In the same year he was of the committee appointed by Congress to co-operate with George Washington, then chief commander of the army before Boston, in devising ways and means for military operations.

In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was under consideration by Congress in committee of the whole, he was in the chair presiding. On the 4th of July he voted for the Declaration, and on the 4th of August signed it.

In 1777 he resigned his seat in Congress, but was at once elected a Burgess, and upon taking his seat in the House was chosen Speaker, and remained such until 1782. Arnold invading Virginia, Harrison was made commander of the militia of his county, and rendered good service in repelling the traitor. Yet later he took the field against Cornwallis.

In 1782 he was elected Governor of Virginia, then a State of the American Union. Having filled the office twice in succession, he retired to private life only to be returned again to the House of Burgesses.

In 1791 he was chosen Governor of the State a third time, but died before inauguration.

It is not possible to sneer away the honor of this record. Indeed, it would be surpassingly strange should such be the disposition of any American. If the glory attaching to a Signer of the Declaration might not be transcended, it was

UNIV

MICH

left to a son to sustain and even add to it. Let

us see.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.

Benjamin, the Signer, was rich when he entered public service; but as the newly born country was poor, he was lavish of his own means, and died in comparative poverty. The second son, William Henry, was under age when his father was laid away.

Though he had the guardianship of Robert Morris, the financier, his affairs were so badly off that he determined to find a livelihood in the practice of medicine, and for that purpose was in Hampden Sidney College when a great Indian war broke out in the West. He laid his books aside to join St. Clair's army. Robert Morris opposed the scheme, but President Washington favored it, and commissioned him ensign in the first regiment of regular artillery, then in garrison at Fort Washington, in the vicinity of Cincinnati. This, let it be remembered, was when he was nineteen years of age.

He won his first distinction immediately. Harmer had been defeated by the Indians. A like misfortune befell St. Clair. The consternation was universal. He performed a perilous duty in the dead of winter with such eclat that his veteran chief St. Clair caused him to be promoted full lieutenant. In 1793 he joined Mad Anthony Wayne, and was installed aide-de-camp. In

Wayne's official report of his victory he made mention "of his gallant aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Harrison," who was shortly promoted captain, and placed in command of Fort Washington, with discretionary authority.

In 1797 Wayne died. Captain Harrison resigned from the army, and was appointed Secretary of the Northwestern Territory, and ex-officio Lieutenant-Governor.

So satisfactory to the people was the young man's administration that, in 1798, the Territory having become entitled to a seat in Congress, he was chosen delegate.

In the first session succeeding, the Northwestern Territory was divided; a separate Territory, now the State of Ohio, was carved out of it, the residue becoming the Territory of Indiana, of which Harrison was appointed Governor.

The vastness of the region which thus fell under his sway was but little comprehended. It embraced Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and all the vaguely bounded Louisiana, then of recent purchase. Few empires have equalled it in extent. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin as at that time constituted had three important white settlements: Clark's Grant at the falls of the Ohio; Vincennes on the Wabash; a third on the Mississippi. The country, forest and prairie, was Indian. The business of the young Governor was to wrest it from savagery; and for that