OF LANCASTER COUNTY, 391 



1805, being at the time in his 15th year. In 1809, he graduated with distinction; and 

 in tlie same year, commenced the study of law in Lancaster, in the office of James 

 Hopkins, Esq. Three years after, or in 1812, ho was admitted to the bar. He at onco 

 opened an office in Lancaster, and was almost immediately successful in obtaining 

 business; his studious habits, his fine abilities, his agreeable maiuici-s and conx'ct de- 

 portment, all combining to attract clients to him. He, in a very short time, tof>k his 

 place among the foremost at the bar, and had the command of as much business an ho 

 could attend to. There were soon very few important cases, either in Lancaster, or 

 the neighboring counties, in which he was not employed; or at least, in which there 

 was not an effort made to secure his services. In a very few years, besides deservedly 

 acquiring the reputation of being one of the ablest and best lawyers in the State, or in 

 the country, he had, from being the possessor of very little, amassed what he considered 

 a competence, and withdi-ew almost entuely from practice. His first public employ- 

 ment of any kind was that of prosecutor for Lebanon county, a position to which lie 

 was appointed in 1813, by Jared Ingersoll, Esq., then Attorney General of the State, 

 under Governor Snyder. This office he in-obably retained but a short time. In the 

 next year, at the early age of 23, and only two years after his admission to the bar, he 

 was nominated by his friends for the State Legislature, and elected. In the following 

 year, or 1815, he was again nominated and elected. In both the sessions of the Legis- 

 lature in which he sat, he was one of the most ])rominent members; by the .sensibleness 

 and justness of his views, and the force of his high character and eminent abilities, 

 exerting, though so young a man, not a Uttle influence. He was always, as on a more 

 extended arena, in after life, at his post, and took an interest in eveiything that was 

 done. His mode of expressing his views, was then, asaftenvards, clear and convincing. 

 In the same year in which he was first elected to the Legislature, he went as a private 

 in a company of volunteers to Baltimore, to aid in defending it against an anticipated 

 attack from the British; and thus he early, by a voluntary exposure of himself to 

 danger, gave evidence of that fire of sincere and true patriotism, which, till the last 

 day of his life, glowed fervidly in his bosom. In the year 1820, his fellow citizens of 

 the Congressional District in which he lived, (composed of the counties of Lancaster, 

 Chester and Delaware,) and without solicitation from him, confened on him the further 

 honor of electing him to the National House of Representatives. They elected him 

 again in 1822, 1824, 1826 and 1828; when he declined further re-election. His tenn of 

 service in the House expired on the 3d of March, 1831. During nearly all the time 

 that he was a member of the House, he was a member of the Judiciary Committee; 

 and in the last Congi-ess to which he was elected, he succeeded Daniel Webster as 

 chairman of that Committee. ]\[oreover, he was, from almost his first entrance into 

 the House, one of its most prominent and leading members, taking mnk witli such 

 men as Randolph, ]\IcDuffie, P. Barbour and others, and expressing his views in a 

 clear and forcible manner on all the important (luestions that came before it. His 

 speeches then, as since, were models of lucidness, chastencss and force. One of the 

 most remarkable of them was that delivered at the Bar of the Senate, at the conclusion 

 of the trial of Judge Peck; he being chaii-man of the able committee appointed to 

 conduct the case before the Senate. This speech has rarely been excelled in ability 

 and eloquence. 



In the same year in which he ceased to be a member of the House, he was sent by 

 President Jackson as 3Iinister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. Peterfjburg; where he 

 made a most favorable impression, both for himself and his country, and where he nego- 

 tiated the first Commercial Treaty, which this government ever had with that of Rus- 

 sia. In 1833, he returned from Russia; and in this same year he was elected by the 

 Le<^islature of Pennsylvania to fill a vacancy in the Senate of the United States occa- 

 sioned by the resignation of William Wilkins. who had been appointed to succeed him 

 at the Court of the Czar. He was afterwards twice elected for the full terms of six 



