"'Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that fight against me.

'Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help.

'Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute
me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.'

"What a subject for contemplation does this picture present. The
forty-four members of the first Congress, in their Hall, all bent before
the mercy-seat, and asking Him that their enemies 'might be as chaff
before the wind.' WASHINGTON was kneeling there; and Henry and Randolph,
and Rutledge, and Lee, and Jay; and by their side there stood, bowed in
reverence, the Puritan patriots of New England, who, at that moment,
had reason to believe that an armed soldiery was wasting their humble
households. It was believed that Boston had been bombarded and
destroyed. They prayed fervently 'for America, for the Congress, for the
province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially for the town of Boston;'
and who can realize the emotion with which they turned imploringly to
Heaven for divine interposition and aid? 'It was enough to melt a heart
of stone. I saw the tears gush into the eyes of the old, grave Quakers
of Philadelphia.'"

"Yes," said Wilson, when young Harmar had concluded, "that was a scene
equal, at least, to the one on the eve of Brandywine: how finely old
John Adams speaks about it!"

"That Dr. Duche forgot his connexion with the Church of England, and
only thought of his country," remarked Morton. "He was a good man."