No one among them demonstrated more fully this quality combined with firmness of purpose and boldness of action than Benjamin Harrison a native of Berkley, Virginia, supposed to have been born about 1730, the precise time not being a matter of record. His family descended from a near relative of Gen. Harrison, a bold leader in the revolution of the English Commonwealth who was sacrificed on the scaffold for his liberal principles. This relative settled in Surrey, Virginia, about 1640. His descendants sustained the high reputation of their ancestors and filled many important stations in the colony. It is recorded of Benjamin Harrison, son of the ancestor that located in Surrey, that "he did justice, loved mercy and walked humbly with his God," leaving a memento of character that forms the crowning excellence of human attainments. Benjamin Harrison, the father of young Benjamin now under review, was killed by lightning with two of his daughters. At that time this son was prosecuting his studies at the college of William and Mary where he finished his education at an early age. Before he arrived at his majority he had the management of a large estate left him by his father. As good sense dictated and as in duty bound, he shortly after married Elizabeth, the accomplished daughter of Col. William Bassett and niece to Lady Washington. She possessed all the high requisites of a wife. Before he arrived at the age then required by law, he was elected to the House of Burgesses and became a leading member. His talents were of the peculiar kind calculated to lead without an apparent desire to command. His magic wand was sound discretion coolly and firmly exercised, enlivened by a good humor and sprightliness that mellowed his otherwise stern qualities. Wielding a powerful influence, the creatures of the crown were particularly courteous to him just previous to the revolution and proposed to confer upon him the highest official dignity in the colony--except governor--who must be a _native_ of the mother country. Mr. Harrison was too republican and far seeing to be caught in the silken web of ministerial intrigue or royal cunning. With all his wealth and influence he was a plain common sense man opposed to the pomp of courts and the flourish of high pretensions. He went for his country and the people. He scorned to be the hireling or slave of a king. As early as 1764 he was on the committee in the House of Burgesses that prepared an address to the crown, a memorial to the House of Lords and a remonstrance to the House of Commons of Great Britain predicated upon the Virginia Resolutions anticipating the odious Stamp Act. These documents as reported were then too hard metal in view of a majority in the House and were transmuted to soft solder by the process of political alchemy well understood by the creatures of the king. The time rolled on rapidly when hard metal was made the order of the day. As British