VI OBITUARY NOTICES. 



was the financial plan which made possible at that time the con- 

 struction and operation of the municipal gas works. In 1853, 1854 

 and 1855 he actively participated in the popular efforts to secure 

 the consolidation of the city, and his is the plan of municipal 

 financing and accounting which is now in force, unchanged by 

 later legislation, and largely effective to-day in the high credit of 

 the city loans. 



His was the plan under which Girard College was successfully 

 administered as a school for orphans before the organization of the 

 ' Board of City Trusts. 



When in 1861 the existence of the Government of the United 

 States and the permanency of free institutions were threatened by 

 ' an armed insurrection, Mr. Fraley saw clearly the duty of the 

 citizen, and he voiced the sentiments of that loyalty which put 

 country above party in words which are worthy of lasting record. 

 On 30th November, 1861, he published a letter, in which he said : 



"I have both publicly and privately expressed the following 

 opinions hitherto, and have so far seen no cause for changing them. 



" First — That it is the duty of every one, with head, heart, hand 

 and purse, to aid the general Government in putting down the 

 rebellion, and in reducing to obedience to the Constitution and 

 laws of the United States those who are in arms against the sov- 

 ereign authority of the Union. That aid is to be cordially given, 

 with a proper confidence that those who have been entrusted by the 

 American people with the responsibilities of power will honestly 

 and faithfully execute the high trusts committed to them. 



" Second — That we are not engaged in a war for the prevalence 

 of any peculiar set of political opinions, but one which is to deter- 

 mine by its results whether we have a National Government, bind- 

 ing in absolute, supreme and complete sovereignty over individuals 

 and States for every object defined in the Constitution of the 

 United States, or whether the nation is to be broken up by every 

 accidental majority that may place State Legislatures in the power 

 of traitors or fanatics. 



" Third — That, having by the Constitution and various com- 

 promise laws given to the institution of slavery every protection 

 hitherto which it could legitimately claim, and having failed thereby 

 to avoid an appeal to a power outside of the Constitution (the 

 appeal to arms made by the traitors of the South), it is now our 

 duty so to deal with the slave question that it shall no longer 



