Joseph Galloway, Loyalist Politician, and Member Continental Congress, Died August 29, 1803

Joseph Galloway, the Loyalist Politician, was born in the town of West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in the year 1731. His great-grandfather, Richard Galloway, of London, England, acquired considerable land in Lord Baltimore’s province in 1662, thus indicating that he was a man of good fortune and respectability.

Peter Galloway, father of Joseph, removed with his family in 1740 to Kent, not far from Philadelphia, where he died while Joseph was yet a mere boy. Being possessed of large landed property Joseph chose the study of law, and was admitted to the bar and allowed to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as early as 1749. In the meantime he had obtained a good social standing, and as early as 1748 had been made a member of the Schuylkill Fishing Company, a club composed of the most prominent and aristocratic men of Philadelphia.

Mr. Galloway still further enhanced his prospects by his marriage in 1753 with Grace Growden, daughter of Lawrence Growden, an influential character and a former Speaker of the Assembly. The Growdens were the owners of the famous iron works at Durham, Pennsylvania, and possessed large means.

594Mr. Galloway rapidly acquired a large practice and became one of the eminent lawyers in the province. He and John Dickinson succeeded Andrew Hamilton in the leadership of the Philadelphia bar prior to the Revolution.

Galloway became a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1756, and his legal talents proved of especial service in that body. In recognition of his unusual attainments as a lawyer and public man, Mr. Galloway was given the degree LL.D., by Princeton College in 1769.

Mr. Galloway several times served as an Indian Commissioner and attended important conferences at Easton and on missions to the Indian country.

He became an opponent of the Proprietaries and fought a successful battle with the Governor over the question of preserving to the Assembly the disposal of the money and forbidding the Governor to assist in its expenditure.

When the effort was made to abolish the Proprietorship and make Pennsylvania a royal province, the Assembly passed resolutions rehearsing the tyranny of the Proprietary and a bitter factional struggle ensued among the people. In October, 1764, the Assembly passed the resolution for a change of government by a vote of 27 to 3. Rather than sign the document Isaac Norris resigned as speaker.

In the final debate, Joseph Galloway and John Dickinson made the leading speeches for and against, respectively. Galloway favored the abolition of the Proprietary government, while Dickinson believed its continuance would better serve the province. Benjamin Franklin and Galloway were so closely associated that their leadership was hard to beat.

Galloway was at the head of the committee which considered and reported upon the grievances of the Province in the “Paxtang Riot” affair following the murder of the Conestoga Indians, December, 1763.

The conduct of Galloway during the excitement attending the passage of the Stamp Act was conspicuously loyal. He feared the tyranny of mob rule more than the tyranny of Parliament.

Mr. Galloway gave expression to his views in an article signed “Americanus,” printed in the Pennsylvania Journal, in which he warned his countrymen of the evils to which their seditious conduct would lead. This article aroused great indignation against him. He was called a Tory and went by the name of “Americanus” for some time.

Mr. Galloway had an extreme aversion to the Presbyterians. He associated them with rioters, and in their support of the “Paxtang Boys” he was convinced they were dangerous characters.

Although he had taken a rather unpopular stand in the Stamp Act controversy, he was returned to the Assembly in 1766, and elected its Speaker.

Mr. Galloway approved the proposal for a Continental Congress 595and was one of the eight Pennsylvanians who composed the First Continental Congress. Although Dickinson was the leader, Galloway played a conspicuous but not very honorable part. According to Bancroft, he “acted as a volunteer spy for the British Government.”

It is a fact that he was a conservative in his views, and that his line of argument in his first debates tended towards political independence. He proposed a plan of colonial government, which was rejected. This plan contemplated a government with a president-general appointed by the king, and a Grand Council, chosen every three years by the colonial assemblies, who were to be authorized to act jointly with Parliament in the regulation of affairs of the colonies.

The following year Galloway was permitted to resign and thus be relieved from serving on account of the radical acts against England. He abandoned the Whigs soon as the question of independence had begun to be agitated, and thence forward he was regarded as a zealous Tory.

When the Howes issued their proclamation in 1776, granting amnesty to such Americans as would forsake the Revolutionary cause, Galloway’s courage failed him and he accepted the offer.

“Galloway has fled and joined the venal Howe;

To prove his baseness, see him cringe and bow,

A traitor to his country and its laws,

A friend to tyrants and their cursed cause,” etc.

Galloway accompanied Howe’s expedition against Philadelphia. When the British assumed control he was appointed Superintendent of the Police of the City and Suburbs, of the Port and of the Prohibited Articles. Thus he was for about five months the head of the civil government.

He raised and disciplined troops; and gathered a company of Bucks County refugees, and with these two bodies he carried on military enterprises against Americans.

The Pennsylvania Assembly, March 6, 1778, passed an “act for the attainder of divers traitors,” among whom was Joseph Galloway. His estate was confiscated, and according to his testimony before Parliament, was worth at least £40,000 sterling. His house was appropriated by the State of Pennsylvania as a residence for the President of the Supreme Executive Council, but was afterwards sold to Robert Morris.

Forbidden the privilege of returning to Pennsylvania, Mr. Galloway devoted his leisure time to religious studies. He died at Watford, Herts, England, August 29, 1803.

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