tenth of August, and were escorted by several gentlemen on horseback, as far as Watertown. Their peculiar position as representatives of a colony then suffering severe chastisement at the hands of the sovereign, invested them with more than ordinary interest. They were warmly greeted, caressed, and feasted on their journey, by leading patriots in all the towns through which they passed; and while halting at Frankford, a few miles from Philadelphia, on the twenty-ninth, their approach became known in the city. A number of citizens in carriages, and several gentlemen on horseback, went out to meet them, among whom were Thomas Mifflin, of Philadelphia; M'Kean, of Delaware; Folsom and Sullivan, delegates from New Hampshire; and Rutledge, a delegate from South Carolina. By these they were escorted into the town; and at the new City tavern-"the most genteel one in America" they were cordially welcomed by Doctors Shippen and Knox, of Philadelphia, Lynch and Gadsden, delegates from South Carolina, and a multitude of others. During the remainder of the week they were constantly visited or were visiting. Every day at the City tavern, newly arrived delegates were introduced to those already there.

At ten o'clock on Monday morning, the fifth of September, the day appointed for the meeting of the Congress, all the delegates then in Philadelphia assembled at the City tavern and walked to the Carpenters' hall, situated at the end of Carpenters' court, a short distance south of Chestnut street, between Third and Fourth streets. The assembly-room in that building, some forty-five feet square, had been chosen for the place of meeting of this national council. In the chamber above was quite a fine library belonging to the Carpenters Association; and a pleasant lobby afforded a place for walking and conversation. On the question, "Are you satisfied with this room?" being put, it was answered in the affirmative, when the delegates all became seated. Then Thomas Lynch,

* John Adams's Diary.

† This building is yet standing, and is well preserved. It belongs to the Worshipful Company of Master Carpenters, of Philadelphia. For several years it was used as an auctioneer's salesroom, but in the spring of 1857, the association resolved to use the building for their own purposes only, and to preserve it as a precious relic. They took formal possession of it on the fourth of September following.

ET. 42.]

ORGANIZATION OF CONGRESS.

421

of South Carolina, who was a member of the stamp-act congress, in 1765-a man "solid, firm, and judicious"*- arose and said: "There is a gentleman present who has presided with great dignity over a very respectable society, greatly to the advantage of America, and I therefore propose that the Honorable Peyton Randolph, Esquire, one of the delegates from Virginia, and the late speaker of their house of burgesses, shall be appointed chairman. I doubt not the choice will be made by unanimous vote." And so it was; and Mr. Randolph, a large, good-looking man, forty-five years of age, took the chair and opened the preliminary proceedings with great dignity, after a few words of thanks to his compeers for their compliment in choosing him to preside over that important assembly.

Mr. Lynch again arose, and proposed that Mr. Charles Thomson, a gentleman of family, fortune, and character, in Philadelphia (and who was then present on the invitation of some delegates to take minutes of their proceedings), should be chosen the permanent secretary. Mr. Thomson, "the Sam Adams of Philadelphia," was a spare man, with hollow, sparkling eyes, locks quite gray, and bearing marks of premature old age. He was then in the prime of life, and had just married a sister of Benjamin Harrison, one of the delegates from Virginia. Duane and Jay, of New York, proposed to look further for a secretary, but Thomson was chosen by the voice of all the rest of the delegates, and he at once entered upon the duties of that important office, which he discharged with singular ability and fidelity for almost fifteen years. The gentlemen

Charles Thomson was born in Ireland, in the year 1730, and came to America, with his three elder brothers, in 1741. They landed at New Castle, Delaware, with no other dependence but their industry. He was educated by Dr. Alison, the tutor of several of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, at the expense of his brothers, and became a teacher at the Friends' academy, at New Castle. From there he went to Philadelphia, where he was favored with the friendship and advice of Doctor Franklin. From 1774 until 1789, when the new government, under the federal constitution, went into operation, Mr. Thomson was sole secretary of Congress. His wife was aunt of the late General Harrison, the ninth president of the United States. 'His meagre figure, furrowed countenance, hollow, sparkling eyes, white, straight hair, that did not hang quite so low as his ears," said the Abbé Robin, a member of Rochambeau's staff, "fixed our thorough attention, and filled us with surprise and admiration." Notwithstanding his apparent premature decay, Mr. Thomson lived until the sixteenth of August, 1824, when he died not far from Philadelphia, at the age of ninety-four years.

from the several colonies now presented their respective credentials, which were read and approved; and before noon the immortal coNTINENTAL CONGRESS was organized and solemnly inaugurated as a national deliberative assembly.

"For a long time," says the eloquent Charles Botta, "no spectacle had been offered to the attention of mankind of so powerful an interest as this of the present American Congress. It was, indeed, a novel thing, and, as it were, miraculous, that a nation hitherto almost unknown to the people of Europe, or only known by the commerce it occasionally exercised in their ports, should, all at once, step forth from this state of oblivion, and, rousing as if from a long slumber, should seize the reins to govern itself; that the various parts of this nation, hitherto disjointed, and almost in opposition to each other, should now be united in one body, and moved by a single will; that their long and habitual obedience should be suddenly changed for the intrepid councils of resistance, and of open defiance to the formidable nation whence they derived their origin and laws."* The men who composed that first Congress were possessed of the purest minds, the loftiest and most disinterested patriotism, and moral characters without spot or blemish. The people seemed instinctively to have turned to their best men for counsel and action when the crisis arrived; and the representatives there assembled, composed the flower of the American colonies. "There is, in this Congress," wrote John Adams, “a collection of the greatest men upon this continent, in point of

Mr. Thomson made copious notes of the progress of the Revolution, and after retiring from public life, in 1789, he prepared a history of his own times. His sense of justice and goodness of heart would not permit him to publish it; and a short time before his death, he destroyed the manuscript. He gave as a reason, his unwillingness to blast the reputation of families rising into repute, whose progenitors were unworthy of the friendship of good men, because of their bad conduct during the So the world has lost the most authentic civil history of the struggle of the Americans for independence, ever produced.

war.

Watson, in his Annals of Philadelphia, relates that Thomson had just come into that city, with his bride, and was alighting from his chaise, when a messenger from the delegates in Carpenters' hall came to him, and said they wanted him to come and take minutes of their proceedings, as he was an expert at such business. For his first year's services he would not receive pay. So Congress informed his wife that they wished to compensate her for the absence of her husband during that time, and wished her to name what kind of a piece of plate she would like to receive. She chose an urn, and that silver vessel is yet in the family.

* Otis's translation of Botta's History of the American Revolution, i., 128.