gestures; and introduced dancing, whirling, hopping, and other eccentricities, into the ceremonials of pretended worship. Mother Ann declared to her deluded followers that she would not die, but be suddenly translated into heaven like Enoch and Elijah. Notwithstanding she did actually die at Watervliet, on the 8th of September, 1784, her followers believe that it was not real death. In a poetic "Memorial to Mother Ann," written by one of them, occurs the stanza:

"How much they are mistaken, who think that Mother's dead,
When through her ministrations so many souls are saved.

In union with the Father, she is the second Eve,

Dispensing full salvation to all who do believe."

A

THOMAS GODFREY.

PLAIN mechanic was one day replacing a pane of glass in a window on the north side of Arch Street, Philadelphia, opposite a pump, when a girl, after filling her pail with water, placed it on the side walk. The mechanic observed the rays of the sun reflected from the window, into the pail of water. This circumstance produced a train of reflections in a highly mathematical mind, and led to an important discovery. That mechanic was Thomas Godfrey, who was born about a mile from Germantown, in Pennsylvania, in the year 1704.

Godfrey's early education was limited; and at a proper age he was apprenticed to a glazier, in Philadelphia. He entered into the business on his own account in 1725, and was employed in glazing Christ Church and the State House,' both of which are yet standing in the old part of Philadelphia. From early boyhood Godfrey exhibited great taste for figures; and, like Rittenhouse, he often exhibited his diagrams in his place of labor. A work on mathematics having fallen into his hands, he soon mastered the science, and then he learned the Latin language, so as to read the works of the best writers upon his favorite subject.

In the Summer of 1729, Godfrey was employed by James Logan to glaze some windows in his library, and there he first saw Newton's Principia. He borrowed the work; and early in 1730, he communicated his invention of the Quadrant (an astronomical and nautical instrument, of great value) to that gentleman. His reflections on the Arch Street incident, with the perusal of Newton's work, had resulted in this invention. Mr. Logan took great interest in the matter, and conveyed information of the invention to the Royal Society of London, through his friend, Sir Hans Sloane. That institution rewarded Mr. Godfrey for his ingenuity, by presenting to him a quantity of household furniture, valued at one thousand dollars, but divided the honor of first discoverer equally between him and John Hadley, then vice-president of the institution. That the sole honor was justly due to Godfrey, there can be no doubt, for the fact appears to be well authenticated, that the first instrument made of brass, from Godfrey's wooden model, was taken by the inventor's brother, captain of a vessel in the West India trade, to the island of Jamaica, and there exhibited to some English naval officers. Among these was a nephew of John Hadley. He purchased the instrument of Captain Godfrey for a large sum of money, and took it to his uncle, in London, who was a mathematical instrument maker. That gentleman made another instrument like it, except a few alterations, and presented it to the Royal Society, with an explanatory paper, as his invention.

1. Independence Hall, wherein Congress was assembled when the Declaration of Independence was adopted on the 4th of July, 1776, is in this State House. The exterior of the building has been somewhat changed since then.

That presentation occurred on the 13th of May, 1731, just about the time that Sir Hans Sloane called the attention of the Society to Godfrey's invention. The American inventor, like Columbus, lost the honor of having his name identified with the discovery, and the instrument is known as Hadley's Quadrant. Mr. Godfrey died in Philadelphia, in December, 1749, at the age of forty-five years.

SAVA

PONTIAC.

AVAGE and treacherous as he is, the native Indian, in his forest home, has many generous and noble qualities, such as we have been taught to admire when displayed by Roman warrior or Greek law-giver. Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawa tribe a hundred years ago, possessed these in an eminent degree; and had his natural endowments been nurtured under the warm sun of civilization, no doubt his name would have been high among the great ones of earth. But he was forest born, and forest bred, and history speaks of him only as a great chief, filled with deadly hatred of the white man, and renowned for bloody deeds and bloodier intentions.

Pontiac, when he first became known to the white man, was ruler of the whole north-west portion of our present domain. Where Cleveland now stands in its pride, Major Rogers first met the great chief, one bright morning in the Autumn of 1760. He informed Pontiac that the English had taken Canada from the French, and then made a treaty of friendship with him. Though Pontiac had been the fast friend of the French during the war just ended, he now appeared upon the field of history, for the first time, in the full strength of mature manhood. He was doubtless sincere in his treaty with the English, but the non-fulfilment of their promises, and the influence of French emissaries, soon made him trample all compacts beneath his feet. He did more, far more than any North American Indian ever effected before or since. He confederated all the Indian tribes of the North-west to utterly exterminate the English, or drive them from all their posts on the great lakes, and in the country around the head waters of the Ohio. Like Philip of Mount Hope, Pontiac viewed the approach of white settlements with jealousy and alarm. He saw, in the future, visions of the displacement, perhaps destruction, of his race, by the pale-faces; and he determined to strike a blow for life and country. So adroitly were his plans matured, that the commanders of the western forts had no suspicion of his conspiracy until it was ripe, and the first blow had been struck. Early in the Summer of 1763, within a fortnight, all of the posts in possession of the English, west of Oswego, fell into his hands, except Niagara, Fort Pitt, and Detroit. Early the following Spring, Colonel Bradstreet penetrated the country to Detroit, with a strong force. The Indians were speedily subdued, their power was broken, and the hostile tribes sent their chiefs to ask for pardon and peace. The haughty Pontiac refused to bow. He went to the country of the Illinois tribe, where he was basely murdered, in 1769, by a Peoria Indian, who was bribed by an English trader to do the deed, for a barrel of rum. The place of his murder was at Cahokia, on the east side of the Mississippi, a little below St. Louis. A great man fell, when Pontiac died. He was the greatest of all chiefs known to the white men, and deserved a better fate. It is said that during his operations in 1763, he appointed a commissary, and even issued bills of credit, which passed current among the French inhabitants of the North-west. When he died, he wore a uniform presented to him by Montcalm, who esteemed him highly. Pontiac was an actor in the last scene in the drama of the French and Indian War.

"HA

APPILY he did not need the smart of guilt to make him virtuous, nor the regret of folly to make him wise," were the words uttered by one who knew Fisher Ames well, and appreciated his noble character. He was a son of Dr. Ames, a physician and a wit,' of Dedham, Massachusetts, where he was born on the 9th of April, 1756. He was a delicate child; and so precocious was he in the acquirement of knowledge, that at six years of age he commenced the study of Latin. At the age of twelve he was admitted to Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1774. That was a year of great gloom in Massachusetts, and indeed throughout the whole country; and as young Ames' mother was poor, and the times made a choice of business difficult, he taught a common school for awhile. He read and studied incessantly, and, finally, prepared for the profession of the law, under William Tudor, in Boston. He commenced its

1. He kept a public-house at Dedham, and or one occasion, the colonial judges having, as he thought, decided a case against him unlawfully, he sketched their honors upon a sign-board in front of his tavern, in their full-bottomed wigs, tippling, with their backs to an open volume, labelled "Province Law." The Boston authorities sent some officers to Dedham, to remove the sign. The doctor was prepared for them; and when they arrived, they found nothing hanging but a board, on which was inscribed, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign, but no sign shall be given them."

72

JOSEPH GALLOWAY.

These

practice at Dedham, in 1781, and soon stood at the head of the bar in his native district. From early youth he had exhibited rare oratorical powers. powers now had fine opportunities for expansion, and with pen and tongue Fisher Ames soon attracted the attention of all classes of his countrymen. He was a member of the convention for ratifying the Federal Constitution, in 1788, and there his eloquence gained him the heartiest applause. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts Legislature the same year, and in 1789, he was the first representative of his district, in the Federal Congress. There he was the chief speaker in all important debates. It is said that on one occasion,' in 1796, his eloquence was so powerful, that a member, opposed to him, moved that the question on which he had spoken should be postponed until the next day, "that they should not act under the influence of an excitement of which their calm judgment might not approve." John Adams bluntly said, in allusion to that speech, "there was n't a dry eye in the house, except some of the jackasses that occasioned the necessity of the oratory."

Mr. Ames was the author of the "Address of the House of Representatives," to President Washington, on his signifying his intention to withdraw from office. At about the same time, his own feeble health compelled him to decline a reclection, and he retired partially from public life. He was a member of the council of his State for some years; and in 1800, he pronounced a eulogy on Washington, before the State Legislature. He was chosen President of Harvard College, in 1805, but he declined the honor. His powers of life gradually failed for several years; and on the 4th of July, 1808, his pulse ceased to beat, at the age of fifty years. In the old church-yard at Dedham is a plain white monument, on which is the simple inscription-FISHER AMES. Mr. Ames was a fluent and voluminous writer, and his collected productions are among the choicest things in our literature.

ΑΜ

JOSEPH GALLOWAY.

MONG the eminent loyalists of Pennsylvania, who adhered to the patriot cause until the war had fairly begun, Joseph Galloway was, perhaps, the most distinguished. He was born in Maryland, in 1730, and early in life he went to Philadelphia to practice law, in which profession he soon took a high rank. He obtained a beautiful wife and a considerable fortune by marrying the daughter of Lawrence Growdon, who was Speaker of the Assembly of Pennsyl vania, for many years. Mr. Galloway was a member of that body in 1764, and his sympathies, as manifested by his words and actions, were always on the side of the people. So well convinced were the people of his staunch republicanism, that he was elected a member of the first Continental Congress in 1774, and was a very active participant in the debates in that body. He submitted a plan of union between Great Britain and the colonies, by which the latter might be comparatively independent, with a president at their head, appointed by the king. His plan was not adopted; and when the Congress agreed upon a nonimportation, non-consumption, and non-exportation scheme, called the American Association, Mr. Galloway signed it. He was never in favor of a political separation from Great Britain, yet he was always in favor of the most stringent measures for compelling the government to redress the grievances of the colonists. In 1775, he began to show signs of wavering, by earnestly asking to be excused

1. Speech on Jay's Treaty.

from serving as a delegate in the Continental Congress; and in 1776, when the question of independence began to be agitated, he abandoned the Whigs, and became one of the most violent and proscriptive Loyalists. Afraid to remain in Philadelphia, he joined the royal army in New York, where he remained until early in the Summer of 1788, when he went to England, accompanied by his only daughter.' In 1779, he was summoned before parliament to testify concerning the state of affairs in America. He was severe upon General Howe and other British officers, in relation to their stupid management. He kept up an extensive correspondence with the Loyalists, in America, during the remainder of the war, and wrote several pamphlets on subjects connected with the hostilities. Mr. Galloway's large estates in Pennsylvania were confiscated; and when a commission was appointed, in London, for prosecuting the claims of the Loyalists, he was made a member of the board for Delaware and Pennsylvania. A large part of his property was afterward restored to his daughter, and is still in possession of his descendants. Mr. Galloway never returned to America. He died in England, in September, 1803, at the age of seventy-three years. During the war, all the Whig writers took delight in making him a target for their wit and scorn. Trumbull, in his McFingall, gave him many hard hits; and Philip

Frenau, and other poets, scorched him severely.

THERE

TIMOTHY RUGGLES.

were many able men who stood in opposition to the British government in the first revolutionary movements of the American colonies, but who timidly receded when the quarrel became fierce, and the government uttered its menacing thunders. Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, was of that class. He was born at Rochester, in that province, in 1711, and was graduated at Harvard in 1732. He became a lawyer; and at the age of twenty-five years, he was an influential member of the General Assembly. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was often called to measure forensic weapons with the Otises, father and son. He was fond of military life, and held the commission of colonel in the provincial forces under Sir William Johnson. At the battle at Lake George, in 1755, he was second in command to Johnson;2 and was active in the campaigns of the two years following, under Amherst, when he held the commission of Brigadier-general. He also served with distinction, under that officer, in 1759-'60, in his expedition against Quebec and Montreal. In 1762, he was appointed chief justice of the common pleas, and was Speaker of the Assembly at the same time. In 1763, he made Hardwick his residence, where he practiced his profession. The storm of the Revolution soon began to lower; and when, in the Autumn of 1765, a congress of delegates, from the different provinces, to consider the grievances of the people, was held at New York, General Ruggles was a delegate thereto, from Massachusetts, and was chosen president of the convention. He was unwilling to go as far as his colleagues, and refused his cooperation in the proceedings of the congress, for which he was

1. It is supposed that Galloway's departure from Philadelphia was hastened by the discovery that his daughter was about to marry Judge Griffin, a firm Whig, and afterward President of the Continental Congress.

2. For his good conduct in that campaign, he was rewarded with the almost sinecure office of Surveyor-general of the king's forests. It was a lucrative office, with very little labor.