The affectionate expressions of your address again excite my gratitude and receive my warmest acknowledgment. The power and goodness of the Almighty, so strongly manifested in the events of our late glorious revolution, and His kind interposition in our behalf, have been no less visible in the establishment of our present equal government. In war He directed the sword, and in peace He has ruled in our councils. My agency in both has been guided by the best intentions and a sense of duty I owe to my country. And as my intentions have hitherto been amply rewarded by the approbation of my fellow-citizens, I shall endeavor to deserve a continuance of it by my future conduct. May the same temporal and eternal blessing which you implore for me rest upon your congregations. G. WASHINGTON. CHAPTER XIV. OTHER COMMUNITIES IN THE FIRST PERIODS OF INDEPENDENCE. Rabbi Gershom Mendez Seixas――Growth of the Jewish community of Philadelphia on account of the War――Protest against the religious test clause in the Constitution of Pennsylvania―― Benjamin Franklin contributes five pounds to Mickweh Israel―― Secession of the German-Polish element――New Societies――Jewish lawyers; Judge Moses Levy――Congressman H. M. Phillips――The Bush family of Delaware――New Jersey and New Hampshire――North Carolina: the Mordecai family and other early settlers. While the Jewish community of New York was not entirely dispersed, like that of Newport, by the outbreak of the Revolution, a great majority resolved to leave the city before it was occupied by the British (Sept. 15, 1776). The patriotic minister of the Congregation Shearit Israel, Rabbi Gershom Mendez Seixas (b. in New York, 1745; d. there July 2, 1816), who was the spiritual head of the community since 1766, early espoused the cause of the colonies, and it was mostly due to his influence that the congregation closed the door of its Synagogue on the approach of the British. Most of those who left went to Philadelphia; Rabbi Seixas himself first went to Stratford, Conn., where he remained about four years, and where several of his former congregants joined him. In 1780 he, too, went to Philadelphia, but returned to New York after the war (March, 1784), when the Synagogue was reopened and he resumed his former position. He later (1787) became a trustee of Columbia College, and was one of its incorporators whose name appeared on the charter.