following the example of English judges during the prevalence of the plague in London, directed a prisoner in confinement to be removed from the prison, where he was in danger of or was affected by disease, to the house of his mother, where he died. The creditor inhumanly brought suit against the sheriff for an escape; and when the case came up for trial, objection was made to Judge Elmer's sitting on the case; but he maintained his position and the plaintiff lost his suit. On account of his age and failing health he declined in 1814 to remain longer on the bench. In the year 1798 he united himself with the Presbyterian church at Bridgeton, and subsequently became a ruling elder and an active member of the church. He died in September, 1817.-Editor.

RICHARD BASSETT.-Mr. Bassett was born in Delaware, and received a liberal education. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar and practiced. He was a delegate from Delaware to the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States; and was a United States Senator from Delaware in the first Senate, serving from March 4, 1789, till March 3, 1791. He was a Presidential elector in 1797, voting for Mr. Adams as President; was Governor of Delaware from 1798 till 1801, and was a United States circuit judge in 1801-2. He died in September, 1815.-Poore's Directory.

He

GEORGE READ was born in Cecil county, Maryland, in 1733. was admitted to the bar in 1752. He was Attorney General of the three lower counties in Delaware from 1763 till 1774. He was a delegate in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777, and a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1776, and was its president; and was a delegate from Delaware to the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. He was a United States Senator from 1789 to 1793; was the Chief Justice of Delaware from 1793 till his death in September, 1798. A notice of his life and correspondence, by his grandson, William Thompson Reed, has been published.-Poore's Directory.

CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton.-The charter of Maryland was obtained from Charles I by Lord Baltimore, in June, 1632. Lord Baltimore was a Roman Catholic, and it is said his avowed intention was to erect an asylum in America for persons of the Catholic faith. By the charter, Lord Baltimore was created absolute proprietary, saving allegiance to the crown. But license was given to all British subjects to transport themselves thither, and they and their posterity were declared to be entitled to the liberties of Eng

lishmen, as if born within the kingdom, with power to make laws for the province "not repugnant to the jurisprudence of England." At an early period the proprietary had declared in favor of religious toleration, and in 1649 the Assembly adopted that principle by declaring "that no persons professing to believe in Jesus Christ should be molested in respect to their religion, or in the free exercise thereof." The State thus became the first of the American States in which religious toleration was established by law.

In 1702 Charles Carroll, the father of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, was born. It is stated that " he took an active part in the affairs of the Provincial Government; and in the religious disputes of the time, stood prominent as one of the leading and most influential members of the Catholic faith." In September, 1737, his son, Charles Carroll, surname of Carrollton, was born. At eight years of age he was taken to France to be educated. He remained there until 1757, when he visited London, and there commenced the study of law. In 1764 he returned to Maryland. In 1765 the stamp act caused much excitement in the country, and Charles Carroll, the subject of this sketch, took a zealous part on the side of the colonists. The stamp act was at length repealed. Mr. Carroll became distinguished as a writer on the popular side. The delegates of the Province at length prohibited the importation of tea. After this had been done, a vessel arrived at Annapolis with a quantity of tea on board. Popular violence was threatened, and the owner of the vessel applying to Mr. Carroll, was advised to burn the vessel and the tea in it, which was done, with the sails of the vessel set and its colors displayed, amidst the acclimations of the multitude.

In February, 1776, Mr. Carroll, then a member of the Maryland Convention, was appointed by the Continental Congress to visit Canada, in conjunction with Dr. Franklin, Samuel Chase, and the Rev. John Carroll, to endeavor to influence the Canadians to unite their efforts with those of the United Provinces in the political struggle; but the defeat of General Montgomery's army, and the opposition of priests, rendered the mission abortive. Mr. Carroll arrived at Philadelphia from this mission when the subject of independence was under discussion in the convention. The delegates from Maryland had been instructed to refuse their assent for it; but Mr. Carroll proceeded to Annapolis, and in the convention advocated independence; and, on the 28th of June, new instructions were given, and on the 4th of July, 1776, the votes of the Maryland delegates were given for independence. Mr. Carroll was appointed a delegate to the convention, and took his seat in it on the 18th of July. On the next day a resolution was adopted for engrossing the Declara

tion on parchment, and he was one of those who signed it. He assisted in framing the Constitution of Maryland, and continued in Congress until 1778. He was a member of the Senate of the State for several years, and was a member of the first Senate of the United States from 1789 till 1791. Subsequently he was without public position. After the death of Jefferson and Adams he was the sole survivor of those who signed the Declaration. He died on the 14th of November, 1832, in the ninety-sixth year of his age. He was descended from an Irish family, and inherited a large estate. Mr. Sullivan stated of him that he was a small, thin person, of gracious, polished manners--that at the age of ninety he was still upright, and could hear and see as well as men commonly do. He had a smiling expression when he spoke; and that he had none of the reserve which usually attends old age. He was said to have preserved his vigor by riding on horseback, and by daily bathing in cold water.

Oliver Wolcott, who was Secretary of the Treasury under the administration of Washington and Adams, wrote of him, that Mr. C.'s opinions are such as were to have been expected from a wise, virtuous, firm and experienced man. I have long considered this gentleman as one of the most distinguished props of society in our country." (See Gibbs Wolcott, vol. 2, p. 446.)

Charles Carroll, the father of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, was an agent of Lord Baltimore; and it is probable that the wealth of the latter was mainly owing to lands obtained by his father from Lord Baltimore.-Editor.

JOHN HENRY was born at Easton, Maryland, and graduated at Princeton in 1760, and studied law. He was a delegate from Maryland to the Continental Congress in 1778 till 1781, and from 1784 till 1787. He was a United States Senator from Maryland from March 4, 1789, till December, 1797, when he resigned, having been elected Governor of Maryland. He died in December, 1798.-Poore's Directory.

RICHARD HARRY LEE was born in Virginia in 1732, and was sent to England to be educated. He returned in 1751. In 1758 he tendered his services to General Braddock as captain, but they were declined. He was elected a delegate to the House of Burgesses in 1757 and took an active part in Revolutionary movements. He was a member of the first Congress in 1774. On June 10,1776, he introduced the motion to declare independence, and when it was adopted he would have been of course the chairman of the committee to draw up the Declaration; but sickness in his family induced his absence, and Jefferson was fortunately appointed to prepare the Declaration.

Mr. Lee was reëlected to Congress in 1778, but retired in 1780. He served in the State Legislature and as colonel in the militia. He was again in Congress in 1784, and was chosen its President, but retired at the end of the year. On the adoption of the Federal Constitution he was elected a Senator of the United States. He took his seat in April, 1789; was at one time its President, but resigned on account of ill health in 1792. He died in Virginia in June, 1794.— Poore's Directory.

Resolution from Virginia.

The convention of Virginia on the 15th of May, 1776, passed a resolution by which, inter alia, they decreed: "That their delegates in Congress be instructed to propose to that body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance or dependence upon the crown or Parliament of Great Britain; and that they give the assent of the Colony to such declaration and to measures for forming foreign alliances and a confederation of the Colonies, providing that the power of forming governments for and the regulation of the internal concerns of each Colony be left to the respective Colonial Legislatures."-Bancroft, Vol. VIII, p. 378.

In conformity with this resolve Mr. Lee, on the 10th of June, 1776, submitted the resolution, "That these Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States-that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved."

WILLIAM GRAYSON was born in Virginia. He received a classical education in England, graduating at the University of Oxford, and studied law at the Temple in London. After his return he practiced law at Dumfries, Virginia; and in August, 1776, he was appointed an aid-de-camp to General Washington. He entered the Revolutionary army as colonel of a Virginia regiment, in January, 1777, and was distinguished at the battle of Monmouth. He was appointed a delegate to the Continental Congress, serving from 1784 to 1787. He was a member of the Virginia Convention, and on the question of adopting the Federal Constitution, he opposed its adoption. He was appointed a Senator in the first Congress, and took his seat in May, 1789, and served until his death at Dumfries, Virginia, on his way to New York, then the seat of the General Government, in March, 1790.-Poore's Directory.

NOTE.-As to Mr. Grayson, see page 71 of the sketches. James Monroe was the successor of William Grayson.

RALPH IZARD was born near to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1742. He was educated at Cambridge, England. He inherited an ample fortune, and in 1771 settled in London; but the troubled condition of American politics induced him, in 1774, to retire to the Continent. In 1780 he returned to the United States, where he was instrumental in procuring the appointment of General Greene for the command of the Southern army. He pledged his whole estate as security for funds needed in the purchase of ships of war in Europe. In 1781 he entered the Continental Congress; and upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution, he was elected a United States Senator from South Carolina, and he served there from March 4, 1789, till March 3, 1795. He died near to Charleston May 30, 1804. Poore's Directory and American Cyclopedia.

PIERCE BUTLER was born in Ireland in July, 1744, and it is said that he was descended from the family of the Dukes of Ormond. Before the Revolution he was a major in a British regiment in Boston, but resigned before the Revolution and settled in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1787 he was a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental Congress, and was a member of the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. He was elected as a Democrat, United States Senator from South Carolina, serving from March, 1789, till 1796. He was again elected to the United States Senate in place of J. C. Calhoun, deceased, serving from October, 1803, till 1804, when he resigned. He died in Philadelphia on February 15, 1822.—Poore's Directory.

WILLIAM FEW was born in Maryland in 1748. In 1758 his father removed to North Carolina. He received an academic education; He served

studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Augusta. as colonel in the Revolutionary war; was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1780, and from 1785 till 1788. He was a delegate to the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, and was a United States Senator from 1789 till 1793. He removed to the city of New York in 1799. He was a member of the House of Representatives of New York from 1802 till 1808; and died in New York July 16, 1828.-Poore's Directory.

JAMES GUNN was born in Virginia. He received an academic education; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Savannah, Georgia. He was elected a United States Senator from Georgia in the first Congress, and was reëlected, serving from March 4, 1789, till March 3, 1801.-Poore's Directory.

BENJAMIN HAWKINS.-North Carolina was not represented in the Senate during the first session, but adopted the Constitution on the