Chap. II.} 1774. May. |
[44]
Reed, cherished the most passionate desire for a
reconciliation with the mother country.
In the chaos of opinion, the cause of liberty needed wise and intrepid counsellors; but during the absence of Franklin, Pennsylvania fell under the influence of Dickinson.
His claims to public respect were indisputable.
He was honored for spotless morals, eloquence, and good service in the colonial legislature his writings had endeared him to America as a sincere friend of liberty.
Possessed of an ample fortune, it was his pride to call himself a ‘farmer.’
Residing at a country seat which overlooked Philadelphia and the Delaware river, he delighted in study and repose, and was wanting in active vigor of will.
Free from personal cowardice, his shrinking sensitiveness bordered on pusillanimity.
‘He had an excellent heart, and the cause of his country lay near it;’ ‘he loved the people of Boston with the tenderness of a brother;’ yet he was more jealous of their zeal than touched by their sorrows.
‘They will have time enough to die,’ were his words on that morning.
‘Let them give the other provinces opportunity to think and resolve.
If they expect to drag them by their own violence into mad measures, they will be left to perish by themselves, despised by their enemies, and almost detested by their friends.’
Having matured his scheme in the solitude of his retreat, he received at dinner Thomson, Mifflin, and Reed; who, for the sake of his public cooperation, acquiesced in his delays.
In the evening, about three hundred of the principal citizens of Philadelphia assembled in the Long Room of the City Tavern.
The letter from the Sons
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