Background
Joseph Reed was a native of Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Andrew and Theodosia (Bowes) Reed. His paternal grandfather, Joseph, emigrated from northern Ireland and his father was a local merchant of substantial wealth.
(Excerpt from Remarks on Governor Johnstone's Speech in Pa...)
Excerpt from Remarks on Governor Johnstone's Speech in Parliament: With a Collection of All the Letters and Authentic Papers, Relative to His Proposition to Engage the Interest of One of the Delegates of the State of Pennsylvania, in the Congress of the States of America, to Promote the Views of the British Commissioners W tion of Mr. Reta; (if what a woinan unknown had {wfaid fh'é The Congreis, W were b'oiiiidto' have obliged Mr. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ Harvard University Houghton Library N013021 With a final leaf of advertisement to the reader. Dublin: printed for H. Saunders, R. Watts, and W. Whitestone, 1761. 42, 2p.; 12°
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(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. The eighteenth-century fascination with Greek and Roman antiquity followed the systematic excavation of the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy; and after 1750 a neoclassical style dominated all artistic fields. The titles here trace developments in mostly English-language works on painting, sculpture, architecture, music, theater, and other disciplines. Instructional works on musical instruments, catalogs of art objects, comic operas, and more are also included. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ National Library of Scotland T168582 London: printed for T. Davies, 1761. 48p.; 8°
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Joseph Reed was a native of Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Andrew and Theodosia (Bowes) Reed. His paternal grandfather, Joseph, emigrated from northern Ireland and his father was a local merchant of substantial wealth.
He received his elementary education in the Academy of Philadelphia and obtained the degree of B. A. at the College of New Jersey in 1757. On leaving college he began the study of law under Richard Stockton, the celebrated New Jersey lawyer, and was admitted to practice in May 1763. His colonial education was supplemented by a two-year sojourn in London, where he studied at the Middle Temple. He devoted these years to close attendance, not only at the principal courts of law, but at Parliamentary debates concerning colonial affairs.
He followed his profession in Trenton, and in 1767 was appointed deputy secretary of New Jersey. His rather extensive colonial business interests, including the iron trade and real-estate tracts in upper New York, brought him into contact with important leaders in other colonies, such as Otis and Cushing.
He established his law practice in Philadelphia. Through a brother-in-law he was prevailed upon to take up in 1773 a correspondence with Lord Dartmouth, the newly appointed secretary of state for the colonies, in order to provide the ministry with correct information on the colonial attitude. He warned Dartmouth on December 27 of that year that any further attempt to enforce the Tea Act "must end in blood". But Dartmouth continued to give more credence to the letters of General Gage, which indicated that the colonists were not united upon measures of resistance, and Reed, realizing the futility of this correspondence, eventually discontinued it.
In November 1774 he was appointed a member of the committee of correspondence for Philadelphia; in January 1775 he served as president of the second Provincial Congress; and he gradually shifted his allegiance from the cause of moderation to that of independence. After the battle of Lexington Reed was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Pennsylvania Associated Militia, and on the appointment of his friend, George Washington, as commander-in-chief, he became his military secretary. In the same year he was elected a member of the Continental Congress and of the Committee of Safety.
On June 5th he was made adjutant-general of the Continental Army with the rank of colonel and was active in the Long Island campaign. In the negotiations with Admiral Howe conducted in July 1776, Reed represented Washington and declined to receive the communication in his behalf as it was addressed to "George Washington, Esquire. " He urgently advocated that New York be evacuated and burned to prevent its affording winter quarters to the enemy, but other counsels prevailed, and Fort Washington and its garrison, the special target of his criticism, fell into the hands of the enemy.
When the retreat into Jersey had begun, Reed addressed a letter to Gen. Charles Lee, criticizing the policy in regard to Fort Washington. Lee replied, denouncing "that fatal indecision of mind". Lee's letter fell into the hands of Washington, who assumed that it had been provoked by derogatory statements on the part of Reed. In this affair, however, Washington acted with characteristic forbearance, and Reed remained his favorite aide and intimate friend.
Both desired an offensive campaign in New Jersey. Because of his perfect acquaintance with that territory, Reed was able to be of inestimable service in the surprise attack on Trenton, the second passage of the Delaware, and the night march upon Princeton, and he served with credit at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. Though tendered command of the Continental cavalry in 1777 and appointed first chief justice of Pennsylvania under the new constitution the same year, Reed declined both offices. He was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress from Pennsylvania in 1777 and served during the following year on many important committees.
In 1778 Governor George Johnstone, one of the three British peace commissioners, through Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson of Philadelphia, acting as intermediary, sought to win Reed over to the cause of conciliation with an alleged bribe of £10, 000 and a high government post, but his reply was scornful.
Reed recorded this episode in his Remarks on Governor Johnstone's Speech in Parliament (1779). In December 1778 he was chosen president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, in which office he served until 1781, when he resumed the practice of law. His administration is distinguished for the abolition of slavery in the state, for measures placing Pennsylvania soldiers on half pay for life, and for the prosecution, personally directed by Reed, of Benedict Arnold for corrupt practices in office during his command in Philadelphia. On his return from a vacation in England in 1784, Reed was elected to Congress, but poor health prevented him from serving.
He died on March 5, 1785, in his forty-fourth year, five years after the premature death of his wife, who had overtaxed her health in the performance of notable war relief work in Philadelphia.
In 1778 he was accused by Arthur Lee of treacherous correspondence with the enemy, but he treated the accusation with magnanimity. His military record was assailed in an article in the Independent Gazetteer, September 7, 1782, signed "Brutus. " The author was generally supposed to have been Dr. Benjamin Rush, but Reed thought his former comrade, Gen. John Cadwalader, was the author, and spirited communications passed between them during the course of the next few years. The attack was once more renewed in 1856 in a pamphlet, entitled Nuts for Future Historians to Crack, by Horace W. Smith. Ten years later George Bancroft reopened the controversy in his History of the United States, to which William B. Reed, Joseph Reed's grandson, replied, and rather vitriolic polemics ensued. It was conclusively shown, however, by William S. Stryker nine years later that Bancroft had confused him with Col. Charles Read, who had gone over to the British in December 1776, and the historian graciously acknowledged the error in the Centenary Edition of his History.
(Excerpt from Remarks on Governor Johnstone's Speech in Pa...)
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
By nature courteous and conciliatory, and possessed of influential connections in England, Reed was frequently attacked as lacking in patriotic zeal and for evincing, in the early part of the war, a discouragement with the course of military affairs which he shared with Washington.
In 1770 he made another visit to England, where on May 22 he married Esther De Berdt, daughter of Dennys De Berdt, agent for Massachusetts in England. He had five children.
President of Pennsylvania