PENN PENNSYLVANIA. 



163 



Of these, 6000 were in garrison in Yorktown, Glouces- 

 ter Point, and Mulberry Island, leaving only 5000 

 men to defend his long line of 13 miles. McClellan 

 was then in a position either to have turned Yorktown 

 or to have broken Magruder' s thin line by a direct 

 attack. He hesitated and waited, and the result was 

 that when he abandoned the former plan Johnston 

 had come, and it was too late to attempt the other. 

 "To my own surprise," says Magruder, " he let day 

 after day pass without attack." Had he shattered 

 Magruder and followed close on his heels to Richmond 

 he might have carried it in its then comparatively 

 weak state by the coup de mam he dreamed of. 



Again, the fundamental error of his selection of the 

 White House as a base was that it made it necessary 

 for him to have a force on the left bank of the Chick- 

 ahominy to protect his line of communications. This 

 crippled him for striking Johnston with a force so 

 preponderating as practically to ensure victory. The 

 moment all reasonable prospect of a junction with 

 McDowell vanished, he ought to have transferred his 

 depots and every man to the right bank, or at once 

 have carried out his James River scheme. It was not 

 till Lee was joined by Jackson and had replenished 

 his ranks by conscription that there was any parity 

 between the forces. "Gen. McClellan," says an able 

 and friendly critic, "knew that the one course or 

 other was necessary, but unfortunately the case was 

 one presenting an alternative, and it was the nature 

 of that commander's mind so to balance between con- 

 flicting opinions and let ' I dare not wait upon I would,' 

 that he was apt to hesitate even in conjunctures where 

 the worst course was preferable to doing nothing." 



Again, during the battle of Fair Oaks McClellan 

 lay with two army corps at his command at his head- 

 quarters at Gaines' Mill, whence he could see the 

 smoke of the battle as it indicated the steady advance 

 of the enemy. He could have left one corps to de- 

 fend his communications and struck the Confederate 

 flank with the other so as to turn Fair Oaks into a 

 great victory. By consenting to defer, he lost an op- 

 portunity unexampled in the course of the war. 



Military critics blame him for letting slip two other 

 opportunities when he was lying on the south of the 

 nver. First, by not making a dash at Richmond 

 when Lee had, on June llth, sent Whiting to join 

 Jackson in the Valley : and again, by lying supine 

 when Longstreet, the two Hills, and Jackson wjth 

 60.000 men were attacking Porter and McCall with 

 only 27,000, on the north bank, and he with a force 

 equally preponderating over Lee's, was within easy 

 striking distance of him. 



As an evidence of his want of promptitude we may 

 note Stuart's raid, which, with a Grant, a Sheridan, or 

 a Thomas, would have been impossible. One thing 

 is to be said for McClfllan, that he acted under the 

 conviction that he was subject to mistrust, and even to 

 dislike, in high quarters, and that the worst construc- 

 tion would be put on any error. In a man of hia 

 temperament this feeling, no doubt, tended to paralyze 

 action. On the whole it may truthfully be said that, 

 although the campaign, viewed with regard to its 

 aim, was a failure and left the prestige of victory with 

 the Confederates, McClellan, in the conduct of his 

 operations, showed the skill of a finished general ; no 

 one was more conscious than Lee of the adroit man- 

 ner in which his antagonist parried his blows. His 

 retreat, with endless trains of wagons and ambulances 

 and 2500 live cattle over miserable roads (sometimes 

 only one), and guarded by an army hungry, weary. 

 ana footsore, was executed in a manner to reflect the 

 highest honor on commander and soldiers alike. 

 " For the commander," says the Cpmte de Paris, "to 

 have extricated hia army from a difficult situation, in 

 which circumstances as much as his own fault had 

 placed it, and, in presence of a powerful, skilful, and 

 determined adversary, transfer it safely to a position 

 whcin-c it could act with effect, was of itself a notable 



Am 



achievement. With an ordinary man, the Army of 

 the Potomac would have been destroyed." (j. H.) 



PENN, JOHN (1741-1788), a signer of the Declara- 

 tion of Independence, was born in Caroline co., Va. , 

 May 17, 1741. His early education was neglected, but 

 he read law with Edmund Pendleton and was admitted 

 to the bar in 1762. He was soon noted for his elo- 

 quence. In 1774 he removed to Greenville co., N. C., 

 and was sent as a delegate to the Continental Con- 

 gress, in which he signed the Declaration of Independ- 

 ence. He was again a member of Congress (1778-80), 

 and when Lord Cornwallis invaded North Carolina 

 Penn had charge of the affairs of the State. He died 

 in September, 1788. 



PENNINGTON, WILLIAM S. (1757-1826), judge 

 and governor, was born in 1757 and served in the 

 revolutionary army as major of the Second New Jersey 

 artillery. After the war he became a lawyer, and in 

 1 804 was made associate justice of the State Supreme 

 Court. He was elected governor in 1813, and at the 

 close of his term was made U. S. district judge. He 

 died at Newark Sept. 17, 1826. 



His son. WILLIAM PENNINGTON (1 796-1862), grad- 

 uated at Princeton in 1813, and studied law. He was 

 clerk of his father's court (1815-26), became chancel- 

 lor of the State, and from 1 837 to 1 843 was governor. 

 In 1859 he was elected to Congress as a Republican, 

 and his nomination by his party friends for Speaker 

 of the House led to a struggle protracted through 

 eight weeks and terminated in his favor Feb. 1, 1860. 

 He served with ability in the trying times of the 

 secession movement. He died at Newark, Feb. 16, 



^PENNSYLVANIA has, since the United States 

 , census of 1830, held the second rank 



amon the States of the Union - II 

 Rep') then outstripped Virginia, originally 

 the leading State in population and im- 

 portance, as New York had done in the census of 1820. 

 The census of 1880 gave Pennsylvania a population of 

 4,282,891, which has since 

 1883 entitled the State to 28 

 representatives in the Nation- 

 al Congress. After an abor- 

 tive effort in 1885, a new ar- J 

 rangement of Congressional I 

 districts was made by the! 

 Legislature in 1887. The 

 population has now increased 

 beyond 5,000,000. To the 

 excellent account of the State 

 in the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA the following ad- 

 ditions should be made : 



Finaruxg. The public debt of the State on Dec. 1, 

 1887, was $15, 840, 47 1.28, since which period there has 

 been a redemption of nearly $1,500,000. As an offset 

 it may be noted that the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 

 pany owes the State on the purchase of the internal 

 improvements, originally made by State authority, 

 $9,000,000. Of the funded debt about $5,250,000 

 drew 5 per cent, interest, and the rest 3i and 4 per 

 cent. The annual revenues of the State from all 

 sources in the year ending Dec. 1, 1887, were $7,498,- 

 125 54, while the expenses on State account were 

 $7,262,805.66. By law about $1,500,000 annually 

 passes into the sinking fund established for the pay- 

 ment of the State debt. The total amount raised by 

 taxation for State purposes was $6,495,704.26. Real 

 estate, which is not taxed for State purposes, was 

 valued at $1,697,202,153. The stock and income ot 

 corporations were valued at $1,200,000,000, and from 

 taxes on this valuation most of the State revenues are 

 derived. Personal property is assessed at $ >3,i>14,- 

 762. The State tax-rate is 40 cents on $ 00. inc 

 aggregate taxation for all purposes, general and local, 

 is $38,000,000. 



From an early period the State liberally supported 

 the various measures adopted to open communications 



