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
In his private character he was all that we could desire in a patriot,
a citizen, a friend, a husband, a father and a Christian. No man was
more highly esteemed by all who knew him—no man more richly deserved
it.
ARTHUR MIDDLETON.
Those who are familiar with the history of England, with her
constitution, with her great Magna Charta, and with the usurpations of
men in power upon the rights of British subjects at various periods,
can readily conceive why so many men of high attainments and liberal
minds immigrated to America. Disgusted with oppression at home they
sought liberty abroad. The cause that prompted them to leave their
native land, impelled them to action when imported tyranny invaded
their well-earned privileges. The mind of every immigrant patriot
was as well prepared to meet the crisis of the revolution, as that
of a native citizen. The feelings created by remembered injuries,
which drove them from the mother country, rendered them as formidable
opponents to the unjust pretensions of the crown as those who had never
breathed the atmosphere of Europe.
In tracing our own history back to the early settlements, we find an
almost constant struggle between the people and the officers sent by
the king to govern them; the former claiming their inherent rights, the
latter frequently infringing them.
Among those whom at an early period boldly espoused the cause of
freedom was Edward Middleton, the great grandfather of the subject of
this brief sketch, who immigrated from Great Britain near the close of
the seventeenth century, and settled in South Carolina. His son, Arthur
Middleton, imbibed all the feelings of his father, and in 1719, when
the crown officers became insolent beyond endurance, he stood at the
head of the opposition that boldly demanded and obtained their removal.
His son, Henry Middleton, the father of Arthur, whose biographette is
my present object, also inherited the same bold patriotism, and took
a conspicuous part in rousing his fellow citizens to action at the
commencement of the revolution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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