ness and danger, and he so expressed himself to Dunlap, in whom courage and impetuosity were more conspicuous than prudence. By this means, however, a very perfect account was obtained: that Lord Cornwallis, with a body of picked troops, and well appointed, had the day before re-enforced General Grant at Princeton, and that they were pressing wagons to begin their march the next morning to dislodge us from Trenton, their whole force being not less than from seven thousand to eight thousand men." Dunlap's account of this incident of the war is somewhat different. By his story, the barn was situated near a dense wood, which enabled him to place his comrades concealed from the view of the dragoons who were within. His men were directed by their noise to impress the inmates that their body was in great force, while he approached the place and required them to surrender. Under the delusion that the troops had surrounded them and resistance was vain, they were taken prisoners. To this First Troop of Philadelphia Cavalry, when General Washington discharged them from duty, he returned his thanks, and in these words:

"For the many essential services which they have rendered to their country and to himself personally, during the course of that severe campaign, though composed of gentlemen of fortune; they have shown a noble example of discipline and subordination, and in several actions have shown a spirit and bravery, which will ever do honor to them, and will ever be gratefully remembered by me." The members of this troop were offered high rank in the regular army, which they declined. With the approbation of General Washington and the approval of their own breasts, they were satisfied, and then for a time, and until their services were again required, they pursued their private vocations. Some time after our independence was acknowledged, domestic and internal difficulties of the most alarming character arose in the way of the new Government, which was to extend its eagle wings over those which had passed from the political condition of separate colonies into that of independent States, subject to our great confederacy. These difficulties, those which the insurrection in Massachusetts and in Pennsylvania, and in other States, presented, are familiar to my readers, and are only referred to in illustration of the character of the times, and to present in this connection the conduct

of the subject of this notice. John Dunlap became captain of his troop about the close of the war, and although a higher military station was offered him, he preferred his post in the troop. In the campaign of 1799, which was undertaken to secure internal peace, and the efficient operation of the General Government, from which, since that time, our citizens have enjoyed prosperity and happiness, Captain Dunlap, having received notice of a general order, directing the cavalry to hold themselves in readiness to march in a few days, sent the following characteristic reply:

"SIR:

"Wednesday Evening, March 27, 1799.

"About an hour ago, I received through you the general order of the Commander-in-Chief, dated this day, with a letter directing me to report when the First Troop of Philadelphia Cavalry will be ready to march. With pleasure I tell you, that when the laws and government of this happy country require defence, the First Troop of Philadelphia Cavalry want but one hour's notice to march. "I have the honor to be, with esteem, "Your obedient, humble servant, "JOHN DUNLAP."

The troop joined the expedition, and Captain Dunlap, under the rank of Major, commanded, together with it, the body of cavalry which went into service from the east of the mountains. Their duty was a most painful one, for their arms were now directed against their own fellow-citizens. The successful and humane manner in which it was discharged, is fully described by William Finley, in his "History of the Insurrection of the Four Western Counties of Pennsylvania." Upon page 202 of his History he says: "Captain Dunlap, of Philadelphia, and his company, were sent to Muddy Creek, in the upper end of Washington County. They took Colonel Crawford, Mr. Sedgwick, a justice of the peace, Mr. Corbey, and others. They were taken very early in the morning, before they had any opportunity of making any resistance. Captain Dunlap and his party, while they behaved with the greatest dexterity in taking the prisoners, treated them with as much politeness and attention as their situation would admit of, and engaged

their gratitude by accompanying unavoidable severity with humanity." These prisoners, active in the revolt, were engaged in the outrages against the civil authorities, and were of the number who rendezvoused at Braddock's. When these ringleaders were taken, the insurrection was suppressed, and the people returned to their duty. Upon page 209 of the same book the author writes: "Captain Dunlap had a discrimination made in his orders between witnesses and supposed criminals, and treated them all with humanity, and had them all comfortably lodged and provided with victuals and drink before taking refreshments himself." Having thus patriotically served his country against the oppression of Great Britain, and the domestic disturbers of the peace of their own country, he again devoted himself to the advocacy of the principles upon which the party of Washington, known as the Federal party, placed the welfare of the country. In this faith he lived, acted, and died. By his talents and industry, he acquired a large fortune. He purchased an estate in Virginia, and also 98,000 acres of land in the State of Kentucky. He owned a square of ground between Chestnut and Market and Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, which he sold to the late Stephen Girard; and also the square between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets; and much real estate elsewhere in the city of Philadelphia. He died on the 27th of November, 1812, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and was buried with all the honors of war. Mr. Dunlap subscribed £4000, in 1780, to supply provisions for the American army. He was a member of the Hibernia Society. John D. Bleight, Esq., his grandson, is a member of the Bar of Philadelphia.

PETER S. DUPONCEAU.

BY THOMAS 1. WHARTON.

MR. DUPONCEAU, an eminent scholar, was a native of France,— having been born on the 3d of June, 1760, in the Isle of Rhé,where his father had a military command; for which profession, also, the son was destined. On the death of his father, he was persuaded by his mother to enter the ecclesiastical order; but the

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young Abbé Duponceau (those who knew him only in later years will smile at this title), though he submitted to the tonsure, soon got enough of the restraints and privations of a religious life; and, in 1775, he abandoned it and repaired to Paris, where he gained a precarious subsistence by teaching and translating,—having previously made himself master of the English and Italian languages. Here he made the acquaintance of Baron Steuben, and was induced to accompany that celebrated disciplinarian to the United States, in the double capacity of his private secretary and aid-de-camp. This was in 1777. From the time of his arrival until the winter of 1779, he attended the Baron in his military operations; he then left the army. In 1781, he became a citizen of Pennsylvania; and, in the following year, was appointed secretary to Mr. Livingston, who had the Department of Foreign Affairs. The business of the office was transacted in that narrow, two-story building, which most of us remember, situate on the east side of Sixth Street, adjoining the one-story office, afterwards occupied by Mr. Duponceau for his professional business. Both of them, however, the old Revolutionary building and the more modern office, have been swept away by the progress of improvement, as it is called, which, in its irresistible march, levels everything that stands in its way; and very soon will leave nothing above ground to remind us of either the primitive or Revolutionary days of Pennsylvania.

At the close of the war, Mr. Duponceau studied the law; and not long afterwards was admitted to practice. In a letter which he did me the honor to address to me on the occasion of a memoir of Mr. Rawle, which I wrote, he says: "I married in the year 1788, and from that time I began to lead a very retired life, attending only to the duties of my profession. In the same year, the Federal Constitution was promulgated. Mr. Rawle and I took different sides. I regret to say that I belonged to what was called the Anti-Federal party; I thought I was right; subsequent events have proved that I was in the wrong."

For many years, Mr. Duponceau occupied a prominent place at the Bar of this city, and was frequently employed in the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, whither he went with his contemporaries, Mr. Rawle, Mr. Tilghman, Mr. Ingersoll, and Mr. Dallas. In the letter I have mentioned, the style and sub

stance of which are so agreeable that one regrets that Mr. Duponceau did not write memoirs of his times, and of the distinguished men he had met with, he thus speaks of those journeys:

"The court sat there, as it does at present, or did until lately, in the month of February; so that we had to travel in the depth of winter, through bad roads, in the midst of rain, hail, and snow, in no very comfortable way. Nevertheless, as soon as we were out of the city, and felt the flush of air, we were like schoolboys on the playground on a holiday, and we began to kill time by all the means that our imagination could suggest. Flashes of wit shot their coruscations on all sides; puns of the genuine Philadelphia stamp were handed about; old college stories were revived; macaronic Latin was spoken with great purity, songs were sung, even classical songs, among which I recollect the famous bacchanalian of the Archdeacon of Oxford, Mihi est propositum in taberna mori ;' in short, we might have been taken for anything but the grave counsellors of the celebrated Bar of Philadelphia."

On their return from one of these expeditions, the merriment of these venerable persons became so excessive as to upset the driver, who lost his reins; the horses ran away at a frightful rate; all but Mr. Duponceau leaped from the stage, and were more or less bruised: he kept his seat, and took snuff with mechanical regularity and characteristic abstraction. "We had," he said in the same letter to me, "a narrow escape. I am now left alone in the stage of life, which they were doomed also to leave before me. I hope I shall meet them safe again in a better place."

Mr. Duponceau made himself at home in this community much more thoroughly than his countrymen in general do. He mastered our language completely; and spoke and wrote it with a precision and facility that made it difficult to say that he was not "native and to the manor born." The slightest imaginable accent revealed his French origin; but nothing betrayed his Roman Catholic education or his royalist connection. He professed He professed a devout admiration of our political and social creeds; and manifested the utmost reverence for the founder and early lawgivers of Pennsylvania. He suggested, and took an active part in establishing the society for commemorating the landing of William Penn; which afterwards, unfortunately, died of exaggeration and collapse.