inferior to Rutledge's. The life of the latter, from the commencement of his career, had been crowned with uninterrupted success. At an age when most young men are determining the choice of a profession, he had won the honors of his; and then passing from the triumphs of the bar to the deliberations of the Senate, he rose at once, without delay or laborious gradation, to a lead in the politics of the Province. He was distinguished now, as ever after, for his penetrating judgment and decisive will. His powers of eloquence did not constitute his chief excellence as a public man. They were, nevertheless, undoubtedly great. His distinction as a public speaker, was mainly owing to the force and earnestness of his own convictions, the luminous manner with which he displayed his views, and the impression conveyed by his high and dauntless character. His illustrations were drawn from natural and familiar sources,. and forced home his meaning to the commonest understanding. He was too intent on his objects, too resolute in the assertion of his sentiments, to be deluded himself, or attempt to delude others, by the tinsel of rhetoric. His speeches were more calculated to arouse and animate, than to touch the heart, and 'ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.' Patrick Henry enchained and subdued the feelings of his auditors by the depth of his emotion, by his wonderful powers of expression, his voice, look, gesture, and his entire harmony with nature. The vehemence of Rutledge frequently hurried him beyond the 'golden mean,' and in his action, there was wasteful and superfluous excess.' He was particularly effective in retort, and rose to his full power, when provoked by frivolous objections to his views.

'I have heard from his contemporaries, the Generals. Pinckney, Judge Bay, and Mr. Pringle,' writes one of his descendants, to whose kind and generous aid, I owe much, 'that though his manner was imperious when the occa

sion required, it was marked, under ordinary circumstances, by the calmness that always accompanies mental strength. When there was anything to be done, he saw at once, instinctively, as it were, the best, often, the only course to be pursued. For this, he would state his reasons with wonderful force and clearness; then, if his coadjutors wavered, or refused to see what he had thrown a strong light on, he would turn on them a Jupiter Tonans look, and break forth, with a power and eloquence, that carried the timid and doubting, along with the convinced."1

'So looks the chafed lion

Upon the daring huntsman that has galled him,
Then, makes him nothing.'

With character and powers such as we have described, Rutledge took his seat in the Congress of 1774; and in the next chapter we shall contemplate his services in that distinguished Assembly.

Vide Post, Chap. VII., as to the conflicting opinions of John Adams and Patrick Henry, respecting Rutledge's merits as an orator.

CHAPTER VI.

SERVICES IN THE CONGRESS OF 1774.

RUTLEDGE came to the Congress of 1774, prepared to take a leading part in its deliberations, not less from his personal and intellectual qualities, than his legislative experience. He was 'native and endued unto that element.' The members of this Congress, though, as a body, men of high character, the first, in abilities and estimation, of their respective colonies, were, for the most part, strangers to each other. Of those who had been delegates to the Stamp-Act Congress, there now reappeared on this more important scene, Rutledge, Gadsden, and Lynch of South Carolina, M'Kean and Rodney of Delaware, Dickinson' and Morton of Pennsylvania, Philip Livingston of New York, and Dyer of Connecticut.

Philadelphia, at this period, enjoyed a high reputation for the hospitality and refinement of its society. The delegates to the Congress were shown every mark of attention and respect. In the polished intercourse of social life attachments were formed, opinions interchanged, and sympathies and feelings created, which were at once the bond of personal harmony, and the surest and most durable support of political union. The diary of John Adams makes frequent mention of the agreeable parties at which he was present, while Congress was in session; and his impressions, which he has not failed to record, of the several persons with whom he was brought in contact, on these occasions, are very curious.

' Mr. Dickinson took his seat in Congress October 17, 1774.

The Congress assembled and organized, on the 5th of September. Many of the delegates, however, had arrived at Philadelphia several days before. Adams appears to have met Rutledge, for the first time, on the 1st instant. 'In the evening,' he says, 'all the gentlemen of the Congress who were arrived in town met at Smith's the new city tavern, and spent the evening together. Twentyfive members were come; Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and the city of New York, were not arrived. Mr. William Livingston, from the Jerseys, lately of New York, was there. He is a plain man, tall, black, wears his hair; nothing elegant or genteel about him. They say he is no public speaker, but very sensible and learned, and a ready writer. Mr. Rutledge, the elder, was there; but his appearance is not very promising. There is no keenness in his eye, no depth in his countenance — nothing of the profound, sagacious, brilliant, or sparkling, in his first appearance.' We shall see, hereafter, that when Adams was brought into more intimate relations with Rutledge, and observed the powers of his mind, and the force and energy of his character, he recorded a very different estimate of him than in the above extract. 'Dined at Mr. Thomas Mifflin's,' says Adams' diary of the 2d instant, with Mr. Lynch, Mr. Middleton, and the two Rutledges with their ladies. The two Rutledges are good lawyers. We were very sociable and happy.' The following evening, Adams, the Rutledges, and several others, were again at Mr. Mifflin's. 'Spent the evening at Mr. Mifflin's, with Lee and Harrison from Virginia, the two Rutledges, Dr. Witherspoon, Dr. Shippen, Dr. Steptoe, and another gentleman. An elegant supper; and we drank sentiments till eleven o'clock. Lee and Harrison were very high; Lee had dined with Mr. Dickinson, and drank Burgundy the whole afternoon.'

1

Adams' Works, vol. ii., p. 361.

After mentioning Edward Rutledge, and in terms not the most flattering, Adams thus speaks of John Rutledge: 'His brother,' he says, 'still maintains the air of reserve, design, and cunning, like Duane, and Galloway, and Bob Auchmuty. Cæsar Rodney is the oddest-looking man in the world; he is tall, thin, and slender as a reed; pale. His face is not bigger than a large apple, yet there is sense and fire, spirit, wit, and humor in his countenance.'' These personal impressions, made by so distinguished a character as Rutledge upon an able contemporary, when tested by subsequent observation and the lights of history, are interesting and worthy of notice. What Adams describes as an air of reserve, design, and cunning,' was doubtless nothing more than a disinclination, on the part of Rutledge, to be drawn into a discussion of points that would engage the attention of the Congress, and with regard to which, opinions were not altogether in harmony. His manner, however, at times, and especially in the latter part of his life, was high, remote, and prouder than when blue iris bends.'

On the 5th of September, the delegates to the Congress, as we have elsewhere seen, met and organized.2 The President, Peyton Randolph, and the Secretary, Charles Thomson, were both proposed by Mr. Lynch, whom Adams describes as 'a solid, firm, judicious man,' and unanimously chosen. The first question that engaged the attention of the Congress was, the method of voting, whether it should be by Colonies, or by poll, or by interests. In Adams' notes of the discussion that ensued, he does not distinguish between the Rutledges, and we are left to conjecture whether it was John or Edward who participated in the debate. Lynch was of

'Adams, vol. ii., p. 364.

3

He leaves us in the same uncertainty as to which of the brothers opposed the proposition to open Congress with prayer. . See Ante, p. 85.

VOL. I.-31