Its central location among the American colonies, and the fact that it was the largest and most successful of the proprietary provinces, rendered Pennsylvania's attitude in the struggle with the mother country during the Revolution of vital importance. The British party was made strong by the loyalty of the large Church of England element, the policy of neutrality adopted by the Quakers, Dunkers and Mennonites, and the general satisfaction felt toward the free and liberal government of the province, which had been won gradually without such reverses as had embittered the people of Massachusetts and some of the other British provinces. The Whig party was successful, however, and Pennsylvania contributed very materially to the success of the War of Independence, by the important services of her statesmen, by her efficient troops and by the financial aid rendered by Robert Morris, founder of the Bank of North America, the oldest financial institution in the United States. Meanwhile Philadelphia became the very center of the new republic in embryo. The first Continental Congress met in Carpenters' Hall on September 5, 1774; the second Continental Congress in the old State House, now known as Independence Hall, on May 10, 1775; and throughout the Revolution, except from September 26, 1777, to June 18, 1778, when it was occupied by the British, and the Congress met in Lancaster and York, Pennsylvania, and then in Princeton, New Jersey, Philadelphia was virtually the capital of the American colonies and socially the most brilliant city in the country. In Philadelphia the second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, which the whole Pennsylvania delegation except Franklin regarded as premature, but which was afterward well supported by the State. The national convention which framed the constitution of the United States sat in Philadelphia in 1787, and from 1790 to 1800, when the seat of government was moved to Washington, Philadelphia was the national capital. Here the first bank in the colonies, the Bank of North America, was opened in 1781, and here the first mint for the coinage of United States money was established in 1792. Here Benjamin Franklin and David Rittenhouse made their great contributions to science, and here on September 19, 1796, Washington delivered his farewell address to the people of the United States. Here lived Robert Morris, who managed the finances of the Revolution, Stephen Girard of the War of 1812 and Jay Cooke of the Civil War.