Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

and interests of the British nation are our chief care and concern, desiring nothing more than the continuance of your wise and excellent constitution in the same happy, firm and envied situation in which it was delivered to us from our ancestors and your majesty's predecessors."

With the feelings expressed in this address the conclusion is irresistible that nothing but the most cruel oppressions could have driven the American people to a revolution. A similar expression of feeling was sent to the king from all the Colonies.

"Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad."

So with the British ministry-they were madly bent on reducing their American brethren to unconditional subjection and after a short interval commenced a system of oppression upon a broader, bolder scale. Again the people appealed to their king-but appealed in vain. Mr. Rodney was upon the committee that prepared a second address to his majesty just before the Revolution in the following language:

"The sense of our deplorable condition will, we hope, plead with your majesty in our behalf for the freedom we take in dutifully remonstrating against the proceedings of a British Parliament-confessedly the wisest and greatest assembly upon earth. But if our fellow subjects of Great Britain, who derive no authority from us, who cannot, in our humble opinion, represent us and to whom we will not yield in loyalty and affection to your majesty, can, at their will and pleasure, of right give and grant away our property-if they can enforce an implicit obedience to every order or act of theirs for that purpose and deprive all or any of the Assemblies on this continent of the power of legislation for differing with them in opinion in matters which intimately affect their rights and interests and everything that is dear and valuable to Englishmen-we cannot imagine a case more miserable-we cannot think we shall have the shadow of Liberty left. We conceive it to be an inherent right in your majesty's subjects, derived to them from God and naturehanded down by their ancestors-confirmed by your royal predecessors and the constitution, in person or by their representatives, to give and to grant to their sovereign those things which their own labor and their own cares have acquired and saved and in such proportions and at such times as the national honor and interest may require. Your majesty's faithful subjects of this government have enjoyed this inestimable privilege uninterrupted, from its first existence till of late. They have at all times cheerfully contributed to the utmost of their abilities for your majesty's service as often as your royal requisition was made known and they cannot, but with the greatest uneasiness and distress of mind, part with

the power of demonstrating their loyalty and affection for their beloved king."

Addresses similar to this were laid before the king from all the Colonies and from the Congress of 1774. The struggle between loyai affection and a submission to wrongs was truly agonizing. This affection and the physical weakness of the Colonies are proof strong as holy writ that British oppression was raised to the zenith of cruelty. The history of the American Revolution should be a striking lesson in all future time to those in power not to draw the cords of authority too tightly. It affords a cheering example to all persons to resist every encroachment upon their liberty.

In 1769 Mr. Rodney was chosen speaker of the Assembly of Delaware and continued to fill the chair for several years with honor and dignity. Among other things he introduced an amendment to a bill relative to slaves, prohibiting their importation into the Colony. So ably did he advocate this humane proposition that it was lost only by two votes. The same philanthropic feeling was increasing through the slave states until England, by her emissary Dr. Thompson, sowed the seeds of abolition broadcast in our country for the express purpose of dissolving our Union and of destroying the only republic Europe fears. Digging around the roots of a decaying tree often revives it. Honest men may err.

As the specks of war began to concentrate Mr. Rodney became one of the most active opposers of British tyranny. Excepting a short interval he was a member of Congress from 1774 to 1776 and took a conspicuous part in the general business and discussions of that august body. In his own province he had much to do. The royal attachments were deeply rooted. It required greater exertions to thwart the intrigues of foes within than to repel the attacks of enemies without. In addition to his duties of speaker of the Delaware Assembly and member of Congress those of brigadier-general of militia devolved on him. His numerous messages to his legislature and letters to his officers urging them to decisive action manifested great industry, clearness of perception, firmness of purpose and patriotic zeal. He was in favor of the Declaration of Independence from its first inception. The day previous to the final decision upon this important measure he was in Delaware devising means to arrest the career of certain Tories in the lower end of the province. Mr. McKean informed him by express of the approaching crisis. He immediately mounted his horse and arrived at Philadelphia just in time to dismount and enter the hall of Congress and give his vote for LIBERTY and affix his name to that bold

instrument that dissolved allegiance to England's king and created a compact of freemen.

In the autumn of 1776 the Tories defeated his election to Congress. With increasing zeal he entered the field of military operations. He repaired to Princeton soon after the brave Haslet and Mercer fell, fighting for the cause of justice and freedom. He remained with the army two months and received the approval of Washington expressed in the following letter written from Morristown, N. J. on the 18th of February 1777.

"The readiness with which you took the field at the period most critical to our affairs-the industry you used in bringing out the militia of Delaware State and the alertness observed by you in forwarding troops to Trenton-reflect the highest honor on your character and place your attachment to the cause in the most distinguished point of view. They claim my sincerest thanks and I am happy in this opportunity in giving them to you."

On his return he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court organized under the new order of things. He declined serving believing he could be more useful in some other sphere. About that time an open insurrection broke out in Sussex County in his State. He immediately repaired to the scene of insubordination and quelled it with only the appearance of force. At the time the British were preparing to march from the Chesapeake to the Brandywine he was stationed south of the American army for the purpose of throwing his force between the enemy and their shipping. In the field and in the legislative hall he was alike active.

In December 1777 he was again elected to Congress. The legislature of his State being in session he concluded to remain until it rose. Before its adjournment he was elected President of Delaware which prevented him from serving in the national legislature. His services in his new station were of great importance. His exertions in raising supplies for the army were of the most vigorous character-especially during the winter and spring of 1779 when the troops were often on half allowance and the magazines so bare that it seemed impossible to sustain the army a single week. During the four years he directed the destinies of Delaware he had many refractory spirits to manage-many difficult questions to decide that brought into useful action his prudence, wisdom and firmness. Upon his own matured judgment he relied. So well did he balance the scales of justice that he gained the admiration. of his friends and the approval of his enemies. The affairs of the State were never in better hands.

Mr. Rodney was remarkably fond of a good joke if inoffensive and chaste. He often exhibited brilliant displays of wit but was extremely careful of personal feelings. When in Congress Mr. Harrison had often called Virginia the Dominion of the Colonies. When threatened with invasion by the enemy he asked immediate aid to protect her from the approaching foe. When he sat down Mr. Rodney rose with assumed gravity and apparent sympathy and assured the gentleman that the powerful Dominion should be protected-" Let her be of good cheershe has a friend in need-Delaware will take her under protection and insure her safety." The portly Harrison and the skeleton Rodney both enjoyed the hit which convulsed the other members with laughter.

In view of the great amount of business performed by Mr. Rodney and his proverbial cheerfulness and playful good humor the reader will be astonished to learn that he was afflicted with a cancer upon his nose from his youth which spread over one side of his face and compelled him to wear a bandage over it for many years before his death. It so reduced his flesh that he was a walking skeleton. It terminated his active and useful life in 1783. He met death with calm submission and Christian fortitude and died rejoicing in the bright prospects that were dawning upon the country he dearly loved and had faithfully served.

Mr. Rodney was naturally of a slender form with an animated countenance, easy and polished manners and very agreeable and gentlemanly in his intercourse. From his writings he appears to have held religion in high veneration and practised the purest morals-producing the fruits of righteousness in richer abundance than many who make loud pretensions to piety but do not prove their faith by their works. He was liberal, kind, benevolent and so strongly sympathetic that he was obliged to avoid scenes of physical suffering if possible. He could not endure to be in the room of a dying friend or relative. The poor, the widow, the orphan, his relatives and friends, his country-all deeply mourned the loss of CESAR RODNEY.

GEORGE ROSS.

IDLENESS is the tomb of a living man-the progenitor of want, the substratum of misery-the fountain of crime. It was scarcely known and never countenanced by the pilgrim fathers or revolutionary patriots. We now have many among us who had rather be pinched with hunger and shine in rags than labor. A more numerous and dangerous class is composed of gentlemen idlers who pass down the stream of

time at the expense of those who constantly pull at the oar. They live upon the best, dress finely by borrowing and spunging and when these fail they take to swindling, stealing, gambling, robbing and often pass on for years before justice overtakes them. So long as they can keep up fashionable appearances and elude the kind hearted police whose good will they generally have, they are received into the company of the upper ten exquisites with marked complacency. By virtue of a fine coat, lily hand and graceful bow, which cover more sins than modern Christian charity, many an idle knave has been received into fashionable circles with eclat and walked rough-shod over a worthy young clerk, mechanic or farmer who had too much good sense to act the monkey flirtations of an itinerant dandy. When the counting-house, the mechanic shop, the plough and the kitchen fall into disrepute and are submerged by vain show, pomp and parade-the sun of our country's glory will set to rise no more. When the republican simplicity of Greece and Rome receded before imported fashions, luxuries and rules of etiquette-when they ceased to call men from the shop and the plough to the cabinet and the field-when the women exchanged the kitchen for the drawing-room and plainness for extravagance of dress-corruption supplanted virtue-the genius of LIBERTY veiled her face and fled-dissolution followed-RUIN closed the dreadful scene.

Industry and plainness were marked characteristics of the Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution. Among them George Ross stood conspicuous. He was born at Newcastle, Delaware, in 1730. He was the son of Rev. George Ross, pastor of the Episcopal church at that ancient town. Under the instruction of his father the strong native talents of George unfolded their richness. At the age of eighteen he was a good classical scholar. He then commenced the study of law in Philadelphia with an elder brother, John Ross, where he was admitted to the Bar in 1751. To have elbow room he located at Lancaster, Pennsylvania-then on the confines of civilization bordering on the far west. Noble in his disposition, plain and agreeable in his manners, learned and diligent in his profession, candid, honest and just in his course-he gained the confidence and love of the people and a lucrative practice. To plant himself more firmly in his new location and give additional proof of his good sense, he married Ann Lawler a nighly esteemed lady who proved an affectionate and worthy companion.

He built his legal fame on the genuine basis-close application to his professional business unconnected with public politics. Unfortunately for themselves many young lawyers enter the political arena for the

« AnteriorContinuar »