his arrival he was elected president of the council. Charles Biddle was elected vice-president. In May, 1787, a convention to frame a constitution for the United States met at Philadelphia. The delegates from Pennsylvania were Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Thomas Mifflin, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris. Upon the completion of their work, the instrument was submitted to the several States for adoption. A convention was called in Pennsylvania, which met on the 21st of November, and though encountering resolute opposition it was finally adopted on the 12th of December. On the following day the convention, the supreme council and officers of the State and city government, moved in procession to the old court-house, where the adoption of the constitution was formally proclaimed amidst the booming of cannon and the ringing of bells.

On the 5th of November, 1788, Thomas Mifflin was elected president, and George Ross, vice-president. The constitution of the State framed in and adapted to the exigencies of an emergency, was ill-suited to the needs of the State in its relations to the new nation. Accordingly a convention assembled for the purpose of preparing a new constitution in November, 1789, which was finally adopted on September 2, 1790. By the provisions of this instrument, the executive council was abolished, and the executive duties were vested in the hands of a governor. Legislation was intrusted to an assembly and a senate. The judicial system was continued, and the terms of the judges extended through good behavior.

The whisky insurrection in some of the western counties of the State. which occurred in 1794, excited by its lawlessness and wide extent general interest. An act of congress of March 3, 1791, laid a tax on distilled spirits of fourpence per gallon. The then counties of Washington, Westmoreland, Allegheny and Fayette, comprising the southwestern quarter of the State, were almost exclusively engaged in the production of grain. Being far removed from any market, the product of their farms brought them scarcely any returns. The consequence was that a large proportion of the surplus grain was turned into distilled spirits, and nearly every other farmer was a distiller. This tax was seen to bear heavily upon them, from which a nonproducer of spirits was relieved. A rash determination was formed to resist its collection, and a belief entertained that, if all were united in resisting, it would be taken off. Frequent altercations occurred between the persons ap'pointed United States collectors and these resisting citizens. As an example, on the 5th of September, 1791, a party in disguise set upon Robert Johnson, a collector for Allegheny and Washington, tarred and feathered him, cut off his hair, took away his horse, and left him in this plight to proceed. Writs for the arrest of the perpetrators were issued, but none dared to venture into the territory to serve them. On May 8, 1792, the law was modified, and the tax reduced. In September, 1792, President Washington issued his proclamation commanding all persons to submit to the law, and to forbear from further opposition. But these measures had no effect, and the insurgents began to organize for forcible resistance. Maj. Macfarlane, while in command of a party of insurrectionists, was killed in an encounter with United States soldiers at the house of Gen. Neville. The feeling now ran very high, and it was hardly safe for any person to breathe a whisper against the insurgents throughout all this district. One Bradford had, of his own notion, issued a circular letter to the colonels of regiments to assemble with their commands at Braddock's field on the 1st of August, where they appointed officers and moved on to Pittsburgh. After having burned a barn, and made some noisy

demonstrations, they were induced by some cool heads to return. These turbulent proceedings coming to the ears of the State and national authorities at Philadelphia, measures were concerted to promptly and effectually check them. Gov. Mifflin appointed Chief Justice McKean and Gen. William Irvine to proceed to the disaffected district, ascertain the facts, and try to bring the leaders to justice. President Washington issued a proclamation commanding all persons in arms to disperse to their homes "on or before the 1st of September, proximo," and called out the militia of four States-Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia-to the number of 13,000 men, to enforce his commands. The quota of Pennsylvania was 4,500 infantry, 500 cavalry, and 200 artillery, and Gov. Mifflin took command in person. Gov. Richard Howell, of New Jersey, Gov. Thomas S. Lee, of Maryland, and Gen. Daniel Morgan, of Virginia, commanded the forces from their States, and Gov. Henry Lee, of Virginia, was placed in chief command. President Washington, accompanied by Gen. Knox, secretary of war, Alexander Hamilton, secre tary of the treasury, and Richard Peters, of the United States District Court, set out on the 1st of October for the seat of the disturbance. On Friday the President reached Harrisburg and on Saturday, Carlisle, whither the army. had preceded him. In the meantime a committee, consisting of James Ross, Jasper Yeates and William Bradford, was appointed by President Washington to proceed to the disaffected district, and endeavor to persuade misguided citizens to return to their allegiance.

A meeting of 260 delegates from the four counties was held at Parkinson's Ferry on the 14th of August, at which the state of their cause was considered, resolutions adopted, and a committee of sixty, one from each county, was appointed, and a sub-committee of twelve was named to confer with the United States commissioners, McKean and Irvine. These conferences with the State and national committees were successful in arranging preliminary conditions of settlement. On the 2d of October the committee of safety of the insurgents met at Parkinson's Ferry, and having learned that a well-organized army, with Washington at its head, was marching westward to enforce obedience to the laws, appointed a committee of two, William Findley and David Reddick, to meet the President, and assure him that the disaffected were disposed to return to their duties. They met Washington at Carlisle, and several conferences were held, and assurances given of implicit obedience; but the President said that as the troops had been called out, the orders for the march would not be countermanded. The President proceeded forward on the 11th of October to Chambersburg, reached Williamsport on the 13th and Fort Cumberland on the 14th, where he reviewed the Virginia and Maryland forces, and arrived at Bedford on the 19th. Remaining a few days, and being satisfied that the sentiment of the people had changed, he returned to Philadelphia, arriving on the 28th, leaving Gen. Lee to meet the commissioners and make such conditions of pacification as should seem just. Another meeting of the committee of safety was held at Parkinson's Ferry on the 24th, at which assurances of abandonment of opposition to the laws were received, and the same committee, with the addition of Thomas Morton and Ephraim Douglass, was directed to return to headquarters and give assurance of this disposition. They did not reach Bedford until after the departure of Washington. But at Uniontown they met Gen. Lee, with whom it was agreed that the citizens of these four counties should subscribe to an oath to support the constitution and obey the laws. Justices of the peace issued notices that books were opened for subscribing to the oath, and Gen. Lee issued a judicious address urging ready obedience. Seeing that all requirements were being

faithfully carried out, an order was issued the 17th of November for the return of the army and its disbandment. A number of arrests were made and trials and convictions were had, but all were ultimately pardoned.

With the exception of a slight ebullition at the prospect of a war with France in 1797, and a resistance to the operation of the "homestead tax" in Lehigh, Berks and Northampton counties, when the militia was called out, the remainder of the term of Gov. Mifflin passed in comparative quiet. By an act of the legislature of the 3d of April, 1799, the capital of the State was removed to Lancaster, and soon after the capital of the United States to Washington, the house on Ninth street, which had been built for the residence of the President of the United States, passing to the use of the University of Pennsylvania.

During the administrations of Thomas McKean, who was elected governor in 1799, and Simon Snyder, in 1808, little beyond heated political contests marked the even tenor of the government, until the breaking out of the troubles which eventuated in the war of 1812. Pennsylvania promptly seconded the national government, the message of Gov. Snyder on the occasion ringing like a silver clarion. The national call for 100,000 men required 14,000 from this State, but so great was the enthusiasm that several times this number tendered their services. The State force was organized in two divisions, to the command of the first of which Maj.-Gen. Isaac Morrell was appointed, and to the second Maj. Gen. Adamson Tannehill. Gunboats and privateers were built in the harbor of Erie and on the Delaware, and the defenses upon the latter were put in order and suitable armaments provided. The act which created most alarm to Pennsylvania was one of vandalism scarcely matched in the annals of warfare. In August, 1814, Gen. Ross, with 6,000 men in a flotilla of sixty sail, moved up Chesapeake Bay, fired the capitol, the President's house and the various offices of cabinet ministers, and these costly and substantial buildings, the national library and all the records of the government from its foundation were utterly destroyed. Shortly afterward, Ross appeared before Baltimore with the design of multiplying his barbarisms, but he was met by a force hastily collected under Gen. Samuel Smith, a Pennsylvania veteran of the Revolution, and in the brief engagement which ensued Ross was killed. In the severe battle with the corps of Gen. Stricker, the British lost some 300 men. The fleet in the meantime commenced a fierce bombardment of Fort McHenry, and during the day and ensuing night 1,500 bombshells were thrown, but all to no purpose, the gallant defense of Maj. Armistead proving successful. It was during this awful night that Maj. Key, who was a prisoner on board the fleet, wrote the song of the Star Spangled Banner, which became the national lyric. It was in the administration of Gov. Snyder in February, 1810, that an act was passed making Harrisburg the seat of government, and a commission raised for erecting public buildings, the sessions of the legislature being held in the court-house at Harrisburg from 1812 to 1821.

The administrations of William Findley, elected in 1817, Joseph Heister, in 1820, and John Andrew Schulz, in 1823, followed without marked events. Parties became very warm in their discussions and in their management of political campaigns. The charters for the forty banks which had been passed in a fit of frenzy over the veto of Gov. Snyder set a flood of paper money afloat. The public improvements, principally in opening lines of canal, were prosecuted, and vast debts incurred. These lines of conveyances were vitally needful to move the immense products and vast resources of the State.

Previous to the year 1820, little use was made of stone coal. Judge Obediah Gore, a blacksmith, used it upon his forge as early as 1769, and found the heat stronger and more enduring than that produced by charcoal. In

The

1791 Phillip Ginter, of Carbon county, a hunter by profession, having on one occasion been out all day without discovering any game, was returning at night discouraged and worn out, across the Mauch Chunk mountain when, in the gathering shades he stumbled upon something which seemed to have a glistening appearance, that he was induced to pick up and carry home. This specimen was taken to Philadelphia, where an analysis showed it to be a good quality of anthracite coal. But, though coal was known to exist, no one knew how to use it. In 1812 Col. George Shoemaker, of Schuylkill county, took nine wagon loads to Philadelpnia. But he was looked upon as an imposter for attempting to sell worthless stone for coal. He finally sold two loads for the cost of transportation, the remaining seven proving a complete loss. In 1812 White & Hazard, manufacturers of wire at the Falls of Schuylkill, induced an application to be made to the legislature to incorporate a company for the improvement of the Schuylkill, urging as an inducement the importance it would have for transporting coal; whereupon, the senator from that district, in his place, with an air of knowledge, asserted that "there was no coal there, that there was a kind of black stone which was called coal, but that it would not burn. White & Hazard procured a cart-load of Lehigh coal that cost them $1 a bushel, which was all wasted in a vain attempt to make it ignite. Another cart-load was obtained, and a whole night spent in endeavoring to make a fire in the furnace, when the hands shut the furnace door and left the mill in dispair. "Fortunately one of them left his jacket in the mill, and returning for it in about half an hour, noticed that the door was red hot, and upon opening it, was surprised at finding the whole furnace at a glowing white heat. other hands were summoned, and four separate parcels of iron were heated and rolled by the same fire before it required renewing. The furnace was replenished, and as letting it alone had succeeded so well, it was concluded to try it again, and the experiment was repeated with the same result. Lehigh Navigation Company and the Lehigh Coal Company were incorporated in 1818, which companies became the basis of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, incorporated in 1822. In 1820 coal was sent to Philadelphia by artificial navigation, but 365 tons glutted the market. In 1825 there were brought by the Schuylkill 5,378 tons. In 1826 by the Schuylkill 16,265 tons, and by the Lehigh 31,280 tons. The stage of water being insufficient, dams and sluices were constructed near Mauch Chunk, in 1819, by which the navigation was improved. The coal boats used were great square arks, sixteen to eighteen feet wide, and twenty to twenty-five feet long. At first, two of these were joined together by hinges, to allow them to yield up and down in passing over the dams. Finally as the boatman became skilled in the navigation, several were joined, attaining a length of 180 feet. After reaching Philadel phia, these boats were taken to pieces, the plank sold and the hinges sent back for constructing others. Such were the crude methods adopted in the early days for bringing coal to a market. In 1827 a railroad was commenced, which was completed in three months, nine miles in length. This, with the exception of one at Quincy, Mass., of four miles, built in 1826, was the first constructed in the United States. The descent was one hundred feet per mile, the coal descending by gravity in a half hour, and the cars were drawn back by mules, which rode down with the coal. Bituminous coal was discovered and its qualities utilized not much earlier than the anthracite. A tract of coal land was taken up in Clearfield county in 1785, by Mr. S. Boyd, and in 1804 he sent an ark down the Susquehanna to Columbia.

The

During the administrations of George Wolf, elected in 1829, and Joseph Ritner, elected in 1835, a measure of great beneficence to the State was passed,

and brought into a good degree of successful operation-nothing less than a broad system of public education. Schools had been early established in Philadelphia, and parochial schools in the more populous portions of the State from the time of early settlement. In 1749, through the influence of Dr. Franklin, a charter was obtained for a "college, academy, and charity school of Pennsylvania," and, from this time to the beginning of the present century, the friends of education were earnest in establishing colleges, the colonial government, and afterward the legislature, making liberal grants from the revenues accruing from the sale of lands for their support, the University of Pennsylvania being chartered in 1752, Dickinson College in 1783, Franklin and Marshall College in 1787, and Jefferson College in 1802. Commencing near the beginning of this century, and continuing for over a period of thirty years, vigorous exertions were put forth to establish county academies. Charters were granted for these institutions at the county seats of forty-one counties, and appropriations were made of money, varying from two thousand to six thousand dollars, and in several instances of quite extensive land grants. In 1809 an act was passed for the education of the "poor gratis." The assessors in their annual rounds were to make a record of all such as were indigent, and pay for their education in the most convenient schools. But few were found among the spirited inhabitants of the commonwealth willing to admit that they were so poor as to be objects of charity.

By the act of April 1, 1834, a general system of education by common schools was established. Unfortunately it was complex and unwieldly. At the next session an attempt was made to repeal the act, and substitute the old law of 1809 for educating the "poor gratis," the repeal having been carried in the senate. But through the appeals of Thaddeus Stevens, a man always in the van in every movement for the elevation of mankind, this was defeated. At the next session, 1836, an entirely new bill, discarding the objectionable features of the old one, was prepared by Dr. George Smith, of Delaware county, and adopted, and from this time forward it has been in efficient operation. In 1854 the system was improved by engrafting upon it the feature of the county superintendency, and in 1859 by providing for the establishment of twelve normal schools in as many districts into which the State was divided for the professional training of teachers.

In 1837 a convention assembled in Harrisburg, and subsequently in Philadelphia, for revising the constitution, which revision was adopted by a vote of the people. One of the chief objects of the change was the breaking up of what was known as "omnibus legislation," each bill being required to have but one distinct subject, to be definitely stated in the title. Much of the patronage of the governor was taken from him, and he was allowed but two terms of three years in any nine years. The senator's term was fixed at three years. The terms of supreme court judges were limited to fifteen years, common pleas judges to ten, and associate judges to five. A step backward was taken in limiting suffrage to white male citizens twenty-one years old, it having previously been extended to citizens irrespective of color. Amendments could be proposed once in five years, and if adopted by two successive legislatures, and approved by a vote of the people, they became a part of the organic law.

At the opening of the gubernatorial term of David R. Porter, who was chosen in October, 1838, a civil commotion occurred known as the "Buckshot War," which at one time threatened a sanguinary result. Fraud in the election returns was alleged, and finally the opposing factions armed for the maintenance of their claims. Some of them were supplied with buckshot cartridges, hence the name which was given to the contest.

It ended without bloodshed.