of her House of Assembly, John Dickinson, the thoughtful author of the famous “Farmer’s Letters” of 1768, a quiet master of statement, and Mr. Thomas Mifflin, the well-to-do merchant, represented Pennsylvania. It was, take it all in all, an assembly of picked men, fit for critical business. [Illustration: ROGER SHERMAN] Not that there was any talk of actual revolution in the air. The seven weeks’ conference of the Congress disclosed a nice balance of parties, its members acting, for the most part, with admirable candor and individual independence. A good deal was said and conjectured about the “brace of Adamses” who led the Massachusetts delegation,—Samuel Adams, now past fifty-two, and settled long ago, with subtle art, to his life-long business, and pleasure, of popular leadership, which no man understood better; and John Adams, his cousin, a younger man by thirteen years, at once less simple and easier to read, vain and transparent,—transparently honest, irregularly gifted. It was said they were for independence, and meant to take the leadership of the Congress into their own hands. But it turned out differently. If they were for independence, they shrewdly cloaked their purpose; if they were ambitious to lead, they were prudent enough to forego their wish and to yield leadership, at any rate on the floor of the Congress, to the interesting men who represented Virginia, and who seemed of their own spirit in the affair. [Illustration: JOSEPH GALLOWAY] [Illustration: JOHN DICKINSON]