Peters, who wrote that he was a good Latin scholar, French is his native tongue, English he has acquired perfectly, and he understands German, Italian and Spanish, he can translate Danish and Low Dutch with the help of a dictionary, and a little application will make him. master of these." At the close of the war, he entered the office of William Lewis, then the leader of the Bar, and was admitted in 1785. He soon acquired a large practice, and his command of languages must have contributed to the prominence which he attained as an admiralty lawyer. In the bibliography, printed as an appendix to Dr. Dunglison's discourse, is a long list of his occasional papers and translations. He was especially interested in the study of philological questions, and his contributions upon the Indian and Chinese tongues attracted much attention and gained for him the medal which has been presented this evening. While busily engaged in practice, he found time to take part in the proceedings of professional and literary associations with which he became connected. He was elected vice-president of the American Philosophical Society in 1816, and president in 1827, holding the office until his death in 1844. He was the first president of the Law Academy, and was annually reëlected until his death in 1844. The relations between the members and himself were of a most cordial and affectionate character, and the Law Academy presented to the Law Association of Philadelphia a copy of Sully's portrait. He also became the president of the Historical Society, of the Athenæum, a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania; and in 1836 he was elected Chancellor of the Law Association, and, as in every other case, retained the office until his death in 1844. Upon the occasion of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the Law Association, Chief Justice Mitchell delivered an historical address, in the course of which, referring to the office of Chancellor, he said, "the office has justly come to be regarded as the highest honor that the Bar can pay a fellow member." This would naturally be inferred from the names of those who have held the office. Mr. Du Ponceau was preceded by Jared Ingersoll and William Rawle, and was followed by John Sergeant, Horace Binney, Joseph R. Ingersoll, William M. Meredith, and others, each prominent in his own day, until now the office is held by our fellow member, Hampton L. Carson. No formal eulogy could give so adequate a notion of the character of Mr. Du Ponceau, or of the esteem and regard in which he was held, as this list of offices to which he was elected. The members of these institutions represented, if they did not constitute, the leading men in the professional and intellectual life of Philadelphia, and he could not have been elected and reëlected as their presiding officer if he had not been a man of great accomplishment, of sound learning, and of upright character. Prof. John Bassett Moore, of New York, read a paper on "Contraband of War" which was discussed by Judge George Gray, of Wilmington, and Mr. Frederick R. Coudert, of New York. Stated Meeting, March 1, 1912. WILLIAM W. Keen, M.D., LL.D., President, in the Chair. Prof. E. P. Crowell, at Amherst, on March 24, 1911, æt. 81. Dr. W. W. Keen offered some remarks in appreciation of the services to Science of the late Lord Lister. The following papers were read: "The Chestnut Blight," by Dr. Haven Metcalf, of Washington. "The Secular Variation of the Elements of the Orbits of the four Inner Planets," by Mr. Eric Doolittle. "The Validity of the Law of Rational Indices and the Analogy between the Fundamental Laws of Chemistry and Crystallography," by Mr. Austin F. Rodgers. (Introduced by Mr. John C. Branner.) THE LEGENDARY AND MYTH-MAKING PROCESS IN HISTORIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. BY SYDNEY G. FISHER. Having taken the trouble some years ago to examine the great mass of original evidence relating to the American Revolution, the contemporary documents, pamphlets, letters, memoirs, diaries, the debates in parliament and the evidence obtained by its committees, I found that very little use of it had been made in writing our standard histories, works like those of Bancroft, Hildreth, Fiske, which have been the general guides and from which school books and other compilations, as well as public orations are prepared. Others have made the same discovery and have been overwhelmed with the same astonishment. About fifteen years ago Mr. Charles Kendall Adams, astonished at what he found in the original evidence, wrote an article on the subject published in the Atlantic Monthly (Vol. 82, page 174), ridiculing the standard histories for having abandoned the actualities and the original evidence. Our whole conception of the Revolution, he said, would have to be altered and the history of it rewritten. Within the last year or two Mr. Charles Francis Adams has made the same discovery and in his recent volume "Studies Military and Diplomatic" has attacked the historians with even greater severity and rewritten in his usual PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. LII. 204 A, PRINTED MAY 21, 1912. |