Chapter X.

JOSEPH REED.

President of the Supreme Executive Council,

1778-1781.

ORN OF SCOTCH IRISH PARENTAGE, A

B

graduate of Princeton, and a lawyer by profession, Reed was eminently adapted to become the secretary and confidential adviser of the first of the Americans, George Washington. A contidential correspondent of Lord Dartmouth, Colonial Secretary, a member of the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia, and president of the second Provincial Convention, he had experience in public affairs which rendered him doubly useful. Appointed Adjutant General of the Army, upon his decision to retire from the military service, he was promoted by Congress to the grade of Brigadier General, with the purpose of assigning him to the command of the Light Horse, but this he declined, together with the offices of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Chief Justice of the reorgan ized province, and Member of Assembly, to each of which he was duly elected. He accepted, however, the position of member of the Supreme Executive Council for the county of Philadelphia, and was unanimously chosen President of that body. His administration of the affairs of the Province was character

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ized by the high degree of ability and energy which was expected from one who by temper and training was so well qualified for it. He abolished slavery, fostered the establishment of the University of Pennsylvania, and secured the loyalty of the provincial troops to the Continental army, while after his retirement, by his masterly conduct of the case between Connecticut and Pennsylvania he preserved to his state the vast territory on the Wyoming, which had long been claimed by Connecticut. After a wearisome period of illness, he died in 1785, at the early age of forty-four, leaving his administration-from December, 1778, to October, 1781-as one of the most distinguished episodes of Pennsylvania history.