the 24th wore away. At nine o'clock Clark sent this dispatch to Hamilton, not less characteristic than the one just read:

Sir-In order to save your self from the impending storm that now threatens you, I order you to immediately surrender your-self, with all your garrison stores &c &c; for if I am obliged to storm, you may depend on such treatment as justly due a murderer. Beware of destroying stores of any kind or any papers or letters that are in your possession, or hurting one house in town, for by Heaven, if you do, there shall be no mercy shown G. R. CLARK.

you.

To Gov Hamilton.

Time forbids that I should detail either the vigor with which Colonel Clark conducted his siege, or the skill with which he concluded the negotiations; but at ten o'clock on the 25th the cross of St. George gave place to the stars and stripes, the British garrison were prisoners of war, and one of the fairest lands on earth had been secured for the nation we

now love so well. Five great states, twelve million happy freemen, and untold wealth attest the genius of the man who conceived and executed the plan by which this mighty empire was added to the republic. I may not trace the story of the declining years of Clark, of Gibault, and of Vigo, so sad and illustrative of the proverbial ingratitude of republics, but I cannot leave the "Old Post" without adding my own tribute of praise and gratitude to men to whom we owe so much.

VINCENNES, INDIANA.

EA.Bryan

THE HARRISONS IN HISTORY

There is a subtle sentiment in old songs, a perfume in some simple flowers which no creation of the scientific gardener can excel; there is a rich flavor in old wines that time only can impart, and an interest in old letters which strangely thrills the hand turning their pages, as if invisible fingers of the dead writers touched it; and there is a strength in old blood and noble lineage which the most determined democrat, the most profane iconoclast, cannot ignore.

The Harrison name is well known in history, especially in the United States. In Bishop Meade's book on the Old Churches and Families of Virginia, in Campbell's History of Virginia, and in Hugh Blair Grigsby's work on The Convention of 1776, there is honorable record of the Harrisons, of whom Mr. Grigsby says: "Of all ancient families in the colony, that of Harrison, if not the oldest, is one of the oldest."

John Smith, in his quaint history, mentions Herman Harrison, who came over to the colony in what was called the "second supply," and of Master John Harrison, "gentleman," who was governor of Virginia in 1623. The ancestry of Benjamin Harrison, the signer, is traced to this governor, from whom descended President William Henry Harrison, grandfather of our present President. These facts are stated in a letter from Colonel Harrison of Brandon, given in Bishop Meade's book; and from the same source we learn that the first born of the name of whom we have distinct record in the colony was Benjamin Harrison, who became a member of the council, was speaker of the House of Burgesses, and died in Southwark parish, in the county of Surrey, in the year 1712.

This Benjamin, it is added, was buried at the chapel near Cabin Point, and according to the epitaph on his tombstone was also born in Southwark parish in 1645. His will was admitted to probate in 1712, and contains the following extract: "Item, I give twenty pounds sterling to buy ornaments for the Chapel; and that my executor take care to provide them so soon as may be after the new Chapel is built; and my will is, that five acres of my land be laid out where the old Chapel now stands; and that it be held for that use forever."

It has been suggested that the noted Roundhead, General Harrison, of Cromwell's army, who is said to have sought refuge in this country after the Protector's death and the restoration of Charles the Second, was an

ancestor of our Presidents. We give as positive rebuttal testimony the following epitaph: "Here lyeth the body of Benjamin Harrison Esquire, who did justice, loved mercy, and walked humbly with his God, was always loyal to his Prince; and a great benefactor to his country." There were three sons left, of whom the eldest, Benjamin, settled at Berkeley, on James River, in Virginia, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Lewis Burwell, of Gloucester, who was an eminent lawyer, and some time speaker of the House of Burgesses.

This Benjamin died at the early age of thirty-seven, in 1710, leaving an only son, Benjamin, and an only daughter, Elizabeth.

There was erected a monument to his memory at public expense. The third Benjamin Harrison married a daughter of Robert Carter, of Cocotoman, in Lancaster county, the noted "King Carter," as he was called, who held a sort of viceregal and altogether despotic sway as surveyor general at that time over country and people. But one fine day at Berkeley there came a terrible thunderstorm; and, when it passed, there had been three struck dead by one fearful bolt of lightning. The victims were Mr. Harrison and his two fair daughters. There was one daughter and six sons left. The best known of these are Benjamin, the noble signer of the Declaration, and Charles, a general in the Revolution. Historians have carefully recorded the long and brilliant career of the celebrated signer. From Goodrich and Dwight we will quote a brief outline of facts it may be well to recall and accentuate at present.

The year 1764 was the genesis of his public life as a member of the legislature, and from that time his place was established in the nation's councils. Destiny had set its seal upon him as a leader of men, attracting the eyes of the royal government, who sought to enlist his talent and influence in their executive council in Virginia. But the germ of liberty springing in his soul antagonized the oppressive measures of the British ministry, and identified him with the interests of the colonists. In 1774 he was made a delegate to the memorable congress which laid the corner-stone of our country's freedom; and through all of the tremendous throes of a nation's stormy birth, the most important events of the time seemed to crystallize around his career. As chairman of the board of war, and chairman of the committee of the whole house, his sagacity, firmness, ability, and glowing eloquence fixed the attention and confidence of his colleagues and an anxious public.

The characteristic anecdote told of his joking Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, when they were affixing their signatures to our Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, is not too trite to be interesting. Gerry

was a small, spare, sinewy man, while Harrison stood over six feet tall, with superb physique and the torso of a Hercules.

Having inscribed his name upon the immortal roll, he turned to Mr. Gerry, facetiously observing that, "when the time of hanging came," he would have the advantage of him. "It will be over with me in minute," said he, "while you will be kicking in the air for half an hour after I am gone." So did these great men make merry over their doughty deeds. Resigning his seat in congress, he returned to Virginia in 1777, and was speedily elected to a seat in the House of Burgesses, and immediately chosen speaker, which position he held until 1782, when he became governor of Virginia. He was twice elected chief magistrate of that state, and was noted as one of its most popular governors.

He returned to private life after becoming ineligible under the peculiar provisions of the constitution, but carried into his retirement the hearts of his people, with their most unstinted approbation and esteem. Again, in 1788, he was called to the front as a member of the convention which ratified the federal Constitution, and was appointed chairman of the first committee chosen by that assembly. One of the most trenchant and successful impromptus uttered before the first congress is recorded of Harrison by Mr. Jefferson. In response to a remark of John Dickinson, who -after hectoring the members into adopting a declaration of his own, distasteful to the general spirit, and subsequently superseded by Mr. Jefferson's-had said, "There is but one word I disapprove in that paper —it is the word congress." Instantly Mr. Harrison rose to his feet, and with electric effect replied: "Mr. President, there is but one word in that paper which I approve, and that is the word CONGRESS."

Afterward, in 1790, he was again urged to be candidate for the execu tive chair, but positively declined the proposed honor in favor of his friend Beverley Randolph, who was elected by a small majority.

Though declining in years and health, in April, 1791, he was again elected a member of the legislature; but his lavish hospitality and generous living had resulted in an attack of gout, from which he temporarily recovered; the day after his election, when his friends had been bidden to feast with him, there was a severe recurrence of the disease, which terminated fatally. And as the tide went out in the river whose waves rippled upon the shore below Berkeley, with the evening of that day its noble. master had gone beyond, into the shadows. He was universally mourned.

So far as can be learned, there is now no trace left of the simple slab which nearly a century ago marked his grave. He was buried at Berkeley. Others of his ancestors were interred in the old Westover churchyard;

notably the first Benjamin, son of the first governor of Virginia, whose stanch loyalty asserts itself in his famous epitaph, as given in Campbell's History of Virginia.

Early in life Benjamin Harrison married Elizabeth Bassett, a daughter of Colonel William Bassett, of Eltham, one of the prominent men of the colony, descended from a noble English family of wealth and title. There has been a widely circulated misstatement that Benjamin Harrison, the signer, married Nancy Randolph. He was married only once, and, as history states positively, to Elizabeth Bassett, daughter of Colonel William Bassett, of Eltham, New Kent county, Virginia.

This Colonel William Bassett had been appointed by Queen Anne a member of the colonial executive council, similar to the privy council in England.

The commission bearing the queen's autograph and that of the premier, Lord Dartmouth, is still extant in the Bassett family. The mother of Mrs. Harrison was Elizabeth Churchill, of the Marlborough family of Churchills. There is a quaint piece of silver, marked with the Marlborough coat of arms and the letters "E. C.," still preserved by her descendants.

On the maternal side, the Harrison Presidents blend the blood of the Bacons, Burwells, and Churchills, the first Bassett who came to Virginia in 1649 being a royalist refugee. Driven from England after the regicide under an attainder, he took refuge first in Holland, thence came to the colony with Sir Philip Honeywood and a party of cavaliers, as is mentioned by Campbell. Large tracts of land were granted them by King Charles II. after the Restoration; and in 1660 the Eltham mansion was built-after Colonel Bassett married the sister of Governor Nathaniel Bacon.

These homes of history merit description because of the charm that clings about them-"not in the stones of the old walls," as Ruskin says," but in the haunting personality of those who have lived and died within. The Berkeley house still stands, in admirable preservation, on the James river, a lovely, quaint, picturesque place, crowned with the halo of history, for its windows have turned their calm, inscrutable gaze on the tremendous scenes of two revolutions.

On the opposite side of the peninsula, at a point where the tides of two rivers the Pamunkey and Mattaponi-unite, forming the York, may be traced the ruins of Eltham. It was destroyed by fire in 1775, more than two hundred years after its founding. The house presented an imposing front, one hundred and fifty feet from wing to wing; the entire building, with peaked roof and gable front, rising above them like the keep of a