WITH'ERSPOON, Jonx (1723-94). An American Presbyterian clergyman and statesman. He was born at Gifford, Scotland, graduated at the University of Edinburgh in 1742, and served as minister of several parishes in Scotland from 1745 to 1768. winning a high reputation as preacher and writer. In 1768 he accepted an invi tation to become president of Princeton College in New Jersey and held the position till his death. During the suspension of the college by the war he was a member of the constitutional convention of New Jersey in 1776, and for six years of the Continental Congress; he advocated and signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation: was an active member of several important committees and of the board of war, visiting the camps to increase the comfort of the troops. When the college was reopened he lectured on moral philosophy and rhetoric. lie visited England in 1783 and 1784
to solicit funds, hut found the state of public opinion too hostile to admit of much success. For the last two years of his life lie was blind. His works were collected at New York in four volumes (1800-011, and at Edinburgh in nine vol umes (1SO4). Among them Ecclesiastical Characteristics (1753) ; Essay on Justification (1756); Serious Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Stage (1757) : Essays on Impor tant Subjects (1761) : and Authority of the Wit ish Parliament (1774). He also published many sermons, lectures, essays, etc. A memoir by his son-in-law. the 1Zer. Samuel S. Smith, prefaced the New York edition of his works and also ap peared separately (New York. 1795). Consult Proceedings at the of the Statue of John Withrrspoon, edited by W. 1', Breed (Phila delphia, 1877).