Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/152

128 general of Sussex county a year later, and in 1757-9 was clerk of the assembly. With Caesar Rodney he became in 1762 reviser of laws that had been passed previous to 1752, and in October of this year was elected to the general assembly, hold- ing office for seventeen successive years, during the last of which he re- sided in Philadelphia. He was a trustee of the loan-office of New Cas- tle county for twelve years, and in 1765 was elected to the Stamp- act congress. Had the votes in this body been taken according to the population of the states that were represented, that of Delaware would have been insignificant, but, through the influ- ence of McKean, each state was given an equal voice. He was one of the most influential members of this congress, was one of the committee that drew the memo- rial to the lords and commons, and, with John Rutledge and Philip Livingston, revised its pro- ceedings. On the last day of its session, when business was concluded, after Timothy Ruggles, the president of the body, and a few other timid members, had refused to sign the memorial of rights and grievances, McKean arose, and, address- ing the chair, insisted that the president give his reasons for his refusal. After a pause Ruggles re- marked that " it was against his conscience." McKean then rung the changes on the word " con- science " so loudly and so long that a challenge was given and accepted between himself and Ruggles in the presence of the congress, but Ruggles left the next morning at daybreak, so that the duel did not take ])lace. In July of this year McKean was appointed sole notary of the lower counties of Delaware and judge of the court of common pleas, and of the orphans' court of New Castle. In the November term of this year he ordered that all the proceedings of this court be recorded on un- stamped paper, and this was the first court in the colonies that established such a rule. He was col- lector of the port of New Castle in 1771, speaker of the house of representatives in 1772, and from 1774 till 1783 was a member of the Continental congress. He was the only member that served in congress from its opening till the peace, and while he represented Delaware till 1783, and was its president in 1781, he was chief justice of Penn- sylvania from July, 1777, till 1799, each state claim- ing him as its own, and until 1779 he also occupied a seat in the Delaware legislature. During the session of congress in 1776 he was one of the com- mittee to state the rights of the colonies, one of the secret committee to contract for the importation of arms, and of that to prepare and digest the form of the Articles of Confederation to be entered into between the colonies, which he signed on the part of Delaware, and he superintended the finances and a variety of important measures. Although particularly active in procuring the Declaration, to which his name is subscribed in the original in- strument, he does not, through a mistake on the part of the printer, appear as a subscriber in the copy published in the journal of congress. In July, 1776, he was chairman of the delegates from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and in the same year chairman of the Pennsylvania com- mittees of safety and inspection and the Phila- delphia committee of observation. A few days after signing the Declaration of Independence he marched at the head of a battalion to Perth Am- boy, N. J., to re-enforce Gen. Washington until the arrival of the flying camp. On his return to Dover he found a committee awaiting him to urge him to prepare the constitution of the state, which he drew up on the night of his arrival, and which was unanimously adopted by the assembly the next day. While acting in 1777 in the double capacity of president of Delaware and chief justice of Pennsylvania, he describes himself in a letter to his intimate friend, John Adams, as " hunted like a fox by the enemy, compelled to remove my family five times in three months, and at last fixed them in a little log-house on the btinks of the Susque- hanna, but they were soon obliged to move again on account of the incursions of the Indians." He was president of congress in 1781, and in that ca- pacity received Washington's despatches announc- ing the surrender of Cornwallis, a member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1790, and in 1799-1808 was governor of that state. His policy as a leader of the Republican party paved the way for the accession of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency. He became a member of the Penn- sylvania Society of the Cincinnati in 1785, and was subsequently its vice-president. Princeton gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1781, Dartmouth the same honor the next year, and the Universitv of Pennsylvania A. M. in 1763, and LL. D. in 1785. With Prof. John Wilson he published " Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States" (London, 1792). — His son, Joseph Borden, jurist, b. in Pennsylvania, 28 July, 1764 ; d. in Philadel- phia, Pa., 3 Sept., 1826, was gradiuited at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1782, studied law, and in 1785 was admitted to the Philadelphia bar. He was appointed attorney-general by his father in 1800, and served through the latter's term as gov- ernor. For this appointment the elder McKean was bitterly assailed by his opponents, as the son was regarded as inferior to many other members of the Philadelphia bar. He was subsequently com- missioned associate judge of the district of Penn- sylvania, and at his death was president judge of tiie court. — Joseph Borden's son, William Wis- ter, naval officer, b. in Huntingdon countv. Pa., 19 Sept., 1800 ; d. near Binghamton, N. Y., 22'April, 1865, entered the navy as a midshipman in 1814, and became lieutenant in 1825, eonnnander in 1841, and captain in 1855. He was retired in 1861 and became commodore on the retired list in 1862. In 1823-'4 he commanded a schooner in Com. David D. Porter's squadron, and was active in sup- pressing piracy along the coast of Cuba and among the West Indies. He conveyed the Japanese em- bassy home in 1860, and in 1861 was the first com- mander of the Western Gulf blockading squadron.

McKEAN, Thomas Jefferson, soldier, b. in Burlington, Bradford co.. Pa., 21 Aug., 1810; d. in Marion, Iowa, 19 April, 1870. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1831, and assigned to the 4th infantry, but resigned in 1834 and engaged in civil engineering. During the Florida war he was adjutant of the 1st regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers, and, failing to obtain a commission, he served as a private of Iowa volunteers during the Mexican war, where he was wounded at Churubusco, and in June. 1848, brevetted 2d lieutenant of dragoons, but declined and returned to civil engineering. He became paymaster in the U. S. army in June, 1861, in November of this