i LIBRARY OF CON £--,1.75 n Tl ~ "• O K Chuf. Shelf l\ (^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LYMAN C. DRAPER /^^^ AND MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSON. ^^ MADISON, WIS.: David Atwood, Printer and Stereotyper. 1887. ■ .5" ^ ^ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH LYMAN C. DRAPER. [From the Magazine of Western History for January, 18S7.] r\C r- ^ REUBEN G. THWAITES, ' AUG 9 mi) Corresponding Secretary of the State Historical ScciETV OF Wisconsin. LYMAN C DRAPER Probably no bistorical student within the basin of the Mississippi is so generally known among men of letters as Lyman C. Draper, LL. D., cor- responding secretary of the State Historical Soci- ety of Wisconsin.^ While his reputation thus far has been chiefly that of a collector and editor of materials for history, rather thau a writer, his work is quite as famous in its way as though his contributions to standard literature had been more numerous. Occupying a position quite unique in American scholarship, and regarded as an oracle on western topics among historical specialists the country over, but little is popularly known of Dr. Draper's personality — as to what sort of man this tireless worker is, what his methods are, his manner or his physical characteristics. Indeed, of so retiring a disposition is he, of so modest a demeanor and of so shrinking a habit, that it is given to but few of his townsmen admirers, 1 Since this sketch was written. Dr. Draper has retired from office. He declined re-election at the annual meeting of the society in January, 1887, desiring to devote the remainder of his days to individual literary work. 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. even, to understand the man as an individual. It is the purpose of this sketch to present to the readers of the Magazine of Western History a few passing glimpses, necessarily brief, of the career and methods of him who has been styled "The Western Plutarch." Lyman C. Draper sprang from good Puritan and Revolutionary stock. He is of the fifth gen- eration from James Draper, who, about the year 1650, came from England and settled with the brethren of his faith at Roxbury (now Boston Highlands), Massachusetts. Jonathan, the pater- nal grandfather of Lyman, was a soldier in the Continental army, under Washington. His ma- ternal grandfather. Job Hoisington, fell in the defense of Buffalo against the British, on the thirtieth of December, ISlo, while Job's son-in- law, Luke, the father of the subject of this sketch, was twice incarcerated by the British during the same war. Lyman was born in the town of Hamburg (now Evans), Erie county. New York, September 4, 1815. When he was three years of age his par- ents removed to Springfield, Erie county, Penn- sylvania, and three years later to Lockport, on the line of the Erie canal. Luke Draper was by turns a grocer, tavern-keeper and farmer, and as soon as his son could be of use about the house, the store or the land, the latter was obliged to do his full share of family labor. Up to the age of LYMAN C, DRAPER. i fifteen, Lyman's experiences were those of the average village boy of the period — the almost con- tinued performance of miscellaneous duties, in- cluding family shoe-repairing, the gathering and selling of wild berries and occasional jobs for the neighbors. One summer was spent in acting as hod-carrier for a builder in the village, at the mu- nificent salary of one York shilling (twelve and one-half cents) per day. From his fifteenth year to his eighteenth, he clerked in various village shops. During this time, after having gained all the education possible from the village school, he added to its meager curriculum the reading of what few books were obtainable by purchase or borrowing in the then frontier settlement, and established something of a local reputation as a youth of letters. Even at that early age the lad's taste for Revo- lutionary lore was well developed. It seems to have been inherent. At the family fireside, the deeds of Revolutionary heroes always formed the chief topic of conversation. There were still liv- ing, in Dr. Draper's childhood, many veterans of the Continental army, who were always welcome to the hospitality of the Draper household, while the war of 1812 was an event of but a few years before. The boy was early steeped in the facts and traditions of Anglo-American fights and western border forays, so that it is impossible for him to remember when he first became inspired 8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. with tlio pride of military lineage and the passion for obtaining information as to the events in which his ancestors took part. As a boy, he never neglected an opportunity to see and con- verse with distinguished pioneers and patriots. In 1825, wdien but ten years of age, he feasted his eyes upon La Fayette, during the latter's cele- brated visit to the United States; and the passage of three-score years and eleven has not in the least dinmied his recollection of the lineaments of that noble friend of the Eevolutionary cause. Governor Cass, De Witt Clinton, and other celeb- rities of that day, he also i-emembers having seen and heard at old Lockport, while the presence in the village, on various occasions, of the noted Seneca chiefs. Tommy Jimmy, Major Hemy O'Bail and others of their tribe, were, to the 3'oung enthusiast in border lore, like visitations from a realm of fancy. La Fayette was the sub- ject of young Draper's first school composition, w^hile his first article for the press, published in the Rochester Gem for April G, 1S33, was a sketch of Charles Carroll of Carrolton, the last of the "signers." One of the first historical works he ever read was Campbell's "Annals of Tryron County: or. Border Warfare of New York," pub- lished in 1831. This and other publications of the time were replete with lurid accounts of bor- der disturbances, well calculated to fire the imag- ination of youth. LYMAN C. DRAPER. 9 Peter A. Remsen, a cotton factor at Mobile, Ala- bama, had married a cousin of Mr. Draper, and to Mobile the enthusiastic yoang historian went in the fall of 1833, staying with Mr. Remsen until May of the following year, the latter's family re- siding in western New York. While in Mobile, Mr. Draper chiefly occupied himself in collecting information regarding the career of the famous Creek chief, Weatherford, many of whose cotem- poraries lived in the neighborhood of the Alabama metropolis. Leaving Mobile, he made a round-about and toilsome journey by stage and steamboat, via New Orleans and the Mississippi river, to Gran- ville, Ohio, where he entered Granville college (now Denison University). He was an under- graduate there for over two years, during which time he distinguished himself as one of the found- ers of a successful literary society which soon ac- quired, through his persistent endeavors, what was a most excellent library for those days. In the winter of 1835-6, he was commissioned by his associates to go to Columbus to secure a charter for the association. The journey was made through the intervening forests on horseback, the then favorite mode of inland locomotion. While Mr. Draper was at the capital there had been a severe storm, the rude forest roads being made nearly impassable, while many bridges were car- ried aw^ay by the flood. In attempting to cross 10 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. the Black Lick, he and his horse wei-e carried down the tnrbid current for several rods, and both narrowly escaped drowning. The Granville undergraduate had had another adventure the previous summer, which was quite novel in its character, and an allusion to which will at any time bring a merry twinkle to the worthy doctor's eyes. His parents had removed from Lockport to Toledo, Ohio, and he was pass- ing with them the summer vacation of 1835 when he felt called upon to take up arms in defense of what Toledoans considered the bounden rights of the Buckeyes against the tei-ritorial claims of the Wolverines. It will be remembered that Michigan then claimed all territory north of a line drawn due east from ''the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan," which included Toledo. This claim was disputed by Ohio, and boundary diffi- culties of a more or less serious character occurred during that year. Over eleven hundred Michigan volunteers, under Governor Mason and General Brown, entered Toledo on the sixth and seventh of September, intending to prevent the organization there of a court under Ohio jurisdiction. The Michigan invaders had committed sundry depi-e- dations on chicken roosts, field crops, orchards and fences, and the dwellers in and about Toledo were greatly exasperated in consequence. The expedition, although meeting with no armed opposition, was unsuccessful so far as pre- LYMAN C. DRAPER, 11 venting the organization of the court, and the men were withdrawn after hving at free quarters for a few days. At daybreak of the fifteenth, how- ever, some sixteen of these volunteers, mounted and under the command of a Michigan sheriff, named Wood, quieth^ returned to Toledo and capt- ured four prominent villagers, including the judge of the court, who was charged with treason in accepting civil office under Ohio on what was claimed as Michigan territory — "exercising for- eign jurisdiction," the warrant read, in good old state-sovereignty style. The prisoners were hustled into a covered wagon, and, surrounded by the fly- ing squad, were, before the alarm was fully sounded in the village streets, being rapidly driven across Mud creek bottom, on the Toledo outskirts, tow^ards Monroe, Michigan. There was hot haste among the indignant Toledoans, with no time for mounting. Captain C. G. Shaw's little drill com- pany formed the nucleus of a band of twenty citi- zens who rushed out toward Mud Creek pell mell, with all manner of equipment. Young Draper, then just turned twenty years of age, eager to see the prospective scrimmage, ran along with the company, though unarmed. One of the men, suffering from the primitive disease of fever and ague, soon weakened and gladly surrendered his gun and trappings to Draper, who was now fully equipped and enhsted for the war. Shaw's party arrived at the summit of the ridge on the village 12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. side of the creek just as the Michigan force was dashing up the oi)posite elevation. Sheriff Wood stopped to defiantly shout back to his hallooing pursuers that Michigan proposed to arrest violat- ors of her laws and plotters against hei- authority wherever they could be found. A shout of deris- ion and a random volley of bullets from the Toledo side were his answer. Several volleys were now exchanged, and it was afterwards alleged that Wood was shot through an arm and a horse in his troop badly wounded. At all events, the Michigan men scampered off with their pris- oners to Monroe, wdiile the unharmed Buckeyes returned to the village in higli glee at their suc- cess in making the \¥olverines run off a trifle faster than the latter had intended. This engage- ment, known in local history as "the battle of Mud Creek," gave rise to an acrimonious contro- versy between the Michigan and Ohio newspapers, one of the former dubbing Captain Shaw's volun- teers a "a band of armed rebels, comprising the scum of Toledo." Dr. Draper has been for several years past the only survivor of that rebellious band. For a year after leaving Granville, Mr. Di'aper was a close student at Hudson Eiver seminary, at Stockport, New York, following this up with an extended coarse of private reading, chiefly histor- ical, while resident within the household of his patron and friend, Mr. Remsen, whose home was LY]\IAN C. DRAPER. 13 in the neighborhood of Alexander, Genesee county, New York. Doddridge, Fhnt, Withers, and afterwards Hall, were the early historians of the border, and the young student of their works found that on many essential points and in most minor incidents there were great discrepancies be- tween them. It was in 1S3S that Mr. Draper con- ceived the idea of writing a history of w^estern pioneers, in which he should be able, by dint of per- sonal investigation, to fill the gaps and correct the errors which so marred all books then extant upon this fertile specialty. This at once became his con- trolling thought, and he entered upon its execu- tion with an enthusiasm which has never lagged through nearly a half century spent in the indus- trious collection of material for what he has al- ways deemed the mission of his life. From Mr; Eemsen's home, Mr. Draper began an extensive and long-continued correspondence with promi- nent pioneers all along the border line — with Drs. Daniel Drake and S. P. Hildreth and Colonel John McDonald, of Ohio ; William C. Preston, of South Carolina ; Colonel Richard M. Johnson, Charles S. Todd, Major Bland W. Ballard, Dr. John Crog- ham and Joseph R. Underwood, of Kentucky; ex- Governor David Campbell, of Virginia, Colonel William Martin and Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, and scores of others of almost equal renown. Cor- respondence of this character he has ever since actively conducted. In ISIO he commenced the 14 BIOORAPHICAL SKETCH. work of supplementing his correspondence with personal interviews with pioneers and the descend- ants of pioneers and revolutionary soldiers, in their homes : because he found that for his purpose the gaining of information through letters was slow and unsatisfactory, the mails being in those days tardy, unreliable and expensive, while many of those who possessed the rarest of the treasures sought were not adepts with the pen. There were no railroads, then, and the eager collector of facts traveled on his great errand for many years, far and wide, by foot, by horseback, by stage, by lum- ber wagon and by steamboat, his constant com- panion being a knapsack well laden with note- books. In these journeys of discovery, largely through dense wildernesses, Mr. Draper traveled over sixty thousand miles all told, meeting with hundreds of curious incidents and hair-breadth escapes, by means of I'unaway horses, frightful storms, swollen streams, tipped-over stages, snagged steamboats, extremities of hunger, and the hke, yet never once injured nor allowing any untoward circumstance to thwart the particular mission at the time in view. Many of those he sought, especially before 1S50, were far removed from taverns and other conveniences of civiliza- tion ; but pioneer hospitality was general and gen- erous, and a stranger at the hearth a most wel- come diversion to the dull routine of a frontiers- man's household. The guest of the interviewed, 71-49 LYMAN C. DRAPER. 15 the inquisitive stranger often stopped weeks to- gether at those crude homes in the New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee hack- woods — long enough to extract with the acquired skill of a cross-examiner, every morsel of histor- ical information, every item of valuahle reminis- cence stored in the mind of his host ; while old diaries or other family documents which might cast sidelights on the stirring and romantic story of western settlement, were deemed objects worth obtaining by means of the most astute diplomacy. To give a list of those whom Dr. Draper visited in the course of these remarkable wanderings, which he made his chief occupation, with bat few lapses, through nearly a quarter of a century, would be to transgress the limit set for this arti- cle. Only a few of the most notable can be men- tioned. Perhaps the most important interview he ever had was with Major Bland Ballard, of Kentucky, a noted Indian fighter under General George Rogers Clark in the latter's campaigns against the Ohio Indians. Other distinguished worthies who heaped their treasures at Mr. Dra- per's feet were Major George M. Bedinger, a noted pioneer and Indian fighter, of Kentucky; General Benjamin Whiteman, of Ohio, and Cap- tain James Ward, of Kentucky, two of Kenton's trusted lieutenants; and General William Hall, a general under Jackson in the Creek war, and af- terwards governor of Tennessee. Mr. Draper also 16 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. interviewed fifteen of General Clark's old Indian campaigners, and many of the associates and de- scendants of Boone, Kenton, Sumter, Sevier, Rob- ertson, Pickens, Crawford, Shelby, Brady, Cleve- land and the Wetzels. He also visited and took notes among the aged survivors of several Indian tribes — the Senecas, Oneidas, Tuscaroras, Mo- hawks, Chickasaws, Catawbas, Wyandots, Shaw- nees, Delawares and Pottawatomies. Not the least interesting of these were the venerable Taw- anears, or Governor Blacksnake, one of the Sen- eca war captains at Wyoming, who served as such with the famous Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant, and the scholarly Governor William Walker, of the Wyandots. The descendants of Brant, among the Canada Mohawks, whom Mr. Draper interviewed at much length, gave him an Indian name signifying "The Inquirer." Mr. Draper once visited General Andrew Jackson, at the home of the latter, and had a long conversa- tion with the hero of New Orleans. At another time, he was the guest of Colonel Richard M. John- son, who is thought to have killed Tecumseh, and, as before noted, frequently corresponded with him. lie saw Henry Clay once, when in Ken- tucky on one of his hunts for MSS., and General Harrison in Ohio, but had no opportunity to speak to either of them. The period of Dr. Draper's greatest activity in the direction of personal interviews was between ' . LYMAN C, DRAPER. 17 rS-tO and 1870; but he has, upon occasion, fre- quently resorted to that method of obtaining ma- terials for history in later years. But the period of his active correspondence in that direction has not known a limit. The result of this special work has been a rich harvest of collections. Upon the shelves of his large individual library are two hundred and fifty portly volumes of manuscripts, the greater part made up of wholly original mat- ter, most of it as yet unpublished, covering the entire history of the fight for the northwest, from 171:2, the date of the first skirmish with the Indi- ans in the Virginia valley, to 1813-14, when Tecumseh was killed and the Creeks were de- >. feated. A few only of these unique documents can here be noted. His earliest manuscripts are some documents concerning McDowell's fight in the Virginia valley, in 1742, before mentioned. There is also in Dr. Draper's possession General Clark's original manuscript narrative of his cele- brated expedition to Kaskaskia and Vincennes, a volume of some two hundred and twenty-five pages. The earliest original manuscript diary on _. the doctor's shelves is one kept by Captain William Preston, who commanded a company under Lewis during the Sandy Creek expedition in West Vir- ginia, in 175G. There are several diaries on the Point Pleasant campaign in West Virginia in 1774. Numerous diaries relate to Kentucky — one of them kept by General Clark in 1776, and another 18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. by Colonel William Fleming during an early trip to the "dark and bloody ground." Some diaries on St. Clair's and Wayne's campaigns are of es- pecial interest. But these are merely sample treasures. As the old frontier heroes were not noted for keeping diaries, the great number and remarkable character of the rich "finds" in Dr. Draper's possession strongly illustrate to all those who have essayed collections of this sort the ardu- ous labors of their owner. In 184:0, while in the midst of his chosen task, Mr. Draper drifted to Pontotoc, in northern Mis- sissippi, where he became part owner and editor of a small weekly journal entitled the Mississippi In- teUigcncer. His editorial duties were not so ab- sorbing but what he satisfactorily filled the public positions of justice of the peace and assistant postmaster, and was able to continue his work as gleaner in the field of western history. The Ta- telllgencer was not a financial success, and, at the close of young Draper's first year in the office, his partner bought him out, giving in payment the deed to a tract of wild land in the neighborhood. There came to Pontotoc, about this time, a young lawyer named Charles H. Larrabee, afterwards a prominent citizen of Wisconsin, where he became a circuit judge and a congressman. Larrabee had been a student with Draper at Granville. The professional outlook at Pontotoc not being rich with promise, Larrabee united his fortunes with ly:.ian c. draper. 19 those of his college- mate, and together they moved upon Draper's tract. For about a year the young men "roughed it " in a floorless, windowless hut, a dozen miles from Pontotoc, the nearest post- office, raising sweet potatoes and living upon fare of the crudest character. In the summer of 1842 Draper received the offer of a clerkship under a relative who was Erie canal superintendent at Buffalo, New York, and retraced his steps to the north, leaving Larrabee in sole possession. But the latter soon had a call to Chicago and followed his friend's example, leaving their crop of sweet potatoes ungarnered and their land to the mercy of the first squatter who chanced along. The following year, however, Mr. Draper was back again in Pontotoc, where he made sonje in- teresting "finds" in the chests of the Mississippi pioneers. In 1844 he returned to the household of Mr. Remsen, who was then living near Balti- more. After a time, the family moved to Phila- delphia, whither he accompanied them. For eight years thereafter Mr. Draper's principal occupation was the pi-osecution of his search for historical data — always collecting and seldom writing up any of his material, for he was not willing to com- mence until he had, to his own satisfaction, ex- hausted every possibility of finding more. During this period, he added to the objects of his collec- tion miscellaneous Americana, and particularly old newspaper files, for he found that these latter 20 BI0C4RAPHICAL SKETCH. were among the most valuable sources of cotem- poraiieous information on any given topic in his- tory. He thus collected a unique library at the Remsen home in Philadelphia, which came to at- tract almost as much attention among scholars as his manuscript possessions. In the spring of 1852, Mr. Remsen died, leaving Dr. Draper as the head of the little household. His old friend, Larrabee, who had drifted from Chicago to the Badger state, had been for some time corresponding with him, inviting his assist- ance in the management of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, which had been organized at Madison, the capital of that state, in 1819, but which thus far had had but a sickly existence, for there had been no person at its service with the technical skill necessary to the advancement of an undertaking of this character. Judge Larrabee, one of its founders, was in full knowledge of the scope of Dr. Draper's labors, and made known to his associates the importance of attracting such a specialist to Madison. Hon. Harlow S. Orton, now an associate justice of the Wisconsin supreme court, together with Governor Farwell and others, heartily co-operated with Judge Larrabee, and about the middle of October Dr. Draper arrived in Madison with the family of Mr. Remsen, whose widow he married the following year. In January, 1853, he was chosen one of the ex- ecutive committee of the society. A vear later. LYMAN C. DRAPER. 21 through his efforts, are-organization was effected, and, he being now chosen corresponding secretary of tlie institution, it then, for the first time, began to move. And under his fostering care, aided by a legislative annuity which was first obtained in 1855, it has progressed with marvelous pace ever since. It began business under its re-organization in 185-1, with but fifty volumes contained in a small case with glass doors that is to-day exhib- ited in the society's reading rooms as a suggestive relic. In thirty-two years the society's library has grown to one hundred and sixteen thousand priceless volumes, rich stores of manuscripts and a splendid museum that annually attracts over twelve thousand visitors, representing every sec- tion of the Union. During the years 1858 and 1859, Dr. Draper served as state superintendent of public instruc- tion. He was quite as efficient in this role as in that of antiquarian collector. He found the af- fairs of his office in a chaotic condition, but by dint of great perseverance and the full exercise of his ability, he succeeded in inaugurating the ad- mirable system of management now in vogue, by means of which the educational development in Wisconsin has been in every way worthy of that great state. In the self-preparation necessary to the instituting of the proposed reforms in his office, and particularly with a view to establishing popular libraries as an adjunct to the state school 22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. system, he undertook a series of visits to a large number of state saperintendents in the east and other leading American educators of the day — ■ such as Horace Mann and Presidents Wayland and Sears, together with such Canadian educators as Eev. Dr. Egerton Eyerson. He made a very careful study of the workings of public school libraries wherever he went, with the causes of their success as well as of their shortcomings. As a result of this investigation, he secured the pas- sage of an act by the Wisconsin legislature, at the session of 1859, by which one-tenth of the state school fund income was set apart as a township library fund, to whicli was added one-tenth of a mill tax on the assessed valuation of the state. A central library board was contemplated by the founder of the scheme, but it was not thought best to make provision for such a board until another year, when the fund should be raised and set aside for library purposes. It was designed that the proposed board should select the neces- sary books and contract for them at the lowest wholesale rates. Dr. Draper's desire was to abol- ish an existing but indifferently executed plan of small school-district libraries and consolidate these into township libraries of respectable size and under competent management, to be furnished with books by the state board. During the first year the law was in operation, a library fund of eighty-eight tliousand seven hundred and eighty- LYMAN C. DRAPER. 23 four dollars and seventy-eight cents was raised in the manner prescribed. But in 1861, when the civil war broke out and the resources of the com- monwealth were taxed to the utmost to support its troops at the front, the well-digested library law was repealed and the money already accumu- lated transferred to other funds before a book could be purchased or the proposed board organ- ized. And this law has unfortunately never been resuscitated. It remains for some enterprising- legislator to win popular applause by organizing an effort to secure the re-enactment of the now generally forgotten statute. State Superintendent Draper won enthusiastic encomiums from Governor Randal], legislative committees, prominent educators in different por- tions of the country, and, at various times, in the annual reports of his appreciative successors in of- fice who came to realize, as they in turn examined the records of the department, what a complete and healthy revolution he had brought about in its management. While serving as state superintendent, he was ex-officio a member of the boards of regents of the University of Wisconsin and the State Normal schools, respectively. He was particu- larly efficient in promoting the interests of the former, and, recognizing that " the true university of these days is a collection of books," devoted his energies to the founding of an adequate library 2-1 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. for tho institution. This service, as well as his life labors in promoting the cause of historical literature, was formally recognized by the State University, in 1871, by the conferring upon him of the title LL. D., — Granville having made him an M. A. just twenty years previous. But so indefatigable was Dr. Draper in his labors for the advancement of popular education, that there seemed to be good cause for fearing that he was for the time neglecting his especial task as a collector and editor of materials for western his- tory, and that he might be permanently diverted from it. For this reason a number of distin- guished educators and historical students sent him frequent letters protesting against his continuance in the new field at the expense of the old. " I hope you will get back to your task as soon as you prop- erly can. . . . The field of a state superintend- ent of instruction is a fine one; but there is a good deal of timber for good officers of this stamp, compared with that of historical investigators and archaeologists. . . . Enthusiasm won't bear dividing, and you have sacrificed the major to the minor;" thus earnestly wrote the late Hon. Henry S. Randall, who had served as state school superintendent in New York, and was the author of a life of Jefferson and other valuable historical works. Dr. Draper finally heeded these urgent calls for a return to his proper sphere of duty, and the LYMAN C. DRAPER. 25 year ISGO found him back at his work in behalf of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and in its prosecution he has never since lagged. The duties of his position as corresponding secretary — practically the executive officer of the society — are and have always been varied and arduous, and to enumerate a tithe of them would greatly ex- tend the space allotted to this pajjer. Sufficient to say, that, in the conduct of the society's busi- ness, whether executive, financial or literary, he exhibits great energy, remarkable persistence, business tact of a high order, and a patience for research that appears to never weary. The enormous additions to the great library and museum are made chiefly on his selection and rec- ommendation, and to this task he continually brings a deep erudition — historical, antiquarian and bibliographical. In addition to this, a very important branch of his official work has been the editing and publication of the society's Wisconsin Historical Collections. Nine large octavo volumes of five hundred pages each have thus far been published, and the tenth — completing the first series and containing a general index to the whole — will soon be issued from the press. These Collections constitute a vast mass of original ma- terial bearing upon the history of the state, par- ticularly the pre-territorial epoch, all of it gathered by Dr. Di-aper either through personal solicitation of manuscripts from prominent early pioneers or 26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. by means of interviews with old-time celebrities, white and red, by the doctor himself. In the garnering of these materials for the early history of Wisconsin, the busy corresponding secretary has traveled thousands of miles, written thou- sands of letters and interviewed hundreds of in- dividuals. Each paper in the series has been carefully edited and annotated by this untiring worker, who has brought to bear upon every im- portant point a wealth of correlative illustration or needed correction. So complete has been the work done by Dr. Draper upon the Wisconsin Historical Collections, that they substantially cover all the information now obtainable upon the pre-territorial history of the state, and to-day form the basilar authority for all writers upon topics within that sweep. It has been said that while Dr. Draper has collected an enormous amount of material for history, he has given out but little of it to the w^orld. This is compara- tively true of his collections in the miss, but so far as Wisconsin's historical literature goes, he has been very generous; while his explanatory and illustrative notes are the richer and more ample because of the great stores of general bor- der information from which he has so freely drawn in their make-up. Ev^en were he to write no more, these ten volumes, a store-house of orig- inal data, would be enough to establish his repu- tation as a historical specialist. Their incalculable LYMAX C. DRAPER. 27 value to western historians has been frequently attested by the best of authority — Bancroft, Sparks, Parkman, Shea, Lossing and others of lesser note having frequently complimented Dr. Draper upon their excellence and practical im- portance, and emphasized the debt which students of American history will always owe to him. Let us pause for a moment to contemplate the work he has done for the state of his adoption, independent of the published Collections — a mon- ument of themselves. The State Historical Soci- ety is to-day practically what he, aided by the intelligent munificence of the commonwealth, has made it. The society's hbrary comprises about one hundred and sixteen thousand volumes. While these cover the entire range of American historical investigation, the collection is particu- larly strong in the departments of western history, works on the Indian races and wars, a collection of bound newspaper files which is almost unap- proachable — extending, as it does, over two cen- turies — and a genealogical department which is second only in extent, if at all, to that of the His- toric-Genealogical Society of New England, at Boston. Its large museum, fiUing three spacious halls, contains many thousands of objects of inter- est and value; but its noticeable features, in which Dr. Draper takes the greatest pride, are its large collection of pre-historic copper and stone imple- ments, and an imposing array of oil portraits of 2S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. notable pioneers. Among the society's valuable possessions, the result of many years of patient collection, and but recently completed, is a full set of the autographs of the fifty six signers of the Declaration of Independence, of which fift}^ are full autograph letters — the Pennsylvania Histor- ical Society being the only other body having a like possession. The Wisconsin society has also a full set of autograph letters of the thirty-nine signers of the constitution, and nearly complete sets of the presidents of the Continental congress and the presidents and vice-|)resident3 of the United States. The history of the society's binding fund may be taken as one example of scores that might be cited, illustrating the quiet persistency of Dr. Draper's work. Many years ago he began setting aside the membership fees, and small gifts of money wliich he from time to time solicited for the purpose, as a fund which he declared should not be drawn from until it reached ten thousand dollars, when the interest on its investment should be devoted solely to needed binding. Most mem- bers of the society smiled, in its inception, at a project which had so slight a promise of pros- perity. And, indeed, it grew painfully slow. But the secretary dinned away at his associates, in the annual reports, each year making small additions to the fund. In a few instances he collected as much as one hundred dollars from some generous LYMAN C. DRAPER. 29 individual, and once a dyiii^^ friend left for the society a section of wild land in Texas, which is to-day worth many times the original value of the gift. Thus by mere pittances, the fund grew un- til it began to approach the ten thousand dollar limit. Then the secretary caused the society to fix its minimum limit at twenty thousand dollars and set to work to raise the second half. In season and out of season, by bequests, contributions, fees, sales of duplicates, judicious investments, and what not, that fund has steadily, though some- times almost imperceptibly, grown to the limit its founder fixed; and, at the annual meeting this month. Dr. Draper expects to be able to triumph- antly notify the society that the work is practi- cally completed, and that a portion of the interest on the twenty thousand dollars so laboriously raised may be safely appropriated towards much- needed binding during the coming year. Devoting his time so assiduously as he has to the interests of his society and state, it is not at all surprising that Dr. Draper has not had the op- portunity to give to the public more freely of his individual harvest of raw material, to which, in the midst of whatever duty for the moment at hand, he has never forgotten or neglected to add within the past forty-eight years. Thirty-eight years ago Jared Sparks expressed his amazement at the extent of Dr. Draper's accumulations. Yet they have been fully doubled since then; and in 30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. addition to his hoard of curious and instructive manuscripts, he has an individual Hbrary of about three thousand vohimes of Americana, together with a rich collection of newspaper files, covering the periods of our two wars with Great Britain. It must not be understood that this rare anti- quarian, in the midst of his treasures, has been wholly unmindful of the public outside of Wis- consin. He has frequently contributed special articles to magazines and encyclopaedias, and is even now preparing a number of careful sketches of noted border heroes, for an " Encyclopaedia of Biography," which Appleton & Company have in preparation. He has also, at times, given quite abundantly of his stores to other historians, much to his own detriment; for whenever he comes to publish his contemplated works, he will often find himself forestalled as to some of his matter, which he has, in earlier da5''s, generously given to others, often with scant or no credit. In 1 SG9 we rather oddly find Dr. Draper pre- paring and publishing, in partnership with W. A. Croff ut, a well-known writer, an exhaustive work of eight hundred pages, entitled "The Helping Hand: An American Home Book for Town and Country," devoted to stock and fruit raising, do- mestic economy, agricultural economics, etc., — a singular digression for a historical specialist. Nevertheless, competent critics declared the book to be one of great practical utility. The publica- LYMAN C. DRAPER. 31 tion came eventually into the toils of a law-suit, and the authors never realized anything from their labors. It was just as well, however, for had the "Western Plutarch " found agricultural writings a source of profit — his salary as secre- tary was very meager in those days — he might have been tempted into that field, to the detri- ment of the cause of historical literature. Dr. Draper s one great work thus far in his es- pecial field of scholarship, has been his "King's Mountain and its Heroes," an octavo volume of six hundred and twelve pages, published by Peter G. Thomson, of Cincinnati, in 1881. Unfortu- nately for the publisher and author, as well as the lovers of historical study, the greater part of the edition was consumed by fire, soon after its issue, so that few copies are now extant. Aside from the border forays of whites and Indians, the really romantic portion of the history of the Rev- olution is confined to the Whig and Tory warfare of the Carolinas, which, for the first time, has been fully told in " King's Mountain." The book was well received by those most capable of form- ing a just estimate of its merits. George Ban- croft declared it " a magnificent volume. " ' ' The amount of material gathered together," says Parkman, "is truly wonderful. Nothing but a lifetime of zealous research could have produced so copious a record of this very interesting pas- sage of our history." "It is a delightful book 32 bioctRAPiiical sketch. apart fi-oni its usefulness," says George W. Childs; "it enchains the reader, and has the in- terest of Cooper's novels.'' " I find it," says Gen- eral Joe E. Johnson, " the most interesting Amer- ican historical work I have ev^er read." "The work deserves credit," wrote General Sherman, "for accuracy and fullness.'' Writes Robert C. Winthrop: "It is an interesting and valuable work, exhibiting great research." Says the New England Historic-Genealogical Register: "It is scarcely possible to speak in too high praise of the work." "It is," says the late Governor Sey- mour, " a valuable contribution to the history of our country." " I am amazed," Governor Perry, of South Carolina, writes, "at the extent of the historical information it contains, reminding one of Homer's glowing accounts of similar contests between the Grecians and Trojans." The Boston Literary World declares the opinion that "the effort is a masterpiece." Professor Phillips, of the North Carolina university, says: " The author has a gift for such work, and he may be styled 'The Lover of Patriots.' The marvelous tale of 'King's Mountain' has been told skillfully, charita- bly and yet fairly." Says the Hon. John M. Lea, of Tennessee: "The book will live. Its crown- ing virtue is that it seeks to tell the truth, doing- equal justice to Whig and Tory." These are but samples of the encomiums fairly showered upon Dr. Draper's great work. LYMAN C. DRAPER. 33 He is a clear, forcible writer, with a pure and elevated style. He is possessed of a conscientious desire to do exact justice to all the actors who have moved on the stage of history. He scorns the too common literary habit of shaping facts to fit a theory, and considers a perversion of his- torical truth as the meanest of lies, because its baneful effects are the most widely permeated and lasting. No living man is so well equipped, at every point, to write the history of the border forays of the Eevolutionary epoch, and of the early days of western settlement, as Dr. Draper. His "King's Mountain," stupendous a work as it is, is but one dip into the well of his possessions, and a great body of students of American history have been keenly awaiting for years further progress in his work. George Bancroft, Sparks, Parkman, Shea, Lossing, and others have long been watchful for emanations from his pen. The venerable Bancroft once wrote to him: "I look forward with eager and impatient curiosity for the appearance of your lives of Boone, of Clark, of James Robertson, and so many others. Time is short — I wish to read them before I go hence. Pray do not delay; the country expects of you this service. " Perhaps one of the greatest difficulties with Dr. Draper has been, that he has — in a desire to in- form the public, which is quite as keen as the desire of the public to hear from him — attempted too much. The variety of manuscript historical 3i BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. works which for some years past he has had in various stages of preparation, is quite astonishing. But instead of finishing them one at a time, he continually adds to them all, never pausing in his zealous search for fresh details, and ever hesitating to close his story for fear that the next mail may hring some stray fact that will prove a miss- ing link or thrown an illustrative side-light. A less conscientious man would have brought his products to the market years ago; but Dr. Draper wnll never consent to publication so long as he fears that there is a stone in the path of his search yet unturned. This may possibly be deemed the excess of caution, but American scholarship will no doubt, in due time, reap the advantage of it. One work on Dr. Draper's heavily burdened shelves of manuscripts may be said to be at last completed — a volume on the so-called Mecklen- burg Declaration of Independence of May, 1775. This exhaustive and wonderfully-painstaking monograph is destined, when published, to settle the vexed question for all time. A keenly inter- esting work on " Border Forays and Adventures," in the preparation of which he had the assistance of Mr. C.W. Butterfield — well known to the read- ers of the Magazine of Western History — is almost ready for the press. Much has been written in the past sixty odd years with reference to Major Michael Rudolph, of Lee's legion of the revolution, having been iden- LYMAN C. DRAPER. 35 tical with the famous Marshal Ney of Napoleon's army; and also of Peter S. Ney, of the Carolinas, having been the great French marshal — escaped, it is said, from supposed execution by the conniv- ance of the party detailed to carry the fatal order into effect. P. S. Ney, it will be remembered, claimed that the detail shot over his head, or used blank cartridges, permitting him to feign death and escape to the United States, where he engaged in teaching for some thirty years. Whoever he was, P. S. Ney much resembled the marshal in personal appearance, and was remarkably familiar with the details of the Napoleonic wars and the personality of their prominent participants. Dr. Draper has long been gathering facts for a work on these two claimants and their claims, which will remind one of the romance of the middle ages. He has, too, mapped out with more or less com- pleteness, a connected series of biographies of eminent border men — General George Eogers Clark, "the Washington of the West;" Daniel Boone, the founder of Kentucky; General Simon Kenton, the noted border lEighter and companion of Clark and Boone, whose stirring career was filled with romantic adventure; Sumter, the revolution- ary hero of South Carolina; while Brant, Tecuni- seh, Brady, and the Wetzels are among those whom he desires to introduce in their true colors to the world of letters, A work on Dunmore's Indian War of 1774 is also among those which he 36 BIOnRAPITTCAL SKETCH. has blocked out. Tliis si)lciidid series of histories, iUustrative of early times on the border, the com- pletion of which — ^ should he be spared for the task — would rear for its projector a lasting literary monument, Dr. Draper had clearly in view when he commenced to gather original matter for them, nearly a half century ago. These men and the period in which they ligured, have never been adequately pictured, and never will be until the materials he lias collected with such laborious zeal can be given to the world — he being, in a large degree, their sole possessor, and he alone being adequate to the labor of formulating them. That he may, as he anticipates, soon obtain release from the drudgery of his official position, and that long life and good health may be vouchsafed him for the prosecution of the great work yet re- maining for him to do, is surely the ardent wish of every student of American history. Sliort and slight of stature. Dr. Draper is a bun- dle of nervous activity. His seventy-second year sits easily on his shoulders. Light and rapid of step, he is still as agile as many a youth. His del- icately-cut features, which exhibit great firmness of character and the powers of intense mental concentration, readily brighten with the most win- ning of smiles. By nature and by life habit, he is a recluse. His existence has been largely passed among his books and manuscripts, and he cares nothing for those social alliances and gatherings LYMAN C. DRAPER. 3( which cleh"ght the average man. Long ahstentioii from general intercourse with men with whom he has no husiness to transact has made him shy of forming acquaintances, and wrongfully gained for him a reputation of being unapproachable. To him who has a legitimate errand thither, the latchstring of the fire-proof library and working "den" — which is hidden in a dense tangle of lilacs and crab-trees in the rear yard of the bibliophile's resi- dence lot — is always out, and the literary hermit is found to be a most amiable gentleman, and a charming and often merry conversationist, for few keep so well informed on public men, current events and standard literature. To know Dr. Draper is to admire iiini as a man of generous im- pulses, who w^ears his heart upon his sleeve, is tlie soul of honor, and does not understand what du- phcity means. But had he through life given himself more to the world, this tireless brain- worker could not have accomplished the wonders he has, nor have carved out for himself the eminent position which he will always maintain — even should he never publish another volume — among the historical scholars of the country. •c^n Historr ..^^^n^ri^iy^j^^^ L^^^^^^^/ /^^^..^i^V^tp BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH MORTIMER M. JACKSON [From the Magazine of Western History for January, 1S87.] CONSUL WILLSHIRE BUTTERFIELD, Author of " Crawford's Campaign Against Sandusky," " His- tory OF THE University of Wisconsin," "The Washikgton-Ckawford Letters," etc. MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSON. The subject of this sketch, Mortimer Melville Jackson, son of Jeremiah and Martha Keyes Jack- son, both of Puritan stock, was born in Eenssel- aerviile, Albany county. New York. His father was a prominent farmer and a man of intelligence, probity and influence. Mortimer, in his earlier years, attended the district schools of his native town, continuing in them until a short time sub- sequent to the death of his father, when he was placed in the boarding-school of Lindley Murray Moore, in Flushing, Long Island. Afterward, he entered the collegiate school of Borland and For- rest, in the city of New York, where he remained for several yi9ars, and, on the completion of his term of study, was awarded a j)rize for being the best English scholar in that institution. The young man now entered a counting-house in New York and became an active member of the Mercantile Library association, of which he was chosen first a director and afterwards vice-i3resi- dent. It was mainly through his efforts as chair- man of the lecture committee, that the brilliant 42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. "Associate Course" of lectures was gratuitously- delivered before the association in Clinton Hall, by Chancellor Kent and other distinguished Amer- icans, noted for their literary attainments. While in that counting-house, Mr. Jackson, preferring the profession of law to commercial pursuits, re- solved to begin at once a course of study having that end in view; he therefore entered the law office of David Graham, an eminent lawyer and advocate of that period, with whom he completed his preparatory studies and from whom he received the highest testimonials. In 1834, Mr. Jackson was a delegate from the City of New York to the Young Men's State Whig convention held in Syracuse, at which William H. Seward was first nominated for governor. He took a prominent part in the proceedings and was the author of the address adopted l)y the conven- tion to the people of the state on the political issues, state and national, involved in the contest. At that period, the strife in New York between the Whig and Democratic parties engrossed a large share of public attention, and enlisted on one side or the other almost every American citi- zen of that commonwealth. The young men of the city — especially the merchants' clerks — who generally supported the Whig party, were, in consequence of the part which they took in poli- tics, objects of denunciation from their political opponents. In an address delivered by Mr. Jack- MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSON. 43 son at a public meeting of the Whig young men, held in Masonic hall, in which he vindicated the I'ight and enforced the duty of every American citizen to participate in the politics of his country, he paid a well-merited and eloquent tribute to the merchants' clerks. "Who," he asked, "are the merchants' clerks of New York ? They sprang, most of them, from the honest yeomanry of the country; in their childhood, under the parental roof, they were taught by their mothers the sacred lessons of the Bible — by their fathers w^ere instructed in the principles of the Declaration of Independence. They are those who, animated by that spirit of enterprise, so laudable in the young and so char- acteristic of ardent and generous minds, have left the endearing scenes of home and of kindred, and all the delightful associations connected with the village church and the neighboring school — the hills and the dales, the fields, and groves, and streams, which bound them, and still bind them, to their birth-place, to seek in this crowded mart whatever of fame or fortune may be the rewards of industry, intelligence and honor. They are those whose brothers, many of them, as well as other connections near and dear, are dispersed, perhaps, throughout the Union, engaged in vari- ous vocations — some in mechanical, some in commercial, some in agricultural, — all stimulated 44r BIOGlJAPlIirAL SKETCH. by the clieering liope of being able by a course of lioiiorable and persevering exertion, to crown 'A youth of labor with an age of ease.' Can men thus reared and tbns connected, identi- fied by consanguinity with the various classes of society, and by association with the diversified in- terest of our country — can such men be recreant to the principles of their ancestors, or forget the allegiance which they owe to their native land ? Xever, never! '' ^ Tiiis passage, from Mr, Jackson's address, is equally applicable at the present time. It truth- fully and forcibly describes the origin and charac- ter of the men who have so largely contributed to build up and extend the trade and commerce of New York, to develop her various industries, to found her noble charities, and to make hei' what she now is — ^the first city of the new world. In June, 1S3S, Mr. Jackson married, in New York, Miss Catharine GaiT, daughter of Andrew 8. Garr, a distinguished lawyer of that city. At that period the great Northwest, wdiose soil had been consecrated to freedom by the celebrated ordinance of 1787, was attracting thither not only tlie hardy emigrant from the old world, but the young, the vigorous, the enterprising and the edu- cated from the older states of the American Union. • Moniiiig Courier and Neio York Enquirer, October 27, 1834. MORTIMER MFJA'ILLE JACKSON. 45 Wisconsin, then recently organized as a Territory of the United States, was rapidly rasing in im- portance, and Mr. Jackson determined to make it his future home. In November, 1S3S, accom- panied by his wife, he removed to Milwaukee, and, in the spring following, took up his residence permanently at Mineral Point, in Iowa county, where he soon acquired a good practice and be- came prominent at the bar. At the time last mentioned, he attended the circuit courts, held at Mineral Point and Green Bay — the former pre- sided over by Charles Dunn, chief justice of the territory, and the latter, for the first time, by Andrew G. Miller, afterward and for many yeai-s judge of the United States district court in Wis- consin. At this term before Judge Miller, one Louis Du Charme, indicted for murder, com- mitted in the Stockbridge settlement, was tried. The prisoner was prosecuted in an able manner by Moses M. Strong and Horatio N. Wells, and defended with acknowledged ability by Mr. Jack- son, in connection with Henry S. Baird and Ex- Governor Horner. The trial excited great public interest. Du Charme was acquitted. After visiting various portions of the territory and making himself acquainted with its wants and resources, Mr. Jackson wrote a series of arti- cles descriptive of the country, over the signature of "Wisconsin," conveying much useful informa- tion. They called the attention of the intending 46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. emigrants to the west, as well as of others, to the great natural advantages possessed by Wisconsin, and predicted its rapid growth and future great- ness. These articles were extensively copied. As a Whig of the anti-slavery school, Mr. Jack- son identified himself at an early period with that party — then in the minority in the Territory. He was, so long as that party existed, everywhere recognized in Wisconsin as one of its leading members and most effective public speakers. He was a member of the Territorial convention held in Madison, soon after the election of Harrison to the Presidency, when the Whig party was first organized in the Territory, and was chairman of the committee which prepared and reported the resolutions embodying the platform of that polit- ical organization. He took early ground, in con- nection with other statesmen of the west, in opposition to the extension of slavery into the Territories of the United States. On the thirteenth of September, 184rl, Henry Dodge was removed from the office of governor of Wisconsin Territory and James Duane Doty appointed in his place, by John Tyler, President of the United States. Governor Doty, on the twenty-sixth day of January, 1842, tendered to Mr. Jackson the office of attorney-general of the Territory, which he accepted and immediately entered upon the discharge of its duties. He con- tinued in office nearly five years, when he tendered MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSON. 4( his resignation to Governor Nathaniel P. Tall- madge, who was Governor Doty's successor, and who held his office under a national administra- tion to which Mr. Jackson was politically opposed. Daring his term as attorney-general he con- ducted many causes of great importance and public interest in a highly satisfactory and suc- cessful manner.' Among these, was that of " Doughty vs. The Territory ^''^ involving the ques- tion of the liability of the Territory to be sued — the attorney-general taking the ground that no action would lie against the Territory, in which position he was sustained by the court; — also, that of the ""' People vs. The Bank of Wisconsin,^'' in which he procured the forfeiture of its charter, the original bill of complaint having been filed by his predecessor in office. One of the criminal prose- cutions with which his name is identified while at- torney-general, is that of ""The United States vs. William Caffee.''^ Caffee had been indicted in the circuit court of Iowa county for murder. The trial was one of the noted ones in the west. It attracted much attention at home and abroad. Caffee was ably defended by Moses M. Strong and Lorenzo Bevins, and was prosecuted with marked ability, such, indeed, as to give the attor- ney-general deserved celebrity. The subject of this sketch took a deep interest in the cause of popular education, and heartily iPinney's Wisconsiu Reports, Vol. III., p. 616. 48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. supported all feasible measures for its advance- ment. At an educational convention held in Madison, in 18-1:6, a committee was appointed to prepare a plan for the improvement of common school education to be submitted to the legisla- ture. This committee consisted of Mortimer M. Jackson, chairman, Lewis H. Loss, Levi Hubbell, M. Frank, Caleb Croswell, C. M. Baker and H. M. Billings. They reported to the legislature, among other things, that they deemed it of the highest importance, before any system of com- mon school education should be permanently established in Wisconsin, that the evils and defi- ciencies of the existing system should be fully understood, and the state and condition of com- mon schools in the different counties of the Terri- tory thoroughly ascertained, in order that the most effective remedies might be applied and that a system might be adopted suited to the entire wants of the varied population of the extended Territory. They also recommended the appoint- ment of an agent to visit the district schools, to collect statistics on the subject, organize educa- tional associations in the several counties as well as teachers' conventions, and to regularly report to the legislature with his recommendations.^ Tlie.bill which embodied this plan passed the as- sembly but failed in the council. The measures ' See Journals of the [Wis.] Legislative Assembly, 1846, pp. 353-355. MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSON. 49 thus recommended by Mr. Jackson (for he was principally the author of the "plan") were, in part, subsequently incorporated in the constitu- tion of the state — that instrument providing for a state agent, or, as he is called, "state superin- tendent,"^ and were carried into effect by the proper legislation which followed. In the efforts made in Western Wisconsin, which were finally successful, to have the re- served mineral lands held by the United States government, brought into market, Mr. Jackson took a prominent part. He was the author of a memorial addressed to President Polk on the sub- ject, which was reported by the committee on mining and smelting to the assembly in Wiscon- sin, and adopted by the legislature. He justly held that the relation of landlord and tenant, as between the general government and its citizens was injurious to the interests of both, and op- posed to sound policy; on the other hand, by af- fording facilities to the cultivators to become the owners of the soil, thrift and industry would be encouraged and inducements held out alike to the farmer and the miner to make more substantial and permanent improvements, and thus, while promoting their own welfare, more largely con- tribute to the wealth and prosperity of the coun- try. Upon the admission of Wisconsin into the 1 Constitution of Wisconsin, Art. X, Sec. 1. 50 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. Union and the organization of the state govern- ment, Mr. Jackson was elected the first circuit judge for tlie fiftli judicial circuit, then consist- ing of the counties of Iowa, La Fayette, Grant, Crawford and St. Croix (the county of Richland being then attached to Iowa county, the county of Chippewa to the county of Crawford, and the county of La Pointe to the county of St. Croix, for judicial purposes), and embracing in terri- torial extent more than one-third of the state, and in which there was a great amount of judi- cial business to transact, making the position a laborious one. Under the constitution of the state, the judges of the several circuit courts were judges of the supreme court, until the legislature should otherwise provide, by the formation of a separate tribunal, after the lapse of five years. Upon the expiration of the term of Judge Levi Hubbell as chief justice, Judge Jackson was unan- imously chosen by the justices of that court chief justice of the supreme court, but declined to serve, and Judge Edward V. Whiton was there- upon chosen. Judge Jackson continued to be one of the jus- tices of the supreme court until the organization of the " separate supreme court" in 1853, dis- charging the duties of his position with great fidelity, and in the most honorable and satisfac- tory manner. He was dignified, courteous, faith- ful and impartial. His written opinions, which MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSOX. 51 evince both industry and ability, are published in the earlier volumes of the Wisconsin Reports. After the expiration of his terra of office as judge, which was June 1, 1853, when his court expired by law, he resumed the practice of his profession, taking, from time to time, a prominent part in the political struggles of the day as a member of the Republican party. Meanwhile, he had moved from Mineral Point to Madison, the capital of the state. Judge Jackson, as just mentioned, was a mem- ber of the Republican party and still affiliates with that political organization; he has belonged to it since its first formation. He was its candidate for attorney-general of Wisconsin, in 1856, but was beaten by Gabriel Bouck, who was elected by a small majority. He was president of the Repub- lican state convention, held at Madison, to select delegates to the national convention at Phila- delphia, at which John C. Fremont was nominated for President. In the contest for United States senator for Wisconsin in 1857, resulting in the election of James R. Doolittle, he was a prominent candidate; and, on several ballotings, in the legislative cau- cus, was supported by many of the members for that office. He continued the practice of the law until, in 1861, the appointment to an office by Pres- ident Lincoln induced him to give up its duties for an official life. 53 BrOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. It was clearly seen at the very outbreak of the Civil War, by those in power at Washington, that the consulate at Halifax would be a post diffi- cult to fill; and the President wisely concluded to send no one there who did not seem to possess, in a marked degree, the qualities of discretion and firmness — one possessing also a knowledge of the fundamental principles of international and mari- time law Such a person he believed was Judge Jackson, who accordingly received the appoint- ment as consul to that city. What had been fore- seen really came to pass; for, throughout the war, the Halifax consulate was second to none under the general government in prominence and im- portance, owing to the peculiar relations with Great Britain, and the important questions result- ing therefrom, from time to time, during those years of civil strife and bloodshed. To discharge, therefore, efficiently the duties of his office at that crisis, required of him abilities and qualifications of a high order, surrounded as he was by many difficulties and embarrassments. " Not only tact and vigilance, integrity and firmness, loyalty and intelligence were requisite, but a thorough knowl- edge of all matters appertaining to the consular office, as well as a knowledge of commercial and international law were required."^ 1 See an excellent work— "Our Representatives Abroad" (New Yoi'k: 1874), p. 304. I am indebted to this valuable book for a number of facts connected with the life of the subject of this sketch. MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSON. 53 It would trauscand the limits proposed for this sketch, to attempt a detailed statement of the various labors and public services of Judge Jack- son with which, as consul, during the war his name is identified. Halifax was the headquarters in that part of the world of the Confederates, and was resorted to by them as a base of operations. The judge had to keep an eagle eye on their agents, their blockade runners, and their privateers. It was a matter of national importance that their operations should be checked in every possible manner. Vessels loaded with supplies of almost every conceivable description destined for the Confederacy were constantly arriving. It was as important to the National cause that these sup- plies be captured as to send troops into the field. He fully appreciated tire situation. To keep the government fully advised of the sailing of all such suspected vessels, with a description of their car- goes, was his paramount duty, to the end that they might if possible be captured, brought into port, and tried before a prize court and the whole confiscated. It is safe to say that, from informa- tion thus furnished by him, more than $2,000,00U worth of materials, a large portion of which was contraband of war, was captured from the Con- federates. During the war, the navy of the United States rendered valuable aid to the Union cause; and none will more readily acknowledge the assistance 54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. rendered by the consular branch of the govern- ment than the brave and gallant officers and the intrepid seamen whose achievements have added to our naval renown. It was a remark of John P. Hale in the United States senate, in commending the official acts of the subject of this sketch as consul at Halifax dur- ing the civil strife in which our country was en- gaged, that that consulate was of more importance to our government than half a dozen of our Eu- ropean missions. And, in reality, all departments of the government throughout the war lecognized that such was the fact; and they were not slow in their commendations of his zeal and wisdom in the general management of its affairs. After the termination of the war, important duties still devolved upon the Halifax consul, es- ])ecially, in connection with the British North American fisheries. A^arious questions, long held in abeyance, arising out of the " Fisheiy Contro- versy," involving the rights of American citizens, were i-evived, u])on the abrogation of the Reci- ]jrocity treaty. " The seizure of American fishing vessels in colonial waters, for alleged infractions of the Canadian fishery laws, rendered official action on the i)art of our consul at Halifax neces- sary, in order to protect the rights of our fisher- men."' In ISTo, Judge Jackson, at the request of the secretary of state, made "a report upon i"()ur Kepresentatives Al)ioad. ' p. 30"). MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSON. 55 the fisheries and the fishery laws of Canada, in which the principal questions involved in the con- troversy between Great Britain and the United States, on the subject, w^ere fully examined and discussed." This report brought to the knowl- edge of the government the action taken by the Canadian authorities in reference to supplies to American fishermen. It combatted the doctrine of the right to withhold supplies in time of peace to our fishermen engaged in lawful fishing voy- ages to the '"Grand Banks," whose fisheries were open to the whole world and over which Great Britain had no more right and control than the United States. He contended that such prohibi- tion, being a departure from the practice of friendly nations, would justify retaliatory meas- ures on the part of the government whose citi- zens were subjected to such oppressive restric- tions. This report was transmitted to congress with the documents accompanying the president's annual message.' A leading public journal in the British maritime provinces, in commenting upon it ob- serves that "whatever diversity of opinion may exist as to some of the views expressed, all must concede that the report is dignified in style and marked by great ability, and will form a valuable I Executive Documents, 3d Session, 4 1st (Jong ress, 18J0-71, pp. 428-431. 56 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCH. contribution to the state papers on the fishery question." Under the provisions of the treaty of Washing- ton of May, 1871, a commission was appointed to determine the value of the reciprocal concessions }nade by the respective governments of the United States and Great Britain relating to the fisheries. This conunission met at Halifax in June, 1S77, and awarded to the power last mentioned five milhons and a lialf in gold as the excess of vahie to the United States. Judge Jackson addressed a communication to the secretary of state, elabo- rately ]'e vie wing the action of this conunission, taking the ground that th(3 sum awarded was unwarranted and excessive.' It is worthy of remark that while as consul he strove on all occa- sions to protect the rights and advance the inter- 1 Message and Dotuinents — Departtiient of State — 1878-79, p. 334. Apropos of lliis communication, it may be mentioned that Dwight Foster, agent of the United States before the Halifax commission, in addressing j\Lr. Evarts, set-retary of state, on the 13th of December, 1877, says: "From tlie time when I was first employed by the government in 1873 down to the end of the sessions of the commission, I received con- stant assistance from Jndge M. j\F. Jackson, United States con- sul at Halifax, wlio, in familiar and thorough knowledge of all questions relating to tlie fisheries, is surpassed by no one. an