarks, "I could say with thankfulness of heart the Lord was my morning Light; for I well remember to have been favoured with that light in very early life as a reprover for sin, even in childish transgressions and disobedience to parental injunc- tions. Thus it was with me," she adds, **vvhen very young, that I was made renewedly sensible of the love of Him who first loved us; and I often shed tears of joy under a sense of the power of Divine love covering my mind in a remarkable manner, so 43 that I loved to get alone to enjoy the inexpressible comfort I derived from it, and this brought a great fear and dread over my mind, lest I should offend Him whom I loved and fervently desired would not overlook such a poor little child. When I com- mitted a fault, how keenly have I felt reproof. I am certain that if the necessity of attending to the inward monitor were impressed upon children, they would not so often grow up in hardness of heart." When about seven years of age she was sent to a boarding-school, where, in endeavouring to main- tain her consistency as a Friend, by using the plain language, (being the only Friend's child there,) she became subject to ridicule from some of her com- panions; but, she remarks, * 'there were other dear children to whom I was affectionately attached and united, whose minds were remarkably visited by the influences of the Holy Spirit, by which we were drawn to read the Holy Scriptures together, and converse upon them with great interest." Although love to her Heavenly Father thus pre- vailed in her heart, yet as she grew older, though drawing back from His restraining power, she wished for more liberty in dress and some other things; but, she observes, "loving-kindness fol- lowed me, so that I found a place of prayer in se- cret; and I can now say that I loved the Lord my God, and Jesus Christ his beloved Son, my Re- deemer; for I have been sensible of the inshinings of heavenly love at times, throughout my life." In another place she says, "I remember one of my school-fellows describing some places of amuse- ment, which raised something like a regret that I could not go, when the words arose in my mind, *They that love anything more than me, are not worthy of me,' filling me with sweet peace, so that I never afterwards felt even a desire after anything 44 of this kind: and now I can say I am thankful for having been brought up amongst Friends, a people whose principles are pure, and though they bring into the narrow way, yet is that way quite broad enough to walk in and enjoy the blessings of life.'* Our dear friend was united in marriage with Thomas Brewster in the year 1784, and came to reside within the limits of this Monthly Meeting in 1800. Her disposition was remarkably tender and humane, and evinced much sympathy with those under suffering. She was ever ready to re- lieve the wants of the poor, and she discharged the various relative duties of life with much affectionate kindness. From 1812 to 1828, she continued at times to record in her diary her various trials and religious exercises, particularly relating to her being called to the work of the ministry, which laid weightily on her mind for many years. At length, believing the time to be arrived, the natural timidity of her disposition gave way to apprehended duty, and she expressed a few words in the Meeting at Wands- worth in the 12th month, 1818, and it appears to have afforded her sweet peace in thus submitting her will to that of her Divine Master. On this oc- casion she writes, "I hope I shall be strengthened to praise His holy name on a dying bed for all his mercies towards me, an unworthy creature." In 1821, she was acknowledged as a minister, and in the same year paid a religious visit to the families of Friends of Wandsworth particular Meet- ing; in yielding to which service, heavenly peace appears to have been her portion. She was subse- quently engaged in several visits to her own and some of the neighbouring Quarterly Meetings, from which labours of love she also experienced much comfort, saying, on one occasion, "I have great 45 cause to commemorate the Lord^s favours." In the course of a visit she paid in 1825 to the families of Friends in one of the Monthly Meetings in Suffolk, she mentions, ^^She had times of discouragement and suffering, from a sense of great weakness, cry- ing, ^Lord increase my faith, and arise for my help; preserve me that so thy precious cause may never suffer through me a poor worm.'" Her commu- nications in the exercise of her gift, though short, were lively and marked by much simplicity and sweetness; the love of our Heavenly Father ap- peared to be the constant clothing of her mind. In the 4th month, 1828, she was attacked with chronic rheumatism, which produced great suffer- ing for the remainder of her life, during which much patience and resignation were manifest. She was a diligent attender of our religious meet- ings, and in them was often favoured with a renewal of her strength; she continued in the performance of this duty even when her bodily infirmities ren- dered her unable to move without assistance; and when wholly prevented from thus meeting with her friends, she considered this to be the greatest pri- vation it was her lot to experience. During this latter period the Monthly Meetings for Ministers and Elders were chiefly held in her chamber, a pri- vilege she highly valued; the remembrance thereof by those who met on these occasions is sweet, so remarkably did they appear to be times of the over- shadowing of Divine love. The bodily sufferings of this our dear friend during the last year of her life were very great; but she was enabled to bear them with Christian patience, and in humble resignation to wait the Lord's time, whilst the earnest desire of her heart was to be permitted at last to reach a place of rest and peace, <*where," she adds, '*I shall meet my 46 dear Lord, and live forever with him! then shall I attain unto the consummate wishes and breathings of my soul through life, having had an earnest de- sire to be found worthy to be admitted an inhabitant in the kingdom of Heaven, when time shall termi- nate my existence here. Thus our beloved friend was preserved in faith and patience to the end: and when He whose ten- der love had followed her all her life, and through whose strength she had been enabled to occupy the talent received, was pleased to say, It is enough! and to remove her from this state of probation and suffering, we reverently believe the ardent prayer of her soul was answered, and that, through redeem- ing love and mercy, she is admitted into the joy of her Lord. Our dear friend died on the 21st of 4th month, 1835, and her remains were interred at Croydon, on the 29th of the same; aged seventy-three years. A Minister about sixteen years. Signed in Kingston Monthly Meeting, held at Wandsworth, the" 19th of the Uth month, 1835. [Here follow the signatures of men and women Friends.] Read and approved in our Quarterly Meeting for London and Middlesex, held this 29th day of the 12th month, 1835; and in and on behalf thereof signed, by George Stagey, Clerk. Signed in and on behalf of the Women's Meet- ing, by Rachel Stagey, Chrk, 47 Prom the Annual Monitor. MARY PRIOR. Mary Prior, wife of John Prior of Hertford, in England, deceased the 17th of 2nd month, 1815, aged 77 years. Her pious and innocent life, joined to an affectionate and cheerful disposition, rendered her company truly acceptable, both to Friends and others. She filled up the various stations of life with propriety, and we trust her end is blest with peace. In her last illness she said she had been enabled to rely with confidence on the merits and intercessions of her Redeemer; adding, "to sit at the feet of my beloved Lord, in his kingdom, is more than I deserve, but not more than I covet; I know that it is by grace we are saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God: that it may be continued to the end.'^ At another time, "I feel that I have nothing more to do than to wait for an admission into the promised rest." And then said, "What a favour to have nothing to do but to wait for the last summons. O, Lord Jesus, my Saviour, be pleased to deal mercifully with thy poor handmaid who has nothing to depend on but thy mercy." She was a minister 52 years. 48 Ji Memorial concerning my beloved wife, Sarah Fisher. She was daughter of Thomas and Sarah Rowland, born at Lewes, in the county of Sussex, Delaware, 6th of the 12th month, in the year 1716. Her father dying when she was very young, the care of her education fell on her mother, who was a steady pious woman and a worthy Elder, and frequently appeared in a short and lively testimony in the pub- lic assemblies of our Society for Divine Worship for several years before her decease; thereby clearly evidencing, that that power which in her youth had been her stay, was in old age become her staff. She has been deceased but a few years, at which time her name was Clayton, and she was a member of Little Creek Meeting, in Kent County, Dela- ware. Under the care of so pious a parent, she, through Divine Grace, was in a good degree preserved from the vanities incident to youth. In 1733, the 17th year of her age, we were married and lived at Lewes aforesaid till the year 1746, when, with the approbation of Friends there, we removed to this city with four children. From that time we resided here, having many children — seven of them are now living. This occasioned her being much at home with her family, where, by her awful and solemn sitting with them, administering suitable advice and counsel to their several states and capacities, I have good reason to believe she has left lasting impres- sions on most of their minds. While she had ability of body, she frequently at- tended religious meetings and those for discipline. 49 where in reverent awfulness she waited for the re- newal of strength. In conversation, she was solid and weighty, yet cheerful and pleasant; in counsel, prudent and instructive; in her family, circumspect and exemplary, rarely spending an hour unemployed in some useful service or necessary duty. In her eating and drinking, temperate and rather abstemious. She studied to be quiet and mind her own business, not meddling with the concerns of others, further than to administer counsel or relief when applied to, and was respected and esteemed by all who were inti- mately acquainted with her; nor do I remember she ever had any difference with any person during her life, but was favoured with such a sweetness of tem- per, that when anything of that kind was like to get in, she soared as on the wings of love either to over- come or get out of its reach. She was a most affec- tionate wife, parent and mistress; charitable to the poor, a kind and obliging neighbour, and her heart and house open to receive her friends; but above every qualification was her inward and retired life persevering with innocent cheerfulness through her whole course; and during her last indisposition, which continued upwards of five weeks, she con- tinued in a sweet, retired, inward frame of mind, often in fervent prayer, saying, -'^Make me, Lord, what thou wouldst have me to be; preserve me, for in the Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength.'^ When I have asked how she was, she frequently answered me, "My way- is where no galley with oars nor gallant ship can pass. The glorious Lord is unto me a place of broad rivers and streams;" at other times she would say, "Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; the Lord is my Shepherd, and I shall not want." These her expressions were frequent, 5 50 with many others of the like nature which cannot well be remembered. She was favoured with ability to set up in her room frequently the greatest part of the day without much pain, in a great degree abstracted from every temporal prospect, like a wise virgin waiting for the Heavenly bridegroom, having oil in her vessel, her lamp trimmed and light burning — thus she con- tinued. Myself and children, hoping she might re- cover till the 4th day of the first month last, when an intimate friend sat with her several hours, till near 6 o'clock in the evening, about which time the disorder increased, and she lay down, desiring all to be still that she might go to rest, and departed quietly away about 8 o'clock, without either sigh or groan, as going into a sweet sleep, aged 55 years; and was decently interred in Friends' burial ground in Arch street the 7th day of said month. Her humility, wisdom and prudence were con- spicuous, though she had not opportunity of much learning; her reading was much confined to the Holy Scriptures, and such other books as treated of an inward communion with the beloved of her soul, and I doubt not but her removal is from works to rewards, to join the church triumphant in heaven, there to sing praises to the Lord God and the Lamb, who alone are worthy. Joshua Fisher. Philadelphia, 2nd month 8/A, 1772. 51 SARAH STEPHENSON. [Some accountof Sarah Stephenson, who visited this country in 1801. She was very acceptably attended as a companion in this religious engage- ment by her friend, Mary Jefferys, who afterwards became the wife of William Powell, of Nurstead, Devizes. I had a late letter from this dear friend, now a widow, residing at Milksham in England. Sarah Stephenson departed this life under the roof of my uncle, S. R. Fisher. A memoir of her life and travels in the service of the Gospel was printed in 1807, and closed with an abstract of the Testimony of the Monthly Meeting of Wiltshire, of which the following is a copy.] Our much beloved friend Sarah Stephenson, a member of this meeting for upwards of thirty years, having been one whose example preached sweet in- struction, we desire the remembrance of it may have the same influence, and be a further incitement to follow her, as she followed Christ. She was entrusted with a gift in the ministry about the twenty-eighth year of her age. In the exercise of this weighty calling she was often en- gaged, under the persuasive influence of gospel-love to labour with the youth: for whose preservation in true simplicity, she felt strong and afiectionate soli- citude, that they might dedicate all to Him who loveth an early sacrifice, of which she was a great example. Her ministry was sound, tending much to raise into dominion the hidden life. For her path was often in the deep; and by such baptisms, S2 she was enabled to minister to the states of the peo- ple in the power and efficacy of the Gospel. Lean- ing on the arm of All-sufficiency, she was made an eminently useful instrument. To adopt the expressions of a testimony we have received from New York, we can say, *She w^as pe- culiarly qualified to move with propriety in that great work of going from house to house: a meek and quiet deportment, a mind clothed with a spirit of love, and affectionate solicitude that all might be gathered within the Divine inclosure, being conspi- cuous traits in the character and conduct of our be- loved friend.' With the afflicted, whether in body or mind, who came under her notice, she was a true sympathizer. She frequently said she wished not to out-live this tender sensibility; and she manifested it to the last. Near her close, she said, she had great satisfaction as she passed along, in having imparted of her little to those that had less. In the sixty-third year of her age, she opened to Friends a prospect which she had long kept secret, of paying a religious visit to Friends in America. This undertaking seemed arduous; more especially as her natural strength at that time had much de- clined; but, as she observed, it seemed of no conse- quence to her where her life might close, so that when the solemn period came, she was but where and what she ought to be. She was much satisfied with having come to that land, which [among other means], appears by a message, which, a few days before her close, she seemed desirous to be conveyed to Friends in her native land, and [she accordingly] commissioned a friend with the following: I feel a salutation of Gospel love flow towards them; and have thank- fully to acknowledge that I have met with those 53 among faithful Friends here, who have felt as fa- thers and mothers, brethren and sisters; that I find the Lord's tenderly concerned baptized travailing children to be the same every where; and, though from my present weak state, it is rather unlikely I shall ever see them again in mutability, I am per- fectly satisfied with being with Friends in this land; and quite easy as to the issue of this my present in- disposition: desiring the Lord's will may be done. During her illness she said that, though it was desirable to her to go, yet if it were the Divine will that she should again be raised up, and introduced to her arduous line of service,* she had felt sweet submission to it. But her work was mercifully cut short in righteousness; and the sacrifice of a willing mind accepted by Him who thus manifested his love unto the end. She breathed her last the 26th of the Fourth Month, 1802, aged sixty-three years, a Minister about thirty-six years. Her remains were interred in Friends' burial ground in Philadelphia, the 29th of the Fourth-month. As there is cause to believe she answered to the description in the inquiry, *^Who is that faithful and good servant, whom the Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season;" we have [also] the consoling belief that the annexed blessing was her reward: ' 'Blessed, I say unto you, is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing." Signed in and on behalf of the aforesaid Meeting held at Melksham, the 14th of the Twelfth-month, 1802. The Monthly Meeting of New York, the Quar- * The reader may remember she had begun a family-visit in Pine street Meeting, Philadelphia. 5* 54 terly Meetings of Westbury, and Purchase, the Southern Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia, also issued testimonies respecting this beloved Friend, and the latter testimony was confirmed by the Quarterly Meeting at Philadelphia. To insert all these testimonies might occasion more prolixity than service; and as the foregoing compilation is not only a tribute to the memory of Sarah Ste- phenson, but is principally intended to animate its readers, by her example, to love the Lord, to fol- low on to know him, and to press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, it may be terminated not unsuitably by an extract of a letter to a friend in England, written by the deceased, from the city of New York. '^Although, my dear, we are very far outwardly separated, this is not able to prevent sweet union of spirit, and humble intercession for strength to ad- vance on, towards the holy city, where the saints' solemnities are kept. O, the joy that will there be revealed, and for ever to remain, without alloy! That our poor feeble spirits may be daily engaged in this humble fervent travail, is the desire of my soul: that so, through adorable mercy, we may be favoured to meet, never to part; and, with the just of all generations, unite in the glorious song of Moses and the Lamb!'' 55 *^n Epistle to Thomas Fisher, my late beloved father. [He was taken prisoner and carried into Spain the time of the old French war, in 1762 or 3, when a young man of twenty-one years of age; and after being released, and arriving safe in England, the kindness of Friends made a lasting impression on his mind, and had he not felt it most prudent to re- turn, marry and settle in his own country, which, if he had not thought it right to do, he felt attrac- tion sufficient to have formed a connection for life there. This I have heard him relate, and the friend- ship thus formed towards his friends in England, remained steadfast with him.] Whether thou ply'st it with the assiduous throng, Whom power, or fame, or interest urge along, Or sitt'st recluse within the hickory grove. Pierced with the pleasing pangs of generous love, Or roam'st alert the various herbaged ground, And mazy fields and wide savannah's round, Or tread'st the thundering rivers trembling mound, Where rocks repulsive propagate the sound; Or, from the cedar'd heights thy view pervades A golden scene, late rescued from the shades. There hear'st the mimic-bird his lays prolong In sweet succession all the woodland song; Whether Linnean tribes thy search delight. Or glittering flies (a friend's caprice) excite; Whate'er the object now thy thoughts explore, Or ruminates on scenes thou sees't no more, May conscious peace and temperate joy attend, And virtue smile thy everlasting friend. Not prude-like virtue, forward to declaim, Which hugs those follies it affects to blame; 56 But what directs our passions to their end, And points out every good they must intend. While their excessive powers are learnt control, And she still holds the balance of the soul, May she, my friend, o'er all thy acts preside. And call thy passions still on reason's side; Or, should their saddening glooms obscure thy way, May she, bright power, ethereal gleams display. Or check the tides of pleasure as they roll, When joys tumultuous rush upon the soul; When fancy paints the ever verdant scene. Nor dreary waste, nor sterile rock between, Elysian airs from ever temperate skies. Where lightning never glares, nor whirlwind flies. Nor peevish blast, nor blighting dews molest. The eternal spring with halcyon joys imprest; She'll show thee through the world's capacious round Not one bright scene in gay succession found. Nor yet one son whom passions ne'er annoy. Whom in glad series flow perpetual joy. Blest as thou art with afiluence, health and ease, A mind, at once disposed, and formed to please, A manly freedom which decorum bounds, A pleasing poignancy which never wounds. What tho' our sex their ready praise combine. And the impartial their plaudits join, Doth not some meddling passion still molest And break the easy tenor of the rest? In minds most amiable, some passions strong, With powers impetuous urge the rest along; Just in its end; yet thousands fall its prey. Its irresistless impulse who obey; Though hard to subject, yet its powers restrained, Yields all a victor's joy for conquest gained. Whilst Reason thus maintains her proper sway. And calls the imperious prompters to obey. Virtue and they pursue no several aim. The same in action and their end the same; But Virtue lost, eccentric tracks they find. And leave ungained the glory meant mankind. Now, whilst each strong pulsation fills thy veins, O, hold! determined hold, the unloosened reins; Check nature's ardour, stop her fervent speed, A time will come to justify the deed: When slow, though regular, the pulses beat. And cool reflection tempers vital heat. 57 The mind then joys beneath the wished release And finds her pains repaid with lasting peace. The Voyager, thus when every peril's o'er, Received with pleasure what he feared before, Recalls the shelving rocks and leeward strand, The helmless bark and vicinage of land. Or crashing masts, rent hull and scattered shrouds, When the scourged billows mingled with the clouds; Where rove my thoughts, and why this serious strain To thee whose ordered life has made it vain; But while the umbrageous copse absorbed I roam,. Lost to myself and friends, and social home, Some train of thought suspended sense invades, Till evening drops around her twilight shades. In vain for me these woodland roses blow And pendant woodbines down the hawthorn flow; Recruited sweets the late hushed zephyrs leave. And latent warblers hail the crimson eve. E'en now my restless fancy wings away In other climes, in other shades to stray, Through the deep gloom of your primeval woods, And by the cataract's ever-foaming flood; Strange foliage mark of trees before unknown. And plots of flowers in bright confusion thrown; And nameless tribes of hidden life explore Till my nerves tremble at the savage roar. Instant I fly to where your domes appear, New strung my nerves, and banished every fear; Hang o'er the peerless plain and tillaged scene Your mart, your commerce, nor thyself unseen. Forward I spring, my pleasure to declare. When, lo! the aerial vision melts in air; And nought but well known groves attract my eyes While night's dusk mantle saddens o'er the skies; Reason stepe in and warns me to retire, And will no more the etherial maids inspire. In time perhaps they'll strike the sprightly string, And wake to joy, thy hymeneals sing. Beauty, young loves their golden shafts displayed,. Wave their bright plumes and point the myrtle shade, While laughing Hymen bears his torch along. And choral Virgins chaunt the bridal song. J. W. 58 Prom Poulson's American Daily Advertiser. JAMES LOGAN FISHER. It is a mournful fact, that peculiar excellencies of character are apt to be associated with a fragility of constitution, which but too frequently deprives so- ciety, by an untimely death, of the advantages which might result from their full developement, and prac- tical application to the various offices of life. Within a limited sphere, however, these excellencies must be known and appreciated; and when the brief course of their possessor is ended, it becomes the duty of those who may have enjoyed his intimacy, to lay before the public a picture of his character, in order that at least the benefit of his example may not be entirely lost. Nothing affords a more pow- erful stimulus to the young, than the contemplation of an exemplary life brought prematurely to its close. No envious feelings here mingle with ad- miration; and the pattern does not seem beyond the scope of youthful powers, nor without the sphere of youthful sympathies, as when it is pre- sented with the accumulated attainments and ho- nours of long years of toil. From considerations such as these, one who was intimately acquainted with the late James Logan Fisher, and, in com- mon with all who knew him well, deeply regrets his loss, feels it a duty, as it is a melancholy satis- faction, to offer to the public a sketch of his lamented friend, though he despairs of being able to present it with that sweetness, beauty, and nobleness of fea- ture, with which it is indelibly impressed on his own heart. 59 The person of this fine youth, though slender, as became his age, was of good height and well pro- portioned, exhibiting, however, to an observant and experienced eye, a certain conformation, which evinced delicacy of constitution, and a predisposi- tion to pulmonary disease. His features were finely formed, and when flushed, as they sometimes were, with the fulness and bloom ojf apparent health, might be said to have been even beautiful; but the chief interest of his countenance lay in its expres- sion. This was usually of a pensive cast, sometimes sad, or even suffering from the influence of bodily uneasiness or pain; but there was, at the same time, a softness blended with dignity in his aspect; and his smile had in it something inexpressibly charm- ing, in part, perhaps, from its contrast with his ha- bitual seriousness, but chiefly from the mixed in- telligence and goodness of heart which beamed from every feature. With these recommendations of per- son and face, he possessed a composed, correct, and gentlemanly manner, without obtrusiveness on the one hand, or bashfulness on the other, and belong- ing to that happy medium, which, escaping observa- tion either for negligence or excessive refinement, allows fair scope to the influence of the intellectual and moral qualities. His address was, on all occa- sions, appropriate, manly and dignified, yet gentle: not the result of any studied efibrt, but obviously flowing from the tenor of his thoughts and feelings. Loftiness of sentiment and spirit was, even from boyhood, a prominent trait in his character. Inca- pable of a meanness in any shape, he seemed raised above the ordinary motives which actuate the youth- ful mind. The frivolities and vicious pleasures which carry away so many youth of the fairest promise, had no charms for him. In dignity of feeling, he was a man in his early years. The leisure usually 60 consumed in idle and fruitless pursuits, was devoted by him to tiie cultivation of a taste for the fine arts, particularly those of music and painting, for which he had a decided genius, and to which he resorted for relaxation from occupations of a graver charac- ter. This sobriety of conduct and purity of morals were not the results of a calculating spirit. Sordid feelings found no place in his breast, and his charac- ter was free from the least stain of hypocrisy or affectation. They flowed spontaneously from an elevation of thought and feeling, which was the gift of nature, and which placed him almost beyond the reach of ordinary temptation; yet no coldness of heart accompanied this elevation. On the contrary, his feelings were soft, and his affections warm. It is true that the circle of his friendships was not very extensive. The delicacy of his moral taste rendered him sensitive to those faults which were associated with hardened selfishness, or the least trait of meanness. But even here, though he evinced a certain reserve which precluded all approach to intimacy, the kindness of his heart prevented any act or expression offensive to the self-love of others. The same susceptibility which made him shrink from uncongenial characters, rendered him exqui- sitely sensible to traits which he approved; and his attachments, when once formed, were warm and durable. His admiration of virtues or attainments which he perceived, or thought that he perceived in others, was uncontaminated with the slightest tinc- ture of envy. His heart was therefore prepared to flow out, in such instances, with warm affection; and the interest which he felt he hesitated not to manifest on all occasions. It was not enough that he himself loved or esteemed; he was not satisfied unless the object of his affection and respect stood equally well in the feelings and opinions of others. 61 His commendation was open and unrestrained, and made the stronger impression because it came ob- viously from the heart. His elevation of sentiment, vtrhile thus accompanied with warmth of feeling to- wards others, was not marked by any inordinate self-esteem. He was ever ready to perceive, and even exaggerate his own faults; and the touching candour and ingenuousness with which he acknow- ledged them, and took blame to himself much be- yond his desert, were among the most engaging traits of his amiable character. To moral qualities, such as have beejj imperfectly described, he united talents of a high order. His taste for music and painting, and for the fine arts in general, has been alluded to. As a painter, espe- cially, he might have attained high eminence, had his views in relation to his future course of life al- lowed him to cultivate his genius for this art. As it was, though attending to it only as a relaxation and amusement, he has left evidences of his skill in numerous excellent portraits of his friends, and of others whose peculiarities of feature, or of condition in life, attracted his notice. Of his intellect, the most marked features were readiness of apprehen- sion and justness of conception; and these, united with a love of truth and a thirst for knowledge, would have distinguished him in the fields of sci- ence, had time and health been granted him for the full developement and exercise of his faculties. Notwithstanding, however, the delicacy of consti- tution, which precluded intense and long continued application to study, by the ravages which it inva- riably produced in his health, such was his perse- verance and his facility of acquiring knowledge, that none of his competitors of the same age, in the profession to which he devoted himself, either held 6 6S or deserved to hold a higher place in the estimation of those competent to judge. The grand aim of his life appeared to be the at- tainment of a merited and honourable distinction; and the course which he pursued was selected with judgment, and adhered to with perseverance till the close of his career. Justly believing that health was essential to great and successful efforts, he united with all his other pursuits a constant attention to counteract the morbid tenderness of his frame. With this view, as much as to increase his profes- sional knowledge, to gratify a liberal curiosity, or to cultivate his taste for the fine arts among the finished models of the old world, he determined to undertake a voyage to Europe, upon the comple- tion of his medical studies in the schools of Phila- delphia. After having made the tour of Great Bri- tain, of which several hundred miles were travelled on foot among the romantic scenes of Wales and the West of England, he proceeded to Paris, with the view of passing the winter in a course of attendance upon the lectures and hospitals of that great metro- polis. With health improved, and brightened pros- pects, he was preparing to engage in his professional pursuits, when he was seized with that disease, so fatal to persons of feeble constitution, the scarlet fever, which carried him off after a short illness of three days. The attention which he paid to his health, was with the elevated motive of preparing himself for greater subsequent usefulness and dis- tinction, not for the mere purpose of preserving a life which he held of little value. Death he never feared, and when it came, it did not find an unpre- pared victim. To himself, indeed, the event was no loss; as so much physical uneasiness had been mingled for him in the cup of life, that its exhaustion must have been rather a desirable relief than a dread- 63 ful evil. It is highly probable that, by the short struggle which terminated his life, he was spared the lingering, painful, and not less fatal ravages of that worst physical enemy of the human race, con- sumption of the lungs. His friends, however, have met with a loss which they will not easily supply. At present, they feel the deprivation too acutely to admit the full force of topics of consolation; but when the keen edge of their sorrow is blunted, and the selfishness of grief is passed, they will be able to look upon his brief life with real satisfaction. They will treasure up in their hearts the image of his pure and noble nature, and amid future cares, disappointments, and sorrows, will look upon it with refreshment and gratification, as the repre- sentative of one of the most beautiful of those green spots which are but too sparingly scattered over the desert of human nature. W. 64 An n^ddress to the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, by those Freemen of the City of Philadelphia who are now confined in the Mason^s Lodge, by virtue of a general warrant. Signed in Council by the Vice President of the Council of Pennsylvania. The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is re- quisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another. When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same per- son, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise lest the same monarch or senate enact tyrannical laws to execute them in a tyrannical manner. — Montes- quieu^ s Spirit of Laws, Book IX. Chap. vi. Having in the course of the present week laid be- fore the public some remonstrances, which our pre- sent situation called on us to make to the president and council, and in which we conceived you were equally, though not so immediately, concerned with ourselves, and perceiving that advantage is taken of our situation, to represent us to you, as men dan- gerous to the community; we think ourselves bound, by the duty we owe to our country, to our families, to those who have heretofore held us in esteem, and to the general welfare of society, to address you, and lay before you a particular state of a most dan- gerous attack, which has been made upon the cause of civil and religious freedom, by confining and at- 65 tempting to banish from their tenderest connections, a number of men, who can, without boasting, claim to themselves the characters of upright and good citizens. For some time past it has been a subject of pub- lic conversation, that lists were made out of great numbers of the citizens of Philadelphia, who were to be confined for offences supposed to have been committed against the interests of America. These reports were generally presumed to arise from in- temperate zeal and personal animosities; and, until the attempt which creates the necessity of calling your attention to us, little regard seemed to be paid to them. But a few days since the scene opened, and we the subscribers were called upon by persons not known as public officers of justice, to put our names to a paper, '^promising not to depart from our dwell- ing-houses, and to be ready to appear on the de- mand of the president and council of the state of Pennsylvania, and to refrain from doing any thing injurious to the United Free States of North Ame- rica, by speaking, writing, or otherwise; and from giving intelligence to the commander of the British forces, or any other person whatever, concerning public affairs." Conscious of our innocence in respect to the charges insinuated in this paper against us, and un- willing to part with the liberty of breathing the free air and following our lawful business beyond the narrow limits of our houses, disdaining to be con- sidered in so odious a light, as men who by crimes had forfeited our common and inherent rights, we refused to become voluntary prisoners, and rejected the proposal. We demanded with that boldness which is inseparable from innocence, to know by what authority they acted, of what crimes we were 6* 66 accused meriting such treatment; and though to some of us the small satisfaction was given of ac- quainting us they acted in pursuance of a recom- mendation of Congress; and to others was read part of a warrant from the president and council; yet not one of us was allowed the indisputable right of either reading or copying it. Although the great number of messengers employed in the execution of this warrant, and of the persons who were the ob- jects of it, varied some of the circumstances attend- ing it, yet the general tenor of their conduct was uniform, and marks the spirit which actuated them. We were all, upon our refusal to subscribe, either immediately or in some short time, conducted to this place, where we remained in close confinement under a military guard for twenty-four hours, ex- pecting to be informed of the cause of our being taken, and to have an opportunity of defending our- selves; but finding no notice taken of us by our persecutors, we at length unitedly demanded of one of the principal messengers a copy of the warrant, by virtue of which we were seized, in order that we might know from thence what heinous crimes were charged on us to justify such rigorous treat- ment. After consulting his employers, and causing some delay, he thought proper to grant our de- mand; but how were we astonished to find a gene- ral warrant, specifying no manner of offence against us, appointing no authority to hear and judge whe- ther we were guilty or innocent, nor limiting any duration to our confinement! Nor was this extra- ordinary warrant more exceptionable in these re- spects than in the powers given to the messengers to break, and search not only our own, but all the houses their heated imaginations might lead them to suspect. It would be tedious to remark all the gross enormities contained in this engine of modern 67 despotism: we therefore present you with a copy, from the bare perusal of which, you will form a bet- ter idea of the arbitrary spirit it breathes, than from any description we could possibly give it. IN COUNCIL. Philadelphia, Jiugust 31, 1777. ** Whereas the Congress of the United States of North America have, by their resolve of the 28th instant, (August), recommended to the executive powers of the several states to apprehend and se- cure all persons who have in their general conduct and conversation evidenced a disposition inimical to the cause of America; particularly Joshua Fisher, Abel James, James Pemberton, Henry Drinker, Israel Pemberton, John Pemberton, John James, Samuel Pleasants, Thomas Wharton, Sr., Thomas Fisher, (son of Joshua,) and Samuel Fisher, (son of Joshua,) together with all such papers in their pos- session as may be of a political nature, and that the persons so seized, be confined in such places, and treated in such manner, as shall be consistent with their respective characters and the security of their persons; and that the records and papers of the Meeting of Sufferings of the society of the people called Quakers, in the several states, be forthwith secured, and that such parts of them as may be of a political nature, be forthwith transmitted to Con- gress. ' mon jail, nor even to the state prison. ^^ Resolved, That the following persons be appoint- ed and authorized to carry into execution the re- solves of yesterday, respecting the arresting such persons as are deemed inimical to the cause of Ame- rican liberty, viz. William Bradford, William Hardy, Sbarpe Delany, Charles Wilson Peale, James Claypole, Captain M'Culloch, William Heysham, Nathaniel Donnell, John Purviance, Robert Smith, Joseph Blewer, William Carson, Paul Cox, Lazarus Pine, Adam Kemmel, Captain Birney, William Graham, John Downey, ♦ The original is marked with a cross. 70 John Galloway, James Kerr, John Li le, William Tharpe, and James Loughead, Thomas Bradford, James Cannon, Together with such other persons as they shall call to their assistance. George Bryan, Vice President. The power to search must necessarily extend to the opening of locks. George Bryan, Vice President. (A true copy) William Bradford." You will observe that the president and council, who know our characters, and to whom (but for their prejudice and want of candour in this instance), we could have appealed for the innocence of our conduct and conversation, have not undertaken to charge us with any offence, but rely as a foundation for their proceedings on the information contained in a recommendation of Congress, to whom the greatest part of us are scarcely known but by name, and who must have formed the hard judgment they pronounced against us unheard, from reports whispered by our enemies. Can any thing more decisively evidence the want of proof against us, and the injustice of the insinua- tions, than this stubborn incontrovertible fact. We have demanded as a matter of right, to be heard be- fore both those bodies, who have hitherto declined it — a demand, reasonable in itself, founded on the immutable principles of equity, and warranted by the constitution under which the council derive every power they claim. The powers granted by this warrant are such as in any free country, where the laws, and not the will of the governors, are the standard of justice. 71 would be reprobated, as over-turning every security that men can rely on. Your houses, which, by the law of the land, are your castles against invaders, your chambers, your closets, your desks, the reposi- tories of your deeds, your securities, your letters of business, or friendship, and other domestic con- cerns, which every man naturally wishes to keep within the circle of his own family, are permitted to be broken, searched, exposed to the prying eye of malignant curiosity, and all this without any well founded cause of suspicion. This is not declama- tion, nor an idle apprehension of imaginary griev- ances, but a true representation of what some of us have experienced in the execution of this unprece- dented commission. Nor can any man think hiVn- self safe, from the like, or perhaps more mischiev- ous effects, if a precedent of so extraordinary a nature be established by a tame acquiescence with the present wrong. By perusing the following remonstrance made to the Council by three of us, you will find that appli- cation was made for relief from our oppressions. A Remonstrance this day presented to the Presi- dent and Council, by the hands of their Secre- tary. To the President and Council of Pennsylvania. The Remonstrance of Israel Pemberton, John Hunt, and Samuel Pleasants, sheweth. That Lewis Nicola is about to deprive us of our liberty, by an order from you, of which the follow- ing is a copy, viz. In Council, September 3, 1777. Ordered, **That Colonel Nicola, town major, do take a proper guard and seize Israel Pemberton, 72 John Hunt and Samuel Pleasants, and conduct them to the Freemason's Lodge, and there confine them under guard till further orders." We are advised, and from our own knowledge of our rights and privilege as freemen, are assured, that your issuing this order is arbitrary, unjust and illegal, and we therefore believe it is our duty, in clear and express terms, to remonstrate against it. The order appears to be arbitrary, as you have assumed an authority, not founded on law or rea- son, to deprive us, who are peaceable men, and have never borne arms, of our liberty, by a military force, when you might have directed a legal course of proceeding — unjust, as we have not attempted, nor are charged with any act inconsistent with the character we have steadily maintained, of good citi- zens, solicitous to promote the real interest and prosperity of our country, and that it is illegal, is evident from the perusal and consideration of the constitution of the government, from which you derive all your authority and power. We therefore claim our undoubted right as free- men, having a just sense of the inestimable value of religious and civil liberty, to be heard before we are confined, in the manner directed by the said order; and we have the more urgent cause for insisting on this our right, as several of our fellow citizens have been some days, and now are confined by your order, and no opportunity is given them to be heard; and we have been informed that it is your purpose to send them and us into a distant part of the country, even beyond the limits of the jurisdic- tion you claim, and where the recourse we are justly and lawfully entitled to, of being heard, and of clearing ourselves from any charge or suspicions you may entertain of us, will be impracticable. We fervently desire you may be so wise as to I 73 attend to the dictates of truth and justice in your own minds, and observe the precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom you profess to believe in — "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," Matthew vii. 12, and then we have no doubt you will comply with this just claim we make, which will be duly acknow- ledged by your real friends and well-wishers, Israel Pemberton, John Hunt, Samuel Pleasants. Philadelphia, Ath 9th mo., 1777. We, the said subscribers, attended at the door of the Council-chamber, and made application by the Secretary to be admitted, in order to deliver our remonstrance, to which we could, after repeat- ed applications, obtain no other answer than that ^'Council had issued the arrest, in consequence of a resolve of Congress, and cannot now admit you to be heard." We therefore delivered our remonstrance to the Secretary, and waited until he came out on another occasion, and told us '*it had been read to the Council, and they afterwards proceeded to the other business which was before them." Immediately after which we were conducted by Lewis Nicola, to the Free-Masons' Lodge, where we are now con- fined, with a number of our fellow-citizens, with whom we have joined in a more full remonstrance to the President and Council; and this evening Wil- liam Bradford came to us and read to us a letter, of which the following is a copy, viz: Sir, Council have resolved to send the prisoners, now confined at the Free-Masons' Lodge, to Stanton, in the county of Augusta, in the state of Virginia, 7 74 there to be secured and treated in such manner as shall be consistent with their respective characters, and the security of their persons, which you are requested to communicate to them, and inform them that carriages will be provided for their ac- commodation in the journey, unless they choose to provide themselves therewith. It is proposed that they go off Saturday morning next. I am, with great respect. Your humble servant, T. Matlack, Secretary. Thursday^ Sep. 4, 1777. To Colonel W. Bradford. (Copy.) The above is a true copy of the letter I received this evening from T. Matlack, W. Bradford. By the letter published at the foot of it, you will see what are the ideas of justice entertained by the Council. Instead of the required hearing, to avoid such application, they resolved to banish us, un- heard, into an obscure corner of a country, near three hundred miles distant from our parents, our wives, our children, our dear and tender connec- tions, friends and acquaintance, to whom we owe, and from whom we expect protection, assistance, comfort, and every endearing office, to a country where the President and Council have no pretence of jurisdiction, from whence we may be liable to be further banished. Before the receipt of that letter, we had prepared and sent the following remonstrance: 75 To the President and Council of Pennsylvania. The Remonstrance of the Subscribers, Free- men, and Inhabitants of the City of Philadel- phia, now confined in the Free-Masons^ Lodge, sheweth: That the subscribers have been, by virtue of a warrant signed in Council by George Bryan, vice president, arrested in our houses, and on our lawful occasions, and conducted to this place, where we have been kept in close confinement, under a strong military guard, two or more days: that although divers of us demanded of the messengers who ar- rested us, and insisted on having copies of the said warrant, yet we were not able to procure the same, till this present time, but have remained here unac- cused and unheard. We now take the earliest op-> portunity of laying our grievances before your body, from whom we apprehend they proceed, and of claiming to ourselves the liberties and privileges to which we are entitled by the fundamental rules of justice, by our birthright and inheritance, the laws of the land, and by the express provision of the present constitution, under which your board derive their power. We apprehend that no man can lawfully be de- prived of his liberty without a warrant from some persons having competent authority, specifying an offence against the laws of the land, supported by oath or affirmation of the accuser, and limiting the time of his imprisonment until he is heard, or legal- ly discharged, unless the party be found in the actual perpetration of a crime. Natural justice, equally with law, declares that the party accused should know what he is to answer to, and have an opportunity of showing his innocence. These prin- 76 ciples are strongly enforced in the ninth and tenth sections of the declaration of rights, which form a fundamental and inviolable part of the constitution, from which you derive your power, and wherein it is declared, IX. "That in all prosecutions for criminal of- fences a man hath a right to be heard by himself and his counsel, to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses, to call for evidence in his favour, and a speedy pub- lic trial by an impartial jury of the country; with- out the unanimous consent of which jury, he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; nor can any man be justly deprived of his liberty, except by the laws of the land, or the judgment of his peers. X. "That the people have a right to hold them- selves, their houses, papers and possessions free from search or seizure, and therefore warrants, without oaths or affirmations first made, affording a sufficient foundation for them, and whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded or re- quired to search suspected places, or to seize any person or persons, his or their property not particu- larly described, are contrary to that right, and ought not to be granted." How far these principles have been adhered to in the course of this business we shall go on to show. Upon the examination of the said warrant, we find it is, in all respects, inadequate to these de- scriptions; altogether unprecedented in this or any free country, both in its substance, and the latitude given to the messengers who were to execute it, and wholly subversive of the very constitution you profess to support. The only charge on which it is founded, is a recommendation of Congress to ap- prehend and secure all persons who in their general 77 conduct and conversation have evidenced a disposi- tion inimical to the cause of America, and particu- larly naming some of us — but not suggesting the least offence to have been committed by us. It authorizes the messengers to search all papers belonging to us, upon a bare possibility that some- thing political may be found, but without the least ground for a suspicion of the kind. It requires papers, relative to the sufferings of the people called Quakers, to be seized, without limit- ing the search to any house, or number of houses; under colour of which every house in this city might be broke open. To the persons whom the Congress have thought proper to select, the warrant adds a number of the inhabitants of the city, of whom some of us are part, without the least insinuation that they are within the description given by the Congress in their re- commendation. It directs all these matters to be executed, (though of the highest importance to the liberties of the peo- ple,) at the discretion of a set of men who are under no qualification for the due execution of the office, and are unaccustomed to the forms of executing civil process, from whence probably have proceeded the excesses and irregularities committed by some of them, in divers instances, by refusing to give copies of the process to the parties arrested, by denying to some of us a reasonable time to consider of answers and prepare for confinement. In the absence of others, by breaking our desks and other private re- positories — and by ransacking and carrying off do- mestic papers, printed books, and other matters not within the terms of the warrant. It limits no time for the duration of our imprison- ment, nor points at any hearing, which is an abso- lute requisite to make a legal warrant; but con- 7* 78 founds in one warrant, the power to apprehend, and the authority to commit, without interposing a ju- dicial officer between the parties and the messenger. Upon the whole, we conceive this warrant and the proceedings thereupon, to be far more danger- ous in its tendency, and a more flagrant violation of every right which is dear to freemen, than any that can be found in the records of the English consti- tution. But when we consider the use to which this ge- neral warrant has been applied, and the persons upon whom it has been executed, {who challenge the world to charge them with offence), it becomes of too great magnitude to be considered as the cause of a few. It is the cause of every inhabitant, and may, if permitted to pass into a precedent, establish a system of arbitrary power unknown but in the in- quisition or the despotic courts of the east. What adds further to this alarming stretch of power is that we are informed the Vice President of the Council has declared to one of the magistrates of the city, who called on him to enquire into the cause of our confinement, that we were to be sent to Virginia unheard. Scarcely could we believe such a declaration could have been made by a person who fills the second place in the government, till we were this day con- firmed in the melancholy truth by three of the sub- scribers, whom you absolutely refused to hear in person or by counsel. We would remind you of the complaints urged by numbers of yourselves against the parliament of Great Britain, for con- demning the town of Boston unheard, and we call upon you to reconcile your present conduct with your then professions, or your repeated declarations in favour of general liberty. In the name, therefore, of the whole body of the 79 freemen of Pennsylvania, whose liberties are radi- cally struck at in this arbitrary imprisonment of us, their unoffending fellow citizens, we demand an audience, that so our innocence may appear, and persecution give place to justice. But if, regard- less of every sacred obligation by which men are bound to each other in society, and of that constitu- tion by which you profess to govern, which you have so loudly magnified for the free spirit it breathes, you are still determined to proceed, be the appeal to the Righteous Judge of all the earth for the integrity of our hearts, and the unparalleled tyranny of your measures. James Pemberton, Thomas Affleck, Thomas Wharton, Charles Jervis, Thomas Coombe, William Smith, (broker,) Edward Pennington, William Drewet Smith, Henry Drinker, Thomas Fisher, Phineas Bond, Miers Fisher, Thomas Gilpin, Charles Eddy, John Pemberton, Israel Pemberton, Thomas Pike, John Hunt, Owen Jones, Jr. Samuel Pleasants. Masons^ Lodge, Philadelphia, 1 September Ath, \111. \ N. B. The three last subscribers were first at- tended by some of those who executed the general warrant; but after their remonstrance to the Presi- dent and Council, were arrested by Lewis Nicola, and conducted to the Lodge by a special order to him. The foregoing remonstrance was delivered to Thomas Wharton, Jr., President, &c. last evening, who promised to lay it before Council, and send an 80 answer to one of the gentlemen, who delivered it to him this morning, but no answer has yet been re- ceived. September bth, half past two o'clock, P. M. Thus the matter rested till about seven o'clock yesterday evening, when instead of returning an answer to our repeated demand of a hearing, which we still adhere to as our undoubted right, the secre- tary of the Council inclosed to William Bradford a copy of a new resolve, desiring him to acquaint us with it; wherein, without the least mention of sup- porting their insinuations against us, they shift the ground on which they set out, and propose a test to be taken by us, in full satisfaction of all their sus- picions. To this resolve we are preparing an answer, which we intend soon to lay before them: and in the mean time we beg you will avoid the being in- fluenced by any anonymous publications which our adversaries, to draw our attention from the imme- diate object before us, may utter against us, filled with falsehoods and misrepresentations, which they may be encouraged to publish from an assurance that the printers would conceal their names. Our attention is now engaged in a most important struggle for civil and religious liberty; we therefore hope you will not expect us to waste that time in refuting such anonymous performances, which is wholly requisite for bringing this grand point to a proper conclusion. We cannot however wholly pass by a publication in the last Evening Post, cal- culated to throw an odium on tiie just cause in which we are suffering. It is represented in that piece, that the Quakers are the principal objects of resentment, and the cause assigned is the issuing "seditious publications styled Testimonies, one of 81 which they assert has been unseasonably published at two critical periods. A single ray of christian charity would be suffi- cient to show the uncandid construction put by that writer upon the exercise of those religious rights se- cured by the constitution to every religious society of warning and admonishing their members to avoid every thing inconsistent with the principles they hold. It is well known that at both the times hinted at, contending armies were endeavouring, within the circle of their yearly meeting, to pro- cure all persons that should come in their way to join them in military preparations. The testimony of the Quakers is against all wars and fighting, and against entering into military en- gagements of any kind; surely, then, it was the right of the representatives of that society to cau- tion their members from engaging in any thing con- trary to their religious principles. But if it be an offence in those who were active in that publica- tion, what have those of us done who are not mem- bers of that society, who are of the church of Eng- land, (which two denominations comprehend all the subscribers), and who have published no testimo- nies. But this cannot be considered by the writer as a dangerous publication, or why does he republish it in the present critical situation of public aff'airs; surely this charge is a mere pretence to vilify a respectable body of the inhabitants. Thus we have furnished you with a calm and dispassionate account of our present circumstances, and we wish to have it considered as a vindication of our own characters, and a peaceable, though firm assertion of the unalienable rights of freemen. Difficulties may perhaps await us, but relying on the assistance of that Almighty Being, who is the 82 guardian of the innocent, we prepare to meet them rather than endanger public happiness and freedom by a voluntary surrender of those rights which we have never forfeited. Mason's LodgCy September 6th, 1777. Israel Pemberton, Miers Fisher, John Hunt, Thomas Fisher, James Pemberton, Samuel R. Fisher, Thomas Wharton, Thomas Affleck, John Pemberton, Charles Jervis, Thomas Coombe, William Smith, (broker,) Edward Pennington, Thomas Pike, Henry Drinker, William Drewet Smith, Samuel Pleasants, Elijah Brown, Thomas Gilpin, Charles Eddy, Phineas Bond, Owen Jones, Jr. September 8th, 1777. P. S. The foregoing address was prepared and intended for publication in the Evening Post of the 6th instant; but before we thought proper to deli- ver it to the printer, we chose to have some con- versation with him; he was sent for and attended us, we told him we had a paper to publish in our vindication, with our names signed; that as we were confined upon some suspicions unknown to us, it was hard we should be attacked by anonymous writers in the papers, our characters aspersed, and prejudices excited against us, when we were de- manding a hearing, which ought to be unbiassed and impartial. We therefore required of him, as what we thought a matter of right, according to the rules of every impartial free press, that he would refrain from publishing hereafter any anonymous papers reflecting upon us, and that he would acquaint us with the name of the writer of two paragraphs, in the then last Post, highly injurious to our charac- 83 ters. To the former he gave us an absolute pro- mise to adhere; to the latter, he said, that he could not give up the name without the writer's consent; that he would go to him and return with his answer as soon as he could, at the same time promising that if we desired it he would insert our address in the Post of that evening, though it would delay its ap- pearance till some time the next day. He went away and we have not since heard from him. Hence we conclude the writer is ashamed to avow the performance. We now lay before you a remonstrance presented to Congress by eight of us, who were selected by them, and recommended to the Council as dangerous men, who ought to be secured, the rest of us being named by the Council themselves, and included to- gether with them in the general warrant. TO THE CONGRESS. The Remonstrance of the Subscribers, Citizens of Philadelphia, sheweth: That we are now confined by a military guard, having been arrested and deprived of our liberty by order of the President and Council of Pennsylvania, in consequence of a resolve made by you, on the 28th day of the last month, '^recommending to the executive powers of the several states, to apprehend and secure all persons, who have, in their general conduct and conversation, evidenced a disposition inimical to the cause of America," and particularly naming us, the subscribers, 'together with all such papers in our possession as may be of a political na- ture;" the copy of which resolve we could not ob- tain till yesterday afternoon. Conscious of our innocence, and that we have ministered no just occasion to have our characters 64 thus traduced and injuriously treated, we have re- monstrated to the said President and Council against their arbitrary, unjust and illegal proceedings against us, and demanded our undoubted right of being heard by them; knowing we can manifest the false- hood and injustice of any injurious charge or suspi- cions they or you may entertain concerning us; but we are denied the opportunity of such a hearing, and were last evening informed, by their order, that they have resolved to send us to Stanton, in the county of Augusta, in Virginia, to be secured there; and we are now told that place is appointed by you for our confinement. We therefore, by our love to our country, whose true interest and prosperity we have steadily pur- sued, through the course of our conduct and con- versations, and in justice to our characters as free- men and christians, with that freedom and resolution which influences men, conscious of being void of just cause of ojffence, are bound to remonstrate against your arbitrary, unjust, and cruel treatment of us, our characters, and families, and against the course of proceeding you have chose and prescribed; by which the liberty, property, and character of every freeman in America is, or may be endan- gered. Most of you are not personally known to us, nor are we to you; and few of you have had the opportunity of conversing with any of us, or of knowing any thing more of our conduct and con- versation than what you have received from others, and thus we are subjected to the unjust suspicions you have entertained from the uncertain reports of our adversaries, and are condemned unheard, to be deprived of our most endearing connections and temporal enjoyments, when our personal care of them is most immediately necessary. We are therefore engaged in the most solemn 85 manner, to call upon and entreat you to reconsider the course of your proceedings respecting us; and either by yourselves, or the said President and Council, to give us the opportunity of hearing and answering to every matter suggested to, and enter- tained by you or them against us — being assured we shall appear to be true friends to, and anxiously so- licitous for the prosperity of America, on the prin- ciples of justice and liberty — and though we are clearly convinced, from the precepts of Christ, the doctrine of his apostles, and the example of his fol- lowers in the primitive ages of Christianity, that all outward wars and fightings are unlawful, and there- fore cannot join therein, for any cause whatever — we cannot but remind you, that we are by the same principles restrained from pursuing any measures inconsistent with the apostolic advice, '*To live peaceably with all men," under whatever powers it is our lot to live, which rule of conduct we are de- termined to observe, whatever you or any others may determine concerning us. Your characters in the conspicuous station you stand, and the regard due to the liberties, proper- ties, and even the lives of those who are, and may be affected by the course of your proceedings, so loudly proclaim the justice of our demand of a hearing, that if more time remained for it, we judge farther reasoning unnecessary, beseeching you to remember that we are all to appear before the tri- bunal of Divine Justice, there to render an account of our actions, and to receive a reward according as our works have been. And we sincerely desire for you, as we do for ourselves, that we may all so direct our course that we may at that tribunal re- ceive the answer <'of well done," and enjoy the re- ward of eternal peace and happiness. We are your real friends, Israel Pemberton, James Pemberton, 8 86 John Pemberton, Thomas Fisher, Thomas Wharton, Samuel Pleasants, Henry Drinker, Samuel R. Fisher. Philadelphia, 5th 9lh mo. 1777, Lodge-Mley. We have seen the resolves of Congress published in the Evening Post, of which we shall take due notice; and also the papers published by order of Congress in a supplement to the Pennsylvania Packet; as they are particularly pointed at a reli- gious society, who are capable of answering for their own conduct, we shall leave it to them to con- fute the insinuations contained in some parts of that publication, which some of us know they are able to do. We also think it our duty to acquaint you, that Alexander Stedman and Charles Stedman, Jr., who are included in the general warrant, were appre- hended and brought here with us, but in a few hours they were carried under guard to the new prison, where we are informed they yet remain as much neglected by their accusers as we have been. N. B. Seven o'clock, P. M. We presented another remonstrance to the President and Council this day, to which we have received an answer, both which we shall endeavour to hand to the pub- lic to-morrow. Masons' Lodge, September 9, 1777. We now lay before you the papers referred to in our note of last evening, together with a copy of a letter received by Dr. Hutchinson, informing us of the result of Council upon the last remonstrance. Copy of a letter from Timothy Matlack to Wil- liam Bradford. Philadelphia, September 5, 1777. Sir, — A remonstrance signed by the gentlemen 87 confined at the Masons* Lodge, having been pre- sented to Council and read, the Council took the same into consideration and asked the advice of Congress thereupon, which being received, Council thereupon passed the following resolve, which they beg the favour of you to communicate to the afore- said gentlemen. IN COUNCIL, Philadelphia, September 5, 1777. Resolved, That such of the persons now confined in the Lodge, as shall take and subscribe the oath or affirmation required by law in this common- wealth; or that shall take and subscribe the follow- ing oath or affirmation, to wit: **I do swear, (or affirm,) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a free and independent state/' shall be discharged. I am, respectfully, your very humble servant, T. Matlack, Secretary. To Col. W. Bradford. N. B. This letter was delivered to Mr. Bradford as the answer of Council to the second remon- strance. Copy of a third remonstrance presented to the President and Council yesterday by the hands of Samuel Rhoads and Dr. Hutchinson. TO THE PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL OF PENNTSLVANIA. The remonstrance of the subscribers, freemen and inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia, now confined in the Masons^ Lodge, sheweth: That it is with pain we find ourselves under the disagreeable necessity of again remonstrating against 88 your extraordinary mode of treating us; when our last remonstrance was delivered to your President, he gave expectation to our fellow citizens who wait- ed on him, that he would lay it before you and re- turn an answer; notwithstanding which, we have as yet received no answer whatsoever to it, but in- stead thereof, a paper signed by your Secretary was delivered to us by William Bradford, the contents of which we shall have occasion to remark on. But we must not omit another letter received through the same channel, by which we are con- firmed in the truth of what we had before heard, that on the very day you were addressed by three of us to be heard, and before we were furnished with a copy of the general warrant, you had resolved to banish us to Stanton, in the county of Augusta, in Virginia, a place where you claim no jurisdiction, and to which we are utter strangers; this resolution formed against a body of innocent freemen, while demanding to be heard, is, wc believe, the first in- stance of the kind to be found in the history of our country: and, besides the violent infringement of the laws and constitution which you have engaged to govern by, the hardship is heightened by the par- ticular situation of that country at this time; as it is publicly asserted, that the Indians have alread}*^ com- menced hostilities upon the frontiers of Virginia,not very far distant from the place of our intended ba- nishment, as though you could find no place of se- curity without endangering our lives. From the professions you have repeatedly made of your love of liberty and justice, and the manner in which we have demanded our undoubted rights, we had reason to expect to have heard from you on the subject of our last remonstrance; but we find we were mistaken, and the complaints of injured free- men still remain unanswered. 89 Whether you imaorine we are of too little conse- quence to be regarded, or expect that confinement will reduce us to a tame acquiescence with your ar- bitrary proceedings, we shall not determine — it will not divert our attention from the important object we have in view in behalf of ourselves and our country; nor will subtle proposals, fit only to cap- tivate the unwary, decoy us from the sure ground on which we stand into a measure as illegal and un- constitutional as your general warrant, and our op- pressive treatment under it. The proposition contained in your resolve of the 5th instant to discharge us upon taking the test '^re- quired by law," or the new test framed by your- selves, now demands our notice. And first we would observe that if you had a right to make such a proposition, we think it very improper to be made to men in our situation. You have first deprived us of our liberty on one pretence, which, finding you are not able to justify, you wave, and require as a condition of our enlargement, that we should confess ourselves men of suspicious charac- ters by doing what ought not to be expected from innocent men. This kind of procedure is not new in history; for though the great patriots of the revo- lution found better expedients for the security of their government than what arises from oaths of ab- juration, yet the annals both of Old and New Eng- land are stained with accounts of men, in circum- stances similar to our own, dragged before magis- trates on the bare suspicion of crimes; of whom tests, which they conscientiously scrupled to take, have been afterwards demanded as the condition of their enlargement. But such examples we should hope would not have found patrons among men professing to be reformers upon all the plans of civil 8* 90 and religious liberty adopted by the free nations of Europe. It is strange to us that men entrusted with su- preme executive powers should be so regardless of the laws you have so solemnly engaged to execute, as to require us to do more than those very laws enjoin. By the test act every inhabitant may take the test and enjoy all the rights of freemen, or de- cline it, and sul^mit to a deprivation of some of them of which are expressed in that act; but no power is given to any officer of justice whatsoever to tender it to any person except in particular circumstances, and as the charge against us is not founded on a breach of that law, it is evident you exceeded your authority in putting it to us. But if, after what is past, we could be surprised at any thing you do, we should have been astonished at the rapid progress of your usurpation in assuming legislative powers to yourselves while the assembly was sitting under the same roof. You have over- turned the only security the constitution has given the people against absolute despotism, by attempt- ing to exercise the authority of framing a resolve operating as a law at the same time, the powers of executing it. Your duty as one branch of the constitution is confined to the executing the laws as you find them, and does not extend to the making new ones to salve your own irregular conduct. You have undertaken all this by proposing a new test of your own enact- ing, unknovvn to the laws and constitution of the government which you are to execute, unsupported by any authority under which you act; and this an ex post facto \diW made to criminate by a refusal those who before were innocent. And if we were, in your opinion, such dangerous persons as you, un- der the sanction of the Congress have endeavoured 91 to represent us, and could not be secured without sending us to so remote and dangerous a part of the country, beyond the limits of your jurisdiction, how will the public be secured by our taking either of the tests you have proposed; that men of bad prin- ciples will submit to any tests to cover their dan- gerous and wicked purposes is evident to all who have been conversant in public affairs. The great Lord Halifax, who, in the name of the people of England, presented the crown to King William and Queen Mary at the revolution, has expressed himself on this subject in the following nervous terms: "As there is no real security to any state by oaths, so no private person, much less statesman, would ever order his affairs as relying on it; for no man would ever sleep with open doors or unlocked-up-treasure, or plate, should all the town be sworn not to rob." Another most extraordinary proceeding we find in your Secretary's letter, where he says that you asked and received the advice of Congress, upon our remonstrance, before you determined upon it. What! shall unaccused citizens, demanding their inherent rights, be delayed or refused a hearing until Con- gress can be consulted? A body who have engaged not to interfere in the internal police of the govern- ment. Perhaps you thought the authority of a re- commendation from Congress would render your arbitrary designs effectual, and countenance you in the eyes of the people. We trust you will be mis- taken, and that neither Congress nor the people will approve your measures. Having thus remarked on your proposal, protest- ing our innocence, we again repeat our pressing de- mand, to be informed of the cause of our commit- ment, and to have a hearing in the face of our 92 country, before whom we shall either stand ac- quitted or condemned. Israel Pemberton, William Drewet Smith, James Pemberton, Samuel Pleasants, John Hunt, William Smith, (broker,) Thomas Wharton, Charles Jervis, Thomas Coombe, Thomas Pike, Edward Pennington, Thomas Gilpin, John Pemberton, Samuel R. Fisher, Henry Drinker, Thomas Fisher, Phineas Bond, Elijah Brown, Thomas Affleck, Miers Fisher, Owen Jones, Jr. Charles Eddy, Philadelphia^ September 8, 1777. Sir, — The remonstrance delivered by you and Samuel Rhoads, Esq. to me, has been read in Coun- cil, and I am directed to acquaint you, that the bu- siness to which this remonstrance relates, is referred to Congress. I am, with great respect. Your humble servant, T. Matlack, Secretary. To Dr. Hutchinson. (Present.) Mason's Lodge^ September 9, 1777, 10 o'clock, P. M. TO THE INHABITANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA. The following is a copy of a paper we received at half past four o^ clock this ofternoon, and we have since received orders to prepare for our banishment to-morrow. IN COUNCIL. Philadelphia,, September 9, 1777. Besotved, That James Pemberton, Henry Drink- er, Israel Pemberton, John Pemberton, Samuel 93 Pleasants, Thomas Wharton, Sr., Thomas Fisher, (son of Joshua,) Samuel Fisher, (Son of Joshua,) Miers Fisher, Elijah Brown, John Hunt, Phineas Bond, Rev. Thomas Coombe, Charles Jervis, Wil- liam Drewet Smith, Charles Eddy, Thomas Pike, Owen Jones, Jr., Edward Pennington, William Smith, Thomas Gilpin, and Thomas Affleck, ap- prehended by Council, as persons who have uni- formly manifested by their general conduct and conversation, a disposition highly inimical to the cause of America, and now imprisoned in the Free- masons' Lodge in this city, they refusing to confine themselves to their several dwellings, and thereby making the restraint of their persons in another manner necessary; and having refused to promise to refrain from corresponding with the enemy, and also declined giving any assurance of allegiance to this state, as of right they ought, do thereby re- nounce all the privileges of citizenship; and that it appears they consider themselves as subjects of the King of Great Britain, the enemy of this and the other United States of America; and that they ought to be proceeded with accordingly. Resolved, That persons of like characters, and in emergencies equal to the present, when the enemy is at our doors, have, in the other states, been ar- rested and secured upon suspicions arising from their general behaviour and refusal to acknowledge their allegiance to the states, of which they were the pro- per subjects; and that such proceedings may be abundantly justified by the conduct of the freest na- tions, and the authority of the most judicious civi- lians. Therefore, Resolved, That the persons whose names are mentioned above, be, without further delay, re- moved to Stanton, in Virginia, there to be treated according to their characters and stations, as far as d4 may be consistent with the securing of their persons. Also, Resolved, That William Imlay, said to be a sub- ject of the state of New York, having behaved in like manner as the persons above mentioned, and in particular declined to give assurance of allegiance to the state of New York, be removed and secured with the rest. Ordered, That Colonel Nicola, the town major, se- cure the prisoners above named now in the Masons' Lodge, and assist in removing them out of the city. Extract from the minutes. T. Matlack, Secretary. As we consider this to be the highest act of ty- ranny that has been exercised in any age or country, where the shadow of liberty was left, we have, in the following manner, entered our protest against their proceedings. TO THE PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL OP PENNSYLVANIA. The remonstrance and protest of the subscribers, sheweth: That your resolve of this day was this afternoon delivered to us; which is the more unexpected, as last evening your Secretary informed us you had referred our business to Congress, to whom we were about further to apply. In this resolve, contrary to the inherent rights of mankind, you condemn us to banishment unheard. You determine matters concerning us, which we could have disapproved had our right to a hearing been granted. The charge against us of refusing "to promise to refrain from corresponding with the enemy," insi- nuates that we have already held such correspond- ence, which we utterly and solemnly deny. 95 The tests you proposed we were by no law bound to subscribe; and notwithstanding our refusing them we are still justly and lawfully entitled to all the rights of citizenship, of which you are attempting to deprive us. We have never been suffered to come before you to evince our innocence, and remove suspicions which you have laboured to instil into the minds of others, and at the same time knew to be groundless, although Congress recommended it to you to give us a hearing, and your President this morning as- sured two of our friends we should have it. In vindication of our characters, we who are of the people called Quakers, are free to declare, that, Although at the time many of our forefathers were convinced of the truth which we, their de- scendants now profess, great fluctuations and various changes and turnings happened in government, and they were greatly vilified and persecuted for a firm and steady adherence to their peaceable and inoffen- sive principles, yet they were preserved from any thing tending to promote insurrections, conspira- cies, or the shedding of blood; and during the trou- bles which by permission of Divine Providence have latterly prevailed, we have steadily maintained our religious principles in these respects, and have not held any correspondence with the contending parties, as is unjustly insinuated, but are withheld and restrained from being concerned in such mat- ters by that divine principle of grace and truth which we profess to be our guide and rule through life. This is of more force and obligation than all the tests and declarations devised by men. And we, who are of the church of England, are free to declare to you and to the world, that we never have at any time during the present contro- versy, either directly or indirectly, "communicated any intelligence whatever to the commander of the 96 British forces, or any other person concerned in public affairs.'^ And with the same cheerfulness we would have engaged not to hold any such cor- respondence in future, had not the requisition been coupled with ignominious and illegal restrictions, subjecting us to become prisoners within the walls of our own dwellings, and to surrender ourselves to the President and Council on demand. This the clear consciousness of our own innocence absolutely forbade us to accede to. Upon the whole, your proceedings have been so arbitrary that words are wanting to express our sense of them. We do, therefore, as the last office we expect you will now suffer us to perform for the benefit of our country, in behalf of ourselves and those freemen of Pennsylvania who still have any regard for liberty, solemnly remonstrate and pro- test against your whole conduct in this unreasonable excess of power exercised by you. That the evil and destructive spirit of pride, am- bition and arbitrary power, with which you have been actuated, may cease and be no more; and that peace on earth and good will to men may happily take the place thereof in your and all men's minds, is the sincere desire of your oppressed and injured fellow citizens. Israel Pemberton, Owen Jones, Jr. John Hunt, Thomas Gilpin, James Pemberton, Charles Jervis, John Pemberton, Phineas Bond, Thomas Wharton, Thomas Affleck, Edward Pennington, William Drewet Smith, Thomas Coombe, Thomas Pike, Henry Drinker, William Smith, (broker,) Thomas Fisher, Elijah Brown, Samuel Pleasants. Charles Eddy, Samuel R. Fisher, Miers Fisher. 97 Note. These individuals were banished to Winchester, in Virginia, in the autumn of 1777, on account of the unfounded jealousies of some persons then in rule. During this exile, two of them died — Thomas Gilpin on 3d mo. 1, 1778, and John Hunt, who was seized with a mortification in one of his legs, and sunk under its amputation on 3d mo. 31, 1778. To the Memories of Thomas Gilpin and John Hunt, who died exiles in Virginia, \11S. The feeling bosom mourns the widow's woe. And shares your anguish in the afflictive blow: Nature and friendship with united powers. Would taste the bitter cup to sweeten yours; But ah! this stroke too deep, and must demand Superior strength to nature's feeble hand; And may this strength sufficient be display'd. Support in suffering, and your weakness aid; Thro' the dark vale of woes its care extend. The orphan's father and the widow's friend: But, tho' deprived of what your soul held dear. The kind companion and the friend sincere; Though thus deprived (whose aggravated blow Points the keen shaft, and swells the cup of woe,) His name shall live in undecaying bloom. Beyond the dreary winter of the tomb; Beyond the oppressor's power shall victor rise, "Who fell, to injured rights, a sacrifice;" Stood for that freedom ancient patriots plann'd, "The friends of law, and fathers of the land." Thus firm, like them, (tho' sufferings interposed,) He lived the patriot, and the christian closed. And thou, dear friend of venerable name. From friendship must the warm memorial claim; Whose pious labours with a christian care. To virtue call'd, and traced the insidious snare. That led the unwary traveller's steps astray, A kind director of the well known way. How oft with holy zeal his spirit glow'd. How from his lips th' instructive precepts flow'd. And wing'd the preacher, as he soar'd sublime Above the clouds that circle nature's clime; 9 98 "Drew back the veil, the mystic truths display, And on deep darkness shed the dawning day; Explor'd the lost amidst each dangerous snare; Confirm'd the feeble and the mourners cheer; Explained the types, and from their shadows draw The healing doctrine of Messiah's law; Messiah's law, the christian's strength divine, The living substance of the legal sign;" Till warm with sacred love we view him rise, An ardent claimant for his native skies; Unfold in vision Heaven's immortal day, And hail the dawn that broke the bands of clay. Ah, favour'd soul! 'tis selfish here to mourn. Shall tears defile thy venerable urn"? No, rather join the chorus of the blest, "And hail the pilgrim to his holy rest," Where all the conflicts of probation cease, And painful labours close in sacred peace. Now safe from each envenom'd shaft of time. No more sad exiles from your native clime; With God's acceptance blest, you stand secure From base oppression, and the tyrant's power; Enraptur'd join your kindred race above, In peaceful climes of liberty and love. But why thus wrench'd from all the social ties. Nature's soft claims, and friendship's" sympathies; Why left the cruel bondage to deplore, "And fall your victims on an exiled shorel" So yours to answer at Heaven's awful bar. When the swift witness, conscience, shall appear; Where the mean subterfuge cannot avail. And all your subtle sophistry will fail; Where righteous retribution shall decide. And you shall share the justice you denied. Fidelia. 99 Mary Shackleton to Sarah G. Dillwyn, wife of George Dillwyn. While now fair London's turrets rise. With pomp majestic to thy view, While joyful friends salute thine eyes, Accept thy Mary's fond adieu; For thou will kindly condescend. Thy gentle spirit well I know, To let thy Mary call thee friend, Nor will she the lov'd claim forego. O! thou, who left thy native bowers. By nature deck'd profusely gay. Where suns of brighter beam than ours, Diffuse the golden flood of day; Who, with thy virtuous partner dear, To distant lands did'st dare to move. His dangers and distress to cheer, Fair pattern of connubial love. Oh! when th' allotted hour shall come, May he who helps in time of need. Conduct you to your longing home. And crown with peace that blessed meed. Far distant then from every scene. On poor Hibernia's humble shore, The vast Atlantic rolls between. And I must never see thee more. When on those blooming banks reclin'd. Where Delaware's broad surges roll. Ah! think where Gricuse's waters wind, Let absent friends engage thy souL Still view that vale with partial eyes. Where waves the academic shade; And still that humble dwelling prize. Beside the quiet river laid. For here are hearts with truth sincere, Thy social friendship fond to own, The spark of love is cherish'd here, Which floods of ocean cannot drown. 100 Testimony from the Monthly Meeting of Phila- delphia for the Southern Districts, concerning Hannah Fisher. Believing that a commemoration of the useful lives and peaceful deaths of those who have endea- voured faithfully to follow the Redeemer, in the path of humility and self-denial, has often been be- neficial to survivors, and tended to encourage the youthful mind to yield to the precious visitations of Divine love, — we are engaged to give forth a me- morial concerning our beloved friend, Hannah Fisher. She was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Rod- man, and was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in the 4th month, 1764. Her father dying when she was very young, the care of a large family devolved upon her mother, to whose exemplary and judicious deportment, our dear friend has often made grateful acknowledgment. This maternal care, co-operating with the tendering impressions of Divine love with which her mind was early visited, became the means of her preservation in much innocence. In the year 1793, she was married to our friend Sa- muel R. Fisher, and became a member of this Monthly Meeting, and through the renewed and humbling baptisms of the Divine Spirit, was quali- fied for usefulness therein. In the year 1800, after a season of deep exercise, she came forth in the mi- nistry, and being faithful in the little, experienced an enlargement in the gift, to the com.fort and re- freshment of many. From the general tenor of her conversation, and the savour of her spirit, it was evident, that having received with meekness the lOL engrafted word, and abiding patiently under its in- fluence, she was enabled to bring forth good fruits: hence flowed, as streams from their proper fountain, her exemplary deportment; her care in frequently reading the Holy Scriptures in the family; and the faithful testimony which she bore, by her consistent example, to that plainness and simplicity which our christian principles lead into; frequently expressing her thankfulness that she had been enabled to be faithful herein; adding, <'I have often felt the cross in it, but it has been to me a great means of pre- servation/' In her social intercourse, she evinced a mind train- ed in the discipline of that charity which thinketh no evil, and was ready to do unto others as she would that others should do unto her. Her sympathizing spirit was often drawn to visit the afflicted, and she was qualified to speak a word in season to the weary. To the poor she was a liberal, judicious, and feeling friend. Thus, through obedience to the manifesta- tions of the spirit of truth in her own mind, she was enabled to do her day's work in the day time. Her illness was short, but the result was not alarming to her; it was evident she was in readiness. For se- veral days previous to the solemn close, she was at various times engaged in expressing to the different members of her family and other friends, lively ex- hortation, tender acknowledgment, and pertinent remarks on the necessity of being prepared for the final scene. To a friend sitting by her, she said, "I have desired that my children may give up in the morning of their day, and join hand in hand with the faithful labourers in the Lord's vineyard;" add- ing, **I feel nothing in my way. I feel thankful in my bed of sickness, that I have given up much in the cross to my natural inclination, and that I have been favoured to keep the furniture of the 102 house and my clothing plain and simple." At an- other time, addressing her children, she said, "Live in love, my dear children, may you all live in love; it will sweeten every bitter cup; there is no comfort without it." Again, ^'All is done, all is done. It would be a pity for me to recover, I feel so re- signed, so sweet, I feel as if I were already in hea- v-en.'^ At another time she said, her illness had been a time of suffering to the body, but not to the mind; that all was comfortable there; adding, "What a mercy! that when the poor body is in suffering, the mind should be preserved in such tranquillity." Her affliction of body appeared to be great; and she once expressed, she thought a part of it might be on account of survivors, that they might see it would not do to put off the day's work until the evening; that it was enough then to have bodily suffering. In the night previous to her close, she said, *'Lord I love thee; Lord thou art with me: I love thee because thou hast heard my supplication. Bless the Lord, my soul!" About an hour before she ceased to breathe, she sweetly expressed, ^*The Lord is with me; I bless his hand. I bless his arm." Which, at that solemn season, clearly con- veyed to the minds of those present, her resigna- tion to this allotment of unerring wisdom, and her thankful sense of the supporting Arm under it. Near the close, she said, 'Hhe work is finished." Thus, we believe, through the efficacy of that grace to which she bore impressive testimony in our meeting a few days before her removal, she has been enabled to ''fight a good fight, to keep the faith, and to enter into that rest which is prepared for the righteous." She died the 12th of the 9th month, 1819, in the fifty-sixth year of her age. 103 BENJAMIN RIDGWAY SMITH. Obituary. Second-month 28th, 1809. Died, yesterday morning, after a painful and lin- gering illness, which he bore with the patience and fortitude of a Christian, Benjamin R. Smith, son of James Smith, merchant of this city, in the 22nd year of his age. Few instances of death, apparently so untimely and premature, as this occur. Just entering the ca- reer of busy life, with as flattering prospects, and as pleasing hopes of success and respectability, as any one ever commenced it with; and having every tie to endear him to the world, whose troubles he had not yet felt, and whose disappointments had not yet wrung his youthful bosom with anguish, he received the awful summons, which I doubt not called him to ^'another and a better world. ^' Nature seemed to have formed him in one of her happiest moods, not indeed for a life of brilliant ex- ploits, or extraordinary achievements, but for a course of peaceful serenity and rational felicity, under the auspices of innocence, and direction of virtue. A residence of several years in Europe had enabled him to collect a stock of information uncommon for his years, and highly useful to him as a merchant. He read and spoke the French and German languages with the greatest facility, and was well acquainted with the commercial regulations, customs, and literature of those countries. But nought did those advantages avail. In "the day spring of youth," the bright morning of his life has been suddenly clouded, and his sun has set to rise no more." 104 NICHOLAS WALN. As the biography of some eminent men, in an- cient and modern history, is little more or less than the history of their own times, their country or na- tions; — so it would be difficult to write the life of Nicholas Waln, without allusion to the history of the religious Society of Friends, during his time, both in Europe and America. And yet, though he had by birth, a right of membership among Friends, he appears to have kept as far from them as any mo- ral man could, both in profession and practice, until he was about thirty years of age. The pursuit of popularity and wealth then engrossed his attention; and that he attained both in a remarkable degree, for so young a man, was the opinion and admiration of his contemporaries. He was the son of Nicholas and Mary Wain, and was born the 19th of 9th month, 1742, at Fair Hill, a country place near Philadelphia, and situate be- tween Germantown and Frankford. He was de- prived of a father's care, before he knew the value of it; or, when he was about eight years of age; but was tenderly and affectionately cared for by his mo- ther, who brought him up, aided by the guardian- ship of her brother, the late Jacob Shoemaker. Soon after his father's decease, he was placed at a school, under the care of Friends; an institution founded by charter, granted by William Penn. The name of the Society of Friends, is not mentioned in the charter, the seminary being called *Hhe public school," in that instrument; — but, as it was founded by William Penn and his contemporaries, and as the incorporation was granted to overseers, chosen 105 or named to him by the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, with power to elect their own mem- bers forever thereafter, it is emphatically ^'a school under the care of Friends," though not under the direction of the Society, nor subject to the control of any Monthly or other meeting. In this institution, under a board of overseers, at that time the most eminent members of the Society, Nicholas Waln received his education; not mere- ly that he passed through the English departments, studied the mathematics, and afterwards became a good Latin scholar — but what had infinitely more influence upon his after life, he was educated in the principles and doctrines of the christian religion, and in faith in Jesus Christ, as a living vivifying, go- verning principle in the souls of men; according with the doctrine of the apostle, **Examine your- selves whether ye be in the faith; prove yourselves; know ye not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates." '