Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/37

Rh and avow that in all my reading and observation–and it has been my favorite study–I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world–that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadelphia." The precise part taken by Washington within the closed doors of Carpenter's Hall is nowhere recorded, but the testimony of one of its most distinguished members cannot be forgotten. When Patrick Henry returned home from the meeting, and was asked whom he considered the greatest man in that congress, he replied: "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, is by far the greatest orator; but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Col. Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on that floor." It is an interesting tradition that, during the prayers with which Dr. Duché opened that meeting at Carpenter's Hall on September 5, 1774, while most of the other members were standing, Washington was kneeling.

He was again a delegate to the Continental congress (the second) that assembled at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, by which, on the 15th of June, on the motion of Thomas Johnson, a delegate of Maryland, at the earnest instigation of John