for three months the greatly superior force of sir Henry Clinton and admiral Arbuthnot. Though Charleston and the southern army were lost, yet by their long protracted defence the British plans were not only retarded, but deranged, and North Carolina was saved for the remainder of the year 1780."

General Lincoln was permitted to his parole, and in November following, he was exchanged for major general Phillips, a prisoner of the convention of Saratoga. In the campaign of 1781, general Lincoln commanded a division under Washington, and at the siege of Yorktown he had his full share of the honour of that brilliant and auspicious event. The articles of capitulation stipulated for the same honour in favour of the surrendering army, as had been granted to the garrison of Charleston. General Lincoln was appointed to conduct them to the field where their arms were deposited, and received the customary submission. In the general order of the commander in chief, the day after the capitulation, general Lincoln was among the general officers whose servivices were particularly mentioned. In October, 1781, he was chosen by congress secretary at war, retaining his rank in the army. In this office he continued till October, 1783, when his proffered resignation was accepted by congress, as follows: Resolved, that the resignation of major general Lincoln, as secretary of war for the United States, be accepted in consideration of the earnest desire which he expresses, the objects of the war being so happily accomplished, to retire to private life, and that he be informed that the United States in congress assembled, entertain a high sense of his perseverance, fortitude, activity and meritorious services in the field, as well as of his diligence, fidelity, and capacity in the execution of the office of secretary at war, which important trust he has discharged to their entire approbation." Having relinquished the duties and cares of a public employment, he retired and devoted his attention to his farm; but in 1784, he was chosen one of the commissioners and agents on the part of the state, to make and execute a treaty with the Penobscot Indians. When in the year 1786-7, the authority of the state government was in a manner prostrated, and the country alarmed by a most audacious spirit of insurrection, under the guidance of Shays and Day, general Lincoln was appointed by the governor and council, to command a detachment of militia, consisting of four or five thousand men, to oppose their progress, and compel them to a submission to the laws. He marched from Boston on the 20th of January, into the counties of Worcester, Hampshire, and Berkshire, where the insurgents had erected their standard. They were em

bodied in considerable force, and manifested a determined resistance, and a slight skirmish ensued between them and a party of militia under general Shepherd. Lincoln, however, conducted with such address and energy, that the insurgents were routed from one town to another, till they were completely dispersed in all directions; and by his wise and prudent measures, the insurrection was happily suppressed without bloodshed, excepting a few individuals who were slain under general Shepherd's command. At the May election, 1787, general Lincoln was elected lieutenant governor by the legislature, having had a plurality of votes by the people. He was a member of the convention for ratifying the federal constitution, and in the summer of 1789, he received from president Washington the appointment of collector of the port of Boston, which office he sustained till being admonished by the increasing infirmities of age, he requested permission to resign about two years before his death. In 1789, he was appointed one of the commissioners to treat with the Creek Indians on the frontiers of the southern states, and in 1793, he was one of the commissioners to effect a peace with the western Indians.

Having, after his resignation of the office of collector, passed about two years in retirement, and in tranquility of mind, but experiencing the feebleness of age, he received a short attack of disease, by which his life was terminated on the 9th of May, 1810.

General Lincoln in his nature was unsusceptible of the spirit of envy. Whoever achieved a noble action to the honour and advantage of his country, whether as a patriot or soldier, was with him the man of merit, and the theme of eulogy, though it might eclipse his own fame. He was universally respected as one of the best of men, of ardent patriotism, and of heroic courage. Major general Knox, whose candour and discriminating judgment no one will deny, was known to estimate next to Washington, in military talents, generals Greene and Lincoln. Colonel Nathan Rice, a respectable officer, who was a member of his military family, observes, that the sacrifice of as much domestic happiness as falls to the lot of man, to serve his country, would seem to place his patriotism beyond suspicion. The firmness and zeal with which he rendered this service during her struggle, the coolness with which he met danger, his fortitude under bodily pain, privation and disappointment, and the confidence reposed in him by the commander in chief, all strongly evince that his country had not misjudged in clevating him to the distinguished rank he held in the army. While at Purysburg, on the Savannah river, a soldier named Fickling, having been de

tected in frequent attempts to desert, was tried and sentenced to be hanged. The general ordered the execution. The rope broke; a second was procured, which broke also; the case was reported to the general for directions. "Let him run," said the general, "I thought he looked like a scape gallows."

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We are indebted for the foregoing interesting sketch of general Lincoln, to Dr. Thacher's excellent work. We select what follows from Garden's interesting Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War:

"It happened, that as Fickling was led to execution, the surgeon general of the army passed accidentally on his way to his quarters, which were at some distance off. On being tied up to the fatal trec, the removal of the ladder caused the rope to break, and the culprit fell to the ground. This circumstance, to a man of better character, might have proved of advantage; but being universally considered as a miscreant, from whom no good could be expected, a new rope was sought for, which lieutenant Hamilton. the adjutant of the 1st regiment, a stout and heavy man, essayed by every means, but without effect, to break. Fickling was then haltered, and again turned off, when to the astonishment of the by-standers, the rope untwisted, and he fell a second time, uninjured, to the ground. A cry for mercy was now general throughout the ranks, which occasioned major Ladson, aid-de-camp to general Lincoln, to gallop to head-quarters, to make a representation of facts, which were no sooner stated, than an immediate pardon was granted, accompanied with an order, that he should, instantaneously, be drummed, with every mark of infamy, out of camp, and threatened with instant death, if ever he should, at any future period, be found attempting to approach it. In the interim, the surgeon general had established himself at his quarters, in a distant barn, little doubting but that the catastrophe was at an end, and Fickling quietly resting in his grave. Midnight was at hand, and he was busily engaged in writing, when hearing the approach of a footstep, he raised his eyes, and saw with astonishment, the figure of the man, who had, in his opinion, been executed, slowly and with haggard countenance, approaching towards him. "How! how is this?" exclaimed the doctor. "Whence come you? What do you want with me? Were you not hanged this morning?" "Yes, sir, replied the resuscitated man, "I am the wretch you saw going to the gallows, and who was hanged." "Keep your distance," said the doctor; approach me not till you say, why you come here?" "Simply, sir," said the supposed spectre, "to solicit food. I am no ghost, doctor. The rope broke twice while the executioner was doing his office, and the general thought proper to pardon me." "If that be

the case," rejoined the doctor, " eat and welcome; but I beg of you, in future, to have a little more consideration, and not intrude so unceremoniously into the apartment of one who had every right to suppose you an inhabitant of the tomb."

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The person and air of general Lincoln betokened his military vocation. He was of a middle height and erect, broad chested and muscular, in his latter years corpulent, with open intelligent features, a venerable and benign aspect. His manners were easy and unaffected, but courteous and polite. all his transactions, both public and private, his mind was elevated above all sordid or sinister views, and our history will not perhaps record many names more estimable than was that of general Lincoln.

Regularity, both in business and his mode of living, were peculiar traits in his character; habitually temperate, and accustomed to sleep, unconfined to time or place. In conversa

tion he was always correct and chaste; on no occasion uttering any thing like profanity or levity on serious subjects, and when others have indulged in these respects in his presence, it was ever received by him with such marked disapproba tion of countenance, as to draw from them an instantaneous apology, and regret for the offence.

The following anecdote is related of general Lincoln: When he went to make peace with the Creek Indians, one of the chiefs asked him to sit down on a log. He was then de

sired to move, and, in a few minutes, to move farther. The request was repeated until the general got to the end of the log. The Indian said, "Move farther;" to which the general replied, "I can move no farther." "Just so it is with us,' said the chief; "you have moved us back to the water, and-then ask us to move farther!"

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LIPPITT, CHRISTOPHER, was one of the early advocates and firmest supporters of our efforts for independence, and a gentleman distinguished in the early part of his life, for the discharge of numerous civil and military offices with which he was invested by the government of his native state, and by the father of his country. In September, 1776, when the regiment under his command was called for by general Washington, he took a continental commission, and left Rhode Island for the camp of the commander in chief, at Harlaem Heights, and was engaged under general Lee in the battle on White Plains, and was afterwards under the immediate command of general Washington in the engagements at Trenton and Princeton. At this time, he received a brevet brigadier general's commission from general Washington, and soon after his term of service expired, he returned home. He afterwards received a brigadier general's commission from the

governor of Rhode Island, and was shortly after in the engagement in that state.

He died in Cranston, Rhode Island, in the year 1824, aged eighty.

LIVINGSTON, PHILIP, whose signature is attached to our Declaration of Independence, was born at Albany, on the 15th of January, 1716, and educated at Yale college, in Connecticut, where he graduated in 1737. He was a grandson of Robert Livingston, the original proprietor of the manor of Livingston, on the river Hudson, in the state of New-York, who was born at Ancram in Scotland, in the year 1654. His father, the Reverend John Livingston, a very distinguished minister of the kirk of Scotland, having some years after found it necessary to quit his native country, on account of his "opposition to Episcopacy," took charge of an English Presbyterian church in Rotterdam, while he himself selected America as his future residence.

The grant, or patent of the manor of Livingston, bears date 1686, and the colonial history of New-York, from the year 1798, to the revolution, furnishes abundant evidence of the elevated standing in public life, which was maintained during that period, as well by the first proprietor of the manor, as by his immediate descendants.

At the present day, when the advantages of a liberal education are so justly appreciated, and so readily obtained; when a diploma is considered as necessary a preliminary for the counting-house as for either the pulpit or the bar, its possession confers no further distinction on an individual than what is enjoyed in common throughout the circle in which he moves; there is reason, however, to believe, that Philip Livingston participated in its benefits at a time when it was almost exclusively confined to the learned professions, and that to his early attainments may, in some measure, be attributed that deference to his opinions on subjects of general interest which the mercantile pursuits that afterwards occupied his attention, would not alone have been calculated to inspire.

The solicitude already manifested to connect the obituary notices of the times with the events of the American revolution, and the natural propensity of mankind to trace their genealogy to celebrated sources, render it evident, that, with the progress of time, an increasing interest will be felt in the biography of those illustrious statesman and soldiers who laid the foundation of the American empire, and that future and remote generations will be directed and stimulated in a career of distinguished patriotism, by meditating on the glorious achievements of arenowned ancestry. The authors of our independence will indeed occupy a higher rank in the