This first group is a small one, for the first Congress brought no new men to the front. Indeed, that body lost its own prestige very soon after independence was declared; thereafter it was no stage on which new men could win distinction, or men already famous could add to their store; indeed, members were lucky if they escaped without diminution of their reputations, by very reason of being parts of so nerveless and useless a body. The fact is, that the civilians, after they had set the ball going, did little more. They contributed almost nothing to the Revolution in any practical way during its actual progress. Perhaps they could not; but certainly they did not. Washington and his officers and soldiers deserve all the credit for making independence a reality instead of an assertion. They were not very strenuously or generously backed by the mass of the people after the first fervor was over. The truth is that that grand event was the work of a small body of heroes, who presented freedom and nationality to the people of the thirteen colonies. John Adams and Congress said that the colonists were free, and there left the matter, _functi officio_. Washington and the troops took up the business, and actually made colonists into freemen. Those upon whom this dignity and advantage were conferred were, for the most part, content somewhat supinely to allow the new condition to be established for them. JOHN T. MORSE, JR. September, 1898. CONTENTS I. EARLY YEARS 1 II. A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA: CONCERNMENT IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 17 III. REPRESENTATIVE OF PENNSYLVANIA IN ENGLAND: RETURN HOME 59 IV. LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 86 V. SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND: I. 100 VI. SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND: II. 142 VII. SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND: III. THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS: THE PRIVY COUNCIL SCENE: RETURN HOME 177 VIII. SERVICES IN THE STATES 204 IX. MINISTER TO FRANCE: I. DEANE AND BEAUMARCHAIS: FOREIGN OFFICERS 220 X. MINISTER TO FRANCE: II. PRISONERS: TROUBLE WITH LEE AND OTHERS 248 XI. MINISTER TO FRANCE: III. TREATY WITH FRANCE: MORE QUARRELS 267 XII. FINANCIERING 304 XIII. HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS: AN ADAMS INCIDENT 337 XIV. PEACE NEGOTIATIONS: LAST YEARS IN FRANCE 357 XV. AT HOME: PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA: THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: DEATH 403 INDEX 429 ILLUSTRATIONS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN