512 APPENDIX. 



colonies, and repeal her obnoxious acts of legislation. John Adams, 

 after speaking, in his Diary, of numerous persons of great fame whom 

 he met in Philadelphia during the session of the Congress, says: 



Sunday, ii October, 1774. 



There is such a quick and constant succession of new scenes, characters, persons 

 and events turning up before me, that I can't keep any regular account. . . . Dined at 

 Mr. Willing's, who is a Judge of the Supreme Court here, and the gentlemen from 

 Virginia, Maryland and New York a most splendid feast again ; turtle and every- 

 thing else. Mr. Willing is the most sociable, agreeable man of all.* 



When, in the year 1781, with a view of enabling the United States of 

 America to carry on the war for independence, the Bank of North America 

 was chartered by Congress — a time when our finances were almost des- 

 perate, when public credit was at an end, when no means were afforded 

 adequate to the public expense, when the money and credit of the United 

 States were at so low an ebb that some members of the Board of War de- 

 clared that they had not the means of sending an express to the army — 

 it was made a part of the enactment by that body, such was the confidence 

 had by it in his integrity, skill and solid wealth, that Thomas Willing 

 be the present President of the Institution. At a later day, March 26, 

 1782, when the State of Pennsylvania came to act on the charter, cer- 

 tain members of the Assembly opposed this feature of the enactment, 

 arguing that Mr. Willing had voted against the Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence, had remained in the city during the occupation, etc., etc. 

 "We think," said they, "that loading with honors a man who so lately 

 contributed what he could to enslave his country, is a discouragement 

 to the Whigs, is a wound to the cause of patriotism, and is trampling on 

 the blood of those heroes and martyrs who have fallen in the defence 

 of our liberty." But, upon the question being taken, the objectors — 

 country members, and mostly of the Deinocratic side — were over- 

 whelmed, and, by a vote of thirty-eight to sixteen, the Congressional 

 enactment left undisturbed. Mr. Willing entered at once upon the 

 Presidency of the Bank of North America, and until taken from it, 

 eight or nine years afterwards, to be placed in the higher office of 

 President of the Bank of the United States, then lately chartered by 

 the Federal government, administered it with the most satisfactory 

 results ; its dividends being for years of a magnitude previously unheard 

 of in the history of banks. The bank to this day maintains the highest 

 reputation. His administration of the Bank of the United States was 



* Among "the gentlemen from Virginia, Maryland and New York," were George 

 Washington, Patrick Henry, Peyton Randolph, William Paca, Samuel Chase, John 

 Jay and Philip Livingston. — Works, Vol. II., page 378. 



