Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/317

Rh reputation brought to him in the winter of 1779-80 the appoint- ment of chief of the medical department of the North Carolina troops; he was present at the Battle of Camden 1 8 August, 1780, and under a flag of truce entered the enemy's lines to attend to the wounded when the regimental surgeons declined the duty. In 1782 he became a member, from Edenton, of the North Carolina Assembly. In 1787, he was one of the delegates from that State to the Convention which framed the Constitution which met in Philadelphia ; and he was a member of the first Congress which met in New York in 1787, and it was while here he married Maria, daughter of Charles Ward Apthorpe, formerly a member of the Provincial Council of New York. In 1812, appeared his History of North Carolina in two volumes, printed in Philadelphia. Much of his time after this was passed in New York. He lived to a great age, not- withstanding his early debility and in despite of an unusually active and busy life in the wanderings of a cosmopolite, and died in New York, 22 May, 1819. At the close of that year his friend Dr. Hosack was appointed to read a Biographical Memoir of Williamson before the New York Historical Society ; he describes him as no less distinguished for the manliness of his form, than for the energy and firmness of his mind. Dr. Williamson in his person was tall, consid- erably above the general standard, of a large frame, well proportioned, but of a thin habit of body. He was remarkable for his erect, dignified carriage, which he retained even in the decline of life. * * * His style both in conversation and in writing, was simple, concise, perspic- uous and remarkable for its strength ; always displaying correctness of thought and logical precision. In the order, too, and disposal of his dis- course, whether oral or written, such was the close connexion of its parts, and the dependence of one proposition upon that which preceded it, that it became easy to discern the influence of his early predilection for mathe- matical investigation. * * * Whatever be the merits of Dr. William- son as a scholar, a physician, a statesman, or philosopher ; however he may be distinguished for his integrity, his benevolence, and those virtues which enter into the moral character of man ; he presents to the world claims of a still higher order. The lovers of truth and virtue will admire much more than his literary endowments, that regard for religious duty, of which, under all circumstances and in all situations, he exhibited so eminent an example.