Carter Braxton was educated at the college of William and Mary, and at the age of nineteen years, on leaving that institution, he was married to Miss Judith Robinson, the daughter of a wealthy planter in Middlesex County. His own large fortune was considerably augmented by this marriage, and he was considered one of the wealthiest men in his native county.* In 1757, Mr. Braxton went to England, for the purpose of self-improvement and personal gratification. He remained there until 1760, when he returned to America, and soon afterward married the daughter of Mr. Corbin, the royal receiver-general of the customs of Virginia.† Notwithstanding the social position, and patrician connections of Mr. Braxton, which would seem naturally to have attached him to the aristocracy, he was among the earliest in Virginia who raised the voice of patriotism. In 1765 he was a member of the House of Burgesses. How much earlier he appeared in public life is not known. He was present when Patrick Henry's resolutions respecting the Stamp Act, were introduced, and was one of those who, fired by the wonderful eloquence of the orator on that occasion, boldly voted in support of them.‡ Mr. Braxton was a member of the Virginia Conven

His wife died at the time of the birth of her second child, when she was not quite twenty-one years of age.

Mr. Braxton had a large family by his second wife. She was the mother of sixteen children.

The eloquence of Henry on that occasion, fell like successive thunderbolts on the ears of the timid Assembly. "It was in the midst of the magnificent debate on these resolutions,' says Mr. Wirt, "while he was descanting on the tyranny of the obnoxious Act, that he exclaimed, in a voice of thunder, and with the look of a god-'Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the

tion in 1769, when Lord Botetourt, one of the best disposed royal governors that ever ruled in Virginia, suddenly dissolved it, in consequence of some acts therein which he deemed treasonable. Mr. Braxton was one of the members who immediately retired to a private room and signed a non-importation agreement. Lord Botetourt died toward the close of 1770, and was succeeded by Lord Dunmore, a man of very defective judgment and unyielding disposition, whose unpopular management greatly increased the spirit of opposition to royal misrule in Virginia. During the interval between the death of Botetourt and the arrival of Dunmore, Mr. Braxton held the office of high sheriff of the county where he resided, but he refused to hold it under the new governor. He was one of the eightynine members of the Assembly who, on the dissolution thereof by Governor Dunmore, in the summer of 1774, recommended a general convention of the people of Virginia, to meet at Williamsburg. They did so, and elected delegates to the Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia on the fourth of the month following. Mr. Braxton was a member of that convention. When, in 1777, the attempt of Lord Dunmore to take the ammunition from the public magazines on board the Fowey ship-of-war, then lying off Williamsburg, excited the people to the highest pitch, and threatened First his Cromwell-and George the Third''Treason!' cried the Speaker-Treason, treason,' echoed from every part of the House. It was one of those trying moments which are decisive of character. Henry faltered not for an instant; but rising to a loftier altitude, and fixing on the Speaker an eye of the most determined fire, he finished the sentence with the firmest emphasis and George the Third-may profit by their example. If that be treason, make the most of it.'"'

open rebellion and armed resistance,* Mr. Braxton, by a wise and prudent course, succeeded in quelling the disturbance, and in bringing about such an arrangement as quite satisfied the people, and probably saved the town from destruction. In December, 1775, he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Peyton Randolph. He took an active part in favor of independence, and voted for and signed the Declaration. He remained in Congress during only one session, and then resumed his seat in the Virginia Legislature, where he continued with but little interruption, until 1785. In 1786 he was appointed a member of the council of the State, and held that station until 1791. He was elected to the same office in 1794, where he continued until within four days of his death. This event, which was occasioned by paralysis, occurred on the tenth day of October, 1797, when he was in the sixty-first year of his age.

Patrick Henry put himself at the head of a military company, and marched toward Williamsburg, to demand from Lord Dunmore the return of the powder. His company rapidly augmented in numbers as he approached the town, and he entered it at the head of an overwhelming force. The governor, finding resistance vain, finally agreed to pay for the powder, and was then allowed quietly to retire with his family on board the shipof-war in the river.

†The captain of the Fowey had declared his intention to fire upon and destroy the town, if the governor should experience any personal violence, and he placed the broadside of his vessel parallel with the shore, and shotted his guns for the purpose.

CHAPTER XXXV.

EDWARD RUTLEDGE-THOMAS

HAYWARD-THOMAS

LYNCH, JR.-ARTHUR MIDDLETON.

EDWARD RUTLEDGE, whose name we find first among the patriotic delegates from South Carolina who signed the Declaration of Independence, was born at Charleston, in November, 1749, and was the youngest of a family of seven children. After receiving a good English and classical education, young Rutledge commenced the study of law with his elder brother, John, who was then a distinguished member of the Charleston bar. As a finishing stroke in his legal education, preparatory to his admission to the bar, he was sent to England at the age of twenty, and entered as a student at the Inner Temple, London, where he had an opportunity of witnessing the forensic eloquence of those master spirits of the times, Mansfield, Wedderburn, Thurlow, Dunning, Chatham, and Camden. He returned to Charleston about the close of 1772, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice early in 1773. Mr. Rutledge, though young, had watched with much interest the political movements of the day, and when old enough to act as well as think, he took a decisive stand on the side of the patriots. This, together with the distinguished talents which he manifested on his first appearance at the

bar, drew toward him the attention of the public mind, when the Massachusetts Circular aroused the people to vigorous action. Although then only twenty-five years of age, the Convention of South Carolina elected him a delegate to the first General Congress, and he was present at the opening, on the fifth of September, 1774. There he was active and fearless, and receiving the entire approbation of his constituents, he was reelected in 1775, and 1776; and when, preparatory to the consideration of the subject of absolute independence, Congress, by resolution, recommended the several Colonies to form permanent governments, Mr. Rutledge was associated with Richard Henry Lee and John Adams, in preparing the prefatory preamble to the recommendation. He was warmly in favor of independence, and fearlessly voted for the Declaration, notwithstanding there were large numbers of people in his State opposed to it, some through timidity, some through self-interest, and some through decided attachment to the royal cause. When, during the summer of 1776, Lord Howe came commissioned to prosecute the war or negotiate for peace, Mr. Rutledge was appointed one of a committee with Dr. Franklin and John Adams, to meet him in conference upon Staten Island. The commissioners were instructed not to enter upon negotiations for peace, except in the capacity of representatives of free States, and having independence as a basis. As Lord Howe could not thus receive them, or listen to such proposals, the conference, as was anticipated, failed to produce any important results. Mr. Rutledge took up arms, and was placed at the head of a corps of artillery. In 1780, while Charleston was invested by the enemy, he was