ration of Independence, I have been at a loss to understand why Charles Humphreys did not unite in the final Act which carried with it such great advantages in the contest, and I have been led to suppose that it arose, in great part, from conscientious scruples growing out of the oath (affirmation) of allegiance to the Crown he had taken as a member of the Colonial Assembly, a position he held continuously from 1763 to the 4th July, 1776, when he withdrew from the Congress and Assembly. However that may be, the integrity of his motives was never questioned. He lived in a simple, upright community, and retained their respect and esteem to the day of his death, which occurred in 1786. He left no descendants.

The house in which he was born, and in which the greater part of his life was passed, was known then, and for a century afterwards, as The Mansion House. It had a hipped roof, was built partly of stone and partly of brick, the windows irregularly scattered about, with small panes of glass and leaden frames, which were still extant when I was a youth. It was situated on a pretty stream known now as Cobb's Creek. Close by on a hill overlooking it, is Haverford Meeting House, the second built in Pennsylvania. On this hill Lord Cornwallis halted his command for the night on the 11th of December, 1777, upon his return to Philadelphia from his reconnoisance to Matson's Ford on the Schuylkill. He made his head-quarters at the Mansion House. The position occupied by his troops is a commanding one. The Mansion House passed from the family about sixty or seventy years ago, and was torn down a few years since.

FRANCIS DANA.

BY RICHARD H. DANA, JR.

(Centennial Collection.)

The civil struggle between the province of Massachusetts and the mother country, from 1760 to 1775, trained and brought forward the best abilities of the province, in political and legal discussion, in a remarkable manner. In a country which had no nobility or privileged class of any description having leisure for public affairs, the lawyers naturally came to the front. They were nearly all Harvard College men, and their public speeches, and the documents they penned, were not more remarkable than the patience, wisdom, and spirit they showed in their public actions. Among the leaders in the earlier part of the struggle was Richard Dana. He was born at Cambridge in 1699; graduated at Harvard in 1718; married a sister of Edmund Trowbridge, whom Chancellor Kent calls "the Oracle of the old real law of Massachusetts." During the first part of his life, Mr. Dana devoted himself to the practice of law, in which he became distinguished. In the book of "American Precedents," in Oliver's Precedents of Declarations, and in Story's Common Law Pleadings, he is frequently cited as of the highest authority. He was little past the age of sixty, when the struggle became most critical, and he devoted himself, heart and soul, to the cause of his country. His distinction as a leader of the bar and a magistrate, his independent fortune, his age, the dignity and severity of his manners, and especially his absolute moral courage and passionate devotion to his cause, made him a leading figure on the patriot side. He frequently presided at the famous town meetings held at Faneuil Hall and the Old South Meeting House, and was often upon the committees with the Adamses, Otis, Quincy, Hancock, and Warren, in preparing the addresses to the

patriots throughout the country, and the appeals to the King and Parliament. He reported the celebrated papers of Nov. 20, 1767, and May 8, 1770. His death in 1772, three years before the outbreak, is spoken of in the letters of the patriots of that day, as a great loss to their cause; and President Adams, in later days, speaks of him as one who, had he not been cut off by death, would have furnished one of the immortal names of the revolution. Perhaps the most distinguished act of his life was his administering of the oath to Secretary Oliver. In the latter part of 1765, the commissions of stamp distributors had arrived, and it was generally understood that Secretary Oliver was to be the chief commissioner. The leading patriots waited upon him and demanded that he should refuse the office; he promised to do so, and the next day there appeared in the newspaper a letter from him, which, however, was not quite satisfactory. The "Sons of Liberty" again waited upon him, but in more persuasive numbers, and invited him to attend them to the Liberty Tree, where they were in the habit of holding their open air meetings. It was an invitation he did not consider it prudent to decline. There, under that tree, on the 17th of December, 1765, Oliver signed the declaration—“I never will directly or indirectly, by myself, or any under me, make use of said deputation, or take any measures for enforcing the stamp act in America, which is so grievous to the people," and made oath to it before Richard Dana, who put his name to the jurat as magistrate, thereby subjecting himself to the penalties of treason, according to the constructions of those days.

In the Boston Post of June 1, 1772, appears a notice of Richard Dana from which his chief characteristics may be gathered. "He hated flattery; agreeably to the natural severity of his manners, was a most inveterate enemy of luxury and prodigality; a very steady, strenuous, and it must be confessed, many times a passionate opposer of all those, from the highest to the lowest, but especially the former, who, in his judgment, were enemies to the civil and religious rights of his country, and he very well understood

what those rights were." (See Washburne's Jud. Hist. of Mass., Bradford's New England Biography, the Lives and Letters of Josiah Quincy and John Adams.)

FRANCIS DANA, son of Richard, was born June 13, 1743; graduated at Harvard in 1762, and studied law five years, according to the custom of that time, with his uncle, Judge Trowbridge, and came to the bar in 1767. This was at the height of the civil struggle. Living with a father from boyhood until past the age of thirty, who was so zealous and prominent a patriot, he naturally threw the force of his character into the same cause. He joined the Sons of Liberty, and John Adams's diary of 1766 speaks of the club in which "Lowell, Dana, Quincy, and other young fellows were not illemployed in lengthened discussions of the right of taxation." He became an active practitioner at the bar, but especially in causes involving civil and political rights. The death of his father in 1772 left him in possession of a competent fortune, which he regarded only as increasing his opportunities for service in the public cause. The next year, in concert with John Adanis, he acted in behalf of the Rhode Island patriots, for the prosecution in the matter of Rome's and Moffatt's letters. In 1774, when Govenor Hutchinson was about leaving the country, it was proposed that the bar should present him a complimentary address. This led to a sharp debate, in which Mr. Dana, though one of the youngest of the members, opposed the address with great courage and zeal. In 1773, he married a daughter of the Hon. William Ellery, afterwards a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In April, 1774, he sailed for England, partly to visit his brother, the Rev. Edmund Dana, who was settled there; but chiefly to represent the patriots of Massachusetts among their friends in England. He took confidential letters to Dr. Franklin from Warren, the elder Quincy, Dr. Cooper, and other leaders, and rendered all the service he could at that time. His brother had married a daughter of Lord Kinnaird, who was also a niece of Sir William Pulteney and Governor Johnstone, and through them and their connections Mr. Dana had especial opportunities of ascertaining the state of

English feeling, and the probable measures of the government. He became quite intimate with Dr. Price, and contributed materials for the work which the learned doctor published in defence of the colonies. He remained in England two years, and arrived in Boston in April, 1776, bringing with him a decided opinion that all hope of an adjustment with England on any terms which the colonists could accept, must be abandoned.

From the time of his return, he was a member, by repeated re-elections, until 1780, of the Massachusetts Council. In November, 1776, he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress too late to affix his name to the Declaration of Independence, but in July, 1778, he put his signature to the Articles of Confederation. His course in Congress was distinguished, and although one of the youngest members, he held many important and critical posts. In 1778 he was placed at the head of a committee charged with the entire reorganization of the continental army. Indeed, on his return from England, he was not decided between the military and civil service of his country, and there is still in the possession of his descendants a service sword, which, among like articles, he procured in London, with a view of joining the army. It was, probably, with this intent, that immediately upon his return, in April, 1776, he took a letter of introduction to General Washington from John Adams, who presents him as "a gentleman of family, fortune, and education, who has just returned to his country to share with his friends in their dangers and triumphs. He will satisfy you that we have no reason to expect peace from Britain."

Early in January, in 1778, he was chairman of the committee to visit the army at Valley Forge, and remained there during five months of that distressful season. While there, he was engaged with Washington in concerting the plan subsequently submitted by Congress to the commander-inchief, on June 4, 1778, "to be proceeded in, with the advice and assistance of Mr. Reed and Mr. Dana, or either of them."

Perhaps it was his immediate election to high civil office that determined him to that part of the field of public service.