[78] Born, 1706; died, 1790. Apprenticed in Boston as a printer, and developed great fondness for reading and writing; ran away to Philadelphia in 1723; established a newspaper in 1729; advanced rapidly in prominence through his talents as a writer and success as a scientific discoverer; was appointed Deputy Postmaster-general of the British colonies in 1753; was the moving spirit of the Albany convention in 1754; was agent for Pennsylvania in England from 1764 to the Revolution; also for a part of the time agent for Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia; returning in 1775, was one of the committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence; was sent to join Arthur Lee and Silas Deane as Ministers to France in autumn of 1776; was received with great enthusiasm in Paris, and obtained not only the Treaty of 1778, but also large sums of money for the assistance of the colonies; played an important part in negotiating the Treaty of 1783; was chosen president of Pennsylvania in 1785, 1786, and 1787, and was an influential member of the Federal Convention of 1787. [79] One of Washington’s captains, in his memoirs, relates a feat which illustrates Washington’s spirit, as well as his great physical strength. He says that, as they were breaking camp for the march, two soldiers had wound up Washington’s tent around the tent pole, and were trying in vain to lift it to the top of a high, loaded wagon. Washington came along in fiery impatience, and seeing their fruitless efforts, seized the pole in the middle with one hand, and threw it far above his head upon the top of the load. [80] Born, September, 1757; died, May, 1834. French nobleman, whose sympathy for the American colonies was early excited; landed in South Carolina in the spring of 1777; was appointed major general in July, 1777; was wounded at Brandywine; served at Monmouth and in Rhode Island; sat on court-martial which tried André; commanded with much skill in Virginia against Arnold and Cornwallis in 1781; returned to France at close of the war, but came to America for a short visit in 1784; commanded the National Guard at the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789; was removed by the Jacobins in 1792; escaped to Belgium, where he was seized; was confined in Prussian and Austrian prisons till 1797; remained in retirement during the Napoleonic régime; visited United States in 1824–1825; commanded National Guard of France in the Revolution of 1830. [Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON.] CHAPTER VIII. =THE CAMPAIGN OF 1777.= THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CENTER.