A long and exciting siege in the Assembly was enacted by the leaders. On one side were Benjamin Franklin, Israel Pemberton, the Quaker leader, and Joseph Galloway, and on the popular side, or that of the people and the “Paxtang Boys,” were the Rev. John Ewing, the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, Dr. David James Dove and many others. As a stronger act in supporting their position the “Paxtang Boys” planned a march to Philadelphia and started in a body under Captain Matthew Smith. Great consternation was witnessed in the capital city. The militia was called out and all business was suspended. But the delegation was not warlike and totally unaware of the anxiety felt in Philadelphia or of the military preparations made to receive them. Proudly bearing their declaration, approved by fifteen hundred of the frontier inhabitants, with many letters from prominent personages, they were met by commissioners sent out by the Governor, to whom they made known their intentions. Captain Smith presented their declarations to the Assembly, which was termed in the minutes of that day as “The declaration of the rioters and the petition of the back inhabitants.” During the long debate the main body of the party returned home and thus ended the “Paxtang Boys’ Insurrection.” At the very outbreak of the Revolution Captain Smith organized a company of riflemen, which was assigned to Colonel Thompson’s battalion. After a tedious march overland from Dauphin County to Boston, the company joined the Continental Army at that place and on September 5, 1775, his company was detached to General Arnold’s command for the expedition to Canada. He survived the hardships of the march through the Maine woods, the disastrous assault at Quebec December 31, and the brief confinement as a prisoner of war which followed, when he joined his regiment together with the few survivors of his company, but he soon thereafter resigned his commission on December 5, 1776. Captain Smith’s services were, however, much appreciated and he was promoted to full rank of major, September 27, 1777, and assigned to the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment. In the spring of 1778 he was elected by the citizens of the central part of the Province as a member of the Supreme Executive Council. October 11, 1779, he was elected vice president of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but resigned shortly after assuming the responsible duties of his high office. When the intelligence of the capture and total destruction of Fort Freeland, on Warrior Run, in Northumberland County, reached Paxtang, Matthew Smith marched to Sunbury with a volunteer militia of fifty men raised by his own efforts and made a hurried march to overtake the British commander, Captain McDonald, and the retreating British invaders, including their Indian allies. This distinguished statesman-soldier-patriot established himself in a fine residence, in what is now the Fourth Ward of Milton and became its most influential and revered citizen.