Brison was very popular. As a young man, he had lived at Hannastown, and during the attack of the British and Indians on the place had been one of the men sent on the dangerous errand of reconnoitering the enemy.[82] He was now captain of the Pittsburgh Troop of Light Dragoons, the crack company in the Allegheny County brigade of militia, and was Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Academy. He was a society leader and generally managed the larger social functions of the town. General Henry Lee, the Governor of Virginia, famous in the annals of the Revolutionary War, as “Light-Horse Harry Lee,” commanded the expedition sent by President Washington to suppress the Whisky Insurrection, and was in Pittsburgh several weeks during that memorable campaign. On the eve of his departure a ball was given in his honor by the citizens. On that occasion Brison was master of ceremonies. A few months earlier Brackenridge had termed him “a puppy and a coxcomb.” Brackenridge credited Brison with retaliating for the epithet, by neglecting to provide his wife and himself with an invitation to the ball. This was an additional cause for his dismissal, and toward the close of January the office was given to John C. Gilkison. Gilkison who was a relative of Brackenridge, conducted the bookstore and library which he had opened the year before, and also followed the occupation of scrivener, preparing such legal papers as were demanded of him.[83] REFERENCES CHAPTER III [58] _Pittsburgh Gazette_, January 23, 1801. [59] COLLINSON READ. _An Abridgment of the Laws of Pennsylvania_, Philadelphia, MDCCCI, pp. 264–269. [60] _Pittsburgh Gazette_, December 7, 1799. [61] NEVILLE B. CRAIG. _The Olden Time_, Pittsburgh, 1848, vol. ii., pp. 354–355. [62] _A Brief State of the Province of Pennsylvania_, London, 1755, p. 12. [63] _Tree of Liberty_, December 27, 1800. [64] JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS. _Albert Gallatin_, Boston, 1895, p. 370. [65] MAJOR EBENEZER DENNY. _Military Journal_, Philadelphia, 1859, p. 21. [66] _Pittsburgh Gazette_, October 23, 1801. [67] DR. F. A. MICHAUX. _Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains in the Year 1802_, London, 1805, p. 36. [68] MORGAN NEVILLE. In John F. Watson’s _Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania_, Philadelphia, 1891, vol. ii., pp. 132–135. [69] HENRY ADAMS. _The Life of Albert Gallatin_, Philadelphia, 1880, p. 68. [70] _Tree of Liberty_, November 7, 1800; _Pittsburgh Gazette_, February 20, 1801. [71] DR. F. A. MICHAUX. _Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains in the Year 1802_, London, 1805, p. 29. [72] HENRY ADAMS. _The Life of Albert Gallatin_, Philadelphia, 1880, p. 650. [73] COUNT DE GALLATIN. “A Diary of James Gallatin in Europe”; _Scribner’s Magazine_, New York, vol. lvi., September, 1914, pp. 350–351. [74] RICHARD HILDRETH. _The History of the United States of America_, New York, vol. iv., p. 425. [75] _Tree of Liberty_, September 27, 1800. [76] _Pittsburgh Gazette_, February 6, 1801.