WILLIAM TILGHMAN. 53 



opinion of his character, and honoured him with his 

 familiar correspondence. 



His politics, indeed, were of that enlarged cast, 

 which accorded very little with party feelings. He 

 viewed the interest of his country on the most ex- 

 tended scale. He looked forward to posterity, and 

 Was not contented with raising a tottering edifice for 

 the present generation. Agriculture and manufactures 

 he considered as the most solid foundations of our 

 national prosperity. Commerce he did not under- 

 value, hut it would he sure to follow and prosper in 

 their train. 



Consistently with these principles, he was a zea- 

 lous and active member of the Philadelphia Society 

 for promoting Agriculture. In the year IS 14, he 

 was elected their vice-president, in the place of the pat- 

 riotic George Clymer, and continued in that office to 

 the time of his death. While residing on his father's 

 farm in Maryland, he had become familiar with the 

 subject of their investigations. The discourse which 

 he delivered before them on the 18th of January, 

 1820, is replete with practical as well as theoretical 

 knowledge. It abounds with interesting facts, and 

 displays at the same time the talents and eloquence 

 of the writer. fSee AjjpenduVf B.J 



He was the president of the Society for the encou- 

 ragement of American manufactures, and there he 

 may be said to have been pursuing one of the objects 

 nearest his heart. He thought that America never 

 eould be independent without manufactures. We 



