Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/304

Having never found an opportunity of conveying the Letter which you sometime ago sent me for Mr Duche, by such a channel as I thought would reach him, I return it to you again. In September, 1776, Hopkinson was appointed Third Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. This he held until he accepted the Treasurership of the Continental Loan Office, an office under Congress. From this he became Judge of the Admiralty by appointment of President Reed of Pennsylvania, and was 16 July, 1779, commissioned thereto, thus filling an office honorably occupied by his Father nearly thirty before. In September, 1789, Washington appointed him United States Judge for the District of Pennsylvania. In the Constitutional Convention of 1 787 he was an active and able participant, and with his zeal and force aided in its final adoption. His political influence was largely aided by his skillful pen, which was of a genial cast while witty and pungent, and the cultivation of measured verses in early youth stood him in good stead when he wanted to hold up to ridicule the Tory cause. His Pretty Story, 1774, his Political Catechism of 1777, his Battle of the Kegs in 1777, his New Roof of 1787, and other pieces make his valuable contribution to the political literature of the times. But with softer strains his poetic qualities showed themselves in hymns and domestic ballads, and his musical talent found exercise in the composition of hymn tunes which are to this day familiar to our ears. His Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings were published in Philadelphia in 1793, " in the dress in which he left them." Thomas I. Wharton wrote of him, "a poet, a wit, a patriot, a chemist, a mathematician, and a judge of the admiralty; * * * with the humor of Swift and Rabelais, he was always found on the side of virtue and social order." John Adams wrote to his wife 21 August, 1776: I have a curiosity to penetrate a little deeper into the bosom of this curious gentleman. He is one of your pretty, little, curious, ingenou's men. His head is not bigger than a large apple, less than our friend Pemberton or Dr. Simon Tuft. I have not met with anything in natural history more amusing and entertaining than his personal appearance yet he is genteel, and well bred, and is very social.