As a politician, he was firm in his principles, and steady in his opposition to foreign usurpation; but, with the other older members of the assembly, generally yielding the lead to the younger; contenting himself with tempering their extreme ardour, and so far mode, rating their pace, as to prevent their going too much in advance of public sentiment. He presided in the house of burgesses, and subsequently in the general congress, with uncommon dignity; and, although not eloquent, yet when he spoke, his matter was so substantial, that no man commanded more attention. This, joined with the universal knowledge of his worth, gave him a weight in the assembly of Virginia, which few ever attained. He left no issue, and his fortune was bequeathed to his widow, and his nephew, the late Edmund Randolph. REED, JOSEPH, president of the state of Pennsylvania, was born in the state of New Jersey, the 27th of August, A. D. 1741. In the year 1757, at the early age of sixteen, he graduated with considerable honour, at Princeton college. Having studied the law with Richard Stockton, Esq., an eminent counsellor of that place, he visited England, and pursued his studies in the temple, until the disturbances which first broke out in the colonics on the passage of the stamp act. On his return to his native country, he commenced the practice of the law, and bore a distinguished part in the political commotions of the day. Having married the daughter of Dennis de Berdt, an eminent merchant of London, and, before the American revolution, agent for the province of Massachusetts, he soon after returned to America, and practised the law with eminent success in the city of Philadelphia. Finding that reconciliation with the mother country was not to be accomplished without the sacrifice of honour as well as liberty, he became one of the most zealous advocates of independence. In 1774, he was appointed one of the committee of correspondence of Philadelphia, and afterwards president of the convention, and, subsequent ly, member of the continental congress. On the forma tion of the army, he resigned a lucrative practice, which he was enjoying at Philadelphia, and repaired to the camp at Cambridge, where he was appointed aid-decamp and secretary to general Washington; and although merely acting as a volunteer, he displayed in this campaign, on many occasions, the greatest courage and military ability. At the opening of the campaign in 1776, on the promotion of general Gates, he was advanced, at the special recommendation of general Washington, to the post of adjutant-general, and bore an active part in this campaign; his local knowledge of the country being eminently useful in the affair at Trenton, and at the battle of Princeton: in the course of these events, and the constant follower of his fortunes, he enjoyed the confi dence and esteem of the commander in chief. At the end of the year he resigned the office of adjutant-general, and was immediately appointed a general officer, with a view to the command of cavalry; but owing to the difficulty of raising troops, and the very detached parties in which they were employed, he was prevented from acting in that station. He still attended the army, and from the entrance of the British army into Pennsylvania, till the close of the campaign in 1777, he was seldom absent. He was engaged at the battle of Germantown, and at White Marsh assisted general Potter in drawing up militia. In 1778, he was appointed a member of congress, and signed the articles of confederation. About this time the British commissioners, governor Johnstone, lord Carlisle, and Mr. Eden, invested with power to treat of peace, arrived in America, and governor Johnstone, the principal of them, addressed private letters to Henry Laurens, Joseph Reed, Francis Dana, and Robert Morris, offering them many advantages in case they would lend themselves to his views. Private information was communicated from governor Johnstone to general Reed, that in case he would exert his abilities to promote a reconciliation, ten thousand pounds sterling, and the most valuable office in the colonies, were at his disposal; to which Mr. Reed made this memorable reply: "that he was not worth purchasing; but that, such as he was, the king of Great Britain was not rich enough the to do it." These transactions caused a resolution in congress, by which they refused to hold any further com munication with that commissioner. Governor Johnstone, on his return to England, denied, in parliament, ever having made such offers; in consequence of which, general Reed published a pamphlet, in which the whole transaction was clearly and satisfactorily proved, and which was extensively circulated, both in England and America. In 1778, he was unanimously elected president of the supreme executive council of the state of Pennsylvania, to which office he was elected annually, with equal unanimity, for the constitutional period of three years. About this time there existed violent parties in the state, and several serious commotions occurred, particularly a large armed insurrection in the city of Philadelphia, which he suppressed, and rescued a number of distinguished citizens from the most imminent danger of their lives, at the risk of his own, for which he received a vote of thanks from the legislature of the state. At the time of the defection of the Pennsylvania line, governor Reed exerted himself strenuously to bring back the revolters, in which he ultimately succeeded. Amidst the most difficult and trying scenes, his administration exhibited the most disinterested zeal and firmness of decision. In the civil part of his character, his knowledge of the law was very useful in a new and unsettled government; so that, although he found in it no small weakness and confusion, he left it at the expiration of his term of office, in as much tranquillity and energy as could be expected from the time and circumstances of the war. In the year 1781, on the expiration of his term of office, he returned to the duties of his profession. General Reed was very fortunate in his military career, for, although he was in almost every engagement in the northern and eastern section of the union, during the war, he never was wounded; he had three horses killed under him, one at the battle of Brandywine, one in the skirmish at White Marsh, and one at the battle of Monmouth. During the whole of the war he enjoyed the confidence and friendship of generals Washington, Greene, Wayne, Steuben, Lafayette, and many others of the most distinguished characters of the revolution, with whom he was in habits of the most confidential intercourse and correspondence. The friendship that existed between general Reed and general Greene, is particularly mentioned by the biographer of general Greene. "Among the many inestimable friends who attached themselves to him, during his military career, there was no one whom general Greene prized more, or more justly, than the late governor Reed, of Pennsylvavia. It was before this gentleman had immortalized himself by his celebrated reply to the agent of corruption, that these two distinguished patriots had begun to feel for each other, the sympathies of congenial souls. Mr. Reed had accompanied general Washington to Boston, when he first took the command of the American army; where he became acquainted with Greene, and, as was almost invariably the case with those who became ac quainted with him, and had hearts to acknowledge his worth, a friendship ensued which lasted with their lives." Had the life of general Reed been sufficiently prolonged, he would have discharged, in a manner worthy of the subject, the debt of national gratitude, to which the ef forts of the biographer of general Greene have been successfully dedicated, who had in his possession the outlines of a sketch of the life of general Greene, by this friend. In the year 1784, he again visited England for the sake of his health, but his voyage was attended with but little effect, as in the following year he fell a victim to a disease, most probably brought on by the fatigue and exposure to which he was constantly subjected. In private life, he was accomplished in his manners, pure in his morals, fervent and faithful in his attachments. On the 5th of March, 1785, in the forty-third year of his age, too soon for his country and his friends, he departed a life, active, useful, and glorious. His remains were interred in the presbyterian ground, in Arch street, in the city of Philadelphia, attended by the president and executive council, and the speaker, and the general assembly of the state. SCAMMEL, ALEXANDER, was born in Mendon, Massachusetts. He graduated at Harvard college, in 1769," and was employed for some time as a teacher of a school, and a surveyor of lands. In 1775, he was appointed bri gade-major, and in 1776, colonel of the third battalion of. continental troops raised in New Hampshire. In 1771, colonel Scammel commanded the third regiment of that, state, and was wounded in the desperate battle of Saratoga. In 1780, the levy of New Hampshire was reduced to two regiments, when he commanded the first. He was afterwards appointed adjutant-general of the American armies, in which office he was deservedly popular, and secured the esteem of the officers of the army generally. With this situation he became dissatisfied, because it often excused him from those dangers to which others were exposed; and preferring a more active command, he was put at the head of a regiment of light infantry. On the 30th of September, 1781, at the memorable and successful siege of Yorktown, he was officer of the day; and while reconnoitering the situation of the enemy, was surprised by a party of their horse; and after being taken prisoner, was inhumanly wounded by them. He was conveyed to the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, where he died October 6, 1781. He was an officer of uncommon merit, and of the most amiable manners, and was sincerely regretted by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance, and particularly by the officers of the American army. The following lines were written the day after the capitulation of lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, and placed on the tomb-stone of colonel Scammel: "What, tho' no angel glanc'd aside the ball, |