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(1732-1808), a Philadelphia lawyer, was in 1765 elected to the Colonial Congress, and in 1768 distinguished himself by writing "Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer" in defence of the liberties of America. Elected to the Continental Congress in 1774, he wrote its "Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec," its "Declaration to the Armies," its "Address to the States," and its two petitions to the king. He opposed the Declaration of Independence as premature, but served loyally in the army. Again a member of Congress, he was chosen president of Delaware in 1781, and was president of Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1785. He was a member of the Federal Convention of 1787, and advocated the adoption of the Constitution. He was a man of high character and cultivation. Life by Stille.