[1] He was also a lineal descendant of Quaker merchant Elijah Brown, one of the seventeen pacifist Quakers of Philadelphia who were arrested without any criminal charges and on September 11, 1777, were forcibly exiled by the Continental Congress and the State of Pennsylvania as suspected Tories just before the occupation of the city by the British Army under General Sir William Howe.
They were confined at Winchester, Virginia, where POWs were imprisoned, for over seven months before the Quakers were discharged (without, however, the exoneration they desired) in April 1778.
After travels abroad, he resumed the study of the law in the office of Daniel Dougherty, Esq., of Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar of that city in December, 1869 (Daugherty became a famous political orator).
An oration delivered in Philadelphia on the 100th anniversary of the assembling of the Continental Congress of 1774 was followed by a succession of public addresses, especially in connection with the centennial celebrations of revolutionary events.
It was after a long day at Valley Forge, on June 19, 1878, where he had delivered an oration, that he returned to Philadelphia to complete his preparation for a similar engagement at Monmouth.