action, if we except the skirmish in the neighbourhood of Boston, which has been mentioned. Whether this is to be accounted for by the circumstance that he was "supposed to be of the party unfriendly to Washington," (3 Marshal, 337,) we cannot determine. Until the time at which the machinations of that infamous cabal were detected by the frank and honourable conduct of Patrick Henry, in transmitting the letter to Gen. Washington, (vide 3 Marsh. app. p. 17,) Mifflin seems to have enjoyed the confidence of Congress, and he had received the compliment of having his name conferred upon an important fort in the Delaware. It is certain that he denied all connexion with those persons, and it is equally true that he was a guest at the table of the general, many years afterwards, when the latter was president of the United States. These facts are derived by the writer from authority which cannot be disputed.

In December, 1786, he was elected a delegate to the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, and his name appears as such in that instrument. In the year 1787 we find general Mifflin occupying the station of Speaker of the Assembly, and in the ensuing year he succeeded Dr. Franklin as President of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. His first message was published in the Pennsylvania Packet, 14th November, 1788, and may be studied by governors of the present day, whose communications to the Legislatures, instead of being confined to their proper subjects, are suffered too often to run into interminable disquisitions de omnibus rerum et quibusdam aliis.

In the year 1790 a convention was called and a new frame of government adopted. General Mifflin was elected the first governor under this constitution; and the fact was proclaimed on the twenty-first December, 1790, at the old Court House in Market street, Philadelphia.

In March, 1794, the combinations in the state of Pennsylvania, to defeat the execution of the laws laying duties upon spirits distilled within the United States, had committed se

many acts of lawless violence, that the president found it necessary to call in the aid of the military to support the civil authority. Previous to this, however, a proclamation was issued, in which the insurgents were ordered to disperse on or before the first day of September following. Immediately on the appearance of the president's proclamation, governor Mifflin convened the Legislature in order that proper means should be adopted to maintain the peace and dignity of the commonwealth, and provide for organizing the militia, so as to enforce a prompt and faithful compliance with the orders of the general government. When the Legislature. assembled, the governor addressed both Houses on the important subject which had brought them together. The president, he said, had communicated to him his own determination to call forth the militia, and as the system was radically wrong in Pennsylvania, an extraordinary meeting of the legislature was necessary in order that the state might be prepared to fulfil its duty. He dwelt on the superior wisdom and economy of the federal government; and lamented that a period had arrived when the scene of public and private happiness, interrupted by lawless violence, could only be perpetuated by the efficient means which had produced it. The proceedings in the western country he characterized as no less unreasonable than pernicious, because they were founded on the position that a small part of the community might dictate to the whole. He expressed the firm determination of the federal government to support its authority, and his own resolution to enforce every requisition from the federal executive to that end.

Not satisfied with this appeal, he invited the commissioned officers of the militia of Philadelphia to meet him at the City Hall. A very large meeting of these gentlemen and of private citizens assembled on this occasion. The governor, after a few introductory remarks on the pacific measures which had been adopted in order to avoid recourse to arms, made an animated appeal to the public spirit of the officers.

He admitted very frankly that from the defects in the militia system he had been unable to complete the quota of the state: but in such a crisis as the present, he felt himself entitled to require from every one an explicit and immediate declaration of his determination to act, or a resignation of his commission. In proposing this alternative, he said, he would not anticipate any decision but that which their own honour and the weal of the state required. He concluded by stating that he should proceed in the same manner to all the other counties, included in the present requisition, until he had raised the stipulated number of men.

This address was received with hearty acclamation, and every one declared his readiness to march. In his progress through other counties, his exertions were equally successful, and he had the satisfaction of appearing at the rendezvous with his proper equipments. Of the events of the bloodless campaign which ensued, it is not necessary that we should enter into any detail, in narrating the life of Mifflin.* The unprincipled men who contrived the mischief, deserted their deluded followers, a few of whom were apprehended and convicted, but subsequently pardoned.

Mifflin was elected to the office of governor for three successive terms, or nine years; after which he could not have served again until after the lapse of one period. Before the termination, however, of his last year of service, he was seized with a disorder, which ended his life early in the year 1800. The legislature of the state, being then in session, it was resolved, that his remains should be interred at the public expense.

* See an official "Report on the Proceedings of the Governor relative to the late Insurrection," in Dunlap and Claypoole's Daily Advertiser, 13th February, 1795.

EPISTOLARY.

The following letter is from the Rev. Dr. SMITH, who was, for several years, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and a minister in the Episcopal church in Philadelphia.

DEAR SIR,

I received your obliging letter, and am glad you are so happy in the kindness shown you by the good Bishop; which, I am sure, the more he discovers the integrity of your heart, and quickness of your parts, will be the more increased in your favour. I doubt not your sense will lead you to avail yourseif of your present opportunities to get a provision in some decent and independent business, suited to your native bent of mind and abilities; and it will make your friends happy if your lot is cast back among them.

you keep a good look out, and find something proper, (and never ask without propriety, and where you have little chance of a competitor, with ministerial interest,) something may be procured at first asking, especially in America.

I had wrote you about a month before the receipt of yours, and no doubt you have received my letter by Magaw and Andrews; in which I made a bad apology, but the best I had, for not sending the letters I promised; but I did, however, mention you, as became me, to Mr. Penn and others; and as to any other friends I did not expect they would fall in your way till winter, and now you are so well befriended that I would not be laughed at for sending you Venetian

succours.

The little picture West did for me was drawn when I had just got out of an eleven weeks fever, and you will tell him I have now a little more complexion, as well as health, which I beg him to supply also to the piece, with a dash or two of his brush, that I may send for it. I wrote him by his bride, and did every thing he expected of me in that affair, but he has never been kind enough to send me a line.

I am sorry the dean of Gloster is so much set against poor America, and would suppress, instead of cherish, that spirit of liberty, which ought, so far as restrained within just bounds, to be cherished every where, for the sake of the litthe true liberty left in the world. I trust Providence will make American liberty still its care, and our prudent use of it show we deserve it, and then they may write on. I regarded the dean's abilities, and never dreamed they would

be thrown in the opposite scale. You know I took no part in the writings pro or con, about the stamp act, and the letter to him was the only time I put pen to paper about it, for the reasons assigned in the letter, an exact copy of which (though I seldom ever have time to make copies,) I happened to keep, to show some gentlemen at whose instance it was written. It is enclosed to you, that if the dean should again call it impudent, it may be in your power to show that it deserves no such name; being, I think, as prudent and well guarded as any thing ever I wrote; which was very lucky, considering the time and circumstances. Indeed, I do not care if all the world saw it. Mr. Duché has got 350%. currency per annum; which, I believe, is the most he may ever expect here. It is a pity he were not in a country where his talents and eloquence would soon command something far above that. However, I hope he has other considerations that will reconcile him to his state. I am to give a course of Theological Lectures this winter, and your brother Tom will be one of the pupils.

I am your affectionate friend and servant,

WILLIAM SMITH.

P. S. Please to present my best duty to the good Bishop. If you can meet Dr. Brown, deliver the enclosed yourself. If not, leave it at Lockyer Davis, as directed, with one of the pieces for the medals, which you will get of Mr. Powel. If you can meet the doctor, you will be pleased with him. Seal up the medal pieces for him.

Philadelphia, December 13th, 1766.

FRANCIS HOPKINSON, ESQ.

Not long after the adoption of our Constitution, the late Col. Forrest, of Georgetown, D. C. in the course of his correspondence with Mr. Jefferson, asked his opinion of that instrument. The reply to this inquiry will be perused with peculiar interest at the present moment.

DEAR SIR,

Paris, 31st December, 1787.

Just before I received your favour, asking my opinion on our new proposed constitution, I had written my sentiments on the subject fully to my friend Mr. Madison. They concurred so exactly with yours, that the communication of them could answer no end but that of showing my readiness to obey you. I therefore extracted that part from my letter