YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 06126 2821 mmm cy O TT R COUNTRYMEN; OR BRIEF MEMOIRS EMINENT AMERICANS. Jr By BENSON J. LOSSING, AUTHOB OF "THE PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK OF THB EETOLUTION," ETC, ILLUSTRATED BY ONE HUNDRED AND THREE PORTRAITS, BY LOS6I-S& AND BAKKITT, PHILADELPHIA: LIPPIJSTCOTT, GEAMBO & 00. 1855. V-? » 2_ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by ENSIGN, BRIDGMAN, & FANNING, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. J_3^"*In the note on page 196, it is erroneonsly stated that J. G. W. Trumbull, Esq., of Norwich, Connecticut, had been governor of that State. ELECTROTYPED BT PRINTED BY THOMAS B. SMITH, <*¦ •*. ALVORD, 82 & 84 Beekman Street. 29 & 31 Gold Street. PEEFATOEY EEMAEKS. •» •> ? »¦ »¦ " T have often heard," says Sallust, " that Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio, and other renowned persons of the Roman Commonwealth, used to say that, whenever they beheld the images of their ancestors, they felt their minds vehemently excited to virtue. It could not be the wax, nor the marble, that possessed this power ; but the recollections of their great actions kindled a generous flame in their breasts, which could not be quelled till they, also, by Virtue, had acquired equal fame and glory." With the earnest desire of producing precisely such effects up on the minds and hearts of the young people of our country, this volume has been prepared ; this Cenotaph — this honorary monu ment — has been erected. The Roman youth were excited to great and virtuous deeds by the sight of material objects and the voices of Orators ; our youth have their aspirations for noble achievements awakened and cherished more by the silent yet potential ministra tions of Books which tell of men worthy to be imitated as examples, or studied as warnings, than by merely sensuous impressions. Biography is History teaching by example. It is the basis of all historical structures. The Chronicles of the nations are composed vi PREFACE. of the sayings and doings of their men aud women. These make up the sum of History. The materials for this book have been drawn from the Annals of the United States of America, as Colonies and as a Federal Republic. Such men have been selected, as examples, who seemed to illustrate by their lives, some special phase in the political, religious, and social life of our country, during its wonderful progress from its earliest settlement until the present time. I have endeavored to present such prominent points of character and deeds, in their lives, as would give the reader a general idea of their relative position to the history of their times ; and have also aimed to make the brief sketches so attractive and suggestive, as to excite a desire in the young to know more of these characters and their historical relations, and thus to persuade them to enter upon the pleasant and profitable employment of studying the prominent persons and events of our Republic. If this volume shall achieve that result, the pleasure experienced by the Author in the preparation of it, will be distrib uted according to his desire. New York, April, 1855. INDEX A PORTRAIT ACCOMPANIES THOSE MARKED WITH AN *. PAGE PAGE PAGE A. 1 - G- Flint, Timothy . 391 Adams, Samuel . 76 Calvert, Leonard . 223 "Franklin, Benjamin 89 * Adams, John S7| "Calhoun, Jolin C. 326 Franklin, William 129 * Adams, John Q. 309 Canonicus 15 Francis, John VV-, jr. 406 Allerton, Isaac 14 "Carroll, John 49 "Fulton, Eobert . 155 Allison, Francis . 47 "Carroll, Charles . 146 Alexander, William 106 Carver, Jonathan . 74 G. Allen, Ethaa Allston, Washington 128! Cary, Lott . 262 "Carey, Matthew . 275800 Gadsden, Christopher 109 *Ames, Fisher 7l| Caswell, Bichard . .96 Galloway, Joseph Gallatin, Albert . 72 Anderson, Richard C. 299 *Channing, William E. 873 321 Armstrong, John . * Arnold, Benedict 316 Chauncey, Isaac . 135 Chittenden, Thomas 342 12C Gallaudet, Thomas II. Gaston, William . Gates, Horatio Girard, Stephen Godfrey, Thomas Gordon, William . "Graham, Isabella . Gray, William "Greene, Nathaniel Greene, Joseph "Greenough, Horatio Gridley, Eichard . Grundy, Felix 881850 Ashury, Francis 195 "Church, Benjamin 12 295 Ashe, John . 99, "Claiborne. William C. 3. 858 271 Ashman, Jehudi *Astor, John Jacob *Audnbon, John J. B. Bacon, Nathaniel . *Baiubridge, "William ?Baldwin, Thomas Baldwin, Abraham 325 379272 42 340 204 256 "Clarke, G-eorge E. "Clay, Henry . " "Clinton, Dewitt . Clinton, George . "Colden, Cadwallader Colburn, Zerah Colles, Christopher Cooper, Thomas . "Cooper, James F. 138 898257 339 83 351235239 344 69 166 832 214 59 130 803 122 366 ' *Ballou, Hosea 318 Copley, John S. . 52 Bartram, John 45 Cornplanter 231 H. Barlow, Joel . 117 "Coxe, Tench . 80 Habersham, Joseph 134 Bard, Samuel 118 Craik, James 164 Hale, Nathan 212 Barney, Joshua 120 Crockett, David . 311 "Hamilton, Alexander 213 Barry, John . 121 Cruger, Henry 266 "Hancock, John 159 Barton, William . 137 Harnett, Cornelius 83 Bayard, James A. 267 D. Harrison, Benjamin 103 Belknap, Jeremy 104 Dana, Francis 92 "Harrison, William IL 240 Biddle, Nicholas . 81li Davie, William E. 89 Harrington, Jonathan 376 Bland, Richard 142 Davidson, Lucretia M. 315 "Hayne, Eobert Y. 280 Blennerhassett, Harma a 877 Day, Stephen 11 Hedding, Elijah 882 *Boone, Daniel 192 Deane, Silas . 79 "Henry, Patrick K6 Boudinot, Elias 183 Dearborn, Henry . 328 Henderson, Eichard 180 Boudoin, James . 65 Decatur, Stephen 343 Hicks, Elias . 268 Bowditch, Nathaniel 246 De Kalb, Baron 291 Holmes, Abiel 829 Boyleston, Zabdiel 61 "Dickenson, John . 209 Hooker, Thomas . 26 Bradford, William 62 Downing, Andrew J. 875 "Hopkinson, Francis 57 Brainerd, David . 101 Drayton, William H. 86 Hopkins, Samuel 240 Brant, Joseph 158 Dunlap, William . 337 Hopkins, Stephen 820 Brewster, William 10 "Dwight, Timothy 107 Hopkinson, Joseph 370 Brooks, John 145 Howard, John E. . 141 Brown, Charles B. 290 B. "Edwards, Jonathan Eliot, John . "Ellsworth, Oliver Howe, Eobert 173 Brown, Jacob Brown, James 33834S 177 17 102 Hull, William . . Humphreys, David 219 215 Brown, Moses Buel, Jesse . 371 . 356 Hutchinson, Thomas 58 *Burr, Aaron . 253 _7. I. Burke, JEdanus 25S Burnett, Robert 401 "Ferguson, Catharine . 404 Inman, Henry 386 Byrd, William 31 Bitch, John . 93 Izard, lialph 282 Vlll INDEX. J. FAOE ?Jackson, James . . 131 *Jackson, Andrew . . 244 *Jay, John . . .171 ?Jefferson, Thomas . 123 Johnson, William . 100 Johnson, Richard M. . 367 ?Jones, John Paul . 95 Jones, David . . 140 *Judson, Adoniram . 364 ?Judson, Anne 11. . K. ?Kent, James ?King, Rufus . Kinnison, David . ?Kirkland, Samuel Knox, Ilenry Kosciusczko, Thaddeus L. La Fayette, M. de Lamb, John . Langdon, John Laurens, Henry Lawrence, James Ledyard, John Lee, Ann Lee, Henry . Lee, Richard H. . Lee, Charles . Lee, Arthur . Legare, Hugh S. . Leisler, Jacob Lillington, John A. Lincoln, Benjamin ?Livingston, Robert R. ?Livingston, Edward ?Livingston, Jobn H. Lovel, John . Lyman, Phineas . M. ?Macdonougb, Thomas Macomb, Alexander M'Intosh, Lachlin M'Kean, Thomas . Macon, Nathaniel Madison, James ?Madison, James . Manly, John . ?Marion, Francis , ?Marshall, John Martin, Francois X. Mason, John . ?Mather, Cotton Mather, Increase . Meigs, Return J. . Mercer, Hugh Miantonomob ?Mitchill, Samuel L. Milnor, James . 360 Miller, William . 3S7 ?Monroe, James . 804 Montgomery, Richard , 157 ?Morris, Robert . . 90 Morris, Gouverneur . 202 Morgan, Daniel . . 222 ?Motte, Rebecca . . 75 Moultrie, William . 262 150 403 66 274306 154 101352 82 68 152186 3U7 234 308 64 94 298 105174 200 97 113 Muhlenberg, Peter ?Murray, Lindley . K Nelson, Thomas, jr. ?Newell, Harriet . O. Oglethorpe, James E. ?Olin, Stephen Osceola . ?Otis, James . Otis, Harrison G. , P. Paine, Thomas ?Paine, Robert Treat Patterson, Robert M. Peale, Charles W. ' ?Penn, William ?Perry, Oliver H. . Peters, Richard . Phipps, William . Philip, King . Philipse, Mary Physic, Philip S. . Pickens, Andrew Pickering, Timothy Pierce, Benjamin, Pike, Zebulon M. ?Pinckney, Charles C. Pinckney, Thomas ?Pinkney, William ?Pocahontas . ?Polk, James K. Pontiac . Porter, David Preble, Edward . Prentiss, Sargeant S. Prescott, William ?Putnam, Rufus Putnam, Israel PAGE 210 68 S Quincy, Josiah, jr. R. 312255296,*Ramsay, David H4I Randolph, Peyton 184.1 Randolph, Edmund 2i6 ?Randolph, John . 243*Red Jacket . 2gi Reed, Joseph 27 ?Rittenhouse, David 43 Rivington, James 3g2 Eodgers, John 396 Rogers, Robert 20 1 Ruggles, Timothy ?Rumford, Count ?Rush, Benjamin Rutledge, John St. Clair ?Schuyler, Philip . Seabury, Samuel . Sears, Isaac . Sevier, John . Ill 285 51 SM357 162 4U2 170 24 S4 S 160 21SS 227 33H 194 1652S3191 143230237 16 388 70 302 199 397175182 226 ?Shelby, Isaac Shermau, Roger ?Slater, Samuel Smith, John . Smith, Samuel Spencer, Ambrose Standish, Miles Stark, John . Steuben, Baron De Stevens, Ebenezer Stiles, Ezra . ?Story, Joseph ?Stuart, Gilbert C. ?Stuyvesant, Peter Sullivan, John Sumter, Thomas Talbot, Silas . ?Taylor, Zachary . Telfair, Edward . Teunent, William Timelier, William Thomas, Isaiah ?Thomson, Charles ?Trumbull, Jonathan ?Trumbull, John . Trumbull, John . Uncas u. Y. PAGE 98 168 318 34 324 392 18 348 144 146 49 2tVJ114 22 347 236 211353252116254149 4643 196 259 37 ?Tan Rensselaer, Stephen 260 167 84 W. ?Warren, Mercy Warren, Joseph . Warner, Seth ?Washington, George ?Washington, Martha Wayne, Anthony . Weare, Meshech . ?Webster, Noah 187 *We bster, Daniel ?Weems, Mason L. ?West, Benjamin ?Wheatley, Phillis Wheaton, Henry . , Wheelock, Eleazer 170 *White, William . 292 Whitney, Eli 264 *Whipple, Abraham 207 1 Weiser, Conrad 35 *WilIiams, Roger . 208 Williamson, Hugh 372 Willett, Marinus . 7Tj Wilson, Alexander nln *Winthrop, John . Winslow, Edward Winthrop, John . Wirt, William J Witherspoon, Joxm Wolcott, Oliver . 242 Wooster, David . 189 Woods, Leonard . 110 Wright, Silas 251 Wright, Benjamin 831 Wythe, George . 78 153 S5 190 55 119 224276 112 29 249334 251 18 156 247181 9 2344 218179238 C#C ^rt^lbH^}/- JOHN WINTHROP. THE Pilgrim Fathers' planted the seeds of the Plymouth Colony, amid the 1 December snows, in 1620. Eight years afterward other emigrants, with John Endicott at their head, as governor, founded the colony of the Massa chusetts Bay, at Salem. In 1629, John Winthrop, a wealthy Puritan, resolved to convert his large estate into money, and link his fortunes with this new colony. He was chosen to succeed Endicott, as governor, before he left England, and soon after his arrival in June, 1630, he chose the peninsula of Shawmut, on 1. In the year 1608, John Robinson, a pious pastor of a flock in th'e north of England, who would not conform to the rituals of the Established Chnrch, fled, with his people, to Holland, to avoid persecution. They felt that they were only PUgrims, and assumed that name. Toward the close of 1620. about 100 of them, including women and children, arrived on the shores of Cape Cod Bay in the ship May Flower, and planted a colony where the town of Plymouth now stands. They are known as The Pilgrim Fathers. 10 WILLIAM BREWSTER. which the city of Boston now stands, for a residence, because pure water gushed from its hills. There he founded the future metropolis of New England.1 John Winthrop was born in Groton, Suffolk county, England, on the 12th of June, 1587, and was educated for the profession ofthe law. Theological studies possessed greater charms for him, and the peculiar seriousness of his mind led him to Puritanism,'- as he found it at the beginning of King Charles' reign. Because of his many admirable quaUties, he was chosen governor under the charter granted in 1629, and was therefore really the first governor of Massa chusetts, notwithstanding the earlier services of Endicott, as head ofthe actual settlers. Winthrop held his first court, composed of deputy-governor Dudley and mem bers of the Council, on the 23d of August, 1630, under a large tree at Charles town ; and the first topic brought "under consideration was a suitable provision for the support of the gospel. Mr. Winthrop was a man of great benevolence. It was his practice to send his servants among the people at meal-time, on triUing errands, with instructions to report the condition of their tables. When informed of any who appeared to want, he always sent a supply from his own abundance. He was also merciful as a magistrate, for he considered it expe dient to temper the severity of law with more lenity in an infant colony than in a settled state. Because ofhis lenity toward offenders, he was charged, in 1636, of dealing "too remissly in point of justice." The ministers decided that "the safety of the gospel " required more rigor ; and, contrary to the motions of his own liberal heart, he was obliged to yield. So zealous were the chief men of the colony in favor of rigorous discipline, that deputy Dudley, a bigot of the strictest stamp, was chosen governor, in place of Winthrop, in 1634; hut the latter was re-eleeted in 1637, and held the office of chief magistrate most of tho time, until his death. Governor Winthrop came to America a wealthy man, but died quite poor. His benevolent heart kept his hand continuaUy open, and he dispensed comforts to the needy, without stint. He regarded all men as equally dear in the eyes of their Maker, yet his early education blinded him to the dignity of true democ racy. He regarded it with much disfavor ; and when the people of Connecticut asked his advice concerning the organization ofa government, he replied, "The best part of a community is always the least, and of that least part the wiser are stitt less." He had little faith in "the people." Worn out with toils and afflictions, this faithful and upright magistrate entered upon his final rest on the 26th of March, 1649, at the age of sixty-one years. WILLIAM BREWSTER. ONE of the noblest of the Pilgrim Fathers, was William Brewster, the spiritual guide of those who landed on Plymouth Rock, in bleak December, 1620. He was bora in England in 1560, and was educated at Cambridge. WiUiam Davidson, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to HoUand, was his friend and patron in youth. When a wicked poUcy caused the Queen to disgrace and even de stroy innocent men, Davidson, who had been appointed Secretary of State, was a great sufferer. Brewster, with a grateful loyalty, adhered to him as long as 1. Boston was so named in honor of John Cotton, minister of Boston, England, who came to America in 1633, aud was appointed teacher in the church in Winthrop's capital. 2. Those who would not conform to the rituals of the Established Church of England, and professed great purity of life, as well as of doctrine, were called Puritans, in derision. It has since become an houorable title. STEPHEN DAT. 11 lie could serve him, and then retired among his friends in the North of England. His religious zeal there burned brightly, and his hand and purse were ever open in well-doing. He finally became disgusted with the assumptions and tyranny of the Established Church, and joined a society of separatists, under the pastoral care of John Robinson. Mr. Brewster's house was their Sabbath meeting-place for worship ; and when, finaUy, these non-conformists were obliged to flee from hierarchical persecution, that good Christian attempted to leave friends and country, and foUow. He was arrested, with others, and imprisoned at Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1607 ; but as soon as he obtained his liberty, he sailed for HoUand. His estate had become exhausted, and at Leyden he opened a school for instruction in the English language. He also established a printing-press there, and published several books. Mr. Brewster was greatly beloved, and was chosen an elder in the church at Leyden, over which his old pastor presided. It was in that capacity that he saUed, with " the youngest and strongest" of Mr. Robinson's flock, in the May Flower, late in 1620. He suffered and rejoiced with the Pilgrims, in all their strange vicissitudes ; and for almost nine years, ho was the only regular dis penser of the Word of Life to the Puritans, in the little church at Plymouth. He preached twice every Sunday ; but could never be persuaded to administer the sacraments. It was in that church at Plymouth that the largest Uberty was first granted to the laity. It was a common practice for a question to be pro pounded on the Sabbath, and all who felt " gifted" were allowed to speak upon it. This Uberty finally became a, great annoyance to the ministers, and much difficulty ensued. It had free scope whUe Elder Brewster officiated, but when Rev. Ralph Smith was settled as pastor over the Plymouth church, he en deavored to check it. Elder Brewster died on the 16th of April, 1644, at the age of eighty-three years. STEPHEN DAY. THE first printer who practiced his art within the domain of the United States was Stephen Day, a native of London. The Rev. Jesse Glover, one of the earliest patrons of Harvard College, presented that institution with a font of type, and others contributed money to buy a press. In 1638, Mr. Glover, then in London, engaged Day to accompany him to America, to take charge of the printing-house at Cambridge. Glover died on the voyage, but Day arrived in safety, with his patron's widow and children, and commenced work in January, 1639. His first production was The Freeman's Oath; and soon afterward he printed an Almanac made by a mariner named Pierce, in which the year begins with March. The first book — the first one printed in America — was the Psalms in Meter, containing three hundred pages, and was known as The Bay Psahn Book. He printed several Almanacs, and also some astronomical calculations by TJrian Oakes, then a youth, and afterward President of Harvard College. Day was an unskilful printer ; yet, being the only one in the colony, he was so much esteemed, that the general court of Massachusetts granted him three hundred acres of land, in 1641. He frequently complained that his printing was unprofitable. He continued in the business until the beginning of 1649, when his establishment went into the hands of Samuel Greene, who came to Cam bridge with his parents at the age of sixteen years. Greene continued the business until near the close of the century, and many writers have spoken of him as the first printer. Day expired at Cambridge, on the 22d of December, 1668, at the age of about fifty-eight years. 12 BENJAMIN CHURCH. te BENJAMIN CHURCH. ¦VTEXT to Miles Standish, the warrior-pUgrim of the May Flower, Benjamin ll Church was the most distinguished mUitary hero in early New England history. He was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1639, and was instructed in the trade of a carpenter, by his father. He went to Duxbury to reside, and was pursuing his vocation there when King Philip's war broke out.1 That great chief of the Wampanoags had long kept inviolate the treaty made with the white people by his father, Massasoit; but when provocations multiplied when he saw spreading settlements reducing his domains, acre by acre, breaking up his hunting grounds, diminishing his fisheries, and menacing his nation with servitude or annihUation, — his patriotism was aroused, and he willingly listened to the hot young warriors around him, who counselled a war of extermination against the English. Philip struck the first blow at Swanzey, thirty-five miles south-west from Plymouth ; and for almost a year this dreadful war went on, and extended even to the valley of the Connecticut river. Nearly all of the New England tribes joined Philip in his enterprise. The white people banded, and struck the savages with vigorous blows in all directions. Among their 1. Philip was a son of Massasoit, and he and his brother were named respectively Philip and Alex ander, by the white people, in compliment to their bravery. Because, after the death of his father, he became chief sachem of his powerful tribe, he was called King Philip.— See page 38. MILES STANDISH. 13 leaders, Captain Church was the bravest of the brave ; and in the Spring of 1676 he completely broke the power of, the New England tribes. Almost three thousand Indians had been slain or had bowed in submission, and Philip was a hunted fugitive. He was chased from place to place, and refused to yield. He cleft the head of a warrior who dared to propose submission ; and a curse upon the white people was ever upon his lips. At length the "last of the Wampa- noags " was compelled to yield to the pressure of circumstances, He went stealthily back to the home of his fathers, at Mount Hope. Soon his wife and- son were made prisoners, and his spirit drooped. "Now my heart breaks," said the brave warrior ; "lam ready to die." A few days afterward a faithless Indian shot him, in a swamp, and Captain Church," with his own sword, cut off the dead sachem's bread. Lacking the magnanimity of a true soldier, the pro fessed Christian leader disfigured the senseless body, then quartered it, and hung it upon trees, declaring, "Forasmuch as he caused many an Englishman's body to lie unburied and rot above the ground, not one of his bones shall be buried." The chieftain's head was carried to Plymouth on a pole, where it was exposed for several years, and his right hand was sent to the governor of Mas sachusetts. The rude sword of Church which cut off PhUip's head is now a cherished relic in the library ofthe Historical Society ofthe "Old Bay State." If we censure Church's want of magnanimity as a soldier, what shall we say of the Christian charity of the Plymouth people in the disposal of King Philip's son. It was a subject for serious consideration. Some of the elders of the church proposed putting him to death ; while the more merciful ones proposed to seU him into slavery in Bermud^. The most profitable measure appeared the kindest, and the innocent child was sold Into perpetual bondage. Captain Church Uved many years after the war, at different places in the vicinity' of Narraganset Bay, in Rhode Island. His last place of residence was Little Compton, where, on the 17th of January, 1718, he was thrown from a horse. He was very corpulent, and the shock of his fall ruptured a, blood vessel, which caused his death in the course of a few hours, at the age of seventy- nine years. MILES STANDISH. THE " Hero of New England," as Captain Standish is called, was^ like many other heroes and great men, rather diminutive in person. Hubbard, the his torian, says, when speaking of him, "A little chimney is soon fired: so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very small stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper." He was born in Lancashire, England, about the year 1584. He was a soldier by profession, and was serving in the Netherlands when Mr. Robinson, with his Pilgrim flock, settled at Leyden. There he joined the Puritans, and came with them to America, in the May Flower. When that vessel anchored in Cape Cod Bay, and it was thought expedient to explore the bleak shore to find a good landing-place, Standish was among the first to volunteer for the service. He was one of those who passed the first Christian Sabbath, after their arrival, in deep snow upon a barren island in Plymouth harbor ; and he was the second man who stepped upon Plymouth Rock. Standish was very serviceable to the English when the Indians showed signs of hostility, and they relied much upon his military skill and personal bravery. Wherever the duties of his profession called him, there he was always found. Two years after the establishment of the Puritans at Plymouth, he was caUed to 14 ISAAC ALLERTON. protect a new colony at Wissagusset (now Weymouth), who had exasperated the Indians by begging and stealing. They had been sent over by a wealthy London merchant, and most of them were quite unfit for the business of found ing a state. The Indians resolved to destroy them ; but, through the agency of Massasoit, _. firm friend of the English, the conspiracy was revealed to the Plymouth people in time for Captain Standish to march thither with a small -. company and avert the blow. When he arrived, his anger was fiercely kindled by the "insolence of Pecksuot, the chief, and his few followers. Pecksuot sharpened his knife in the presence of Standish, and said, " Though you are a great captain, you are but a little man ; and though I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage." Standish had the prudence to check his resentment ; but the next day, when the chief; and about the same number of his followers as Standish had with him, were in a room with the white people, the captain gave a signal, and five ofthe savages were slain. Standish snatched Pecksuot's knife from him, and with it slew its owner. When Mr. Robinson (the original pastor of the Pilgrims, and who remained in Holland) heard of this event, he wrote to the Church of Plymouth "to consider the dis position of their captain, who was of a warm temper. He hoped that the Lord had sent him among them for good, if they used him right ; but he doubted whether there was not wanting that tenderness of the life of man, made after God's image, which was meet ; and he thought that it would have been happy if they had converted some before they had killed any." Captain Standish settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts, about 1631 ; and a place near his residence is still called Captain's Hill. During almost the whole time of his residence in the colony, he was an assistant magistrate. He died at his house in Duxbury, in the j-ear 1656. ISAAC ALLERTON. THE May Flower passengers may all be considered " distinguished Americans," because they left their birth-land forever, and became founders and citizens of a new empire in this Western World. Of the noble band who signed a con stitution of government1 in the cabin of the May Flower, at Cape Cod, Isaac Allerton was the fifth to append his name to that instrument. He survived the terrors of the first winter in New England,2 afterward became the agent of the settlers in negotiating the purchase of the new possessions from those of the company in London, who had furnished capital for the enterprise;3 and, as an enterprising trader, became the founder of the commerce of New England. He established a trading post near the mouth of the Kennebeck, in 1627, and made several business voyages to England. He also established trading posts at Penobscot and Machias. In 1635, he opened a profitable trade with New Haven, New Amsterdam, Virginia, and even with the West Indies. He finally made New Amsterdam (now New York) his chief plaee of residence, and traded prin- cipaUy in tobacco. In 1643, when the English began to exert a considerable influence in the affairs of New Amsterdam, and a council of eight men repre sented the people, Mr. Allerton was chosen to fiU a seat in that body. 1. The first written constitution adopted by a free people. 2. Of the one hundred Pilgrims only forty survived. 3. Some London merchants formed a partnership with the Pilgrims, and furnished capital for the enterprise. The service of each emigrant was valoed'as a capital of ten pounds, and all profits were reserved until the end of seven years. The community system did not work well, and at the end of the Bcven years, the settlers bought of the merchants their interest in the venture. CANONICUS. 15 Mr. Allerton was accompanied in the May Flower by his wife and four chil dren. His wife died soon after their arrival; and in 1627, he married Fear, a daughter of Elder Brewster, the spiritual guide of the Pilgrim adventurers.1 She, also, died in 1634. He was again marrried, for we have an account of his shipwreck, with his wife, on the coast of Massachusetts, in 1644. The time and place of his death is not known, some asserting that he returned to England, and others- that he died in the city of New Amsterdam (New York), in 1659. CANONICUS. ONE of the most renowned sachems among the New England tribes was Canonieus, the head ofthe Narragansets when the Pilgrim Fathers found ed New Plymouth. He regarded the advent of the white men with a jealous fear; and in 1622, feeling strong, with about five thousand fighting men around him,' he sent a challenge to Governor Bradford, of the Plymouth colony, not withstanding Massasoit, the chief sachem of the Wampanoags, was the friend of the English. His token of defiance was a bundle of arrows, tied with a snake skin. Bradford sagaciously filled the skin with powder and ball, and sent it back to Canonieus. The chief had never seen the like before, and he regarded these substances with superstitious awe. They were sent from village to villao-e, and excited so much alarm, that the sachem sued for peace, and made a treaty of friendship, which he never violated ; notwithstanding, he often re ceived provocations that would have justified him in scattering all compacts to the winds. When Roo-er WiUiams became an exile from Massachusetts, he found a friend in Canonieus, who gave him all the land in the vicinity of Providence, for a set tlement. WiUiams found more love and generous sentiment in the heart of that forest monarch than among his own countrymen at Boston. When the Pequot war broke out in 1637, Canonieus stood firmly in defence of the English ; and a deputation from Massachusetts, who appeared before his island throne opposite Newport, were received with friendly assurances. His palace was a building fifty feet 'in length, made of upright poles, covered with branches and mats. The royal dinner given to the ambassadors consisted of boiled chestnuts for bread, plenty of venison, and a dessert of boiled pudding made of pounded In dian corn, weU filled with whortle-berries. After again assuring the ambassadors of his friendly intentions, he advised the Pequots to bury the hatchet. They refused to listen, and were utterly destroyed by the combined forces ofthe Eng lish, the Narragansets, the Mohegans, and the Niantics. In 1638, Canonieus began to feel the infirmities of age, and resigned his gov ernment into the hands of his nephew, Miantonomoh. That chief was afterward made a prisoner by Uncas, "the last of the Mohegans," and murdered by the consent of the-EngUsh. The resentment of Canonieus was aroused, and he could hardly be restrained from declaring war against the white people. Prudent counsels prevailed in his cabinet, and peace was maintained. In the beautiful month of June, 1647, this "wise and peaceable prince," as Williams calls him, died at his seat on Conannicut Island, opposite Newport, at the age of eighty- five years. 1 The Dractice of the Puritans of giving their children the names of moral qualities, was exemplified in Brewster's family. His two daughters were named respectively Fear and Love ; and his son'B name was Wrestling. POCAHONTAS. " She was a soft landscape of mild earlh, Whele all was harmony and calm quiet, Luxuriant, budding." Byron. SUCH was the sweet little Indian girl, the favorite daughter of the powerful Emperor of the Powhatan Confederacy1 in Virginia, when the white people laid the foundations of a new empire there. When a site for a settlement was chosen, Captain Smith, the boldest of those early adventurers, penetrated the interior, and was taken prisoner. His captor carried him in triumph from vU- lage to village, and then presented him to the Emperor, in his forest palace at Werowoeomoco. Smith was condemned to die. With his arms pinioned, and his head upon a huge stone, he was doomed to have his brains dashed out by a blow from a club. When the executioner advanced, Pocahontas, then a girl ten or twelve years of age, leaped from her father's side, where she sat trem bling, clasped the head of Smith in her arms, and implored his life. ' How could that stern old king deny The angel pleading in her eye? How mock the sweet, imploring grace, That breathed in beauty from her face, And to her kneeling action gnve A power to soothe, and still subdue, Until, though humble as a slave, To more than queenly sway she grew?"— SIMMS. The Emperor yielded, and Smith was spared. 1. This was s confederacy of more than twenty Indian tribes in the vicinity of the James, York and Potomac rivers. Powhatan was not the family name of the father of Pocahontas, but the title of the emperor, the same as the title of Pharaoh, for the Egyptian kings, in the time of the Jewish bondage JOHN ELIOT. 17 Two years after this event, the Indians formed a conspiracy to exterminate the white people. Again Pocahontas became an angel of deliverance. During a dark and stormy night she left her father's cabin, sped to Jamestown, informed Smith of his danger, and was back to her couch before dawn. It was no won der that the English regarded the Indian princess with great esteem ; and yet, when Smith had left the colony, and indolence and Ucentiousness had full sway! that gentle girl was ruthlessly torn from her kindred, and held a prisoner on board of an English vessel. ArgaU, a rough, half-piratical mariner, desirous of extorting advantageous terms of peace from her father, bribed a savage, by the gift of a copper kettle, to betray her into his hands. Powhatan loved his child tenderly, and offered five hundred bushels of corn, and a promise of friendship toward the English, for her ransom. But other bonds, more holy than those of ArgaU, now detained her. While on the ship, a mutual attachment had budded and blossomed between her and John Rolfe, a fine young Englishman, of good family. With the consent of her father, Pocahontas received Christian baptism, with the title of "the Lady Rebecca," and she and her lover were married. In 1616, Pocahontas accompanied her husband to England, where she was received at Court with aU the distinction due to a princess. But the silly bigot on the throne was highly indignant because one of his subjects had dared to marry a lady of royal blood, and absurdly apprehended that Rolfe might lay claim "to the crown of Virginia!" Afraid of the royal displeasure, Captain Smith, who was then in England, would not allow her to call him father, as she desired to do. She could not comprehend the cause ; and her tender, simple heart was greatly grieved by what seemed to be his want of affection for her. She remained in England about a year ; and when ready to embark for America with her husband, she was taken sick, and died at Gravesend, in the flowery month of June, 1617, when not quite twenty-two years of age. She left one son, Thomas Rolfe, who afterward became quite a distinguished man in Vir ginia. His only child was a daughter, and from her some of the leading fam ilies in Virginia trace their descent. Among these were the Boilings, Hem- mings, Murrays, Guys, Eldridges and Randolphs. The late John Randolph, of Roanoke, boasted of his descent from the Indian princess. JOHN ELIOT. pREAT efforts have been made from time to time to Christianize portions of \X the aboriginals of our country, but none have been more successful than those put forth during the early days of New England settlements, by one who has been justly termed the Apostle to the Indians. John Eliot was born in Essex county, England, in 1604. He was educated at the university of Cam bridge, and was engaged in school teaching for several years. He became a gospel minister; and in 1631, arrived at Boston, and commenced ministerial labors there. He was afterward associated with Mr. WUde at the head of a congregation in Roxbury ; and these, with Richard Mather, were appointed, in 1639, to make a new metrical version of the psalms. Looking out upon the dusky tribes around him, the heart of Mr. Eliot was troubled by a view of their spiritual destitution, and he resolved to preach the gospel among those heathen neighbors. The twenty tribes known to the Eng lish spoke a similar language, and when he had mastered it sufficient to be un derstood by them, he began his labors. His first sermon was preached to them . in the present town of Newton, in October, 1646. He saw blossoms of promise at that first gathering, and very soon fruit appeared, to his great joy. Although violently opposed by the Indian priests, whose " craft was in danger," and also by some of the sachems and chiefs, he was not dismayed, but penetrated the deep wilderness in all directions, relying solely upon, his God for protection. Finally, an Indian town was built at Natick, and a house of worship, the first for the use of the Indians ever erected by Protestants in America,1 was reared there in 1660. Many received the rites of baptism and the Lord's Supper, after being thoroughly instructed in religious doctrines and duties. Mr. Eliot translated the New Testament into the Indian language, and pub lished it in 1661 ; and in the course of a few years he established several con gregations among these children of the forest, extending even as far as Capo Cod. He obtained unbounded influence over them; and he was also their pro tector when, during King Philip's war, the Massachusetts people wished to exterminate the Indians, without discrimination. It was estimated that there were five thousand "praying Indians," as the converts were caUed, among the New England tribes, when Philip raised the hatchet. When the weight of fourscore years bowed the pious apostle, and he could no longer visit the Indian churches, he persuaded a number of families to send their negro servants to him to be instructed in Gospel truth, and thus he labored for benighted minds, until the last. With the triumphant words, " welcome joy," upon his Ups, the venerable and faithful servant died, on the 20th of May, 1690, at the age of eighty-six years. ROGER WILLIAMS. THE annunciation of new theories, whether in science, government, religion, or ethics, which clash with prevaiUng dogmas, is always met with scoffs and frowns, if not with actual persecution. The stand-point of reformers is always in advance of current ideas, and the true value of such men can only be appreciated when their labors have ceased, and they are sleeping with the dead. To such a character we turn when we contemplate Roger Williams, the great champion of toleration, and of private judgment in religious matters. He was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. He was a minister in the Church of England for a short time, but his independent principles soon led him to non-conformity, and he came to America to indulge in the free exercise of his opinions. He arrived in February, 1631, and in April foUowing, he was chosen assistant minister at Salem. His extreme views concerning entire sep aration from the Church of England were not palatable to many of his brethren ; and his asserted indepeD dence of the magistracy in religious matters drew upon him the condemnation of that entire class and their friends. He left Salem and went to Plymouth in 1632 ; but, on the death of the minister at the former place, he returned there, and took sole charge of the congregation, in 1634. There he proclaimed his pecuUar views with more vehemence than ever ; and in his excessive zeal for toleration, and individual liberty of thought and action, he became as intolerant as his opposers, without their excuse of care for the stabihty of the church and civil government. He asserted that an oath ought not to be administered to an unregenerate man ; that a Christian ought not to 1. French Jesuits had already established missionary stations on the St. Lawrence, and even on the borders of the great lakes. ROGER WILLIAMS. 19 pray with an unregenerate man; that "grace" at table ought to be omitted; and having formed a separate congregation, he even refused to commune with members of his own church who did not separate entirely from aU connection with the "poUuted New England churches." He finally declared the Massa chusetts charter void, because the land had not been purchased from the Indians, and "reviled magistrates." The general court passed a sentence of banishment against him in 1635, and early in January, 1636, he left the colony for the wil derness toward Narraganset Bay, to avoid being seized and sent to England. After severe trials and hardships, he purchased lands from the Indians at the head of Narraganset Bay, and there founded a town, and named it Providence. He offered a free asylum to aU persecuted people, and many joined him there. Time mellowed his extreme opinions, and he became a pattern of toleration. He also became a Baptist ; and when he formed a civil government, it was purely democratic. He, as the head, had no privileges but those which were common to aU. He labored zealously for the spiritual and temporal good of the Indians; and in 1643 he went to England to obtain a royal charter. Already other settlements of his friends had been made on Rhode Island.1 In the spring of 1644, a free charter of incorporation was granted, and these several settle ments were united under the title of the Ehode Island and Providence Plantar 1. The Indian name was Aguiday, or Aguitneck, resemblance to the ancient Island or Rhodes. It was named Rhode Island hecause of its supposed 20 MIANTONOMOH. tions. He again went to England in 1651, as agent for the colony, where he remained until 1654. On his return he was made president of the colony, in which office he was succeeded, in 1657, by Benedict Arnold. Roger WiUiams was an eminent peace-maker between the white people and the Indians, and on two occasions he no doubt saved those who banished him to the wilderness, from utter destruction. WhUe all sects were permitted to enjoy entire freedom within his domains, he was fierce in controversy against the Quakers. In 1672, he held a public dispute with leaders of that sect at New port, for three days, and one day at Providence, an account of which he after ward published, under the title of " George Fox digged out of his Burrows." A preacher, named Burroughs, was one of the disputants in favor of the principles of Fox. Roger Williams died at Providence, in April, 1683, aged eighty-four years. His name is cherished as the first founder of a state in the- New World, where freedom to worship God according to the dictates of the individual conscience, was made an organic law. MIANTONOMOH. ONE of the most renowned of the warriors of the New England Indians, was Miantonomoh, sachem of the Narragansets, and nephew and successor of Canonieus. He took a share in the government of his aged uncle, in 1636, and was the warm friend and benefactor of the first settlers of Rhode Island. He joined Captain Mason against the Pequods in 1637 ; and the following year he was associated with Uncas, the chief sachem of the Mohegans, in a treaty of peace and friendship with the English at Hartford- The two sachems agreed not to make war upon each other, without first appealing to the Enghsh. An occasion soon appeared. Uncas was the aggressor ; and by the consent of the governor at Hartford, Miantonomoh, at the head of eight hundred warriors, marched into the Mohegan country. A severe battle ensued on a great plain near Norwich. By stratagem Uncas gained the victory, and Miantonomoh was made a prisoner, with one of his brothers, and two sons of Canonieus. They were sent to Hartford, and the EngUsh were asked to decide what should be done with the royal prisoner. The question was referred to an ecclesiastical tribunal, consisting of five of the principal ministers of New England. They decided to hand him over to Uncas for " execution without torture," within the dominions of that sachem. It was an ungenerous and wicked decision, for Miantonomoh had ever been a firm friend of the EngUsh, without the selfish incentives that governed Uneas. Rut just then, a covetous desire to possess the land of Uneas made them willing to secure his favor, even by so foul a pro cedure. Delighted with the verdict of his Christian allies, the equally savage Mohegan, with a few trusty foUowers, conducted Miantonomoh to the spot where he was captured, near Norwich, and there a brother of Uncas stepped up behind the unsuspecting victim and cleft his head with a hatchet. The noble Mian tonomoh was buried where he was slain ; and to this day the locality is called Sachem's Plain. This transaction aroused the fierce ire of the Narragansets against the English, and they had the sympathy of the surrounding tribes. Hatred of the English and of their boasted Christianity, became deep-rooted, and was one of the principal causes which led to the bloody contest known as King Philip's war, about thirty years later. Miantonomoh was about forty-four years of age at the time of his death. WILLIAM PHIPPS. 21 WILLIAM PHIPPS. CIRCUMSTANCES make men what they are," is a general truth which _ few persons of observation will deny. WUUam Phipps iUustrated the truth in his life and character, in an eminent degree. He was born in the then far-off wilderness at Pemaquid, now Bristol, in the state of Maine, on the 2d of February, 1651. His father was a gun-smith, and migrated to America, with Winthrop's party, in 1630. WUham was the tenth of twenty-six chUdren by the same mother. He lived in the wilderness untU he was eighteen years of age, without any special aim for life. Then he was apprenticed to a ship carpenter for four years. At the expiration of his minority and servitude ho went to Boston, and there, for the first time, studied reading and writing. Charmed with the tales of seamen, among whom his business cast his lot, he resolved to seek his fortunes on the ocean. He left Boston when he was twenty- four years of age, and after many adventures and hardships, he discovered a Spanish wreck on the coast of St. Domingo, and from it fished up pearls, plate, and jewels, to the value of a imllion and a half of dollars. With this treasure he saded for England, where he divided the booty so equitably among the sea men, that his own share amounted to only eighty thousand doUars. That was a large fortune for the time ; and James the Second was so niuch charmed by the talent and general character of Phipps, that he knighted him. Three years afterward he returned to Boston, where he took rank in the best society. In 1690, Sir WiUiam Phipps commanded an expedition against Port Royal, in the French territory of Acadie, now Nova Scotia. His expedition comprised eight or nine vessels, and about eight hundred men. He seized Port Royal, brought Acadie into subjection, and obtained sufficient property, by plundering the people, to pay the expenses of the enterprise. This success encouraged the New England colonies to coalesce with New York in efforts to subdue Canada, then held by the French. Sir William commanded a naval expedition against Quebec, which Massachusetts alone fitted out. He saUed from Boston with thirty-four vessels and a thousand men, reached Quebec in safety, and landed his troops; but the strength ofthe city, and the lack of cooperation on the part of the land troops, caused him to abandon the undertaking and return home. He was soon afterward sent to England to solicit aid in further warfare against the French and Indians. He also asked for the restoration of the old charter of Massachusetts, taken away by Andros.1 Aid for war was refused; and King WiUiam, instead of restoring the old charter, granted a new one, under which Sir WiUiam was appointed the first governor, by the king, on the nomination of Increase Mather. He arrived at Boston in May, 1692, and was instrumental in stopping prosecutions for witchcraft, then in fearful activity in the colony.2 The same year he went to Pemaquid, with four hundred and fifty men, and built a fort there. He was removed from office in 1694, when he went to Eng land, and received positive promises of restoration. But death soon closed his career. He died in London, on the 18th of February, 1695, at the age of forty- four years. 1. Edmund Andros was sent to New England, hy James the Second, to take away the several charters ofthe colonies, and consolidate the whole under one government, with himself at the head as the direct representative of royalty. The revolution of 1688, drove James from the throee, and placed William of Orange and his wife, Mary, the: c. It was to William that Phipps appealed for the restoration of the charters taken away by Andros. The new charter was not so acceptable to the people as the old one. 2. See sketch of Dr Mather. 22 PETER STUYVESANT. PETER STUYVESANT. THE founding of the great commercial city of New York was the work of beaver-hunting Hollanders, at a time when ships from the Zuyder-Zee were in the far^distant waters of the East Indies, and the navies that sailed from the Texel were mistresses of the ocean. Holland then controlled the commerce of the world. A company was chartered to plant trading stations in the region discovered by Henry Hudson,1 and when settlements were established there, governors were sent to administer political rule. Of the five employed at dif ferent times by the company, Peter Stuyvesant was the ablest and the last. . He was a son of a clergyman in Friesland, where he was born in 1602, and was edu cated for the ministry in the High School at Franeker. There he acquired a knowledge of Latin, with which he played the pedant in after life. Liking the military art better than theology, he entered the army, and rose to distinction 1. Hudson discovered the Bay of New York and the river hearing his name, at the close ofthe Sum mer of 1609. He was then in the service of the Dutch East India Company. EDWARD WINSLOW. 23 on account of his bravery. His talent commended him to the Dutch West India Company, and he was appointed its first director, or governor, of Curacoa. In 1644, Stuyvesant led an expedition against the Portuguese on the island of St. Martin, and lost a leg in an engagement there. He went to Holland for surgical aid, and soon afterward he received the appointment of first director of the province of New Netherland, as the Dutch possessions on the Hudson were called. He arrived at New Amsterdam (now New York) in May, 1647. He found everything in confusion, and the seeds of democracy growing' rapidly, be cause of the tyrannous and dishonest rule of his predecessor. Stuyvesant 'was an aristocrat, and his profession made him an iron man, as a ruler. He at once commenced much-needed reforms, and declared his honest desire to improve the condition ofthe people ; but he told them frankly that he considered it " treason to petition against one's magistrates, whether there be cause or not." Governed by such sentiments, he ruled vigorously for almost twenty years. He destroyed the power ofa growing Swedish colony on the Delaware,2 settled boundary dis putes with the EngUsh in Connecticut, and by conciliatory measures made, the Indians so friendly, that the New England people believed the sUly story that he was leagued with the savages to destroy the Puritans. When Charles the Second was restored to the throne of his fathers, he gave the territory of New Netherland to his brother James, Duke of York. The duke sent a fleet to take possession.3 Stuyvesant yielded with great reluctance ; and in September, 1664, New Amsterdam was surrendered to the English, and was named New York. Stuyvesant retired to his bouerie or farm, near the East River, where he lived in dignity and quiet until August, 1682, when he died. His wife was Ruth Bayard, a Huguenot. Their remains Ue in a vault under St. Mark's Church, in the city of New York. EDWARD WINSLOW, ONE of the most aceomphshed men who came to America in the May Flower, was Edward Winslow, a native of Worcestershire, England, where he was born on the 19th of October, 1595. Whilst travelling in Europe, he became acquainted, at Leyden, with the Rev. John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims there. He joined that church in 1617, married a young lady there, and made Leyden his place of residence until his departure for America. He was one of the companions of Miles Standish in the search for a landing-place for the May Flower passengers ; and being a young man of great energy, he became one of the most useful men in the colony. Massasoit became much attached to him ; and in 1623, hearing ofthe severe illness of that sachem, Winslow visited him, and by the skilful use of some medicines, restored him to health, and won his unbounded gratitude. On that occasion, as on many others, the brave young Hobbomac, one of Massasoit's warriors, who lived with the white people, was guide and interpreter. In the foUowing Autumn, Mr. Winslow went to England as an agent for the colony ; and the next Spring he returned, and introduced 1. This company was formed after the discoveries of Hudson, and was invested with almost vice-regal powers for carrying on trade and making settlements in America and on the coast of Africa. 2. Peter Minuit, an offended director of the Dutch West India Company, went to Sweden and proposed to lead a colony of Swedes to the New World. A Swedish West India. Company was formed ; and in the Spring of 1638 Minuit and a considerable number of settlers located upon the Delaware, on the site of the present New Castle. They called the country New Sweden, and proposed to establish a provincial government, but the more powerful Dutch overthrew all their plans, and the colonists became subjects to Stuyvesant. . , 3. England claimed all America from Newfoundland to Florida, by virtue of early coast explorations. 24 WILLIAM PENN. the first cattle into New England.1 He made voyages to England and other places for the benefit of the Plymouth colony and for private commercial pur suits ¦ and, in 1633, was elected governor. Twice, subsequently, he was elected chief magistrate ofthe colofly, when Bradford declined serving, and always per formed his duties with great satisfaction to his constituents. He made many coast voyages, even as far south as Manhattan, for trading purposes ; and in 1635, went to England again, when, on a charge of performing illegal clerical services at Plymouth, made by the mendacious Thomas Morton, he was impris oned four months. There, and during a subsequent visit to his native country, he was active in founding a society for propagating the gospel m New England, which was incorporated in 1649. He was so highly esteemed m his native country, that public employments were thrust upon him, and he never returned to America. He was appointed a commissioner to determine the amount ot the restitution to be made to England, by Denmark, for marine spoliations; and in 1655, Cromwell appointed him the first of. three commissioners to superintend an expedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies, in which admiral Penn, father of WiUiam, was a conspicuous actor. Governor Winslow accompanied the expedition. It faUed to accomplish its. object; and while the fleet was passing between the islands of St. Domingo and Jamaica, he died of a fever, on the 8th of May, 1655t at the age of sixty years. Mr. Winslow's wife was among those of the May Flower, who died during, the Winter and Spring oi 1621. WiUiam White also died at about the same time, and within two months atter- ward Winslow and White's widow were married. This was the $f st marriage of Europeans in New England. Mrs. Winslow was not only the first bride, but the mother ofthe first white child born in New England, her son, Peregrine White, having been born on board the May Flower whUe that vessel lay an chored in Cape Cod Bay. WILLIAM PENN. IN glorious contrast with the inhumanity of Spaniards, Frenchmen, and many Englishmen, stands the record on History's tablet of the kindness and jus tice toward the feeble Indian, ofthe founder of Pennsylvania. " Thou'lt find," said the Quaker, " in me and mine, But friends and brothers to thee and to thine, Who abuse no power, and admit no line 'Twixt the red man and the white." And bright was the spot where the Quaker came To leave his bat, his drab, and his name, That will sweetly sound from the trump of Fame, 'Till its final blast shall die.— Hanhaq F. Gould. WilUam Penn was born in the city of London, on the 14th of October, 1644, and was educated at Oxford. His father was the eminent admiral Penn, a great favorite of royalty. William was remarkable, in early youth, for briUiant talent and unaffected piety. While yet a student he heard one of the new sect of Quakers preach, and, with other students, became deeply impressed with the evangelical truths which they uttered. He, with several others, withdrew from the Established Church, worshipped by themselves, and for non-conformity were expeUed from the college. Penn's father sought, in vain, to reclainn him ; and when, at length, he refused to take off his hat in the presence ofthe admiral, and 1. HorBes were not introduced until 1644. The people often rode on bulls. It is said that when John Alden went to he married to Priscilla Mullins, he covered his bull with a handsome cloth. On his re turn, he seated his bride on tbe animal's back, aud he led him by a rope fastened to a ring in his nose. WILLIAM PENN. 25 even ofthe king, he was expelled from the parental roof. He was sent to gay France, where he became a polished gentleman after a residence of two years ; and on his return he studied law in. /London until the appearance of the great plague in 1 665. He was sent tp, -Ireland in 1666, to manage an estate there belonging to his father, but was soon recaUed, because he associated with Qua kers. Again expelled from his father's house, he became an itinerant Quaker preacher, made many proselytes, suffered reviUngs and imprisonments "for conscience sake," and at the age of twenty -four years, wrote his celebrated work, entitled No Cross, no Grown, whUe in prison because of his non-conformity to the Church of England. He was released in 1670, and soon afterward be came possessor of the large estates of his father, who died that year. He con tinued to write and preach in defence of his sect, and went to HoUand and Germany, for that purpose, in 1677. In March, 1681, Penn procured from Charles the Second, a grant ofthe terri tory in America which yet bears his name ; and two years afterward he visited the colony which he had established there. He founded Philadelphia — city of brotherly love — toward the close of the same year ; and within twenty-four months afterward, two thousand settlers were planting their homes there. Penn returned to England in 1684, and through his influence with the king, obtained 2 26 THOMAS HOOKER. the release of thirteen hundred Quakers, then in prison. Because of his personal friendship toward James, the successor of Charles (who was driven from the throne by the revolution of 1688, and had his place filled by his daughter, Mary, and William, Prince of Orange), he was suspected of adherence to the fallen monarch, and was imprisoned, and deprived of his proprietary rights. These were restored to him in 1694; andiii 1699, he again visited his American colony. He remained in Pennsylvania until 1701, when he hastened to England to op pose a parliamentary proposition to abolish aU proprietary governments in America. He never returned. In 1712, he was prostrated by a paralytic dis order. It terminated his life on the 30th of July, 1718, at the age of seventy- four years. Penn was greatly beloved by the Indians ; and it is worthy of remark that not a drop of Quaker's blood was ever shed by the savages. THOMAS HOOKER, THE true heroes of America are those who, from time to time, have left tho comforts of civilized life and planted the seeds of new states deep in the wilderness. Among the remarkable men of that stamp was the Reverend Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one of the pioneer settlers in Connecticut. He was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1586, and was educated in Emanuel College, Cambridge. He began his labors as a Christian minister at about the time of the death of James the First, when Archbishop Laud began to harass the non-conformists. In 1630, Mr. Hooker was silenced, because of his non-conformity to the Established Church, and he founded a grammar school at Chelmsford. His influence was great ; and falling under the ban of Laud, he was obliged to fly to Holland, where he became an assistant minister to Dr. Ames, both at Delft and Rotterdam. He came to America with the Reverend Mr. Cotton, in 1633, and was made pastor of the church at Cambridge in the Autumn of that year. In 1636, this "light of the western churches," with other ministers, their famUies and flocks, in all about one hundred, left the vicinity of Boston for the Connecticut valley, where the English had already planted settlements. It was a toilsome journey through the swamps and forests. They took quite a number of cows with them. These browsed upon the shrubs and grazed in swamp borders, and their milk afforded subsistence for the wanderers. The journey was made in the pleasant month of June, and on the 4th of July they reached the flowery banks of the Connecticut, and received the hearty. greetings of wel come of the Uttle band of settlers who were seated on the site of the present city of Hartford. There, in the Uttle meeting-house already built, Mr. Hooker preached when the Sabbath came, and administered the sacrament ofthe Lord's Supper to all. . A greater portion of Mr. Hooker's followers settled at Hartford, while some chose Wethersfield for a residence; and others, from Roxbury, went up the river twenty miles, and founded Springfield. Mr. Hooker was one of the most powerful preachers of his time, and wrote much and well, on religious subjects. While preaching in the great church of Leicester, before he left England, one of the magistrates of the town sent a fiddler to the church-yard to disturb the worship. Mr. Hooker's powerful voice not only drowned the music, but it attracted the fiddler to the church door. He hstened to the great truths uttered, and became converted. Mr. Hooker was a man of great benevolence, and in every sphere of life he was eminently useful. He died at Hartfofd, of an epidemic fever, on the 7th of July, 1647, at the age of sixty-one years. COTTON MATHER. 27 COTTON MATHER, SOME ofthe early New England divines, as well as the magistrates, were ex ceedingly superstitious, whUe their piety and general good sense could not be doubted. Cotton Mather, one of the earliest of American-born clergymen, was a prominent specimen of the kind of men alluded to. He was born in Boston, on the 12th of February, 1663, and was educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated at the early age of sixteen years. He was so expert in learning, that before he was nineteen years old, the degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him, by the college. At the age of twenty-two years, he was ordained a gospel minister, and became the assistant of his father, Increaso Mather. Preaching and authorship were the joint professions ofhis Ufe, and he excelled all others, of his time, in both. He became master of several languages, and was considered a prodigy of learning. He held a fluent pen, yet his writ ings were not fitted for immortality. They lacked solidity and that true genius which is undying. Many of his productions are already forgotten, and none but his Magnolia wiU probably " live forever." Its extravagances form its chief element of vitality. With all his learning, Dr. Mather was a man of narrow views, a conceited heart, and unsound judgment. He was a firm believer in witchcraft, and probably did more than any other man to promote the spread of that fearful delusion, known in history as Salem Witchcraft1. He wrote a book 1. A belief in witchcraft was almost uriversr.l, at that time. It had produced terrible tragedies on tho 28 JOHN MASON. on the subject, and stimulated the authorities to prosecute all suspected persons. Several years before, his father had published an account of all the supposed cases of witchcraft in New England, under the title of " Remarkable Provi dences," which directed public attention to the subject. After the delusion had passed away, Cotton Mather's credulity was exposed by a man named Calef, in a series of letters. Mather sneered at him at first, but when Calef laid his blows on thick and fast, the Doctor called him "a coal from hell," and prosecuted him for slander. The suit was wisely withdrawn. With all his vagaries and folly, Dr. Mather exhibited much good sense. Dr. Franklin has thus illustrated the fact, in a letter to Mr. Mather's son, Samuel, whose house and fine library were consumed at Charlestown during the battle on Breed's Hill, in 1775. "The last time I saw your father was in the begin ning of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. He re ceived me in his library ; and on my taking leave, showed me a shorter way out of the house through a narrow passage, which was crossed by a beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turning partly towards him, when he said hastily, ' Stoop I stoop 1 ' I did not under stand him until I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man that never missed an occasion of giving instruction, and upon this he said to me, ' You are young, and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it, and you will escape many hard thumps.' This advice, thus beat into my head, has fre quently been of use to me ; and I often think of it when I see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon people by carrying their heads too high." Cotton Mather married three times, and had fifteen children. He died on the 13th of February, 1728, at the age of sixty-five years. JOHN MASON. MILES STANDISH is called the "hero of New England" because of priority. There were other men of that olden time who were greater '' heroes " than he, when measured by the common standard. John Mason was a greater "hero" than Standish, for he caused the destruction of more Indians than his rival for the palm. He was born in England about the year 1600. He was a ' soldier by profession, and had practiced his murderous art in that cock-pit of Europe, the Netherlands. In 1630, he came to America, and was one of the original settlers at Dorchester. He went to the Connecticut Valley in 1635, and assisted in founding a settlement at Windsor. The peace of the little colony was soon disturbed by the depredations of the powerful Pequods, whose chief rendezvous was between the Thames and Mystic rivers. They believed the white people to be friendly to their enemies, the Mohegans and Narragansets, and they had resolved to exterminate them. They kidnapped children, stole cattle, and finaUy made murderous attacks upon the outskirts of the settlement at Saybrook, near the mouth ofthe Connecticut river. The danger became im minent, and Captain Mason went down to Saybrook, with some foUowers, to reinforce and command the garrison ofthe little fort there. In the Spring of 1637, the settlers in the Connecticut Valley declared war continent of Europe, nearly two hundred years before. Within fifty or sixty years, during the sixteenth century, more than one hundred thousand persons accused of witchcraft, perished in the flames in Germany alone The delusion prevailed in Massachusetts for more than six months Vl692- and du_inc that time twenty persons suffered death, fifty-five were tortured or frightened iit? a "confessier o? witchcraft, and over one hundred were imprisoned. The delusion commenced at Danvers and spread over a great extent of country in the vicinity of Boston. "VK"i ana W*<* BENJAMIN WEST. 29 against the Pequods, and the Plymouth and Massachusetts people promised to assist them. Through the influence of Roger Williams, the Narragansets be came alUes of the English ; and when, late in May, Captain Mason, with eighty white men and seventy Mohegan Indians, anchored his pinnaces near Conanni- cut Island, he was joined by Miantonomoh, tho great chief ofthe Narragansets, with two hundred warriors. With these, Mason proceeded toward the Pequod country, and was joined, on the way, by the Niantics. Sassacus, a fierce warrior, was the chief sachem of the Pequods. He could summon two thousand braves to the field, and his confidence in his great strength made him less vigilant than a weak leader would have been. He had no intelligence or suspicion of the approach of Mason, from the East. He was first informed of it by the seven sur vivors ofa dreadful massacre. The invaders crept as stealthily along as a panther, and just at dawn, on the 5th of June, 1637, fell upon tha chief fort ofthe Pequods, on the Mystic river. Before sunrise, more than six hundred men, women, and children, had perished by weapons, or by the flames of their own burning wig wams. Only seven escaped to arouse the nation to vengeance. The English, aware of their danger, hastened toward Saybrook; but the power ofthe Pequods was broken. When, a few days afterward, about one hundred Massachusetts men joined Mason, Sassacus and his followers fled westward, hotly pursued by the English. They took shelter in Sasco swamp, near Fairfield, where, after a severe battle, they aU surrendered, except Sassacus and a few others, who fled to the Mohawks for refuge. There the great sachem was treacherously slain. The blow was terrible. A nation had disappeared in a day.1 The New England tribes were awed; and for, forty years afterward the colonists were unmolested by them. Soon after the war, the governor of Connecticut appointed Mason major-general of all the forces of the colony, which office he filled until his death. He was also a civil magistrate for eighteen consecutive years; and in 1660, he was elected deputy-governor. He retired from public life in 1670; and in 1673, ho died at Norwich, at the age of seventy-two years. BENJAMIN WEST. " THERE have been more volumes written about this great painter in Eng- 1 land," says Lester, "than there have been pages devoted to him in the land ofhis birth." Here he grew to young manhood, and chose the mother of his children ; in sunny Italy he achieved his first triumph in high art, and in England he reigned and died. His birth occurred at Springfield, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October, 1738. He was the youngest of the nine chUdren of exceUent Quaker parents ; and at seven years of age, while keeping flies from the sleeping baby of his eldest sister, he sketched her portrait so accurately with black and red ink, that his mother, snatching the paper (whieh he modestly attempted to conceal) from his hand, exclaimed, " I declare he has made a likeness qf little Sally 1 " His parents encouraged his efforts, and the Indians suppUed him with some of the pigments with which they painted their faces. His mother's "indigo bag" furnished him with blue, and from pussy's tail he drew the material for his brushes. Such was the juvenile be- 1. Captain Mason wrote a Brief Memoir of the Pequod. War. It makes one shudder to read his blas phemous allusion to the interposition of God in favor of the English, as if the poor Indian was not an object of the care and love ofthe Deity 1 Happily the time is rapidly passing hy when men believe that they are doing God service by slaughtering, maiming, or in the least injuring, with vengeful feelings, amy of his creatures. 30 BENJAMIN WEST. V> IP ^te^ffff ^W' iw/ ginning of the greatest historical painter of the last century — such were- the first buddings of the genius of that boy, who would not ride in company with another, because he aspired to nothing greater than a tailor's shop-board. "Do you really mean to be a tailor?" asked little West. "Indeed I do," replied his boy-companion. "Then you may ride alone," exclaimed the young aspirant, leaping to the ground. " I mean to be a painter, and be the companion of kings and emperors ; I '11 not ride with one wining to be a tailor I" At the age of fifteen years, young West had learned the use of proper colors, and was a popular portrait painter. The pursuit of such art was contrary to tho discipline of the Quakers. A meeting was called to consult upon the matter. At length one arose and said, "God hath bestowed on this. youth a genius for art; shall we question his wisdom? I see the Divine hand in this; we shall do well to sanction the art and encourage this youth." Then the sweet women ofthe assembly rose up and kissed him. The men, one by one, laid their hands on his head, and thus Benjamin West was solemnly consecrated to the service of the great art. His pictures produced both money and fame, and wealthy men furnished him with means to go to Italy, to study the works of the great masters. There every step was a triumph, and he became the best painter in Italy. He crossed the Alps and went to England. There prejudice and bad taste met him, but his genius overcame both. Among his earUest and best WILLIAM BYRD. 31 patrons was Archbishop Drummoud, who introduced him to the young King, George the Third. His majesty was delighted, and ordered him to paint The Departure of Regulus, that noble picture exhibited in the New York Crystal Palace, in 1853. That achievement placed him on the throne of English art. The King, and Reynolds, and West, founded the Royal Academy ; and he who, in the face of every obstacle, created a public taste for high art, was properly appointed "Painter to his Majesty." He designed thirty grand pictures, illus trative of The Progress of Revealed Religion, and completed twenty-eight of them, besides a great number of other admirable works. But when insanity clouded the mind of King George, and his libertine son, the Prince of Wales, obtained power, the great painter was neglected. The king of art, who had ruled for five and thirty years, was soon an exile from the court of his excellent friend, and many cherished anticipations of his prime were blighted in his de clining years. But when royalty deserted him, the generous people sustained him. He achieved great triumphs in his old age; and finally, on tho 11th of March, 1820, when in the eighty-second year ofhis life, he was laid by the side of Reynolds and Opie in St. Paul's Cathedral. "WILLIAM BYRD. ABOUT half-way between Richmond and Old Jamestown, on the James River, in Virginia, is a fine brick mansion, surrounded by a fertile plantation, known as Westover. It was the residence of Colonel WilUam Byrd, a wealthy cavalier, who came from England during the Protectorate of Oliver CromweU. He was reaUy the founder of the city of Richmond, at the Falls of the James River. A small fortification had been erected there, as a defense against the Indians, as early as 1645; but about 1680, Colonel Byrd, having received a conditional grant of land at the FaUs, sent more than fifty able-bodied men there to make a settlement. He erected a mill and other buUdings for the use of their productions, and the settlement was known as Byrd's Warehouse. In 1682, Colonel Byrd was _. member of the governor's council, and he was much in public employment, until his death. When, after the revocation ofthe edict of Nantes, a large number of Huguenots, or French Protestants, came to America, three hundred of them were cared for, with parental solicitude, by Colonel Byrd, and they found pleasant homes in the Virginia colony. Many of these were educated ' men", and in Colonel Byrd they found an agreeable companion. He possessed fine literary and scientific tastes, and had the largest library in Amer ica, at that time. In 1723, he was one ofthe commissioners appointed to estab lish the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. Toward the close of his life he employed his pen on scientific subjects, and was made a member of the London Royal Society. His munificence and style of living were un equalled in the colonies. They were Uke those of an English nobleman. He died in 1743, at the age of almost eighty years, leaving his homestead, and a splendid fortune, to his son William. He, too, became a public man ; and in 1756, was a commissioner to treat with the Indians on the western borders of Virginia. He accompanied the expedition against Fort Duquesne, under Wash ington's command, in 1758. Being a spendthrift and a gambler, his immense wealth was greatly lessened, at his death. His widow occupied the Westover property at the time of our revolution ; and there Benedict Arnold (who was her relative) landed, when he invaded Virginia in the service ofhis royal purchaser, in 1781. De ChasteUux, one of Rochambeau's officers, speaks rapturously of the beauty of Westover, and the pleasures of society there. 32 ELEAZER WHEELOGK. ELEAZER WHEELOCK. THOSE good men who by personal sacrifices and diligent efforts seek to elevate their fellow-beings of low degree, should be remembered and honored. Among those of the past who deserve such reward, is Eleazer Wheelock, the founder ofthe first school for the Christian education of Indian youths in New England. He was born at Windham, Connecticut, in April, 1711 ; and in 1733, was graduated at Yale College. Two years afterward he was ordained a gospel minister, and settled as pastor, at Lebanon. There he opened a school for the education of English children; and in 1743, his first Indian pupil was admitted. He was a Mohegan youth of nineteen years, named Samson Occum, who had been converted to Christianity under the preaching of a clergyman at Norwich. Before entering Mr. Wheelock's school, Occum had learned to spell out sentences in the Bible for the edification of his eager dusky listeners. He was anxious to become a spiritual teacher of his tribe. He remained with Mr. Wheelock be tween four and five years, and afterward became a very successful preacher among the natives on the east end of Long Island.' His success with Occum induced Mr. Wheelock to attempt the education of other Indian youths, with special reference to their preparation for missionary labors, believing that they would be more efficient among the savages, than white preachers.1 In 1762, he had more than twenty Indian youths in his school, the expenses being paid by voluntary subscriptions, small legislative grants, and contributions from the Boston commissioners of the Scotch society for propagatingsChristian knowledge. A farmer,, named Moor, gave a house and some land, adjoining Mr. Wheelock's residence, for the use ofthe institution, and it became known as Moor's Indian Charity School. To increase its usefulness, it was determined to seek aid in England; and in 1766, Occum and Rev. Mr. Whitaker of Norwich, went thither for that purpose. The money collected by them was put into the hands of trustees, in England, at the head of whom was the Earl of Dartmouth; and its expenditure was intrusted to the Scotch society. Hoping to be more efficient on the borders of the Indian country, wherein white settlements had not yet been planted, Dr. Wheelock resigned his pastoral charge at Lebanon, and established his school at Hanover, in New Hampshire. He also founded a college there, and named it Dartmouth, in honor of the Earl, notwithstanding that gentlemau was opposed to the project, fearing it might interfere with the Indian School.2 Governor Wentworth gave it a charter, and for nine years Dr. Wheelock labored vigorously at the head of each establish ment. The war for Independence seriously affected the prosperity of both en terprises, yet the self-sacrificing founder saw glorious fruit produced by his planting. Among those white missionaries whom he prepared for their work, was the faithful Kirkland, so long a "noble laborer among the tribes in the in terior of New York. Dr. Wheelock died at Hanover, on the 24th of April, 1779, at the age of sixty-eight years. 1, This opinion proved to he erroneous. About one-half of those educated for the ministry returned to their old habits and vices, when they got among their people again. Among Mr. Wheelock's pupils was Brant, the celebrated Mohawk chief. 2. This fact exhibits ihe modesty of Dr. Wheelock, and at the same time shows that undue deference which all persons formerly rendered to titles and dignities. The college ought to perpetuate the name of Dr. Wheelock, by its own title. CADWALLADER COLDEN. 33 fte* V> \-\-S ,V>V « te ,3S CADWALLADER COLDEN. THE representatives of royal power, in America, generally regarded the people as their subjects, rather than as fellow-citizens, and ruled by despotic power rather than by kindness and conciliation. There were honorable exceptions, and among these was Cadwallader Colden, whose character and public life were truthfuUy portrayed, more than forty years ago, by John W. Francis, M.D., now [1854] the Nestor of literature and science in Now York. Colden was acting governor of New York when the stamp-act riots occurred, and was treated with indignity by a mob, because he was the representative of the king, and at the same time was highly respected by them as a man and valuable citizen. ¦ Cadwallader Colden was born in Dunse, Scotland, on the 17th of February, 1688. He completed his collegiate studies at the university of Edinburgh, in 1705, and after devoting three years to the study of mathematics and medical science, he came .to America, where he remained five years, as a, practicing physician. He went to Great Britain in 1715, and formed the acquaintance of -Halley and other leading men of science ; and the following year he married a pretty Scotch girl, returned to America, and settled in' the city of New York. Colden soon abandoned his profession, for public employment. He was made surveyor-general of the province, a master in chancery, and finaUy became one 2* 34 JOHN SMITH. of the governor's councU. About the year 1750, he obtained a patent for a large tract of unsettled land near Newburgh, in Orange county, and named his manor, Coldenham. There, after the year 1755, he resided, with his family, most ofthe time, engaged in agriculture and in literary and scientific pursuits. Many learned essays from his pen enriched the medical and scientific publications of his day; and his History of the Five Nations of Indians, is a noble monument in testimony ofhis careful and judicious researches in that special field of inquiry. Almost all ofthe scientific men of Europe were his correspondents, and FrankUn and other leading Americans were among his intimate epistolary friends. Botany was his favorite study, and he was a constant and valued correspondent of Lin naeus, the great master of the science, for a series of years. His voluminous papers are now among the choice treasures of the New York Historical Society. In 1760, Dr. Colden was appointed Ueutenant-governor of the province of New York, and became the acting magistrate, at eighty years of age. He managed public affairs with great prudence during all the trying scenes of the Stamp- Act excitement; and the Sons of Liberty respected him, while they defied his delegated power. He was released from office, by Governor Tryon, in 1775, and retired to his country seat, at Flushing, Long Island, where he died on the 28th of September, 1776; a few days before that great conflagration which con sumed more than five hundred buildings in the city of New York. Governor Colden was then almost eighty-nine years of age. JOHN SMITH. THERE are men whose career appears meteor-like in brilliancy and progress, which nevertheless makes permanent impressions upon the world's history, and beams in the firmament of past events, with steady, planetary lustre. John Smith belongs to the meteor-heroes of our race. He was born at WiUoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1559, and in early childhood was distinguished for his daring spirit and love of adventure. At the age of thirteen years, he sold his books and satchel to procure money to pay his way to the sea-shore, for he had resolved to try life on the ocean wave. He was prevented from embarking, and apprenticed to a merchant. Two years afterward he ran away, went to France, and then to the Low Countries, and there studied military tactics. With a por tion of his deceased father's estate, young Smith, at the age of seventeen years, went abroad, Uke a knight-errant, in search of adventures. On a voyage from Marseilles to Naples, a great storm arose. The crew of the vessel were Roman CathoUcs, who, beheving the young heretic Englishman to be a Jonah, cast him into the sea to appease the angry waters. He swam to a small island, and there embarked in a French vessel for Alexandria, in Egypt. From thence he went to Italy, and then to Austria, where he entered the imperial army. His valor soon procured him the command of a troop of horse, which, in the war against the Turks, obtained the name of T/ie Fiery Dragoons. On one occasion, during a siege, a Turkish officer offered to engage in a duel with any Christian soldier, "to amuse the ladies." The lot fell tq Smith. They fought in sight of both armies. Smith cut off his antagonist's head, and carried it in triumph to the Austrian camp; and then fought two other Turkish champions with the same result. He was afterward captured and sold jtq a Pacha, who sent his prisoner as a present to his sweetheart, to be her slave. Her love was excited, and to insure his safety, she sent Smith to her brother. The Turk treated the captive crneUy. Soon an opportunity for escape was offered, when Smith kiUed his DAVID RITTENHOUSE. tyrant, fled into Muscovy, and found his way to Austria. The war had ended, and Smith departed from the Adriatic, with a French sea-captain, for Morocco! He was engaged in a sea-fight near the Canary Islands, with the Spaniards ; and then, after a long absence, returned to his native country. His restless spirit now yearned for adventures in the New World, and accompanying the first English expedition which successfully planted a settlement in America, he be came the real founder of the Virginia colony. The settlers became jealous of his talent, on the voyage, and, ignorant that he was named in the " sealed box"1 as one ofthe Council, they put him in irons, under the plea that he intended to make himself King of Virginia. He was released when his name appeared among the appointed rulers. He possessed great energy, and he not only sup ported good government by his presence, but saved the colony from destruction. He was rescued from death by Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian king, while a prisoner among them ; and he acquired such influence over the savages, that, they were friendly to the English while Smith ruled the colony. He ex plored the coast from PamUco Sound to the Delaware river, and constructed a map of the country. An accident caused him to go to England for surgical at tendance. Five years afterward he made a trading voyage to America, explored the coast from the Thames to the Penobscot, made a map of the country, and called it New England. Smith offered to accompany the Pilgrim Fathers, to America, in 1620, but on account of his aristocratic notions, his proffered ser vices were declined. He died in London, in 1631, at the age of seventy-two years. DAVID RITTENHOUSE. "VTEAR the banks ofthe beautiful Wissahiccon, in the vicinity of Germantown, li four miles from Philadelphia, lived three hermits a century and a half ago ; and near their hiding-places from the world's ken, a mUe from the old village where the good count Zinzendorf,1 the Moravian, labored and reposed, was the birth-place of one whose name is co-extensive with scientific knowledge. It was David Rittenhouse, the eminent mathematician, who was born in Rox- borough township, on the 8th of April, 1732. His fether was a humble farmer, and David was his chief assistant when his life approached young manhood. The geometrical diagrams which disfigured his implements of labor, the barn doors, and the pig-sty, attested the peculiar workings of his brain whUe yet a mere lad. These indications of genius would doubtless have been disregarded, and his aspirations remained unsatisfied, had not a feeble body made the aban donment of field labor a stern necessity. David was apprenticed to a clock and mathematical instrument maker, and the pursuit being consonant with his taste, he was eminently successful. Rittenhouse was a severe student, but on account of his pecuniary wants, he was deprived, in a great degree, of the most valuable sources of information, especially concerning the progress of science in Europe. While Newton and Liebnitz were warmly disputing for the honor of first discoverer of Fluxions, Rittenhouse, entirely ignorant of what they had done, became the inventor of that remarkable feature in algebraical analysis. Applying the knowledge which 1. The silly King .Tames, instead of making an open appointment of a council for the government of Virginia, placed their names in a sealed box, with directions not to open it until their arrival on the Bhores ofthe New World. 1. Zinzendorf was the founder of the Moravians, or United Brethren, and preached in Germantown, for a while. he derived from study and reflection, to the mechanic arts, he produced'a plan etarium, or an exhibition of the movements of the solar system, by machinery. It is a most wonderful piece of mechanism, especially when we consider the fact that the inventor was yet an obscure mechanic in a country vUlage. That work of art is in the possession of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, it having been purchased on the recommendation of President Withersppon.1 It gave him great reputation ; and in 1770, he went to PhUadelphia, where he pursued his mechanical vocation, and met, daily, members of the Philosophical Society of that city, to whom he had, two years before, communicated the fact that he had calculated, with great exactness, the transit of Venus,' which oc curred on the 3d of June, 1769. Rittenhouse was one of those whom the Society appointed to observe it. Only three times before, in the whole range of human observations, had mortal vision beheld the orb of Venus pass across the disc of the sun.2 Upon the exactitude of the performance according to calculations, depended many important astronomical problems, and the hour was looked for- 1. When Cornwallis arrived at Princeton, after tho severe battle at that place on the morning of the 2d of January, 1777, he saw and admired that work of art, and determined, to carry it away with him. The Americans caused him to leave the place too soon to accomplish his purpose. During the same year, SilaB Deane, the American commissioner at the French court, actually proposed to present the planetarium to the French king, as a bonus for his good will 1 The conqueror and the diplomatist were both foiled. 2. See sketch of John Winthrop, LL.D., page 44. UNCAS. 37 ward to, by philosophers, with intense interest. As the moment approached, according to his own calculations, Rittenhouse became greatly excited. When the discs of the two planets touched, at precisely the expected moment, tho philosopher fainted. His highest hopes were realized ; and on the 9th of No vember foUowing he was blessed with the sight of a transit of Mercury. When Dr. Franklin died, Rittenhouse was chosen President of the American Philosophical Society, to fill his place ; and from his own earnings he gave the institution fifteen hundred dollars, on the day of his inauguration. His fame was now world-wide, and many official honors awaited his acceptance. He held the office of treasurer of the state of Pennsylvania, for many years ; and in 17.92, ho was appointed the first Director ofthe Mint. Failing health compeUed him to resign that trust, in 1795 ; and on the 6th of June, the following year, he died the death of a Christian, at the age of sixty-four years. UNCAS. TTNLIKE most of the Indian chiefs and sachems who appear conspicuous iu U our early annals, the line of descent from Uncas comes down almost to our own time, and he has been honored, in preference to all others, with a commem orative monument from the hands of the white man. Uncas was a Pequod, by birth. Rebelling against his chief, Sassacus, he was expelled from the Pequod domain, and by his talent and sagacity soon took the rank and power of a chief among the Mohegans. He became the inveterate enemy of Sassacus ; and he was at the head of the Mohegans who accompanied Captain Mason against the Pequods, in 1637. He was always the firm friend of the English ; and during that dark period, when King Philip succeeded in arming all the New England tribes against the white people, Uncas remained faithful. He even took up arms against Philip, and with two hundred Mohegans, and a greater number of sub jugated Pequods, he marched with Major Talcott to Brookfield and Hadley, and at the latter place assisted in defeating seven hundred of Philip's savage allies. Like Philip, Uncas was opposed to the preaching of Christianity among his people, preferring to have them believe in the religion of his fathers. Yet he never used coercive measures in opposition ; and, finally, he so far yielded, that on one occasion, when the country was suffering from a great drought, ho asked a Christian minister to pray for rain. A copious shower, fell the next day, and Uncas became like King Agrippa in the presence of Paul — he was almost per suaded to become a Christian. In 1659, Uncas gave a deed to several white people, conveying to them a large tract of land at the head of the Pequod river [the Thames], and there the city of Norwich was founded. The exact period ofthe death ofUnoas is unknown. It is supposed to have occurred about 1683, when he was succeeded by his son Owaneko, or Oneco, who distinguished him self on the side of the English, in King Philip's war. In his old age, Oneco used to go about begging, accompanied by his squaw. As he could not speak English well, Richard Bushnell wrote the foUowing Unes for him to present to the benevolent : " Oneco, King, his queen doth bring to beg a little food. As tbey go along their friends among, to try how kind and good ; Some pork, some beef, for their relief ; and if you can't spare bread, . She'll thank you for your pudding, as they go a gooding, and carry it on her head." A neat granite obelisk, about twenty feet in height, has been erected in the city of Norwich, to the memory of Uncas. The foundation stone was laid in 38 KING PHILIP. 1825, by General Jackson ; and in the small cemetery in which it stands, a de scendant of Uncas, named Mazeon, was buried in 1827. There are a few ofthe Mohegan tribe yet living, near Norwich; but soon it maybe written upon a tomb-stone, "The last ofthe Mohegans." KINO PHILIP. A GENEROUS mind readily appreciates and commends an exhibition of true patriotism, even by an enemy. Those who regard the Indian as without the pale ofthe sympathies of civilization, are often compelled to yield reluctant admiration of the quaUties which make men heroes, sages, and patriots, when exhibited by this taboo'd race. No one appears more prominent as a claimant for consideration on account of these qualities, than Metacomet, the last chief of the Wampanoags of Rhode Island, known in history as King Philip. He was one of two sons of Massasoit, the sachem1 who gave a friendly welcome to the PUgrim Fathers. They were named, respectively, Alexander and Philip, by governor Winslow, in compliment to their father. Alexander was the eldest, and succeeded his fether in authority. He died, and his mantle fell upon Philip, a bold, powerful-minded warrior, whose keen perception had already given him uneasiness respecting the future of his race. He saw, year after year, the en croachments of the white people, yet he faithfully kept the treaty of his father, with them. He even endured insults and gross indignities ; and when his hot- blooded warriors gathered around his throne upon Mount Hope, and counselled war, he refused to listen. At length forbearance seemed no longer a virtue, and the hatchet was lifted. Among the "praying Indians," as Eliot's converts were called, was one who had been educated at Cambridge, and was employed as a teacher. On account of some misdemeanor, he had fled to PhUip, and became his secretary. He afterward returned to the white people, and accused Philip of treasonable de signs. Because of this charge, he was waylajd and murdered by some of the Wampanoags. Three suspected men were tried, convicted on slender testimony, and hanged. The ire of the Wampanoags was fiercely kindled. Philip was cautious, for he knew his weakness ; his young warriors were impetuous, for they counted not the cost of war. The sachem was finally overruled ; and re membering the indignities which he had suffered from the English, he trampled solemn treaties under foot, and lighted the" flame of war. Messengers were sent to other tribes, and with all the power of Indian eloquence, PhUip exhorted his foUowers to curse the white man, and to swear eternal hostility to the "pale faces." The events which foUowed have been detailed in our sketch of Captain Church, and need not be repeated here. Metacomet was a patriot of truest stamp, and his general character, measured by the standard of true appreciation, in which all controUing circumstances are considered, bears a favorable com parison with the patriots of other lands, and of more enlightened people. His death occurred in August, 1776, when he was about fifty years of age. During the war, the government of Plymouth offered thirty shillings for every head of an Indian killed in battle. The faithless Wampanoag received that price — "thirty pieces of silver" — for his master's head. 1. Sadiem and Chief are distinct characters, yet they are sometimes found in the same person. A sachem is the civil head of a tribe ; a chief is a military leader. Philip was both. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 39 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. THE words of Solomon, "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men," attracted the attention of a Boston tallow-chandler's son, when he was yet in youthhood. That youth was the immortal Benjamin Franklin, who was born on the morning of the 17th of January, 1706, and was christened that afternoon. At the age of eight years he went to a grammar school ; but at ten his services were re quired in his father's business, and his education was neglected. At the age of twelve years he was apprenticed to his brother James, a printer. He made great proficiency in his business, and a love for reading was gratified, often at the expense of half a night's sleep. The New Englomd Cowrant, printed by his brother in 1721, was the third newspaper established in America.1 Young FrankUn wrote several essays for it, which attracted much attention. The author was unknown and unsuspected. At about the same time he read the 1. The other two were Tlie Boston News Letter and The Boston Gazette. 40 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. productions of Shaftesbury and Collins, and he became a sceptic in religion, and a powerful disputant, by the use of the Socratic method of argument — asking questions. Because of his scepticism he became unpopular in Boston. This fact, and ill treatment by his brother, determined him to leave the plaee. He went to New York in a sloop, and from thence to Philadelphia, on foot, where he soon procured employment, as a printer, in the establishment of Mr. Keimer. His intelligence and good conduct attracted the attention of prominent men, among whom was Governor Keith, who advised him to go into business for himself With promises of aid from the governor, he started for London to buy printing materials. The aid was withheld ; and on his arrival, he sought employment for a livelihood. He was now only eighteen years of age. By the practice of the most rigid economy, he saved a greater part of his wages ; and his influence among his fellow-workmen, against useless expenses for beer and other things, was beneficial. At night he used his pen ; and by a Dissertation on Liberty, in wliich he contended that virtue and vice are nothing more than conventional distinctions, he made the acquaintance of MandevUle and other infidel writers. Franklin always looked back to these early efforts of his pen, in opposition to Christian ethics, with great regret. Franklin returned to . Philadelphia in the Autumn of 1726, as a merchant's clerk ; but the death of his employer, the following year, induced him to work, again, for Mr. Keimer. His ingenuity was profitable to his employer, for he engraved devices on type metal, made printer's ink, and in various ways saved money to the establishment. In 1728, he formed a partnership in the printing business with Mr. Meredith, but it was dissolved the following year. He then purchased Keimer's miserably-conducted paper, issued it in a greatly improved style, uttered in it many of those aphorisms which have since become famous, and then laid the foundation of his future usefulness. He married in 1730, lived frugally, and in the course of three or four years began to save money. He opened a small shop for the sale of stationery, to which his pleasant and edifying conversation drew many of the men of literary taste in the town. A literary club was formed, in which questions were discussed which required reference to books. Tho members brought such as they needed, from time to time, and Franklin conceived the idea of forming a public library. It was pop ular; and in 1731, the foundation of that noble institution, the Philadelphia Library, was laid.'. The following year he commenced the publication of Poor Richarrd's Almanac. It was full of sound maxims, and its popularity was so great, that he sold ten thousand copies annually. He continued it until 1757, when the demands of pubhc business upon his time, compeUed him to relin quish it. Franklin's first public employment was undertaken in 1736, when he was appointed clerk ofthe General Assembly of Pennsylvania The following year he was appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia. He now began to be one of the most popular men in the province. The fact is demonstrated by the circum stance that, by his personal exertions, he obtained ten thousand names to a voluntary association for the defence of the province, in 1744, when an attempt to procure a militia law had failed. He was chosen a member of the Assembly in 1747, and was regularly re-elected for ten years. Although Franklin was no orator, yet no man possessed greater influence than he, in that body. Yet these public employments did not draw his attention from books and scientific inves tigations. For a long time he held a theory that the electricity of the scientific 1. The association at first consisted of 40 members. The library was first established in the house of Franklin's warm friend, Robert Grace In 1740. it was placed in Ihe Slate House. In 1773, it was removed to Carpenter's frail ; and in 1790, the building erected for its use, was completed The associa tion was incorporated in 1742, as The Library Company of Philadelphia. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 41 apparatus and the lightning of the clouds were identical; and in 1752, he de monstrated the truth of his theory by unmistakable experiments.1 He imme diately applied the discovery to a practical use, by showing that pointed iron rods, extending from a distance above the highest part ofa house to the ground, would preserve the houso from lightning, by conducting it into the earth. The theory and its demonstration were made known in Europe, and Franklin's name became known and venerated throughout the scientific world. In 1753, Franklin was made deputy postmaster-general ofthe British colonies in America, and the same year he projected and established the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia. In 1754, he was one of the colonial delegates who met in Congress at Albany to devise. means of defence against the French; and there he submitted a plan of union, similar, in many respects, to our Federal Constitution, but it was rejected by the British government and the colonial assemblies for widely different reasons. Three years afterward, Franklin was sent to England as the agent of Pennsylvania, and was employed in the same capacity by three other colonies. There he associated with the greatest men of tho time, and the poor journeyman printer of a few years before, " stood before kings," was caressed by men of learning, was made a member of the Royal Society, and honored with the degree of Doctor of Laws, by the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford. He returned to America in 1762, and resumed his seat in the Assembly ; but two years afterward, the dispute between the colonies and the government having commenced in earnest, he was again sent as agent for Pennsylvania, to England. He remained abroad until 1775, during which time he visited the Continent, and became acquainted with the most learned men in Europe. On the day of his arrival in America, he was elected a mem ber of the Continental Congress ; and he was one of the signers of the Declara tion of Independence the following year. During the whole period of the revolution he was continually active in a civil capacity at home or abroad. Congress sent him as commissioner to the' French court in 1776, and he was one ofthe most accomplished and adroit diplomatists at Versailles. Finally, when peace was determined upon, Franklin was one of the leading commissioners in forming those treaties with Great Britain and other powers, which secured the independence of the colonies. He was then appointed Minister Plenipotentiary at the French court, and " stood before kings " until, by his own request, another was appointed in his place, and he returned home. He arrived at Philadelphia early in the Autumn of 1785, and was received with the highest republican honors. In 1787, he was a leading man in the convention which formed the Federal Constitution ; and the following vear he withdrew from public life, being then eighty-two years of age. On the 17th of April, 1790, that great Philosopher, Statesman, and Sage, was undressed for the grave ; and beneath a neat marble slab, in the burial-ground of Christ Church, Philadelphia, rest his mortal remains.* 1. He sent up an iron-pointed kite toward a hovering thunder cloud, and held it by a silken string, attached to the long hempen one. To the silken end was fastened an iron key, and when the cloud passed over, he touched tho key witli his knuckles, and received a spark. It was a*bold but successful experiment. _'. According to his directions, the only inscription on the broad slab is, BENJAMIN > and £ FRANKLIN. DEBORAH S 1790. Many years hefore, he wrote Ihe following epitaph for himself: "fhe body of Benjamin Fba-VKLim, Printer, Like the cover of an old Book, Its contents torn out, ( Vnrl stripped of iis lettering and gilding,) Lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost, For it will (as he helieved) appear once more, In a new and more elegant edition, Revised and corrected, by The Author." 42 NATHANIEL BACON. NATHANIEL BACON. OFTEN, in men's estimation, success makes effort a virtue, but failure makes it a crime. A successful blow at tyranny is caUed patriotism ; an unsuccess ful one is branded as rebellion. Nathaniel Bacon lifted his arm for popular freedom, faUed, and history recorded his name among traitors. He was a young man of great boldness and energy of character. His birth-place was in Suffolk county, England, and in London he was educated for the legal profession. Ho came to America during CromweU's rule in England, and was soon called to a seat in the council of Governor Berkeley. Thoroughly democratic in his views, Bacon often crossed the official path of the haughty cavalier, as an assertor of popular rights, especiaUy after the restoration of Charles the Second made tho Virginia loyalists insolent and tyrannical. The assembly, under the influence of the governor, abridged the liberties of the people, propagated the vipers of intolerance, and imposed heavy fines upon Baptists and Quakers. . The people soon learned to despise the name of king, and a strong repubhcan party was formed. Circumstances soon favored a demonstration of repubUcan strength. Some Indian tribes commenced depredations upon the settlements in the upper part, of Virginia, and they finaUy penetrated as far as Bacon's plantation in the vi cinity of Richmond. Berkeley appeared indifferent, and the planters asked the privilege of protecting themselves. The governor refused ; when at least five hundred men collected together, chose Bacon for commander, and drove the Indians back to the Potomac. Berkeley was jealous of Bacon, proclaimed him a traitor, and sent troops to pursue and arrest him. The people arose in re bellion, the aristocratic assembly was dissolved and a repubUcan one elected ; universal suffrage was restored ; Bacon was chosen commander-in-chief of tho miUtary, and a commission for him was demanded of the governor. That official was alarmed and promised compliance, not, however, until Bacon, with a large •force, approached Jamestown. He was compelled to attest the bravery and loyalty of Bacon; and on the 4th of July; 1676, just a hundred years before the colonies were declared free states, a, more Uberal and enlightened legislation commenced in Virginia. That day was truly the harbinger of American inde pendence and nationality. Again the Indians approached, and Bacon proceeded to drive them back. As soon as he had departed, Berkeley treacherously published a proclamation, re versing the proceedings of the assembly, repudiating Bacon's commission, and declaring him a traitor. Back to Jamestown the indignant patriot marched, and lighted a civil war. The governor and adhering loyalists were driven be yond the York river, and the wives of many w.ere detained as hostages for peace. Troops came from England to support Berkeley; and when rumor told of their march up the peninsula, Bacon applied the torch and laid Jamestown in ashes. He then crossed the York to drive the enemies of popular freedom entirely out ofthe old dominion, but tliere he met a foe to his life more deadly than royahsts or the Indians. The malaria from the low lands infused its poison into his' veins, and at the house of Dr. Green, in Gloucester county, the brave republican died,' on the 1st of October, 1676, at the age of about thirty-seven years. Berkeley assumed power immediately, and Bacon's followers were terribly persecuted. Twenty were hanged, scores were imprisoned, and much property was confis cated. Because the patriots were unsuccessful, this episode in Virginia history is known as "Bacon's Rebellion." JONATHAN TRUMBULL. 43 JONATHAN TRUMBULL. ONE of the" main pillars of support upon which General Washington relied during the War for Independence, was Jonathan TrumbuU, then Governor of Connecticut. He was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on the 21st of June, 1710rand was graduated at Harvard CoUege in 1727. His serious mind turned to theology as a profession, and he commenced its study with the Rev. Solomon Williams, of Lebanon. The death of an elder brother, who was engaged in mercantile business with his father, caused Jonathan to change his intentions and become a merchant. When only twenty-three years of age, he was elected a member ofthe Connecticut Assembly, where he soon became distinguish^! as one of its most active committee men. In 1766, he was elected Ueutenant- governor ofthe colony, and became ex-officio chief justice of the superior court. He espoused the patriot cause very early; and in 1768, he took the bold step of refusing to take the oath, which enjoined almost unconditional submission to 44 JOHN WINTHROP. Parliament, and' which a ministerial order required. That step was popular with the people ; and the following year he was chosen governor by a very large majority. His influence became almost unbounded throughout New England ; and while the Adams's and Hancock were legislating in the Continental Con gress, Governor Trumbull was recognized as the great leadpr in the East. He was an active, self-sacrificing, and reliable man throughout the whole contest; and he had the proud distinction of being the only colonial governor who, at the commencement of the revolution, espoused the republican cause. For fourteen consecutive years he was elected to the chief magistracy of his native State ; but when peace returned, and all danger seemed over, he left the helm forever. He declined a reelection ; and at the age of seventy-three years, he retired from public life. In August, 1785, he was seized with a malignant fever, which de stroyed his life on the 17th of that month. His sou and grandson both filled his chair of office, the latter having been governor in 1 849. The Marquis de Chastellux, who came to America with Rochambeau in 1780, thus speaks ofthe personal appearance of Governor Trumbull: "He is seventy years old; his whole life is consecrated to business, which he passionately loves, whether important or not ; or rather, with respect to him, there is none of the latter description. He has all the simplicity in . his dress, all the importance, and even pedantry, becoming the great magistrate of a small republic. He brought to my mind the burgomasters of Holland in the time of the Heinsius's and Barnevelts." He was greatly beloved by Washington ; and no name on the pages of our history appears brighter, as a pure patriot and honest man, than that of Jonathan Trumbull. JOHN WINTHROP. ONE of the most accomplished scholars of the last century, was John Winthrop, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Harvard University. He was born in Boston, in 1715, and was graduated at Harvard when only seventeen years of age.. His studies took a wide range, and included theology and medicine, with the natural sciences. When he was appointed Hollis Pro fessor1 in the university, he was considered the most learned man in America; and his teaching and example gave a powerful impetus to the study of the exact sciences in this country. As early as 1740, he made observations on the transit of Mercury, and published them in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London. In June; 1761, he went to St. John's, Newfoundland, with his instruments and attendants, to observe the transit of Venus, that point being the most favor- ¦ able, in America, for such observations. That passage of Venus across the disc ofthe sun.had been looked forward to with great interest, for one hundred and twenty-two years had elapsed since a similar phenomenon had been observed.2 Mr. Winthrop's observations were accurate, and of the greatest value. They gave his name and that of Harvard College a world-wide reputation. The Royal Society elected him a member of that body ; and the University at Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., or Doctor of Laws. He also observed the transit of Venus, in 1769,3 and the papers wliich he published on that subject 1. "_1 professorship liberally endowed by John Hollis. He founded two nrofessorshms in (h.t instill, tion-divimty and mathematics. Mr. Winthrop was professor of mathemalics P _i7i cflIlno' be seen with the naked eye. The telescope was first used nmone moderns . nrlv in ihe 17th century, and the first transit of Venus observed wilh it, was on the 6th of December l«(l Tl _ next was on Ihe 4th of December, 1639. Again, on the oih of June, 1761 and the i of w' i-fo Th« next transit will take place on the 8th of December, 1874. ' June' 1,M- Tho 3. See sketch of David Rittenhouse. JOHN BARTRAM. 45 procured his admission to membership in the most eminent scientific societies of the world. ,In 1767, Dr. Winthrop pubhshed liis Cogita de Cornells, a work of profound research, and of great value to the scientific world. At this time the disputo between the American colonies and Great Britain was assuming much import ance, and Dr Winthrop engaged zealously in the cause of the colonists. Not withstanding he labored intensely in the duties of his professorship, he engaged in all the exciting discussions of the day, and was ever found on the side of human freedom. During all the exciting scenes of the early days ofthe revolu tion, around Boston, he was a firm patriot, a wise counsellor, and efficient pro moter of the good cause. He held his professorship until his death, which occurred on the 3d of May, 1779, in the sixty-fifth year ofhis age. JOHN BARTRAM. THE men of science in Europe, a hundred years ago, were occasionally startled, as with a, meteor flash, by scintillations of great minds in America; and it was a hard question for them to solve how genius could be fostered into vigorous life amid the cool shades of that wilderness. Yet here and there tho evidences of such genius intruded upon their stately opinions, and they wero compeUed to offer the hand of fellowship to American brethren, equal in pro fundity of knowledge with themselves. Of this class was John Bartram, an eminent botanist, who was born near Darby, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1701. He found few helps to education in early life, but study and perseverance overcame a host of difficulties. He seldom sat down to a meal with out a book, and he learned the classic languages with great facUity. In tho study of medicine and surgery he greatly delighted ; and drawing his medicines chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, ho practiced successfuUy among the poor of his neighborhood. His avocation was that of a farmer, and his favorite study was botany. Mr. Bartram was the first American who conceived the plan of establishing a botanic garden for American plants and vegetables. He carried his plan into execution, by devoting about six acres, near Philadelphia, to the purpose. Ho traversed the country in every direction, from Canada on the north to Florida on the south, in search of new productions, and his garden was enriched and beautified by the results of his explorations. His philosophical knowledge at tracted the attention of learned and scientific men, at home and abroad, and with these his intercourse became extensive. He sent many botanical collec tions to Europe, and their beauty, novelty, and admirable classification, won universal applause. Literary and scientific societies of London, Edinburgh, Stockholm, and other cities, placed his name among those of their honorary members; and finally, George the Third of England appointed him "American Botanist to his Majesty." He held that honorable position until his death, which occurred in September, 1777, when he was in the seventy-sixth year ofhis age. His zeal in scientific pursuits was unabated till the last. At the age of seventy years, he made a journey in Bast Florida, to examine and collect the natural productions of that region. His son, WUliam, who accompanied his fether in many of these excursions, published, in 1792, an interesting account of their travels through East Florida, the Cherokee country, &c. John Bartram lived and died an exemplary member ofthe Society of Friends. 46 CHARLES THOMSON. CHARLES THOMSON. OF all the patriots of the Revolution, no man was better acquainted with the men and events of that struggle, than Charles Thomson, who was the per manent Secretary of the Continental Congress for more than fifteen years. He was bom in Ireland in 1730, and at the age of eleven years was brought to America in company with three older brothers. Their father died from the effects of sea-sickness, when within sight of the capes of the Delaware. They landed at New Castle, in Delaware, and had no other capital with which to commence life in the New World, than strong and wining hands, and honest hearts. Charles was educated at New London, in Pennsylvania, by Dr. Allison, and became a teacher in the Friend's Academy, at New Castle. He went to PhUadelphia, where he enjoyed the friendship of Dr. Franklin and other eminent men. In 1756, he was the secretary for the Delaware Indians, at a great council- held with the white people, at Easton; and that tribe adopted him as a son, according to an ancient custom. With all the zeal of an ardent nature, Thomson espoused the repubUcan cause ; and when the first Continental Congress met, in Phila delphia, in September, 1774, he was called to the responsible duty of secretary to that body.1 At about that time, he married Hannah Harrison (the aunt of 1. Watson relates that Thomson had just come into Philadelphia, with kis bride, and was alighting FRANCIS ALLISON. 47 President Harrison), whose brother, Benjamin, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Year after year, Mr. Thomson kept the records of the proceedings of Congress, until the new organization of the government under the Federal Constitution, in 1789. But the demands of public business did not wean him from books, of which he was a great lover. He had a passion for the study of Greek authors, and actuaUy translated the Septuagint from the original into English. He made copious notes of the progress of the Revolution, and after retiring from public life, in 1789, he prepared a History of his own times. But his sense ofjustice and goodness of heart, would not permit him to publish it ; and a short time before he died, ho destroyed the manuscript. He gave as a reason, that he was unwilling to blast the reputation of famUies rising into repute, whose progenitors were proved to be unworthy of the friendship of good men, because of their bad conduct during the war. So the world has lost the most authentic civil history of the struggle for independence, ever produced. Mr. Thomson died on the 16th of August, 1824, when in the ninety-fifth year of his age. He then resided at Lower Merion, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where he was buried. In 1838, his nephew removed his remains to Laurel Hill Cemetery, over which is a handsome monument, bearing an appropriate inscrip tion, composed by John F. Watson, Esq., the Annalist. FRANCIS ALLISON. THE early instructors of great men ought to have a share in the honors of their pupils, if; as faithful teachers, their instructions have led to such greatness. In that relation to several ofthe men distinguished in the councils ofthe nation during our War for Independence, stands Francis AUison. He was born in Ireland in 1705, and completed his education at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland. At the age of thirty years he emigrated to America, and having been ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church, he was chosen pastor of a flock at New London, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. His Christian zeal made liim yearn for more workers in his Master's vineyard, and he opened a free school in which he taught many who expressed themselves desirous of becoming gospel bearers. About the year 1747, he was invited to take charge of an academy in Philadelphia, whore he became instructor of many youths, who afterward oc cupied conspicuous public stations. He had educated Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress during the whole of the revolution and several years afterward. In 1755, Dr. AUison was chosen vice-provost of the CoUege in Philadelphia, then just established ; and among his earliest pupils, was Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was professor of moral phUosophy ; and during these employments he con tinued his ministerial labors as pastor of the first Presbyterian Church in Phila delphia. Dr. Allison died at Philadelphia, on the 28th of November, 1777, at the age of seventy-two years. from his chaise, when a messenger from the delegates in Carpenter's Hall came to him, and said they wanted him to come and take minutes of their proceedings, as he was an expert at such business. For . his first year's service, he received no pay. So Congress informed his wife, that they wished to com pensate her for the absence of her husband during that time, and wished her to name what kind of a piece of plate she would like to receive. She chose an urn, and that silver vessel is yet iu the family. 48 INCREASE MATHER. INCREASE MATHER. AMONG the most eminent divines and boldest asserters of freedom in New England during the angry discussions between those settlements and the imperial governments in the reign of Charles the Second, was Increase Mather, a native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he was born on the 21st of Jan uary, 1639. He was an exceedingly precocious child ; and at the age of twelve years, entered Harvard CoUege as a student. He graduated with honor in 1656; and the following year entered as a student at Trinity College, Dublin. After an absence of four years, he returned to Boston; and in 1664, was ordained minister of the North Church in that city, which connection he held sixty-two years, a part of the time assisted by his son, Cotton Mather. Mr. Mather was chosen to fill the presidential chair of Harvard College, after the death of President Oakes, but finaUy resigned when the faculty required him to live in Cambridge, and thus he separated from his beloved flock in Bos ton. After the English revolution in 1688,1 and the expulsion of governor An dros from New England,'- Mr. Mather went to the court of William and Mary, and by the use of great diplomatic skill, in connection with Sir WiUiam Phipps, procured the celebrated charter of 1691, for his native colony. On the assem bling of the first legislature, under the new charter, a vote of thanks was adopted by that body, expressive of their appreciation ofhis faithful public services. That frightful delusion known as " Salem Witchcraft"-1 prevailed about tho time of Mather's return to America, and while his son, Cotton, was fanning the flame, he wrote and spoke against it. Like most people in his day, he believed in the existence of witches,4 yet his gentle heart and strong common sense ut terly condemned the wicked and cruel accusations and prosecutions witnessed almost daily. His pen and tongue were among the most efficient instruments in the final suppression of legal proceedings. During his presidency of Harvard College, Mr. Mather received the title of Doctor in Divinity from the faculty of that institution. His diploma was tho first ofthe kind issued in America, and he was a worthy recipient of that honor, for his long life was spent in the service of his divine Master, and of his native country. His piety was unaffected, and his benevolence was manifested by his giving one-tenth of all his income to charitable purposes. At tho time of his death, which occurred on the 23d of August, 1723, at the age of eighty-four years, he was properly called the Patriarch of New England. 1. James, Duke of York, and brother of Charles the Second, succeeded that monarch as King of Great Britain. He was a Roman Catholic, and like all the other Stuai t kings, was a bad man. The people re belled in 1688, and called James' son-in-law, William, Prince of Orange and Nassau, to the throne. Ho and his wife, Mary, James' daughter, ruled jointly.. Their profiles appeared together on the coins, and that fact was the origin of the expression of endearment — " Cooing and hilling, Like William and Mary on a shilling." 2. Andros has been termed " The Tyrant of New England." When the revolution became known, Andros was seized, at Boston, put on board a vessel, and, with fifty of his political associates, was sent to England, under a charge of mal-admmiBtration of public affairs. 3. See sketch of Cotton Mather. . 4. We havenoticed the effects of this delusion, in a note on page 27. We may add here that punish ments for witchcraft were first sanctioned by the Romish Church a little more than three hundred years ago. Henry the Eighth made Ihe practice of witchcraft a capital offence: and professional "witch hunters " were common in Great Britain. Even tho learned Sir Matthew Hale, one of the brightest ornaments of the English judiciary, repeatedly tried and condemned persons accused of witchcraft JOHN CARROLL. 49 EZRA STILES. A FEW weeks before the British under Governor Tryon, entered New Haven, in Connecticut, with incendiary intent, a diminutive man of fifty years, with a face beaming with benevolent emotions, and a heart burning with lovo for his country and his race, was elected President of Yale College. It was Ezra Stiles, a most excellent Christian scholar, who was born at North Haven, on the 15th of December, 1727. He was educated at Yale, where he was grad uated in 1742. He possessed a clear inteUect, brilliant genius, and remarkable grace in deportment. He became a tutor in the CoUege, and prepared himself for the Christian ministry. IU health afflicted him, and with it came a state of mental suffering which almost made shipwreck of his character. He doubted the divinity of Christianity, and turned to the law as his chosen profession for life. Thorough investigations of the subject of revealed religion resulted, as usual,, in convincing him that the teachings of Jesus proceeded from the great Father of us all. Under this conviction, Mr. Stiles resumed his clerical studies, and became a shining apostle of truth, as pastor of a Congregational society in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1755. When the storm of the Revolution burst over Narraganset Bay and vicinity, and Rhode Island became a prey to the British invaders, Mr. Stiles' congregation was dispersed, and he preached in various places, until the year 1777, when, on the resignation of Dr. Daggett, he was elected President of Yale College. It was a wise choice, for his fame as a classical and Oriental scholar, and a thorough disciphnarian, had reached to Europe. He already corresponded extensively with leading men of science and learning in the old world, and he has ever been regarded as the most accomplished scholar who has yet filled the presidential chair of " Old Yale." He occupied that important seat until his death, which occurred on the 12th of May, 1795, when he was in the sixty-eighth year of his age. Dr. Stiles left a very interesting manuscript journal, which has never been pubhshed. It is in the library of Yale College. JOHN CARROLL. IT is a fact worthy of notice, that the Maryland charter, granted by King Charles the First, in 1632, to Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic gentleman of fortune and influence, was the first of all the royal patents granted for settle ments in America, which guaranteed freedom of thought and worship to all who professed a belief in Christ. Then came Baltimore's descendant (Leonard Calvert), with a Roman Catholic colony, and first settled that beautiful country "between North and South Virginia;" (named Maryland, after Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles the First,) and to this day, men of that faith have held a controUing influence in the affairs of the colony and state, in civil, military, political, and religious life. One ofthe most eminent lights ofthe Roman Cath olic Church in Maryland, was John Carroll, a relative of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and tot many years a faithful and highly esteemed archbishop, of the archiepiscbpal see of Baltimore. He was born on the 8th of January, 1735, at Upper Marlborough, in Maryland, and was remark able for his docility in childhood, and activity of mind during his earUer years. At the age of thirteen he was. sent to the college of St. Omer, in French Flan ders, where he remained until he was transferred to the Jesuits' coUege, at Liege, 50 JOHN CARROLL. six years afterward. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1769, renounced all claims to the estate left him by his father, and then became a teacher at St. Omer, and afterward at Liege. In 1773, the Jesuits were expelled from France, and he was obliged to abandon his professorship in the college at Bruges, to which he had been lately appointed, and retire to England. He wrote an able vindication of the Jesuits, but it availed nothing, for he dared not print it, and the manuscript is losfe In England, the accompUshed young ecclesiastic became secretary to the Jesuit Fathers there. He also accompanied the son of Lord Stourton (an English nobleman) on a continental tour, as governor, during which time be kept an interesting journal.1 On his return to England he be came a resident in Lord Arundel's family. The quarrel between England' and hor colonies was now waxing warm, and Mr. Carroll returned to his native country, in 1775. He immediately commenced the duties of his office of priest in his native county. Mr. CarroU was now called to other duties. Congress was very desirous of winning Canada to the confederation of the American colonies against the 1. This Journal is published in (he Biography of Archbishop Carroll, written hy his nephew, John Carroll Brent, and pubhshed, in Baltimore, in 1843. JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE. 51 mother government, or at least to obtain its neutrality ; and for that purpose, appointed Dr. Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, commissioners to proceed thither, to confer with the leading men there. Father Carroll was in vited to accompany them, because liis sacred office, his thorough acquaintance with the French language, and his conceded talent, would be of great service. The mission proved unsuccessful, however, and the devoted priest returned to his ministerial labors. Throughout the war, he was attached to the patriot cause, yet he did not neglect his religious duties. His talent and devotion were widely known; and in 1786, he was appointed vicar-general, and took up his residence at Baltimore. At that time his church was in a languishing state in America ; but, like Dr. White, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Mr. Carroll labored assiduously for the growth of his Zion, and may be justly called tho Father of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He was consecrated a Bishop (the first for the United States) in 1790; and the following year ho founded the coUege at Georgetown. The whole Republic was then but ono diocese, under the title of the see of Baltimore. Under his fostering care, and' the tolerant principles of our government, the church thrived, and men of every creed regarded Bishop Carroll as one ofthe best men of the day. Congress, by unanimous vote, invited him to deliver an eulogy on the death of Washington, and that service was admirably performed in St. Peter's church, in Baltimore, on the 22d of February, 1800. In 1808, Baltimore was erected into a metro: politan see. Four suffragan bishops were created, and Dr. Carroll became Arch bishop. With every additional duty laid upon him, the venerable prelate's zeal seemed to increase, and he labored faithfully until his death, which occurred on the 3d of December, 1815, at the age of eighty years. JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE. THE name of Oglethorpe ought to be held in grateful remembrance as one of the noblest of the colonizers of our beautiful land, for he came not hither for personal gain, but for the purpose of perfecting a benevolent scheme whieh his tender heart and sound judgment had conceived. He was born in Surrey, England, on the 21st of December, 1698. He was educated for the miUtary profession, and became an aide-de-camp to the great Prince Eugene. While a representative in Parhament, in 1728, lie was placed upon a committee to inquiro into the condition of imprisoned debtors in Great Britain. His benevolent heart was pained at the recitals of woe that feU upon his ears. The virtuous and the good were alike cast into loathsome prisons. A glorious idea was awakened in his mind; and in 1729, he submitted to Parliament a plan for establishing a, military colony south ofthe Savannah river, as a barrier between the Carolinians and the Spaniards in Florida, to be composed of the virtuous debtors then in prison throughout the kingdom. The plan was heartily approved. A royal charter for twenty-one years was granted to a corporation "in trust for the poor," to establish a colony to be called Georgia, in honor of King George the Second, then on the EngUsh throne. Oglethorpe was a. practical philanthropist; and when sufficient money had been subscribed, and the emigrants were almost ready for departure, he offered to accompany them as governor. He went up the Savannah river early in 1733, and upon Yamacraw Bluff he held a "talk" with some ofthe Creek chiefs; and there he founded tbe city of Savannah. In the prosecution of his benevolent enterprise he crossed the ocean several times. Hia colony rapidly increased, and within eight years twenty-five hundred settlers 52 JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. were sent over by the trustees, at an expense of four hundred thousand dollars. The jealousy of the Spaniards at St. Augustine was aroused, and they menaced the Georgia colony with war. Oglethorpe promptly built forts in the direction of Florida, and by skillful miUtary movements, including some fighting, he kept back the enemy, and secured permanency to' his colony. Oglethorpe took final leave of Georgia in 1743, and in 1?45 was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-general in the British army. He was employed, under the Duke of Cumberland, in quelling the Scotch rebellion of 1745; and in 1747, he was promoted to Major-general. When General Gage, who was governor of Massachusetts, and commander-in-chief of the British forces in America,-went to England in 1775, the supreme command in this country was offered to Ogle thorpe. The merciful conditions upon which, alone, he would accept the ap pointment did not please the ministry, and general Howe was sent. Oglethorpe died at his seat at Grantham HaU, on the 30th of June, 1785, at the age of eighty-seven years. JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. THE fine arts were but little appreciated and less practiced in America, pre vious to the revolution-; and those artists of American birth who becamo famous, obtained their laurel-crowns in England. There West' and Copley both gained fortune and great fame. The latter was born in Boston in 1738. He possessed a genius for art, and became a pupil of Smibert, a celebrated EngUsh portrait painter, who accompanied Dean Berkeley to Rhode Island. Smibert settled in Boston when Berkeley returned to England, where he married and died. Copley was his only student who became proficient ; and after his master's death, in 1751, he stood alone in his profession. Ho painted many full-length portraits, and a lucrative and honorable career was opening before him, when tho early storm-clouds of the revolution began to appear. His business waned, and, in 1769, he went to England. This circumstance, and the fact that his father-in- law was one of the consignees of the East India Company's tea, which was destroyed in Boston Harbor in 1773, caused him to be classed among refugee loyalists. He was patronized by Benjamin West, then in the meridian glory of his renown; and in 1770, he was admitted a member of the Royal Academy, then lately established under the auspices of the young king. He visited Boston in 1771, where he remained several months, and then returned to England. In 1774, he went to Italy; and on his return to England in 1776, he there met his wife and children, whom he had left in Boston. They had come with his father- in-law, who was one ofthe many loyalists who fled to Halifax when Washington drove the British from Boston in the Spring of that year. Copley devoted him self assiduously to portrait painting, for a livelihood, and occasionally produced an historical picture, which attested his fine talent for such composition. On the recommendation of West, he was employed to paint two pictures: one for the House of Lords, the other for the House of Commons. He chose- for his subjects, The Death of Chatham, and Charles the First in Parliament. These established his fame, and he secured a fortune by his profession. His name-sake son, who was born in Boston, in 1772, ho educated for the bar. It was a wise choice, for he became as eminent in the profession of the law, as his father had in painting. Ho was rapidly rising in honor when his father died, suddenly, on tho 25th of September, 1815, at the age of seventy-seven years. Twelve years later, the Boston-born son of Copley became Lord Chancellor of England and was elevated to the peerage, with the title of Lord Lyndhurst. AVILLIAM WHITE. 53 o/y?ori C a got the gal." 102 OLIVER ELLSWORTH. OLIVER ELLSWORTH. "VTEVER was the harmony between private and public virtue more complete, ll than that exhibited in the character and career of one of the most beloved of New England patriots and jurists, Oliver EUsworth. He was born at Wind sor, the point of earliest settlement in Connecticut, on the 29th of AprU, 1745. His father was a respectable farmer, and with the strong common sense of his class, he prepared Oliver for the stern duties of life, by habits of labor, applica tion, and frugality. His mental superiority was early discovered, and his father alternated the lad's daily life, between vigorous physical labors, and studies preparatory to a coUegiate course of education. He entered Yale CoUege at tho age of seventeen years, but greater advantages appearing at Princeton, he com pleted his studies there, where he was graduated in 1766. His talents were not brilliant, and precocity did not shbw blossoms of promise as precursors of tho fruit of disappointment. Slowly but strongly his intellect unfolded, whUe ho labored with unceasing energy upon a rough farm, where his toil was sweetened by the sympathies of a charming wife, one of tho Wolcott family. His evenings were devoted to the study of the law, and at the age of about twenty-five, ho commenced its practice in the vicinity of Hartford. His ambition soared not to place and honor, and the farmer-lawyer, at that time, gave but little promise of being a chief justice of the United States. The electric spark of vitality to his latent greatness and loftier aspirations was communicated by a stranger, in BENJAMIN HARRISON. 103 court, whom Ellsworth heard remark, and inquire, after one of his forensic efforts " Who is that young man ? He speaks well." ' Young EUsworth pondered these words, and bright visions of fame broke upon his mind. Increase of legal business induced Ellsworth to make Hartford his residence and there ho received the appointment of State's Attorney. As the quarrel witli Great Britain progressed, he was always found on the side of the people. Ho oven went to the field with the militia of his State, when the war broke out. In 1777, he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, and in 1780, took a seat in the council of his native State. He continued a member of that body until 1784, when he was appointed a judge of the superior court of Con necticut. Judge Ellsworth was a warm friend of the Federal Constitution, did much toward effecting its ratification, in his State, and in 1789, was elected the first representative of Connecticut in the Senate ofthe United States. There he became greatly distinguished for his legislative qualities, stern integrity, and faithful devotion to the public interest. For seven years he served his country nobly in the national councils. In the Spring of 1796, he was appointed chief justice of the United States. He was now in the full prime of life, and his mind in its utmost vigor. He bore the ermine with majesty, and cast it off in unsul lied purity when, toward the close of 1799, President Adams appointed him, with Davie and Murray, an ambassador to the French court, at the head of whioh was the youthful Bonaparte. After negotiating a treaty for which they were sent, Judge EUsworth visited other parts of the Continent, and England. While lingering in Great Britain for the benefit of the health of himself and an invahd son, he resigned the office of chief justice. He returned home early in 1801, and was immediately elected to the councU of his State. His health was now becoming impaired by a distressing internal disease ; and when, in May, 1807, he was appointed chief justice of Connecticut, he decUned the office, for he was conscious that his death was near. Six months afterward, his prophecy was fulfilled. He died on the 26th of November, 1807, at the age of sixty-two years. BENJAMIN HARRISON. " TS/*E aro about to take a very dangerous step, but we confide in you, and are VT ready to support you in every measure you shall think proper to adopt," were the significant words of the constituents of Benjamin Harrison, as he was about to proceed to take his seat in the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia, in 1774, as a delegate from Virginia. They were the words of men who knew their servant weU, and aUowed no shadow of distrust to cloud their hopes. Ho was a patriot of the truest stamp. The exact time of his birth is not certainly known. It occurred at Berkeley, the seat of his father, on the James River, a few mUes above the residence of Colonel Byrd, at Westover. He was educated at the college of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, but on account of the sud den death of his father,1 and some difficulty with one of the professors, he was not graduated, and never took his degree. In 1764, young Harrison was elected a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, where ho soon became an in fluential leader. He was chosen Speaker of that body, and when the Stamp Act excitement shook royal power in Virginia, the governor tried to win him to the support of government, by offering him a seat in his council. Harrison re- 1. The venerable man and two of his four daughters were killed by l^htning, in Ms house, at Ber keley, during a terrible thunder-storm. 104 JEREMY BELKNAP. jected the offer, boldly avowed his republican principles, and from that time became identified with the revolutionary party'in Virginia. He was one of the representatives of Virginia in the first Continental Congress, when his relative, Peyton Randolph, was chosen its president. In the Autumn of 1775, he was one of a committee of Congress who visited the American army at Cambridge, tp devise plans for the future, with Washington; and the following year he warmly supported, and affixed his signature to, the Declaration of Independence. He was a member ofthe Foreign Committee until its dissolution in 1777, and at that time he returned to Virginia, and took his seat in the House of Burgesses. He was chosen speaker, and held that station until 1782, when he was elected governor of Virginia. As military lieutenant of his county," he was very active in endeavors to capture Arnold, the traitor, and with Nelson, kept the militia disciplined and vigilant, until the great victory at Yorktown. Mr. Harrison served as governor, two terms, and then retired to private life. He was again brought into the public service by being chosen governor, in 1791. On the day after the election, he invited a party of friends to dine with -him. He had re cently recovered from a severe attack of gout in the stomach; indulgence on that occasion invited "its return, and the day following was his last on earth. He died in AprU, 1791. WilUam Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States, was his son. JEREMY BELKNAP. AMONG tho writers of New England, Jeremy Belknap, D.D., holds a high rank. He was a descendant of one ofthe early inhabitants of Boston,, and was born in that city on the 4th of June, 1744. He was prepared for college in the grammar school of the celebrated John Lovell, and was graduated at Har vard, in 1762. While a lad, he was remarkable for the beauty and chasteness of his compositions, and his friends saw in him the germ of an elegant writer. He was equally fluent and correct in" his conversation ; and the profession of a gospel minister being consonant with his seriousness of thought, he applied him self to the study of theology. In 1767, he was ordained pastor of the church at Dover, New Hampshire, where he passed twenty years of his ministerial life, in the enjoyment ofthe cordial esteem of men of every class. He wrote consider able in favor of the colonies, before the war, but took very little part in public affairs during the Revolution. Toward the close of his labors in Dover, he wrote a history of New Hampshire, in two large volumes, which gained him great reputation as an accurate chronicler. In 1787, Dr. Belknap was called to the pastoral charge of a congregational church in Boston, and there he spent the remainder of his years, a faithful minister and an assiduous student. The fields of literature had great charms for him, and in pursuit of the pleasures to be found therein, he spent much time. The last literary labor ofhis life was an American Biography, in which he exhibited much patient research and careful analysis. He did not live to complete it, for, in June, 1798, he was suddenly prostrated by paralysis of the whole system, and died on the 20th of that month, at the age of fifty-four years. He experienced the " privilege " for which he aspired, as expressed in the following lines, found among his papers: " When faith and patience, hope and love, Have made us meet for heaven above, How blest the privilege to rise, S latched, in a moment, to the skies 1 Unconscious to resign our brenth, Nor taste the bitterness of death." ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. 105 ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. YERY few of the American settlers were descendants of aristocratic families, except the cavaliers of Virginia, and as a general rule, they were staunch republicans when the great poUtical question of right and power was to be de cided between the colonists and Great Britain. Robert Livingston, the first of the name who emigrated to America, was a lineal descendant of the Earl of Livingstone,1 of Scotland. From him descended the family of that name so numerous at the period of the Revolution, and since, and who were all remark able for their unflinching patriotism during the great struggle. Robert R. Livingston was a great grandson ofthe first "lord ofthe manor."2 To the care ful research and accurate pen of John W. Francis, M.D., we are indebted for a record ofthe chief events of his life. He was born in the city of New York, in 1747, and was educated at King's (now Columbia) College, where he was grad uated in 1764. He studied law under the guidance of WUliam Smith, chief justice of New York, and became an eminent practitioner of that profession. 1. He was hereditary governor of Linlithgow Castle, in which Mary, Queen of Scots, was born, and .his daughter was one of the four ladies who accompanied that unfortunate Queen to France. 2. The Manor of Livingston, in Columbia connty, New York. It was one of those manorial estates, established under the patroon privileges of the Dutch rule in that province. See note 1, page 260. 106 WILLIAM ALEXANDER. His zeal for popular liberty was thoroughly awakened during the excitement incident to the Stamp Act. and he was an early participant in those movements which resulted in revolution. The brave General Montgomery, who fell at Quebec, had married his sister, and that event intensified his devotion to the republican cause. In 1776, he was elected a member of the Continental Con gress, at the same time holding the office of delegate in the Provincial Congress of New York. He was appointed one of the committee to draft a Declaration of Independence, but, being called to duties at home, before the final vote was taken, his name does not appear upon that instrument. Mr. Livingston was made Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Secretary of State) when the new organization of government, under the Articles of Confederation, was completed ; and performed the duties of that station with rare ability, until 1783, when he was appointed Chancellor ofthe State of New York. He was a warm supporter of the Federal Constitution, in the New York convention held at Poughkeepsie in 1788, to consider it; and on the 30th of April, the following year, he administered the oath of office to Washington, the first President of tho • United States. In 1801, Mr. Jefferson appointed him resident minister at the court of Napoleon, and he successfully negotiated the purchase of Louisiana, from the French, for fifteen mUlions of dollars. By his enlightened patronage of Robert Fulton, in his experiments in steam navigation, he conferred a lasting benefit on mankind, and his name wiU always be honorably associated with that inventor, and the wonderful results of those experiments. Chancellor Livingston died at his seat, at Clermont, in Columbia county, on the 26th of February, 1813, in the sixty-sixth years of his age. " His person," says Dr. Francis, who knew him intimately, "was tall and commanding, and of patrician dignity. Gentle and courteous in his manners, pure and upright in his morals, his benefactions to the poor were numerous and unostentatious. In his life, he was without reproach — in death, victorious over its terrors." WILLIAM ALEXANDER. ONLY one, of aU the American officers of the Revolution, bore a title of nobility by descent of patent, and his was disputed and denied. That officer was WilUam Alexander, who claimed the title of Earl of StirUng. He was the son of James Alexander, of Scotland, who took refuge in America, in 1716, after a warm participation in the cause ofthe son of James the Second, "pretender" to the rightful heirship ofthe throne of England. William was born in the city of New York, in 1726. His mother was the widow of David Provoost, a bold smuggler in the early part of the last century, and well known by the name of "Ready Money Provoost." Young Alexander joined the army in the French and Indian war, and was secretary to General Shirley. He accompanied that officer to England, in 1755, and there made the acquaintance of some of the leading men ofthe realm. By their advice, he instituted proceedings to obtain the title of Earl of StirUng, to which his father was heir-presumptive when he left Scotland. Although he did not obtain a legal recognition of the title, his right to it was generally conceded, and from that time he was addressed as Earl of StirUng. He returned to America in 1761, married the daughter of PhUip Livingston (sister of Governor Livingston, of New Jersey), and built a fine man sion, on his estate, at Baskenridge. He was a member of the New Jersey Provincial Council for a number of years ; and when the choice between repub Ucanism and royalty had to be made, he was found on the side of the people. TIMOTHY DWIGHT. 107 In 1775, the Provincial Convention of New Jersey appointed him colonel of the first regiment of militia, and in March, 1776, Congress gave 'him the commission of a brigadier. General Lee left him in command at New York in AprU, and in August, he fought valiantly in the battle near Brooklyn, and was made prisoner. He was exchanged ; and in February foUowing, Congress made him a major- general. He performed active and varied services until the Summer of 1781, when he was ordered to the command of the northern army, with his head quarters at Albany. An invasion from Canada was then expected. Indeed it was commenced under St. Leger, but the vigorous preparations of Stirling in timidated him.j and the scheme was abandoned. Late in the Autumn, he took command in New Jersey, and had jurisdiction and general supervision of military affairs, in that State and in New York,- to Fishkill above the Hudson Highlands. Lord Stirling was again in command at Albany, in 1782, where he died, on the 15th of January, 1783, in the fifty-seventh year ofhis age. It is a singular fact, that during the War for Independence, Lord Stirling had command, at different times, of every brigade of the American army, except those of South Carolina and Georgia. TIMOTHY DWIOHT. TWENTY days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, a, young man, twenty four years of age, addressed the students of Yale College on the subject of the future of the States then just declared "free and independent," in language truly prophetic.1 That young prophet was Timothy Dwight, a grandson of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, and many years the' honored president of that ancient institution of learning. He was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 14th of May, 1752. He was educated at Yale College, where he was graduated in 1769, From that period, until 1771, he taught a grammar school, in New Haven, and at the same time he devoted eight hours each day to severe study. At the age of nineteen years he was chosen a tutor in Yale College, and performed the duties of his station ^with great satisfaction for six years. It was while he was engaged in that vocation that he delivered the address above- alluded to. He took his second degree in 1772, and, on that occasion, he deUvered a learned dissertation on the history, eloquence, and poetry of the Bible. At about that time he com menced his sacred epic, The Conquest of Canaan, and finished it at the age of twenty-two years, Severe application and want of bodily exercise now seriously affected his health, but it was speedily restored by a change of habits, and sick ness was a stranger to him during the next forty years.2 Mr. Dwight married in the Spring of 1777 ; and in June following, he was licensed to preach the gospel. In September, he withdrew from the college, was appoint-ecj chaplain to General Parson's brigade, and joined the Continental 1. After speaking ofthe establishment of a republican government, having for its basis the virtue and . intelligence oftbe people, he referred to the necessary influence which such a government would have on the general advancement of mankind. He spoke of Ihe yet undeveloped resources of tlie soil and TOines, the organization of new States, the vast increase of population ; and then referred to the rounnon of that portioi ofthe Continent under Spanish rule, from which during the last 'w™."""; W1L ?K. received such vast accessions of territory. After speaking of the vices and degradation of the people, besays, " the moment our interest demands it, these extensive regions mil be our own ,. the P«sent race ofinhabitants will either be entirely exterminated, or revive to the native human dignity, by tne gen erous and beneficent influence of just laws and rational freedom." .... ¦„,-„„_-,__ „« , v.. !„ 2, He was always afflicted with a painful disease of the eyes, caused by his intenBe use of them in study too soon after recovering from the small-pox. Army, at West Point, on the Hudson. There he wrote several patriotic songs, of which the one commencing, " Columbia 1 Columbia 1 to glory arise. The queen of the world, and the child of the skies, " was the most celebrated. That, too, like his address the year before, was truly prophetic. On receiving the news of his father's death, he left the army, settled. at the homestead in Northampton, and with filial regard cherished his aged mother, for several years. He preached occasionally in the neighboring towns, and superintended a school at Hadley. In 1781, he was elected «¦ member of the Massachusetts legislature, but' h'e'soon abandoned civU employment for that of clerical duties. He was ordained pastor of a church at Greenfield, near Fair field, Connecticut, where he opened ah academy, and" labored industriously in the cause of rehgion and education, for twelve years. The building in which lie taught school, on "Greenfield HUl," is yet [1854] standing. In 1785, his Con quest of Canaan was first published, three thousand subscribers for it having been obtained. In 1794, another poem, called Greenfield Hill, was pubUshed, and increased Jiis fame as an epic poet. Higher and more arduous duties now awaited him. On the death of Dr. Stiles, in 1795, he was chosen President of Yale CoUege, and for ten years performed the duties and received the emolu ments of Professor of Theology, in that institution, by annual appointment, when CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN. 109 the office became permanent. In 1800, he completed his revision of Watts' Psalms and Hymns, to which he added thirty-nine of his own ; and in 1809, he published almost two hundred of his most-important sermons, in five volumes. From 1805 until 1815, he spent his college vacations in travelling through New England and the State of New York, taking full notes of what he saw and heard. These formed the basis of his published Travels, in four volumes. After suffer ing for nearly a year from an acute disease, ho died, on the 11th of January, 1817, at the age of almost sixty-five years. Dr. Dwight was the author of a great many published discourses and pamphlets on various subjects, chiefly of a theological and phUosophical character. CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN. TORIES, or those who adhered to Great Britain when the War for Independ ence commenced, were very numerous in South Carolina, and it required greater courage on the part of the Whigs, or opposers of government, to avow their principles, than in communities where such loyalists were exceptions. Bold among the boldest, was Christopher Gadsden in denouncing British oppression, even as early as the period of the Stamp Act.1 He was a native of Charleston, South CaroUna, where he was born in 1724. He was sent " home," as England was caUed, to be educated, and remained several years with his relatives in the west of England. He returned to Charleston at the age of sixteen years, and was soon afterward apprenticed to a merchant in PhUadelphia, where he remained tiU he was twenty-one years of age. He then went to England ; and on the death of the purser of the vessel in wliich he returned, he was appointed to fill his place. He retained that situation two years, and then engaged in mercantUe business in Charleston. Gadsden's father owned a large property in Charleston, but lost it aU in play with Lord Anson, a celebrated admiral in the British navy, who visited that city in 1733. That portion of the town still bears the name of Ansonborough. Christopher was successful, purchased all the property that once belonged to his father, and Uved in the " Anson house," as it was called, till his death. Henry Laurens was his nearest neighbor and dearest friend, and they always acted shoulder to shoulder as unflinching patriots. Gadsden was appointed a delegate to the Congress which assembled at New York in 1765, in consequence of the passage of the Stamp Act ; and from that period, through all the storms of the Revolution, until the fell of Charleston, in 1780, he was regarded as the most reliable ofthe patriot leaders, both civil and military. He was chosen a delegate to the first Continental Congress, in 1774 ; and in that body, urged an immediate attack upon General Gage at Boston, before he should be reinforced by fresh troops from Great Britain. He was considered rash, but the measure was only delayed a few months. In 1775, Mr. Gadsden was elected senior colonel of three regiments raised at Charleston, and was subsequently made a brigadier. He was active at the time of the attack on Charleston, in 1776 ; and two years afterward he gave his efficient aid in forming a republican constitution for his native State. He re signed his military commission in 1779, and was Ueutenant-governor of the State, 1. Under a wide-spreading live oak. a little north of the residence of Mr. Gadsden, the patriots used to assemble during Die .Summer and Autumn of 1765, and even the next Summer, after the Stamp Act was repealed, to discuss the political question ofthe day. From that circumstance, the green oak, li' e the famous Boston elm, was called Jjiberty Tree. Under that tree, Gadsden boldly warned the people, in 1776, not to rejoice too much, for the repeal was only a show ofjustice. 110 SAMUEL SEABURY. when Charleston was captured by Sir Henry Clinton, in May, 1780. A few weeks after the capitulation, he was treacherously taken from his bed at night, and, with others, was conveyed on board prison ships, in violation of the solemn stipulations contained in the articles of capitulation. They were taken to St. Augustine ; and because the venerable patriot would not submit to indignities at the hands of Governor Tonyn, he was cast into a loathsome prison, where he remained until exchanged in June, 1781, eleven months afterward. From St. Augustine he saUed to Philadelphia, with other prisoners. On his return to Charleston, he was elected a member of the State legislature, where, notwith standing his bad treatment, he generously opposed the confiscation of the prop erty of the Loyalists. He was elected governor of his State, in 1 7 82, but declined the honor. He remained in private life until his death, on the 28th of August, 1805, at the age of eighty-one years. SAMUEL SEABURY. THE first Protestant Bishop, in the United States, was the son of a Congrega tional minister who preached at Groton, Connecticut, and afterward became an episcopal clergyman at New London. That son, Samuel Seabury, was born at New London, in 1728; was graduated at Yale College, in 1751, and was or dained a priest, in London, England, in 1753. He had previously commenced a course of medical study, in Scotland, but circumstances eaused him to choose the ministry as a profession, and he studied theology, in London. On his return to America, he was settled in the ministry at New Brunswick, New Jersey, for a little while, and then he complied with a call to Jamaica, Long Island, where he remained from 1757 until the close of 1766. From Jamaica he went to West Chester, in Westchester county, New York, and there he was settled when the war of the Revolution broke out. Like many of his clerical brethren, he adhered to the crown ; and in consequence of his signing a protest against the measures ofthe Whigs, he became very obnoxious to the republican party. In the Autumn of 1775, a party of horsemen, led by Isaac Sears, of .New York, came from Connecticut, entered tha city at noon-day, destroyed the print ing-press of James Rivington (the editor of the Royal Gazette), carried off his types, to the tune of Yankee Doodle, and made buUets of them. On their way back to Connecticut, they seized Mr. Seabury, conveyed him to New Haven, kept him a prisoner there, for some time, and then paroled him to Long Island. He had kept a school at West Chester, for some time. That was broken up, and his church was converted into a hospital. Finding no peace within the limits of his parole, he fled to the arms of the British in New York, after they had taken possession of that city in the Autumn of 1776. He served as a chaplain to Colonel Fanning's corps of Loyalists, toward the close of the Revolution, and when peace came, he returned to his native town. In 1784, at the request of his clerical and lay brethren in the East, Mr. Seabury went to London, to seek episcopal consecration. Some difficulties prevented the accomplishment of his wishes, and he went to Scotland, where, on the 4th of November, of that year, he was consecrated a Bishop, by three non-juring prelates of the Scottish Church.' He presided over the diocese of Connecticut and Rhode Island, with great dig- 1. Those who regarded the deposition of James the Second, in 16SS, as illegal, and refused to swear allegiance to the new sovereigns, William and Mary, his successors. Among these were several Scotch Bishops, who were deprived of their sees, in 1690. The Scotch Episcopal Church has always differed from that of England, in ecclesiastical matters, and its ministers have been called non-jurors, even until now. THOMAS NELSON, JR. Ill nity and energy, for about twelve years, when he was called to give' an account of his stewardship to his heavenly Master. He was buried at New London, where he expired, and over his grave is a plain, elevated slab, upon which it is recorded that he died on the 25th of February, 1798, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. The piety and benevolence of Bishop Seabury endeared him to all, of whatever name or creed, for he was a true Christian. THOMAS NELSON, JR. SELF-SACRIFICING patriotism was frequently exhibited during the revolu tionary struggle, and oftentimes private property was cheerfully given for the public good. Everywhere, personal ease and family endearments wero abandoned for the hardships of public life. Thomas Nelson, jr., of Yorktown, Virginia, was of that class of patriots. He was born at Yorktown, on the 26th of December, 1738. According to the common practice among the wealthy, in Virginia, at that time, he was sent to England to be educated, wliere he remained untU 1761, when he returned home. He watched the progress of difficulties between Great Britain and her colonies with lively interest, and his sympathies were always with the latter. He first appeared in public life, in 1774, when ho was elected a member of the House of Burgesses, of Virginia, and he was ono of eighty-nine members of that assembly who, when dissolved by the royal governor (Dunmore), met at the Raleigh tavern, organized, and appointed dele gates to the first Continental Congress. He was a member of a provincial con vention held in. the Spring of 1775, in which Patrick Henry uttered those sublime words, " Give me liberty or give me death!" and was one of the boldest patriots therein. He there first proposed the organization of the militia of the colony, for the defence of its liberties, and he was appointed to the command of a regi ment after such organization was effected. He was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress, in 1775, and the foUowing year he signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1777, severe and protracted illness compelled him to resign his seat and return home. By activity in military life, for awhile, Mr. Nelson's health was improved, and he was again elected a delegate to Congress, in 1779. But ill" health compeUed him to resign in April foUowing. When British dep redators by land and sea menaced that portion of the country, General Nelson, at the head ofthe militia of Lower Virginia, was active in its defence. In 1781, he succeeded Jefferson, as governor of the State ; and in both civil and mUitary capacities, he was exceedingly active and efficient. He even pledged his private fortune as security for the State, in order to raise funds to keep tho militia in the field- and the combined French and American armies found him a powerful auxiliary in the siege of Yorktown, in the Autumn of 1781. During that siege, his own fine mansion, situated within the enemy's lines, was occupied by British officers. He observed that in the storm of baUs which the besiegers were pour ing upon the town and the British works, his own house was spared. He begged the cannoniers not to regard bis property with favor, and actually directed a piece himself, so that the balls would fall upon his mansion. It had the effect to drive the officers from that strong retreat, and no doubt hastened the sur render of Cornwallis. A month after the surrender, General Nelson heeded the warnings of declining health, and retired to private Ufe. The remainder of his days were spent in quiet, alternately at his mansion in Yorktown, and upon his estate at Offley. He died at the former place on the 4th of January, 1789, in the fifty-third year of his age. 112 MASON L. WEEMS. MASON L. WEEMS. IT is a singular feet that Dr. Weems, the earliest biographer of Washington and Marion, a man extensively known in the world of letters, and who oc cupied a large place in the public attention, whUe he lived, should be almost without a record in his country's annals. I have never met with a notice of the time and place of his birth. He received a good plain education, studied the science of medicine, as a life avocation, but became a preacher of the Gospel, in communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church, in Virginia. He officiated, for awhUe, in Pohick church, a few mUes from Mount Vernon, of whioh Wash ington was vestryman previous to the Revolution, and who was also one of Weems' parishioners afterward. Mr. Weems was a man of very considerable attainments as a scholar, physician, and divine; and his philanthropy and be nevolence were unbounded. He used wit and humor freely ; and his eccentric ities and sometimes singular conduct, lessened the esteem of people for his character as a clergyman. He wrote lives of Washington, Penn,FrankUn, and Marion, when an increasing family, and the operations of benevolence, mado heavy drafts upon his income. He also became an agent for the sale of a quarto Bible, published by the eminent Mathew Carey, of . PhUadelphia, at the commencement ofthe present century, in which business he was wonderfully suc cessful. He always preached, when invited, during his travels, and harangued people at pubUc gatherings at courts and fairs, where he offered his Bibles, and other good books, for sale. His fund of anecdote was inexhaustible ; and after \ PHINEAR LYMAN. H3 giving a promiscuous audience the highest entertainment of fun, he found them in good mood to purchase his books. In his vocation, he accomplished a vast amount of good ; and a large family and numerous friends lamented his death with the most earnest grief. Ho died at Beaufort, South Carolina, on the 23d of May, 1825, at an advanced age. PHINEAS LYMAN. ASSURANCE, supported by titled influence, often wears an epaulette and a star, while true merit is rewarded with faint praise and an honorable scar. Such a lesson of Ufe did experience teach Phineas Lyman, a brave officer of provincial troops, during the French and Indian war. He was born in Durham, Connecticut, in the year 1716. He was one of the Berkeleyan scholars in Yale,1 and received his first degree in 1738. The following year he was appointed a tutor in that institution, in which avocation he was engaged for three years at the same time he was studying the theory of law. He commenced its practice at Suffield, in 1743, and he soon arose to the front rank at the bar of Hampshire county. He was elected a member of the Colonial Assembly, in 1750, and in 1753, was chosen to a seat in .the council. At the age of thirty-nine years, he was appointed major-general ofthe Connecticut forces, and took the field in the Spring of 1755. He concentrated between five and six thousand troops on the upper waters ofthe Hudson, built Fort Edward, and there awaited the arrival of his commander-in-chief, General William Johnson, who was "to lead the provin cials against the French on Lake Champlain. The fortress was first caUed Fort Lyman, in honor ofthe Connecticut general, but its name was changed in defer ence to a scion of royalty. In the severe battle with the French and Indians, near the head of Lake George, in September of that year, General Lyman bore the most conspicuous part, and yet Johnson, jealous of his merits, withheld praise. Through the agency of titled friends at court, Johnson received the patent of a baronet, and twenty thousand dollars to support its dignity, as a reward for a victory won chiefly through the skill and bravery of General Ly man. The patriotic hero did not allow personal considerations to stand in the way of public duty, and he served with distinction during the whole war. He was the commander of the expedition which captured Havana, in 17*62; and after the peace in 1763, he went to England, as agent of a company called The Military Adventurers — soldiers of the war — who asked for an appropriation of land for a colony in the Mississippi and Yazoo country. The same company had purchased an extensive tract of land on the Susquehannah, and General Lyman was intrusted with the management of matters connected with that purchase. Deluded month after month by idle promises from the changing ministry, in England, he at length came back, after wasting eleven years abroad, and almost losing his mind. He returned in 1774, and at about that time, a tract of land having been granted, in the Mississippi and Yazoo country, he went thither, with his eldest son. Both died in "West Florida," in 1775, and the following year, his wife and all her family, except her second son, went thither. She soon died ; and a few years afterward, difficulties with the Spaniards caused the whole company of settlers, near Natchez, to fly for their safety across the country, a thousand miles, to Savannah. The history of General Lyman's family is a melancholy one. He died at the age of fifty-nine years, a victim of ingratitude and injustice. 1. From Bishop Berkeley, who was a patron of Vale College. He endowed a professorship known as the Berkeleyan. 114 JOHN MANLEY. JOHN MANLEY. THE naval operations of the United States during the Revolution were far more extensive and important than is generally supposed, especially in tho privateer department. It is asserted, by good authority, that the number of vessels captured by American cruisers, during the war, was eight hundred and three ; and that the value of merchandise obtained, amounted to over eleven millions of dollars. Among the earlier and most intrepid of the naval com manders of that period, was John Manley, who received his commission from Washington, at Cambridge, on the 24th of October, 1775,1 and was put in com mand of the schooner Lee, with instructions to cruise in Massachusetts Bay. He made a great many captures, and his services became the theme of eulogium throughout the whole country. Among !tus prizes was an ordnance brig, which contained heavy guns, mortars, and intrenching tools, of great value to the army then besieging the British, in Boston. When Congress organized a navy, the services of Captain Manley were appreciated, and he was raised to the command of the Hancock, thirty-two guns. He cruised with success, but on the desertion of a colleague, while engaged with the Rainbow (afterward the flag-ship of Admiral Collier, in the Autumn of 1777, when on our coast with a small fleet), he was made a prisoner, on the 8th of July, 1777. Manley suffered a long and rigorous confinement in the Rainbow, and at Halifax, and his services were lost to the country for almost the entire remainder of the war. He was released in 1782, and the frigate, Hague, was placed under his command. While cruising in the West Indies, he was chased by a British seventy-four, and driven on a sand bank. Three other ships of the line attacked him, but* after sustaining their heavy fire for four days, he got his vessel off, hoisted the continental flag, fired thirteen guns as a parting salute, and escaped. On his return to Boston, he was tried on some charges made against him by one of his officers, and his reputation was under a partial cloud, for a time. He died in Boston on the 12th of Feb ruary, 1793, at the age of fifty-nine years, and was buried with military honors.^ GILBERT CHARLES STUART. IN the beautiful region of Rhode Island, at a place called Narraganset, the handsome wife of a Scotch snuff-maker gave birth to a son, who becamo tho most distinguished portrait-painter in America. His father's name was Stuart, and his loyalty to the young claimant of the English throne,2 made him add Charles to the name of GUbert, given to his boy. Gilbert Charles Stuart was born in 1754, and at a very early age manifested /great energy of character and a decided talent for art. At the age of thirteen years he practised drawing likenesses with black-lead pencil, and at the age of eighteen he commenced a course of instruction, in painting, under an amateur artist, named Alexander. He was pleased with the lad, took him with him on a tour in the Southern States, 1. Washington caused six vessels to be fitted out for the purpose of cruising on the New England coast. These were very efficient. They made many prizes, from which the American army, early in 1776, waB quite well supplied with cannon, mortars, balls, ammunition, and stores. The siege of Boston and expulsion of the British therefrom, could not have been accomplished without those supplies from captured British vessels. Toward the close of 1775, the Continental Congress adopted measures for organizing and employing a navy. 2. Charles Edward Stuart, a grandson of James the Second, who was driven from the throne in 1688. His son made an effort to gain the throne of his falher, in 1716. The effortB of bis grandson were put forth in 1745, but after the great battle at Culloden, he became a fugitive. GILBERT CHARLES STUART. 115 te .. '.v and finally invited him to go to Scotland with him. Mr. Alexander died soon after his arrival at Edinburgh, and left his pupil in the care of Sir George Cham bers. He, too, died, and young Stuart returned to Newport, as a competent portrait-painter. The late Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse was Stuart's intimate friend, through life; and in the Winter of 1773-4, they practiced the drawing of the human figure from Ufe, by procuring a muscular blacksmith for a model. This was the first " Life School of Design," in America, and Stuart and his friend Waterhouse were the only students. The troubles of the Revolution affected Stuart's business, and in the Autumn of 1775, he went to England. Being a skUful musician, as well as painter, Stuart gained a subsistence by practicing both arts.1 His friend Waterhouse was then in London, perfecting his medical studies, and he procured Stuart some sitters, but his eccentric habits were a continual bar to permanent pros perity. After two years' residence there, he became acquainted with West, and found in him a friend and benefactor. In the studio of that great artist he be came an industrious pupil, and there he first became acquainted with Trumbull. In 1781, he set up an easel for himself, had continual and highly-remunerative employment, and might have become the successor of Reynolds, as the first portrait-painter in Great Britain, had not intemperate habits, which were increasing 1. While in extreme poverty, in London, Stuart was attracted by the sound nf an organ in an open church. . He went in, ascertained that several persons wero exhibiting their skill as candidates for or ganist, and boldly asked permission to enter the lists. It was granted, and the young stranger was chosen at a salary quite sufficient to meet his wants. 116 WILLIAM TENNENT. in proportion to his prosperity, thwarted the aspirations of his genius. He went to DubUn, where he wascourted for his wit and conviviality, and finally re turned to America, in 1793. His fame had preceded liim, and his studio in New York was thronged with sitters and admirers. FUled with an ardent desire to paint a portrait of Washington, he visited Philadelphia, and there he produced that great picture of the Patriot, which is regarded as the perfect model for aU correct likenesses of the revered Father of his Country. Stuart was so pleased with Pennsylvania, while residing in Philadelphia and at Germantown, that he contemplated purchasing a farm at Pottsgrove, and making that his permanent residence. His irregular habits, as usual, interfered with his plans, and we find him in Washington City, after the removal of the seat of government thither. In 1805, he settled in Boston, where he continued in the practice of his pro fession, untU his death, which occurred in July, 1828, at the age of seventy -four years. Tho original portrait of Washington, from his pencil, is the property of the Boston Athenaeum. His last work is a head of John Quincy Adams, in tended for a fuU-longth portrait cf that statesman. WILLIAM TENNENT. K MEN sometimes become more distinguished by their connection with remark able circumstances, than for any achievements of their own, and their real fine gold of character is lost in the glitter of extraneous events. At this day, that powerful preacher and indefatigable servant of Christ, William Tennent, is better known to the world "as a man who lay in a trance," than as a laborer for the good of his fellow-men. He was born in Ireland, on the 3d of June, 1705, and came to America when in the fourteenth year of his age. Under the care of his brother, Gilbert, he studied theology so ardently, at New Brunswick, iu New Jersey, that his health gave way, his body became emaciated, and one morning, while conversing with his brother, in Latin, on the state of his soul, he fainted, and seemed to expire. He was prepared for burial, and the funeral procession was about to move, when his physician, who had been absent, re turned, and thought he discovered indications of lingering life. But his body was cold and stiff, and his brother insisted upon his burial. The funeral, how ever, was postponed for awhile, and just as they were about to start again for the grave, Mr. Tennent opened his eyes, gave a groan, and again appeared life less. He revived, slowly recovered, but for a long time he was totally ignorant of every past transaction of his life. Suddenly his faculties began to resume their functions, and in 1733, he was ordained a minister of the church at Free hold, New Jersey. That church, and the house in which he lived, are yet [1854] standing. He never forgot the scenes of that cataleptic state in which he lay when his friends thought him dead. He seemed to have been wafted to a region of ineffable glory, where he heard things unutterable. He was accom panied by a heavenly conductor, and on asking permission to join the happy throng of beings before him, the guide tapped him upon the shoulder, and said, "You must return to earth." That was the moment when he opened his eyes, and saw his brother disputing with the doctor. Although he had been insen sible for three days, the time did not seem to him more than twenty minutes. After a life of great usefulness as pastor of trie flock at Freehold, for forty-three years, the storm of the Revolution disturbed him, and with his family, he went to reside with his son, in South Carolina. On his journey from Charleston to the interior, when about fifty miles from the sea-board, he sickened and died. Elias Boudinot was his executor, but he could never discover any trace of Ten- nent's papers. His death occurred on the 8th of March, 1777. JOEL BARLOW. 117 0 JOEL BARLOW. F Barlow, the youngest of the triad of American poets during tho strugglo for independence,1 it might have frequently been said, " The Minstrel Boy to the war has gone, In the ranks of death you '11 find him," for during his vacations at, Yale College, he would shoulder his musket, offer himself as a volunteer, at the nearest camp, and fight bravely when opportunity occurred. Joel Barlow was the youngest of the ten children of a respectable farmer, and was born at Reading, in Connecticut, in the year 1755. He was graduated at Yale, iu 1778, when he bore a slight scar, received in the battle at White Plains two years before. Four of his brothers were in the Continental army, and his whole being was thoroughly imbued with republican principles. He married a sister of Abraham Baldwin, a distinguished statesman of Connec ticut, and in 1783, he settled at Westford, and commenced the publication of a paper, called The Mercury. Although, at the close of his collegiate course, ho had studied theology six weeks, and was Ucensed to preach, he preferred tho profession ofthe law; and in 1785, he was regularly admitted to the bar, as a practitioner. His poetic talents were now widely known and appreciated ; and that same year, at the request of several congregational ministers, he prepared and published a revised edition of Watts' poetic version of the Psalms,2 and added to them a collection of hymns, several of them from his own pen. In 1787, he published his most ambitious poem hitherto attempted, entitled, " Vision of Columbus," whieh was dedicated to Louis the Sixteenth of France, and was re- pubUshed in London and Paris, with applause from the critics. With Trumbull; Humphreys, Dwight, and others, he published a satirical poem, caUed The An- archiad. Others soon followed; when, becoming enamored with the principles ofthe French Revolution, he went to Paris, was honored by the gift of citizen ship, made France his home for many years, and by successful commercial pur suits, he amassed a large fortune. During the worst of the Revolution (whose horrid scenes disgusted him), he travelled over portions of the Continent, and in Piedmont he wrote his celebrated poem, caUed Hasty Pudding. On his return to Paris, in 1795, Washington appointed him consul at Algiers, with power to negotiate a treaty with that government, and those of Tunis and Tripoli. After an absence of seventeen years, he returned to America, with his fortune, and built an elegant mansion on the east branch of the Potomac, near Washington city, which he afterward called " Kalorama." He enlarged his original " Vision of Columbus," and i nl808, it was published under the title of The Columbiad, in a splendid quarto volume, richly Ulustrated, and inscribed to his friend, Robert Fulton. In 1811, he commenced the preparation ot&History ofthe United States, when President Madison appointed him minister plenipotentiary to the French government. The following year, the Duke of Bassano invited him to a con ference with Napoleon, at Wilna, in Poland. The call was urgent, and he travelled thither, night and day, without rest. The fatigue and exposure brought on a disease of the lungs, whioh terminated his life at Zarnowica, near Cracow, on the 2d of December, 1812, when in the fifty-fourth year ofhis age. 1. John Trumbull, David Humphreys, and Joel Barlow. 2. On one occasion Mr. Barlow met Oliver Arnold, a cousin of the traitor, in a book-store in New Haven, aud asked him for a specimen ofhis talent for making extempore rhymes. Oliver at once said, in allusion to Barlow's version ofthe Psalms : " You 've proved yourself a sinful cre'tur ; You ' ve murdered Watts and spoiled the meter ; You 've tried the word of God to alter, And for your pains deserve a halter." SAMUEL BARD. THE medical profession in the United States has included many of our noblest citizens, distinguished alike for their patriotism, learning, and benevolence. Samuel Bard, who adorned the profession by tbe exercise of all these qualities, was the son of an eminent physician, in Philadelphia, where he was born on the 1st of April, 1742. His early moral and intellectual training was thorough, and the associations of his childhood and youth were favorable to the develop ment of his genius. While residing a short time in the famUy of Doctor Cad wallader Colden, he acquired a taste for botany, under the teachings of an ac complished daughter of that gentleman. A genius for drawing and painting enabled him to make beautiful copies of plants, some of which are yet in his famUy. He was graduated at Columbia College, in 1761, and the same year ho went to Europe, to obtain a thorough medical education. He was absent in France, England, and Scotland, five years; and such was his skUl In botany, that he obtained the annual medal given, by Professor Hope, at Edinburgh, for the best collection of plants, in 1765. He there received his degree, returned home, entered into partnership with his father, and in 1768, married his beauti ful cousin, Mary Bard. He made New York his residence the same year, and there he formed and executed the plan of founding the Medical School of New York, where degrees were conferred in 1769. He delivered a course of chemical lectures in 1774, but the breaking out of the Revolution deranged all his plans for the improvement of his profession. His fether was then residing at Hyde Park, in Dutchess county, New York, and thither he took his family, for safety. By special permission ofthe British commander, he went to New York, in 1777, . and engaged anew in his business. But his old friends, who were chiefly Whigs, had aU fled, and he did not obtain practice sufficient to pay his expenses. He returned to the country, and remained there until the British evacuated the city in the Autumn of 1783, when he again resumed his practice there. He did not remain long. Four ofhis children died by prevailing scarlatina, and at the same time the health of his wife began to fail. He withdrew from business to attend upon her; and at her recovery, in 1784, he again commenced the practice ofhis profession, in New York. He was very successful, and with his own means, he liquidated aU the debts of his father, which misfortune had burdened him with. Having acquired a competency, he resolved to retire from active business, and for that purpose he formed a partnership with tho late Dr. David Hosack, on the 1st of January, 1796. This connection continued four years, when Dr. Bard withdrew wholly from the practice of his profession, and left the extensive busi ness in the hands of his skilful young partner. At his beautiful seat, near the residence of his father at Hyde Park, he sat down in the retirement of private life ; but when, three years afterward, the yellow fever appeared in New York, lie yielded to the calls of duty, and was "the beloved physician" ofthe rich and poor during that trying time. He finally took the disease himself, but the care ful nursing of his wife, and his own skilful prescriptions; carried him safely through. Then again he left the field of active duty as a physician, never to return to it. In 1813, he was elected president ofthe College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York, and held that office until his death, which occurred on the 24th of March, 1821, at the age of seventy-nine years. His disease was pleurisy. He and his wife had often expressed a desire to both die at the same time. The privilege was vouchsafed to them. The faithful wife died the day preceding the death of her husband, of the same disease, and they were buried in one grave. MARTHA WASHINGTON. 119 MARTHA WASHINGTON. THE reflected glory of Washington's character gave distinction to aU who were connected with him by domestic ties or the bonds of consanguinity. There were many matrons ofhis day, equaUy noble and virtuous as she who bore him, yet "Mary, the mother of Washington," appears the most iUustrious of them aU. Beauty, accompUshments and noble worth belonged to Martha Dandridge as a maiden, and Martha Custis as a wife and mother, but her crowning glory in the world's esteem is the fact that she was the bosom companion of the Father of his Country. Martha Dandridge was born in New Kent county, Virginia, in May, 1732, about three months later than her iUustrious husband. In 1749, she married Daniel Parke Custis, of New Kent, one of the wealthiest planters of Eastern Virginia, and settled, with her husband, on the banks of the Pamun- key river, where she bore four children. Her husband died when she was about twenty-five years of age, leaving her with two surviving children and a large fortune in lands and money.1 She became acquainted with Colonel Washington, in 1758, when his greatness was fast unfolding ; and on the 6th of January, 1759, they were married. By the bequest of his half-brother, Lawrence Wash ington, he owned the beautiful estate of Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, and 1. He left her thirty thousand pounds sterling (about $148,000) in certificates of deposits in the Bank of England. These were in an iron chest, yet in the possession of her only surviving grand-child, George Washington Parke Custis, Esq., of Arlington House, Virginia. 120 JOSHUA BARNEY. there they made their home during the remainder of their lives. Occasionally, during the War for Independence, Mrs. Washington visited her husband in camp, and shared his honors, his anxieties, and his hopes. Almost at the very hour of his great victory at Yorktown, her only son, who was Washington's aid, expired a few miles distant from the scene of carnage; and with the shout of triumph, that filled his mother's heart with joy, camo a stern messenger with tidings that poured it full of woe.1 While her husband was President of the United States, Mrs. Washington presided with dignity over the executive mansion, both in New York and Phil adelphia; but the quiet of domestic life had more charms for her than tho pomp of place, and she rejoiced greatly when both sat down again, at Mount Vernon, to enjoy the repose which declining age coveted. But that pleasant dream of life soon vanished, for her companion was taken away by death a Uttle moro than two years afterward. When she was certified of the departure of his spirit, she said, '"Tis well; all is now over ; I shall soon follow him ; I have no moro trials to pass through." In less than thirty months afterward the stricken widow was laid in the tomb, at the age of almost seventy-one years. In marble sar- cophigi their remains now lie together, at Mount Vernon — that Mecca of many pilgrims. JOSHUA BARNEY. SEVERAL of the naval commanders who won glory for themselves and coun try during the war with England in 1812-15, commenced their nautical career, and learned their earliest nautical lessons, during the War of the Revo lution. In that earlier naval school, Joshua Barney was educated for his pro fession. He was born in the city of Baltimore, on the 6th of July, 1759. He made several sea voyages while yet a lad, and at tho beginning of the War for Independence, he entered the sloop, Hornet, as master's mate, and accompanied the fleet of Commodore Hopkins to the West India seas, in 1775. Ho was at the capture of New Providence,2 and for his bravery there was promoted to a lieutenantcy. After being made prisoner and released three different times, ho assisted in conquering a valuable prize, in the Autumn of 1779, which was taken into Philadelphia! The following year he married the daughter of alderman Bed ford of that city, spent the honey-moon with liis bride, and then repaired to Bal timore to resume his naval duties. He was soon afterward made a prisoner, and sent to England, where he escaped from a cruel confinement and returned to America. In 1782, he was placed in command of tho Hyder Ally, of sixteen guns, belonging to the State of Pennsylvania. In April, of that year, ho cap tured the British ship, General Monk, after an action of twenty-six minutes. This vessel was bought by the United States, and in September, it sailed for France, with Barney as commander, who bore dispatches for Dr. FrankUn, at Paris. In that vessel he brought back the French loan to tho United States in chests of gold and barrels of sUver. Peace soon came, and he left the service, for awhile. 1. Mr. Custis died at Eltham, about thirty-five miles from Yorktown, from the effects of camp fever. Washington hastened thither as soon as public affairs at camp would allow him. Mrs. Washington and Dr. Craik were already there. The latter informed ihe chief, that his beloved 6tep-son had just ex pired, on his arrival. He wept like a child ; and when he recovered himself, he said to the weeping mother, " I adopt his two younger children as my own, from this hour." These were the present pro prietor of Arlington House, and the late Eleanor Parke Custis, wife of Major Lawrence Lewis, tho favorite nephew of Washington. 2. One of the Bahama Islands. They took possession of the town now called Nassau, and made the governor prisoner. He was afterward exchanged for Lord Stirling, who was made prisoner at the battle near Brooklin, at the close of August, 1776. In 1796, Captain Barney went to France, with Mr. Monroe, as tho bearer of the American flag to the National Convention. He there accepted an invitation to take command of a French squadron, but resigned his commission in 1800, and returned to America. Commodore Barney was among the most efficient commanders in service, when the United States declared war against England, in IS 12 ; and the following year, he had charge of a flotilla in tho Chesapeake Bay for the protection of the coast. When tho British invaded Maryland, and pressed forward toward Washington city, near tho close ofthe Summer of 1814, Barney abandoned his flotilla, and with his marines, engaged in a battle with the enemy at Bladensburg, where he was wounded in the thigh by a musket ball, which was never extracted. In May, 1815, he was sent on a mission to Europe, and on his return in the ensuing Autumn, he retired to private life, after having been in service forty-one years, and fought twenty-six battles and one duel. He visited Kentucky, in 1817, and started to emigrate thither the following year. When about to embark on the Ohio, at Pittsburg he was taken ill, and died thefe on the 1st of December, 1818, at the age of fifty-nine years. JOHN BARRY. " THE first commodore in the American Navy," was not the brave John Barry, JL as is generally asserted. Yet he was in active service as commander, about as early as Esek Hopkins, to whom that honor, conferred by Congress, properly belongs. Barry was a native of Wexford, in Ireland, where he was born in 1745. He was educated for the sea, and at the age of fifteen years he came to America, and was employed as commander in the merchant service, until the Revolution commenced. When, in February, 1776, Commodore Hop kins sailed with a small squadron against the fleet of Dunmore, then committing depredations on the Virginia coast, Barry left the Delaware, in tho Lexington, of sixteen guns, to clear the Virginia waters of tho numerous small cruisers of the enemy which infested them. Ho performed that service well ; and prior to the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, he was promoted to the frigate, Effingham. Circumstances prevented his departure in that vessel from the Del aware, and at tho head ofa volunteer company, under tho command of General Cadwalader, he assisted in some of the operations which resulted in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, near the close of 1776. He was with the army during the succeeding Winter ; and when, the next Autumn, the British took possession of Philadelphia, he went up the Delaware with the Effingham, and endeavored to save her, at the same time indignantly refusing an offered bribe to employ her in the king's service. He greatly annoyed the British shipping in the Delaware, by secret night enterprises in small boats. In September, 1778, his sphere of usefulness was enlarged by being appointed to the command of the Raleigh, of thirty-two guns, in which he saUed from Boston. He fell in with ¦_ British fleet, and after a severe action of many hours, he was compeUed to run his vessel ashore, upon a barren island. He had terribly handled his antagonists, and but for the treachery of one of his men, he would have burned the Raleigh, and deprived the enemy of all advantage. A court-martial honorably acquitted him of all blame. Early in 1781, Captain Barry took command of the frigate AUiance, and in that vessel ho conveyed to L'Orient, Colonel John Laurens, a special ambassador to the court of France. In May he had an engagement with two English ves sels, in which he was severely wounded. He was victorious, and his antag- 6 122 RICHARD GRIDLEY. onists became1 prizes. In the Autumn, Captain Barry conveyed La Fayette and Count NoaUles to France, in the AUiance, and then he cruised successfully among the West India islands, until M-trch, 1782, when he encountered a British squadron. His skUl, coolness, and bravery, were eminently displayed in that engagement. He fought chiefly in defence of the American sloop-of-war,'Luzerne, which was conveying a large amount of specie. It was saved, and contributed to found the Bank of North America,1 the first institution of the kind in the United States. After the close of the war, Captain Barry continued in the ser vice, and he was efficient in protecting our commerce from the depredations of French vessels, when war between France and the United States commenced on the ocean, in 1797. Captain Barry died at Philadelphia, on the 13th of September, 1803, at the age of fifty-eight years. RICHARD GRIDLEY. YERY few Americans directed their attention to military engineering, previous to the Revolution, and therefore those French engineers who proffered their services to the Continental Congress, were eagerly accepted and commis sioned. At the opening of the war, near Boston; in 1775, Richard Gridley was the only efficient American engineer in the army. He was a native of Boston, where he was born in 1711. His brother, Jeremy, was the able attorney-general of Massachusetts, who defended the Writs of Assistance,2 and other government measures, against the patriotic attacks of James Otis, and his compatriots. We have no record of the early life of Richard. His first appearance before posterity was as an engineer in the provincial army, sent to capture the strong fortress of Louisburg, on Cape Breton, in 1745. After that event, he entered the reg ular army, and in 1755, he was lieutenant-colonel of infantry, and chief engineer. He accompanied General Winslow, in that capacity, to Albany, in the Summer of 1756, preparatory to an expedition against Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. He proceeded to erect fortifications at the head of Lake George. The expedf- tion failed, through the tardiness of Lord Loudon. In 1758, Colonel Gridley served under General Amherst, and was with Wolfe, at Quebec. When the War for Independence began at Lexington and Concord, the patriotism and skill of Colonel Gridley caused his appointment of chief engineer of the army that soon gathered around Boston ; and under his directions, all the fortifications erected during the Summer of 1775, and Winter of 1776, in that vicinity, were constructed. Up to that time he had received the half-pay of a British officer, and possessed Magdalen Island as a gift for his services under Wolfe. He was wounded in the battle on Breed's ["Bunker's"] Hill, yet not so as to disable him. In September; 1775, Congress gave him the commission of a major- general, and made him commander-in-chief of the Continental artillery, to which office Colonel Henry Knox succeeded in November following. After the British left Boston, in March, 1776, General Gridley was engaged in throwing up for tifications at several points about the Harbor. He died at Stoughton, Massa chusetts, on the 21st of June, 1796, in the eighty-fifth year ofhis age. 1. See sketch of Robert Morris. 2. General search-warrants, which allowed the officers ofthe king to break open any citizen's store or dwelling to search for contraband merchandise. It opened a way to many abuses, and the people violently opposed the measure. This waB among the first of those government measures which drove the Americans into rebellion. THOMAS JEFFERSON. 123 THOMAS JEFFERSON. THE only material memorials ofthe author ofthe Declaration of Independence, in our country, are a dilapidated granite obelisk over his neglected grave at MonticeUo ;' a bronze statue in front ofthe President's House at Washington city, erected by private munificence ; a fine statue upon a monument to Wash ington, erected by the State of Virginia, at Richmond, and a few busts. The nation has quarried no stone for his monument, nor is it requisite. The Dec- lahation op Independence, written on parchment, and preserved in the mem ory of generations, is a nobler monument than can be wrought from brass or marble. Thomas Jefferson was born at ShadweU, Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 13th of April, 1743. He was of Welsh descent. When- his father died, his mother was left with Thomas and another son, and six little daughters. They 1. It is within an enclosed family burial-ground, just in the edge of the forest which covers the western portion of Monticello. Visitors, with Vandal hand, have so broken off pieces of the obeliBk, to carry away with them, that it now presents a sad appearance. To preserve the marble tablet, on which is the following inscription, written hy Jefferson himself, the present [1855] proprietor has removed it to his house : " Here lies buried, Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence; of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom ; and Father ofthe University of Virginia." 124 THOMAS JEFFERSON. were blessed with a handsome estate, and that portion of it called Monticello (little mountain), near the then hamlet of Charlottesville, fell to Thomas when he reached his majority. He was a student in William and Mary College, at WiUiamsburg, about two years, and then commenced the study of law with George Wythe, afterward Chancellor of Virginia. While yet a student, in 1765, he heard Patrick Henry's famous speech against the Stamp Act, and it lighted a flame of patriotism in young Jefferson's soul that burned brighter and brighter untU the hour of fearless action arrived. In 1767, he commenced the practice of law; and in 1769, he first appeared in public life as a member of the Virginia Assembly. He was one of the most active workers in that body, until called to more influential duties as member of the Continental Congress, in 1775. He was always remarkable for his ready pen ; and as a member of the committee of correspondence, and by pamphlets and newspaper paragraphs, from 1773, until the culmination of public sentiment in the Declaration of Independence, he labored intensely and potentially.1 When Richard Henry Lee's resolution in favor of independence was under consideration, early in the Summer of 1776, and a committee of five were appointed to prepare a preamble in the form of a Declaration, Mr. Jefferson, the youngest of the committee, was chosen to make the draft, chiefly because of his facile use of the pen in elegant and appropriate expressions of sentiment. At his lodgings, in the house of Mrs. Clymer, in PhU adelphia, that famous document was written, and after some modifications, it was adopted on the 4th of July, 1776. The author's name is appended to it, with fifty-five others. Soon afterward, Mr. Jefferson resigned his seat in Con gress, and became a leading actor in the civil events of the Revolution in Vir ginia, from that time until tho peace in 1783. He assisted in revising the laws of Virginia; and in June, 1779, he was elected governor ofthe State, as suc cessor of Patrick Henry. From about the beginning of that year, untU the close of 1780, the British and German troops, captured at Saratoga, were quartered in his vicinity, and ho greatly endeared himself to them by his uniform loudness. During his administration, Arnold, the traitor, invaded Virginia, and Cornwallis and his active officers overran portions of the State along the James river, from Richmond to its mouth. The fiery Tarleton attempted the capture of Governor Jefferson, in June, 1781, and almost succeeded.2 It was a most trying time for Virginia, and Jefferson, sagaciously perceiving that a military man was needed in the executive office, declined a re-election, and was succeeded by General Nelson, of Yorktown. Mr. Jefferson now sought the retirement of private life, to indulge in the ge nial pursuits of literature and science.3 He was not permitted to find happiness in repose there. His wife died, and his heart was terribly smitten. Then came a call from his countrymen to represent them abroad, and at the close of 1782, he departed for Philadelphia, to sail for France, to assist the American com missioners in their negotiations for peace with England. Intelligence of tho accomplishment of that duty reached him before his departure, and he returned home. He was at Annapolis when Washington resigned his commission, in December, 1783, and the Address of President Mifflin to the chief was from Mr. Jefferson's pen. In 1784, ho went to France, as associate diplomatist with Franklin and Adams, and the same year he wrote his essay on a money-unit, to which we are mainly indebted for our convenient coins. He succeeded Dr. Franklin as minister at the French court, in 1785 ; and on his return to America, 1. His pamphlet entitled " A Summary View of the Rights of British America," was so much ad mired, that Edmund Burke caused it to be reprinted in London, with a few alterations. 2. Jefferson was advised of the approach of Tarleton, when he was within half a mile of his house, and escaped by fleeing to tho dark recesses of Carter's Mountain, lying southward of Monticello. Tarle ton captured some members ofthe Virginia Legislature, then in session at Charlottesville. 3. His Notes on Virginia is the most important of the various productions of his pen. THOMAS CHITTENDEN. 125 in 1789, before he reached his home at Monticello, he received from Washington the appointment of Secretary of State. He resigned that office in 1793, and be came the head of the republican party, in opposition to Washington's adminis tration. In the Autumn of 1796, ho was chosen vice-president of the United States, and in the Spring of 1801, he took his seat as chief magistrate of the nation. After eight years of faithful service in that exalted office, he retired forever, from public life. With untiring perseverance he succeeded in establish ing that yet flourishing institution, the University of Virginia ; and until the last, his life was spent in pursuits of public utility. The latter years of his life were clouded by pecuniary embarrassment. He sold his library to the Federal Government, in 1815, consisting of six thousand volumes, for twenty -four thousand dollars. He survived that great sacrifice eleven years, and then his spirit took its flight, while his countrymen were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the United States. He died on the 4th of July, 1826, at the age of eighty-three years.1 THOMAS CHITTENDEN. THERE are crises in the history of States, sometimes occurring in their infancy, at other times in their maturity, when the concentration of influence in one man has made him instrumental in conferring great benefits upon the public. Thomas Chittenden, the first governor ofthe independent State of Vermont, was an illustration of this fact. He was born at East Guilford, Connecticut, on the 6th of January, 1729; received only the meagre rudiments of an English educa tion, then furnished by the common schools, and married at the early age of twenty years. Then he made his residence at Salisbury ; and his natural abil ities, combined with a pleasing person and address, soon made him popular. Ho was chosen commander of a militia regiment, and for several years he represented his district in the legislature of Connecticut. Unlearned as he was, he became a leading man ; and by performing the duties of a justice of the peace for Litch field county, for several years, he became acquainted with the laws and the proper manner of administering them. Agriculture was his delight, and every day spared from his official duties was devoted to a personal engagement in the affairs of his farm. His family had a rapid growth, and he emigrated to the borders ofthe Onion river,2 in 1774, on what was known as the New Hampshire Grants, on the east side of Lake Champlain, for the purpose of laying the foun dations of a fortune for his children. There, separated by an almost trackless wilderness from his early friends, he opened many fertile acres to the blessed sunlight, and invited settlers to come and form the nucleus of a State. Soon, political agitations disturbed his repose; and, in 1775, he was appointed one of a committee to visit the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and ask political advice. The threatening aspect of affairs in the North, toward the close of the Summer of 1776, caused the settlers to flee southward, and Mr. Chittenden took up his abode in Arlington, in the present Bennington county, where he was made president of the committee of safety. He warmly espoused the cause of the people of the New Hampshire Grants, in their controversy with New York.3 1. See sketch of John Adams. _. The Indian name of this river was Ouinooske. His location was in the present town ofWillistou, Vermont, south-east from Burlington. 3. Tho State of New York claimed jurisdiction over the present territory of Vermont, then known as tho New Hampshire Grants, and a very warm dispute arose. Bloodshed was often threatened, but the matter was finally settled by a purchase of the claims of New York for §30,000. 126 PATRICK HENRY. He was one of the committee who drafted a declaration of the independence of Vermont,1 adopted on the 15th of January, 1777. He also assisted in the for mation ofa State constitution, in July, 1777, and was elected the first governor under it. That office he held until his death, with the exception of one year. When, in 1780, the British authorities in Canada supposed the people of Ver mont to be royally inclined (because they would not join the confederation of States), and appointed a commission to confer with the dissatisfied colonists, Governor Chittenden was chosen one of the committee on the part of the Ver mont people. That whole matter was so adroitly managed by Chittenden, Allen, and others, for three years, that the authorities of both Canada and the United States were deceived. They thus secured Vermont from veasy British invasion until peace was sure, when that State became a member of the great confederacy. The course of the Vermont leaders, though highly patriotic, was regarded with suspicion, until the mask was removed. At the close of the war, Governor Chittenden returned to Williston, with his family, where he passed the remain der ofhis days. He resigned the office of governor in the Summer of 1797, and on the 25th of August, of that year, he died, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. PATRICK HENRY. GIVE me Liberty, or give me Death 1" were the burning words which feU from the lips of Patrick Henry, at the beginning of the War for Independ ence, and aroused the Continent to more vigorous and united action.2 He was the son of a Virginia planter in Hanover county, and was born on the 29th of May, 1736. At the age often years he was taken from school, and commenced the study of Latin in his father's house. He had some taste for mathematics, but a love of idleness, as manifested by his frequent hunting and fishing excur sions, for sport, and utter aversion to mental labor, gave prophecies of a useless life. At twenty-one years of age, he engaged in trade, but neglect of business soon brought bankruptcy. He had married at eighteen, and passed most of his time in idleness at the tavern of his father-in-law, in Hanover, where he often served customers at the bar. As a last resort, he studied law diligently for six weeks, obtained a license to practice, but he was twenty-seven years of age be fore he was known to himself or others, except as a lazy pettifogger. Then he was employed in the celebrated Parsons' cause* and in the old Hanover court house, with his father on the bench as judge, and more than twenty of the most learned men in the colony before him, his genius as an orator and advocate beamed forth m that awful splendor, so eloquently described by Wirt. From that period he rose rapidly to the head of his profession. In 1764, he made Louisa county his residence, and his fame was greatly heightened by a noble defence of the right of suffrage, which, as a lawyer, he made before the House ot Burgesses, that year. In 1765, he was elected to a seat in that house, and during that memorable session, he made his great speech against the Stamp at a ^™L°winf wth.e '.""hies with New York, Vermont would not join the confederacy in 1777, but, ta Febmary,™79_. Westmmster' '* wos declared an independent State. It was admitted into the Union tb»™Ihe Vir5iniiv "invention, held in St. John's church at Richmond, in March, 1775. It was one of Th,.v wiE * speeches ever made by the great orator, and ended with the words quoted above. ,yT,7-'e afterward placed on flags, and adopted as a motto under many circumstances. rlaiJ.H 'Z'-AS r™. *e'w?en*e elergy and the State legislature, on the question of an annual stipend SSSS VU^SZ- A de,clBI°-n« °/,'¥ co,urt •""•'<*' noting undetermined but the amount of damaga Henry's eloquence electrified judge, Jury, and people. The jury brought in a verdict of one | 'enny damages, a.ml the people took Henry upon their shoulders, and carried him in triumph about the PATRICK HENRY. 127 Act.1 In 1769, he was admitted to the bar ofthe general court, and was recog nized as a leader, in legal and political matters, until the Revolution broke out. He was a member of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and gave the first impulse to its business;2 and when, in 1775, Governor Dunmore attempted to rob the colony of gunpowder, by having it conveyed on board a British war-vessel, Patrick Henry, at the head of resolute armed patriots, compelled him to pay its value in money. In 1776, Henry was elected the first republican governor of Virginia, and was reelected three successive years, when he was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson. During the whole struggle, he was ono of the most efficient public officers ofthe State; and in 1784, ho was again chosen governor. Patrick Henry was a consistent advocate of State Rights, and was ever jealous of any infringement upon them. For that reason, he was opposed to the Fed- 1. He had introduced a series of resolutions, highly tinctured with rebellious doctrines, and supported them with his wonderful eloquence. The houso was greatly excited ; and when, at length, he alluded to tyrants, and said*. " Czesar had his Brutus, Charles the FirBt his Cromwell, and George the Third — " there was a cry of " Treason 1 treason I" He paused a moment, and then said, "may profit by their example. If that be Treason, make the most of it." 2. When all was doubt and hesitation at the opening of the session, and no one seemed ready to take the first step, a plain man, dressed in ministers' grey, arose and proposed action. "Who is it? who is it.' asked several members. "Patrick Henry," replied the soft voice of his colleague, Peyton Randolph. 128 ETHAN ALLEN. eral Constitution, and in the Virginia convention, called in 1788, to consider it, he opposed its ratification with all the power of his great eloquence. He finally acquiesced, when it became the organic law of the RepubUc, and used all Jiis efforts to give it a fair trial and make it successful. Washington nominated him for the office of Secretary of State, in 1795, but Mr. Henry declined it. In 1799, President Adams appointed him an envoy to France, with Ellsworth and Mur ray, but feeble health and advanced age compeUed him to decline an office he would have been pleased to accept. A few weeks afterward, his disease became alarmingly active, and he expired at his seat, at Red Hill, in Charlotte county, on the 6th of June, 1799, at the age of almost sixty-three years. Governor Henry was twice married. By his first wife be had six children, and nine by the second. His widow married the late Judge Winston, and died in Halifax county, Virginia, in February, 1831. ETHAN ALLEN. THE name of Green Mountain Boys is always associated with ideas of personal valor and unflinching patriotism; and Ethan Allen has ever been regarded as the impersonation of the proverbial independence of character, of the early settlers along the eastern shores of Lake Ghamplain. He was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, near the borders of New Vork, and at an early age emi grated to the region above alluded to, known as the New Hampshire Grants, now Vermont. At about the year 1770, a violent controversy arose between the settlers of this tract and the civU authorities of New York, respecting ter ritorial claims. Ethan Allen took an active part in the controversy, and became a leader of the Green Mountain J&ys, as the settlers were called, against the aheged usurpations of the New York government.1 The latter finally declared Allen and his associates to be outlaws, offered fifty pounds colonial currency for his apprehension,2 and contemplated an armed invasion of the territory. Allen believed himself in the right, and boldly maintained his position, until a common danger alarmed- all the colonies, and made them unite as brethren for common defence. When the news of the affair at Lexington reached those remote settlers, they were electrified with zeal for the maintenance of freedom ; and in less than thirty days afterward, we find Colonel AUen and some of his Green Mountain boys and Massachusetts militia, in concert with Colonel Benedict Arnold and some Connecticut men, wresting the strong fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point from the British.3 Early in the foUowing Autumn, Colonel Allen was sent to Canada, to ascertain the temper of the people there ; and in an attempt, with Colonel Brown, to capture Montreal, with a smaU force, he was made a prisoner, put in irons on board a vessel, and sent to England, with tho assurance that he would be hanged. Great crowds flocked to see him, on his arrival, for the fame of his exploits had reached England. His grotesque garb attracted great attention. He was regarded almost as a strange wild beast of the forest, and for more than a year he was kept a close prisoner. In January, 1776, Colonel Allen was sent, in a frigate, to Halifax, where he 1. See Note 3, p. 125. 2. He came very near being captured hy a party of New Yorkers, while on a visit to his friends in Salisbury. They intended to seize him, and convey him to the jail at Poughkeepsie. 3. When Allen thundered at the door of. the commander of the garrison of Ticonderoga after the soldiers were subdued, and tbat affrighted official asked by what authority he demanded a surrender the colonel's reply was, "By the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress 1" It was on the morning of the day when Congress was to assemble at Philadelphia. WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 129 remained in jail until the following October, when he was conveyed to New York, then the British head-quarters. There he was kept, part of the time on parole on Long Island, and part of the time in the Provost and other prisons in New York, until May, 1778, when he was exchanged for Colonel Campbell of the British army. His health had suffered much during his imprisonment, yet he repaired to head-quarters, and offered his services to Washington, when his strength should be restored. He arrived at Bennington, his place of residence, on the evening of the last day of May, and he was welcomed by booming can nons and the huzzas of the people. The civil authorities of the now independent State of Vermont commissioned him major-general of the State militia, but an opportunity for the exercise ofhis bravery and military skiU did not again occur. He was active, with Governor Chittenden and others, in the adroit political game played by Vermont with the authorities of the United States and of Can ada ; and his patriotism ever burned pure, even at a time when General Clinton wrote to Lord George Germain, " There is every reason to suppose that Ethan AUen has quitted the rebel cause." General Allen continued active in public affairs after the war, until his death, which occurred suddenly at Colchester, on the 13th of February, 1789, when he was about sixty years of age. Colonel Allen was the author of several political pamphlets ; a theological work, entitled Oracles of Reason, and a Narrative of his Observations during his captivity.1 WILLIAM FRANKLIN. TT is worthy of note, that one of the most distinguished Loyalists during the 1 War for Independence, was the only son of one of the noblest Patriots in that struggle. That Loyalist was WiUiam, the first-born child of Benjamin Franklin. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1731, and was carefully educated by his father, for professional life. He was 'postmaster of the city of PhUadel phia ; clerk of the Assembly for awhile ; and entered the provincial army as captain, early in the French and Indian war. He was warmly commended for his services at Ticonderoga. After the war, he went to England with his father, and in Scotland he became acquainted with the Earl of Bute, who, for almost ten years, had great influence in the councils of George the Third. In 1763, WiUiam Franklin was appointed governor of New Jersey, and was very popular for a time. Like all other royal governors, he soon assumed undue personal dignity, and quarrelled with the legislature. He was a thorough monarchist in principle, and when the disputes between the colonists and the imperial government com menced in earnest, he did not hesitate in taking sides with the crown, in opposi tion to his distinguished father. At the beginning of 1774, all intercourse be tween father and son was suspended, and as the political troubles thickened, the breach widened. Month after month the breach between the governor and the New Jersey Assembly also widened ; and finally a Provincial Congress at Tren ton assumed political authority, and royal government ceased in that province. A State Constitution was adopted in July, 1776, and William Livingston became 1. The stern integrity and truthfulness of Colonel Allen were well illustrated on one occasion, when he was prosecuted for the payment of a note for sixty pounds, ^iven to a man in Boston. It was sent to Vermont for collection, but it was inconvenient for him to pay it then, and he was sued. The trial came on, and hiB lawyer, in order to postpone the matter, denied the genuinenoss of the signature. To prove ¦ it, it would be necessary to send to Boston for a witness, Allen was in a remote part ofthe court-room, when the lawyer denied the signature. With long strides Allen rushed through the crowd, and, stand- jngbefore his advocate, he said, in angry tone, " Mr — -, I did not hire you to come here and lie. That is a true note — I signed it — I '11 swear to it — and I '11 pay it. I want no shuffling — I want time. What I employed you for was to get this business put over to the next court, not to come here and lie and juggle about it." The time was given, and Allen paid the note. 6* 130 JOSEPH GREEN. FrankUn's successor, by the choice ofthe people. The Whigs went stiU further. Franklin was declared to be an enemy of his country, and was sent, a prisoner, to East Windsor, Connecticut. He was kept under the eye of Governor Trum bull, untU 1778, when he was exchanged, released, and took refuge with the British army in New York. There he was secretly active in fomenting discon tents among the people, wherever he could make an impression. He was pres ident of the Board of LoyaUsts, who had their head-quarters near Oyster Bay, Long Island, but went to England before the close of the contest. In the picture of the Reception ofthe American Loyalists by Great Britain, in 1783, painted by Benjamin West, Governor Franklin appears at the head of a group of figures. After an estrangement of ten years, he solicited and obtained a reconciUation with his father. Although Dr. FrankUn accepted the olive branch thus fiUaUy held out, and .proposed "mutuaUy to forget" the past, he seems to have re membered the estrangement, when he made his will, for, after making a com paratively smaU bequest to WUUam, he remarks, " The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate ho endeavored to deprive me of." Governor Franklin continued in England untU his death, and enjoyed a pension, from the British government, of four thousand dollars a year. He died in November, 1813, at the age of about eighty-two years. His wife died of grief; whUe he was a pris oner, in 1778, and a monumental tablet was erected to her memory in St. Paul's church, New York city. JOSEPH GREEN. TN the same year when Dr. Franklin first saw the light, a genuine wit and poet J- was born in the same city of Boston. His name was Joseph Green. He was first instructed in the South Grammar School, and then entered Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1726. He became an accomplished scholar, and man of business; and by successful mercantUe Ufe, for a few years, he ac quired a competent fortune. Generous, poUte, elegant in deportment, and ex ceedingly popular with aU classes, Mr. Green might have acquired almost any mark of pubUo distinction, but he loved private life, and could never be prevailed upon to accept office. He took very Uttle part in politics, yet when Hutchinson left the government of Massachusetts, he was one of those who signed a com plimentary address to that functionary. This act offended the republicans, and the royal party claimed him; but when, in 1774, Massachusetts was deprived of her charter, and a number of counsellors were appointed by mandamus Green 'f™10 serve> and sent his. resignation to General Gage. Yet the tendencies of Mr. Green were so decidedly loyal, that he was included in the act of banish ment, of 1778. He had been absent from Boston about three years already, and he never returned to his native country. Ho died in London, on the 11th of December 1780, at the age of seventy-four years. Mr. Green's poetry was generally humorous. He wrote a burlesque on a psalm written by his fellow V, ™Jm y ,, ,Also a burlesque on the Free Masons, and a " Lamentation on Mr. Old Tenor (paper money), which gained him great applause. He was a member ofa club of sentimentalists, who published several pamphlets ; and he attacked the administration of Governor Belcher, exposed its anti-republican tendencies, and ridiculed the chief magistrate by putting his speeches into rhyme. Mr. Green was a Loyahst of the mUder stamp, and was governed by a pure heart and clear head in his choice of government. JAMES JACKSON. 131 *Zs JAMES JACKSON. "ITTHEN the British army was about to leave Savannah, in July, 1782, General Vl Wayne, then in command in Georgia, chose an accomplished young man of twenty-five, whose valor was the theme for praise in the Southern army, to receive the keys of the city from a committee of British officers. That young officer was Major James Jackson, a native of Devonshire, England, where he was born on the 21st of September, 1757, He came to America, with his father, in 1772, and studied law in Savannah. He loved his adopted country, and in 1776, shouldered his musket, and was active in repelling an invading force that menaced Savannah. In 1778, he was appointed brigade major of the Georgia militia, and was wounded in a skirmish on the Ogeechee, in which General Soriven was kUled. At the close of that year he participated in the unsuccess ful defence of Savannah ; and when it feU into the hands of Colonel Campbell, he was among those who fled into South CaroUna and joined Moultrie's brig ade. Hia appearance was so wretched and suspicious, during that flight, that he was arrested by some Whigs, and tried and condemned as a spy. They were about to hang him, when a gentleman of reputation, from Georgia, recognized him, and saved his Ufe. He was active in the siege of Savannah by Lincoln and D'Estaing, in October, 1779, and in 1780, he was in the battle at Black- 132 ELI WHITNEY. stocks under Colonel Elijah Clarke, of Georgia. General Andrew Pickens made him his brigade major, in 1781, and his fluent speech expressing his ardent patriotism, infused new zeal into that corps. He was at the siege of -Augusta, in June, 1781, and when the Americans took possession, Jackson was left in command of the garrison. Subsequently he performed more active and arduous services, as commander of a legionary corps ; and at Ebenezer, on the Savannah, he joined General Wayne, and was the right arm of his force until the evacua tion of the Georgia capital, in 1782. As some reward for his patriotic services during the war, the legislature gave him _. house and lot in Savannah.- He married in 1785, and the next year was commissioned brigadier-general of the State militia. In 1788, he was elected governor of Georgia, but modestly de clined the honor on account of his youth and inexperience, being then only Uttle more than thirty years of age. He was one of the first representatives of Georgia in Congress, after the organization of the Federal Government; and from 1792 to 1795, was a member ofthe United States Senate. In the meanwhUe he was promoted to major-general, and never faUed in the faithful performance of his duties, civil and military. The State Constitution of Georgia, framed in 1798, was chiefly the work of his brain and hand. From that year until 1801, ho was governor of the State,, when he was again chosen United States' senator. He held that office untU his death, which occurred at Washington city, on tho 19th of March, 1806, at the age of forty-nine years. His mortal remains lie beneath a neat monument in the Congressional burial-ground, upon which is an inscription, written by his personal friend and admirer, John Randolph, of Roanoke. Governor Jackson made many powerful enemies in the South, bo- cause of his successful exposures of stupendous land frauds, but his course in creased the zeal and number of his friends. There never lived a truer patriot or more honest min, than General James Jackson. ELI 'WHITNEY. EVERY labor-saving machine is a gain to humanity ; and every inventor of such machine is a public benefactor. High on the list of such worthies is the name of Eli Whitney, the inventor of a machine for cleaning cotton to pre pare it for the bale, known by the technical term of gin. He was born at West- borough, Massachusetts, on the 8th of December, 1763. His mechanical genius was early manifested ; and while yet a mere child, he constructed many things with great skiU. He entered Yale College in 1789, and was graduated in 1792. He then engaged to goto Georgia as a private tutor in a farmly, and on his way, he fell in with the widow of General Greene, who was returning to Savannah, with her famUy. On his arrival, he found himself without occupation and with very little money, for the person with whom he had made an engagement had hired another preceptor. Mrs. Greene had become much interested in young Whitney, and at once invited him to make her house his home, to pursue what studies he pleased. He commenced the study of law, but his mind was much on mechanics. Several distinguished visitors at the house of Mrs. Greene from the interior, on one occasion, expressed their regret that there was not some machme for cleaning the green seed cotton,1 as its culture, with such aid,' would i. tuis laoor was men performed chiefly by female servants. To separate one pound of clean stanle cotton front the seeds was considered a good day's work for one person. p ELIAS BOUDINOT. 133 be very profitable at the South. The great mechanical genius of young Whitney was known to Mrs. Greene, and she said, " Apply to my young friend here, he can make anything." Although he had never yet looked upon a cotton seed, his mind began to plan. He procured a small quantity of uncleaned cotton, and with such rude tools as a plantation afforded, he went to work and constructed a machine, under the kind auspices of Mrs. Greene and Phineas Miller, who be came her husband. The machine was examined with delight, for it would do the work of months in a single day. With it, one man could do the work of a thousand. It opened a way to immense wealth to the Southern planters. Great excitement prevailed ; and when the people found that they could not see tho great invention untU it was patented, they broke open the building in which it stood, carried it away, and soon many similar machines were in use. Whitney went to his native State, patented his invention, and in partnership with Mr. MUler, commenced the manufacture of machines for Georgia. Before he could secure a patent, it was in common use;1 and to complete his misfortunes, his shop with all its contents, and his papers, were consumed. He was made a bankrupt ; and the inventor of the cotton gin, which has been worth hundreds of miUions of doUars to the people of the South, never received a sufficient amount of money from it, to reimburse his actual outlays and losses. He was treated with the utmost unfairness by some southern legislatures, as well as by individ uals ; and everywhere among those who were profiting immensely by the in vention, his rights were denied. Even Congress denied his application to extend his patent. Disappointed, and disgusted with the injustice of his fellow-men, Mr. Whitney turned his attention to other pursuits. He commenced the manu facture of fire-arms, in 1798, for the United States. But misfortune seemed to be uniformly his lot in life, except in his choice of tfte excellent Henrietta, daughter of Pierpont Edwards, for his wife. After great sufferings from disease, he died near New Haven, on the 8th of January, 1825, at the age of fifty-nine years. ELIAS BOUDINOT. THE American Bible Society, whose labors have accomplished a vast amount of good, in the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, was established in 1816 ; and EUas Boudinot, one of its founders, and a warm patriot ofthe Revo lution, was its first president. He was born in Philadelphia, on the 2d of May, 1740. He inherited a love of freedom and religious cfivotion from his Huguenot ancestors, and when the colonists began to question the right of Great Britain to tax them without their consent, he took a stand for his countrymen. He had received a classical education, studied law with Richard Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and married that patriot's sister. Boudinot practiced his profession in New Jersey, and soon rose to distinction. In 1777, he was appointed commissary-general of prisoners, by Congress, and the same year he was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress. In Novem ber, 1782, he was elected president of that body, and in that capacity he signed the preliminary treaty of peace with Great Britain. At the close of the war he resumed the profession ofthe law, but was again called into public life in 1789, 1. On one occasion, when suits for the infringement of the patent in Georgia were commenced, l'r. Miller wrote, " The jurymen at Augusta have come to an understanding among themselves, that tli.y will never give a cause in our favor, let the merits of the case be as they may." 134 JOSEPH HABERSHAM. by an election to a seat in Congress, under the Federal Constitution. He was a member ofthe House of Representatives six years, when Washington appointed him Director of the Mint, on the death of Rittenhouse. He held that position until 1805, when he retired from pubUc life, and made his residence the re mainder of his days, at Burlington, New Jersey. In 1812, he was elected a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to which he made a donation of five thousand doUars ; and when he was elected president of the American Bible Society, in 1816, he gave that institution ten thousand doUars. He was a trustee ofthe College at Princeton for many years, and there founded a cabinet of natural history, at a cost of three thousand dollars. His wholo life -was one of usefulness ; and at his death, he bequeathed a great por tion ofa large fortune to institutions and trustees, for charitable purposes. Tlio remainder of his estate he left to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, of which he was a member. He died at Burlington, on the 24th of October, 1821, at the age of eighty-one years. JOSEPH HABERSHAM. fi EORGIA may boast of many noble patriots, but she had none, in the War VT for Independence, of truer stamp, than Joseph Habersham, the son of a merchant of Savannah, where he was born in 1750. He was one of the earUest advocates of popular rights in the Georgia capital, and, with other young men, acted, as weU as spoke, against unjust royal rule. Early in the Suminer of 1775, a letter from Sir James Wright, the royal governor of Georgia, to General Gage, was intercepted by the vigilant Whigs of Charleston, who had seized the mails. It contained a request for that officer to send some troops to Savannah, to sup press the rising rebeUion there. The letter was sent to the committee of safety at Savannah, and aroused the fiercest indignation of the Whigs. At about that time, a British vessel arrived at the mouth of the Savannah, with many thousand pounds of powder. It was determined to seize the vessel and secure the powder, for the use ofthe patriots. On the night of the 10th of July, thirty volunteers under young Habersham (then holding the commission of colonel) and Commo dore Bowen, captured the vessel, placed the powder, under guard, in the mag azine at Savannah, and sent five thousand pounds ofthe ammunition, to General Washington at Boston, ^n January, 1776, Colonel Habersham was a member of the Georgia Assembly; and on the 18th of that month, he led a party of volunteers, to the capture of Governor Wright. They paroled him a prisoner in his own house, from which, on a stormy night in February, he escaped, made his way to the British ship, Scarborough, and went to England. Thus Colonel Habersham put an end to royal rule, in Georgia. He was active in the council and field, during the whole war, and held the commission of lieutenant-colonel in the Continental army. In 1785, he was chosen a member of Congress, to represent the Savannah district; and in 1795, President Washington appointed him Postmaster-general of the United States. He resigned that office in the year 1800, and two years afterward, was made president ofthe Branch Bank of the United States, at Savannah. He fiUed that office with distinguished abiUty until a short time before his death, which occurred in November, 1815, at the age of sixty-five years. BENEDICT ARNOLD. 135 ^yrCy^7<^^t^ BENEDICT ARNOLD. " TSTE accept the treason, but despise the traitor," was the practical expression T T of British sentiment when Arnold, one of the bravest of the American generals, was purchased with British gold, and attempted to betray the Uberties of his country. He was a native of Norwich, Connecticut, where he was born on the 3d of January, 1740. He was a descendant or Benedict Arnold, one of the early governors of Rhode Island, and was blessed with a mother who, ac cording to her epitaph, was " A pattern of patience, piety, and virtue." But he was a wayward, disobedient, and unscrupulous boy; cruel in his tastes and wicked in his practices.1 He was bred to the business of an apothecary, at Norwich, under the brothers Lathrop, who were so pleased with him as a young man of genius, that they gave him two thousand doUars to commence business with. From 1763 to 1767, he combined the business of bookseller and druggist, in New Haven, when he commenced trading voyages to the West Indies, and 1. While yet a mere youth, he attempted murder. A young Frenchman was an accepted suitor of Arnold's sister. The young tyrant (for Arnold was always a despot among his play-fellows. diBliked him, and when he could not persuade his sister to discard him, he declared he would shoot the French man if he ever entered the house again. The opportunity soon occurred, and Arnold discharged a loaded pistol at him, as he escaped through a window. The young man left the place forever, and Hannah Arnold lived the life of a maiden. Arnold and the Frenchman afterward met at Honduras, and fought a duel. The Frenchman was severely wounded. 136 BENEDICT ARNOLD. horse dealing in Canada He was in .command of a volunteer company, in New Haven, when the war broke out, with whom he marched to Cambridge, and joined the army under Washington. fThen commenced his career as the bravest ofthe brave. His first bold exploit had been in connection with Ethan Allen in the capture of Ticonderoga, in May, 1775. In September following he started from Cambridge for Quebec, by way of the Kennebeck and the wUderness be yond its head waters, in command of an expedition ; and after an unsuccessful attempt to take the capital of Canada, he joined Montgomery, and participated in the disastrous siege of that walled town on the last day of the year. There he was severely wounded in the leg, but escaping up the St. Lawrence, held command of the broken army until the arrival of General Wooster in AprU fol lowing. Arnold retired to Montreal, then to St. Johns, and left Canada alto gether, in June, 1776. During the Summer and Autumn of that year, he was active in naval command on Lake Champlain. He assisted in repelling the in vasion of Connecticut, by Tryon, in April, 1777; and during the latter part of that Summer, he was with General Schuyler, in his preparations for opposing the attempt of Burgoyne to penetrate beyond Fort Edward, or Saratoga. While the American army was encamped at the mouth of the Mohawk, Arnold marched up that stream, and relieved the beleagured garrison of Fort Schuyler (or Stanwix), on the site of the present vUlage of Rome.1 He was in the battles at StUlwater; and despite the jealous efforts of Gates to cripple his movements, his intrepidity and personal example were chiefly instrumental in securing the victory over Burgoyne, for which the commanding general received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal, while Arnold was not even mentioned in the official despatches from Saratoga. This was one ofthe first affronts that planted seeds of treason in his mind. He was again severely wounded at Saratoga, and suffered much for many months. When, in the Spring of 1778, the British evacuated Philadelphia, Arnold was appointed military governor there, becauso of his incapacity for active field service, on account of his wounds. Thero he lived extravagantly, married the beautiful daughter of Edward Shippen, a lead ing Tory of PhUadelphia, and commenced a system of fraud, peculation, and oppression, whioh caused him to be tried for sundry offences by a court-martial, ordered by Congress. He was found guUty on some of the charges, and deli cately reprimanded by Washington. Indignant and deeply in debt, he brooded upon revenge on one hand, and pecuniary relief on the other. He opened a correspondence with the accomplished Major Andre, adjutant-general of the British army, and after procuring the command of the fortresses at West Point, on the Hudson, and vicinity, he arranged, with Andre, a plan for betraying them into the hands of Sir Henry Clinton,, the British commander at New York. His price for his perfidy was#fty thousand dollars and » brigadier's commission in the British army. After a personal negotiation with Arnold, Andre was captured,2 the treason became known, but the traitor had fled to his new friends in New York. He soon afterward went on a marauding expedition into Vir ginia,3 and then on the New England coast, near his birth-place, everywhere exhibiting the most cruel spite toward the Americans whom he had sought to -injure beyond measure. The war ended, and he went to England. There he 1. While Burgoyne penetrated the State from (he North, St. Leger, with Tories and Indians, attempted to take Fort Schuyler, and then sweep the Mohawk Valley. 2. Andre was hanged as a spy, at Tappan, on the west side ofthe Hudson, in October, 1780. He had been drawn into that position by the villany of Arnold, and could the traitor have been caught, Andre would have been saved. 3. In a skirmiBh between Richmond and Petersburg, some Americans were made prisoners. One of them was asked by Arnold, what his countrymen would do with him, if they should catch him. Tho young man promptly replied, " Bury the leg that was wounded at Quebec and Saratoga, with military honors, and hang the rest of you." Great efforts were made to capture the traitor, while he was in Virginia. That was the chief object of La Fayette's expedition to that State. WILLIAM BARTON. 137 was everywhere shunned as a serpent, and he made his abode in St. Johns, New Brunswick, from 1786 until 1793. He went to the West Indies, in 1794, and from thence to England. He died in Gloucester Place, London, on the 14th of June, 1801, at the age of sixty-one years. Just three years afterward, his wife died at tho samo place, aged forty-three.' WILLIAM BARTON. ' What hath the gray-haired prisoner done ? Hath murder stained his hand with go,e? Ab, no 1 his crime 's a fouler one — God made the old man poor 1" THUS indignantly did the gifted pen of Whittier refer to the brave Colonel Barton, in his noble protest against imprisonment for debt. Barton was a worthy scion of old Rhode Island stock, and was born in Providence in 1750. Ofhis early life we know nothing, but when the War for Independence appealed to the patriotism and romance of the young men of America, we find him among the most daring of those who gave the British great annoyance after they' had taken possession of Rhode Island, in 1776, and were encamped at Newport and vicinity. Young Barton had passed through the several grades of office, until the opening of 1777, when we find him holding the commission of lieutenant- colonel of miUtia, and performing good service in preparations for driving the British from Rhode Island. General Prescott, an arrogant, tyrannical man was the commander-in-chief of the enemy there, and the people suffered much at his hands.2 They devised various schemes to get rid of him, but all failed until a plan, conceived by Colonel Barton, was successfully carried out. Prescott's head-quarters were at the house of a Quaker, five mUes north of Newport. On a sultry night in July, 1777, Barton, with a few trusty followers, crossed Nar raganset Bay from Warwick Point, in whale boats, directly through a British fleet, and landed in a sheltered cove a short distance from Prescott's quarters. They proceeded stealthUy in two divisions, and secured the sentinel and the outside doors of the house. Then Barton boldly entered, with four strong men and a negro, and proceeded to Prescott's room on the second floor. It was now about midnight. The door was locked on the inside. There was no time for parley. The negro, stepping back a few paces, used his head as a battering- ram, and the door new open. Prescott, supposing the intruders to be robbers, sprang from his bed and seized his gold watch. The • next moment Barton's hand was laid on his shoulder, and he was admonished that he was a prisoner, and must be silent. Without giving him time to dress, he was conveyed to one of the whale-boats, and the whole party returned to Warwick Point, undis covered by the sentinels ofthe fleet. Prescott's mouth was kept shut by a pis tol at each ear. The prisoner first spoke after landing, and said, "Sir, you have made a bold push to-night." Barton coolly replied, " We have been fortunate." At sunrise the captive was in Providence, and in the course of a few days he was sent to the head-quarters of Washington, in New Jersey.3 For this brave 1. Their son, James Robertson Arnold, born at West Point, became a distinguished officer in ilie British army. He passed through all the grades of office, from lieutenant. On the accession of Queen Victoria, he was made one of her aids-de-camp, and rose to the rank of major-general, with the badge of a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order. 2. This was the same Prescott who commanded at Montreal, in 1775, and treated Colonel Ethan Allen so cruelly when he was made prisoner. • 3. Prescott's haughty demeanor was not laid aside in his captivity. On his way to New Jersey, he 138 GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE. service, Congress presented their thanks and an elegant sword, to lieutenant- colonel Barton, and in December following, he was promoted to the rank and pay of colonel in the Continental army. He was also rewarded by a grant ot land, in Vermont. In the action at Butt's HiU, near Bristol Ferry, in August, 1778' Colonel Barton was so badly wounded, that he was disabled for the re mainder of the war. In after years, the land in Vermont proved to be an un fortunate gift. By the transfer of some of it he became entangled in the meshes ofthe law, and was imprisoned for debt, in Vermont, for many years, in his old ' For this he shares a felon's cell, The fittest earthly type of hell ! For this, the boon for which he poured His young blood on the invader's sword, And counted light the fearful cost — His blood-gained liberty ,-is lost." When La Fayette was " our nation's guest," in 1825, he heard ofthe situation ofhis old companion-in-arms, paid the debt and set him at liberty I It was a significant rebuke, not only to the Shyloek who demanded the "pound of flesh," but to the Amerioan people. Colonel Barton died at Providence, in 1831, at the age of eighty -four years. GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE. ONE of the most interesting episodes in the history of our country, is that which relates to the conquest of the region long known as the North western Territory,1 from the motley masters of the soU — English, French, and Indians. The chief actor in those events, was George Rogers Clarke, a hardy Virginia borderer, whose youth was spent in those physical pursuits which give vigor to the frame and activity to the mind. He was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 19th of November, 1752, and first appeared in history as an adventurer beyond the Alleghanies. in 1772. He had been engaged in the business of land-surveyor, for some time and that year he went down the Ohio, in a canoe, as far as the mouth of the Great Kanawha, in company with Rev. David Jones, then on his way to preach the gospel to the western tribes.2 He was captain of a company in Dunmore's army, whieh marched- against the In dians on the Ohio and its tributaries, in 1774.3 Ever since his trip in 1772, he ardently desired an opportunity to explore those deep wildernesses in the great vallies; and in 1775, he accompanied some armed settlers to Kentucky, as their commander. During that and the foUowing year, he traversed a great extent of country south of the Ohio, studied the character of the Indians, and made himself master of many secrets which aided in his future success. He beheld a beautiful country, inviting immigration, but the pathway to it was made dan- and his escort dined at the tavern of Captain Alden, at Lebanon, Connecticut. The common dish of corn and beans was set before him. He supposed the act to be an intentional insult, and strewing the succotash on the floor, exclaimed, " Do yon treat me with the food of hogs." Captain Alden hated the tyrant, and for this act he horsewhipped him. After Prescott was exchanged for General Charles_ Lee, and was again in command on Rhode Island, he treated a gentleman, who called upon him on business, with much discourtesy. He said in excuse, " He looked so much like a cursed Connecticut man that horsewhipped me, that I could not endure his presence," 1. It embraced the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 2. See sketch of David Jones. 3. The Shawnees and other tribes had committed many depredations on the Virginia frontier for several years, and in 1774, Lord Dunmore, then governor of that province, led quite a large force against them. A severe battle was fought at Point Pleasant, at the mouth ofthe great Kanawha ; and at Chil- licothe, Dunmore made a treaty of peace and friendship with them. GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE. 139 gerous by the enemies of the colonists, who sallied forth from the British posts at Detroit Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, with Indian alhes. Convinced of the necessity of possessing these posts, Clarke submitted the plan of an expedition against them, to the Virginia legislature, and early in the Spring of 1778, he was at the FaUs ofthe Ohio (now LouisvUle), with four companies of soldiers. There he was joined by Simon Kenton, another bold pioneer. He marched tlirough the wilderness toward those important posts, and at the close of Summer aU but Detroit were in his possession. Clarke was now promoted to colonel, and was instructed to pacify the western tribes, if possible, and bring them into friendly relations with the Americans. WhUe thus engaged, he was informed ofthe re-capture of Vincennes. With his usual energy, and followed by less than two hundred men, he traversed the drowned lands of IUinois, through deep morasses and snow-floods, in February, 1779 ; and on the 19th of that month, appeared before Vincennes. To the astonished garrison, it seemed as if those rough fesntuckians had dropped from 140 DAVID JONES. the clouds, for the whole country was inundated. The fort was speedily sur rendered, and commander Hamilton (governor of Detroit), and several others, were sent to Virginia as prisoners. Colonel Clarke also captured a quantity of goods, under convoy from Detroit, valued at $50,000; and having sufficiently garrisoned Vincennes and the other posts, he proceeded to build Fort Jefferson, on the westem bank of the Mississippi, below the Ohio. When Arnold invaded Virginia, in 1781, Colonel Clarke joined the forces under the Baron Steuben, and performed signal service until the traitor had departed. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier, the same year, and went beyond the mountains again, hoping to organize an expedition against Detroit. His scheme failed, and, for awhile, Clarke was in command of a post at the Falls ofthe Ohio. In the Autumn of 1782, he penetrated the Indian country between the Ohio and the Lakes, with a thousand men, and chastised the tribes severely for their marauding excursions into Kentucky, and awed them into comparatively peaceful relations. For these deeds, John Randolph afterward caUed Clarke the "American Hannibal, who, by the reduction of those military posts in the wU- derness, obtained the lakes for the northern boundary of our Union, at the peace in 1783." Clarke made Kentucky his future home; and during Washington's administration, when Genet, the French minister, attempted to organize a force in the West, against the Spaniards, Clarke accepted from him the commission of major-general in the armies of France. The project was abandoned, and the hero of the north-west never appeared in public life afterward. He died near LouisviUe, Kentucky, in February, 1818, at the age of sixty-six years. DAVID JONES. THE ministers ofthe " church militant " frequently performed double service in the righteous cause of truth, during the War for Independence, for they had both spiritual and temporal enemies to contend with. Among these, the Rev. David Jones was one of the most faithful soldiers in both kinds ofwarfare. He was born in New Castle comity, Delaware, on the 12th of May, 1736, and, as his name imports, was of Welsh descent, lie was educated for the gospel ministry under the Rev. Isaac Eaton; at Hopewell, New Jersey, and for many years was pastor of the Upper (Baptist) Freehold church. Impressed with a desire to carry the gospel to the heathen of the wUderness, he proceeded to visit the Indians in the Ohio and IUinois country, in 1772. On his way down the Ohio river, he was accompanied by the brave George Rogers Clarke, whose valor gave the region, afterward known as the North-western Territory, to the struggling colonists, toward the close of the Revolution. Mr. Jones' mission was unsuccessful, and he returned to his charge at Freehold. Because of his zealous espousal of the republican cause, he became very obnoxious to the Tories, who were numerous in Monmouth county. Believing his life to be in danger, he left New Jersey, settled in Chester oounty, in Pennsylvania, and in the Spring of 1775, took charge of the Great VaUey Baptist church. He soon afterward preached a sermon before Colonel Davie's regiment, on the occasion of a Continental Fast, which was published, and produced a salutary effect. It was entitled, Defensive War in a Just Cause, Sinless. In 1776, Mr. Jones was appointed chaplain to Colonel St. Clair's regiment, and proceeded with it to the Northern Department. He was on duty at Ticonderoga, when the British approached, after the defeat of Arnold on the Lake below, and there preached a characteristic sermon to the soldiers, which was afterward published. He served JOHN EAGAR HOWARD. 14.1 through two campaigns under General Gates, and was chaplain to General Wayne's brigade in the Autumn of 1777. He was with that officer at the Paoli Massacre,1 where he narrowly escaped death, but lived to make an address at the erection of a monument there, over the remains ofhis slaughtered comrades, forty years afterward. He was in the battles at Brandywine and Germantown, suffered at White Marsh and VaUey Forge, and continued with Wayne in all his varied duties from the battle at Monmouth injune, 1778, until the surrender of CornwaUis, at Yorktown, in October, 1781. Such was his activity as a sol dier, that General Howe offered a reward for him, while the British held pos session of PhUadelphia ; and on one occasion, a detachment of soldiers were sent to the Great Valley to capture him.2 At the close of the war, he returned to his farm, and resumed his ministerial labors. When General Wayne took command of the army in the North-western Ter ritory, in 1794, Mr. Jones was appointed his chaplain, and accompanied him to the field; and when, again, in 1812, a war between the United States and Great Britain commenced, the patriotic chaplain of the old conflict entered the army, and served under Generals Brown and Wilkinson, untU the close of the contest. He was then seventy-six years of age. When peace came, he again put on the armor of the gospel, and continued his warfare with the enemy of souls until ¦ the last. His latest public act was the delivery of the dedicatory address on laying the corner-stone of the Paoli Monument, in 1817. On the 5th of Feb ruary, 1820, this distinguished servant ofGod and ofthe Republic, died in peace, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and was buried in the Great Valley church yard, in sight ofthe pleasant little viUage of VaUey Forge. JOHN EAGAR HOWARD. MARYLAND may boast of many lovely sons, but she cherishes the memory of none more warmly than that of John Eagar Howard. He was born in Baltimore county, on the 4th of June, 1752. He was a very young man when the War for Independence commenced, and entered eagerly into the plans of the republicans. He became a soldier in 1776, and commanded a company of militia in the service known as The Flying Camps, under General Hugh Mercer. In that capacity he served at White Plains, in the Autumn of that year ; and when, in December, 1776, that corps was disbanded, he accepted the commission of major in one of the Continental battalions of his native State. Then commenced his useful miUtary career. In the Spring of 1777, he joined the army under Washington, at Middlebrook, in New Jersey, but returned home in June, on account of the death of his father. He again joined the army, a few days after the battle on the Brandywine, in September ; distinguished himself for cool courage in the -engagement at Germantown ; and afterward wrote a graphic account of the whole affair. He was also at the battle on the plains of Mon mouth the foUowing year ; and in June, 1779, he was commissioned a lieuten ant-colonel in the 5th Maryland regiment, "to take rank from the 11th day of May, 1778." In 1780, he went to the field of duty, in the South, when De Kalb 1. Near the Paoli Tavern, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. General Wayne was surprised a few nights after the battle on tbe Brandywine, by General Grey>of the British army, and a large number of his command were slain. That event is known in history as the Paoli Massacre. 2. While reconnoitring alone one night, Chaplain Jones saw a dragoon dismount, and enter a house for refreshments. Mr. Jones boldly approached, seized the horseman's.pistols, and goinginto the house, claimed the owner as his prisoner. The unarmed dragoon was compelled to obey his captor's orders, to mount and ride into the American camp. The event produced great merriment, and Wayne laughed immoderately at the idea ofa British dragoon being captured by his chaplain. 142 RICHARD BLAND. marched thither with. Maryland and Delaware troops, with the vain hope of aiding the besieged Lincoln, at Charleston. He served under Gates untU after the disastrous battle near Camden, in August, and his corps formed a part of the Southern army, under General Greene, at the close of that year. In January foUowing, he won unfading laurels by his skiU and bravery at the Cowpens, under Morgan, and received a vote of thanks and a sUver medal from Congress. At Guilford, a month afterward, he greatly distinguished himself when Greene and CornwaUis contended for the mastery. There he was wounded, returned home, and did not engage in active miUtary services afterward. When peace came, the intrepid soldier was conquered by the charms of Margaret, daughter of Chief Justice Chew, around whose house, at Germantown, he had battled manfully, and they were married. He sought the pleasures of domestic life, but in the Autumn of 1788, he was drawn from his retirement, to fiU the chair of chief magistrate of his native State. Ho held that office three years. In 1794, he decUned the proffered commission of major-general of militia, and the follow ing year he also declined the office of Secretary of War, to which President Washington invited him. He was then a member of the Maryland Senate ; and in 1796, he was chosen to a seat in the Senate of the United States, where he served until 1803. Then he retired from public life forever; yet when, in 1814, the British made hostile demonstrations against Baltimore, the old veteran, un mindful ofthe weight of threescore years, prepared to take the field. The battle at North Point rendered such a step unnecessary, and he sat down in the midst of an affectionate family, to enjoy thirteen years more of his earthly pilgrimage. His wife was taken from him, by death, early in 1827 ; and on the 12th of October, of that year, he foUowed her to the spirit land, at the age of seventy- five years. Honor, wealth, and the ardent love of friends, were his lot in life ; and few men ever went down to the grave more truly beloved and lamented, than John Eagar Howard. RICHARD BLAND. AMONG the galaxy of patriots who composed the real strength of the Virginia House of Burgesses, in, 1774, no one was more beloved and reverenced than Richard Bland, who was born early in the last century. He was a mem ber of the colonial legislature of Virginia many years, and a leader of the pop ular branch, or House of Burgesses. Although a true republican, he was not prepared, at the moment, to stand by Patrick Henry in his denunciations of British tyranny, in 1765, yet he did not flinch, soon afterward, when duty de manded bold action. He was one of the committee to prepare a remonstrance with parliament, in 1768; and in 1773, he was one ofthe first general committee of correspondence, proposed by Dabney Carr. He was chosen a delegate to the first Continental Congress in 1774, but decUned the appointment the foUowing year, because, as he said, he was " an old man, almost deprived of sight." Francis Lightfoot Lee, who signed the Declaration of Independence the foUowing year was appointed in his place ; and three years afterward, the aged patriot went to his final rest. Mr. Wirt speaks of him as "one of the most enlightened men in the colony; a man of finished education, and of the most unbending habits of apphcatibn. His perfect mastery of every fact connected with the settlement and progress of the colony, had given him the name of the Virginia Antiquary. He was a politician of the first class, a profound logician, and was also considered as the first writer in the colony." CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. " TlfflLLIONS for defence, but not one cent for tribute," were the- noble words ill uttered by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney when, as an ambassador to the French government, some unaccredited agents demanded a loan from the United States, as a prerequisite to a treaty which he had been sent to negotiate. That sentiment expressed the national standard of independent integrity, ever main tained in our intercourse with foreign nations.' The author of it was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 25th of February, 1746. His father was chief justice of South Carolina, and held a high social position there. At the age of seven years Charles, with his brother Thomas, were taken to England by their father, to be educated. He was first at Westminster, then at Oxford, and when his collegiate course was completed, he studied law in the Temple. On his return to Charleston, in 1769, he commenced a successful professional career, and at the same time became an active participator in the popular movements against the imperial government. He had taken a part against the Stamp Act, in England, and he was a fuU-fledged patriot on his arrival home. When, _ in 1775, Christopher Gadsden became colonel of a regiment raised by the Provin- 1. Jackson's instructions to foreign ministers were, nothing that is wrong." 'Ask nothing but what is right, and submit to 144 BARON DE STEUBEN. cial Congress, Pinckney received the appointment of captain of one of its con> panies,-and he went up into North Carolina, as far as Newbern, on recruiting" service. He was active in the defence of his native city the following year, and remained in service until the fall of Charleston, in 1780. He accompanied Gen eral Robert Howe in his unfortunate expedition to Florida, in 1778, and assisted in the repujse of Prevost, from Charleston, the following year.1 When, early in 1780, the British fleet, bearing General Clinton and an invading army, appeared off Charleston, Pinckney, now holding the commission of colonel, was appointed to the command of the garrison at Fort Moultrie, in the harbor. When the city and its defences finally yielded to superior numbers, and were surrendered, Colonel Pinckney was made a prisoner. He suffered much from sickness and ill-treatment during a captivity of almost two years, and was not allowed to par ticipate in the struggle in the field during that time. In February, 1782, he was exchanged, and was soon afterward breveted brigadier-general. On the return of peace he resumed the practice of his profession, and was a member of the- convention whieh framed the Federal Constitution, in 1787. He declined a proffered seat in Washington's Cabinet, but in 1796, he accepted the appoint ment of minister to the French Republic, then controlled by a Directory.2 It was while in the midst of personal peril there, that he uttered the noble senti ment just quoted. When war with France seemed inevitable, in 1797, and Washington was chosen commander-in-chief, Pinckney was appointed the second . major-general in the army.3 He retired from active life at about the year 1800, and for a quarter of a century lived in elegant ease, though taking much in terest in the progress of public affairs. He found exquisite enjoyment in tho bosom of his family and the companionship of books, until the latest hours ofhis long life. He died on the 16th ofAiigust, 1825, in the eightieth year ofhis age. BARON DE STEUBEN. MUCH ofthe success of the Continental army in its more skillful achievements, during the greater portion of the War for Independence, was due to tho science and valor of several foreign officers engaged in its service ; and the names of La Fayette, Steuben, De Kalb, Pulaski, Koskiusczko, and Du Portail, will ever be held in grateful remembrance by the American people. To Frederick WUliam Augustus, Baron de Steuben, the army was indebted for that superior discipline displayed on the plains of Monmouth, and afterward. He had been an aid-de-camp of Frederick the Great of Prussia; and the Prince Margrave, of Baden, in whose service he afterward engaged, gave him the oo_nmissif.n of lieutenant-general, and decorated him with the Order of Fidehty, as a special mark of favor. He received titles and emoluments from other monarchs, and splendid offers for the future, but he left them aU, came to America to help a struggling young people in their efforts to be free, and joined the Continental army, as a volunteer, at Valley Forge. Congress appointed him inspector-gen eral, with the rank and pay of major-general, in May, 1778, and his thorough .. i QeIleraI Prevost marched from Savannah, with a strong British force, to attack Charleston, in 1779, and appeared before the city. The rapid approach of General Lincoln caused him to retreat sud denly by way of the numerous islands along the shore from Charleston to Savannah. 2. The Directory was the executive power of the French government, after the Revolution, and was established in 1795. It consisted of five persons elected for four years, and ruled in connection with two representative Chambers, called respectively The. CouncHofAncientSjj.ua The Council of Five Bwndred. 3. One of his aids, George Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington House, Virginia, is yet living Seo note 1, page 55. -M JOHN BROOKS. 145 discipline prepared tho Americans for moro efficient action in future. As _i volunteer, he fought at Monmouth ; and his services throughout the war were of the greatest benefit. He was active in Virginia from the invasion of Arnold, in January, 1781, untU the capture of CornwaUis, in October foUowing. At the siege of Yorktown, his skUl and . valor were particularly conspicuous, for he fought bravely and well in the trenches there.1 At the close of the war, he remained in America. The State of New Jersey gave him a small farm ; that of New York presented him with sixteen thousand acres of wUd land, in Oneida county; and the Federal government granted him a pension of twenty-five hundred dollars a year. He took up his abode on his New York domain, gave one-tenth of the whole to his aids (North and Walker) and servants, and par celled the remainder among twenty or thirty tenants. He buUt himself a log hut on the site of the present SteubenvUle, New York ; and there the once courted companion of kings and nobles — the ornament of gay courts — lived in chosen obscurity, during the Summer months. His Winters were spent in tho best society in the city of New York. Ho died suddenly of apoplexy, at his logrbuilt residence, on the 28th of November, 1795, at the age of sixty-four years. His neighbors buried him in his garden ; but afterward, according to his written request, he was wrapped in his miUtary cloak, placed in a plain coffin, and buried in the woods near by. When a public road passed over the spot, his remains were taken up and buried a third time, in the town of Steuben, a few miles from Tronton FaUs. There a plain monument, erected in 1826, covers his grave.2 JOHN BROOKS. FROM many a district school-house in our favored land have issued youths of humble origin, who, by their virtues and attainments, have adorned society, and honored their country. John Brooks, one ofthe most eminent chief magistrates of Massachusetts, was a graduate of one of those " colleges for the people," and his boyhood and early youth were spent in the obscure labors of a farm. He was born at Medford, in 1752. At the age of fourteen years he was apprenticed to Dr. Simon Tufts, and his feUow-studenf in medicine was Benjamin Thompson, afterward the celebrated Count Rumford. He always evinced a fondness for miUtary exercises, and organized the viUage boys into train-bands, with himself as commander. He commenced the practice of medicine at Read ing, and then, in 1774, he took command of a company of minute-men. With these, he- assisted in annoying the British forces in tteir retreat from Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, and soon afterward he was commissioned a major in the army that gathered around Boston. He assisted Prescott in throwing up the redoubt on Breed's HUl, but was absent on duty during the battle the next day. He remained with the Continental army at Boston until the following year, and then participatec. in the battles on Long Island and at White Plains. He was with Arnold in his! expedition against St. Leger, at Fort Schuyler, on the Mohawk, in 1777, and'bore the commission of Ueutenant-colonel. At the 1. On. one occasion, when a bomb-shell was about to burst, the Baron leapt into a ditch, followed by Wayne, who fell on him. " Ah, my deaT fellow," said the Baron, " I know you are always good at covering a retreat." 2. General William North, one ofhis aids, erected a mural monument to the memory of Steuben, in a German church in Nassau Street,- New York.- It is now in the church edifice of that congregation, in Forsyth Street. General North was United States senator, and was twice Speaker of the New York Assembly. He passed the latter years of his life* in New London, Connecticut, but died in the city of New York, on the 4th of January, 1836, at tho age of eighty-three years. 7 146 CHARLES CARROLL. kittles at Saratoga, in September and October following, he performed signal sjrvices at the head ofa regiment, and he is a conspicuous person in Trumbull's picture of the Surrender of Burgoyne. , At, the battle of Monmouth he was' acting adjutant-general ; and during, the whole war he was a most valuable officer, especially while assistant inspector, under Baron Steuben. Washington always had the greatest confidence in his integrity and patriotism ; and in the crisis at Newburgh, in the Spring of 1783, when sedition and mutiny appeared rife, the commander-in-chief made Brooks his specialconfldant.1 At the close of the war, Colonel Brooks, poor in purse but rich in character, resumed the practice of his profession, at the same time. he held the office of major-general of militia. He was a zealous friend of .the Federal Constitution, and received local offices under it, from .the hands, of Washington. When war with England was declared in 1812, General Rrooks was appointed adjutant- general of Massachusetts, by Governor-Strong; and in 1816, he succeeded that gentleman as chiefmagistrate of his native. State."; For seven consecutive years he performed the duties of governor with/ 'dignity and . fidelity ; but declined a reelection in 1823, and retired to private. life.' -He continued to evince niuch interest in societies to whioh he belonged, especially that of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of which he was president. Admiring his abilities as a states man, the Faculty of HarvardUmversity conferred upon him the honorary degree' of Doctor of Laws. Governor Brooks died on the 1st of March, 1825, at the age of about seventy-three years. CHARLES CARROLL. THE last survivor ofthe glorious company pf those who signed the Declaration of Independence, was Charles Carroll, who, to enable the British ministers to identify. him.as an arch-rebel, and not mistake his cousin of the same name, added "of Carrollton" to his signature on that great instrument. - He was of Irish descent,2 and was born at Annapolis, in Maryland, on the 20th of Septem ber, 1737. His father was a Roman Catholic gentleman of large fortune,- and sent Charles to. the Jesuits' College at St. Omer, in France, when he was eight years of age. There he remained six years, when he was transferred to another seminary of learning at Rheims. He was graduated at the College of' Louis the Grande at the age of seventeen years. He. then commenced the study' of law at Bourges, remained there a year, then went to Paris and studied until 1757, and finally completed his professional education in London. After an absence of twenty-two years, he returned to Maryland, in 1765, a finished scholar and well-bred gentleman. He found. his countrymen in a state of high excite-'- ment on account ofthe Stamp Act, and at once espoused the popular' cause with" great zeal. He held a fluent and powerful pen ; and as early as 1771/ Mr. Car- ' roll was known throughout the colonies as an able advocate of popular liberty: 1. The remnant of the Continental army, stationed at Newburgh in 1783, became much discontented by the prospect of being soon disbanded without being paid the amount of arrears due, or any provision for the future being made for them. An anonymous writer (afterward acknowledged to be Major Armstrong), called a meeting ofthe officers to adopt measures to compel Congress to make a satisfactory arrangement, or else to take redress in their own hands. Washington took immediate steps to prevent the convention, and called a meeting, himself, of the officers. It resulted in a noble exhibition of patriot ism on the part of tbe great body, and the army was saved the disgrace of a mutiny after so much Buffering in the glorious cause. 2. His grandfather, Daniel Carroll, was a native of L'ittemourna, in Ireland. He was a clerk in the office of Lord Powis, and under the patronage of the third Lord Baltimore, principal nronrietor of Mary land, he emigrated to that colony in the reign of James II. '_¦_•! j CHARLES CARROLL. 147 ~~UMn#€% i In 1772, he engaged in an anonymous newspaper discussion with the secretary of the colony, in which he opposed the assumed right of the British government to tax the colonies without their consent. The unknown writer was thanked by the Legislature, through the public prints, for his noble defence of popular rights. When the author became known, he was at once regarded as the favorite ofthe people. ' Mr. Carroll early perceived, and fearlessly expressed the necessity of a resort to arms, and he was among the most zealous advocates for the political inde pendence o'f the colonies, even before that question assumed a tangible form in the public mind. ' He was chosen a member of the first committee of safety, at Annapolis, and in 177*5, took his seat in the Provincial Congress. The Mary land convention had steadily opposed the sentiment of independence which was taking hold of the public mind, and that fact accounts for the delay in sending Mr. Carroll to the Continental Congress. He visited Philadelphia early in 1776, and Congress appointed »him one of a committee, with Dr. Franklin and Samuel Chase, to visit Canada on a political mission.1 Soon after his return, the views of the Maryland convention having changed, he was elected to a seat in the Continental- Congress, too late to vote for independence, on the 4th of July, but 1. See sketch of Archbishop Carroll. 148 EBENEZER STEVENS. in time to affix his signature to the instrument on the 2d of August.1 Ten days afterward he was appointed a member of the Board of War, and held that posi tion during the remainder of his service in Congress. He assisted in framing a constitution for his native State, in 1776, and in 1778, he left the national coun cil to take a more active part in the public affairs of Maryland. He was a mem ber ofthe Maryland Senate,in 1781, and in 1788, he was elected one ofthe first senators from that State in the Federal Congress. There he remained two years, when he again took his seat in his State Senate, and retained it for ten consec utive years. He then retired from public life, at the age of sixty-four years, and in the quiet seclusion of a happy, home he watched with interest the progress of his beloved country fpr more than thirty years longer. When Adams and Jefferson died, in 1826, Mr. Carroll was left alone on earth, in the relation which he bore to his fifty-five colleagues who signed the Declaration of Independence. He lived on, six years longer,' an .object of the highest veneration ; and finaUy, on the 14th of November, 1832, his spirit passed peacefuUy and calmly from earth, when he was in the ninety-sixth year of his age. EBENEZER STEVENS. MANY of tho meritorious officers of the artUlery servico in the War for Inde pendence have not found that prominence in history which they deserve. Among those thus overlooked was General Stevens, who, from the earliest until the latest period of the contest, was one of the most efficient and patriotic sol diers ofthe time. He was born in Boston, in 1752, and at an early age became thoroughly imbued with the principles of the Sons .of Liberty.2 He was one of those who "made Boston Harbor a tea-pot,"3 in December, 1773, when fearing unpleasant consequences, he withdrew to Rhode Island. He went with the Rhode Island Army of Observation to Roxbury, under'General Greene, in 1775, and his skUl in the artiUery and engineering department was such, that early in December of that year, Washington directed him to raise two companies of ar tUlery in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and proceed to join Montgomery in his attack on Quebec. The commission was speedily executed by the young soldier, and after great fatigue in dragging cannons through snow and over rough hills, the little expedition reached Three Rivers on the St. Lawrence, and heard of the disastrous blow given to the Americans, at Quebec. Stevens returned to St. John's on the Sorel, and rendered efficient servioe in the Northern Department during 1776. He was in command ofthe artUlery at Ticonderoga, in 1777, and shared in the mortifications of St. Clair's retreat before Burgoyne, in July. He joined General Schuyler at Fort Edward, and was so distinguished as the com mander ofthe artillery in the battles which resulted in'the capture of Burgoyne, that Trumbull, in his picture of that scene, introduced Captain Stevens in a con- 1. Mr. Carroll was elected on the 4th of July, and took his seat on the 18th of the same month. He affixed his signature to the Declaration, with most of the others, a little more than a fortnight afterward. See sketch of John Carroll. 2. During the excitement incident to the Stamp Act, the patriotic opposers of the measure formed associations for the purpose in the different colonies, and styled themselves Sons of Liberty. In like manner a large association of ladies was formed in Boston, who pledged themselves not to use tea, while an obnoxious duty was upon it, and called themselves Daughters of Liberty. A full account of these ' associations will be found in Lossing's Pictorial FieldBook of tlie Revolution. 3. The people of Boston and other sea-ports resolved that cargoes of tea, which,the East India Com pany had sent to consignees in America, should not be landed so long as an Impost duty was levied on the'article. An attempt to land two cargoes in Boston caused a large company, some of them in the disguise of Mohawk Indians, to go on board of the vessels on a moonlight night, in December, 1773, and break open and cast into the waters of the harbor, all the chests of the obno_dou_ article. ISAIAH THOMAS. 149 spicuous position. He continued in command of the artillery, at Albany, until the Autumn of 1778, when he became attached to Colonel Lamb's regiment, in the New York line. He was made lieutenant-colonel, by brevet, in April, 1778. For the contemplated invasion of Canada, La Fayette selected him as the chief of his artiUery ; and early in 1781, he accompanied the Marquis into Virginia, to oppose Arnold. General Knox, the commander-in-chief of the artillery, had the highest confidence in his excellence, and invested him with full powers, in the Autumn of 1781, to collect and forward artUlery munitions for the siege of Yorktown. In the decisive actions wliich resulted in the capture of Cornwallis and his army, Colonel Stevens was eminently efficient ; and in Trumbull's pic ture of that event, he is seen mounted, at the head of his regiment. From that time until the close of the war, he was with Colonel Lamb at West Point and vicinity; and when peace came, he commenced mercantile life in the city of New York. He accepted office in the military corps of his adopted State, and rose to the rank of major-general, commanding the division of artillery of the State of New York. In 1800, he superintended the construction of the fortifi cations on Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York. He held the office of major-general of artillery when another war with England occurred, in 1812, and he was called into the service of the United States, in defence of the city ofhis adoption. He was senior major-general untU the return of peace, in 1815. For many years he was among the most distinguished merchants of the com mercial metropolis, and died at the green old age of about seventy-one years, on the 2d of September, 1823. ISAIAH THOMAS. PRINTING, "the art preservative of all arts," has been represented, at all times in its history, by men eminent for their intellectual greatness and extensive social and political influence. Philosophers, statesmen, and theolo gians, of the highest order of genius, have been fellows of the craft. Eminent among the best was Isaiah Thomas, the historian of the art. He was born in Boston, in 1749, and at six years of age, being the son of a poor widow, he was placed in charge of Zechariah Fowle, a ballad and pamphlet printer, to learn the great art. After an apprenticeship of eleven years, he went to Nova Scotia, where he worked for a Dutch printer, awhile. There, as well as in the other colonies, the Stamp Act was just beginning to create much opposition to the imperial government, and young Thomas, who had been nurtured in the Boston school of poUtics, took a prominent part against the measure. He was threat ened with arrest, but the repeal of the act lulled the storm, and in 1767, he returned to New England. He afterward went to Wilmington, North Carolina, and also -to Charleston, in search of employment, but without success. Disap pointed and poor he returned to Boston, in 1770, and formed a business partner ship with his old master. It continued only three months, when Thomas pur chased the printing estabUshment of Fowle, on credit, worked industriously and well, and in March following he issued the first number of " The Massachusetts Spy;' a weekly political and commercial Paper; open to all Parties, but influ enced by None." It gave the ministerial party a great deal of uneasiness, and vain efforts were made to control or destroy it.2 When the British held martial 1. Fowle & Thomas had issued a'tri- weekly paper with this ' name the previous year, but it did not continue long. The new weekly paper was printed on a larger sheet than any yet published in Boston. 2. An article against the government, which appeared in the Spy toward the close of 1771, caused Governor Hutchinson to order Thomas before the council, to answer. The bold printer refused ccm- 150 RUFUS KING. rule in Boston, in 1775, Thomas took his establishment to Worcester, and four teen days after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, he commenced tho publication of the Spy, there. He continued in Worcester after the war, and was blessed with prosperity. He formed a partnership, in 1788, and opened a, printing-house and book-store in Boston, under the firm of Thomas and Andrews. They planted similar establishments in other places, to the number of eight ; and in 1791, they published a fine foho edition of the Bible. By industry and economy, Thomas amassed a handsome fortune, and was an honored citizen of his adopted town. He was one of the principal founders of the Antiquarian Society at Worcester, and was its president and chief patron. In 1810, ho printed and published his History of Printing in America, in two octavo volumes, which has ever been a standard work on the subject. He lived more than twenty years afterward, the Patriarch of the Press. His death occurred at Worcester on the 4th of April, 1831, when he was eighty-two years of age. RUFUS KING. A LMOST every young man of talent, at the commencement of the War for xx Independence, engaged in the public service, civil or mUitary, and often times in both. Young men of every profession and from every class becamo soldiers, as volunteers or levies, or took part in the public councils. Theso were schools of the highest practical importance to those who were to be par ticipants in the founding of the new republican confederation. Among tho worthiest and most active of these, was Rufus King, son of an eminent merchant of Scarborough, Maine. He was born in the y,ear 1755, and received a good pre paratory education under Samuel Moody, of Byfield. He entered Harvard College, in 1773, and remained there untU the students were dispersed when the American army gathered around Boston. Young King resumed classical studies with his old teacher in the Autumn of 1775. (He returned to college in 1771* and was graduated with great reputation as a classical scholar and expert orator. He studied law under Judge Parsons, at Newburyport, after having served as aid to General Glover, for a short time, ip SuUivan's expedition against the British on Rhode Island, in the Summer of 1778. In 1780, he was admitted to the bar, and his first effort, as a pleader, was as adverse counsel to his eminent law- tutor. It was an effort of great power, and opened at once the high road to proud distinction in his profession. The people appreciated his talent ; and in 1784, he was elected to a seat in the legislature of Massachusetts. He was chosen a representative of Massachusetts, in Congress, the same year; and in 1785, he introduced a resolution, in that body, to prohibit slavery in the terri tories north-west of the Ohio river. In 1 787, he was chosen a delegate to the Federal Convention, and there he was one of the most efficient and zealous friends of the constitution framed by that body. In the Massachusetts conven tion caUed to consider that instrument, he nobly advocated its high claims to support. - He soon afterward made New York city his residence, for there he had married Miss Alsop, daughter of one ofthe delegates in the first Continental Congress; and there was a wider field for his extraordinary mental powers. He was chosen a member of the State Legislature, in 1789, and in the Summer pliance ; and the attorney-general tried, but in vain, to have him indicted by the grand jury Such ' resistance was made to these measures, that the government at length deemed it prudent to cease effoits to silence his seditious voice. RUFUS KING. 151 of that year, he and General Schujder were elected the first senators in Congress, from New York. On the promulgation of the treaty made by Jay, with the British government, in 1794, there was much excitement, and King and Hamil ton warmly defended it, in a series of papers signed Camillus, all of which, ex cept the first ten, were written by the former. In the United States Senate, ho was one of the most brUliant of its orators, and his influence was everywhere potential. - In the Spring of 1796, President Washington appointed Mr. King minister - plenipotentiary to Great Britain, where he continued to represent his country with great dignity and ability during the whole of Mr. Adams' administration, and the first two years of Mr. Jefferson's. During his sojourn in London, he 'successfuUy adjusted many difficulties between his own government and that of Great Britain, and he possessed the warmest personal esteem of the first men in Europe. After his return home, in 1803, he retired to his farm, on Long Island, and remained in comparative repose until aroused to action by the events im mediately preceding the war declared in 1812. While at the court of Great Britain, he had made unwearied efforts to induce that government to abandon its unjust and offensive system of impressing seamen into the naval service, and he took an active part in public affairs during the first year ofthe war. He was 152 HENRY LEE. elected to the United States Senate, for six years, in 1813, and in 1820, he was reelected for the same length of time. Hoping to be useful to his country m the adjustment of some foreign relations, Mr. King accepted the appointment of minister to Great Britain, from Mr. Adams, in 1825, and took, up his residence in London Severe illness during the voyage disabled him for active duties, and after being absent about a year, he returned home. His health gradually faUed, and on the 29th of April, 1827, he died at his seat, near Jamaica, Long Island, at the age of seventy-two years. HENRY LEE. THE right arm of the Southern army, under General Greene, was the legion of lieutenant-colonel Henry Lee, and its commander was one of the most useful officers throughout the war. He was born in. Virginia, on the 29th of January, 1756. His early education was intrusted to a private tutor under his father's roof, and his collegiate studies were at Princeton, under the guidance of the patriotic Dr. Witherspoon. There he was graduated in 1774; and two years afterward, when only twenty years of age, he was appointed, oh the nom ination of Patrick Henry, to the command of one of the six companies of cavalry raised by his native State for the Continental service. These were at first-under the general command of the accomplished Colonel Theodoric Bland.1 In 1777, Lee's corje was placed under the immediate command of Washington, and it soon acquired a high character for discipUne and bravery. Its leader was pro moted to major, with the command of a separate, corps of cavalry; and with this legion he performed many daring exploits. In July, 1779, he captured a British fort, at Paulus's Hook (now Jersey City), for which Congress gave him thanks and a gold medal. He was at Tappan when Andre was tried and con demned, in the Autumn of 1780; and from his corps Washington selected the brave Sergeant Champe to attempt the seizure of Arnold, in New York, so as to punish the reaUy guilty, and let the involuntary spy go free.2 Lee was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, in November, 1780, and early in 1781, he joined the army under Greene, in the CaroUnas. In connection with Marion, . and other Southern partisans, he performed efficient service for many months, in the region ofthe Santee and its tributaries. He was active in Greene's famous retreat before CornwaUis, from the Yadkin to the Virginia shores of the Dan, and in the battles at Guilford, Augusta,' Ninety-Six, and Eutaw Springs, the services of his legion were of vast importance, for Lee was always in the front of success as weU as of danger. Soon after the latter battle, he left the field, returned to Virginia, and married a daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee, of Stratford. . He bore to civil life the assurance of his Southern commander, that his services had been greater than those of any one man attached to the army. Mr. Lee resided with his father-in-law, 'and in 1786, was elected ta a seat in 1. He was a native of Virginia, qualified himself for the practice of medicine, bnt cast it aside for fhe duties of a 60ldier, when the war broke out. He performed many brilliant services wilh his.corpB of dragoons, and he was in command of the British and German captives, taken at Saratoga, while on their march to, and residence in Virginia. In 1780, he was elected to a seat in Congress. He was op posed to the Federal Constitution, but acquiesced in the will ofthe majority, and represented his district in the Federal Congress. He died at New York, in June, 1790, while attending a session of Congress, at the age of forty -eight years. 2. Washington was anxious to save Andre, and made great efforts to secure the person of Arnold. Sergeant Champe went to the British in New York, as a deserter, enlisted in Arnold's corps, and Just as his scheme for seizing the traitor and conveying him across the Hudson, on a dark night, was per fected, that corps embarked for Virginia, with Champe. He afterward deserted, and joined Lee's legion in North Carolina. JOHN RUTLEDGE. 153 the Continental Congress, where he served his constituency faithfully until tho adoption ofthe Federal Constitution. In 1791, he succeeded Beverly Randolph as governor of Virginia, and held that office three consecutive years. When, in 1794, resistance to excise laws was made in Western Pennsylvania, and the speck of civil war, known as The Whiskey Insurrection, appeared, Washington appointed Governor Lee to the command of the troops sent to quell the rebellion. He performed his duty well, but made many bitter enemies among the con temners of the law. In 1799, he was a member of the Federal Congress, and was chosen by that body to pronounce a funeral oration, on the death of Wash ington, in the hall of the House of Representatives. He retired to private life, in 1801, and for many years was much annoyed by pecuniary embarrassments. It was while restrained within the Umits of Spottsylvania county, by his creditors, in 1809, that he wrote his interesting Memoirs ofthe War in the Southern Depart ment of the United States. He was active in attempts to quell a political mob, in Baltimore, in 1814, and was so severely wounded, that he never recovered. Towards the close of 181 7, he went to the West Indies, for his health, but found no sensible relief. On his return the following Spring, he stopped to visit a daughter of General Greene, on Cumberland Island, on the coast of Georgia, and there he expired on the 25th of March, 1818, at the age of sixty-two years. JOHN KUTLEDGE. LIKE Governor TrumbuU in New England, John Rutledge was the soul of patriotic activity in South Carolina, during the darkest period of the Revo lution, whether in civU authority or as general director of mUitary movements. He was a native of Ireland, and came to America with his father, Doctor John Rutledge, in 1735. After receiving the best education that could be obtained in Charleston, he went to London, and prepared for the profession of the law, at the Temple.1 In 1761, he returned to Charleston, became an active and highly esteemed member of his profession, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Gadsden, Laurens, and others, in defence of popular rights. He was chosen one of the representatives of his adopted State, in the first Continental Congress, with his brother, Edward, as one of his colleagues. When, in the Spring of 1776, the civU government of South Carolina was revised, and a temporary State Consti tution was framed, Rutledge was appointed president of the State, and com mander-in-chief of its military. Under his efficient administration, Charleston was prepared for the attack made in June, by Clinton and Parker, and the enemy was repulsed. His patriotism was never doubted, yet, like many others of the aristocracy, he had not entire faith in the wisdom and integrity of the people. When, therefore, in 1778, a permanent constitution for South Carolina was adopted, he refused his assent, because he thought it too democratic. His preju dice yielded, however, and in 1779, he was chosen governor under it, and was invested with temporary dictatorial powers by the legislature. He took the field at the head of the militia, and managed both civil and military affairs with great skill and energy, until after the fall of Charleston, in 1780.2 When Greene, aided by the southern partisan leaders, drove the British from the interior, to 1. This was the most celebrated place for law students in London. The building or buildings were so called, because they formerly belonged to the Knights Templars. They are designated as the Inner and the Middle Temple. The original Temple-hall, or house of the Templars, was erected in 1572 ; and Temple-bar was built just one hundred years afterward, 2. Charleston was besieged in the Spring of 1780, by a combined land and naval force, under General Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot. It was defended by Lincoln, with a feeble force, for nearly three months. On the 12th of May, 1780, it was surrendered to the British. rv# tho sea-board, in 1781, Rutledge convened a legislative assembly at Jackson- borough, and thoroughly re-established civil government. After the war ho was 'made judge of the Court of Chancery. He was a member of the convention that framed the constitution ofthe United States; and in 1789, was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court of the Republic, as -associate justice. He was appointed chief justice of South Carolina, in 1791 ; and in 1796, he was caUed to the duties of chief justice of the United States. In every official station he displayed equal energy and sterhng integrity; and while yet bearing the robes of the highest judicial office in the Republic, he was summoned from earth. His death occurred in July, 1800, when he was about seventy years of age. JOHN LANGDON. " "y"OUR head wUl be a button for a gaUows rope," said Secretary Atkinson to JL young John Langdon, toward the close of 1774, after he and others, among whom was the future General SuUivan, had seized the fort at Portsmouth, and carried off a hundred barrels of powder, and a quantity of smaU arms, before Governor Wentworth even suspected such a daring enterprise.1 That brave hero and future statesman was born in the town of Portsmouth, New Hamp shire, in 1740. He was educated at a public grammar school, prepared himself for mercantile life, and prosecuted business upon the, sea untU the great ocean of public feeling began to be agitated by the tempest of the Revolution. Then he espoused the republican cause, and his first overt act of rebellion and treason was the seizure of the powder and arms, above alluded to. In January, 1775, he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress. There he remained until 1776, when affairs in his own State demanded his presence there. He also served as a volunteer in some miUtary expeditions. In 1777, he was Speaker of the New Hampshire Assembly ; and when Burgoyne was approaching the Hudson with his invading army, and the whole North and East were in com- , motion,. Langdon offered to loan the State three thousand hard dollars, and the avaUs of his silver plate and some West India goods, to equip men for the army under Gates, remarking that if the American cause should triumph, he would get his pay, if not, his property would be of no value to him. He did more, for, with many members of the New Hampshire legislature, he served as a volunteer in the battles' at Saratoga, whioh resulted in the capture of Burgoyne.' Mr. Langdon was president ofthe New Hampshire convention that framed the State Constitution, in 1779 ; and the same year he was appointed Continental agent to contract for building some ships for the service of Congress. He was again elected to a seat in Congress, in 1783, and in March, 1785, he was chosen' chief magistrate ofhis native State. He represented New Hampshire (with Nicholas Gilman) in the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, was its zeal ous supporter, and after serving another term as governor, or president of his State, was chosen to a seat in the United States Senate, where he served about ten years. He was afterward an active member of the State Legislature, and was governor of the State almost four years. He retired into private life; in 1812, whither he carried the most profound respect of his countrymen. That venerable patriot died at his birth-place, on the 18th of September, 1819, at the age of seventy-eight years. ,b\ Atkmson ,Tas Langdon's personal friend, and waB in earnest. The crowd present assured Langdon that they would protect him at all hMards. Atkinson advised him to flee from the country, but the young patriot remained, and in all the trying scenes that soon followed he was nobly sustained by his lellow-citizens. * " t .J, ROBERT FULTON. 155 ROBERT FULTON. THE genius of Fulton was of no ordinary mold. It began to unfold in less than ten years after his birth, which occurred at Little Britain, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1765. His parents were industrious and virtuous natives of Ireland, in easy but not affluent circumstances, and Protestants in religious faith. His early education was meagre, but application in after life supphed all deficiencies. At the age of seventeen years he was painting land scapes and portraits in Philadelphia, and educating his mechanical faculties by observations in the workshops of that capitol. Pleased with his love of art, his friends sent him to London, at the age of twenty-one years, to receive instruc tion in painting, from the eminent Benjamin West. He formed one of that artist's family for several years ; and then, for a season, he resided in Devon shire, andenjoyed the society ofthe Duke of Bridgewater and Earl of Stanhope,1 whose tastes for mechanics developed and encouraged those of Fulton. Internal navigation by canals, and improvements in machinery, now engrossed his attention, and having heard of Fitch's experiments in the appUcation of 1. Stanhope was the invenlor of the printing press, known by his name, and which was in general use until succeeded by the invention of Andrew Ramage. 156 HUGH WILLIAMSON. steam to the propulsion of boats, a new and glorious vision filled his mind with its splendors. He abandoned the profession of a painter, and became a civil engineer. In the Summer of 1797, he entered the family of Joel Barlow, in Paris, and there, for seven years, he assiduously pursued the study of the nat ural sciences and of modern languages. There he became acquainted with the wealthy and influential Robert R. Livingston. That gentleman fired the zeal of Fulton, by representing the immense advantages to be derived from the use of steam in navigating the inland waters of the United States. Wealth, talent, and genius joined hands, and Fulton and Livingston navigated the Seine, by a steam-boat, in 1803. They came to America, and in 1807, the steamer Cler mont, Fulton's experiment boat, made a voyage from New York to Albany, one hundred and fifty miles, in thirty-six hours, against, wind and tide I His triumph was complete and his fame was secured. Fulton received his first patent in 1809, and foi^ several years he was engaged in the perfection of steam-boat machinery, and in the improvement and con struction of submarine explosive machines, called Torpedoes, to be used for blow ing up vessels of war. He was successful in the construction of submarine batteries; and his great heart was deUghted, in 1814, by the appropriation by Congress of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, for the construction of a steam ship-of-war, under his directions. The Fulton was launched in July of that year ; and he who saw in her another triumph of his own genius and skiU, was marching onward in the pathway of renown to great emoluments, when he was suddenly laid in the grave. He died on the 24th of February, 1815, at the age of fifty years. Six steam-boats wero then afloat on the Hudson, and the honor of first crossing the ocean by steam power was just within his grasp, for he was building a vessel, designed for a voyage to St. Petersburg, in Russia. HUOH WILLIAMSON. ONE ofthe most distinguished ofthe adopted sons of North Carolina, both for his intellectual acquirements, and his varied pubUc services, was Hugh Williamson, a native of Nottingham, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 5th of December, 1735, the eldest of ten chUdren. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1757, and then prepared himself for the gospel ministry. He was licensed to preach, but UI health com peUed him to abandon that vocation, and in 1760, he was 'appointed Professor of Mathematics, in the institution where he was educated. He resigned his professorship in 1764, and went to Edinburgh to study the science of medicine. He pursued the same studies, for awhile, at Utrecht; and in 1772, he returned to PhUadelphia, and commenced the successful practice of his profession. He took much interest in the subject of popular education, and near the close of 1773, he sailed from Boston for England, with Dr. Ewing, to solicit aid for an academy at Newark, in Delaware. The vessel in which they saUed conveyed the first mteUigence to Europe of the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. As Dr. WilUamson saw the occurrence, he was summoned before the Privy Council; in February, 1774, to give information on the subject. He gave a lucid account ofthe pubhc feeling in America, and assured the CouncU that a persistance in enforcing parliamentary measures offensive to the colonists, would result in civil war. Soon after this he went to Holland and the Low Countries and re mained on the Continent until inteUigence of the Declaration of Independence RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 157 by the Continental Congress reached him, when he sailed for America. Off tho capes ofthe Delaware the vessel was captured by a British cruiser, but Dr. Wil liamson escaped in an open boat, with some important despatches. In 1777, Dr. WUliamson went to Charleston, and with a younger brother engaged in mercantile speculations. To avoid capture, he ordered his vessel, which he had laden with merchandise for Baltimore, to proceed to Edenton, North CaroUna, where he disposed of the cargo, and settled as a practising physician. The following year, he served as surgeon under Colonel Richard CasweU, and was at the head of the medical staff of that officer in the disastrous battle at Camden, in August, 1780. He was permitted to attend his wounded countrymen within the British lines, and was instrumental in reUeving much suffering. He resumed liis profession, at Edenton, when peace was promised; and in 1782, he represented that district in the North Carolina legislature. He was elected to Congress, in 1784, where he represented his adopted State for three years; and in 1787, he was a member of tho convention that framed the Federal Constitution. That instrument was not regarded with favor, in North Carolina, and because of his zealous advocacy of it, Dr. WUliamson lost much ofhis popularity, for awlnle. The cloud soon passed away, and from 1790 untU 1792, he represented the Edenton district in the Federal Congress. Ho then retired to private life, and devoted himself to Uterary pursuits, making the city of New York, (where he married his wife in 1789), his place of residence. His most important production was a History of North Carolina, in two volumes, published in 1812. Two years afterward, he was associated with Dewitt CUnton in establishing the Literary and PhUosophical Society of New York ; and he was active in social life untU the last. Dr. WiUiamson died suddenly, whUe taking an evening ride, on the 22d of May, 1819, at the age of eighty-four years. RICHARD MONTGOMERY. IN September, 1759, the aocomphshed General Wolfe perished in tho arms of victory on the Plains of Abraham, at Quebec, at the early age of thirty-two years. Near him, when he feU, was a handsome young soldier, ten years his junior, who, a Uttle more than sixteen years later, was the commanding general in a siege of the same city, and also perished in the midst of his troops. That young soldier was Richard Montgomery, who was born in the north of Ireland, in 1736, and entered the British army at the age of twenty years. After the con quest of Canada, he was in the campaign against Havana, under General Lyman ; and at the peace in 1763, he took up his residence in New York. He finally left his regiment, returned to England, and made unsuccessful attempts to purchase a majority. He sold his commission in 1772, came to America, and purchased a beautiful estate on the Hudson, in Dutchess county, New York. He soon after ward married a daughter of Robert Livingston. It was a happy union, but those dreams of long years of domestic peace were soon disturbed by the gather ing tempest of the Revolution. Montgomery, with all the ardor, of the peoplo of his birth-land, espoused the patriot cause, joined the army under General Schuyler, destined for the invasion of Canada, and was second in command, in the Autumn of 1775, bearing the commission of a brigadier. Illness of the chief devolved the whole duty of leadership upon Montgomery, and he went on suc cessfully until St. John, Chambly, and Montreal, were in his power. Congress gave him the commission of major-general, and amid the snows of December, ho pressed forward to join Arnold in an assault upon Quebec. For three weeks he 153 JOSEPH BRANT. besieged that city; and early on the morning of tho 31st of December, whilo snow was fast falling, an attempt was made to take the town by storm. Mont gomery was killed whUe leading a division along the shores ofthe St. Lawrence, beneath the precipitous Cape Diamond. Arnold was also wounded at another point of attack, and the great object of the expedition failed. For-forty years the remains of Montgomery rested within the walls of Quebec- At the request ofhis widow, in 1818, they were disinterred, conveyed to New York, and placed beneath a mural monument, erected by order of Congress, on the external wall ofthe front of St. Paul's church, in that city. Millions of people, passing along Broadway, have looked upon that monument, the memorial of one whose praises wore spoken in Parhament by the great Chatham and Burke, and of whom Lord North said, " Curse on his virtues; they have undone his country." He was hi the fortieth year ofhis ago when he fell.1 JOSEPH BRANT. THAYENDANEGEA, one of the most renowned of the warriors of the Six Nations of Indians in the State of New York, was a- Mohawk of the pure native blood. His father was an Onondaga chief, and Thayendanegea (which signifies a bundle of sticks, or strength), was born on the banks of the Ohio, in 1742. There his father died, and his mother returned to the Mohawk Valley with her two children — this son, and a sister who became a concubine of Sir WUliam Johnson. She married a Mohawk, whom the white people caUed Barent, which, in abbreviation, was pronounced Brant. Sir WiUiam Johnson placed the boy in Dr. Wheelock's school, at Lebanon, in Connecticut, where he was named Joseph, and was educated for the Christian ministry among his own people. Sir William employed him as secretary and agent in pubUc affairs, with the Indians, and his missionary labors never extended much beyond the services of an in terpreter for Mr. Kirkland and others. He was much employed in that business from 1762 to 1765. Under the stronger influence of Johnson and his family, Brant resisted the importunities of Mr. Kirkland to remain neutral when the war of the Revolution approached, and he took an active part with the British and Tories. In 1775, he left the Mohawk Valley, went to Canada, and finally to England, where he attracted great attention, and found free access to the nobiUty. The Earl of Warwick caused Romney, the eminent painter, to make a portrait of him, for his coUection, from which the prints of the great chief have been made. Throughout the Revolution, he was engaged in predatory warfare, chiefly on the border settlements of New York and Pennsylvania, with the Johnsons and Butlers ; and he was generally known as Captain Brant, though he held a colonel's commission, from the king. Brant again visited England, in 1783, to make arrangements for the benefit of the Mohawks, who had left their ancient country, and had settled on the Grand River, west of Lake Ontario, in Upper Canada. The territory given them by the government embraced six mUes on both sides of the river from its mouth to its source. There Brant was the head ofthe nation untU his death. He translated a part of the New Testa ment into the Mohawk language, and labored much for the spiritual and tem poral welfare of his ruined people. There he died on the 24th of November, 1807, at the age of sixty-five years. One of his sons was a British officer on the Niagara frontier, in the war of 1812 ; and a daughter married W. J. Kerr, Esq., of Niagara, in 1824. 1. The inscription on his monument says that he was thirty-seven years old. This is a mistake. JOHN HANCOCK. 159 l£Z?Z vend and dispose of his books, respectively entitled, The History of the Revolution in South CaroUna, and A History ofthe American Revolution. A bill for that purpose was framed and discussed. Finally, in August, it was "postponed until the next Congress." A similar bill was introduced in January, 1790, and on the 30th of April following, the first copyright law recorded on the statute books of Congress, was passed. 168 ROGER SHERMAN. the republican army as a surgeon much of the time until after the siege of Savannah, in which he participated. Dr. Ramsay was an efficient member of the Council of Safety, and also of the Legislative Assembly of South Carolina, and became a distinguished object of British and Tory hatred. He was in. Charleston during the memorable siege in 1780; and when it feU into the hands of the British, he was made a captive, and with many other eminent citizens, suffered banishment to, and imprisonment at,. St. Augustine, in Florida. After an absence of eleven months, he returned;. resumed his seat in the legislature at Jacksonborough, in the early part of 178:2, and therein, after all his sufferings, he was one of the most earnest advocates of leniency toward the Tories. He was elected.a member of Congress that. same year, and continued to represent his adopted State, in that body, untU after the close ofthe war. He was again elected to Congress, in 1785, and in November,' 1786, he was chosen its president, pro tempore, during the protracted absence of President Hancock. His first historical work, mentioned in his petition referred to in the note on the preceding page, was published in 1785, and his History of the American Revolution, was issued in 1790. He now decUned all official stations and honors, and devoted himself to his profession, and to Uterary pursuits. He wrote a life of Washington, and published it in 1801 ; and in 1808, he published - a History of South Carolina.' He then wrote a History of the U_>ited States;) : and he continued the employment of aU of, his leisure hours in the preparation ofa series of historical works, intended to Ulustrate the state of society, literature; religion, and form of government ofthe United States of America, by a general historical view of the world. These he did not Uve to complete, according to . his original intention, yet they were sufficiently perfect to warrant their pub lication, in twelve octavo volumes, in 1819. His History ofthe United States was brought down to the treaty of Ghent, in 1814, by the reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith, and other Uterary gentlemen, and pubhshed in three octavo volumes, in 1817. In the midst of his useful and unwearied labors,2 literary and professional, Dr. Ramsay was snatched from earth. He was shot by a maniac, near liis residence, and on the 8th of May, 1815, his labors and his mortal life closed forever, when he was little more than sixty-six years of age. ROGB5} SHERMAN. IT is said that " Love laughs at locksmiths." So true Genius laughs at im pediments, and gathers strength for conquests in proportion to the severity- of its conflicts. The life of Roger Sherman, a humble shoe-maker, iUustrates the fact. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on the 19th of April, 1722: While Roger was an infant, his parents removed to Stonington, where they "resided until the death of his father, in 1741. Roger was then nineteen year* of age. He had been apprenticed to a shoemaker, but now the necessities of his mother required him to take charge of a small farm that her husband had left. They sold the estate in 1744, and went to reside in New Milford, Connec ticut, where Roger's elder brother had married and settled. The journey was performed on foot by Roger, and he'carried his "kit" of shoemaker's tools, on his back There he worked industriously at his trade, and at the same time he applied himself assiduously to study, for his early education Was exceedingly and dTis_lsirofVouftCarol°ifna.»0rk' ^^ in ™, entitled, " A sketch of the soil, climate, weather 2. Dr. Ramsay seldom Blept more than four hours of the twenty-four, each day. RICHARD PETERS. 169 Umited. He learned rapidly, for his mind was quick, comprehensive, and logical, and at his bench he acquired a vast amount of knowledge from books.1 After awhile, he became a partner of .his brother, in mercantile business, and employed his now more numerous leisure hours in the study of the law, but without a tutor or guide. He soon beoame proficient in the requisite knowledge, and at the close of 1754, he was admitted to the bar. His talents at once drew public attention toward him, and in 1755, he was elected to a seat in the General As sembly of Connecticut. He was appointed a justice of the peace the same year ; and after a law-practice of about five years, he received the appointment of judge of the court for Litchfield county. He made his residence in New Haven, in 1761, where he received the same official honors and emoluments. He was also chosen treasurer of Yale College ; and that institution conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In 1766, he was elected to the State Senate, and he fearlessly took part with the people in their opposition to the Stamp Act. He was a leading patriot in Connecticut, untU the commencement of the Revolution ; and all through that struggle he was ever at his post of duty, for he regarded eternal vigUance as the price of liberty. He was elected a delegate for Connecticut in the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and he held a seat there during a greater portion of the war. He advocated independence, and signed the great Declaration. In 1783, he assisted in the revision of the laws of Connecticut, and he was a representative of that State in the convention that framed the Federal Constitution. In his State convention called to act upon it, he ably advocated its ratification, and for two years after the organiza tion of our present government, he represented Connecticut in the Federal Congress. He was then promoted to a seat in the Senate of the United' States, and occupied that honorable position at the time of his death, which occurred on the 23d of July, 1793, when in the seventy-third year of his age. He then held the office of mayor of New Haven, having been tho first chosen to that post of duty, after the borough was organized as a city. RICHARD PETERS. THE first Secretary of War, of the United States, was Richard Peters, an em inent jurist and agriculturist of Pennsylvania. He was born near Phila delphia, on the 22d of August, 1744, and was educated at the college in that city, where he was graduated in 1764. He had acquired a thorough knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, and spoke the French and German fluently. He chose the profession of law as a pursuit, and his knowledge of the German language was of essential service to him in the management of property cases in the interior of Pennsylvania. He was distinguished for wit and humor, and when he accompanied a delegation to confer with some of the Six Nations of Indians, his vivacity so pleased the children of the forest, that he was formally adopted as a son, by the Senecas. At the opening of the Revolution he appeared in the field as captain of a company of volunteers; and when, in June, 1776, a Board of War was appointed by Congress, Mr. Peters was chosen its Secretary, and thus became the first incumbent of that, office, now one of the cabinet bureaus. He held that position untU 1781, and performed the duties of his sta- 1. He .always had an open book by his side, on the bench, find read at intervals, when his eyes were not required upon his work. He thus acquired a fair knowledge of mathematics, and before he was twenty-one years of age he made astronomical calculations for an Almanac published in New York. tion with great ability.1 He was succeeded by General Lincoln, and retired with the expressed thanks of Congress. He was then elected a member of that body, and was a representative of his State therein for several years. On the organization of the Federal Government, in 1789, Mr. Peters declined a fiscal office tendered to him by Washington, but accepted that of judge of the United States District Court of Pennsylvania. He bore the ermine with great honor to himself and country, for thirty-six years, and was always zealous in the promo tion of tho material interests of his State. In the construction of public works of utility he was always foremost ; and to him the country is indebted for the use of gypsum in agriculture, and the introduction of clover. The subject of farming occupied much ofhis attention, and he was one of the founders, and for a long time president of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society. Judge Peters died at Blockley, near PhUadelphia, on tho 21st of August, 1828, at the age of eighty-four years. EDMUND RANDOLPH. AMONG the most important members of tbe convention which framed the Constitution ofthe United States, was Edmund Bandolph, the only son of John Randolph, attorney-general of Virginia. Of his birth and youthful career History bears no record. He was _ quite a young man when the Revolution commenced, and was one of Washington's aids, at Cambridge, in 1775. He left the army in November foUowing, and returned to "Virginia, on account of the death of his. relative, Peyton Randolph, president of the Continental Congress. Four years later he was elected a member of that body, and represented his native State there until March, 1782. He succeeded Patrick Henry as gov ernor of Virginia, in 1786, and it was chiefly tlirough his agency that Washing ton was persuaded to represent that State in the Federal Convention, in 1787. Randolph was very active in that convention, but, like Patrick Henry, he was so jealous of State Rights, that he declined to affix his name to the Constitution, desiring to be free to act upon it afterward, as his judgment or the opinions of his constituents might dictate.2 When the time came to act, his desire for union overcame his narrower scruples ; and in the Virginia State Convention he elo quently advocated the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Washington made him the first attorney-general of the United States, under that compact; and in 1794, Randolph succeeded Mr. Jefferson as Secretary of State. He resigned that office in August, 1795, and turned his attention to his embarrassed private, affairs. His resignation was in consequence of some misunderstanding with the administration ; and in the Autumn of that year he published a Vindication.,.. He then withdrew from public life, and never again entered the arena. He died in Frederick county, Virginia, on the 12th of September, 1813. 1. Next to Robert Morris, Mr. Peters was one of the most efficient men rf the Revolution, in piovidirg ¦ t. T?3!? .an3-mea"s " of carrying on (he war. In the Summer of 1781, Washington prepared to attack i ihe HntiBh in New York, and was expecting the aid of Count De (Jrasse, with his squadron of French . ships of war. He received notice that De Grasse's aid could not be given. Washington was greatly disappointed, but instantly he conceived the expedition to Virginia, which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis. Peters and Morris were then both in Washington's camp, on the HudBon. At the moment when he conceived the Virginia expedition, he tnrned to Peters, and said, "What can you do for roe?" With money everything— without it, nothing," Peters replied, at the same time casting on anxious look toward Morris, the great financier. "Let me know the sum you desire," said Morris Before noon Washington had completed his plans and estimates. Morris promised the money ar.d raised it upon his individual security. ¦" 2. Ho endeavored to procure a vote in the convention, authorizing amendments to be submitted by (ho State conventions, and to be finally decided on by another general convention. This proposition wns - rejected. * JOHN JAY. 171 JpwiA JOHN JAY. AMONG the many thousands of the Huguenots of France who fled to England and America toward the close of the seventeenth century, to escape fiery persecutions, was Augustus Jay, a young merchant. He landed at Charleston, in South Carolina, but soon proceeded northward, and settled in the city of New York. There he married the daughter of Balthazar Bayard, one of the refugees who cn-me with the New Rochelle colony.1 These were the grand-parents of John Jay, the venerated American patriot and statesman. He was born in the city of New York, on the 12th of December, 1745. At eight years of age he was placed in a boarding school at New Rochelle, and at fourteen he entered King's (now Columbia) College, as a student. He was an apt scholar, and gave early promises of his subsequent brilliant career. He was graduated in 1764, bearing the highest honors of the college, and commenced the study of law under Benjamin Kissam. He was admitted to the bar in 1768, and ascended rapidly to eminence in his profession. In 1774, he was married to the daughter of that sturdy patriot, William Livingston (afterward governor of New Jersey), and entered the political field, with great ardor, as the champion of popular 1. See sketch of Jacob Leisler. 172 JOHN JAY. , rights. Ho was one of the most prominent members of the New York committee of correspondence, in the Spring of 1774, and in September following, he took a seat in the first Continental Congress. He was the youngest member of that body, being less than twenty-nine years of age, and he was the latest survivor. His genius as a statesman was exhibited in the Address to the People of Great Britain, put forth by Congress. Jefferson, ignorant of its authorship, said, "It is the production of the finest pen in America." From that time Mr. Jay was identified with most of the important civil measures in his native State ; and ho also performed much duty in the Continental Congress, until the Summer of 1776, when all his energies wero devoted to public business in New York. With tongue, pen, and hand, ho was indefatigable ; and as a member of tho convention at Kingston, in the Spring of 1777, he was chosen to draft a State Constitution. Under that instrument he was appointed chief justice of New York, and held his first term at Kingston, in September, 1777. He was an efficient member of the Council of Safety, appointed to act in place of the legis lature, when not in session. In the Autumn of 1778, he was again elected to Congress, and three days after taking his seat there, he was chosen its president. He filled the chair with dignity and vigor, until September, 1779, when he was appointed minister to Spain to obtain the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States, to form a treaty of alliance, and to borrow money. Wo cannot even refer to his numerous and efficient diplomatic services from that time until 1782, when ho was appointed one ofthe commissioners for negotiating a peace with Great Britain. In all of them he exhibited consummate skill and statesmanship ; aud to his vigilance we are indebted for advantages obtained by the treaty, of which the artful French minister attempted to deprive us. Ho signed the preliminary treaty, in November, 1782, with Adams, Franklin, and Laurens, and the following year he affixed his signature to the definitive treaty. Mr. Jay returned to the United States, in July, 1784, and immediately entered upon tho duties of chief of the foreign department of the government, to which he was chosen before his arrival. He occupied that station until the new or ganization of government under the Federal Constitution, when he was appointed the first chief justice of the United States. He was a zealous advocate of tho Constitution, with_ his pen,' and in the verbal debates in the State convention called to consider it. In 1794, Mr. Jay was appointed an envoy extraordinary to negotiate a commercial treaty, and settle some disputes between the United States and Great Britain. Tho treaty was not satisfactory to a great portion of his coun trymen, and as it also offended France and the "French party" here, intense ex citement prevailed throughout the country. Yet he was sustained, and on his return home, in 1795, he found the office of governor ofhis native State awaiting him. He was chief magistrate of New York until 1801, when he withdrew from public life to enjoy repose at his beautiful seat at Bedford, in Westchester county, although he was then only fifty-six years of age. He succeeded Elias Boudinot as president of the American Bible Society, and he was a generous patron of every moral and reUgious enterprise. Greatly beloved by all his friends, and respected for his many virtues by his political enemies, that patriarch of tho Republic went peacefuUy to his rest, on the 17th of May, 1829, in the eighty- fourth year of his age. 1. He was a colleague with Madison and Hamilton, in writing the series of m-ners knm-r, f„ tho ^°i!S^T_„ ftf^S*fS?i i" '"f 'ft', oe.wasinte.r"uUd, foJ^omc tSfon acel'n "o ' a sjvere wound in the head, from a stone, hurled during a riot in New York, known as The Doctors' ROBERT HOWE. 173 ROBERT HOWE. BECAUSE ofthe excess of their patriotic zeal, Samuel Adams and John Han cock, of Massachusetts, were denounced as arch-rebels, and were excluded from the offered advantages of a general amnesty. In like manner, Sir Henry Clinton denounced Robert Howe and Cornelius Harnett, of the Cape Fear region, in North CaroUna, in the Spring of 1776, and they were honored with the ban of outlawry because of their patriotism. Howe was born in Brunswick, North Carolina, but, strange to say, history bears no record of his private life, and both it and tradition are sUent respecting the time of his birth and his death. When Josiah Quincy was in Wilmington, in 1773, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Howe, and said in a letter, descriptive of an evening spent in political discussion : " Robert Howe, Esq., Harnett, and myself, made the social triumvirate of the evening." So bitter were the Tories against Howe, that his property was several times injured ; and when Clinton appeared in the Cape Fear region, early in 1776, he sent Cornwallis, with nine hundred men, to indulge his petty spite by ravaging that patriot's plantation, near old Brunswick village. Howe was appointed colonel of the first North Carolina regiment, in 1775, and in December of that year, he joined Woodford, of Virginia, at Norfolk, in opposition to Governor Dunmore and his motley army.1 For his gallantry there, Congress appointed him a brigadier in the Continental army, and ordered him to Virginia. He was with the army, at the North, during portions of 1776 and 1777 ; and in the Spring of 1778, he was promoted to major-general, and placed in chief command of the Southern army. At his head-quarters at Savannah, he planned a campaign against the British and Tories in Florida, in the Summer of 1778. It faUed in its execution ; and at the close of that year, he was driven from Savannah, by a British force under Heutenant-colonel Campbell. These reverses caus_ed him to be censured unjustly;2 and when General Lincoln took command of the Southern army, Howe attached himself to that of the northern department, the foUowing year. He cooperated with Wayne in his attack upon Stony Point, on the Hudson, in 1779. He was on duty in the vicinity of West Point and the Hudson Highlands from that time until near the close of the war. Washington appointed him, in two instances, to discharge the important duty of quelling a mutiny, first in the New Jersey line, and then in that of Pennsylvania. He always had the unbounded confidence ofthe com mander-in-chief. Though always a very useful officer, Howe never became distinguished for any great achievement. Like the actions of General Heath and many others, his line of duty lay in the useful rather than the brilliant — their military history is an epic, not an epigram. 1. Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, having been driven from Williamsburg, by the people, commence! a depredatory warfare upon the coast of that State. His force consisted of Tory refugees and negroes, yet, with the aid of some British Ships, he succeeded in burning Norfolk, on the 1st of January, 1776. 2. Among those who raised their voice against General Howe, was Christopher Gadsden, of Charles ton. Howe required him to deny or retract. Gadsden would do neither, and a duel ensued. All (he damage sustained by the parties, in the fight, was a scratch upon Gadsden's ear, by Howe's ball. Major Andre wrote a humorous account of the duel, in eighteen stanzas, to the tune of Yankee Doodle. He concludes by saying : " Such honor did they both display, They highly were eommended, And thus, in short, this gallant fray, Without mischance, was ended. No fresh dispute, we may suppose, Will e'er by them be started ; And now the chiefs, no longer foes, Shook hands, and so they parted." 174 EDWARD LIVINGSTON. EDWARD LIVINGSTON. THE Livingston family in America, an off-shoot of a stock noted among the Scotch nobility of Queen Mary's time,1 has always been remarkable for fine specimens of talent, public spirit, and genuine patriotism. Among the_ later members, Edward Livingston appears conspicuous as a statesman and jurist. - He was truly "to the manor born," for his birth occurred at Clermont, Columbia county, New York, on the feudal estate known as Livingston's Manor, in the year 1764. He was at school in Kingston, Ulster county, when that village was. burned by the British, in 1777, and two years afterward he entered Princeton College, and pursued his studies in the midst of alarms and interruptions incident to the war then in progress. He graduated, in 1781, with only three others. Two of these were associated with him, thirteen years afterward, as members of the House of Representatives, at Washington. He studied law under Chan cellor Lansing, at Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1785. Mr. Livingston was called into public life, in 1794, by being elected a repre sentative of the counties of New York, Queen's, and Richmond, in the Federal Congress, where he soon became a distinguished leader ofthe Republican party. 1. See sketch of Robert R. Livingston. WILLIAM PRESCOTT. 175 He maintained a seat there until 1801, when ho declined a reelection, and resumed the practice of his profession. President Jefferson soon afterward appointed him United States Attorney for the District of New York. He had filled the office with great ability, until the yellow fever broke out in the city of New York, in 1803, when he was caUed to the performance of holier duties. Thousands fled, but Edward Livingston remained a-mid the pestUence, to visit tho sick and bury the dead. He was finaUy smitten by the destroyer, but his useful life was spared. His public and private business had suffered greatly, and the unfaithfulness of some of those unto whom he had entrusted the performance of public duties, placed upon his shoulders almost crushing, pecuniary responsibilities. Ho re signed his office, took up his residence in New Orleans, and by assiduous atten tion to his profession, was enabled to Uquidato every debt, with interest. When the British attempted tho invasion of Louisiana, in 1814, Mr. Livingston offered his services to General Jackson, and they were accepted ; and his pen wrote the noble defence of Jackson, when that officer was unjustly arraigned before the civil tribunal for alleged mUitary tyranny. Mr. Livingston was the principal of a commission appointed to codify the laws of Louisiana ; and ho is the sole author of the penal code of that State, adopted in 1824. On the very night when the last page of manuscript was prepared for the press, a fire con sumed the whole, and he was two years engaged in reproducing it. That work is his noblest and most enduring monument. Mr. Livingston was chosen a delegate to the Federal Congress, in 1823; and in 1829, the legislature of Louisiana appointed him United States Senator. , He became one of the brightest ornaments of that higher house, but after serving two sessions, ho was called to the cabinet of President Jackson, as Secretary of Stato. In 1833, ho was appointed minister to France, an office held, thirty years before, by his distinguished brother, Robert R. Livingston. His health failed soon after his arrival in Paris, and he returned to America, not, liowever, untU he had satisfied his countrymen that he was fuUy competent to perform any duty to which they might call him. He was with his relatives in Redhook, Dutchess county, New York, when, on a bright morning in May (23d), 1837, the spirit of this laborious public servant departed for the land of rest. WILLIAM PRESCOTT. ^STORTA^ have disputed concerning the chief command at the earUest regular battle of the Revolution, known as that of "Bunker's Hill," some awarding that honor to General Israel Putnam, and others to Colonel William Prescott. Documentary evidence is conclusive in favor of the claim of Prescott, and its justice is not questioned at the present day. He was born in Goshen, .Massachusetts, in 1726. Ofhis early life we have no reliable record. His father was for some years a member of the Massachusetts council. We first find a notice of William's public life, in his commission of lieutenant, under General Winslow, in the expedition against Cape Breton, in 1758. There he was dis tinguished for his bravery. On his return, he left the service, and settled at Pepperell, as the inheritor of a largo estate. He took quite an active part in the popular movements while the Revolution was ripening, and had command' of a regiment of minute-men, in the Spring of 1775. The events at Lexington and Concord called him to the field, and he was very active in assisting General Ward in the organization of the impromptu army that gathered around Boston, in May and June following. Confidant in hi3 miUtary skUl, General Ward 176 CHARLES WILSON PEALE. selected Colonel Prescott to fortify and garrison Bunker's HUl, and on the even ing of the 16th of June, 1775, he crossed Charlestown Neck, for that purpose, wfth a thousand men, and intrenching tools, after an impressive prayer in their behalf was offered up on the green at Cambridge, by President Langdon, of Harvard College. Breed's Hill being nearer Boston, Prescott proceeded to 'for tify that, and at early dawn the next morning, the British in the city and on the shipping in the harbor, ' were astonished and alarmed by the apparition of a strong redoubt, almost finished, in a position which commanded their most im pressible points. In the action that ensued, the following day — the memorable 17 th of June — Prescott was chief commander. Putnam was on Bunker's Hill, urging forward reinforcements, and General Warren was in the redoubt, as volunteer. Though driven from the Charlestown peninsula, the gaUant colonel wished to attack the conquerors the next day, but was overruled by prudent counseUors. Colonel Prescott continued under the command of Washington until after the battle at White Plains, in the Autumn of the following year; and he served as a volunteer under Gates, until the surrender of Burgoyne, in October, 1777. After the' war, he represented his district in the State legislature, and he was acting magistrate of Pepperell from 1786 until his death. That event occurred on the 13th of October, 1795, when he was about sixty-nine years of age. CHARLES WILSON PEALE. P RAY tell me, Mr. Hesselius," said a saddler's apprentice— a handsome young man of twenty — to an eminent portrait-painter in AnnapoUs, Maryland, as he stood before him with a good specimen of his mechanical skill — " pray tell me how you mix such beautiful tints for your canvas." That saddler's apprentice was Charles Wilson Peale, afterward one of the most eminent painters in our country. He was born at Charlestownj Maryland, in 1741, and in Annapolis he successively learned the trades of saddler, watch-maker, silver smith, aud carver. From the day when he asked Hesselius that important question, his artist life began, for the generous painter cordially comphed with his wishes. Peale studied the art and practised his mechanical trade, until an opportunity offered for him to go to England and place himself under the tutor ship of the great West. He remained with that famous artist during the years 1770, and 1771, when he returned to America, and practiced his art, as a portrait- painter, without a rival for fifteen years. When the Revolution broke out, he joined the army, and was at the head of a company in the battles at Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. While at VaUey Forge, in the Winter of 1777-8, he conceived the grand design of making a gallery of portraits of aU the distinguished actors in the Revolution, American and foreign, and commenced the task with vigor.1 In the Spring of 1778, when the army moved, he gathered up his art materials, and, at tho head of his company, he fought gal lantly at Monmouth. He had commenced a full-length portrait of Washington, ; ^"i 1. One of the vessels, named Falcon, anchored within short cannon shot of Breed's Hill, was com manded by Captain Linzee, of the British navy. It is a singular fact in ihe curious history of cC&A- cidences, that William H. Prescott, the eminent historian, and- grandson of Colonel William Prescott, married a grand-daughter of Captain Linzee. The swords used by Colonel Prescott and Captain Linzee, at tbe time of the battle on Breed's Hill, are crossed in a conspicuous place in the library of the His torian. -.-'-' 1. He also painted many in miniature, some of which I have seen in the possession of his son, at Washington city. JONATHAN EDWARDS. 177 at Valley Forge ; after the Monmouth battle, ho had another sitting, and at Princeton he completed it.1 Mr. Peale paid much attention to the preservation of animals after death, and possessed a decided antiquarian taste. After the war, he opened a picture gallery, for exhibition, in PhUadelphia, and then estab lished a museum of Natural History and miscellaneous curiosities. He also practiced dentristry, invented machinery, and in various ways was ono of tho most active and industrious of men. He lectured On Natural History, and was a zealous supporter of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. He lived tem perately and frugally, and practiced his art in colors when past eighty years of age.2 He died in February, 1827, at the age of almost eighty-six years. His son, Rembrandt Peale, a worthy successor of his father in the line of art, is yet [1855] living, in PhUadelphia, at the age of seventy-six years. JONATHAN EDWARDS. THE most acute metaphysician and sound theologian which our country has yet produced, was Jonathan Edwards, who was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, on the 5th of October, 1703. The remarkable analytical powers of his mind were developed in early chUdhood, and at the age of ten years he read with delight the profound essay of Locke on the Human Understanding. A few days before the completion of his thirteenth year, he entered Yale College, as a student, and was graduated there before he was seventeen years of age. Ho remained in that then infant institution for two years longer, in the eager study of the61ogy, preparatory to the assumption of the Christian ministry as his pro fession. He received a license to preach, in the Summer of 1722, and almost immediately afterward, ho was selected by several New England ministers to preach to a small body of Presbyterians in the eity of New York. In 1724, ho was appointed a tutor in Yale College, where he remained until called to a pas toral charge in Northampton, Massachusetts, in tho Summer of 1726. There ho was ordained as a colleague of his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, who, for more than fifty years, had been the pastor of the Congregational church in that town. That continued to be the home-field of labor, of Mr. Edwards, for twenty-three years, when an increasing dislike of his pure church discipline alienated his people from him, and, in June, 1750, ho was dismissed by an ec clesiastical council.3 In 1751, Mr, Edwards was appointed a missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and in that field ho labored for about six years. His duties' being comparatively light, he devoted much of his time to theological and metaphysical studies, and in that comparative retirement ho wrote his great work on The Freedom of the Will, which has been considered by 1. That portrait, having Nassau Hall, at Princeton, for a back-ground, is in tho gallery of the National Institute, at Washington city. When the Americans, under Washington, drove the British out of Nassau Hail, on the morning of the 2d of January, 1777, they sent a cannon ball into the building which destroyed a portrait of King George. Washington presented the college with a sum of money, because of the damage done to the building. The Faculty employed Peale to paint a full-length portrait of tho great Patriot, and placed it in the frame occupied by that ofthe king, where it yet remains. 2. I have seen a full-length portrait of himself, which he painted at the age of eighty. In October, 1854, all of his paintings remaining in the museum at Philadelphia, were sold at auction. Many of them were purchased by the City Council, and now decorate the walls of Independence Hall. 8. Mr. Edwards had been informed of immoralities in which many of (he young people of his congre gation indulged, and he thought the matter ought to be inquired into. The church readily favored his views, but when it was found that the accused persons belonged to some of ihe wealthiest and most influential families in the place, it was impossible to proceed with the inquiry. The conscientious pastor did not swerve from duty, but the failure of his attempt to correct the morals of the young people, strengthened their hands. For six years before his dismissal he fought the enemy manfully. 8* JONATHAN EDWARDS ^-mt^^W^ X^eYMy'^rc^/^ the most learned men in Europe and America, to be one of the greatest efforts ofthe human mind. In 1754, a severe iUness, and the troubles incident to the French and Indian war, then progressing, interrupted his labors, and, beyond the efforts of his pen, his field of usefulness was very Umited. It was soon en larged. In the Autumn of 1757, his son-in-law, Rev. Aaron Burr, president of the coUege of New Jersey, at Princeton, died, and Mr. Edwards was invited by the Trustees of that institution to take his place. He was formaUy elected president, toward the close of September, 1757. He reluctantly accepted the caU, for he knew there were more delights to himself in the quiet pursuits in which he was engaged, than in the duties of such official station, and ho re garded his labors with his pen as more useful than any others in which he might engage at that time of life. He was inaugurated in February, 1758. Five weeks afterward, that great and good man was laid in the grave. The smah- pox was prevalent in Princeton at the time ofhis arrival, and a skilful physician was brought from Philadelphia to inoculate1 President Edwards and his famUy. He seemed to do well, but when all danger appeared to be over, a secondary fever supervened, his throat became so obstructed that medicines could not bo swaUowed, and the disease, gathering increased strength, terminated his Ufe on the 22d of March, 1758, when he was in the fifty-fifth year of his age. Tho 1. See Note 2, page Cl. JOHN WITHERSPOON. 179 published theological writings of President Edwards are voluminous, and are ranked among the most valuable uninspired contributions to rehgious literature, of any a";e. JOHN WITHERSPOON. IN the famUy chcle, the temple of worship, the haU of learning, and the forum of legislation, few men ever performed their whole duty more faithfully than did John Witherspoon, of New Jersey, in whose veins ran the blood of the great Scottish reformer, John Knox. He was born in the parish of Yester, near Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 5th of February, 1722. His father was a Scottish minister, and the loveliness of his mind and temper was transmitted to his son. He educated the inteUectual and moral faculties of that promising boy with the greatest care, for he designed him for that gospel ministry which he afterward adorned. At the age of fourteen years he was placed in the University of Edinburgh, where he became a close student, especiaUy of sacred literature. . He went through a regular course of theological studies, and at the age of twenty-two he was graduated, with a Ucense to preach. He accepted a caU to Beith, in the west of Scotland ; and in 1 745, while, with some others, he was gazing upon the battle of Falkirk, where the troops of the Scotch Pretender to the throne of England1 were victorious, he was made a prisoner, and was con fined in the castle of Donne, for some time. He afterward took charge of a parish in Paisley ; and the fame of his learning and piety caused him to receive invitations to settle in Dundee, Dublin, and Rotterdam in Holland. In 1766, the trustees of the CoUege of New Jersey, at Princeton, invited him to accept the presidency of that institution, and through the influence of Richard Stockton (afterward Witherspoon's coUeague in the Continental Congress), then in Scot land, he was persuaded to accept the office. He came to America, in 1768, was inaugurated in August of that year, and under his efficient administration the affairs of the college prospered wonderfully. Its usefulness had been greatly impaired by party feuds ; these were soon healed, and that seminary, which seemed past resuscitation, was becoming one of the most flourishing in the land, when the bhght of the Revolution fell upon it. Its pupils were then scattered, its doors were closed, and early in 1776, Doctor Witherspoon employed his talents and influence in another field of usefulness. He assisted in forming a repubUcan constitution for New Jersey, and in June he was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress, where he nobly advocated independence, and signed his name to the Declaration thereof.2 He was a faithful member of Congress untU 1782, and took a conspicuous part in military and financial matters. In 1783, he endeavored to revive the prostrated College at Princeton, and found an efficient -co-worker in his son-in-law, Vice-President Smith. Contrary to the dictates of his own judgment, Dr. Witherspoon went to Great Britain for pecu niary aid to the institution, and he collected scarcely enough to pay the expenses ofthe journey. He came back with a heavy heart but determined purpose, and labored on faithfuUy in the pulpit and in the college, while his powers of life remained active. About two years before his death he lost his eye-sight, yet he maintained his place in his pulpit with unabated zeal, until a few weeks before his departure. His useful life closed on the 10th of November, 1794, at the age of almost seventy-three years. 1. Charles Edward, grandson of James the Second, who was dethroned in 1688. 2. In the course of debate on the subject of independence, John Dickenson, of Pennsylvania, ventured to assert that the people were not "ripe for a declaration of independence." Doctor Witherspoon warmly observed, "In my judgment, sir, we. are not only ripe, but rotting." RICHARD HENDERSON. ALTHOUGH Daniel Boone may be considered the first thorough explorer of the wUderness of Kentucky, and James Harrod built the first log-house in all that beautiful land, yet Colonel Richard Henderson must be regarded, polit ically, as the father of that commonwealth. He was a native of Virginia. He was born in Hanover county, on the 20th of April, 1735. His father emigrated to GranviUe county, North Carolina, in 1745, and being appointed sheriff of that district, Richard had an opportunity of learning many useful lessons in mat ters pertaining to law, He prepared himself for the legal profession, arose rap idly to the highest rank, accumulated a competent fortune, and, when the in- surrSctionary movements in that section of the county, known as the Regulator War,' occurred, he was a judge of the superior court. As such, he was driven from the bench at Hillsborough, by the Regulators, in the Autumn of 1771, and the courts of justice, in that region, were closed. He was an ambitious and ostentatious man. By extensive speculations, at about this time, he had becomo somewhat embarrassed in pecuniary affairs, and had gained the iU-wUl of tho common people. Bold, ardent, and adventurous, he resolved to go beyond tho mountains, and there, in the beautiful country traversed by Boone, he commenced a scheme of land speculation, in 1774, more extensive than any known in tho history of our -country. He formed a company, of which he was chosen pres ident, and by a treaty held at Wataga with the heads of the Cherokee nation, he purchased the whole land lying between the Cumberland river and mountains, and the Kentucky river, which comprised more than one-half of the present State of Kentucky. Henderson took possession of the country in the name of the company, in the Spring of 1775. Governor Martin, of North CaroUna, pro claimed the purchase to be illegal. The legislature of Virginia did the same, but Judge Henderson paid no regard to their fulminations against him, and pro ceeded to establish a proprietary government, in imitation of the old colonies. Its capital was Boonesborough, and its title was Transylvania. Under a largo elm tree near Boone's fort, the first legislature of the new State met on the 23d of May, 1775.2 The session was opened with prayer by the Rev. John Lythe; and Colonel Henderson in his verbal "message" as president, expressed thp very essence of republican government, when he said, "If any doubts remain among you, with respect tq the force and efficiency of whatever laws you now or hereafter make, be pleased to consider that all power is originaUy in the people ; make it their interest, therefore, by impartial and beneficent laws, and you may be sure of their inchnation to see. them enforced." The State of Transylvania as an independent republic did not long exist, for, Virginia and Carolina took efficient means to destroy it. The treaty with the Cherokees, and the purchase of their lands, were declared null. Yet they did not deprive the company of all advantages. North CaroUna and Virginia each granted to them two hundred thousand acres. Relinquishing all poUtical claims, Judge Henderson opened a land office on the site of Nashville, in 1779, for the sale of this legally-granted domain. The following Summer he returned to Granville county, and sought repose, in the bosom of his famUy. Old diffi culties were forgotten, for the great question of independence was then in process 1. See note on page 97 : also sketch of John Ashe. 2. It was composed of Squire Boone, Daniel Boone, WiUiam Coke, Samuel Henderson Richard Moore Richard Calloway, Thomas Sloughter, John Lythe, Valentine Hammond, jfmesCiias, James SS rod, Nathan Hammond, Isaac Hite Azariah Davis, John Todd, Alexander S. Dandridge, John Floyd and Samuel Wood, Thomas Slaughter was chosen chairman, Mathcw Jowett clerk, and John Lythe chaplain. ' ALEXANDER WILSON. 181 of solution by the whole people of the newly-proclaimed Union. Judge Hen derson did not take part in public affairs, but lived on in quiet until tho 30th of January, 1785, when he died at the age of fifty years. Henderson county, Kentucky, was named in his honor. ALEXANDER WILSON. WE may justly claim Alexander Wilson as an American, though born in North Britain, for here the genius whioh has made him world-renowned, as The American Ornithologist, was developed, and cultivated, and bore fruit. He was born in Paisley, Scotland, and in a grammar school, in that large town, he acquired h, rudimental knowledge of the classics. His father designed him for the clerical profession, but the expansive mind of the youth would not allow him to be a sectarian, and the scheme was abandoned. From earliest boyhood he loved the fields and the sky ; and he regarded the towering mountains and grand old forests as the most appropriate temples wherein man should worship the Creator of all. Pecuniary misfortune compelled his father to suspend Alex ander's literary pursuits, on whioh he had entered with enthusiasm, and finaUy the necessity of learning some mechanical trade seemed imperative. The ardent youth could not brook the idea of having his powers confined to such a narrow sphere, for he felt a great soul stirring within ; yet he reverently bent his in clinations to his father's wishes. Every leisure moment, however, was employed in study, and in the midst of his mechanical employment, he composed articles, in prose and verse, which attracted public attention, before he was nineteen years of age. He soon became the life of a select Uterary circle, yet his daily avocations, so repugnant to his nature, burdened his spirit with gloom. He saw no chance for expansion in his native country; arid in 1794, he embarked for America, to profit by the free air and as free institutions. For more than a dozen years afterward he was engaged in the humble but honorable employment of a district school teacher. His lot seemed a hard one, but he found consolation in poetry, music, and his favorite study of birds. The latter became a passion with him, and he had the good fortune, at length, to form an acquaintance with WiUiam Bartram, of Philadelphia, the celebrated American Botanist.1 From him he obtained a standard work on ornithology, the perusal of which was the commencement of a new era in Wilson's life. He found the work quite inac curate in many particulars concerning the birds of tho United States, and ho formed the idea of making a complete system of American Ornithology. Ho at once appUed himself successfully to the study of drawing and coloring from nature. At about this time, he became clerk to a bookseller in Philadelphia, with a liberal salary, and to him he disclosed his scheme of a work on American birds. Mr. Bradford was delighted with the idea, and at once gave WUson every faciUty for preparing that magnificent work, The American Ornithology, in seven volumes, which appeared in 1808. Every portion of our country, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from the St. Lawrence to tho Gulf of Mexico, was traversed by WUson, all alone, with the sublime ardor of a man conscious of performing a great work. His splendid, volumes at once attracted the earnest attention of the learned in both hemispheres, and fame and fortune awaited him. But he did not Uve long to enjoy either. The hardships and privations to whieh hi. had been exposed, impaired a never rugged constitution, and on the 23d of August, 1813, he died, peacefully, at PhUadelphia-, when at the age of about forty years. 1. See sketch of Bartram. 182 RUFUS PUTNAM. ¦ .,: [ RUFUS PUTNAM. THE name of Putnam is suggestive of bold daring border exploits, and true patriotism, notwithstanding of the eighty males of that name, living in America, in 1740, only two (Israel and Rufus) appear conspicuous in our country's annals. Rufus was born at Sutton, Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 9th of AprU, 1738. On the death of his father, in 1745, he went to live with his maternal grandfather, in Danvers, where he, attended a district school for two years.. His mother married again, and Rufus lived with her untU his step father died, in 1753. That illiterate man denied the lad all opportunities for education. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a mill-wright. At that time the French and Indian war was kindling brightly, and the campaign of Braddock, and the bold exploits of his kinsman, Israel, warmed a martial spint within him. At the age of nineteen years he entered the provincial army as a private soldier; and he mentions, in his journal, the note-worthy fact, that the captain of his company1 prayed with the men every night and morning during the campaign. He remained in service until 1761, when he resumed his em- 1. Captain Ebenezer Learned, who was a colonel in the army under General Gates rt the capture of Burgoyne, in 1777, and afterward a brigadier in the Continental army. MESHECH WEARE. 183 ployments of mill-buUding and farming. Having acquired' a knowledge of sur veying, he practiced it successfully for several years before the clarion of the Revolution called him again to the field. He was one ofthe mUitary land com pany, who sent General Lyman to England, in 1763 ;' and 1773, ho accompanied Colonel Israel Putnam and others to the "Yazoo country." Mr. Putnam joined the revolutionary army at Cambridge, in 1775, and thero his knowledge of surveying was brought into requisition. He assisted efficiently in the construction of those works on Dorchester Heights, which caused tho British to prepare for leaving Boston. After that, he was employed elsewhere in the engineering department; and in August, 1776, he was appointed by Congress, an engineer, with the rank of colonel. In February, 1778, he succeeded Colonel Greaton in command of troops in the northern department, and during the remainder of the war he was actively connected with the engineering corps of the army. On the 8th of January, 1783, he was commissioned a, brigadier- general in the Continental army, but peace was now exchanging the olivo branch for the laurel and tho palm, and he soon afterward retired to his farm.' From 1783 to 1788, he was engaged in organizing a company for emigrating to and settling in the Ohio country, and thither he went, as the general agent, in the Spring of 1788. He was accompanied by about forty settlers. They pitched their tents at the mouth of the Muskingum river, formed a settlement there, and called it Marietta. Suspecting hostility on the part of the neighboring Indians, he built a fort near by, and caUed it Campus Martius. That year they planted one hundred and thirty acres of corn. This was the beginning of that tide of emigration to Ohio which soon flowed so deep and broad ; and General Putnam Uved to see a flourishing State organized, and having, at the time of his death, seventy counties, and three-quarters ofa million of inhabitants. In 1789, Pres ident Washington appointed him judge of the supreme court of the North-west Territory; and, in 1792, he was appointed a brigadier, under General Wayne. In 1796, he was made surveyor-general of the United States, and held that office untU after the accession of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency. He was a member of the convention that framed a constitution for the State of Ohio, in 1802, and this was his last public service of much moment. He made Marietta his resid ence, and enjoyed the repose of private Ufe untU the first day of May, 1824, when he died. No individual did more for securing the benefits to be derived from the conquests of George Rogers Clarke north of the Ohio,2 than General Rufus Putnam, and he has been justly styled the Father of Ohio. MESHECH WEARE. " TTE dared to love his country and be poor," was the epigramatio encomium JJ. bestowed upon Meshech Weare, the first republican governor of New Hampshire, by one who knew and estimated his worth. He was not possessed of briUiant genius, superior inteUect, nor extraordinary abUities of any kind, but exhibited a happy combination of good sense, stern integrity, pure heart, and clear inteUigence. He was precisely the man for the plaee and times in which his lot was cast. Mr. Weare was a native of Hampton, New Hampshire, where he was born in 1714. He was educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1735. In the disputes between Governor Wentworth and the 1. See sketch of General Lyman. 2. See sketch of George Rogers Clarke. 184 FRANCIS MARION. Colonial Assembly, Mr. Weare, (for a number of years a member of that body), was always found on the side of the people. In 1752, he was chosen Speaker of the house. When, in 1754, delegates from the several colonies assembled at Albany to discuss plans for mutual defenoe, and to consider the expediency of a political union, Mr. Weare represented New Hampshire in that body, and warmly approved a plan of confederation, proposed by Dr. Franklin. And when, ten years later, the disputes between the colonies and Great Britain grew warm, Mr. Weare was a staunch supporter of all republican measures. In January, 1776, a hastily-prepared Constitution went into operation in' New Hampshire, and Mr. Weare was chosen to an office equivalent to that of gover nor of the embryo State. He was also appointed chief justice of the supreme court ; and in such high estimation was he held by his fellow-citizens, that they virtually invested him with dictatorial prerogatives, for he wielded the powers of the highest offices in their gift, legislative, executive, and judicial. In 1779, a new Constitution was framed by a convention, of which John Langdon was president, but the people rejected it. Again, in 1784, a convention framed a Constitution, and it was accepted. Again, Meshech Weare, the faithful servant of the people, was elected chief magistrate, but the duties of public life, combin ing with the decay of age, had now produced great feebleness -in his vital powers, and before the expiration of the year, he was compelled to resign the office which he had held with so much dignity for nine years. He retired to private life, a worn out public servant, and died at Hampton FaUs, on the 15th of Jan uary, 1786, at the age of seventy-two years. His voluminous papers, comprised in several large manuscript volumes, are now in tho custody of the New York Historical Society. FRANCIS MARION. THERE is scarcely a plantation within thirty mUes of the banks of the Con- garee and Santee, from Columbia to the sea, that has not some local tradi tion ofthe presence of Marion, the great partisan leader in South Carolina during the Revolution. He was a descendant of one of the Huguenots who fled from France toward the close of the seventeenth century, and was born at Winyaw, near Georgetown, South CaroUna, in 1732. His infancy gave no promise of mature life, much less of greatness in achievements ; for, according to Weems, he was as "smaU as a New England lobster, at his birth, and might have been put into a quart pot." His education was very limited, and, except a few months at sea, while a youth, his life was spent in agricultural pursuits, until his twenty-seventh year. Then the hostiUties of the Indians on the western frontiers caUed the young men of the Carolinas to arms, and Marion became a soldier, with Moultrie and others, who afterward fought nobly for freedom. In the wild Cherokee country he obtained great applause for his bravery; and when the Revolution broke out, he was offered a captain's commission, which he accepted. He was successful in the recruiting service, early in 1776; and during the attack on Charleston, in the Summer of that year, he fought bravely under Moultrie, in the Palmeto fort, in the harbor. He was afterward engaged in the contest at Savannah, and was in Charleston whUe the siege of that eityj by the British, in the Spring of 1789, was progressing. Disabled by an accident?) 1. Marion was dining with some friends at a house in Tradd Street, Charleston, when, on an attemrl being made to cause .him to drink wme contrary to his practice and desire, he leaped from a window, and sprained his ankle. The Americans yet kept tho country toward the Santee, open, u_dMl__t_r was conveyed to his home. ' "*"*"» *""* ¦»»•""« ¦?-¦ FRANCIS MARION. 185 he left the city before its surrender, and made his way home, where he remained until just before the defeat of Gates near Camden, in August following. Then, notwithstanding he was quite lame, he mounted his horse, collected a score of volunteers, and offered his services to Gates. They were not readily accepted by that proud general, because of the uncouth appearance of the men.1 Soon afterward, being called to the command of the militia of the Williamsburg Dis trict, in the vicinity of the Black and Pedee rivers, he formed his famous Brigade, with which he performed such wondrous feats during the remainder ofthe war. I need not stop to detail his exp'oits during the two years succeeding the forma tion of his brigade, for they are, or ought to be, famUiar to every American reader, young or old. Suffice it to sav, that to Marion's Brigade, more than to any other corps in the South, the credit of the expulsion of the British from the Carolinas and Georgia, is due ; and General Greene regarded him as his strong right arm, especially after the siege of Ninety-Six, in the Summer of 1781. 1. According to Colonel Williams, they must have appeared worse than FalstafPs "ragged regiment." Just before the war, Marion had occupied a seat in the legislature of South Carolina, and early in 1782, when that body was reorganized by Governor Rut ledge, he was again elected to the Senate. Circumstances soon caUed him from the council to the field, and he did not relinquish his sword until the British evacuated Charleston toward the close of 1782, and the sun of peaco arose. Then he disbanded his Brigade, and retired to his farm near Eutaw Springs, on the Santee. There aU was utter desolation ; and at the age of fifty, he com menced tho world anew^ as a planter, with scarcely money enough to purchaso utensils for his laborers. An almost sinecure office — commander of Fort John son, in Charleston harbor — was created for him, and the emoluments were of essential service to the veteran. At length a Desdemonia, enamored of the hero because of his exploits, offered him her hand and fortune, through tho kind mediation of friends. She was a Huguenot maiden of forty years, comely and rich. The hitherto invincible soldier was conquered, and his home at Pond Bluff was made happy during the remainder of his lifo, by a loving wife and the means for dispensing a generous hospitality to his friends. He enjoyed these pleasures for about ten years, ^alternating them occasionally with legislative duties, and then went to his rest, without having a chUd to perpetuate his name or blood. He died on the 29th of February, 1795, at the age of about sixty- three years, and was buried in the church-yard at BeUe Isle, where a neat marble slab denotes the resting-place of his remains. RICHARD HENRY LEE. IN the midst of the doubt, and dread, and hesitation, which for twenty days had brooded over the Continental Congress, after the first step had been taken in the direction of political independence of Great Britain, a clear, musical voice was heard uttering a resolution, " That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the -British Crown ; and that all pohtical connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to - be, totally dissolved." It was the voice of Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia. He was a scion of one of the early cavalier families of that State, and was born at Stratford, in Westmoreland county, on the 20th of January, 1732. According to the fashion of that time, his father sent him to England to be educated. He was in a school at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, for several years, where he was a thoughtful student, and lover of ancient classic and historical literature. At the age of nineteen years he returned to Virginia, and his time was spent in athletic exercises and study. He formed a miUtary corps among his youthful companions, was elected to the chief command, and first appears in history at the councU called at Alex andria, by Braddock, in 1755.1 There young Lee appeared and offered the ser vices of himself and volunteers, in the proposed expedition against the French and Indians on tho Ohio. The proud Braddock refused to accept the services of these plain young provincials, and the deeply-mortified Lee returned homo with his troops. Then was planted in his bosom the first seeds of hatred and disgust of the insolence of British officials, and it germinated and bore abundant fruit twenty years afterward. 1. Gensral Braddock called a council of colonial governors, at Alexandria, on the Potomac, to consult upou a campaign against tbe French and Indians. Several of those magistrates, with Admiral Keppel, met there, arranged satisfactory plans, and Braddock started on his unfortunate march toward the Alleghanies. JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. 187 In 1757, Governor Dinwiddio appointed Mr. Lee a justice of the peace. At about the same time he was elected to a seat in tho House of Burgesses of Vir ginia, though only twenty-five years of age. He was extremely diffident, but at times his zeal would master his bashfulness, and then those powers of oratory, afterward so conspicuous in tho Continental Congress, would beam out in won drous splendor. He was one of the earUest opposers of the Stamp Act, and was the first man in Virginia to stand forth in public as its avowed opponent. From that time until the war broke out, he was a leader among tho patriots in his State ; and long before the idea became general, he spoke of the. necessity of independence. He was a member of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and whilo in that body he was always upon the most important committees. In June, 1776, ho fearlessly offered the resolution above quoted, and took upon himself the fearful responsibUity of being branded by the imperial government as an arch-traitor.1 After considerable debate, that resolution was made the special order ofthe day for the 2d of July following,2 and a committee of five were ap pointed to draw up a preamble or declaration, in accordance with it. On tho day when the resolution to appoint a committee was proposed, Mr. Lee was summoned, by express, to his home in Virginia, on account of Ulness in his family, and for that reason he was not a member of that committee. He after ward affixed his signature to the Declaration, and thus became one of the im mortal Fifty-Six. He was active in Congress, in the Virginia Assembly, or in the field at the head of militia, until the close of the war. In 1783, he was again elected to Congress, and was chosen president of that body. He was opposed to the Federal Constitution, because he reverenced State rights ; but, like Patrick Henry, he yielded cheerful acquiescence when it became the organic law of the Republic. He was chosen the first United States Senator, from Virginia, under it, and held that office until the infirmities of premature age compeUed him to retire to private life, at his beautiful seat at Chantilly, in his native county. He was greatly beloved by his relatives, friends, and the whole people, and he was sincerely mourned by the nation, at his death. Mr. Lee went to his rest on the 19th of Juno, 1794, when in the sixty-third year ofhis age. JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. " T ET me tell you one very serious truth, in which we are all agreed ; your JU countrymen must seal their cause wilh their blood." So wrote a young man of thirty, from London, toward the close of 1774. He was Josiah Quincy, junior, grandson of Judgo Edmund Quincy, and the child of a wealthy Boston merchant. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on tho 23d of February, 1744. Eagerness for knowledge, and assiduity in study, marked his whole col legiate career in Harvard University; and when he was graduated, in 1763, he entered upon the study of the law, under Oxenbridge Thacher, of Boston, with equal eagerness: After two years' close study, he was admitted to the bar, and was soon regarded as one of the most promising young men in the profession. His attention was soon drawn to the agitation of the political waters of his 1. At that time, a son of Mr. Lee was at school at St. Bees, in England. One day, while standing- near his tutor, a gentleman asked, "What boy is this?" The professor replied, "He is the son of Richard Henry Lee, of America." The gentleman put his hand upon the boy's head, and said, " We shall yet see your father's head upon Tower Hill." The boy promptly answered, "You may have it when you can get it." That boy was the late Lud well Lee, Esq., of Virginia. 2. The resolution was adopted on the 2d of July, but the Declaration was debated until the 4lh, and then agreed to. 188 JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. country, and as early as 1767, he began to write political essays in favor cf popular liberty. From that time, Otis and Quincy were the boldest denunciators of the oppressive measures of Great Britain.1 He was the coUeague of John Adams in defending Captain Preston and others after the " Boston Massacre," in 1770, and eloquently pleaded their cause.2 During the three years of compar ative quiet, after that event, he pursued his avocations in the law with great assiduity; but early in 1773, a pulmonary disease compelled him to seek relief in a warmer climate. He visited Charleston and several places in North Car olina, everywhere mingling with the most ardent friends of freedom.3 On his return home he was active in the movements which resulted in the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor.4 He wrote several powerful papers, the most important of which was signed "Marchmont Nedham." He also published, in 1774, severe strictures on the Boston Port BUI,5 which included Thoughts on Civil Society and a Standing Army. For the double purpose of seeking renewed health and to serve his country in the dark hour of its trial, he secretly embarked for London, in September, 1774, and at once obtained interviews with the ministry and the leading men of both parties. He attended the debates in parliament, took full notes of aU current poUtical events, and kept his friends in America advised of aU important movements in which they were concerned. He became thoroughly convinced of the necessity for his countrymen to prepare for war, and in less than two months after his arrival in England, he expressed the sentiment quoted at the opening of this memoir. After becoming thoroughly acquainted with the dis positions and intentions of the king and his ministers, and hopeless of reconciU ation, Mr. Quincy resolved to return home, and, if his health would permit, to arouse his countrymen to immediate and powerful action. He embarked for Boston, in March, 1775, with a heart big with revolution, and a brain teeming with noble ideas and dreams of the glorious future of his beloved country. He had said to Dr. Franklin, on parting, " New England alone can hold out for ages against Great Britain, and, if they were firm and united, in seven years they would conquer them." But Providence did not permit him to realize any of his aspirations, nor again to set his feet upon his native shores. He was blessed with the sight ofhis dear land, but before the vessel reached the port of Glou cester, the tooth of consumption destroyed the thread of life, and he expired. It was on the 26th of AprU, 1775, when he was about thirty-one years of age. His son, then a Uttle child, has erected a noble monument to the memory of his father, by writing and publishing a record of his life. 1. In 176SJ he asked, "Shall we hesitate a moment in preferring death to a miserable existence in bondage?" And, in 1770, he boldly said, " I wish lo see my countrymen break oti— off forever I — all social intercourse with those whose commerce contaminates, whose luxuries poison, whoBe avarice is insatiable, and whose unnatural oppressions are not to be borne." 2. See note on page 87. $ ¦ 3. See sketches of Harnett and Howe. 4. On the day when the destruction of the tea occurred, a great concourse of people were assembled at the " Old South Meeting-house," and were harangued by young Quincy. " It is not, Mr. Moderator," he said, " the spirit that vapors within these walls, that must stand us in stead. The exertions of (his day will call forth events which will make a very different spirit necessary for our salvation. Whoever supposes that shouts and hosannahs will terminate the trials of this day, entertains a childish fancy. He must be grossly ignorant of the importance and value of the prize for which wc contend ; we must be equally ignorant of the power of those who have combined against us. We must be blind to tbfit malice, inveteracy and insatiable revenge which actuate our enemieB, public and private, abroad and in our bosoms, to hope that we shall end this controversy without the sharpest, the sharpest conflicts-^fo flatter ourselves that popular resolves, popular harangues, popular acclamations, and popular vapor, will vanquish our foes. Let us consider the issue. Let us look to the end. Let us weigh and consider before we advance to those measures which must bring on the most trying and terrible strugglethis country ever saw." When he concluded, (he question waB put whether the people would allow the tea to be landed. As with nne voice, the multitude said, No I At twilight, a voice in the church gallery Bhonted, " Boston harbor a tea-pot to-night I" A man disguised as an Indian gave a war-whoop, and the people rushed to the wharf. A pale moon was shiningupon the snow. In a short time three hundred and forty-two chest) of tea were broke open, and their contents were cast into the water. 6. See note 2, page 165. PHILIP SCHUYLER. 189 PHILIP SCHUYLER. PURE patriotism, unselfish benevolence, unflinching integrity, and unwavering pubUc and private virtue, were the marked characteristics of Philip Schuyler, a grandson of the valiant mayor of Albany, in 1690, when the scouts of Fron- tenac alarmed all the border settlers of New York, and French and Indians laid Schenectada in ashes. Philip was born at Albany, on the 22d of November, 1733. He was the oldest chUd of his parents, and by the law of primogeniture, he inherited his father's real estate. That parent died while Philip was young, and he was left to the care of his mother. With that noble generosity whieh marked his career through life, he divided the estate, to which he was entitled, equally with his brothers and sisters. At the age of twenty-two years, he en tered the provincial army, and commanded a company under Sir William John son, at Fort Edward and Lake George. He continued in the service until 1758, and accompanied the young Lord Howe, as colonel of a regiment, in the expe dition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. When that nobleman was kUlod, 100 JOSEPn WARKEN. Colonel Schuyler conveyed his body to Albany, for interment.1 After the peace in 1763, he was quite active in several civil capacities; and as member of the . Colonial Assembly of New York, he was marked for his devotion to the cause ofthe colonists. He was a member of the second Continental Congress, in 1775, and was appointed by that body the third of the four major-generals, under Washington, commissioned for the command of the American army. He took command of .the Northern Department, and started with a considerable force to invade Canada, in the Autumn of 1775. He sickened on Lake Champlain, placed the chief command in the hands of his Ueutenant, General Montgomery, and re turned to Albany. During the foUowing year he was active among the Six Nations of Indians, and also in perfecting the discipline of his Division of the army. In March, 1777, he was superseded by General Gates, without any good reason, but was reinstated in May following. In June, Burgoyne penetrated the northern frontier, and General Schuyler was active in preparations to chock his invasion. At the moment when all was ready to strike a decisive blow, Gates was again placed in command, and unfairly received the laurels of con quest. Schuyler's love for his country was stronger than his resentment, and as a simple citizen he aided the Americans greatly in the accomphshment ofthe victory over Burgoyne, at Saratoga. He demanded and obtained a trial before a court of inquiry, and received a highly flattering verdict. Washington then urged him to accept military command, but ho preferred to aid his country in a less public but not less efficient way. He was a member of Congress under the first confederation, and after the ratification of the Federal Constitution, the legislature of New York chose General Schuyler, with Rufus King, to represent that commonwealth in the Senate of the United States. He served until 1791, when he was elected to the Senate of his native State. He was again chosen United States Senator, in place of Aaron Burr, in 1797, but did not retain his seat long, for his -health was failing. In 1803, his wife, the companion of all his joys and sorrows, died; and, in July, 1804, his spirit was terribly smitten by the murder of his accomplished son-in-law, Alexander HamUton, by the dueUist's hand.2 JOSEPH WARREN. " "VTOT all tho havoc and devastation they have made has wounded mo like the 1* death of Warren," wrote the wife of John Adams three weeks after tho battle of Bunker Hill. "We want him in the Senate; we want him in his pro fession ; we want him in the field. We mourn for the citizen, tho senator, the physician, and the warrior." The death of Joseph Warren was indeed a severe blow to the patriot cause. He was tho son of a Massachusetts farmer, and was born in Roxbury, near Boston, in 1740. He was graduated at Harvard CoUege, in 1759, and then commenced the study of medicine. Soon after commencing its practice, ho took a prominent place in the profession, in Boston ; and he had few superiors, when inclination caUed him to participate in the political move ments of the day. Patriotism was a ruling emotion of his heart, and he never lacked boldness to express his opinions freely. He was one of the earliest members ofthe association, in Boston, known as Sons of Liberty; and from 1768 until the fierce kindling of war on Breed's Hill, he was extremely efficient in 1. As an example for his men, Lord Ilowe had his hair cut short, that it might not become wet end produce colds in the region or the neck. Many years after the interment of hia remains at Albany thty wero removed, and it was found that his hair had grown several inches, and was smooth and e-lossv 2. See sketch of Alexander Hamilton. _u-6iubbj.. ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE. 191 fostering a spirit of rational liberty and independence among the people. His suggestive mind planned many daring schemes in secret caucus, and he was ever ready to lead in the execution of any measures for resisting the encroachments of imperial power. He delivered the first annual oration on the subject of the "Boston Massacre," in 1771; and, in 1775, he soUcited the honor of performing the perilous service again, because some British officers had menaced the life of anyone who should attempt it. The " Old South" was crowded, and the aisles, stairs, and pulpit, were fiUed with British soldiers, full armed. The intrepid young orator entered by a window, spoke fearlessly, in the presence of those bayonets which seemed alive with threats, of the early struggles of the colonies of New England, and then, in sorrowful tones and deep pathos of expression, told of the wrongs and oppressions under which they were then suffering. Even the soldiers wept ; and thus the young hero, firm in the faith that "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God," triumphed, and fearlessly bearded the lion in his den. From that day Gage regarded him as a dangerous man. When John Hancock went to the Continental Congress, Warren was chosen to fill his place as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly. Ho held that position when the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord occurred ; and before and after the events of that day, he was very active, secret and open. Four days before the battle of Bunker's Hill, he was commissioned a major- general. He hastened to Breed's Hill, on the memorable 17th of June, 1775, and toward tho close-of the action, placed himself under Colonel Prescott, as a volunteer. When the Americans were compelled to retreat, Warren and Pres cott were the last men to leave the redoubt. He had proceeded but a short way towaTd Bunker's HiU, where Putnam was trying to rally the fugitives, when a musket baU passed through his head, and kUled him instantly. He was left on the field. His body was recognised the next day by his intimate acquaint ance, Dr. Jeffries, of the British army, and it was buried where it fell. After the British left Boston, in the Spring of 1776, it was taken up, carried to tho city, and interred with masonic and military honors, beneath St. Paul's church. Almost upon the spot where he fell, the great Bunker HUl monument now stands, a memorial alike for the noble Warren, and of the deeds which con secrated that eminence. Congress expressed its sorrow by resolutions, and its gratitude by ordering that liis " eldest son be educated at the expense of the United States." Congress also ordered a monument to be erected. It yet re mains to be done. ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE. ONE of the earUest explorers of tho wUderness around the head waters of the Mississippi, now known as the Minnesota Territory, was the bravo Pike, who died in the hour of victory near York, in Upper Canada, with the captured British flag under his head. He was the son of an officer in the United States army, and was born at Lamberton, New Jersey, on the 5th of January, 1779. He entered the army while yet a mere boy, and his whole life was- devoted to the military profession. He was early subjected to athletic exercises, and ho grew to manhood with a frame of uncommon vigor. His education was neglected, but by his own exertions he mastered the Latin, French, and Spanish languages. Love of study was a characteristic of his early youth, and he read with avidity the few books that fell in his way. Soon after the purchase of Louisiana from the French, in 1803, the United States government determined to explore that vast and mostly unknown territory. Under the enlightened direction of Prcs- 192 DANIEL BOONE. ident Jefferson, Captains Lewis and Clarke were sent to explore the Missouri to its source, and young Pike was commissioned to make a simUar exploration in search of the sources of the Mississippi. He left St. Louis, in August, 1805, with twenty men, and made a most wonderful journey, during eight months and twenty days, an account of which was published in an octavo volume.1 Soon after his return, General Wilkinson selected Pike to command another expedi tion in the interior of Louisiana, in the direction of Northern Mexico. After great sufferings, he returned, in the Summer' of 1807, and received the thanks of Congress. Passing through several promotions, in miUtary rank, he reached that of colonel of infantry, in 1810. He was stationed on the northern frontier at the commencement of the war with Great Britain, in 1812, and early the following year he was promoted to brigadier. In the Spring of 1813, he was chosen, by General Dearborn, to command the land troops in an expedition against York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada. He sailed from Saekett's Harbor, in a squadron under Commodore Chauncey, on the 25th of April, and on the 27th he landed, with seventeen hundred men, in the face of a gaUing fire from a large force of British and Indians. Pike pressed forward, and the British fled to their fortifications, whilo the Indians scattered in all directions. The general led his troops in person, and after capturing a battery, he rushed forward toward the main works. The British- fired their magazine, and a ter rible explosion took place. A heavy stone struck the breast ofthe brave leader, and wounded him mortally. He was conveyed to the commodore's ship, in a dying condition. While on the way, there was a shout, and one of his attend ants said, "The British union jack is coming down, and the stars are going up I" Pike could not speak, but sighed heavily, and then smued. He Ungered a few hours on ship-board ; and when the British flag was brought to him, he signified his desire to have it placed under his head. It was done, and a moment after ward the' hero died. He was only a little more than thirty-four years of age. His name and memory is perpetuated, not only in his country's annals, but by ' the titles often counties and twenty-eight townships and villages, chiefly in the Western country. DANIEL BOONE. FEW men of such humble pretensions occupy so large a space in history, as Daniel Boone. His heroism as an explorer, pioneer, settler, and patriotic defender of the soil he had won by his courage in the path of the discoverer, partakes so largely of the spirit of chivalry and true romance, that we incon tinently look upon him with a. sentiment of hero-worship. Daniel Boone was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1734. His parents wero from Bradninch, near Exeter, England; and whUe paniel was a small boy, they left Pennsyl vania, and settled near tho banks of the Yadkin, in North Carolina. At that time the region beyond the Blue Ridge was an unknown wilderness to tho white people, for none had ventured thither, as far as is known, until about tho year 1750. It was almost twenty years later than this, when Boone was apL proaching the prime of life, that he first penetrated the great VaUey of the Mis sissippi, in company with others. He had already, as a bold hunter, been within the eastern verge of the present Kentucky, but now he took a long "hunt," of 1. Lieufenant Pike did not discover the true source of (he Mississippi. Th-it achievement was reserved for Henry R. Schoolcraft, who. in 1832, discovered the chief .fountain of th e Father of Waters to be Itasba Lake, in latitude 47 deg., 13 nun., 35 sec., north, and that its whole majestic course is within the territory ofthe United States. DANIEL BOONE. 193 about three years. He had made himself familiar with the wUderness ; and, in 1773, in company with other famiUes, he started with his own to make a settle ment on the Eain-tuck-ee river. The hostile Indians compeUed them to fall back, and Boone resided on the Clerioh river until 1775, when he went forward and planted the settlement of Boonesborough, in the present Madison county, Ken tucky.1 There he bunt a log fort, and in the course of three or four years, sev eral other settlers joined him. His wife and daughters were the first white women ever seen upon the banks of the Kentucky river. He became a great annoyance to the Indians ; and whUe at the Blue Licks, on the Licking river, in February, 1778, engaged with others in making salt, he was captured by some Shawnee warriors from the Ohio country, and taken to ChiUicothe. The Indians became attached to him, and he was adopted into a family as a son. A ransom. of five hundred dollars was offered for him, but the Indians refused it. He at length escaped (in July following his capture) when he ascertained that a large body of Indians were preparing to march against Boonesborough. . They attacked that station three times before the middle of September, but were repulsed. 1. On the 14th of July, 1776, one of Boone's daughters, and two other girls, were seized by the Indians, while they were in a boat, near Boonesborough, and carried away. Their screams alarmed the people at the fort, and Boone and others started -in pursuit. It was then just at sunset. They came up with the kidnappers on the ICth, about forty miles from Boonesborough, rescued the girls, and conveyed them safely back to their home. 9 194 ANDREW PICKENS. During Boone's captivity, his wife and chUdren had returned lo the house of her father, on the Yadkin, whero the pioneer visited them in 1779, and remained with them for many months. He returned to Kentucky, in 1780, with his family, and assisted Colonel Clarke in his operations against the Indians in the Illinois country. Ho was a very active partisan in that far-off region beyond the Al- leghanies until the close ofthe war." From that time, until 1798, he resided al ternately in Kentucky and in Western Virginia. He had seen that "wilderness blossom as the rose ;" and in less than twenty years from the time when he built his fort at Boonesborough, he saw Kentucky honored as a sovereign State of an independent union of republics. Yet he was doomed to lose all personal advantages in the growth of the new State. Neglecting to comply with new land laws, of whose details he was probably ignorant, he lost his title to lands which he had discovered and subdued ; and the region which so recently seemed all his own, now filled with half a million ofhis fellow-citizens, afforded him no home in fee simple! Indignant at what he considered baso ingratitude, he shouldered his rifle, left Kentucky forever, and, with some followers, plunged into the interminable forests of the present Missouri, beyond the Mississippi river. They settled upon the Little Osage, in 1799, and the following year, Boone and his companions explored tbe head waters of the Arkansas. A long time after ward, when he was almost eighty years of age, he trapped beavers on the Great Osage. Soon after his return from that "hunt," he sent a memorial to the legist lature of Kentucky, setting forth that he owned not an acre of land on the face of the earth, had nowhere to lay his head, and asked a confirmation of title to lands given him in Louisiana, by the Spanish governor, before that territory was ceded to the United. States. Congress secured two thousand acres to him, and so his old age was made comparatively happy by the prospect ofa grave in the bosom of his own soil. The brave old hero died in Missouri, on the 26th of September, 1820, at the age of almost ninety years. His remains now he beside those of his wife, in a cemetery at Erankfort, Kentucky. ANDREW PICKENS. CELTIC blood flowed in the veins of very many ofthe sages and soldiers who laid the foundations of our Republic. In those of Pickens, the eminent partisan soldier of South CaroUna, it was unmixed, for his parents were both natives of that portion of Ireland where there had been no infusion of the English or Scotch element. He was born in Paxton township, Bucks county, Pennsyl vania, on the 19th of September, 1739, and while he was yet a child, his parents emigrated to the Waxhaw settlement, in the upper part of South Carolina. His first mUitary lessons, in actual service, were received while serving as a volun teer under Ueutenant-colonel Grant, against the Cherokees, in 1761, having for his companions, Marion and Moultrie. He was a warm republican ; and when the war of the Revolution was kindled, he took the field as captain of militia. His zeal, courage, and skiU, immediately attracted attention, and he arose rapidly to the rank of brigadier-general. In the region watered by the Savannah, in both Georgia and South Carolina, General Pickens performed very important services duringthe war, especially in the year 1781. He completely humbled the Cherokees and the Creeks ; broke the power of the Tories in the upper country around Augusta ; and was distinguished for bravery at the Cowpens, the siege of Augusta, and at Eutaw Springs. He and Marion commanded the mnitia of South Carolina in the latter engagement, and in the early part of the conflict, FRANCIS ASBURY. 195 Pickens was severely wounded by a musket ball. From the close of tho war until 1794, he was continuaUy in public life, chiefly as a legislator, and then he was elected to a seat in the House of Representatives of the United States. Ho was also appointed one ofthe two major-generals ofthe militia ofhis State; and in 1796, he decUned a reelection to Congress, but took a seat in the legislature of South Carolina. He held that position until 1801, at the same time often acting as commissioner to treat with the Indians. Washington had also solicited him to accept the command of a brigade of light troops to act under Wayne against the tribes of the North-west, but he declined tho honor. Ho retired to private life, in 1801, and there he remained in the peaceful repose of a planter, in Pendleton District, South CaroUna, until 1812, when he accepted a seat in his State legislature. He declined the proffered office of governor the following year, and again sought repose in the bosom of his family. There he went to his final rest, on the 17th of August, 1817, at the age of seventy-eight years. Gen eral Pickens married Rebecca Calhoun, in 1765. They lived together fifty years. She was aunt ofthe late John C. Calhoun; and at the time of her marriage was considered one of the most beautiful young ladies in the South. Her nuptials were attended by a great number of relatives and friends, and " Rebecca Cal houn's wedding " became an epoch in the social history of the district, from whi#h old people used to reckon. The remains of husband and wife lie together in the grave-yard ofthe "old stone meeting-house," in Pendleton. FRANCIS ASBURY. PERHAPS no Christian minister, since the settlement of America, has travelled as extensively, and labored as untiringly in the face of every kind of ob stacle, as Francis Asbury, the senior Bishop of the Methodist Church1 in tho United States. He wa^_orn near Birmingham, England, on the 20th of August, 1745, and came to America, in 1771, at the age of twenty-six years, as a preacher of the gospel in the simplicity of the new sect. Two years afterward, the first annual conference of the American Methodists was held at Philadelphia. Tho converts under the preaching of John and Charles Wesley had widened tho circle ofthe denomination greatly, and at that conference there were ten preachers, representing a membership of about eleven hundred. Mr. Asbury continued to travel and preach continuaUy from that time until 1784, when Dr. Coke, whom Mr. Wesley had appointed a presbyter of the church in England, and missionary to America, consecrated him a superintendent or Bishop of the Methodist Epis copal Church in the United States. With the zeal of an ancient apostle, ho entered upon the discharge of his great duties, and visited and organized churches, and planted others, in all parts of the republic. In 1790, he crossed the great mountains, and held a conference five miles from the present Lexington. It was the first general assemblage of the Methodists in the wilderness of the West. That conference then numbered only twelve preachers. They were "indiffer ently clad," said Bishop Asbury, "with emaciated bodies, and subject to hard fare, but, I hope, rich in faith." 1. This sect was founded, in 1729, by John Wesley and a minister named Morgan. Their doctrine i3 the same as that of the Church of England, but they discarded most of its rituals. They adhere to tho Episcopal form of church government, though varying somewhat from the Church of England in its administration. -The name, as applied to a religious sect, is older than the organization of Wesley and others. It was given to two kinds of Popish Doctors of Divinity, in France, about the middle of tho seventeenth century, who violently opposed the Huguenots. In England, it was applied to those church members who were evangelical in their views, and zealouB in their preaching. Methodism has been woll defined by an English writer, as " Christianity in earnest." 196 JOHN TRUMBULL. From the time of his consecration untU his death, a period of thirty-two years, Bishop Asbury traveUed yearly through every State in the increasing Union, and kept in efficient action the great machinery of the travelhng connection. In the exercise of his episcopal office, ho ordained not less, probably, than three thousand preachers, and uttered seventeen thousand sermons. After spending fifty -five years in the ministry- (forty -five in America), that faithful servant of Christ was caUed to his rest, at the house of his old friend, George Arnold, in Virginia, on the 31st of March, 1816, in the ; seventy-first year of his age. His remains, by order of the General Conference, were taken to Baltimore, and do- posited in a vault prepared for the purpose under the recess of the pulpit Of the Methodist Church in Eutaw Street. JOHN TRUMBULL. THE name of TrumbuU, the painter,1 Uke Trumbull, the magistrate, wiU ever be associated with the noblest chapter of American history, because his pendl iUustrated its noblest events. The painter was the youngest son of the magis trate, and was born at Lebanon, Connecticut,,.on the 6th of June, 1756. After receiving an excellent education at Lebanon, he entered Harvard College, where he remained about a year, and was graduated in 1772. He had early felt tho inspirations of art and tho aspirations of genius; and during much ofhis coUege years at Harvard, he was studying books on the subject of drawing and painting, or was engaged in copying some pictures there. He. painted his first original picture — The Battle of Ccmrm — soon after leaving coUege, and resolved to devote his Ufe to art, when the gathering storm of the Revolution diverted him from that pursuit, and caused him to exchange his pencU for a sword. His father wished him to become a clergyman, but the church militant had not for him the charms of martial life, and he became adjutant ofthe first Connecticut regiment, which was stationed at Roxbury, in the Summer of 1775. A drawing which he made of the enemy's works, by request of Washington, so pleased the com mander-in-chief) that he made the young painter his aid-de-camp, in August. He was promoted to major of brigade, in the Autumn, and in that capacity ho attracted the attention of adjutant-general Gates. He was appointed, by Gates; adjutant-general of the Northern Department, with the title of Colonel, in Junft ' 1776, and accompanied that officer to Ticonderoga. Ho did not receive his commission from Congress until the following Spring, and then it was dated in September. The young soldier was offended, and returned tho commission with a spicy letter tendering his resignation. Then ended his military career, and he went to Boston to resume the study of art. In 1780, he sailed for London, to place himself under the instruction of Benjamin West. The great' painter re ceived him kindly, and Trumbull was pursuing his studies quietly, when, late in the year, he was arrested as a rebel, and cast into prison on a charge of treason. West immediately interceded for him, before the king, and received the royal assurance that the young painter's life should be spared. After an imprisonment of eight months, he was admitted to bail on condition that he should quit the country immediately. West and Copley became his sureties. He went to Amsterdam, and then embarked for America, but the ship was compeUed to 1. The great painter was a lineal descendant of Rev. John Eobinson, the " father of fhe Pilgrims." His mother's name was Faith Eobinson, and was the flflh in descent from the min ster at Delft While at the house of the late governor of Connecticut, J. (J. W. Trumbull at UniiS T™ A,. ,te„ „_. shown a Silver cup, bearing the initials of the-feev. Mr. EobSson whS was iSuJht 'ta ^i_£_£- Tta 1621, and has been carefully preserved in the family. ' nrougnt to America, m -J, put back, and he did not reach home until -the beginning of 1782. He visited the army on the Hudson, toward Autumn, but peace soon came. His father then urged him to pursue the profession of the law, but the Artist would not listen; and, in November, 1783, he again went to England, and resumed his studies, under West, with great zeal, industry, and'success. He was so success ful in the treatment of Priam bearing back to his Palace the body of Hector, in 1785, that he matured a plan for producing a series of historical paintings, rep resenting events in the American Revolution, Before the close of 1786, he had produced his Battle of Bunker Hill and Death of Montgomery. These were engraved. Then followed his superb painting The Sortie of the Garrison of Gibraltar, which he sold for twenty-five hundred dollars. He came to America, in 1789, and painted as many of the portraits of the signers of the Declaration as were then present in Congress. In 1791 and 1792, he was chiefly employed in painting heads for his four great national pictures, now in the Rotunda of the capitol, at Washing ton city, namely, Signers ofthe Declaration of Independence, Surrender of Burgoyne, Surrender of CornwaUis, Washington Surrendering his Commission. He then went to England as private secretary to Mr. Jay. He went to Paris and en gaged in commercial pursuits, for awhile ; and, in August, 1796, he was appointed fifth commissioner to carry out the designs of one article of Jay's treaty with Great Britain. His duties did not end until 1804, when he returned to the United States, and resumed his pencil at New York. Lacking encouragement, 198 THOMAS PAINE. he again went to England, and remained there until 1815, when he returned to New York. The following year .he received a commission from our government to paint the four pictures above alluded to. He was engaged seven years on them. He was chosen president of the American Academy of Arts, in 1817, and was annually elected to that office for many years. Finding no purchasers for his collection of paintings, he presented them to Yale College, and they are ah in New Haven, in a buUding erected for the purpose, called The TrumbvM Gal lery. The venerable artist, soldier, and patriot, died in the city of Now York, on the 10th of November, 18,43, in the eighty-eighth year ofhis ago. THOMAS PAINE. FEW men have ever received so large a share of the odium of common public opinion (which Hood defined- as "the average prejudice of mankind") as Thomas Paine, whose pen was almost as powerful in support of the republican cause in the early years of the Revolution, as was the sword of Washington ; be cause it gave vitahty to that latent national sentiment which formed the necessary basis of support to the civil and miUtary power then just evoked by the political exigencies of the American people. He was a native of Thetford, England, where he was born, in 1737. He was bred to the business of stay-maker, car ried on by his father, but his mind could not long be chained to the narrow em ployment of fashioning whale-bone and buckram for tho boddices of ladies. Ho sought and obtained an interview with Dr. Franklin, when that statesman first went to England as agent for Pennsylvania, and by his advice Paine came to America, in 1774, and at once employed his powerful pen in tho cause of the aroused colonies. Many of his articles appeared in Pennsylvania papers, over the signature of Common Sense; and at the beginning of 17 70, he wrote a pam phlet, at the suggestion of Dr. Rush; bearing that expressive title. It was the earliest and most powerful public appeal in favor of the independence of the colonies, and did more, probably, than any other instrumentality, to fix that idea firmly in the minds of the people. Within a hundred days after its appearance, almost every provincial assembly had spoken in favor of independence.1 Paine also commenced a series of papers called The Crisis, the first number of which was written in the camp of Washington, near the Delaware, at the close of 1776. They were issued at intervals, during the war. In the Spring of 1777, Paine was appointed, by Congress, Secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy dollars a month. It was a position of great trust and respon sibility, and he performed the duties satisfactorily untU 1779, when, in a public dispute with Silas Deane, he revealed some secrets of his bureau, and was threat ened with dismissal. He at once resigned his office, but remained a firm friend to his adopted country. After the war, he used his pen for a livelihood; andin 1790, he visited his native country. There he wrote his Rights of Man, which offended the government, and he went to Paris on the eve of the French Revo lution. He participated in the opening scenes of that struggle, was made a member ofthe National Assembly, and finally, having offended the Jacobins, he was imprisoned and sentenced to the guillotine. Whilo in prison, he wrote the 1. So highly was that esssiv esteemed, that the legislature of Pennsylvania voted the author twenty-five hundred dollars. Washington regarded it as his most powerful aid. In a letter to JoBeph Eeed, he said, " By private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find that Common Sense is work ing a powerful change there in fhe minds of many men.11 EDWARD PREBLE. 199 chief portions of his Age of Reason. He escaped death by a seeming accident.1 In 1802, he returned to America, and resided a part of the time upon a farm at New RooheUe, presented to him by the State of New York, for his revolutionary services. Paine became very intemperate, and feU low in tho social scale, not only on account of his beastly habits, but because of his blasphemous tirade against Christianity. His Age of Reason is a coarse and vindictive assault upon rovoaled religion, exhibiting neither sound logic nor honest argument. The corruptions of Christianity as he saw them in France and England, at that timo, a__brd extenuating apologies for his vindictiveness. Had Thomas Paine lived at this day, he would never have written his Age of Reason and other libels upon God and humanity. As a patriot of truest stamp, his memory ought to be re vered — as an enemy to that religion on which man's dearest hopes are centered, ho is to be pitied and condemned. Mr. Paine died in New York, in 1809. Jarvis, the painter, took an impression ofhis face in plaster, after his death. That impression is now in possession of the New York Historical Society. His friend and admirer, William Cobbett, had his bones exhumed, and conveyed to England; and in 1839, his friends in poUtical and religious sentiment erected a beautiful monument to his memory over his emptied grave, near New Rochelle, on which is inscribed, beneath a medallion bust, " Thomas Paine, Author of Common Sense." EDWARD PREBLE. THE sons of revolutionary fathers often inherited tho courage and patriotism of their ancestors ; indeed, the contrary was tho exception to a rule, and true philosophy has a reason for it. The father of Edward Preble, one of tho most distinguished of our nayal commanders, was the honorable Jedediah Preble, of the ancient town of Falmouth (now Portland), Maine. He was a brigadier under the-government of the Massachusetts colony, one of the first commanders ofthe army at Cambridge, in 1775, and a civilian of eminence when the Revolu tion had fairly commenced. Edward was born at the homestead, on the 15th of August, 1761, and received an academic education at Newbury. In early childhood ho was noted for great resolution, and a love of athletic exercises. Like many lads of that seaport, he had a great desire for ocean life, and he made a voyage to Europe, in a privateer, in 1778. The foUowing year he became a midshipman in one of the Massachusetts vessels, and was captured during the second cruise. Through the influence of Colonel Tyng, a friend of young Preble's father, the young man was released at New York, while the remainder of the crew were sent to England. He now entered as first Ueutenant, on board the sloop of war, Winthrop, in which he continued during the remainder of the con test, and performed many deeds of valor. After the war, Preble was a ship master in many successive voyages, but stood ready for public service when his country should caU him to duty. When, in 1798, our hostile relations with France made it necessary to prepare our little navy for service, Preble was one of the five first-lieutenants, appointed by Congress. In the Winter of 1798-9, he made two cruises, and the following Spring he commanded the Essex, under a captain's commission. In the year 1. He was saved by a singular providence. Every night an officer passed along the rows of cells in the prison, and with a piece of chalk marked the doors from which prisoners were to be taken to tho scaffold. Paine's door happened to be open. It was marked, but when it was closed for the night, the fatal sign was on the inside, and he escaped. 200 JOHN H. LIVINGSTON. 1800, he was sent to convoy our merchantmen from the East India seas. He was afterward appointed to the command of the Adams, on the Mediterranean station, but ill-health soon compelled him to leave the service, for awhUe. In 1803, he was placed in command ofthe frigate Constitution, and with the Phila delphia and several smaUer vessels, he proceeded to the Mediterranean to humble the Algerine pirates who infested those waters. The principal powers engaged in that system of commercial robbery were those of Algiers, Turns, Morocco, and Tripoli, known as the Barbary States. Preble first brought the Emperor of Morocco to terms, and then appeared before Tripoli, with his squadron. There he lost the Philadelphia, which struck upon a rock in the harbor, was captured by the Tripolitans, and the officers and crew wore made prisoners.1 Preble was soon afterward relieved by his senior, Commpdore Barron. The value of his gaUant services on the African coast was recognized by a vote of Congress, con ferring upon him the thanks of the nation, and an elegant medal. These were presented to him, on his return home, by the President of the United States. On leaving his squadron, his officers expressed their esteem in. a highly com plimentary address. His services were soon afterward lost to his country, at a moment when they were needed more than ever. His health gave way toward the close of 1806, and on the 25th of August, 1807, he died, when in the forty- sixth year ofhis age. He was buried in his native town, with military honors. JOHN PI. LIVINGSTON. THE friend and earliest biographer of President Livingston says of him, " He was a man whose praise is in all the churches ; first in her councUs — first in her honors — first in her affections." He was born at Poughkeepsie, Dutchess county, New York, on the 30th of May, 1746." He received parental instruct tion, only, until his seventh year, when he was placed under other tutors, among whom was the father of the late Chancellor Kent. At the age of twelve years, he entered Yale College, as a student, and was graduated in 1762, when only sixteen. The profession of the law opened a brilliant future for him, and he commenced its study under Bartholomew Crannol, of Poughkeepsie. His habitual seriousness was deepened into strong religious convictions, by hearing' a sermon from the lips of the eminent Whitefield, and he resolved to abandon the law, and become a minister ofthe gospel. He accordingly went to HoUand, in 1766, to prosecute theological studies in the University of Utrecht, and there he re mained until 1770, and acquired the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He returned to America the same year, and became pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in the city of New York. Through his influence, internal dissensions, which had prevailed for some time, were healed; the two parties formed a union, and, in 1772, the Dutch churches became independent of the classis of Amsterdam; a result for which he had labored while in Holland. When the Revolution broke out, all was confusion in New York, and Dr. Livingston went to reside at Kingston, in October, 1775, where, a month after ward, he was married to Sarah, daughter of Philip Livingston. Until the British took possession of the city of New York, the foUowing year, Dr. Livingston went 1. See sketches of Bainbridge and Decatur. 2. The house in which he was born is yet in possession of ihe family ofhis only child, the late Colonel Henry A. Livingston. When the British went up the Hudson, in 1777,to burn Kingston, tbey fired a heavy round shot at this mansion, because its proprietor was a Btaunch Whig. It passed into the build ing, and the ball is preserved by the family. The house stands on the margin of the river. It was built in 1714, the year when the father of Dr. Livingston was born. ¦ ?. JOHN H. LIVINGSTON. 201 t^irintefhn down frequently, and preached to the remnant of his flock, who were compelled to remain.1 He officiated ministerially at Albany and Livingston's Manor; and, in 1781, he took up his abode at his father's mansion, in Poughkeepsie, and oc cupied the pulpit of the Dutch Church tliere, for about two years. When the British left New York, Dr. Livingston resumed his pastoral charge there, and the foUowing year he was chosen, by the first convention, Professor of Theology. He performed his new duties, with those of his ministerial services, with great zeal, in New York and its immediate vicinity, until 1810, when, on the removal of Queen's • CoUege (the theological school in which he was professor) 'to New Brunswick, in New Jersey, he was chosen its president. His inaugural address is a model of its kind, full of learning and the purest Christian spirit. In 1813, he completed a version of the Psalms and Hymns used in the church, pursuant to the request ofthe general Synod, and that collection is now the standard book throughout that denomination. As the college under his charge did not flourish as a literary institution, an effort was commenced, in 1815, to make it a Theo logical Seminary, exclusively. That measure was carried into effect, and from that time, until the present, it has held that character. Its name has been changed tp Rutger's College, in honor of a distinguished citizen of New York who nobly patronised it. 1. Dr. Livingston administered the Lord's Supper in the Middle Dutch Church (now. [1855] the city Post Office), in June, 1776, the last until the British left the city, in November, 1783. 9* 202 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. Dr. Livingston's health began to fail many years before his death, yet ho labored on and hoped on, until tho last. FinaUy, in January, 1825, he was at tacked with acute pain, but was soon relieved. On the evening of the 28th he prayed fervently, in his famUy, and went to bed in usual health. When his grandson caUed him to arise for breakfast the next morning, the spirit of the good man had departed to the bosom of his God whom he so dearly loved and so faithfully served. He was then in the seventy-ninth year ofhis age. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. THE preparation of the Constitution of the United States in tho form adopted by the convention, in 1787, and ratified by a majority of the States, the following year, was the work of the accomplished scholar and statesman, Gou- vernenr Morris, brother of Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde pendence. He was born at Morrisania, on the Westchester shore ofthe Harlem River, New York, on the 31st of January, 1752. The death of his father left him to the care of his mother at the age of twelve years. He was graduated at King's (now Columbia) College, in the city of New York, in May, 1768, at the age of sixteen years, and his oration on that occasion, on the subject of Wit and Beauty, made a marked sensation among the pohshed circles of the day. He studied law under WilUam Smith, the historian of New York, and afterward Chief justice of the province, and was Ucensed to practice, in the Autumn of 1771. He was not yet twenty years of age, yet he had already engaged in political discussions of the day, especially upon financial subjects, and had at tracted the attention of many leading men. He continued much before the pubhc in speech and in print, until 1775, when he was elected to a seat in the New York Provincial Congress. There he made a most favorable impression, and was soon an acknowledged leader, although then only twenty-three years of age. He was one of the committee of correspondence for the city of New York, and his pen was continuaUy busy for the patriot cause. In the Summer of 1776, he was sent as special agent to the Continental Congress, on the subject of payment to troops ; and in the Autumn of the foUowing year, he was elected to a seat in that body. He was placed on a committee to confer with General Washington on the subject of a new organization of the Continental army, and he spent nearly three months in the camp at Valley Forge. From the moment of presenting his credentials, Mr. Morris was one of the most active and highly esteemed members of Congress ; and finally, when the government was newly organized, in 1781, under the Articles of Confederation, he was made assistant financial agent with his great namesake of Philadelphia. He was now a per manent resident of that city, where, by an accident, he lost a leg.1 He remained there untU 1786, when he purchased the paternal estate at Morrisania from a Tory brother, and soon afterward made it his abode. He was a delegate from Pennsylvania in the convention that framed the Federal Constitution, and when the various articles had been thoroughly discussed and agreed upon, the task of putting the whole instrument into proper form and language was entrusted' to Mr. Morris. The following year he went to Paris, and resided there until early in 1790, when, having received from President Washington the appointment of 1. He was thrown from a carriage in the streets of Philadelphia, and the bones of one of his legs were so much shattered, that amputation became necessary. He always wore a rough stick, as a substitute, and would never consent to have a handsome leg made. THOMAS M'KEAN. 203 private agent to transact important business with the British ministry, he went to London. After accomplishing his business, he made a brief tour on the Con tinent. Early in 1792, he received intelligence of his appointment as minister plenipotentiary to the French court, and that important station he filled until the Autumn of 1794, when he made another Continental tour, chiefly for the purpose of gathering information for the benefit of himself and country. He finally returned to America in the Autumn of 1798, and retired to private life at Morrisania, after an absence often years, during which time he had been en gaged in the most arduous public and private duties. He was soon afterward elected to fiU a vacancy in the United States Senate, and held a seat there from May, 1800, untU March, 1803. He travelled most of the remainder of 1803, in the United States and Canada. His thoughts were ever active on the subject of the internal improvement of his native State. He was among the earliest to appreciate Jesse Hawley's plan for connecting the waters of Lake Erie and the Hudson, by a canal, and was one of the most ardent friends of the project. He did not live to see it consummated, for death suddenly terminated his career, on the 6th of November, 1816, in the sixty-fifth year ofhis age. Mr. Morris was a fine writer, and his pen wielded an extensive influence during half a century. THOMAS M'KEAN. AMONG the numerous men of note, in Pennsylvania, who received an aca demic education under Francis Allison,1 was the eminent Chief Justice M'Kean, of that State. He was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 19th of March, 1734. He studied law with his relative, David Finney, at New Castle, in Delaware ; and during his student life, he was clerk of the prothono- tary Court of Common Pleas, for that county. He was admitted to practice before he was twenty-one years of age, and his upward course in his profession , was rapid and highly honorable. In 1756, he was appointed deputy of the at torney-general, to prosecute in the county of Sussex, and the following year he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He was ap pointed clerk of the assembly of Delaware, at about the same time ; and that body, in 1762, appointed, him a colleague, with Csesar Rodney, to revise and print the laws of the province enacted during the preceding ten years. That same year he was chosen a member of the Delaware Assembly,2 and then he commenced his distinguished political career, in earnest, which continued for almost half a century. He was annually reelected to the Assembly for seventeen years, against his continually expressed desire to leave public life, and even while, for six years of the time, he was a resident of the city of Philadelphia. This was an extraordinary proof of his abUity and fidelity.3 In 1764, the legislature appointed him one of three trustees of the provincial loan office, and he performed the duties of that station until 1772. He was a delegate to the "Stamp Act Congress" held in New York, in 1765, and was I. Sue sketch of Francis Allison. 2. The present State of Delaware, which William Penn obtained by grant and purchase, in 1682, and annexed to his province of Pennsylvania, was originally known as The Territories, comprising the three counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. Penn gave the people of Pennsylvania a new and more liberal charter, in 1701, but the people of The Territories preferred a separate and independent govern ment. A compromise was effected. The Delaware counties were allowed a di.t'nct and independent assembly, under the same governor and council as Pennsylvania. Such was the political condition of the two commonwealths, until finally separated in 1776. 3. When he finally'positively declined a re-election, in 1777. the people insisted that he should name some of the best men in Delaware, for their representatives. He did so, and all were elected. one of the most energetic friends of popular liberty in that assembly. In 177l, he was appointed coUector of the customs at New Castle, and was a commissioner of the revenue. In the Autumn of 1772, he was chosen Speaker of the As sembly. He was a delegate for his adopted province in the first Continental Congress, in 1774; and he was a member of the national council from that time until the return of peace, in 1783. As such he advocated independence, and signed the great Declaration. He was one of the committee appointed to draw up the Articles of Confederation ; and while acting as a senator in Congress, and president ofthe newly-organized State of Delaware, he was also distinguished as a soldier, in New Jersey, with the commission of colonel. In July, 1777, he was commissioned chief justice of Pennsylvania, and held that exalted office for twenty years. It was a position 'of great responsibUity, but Judge M'Kean was equal to the task he had assumed. -He was president of Congress, in 1781 ; and, in 1787, he was a member of the Pennsylvania convention which ratified the Federal Constitution. He was its earnest advocate, and was extremely in fluential in procuring its ratification, by Pennsylvania, In 1789, Judge M'Kean assisted in amending the constitution of his native State ; and ten years after ward, at the end of a warm party contest, he was elected governor of Pennsyl vania. He was rather violent in his party zeal, and his -course as chief magis trate created the most bitter animosity against him. His political enemies tried to impeach him, but his stern integrity never allowed him to deviate from the strict line of duty, and they found no true basis for their attempts to degrade him. For nine years he governed Pennsylvania with firmness, ability, and great discretion, and then retired from public life. Only once again did he appear in a popular assembly. It was in Independence HaU, in 1814, when the safety of Philadelphia seemed in jeopardy from the British. He presided, and reminded the people that there were then only two parties, " our country and its invaders." The venerable patriot went down into the grave, on the 24th of June, 1817, when past the eighty-third year of his ago. THOMAS BALDWIN. ONE of the most eminent Ughts of the Baptist Church, in America, was the Reverend Thomas Baldwin, D.D., who was born at Bozrah,1 Connecticut, on the 23d of December, 1753. His early education was very limited, yet his ardent aspirations for knowledge overcame many obstacles in his way. When he was sixteen years of age- his parents went to Canaan, then a frontier town in New Hampshire, to reside, and there his youth was spent in the laborious voca tion of a blacksmith, the business of his step-father. He was frequently caUed upon to read sermons to the people on the Sabbath, when the minister was ab sent, he being the only young man in the place capable of performing such ser vice. Only a few books could then be obtained, yet so thoroughly did he study all that fell in his way, that, when arrived at manhood, he possessed a stock of misceUaneous knowledge much greater than that of most young men ofhis time, out of cities. Young Baldwin was married to Ruth Huntington, of Norwich, in 1775, and 1. The origin of this name is a little amusing. A plain man, who lived where Fitchville now is, was not remarkable for quoting Scripture correctly. On one occasion, in quoting the sentence from Isaiah, "Who is this that cometh from Edom. with dyed garments from Bozrah," Ac, he stated that the Prophet Bozrah said thus and so. He was ever afterward called the Prophet, and his place was named Bozrah. When the town was incorporated, that name was given to it. THOMAS BALDWIN. 205 soon afterward became a member of the Baptist Church. He, was ordained for the Christian ministry, in the Summer of 1783 ; and at about the same time he was elected to a seat in the Connecticut legislature. Never was a man more devoted to his calling, than was this eminent young servant of Christ. He soon declined political office, because it interfered with his ministerial labors. Like Paul, his own hands ministered to his necessities, for, during the first seven years of his pastoral labors, his salary did not amount to forty dollars a year. Yet he traveUed on horseback over a large district of country. The fame of Mr. Baldwin, as a zealous preacher, was soon in aU the churches; and, in November, 1790, he was installed pastor of the Second Baptist Church, in Boston. The change from the ruder society of the frontier, to the" more re fined of the_ metropolis, was very great, yet his services were most acceptable, from the beginning. His fervid and persuasive eloquence captivated all hearts, and remarkable revivals occurred under his preaching. Within the space of two years [1803-1805], over two hundred communicants were added to his congregation. In 1803, the Faculty of Union CoUege, New York, conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity, upon Mr. Baldwin; and the same year he commenced the publication ofthe American Baptist Magazine. He was its sole editor until 1817, and senior editor until his death. Tt was a powerful auxiliary in his hands, in prompting the growth of the Baptist Church in this country ; and, for a long 206 SETH WARNER. time, it was tho only publication issued by that denomination on this side the Atlantic. Although eminent as a preacher and editor, Dr. Baldwin is more widely known to the reading world as an author. The number of his published works is thirty- four, a large proportion of which consists of sermons, printed by special request. His writings on Baptism have always been regarded as expressing the opinions of the standard authorities of his denomination. Dr. Baldwin was a zealous friend of institutions of learning, especiaUy of those fostered by the Baptist Church ; and during his long life, until his steps began to totter, he was an active laborer. He literally "died in harness," for he expired at Waterville, Maine, on the day after preaching two instructive sermons at HaUowell. His departure was on the 29th of August, 1825, at the age of seventy-two years. Temperate and regular in his habits, his old age was like a sunny landscape just at evening, suffused with golden light. SETH WARNER. AMONG the Green Mountain Boys of the last century, tho man next to Ethan AUen in their esteem, for daring courage, unflinching patriotism, and pleas ant companionship, was Seth Warner, a native of Woodbury, Connecticut, where he was born at about the year 1744. We have no reliable records of his early life, except that he was fond of athletic sports and the excitements of the chase. He took up his abode at Bennington, in the present Vermont, in 1773, and was famous throughout that whole region as a deer and bear hunter. In the contro versy with the authorities of Vermont, he was one of tho leaders of the people; and in March, 17 74, the legislature of New York passed an act of outlawry against him. He was with Ethan Allen at the capture of Ticonderoga, in May, 1775, and commanded the little force that took possession of Crown Point immediately afterward. He received a colonel's commission from Congress, raised a regiment of Green Mountain Boys, ' and joined the army in Canada, under General Montgomery ; but on the approach of Winter, they were discharged. He had been of great service after the capture of Ethan AUen, at Montreal, and on the 1st of Novem ber, had repulsed a considerable British force, under Governor Carleton, which attempted to land at LongueuU for the purpose of driving the invading Amer icans back to Lake Champlain, The foUowing Spring, Warner raised another regiment, marched toward. Quebec, and was very serviceable in the final retreat of the Americans from Canada, In all the operations in the vicinity of Lake Champlain, in 1776, Colonel Warner was an efficient participator; and he was at Ticonderoga, in the Summer of 1777, when Burgoyne compelled the Amer icans to abandon that post, . He commanded a part of St. Clair's troops in that retreat, and gallantly fought the pursuing enemy at Hubbardton, on the 7th of July. Defeated in that engagement, he made a successful retreat to Manchester, and on the 16th of August foUowing, he was with the gallant Stark in the en gagement known as the Battle of Bennington. He then joined General Gates on the Hudson, assisted in humbling Burgoyne, and participated in the glory of his defeat and capture. He engaged very little in public life, after that event, be cause his health was greatly impaired by a complication of disorders. He Un- gered on until 1785, when death ended his sufferings. He died at his birth-place, at the age of about forty-one years. Grateful for his services, his adopted State granted a valuable tract of land to his widow and children. 1. See sketch of Ethan Allen. JOSEPH REED. 207 JOSEPH REED. " T AM not worth purchasing, but, such as I am, the King of Great Britain is A not rich enough to do it," are the noble words attributed by tradition to Joseph Reed, of Pennsylvania, and uttered when a bribe was offered for his influence in favor of Great Britain, in 1778. He was born at Trenton, New Jersey, on the 27th of August, 1741. His father soon afterward made Phila delphia his residence, for several years. Joseph was designed for the profession of the law, and was educated in the coUege at Princeton, where he was grad uated in 1757, with a Bachelor's degree, at the early age of sixteen years. He first studied law with Richard Stockton, and completed his legal education in the - Temple, in London. On his return home, he made Philadelphia his residence, entered warmly into poUtical life, and was one of the committee of correspond ence in his adopted city, in 1774. He was chosen president of the first popular convention in Pennsylvania; and, in 1775, he accompanied Washington to Cambridge as his aid and secretary. He remained with the chief during that campaign, and the following year, when Gates was appointed to the command in the Northern Department. Mr. Reed was then appointed adjutant-general ofthe American army, with the rank of colonel. He performed efficient servico in the battle near Brooklyn, in August, 1776, especiaUy in the management of the admirable retreat of the Americans. In the Spring of 1 7 7 7, he was appointed a brigadier, in command of cavalry, but declined the honor, yet he remained at tached to the army until after the battle at Germantown, in the Autumn of 1777. He was soon afterward elected to a seat in Congress, and was a member of that body when, in the Spring of 1778, commissioners came from England to negotiate a peace on the basis of the submission of the colonists to the crown. It was to the agent of one of these commissioners that he is said to have ad dressed the words above quoted.' The fact became known, and Congress re fused further intercourse with the commissioners. In 1778, General Reed was chosen president of the newly-organized commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and filled that station with great abUity until October, 1781, when he retired from public Ufe, and resumed the practice of the law. Like all dutiful men, he was the target for unmeasured abuse from his political opponents; but when time dissipated the clouds of party rancor, all men beheld in Joseph Reed a patriot and an honest man. His health became impaired in 1784, and he went to Eng land to seek its restoration, but without beneficial results.2 He died on the 4th of March, 1785, at the age of forty-four years. 1. The agent chosen was Mrs. Ferguson, a native of Pennsylvania, whose husband was a relative of Adam Ferguson, the secretary of the commission. She was a woman of superior attainments, and loved her country. She was a passive, rather than an active agent in the matter. In her account of her in terview with Mr. Reed, she says his words were, "My infiuence is but small, but were it as great as Governor Johnstone [the commissioner who approached General Beed, through Mrs. Ferguson] would insinuate, the King of Great Britain has nothing within his gift that would tempt me." Alluding to this, Trumbull, in his " M'Fingall," says : " Behold, at Britain's utmost shifts, Comes Johnstone, loaded with like gifts, To venture through the Whiggish tribe, To cuddle, wheedle, coax, and bribe ; And call to aid his desp'rate mission, His petticoated politician ; While Venus, joined to act the farce, Strolls forth ambassadress of Mars." 2. Mr. Reed married a daughter of Dennis de Berdt, a London merchant, in 1770. Though in delicate health, she was active in her sphere of duty in relation to public events. She was at the head of an association of ladies, formed in Philadelphia in 1780, to furnish clothing for the army. No less than twenty-two hundred ladies joined the association, and contributed by their money and needles to the comfort of the soldiers. - 208 JAMES RIVINGTON. JAMES RIVINGTON. PERHAPS one of the most acute and successful political gamesters in this country, was James Rivington, "the king's printer," in New York, during a greater portion of the War for Independence. He was a native of London, wen-educated, courtly in deportment, and a general favorite among his acquaint ances. He was a bookseller in London, but failing in business, he came to America, in 1760, and opened a book-store in Philadelphia. The following year he opened another at the foot of Wall Street, New York; and, in 1762, he estabhshed a third, in Boston. His partner in the latter died three years after ward, and it was closed. In the course of a few years he again failed in busi ness, but settling his affairs satisfactorily, he resumed it in New York, and thereafter confined his operations to that city. He commenced printing books, in 1772 ; and, in the Spring ofthe foUowing year, he published the first number of Ms Royal Gazetteer, a weekly-newspaper. It was conducted witb considerable fairness, but after the hostilities in Massachusetts, in the Spring of 1775, he took - strong ground against the Whigs, and excited their fiercest indignation. Their ire took tangible shape in November of that year, when Isaac Sears (a leader of the Sons of Liberty ten years before), at the head of a troop of Connecticut mU- itia, marched into the. city at noon-day, destroyed Rivington's press, and car ried off his type to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Rivington soon afterward went to England, but returned in the Autumn of 1776, when the British had taken possession of New York. Early in 1777, he resumed the publication of his paper, and from that time till the close of the war, he dealt hard and unscrupu lous blows upon the patriots, from Washington and Congress down to the most obscure official. And yet, toward the close of the conflict, while his press was the vehicle of the coarsest abuse of Washington and his friends, it is -a well-at tested fact that Rivington was secretly furnishing the American commander-in- chief valuable information concerning the movements and plans of the enemy within the city. Such was the case from early in. 1781, until the evacuation of the city by the British near the close of 17 83.' This fact accounts for the other wise inexplicable circumstance, that Rivington, the arch-loyalist, was allowed to remain whUe thousands of less offending Tories were compelled to flee to. Nova Scotia Rivington sagaciously perceived the inevitable result of the con flict, and thus made a peace-offering to the Americans. His business declined after the war, and he lived in comparative poverty for many years, simply be cause he would not relinquish his expensive mode of living.2 He died in July, 1802, when at the age of about seventy-eight years. £ 1. By means of books which he printed, he performed his treason without suspicion. He wrote his information upon thin paper, and bound those billets in the covers of books which he adroitly managed to sell to persons employed by Washington to buy of him, but who were ignorant of the transaction. Wash ington removed the covers, and found the desired information. Referring to the change in tbe tone of Rivington's paper, at the close of the war, Philip Frenau, the vigorous epic and lyric poet of the Revolution, wrote, in the editor's name : " You know I was zealous for George's command, But since he disgraced it, and left us behind, If I thougnir him an angel I've altered my mind. On the very same day that his army went hence, I ceased to tell lies for the sake of his pence ; And what was the reason — the true one is best, I worship no sun that declines to the west." 2. Referring to this, Frenau wrote : " Long life and low spirits were never my choice, ' ' "As long as I live I intend to rejoice ; When life is worn out, and no wine '6 to be had, 'Tis time enough then to be Berious and sad, 'Tis time enough then to reflect and repent, When our liquor is gone, and our money is spent." JOHN DICKENSON. 209 JOHN DICKENSON. THE " Letters of a Farmer of Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies," published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, during the Summer and Autumn of 1767, had a powerful influence on the American mind, in preparing it for the great struggle for freedom, even then impending. The author was John Dickenson, a native of Maryland, where he was born, on the 13th of November, 1732. His father was first judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in Delaware, and being wealthy, his son had every advantage of social position and pecuniary ease, at the beginning of life. He was well educated by private tutors, and then went to England and studied law in the Temple, for three years. He first appeared in public life as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, in 1764, where the readiness of his pen attracted general attention. He was also a member ofthe Stamp Act Congress, in 1765. He soon afterward commenced writing political essays ; and during the whole conflict, which commenced in earnest in 1775, his pen was always active and efficient. - His Letters of a Penn sylvania Farmer, above aUuded to, were published in London, by Dr. Franklin, in 1768, and the following year they were translated into French, and pubUshed at Paris.1 1. The people of Boston passed a vote of thanks to Mr. Dickenson for those Letters, and the Society of Fort St. David, of Philadelphia, presented him with an address in "a box of heart of oak." 210 PETER MUHLENBERG. Mr. Dickenson was a member of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and his pen was instrumental in the preparation of two of the State papers put forth by that body. He wrote the Declaration of the Congress of 1775, setting forth the causes and the necessity for war ; yet he steadily opposed the idea of poht ical independence, for he hoped for a reconcUiation. For that reason, he was intentionaUy absent from Congress on the 4th of July, 1776, for he was unwfll- ing to vote on the subject of independence, contrary to the expressed wishes of his constituents. In the Autumn of 1777, President M'Kean, of Delaware, commissioned him a brigadier-general, but his miUtary career was short. Ho was again elected to Congress, in 1779, and there, as before, his pen was em ployed in the preparation of important State papers. In 1780, he took his seat, as a member, in the Delaware Assembly; and, in 1782, he was elected president or governor of Pennsylvania. He held that office untU October, 1785. He was one of the most accomplished and efficient members of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution ; and over the signature of Fabius he published nine ably- written letters in its defence. In 1792, he assisted in forming a Con stitution for Delaware ; and, in 1797, he published another series of political letters over the signature of Fabius. At about that time he retired from pubhc life, and the remainder of his days were passed in the enjoyment of domestic and social happiness, at WUmington, where he died on the 14th of February, 1808, at the age of seventy-five years. Dickenson College, at Carlisle, Pennsyl vania, is a noble monument to perpetuate his memory. It is now [1854] under the control of tho Baltimoro and Philadelphia conferences of tho Methodist Episcopal Church. PETER MUHLENBERG. SPIRITUAL and temporal warfare was the. lot of many Gospel ministers, dur ing the War for Independence. Of those who wielded weapons manfuUy, in both fields of conflict, was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, who generaUy wrote his name with the John and Gabriel omitted. He was a native of Trappe, a viUage in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 1st of October, 1746. He was the son of Dr. Melchoir Muhlenberg (the founder of the 'Lutheran Church in America), and the daughter of Conrad Weiser, the great Pennsylvania Indian agent. Peter was educated for the ministry, partly in this country, and partly in Europe. He was ordained in 1768, and commenced his pastoral labors in Western New Jersey the following year. He was called to the charge ofa congregation in Virginia, in 1771, and it being necessary to ob tain ordination from an English Bishop, before he could enter upon his duties there, he went to London for the purpose, at the beginning of the foUowing year. He and Mr. (afterward Bishop) White were ordained at the same time. On his return, he became minister of the parish of Woodstock, Virginia, and was soon an acknowledged leading spirit of that section among those who opposed British aggressions. He was chairman of the committee of safety in that county, in 1774, and was elected to a seat in the House of Burgesses. At the close of 1775, he was appointed colonel of a Virginia regiment, and, reUnquishing his pastoral duties,1 he joined the army, and was in the battle at Charleston, in colonel. He then ordered the drums tobebea'en at the church door f r recruits, and ahxo-t three hundred men, chiefly of his congregation, were enrolled under his banner, that day. SILAS TALBOT. 211 June, 1776. Congress commissioned him a brigadier, in February, 1777, and he was ordered to take charge of all the Virginia Continental troops. He joined the army, under Washington, at Middlebrook, iii May, and was with the chief in all his movements from that time untU 1779 — Brandywine, Germantown, White Marsh, Valley Forge, and Monmouth. He was with Wayne at tho cap ture of Stony Point, in July, 1779, and was very active afterward, in Virginia, until the capture of Cornwallis, in the Autumn of 1781. He was a brave par ticipator in that last great battle of the Revolution. At the close of the war he was promoted to major-general, and removed to Pennsylvania. He never re sumed his ministerial labors, but served his native State in several civil offices. He was a member of the first and third Congress, after the organization of tho Federal Government, and was also a United States Senator, in 1801. Ho was appointed supervisor of the revenue of Pennsylvania the same year; and, in 1802, he was made coUector of tho port of Philadelphia. In that office he re mained until his death, which occurred at his country seat, near Philadelphia, on the 1st of October, 1807, when ho was precisely sixty-ono years of age. His remains lie buried in tho burial-ground at Trappe, near tho church wherein ho was baptized. SILAS TALBOT. THE exigencies of tho pubUc sorvice during the War for Independence often times made officers amphibious — caUed to duty on land and water — as in the ease of Arnold, Drayton, and others- SUas Talbot was of this class, and ono of the bravest and most devoted. His memory has been rescued from oblivion by an accomplished writer of our day (H. T. Tuckerman, Esq.), who, with in finite pains, has grouped the chief incidents of his checkered Ufe into a miniature volume. Our hero was a lineal descendant of Sir Richard de Talbot ofthe time of WiUiam the Conqueror, and seems to have inherited the martial taste of his iUustrious ancestor. He was a native of Rhode Island, but little is known of his early Ufe. He was a young man when the war broke out, and ho entered heartily into the contest. He then resided in Providence, where he had married, in 1772, and built himself a house, with his own earnings. Early in 1775, he had organized a little company of volunteers ; and, in June following, the State gave him the commission of captain in one of its regiments. He joined the camp at Roxbury, was active during that campaign, and accompanied the army to New York, in the Spring of 1776. There he performed some daring exploits against the British shipping in the harbor, which elicited the thanks of Congress, and procured him a major's commission. In the Autumn of 1777, he was in the memorable siege of Fort Mifflin, on the Delaware, where he was twieo badly wounded. The following year we find Major Talbot busily engaged in furnish ing boats for General Sullivan to transport his troops across the channel at the upper end of Rhode Island ; and from that time, until tho evacuation of the Island, by the British, he was active, in all miUtary and naval events, in that vicinity. In the Autumn of 1779, he was commissioned a captain in the navy, and he afterward made as successful cruises, as he had already during his six months of naval command previous to the date of his commission. He was captured by a small British fleet, in 1780, and suffered the horrors of the Jersey prison-ship,1 and the Provost Jaui a' New York, for several months. He was 1. This was an old hulk, moored where the Brooklyn Navy Yard now is, and used as a prison for captured American seamen. Soldiers were also immured there. Several thousands perished of famine 212 NATHAN HALE. finally taken to England, and exchanged at the close of 1781. After the war, he purchased a portion of the forfeited estate of Sir WiUiam Johnson's heirs, on the Mohawk, and retired to private life. In 1794, when a new organization of the navy took p lace, Captain Talbot was called into the pubUc service ; and he superintended the construction of the Constitution, which became his flag-ship, in 1799, while on a cruise in the West Indies, with the afterward renowned commander of the same ship (Hull), as his lieutenant. Talbot remained in active service until 1801, when he resigned his commission, took up his abode in tho city of New York, and lived in retirement untU his death, on the 30th of June, 1813. His remains were buried under Trinity Church. NATHAN HALE. ONE of the earUest martyrs in the cause of popular Uberty, in America, was Captain Nathan Hale, whoseiate, and that of Major Andr&, history may properly parallel. He was a son of Richard Hale, of Coventry, Connecticut, and was born in that town, twenty mUes from Hartford, about the year 1754. Ho was graduated at Yale College, with distinguished approbation, in 1773, when the tempest of the Revolution was gathering force. Fired with zeal for liberty, he joined the Connecticut troops that hastened to Boston after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, and was with Captain (afterward Colonel) Knowlton in the battle on Breed's HUl. He continued with the army under the immediate command of Washington, until the foUowing year, and participated in the battle near Brooklyn, and the retreat of the American army, from Long Island. At that time Knowlton was in command of a regiment, caUed Congress' Own, that assumed a sort of body-guardianship to the commander-in-chief, and young Hale held a captain's commission in it. WhUe the American army were upon Harlem Heights, and the great body of the British were yet on Long Island (in tho vicinity of Brooklyn, and of the present Astoria), Washington was very anxious to ascertain the exact condition of the enemy's forces. He applied to Colonel Knowlton for a judicious person to go as a spy into the British camp. Captain Hale volunteered for the service, and bearing instructions from Washington, he crossed Long Island- Sound from the Connecticut shore, visited the British camps, made notes and sketches, unsuspected, and was about to embark from Huntington, to Connecticut, when he was discovered and exposed, it is said, by a Tory relative, and was made a prisoner. He was taken to Sir WiUiam Howe's head-quarters at Turtle Bay, confined in Beekman's green-house in the garden, until morning, and then, without the form of a regular trial, was handed over to Cunningham, the brutal provost-marshal in New York, for execution as a spy. That wretch would not allow him to have the company of a clergyman, nor the use of a Bible ; and he even destroyed the letters which the victim had written to his mother and sisters during the night. Amid cruel jeers he was hanged,: like a dog, upon an apple tree, and his body was buried in a grave beneath its' shadow. He suffered death in accordance with the stern laws of war, but his treatment, from the hour of his capture until his death, was disgraceful to the British commander. Hale's last words were, " I only regret that I have not more Uves to give to my country."1 A beautiful monument has been erected to his memory in his native town. and disease in that loathsome prison. The Provost jail was also a place of horrors. It was in Liberty Street, near Nassau Street. 1. A full account of Hale's capture and death may be found inOnderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents on Long Island, and in LoBBing's Pictorial Field-Boole of the Revolution. ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 213 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. AROUND the name of Hamilton, the pure patriot, the brave soldier, the ac complished statesman, and acute financier, there is a halo which brightens with the lapse of years, for he was peerless among his fellows. He was a native of the island of Nevis, in the West Indies, and was descended from a Scotch father and a French mother. He was born on the 11th of January, 1757. Ho received a fair education in childhood, and at the age of twelve years he becamo a clerk in the mercantile house of Nicholas Cruger, at St. Croix. Every leisure moment he devoted to study ; and while yet a mere youth, a productien of his pen gave such evidence of great genius, that the friends of his widowed mother provided means for sending him to New York to be thoroughly educated. At the age of sixteen years he accompanied his mother to the United States, and entered King's (now Columbia) College as a student, where he remained about three years. The contest of words, with Great Britain, was then raging, and gave scope to his thoughts and topics for his pen. When only seventeen years of age he appeared as a speaker at public meetings, and he assisted the Sons of Liberty in carrying off British cannon from the battery of Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, in 1775. He entered the army as captain of an artillery com pany, raised chiefly by himself; and performed good service at White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton. His pen was as active as his' sword, and many articles, attributed to more mature and eminent men, were the offspring of his brain. 214 WILLIAM GRAY. He attracted the special attention of Washington, and in March, 1777, the cdm- mander-in-chief appointed him his aid-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant- colonel. During the remainder of the war, until the capture of Cornwallis in the Autumn of 1781, he was Washington's chief secretary, and was also tho leader of a corps of light infantry, under La Fayette, at the siege of Yorktown. After that event he left the army, and, in 1782, was admitted to practice at tho bar of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. He was a member of Congress during that year, but declined a reelection. He had married a daughter of General Philip Schuyler, in 1780, and he looked to his profession for the sup port of his family. He rose to distinction very rapidly, yet in the midst of his extensive business, he found time to employ his pen upon subjects of national importance. He was a member of the convention that framed the Federal Con stitution, and in connection with Madison and Jay, wrote the series of articles in favor of that instrument, known asThe Federalist. Of the eighty-five num bers, Hamilton wrote fifty-four. He was also a member ofthe State convention, held at Poughkeepsie in 1788, that ratified the Constitution. When, in 1789, the now government was organized, Washington, on the earnest recommenda tion of Robert Morris, placed Mr. Hamilton at the head of the Treasuiy. It was a wise choice, for financial difficulties were more formidable than any others in the way of the administration, and no man was more capable of bringing order out of confusion, than Mr. HamUton. His consummate skill soon regulated money matters ; but while he was improving the fiscal condition of the govern^ ment, he was injuring his own. He accordingly resigned his office, in 1795, and turned his attention to his profession. When a provisional army was raised, in 1798, Washington accepted the commission of commander-in-chief, only on con dition that Hamilton should be his associate, and second in command. This was Hamilton's last public servioe. In the Winter of 1804, he became involved in a political dispute with Colonel Aaron Burr, which resulted in a duel in July foUowing. They met at Hoboken, and upon the same spot where his son was kiUed in a duel a few years previously, Hamilton was mortally wounded, and died the next day, July 12th, ^804, at the age of little more than forty-seven years. His wife survived him, in widowhood, fifty, years. She died on the 9th of November, 1854, at the age of ninety-seven years and three months. The voluminous papers of General Hamilton were purchased by Congress, and after being arranged by his son, John C. HamUton, they were published in sovcn octavo volumes, in 1841. WILLIAM GRAY. THE successful and honorable merchant is one of the most valuable integrals ofa nation's strength, for he is the factor of the nation's labor and capital. ''J Ono of tho most eminent in this profession was William Gray. He was bomb in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1751, and when quite a small boy, was apprenticed' to a merchant in Salem. He finished his commercial education with Richard Derby,1 of that port;, and such was his character for enterprise and strict in tegrity during his apprenticeship, that when, soon after its close, he commenced 1. After the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, on tho 19th of April, 1775, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, in session at Watertown, with Joseph Warren at its head, prepared a full and elaborate statement of the affair, with an Address to the People of Great Britain. Richard Derby (the master of young Gray) was employed to carry these documents to England, and place them in the hands .of Dr. Franklin, in London. He arrived there on tho 29th of May, and tho Address and Statement wero pub lished in tho London papers. This was the first information the British public had of tho affair DAVID HUMPHREYS. 215 business for himself, he had the entire confidence and good-will of the whole community. Prosperity waited upon him in all his transactions, and in less than twenty-five years after he commenced business, he was taxed as tho wealthiest man in Salem, notwithstanding some of the largest fortunes in tho United States belonged to men of that town. His enterprise and industry was wonderful; and at one time he had moro than sixty sail of square-rigged vessels on the ocean. For more than fifty years he arose at dawn, and was ready for the business ofthe day before others had finished their last nap. Although he had millions of dollars afloat on the sea of business, he was careful of small ex penditures — those leaks which endanger the ship — and his whole life was a lesson of prudent oconomy, without penuriousness. Mr. Gray was a democrat, and his sincerity was evinced by the fact that dur ing the embargo, he took sides with Jefferson, notwithstanding all New England was in a blaze against the president, and it was an injury to the amount of tens of thousands of doUars to the great merchant's business. In the midst of the commercial distress, he removed to Boston, and having pleased the people while a State Senator, he was chosen lieutenant-governor of the Commonwealth. He used his immense riches for the wants of government, and never took advan tages ofthe exigencies ofthe times, to speculate in government securities. After the war of 1812-15, he engaged largely in business again, but he lost often and heavily. Yet he died a rich man, honored and beloved for his virtues, on the 4th of November, 1825, at the age of about seventy-four years. DAVID HUMPHREYS. IT is inscribed upon a neat granite monument, in a cemetery at New Haven, Connecticut, that "David Humphreys, doctor of laws, member ofthe Acad emy of Sciences of Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, of the Bath [Agricultural Society] and of the Royal Society of London," was " a distinguished historian and poet ; a model and a patron of science, and of the ornamental and useful arts." He was born in Derby, Connecticut, in 1753, and was graduated at Yale CoUege, in 1771. A few months afterward, he went to reside, as a tutor, in the famUy of Colonel PhUipse,1 of the Phflipse Manor, on the Hudson. How long he remained in that capacity we have no record, and we lose sight of the future "historian and poet" until the war of the Revolution began, when we find him at the head of a company of Connecticut militia. He afterward joined the Continental army, with a captain's commission, and was under the immediate command of General Putnam until 1778, when that officer made him one of his aids, with the rank of major. He held that commission until the Autumn of 1780, when he was promoted to the office of aid to Washington, with the rank of colonel. He remained in the military family of the commander-in-chief until the close of the war. For his valor at Yorktown, where Cornwallis was captured, 'Congress honored him with a vote of thanks, and the present of an elegant sword. ' In May, 1784, Colonel Humphreys was appointed secretary to the commission for negotiating treaties with foreign powers, and with his friend Kosciusczko, ac companied Mr. Jefferson to Paris. He returned in 1786, and was elected to a seat in the Connecticut legislature. He was appointed to the command of a regiment raised for the western service, but was not caUed to the field; and from 216 JOHN MARSHALL. 1786 till 1788, he resided at Hartford, where, with Trumbull, Barlow, and Hop kins, he wrote the Anarchiad. By invitation of Washington, Colonel Humphreys resided in the family of the great Patriot from 1788 untU appointed by his il lustrious friend minister to Portugal, in 1790. ( He went thither in 1791, and returned in 1794. He was soon afterward appointed minister to Spain, and took up his abode at Madrid, early in 1795. While there he negotiated treaties with TripoU and Algiers, and was successful in all his diplomatic duties. He was succeeded in office by General Thomas Pinckney, in 1802, and then returned home. The year previously, he sent a flock of one hundred merino sheep to America, the first ever seen in this country, and the cultivation of this valuablo stock was his chief employment during the latter years of his life. He took command of the mflitia of Connecticut, in 1812, but was not in actual service. Being blessed with ample pecuniary means, ' he Uved in elegant retirement until his sudden death, whieh was caused by an organic disease of the heart. That event occurred on the 21st of February, 1818, when he was sixty-five years of age. Colonel Humphreys wrote much in prose and verse. In 1782, he published quite a long poetical address to the armies of the United States. He wrote a number of smaller poems, a tragedy, and several political tracts ; and, in 1788, he wrote a Life of General Putnam, 'from narratives uttered by the old hero's lips, carefully written out. JOHN MARSHALL. THE long-honored- patriot, and eminent chief justice ofthe United States, John Marshall, was born at Germantown, in Fauquier county, Virginia, on the 24th of September, 1755, and was the eldest of fifteen children by the samo mother. He received some classical instruction in early youth, and from chUd hood he evinced a taste for Uterature and general knowledge. He becamo physically vigorous by field sports, and his solitary meditations were generaUy amid the wUdest natural scenery. When Dunmore invaded Lower Virginia, in 1775, young Marshall was appointed Ueutenant in the "minute battalion," and, with his father, performed good service in the battle at the Great Bridge, near the Dismal Swamp. In July, the following year, he was attached to the Vir ginia Continental line, with the same commission ; and, early in 1777, he joined the army under Washington. He was in the battles of Brandywine and Ger mantown, suffered at Valley Forge, and fought at Monmouth in the Summer of 1778, as commander of a Virginia company. He remained in service until early in 1780, when he turned his attention to the study of the law. He attended the lectures of Mr. Wythe (afterward chancellor of Virginia), and toward tho close of Summer was admitted to practice. A few months afterward, Virginia was invaded "by Arnold, and Marshall again joined the army in defence" of his native State. There being a redundancy of officers, he soon resigned his com mission, but he had no opportunity to practice his profession until after the cap ture of CornwalUs, in the Autumn of 1781. He then soon rose to distinction as a lawyer; and, in the Spring of 1782, he was elected to a seat in the Virginia legislature. In the Autumn of that year he was chosen a member of the exec utive council. In January, 1783, Mr. Marshall married a daughter, of tho treasurer of Vir ginia, and they Uved together about fifty years. He resigned his seat at tho 1. In 1797, Colonel Humphreys married the daughter of a very wealthy E_.Gll-h merchant, cf Lisbon. council board, in 1784, and immediately afterward (though a resident of Rich mond) he was chosen to represent his native county in the legislature. He represented Henrico county, in 1787. In the Virginia convention called to con sider the Federal Constitution, Mr. Marshall was one of the most zealous and effective supporters of that instrument. He served in the Virginia legislature until 1792, when he again devoted his whole time to his profession. He was a member ofthe Virginia House of Delegates, in 1795, and nobly defended Jay's memorable treaty.1 His speech, on that occasion, made a profound impression in America and Europe. Soon afterward, he was sent as one of three envoys extraordinary to the government of France. On his return, he was elected to a seat in the Federal Congress. Within three weeks after entering upon his duties there, he was called upon to announce, in that body, the death of Washington I His words, on that occasion, were few but deeply impressive. His career in the national legislature was short, for, in 1800, he was chosen first Secretary of War, and then Secretary of State; and, in January, 1801, he was appointed chief justice ofthe Supreme Court ofthe United States. From that time he discarded party poUtics, and in his lofty station he performed his exalted duties with great dignity and unsuspected integrity, during the remainder of his life. He was 1. See sketch of Jehu Jay. 10 218 WILLIAM WIRT. not unmindful of the claims of his native State, and as his residence was at its capital, he frequently assisted in public duties. This eminent jurist died at PhUadelphia, on the 6th of July, 1835, in the eightieth year of his age. Two days before his death he enjoined his friends to place only a plain slab over the graves of himself and wife, and he wrote the simple inscription himself.1 Judge Marshall's IAfe of Washington, pubhshed in 1805, and revised and repubUshed in 1832, is a standard work. WILLIAM WIRT. IT has been weU observed that "it is the pecuUar felicity of our republican in stitutions, that they throw no impediment in the career of merit, but the competition of rival abiUties." Hundreds of the leading men in our Republic have illustrated the truth of this sentiment, and none more so than the accom plished WUliam Wirt. He was born at Bladensburg, in Maryland, on the 18th of November, 1772, and was left a poor orphan at an early age. His paternal uncle took charge of him, and at the age of seven years he was placed in a school at Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. From his eleventh until his fifteenth year he was at the same school in Montgomery county, continuously, where he was taught the Latin and Greek languages, and some natural phUosophy. He there had the advantages of a good library, and improved it; and as early as his thirteenth year,- he commenced authorship with promise. Young Wirt was a tutor in the famUy of the late Ninian Edwards, governor of IlUnois, for about eighteen months. After a brief residence at the South, on account of ill-health, he commenced the study of law at Montgomery Court-house, and was licensed to practice, in the Autumn of 1792. He commenced his professional career, the same year, at Culpepper Court-house, in Virginia, and soon became eminent. With vigorous body and inteUect, pleasing person and manners, he became a favorite, and married the. daughter of an accomplished gentleman (the intimate s friend of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe) residing near CharlottesviUe. His wife died in 1799, and in deep distress Wirt left the scenes ofhis late happy life, went to Richmond, and was clerk of theUouse of Delegates during three sessions. There he was greatly esteemed for his talents and social accomplishments, and he received tho appointment, in 1802, of chancellor of the eastern district of Virginia. In the Autumn of that year he married an aceomphshed young lady of Richmond, and soon resumed the practice of the law. In 1803-4, he wroto his beautiful essays under the name of The British Spy, and at about the same time he took up his abode in Norfolk. He returned to Richmond, in 1806, and the foUowing year he was engaged in the trial of Aaron Burr, for treason. His great speech on that occasion was warmly applauded. He was a member of the Virginia legislature, in 1808, and from that time until after the war, he 1. Their graves are in the plain cemetery on Shoccoe Hill, Richmond, and the inscription is as follows : " John Marshall, son of Thomas and Mary Marshall, was born on the 24th of September, 1755: intermarried with Mart Willis Ambler, the 3d of January, 1783 ; departed this liftT the 6th day or July, 1835." Judge Marshall was an exceedingly plain man, in person and habits. He always carried his own marketing home in his hands. On- one occasion, a yonng housekeeper was swearing lustily because he could not hire a .person to carry his turkey homo for him. A ploin man standing by, offered to perform the service, and when they arrived at the ddor, the young man asked, " What shall I pay you?" " Oh, nothing,'' replied the old man, "you are welcome; it was on my way, and no trouble." Who is that polite old gentleman who brought home my turkey for me?" inquired the young man of a bystander. That," he replied, " is John Marshall, chief justice of the United States." The astonished young man exclaimed, *' Why did be bring home my turkey ?" " To give you a sevcro reprimand," replied the other, " and to learn you to attend to your own business." The lesson was never forgotten. WILLIAM HULL. 219 1 pursued his profession successfuUy. In the Winter of 1817-18, he removed to Washington city, having received, from Mr. Monroe, the appointment of Attor ney-general of the United States. Ho held that office through three presidential terms, and at the end of Mr. Adams' administration, he made Baltimore his residence. In 1832, he was nominated by the Anti-Masonic party for President of the United States, but received the majority of the electoral votes in only one State — Vermont. During 1833 he was engaged in founding a colony of Germans, in Florida. It proved a failure. In January following he attended the Supreme Court at Washington, and his feebleness of health was then very much increased by hearing of the death of his eldest daughter. A severe cold hastened the progress of his disease, and on the 18th of February, 1834, he expired, at tho age of sixty-three years. His Life of Patrick Henry is tho most brilliant of the published productions of liis pen. WILLIAM HULL. " T CAN wait," said the great and good Lavater, when an enemy assailed his I character. Many injured men have been compeUed to wait, and finally to go into the grave without the soiace of vindication ; yet posterity, more just than cotemporaries, usually render a righteous judgment. General William Hull, a brave patriot of the Revolution, waited many long years for a vindica tion of his character from the imputations of cowardice, and even of treason, uttered by a judicial verdict and the prejudices of public opinion. Long after he fell asleep in death, his vindication was made complete. He was a native of Derby, Connecticut, where he was born on the 24th of June, 1753. He acquired physical vigor whUe a, youth, by farm labor, and at the age of fifteen years he entered Yale College, as a student. He was graduated with usual honors, in 1772. His parents designed him for the ministry, -but on leaving college ho became tutor of a school, for awhile, then reluctantly began the study of Divinity, and finally became a student in the Law School at Litchfield, Con necticut. He was successful, and was admitted to the bar, in 1775. He was soon afterward elected captain of a rmlitia company, and joined the army under Washington, at Cambridge. He continued with Washington during the siege of Boston, and tho subsequent operations in the vicinity of New York and in New Jersey. He acted as field officer in the battle at Trenton, and soon after ward Washington promoted him to major in a Massachusetts regiment. Ho behaved bravely in the battle at Princeton. In the foUowing May ho marched some recruits to Ticonderoga, and was active during the Summer and Autumn of that year, until Burgoyne was humbled at Saratoga. In the battles on thcit occasion, he was particularly distinguished. He suffered at Valley Forge, fought at Monmouth, and in the Autumn was in command of a regiment, first at Pough keepsie, and then at White Plains. He was at the capture of Stony Point, in the Summer of 1779, and he was soon afterward promoted to the rank of lieuten- ant-ooloael. His services now became multifarious, and until the close of tho war, he was regarded by General Washington as one of his most useful officers. When, after the treaty of peace, in 1783, the British still retained possession of several frontier forts, in violation of the stipulations of that treaty, Colonel Hull was sent to Quebec, by the United States government, to make a formal demand upon the governor-general of Canada for their immediate surrender. On his return, he made his residence at Newton, Massachusetts; and, in 1786, he was one of General Lincoln's volunteer aids in quelling tho insurrection known 220 ABRAHAM WHIPPLE. as Sliay's Rebellion. He was also very active in civil affairs. In 1793, he was' appointed a commissioner to make arrangements with the British government to hold a treaty with the Western Indians. He visited England and France, in 1798, and soon after his return, was honored with the office of judge of the court of Common Pleas, and the commission of major-general in the mUitia of Massachusetts. He was also elected a State Senator, and was employed in various public duties until 1805, when Congress appointed him governor of the Michigan Territory. He held that office when war was declared against Great Britain, in 1812, at which time he was at the head of an army, marching to crush the power of hostile Indians. He was immediately commissioned one of the four brigadiers to assist General Dearborn, the commander-in-chief. . In the comparatively weak fort at Detroit, he was invested by a strong force of British and Indians ; and, to save his command from almost certain destruction, he sur rendered the fort, his army of two thousand men, and the Territory, to the enemy. For this he was tried for treason and cowardice, and being unable to produce certain official testimony which subsequently vindicated his character, he was ' found guUty of the latter, and sentenced to be shot. The President of the United States, "in consideration of his age and revolutionary services," pardoned him, but a cloud was upon his fame and honor. He published a' vindicatory memoir, in 1824, which changed public opinion in his favor. Yet he did not live long to enjoy the effects of that change. . He died at Newton, on the 29th of November, 1825, at the age of seventy-two years. A Memoir of General HuU, by his daughter and grandson, was pubhshed in 1848. It fuUy vindicates the character of the. injured patriot, by documentary evidence. Y ABRAHAM WHIPPLE, OU, Abraham Whipple, on the 17th of June, 1772, burned his majesty's vessel, the Gaspfi, and I will hang you at the yard arm. " James Wallace." " To Sir James Wallace : " Sir, — Always catch a man before you hang him. " Abraham Whipple." Such was the correspondence between two opposing naval commanders in Nar raganset Bay, in the Summer of 1775. Whipple was a native of Providence, situated at the head of that bay, where he was born in 1733. He received very little education, and from earliest youth his Ufe was spent chiefly upon the oeean. He was in the merchant service for many years, and at the age of twenty-seven he was commander of a privateer named Tlie Game Cock. During a single cruise, in 1760, he took twenty-three French prizes. When the colonists and the mother government quarrelled, Captain Whipple espoused the cause of his countrymen, and was among those who committed the first overt act of rebel- lien, in New England, in the burning of the British armed schooner, Gaspe, above alluded to.1 Captain Whipple saUed on a trading voyage to the West Indies soon afterward, and did not return until 1774. 1. The Gaspe was stationed in Narraganset Bay to enforce the revenue laws. While chasing an American vessel up the bay, it ran aground on a sandy shoal. Captain Whipple and a number of sea men went down the bay on the night of the 17th of June, boarded the schooner, captured tho commander and crew, and then burned the vessel. Notwithstanding a commission was appointed to investigate the affair, and a large reward was offered for tho perpetrators, their names were not made known until war with Great Britain had actually commenced. ABRAHAM WHIPPLE. 221 In the Spring of 1775, Sir James WaUace, in command of the' British frigate Rose, blockaded Narraganset Bay. The legislature of Rhode Island fitted out two vessels for the purpose of driving the intruder away. These were under the general command of Whipple, and he soon expelled Wallace from the Rhode Island waters. In this business Whipple had the honor of firing tho first gun in the naval service of the Revolution.1 In the Autumn following, Captain Whipple was ordered on a cruise to the Bermudas, to seize powder, but was unsuccessful. In December, he received a commander's commission, from Con gress; and, in February, 1776, he sailed on a cruise in tho squadron of Com modore Hopkins, the naval commander-in-chief. From that time until the fall of- Charleston, in May, 1780, he was in active service. There he was in command of quite a strong, but inadequate naval force, all of which remaining above water,2 became spoils for the victors. For two years and seven months he remained a prisoner on parole, in Pennsylvania, when he was exchanged. He left the ser vice, in 1782, and was allowed to go almost entirely unrequited to a citizen's 1. A British vessel had been captured at Machias earlier than this, but no authority had been given for the net. Whipple was the first to act legally. 2. Whipple sunk several of his vessels to prevent British ships from going up the Cooper river channel. 222 DANIEL MORGAN. duty. He took command of a merchant ship, and had the honor of first unfurl ing the American flag in the river Thames, at London. He was elected to a seat in the Rhode Island legislature, in 1786. On the formation of the Ohio company, he emigrated to the wUderness, in company with General Rufus Put nam, and was among the founders of Marietta. He was then fifty-five years of age. The threatening savages that hung around this settlement untU the peaco negotiated with the Indians, in 1795, called into action the great resources of his genius, and he was of .essential service to the colony. After that treaty of peace, he moved to a smaU farm on the banks of the Muskingum, where ho struggled on in poverty untU 1811, when Congress granted him the half-pay of a naval captain.1 His future years were thus made to him seasons of ease and absence from care. They were few, however, for he was seventy-eight years of age when tardy justice awarded its benefits. Commodore Whipple died near Marietta, on the 29th of May, 1819, at the age of eighty-five years. Over his grave, at Marietta, is a neat stone, bearing an appropriate inscription. DANIEL MORGAN. " A H, people said old Morgan never feared — they thought old Morgan never A prayed — they did not know — old Morgan was often miserably afraid." So talked that "thunderbolt of war" — the "brave Morgan, who never knew fear," as the chronicler said — to his chUdren and neighbors when they sat and listened to his thrUUng stories ofthe campaigns for freedom.2 He was of Welsh descent, and was born in New Jersey, in the year 1736. His family wero in humble circumstances, and his education was only such as could be acquired at an ordinary country school, at that time. At the age of seventeen ho wandered into Virginia, and there became a wagoner for one of the wealthy planters in Fred erick county. He owned a team when Braddock marched to the fatal field of the Monongahela,' and he accompanied ,that_ expedition as a bearer of supplies. For alleged insult to a British officer, he received five hundred lashes almost without flinching. A few days afterward the officer became convinced of the injustice of the charge, and apologized to young Morgan, in the presence of the whole regiment. His love for British officers was never very ardent afterward ; and when they became his foes on the field, the remembrance of that degrading punishment gave strength to his arm and keenness to his blade. In 1756, Morgan was commissioned an ensign in the provincial army, because of his miUtary skifl and service in the former campaign, and then he first be came acquainted with Washington. From that time untU the Revolution com menced, he was much in service against the Indians; and tradition teUs a hundred tales of his great daring. In 1774, he owned a fine farm in Frederick county, and that year ho was in Dunmore's expedition beyond the Alleghanies. In May, 1775, Congress appointed him a captain, and in less than a week there after, ninety-six men — the nucleus of his celebrated rifle corps — were enrolled under his banner, and wero on their way to Boston. He led the van of Arnold's wonderful expedition from the Kennebeck to the St. Lawrence, in the Autumn 1. In the year 1890, the veteran sailor was permitted to breathe the salt air of the ocean once agair. Some enterprising men at Marietta built a square-rigged vessel there, named it St. Clair, and, loading it with pork and flour, sent it to Havana. Commodore Whipple was appointed its commander, and he performed the voyage successfully. He thus had the honor of navigating the first vessel that ever sailed from the Ohio to the (lulf. 2. He said that before the assault on Quebec, where Montgomery was killed, he krclt by the side of a cunuon and prayed fervently ; and when, at the Cowpens, he was compelled to fight the superior force of Tarleton, he went aside, before the battle, and prayed earnestly for his country, his army, and him self, and then, in his rough way, cheered on his men. LEONARD CALVERT. 223 of 1775; and in tho siege of Quebec, ho led tho forlorn hopo of Arnold's division. When Arnold was wounded there, Morgan took command, fought desperately, and was made prisoner.1 When exchanged, ho was commissioned a colonel in tho Continental army, and from that time Washington considered Morgan's rifie ' corps the right arm of his forces. Ho was the chief instrument in the capture of Burgoyne, in tho Autumn of 1777 ; and because of his briUiant achievements on that occasion, his neighbors called his fine estato "Saratoga." Ho received the commission of brigadier, and was one ofthe most active officers in the Southern campaigns. His miUtary glory culminated when, on tho 17th of January, 1781, he defeated the British, under Tarleton, at the Cowpens, west of the Broad river, in South CaroUna, For that achievement Congress awarded him the thanks of the nation, and a gold medal. In consequence of the infirm state of his health, he then left the service, and retired to his farm, whero ho devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. Washington desired him to be placed at the head of the expedition against the Western Indians, in 1791, but' St. Clair was chosen. In 1794, he commanded the troops in Western Pennsylvania, designed to secure the power over the whiskey insurgents, obtained by General Lee. He was elected to Congress the same year, where he served two sessions. He re moved to Winchester, Virginia, in the year 1800, whero, after confinement to his house and bed by extremo debUity, ho expired, on the 6th of July, 1802, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. His remains rest beneath a marble slab, ap propriately inscribed, in the Presbyterian grave-yard at Winchester. LEONARD CALVERT. ALTHOUGH George Calvert, who was created Lord Baltimoro by James tho First of England, was the founder of Maryland, yet the chief honor is due to liis younger son, Leonard, because he led tho first colony thither, planted it, and laid the broad foundations of that commonwealth, in social and political in stitutions. He was born about the year 100 6, when his father was clerk of tho Privy Council under the patronage of Robert CocU, James' Secretary of State. His father died in April, 1632, just beforo his patent for Maryland had possessed the seals of office. He was succeeded by his eldest son, CecU. The charter was completed in June, 1632, and Leonard Calvert, with about two hundred persons of good famiUes, all of the Roman Catholic faith, reached Old Point Comfort, near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, in February, 1634. Ho was appointed governor of the colony which he was sent to plant. As they passed up the bay, and entered the broad Potomac, Calvert fired a cannon, erected a cross, and took possession of the country " in the name of the Saviour of tho world and of the king of England." At the mouth of a creek on the north side of tho .Potomac, the settlers pitched their tents, founded a town which they called St. Mary's, named the creek St. George, and there began the noble business of buUding up a free State in the wilderness. They dealt justly with the natives, and pros pered. To every emigrant, fifty acres of land, in fee, were granted ; and, ac cording to the terms of the charter, every person who professed a belief in the Trinity, of whatever sect, Protestant or Roman Catholic, was allowed fuU priv- Uege to worship as he pleased. This toleration was a noble feature in that first charter of Maryland, and is very properly regarded with pride by the descendants of those early colonists. 1. While a prisoner; he was urged to accept the commission of a colonel in the British army, but he indignantly refused it. 224 NOAH WEBSTER. Governor Calvert buUt himself a commodious house at St. Mary's, and was managing the affairs of the province with prudence and energy, when the civil war in England, which resulted in the death of King Charles and the exaltation of OUver Cromwell to the seat of chief magistrate of the realm, disturbed the repose of aU the Anglo-American colonies. Lord. Baltimore was deprived of his proprietary rights, and Governor Calvert was superseded by a Protestant ap pointed by the Parliament. He then retired to Virginia. In 1646, after an absence of almost two years, he returned, with a mUitary force, and recovered possession of the province. In April, 1647, he issued a general pardon, pro ceeded to St. Mary's to firmly reestablish good government there, and sat down in the midst of an affectionate and loyal people, to enjoy coveted repose. A longer and more profound rest was near, for, on the 9th of June foUowing, he died, at the age of about forty-one years. NOAH WEBSTER, " TTE taught mUlions to read, but not one to sin," was the glorious and com- 11 prehensive eulogy awarded to the memory of Noah. Webster, the great lexicographer. He was maternaUy descended from WilUam Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth colony, and paternally from John Webster, who was governor of Connecticut, in 1656. He was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, on the 16th of October, 1758, at the very time when Washington was leading his brave Virginians to the capture of Fort du Quesne. He acquired his early education at a district school, and at the age of sixteen years entered the fresh man class in Yale College. The murmurs of the storm of the Revolution were then becoming louder and louder, and, during the four years of his collegiate course, his studies were frequently interrupted by the disturbances of current events. In the Autumn of 1777, he joined the army of volunteers that flocked from New England to the camp of Gates, and he participated in the capture of Burgoyne and his army. He then resumed his studies, and was graduated in 1778. He commenced life as teacher of a district school in Hartford, with one dollar in his pocket, but a noble capital of industry, a good education, and an indomitable will. He studied law during leisure hours, and was admitted to practice, in 1781. Finding little to do in his profession, he went to Goshen, in New York, and there' opened a high school, which he called The Fa/i'mer's Hall Academy. WhUe studying law, Mr. Webster perceived the many defects in the English language, and in resolving to improve it, he formed the great purpose ofhis life, the eompUation of a Dictionary. He first prepared an elementary work, whieh he submitted to several members of the Congress, in 1783, and then published it, at Hartford. It was soon foUowed by two others, and the whole comprised a speUing-book, an English grammar, and a reader. At least twenty millions of Webster's SpeUing-book have already [1854] been sold in the United States, and the sale is stiU great. After the Revolution, Mr. Webster wrote essays on several national subjects, and he cooperated with Dr. Ramsay in procuring a copyright law for the protection of American authors. He ably supported the Federal Constitution, with his pen ; and he established a daily newspaper in the city of New York, devoted to the administration of President Washington. After en gaging in other newspaper enterprises in that city, he removed to New Haven, in 1798, and there commenced the preparation of his first Dictionary. It was published in 1806, and in the Preface, he pubhcly announced that he had now NOAH WEBSTER. 225 yoim&r~ entered upon tho great work of his life. That was at a timo when a growing famUy and slender pecuniary means appeared great obstacles ; but he possessed an iron wiU, and his spirit was undaunted. He toiled on in the midst of many discouragements; and, in 1812, he made his abode at Amherst, Massachusetts, where his family expenses were less. He returned to New Haven, in 1822, and the Faculty of Yale College then conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. He was yet engaged in his great labor, and, in pursuit of his object, he went to Europe in 1824, and spent a year in tho collection of materials. His mighty task was completed in 1827 ; and, in 1828, his American Dictionary, the greatest work of its kind ever undertaken, was published. It was soon after ward republished in England, and at onCe took an exalted position in the world of letters, and gave its author great renown. An enlarged edition, carefully revised by the author, was pubhshed in 1841 ; and so he left it, a precious legacy to his country and mankind. During the long years in which Dr. Webster was engaged on his Dictionary he was no recluse, but was a practicing lawyer, an agriculturist, a legislator, and an academician. His old age, after a life of great activity, was serene, for tho pure light of Christianity rested in beauty upon the good man's path. When his physician told him he must die, he replied, "I am ready;" and on the 28th of May, 1843, he went quietly to his rest, in the eighty- fifth year of his age. His Dictionary is rapidly approaching the position of highest authority, especiaUy among men of purest taste and most comprehensive knowledge. 10* 226 ISRAEL PUTNAM. ISRAEL PUTNAM. FULL of romance and stirring interest was the career of General Putnam, the hero of two wars, of whom Dr. Ladd said, " He seems to have been almost obscured amidst the glare of succeeding worthies ; but liis early and gallant services entitle him to everlasting remembrance." And the same pen wrote — " Hail, Putnam 1 bail, thou yenerable name, Though dark oblivion threats thy mighty fame, It threats in yain — for long shalt thou be known. Who first in virtue and in battle shone." Israel Putnam was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on the 7th of January, 1718. He was descended from one of the first settlers of that ancient New England town. His education was neglected, and he grew to manhood with a vigorous but uncultivated mind. He delighted in athletic exercises, and generaUy boro the palm among his fellows. At the age of twenty-one years he commenced the life of a farmer, in Pomfret, Connecticut,1 where he "pursued the even tenor of his way" until 1755, when he was appointed to the command of a company of Connecticut troops,, destined for the war with the French and Indians on the northern frontier. He performed essential service under General Johnson at Lake George and vicinity during that campaign ; and th§ following year ho had command of a corps of Rangers, and bore the commission of a captain in the provincial army. Ho had many stirring adventures in1 the neighborhood of Lake Champlain. In August, 1758 (then bearing a major's commission), he was near the present Whitehall, at the head of the lake, watching the movements of the enemy, and had a severe encounter with the French and Indians, in the forest. Putnam was finally made prisoner, and the savages tied him to a tree, and pro- pared to roast him alive. A shower of rain and the interposition of a French officer, saved his life, and he was taken to tho head-quarters of the enemy at Ticonderoga. From thence he was sent, a prisoner, to Montreal, in Canada, whero, through tho kindness of Colonel Peter Schuyler, of Albany (who was also a prisoner), ho was humanely treated. The foUowing Spring he was exchanged, and returned homo. He joined tho army again, soon afterward, and was pro moted to lieutenant-colonel. He was a bold and efficient leader during the remainder ofthe war, and then he returned to his plow and the repose and ob scurity of domestic life in rural seclusion. Colonel Putnam was an active friend of the people when disputes with govern ment commenced ten years before war was kindled ; and when the intelligence of bloodshed at Lexington reached him, whUe plowing in the field, ho had no political scruples to settle, but, unyoking his oxen, he started, with his gun and rusty sword, for Boston. He soon returned to Connecticut, raised _. regiment, and hastened back to Cambridge, then the head-quarters of a motley host that had hurried thither from the hills and valleys of New England. When, six , weeks afterward, Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Con tinental army, Putnam was chosen to be one of four major-generals created on that occasion. He performed bravely on Bunker's Hill before his commission reached him,' and from that time, throughout the whole struggle until the close of 1779, General Putnam was a faithful and greatly-esteemed leader. His ser- 1. During one night, a wolf that had been depredating in the neighborhood for some time, killed seventy of his fine sheep and goats. It was ascertained to be a she-wolf, and Putnam and his neighbors turned out to hunt and destroy her. She was driven into a rocky cave, and at ten o'clock at night, Putnam, with a rope fastened to his leg, descended into the den with a gun and torch, and sought out and boldly shot the depredator. Then giving a concerted signal, he was drawn up bv the rope. He again descended, seized the dead wolf by the ears, and was again drawn up amid the cheers of his companions, who were waiting in exultation, in the moonlight above. MARY PHILIPSE. 227 vices were too numerous to be detailed here — they are all recorded in our coun try's annals, and remembered by every student of our history. At West Point, on the Hudson, bis mUitary career was concluded. Late in 1779, he set out to visit his famUy in Connecticut, and on the way he suffered a partial paralysis of his system, whioh impaired both his mind and body. At his home in Brooklyn, Connecticut, he remained an invalid the remainder of his days. With Christian resignation,1 and the fortitude of a courageous man, he bore his afflictions for more than ten years, and then, at the close of the beautiful budding month of May (29th), 1790, the veteran hero died, at the age of seventy-two years. His Memoir, prepared by Colonel David Humphreys, from narratives uttered by the patriot's own lips, was first published, by order of the State Society of the Cin cinnati of Connecticut, in 1788, and afterward published in Humphrey's collected writing's, in 1790. A neat monument, bearing an epitaph, is over his grave in Brooklyn, Massachusetts. MARY PHILIPSE. THE beautiful and accomplished American girl of twenty-six Summers, who won the first love of Washington just when his greatness was dawning, is worthy of the historic embalmer's care, for she forms a part of the story of the great central figure in the group of American worthies of the past generations. Mary Philipso was the daughter of the Honorable Frederick Philipse, Speaker ofthe New York Colonial Assembly, and one of the early great landholders on the Hudson river, in Westchester county. She was born at the more modern manor-house ofthe faimly, in the present vUlage of Yonkers,2 on the 3d of July, 1730. Of her early life we have no record except the testimony which her accom plishments bore concerning her careful education. Her sister was the wife of Co lonel Beverly Robinson, of New York, and there Miss PhUipse was residing when she made the acquaintance of Washington, above alluded to. It was in the mem orable year, 1756, when the whole country was excited by the current events of the French and Indian war. Washington was a Virginia colonel, twenty-four years of age, and had won his first bright laurels at the Great Meadows and the field of Monongahela. On account of difficulties concerning rank, he visited the commander-in-chief; Governor Shirley, at Boston, and it was while on his way thither, on horseback, that he stopped at the house of Colonel Robinson, in New York. There he saw the beautiful Mary Philipse, and his young heart was touched by her charms. He left her with reluctance and went on to Boston. On his return, he was again the willing guest of Colonel Robinson, and he lin gered there, in the society of Mary, as long as duty would allow. It is believed that he offered her his hand, but a rival bore off the prize. That rival was Colonel Roger Morris, Washington's companion-in-arms on the bloody field of Monongahela, and one of Braddock's aids, on that occasion. Roger and Mary were married, in 1758, and lived in great happiness until the storm ofthe Revo lution desolated their home. Colonel Morris then espoused the cause of the king; and when the American army, under Washington, was encamped on 1. General Putnam was a professing Christian and member ofthe Congregational Church at Brooklyn. It is said that after the war he arose in the congregation and apologized for swearing pretty severely on Bunker's Hill, when he could not induce the timid militia to follow him to reinforce Prescott in tbe asBailed redoubt on Breed's Hill. " It was almost enough to make an angel swear," he said, " to Eee tha cowards refuse to secure a victory so nearly won." 2. That old manor-honse, now over a century old, is yet standing, and is in the present 118551 ro. - session ofthe Honorable W. W. Woodworth, who resides there, and has the good taste to preserve it in its ancient condition. 228 ROBERT TREAT PAINE. Harlem Heights, in the Autumn of 1776, his beautiful mansion, overlooking tho Harlem river, became the head-quarters of the commander-in-chief. Both Colonel Morris and his wife were included in the act of attainder, passed by the New York legislature, in 1778. It is believed that she, and her sister Mrs. Inglis, were the only females who were attainted of treason during the struggle. A large portion of their real property was restored to their chUdren, of whom John Jacob Astor purchased it, in 1809, for one hundred thousand dollars, and after ward sold it to the State of New York for half a mUlion.1 Colonel Morris died in England, in 1794, at the age of sixty-seven years, and his wife lived a widow thirty-one years afterward. She died, in 1825, at the age of ninety-six, and was buried by the side of her husband, near Saviour-gate church, York, where their son, Henry Gage Morris, of the royal army, erected a monument to their memory. ROBERT TREAT PAINE. " Ne'er was a nobler spirit born, A loftier soul, a gentler heart ; Above the world's ignoble scorn, Above the reach of venal art." THUS sung a genial friend, at the tomb of Robert Treat Paine, a New England bard. He was born at Taunton, Massachusetts, on the 9th of December, 1773, and was the second son of Robert Treat Paine, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was named Thomas,2 but on the death ofhis eldest and unmarried brother, Robert Treat, in 1798, he assumed his name, and had his choice legally confirmed by an act of the legislature, in 1801. Paine was educated at Harvard, where his poetic genius was early developed.3 Ho was intended for the profession of the law, but soon after leaving coUege he became a merchant's clerk. He was quite irregular in his habits, and becamo greatly enamored of the theatre. He obtained a medal for a prologue, spoken at the opening ofa new theatre in Boston, in 1793 ;4 aud the following year he assumed the editorial control of a newspaper called the Federal Orerry. It was an unsuccessful enterprise, for the editor was idle, and it expired from want of proper food, in 1796. Paino had married the beautiful daughter of an actor, the year before, which offended his father, and an aUenation ensued. The young lady proved an exceUent wife, and was an angel at his side when intemperance clouded his mind and beggared his family. In 1795, Mr. Paine delivered a poem at Cambridge, entitled Invention of Letters, for which he received from the bookseUers, fifteen hundred dollars. Two years afterward, his Ruling Passion brought him twelve hundred dollars; and his Adams and Liberty, written in 1798, at the request ofthe Massachusetts Charita ble Fire Society, yielded him seven hundred and fifty dollars, or more than eleven doUars a fine.5 Mr. Paine was appointed master of ceremonies at the 1. This purchase was necessary to quiet the occupants of the land in their possession, for they had purchased from the commissioners under tbe confiscation act. * 2. I have given his signature, written before the death of his brother. 3. A class-mate abused him, in rhyme, upon tbe college wall. Young Paine had never written a line of poetry, but instantly resolved to answer bis antagonist in meter, and did 80. To that circumstance he attributed his attention to rhyme. When he was graduated, in 1(92, he delivered a poem. 4. The Federal Street Theatre, yet [1856] devoted to the drama. It was destroyed by fire, in 1798, and rebuilt on a larger scale, in the Autumn of that year. 5. Never was a political song more popular, or more widely sung, than this. Paine showed the verses to Mr. Russell, editor of the Boston Centinel. It was in the midst of company at Mr. Russell's house. Paine was about to take a glass of wine, when his host said, "You have said nothing about Washington;' ROBERT TREAT PAINE. 229 theatre, with a salary, and that connection threatened his health and reputation with shipwreck. A..happy change soon occurred. He abandoned dissipation, and, on the solicitation of friends, he left the theatre, moved, with his family, to Newburyport, entered the law office of Judge Parsons, became a practitioner, enjoyed reconciliation with his fether, and" gave his friends great hopes. In 1803, when fortune and bright character were within his grasp, he was again allured to the theatre, its associations and its habits, and he fell to rise no more. He neglected business, became intemperate, and died in wretchedness, on the 14th of November, 1811, when in the thirty-eighth year of his age. It was a sad evening of life, in contrast with the promises of the brilliant morning. His you cannot drink until you have added a verse in hia honor." and then, calling for pen and ink, wrote with great rapidity : The poet paced the room a few moments, " Should the tempest of war overshadow our land. Its holts would ne'er rend Freedom's temple asunder ; For, unmoved, at its portal would Washington stand, And repulse, with his breast, the assaults of the Inunde. I His sword from the sleep Of its scabbard would leap, And conduct, with its point, every flash to the deep 1" 230 THOMAS PINCKNEY. career is a warning to the gifted to avoid the perils of inordinate indulgence of passions and pleasures, for no inteUect is so strong that it may not be bowed in degradation. THOMAS PINCKNEY. WE have already considered the career of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, one of the noblest of South Carolina's many noble sons. He had an accom plished brother, four years his junior, who bore a conspicuous part in the great struggle for independence, and honored the diplomacy of his country. Thomas Pinckney was born at Charleston, on the 23d of October, 1150, and at the age of three years was taken to England, with' his brother Charles, to be educated. There he grew to manhood, chose his life-pursuit, acquired the proper prepar atory knowledge, and, after an absence of twenty years, returned to his native land. In early boyhood he felt a martial spirit stirring within him. It grew with his growth, and his studies were almost exclusively military, on his arrival home. He became a thorough tactician in theory, and, on the organization of a military force in his native city, he was intrusted with the command ofa com pany. He was a rigid disciplinarian, yet his men aU loved him. He soon rose to the rank of major, and was very active in recruiting and disciplining the militia, until the arrival of General Lincoln, in 1779, as commander-in-chief of the Southern army. Lincoln appointed Major Pinckney one of his aids, and in that capacity he was engaged in the siege of Savannah, in the Autumn of that year. Several months previously, ho had gained great applause for his gallantry in the battle at Stono Perry, just below Charleston. He was not among the captives at Charleston, in May, 1780; and when Gates took command of the Southern army, Pinckney was appointed his aid. He fought gallantly at tbe battle near Camden, in August, and there had his' leg badly shattered by a musket ball. He could not retreat, and was made a prisoner and sent to New York. His wound disabled him during the rest of the war, and he remained in private lifo untU 1787, when he was elected to succeed General Moultrie as governor of South Carolina. He displayed statesmanship ofthe highest order; and, in 1,792, President Washington appointed him minister plenipotentiary to the British court. He managed the complicated and important affairs of his mission with great skUl. Toward the close of 1794, Mr. Pinckney was appointed minister to Spain, and took up his residence at Madrid the following year. He soon after ward concluded a treaty with the Spanish court, by which the free navigation ofthe Mississippi was secured to the people ofthe United States. He returned home the foUowing year, to attend to his domestic affairs, and remained in private life until the proclamation of war with Great Britain, in 1812, called many a veteran hero to the field. President Madison appointed General Pinckney to the command of the Southern Department, and it was under his directions that General Jackson successfully prosecuted the war with the Indians. His fore cast and generosity opened to Jackson that miUtary career which he pursued so gloriously. General Pinckney resigned his commission on the return of peace, and he resumed his favorite employment — scientific agriculture. He lived more than thirteen years after the peace of 1815. After a long illness, he died, on the 2d of November, 1828, when a little more than seventy-eight years of age. General Pinckney married a daughter of Rebecca Motte, the patriotic widow of the Congaree, whose portrait and memoir may be found in another part of this work. CORNPLANTER. 231 CORNPLANTER. CENTENARY honors crowned Ga-nio-di-eugh, or the Cornplanter, a chief of the Seneca nation, who, for seventy-five years, held a conspicuous place in the history of his race, as one of the bravest and most eloquent of its warriors. He is supposed to have been born about the year 1735 ; and he first appears on the page of history as the leader ofa war party of the Senecas when that nation was in alliance with the French against the English. He was a participator in the hloody battle in whieh General Braddock was kUled. He was a native of Conewaugus, in the Genesee VaUey, and a half-breed, his father having been a white man from the Mohawk region.' Cornplanter was a war-chief of his tribe when the Revolution began. Being in the full vigor of manhood, active and brave, he was one of the most distinguished of the dusky leaders who spread destruction over the white frontier settlements in New York, and in the Valley of Wyoming. In the bloody forays at Cherry Valley and Wyoming, Cornplanter was conspicuous ; and during the invasion of the Seneca country, by Sullivan, in 1779, and the fearful vengeance therefor inflicted by the Indians afterward, Cornplanter was a chief leader of his people.2 He was the most inveterate and active foe ofthe Americans during the whole war, but after the treaty of peace he became the fast friend of the United States. He was chiefly instrumental in the pacification treaty at Port Stanwix, in 1784, when Red Jacket opposed him with his wonderful eloquence. At the close of the treaty the brave chief said significantly, " I thank the Great. Spirit for this opportunity of smoking the pipe of friendship and love. May we plant our own vines, be the fathers of our chUdren, and maintain them." He was also conspicuous in treaties in Ohio, which gave offence to his nation. Hoping to exalt himself upon the ruins of Cornplanter, Red Jacket fostered the discontent, and fhe life of the former was placed in jeopardy. He repaired to PhUadelphia and applied to President Washington for counsel and relief. Cornplanter laid a most touching appeal for himself and his nation, before the President. The reply was kind, but Wash ington could not go behind treaties. Relief; however, was promised, and Corn- planter went back, a happier man. During the troubles with the Indians in the north-west, until Wayne's victory in 1794, Cornplanter remained neutral; and he was at the council held in the Seneca country to treat with Thomas Morris respecting portions of the territory afterward known as the HoUand Land Purchase. During the years of repose whioh followed, Cornplanter was assiduous in endeavors to improve the moral character of his nation. He made great efforts to stay the progress of intem perance ; and he was the first and most eloquent of temperance lecturers in America.3 He readUy assumed many of the habits and pursuits of the white men ; and having failed to become chief sachem of his nation, through the in- 1. In his own language, he said, " When I was a child I played with the butterfly, the grasshopper, and the frog. .... The Indian boys took notice of my skin being different in color from theirs, and spoke about it. I inquired of my mother the cause, and Bhe told me that my father lived in Albany. I still ate my victuals out of a bark dish. I grew up to be a young man, and married me a wife, and I had no kettle or gun. I then knew where my father lived, and went to see him, and found he was a white man and spoke tho English language. He gave me victuals while I was at his house, but when -started to return home, he gave me no provision to eat on the way. He gave me neither kettle nor gun." 2. Cornplanter made his father a prisoner, at Fort Flain, but shielded him from all harm, and sent him - to a place of safety. 3. While speaking upon this subject, in 1S22, Cornplanter said, " The Great Spirit first made the world, next the flying animals, and found all things good and prosperous. He is immortal and ever lasting. After finishing the flying animals, he came down to earth, and there stood. Then he made different kinds of trees, and woods of all sorts, and people of every kind. He made the Spring and other seasons, and the weather suitable for planting. These he did make. But stills to make whiskey to give to the Indians he torn not make The Great Spirit has ordered me to stop drinking, and. He wishes me to inform the people that they should quit drinking intoxicating drinks." 232 SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. trigues of Red Jacket, he retired to a large tract of land on the AUeghany river, wliich the legislature had presented to him, and there cultivated a farm in ob scurity during the remainder of his long Ufe. When Rev. Timothy Alden visited him, in 1816, he was the owner of sixten hundred acres of fine bottom land. He was a professing Christian,1 though very superstitious. There the old chief lived on in quiet obscurity, until he had passed his hundredth year. He died at his residence on the 7th of March, 1836, with a confused notion of being happy in the Christian's heaven, or in the elysian fields, pictures of which came down upon the tide of memory from his early youth. SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. " A MONG those," says Knapp, " who did not gain all the laurels at home, that A he should have had, while he was honored by almost every intelligent court, and every learned society abroad, was Doctor MitchiU." He was a native of North Hempstead, Queen's county, Long Island, where he was born of Quaker parents, on the 20th of August, 1764. He was educated by private tutors, supplied chiefly by his maternal uncle, Dr. Samuel Latham, whose name he bore. That gentleman saw and admired the budding of his genius. Young MitohUl soon became an excellent classical scholar. Nature wooed him ; and so enamored was he of her beauties and hidden wealth, that he became her devotee while a lad, and was a philosopher when only twenty years of age. Young MitchiU chose the medical profession as a life-pursuit, and commenced study with his uncle. In 1780, he was placed under the instructions of Dr. Samuel Bard, and after a little more than three years, he went to Edinburgh, in Scotland, then the seat of science, in Great Britain. There he had Thomas Addis Emmet and Sir James M'Intosh for his class-mates and friends ; and when he left the institution, he bore its highest honors. The fame of his acquirements preceded him, and when he returned home he was received into the first intel lectual circles in New York. The Faculty of Columbia College gave him tho degree of Master of Arts. For awhile he turned his attention to constitutional iaw, with the intention of engaging in legislative duties. In 1788, he was one of the commissioners who treated with the heads of the Six Nations, at Fort • Stanwix (now Rome), and obtained from them the cession of Western New York. In the meanwhile he praetieed his profession, and was indefatigable in his study ofthe natural sciences. In 1790, he was elected to a seat in the New York Legislative Assembly; and, in 1792, he was chosen Professor of Chem istry, Natural Sciences, and Agriculture, in Columbia College. He was then considered the best naturalist and practical chemist, in America. In 1796, he made his famous report of a mineralogical survey of the State of New York ; and the following year he commenced the publication of the Medical Repository, of whioh he was chief editor for sixteen years. He was the founder (and a long time president) ofthe Lyceum of Natural History, of New York; and he took a great interest in the New York Historical Society, and kindred institutions. He was a special and efficient friend to domestic manufactures and agriculture, and was the first, in this country, to apply the science of chemistry to the practical pursuit of the latter avocation. As a legislator he was wise, full of forecast, and possessed great boldness and perseverance.2 For his efforts in behalf of 1. See sketch of Samuel Kirkland. 2. Ho was a member of the New York legislature, in 1798, when Chancellor Livingston applied for the exclusive right of navigating the waters of the Hudson river with boats propelled " by fire or SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 233 steam navigation on the Hudson, his name should be associated with that of Fulton, Barlow, and Livingston.1 For about twenty years, Dr. MitchiU acted as one of the physicians of the New York Hospital. Notwithstanding his immense labors in the field of scien tific research, and his voluminous publications upon almost every variety of subjects, he found time to mingle in political strife, and share in the labors and honors of official station. He represented the city of New York, in Congress, six consecutive years, and was afterward United States Senator. He was pos sessed of vast and varied knowledge; and yet, because he sometimes advanced steam.!' With his usual forecast, Dr. MitchiU perceived the feasibility of the project, and presented a bill accordingly. Everybody ridiculed him. The elder portion of the legislature considered thewholematter too absurd to be seriously entertained, while the younger members, when they desired a little fan, would call, up Dr. MitchiU' s "hot water bill," and bandy jokes without stint.. Yet the Doctor persevered, procured the passage of his bill, and had the pleasure of laughing at his persecutors, a few years after ward;. 1, Since preparing the sketches of these three men, printed on preceding pages, I have been furnished with evidence from the correspondence of Barlow (now in possession of one of his descendants, who is arranging them for the press), that Fulton was far more indebted to that friend for pecuniary aid and general encouragement, than to any one else. When Livingston first met Fulton, in France, he was dubious concerning the feasibility of his scheme, while Barlow was sanguine, and was doing all in his power to assist Fulton. When experiments had furnished actual demonstration, and Livingston could no longer doubt, then he lent his wealth and influence to Fulton. Barlow was Fulton's benefactor; Livingston was his business partner and friend. 234 ARTHUR LEE. opinions of which the world had not yet dreamed, he was sneered at by the sciolist, and ridiculed by shallow upstarts in science. He was thoroughly ap preciated in Europe) where almost every literary and scientific institution thought it an honor to enrol his name upon its list of members. Dr. MitchiU died at his residence, in New York City, on the 7th of 'September, 1831, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. ARTHUR LEE. DURING- the early years of the "War for Independence, and for many months before the flame broke forth in Massachusetts, the American patriots were much indebted to secret observers pf political men and things in Europe, who kept the former continuaUy and accurately informed of passing events. One of the most efficient of these observers was Arthur Lee, Of Virginia, brother of Richard Ilenry Lee, authiqr of the resolution proposing independence for the United States of America. He was born at Stratford, in "Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the 20th of December, 1T40. He was educated in the Edinburgh University, where he studied the science of medicine, for some time. On his return, he commenced its practice at Williamsburg, then the capital, and centre of fashion, of Virginia. In 1766, whUe the Americans were yet greatly excited 'concerning the Stamp Act, he went to London, and commenced the study ofthe law, in the Temple. Tliere he formed a close intimacy with Sir "WUham Jones, (the eminent Oriental scholar), and many other men of note. During aU the agitations from that period untU the beginning of tlie war, Dr. Lee kept the Americans informed, chiefly through his brother, Richard Henry, of the plans . and measures of the ministry, and was of essential service to the cause of popular liberty in America. He wrote much for the press in favor of the colonies ; and, in 1775, he was accredited agent of Virginia, in England. In the Summer of that year, he presented the second petition of the American Congress to the king; and, in the Autumn of 1776, he was appointed a commissioner of the United States at the French court, as coUeague of Dr. FrankUn and SUas Deane. He held that position until 1779, when FrankUn was appointed sole minister. In the meanwhile, Dr. Lee had been appointed a special commissioner to Spain to solicit a loan ; and in the same capacity, and for the same purpose, be visited the capital of Prussia, but the king, unwilling to offend Great Britain, would not openly receive him.1 Dr. Lee returned to America, in 1780, when Silas Deane was laboring to blacken his character.2 The people believed in their hitherto faithful friend, and, early in 1781, Dr. Lee was elected to a seat in the House of Burgesses, of Virginia. That body sent him to Congress, where he held a seat until 1785. In 1784, he was appointed one of the commissioners to treat with the representatives of the Six Nations of Indians, at Fort Schuyler (now Rome), and soon afterward he was called to a seat at the Treasury Board. Early in 1790, he was admitted to the bar ofthe Supreme Court of the United States, but his earthly career was almost closed. He purchased a farm near Urbana, on the Rappahannock, and there he died, on the 14th of December, 1792, at the age of almost fifty-two years. 1. Dr. Lee was successful in his mission to both Spain and Prussia. Although the King of Prussia would not receive h'-i openly, he had continual correspondence with the court, and his brother William was a resident agent of the United States there. While in Berlin, his papers were stolen, and he charged the British minister with the theft. The king ordered an investigation, and ihey were soon secretly re turned. At the request ofthe Prussian monarch, the Bri ' ish minister was recalled. Dr. Lee received warm assurances of friendship from the king, and obtained favors for the United States. 2. See sketch of Deane. CHMSTOPHER COLLES. 235 CHRISTOPHER COLLES. IN tbat superb Offering of InteUeot to "Worth and Genius, the Knickerbocker Gallery' published at the close of 1854, Dr. John "W. Francis has given an exceedingly interesting sketch of Christopher Colles, a name but little known to this generation, while tho influence of his genius is everywhere felt in the great pulsating arteries of our national enterprise, for it was in the highest degree suggestive. This kindly embalming by an appreciating hand, has saved a name deserving of honor from that forgetfulness which the world too often indulges toward genius in linsey-woolsey. Mr. Colles was born in Ireland about the year 1757. Under the , care and instructions of Richard Pococke, tbe celebrated Oriental traveUer, he acquired much scientific knowledgo and considerable expertness in the use of difierent languages. His patron died in 1765, and CoUes came to America soon after ward. He first appeared in public here as a lecturer on canal navigation, at about tlio year 1772; and ho is unquestionably the first man who suggested, and called public attention to tho importance of a navigable water-communication between the Hudson river and tho Lakes. Ho presented a memorial on the subject to the New York State legislature, in the Autumn of 1784, and in April following, a favorable report was made. Colles actually made a, survey of tho Mohawk, and the country to Wood creek, by whieh a water-eommunication with Oneida and Ontario lakes might be effected. The results of , that tour were pub lished in a pamphlet, in 1785. More than ten years before, Colles had matured a plan for supplying the city of New York with wholesome water, and steps were taken for the purpose, when the Revolution interfered. Year after year he was engaged in his favorite projects. In 1797, his name appeared among applicants for a contract to supply the city of New York with water ; and it was unquestionably his fertile mind that conceived tho idea, then first put forth, of obtaining water from Westchester county. The Bronx, instead of the Croton, was the proposed fountain of supply. In 1808, he pubhshed an interesting 2iamphlet on canals. In 1789, Mr. CoUes published a series of sectional Road Maps, for the use of travellers in Now York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia; and, in 1794, ho issued tho first number of "The Geographical Ledger." But these undertakings were far from profitable to him, and he eked out a comfort able subsistence by land-surveying and itinerant public instruction in the various branches of practical science. He also constructed band-boxes for a living, when he made Now York his permanent residence, and frequently assisted al manac makers in their calculations. He manufactured painters' colors, and proof-glasses to -test the quaUty of liquors. FinaUy " we find our ubiquitous philosopher in good quarters and in wholesome employment," says Dr. Francis, as actuary of the American Academy of Fine Arts. He also made profitable exhibitions of a telescope and microscope of his own construction, and had a marine telegraph on the Government House at the Bowling-green. These huni- "ble employments did not lessen him in the esteem of the eminent men of that time, who knew and admired tho profundity of his acquirements ; and De Witt Clinton always regarded him as among the most prominent and efficient pro moters of internal improvements. Dr. MitchUl was his warm friend; Jarvis thought it an honor to paint his portrait;2 and Dr. Hosack commemorated him 1. A volume composed of contributions from the surviving writers for The Knickerbocker Magazine, and embellished with their portraits. It was prepared as a testimonial of esteem for Lewis Gaylord Clarke, the editor ofthe Magazine, and for his benefit tbe profits of the work are to be devoted. The above sketch is the substance of Dr. Francis' Memoir of Colles. 2. That picture is now [1855] in the possession of the New York Historical Society. 236 THOMAS SUMTER. in his Life of CUnton. And finaUy, in the great celebration which took place in New York, in November, 1825, when the waters of Erie were united with the Atlantic, " the effigy of CoUes was borne with appropriate dignity among the emblems of that vast procession." He had then been in the grave four years, having gone to his rest in the Autumn of 1821. Of all the people of that great city where tho inanimate effigy of CoUes was so soon to be honored, only two be sides the officiating clergyman followed his body to the grave ! These honored two were Dr. Francis and John Pintard. The Rev. Dr. Creighton (who declined the bishopric of New York, in 1852), officiated on the occasion, and the remains of Christopher Colles were deposited in the Episcopal burial-ground in Hudson Street. No memorial marks the spot, and the place of his grave is doubtless forgotten ! THOMAS SUMTER. THE " South CaroUna Game-Cock," as Sumter was caUed, was, next to Marion, the most useful of aU the southern partisans during the latter part of the Revolution. Of his early life and habits we have no reliable record, and the place ofhis birth is unknown. ' That event occurred, as some circumstances in dicate, about the year 1734. His name first appears in pubhc as lieutenant- colonel of a regiment of riflemen, in March, 1776, and he appears to have been in Charleston until within a few days before its surrender to tbe British, in May, 1780. He was not among the prisoners, and was doubtless in the vicinity of the Catawba, at that time, arousing his countrymen to action. He was in the field early in tbe Summer of 1780, and was actively engaged in partisan warfare with the British and Tories, when Gates approached Camden, in August. At the close of July he had attacked the British post at Rocky Mount, on the Ca tawba; and, early in August, be fought a severe battle with the British and Loyalists at Hanging Rock. Immediately after the defeat of Gates, Sumter was attacked by Tarleton, near the mouth of the Fishing Creek, and his little band was utterly routed and dispersed. With a few survivors and new volunteers, he hastened across the Broad River, ranged the districts upon its western banks, and, in November, defeated Colonel Wemyss, who attacked his camp at the Fish Dam Ford, in Chester district. Twelve days afterward, he defeated Tarle ton in an engagement at Blackstocks, on the Tyger river ; but, being severely wounded, he proceeded immediately to North CaroUna, where he remained until his wounds were healed. Early in February, 1781, Sumter again took the field, and while Greene was retreating before Lord CornwaUis, he was aiding Marion, Pickens, and others, in humbUng the garrisons of tbe enemy on the borders of the low country, lie continued in active service during the whole campaign of 1781, and did much toward humbling the British posts near Charleston ; but Ul-health compelled him to leave the army before the close of the war. He was for a long time a mem ber ofthe House of Representatives ofthe United States, and also ofthe Senate in the earUer years of the Republic. Finally, when he retired from public life, he took up his abode near Bradford Springs, on the High Hills of Santee (now Statesburg), South Carolina. There he lived until he had almost reached cen tenary honors. He died there, on the 1st of June, 1832, when in the ninety- eighth year ofhis age. "When the writer visited that region, in 1849, the house and plantation of General Sumter were owned by a mulatto named EUison, a man greatly esteemed. He had purchased the freedom of himself and famUy in early life, and was then tho owner of a large estate in land, and about sixty slaves. WILLIAM PINKNEY. 2G7 ¦^c^^y WILLIAM PINKNEY. ONE ofthe most profound and brilliant ofthe orators and statesmen ofhis age, was the equally-renowned diplomatist, "WUliam Pinkney, of Maryland. Ho was born at Annapolis, on the 17th of March, 1764. Although his father was a staunch loyalist, "William, as soon as he reached young manhood toward the close of the Revolution, warmly espoused the cause of the patriots. He pos sessed great strength of mind, but his early education was sadly neglected. By severe study he soon made amends, and took front rank among his more fortun ate companions. He first studied the science of medicine, but, regarding the law with more favor, not only as more agreeable to his inclinations but as more promising in personal distinctions, he abandoned the former, and devoted his ener gies to the latter. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-two years, and soon afterward he commenced the practice of his profession in Harford county, Maryland, where, in 1789, he married a sister of (afterward) Commodore Rodgers. In 1792, Mr. Pinkney was elected to a seat in the executive councU of Mary land; and, in 1795, was chosen a delegate to the State legislature. The follow ing year, President "Washington appointed him one of the commissioners under 238 OLIVER WOLCOTT. the provisions of Jay's treaty, and he proceeded to England. He performed his arduous and varied duties with great ability and success. Soon after his return to America, in 1805, he removed to Baltimore, and was immediately appointed attorney-general of Maryland. The foUowing year he was again sent to England to treat concerning the impressment of American seamen into the British service, and other matters which finaUy resulted in war. After remaining in Europe several years, he returned in 1811, and became one of the most ardent supporters of Mr. Madison's administration. He was chosen a member of the Maryland Senate, and toward the close of 1811, President Madison appointed him attor ney-general of the United States. He went to the field in defence of his native State, in 1814, and fought the British bravely at Bladensburg. He was soon afterward elected to Congress; and, in 1816, he was appointed minister to the court of St. Petersburg. There he remained untU 1820, when he returned home, and was immediately chosen to a seat in the United States Senate. In that body, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, he labored intensely until the close of 1821, when his health suddenly gave way. He died on the 25th of February, 1822, in the fifty-ninth year ofhis age. OLIVER WOLCOTT. HENRY WOLCOTT was one of the earliest and most active settlers in the Connecticut Valley, whither he went from Dorchester, near Boston, in 1736, and made his residence at Windsor. There, on the 26th of November, 1726, his distinguished descendant, Oliver Wolcott, was born. At tho age of seventeen years he entered Yale College, as a student, and left it in 1747, bear ing the usual coUege honors. The contest with the French and Indians, known as King George's War, was then in progress, and young Wolcott pbtained a captain's commission, raised a company, and joined the provincial army. Peace soon came, but he held his commission, and arose regularly to the rank of major- general. At the close of the war he studied medicine, and when about to com mence its practice, he was appointed sheriff of Litchfield county, Connecticut, where he resided. Ho was distinguished for his early advocacy of the cause of the colonists in the dispute with Great Britain, and was a member of the council of his native State from 1774 until 1786. In the meanwhile he was a member of the Continental Congress, chief justice of Litchfield county, and judge of pro bate, of that district. As a member of Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence ; and he was also appointed, by that body, one of the commission ers of Indian affairs for the northern department. As umpire and active par-' ticipator in the matter of dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, con cerning the Wyoming VaUey, Judge Wolcott performed an important service, in procuring a settlement. At home Judge Wolcott was very active in recruiting men for the continental service,1 and he was in command of a body of troops iu tho army of Gates, at Saratoga, when Burgoyne was captured. In 1786, he was elected lieutenant-. 1. When, in July, 1776, the American soldiers pulled down and broke in pieces tho leaden equestrian statue of George the Third, which stood in the Bowling-green at the foot of Broadway, New York, a greater portion of it was sent to Governor Wolcott, at Litchfield, to be converted into bullets. This service was performed by a son and two daughters of -Governor Wolcott, Mr. and Miss Marvin, and Mrs. Beach. According to an account-current of the cartridges made from that statue, found among tho papers of Governor Wolcott, it appears that it furnished materials for forty-two thousand bullets. Re ferring to this matter, Ebenezer Haranrd, in a letter to Gates, said, "His [the king'B] troops will probably have melted majesty fired at them." THOMAS COOPER. 239 governor of Connecticut, and was annually reelected to that office for ten years, when bo was chosen chief magistrate. He was again chosen governor, in 1797, and was an incumbent of the chair of State at the time of his death, whieh oc curred on the 1st of December, of that year, when ho was in the seventy-second year ofhis age. Inflexible integrity, sterling virtue, and exalted piety, were tho prominent traits of Governor Wolcott's character. He was also a bright example as a patriot and Christian. THOMAS COOPER. POLITICAL as well as reUgious persecutions in Europe have, from time to time, driven many valuable men to this country for their own preservation and for our special benefit. Few of these have held a more prominent plaee in the public esteem than Dr. Thomas Cooper, for many years president of the Col lege of South Carolina. He was a native of England, where he was born in 1759. He was graduated at Oxford University at the age of eighteen years. Bearing . in his hand the honors of that institution, and in his heart the glowing enthusiasm of a liberal soul, he entered boldly and fearlessly upon the sea of politics, with a democratic idea as his guiding star. When the French Revolution blazed forth, young Cooper attached himself to the party in England that haUed the event with delight, and he soon became a marked man by friends and foes. When the atrocities of the so-caUed Republican party, in France, chilled the blood of oven its warm friends in England, and enthusiasm began to cool, Cooper found his country an uncomfortable and perhaps a dangerous plaee to domicil in ; and, in 1794, he came to America, with his friend Dr. Priestly, and other reformers. He, resided awhile in New York city, then in PhUadelphia, and became first a judge of a court of common pleas in Pennsylvania, and then professor of chem istry in Dickenson College, at CarUsle, in that State. He was a great student, yet, unlike many great students, he was a dispenser as weU as a recipient of knowledge. His attainments were multifarious and extraordinary; and he wrote and published works on Law, Medical Jurisprudence, and Political Econ omy. He translated Justinian and Broussais ; and he was a habitual writer upon current politics, always in favor of the RepubUcan party. He efficiently sustained the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. Jefferson offered him the Professorship of Chemistry in the University of Virginia, but he declined it. He subsequently filled the same chair in the College of South Carolina, where his lectures were of the highest order, not only on account of their scientific instructions, but for their beauty as specimens of English com position. He finally became president of that institution, yet, with all his wealth of knowledge and peculiar powers of impartation, the institution did not flourish to that degree which the accomplishments of its head taught its friends to ex pect. The reason may be found in the fact that Dr. Cooper was an avowed un believer in revealed rehgion, and Christian parents would not intrust their chil dren to his care. He was the more dangerous in this respect, because his man ners were captivating, and his opposition to Christianity was so courteous, that no one was repelled by a shock such as the writings of Paine aijd others give to the soul which had hitherto dwelt in an atmosphere of belief. Dr. Cooper was an esteemed resident of Columbia, South Carolina, for about twenty years, and died there, while in tho performance ofhis duties as president of tbe coUege, on the 11th of May, 1839, in tho eightieth year ofhis age. 240 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. SAMUEL HOPKINS. FEW theologians of our country have exerted a wider special influence than Samuel Hopkins, a descendant of Governor Hopkins, of Connecticut, and the chief of the Calvinistic sect of Christians known as Hopkinsians. He was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on the 17th of September, 1721, and in the excellent society of that town his youth was spent, and the labors of a farm were his occupation. He was graduated at Yale College, in 1741, and that year he heard both Whitefield and GUbert Tennant' preach. Their sermons made a deep impression upon his mind, and almost unsettled his reason. He remained a recluse in his father's house for several months, and then went to Northampton to study divinity under Jonathan Edwards. He was ordained a Christian min ister at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on the 28th of December, 1743. There he remained until 1769, when he was dismissed by an ecclesiastical council. Ho went to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1770, where he preached for awhile, but new views concerning vital religion, whicji .he had put forth, displeased many of his hearers, and, at a meeting, they resolved not to give him a caU as a pastor. He prepared to leave them, and preached a farewell sermon. That discourse so interested and impressed the people, that they urged him to remain and become their pastor. He complied, and the connection was severed only by his death thirty-three years afterward. When the British took possession of Rhode Island, in 1776, Mr. Hopkins retired, with his family, to Great Barrington, and preached at Newburyport, Canterbury, and Stamford. After the evacuation of Rhode Island, by the British, in 1780, he returned to Newport, but his flock were so scattered and impoverished, that they could not give him a stated salary. Yet he declined invitations to preach elsewhere to more favored congregations ; and during the remainder of his life he continued a faithful pastor there, and sub sisted upon the weekly contributions of his friends. He was deprived of the use of his Umbs, by paralysis, in 1799, but so far recovered as to be able to preach again. He died on the 20th of December, 1803, at the age of eighty-two years. Dr. Hopkins was an inefficient preacher. His pen, and not his tongue, was the chief utterer of those sentiments which have made his name famous r.s a Calvinistio theologian.1 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. ON the banks of the James River, in Charles City county, Virginia, is a plain mansion, -around which is spread the beautiful estate of Berkeley, the birth place of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of one of the Presidents of the United States. The former was Benjamin Harrison, whose career we have already sketched. The latter was his son, William Henry Harrison, whose Ufe we wiU now consider. He was born on the 9th of February, 1773. At a suitable age he was placed in Hampden Sydney College, where he was graduated ; and then, under the supervision of his guardian (Robert Morris), in Philadelphia, prepared himself for the practice of the medical art. At about that time an 1. Dr. Hopkins not only embraced the whole Calvinisiic doctrine of "total depravity" and "pre destination and election," but added thereto some extraordinary views concerning the origin and natuic of sin, quite incompatible with reason or common sense. Yet many embraced his doctrines: and his two volumes of sermons have been extensively read and admired by those who have a taste for such meta physical disquisitions. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 241 SI brfrtfA>u06 C/t^ army was gathering to chastise the hostile Indians in the North-west. Young Harrison's miUtary genius was stirred withiu him, and having obtained an en sign's commission from President Washington, he joined the army at the age of nineteen years. He was promoted to a lieutenancy, in 1792 ; and, in 1794, he followed Wayne to conflicts with the North-western tribes, where he greatly distinguished himself. He was appointed secretary of the North-western Ter ritory, in 1797, and resigned his miUtary commission. Two years afterward, when only twenty-six years of age, he was elected the first delegate to Congress from the Territory.1 On the erection of Indiana into a separate territorial government, in 1801, Harrison was appointed its chief magistrate, and he was continued in that o_fice, by consecutive reappointments, until 1813,2 when the war with Great Britain called him to a more important sphere of action. He had already exhibited his military skiU in the battle with the Indians at Tippe canoe, in the Autumn of 1811. He was commissioned a. major-general in the Eehtueky militia, by brevet, early in 1812. After the surrender of General Hull, at Detroit, he was appointed major-general in the army of the United States, and intrusted with the command of the North-western division. He was one of the best officers in that war ; but, after achieving the battle of the Thames, 1. It included the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. General St. Clair was then governor ofthe Territory. 2. He had also held the office of commissioner of Indian affairs, in that Territory, and had concluded no less than thirteen important treaties with the different tribes. 11 242 ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. and other victories in the lake country, his miUtary services were concluded. He resigned his commission, in 1814, in consequence ofa misunderstanding with the Secretary of War, and retired to his farm at North Bend, Ohio. Ho served as commissioner in negotiating Indian treaties ; and the voice of a grateful people afterward called him to represent them in the legislature of Ohio, and of the nation. He was elected to the Senate of the United States, in 1824. In 1828, he was appointed minister to Colombia, one of the South American Re publics. He was recalled, by President Jackson, on account of some differences of opinion respecting diplomatic events in that region, when he returned home, and again sought the repose of private life. There he remained about ten years, when he was called forth tp receive from the American people the highest honor in their gift — the chief magistracy of the Republic. Ho was elected President of the United States by an immense majority, and was inaugurated on tho 4th of March, 1841. For more than twenty days he bore the unceasing clamors for office, with which the ears of a new president are always assailed ; and then his slender constitution, pressed by the weight of almost threescore and ten years, suddenly gave way. The excitements of his new station increased a slight disease caused by a cold, and on the 4th of April — just one month after the inauguration pageant at the presidential mansion,^-rthe . honored occupant was a corpse. lie was succeeded in office by the vice-president, John Tyler. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. , THERE were brave soldiers, full of confidence in themselves and their com- panions-in-arms, during the War for Independence, who lacked skill as leaders, and faUed in winning that fame to which their courage entitled them. Arthur St. Clair was of that number. He was an officer of acknowledged bravery and prudence, yet he was far from being an expert military leader. He was born at Edinburgh, in Scotland, in 1734, and was a lieutenant in the army under Wolfe, in the campaign against Canada, in 1759. He remained in America, after the peace, and was placed in command of Fort Ligonier, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. He also received a grant of a thousand acres of land in that then wilderness, and resided there until the beginning of the Revolution. ¦ He was appointed to the command of a battaUon of Pennsylvania militia, in January, 1776, and received from Congress the commission of colonel. He raised ¦ a regiment, proceeded to the northern department to operate against Canada, | and, in August, was promoted to brigadier-general. 'He behaved with great bravery and skUl in the battles at Trenton and Princeton ; and, in February. 1777, he was commissioned a major-general. He was. placed in command of Ticonderoga the following Summer. The post was weak in many ways, and when, in July, Burgoyne, with a powerful army, approached and took an ad vantageous position, St.. Clair abandoned it, and retreated toward the Hudson, where Schuyler was preparing to meet the invaders. That retreat proved a disastrous one in the loss of men and munitions. A court of inquiry honorably acquitted him; and, in 1780, he was ordered to Rhode Island. Circumstances,, prevented his taking command there; and, in 1781, when the allied American . and French armies proceeded to attack Cornwallis, at Yorktown, in Virginia, he remained in- Philadelphia, with a considerable force, to protect Congress.; He obtained permission to join the main army, and arrived at Yorktown during tho siege. After the capture ofthe British army there, he proceeded to join General FRANCOIS XAVIER MARTIN. 243 Greene, in the South, and on his way he drove the British from Wilmington, North Carolina. General St. Clair was a member of the executive council of Pennsylvania, in 1783, and was elected to Congress three years afterward. He was president of that body, early in 1787. Upon the erection of the North-western Territory into a government, in 1788, he was appointed its governor, and held that office until 1802, when Ohio was admitted into the Union as a sovereign State. St. Clair commanded an army against the Miami Indians, in 1791 ; and, in the Autumn of that year, was defeated with the loss of almost seven hundred men. He was then suffering from severe Ulness, yet bore himself bravely. Public censure was loud and ungenerous, but a committee of tho House of Represent atives acquitted him of all blame. When he retired from public life, in 1802, he was an old man, and almost ruined in fortune. He resided in dreary loneliness near Laurel Hill, Westmoreland county1, and for a long time vainly petitioned Congress to allow certain claims. He finally obtained a pension of sixty dollars a month, and his last days were made comfortable. He died on the 31st of August, 1818, at the age of eighty-four years. His remains rest in the grave yard ofthe Presbyterian Church, at Greensburg, and over it the Masonic frater nity placed a handsome monument," in 1832. FRANCOIS XAVIER MARTIN. PERHAPS one of tho most learned jurists and erudite scholars that ever adorned the profession of the law, in this country, was Francois Xavier Martin, better known to the general reader as the accomplished Historian of North Carolina.1 He was born at MarseUles, in France, on the 17th of March, 1762. At the age of twenty years he came to America. The war of the Revo lution was then just drawing to a close, and he took up his residence at New bern, in North CaroUna, and prepared himself for the profession of tho law. On his first appearance at the bar, he gave evidence of that acuteness which marked his whole career, in whatever station in life he was called to act. His practice became extensive and lucrative, and he soon took a high social position in his adopted State. In 1806, he was called to represent Newbern district in the House of Commons of North Carolina. Soon after the close of his duties therein, President Madison (itt 1809) appointed him United States Judgo of the Missis sippi Territory, and he made his residence at Natchez. On tho 1st of February, 1815, he was olevated by Governor Claiborne to the bench ofthe Supremo Court of Louisiana, as one ofthe associate judges. He held that office for twenty-two years, when, in January, 1837, he became chief justice ofthe State, on the death of Judge. Mathews. Chief Justice Martin remained at the head of the Supremo Court of Louisiana until the adoption of the present constitution of that State, in the Autumn of 1845, when he retired to private life. He was then in tho eighty-fourth year of his age. Judge Martin lived but a little more than a year after his retirement. He died on the 10th of December, 1846. No man ever left an official station with fewer stains of sins of omission or commission upon his garment, than Judge Martin, for through his long life not a syllable in disparage ment of his honesty and integrity was ever uttered. His memory is cherished with the deepest affection by the members of his profession, and by the com munity in which he lived. 1. His History of North Carolina, including the story of its discovery, settlement, and progress of colonization, until the beginning of (he Revolution, was commenced in 1791, but was not published until 1829, when it was issued from a New Orleans press, in two octavo volumes. ANDREW JACKSON. " A SK nothing but what is right — submit to nothing wrong," was Andrew A Jackson's great poUtical maxim ; and it was an abiding principle in his character from his earliest youth until the cldSe ofhis life. That noble principle was the key to his great success in whatever he undertook, and is worthy of adoption by every young man when he sets out upon the perilous voyage of active life. Jackson's parents were from the north of Ireland, and were among the early Scotch-Irish settlers in the upper part of South Carolina, in the vicinity of Waxhaw Creek. Jackson's father lived north of the. dividing line between North and South CaroUna, in Mecklenburg county, and there Andrew was born on the 15th of March, 1767. His fath^ died five days afterward, and a montli later, his mother took up her abode in South Carolina, near the meeting-houso of the Waxhaw settlement. He received a fair education, for his mother designed him for the Christian ministry,. But his studies were interrupted by the tumults of the on-eoming Revolution, and soon after the fall of Charleston, the Waxhaw settlement became a terrible scene of blood, in the massacre . of Buford's regiment by the fiery Tarleton.1 Every element of the Uon in young Jackson's nature was aroused by this event, and, boy as he was, not yet fourteen years of age, ho joined the patriot army and went to the field. One of his brothers was killed at Stono, and himself and another brother were made captives, in 1781. Tho widow was soon bereaved of all her famUy, but Andrew ; and after making a journey of mercy to Charleston, to relieve sick prisoners, she feU by the way side, and ' the plaee of her sepulchre is -not known unto this day.' Left alone at a critical period of -life, with some property at his disposal, young Jackson commenced a career tbat promised certain destruction. He suddenly reformed, studied law, and was licensed to practice, in 1786. He was sooti afterward ap pointed solicitor of the Western District of Tennessee, and journeying .over the mountains, he commenced, in that then wilderness, that remarkable career as attorney, judge, legislator, and mUitary commander, which on contemplation assumes the features ofthe wildest romance, viewed from any point of apprecia tion. His lonely journeyings, his collisions with the Indians, his difficulties with gamblers and fraudulent creditors and land speculators, and his wonderful personal triumphs in houra of greatest danger, make the record ofhis Ufe one of rare interest and instruction. • ' In 1790, Jackson mado his residence at Nashville, and there he married an accomplished woman, who had been divorced from her husband. In 1795, he assisted in forming a State Constitution for Tennessee, and was elected thefirst representative, in Congress, of the new State. In the Autumn of 1797, he took a seat in. the United States Senate,, to which he had been chosen, and was a conspicuous supporter o'f tbe democratic party. He .did not remain long at Washington. Soon after leaving the Senate, he was appointed judge of the Supremo Court ofhis State. Ho resigned that office, in 1804, and retired to his beautiful estate near Nashville. There he was visited by Aaron Burr, in 1805, and entered warmly into his schemes for invading Mexico. When Burr's inten tions were suspected, Jackson refused further intercourse with him until he should prove the purity of his intentions. For many years Jackson was Chief military commander in his section ; and when war agamst Groat Britain was proclaimed, 1. Tarleton gave no quarter, and about one hundred and fifty men, ready to surrender to "superior numbers, were killed or cruelly maimed. . Thewoutd-d and the dying were taken into the- Waxhaw meeting-house, and there the mother of Jackson, and other women, attended them. Under the roof of that sacred edifice, young Jackson first saw the .demon of war in its most horrid form, and all that misery and British power and oppression, were ever afterward associated in his mind. in 1812, he longed for employment in the field. He was called to duty in 1813. Early the foUowing year he was made a major-general, and from that time untU his great victory at New Orleans, on the 8th of January, 1815, his name was identified with every nulitary movement in the South, whether against the hos tile Indians, Britons, or Spaniards. In 1818, he engaged successfully in a cam paign against the Seminoles and other Southern Indians, and, at the same time, he taught the Spanish authorities in, Florida some useful lessons, and hastened the cession of that territory to the United States. In 1821, President Monroe appointed General Jackson governor of Florida ; and, in 1823, he offered him the station of resident minister in Mexico. Ho declined the honor, but accepted a , seat in the United States Senate, to whioh the legislature of Tennessee had elected him. He was one of the four candi dates for President of the United States, in 1824, but was unsuccessful. . He was elevated to that exalted station, in 1828, by a large majority, and was reelected, iu 1832. His administration of eight years was marked by great energy; and never were the affairs of the Republic, in its domestic and foreign relations, more prosperous than at the close of his term of office. In the Spring of 1837, be retired from public life forever, and sought repose after a long and laborious career, devoted to the service of his country. He Uved quietly at his residence near NashviUe, called The Hermitage, until on a calm Sunday, the 8th of June, 1845, his spirit went home. He was then a Uttle more than seventy-eight years of 246 NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. age. The memory of that great and good man is revered by his countrymen, next to that of .Washington, and to him. has been awarded the first equestrian statue in bronze ever erected in this country. It is colossal, and occupies a conspicuous place in President's Square, Washington city, whero it was reared in 1852. NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. THE practical man who, in any degree, lightens the burden of human labor, is eminently a public benefactor. Such was Nathaniel Bowditch, who, by navigators, has been aptly termed The Great Pilot. He was the son of a poor ship-master, of Salem, where Nathaniel was born on the 26th of March, 1773. His education was acquired at a district school; and at the age of thirteen years he was apprenticed to a ship-chandler. He performed his duties faithfully until manhood, and during his whole apprenticeship he employed every leisure mo ment in reading and study. Mathematics was his favorite study, and it beeamo the medium of his greatest public services. At the age of twenty-two years young Bowditch went on a voyage to tho East Indies, as captain's clerk, and his naturally strong mind was engaged chiefly on the subject of navigation, while at sea. The result of his reflections, observa tions, and calculations, was the publication, in 1802, of the well-known nautical work, entitled the New American Practical Navigator. ' For nine years he was himself a practical navigator, and during that time he rose gradually from captain's clerk to master. He left the sea, in 1804, and became president of a Marino Insurance Company, at Salem. That office he held for almost twenty years. Two years before, while his ship lay wind-bound in Boston Harbor, Captain Bowditch went to Cambridge to listen to the commencement exercises at Har vard College, and while standing in the crowded aisle, he heard his own name announced, by the president, as the recipient of the degree of Master of Arts. It was to him the proudest day of his life,. He was then about twenty-nine years of age. In 1806, Mr. Bowditch published an admirable chart ofthe harbors of Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, and Manchester. In 1816, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws, from Harvard' CoUege ; , and was elected a member of tile Royal Society of London, in 1818. He contributed many valuable papers to scientific publications, but the great work of his life was tho translation and annotation of Laplace's Mecanique Celeste. He published it at his own expense entirely, remarking that he would rather spend a thousand doUars a year, in that way, than to ride in his carriage. It was a task of great labor and expense, and con sists of five large volumes. The first was published in 1829, the second in 1832, and the third in 1834. He read the last proof sheets of tho fourth volume only a few days before his death. The revision of the fifth was left to other hands. Dr. Bowditch died on the 16th of March, 1838; and his last words were "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word." He was a man of great literary and scientific attainments, and was proficient in tho 1. The origin of that work shows how comparatively insignificant events will result in great benefits. On the day previous to his sailing on his last voyage, he was called upon by Edumnd N. Blunt, then a noted publisher of charts and nautical books, at Newburypoit, and requested to continue the corrections which he had previously commenced on Moore's book on navigation, then in common use. In perform ance of his promise to do so, he detected so many and important errors, that he resolved to prepare an entire new work. That work was his Practical Navigator. MARINUS WILLETT. 247 Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German languages. IIo was not ambitious for public life, yet he twice occupied a seat in tho oxecutivo council of Governor Strong, of Massachusetts. His memory is sweet for his lifo was pure. MARINUS WILLETT. "VTO member ofthe associated Sons of Liberty, in New York, exceeded Marinus 1\ WUlett in devotion to republican principles, and in boldness of action when called to their support. He was born at Jamaica, Long Island, on the 10th of August, 1740. Ho was one of thirteen children, and lived to survive them aU. The French and Indian war was burning fiercely in northern New York when he approached young manhood. His military passion was fired, and, beforo ho was eighteen years of age, ho entered the provincial army with a second lieu tenant's commission, under the command of Colonel Oliver Delancy.1 He shared in the misery of Abercrombie's defeat at Ticonderoga, in 1758 ; and immediately afterward he accompanied Colonel Bradstreet in his successful expedition against Fort Frontenac (now Kingston, Upper Canada), at the foot of Lake Ontario. Fatigue and exposure impaired his health, and ho left tho service soon afterward. When, a few years later, tho Stamp Act spread a deep and ominous murmur over the land, Mr. WUlett had chosen his banner, and from that time until tho organization of an army of patriots to fight for liberty, he was one of the boldest supporters of his country's rights, by word and deed. When, British troops in New York were ordered "to Boston, after the skirmish at Lexington, they attempted to carry off a large quantity of spare arms, in ad dition to their own. WUlett resolved to prevent it, and, though opposed by tho mayor and other Whigs, he led a body of citizens, captured the baggage-wagons containing them, and took them back to the city. These arms were afterward used by the first regiment raised by the State of New York.- WUlett was appointed second captain of a company in Colonel M'Dougal's regiment, and accompanied Montgomery in his northern expedition. After the capture of St. John's, on tho Sorel, he escorted prisoners taken at Chambly, to Ticonderoga, and then was placed in command of St. John's. He held that post until January, 1776. In November of that year he was appointed lieutenant-colonel; and, al the opening ofthe campaign of 1777, he was placed in command of Fort Constitution, on the Hudson, opposite West Point. In May ho was ordered to Fort Stanwix, or Schuyler (now Rome), where he performed signal services. He was left in com mand of the fort, and remained there until tho Summer of 1778, when he joined the army under Washington, and was at the battle of Monmouth. He accom panied Sullivan in his campaign against the Indians in 1779, and was actively engaged in the Mohawk VaUey, in 1780, 1781, and 1782. At the close of tho war he returned to civil pursuits. Washington highly esteemed him ; and, in 1792, he was sent by the President to treat with tho Creek Indians at the South. The same year he was appointed a brigadier-general in the army intended to act against the North-western Indians. He decUned the appointment, for ho was opposed to the expedition. He was for some time sheriff of New York, and was elected mayor ofthe city, in 1807. He was chosen elector of president and 1. It may be interesting to the young to know the style of a military dress at that time. Willett thus describes ins own uniform : A green coat trimmed with silver twist, white under-clothes, and black gaiters ; also a cocked bat, with a large black cockade of silk ribbon, together with a silver button and loop. 248 JOHN STARK. vice-president, in 1824, aud was made president of the Electoral College. Colonel Willett died in the city of New York, on the 23d of August, 1830, in the ninety-first year of his age. JOHN STARK. " "DOYSI there 's the enemy. They must be beat, or Molly "Stark must sleep a JD widow this night I Forward, boys! March I" Such were the vigorous words of a hero of two wars, the gallant General Stark, as he led his corps of Green Mountain Boys to attack the Hessians and Tories, near Bennington. He was an unpolished soldier, who had learned tbe art of desultory warfare in ser vice against the French and Indians in northern New York. He was the son of a Scotchman, and was born at Londonderry (now the city of Manchester), New Hampshire, on the 28th of August, 1728. His early childhood was spent in the midst ofthe wild scenery of his birth-place, and in youth he was remark able for expertness in trapping the beaver and otter, and in hunting the bear and deer. Just before the breaking out of the French and Indian war, he pen etrated the forests far northward, and 'was captured by some St. Francis Indians. He suffered dreadfully for a long time, and then was ransomed at a great price. This circumstance gave him good cause for leading a company of Rangers against these very Indians and their sometimes equaUy savage French allies, four years ' afterward. He became a captain, under Major Rogers, in 1756, and in that school he was taught those lessons which he practiced so usefully twenty- years later. When inteUigenee reached the valleys ofthe North, that blood had been shed at Lexington, Stark led the train-bands of his district to Cambridge, and was commissioned a colonel, with eight hundred men under his banner. With these he fought bravely in the battle of Bunker's Hill. He went to New York after the British evacuated Boston, in the Spring of 1776. Then, at the head of a brigade in the northern department, under Gates, he performed essential service in the vicinity of Lake Champlain ; and near the close of the year, he commanded the right wing of SuUivan's column in the battle at Trenton. He shared in the honors at Princeton; but, being overlooked by Congress when promotions were made, he resigned his commission and. retired from the army. But when the invader approached from the North, his own State called him to the field, in command of its brave sons; and on the Walloomscoik, a few miles from Ben nington, he won that decisive battle which gavo him world-wide renown. Then it was that he made the rough but effective speech above quoted, that indicated the alternative of death or victory. Congress was no longer tardy in acknowl edging his services, for he had given that crippling blow to Burgoyne, which insured to Gates' army a comparatively easy victory. The national legislature gave him grateful thanks, and a brigadier's commission in the Continental army. He joined Gates at Saratoga, and shared in the honors of that great victory. In 1779, he was on duty on Rhode Island, and the following year he fought the British and Hessians at Springfield, in New Jersey. In the Autumn of 1780, he was one of the board of officers that tried and condemned the unfortunate Major Andre ; and until the last scenes of the war, he was in active service. When he sheathed his sword, he left the arena of public life forever, though he lived almost forty years afterward. General Stark died on the 8th of May, 1822, at the age of almost ninety-four years. Near his birth-place, on the east side of the Merrimac, is a granite shaft, bearing the simple inscription, Major-Gen- bral Stark. His eulogium is daily uttered by our free institutions — his epitaph is in the memory of his deeds. PHILLIS WHEATLEY. " 'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there 's a God — that there 's a Saviour too ; Once*I redemption neither sought nor knew." SO felt the heart, and so recorded the pen of a ehUd of Africa, who, by her talent and virtue, honored her race and challenged the kindly regard of many of the good and great of our country. The lady of a respectable citizen of Boston, named Wheatley, went to the slave-market, in that city, in 1761, to purchase a chUd-negress, that she might rear her to be a faithful nurse in the old age of her mistress. She saw many plump chUdren, but one of delicate frame, modest demeanor, and clad in nothing but a piece of dirty carpet wrapped about her, attracted her attention, and Mrs. Wheatley took her home in her chaise, and gave her the name of PhiUis. The chUd seemed to be about seven years of age, and exhibited remarkable intelligence, and apt imitative powers. Mrs. Wheatley's daughter taught the child to read and write, and her progress was wonderful. She appeared to have very little recollection of her birth-place, but remembered seeing her mother pour out water before the sun at its rising. With the development of her intellectual faculties her moral nature kept pace ; and she was greatly beloved by all who knew her for her amiabUity and perfect' docility. She soon attracted the attention of men of learning ; and as PhiUis 11* 250 PHILLIS WHEATLEY. read books with great avidity, they supplied her. Piety was a ruling sentiment in her character, and tears born of gratitude to God and her kind mistress, often moistened her eyes. As she grew to womanhood her thoughts found expression through her pen, sometimes in prose but more frequently in verse ; and she was often an invited guest in the famiUes of the rich and learned, in Boston. Her mistress treated her as a child, and was extremely proud of her.1 At the age of about sixteen years (1770) PhiUis became a member of the " Old South Church," then under the charge of Dr. Sewall; and it was at about this time that she wrote the poem from which the above is an extract. Earlier than this she had written poems, remarkable for both vigor of thought and pathos in expression. Her memory, in some particulars, appears to have been extremely defective. If she composed a poem, in the night, and did not write it down, it would be gone from her, forever, in the morning. Her kind mistress gave her a light and writing materials at her bed-side, that she might lose nothing, and in cold weather a fire was always made in her room, at night. In the Summer of 1773, her health gave way, and a sea-voyage was recommended. She accom panied a son of Mr. Wheatley, to England, and there she was cordially received by Lady Huntingdon, Lord Dartmouth, and other people of distinction. WhUe there, her poems, which had been collected and dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, wero pubhshed, and attracted great attention. The book was em bellished with a portrait of her, from whieh our picture was copied. She was persuaded to remain in London until the return ofthe court, so as to be presented to the king, but, hearing of the declining health of her mistress, she hastened home. That kind friend was soon laid in the grave, and PhiUis grieved as deeply as any of her chUdren." Mr. Wheatley died soon afterward, and then his excel lent daughter was laid by the side of her parents. , PhUlis was left destitute, and the sun of her earthly happiness went down. A highly-intelUgent colored man, of Boston, named Peters, offered himself in marriage to the poor orphan, and was accepted. He proved utterly unworthy of the excellent creature he had wedded, and her lot became a bitter one, indeed. She and her husband- went to the interior of the State, to live, for awhile, and then returned to Boston. Misfortune seems to have expelled her muse, for we have no production of her pen bearing a later date than those in her volume published in 1773, except a poetical epistle to General Washington, in 1775, * and a few scraps written at about that time. A few years of misery shattered the golden bowl of her life, and, in a filthy apartment, in an obscure part of Boston, that gifted wife and mother, whose youth had been passed in ease and even luxury, was allowed to perish, alone ! Her spirit took wing on the 5th of December, 1 794, when she was about forty-one years of age. 1. On one occasion, Phillis was from home on a visit, and, as tho weather was inclement, her mistress sent one of her slaves, with a chaise, after her. Prince took his seat beside Phillis. As they drew up to the house, and their mistress saw tbem, the good woman indignantly exclaimed, " Do but look at the saucy variety — if he has not the impudence to sit upon the same seat with Phillis !" And Bho severely reprimanded Prince for forgetting the dignity of Phillis. 2. Phillis' letter was dated the 26th of October, 1775. Washington answered it on the 28th of February, 1776, as follows. His letter was written at Mb head-quarters, at Cambridge : " Miss Phillis, — Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my hands till the middle of Decem ber. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of import ant occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most Bincerely for your polite notice of me in the elegant lines you inclosed ; and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents ; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly duo to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it a Elace in the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters, I shall be appy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been Bo liberal and beneficent in lier dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient, humble servant, *' Geo, Washihgton." CONRAD WEISEE. — ISAAC SEARS. CONRAD "WEISER. ONE ofthe most noted agents of communication between the white men and the Indians, was Conrad Weiser, a native of Germany, who came to Amer ica in early life, and settled, with his father, in the present Schoharie county, New York, in 1713. They left England, in 1712, and were seventeen months on their voyage I Young Weiser became a great favorite with the Iroquois Indians in the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys, with whom he spent much of his Ufe. Late in 1714, the elder Weiser, and about thirty other families, who had settled in Schoharie, becoming dissatisfied by attempts to tax them, set out for Tulpehocken, in Pennsylvania, by way of the Susquehanna river, and settled there. But young Weiser was enamored of tho free life of the savage. He was naturalized by them, and became thoroughly versed in the languages of the whole Six Nations, as the Iroquois confederacy in New York were called. He became confidential interpreter and special messenger for the province of Pennsylvania among the Indians, and assisted in many important treaties. The governor of Virginia commissioned him to visit the grand council at Onondaga, in 1737, and, with only a Dutchman and three Indians, he traversed the track less forest for five hundred miles, for that purpose. He went on a similar mission from Philadelphia to Shamokin (Sunbury), in 1744. At Reading he established an Indian agency and trading-house. When the French on the frontier made hostUe demonstrations, in 1755, he was commissioned a colonel of a volunteer regiment from Berks county; and,inl758, he attended the great gathering ofthe Indian chiefs in council with white commissioners, at Easton. Such was the afl'ec tion of the Indians for Weiser, that for many years after his death they were in the habit of visiting his grave and strewing flowers thereon. Mr. Weiser's daughter married Henry Mejchoir Muhlenburg, D.D., the founder of the Lutheran Church, in Americr. ISAAC SEARS. FEW men have occupied so large a space in the public attention, of whom so Uttle is known, as Isaac Sears, one of the great leaders of the Sons of Liberty, in New York, previous to the occupation of that city by the British, in 1776. So generally was he regarded as the bold leader in popular outbreaks, that he acquired the name ot King Sears, by which title he is better known than by his commercial ono of captain. Of him, a Loyalist writer in Rivington's Gazette wrote, exultingly, when the New York Assembly yielded to ministerial require ments: " And so, my good masters, I find it no joke, For York has stepp'd forward and thrown off tho yoke Of Congress, committee, and even Kir.g Sears, Who shows you good nature by showing his ears." Isaac Sears was lineally descended from ono of the earlier settlers in Massa chusetts, who came from Colchester, England, in 1630. He was born at Nor walk, Connecticut, in 1729. Of his youth and early manhood we know little, except, that he was a mariner. He first appeared in public life as a prominent member of the association called Sons of Liberty, in 1765, when he was a suc cessful merchant in the city of New York, and a sea-eaptain of note. Ho was the chairman of the first Committee of Correspondence appointed by the citizens of New York, in 1765, and had for his colleagues John Lamb, Gershom Mott, WUham Wiley, and Thomas Eobinson. At a later period, he was wounded in 252 EDWARD TELFAIR. an affray with some soldiers ; and in every enterprise against the schemes of government officials he was an acknowledged leader. Early in the Summer of 1775, he assisted Lamb, WUlett, M'Dougal, and others, in seizing some British stores at Turtle Bay (46th Street, and East River, New York) ; and in August following, he led a party of citizens to assist Captain Lamb in removing British cannons from the battery of Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, whUe tho Asia vessel of war was hurling round shot at them and the town.1 In the Autumn of that year he led a party of mounted mUitia-men from Connecticut, who destroyed Rivington's printing-press, and carried off his type, at midday.2 Although Captain Sears continued to be an active Whig during the remainder of the Revolution, we do not find his name in connection with any important event. When peace came, his business and fortune were gone ; and, in 1785, he made a voyage to China, as a supercargo, being a partner with others in a commercial venture. Captain Sears was very iU with fever, on his arrival at Canton, and died there, on the 28th of October, 1785, at the age of almost fifty- seven years. He was buried upon French Island, and his fellow-voyagers placed a slab, with a suitable inscription upon it, over his grave. EDWARD TELFAIR. MANY of the leading men in Georgia, at the time of the breaking out of the Revolution, were of Scotch descent, and, unlike tho settlers from the same stock, in Eastern North CaroUna, they were generaUy adherents to tho patriot cause. Edward Telfair was born in Scotland, in 1735, and received an Enghsh education at the grammar school of Kirkcudbright, on the domain of the Earl of Selkirk.3 He came to America when twenty-three years of age, and resided some time in Virginia, as a£ent of a commercial house. From thence he went to Halifax, on the Roanoke; and, in 1766, made his residence in Savannah. He was one of the earliest and most efficient promoters of the rebellion there, and was one of the leading members of the committee of safety, in 1774. With a few others he broke open the provincial magazine and secured the powder for the use ofthe patriots; and he also assisted in the seizure ofthe royal governor, Sir James Wright.4 In 1778 he was elected to a seat in the Continental Con gress ; and on the 24th of July of that year he signed the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. He continued a member of that body until 1783, when he was appointed a commissioner to conclude a treaty with the Cherokee chiefs, by which the boundary Une between their nation and Georgia was determined. He was governor of Georgia, first in 1786, and then^from 1790 to 1793. He had the honor of entertaining President Washington, when he visited Georgia, in 1791, at his family seat, near Augusta. Governor Telfair died at Savannah, on the 19th of September, 1807, in the seventy-second year ofhis age. He was buried with military honors. 1. One of the buildings injured by that cannonade was the tavern of Samuel Fraunce, commonly known by the name of Black Sam, on account of his dark complexion. It was the same building in which Washington had his final parting with his officers, at the close of the war, and for many years has been known as the Broad Street Hotel. It is on the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets. In allusion tp the eyent, Philip Freneau wrote, in his Petition of Hugh Gaine : " At first we supposed it was only a sham, 'Till he drove a round ball through the roof of Black Sam." Two of the cannons removed at that time by Alexander Hamilton and some of his college associates, may yet [18551 be seen at the entrance-gate to the groundB of Columbia College. 2. See sketch of Rivington, and also of Bishop Seabury. 3, See sketch of John Paul Jones. . 4. See sketch of Joseph Habersham. AARON BURR. 253 AARON BURR. IN this country, where character alone is the accepted standard of respeetabihty, and where the shield of class does not avert the odium of public opinion from the openly immoral man, let his birth and attainments be ever so exalted, there is necessarily a pubUc virtue which no aspirant for honor dare neglect. In this sentiment is grounded our dearest hopes for the future of our Republic ; and however melancholy in itself the spectacle of such a character as that of Aaron Burr may appear to the eye of the Christian and Patriot, the detestation in which it is held is a confirmation of faith in that public virtue. Burr was undoubtedly a patriot, and possessed many noble traits of eharacter, but over aU was spread the foul sUme of libertinism ; and he who might have shined among the bright stars of our country's glory, is, in a degree, a "lost pleiad," " Damned to everlasting fame." Aaron Burr was the son ofthe pious President Burr, ofthe CoUege at Prince ton, and the daughter of the eminent Jonathan Edwards. He was born at Newark, New Jersey, on the 5th of February, 1756, and before he was three years of age he lost both his parents. He was a wayward boy, yet fuU of in teUectual promise. At twelve years of age he entered Princeton College, and left it in 1772, a ripe scholar for one of his years, and the recipient of academic 254 JAMES THACHER. honors. He resolved to make the law his profession, but before ho could engage in its practice, the storm of the Revolution burst upon the country, and he joined the Continental army, at Cambridge. Full of adventurous spirit, lie volunteered to accompany Arnold through the wUderness, to Quebec. There he was made one of Montgomery's aids, and was with that officer when he feU. Soon after that be entered the military family of General Washington, from which he was expelled in consequence of some immoral conduct which disgusted the com mander-in-chief. Burr was commissioned a lieutenant-colonel, in 1777, and con tinued in active service until 1779, when failing health compelled him to resign his office. He had already acquired an unenviable character for expertness in intrigue ; and his hostility to Washington was always bitter and uncompromising. Burr commenced the practice of law, at Albany, in 1782, and soon afterward removed to the city of New York, where he became distinguished in his pro fession. He was appointed attorney-general of the State, in 1789 ; and from 1791 to 1797, he was a member of the United States Senate, and an influential repubUcan leader, in that body. His winning manners gavo him wonderful influ ence. The power of his fascinations over the other sex was almost unbounded and he used it for the basest purposes. As a politician he was artful and intrig uing; and he managed so adroitly for himself, thathe received" for the offico of President ofthe United States, in 1800, the same number ofvotes as Mr. Jeffer son, the head and founder of the Republican party. Congress decided in favor of Jefferson, after thirty-six ballotings, and Burr was declared Vice-President, according to usage in the early days of the Republic. Burr was the bitter enemy of all Federalists; and, in 1804, he managed to draw Alexander Hamilton into a duel, whioh became tbe terrible result of a poUtical quarrel. Burr murdered Hamilton,1 and over afterward society put tho mark of Cain upon him. Two years afterwards he was engaged in forming an expedition in the western country, professedly to invade Mexico. It was sus pected tbat Burr intended to attempt » severance of the Western from tho Eastern States, and make himself president of the former. He was arrested on a charge of high treason, tried at Richmond, in Virginia, in 1807, and acquitted. He passed the remainder of his life in comparative obscurity and almost total neglect. Profligate and unscrupulous until the last, that wretched man, whoso libertinism had carried desolation into many households, went down into the grave, " Unwept, unhonored, and unsung;" a warning to all. He died on Staten Island, near New York, on the 14th of September, 1836, at the age of eighty years. JAMES THACHER. ONE ofthe latest survivors of the medical staff of the Continental army, was James Thacher, M.D., whose interesting Journal, kept during the entiro war, was published in 1827, and is regarded as standard authority in relation to matters of which it treats. James Thacher was born at Barnstable, Massa chusetts, in 1754. He studied medicine in his native town, under Dr. Abner Hersey, and was prepared to enter upon the practice of his profession, " at tho l. The friends of both parties endeavored, in vain, to settle the dispute without recourse to arms, but Burr seemed resolved on taking tho life of Hamilton. He exacted such concessions and humiliating terms of compromise, as he knew no man of honnr would agree to. Hamilton fired his pistol in the air, while Burr, with fatal aim, sent a bullet with the errand of death. It was a foul murder. JAMES MADISON, D.D. 255 precise time," he says, when he found his country "about to be involved in all the horrors ofa civil war." In July, 1775, when only twenty-one years of age, he went to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, at Watertown, and soUcited the appointment of assistant hospital surgeon, at Cambridge. With nine others he received the coveted appointment, and he continued in active duty in the hospital and camp nntU the capture of Cornwallis, at Yorktown. It was under his directions that the general inoculation of the American army for the small pox was performed, at its encampment in the Hudson Highlands, opposite West Point, in the Spring of 1781. In his Journal, Dr. Thacher says, " AU the soldiers, with the women and children, who have not had the smaU-pox, are now under inoculation.1 .... Of five hundred who have been inoculated here, four only have died."2 He then mentions the interesting medical fact, that an ex tract of butternut, made by boiling down the inner bark of that tree, was very successfully substituted for the usual doses of calomel and jalap employed to reduce the system. He found it to be more efficacious and less dangerous than the mineral drug. He adds, concerning remedies found on our soil, "The butter nut is the only cathartic deserving of confidence which we have yet discovered."' Dr. Thacher made his profession his life-voeation, after the war ; and he enjoyed the honors and veneration due to a faithful patriot in that struggle, for more than sixty years after the eventful scenes at Yorktown. He wrote several medical works, and also a History of Plymouth. His Medical Biography is a work of much value. Through life he indulged an antiquarian taste ; and during his long residence in the elder town of New England, he was a warm friend of the PUgrim Society there. He died at Plymouth, on the 24th of May, 1844, at the . age of ninety years. JAMES MADISON, D.D. THE first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, was James Madison, a native of Rockingham county, in that State, and for many years president of William and Mary CoUege. He was born near Porf RepubUc, on the 27th of August, 1749. His early education was acquired at an academy in Maryland; and, in 1768, he entered WiUiam and Mary College, as a student. He was graduated in 1772, and in addition to other collegiate honors, he received the gold medal assigned by Lord Botetourt as a prize for the encouragement of classical Uterature. On leaving the college, young Madison commenced the study of law under tho 'afterward celebrated Chancellor Wythe, and was ad mitted to the bar, but he felt called to the gospel ministry, and prepared himself for its duties. He visited England, and received priest's orders ; and on his return, in 1773, he was chosen Professor of Mathematics in WUliam and Mary CoUege. When only twenty-eight years of age (1777), he was chosen president of that institution, and then again visited England to become better instructed in those acquirements whieh his station demanded. He returned in 1778, and then " commenced that long career of usefulness, which entitles him to be considered as one ofthe greatest benefactors of Virginia." In 1784, he resigned his Professor ship of Mathematics, and became Professor of Natural and Moral Philosophy, and International Law. These and the presidency he retained untU his death. UntU 1776, the Church of England had been the established religion in Vir ginia. That year the Virginia Assembly repealed all laws requiring conformity 1. See note 2, page 61. 2. There was also a partial inoculation of the troops stationed at Morristown, in New Jersey. 256 ABRAHAM BALDWIN. . thereto. There had never been a resident Bishop in Virginia At a convention held in Richmond, in 1785, presided over by Dr. Madison, the subject of a res ident Bishop was considered ; and the foUowing year Rev. Dr. Griffith was re quested to proceed to England, with White and Provost, and receive consecra tion. Circumstances prevented his going ; and, in 1790, Dr. Madison was elected to fill the episcopate. He was consecrated at Lambeth, in September of that year. Bishop Madison made his first episcopal visitation in 1792. Although he labored with as much energy in the cause of his church, as a naturaUy feeble constitution and his college duties would aUow, it continually declined, and be came almost extinct. Many beautiful church edifices, built before the Revolu tion, are now melancholy monuments of the decay of episcopacy in Virginia. The Protestant Episcopal Church there was finally revived under the evangeheal labors of Bishop Moore, and Is now in a flourishing condition. Bishop Madison continued fo discharge the duties of his offices in William and Mary College after his occupation in the episcopal field was almost ended. He died on the 6th of March, 1812, at the age of about sixty-two years. Bishop Madison was an eminently Uterary man, and devout Christian professor. His remains are beneath a marble monument in the Chapel Hall of the Institution he so much loved and cherished. ABRAHAM BALDWIN. WE have but slight records on the page of history of Abraham Baldwin, a brother-in-law of Joel Barlow, and, in matty respects, one of the most useful of men. He was a native of Connecticut, but became an honored and much-beloved adopted citizen of the State of Georgia. He was born in 1754, and was graduated at Yale CoUege at the age of about eighteen years. From 1775 untU 1779, he was a tutor in that institution, and was one of the most eminent of the classical and mathematical scholars of that day. WhUe teaching, he studied law, was admitted to practice, and then removed to Savannah. Thero he was admitted to the Georgia bar, and took an exalted position at once. Within three months after his arrival in Georgia, he was elected a member of the State legislature. Being an ardent friend, of education, he originated a plan for a university, drew up a charter by which it should be endowed with forty thousand acres of land, and with the aid of John Milledge, procured the sanction of the legislature. The college, known as the University of Georgia, was located at Athens, and Josiah Meigs was appointed its first president. Mr. Baldwin was elected to a seat in Congress, in 1786, and the following year he was chosen to represent Georgia, with Colonel WiUiam Few as his col league, in the convention that framed the Federal Constitution. He was con tinued a member of Congress for ten years after the organization of the new ¦government, when, in 1799, he and his friend MiUedge were chosen United States Senators. He occupied that exalted position until his death, whioh oc curred at Washington city, on the 4th of March, 1807, when he was about fifty- three years of age. His remains were placed by the side of those of his friend, General James Jackson, in the Congressional burying-ground. Mr. Baldwin was never married. His father died in 1787, and left six orphan children, half- brothers and sisters of Abraham. With the tenderness of a father he studied their welfare, and used his ample fortune in educating them all. They enjoyed his protection and aid until aU were established for themselves in life-pursuits. A truly good man was lost to earth, when Abraham Baldwin died. DEWITT CLINTON. 257 'Z^bOO' <^^^^^_.. DEWITT CLINTON. THERE are men whose forecast reaches far in advance of their generation, and whose sagacity works wonders for posterity. These are laughed at as idle dreamers by the many, and venerated as philosophers and prophets by the few. Such was Dewitt Clinton, a son of James Clinton, a useful brigadier-general of tho Revolution, who was born at Little Britain, in Orange county, New York, on tho 2d of March, 1769. He graduated at Columbia College, in 1786, became a lawyer, then private Secretary to his uncle, George CUnton, the first Republican governor of New York, and then a State Senator, in 1799. Even at this early period of his public life, his efforts were directed to the elevation of his fellow men. Throughout his long political career he was the earnest and steadfast friend of education, and the rights of man. His powerful mind was brought to bear with great vigor upon the subject of legislative aid in furtherance of popular educa tion, and also the aboUtion of human slavery in the State of New York. In 1801, he was appointed to a seat in the Senate of the United States, and was annually elected mayor of the city of New York, from 1803 to 1815, except in 1807 and 1810. Some of the noblest institutions for the promotion of art, liter- . ature, science, and benevolence, in that city, were founded under his auspices.1 1. The chief of these were the New York Historical Society, the Academy of Arts, and the Orphan Asylum. See sketch of Isabella Graham- 258 _3_DANUS BURKE. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of President of the United States, in 1812 ; and, in 1815, he withdrew from public life. -, Mr. Clinton was one of the earliest and most efficient supporters of Jesse Hawley's magnificent scheme for uniting Lake Erie with the Hudson river by a canal, first promulgated by that gentleman, in 1807 ; and, in 1817, Mr. Clinton having been called from his retirement into public life again, was chiefly instru mental in procuring the passage of a law for constructing the great Erie Canal, at an estimated cost of five millions of dollars. He was elected governor of his State, and for three years, while holding that office, he brought aU his official influence to bear in favor of two grand projects — the establishment of a literature fund, and the construction of the canal. A strong party was arrayed against him, and many denounced the scheme of making a canal three hundred and sixty-three miles in length, as that of an insane mind. He and his friends per severed; and, in 1825, that great work was completed. The event was cele brated throughout the State by orations, processions, bonfires, and illuminations, and soon the madman was extolled as a wise benefactor. He was again elected governor of his State, by an overwhelming majority. In 1826, he declined tho honor of ambassador to England, offered him by President Adams, and was reelected governor. He now strongly urged a change in the State Constitution (since effected), so as to allow universal suffrage at elections. While in tho midst ofhis popularity and usefulness, he died suddenly, at Albany, on the 11th of February, 1828, at the age of fifty-nine years. Mr. Clinton was a fino writer, a good speaker, and an industrious seeker after knowledge of every kind. Somo of his essays and addresses are choice specimens of composition, embodying deep thought and clear logic. His enduring monument is the Erie Canal, whose bosom has borne sufficient food to appease the hunger of the whole earth, and poured millions of treasure into the coffers of the State. iEDANUS BURKE. THE honest heart, jolly wit, and varied accomplishments of Judgo Burke, of South CaroUna, are matters of historic record, and cannot be forgotten. He was a native of Galway, Ireland, where he was born about the year 1743. At the commencement of the American Revolution, he came to fight for liberty, for he was a democrat of truest stamp. His heart was filled with the sentiment, " Where liberty dweUs, there is my country." He made his abode in Charleston, and was active in the early military events in that vicinity. He was a lawyer by profession, and considering his services more valuable in civil than in military affairs, the provincial legislature appointed him a judge ofthe Supreme Court of the newly-organized State, in 1778. When Charleston fell, and the South lay prostrate at the feet of British power, in 1780, Judge Burke took a commission in the army. He resumed the judicial office when the Repubhcans regained the State, early in 1782, He was opposed to the Federal Constitution, becauso he feared consoUdated power, yet he served as the first United States Senator from South Carolina, under that instrument. His Federalist friends told him that he had been sent to see that the corruptions and abuses which he had pre dicted should not be practiced. He had already made his name conspicuous by his published essay against some of the aristocratic features of tho Cincinnati Society ; and while in Congress he was the favorite friend of Aaron Burr. He after ward became Chancellor of the State of North CaroUna. Wit, humor, and convivi ality, were his distinguishing social characteristics. The former wero ever visible JOHN TRUMBULL. 259 whether he was on the bench or in the drawing-room; whilo the latter finally became such a habit that ho was its slave. IIo Uved a bachelor, and was tho soul of every dinner-party, whether abroad or at his own house. Inebriation finally clouded his intellect, and at length his body became excessively dropsical. On one occasion, when his physician had "tapped" him, and while the water was flowing freely, the judge coolly observed, "I wonder where all that water can come from, as I am sure that I never drank as much sinco I arrived at years of discretion." On being assured by one of his friends that ho would bo better after the operation, he repfied, "Nothing in my house is better after being tapped." His levity continued until his last moments, and he died as "the fool dieth " because he had "Uved as the fool liveth." He was one of many sad examples whieh young men of talent should study as warnings. Ho died at Charleston, on the 30th of March, 1802, at .fee age of fifty-nine years, and was buried in the grave-yard of tho Episcopal Church, near Jaeksonborough.1 JOHN TRUMBULL. THE name of TrumbuU is identified with the history of New England, in various ways. We have already given sketches of tho governor and the artist, of that name ; we wiU now consider TrumbuU the poet. He was born in Water- town, New Haven county, Connecticut, on the 24th of April, 1750. He was an only son, deUcate in physical constitution, and a favorite of his accomplished mother. He was an exceedingly precocious child, and at tho age of seven years was considered quahfied to enter Yale College, as a student. There ho was graduated, in 1767, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and remained a student three years longer. He turned his attention, chiefly to polite literature, as weU as the Greek and Latin classics, and^became a most accomplished scholar. Ho and Timothy Dwight became intimate friends, and the bond of mutual attach ment was severed only by death. They were co-essayists, in 1 7 69 ; and, in 1 7 7 1, they were both appointed tutors in the coUege. The foUowing year young Trumbull published the first part of a poem entitled The Progress of Dulness. He selected the law as his profession, and devoted much of his leisure time to its study. He was admitted to the bar in 1773, but immediately afterward went to Boston, and placed himself under the instruction of John Adams. He com menced the practice of law at Hartford, in 1781, and soon became distinguished for legal acumen and forensic eloquence. During his residence in Boston, ho had conceived the idea of a satirical poem, in which the British and Tories should figure conspicuously; and, in 1782, his M'Fingal was completed, and published at Hartford. He was soon afterward associated with Humphreys, Barlow, and Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, in the production of a work which they styled The Anar chiad. It contained bold satire, and exerted considerable influence on the pop ular taste. In 1789, Mr. Trumbull was appointed State Attorney for the county of Hart ford; and, in 1792, he represented that district in tho Connecticut legislature. His healtli failed ; and, in 1795, he resigned his office, and declined all public business. Toward the close of 1798, a severe illness formed the crisis of his 1. Many anecdotes are preserved concerning Judge Burke's absent-mindedness. It was tbo custom for the judges in Charleston, during the sessions, to leave their gowns at a dry-goods store near the court house, when they went to their meals. The owner of this store was Miss Van Rhyn, a middle-aged maiden lady, who carefully hung the judicial robes upon pegs where her own clothing was suspended. On one occasion, Judge Burke took down his robe (as he supposed) hastily, went with it under his arm, and proceeded to array himself preparatory to the opening of the court. He found much difficulty in getting it on, when all at once he exclaimed, before an audience uproarious with laughter, "Before God, I have got into Miss Van Rhyn's petticoat I" 260 STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER. nervous excitement, and after that his health was much better. He was again elected to a seat in the State legislature, in May, 180,0, and the following year he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. From that time he abandoned party polities, as inconsistent with judicial duties. ' In 1808, he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. In 1820, he revised his works, and they were published in Hartford, in handsome style, by S. G. Good rich, now [1854] American consul at Paris. He received a handsome compen sation for them. He and his wife afterward went to Detroit, and made their abode with a son-in-law. There Judge TrumbuU died, on the 10th of May, 1831, at the age of eighty-one years. STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER. FIFTH in lineal descent from ZUUan Van Rensselaer, the earliest and best known of the American Patroons, ' was Stephen Van Bensselaer, one of the best men of his time, in the highest sense of that term. He was born at the manor-house, near Albany, New York, on tbe 1st of November, 1764. He was the eldest son, and inherited the immense manorial estates" of his father, known as the Patroon Lands. That parent died when Stephen was quite young, and the boy and the estate were placed under the supervision of guardians, one of whom was PhiUp Livingston, his maternal grandfather. Born to a princely fortune and highest social station in the New World, young Van Rensselaer was educated accordingly. He was a student in the coUege at Princeton, for some time, and completed his education at Harvard University, where he was graduated in 1782. The War for Independence had juSt closed when he at tained his majority, but the conflicts of opinion respecting the establishment, of a new government had yet to be waged. Injthese discussions Mr. Van Rensselaer took a decided and active part, and he was repeatedly elected to a seat in the New York Assembly. He was a warm supporter of the Federal Constitution, and battled manfuUy for it and the administration of Washington, side by side with HamUton, Jay, and Madison. In 1795, he was elected lieutenant-governor of his native State, when Jobn Jay was chief magistrate, and he held that sta tion six years. His friends predicted for him, a brUliant official career, but the defeat of the Federal party, in 1800, and the continued ascendency of the Re pubUcan, closed his way to distinction through the mazes of poUtical warfare. When war was declared against Great Britain, in 1812, Mr. Van Rensselaer, bearing the commission of a major-general, was placed, by Governor Tompkins, in command of the New York mUitia, destined for the defence of the northern frontier. Those were a part of his troops, under General Solomon Van Rensselaer, whoassisted in the battle at Queenstown. Afterthewar, General Van Bensselaer was elected to a seat in the Federal Congress, where he served his country dur ing several consecutive sessions. By his casting-vote in the delegation of New York, he gave the presidency of the United States to John Quincy Adams. With that session closed the poUtical life of Stephen Van Rensselaer, but he stiU labored on and hoped on in the higher sphere of duty of a benevolent Christian. Like his Master whom, he loved, he was ever "meek and lowly." and "went 1. To encourage the emigration of an agricultural population to New Netherland ras New York was originally called), the Dutch West India Company, under whose auspices the province was founded, granted to certain persons who should lead or send a certain number of families to make a settlement in America, large tracts of land with specified social and political privileges. Among the directors of tho company who availed themselves of the offer, was Killian Van Bensselaer, who became the proprietor of Bensselaerwick, a territory in the vicinity of Albany abont forty-eight miles long, and twenty- four wide. It was established in 1637, and the proprietor was called a Patroon, or patron ; a name de rived from the civil law of Borne, which was given to owners of large landed estates. STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER. 261 about doing good." Frugal in personal expenditures, he was lavish, yet dis criminating, in his numerous benefactions. -He did not wait for Misery to call at his door; he sought out the children of Want. To the poor and the ignorant he was a blessing. In 1824, he founded a seminary for the purpose of " quali fying teachers for instructing the chUdren of farmers and mechanics in the ap plication of experimental chemistry, philosophy, and natural history, to agricul ture, domestic economy, the arts, and manufactures." He liberally endowed it, and the " Rensselaer School " is a perpetual- hymn to the memory and praise of its benefactor. In the cause of the Bible, Temperance, and every social and moral reform, Mr. Van Rensselaer's time and money were freely given ; and in these labors he continued until death. He was. an early and efficient friend of internal improvements, and, on the death of Dewitt Clinton, he was appointed president of the Board of Canal Commissioners. He held that station during the remainder ofhis life. That "good citizen and honest man" died on the 26th of January, 1840, in the seventy-fifth year ofhis age. 262 WASHINGTON ALLSTON. — WILLIAM MOULTRIE. WASHINGTON ALLSTON. "VT 0 man ever possessed a more exquisite appreciation of the Beautiful, than IN Washington AUston, one of the most gifted of painters, and yet no man ever kept the Beautiful in more severe subordination to the Good and True, in the productions of both his pencil and pen. That appreciation made him shrink from frequent efforts in the higher department of his art, for he felt the impuis- sance of his hand in the delineations ofthe glorious visions ofhis genius. It has been weU observed by Professor Shedd, that AUston accomplished so little, be cause he thought so much. This gifted painter and poet was born in South Carolina, in 1780, and was educated at Harvard CoUege, where he was graduated in the year 1800. His genius for art was early developed ; and, in 1801, ho went to Europe, to study the works of the best masters there. He remained abroad eight years, and enjoyed the friendship of the most distinguished poets and painters of England and the Continent. In painting, West, Reynolds, and Fuseli were his instructors ; and Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, were his chief literary companions. No private American ever made a better or moro lasting impression abroad, than Washington AUston. As a colorist, he was styled the American Titian. A small volume of his poems was issued in London, in 1813 ; and in later productions of his pen, he exhibited a power in writing elegant prose, surpassed by few. But he is chiefly known to the world as a painter, and as such posterity wiU speak of him. His chief works are The Dead Man restored to Life by Elijah; Elijah in the Desert; Jacob's Dream,; The Angel liberating Peter from Prison ; Saul and the Witch qf Endor ; Uriel in the Sun ; Gabriel setting the Gwirdof the Heavenly Host; Spalatro's Vision of ihe Bloody Hand; Anne Page, and several exquisite smaller works. He was engaged on his greatest work — Belshazzar' s Feast — when his final sickness feU upon him, and he was not permitted to finish it. It exhibits great powers of intellect and taste ; and, as far as it is completed, it presents the embodiment of the highest conceptions of true genius. Most of his life was spent at Cambridge, Massa chusetts,' where he was educated ; and there the " painter-poet and the poet- painter " left earth for the sphere of Intelligence and Beauty, on the 9th bf July, 1843, when in tho sixty-fourth year of his age. WILLIAM MOULTRIE. SEVERAL of those who, during the War for Independence, acted its history, have since written its history, and the truths of those great events can never be obscured by the fictions of posterity. Among those who have played that two-fold part in the drama recorded in our annals, is William Moultrie, whose valor won the honor of having the fort ho defended bear his name. Ho was a native of South Carolina, where he was born, in 1730. He was descended from one of that Huguenot company of which Marion's ancestor was a member, and inherited the patient endurance, courage, and love of Uberty of that per secuted people. History first notices him as a subaltern in an expedition against the Cherokee Indians, in 1760, under the command of Governor Littleton. He was also prominent in subsequent expeditions against that unhappy people. Ho was active in civil affairs before the Revolution ; and, when the hour for decision in that matter came, he was found in the ranks of the patriots as a military officer. When, early in the Summer of 1776, a strong land and naval force JOHN LAMB. 263 menaced Charleston, Moultrie, bearing the commission of a colonel, took com mand of Fort Sullivan, in the harbor, and bravely defended it while cannons on British war-vessels were pouring an incessant storm of iron upon it.1 For that gaUant defence he was promoted to a brigadier, and the fort was named Moultrie, in his honor.2 From that time untU the fall of Charleston, in 1780, General ' Moultrio was one of tho most efficient of the Southern officers, on the field of action, or as a disciplinarian in camp. After the surrender of Charleston, he was kept a prisoner in the vicinity, for awhile, and was then paroled to Philadelphia, where he remained until the close of hostilities, in 1782. After his return home he was chosen governor of his native State, and was repeatedly reelected to that office. His integrity as a statesman and public officer was a bright example; his disinterestedness was beyond all praise. His fellow-citizens honored him with truest reverence, and his intimate acquaintances loved him for his many private virtues. The infirmities of ,age at length admonished him to retire to private life ; and in domestic repose he prepared his Memoirs of the Revolution in the South, which were published in two octavo volumes, in 1802. Like a bright sun setting without an obscuring cloud, the hero and sage descended peacefully to his final rest, on the 27th of September, 1805, at the age of seventy- Uvo years. JOHN LAMB. THE Sons of Liberty in New York were distinguished for their loyalty to re publican principles, their zeal in the promotion of popular freedom, and their boldness in every hour of difficulty and danger. Among the most fearless of those early patriots was John Lamb, son of an eminent optician and mathe matical instrument maker. He was born in the city of New York, on the 1st of January, 1735. He received a good common education, and learned the business ofhis father. He abandoned it in 1760, and became an extensive wine merchant. Through all tho exciting times until the kindling of the War for Independence, Mr. Lamb was extensively engaged in the liquor trade, and, at the same time, was one of the most active politicians of the day, after the pass age ofthe Stamp Act had aroused the American people. He spoke French and German fluently, was a good scholar, and was exceedingly expert in the use of his tongue and pen. These he devoted to the public good. On one occasion, in 1769, when an inflammatory hand-bill had called "the betrayed inhabitants to the fields,"3 Lamb harangued the multitude in seditious words. He was taken before the Legislative Assembly to testify concerning the authorship ofthe hand bill, but was soon discharged.4 This event intensified his zeal, and he continued I. During the action, a cannon ball cut the American flag-staff, and the banner fell outside of the fort. Sergeant William Jasper, of Moultrie's regiment, immediately leaped down from the parapet, picked up the flag while the balls were falling thick and fast, coolly fastened it to a sponge staff, and unfurled it again over the bastion ofthe fort. For this daring feat, Governor Eutledge presented Jasper wilh his own sword, the next day, and offered him a lieutenant's commission. The young hero modestly re fused it, saying, " I can neither read nor write ; I am not fit to keep officers' company ; I am only a sergeant." 2: On the day when the enemy departed from Charleston, Mrs. Bernard Elliott (a niece of Mrs. Bebecca -•Tnttc), presented General Moultrie's regiment with a pair of elegant silk colors, wrought by the ladies rf Charleston. These were afterward planted upon the fortifications at Savannah, wnen Lincoln and D'Bstaing besieged that city, in October, 1779. Both the young officers who bore them were killed. Sergeant Jasper was there, and, seizing one of them, he mounted a bastion, when he, too, was killed bv a bullet. These flags were surrendered at Charleston",-™ 1780, and were afterward trophies in the Tower of London. .,_,.¦__,-_,. 3. The ground now occupied by the City Hall and its surrounding Park was called "the fields." There a "Liberty Pole " was erected, and Ihere the popular assemblages were held. _. The hand-bill wa. wiitten by Alexander MacDougall, afterward a general in the Continental army. -264 RED JACKET. to be an accepted political leader untU 1775, when he entered the artUlery ser vioe of the army, with the commission of captain. He accompanied Montgomery to Quebec at the close of that year. He was severely wounded thefe, in the cheek, by a grape-shot, and was made prisoner. Soon after that he was pro moted to major, and appointed to the command of the artiUery in the Northern Department, but was not exchanged, and aUowed to enter the service again, until early in 1777, when Congress gave him the commission of lieutenant-eolonel, under the immediate command of General Knox. We cannot here even enumerate his multifarious duties, as commander of artillery, during the remainder of the war. It is sufficient to say that he was everywhere brave and skilful, and shared in the dangers and honors of the final victory at Yorktown. He was as warm a politician after the war as before it, and served his fellow-citizens faithfuUy in the legislature of his native State. After the organization of the federal govern ment, Washington appointed him collector of customs at the port of New York, and he held that office until his death, on the 31st o'f May, 1800, at the age of sixty-five years. Then a patriot of truest stamp was lost to the world. RED JACKET. THE renowned Seneca warrior and orator, Sa-go-ye-wa-thee, tho Red Jacket,' was born about the year 1750, near the spot where the eity of Buffalo now stands, that being the chief place of residence of the Seneca leaders. Tradition alone has preserved a few facts concerning his youth. He was always remark ably swift-footed, and was often employed as a courier among his own people. He took part with the British and Tories during the Revolution, but was moro noted for his power as an orator in arousing the Senecas to action, than as a leader upon the war-path. Brant, whom Red Jacket's ambition greatly annoyed, even charged him with cowardice during Sullivan's campaign in the Seneca pountry, in 1779, and always spoke of Red Jacket with mingled feehngs of hatred and contempt, as a traitor and dishonest man.2 The celebrated Seneca first appears in history in the record of Sullivan's campaign, and then in an un favorable light. After tbat we have no trace of him until 1784, when he ap peared at the great treaty at Fort Stanwix (now Rome), where, by certain con cessions of territory by the Six Nations, tbey were brought under the protection ofthe United States. There the eloquence of Red Jacket beamed forth in great splendor ; and there, too, the voice of the eloquent Cornplanter3 was heard. Red Jacket was prominent at a council held at the mouth of the Detroit river, in 1786. After that there were many disputes and heart-burnings between tho white people and the Indians of Western New York, concerning land titles, and Red Jacket was always the eloquent defender of the rights of his people. At all treaties and councils he was the chief orator. He frequently visited the seat 1. This name was given him from tho circumstance (hat a British officer, toward the close of the Bevolution, gave him a richly-embroidered scarlet jacket, which he took great pleasure in wearing. Others were presented to him, as one was worn out ; and even as late as the treaty at Canandaigua, in 1794, Captain Parish, one*of the United States' interpreters, gave him one. The red Jacket became his distinctive dress, and procured him the name by which he is best known. 2. Thomas Morris says that Bed Jacket was called the cow-kiiler from the circumstance that, having on one occasion during the Bevolution, aroused his people to light, was found, during the engagement, in a place of safety, cutting up a cow that he had killed, which belonged to another Indian. When Cornplanter, Brant, and Bed Jacket, were at Morris' table, one day,, Cornplanter told ihe story, as if another Indian had committed the act. The narrator and Brant laughed heartily, and Bed Jacket en deavored to join them, but was evidently very much embarrassed, 3. See sketch of Cornplanter. RED JACKET. 265 of our national government, in behalf of his race, and was always treated with the utmost respect.1 Unlike Cornplanter, Red Jacket's paganism never yielded to the gentle in fluences of Christianity, and he was the most inveterate enemy to all missionary efforts among the Senecas. He had become a slave to strong drink, and he attributed the prevalence ofthe vice among his people to the missionaries, who, he said, sold liquor to the Indians, and cheated them of property. On the break ing out of the war, in 1812, tbe Senecas, under the leadership of Red Jacket, declared themselves neutral, but they soon became aUies of the United States, and engaged in hostilities on the Canada frontier. Red Jacket was in the bloody battle at Chippewa, and behaved well, but he s.eems to have been constitution ally a coward, and was always far braver in council than in the field. Yet this cowardice in battle, though well known to the nation, did not lessen their affec tion for him, nor materially weaken his influence as head Chief of the Senecas. Red Jacket had a large family of children, some of whom, like their mother, became professing Christians.2 Eleven of them died of that terrible disease, the consumption, one after another, and Red Jacket felt his bereavement to be the chastisement of the Great Spirit for his habitual drunkenness. On being asked about his family, by a lady who once knew them, the chief said, sorrowfully, "Red 1. On ono occasion, Washington presented a large silver medal to Bed Jacket, bearing the representa tion of a white man and an Indian shaking hands, and the names of Washington and Bed Jacket en graved upon it. 2. His second wife became a professed Christian, in 1826. She is represented as a woman of remark able personal dignity and superiority of mind. Her conversion alienated her husband for_ several months, and he resided some distance from her. He finally thought better of it, asked and obtained her forgiveness, and they lived in perfect hirmony afterward, 12 266 HENRY CRUGER. Jacket was once a great man, and in favor with the Great Spirit. Ho was a - lofty pine among the smaller trees of the forest. But after years of glory he ' degraded himself by drinking the fire-water ofthe white man. The Great Spirit i has looked upon him m anger, , and his lightning has stripped the pine of its branches .'" The influence of Christianity and civilization upon the Seneca nation disturbed' the reposo of Red Jacket, during the latter part of his life. These influences, working with a general disgust produced by his excessive intemperance, alien ated his people; and, in 1827, he was formally deposed.1 It was a dreadful blow to the proud chief, and he went to Washington eity to invoke the aid of government in his behalf. He returned with good advice in his memory, ob tained a grand council, and was restored to authority. But his days were al most numbered. He soon afterward became imbecUe, and, in a journey to the Atlantic sea-board, he permitted himself to be exhibited in museums, for money I At last the greatest of all Indian orators was caUed away. He died on the 20th of January, 1830, at the age of about eighty years. Over his grave, Henry Placide, the comedian, placed an inscribed slab of marble, in 1839. HENRY CKUGEE, ONE ofthe chief grievances of which the American colonists complained was the fact that they were compelled to suffer taxation, without enjoying the privilege of representation, and were thus, practically, the victims of tyranny. Yet they were represented by a few, in the British parliament, when the quarrel which resulted iu dismemberment was progressing, but of that few, only one was a native of the western world. It was Henry Cruger, who was born in the eity of New York, in 1739. On arriving at manhood, he joined his father, who had established himself as a merchant in the American trade, at Bristol, England. The elder Cruger was highly esteemed, and became mayor of Bristol ; an honor afterward bestowed upon his son. It is worthy of remark here, that father and son, belonging to another branch bf the Cruger family, were, at about the same time, successively honored with the mayoralty ofthe city of New York. In 1774, Henry Cruger was elected to a seat in Parliament, as representative of the eity of Bristol, having for his colleague the afterward eminent Edmund Burke. That then fledgling statesman was introduced at the hustings by Mr. Cruger, and .delivered an address at the conclusion, which elicited warm ap plause. It is reported that a gentleman present exclaimed, "I say ditto to Mr. Burke." That laconic sentence became a "bye-word," and was erroniously at tributed to Mr. Cruger. The speeches of Mr. Cruger, in Parliament, were marked . by sound common sense and great logical force ; and on all occasions he urged the necessity of a conciliatory course toward tho Americans. Dike Lord Chatham, he deprecated a severance of the colonies from the British realm; but, in 1780, when the continuance of union became impossible, he declared that "the Amer ican war should be put an end to, at all events, in order to do whieh the inde pendency must be aUowed, and the thirteen provinces treated as free States." His course pleased his constituents, who, on various occasions, testified their warmest approbation. After tho war, he returned to his native city, and was elected a member of tho Senate of tho State of New York. Ho died in the city 1. The act of deposition, written iu tho Scaeca language, was signed by twenty-six chief men of the nation. _ JAMES A. BAYARD. 267 of New York, on the 24th of April, 1827, at the age of eighty-eight years. His brother, John Harris Cruger, who was in the British mUitary service previous to the Revolution, adhered to the crown, and was in command of a corps of Loyalists at the South. He held the commission of a lieutenant-colonel, and commanded the garrison at Port Ninety-Six when it was besieged by General Greene. Colonel Cruger was a son-in-law of Colonel Oliver Delancey. He died in London, in 1807, at the age of sixty-nine years. His wife died at Chelsea, England, in 1822, at the age of seventy-eight years. JAMES A. BAYARD. WHEN, in 1814, the American and British governments resolved to close an unprofitable and fratricidal war, by a treaty of peace, the most accom- phshed statesmen in the Union were chosen commissioners, to meet those of Great Britain, at Ghent, in Belgium, to negotiate. On that commission was James A. Bayard, an eminent statesman of Delaware. He was born in the city of Philadelphia, on the 28th of July, 1767. At a very early age he became an orphan, and was adopted by an affectionate uncle, who took special care to have him thoroughly educated. His studies were completed in the College at Prince ton, New Jersey, where he was graduated with the highest honors, in 1784, at the age of seventeen years. He chose the profession of law, studied it with great assiduity, under General Joseph Reed and Jared Ingersoll, and was ad mitted to the bar, in August, 1787. He was married in 1795, and the following year he was a successful Federal candidate for a seat in Congress, where he first appeared in May, 1797. There he was noted for his industry, integrity, and con sistency ; and during his services as a member of the House of Representatives, from 1797 untU 1804, no man was more highly esteemed for talents and personal worth than Mr. Bayard. When, in the Winter of 1801, the choice between Jefferson and Burr, the Republican candidates for President of the United States, devolved upon the House of Representatives, and Mr. Bayard and three other Federal members held the choice in their own hands, his colleagues submitted the matter to his judgment, and he fortunately gave the office to Jefferson. A few days after ward President Adams appointed Mr. Bayard minister plenipotentiary to Prance, but he patriotically declined it for political reasons. In 1804, he was elected to a seat in the United States Senate, to fill a vacancy; and, in February, 1805, he was reelected for the full term of six years. In that body, also, he was an esteemed leader;. and, in 1811, the legislature of Delaware again elected him United States Senator, for another full term. He opposed the declaration of war against Great Britain, in 1812, but, when a majority in Congress gave sanc tion to the measure, he cheerfuUy acquiesced, and, it is said, actually labored with his own hands in the erection of defences at Wilmington, where he resided. In 1813, the Emperor of Russia offered his mediation between the United States and Great Britain, and Mr. Bayard and Albert GaUatin were sent to St. Peters burg to negotiate. There they remained six months, when, hearing nothing from England, they proceeded to Amsterdam. They arrived in that city in March, 1814. There they were informed that England would not accept the mediation of Russia, but was ready to treat for peace with the United States. They were also informed that Messrs. Adams, Clay, and Russell, had been added to the commission. All finaUy met with the British commissioners at Ghent, 268 ELIAS HICKS. in August, 1814, where they remained until the 24th of December foUowing, when a treaty was agreed upon and signed.1 Fourteen days afterward Mr- Bayard left Ghent for Paris; and on the 4th of March, 1815, while in that city he was seized with a fatal, but lingering disease. He waited there untU duty should call him to London to negotiate a treaty of commerce, with which service the commission had been charged. Greatly debiUtated, he reached England at the middle of May, where he was met by a commission, appointing him min ister to Russia. FeeUng that death was now rapidly approaching, he decUned the honor, and hastened home. He arrived at WUmington on the 1st of August where his family received him with mingled tears of joy and grief, after an ab sence of more than two years. Five days afterward he departed to that distant land beyond the grave, from whieh there is no return! He died on the 6th of August, 1815, when a little more than forty-eight years of age. , ELIAS HICKS. THE Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, having but one accepted standard of faith and diseipUne, were remarkable for their unity until about 1825, when EUas Hicks, a distinguished and influential preacher, boldly enun ciated Unitarian doctrines. This produced much dissatisfaction, and the hitherto united and peaceful society exhibited two parties, styled respectively Orthodox, or Trinitarians, and Hicksites, or Unitarians, and was agitated- by much and violent party feelings. The breach widened, and finaUy a separation took place. The two parties assumed distinct organizations, and the Unitarians, being in the majority, generaUy took possession of the meeting-houses, and compeUed the Orthodox to erect new ones. The breach still continues. Elias Hicks was born in Hempstead, Long ^and, on the 19th of March, 1748. Of his early life we have no record, except that it was passed in the quiet pur suits ofa farmer. He was married in January, 1771, and at about that period was acknowledged a member of the Society of Friends. Four years afterward he first appeared as a minister ; and for fifty -three years he was a teacher among his brethren. During that time he travelled extensively throughout the United States and Upper Canada; and at the age of eighty years he visited his brethren and sisters in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Indiana, like Paul, " confirming them in the faith." Soon after his return home, his wife died, and the foUowing Summer he visited the northern and western parts of the State of New York, everywhere preaching with great clearness and power. The writer heard him at that time, and remembers well how logically he set forth the doctrine which he had espoused and then ably advocated. His labors ceased six months afterward. On the 4th of February, 1830, he wrote a long and interesting letter to a Western friend, and immediately afterward his whole right side was smitten with paralysis. He died on the 27th ofthe same month, aged eighty-two years. During his ministry, he travelled almost ten thousand mues, __ad delivered at least one thousand discourses.2 1. Bayard's colleagues were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Jonathan Eussell and Albert Oallatin Those of Great Britain were Lord Gambier, Henry Goulbourn. and Williain Adams Aiocn ..aiiatin. 2 An anecdote is told which illustrates his conscientiousness. He was inforrned bvhis son-in-law rLT-^asrse^d^ivn^^Z^^oli^:' and he taW*