Joseph Reed (1741-1785) (202)

Joseph Reed (27 August 1741–5 March 1785) was a lawyer, solider, President of Pennsylvania, and was a member of the American Philosophical Society by his election in 1768. Born in Trenton, his merchant father had the wherewithal to send Reed to the Academy of Philadelphia and later the College of New Jersey, where he earned his B.A. and M.A. by 1760. He read law with APS member Richard Stockton, was barred in 1763, and then continued his studies in London at the Middle Temple, returning to New Jersey in 1765. He returned to find his father’s firm collapsed, so the younger Reed immediately set to practice and to making political connections that allowed him to support the family. After they relocated to Philadelphia in 1770, Reed’s practice took off: within four years, he had amassed multiple properties, carriages, a large wine collection, and two bondspeople. In the early 1770s, Reed advocated for reconciliation in letters to Lord Dartmouth, but by 1774 was named to the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence, the Committee of Inspection and Observation and the Assembly (1776), and then President of Pennsylvania’s second Provincial Congress (1777). George Washington convinced Reed to become his secretary; because of the post, the British tried to bribe Reed to facilitate American acceptance of British peace terms in 1777, which he not only rebuffed but exposed in the newspaper. While Reed measured the 1776 Pennsylvania constitution as too radical, he served in the Continental Congress, signed the Articles of Confederation in 1777, and as Attorney General succeeded in pursuing the execution of Tories, so unflinching was his devotion to the Revolution. From 1778–81 Reed served as President of Pennsylvania and carefully navigated potentially explosive disputes over enlistment terms and solder pay. At the end of his presidential term, he rejoined legal practice with APS member Jared Ingersoll, Jr. to high praise and pay, but his 1782 bid for an Assembly seat failed. The cause: a nasty public dispute with APS members John Cadwalader and John Dickinson over Reed’s and Dickinson’s revolutionary credentials. While Dickinson won the election and Reed exonerated himself, Reed soured on public service, even turning down Congressional office in 1784. Long a supporter of the Second Presbyterian Church—as trustee (1771), corporate president (1773) and vice-president (1775)—he died in its communion in 1785. (PI, ANB)