1793] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 365 



for a fliitlifiil administration of the trust reposed in us by the conven- 

 tion, we subscribe ourselves, 



\our affectionate Brethren, 



William White, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church in the Commonwealth of 

 Pennsylvania. 

 William Smith, D, D., 

 Samuel Magaw, D. D., 



John Andrews, D. D., [ committee ap- 



RoBERT Blackwell, D. D., f pointed by the 

 Samuel Powel, 

 John Wood, 

 riiii.ADELrniA, April 22, 1793. 



The standing 



convention. 



CHAPTER LVI. 



The Yei.t.ow Ff.vf.r of 1793 in Philadelphia — Mr. Mathew Carfy's Account 

 OF IT — Advkrtisf.ments and Communications in the NEWbPAPtRb auout 

 IT — Extracts from Dr. Smith's Diary during the Pestilence — Death 

 OF Dr. Smith's Wife — Address and Exhortation by the Clergy of 

 Philadelphia — A Proclamation by the Governor — A Series of Ser- 

 mons in Christ Church by Dr. Smith, on the Cessation of the Pesti- 

 lence AND IN Reference to it — President and Mrs. Washington always 

 Regular Attendants on Divine Service at Christ Church, and early 

 Present on the Reopening of the Church, on the occasion of these 

 Discourses. 



In the latter part of June, 1793, Philadelphia was terror-stricken 

 and desolated by that awful form of pestilence which has lately 

 visited a portion of our Southwestern States, and which is known 

 as the Yellow Fever. Dreadful as were its ravages recently in that 

 region which seems naturally, with its great swamps and low lands, 

 more open to the plague, they were no more dreadful than those 

 which befell the city of Philadelphia, in the summer and early 

 autumn of 1793. The state of affairs at the time is thus graphi- 

 cally told by the late noble-hearted Mathew Carey, who, during 

 the ravages of the pestilence, remained in the city, devoting him- 

 self to the necessities of the sick and dying : 



The consternation of the people of Philadelphia at this period was 

 /;arried beyond all bounds. Dismay and affright were visible in almost 

 every person's countenance. Most of those who could by any means 



