no means lost upon him as the head of the judiciary of his State.

Judge Dana inherited a competency from his father, and the greater part of the estate of his uncle, Judge Trowbridge, as well as his library and papers. His mansion stood upon the hill now called after his name, between the college buildings, which formed the centre of the village of Old Cambridge, and the bridge to Boston. He held very large tracts of lands, and employed himself, in his intervals of leisure, in superintending his farms, and in laying out streets and highways through them, for the anticipated increase of population. His house was a place of generous hospitality, and was frequented by his friends, the leaders of the Federal party of that day. Among his guests were also the more distinguished students of the University, who were attracted, in a large degree, by his reputation and the general air of dignity and kindliness which surrounded his home, among whom were Allston, the Channings, Buckminster, and the sons of prominent men from the Southern and Middle States, and others, who afterwards rising to distinction, have, in various ways, recorded their sense of the advantages they derived from intercourse with him and the visitors to be found at his house, and not a few of them for the pecuniary aid they had received, when straitened in their circumstances at college. He supported through their college courses several men who became eminent in different professions.

Francis Dana left several children; one of his sons being Richard H. Dana, the poet and prose writer, and one of his daughters the wife of Washington Allston. He is buried in the family tomb near the gate of the old churchyard in Cambridge, opposite the main entrance to the University, where lie several generations of those who preceded and came after him.

SILAS DEANE.

BY CHARLES J. HOADLEY.

(Centennial Collection.)

SILAS DEANE was born in Groton, Connecticut, December 24, 1737. He was graduated at Yale College in 1758, and after teaching school a short time, studied law. He settled in Wethersfield, where he married, October 8, 1763, the widow of Joseph Webb, a merchant of that town, whose estate he settled, and he went into trade. His entrance into public life was as a Representative of the town of Wethersfield in the Lower House of the Connecticut General Assembly, at the October session 1768, and he was chosen to the same station in 1772, 1773, and 1774, and probably, also, for both sessions in 1775, although prevented from taking his seat by his attendance upon Congress in Philadelphia.

He took an active part in public affairs immediately before the breaking out of the Revolution. He was chosen one of the Colonial Committee of Correspondence in May, 1773, and by that body was appointed a delegate to the first Continental Congress, where he served as a member of the committee to examine and report the several statutes affecting the trade and manufactures of the colonies.

In the spring of 1775, Mr. Deane was one of the principal projectors of the expedition which resulted in the capture of Ticonderoga, and in conjunction with five others, gave his obligation to the colony treasurer, for the moneys borrowed by them for that enterprise.

With his former colleagues, Messrs. Dyer and Sherman, he attended the second Congress which met at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775; they having been chosen as delegates, by the House of Representatives, in the month of November preceding.

The journals of Congress show, that during his service in

that body from May, 1775, to January 16, 1776, Mr. Deane was upon about forty committees, some of them standing ones, and involving much labor and correspondence. Particularly, he was one of the Secret Committee appointed September 18, 1775, to contract for the importation and delivery of arms and ammunition. He was also a member of the Marine Committee, and purchased the first vessel for the navy of the United Colonies. He had a facile pen, and his correspondence of this period, published in the American Archives, and in the second volume of the Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, exhibits him in a very favorable light. It is evident also, that he enjoyed the respect and esteem of his associates. John Adams, who was a member of a committee whereof Deane was chairman, speaks of him, in a letter to his own wife, as "a very ingenious man and an able politician."

At their October session 1775, the General Assembly of Connecticut resolved that the choice of delegates to Congress should be made annually, and made new appointments in the places of Messrs. Dyer and Deane. However, the same autumn Mr. Deane was nominated by the freemer, as a candidate for election to the office of Assistant, or member of the Council or Upper House of the Colonial Legislature, and the nomination was repeated in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, and 1779. The General Assembly also renewed his appointment as a justice of the peace in 1776 and 1777, during his absence from the country.

The United Colonies entered upon the Revolution very slenderly provided with warlike stores, nor could these be procured at home; so on the second of March, 1776, Deane received from the Committee of Secret Correspondence, the appointment of Commercial and Political Agent for the United States, in Europe, and was instructed by them, to purchase 100 pieces of brass cannon, and arms, and clothing for 25,000 men, and ammunition proportionable, and to procure ships in Europe to transport the whole to America. He had previously contracted with the Secret and Commercial Committee, to make a voyage to France, and buy a

quantity of goods for the public. The commission was of the highest importance, and its execution attended with danger and very great difficulties. He embarked without taking leave of his family, save by letter, and arrived in France in June, with but slight knowledge of the language and manners of the people, without an acquaintance, and without that best of all patrons and supporters, a fund adequate to the purpose, and for months, he received no advices from his constituents. However, he found in France a disposition friendly to the American cause, and was far more successful in accomplishing the objects of his mission than could have been reasonably expected. Through him those arms were procured, without which, the campaign of 1777 would have resulted otherwise, and with him was made the agreement of Lafayette and De Kalb, to serve in our army. In December, 1776, he was joined by Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee, who, with himself, had been appointed by Congress as commissioners at the Court of France, and with them negotiated and signed the treaties of February, 1778.

In July, 1778, he returned to America, having been recalled by Congress to acquaint them with the state of their affairs in Europe. His recall was brought about chiefly by the malicious representations of Arthur Lee, falsely charging him with having, by a fraudulent agreement with Beaumarchais, and contrary to the intentions of the French Government, converted a gratuitous gift into a commercial operation. William Lee and Ralph Izard also sided with Arthur Lee against Franklin and Deane, and interfered in the affairs of the French mission. Upon his departure, the King presented him with his portrait set with diamonds on a gold snuff-box, the Count de Vergennes wrote a highly complimentary letter to him and another to the President of Congress, and Dr. Franklin, who had lived intimately with him for fifteen months, the greater part of the time in the same house, and been a constant witness of his public conduct, gave, unasked, this testimony in his behalf: "I esteem him a faithful, active, and able minister, who, to my knowledge, has done, in various ways, great and important services to his country,

whose interests I wish may always, by every one in her employ, be as much and as effectually promoted." In later letters of Franklin are also found expressions of his confidence in Deane's abilities and integrity, particularly in 1782, when they no longer agreed in political sentiments, the former certified, upon the appearance of certain articles in the newspapers importing that the latter had been guilty of fraudulent practices while in the public service, that the paragraphs in question, according to his best knowledge and belief, were entirely false, and that he had never known or suspected any cause to charge the said Silas Deane with any want of probity in any purchase or bargain whatever, made by him for the use or account of the United States.

Upon his arrival at Philadelphia, he found Congress so far from anxious to hear the state of their affairs in Europe, that he was unable to obtain an audience in six weeks. Insinuations that he was a defaulter and peculator were scattered about, but though he pressed to have his accounts examined, the only way to determine the truth of such charges, his enemies prevented it, knowing well that the balance would be found in his favor, and he was kept waiting on Congress to no purpose until, in August, 1779, a resolve was passed to appoint a suitable person to examine the accounts of commissioners and other agents in Europe, and Mr. Deane was discharged from further attendance. He now returned to France, but had the mortification to find that the person appointed had declined to act. He remained in Paris until the close of the summer of 1781, when he retired to Ghent, where he could live at less expense, and remained there until the peace, constantly soliciting to have his accounts audited, but in vain; nor were they settled until 1842, when a large sum, though less than what was justly due, was paid to his heirs.

In May and June, 1781, he wrote some private letters to friends in this country, which were intercepted by the British and published in New York. They were written at a time when the cause of America seemed to be desperate, and his own distressed circumstances combined to depress him.