this was proposed to Colonel Laurens, he recommended and urged that Colonel Alexander Hamilton should be employed in preference to himself. Congress adhered to their first choice.

"Colonel Laurens sailed for France in the latter end of 1780, and there, in conjunction with Dr. Franklin, and Count de Vergennes, and Marquis de Castries, arranged the plan of the campaign for 1781, which eventuated in the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and finally in a termination of the war. Within six months from the day Colonel Laurens left America, he returned to it, and brought with him the concerted plan of combined operations. Ardent to rejoin the army, he was indulged with making a verbal report of his negotiations to Congress; and in three days set out to resume his place as one of the aids of Washington. The American and French army about this time commenced the siege of York Town. In the course of it, Colonel Laurens, as second in command, with his fellow-aid, Colonel Hamilton, assisted in storming and taking an advanced British redoubt, which expedited the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. The articles of capitulation were

arranged by Colonel Laurens on behalf of the Americans.

"Charleston and a part of South Carolina still remained in the power of the British. Colonel Laurens thought nothing done while any thing remained undone. He therefore, on the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, repaired to South Carolina, and joined the southern army commanded by General Greene. In the course of the summer of 1782, he caught a common fever, and was sick in bed when an expedition was undertaken against a party of the British, which had gone to Combakee to carry off rice. Colonel Laurens rose from his sick bed and joined his countrymen. While leading an advanced party, he received a shot, which, on the 27th of August, 1782, at the close of the war, put an end to his valuable life, in the 27th year of his age. His many virtues have been ever since the subject of eulogy, and his early fall, of national lamentation. The fourth of July seldom passes without a tribute to his memory."

THOMAS MIFFLIN,

MAJOR-GENERAL IN THE AMERICAN ARMY.

"THOMAS MIFFLIN, a major-general in the American army during the revolutionary war, and governor of Pennsylvania, was born in the year 1744, of parents who were Quakers. His education was intrusted to the care of the Rev. Dr. Smith, with whom he was connected in habits of cordial intimacy and friendship for more than forty years. Active and zealous, he engaged early in opposition to the measures of the British parliament. He was a member of the first Congress, in 1774. He took arms, and was among the first officers commissioned on the organization of the continental army, being appointed quartermastergeneral in August, 1775. For this offence he was read out of the society of Quakers. In 1777, he was very useful in animating the militia, and enkindling the spirit which seemed to have been damped. His sanguine disposi tion, and his activity, rendered him insensible to the value of that coolness and caution

which were essential to the preservation of

such an army as was then under the command of General Washington. In 1787, he was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of the United States, and his name is affixed to that instrument. In October, 1788, he succeeded Franklin as president of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania, in which station he continued till October, 1790. In September, a constitution for this state was formed by a convention, in which he presided, and he was chosen the first governor. In 1794, during the insurrection in Pennsylvania, he employed, to the advantage of his country, the extraordinary powers of elocution with which he was endowed. The imperfection of the militia laws was compensated by his eloquence. He made a circuit through the lower counties, and, at different places, publicly addressed the militia on the crisis in the affairs of their country, and through his animating exhortations the state furnished the quota required. He was succeeded in the office of governor by Mr. M'Kean, at the close of the year 1799, and he died at Lancaster, January 20, 1800, in the fifty-seventh year of his age."