The mental powers of George Clymer were composed of a deep and prolific mould capable of producing the richest fruits. Fortunately for our country it was not appropriated entirely to ornamental flowers and blooming shrubbery but to the substantial fruits that invigorate and support life. He was born in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1739. His father removed to that city from Bristol, England and died when George was but seven years old. William Coleman, his maternal uncle, took him into his family, treated him as a son and made him heir to most of his property. Being a literary man he gave his nephew every facility for the acquirement of a good education. He had an extensive library and rejoiced to see it explored by young George who manifested an early taste for reading and investigated critically every subject that came before him. He traced it through all its meanderings to its primeval source. This trait in his character rendered him vastly useful in the momentous concerns of his subsequent life. He dug deep and laid firmly the foundations of his education--the superstructure was on a firm basis. From the seminary George went into the counting-house of his uncle and became thoroughly acquainted with the mercantile business in which he finally embarked. This calling was too precarious to suit his equipoised mind. He was opposed to sudden gains or losses--the one elated the mind too much--the other depressed it too low--destroying the divine equilibrium calculated to impart the greatest happiness to man and assimilate him to his Creator. He believed a virtuous equality in life more conducive to the prosperity of a nation than to have the majority of wealth wielded by a favored few. The former tended to republicanism--the latter to aristocracy. He was in favor of equal rights, a patriot of the Roman school, a philanthropist of the first water--opposed to all monopolies. His genius was of that original order, that, like some comets, visit our world only at long intervals. It traversed the circuit of human nature, metaphysics, philosophy, physiology, ethics and general science without an apparent effort--drawing from each conclusions peculiarly its own. He was a _virtuoso_, an amateur, a deep logician and an acute mathematician. A love of liberty was innate with him. His mind was richly stored with the history of other times and nations--he was well versed in the principles of law and government--he understood the chartered rights of his country and felt, most keenly, the increasing infringements upon them by the very power that was bound by the laws of nature, man and God to respect them. He was among the first to resist the oppressors of his country and proclaim to his fellow-citizens the principles of freedom. At the _tea meeting_ held by the people of Philadelphia on the 16th of Oct. 1773, his powerful reasoning, deep sincerity, ardent zeal and enthusiastic patriotism--commanded the admiration of all who heard him. Free from