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They were written with great freedom, and contained some unpalatable truths. They were published at a time when, by the surrender of Cornwallis, the face of affairs was changed. His enemies saw their advantage, and he found himself looked on as little less than a traitor to his country and to France. At this day these letters do not stand in need of an elaborate defence; they may be read without entertaining a doubt of their author's patriotism.

In March, 1783, he went to England. There he published the next year an address to his countrymen in vindication. of himself, written in excellent temper. He died in great destitution at Deal, August 23, 1789, as he was on the point of returning to America.

He was twice married. His first wife died October 13, 1767. By her he had one son. His second wife was a daughter of Gen. Gurdon Saltonstall, of New London, and grand-daughter of the Governor of Connecticut by that name. She died June 9, 1777, while her husband was in France, leaving no children. There is a portrait of Mr. Deane in the Athenæum Gallery at Hartford.

EDWARD BIDDLE.

BY CRAIG BIDDLE.

(Centennial Collection.)

EDWARD BIDDLE was the fourth son of William Biddle, a native of New Jersey, whose grandfather William was one of the original Proprietors of that State, having left England with his father in 1681. His mother was the daughter of Nicholas Scull, Surveyor-general of Pennsylvania. Judge James Biddle, President Judge of the first judicial district, Commodore Nicholas Biddle, and Charles Biddle, Vice-President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, were three of his brothers.

On the 3d of February, 1758, being then sixteen years of age, Edward Biddle was commissioned an ensign in the provincial army, and was present at the taking of Fort Niagara. He subsequently resigned from the army, having attained the rank of captain, and received for his services five thousand acres of land. After the usual course of study, he established himself as a lawyer in Reading, Berks Co., Pa.

He represented the county of Berks in the Assembly of Pennsylvania continuously from 1767 to 1780. Having once. acquired the confidence of his German constituents, they adhered to him with the unwavering fidelity so characteristic of that sturdy and determined race.

A meeting of the freeholders of the county of Berks was held in Reading July 2d, 1774, relative to the Boston port bill, at which Edward Biddle was called to the chair. Resolutions of the most decided character were passed, and "the thanks of the assembly were unanimously voted to the chairman for the patriotic and spirited manner in which he pointed out the dangerous situation of all the American Colonies, occasioned by the unconstitutional measures lately pursued by the British Parliament, expressing at the same time loyalty to our sovereign and the most warm and tender regard for the liberties of America."

On the 15th of October, 1774, he was elected to succeed Mr. Galloway as Speaker of the Assembly, which event is thus referred to by Gordon in his History of Pennsylvania, p. 478: "At the first meeting of the Assembly of Pennsylvania after the election of this year Edward Biddle, of Berks County, was unanimously elected speaker. Mr. Galloway had filled this respectable position for many years, having succeeded Mr. Norris. Mr. Biddle had long represented Berks County, and enjoyed the confidence of the House in an eminent degree, being placed upon the most important committees, and taking an active part in all current business."

On the 2d of July, 1774, the Assembly of Pennsylvania elected eight delegates to meet in Congress with any other delegates from the other Colonies. Mr. Galloway, the

Speaker, and Mr. Biddle were two of the delegates. Mr. Galloway became a delegate at the earnest solicitation of the Assembly, and only on condition that the instructions as to their conduct, drawn by himself, should first be passed by the Assembly. They were of the most pacific character, and enforced on them "to dissent from and utterly reject any proposition that may cause or lead to a separation from our mother country, or a change of the form of their government."

On the assembling of this Congress on the 5th of September, 1774, the great subject which principally occupied their attention was referred to a committee of two from each colony, Galloway and Biddle being the Pennsylvania members, who were directed "to state the rights of the colonies in general; the instances in which those rights are violated, and the means most proper to be pursued for obtaining a restitution of them."

The very able declaration reported by the committee was earnestly opposed by Mr. Galloway, but met the approbation of his colleague. On making their report of the proceedings of this Congress to the Assembly, the course of Mr. Biddle and those of his colleagues who had dissented from Mr. Galloway was approved, and Pennsylvania has the credit of being the first constitutional House of Representatives that ratified the acts of the General Congress. Mr. Galloway and Mr. Biddle were again appointed delegates to the new Congress to be held on the 10th of May, 1775. Mr. Galloway was, however, excused from serving. Mr. Biddle, on his way from Reading to Philadelphia to attend Congress, fell overboard from his boat into the Schuylkill River, and having been obliged to sleep in his wet clothes, took cold, which, being neglected, resulted in a violent attack of illness which deprived him of the sight of one of his eyes, and left him a confirmed invalid for the rest of his life.

Gen. Wilkinson says in his Memoirs (see p. 330): "I took Reading in my route, and passed some days in that place, where I had several dear and respected friends, and among them Edward Biddle, Esq., a man whose public and private

virtues commanded respect and excited admiration from all persons; he was Speaker of the last Assembly of Pennsyl vania under the Proprietary government, and in the dawn of the Revolution devoted himself to the cause of his country, and successfully opposed the overbearing influence of Joseph Galloway. Ardent, eloquent, and full of zeal, by his exertions during several days and nights of obstinate, warm, and animated discussion in extreme sultry weather, he overheated himself, and brought on an inflammatory rheumatism and surfeit, which radically destroyed his health, and ultimately deprived society of one of its greatest ornaments, and his country of a statesman, a patriot, and a soldier; for he had served several campaigns in the war of 1756, and if his health had been spared would, no doubt, have occupied the second or third place in the revolutionary armies."

On the occasion of his death the following notice of him appeared in Dunlap's paper, attributed at the time to the pen of Mr. James Read, then a member of the Supreme Executive Council: "On Thursday last, after a very lingering illness, died at Baltimore, in the forty-first year of his age, that great lawyer, Hon. Edward Biddle, of Reading, in this State. In early life, as captain in our provincial forces, his military virtues so highly distinguished him that Congress designed him to high rank in the American army, which, however, his sickness prevented; his practice at the bar for years having made his great abilities and integrity known, the county of Berks unanimously elected him one of their representatives in Assembly, who soon made him their speaker and a delegate in Congress, and the conduct of the patriot did honor to their choice. As a public character very few were equal to him in talents or noble exertion of them, so in private life the son, the husband, the father, brother, friend and neighbor, and master had in him a pattern not to be excelled. Love to his country, benevolence, and every manly virtue rendered him an object of esteem and admiration to all that knew him."

MEMORIAL NOTICE OF THE REV. WILLIAM
C. REICHEL.

(WITH PORTRAIT.)

Read by JOHN W. JORDAN, before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Nov. 13th, 1876.

It is with deep regret that I announce the death of our highly valued associate, the Rev. William C. Reichel, Professor of Latin and Natural Sciences in the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the fifty-third year of his age. Persistent and severe literary labors during the intense heat of the past summer engendered a nervous prostration which developed into typhoid fever, and terminated fatally on Wednesday evening, Oct. 15th, 1876.

William Cornelius Reichel was born at Salem, in Forsyth County, North Carolina, on the 9th of May, 1824. His father was the Rev. Benjamin Reichel, principal of the Salem Female Academy, and for some time pastor of the Moravian congregation at that place. His grandfather, the Right Rev. Charles G. Reichel, D.D., was President of the Executive Board in the Southern Diocese, and then in the Northern Diocese of the Moravian Church, from 1802 to 1817. It is also worthy of record, that members of his family for six generations, have devoted themselves to the holy ministry, in this country and in Europe. In 1834 he entered Nazareth Hall, and passed through a complete course in that venerable institution of learning. In 1839 he entered the Theological Seminary at Bethlehem, graduating in 1844. After a service at Nazareth Hall as a tutor, in 1848 he became one of the Professors of the Theological Seminary, where he was an earnest advocate of thorough theological culture. In 1862 he was appointed Principal of Linden Hall, a seminary for young ladies, at Litiz, in Lancaster

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