tees as a Tutor in Latin and Greek, when he was accepted after due examination and proof by the Rector. Dr. Ashbel Green, President of Princeton College, in his Autobiography said of him in after years "he was one of the best classical scholars our country has ever produced." Young Thomson continued Tutor until his resignation in the spring of 1755, when we find by the Minutes of 17 March a letter to the Trustees from Mr. Charles Thomson, one of the Tutors in the Latin School, was read, acquainting them with his Intention of leaving the Academy within two or three Months, having a Design to apply himself to other Business; Mr. Peters was therefore desired to assist Mr. Alison in providing another in his Room. The Trustees at the same Time, declared themselves well satisfied that the said Mr. Thomson had discharged the Duties of his Place with Capacity, Faithfulness and Diligence.
But the "other business" did not prevail, as we find him in the September following engaging himself as teacher in the Friends Publick School, then located on Fourth Street below Chestnut. It is not requisite that his life should be further sketched here, but reference must be made to the fact that it was the first tutor in the Academy who became the Secretary to Congress from 1774 to the close of the war, the "Perpetual Secretary" as he was often called. The acquaintance formed with Franklin through his connection with the Academy ripened into mutual esteem and continued through life, and their correspondence whether as friend to friend or as Secretary to Ambassador breathes on Franklin's part a warm appreciation of the younger man's faithfulness and intelligence. In his letter written from Passy, 13 May, 1784, on the Ratification of the Definitive Treaty with England, so full of patriotic advice to his countrymen now acknowledged by the parent to be free, and to be a Nation of like independence with her, he says to Thomson[1] "Thus the great and hazardous enterprise we have been engaged in, is, God be praised, happily compleated; an event I hardly expected, I should live to see." But it was in a different tone that he wrote to his "Dear Old
- ↑ Bigelow, viii. 492. Also, for the Thomson correspondence, vide N. Y. Historical Society's Collections for 1878, p. 185.
