Willis Whearty PHILLIS WHEATLEY. "Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land, That there's a God-that there 's a Saviour too; So race felt the heart, and so recorded the pen of a child of Africa, who, by her many of the good and great of our country. The lady of a respectable citizen of Boston, named Wheatley, went to the slave-market, in that city, in 1761, to purchase a child-negress, that she might rear her to be a faithful nurse in the old age of her mistress. She saw many plump children, but one of delicate frame, modest demeanor, and clad in nothing but a piece of dirty carpet wrapped about her, attracted her attention, and Mrs. Wheatley took her home in her chaise, and gave her the name of Phillis. The child seemed to be about seven years of age, and exhibited remarkable intelligence, and apt imitative powers. Mrs. Wheatley's daughter taught the child to read and write, and her progress was wonderful. She appeared to have very little recollection of her birth-place, but remembered seeing her mother pour out water before the sun at its rising. With the development of her intellectual faculties her moral nature kept pace; and she was greatly beloved by all who knew her for her amiability and perfect docility. She soon attracted the attention of men of learning; and as Phillis 250 PHILLIS WHEATLEY. read books with great avidity, they supplied her. Piety was a ruling sentiment in her character, and tears born of gratitude to God and her kind mistress, often moistened her eyes. As she grew to womanhood her thoughts found expression through her pen, sometimes in prose but more frequently in verse; and she was often an invited guest in the families of the rich and learned, in Boston. Her mistress treated her as a child, and was extremely proud of her.' At the age of about sixteen years (1770) Phillis became a member of the "Old South Church," then under the charge of Dr. Sewall; and it was at about this time that she wrote the poem from which the above is an extract. Earlier than this she had written poems, remarkable for both vigor of thought and pathos in expression. Her memory, in some particulars, appears to have been extremely defective. If she composed a poem, in the night, and did not write it down, it would be gone from her, forever, in the morning. Her kind mistress gave her a light and writing materials at her bed-side, that she might lose nothing, and in cold weather a fire was always made in her room, at night. In the Summer of 1773, her health gave way, and a sea-voyage was recommended. She accompanied a son of Mr. Wheatley, to England, and there she was cordially received by Lady Huntingdon, Lord Dartmouth, and other people of distinction. While there, her poems, which had been collected and dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, were published, and attracted great attention. The book was embellished with a portrait of her, from which our picture was copied. She was persuaded to remain in London until the return of the court, so as to be presented to the king, but, hearing of the declining health of her mistress, she hastened home. That kind friend was soon laid in the grave, and Phillis grieved as deeply as any of her children. Mr. Wheatley died soon afterward, and then his excellent daughter was laid by the side of her parents. Phillis was left destitute, and the sun of her earthly happiness went down. A highly-intelligent colored man, of Boston, named Peters, offered himself in marriage to the poor orphan, and was accepted. He proved utterly unworthy of the excellent creature he had wedded, and her lot became a bitter one, indeed. She and her husband went to the interior of the State, to live, for awhile, and then returned to Boston. Misfortune seems to have expelled her muse, for we have no production of her pen bearing a later date than those in her volume published in 1773, except a poetical epistle to General Washington, in 1775,2 and a few scraps written at about that time. A few years of misery shattered the golden bowl of her life, and, in a filthy apartment, in an obscure part of Boston, that gifted wife and mother, whose youth had been passed in ease and even luxury, was allowed to perish, alone! Her spirit took wing on the 5th of December, 1794, when she was about forty-one years of age. 1. On one occasion, Phillis was from home on a visit, and, as the weather was inclement, her mistress sent one of her slaves, with a chaise, after her. Prince took his seat beside Phillis. As they drew up to the house, and their mistress saw them, the good woman indignantly exclaimed, “Do but look at the saucy varlet-if he has not the impudence to sit upon the same seat with Phillis!" And she severely reprimanded Prince for forgetting the dignity of Phillis. 2. Phillis' letter was dated the 26th of October, 1775. Washington answered it on the 28th of February, 1776, as follows. His letter was written at his head-quarters, at Cambridge: MISS PHILLIS,-Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my hands till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me in the elegant lines you inclosed; and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it a place in the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient, humble servant GEO. WASHINGTON.** CONRAD WEISER.-ISAAC SEARS. 281 CONRAD WEISER. NE of the most noted agents of communication between the white men and ica in early life, and settled, with his father, in the present Schoharie county, New York, in 1713. They left England, in 1712, and were seventeen months on their voyage! Young Weiser became a great favorite with the Iroquois Indians in the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys, with whom he spent much of his life. Late in 1714, the elder Weiser, and about thirty other families, who had settled in Schoharie, becoming dissatisfied by attempts to tax them, set out for Tulpehocken, in Pennsylvania, by way of the Susquehanna river, and settled there. But young Weiser was enamored of the free life of the savage. He was naturalized by them, and became thoroughly versed in the languages of the whole Six Nations, as the Iroquois confederacy in New York were called. He became confidential interpreter and special messenger for the province of Pennsylvania among the Indians, and assisted in many important treaties. The governor of Virginia commissioned him to visit the grand council at Onondaga, in 1737, and, with only a Dutchman and three Indians, he traversed the trackless forest for five hundred miles, for that purpose. He went on a similar mission from Philadelphia to Shamokin (Sunbury), in 1744. At Reading he established an Indian agency and trading-house. When the French on the frontier made hostile demonstrations, in 1755, he was commissioned a colonel of a volunteer regiment from Berks county; and, in 1758, he attended the great gathering of the Indian chiefs in council with white commissioners, at Easton. Such was the affection of the Indians for Weiser, that for many years after his death they were in the habit of visiting his grave and strewing flowers thereon. Mr. Weiser's daughter married Henry Melchoir Muhlenburg, D.D., the founder of the Lutheran Church, in Americs. FEW ISAAC SEARS. EW men have occupied so large a space in the public attention, of whom so little is known, as Isaac Sears, one of the great leaders of the Sons of Liberty, in New York, previous to the occupation of that city by the British, in 1776. So generally was he regarded as the bold leader in popular outbreaks, that ho acquired the name of King Sears, by which title he is better known than by his commercial one of captain. Of him, a Loyalist writer in Rivington's Gazette wrote, exultingly, when the New York Assembly yielded to ministerial require ments: "And so, my good masters, I find it ro joke, For YORK has stepp'd forward and thrown off the yoke Isaac Sears was lineally descended from one of the earlier settlers in Massachusetts, who came from Colchester, England, in 1630. He was born at Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1729. Of his youth and early manhood we know little, except that he was a mariner. He first appeared in public life as a prominent member of the association called Sons of Liberty, in 1765, when he was a successful merchant in the city of New York, and a sea-captain of note. He was the chairman of the first Committee of Correspondence appointed by the citizens of New York, in 1765, and had for his colleagues John Lamb, Gershom Mott, William Wiley, and Thomas Robinson. At a later period, he was wounded in an affray with some soldiers; and in every enterprise against the schemes of government officials he was an acknowledged leader. Early in the Summer of 1775, he assisted Lamb, Willett, M'Dougal, and others, in seizing some British stores at Turtle Bay (46th Street, and East River, New York); and in August following, he led a party of citizens to assist Captain Lamb in removing British cannons from the battery of Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, while the Asia vessel of war was hurling round shot at them and the town.' In the Autumn of that year he led a party of mounted militia-men from Connecticut, who destroyed Rivington's printing-press, and carried off his type, at midday.? Although Captain Sears continued to be an active Whig during the remainder of the Revolution, we do not find his name in connection with any important event. When peace came, his business and fortune were gone; and, in 1785, he made a voyage to China, as a supercargo, being a partner with others in a commercial venture. Captain Sears was very ill with fever, on his arrival at Canton, and died there, on the 28th of October, 1785, at the age of almost fiftyseven years. He was buried upon French Island, and his fellow-voyagers placed a slab, with a suitable inscription upon it, over his grave. MAN EDWARD TELFAIR. [ANY of the leading men in Georgia, at the time of the breaking out of the Revolution, were of Scotch descent, and, unlike the settlers from the same stock, in Eastern North Carolina, they were generally adherents to the patriot cause. Edward Telfair was born in Scotland, in 1735, and received an English education at the grammar school of Kirkcudbright, on the domain of the Earl of Selkirk. He came to America when twenty-three years of age, and resided some time in Virginia, as agent of a commercial house. From thence he went to Halifax, on the Roanoke; and, in 1766, made his residence in Savannah. He was one of the earliest and most efficient promoters of the rebellion there, and was one of the leading members of the committee of safety, in 1774. With a few others he broke open the provincial magazine and secured the powder for the use of the patriots; and he also assisted in the seizure of the royal governor, Sir James Wright. In 1778 he was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress; and on the 24th of July of that year he signed the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. He continued a member of that body until 1783, when he was appointed a commissioner to conclude a treaty with the Cherokee chiefs, by which the boundary line between their nation and Georgia was determined. He was governor of Georgia, first in 1786, and then from 1790 to 1793. He had the honor of entertaining President Washington, when he visited Georgia, in 1791, at his family seat, near Augusta. Governor Telfair died at Savannah, on the 19th of September, 1807, in the seventy-second year of his age. He was buried with military honors. 1. One of the buildings injured by that cannonade was the tavern of Samuel Fraunce, commonly known by the name of Black Sam, on account of his dark complexion. It was the same building in which Washington had his final parting with his officers, at the close of the war, and for many years has been known as the Broad Street Hotel. It is on the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets. In allusion to the event, Philip Freneau wrote, in his Petition of Hugh Gaine: "At first we supposed it was only a sham, 'Till he drove a round ball through the roof of Black Sam." Two of the cannons removed at that time by Alexander Hamilton and some of his college associates, may yet [1855] be seen at the entrance-gate to the grounds of Columbia College. 2. See sketch of Rivington, and also of Bishop Seabury. 3. See sketch of John Paul Jones. 4. See sketch of Joseph Habersham. In of class does not odium this country, where character alone is the accepted standard of respectability, from the openly immoral man, let his birth and attainments be ever so exalted, there is necessarily a public virtue which no aspirant for honor dare neglect. In this sentiment is grounded our dearest hopes for the future of our Republic; and however melancholy in itself the spectacle of such a character as that of Aaron Burr may appear to the eye of the Christian and Patriot, the detestation in which it is held is a confirmation of faith in that public virtue. Burr was undoubtedly a patriot, and possessed many noble traits of character, but over all was spread the foul slime of libertinism; and he who might have shined among the bright stars of our country's glory, is, in a degree, a "lost pleiad," Damned to everlasting fame." Aaron Burr was the son of the pious President Burr, of the College at Princeton, and the daughter of the eminent Jonathan Edwards. He was born at Newark, New Jersey, on the 5th of February, 1756, and before he was three years of age he lost both his parents. He was a wayward boy, yet full of intellectual promise. At twelve years of age he entered Princeton College, and left it in 1772, a ripe scholar for one of his years, and the recipient of academic |