Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-05-05
The Centinental CONGRESS.
Its First Meeting in Philadelphia-The See
lection of George Washington as Com
mander-in- Chief of the Army.


lection of George Washington as Com
mander-in- Chief of the Army
In September, IVA, the delegates
from eleven provinces assembled in Car
penters' hall, the State house being oc'
cupied by the Assembly. The venera
BILE Peyton Randolph was chosen presi
dent and the man of truth, Charles
Thompson, secretary. There was much
hesitation as to whether the Congress
should be opened with prayer or what
form of prayer would suit Quakers,
Churchmen, and Presbyterians. Mr..
Duche was finally chosen to open the
session, and, in full canonicals, read the
usual petitions and the thirty-ffth Psalm.
The news of the cannonade of Boston
had just reached the Assembly. at
seemed" writes John Adams, in a let
ter to his wife dated September Is, IVA,
as if heaven had ordained that psalm
to be read ON that morning. When its
sublime invocation of Gods help in ex-
tremity had been read. Mr.. Duche
broke into an extemporaneous prayer,
which brought tears into the eyes of
every man present, and made them one
by an electric sympathy. Charles
Thompson afterwards related that pro-
found silence ensued after the prayer, SO
deep was the sense of responsibility up
on each man present.
The members of the Congress were
entertained by the gentlemen of the city
at a grand banquet in the State house,
at innumerable stately feasts at private
houses, and finally by the Assembly in a
public dinner, where the first toast was
the king, and the next Mr.. Hancock,
John Hancock comes early to the front
as most noticeable figure against the
background of this blurred and confus-
ed time, not only from the steadiness of
his loyalty when So many paused ire
solute, but from certain dramatic in
stinct in the man which lifted him to the
height of every occasion as on a pedes-
tai.
Young Colonel Washington, from Vir-
ginia. also delegate to the First Con-
gress, was totally lacking in any appre-
hension of stage effect. 1t was wholly
owing to the simplicity and sad sobriety
OF his manner that he made Gin an ar
lists view so magnificent fgure-head
for the new republic. His steady, slow
habit Of motion, his taciturnity and
grave, unsmiling reserve, belonged, his
contemporaries tell us, to his previous
life in the backwoods as surveyor and
soldier. The pretty young girls of Phil
adelphia complained that the Virginian
colonel listened to their lively sallies
without smile; but the simple, sorrow
full gravity appears to US to beft the
leader of revolution which was as yet
bloody experiment better then courtly
grimaces and a fluent smile.
A writer gives an incident of the day
(June Is, 1870 upon which Colonel
Washington was elected by Congress to
the command Of the army. DIR. Rush,
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John
Langdon, and Thomas Jefferson gave a
dinner TO him that evening in an inn of
fashionable resort somewhere upon the
Gray's Ferry road. After dinner was
over Jefferson rose, and, with few sig
nificant words, proposed the health of
g George Washington, COMMANDMENTS
chief of the American armies" Wash
lngton had bowed and opened his lips to
make the customary courteous reply, but
as his new title was given to him for the
first time, he lost color, solemn awe
crept into his face. "At that moment
he suddenly realized, as we did, "says
DIR. Rush, the awful responsibility off
our undertaking, and all the insupera-
BILE difficulties which lay between us.
The guests had all risen and held their
glasses to their lips ready to drink. Each
one slowly replaced his glass without
touching drop, and thoughtfully sat
down. For some moments the solemn
silence was unbroken. 1t was. of
surety, time for prayer rather than the
drinking of toasts.-Harper's Magazine. |