Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/americanportraitOObutt_0 I Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by J. C. BUTTBE In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Co., printers and bookbinders, 205-213 East 11th St.y NEW VORK. PREFACE. In this Gallery we propose to present the Portraits and Bio- graphical Sketches of some of our most prominent Americans, includ- ing Presidents, Statesmen, Military and Naval Officers, Clergymen, Authors, Poets, and others, whose talents, energy, and enterprise, while affording an instructive lesson to mankind, seem worthy of being held up as examples for emulation. That the memory of such persons should have its public record is peculiarly proper, because a knowl- edge of men whose substantial fame rests upon their attainments, character, and success must exert a wholesome influence on the rising generation of the American people ; while to those who have arrived at a period in life not to be benefited by lessons designed for les3 advanced age, it cannot fail to prove interesting. If the reader shall here find the lives of many who have enjoyed every advantage which affluence and early education can bestow, he may also trace the history of those who, by their own unaided efforts, have risen from obscurity to the highest and most responsible trusts in the land ; indeed, it will be found that success has more generally waited upon those who, in early life, were not encumbered with a bountiful supply of " this world's goods." It is needless to remark on the extended information and delight we derive from the multiplication of portraits by engraving, or in the advantages resulting from the study of biography. Separately con- sidered, the one affords an amusement not less innocent than elegant, inculcates the rudiments, or aids the progress of taste ; while the other, useful in its moral effects, unfolding the secrets of human conduct, at once informs and invigorates the mind and improves the heart. It is, however, from the combination of portrait and biography that we reap the utmost degree of utility and pleasure which can be derived from them.' As, in contemplating the portrait of an eminent person, we long to be instructed in his history, so, in considering his actions, we are anxious to behold his countenance. So earnest is this desire, that the imagination is generally ready to coin a set of features, or to conceive a character, to supply the absence of one or the other. CONTENTS. Vol. L 1. Washington, George. 2. Meade, George G. 3. Stam-on, Edwin M. 4. Halleck, Fitz-Greene. 5. Adams, John Qdinct. C. Faruagut, David G. V. MclLVAINE, CnARLES P. 8. Franklin, Benjamin. 9. Webster, Daniel. 10. Lee, Kobert E. 11. Andrew, James 0. 12. Willis, Nathaniel P. 13. Everett, Edward. 14. Thomas, George H. 15. Barnes, Albert. 16. Curtis, George W. 17. Washington, Martha. 18. Lyon, Nathaniel. 19. Cummins, George D. 20. Irving, Washington. 21. Bienville, Jean B. L. 22. Foote, Andrew H. 23. B artlett, John R. 24. Prenttce, George D. 25. Harper, Fletcher. 26. Sheridan, Philip H. 27. Milburn, William H. 28. Sedgwick, Catharine M. 29. Houston, Sam. 30. Anderson, Robert. 31. King, TnoMAS S. 32. Morris, George P. 33. Sumner, Charles. 34. Jones, John Paul. 35. De Witt, TnoMAS. 36. Sprague, Charles. 37. Van Buren, Martin. 38. Porter, David D. 39. Peabody, George. 40. Mitchell, Donald G. 41. St. Clair, Arthur. 42. Jackson, Thomas J. 43. Adams, John. 44. Cozzens, Frederick 8. 45. Pierce, Franklin. 46. Wilkes, Charles. 47. McCloskey, John. 48. Brittan, Samuel B. 49. Waite, Morrison R. 50. Hooker, Joseph. 51. Vassar, Matthew. 52. Allston, Washington. 53. Huntington, Samuel. 54. Breckinridge, John C. 55. Benton, Thom as H. 56. Francis, JonN W. 57. Greeley, Horace. 58 Baker, Edward D. 59. Longstreet, Augustus B. 60. Wilson, Henry. 61. Pepperrell, Sir William. 62. Worden, John L. 63. Johnson, Richard M. 64. Benjamin, Park. 65. Childs, George W. 66. Kearney, Philip. 67. Day, Jeremiah. 68. Johnson, Andrew. 69. Kennedy, JonN P. 70. Goldsborough, Louis M. 71. Jefferson, TnoMAS. 72. Ritchie, Anna Cora M. 73. Phillips, Wendell. 74. Sherman, William T. 75. Murray, Nicholas. 76. Bates, Samuel P. 77. Silliman, Benjamin. 78. Burnside, Ambrose E. 79. Kavanaugh, Hubbard H. 80. Crockett, David. GEORGE WASHINGTON. Our first President, " first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen," was born at Bridge's Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia, on the 22d of February, 1V32. Left fatherless at an early age, his education was directed by his mother. Before his thirteenth year he had copied forms for all kinds of legal and mercantile papers. His manuscript school-books, which still exist, are said to be models of neatness and accuracy. This habit of exactness, as well as many others formed in his youth, proved of inestimable benefit to him in his after life. The old saying, " The boy is father of the man," was exemplified even in his amusements ; his favorite pastimes being of a military character ; his playmates were made soldiers, and he commanded their mock parades. He commenced his military career when a young man a little over twenty years of age. At the opening of the French and Indian war he was second in command over the Virginia troops, but soon rose to the full command of them. On the 6th of January, 1759, George Washington married Mrs. Martha Custis, widow of Daniel Parke Custis, one of the loveliest and most intelligent ladies of the age. With his wife and her two children he retired to his charming home of Mount Vernon, where they spent fifteen years of uninterrupted happiness. His attention was given to his private affairs, his occupation being that of a large planter, raising wheat and tobacco. The flour made on the estate, and bearing the brand of Washington, passed through the market without inspection. The tobacco was sent to England. In manner, Washington was formal and dignified ; his native reserve, generous style of living, and fondness for the appurtenances of high life, exposed him to the charge of aristocratic feeling. In his personal appearance he was over six feet in height, but graceful and perfectly erect. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, Washington, then GEORGE WASHINGTON. a general, was appointed by the second Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia, commander-in-chief of the American army, as im- portant and at the same time dangerous a position as a man ever held. As an officer he was brave, enterprising, and cautious, which won for him the title of the American Fabius. His campaigns were rarely startling, but they were always judicious ; he exercised equal authority over himself and his soldiers ; his capability for great endurance and his calmness in both defeat and victory were remarkable. After long years of fighting, together with the unutterable horrors of star- vation and freezing, the war was virtually closed by the surrender of Cornwallis on the 19th of October, 1781. As the British cap- tives, about seven thousand in number, marched from their intrench- ments to lay down their arms, Washington thus addressed his troops : " My brave fellows, let no sensation of satisfaction for the triumphs you have gained induce you to insult your fallen enemy. Let no shouting, no clamorous hurrahing increase their mortification. Pos- terity will hurrah for us." The army was not disbanded until some time after the treaty acknowledging the independence of the United States had been signed at Paris, September 3, 1783. Washington, after bidding his soldiers an affecting farewell on the 4th of December, and resigning his commission as commander-in-chief at Annapolis, on the 23d of the same month, hastened to his Mount Vernon home, followed by the thanksgivings of a grateful people. In the choice of a first President of the United States all turned instinctively toward Washington. With deep regret he again left his quiet home, this time for the tumults of political life. On the 30th of April, 1789, on the balcony of the old Federal Hall, in New York, the temporary capital, he took the oath to support the constitution of the United States, adopted in 1787. The difficulties which beset the new government on every hand were wisely met by Washington and his cabinet. As a President he carefully weighed his decisions, but his policy once settled he pursued it with steadiness and dignity, however great the opposition might be. He served two successive terms, and attended the inauguration of his successor, John Adams. He died in his home at Mount "Vernon, December 14, 1799, after a brief and severe illness. Europe and America vied in their tributes to his memory. His remains lie in their tomb at Mount Vernon. " Providence left him chil iless, that his country might call him father." MAJ. GEN. GEO. G-. MEADE . GEORGE GORDON MEADE. General Meade was born at Cadiz, in Spain, in 1815, where his father was then residing as United States Consul and Navy Agent. A short time after his birth, however, he came to Philadelphia with his parents, where his boyhood days were spent. At an early age he attended a school at Georgetown, D. C, at that time taught by the late Chief -Justice Chase. After studying a few years at a military acad- emy near Philadelphia, he was appointed to the academy at West Point, in 1831 ; and after graduating with honor four years later, was appointed second lieutenant in artillery, and immediately ordered to his regiment, then engaged in active service against the Seminole Indians. He was obliged to resign his commission a year later, on account of ill-health, but only to resume service again upon the break- ing out of the Mexican war. At the close of the war Meade was bre- vetted first lieutenant, as an acknowledgment of his bravery, he having distinguished himself on several occasions during the campaign. In 1840 he married a daughter of John Sergeant, of Philadelphia. He was now engaged in the engineer service in the survev of tho northern lakes, but when the call was made for volunteer troops at the commencement of the late civil war, he was ordered east, and assigned, with the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, to the command of the Second Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. At this point his career commenced. His troops, never having had any of the advantages of training, were aptly called " raw recruits." Several months were required to perfect their organization, which was done as far as the circumstances permitted. In the spring of 1862, the corps of which the brigade was a portion, crossed from Washington into Vir- ginia, and became a part of the Army of the Potomac. When this army moved upon Manassas, Gen. Meade's brigade was assigned to the Second Division of McDowell's First Army Corps, and remained with it until his brigade was added to the Army of the Potomac on the Pen- GEORGE GORDON MEADE. insula. Meanwhile, his rank in the regular army had been raised tc that of major of engineers. General Meade took part in a number of severe engagements, while he was on the Peninsula. He also took an active part in the battle of Mechaniesville, and at the battle of Gaines' Mills he was brevetted for bravery. A wound received at New Market temporarily disabled him, but he was soon again at the head of his division, and greatly distinguished himself during tbe Maryland campaign. When Gen. Hooker was wounded at Antietam he succeeded him, and commanded the corps with great ability. At Fredericksburg he won great honor in a desperate charge upon the Confederate lines. Two days after he succeeded to the command of the Fifth Army Corps, and was promoted to be a major-general of volunteers. On the 28th of June, 1863, he was placed in command of the Army of the Potomac by President Lincoln. His history during the next few weeks will forever be remembered and appreciated by the American people. Overtaking Lee, with the Federal troops, at Gettysburg, on the 1st of July, he fought and won this battle of three days' duration, which was the turning-point of the rebellion. The next spring General Grant assumed personal super- vision of tbe army in Virginia, but Gen. Meade continued at its head, and won new distinction by frequent exhibitions of his tactical skill. He was made a major-general in the regular army, his commission bearing date Aug. 18, 1864. Up to the close of the war he remained in command of the Army of the Potomac, and was prominent in the great scenes around Petersburg, which ended the rebellion. Although not as great a soldier as Grant or Sherman, few officers won a higher reputation for ability. At tbe close of the war he was assigned to the command of the Military Division of the Atlantic, where it required the tact of the statesman more than that of the soldier, and he proved himself as capable there as he had during the war. The last five years of his life were passed m comparative quiet in Philadelphia, where he died November, 1872. In social life he was highly esteemed, and possessed easy manners and a fine address. His personal appearance was remarkable, being tall and spare, but well proportioned. » EDWIN M. STANTON. Prominent among the men who were identified with the late civil war, and who performed lasting service for their country, was the late Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, ex-Secretary of War. This celebrated lawyer and statesman was bom at Steu'oenville, Ohio, December 19, 1814. His father was a physician of some eminence who had carried on a successful practice in North Carolina, his native State. Young Stanton received a good academical education in his native town; graduated from Kenyon College in 1833; studied law under the Hon. Benjamin Tappan, senator for the State of Ohio, who took him into partership, thus giving him a good start in his legal career. He was admitted to the Columbus bar in 1836, and rose rapidly in his pro- fession. He began practice at Cadiz, Ohio, becoming prosecuting attorney of the county in 1S37 ; but soon returned to Steubenville, where he had extensive practice. In 1848 he removed to Pittsburg, Pa., became the leader of the bar, and was often employed in the Supreme Court at Washington. His argument in the case of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge is among the most noted of his efforts during this period. In the winter of 1S57-8 he was selected by President Buchanan to manage a case of interest in California, on behalf of the Government. On his return he commenced practising in the United States Supreme Court at Washington ; and was one of the counsel in the Sickles trial. His first appearance in politics was in 18G0, when he succeeded Judge Black as Attorney-General ; and did his country great service by re- sisting, as far as possible, the efforts of the secession leaders, then actively engaged in fomenting the civil war that soon after broke out- He went out of office with Mr. Buchanan's administration, March 4, 1861. On the 13th of January, 1862, he was appointed by President Lin- coln Secretary of War, and was continued in that position by Presi- dent Johnson until August 12, 1867, when he was suspended as Sece EDWIN M. STANTON. tary by the President, but, by order of the Senate, was reinstated in office January 14, 1S6S. On the 21st of February following, President Johnson made a second effort to remove him, but, by direction of the Senate, he continued in office, and until the failure of the Impeach- ment trial, upon which he resigned in May, 1868. In 1867 he received from Tale College the degree of LL.D. "When Mr. Stanton entered the Cabinet he was in the maturity of his physical and intellectual powers. He carried into the War Depart- ment great capacity for labor, almost incredible powers of endurance, rapidity of decision, promptitude of action, and inflexibility of purpose, all inspired and impelled by a vehement and absorbing patriotism. His labors as war secretary were overwhelming; he slept for months at the office, working till two or three o'clock in the morning, and rising before the sun. His assistant secretaries, men of energy and ability, broke down one after another, but he bore the brunt of the burden with inflexible courage and perseverance, and unequalled ability. His natural energy and impulsiveness of character, the continuous pressure and exhausting nature of his duties, made him often brusque in man- ner and curt in speech, even to those in whose loyalty, fidelity, and purity he had all confidence. But he seemed ever ready to correct mis- takes, and make amends to those whom he had wounded or aggrieved by hasty words or acts. His heart was full of tenderness for every form of suffering and sorrow, and he always had words of sympathy for the smitten and afflicted. Many a sick and wounded soldier, and many a family bereaved by the war, will gratefully cherish the remem- brance of his considerate regard. After his retirement from office, with health shattered by his ardu- ous labors, he was stricken down. His closing hours, however, were brightened by the high appreciation of the Government, and the flatter- ing manifestations of popular regard. He was nominated and appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, December 20, 1869. This un- solicited action of the members of Congress, and the courteous conduct of the President, were approved by a loyal press and applauded by a loyal people. Congratulations flowed in upon Mr. Stanton, and he realized, perhaps for the first time, the hold he had upon the nation, and the gratitude and confidence of his countrymen. But in that moment of triumph he passed from earth, at Washington, D. C, December 24, 1869, to take his place in the hearts and memories of the people, among the most illustrious, honored, and loved of hia countrymen. FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. The author of "Fanny," " Marco Bozzaris," etc., was born at Guil- ford, Connecticut, July 8, 1790. His mother, Mary Eliot, was a descendant of John Eliot, the " Apostle to the Indians." He acquired a good aca- demical education in his native town. He early evinced a taste for poetry, and in 1809 one of his effusions was published in a New Haven paper. It is said there were some written still earlier than this. In 1811 he went to New York, and entered the banking-house of Jacob Barker, with which he was associated for many years, subsequently performing the duties of a book-keeper in the private office of John Jacob As tor. Soon after the death of that eminent millionaire, he retired to his old home in Connecticut. In 1813 Halleck's second poem appeared in HoWs Columbian, New York, under the signature of "A Connecticut Farmer's Boy." The editor remarked that he did not credit that authorship, for " the verses were too good to be original." His first celebrity in literature was gained when the poetical squibs of Croaker & Co. appeared in the Evening Post, in 1819. In the production of these he was associated with his intimate friend, Joseph Rodman Drake, the author of the " Culprit Fay," a man of brilliant wit and delicate fancy. The objects of their quizzing were the politicians, editors, aldermen, and the small theatrical characters of the day. For a long time the curiosity of the town — for such was New York at that time — was greatly excited to know by whom these pieces were written, and the authorship was ascribed, at different times, to various gentlemen. Several of the " Croakers " appeared in the National Advocate, published by Noah. " Fanny," which grew out of the success of the Croakers, was published in 1819. Its authorship was for a long time unacknowledged. Halleck's tour through Europe, in 1822, called forth a reminiscence "Alnwick Castle." In 1825 he became a contributor to Bryant's peri- odicals, the New York Review and V. S. Revieio, where his " Marco Bozzaris " and " Burns " first appeared. FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. Upon the death of his friend Drake, he wrote the oft-quoted lines to his memory, beginning : " Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days ! None knew thee but to love thee, None named thee but to praise." "His poetry, whether serious or sprightly, is remarkable for the melody of the numbers. He was familiar with those general rules and principles which are the basis of metrical harmony, and his own unerring taste taught him the exceptions which a proper attention to variety demands. He understood that the rivulet is made musical by obstructions in its channel. In no poetry can be found passages which flow with more sweet and liquid smoothness ; but he knew very well that to make this smoothness perceived and to prevent it from degen- erating into monotony, occasional roughness must be interposed." In January, 1864, Halleck broke a long protracted silence by the publication in the New York Ledger of a poem called "Young America," containing some three hundred lines, composed of lyrics in different measure. On the 19th of November, 1S67, Mr. Halleck died peacefully, though suddenly, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. The Halleck Monument, erected at Guilford, Conn., July 8, 1869, was the first in honor of an American poet. In the summer of 1877 a Statue of Halleck was placed in the Central Park, New York. Halleck's literary career seems to have ended early, and in account- ing for his silence in the latter half of his life, it is said " that having composed his poems, he retained them in his faithful memory for a great length of time before committing them to paper, revising them, and murmuring them to himself in his solitary moments, and in his enthusiasm heightening the beauty of the thought or of the expression, and in this way attaining the gracefulness of his diction, and the airy melody of his numbers. It is supposed that his time being taken up by the tasks of his vocation, he naturally lost by degrees the habit of com- posing in this manner, and that he found it so necessary to the perfec- tion of what he wrote, that he adopted no other in its place." He was a bachelor, and was as much esteemed by his friends for his social qualities as he was popular with the world as a poet. 3, SL.JIdc^^ JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. John Quinct Adams, the sixth President of the United States, and the eldest son of President John Adams, was born in the rural home of his father, in Braintree, Massachusetts, July 11, 1767. The origin of his name was thus stated by himself: "My great-grandfather. John Quincy, was dying when I was baptized, and his daughter, my grandmother, requested I might receive his name. This fact, recorded by my father, has connected with my name a charm of mingled sensi- bility and devotion. It was filial tenderness that gave the name — it was the name of one passing from earth to immortality. These have been through life perpetual admonitions to do nothing unworthy of it." His education was commenced at a village school. In February, 1778, his father, John Adams, was sent to Paris, where he was as- sociated with Franklin and Lee as minister plenipotentiary. Young Adams accompanied him and attended school until they returned to America in August, 1779, and in November he again became his father's companion on his second diplomatic mission to Europe. After applying himself with great diligence to his studies in Paris for six months, he first entered a school in Amsterdam, and then the Univer- sity of Leyden. When a manly boy of fourteen, he was selected by Mr. Dana, our minister at the Pussian court, as his private secretary. He discharged the duties of this position satisfactorily for fourteen months, and after a short tour, joined his father in Holland, with whom he visited England in 1783. In 1785 he returned home to complete his education. After graduating at Harvard, in 1788, he entered the office of Theophilus Parsons, afterward the Chief Justice of Massa- chusetts, with whom he studied for three years. In 1791 he was ad- mitted to the bar, and opened a law office in Boston. In 1791 he was appointed minister to the court of Hague, by Washington, who, in 1797, pronounced him "the most valuable public character we have abroad, and the ablest of all our diplomatic corps." JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. The same year he married the daughter of Joshua Johnson, om consul at London, and niece of Thos. Johnson, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence. In the latter part of the year he was sent tc Berlin, where he negotiated a treaty with the Prussian government. Returning home in 1801, he was elected to the State Senate, and two years later a member of the Senate of the United States. Having been appointed Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard College, he dis- charged these duties until he resigned his seat in 1809. Madison, im- mediately upon becoming President, appointed Mr. Adams Minister to Russia, where he remained until he and others negotiated a treaty of peace with England. Upon his return home in 1817, Monroe appointed him Secretary of State. He remained in office eight years, and, after- ward was chosen to the Presidency by the House of Representatives, on whom the choice had devolved. John Quincy Adams' administration, 1825-1829, was a period of great national prosperity. During this term the first railroad in the United States was completed, and the Erie Canal opened. The debt was fast diminishing, and there was a surplus of $6,000,000 in the treasury. Although a man of learning, of blameless reputation, and unquestioned patriotism, he was hardly successful as a President. This was owing greatly to the fierce opposition which assailed him from the friends of disappointed candidates. The combination of these and other causes prevented his re-election, though he had received the nomination of 1) is party. Two years later, he was returned to Congress, where he remained over sixteen years, thus rendering ten years of public service after he had passed his " threescore years and ten." Even at this extreme age he retained his ability in debate to so great a degree, that he was called the " Old man Eloquent." Mr. Adams is said to have been very genial with friends, but in his public manners there was a coldness, which, unhappily, detracted from his popularity. A more pure-minded, up- right patriot never occupied the Presidential chair. " There never was an administration more pure in principles, more conscientiously devoted to the best interests of the country, than that of John Quincy Adams, and never, perhaps, an administration more unscrupulously and outrageously assailed." Many of the most bitter of the assailants lived to look back with deep regret upon the course they had pursued, Mr. Adams' great worth was gradually appreciated ; his fame in- creased with his age, and at his death he was mourned as a trusted and revered champion of popular rights. He died February 21, 1848. DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. David Glascoe Fakragut was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, Jnly 5, 1S01. His father, Major Farragut, was at that time in the cavalry service of the United States, and an intimate personal friend of General Jackson. Young Farragut's early life was passed on the frontiers, and he always retained the remembrance of their thrilling adventures with the Indians. When a mere child, some nine years of age, he entered the naval service as a midshipman, his warrant bearing date December 17, 1S10. He was first on board the Essex, nnder Commodore David Porter, and served with him also in the expedition around Cape Horn, in 1813. This vessel was a terror to the British fleet during the war of 1812. Midshipman Farragut would have been promoted early but from his extreme youth. On one occasion, when it was found necessary to appoint an acting lieutenant to one of Commodore Porter's captures, David Farragut's name was mentioned, but his appointment was opposed on the ground that he was " a mere boy." After the war closed he made a cruise to the Mediterranean, on the Independence. During the year 1821 he passed his examination, and was recommended for promotion. He was then ordered to the West India station, but did not receive his commission as lieutenant until 1825. From 1821 to 1824 he distinguished himself by his cruise fo,< pirates in the Caribbean Sea. In 1828 he was ordered to the slooj Vandalia, which joined the squadron on the coast of Brazil, returning after two years to Norfolk. He was next ordered to the sloop-of-wai Natchez, off the coast of Brazil. From 1834 to 1851 he was variously employed, on the West India station, the Norfolk Navy-yard, and with the Home Squadron. From 1851 to 1853 he was Assistant Inspector of Ordnance under Commodore Skinner. About this time a new navy-yard was established at Mare's Island, near San Francisco. California. Commander Farragut was ordered to this post. In 1855 DAVID GLASCOE PARRAOUT. te was commissioned a captain of the United States Navy, [n 1858 he was ordered to the command of the steam-sloop Brooklyn, forming a portion of the Home Squadron. We now arrive at a period when the name of Farragut was made dear to the hearts of the American people. Soon after the breaking out of the civil war, he left his Southern home, and with his family went to Hastings- on-the-Hudson. The celebrated expedition to New Or- leans was fitted out, and Farragut, promoted to the rank of Com- modore, sailed as commander of the naval portion. He found every point on the Mississippi River below the city was strongly fortified, but, in nowise daunted by the obstacles in his path, commenced the bombardment of Fort Jackson April 18, 1862, and kept up a destruc- tive fire, until the principal vessels were enabled to pass the forts, which they did on the morning of the 24th. On their way up the river they disabled the famous ram Manassas, destroyed thirteen gunboats and three transports, and silenced two batteries. On the 27th Gen- eral Butler landed his troops above Fort St. Phillips, and on the following day both forts surrendered. In the afternoon Forts Living- ston and Pike were abandoned, thus completing the capture of every point of defence commanding the approach to the city. After the occupation of New Orleans, Admiral Farragut ran several batteries up the river, and for several weeks in 1863 was engaged in blockading Red River and preventing supplies from cross- ing the Mississippi. He co-operated in the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. The downfall of these strongholds ended his opera- tions in that vicinity. His most brilliant achievement was in Mobile Bay, in 1864, in defeating the Confederate fleet, which was followed in a few days by the fall of the forts and the capture of the place. Nowhere on record can there be found a more brilliant series of operations than these. It raised his fame to the highest point. In December, 1864, he re- ceived the thanks of Congress, and the rank of Vice-Admiral created expressly for him ; and subsequently that of Admiral, which placed him at the head of the navy. In 1867-68, in the United States steam-frigate Franklin, he visited Europe, Africa, and Asia, and was everywhere received with the highest honors. This distinguished hero died at Portsmouth, K H., on the 14th of August, 1870. CHARLES PETTIT McILVAINE The late Bishop Charles Pettit Mcllvaine was born at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 18th of January, 1798. He was the son of Hon. Joseph Mcllvaine, representative of the State of New Jersey in the Senate of the United States. After being graduated with high honors at Princeton College, in 1816, he studied theology under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Charles Wharton, of Burlington ; was admitted to dea- con's orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church by Bishop White, on the 4th of July, 1820 ; and was ordained priest by Bishop Kemp in 1823. He settled in Georgetown, D. C, and became Rector of Christ Church in that place in 1820. While there he made the acquaintance of the Hon. John C. Calhoun, at whose instigation he received, and was induced to accept, an appointment as Chaplain and Professor of Ethics at the United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1825. Two years later he resigned this position, on being chosen Rector of St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn. In 1831 he was appointed Professor of the Evidences of Revealed Religion and Sacred Antiquities in the University of the City of New York. In the winter of 1831-32 he delivered a series of lectures on the evidences of Christianity as a part of the course of instruction to the students. In these lectures he confined himself to the historical branch of his subject ; the chief topics dwelt upon being the authen- ticity of the New Testament, the credibility of the Gospel history, its divine authority as attested by miracles and prophecy, and the argu- ment in favor of the truth of the Christian faith, to be drawn from its propagation and the fruits it has borne. In October, 1832, Dr. Mcllvaine was consecrated Bishop of Ohio. He was the President of Kenyon College from 1832 to 1840; then President of the Theological Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio. Bishop Mcllvaine was a contributor to many religious periodicals, and was the author of several addresses and other publications con- CHARLES PETTIT McILVAINE, demnatory of the " Oxford Tracts," and in 1855, at the request of the convention of his diocese, published a volume of twenty-two sermons, entitled " The Truth and the Life." " This volume of sermons is a favorable specimen of Episcopal pulpit oratory ; the subjects are prac- tical ; the treatment is plain and searching ; the style at times almost weighty." " They are clear in their doctrinal statements, forcible in their illustrations, and throughout breathe the spirit of the great Teacher." " He was distinguished for the soundness and clearness of his evan- gelical views, and for the expository character of his preaching. That for which as a preacher he is most eminent is his power of illustrating Scripture, and his mode of doing this shows at once the fulness and accuracy of his knowledge of Scripture, and the transparent simplicity of his conception. ... In all his preaching he aims to lay broad and deep the foundations of Christian character in strong, clear views of man's sinfulness and need, and Christ's fulness and freeness as a Saviour." The degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford in 1853, and in 1858 that of LL.D., from the University of Cambridge. During the late civil war he was an active and earnest member of the Sanitary and Christian commissions, and was chosen to visit England to explain to that government the position of the United States in the great and important question then at issue. As President of the American Tract Society, Bishop Mcllvaine, in 1871, although past the age of three score and ten, crossed the Atlan- tic to intercede with the Czar of Russia for the religious rights of hia Protestant subjects. He died at Florence, Italy, March 13, 1873. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Benjamin Franklin, the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations, was born in Boston, January 17, 1706. His father, Josias Franklin, who was a soap and candle maker, emigrated from England, and settled in Boston about the year 1685. He destined Benjamin for the Church, and at eight years of age sent him to a grammar-school, where he remained less than a year. His father, having a family of seventeen children, of whom Benjamin was the youngest son and the fifteenth child, to provide for, found it would be impossible for him to bear the expenses of a collegiate education. After spending a short time in a school where writing and arithmetic were taught, he was called home to assist his father in his business, an occupation which pleased young Benjamin very little. His inclination for books deter- mined his father to make him a printer, and he was accordingly apprenticed to his brother, for whom he worked until his tyranny forced him to break the connection. The commencement of his literary life, his pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, are too well known to require comment. Betaking himself to Philadelphia in 1723, upon his arrival he wandered along the streets eating that memorable roll, and with all his worldly goods stuffed into his pockets ; he was observed by his future wife, Miss Bead, who stood in her father's door. He soon found employment, but was induced by false representations to go to England the follow- ing year. With his usual eneigy, lie went to work at his trade and soon made friends and a good living. lie returned to America in 1726. Establishing himself as a printer, he purchased the Pennsyl- vania Gazette ; was married in 1730 ; in 1731, assisted in founding the Philadelphia Library, the first public library in that city. The follow- ing year he began to publish Poor Richard's Almanac, a work which continued popular for many years. He was chosen clerk of the Gen- eral Assembly in 1736 ; became deputy postmaster in Philadelphia in BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1737 ; invented the stove which bears his name in 1742 ; proposed the American Philosophical Society, in 1743; established the Academy out of which the University of Philadelphia finally grew, in 1749. He also organized the first fire-company, and suggested the plan of insurance companies. On his retirement from business with a fine for- tune, he devoted the most of his time to science, especially to experi- ments in electricity, the branch of philosophy which had then been least explored. His discoveries are world-renowned ; one of the most important being that of a plus and minus, or a positive and negative state of electricity. In 1732, he demonstrated his theory of identity of lightning with electricity by his famous kite experiment in a field neai Philadelphia. He went to England in 1751, received tbe degree of Doctor of Laws from the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford, and returned to America in 1762. Two years later he again went to England as a Colonial agent. lie was a staunch patriot ; helped to draft the Decla- ration of Independence, and was one of its signers. He was sent as ambassador to France, first investing all his ready money, $1,500, in the Continental loan. Franklin's influence at the French court was unbounded. Through his efforts France acknowl- edged the Independence of the United States and sent a fleet to aid them in their struggle for liberty. Personally, he was a great favorite among his friends. He was dignified, witty, and a charming conversationalist. Dr. Stuber, in his Life of Doctor Franklin, gives the following description of him as a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania: "His style in 6peaking was like that of his writing, simple, unadorned, and remark- ably concise. With this plain manner, his penetrating and solid judg- ment, he was able to confound the most eloquent and subtle of hi?. adversaries With a single observation he has rendered of no avail an elegant and lengthy discourse, and determined the fate of a question of importance." Benjamin Franklin, the celebrated philosopher, philanthropist, and statesman, died in Philadelphia, on the 17th of April, 1790, at the great age of eighty-four years and three months, having retained his full powers of mind to the last. DANIEL WEBSTER. Born in the town of Salisbury, New Hampshire, January 18, 1782. For his earliest education he was indebted to his mother ; he was blessed with a most retentive memory ; at fourteen he could repeat several entire volumes of poetry. In 1796 he first enjoyed the privilege of a few months' schooling at Phillips Academy, Exeter, then under the charge of Dr. Abbott. The lad — -who in after years, as an eloquent orator and skilful statesman, was to stir the nation and turn all eyes upon himself — was then so bashful that he could not muster courage to speak before his companions. He said, " Many a piece did I commit and rehearse in my own room, over and over again ; yet when the day came, when my name was called and I saw all eyes turned towards me, I could not raise myself from my seat." His father, who was a thrifty New England farmer, decided to send him to college, and accordingly young Daniel Webster entered Dartmouth College in 1797. He writes of this, " I remember the very hill we were ascending through deep snow, in a New England sleigh, when my father made known this purpose to me. I could not speak. How could he, I thought, with so large a family, and in such narrow circumstances, think of incurring so great an expense for me? A warm glow ran all over me, and 1 laid my head on my father's shoulder and wept." Completing his collegiate course with high honor, he chose the pro- fession of law, and pursued his legal studies under the direction of Christopher Gore of Boston, afterward Governor of Massachusetts. He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1805, and after practising a year in Boscawen, he removed to Portsmouth, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Elected to Con- gress, he took his seat in the House of Representatives, at the extra May session of 1813. His maiden speech, on the repeal of the Berlin and Milan decree, at once raised him to the formost rank as a debater, the head of American orators. His speeches made while occupying this position are masterpieces, and he soon became the acknowledged •eader of the Federal party in New England. Retiring from Congress DANIEL WEBSTER. in 1816, Mr. Webster, for the next seven years, devoted himself almost exclusively to the practice of his profession. His efforts in the famous Dartmouth College case gave him a prominent place in the front rank of able American lawyers. On December 22, 1820, he delivered his celebrated discourse at Plymouth on the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. In 1823 he again entered Congress, and three years later was chosen United States Senator, which office he filled most acceptably for several years. His great speech of two days in the debate with Mr. Hayne on the right of "nullification," in which he pronounced the familiar words " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," has been declared to be, next to the Constitution itself, " the most correct and complete exposition of the true powers and functions of the Federal Government." In 1825 he was the orator of the day on laying the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, and again, eighteen years afterwards, on the completion of the monument. In 1839 he made a short visit to Europe. The next year President Harrison appointed him his Secretary of State ; and he remained in the cabinet of Presi- dent Tyler until 1843, when he retired to private life for a short time. In 1845 he was again called to the United States Senate, where he strongly opposed the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico, yet sustained the administration after hostilities had really commenced. On the death of President Taylor and the accession of Fillmore to the Presidency, he called Mr. Webster to his cabinet as Secretary of State. He was filling this responsible office when he died on his fine estate in Marshfield, Massachusetts, on the 24th of October, 1 852, at the age of seventv years. His death called forth more orations, discourses, and sermons, than any other had since that of Washington. "Mr. Webster's person was imposing, of commanding height, and well proportioned, the head of great size, the eyes deep-seated, large and lustrous, his voice powerful and sonorous, his action appropriate and impressive. A consummate master of argument, he touched not less skilfully the cords of feeling. On great occasions, with or without preparation, he had no superior." In debate he usually came off more than conqueror, though the opponents with whom he contended were the mightiest intellects in the land. He is said seldom to have enli- vened his argument with flashes of wit, but he has, nevertheless, said some keen things, which have been many times repeated. The record of the career of Daniel Webster is one that will always hold a promi- nent place in the history of the United States. (SEPJo KODfBEKT IE. LEE. ROBERT EDWARD LEE. The Lees were a distinguished Virginian family who held a con- spicuous position in the history of the United States for two centuries. Richard Lee settled in Virginia about 1GGG. Two. of his descendants, grand uncles of the Confederate Chieftain, were signers of the Declar- ation of Independence ; one of them, Richard Henry Lee, was the orator of the Revolution. General Henry Lee, the celebrated " Light Horse Harry " of Rev- olutionary fame, enjoyed a strong and intimate friendship with Wash- ington, and in his eulog} 7 , delivered before Congress in 1799, occurs the well-known phrase, " First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." His son, Robert E. Lee, the American Confederate General, was born in January, 1807, at the family seat of Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia. Young Lee passed his early life quietly at home, and at the age of eighteen entered West Point as a cadet. Upon com- pleting his four years' course of studies, he stood number two in a class of forty-six, having the additional honor of having passed the entire course without receiving a single mark of demerit. At the expiration of his cadet term, he immediately entered the service in the corps of Topographical Engineers. In 1832, Lee, then second-lieutenant in the United States Army, married Miss Custis, daughter of George W. Parke Custis, the adopted son of George Washington. For several years he was employed on the coast defences. In 1S36 he was made first-lieutenant, and two years later, captain. Throughout the whole of the Mexican War he was Chief-Engineer on the staff of Brigadier- General Wool. His gallantry during the campaign won for him, suc- cessively, the brevets of major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel. Per- haps the most notable feature of his service in Mexico was the strong interest taken in the young officer by General Scott, who spoke of his services with hearty approval and the highest praise. At the close of the war, Lee was appointed a member of the Board of Engineers, and, ROBERT EDWARD LEE. in 1852, was made Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, which position he held until March, 1855, when he was ap- pointed lieutenant-colonel of the Second Cavalry. In March, 1S61, he was appointed colonel of the First Cavalry, the last position he occupied in the service of the United States. Within a month he resigned his commission and threw in his fortunes with his native State, which seceded from the Union. General Scott had previously expressed his intention of nominating him as his successor, hut Lee sincerely believed it to be his duty to act as he did. He at once received the appointment of Major-General, in command of all the military forces in Virginia, and was soon after designated to fortify .Richmond, at that time threatened by a formidable Union army under the command of General McClellan, an old companion-in-arms and associate of General Lee's. The magnificent strategy he displayed in the Seven Days' fight made him the most trusted of the Confederate leaders. Although the campaigns he conducted were not always equally fortunate, for three years he succeeded in baffling every attempt to take Richmond, which only fell with the government of which it was the capital, when the Union troops took possession of it after four long years of a fiercely waged war. General Lee now accepted the gener- ous terms of surrender proposed by General Grant. Judging the acts merely from a military point of view, it must be admitted by all that Lee earned a prominent place among the first captains of the age. In the fall of 1S65, General Lee was installed President of Wash- ington College in Lexington, Virginia. His death occurred in that place on the 12th of October, 1870. " As a man Lee deserved all the respect and affection with which he was regarded. All men admitted his high sense of honor, his unos- tentatious practice of all the Christian virtues, his true religious feel- ing, his calm endurance of untoward results, and his quiet observance of the duties of life. Indeed, the key to his action is to be found in the letter to his son, where he says, ' Duty is the sublimest word in our language.' No one doubted his purity of motive. In manner, quiet, courteous, and dignified ; in morals, irreproachable ; in intellect, strong, clear, and self-poised ; a gentleman by habit, instinct, and descent ; a Christian, not only exact in the observances of his Church, but illustrating his faith by his daily doing ; he was one of the few marked men of his time — one of those who are beloved while living, and venerated when dead." JAMES OSGOOD ANDREW. James Osgood Andrew, an American clergyman, one of the bishope of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was born near the town of Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia, on the 3d of May, 1794. His father, a native of Liberty County, in common with many of his fellow- citizens, took up arms in defense of his country, and was in several engagements under Sumter and Screven. Having lost the greater part of his property in the Revolutionary struggle, he moved to Colum- bia County, and shortly afterwards became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and subsequently a minister, being, probably, the first native Georgian who entered the itinerant ministry of that church. His mother was one among the first converts to Methodism in Georgia. Mr. Andrew's recollections of his childnood were associated with his father's farm in Elbert County. He went to a common school, kept by a teacher who made it a practice to give his pupil one or two whippings every day, not for improper conduct, but because he did not hold his pen to please him, or write such a hand as suited him. He was licensed to preach at the early age of eighteen, and at the session of the South Carolina Conference, was received into the itinerancy, and actively engaged in discharging the arduous duties pecu- liar to a minister of the Methodist Church. At the General Confer- ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held at Philadelphia, in 1832, he was elected and ordained Bishop. In 1844, the General Con- ference held at New York, regarding it as a very grave offence that Bishop Andrew had become the owner of a few slaves (being the property of the lady who became his second wife), passed resolutions deposing him from his office, "so long as that impediment remained." The southern delegates considering this a virtual suspension from the episcopal office, and therefore extra-judicial and unconstitutional, en- tered their protest. The result was a division of the church into two independent jurisdictions, with an equitable apportionment of the JAMiiS OSGOOD ANDREW. church property. The southern division, at their first conference, re- solved that a distinct church he formed, to be known by the style and title of " The Methodist Episcopal Church South." At this meeting it was also resolved that Bishops Soule and Andrew be cordially re- quested to become regular and constitutional Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, which invitation both of the reverend gentlemen accepted. Bishop Andrew continued to exercise his episcopal functions till 1868, when he retired from active duty on account of age, and died at Mobile, Alabama, March 2, 1871. Under the somewhat stern exterior, and broad, strongly marked fea- tures of Bishop Andrew, there beat a soft and gentle heart ; the solemn gravity of his look when in repose, or when performing any ministerial service, would have misled an unpractised eye in judging of his char- acter ; a stranger would never have dreamed, that the rugged coun- tenance could soften into beauty, grow radiant with humor, and beam with a magnetic love, as the brightest waters gush from among craggy rocks, and the sweetest flowers bloom amid thorns. He was, both by nature and by grace, gentle as a nurse cherishing her children, soft as a dove cooing to its mate, meek as a Christian praying for his enemies. As a husband, and father, and host, there was the most harmonious blending of authority and love, genial tenderness and parental government with the most affectionate intercourse ; an open, hearty hospitality, with the most informal politeness. As a preacher he was somewhat unique. He had no model. He stood alone. He was original, not so much by creative power as by his peculiar style of appropriation. He never dwelt on propositions ; he had nothing to do with divisions, firstly, secondly, thirdly, and lastly. He dealt with one great leading idea, and that idea he made to revolve upon its own axis, until every spot of its surface was bathed in sunlight. On some of his favorite themes, when his mind was full, the opening of his mouth was like the letting out of many waters : nor was it a thin sheet turned into spray and descending in mist, but a thundering volume, that rushed and roared and swept on resistlessly. After retiring from his active duties, having passed his threescore years and ten, it was a beautiful thing to see the old man visit the churches where he had preached ; and as he stood up, leaning upon his stuff, not as a veteran slumbering on his arms, but a warrior, sword in hand, talking to them in sweet farewell, persuaded that he should see their faces no more in the flesh, and yet inviting them to come on to Heaven. NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. The "Willis family trace back their descent to George Willis, who was born in England in 1602, and who was admitted " Freeman of Massachusetts " in 1638. Nathaniel Willis, the grandfather of N. P. Willis, took part in the famous "Tea Party" of 1773. Nathaniel Willis, the father of the poet, was a political publisher and editor. His mother, the daughter of Solomon Parker, of Massachusetts, was a woman of remarkable talents, piety and benevolence. Nathaniel Par- ker Willis, was born in Portland, January 20,. 1807. While in Yale College he published several religious poems under the signature of " Roy," and won a prize of fifty dollars for the best poem, offered by " The Album," a gift-book published by Lockwood. After his graduation in 1827, he became the editor of The Legen- dary. The following year he established the American Monthly Magazine which he conducted until 1831, when, upon deciding to make a long wished-for visit to Europe, he merged it in the New York Mirror. An account of the next four years of travelling and adven- tures is given to the public in his " Pencillings by the way," which he contributed to the Mirror. While in Paris, Mr. Rives, the American Minister, attached him to his Legation, and with this privilege he made, leisurely, visits to the different courts and capitals of Europe and the East. After residing for two years in England, Mr. Willis, in 1835, married Mary Leighton Stace, daughter of the Commissary-General William Stace, and im- mediately returned to the United States, and spent the ensuing four years in the valley of the Susquehanna. While here in his rural home, " Glenmary," he' wrote " Letters from Under a Bridge." A series of financial embarrassments caused him to go to New York, where he es- tablished, in connection with Dr. Porter, The Corsair, a weekly journal. He made a short trip to England, where he engaged Mr. Thackeray to write for the Coisair. While abroad he published a NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. number of his writings. Finding on his return to New York that his partner had abandoned their project in discouragement, Mr. Willis, with General Morris, established the Evening Mirror. His health giving way under this new occupation, he was again compelled to go abroad. Soon after his return, the partners became co-editors of the Home Journal, which was better adapted to both, and proved to be an eminently successful enterprise. Ilis second marriage took place in 1845. His wife was the only daughter of Hon. Joseph Grinnell, member of Congress from Massachusetts. Sketches of the last years of his life are given in his " Health Trip to the Tropics," — a description of his journey among the West India Islanders — his " Letters from Idlewild," and in his contributions to the Home Journal, written on his journeys. The contributions of Mr. Willis to the different periodi- cals upon which he had been engaged, have been collected into nine volumes. For a space of about twenty years he had written weekly through these journals, and all his articles are characterized by a keen perception of the affairs of life and the world ; and are written with invariable care and finish. The poetry of Mr. Willis is certainly original and extremely musical. The versification of his "Sacred Poems " is remarkably smooth. These poems have gained the author considerable reputation, and form a source of genuine pleasure to the appreciative reader. He had also written a novel, in rhyme, " Lady Jane." "As a traveller Mr. Willis had no superior in representing the humors and experiences of the world. He was sympathetic, witty, observant, and at the same time inventive. Looking at the world through a pair of eyes of his own, he found material where others would see nothing; indeed some of his greatest triumphs in this line have been in his rural sketches from Glenmary and Idlewild, continued with novelty and spirit, long after most clever writers would have cried out that straw and clay too, for their brick, had been exhausted." During the latter years of his life, Mr. Willis was a great sufferer, but in spite of the repeated warnings of his physician, he continued his regular contributions to his paper, and finally his oft-expressed wish, " to die in the harness," was fulfilled on the 20th of January, 1867, his Bixtieth birthday. EDWARD EVERETT. The Everetts were a New England family, honest, hardworking sturdy farmers and mechanics. Oliver Everett, a son of one of the farmers, was for a few years pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, and after leaving the ministry, was made a Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas for Norfolk. His son, Edward Everett, was born in Dor- chester, Massachusetts, on the 11th of April, 1794. His early educa- tion was obtained, almost exclusively, at the public schools in Dorchester and Boston. After spending six months under the tuition of Dr. Abbott, at the Exeter Academy, he entered Harvard College in 1807, the youngest member of the class. He was the chief contributor to a college magazine, and at the end of four years, graduated with the highest honors of his class, having just passed his seventeenth birthday. The following year he was appointed tutor in the college, and held that position until 1834. Under the influence of his friend and pastor, Reverend J. S. Buckminster, he was induced to select the profession of Theology. Devoting himself to his clerical studies, he won such high regard, that, upon the death of Buckminster, he was appointed his successor in the Brattle Street Church in Boston. While here he wrote his " Defence of Christianity." In 1815 he was invited by the Corporation to become Professor of Greek Literature at Harvard. Accepting the appointment, he was allowed the privilege of travelling in Europe in order to perfect himself for the duties to which he was called. In the fall of 1819, he returned to America after spending a most profitable four years and a half abroad. Shortly after he assumed the editorial charge of the " North American Review," and continued to discharge the duties of that post, in addition to those required of him as a Professor, for four years, when his connection with it ceased, though he still contributed to its pages. In August, 1824, Mr. Everett delivered an address on " The Circumstances Eavorable to the Pro- gress of Literature in America," before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at EDWARD EVERETT. Cambridge. This at once established his fame as an orator. The same year he was elected to the House of Representatives, and was re-elected to his seat in Congress for five successive terms. In 1835, he received the nomination of Governor of Massachusetts, was elected, and continued to fill this office for four successive annual elections. After the expi- ration of his last term of office, Mr. Everett again visited Europe, and while there received the appointment of resident minister at the British Court. He was successful in his important mission, made occasional addresses at agricultural and other celebrations ; and, aside from his popularity as a public man, became personally a general favorite with the leading men of England. The honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law was conferred upon him by the Universities of Oxford and Cam- bridge. After his return to America, he was elected President of Harvard, a position he held until his ill health compelled him to resign it in 1849. In 1S52, President Fillmore called upon him to again enter public life as Secretary of State, the death of Daniel Webster having left that office vacant. The next year he was elected Senator by the Legislature of Massachusetts, but was compelled to resign his seat in the spring of the following year, by the command of his physician. Rest restored him, and he now entered upon a new field of labor. He took upon himself the patriotic task of assisting the Ladies' Mount "Vernon Asso- ciation in raising funds for the purchase of the House of Washington, to be held as a perpetual gift to the people of the United States. His Oration on Washington was delivered more than a hundred times, pro- ducing for the fund nearly fifty-seven thousand dollars. His address in aid of benevolent institutions won for them at least a hundred thousand dollars. " His reputation as an orator, his graceful action, the charm of his glowing eloquence, the interest of his subject matter, the skill with which he ever blended the useful and agreeable, have always found attention, and when it was found he might be secured at call — for the sake of the patriotic object on which he was bent — appli- cations came to him from all parts of the country." In 1860 Mr. Everett was nominated for Vice-President by the Union Party, but, as he had anticipated, was not elected. He died suddenly on the 15th of January, 1865. No one of our statesmen have been more deservedly honored. Mr. Everett's face indicated the scholar and the gentleman ; he was erect as a liberty-pole, of perfect mould, pale features, blue eyes, towering brow, grey hair, and with a mouth and chin finely cut. MAJ. GEE". G-EORG-E H.THOMAS, TJ. S. A. GEORGE HENRY THOMAS. The very impersonation of honesty, integrity, and honor was Gen- eral Thomas ; the beau ideal of the soldier and gentleman. lie was born in Southampton County, Virginia, July 31, 1816. His father waa of Welsh, and his mother of French Huguenot descent. After study- ing law for some time, he entered as a cadet the Military Academy at West Point, graduating June 30, 1840, and was commissioned as second Lieutenant in the Third Artillery, and sent to Florida ; served with distinction in the Mexican War, where he earned the brevet of Captain, having served with distinction at Monterey and Buena Vista. After serving against the Seminole Indians in 1849-50, he was trans- ferred to West Point as instructor of artillery and cavalry, March 28, 1851. On the 12th of May, 1855, he was appointed to the Second Cav- alry as Major, and served with that regiment in Texas, in the Red River and Kiowa expeditions, and was wounded August 26, 1860, near Clear Fork of Brazos River. The great civil war found him at his post, true and firm, amid the terrible pressure he encountered by reason of his birth-place, Vir- ginia. He was ordered to Carlisle Barracks, to remount the Second Cavalry, became lieutenant-colonel of his regiment April 25, and colo- nel May 3, 1861. He commanded a brigade in action at Falling Waters, July 2, also at Martinsburg, and at Bunker Hill. President Lincoln commissioned him brigadier-general of volunteers, August 17, 1861, sending him to Kentucky in command of a division of the Army of Ohio. There his services were constant and eminent in the highest degree. He won the first battle in the West, at Mill Spring, Kentucky, and from first to last, without a day's or an hour's intermission, he was at his post of duty, rising steadily and irresistibly through all the grades to the one he held as Major-General of the regular army at the time of his death. At Shiloh, Corinth, Perry ville, Stone River, and at Chickamauga, where he checked the enemy's advance, standing firm GEORGE HENRY THOMAS. when tlie rest of the army had been routed; in the battles of Mission Kidge, Ringgold, Dal ton, Resaca, Cassville, Dallas, Ivenesaw, siege of Atlanta, assault on Jonesborough, and capture of Atlanta, defending Tennessee against General Hood ; winning the battle of Franklin, aud by completely routing the Confederate Army at Nashville, he fulfilled the proudest hopes of his ardent friends, and at the close of the war General George H. Thomas stood in the very front rank of our war generals. He received the thanks of Congress for his eminent services, and also from the Legislature of Tennessee a vote of thanks and a gold medal. He was made Major-General, June 27, 1865, and March 11, 1807, was assigned to the command of the Third Military District, under the reconstruction act of Congress, embracing the States of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. In February, 18G8, President John- son having offered him the brevet of lieutenant-general, he declined the compliment, saying he had done nothing since the war to merit such promotion. He was afterwards for some time in command of the department of the Cumberland, which was discontinued by an order of March 16, 1869, which assigned him to the command of the military division of the Pacific. To this post he soon after repaired, making his headquarters at San Francisco, where he died March 28, 1870. Though lie left no child to bear his name, the old Army of the Cum- berland — numbered by tens of thousands — called hiin father, and wept for hiin tears of manly grief. One of the most striking traits in the character of General Thomas we hold up for the admiration and example of the young; it was his complete and entire devotion to duty. Though sent to Florida, to Mexico, to Texas, and Arizona, when duty there was absolute banish- ment, he went cheerfully, and never asked a personal favor, exemption, or leave of absence. In battle he never wavered. Firm and full of faith in his cause he knew it would prevail, and he never sought ad- vancement of rank or honor at the expense of any one. Whatever he earned of these were his own, and no one disputed his right. ALBERT BARNES. The above-named illustrious American divine, and author of the series of Popular Biblical Commentaries, was born at Rome, New York, December 1, 1798. He received his education at Hamilton College, from which institution he graduated in 1S20, having at that time the intention of becoming a lawyer. Afterward, however, under the con- viction that it was his duty to enter the ministry, he studied with that end in view, at the Princeton Theological Seminary, and three years after his graduation from Hamilton College he was licensed to preach. He officiated in various churches, and in 1825 was installed pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Morristown, N. J. Five years later he was called to the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where he discharged his duties faithfully for many years ; his failing health and eyesight causing him to resign his charge in 1867. Mr. Barnes was distinguished as an eloquent preacher, and is widely known as an author and commentator. His " Notes " on various parts of the Scriptures, which gained a wide-spread reputation for him, were com- menced during his residence at Morristown, and were originally pre- pared as lectures to his own congregations. He has published notes on Job, Isaiah, and Daniel, while the Book of Psalms was always a favorite study of his. His reputation as a commentator rests principally upon his Notes on the New Testament, comprising the Gospels, the Acts, and all the Epistles. Before his death these notes — in all, eleven books — had reached a circulation of a million volumes, and one of his last acts Avas a thorough revision of them for a new edition. No other works of this class have ever had so wide a circulation. They have been very gene- rally adopted in the United States and Great Britain, for the use of their Sunday Schools and Bible Classes, for which they are especially adapted. They have been translated into foreign languages, and, par- tially at least, into the dialects of some of the Oriental nations. " In his pastoral relations and oersonal character Mr. Barnes was ALBERT BARNES. highly esteemed, as well as for his eloquence in the pulpit. By adopting the habit of writing at an early hour, he was able to pre- pare the long series of volumes to which the commentaries extend, without any interference with the ordinary routine of his daily duties, all of the volumes to which we have referred having been composed before nine o'clock in the morning. " His life and works strikingly exhibit the fruits of a pure and keen conscience, and for conscience' sake he repeatedly declined the well- earned title of Doctor of Divinity. " His writings are clear, incisive, and plain, richer in matter and method than style." He contributed a great many articles to periodicals, and published several other works besides those already mentioned, also several volumes of sermons, and a series of Sunday School question-books. Near the close of his useful, busy life, when he had himself reached that age, he wrote Life at Threescore and Ten, from which the fol- lowing is an extract. " Most men in active life look forward, with fond anticipation, to a time when the cares of life will be over, and when they will be released from its responsibilities and burdens ; if not with an absolute desire that such a time should come, yet with a feeling that it will be a relief when it does come. . . . What merchant and profes- sional man, what statesman, does not look forward to such a time of repose, and anticipate a season — perhaps a long one — of calm tranquil- lity before life shall end ; and when the time approaches, though the hope often proves fallacious, yet its approach is not unwelcome." On the 24th of December, 1870, the Rev. Albert Barnes went to make a social call on a friend in West Philadelphia, and died suddenly but peacefully, while sitting in a chair. Dr. March wrote in a Memoir attached to Mr. Barnes' last works: " There has been no other like him in all our American history. I look the world over in vain to find his equal in the rare combination of meekness and courage, quietness and strength, modesty and worth, self-command and self-control, friendship for man and devotion to God, simplicity of private life and power over millions to teach them the word of truth. He has passed away in the glory of his great manhood, in the eternal prime of virtue, faith, and Christian honor." GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. Tins distinguished American author is a native of Providence, R. L, where he was born Feb. 24, 1824. He is a descendant on his mother's side, of Senator Burrill of Rhode Island, who made a well- remembered speech in Congress on the Missouri Compromise Bill. George W. Curtis received his early education in a private school at Jamaica Plains, Mass. When he was fifteen he came to New York with his father and family, where for a year he was employed as a clerk in a mercantile house. At the end of that time he returned to his books, continuing his studies until he was eighteen, when he went with his brother to West Roxbury, Mass., where he spent a year and a half on a farm. After this he went to Concord, Mass., where he passed a similar period, engaged in agriculture and study, and enjoy- ing the society of Emerson and Hawthorne. In 1S46 Mr. Curtis sailed for Europe, spending a long time in travelling over the various portions of that Continent, and visiting Egypt and Syria before his return home. Upon his return to the United States in 1850, he published his first book, " Nile Notes of a Howadji." He soon after joined the editorial staff of the New York Tribune. During the following summer he wrote a series of letters to the Tribune from fashionable watering-places, which were subse- quently collected in a volume entitled " Lotus Eating." In 1852 Putnam's Monthly was commenced in New York, and Mr. Curtis became one of the original editors and was connected with it until the magazine ceased to exist, lie sank his private fortune in attempting to save its creditors from loss by the failure of the pub- lishers, and finally succeeded. Some of his contributions to the maga- zine were published under the titles of " Potiphar Papers," and " Prue and I." In the winter of 1852 he entered the field as a lyceum lecturer and met with great success in different parts of the country. He has won GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. and now holds a high rank as a popular orator ; having delivered sev- eral memorable orations and poems before various literary societies. In the presidential election of 1S56 he enlisted with great zeal on behalf of the republican party, as a public speaker. Mr. Curtis was a delegate to the republican national conventions of I860 and of 1864, which nominated Mr. Lincoln ; and in the latter year he became the republican candidate for Congress in the first district of New York, but was defeated. In the winter of 1858 he delivered a lecture enti- tled " Fair Play for Women," in which he advocated the rights of woman. Daring this year and the following he wrote " Trumps," a novel, for Harjj>er , s Weekly, which was afterwards published in a volume. This romance of the foibles and follies of fashionable life is a keen study of American society by a master of refined satire, rich in pure sentiment, and lacking, if at all, only in the power of passion- ate feeling. lie has been a constant contributor to the current literature of the day for almost a quarter of a century. In 1S5S he began a series of " Lounger " papers in Harper's Weekly ; and six years later he became the political editor of that journal. He is the author of the " Easy Chair" in Harper's Monthly Magazine / and since the issue of Har- per's Bazar he has written for it a series of papers on " Manners on the Road, by an Old Bachelor," which were continued weekly until the spring of 1873, a space of over six years. Mr. Curtis has been quite prominent in politics. In 1S62 Presi- dent Lincoln offered him the post of Consul-General in Egypt, but he declined the position. Two years later he became one of the regents of the University of the State of New York. In 1S67 he was elected one of the delegates at large to the constitutional convention of New York, in which he was chairman of the committee on education. The following year he was a republican presidential elector. In 18T1 Pres- ident Grant appointed him one of a commission to draw up rules for the regulation of the civil service ; and he was elected chairman of the commission and of the advisory board in which it was subse- quently merged. He resigned his position in March, 1873. Although Mr. Curtis has written comparatively little in book-form of late years, his various contributions to the periodicals published by the Harpers would fill many a large volume. MARTHA WASHINGTON. The first lady who bore the honors of a wife of the President of the United States was Martha Washington. At the time of her marriage with George Washington, she is described as a small, plump, elegantly- formed woman. " Her eyes were dark, and expressive of the most kindly good nature ; her complexion fair ; her features beautiful ; and her whole face beamed with intelligence. Iler temper, though quick, was sweet and placable, and her manners were extremely winning. She was full of life ; loved the society of her friends; always dressed with a scrupulous regard to the requirements of the best fashions of the day, and was, in every respect, a brilliant member of the social circle which before the Revolution composed the vice-regal court at the old Virginia capital." Very little is told of her childhood ; she was born in Virginia, in May, 1732. Later, as Miss Dandridge, she enjoyed the best society of Williamsburg. At the age of seventeen, she married Daniel Parke Custis, only son of Colonel John Custis, one of the King's Counsellors for Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Custis took up their abode at the White House, on the bank of the Pamunky River, not far from her father's plantation. There she passed her days most happily until, in the summer of 1757, Colonel Custis died, leaving his wife, at the age of twenty-five, one of the wealth- iest widows in Virginia, with the charge of the estate, and the manage- ment of the two remaining children of their four. The meeting of George Washington and Mrs. Martha Custis is well known. They were married on the 6th of January, 1759, and Mount Vernon, for the first time, was graced with the presence of a mistress — one fully worthy to fill that position. Her life here was similar to her former one as Mrs. Custis, for she was again the wife of a wealthy Southern planter. A devoted mother, domestic in her tastes and habits, yet finding MARTHA WASHINGTON. time to go frequently into society with her husband, the happiness at Mount Vernon appeared unalloyed until the death, in 1773, of her daughter, Martha Parke Custis, a young girl sixteen years of age. Less than two years later, Mrs. Washington was called to endure other trials. For several years she saw little of her husband, who was called first to the Senate of the revolted colonies, and then to the chief com- mand of their armies. She managed her domestic affairs, and each winter made a journey to the camp, where she was an honored guest at the headquarters of the army. Her only remaining child, John Parke Custis, who also fought in the Revolutionary War, died quite suddenly in 1781, leaving a widow and four little children. The two youngest, a boy and a girl, were adopted by Washington, and brought up in his immediate family. After the peace of 1783, Mount Vernon became a point of great attraction to distinguished visitors from Europe and the new American States. Mrs. Washington entertained all her guests with dignity and cordiality. Upon her removal to New York, as wife of the Chief Magistrate of the nation, she retained her former habits, and arranged her larger household upon the model of her Mount Vernon home. Her weekly public receptions were attended by persons connected with the Govern- ment, foreign ambassadors, and their families, and by others who held good positions in refined society. The restraints of metropolitan life were irksome to Mrs. Washington, and it was with sincere joy that the President and his wife turned their steps once more towards their quiet home at Mount Vernon, at the close of a successful administration of eight years' duration. Washington now devoted the most of his time to the planning and laying out of the city which bears his name. He laid the corner stone of the " White House," named in honor of the former home of his wife. In December, 1799, Mrs. Washington was called upon to endure, in the death of her husband, with whom she had lived happily for forty years, her last and greatest trial. She followed him a little more than two years afterward. George and Martha Washington rest side by side, near the bank of the Potomac and the home they loved so well. GEN. NATHANIEL LYON. NATHANIEL LYON. On the 14th day of July, 1819, Nathaniel, the fourth son and seventh child of Am asa Lyon's family of nine children, was born at their old farm-house in Ashford, Windham Co., Connecticut. Always a studious boy and a warm patriot, he early resolved to enter the army. Having availed himself of the means of instruction at the district school of the town, he completed his preliminary education at an academy in Brooklyn, Ct,, and was admitted a cadet at West Point, from which institution he graduated in 1841, with the title of Second Lieutenant in the Second Regiment of Infantry. Lieutenant Lyon's first service was in the Florida War, then drawing to a close. Lie distinguished himself in the concluding operations in 1842. He was next stationed at Sackett's Harbor, where he employed his leisure moments in reading law and in some other studies. When the war with Mexico broke out in 1846, he was sent with his company to join General Taylor on the Rio Grande. Then, joining General Scott's forces, he was with them in the operations against Vera Cruz. He was actively engaged in the battle of Cerro Gordo, and afterward in the actions of Contreras and Cheru- busco, for his gallantry in which he was made Brevet-Captain. On his return to the United States, he was ordered to California, where for several years he was actively employed in campaigns against the Indians. After spending a part of the winter and spring of 1854 at Washington, he was sent to the Territory of Kansas during the Free- State troubles. Here his time was chiefly passed in service among the Indians of the far West, until his employment in the opening scenes of the civil war, in Missouri. He had previously written a eeries of articles in favor of the success of the Republican Party in the Presidential election. On the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, Captain Lyon was placed in charge of the arsenal at St. Louis, where the great fore- thought he displayed in this command determined the political for- NATHANIEL LYON. tunes of the State. In April he was formally authorized by President Lincoln to enroll a force of ten thousand men, citizens of the State. On the 10th of May Captain Lyon himself inarched with his Home Guards to break up the encampment of the Secessionists at Fort Jackson, so named in honor of Governor Jackson, who sided with the South in the rebellion. lie was successful, General Frost, the com- mander of the militia, surrendering the whole force as prisoners of war. The next day General Harney arrived and took command in the city, and soon after Captain Lyon was appointed by the President Brigadier-General of Volunteers. Upon the recall of General Harney, the command of the Depart- ment devolved upon General Lyon, who took that position on the 1st of June, 1861. Ten days later he held an interview with Governor Jackson, in which the former promised to disband the State Guard and militia if in return the General Government would break up the Home Guard. General Lyon refused the negotiation, whereupon Governor Jackson left for Jefferson City, and succeeded in calling out 50,000 militia, " to repel the invasion of the State." On the 13th of June General Lyon sailed up the Missouri with 15,000 troops for the capital, pursued the rebellious Governor and his associates, who fled before him to Booneville, where they were defeated by him on the 17th. He then marched to Springfield. On the 2d of August he met and defeated the Confederates under McCulloch, at Dug Springs. General Price having joined McCulloch, their combined forces made one four or five times as large as that of General Lyon. Calling in vain for reinforcements, he determined, rather than to abandon South- west Missouri, to risk a battle under such disadvantages. He accord- ingly marched to meet the enemy, and attacked them in their camp at Wilson's Creek, on the 10th of August. He fell that day in the thickest of the fight, pierced with three wounds. Major Sturges, his second in command at the time, spoke of hia death as follows : " Thus gloriously fell as brave a soldier as ever drew a sword ; a man whose honesty of purpose was proverbial ; a noble patriot, and one who held his life as nothing when his country demanded it of him." The remains of General Lyon were carried to his early home in Eastford. Great honors were paid to his memory. He bequeathed nearly all his property, some $30,000, to the Govern- ment, to aid in the preservation of the Union. GEORGE DAVID CUMMINS. The Right Reverend George D. Cummins, D.D., was born in the State of Delaware, December 11, 1822. His early religious associa- tions were with the Methodists. In 1811 he was graduated at Dickin- son College, Carlisle, Pa. In 1S45 he was ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church, by Bishop Lee of Delaware, and about two years later, a priest. In 1850 Princeton College conferred upon him the title of D.D. He had, successively, charge of Christ Church, Nor- folk, Va. ; St. James's, Richmond ; Trinity, Washington, D. C. ; St. John's, Baltimore ; and Trinity, Chicago. While rector of the last parish, he was elected Assistant Bishop of Kentucky, and received consecration at Christ Church, Louisville, November 15, 1866. His low -church views were very decided, and he took occasion to censure the ritualistic tendency and proceedings of some of the churches in the See of Kentucky, and in his letter to Bishop Smith, his senior associate, announcing his formal withdrawal from the Episcopal Church on the 10th of November, 1873, he declared, among the reasons for his course, " that whenever called upon to officiate in certain churches he had been most painfully impressed with the conviction that he was sanctioning and endorsing by his presence and official acts the danger- ous errors symbolized by the services customary in ritualistic churches, and that he could no longer by participation in such services, be a par- taker of other men's sin, and must clear his own soul of all complicity in such errors." It is said that the immediate cause of the secession of Dr. Cummins was the controversy which followed his participation in the ceremony of the Lord's Supper with the members of the Evangeli- cal Alliance, which held their meeting in New York in 1873. This act of religious liberty was construed by a number of Episcopal clergymen, among them Bishop Tozer, as an implied discourtesy toward Bishop Potter, in whose diocese the act was performed. Bishop Potter him self did not complain of it as such, but Bishop Tozer felt called upon GEORGE DAVID CUMMINS. to deprecate the action of his brother prelate in a short letter which was not intended for publication. Soon after Bishop Cummins withdrew from his relations to the Protestant Episcopal Church, he issued a call for a meeting of those clergymen who entertained views similar to his own. The first General Council convened in the city of New York, December 2, 1873, where all the necessary steps were taken for the efficient organization of the new denomination, which was to be known as the Reformed Episcopal Church. Services were held in New York, and in other cities by Bishop Cummins. At the second General Council, which convened in New York in May, 1874, Bishop Cummins was elected President. The Reformed Church adheres to Episcopacy as a desirable form of congregational government, but not in obedience to divine edict. In all respects the Bible is made the sole basis of its doctrines and prac- tices. What are considered doctrinal errors in the Episcopal belief, and especially ritualism in all its forms, are opposed by the members of the Reformed Episcopal Church. Its constitution and canons, after learned discussion, were adopted by the second General Council. A new Prayer Book was also discussed and adopted. Overtures for affiliation having been accepted from the English Free Church, clerical and lay delegates, including Bishop Cummins among the former, were appointed to a meeting of that denomination. After a brief illness, Bishop Cummins died at his residence at Lutherville, Baltimore County, Md., on the 26th of June, 1876. Of pleasing manners and address, Bishop Cummins was a fine, erect, clerical-looking gentleman. His head was intellectual, and the expression of his face cheerful and amiable. He was prudent and consistent in all his walks, and sought to make not only his teachings, but his example a source of benefit to his fellow-men. As a preacher, he was earnest and devout. Assured in faith, he preached with the grasp of a learned mind and a fervent heart. His action in retiring from his functions in the Episcopal Church was conscientious and courageous, and in upholding the church he founded, gave to it a zeal and piety which all men must respect. WASHINGTON IRVING. The ancestry of Washington Irving in Scotland has been traced back for some centuries, and the race, v hich was at one time a flour- ishing one, in the words of Irving, " dwindled, and dwindled, and dwindled, until the last of them, nearly a hundred years since, sought a new home in this New World of ours." This was William Irving, who, with his English wife, reached New York in 1760. Here their eon, Washington Irving, was born, on the 3d of April, 1783. Irving's school-days were not as strict as those of most boys, his education being principally superintended at home, by his elder brothers. The extreme delicacy of his health during boyhood and early manhood prevented a close application to his books, and consequently his studies did not progress very rapidly. But his observation of nature, and the odd bits of information gathered in his rambles on Manhattan Island, aided him in his literary career. At the age of nineteen he contributed a number of sketches to the New York Morning Chronicle, under the signature of " Jonathan Oldstyle." These articles are the earliest of his productions of which we have any knowledge. After a visit of nearly two years in Europe, on account of his health, Irving returned to New York, and soon after the first number of " Salmagundi," a work which obtained a considerable degree of popularity, appeared. But when the humorous " History of New York, by Diedrich Knick- erbocker," was published in 1809, the author suddenly found himself one of the most popular of American writers. During the war of 1812-14 he contributed to the Analectic Monthly a series of biogra- phies of the United States naval officers. At the close of the war he went to Liverpool, to take charge of the commercial house of Irving Brothers, with which he was connected. Upon the subsequent failure of the firm, he turned his attention exclusively to literature, and, with the aid of Sir Walter Scott, brought out his " Sketch-book," which wou him fame and profit. " Bracebridge Hall " and the " Tales of a Trav- WASHINGTON IRVING. eller" soon followed. "In all these works there is an elaborate ele- gance of style, a certain delicacy and sweetness of sentiment, an easy grace of reflection, a happy turn of description. The writer does not draw a great deal on his invention for the characters or the incidents, but he managed to develop both with skill, and, being always a jealous watcher of his own powers, and cautious in feeling the pulse of the public, he looked for new material before the old was exhausted." It is hardly necessary to enter into a minute description of his various productions: the "History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus ; " the " Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus ; " " The Conquest of Grenada ; " " Tales of the Alham- bra ; " " Tour on the Prairies ;" " Astoria ; " " Adventures of Captain Bonneville ; " " Oliver Goldsmith, a Biography ; " " Mahomet and his Successors ; " a narration of the rise and progress of Mohammedanism ; " Chronicles of Wolfert's lioost ; " his last work, the " Life of Wash- ington," etc. Suffice it to say that they served to enhance the repu- tation of the author, and now hold an undisputed place among the standard American works. In 1829 Irving was appointed Secretary of Legation to the Ameri can Embassy in London, and about this time the Poyal Society of Literature awarded him one of its gold medals, provided by George IV. The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him. In 1841 he received the entirely unexpected nomination of Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain. After representing his country with great success, he was, in 1846, at his own wish, re- called. Retiring to his beautiful home, Sunnyside, on the Hudson, he remained there until his death, which occurred on November 28, 1859. It was occasioned by a sudden stroke of heart disease. Fie now sleeps near " Sleepy Hollow," which he had rendered so famous. " A more gentle human spirit never inhabited the form of man. Everybody loved him. For more than a year after his burial, the hands of his fair neighbors laid fresh flowers every morning upon his modest grave, at whose head is a small, white slab, bearing only the words, ' Washington Irving.' " Irving was engaged to a daughter of the late Judge Josiah Hoff- man. The young lady died, and he always remained single. A great deal has been said of the influence this had upon his life. JEAN BAPTISTE LEMOINE BIENVILLE. The history of the early settlement of the United States, together with the incidents in the lives of the brave men who, leaving home, friends, and all that was dear to them in their native land, came to the New World for the sake of establishing new homes, and civilizing the beautiful, but hitherto unexplored region, will ever be a subject of the deepest interest to the American people. We of the present century, who are now reaping the benefits of their sacrifices and labors, can never fully realize all that they, to whom we are indebted for what we now enjoy, were called upon to undergo, before so great a result could be achieved. Compelled to face dangers and hardships of the most appalling character, some few were recompensed with the fame and fortune for which they sought, but by far the greater number met with misfortune, disappointment, and a resting-place in an unknown grave, far distant from the haunts of man. But it is highly improbable that even a remote conception of the almost miraculous change effected — through their efforts in the first place— in the aspects of the country, ever entered into the wildest dream of the most imaginative one among them. Among the nations of the Old World which sent out parties to explore and colonize the New, France was well represented. Some of her people had early settled in Canada and claimed it as her property. Here, at Montreal, on the 23d of February, 1680, Bienville, the future colonial governor of Louisiana, was born. He was the son of Charles Lemoine, and the third of four brothers (Iberville, Sauvolle, Bienville, and Clmteaugay), all of whom played important parts in the history of Louisiana. He entered the French naval service with his brother Iber- ville, serving under him in seven voyages. While yet a lad he was severely wounded in a conflict off the coast of New England, in which the French ship "Pelican," 42 guns, commanded by Iberville, suc- cessfully encountered three English men-of-war, each of fully equal power with his own. JEAN BAPTISTE L E M O I N E BIENVILLE. When Iberville, in 1698, founded a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, he took with him his two brothers, Sauvolle and Bienville. Living at a time when permanent settlements were multiplying, though they were still few and far between, these three brothers, after making considerable explorations, were successful in their attempt to form a settlement near the mouth of the great " Father of Rivers.' 1 This first one was made at Biloxi, in December, 1699, when Sauvolle was left in command, while Bienville was engaged in exploring the sur- rounding country. Iberville, who had been to France, came back with a commission appointing Sauvolle governor of Louisiana. He held this office until his death, which occurred in 1701. Bienville succeeded him to the direction of the colony, the principal seat of which was now transferred to Mobile. The year before this Bienville had assisted in constructing a fort fifty-four miles above the mouth of the river. In 1701, he was joined by his brother Chateaugay, who brought from Canada seventeen settlers. About this time a ship arrived from France bringing twenty young females, who had been sent out to be married to the settlers at Mobile. Iberville died soon after; troubles arose in the colon}-, Bienville was charged with various acts of misconduct, and in 1707, was dismissed from office; but his successor dying on the voyage from France, he retained the command until he was superseded by Lamotte Cadillac, in 1713. He was then made Lieutenant-gover- nor. Quarrels arose between them, and Cadillac sent him on an expe- dition against the Natchez tribe, hoping he would lose his life. He, however, persuaded the Natchez to build him a fort, in which he left a garrison, and returned to Mobile. Epinay succeeded Cadillac in 1717, and Bienville received the decoration of the Cross of St. Louis. The next year he succeeded Epinay as governor. He now founded the city of New Orleans. During the war between France and Spain, he took Pensacola from the Spaniards, and placed his brother Chateau- gay in command. In 1723, he transferred the seat of government to New Orleans. The next year he was summoned to France to answer charges that had been brought against him, and was removed from office. Before leaving the colony he published a code regulating the condition of the slaves, banishing the Jews, and prohibiting every reli- gion except the Roman Catholic. This remained in force until after the transfer of Louisiana to the United States. In 1733, he was re-ap- pointed governor, and raised to the rank of Lieutenant-general. He led three unsuccessful expeditions against the Chickasaws, for which he was superseded. In 1713 he returned to France, where he died in 1768. ANDREW HULL FOOTE. Among the many "whose names have added lustre to our naval renown, and must ever adorn our national annals, few will stand more prominent than that of the gallant and self-sacrificing Christian sailor and gentleman," Andrew Hull Foote. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on the 12th of September, 1806 ; and was the son of the Honorable Samuel A. Foote, Governor of Connecticut, and well known in the political history of the country as the mover of the resolution in the United States Senate on the Public Lands, which gave occasion to the celebrated debate on the principles of nullification between Daniel Webster and Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina. Young Foote early exhibited a strong inclination to join the Navy, and in 1822 entered as midshipman, making his first cruise in the schooner " Grampus," which was attached to the squadron of Commo- dore Porter and was sent in 1823 to suppress and chastise the West Indian pirates. The next few years were passed on the Pacific Station and in the service of the West India squadron. In 1830 he received a lieutenant's commission. In the following years he cruised in the Mediterranean under Commodore Patterson, on board the seventy-four gun flag-ship " Delaware." Lieutenant Foote was one of a party which, while the ship was cruising in the Levant, obtained leave of absence, and made the tour of the Holy Land. In 1838, as first lieutenant of the sloop-of-war " John Adams," under Commodore Read, during the voyage round the globe, he took part in an attack on the pirates of Sumatra. While on duty at the Naval Asylum, at Philadelphia, in 1841-3, he prevailed upon many of the inmates to give up their spirit- rations, and was one of the first to introduce the principle of total ab- stinence from intoxicating drinks in the Navy, and continued this effort in "The Cumberland" in 1843-5, besides delivering every Sunday an extemporaneous sermon to the crew. In the latter part of 1849, he was appointed to the command of the brig " Perry," and ANDREW HULL FOOTE. ordered to join the American squadron off the coast of Africa. There he proved one of the most efficient officers in the service in the sup- pression of the slave trade. Captain Foote formed one of the famous " Retiring Board," appointed by President Pierce to inquire into the efficiency of the officers of the Navy. His last cruise was from 1856 to 1858, off the coast of China and Japan. The Chinese, firing upon a boat's crew of his men, he, without waiting orders, assumed the responsibility of avenging the injury. With his twenty-two guns and three hundred men he attacked and breached the celebrated Barrier forts, regular fortifications of solid granite, and garrisoned by five thousand men, of whom four hundred were killed and wounded. At the outbreak of the great rebellion he was stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He superintended the outfit of the blockading squadron xmtil he was transferred to the Western waters. There re- ceiving great assistance from the energetic Fremont while in com- mand, the building of the gunboat fleet progressed rapidly ; and at length, on the night of the 5th of February, 1862, the gallant flag officer steamed away from Cairo, so silently that the nation hardly knew that he was gone until his cannon were heard at the walls of Fort Henry, then held by the Confederate General Tilghman, with about six thousand men. Commodore Foote, with seven gunboats, arrived near the fort on the 6th, and opened the bombardment about noon. After a vigorous cannonade of an hour and a quarter the fort surrendered, and the land forces took possession. He then returned to Cairo, and prepared for an assault on Fort Donelson. During this attack he was severely wounded in the ankle. Though on crutches, he proceeded down the Mississippi with his fleet, and a number of mortar- boats, to besiege Island No. 10, which he succeeded in reducing on the 7th of April. He continued his indefatigable operations until the 9th of May. He had been gradually sinking under the effects of his wound, and was obliged to relinquish the command to Captain Davis. In July, President Lincoln appointed Captain Foote a Rear- Admiral — ranking fourth on the active list. When the Bureau of Construction was established, he was put at its head ; on his way from New Haven to Washington to be commissioned, he was presented, by the leading citizens of Brooklyn, with an elegant sword. On Admiral Dupont's being relieved from his commission of the South Atlantic blockade squadron, Admiral Foote was appointed to succeed him. While on his way to this post he was taken sick and died in New York City, on the 26th of June, 1S63. JOHN RUSSELL BARTLETT. This well-known American author Was born at Providence, Rhode Island, on the 23d of October, 1805. He was educated in Canada, and at Lowville Academy in the State of New York. He was placed in a banking-house at an early age, and was for six years cashier of the Globe Bank, Providence. In 1837 Mr. Bartlett removed to New York, and entered a large commission house in that city. The business prov- ing unsuccessful, he turned his attention from commercial pursuits, and with the aid of Mr. Charles Welford, established a book-store for the importation and sale of choice foreign Works. In those days there was no better or more popular resort for literary men than the book-store of Bartlett & Welford* He became an active member of the New- York Historical Society, and was for many years its Foreign Corre- sponding Secretary. In 1842 he also, in conjunction with the Hon. Albert Gallatin, founded the American Ethnological Society, of which he was for several years the Corresponding Secretary. The meetings of the Society were frecpiently held at his house, No. 1 Amity Place, and were well attended by the cultivated residents of New York and vicinity. Travellers of intelligence, and distinguished literary gentle- men visiting the city, were invited to these gatherings, and were always welcomed at his hospitable home. In 1S49, Mr. Bartlett retired from the book business, and the next year was appointed, by President Taylor, commissioner to fix the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He remained in this service until January, 1853, making surveys and explorations, accompanied by elaborate astronomical, magnetic, and meteorological, as well as geological, and botanical observations; but for want of the necessary means he was obliged to suspend operations, and return home before the boundary line was fully completed. In 1854, he published a narrative of his explorations, and the incidents which occurred during those three years. " This work of Mr. Bartlett is replete with interest, from the JOHN RUSSELL BART LETT. novelty of the region visited, and the happy manner in which he has jotted down his observations. The style is simple and unpretending, and all the more graphic and attractive on that account. The inci- dents — many exciting, some amusing, others humorous, and all enter- taining — evidently were recorded while they were fresh in the mind of the author ; and in the same fresh way they will reach the mind of the reader." Previous to this he had published the " Progress of Ethnology," and " A Dictionary of Americanisms ; A Glossary of Words and Phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States." In 1855, Mr. Bartlett was elected Secretary of State of Rhode Island, to which office he was re-elected annually for seventeen consecutive years ; on one occasion receiving every vote polled in the State, being upwards of twenty-five thousand in number, from four political parties. His contributions during this period have been chiefly of a local nature connected with the State. Upon assuming the duties of his office he made an examination of the records which extend back to the foundation of the city of Providence, in 1636, by Roger Williams and his associates. Finding the old manuscripts in a perishable condition, he recommended the General Assembly of the State to have them put in order and the records printed. His plan met with the approval of that body and authority was given him to arrange the State Papers in books, so as to be accessible, as well as to edit and print the State Records. He began his labors and brought out a volume of the Records every year, the tenth and last ending with the adoption of the Constitution of the United States by the State in 1792. In 1S66, Mr. Bartlett issued a work entitled" The Literature of the Rebellion," a catalogue of books and pamphlets relating to the late Civil War. With few exceptions the works described are in the collec- tion of Mr. Bartlett. In 1867 was published in large quarto, and illustrated with portraits, his work entitled " Memoirs of Rhode Island Officers who have rendered distinguished Service to their Country in the Contest with the Great Rebellion of the South." We may also mention a costly work in four volumes, being a cata- logue of the valuable library of Mr. John Carter Brown, of Provi- dence, in the collection of which Mr. Bartlett rendered important aid. The fourth edition of his " Americanisms," revised and enlarged, was issued about Christmas, 1877, by Little, Brown & Co., Boston. His long and valuable services in behalf of bis native State, as well as in the furtherance of the various societies with which he is con- nected, deserve to be held in grateful remembrance. GEORGE DENISON PRENTICE. TnE poet and journalist, George D. Prentice, was born at Preston, Connecticut, on the 18th of December, 1802. His school life began at an unusually early age, but during the period between his ninth and fourteenth years he was kept at home to work upon the farm. At the end of that time, his parents wishing him to have a collegiate educa- tion, placed him under the instruction of a Presbyterian minister. Young Prentice's ready perception and remarkable ability to commit to memory placed him, in a short time, on an equal footing with many boys who had enjoyed far greater advantages. His progress in his studies was so rapid that in six months he was fitted to enter any New England college. His means not admitting of his commencing the collegiate course at once, he took charge of a village school when only about fifteen years old, and taught it for two successive years. In 1820 he entered the Sophomore class at Brown University. After graduating, Mr. Prentice taught school for a while, and then turned his attention to the study of law, with the intention of following that profession. He was admitted to the bar, but did not engage in practice, the editorial desk presenting sufficiently greater attractions to lead him to abandon his first plans. Soon after becoming of age he took charge of and edited " The New England Weekly Eeview," at Hartford, a literary journal which he conducted for two years. When his connection with it ceased, he was succeeded by Mr. J. G. Whittier, some of whose early poems had been contributed to its columns. Removing, in 1830, to Louisville, Kentucky, he became editor of the " Louisville Journal," a daily newspaper. During his connection with it he won a high and widespread reputation for political ability ? for earnest, able editorials, and for wit and satire. "The Louisville Journal " has always been a supporter of the cause of education and of the literary interest in the West. It hence became, in accordance GEORGE DENISON PRENTICE. with the known tastes of the editor, a favorite avenue of young poets to the public. Several of the most successful lady writers of the West were first known through their contributions to the " Journal." His " Prenticiana ; or, Wit and Humor in Paragraphs," became widely known and very popular. His own poetical writings are numerous. Many of these first appeared in bis " Eeview " at Hartford. The repu- tation they gained for him was hardly less than that of his Wit and Humor. During the civil war he warmly maintained the cause of the Union, though his two sons, his only children, joined the secessionists. One of them was killed in an engagement at Augusta, Kentucky. The other, Clarence J. Prentice, is still living. At the close of the war Mr. Prentice found that his active days were about over. He had parted with the ownership of the " Journal," but still worked on in the old way. For the last twenty-five years of his life he was troubled with a partial paralysis of his right arm. After a year or more of feeble health, and a severe sickness of a few days' duration, he died at Louis- ville on the 22d of January, 1870. Mr. John James Piatt, a friend of Mr. Prentice, has, since his death, gathered his poems in a volume, together with a biographical sketch. Among his best known poems are " The Flight of Years," " The Closing Year," " The Dead Mariner," " Written at My Mother's Grave," etc. The following description is takeu from Mr. Piatt's sketch : " In person Mr. Prentice was slightly above the medium stature, with a figure, when in vigorous health, inclined to stoutness. His fea- tures were not regular, but his face was for the most part pleasing ; often, when animated, it seemed handsome. His head was finely shaped? having a particularly noble and impressive forehead. His hair was black but somewhat thin, retaining its blackness until quite late in life. He had dark brown eyes, rather small, full of light and sparkle when he was in a happy mood, though they could express fierceness and severity. His voice was low and agreeable in its general tone. Among strangers he was apt to be reserved, sometimes embarrassed ; but with chosen friends his conversation was fluent and free — often full of characteristic brightness and humor; at other times, when touching the loftier themes of poetry and philosophy, seriously sweet and elo- quent." FLETCHER HARPER. In noticing the career of Fletcher Harper, we naturally connect his name and fame in intimate association with his elder brothers, his life- long fellow-workers in the foundation and establishment of the great publishing house, which yet perpetuates their union in its designation Harper & Brothers. The story of their lives is a memorable one. The family in America derives its origin from James Harper, who came from England about the middle of the last century. His son Joseph, married Elizabeth Kolyer, a woman of superior character. Of this union were born the four brothers — James, in 1795, John, in 1797, Joseph Wesley, in 1801, and Fletcher, in 1S06. James chose the profession of a printer, and was apprenticed to Paul & Thomas of New York, whose editions of the Bible, and Pilgrim's Progress, illustrated by the admirable wood- cuts of Dr. Alexander Anderson, remain a valued memorial of their enterprise. John soon followed in the same vocation, in the office of Mr. Seymour. In 1817, the two brothers commenced business for themselves, in a small building in Dover St., under the firm of J. & J. Harper. The first book which they printed was " Seneca's Morals," in an edition of 2,000 copies for Evert Duyckinck, a well-known New York publisher. The first publication which bore their own imprint was Locke's " Essay upon the Human Understanding." The younger broth- ers, Joseph Wesley and Fletcher, following the elder, became their apprentices, and in due time, the one in 1823, the other in 1825, became partners in the firm, which bore its first designation till 1833, when it was changed to its present style. Their place of business, after several migrations, had in the meantime been removed to Cliff Street, on a por- tion of the property now occupied by the greatly enlarged establish- ment. On that spot the business was developed. It was conducted with the most regular industry and steady pursuance of fixed plans. The diligent, successful printers, studying the demands of publishers, naturally grew into publishers themselves. In the republication of the Waverley Novels, and continued through the best authors of fiction, FLETCHER HARPER. the publication of the classical school-books of the late Dr. Charles Anthon, and in their extensive series, " The Family Library," they found lucrative avenues to their growing prosperity. The character of the members of the firm was developed with this success. This has been happily described by one who began life with one of them as a fellow apprentice, the venerable Thurlow Weed. " The brothers," says he, " though harmonious and congenial in senti- ment and sympathy, each possessed an individuality, physical and men- tal, distinct from the other. James, although a thorough and earnest business man, was never grave or serious, mixing up with the most important duties of the office, stories and jokes. The second brother, John, was grave and quiet, rarely taking part in general conversation, but his judgment was always sought and taken upon important busi- ness questions. Wesley was small in stature, and so modest and retir- ing in manner and habit, as to be almost unnoticeable ; but he was a man of mind and culture, whose sterling qualities were appreciated by all who knew him well. Fletcher, now the only survivor (this was written in 1876), plays, as Charles P. Clinch said of the late Charles L. Livingstone, ' The gentleman all the year round.' " Mr. Weed might also have characterized him as pre-eminently the man of business — ■ quick in perception, sagacious in judgment, resolute in carrying out his plans to a successful issue. Years rolled on in the steady routine of the daily life of the firm, hardly diversified by the burning of the entire printing establishment, in December, 1853. The business was continued in a neighboring large warehouse, till the present vast fireproof building in Pearl Street rose on the ashes of the old. In this new structure the routine was resumed with the same noiseless forms, while new enterprises in pub- lishing were engrafted on those of earlier date. The most important of these may be said to have been chiefly indebted to the sagacity of Fletcher Harper. This was the development of their periodical publi- cations, the " Monthly " Magazine and the " Weekly," to which was added his own favorite project — the " Bazar." All the members lived to see the great house stand substantially as it does to-day. The first, whose departure was to break the charmed circle, was James, who, in the unabated vigor of health, was suddenly fatally injured by being thrown from his carriage, at the entrance to the Central Park. This was in March, 1869. The death of Joseph Wesley occurred the next year, in February; that of John in April, 1875. Fletcher did uot long survive ; he died on the 29th of May, 1877. LIEUT. GEN. PHILIP H. SHERIDAN,!! S.A. PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. Prominent among the heroes of our late Civil War, was the Gen oral familiarly known as Phil. Sheridan. This brave officer was born in Somerset, Perry County, Ohio, on the 6th of March, 1831. He was graduated at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1853, and in July of that year, was assigned to the 1st Infantry as brevet second lieutenant. He was ordered to Texas where he served until 1855, when he joined the 4th Infantry, and going to the Pacific Coast he served in Washington and Oregon Territories until the fall of 1861. From December of that year, to March of the following one, he was assigned as chief quartermaster and commissary of the Army of the Southwest. He afterwards served, in like capacity, on the Staff of General Halleck, in the Corinth campaign. In May he was appointed colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry, and took part in the success- ful expedition to destroy the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Booneville, Mississippi. In June he defeated Forrest's cavalry. Taking command of the 2d brigade of cavalry, he repulsed and defeated a superior Confederate force under Chalmers, at Booneville, in July. Fur his gallantry in this fierce engagement he was commissioned brigadier- general of volunteers. In September he was transferred to the Army of the Ohio, and commanded General Gilbert's left division at the battle of Perryville. In the advance to Murfreesborough, in December, he led a divi- sion under General McCook, and much of the successful issue of the battle of Stone River was due to him. In this battle he rose to the rank of major-general of volunteers. The signal service rendered at the battles of Missionary Ridge and Chickamauga, by Sheridan, added still further to his renown. When Grant was promoted to be lieutenant- general he applied for the transfer of Sheridan to the East, and ap- pointed him chief of cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, where he routed the Confederate cavalry in several engagements. PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. In the battle of Winchester, Sheridan defeated Early. The fruits of this victory were five cannons, six or seven thousand email-arms, and five thousand prisoners. The loss of the Confederates was not less than seven thousand. lie pursued General Early, who retreated to Fisher's Hill. Here a battle ensued on the 21st of September. It was waged with varying success until evening. The Confederates were then driven from their intrenchments in great confusion. Eleven hundred prisoners were taken, sixteen pieces of artillery, besides wagons, horses, &c. In a week Sheridau had destroyed half of Early's army, and sent the rest " whirling up the Valley of the Shenandoah." To prevent any further raids upon Washington from this direction, he devastated the region so thoroughly that it was said, " If a crow wants to fly down the Shenandoah, he must carry his provisions with him." Early was quickly reinforced, and under cover of a dense fog sur- prised the Union army at Cedar Creek, on the 19th of October, and drove it in confusion. Sheridan heard the cannonading at Winchester, thirteen miles away. Putting spurs to his steed, he never stopped till, his horse covered with foam, he dashed upon the battle-flelcl shouting, " Turn, boys, turn ; we're going back." His presence rallied the men, and, attacking the Confederates, who were busy plundering the captur- ed camp, they routed them with great slaughter. Though Sheridan had lost seventeen thousand men, he had virtually destroyed Early's army. This campaign, of only a month's duration, was one of the most brilliant of the Rebellion. The thanks of Con- gress were bestowed upon the army and its gallant leader, and on the 8th of November he was appointed major-general of the regular army. He commanded at the battle of Five Forks, where he gained a decisive victory, and captured upward of six thousand prisoners at Sailors' Creek, in April, 1865. Finally, in co-operation with General Grant, he compelled the surrender of General Lee, the trusted leader of the Confederate army. Near Appomattox Court House, on the 9th of April, the remains of the army of Virginia laid down their arms and turned homeward. This affair ended the war. During the next two years General Sheridan performed most valuable service in Texas and Louisiana. He enforced the Reconstruc- tion Acts, for which he was removed by President Johnson in August, 1867. In September he was transferred to the Department of the Missouri. In March, 1869, he was promoted to be lieutenant-general, and assigned to the command of the Division of the Missouri. WILLIAM HENRY MIL BURN Wm. H. Milbdkn, " the blind preacher," was bom in Philadelphia; c»i the 26th of September, 1823. His fatber, who wa9 a merchant, meeting with reverses in fortune, moved to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1837. The family was originally from Maryland. When Mr. Milburn was a lad about five years of age, the unfortu- nate accident occurred which resulted in his blindness. This cut him off from most boyish sports, and he became absorbed in reading. His passion for learning was early exhibited, and in his new Western home his time was divided between his duties as clerk in his father's little store and his studies. He read, or spelled out, various authors, and became sufficiently acquainted with the Greek and Latin languages to enable him to enter in 1839, the Freshman class of Illinois Col lew., then under the Presidency of Dr. Edward Beecher. All was prosper- ous until his health suddenly gave way, near the close of his last colle- giate year, and he was compelled to relinquish his studies. Led by his religious associations he engaged in the service of the Methodist Church, as an itinerant preacher. Through his early years young Mil- burn had listened with the deepest interest to the stories told by the travelling Methodist ministers who made his father's house a resort. Under the impression received from these conversations, and the teachings of his parents, he joined the Church when he was fourteen, with the intention of becoming a preacher ; and some six years later he entered the service for which he had considered himself destined. During the summer of 1843, he traversed a region of one thousand miles in extent, preaching on every Saturday and Sunday, and three or four times during the week. On his twentieth birthday he was admitted as a " travelling preacher " to the Illinois Conference. This mode of life had a favorable effect upon his health, and he was ena- bled to continue on the various Western Circuits for twelve years. In 1846 his marriage took place. The same year he became Chaplain of Congress. In 1847, he went to the South, and labored in Montgom- WILLIAM II EN BY MILBURN. ery, Mobile, and elsewhere. After spending about six years in the State of Alabama, he removed to the city of New York, where he became a popular lecturer. He was re-elected chaplain of Congress, and held the office until March, 1855. In 1859 he visited England, in company with Bishop Simpson and the Rev. Dr. McClintock, and delivered lectures in the chief cities to crowded audiences. During that year he published " Ten Years of a Preacher's Life," and in the following year " Pioneers, and the People of the Mississippi Valley." Mr. Milburn delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Insti- tute, Boston, entitled, " Sketches of the Early History and Settlement of the Mississippi Valley." Among his other lectures are " Songs in the Night, or the Triumph of Genius over Blindness ; " " An Hour's Talk About Women ; " " The Southern Man ; " " The Rifle, Axe, and Saddle-bags ; " " Symbols of Early Western Character and Civiliza- tion." These lectures were delivered in all the principal places in the Union. Two of his more recent ones are, " What a Blind Man Saw in Paris," and " What a Blind Man Saw in California." " His nearly total loss of sight, while it excited the sympathy of the public, made no demands upon their indulgence or forbearance. On the contrary, the lectures were always spirited, and enlivened with the fruits of various mental acquisitions, adding one more to the many honorable examples of ' the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties.' " At one time he was pastor of the Pacific Street Methodist Church in Brooklyn, and afterward at the John Street Church, in New York. He subsequently became an Episcopalian. He was ordained deacon in 1S65, and priest in 1866, by Bishop Hopkins of Vermont. In 1871 he returned to the Methodist communion. " In the pulpit he has an eloquence beyond his words. To think that he is blind, and still able to conduct an entire church service, is to fill the mind with thoughts approaching veneration. Presently his soft, sweet voice recites a hymn, and then a chapter from the Bible. You miss the books, but there is a new fascination in the sacred words spoken from the memory of the eloquent blind man. His sermon is equally impressive. It has all the characteristics of an extempore address, and is, in truth, delivered but slightly from memory. He is not boisterous and declamatory, like most of the Methodist ministers, but proceeds calmly, tenderly, and always eloquently. His effort is to be entirely natural, and to touch the heart rather than to amaze the mind. At times he shows great depth of feeling with his subject, and becomes more animated in his delivery ! " JcfiW MA. W GFaitprScnlp 1 CATHARINE MARIA SEDGWICK. Miss Sedgwick has herself traced her ancestry to Robert Sedg wick, who was sent by Oliver Cromwell as governor or commissioner to the Island of Jamaica. One of his descendants, Theodore, rose to be one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. He was a Federalist, a delegate to the old Constitutional Congress, a supporter of the Constitution, and a member of the first Congress after its adop- tion. He married the daughter of Brigadier-General Dwight, an officer in tbe old French War. In 1785 they removed to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where on the 28th of December, 1789, Catharine Maria, the sixth child and second daughter, was born. Their oldest sou became a distinguished lawyer and politician. Miss Sedgwick's childhood passed happily at home, studying at the little district school, until at the age of thirteen she was sent to a boarding-school, and again at fifteen to another one in Boston. After her father's death, in 1813, she superintended the education of the young ladies and girls in the families of her intimate friends, and continued to do so with eminent success for half a century. In 1822 she commenced her career as an author. Her first work, " A New England Tale," which was commenced as a tract, but extended to the size of a novel, appeared anonymously. Her second novel, " Redwood," was republished in England, and translated into the French, Italian, and Swedish languages. In 1827 " Hope Leslie," one of the most popular of American novels, was published. The Reverend Dr. Greenwood pronounced it the best of her three works, and in the " North American Review " wrote as follows : " In all, there is the same purity and delicacy ; the same deep and solemn breathing of religion without parade, and of piety without cant or censoriousness ; the same love of the grand and lovely in nature, together with the same power so to express that love as to waken it up ardently, devotionally in others; the same occasional touches of merry wit and playful satire ; the same glowing fancy ; and, spread through all, and regulating all, the same good sense, leading to a right appro- CATHARINE MARIA SEDGWICK. hension of human motives, restraining genius from extravagance, giving an air of reality to the narrative, and securing our constant respect for the narrator." Miss Sedgwick published several other novels, which met with the uniform success that had attended her previous productions. She also became greatly distinguished in a series of practical tales, which she wrote for the purpose of illustrating the ordinary events of every- day life and manners with a moral, and to suggest the improvement of social relations and the development of individual character. In 1838 Miss Sedgwick accompanied her brother, Mr. .Robert Sedgwick, and his wife, on a tour through portions of Europe. Upon her return to America she published an account of her European visit containing interesting notices of English life, sketches of the literary people and other celebrities whom she met in various places, and many other items of interest. Miss Sedgwick wrote much for the periodicals, and continued her literary occupations until within a few years of her death, which occurred when she was in the seventy-eighth year of her age. She died in her native place, one of the most beautiful villages of Berk- shire, on the 31st of July, 1867. Here Miss Sedgwick's life was prin- cipally passed. A lover of nature in all its forms, she took an unceasing delight in her garden, not confining her attention alone to her flowers, but taking a practical interest in the vegetables and fruits. She was a most valuable member of society. Her frequent breakfast parties were long remembered by those who were favored with an invitation. She greeted her guests with a cordial warmth which set old and young, rich and poor, equally at ease, and entertained them by her sprightly conversation. Miss Sedgwick was actively connected with the Women's Prison Association of New York, and the " Isaac T. Hopper Home," for the reception and employment of women dis- charged from prison. She was, indeed, a friend to the poor, sympa- thizing with them, and supplying their wants to the best of her ability ; visiting prisons and public institutions, and personally ministering to the sick and suffering. Her friend, Mrs. Kemble, wrote : " Perhaps the quality which most particularly distinguished her from other remarkable persons I have known was her great simplicity and trans- parency of character — a charm seldom combined with as much intel- lectual keenness as she possessed, and very seldom retained by persons living as much as she did in the world, and receiving from society a tribute of general admiration." SAM HOUSTON. The early years of this soldier and statesman were spent in a far different manner and place, and with companions utterly unlike those of the majority of our public men. Sam Houston was born near Lex- ington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, on the 2d of March, 1793. His father, who was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, died when his son was quite young. Soon after his death, his wife, an intelligent and energetic woman, removed with her family to Blount County, Tennes- see, at that time the limit of civilization. Their new home was within a few miles of the Cherokee country, and young Houston took up his abode with the Indians of that tribe. It has been more than hinted that he absconded, his strong predilection for this mode of life leading him to pass about three years with them, living after their own fashion. At the end of that time he suddenly returned to his family, but still retained and seemed to do so throughout his life, a preference for the wild freedom of savage life to that of civilization, with its irksome restraints as well as comforts and luxuries. But his few years' expos- ure to a life of adventure, with the wild men born and trained to it, inured him to hardship, and proved a most beneficial experience in preparing him for his future career as a soldier. After serving as clerk to a country trader, and keeping school for a short time, he abandoned both pursuits ; and, in 1813, during the war with Great Britain, enlisted in the army as a common soldier. He served under Jackson in the war with the Creek Indians, and fought with a courage that won the admiration and friendship of his general. He succeeded in distinguishing himself so highly, that at the close of the war he had risen to the rank of lieutenant. Resigning his commission in the army in 1818, he studied law in Nashville. About this time his political life began. He held several minor offices in Tennessee, and, in 1823, was chosen member of Congress, and held this position for four years, at the end of which time he was elected Governor of the State of Tennessee. In January, 1829, he SAM HOUSTON. married the daughter of an ex-governor ; and in the following April, for unexplained reasons, resigned his office, left wife, home, and all, and went to take up his abode among the Cherokees in Arkansas. The chief of that nation adopted him as a son, and he was formally admitted as a chief. Some of the government agents had been in the habit of practising frauds upon the Indians ; Houston, becoming acquainted with the facts, went to Washington for the purpose of ex- posing them. He succeeded in procuring the removal of several agents, but this got him into difficulties with their personal friends, and he became involved in several lawsuits ; so he was indeed glad to return to his adopted people. He was elected to the Constitutional Convention during a visit to Texas, in 1833, and after the rejection of the result by Santa Anna, he was made commander-in-chief of the Texan army. He conducted the war with great ability, and brought it to a successful termination by the brilliant and decisive battle of San Jacinto, in April, 1836, in which he put to rout the entire Mexican army, and achieved the independence of Texas. Santa Anna was taken the day after the battle. He was disguised as a countryman, and surrendered himself as a common soldier. As he, with the officer who had captured him, passed the Mexican prisoners, they unwittingly betrayed his secret by saluting him as their President. Upon coming into the presence of Houston, who was seriously wounded, Santa Anna exclaimed that that general was born to no common destiny, for he had conquered " the Napoleon of the South." In October of the same year General Houston was inaugurated first President of the Republic of Texas, and was re-elected in 1841. He retired from office before his favorite scheme of annexing Texas to the United States was effected. After the annexation he was United States Senator. While in the Senate, true to his old friends, he was a warm advocate of justice and humanity to the Indians. In 1859 he was elected Governor of Texas. He opposed the secession movement, but retired into private life when he found opposition was useless. He died in Huntersville, Texas, in July, 1861. General Sam Houston was described as being tall, and straight as an Indian, and of perfect pro- portions ; his countenance commanding, with sharp gray eyes, and nose like the beak of an eagle. He was no ordinary man, for though entirely self-taught he had few superiors in debate oi in battle. In both capacities he displayed such good sense and courage, that he won the high regard of his countrymen, a people ever ready to honor those to whom honor belongs. ROBERT ANDERSON. Robert Andekson was born near Louisville, Kentucky, June 14th, 1S05. lie graduated from West Point Military Academe in 1825, and was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry. During the Black Hawk War, in 1832, he was Inspector-General of the Illinois volun- teers, and the next year was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and be- came instructor and inspector at West Point. He became aid-de-camp to General Scott in 1838 ; in April of that year received the brevet of captain, earned by his gallantry in the Florida War. He afterwards served as assistant adjutant-general, having the rank of captain; but on being promoted to the captaincy of his own regiment, he relin- quished the office in 1841. He was actively engaged through the whole Mexican War, and was severely wounded in the attack on El Molino del Rey, while forc- ing an entrance into that strong position. For his gallantry and in- trepidity in this action, he was breveted major, September, 1847. In October, 1S57, he was promoted a major in the First Regiment of Artillery, a position which he held on the breaking out of the Civil War. Early in December, 1S60, Major Anderson was ordered to relieve Colonel Gardiner in command of Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor. On the 19th of that month, South Carolina seceded from the Union, and soon commenced hostile demonstrations. Moultrie was out of repair, garrisoned by only sixty men ; reinforcements were denied them, and hostilities daily grew more imminent. On the night of the 26th, Major Anderson dismantled the fort, spiked its guns, and con- veyed its garrison and stores to Fort Sumter — an octagonal, casemated fortress of great strength. Events drifted fast to a crisis. At half- past three o'clock on the morning of the 12th of April, 1861, Major Anderson was notified that the batteries under command of General Beauregard would open on Fort Sumter in one hour. Accordingly, at half-past four o'clock, the first blow at the heart of the Union was struck. As the fire of the enemy became warm, it was found that every portion of the fort was exposed to the mortars, and shells burst in every direction. At six o'clock p.m., Sumter's fire ceased, but that ROBERT ANDERSON. of the enemy was kept up all night, with little cessation. At seven o'clock the next morning Sumter reopened her fire. An hour after, the officers' quarters caught fire, and the work of the guns was neces- sarily slackened. By noon, the whole roof of the barracks was in flames, the magazine emptied, and the doors closed ; but as the fire spread, the powder had to be thrown overboard. The flag-staff was cut, and the flag then nailed to the cut piece, and raised upon the ram- parts. At this time, both officers and men were compelled to lie flat upon their faces, and hold wet cloths to their mouths to avoid suffoca- tion. At one o'clock, p.m., the flag of Fort Sumter was drawn down, and the fort was surrendered on honorable terms. On the 15th of April, Major Anderson evacuated Fort Sumter, and after saluting his flag, embarked for New York, where he met with a most enthusiastic reception. On the 22d, he received the thanks of the government for his conduct at Fort Sumter, and on the 24th of May, he was appointed brigadier-general in the volunteer service of the United States. lie was assigned to the Department of Kentucky, which he assumed the command of on the 21st of September, and issued a spirited proclamation, calling upon Kentuckians of all parties to assist in repelling the invaders of the State. He relinquished his command in October, and returned to New York. In June, 1862, he was made a colonel and brevet brigadier-general of the regular army of the United States, and in 1865, the rank of brevet major-general was conferred upon him. Major-General Robert Anderson died at Nice, France, on the 26th of October, 1871. His health had been broken by long service in the army, and by the hardships and anxieties he endured while holding Fort Sumter, where his constitution received a severe shock, from which he never recovered, and he had sought relief in the mild cli- mate of Southern France and Italy. In personal appearance, General Anderson was about five feet nine inches in height, his figure well set and soldierly. His complexion had been swarthy, but his severe illness had changed it to decided paleness. His eye was dark, but full of fire and intelligence ; his nose somewhat prominent. He was very courteous and gentlemanly, and his rich voice and abundant gesticulation went well together. He was noted for being firm and dignified in conversation, and at the same time perfectly agreeable to all with whom he came in contact. The memory of this Christian soldier and gentleman will ever be cherished by his countrymen. THOMAS STARR KING-. Thomas Starr King takes his rank among eminent American divines and authors as a man of rare genius, originality, and eloquence, lie was born in New York City, in the month of December, 1824. His father, Rev. Thomas F. King, was a distinguished Universalist clergy- man of New England. In 1828 he settled at Portsmouth, "New Hamp- shire, where his son Starr, as he was called by his friends, received the elements of an English education at a private school, and also acquired a considerable acquaintance with the French and Latin languages before he reached the age of ten years. In 1835 his father went to Charlestown, Massachusetts, to take charge of the Universalist Society at that place. Here young King attended the Bunker Hill Grammar School, and afterward the "Win- throp School. The illness of his father, and the straitened circum- stances of the family induced him to become a clerk in a dry-goods store in Charlestown. In 1859 his father died, leaving his wife entirely dependent for support upon her son, who was then but fifteen years old. At once relinquishing — for the present, at least — all hope of en- tering college, for which he had been preparing with the view of becoming a minister of the Gospel, he devoted his time and earnings to the care of his mother. About a year after the death of his father, some of his friends succeeded in obtaining for him an appointment as assistant teacher at the JBnnker Hill Grammar School, which position he continued to hold until 1842, when he became principal of the neighboring West Grammar School of Medford. The following year he left this situation for a clerkship in the government employ, at the Charlestown Navy Yard. During the intervals from his duties as a school-teacher, and in the Navy Yard, he diligently continued his studies. In 1846 Mr. King, having previously preached to a small Univer- salist Society in Boston, was ordained, and succeeded the Rev. Dr, THOMAS STARR KING. Chapin as pastor of the church at Charlestown, formerly presided over hy his father. He remained here for two years, when he was called to take charge of the Hollis Street Congregational Church in Boston. He occupied this station until I860. In April of that year he sailed for San Francisco, to take pastoral charge of the Congrega- tional Church in that city. He became at once a most decided favorite. His genial temperament, good-humor, and ready wit won the hearts of his people. His exertions in behalf of the Union, and his uncompromising stand taken against the Rebellion, greatly influenced the popular opinion in California. The last four years of his useful life were spent at San Francisco. He died there on the 4th of March, 1864 As a public speaker, Mr. King happily combined elegance with energy. The occasional addresses and popular lectures he delivered gained him an extended reputation, and he was in great demand as a lecturer. Among his literary productions were various review articles, published in Dr. Ballou's " Universalist Quarterly." He was the author of an elaborate work " marked by his peculiar enthusiasm and eloquence," entitled " The White Hills ; their Legends, Landscape, and Poetry." This is a description of the mountain scenery of New Hampshire. It is written " with the fancy of a poet, the minute obser- vation and enthusiasm of an ardent lover of nature, and the spiritual insight of a philosopher." The book was published in 1859, and was illustrated by pictures of the scenery from sketches by Mr. Wheelock. Immediately after Mr. King's death, a volume of selections from hia review articles and theological discourses was published in Boston, bearing the title, " Patriotism and other Papers." It was prefaced by a biographical sketch of the author, by his friend Mr. Bichard Froth- ingham, the historian. He has since narrated Mr. King's career more at length in a spirited memorial volume, entitled " A Tribute to the Memory of Thomas Starr King." " The great work laid upon his two-score years, Is done and well done. If we drop our tears Who loved him as few men were ever loved, We mourn no blighted hope nor broken plan, With him whose life stands rounded and approved, In the full growth and stature of a man." GEORGE P. MORRIS. The American poet whose name heads this sketch was horn in Philadelphia in October, 1802. Removing to New York at an early age, he wrote for the New York Gazette and the American, and contributed verses when he was in his fifteenth year. In 1823 he, together with the late Samuel Woodworth, commenced the publication of the New York Mirror, and continued it with great success for several years. It was a representative of the best literary, dramatic, and artistic interests of the day, and among the contributors to its pages were numerous writers of distinction. In 1843 Mr. Morris, in conjunction with Mr. N. P. Willis, began to publish The New Mirror. It was successful, but was only continued for about a year and a half, when Mr. Morris and Mr. Willis, assisted by Mr. Hi ram Fuller, established the Evening Mirror, a daily. At the close of 1845 Mr. Morris commenced a new weekly journal, The National Press, which he conducted for nearly a year, when he was joined by his old friend and partner, Mr. Willis. Changing the name to that of the Home Journal, they continued to edit it until within a short time of Mr. Morris's death, which occurred at New York City, July 6, 1864. " The uniform success of his newspaper enterprises was due to his editorial tact and judgment, his shrewd sense of the public require- ments, and his provision for the more refined and permanently accept- able departments of literature. Good taste and delicacy always presided over the journals conducted by Mr. Morris." Mr. Morris was at one time a Brigadier-General in the militia of the State of New York. One of his earliest productions was the drama of " Brier Cliff," a play founded upon events of the American Revolution. It was performed fort}' nights in succession in a New York theatre, and proved quite a pecuniary success to the author. In 1842 he composed the libretto of an opera, " The Maid of Saxony,' : which had a run of fourteen nights at the Park Theatre. GEORGE P. MORRIS. Mr. Morris, or, as he has been termed, the " Song-writer of Amer- ica," produced his popular odes and lyrics at intervals during his liter- ary career. They were written for a wide diversity of occasions, temperaments, and modes of feeling ; and his ballads, patriotic songs, and songs on other topics have been set to music and sung in the Old World and in the New. " Mr. Morris had an easy command of rhythm and metre. His verses are music to the ear as well as poetry to the inward sense. They are not such verses as feebly suit existing melodies, but such as would of themselves inspire and reward the musical composer, and could not fail to prescribe and enforce at his hand each its appropriate style of treatment. They commonly seize on the one central idea of the occasion or theme, give perfect unity to its expression, and group around just those subsidiary thoughts that render it more emphatic." " In many a street, lane, and alley, in those days, might be heard from barrel-organs, hurdy-gurdys, bag-pipe, and fiddle, aye, and from grand pianos, too, played upon by fair fingers, on still summer even- ings, windows half-open to allow the melody to stream through screens formed by flowers and foliage, that famous song, ' "Wood- man, spare that tree ; ' such was the popularity of Morris's songs." Willis, in a letter to Graham's Magazine, said: "Mr. Morris is the best known poet of the country — by acclamation, not by criticism. He is just what poets .would be if they sang, like birds, without criticism ; and it is a peculiarity of his fame that it seems as regardless of criticism as a bird in the air. Nothing can stop a song of his. It is very easy to say that they are easy to do. They have a momentum, somehow, that it is difficult for others to give, and that speeds them to the far goal of popularity — the best proof consisting in the fact that he can at any moment get fifty dollars for a song unread, when the whole remainder of the American Parnassus could not sell one to the same buyer for a shilling." Let us describe the man. He was about five feet two. His face was genial and pleasant. Short, crisp, dark, curly hair, thinly streaked with silver threads, encircled a high, well-formed forehead, beneath which was a pair of bright, twinkling black eyes. The nose was well- shaped, and the mouth and chin cast in delicate moulds, the latter being slightly dimpled, and the complexion fresh and fair. CHARLES SUMNER. CHARLES SUMNER. The great Massachusetts Senator " was the last of the great trium virate of anti-slavery Senators who succeeded that other trio of the earlier and darker epoch. The work of the later three, Seward, Chase, and Sumner, was incomparably greater and more beneficent than that of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. It is a cnrious fact that Mr. Sumner took his seat in the Senate on the day that Mr. Clay, the last of the elder three, left it forever. The two men typified the two eras of our politics. Henry Clay was the great compromiser. Charles Sumner was one of the most uncompromising men that ever lived." Charles Sumner, the son of Charles Pinckney Sumner, was born at Boston, January 6th, 1811. After graduating from Harvard in 1830, he entered the law school under the tuition of Judge Story, and being admitted to the bar in due time, at once obtained a large practice. In 1837, he visited Europe where he remained three years, studying and travelling, and enjoying social intercourse with the most distinguished men of the day. He brought back from his trip " a wealth of informa- tion, a sincerity of devotion to freedom, a ripeness of culture, an ear- nestness in the pursuit of truth, and an independence of character such as have been rarely given to American statesmen." On his return to America he resumed the practice of the law, but did not take much active part in politics till the annexation of Texas was proposed, when he opposed it in a speech delivered in Fanueil Hall on the Fourth of July, 1845, entitled the "True Grandeur of Nations." Cobden consid- ered this to be the most noble contribution made by any modern writer to the cause of peace. When Daniel Webster resigned his seat in the Senate to become President Fillmore's Secretary of State, Mr. Sumner succeeded him as United States Senator. His numerous speeches and orations have been collected and published. The following was writ- ten near the commencement of his political career: "He has great power of condensation, without the wearisome monotony which often CnAKLES SUMNER. accompanies the writings and sayings of close thinkers and rigid reason- ers. There is a vigorous and graceful stateliness, an easy felicity, a fastidious accuracy, and an imperial dignity in his style, which is both commanding and fascinating. There is a vast breadth of comprehen- sion and a vast depth of meaning in his matter. . . . His orations are written with great care. They abound with allusions to the sayings and doings of the ancients, and manifest deep research and profound thought. His brilliant arguments at the bar have elicited unbounded admiration, and his model manner of delivery enhances the value of his eloquent appeals." This is more recent : " We have in our posses- sion many of Mr. Sumner's speeches ; and we confess that, for depth and accuracy of thought, for fulness of historical information, and for a species of gigantic morality which treads all sophistry under foot and rushes at once to the right conclusion, we know not a single orator, speaking the English tongue, who ranks as his superior." In his political course Mr. Sumner was ever a strong advocate of anti-slavery, and for years delivered speeches and labored zealously in its behalf. " There were censures of his taste, of his epithets, of his rhetoric, of his style, while he was doing a giant's work in rousing and saving a nation. How many a critic points out the defects of St. Peter's ! Aud St. Peter's remains one of the grandest temples in the world. He loved duty more than friendship, and he feared dishonor more than any foe. He measured truly the real forces around him, and he saw more clearly than any American statesman that ever lived the vital relation between political morality and national prosperity." After the delivery of his famous speech, " The Crime against Kansas," in 1856, he was assaulted by Preston S. Brooks, Senator from South Carolina, and so severely injured as to be unable to resume his public duties for three or four years. Indeed he never fully rallied from the blow. He appeared in the Senate for the last time only the day before his death. His grave is in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Boston. "It is a pleasant spot on a little path just to one side of the main road, which runs from the chapel to the tower. A great oak rises a little before you get to the grave, and throws its kindly shade over the statesman's resting-place. No magnificent monumental shaft with elaborate epitaphs marks the spot where the great Senator sleeps, but a plain white tablet, only a foot or so in height, with the brief in- scription, 'Charles Sumner, born Jan. 6, 1811, died March 11, 1874:,- informs the stranger that he stands before the grave of a giant." JOHN PAUL JONES. No name is more celebrated among naval heroes than that of J» hn Paul Jones, that brave, intrepid man, who rendered such good service in the war for American independence. " Such men were required by our country in the time of her utmost need. Had higher rewards and honors than she conferred, been at her command, they would have been bestowed. She treated him as one of those illustrious men whom she regarded as having rendered the most eminent and enduring ser- vice ; and his vindicated fame will live as long as her revolutionary story shall exist in the records, or dwell in the memory of mankind." John Paul Jones was born at Arbigland, on Solway Firth, Scotland, on the 6th of July, 1747. He went to sea at an early age. While still quite young, he was placed in command of a vessel in the West India trade. His brother, who died in Virginia in 1773, left him considera- ble property, and he settled down for a short time to a quiet life. When the war broke out, John Paul — for such was his original name — offered his services to Congress, and was made a first lieutenant in the navy on the 22d of December, 1775. In gratitude to General Jones of North Carolina, who had strongly recommended him, he assumed his name. His first expedition was under Commodore Hop- kins against New Providence. On this cruise, he himself hoisted the American flag, being the first time that it was raised on board of a public vessel in commission from the Continental Congress. He was next placed in command of "The Providence," with which in six weeks he took sixteen prizes. In 1777 he was ordered to Europe ; and in February, 1778, received from Count D'Orvilliers the first salute ever paid to the American flag by a foreign man-of-war. In April he scaled the walls of the fort at Whitehaven, and spiked 38 cannon there. His crew having plundered the house of the Earl of Selkirk of the family plate, Jones bought it from them and returned it. After a successful cruise along the coast of Great Britain, he returned to Brest, JOHN PAUL JONES. He was detained in France until August, 1779, when he sailed to intercept the Baltic fleet. Upon his discovery of the fleet his memora- ble action against the " Serapis," occurred off the coast of England His ship was the " Bon Homme Richard " (Goodman Richard). lie had given it this name in honor of Dr. Franklin, whose sayings as " Poor Richard " he greatly admired. As the enemy carried heavier guns, he lashed the two vessels together. The muzzles of the guns touched, and the gunners, in working their pieces often thrust their ramrods into the port-holes of the other ship. For two hours they fought hand to hand with musket, pike, and cutlass. The "Bon Homme Richard" was old and rotten, and soon became almost unmanageable. Water poured into the hold. Only three of the guns could be worked. Grenades were thrown on the " Serapis " and flames burst out in a dozen places. Three times both vessels were on fire. At last Pearson, the captain of the " Serapis," struck his colors. The " Bon Homme Richard " was already sinking. Jones transferred his men to the captured frigate, and sailed off with his prize. He was enthusi- astically welcomed in France, and received from Louis XVI. the order of military merit, and a magnificent gold mounted sword. Congress voted him special thanks, and had a gold medal struck in his honor. In 1786, Congress appointed him agent to Denmark and Sweden to obtain indemnity for his prizes delivered from their ports to the enemy. The next year he entered the service of Catharine of Russia as rear- admiral. In an action against the Turks, in June, 1788, he so distin- guished himself as to be made vice-admiral, and a knight of St. Ann. In 1789 he retired to France. The last few years of this distinguished naval commander were spent in Europe, but he still considered himself an American citizen. He died in Paris, on the 18th of July, 1792. The French National Assembly decreed him a public funeral and mourning. " To attribute to him the ordinary properties of heroism, would be but a small part of his praise. He had not merely the nerve to execute the most daring exploits, but the genius to conceive and plan the grandest schemes, whether of adventure for himself, or of benefit to his country. . . . Those who knew him best bear testimony to the liberality of his disposition, the uprightness of his purpose, and the purity of his honor." THOMAS DE WITT. The Rev. Dr. Thomas De Witt came of an old Dutch family that set- tled in Ulster County, New York, at least five generations before his birth. He was born at Kingston, in that county, on the 13th of Sep- tember, 1791. lie received his early education at the Kingston Academy, graduated from Union College in 1808, and at the Theo- logical Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church at New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1812. He was immediately licensed to preach by the New Brunswick Classis, and installed as pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church at Hopewell, Dutchess County, New York, in November of the same year. Dr. De Witt remained at Hopewell for fifteen years, and through- out that period retained and perfected the respect and love which he had won at the outset, not only from his parishioners, but from all the people of the village. In 1826 he married Miss Westerman, of New York City. In 1827 he accepted a call to that city from the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church, and was installed as one of its ministers. Dr. Chambers, also one of the pastors of that church, gives the following information regarding it : " This," he says, " the mother church of the denomination in this country, is the oldest ecclesiastical organiza- tion in New York, having been founded previous to a.d. 1640. For more than a century and a half this was the only Dutch church in the city, and, as the population increased, it multiplied its pastors and houses of worship. Subsequently, when independent churches were organized, each under the charge of a single person, this one, because of its plurality of congregations and ministers, became popularly known as the Collegiate Church, although this title does not appear upon its record, and has no official authority." The first ministers, who all came from Holland, preached in the Dutch language. In 1764 the Rev. Archibald Laidlie was installed, with the express view of THOMAS DE WITT. meeting the wants of those who required the service to be in English. The last sermon in Dutch was preached in 1803. Dr. De Witt was constant in his ministry at this church for forty- seven years. Success attended him as a preacher throughout his career. He is said to have been brilliant in his earlier years, and as he grew old he acquired a strong, refined manner that always mirrored thought. His earnestness when in the pulpit was remarkable ; his strong, manly thoughts were expressed in lucid language, easy of com- prehension to his most humble listener. He was some sixty years in the ministry, and though not in active service at the time of his death and for a short time previous, he was in full possession of all his facul- ties. This patriarchal clergyman died at his residence in New York City, on the 18th of May, 1874. In personal appearance Dr. De Witt was a man of venerable, striking presence ; his figure well formed and stately ; his counte- nance one of those that bespeak the individual as truly and as clearly as the record of daily deeds. His mouth was rather large, and, being habitually compressed, gave his face, as a whole, a stern as well as decided look. The eyes, however, were soft and kindly, and at the same time searching and admonitory. His brow was deep and wide, and had that rotundity noticeable in those of superior mental endowments. His personal qualities were those of a Christian gentleman, and his intellectual accomplishments were both varied and comprehensive. His scholarship was extraordinary. With the classics he was unusually familiar, and he had an acquaintance with the modern languages. In addition to these, he was a student of modern science. For several years he was the President of the New York Historical Society, and for many more its Vice-President. He took a great interest in the history of New York State, as well as that of the nation, and read a number of essays before the Historical Society. He was also interested in the American Bible and Tract Societies, and was a member of the Colonization Society. In these several enterprises he alwa) 7 s found sub- jects to labor upon in the intervals of release from regular church duty. " He officiated at the last service in the Middle Dutch Church (afterwards the New York Post-Office) in Nassau street, at the con- clusion of which he pronounced the benediction in Holland Dutch as it was spoken two hundred years previously." CHARLES SPR AGUE . The poet whose name heads this sketch, fills an honorahle place among the poets which America has produced. He was born in Boston, on the 26th of October, 1791. His father, Samuel Sprague, was a patriot of the Revolutionary times, and was one of the famous Boston Tea Party. His mother, a lady highly spoken of, was said to have influenced her son in the development of his talents. The family was a large one, and diaries received his rather limited education at Franklin School in Boston. One of his teachers was Chief- Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts. When about ten years of age, by an unfortunate accident he lost the sight of his left eye. Leaving school at an early age, he entered a mercantile house engaged in the importation of dry goods, and soon acquired a practical knowledge of the trade. In 1816, he formed a partnership with his employers, Messrs. Thayer & Hunt, which was continued until 1820, when he became a teller in the State Bank. On the establishment of the Globe Bank, in 1825, he was elected cashier. This position he held for a period of forty years, discharging all his duties in a faultless manner. He married in 1814. Mr. Sprague's literary life began when he was very young. lie received six times the prize for the best poem for the American stage. The first of his productions which attracted much attention were three prologues, the first of which was written for the Park Theatre in New York, in 1821. " The ode recited in the Boston Theatre, at a pageant in honor of Shakespeare, in 1823, is one of the most vigorous and beau- tiful lyrics in the English language. The first poet of the world, the greatness of his genius, the vast variety of his scenes and characters, formed a subject well fitted for the flowing and stately measure chosen by our author, and the universal acquaintance with the writings of the immortal dramatist enables every one to judge of the merits of his composition. Though to some extent but a reproduction of the creations of Shakespeare it is such a reproduction as none but a man of genius could effect." CHAELES SPRAGUE. One of Mr. Sprague's greatest pleasures, and one that was of much benefit to him as a poet, was the study, in his leisure moments, of the works of the greatest authors, particularly those of the masters of English poetry. As Vice-President of the Boston Debating Society he gave evidence of his poetic taste. His sentiment " to the memory of the immortal Byron " had a world-wide reputation. Upon the occasion of the triumphal entry of Lafayette into Boston, in the month of August, 1824, he wrote, on the impulse of the moment, an inscription for an arch. It was so appropriate that when Mayor Quincy pointed it out, and the French patriot read it, tears came to his eyes. Mr. Sprague took an active interest in the civic affairs of his native city, and his zeal in promoting its good government continued through- out his life. He was a member of the Common Council in 1823-24, and also in 1827; and on the 4th of July, 1828, delivered the city oration. At the commencement of Harvard College in 1829, he delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the metrical essay on " Curiosity." This, his chief and longest poem, is most ingenious, and gave him in England the title of the " American Pope." The subject selected was a most happy one, and in the poem occur some of the tinest passages in his writings. His poem on "Art," an ode written for the Sixth Triennial Festival of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, in 1824, drew from John Quincy Adams the highly com- plimentary remark that, " In forty lines was comprised an encyclope dia of description." In 1830, Mr. Sprague delivered an ode on the centennial celebra- tion of the settlement of Boston, containing many spirited passages. He also wrote a number of poems, chiefly on occasional topics, giv- ing evidence of great skill in the use of language. They are written in good taste, and are pervaded by a spirit of good sense which has gained them their place among the choicest gems of American poetry. His prose compositions are not as numerous, nor quite as carefully fin- ished as his poems. Of these, one of the principal was an oration, pro- nounced at Boston on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. His works have been collected, and have passed through three editions. Mr. Sprague died in his home at Boston on the 21st of January, 1875, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He was a man of strong domestic and social affections, and spent an active, useful, but rather a quiet life. MARTIN VAN BUREN. The ancestors of our eighth President were of Dutch origin, and were among the earliest emigrants from Holland to the banks of the Hudson. Here, in the ancient town of Kinderhook, lived Abraham Van Buren, the father of the President. A farmer in moderate cir cuinstances, and also a tavern-keeper, he was at the same time a man of intelligence, of strong common sense, and a very decided Democrat. Martin Van Buren was born in the town where the family had always resided, on the 5th of December, 1782. He inherited his father's political principles, and pacific disposition — was ever ready to greet his most bitter opponent with open hand and friendly smile. The first seven Presidents were descended from emigrants from the British Isles. Martin Van Buren belonged to another race, and, as he said of himself, " unlike all who had preceded him, he was born after the revolution was achieved." He received his education at the village Academy, and when but fourteen years of age began the study of law. Not having had the advantages of a collegiate education, he was obliged to pursue a seven years course, at the end of which time he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in his native town. Mr. Van Buren took a strong interest in politics, and in 1812 was elected to a seat in the State Senate, where he warmly supported the administration of Mr. Madi- son. In 1815 he was appointed Attorney-General ; the next year he removed to Albany, the capital of the State, and again became Senator, the two offices bein^ held together. In 1818 he started a new organi- zation of the Democratic party in New York, which controlled the politics of that State for over twenty years. In 1821 he was elected a member of the United States Senate ; was re-elected in 1827, but resigned the office on being chosen Governor of New York in 1828. While in that office he proposed the " Safety Fund " system of bank- ing, wh'ch was set in motio.i. In September, 1831, he went tc MAETIN VAN BUREK. England as American Minister to the British Court. Three months later he returned home, his nomination having been rejected by the Senate on the ground that he had sided with England against the United States in certain matters, and had carried party contests and their results into foreign negotiations. The next year his party elected him to the Vice-Presidency, making him the head of the body which a few months before had condemned him, and where he now performed his duties with " dignity, courtesy, and impartiality." In 183G, Martin Van Buren was elected President of the United States. The country was then, passing through a peculiar crisis. The financial storm which had been gathering during the preceding admin- istration, now burst with terrible fury. Failures were e very-day occur- rences — even the United States Government could not pay its debts. Confidence was destro} r ed, and trade stood still. Mr. Van Buren's was a difficult position to fill with satisfaction to all, and he was the subject of much partisan censure. But that he pleased his own party is proved from the fact of his re-nomination, in 1840, against Harrison, by whom he was defeated. On two other occasions he was persuaded by his friends to become a candidate, but failed of election. Retiring to pri- vate life, he lived at his fine mansion in Kinderhook, until his death, which took place on the 24th of July, 1862, at the age of eighty years. This description was written by his friend, Professor Holland : — " In personal appearance, Mr. Van Buren is about the middle size ; his form is erect, and is said to be capable of great endurance. His hair and eyes are light, his features animated and expressive, especially the eye, which is indicative of quick apprehension and close observation ; his forehead exhibits, in its depth and expansion, the marks of great intellectual power. The private character of Mr. Van Buren is above all censure or suspicion. The purity of his motives, his integrity of character, and the steadiness of his attachments, have alwajs retained for him the warm affection of many, even among his political oppo- nents. Uniting in his character firmness and forbearance, habitual self-respect and a delicate regard for the feelings of others, neither the perplexities of legal practice, the cares of public life, nor the annoyances of party strife, have ever been able to disturb the serenity of his temper, or to derange for a moment the equanimity of his deport- ment." DAVID DIXON PORTER. The successful issue of the late Civil War is due as well to the exertions of the courageous naval commanders as to the leaders of the land forces. Admiral David D. Porter is the son of the famous Com- modore David Porter of the " Essex," and was born in Philadelphia, June, 1813. In 1829, he entered the navy as midshipman, and served six years on board the " Constellation " and the " United States." He passed his examination in 1835, and served six years on the Coast Sur- vey, when he was commissioned a lieutenant, and served with that rank on board the " Congress " for four years. After a brief period of service at the Observatory at Washington, he was placed on active duty in the Gulf of Mexico, and took a leading part in the naval opera- tions of the Mexican War. In 1849, he took command of one of the Pacific Mail Company's steamers, and remained four years in that ser- vice. In 1861, he was placed in command of the steam-sloop u Pow- hatan," a vessel of about twenty -five hundred tons, and armed with eleven guns, in which he joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron off Pensacola. After doing blockading duty for some time, he left that ship to take special charge of the mortar expedition. The active part he took in the reduction of the forts below New Orleans will make his name ever memorable in connection with the mortar fleet, or bummers, as the sailors term them. In his report of April 25th, 1862, he says : " We commenced the bombardment of Fort Jackson on the 18th, and continued it without intermission until the squadron made preparations to move. In an hour and ten minutes after the vessels had weighed anchor, they had passed the forts under a most terrific fire, which they returned with interest. The mortar fleet rained down sheets on Fort Jackson, to try and keep the men from the guns, while the steamers of the mortar fleet poured in shrapnell upon the water battery commanding the ap- DAVID DIXON PORTER. proach at a short distance, keeping them comparatively quiet. When the last vessel of ours could be seen, among the fire and smoke, to pass the battery, signal was made to the mortars to cease firing, and the flotilla steamers were directed to retire from a contest that would soon become unequal. The mortar fleet had been very much exposed and under a heavy fire for six days, during which time they kept the shells going without intermission. One of them, the 1 Maria I. Carlton,' was sunk, by a shot passing down through her magazine and then through her bottom. The flotilla lost but one man killed and six wounded. The bearing of the officers and men was worthy of the highest praise. They never once flagged, during a period of six days, never had an accident to one of the vessels by firing, and when shell and shot were flying thick above them, showed not the least desire to have the vessels moved to a place of safety." Again, in his report of the 30th, he says : " Fort Jackson is a perfect wreck. Everything in the shape of a building in and about it was burned up by the mortar shells, and over 1,800 shells fell in the work proper, to say nothing of those which burst over and around it. I devoted but little attention to Fort St. Philip, knowing that when Jackson fell, St. Philip would follow." After the capture of New Orleans, he, with his fleet, went up the Mississippi, and was engaged in several affairs on that river, including the siege of Vicksburg, during which his mortar fleet threw shells into the city and works forty clays without intermission. From that place he was ordered to the James River, and returned in the " Octorara." When off Charleston, on his way to Fortress Monroe, he fell in with and captured the Anglo-Confederate steamer, "Tubal Cain." He was soon after appointed to the supreme control of all the naval forces on the Mississippi River. Made rear-admiral July 4th, 1863. In 186-1, he was transferred to the Atlantic coast to command the naval forces destined to operate against the defences of Wilmington, N. C, and on January 15th, 1865, the fall of Fort Fisher was hailed by the country as a glorious termination of his arduous war services. He was made vice-admiral July 25th, 1S66, and appointed superintendent of the Naval Academy, which institution is still reaping the benefit of his able administration during the years from 1866 to 1870. On the death of Farragut he succeeded that illustrious man as the admiral of the navy, his appointment bearing date, October, 1870. Admiral Porter is a man of wiry, muscular frame, handsome features, of medium height. He is most truly " a worthy son of a worthy sire." GEORGE PEABODY. ts The philanthropist of two worlds," as he has been most appropri- ately styled, was born in the town of Danvers, Massachusetts, on the ISth of February, 1795. His parents were unable to give him the benefits of a thorough education, so that the only instruction he received was from the common schools of the village. Many years afterwards he wrote : " To the principles there inculcated in childhood and early youth I owe much of the foundations of such success as Heaven has been pleased to grant me during a long business life." His business life began at an early period. At the age of eleven he left school, and was placed in the grocery store of Mr. Proctor. After four years spent in this situation, George Peabody, in 1811, entered the employment of his eldest brother, who had just opened a dry-goods store at Newburyport. Shortly after, a great fire occurred which destroyed much property in the place, including his brother's store. In 1812-13, he was a clerk in his uncle's store in Georgetown, D. C. After spending two years with his uncle, he entered into partnership with Mr. Elisha Riggs, a dry-goods merchant of New York. They soon removed to Baltimore, and in 1822 established other houses in Philadelphia and New York. Upon the death of Mr. Riggs, Mr. Peabody became senior partner. In 1843 lie retired from the firm of Peabody, Piggs & Co., and go- ing to London, established himself at the head of a banking and com- mercial house. " He was a banker only in the American sense of the term, for while, like the Rothschilds and the Barings, he loaned money, changed drafts, bought stocks and held deposits for customers, yet he did not pay out money, as English bankers do, and therefore was not. deemed a banker in England. ' The magnitude of his transactions in that capacity perhaps fell short of one or two great houses of the same class, but in honor, faith, punctuality, and public confidence, the firm of George Peabody & Co., of Warnford Court, stood second to none.' " As is well known to the world in general, Mi-. Peabody's bene- GEORGE PEABODY. factions were numerous and princely. Among the most important oi his public gifts are $60,000 to the State of Maryland, for negotiating the loan of $8,000,000 ; $1,500,000 to the Peabody Institute, Balti- more ; $3,000,000 to the Southern Education Fund; $1,500,000 to Yale College, and the same amount to Harvard ; $140,000 to Peabody Academy and $25,000 to Phillips Academy, both of Massachusetts ; to Peabody Institute, &c, at Peabody, Massachusetts, $250,000 ; $25,000 to Kenyon College, Ohio ; $100,000 to the Memorial Church at Georgetown, Mass. ; $1 3,000,000 to Homes for the Poor in London. In acknowledgment of this generous donation the Queen presented Mr. Peabody with her portrait, the city of London gave him its freedom in a gold box, and the citizens erected a fine statue to his memory. $10,000 to libraries in Georgetown, Mass., and Thetford, Vt. $10,000 to Kane's Arctic Expedition; $10,000 to different sanitary fairs; $40,000 advanced to uphold the credit of States. In addition to these he made a large number of donations for various public purposes, ranging in sums from $250 to $1 ,000, and extending back as far as 1835. The property left by him at the time of his death was estimated at about $4,000,000 in value. Mr. Peabody died at his residence in London, on the 4th of November, 1869. The news of his death was received with demon- strations of sorrow on both sides of the Atlantic. His remains were conveyed to his native country in a war-vessel of the United Kingdom, and were laid in the tomb which he had built at Dan vers. Col. J. W. Forney, in his " Letters from Europe," mentions him as follows : " The good man's soul seems to shine out of every feature and lineament. His fine head, rivalling the best of the old aristocracy and blending the ideals of benevolence and integrity, his tranquil and pleasing countenance, and his silver hair, crown a lofty form of un- usual dignity and grace. The work of this one plain American citizen silences hypercriticism and challenges gratitude. He has completed it without leaving an excuse for ridicule or censure. He has given mil- lions to deserving charities, without pretence or partiality. The wealth gathered by more than a generation of honest enterprise and business sagacity he distributes among the poor of the two nations in which he accumulated it, first liberally providing for his own blood and kindred." " The name of Peabody is to stand, for the future, synonymous with Philanthropy. This single word shall be his lasting monument." DONALD GRANT MITCHELL. This well-known author of the present day was born in the charm- ing little city of Norwich, Connecticut, during the month of April, 1822. His grandfather, Stephen M. Mitchell, was a member of the first Continental Congress which met at Philadelphia, and was also for many years Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. The father of Mr. D. G. Mitchell was the pastor of the Congrega- tional Church in Norwich. Young Mr. Mitchell, having passed a preparatory course at board- ing-school entered Yale College, from which he graduated in 1841, then being but nineteen years of age. His health being poor, the next three years were spent on his grandfather's estate in the country, where he became much interested in agriculture, and wrote a number of letters on that subject. Crossing the ocean, he travelled extensively through Europe, spending the half of one winter in rambling over England on foot. While abroad he was a correspondent of the " Albany Cultiva- tor." Returning home after an absence of a year and a half, he com- menced the study of law in New York city. In 1847 he published a pleasant reminiscence of his tour through some of the various places of interest in Central Europe, bearing the title of " F resh Gleanings ; or, A New Sheaf from the Old Fields of Continental Europe ; by Ik Marvel." The confinement in a city office affecting his health, Mr. Mitchell made his second visit to Europe, where he passed several of the eventful months of 184S in Paris. On his return he published " The Battle Summer." Soon after a satirical work, " The Lorgnette," a periodical, appeared. It attracted considerable attention in fashion- able circles, but for a long time the authorship was undiscovered, it having been published anonymously. Mr. Mitchell's " Reveries of a Bachelor," perhaps his most popular work, appeared during the pro- gress of " The Lorgnette." It was followed the next year by " Dreait. Life." In 1853 Mr. Mitchell received the appointment of United DONALD GRANT MITCHELL. States Consul at Venice. Returning home two years later, he settled on his farm, in the neighborhood of New Haven, where for several years he was a constant contributor to Harper's Magazine, and the Atlantic Monthly, and also occasionally published a volume. " Fudge Doings," a satire on American fashionable life, appeared in 1854, and in 1863 " My Farm of Edgewood," and the next year a sequel, " Wet Days at Edgewood," was published. The titles of some of his other works are, " Seven Stories, with Basement and Attic ; " " Dr. Johns ; being a Narrative of Certain Events in the Life of an Orthodox Minister of Connecticut ;" a novel of New England life, first published in the Atlantic Monthly and afterwards in two volumes ; " Rural Studies, with Notes for Country Places ; " in the latter work the aim of the author being " to stimulate those who live in the country, to a fuller and wider range of thinking about the means of making their homes enjoyable." Mr. Mitchell has delivered several lyceum lectures and addresses on agriculture. The following quotation is taken from " Letters " in his " Reveries of a Bachelor : " " Blessed be letters ! they are the moni- tors, they are also the comforters, and they are the only true heart-talk- ers. Your speech and then* speeches are conventional ; they are moulded by circumstances ; they are suggested by the observation, remark, and influence of the parties to whom the speaking is addressed, or by whom it may be overheard. "Your truest thought is modified half through its utterance by a look, a sign, a smile, or a sneer. It is not individual ; it is not integral ; it is social and mixed — half of you and half of others. It bends, it sways, it multiplies, it retires, and it advances, as the talk of others presses, relaxes, or quickens. " But it is not so with letters : — there you are, with only the soulless pen, and the snow-white, virgin paper. Your soul is measuring itself by itself, and saying its own sayings ; there are no sneers to modify its utterance — no scowl to scare — nothing is present but you and your thought ; utter it then freely ; write it down— stamp it — burn it in the ink ! There it is, a true soul-print 1 " ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. Arthuk St. Clair was Lorn in Scotland in the year 1734. He was of a distinguished family ; grandson of the Earl of Itoslyn. He studied medicine with the celebrated John Hunter in London, but inheriting a large sum of money on the death of his mother, purchased an ensigncy, and soon after came in Boscawen's fleet to America ; served under Amherst at the taking of Louisburg, and was distin- guished under Wolfe at Quebec. In 1760 he married at Boston, Phebe, daughter of Balthazar Bayard and Mary Bowdoin, a half-sister of Governor James Bowdoin. He resigned his commission in 1762, and two years later settled in the Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, where he erected mills, also a fine residence, and, to use his own lan- guage, " held six offices in Pennsylvania, all of them lucrative ; viz., clerk of the Court of General Quarter Sessions, prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas, Judge of Probate, register of wills, recorder of deeds, and surveyor of the largest county in the province." Hav- ing accompanied the commissioners appointed by Congress, in 1775, to treat with the Indians at Fort Pitt, and acting as their secretary, he attracted the attention of that body, and, without any solicitation on his part, received a commission as colonel of militia. In January, 1776, St. Clair resigned all his civil offices, repaired to Philadelphia with orders to raise a regiment, destined to serve in Canada, the well-known scene of former services. Joining Washington in November, 1776, he was appointed to organize the New Jersey Militia ; and participated actively in the bat- tle at Trenton, and the subsequent engagement at Princeton, at which he rendered valuable service by protecting the fords of Assumpink ; events which turned the tide of success in favor of America. On the 19th of February, 1777, Congress appointed him a major-general. In March he succeeded Gates in command at Philadelphia, and soon after was ordered by General Schuyler to take command at Ticonderoga, which on the night of the 4th of July, he was obliged to evacuate, his ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. force being wholly inadequate to its defence. The public seemed to consider the holding of Ticonderoga a point of honor, and were loud in expressions of vexation and disappointment against the General who directed the retreat, as well as against the commander of the district, General Schuyler. A short time dispelled the heavy censure be- stowed upon the General for this measure, the propriety of which was subsequently fully recognized and approved. A general court martial held in September, 1777, acquitted him with the highest honor, and its decision was confirmed by Congress, in December, 1778. The confi- dence of Washington appears never to have been withdrawn from him ; he acted as volunteer-aide at Brandywine ; assisted Sullivan in preparing his expedition against the Six Nations ; was a member of the court-martial which condemned Major Andre ; aided in suppress- ing the mutiny in the Pennsylvania line in January, 1781 ; was active in raising and forwarding troops to the south; and in October joined Washington, and participated in the capture of Cornwall is at York- town. After the peace, General St. Clair resided in Pennsylvania, and in 1 786 was a member of Congress from that State, and the president of that body in 1787. Upon the erection of the north-western territory into a government, he was appointed governor, February 1, 1778, an office which he accepted, notwithstanding the reluctance he felt to take upon himself such duties. His friends saw in this new government the means of fortune; but his own view of the matter " that it was the most imprudent act of his life," seems to have been the most correct. To accept the office it was necessary to resign the office of auctioneer of the City of Philadelphia, one of the most lucrative in the State, and at the end of about fourteen years of fatigue, privation and danger, his worldly prospects were anything but bright. In January, 1799, he fixed the seat of justice of the Territory at Cincinnati, giving it the name in honor of the society of which he was president for Pennsyl- vania in 1783-89. Upon the erection of Ohio into a State in 1802, he declined being a candidate for governor. Retiring to a small log house on the summit of Chestnut Pudge, he passed the remainder of his days in poverty, vainly endeavoring to effect a settlement of his claims against the government. The Legislature of Pennsylvania, in • 1813, granted him an annuity of $400, and a short time before his death he received a pension from the Government of $60 per month. He died at Greensburg, near Philadelphia, August 31st, 1818, aged eighty-four. THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON. In the late Civil War perhaps the greatest victory on the part of the North was the subduing such leaders as Lee and Jackson. The last-named gallant Southern general was born in Clarksburg, Virginia, on the 21st of January, 1824. As a boy, Jackson was noted for his gravity and sobriety of manner. At the age of twenty-one he gradua- ted from West Point witli the appointment of brevet second lieutenant of artillery. Among his classmates were Generals McClellan, Foster, Hill, and other officers of renown in the conflict in which he was to take part. In the spring of 1847 he became actively engaged in service under General Scott, at the siege of Vera Cruz. After the battle of Cerro Gordo he was transferred to Captain Magruder's light field battery. He displayed much courage at Contreras, Cherubusco, and Chapultepec, and was warmly commended by his superior officers. He immediately received the brevet rank of major for his gallantry in these actions. Entering Mexico with the victorious army, he passed several months there in quiet duty. In 1848 he returned to the United States, and was stationed for two years at Fort Hamilton, whence he was transferred to Florida. Soon after, receiving a call to occupy the posi- tion of Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Artillery Tactics in the Military Academy of Yirginia, situated at Lexington, in Rockbridge County, he accepted it, and resigned his rank in the army. He held the position for the ensuing ten years. During that period he was married twice: in 1853, to a daughter of the Peverend Dr. Jud- kin ; and in 1857, to a daughter of the Reverend Dr. Morrison. Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion, Jackson enthusiastically em- braced the secession movement, and entered upon the career which made his name so famous. In May, 1861, he was appointed to the command of the " Army of Observation," and distinguished himself in the encounter with General Patterson's advance. On the 21st of July THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON. occurred the momentous battle of Bull Run. General McDowell, in command of the Army of the Potomac, moved to attack the main body of the Confederates at that place. After a sharp conflict they were driven from the field, but were rallied by Jackson and others, on a plateau in the rear. As Confederate General Lee rallied his men, he shouted, " There's Jackson standing like a stone wall." From that time the name he had received in a baptism of fire displaced that he had received in a baptism of water, and he was known as " Stonewall Jackson." As the Federal troops were struggling to drive them from this new position, seventeen hundred men, under Kirby Smith, rushed across the fields from Manassas Station, struck the Union flank, and poured in a cross fire The effect was irresistible. At first this defeat disheartened the Northern people, but it roused them to a sense of the real character of the war. After being engaged in several battles, General Jackson, by his adroit movements in the Shenandoah Valley, succeeded during the month of June in occupying the attention of three major-generals and sixty thousand men, and saving Richmond. Being sent against Har- per's Ferry, the middle of September, he quickly carried the heights which overlook the village, forced Colonel Miles, with eleven thousand men, to surrender, and then hastened back in time to join Lee at Antie- tain and do some of the severest fighting at that battle. He received the rank of lieutenant-general for his services at the battle of Fred- ericksburg, December 13th, 18G2. By his flank movement at Chancel- lorsville, May 2d, 1863, the 11th Corps of Hooker's army was routed and compelled to fall back. In the evening, while riding back to camp from a reconnoissance at the front, he was fired upon and severely wounded by his own men, who, in the darkness, mistook his escort for Federal cavalry. The wounds proved fatal, and on the 10th of May, 1863, the South was called upon to mourn the death of Stonewall Jackson, "whose magical name was worth to their cause more than an army." Jackson undoubtedly possessed all the qualities of a great general. His plans were 'brilliantly laid and as brilliantly executed. He was a stern disciplinarian, but was remarkable for his courtesy to the private soldiers of his command. He was a deacon in the Presbyterian Church, and his religious fervor caused him to be looked upon as fanatical. In manner and dress he was simple and unostentatious. JOHN ADAMS. To no one President, or other public character, is America more in- debted for those institutions which constitute its power and glory, than to John Adams, the second President of the United States. He was born in the present town of Quincy (then Braintree), Massachusetts, October 19 (old style), 1735. His father, an industrious farmer, was anxious to give his son a collegiate education, so John entered Harvard College at the age of sixteen and graduated at the age of twenty. Im- mediately securing a position in one of the public schools in Worcester, he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1758, and commenced practice in his native town. The bold ground Mr. Adams took during the commotion caused by the Stamp Act, was the beginning of a distinguished political career. Prom this time forward he devoted his time and energies to his conn- try. Pully comprehending the approaching crisis, he wrote, "Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish with my country is my fixed, unal- terable determination." He was the chief legal adviser of the patriots, and a leader of them. Elected to the Provincial Council, and subse- quently to the Provincial Congress, he warmly advocated the independ- ence of the Colonies. Between Thomas Jefferson and himself there existed a strong friendship, which continued, with but one interruption, for the remainder of their lives. The alienation was caused by their political differences of opinion, but they became reconciled upon retir- ing to private life. These two friends were appointed to draw up the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Jefferson, who was a ready and able writer, b}' the request of Mr. Adams, prepared that most impor- tant of documents ; but the latter secured its adoption in a three- days' debate. Among the fifty- five men who affixed their signatures to that declaration, there was not one who was a more eloquent defender of it than John Adams. An untiring worker, he gained the reputation of having the clearest head and firmest heart in Congress. He con,- JOHN ADAMS. tinned his iabors in that body nntil November, 1777, when he was ap- pointed to take the place of Silas Deane at the French Court. Here he was associated with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee. His inability to speak the French language was one great obstacle to his success, and he did not become popular with the Parisians. He filially returned home, leaving Dr. Franklin, who was a favorite and greatly admired, sole ambassador. Taking a seat in the State Convention for forming a constitution, Mr. Adams took a leading part in its formation. While discharging these duties, he was appointed by Congress a minister to negotiate a treaty of peace and commerce with Great Britain. In the summer of 1780 he went to represent the United States in Holland, and two years later negotiated a treaty with Great Britain. In 1785 he went as Min- ister to the Court of St. James. He was recalled in 1788, and after his return home was elected Vice-President of the United States, having received the next highest number of votes in the first Presidential elec- tion. He sustained the policy of "Washington, and, with him, was re- elected for another term. On the retirement of Washington, Adams was elected President by a majority of two electoral votes over Jeffer- son. In his position as President he lost the popularity he had gained in Congress. His enemies ridiculed him, declared his egotism to be in- ordinate, accused him of being a bad judge of men, of clinging to old unpopular notions, and of having little control over his temper. Mr. Adams lived to see their blind prejudice give place to a juster estimate of his great worth and exalted integrity. The most intense party feel- ing prevailed during the entire administration. Mr. Jefferson, in re- buking a clique of politicians who had been hurling bitter slanders at the President, used the following words : " The measures of the gen- eral government are a fair subject for difference of opinion, but do not found your opinions on the notion that there is the smallest spice of dishonesty, moral or political, in the character of John Adams ; for I know him well, and 1 repeat that a man more perfectly honest never issued from the hands of the Creator." At the close of the term, he was nominated a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by Jeffer- son. He then retired to private life. At the age of eighty-five he was chosen a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he was hon- ored as one of the fathers of the republic. By a remarkable coincidence he and Mr. Jefferson both died on the 4th of July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of American independence. FREDERICK SWARTWOUT COZZENS. Tins American author was born in the city of New York on the 5th of March, 1818. He received his education in his native city, and early entered mercantile life. He became a leading wine-merchant in New York, and for some time edited, in connection with his business, a periodial entitled The Wine Press, for which he wrote several valu- able papers on the culture of the grape and the production of wine. In addition to much important information on this topic, it was enlivened by many clever essays and sketches in the range of practical aesthetics. Mr. Cozzens also wrote for literary periodicals. In 1853 a series of papers by him, consisting of sketches in prose and verse, which had appeared in the Knickerbocker Magazine, were collected in a volume, and published under the name of " Plasmatics, by Richard Haywarde." It was tastefully illustrated from designs by Elliott, Darley, Kensett, Hicks and Rossiter. He subsequently contributed a series of humorous sketches to Putnam's Monthly, under the title of "The Sparrowgrass Papers." This was considered his best work, and appeared in book-form in 1856. While in Europe in 1858, he attended the Copyright Congress of Brussels, as delegate of the New York Publishers' Association. A collection of sprightly essays from the pages of The Wine Press was issued in 1S67, as " Sayings of Dr. Bushwhacker and Other Learned Men." He was the author of " Stone House on the Susquehanna; " and of " Acadia ; or, A Sojourn among the Blue-Noses," which was pub- lished in 1S58. Ten years later he wrote his last work, a " Memorial of Fitz-Greene Halleck," which was read before, and printed by, the New York Historical Society. Mr. Cozzens died in Brooklyn on the 23d of December, 1869, in the fifty-second year his age. FEEDEHICK SWARTWODT OOZZENS. A LEAF FROM CHILD-LIFE. FROM SPARROWGRASS PAPERS. "We have sent the children to school. Under the protecting wing of Mrs. Sparrowgrass, onr two eldest boys passed in safety through the narrow channel of orthography, and were fairly launched upon the great ocean of reading before a teacher was thought of. But when boys get into definitions, and words more than an inch long, it is time to put them out, and pay their bills once a quarter. Our little maid, five years old, must go with them too. The boys stipulated that she should go, although she had never gone beyond ' E ' in the alphabet before. When I came home from the city in the evening, I found them with their new carpet-satchels all ready for the morning. There was quite a ' hurrah !' when I came in, and they swung their book-knap- sacks over each little shoulder by a strap, and stepped out with great pride, when I said, ' Well done, my old soldiers.' Next morning we saw the old soldiers marching up the garden- path to the gate, and there the little procession halted ; and the boys waved their caps, and one dear little toad kissed her mitten at us — and then away they went with such cheerful faces. Poor old soldiers ! what a long, long siege you have before you ! " Thank Heaven for this great privilege, that our little ones go to school in the country. Not in the narrow streets of the city ; not over the flinty pavements ; not amid the crush of crowds and the din of wheels, but out in the sweet woodlands and meadows; out in the open air, and under the blue sky — cheered on by the birds of spring and summer, or braced by the stormy winds of ruder seasons. Learning a thousand lessons city children never learn ; getting nature by heart — and treasuring up in their little souls the beautiful stories written in God's great picture-book. " We have stirring times now when the old soldiers come home from school in the afternoon. The whole household is put under martial law until the old soldiers get their rations. Bless their white heads, how hungry they are ! Once in a while they get pudding, by way of a treat. Then what chuckling and rubbing of little fists, and cheers, as the three white heads touch each other over the pan. I think an artist could make a charming picture of that group of urchins, especially if he painted them in their school-knapsacks." FRANKLIN PIERCE. General Benjamin Pierce, the father of the fourteenth President of the United States, was an independent New England farmer, and a man of energetic and upright character. lie was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and took an active interest in the politics of the daj T . He was a strong Democrat, and at different times occupied nearly every post of honor his neighbors could confer upon him. His son, Franklin Pierce, was born in Hillsborough, New Hamp- shire, on the 23d of November, 1804. When sixteen years of age he entered Bowdoin College at Brunswick, Maine, and graduated at that institution in 1824. His choice was a professional life, and he accord- ingly commenced the study of law in the office of Judge Levi Wood- bury ; was admitted to the bar in 1827, and first practised his profes- sion in Hillsborough. His early associations with politicians and his natural tastes drew him into political life, and he was soon elected to represent his town in the State Legislature, where he served for four years. In 1833 he was elected a member of Congress, where he warmly sympathized with his party, the Democratic. In 1834 he was united in marriage with the daughter of the Reverend Dr. Appleton. In 1837, when lie had barely reached the requisite age, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, taking his seat just as Mar- tin Van Bnren commenced his administration. He there found the ablest men of the country, among them Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Buchanan, Benton, and Wright. " With his usual tact and exquisite sense of propriety, he saw it was not the time for him to step forward prominently on this highest theatre in the land. He beheld these great combatants doing battle before the eyes of the nation, and engrossing its whole regards. There was hardly an avenue to reputation save what was occupied by one or another of those gigantic figures." In 183S, Mr. Pierce removed to Concord, where his devotion to his duties at the bar soon gave him a high rank as an able lawyer. Dur- ing Tyler's administration he resigned his seat in Congress. Upon the FRANKLIN PIERCE. aujes^.on of Polk to the Presidency, he appointed Mr. Pierce attorney- gene'-al of the United States. This office he felt obliged to refuse ; and about the same time he also declined the nomination for governor by the Democratic Party. When the Mexican War broke out he enlisted as a volunteer, but quickly rose to the office of brigadier- general. He distinguished himself under General Scott, and command- ed a large reinforcement for his army. He was severely injured by the falling of his horse upon him just before the battle of Cherubusco. On his return at the close of the war General Pierce was received at Concord with great enthusiasm. In recognition of his services he was presented with a sword by the Legislature of New Hampshire. In the winter of 1850-1, he presided over the New Hampshire Constitutional Convention. The National Democratic Convention which met in June. 1S52, nominated General Pierce as their candidate for the Presidency. In the ensuing fall campaign he was elected by a large majority of electoral votes over General Winfield Scott, the Whig candidate. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1S53, and during his administra- tion he conferred the title of lieutenant-general upon his old military commander and unsuccessful competitor. The administration was not a very eventful one. One of the most important home incidents of the time was the erection of the Crystal Palace at New York. This undertaking, which was brilliantly carried out, was inaugurated by President Pierce in July, 1853. In 1351 Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan excited great attention. He negotiated a treaty securing great commercial advantages to the United States over any other country. President Pierce always sided with the South on the question of slavery, and in a message to Congress in 1856, he justified the principles of the Kansas and Nebraska Act. This bill was a virtual repudiation of the Missouri Compromise, and excited the most intense feeling. It had become a law, however, in 1S54. This carried the struggle from Congress to Kansas, where a bitter contest, known as the " Border Warfare," arose between the pro- slavery and anti-slavery advocates. These affairs were still in a critical condition at the close of his four years' term of office. James Buchan- an, the Democratic candidate, succeeded him to the Presidency. Soon after the close of his administration Mr. Pierce visited Ma- deira and made a protracted tour in Europe. On his return to America he again took up his residence in his old home at Concord, where he died October 8, 1S69. He was one of the most genial and social of men, and one of the kindest of neighbors and the best of friends. COM. CHARLES WILKES. U. S.N. CHARLES WILKES. The family and connections of Hear- Admiral Charles Wilkes were of high standing in the cit} T of New York, where that distinguished naval officer was born in 1801. Through the influence of his father, who had served in the navy, he was admitted to the naval school and was sent to the ship of instruction, then stationed in the Mediterranean. He was made a Midshipman on the 1st of January, 1818, and was appointed to the Guerriere, forty-fonr. He next joined the Franklin, seventy-four, and remained in her an entire cruise. Between the years 1821 and 1826 he passed through the several grades to that of Lieutenant, and was engaged in special service in charge of charts and instruments in 1830. His high professional at- tainments and his skill as an astronomer gained him great credit, and he was charged with the making of several surveys of the coast, which he successfully executed. The most famous of his early services was the exploration of the South Seas, the Pacific Archipelago, and the Indian Ocean, by which he gained a name for daring and skill which is second to that of no other navigator. The discovery of a southern continent, along the shores of which he sailed for several days, added much to previous geographical knowledge, which was exceedingly Hmi+ed, of high southern latitudes. The expedition was absent four years, and on its return Wilkes published the results of his observa- tions in a very ably written work, comprising five octavo volumes, en- titled, " A Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition."' For his labors he was rewarded by the Geographical Society of London, in 184S, with a gold medal as a token of their appreciation of his labors in the cause of science. The next year he published a valuable work, entitled " Western America," which is replete with statistical details and valuable geographical facts and maps relating to California and Oregon. His work on " Meteorology " is regarded as one of the most valuable treatises on the subject. In 1850 he published in New CHARLES WILKES. York his " Theory of Winds," and was engaged upon other works in connection with the Expeditionary Bureau when the late civil war broke out. Captain Wilkes — he had attained the rank in 1855 — at once applied for active service, and was appointed to the command of the war- steamer San Jacinto, and ordered to the West Indies for the purpose of looking after the confederate steamer Sumter. On his return he learned at Cienfuegos that the Theodora had run the blockade at Charleston, and arrived at Havana with the Confederate Commis- sioners, Mason and Slidel, and their secretaries, Eustis and McFarland, all of whom were to take passage to England in the British mail steamer Trent. He at once determined to capture them, and therefore lay in wait for the steamer in the Old Bahama Channel. About noon on the 8th day of November, 1S61, the Trent hove in sight. Stopping her by firing a shot across her bows, Captain Wilkes sent Lieutenant D. M. Fairfax to board her with two armed boats. After some slight difficulty, the Confederate Commissioners and their secretaries were put into the boat, and brought on board the San Jacinto by Lieutenant Fairfax. Captain Wilkes arrived in New York harbor on the 18th, and immedi- ately went from there to Boston harbor, where his prisoners were con- fined in Fort Warren. England claimed this as a violation of the neu- trality laws, and demanded the release of the envoys. Sooner than fight Great Britain in this period of our country's peril, England's claim was complied with, and the captives of Fort Warren delivered to the British authorities on the 1st of January, 1862. After the Trent affair, Wilkes remained quiet until the Army of the Potomac had nearly reached Richmond by the way of the James River, when he was ordered to the command of the James River flotilla. On the 17th of July, the President appointed, and the Senate confirmed the appointment, of Captain Wilkes to the rank of Commodore. He afterward commanded a squadron in the West Indies, capturing many blockade-runners. On the 25th of July, 1866, he was commissioned Rear- Admiral on the retired list. The health of Rear- Admiral Wilkes had been failing for some time before his death, which occurred in Washington, D. C, on the morning of the 8th of February, 1877. CARDINAL M c CLO SKET". JOHN McCLOSKEY. Cardinal McCloskey, an illustrious leader of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, is described as " above the medium height, sparely made, and erect. His head is of an intellectual cast, and his coun- tenance, where increasing years are beginning to leave their unmistaka- ble lines, is strongly expressive of amiability and benevolence. The fea- tures are finely moulded and uniform. About the mouth there is always an expression of the truest kindness and gentleness, and the eyes are soft and sympathetic, while full of intellectuality. The brow is broad, over which the hair is parted, and carefully combed on either side. In any gathering of men he would be selected as a person distinguished for gifts of mind, and great goodness of heart. In his manners he is dig- nified, courteous, and kindly. A simple, easy dignity, natural to the man, as well as taught in the prominent stations which he has so long occupied, does not prevent a gentlemanly and friendly demeanor to- wards all who have intercourse with him. He is a ripe scholar, and a bold and devoted churchman." Cardinal McCloskey was born in Brooklyn, Long Island, on the 20th of March, 1810. Left fatherless at the age of ten, his mother gave him a liberal education, and he prepared for the priesthood. lie graduated from Mount St Mary's, Emmetsburg, Maryland, in the year 1827, and pursued his first course of theology at the same place. About 1830, the degree of A.M. was conferred upon him. In January, 1831, Cardinal McCloskey, then a young man scarcely twenty-four years of age, was ordained priest by Bishop Dubois. The ordination took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, where he celebrated his first mass. In the following November, he sailed for Europe, and going to Rome, passed two years in the schools of the Ro- man College. On his return to New York he was placed in charge of St. Joseph's Church, where he remained for seven years, except the niiu; months he occupied the position of President of St. John's College, JOHN Mc CLOSKET. Fordliam, New York, then just going into operation. He was conse- crated Bishop of Axiere by Bishop Hughes, on the 10th of March, 1844, and became coadjutor of the officiating prelate. In 1847, when the Diocese of Albany was established, he was placed in charge. In July of the following year, he laid the corner-stone of the large edifice known as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which was completed in the fall of 1853. In 1851, the Academy of St. Joseph, in Troy, under the care of the Christian Brothers, was opened ; and a hospital was established by the Sisters of Charity. In 1852, a Female Seminary was founded in Albany, by a colony of Sisters of the Sacred Heart ; and in 1855, an Academy for boys was opened at Utica. Bishop McCloskey labored unceasingly in the Diocese of Albany for more than seventeen years. After the death of Archbishop Hughes, Bishop McCloskey was selected by the Pope to become his successor. His installation as Arch- bishop of the Archdiocese of New York took place before a vast audi- ence at St. Patrick's Cathedral, on Sunday, the 21st of August, 1864:. His appointment was dated May, 1804. After his elevation to the See of New York, he gave special attention and devoted much of his pri- vate means to the completion of the new St. Patrick's Cathedral, the corner-stone of which had been laid with imposing ceremonies in 1858. This cathedral, a noble marble edifice in the Gothic style, is situated on Fifth Avenue, in the immediate vicinity of the Central Park, and is now (1878) fast approaching completion. In point of magnificence this structure vies with the most famous cathedrals of Europe, and has no equal in the United States. Having been built by voluntary con- tributions from all the churches of the Archdiocese, it is essentially a cathedral church, and as such will perpetually remain — as its founder designed it should remain — a free church. In the Consistory, held at the Vatican, on the 15th of March, 1875, Archbishop McCloskey was raised to the dignity of Cardinal. The ceremony of imposing the berretta took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, on the 27th of April, 1875. The occasion drew to- gether a greater number of high dignitaries of the Catholic Church than had ever before assembled in America. Shortly after being raised to the Cardinalate he visited Rome to receive formally the Cardinal's hat from the Sovereign Pontiff, according to the usages of the Church. Cardinal McCloskey has made several visits to Rome in connection with his labors. The occasion of his last visit being a summons to at- tend the Conclave convened to elect a successor to Pius IX. "If with my small strength. I can Bo anything worthy of such a cause I am determined. Hereafter I may feel more a man if I shall have assisted in putting down this -vile Rebellion" Last Letter 03 tus2&ffi£r AIDE TO CAP T WD. PORTER-US GUHBOAT ESSEX- FT. HENRY FEB. 5 1862. SAMUEL BYRON BRITTAN, Jr. This brave, sincere, and high-minded youth was born in P>ridgepo:t, Connecticut, on the 17th of June, 1S45. lie was of a prepossessirg person and manners, and was alike admired and beloved. His sym- metrical and muscular proportions, and his manly deportment, not less than his courage and intelligence, presented all the characteristics of an early and vigorous manhood. On the fall of Sumter, young Br ittan, though less than sixteen years of age, manifested an intense desire to enlist as a private soldier in the Union army, insisting that he could better go than those who had fam- ily responsibilities; but his father was unwilling, owing to his son's ex- treme youth, and the latter yielded to parental advice. Subsequently, Captain "William D. Porter, of the " Essex, 1 ' offered him the situation of aide and private secretary, and, with the consent of his parents, it was accepted. On the 24th of October, 1861, Flag-Officer Foote com- missioned him a master's mate in the western gunboat squadron ; and on Tuesday, the 12th of November, the young hero bade an affectionate adieu to his parents, his sisters, and his brothers, and left his home at Irvington — alas! never to return. On the 6th of February, 1862, Flag-Officer Foote attacked Fort Henry, and then was fought the death-fight of our brave " boy-hero." Twenty minutes before the surrender of the fort, standing forward on tiie gun-deck, Captain Porter and his aide were watching the terrific effect of their firing on the fortifications. At this moment, a forty-two- pound shot from the enemy's works, entering directly over the forward port gun, struck the young midshipman, taking off the posterior and coronal portions of his head, and passing on through the bulkhead, de- signed to protect the machinery, entered the middle boiler, and, releas- ing the fiery demon within, carried deatli to several others on board. The young officer died instantly, while thus nobly employed at the poet of duty, and with his face to the foe. SAMUEL BTEOlf BRITTO, JE. BOY BEITTAN. BY FORCEYTIIE WILLSON. Boy Brittan — only a lad — a fair-haired boy — sixteen, In his uniform ! Into the storm — into the roaring jaws of grim Fort Henry — Boldy bears the Federal flotilla — Into the battle-storm ! Boy Brittan is Master's mate aboard of the Essex, There he stands buoyant and eager-eyed, By the brave Captain's side ; Ready to do and dare — aye, aye, sir, always ready — In his country's uniform ! Boom ! boom ! and now the flag-boat sweeps, and now the Essex, Into the battle-storm 1 See, boy Brittan, see, Boy, see ! They strike ! Hurrah ! the Fort has just surrendered ! Shout ! shout ! my Boy, my warrior Boy ! And wave your cap, and clap your hands for joy ! Cheer answer cheer, and bear the cheer about — Hurrah ! hurrah ! for the fiery Fort is ours ; And " Victory ! " " Victory ! " " Victory ! " Is the shout. Shout — for the fiery Fort, and the field, and the day, are ours — The day is ours — thanks to the brave endeavor Of heroes, Boy, like thee ! Victory ! Victory ! But suddenly wrecked and wrapped in seething steam, the Essex Slowly drifted out of the battle-storm ; Slowly, slowly — down, laden with the dead and the dying ; And there, at the Captain's feet, among the dead and the dying, The shot-marred form of a beautiful Boy is lying — There in his uniform ! Laurels and tears for thee, Boy, Laurels and tears for thee ! Laurels of light moist with the precious dew Of the inmost heart of the Nation's loving heart, And blest by the balmy breath of the Beautiful and the T-ue ; Moist— moist with the luminous breath of the singing spheres And the nation's starry tears ! And tremble-touched by the pulse-like gush and start Of the universal music of the heart, And all deep sympathy. Laurels and tears for thee, Boy, Laurels and tears for thee — Laurels of light, and tears of love, for evermore, For thee. MORRISON REMICK WAITE. A more ancient and honorable name than that of Waite can hardly be found. It appears it was originally written Wayte, but in modern time* was changed to its present form. The settlement of the family in this country dates back more than two centuries. A Thomas Waite, born in Massachusetts, in 1677, settled in Lyme, Connecticut, when a young man. One of his descendants was the late Henry Watson Waite, Chief Justice of Connecticut, one of the ablest lawyers of the first half of this century. After serving several years in the State Legislature, and holding the office of judge of the Supreme and Supe- rior Courts, he was, in 1854, elected to a seat on the State bench. A well-known jurist says of him, " He contributed his full share to the character of a court whose decisions are quoted and opinions respected in all the courts of the United States, and in the highest courts of Eng- land. 1 ' "lie was highly cultivated by study, chose to use his means for educational and religious purposes, and to help others, rather than in a pretentious mode of living; was social in his tastes, and enjoyed the perfect confidence of the entire community. His wife was of the first order of intellect, and, sympathizing in his pursuits, contributed largely to his professional successes. A fit mother was she, indeed, for her distinguished son." This son, the present Chief Justice, Morrison R. Waite, was born in Lyme, on the 29th of November, 1816. Graduating from Yale Col- lege, he commenced the study of law with his father, who had also been a graduate of that institution. His studies were completed in the office of the lion. Samuel M. Young, of Maumee City, Ohio. With that gentleman he subsequently formed a partnership that was success- fully continued for many years. Mr. Waite's wife was a Miss x\melia C. Warner, of Lyme, Connecticut. They removed to Toledo about 1850. Mr. Waite's reputation as an able lawyer steadily increasing, he MORRISON RE MICK WAITE. attained an immense and valuable practice, and became the acknowl- edged leader of the Ohio bar. " He was one whose clearness and dexterity of intellect had never failed to bring order out of confusion in the most complicated law cases which had been placed in his hands. He was, moreover, a thorough gentleman, with an acute sense of justice, strong opinions, sound judgment, and a spotless private record." A seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court of Ohio was offered him, but he declined. He had also been frequently urged to accept a nomi- nation to Congress. Though taking little part in public affairs, he did, in a few instances, serve the government, discharging his duties in a most fitting and acceptable manner. In 1871 he was one of the counsel of the United States at the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva, where he won special praise for his labor in the commission ; in 1873 he was elected to the Constitutional Convention of Ohio by the unanimous vote of both political parties. The last and greatest token of approval and confidence conferred upon him, was his appointment to the office of Chief Justice of the United States. The circumstances attending it were the most flattering. " An American citizen was elevated to one of the most dignified and important judicial offices in the world with- out a dissenting voice. When the nomination was announced, a flood of surprise seemed to drown captious politicians and impatient office- seekers. The choice had, singularly enough, fallen outside of their ranks. Ere they came to the surface, Congress had bowed its lofty head to merit, the newspaper press had despairingly confessed its ina- bility to find any fault with the nominee, and the question had rung through the length and breadth of the land, and been satisfactorily answered, ' What manner of man is he who is to be henceforth the custodian of the liberties of forty millions of people ? ' " Mr. Waite took the oath of office, March 4, 1874, and immediately entered upon the duties of his high office. " Chief Justice Waite is so rounded in character and culture, that there are few salient points to seize for purposes of description. He is of medium height, broad physique, square shoulders, large and well poised head, hair and whiskers slightly flecked with gray, complexion heavy, eyes dark and piercing, and mouth indicative of decision. His general bearing is firm and self-possessed." lie has the logical skill, the judicial temper, and the just mind which combine to make the jurist. In addition to these high professional qualities, he is distin- guished for a large humanity, a generous nature, and a loyalty to hia convictions, which make him beloved and respected as a man. JOSEPH HOOKER. Major-General Joseph IIooklr, of the United States Army, was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, in the year 1814. He graduated with honors from the West Point Military Academy, in 1837, and received the commission of second-lieutenant in the first artillery. In 1838, pro- moted to first-lieutenant; and from 1841 to 1845, he ranked as regi- mental adjutant. When the war with Mexico broke out, he resigned his adjutancy, and obtained leave of absence to report to General Tay- lor, then on the Rio Grande ; he served throughout the war in various capacities, with seven different generals, commencing as lieutenant and ending as lieutenant-colonel, having received three promotions. In 1848 he vacated his regimental commission and accepted the appoint- ment of assistant adjutant-general, with rank of captain, which position he continued to fill until 1853, when he resigned while on duty in Cali- fornia, and became a farmer in Sonoma, on the Bay of San Francisco. At the first reverberation of the artillery of Fort Sumter upon the shores of the Pacific, unwilling to believe up to that moment that our people would deliberately embark in the business of killing one another, he took the first steamer for the East, and, on his arrival there, was appointed by the President a brigadier-general in the volunteer service of the United States and placed in command of a brigade in the Army of the Potomac, which soon obtained the well-earned sobriquet of " Hooker's Fighting Brigade." He was subsequently put in com- mand of a division ; and from July, 1861, to the following February, lie was in Southern Maryland on the north shore of the Potomac. He accompanied M'Clellan to the Peninsula, and took a prominent part in the whole campaign, winning fresh laurels in every engagement. The battle of Williamsburg, on the 5th of May, was one of the most stubborn and hard-fought battles of the war. With but eight thousand men, General Hooker held in check the combined divisions of Longstreet and Hill, numbering twenty thousand men, from early morning until near the close of the day, when Kearney came so gallantly to his assistance. JOSEPH HOOKER. At Fair Oaks lie was placed in front of the enemy, and repeatedly drove back their reconnoitering forces, not once being driven from any position he took. In the various minor contests he took his part, and bravely went through with his share of the Seven Days 1 Fights. At Nelson's Farm, and at Malvern Hill, his fighting division never fal- tered, but stood their ground nobly, and repulsed the enemy whenever they attempted to advance. For "gallant and meritorious conduct" in this disastrous campaign, General Hooker was promoted to the rank of major-general of volunteers. lie bore a distinguished part in the second battle of Bull Run, where he commanded the forces in and around Fairfax : and at the battle of Antietam he commanded the riffht wins:. For nearly the whole day, he fought the Confederate Army single- handed, meeting the shock without flinching, and driving them back full a mile, when he was shot in the foot by a rifle ball, and compelled to leave the held. The wound disabled him from duty for several weeks. In September, 1S62, he was made a brigadier-general in the regular army of the United States, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the fall of the veteran general, Mansfield. It was a just and well-earned tribute. He was soon after assigned the centre grand division of the army of the Potomac, and succeeded General Burnside, in the chief command, in January, 1S63. Crossing the Rappahannock, April 27th, he was attacked in his position at Chancellorsville, May 2d and 3d, and from the untoward procedure of some of his corps commanders determined to recross the river. In June, having discovered that he stood in the way to the accomplishment of the destiny of the army of the Potomac, he asked to be relieved from that command, and was succeeded by General Meade. Soon after he was ordered to the West, in command of the 11th and 12th Corps, Army of the Potomac, and fought the battle of Lookout Mountain, which was the first assurance General Grant received of his success in his operations around Chattanooga. Afterwards, General Hooker was heard to exclaim " that if his enemies had knocked him out of one great battle, he had been helped into an- other, more picturesque and ideal, if not more professional and scien- tific." He continued in this army under General Sherman, rendering services fully appreciated and admired by his companions, up to the very walls of Atlanta. He was afterwards placed in command of the Department of the Lakes, and on the conclusion of the war was assign- ed to the command of the Atlantic division, headquarters, New York City, since which time he was placed, at his own request, on the army retired list. MATTHEW VASSiR. In the coming years, when colleges and institutions for the higher education of women shall have become so universal that the fact that these privileges were once denied them shall be all but forgotten, the women of America will recall with grateful emotions the name of Matthew Vassar. To him they are indebted for the establishment of the first College for "Women. Mr. Vassar never had cause to regret the act. That the end for which the institution was designed and established has been and is being accomplished, the trial of more than a dozen years proves conclusively. The incidents in the life of Mr. Yassar, and the causes that led him to establish the college, are full of interest. He was born in Norfolk County, England, on the 29th of April, 1792, and came to America with his parents and uncle in 1797. They bought a farm of a hundred and fifty acres near Poughkeepsie. Here they planted the first field of barley ever seen in Duchess County, and soon had some fine home- brewed ale for family use and for sale. James Vassar, father of Mat- thew, became a brewer in Poughkeepsie. Matthew did not care to assist his father in the business, and fancying still less an arrangement which was made to apprentice him to a tanner, he started out alone to find employment. He was fortunate enough to secure a position at once in a country store in a little settlement two miles north of New- burgh. He remained there three years, and then entered the store of another merchant. Returning home after an absence of four years, he entered his father's establishment as bookkeeper and collector. His father had been most successful in his business, but shortly after his son's return he met with heavy losses which reduced him to compara- tive poverty. Matthew, after these misfortunes, began brewing ale himself, at first making but three barrels at a time. The business com- menced on this humble scale grew in the course of years into a large and flourishing one. After more than fifty years' experience, during which time he had taken several partners for short periods, Mr. Vassar, MATTHEW VASSAR. now the possessor of a large fortune, sold his interest to a nephew and retired from active business. In 1845, Mr. Vassar and his wife sailed for Europe, where they spent several months in travelling. While in London the frequent visits made to Guy's Hospital, an institution founded by a kinsman of his, suggested a plan to Mr. Vassar's ever active mind. It was "to devote a large portion of his own fortune, in his life-time, to some benevolent purpose." Several years passed after his return from Europe before he decided what it should be. In the meantime several projects were contemplated. Finally, at the suggestion of his niece, Lydia Booth, who was principal of a young ladies' seminary in Poughkeepsie, he concluded to erect and endow a college for young women. Twenty- eight persons were chosen by him to constitute the body corporate of the college, and to be its first trustees. After a careful preparation for the great enterprise, the act for the incorporation of " Vassar Female College " was passed on the ISth of January, 1861. The title was afterwards changed to ''Vassar College." The site was selected, and on June 4th, of the same year, Mr. Vassar with his own hands broke ground for the building. In less than four years from that date it was completed; and on the 20th of September, 1805, the first collegiate year of Vassar College was begun. Mr. Vassar lived to see his great work accomplished. Up to the last moment of his life he was actively engaged in its behalf. On June 26, 1868, while reading his annual address to the Board of Trus- tees at their stated meeting, the MS. fell from his hands, and Mr. Ben- son J. Lossing (one of the trustees) caught his lifeless form in his arms. Vassar College is situated on a farm of about two hundred acres, lying two miles east of the city of Poughkeepsie. The college building is nearly five hundred feet in length. Near by are an Astronomical Observatory and a Gymnasium. The college has a libraiy of 10,000 volumes, also a valuable Art Gallery and Museum. In the latter there is an almost complete collection of North American birds, and a very full one of South American birds. In his will, Mr. Vassar left $150,- 000 to be divided into three equal parts ; the income of $50,000 to be used as an " auxiliary fund ; " that is, to assist deserving pupils who may have become pecuniarily disabled, to complete the college course ; the income of $50,000 for the increase of the library, and to advance the usefulness of the philosophical cabinets and apparatus ; and the in- come of $50,000 for an annual course of lectures. f WASHINGTON ALLSTON. Few of the many who have received the name of the " Father of his Country" were more worthy to bear it than Washington Allston. Though his tastes and talents were entirely unlike those of George Washington, he, in a different way, succeeded in winning a name and a place of distinction in the annals of the great men of America. This gifted painter and poet was a descendant of a well-known family of South Carolina. lie was born in Georgetown, on the 5th of November, 1779. From considerations of health he was sent to New- port, Rhode Island, where he spent his early boyhood. While at school in this place he formed the acquaintance of Edward G. Mai bone, the portrait painter, and his artistic love of nature, music, poetry, and painting was first developed. When seventeen, he entered Harvard College, at which institution his education was completed. Resolving to make his favorite occupation, painting, his profession, he disposed of his property, and early in 1801 sailed for London. In order to cultivate his love of the art, he at once became a student at the Royal Academy, then under the presidency of his distinguished countryman, Benjamin West. At the end of a three years' course he visited France and Italy, making a lengthy sojourn of four years in Rome. While pursuing his study there, he distinguished himself so greatly as a color- ist that he gained the title of the American Titian. During his eight years' residence abroad he familiarized himself with the works of the great masters. He also enjoyed the society of some of the most cele- brated poets and painters of England and the Continent. It is said that no private American ever made a better or more lasting impres- sion abroad than Mr. Allston did. In 1809 he made a brief visit to the land of his birth, and was united in marriage to a sister of Dr. Wil- liam Ellery Channing, the distinguished Unitarian divine. Shortly after, he returned to Europe, took up his abode in London, remaining there for the space of seven years, during which time he wrote " The WASHINGTON ALLSTOK. Sylphs of the Seasons " and other poems, besides producing some of his best pictures. These works are of great merit, and are founded for the most part on subjects taken from sacred history. Two of these, u The Dead Man revived by touching the Bones of Elijah," and " The Angel Uriel in the Sun," obtained for the artist valuable prizes from the British Gallery. All of his works met with a ready sale. His wife died soon after they reached London, and Mr. Allston, not enjoying good health, returned to America in 1818. Going to Boston, he made his home in that city- a number of years. Among the many pictures he produced while there are " Jeremiah " and " Saul and the Witch of Endor." In 1830 he married a sister of his friend Mr. Richard II. Dana, the poet, and removed to Cambridge, where he built himself a house and studio. This place he made his residence for the remainder of his life. He now devoted some of his time to his pen, and the ele- gance of his prose has been surpassed by few. He prepared a series of lectures on art, and published a romance, "Monaldi," a story of Italian life. Mr. Allston died at his house in Cambridge, on the 9th of July, 1S43. During the last twenty-five years of his life he had occupied himself from time to time on his great painting of " Belshaz- zar's Feast." This was a work of large size, and he intended it should be his masterpiece. But his ill-health, together with his exacting and exalted taste, prevented a i - apid progress, and though the last week of his life was spent upon it, it was left unfinished, " a splendid specimen of his genius." " Allston's works are not numerous, considering the extent of his career, but bear the imprint of an original and artistic mind. Had he possessed the moral courage and the physical ability to embody on the canvas his own conceptions, he would have proved one of the most prolific and imaginative artists of the age. No American painter has yet approached him in the delineation of sacred history." Professor Shedd observed, " he accomplished so little because he thought so much." Mr. Allston's conversational powers were of a high order, and he was a man of fine literary tastes. His associates had always been the best and wdsest men of both continents, and by them he was mourned no less as a man of fine traits of character than as a gifted painter. SABflQJtEO. DOQjraTTORJffiTrtlDH. D.1L.DD. 3OVERN0R 01' CONNECTICUT AND PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. The Huntingtons were among the early settlers of Connecticut, Samuel Huntington was born at Windham, Connecticut, on the 2d of July, 1732. His father, Nathaniel Huntington, was a plain, industrious farmer, and the only education he was able to give the son in whom we are particularly interested, was that to be obtained in the common schools in their neighborhood. Three other sons, however, were gradu- ated at Yale College, and entered the ministry. Samuel, who was naturally very studious, and the possessor of an active, energetic mind, availed himself of every opportunity to increase his store of knowledge. Though steadily engaged in farm labor nntil he reached the age of twenty-two, he succeeded in acquiring a pretty thorough knowledge of the Latin language. His clear judgment enabled him to select profi- table reading matter, and his close observance of men and things gave him as much of an acquaintance with the ways of the world as many a man in more advantageous circumstances possessed. Too much honor and admiration cannot be given to one who, like him, rising from a comparatively humble sphere in life, overcomes, by his own exertions, obstacle after obstacle standing in the way to advancement and success, and finally becomes one of the most useful and eminent men of his time. Having a strong desire to make law his profession, he relinquished his former occupation, and commenced the study of it at home. Bor- rowing books of Zedekiah Elderkin, of the Norwich bar, with no in- structor but himself, he succeeded, in spite of many difficulties, in mas- tering the elementary books. He was admitted to the bar, and opened an office in his native town, where he obtained a good practice. Re- moving to Norwich, in 1760, he established himself as a lawyer, and found a much wider field for his talents. Within the following year or two he married Martha, the daughter of Reverend Ebenezer Devo- tion. SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. In 1761 Mr. Huntington was elected to the General Assembly oi Connecticut, and the next year he was appointed State Attorney. He was also chosen a member of the Council. In 1774 he received the appointment of Associate Judge of the Superior Court, and in 1776 was appointed one of the delegates from Connecticut in the General Congress. An ardent, sincere patriot, he was willing and glad to do all in his power to aid the American cause in the great struggle then being carried on, and voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence. He continued in Congress until his poor health forced him to resign the important position as President of Congress, to which office he had been called to succeed John Jay in 1779. Two years later his resigna- tion took place, and with great reluctance his services were dispensed with, although it was hoped his retirement would not be permanent. During the time he spent in Congress he continued the duties of the offices he held in the Council and on the bench. In 1783 he again took his seat in Congress, but, at the expiration of that session, declined a re-election. Retiring to his family, he now hoped to be able to enjoy the quiet and repose of private life. This he was not permitted to do, for soon after his return he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supe- rior Court of his State. The following year he w r as elected Lieutenant- Governor, and in 1786 he became Governor of Connecticut. He was still holding this office when his death took place at Norwich, on the 6th of January, 1796. He was then in his sixty-fourth year. Mr. Huntington is described as a man of middle stature, with dark complexion and keen eyes. His countenance was expressive of the many good qualities which distinguished him in public and private life. " Governor Huntington lived the life of the irreproachable and sincere Christian, and those who knew him most intimately loved him the most affectionately. He was a thoughtful man, and talked but little ; the expression of his mind and heart was put forth in his actions. He seemed to have a natural timidity, or modesty, which some mistook for the reserve of haughtiness ; yet with those with whom he was familiar, he was free and winning in his manners. Investigation was a promi- nent characteristic of his mind, and when this faculty led him to a con- clusion it was difficult to turn him from the path of his determination. Hence, as a devoted Christian and a true patriot, he never swerved from duty, or looked back after he had placed his hand to the work." JOHN CABELL BRECKINRIDGE. John C. Breckinridge, an American politician and soldier, and a ^ruiy representative man of his time, was born near Lexington, Ken- tucky, on the 21st of January, 1821. lie was a nephew of the distin- guished divines, the. Rev. John Brechin ridge, D.D., and the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge. His father, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, who died when he was only three years old, was Secretary of State of Ken- tucky, and a man of high standing in public affairs. On his mother's side he was descended from John Witherspoon and Samuel Stanhope Smith, one of whom was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and both presidents of Princeton College. Young Breckinridge gradu- ated from Centre College, Kentucky ; enjoyed the benefit of a few months at Princeton, as a resident graduate ; studied law at Transylva- nia Institute; and was admitted to the bar, and entered immediately on the practice of his profession. During the Mexican War Mr. Breckinridge rendered creditable ser- vice as a major of infantry. Soon after his icturn he was elected to the Kentucky Legislature. In 1S51 he was chosen to Congress, and in 1853 was re-elected, after a violent and protracted contest. His career in Congress was marked by a devoted attention to his legislative duties. It w r as during his successive terms in Congress that the Kansas-Nebraska agitation, caused by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, took place. Mr. Breckinridge took an active part in the discussion, and his great speech on the question of territorial power was made March 23d, 1854. It is remarkable "for its clear statement of the legislation of Congress at critical periods of our history, and its powerful analysis of the mo- tives and movements of parties." When President Pierce came into office he tendered to Mr. Breck- inridge the Ministry to Spain, but family matters necessitated his de- clining the honor. He was a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention in June, 1856, and was r :minated for Vice-President on the ticket wi"tl< JOHN CABELL BEECKIIf EID6E, Mr. Buchanan as President. He was elected in November, 1S56, hav- ing received one hundred and seventy-three electoral votes. As presid- ing officer of the United States Senate, he took the chair of that body sarly in the first session of the Thirty-fifth Congress, and, with some in- termission caused by illness in his family, presided during the stormy session which preceded the war. In the Presidential contest of 1860 there were four tickets in the field — Mr. Breckinridge receiving the Democratic nomination for Presi- dent, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President. He received the electoral votes of all the Southern States except Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. The same year, however, his party in his na- tive State gave proof of its confidence in him by nominating him for the United States Senate, and he was successfully elected to succeed John C. Crittenden from the 4th of March, 1S61. While occupying his seat as Senator he openly defended the Southern Confederacy, and when Kentucky, the State he represented, annonnced her determination of remaining in the Union, he felt called upon to separate himself from the interests of his native State, and from those of the Union at the same time. Accordingly he left the Senate, went South, and offered his services to the Confederate Government. They being accepted he received the commission of Brigadier-General, and was appointed to take command of a brigade of Kentuckians. He soon rose to the rank of Major-General. During the first year of the war he was repulsed in an attack on Baton Rouge. Near the end of 1862 he commanded a corps under Bragg at Stone River (this was one of the most desperate con- tests of the war), and participated in the battle of Chickamauga in September, 1863 ; defeated General Sigel at Newmarket in May, 1864; took part in Early's advance upon Washington in July of that year, and shared in his defeat near Winchester in September. In Jan- uary, 1865, General Breckinridge was made Confederate Secretary of War, a post which the character of his mind and the experience of his life qualified him to fill. Shortly after his appointment the surrender of General Lee took place, and with it the downfall of the cause he had espoused. Upon the close of the war he immediately went to Europe, and, after spending some time there and In Canada, he returned to his home in Lexington, Kentucky, where he passed the remainder of his life in retirement. Always a favorite of society, he was admired as one of the handsomest men in the Confederacy. Dignified in manner ; perfect and well-proportioned in form, with deep-set eyes, large and brilliant, while the lower features showed the clear-cut marks of noble blood. THOMAS HART BENTON. In examining the records of the lives of the distinguished states- men who have figured upon the political stage in this country, we find, prominent, among the most eminent, the name of Thomas Hart Benton. " Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Benton, and Cass were to the United States Senate what the five senses are to the human system." Thomas Benton was born near Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina, on the 14th of March, 1782. He studied for some time at a grammar school, and afterwards at Chapel Hill College, but did not however complete the full course, owing to his removal to Tennessee. He studied law under Mr. St. George Tucker, entered the United States army in 1810, and in 1811 commenced the practice of law in Nashville, Tennessee. He rose rapidly in his profession, and served one term in the legislature, where he procured the passage of a law reform- ing the judicial system, and one giving slaves the benefit of a jury trial. About this time he became intimate with Andrew Jackson, who had been raised to the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, and was Major-General of the State militia. Removing to St. Louis, he established the " Missouri Enquirer," also practising law. Upon the conclusion of the struggle for the admission of Missouri into the Union, Mr. Benton took his seat in the United States Senate as one of the first representatives of the new State. He retained that position, by constant re-election, for a period of thirty years, during which time he took a leading part in the discus- sion of the great questions which came before that body. By the aid of his energy, iron will, and self-reliance, he rose to be one of the most active and influential members. He opposed the administration of Adams, but strongly supported those of Jackson and Yan Buren. Upon the United States Bank question he made several elaborate speeches. He was the advocate of a railroad to the Pacific, and did much to open up and protect the trade with New Mexico, to establish THOMAS HART BENTON. military stations on the Missouri, to cultivate and retain friendly relations with the Indians, and promote the commerce of our inland seas. He moved and successfully carried the expunging of the resolu- tion of censure upon his friend President Jackson. He supported the Mexican War, opposed the Compromise Measures of 1850, because he thought the fugitive slave law clause defective and ill-judged. He strongly opposed nullification, and in 1850 was defeated for the Senate by the ultra-slavery men of his party. Two years later, Mr. Benton was elected to the House of Represent- atives, where he distinguished himself in opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Bill as a violation of the Missouri Compromise. In 1854 he failed of re-election as a member of Congress. In 1856 he became candidate for Governor of Missouri, but was defeated in spite of his exertions in canvassing the State. In the Presidential election of the same year he supported Buchanan in opposition to his own son-in-law, Fremont. After his retirement from active public service, he devoted the re- mainder of his life to literary pursuits. The record of his political experiences he published in a work entitled " Thirty Years 1 View ; or, a History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850." His opportunities as an actor and eye-witness gave him great advantages in writing it. It contained his best speeches, trilmtes to the public men with whom he was associated, and warm personal notices of his friends; 65,000 volumes were sold as soon as published. Win. Cullen Bryant wrote : " The literary execution of this work, the simplicity of its style, and the unexceptional taste which tempers all its author's allusions to his contemporaries, have been the subject of universal admiration." While the second volume was in preparation, his manuscripts and books were destroyed by fire. He at once wrote to bis publishers, stating his loss, and that his labor would be doubled, but that he would "go to work immediately and work incessantly." After its completion he entered upon another work, the " Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1850," con- sisting of fifteen volumes. In this work, even at the advanced age of seventy -six, his daily labors were almost incredible ; it was finally com- pleted down to the conclusion of the great compromise debate of 1850 — even upon his very death-bed he dictated and revised the final portions in whispers, after he had lost the ability to speak aloud. Mr. Benton died in Washington, on the 10th of April, 1858. In personal appearance he was short and stout, with a magnificent head, gray eyes, Roman nose and a face beaming with intellect. JOHN WAKEFIELD FRANCIS. John W. Francis, M.D., LL.D., one of the most distinguished American physicians, was horn in New York City on the 17th of November, 1789. His father was a native of Nuremberg, Germany, who came to this country some half dozen years before the birth of his son John. That son, the eldest, after receiving the usual early educa- tion attended the school under the charge of the Rev. George Strebeck, and subsequently pursued his classical studies with the Rev. John Con- roy. In 1809 he graduated at Columbia College, from which, in 1812, he received the degree of Master of Arts. While he was still an undergraduate he commenced the study of medicine with the cele- brated Dr. Hosack. " During the period of his professional studies for four collegiate years, he never absented himself from a single lec- ture, nor attended one without making notes or abstracts on the subject taught by the lecturer." In 1811 young Francis received his degree of M.D. from the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons. lie was the first upon whom the degree was conferred by the institution, which had been established four years previous. After a few months' practice Dr. Hosack offered him a co-partnership in business, which he accepted. The connection continued till 1820. In 1813 Dr. Francis was appointed lecturer on Medicine and Materia Medica, in the College of Physicians and Sur- geons and Columbia College, the medical faculty of which were about that time united. His popularity gained him the position of President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, as successor to Dr. Mitchill. " Anx- ious to transplant to his native soil whatever was valuable in the renowned medical schools of Europe, he left home for a tour in Scot- land, Ireland, Holland, and France, and derived profitable themes of meditation and practice from the friendly converse of the celebrated Abernethy, Gregory, Jamieson, Denon, Gall, Cuvier, and other bene factors of the science and erudition of their race." JOHN WAKEFIELD FRANCIS. Dr. Francis returned to New York, bringing with him the founda tion of a valuable library. Upon his arrival he was at once appointed Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the College : and on the death of Dr. Stringham, in 1817, he succeeded him in the department of Medical Jurisprudence. In 1819 he became Professor of Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence, which appointment he held until 1S26. About that time he, with several other professors of the College, founded and organized Rutgers Medical College. This institution was closed after being carried on successfully for four terms. "While Dr. Francis held these professional positions and filled them with industry and ability, he was engaged in an extensive and increas- ing practice. In addition to his arduous professional duties, he was also continually engaged in literary pursuits. He was a ready and eloquent writer upon whatever subject employed his pen. He was particularly eminent as a biographer, especially of distinguished men with whom he was acquainted ; and no one man ever made so many and excellent contributions to the treasury of American biography as he. His essays and discourses, on a great variety of topics, occupy a large space in our literature. He was an ardent lover and patron of art, and the deserving man of genius, however humble, always found in him a benefactor and friend. He was honored and beloved by all of the literary men and artists of his day ; and men of science esteemed him highly for his genial sympathy in their labors." In 1S10 he founded, in conjunction with Dr. Ilosack, the American Medical and Philosophical Register, which he continued through four annual volumes. One of his latest and most attractive works, a gather- ing of the personal reminiscences of his life, " Old New York," grew out of an elaborate address before the New York Historical Society, of which he had been one of the founders. lie was also greatly interested in the New York Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Design, and other institutions. He was a member of many Medical and Philosophical Associations both abroad and at home. In 1850 he received the degree of LL.D. from Trinity College, Connecticut ; and in 1860, from Columbia College, New York. Socially, Dr. Francis was a general favorite, and in the gatherings at his house all were met with a frank hospitality. Not only his im- mediate friends and associates, but all the citizens of New York City, were called upon to mourn, in his death, which took place on the 8th oi February, 1861, the loss of the estimable physician and kindly philan- thropist. HORACE GREELEY. Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, February 3, 1811. He was a delicate child, and unusually precocious. He received but a limited common- school education although he commenced his school life when he was barely three years old. His parents having removed to Vermont, young Horace Greeley obtained employment in Poultney as an appren- tice in the office of the Northern Spectator, where he soon became an expert workman, and occasionally assisted in editing the paper. There was plenty of hard work to do in the office, yet he found time to keep up his reading and studies and to take part in the village debating society, where he was noted for his familiarity with political statistics. Soon after he was apprenticed his father and family went to Erie County, Pennsylvania, to live, and he made them two visits there, walking a large part of the way. His father was a poor man who had a hard struggle to obtain a living from his farm. The Spectator fail- ing in 1830, on August 17 of the following year, Horace Greeley found himself in New York City with but ten dollars in his pocket. Having no friends to aid him he spent three days in a search for employment, and finally obtaining work as a journeyman printer, he continued thus employed for eighteen months. A young man of his diligence, ability, and integrity could hardly fail to rise as time went on. He was suc- cessively editor of the Morning Post, a short-lived penny paper; the New Yorker, which met with marked success ; the Log-Cabin, an extremely popular sheet, advocating the election of President Harri- son ; and lastly, of his greatest enterprise, the New York Tribune. The first number of that independent and spirited journal appeared on Sat- urday, April 10,. 1S11. He will be remembered also as an eminent author, as well as journalist. " His writings have many characteristics in common with those of the elder printer, Franklin ; but at no sacri- fice of spirit or originality, because the very outbreathings of an intense individuality." In 1850, " Hints toward Reforms," consisting mainly HORACE GREELEY. of lectures and addresses, appeared ; it was followed by " Glances at Europe ; " his " History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension " was published in 1856 ; in 1860, " Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco," a series of letters reprinted from the Tribune ; in 1864-6 " The American Conflict," in two volumes ; in 1868 " Eecol- lections of a Busy Life," a series of autobiographical reminiscences, parts of which had been previously contributed to tbe columns of the New York Ledger ; in 1870 " Essays Designed to Elucidate the Science of Political Economy," and in 1871 " What I Know of Farming." " The Tribune Admanac," a political and statistical annual, circulated from fifty to a hundred thousand copies annually. In 1848 Mr. Greeley was elected to the House of Representatives, tc fill a vacancy. During the three months that he served he distin- guished himself by exposing and denouncing the abuses of the mileage system, but more through the columns of his paper than from his place on the floor of the house. In 1851 he visited Europe, and was chairman of one of the juries of the World's Fair at London. In 1855 he made a second trip to Europe. In 1859 he went to California bj the overland route, had public receptions and delivered addresses ic San Francisco and elsewhere. When the late civil war seemed immi- nent, Mr. Greeley at first advocated a peaceable division ; but after the opening of hostilities he urged a vigorous prosecution. At the close of the war, he pleaded for immediate conciliation. In May, 1867, he signed his name on the bail-bond which restored Jefferson Davis, the former President of the short-lived Confederacy, to liberty, after his two years' imprisonment in Fortress Monroe. This act, which was an entirely unselfish one, made him many bitter enemies at the North, and lost him much patronage. Horace Greeley was " pure, simple, and conscientious in character. He had a peculiar disregard for dress, and neglected many of the courtesies of society, but was a true gentleman at heart, and possessed rare gifts in conversation." He was very fond of agriculture, and spent his leisure days on his farm at Chappaqua. In 1872, the liberal republican party, consisting of republicans opposed to the administra- tion, nominated him for the presidential term commencing 1873. The democrats indorsed the nomination. The republicans renominated President Grant, who was elected. Just before the close of the can vass his wife died, and this sad event, together with the desertion of friends and the excitement of the contest, proved too much for his ex- hausted body and mind. He died November 29, 1S72. EDWARD DICKINSON BAKER. The subject of this sketch, though of foreign birth, has become one of the martyrs of our liberty by laying down his life so freely in its defence. Struggling nobly against poverty in his early life, the poor "weaver became one of the greatest statesmen, one of the bravest soldiers, one of the truest patriots that our free institutions have yet developed. He was born in London, England, February 24, 1811. The family emigrated to the United States in 1815, settling in Phila- delphia. Early left an orphan, he obtained an education under many difficulties. In 1825 young Baker, with his brother, crossed the Alle- ghanies on foot, and passing down the Wabash in a canoe, settled on the almost unbroken prairies of Illinois ; first studied for the ministry, but soon turned his attention to the law ; was admitted to practice at Belle- ville, Illinois ; removed to Springfield, Illinois. He was elected mem- ber of the Legislature in 1837, of the State Senate in 1810, and repre- sentative in Congress in 1844. On the breaking out of the Mexican war he resigned his seat in Congress, became the colonel of a regi- ment, and was under General Taylor at the siege of Vera Cruz. When General Shields was wounded at Cerro Gordo, the gallant Baker became the commander of his brigade. At the close of hostilities, Colonel Baker removed to California. In October, 1859, when Senator Broderick was killed by Judge Terry, " because he was opposed to slavery and a corrupt administration," Baker was a fitting orator to pronounce his eulogy. Both of them, the living and the dead, were self-made men ; and the son of the stone- cutter, lying in mute grandeur, with a record floating round that coffin that bowed the heads of the surrounding thousands down in mute respect, might have been proud of the tribute which the weaver's apprentice was about to lay upon his breast. For minutes after the vast audience had settled itself to hear his words, the orator did not speak. He did not look at the coffin — nay, neither to the right nor left ; EDWARD DICKINSON BAKER. but the gaze of his fixed eye was turned within his mind, and the stil. tears coursed rapidly down his cheek. Then, when the silence was the most intense, his tremulous voice rose like a wail, and with an uninter- rupted stream of lofty, burning, and pathetic words, he so penetrated and possessed the hearts of the sorrowing multitude, that there was not one cheek less moistened than his own. For an hour he held them as with a spell ; and when he finished, by bending over the calm face of the noble corse, and stretching his arms forward with an impressive ges- ture, exclaimed, in quivering accents, " Good friend ! brave heart ! gal- lant leader ! hail and farewell ! " the audience broke forth in a general response of sobs. Never, perhaps, was eloquence more thrilling ; never, certainly, was it better adapted to the temper of its listeners. The merit of the eulogy divided public encomiums with the virtues of the deceased, and the orator became invested with the dead Senator's political fortunes. He soon after removed to Oregon, where in 1860 he was elected Senator for six years. At the outbreak of the late Civil War, Baker was one of the first to rush to the field. At the great meeting of the people in Union Square, New York City, April 19, 1861, he was among the most earnest of the speakers. He was, however, not only a speaker — he was a doer as well ; and soon he had gathered about him as effective a regiment as ever engaged in a campaign. His regiment soon became a brigade, and the government would have made him a major-general, had he not wished to retain his seat in the United States Senate. He was at first stationed at Fortress Monroe, whence he was transferred to the Upper Potomac, under the command of Brigadier-General Charles P. Stone. On the morning of the 21st of October, Colonel Baker received orders to cross the river with his brigade, and make a reconnoissance towards Dranesville. The place of crossing selected by General Stone was Ball's Bluff — a steep, clayey bank, fourteen feet high ; the trans- portation, two old scows, holding about thirty-five men each, propelled by poles across the deep and rapid stream. Surmounting all obstacles, the stream was crossed, the bank ascended, and the brave leader found himself in a thick forest, surrounded by the enemy. He held them at bay for hours ; but his men were falling like grass before the scythe. Having been reinforced, he placed himself at the head of his regiment and heroically charged on their ranks, but he became the mark for a dozen rifles, and the noble leader and orator, matchless of the earth fell mute, to speak no more ! AUGUSTUS B. LONG STREET. This judge, preacher, and teacher was one of the most respected and able of prominent. Georgians. His father, William Longstreet, is said to have preceded the celebrated Fulton in the application of steam as the motive power to propel water craft. The Rev. A. B. Longstreet, D.D., LL.D., was born in Augusta, Georgia, on the 22d of September, 1790. He was sent to school at Augusta, to the Richmond Academy, at two different periods. He afterwards attended the famous school of Dr. Moses Waddell in South Carolina. Three years under that eminent teacher fitted him to enter the Junior class of Yale College, which he did in 1811, and graduated in 1813. From Yale College he passed a year in the law-school of Judges Reeves and Gould, in Litchfield, Connecticut, and thence re- turned to Georgia, was admitted to the bar in 1815, and soon entered upon an extensive and lucrative practice. In 1817 Judge Longstreet married Miss Frances Eliza Parke, with whom he lived happily for more than fifty years. Settling in Greens- borough, Georgia, he soon represented the County of Greene in the General Assembly of the State. Rising rapidly in his profession he was elevated to the bench of the Ocmulgee Circuit. In 1824 he be- came a candidate for Congress, with the certain assurance of an election, and a brilliant political career ; but the death of his only son turned his thoughts from the struggle for the fleeting glory which this world bestows to higher things. With a changed and melted heart he united with the Methodist Church. In 1837 he removed to Augusta, continu- ing his practice of law in the State Courts, in the Circuit Courts of the United States, and, on a few occasions, in the Supiw^e Court of the United States at the City of Washington. In 1838 Judge Longstreet retired from the practice of law, and united his fortunes witli the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Epis- copal Church as an itinerant preacher. He was stationed in Augusta. AUGUSTUS B . LONGSTKEET. In 1839 the yellow fever broke out in that city with great malignity. Judge Longstreet and Mr. Barry, of the Roman Catholic Church — af- terwards Bishop Barry — were the only ministers of the gospel of Christ who remained and gave untiring care to the victims of the terrible dis- ease. In 1839 Judge Longstreet was elected President of Emory College, at Oxford, Georgia, and continued to discharge the duties of that office until 184S, when he resigned. During his presidency here the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Yale College, at the in- stance of John C. Calhoun. In 1848 he was elected President of Cen- tenary College, Louisiana ; resigned in July, 1849, to take the position of President of the University of Mississippi, where he remained till 1S56. The following year he was elected to the Presidency of the South Carolina College, but did not enter upon his duties till January, 1858. In 1S60 he was appointed a delegate to the Statistical Congress at London by the administration of President Buchanan. He continued in the Presidency of the South Carolina College till the close of 1861, when most of the students of that institution volunteered in the South- ern army, and Dr. Longstreet, having scarcely any one left to teach, re- signed and moved back to Oxford, Mississippi, where he died on the 9th of July, 1870. During his protracted life Dr. Longstreet wrote many magazine ar- ticles, and addresses of power and excellence. Of his sermons the most valued and the most powerful is one on " Infidelity," delivered at Louis- ville, Kentucky, before the Young Men's Christian Association, of that city. His more extended published works are: "Master William Mitten ; or, the Youth of Brilliant Talents, who was Ruined by Bad Luck," and a capital book of humor entitled " Georgia Scenes, Char- acters, Incidents, etc., in the First Half Century of the Republic, by a Native Georgian," which first appeared in a newspaper of that State, and afterwards in a volume from the press of the Harpers in New York. " In style and subject-matter they are vivid, humorous descrip- tions, by a good storyteller, who employs voice, manner, and a familiar knowledge of popular dialogue in their narration. They are quaint, hearty sketches of a rough life, and the manners of an unsettled country —such as are rapidly passing away in numerous districts where they have prevailed, and which may at some future and not very distant day be found to exist only in such genial pages as Judge Longstreet's." He was a man of fine education, of most cultivated taste, fond of music, and abounding in wit and humor. HON. HENRY "WILSON, HENRY WILSON. One of the most distinguished self-made men of our time was oui late Vice-President, the Hon. Henry Wilson. This energetic and suc- cessful statesman was born at Farmington, New Hampshire, February 16, 1S12. His parents being poor, his educational advantages were as limited as those of Abraham Lincoln, and when his day's work on the farm of a neighbor, to whom he was apprenticed, was over, he spent his evenings in poring over useful books. At the age of twenty - one he had read nearly every work on American and English history. Mr. Wilson, on completing his minority, went to Boston, and from thence to Natick, Massachusetts, where he went to work at making shoes, occupying his leisure moments in storing his memory with the legislative history of the country. The whole secret of his political life dates from his visit to Washington, in 1838, where, upon observing the sale of some slaves at an auction, he swore eternal hostility to this institution of the South. Upon his return home he attended school in New Hampshire, where he studied mental philosophy, rhetoric, and Euclid; the failure of a friend causing his means to give out he returned to Natick, and taught a winter school. From 1838 to 1848 he manufactured shoes for the Southern market. In 1840 Mr. Wilson commenced his political career as a public speaker in the Harrison campaign. The same year he was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature, and at once turned his attention to the rules of parliamentary practice, and to the question before the House. He was a strong advocate of freedom and a liberal policy. The marriage of Mr. Wilson took place during the month of Octo- ber, 1840. Three years later he was elected to the State Senate ; and in the House, two years after, made one of the best and ablest speeches ever heard by that body. For over two years he conducted the Bos- ton Bepublican, which he had purchased in 1848, with great ability. He was speaker of the State Senate in 1850 and 1851 ; and wap HENEY WILSON. nominated for Congress and defeated in 1852. In the ensuing year he was sent as a delegate, by the towns of Natick and Berlin, to the State Constitutional Convention, where he made about a hundred and fifty speeches. In 1855, he was elected to serve, during the unexpired term of Edward Everett, as United States Senator ; and in the following year delivered his important Kansas speech in the Senate. In 1859 he was almost unanimously re-elected to the Senate, and made, in March of that year, his celebrated speech in defence of Northern labo; . Upon the opening of the great drama of the civil war Mr. Wilson went to work witb greater energy than ever. He introduced the acts for the employment of five hundred thousand volunteers, for the purchase of arms and ordnance, for increasing the pay of privates, &c, &c. In 1861 he enlisted two thousand three hundred men, organized the Mas- sachusetts Twenty-second Regiment, and, as its colonel, conducted it to Washington. The same year he introduced the bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia ; in 1862 the bill for the employ- ment of colored soldiers; in 1864 the bill for paying them, and also that for freeing their wives and children. Mr. Cameron said of him in 1862 : " No man, in my opinion, has done more to aid the War Depart- ment in preparing the mighty army now under arms." lion. Henry Wilson was re-elected to the U. S. Senate in 1865, and again, at the expiration of that term, in 1871. Through his efforts the system of servitude for debt, in New Mexico, was abolished, in 1867 ; and the same year he instituted the Congressional Temperance Society at Washington. The summer of 1871 he spent abroad. In 1872 he received the nomination of the Republican party as Vice- President of the United States, and was elected by a large majority. His crowning work of life he intended to be " The History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," in three volumes. The first volume, published in 1872, treats of the growth and power of Slavery from its introduction ink) Virginia in 1620, to the admission of Texas into the Union as a Slave State in 1845. Volume second relates the ominous events and political struggles that convulsed the country till the outbreak of the civil war in 1861 ; while the third and concluding volume was to be devoted to that series of measures which overthrew Slavery, destroyed the Slave power, and reconstructed the Union on the basis of freedom and equal rights to all. Written through failing health, it was near its completion, when Henry Wilson, Vice-President of the United States, died in the Vice-President's room, at Washington, No- vember 22, 1875. SIR WILLIAM PEPPERRELL. One of the most distinguished persons born in Maine was th