Connecticut western news., 1876-05-05
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS-.
It's First Meeting i'm Philadelphla--The Se- lection of George Washington as Com- mander-in-Chief0 of the Army.

Its First Meeting i'm Philadelphia--The So.
 lection of George Washington as Com.
 mander-in-Chief of the Army.
 In September, 1774, the delegates from eleven provinces assembled An Carpenters hall, the State house being occupied by the Assembly. The vener. able 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. MT. 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. "It seemed" writes John Adams, in a letter to his wife dated September IS, 1774, Gas if Heaven had ordained that psalm to be read on that morning" |" When it's sublime invocation of Gods help in extremity had been read, Mir. 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 respon- sibi]ity 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 Assembly in a public dinner, where the first toast was the king, and the next MT. Hancock. John Hancock comes early to the front as most noticeable figure against the background of this blurred and con- fused time, not only from the steadiness ot his loyalty when so many paused ir- resolute, but from certain dramatic in stinct in the man which lifted him to the height of every occasion as on a pedestal.
 Young Colonel Washington, from Virginia, also delegate to the First Congress, was totally lacking in any ap- prehension of stage effect. It was wholly owing to the simplicity and sad sobriety of his manner that he made Gin an artists view) so magnificent figure head for the new republic. His steady, slow habit of motion, his taciturnityIand 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 smile :; but the simple, sorrowful gravity appears to us to befit the leader of revolution which was as yet a bloody experiment better than courtly grimaces and fluent smile.
 A writer gives an incident of the day (June 15, i875) upon which Colonel Washington was elected by Congress to the command of the army. Dr. Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Langdon, and Thomas Jefferson gave a dinner to him that evening in an inn oi fashionable resort somewhere upon the Gray's Ferry road. After dinner was over Jefferson rose, and, with few sig nilcant words, proposed the health of "George Washington, Commander-in- chief of the American armies" Wash ington 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 Dr. Rush, "the awful responsibility oi our undertaking, and all the insuperable difficulties which lay before us. The shock was great. The guests had all risen and held their glasses to their lips ready to drink. Each one slowly re- placed his glass without touching drop, and thoughtfully sat down. For some moments the solemn silence was un broken" It was, of a surety, time for prayer rather than the drinking o1 toasts.- Haape,''s Magazine.