Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-05-24
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

Its First Meeting in PhiIadelphia-The
Selection. of George Washington as
commandments of the Army.
In September, IVA, the delegates
from eleven provinces assembled In
Carpenters hall, the state house being
occupied by the Assembly. The ven
cradle Peyton Randolph was chos, n
president, 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 Presbyteri-
ans. Mr.. Duche was finally chosen to
open the session, and in full canonicals,
read the usual petitions and the 35th
Psalm. The news of the cannonade of
Boston had just reached the Assembly.
at seemed" writes John Adams, in
a letter to his wife dated September Is,
IVA, f" as if heaven had ordained that
psalm to be read On that morning"
When its sublime invocation of Gods
help in extremity 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 afterward related
that profound silence ensued after
the prayer, SO deep was the sense of
responsibility upon 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 As
sembly 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 againt the background of this
blurred and confused time, not only
from the steadiness of his loyalty when
SO many paused irresolute, but fran a
certain dramatic instinct In the man
which lifted him to the height of every
occasion as On a pedestal.
Young COL Washington, from Nir-
ginia, also a delegate to the First Con
gress, was totally lacking in any APP
prehension of stage effect. 1t was only
owing to the simplicity and sad sobriety
of his manner that he made lin an ar
lists view SO magnificent a figure-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
Philadelphia complained that the Vir-
ginian colonel listened to their lively
sallies without a smile; but the simple,
sorrowful gravity appears to us to beft
the leader Of a revolution which was as
vet a bloody experiment better than
courtly grimaces and fluent smile.
A writer gives an incident of the
day June Is, 1879 upon which Col
onel Washington was elected by Con-
gress to the command of the army.
DR.. Flush, Benjamin Franklin, John
Adams. John Langdop, 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 significant words, pro-
posed the health of George Washing
ton, Commander-in-chief of the Amer,
lean armies" Washington had bowed
and opened his lips to make the Gus
tomary courteous reply, but as his ne"
title was given to him for the first time
he lost color, sudden awe crept into
his face. "At that moment he sudden