APPENDIX. 513 



not less beneficent; and when, in 181 6, having been hunted down by a 

 political party, its charter ceased and its affairs were wound up, it paid 

 in gold, during the prevalence of a paper currency which placed gold at 

 a high premium, ^116 for each ^100 of its capital. 



We have not a sufficient acquaintance with the history of Mr. Thomas 

 Willing to give.any particular account of his enterprises in trade. They 

 were of the largest and most successful kind in that day, and we believe 

 chiefly with the Indies. 



Mr. Morris has justly been called the Financier of the Revolution; 

 and it is not easy to overestimate his services to the country in the dark 

 days of 1780-81. But it was largely owing to the solid wealth, in- 

 herited and acquired, of his partner, Mr. Willing, put into the partner- 

 ship of Willing & Morris, by Mr. Willing; to the executive capacity of 

 that gentleman; to his great discretion and to the various qualities, not 

 always easily defined, but always easily perceived as surely felt, which 

 go to make up that combination which gives weight and influence to 

 men in the community where they live, that Mr. Morris was able to do 

 the great things that he did. The National Bank of North America 

 was the agent by which Mr. Morris produced his wonderful effects upon 

 the Revolution ; and of that bank Mr. Willing was the head, both 

 titular and real. 



The following inscription is from the pen of the Hon. Horace Bin- 

 ney, upon a monument in the grounds of Christ Church, Philadelphia, 

 in which, along with both his parents, his wife and many of his de- 

 scendants, the subject of this part of our notice is interred : 



" In memory of 



Thomas Willing, Esq., 



Born 19th of December, 1731, o. s. : died 19th of January, 1821, 



Aged 89 years and 30 days. 



" This excellent man, in all the relations of private life and in various 

 stations of high public trust, deserved and acquired the devoted affec- 

 tion of his family and friends, and the universal respect of his fellow- 

 citizens. 



" From 1 754 to 1807 he successively held the offices of Secretary to the 

 Congress of Delegates at Albany, Mayor of the city of Philadelphia, her 

 Representative in the General Assembly, President of the Provincial 

 Congress, Delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, President of 

 the first chartered bank in America, and President of the first Bank 

 of the United States. 



" With these public duties he united the business of an active, enter- 

 prising and successful merchant, in which pursuit, for sixty years, his. 

 life was rich in examples of the influence of probity, fidelity and perse- 

 verance, upon the stability of commercial establishments, and upon that. 



