A Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, and of Washington and Patrick Henry: With an appendix, containing the Constitution of the United States, and other documentsJudson, L. Carroll (Levi Carroll)
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A Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, and of Washington and Patrick Henry: With an appendix, containing the Constitution of the United States, and other documents
Judson, L. Carroll (Levi Carroll)
Henry, Patrick, 1736-1799; United States. Declaration of Independence -- Signers; Washington, George, 1732-1799
Congress in 1775, but at first declined serving, in consequence of his
young age. A large delegation of citizens subsequently waited upon him,
and, at their urgent request, he took his seat in that august assembly
of sages in 1776, and became a warm advocate for that memorable
instrument, that proclaimed the birth of our nation to an astonished
world, and shed fresh lustre on the intellect of man. His voice and his
signature sanctioned its adoption—his conscience, his country, and his
God, approved the act.
In two years after he was called to perform more painful duties. He was
appointed a judge of the civil and criminal courts of his native state,
under the new order of things. Several persons were arraigned before
him, charged with a treasonable correspondence with the enemy—they were
found guilty, and condemned to be hung in sight of the British lines
at Charleston. With feelings of humanity, but with the firmness of a
Roman, he performed his duty, and pronounced upon them the penalty of
the law.
Judge HEYWARD also participated in the military perils of “the times
that tried men’s souls.” He commanded a company of artillery at the
battle of Beaufort, and was severely wounded. At the attack upon
Savannah he was also actively engaged. At the siege of Charleston he
commanded a battalion, and was one of the unfortunate prisoners who
were transferred to St. Augustine. During his absence his property
was pillaged, and his amiable and accomplished wife, the daughter of
Mr. Matthews, whom he had married in 1773, was laid in the grave. The
tidings of these heart-rending afflictions did not reach him until he
was exchanged and returned to Philadelphia. With the calm and dignified
fortitude of a christian, a philosopher, and a hero, he met the shafts
of afflictive fate. He mourned deeply, but submissively, the premature
exit of the companion of his bosom. His physical sufferings and loss of
property he freely offered at the altar of liberty, without a murmur or
a sigh.
He again resumed his judicial duties upon the bench, and discharged
them ably and faithfully until 1798. He was an influential member of
the convention that framed the Constitution of South Carolina in 1790.
Old age and infirmity finally admonished him that his mission on earth
was fast drawing to a close, and he retired from the public arena,
covered with epic and civic honours, lasting as the pages of history.
In the full fruition of a nation’s gratitude and of a nation’s freedom
he spent his last years, and in March, 1809, went to his final rest,
leaving his second wife, Miss E. Savage, and his children, to mourn the
loss of a kind husband and tender father; and his country to regret the
loss of a devoted patriot, an able judge, and an honest man.
ROBERT MORRIS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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