his party. M'Kean, chief justice, was a zealous and steady republican, but independent in his principles and conduct, he discharged the duties of his office impartially and inflexibly; his decision in favor of Chapman, evinced the soundness of his judgment, and the disdain he felt for the popular clamour, excited by the occasion. From the performance of these duties, often as painful as they were honorable, we trace the progress of Mr. Lewis to one more delightful to humanity.

In the year 1779, the Pennsylvania legislature took the lead in a public declaration of the illegality of that odious and disgraceful subjugation of fellow creatures, which had so long stained the character of America. A provision, perhaps imperfect, but carried as far as then appeared practicable, was made in favor of the descendents of Africa; by which a chance of emancipation to those then living, and a certainty of it to their issue was secured.

In support of this legislative act, an association of private individuals was speedily formed, for the purpose of securing its benefits to those, who were unable from ignorance, poverty, and depression, to defend themselves.

Mr. Lewis became the champion of this order. With a voluntary dereliction of all professional emolument, he strenuously and boldly pursued oppression into its artful recesses, and succeeded in securing to the injured African, all the protection to be found in the text of the law. Hundreds of the present generation of coloured people are unconsciously indebted to him for his exertions, anxiety and exposure, before they were born.

This benevolent association, was subsequently incorporated by an act of the assembly.

Benjamin Franklin was the first president, and Mr. Lewis retained till his death the rank of first, and for a long time, the most efficient of its counsellors.

In the regular business of his profession, Mr. Lewis soon acquired that ascendency to which, by his talents and atten

tion he was entitled-in him it was verified, that genius never shines more brightly, than when it is enforced by the closest industry.

The great number of causes in which he was concerned, the judgment which directed, and the energies which accompanied both the preparation and the management of the trials, evinced the justice of the general confidence that was reposed in him. In the doctrine of pleading in questions on devises, and the nature of estates, he was peculiarly felicitous. In mercantile law, he was perhaps equally eminent. Whatever points he made in a cause, he was generally able to support, as well by authority as by argument. The closeness of his reasoning was seldom weakened by unnecessary digressions, nor impeded by the ebullitions of wit or the illusions of fancy. Although pleasant and facetious in social conversation, his public speaking was rather of the grave and serious cast, and often of the highest syllogistic order: the premises that he laid, being finally carried on to conclusions which the hearer did not anticipate, but was ultimately obliged to acknowledge.

Much of the business in those days, was transacted in the court of common pleas; on the bench of which, until Mr. Shippen accepted a seat in 1784, no lawyer was found. Hence a custom prevailed of introducing into jury trials, authorities at full length. The bench was to be instructed as well as the jury, and the latter were naturally placed on a level with the former, by the manner in which those authorities were explained and applied. It was usual to load the table with books, and to give a sort of elementary discussion to every question that arose. There was a method, a clearness, a force in the manner of Mr. Lewis on such occasions, aided by a sonorous voice, a perspicuous diction, and an earnestness of mammer, which raised him high in the rank of popular orators.

His language indeed, could not be said to be always the most classical or correct. It possessed few of the higher elegancies of verbal selection, few of the nice and delicate embellishments, which are the natural results of a regular education. He had been lanched into business at so early an age, he had so closely pursued the solid and the useful, that he had had no leisure to attain the beautiful.

In the year 1787, he was elected a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania, in which he soon attained a great ascendency, and rendered the most important services to his fellow citizens. Many measures of the highest interest adopted by that body, originated with him. One of these was the restitution of the charter of the college of Philadelphia, which in a paroxysm of political jealousy had been taken from it in 1779. But a more important procedure, was the alteration of the constitution of the state. Perhaps a more singular contrivance to produce precipitation and incaution in that department where deliberation was a duty, and to generate slowness and irresolution, when vigour, promptitude, and secrecy, were required, was never exhibited than in this constitution. A single legislature, without check or control, possessing a power of hastily passing the most important laws, restrained only by the necessity of publishing the bill, for the consideration of their constituents yet without being required to wait any length of time, to obtain a knowledge of their opinion on it; an executive council composed of a member from every county, multiplying as the number of counties increased, a septennial judicature and an inefficient council of censors, who were to revise the proceedings of the legislature, without the power to repeal what they saw the strongest reason to condemn, formed some of the features of this extraordinary frame of government. The name of Franklin, had been used to recommend it to popular acceptance, although it was believed by many, that his placid acquiescence together with some sportive ef

fusions in answer to objections raised against it, was the greatest extent of the patriarch's exertions in its favour. To relieve the people of Pennsylvania from the operation of such a system, was one of the earliest legislative efforts of Mr. Lewis. It was necessary however, that he should proceed with caution. In some parts of the state, it had still many friends. As a product of the revolution to approve, it was sometimes considered as a test of political rectitude. It was asserted that its opponents aimed at aristocratical innovation, not untinctured with the spirit of monarchy. On this account, a procedure somewhat novel, was adopted at the close of one of the sessions of the legislature. Mr. Lewis proposed, and it was agreed that the members should at their next assembling, individually state to the house, the sentiments of their constituents on this important subject. The result was favourable, and in 1788, a majority was secured in favor of calling a convention, not openly to make a new constitution, but to consider in what respects the old one required alteration and amendment. At the election in 1789, Mr. Lewis was returned a member both of the legislature and of this convention. To the latter, however, he dedicated the chief portion of his time. It was composed of the first talents that Pennsylvania afforded, and it is much to be regretted that no report has been preserved of those exhibitions of science, argument, and eloquence which characterised its debates.

The mere reformation of the old constitution, was abandoned as hopeless, but in the composition of a new one some variety of opinion was manifested: democratic inclinations prevailed with one party, while the other sought, in the establishment of a firm and active executive, in an independent judiciary, in a legislature of two branches, and in most carefully prescribing the limits of each, and preventing encroachments on the functions of others, not to establish an aristocracy, but to secure a self-balanced government, posses

sing the united properties of cautious deliberation, energetic action, and uninfluenced decision. No one of the subjects before them occasioned more animated discussion, than the question of suffrage. In this Mr. Lewis, was unsuccessful. The weight of Mr. Wilson's influence thrown into the opposite scale preponderated, and a right of suffrage nearly unlimited, has formed what has been deemed the only blemish of the work. In all other respects and even in this respect, by some, the constitution of Pennsylvania has been considered as an admirable model, as a careful discrimination in practice and a sound delineation in principle of a representative republic, securing force to the government, and freedom to the people.

With these services terminated the labours of Mr. Lewis, as a legislator.

In the year 1789, the present constitution of the United States, having come into operation, he had the honour to receive from the father of his country, the appointment of attorney of the United States, for the district of Pennsylvania. The commission bore date September 26th, 1789.

On the death of Mr. Hopkinson in 1791, Mr. Lewis accepted the appointment of judge of the District Court of the United States. He retained this station too short a time to afford more than a transient evidence of the impartiality and precision, the patience and inflexibility which characterize a good judge, and which in him were fully developed.

In the year 1792, pecuniary considerations induced him to return to the bar, at which he remained until a year or two before his death. He did not find the eminence of his rank, affected by his temporary absence. His business as counsel, in matters of difficulty and value, continued to be great, and for a long time his industry was undiminished. The Supreme Court, and the other judicatures of the United States with the higher tribunals of Pennsylvania, were the chief theatres of his employment, and his emoluments were