In congress, he was appointed, (October 11th, 1774,) together with Messrs. Lee and Jay, to prepare a memorial to the people of British America, and an address to the people of Great Britain. On the 20th April, 1775, he was chosen president of the "Provincial Congress," assembled in NewYork, for the purpose of electing out of their body, delegates to the next continental congress; and was one of the delegates. On the 8th of May, 1775, he, together with his colleagues, left the city for Philadelphia, "attended by a great train to the ferry, of whom, about five hundred gentlemen, including two hundred as militia under arms, crossed over with them. On the 1st February, 1776, he, together with John Allsop, John Jay and Alexander M‘Dougal, were unanimously elected to serve for the city and county in the next general assembly." On the 16th of the ensuing April, he was elected one of the delegates to serve in the next provincial congress; and in June, 1776, he was one of the delegates then elected to serve in the provincial congress the ensuing year, with the additional power of forming a new government for the colony of New York. He was not, however, destined to witness the termination of a conflict, in the prosecution of which he had thus far redeemed the sacred pledge by which he stood committed to his country. In May, 1778, he left his family, with a presentiment that what to them appeared a temporary, would in fact be a final separation; and shortly after, having resumed his seat in congress, then sitting in Yorktown, Pennsylvania, he was followed to the grave, by that body, whose character for wisdom, firmness and integrity, he had contributed towards establishing whose fame has ere this been recorded in the histories of other nations than our own, and whose actions, when compared with the events of preceding ages, may justify an American in exclaiming:

"Prisco juvent alios: ego me nunc denique natum gratulor."

As one of the founders of our independence, he foresaw the difficulties and sacrifices that were to be encountered, and proceeded in its earliest stages with a degree of prudence and circumspection, which were warranted by his age and experience, and which served as a check on the more animated career of some of his youthful associates; when, however, "in the course of human events it became necessary to dissolve the political bands" which connected this country with Great Britain, neither considerations of personal convenience, nor the probable loss of fortune, were sufficient to prevent him from prosecuting, with ardour, a cause in which moderation and forbearance had hitherto been ineffectually tried; and but a short time previous to his death, he gave a proof of his devo

tion to it, by selling a portion of his private estate to support the public credit.

In his temper, Mr. Livingston was somewhat irritable, yet exceedingly mild, tender, and affectionate to his family and friends. There was a dignity, with a mixture of austerity, in his deportment, which rendered it difficult for strangers to approach him, and which made him a terror to those who swerved from the line, or faltered in the path, of personal virtue and patriotic duty. He was silent and reserved, and seldom indulged with much freedom in conversation. Fond of reading, and endowed with a solid and discriminating understanding, his mind was replenished with various extensive and useful knowledge.

He possessed, in an extraordinary degree, an intuitive perception of character. He saw, at one glance, into the souls of men, and every man carried a window in his bosom, with regard to him, through which his penetrating eyes could observe the minute lineaments, as well as the great outlines, of character. This deep insight into men and things rendered him peculiarly useful in the important drama of the American revolution.

His last moments were correspondent with the tenor of his well-spent life. He met, with characteristic firmness and christian fortitude, the trying hour which separated him from this world.

He taught us how to live, and (oh! too high

The price for knowledge,) taught us how to die.

LIVINGSTON, WILLIAM, governor of New Jersey, descended from a family in New York, which emigrated from North Britain, and which was distinguished for its numbers, opulence, talents, christian virtue, and attachment to liberty. He was born about the year 1723, and was graduated at Yale college in 1741. He afterwards pursued the study of the law. Possessing from the gift of God a strong and comprehensive mind, a brilliant imagination, and a retentive memory, and improving with unwearied diligence the literary advantages which he enjoyed, he soon rose to eminence in his profession. He early embraced the cause of civil and religious liberty. When Great Britain advanced her arbitrary claims, he employed his pen in opposing them, and in vindicating the rights of his countrymen. After sustaining some important offices in New York, he removed to New Jersey, and as a representative of this state, was one of the principal members of the first congress, in 1774. After the inhabitants of New Jersey had sent their governor, Mr. William Franklin, under a strong guard to Connecticut, and had formed a new consti

tution in July, 1776, Mr. Livingston was elected the first chief magistrate, and such was his integrity and republican virtue, that he was annually re-elected till his death. During the war he bent his exertions to support the independence of his country. By the keenness and severity of his political writings, he exasperated the British, who distinguished him as an object of their peculiar hatred. His pen had no inconsiderable influence in exciting that indignation and zeal, which rendered the militia of New Jersey so remarkable for the alacrity with which on any alarm they arrayed themselves against the common enemy. He was, in 1787, a delegate to the grand convention which formed the constitution of the United States. After having sustained the office of governor for fourteen years, with great honor to himself and usefulness to the state, he died at his seat near Elizabethtown, July 25, 1790, aged sixty-seven years.

MACCLINTOCK, NATHANIEL, was born March 21, 1757, and received his education at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1775, at the age of eighteen. Being in Boston at the commencement of the revolutionary war, he had the offer of an ensign's commission in the British army, but he declined a place so tempting to youthful ambition, and espoused the cause of liberty and his country. Soon after the battle of Lexington, he joined the American army as lieutenant of one of the companies in the New Hampshire line; was soon appointed adjutant in colonel Poor's regiment, and promoted to the rank of a Brigade Major, when Poor was advanced to that of Brigadier general. He was with general Washington's army at the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, in 1776, and was very active on that memorable night, especially, in conveying the enemy, after the capture, across the river. The soldiers suffered severely on that occasion. Many were so destitute of shoes and stockings, that their footsteps on the snow and ice were imprinted with blood, yet they cheerfully performed their duty. He was at Ticonderoga, and in the various engagements with Burgoyne's army until its final capture. His letters to his father while in the army exhibit a noble enthusiasm in the public service. His talents and education gave him great advantages, and his character as an officer was so high in the estimation of Washington and all the general officers, that before he was twenty-one years of age, he was promoted over all the captains in the regiment to a majority in the line. The officers, who were thus super seded, although they entertained the highest opinion of his talents and usefulness in the army, and felt disposed to make every sacrifice consistent with honor to retain him, were in

duced by a regard for their rank, to remonstrate against this appointment.

Believing that, under these peculiar circumstances, the good of the service and the prosperity of the great cause for which we were contending, required his resignation, he tendered it to general Washington, assigning the above circumstances as the only cause. Sensible of the force of Major Macclintock's reasons, general Washington accepted his resignation, and he retired from the army much regretted by the commander in chief and all the general officers of his acquaintance. He returned home in 1779. Wishing to do something more in the service of his country, he embarked as captain of marines on board the private armed ship, general Sullivan, of 20 guns, captain Manning, commander, and having captured a British ship of war, they manned her to cruize in company. Major Macclintock was second to his friend, lieutenant Broadstreet, in command of this ship. In an enengagement in 1780, under great disadvantage, with two of the enemy's ships of vastly superior force, lieutenant Broadstreet's ship was captured and Major Macclintock was killed by a ball through his head. Thus fell as promising a young man as the state of New-Hampshire at that time contained.

MACPHERSON, WILLIAM, was the son of captain John Macpherson, a Scotch gentleman, who came to America about thirty years before the declaration of independence, and of Margaret Rodgers, the sister of the late Reverend Dr. John Rodgers, of New York. He was born in Philadelphia, in the year 1756, and there received the early part of his education, which was finished at Princeton, in New Jersey. At the age of thirteen he received the appointment of cadet in the British army, and before the declaration of independence, his father having purchased for him a lieutenant's commission, he was made adjutant of the 16th regiment. Mr. Macpherson was with his regiment at Pensacola, at the commencement of the revolutionary war, at which period he offered to resign his commission, but his resignation was not accepted. Several years afterwards, on the arrival of the 16th regiment at New York, sir Henry Clinton permitted Mr. Macpherson to resign his commission, in consequence of his declaring that he never would bear arms against his countrymen. He was not, however, allowed to sell his commission, for which his father had given a considerable sum of money. He joined the American army on the river Hudson, above New York, about the end of the year 1779, and as general Washington had known him for many years, and understood the value of the sacrifice he had made for the good of his country, the appoint

ment of major by brevet, in the American army, was conferred upon him.

Major Macpherson was for some time aid-de-camp to general La Fayette, and was afterwards appointed by general Washington to the command of a partizan corps of cavalry, which served in Virginia, in 1781. The appointment of so young an officer to so honorable a command, appears to have been a cause of dissatisfaction to the colonels and lieutenant colonels of the Pennsylvania line, and to have induced them to make application to general Washington on the subject, through the medium of generals Wayne and Irvine. It is believed that this circumstance never became public, the officers having been satisfied by the unanswerable arguments and irresistible appeals to their patriotism and honour, contained in the following letter from general Washington, dated 11th August, 1780, addressed to generals Wayne and Irvine: "Head Quarters, Tappan, August 11, 1780.

"GENTLEMEN,

"I cannot but premise my answer to your letter of yesterday, by observing, that the refusal of the colonels and lieutenant colonels of your line, to comply with my request for stating in writing their motives to the part they have taken in the affair of major Macpherson, is to me as extraordinary as unexpected. I assure you, I had not the least idea there could have been any difficulty in the matter, and had no other reason for desiring it, than that which I assigned to you; to prevent a possibility of misrepresentation.

"Though I consider the conduct of the gentlemen concerned as extremely exceptionable, in every point of view, yet as I attribute it to misapprehension, as I have a good opinion of their intentions, and the highest sense of their patriotism, their zeal for the service, their talents and merit; as I should esteem their resignation an injury to the army, not only by the loss of so many good officers, but by deranging a very valuable corps of troops; as I wish the motives to the step I have taken, to be well understood by them, I shall recapitulate the substance of the conversation which passed between us at our interview, and request you once more, to call their attention to it, before they come to a final determination. I wish them to be assured that on the appointment of major Macpherson, I did not imagine it could, by any construction, be deemed injurious to their rights, or prejudicial to their honour; and that they cannot be more tender of both, themselves, than I have been, and ever should be: that though I have the best opinion of that gentleman's qualifications, the choice of him was not founded on any preference derogatory to them; that from the fullest information of the practice of