American Abolitionists and Antislavery Activists:
Conscience of the Nation

Updated April 4, 2021













l to r: Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips

Updated February 7, 2016

Abolitionists and Anti-Slavery Activists


The following is a list of American abolitionists, anti-slavery activists and opponents of slavery.  This list was drawn from a number of primary and secondary sources.  At present, this list includes more than 2,500 names. In this list are African American and Caucasian abolitionists and anti-slavery activists.

We are including in this list all anti-slavery activists and opponents of slavery, whatever their motives, whether humanitarian, or economic and political.  Some of these individuals were against slavery in principle, on moral grounds, while they possessed and exploited slaves themselves.  We are also including individuals regardless of their orientation toward the ending of slavery.  Among the abolitionists, we are including those whose methods were radical, immediatist, moderate and gradualist. 

We use the term "abolitionist," but we intend to include all opponents of slavery.

This list is a work in progress.  We intend to continue our research and add more names to this list.  We will also be including biographical sketches of each of these individuals and additional references. 


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AARON, b. 1811, African American, former Virginia slave, anti-slavery orator.  Wrote Light and Truth of Slavery: Aaron’s History, 1845.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 1.)

 

 

AARON, Samuel, 1800-1865, Morristown, NJ, educator, clergyman, temperance activist, abolitionist.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1840-1842.  Vice President, 1839-1840, Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 1.  Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936)

 

AARON, Samuel, educator, b. in New Britain, Bucks co., Pa., in 1800; d. in Mount Holly, N. J., 11 April, 1865. He was left an orphan at six years of age, and became the ward of an uncle, upon whose farm he worked for several years, attending school only in winter. A small legacy inherited from his father enabled him at the age of sixteen to enter the Doylestown, Pa., academy, where he fitted himself to become a teacher, and at the age of twenty was engaged as an assistant instructor in the classical and mathematical school in Burlington, N. J. Here he studied and taught, and soon opened an independent day school at Bridge Point, but was presently invited to become principal of Doylestown academy. In 1829 he was ordained, and became pastor of a Baptist church in New Britain. In 1833 he took charge of the Burlington high school, serving at the same time as pastor of the Baptist church in that city. Accepting in 1841 an invitation from a church in Norristown, Pa., he remained there three years, when he opened the Treemount seminary near Norristown, which under his management soon became prosperous, and won a high reputation for the thoroughness of its training and discipline. The financial disasters of 1857 found Mr. Aaron with his name pledged as security for a friend, and he was obliged to sacrifice all his property to the creditors. He was soon offered the head-mastership of Mt. Holly, N. J., institute, a large, well-established school for boys, where, in company with his son as joint principal, he spent the remainder of his life. During these years he was pastor of a church in Mt. Holly. He prepared a valuable series of text-books introducing certain improvements in methods of instruction, which added greatly to his reputation as an educator. His only publication in book form, aside from his text-books, was entitled “Faithful Translation” (Philadelphia, 1842). He was among the early advocates of temperance, and was an earnest supporter of the anti-slavery cause from its beginning. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 1.

 

 

ABBEY, Cheney, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

ABBOTT, Gorham D., Boston, Massachusetts.  Member of the American Colonization Society, Boston Auxiliary.  Active in leadership of Society.  Published The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom, a monthly magazine.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 201, 204)

 

 

ACKLEY, John, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 131)

 

 

Adair, William A., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40

 

 

ADAM, William, Cambridge, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-45

 

 

ADAMS, Arianna, African American, member, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

ADAMS, Charles Francis, 1807-1886, Vice President, Anti-Slavery Free Soil Party, newspaper publisher and editor.  Son of former President John Quincy Adams.  Grandson of President John Adams.  Opposed annexation of Texas, on opposition to expansion of slavery in new territories.  Formed “Texas Group” within Massachusetts Whig Party.  Formed and edited newspaper, Boston Whig, in 1846. (Adams, 1900; Duberman, 1961; Goodell, 1852, p. 478; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 32-33; Pease, 1965, pp. 445-452; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 51, 298; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 12-13. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 40-48)

 

ADAMS, Charles Francis, diplomatist, son of John Quincy Adams, b. in Boston, 18 Aug., 1807; d. there, 21 Nov., 1886. When two years old he was taken by his father to St. Petersburg, where he learned German, French, and Russian. Early in 1815 he travelled all the way from St. Petersburg to Paris with his mother in a private carriage, a difficult journey at that time, and not unattended with danger. His father was soon afterward appointed minister to England, and the little boy was placed at an English boarding-school. The feelings between British and Americans was then more hostile than ever before or since, and young Adams was frequently called upon to defend with his fists the good name of his country. When he returned after two years to America, his father placed him in the Boston Latin school, and he was graduated at Harvard college in 1825, shortly after his father's inauguration as president of the United States. He spent two years in Washington, and then returned to Boston, where he studied law in the office of Daniel Webster, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1828. The next year he married the youngest daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks, whose elder daughters were married to Edward Everett and Rev. Nathaniel Frothingham. From 1831 to 1836 Mr. Adams served in the Massachusetts legislature. He was a member of the whig party, but, like all the rest of his vigorous and free-thinking family, he was extremely independent in politics and inclined to strike out into new paths in advance of the public sentiment. After 1836 he came to differ more and more widely with the leaders of the whig party with whom he had hitherto acted. In 1848 the newly organized free-soil party, consisting largely of democrats, held its convention at Buffalo and nominated Martin Van Buren for president and Charles Francis Adams for vice-president. There was no hope of electing these candidates, but this little party grew, six years later, into the great republican party. In 1858 he was elected to congress by the republicans of the 3d district of Massachusetts, and in 1860 he was reelected. In the spring of 1861 President Lincoln appointed him minister to England, a place which both his father and his grandfather had filled before him. Mr. Adams had now to fight with tongue and pen for his country as in school-boy days he had fought with fists. It was an exceedingly difficult time for an American minister in England. Though there was much sympathy for the U. S. government on the part of the workmen in the manufacturing districts and of many of the liberal constituencies, especially in Scotland, on the other hand the feeling of the governing classes and of polite society in London was either actively hostile to us or coldly indifferent. Even those students of history and politics who were most friendly to us failed utterly to comprehend the true character of the sublime struggle in which we were engaged— as may be seen in reading the introduction to Mr. E. A. Freeman's elaborate "History of Federal Government, from the Formation of the Achaean League to the Disruption of the United States" (London, 1862). Difficult and embarrassing questions arose in connection with the capture of the confederate commissioners Mason and Slidell, the negligence of Lord Palmerston's government in allowing the "Alabama" and other confederate cruisers to sail from British ports to prey upon American commerce, and the ever manifest desire of Napoleon III. to persuade Great Britain to join him in an acknowledgment of the independence of the confederacy. The duties of this difficult diplomatic mission were discharged by Mr. Adams with such consummate ability as to win universal admiration. No more than his father or grandfather did he belong to the school of suave and crafty, intriguing diplomats. He pursued his ends with dogged determination and little or no attempt at concealment, while his demeanor was haughty and often defiant. His unflinching firmness bore clown all opposition, and his perfect self-control made it difficult for an antagonist to gain any advantage over him. His career in England from 1861 to 1868 must be cited among the foremost triumphs of American diplomacy. In 1872 it was attempted to nominate him for the presidency of the United States, as the candidate of the liberal republicans, but Horace Greeley secured the nomination. He was elected in 1869 a member of the board of overseers of Harvard college, and was for several years president of the board. He has edited the works and memoirs of his father and grandfather, in 22 octavo volumes, and published many of his own addresses and orations. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 12-13.

 

 

 

ADAMS, E. M., New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-37

 

 

ADAMS, George, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1841-42

 

 

ADAMS, John, 1735-1826, statesman, founding father, second President of the United States, opponent of slavery, father of John Quincy Adams.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 17-23; Encyclopaedia Americana, 1829, Vol. I, pp. 44-52; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 72-82)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ADAMS, John, second-president of the United States, b. in that part of the town of Braintree, Mass., which has since been set off as the town of Quincy, 31 Oct., 1785; d. there, 4 July, 1826. His great-grandfather, Henry Adams, received a grant of about 40 acres of land in Braintree in 1636, and soon afterward emigrated from Devonshire, England, with his eight sons. John Adams, the subject of this sketch, was the eldest son of John Adams and Susanna Boylston, daughter of Peter Boylston, of Brookline. His father, one of the selectmen of Braintree and a deacon of the church, was a thrifty farmer, and at his death in 1760 his estate was appraised at £1,330 9s. 6d., which in those days might have been regarded as a moderate competence. It was the custom of the family to send the eldest son to college, and accordingly John was graduated at Harvard in 1755. Previous to 1773 the graduates of Harvard were arranged in lists, not alphabetically or in order of merit, but according to the social standing of their parents. In a class of twenty-four members John thus stood fourteenth. One of his classmates was John Wentworth, afterward royal governor of New Hampshire, and then of Nova Scotia. After taking his degree and while waiting to make his choice of a profession, Adams took charge of the grammar school at Worcester. It was the year of Braddock's defeat, when the smouldering fires of a century of rivalry between France and England broke out in a blaze of war which was forever to settle the question of the primacy of the English race in the modern world. Adams took an intense interest in the struggle, and predicted that if we could only drive out “these turbulent Gallics,” our numbers would in another century exceed those of the British, and all Europe would be unable to subdue us. In sending him to college his family seem to have hoped that he would become a clergyman; but he soon found himself too much of a free thinker to feel at home in the pulpit of that day. When accused of Arminianism, he cheerfully admitted the charge. Later in life he was sometimes called a Unitarian, but of dogmatic Christianity he seems to have had as little as Franklin or Jefferson. “Where do we find,” he asks, “a precept in the gospel requiring ecclesiastical synods, convocations, councils, decrees, creeds, confessions, oaths, subscriptions, and whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?” In this mood he turned from the ministry and began the study of law at Worcester. There was then a strong prejudice against lawyers in New England, but the profession throve lustily nevertheless, so litigious were the people. In 1758 Adams began the practice of his profession in Suffolk co., having his residence in Braintree. In 1764 he was married to Abigail Smith, of Weymouth, a lady of social position higher than his own and endowed with most rare and admirable qualities of head and heart. In this same year the agitation over the proposed stamp act was begun, and on the burning questions raised by this ill-considered measure Adams had already taken sides. When James Otis in 1761 delivered his memorable argument against writs of assistance, John Adams was present in the court-room, and the fiery eloquence of Otis wrought a wonderful effect upon him. As his son afterward said, “it was like the oath of Hamilcar administered to Hannibal.” In his old age John Adams wrote, with reference to this scene, “Every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Independence was born.” When the stamp act was passed, in 1765, Adams took a prominent part in a town-meeting at Braintree where he presented resolutions which were adopted word for word by more than forty towns in Massachusetts. The people refused to make use of stamps, and the business of the inferior courts was carried on without them, judges and lawyers agreeing to connive at the absence of the stamps. In the supreme court, however, where Thomas Hutchinson was chief justice, the judges refused to transact any business without stamps. This threatened serious interruption to business, and the town of Boston addressed a memorial to the governor and council, praying that the supreme court might overlook the absence of stamps. John Adams was unexpectedly chosen, along with Jeremiah Gridley and James Otis, as counsel for the town, to argue the case in favor of the memorial. Adams delivered the opening argument, and took the decisive ground that the stamp act was ipso facto null and void, since it was a measure of taxation which the people of the colony had taken no share in passing. No such measure, he declared, could be held as binding in America, and parliament had no right to tax the colonies. The governor and council refused to act in the matter, put presently the repeal of the stamp act put an end to the disturbance for a while. About this time Mr. Adams began writing articles for the Boston “Gazette.” Four of these articles, dealing with the constitutional rights of the people of New England, were afterward republished under the somewhat curious title of “An Essay on the Canon and Feudal Law.” After ten years of practice, Mr. Adams's business had become quite extensive, and in 1768 he moved into Boston. The attorney-general of Massachusetts, Jonathan Sewall, now offered him the lucrative office of advocate-general in the court of admiralty. This was intended to operate as an indirect bribe by putting Mr. Adams into a position in which he could not feel free to oppose the policy of the crown; such insidious methods were systematically pursued by Gov. Bernard, and after him by Hutchinson. But Mr. Adams was too wary to swallow the bait, and he stubbornly refused the pressing offer.  In 1770 came the first in the series of great acts that made Mr. Adams's career illustrious. In the midst of the terrible excitement aroused by the “Boston Massacre” he served as counsel for Capt. Preston and his seven soldiers when they were tried for murder. His friend and kinsman, Josiah Quincy, assisted him in this invidious task. The trial was judiciously postponed for seven months until the popular fury had abated. Preston and five soldiers were acquitted; the other two soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter, and were barbarously branded on the hand with a hot iron. The verdict seems to have been strictly just according to the evidence presented. For his services to his eight clients Mr. Adams received a fee of nineteen guineas, but never got so much as a word of thanks from the churlish Preston. An ordinary American politician would have shrunk from the task of defending these men, for fear of losing favor with the people. The course pursued by Mr. Adams showed great moral courage; and the people of Boston proved themselves able to appreciate true manliness by electing him as representative to the legislature. This was in June, 1770, after he had undertaken the case of the soldiers, but before the trial. Mr. Adams now speedily became the principal legal adviser of the patriot party, and among its foremost leaders was only less conspicuous than Samuel Adams, Hancock, and Warren. In all matters of legal controversy between these leaders and Gov. Hutchinson his advice proved invaluable. During the next two years there was something of a lull in the political excitement; Mr. Adams resigned his place in the legislature and moved his residence to Braintree, still keeping his office in Boston. In the summer of 1772 the British government ventured upon an act that went further than anything which had yet occurred toward driving the colonies into rebellion. It was ordered that all the Massachusetts judges holding their places during the king's pleasure should henceforth have their salaries paid by the crown and not by the colony. This act, which aimed directly at the independence of the judiciary, aroused intense indignation, not only in Massachusetts, but in the other colonies, which felt their liberties threatened by such a measure. It called forth from Mr. Adams a series of powerful articles, which have been republished in the 3d volume of his collected works. About this time he was chosen a member of the council, but the choice was negatived by Gov. Hutchinson. The five acts of parliament in April, 1774, including the regulating act and the Boston port bill, led to the calling of the first continental congress, to which Mr. Adams was chosen as one of the five delegates from Massachusetts. The resolutions passed by this congress on the subject of colonial rights were drafted by him, and his diary and letters contain a vivid account of some of the proceedings. On his return to Braintree he was chosen a member of the revolutionary provincial congress of Massachusetts, then assembled at Concord. This revolutionary body had already seized the revenues of the colony, appointed a committee of safety, and begun to organize an army and collect arms and ammunition. During the following winter the views of the loyalist party were set forth with great ability and eloquence in a series of newspaper articles by Daniel Leonard, under the signature of “Massachusettensis.” He was answered most effectively by Mr. Adams, whose articles, signed “Novanglus,” appeared weekly in the Boston “Gazette” until the battle of Lexington. The last of these articles, which was actually in type in that wild week, was not published. The series, which has been reprinted in the 4th volume of Mr. Adams's works, contains a valuable review of the policy of Bernard and Hutchinson, and a powerful statement of the rights of the colonies.  In the second continental congress, which assembled on May 10, Mr. Adams played a very important part. Of all the delegates present he was probably the only one, except his cousin, Samuel Adams, who was convinced that matters had gone too far for any reconciliation with the mother country, and that there was no use in sending any more petitions to the king. As there was a strong prejudice against Massachusetts on the part of the middle and southern colonies, it was desirable that her delegates should avoid all appearance of undue haste in precipitating an armed conflict. Nevertheless, the circumstances under which an army of 16,000 New England men had been gathered to besiege the British in Boston were such as to make it seem advisable for the congress to adopt it as a continental army; and here John Adams did the second notable deed of his career. He proposed Washington for the chief command of this army, and thus, by putting Virginia in the foreground, succeeded in committing that great colony to a course of action calculated to end in independence. This move not only put the army in charge of the only commander capable of winning independence for the American people in the field, but its political importance was great and obvious. Afterward in some dark moments of the revolutionary war, Mr. Adams seems almost to have regretted his part in this selection of a commander. He understood little or nothing of military affairs, and was incapable of appreciating Washington's transcendent ability. The results of the war, however, justified in every respect his action in the second continental congress.  During the summer recess taken by congress Mr. Adams sat as a member of the Massachusetts council, which declared the office of governor vacant and assumed executive authority. Under the new provisional government of Massachusetts, Mr. Adams was made chief justice, but never took his seat, as continental affairs more pressingly demanded his attention. He was always loquacious, often too ready to express his opinions, whether with tongue or pen, and this trait got him more than once into trouble, especially as he was inclined to be sharp and censorious. For John Dickinson, the leader of the moderate and temporizing party in congress, who had just prevailed upon that body to send another petition to the king, he seems to have entertained at this time no very high regard, and he gave vent to some contemptuous expressions in a confidential letter, which was captured by the British and published. This led to a quarrel with Dickinson, and made Mr. Adams very unpopular in Philadelphia. When congress reassembled in the autumn, Mr. Adams, as member of a committee for fitting out cruisers, drew up a body of regulations, which came to form the basis of the American naval code. The royal governor, Sir John Wentworth, fled from New Hampshire about this time, and the people sought the advice of congress as to the form of government which it should seem most advisable to adopt. Similar applications presently came from South Carolina and Virginia. Mr. Adams prevailed upon congress to recommend to these colonies to form for themselves new governments based entirely upon popular suffrage; and about the same time he published a pamphlet entitled “Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies.” By the spring of 1776 the popular feeling had become so strongly inclined toward independence that, on the 15th of May, Mr. Adams was able to carry through congress a resolution that all the colonies should be invited to form independent governments. In the preamble to this resolution it was declared that the American people could no longer conscientiously take oath to support any government deriving its authority from the crown; all such governments must now be suppressed, since the king had withdrawn his protection from the inhabitants of the united colonies. Like the famous preamble to Townshend's act of 1767, this Adams preamble contained within itself the gist of the whole matter. To adopt it was to cross the Rubicon, and it gave rise to a hot debate in congress. Against the opposition of most of the delegates from the middle states the resolution was finally carried; “and now,” exclaimed Mr. Adams, “the Gordian knot is cut.” Events came quickly to maturity. On the 7th of June the declaration of independence was moved by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, and seconded by John Adams. The motion was allowed to lie on the table for three weeks, in order to hear from the colonies of Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and New York, which had not yet declared their position with regard to independence. Meanwhile three committees were appointed, one on a declaration of independence, a second on confederation, and a third on foreign relations; and Mr. Adams was a member of the first and third of these committees. On the 1st of July Mr. Lee's motion was taken up by congress sitting as a committee of the whole; and as Mr. Lee was absent, the task of defending it devolved upon Mr. Adams, who, as usual, was opposed by Dickinson. Adams's speech on that occasion was probably the finest he ever delivered. Jefferson called him “the colossus of that debate”; and indeed his labors in bringing about the declaration of independence must be considered as the third signal event of his career.  On the 12th of June congress established a board of war and ordnance, with Mr. Adams for its chairman, and he discharged the arduous duties of this office until after the surrender of Burgoyne. After the battle of Long Island, Lord Howe sent the captured Gen. Sullivan to Philadelphia, soliciting a conference with some of the members of the congress. Adams opposed the conference, and with characteristic petulance alluded to the unfortunate Sullivan as a decoy duck who had much better have been shot in the battle than sent on such a business. Congress, however, consented to the conference, and Adams was chosen as a commissioner, along with Franklin and Rutledge. Toward the end of the year 1777 Mr. Adams was appointed to supersede Silas Deane as commissioner to France. He sailed 12 Feb., 1778, in the frigate “Boston,” and after a stormy passage, in which he ran no little risk of capture by British cruisers, he landed at Bordeaux, and reached Paris on the 8th of April. Long before his arrival the alliance with France had been consummated. He found a wretched state of things in Paris, our three commissioners there at loggerheads, one of them dabbling in the British funds and making a fortune by privateering, while the public accounts were kept in the laxest manner. All sorts of agents were drawing bills upon the United States, and commanders of war vessels were setting up their claims for expenses and supplies that had never been ordered. Mr. Adams, whose habits of business were extremely strict and methodical, was shocked at this confusion, and he took hold of the matter with such vigor as to put an end to it. He also recommended that the representation of the United States at the French court should be intrusted to a single minister instead of three commissioners. As a result of this advice, Franklin was retained at Paris, Arthur Lee was sent to Madrid, and Adams, being left without any instructions, returned to America, reaching Boston 2 Aug., 1779. He came home with a curious theory of the decadence of Great Britain, which he had learned in France, and which serves well to illustrate the mood in which France had undertaken to assist the United States. England, he said, “loses every day her consideration, and runs toward her ruin. Her riches, in which her power consisted, she has lost with us and never can regain. She resembles the melancholy spectacle of a great, wide-spreading tree that has been girdled at the root.” Such absurd notions were quite commonly entertained at that time on the continent of Europe, and such calamities were seriously dreaded by many Englishman in the event of the success of the Americans.   Immediately on reaching home Mr. Adams chosen delegate from Braintree to the convention for framing a new constitution for Massachusetts; but before the work of the convention was finished he was appointed commissioner to treat for peace with Great Britain, and sailed for France in the same French frigate in which he had come home. But Lord North's government was not ready to make peace, and, moreover, Count Vergennes contrived to prevent Adams from making any official communication to Great Britain of the extent of his powers. During Adams's stay in Paris a mutual dislike and distrust grew up between himself and Vergennes. The latter feared that if negotiations were to begin between the British government and the United States, they might lead to a reconciliation and reunion of the two branches of the English race, and thus ward off that decadence of England for which France was so eagerly  hoping. On the other hand, Adams quite correctly believed that it was the intention of Vergennes to  sacrifice the interests of the Americans, especially as concerned with the Newfoundland fisheries and  the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, in favor of Spain, with which country France was then in close alliance. Americans must always owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Adams for the clear-sightedness with which he thus read the designs of Vergennes and estimated at its true value the purely selfish intervention of France in behalf of the United States. This clearness of insight was soon to bear good fruit in the management of the treaty of 1783. For the present, Adams found himself uncomfortable in Paris, as his too ready tongue wrought unpleasantness both with Vergennes and with Franklin, who was too much under the French minister's influence. On his first arrival in Paris, society there had been greatly excited about him, as it was supposed that he was “the famous Mr. Adams” who had ordered the British troops out of Boston in March, 1770, and had thrown down the glove of defiance to George III. on the great day of the Boston tea-party. When he explained that he was only a cousin of that grand and picturesque personage he found that fashionable society thenceforth took less interest in him.  In the summer of 1780 Mr. Adams was charge by congress with the business of negotiating Dutch loan. In order to give the good people of Holland some correct ideas as to American affairs he published a number of articles in the Leyden “Gazette” and in a magazine entitled “La politique hollandaise”; also “Twenty-six Letters upon Interesting Subjects respecting the Revolution in America,” now reprinted in the 7th volume of his works. Soon after Adams's arrival in Holland, England declared war against the Dutch, ostensibly because of a proposed treaty of commerce with the United States in which the burgomaster of Amsterdam was implicated with Henry Laurens, but really because Holland had joined the league headed by the empress Catharine of Russia, designed to protect the commerce of neutral nations and known as the armed neutrality. Laurens had been sent out by congress as minister to Holland but, as he had been captured by a British cruise and taken to the tower of London, Mr. Adams was appointed minister in his place. His first duty was to sign, as representing the United States, the articles of the armed neutrality. Before he had got any further, indeed before he had been recognized as minister by the Dutch government, he was called back to Paris, in July, 1781, in order to be ready to enter upon negotiations for peace with the British government. Russia and Austria had volunteered their services as mediators between George III. and the Americans; but Lord North's government rejected the offer, so that Mr. Adams had his journey for nothing, and presently went back to Holland. His first and most arduous task was to persuade the Dutch government to recognize him as minister from the independent United States. In this he was covertly opposed by Vergennes, who wished the Americans to feel exclusively dependent upon France, and to have no other friendships or alliances. From first to last the aid extended by France to the Americans in the revolutionary war was purely selfish. That despotic government wished no good to a people struggling to preserve the immemorial principles of English liberty, and the policy of Vergennes was to extend just enough aid to us to enable us to prolong the war, so that colonies and mother country might alike be weakened. When he pretended to be the disinterested friend of the Americans, he professed to be under the influence of sentiments that he did not really feel; and he thus succeeded in winning from congress a confidence to which he was in no wise entitled. But he could not hood-wink John Adams, who wrote home that the duke de la Vauguyon, the French ambassador at the Hague, was doing everything in his power to obstruct the progress of the negotiations; and in this, Adams correctly inferred, he was acting under secret instructions from Vergennes. As a diplomatist Adams was in a certain sense Napoleonic; he introduced new and strange methods of warfare, which disconcerted the perfidious intriguers of the old school, of which Vergennes and Talleyrand were typical examples. Instead of beating about the bush and seeking to foil trickery by trickery (a business in which the wily Frenchman would doubtless have proved more than his match), he went straight to the duke de la Vauguyon and bluntly told him that he saw plainly what he was up to, and that it was of no use, since “no advice of his or of the count de Vergennes, nor even a requisition from the king, should restrain me.” The duke saw that Adams meant exactly what he said, and, finding that it was useless to oppose the negotiations, “fell in with me, in order to give the air of French influence” to them.  Events worked steadily and rapidly in Adams's favor. The plunder of St. Eustatius early in 1781 bad raised the wrath of the Dutch against Great Britain to fever heat. In November came tidings of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. By this time Adams had published so many articles as to have given the Dutch some idea as to what sort of people the Americans were. He had some months before presented a petition to the states general, asking them to recognize him as minister from independent nation. With his wonted boldness he now demanded a plain and unambiguous answer to this petition, and followed up the demand by visiting the representatives of the several cities in person and arguing his case. As the reward of this persistent energy, Mr. Adams had the pleasure of seeing the independence of the United States formally recognized by Holland on the 19th of April, 1782. This success was vigorously followed up. A Dutch loan of $2,000,000 was soon negotiated, and on the 7th of October a treaty of amity and commerce, the second which was ratified with the United States as an independent nation, was signed at the Hague. This work in Holland was the fourth signal event in John Adams's career, and, in view of the many obstacles overcome, he was himself in the habit of referring to it as the greatest triumph of his life. “One thing, thank God! is certain,” he wrote; “I have planted the American standard at the Hague. There let it wave and fly in triumph over Sir Joseph Yorke and British pride. I shall look down upon the flag-staff with pleasure from the other world.”   Mr. Adams had hardly time to finish this work when his presence was required in Paris. Negotiations for peace with Great Britain had begun some time before in conversations between Franklin and Richard Oswald, a gentleman whom Lord Shelburne had sent to Paris for the purpose. One British ministry had already been wrecked through these negotiations, and affairs had dragged along slowly amid endless difficulties. The situation was one of the most complicated in the history of diplomacy. France was in alliance at once with Spain and with the United States, and her treaty obligations to the one were in some respects inconsistent with her treaty obligations to the other. The feeling of Spain toward the United States was intensely hostile, and the French government was much more in sympathy with the former than with the latter. On the other hand, the new British government was not ill-disposed toward the Americans, and was extremely ready to make liberal concessions to them for the sake of thwarting the schemes of France. In the background stood George III., surly and irreconcilable, hoping that the negotiations would fail; and amid these difficulties they doubtless would have failed had not all the parties by this time had a surfeit of bloodshed. The designs of the French government were first suspected by John Jay, soon after his arrival in Paris.  He found that Vergennes was sending a secret emissary to Lord Shelburne under an assumed name; he ascertained that the right of the United States to the Mississippi valley was to be denied; and he got hold of a despatch from Marbois, the French secretary of legation at Philadelphia, to Vergennes, opposing the American claim to the Newfoundland fisheries. As soon as Jay learned these facts he proceeded, without the knowledge of Franklin, to take steps toward a separate negotiation between Great Britain and the United States. When Adams arrived in Paris, Oct. 26, he coincided with Jay's views, and the two together overruled Franklin. Mr. Adams's behavior at this time was quite characteristic. It is said that he left Vergennes to learn of his arrival through the newspapers. It was certainly some time before he called upon him, and he took occasion, besides, to express his opinions about republics and monarchies in terms that courtly Frenchman thought very rude. Adams agreed with Jay that Vergennes should be kept as far as possible in the dark until everything was completed, and so the negotiation with Great Britain went on separately. The annals of modern diplomacy have afforded few stranger spectacles. With the indispensable aid of France we had just got the better of England in fight, and now we proceeded amicably to divide territory and commercial privileges with the enemy, and to make arrangements in which our not too friendly ally was virtually ignored. In this way the United States secured the Mississippi valley, and a share in the Newfoundland fisheries, not as a privilege but as a right, the latter result being mainly due to the persistence of Mr. Adams. The point upon which the British commissioners most strongly insisted was the compensation of the American loyalists for the hardships they had suffered during the war; but this the American commissioners resolutely refused. The most they could be prevailed upon to allow was the insertion in the treaty of a clause to the effect that congress should recommend to the several state governments to reconsider their laws against the tories and to give these unfortunate persons a chance to recover their property. In the treaty, as finally arranged, all the disputed points were settled in favor of the Americans; and, the United States being thus virtually detached from the alliance, the British government was enabled to turn a deaf ear to the demands of France and Spain for the surrender of Gibraltar. Vergennes was outgeneralled at every turn. On the part of the Americans the treaty of 1783 deserves to be ranked as one of the most brilliant triumphs of modern diplomacy. Its success was about equally due to Adams and to Jay, whose courage in the affair was equal to their skill, for they took it upon themselves to disregard the explicit instructions of congress. Ever since March, 1781, Vergennes had been intriguing with congress through his minister at Philadelphia, the chevalier de la Luzerne. First he had tried to get Mr. Adams recalled to America. Failing in this, he had played his part with such dexterous persistence as to prevail upon congress to send most pusillanimous instructions to its peace commissioners. They were instructed to undertake nothing whatever in the negotiations without the knowledge and concurrence of “the ministers of our generous ally, the king of France,” that is to say, of the count de Vergennes; and they were to govern themselves entirely by his advice and opinion. Franklin would have followed these instructions; Adams and Jay deliberately disobeyed them, and earned the gratitude of their countrymen for all coming time. For Adams's share in this grand achievement it must certainly be cited as the fifth signal event in his career.  By this time he had become excessively home sick, and as soon as the treaty was arranged he asked leave to resign his commissions and return to America. He declared he would rather be “carting street-dust and marsh-mud” than waiting where he was. But business would not let him go. In September, 1783, he was commissioned, along with Franklin and Jay, to negotiate a commercial treaty with Great Britain. A sudden and violent fever prostrated him for several weeks, after which he visited London and Bath. Before he had fully recovered his health he learned that his presence was required in Holland. In those days, when we lived under the articles of confederation, and congress found it impossible to raise money enough to meet its current expenses, it was by no means unusual for the superintendent of finance to draw upon our foreign ministers and then sell the drafts for cash. This was done again and again, when there was not the smallest ground for supposing that the minister upon whom the draft was made would have any funds wherewith to meet it. It was part of his duty as envoy to go and beg the money. Early in the winter Mr. Adams learned that drafts upon him had been presented to his bankers in Amsterdam to the amount of more than a million florins. Less than half a million florins were on hand to meet these demands, and, unless something were done at once, the greater part of this paper would go back to America protested. Mr. Adams lost not a moment in starting for Holland, but he was delayed by a succession of terrible storms on the German ocean, and it was only after fifty-four days of difficulty and danger that he reached Amsterdam. The bankers had contrived to keep the drafts from going to protest, but news of the bickerings between the thirteen states had reached Holland. It was believed that the new nation was going to pieces, and the regency of Amsterdam had no money to lend it. The promise of the American government was not regarded as valid security for a sum equivalent to about $300,000. Adams was obliged to apply to professional usurers, from whom, after more humiliating perplexity, he succeeded in obtaining a loan at exorbitant interest. In the meantime he had been appointed commissioner, along with Franklin and Jefferson, for the general purpose of negotiating commercial treaties with foreign powers. As his return to America was thus indefinitely postponed, he sent for his wife, with their only daughter and youngest son, to come and join him in France, where the two elder sons were already with him. In the summer of 1784 the family was thus re-united, and began house-keeping at Auteuil, near Paris. A treaty was successfully negotiated with Prussia, but, before it was ready to be signed, Mr. Adams was appointed minister to the court of St. James, and arrived in London in May, 1785. He was at first politely received by George III., upon whom his bluff and fearless dignity of manner made a considerable impression. His stay in England was, however, far from pleasant. The king came to treat him with coldness, sometimes with rudeness, and the royal example was followed by fashionable society. The American government was losing credit at home and abroad. It was unable to fulfil its treaty engagements as to the payment of private debts due to British creditors, and as to the protection of the loyalists. The British government, in retaliation, refused to surrender the western posts of Ogdensburg, Oswego, Niagara, Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, and Mackinaw, which by the treaty were to be promptly given up to the United States. Still more, it refused to make any treaty of commerce with the United States, and neglected to send any minister to represent Great Britain in this country. It was generally supposed in Europe that the American government would presently come to an end in general anarchy and bloodshed; and it was believed by George III. and the narrow-minded politicians, such as Lord Sheffield, upon whose cooperation he relied, that, if sufficient obstacles could be thrown in the way of American commerce to cause serious distress in this country, the United States would repent of their independence and come straggling back, one after another, to their old allegiance. Under such circumstances it was impossible for Mr. Adams to accomplish much as minister in England. During his stay there he wrote his “Defence of the American Constitutions,” a work which afterward subjected him at home to ridiculous charges of monarchical and anti-republican sympathies. The object of the book was to set forth the advantages of a division of the powers of government, and especially of the legislative body, as opposed to the scheme of a single legislative chamber, which was advocated by many writers on the continent of Europe. The argument is encumbered by needlessly long and sometimes hardly relevant discussions on the history of the Italian republics.  Finding the British government utterly stubborn and impracticable, Mr. Adams asked to be recalled, and his request was granted in February, 1788. For the “patriotism, perseverance, integrity, and diligence” displayed in his ten years of service abroad he received the public thanks of congress. He had no sooner reached home than he was elected a delegate from Massachusetts to the moribund continental congress, but that body expired before he had taken his seat in it. During the summer the ratification of the new constitution was so far completed that it could be put into operation, and public attention was absorbed in the work of organizing the new government. As Washington was unanimously selected for the office of president, it was natural that the vice-president should be taken from Massachusetts. The candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency were voted for without any separate specification, the second office falling to the candidate who obtained the second highest number of votes in the electoral college. Of the 69 electoral votes, all were registered for Washington, 34 for John Adams, who stood second on the list; the other 35 votes were scattered among a number of candidates. Adams was somewhat chagrined at this marked preference shown for Washington. His chief foible was enormous personal vanity, besides which he was much better fitted by temperament and training to appreciate the kind of work that he had himself done than the military work by which Washington had won independence for the United States. He never could quite understand how or why the services rendered by Washington were so much more important than his own. The office of vice-president was then more highly esteemed than it afterward came to be, but it was hardly suited to a man of Mr. Adams's vigorous and aggressive temper. In one respect, however, he performed a more important part while holding that office than any of his successors. In the earlier sessions of the senate there was hot debate over the vigorous measures by which Washington's administration was seeking to reëtablish American credit and enlist the conservative interests of the wealthier citizens in behalf of the stability of the government. These measures were for the most part opposed by the persons who were rapidly becoming organized under Jefferson's leadership into the republican party, the opposition being mainly due to dread of the possible evil consequences that might flow from too great an increase of power in the federal government. In these debates the senate was very evenly divided, and Mr. Adams, as presiding officer of that body, was often enabled to decide the question by his casting vote. In the first congress he gave as many as twenty casting votes upon questions of most vital importance to the whole subsequent history of the American people, and on all these occasions he supported Washington's policy. During Washington's administration grew up the division into the two great parties which have remained to this day in American politics—the one known as federalist, afterward as whig, then as republican; the other known at first as republican and afterward as democratic. John Adams was by his mental and moral constitution a federalist. He believed in strong government. To the opposite party he seemed much less a democrat than an aristocrat. In one of his essays he provoked great popular wrath by using the phrase “the well-born.” He knew very well that in point of hereditary capacity and advantages men are not equal and never will be. His notion of democratic equality meant that all men should have equal rights in the eye of the law. There was nothing of the communist or leveller about him. He believed in the rightful existence of a governing class, which ought to be kept at the head of affairs; and he was supposed, probably with some truth, to have a predilection for etiquette, titles, gentlemen-in- waiting, and such things. Such views did not make him an aristocrat in the true sense of the word, for in nowise did he believe that the right to a place in the governing class should be heritable; it was something to be won by personal merit, and should not be withheld by any artificial enactments from the lowliest of men, to whom the chance of an illustrious career ought to be just as much open as to “the well-born.” At the same time John Adams differed from Jefferson and from his cousin, Samuel Adams, in distrusting the masses. All the federalist leaders shared this feeling more or less, and it presently became the chief source of weakness to the party. The disagreement between John Adams and Jefferson was first brought into prominence by the breaking out of the French revolution. Mr. Adams expected little or no good from this movement, which was like the American movement in no respect whatever except in being called a revolution. He set forth his views on this subject in his “Discourses on Davila,” which were published in a Philadelphia newspaper. Taking as his text Davila's history of the civil wars in France in the 16th century, he argued powerfully that a pure democracy was not the best form of government, but that a certain mixture of the aristocratic and monarchical elements was necessary to the permanent maintenance of free government. Such a mixture really exists in the constitution of the United States, and, in the opinion of many able thinkers, constitutes its peculiar excellence and the best guarantee of its stability. These views gave great umbrage to the extreme democrats, and in the election of 1792 they set up George Clinton, of New York, as a rival candidate for the vice-presidency; but when the votes were counted Adams had 77, Clinton 50, Jefferson 4, and Aaron Burr 1. During this administration Adams, by his casting vote, defeated the attempt of the republicans to balk Jay's mission to England in advance by a resolution entirely prohibiting trade with that country. For a time Adams quite forgot his jealousy of Washington in admiration for the heroic strength of purpose with which he pursued his policy of neutrality amid the furious efforts of political partisans to drag the United States into a rash and desperate armed struggle in support either of France or of England.  In 1796, as Washington refused to serve for a third term, John Adams seemed clearly marked out as federalist candidate for the succession. Hamilton and Jay were in a certain sense his rivals; but Jay was for the moment unpopular because of the famous treaty that he had lately negotiated with England, and Hamilton, although the ablest man in the federalist party, was still not so conspicuous in the eyes of the masses of voters as Adams, who besides was surer than any one else of the indispensable New England vote. Having decided upon Adams as first candidate, it seemed desirable to take the other from a southern state, and the choice fell upon Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, a younger brother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Hamilton now began to scheme against Mr. Adams in a manner not at all to his credit. He had always been jealous of Adams because of his stubborn and independent character, which made it impossible for him to be subservient to a leader. There was not room enough in one political party for two such positive and aggressive characters. Already in the election of 1788 Hamilton had contrived to diminish Adams's vote by persuading some electors of the possible danger of a unanimous and therefore equal vote for him and Washington. Such advice could not have been candid, for there was never the smallest possibility of a unanimous vote for Mr. Adams. Now in 1796 he resorted to a similar stratagem. The federalists were likely to win the election, but had not many votes to spare; the contest was evidently going to be close. Hamilton accordingly urged the federalist electors, especially in New England, to cast all their votes alike for Adams and Pinckney, lest the loss of a single vote by either one should give the victory to Jefferson, upon whom the opposite party was clearly united. Should Adams and Pinckney receive an exactly equal number of votes, it would remain for a federalist congress to decide which should be president. The result of the election showed 71 votes for John Adams, 68 for Jefferson, 59 for Pinckney, 30 for Burr, 15 for Samuel Adams, and the rest scattering. Two electors obstinately persisted in voting for Washington. When it appeared that Adams had only three more votes than Jefferson, who secured the second place instead of Pinckney, it seemed on the surface as if Hamilton's advice had been sound. But from the outset it had been clear (and no one knew it better than Hamilton) that several southern federalists would withhold their votes from Adams in order to give the presidency to Pinckney, always supposing that the New England electors could be depended upon to vote equally for both. The purpose of Hamilton's advice was to make Pinckney president and Adams vice-president, in opposition to the wishes of their party. This purpose was suspected in New England, and while some of the southern federalists voted for Pinckney and Jefferson, eighteen New Englanders, in voting for Adams, withheld their votes from Pinckney. The result was the election of a federalist president with a republican vice-president. In case of the death, disability, or removal of the president, the administration would fall into the hands of the opposite party. Clearly a mode of election that presented such temptations to intrigue, and left so much to accident, was vicious and could not last long. These proceedings gave rise to a violent feud between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, which ended in breaking up the federalist party, and has left a legacy of bitter feelings to the descendants of those illustrious men.  The presidency of John Adams was stormy. We were entering upon that period when our party strife was determined rather by foreign than by American political issues, when England and France, engaged in a warfare of Titans, took every occasion to browbeat and insult us because we were supposed to be too feeble to resent such treatment. The revolutionary government of France had claimed that, in accordance with our treaty with that country, we were bound to support her against Great Britain, at least so far as concerned the defence of the French West Indies. The republican party went almost far enough in their sympathy with the French to concede these claims, which, if admitted by our government, would immediately have got us into war with England. On the other hand, the hatred felt toward France by the extreme federalists was so bitter that any insult from that power was enough to incline them to advocate war against her and in behalf of England. Washington, in defiance of all popular clamor, adhered to a policy of strict neutrality, and in this he was resolutely followed by Adams. The American government was thus obliged carefully and with infinite difficulty to steer between Scylla and Charybdis until the overthrow of Napoleon and our naval victories over England in 1812-'14 put an end to this humiliating state of things. Under Washington's administration Gouverneur Morris had been for some time minister to France, but he was greatly disliked by the anarchical group that then misruled that country. To avoid giving offence to the French republic, Washington had recalled Morris and sent James Monroe in his place, with instructions to try to reconcile the French to Jay's mission to England. Instead of doing this, Monroe encouraged the French to hope that Jay's treaty would not be ratified, and Washington accordingly recalled him and sent Cotesworth Pinckney in his place. Enraged at the ratification of Jay's treaty, the French government not only gave a brilliant ovation to Monroe, but refused to receive Pinckney, and would not even allow him to stay in Paris. At the same time, decrees were passed discriminating against American commerce. Mr. Adams was no sooner inaugurated as president than he called an extra session of congress, to consider how war with France should be avoided. It was decided to send a special commission to France, consisting of Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry. The directory would not acknowledge these commissioners and treat with them openly; but Talleyrand, who was then secretary for foreign affairs, sent some of his creatures to intrigue with them behind the scenes. It was proposed that the envoys should pay large sums of money to Talleyrand and two or three of the directors, as bribes, for dealing politely with the United States and refraining from locking up American ships and stealing American goods. When the envoys scornfully rejected this proposal, a new decree was forthwith issued against American commerce. The envoys drew up an indignant remonstrance, which Gerry hesitated to sign. Wearied with their fruitless efforts, Marshall and Pinckney left Paris. But, as Gerry was a republican, Talleyrand thought it worth while to persuade him to stay, hoping that he might prove more compliant than his colleagues. In March, 1798, Mr. Adams announced to congress the failure of the mission, and advised that the preparations already begun should be kept up in view of the war that now seemed almost inevitable. A furious debate ensued, which was interrupted by a motion from the federalist side, calling on the president for full copies of the despatches. Nothing could have suited Mr. Adams better. He immediately sent in copies complete in everything except that the letters X., Y., and Z. were substituted for the names of Talleyrand's emissaries. Hence these papers have ever since been known as the “X. Y. Z. despatches.” On the 8th of April the senate voted to publish these despatches, and they aroused great excitement both in Europe and in America. The British government scattered them broadcast over Europe, to stir up indignation against France. In America a great storm of wrath seemed for the moment to have wrecked the republican party. Those who were not converted to federalism were for the moment silenced. From all quarters came up the war-cry, “Millions for defence; not one cent for tribute.” A few excellent frigates were built, the nucleus of the gallant little navy that was by and by to win such triumphs over England. An army was raised, and Washington was placed in command, with the rank of lieutenant-general. Gerry was recalled from France, and the press roundly berated him for showing less firmness than his colleagues, though indeed he had not done anything dishonorable. During this excitement the song of “Hail, Columbia” was published and became popular. On the 4th of July the effigy of Talleyrand, who had once been bishop of Autun, was arrayed in a surplice and burned at the stake. The president was authorized to issue letters of marque and reprisal, and for a time war with France actually existed, though it was never declared. In February, 1799, Capt. Truxtun, in the frigate “Constellation,” defeated and captured the French frigate “L’Insurgente” near the island of St. Christopher. In February, 1800, the same gallant officer in a desperate battle destroyed the frigate “La Vengeance,” which was much his superior in strength of armament. When the directory found that their silly and infamous policy was likely to drive the United States into alliance with Great Britain, they began to change their tactics. Talleyrand tried to crawl out by disavowing his emissaries X. Y. Z., and pretending that the American envoys had been imposed upon by irresponsible adventurers. He made overtures to Vans Murray, the American minister at the Hague, tending toward reconciliation. Mr. Adams, while sharing the federalist indignation at the behavior of France, was too clear-headed not to see that the only safe policy for the United States was one of strict neutrality. He was resolutely determined to avoid war if possible, and to meet France half-way the moment she should show symptoms of a return to reason. His cabinet were so far under Hamilton's influence that he could not rely upon them; indeed, he had good reason to suspect them of working against him. Accordingly, without consulting his cabinet, on 18 Feb., 1799, he sent to the senate the nomination of Vans Murray as minister to France. This bold step precipitated the quarrel between Mr. Adams and his party, and during the year it grew fiercer and fiercer. He joined Ellsworth, of Connecticut, and Davie, of North Carolina, to Vans Murray as commissioners, and awaited the assurance of Talleyrand that they would be properly received at Paris. On receiving this assurance, though it was couched in rather insolent language by the baffled Frenchman, the commissioners sailed Nov. 5. On reaching Paris, they found the directory overturned by Napoleon, with whom as first consul they succeeded in adjusting the difficulties. This French mission completed the split in the federalist party, and made Mr. Adams's reëlection impossible. The quarrel with the Hamiltonians had been further embittered by Adams's foolish attempt to prevent Hamilton's obtaining the rank of senior major-general, for which Washington had designated him, and it rose to fever-heat in the spring of 1800, when Mr. Adams dismissed his cabinet and selected a new one. Another affair contributed largely to the downfall of the federalist party. In 1798, during the height of the popular fury against France, the federalists in congress presumed too much upon their strength, and passed the famous alien and sedition acts. By the first of these acts, aliens were rendered foible to summary banishment from the United States at the sole discretion of the president; and any alien who should venture to return from such banishment was liable to imprisonment at hard labor for life. By the sedition act any scandalous or malicious writing against the president or either house of congress was liable to be dealt with in the United States courts and punished by fine and imprisonment. This act contravened the constitutional amendment that forbids all infringement of freedom of speech and of the press, and both acts aroused more widespread indignation than any others that have ever passed in congress. They called forth from the southern republicans the famous Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798-'99, which assert, though in language open to some latitude of interpretation, the right of a state to “nullify” or impede the execution of a law deemed unconstitutional.

In the election of 1800 the federalist votes were given to John Adams and Cotesworth Pinckney, and the republican votes to Jefferson and Burr. The count showed 65 votes for Adams, 64 for Pinckney, and 1 for Jay, while Jefferson and Burr had each 73, and the election was thus thrown into the house of representatives. Mr. Adams took np part in the intrigues that followed. His last considerable public act, in appointing John Marshall to the chief justiceship of the United States, turned out to be of inestimable value to the country, and was a worthy end to a great public career. Very different, and quite unworthy of such a man as John Adams, was the silly and puerile fit of rage in which he got up before daybreak of the 4th of March and started in his coach for Massachusetts, instead of waiting to see the inauguration of his successful rival. On several occasions John Adams's career shows us striking examples of the demoralizing effects of stupendous personal vanity, but on no occasion more strikingly than this. He went home with a feeling that he had been disgraced by his failure to secure a reëlection. Yet in estimating his character we must not forget that in his resolute insistence upon the French mission of 1799 he did not stop for a moment to weigh the probable effect of his action upon his chances for reelection. He acted as a true patriot, ready to sacrifice himself for the welfare of his country, never regretted the act, and always maintained that it was the most meritorious of his life. “I desire,” he said, “no other inscription over my grave-stone than this: Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of the peace with France in the year 1800.” He was entirely right, as all disinterested writers now agree.

After so long and brilliant a career, he now passed a quarter of a century in his home at Quincy (as that part of Braintree was now called) in peaceful and happy seclusion, devoting himself to literary work relating to the history of his times. In 1820 the aged statesman was chosen delegate to the convention for revising the constitution of Massachusetts, and labored unsuccessfully to obtain an acknowledgment of the equal rights, political and religious, of others than so-called Christians. His friendship with Jefferson, which had been broken off by their political differences, was resumed in his old age, and an interesting correspondence was kept up between the two. As a writer of English, John Adams in many respects surpassed all his American contemporaries; his style was crisp, pungent, and vivacious. In person he was of middle height, vigorous, florid, and somewhat corpulent, quite like the typical John Bull. He was always truthful and outspoken, often vehement and brusque. Vanity and loquacity, as he freely admitted, were his chief foibles. Without being quarrelsome, he had little or none of the tact that avoids quarrels; but he harbored no malice, and his anger, though violent, was short-lived. Among American public men there has been none more upright and honorable. He lived to see his son president of the United States, and died on the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of independence and in the ninety-first year of his age. His last words were, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” But by a remarkable coincidence, Jefferson had died a few hours earlier the same day. See “Life and Works of John Adams,” by C. F. Adams (10 vols., Boston, 1850-'56); “Life of John Adams,” by J. Q. and C. F. A dams (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1871); and “John Adams,” by J. T. Morse, Jr. (Boston, 1885).

The portrait that forms the frontispiece of this volume is from a painting by Gilbert Stuart, which was executed while Mr. Adams was president and is now in the possession of his grandson. The one on page 16 was taken when he was a youth. The houses represented on page 15 are those in which President John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were born. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

AMONG the earliest settlers of the English colonies in New England was a family by the name of Adams. One of the grantees of the charter of Charles the First to the London Company was named Thomas Adams, though it does not appear that he was of those who emigrated with Governor Winthrop, in 1630.

It appears by the Governor’s journal, that in 1634 there came a considerable number of colonists, under the pastoral superintendence of the Rev. Thomas Parker, in a vessel from Ipswich, in the county of Essex, in the neighborhood of which is the small town of Braintree.

There was, it seems, after their arrival, some difficulty in deciding where they should be located. It was finally determined that Mount Wollaston, situated within the harbor, and distant about nine miles from the three mountains, and whence the intrusive merry mountaineer Morton had been expelled, should, with an enlarged boundary, be annexed to Boston; and the lands within that boundary were granted in various proportions to individuals, chiefly, if not entirely, of the new company from Ipswich.

The settlement soon increased; and feeling, like all the original settlements in New England, the want of religious instruction and social worship, found it a great inconvenience to travel nine or ten miles every Sunday to reach the place of their devotions. In 1636 they began to hold meetings, and to hear occasional preachers, at Mount Wollaston itself. Three years afterwards they associated themselves under a covenant as a Christian Church; and in 1640 were incorporated as a separate town, by the name of Braintree.

Of this town Henry Adams, junior, was the first town-clerk; and the first pages of the original town records, still extant, are in his handwriting. He was the oldest of eight sons, with whom his father, Henry Adams, had emigrated, probably from Braintree in England, and who had arrived in the vessel from Ipswich 1634. Henry Adams the elder, died in 1646, leaving a widow, and a daughter named Ursula, besides the eight sons above-mentioned. He had been a brewer in England, and had set up a brewery in his new habitation. This establishment was continued by the youngest but one of his sons, named Joseph. The other sons sought their fortunes in other towns, and chiefly among their first settlers. Henry, who had been the first town clerk of Braintree; removed, at the time of the incorporation of Medfield in 1652, to that place, and was again the first town-clerk there.

Joseph, the son who remained at Braintree, was born in 1626; was at the time of the emigration of the family from England, a boy of eight years old, and died at the age of sixty-eight in 1694, leaving ten children,—five sons and five daughters.

One of these sons, named John, settled in Boston, and was father of Samuel Adams, and grandfather of the revolutionary patriot of that name.

Another son, named also Joseph, was born in 1654; married Hannah Bass, a daughter of Ruth Alden, and grand-daughter of John Alden of the May Flower, and died in 1736 at the age of eighty-two.

His second son named John, born in 1689, was the father of JOHN ADAMS, the subject of the present memoir. His mother was Susanna, daughter of Peter Boylston, and niece of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, renowned as the first introducer of inoculation for the small-pox in the British dominions.

This JOHN ADAMS was born on the 30th October, 1735, at Braintree. His father’s elder brother, Joseph, had been educated at Harvard College; and was for upwards of sixty years minister of a Congregational church at Newington, New Hampshire. 

John Adams, the father, was a farmer of small estate and a common school education. He lived and died, as his father and grandfather had done before him, in that mediocrity of condition between affluence, and poverty, most propitious to the exercise of the ordinary duties of life, and to the enjoyment of individual happiness. He was for many years a deacon of the church, and a select man of the town, without enjoying or aspiring to any higher dignity. He was in his religious opinions, like most of the inhabitants of New England at that time, a rigid Calvinist, and was desirous of bestowing upon his eldest son the benefit of a classical education, to prepare him for the same profession with that of his elder brother, the minister of the gospel at Newington.

JOHN ADAMS, the son, had at that early age no vocation for the Church, nor even for a college education. Upon his father’s asking him to what occupation in life he would prefer to be raised, he answered that he wished to be a farmer. His father, without attempting directly to control his inclination, replied that it should be as he desired. He accordingly took him out with himself the next day upon the farm, and gave him practical experience of the labors of the plough, the spade, and the scythe. At the close of the day the young farmer told his father that he would go to school. He retained, however, his fondness for farming to the last years of his life.

He was accordingly placed under the tuition of Mr. Marsh, the keeper of a school then residing at Braintree, and who, ten years afterwards, was also the instructor of Josiah Quincy, the celebrated patriot, who lived but to share the first trials and to face the impending terrors of the revolution.

In 1751, at the age of sixteen, JOHN ADAMS was admitted as a student at Harvard College, and in 1755 was graduated as Bachelor of Arts. The class to which he belonged stands eminent on the College catalogue, for the unusual number of men distinguished in after-life. Among them were Samuel Locke, some time President of the College; Moses Hemmenway, subsequently a divine of high reputation; Sir John Wentworth, Governor of the province of New Hampshire; William Browne, a judge of the Superior Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and afterwards Governor of the island of Bermuda; David Sewall, many years judge of the District Court of the United States in the district, and afterwards State of Maine; and Tristram Dalton, a Senator of the United States. Three of these had so far distinguished themselves while under-graduates, that, in the traditions of the College, it was for many years afterwards known by the sons of Harvard as the class of Adams, Hemmenway, and Locke.

John Adams, the father, had thus given to his eldest son a liberal education to fit him for the gospel ministry. He had two other sons, Peter Boylston and Elihu, whom he was educating to the profession which JOHN had at first preferred, of farmers. In this profession Peter Boylston continued to the end of a long life, holding for many years a commission as a justice of the peace, and serving for some time the town of Quincy as their representative in the legislature of the Commonwealth. He died in 1822 at the age of eighty-four leaving numerous descendants among the respectable inhabitants of Quincy and of Boston. Elihu, at the commencement of the Revolution entered the army as a captain, and with multitudes of others fell a victim to the epidemic dysentery of 1775. He left two sons and one daughter, whose posterity reside in the towns of Randolph, (originally a part of Braintree,) Abington, and Bridgewater. The daughter was the mother of Aaron Hobart, several years a member of the House of Representatives of the United States, and afterwards of the Council of the Commonwealth.

Among the usages of the primitive inhabitants of the villages of New England, a liberal, that is, a college education, was considered as an outfit for life, and equivalent to the double portion of an eldest son. Upon being graduated at the College in 1755, JOHN ADAM’S, at the age of twenty, had received this double portion, and was thenceforth to provide for himself.

 

“The world was all before him, and Providence his guide.”

 

At the commencement, when he was graduated, there were present one or more of the select-men of the town of Worcester, which was then in want of a teacher for the town school. They proposed to Mr. Adams to undertake this service, and he accepted the invitation. He repaired immediately to Worcester, and took upon him the arduous duties of his office; pursuing at the same time the studies which were to prepare him for the ministry.

His entrance thus upon the theatre of active life was at a period of great political excitement. Precisely at the time when he went to reside at Worcester, occurred the first incidents of the seven years’ war, waged between France and Britain for the mastery of the North American continent. The disaster of Braddock’s defeat and death happened precisely at that time, like the shock of an earthquake throughout the British colonies. Politics were the speculation of every mind—the prevailing topic of every conversation. It was then that he wrote to his kinsman, Nathaniel Webb, that prophetic letter which has been justly called a literary phenomenon, and which shadowed forth the future revolution of Independence, and the naval glories of this Union.

His father had fondly cherished the hope that he was raising, by the education of his son, a monumental pillar of the Calvinistic church; and he himself, reluctant at the thought of disappointing the hopes of his father, and unwilling to embrace a profession laboring then under strong prejudices unfavorable to it among the people of New England, had acquiesced in the purpose which had devoted him to the gospel ministry. But the progress of his theological studies soon gave him an irresistible distaste for the Calvinistic doctrines. The writings of Archbishop Tillotson, then at the summit of their reputation; the profound analysis of Bishop Butler, with his sermons upon human nature and upon the character of Balaam, took such hold upon his memory, his imagination, and his judgment, that they extirpated from his mind every root of Calvinism that had been implanted in it; and the philosophical works of Bolingbroke, then a dazzling novelty in the literary world, although wholly successless in their tendency to shake his faith in the sublime and eternal truths of the gospel, contributed effectively to wean him from the creed of the Genevan Reformer.

About one year after his first arrival at Worcester, after much anxious deliberation and consultation with confidential friends, he resolved to relinquish the study of divinity, and to undertake that of the law. He accordingly entered the office of Col. James Putnam, then a lawyer of reputation at Worcester, and became at the same time an inmate of his house. With him he lived in perfect harmony for the space of two years, pursuing, with indefatigable diligence, the study of the law, and keeping at the same time the town school. In 1758 he completed his preparatory professional studies; relinquished his school, and returned to his paternal mansion at Braintree. He applied, though a total stranger, to Jeremy Gridley, then the most eminent lawyer in New England, and Attorney-general of the Province, to present him to the judges of the Superior Court for admission to the Bar. Mr. Gridley examined him with regard to him proficiency in the studies appropriate to his profession, and warmly recommended him to the Court, securing thereby his admission.

He opened an office, and commenced the practice in his native town. Two years after, in 1760, he lost his father; but continued to reside with his mother and brother till 1764. His attendance upon the Courts in the counties of Suffolk, and of the old colony, was assiduous; but an accidental engagement in a private cause, before the Court at Plymouth, gave him the opportunity to display talents, which brought him immediately into large and profitable practice. In 1762 the seven years’ war was concluded by the cession to Great Britain and Spain of all the possessions of France on the continent of North America; and at the same time commenced in England the system of policy, which terminated in the Revolution of Independence. It commenced by an increased rigor of exaction and of restriction in the execution of the laws of trade. For this purpose the officers of the customs were instructed by an order of the royal council, to apply, in cases when they suspected articles of merchandize upon which the duties had not been paid, were concealed, to the justices of the Superior Courts, for writs of assistance, such as were sometimes issued from the Court of Exchequer in England, authorizing them to enter the houses and warehouses of the merchants, to detect the unlawfully imported goods. This was a new and odious process, to which the merchants in the colonies had never before been subjected; and its legality was immediately contested before the Superior Court. It was substantially the same case as that of the general search warrants, which some years after kindled so fierce and inextinguishable a flame upon the prosecution of John Wilkes in London. The spirit of English liberty was as sensitive and as intractable in the colonies, as it ever had been in the mother country. The remark of Junius, that the dogs and horses of England lost their metal by removing to another hemisphere, but that patriotism was improved by transportation, meant by him for a sarcasm, was a truth too serious for the derision of a British statesman. The trial of John Peter Zenger, at New York, had vindicated the freedom of the press, and the rights of juries, twenty years before they issued victorious from the re-considered opinions of Camden, and the prevaricating wisdom of Mansfield. And in the trial of the writs of assistance, at Boston, James Otis had

 

—————“taught the age to quit their clogs

“By the known rules of ancient Liberty;”

 

while the search warrants for the Essay on Woman, and the 45th number of the North Briton, and the Letter of Junius to the King, were slumbering in the womb of futurity.

JOHN ADAMS, at the age of twenty-seven, attended as a member of the bar, the trial upon the writs of assistance, and witnessed the splendid exhibitions of genius and learning exerted in the cause of freedom by the pioneer of American Independence, James Otis. Small is the portion of mankind to whom it is given to discern the great events which control the destinies of nations in their seminal principles. The origin of the American Revolution has been usually ascribed to the Stamp Act; JOHN ADAMS had seen it in the first campaign of the seven years’ war in 1755. He saw and marked its progress on the argument of James Otis upon writs of assistance in 1762; a cause which, although it produced great excitement at the time, would scarcely have been noticed among the historical incidents of the term, but for the minutes, which his curiosity induced him to take of the trial as it proceeded, and from an imperfect copy of which, taken afterwards by one of the law students in his office, the account of it in the subsequent histories of that period has been published.

On the 25th of October, 1764, he was married to Abigail Smith, second daughter of William Smith, minister of a congregational church at Weymouth, then in her twentieth year.

This was the memorable year of the Stamp Act, and from this year may be dated his first entrance upon political life. His friend and patron, Gridley, had just before that formed, with some other members of the bar and men of literary taste, a small social circle, who met once a week at each other’s houses for the discussion of topics of literature and law, oral or in writing. Before this society MR. ADAMS one evening read a short paper of Observations on the Feudal and Canon Law, which he afterwards published in the Patriotic newspaper. The sensation which it produced on the public mind was so great, that in the following year it was re-published, in London, and there attributed to the pen of Gridley. It has been frequently since re-published, and even now may be considered as a worthy precursor to the declaration of Independence.

Popular commotions prevented the landing of the Stamp Act papers, which had been sent from England to be used in all processes before the judicial courts.

Thomas Hutchinson, at once the Lieut. Governor and Chief Justice of the Superior Court of the Province, had closed the sessions of the Court, on the pretence that they could not be lawfully held but by using the stamps.

The suspension of the Courts was severely felt throughout the Province; but especially in the town of Boston, where, after some time, a town meeting was held, at which it was determined to present a petition to the Governor and Council, that the Courts of justice might be forthwith re-opened; and they prayed to be heard by counsel in support of the petition. This was accorded, and the counsel appointed by the town were Jeremy Gridley, then Attorney-general, James Otis, and JOHN ADAMS, then a young man of thirty, and not even an inhabitant of the town. The Governor and Council had not ventured to refuse hearing counsel in support of the town petition; but, perhaps, from the same timid policy, would hear them only with closed doors, and without admitting any supernumerary hearers. They suggested to the three gentlemen, who represented the town, the expediency of deciding between themselves the points upon which they proposed to support the petition. Mr. Gridley, the officer of the crown, without entering upon the question of right, represented only the general and severe distress suffered by all classes of the people, not only of the town, but of the whole province, by the suspension of all proceedings in the Judicial Courts. Mr. Otis argued, that from this unforeseen and unexampled state of things, the nature of the case gave a right of necessity, authorizing the Governor and Council to command the re-opening of the Court until the pleasure of the authority beyond the sea could be known. MR. ADAMS assumed, as the basis of his argument, that the British Parliament had no right of taxation over the colonies. That the Stamp Act was an Assumption of power, unwarranted by, and inconsistent with, the principles of the English constitution, and with the charter of the Province. That it was null and void; binding neither upon the people, nor upon the courts of justice in the colony; and that it was the duty of the Governor and Council to require of the judges of the courts, that they should resume their judicial Courts, and proceed without exacting from suitors, or applying to their own records, the use of any stamps whatever. This, and a cotemporaneous resolution of the same import, introduced into the House of Representatives of the Province by Samuel Adams, are believed to have been the first direct denial of the unlimited right of legislation of Parliament over the colonies in the progress of that controversy. In the argument before the Governor and Council, it could be assumed, only by MR. ADAMS. Mr. Gridley being at that time the king’s Attorney-general and Mr. Otis having, in a celebrated pamphlet on the rights of the colonies, shortly before published, admitted the right of taxation to be among the lawful authorities of Parliament.

The Governor and Council deferred their decision upon the petition of the town, and before the period arrived for the next regular session of the Superior Court, the intelligence came of the repeal of the Stamp Act, and relieved them from the necessity of any decision upon it.

The selection of MR. ADAMS as one of the law council of the town of Boston upon this memorable occasion, was at once an introduction to a career of political eminence, and a signal advancement of his professional reputation as a lawyer. He had already, as chairman of a committee of the town of Braintree, draughted instructions, on the subject of the Stamp Act, to the Representative of the town in the general court, which had been published, and attracted much notice; and he was shortly after elected one of the select-men of the town.

He had formed an intimate acquaintance and warm friendship with Jonathan Sewall, who had married a Miss Quincy, a relation of MR. ADAMS. Sewall, a man of fine talents, distinguished as an orator and a writer, had commenced his career as a patriot; but had been drawn over by the artifices of Bernard and Hutchinson, and by lucrative and honorable offices, to the royal cause. Through him the office of advocate-general was offered to MR. ADAMS, which he declined, though tendered with an assurance that no sacrifice of his political sentiments would be expected from him by his acceptance of the office. He was already known in that Court by the defence of Ansell Nickerson, an American seaman, who, in self-defence against a press-gang from a king’s ship in the harbor of Boston, had killed, with the stroke of a harpoon, their commander, Lieut. Panton. MR. ADAMS’S defence was, that the usage of impressment had never extended to the colonies; that the attempt to impress Nickerson was, on the part of Lieutenant Panton, unlawful; and that the act of Nickerson in killing him was justifiable homicide. Although the commander of the naval force on the American station, Captain Hood, afterwards Lord Hood, a name illustrious in the naval annals of Britain, was a member of the Court which decided the fate of Nickerson, he was acquitted and discharged; and thus, even before the question of Parliamentary taxation had been brought to its issue in blood, it was solemnly settled that the royal prerogative of impressment did not extend to the colonies. That prerogative, so utterly irreconcileable with the fundamental principle of the great charter, “nullus homo capietur,” that dark spot on the snow-white standard of English freedom, that brand of servitude which Foster, from the judicial bench, stamped on the forehead of the British seaman; that shame to the legislation of the mother country, was, by the exertions of JOHN ADAMS, banished from the code of colonial law.

In the inimitable portrait of the just man drawn by the great Roman Lyric Poet, he is said to be equally immovable from his purpose by the flashing eye of the tyrant, and by the burning fury of a multitude commanding him to do wrong. Of all revolutions, ancient or modern, that of American Independence was pre-eminently popular. It was emphatically the revolution of the people. Not one noble name of the parent realm is found recorded upon its annals, as armed in the defence of the cause of freedom, or assisting in the councils of the confederacy; a few foreign nobles, La Fayette, De Kalb, Pulaski, Steuben, Du Portail, Du Coudray, and a single claimant of a British peerage, Lord Stirling, warmed by the spirit of freedom, and stimulated by the electric spark of military adventure, joined the standard of our country; and more than one, of them laid down their lives in her cause. Of the natives of the land, not one—not Washington himself—

could be justly styled the founder of Independence. The title of Liberator, since applied to an immeasurably inferior man in another continent of this hemisphere, could not be, and never was, applied to Washington. Of the nation, formed after the revolution was accomplished, he was by the one people placed at the head; of the revolution itself, he was but the arm.

North American Independence was achieved by a new phenomenon in the history of mankind,—by a self-formed, self-constituted, and self-governed democracy. There were leaders of the people in the several colonies; there were representatives of the colonies, and afterwards of the States in the continental Congress; there was a continental army, a continental navy, and a continental currency; agents, factors, and soldiers; but the living soul, the vivifying spirit of the whole, was a steady, firm, resolute, inflexible will of the people, marching through fire and sword, and pestilence and famine, and bent to march, were it through the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds—to INDEPENDENCE.

The objections urged from time-immemorial against the democracies of former ages were, the instability of the popular will—the impetuosity of their passions—the fluctuation of their counsels, and the impossibility of resisting their occasional and transitory animosities and resentments. Little of al this was seen in the course of the North American revolution. Even before its outset the people were trained to a spirit of self-control, well suited to prepare them for the trials that awaited them, and to carry them triumphantly through the fiery ordeal. No event contributed more to the formation of this spirit than the tragedy of the 5th of March, 1770, and its consequences. To suppress the popular commotions which the system of Parliamentary taxation had excited and could not fail to provoke, two regiments of soldiers were stationed at Boston; and becoming daily more odious to the inhabitants, were exposed to continual insults from the unguarded and indiscreet among them. On the 5th of March, a small party of the soldiers, under command of Lieut. Preston, were thus assailed and insulted by a crowd of people gathering round them, until they fired upon them, and killed and wounded several persons. The passions of the people were roused to the highest pitch of indignation, but manifested themselves by no violence or excess. Lieutenant Preston and six of the soldiers were arrested by the civil authority, and tried before the Superior Court for murder. They were so well advised as to apply to JOHN ADAMS and Josiah Quincy, known as among the most ardent among the patriots, to defend them; and they hesitated not to undertaker the task. The momentary passions of the people identified the sufferings of the victims of that night with the cause of the country, and JOHN ADAMS and Josiah Quincy were signalized as deserters from the standard of freedom. How great was the load of public obloquy under which they labored, lives yet in the memory of surviving witnesses; and is recorded in the memoir of the life of Josiah Quincy, which the filial veneration of a son, worthy of such a father, has given to the world. Among the most affecting incidents related in that volume, and the most deeply interesting documents appended to it, are the recital of this event, and the correspondence between Josiah Quincy the defender of the soldiers and his father on that occasion. The fortitude of JOHN ADAMS was brought to a test equally severe; as the elder council for the prisoners on trial, it was his duty to close the argument in their defence. The writer of this article has often heard from individuals, who had been present among the crowd of spectators at the trial, the electrical effect produced upon the jury, and upon the immense and excited auditory, by the first sentence with which he opened his defence; which was the following citation from the then recently published work of Beccaria.

“May it please your Honors, and you, Gentlemen of the Jury.

“I am for the prisoners at the bar, and shall apologize for it only in the words of the Marquis Beccaria. ‘If I can but be the instrument of preserving one life, his blessing and tears of transport shall be a sufficient consolation to me for the contempt of all mankind.’”

“Captain Preston and the soldiers were acquitted, excepting two, who were found guilty of manslaughter, an offence which, being at that time entitled to the benefit of clergy, was subject to no sharper penalty than the gentle application of a cold iron to the hand, and, except as a warning for the future, was equivalent to an acquittal.

The town of Boston instituted an annual commemoration of the massacre of the 5th of March, by the delivery of an oration to the inhabitants assembled in town meeting. This anniversary was thus celebrated for a succession of thirteen years, until the close of the Revolutionary War, when that of the 4th of July, the day of national Independence was substituted in its place. The Boston massacre is, however, memorable as the first example of those annual commemorations by public discourses ever since so acceptable to the people.

Within two months after the trial of the soldiers, MR. ADAMS received a new testimonial of the favor and confidence of his townsmen, by their election of him as one of their Representatives in the General Court or Colonial Legislature. In this body the conflict of principles between metropolitan authority and British colonial liberty was pertinaciously maintained. Sir Francis Bernard had just before closed his inglorious career, by seeking refuge in his own country from the indignation of the people over whom he had been sent to rule. He was succeeded by Thomas Hutchinson, a native of the province, a man of considerable talent, great industry, and of grasping ambition; who, in evil hour for himself, preferred the path of royal favor to that of patriotism for the ascent to power and fortune.

In times of civil commotion, the immediate subject of contention between the parties scarcely ever discloses to the superficial observer the great questions at issue between them. The first collision between Hutchinson and the two branches of the General Court was about the place where they were to hold their sessions.

Hutchinson, by instructions, secretly suggested by himself, convened the General Court at Cambridge, instead of Boston. They claimed it as a chartered right to meet at the town-house in Boston; and hence a long controversy between the Governor and the two, houses, which, after three years of obstinate discussion, terminated by the restoration of the Legislature to their accustomed place of meeting.

By the charter of the colony, the members of the House of Representatives were annually elected by the people of the towns, and twenty-eight counsellors by the House of Representatives and council, with the approbation of the Governor. The judges of the Superior Court were appointed by the Governor and Council; and the Governor, Lieutenant-governor, and Judges were paid by annual-grants from the General Court. In ordinary times the Council had always been more friendly to the Executive administration, and less disposed to resist the transatlantic authority than the House; but as the contest with the mother country grew warmer, and the country party in the House stronger, they dropped in their elections to the Council all the partizans of the Court, and elected none but the most determined patriots to the council board. The only resource of the Governor was to disapprove the most obnoxious of the persons elected, and thus to exclude a few of the most prominent leaders; but in their places the House always elected others of the same principles.

Among the devices to which, at the instigation of Hutchinson himself, the British Government resorted to remedy these disorders, was that of vacating the charter of the colony; of reserving to the King in council the appointment of the councillors, and of paying by Parliamentary authority the Governor and Judges, himself. The drift of these changes could not be mistaken. Hutchinson, who affected the character of a profound constitutiona1 lawyer, entered into long and elaborate discussion of the rights and authority of Parliament in messages to the General Court, which were answered separately by reports of committees in both Houses. In the composition of these papers MR. ADAMS was frequently employed, together with his distinguished relative, Samuel Adams. For the discussion of profound constitutional questions, the education of JOHN ADAMS as a lawyer, had pre-eminently qualified him to cope with Hutchinson in his black letter messages; and for the arguments on chartered rights and statutory law, he was relied upon beyond all others.

In 1772, having removed to his primitive residence at Braintree, he ceased to represent the town of Boston in the Legislature; but he was soon after elected to the council, and negatived by the Governor. In 1774 he was elected one of the members from the colony of Massachusetts Bay to the Continental Congress; and on the first meeting of that body, on the 5th of September of that year, took his seat among the founders of the North American Union. His service in Congress continued until November, 1777, when he was chosen by that body, in the place of Silas Deane, a joint commissioner at the Court of France, with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee.

He embarked for France on the 13th of February, 1778, in the Boston frigate, commanded by Samuel Tucker; and, after a most tempestuous passage of forty-five days, landed at Bordeaux in France. The recognition by France of the Independence of the United States, and the conclusion of the treaties of commerce and of alliance between the two nations, had taken place between the appointment of MR. ADAMS and his arrival at Paris.

After the ratification of those treaties, Congress thought proper to substitute a single minister plenipotentiary at the court of France.

Dr. Benjamin Franklin was appointed the minister. Arthur Lee had previously received a separate commission as minister to the Court of Spain. MR. ADAMS, without waiting for a letter of recall, returned in the summer of 1779, in the French frigate La Sensible, to the United States. The French minister to the United States, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, together with his secretary of legation, since highly distinguished through all the scenes of the French Revolution, Barbe de Marbois, were passengers in the same frigate. They arrived at Boston on the 2d of August, 1779. Precisely at that time the convention which formed the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was about to assemble, and MR. ADAMS was returned to it as a member from the town of Braintree.

The convention assembled at Cambridge on the 1st of September, 1779, and, after appointing a committee of thirty-one members to prepare a declaration of rights, and a constitution for the Commonwealth, adjourned over, on the 7th of that month, to the 28th of October ensuing, to receive the report of the committee. MR. ADAMS was a member of this committee, and made the first draught of the declaration of rights and of the constitution reported to the convention.

But, in the interval of the adjournment, MR. ADAMS had received from Congress a new commission for the negotiation of peace with Great Britain; in pursuance of which he embarked on the 14th of November, at Boston, in the same French frigate in which he had returned to the United States. Her destination was Brest; but having sprung a leak on her passage, and being in, danger of foundering, she was obliged to make the first European port, which was that of Ferrol in Spain. There she arrived on the 7th of December, and thence MR. ADAMS travelled, in mid-winter, by land to Paris.

The events of the Revolutionary war were not yet sufficiently matured for the negotiation of peace. Soon after the appointment of MR. ADAMS to this service, Henry-Laurens of South Carolina, then President of Congress, was appointed Minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce with the United Netherlands, with a separate commission to negotiate a loan of money in that country. On his passage to Europe, Mr. Laurens was captured by a British cruizer, and was lodged in the tower of London as a prisoner of state. MR. ADAMS then received a commission for the same service, and a new appointment was made of five commissioners for the negotiation of peace. These were JOHN ADAMS, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Thomas Jefferson; the last of whom was, however, prevented by the circumstances of his family from proceeding to Europe until after the conclusion of the peace. In July, 1780, MR. ADAMS left Paris and went to Holland, where, as a preliminary to the negotiation of a treaty of amity and commerce, it was necessary to procure the recognition of the United States as an Independent power. The negotiation for a loan was a separate power to contract with individuals. In both these negotiations MR. ADAMS was eminently successful. The condition of the United Netherlands at that time require a different mode of negotiation from that which was suitable with the other nations of Continental Europe. They constituted a free, confederated republic; with a prince allied to many of the European sovereigns, and especially to the Kings of Great Britain and of Prussia, at their head. The politics of the country were discussed in the Legislative Assemblies of the several provinces, and the freedom of the press opened avenues to the hearts of the people. In point of form, MR. ADAMS, as the representative of the United States claiming to be a sovereign and independent power, was to address the President of the States General, which he did in a memorial claiming to be received as a public minister; but setting forth all the arguments suited to produce an impression upon the minds of the people favorable to the objects of his mission. The President of the States General received the memorial and laid it before the Assembly, who referred it to the Legislative Assemblies of the several provinces for consideration; MR. ADAMS caused it forthwith to be published in the English, French, and Dutch languages in pamphlets; and it was re-published in many of the newspapers and other periodical journals of the country. No public document of the revolution was ever so widely circulated; for, as an extraordinary state paper, it was re-published in every country and every language of Europe. Its success was not less remarkable than the extent of its circulation. It set in motion the whole population of the Netherlands. Popular petitions, numerously signed, poured in upon the States of the provinces, praying for the recognition of the Independence of the United States, and the reception of MR. ADAMS as their minister. The similarity of the condition of the United States to that of the Netherlands in their struggle for Independence against Spain, strongly urged in the memorial, became a favorite topic for popular feeling in all the provincial Assemblies. The Leyden Gazette, edited by John Luzac, one of the most accomplished scholars of the age, and one of the purest republican spirits of any age or clime, was engaged with deep and fervid interest in the cause of America, stimulated, even to enthusiasm, by the personal friendship formed with the kindred spirit of JOHN ADAMS. Another Frenchman of great ability, and highly distinguished as the author of the best history extant, in the French language, of the United Provinces, A. M. Cerisier, at the instance of MR. ADAMS, commenced a weekly journal under the title, of the Politique Hollandais,” devoted exclusively to the communication of correct intelligence from America, and to set forth the community of principles and of interests between the new and the old republic. Having formed, an intimate acquaintance with an eminent lawyer at Amsterdam, named Calkoen, that gentleman, who was a member of a political and literary society which held private weekly meetings, addressed sundry queries to MR. ADAMS respecting the state of the war, the condition, of the people in the United States, and their dispositions with regard to the cause of Independence; which he answered in twenty-six letters, since frequently published. They were read and discussed at the in meetings of the society, and furnished facts and argument for the friends of America and of freedom to counteract the influence States at the Court of the British king. They still remained jointly charged with the commission for negotiating treaties of commerce, under which was concluded a treaty with the Emperor of Morocco, and a commercial treaty with Portugal; the ratification of which by the Portuguese Government was withheld, under the controling influence of Great Britain at that Court.

In May, 1785, MR. ADAMS proceeded to London, where he was received by George the Third as the minister of the Independent States of North America. He was authorized to form a commercial treaty with Great Britain of the most liberal character; but a proud and mortified spirit had succeeded in the breast of the monarch, and a resentful and jealous rivalry in the temper of the nation, to the cruel and desolating war, which for seven years had been waged to subdue the North American people. In that people, too, an irritated and resentful temper still rankled long after the conflict for independence had closed. Mutual charges of bad faith in failing to execute the articles of the treaty of peace, but two well founded on both sides, continued the alienation of heart between the nations, which the contest and the separation had caused. The British Government had, indeed, more than plausible reasons for declining to conclude a commercial treaty with a Congress, which had not even authority to carry into execution the stipulations of the treaty of peace. After a residence in England of three years, in June, 1778, MR. ADAMS returned to the United States, precisely at the moment when the ratification, by nine States, of the constitution, had established the form of government for the Union, under which we yet live.

During his residence in England he had composed and published, in three volumes, his Defence of the Constitutions of the United States,—a treatise upon Government, afterwards called the History of the principal Republics of the World; a work which has contributed more than any other ever written, to settle the opinions of mankind upon the great question, whether the legislative power of a free state should be vested in a single assembly, or in two separate co-ordinate branches; incidental to which is the question, not less important, of a single or a plural executive. Upon these points there is now scarcely any diversity of opinion among the enlightened theorists of Government.

Just before his return to the United States, MR. ADAMS had been elected, by the Legislature of Massachusetts, a member of Congress, under the articles of Confederation; but that body was in a virtual state of dissolution. The constitution of the United States had received the sanction of the people. The times and places for holding the elections to organize the new government, had been fixed and the semblance of authority, which was all that the Confederation Congress had ever possessed, was vanishing even before the fabric of its more efficient substitute was completed.

In December, 1788, the first elections were held for carrying into execution the Constitution of the United States; at which George Washington was unanimously chosen President, and JOHN ADAMS was elected Vice-President of the Union; and four years afterwards they were both, in like manner, re-elected to the same offices. At the close of the second term, Washington declined a second re-election, and MR. ADAMS was chosen President of the United States.

During the eight years of Washington’s administration, MR. ADAMS presided in the Senate. Throughout the whole of both those terms he gave to the administration a firm and efficient support.

Wherever there is Government there must be councils of administration and collisions of opinion, concerning its mode and its measures. In all governments, therefore, there are parties which necessarily become braided, and, too often, entangled with the personal characters, principles, passions, and fortunes of individual men. No sooner had the founder of the Christian faith laid the corner-stone, for the establishment of the purest and most self-sacrificing of all religions, by the selection of the twelve apostles, than ambition and avarice, the thirst of place and treachery, were disclosed among them.

The Constitution of the United States was the result of a compromise between parties, which had existed from the first formation of the American Union. It drew together, by closer ties, the inhabitants of an extensive country, chiefly descended from one common stock, but greatly diversified by the varieties of climates, and of soils on which they had settled, and the oppositions of religious and political opinions in which they had originated. It made them permanently, and by political organization, what the enthusiasm of a common struggle for freedom, common sufferings and common dangers had made them for a time, in the war of Independence, but which the imbecility of the Articles of Confederation had failed to sustain, it made them One People. This stupendous monument of wisdom and virtue was accomplished by a party—then known by the denomination of Federalists; a name which, from various causes, has since become a term of reproach, but which, at that time, Washington and Madison were alike proud of bearing. In the disjointed condition of the confederacy, there was but one man whose talents and services had rivetted him in the gratitude and affections of all his countrymen, and that was, the leader of the armies of the Revolution. He presided in the convention which formed the Constitution; and no one can analyse that instrument without perceiving that much of its character, and expecially the construction of its executive power, was adapted to him, and fashioned upon the preconception that the office would be occupied by him.

Nor was this anticipation disappointed. He was twice elected by the unanimous suffrages of the electoral colleges President of the United States. But he was scarcely installed in office, and the wheels of the new machine of government had scarcely began to move, when the spirit of party, transferred from the confederacy to the constitution, sought, in the principal subordinate officers of the government, leaders for the succession, to be thereafter seated in the chair of Washington. These leaders immediately presented themselves in the persons of Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, and Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. In the diversity of the principles of these two men, conflict immediately sprung up, as to those which should govern the administration. Those of Hamilton were more congenial to the mind of Washington, and became the ruling principles of the administration; upon which Jefferson retired from public office, and was thenceforward looked up to as the head of the opposition to Washington’s administration. Before the close of Washington’s second term, Hamilton had also retired, but continued to support his administration.

At the time when MR. ADAMS was chosen President of the United States, he was supported by the party which had sustained the administration. Jefferson was his competitor, as the leader of the opposition. The contest was close. MR. ADAMS was elected by a bare majority of the electoral votes; and by the provision of the constitution then existing, that both candidates should be voted for as President, and that the person having the highest number of votes short of a majority should be Vice-President, Mr. Jefferson was elected to that office; and thus the head of the opposition became the presiding officer in the Senate of the United States, and at the next election, in December, 1800, was chosen President of the United States.

On the 3d of March, 1801, the official term of MR. ADAMS expired, and he retired to his residence at Quincy, where he passed the remainder of his days.

The administration of MR. ADAMS was but a continuation of that of his predecessor. It was the practical execution of the constitution, by the party which had formed and fashioned it, and had succeeded against a determined and persevering opposition in procuring its acceptance by the people. Mr. Jefferson had availed himself of the passions and prejudices of the people to obtain the possession of power, constantly modifying his opposition according to the fluctuations of public opinion, and taking advantage of every error, in the policy of the federal party, to which an odious imputation could be applied. In the course of their common service in Congress during the War of Independence, and in that of the joint commission in Europe after the peace, the most cordial harmony had subsisted between him and MR. ADAMS. Their views of the French Revolution first divided them; and upon a re-publication in this country of one of Thomas Paine’s revolutionary pamphlets, Mr. Jefferson, in a note to the printer, recommended it as a corrective to the political heresies then in circulation. The allusion was universally understood as intended to apply to the publication of certain essays, under the title of Discourses on Davila, and known to be written by MR. ADAMS. Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to MR. ADAMS, disclaimed all such intention; but his subsequent deportment, and the essential diversity of their opinions, gradually alienated them from each other, and dissolved the personal friendship which had subsisted between them. During the administration of Mr. Jefferson there was no personal intercourse between them; but when the great questions of the rights of neutral commerce, and the outrageous impressment of American seamen by the naval officers of Great Britain, brought the Government of the United States into imminent danger, MR. ADAMS, though remaining in private life, sacrificed all his resentments and by numerous writings in the public journals, gave the most efficient support to the administration of his successor.

In 1809 Mr. Jefferson himself was succeeded by his friend and most faithful counsellor, James Madison. During his administration, the controversies with Great Britain, in the midst of which Mr. Jefferson had retired, rankled into a war, precisely at the time when the tide of victory and of triumph was turning in favor of Britain against Napoleon, at the closing stage of that revolution by which France had passed from an absolute monarchy, through a brutal and sanguinary mock-democracy, to a military despotism, and thence to the transient resurrection of the dry bones of the Bourbons.

In the contests with Great Britain concerning neutral rights and impressment, which had preceded and led to the war, the interests of the commercial portion of the community were most immediately and deeply involved. But Mr. Jefferson’s system of defence consisted in commercial restrictions, non-intercourse and embargoes, destructive to the very interest which it was the duty of the Government to maintain. The Cæsarian ambition of Napoleon, and his unparalleled succession of military triumphs, had alarmed the American politicians of the federal school, till they had frightened themselves into the belief that Napoleon Bonaparte was affecting universal empire, and about to become master of the world. They believed also, that Great Britain presented the only obstacle to the accomplishment of this design; and in this panic-terror, they lost all sense of the injustice and insolence of Great Britain exercised upon themselves. The restrictive system bore most impressively upon New England, to whose people, commerce, navigation, and the fisheries, were necessaries of life; and they felt the restrictive system as aggravation rather than relief. When the war came, it was a total annihilation of all their modes of industry, and of their principal resources of subsistence. They transferred their resentments from the foreign aggressor to their own Government, and became disaffected to the Union itself. The party in opposition to Mr. Madison’s Administration prevailed throughout all the New England States; and had the war continued one year longer, there is little doubt that the floating projects of a separation, and of a northern confederacy, would have ripened into decisive action. Throughout the whole of this ordeal, MR. ADAMS constantly supported the Administration of Mr. Madison, till the conclusion of the peace at Ghent, in December, 1814, scattered the projects of the northern confederacy to the winds, and restored, for a short and happy interval, the era of good feelings.

In December, 1820, MR. ADAMS was chosen one of the electors of President and Vice-President of the United States; and, together with all his colleagues of the electoral College of Massachusetts, voted for the re-election of James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins to those offices.

The last public service in which MR. ADAMS was engaged, was as a member of the convention to revise the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, of which body he was unanimously chosen President. Then in the 86th year of his age, he declined to assume the arduous duties of that station, but gave his attendance as a member throughout the sessions of the convention, and occasionally took part in their debates.

This election was communicated to MR. ADAMS by a Committee of the Convention, with the following resolutions;—

 “In Convention, November 15, 1820.

 “Whereas, the Honorable JOHN ADAMS, a member of this Convention, and elected the President thereof, has, for more than half a century, devoted the great powers of his mind, and his profound wisdom and learning, to the service of his country and mankind:

In fearlessly vindicating the rights of the North American provinces against the usurpations and encroachments of the superintendant government:

In diffusing a knowledge of the principles of civil liberty among his fellow subjects, and exciting them to a firm and resolute defence of the privileges of freemen:

In early conceiving, asserting, and maintaining the justice and practicability of establishing the independence of the United States of America:

In giving the powerful aid of his political knowledge in the formation of the Constitution of his native State, which constitution became in a great measure the model of those which were subsequently formed:

In conciliating the favor of foreign powers, and obtaining their countenance and support in the arduous struggle for independence:

In negotiating the treaty of peace, which secured forever the sovereignty of the United States, and in defeating all attempts to prevent it; and especially in preserving in that treaty the vital interest of the New England States:

In demonstrating to the world, in his defence of the Constitutions of the several united States, the contested principle, since admitted as an axiom, that checks and balances in legislative power, are essential to true liberty: 

In devoting his time and talents to the service of the nation, in the high and important trusts of Vice-President and President of the United States:

And lastly, in passing an honorable old age in dignified retirement, in the practice of all the domestic virtues, thus exhibiting to his countrymen and to posterity, an example of true greatness of mind and of genuine patriotism:—

Therefore, Resolved, That the members of this convention, representing the people of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, do joyfully avail themselves of this opportunity to testify their respect and gratitude to this eminent patriot and statesman, for the great services rendered by him to his country, and their high gratification that, at this late period of life, he is permitted by Divine Providence to assist them with his counsel in revising the constitution which, forty years ago, his wisdom and prudence assisted to form.

Resolved, That a committee of twelve be appointed by the chair, to communicate this proceeding to the honorable JOHN ADAMS, to inform him of his election to preside in this body, and to introduce him to the chair of this convention.

In this resolution, honorable alike to the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to their representatives by whom it was adopted, and to him whom it intended to honor, is contained a concentrated summary of the life, character, and services of JOHN ADAMS. It closes with appropriate dignity his career as a public man.

Nor was he less exemplary in all the relations of private and domestic life. As a son, a husband, a brother, a father, and a friend, his affections were ardent, disinterested and faithful. His filial piety not exclusively confined to his immediate parents, carefully preserved the memorials of their ancestors, for three preceding generations, to the patriarch, first settler of Braintree, Henry Adams, and he caused to be erected in the cemetery, where

 “Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

  The rude fore-fathers of the hamlet sleep,”

monuments of the solid and simple granite from the soil on which they had settled, recording their names and years, spelt by no unlettered muse, but embracing in the inscription of little more than those dates, all that remains of their short and simple annals.

In the common experience of mankind, friendship, the pleasures of which are among the choicest enjoyments of life, is yet a sentiment of so delicate a texture, that it almost invariably sinks under the collision of adverse interests and conflicting opinions. With contests of opinion untainted with opposing interests, friendship may indeed subsist unimpaired; but in the discussion of religious or political opinions, which divide the minds of men, interest and opinion act and re-act upon each other, till the tender bloom of friendship withers and dies under their chilling frost. So fared it with the friendship formed by MR. ADAMS in early life with Jonathan Sewall. So fared it with the friendship formed in a common service, in the trying scenes of the war of Independence, with Thomas Jefferson. An affecting passage in his diary in 1774, records the pang with which he had parted from the friend of his youth, and an intercourse of mutual respect, and good-will was restored between them after the close of the revolutionary war. A reconciliation with Mr. Jefferson was, by the interposition of a common friend, effected, after all collisions of interests had subsided; and for the last ten years of their lives a friendly and frequent correspondence was maintained, with mutual satisfaction, between them. Many of those letters have been published, equally creditable to both; and that of Mr. Jefferson upon the decease of Mrs. Adams, in October, 1818, as an effusion of sympathy with the severest of earthly afflictions, in the administration of tender and delicate condolence, has never been surpassed.

They died on one and the same day, the jubilee of the day of Independence—a coincidence so remarkable, that men of a religious turn of mind, in days of more devoted faith, would have regarded it as a special interposition of Providence, to stamp on the hearts of their country, and of unnumbered future ages, a more indelible remembrance of that memorable event, and of the share which they had jointly taken in its imperishable deed.

The death of JOHN ADAMS occurred on the 4th of July, 1826, at the moment when his fellow-citizens, of his native town of Quincy, were celebrating in a social banquet, to which he had been invited, the anniversary of the Nation’s Independence. His physical faculties had gradually declined in the lapse of years, leaving his intellect clear and bright to the last hour of his life.

Some years before his decease he had, by two several deeds of gift, conveyed to the inhabitants of the town of Quincy, his library and several valuable lots of land, the proceeds of the income of which were to be devoted to the erection of a stone temple for the worship of God, and of a school-house for a classical school.

Shortly after his death, the worshippers at the first Congregational church in Quincy, of which he had been a member, determined, with the aid of his donation to erect the temple, which was done in the year 1828; and after it was completed, his mortal remains with those of the partner of his life, were deposited side by side in a vault beneath its walls.

Within the same house, a plain, white marble slab, on the right hand of the pulpit, surmounted by his bust, (the work of Horatio Greenough,) bears the following inscription, written by his eldest son.

 

Libertatem, Amicitiam, Fidem, Retinebis.

 D. O. M.

 

Beneath these walls

Are deposited the mortal remains of

JOHN ADAMS,

Son of John and Susanna (Boylston) Adams,

Second President of the United States.

Born October, 1735. 

On the fourth of July, 1776,

He pledged his Life, Fortune, and sacred Honour

To the INDEPENDENCE OF HIS COUNTRY.

On the third of September, 1783,

He affixed his seal to the definitive treaty with Great Britain,

Which acknowledged that independence,

And consummated the redemption of his pledge.

On the fourth of July, 1826,

He was summoned

To the Independence of Immortality

And to the JUDGMENT OF HIS GOD.

This House will bear witness to his piety;

This Town, his birth-place, to his munificence;

History to his patriotism;

Posterity to the depth and compass of his mind.

At his side

Sleeps, till the trump shall sound,

ABIGAIL,

His beloved and only wife,

Daughter of William and Elizabeth (Quincy) Smith.

In every relation of life a pattern

Of filial, conjugal, maternal, and social virtue.

Born November, 1744,

Deceased 28 October, 1818,

Aged 74.

———

Married 25 October, 1764.

During an union of more than half a century

They survived, in harmony of sentiment, principle and affection,

The tempests of civil commotion:

Meeting undaunted and surmounting

The terrors and trials of that revolution,

Which secured the freedom of their country;

Improved the condition of their times;

And brightened the prospects of futurity

To the race of man upon earth.

 

PILGRIM,

 

From lives thus spent thy earthly duties learn;

From fancy’s dreams to active virtue turn:

Let freedom, friendship, faith, thy soul engage,

And serve, like them, thy country and thy age.

J. Q. A.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 4.

 

 

ADAMS, John Huy, 1822-1881, politician, businessman, abolitionist, Illinois State Senator, 1854-1870.  Helped in founding of the Republican party.  Friend of Abraham Lincoln.  Father of famous social reformer and activist, Jane Adams.  (Adams, 1910; Berson, 2004; Elshtain, 2002; Knight, 2005; Linn, 2000)

 

 

ADAMS, John Quincy, 1767-1848, Massachusetts, sixth U.S. President (1825-1829), U.S. Congressman (1831-1848), U.S. Secretary of State, lawyer, anti-slavery leader, activist, abolitionist, son of second U.S. President John Adams.  Opposed the Missouri Compromise of 1819, which allowed the expansion of slavery in southern states.  Fought against the “Gag Rule” in Congress, which prevented discussion of the issue of slavery in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The Gag Rule was revoked in 1844.  (Adams, 1874; Bemis, 1956; Cable, 1971; Dumond, 1961, pp. 238, 243-244, 367-370; Filler, 1960, p. 57, 80, 82, 96, 98, 102, 104, 105, 107, 108, 164, 168, 208; Goodell, 1852; Hammond, 2011, pp. 25, 175, 176, 240, 248, 272, 273, 276, 380; Mason, 2006, pp. 3., 90, 93, 98, 165, 185, 187, 190, 200, 205, 214-222, 263n31, 383n32, 289n47; Miller, 1996; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 3, 6, 8, 10, 18-19, 24, 33, 39, 45, 137, 197, 248; Pease, 1965, pp. 260-267; Remini, 2002; Richards, 1986; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 40-41, 49, 45, 132, 153-154, 305; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 24-28. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 84-92.)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ADAMS, John Quincy, sixth president of the United States, b. in Braintree, Mass., 11 July, 1767; d. in Washington, D. C., 23 Feb., 1848. He was named for his mother's grandfather, John Quincy. In his eleventh year he accompanied his father to France, and was sent to school near Paris, where his proficiency in the French language and other studies soon became conspicuous. In the following year he returned to America, and back again to France with his father, whom, in August, 1780, he accompanied to Holland. After a few months at school in Amsterdam, he entered the university of Leyden. Two years afterward John Adams's secretary of legation, Francis Dana, was appointed minister to Russia, and the boy accompanied him as private secretary. After a stay of fourteen months, as Catharine's government refused to recognize Mr. Dana as minister, young Adams left St. Petersburg and travelled alone through Sweden, Denmark, and northern Germany to France, spending six months in the journey. Arriving in Paris, he found his father busy with the negotiation of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, and was immediately set to work as secretary, and aided in drafting the papers that “dispersed all possible doubt of the independence of his country.” In 1785, when his father was appointed minister to England, he decided not to stay with him in London, but to return at once to Massachusetts in order to complete his education at Harvard college. For an American career he believed an American education to be best fitted. Considering the immediate sacrifice of pleasure involved, it was a remarkably wise decision in a lad of eighteen. But Adams's character was already fully formed; he was what he remained throughout his life, a Puritan of the sternest and most uncompromising sort, who seemed to take a grim enjoyment in the performance of duty, especially when disagreeable. Returning home, he was graduated at Harvard college in 1788, and then studied law in the office of Theophilus Parsons, afterward chief justice of Massachusetts. In 1791 he was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and began the practice of law, the tedium of which he relieved by writing occasional articles for the papers. Under the signature of “Publicola” he criticised some positions taken by Thomas Paine in his “Rights of Man”; and these articles, when republished in England, were generally attributed to his father. In a further series of papers, signed “Marcellus,” he defended Washington's policy of neutrality; and in a third series, signed “Columbus,” he discussed the extraordinary behavior of Citizen Genet, whom the Jacobins had sent over to browbeat the Americans into joining France in hurling defiance at the world. These writings made him so conspicuous that in 1794 Washington appointed him minister to Holland, and two years later made an appointment transferring him to Portugal. Before he had started for the latter country his father became president of the United States and asked Washington's advice as to the propriety of promoting his own son by sending him to Berlin. Washington in strong terms recommended the promotion, declaring that in his opinion the young man would prove to be the ablest diplomat in the American service. In the fall of 1797 Mr. Adams accordingly took up his residence at the capital of Prussia. Shortly before this he had married Miss Louisa Johnson, a niece of Thomas Johnson, of Maryland. During his residence at Berlin Mr. Adams translated Wieland's “Oberon” into English. In 1798 he was commissioned to make a commercial treaty with Sweden. In 1800 he made a journey through Silesia, and wrote an account of it, which was published in London and afterward translated into German and French. When Jefferson became president, Mr. Adams's mission terminated. He resumed the practice of law in Boston, but in 1802 was elected to the Massachusetts senate, and next year was chosen to the senate of the United States instead of Timothy Pickering. The federalist party was then rent in twain by the feud between the partisans of John Adams and those of Hamilton, and the reception of the younger Adams in the senate was far from flattering. Affairs grew worse when, at the next vacancy, Pickering was chosen to be his uncongenial colleague. Mr. Adams was grossly and repeatedly insulted. Any motion he might make was sure to be rejected by the combined votes of republicans and Hamiltonians, though frequently the same motion, made soon afterward by somebody else, would be carried by a large majority. A committee of which he was a member would make and send in its report without even notifying him of its time and place of meeting. At first Mr. Adams was subjected to such treatment merely because he was the son of his father; but presently he rendered himself more and more amenable to it by manifesting the same independence of party ties that had made his father so unpopular. Independence in politics has always been characteristic of the Adams family, and in none has this been more strongly marked than in John Quincy Adams. His first serious difference with the federalist party was occasioned by his qualified approval of Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana, a measure that was bitterly opposed and fiercely censured by nearly all the federalists, because it was feared it would add too much strength to the south. A much more serious difference arose somewhat later, on the question of the embargo. Questions of foreign rather than of domestic policy then furnished the burning subjects of contention in the United States. Our neutral commerce on the high seas, which had risen to very considerable proportions, was plundered in turn by England and by France, until its very existence was threatened. In May, 1806, the British government declared the northern coast of Europe, from Brest to the mouth of the Elbe, to be blockaded. By the Russian proclamation of 1780, which was then accepted by all civilized nations except Great Britain, such paper blockades were illegal; but British ships none the less seized and confiscated American vessels bound to any port on that coast. In November Napoleon issued his Berlin decree making a paper blockade of the whole British coast, whereupon French cruisers began seizing and confiscating American vessels on their way from British to French ports. Two months later England issued an order in council, forbidding neutrals to trade between any of her enemy's ports; and this was followed by orders decreeing fines or confiscation to all neutral ships daring to violate the edict. In December, 1807, Napoleon replied with the Milan decree, threatening to confiscate all ships bound to England, or which should have paid a fine to the British government or submitted to search at the hands of a British commander. All these decrees and orders were in flagrant violation of international law, and for a time they made the ocean a pandemonium of robbery and murder. Their effect upon American commerce was about the same as if both England and France had declared war against the United States. Their natural and proper effect upon the American people would have been seen in an immediate declaration of war against both England and France, save that our military weakness was then too manifest to make such a course anything but ridiculous. Between the animus of the two bullies by whom we were thus tormented there was little to choose; but in two respects England's capacity for injuring us was the greater. In the first place, she had more ships engaged in this highway robbery than France, and stronger ones; in the second place, owing to the difficulty of distinguishing between Americans and Englishmen, she was able to add the crowning wickedness of kidnapping American seamen. The wrath of the Americans was thus turned more against England than against France; and never perhaps in the revolutionary war had it waxed stronger than in the summer of 1807, when, in full sight of the American coast, the “Leopard” fired upon the “Chesapeake,” killed and wounded several of her crew, and violently carried away four of them. For this outrage the commander of the “Leopard” was promoted in the British service. In spite of all these things, the hatred of the federalists for France was so great that they were ready to put up with insult added to injury rather than attack the power that was warring against Napoleon. So far did these feelings carry them that Mr. John Lowell, a prominent federalist of Boston, was actually heard to defend the action of the “Leopard.” Such pusillanimity incensed Mr. Adams. “This was the cause,” he afterward said, “which alienated me from that day and forever from the councils of the federal party.” He tried to persuade the federalists of Boston to hold a meeting and pledge their support to the government in any measures, however serious, that it might see fit to adopt in order to curb the insolence of Great Britain. But these gentlemen were too far blinded by party feeling to respond to the call; whereupon Mr. Adams attended a republican meeting, at which he was put upon a committee to draft and report such resolutions. Presently the federalists bowed to the storm of popular feeling and held their meeting, at which Mr. Adams was also present and drafted resolutions. For his share in the proceedings of the republicans it was threatened that he should “have his head taken off for apostasy.” It was never of much use to threaten Mr. Adams. An extra session of congress was called in October to consider what was to be done. Mr. Jefferson's government was averse to war, for which the country was ill prepared, and it was thought that somewhat milder measures might harass England until she would submit to reason. For a year and a half a non-importation act had been in force; but it had proved no more effective than the non-importation agreements of 1768 and 1774. Now an embargo was laid upon all the shipping in American ports. The advantage of such a measure was very doubtful; it was damaging ourselves in the hope of damaging the enemy. The greatest damage fell upon the maritime states of New England, and there the vials of federalist wrath were poured forth with terrible fury upon Mr. Jefferson and the embargo. But the full measure of their ferocity was reserved for Mr. Adams, who had actually been a member of the committee that reported the bill, and had given it his most earnest support. All the choicest epithets of abuse were showered upon him; few men in our history have been more fiercely berated and reviled. His term of service in the senate was to expire on 3 March, 1809. In the preceding June the Massachusetts legislature chose Mr. Lloyd to succeed him, a proceeding that was intended and accepted as an insult. Mr. Adams instantly resigned, and Mr. Lloyd was chosen to fill the remainder of his term. In the course of the next month the republicans of his congressional district wished to elect him to the house of representatives, but he refused. In 1806 Mr. Adams had been appointed professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres at Harvard college, and in the intervals of his public duties had delivered lectures there, which were published in 1810, and for a time were held in esteem. 

One of Mr. Madison's first acts on succeeding to the presidency in 1809 was to nominate Mr. Adams minister to Russia. Since Mr. Dana's failure to secure recognition in 1782, the United States had had no minister in that country, and the new mission was now to be created. The senate at first declined to concur in creating the mission, but a few months later the objectors yielded, and Mr. Adams's nomination was confirmed. He was very courteously received by Alexander I., and his four years and a half in Russia passed very pleasantly. His diary gives us a vivid account of the Napoleonic invasion and its disastrous ending. In the autumn of 1812 the czar offered his services as mediator between the United States and Great Britain. War had only been declared between these powers three months before, but the American government promptly accepted the proposal, and, in the height of the popular enthusiasm over the naval victories of Hull and Decatur, sent Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard to St. Petersburg to act as commissioners with Mr. Adams. The British government refused to accept the mediation of Russia, but proposed instead an independent negotiation, to which the United States agreed, and the commissioners were directed to meet at Ghent. Much time was consumed in these arrangements, while we were defeating England again and again on the sea, and suffering in return some humiliating reverses on land, until at last the commissioners met at Ghent, in August, 1814. Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell were added to the American commission, while England was represented by Lord Gambier, Dr. Adams, and Mr. Goulburn. After four months of bitter wrangling, from which no good result could have been expected, terms of peace were suddenly agreed upon in December. In warding off the British attempts to limit our rights in the fisheries Mr. Adams played an important part, as his father had done in 1782. The war had been a drawn game, neither side was decisively victorious, and the treaty apparently left things much as before. Nothing was explicitly done to end the pretensions of England to the right of search and the impressment of seamen, yet the naval victories of the United States had taught the British a lesson, and these pretensions were never renewed. The treaty was a great disappointment to the British people, who had hoped to obtain some advantages, and Mr. Adams, for his share in it, was reviled by the London press in a tone which could not but be regarded as a compliment to his powers. After the conclusion of the treaty he visited Paris and witnessed the return of Napoleon from Elba and the exciting events that followed up to the eve of Waterloo. Here his wife and children joined him, after a tedious journey from St. Petersburg, not without distress and peril by the way. By this time Mr. Adams had been appointed commissioner, with Clay and Gallatin, to negotiate a new commercial treaty with England. This treaty was completed on 13 July, 1815; but already, on 26 May, when Mr. Adams arrived in London, he had received the news of his appointment as minister to England. The series of double coincidences in the Adams family between missions to England and treaties with that power is curious. First John Adams is minister, just after his share in the treaty that concluded the revolutionary war, then his son, just after the treaty that concluded the war of 1812-'15, and then the grandson is minister during the civil war and afterward takes part in the treaty that disposed of the Alabama question. 

After an absence of eight years, John Quincy Adams was called back to his native land to serve as secretary of state under President Monroe. A new era in American politics was dawning. The war which had just been concluded has sometimes been called our second war of independence; certainly the year 1815, which saw the end of the long strife between France and England, marks an important era in American history. Our politics ceased to be concerned mainly with foreign affairs. So suddenly were men's bones of political contention taken away from them that Monroe's presidency is traditionally remembered as the “era of good feeling.” So far as political parties were concerned, such an epithet is well applied; but as between prominent individuals struggling covertly to supplant one another, it was anything rather than an era of good feeling. Mr. Adams's principal achievement as secretary of state was the treaty with Spain, whereby Florida was ceded to the United States in consideration of $5,000,000, to be applied to the liquidation of outstanding claims of American merchants against Spain. By the same treaty the boundary between Louisiana and Mexico was established as running along the Sabine and Red rivers, the upper Arkansas, the crest of the Rocky mountains, and the 42d parallel. Mr. Adams defended the conduct of Gen. Jackson in invading Spanish Florida and hanging Arbuthnot and Ambrister. He supported the policy of recognizing the independence of the revolted colonies of Spanish America, and he was the principal author of what is known as the “Monroe Doctrine,” that the American continent is no longer open to colonization by European powers. His official report on weights and measures showed remarkable scientific knowledge. Toward the close of Monroe's first term came up the first great political question growing out of the purchase of Louisiana: Should Missouri be admitted to the union as a slave-state, and should slavery be allowed or prohibited in the vast territory beyond? After the Missouri compromise had passed through congress, and been submitted to President Monroe for his signature, two questions were laid before the cabinet. First, had congress the constitutional right to prohibit slavery in a territory? and, secondly, in prohibiting slavery “forever” in the territory north of Mason and Dixon's line, as prolonged beyond the Mississippi river, did the Missouri bill refer to this district only so long as it should remain under territorial government, or did it apply to such states as might in future be formed from it? To the first question the cabinet replied unanimously in the affirmative. To the second question Mr. Adams replied that the term “forever” really meant forever; but all his colleagues replied that it only meant so long as the district in question should remain under territorial government. Here for the first time we see Mr. Adams taking that firm stand in opposition to slavery which hereafter was to make him so famous. 

Mr. Monroe's second term of office had scarcely begun when the question of the succession came into the foreground. The candidates were John Quincy Adams, secretary of state; William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury; John C. Calhoun, secretary of war; and Henry Clay, speaker of the house of representatives. Shortly before the election Gen. Jackson's strength began to loom up as more formidable than the other competitors had supposed. Jackson was then at the height of his popularity as a military hero, Crawford was the most dexterous political manager in the country. Clay was perhaps the most persuasive orator. Far superior to these three in intelligence and character, Mr. Adams was in no sense a popular favorite. His manners were stiff and disagreeable; he told the truth bluntly, whether it hurt or not; and he never took pains to conciliate any one. The best of men in his domestic circle, outside of it he had few warm friends, but he seemed to have a talent for making enemies. When Edward Everett asked him if he was “determined to do nothing with a view to promote his future election to the presidency as the successor of Mr. Monroe,” he replied that he “should do absolutely nothing,” and from this resolution he never swerved. He desired the presidency as much as any one who was ever chosen to that high office; but his nature was such that unless it should come to him without scheming of his own, and as the unsolicited expression of popular trust in him, all its value would be lost. Under the Circumstances, it was a remarkable evidence of the respect felt for his lofty character and distinguished services that he should have obtained the presidency at all. The result of the election showed 99 votes for Jackson. 84 for Adams, 41 for Crawford, 37 for Clay. Mr. Calhoun, who had withdrawn from the contest for the presidency, received 182 votes for the vice-presidency, and was elected. The choice of the president was thrown into the house of representatives, and Mr. Clay now used his great influence in favor of Mr. Adams, who was forthwith elected. When Adams afterward made Clay his secretary of state, the disappointed partisans of Jackson pretended that there had been a bargain between the two, that Adams had secured Clay's assistance by promising him the first place in the cabinet, and thus, according to a usage that seemed to be establishing itself, placing him in the line of succession for the next presidency. The peppery John Randolph characterized this supposed bargain as “a coalition between Blifil and Black George, the Furitan and the blackleg.” There never was a particle of foundation for this reckless charge, and it has long since been disproved. 

During Monroe's administration the Federalist party had become extinct. In the course of John Quincy Adams's administration the new division of parties into Whigs and Democrats began to grow up, the Whigs favoring internal improvements, the national bank, and a high tariff on importations, while the Democrats opposed all such measures on the ground that they were incompatible with a strict construction of the constitution. In its relation to such questions Mr. Adams's administration was Whig, and thus arrayed against itself not only all the southern planters, but also the ship-owners of New England and the importers of New York. But a new and powerful tendency now came in to overwhelm such an administration as that of Adams. The so-called “spoils system” was already germinating, and the time had come when it could be put into operation. Mr. Adams would have nothing to say to such a system. He would not reward the men who worked for him, and he would not remove from office the men who most vigorously opposed him. He stood on his merits, asked no favors and granted none; and was, on the whole, the most independent president we have had since Washington. Jackson and his friends promised their supporters a share in the government offices, in which a “clean sweep” was to be made by turning out the present incumbents. The result of the election of 1828 showed that for the time Jackson's method was altogether the more potent; since he obtained 178 electoral votes, against 83 for Adams. 

The close of his career as president was marked by an incident that increased the odium in which Mr. Adams was held by so many of the old federalist families of Boston. In the excitement of the election the newspapers devoted to Jackson swarmed with mischievous paragraphs designed to injure Adams's reputation. Among other things it was said that, in 1808, he had suspected some of the federalist leaders of entertaining a scheme for carrying New England out of the union, and, fearing that such a scheme would be promoted by hatred of the embargo, and that in case of its success the seceded states would almost inevitably be driven into alliance with Great Britain, he communicated his suspicions to President Jefferson and other leading republicans. These tales, published by unscrupulous newspapers twenty years after the event, grossly distorted what Mr. Adams had actually said and done; and thirteen eminent Massachusetts federalists addressed to him an open letter, demanding that he should bring in a bill of particulars supported by evidence. Adams replied by stating the substance of what he had really said, but declining to mention names or to point out the circumstances upon which his suspicion had been based. In preserving this reticence he was actuated mainly by unwillingness to stir up a furious controversy under circumstances in which it could do no good. But his adversaries made the mistake of attributing his forbearance to dread of ill consequences to himself, a motive by which, it is safe to say, Mr. Adams was never influenced on any occasion whatever. So the thirteen gentlemen returned to the attack. Mr. Adams then wrote out a full statement of the case, completely vindicating himself, and bringing forward more than enough evidence to justify any such suspicions as he had entertained and guardedly stated. After finishing this pamphlet he concluded not to publish it, but left it among his papers. It has lately been published by Prof. Henry Adams, in his “Documents relating to New England Federalism,” and is not only of great historical importance, but is one of the finest specimens of political writing to be found in the English language. 

Although now an ex-president, Mr. Adams did not long remain in private life. The greatest part of his career still lay before him. Owing to the mysterious disappearance of William Morgan, who had betrayed some of the secrets of the Masonic order, there was in some of the northern states a sudden and violent prejudice against the Freemasons and secret societies in general. An “anti-mason party” was formed, and by its votes Mr. Adams was, in 1831, elected to congress, where he remained, representing the same district of Massachusetts, until his death in 1848. He was shortly afterward nominated by the anti-masons for the governorship of Massachusetts, but was defeated in the legislature, there being no choice by the people. In congress he occupied a perfectly independent attitude. He was one of those who opposed President Jackson's high-handed treatment of the bank, but he supported the president in his firm attitude toward the South Carolina nullifiers and toward France. In 1835, as the French government delayed in paying over the indemnity of $5,000,000 which had been agreed upon by the treaty of 1831 for plunder of American shipping in the Napoleonic wars, Jackson threatened, in case payment should be any longer deferred, to issue letters of marque and reprisal against French commerce. This bold policy, which was successful in obtaining the money, enlisted Mr. Adams's hearty support. He defended Jackson as he had defended Jefferson on the occasion of the embargo; and this time, as before, his course was disapproved in Massachusetts, and he lost a seat in the U. S. senate. He had been chosen to that office by the state senate, but the lower house did not concur, and before the question was decided the news of his speech in favor of reprisals turned his supporters against him. He was thus left in the house of representatives more independent of party ties than ever, and was accordingly enabled to devote his energies to the aid of the abolitionists, who were now beginning to appear conspicuously upon the scene. At that time it was impossible for the opponents of slavery to effect much. The only way in which they could get their case before congress was by presenting petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. Unwilling to receive such petitions, or to allow any discussion on the dreaded question, congress in 1836 enacted the cowardly “gag-rule,” that “all petitions, memorials, resolutions, or papers relating in any way or to any extent whatsoever to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table; and that no further, action whatever shall be had thereon.” After the yeas and nays had been ordered on this, when Mr. Adams's name was called he rose and said: “I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the constitution of the United States, the rules of this house, and the rights of my constituents.” The house sought to drown his words with loud shrieks and yells of “Order!” “Order!” but he raised his voice to a shout and defiantly finished his sentence. The rule was adopted by a vote of 117 to 68, but it did more harm than good to the pro-slavery party. They had put themselves in an untenable position, and furnished Mr. Adams with a powerful weapon which he used against them without mercy. As a parliamentary debater he has had few if any superiors; in knowledge and dexterity there was no one in the house who could be compared with him; he was always master of himself, even at the white heat of anger to which he often rose; he was terrible in invective, matchless at repartee, and insensible to fear. A single-handed fight against all the slave-holders in the house was something upon which he was always ready to enter, and he usually came off with the last word. Though the vituperative vocabulary of the English language seemed inadequate to express the hatred and loathing with which the pro-slavery party regarded him, though he was more than once threatened with assassination, nevertheless his dauntless bearing and boundless resources compelled the respect of his bitterest opponents, and members from the south, with true chivalry, sometimes confessed it. Every session he returned to the assault upon the gag-rule, until the disgraceful measure was rescinded in 1845. This part of Mr. Adams's career consisted of a vast number of small incidents, which make a very interesting and instructive chapter in American history, but can not well be epitomized. He came to serve as the rallying-point in congress for the ever-growing anti-slavery sentiment, and may be regarded, in a certain sense, as the first founder of the new republican party. He seems to have been the first to enunciate the doctrine upon which Mr. Lincoln afterward rested his great proclamation of emancipation. In a speech in congress in 1836 he said: “From the instant that your slave-holding states become the theatre of war—civil, servile, or foreign—from that instant the war powers of the constitution extend to interference with the institution of slavery in every way in which it can be interfered with.” As this principle was attacked by the southern members, Mr. Adams from time to time reiterated it, especially in his speech of 14 April, 1842, on the question of war with England and Mexico, when he said: " Whether the war be civil, servile, or foreign, I lay this down as the law of nations: I say that the military authority takes for the time the place of all municipal institutions, slavery among the rest. Under that state of things, so far from its being true that the states where slavery exists have the exclusive management of the subject, not only the president of the United States, but the commander of the army has power to order the universal emancipation of the slaves.”  

After the rescinding of the gag-rule Mr. Adams spoke less frequently. In November, 1846, he had a shock of paralysis, which kept him at home four months. On 21 Feb., 1848, while he was sitting in the house of representatives, came the second shock. He was carried into the speaker's room, where he lay two days, and died on the 23d. His last words were: “This is the last of earth; I am content.” See “Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams,” by William H. Seward (Auburn, 1849); “Life of John Quincy Adams,” by Josiah Quincy (Boston, 1858); “Diary of John Quincy Adams,” edited by Charles F. Adams, 12 vols., 8vo (Philadelphia, 1874-'7); and “John Quincy Adams,” by John T. Morse, Jr. (Boston, 1882). 

The steel portrait of Mr. Adams, facing page 24, is from a picture by Marchant, in the possession of the New York Historical Society. The mansion represented on page 26 is the Adams homestead at Quincy, in which the presidents lived, now the summer residence of Charles Francis Adams. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 17-23.

Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

IN giving a sketch of the career of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, the limits of this work require us to confine the narrative to a bare recital of the successive leading events of his life. It is difficult to contemplate his history, without yielding to the impulses of the feelings and the imagination, and expatiating on the interesting reflections and meditations which, at every stage of his course, crowd into the mind, and demand expression. So protracted, however, has been his public life, so full is it of important services, and so various are the stations in which his great talents have been displayed, that the concisest narration of them will be kept, with difficulty, from overrunning our pages. His illustrious parents have been duly commemorated in this work; and it will therefore be unnecessary to dwell upon their merits, or even to mention their names. He was born in Braintree, in Massachusetts, in that part of the town since incorporated by the name of Quincy, on Saturday, July 11, 1767, and was baptised the next day, in the congregational church of the first Parish of Braintree. He was named John Quincy, in consequence of the interesting circumstance that his maternal great-grandfather of that name, who was the owner of Mount Wollaston, and a leading civil and military character of his times, in honor of whom the town of Quincy received its name, was actually dying at the time of his birth.

In the eleventh year of his age he accompanied his father to France, who was sent by Congress, as joint commissioner, with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, to the court of Versailles. They sailed from Boston in February, 1778, and arrived at Bourdeaux early in April. While in France, he was, of course, put to school, and instructed in the language of the country as well as in the Latin. After about eighteen months, they returned to America in the French frigate La Sensible, in company with the Chevalier de la Luzerne, who came out as the minister of France to the United States. They arrived in Boston on the first of August, 1779. In November of the same year his father was again despatched to Europe, for the discharge of the diplomatic services, which he rendered to the cause of America with such signal and memorable ability and success. He took his son out with him. It seemed to be the determination of that great patriot, not only to do and to dare every thing himself for his struggling country, but to keep his son continually at his side; so that, by sharing his perils and witnessing his toils, he might become imbued with his own exalted enthusiasm in the cause of liberty, and be prepared to promote and vindicate it with all the energies of his genius and all the sensibility of his soul. It is easy to imagine the exciting influences which must have operated upon the character of a youth at that susceptible and impressible age, accompanying such a father through the scenes in which he acted while in Europe, and the dangers he encountered in his voyages across the Atlantic. In one of these voyages, the ship in which they were embarked was under the command of the famous naval hero Commodore Tucker, and the whole passage was a succession of hazardous exposures and hair-breadth escapes from hostile squadrons and tempestuous gales.

While the younger Adams was receiving the impressions made upon him by a participation in the patriotic adventures and exertions of his father, and imbibing the wisdom and intrepid energy of spirit for which he was so distinguished, the same effect was still more heightened and deepened by the influence exerted upon him by the inculcations and exhortations to every public and private virtue contained in the letters of his mother. When he was thirteen years of age, while in France with his father, she addressed him in the following noble strains:—“It is your lot, my son, to owe your existence among a people who have made a glorious defence of their invaded liberties, and who, aided by a generous and powerful ally, with the blessing of heaven, will transmit this inheritance to ages yet unborn: nor ought it to be one of the least of your excitements towards exerting every power and faculty of your mind, that you have a parent who has taken so large a share in this contest, and discharged the trust reposed in him with so much satisfaction as to be honored with the important embassy that at present calls him abroad. The strict and inviolate regard you have ever paid to truth, gives me pleasing hopes that you will not swerve from her dictates; but add justice, fortitude, and every manly virtue which can adorn a good citizen, do honor to your country, and render your parents supremely happy, particularly your ever affectionate mother.”

The opportunities and privileges of an education, under such auspices, were not thrown away upon him, as the incidents of his subsequent career most amply prove.

In going to Europe this second time, he embarked with his father at Boston, in the same French frigate, La Sensible, bound to Brest; but as the ship sprung a leak in a gale of wind, it was necessary to make the first port they could, which was Ferrol in Spain. They travelled from that place to Paris by land, and arrived there in January, 1780. The son, of course, was immediately put to school. In July of that year, Mr. Adams removed to Holland. There his son was first placed in the public city school at Amsterdam, and afterwards at the University at Leyden. In July, 1781, Mr. Francis Dane, who had accompanied John Adams as Secretary of the embassy with which he was charged, received the commission of minister plenipotentiary to the Empress of Russia, and took JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, then fourteen years of age, with him as his private Secretary. Here the younger Adams remained until October 1782, when he left Mr. Dane at St. Petersburg, and returned through Sweden, Denmark, Hamburg, and Bremen, to Holland. Upon this journey he employed the whole winter, spending considerable time by the way, in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Hamburg. He reached the Hague in April, 1783, and continued several months in Holland, until his father took him to Paris, where he was at the signing of the treaty of peace, which took place in September of that year, and from that time to May, 1785, he was, for the most part, with his father in England, Holland, and France.

At his own solicitations, his father permitted him, when eighteen years of age, to return to his native country. Soon after reaching America, he entered Harvard University, at an advanced standing, and was graduated with distinguished honor, as Bachelor of Arts, in 1787. He then entered the office of the celebrated Theophilus Parsons, at Newbury Port, afterwards chief justice of Massachusetts; and after the usual period of three years spent in the study of the law, he entered the profession, and established himself in Boston.

He remained in that situation four years, occupying himself industriously in his office, extending his acquaintance with the great principles of law, and also taking part in the public questions which then occupied the attention of his countrymen. In the summer of 1791 he published a series of papers in the Boston Centinel, under the signature of Publicola, containing remarks upon the first part of Paine's Rights of Man. They suggested doubts in reference to the favorable issue of the French Revolution, at a time when most other men saw nothing but good in that awakening event. The issue proved the sagacity of Publicola. These pieces were at first ascribed to his father. They were reprinted in England.

In April, 1793, on the first information of war between Great Britain and France, and before Washington had published his proclamation of neutrality, or it was known that such a step was contemplated by him, Mr. ADAMS published in the Boston Centinel three articles signed Marcellus, the object of which was to prove that the duty and interest of the United States required them to remain neutral in that war. In these papers he developed the two principles, which have ever been the basis of his creed as a statesman; the one is UNION at home, the other INDEPENDENCE of all entangling alliances with any foreign states whatever.

In the winter of 1793-4 he published another series of political essays, confirming, and more fully developing these views, and vindicating the course of President Washington in reference to the proceedings of the French minister, Genet.

In May, 1794, he was appointed by Washington, without any intimation of such a design, made either to him or to his father, minister resident to the United Netherlands. It was supposed at the time that he was selected in consequence of his having been commended to the favorable notice of Washington, as a suitable person for such an employment, by Mr. Jefferson.

From 1794 to 1801 he was in Europe, employed in diplomatic business, and as a public minister, in Holland, England, and Prussia. Just as President Washington was retiring from office, he appointed him minister plenipotentiary to the court of Portugal. While on his way to Lisbon, he received a new commission, changing his destination to Berlin. He resided in Berlin from November 1797 to April 1801, and while there concluded a highly important treaty of commerce with Prussia, thus accomplishing the object of his mission. He was then recalled, just before the close of his father's administration, and arrived in Philadelphia in September, 1801.

In 1802 he was elected, from the Boston district, a member of the Massachusetts Senate, and was soon after appointed, by the legislature of that state, a senator in the Congress of the United States for six years, from the 4th of March, 1803. As his views of public duty led him to adopt a course which he had reason to believe was disagreeable to the legislature of the State he represented, he resigned his seat in March, 1808. In March, 1809, President Madison nominated him Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Russia.

Some time previous to this, however, in 1806, he had been appointed Professor of Rhetoric in Harvard University, at Cambridge in Massachusetts. So extraordinary were his powers of elocution, so fervid his imaginative faculties, and so rich his resources of literature and language, that his lectures, which were afterwards published in two octavo volumes, were thronged not only by the students of the university, but by large numbers of the admirers of eloquence and genius, who came from Boston and the neighboring towns to listen to them. During his whole life Mr. ADAMS has cultivated the graces of elocution, and, in addition to his profound and varied knowledge of the sciences, of the ancient and modern languages, and of the literature and history of all nations, is an eminent Orator as well as Poet.

While in Russia, he furnished to the Port Folio, printed in Philadelphia, and to which, from the beginning to the end, he was an industrious anonymous contributor, a series of letters, entitled a “Journal of a Tour through Silesia.” These letters were republished in London, without the permission of the proprietor of the Port Folio, in one volume octavo. They were reviewed in the journals of the day, and translated into French and German.

Mr. ADAMS signalized himself while in Russia by an energetic, faithful, and wise discharge of the trust committed to him. He succeeded in making such an impression upon that government, by his reasonings and influence, that it has ever since been actuated by a feeling of kindness towards the United States, which has been of incalculable benefit to this country. It was through his instrumentality that the Russian Court was induced to take active measures to promote a pacification between England and the United States during the last war. When the proper time came, he was named at the head of the five commissioners who were appointed by President Madison to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain. This celebrated diplomatic transaction took place at Ghent, in December, 1814. Mr. Adams then proceeded, in conjunction with Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin, who had also been associated with him in concluding the treaty of peace, to negotiate a convention of commerce with Great Britain; and he was forthwith appointed by President Madison minister plenipotentiary at the Court of St. James.

It is a most remarkable coincidence that, as his father took the leading part in negotiating the treaty that terminated the Revolutionary war with Great Britain, and first discharged the office of American ambassador to London, so he was at the head of the commission that negotiated the treaty that brought the second war with Great Britain to a close, and sustained the first mission to that country upon the return of peace. After having occupied that post until the close of President Madison’s administration, he was at length called home, in 1817, to the head of the department of State, at the formation of the cabinet of President Monroe.

Mr. ADAMS’S career as a foreign minister terminated at this point. It has never been paralleled, or at all approached, either in the length of time it covered, the number of courts at which he represented his country, or the variety and importance of the services he rendered. His first appointment to the office of a minister plenipotentiary was received at the hands of George Washington, who, in nominating him, acted in accordance with the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson. James Madison employed him in the weightiest and most responsible trusts during his whole administration, selected him to represent the United States at the two most powerful courts in the world, St. Petersburg and London, and committed to his leading agency the momentous duty of arranging a treaty of peace with Great Britain. It is enough to say, that throughout this long and brilliant career of foreign public service, he deserved, and received from his country, the encomium which Washington pronounced upon him, when, in 1797, he declared him “the most valuable public character we have abroad, and the ablest of all our diplomatic corps.”

The public approbation of Mr. Monroe’s act in placing him at the head of his cabinet, was well expressed by General Jackson, at the time, when he said that he was “the fittest person for the office; a man who would stand by the country in the hour of danger.” While Secretary of State, an office which he held during the eight years of President Monroe’s administration, he discharged his duties in such a manner as to increase the confidence of his countrymen in his ability and patriotism. Under his influence, the claims on Spain were adjusted, Florida ceded to the Union, and the republics of South America recognised. It will be the more appropriate duty of his future biographer to present a full view of the vast amount of labor which he expended, in the public service, while managing the department of state.

In the Presidential election, which took place in the fall of 1824, Mr. ADAMS was one of the candidates. No candidate received a majority of electoral votes. When, on the 9th of February, 1825, the two houses of Congress met in convention, in the hall of the House of Representatives, to open, and count, and declare the electoral votes, it was found that Andrew Jackson had 99 votes, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 84 votes, William H. Crawford, 41 votes, and Henry Clay 37 votes. According to the requirements of the constitution, the Senate then withdrew, and the House remained to ballot for a President until a choice should be effected. They were to vote by States; the election was limited to the three candidates who had the highest electoral votes, and the ballotting was to continue without adjournment until some one of the three had received the votes of a majority of the States. As Mr. ADAMS had received as many popular votes as General Jackson, the circumstance that the latter had obtained a large electoral vote had not so much weight as it otherwise might have had; and when the ballotting was about to begin, it was wholly uncertain which would be the successful candidate. The whole number of States was twenty-four. The votes of thirteen States were necessary for a choice. At the first ballot, it was found that Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Louisiana, thirteen states, had voted for “JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, OF MASSACHUSETTS;” and he was accordingly elected PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES for four years from the 4th of March, 1825. A committee was appointed forthwith to inform him of his election, who, the next day, reported the following letter in reply to the communication:

“GENTLEMEN,

“In receiving this testimonial from the Representatives of the people and states of this Union, I am deeply sensible to the circumstances under which it has been given. All my predecessors in the high station, to which the favor of the House now calls me, have been honored with majorities of the electoral voices in their primary colleges. It has been my fortune to be placed, by the divisions of sentiment prevailing among our countrymen on this occasion, in competition, friendly and honorable, with three of my fellow-citizens, all justly enjoying, in eminent degrees, the public favor: and of whose worth, talents, and services, no one entertains a higher and more respectful sense than myself. The names of two of them were, in the fulfilment of the provisions of the constitution, presented to the selection of the House in concurrence with my own; names closely associated with the glory of the nation, and one of them further recommended by a larger minority of the primary electoral suffrages than mine. In this state of things, could my refusal to accept the trust, thus delegated to me, give an immediate opportunity to the people to form and to express, with a nearer approach to unanimity, the object of their preference, I should not hesitate to decline the acceptance of this eminent charge, and to submit the decision of this momentous question again to their determination. But the constitution itself has not so disposed of the contingency which would arise in the event of my refusal; I shall therefore repair to the post assigned me by the call of my country, signified through her constitutional organs; oppressed with the magnitude of the task before me, but cheered with the hope of that generous support from my fellow-citizens, which, in the vicissitudes of a life devoted to their service, has never failed to sustain me—confident in the trust, that the wisdom of the Legislative Councils will guide and, direct me in the path of my official duty, and relying, above all, upon the superintending Providence of that Being ‘in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways.’

“Gentlemen: I pray you to make acceptable to the House, the assurance of my profound gratitude for their confidence, and to accept yourselves my thanks for the friendly terms in which you have communicated their decision.

“JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.”

“Washington, 10th Feb. 1825.”

The time is approaching when justice will be done to the administration of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. The passions of that day are already fast subsiding, and the parties and combinations that arose under the exciting influences of the times, have long since been dissolved and scattered. The clear verdict of posterity may almost be heard, even now, in the general acknowledgment of its merits by the people of the country, in all its various sections. In the relations he sustained to the members of his cabinet, in his communications to the two houses, and in all his proceedings, there is a uniform manifestation of wisdom, industry, moderation, and devoted patriotism. Of course we do not speak of party questions, or refer to the operations or bearings of the parties of that period; but say only what we conscientiously believe will be assented to heartily by candid and honorable men of all parties. The great effort of his administration was to mature, into a permanent system, the application of all the superfluous revenue of the Union to internal improvement. This policy was first suggested in a resolution introduced by him, and adopted by the Senate of the United States in 1806; and was fully unfolded in his first message to Congress in 1825. It will be the duty of the philosophical historian of the country, a half century hence, to contrast the probable effects upon the general prosperity, which would have been produced by such a system of administration, regularly and comprehensively carried out, during the intermediate time, by the government of the Union, with what will then be seen to be the results of the policy which has prevailed over it.

In retiring from the Presidency in 1829, Mr. ADAMS returned to his family mansion in Quincy, where he remained, in quiet retirement, until he was called into public life, once more, by the people of the congressional district to which he belonged. He took his seat in the House of Representatives of the United States in 1831, where he continues to this day in the most indefatigable discharge of the duties of his station. Mr. Adams is now in his seventy first year. However much some of his opinions may be disliked by large numbers of his countrymen; however strenuous the collision into which he is, from time to time, brought with those whose policy or views he may oppose; there is but one sentiment of admiration, throughout the entire Union, of the vigor, the activity, the intrepidity, the patience and perseverance of labor, the talent, the learning, and the eloquence which he continually exhibits. He knows neither fear nor fatigue; prompt, full, and fervid in debate, he is ever at his post; no subject arises upon which he does not throw light, and few discussions occur which are not enlivened by the flashings of his genius and invigorated by the energy of his spirit. While he belongs to no party, all parties in turn feel the power of his talents; and all, it is probable, recognize him as an extremely useful as well as interesting member of the great legislative assembly of the nation.

He has now reached the period of life when most men begin, if not to lose their power to engage in the arduous struggles of life, at least to lose their interest in them. But it is not so with him. Neither his natural force nor his natural fervor has abated. His speeches and writings are still as full of fancy and of feeling as they were in his early manhood. As a scholar, his attainments are various, we might almost say universal, and profound. As a political controversial writer, he never yet has found his equal; and his services as a public orator are still called for on great occasions, when he comes forward in all the strength of his intellectual energy, and with the imperishable richness and inexhaustible abundance of his rhetorical stores. When Congress were apprized of the death of General Lafayette, the unanimous voice of both Houses summoned him to the high and memorable duty of pronouncing their grateful eulogium upon that friend of America and champion of mankind. And at the call of the municipal authorities of the city of Boston, he has pronounced funeral orations in commemoration of the departed worth of Presidents Monroe and Madison. All his other attainments and merits are crowned by a Christian faith and profession.

In addition to his services in her legislative halls, his country still expects other invaluable benefactions from the genius and learning of this remarkable man; and is strong in the hope that, in obedience to that profound and reverential regard which he has ever shown to the calls of patriotic, philanthropic, and filial duty, he will not close his long line of illustrious services, without making a noble contribution to the History of United America, and of the great men who achieved her independence.                                                                         C. W. U.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 4.

 

 

ADAMS, William, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40, 1840-42

 

 

ALCOTT, Amos Bronson, 1799-1888, abolitionist, educator, writer, philosopher, reformer.  Opposed the Mexican American War and the extension of slavery into Texas.  His home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  His second daughter was noted author Louisa May Alcott, who was also opposed to slavery.  Friend of abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips.  (Baker, 1996; Bedell, 1980; Dahlstrand, 1982; Matteson, 2007; Schreiner, 2006; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 40-41; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 139-141)

 

ALCOTT, Amos Bronson, educator, b. in Wolcott, Conn., 29 Nov., 1799. His father was a farmer. While yet a boy he was provided with a trunk of various merchandise, and set out to make his way in the south. He landed at Norfolk, Va., and went among the plantations, talking with the people and reading their books. They liked him as a companion, and were glad to hold discussions with him on intellectual subjects. They would keep him under their roofs for weeks, reading and conversing, while he forgot all about his commercial duties. But when he returned to the north his employer discovered he had not sold five dollars' worth of his stock. He relinquished his trade in 1823, and established an infant school, which immediately attracted attention. His method of teaching was by conversation, not by books. In 1828 he went to Boston and established another school, showing singular skill and sympathy in his methods of teaching· young children. His success caused him to be widely known, and a sketch of him and his methods, under the title of “A Record of Mr. Alcott's School,” by E. P. Peabody, was published in Boston in 1834 (3d ed., revised, 1874). This was followed in 1836 by a transcript of the colloquies of the children with their teacher, in “Conversations with Children on the Gospel.” His school was so far in advance of the thought of the day that it was denounced by the press, and as a result he gave it up and removed to Concord, Mass., where he devoted himself to the study of natural theology, reform in education, diet, and civil and social institutions. In order to disseminate his reformatory views more thoroughly, he went upon the lecture platform, where he was an attractive speaker, and his personal worth and originality of thought always secured him a respectful hearing. In 1842 he went to England, on the invitation of James P. Greaves, of London, the friend and fellow-laborer of Pestalozzi in Switzerland. Before his arrival Mr. Greaves died, but Mr. Alcott was cordially received by Mr. Greaves's friends, who had given the name of “Alcott House” to their school at Ham, near London. On his return to America, he brought with him two English friends, Charles Lane and H. G. Wright. Mr. Lane bought an estate near Harvard, in Worcester co., Mass., which he named “Fruitlands,” and there all went for the purpose of founding a community, but the enterprise was a failure. Messrs. Lane and Wright soon returned to England, and the property was sold. Mr. Alcott removed to Boston, and afterward returned to Concord. He has since then led the life of a peripatetic philosopher, conversing in cities and villages, wherever invited, on divinity, human nature, ethics, dietetics, and a wide range of practical questions. These conversations, which were at first casual, gradually assumed a more formal character. The topics were often printed on cards, and the company met at a fixed time and place. Of late years they have attracted much attention. Mr. Alcott has all through his life attached great importance to diet and government of the body, and still more to race and complexion. He has been regarded as a leader in the transcendental style of thought, but in later years has been claimed as a convert to orthodox Christianity. He has published “Tablets” (1868); “Concord Days,” personal reminiscences of the town (1872); “Table Talk” (1877); and “Sonnets and Canzonets” (1877), besides numerous contributions to periodical literature, including papers entitled “Orphic Sayings” in “The Dial” (Boston, 1839-'42). After taking up his residence in Concord, he allowed the peculiarities of his mind to find expression in quaint and curious arrangement of his grounds. The fence enclosing them, built entirely by himself, is made wholly of pine boughs, knotted, gnarled, and twisted in every conceivable shape, no two pieces being alike. They seem to be the result of many years of fragmentary collection in his walks. The engraving presented on the previous page is a view of Mr. Alcott's home in Concord, Mass. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ALCOTT, Louisa May, 1832-1888, writer, opponent of slavery, feminist.  Author of Little Women: Or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (1868).  Daughter of abolitionist Amos Bronson Alcott. Their home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  (Eisenlein, 2001; MacDonald, 1983; Saxton, 1977; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 41; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 141)

 

ALCOTT, Louisa May, author, b. in Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia, 29 Nov., 1832. She is a daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott. When she was about two years of age her parents removed to Boston, and in her eighth year to Concord, Mass. At the age of eleven she was brought under the influence of the community that endeavored to establish itself near Harvard, in Worcester co. Thoreau was for a time her teacher; but she was instructed mainly by her father. She began to write for publication at the age of sixteen, but with no marked success for fifteen years. During that time she devoted ten years to teaching. In 1862 she went to Washington as a volunteer nurse, and for many months labored in the military hospitals. At this time she wrote to her mother and sisters letters containing sketches of hospital life and experience, which on her return were revised and published in book form (Boston, 1863), and attracted much attention. In 1866 she went to Europe to recuperate her health, which had been seriously impaired by her hospital work, and on her return in 1867 she wrote “Little Women,” which was published the following year, and made her famous. The sales in less than three years amounted to 87,000 copies. Her characters are drawn from life, and are full of the buoyant, free, hopeful New England spirit which marks her own enthusiastic love for nature, freedom, and life. Her other stories are conceived in the same vein, and have been almost equally popular. They are: “Flower Fables or Fairy Tales” (Boston, 1855); '”Hospital Sketches,” her first book, now out of print, reissued with other stories (1869); “An Old-Fashioned Girl” (1869); “Little Men” (1871); a series called “Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag” (1871-'82), containing “My Boys,” “Shawl Straps,” “Cupid and Chow-Chow,” “My Girls,” “Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore,” and “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving”; “Work, A Story of Experience” (1873); “Eight Cousins” (1874); “Rose in Bloom” (1876); “Silver Pitchers” (1876); “Under the Lilacs” (1878); “Jack and Gill” (1880); “Moods” (1864), reissued in a revised edition (1881); “Proverb Stories” (1882); “Spinning- Wheel Stories” (1884); “Lulu's Library,” the first of a new series (1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ALDEN, Joseph W., 1807-1885, educator, clergyman, writer (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 42. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 147-148.)

 

ALDEN, Joseph, educator, b. in Cairo, N.Y., 4 Jan., 1807; d. in New York, 30 Aug., 1885. At the age of fourteen he began teaching in a public school and showed great ability in this direction. He was graduated at Union college in 1829, and studied at Princeton theological seminary, where for two years he was tutor. In 1834 he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Williamstown, Mass., and subsequently (1835-'52) became professor of Latin, and then of rhetoric and political economy, in Williams college. Prom 1852 to 1857 he was professor of mental and moral philosophy at Lafayette college. In 1857 he became president of Jefferson college, and from 1867 to 1872 he was principal of the Albany, N. Y., normal school. He was a prolific writer, and prepared more than 70 volumes, mostly Sunday-school literature. Among his works are “The Example of Washington,” “Citizen's Manual,” “Christian Ethics,” “The Science of Government,” “Elements of Intellectual Philosophy,” and “First Steps in Political Economy.” He was also a constant contributor to periodical literature and for some time editor of the New York "Observer” and of the Philadelphia “Christian Library.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 42.

 

 

ALDIS, Asa, St. Albans, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37

 

 

ALKINSON, Stanwood,   Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1855-1860

 

 

ALLAN, William T., Alabama, clergyman, abolitionist leader, Oberlin College, Illinois, anti-slavery agent.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 92-93, 160-164, 185-186; Filler, 1960, p. 68)

 

 

ALLEN, Abram, Clinton C., Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-52

 

 

ALLEN, Abram, Putnam County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

ALLEN, Albert G, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Treasurer, 1835-36

 

 

ALLEN, Charles, Worcester, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1850

 

 

ALLEN, James, Bangor, Maine, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

ALLEN, John, Seedoud, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice President, 1839-40

 

 

ALLEN, Moses, New York, New York, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

ALLEN, Reverend George, 1808-1876, Worcester, Massachusetts, educator, theologian, anti-slavery agent.  Lectured extensively against slavery. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 187, 285, 393n20; Rice, 1883; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 99, 104, 153; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 52. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 190-191.)

 

ALLEN, George, educator, b. in Milton, Vt., 17 Dec., 1808; d. in Worcester, Mass., 28 May, 1876. He was graduated at the university of Vermont in 1827, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1831. Subsequently he studied theology, and from 1834 to 1837 was rector of an Episcopal church at St. Albans, Vt. In 1837 he became professor of ancient languages in Delaware college, Newark, Del., and in 1845 professor of ancient languages, and then of Greek alone, in the university of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Prof. Allen published a “Life of Philidor,” the chess-player (Philadelphia, 1863). In 1847 he became a Catholic. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 52.

 

 

ALLEN, Richard, 1760-1831, clergyman, free African American, former slave.  Founder, Free African Society, in 1787.  Founded Bethel African Methodist Church (AME) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1794.  (Allen, 1983; Conyers, 2000; Dumond, 1961, pp. 170, 328-329; George, 1973; Hammond, 2011, p. 75; Mabee, 1970, pp. 133, 187; Nash, 1991, pp. 127, 160, 171, 182, 193, 198-199; Payne, 1981; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 25, 26, 28, 156-160, 294-295, 559-560; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 54-55. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 204-205.)

 

 

ALLEN, William, Buffalo, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slaery Society (AASS).

 

 

ALLEN, William G., b. 1820, free African American abolitionist, publisher and editor. Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society in December 1833.  Publisher with Henry Highland Garnet of The National Watchman, Troy, New York, founded 1842. (Filler, 1960, pp. 142, 249, 261; Mabee, 1970, pp. 107, 109; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 48; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 1, p. 346; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 127)

 

 

ALLEN, William T., Huntsville, Alabama, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-37

 

 

ALLEY, John B., 1817-1896, Lynn, Massachusetts, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1863-1876, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Alley was a member of the Liberty and Free Soil Parties. (Congressional Globe)

 

 

ALLISON, William Boyd, 1829-1909, Republican, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives 1863-1871, U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 58; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 220-222; Congressional Globe)

 

ALLISON, William Boyd, senator, b. in Perry, Wayne co., 2 March, 1829. He spent his early years on a farm, and was educated at Alleghany college, Pennsylvania, and Western Reserve college, Ohio. He studied law, and practised in Ohio until 1857, when he went to Dubuque, Iowa. He was a delegate to the Chicago convention of 1860, a member of the governor's staff in 1861, and rendered valuable service in raising troops for the war. He was elected in 1862 to the 38th congress, as a republican, and returned for the three succeeding congresses, serving in the house of representatives from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1871. In 1873 he was elected to the U. S. senate, as a republican, for the term ending in 1879, and he has been twice reelected.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 58. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936.)

 

 

ALVORD, John Watson, 1807-1880, abolitionist, anti-slavery agent, clergyman. Congregational minister.  Worked around Ohio area.  Secretary, Boston Tract Society.  Chaplain with General Sheridan’s Union Forces in Civil War.  Worked with former slaves.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 164, 185; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 1, p. 399)

 

 

AMES, Harlow, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

AMES, Oakes, 1804-1873, manufacturer, businessman, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 2nd Massachusetts District 1862-1873, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 65-66; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 251-253; Oakes, Ames, A Memoir, 1883; Congressional Globe)

 

AMES, Oakes, manufacturer, b. in Easton, Mass., 10 Jan., 1804; d. in North Easton, Mass., 8 May, 1873. He was the eldest son of Oliver Ames, a blacksmith, who had acquired considerable reputation in the making of shovels and picks. After obtaining a public-school education, he entered his father's workshops and made himself familiar with every step of the manufacture. He became a partner in the business, and with his brother, Oliver, Jr., established the firm of Oliver Ames & Sons. This house carried on an enormous trade during the gold excitement in California, and again a few years later in Australia. During the civil war they furnished extensive supplies of swords and shovels to the government. In the building of the Union Pacific railroad they were directly interested, and obtained large contracts, which were subsequently transferred to the Credit Mobilier of America, a corporation in which Oakes Ames was one of the largest stockholders. In 1861 he was called into the executive council of Massachusetts. He served continuously in congress from 1862 to 1873 as representative from the 2d Massachusetts district. His relations with the Credit Mobilier led to an investigation, which resulted in his being censured by a vote of the house of representatives. Subsequent to his withdrawal from political life he resided at North Easton, where he died of apoplexy. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 65-66.

 

 

ANDERSON, Isaac, 1780-1857, clergyman, educator.  Founder of the Southern and Western Theological Seminary in 1819 in Maryville, Tennessee.

 

 

ANDERSON, John, b. c. 1831, African American, fugitive slave, abolitionist.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 171)

 

 

ANDERSON, Lucien, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

ANDERSON, Osborne Perry, 1830-1872, African American abolitionist, member of African American Chatham Community in Ontario, Canada.  Wrote anti-slavery articles for Provincial Freedman for Black community.  Was part of John Brown’s raid at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859; hanged with John Brown, 1859. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 327; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 181)

 

 

ANDERSON, Robert, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

ANDREW, James Osgood, 1794-1871, North Carolina, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1836-1841.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 277; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

ANDREW, John Albion, 1818-1867, reformer, anti-slavery advocate, Governor of Massachusetts, member Conscience Whig, Free Soil Party, Republican Party.  Supported John Brown in legal defense.  (American National Biography, Vol. 1, 2002, p. 489; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 279; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 72-73)

 

ANDREW, John Albion, statesman, b. in Windham, Me., 31 May, 1818; d. in Boston, Mass., 30 Oct., 1867. His father, descended from an early settler of Boxford, Mass., was a prosperous merchant in Windham. John Albion was graduated at Bowdoin in 1837. He was a negligent student, though fond of reading, and in his professional life always felt the lack of training in the habit of close application. He immediately entered on the study of the law in the office of Henry H. Fuller, in Boston, where in 1840 he was admitted to the bar. Until the outbreak of the war he practised his profession in that city, attaining special distinction in the fugitive-slave cases of Shadrach Burns and Sims, which arose under the fugitive-slave law of 1850. He became interested in the slavery question in early youth, and was attracted toward many of the reform movements of the day. After his admission to the bar he took an active interest in politics and frequently spoke on the stump on behalf of the whig party, of which he was an enthusiastic member. From the year 1848 he was closely identified with the anti-slavery party of Massachusetts, but held no office until 1858, when he was elected a member of the state legislature from Boston, and at once took a leading position in that body. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Chicago republican convention, and, after voting for Mr. Seward on the early ballots, announced the change of the vote of part of the Massachusetts delegation to Mr. Lincoln. In the same year he was nominated for governor by a popular impulse. Many feared that the radicalism of his opinions would render him unsafe in action, and the political managers regarded him as an intruder and opposed his nomination; yet he was elected the twenty-first governor of Massachusetts since the adoption of the constitution of 1780 by the largest popular vote ever cast for any candidate. He was energetic in placing the militia of Massachusetts on a war footing, in anticipation of the impending conflict between the government and the seceded states. He had announced this purpose in his inaugural address in 1861, and, upon being inducted into office, he sent a confidential message to the governors of Maine and New Hampshire, inviting their cooperation in preparing the militia for service and providing supplies of war material. This course of action was not regarded with favor at the time by a majority of the legislature, although his opponents refrained from a direct collision. On receiving the president's proclamation of 15 April, 1861, he despatched five regiments of infantry, a battalion of riflemen, and a battery of artillery to the defence of the capital. Of these, the Massachusetts 6th was the first to tread southern soil, passing through New York while the regiments of that state were mustering, and shedding the first blood of the war in the streets of Baltimore, where it was assailed by the mob. Gov. Andrew sent a telegram to Mayor Brown, praying him to have the bodies of the slain carefully sent forward to him at the expense of the common wealth of Massachusetts. He was equally active in raising the Massachusetts contingent of three years' volunteers, and was laborious in his efforts to aid every provision for the comfort of the sick and wounded soldiers. He was four times reëlected governor, holding that office till January, 1866, and was only then released by his positive declination of another renomination, in order to attend to his private business, as the pecuniary sacrifice involved in holding the office was more than he was able to sustain, and his health was seriously affected by his arduous labors. In 1862 he was one of the most urgent of the northern governors in impressing upon the administration at Washington the necessity of adopting the emancipation policy, and of accepting the services of colored troops. In September, 1862, he took the most prominent part in the meeting of governors of the northern states, held at Altoona, Penn., to devise ways and means to encourage and strengthen the hands of the government. The address of the governors to the people of the north was prepared by him. Gov. Andrew interfered on various occasions to prevent the federal authorities from making arbitrary arrests among southern sympathizers in Massachusetts previous to the suspension of the habeas-corpus act. In January, 1863, he obtained from the secretary of war the first authorization for raising colored troops, and the first colored regiment (54th Massachusetts infantry) was despatched from Boston in May of that year. Gov. Andrew was particular in selecting the best officers for the black troops and in providing them with the most complete equipment. Though famous as the war governor of Massachusetts, he also bestowed proper attention on the domestic affairs of the commonwealth. In his first message he recommended that the provision in the law preventing a person against whom a decree of divorce has been granted from marrying again, should be modified; but the proposition met with strong opposition in the legislature, especially from clergymen, and it was not till 1864 that an act was passed conferring power upon the supreme court to remove the penalty resting upon divorced persons. He also recommended a reform in the usury laws, such as was finally effected by an act passed in 1867. He was strongly opposed to capital punishment, and recommended its repeal. A law requiring representatives in congress to be residents of the districts from which they are elected was vetoed by him on the ground that it was both unconstitutional and inexpedient, but was passed over his veto. Of the twelve veto messages sent by Gov. Andrew during his incumbency, only one other, in the case of a resolve to grant additional pay to members, was followed by the passage of the act over the veto. His final term as governor expired 5 Jan., 1866. In a valedictory address to the legislature he advocated a generous and conciliatory policy toward the southern states, “demanding no attitude of humiliation; inflicting no acts of humiliation.” Gov. Andrew was modest and simple in his habits and manner of life, emotional and quick in sympathy for the wronged or the unfortunate, exceedingly joyous and mirthful in temperament, and companionable with all classes of persons. The distinguished ability that shone out in his administration as governor of Massachusetts, the many sterling qualities that were summed up in his character, his social address, and the charm of his conversational powers, together with his clear and forcible style as an orator, combined to render him conspicuous among the state governors of the war period, and one of the most influential persons in civil life not connected with the federal administration. Soon after the expiration of his last term as governor he was tendered, but declined, the presidency of Antioch college, Ohio. He presided over the first national Unitarian convention, held in 1865, and was a leader of the conservative wing of that denomination—those who believed with Channing and the early Unitarians in the supernaturalism of Christ's birth and mission, as opposed to Theodore Parker and his disciples. After retiring from public life Mr. Andrew entered upon a lucrative legal practice. In January, 1867, he represented before the general court about 30,000 petitioners for a license law, and delivered an argument against the principle of total prohibition. His death, which occurred suddenly from apoplexy, was noticed by public meetings in various cities. He married, 25 Dec., 1848, Miss Eliza Jane Hersey, of Hingham, Mass., who with their four children survived him. See “Memoir of Gov. Andrew, with Personal Reminiscences,” by Peleg W. Chandler (Boston, 1880), “Discourse on the Life and Character of Gov. Andrew,” by Rev. E. Nason (Boston, 1868), and “Men of Our Times,” by Harriet Beecher Stowe. A life of Gov. Andrew, by Edwin P. Whipple, was left unfinished at the time of Mr. Whipple’s death in 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ANDREWS, Josiah, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

ANDREWS, Samuel C., Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-39

 

 

ANDREWS, Stephan Pearl, 1812-1886, abolitionist, anarchist, philosopher, linguist, writer, labor advocate, lawyer, ardent opponent of slavery, lectured publicly on the evils of slavery (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 298-299; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 25-26; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 76)

 

ANDREWS, Stephen Pearl, author, b. in Templeton, Mass., 22 March, 1812; d. in New York city, 21 May, 1886. He studied at Amherst college, and then, removing to New Orleans, became a lawyer. He was the first counsel of Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines in her celebrated suits. He was an ardent abolitionist, and in 1839 removed to Texas, where he converted many of the slave-owners, who were also large land-owners, by showing them that they would become rapidly rich from the sale of land if immigration were induced by throwing the country open to free labor. Here he acquired considerable wealth in the practice of his profession. His impetuous and logical eloquence gained him a wide repute and great personal popularity; but, on the other hand, his seemingly reckless and fanatical opposition to slavery aroused an intense feeling of opposition, and his life was seriously endangered. In 1843 he went to England in the hope that, with the aid of the British anti-slavery society, he might raise sufficient money there to pay for the slaves and make Texas a free state. He was well received, and the scheme was taken up and favorably considered by the British government; but, after some months of consultation, the project was abandoned through fear that it would lead to war with the United States, as the knowledge of it was already being used to strengthen the movement that ultimately led to the annexation of Texas and to the Mexican war. Mr. Andrews went to Boston and became a leader in the anti-slavery movement there. While in England he learned of phonography, and during seven years after his return he devoted his attention to its introduction, and was the founder of the present system of phonographic reporting. He removed to New York in 1847, and published a series of phonographic instruction-books and edited two journals in the interest of phonography and spelling reform, which were printed in phonetic type, the “Anglo-Saxon” and the “Propagandist.” He spoke several languages, and is said to have been familiar with thirty. Among his works are one on the Chinese language, and one entitled “New French Instructor,” embodying a new method. He was a tireless student and an incessant worker; but his mental labor was performed without effort or fatigue. While yet a young man he announced the discovery of the unity of law in the universe, and to the development of this theory he devoted the last thirty-five years of his life. The elements of this science are contained in his “Basic Outline of Universology” (New York, 1872). He asserted that there is a science of language, as exact as that of mathematics or of chemistry, forming a domain of universology; and by the application of this science he evolved a “scientific” language, destined, he believed, to become “the universal language.” This scientific universal language he called “Alwato” (ahl-wah'-to). It was so far elaborated that for some years before his death he conversed and corresponded in it with several of his pupils, and was preparing a dictionary of Alwato, a portion of which was in type at the time of his decease. The philosophy evolved from universology he called “Integralism.” In it he believed would be found the ultimate reconciliation of the great thinkers of all schools and the scientific adjustment of freedom and order, not by a superficial eclecticism, but by a radical adjustment of all the possible forms of thought, belief, and idea. In 1882 he instituted a series of conferences known as the “Colloquium,” for the interchange of ideas between men of the utmost diversity of religious, philosophical, and political views. Among those associated with him in this were Prof. Louis Elsberg, Rev. Dr. Rylance, Rev. Dr. Newman, Rabbi Gottheil, Rev. Dr. Sampson, Rev. Dr. Collyer, Prof. J. S. Sedgwick, T. B. Wakeman, and Rabbi Huebsch. Mr. Andrews was a prominent member of the Liberal club of New York, and for some time was its vice-president. His contributions to periodicals are numerous. He was a member of the American academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Ethnological Society. His works include “Comparison of the Common Law with the Roman, French, or Spanish Civil Law on Entails and other Limited Property in Real Estate” (New Orleans, 1839); “Cost the Limit of Price” (New York, 1851); “The Constitution of Government in the Sovereignty of the Individual” (1851); “Love, Marriage, and Divorce, and the Sovereignty of the Individual: a Discussion by Henry James, Horace Greeley, and Stephen Pearl Andrews,” edited by Stephen Pearl Andrews (1853); “Discoveries in Chinese; or, The Symbolism of the Primitive Characters of the Chinese System of Writing as a Contribution to Philology and Ethnology and a Practical Aid in the Acquisition of the Chinese Language” (1854); “Constitution or Organic Basis of the New Catholic Church” (1860); “The Great American Crisis,” a series of papers published in the “Continental Monthly” (1863-'64); “A Universal Language” (“Continental Monthly,” 1864); “The Primary Synopsis of Universology and Alwato” (1871); “Primary Grammar of Alwato” (Boston, 1877); “The Labor Dollar” (1881); “Elements of Universology” (New York, 1881); “Ideological Etymology” (1881); “Transactions of the Colloquium, with Documents and Exhibits” (vols. i and ii, New York, 1882-'83); “The Church and Religion of the Future,” a series of tracts (1886); and text-books of phonography. His dictionary of Alwato was published posthumously by his sons. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ANDRUS, Joseph R., Reverend, clergyman, agent of the American Colonization Society.  Went to Africa to establish a colony.  He died on the expedition.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 62)

 

 

ANDRUS, Sylvester (Gates, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 588)

 

 

ANTHONY, Daniel Read, 1824-1904, newspaper publisher, abolitionist, member Hicksite Quakers, opposed slavery, active in temperance and women’s rights movements, brother of Susan B. Anthony.  Publisher of the Leavenworth Times newspaper in Leavenworth, Kansas. Lieutenant Colonel, 7th Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, 1861-1862.  Mayor, Leavenworth, Kansas, 1863. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 169)

 

 

ANTHONY, Henry Bowen, 1815-1884, Republican, statesman, newspaper editor, Governor of Rhode Island, U.S. Senator 1859-1884, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 81-82; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 316-317; Anthony, Henry Bowen, A Memoir, 1885; Congressional Globe)

 

ANTHONY, Henry Bowen, statesman, b. of Quaker parents, in Coventry, R. I., 1 April, 1815; d. in Providence, 2 Sept., 1884. He was descended in a direct line from John Anthony, who came from England about 1640 and settled on the island of .Rhode Island. He was graduated at Brown University in 1833, and· devoted himself to literary pursuits. He became editor of the Providence "Journal" in 1838, and in 1840 was admitted into partnership, the paper being published under the name of Knowles, Vose & Anthony till the death of .Mr. Vose in 1848, when it was continued under the name of Knowles & .Anthony till 1 Jan., 1863, when it became Knowles, Anthony & Danielson.  Mr. .Anthony gave himself up to his newspaper with all the energy and enthusiasm of his nature. No amount of work staggered him; early and late he was in his office, and for many years he had around him a brilliant circle of young men. He early developed poetical taste, and there are several pieces of merit that bear his name. His mind was quick and accurate, and he had a wonderful memory; and his editorial labors contributed largely to the growth of the art of journalism in New England. He had many offers to go to other cities and take charge of newspapers, but declined them all. In 1837 he married Sally Rhodes (daughter of the late Christopher Rhodes, of Pawtuxet), who died in 1854. In 1849, and again in 1850, he was elected governor of Rhode Island. .As a whig at the first election he had a majority of 1,556; at the second, fewer than 1,000 votes were cast against him. He declined a third election, and gave himself once more entirely to his editorial work. This continued till 1859, when he was elected, as a republican, to the U. S. senate, where he remained by reelections till his death. During his service in the senate he still contributed largely to his paper. Three times he was elected president protem. of the senate—in March, 1863, in March, 1871, and in January, 1884; but the last time his failing health prevented him from accepting. He was exceedingly popular in Washington, and often spoken of as "the handsome senator." He served on many important committees, and was twice the chairman of the committee on printing, his practical knowledge of that subject enabling him to introduce many reforms in the government printing. He was at different times a member of the committees on claims, on naval affairs, on mines and mining, and on post-offices and post-roads. On the trial of President Johnson he voted for impeachment. He was not a frequent or brilliant speaker in the senate, but always talked to the point, and commanded attention. He shone more as a writer than as a speaker. His memorial and historical addresses were models of composition. .A volume of these addresses, printed privately in 1875, contains a tribute to Stephen .A. Douglas, delivered 9 July. 1861; one to John R. Thompson, 4 Dec., 1862; one to William P. Fessenden, 14 Dec., 1869; and three different addresses on Charles Sumner-the first on the announcement of his death in the senate; the second when Mr. Anthony, as one of the committee appointed by the senate, gave up the body of Mr. Sumner to the governor of Massachusetts; and the third when Mr. Boutwell presented in the senate resolutions of respect for Mr. Sumner's memory. Mr. Anthony also spoke in the senate on the death of William .A. Buckingham, and on 21 Jan., 1876, delivered a short address on the death of Henry Wilson, vice-president of the United States. When the statues of Gen. Greene and Roger Williams were presented to congress by the state of Rhode Island, Mr. Anthony made the addresses, and he also made a short address at the presentation of the statues of Trumbull and Sherman. One of his best efforts was .when he introduced the bill providing for repairing and protecting the monument erected in Newport, R. I., to the memory of the chevalier de Tiernay, commander of the French naval forces sent out in 1780 to aid the American revolution. Mr. Anthony had a warm and affectionate nature, genial manner, a commanding figure, and was a perfect specimen of a man. In his last days, with manly courage, he calmly waited for the end. As soon as his death was known, Gov. Bourn and Mayor Doyle issued proclamations to that effect, and called upon the people to attend the funeral, which took place from the first Congregational church in Providence on Saturday, 6 Sept. It was the largest funeral ever known in Rhode Island. Mr. Anthony bequeathed a portion of his library, known as the "Harris Collection of American Poetry," to Brown university. It consists of about 6,000 volumes, mostly small books, and many of them exceedingly rare. It was begun half a century ago by the late Albert G. Greene, continued by Caleb Fiske Harris, and, after his death, completed by his kinsman, the late senator. The Rev. Dr. J. C. Stockbridge, a member of the board of trustees of the university, is preparing an annotated catalogue of the collection. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 81-82)

 

 

ANTHONY, Susan Brownell, 1820-1906, American Anti-Slavery Society, reformer, abolitionist, orator, leader of the female suffrage movement, radical egalitarian, temperance movement leader, founded Women’s National Loyal League with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1863 to fight for cause of abolition, co-founded American Equal Rights Association (AERA) in 1866 to fight for universal suffrage.  (Anthony, 1954; Barry, 1988; Harper, 1899; Harper, 1998; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 169-170, 291, 465, 519; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 82; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 318-321; Harper, Ida Husted, 1899, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony; Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1885, Our Famous Women)

 

ANTHONY, Susan Brownell, reformer, b. in South Adams, Mass., 15 Feb., 1820. Daniel Anthony, her father, a cotton manufacturer, was a liberal Quaker, who educated his daughters with the idea of self-support, and employed skilful teachers in his own house. After completing her education at a Friends' boarding-school in Philadelphia, she taught in New York state from 1835 to 1850. Her father removed in 1826 to Washington co., N. Y., and in 1846 settled at Rochester. Miss Anthony first spoke in public in 1847, and from that time took part in the temperance movement, organizing societies and lecturing. In 1851 she called a temperance convention in Albany, after being refused admission to a previous convention on account of her sex. In 1852 the Woman's New York State Temperance Society was organized. Through her exertions, and those of Mrs. E. C. Stanton, women came to be admitted to educational and other conventions with the right to speak, vote, and serve on committees. About 1857 she became prominent among the agitators for the abolition of slavery. In 1858 she made a report, in a teachers' convention at Troy, in favor of the co-education of the sexes. Her energies have been chiefly directed to securing equal civil rights for women. In 1854-'55 she held conventions in each county of New York in the cause of female suffrage, and since then she has addressed annual appeals and petitions to the legislature. She was active in securing the passage of the act of the New York legislature of 1860, giving to married women the possession of their earnings, the guardianship of their children, etc. During the war she devoted herself to the women's loyal league, which petitioned congress in favor of the 13th amendment. In 1860 she started a petition in favor of leaving out the word “male” in the 14th amendment, and worked with the national woman suffrage association to induce congress to secure to her sex, the right of voting. In 1867 she went to Kansas with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone, and there obtained 9,000 votes in favor of woman suffrage. In 1868, with the cooperation of Mrs. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, and with the assistance of George F. Train, she began, in New York city, the publication of a weekly paper called “The Revolutionist,” devoted to the emancipation of women. In 1872 Miss Anthony cast ballots at the state and congressional election in Rochester, in order to test the application of the 14th and 15th amendments of the U. S. constitution. She was indicted for illegal voting, and was fined by Justice Hunt, but, in accordance with her defiant declaration, never paid the penalty. Between 1870 and 1880 she lectured in all the northern and several of the southern states more than one hundred times a year. In 1881 she wrote, with the assistance of her co-editors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, “The History of Woman Suffrage” in two volumes. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 82.

 

 

APLIN, William, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842

 

 

APPLETON, General James, 1786-1862, temperance reformer, abolitionist leader, soldier, clergyman.  Leader of the anti-slavery Liberty Party. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 301, 405n12; Wiley, 1886; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 82; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 327)

 

APPLETON, James, temperance reformer, b. in Ipswich, Mass., 14 Feb., 1786; d. there, 25 Aug., 1862. When a young man he was elected to the legislature of his native state, and during the war with Great Britain he served as a colonel of Massachusetts militia, and after the close of the war was made a brigadier-general. During his subsequent residence at Portland, Me., he was elected to the legislature in 1836-'37, but he returned finally to his native town, where he died. By his speeches and publications he exercised great influence upon public sentiment in favor of abolition and total abstinence. In his report to the Maine legislature in 1837 he was the first to expound the principle embodied in the Maine law. See his “Life,” by S. H. Gay. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 82.

 

 

ARCHER, Samuel, 1771-1839?, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, merchant, importer.  Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 39)

 

 

ARCHIBALD, James, Lawrence, Kansas, abolitionist.  Father of abolitionist Julia A. Holmes.  Active in the Underground Railroad.

 

 

ARMAT, Thomas (Armatt), abolitionist leader, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Guardians, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787  (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nash, 1991, p. 129; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

ARMSTRONG, General Samuel Chapman, 1839-1893, American Missionary Association (AMA). (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 73, 166, 506, 507)

 

 

ARNOLD, Isaac Newton, 1815-1884, lawyer, historian, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives 1860-1864, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Republican.  Introduced anti-slavery bill in Congress.  Served as an officer in the Union Army.  Active in Free Soil movement of 1848. Protested Fugitive Slave Law, October 1850. Outspoken opponent of slavery.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 96; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 368-369; Congressional Globe)

 

ARNOLD, Isaac Newton, lawyer, b. in Hartwick, Otsego co., N. Y., 30 Nov., 1815; d. in Chicago, 24 April, 1884. His father, Dr. George W. Arnold, was a native of Rhode Island, whence he removed to western New York in 1800. After attending the district and select schools, Isaac Arnold was thrown on his own resources at the age of fifteen. For several years he taught school a part of each year, earning enough to study law, and at the age of twenty was admitted to the bar. In 1836 he removed to Chicago, where he spent the rest of his life, and was prominent as a lawyer and in politics. He was elected city clerk of Chicago in 1837, and, beginning in 1843, served several terms in the legislature. The state was then heavily in debt, and Mr. Arnold became the acknowledged champion of those who were opposed to repudiation. In 1844 he was a presidential elector, and in 1860 was elected to congress as a republican, serving two terms. At the battle of Bull Run he acted as volunteer aide to Col. Hunter, and did good service in caring for the wounded. While in congress he was chairman of the committee on the defences and fortifications of the great lakes and rivers, and afterward chairman of the committee on manufactures, serving also as member of the committee on roads and canals. He voted for the bill abolishing slavery in the district of Columbia, and in March, 1862, he introduced a bill prohibiting slavery in every place under national control. This bill was passed on 19 June, 1862, after much resistance, and on 15 Feb., 1864, Mr. Arnold introduced in the house of representatives a resolution, which was passed, declaring that the constitution of the United States should be so amended as to abolish slavery. His ablest speech in congress was on the confiscation bill, and was made 2 May, 1862. In 1865 President Johnson appointed him sixth auditor to the U. S. treasury. Mr. Arnold was an admirable public speaker, and delivered addresses before various literary societies, both at home and abroad. Ha had been intimate with Abraham Lincoln for many years before Mr. Lincoln's election to the presidency, and in 1866 he published a biography of him (new ed., rewritten and enlarged, Chicago, 1885). This was followed in 1879 by a “Life of Benedict Arnold,” which, while acknowledging the enormity of Arnold's treason, vindicates and praises him in other respects. The author claimed no relationship with the subject of his work. His life of Lincoln is valuable for the clearness with which it shows the historical relations of the president to the great events of his administration; and the author's death is said to have been caused, in part, by his persistent labor in completing his last revision of this work. Mr. Arnold was for many years president of the Chicago historical society, and Hon. E. B. Washburne delivered an address on his life before the society, 21 Oct., 1884 (Chicago, 1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 96.

 

 

ARTHUR, William, Hinesburgh, Vermont, abolitionist, manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

ASHBY, William, Newburyport, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1849-1850; 1852-1860

 

 

ASHLEY, James Mitchell, 1824-1896, Ohio, Underground Railroad activist. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Adamant opponent of slavery.  Member, Free Soil Party, 1848.  Joined Republican Party in 1854. (Dumond, 1961, p. 339; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 110; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 389-390; Congressional Globe)

 

ASHLEY, James Monroe, congressman, b. near Pittsburg, Pa., 14 Nov., 1824. His education was acquired while a clerk on boats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Later he worked in printing-offices, and became editor of the “Dispatch,” and afterward of the “Democrat,” at Portsmouth, Ohio. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1849, but never practised. Subsequently he settled in Toledo, where he became interested in the wholesale drug business. He was elected to congress as a republican in 1859, and was reelected four times, serving continuously from 5 Dec., 1859, till 3 March, 1869. He was for four terms chairman of the committee on territories, and it was under his supervision that the territories of Arizona, Idaho, and Montana were organized. He was nominated for the 41st congress, but was defeated, and in 1869 was appointed governor of Montana. In 1866 he was a delegate to the loyalist convention held in Philadelphia. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 110.

 

 

ASHMUN, George, 1870-1823, Massachusetts, statesman, lawyer, Congressman.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 111)

 

ASHMUN, George, statesman, b. in Blandford, Mass., 25 Dec., 1804; d. in Springfield, Mass., 17 July, 1870. He was graduated at Yale in 1823, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1828 at Springfield, Mass. In 1833, 1835, 1836, and 1841 he was elected a member of the lower branch of the Massachusetts legislature, and during the last term he was speaker of the house. He was a state senator in '38-'9. He was elected to congress in 1845, and served continuously until 1851, being a member of the committees on the judiciary, Indian affairs, and rules. He was a great admirer of Daniel Webster, and although he did not follow the latter in his abandonment of the Wilmot proviso, defended him in the ensuing quarrels; his replies to Charles J. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, and Charles Allen, of Massachusetts, when they assailed Webster with personal and political bitterness, were among the strongest efforts of his career in congress. Subsequent to his retirement from political life he devoted his attention to the practice of his profession. In 1860 he was president of the Chicago convention that nominated Lincoln for president. It is said to have been through his influence that in 1861 Senator Douglas, of Illinois, was won over to the support of the administration, and the results of a subsequent interview at the White house between Lincoln, Douglas, and Ashmun, were of great importance to the country. In 1866 he was chosen a delegate to the national union convention, held in Philadelphia, but he took no part in its deliberations. He was also for some time a director of the Union Pacific railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I.

 

 

ASHMUN, Jehudi, 1794-1828, Washington, DC, educator, editor, missionary.  Published The African Intelligencer, a paper for the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 111; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 394; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 73-74, 94-95, 101, 150-162)

 

ASHMUN, Jehudi, missionary, b. in Champlain, N. Y., in April, 1794 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 25 Aug., 1828. He was graduated at the university of Vermont in 1816, taught for a short time in the Maine charity school, prepared for the Congregational ministry, and became a professor in the Bangor theological seminary. Removing to the District of Columbia, he united with the Protestant Episcopal church and became editor of the “Theological Repertory,” a monthly magazine published in the interest of that church. His true mission was inaugurated when he became agent of the colonization society, and took charge of a reënforcement for the colony at Liberia, on the western coast of Africa. He sailed 19 June, 1822, and found the colony in a wretched state of disorder and demoralization, and apparently on the point of extinction through incursions of the neighboring savages. With extraordinary energy and ability he undertook the task of reorganization. In November he was attacked by a force of savages, whose numbers he estimated at 800. With only 35 men and boys to help him, he repelled the attack, which was renewed by still greater numbers a few days later, with a like result. He displayed remarkable personal valor throughout these encounters, and when, six years later, his health compelled him to leave Africa, he had established a comparatively prosperous colony 1,200 strong. He died almost immediately after his arrival in the United States. He was author of “Memoirs of Samuel Bacon” (Washington, 1822), and of many contributions to the “African Repository.” His life was written by R. R. Gurley (New York, 1839). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ASHTON, Henry, colonel, soldier.  Manager and Vice President of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 208)

 

 

 

ATKINSON, Edward, 1827-1905, industrial entrepreneur, economist, abolitionist, activist.  Opposed slavery as a supporter of the Free Soil Party.  Also a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which aided fugitive slaves.  Atkinson also supported John Brown’s efforts by supplying him rifles and ammunition for his raid on the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859.  Opposed Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt’s imperialist ambitions in the Philippines and in Cuba.  After 1898, became a full-time supporter of the American Anti-imperialist League.  (Pease & Pease, 1972; Appletons’ Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1900, Vol. I, p. 114; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 407)

 

ATKINSON, Edward, economist, b. in Brookline, Mass., 10 Feb., 1827. His education was obtained principally at private schools, and his reputation has been made by the numerous pamphlets and papers that he has contributed to current literature on economic topics. The subjects treated embrace such general topics as banking, competition, cotton, free trade, mechanical arts, and protection. The most important of his addresses are “Banking,” delivered at Saratoga in 1880 before the American Bankers' Association; “Insufficiency of Economic Legislation,” delivered before the American Social Science Association; “What makes the Rate of Wages,” before the British Association for the Advancement of Science; address to the chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics at their convention in Boston in 1885; vice-presidential address on the “Application of Science to the Production and Consumption of Food,” before the American association for the advancement of science, in 1885; and “Prevention of Loss by Fire,” before the millers of the west, in 1885. His pamphlets and books include the following: “Cheap Cotton by Free Labor” (Boston, 1861); “The Collection of Revenue” (1866); “Argument for the Conditional Reform of the Legal-Tender Act” (1874); “Our National Domain” (1879); “Labor and Capital-Allies, not Enemies” (New York, 1880); “The Fire Engineer, the Architect, and the Underwriter” (Boston, 1880); “The Railroads of the United States” (1880); “Cotton Manufacturers of the United States” (1880); “Addresses at Atlanta, Ga., on the International Exposition” (New York, 1881); “What is a Bank” (1881); “Right Methods of Preventing Fires in Mills” (Boston, 1881); “The Railway and the Farmer” (New York, 1881); “The Influence of Boston Capital upon Manufactures,” in “Memorial History of Boston” (Boston, 1882); and “The Distribution of Products” (New York, 1885). In 1886 he began the preparation of a series of monographs on economic questions for periodical publication. Through his efforts was established the Boston manufacturers' mutual fire insurance company, an association consisting of a number of manufacturers who, for their mutual protection, adopted rules and regulations for the economical and judicious management of their plants. He has invented an improved cooking-stove, called the “Aladdin Cooker.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 114. 

 

 

ATKINSON, Elizabeth, abolitionist, Rochester Female Anti-Slavery Society (RFASS), Rochester, New York (Yellin, 1994, p. 26)

 

 

ATKINSON, George, Mullica Hills, New Jersey, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1848-52, Vice-President, 1850-54

 

 

ATKINSON, John, New Jersey, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1842-48

 

 

ATKINSON, William, Petersburg, Virginia, Resident Agent for the American Colonization Society.  Worked with Secretary Gurley.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 109-179)

 

 

ATLEE, Dr. Edwin A., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker. Vice president, 1833-1836,  and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Free Produce Society, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 140; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

AVERY, Courtland, abolitionist, agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (Dumond, 1961, p. 185)

 

 

AYCRIGG, John B., Paramus, New Jersey, American Colonization Society, Director, 1839-1840.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

Ayres, Eli, Dr., Baltimore, Maryland.  Agent of the American Colonization Society.  Went to Africa on its second expedition to establish a colony there.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 8, 11, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 51, 54; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 62-68 passim, 85, 86, 87, 90-91, 111)

 

 

AYERS, N. S., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

 

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BABBIT, W. D., Minnesota, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1857-59

 

 

BACON, Benjamin C., abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Recording Secretary, 1835-36

 

 

BACON, Joseph N., Newton, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

BACON, Leonard, Reverend, 1802-1881, Detroit, Michigan, clergyman, newspaper editor, author, opponent of slavery.  Supporter of the American Colonization Society in New England.  Editor of the Christian Spectator, 1826-1838.  In 1843, helped establish The New Englander, where he wrote many anti-slavery articles.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 129-130; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 473, 479; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 77-79, 119-120, 126, 127, 130-131, 134, 161, 204, 205, 231)

 

BACON, Leonard, clergyman, b. in Detroit, Mich., 19 Feb., 1802; d. in New Haven, Conn., 24 Dec., 1881. He was graduated at Yale in 1820, and studied theology at Andover. In March, 1825, he was ordained pastor of the 1st church in New Haven, and continued in this office until his death—fifty-seven years. From 1866, being relieved of the main burden of pastoral work, he occupied the chair of didactic theology in Yale until 1871, and thereafter was lecturer on ecclesiastical polity and American church history. He was a representative of the liberal orthodoxy and historic polity of the ancient New England churches. His life was incessantly occupied in the discussion of questions bearing on the interests of humanity and religion. Probably no subject of serious importance that came into general notice during his long career escaped his earnest and active attention. A public question which absorbed much of his thought after 1823 was that of slavery. His constant position was that of resistance to slavery on the one hand, and of resistance to the extravagances of certain abolitionists on the other; and he thought himself well rewarded for forty years of debate, in which, as he was wont to say of himself, quoting the language of Baxter, that, “where others had had one enemy he had had two,” when he learned that Abraham Lincoln referred to his volume on slavery as the source of his own clear and sober convictions on that subject. He was a strong supporter of the union throughout the civil war, and took active part in the various constitutional, economical, and moral discussions to which it gave rise. He was influential in securing the repeal of the “omnibus clause” in the Connecticut divorce law. In March, 1874, he was moderator of the council that rebuked Henry Ward Beecher's society for irregularly expelling Theodore Tilton, and in February, 1876, of the advisory council called by the Plymouth society. During his later years he was, by general consent, regarded as the foremost man among American Congregationalists. He became known in oral debate, in which he excelled, by his books, and preeminently by his contributions to the periodical press. From 1826 till 1838 he was one of the editors of the “Christian Spectator.” In 1843 he aided in establishing “The New Englander” review, to which he continued to contribute copiously until his death. In that publication appeared many articles from his pen denouncing, on religious and political grounds, the policy of the government in respect to slavery. With Drs. Storrs and Thompson he founded the “Independent” in 1847, and continued with them in the editorship of it for sixteen years. He had great delight in historical studies, especially in the history of the Puritans, both in England and in America. Besides innumerable pamphlets and reviews, He published “Select Works of Richard Baxter,” with a biography (1830); “Manual for Young Church-Members” (1833); “Thirteen Historical Discourses” on the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the 1st church in New Haven (1839); “Views and Reviews; an Appeal against. Division” (1840); “Slavery Discussed in Occasional Essays” (1846); “Christian Self-Culture” (1862); “Four Commemorative Discourses” (1866); “Genesis of the New England Churches” (1874); “Sketch of Rev. David Bacon” (1876); and “Three Civic Orations for New Haven” (1879). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BACON, Samuel, 1782-1820, Sturbridge, Massachusetts, lawyer, clergyman, soldier, editor.  Agent for the American Colonization society.  He later became an employee of the U.S. government.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 132; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 56-63 passim)

 

BACON, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Sturbridge, Mass., 22 July, 1781; d. in Kent, Cape Shilling, Africa, 3 May, 1820. He was graduated at Harvard in 1808, and then studied law, which he subsequently practised in Pennsylvania. For a time he edited the “Worcester Ægis,” and later the Lancaster, Pa., “Hive,” and then was ordained in the Protestant Episcopal ministry. In 1819 he was appointed by the U. S. government one of three agents to colonize Africa with negroes, under the auspices of the American colonization society. The expedition sailed for Sierra Leone, reaching that port on 9 March, 1820, and a settlement was made at Campelar, on the Sherboro river. Here his two associates died, and he in declining health was removed to Kent, where his last days were spent. See “Memoirs of Rev. Samuel Bacon,” by Jehudi Ashmun (1822).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BAER, Abraham, Stark County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39

 

 

BAILEY, Francis, abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

BAILEY, Gamaliel, 1807-1859, Maryland, abolitionist leader, journalist, newspaper publisher and editor.  Publisher and editor of National Era (founded 1847), of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Co-founded Cincinnati Anti-Slavery Society in 1835.  Corresponding Secretary, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. Assistant and Co-Editor, The Abolitionist newspaper.  Liberty Party.  Published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1851-1852. (Blue, 2005, pp. 21, 25-26, 28, 30, 34, 52, 55, 67, 148-149, 166, 192, 202, 223, 248; Dumond, 1961, pp. 163, 223, 264, 301; Filler, 1960, pp. 78, 150, 194-195, 245, 252; Harrold, 1995; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4, 5, 14, 23, 24, 26, 27, 44, 46, 54, 61, 63, 69, 88-89, 91, 103, 106; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 185; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 136; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 496-497; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 1, p. 881)

 

BAILEY, Gamaliel, journalist, b. in Mount Holly, N. J., 3 Dec., 1807; d. at sea, 5 June, 1859. He studied medicine in Philadelphia, and after obtaining his degree in 1828 sailed as a ship's doctor to China. He began his editorial career in the office of the “Methodist Protestant” in Baltimore, but in 1831 he removed to Cincinnati, where he served as hospital physician during the cholera epidemic. His sympathies being excited on the occasion of the expulsion of a number of students on account of anti-slavery views from Lane seminary, he became an active agitator against slavery, and in 1836 he associated himself with James G. Birney in the conduct of the “Cincinnati Philanthropist,” the earliest anti-slavery newspaper in the west, of which in 1837 he became sole editor. Twice in that year, and again in 1841, the printing-office was sacked by a mob. He issued the paper regularly until after the presidential election of 1844, when he was selected to direct the publication of a new abolitionist organ at Washington. The first number of the “National Era,” published under the auspices of the American and foreign anti-slavery society, appeared 1 Jan., 1847. In 1848 an angry mob laid siege to the office for three days, and finally separated under the influence of an eloquent harangue by the editor. The “Era,” in which “Uncle Tom's Cabin” originally appeared, ably presented the opinions of the anti-slavery party. Dr. Bailey died while on a voyage to Europe for his health.   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 136.

 

 

BAILEY, John, New Bedford, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1849-50, 52-60-

 

 

BAILEY, Joseph, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888; Congressional Globe)

 

 

BAILEY, Kiah, Hardwich, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-39

 

 

BAILEY, Wesley, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

BAILEY, William S., newspaper editor of the Newport News in Newport, Kentucky.  In the 1850s, his newspaper office was wrecked and his home burned down by angry mobs.  Opposed slavery and said, “The system of slavery enslaves all who labor for an honest living.”

 

 

BAIRD, Absalom, 1824-1905, abolitionist leader, Washington Society (Basker, 2005, p. 225; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 504)

 

 

BAIRD, Robert, Reverend, 1798-1863, Princeton, New Jersey, clergyman.  Officer, New Jersey auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 142-143; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 511; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 55)

 

BAIRD, Robert, clergyman, b. in Fayette co., Pa., 6 Oct., 1798; d. in Yonkers, N. Y., 15 March, 1863. He was graduated at Jefferson college, Pa., in 1818, and taught a year at Bellefont, where he began his career as a newspaper writer. He studied theology at Princeton, 1819-'22, and taught an academy there for five years, preaching occasionally. In 1827 he became agent in New Jersey for the American Bible society, engaged in the distribution of Bibles among the poor, and also labored among the destitute churches of the Presbyterian denomination as an agent of the New Jersey missionary society. In 1829 he became agent for the American Sunday-school union, and travelled extensively for the society. In 1835 he went to Europe, where he remained eight years, devoting himself to the promotion of Protestant Christianity in southern Europe, and subsequently to the advocacy of temperance reform in northern Europe. On the formation of the foreign evangelical society, since merged in the American and foreign Christian union, he became its agent and corresponding secretary. In 1842 he published “A View of Religion in America” in Glasgow. In 1843 he returned home, and for three years engaged in promoting the spread of Protestantism in Europe. In 1846 he visited Europe to attend the world's temperance convention in Stockholm and the meeting of the evangelical alliance in London, and on his return he delivered a series of lectures on the “Continent of Europe.” In 1862 he vindicated in London before large audiences the cause of the union against secession with vigorous eloquence. Among his other published works are a “View of the Valley of the Mississippi” (1832); “History of the Temperance Societies” (1836); “Visit to Northern Europe” (1841); “Protestantism in Italy” (Boston, 1845); “Impressions and Experiences of the West Indies and North America in 1849 (Philadelphia, 1850), revised, with a supplement, in 1855; “History of the· Albigenses, Waldenses, and Vaudois.” French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Finnish, and Russian translations were made of the “History of the Temperance Societies,” and French, German, Dutch, and Swedish translations of the “View of Religion in America.” See “Life of the Rev. R. Baird,” by H.M. Baird (New York, 1865). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BAKER, Hilary, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, reorganized April 23, 1787 (Nash, 1991, p. 124)

 

 

BAKER, Samuel, Dr., Maryland, professor.  Manager and charter member of the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, p. 20)

 

 

BALCH, Hezekiah, 1741-1810, abolitionist, clergyman, educator.  Co-founder, Tusculum College, originally Greenville College.  Taught abolitionist Evangelicalism in Eastern Tennessee in the 1830s, which became part of the early abolitionist movement in the state.  (Balch, 1897; Balch, 1907; Sprague, 1857; Temple, 1912)

 

 

BALCH, Stephen B., Georgetown, DC, American Colonization Society, Founding officer and Board of Managers, 1816, Manager, 1833-1834.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 26, 28, 30)

 

 

BALDWIN, Augustus, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

BALDWIN, Ebenezer, Reverend, anti-slavery writer (Zilversmit, 1967, p. 107)

 

 

BALDWIN, Jesse G., Middletown, Connecticut, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-41

 

 

BALDWIN, John Denison, 1809-1883, journalist, clergyman, Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives 1863-1867, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Editor of the anti-slavery journal, Republican in Hartford, Connecticut.  Owner, editor of Free-Soil Charter Oak at Hartford, Connecticut.  In 1852 became editor of the Commonwealth in Boston.  Supported negro causes. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 148-149; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 537; Congressional Globe)

 

BALDWIN, John Denison, journalist, b. in North Stonington, Conn., 28 Sept., 1809; d. in Worcester, Mass., 8 July, 1883. He supported himself from the age of fourteen, pursued academical, legal, and theological studies in New Haven, and received the honorary degree of master of arts from Yale college. He was licensed to preach in 1833, was pastor of a church in North Branford, Conn., for several years, and made a special study of archaeology. He became editor of the “Republican,” an anti-slavery journal, published in Hartford, and subsequently of the “Commonwealth,” published in Boston. From 1859 he owned and edited the “Worcester Spy.” He was elected to congress in 1863, and reelected twice. He published “Raymond Hill,” a collection of poems (Boston, 184 7); “Prehistoric Nations” (New York, 1869, and “Ancient America” (1872). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 148-149.

 

 

BALDWIN, John, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS), founded 1775, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Basker, 2005, p. 80)

 

 

BALDWIN, Mathias William, 1795-1866, abolitionist, American inventor, machinery manufacturer, industrialist.  Founder, Baldwin Locomotive Works.  Founder, Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.  Strong supporter of the abolition movement in the United States.  (Brown, 1995; Kelly, 1946; Westing, 1966; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 149; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 542)

 

BALDWIN, Matthias William, manufacturer, b. in Elizabethtown, N. J., 10 Dec., 1795; d. in Philadelphia, 7 Sept., 1866. Having a natural inclination for mechanical contrivances, he was apprenticed at the age of sixteen to a firm of jewellers in Frankford, Pa. On the expiration of his service he became a journeyman, and in 1819 he established his own business. While thus occupied he devised and patented a process for plating with gold, which has since been universally adopted. He then undertook the manufacture of book-binders' tools and calico-printers' rolls, and his factory was the first to render this country independent of foreign supply. About 1828 his attention was directed to the manufacture of steam-engines, and at this time he constructed a five-horse-power engine, which was employed in his own works. The commendations that the new engine received induced him to enter into the manufacture of stationary engines, and his business became extensive and profitable. In the latter part of 1830 he was permitted to see a locomotive which had just been received from England, and after four months' labor he succeeded in producing a beautiful model, which was exhibited in Philadelphia. His first locomotive, called the “Ironsides,” was made for the Philadelphia and Germantown railway, and was placed on the road 23 Nov., 1832. It was a success, and “Paulson's American Advertiser” of that period contains the following notice: “The locomotive-engine, built by M. W. Baldwin, of this city, will depart daily, when the weather is fair, with a train of passenger-cars. On rainy days horses will be attached.” During the next three years he received orders for nine or ten locomotives, and in 1835 he moved to the corner of Broad and Hamilton streets. His inventions and improvements in the construction of locomotives are very numerous, and among these perhaps the most important was the flexible truck locomotive, patented in August, 1842. His works have acquired a world-wide reputation, and his locomotives have been sent to nearly every foreign country. It is estimated that over 1,500 locomotives left these works completed prior to his death. Mr. Baldwin was a member of the constitutional convention of 1837, and in 1853 of the state legislature. He was also for several years president of the Horticultural Society of Philadelphia. An extended sketch of his life, by the Rev. Wolcott Calkins, has been privately printed. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 149. 

 


 

BALDWIN, Roger Sherman, 1793-1863, New Haven, Connecticut, lawyer, jurist, statesman, U.S. Senator.  Lead counsel, with John Quincy Adams, for the slaves of the Amistad ship.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 149-150; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 542)

 

BALDWIN, Roger Sherman, jurist, b. in New Haven, Conn., 4 Jan., 1793; d. there, 19 Feb., 1863. He affords an admirable instance of all that is best in the intellectual and moral life of New England. By descent and education he was of genuine Puritan stock. His father, Simeon Baldwin, was descended from one of the original New Haven colonists, and his mother was the daughter of Roger Sherman, a signer of the declaration of independence, both families being from the earliest times identified with the cause of civil and religious liberty. Roger Sherman Baldwin entered Yale at the age of fourteen, and was graduated with high honors in 1811. Beginning his legal studies in his father's office, he finished them in the then famous law school of Judges Reeve and Gould, at Litchfield, Conn. By the time that he was ready for admission to the bar, In 1814, he had developed a mastery of the principles of law that was considered very remarkable in so young a man. His habits of concentration, his command of pure and elegant English, the precision and definiteness of his methods, soon brought him into prominence in his profession, and at a comparatively early age he attained distinction at the bar. His preference was for cases involving the great principles of jurisprudence rather than those that depended upon appeals to the feelings of jurymen. Nevertheless, he commanded rare success as a jury lawyer, being gifted with a certain dignified and lofty eloquence that carried conviction and sustained the current belief that he would not undertake the defence of a cause of whose justice he was not personally convinced. One of the most famous cases in which he was engaged was that of the “Amistad captives” (1839), now well-nigh forgotten, but which assumed international importance at the time. A shipload of slaves, bound to Cuba, had gained possession of the vessel. They were encountered adrift on the high seas by an American vessel and brought into New York, where they were cared for. The Spanish authorities, claimed them as the property of Spanish subjects, and the anti-slavery party at the north, then becoming a formidable element in national politics, interested itself in their behalf. The case was first tried in a Connecticut district court, decided against the Spanish claim, and carried to the supreme court of the United States. The venerable John Quincy Adams and Mr. Baldwin were associated as counsel, the latter practically conducting the case. His plea on this occasion showed such a grasp of the legal technicalities involved, that such men as Chancellor Kent rated him with the leading jurists of the time. After serving his own state in assembly and senate (1837-'41), he was elected governor in 1844, and reëlected for the following term. In 1847 he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Jabez W. Huntington as U. S. senator. He at once took a leading place among the statesmen of the period, was reëlected for a second term, and always advocated the cause of equal rights for all during the heated controversies preceding the outbreak of the civil war. In 1860 he was one of the two electors “at large” for the choice of Mr. Lincoln, and in 1860 was appointed by Gov. Buckingham a member of the “peace congress” of 1861, consisting of five delegates from each state, who, it was hoped, would devise a basis of amicable settlement of the differences between north and south. In his opening address, John Tyler, of Virginia, president of the congress, said: “Connecticut is here, and she comes, I doubt not, in the spirit of Roger Sherman, whose name, with our very children, has become a household word, and who was in life the embodiment of that sound, practical sense which befits the great law-giver and constructor of governments.” The labors of the congress came to naught, owing mainly to the precipitancy with which some of the southern states passed ordinances of secession. This was the last public service undertaken by Mr. Baldwin other than the personal assistance which every patriotic citizen lent to his country during the early years of civil war. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BALDWIN, Simeon, Judge, 1761-1851, New Haven, Connecticut.  Member of the American Colonization Society committee in New Haven.  Secretary of the Connecticut Society for the Promotion and Freedom and for the Relief of Persons Holden in Bondage.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 47; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 149; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 86)

 

 

BALL, Charles, b. 1780, escaped slave, wrote Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, 1837, a pre-Civil War slave narrative. (Mason, 2006, p. 169; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 185-186, 428, 574-575)

 

 

BALL, Lucy, Boston, Massachusetts, leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 199; Yellin, 1994, pp. 45, 56-57, 56n, 57n, 60-61, 63-64n, 263, 280)

 

 

BALL, Martha Violet, leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 199; Yellin, 1994, pp. 45, 56-57n, 60-61, 63-64n, 263, 280)

 

 

BALL, Mason, Amherst, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-38

 

 

BALLARD, Charles, Worcester, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Executive, Committee, 1859

 

 

BALLARD, James, Bennington, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-35, Manager, 1835-37

 

 

BALLOU, Adin, 1803-1890, Universalist and Unitarian, clergyman, reformer, temperance proponent, advocate of pacifism, writer, founder of Hopedale Community, opposed slavery.  President of the New England Non-Resistance Society.  Supporter of abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison.  Anti-slavery lecturer in Pennsylvania and New York, 1846-1848.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1838-1840, 1840-1860.  (Ballou, 1854; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 556-557; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 48-50; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 83)

 

 

BANCROFT, Eleazer, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

BANCROFT, George, b. 1800, Hampshire County, historian.  Member of the Hampshire County auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 154-156; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 196)

 

BANCROFT, George, historian, b. in Worcester, Mass., 3 Oct., 1800. He is a son of the Rev. Aaron Bancroft. He was prepared for college at Exeter, N. H., was graduated at Harvard in 1817, and went to Germany. At Göttingen, where he resided for two years, he studied German literature under Benecke; French and Italian literature under Artaud and Bunsen; Arabic, Hebrew, and Scripture interpretation under Eichhorn; history under Planck and Heeren; natural history under Blumenbach; and the antiquities and literature of Greece and Rome under Dissen, with whom he took a course of Greek philosophy. In writing from Leipsic, 28 Aug., 1819, to Mrs. Prescott, of Boston, Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell remarks: “It was sad parting, too, from little Bancroft. He is a most interesting youth, and is to make one of our great men.”

In 1820 Bancroft was given the degree of Ph. D. by the university of Göttingen. At this time he selected history as his special branch, having as one of his reasons the desire to see if the observation of masses of men in action would not lead by the inductive method to the establishment of the laws of morality as a science. Removing to Berlin, he became intimate with Schleiermacher, William von Humboldt, Savigny, Lappenberg, and Varnhagen von Ense, and at Jena he made the acquaintance of Goethe. He studied at Heidelberg with the historian Schlosser. In 1822 he returned to the United States and accepted for one year the office of tutor of Greek in Harvard. He delivered several sermons, which produced a favorable impression; but the love of literature proved the stronger attachment. His first publication was a volume of poems (Cambridge, 1823). In the same year, in conjunction with Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell, he opened the Round Hill school at Northampton, Mass.; in 1824 published a translation of Heeren’s “Politics of Ancient Greece” (Boston), and in 1826 an oration, in which he advocated universal suffrage and the foundation of the state on the power of the whole people. In 1830, without his knowledge, he was elected to the legislature, but refused to take his seat, and the next year he declined a nomination, though certain to have been elected, for the state senate. In 1834 he published the first volume of his “History of the United States” (Boston). In 1835 he drafted an address to the people of Massachusetts at the request of the young men’s democratic convention, and in the same year he removed to Springfield, Mass., where he resided for three years, and completed the second volume of his history. In 1838 he was appointed by President Van Buren collector of the port of Boston. In 1844 he was nominated by the democratic party for governor of Massachusetts, and received a very large vote, though not sufficient for election. After the accession of President Polk, Mr. Bancroft became secretary of the navy, and signalized his administration by the establishment of the naval academy at Annapolis, and other reforms and improvements. This institution was devised and completely set at work by Mr. Bancroft alone, who received for the purpose all the appropriations for which he asked. Congress had never been willing to establish a naval academy. He studied the law to ascertain the powers of the secretary, and found that he could order the place where midshipmen should wait for orders; he could also direct the instructors to give lessons to them at sea, and by law had power to follow them to the place of their common residence on shore. With a close economy, the appropriation of the year for the naval service would meet the expense, and the secretary of war could cede an abandoned military post to the navy. So when congress came together they found the midshipmen that were not at sea comfortably housed at Annapolis, protected from the dangers of idleness and city life, and busy at a regular course of study. Seeing what had been done, they accepted the school, which was in full operation, and granted money for the repairs of the buildings. Mr. Bancroft was also influential in obtaining additional appropriations for the Washington observatory and in introducing some new professors of great merit into the corps of instructors, and he suggested a method by which promotion should depend, not on age alone, but also on experience and capacity; but this scheme was never fully developed or applied. While secretary of the navy Mr. Bancroft gave the order, in the event of war with Mexico, to take immediate possession of California, and constantly renewed the order, sending it by every possible channel to the commander of the American squadron in the Pacific; and it was fully carried into effect before he left the navy department. No order, so far as is known, was issued from any other department to take possession of California. See “Life of James Buchanan,” by G. T. Curtis, vol. i. During his term of office he also acted as secretary of war pro tem. for a month, and gave the order to march into Texas, which caused the first occupation of Texas by the United States. From 1846 to 1849 Mr. Bancroft was minister to Great Britain, where he successfully urged upon the British ministry the adoption of more liberal laws of navigation and allegiance. In May, 1867, he was appointed minister to Prussia; in 1868 he was accredited to the North German confederation, and 1871 to the German empire, from which he was recalled at his own request in 1874. While still minister at Berlin he rendered important services in the settlement with Great Britain of the northwestern boundary of the United States. In the reference to the king of Prussia, which was proposed by Mr. Bancroft, the argument of the United States, and the reply to the argument of Great Britain, were written, every word of them, by Mr. Bancroft. Great Britain had long refused to concede that her emigrants to the United States, whether from Great Britain or Ireland, might throw off allegiance to their mother country and become citizens of the United States. The principle involved in this question Mr. Bancroft discussed with the government of Prussia, and in a treaty obtained the formal recognition of the right of expatriation at the will of the individual emigrant, and negotiated with the several German states a corresponding treaty. England watched the course of negotiation, resolving to conform herself to the principles that Bismarck might adopt for Prussia, and followed him in abandoning the claims to perpetual allegiance. After the expiration of the English mission in 1849, Mr. Bancroft took up his residence in the city of New York and continued work on his history. The third volume had appeared in 1840, and volumes 4 to 10 at intervals from 1852 to 1874. In 1876 the work was revised and issued in a centenary edition (6 vols., 12mo, Boston). Volumes 11 and 12 were published first under the title “History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States” (New York, 1882). The last revised edition of the whole work appeared in six volumes (New York, 1884-'85).

Mr. Bancroft has been correspondent of the royal academy of Berlin, and also of the French institute; was made D. C. L. at Oxford in 1849, and Doctor Juris by the university of Bonn in 1868, and in September, 1870, celebrated at Berlin the fiftieth anniversary of receiving his first degree at Göttingen. His minor publications include “An Oration delivered on the 4th of July, 1826, at Northampton, Mass.” (Northampton, 1826); “History of the Political System of Europe,” translated from Heeren (1829); “An Oration delivered before the Democracy of Springfield and Neighboring Towns, July 4. 1836” (2d ed., with prefatory remarks, Springfield, 1836); “History of the Colonization of the United States” (Boston, 1841, 12mo, abridged); “An Oration delivered at the Commemoration, in Washington, of the Death of Andrew Jackson, June 27, 1845”; “The Necessity, the Reality, and the Promise of the Progress of the Human Race”; “An  Oration delivered before the New York Historical Society, November 20, 1854” (New York, 1854); “Proceedings of the First Assembly of Virginia, 1619; Communicated, with an Introductory Note, by George Bancroft”; “Collections of the New York Historical Society,” second series, vol. iii., part i. (New York, 1857); “Literary and Historical Miscellanies” (New York, 1855); “Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln, delivered at the request of both Houses of the Congress of America, before them, in the House of Representatives at Washington, on the 12th of February, 1866” (Washington, 1866); and “A Plea for the Constitution of the United States of America, Wounded in the House of its Guardians,” by George Bancroft, Veritati Unice Litarem (New York, 1886). Among his other speeches and addresses may be mentioned a lecture on “The Culture, the Support, and the Object of Art in a Republic,” in the course of the New York historical society in 1852; one on “The Office, Appropriate Culture, and Duty of the Mechanic”; and to the “American Cyclopædia” Mr. Bancroft contributed a biography of Jonathan Edwards. Among those the least satisfied with the historian have been some of the descendants of eminent patriots (Greene, Reed, Rush, and others), whose merits have not, in the opinions of his censors, been duly recognized by Mr. Bancroft. That there should be entire agreement as regards the accuracy and candor of the narrator of the events of so many years, and of those years full of the excitement of party faction, is not to be expected. The merits of the work are considered at length in a biography of Mr. Bancroft by the present writer (see Allibone’s “Dictionary of Authors”), where the following opinions of eminent critics are quoted: Edward Everett says: “A history of the United States by an American writer possesses a claim upon our attention of the strongest character. It would do so under any circumstances; but when we add that the work of Mr. Bancroft is one of the ablest of that class which has for years appeared in the English language; that it compares advantageously with the standard British historians; that as far as it goes it does such justice to its noble subject as to supersede the necessity of any future work of the same kind, and, if completed as commenced, will unquestionably forever be regarded both as an American and as an English classic, our readers would justly think us unpardonable if we failed to offer our humble tribute to its merit.” Prof. Heeren writes: “We know few modern historic works in which the author has reached so high an elevation at once as an historical inquirer and an historical writer. The great conscientiousness with which he refers to his authorities, and his careful criticism, give the most decisive proofs of his comprehensive studies. He has founded his narrative on contemporary documents, yet without neglecting works of later times and of other countries. His narrative is everywhere worthy of the subject. The reader is always instructed, often more deeply interested than by novels or romances. The love of country is the muse which inspires the author, but this inspiration is that of the severe historian which springs from the heart.” William H. Prescott says: “We must confess our satisfaction that the favorable notice we took of Mr. Bancroft’s labors on his first appearance has been fully ratified by his countrymen, and that his colonial history establishes his title to a place among the great historical writers of the age. The reader will find the pages of the present volume filled with matter not less interesting and important than the preceding. He will meet with the same brilliant and daring style, the same picturesque sketches of character and incident, the same acute reasoning and compass of erudition.” George Ripley writes: “Mr. Bancroft is eminently a philosophical historian. He brings the wealth of a most varied learning in systems of thought and in the political and moral history of mankind to illustrate the early experiences of his country. He catalogues events in a manner which shows the possession of ideas, and not only describes popular movements picturesquely, but also analyzes them and reveals their spiritual signification.” Baron Bunsen says: “I read last night Bancroft with increasing admiration. What a glorious and interesting history has he given to his nation of the centuries before the independence!” Von Raumer remarks: “Bancroft Prescott, and Sparks have effected so much in historical composition that no living European historian can take precedence of them, but rather might be proud and grateful to be admitted as a companion.” Mr. Bancroft’s last address was given at the opening of the third meeting of the American historical association, of which he was president, at Washington, 27 April, 1886. It was printed in the “Magazine of American History” for June. In a letter to the author of this article, dated Washington, D. C., 30 May, 1882, he wrote: “I was trained to look upon life here as a season for labor. Being more than fourscore years old, I know the time for my release will soon come. Conscious of being near the shore of eternity, I await without impatience and without dread the beckoning of the hand which will summon me to rest.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BANCROFT, William W., Granville, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-40

 

 

BANGS, Nathan, Dr., Reverend, 1778-1862, New York, New York, clergyman, missionary, editor, author.  Officer of the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  President of Wesleyan University.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 157; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 574; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 135)

 

BANGS, Nathan, clergyman, b. in Stratford, Conn., 2 May, 1778; d. in New York city, 3 May, 1862. He received a limited education, taught school, and in 1799 went to Canada, where he spent three years as a teacher and land-surveyor. Uniting with the Methodist church, he labored for six years as an itinerant minister in the Canadian provinces, and, on returning to New York, took a prominent part in the councils of the denomination. In 1820 he was transferred from a pastorate in New York to the head of the Methodist book concern. Under his management debts were paid off and the business much extended. He was also editor of the “Methodist Magazine.” In 1828 he was appointed editor of the “Christian Advocate.” When the “Methodist Quarterly Review” replaced the “Methodist Magazine” in 1832, the general conference continued Dr. Bangs in the editorship. He was the principal founder and secretary of the Methodist missionary society. Besides his editorial labors he exercised the censorship over all the publications of the book concern. When appointed secretary of the missionary society in 1836, he devoted his chief energies to its service, until appointed president of the Wesleyan university, at Middletown, Conn., in 1841. In 1842 he resumed pastoral work in New York, and in 1852 retired and employed himself during his remaining years chiefly in literary labors. His most important work was a “History of the Methodist Episcopal Church from its Origin in 1776 to the General Conference of 1840” (4 vols., New York, 1839-'42). His other published works were a volume directed against “Christianism,” a new sect in New England (1809); “Errors of Hopkinsianism” (1815); “Predestination Examined” (1817); “Reformer Reformed” (1818); “Methodist Episcopacy” (1820); “Life of the Rev. Freeborn Garettson” (1832); ‘Authentic History of the Missions Under the Care of the Methodist Episcopal Church” (1832); “Letters to a Young Preacher” (1835); “The Original Church of Christ” (1836); “Essay on Emancipation” (1848); “State and Responsibilities of the Methodist Episcopal Church” (1850); “Letters on Sanctification” (1851); “Life of Arminius”; “Scriptural Vindication of the Orders and Powers of the Ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church”; and numerous occasional sermons. See “Life and Times of Nathan Bangs, D. D.,” by Abel Stevens (New York,  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BANKSON, Andrew, Tennessee, state senator in Illinois, 1808, anti-slavery activist in the senate (Dumond, 1961, p. 93)

 

 

BANNEKER, Benjamin, 1731-1806, free African American, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, author, humanitarian. (Allen, 1971; Bedini, 1972; Green, 1985; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 18, 27, 31, 186-187; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 159)

 

BANNEKER, Benjamin, mathematician, b. at Ellicott's Mills, Md., 9 Nov., 1731; d. in Baltimore, in October, 1806. He was of African descent, and learned to read from his grandmother, a white woman who had freed and married one of her slaves. He studied mathematics and astronomy while working in the field, when past middle life, and prepared and published almanacs for Maryland and the adjoining states in 1792 and subsequent years until his death. He assisted Ellicott in surveying the site of Washington and the boundaries of the District of Columbia. His biography, by J. H. B. Latrobe, was published in 1845, and another by J. S. Norris in 1854. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 159.

 

 

BAQUAQUA, Mahommah Gardo, b. c. 1824, African American abolitionist. Wrote slave narrative, An Interesting Narrative: Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua in 1854.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 355)

 

 

BARBADOES, C., African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

BARBADOES, James G., 1796-1841, Boston, Massachusetts.  African American abolitionist, community activist.  Helped organize the Massachusetts General Colored Association (MGCA). Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  (Newman, 2002, pp. 100-102, 105, 114, 115, 126; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 161; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 127; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 362)

 

 

BARBER, Edward D., Middlebury, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-1840, 1840-1841

 

 

BARBOUR, Isaac R., New York, New York, American Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1855-59

 

 

BARBOUR, John N., Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1853-55

 

 

BARD, David, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania, opposed slavery, proposed a tax on slavery on February 14, 1804. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 82, 109)

 

 

BARKER, Joseph, 1806-1875, English clergyman, author, controversialist, lecturer, abolitionist.  Supporter of abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison.  Vice President of the Anti-Slavery Party, 1852-1859.  Moved permanently to the United States in 1857.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, opposed slavery in the House.  (Larsen, 2006; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 150; Annals of Congress; Dictionary of National Biography, London, 1885-1900)

 

 

BARKLEY, Thomas, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

BARNABY, James, W. Harwich, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1833-40

 

 

BARNES, B.H., Chelsea, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Treasurer, 1839-, Executive Committee, 1842-, Auditor, 1843-

 

 

BARNES, Marcus, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

BARNETT, James, 1810-1875, Oneida, Madison county, New York.  Political leader.  Member, Liberty party, Republican Party, 1856.  Friend of abolitionist Gerrit Smith. (New York Civil List)

 

 

BARNEY, Eliza, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 332)

 

 

BARROW, David, 1753-1819, Baptist clergyman, abolitionist, founded Portsmouth-Norfolk Church in 1795.  Had Black pastor assistant.  Had mixed race congregation.  President of the Kentucky Abolition Society.  Wrote: “Involuntary, Unlimited, Perpetual, Absolute, Hereditary Slavery Examined on the Principles of Nature, Reason, Justice, Policy, Scripture,” (1807), published Abolition Intelligencer and Missionary Magazine.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 95, 133-134; Goodell, 1852; Locke, 1901, pp. 44, 90; Mason, 2006, pp. 171, 176)

 

 

BARRY, C. C., abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-37

 

 

BARSTOW, Amos C., Providence, Rhode Island, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

BARTLETT, Luther, Hartford, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1853

 

 

BASCOM, Henry Bidleman, Bishop, 1796-1850, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, clergyman. Methodist pastor educator, former President of Madison College in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.  Successful Agent for the American Colonization Society in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Kentucky and Tennessee.  Wrote Methodism and Slavery, 1847.  Chaplain of Congress.  President of Madison College, Uniontown, Pennsylvania.  Agent, Colonization Society, 1829-1831.  (Henkle, Life of Bascom, 1856; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 189-190; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 30-32; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 136, 141-142, 146)

 

BASCOM, Henry Bidleman, M. E. bishop, b. in Hancock, Delaware co., N. Y., 27 May, 1796; d. in Louisville, Ky., 8 Sept., 1850. He was descended from a Huguenot family. He had but little education, but before the age of eighteen he was licensed to preach, and admitted to the Ohio conference, where he did hard work on the frontier, preaching in one year 400 times, and receiving a salary of $12.10. His style being too florid to suit the taste of those to whom he preached, he was transferred, in 1816, to Tennessee; but, after filling appointments there and in Kentucky, he returned to Ohio in 1822, and in 1823 Henry Clay obtained for him the appointment of chaplain to congress. At the close of the session of that body he visited Baltimore, where his fervid oratory made a great sensation. He was first president of Madison college, Uniontown, Pa., in 1827-'8, and from 1829 till 1831 was agent of the colonization society. From that time until 1841 he was professor of moral science and belles-lettres at Augusta college, Ky. He became president of Transylvania university, Kentucky, in 1842, having previously declined the presidency of two other colleges. Dr. Bascom was a member of the general conference of 1844, which suspended Bishop Andrew because he refused to manumit his slaves; and the protest of the southern members against the action of the majority was drawn up by him. In 1845 he was a member of the Louisville convention, which organized the Methodist Church South, and was the author of its report; and he was chairman of the commission appointed to settle the differences between the two branches of the church. In 1846 he became editor of the “Southern Methodist Quarterly Review,” and in 1849 he was chosen bishop, being ordained in May, 1850, only a few months before his death. Dr. Bascom was a powerful speaker, but was fond of strong epithets and rather extravagant metaphors. He was the author of “Sermons from the Pulpit,” “Lectures on Infidelity,” “Lectures on Moral and Mental Science,” and “Methodism and Slavery.” A posthumous edition of his works was edited by Rev. T. N. Ralston (Nashville, Tenn., 1850 and 1856). See “Life of Bishop Bascom,” by Rev. Dr. M. M. Henkle (Nashville, 1854). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 189-190.

 

 

BASCOM, Elisha, Shoreham, Vermont, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

BASCOM, Flavel, Chicago, Illinois, co-founder of the Chicago chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).

 

 

BASSET, William, Lynn, Massachusetts, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, president Requited Labor Convention.  Member and manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839-1840, 1843-1853; Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1841, 1842-1846.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 157, 160, 178n, 159; Mabee, 1970, pp. 73, 120, 121, 209, 210)

 

 

BASSETT, Richard, 1745-1815, founding father, political leader, lawyer, jurist, Revolutionary War soldier.  Delegate to the Continental Convention of 1787.  Governor of Delaware and senior U.S. Senator from Delaware during First Congress.  Strong advocate of anti-slavery cause.  Freed his slaves.  (Conrad, 1908; Hoffecker, 2004; Martin, 1984; Martin, 1995; Munroe, 1954; Scharf, 1888; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 190-191; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 39)

 

BASSETT, Richard, governor of Delaware, b. in Delaware; d. in September, 1815. He was a lawyer, and a member of congress under the old confederation in 1787, and was also a member of the convention that framed the federal constitution. From 1789 to 1793 he was a U. S. senator, and was the first member that cast his vote in favor of locating the capital on the Potomac. Chosen presidential elector in 1797, he voted for John Adams; from 1798 till 1801 he was governor of his state. In 1801 and 1802 he was a U. S. circuit judge. His daughter became the wife of James A. Bayard, signer of the treaty of Ghent. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 190-191.

 

 

BASSETT, Thomas D., Barnestable, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1842-43

 

 

BASSETT, William, Boston, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40, 1843-53

 

 

BASSETT, Zenas D., Barnstable, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1841-42

 

 

BATES, Abner, Syracuse, New York, American Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1858-59

 

 

BATES, Edward, 1793-1869, Virginia, statesman, lawyer, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Congressman.  U.S. Attorney General, Lincoln’s cabinet.  Member, Free Labor Party, Missouri.  Anti-slavery activist.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 193; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 48-49)

 

 

BATES, Edward, statesman, b. in Belmont. Goochland co., Va., 4 Sept., 1793; d. in St. Louis, Mo., 25 March, 1869. He was of Quaker descent, and received most of his education at Charlotte Hall, Maryland, finishing under the care of a private tutor. In 1812 he received a midshipman's warrant, and was only prevented from going to sea by his mother's influence. From February till October, 1813, he served in the Virginia militia at Norfolk. His elder brother, Frederick Bates, having been appointed secretary of the new territory of Missouri, Edward emigrated thither in 1814, and soon entered upon the practice of law. As early as 1816 he was appointed prosecuting attorney for the St. Louis circuit, and in 1820 was elected a delegate to the state constitutional convention. Toward the close of the same year he was appointed attorney-general of the new state of Missouri, which office he held for two years. He was elected to the legislature in 1822, and in 1824 became state attorney for the Missouri district. About this time he became the political friend of Henry Clay. In 1826, while yet quite a young man, he was elected a representative in congress as an anti-democrat, serving but one term. For the next twenty-five years he devoted himself to his profession, but served in the legislature again in 1830 and 1834. In 1847 Mr. Bates was a delegate to the convention for internal improvement, held in Chicago, and here made a favorable impression upon the country at large. In 1850 President Fillmore offered him the portfolio of secretary of war, which he declined. Three years later he accepted the office of judge of the St. Louis land court. In 1836 he presided over the whig convention held in Baltimore. When the question of the repeal of the Missouri compromise was agitated, he earnestly opposed it, and thus became identified with the “free-labor” party in Missouri, opposing with them the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution. Mr. Bates became more and more prominent as an anti-slavery man, until in 1859 he was mentioned as a candidate for the presidency. He was warmly supported by his own state, and for a time it seem that the opposition to Gov. Seward might concentrate upon him. In the National republican convention of 1860 he received 48 votes on the 1st ballot; but when it became apparent that Mr. Lincoln was the favorite, his name was withdrawn. When Mr. Lincoln, after his election, decided upon selecting for his cabinet the leading men of the republican party, including those who had been his principal competitors, Mr. Bates was appointed attorney-general. In the cabinet he played a dignified, safe, and faithful, but not conspicuous, part. In 1864 he resigned his office and returned to his home in St. Louis. From this time he never again entered into active politics. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 193.

 

 

BATES, Elisha, Mount Pleasant, Ohio, newspaper publisher, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, aided fugitive slaves in Ohio.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 117, 128; Dumond, 1961, pp. 136-137)

 

 

BATES, Merrit, Swanton, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

BAUMFREE, Isabella, see Truth, Sojourner

 

 

BAXTER, Porter, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

BAYARD, James Ashton, 1767-1815, statesman, diplomat, leader of Federalists, member of U.S. Congress from Delaware, opposed slavery as a member of U.S. House of Representatives (Appletons, 1888, Vol. 1, pp. 196-197; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 64-66; Goodell, 1852, p. 97; Locke, 1901, p. 93, 171; Annals of Congress, 1795-1815)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

BAYARD, James Asheton, statesman, b. in Philadelphia, 28 July, 1767; d. in Wilmington, Del., 6 Aug., 1815. He was the son of Dr. James Asheton Bayard, and nephew of Col. John Bayard, into whose family he was adopted after his father's death, which occurred on 8 June, 1770. He was graduated at Princeton in 1784, studied law under Gen. Joseph Reed and Jared Ingersoll, was admitted to the bar in 1787, and settled in Wilmington, Del., where he acquired a high reputation. In 1796 he was elected a representative in congress as a federalist. He was distinguished as an orator and constitutional lawyer and became a leader of the party in the house. In 1797 he distinguished himself by his management of the impeachment of William Blount, of North Carolina, who was expelled from the senate for instigating the Creeks and Cherokees to assist the English in their aim of conquering the Spanish possessions in Louisiana. In 1801, when the choice between Burr and Jefferson in the undecided presidential election of 1800 devolved upon the house of representatives, Bayard stood at the head of the federalists, and his influence, combined with that of Alexander Hamilton, contributed chiefly to bring about the election of Jefferson. President Adams appointed him minister to France before the accession of the new administration in 1801, and the senate confirmed the nomination, but the appointment was declined. In the 8th congress, which met 7 Dec., 1801, he opposed, with great force, on constitutional grounds, the repeal of the judiciary, bill, enacted by federalist votes in the preceding session. He served in the house of representatives from 15 May, 1797, till 3 March, 1803. In 1804 he was chosen the successor of William Hill Wells when the latter resigned his seat as representative of Delaware in the U. S. senate. He sat in the senate from 15 Jan., 1805, to 3 March, 1813, and opposed the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812. In 1813 he was selected by President Madison joint commissioner with Albert Gallatin (who was afterward rejected by the senate), and John Quincy Adams, to conclude a peace with Great Britain, through the mediation of Russia. He left Philadelphia 8 May, 1813, and met his fellow-commissioner, Mr. Adams, at that time envoy to Russia, at St. Petersburg in July of that year. After the refusal of Great Britain to treat at St. Petersburg, he was included in the new commission, constituted 18 Jan., consisting, besides himself and John Q. Adams, of Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell, Albert Gallatin being added in the following month. Going to Holland, he took a prominent part in the negotiations that resulted in the treaty of peace signed at Ghent, 24 Dec., 1814. He received the appointment of minister to the court of St. Petersburg, but declined the mission, declaring that he had no desire to serve the administration except where his services were necessary for the good of the country. When about to proceed to London to continue the work of the commission which included the negotiation of a treaty of commerce, he was taken alarmingly ill and returned home, only to die immediately after his arrival. His wife, daughter of Gov. Richard Bassett, of Delaware, died 10 Dec., 1854, aged seventy-six. Senator Bayard's speech on the foreign intercourse bill was published in 1798, and another on the repeal of the judiciary bill in a volume of the speeches of 1802. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 196-197.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

THE work of which the present article forms a part, being in its biographical portion merely auxiliary to the talent of the engraver, requires nothing beyond a mere sketch of the principal incidents of life, especially of such as connect the individual with public affairs; and, although in the present instance, the notice of those incidents would naturally lead to a discussion of many interesting points in the history of the country, and of its political parties, yet the limits and design of the work forbid in relation to them, any thing more than a passing notice.

JAMES A. BAYARD was born in the city of Philadelphia, on the 28th July, 1767. He was the second son of Doctor James A. Bayard, a physician of promising talents and increasing reputation, but who died on the 8th January, 1770, at an early period of life.

Doctor Bayard was the brother of Colonel John Bayard, who, during the revolutionary war, was a member of the council of safety and many years speaker of the legislature of Pennsylvania. Their father, whose name was James, married a Miss Ashton. The family were originally of French extraction, but being Huguenots, and dreading that spirit of religious persecution which belonged to the age, they abandoned their native country, and came to North America some time prior to the revocation of the edict of Nantes.

A part of the family settled in the then province of New York, and one of them afterwards selected Cecil county, in the province of Maryland, for his future residence, from whom James Bayard, the grandfather of the subject of our present notice, was descended.

Mr. BAYARD having been left an orphan at a very early age, was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Colonel John Bayard, in whose family he lived for several years. His education was, in the first instance intrusted to the Rev. Mr. Smith, a respectable clergyman of Lancaster county, with whom he remained some time, but eventually he returned to his uncle’s family, and pursued his studies under the direction of a private tutor until his admission into Princeton college. At that place he spent the usual period allotted to collegiate life, and graduated on the 28th September, 1784, at little more than the age of seventeen years; but from the early development of those talents, and that industry which distinguished him in after life, he succeeded in obtaining the highest honor of the institution.

Upon leaving college, Mr. BAYARD returned to Philadelphia, and having selected the profession of the law for his future occupation, he commenced his studies under General Joseph Reed, the former president of Pennsylvania, and after his death, in 1785, resumed and concluded them under the direction of the late Jared Ingersoll, Esq.

Being now prepared to enter upon the busy scene of life, Mr. BAYARD resolved to pursue the practice of his profession in the adjoining state of Delaware, and with that view was admitted to the bar at the August term of the court of common pleas for the county of Newcastle, in the year 1787, when he was little more than twenty years of age.

The first years of his professional life he devoted to severe study, during which time he attained that familiar and exact knowledge of the principles of political science, and of general jurisprudence, which in after life were alike serviceable to him at the bar and in congress.

On the 11th February, 1795, he was married to Miss Bassett, the eldest daughter of Richard Bassett, Esq., who was subsequently governor of the state of Delaware.

Shortly after his marriage, Mr. BAYARD became actively connected with the dominant party in the state, and in October, 1796, was elected a member of congress, and took his seat in the house of representatives on the 22d of May, 1797, at the first session of the fifth congress, which had been convened by the proclamation of the president, in consequence of the existing difficulties with France.

Immediately upon his appearance in congress, Mr. BAYARD became prominent for his zeal, industry, ability, and knowledge; and was at the first session appointed one of the committee to prepare and report articles of impeachment against William Blount, a senator of the United States; being the first instance of a resort to that high constitutional proceeding. In the subsequent session of that congress, he was elected one of the committee to conduct the impeachment on the part of the house, and became chairman of the committee on the appointment of Mr. Sitgreaves, who had originally filled that station, as commissioner under the sixth article of the treaty with Great Britain.

On this occasion a plea to the jurisdiction of the senate, on the ground that a senator is not a civil officer within the meaning of the constitution, having been filed by the counsel of Mr. Blount, who were men of great learning and ability, an opportunity was presented, in the discussion to which it gave rise, for the display of those talents and that knowledge for which Mr. BAYARD was eminent. The senate, however, by a small majority sustained the plea.

The period to which we now refer was one of strong party excitement; and no event was suffered to pass unnoticed by those in the opposition, which it was supposed might bring the administration into disrepute with the people, The case of Thomas Nash alias Jonathan Robbins, was one therefore not to be neglected. Thomas Nash, who artfully represented himself to have been an impressed American seaman, had committed piracy and murder on board the British frigate Hermione while at sea, and having been arrested in Charleston on that charge, was demanded by the British minister, under the twenty-seventh article of the treaty with Great Britain, to be delivered up to his government for trial. The president of the United States had advised and requested the district judge of South Carolina, before whom the case was depending, to deliver him up on receiving the evidence of criminality stipulated by the treaty; this was accordingly done, and he was afterward tried by a court martial and executed.

The whole matter was communicated to congress by the president; and Mr. Livingston, on the 20t4 February, 1800, submitted to the house of representatives two resolutions, condemning the conduct of the president as a “dangerous interference of the executive with judicial decisions,” and the compliance of the judge as a “sacrifice of the constitutional independence of the judicial power, exposing it to suspicion and reproach.” The discussion which followed called into action the talents of the friends as well as of the opponents of the administration. The propriety of the course pursued by the president was sustained and successfully vindicated by Mr. BAYARD and Chief Justice Marshall, who was then a member of' the house from Virginia. Judge Marshall, who followed Mr. BAYARD in the debate, in one of those luminous and irresistible arguments which characterize the vigorous and logical mind of that eminently distinguished man, opened his speech with the following observations: “Believing as he did most seriously, that in a government constituted like that of the United States, much of the public happiness depended, not only on its being rightly administered, but on the measures of the administration being rightly understood; on rescuing public opinion from those numerous prejudices with which so many causes must combine to surround it; he could not but have been highly gratified with the very eloquent, and what was still more valuable, the very able and very correct argument which had been delivered by the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. BAYARD) against the resolutions now under consideration. He had not expected that the effect of this argument would have been universal, but he had cherished the hope, and in this he had not been disappointed, that it would be very extensive. He did not flatter himself with being able to shed much new light on the subject, but as the argument in opposition to the resolutions had been assailed with considerable ability by gentlemen of great talent, he trusted the house would not think the time misapplied which would be devoted to the reëstablishment of the principles contained in that argument, and to the refutation of those advanced in opposition to it.” The resolutions were rejected by a vote of sixty-one to thirty-five.

Mr. BAYARD had been reëlected to congress in October, 1798, and was again elected in October, 1800, at a period when the highest party feeling prevailed. The event which we have now occasion to notice, was one which called for the exertion on his part of the greatest discretion, firmness, and magnanimity. At the presidential election which took place in November, 1800, the greatest number and majority of electoral votes which were in favor of Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, the democratic candidates, being equal, the election devolved upon the house of representatives. The mass of the federal party throughout the country, and most of the federal members of the house, deprecated the elevation of Mr. Jefferson to the presidential office, as an event that would be fatal to the federal government, and to the existing constitution. The greatest excitement prevailed, and the two parties viewed each other with feelings of mutual jealousy and distrust. The federalists seriously believed, that it was the design of their opponents, and particularly of Mr. Jefferson as their chief, to abase if not to destroy the federal government. With this belief, and the apprehensions and feelings resulting from it, the federal members of the house of representatives were called upon by that constitution to choose between the two candidates.

The one was known to be decidedly hostile to federal principles and federal men; the other, though belonging to the same party, and standing high in its estimation, as well as in that of his fellow candidate, was yet less distinctly marked by his principles, and believed to be less visionary in his politics. The federal members of the house had several meetings for the purpose of consulting on the subject of the election; among whom there existed many shades of opinion, both as to the possibility of electing Mr. Burr, and as to the expediency of attempting it: they formed the majority of the house, though not of the states. Mr. Huger, of South Carolina, absolutely refused to vote for him; and Mr. Dent, of Maryland, declared his determination to vote for Mr. Jefferson. Among those who acquiesced with most reluctance in the course ultimately adopted, were Mr. BAYARD and Messrs. Baer and Craik, of Maryland. Mr. BAYARD, though he believed Mr. Burr to be personally better qualified for president, thought it vain to make the attempt, but to use his own words, “was chiefly influenced by the current of public sentiment, which he thought it neither safe nor politic to counteract.” General Hamilton, than whom no man out of congress enjoyed a larger share of the confidence of the party, or exerted greater influence over its movements, was decidedly opposed to the step, and in a correspondence with Mr. BAYARD earnestly advocated the election of Mr. Jefferson. The majority of the federal members were, however, in favor of Mr. Burr; and many of them would have preferred to defeat the election altogether, rather than choose Mr. Jefferson. Mr. BAYARD, out of deference to the opinion of the majority, agreed to make an attempt to elect Mr. Burr; but with the fixed determination that there should be a president chosen, and that the election should not be protracted beyond a reasonable period.

Messrs. Baer and Craik, of Maryland, and General Morris, of Vermont, entertaining the same views and opinions, concurred with him in this resolution; and they entered into mutual engagements to support each other in that course. It was in the power of any one of these gentlemen to terminate the election at any moment. The balloting in the house commenced on the 11th February, 1801, and terminated on the 17th February, without any adjournment. On the first ballot, it was ascertained that Mr. Jefferson had eight states, Mr. Burr six states, and that two states, Maryland and Vermont, were divided. As there were sixteen states, Mr. Jefferson wanted the vote of one state, which might have been given, either by Mr. BAYARD, who held the vote of the state of Delaware, or by General Morris, who held the divided vote of Vermont, or by either Mr. Baer or Mr. Craik, who held the divided vote of Maryland. These gentlemen, possessing an absolute control over the election, so far as regarded the certainty of making a president and the duration of the contest, authorized Mr. BAYARD to exercise his own discretion as to the precise period it should terminate, and pledged themselves to abide by his decision. Mr. BAYARD then took pains to ascertain what were the probabilities of success; and becoming convinced that it was hopeless, and being resolved not to hazard the constitution and the safety of the union, he determined to put an end to the contest. Previously to this, however, he was induced to believe, from the representation of some of the intimate friends of Mr. Jefferson, that he would observe in his administration those great points of policy which, being intimately connected with the prosperity of the country, the federal party had most at heart.

On the 19th February, 1801, Mr. BAYARD was appointed minister to France by John Adams, whose presidential term did not expire until the 4th of March following. Nothing could under any other circumstances have been more gratifying to his feelings; but from the delicate situation in which he had been placed by the late presidential election, he instantly declined the appointment, and on the same day addressed to the president the following letter:—

 

WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 19TH, 1801.

SIR,—

I beg you to accept my thanks for the honor conferred on me by the nomination as minister to the French Republic. Under most circumstances, I should have been extremely gratified with such an opportunity of rendering myself serviceable to the country; but the delicate situation in which the late presidential election has placed me, forbids my exposing myself to the suspicion of having adopted from impure motives the line of conduct I pursued. Representing the smallest state in the union, without resources which could furnish the means of self-protection, I was compelled by the obligation of a sacred duty so to act, as not to hazard the constitution upon which the political existence of the state depends. The service I should have to render by accepting the appointment, would be under the administration of Mr. Jefferson; and having been in the number of those who withdrew themselves from the opposition to his election, it is impossible for me to take an office, the tenure of which would be at his pleasure. You will therefore pardon me, sir, for begging you to accept my resignation of the appointment.

I have the honor to be,

With perfect consideration,

Your very obedient servant,

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.                           JAMES A. BAYARD.

 

In writing on the 22d February, 1801, three days subsequently, to one who was both a near relation and an intimate friend, Mr. BA YARD says—

 

“You are right in your conjecture as to the office offered me. I have since been nominated minister to France, concurred in nem. con., commissioned, and resigned. Under proper circumstances, the acceptance would have been complete gratification; but under the existing, I thought the resignation most honorable. To have taken eighteen thousand dollars out of the public treasury with a knowledge that no service could be rendered by me, as the French government would have waited for a man who represented the existing feelings and views of the government, would have been disgraceful. Another consideration of great weight arose from the part I took in the presidential election. As I had given the turn to the election, it was impossible for me to accept an office which would be held on the tenure of Mr. Jefferson’s pleasure. My ambition shall never be gratified at the expense of a suspicion. I shall never lose sight of the motto of the great original of our name.”

 

Among the first acts of those who now came into power, was the repeal of the act passed on the 13th February, 1801, “to provide for the more convenient organization of the courts of the United States,” which had divided the United States into six circuits, and provided a system of circuit courts for the administration of justice. The organization of this system, and the appointment of the judges under it towards the close of Mr. Adams’ administration, gave particular umbrage to Mr. Jefferson; and as the, constitution would not permit the removal of the judges, who held their office during good behaviour, it was determined to cut the Gordian knot, and to get rid of the judges by destroying the system. This measure produced one of the most memorable struggles in the political history of the country. On this occasion, Mr. BAYARD, who on the part of the majority was called the Goliah of the adverse party, and sarcastically denominated the high priest of the constitution, made one of his most eloquent and powerful speeches; but party spirit demanded the sacrifice, and it was made.

In November, 1804, Mr. BAYARD was elected by the legislature of Delaware a senator of the United States, for the unexpired term of Mr. Wells, who had resigned that office; and in February, 1805, was again elected by the legislature a senator for the ensuing term of six years.

So hasty a sketch as the present will not permit more than a passing notice of prominent events; and we shall here, therefore, simply remark, that while he pursued with great success and reputation, his profession at home, he was alike distinguished in public life for the great ability and zeal with which he largely participated in the transactions of the day.

Certain resolutions introduced in the senate, in the year 1809, by Mr. Giles, gave occasion for the delivery on the part of Mr. BAYARD of a very able speech against the embargo system, which had commenced in December, 1807.

It was in June, 1812, that the president communicated to congress his message recommending a declaration of war against Great Britain. On this occasion, Mr. BAYARD, who had been reëlected by the legislature of Delaware, in the year 1811, a senator for another period of six years, did not deny that there were sufficient causes for war, but insisted that the measure was premature; that it should be postponed for a few months, to furnish time for the return of our ships and seamen, and of the immense amount of property which was either in the ports of Great Britain or afloat on the ocean, as well as for putting the country in a situation for offensive and defensive operations With this view, he moved, on the 16th June, to postpone the further consideration of the bill declaring war against Great Britain, to the 31st of October. In his speech in support of this motion, he observed that he was greatly influenced in making it, “by the combined considerations of the present defenceless condition of the country, and the protection which Providence has given us against a maritime power in the winter season. During the winter months, you will be protected by the elements. Postpone the war until November, and you will not have to dread an enemy on our coast till April. In the mean time go on with your recruiting, fill up, discipline, and train your army. Take the station, if you please, which will enable you to open an early campaign. Your trade will all have time to return before hostilities commence; and having all your ships and seamen at home, you may be prepared to put forth all your strength upon the ocean, on the opening of the ensuing spring. Shall we by an untimely precipitancy, yielding to a fretful impatience of delay, throw our wealth into the hands of the enemy, and feed that very rapacity which it is our object to subdue or to punish?”

War, however, was declared on the 18th June; and Mr. BAYARD, whose heart was truly American, and who never suffered any influence or inferior motive to interfere with his duty to his country, was prompt in advising the adoption of such measures and such line of conduct as its safety and honor demanded. He was the chairman of the committee of safety in the place of his residence, (Wilmington,) and, at the head of his fellow-citizens, was the first to assist with his own hands in the erection of the temporary defences of the town. His prevailing and uniform sentiment was that of devotion to the welfare and honor of his country, which demanded the sacrifice of all, minor considerations.

Shortly after the intelligence of this event reached St. Petersburg, the emperor of Russia offered his mediation to both nations, to promote the restoration of peace. The president of the United States determined to accept the offer, without waiting to know whether Great Britain would do so likewise, and, on the 17th April, 1813, appointed Mr. BAYARD, together with Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Adams, ministers plenipotentiary, for the purpose of negotiating a peace, with further power, in case of a successful issue, to make a treaty of commerce. This appointment was entirely unexpected on the part of Mr. BAYARD, and was accepted by him from an imperious sense of duty to his country, with the hope of rendering her some service, and with the confidence that his acceptance of it could be attended with no mischief. In a letter addressed to the secretary of state, (Mr. Monroe,) on 5th May, 1813, after stating his receipt of the instructions prepared for the mission, and that there was nothing in them of doubtful construction, or which he could not cordially promote, he intimates a doubt whether the chief point of difficulty (the impressment of seamen) was placed on a practicable footing; requiring as they did, a stipulation against impressment, as a sine quâ non. The event proved that he was right. On the 9th May, 1813, Mr. BAYARD and Mr. Gallatin departed from the United States, in the Neptune, on their mission to join Mr. Adams, who was then at St. Petersburg in the capacity of American minister. After a stormy and disagreeable passage, they arrived at St. Petersburg, on the 21st July following, having travelled by land from Revel, where they had disembarked. The emperor was then absent with his army at a distance of more than a thousand miles from his capitol. They were presented to the empress, and received by the chancellor Romanzoff in their official capacity; but they could obtain no satisfactory intelligence as to the intentions of the British government, in relation to the object of their mission. After remaining six months in St. Petersburg, and becoming satisfied that the British government did not mean to accept the mediation, although they could not obtain from count Romanzoff any official acknowledgment of that fact, Mr. BAYARD and Mr. Gallatin determined to leave Russia, and accordingly departed from St. Petersburg on the 25th January, 1814. They travelled by land through Berlin to Amsterdam, a distance of more than one thousand five hundred miles, and arrived in the latter place on the 4th March following. There they received despatches from the government, apprising them of the fact, that Great Britain had refused the mediation of the emperor of Russia, but had offered to negotiate directly, either at London or at Gottenburg; and that the president having acceded to this proposition, and selected the latter place, they were to repair to that point. On the 18th January, 1814, the president appointed Mr. BAYARD, in conjunction with Messrs. Adams, Clay, Russell, and Gallatin, ministers plenipotentiary, to negotiate directly with Great Britain. Messrs. Clay and Russell sailed from the United States on the 25th February, and arrived at Gottenburg on the 14th April. At that time, Mr. BAYARD and Mr. Gallatin were in London, whither they had gone on the 10th of that month.

On the 13th May, soon after the receipt of their despatches, they communicated the fact of their appointment to Lord Castlereagh. A few days afterward, they received a note from Lord Bathurst, suggesting the substitution of Ghent in preference to Gottenburg, as the seat of the negotiation, which was subsequently acceded to by the American ministers. Mr. BAYARD left London on the 23d May, and, arriving in Paris on the 28th, left it on the 15th June for Ghent, where he arrived on the 27th of the same month, and found Mr. Adams and Mr. Russell. In a few days, they were joined by Messrs. Clay and Gallatin; the members of the mission having been informed that they might expect the arrival of the British ministers about the 1st of July. The latter, however, did not arrive until the 6th August; and on the next day the negotiations commenced, which terminated in a treaty of peace, which was signed on the 24th December, 1814.

Mr. BAYARD left Ghent on the 7th January, 1815, and arrived in Paris on the 11th of the same month; here he designed to remain until it should be necessary to repair to London, to assist with the other members of the mission, in the negotiation of a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, with which they had also been charged. On the 4th March, however, he was attacked with the disease which was to prove fatal to his life. After severe suffering and a confinement for most of the period to his chamber, he left Paris in a state of great debility on the 10th of May, and embarking immediately on his arrival at Havre, the vessel sailed for Plymouth, where she arrived on the 14th of the same month. Here, in daily expectation of the arrival of Mr. Clay from London, who was to take passage in the same ship, he was detained for five weeks, during which time he was unable to leave his berth, but remained in a state of excessive suffering and alarming debility. The appointment of minister to Russia had been conferred on him by the president, and confirmed by the senate; but he promptly declined its acceptance. At length the ship was ordered to sail, and arriving in the Delaware on the 1st of August, Mr. BAYARD found himself once more, after an absence of more than two years, in the bosom of his family. But it was only to receive their welcome, and to mingle the tears of joy at his return with those of grief for their final separation. He expired on the 6th August, 1815, at the age of forty-eight years, and that Providence which saw fit to remove him from this life, in the maturity of his powers, and the highest capability of usefulness, indulged the fond wish of his heart, to embrace once more his wife and children, and draw his last breath in the land of his nativity.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 2.

 

 

BAYARD, Samuel, 1767-1840, Princeton, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, jurist, Member of the New Jersey state legislature.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society, 1833-1841. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 199; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 69-70; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

BAYARD, Samuel, jurist, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 11 Jan., 1767; d. in Princeton, N. J., 12 May, 1840. He was the fourth son of Col. John Bayard, and was graduated at Princeton in 1784, delivering the valedictory oration. He studied law with William Bradford, whose law-partner he became, and practised for seven years in Philadelphia. In 1791 he was appointed clerk of the U. S. supreme court. After the ratification of Jay's treaty with Great Britain, signed 19 Nov., 1794, he was appointed by Washington agent of the United States to prosecute American claims before the British admiralty courts, and in that capacity he lived in London four years. After his return he resided several years at New Rochelle, N. Y., and while there was appointed by Gov. Jay presiding judge of Westchester co. In 1803 he removed to New York city, and resumed the practice of law. He was one of the founders of the New York historical society, organized in 1804. In 1806 he purchased an estate at Princeton, N. J. For several years he was a member of the New Jersey legislature, and for a long period presiding judge of the court of common pleas of Somerset co. He was interested in religious enterprises, was one of the founders of Princeton theological seminary, and joined with Elias Boudinot in establishing the American Bible society and the New Jersey Bible society. In 1814 he was nominated by the federalists for congress, but was defeated. He published a funeral oration on Gen. Washington (New Brunswick, 1800); “A Digest of American Cases on the Law of Evidence, intended as Notes to Peake's Compendium” (Philadelphia, 1810); “An Abstract of the Laws of the United States which relate to the Duties and Authority of Judges of Inferior State Courts and Justices of the Peace” (New York, 1834); and “Letters on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper” (Philadelphia, 1825; 2d ed., 1840). See “Samuel Bayard and his London Diary, 1791-'4,” by Gen. Jas. Grant Wilson (Newark, 1885). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 199.

 

 

BEAMAN, Charles C., Boston, Massachusetts.  Member of the Young Men’s Colonization Society.  Publicly defended the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 210)

 

 

BEAMAN, Fernando, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

BEAMAN, Gamaliel, Pike County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

BECK, John Brodhead, 1794-1851, New York, physician, Recording Secretary, New York Auxiliary, American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 213; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 115; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 40)

 

BECK, John Brodhead, physician, b. in Schenectady, N. Y., 18 Sept., 1794; d. in Rhinebeck, N. Y., 9 April, 1851. He was a nephew of the Rev. John B. Romeyn, in whose house he was educated. He was graduated at Columbia in 1813, and began the practice of medicine in 1817. From 1822 till 1829 he edited the “New York Medical and Physical Journal.” He became professor of materia medica and of botany in the college of physicians and surgeons in 1826, but exchanged the chair of botany subsequently for that of medical jurisprudence. He assisted T. Romeyn Beck in the preparation of his great work on medical jurisprudence (1823), and published “Medical Essays” (1843), “Infant Therapeutics” (1849), and “Historical Sketch of the State of Medicine in the Colonies” (1850). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BECKLEY, Guy, Northfield, Vermont.  Anti-slavery agent.  Lectured in New Hampshire and Michigan.  Co-edited antislavery newspaper, Signal of Liberty, with Theodore Foster, the newspaper of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society. (Dumond, 1961, p. 187)

 

 

BEEBE, Ward W., Knox County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

BEECHER, Charles, 1815-1900, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, author.  Son of abolitionist Lyman Beecher, brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Edward Beecher, and Henry Ward Beecher.  (Appletons, 1888, Vol. 1, p. 220; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 126-129; Dumond, 1961, pp. 273, 310; Mabee, 1970, pp. 298)

 

 

BEECHER, Edward, 1803-1895, clergyman, abolitionist leader, writer, social reformer.  President, Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois.  Pastor, Salem Street Church, Boston.  Executive committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Friend of abolitionist leader Elijah J. Lovejoy.  Co-founded Anti-Slavery Society in Illinois.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1842.  Son of abolitionist Lyman Beecher, brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Charles Beecher, and Henry Ward Beecher.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 153-154, 288; Merideth, 1968; Pease, 1965, pp. 268-272; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 40, 187-188; Rugoff, 1981; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 219-220; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 128)

 

BEECHER, Edward, clergyman, b. in East Hampton, L. I., 27 Aug., 1803. He was graduated at Yale in 1822, studied theology at Andover and New Haven, became tutor in Yale in 1825, and then removed to Boston to take charge of the Park street congregation. Here he remained from 1826 till 1830, when he was elected president of Illinois College, Jacksonville. In 1844 he returned to Boston, as pastor of Salem street church, and in 1855 he became pastor of the Congregational church at Galesburg, Ill., where he remained until1870. For some years he was professor of exegesis in the Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1872 he retired from the ministry and removed to Brooklyn, N. Y. The title of D. D. was conferred on him by Marietta College in 1841. He has been a constant contributor to periodicals, was senior editor of “The Congregationalist” for the first six years of its existence, and after 1870 was a regular contributor to the “Christian Union.” His two works on the “Ages” gave rise to much discussion, and have modified doctrinal statements as to the origin of human depravity. The central idea presented is, that man's present life upon earth is the outgrowth of a former life as well as the prelude to a future one; that during the ages a conflict has been going on between good and evil, which will not be terminated in this life, but that sooner or later all the long strifes of ages will become harmonized into an everlasting concord. He has published “Address on the Kingdom of God” (Boston, 1827); '”Six Sermons on the Nature, Importance, and Means of Eminent Holiness throughout the Church” (New York, 1835); “History of Alton Riots” (Cincinnati, 1837); “Statement of Anti-Slavery Principles and Address to People of Illinois” (1837); “Baptism, its Import and Modes” (New York, 1850); “Conflict of Ages” (Boston, 1853); “Papal Conspiracy exposed” (New York, 1855); “Concord of Ages” (1860); “History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Future Retribution” (1878).—Another son, George, clergyman, b. in East Hampton, L. I., 6 May, 1809; d. in Chillicothe, Ohio, 1 July, 1843, was graduated at Yale in 1828, after which he studied theology. Subsequent to his ordination in the Presbyterian church he filled pulpits at Rochester, N. Y., and afterward at Chillicothe, Ohio. His death was caused by an accidental discharge of a gun while shooting birds in his own garden. See the “Memoirs of George Beecher,” by his sister Catherine (New York, 1844). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 219-220.   

 

 

BEECHER, George, Clinton County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-38

 

 

BEECHER, Reverend Henry Ward, 1813-1887, social reformer, clergyman, abolitionist leader.  Supported women’s suffrage and temperance movements.  Opposed compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.  Supported early Republican Party and its candidate for President, John C. Fremont.  Son of abolitionist Lyman Beecher, brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Charles Beecher, and Edward Beecher.  (Applegate, 2006; Filler, 1960, pp. 155, 196, 241; Hibben, 1942; Mabee, 1970, pp. 140, 240, 241, 298, 300, 318, 320, 337, 365; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 380, 656-657; Rugoff, 1981; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 218-219; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 128-135; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 64-66)

 

BEECHER, Henry Ward, clergyman, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 24 June, 1813; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 8 March, 1887. At an early age he had a strong desire for a seafaring life, which he renounced in consequence of a deep religious impression experienced during a revival. He studied at the Boston Latin-school, in Mount Pleasant institute, was graduated at Amherst in 1834, and then studied theology at Lane seminary, under the tuition of his father, who was president of the institution. He first settled as a Presbyterian minister in Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, in 1837, and married Eunice White, daughter of Dr. Artemas Bullard; then removed to Indianapolis in 1839, where he preached until 1847. In that year he received a call from Plymouth church, a new Congregational society in Brooklyn, N. Y., and almost from the outset he began to acquire that reputation as a pulpit orator which he maintained for more than a third of a century. The church and congregation under his charge were among the largest in America. The edifice has a seating capacity of nearly 3,000. Mr. Beecher discarded many of the conventionalities of the clerical profession. In his view, humor had a place in a sermon, as well as argument and exhortation, and he did not hesitate sometimes to venture so near the comic that laughter was hardly to be restrained. He was fond of illustration, drawing his material from every sphere of human life and thought, and his manner was highly dramatic. Though his keen sense of humor continually manifested itself, the prevailing impression given by his discourses was one of intense earnestness. The cardinal idea of his creed was that Christianity is not a series of dogmas, philosophical or metaphysical, but a rule of life in every phase. He never hesitated to discuss from the pulpit the great social and political crimes of the day, such as slavery, intemperance, avarice, and political abuses. In 1878 he announced that he did not believe in the eternity of punishment. He now held that all punishment is cautionary and remedial, and that no greater cruelty could be imagined than the continuance of suffering eternally, after all hope of reformation was gone; and in 1882 he and his congregation formally withdrew from the association of Congregational churches, since their theology had gradually changed from the strictest Calvinism to a complete disbelief in the eternity of future punishment. His sermons, reported by stenographers, for several years formed a weekly publication called the “Plymouth Pulpit.” He early became prominent as a platform orator and lecturer, and as such had a long and successful career. His lectures came to be in such demand, even at the rate of $500 a night, that he was obliged to decline further engagements, as they interfered with his ministerial duties, and for a long time he refused all applications for public addresses except for some special occasion. In January, 1859, he delivered an oration at the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the birthday of Robert Burns, which is considered one of his most eloquent efforts. He became a member of the Republican party on its formation, and delivered many political sermons from his pulpit, also addressing political meetings, especially in 1856, when he took an active part in the canvass, not only with his pen but by speaking at meetings thoughout the northern states. During the presidential canvass of 1884, Mr. Beecher supported the Democratic candidate, and by his action estranged many of his political admirers. In the long conflict with slavery he was an early and an earnest worker. In 1863 he visited Europe, and addressed large audiences in the principal cities of Great Britain on the questions involved in the civil war then raging in the United States, with a special view to disabuse the British public in regard to the issues of the great struggle. His speeches exerted a wide influence in changing popular sentiment, which previously had been strongly in favor of the southern Confederacy, and were published in London as “Speeches on the American Rebellion” (1864). In April, 1865, at the request of the government, he delivered an oration at Fort Sumter on the anniversary of its fall. In 1878 he was elected chaplain of the 13th regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., and appeared on parade in the customary uniform. In 1871 one of his parishioners, Henry W. Sage, founded a lectureship of preaching, called “The Lyman Beecher Lectureship,” in Yale college divinity school, and the first three annual courses were delivered by Mr. Beecher. In the summer of 1874, Theodore Tilton, formerly Mr. Beecher's associate, afterward his successor, in the editorship of the “Independent,” charged him with criminality with Mrs. Tilton. A committee of Plymouth congregation reported the charges to be without foundation; but meanwhile Mr. Tilton instituted a civil suit against Mr. Beecher, laying his damages at $100,000. The trial lasted six months, and at its close the jury, after being locked up for more than a week, failed to agree on a verdict. They stood three for the plaintiff and nine for the defendant. Mr. Beecher was of stout build, florid, and of strong physical constitution. He was fond of domestic and rural life; a student of nature; a lover of animals, flowers, and gems; an enthusiast in music, and a judge and patron of art. He owned a handsome residence at Peekskill on the Hudson, which he occupied during a part of every summer. In 1886 he made a lecturing tour in England, his first visit to that country after the war. During his theological course in 1836, for nearly a year Mr. Beecher edited the “Cincinnati Journal,” a religious weekly. While pastor at Indianapolis he edited an agricultural journal, “The Farmer and Gardener,” his contributions to which were afterward published under the title “Plain and Pleasant Talk about Fruits, Flowers, and Farming” (New York, 1859). He was one of the founders and for nearly twenty years an editorial contributor of the New York “Independent,” and from 1861 till 1863 was its editor. His contributions to this were signed with an asterisk, and many of them were afterward collected and published as “Star Papers; or, Experiences of Art and Nature” (New York, 1855), and as “New Star Papers; or, Views and Experiences of Religious Subject” (1858). The latter has been republished in England under the title of '”Summer in the Soul.” On the establishment of the “Christian Union” in 1870, he became its editor-in- chief. To a series of papers in the '”New York Ledger” he gave the title “Thoughts as they Occur,” by “One who keeps his eyes and ears open,” and they were afterward published under the title of “Eyes and Ears” (Boston, 1864). In addition to the foregoing, Mr. Beecher published “Lectures to Young Men on Various Important Subjects” (Indianapolis, 1844, revised ed., New York, 1850); “Freedom and War: Discourses suggested by the Times” (Boston, 1863); “Aids to Prayer” (New York, 1864); “Norwood; or, Village Life in New England” (1867); “Overture of Angels” (1869), being an introductory installment of “Life of Jesus the Christ; Earlier Scenes” (1871); “Lecture-Room Talks: A Series of Familiar Discourses on Themes of Christian Experience” (1870); “Yale Lectures on Preaching” (3 vols., 1872-'4); “A Summer Parish: Sermons and Morning Services of Prayer” (1874); “Evolution and Religion” (1885). Also, numerous addresses and separate sermons, such as “Army of the Republic” (1878); “The Strike and its Lessons” (1878); “Doctrinal Beliefs and Unbeliefs” (1882); “Commemorative Discourse on Wendell Phillips” (1884); “A Circuit of the Continent,” being an account of his trip through the west and south (1884); and “Letter to the Soldiers and Sailors” (1866, reprinted with introduction, 1884). He edited “Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes” (New York, 1855), and “Revival Hymns” (Boston, 1858). Numerous compilations of his utterances have been prepared, among which are: “Life Thoughts” (New York, 1859), by Edna Dean Proctor; “Notes from Plymouth Pulpit” (1859), by Augusta Moore; both of the foregoing have been reprinted in England; “Pulpit Pungencies” (1866); “Royal Truths” (Boston, 1866), reprinted from a series of extracts prepared in England without his knowledge; “Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit” (New York, 1867); “Sermons by Henry Ward Beecher: Selected from Published and Unpublished Discourses,” edited by Lyman Abbott (2 vols., 1868); “Morning and Evening Devotional Exercises,” edited by Lyman Abbott (1870); “Comforting Thoughts” (1884), by Irene Ovington. Mr. Beecher had completed the second and concluding volume of his “Life of Christ,” which is to be published this year (1887), with a re-publication of the first volume. His biography has been written by Lyman Abbott (New York, 1883). A new life, to be written by his son, William C. Beecher, will include an unfinished autobiography. Mr. Beecher was buried in Greenwood cemetery, and a movement was immediately begun for a monument, to be paid for by popular subscription. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 218-219.

 

 

BEECHER, Lyman, 1775-1863, abolitionist leader, clergyman, educator, writer.  Active in the Cincinnati, Ohio, auxiliary of the American Colonization Society, founded in Washington, DC, December 1816.  Co-founder, American Temperance Society.  President, Lane Theological Seminary.  Major spokesman for the anti-slavery cause in the United States.  Father of notable abolitionists, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Edward Beecher and Charles Beecher. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 216-217; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 135; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 134, 140, 196, 231)

 

BEECHER, Lyman, clergyman, b. in New Haven, Conn., 2 Oct., 1775; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 10 Jan., 1863. His ancestor in the fifth ascent emigrated to New England, and settled at New Haven in 1638. His father, David Beecher, was a blacksmith. His mother died shortly after his birth, and he was committed to the care of his uncle Lot Benton, by whom he was adopted as a son, and with whom his early life was spent between blacksmithing and farming. But it was soon found that he preferred study. He was fitted for college by the Rev. Thomas W. Bray, and at the age of eighteen entered Yale, where, besides the usual classical course, he studied theology under President Dwight and was graduated in 1797. After this he continued his studies until September, 1798, when he was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association, entered upon his clerical duties by supplying the pulpit in the Presbyterian church at East Hampton, Long Island, and was ordained in 1799. Here he married his first wife, Roxana Foote. His salary was $300 a year, after five years increased to $400, with a dilapidated parsonage. To eke out his scanty income, his wife opened a private school, in which the husband also gave instruction. Mr. Beecher soon became one of the foremost preachers of his day. A sermon that he delivered in 1804, on the death of Alexander Hamilton, excited great attention. Finding his salary wholly inadequate to support his increasing family, he resigned the charge, and in 1810 was installed pastor of the Congregational church in Litchfield, Conn. Here he remained for sixteen years, during which he took rank as the foremost clergyman of his denomination. In his autobiography he says this pastorate was “the most laborious part of his life.” The vice of intemperance had become common in New England, even the formal meetings of the clergy being not unfrequently accompanied by gross excesses, and Mr. Beecher resolved to take a stand against it. About 1814 he delivered and published six sermons on intemperance, which contain eloquent passages hardly exceeded by anything in the English language. They were sent broadcast through the United States, ran rapidly through many editions in England, and were translated into several languages on the continent, and have had a large sale even after the lapse of fifty years. His eloquence, zeal, and courage as a preacher, and his leading the way in the organization of the Bible, missionary, and educational societies, gave him a high reputation throughout New England. During his residence in Litchfield arose the Unitarian controversy, in which he took a prominent part. Litchfield was at this time the seat of a famous law school and several other institutions of learning, and Mr. Beecher (now a doctor of divinity) and his wife undertook to supervise the training of several young women, who were received into their family. But here too he found his salary ($800 a year) inadequate. The rapid and extensive defection of the Congregational churches in Boston and vicinity, under the lead of Dr. Channing and others in sympathy with him, had excited much anxiety throughout New England; and in 1826 Mr. Beecher received a call to become pastor of the Hanover street church in Boston. At the urgent request of his clerical brethren, he took the charge for the purpose of upholding the doctrines of Puritanism, and remained in this church six years and a half. His sermons at this time were largely controversial; he flung himself into the thickest of the fray, and was sustained by an immense following. About this time the religious public had become impressed with the growing importance of the great west; a theological seminary had been founded at Walnut Bills, near Cincinnati, O., and named Lane Seminary, after one of its principal benefactors, and a large amount of money was pledged to the institution on condition that Dr. Beecher accept the presidency, which he did in 1832. He retained the place for twenty years, and his name was continued in the seminary catalogue, as president, until his death. He was also, during the first ten years of his presidency, pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Cincinnati. Soon after his removal thither he startled the religious public in the east by a tract calling attention to the danger of Roman Catholic supremacy in the west. The French revolution of 1830, the agitation in England for reform and against colonial slavery, and the punishment by American courts of citizens who had dared to attack the slave-trade carried on under the American flag, had begun to direct the attention of American philanthropists to the evils of American slavery, and an abolition convention met in Philadelphia in 1833. Its president, Arthur Tappan, through whose liberal donations Dr. Beecher had been secured to Lane seminary, forwarded to the students a copy of the address issued by the convention, and the whole subject was soon under discussion. Many of the students were from the south; an effort was made to stop the discussions and the meetings; slaveholders went over from Kentucky and incited mob violence; and for several weeks Dr. Beecher lived in a turmoil, not knowing how soon the rabble might destroy the seminary and the houses of the professors. The board of trustees interfered during the absence of Dr. Beecher, and allayed the excitement of the mob by forbidding all further discussion of slavery in the seminary, whereupon the students withdrew en masse. A very few were persuaded to return and remain, while the seceders laid the foundation of Oberlin College. For seventeen years after this, Dr. Beecher and his able coworker, Prof. Stowe, remained and tried to revive the prosperity of the seminary, but at last abandoned it. The great project of their lives was defeated, and they returned to the eastern states. In 1835 Dr. Beecher, who had been called “a moderate Calvinist,” was arraigned on charges of hypocrisy and heresy by some of the stronger Calvinists. The trial took place in his own church; and he defended himself, while burdened with the cares of his seminary, his church, and his wife at home on her death-bed. The trial resulted in acquittal, and, on an appeal to the general synod, he was again acquitted; but the controversy engendered by the action went on until the Presbyterian church was rent in twain. In the theological controversies that led to the excision of a portion of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church in 1837-'8, Dr. Beecher took an active part, adhering to the new school branch. In 1852 he resigned the presidency of Lane Seminary, and returned to Boston, purposing to devote himself mainly to the revisal and publication of his works. But his intellectual powers began to decline, while his physical strength was unabated. About his eightieth year he suffered a stroke of paralysis, and thenceforth his mental powers only gleamed out occasionally with some indications of their former splendor. The last ten years of his life were passed in Brooklyn, N. Y., in the home of his son, Henry Ward Beecher. Dr. Beecher was a man of great intellectual power, though not a profound scholar. His sermons were usually extemporaneous, as far as form was concerned, but were carefully thought out, often while he was engaged in active physical exercise; but his writings were elaborated with the utmost care. He stood unequalled among living divines for dialectic keenness, pungent appeal, lambent wit, vigor of thought, and concentrated power of expression. He possessed intense personal magnetism, and an indomitable will, and was thoroughly devoted to his chosen work. The sincerity and spirituality of his preaching were generally acknowledged, and were attended by tangible results. He was bold to the point of audacity, and it was this feature of his character, probably more than any positive errors, that made him a subject of anxiety to the more conservative class of the theologians of his own denomination. His great boldness in denouncing laxity in regard to the standard of the Christian orthodoxy made a deep impress on the public mind. The degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Yale in 1809, and that of D. D. by Middlebury College in 1818. When he became president of Lane Seminary, he took also the chair of sacred theology. He was the author of a great number of printed sermons and addresses. His published works are: “Remedy for Duelling” (New York, 1809); “Plea for the West,” “Six Sermons on Temperance,” “Sermons on Various Occasions,” (1842), “Views in Theology,” “Skepticism,” “Lectures on Various Occasions,” “Political Atheism.” He made a collection of those of his works which he deemed the most valuable (3 vols., Boston, 1852). He was three times married—in 1799, 1817, and 1836—and had thirteen children. Most of his children have attained literary or theological distinction. All his sons became Congregational clergymen, viz., William Henry, Edward, George, Henry Ward, Charles, Thomas Kinnicut, and James Chaplin. The daughters are Catherine Esther, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Beecher Perkins, and Isabella Beecher Hooker. He was proverbially absent-minded, and after having been wrought up by the excitement of preaching was accustomed to relax his mind by playing “Auld Lang Syne” on the violin, or dancing the “double shuffle” in his parlor. His autobiography and correspondence was edited by the Rev. Charles Beecher (New York, 1863). See also “Life and Services of Lyman Beecher,” by the Rev. D. H. Allen (Cincinnati, 1863). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 216-217.

 

 

BEECHER, William H., N. Brookfield, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1859

 

 

BEESON, John, 1803-1889, abolitionist, early Native American advocate.  Wrote, A Plea for the Indians, 1857.  (Beeson, John, 1994; Beeson, Welborn, 1993)

 

 

BELDEN, Henry, New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1852-55

 

 

BELKNAP, Dr. Jeremy, 1744-1798, Boston, Massachusetts, prominent theologian, opposed African slave trade.  (Marcou, Jane Belknap, 1847; Appletons, 1888, Vol. 1, p. 224; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 147; Locke, 1901, pp. 41, 90, 129, 134n, 187)

 

BELKNAP, Jeremy, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 4 June, 1744; d. there, 20 June, 1798. He was graduated at Harvard in 1762, and, after teaching school and studying theology, was ordained 18 Feb., 1767, pastor of the Congregational church in Dover, N. H. On 4 April, 1787, he took charge of the Federal street church, Boston, where he remained until his death. From his fifteenth year he kept notes of his reading, and also a diary, in a series of curious interleaved almanacs. Soon after going to Dover he began his “History of New Hampshire” (1st vol., Philadelphia, 1784; 2d and 3d vols., Boston, 1791-'2), which takes high rank for accuracy, thoughtfulness, and agreeable style, though the part relating to the natural history of the state is worth little, owing to the author's deficient knowledge. The progress of the work was somewhat delayed by the revolution, during which Mr. Belknap was an ardent patriot. The work did not pay expenses; and the author was granted the sum of £50 in its aid by the legislature of New Hampshire. In 1792 he was given the degree of S. T. D. by Harvard, and made an overseer of the college. On 23 Oct. of that year he delivered before the Massachusetts historical society, which he had founded two years before, a tercentennial discourse on the discovery of America. He published a life of Watts (1793); two volumes of “American Biographies” (1794, 1798); and a collection of psalms and hymns (1795), of which several were written by himself. In 1796 he published “The Foresters, an American Tale,” a humorous apologue, which had originally appeared in the “Columbian Magazine,” and was intended to portray the history of the country, with special reference to the formation of the constitution. He was also the author of many miscellaneous pieces, among them several essays on the African slave-trade, to which he was strongly opposed. A life of Dr. Belknap, with selected letters, was published by his granddaughter (New York, 1847). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 224.   

 

 

BELL, James Madison, 1826-1902, African American abolitionist, poet, lecturer.  Member of African American community in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.  Supported John Brown on his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.  Supported African American civil rights before and after the Civil War. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 463.  American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 502.)

 

 

BELL, Philip Alexander, 1808-1889, African American abolitionist, editor, journalist, civic leader.  Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Subscription Agent for abolitionist newspaper, Liberator.  Active in Underground Railroad.  Editor, “Weekly Advocate” and later assisted with “Colored American” early Black newspapers.  Founded “National Council of Colored People,” one of the first African American civil rights organizations. (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 516)

 

 

BELL, Robert, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

BELL, S. M., Virginia.  Vice Presidential candidate for the Liberty Party in 1852 (lost).  Opposed slavery.

 

 

BEMAN, Amos Geary, 1812-1874, New Haven, Connecticut, African American clergyman, abolitionist, speaker, temperance advocate, community leader.  Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society 1833-1840.  Later, founding member of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Traveled extensively and lectured on abolition.  Leader, Negro Convention Movement.  Founder and first Secretary of Anti-Slavery Union Missionary Society.  Later organized as American Missionary Association (AMA), 1846.  Championed Black civil rights.  Promoted anti-slavery causes and African American civil rights causes, worked with Frederick Douglass and wrote for his newspaper, The North Star.  (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 540; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 463)

 

 

BEMAN, Jehiel C., c. 1789-1858, Connecticut, Boston, Massachusetts, African American, clergyman, abolitionist, temperance activist.  Manger, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1839.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841-1843. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 477)

 

 

BEMAN, Mrs. Jehiel C., African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

BEMAN, Nathaniel Sydney Smith, 1785-1871, Presbyterian college president, clergyman, abolitionist (Sorin, 1971, p. 90; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 231-232; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 171-172; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 541)

 

BEMAN, Nathaniel Sydney Smith, clergyman, b. in New Lebanon, N. Y., 26 Nov., 1785; d. in Carbondale, Ill., 8 Aug., 1871. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1807, studied theology, and about 1810 was ordained pastor of a Congregational church in Portland, Me. A few years later he went as a missionary to Georgia, where he devoted himself to the work of establishing educational institutions. He became pastor of the Presbyterian church in Troy, N. Y., in 1822, and continued as such for upward of forty years. He was actively interested in the temperance, moral reform, revival, and anti-slavery movements of his time. In 1831 he was moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church, and during the discussions that, in 1837, led to the division in that church, he was the leader of the new-school branch. Resigning his pastorate in 1863, he passed the remainder of his life in retirement in Troy and in Carbondale. Besides sermons, essays, and addresses, which have been separately published, he was the author of a volume entitled “Four Sermons on the Atonement.” He was also one of the compilers of the hymn-book adopted by the new-school branch of the Presbyterian church.   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 231-232.

 

 

BEMENT, Jasper, Ashfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-, 42-44

 

 

BEMIS, Phineas, Dudley, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1842-44-

 

 

BENEDICT, Mary F., New York, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 43n40)

 

 

BENEDICT, Seth W., New York, New York, abolitionist, Manager, 1839-1840, and publishing agent, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1851. (Yellin, 1994, p. 43n40)

 

 

BENEZET, Anthony, 1713-1784, French-born American, Society of Friends, Quaker, philanthropist, author, reformer, educator, early and important abolitionist leader.  Founded Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, in Philadelphia.  Also founded one of the first girls’ public schools that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Worked with abolitionist John Woolman.  Wrote: A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and Her Colonies, in a Short Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions, 1766; Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants, with an Enquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave-Trade, Its Nature and Lamentable Effects, 1771; and Observations on the Inslaving, Importing and Purchasing Negroes, 1748. (Basker, 2005; Bruns, 1977, pp. 108, 214, 221, 224, 246, 262-263, 269-270, 302; Drake, 1950, pp. 54-56, 62, 64, 70, 75, 83, 86, 90-94, 106-107, 112-113, 120-121, 155; Dumond, 1961, pp. 17, 19, 52, 87; Locke, 1901, pp. 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 52, 54, 56, 78, 94; Nash, 1991; Pease, 1965, pp. xxiv, 1-5; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 17-20, 290, 331, 433, 458, 515; Soderlund, 1985, pp. 4, 10, 29-30, 43-45, 47, 78, 140, 151, 166, 170-171, 174, 175, 176, 186, 189, 198; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 27, 72, 74-75, 85-93, 98, 125, 131; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 234; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 177-178; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 562; Vaux, Robert, Memoirs of the Life of Anthony Benezet, 1817.)

 

BENEZET, Anthony, philanthropist, b. in St. Quentin, France, 31 Jan., 1713; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 3 May, 1784. He was descended from wealthy and noble French parents, who fled from France to Holland in 1685, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and thence to England in 1715. In London his relatives became Quakers, and in 1731 they settled in Philadelphia. He apprenticed himself to a cooper, but in 1742 became instructor in the Friends' English school, and continued to teach until near the end of his life. He devoted much attention to the abolition of the slave-trade, and advocated the emancipation and education of the colored population, opening for that purpose an evening school. During the revolutionary war and the occupation of Philadelphia by the British army, he was active in alleviating the sufferings of the prisoners. He published tracts, which were gratuitously distributed throughout the country, the most important being “A Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, in a Short Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominion” (Philadelphia, 1767); “Some Historical Account of Guinea, with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade” (1772); “Observations on the Indian Natives of this Continent” (1784); “A Short Account of the Society of Friends” (1780); and “Dissertation on the Christian Religion” (1782). See “Memoir of Anthony Benezet,” by Roberts Vaux (New York, 1817). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 234.

 

 

BENJAMIN, Simeon, abolitionist, founder and president of Elmira College (Gates, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 588)

 

 

BENNET, Clark, Sommerville, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1846

 

 

BENSON, Edmund L., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1842-44

 

 

BENSON, Egbert, member of the New York Manumission Society (Zilversmit, 1967, p. 166)

 

 

BENSON, George, Brooklyn, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-35

 

 

BENSON, George William, 1808-1879, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, Society of Friends (Quaker).  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833, Brooklyn, Connecticut.  Brother-in-law of abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison.  (Clark, 2003; Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 1885; Mabee, 1970, pp. 82, 85, 109, 149; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 17, 21-22, 68, 86-87; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

BENSON, Henry E., , Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Recording Secretary, 1836-37

 

 

BENT, A. A., Gardner, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1853-55

 

 

BENTON, Andrew, St. Louis, Missouri, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-46

 

 

BETHUNE, Divie, New York, merchant, philanthropist, President of the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 40)

 

 

BETHUNE, George Washington, 1805-1862, Dutch Reform clergyman, abolitionist.  Director, 1839-1840, of the American Colonization Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 252-253; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 229-230; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

BETHUNE, George Washington, clergyman, b. in New York city in March, 1805; d. in Florence, Italy, 27 April, 1862. His parents were distinguished for devout Christianity and for charitable deeds. His father, Divie Bethune, was an eminent merchant, well known as a philanthropist. He was graduated at Dickinson college, Carlisle, Pa., in 1822, studied theology at Princeton, and after completing his course was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian church in 1825. He accepted an appointment as chaplain to seamen in the port of Savannah, but in 1826 returned to the north and transferred his ecclesiastical allegiance to the Reformed Dutch church, settling soon after at Rhinebeck, N. Y., where he remained four years, when he was called to the pastorate of the first Reformed Dutch church in Utica. In 1834 his reputation as an eloquent preacher and an efficient pastor led to an invitation from a Reformed Dutch church in Philadelphia. He remained in that city till 1848, his character as a preacher and scholar steadily growing, and then became pastor of the newly organized “Reformed Dutch Church on the Heights” in Brooklyn, N.Y. For eleven years he continued in the pastorate of this church, but in 1859 impaired health led him to resign and visit Italy. In Rome he sometimes preached in the American chapel, at that time the only Protestant place of worship in the city. He returned in 1860 with improved health, and was for some months associate pastor of a Reformed Dutch church in New York city; but, his health again becoming impaired, he returned to Italy in the summer of 1861, and, after some months' residence in Florence, died from apoplexy. Dr. Bethune, though best remembered by his literary work, exercised a wide influence as a clergyman and a citizen. One of his latest public efforts before leaving his native city for his last voyage to Europe was an address delivered at the great mass meeting in Union square, New York, 20 April, 1861, in which with extraordinary fire and eloquence he urged the duty of patriotism in the trying crisis that then threatened the nation. A memoir by A. R. Van Nest, D. D., was published in 1867. Dr. Bethune was an accomplished student of English literature, and distinguished himself as a writer and editor. He published an excellent edition of the “British Female Poets, with Biographical and Critical Notices” (Philadelphia, 1848); and Izaak Walton's “Complete Angler,” for which last he was peculiarly qualified by his fondness for fishing. Among his original works are “Lays of Love and Faith” (Philadelphia, 1847); “Orations and Discourses” (1850); “Memoirs of Joanna Bethune” (New York, 1863); “Fruits of the Spirit,” a volume of sermons; and two smaller works, “Early Lost, Early Saved,” and “The History of a Penitent.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 234.

 

 

BEXLEY, Lord, London, Great Britain, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1840-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

BIBB, Henry Walton, 1815-1854, African American, author, newspaper publisher, former slave, anti-slavery lecturer.  Wrote Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, 1849.  Published Voice of the Fugitive: An Anti-Slavery Journal, in 1851.  Organized the North American League.  Lectured for Michigan Liberty Party.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 338; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 220, 447, 489, 618-619, 632-634; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 717; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 532)

 

 

BIDWELL, Barnabas, 1763-1833, writer, lawyer, member of the U.S. Congress from Massachusetts, opposed slavery in U.S. House of Representatives (Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 149, 151; Annals of Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 246-247)

 

 

BIDWELL, Riverius, Trumbull County, Ohio, abolitionist, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

BILBO, William, circa 1815-1867, lawyer, journalist, entrepreneur.  Participated in lobbying effort in Congress for the passage of the Constitutional amendment banning slavery in the United States.  Worked with Secretary of State William H. Seward.

 

 

BINGHAM, John Armor, 1815-1900, Republican Congressman, judge, advocate, U.S. Army.  Bingham was one of the writers and sponsors of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  One of three military judges presiding in the Lincoln assassination trial.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 263; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 277)

 

BINGHAM, John A., lawyer, b. in Mercer, Pa., in 1815. He passed two years in a printing-office, and then entered Franklin college, Ohio, but left, on account of his health, before graduation. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, was district attorney for Tuscarawas co., Ohio, from 1846 till 1849, was elected to congress as a republican in 1854, and re-elected three times, sitting from 1855 till 1863. He prepared in the 34th congress the report on the contested Illinois elections, and in 1862 was chairman of the managers of the house in the impeachment of Judge Humphreys for high treason. He failed of re-election in 1864, and was appointed by President Lincoln judge-advocate in the army, and later the same year solicitor of the court of claims. He was special judge-advocate in the trial of the assassins of President Lincoln. In 1865 he returned to congress, and sat until 1873, serving on the committees on military affairs, freedmen, and reconstruction, and in the 40th congress as chairman of the committees on claims and judiciary, and as one of the managers in the impeachment trial of President Johnson. On 3 May, 1873, he received the appointment of minister to Japan, which post he held until 1885, when he was recalled by President Cleveland.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

Binney, Horace, 1780-1875, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, constitutional lawyer, member of the Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 84, 112; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 265-266; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 280; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 40, 72)

 

BINNEY, Horace, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 4 Jan., l780; d. there, 12 Aug., 1875. He was of English and Scotch descent. His father was a surgeon in the revolutionary army. In 1788, the year after his father's death, he was placed in a classical school at Bordentown, N. J., where he continued three years, and distinguished himself especially by his attainments in Greek. In July, 1793, he entered the freshman class of Harvard, and at graduation in 1797 he divided the highest honor with a single classmate. He had acquired the art and habit of study, and a love for it which never abated until the close of his life. This art he ever regarded as his most valued acquisition. He began the study of law in November, 1797, in the office of Jared Ingersoll, and was called to the bar in March, 1800, when he was little more than twenty years of age. His clientage for some years was meagre, but his industry continued unflagging, and gradually, in the face of a competition with eminent lawyers, such as no other bar in the country then exhibited, he became an acknowledged leader. In 1806 he was sent to the legislature of the state, in which he served one year, declining a re-election. So early as 1807 his professional engagements had become extremely large, and before 1815 he was in the enjoyment of all that the legal profession could give, whether of reputation or emolument. Between 1807 and 1814 he prepared and published the six volumes of reported decisions of the supreme court of Pennsylvania that bear his name. They are among the earliest of American reports, and are regarded as almost perfect models of legal reporting. Soon after 1830 Mr. Binney's health began to be impaired, and he desired to withdraw from the courts and throw off the business that oppressed him. It was this, in part, that made him willing to accept a nomination for congress; but there was doubtless another reason that influenced him—the hostility of President Jackson to the United States bank. The veto of the bill for its recharter aroused the deepest feeling of almost the entire business community of Philadelphia, and with that community Mr. Binney was closely associated, while his ability, combined with his well-known knowledge of the condition and operations of the bank, pointed him out as the fittest man to defend the institution in congress. He accepted a nomination, and was elected to the 23d congress. In the consideration of great subjects, notably that of the removal of the public deposits from the United States bank, he proved himself to be a statesman of high rank and an accomplished debater. But official life was distasteful to him, and he declined a re-election. On his return to Philadelphia he refused all professional engagements in the courts, though he continued to give written opinions upon legal questions until 1850. Many of these opinions are still preserved. They relate to titles to real estate, to commercial questions, to trusts, and to the most abstruse subjects in every department of the law. They are model exhibitions of profound and accurate knowledge, of extensive research, of nice discrimination, and wise conclusion, and they were generally accepted as of almost equal authority with judicial decision. Once only after 1836 did Mr. Binney appear in the courts. In 1844, by appointment of the city councils of Philadelphia, he argued in the supreme court of the United States the case of Bidal vs. Girard's executors, in which was involved the validity of the trust created by Mr. Girard's will for the establishment and maintenance of a college for orphans. The argument is in print, and it is still the subject of admiration by the legal profession in this country, and almost equally so by the profession in Great Britain. It lifted the law of charities out of the depths of confusion and obscurity that had covered it, and while the fulness of its research and the vigor of its reasoning were masterly, it was clothed with a precision and a beauty of language never surpassed. The argument was a fitting close to a long and illustrious professional life. Mr. Binney had a fine, commanding person, an uncommonly handsome face, a dignified and graceful manner, and a most melodious voice, perfectly under his control, and modulated with unusual skill. In fine, he was in all particulars a most accomplished lawyer. No words can better describe him than those which he applied to a great man, the friend of his early man-hood: “He was an advocate of great power; a master of every question in his causes; a wary tactician in the management of them; highly accomplished in language; a faultless logician; a man of the purest integrity and the highest honor; fluent without the least volubility; concise to a degree that left every one's patience and attention unimpaired, and perspicuous to almost the lowest order of understanding, while he was dealing with almost the highest topics.” If it be added to this that his mental power was equal to the comprehension of any legal subject, that his mode of presentation was the best possible, that his rhetoric was faultless, that he had an aptness of illustration that illuminated the most abstruse subjects, and a personal character without a visible flaw, it will be seen that he must have been, as he was, a most persuasive and convincing advocate. In 1827, by invitation of the bar of Philadelphia, he delivered an address on the life and character of Chief-Justice Tilghman; and in 1835, complying with a request of the select and common councils of the city, an address on the life and character of Chief-Justice Marshall. Until the close of his life he was a constant reader and an indefatigable student. He kept himself well informed of current events, and in regard to all public questions he not only sought information, but matured settled opinions. In 1858 he published a sketch of the life and character of Justice Bushrod Washington, in which he delineated the qualities that make up a perfect nisi prius judge, with singular acuteness. In the same year he published sketches of three leaders of the old Philadelphia bar, which were greatly admired. He also in 1858 gave to the press a more extended discussion, entitled “An Inquiry into the Formation of Washington's Farewell Address,” strikingly illustrative of the character of his own mind, and of his habits of investigation and reasoning. And in 1862 and in 1863 he published three pamphlets in support of the power claimed by President Lincoln to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. His argument was not less remarkable than the best of his earlier efforts. Throughout his life Mr. Binney manifested a deep interest in many literary, scientific, and art institutions of Philadelphia, and in many of the noblest charities. He was also an earnest Christian, a devout member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and often a leading member of its conventions. The activity of his mind remained undiminished until his death. This occurred forty years after the age when most men are at the zenith of their reputation, forty years after he had substantially retired from public view and from participation in all matters that attract public notice, and at the end of a period when public recollection of most lawyers has faded into indistinctness. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BINTLIFF, James, 1824-1901, abolitionist, newspaper editor, publisher, proprietor, businessman, Union Army colonel, helped found Republican Party.  (Hunt, Roger, Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Gaithersburg, MD, 1990)

 

 

BIRCHARD, Matthew W., Vermont.  Vice president and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

BIRD, Francis William, 1809-1894, anti-slavery political leader, radical reformer.  Member of the anti-slavery “Conscience Whigs,” leader of the Massachusetts Free Soil Party.  Led anti-slavery faction of the newly formed Republican Party.  Supported abolitionist Party leader Charles Sumner.  Opposed Dred Scott decision.  “Bird Club” greatly influenced radical Republican politics in Massachusetts and in the U.S. Senate.  Organized Emancipation League.  Supported enlistment of African Americans in the Union Army and emancipation of Blacks in the District of Columbia.  Supported women’s rights, Indian rights, suffrage rights for Chinese, and other causes. (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 805)

 

 

BIRGE, Luther, Illinois, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1844

 

 

BIRNEY, James Gillespie, 1792-1857, abolitionist leader, statesman, orator, writer, lawyer, jurist, newspaper publisher.  On two occasions, mobs in Cincinnati attacked and wrecked his newspaper office.  Beginning in 1832, Birney was an agent for the American colonization Society, representing the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.  In 1833, he transferred to agent in Kentucky.  Wrote pro-colonization articles for Alabama Democrat.  Editor of the Philanthropist, founded 1836.  Founder and president of the Liberty Party in 1848.  Third party presidential candidate, 1840, 1844.  Founder University of Alabama.  Native American rights advocate.  Member of the American Colonization Society.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1836, Vice President, 1835-1836, 1836-1838, Executive Committee, 1838-1840, Corresponding Secretary, 1838-1840. American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Secretary, 1840-1841, Executive Committee, 1840-1842.  His writings include: “Ten Letters on Slavery and Colonization,” (1832-1833), “Addresses and Speeches,” (1835), “Vindication of the Abolitionists,” (1835), “The Philanthropist,” a weekly newspaper (1836-1837), “Address of Slaveholders,” (1836), “Argument on Fugitive Slave Case,” (1837), “Political Obligations of Abolitionists,” (1839), “American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery,” (1840), and “Speeches in England,” (1840).  (Birney, 1969; Blue, 2005, pp. 20-21, 25, 30, 32, 48-51, 55, 9-99, 101, 139, 142, 163, 186, 217; Burin, 2005, pp. 84, 112; Drake, 1950, pp. 141, 149, 159; Dumond, 1938; Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 93, 176, 179, 185, 197, 198, 200-202, 257-262, 286, 297, 300-301, 303; Filler, 1960, pp. 55, 73, 77, 89, 94, 107, 128, 131, 137, 140-141, 148, 152, 156, 176; Fladeland, 1955; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 27, 36, 40, 41, 49, 54, 55, 60, 71, 92, 195, 228, 252,293, 301, 323, 328, 350; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4-5, 7, 8, 13-15, 18, 21-31, 35, 50, 101, 199, 225; Pease, 1965, pp. 43-49; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 43-44, 46, 48, 163, 188-189, 364, 522; Sorin, 1971, pp. 25, 47, 51, 52, 65, 70n, 97, 103n; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 146-148, 211-212, 229-230; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 267-269; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 291-294; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 79-80; Birney, William, Jas. G. Birney and His Times, 1890; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 312-313)

 

BIRNEY, James Gillespie, statesman, b. in Danville, Ky., 4 Feb., 1792; d. in Perth Amboy, N. J., 25 Nov., 1857. His ancestors were Protestants of the province of Ulster, Ireland. His father, migrating to the United States at sixteen years of age, settled in Kentucky, became a wealthy merchant, manufacturer, and farmer, and for many years was president of the Danville bank. His mother died when he was three years old, and his early boyhood was passed under the care of a pious aunt. Giving promise of talent and force of character, he was liberally educated with a view to his becoming a lawyer and statesman. After preparation at good schools and at Transylvania university he was sent to Princeton, where he was graduated with honors in 1810. Having studied law for three years, chiefly under Alexander J. Dallas, of Philadelphia, he returned to his native place in 1814 and began practice. In 1816 he married a daughter of William McDowell, judge of the U. S. circuit court and one of several brothers who, with their relatives, connections, and descendants, were the most influential family in Kentucky. In the same year he was elected to the legislature, in which body he opposed and defeated in its original form a proposition to demand of the states of Ohio and Indiana the enactment of laws for the seizure, imprisonment, and delivery to owners of slaves escaping into their limits. His education in New Jersey and Pennsylvania at the time when the gradual emancipation laws of those states were in operation had led him to favor that solution of the slavery problem. In the year 1818 he removed to Alabama, bought a cotton plantation near Huntsville, and served as a member of the first legislature that assembled under the constitution of 1819. Though he was not a member of the convention that framed the instrument, it was chiefly through his influence that a provision of the Kentucky constitution, empowering the general assembly to emancipate slaves on making compensation to the owners, and to prohibit the bringing of slaves into the state for sale, was copied into it, with amendments designed to secure humane treatment for that unfortunate class. In the legislature he voted against a resolution of honor to Gen. Jackson, assigning his reasons in a forcible speech. This placed him politically in a small minority. In 1823, having found planting unprofitable, partly because of his refusal to permit his overseer to use the lash, he resumed at Huntsville the practice of his profession, was appointed solicitor of the northern circuit, and soon gained a large and lucrative practice. In 1826 he made a public profession of religion, united with the Presbyterian church, and was ever afterward a devout Christian. About the same time he began to contribute to the American colonization society, regarding it as preparing the way for gradual emancipation. In 1827 he procured the enactment by the Alabama legislature of a statute "to prohibit the importation of slaves into this state for sale or hire." In 1828 he was a candidate for presidential elector on the Adams ticket in Alabama, canvassed the state for the Adams party, and was regarded as its most prominent member. He was repeatedly elected mayor of Huntsville, and was recognized as the leader in educational movements and local improvements. In 1830 he was deputed by the trustees of the state university to select and recommend to them five persons as president and professors of that institution, also by the trustees of the Huntsville female seminary to select and employ three teachers. In the performance of these trusts he spent several months in the Atlantic states, extending his tour as far north as Massachusetts. His selections were approved. Returning home by way of Kentucky, he called on Henry Clay, with whom he had been on terms of friendship and political sympathy, and urged that statesman to place himself at the head of the gradual emancipation movement in Kentucky. The result of the interview was the final alienation in public matters and politics of the parties to it, though their friendly personal relations remained unchanged. Mr. Birney did not support Mr. Clay politically after 1830 or vote for him in 1832. For several years he was the confidential adviser and counsel of the Cherokee nation, an experience that led him to sympathize with bodies of men who were wronged under color of law. In 1831 he had become so sensible of the evil influences of slavery that he determined to remove his large family to a free state, and in the winter of that year visited Illinois and selected Jacksonville as the place of his future residence. Returning to Alabama, he was winding up his law business and selling his property with a view to removal, when he received, most unexpectedly, an appointment from the American colonization society as its agent for the southwest. From motives of duty he accepted and devoted himself for one year to the promotion of the objects of that society. Having become convinced that the slave-holders of the gulf states, with few exceptions, were hostile to the idea of emancipation in the future, he lost faith in the efficacy of colonization in that region. In his conversations about that time with southern politicians and men of influence he learned enough to satisfy him that, although the secret negotiations in 1829 of the Jackson administration for the purchase of Texas had failed, the project of annexing that province to the United States and forming several slave states out of its territory had not been abandoned; that a powerful combination existed at the south for the purpose of sending armed adventurers to Texas; and that southern politicians were united in the design to secure for the south a majority in the U. S. senate. The situation seemed to him to portend the permanence of slavery, with grave danger of civil war and disunion of the states. Resigning his agency and relinquishing his Illinois project, he removed, in November, 1833, to Kentucky for the purpose of separating it from the slave states by effecting the adoption of a system of gradual emancipation. He thought its example might be followed by Virginia and Tennessee, and that thus the slave states would be placed in a hopeless minority, and slavery in process of extinction. But public opinion in his native state had greatly changed since he had left it; the once powerful emancipation element had been weakened by the opposition of political leaders, and especially of Henry Clay. His efforts were sustained by very few. In June, 1834, he set free his own slaves and severed his connection with the colonization society, the practical effect of which, he had found, was to afford a pretext for postponing emancipation indefinitely. From this time he devoted himself with untiring zeal to the advocacy in Kentucky of the abolition of slavery. On 19 March, 1835, he formed the Kentucky anti-slavery society, consisting of forty members, several of whom had freed their slaves. In May, at New York, he made the principal speech at the meeting of the American anti-slavery society, and thenceforward he was identified with the Tappans, Judge William Jay, Theodore D. Weld, Alvan Stewart, Thomas Morris, and other northern abolitionists, who pursued their object by constitutional methods. In June, 1835, he issued a prospectus for the publication, beginning in August, of an anti-slavery weekly paper, at Danville, Ky.; but before the time fixed for issuing the first number the era of mob violence and social persecutions, directed against the opponents of slavery, set in. This was contemporaneous with the renewed organization of revolts in Texas; the beginning of the war for breaking up the refuge for fugitive slaves, waged for years against the Florida Seminoles; and the exclusion, by connivance of the postmaster-general, of anti-slavery papers from the U. S. mails; and it preceded, by a few months only, President Jackson's message, recommending not only the refusal of the use of the mails, but the passage of laws by congress and also by the non-slaveholding states for the suppression of “incendiary” (anti- slavery) publications. Mr. Birney found it impossible to obtain a publisher or printer; and as his own residence in Kentucky had become disagreeable and dangerous, he removed to Cincinnati, where he established his paper. His press was repeatedly destroyed by mobs; but he met all opposition with courage and succeeded finally in maintaining the freedom of the press in Cincinnati, exhibiting great personal courage, firmness, and judgment. On 22 Jan., 1836, a mob assembled at the court-house for the purpose of destroying his property and seizing his person; the city and county authorities had notified him of their inability to protect him; he attended the meeting, obtained leave to speak, and succeeded in defeating its object. As an editor, he was distinguished by a thorough knowledge of his subject, courtesy, candor, and large attainments as a jurist and statesman. The “Philanthropist” gained rapidly an extensive circulation. Having associated with him as editor Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, he devoted most of his own time to public speaking, visiting in this work most of the cities and towns in the free states and addressing committees of legislative bodies. His object was to awaken the people of the north to the danger menacing the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, the system of free labor, and the national constitution, from the encroachments of the slave-power and the plotted annexation of new slave states in the southwest. In recognition of his prominence as an anti-slavery leader, the executive committee of the American anti-slavery society unanimously elected him, in the summer of 1837, to the office of secretary. Having accepted, he removed to New York city, 20 Sept., 1837. In his new position he was the executive officer of the society, conducted its correspondence, selected and employed lecturers, directed the organization of auxiliaries, and prepared its reports. He attended the principal anti-slavery conventions, and his wise and conservative counsel had a marked influence on their action. He was faithful to the church, while he exposed and rebuked the ecclesiastical bodies that sustained slavery; and true to the constitution, while he denounced the constructions that severed it from the principles contained in its preamble and in the declaration of independence. To secession, whether of the north or south, he was inflexibly opposed. The toleration or establishment of slavery in any district or territory belonging to the United States, and its abolition in the slave states, except under the war power, he held was not within the legal power of congress; slavery was local, and freedom national. To vote he considered the duty of every citizen, and more especially of every member of the American anti-slavery society, the constitution of which recognized the duty of using both moral and political action for the removal of slavery. In the beginning of the agitation the abolitionists voted for such anti-slavery candidates as were nominated by the leading parties; but as the issues grew, under the aggressive action of the slave power, to include the right of petition, the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, the equality of all men before the law, the right of the free states to legislate for their own territory, and the right of congress to exclude slavery from the territories, the old parties ceased to nominate anti-slavery candidates, and the abolitionists were forced to make independent nominations for state officers and congress, and finally to form a national and constitutional party. Mr. Birney was their first and only choice as candidate for the presidency. During his absence in England, in 1840, and again in 1844, he was unanimously nominated by national conventions of the liberty party. At the former election he received 7,369 votes; and at the latter, 62,263. This number, it was claimed by his friends, would have been much larger if the electioneering agents of the whig party had not circulated, three days before the election and too late for denial and exposure, a forged letter purporting to be from Mr. Birney, announcing his withdrawal from the canvass, and advising anti-slavery men to vote for Mr. Clay. This is known as “the Garland forgery.” Its circulation in Ohio and New York probably gave the former state to Mr. Clay, and greatly diminished Mr. Birney's vote in the latter. In its essential doctrines the platform of the liberty party in 1840 and 1844 was identical with those that were subsequently adopted by the free-soil and republican parties. In the summer of 1845 Mr. Birney was disabled physically by partial paralysis, caused by a fall from a horse, and from that time he withdrew from active participation in politics, though he continued his contributions to the press. In September, 1839, he emancipated twenty-one slaves that belonged to his late father's estate, setting off to his co-heir $20,000, in compensation for her interest in them. In 1839 Mr. Birney lost his wife, and in the autumn of 1841 he married Miss Fitzhugh, sister of Mrs. Gerrit Smith, of New York. In 1842 he took up his residence in Bay City, Mich. In person he was of medium height, robust build, and handsome countenance. His manners were those of a polished man of the world, free from eccentricities, and marked with dignity. He had neither vices nor bad habits. As a presiding officer in a public meeting he was said to have no superior. As a public speaker he was generally calm and judicial in tone; but when under strong excitement he rose to eloquence. His chief writings were as follows: “Ten Letters on Slavery and Colonization,” addressed to R. R. Gurley (the first dated 12 July, 1832, the last 11 Dec., 1833); “Six Essays on Slavery and Colonization,” published in the Huntsville (Ala.) “Advocate” (May, June, and July, 1833); “Letter on Colonization,” resigning vice-presidency of Kentucky colonization society (15 July, 1834); “Letters to the Presbyterian Church” (1834); “Addresses and Speeches” (1835); “Vindication of the Abolitionists” (1835); “The Philanthropist,” a weekly newspaper (1836 and to September, 1837); “Letter to Col. Stone” (May, 1836); “Address to Slaveholders” (October, 1836); “Argument on Fugitive Slave Case” (1837); “Letter to F. H. Elmore,” of South Carolina (1838); “Political Obligations of Abolitionists” (1839); “Report on the Duty of Political Action,” for executive committee of the American anti-slavery society (May, 1839); “American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery” (1840); “Speeches in England” (1840); “Letter of Acceptance”; “Articles in Q. A. S. Magazine and Emancipator” (1837-'44); “Examination of the Decision of the U. S. Supreme Court,” in the case of Strader et al., v. Graham (1850). —His son, James, b. in Danville, Ky., 7 June, 1817; was a state senator in Michigan in 1859, and was lieutenant-governor of the state and acting governor in 1861-'3. He was appointed by President Grant, in 1876, minister at the Hague, and held that office until 1882.—Another son, William, lawyer, b. near Huntsville, Ala., 28 May, 1819. While pursuing his studies in Paris, in February, 1848, he took an active part in the revolution, and he was appointed on public competition professor of English literature in the college at Bourges. He entered the U. S. national service as captain in April, 1861, and rose through all the grades to the rank of brevet major-general of volunteers, commanding a division for the last two years of the civil war. He participated in the principal battles in Virginia, and, being sent for a short time to Florida after the battle of Olustee, regained possession of the principal parts of the state and of several of the confederate strongholds. ln 1863-'4, having been detailed by the war department as one of three superintendents of the organization of U. S. colored troops, he enlisted, mustered in, armed, equipped, drilled, and sent to the field seven regiments of those troops. In this work he opened all the slave-prisons in Baltimore, and freed their inmates, including many slaves belonging to men in the confederate armies. The result of his operations was to hasten the abolition of slavery in Maryland. He passed four years in Florida after the war, and in 1874 removed to Washington, D. C., where he practised his profession and became attorney for the District of Columbia.— The third son, Dion, physician, entered the army as lieutenant at the beginning of the civil war, rose to the rank of captain, and died in 1864 of disease contracted in the service.—The fourth son, David Bell, b. in Huntsville, Ala., 29 May, 1825; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 18 Oct., 1864, studied law in Cincinnati, and, after engaging in business in Michigan, began the practice of law in Philadelphia in 1848. He entered the army as lieutenant-colonel at the beginning of the civil war, and was made colonel of the 23d Pennsylvania volunteers, which regiment he raised, principally at his own expense, in the summer of 1861. He was promoted successively to brigadier and major-general of volunteers, and distinguished himself in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, the second battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. After the death of Gen. Berry he commanded the division, receiving his commission as major-general, 23 May, 1863. He commanded the 3d corps at Gettysburg, after Gen. Sickles was wounded, and on 23 July, 1864, was given the command of the 10th corps. He died of disease contracted in the service.—A fifth son, Fitzhugh, died, in 1864, of wounds and disease, in the service with the rank of colonel—A grandson, James Gillespie, was lieutenant and captain of cavalry, served as staff officer under Custer and Sheridan, was appointed lieutenant in the regular army at the close of the war; and died soon afterward of disease contracted in the service. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 267-269.

 

 

BIRNEY, William, 1819-1907, lawyer, Union soldier, abolitionist leader, strong opponent of slavery, commander of U.S. Colored Troops (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 269; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 294; Who’s Who in America, 1899-1907; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 819)

 

 

BLACKBURN, Gideon, 1772-1838, Kentucky, Virginia, clergyman, abolitionist, strong supporter of the American colonization Society.  Went to Illinois in 1833.  Assisted Elijah P. Lovejoy in organizing Illinois Anti-Slavery Society.  Founded Blackburn College at Carlinville, Illinois.  Established school for Cherokee Indians.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 91, 92, 135, 198-199; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 272; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 315; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 139)

 

BLACKBURN, Gideon, clergyman, b. in Augusta co., Va., 27 Aug., 1772; d. in Carlinville, Ill., 23 Aug., 1838. He was educated at Martin academy, Washington co., Tenn., licensed to preach by Abingdon presbytery in 1795, and settled many years at Marysville, Tenn. He was minister of Franklin, Tenn., in 1811-'3, and of Louisville, Ky., in 1823-'7. He passed the last forty years of his life in the western states, in preaching, organizing churches, and, from 1803 to 1809, during a part of each year, in his mission to the Cherokees, establishing a school at Hywassee. He established a school in Tennessee in 1806, and from 1827 till 1830 was president of Center college, Kentucky. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 272.

 

 

BLACKBURN, William Jasper, b. 1820, newspaper editor, U.S. Congressman, printer, opponent of slavery.  Published Blackburn’s Homer’s Iliad, in Homer, Louisiana.  Published pro-Union paper in the South during the Civil War.  Published editorials against the assault in the Senate against Charles Sumner, who was opposed to slavery.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 272-273)

 

BLACKBURN, William Jasper, editor, b. in Randolph co., Ark., 24 July, 1820. He was early left an orphan, and received his education in public schools, also studying during the years 1838-'9 in Jackson College, Columbia, Tenn.; after which he became a printer, and worked in various offices in Arkansas and Louisiana. Later he settled in Homer, La., where he established “Blackburn's Homer Iliad,” in which he editorially condemned the assault on Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks, being the only southern editor that denounced that action. Although born in a slave state, he was always opposed to slavery, and his office was twice mobbed therefor. The “Iliad” was the only loyal paper published during the civil war in the gulf states. He was a member of the constitutional convention of Louisiana convened in 1867, and was elected as a republican to congress, serving from 17 July, 1868, till 3 March, 1869. From 1872 till 1876 he was a member of the Louisiana state senate. Subsequently he removed to Little Rock, Ark., and became owner and editor of the Little Rock “Republican.” He received the nomination of the republicans for the state senate, but failed to secure his seat, though he claimed to have been elected by 2,000 majority. Mr. Blackburn is known as an occasional writer of verse. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 272-273.

 

 

BLACKFORD, Mary Berkeley Minor, Fredericksburg, Virginia.  Active supporter of the American Colonization Society, along with her husband, newspaper publisher William Blackford.  Freed some of her slaves for colonization to Africa.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 39, 51, 60, 101; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 110)

 

 

BLACKFORD, William Maxwell, Fredericksburg, Virginia, newspaper publisher.  Owner of the newspaper, Arena, which endorsed  and sponsored the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 109-157, 179)

 

 

BLACKSTONE, Dr., Athens, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

BLACKWELL, Antoinette Louisa, 1825-1921, abolitionist, reformer (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 274; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 319-320; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 82-83)

 

BLACKWELL, Antoinette Louisa Brown, author and minister, b. in Henrietta, Monroe co., N. Y., 20 May, 1825. When sixteen years old she taught school, and then, after attending Henrietta academy, went to Oberlin, where she was graduated in 1847. She spent her vacations in teaching and in the study of Hebrew and Greek. In the winter of 1844 she taught in the academy at Rochester, N. Y., where she delivered her first lecture. After graduation she entered upon a course of theological study at Oberlin, and completed it in 1850. When she asked for the license to preach, usually given to the theological students, it was refused; but she preached frequently on her own responsibility. The four years following her graduation were spent in study, preaching, and in lecturing on literary subjects, temperance, and the abolition of slavery. At the woman's rights convention in Worcester, Mass., in 1850, Miss Brown was one of the speakers, and she has since been prominent in the movement. In 1853 she was regularly ordained pastor of the orthodox Congregational church of South Butler and Savannah, Wayne co., N. Y., but gave up her charge in 1854 on account of ill health and doctrinal doubts. In 1855 she investigated the character and causes of vice in New York city, and published, in a New York journal, a series of sketches entitled “Shadows of our Social System.” In 1856 she married Samuel C. Blackwell, brother of Elizabeth Blackwell. They have six children, and now live in Elizabeth, N. J. Mrs. Blackwell still preaches occasionally, and has become a Unitarian. She is the author of “Studies in General Science” (New York, 1869); “The Market Woman”: “The Island Neighbors” (1871); “The Sexes Throughout Nature” (1875); and “The Physical Basis of Immortality” (1876). She has in preparation (1886) “The Many and the One.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 274.

 

 

BLACKWELL, Elizabeth, 1821-1910, Bristol, England, abolitionist, physician. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp.274-275; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 230)

 

BLACKWELL, Elizabeth, physician, b. in Bristol, England, in 1821. Her father emigrated with his family in 1832, and settled in New York, but removed in 1838 to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he died a few months afterward, leaving a widow and nine children almost destitute. Elizabeth, then seventeen years old, opened a school in connection with two elder sisters, and conducted it successfully for several years. A friend now suggested that she should study medicine, and she resolved to become a physician. At first she pursued her studies in private, with some help from Dr. John Dixon, of Asheville, N. C., in whose family she was governess for a year. She then continued her studies in Charleston, S. C., supporting herself by teaching music, and after that in Philadelphia, under Dr. Allen and Dr. Warrington. She now made formal application to the medical schools of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston for admission as a student, but in each instance the request was denied, although several professors avowed interest in her undertaking. Rejecting advice to adopt an assumed name and male attire, she persevered in her attempt, and after several more refusals was finally admitted to the medical school at Geneva, N. Y., where she took her degree of M. D. in regular course in January, 1849. During her connection with the college, when not in attendance there upon lectures, she pursued a course of clinical study in Blockley hospital, Philadelphia. After graduation she went to Paris, and remained there six months, devoting herself to the study and practice of midwifery. The next autumn she was admitted as a physician to walk the hospital of St. Bartholomew in London, and after nearly a year spent there she returned to New York, and began practice in 1851. In 1854, with her sister, Dr. Emily Blackwell, she organized the New York infirmary for women and children. In 1859 she revisited England, and delivered in London and other cities a course of lectures on the necessity of medical education for women. In 1861, having returned to New York, she held, with Dr. Emily Blackwell, a meeting in the parlors of the infirmary, at which the first steps were taken toward organizing the women's central relief association for sending nurses and medical supplies for the wounded soldiers during the civil war. In 1867 the two sisters organized the women's medical college of the New York infirmary, in which Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell held the chair of hygiene and Dr. Emily Blackwell the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women. In 1869, leaving Dr. Emily in. charge of their joint work, Dr. Elizabeth returned to London and practised there for several years, taking an active part in organizing the women's medical college, in which she was elected professor of the diseases of women. She also took part in forming in England the national health society, and the society for repealing the contagious-diseases acts. Besides several health tracts, she has published “Laws of Life, or the Physical Education of Girls” (Philadelphia, 1852), and “Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children” (1879), which has been translated into French.

 

 

BLACKWELL, Samuel Charles, 1823-1901, England, abolitionist, husband of abolitionist Antoinette Brown, brother of Elizabeth Blackwell.

 

 

BLAGDON, George W., Boston, Massachusetts.  Supporter of the American Colonization Society.  Raised funds for the Society in Boston.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 214)

 

 

BLAIN, John, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-37

 

 

BLAINE, James Gillespie, 1830-1893, statesman.  Founding member of the Republican Party.  Member of Congress 1862-1880.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 275-280; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 322-329; Congressional Globe)

 

BLAINE, James Gillespie, statesman, b. in West Brownsville, Washington co., Pa., 31 Jan., 1830. He is the second son of Ephraim L. Blaine and Maria Gillespie. On his father's side he inherited the hardy and energetic qualities of the Scotch-Irish blood. His great-grandfather, Ephraim Blaine, b. 1741; d. 1804, bore an honorable part in the revolutionary struggle, was an officer of the Pennsylvania line, a trusted friend of Washington, and during the last four years of the war served as the commissary-general of the northern department of his command. Possessed of ample means, he drew largely from his own private purse and enlisted the contributions of various friends for the maintenance of the army through the severe and memorable winter at Valley Forge. From the Cumberland valley, where his ancestors had early settled and had been among the founders of Carlisle, Mr. Blaine's father removed to Washington co. in 1818. He had inherited what was a fortune in those days, and had large landed possessions in western Pennsylvania; but their mineral wealth had not then been developed, and though relieved from poverty he was not endowed with affluence, and a large family made a heavy drain on his means. He was a man of liberal education, and had travelled in Europe and South America before settling down in western Pennsylvania, where he served as prothonotary. Mr. Blaine's mother, a woman of superior intelligence and force of character, was a devout Catholic; but her son has adhered to the Presbyterian convictions and communion of his paternal Scotch-Irish ancestry. The early education of Mr. Blaine was sedulously cultivated. He had the advantage of excellent teachers at his own home, and for a part of the year 1841 he was at school in Lancaster, Ohio, where he lived in the family of his relative, Thomas Ewing, then secretary of the treasury. In association with Thomas Ewing, Jr., afterward a member of congress, young Blaine began his preparation for college under the instruction of a thoroughly trained Englishman. William Lyons, brother of Lord Lyons, and at the age of thirteen he entered Washington college in his native county, where he was graduated in 1847. It is said that when nine years old he was able to recite Plutarch's lives. He had a marked taste for historical studies, and excelled in literature and mathematics. In the literary society he displayed the political aptitude and capacity that distinguished his subsequent career. Some time after graduation he became a teacher in the western military institute, at Blue Lick Springs, Ky. Here he formed the acquaintance of Miss Harriet Stanwood, of Maine, who was connected with a seminary for young ladies at the neighboring town of Millersburg, and to whom within a few months he was married. He soon returned to Pennsylvania, where, after some study of the law, he became a teacher in the Pennsylvania institution for the blind at Philadelphia. The instruction was chiefly oral. The young teacher had charge of the higher classes in literature and science, and the principal has left a record that his “brilliant mental powers were exactly qualified to enlighten and instruct the interesting minds before him.” After an association of two years with this institution, he removed in 1854 to Augusta, Maine, where he has since made his home. Purchasing a half interest in the Kennebec “Journal,” he became its editor, his ready faculty and trenchant writing being peculiarly adapted to this field. He speedily made his impress, and within three years was a master spirit in the politics of the state.

He engaged in the movement for the formation of the republican party with all his energy, and his earnest and incisive discussion of the rising conflict between freedom and slavery attracted wide attention. In 1856 he was a delegate to the first republican national convention, which nominated Gen. Frémont for the presidency. His report at a public meeting on his return home, where he spoke at the outset with hesitation and embarrassment, and advanced to confident and fervid utterance, first illustrated his capacity on the platform and gave him standing as a public speaker. The next year he broadened his journalistic work by taking the editorship of the Portland “Advertiser”; but his editorial service ended when his parliamentary career began. In 1858 he was elected to the legislature, remaining a member through successive annual re-elections for four years, and serving the last two as speaker. At the beginning of the civil war Mr. Blaine gained distinction not only for his parliamentary skill, but for his forensic power in the debates that grew out of that crisis. The same year that he was elected to the legislature he became chairman of the state committee, a position which he continued to hold uninterruptedly for twenty years, and in which he led in shaping and directing every political campaign of his party in Maine.

In 1862 Mr. Blaine was elected to congress, where in one branch or the other he served for eighteen years. To the house he was chosen for seven successive terms. His growth in position and influence was rapid and unbroken. In his earlier years he made few elaborate addresses. During his first term his only extended speech was an argument in favor of the assumption of the state war debts by the general government, and in demonstration of the ability of the north to carry the war to a successful conclusion. But he gradually took an active part in the running discussions, and soon acquired high repute as a facile and effective debater. For this form of contention his ready resources and alert faculties were singularly fitted. He was bold in attack, quick in repartee, and apt in illustration. His close study of political history, his accurate knowledge of the record and relations of public men, and his unfailing memory, gave him great advantages. As a member of the committee on post-offices, he was largely instrumental in securing the introduction of the system of postal cars. He earnestly sustained all measures for the vigorous prosecution of the war, but sought to make them judicious and practical. In this spirit he supported the bill for a draft, but opposed absolute conscription. He contended that it should be relieved by provisions for commutation and substitution, and urged that an inexorable draft had never been resorted to but once, even under the absolutism of Napoleon. At the same time he enforced the duty of sustaining and strengthening the armies in the field by using all the resources of the nation, and strongly advocated the enrolment act. The measures for the reconstruction of the states that had been in rebellion largely engrossed the attention of congress from 1865 till 1869, and Mr. Blaine bore a prominent part in their discussion and in the work of framing them. The basis of representation upon which the states should be readmitted was the first question to be determined, Thaddeus Stevens, chairman of the committee on reconstruction, had proposed that representation should be apportioned according to the number of legal voters. Mr. Blaine strenuously objected to this proposition, and urged that population, instead of voters, should be the basis. He submitted a constitutional amendment providing that “representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which shall be included within this union according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by taking the whole number of persons, except those whose political rights or privileges are denied or abridged by the constitution of any state on account of race or color.” He advocated this plan on the ground that, while the other basis of voters would accomplish the object of preventing the south from securing representation for the blacks unless the blacks were made voters, yet it would make a radical change in the apportionment for the northern states where the ratio of voters to population differed very widely in different sections, varying from a minimum of 19 per cent. to a maximum of 58 per cent. The result of the discussion was a general abandonment of the theory that apportionment should be based on voters, and the 14th amendment to the constitution, as finally adopted, embodied Mr. Blaine's proposition in substance.

On 6 Feb., 1867, Mr. Stevens reported the reconstruction bill. It divided the states lately in rebellion into five military districts, and practically established military government therein. The civil tribunals were made subject to military control. While the majority evinced a readiness to accept the bill, Mr. Blaine declared his unwillingness to support any measure that would place the south under military government, if it did not at the same time prescribe the methods by which the people of a state could by their own action reëstablish civil government. He accordingly proposed an amendment providing that when any one of the late so-called confederate states should assent to the 14th amendment to the constitution and should establish equal and impartial suffrage without regard to race or color, and when congress should approve its action, it should be entitled to representation, and the provisions for military government should become inoperative. This proposition came to be known as the Blaine amendment. In advocating it, Mr. Blaine expressed the belief that the true interpretation of the election of 1866 was that, in addition to the proposed constitutional amendment—the 14th—impartial suffrage should be the basis of reconstruction, and he urged the wisdom of declaring the terms at once. The application of the previous question ruled out the Blaine amendment, but it was renewed in the senate and finally carried through both branches, and under it reconstruction was completed.

The theory that the public debt should be paid in greenbacks developed great strength in the summer of 1867 while Mr. Blaine was absent in Europe. On his return at the opening of the next session he made an extended speech against the doctrine, and was the first man in congress to give utterance to this opposition. The long unsettled question of protecting naturalized American citizens while abroad attracted special attention at this time. Costello, Warren, Burke, and other Irish-Americans had been arrested in England, on the charge of complicity in Fenian plots. Costello had made a speech in 1865 in New York, which was regarded as treasonable by the British government, and he was treated as a British subject and tried under an old law on this accusation. His plea of American citizenship was overruled, and he was convicted and sentenced to sixteen years' penal servitude. Mr. Blaine, who, with other American statesmen, resisted the English doctrine of perpetual allegiance, and maintained that a naturalized American was entitled to the same protection abroad that would be given to a native American, took active part in pressing these questions upon public attention, and, as the result of the agitation, Costello was released. The discussion of these cases led to the treaty of 1870, in which Great Britain abandoned the doctrine of “once a subject always a subject,” and accepted the American principle of equal rights and protection for adopted and for native citizens. Mr. Blaine was chosen speaker of the house of representatives in 1869, and served by successive reëlections for six years. His administration of the speakership is commonly regarded as one of the most brilliant and successful in the annals of the house. He had rare aptitude and equipment for the duties of presiding officer; and his complete mastery of parliamentary law, his dexterity and physical endurance, his rapid despatch of business, and his firm and impartial spirit, were recognized on all sides. 'Though necessarily exercising a powerful influence upon the course of legislation, he seldom left the chair to mingle in the contests of the floor. On one of those rare occasions, in March, 1871, he had a sharp tilt with Gen. Butler, who had criticised him for being the author of the resolution providing for an investigation into alleged outrages perpetrated upon loyal citizens of the south, and for being chiefly instrumental in securing its adoption by the republican caucus. The political revulsion of 1874 placed the democrats in control of the house, and Mr. Blaine became the leader of the minority. The session preceding the presidential contest of 1876 was a period of stormy and vehement contention. A general amnesty bill was brought forward, removing the political disabilities of participants in the rebellion which had been imposed by the 14th amendment to the constitution. Mr. Blaine moved to amend by making an exception of Jefferson Davis, and supported the proposition in an impassioned speech. After asserting the great magnanimity of the government, and pointing out how far amnesty had already been carried, he defined the ground of his proposed exception. The reason was, not that Davis was the chief of the confederacy, but that, as Mr. Blaine affirmed, he was the author, “knowingly, deliberately, guiltily, and wilfully, of the gigantic murders and crimes of Andersonville.” In fiery words Mr. Blaine proceeded to declare that no military atrocities in history had exceeded those for which Davis was thus responsible. His outburst naturally produced deep excitement in the house and throughout the country. If Mr. Blaine's object as a political leader was to arouse partisan feeling and activity preparatory to the presidential struggle, he succeeded. An acrid debate followed. Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, assumed the lead on the other side, and not only defended Davis against the accusations, which he pronounced unfounded, but preferred similar charges against the treatment of southern prisoners in the north. In reply, Mr. Blaine turned upon Mr. Hill with the citation of a resolution introduced by him in the confederate senate, providing that every soldier or officer of the United States captured on the soil of the confederate states should be presumed to have come with intent to incite insurrection, and should suffer the penalty of death. This episode arrested universal attention, and gave Mr. Blaine a still stronger hold as a leader of his party.

He now became the subject of a violent personal assault. Charges were circulated that he had received $64,000 from the Union Pacific railroad company for some undefined services. On 24 April, 1876, he rose to a personal explanation in the house and made his answer. He produced letters from the officers of the company and from the bankers who were said to have negotiated the draft, in which they declared that there had never been any such transaction, and that Mr. Blaine had never received a dollar from the company. Mr. Blaine proceeded to add that the charge had reappeared in the form of an assertion that he had received bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad as a gratuity, and that these bonds had been sold through the Union Pacific company for his benefit. To this he responded that he never had any such bonds except at the market price, and that, instead of deriving any profit from them, he had incurred a large pecuniary loss. A few days later another charge was made to the effect that he had received as a gift certain bonds of the Kansas Pacific railroad, and had been a party to a suit concerning them in the courts of Kansas. To this he answered by producing evidence that his name had been confounded with that of a brother, who was one of the early settlers of Kansas, and who had bought stock in the Kansas Pacific before Mr. Blaine had even been nominated for congress.

On 2 May a resolution was adopted in the house to investigate an alleged purchase by the Union Pacific railroad company, at an excessive price, of certain bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad. It soon became evident that the investigation was aimed at Mr. Blaine. An extended business correspondence on his part with Warren Fisher, of Boston, running through years and relating to various transactions, had fallen into the hands of a clerk named Mulligan, and it was alleged that the production of this correspondence would confirm the imputations against Mr. Blaine. When Mulligan was summoned to Washington, Mr. Blaine possessed himself of the letters, together with a memorandum that contained a full index and abstract. On 5 June he rose to a personal explanation, and, after denying the power of the house to compel the production of his private papers, and his willingness to go to any extremity in defence of his rights, he declared his purpose to reserve nothing. Holding up the letters he exclaimed: “Thank God, I am not ashamed to show them. There is the very original package. And with some sense of humiliation, with a mortification I do not attempt to conceal, with a sense of outrage which I think any man in my position would feel, I invite the confidence of forty-four millions of my countrymen, while I read those letters from this desk.” The demonstration closed with a dramatic scene. Josiah Caldwell, one of the originators of the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad, who had full knowledge of the whole transaction, was travelling in Europe, and both sides were seeking to communicate with him. After finishing the reading of the letters, Mr. Blaine turned to the chairman of the committee and demanded to know whether he had received any despatch from Mr. Caldwell. Receiving an evasive answer, Mr. Blaine asserted, as within his own knowledge, that the chairman had received such a despatch, “completely and absolutely exonerating me from this charge, and you have suppressed it.” A profound sensation was created, and Gen. Garfield said: “I have been a long time in congress, and never saw such a scene in the house.”

The republican national convention was now at hand, and Mr. Blaine was the most prominent candidate for the presidential nomination. He had a larger body of enthusiastic friends than any other leader of his party, and the stirring events of the past few months had intensified their devotion. On 11 June, the Sunday preceding the convention, just as he was entering church at Washington, he was prostrated with the extreme heat, and his illness for a time created wide apprehension. The advocates of his nomination, however, remained unshaken in their support. On the first ballot he received 285 votes out of a total of 754, the remainder being divided among Senator Morton, Sec. Bristow, Senator Conkling, Gov. Hayes, and several others. On the seventh ballot his vote rose to 351, lacking only 28 of a majority, but a union of the supporters of all the other candidates gave Gov. Hayes 384 and secured his nomination. Immediately after the convention, on the resignation of Senator Morrill to accept the secretaryship of the treasury, Mr. Blaine was appointed senator to fill the unexpired term, and in the following winter he was chosen by the legislature for the full ensuing term. In the senate he engaged in the discussion of current questions. He opposed the creation of the electoral commission for the settlement of the disputed presidential election of 1876, on the ground that congress did not itself possess the power that it proposed to confer on the commission. He held that President Hayes's southern policy surrendered too much of what had been gained through reconstruction, and contended that the validity of his own title involved the maintenance of the state governments in South Carolina and Louisiana, which rested on the same popular vote. On the currency question he always assumed a pronounced position. While still a member of the house, in February, 1876, he had made an elaborate speech on the national finances and against any perpetuation of an irredeemable paper currency, and soon after entering the senate, when the subject was brought forward, he took strong ground against the deterioration of the silver coinage. He strenuously opposed the Bland bill, and, when its passage was seen to be inevitable, sought to amend it by providing that the dollar should contain 425 grains of standard silver, instead of 412½ grains. He favored a bi-metallic currency, and equally resisted the adoption of the single gold standard and the depreciation of silver. Measures for the development and protection of American shipping early engaged his attention. In 1878 he advocated the establishment of a line of mail steamers to Brazil, and unhesitatingly urged the application of a subsidy to this object. On frequent occasions he recurred to the subject, contending that Great. Britain and France had built up their commerce by liberal aid to steamship lines, and that a similar policy would produce similar results here. He argued that congress had endowed the railroad system with $500,000,000 of money, which had produced $5,000,000,000 to the country, and that the policy ought not to stop when it reached the sea.

In March, 1879, congress was deeply agitated by a conflict over the appropriation bills. The democrats, being in control of both houses, had refused to pass the necessary measures for the support of the government unless accompanied by a proviso prohibiting the presence of troops at any place where an election was being held. The republicans resisted this attempt, and, in consequence of the failure of the bills at the regular session, the president was compelled to call an extra session. Mr. Blaine was among the foremost in the senate in defending the executive prerogative and in opposing what he denounced as legislative coercion. Be pointed out how few troops there were in all the states of the south, and said: “I take no risk in stating, I make bold to declare, that this issue on the troops being a false one, being one without foundation, conceals the true issue, which is simply to get rid of the federal presence at federal elections, to get rid of the civil power of the United States in the election of representatives to the congress of the United States.” He proceeded to characterize the proposition to withhold appropriations except upon the condition of executive compliance as revolutionary, saying: “I call it the audacity of revolution for any senator or representative, or any caucus of senators or representatives, to get together and say: ‘We will have this legislation, or we will stop the great departments of the government.’” The resistance was unsuccessful, and the army appropriation bill finally passed with the proviso. Mr. Blaine at all times defended the sanctity of the ballot, and in December, 1878, pending a resolution presented by himself for an inquiry into certain alleged frauds in the south, made a powerful plea as to the injustice wrought by a denial of the franchise to the blacks. When the attempt was made to override the plain result of the election of 1879 in Maine, and to set up a state government in defiance of the popular vote, Mr. Blaine took charge of the effort to establish the rightful government, and through his vigorous measures the scheme of usurpation was defeated and abandoned. On the Chinese question he early declared himself decidedly in favor of restricting their immigration. In a speech on 14 Feb., 1879, when the subject came before the senate, he argued that there were only two courses: that the Chinese must be excluded or fully admitted into the family of citizens; that the latter was as impracticable as it was dangerous; that they could not be assimilated with our people or institutions; and that it was a duty to protect the free laborer of America against the servile laborer of China.

As the presidential convention of 1880 approached, it was apparent that Mr. Blaine retained the same support that had adhered to him so tenaciously four years before. The contest developed into an earnest and prolonged struggle between his friends and those who advocated a third term for Gen. Grant. The convention, one of the most memorable in American history, lasted through six days, and there were thirty-six ballots. On the first the vote stood: Grant 304, Blaine 284, Sherman 93, Edmunds 34, Washburne 30, Windom 10, Garfield 1. On the final ballot the friends of Blaine and Sherman united on Gen. Garfield, who received 399 votes to 306 for Grant, and was nominated. On his election, Mr. Blaine was tendered and accepted the office of secretary of state. He remained at the head of the department less than ten months, and his effective administration was practically limited by the assassination of President Garfield to four. Within that period, however, he began several important undertakings. His foreign policy had two principal objects. The first was to secure and preserve peace throughout this continent. The second was to cultivate close commercial relations and increase our trade with the various countries of North and South America. The accomplishment of the first object was preliminary and essential to the attainment of the second, and, in order to promote it, he projected a peace congress to be held at Washington, to which all the independent powers of North and South America were to be invited. His plan contemplated the cultivation of such a friendly understanding on the part of the powers as would permanently avert the horrors of war either through the influence of pacific counsels or the acceptance of impartial arbitration. Incidentally, it assumed that the assembling of their representatives at Washington would open the way to such relations as would inure to the commercial advantage of this country. The project, though already determined, was delayed by the fatal shot at Garfield, and the letter of invitation was finally issued on 29 Nov., 1881, fixing 24 Nov., 1882, as the date for the proposed congress. On 19 Dec. Mr. Blaine retired from the cabinet, and within three weeks his successor had reversed his policy and the plan was abandoned, after the invitation had been accepted by all the American powers except two.

When Mr. Blaine entered the department of state, war was raging between Chili and Peru, and he sought to exercise the good offices of our government, first, for the restoration of peace, and, second, to mitigate the consequences of the crushing defeat sustained by Peru. Other efforts failing, he despatched William Henry Trescott on a special mission to offer the friendly services of the United States; but this attempt, like the one for the peace congress, was interrupted and frustrated by his retirement from the department. His brief service was also signalized by an important correspondence with the British government concerning the modification of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. The Colombian republic had proposed to the European powers that they should unite in guaranteeing the neutrality of the Panama canal. On 24 June Mr. Blaine issued a circular letter declaring the objection of this government to any such concerted action, and asserting the prior and paramount rights and obligations of this country. He pointed out that the United States had entered into a guarantee by the treaty of 1846 with the republic of New Grenada—now Colombia; that this country had a supreme interest in watching over any highway between the two coasts; and that any agreement among European powers to supersede this guarantee and impair our exclusive rights would be regarded as an indication of unfriendly feeling. In this connection he made formal proposal to the British government for the abrogation of certain clauses of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, which were not in harmony with the rights of the United States as secured by the convention with the Colombian republic. He urged that the treaty, by prohibiting the use of land forces and of fortifications, without any protection against superior naval power, practically conceded to Great Britain the control of any interoceanic canal that might be constructed across the isthmus, and he proposed that every part of the treaty which forbids the United States fortifying the canal and holding the political control of it in conjunction with the country in which it is located should be cancelled. To the answer of the British government that the treaty was an engagement which should be maintained and respected, Mr. Blaine replied that it could not be regarded as a conclusive determination of the question; that since its adoption it had been the subject of repeated negotiations between the two countries; that the British government had itself proposed to refer its doubtful clauses to arbitration; and that it had long been recognized as a source of increasing embarrassment. Throughout the correspondence Mr. Blaine insisted in the firmest tone that “it is the fixed purpose of the United States to consider the isthmus canal question as an American question, to be dealt with and decided by the American governments.”

Upon the retirement of Mr. Blaine from the state department in December, 1881, he was, for the first time in twenty-three years, out of public station. He soon entered upon the composition of an elaborate historical work entitled “Twenty Years of Congress,” of which the first 200 pages give a succinct review of the earlier political history of the country, followed by a more detailed narrative of the eventful period from Lincoln to Garfield. The first volume was published in April, 1884, and the second in January, 1886 (Norwich, Conn.). The work had a very wide sale, and secured general approval for its impartial spirit and brilliant style. When the republican national convention of 1884 met at Chicago, it was clear that Mr. Blaine had lost none of his hold upon the enthusiasm of his party. On the first ballot he received 334½ votes, President Arthur 278, Senator Edmunds 93, Senator Logan 63½, and the rest were scattering. His vote kept gaining till the fourth ballot, when he received 541 out of a total of 813 and was nominated. The canvass that followed was one of peculiar bitterness. Mr. Blaine took the stump in Ohio, Indiana, New York, and other states, and in a series of remarkable speeches, chiefly devoted to upholding the policy of protection to American industry, deepened the popular impression of his intellectual power. The election turned upon the result in New York, which was lost to Mr. Blaine by 1,047 votes, whereupon he promptly resumed the work upon his history, which had been interrupted by the canvass. After the result had been determined, he made, at his home in Augusta, a speech in which he arraigned the democratic party for carrying the election by suppressing the republican vote in the southern states, and cited the figures of the returns to show that, on an average, only one half or one third as many votes had been cast for each presidential elector or member of congress elected in the south as for each elected in the north. This speech had a startling effect, and attracted universal attention, though Mr. Blaine had set forth the same thing in a speech in congress as long before as 11 Dec., 1878, when he said:

“The issue raised before the country is not one of mere sentiment for the rights of the negro; though far distant be the day when the rights of any American citizen, however black or however poor, shall form the mere dust of the balance in any controversy! . . . The issue has taken a far wider range, one of portentous magnitude; and that is, whether the white voter of the north shall be equal to the white voter of the south in shaping the policy and fixing the destiny of this country; or whether, to put it still more boldly, the white man who fought in the ranks of the union army shall have as weighty and influential a vote in the government of the republic as the white man who fought in the ranks of the rebel army. . . . In Iowa and Wisconsin it takes 132,000 white population to send a representative to congress; but in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana, every 60,000 white people send a representative.”

Mr. Blaine took an active part in the Maine canvass of 1886, opening it, 24 Aug., in a speech at Sebago Lake devoted chiefly to the questions of the fisheries, the tariff, and the third-party prohibition movement. The fishery controversy had acquired renewed interest and importance from recent seizures of American fishing-vessels on the Canadian coast, and Mr. Blaine reviewed its history at length, and sharply criticised the attitude and action of the administration. He presented the issue of protection against free-trade as the foremost one between the two parties; and, with regard to prohibition, insisted that there was no warrant or reason for a third-party movement in Maine, because the republican party had enacted and enforced a prohibitory law. His succeeding speeches, continued throughout the canvass, followed the same line. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 275-280.  

 

 

BLAIR, Arba, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

BLAIR, Jacob B., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

BLAIR, Montgomery, 1813-1883, statesman, attorney, jurist, abolitionist, Postmaster General of the United States. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 282; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 340)

 

BLAIR, Montgomery, statesman, b. in Franklin co., Ky., 10 May, 1813; d. in Silver Spring, Md., 27 July, 1883. He was a son of Francis P. Blair, Sr., was graduated at West Point in 1835, and, after serving in the Seminole war, resigned his commission on 20 May, 1836. He then studied law, and, after his admission to the bar in 1839, began practice in St. Louis. He was appointed U. S. district attorney for Missouri, and in 1842 was elected mayor of St. Louis. He was raised to the bench as judge of the court of common pleas in 1843, but resigned in 1849. He removed to Maryland in 1852, and in 1855 was appointed U. S. solicitor in the court of claims. He was removed from this office by President Buchanan in 1858, having left the democratic party on the repeal of the Missouri compromise. In 1857 he acted as counsel for the plaintiff in the celebrated Dred Scott case. He presided over the Maryland republican convention in 1860, and in 1861 was appointed postmaster-general by President Lincoln. It is said that he alone of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet opposed the surrender of Fort Sumter, and held his resignation upon the issue. As postmaster-general he prohibited the sending of disloyal papers through the mails, and introduced various reforms, such as money-orders, free delivery in cities, and postal railroad cars. In 1864 Mr. Blair, who was not altogether in accord with the policy of the administration, told the president that he would resign whenever the latter thought it necessary, and on 23 Sept. Mr. Lincoln, in a friendly letter, accepted his offer. After this Mr. Blair acted with the democratic party, and in 1876-'7 vigorously attacked Mr. Hayes's title to the office of president. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 282.

 

 

BLAISDELL, James, J., Lebanon, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

BLAISDELL, Timothy K., Haverhill, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39, 1840-42

 

 

BLAKE, James H., Member of the Memorial Committee and Founding Manager of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

BLAKESLEY, J. M., anti-slavery agent.  Founded 15 anti-slavery societies in Chataqua and Erie Counties in New York.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 392n21; Friend of Man, February 1, 1837, May 10, 1837, March 21, 1838)

 

 

BLANCHARD, Jonathan, 1811-1892, clergyman, educator, abolitionist, theologian, lecturer.  Worked for more than thirty years for the abolition of slavery.  Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  President of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, 1845-1858.  President, Illinois Institute.  Vice president, World Anti-Slavery Convention, London, England, 1843.  (Bailey, J.W., Knox College, 1860;  Blanchard Papers, Wheaton College Library, Wheaton, Illinois; Blanchard Jonathan, and Rice, N.L. [1846], 1870; Dumond, 1961, p. 186; Kilby, 1959; Maas, 2003; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 196-197; Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 350-351)

 

 

BLEAKLEY, John, abolitionist, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Employ, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

BLEEKER, Harmanus, 1779-1849, Albany, New York, attorney, U.S. congressman.  Founder and officer of the Albany auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 291-292; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 81, 129)

 

BLEECKER, Harmanus, lawyer, b. in Albany, N. Y., 19 Oct., 1779; d. there, 19 July, 1849. He studied at Union, but before the completion of his course was admitted to the bar in Albany, where he practised many years as a partner of Theodore Sedgwick. Afterward he was elected to congress as a federalist, serving from 4 Nov., 1811, till 3 March, 1813. His career in congress was memorable for his opposition to the war of 1812. From 1822 till 1834 he was a regent of the University of the State of New York. In 1839 he was appointed chargé d’affaires at the Hague, where he remained until 1842, when he returned to Albany, N. Y. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BLEEKER, Leonard, New York, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-35

 

 

BLISS, Abel, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

BLISS, Philemon, 1813-1889, lawyer, U.S. congressman, 1854, Chief Justice, Dakota Territory in 1861, elected Supreme Court of Missouri, 1868.  Helped found anti-slavery  Free Soil Party.  Agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  (Blue, 2005, p. 76; Dumond, 1961, p. 165; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 375-376)

 

 

BLOOMFIELD, Dr. Joseph, 1753-1823, New Jersey, abolitionist lawyer, soldier, political leader, member and delegate, New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (Basker, 2005, pp. 223-225, 239n7; Locke, 1901, pp. 86, 92; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 175-176, 185; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, p. 385)

 

 

BLOSS, William Clough, 1795-1863, abolitionist leader, reformer, temperance advocate.  Early abolitionist leader in Rochester, New York, area.  Founded abolitionist newspaper, Rights of Man, in 1834.  Petitioned U.S. Congress to end slavery in Washington, DC.  Early supporter of women’s rights and African American civil rights.  Activist in aiding fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad.  manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1843-1845.  (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 54)

 

 

BLOW, Henry Taylor, 1817-1875, statesman, diplomat.  Active in pre-Civil War anti-slavery movement.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1863-1867, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 297; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 443-444; Congressional Globe)

 

BLOW, Henry T., statesman, b. in Southampton co., Va., 15 July, 1817; d. in Saratoga, N. Y., 11 Sept., 1875. He went to Missouri in 1830, and was graduated at St. Louis university. He then engaged in the drug business and in lead-mining, in which he was successful. Before the civil war he took a prominent part in the anti-slavery movement, and served four years in the state senate. In 1861 he was appointed minister to Venezuela, but resigned in less than a year. He was a republican member of congress from 1863 till 1867, and served on the committee of ways and means. He was minister to Brazil from 1869 till 1871, and was appointed one of the commissioners of the District of Columbia in 1874. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 297.

 

 

BOLES, Harper, Dalton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40

 

 

BOLLES, William, New London, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-42, 1843-46

 

 

BOND, Thomas E., Dr., Maryland, physician.  Vice President and founding member of the Maryland State Colonization Society in 1831.  Founder of the University of Maryland Medical School.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 19-20)

 

 

BONDI, August, 1833-1907, Vienna, Austria, abolitionist.  Supported radical abolitionist John Brown in Bleeding Kansas war.

 

 

BOORMAN, James, 1783-1866, New York, merchant, philanthropist.  Vice President, 1838-1841, of the American Colonization Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 316; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 443-444; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

BOORMAN, James, merchant, b. in Kent co., England, in 1783; d. in New York city, 24 Jan., 1866. He accompanied his parents to the United States when about twelve years of age, was apprenticed to Divie Bethune, of New York, and entered into partnership with him in 1805. Afterward, in connection with John Johnston, he formed the firm of Boorman & Johnston, which almost entirely controlled the Dundee trade, and dealt largely in Swedish iron and Virginia tobacco. Mr. Boorman was one of the pioneers in the construction of the Hudson river railroad, and was for many years its president. He was also one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce. He retired from active business in 1855. The institution for the blind, the Protestant half-orphan asylum, the southern aid society, and the union theological seminary were among the recipients of his bounty. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 316.

 

 

BOOTH, Mord, founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

BOOTH, Sherman M., 1812-1904, abolitionist, orator, politician, temperance activist.  Editor of anti-slavery newspaper, the Wisconsin Freeman, in Racine, Wisconsin.  Member, Free Soil Party, and helped found the Liberty Party.  Assisted runaway slave Joshua Glover.  Was arrested, tried and convicted for violation of Fugitive Slave Law.  Booth was acquitted under Wisconsin State law. (Blue, 2005, pp. 6-7, 13, 117-137, 267, 268; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 62, 151)

 

 

BORDEN, Nathaniel B., Fall River, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842, Executive Committee, 1842-1843.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1849.

 

 

BOUDINOT, Elias, 1740-1821, New Jersey, philanthropist, lawyer, Revolutionary statesman, U.S. Congressman, opponent of slavery.  Trustee of Princeton.  Former president of the Congress of Confederation.  Secretary of Foreign Affairs.  Supported right to petition Congress against slavery. (Basker, 2005, pp. 128, 133, 321, 322, 348, 350-351; Drake, 1950, pp. 85, 106; Dumond, 1961, p. 54; Locke, 1901, pp. 92, 93, 140; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 16, 18, 25; Annals of Congress; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 327; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 477-478; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 243)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

BOUDINOT, Elias, philanthropist, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 2 May, 1740; d. in Burlington, N. J., 24 Oct., 1821. His great-grandfather, Elias, was a French Huguenot, who fled to this country after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. After receiving a classical education, he studied law with Richard Stockton, and became eminent in his profession, practising in New Jersey. He was devoted to the patriot cause, in 1777 appointed commissary-general of prisoners, and in the same year elected a delegate to congress from New Jersey, serving from 1778 till 1779, and again from 1781 till 1784. He was chosen president of congress on 4 Nov., 1782, and in that capacity signed the treaty of peace with England. He then resumed the practice of law, but, after the adoption of the constitution, was elected to the 1st, 2d, and 3d congresses, serving from 4 March, 1789, till 3 March, 1795. He was appointed by Washington in 1795 to succeed Rittenhouse as director of the mint at Philadelphia, and held the office till July, 1805, when he resigned, and passed the rest of his life at Burlington, N. J., devoted to the study of biblical literature. He had an ample fortune, and gave liberally. He was a trustee of Princeton college, and in 1805 endowed it with a cabinet of natural history, valued at $3,000. In 1812 he was chosen a member of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, to which he gave £100 in 1813. He assisted in founding the American Bible society in 1816, was its first president, and gave it $10,000. He was interested in attempts to educate the Indians, and when three Cherokee youth were brought to the foreign mission school in 1818, he allowed one of them to take his name. This boy became afterward a man of influence in his tribe, and was murdered on 10 June, 1839, by Indians west of the Mississippi. Dr. Boudinot was also interested in the instruction of deaf-mutes, the education of young men for the ministry, and efforts for the relief of the poor. He bequeathed his property to his only daughter, Mrs. Bradford, and to charitable uses. Among his bequests were one of $200 to buy spectacles for the aged poor, another of 13,000 acres of land to the mayor and corporation of Philadelphia, that the poor might be supplied with wood at low prices, and another of 3,000 acres to the Philadelphia hospital for the benefit of foreigners. Dr. Boudinot published “The Age of Revelation,” a reply to Paine (1790); an oration before the Society of the Cincinnati (1793); “Second Advent of the Messiah” (Trenton 1815); and “Star in the West or An Attempt to Discover the Long-lost Tribes of Israel” (1816), in which he concurs with James Adair in the opinion that the Indians are the lost tribes. He also wrote, in “The Evangelical Intelligencer” of 1806, an anonymous memoir of the  Rev. William Tennet, D. D. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 327.



Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

As the most tranquil and prosperous periods of a nation afford but scanty materials for the historian, so it frequently happens that men eminent for their morality and virtue, and whose lives have been past in continual acts of beneficence, leave only meagre details for the instruction and example of others. The progress of professional or literary talent contains little of interest, except it is traced by the hand of one who can follow all its windings, and give us feelings as well as facts,—and the deeds of goodness which endear a man to society are done in secret, or known but to few, so that he whose death leaves the greatest void in his immediate circle is often the most speedily forgotten.

ELIAS BOUDINOT was born in Philadelphia, in the year 1740. His family was of French extraction, his great grandfather being one of the many protestants compelled to leave their country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. His father’s name was likewise Elias; his mother, Catharine Williams, was of Welsh descent. Young BOUDINOT received a classical education, such as was at that time common in the colonies, after which he pursued the study of the law under Richard Stockton. At the termination of his studies, entering upon the practice of his profession in New Jersey, he soon became distinguished. At the commencement of the difficulties between the colonies and the mother country, he advocated the cause of the Americans, and when hostilities had actually commenced took a decided part in favor of the colonists. In 1777, congress appointed him commissary general of prisoners, and in the same year he was elected a member of that body. In November, 1782, he was elected president of congress, and in that capacity signed the treaty of peace which was soon afterwards concluded. He now resumed the practice of the law, but in 1789, on the adoption of the Federal Constitution he was again elected a member of congress, and occupied his seat by successive reëlections for six years. In 1796, he was appointed by Washington to succeed Rittenhouse as director of the mint; in this office he continued until 1805, when resigning all public employment he retired to Burlington, N. J. The remainder of his life BOUDINOT passed in attending to the affairs of his estate, in the study of biblical literature, which was always one of his favorite pursuits, and in the exercise of a munificent charity, both private and public. He was a trustee of Princeton college, and in 1805, founded in it a cabinet of natural history at the cost of three thousand dollars. In 1812, he was elected a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to which he presented a donation of one hundred pounds sterling. He was active in promoting the formation of the American Bible Society, and in 1816, being elected its first president, he made it the munificent donation of ten thousand dollars. After a long life of usefulness Mr. BOUDINOT died on the twenty-fourth of October, 1821, in the eighty-second year of his age; a sincere and devout christian, his death bed was cheered by that religion which had guided him through life. He knew that his end approached, but he was prepared and ready to meet it, and his last prayer was, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Mr. BOUDINOT married in early life the sister of his preceptor, Richard Stockton; by whom he had an only daughter, who survives him. Mrs. Boudinot died in 1808.

In his last will, after having suitably provided for his daughter, BOUDINOT bequeathed the bulk of his large property for the furtherance of those objects which he had so steadily pursued through life: the diffusion of religion, the promotion of literature, and the alleviation of the distresses of the poor. Four thousand acres of land were left to the Society for the Benefit of the Jews; five thousand dollars to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church; four thousand and eighty acres for theological students at Princeton; four thousand acres to the college of New Jersey for the establishment of fellowships; three thousand two hundred and seventy acres to the Hospital of Philadelphia; thirteen thousand acres to the mayor and corporation of Philadelphia for the supply of the poor with wood on low terms; besides, numerous other bequests for religious and charitable purposes. Mr. BOUDINOT is the author of several publications, the principal of which is the “Star in the West, or an attempt to discover the long lost tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved city of Jerusalem,” 8vo., 1816; in which he endeavors to prove that the American Indians are the lost tribes. The work exhibits great benevolence of feeling towards the Indians, extensive research, and considerable acuteness, yet it is to be regretted that his time and talents were wasted upon a subject so ill calculated to reward his labor.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 3.

 

 

BOURNE, George, 1780-1845, New York City.  Author.  Presbyterian and Dutch Reform clergyman. Pioneer abolitionist leader.  Manager (1833-1839) and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Wrote The Book of Slavery Irreconcilable (1816); An Address to the Presbyterian Church, Enforcing the Duty of Excluding all Slaveholders from the Communion of Saints; and Man Stealing and Slavery Denounced by the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 93, 175, 348; Mason, 2006, pp. 79, 100, 132-133, 231-232, 285n75; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 34, 105; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 330; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, p. 485; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 254)

 

BOURNE, George, author, b. in England about 1760; d. in New York city in 1845. He was educated in his native country, emigrated to the United States, and became a minister of the reformed Dutch church in 1833. He held no pastorate, but engaged in literary work in New York city. He was an ardent and learned controversialist, and wrote works on Romanism and slavery. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 330.

 

 

BOUTON, Nathan, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 120, 202)

 

 

BOUTWELL, George Sewall, 1818-1905, statesman, lawyer.  Helped organize the Republican Party.  Member of Congress, 1862-1868.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senator.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 331-332; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 489-490; Congressional Globe)

 

BOUTWELL, George Sewall, statesman, b. in Brookline, Mass., 28 Jan., 1818. His early life was spent on his father's farm until, in 1835, he became a merchant's clerk in Groton, Mass. He was afterward admitted to partnership, and remained in business there until 1855. In 1836 he began by himself to study law, and was admitted to the bar, but did not enter into active practice for many years. He also began a course of reading, by which he hoped to make up for his want of a college education. He entered politics as a supporter of Van Buren in 1840, and between 1842 and 1851 was seven times chosen as a democrat to the state legislature, where he soon became recognized as the leader of his party. In 1844, 1846, and 1848 he was defeated as a candidate for congress, and in 1849 and 1850 he was the democratic nominee for governor with no better success; but he was finally elected in 1851 and again in 1852 by a coalition with the free-soil party. In 1849-'50 he was state bank commissioner; in 1853 a member of the state constitutional convention. After the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854 he assisted in organizing the republican party, with which he has since acted. In 1860 he was a member of the Chicago convention which nominated Lincoln, and in February, 1861, was a delegate to the Washington peace conference. President Lincoln invited him to organize the new department of internal revenue in 1862, and he was its first commissioner, serving from July, 1862, till March, 1863. In 1862 he was chosen a member of congress from Massachusetts, and twice re-elected. In February, 1868, he made a speech advocating the impeachment of President Johnson, was chosen chairman of the committee appointed to report articles of impeachment, and became one of the seven managers of the trial. In March, 1869, he entered President Grant's cabinet as secretary of the treasury, where he opposed diminution of taxation and favored a large reduction of the national debt. In 1870 congress, at his recommendation, passed an act providing for the funding of the national debt and authorizing the selling of certain bonds, but not an increase of the debt. Secretary Boutwell attempted to do this by means of a syndicate, but expended more than half of one per cent., in which he was accused of violating the law. The house committee of ways and means afterward absolved him from this charge. In March, 1873, he resigned and took his seat as a U. S. senator from Massachusetts, having been chosen to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Henry Wilson to the vice-presidency. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes to codify and edit the statutes at large. Mr. Boutwell was for six years an overseer of Harvard, and for five years secretary of the Massachusetts state board of education, preparing the elaborate reports of that body. He afterward opened a law office in Washington, D. C. He is the author of “Educational Topics and Institutions” (Boston, 1859); a “Manual of the United States Direct and Revenue Tax” (1863); “Decisions on the Tax Law” (New York, 1863); “Tax-Payer's Manual” (Boston, 1865); a volume of “Speeches and Papers” (1867); and “Why I am a Republican” (Hartford, Conn., 1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 331-332.

 

 

BOWDITCH, Henry Ingersoll, 1819-1909, Boston, lawyer, abolitionist, physician.  Influenced by William Lloyd Garrison to join the anti-slavery cause.  Aided fugitive slaves, and promoted anti-slavery actions in the North.  Counsellor, 1843-1850, and Vice president, 1850-1860, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 36, 94, 103, 110, 129, 336; Pease, 1965, pp. 343-348; Bowditch, Slavery and the Constitution, Boston: Robert F. Walcutt, 1849, pp. 120-126; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 492-494; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 103-104; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 267; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 334)

 

BOWDITCH, Henry Ingersoll, physician, b. in Salem, Mass., 9 Aug., 1808, was graduated at Harvard in 1828, took his medical degree there in 1832, and studied in Paris from 1833 to 1835. He was professor of clinical medicine at Harvard from 1859 till 1867, chairman of the state board of health (1869-'79), and member of the national board in the latter year, surgeon of enrollment during the civil war, president of the American medical association in 1877, and physician at the Massachusetts general hospital and the Boston city hospital, where he served from 1868 to 1872. To Dr. Bowditch is due the discovery of the law of soil moisture as a potent cause of consumption in New England. He has also proved to the medical profession of this country and Europe that thoracentesis, in pleural effusions, if performed with Wyman's fine trocars and suction-pump, is not only innocuous; but at times saves life or gives great relief. Dr. Bowditch was made an abolitionist by the mobbing of Garrison in 1835, and worked earnestly in the anti-slavery cause. “He was the first in Boston,” says Frederick Douglas, “to treat me as a man.” He is the author of “Life of Nathaniel Bowditch, for the Young” (1841); “The Young Stethoscopist” (Boston, 1846; 2d ed., New York, 1848); “Life of Lieutenant Nathaniel Bowditch” (50 copies, printed privately, 1865); “Public Hygiene in America,” a centennial address at Philadelphia in 1876, and many articles in medical journals and papers read before the State board of health (1870-'8). He has translated “Louis on Typhoid” (2 vols., Boston, 1836); “Louis on Phthisis” (1836); and “Maunoir on Cataract” (1837). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 334.

 

 

 

BOWDITCH, William I., Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1852-56, Treasurer, 1862-64, Executive Committee, 1863-64.

 

 

BOWEN, Ozias, anti-slavery  judge, Ohio, freed slaves in court case in 1856. (Dumond, 1961, p. 317)

 

 

BOWN, Benjamin, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Ohio, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-42, 1843-53, Vice-President, 1860-63.

 

 

Bowne, Walter, New York, New York, Mayor of New York City.  Officer in the New York City auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Strong advocate of colonization.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 130, 135)

 

 

BOXLEY, George, 1780-1865, abolitionist.  Tried to start a slave rebellion in Spotsylvania and Orange County, Virginia, 1815. (Mason, 2006, p. 108; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 33)

 

 

BOYD, George, Reverend, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, clergyman, lawyer, Rector of St. John’s, Philadelphia.  Agent for the American Colonization Society.  Successful in founding auxiliaries and recruiting members.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 85-86)

 

 

BOYD, Sempronius Hamilton, b. 1828, lawyer, soldier.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Colonel, 24th Missouri Volunteers.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 341; Congressional Globe)

 

BOYD, Sempronius Hamilton, lawyer, b. in Williamson co., Tenn., 28 May, 1828. He received an academic education at Springfield, Mo., after which he studied law. In 1855 he was admitted to the bar and practised in Springfield, where he became clerk, attorney, and twice mayor. During the civil war he was colonel of the 24th Missouri volunteers, a regiment which he raised, and which was known as the “Lyon Legion.” In 1863 he was elected as representative in congress from Missouri. Afterward, resuming his profession, he was appointed judge of the 14th judicial circuit of Missouri. He was a delegate to the Baltimore convention in 1864, and in 1868 elected to congress, serving until 3 March, 1871. Since then he has spent a quiet life in Missouri, devoting his time partly to the practice of his profession and partly to stock-raising. The Springfield wagon factory and the first national bank of Springfield were founded by him. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 341.

 

 

BOYES, Nathan, abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

BOYLE, James, Rome, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1842-43

 

 

BOYLE, Jeremiah Tilford, 1818-1871, lawyer, anti-slavery advocate, Union Army Brigadier General.  Called for gradual emancipation of slaves as a delegate to the Kentucky State Constitutional Convention in 1849.  (Warner, Ezra, Generals in Blue, 1964; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 342; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 532)

 

BOYLE, Jeremiah Tilford, soldier, b. 22 May, 1818; d. in Louisville, Ky., 28 July, 1871. He was graduated at Princeton in 1838, and, after qualifying himself for the law, he was admitted to the bar and began practice in Kentucky. When the slave-states seceded from the union, and Kentucky was in doubt which side to join, he declared in favor of the union, and was appointed a brigadier-general of U. S. volunteers, 9 Nov., 1861. After distinguished and patriotic services in organizing for defence against the confederate invasion that was threatened from the south, he was appointed military governor of Kentucky, and retained that office from 1862 till 1864, when he resigned his commission. From 1864 till 1866 he was president of the Louisville city railway company, and from 1866 till his death was president of the Evansville, Henderson, and Nashville railroad company. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888. 

 

 

BOYNTON, Charles, Cincinnati, Ohio, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

BOYNTON, Charles Brandon, 1806-1883, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, lawyer, clergyman, anti-slavery activist.  Chaplain, U.S. House of Representatives, 39th and 49th Congress. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 342-343; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 536-539)

 

BOYNTON, Charles Brandon, clergyman, b. in Stockbridge, Mass., 12 June, 1806; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 27 April, 1883. He entered Williams in the class of 1827, but, owing to illness, was obliged to leave college during his senior year. He took up the study of law, and, after filling one or two local offices, was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. While studying law he became interested in religion, qualified himself for the ministry, and was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church at Housatonic, Conn., in 1840. Thence, after a stay of three years, he removed successively to Lansingburg, Pittsfield, and in 1846 to Cincinnati, and remained there until 1877, with the exception of his terms of service as chaplain of the house of representatives in the 39th and 40th congresses. For a time he was pastor of the Congregational church at Washington, D. C. He bore an important part in the anti-slavery controversy, which was fiercely waged in Cincinnati during the early years of his pastorate. His published books are “Journey through Kansas, with Sketch of Nebraska” (Cincinnati, 1855); “The Russian Empire” (1856); “The Four Great Powers—England, France, Russia, and America; their Policy, Resources, and Probable Future” (1866); “History of the Navy during the Rebellion” (New York, 1868). He received the degree of D. D. from Marietta college in recognition of his acquirements as a biblical scholar. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 342-343.

 

 

BRACKETT, Josiah, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-43

 

 

BRADBURN, George, 1806-1880, Nantucket, Massachusetts, politician, newspaper editor, Unitarian clergyman, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, lecturer.  Member, American Anti-Slavery Society.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-1845.  Attended World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in June 1840, where he protested the exclusion of women from the conference.  Lectured for the American Anti-Slavery Society with fellow abolitionists William A. White and Frederick Douglass in 1843.  Editor, the Pioneer and Herald of Freedom from 1846 to 1849 in Lynn, Massachusetts.

 

 

BRADFORD, William, 1663-1752, Leicester, England, Society of Friends, Quaker, printed first anti-slavery publication in the colony in 1693, titled “An Exhortation and Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negroes” (Drake, 1950, p. 14; Soderlund, 1985, p. 194; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 350; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 463)

 

BRADFORD, William, printer, b. in Leicester, England, in 1658; d. in New York, 23 May, 1752. He was one of the Quakers brought over by Penn in 1682, who founded in the midst of the forest the town of Philadelphia. In 1685 he set up his printing-press, the first one south of New England, and the third one in the colonies. The same year he issued the “Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense” for 1686. In 1690 he joined with two others in building a paper-mill on the Schuylkill. Among his earliest publications were Keith's polemical tracts against the New England churches. In 1691, having sided with Keith in his quarrel with the authorities, and printed his “Appeal to the People,” and other tracts on his side of the controversy, Bradford was arrested for seditious libel, and his press, forms, materials, and publications were confiscated. He was tried on the charge of having printed a paper tending to weaken the hands of the magistrates, but, conducting his own case with shrewdness and skill, escaped punishment through the disagreement of the jury. In his defence he contended, in opposition to the ruling of the court directing the jury to find only as to the facts of the printing, that the jurors were judges of the law as well as of the fact, and competent to determine whether the subject-matter was seditious, a point that, in after times, was much controverted in similar cases. Having incurred the displeasure of the dominant party in Philadelphia, and receiving an invitation to establish a printing-press in New York, he settled there in 1693, set up the first press in the province, and the same year printed the laws of the colony. He was appointed public printer with an allowance of £50 per annum, and also received the appointment of printer to the government of New Jersey. He retained an interest in the press in Philadelphia, which was managed by a Dutchman named Jansen until Bradford's eldest son, Andrew, took charge of it in 1712, and obtained the appointment of public printer. On 16 Oct., 1725, William Bradford began the publication of the “New York Gazette,” the fourth newspaper in the colonies, and in 1728 he established a paper-mill at Elizabethtown, N. J. He was the only printer in the colony for thirty years, and retained the office of public printer for more than fifty years. He is buried in Trinity church-yard. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 350.

 

 

BRADLEY, Henry, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

BRADLEY, Phineas, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Manager, 1834-1839.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

BRADLEY, Stephan Row, 1754-1830, jurist, Member of Congress, U.S. Senator, New Jersey, opposed slavery in U.S. Congress (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. 1, p.353; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 575-576; Locke, 1901, pp. 94, 149f; Annals of Congress)

 

BRADLEY, Stephen Row, senator, b. in Wallingford (now Cheshire), Conn., 20 Oct., 1754; d. in Walpole, N. H., 16 Dec., 1830. He was graduated at Yale in 1775, studied law under Judge Reeve, and was admitted to the bar in 1779. During the revolutionary war he commanded a company of the Cheshire volunteers, and was the aide of Gen. Wooster when that officer was killed at Danbury. In 1779 he settled in Vermont and became active in the organization of the state. He was one of its first senators, being elected as a democrat to the 2d, 3d, and 7th, to 12th congresses, and was president pro tem. during portions of the 7th and 10th congresses. He was the author of “Vermont's Appeal” (1779), which has been ascribed.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 353.

 

 

BRAINERD, Lawrence, 1794-1870, anti-slavery activist, capitalist, statesman, U.S. Senator, member of the Liberty and Free Soil Parties.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833-1839.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 358; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, p. 594)

 

BRAINERD, Lawrence, senator, b. in 1794; d. in St. Albans, Vt., 9 May, 1870. He was active in forwarding the political, commercial, and railroad interests of Vermont, and was for several years candidate for governor. After the death of Senator Upham, Mr. Brainerd was chosen to the senate as a free-soiler for the remainder of the term, serving from 5 Dec., 1854, till 3 March, 1855. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 358.

 

 

BRAMHALL, Cornelius, New York , New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1856-64.

 

 

BRANAGAN, Thomas, former slaveholder in West Indies, wrote anti-slavery book in the United States.  Wrote, The Penitential Tyrant; or, Slave Trader Reformed: A Pathetic Poem, and A Preliminary Essay on the Exiled Sons of Africa Consisting of Animadversions on the Impolicy and Barbarity of the Deleterious Commerce and Subsequent Slavery of the Human Species (1801).  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 45, 80; Mason, 2006, pp. 26, 248n111; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 30-31)

 

 

BRANCH, John, 1782-1863, Raleigh, North Carolina, statesman, political leader, Secretary of the Navy, Governor of North Carolina.  President, Raleight auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 358; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 594; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

BRANCH, John, secretary of the navy, b. in Halifax, N. C., 4 Nov., 1782; d. in Enfield, N. C., 4 Jan., 1863. After graduation at the university of North Carolina in 1801, he studied law, became judge of the superior court, and was a state senator from 1811 till 1817, in 1822, and again in 1834. He was elected governor of his state in 1817, and from 1823 till 1829 was U. S. senator, resigning in the latter year, when he was appointed secretary of the navy by President Jackson. He held this office till 1831, when the cabinet broke up, more on account of social than political dissensions, as was commonly thought. A letter from Sec. Branch on the subject is published in Niles's “Register” (vol. xli.). Judge Branch was elected to congress as a democrat in 1831. In 1838 he was defeated as democratic candidate for governor of his state, and in 1844-'5 was governor of the territory of Florida, serving until the election of a governor under the state constitution.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

 

BRAND, Benjamin, Richmond, Virginia.  Treasurer of the Richmond auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 109)

 

 

BRANDEGEE, Augustus, 1828-1904, lawyer, jurist, abolitionist.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Elected to Connecticut State House of Representatives in 1854.  There, he was appointed Chairman of the Select Committee to pass a “Bill for the Defense of Liberty,” which was to prevent the Fugitive Slave Law from being enforced in the state. (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; Congressional Globe)

 

 

BREATHITT, John, 1798-1834, Kentucky, lawyer, political leader, Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky.  Strong supporter of the American Colonization Society, and of colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 363; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 139)

 

BREATHITT, John, governor of Kentucky, b. near New London, Va., 9 Sept., 1786; d. in Frankfort, Ky., 21 Feb., 1834. He removed with his father to Kentucky in 1800, was a surveyor and teacher, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1810. He was an earnest Jacksonian democrat, and for several years was a member of the legislature. He was lieutenant-governor of Kentucky in 1828-'32, and governor in 1832-'4. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BRECKINRIDGE, James, 1763-1833, lawyer, founding officer and charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in 1816.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 364; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 5; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

BRECKENRIDGE, James, lawyer, b. near Fincastle, Botetourt co., Va., 7 March, 1763; d. in Fincastle, 9 Aug., 1846. He was a grandson of a Scottish covenanter, who escaped to America on the restoration of the Stuarts. James served, in 1781, in Col. Preston’s rifle regiment under Greene, was graduated at William and Mary college in 1785, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1787, and began practice in Fincastle. He was for several years a member of the general assembly of Virginia, and a leader of the old federal party in that body, and from 22 May, 1809, till 3 March, 1817, represented the Botetourt district in congress. He was a candidate for governor against James Monroe. He co-operated with Thomas Jefferson in founding the university of Virginia, and was one of the most active promoters of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BRECKINRIDGE, John, Reverend, 1797-1841, Maryland, clergyman.  Board of Managers, Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 365; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 7; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 111, 231, 235)

 

BRECKENRIDGE, John, clergyman, son of John, b. at Cabell’s Dale, near Lexington, Ky., 4 July, 1797; d. there, 4. Aug., 1841, was graduated at Princeton in 1818, united with the Presbyterian church while in college, and chose the clerical profession, although his father had intended him for the law. He was licensed to preach in 1822 by the presbytery of New Brunswick, and in 1822-'3 served as chaplain to congress. On 10 Sept., 1823, he was ordained pastor of a church in Lexington, Ky., over which he presided four years. While there he founded a religious newspaper called the “Western Luminary.” In 1826 he was called to the 2d Presbyterian church of Baltimore as colleague of Dr. Glendy, and in 1831 he removed to Philadelphia, having been appointed secretary and general agent of the Presbyterian board of education. This place he resigned in 1836, to become professor of theology in the Princeton seminary. While occupying that chair he engaged in a public controversy with Archbishop Hughes, of New York, on the subject of the doctrines of their respective churches, and their arguments have been published in a volume entitled “A Discussion of the Question, ‘Is the Roman Catholic Religion, in any or in all its Principles or Doctrines, inimical to Civil or Religious Liberty?’—and of the Question, ‘Is the Presbyterian Religion, in any or all its Principles or Doctrines, inimical to Civil or Religious Liberty?’” (Philadelphia, 1836). Mr. Breckenridge took a prominent part in the controversies in the Presbyterian church, upholding, in the discussions in presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies, the principles of old-school Presbyterianism, and published a number of polemical writings. He was a keen debater, and was noted for his concise, accurate, and logical extempore speeches and sermons. He became secretary and general agent of the Presbyterian board of foreign missions upon its organization in 1838, and devoted his energies to superintending its operations until he broke down under his exhaustive labors, and died while on a visit to his early home. Just before his death he received a call to the presidency of Oglethorpe university in Georgia. In 1839 he published a “Memorial of Mrs. Breckenridge.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BRECKINRIDGE, Robert Jefferson, 1800-1871, Kentucky, lawyer, clergyman, state legislator, anti-slavery activist.  Supported gradual emancipation.  Opponent of slavery and important advocate for colonization and the American Colonization Society (ACS).  He argued emancipation was the goal of African colonization and it was justified.  He worked with ACS agent Robert S. Finley to establish auxiliaries.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 10; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 144-145, 183, 231)

 

 

BREWSTER, Henry, LeRoy, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40

 

 

BREWSTER, J. M., Pittsfield, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1842-45.

 

 

BRICE, Nicholas, Baltimore, Maryland, jurist.  Board of Managers of the Maryland American Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 18, 19, 38, 52, 193; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 111)

 

 

BRIDGE, J. D., Duxbury, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-41

 

 

BRISBANE, William Henry, 1803-1878, South Carolina, abolitionist leader.  Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Clergyman, Baptist Church in Madison, Wisconsin.  Chief Clerk of the Wisconsin State Senate.  He inherited slaves, however he realized slavery was wrong.  In 1835, Brisbane freed 33 of his slaves, bringing them to the North where he helped them settle.  As a result, he was criticized by his family and friends.  He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked for the abolitionist cause. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 93, 286; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 378)

 

BRISBANE, William H., clergyman, b. about 1803; d. in Arena, Wis., in 1878. He inherited a large number of slaves, but became convinced that slavery was wrong, and in 1835 brought thirty-three of them to the north, manumitting them and aiding them to settle in life. In consequence of this, he was obliged to take rank among the poor men of the country. Making his home in Cincinnati, he became the associate of prominent abolitionists, and a constant worker in their cause. In the early days of the anti-slavery agitation he was among its foremost advocates. In 1855 he removed to Wisconsin, was chief clerk of the state senate in 1857, became pastor of the Baptist church in Madison, and early in the civil war was tax commissioner of South Carolina. In June, 1874, he took an active part in the reunion of the old abolition guards in Chicago. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 378.

 

 

BROADNAX, William H., Dinwiddie County, Virginia, Virginia state lawmaker.  Formerly supported the American Colonization Society (ACS) in the Virginia state legislature.  He stated that slavery was a “mildew which has blighted in its course every region it has touched, from the creation of the world.”  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 181)

 

 

BROCKETT, Zenas, Manhein, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1852-1853.

 

 

BRODESS, Henry Bishop, 1830-1881, Ashland, Kentucky, abolitionist, mayor, jurist, newspaper publisher.  Published anti-slavery newspaper, the American Union.  Served as an officer in the Fourteenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry.

 

 

BROOKE, Abraham, 1806(8?)-1867, physician, radical reformer, abolitionist, Quaker, from Maryland, later moved to Ohio.  Strong supporter of William Lloyd Garrison and immediate abolition of slavery in the U.S.  Leader in Ohio American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Organized the Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform in October 1842.  Active supporter of women’s rights.  Leader in Western Anti-Slavery Society.  (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 602)

 

 

BROOKS, Charles, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

BROOKS, Joseph, 1821-1877, abolitionist, clergyman, newspaper editor, Union Army chaplain, political leader.  In 1856, moved to St. Louis and was editor of the Central Christian Advocate, a Methodist anti-slavery newspaper.  He was an ardent abolitionist and supporter of women’s suffrage.  In 1863, Brooks recruited and organized African American regiments.  He was appointed Chaplain of Fifty-Sixth U. S. Colored Infantry.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 387)

 

BROOKS, Joseph, clergyman, b. in Butler co., Ohio, 1 Nov., 1821; d. in Little Rock, Ark., 30 April, 1877. He was graduated at Indiana Asbury university, and in 1840 entered the Methodist ministry. He removed to Iowa in 1846, and in 1856 became editor of the St. Louis “Central Christian Advocate,” the only anti-slavery paper published on slave soil west of the Mississippi. When the civil war began, he became chaplain of the 1st Missouri artillery, Col. Frank P. Blair's regiment. He afterward aided in raising the 11th and 33d Missouri regiments, and was transferred to the latter as chaplain. Early in the war Mr. Brooks urged the enlistment of colored troops, and, when it was decided to employ them, he was offered a major-general's commission if he would raise a division, but he declined. He afterward became chaplain of the 3d Arkansas colored infantry. After the war Mr. Brooks became a planter in Arkansas, and was a leader in the State constitutional convention of 1868. During the presidential canvass of that year an attempt was made to assassinate Mr. Brooks and Congressman C. C. Hines, which resulted in the death of the latter and the wounding of Mr. Brooks. He removed to Little Rock in the autumn of 1868, and was elected state senator in 1870. In 1872 he was a candidate for governor, and, when his opponent was declared to be elected by the legislature, he claimed that the election was fraudulent, and, relying on the decision of a state court in his favor, took forcible possession of the state-house, 13 April, 1874, and held it till dispossessed by proclamation of President Grant, 23 May, 1874. (See BAXTER, ELISHA.) Mr. Brooks was appointed postmaster at Little Rock in March, 1875, and held the office till his death. He was a man of great will-power and a strong speaker. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BROOMALL, John M., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

BROWN, A. B., LaPoret County, Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842.

 

 

BROWN, Abel, 1810-1844, Springfield, Massachusetts, New York, abolitionist leader.  Aided fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad in Albany, New York. (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

BROWN, Benjamin, abolitionist, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1841-1842.

 

 

BROWN, Benjamin Gratz, 1826-1885, lawyer, soldier.  Anti-slavery activist in Missouri legislature from 1852-1859.  Opposed pro-slavery party.  Commanded a regiment and later a brigade of Missouri State Militia.  U.S. Senator 1863-1867, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 105; Congressional Globe)

 

 

BROWN, David (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 156)

 

 

BROWN, Frederick, radical abolitionist, son of abolitionist John Brown, accompanied his father on the raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859, was killed during the raid.  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 206; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 2, pp. 131-134)

 

 

BROWN, Henry "Box," c. 1815-1878, former slave, author, orator, abolitionist, wrote Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written from a Statement of Fact by Himself (1849), published by abolitionist Charles Stearns. (Brown, 2002; Mabee, 1970, pp. 388-389; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 52, 184, 204-205, 464, 489; Ruggles, 2003; Stearns, 1848)

 

 

BROWN, James C., Putnam, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

BROWN, James C., Putnam, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Recording Secretary, 1835-36

 

 

 

BROWN, John Mifflin, 1817-1893, educator, clergyman, African American, eleventh Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, abolitionist. (Angell, 1992; Murphy, 1993; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 207-208; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 138)

 

 

BROWN, John, 1800-1859, (known as “Old Brown of Osawatomie”), radical abolitionist leader, wrote Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States (1858); condemned slavery; led raid against the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859.  He was captured, tried and convicted and was executed on December 2, 1859 along with four of his co-defendants.  (De Caro, 2002; Drake, 1950, pp. 189, 192, 200; Du Bois, 1909; Oates, 1970; Quarles, 1974; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 58, 59, 61, 62, 138, 153, 198, 205-207, 226, 264, 327-329, 338, 422, 427, 478, 675-676; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, pp. 131-134; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 690; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 307-308)

 

BROWN, John, of Osawatomie, abolitionist, b. in Torrington, Conn., 9 May, 1800; executed in Charlestown, Va., 2 Dec., 1859. His ancestor, Peter Brown, came over with the historic party in the “Mayflower” in 1620. Peter was unmarried, by trade a carpenter, and drew his house-lot in Plymouth with the rest; but he removed soon afterward, with Bradford, Standish, and Winslow, to the neighboring settlement of Duxbury. He was twice married, and died early. One of his descendants in the main line was a Captain John Brown, of the Connecticut militia, who died of disease in the revolutionary service in 1776. This revolutionary captain married Hannah Owen, of Welsh origin; and their son, Owen Brown, married Ruth Mills, who was of Dutch descent; so that John Brown of Osawatomie, their son, had a mingling of the blood of three races in his veins, resulting in a corresponding mixture of strong qualities. Owen Brown left a brief autobiography, which begins by saying: “My life has been of little worth, mostly filled up with vanity.” Then he goes on to describe, with some fulness, this career of frivolity, which will seem to most readers grave and decorous to the last degree. The most interesting entry is the following: “In 1800, May 9, [my son] John was born, one hundred years after his great-grandfather; nothing else very uncommon”; and he adds, in tranquil ignorance of the future: “We lived in peace with all mankind, so far as I know.” How far the parent would have approved the stormy career of the son is now matter of inference only; but we have it in Owen Brown's own declaration that he was one of that early school of abolitionists whom Hopkins and Edwards enlightened; and he apparently took part in the forcible rescue of some slaves claimed by a Virginia clergyman in Connecticut in 1798, soon after that state had abolished slavery. The continuous anti-slavery devotion of the whole family, for three generations, was a thing almost unexampled. Mr. Sanborn has preserved verbatim a most quaint and graphic fragment of autobiography, written by John Brown, of Osawatomie, in 1859. In this he records with the utmost frankness his boyish pursuits and transgressions; how at the age of four he stole three brass pins, and at the age of five removed with his parents to Ohio, where he grew familiar with the Indians, who were then dwelling all around them. He says of himself: “John was never quarrelsome; but was exceedingly fond of the harshest and roughest kind of plays; and could never get enough [of] them. Indeed, when for a short time he was sometimes sent to school, the opportunity it offered to wrestle and snow-ball and run and jump and knock off old seedy wool hats, offered to him almost the only compensation for the confinement and restraint of school.” In this boyish combativeness, without personal quarrelsomeness, we see the quality of the future man. He further records that in boyhood his great delight was in going on responsible expeditions, and by the age of twelve he was often sent a hundred miles into the wilderness with cattle. This adventurous spirit took no military direction; he was disgusted with what he heard of the war of 1812, and for many years used to be fined for refusing to do militia duty. He was very fond of reading, and familiar with every portion of the Bible; but he never danced, and never knew one card from another. Staying in a house where there was a slave-boy almost his own age, and seeing this boy ill-treated—even beaten, as he declares, with an iron fire-shovel—he became, in his own words, “a most determined abolitionist,'” and was led “to declare, or swear, eternal war with slavery.” From the fifteenth to the twentieth years of his age he worked as a farmer and currier, chiefly for his father, and for most of the time as foreman. He then learned surveying, and followed that for a while, afterward gratifying his early love for animals by becoming a shepherd. Mean-while he married, as he says, “a remarkably plain, but neat, industrious, and economical girl, of excellent character, earnest piety, and good practical common sense,” who had, he asserts, a most powerful and good influence over him. This was Dianthe Lusk, a widow, and they had seven children. His second wife was Mary Anne Day, by whom he had thirteen children, and who survived him twenty-five years, dying in San Francisco in 1884. She also was a woman of strong and decided character; and though among the twenty children of the two marriages eight died in early childhood, the survivors all shared the strong moral convictions of their father, and the whole family habitually lived a life of great self-denial in order that his purposes might be carried out.   

The contest for Kansas in 1855-'6 between the friends of freedom and those of slavery was undoubtedly, as it has since been called, the skirmish-line of the civil war. It was there made evident—what an anti-slavery leader so conspicuous as Joshua R. Giddings had utterly refused to believe—that the matter was coming to blows. The condition of affairs was never better stated than in the Charleston “Mercury” by a young man named Warren Wilkes, who had commanded for a time a band of so-called southern “settlers” in Kansas. He wrote in the spring of 1856: “If the south secures Kansas, she will extend slavery into all territories south of the fortieth parallel of north latitude to the Rio Grande; and this, of course, will secure for her pent-up institution of slavery an ample outlet, and restore her power in congress. If the north secures Kansas, the power of the south in congress will be gradually diminished, and the slave property will become valueless. All depends upon the action of the present moment.” Here was a point on which young Wilkes on the one side, and John Brown on the other, were absolutely agreed; and each went to work in his own way to save Kansas to his side by encouraging immigration from their respective regions. We can, at this distance of time, admit that this was within the right of each; but the free-state men went almost wholly as bona-fide settlers, while numbers of those who went from Missouri, Virginia, and South Carolina viewed the enterprise simply as a military foray, without intending to remain. It was also true that the latter class, coming from communities then more lawless, went generally armed; while the free-state men went at first unarmed, afterward arming themselves reluctantly and by degrees. The condition of lawlessness that ensued was undoubtedly demoralizing to both sides; it was to a great extent a period of violence and plunder—civil war on a petty scale; but the original distinction never wholly passed away, and the ultimate character of the community was fortunately shaped and controlled by the free-state settlers. However it might be with others, for John Brown the Kansas contest was deliberately undertaken as a part of the great war against slavery. He went there with more cautious and far-reaching purposes than most others, and he carried out those purposes with the strength of a natural leader. As early as 1834, by a letter still in existence, he had communicated to his brother Frederick his purpose to make active war upon slavery, the plan being then to bring together some “first-rate abolitionist families” and undertake the education of colored youth. “If once the Christians of the free states would set to work in earnest teaching the blacks, the people of the slave-holding states would find themselves constitutionally driven to set about the work of emancipation immediately.” This letter was written when he was postmaster under President Jackson, at Randolph, Pa., and was officially franked by Brown, as was then the practice. When we consider what were Jackson's views as to anti-slavery agitation, especially through the mails, it is curious to consider what a firebrand he was harboring in one of his own post-offices. It appears from this letter and other testimony that Brown at one time solemnly called his older sons together and pledged them, kneeling in prayer, to give their lives to anti-slavery work. It must be remembered that Prudence Crandall had been arrested and sent to jail in Connecticut, only the year before, for doing, in a small way, what Brown now proposed to do systematically. For some time he held to his project in this form, removing from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1835-'6, and from Ohio to Massachusetts in 1846, engaging in different enterprises, usually in the wool business, but always keeping the main end in view. For instance, in 1840 he visited western Virginia to survey land belonging to Oberlin college, and seems to have had some plan for colonizing colored people there. At last, in 1846, on the anniversary of West India emancipation, Gerrit Smith, a great land-owner in New York state, offered to give a hundred thousand acres of wild land in northern New York to such colored families, fugitive slaves, or others as would take them in small farms and clear them. It was a terribly hard region into which to invite those children of the south; six months of winter and no possibility of raising either wheat or Indian corn. Brown convinced himself, nevertheless, that he could be of much use to the colored settlers, and in 1848-'9 purchased a farm from Mr. Smith and removed the younger part of his family to North Elba, which was their home until his death. His wife and young children lived there in the greatest frugality, voluntarily practised by them all for the sake of helping others. He, meanwhile, often absented himself on anti-slavery enterprises, forming, for instance, at Springfield, Mass., his former home, a “League of Gileadites,” pledged to the rescue of fugitive slaves. In one of his manuscript addresses to this body he lays down the rule, “Stand by one another and by your friends while a drop of blood remains; and be hanged if you must, but tell no tales out of school.” This was nearly nine years before his own death on the scaffold.  

In 1854 five of Brown's sons, then resident in Ohio, made their arrangements to remove to Kansas, regarding it as a desirable home, where they could exert an influence for freedom; but they were so little prepared for an armed struggle that they had among them only two small shot-guns and a revolver. They selected claims eight or ten miles from Osawatomie, and their father, contrary to his previous intention, joined them there in October, 1855. In March of that year the first election for a territorial constitution had taken place. Thousands of Missourians, armed with rifles, and even with cannon, had poured over the border, and, although less than a thousand legal votes were thrown in the territory, more than six thousand went through the form of voting. This state of things continued through that year and the next, and the present writer saw an election precisely similar in the town of Leavenworth, in the autumn of 1856. Hostilities were soon brought on by the murder and unlawful arrest of men known to be opposed to slavery. The Brown family were mustered in as Kansas militia by the free-state party, and turned out to defend the town of Lawrence from a Missourian invasion, which was compromised without bloodshed. A few months later Lawrence was attacked and pillaged. Other murders took place, and a so-called grand jury indicted many free-state men, including in the indictment the “Free State Hotel” in Lawrence. Two of Brown's sons were arrested by United States cavalry, which, at this time, Pierce being president, acted wholly with the pro-slavery party. John Brown, Jr., the oldest, was driven on foot at the head of a cavalry company, at a trot, for nine miles to Osawatomie, his arms being tied behind him. This state of things must be fully remembered in connection with the so-called “Pottawatomie massacre,” which furnishes, in the opinion of both friends and foes, the most questionable incident in Brown's career. This occurrence took place on 25 May, 1856, and consisted in the deliberate assassination of five representatives of the pro-slavery party at night, they being called from their beds for the purpose. It was done in avowed retribution for the assassination of five free-state men, and was intended to echo far beyond Kansas, as it did, and to announce to the slave-holding community that blood for blood would henceforth be exacted in case of any further invasion of rights. It undoubtedly had that effect, and though some even in Kansas regarded it with disapproval, it is certain that leading citizens of the territory, such as Governor Robinson, themselves justified it at the time. Robinson wrote, as late as February, 1878: “I never had much doubt that Capt. Brown was the author of the blow at Pottawatomie, for the reason that he was the only man who comprehended the situation, and saw the absolute necessity of some such blow, and had the nerve to strike it.” Brown himself said, a few years later: “I knew all good men who loved freedom, when they became better acquainted with the circumstances of the case, would approve of it.” It is, nevertheless, probable that the public mind will be permanently divided in judgment upon this act; just as there is still room, after centuries have passed, for two opinions as to the execution of Charles I. or the banishment of Roger Williams. Much, of course, turns upon the actual character of the five men put to death—men whom the student will find painted in the darkest colors in Mr. Sanborn's life of John Brown, and in much milder hues in Mr. Spring's “History of Kansas.” The successive phases of sentiment on the whole subject may be partly attributed to the fact that the more pacific Kansas leaders, such as Robinson and Pomeroy, have happened to outlive the fighting men, such as Brown, Lane, and Montgomery; so that there is a little disposition just now to underrate the services of the combatants and overrate those of the noncombatants. As a matter of fact, there was in the territory at the time no noticeable difference of opinion between those two classes; and it is quite certain that slavery would have triumphed over all legal and legislative skill had not the sword been thrown into the balance, even in a small way. The largest affairs in which Brown and his sons took part, “Black Jack” and “Osawatomie,” for instance, seem trifling amid the vast encounters of the civil war; but these petty skirmishes, nevertheless, began that great conflict.  

The purpose that finally took John Brown to Virginia had doubtless been many years in his mind, dating back, indeed, to the time when he was a surveyor in the mountains of that state, in early life. Bishop Meade says, in his “Old Churches and Ministers of Virginia,” that he wrote the book in view of a range of mountains which Washington had selected as the final stronghold of his revolutionary army, should he be defeated in the contest with England; and it was these same mountains which John Brown regarded as having been designed by the Almighty, from all eternity, as a refuge for fugitive slaves. His plan for his enterprise varied greatly in successive years, and no doubt bore marks of the over-excited condition of his mind; but as he ordinarily told it to the few with whom he had consulted outside of his own band, there was nothing incoherent or impracticable about it; it was simply the establishment on slave soil of a defensible station for fugitive slaves, within the reach of the Pennsylvania border, so that bodies of slaves could hold their own for a time against a superior force, and could be transferred, if necessary, through the free states to Canada. Those who furnished him with arms and money at the north did so from personal faith in him, and from a common zeal for his objects, without asking to know details. He had stated his general plan to Douglass and others in 1847, and in 1857 had established at Tabor, in Iowa, a town peculiarly friendly to the free-state men during the Kansas troubles, a sort of school of military drill under the direction of a Scottish adventurer, Hugh Forbes, who attempted to betray him. He afterward had a similar school at Springfield, Iowa, and meanwhile negotiated with his eastern friends for funds. He had already in his hands two hundred rifles from the national Kansas committee; and although these were really the property of George L. Stearns, of Medford, Mass., representing a small part of the $10,000 which that gentleman had given to make Kansas free, yet this was enough to hamper in some degree the action of his Boston allies. Their position was also embarrassed by many curious, rambling letters from his drill-master, Forbes, written to members of congress and others, and disclosing what little he knew of the plans. This led the eastern allies to insist—quite unnecessarily, as it seemed to one or two of them—on a postponement for a year of the whole enterprise. On 3 June, 1858, Brown left Boston, with $500 in gold and with liberty to keep the Kansas rifles. Most of his friends in the eastern states knew nothing more of his movements until it was announced that he had taken possession of the U. S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Va. A few, however, were aware that he was about to enter on the execution of his plans somewhere, though they did not know precisely where. Late in June, 1859, Brown and several of his men appeared in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, and soon afterward hired a small farm, which they occupied. Then his daughter Anne, a girl of fifteen, together with his daughter-in-law, wife of Oliver Brown, appeared upon the scene and kept house for them. There they lived for many weeks, unsuspected by their neighbors, and gradually receiving from Ohio their boxes of rifles and pistols, besides a thousand pikes from Connecticut. In August he was visited by Frederick Douglass, to whom he disclosed his plan of an attack on Harper's Ferry, which Douglass opposed, thinking it would not really be favorable to his ultimate object of reaching the slaves. But he persevered, and finally began his operations with twenty-two men, besides himself. Six of these were colored; and it may be added that only six of the whole party escaped alive, and only one of these is now (September, 1886) living—Owen Brown.  

On Sunday evening, 16 Oct., 1859, Brown mustered eighteen of his men—the rest having been assigned to other duties—saying: “Men, get on your arms; we will proceed to the Ferry.” It was a cold, dark night, ending in rain. At half-past ten they reached the armory-gate and broke it in with a crow-bar, easily overpowering the few watchmen on duty. Before midnight the village was quietly patrolled by Brown's men, without firing a gun, and six men had been sent to bring in certain neighboring planters, with their slaves. He had taken several leading citizens prisoners, as hostages, but had allowed a rail way train to go through northward, which of course carried the news. The citizens of the town gradually armed themselves, and some shots were exchanged, killing several men; and before night Brown, who might easily have escaped, was hopelessly hemmed in. Col. Robert E. Lee, afterward well known in history, arrived from Washington at evening with a company of U.S. marines, and all was practically over. Brown and his men, now reduced to six, were barricaded in a little building called the engine- house, and were shot down one by one, thousands of bullets, according to a Virginia witness, having been imbedded in the walls. Brown constantly returned the fire, refusing to surrender; but when some of his men aimed at passers-by who had taken no part in the matter, he would stop them, according to the same Virginia witness, Capt. Dangerfield, saying: “Don't shoot! that man is unarmed.” Col. Washington, another Virginia witness, has testified to the extraordinary coolness with which Brown felt the pulse of his dying son, while holding his own rifle with the other hand, and encouraging his men to be firm. All this time he was not recognized, until Lieut. J. E. B. Stuart, who had known him in Kansas, called him by his name. When he was finally captured, his two sons were dead, and he himself was supposed to be dying.  

No one will ever be able exactly to understand that mood of John Brown's mind which induced him to remain in Harper's Ferry to certain death. His reason for taking possession of the town and arsenal was undoubtedly a desire to alarm the country at large, and not merely secure arms, but attract recruits to his side, after he should have withdrawn. Why did he remain? Those who escaped from the terrible disaster could not answer. Brown himself is reported as saying that it was preordained; that if he had once escaped, he knew the Virginia mountains too well to be captured; but that he for the first time lost command of himself and was punished for it. Gov. Wise, of Virginia, with several hundred men, reached Harper's Ferry by the noon train of 18 Oct., and Brown held conversations, which have been fully reported, with him and others. Gov. Wise said of him: “They are mistaken who take Brown to be a madman. He is a bundle of the best nerves I ever saw; cut and thrust and bleeding and in bonds. He is a man of clear head, of courage, fortitude, and simple ingenuousness. He is cool, collected, indomitable; and it is but just to him to say that he was humane to his prisoners, and he inspired me with great trust in his integrity as a man of truth.” This opinion, coming from the man whose immediate duty it was to see him tried and executed as a felon, may be regarded as a final and trustworthy estimate.  

John Brown was tried before a Virginia court, legal counsel going to him from Massachusetts. All thought of a rescue was precluded by strong messages of prohibition sent by him. The proposal to send his wife to him, this being planned partly in the hope that she might shake his determination, was also refused, and she did not see him until after his trial. He was sentenced to death by hanging, and this sentence was executed 2 Dec., 1859. On the day of his death he handed to one of his guards a paper on which he had written this sentence: “Charlestown, Va., Dec. 2, 1859. I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.” Within eighteen months this prophecy was fulfilled, and many a northern regiment, as it marched to the seat of war, sang that which will always remain, more than any other, the war-song of the great conflict: 

“John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
But his soul is marching on.” 

His bearing on the scaffold, under exceptionally trying circumstances, evinced wonderful fortitude. After the sheriff had told him that all was ready, and had adjusted the rope and the cap, ten or fifteen minutes passed, while the military escort formed a hollow square. During this painfully long interval, John Brown, blindfolded, stood alone erect, like a statue unsupported. An eyewitness who was very near him could not detect a tremor. A further delay occurred while the sheriff descended the steps of the scaffold, but Brown never wavered, and died apparently with muscles and nerves still subject to his iron will. His career is remarkable for its dramatic quality, for the important part he played in events preliminary to the great civil war, and for the strong and heroic traits shown in his life and death. He belonged to a class of men whose permanent fame is out of all proportion to their official importance or contemporary following; and indeed he represents a type more akin to that seen among the Scottish covenanters of two centuries ago than to anything familiar in our own days. With John Brown were executed Copeland, Green, Cook, and Coppoc, of his company.  Stephens and Hazlett were put to death in the same way later. An effort for their rescue, organized in Boston, with men brought mainly from Kansas, under Capt. Montgomery as leader, proved abortive.  

In regard to the bearing of John Brown's enterprise upon subsequent history, it is enough if we recall the fact that a select committee of the U. S. senate investigated the whole affair, and the majority, consisting of John M. Mason, Jefferson Davis, and Graham N. Fitch, submitted a report in which occurs the following passage: “The invasion (to call it so) by Brown and his followers at Harper's Ferry was in no sense of that character. It was simply the act of lawless ruffians, under the sanction of no public or political authority—distinguishable only from ordinary felonies by the ulterior ends in contemplation by them, and by the fact that the money to maintain the expedition, and the large armament they brought with them, had been contributed and furnished by the citizens of other states of the union, under circumstances that must continue to jeopard the safety and peace of the southern states, and against which congress has no power to legislate. If the several states, whether from motives of policy or a desire to preserve the peace of the union, if not from fraternal feeling, do not hold it incumbent on them, after the experience of the country, to guard in future by appropriate legislation against occurrences similar to the one here inquired into, the committee can find no guarantee elsewhere for the security of peace between the states of the union.” It is a sufficient commentary on the implied threat with which this report concludes, to point out that two of its three signers, within the year following, became leaders of the movement for a forcible division of the union. In view of this fact, it is impossible to doubt that the enterprise of John Brown was an important link in the chain of historical events. The life of Capt. Brown has been at least three times written—by James Redpath, by Richard D. Webb, of Dublin, and by Frank B. Sanborn. The last named is the fullest work, and has the approval of John Brown's family; it is the result of much personal research, and is, with some defects of arrangement, a mine of information in regard to one of the most remarkable men of his time. 

 

 

BROWN, Josephine, 1839-1874, abolitioninst, daughter of William Wells Brown.

 

 

BROWN, John, East Greenwich, Rhode Island, abolitionist, Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1846.

 

 

BROWN, Josephine, abolitionist.

 

 

BROWN, Moses, 1738-1836, Maine, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, industrialist, educator, Quaker.  Vice president and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Co-founder of Brown University.  Co-founded Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave Trade in 1789. (Appletons, 1888, Vol. 1, p. 396; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 146; Bruns, 1977, pp. 308-313, 492-493, 515; Drake, 1950, pp. 79-80, 89, 97, 102, 123; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 2, 7, 17, 60, 87, 111; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 107, 120-121, 156, 157; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

BROWN, Moses, b. in Providence, R. I., 23 Sept., 1738; d. there, 6 Sept., 1836. He was brought up in the family of his uncle, Obadiah Brown, whose daughter he married, and a portion of whose estate he inherited by will. In 1763 he became engaged in business with his three brothers, but, after ten years' active experience, withdrew to follow more congenial interests. Although brought up in the Baptist faith, he became, subsequent to severe domestic affliction, a member of the Society of Friends, and remained until his death a firm adherent to the doctrines of that society. He exerted a strong influence in all its concerns, and filled many of its important offices with dignity and usefulness. The Friends' boarding-school in Providence was founded by him, and his donations to its support were frequent and liberal. In 1773 he manumitted his slaves, and was one of the founders of the abolition society of Rhode Island. He was also an active member and liberal supporter of the Rhode Island Peace and Bible societies. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 396.

 

 

BROWN, Nathan, 1807-1886, New Ipswich, New Hampshire, American Baptist clergyman, Bible translator, abolitionist.  Brother of abolitionist William Brown.

 

 

BROWN, Nicholas, Providence, Rhode Island, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1837-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

BROWN, Obadiah B., Reverend, Washington, DC, Baptist clergyman.  American Colonization Society, Manager, 1833-1834.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 30, 109)

 

 

BROWN, Oliver, radical abolitionist, son of abolitionist John Brown, accompanied his father on the raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859, was killed during the raid  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 206, 327, 328; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 2, pp. 131-134)

 

 

BROWN, Owen, 1771-1856, Torrington, Connecticut.  Father of abolitionist John Brown.  Owen Brown co-founded the Western Reserve Anti-Slavery Society (Western Reserve College).

 

 

BROWN, Owen, 1824-1889, radical abolitionist, third son of abolitionist John Brown, accompanied his father on the raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859; he escaped capture by the U.S. Marines.  He later served as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War.  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 206, 327; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 2, pp. 131-134)

 

 

BROWN, Salmon, radical abolitionist, son of abolitionist John Brown, accompanied his father on the raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859, was killed during the raid  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 206; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 2, pp. 131-134)

 

 

BROWN, Samuel F., Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842

 

 

BROWN, Stephen W., Canaan, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-45

 

 

BROWN, William C., Chelsea, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1839-.

 

 

BROWN, William G., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

BROWN, William Wells, 1814-1884, African American, abolitionist leader, author, historian, former slave, anti-slave lecturer, temperance activist. Wrote Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself, 1847, also The American Fugitive in Europe, 1855.  Lecturer for Western New York Anti-Slavery Society, Massachusetts and American Anti-Slavery Society.  Wrote anti-slavery plays, “Experience; or How to Give a Northern Man a Backbone,” “The Escape; or A Leap for Freedom,” 1856. (Brown, 1856; Brown, 1847; Farrison, 1969; Greenspan, 2008; Mabee, 1970, pp. 52, 61, 65, 96-98, 137, 140, 145, 159, 161, 203, 221, 252, 258, 265, 333, 371, 390; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 29, 50, 55, 57, 61, 72, 179, 208-209, 246; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 161; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 751; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p.  325)

 

 

BRUCE, Robert, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

BRUNE, Frederick W., Baltimore, Maryland.  Leader, Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell,1971, p. 192)

 

 

BRYAN, George, 1731-1791, Dublin, Ireland, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, legislator, businessman, statesman, jurist.  Introduced abolition bills.  Elected the first Vice President of Pennsylvania (Lieutenant Governor), 1777-1779, Second President (Governor), 1778. (Basker, 2005, pp. 76, 82-83; Bruns, 1977, pp. 445-446; Locke, 1901, p. 78; Nash, 1991, pp. 100-105, 107, 110, 113-114, 121, 157, 201; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 125, 126, 128, 129, 131; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 421; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 189)

 

BRYAN, George, jurist, b in Dublin, Ireland, in 1731; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 27 Jan., 1791. He came to this country in early life, and was engaged some years in commercial pursuits in Philadelphia. He was a member of the state assembly, and in 1765 was a delegate to the stamp-act congress, in which, and in the subsequent struggle, he took an active part. He was vice-president of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania from the period of the Declaration of Independence, and in May, 1778, was advanced to the presidency. In November of that year he sent a message to the assembly, pressing upon their attention a bill proposed by the council in 1777 for the gradual abolition of slavery in the state. “In divesting the state of slaves,” said he, “you will equally serve the cause of humanity and policy, and offer to God one of the most proper and best returns of gratitude for his great deliverance of us and our posterity from thraldom.” In 1779 Bryan was elected to the legislature. On his motion the subject was referred to a committee, of which he himself was a member, and he prepared the draft of a law for gradual emancipation. He was appointed a judge of the state supreme court in 1780, and remained in that office until his death. In 1784 he was elected one of the council of censors. He strenuously opposed the adoption of the federal constitution. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 421.

 

 

BRYANT, Joseph, Ohio, abolitionist. Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39.

 

 

BRYANT, William Cullen, 1794-1874, author, poet, editor.  Wrote antislavery poetry.  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 326; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 101-102; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 422-426; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 200; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3)

 

BRYANT, William Cullen, poet and editor, b. in Cummington, Mass., 3 Nov., 1794; d. in New York, 12 June, 1878. His ancestry might have been inferred from the character of his writings, which reflect whatever is best and noblest in the life and thought of New England. The first Bryant of whom there is any account in the annals of the New World, Stephen, came over from England, and was at Plymouth, Mass., as early as 1632, of which town he was chosen constable in 1663. He married Abigail Shaw, who had emigrated with her father, and who bore him several children between 1650 and 1665. Stephen Bryant had a son Ichabod, who was the father of Philip Bryant, born in 1732. Philip married Silence Howard, daughter of Dr. Abiel Howard, of West Bridgewater, whose profession he adopted, practising in North, Bridgewater. He was the father of nine children, one of whom, Peter, born in 1767, succeeded him in his profession. Young Dr. Bryant married in 1792 Miss Sarah Snell, daughter of Ebenezer Snell, of Bridgewater, who removed his family to Cummington, where the subject of this sketch was born. Dr. Bryant was proud of his profession; and in the hope, no doubt, that his son would become a shining light therein, he perpetuated at his christening the name of a great medical authority, who had died four years before, William Cullen. The lad was exceedingly frail, and had a head the immensity of which troubled his anxious father. How to reduce it to the normal size was a puzzle that Dr. Bryant solved in a spring of clear, cold water, into which the child was immersed every morning, head and all, by two of Dr. Bryant's students. William Cullen Bryant's mother was a descendant of John Alden; and the characteristics of his family included some of the sterner qualities of the Puritans. His grandfather Snell was a magistrate, and without doubt a severe one, for the period was not one that favored leniency to criminals. The whipping-post was still extant in Massachusetts, and the poet remembered that one stood about a mile from his early home at Cummington, and that he once saw a young fellow of eighteen who had received forty lashes as a punishment for theft. It was, he thought, the last example of corporal punishment inflicted by law in that neighborhood, though the whipping-post remained in its place for several years. 

Magistrate Snell was a disciplinarian of the stricter sort; and as he and his wife resided with Dr. Bryant and his family, the latter stood in awe of him, so much so that William Cullen was prevented from feeling anything like affection for him. It was an age of repression, not to say oppression, for children, who had few rights that their elders were bound to respect. To the terrors of the secular arm were added the deeper terrors of the spiritual law, for the people of that primitive period were nothing if not religious. The minister was the great man, and his bodily presence was a restraint upon the unruly, and the ruly too, for that matter. The lines of our ancestors did not fall in pleasant places as far as recreations were concerned; for they were few and far between, consisting, for the most part, of militia musters, “raisings,” corn-huskings, and singing-schools, diversified with the making of maple sugar and cider. Education was confined to the three R's, though the children of wealthy parents were sent to colleges as they now are. It was not a genial social condition, it must be confessed, to which William Cullen Bryant was born, though it might have been worse but for his good father, who was in many respects superior to his rustic neighbors. He was broad-shouldered and muscular, proud of his strength, but his manners were gentle and reserved, his disposition serene, and he was fond of society. He was elected to the Massachusetts house of representatives several times, afterward to the state senate, and associated with the cultivated circles of Boston both as legislator and physician. 

We have the authority of the poet himself that his father taught his youth the art of verse. His first efforts were several clever “Enigmas,” in imitation of the Latin writers, a translation from Horace, and a copy of verses written in his twelfth year, to be recited at the close of the winter school, “in the presence of the master, the minister of the parish, and a number of private gentlemen.” They were printed on 18 March, 1807, in the “Hampshire Gazette,” from which these particulars are derived, and which was favored with other contributions from the pen of “C. B.” The juvenile poems of William Cullen Bryant are as clever as those of Chatterton, Pope, and Cowley; but they are in no sense original, and it would have been strange if they had been. There was no original writing in America at the time they were written; and if there had been, it would hardly have commended itself to the old-fashioned taste of Dr. Bryant, to whom Pope was still a power in poetry. It was natural, therefore, that he should offer his boy to the strait-laced muses of Queen Anne's time; that the precocious boy should lisp in heroic couplets; and that he should endeavor to be satirical. Politics were running high in the first decade of the present century, and the favorite bugbear in New England was President Jefferson, who, in 1807, had laid an embargo on American shipping, in consequence of the decrees of Napoleon, and the British orders in council in relation thereto. This act was denounced, and by no one more warmly than by Master Bryant, who made it the subject of a satire: “The Embargo; or, Sketches of the Times” (Boston, 1808). The first edition was sold, and it is said to have been well received; but doubts were expressed as to whether the author was really a youth of thirteen. His friends came to his rescue in an “Advertisement,” prefixed to a second edition (1809), certifying to his age from their personal knowledge. They also certified to his extraordinary talents, though they preferred to have him judged by his works, without favor or affection, and concluded by saying that the printer was authorized to disclose their addresses. 

The early poetical exercises of William Cullen Bryant, like those of all young poets, were colored by the books he read. Among these were the works of Pope, and, no doubt, the works of Cowper and Thomson. The latter, if they were in the library of Dr. Bryant, do not appear to have impressed his son at this time; nor, indeed, does any English poet except Pope, so far as we can judge from his contributions to the “Hampshire Gazette.” They were bookish and patriotic; one, written at Cummington, 8 Jan., 1810, being “The Genius of Columbia”; and another, “An Ode for the Fourth of July, 1812,” to the tune of “Ye Gentlemen of England.” These productions are undeniably clever, but they are not characteristic of their writer, nor of the nature that surrounded his birthplace, with which he was familiar, and of which he was a close observer. 

He entered Williams college in his sixteenth year, and remained there one winter, distinguishing himself for aptness and industry in classical learning and polite literature. At the end of two years he withdrew, and began the study of law, first with Judge Howe, of Worthington, and afterward with William Baylies, of Bridgewater. So far he had written nothing but clever amateur verse; but now, in his eighteenth year, he wrote an imperishable poem. The circumstances under which it was composed have been variously related, but they agree in the main particulars, and are thus given in “The Bryant Homestead Book”: “It was here at Cummington, while wandering in the primeval forests, over the floor of which were scattered the gigantic trunks of fallen trees, mouldering for long years, and suggesting an indefinitely remote antiquity, and where silent rivulets crept along through the carpet of dead leaves, the spoil of thousands of summers, that the poem entitled ‘Thanatopsis’ was composed. The young poet had read the poems of Kirke White, which, edited by Southey, were published about that time, and a small volume of Southey's miscellaneous poems; and some lines of those authors had kindled his imagination, which, going forth over the face of the inhabitants of the globe, sought to bring under one broad and comprehensive view the destinies of the human race in the present life, and the perpetual rising and passing away of generation after generation who are nourished by the fruits of its soil, and find a resting-place in its bosom.” We should like to know what lines in Southey and Kirke White suggested “Thanatopsis,” that they might be printed in letters of gold hereafter. 

When the young poet quitted Cummington to begin his law studies, he left the manuscript of this incomparable poem among his papers in the house of his father, who found it after his departure, “Here are some lines that our Cullen has been writing,” he said to a lady to whom he showed them. She read them, and, raising her eyes to the face of Dr. Bryant, burst into tears—a tribute to the genius of his son in which he was not ashamed to join. Blackstone bade his Muse a long adieu before he turned to wrangling courts and stubborn law; and our young lawyer intended to do the same (for poetry was starvation in America fourscore years ago), but habit and nature were too strong for him. There is no difficulty in tracing the succession of his poems, and in a few instances the places where they were written, or with which they concerned themselves. “Thanatopsis,” for example, was followed by “The Yellow Violet,” which was followed by the “Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood,” and the song beginning “Soon as the glazed and gleaming snow.” The exquisite lines “To a Waterfowl” were written at Bridgewater, in his twentieth year, where he was still pursuing the study of law, which appears to have been distasteful to him. The concluding stanza sank deeply into a heart that needed its pious lesson: 

“He who, from zone to zone, 
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.” 

The lawyer-poet had a long way before him, but he did not tread it alone; for, after being admitted to the bar in Plymouth, and practising for a time in Plainfield, near Cummington, he removed to Great Barrington, in Berkshire, where he saw the dwelling of the Genevieve of his chilly little “Song,” his Genevieve being Miss Frances Fairchild of that beautiful town, whom he married in his twenty-seventh year, and who was the light of his household for nearly half a century. It was to her, the reader may like to know, that he addressed the ideal poem beginning “O fairest of the rural maids” (circa 1825), “The Future Life” (1837), and “The Life that Is” (1858); and her memory and her loss are tenderly embalmed in one of the most touching of his later poems, “October, 1866.” 

“Thanatopsis” was sent to the “North American Review” (whether by its author or his father is uncertain), and with such a modest, not to say enigmatical, note of introduction, that its authorship was left in doubt. The “Review” was managed by a club of young literary gentlemen, who styled themselves “The North American Club,” two of whose members, Richard Henry Dana and Edward Tyrrel Channing, were considered its editors. Mr. Dana read the poem carefully, and was so surprised at its excellence that he doubted whether it was the production of an American, an opinion in which his associates are understood to have concurred. While they were hesitating about its acceptance, he was told that the writer was a member of the Massachusetts senate; and, the senate being then in session, he started immediately from Cambridge for Boston. He reached the statehouse, and inquired for Senator Bryant. A tall, middle-aged man, with a business-like look, was pointed out to him. He was satisfied that he could not be the poet he sought, so he posted back to Cambridge without an introduction. The story ends here, and rather tamely; for the original narrator forgot, or perhaps never knew, that Dr. Bryant was a member of the senate, and that it was among the possibilities that he was the senator with a similar name. American poetry may be said to have begun in 1817 with the September number of the “North American Review,’ which contained “Thanatopsis” and the “Inscription for the Entrance of a Wood,” the last being printed as a “Fragment.” In March, 1818, the impression that “Thanatopsis” created was strengthened by the appearance of the lines “To a Waterfowl,” and the “Version of a Fragment of Simonides.” 

Mr. Bryant's literary life may now be said to have begun, though he depended upon his profession for his daily bread. He continued his contributions to the “North American Review” in prose papers on literary topics, and maintained the most friendly relations with its conductors; notably so with Mr. Dana, who was seven years his elder, and who possessed, like himself, the accomplishment of verse. At the suggestion of this poetical and critical brother, he was invited to deliver a poem before the Phi Beta Kappa society at Harvard college—an honor which is offered only to those who have already made a reputation, and are likely to reflect credit on the society as well as on themselves. He accepted, and in 1821 wrote his first poem of any length, “The Ages,” which still remains the best poem of the kind that was ever recited before a college society either in this country or in England; grave, stately, thoughtful, presenting in animated picturesque stanzas a compact summary of the history of mankind. A young Englishman of twenty-one, Thomas Babington Macaulay, delivered in the same year a poem on “Evening,” before the students of Trinity college, Cambridge; and it is instructive to compare his conventional heroics with the spirited Spenserian stanzas of Bryant. The lines “To a Waterfowl,” written at Bridgewater in 1815, were followed by “Green River,” “A Winter Piece,” “The West Wind,” “The Burial-Place,” “Blessed are they that mourn,” “No man knoweth his Sepulchre,” “A Walk at Sunset,” and the “Hymn to Death.” These poems, which cover a period of six busy years, are interesting to the poetic student as examples of the different styles of their writer, and of the changing elements of his thoughts and feelings. “Green River,” for example, is a momentary revealment of his shy temperament and his daily pursuits. Its glimpses of nature are charming, and his wish to be beside its waters is the most natural one in the world. The young lawyer is not complimentary to his clients, whom he styles “the dregs of men,” while his pen, which does its best to serve them, becomes “a barbarous pen.” He is dejected, but a visit to the river will restore his spirits; for, as he gazes upon its lonely and lovely stream,

“An image of that calm life appears 
that won my heart in my greener years.” 

“A Winter Piece” is a gallery of woodland pictures, which surpasses anything of the kind in the language. “A Walk at Sunset” is notable in that it is the first poem in which we see (faintly, it must be confessed) the aboriginal element, which was soon to become prominent in Bryant's poetry. It was inseparable from the primeval forests of the New World, but he was the first to perceive its poetic value. The “Hymn to Death”—stately, majestic, consolatory—concludes with a touching tribute to the worth of his good father, who died while he was writing it, at the age of fifty-four. The year 1821 was important to Bryant, for it witnessed the publication of his first collection of verse, his marriage, and the death of his father.  The next four years of his life were more productive than any that had preceded them, for he wrote more than thirty poems during that time. The aboriginal element was creative in “The Indian Girl's Lament” “An Indian Story” “An Indian at the Burial-Place of his Fathers,” and, noblest of all, “Monument Mountain”; the Hellenic element predominated in “The Massacre at Scio” and “The Song of the Greek Amazon”; the Hebraic element touched him lightly in “Rizpah” and the “Song of the Stars”; and the pure poetic element was manifest in “March,” “The Rivulet” (which, by the way, ran through the grounds of the old homestead at Cummington), “After a Tempest,” “The Murdered Traveller,” “Hymn to the North Star,” “A Forest Hymn,” “O Fairest of the Rural Maids,” and the exquisite and now most pathetic poem, “June.” These poems and others not specified here, if read continuously and in the order in which they were composed, show a wide range of sympathies, a perfect acquaintance with many measures, and a clear, capacious, ever-growing intellect. They are all distinctive of the genius of their author, but neither exhibits the full measure of his powers. The publication of Bryant's little volume of verse was indirectly the cause of his adopting literature as a profession. It was warmly commended, and by no one more so than by Gulian C. Verplanck in the columns of the New York “American.” He was something of a literary authority at the time, a man of fortune and college-bred. Among his friends was Henry D. Sedgwick, a summer neighbor, so to speak, of Bryant's, having a country-house at Stockbridge, a few miles from Great Barrington, and a house in town, which was frequented by the literati of the day, such as Cooper, Halleck, Percival, Verplanck, and others of less note. An admirer of Bryant, Mr. Sedgwick set to work, with the assistance of Mr. Verplanck, to procure him literary employment in New York in order to enable him to escape his bondage to the law; and he was appointed assistant editor of a projected periodical called the, “New York Review and Athenæum Magazine.” The at last enfranchised lawyer dropped his barbarous pen, closed his law-books, and in the winter or spring of 1825 removed with his household to New York. The projected periodical was begun, as these sanguine ventures always are, with fair hopes of success. It was well edited, and its contributors were men of acknowledged ability. The June number contained two poems that ought to have made a great hit. One was “A Song of Pitcairn's Island”; the other was “Marco Bozzaris.” There was no flourish of trumpets over them, as there would be now; the writers merely prefixed their initials, “B.” and “H.” The reading public of New York were not ready for the “Review,” so after about a year's struggle it was merged in the “New York Literary Gazette,” which had begun its mission about four years earlier. This magazine shared the fate of its companion in a few months, when it was consolidated with the “United States Literary Gazette,” which in two months was swallowed up in the “United States Review.” The honor of publishing and finishing the last was shared by Boston and New York. Profit in these publications there was none, though Bryant, Halleck, Willis, Dana, Bancroft, and Longfellow wrote for them. Too good, or not good enough, they lived and died prematurely. 

Mr. Bryant's success as a metropolitan man of letters was not brilliant so far; but other walks than those of pure literature were open to him as to others, and into one of the most bustling of these he entered in his thirty-second year. In other words, he became one of the editors of the “Evening Post.” Henceforth he was to live by journalism. Journalism, though an exacting pursuit, leaves its skilful followers a little leisure in which to cultivate literature. It was the heyday of those ephemeral trifles, “Annuals,” and Mr. Bryant found time to edit one, with the assistance of his friend Mr. Verplanck and his acquaintance Robert C. Sands; and a very creditable work it was. His contributions to “The Talisman” included some of his best poems. Poetry was the natural expression of his genius, a fact he could never understand, for it always seemed to him that prose was the natural expression of all mankind. His prose was masterly. Its earliest examples, outside of his critical papers in the “North American Review” and other periodicals (and outside of the “Evening Post,” of course), are two stories entitled “Medfield” and “The Skeleton's Cave,” contributed to “Tales of the Glauber Spa” (1832), a collection of original stories by Paulding, Verplanck, Sands, William Leggett, and Catharine Sedgwick. Three years before (1828) he had become the chief editor of the “Evening Post.” Associated with him was Mr. Leggett, who had shown some talent as a writer of sketches and stories, and who had failed, like himself, in conducting a critical publication for which his countrymen were not ready. He made a second collection of his poems at this time (1832), a copy of which was sent by Mr. Verplanck to Washington Irving, who was then, what he had been for years, the idol of English readers, and not without weight with the trade. Would he see if some English house would not reprint it? No leading publisher nibbled at it, not even Murray, who was Irving's publisher; but an obscure bookseller named Andrews finally agreed to undertake it if Irving would put his valuable name on the title-page as editor. He was not acquainted with Bryant, but he was a kind-hearted, large-souled gentleman, who knew good poetry when he saw it, and he consented to “edit” the book. It was not a success in the estimation of Andrews, who came to him one day, by no means a merry Andrew, and declared that the book would ruin him unless one or more changes were made in the text. What was amiss in it? He turned to the “Song of Marion's Men,” and stumbled over an obnoxious couplet in the first stanza: 

“The British soldier trembles
When Marion's name is told.” 

“That won't do at all, you know.” The absurdity of the objection must have struck the humorist comically; but, as he wanted the volume republished, he good-naturedly saved the proverbial valor of the British soldier by changing the first line to 

“The foeman trembles in his camp,” 

and the tempest in a teapot was over, as far as England was concerned. Not as far as the United States was concerned, however, for when the circumstance became known to Mr. Leggett he excoriated Irving for his subserviency to a bloated aristocracy, and so forth. Prof. Wilson reviewed the book in “Blackwood's” in a half-hearted way, patronizing the writer with his praise. 

The poems that Bryant wrote during the first seven years of his residence in New York (about forty, not including translations) exhibited the qualities that distinguished his genius from the beginning, and were marked by characteristics rather acquired than inherited; in other words, they were somewhat different from those written at Great Barrington. The Hellenic element was still visible in “The Greek Partisan” and “The Greek Boy,” and the aboriginal element in “The Disinterred Warrior.” The large imagination of “The Hymn to the North Star” was radiant in “The Firmament” and in “The Past.” Ardent love of nature found expressive utterance in “Lines on Revisiting the Country,” “The Gladness of Nature” “A Summer Ramble” “A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson,” and “The Evening Wind.” The little book of immortal dirges had a fresh leaf added to it in “The Death of the Flowers,” which was at once a pastoral of autumn and a monody over a beloved sister. A new element appeared in “The Summer Wind,” and was always present afterward in Mr. Bryant's meditative poetry—the association of humanity with nature—a calm but sympathetic recognition of the ways of man and his presence on the earth. The power of suggestion and of rapid generalization, which was the key-note of “The Ages,” lived anew in every line of “The Prairies,” in which a series of poems present themselves to the imagination as a series of pictures in a gallery—pictures in which breadth and vigor of treatment and exquisite delicacy of detail are everywhere harmoniously blended and the unity of pure art is attained. It was worth going to the ends of the world to be able to write “The Prairies.” 

Confiding in the discretion of his associate, Mr. Leggett, and anxious to escape from his daily editorial labors, Bryant sailed for Europe with his family in the summer of 1834. It was his intention to perfect his literary studies while abroad, and devote himself to the education of his children; but his intention was frustrated, after a short course of travel in France, Germany, and Italy, by the illness of Mr. Leggett, whose mistaken zeal in the advocacy of unpopular measures had seriously injured the “Evening Post.” He returned in haste early in 1836, and devoted his time and energies to restoring the prosperity of his paper. Nine years passed before he ventured to return to Europe, though he visited certain portions of his own country. His readers tracked his journeys through the letters that he wrote to the “Evening Post,” which were noticeable for justness of observation and clearness of expression. A selection from his foreign and home letters was published in 1852, under the title of “Letters of a Traveller.” 

The last thirty years of Bryant's life were devoid of incident, though one of them (1865) was not without the supreme sorrow, death. He devoted himself to journalism as conscientiously as if he still had his spurs to win, discussing all public questions with independence and fearlessness; and from time to time, as the spirit moved him, he added to our treasures of song, contributing to the popular magazines of the period, and occasionally issuing these contributions in separate volumes. He published “The Fountain and Other Poems” in 1842; “The White-Footed Deer and Other Poems” in 1844; a collected edition of his poems, with illustrations by Leutze, in 1846; an edition in two volumes in 1855; “Thirty Poems” in 1864; and in 1876 a complete illustrated edition of his poetical writings. To the honors that these volumes brought him he added fresh laurels in 1870 and 1871 by his translation of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey”—a translation which was highly praised both at home and abroad, and which, if not the best that the English language is capable of, is, in many respects, the best that any English-writing poet has yet produced. 

There comes a day in the intellectual lives of most poets when their powers cease to be progressive and productive, or are productive only in the forms to which they have accustomed themselves, and which have become mannerisms. It was not so with Mr. Bryant. He enjoyed the dangerous distinction of proving himself a great poet at an early age; he preserved this distinction to the last, for the sixty-four years that elapsed between the writing of “Thanatopsis” and the writing of “The Flood of Years” witnessed no decay of his poetic capacities, but rather the growth and development of trains of thought and forms of verse of which there was no evidence in his early writings. His sympathies were enlarged as the years went on, and the crystal clearness of his mind was colored with human emotions. To Bryant the earth was a theatre upon which the great drama of life was everlastingly played. The remembrance of this fact is his inspiration in “The Fountain,” “An Evening Revery,” “The Antiquity of Freedom,” “The Crowded Street,” “The Planting of the Apple-Tree,” “The Night Journey of a River,” “The Sower,” and “The Flood of Years.” The most poetical of Mr. Bryant's poems are, perhaps, “The Land of Dreams,” “The Burial of Love,” “The May Sun sheds an Amber Light,” and “The Voice of Autumn”; and they were written in a succession of happy hours, and in the order named. Next to these pieces, as examples of pure poetry, should be placed “Sella” and “The Little People of the Snow,” which are exquisite fairy fantasies. The qualities by which Bryant's poetry are chiefly distinguished are serenity and gravity of thought; an intense, though repressed, recognition of the mortality of mankind; an ardent love for human freedom; and unrivalled skill in painting the scenery of his native land. He had no superior in this walk of poetic art—it might almost be said no equal, for his descriptions of nature are never inaccurate or redundant. “The Excursion” is a tiresome poem, which contains several exquisite episodes. Bryant knew how to write exquisite episodes and omit the platitudes through which we reach them in other poets. 

It is not given to many poets to possess as many residences as Bryant, for he had three—a town-house in New York, a country-house, called “Cedarmere,” at Roslyn, Long Island, and the old homestead of the family at Cummington, Mass. The engraving on page 424 represents the house in Cummington; that on this page is a view of his home in Roslyn. He passed the winter months in New York, and the summer and early autumn at his country-houses. No distinguished man in America was better known by sight than he. 

“O good gray head that all men knew”

rose unbidden to one's lips as he passed his fellow-pedestrians in the streets of the great city, active, alert, with a springing step and a buoyant gait. He was seen in all weathers, walking down to his office in the morning, and back to his house in the afternoon—an observant antiquity, with a majestic white beard, a pair of sharp eyes, and a face that, when observed closely, recalled the line of the poet: 

“A million wrinkles carved his skin.” 

Bryant had a peculiar talent, in which the French excel—the talent of delivering discourses upon the lives and writings of eminent men; and he was always in request after the death of his contemporaries. Beginning with a eulogy on his friend Cole, the painter, who died in 1848, he paid his well-considered tributes to the memory of Cooper, Irving, Fitz-Greene Halleck, and Verplanck, and assisted at the dedication in the Central park of the Morse, Shakespeare, Scott, and Halleck statues. His addresses on these and other occasions were models of justice of appreciation and felicity of expression. His last public appearance was at the Central park, on the afternoon of 29 May, 1878, at the unveiling of a bust of Mazzini. It was an unusually hot day, and after delivering his address, which was remarkable for its eloquence, he accompanied Gen. Jas. Grant Wilson, a friend of many years' standing, to his residence, No. 15 East Seventy-fourth street. Gen. Wilson reached his door with Mr. Bryant leaning on his arm; he took a step in advance to open the inner door, and while his back was turned the poet fell, his head striking on the stone platform of the front steps. It was his death-blow; for, though he recovered his consciousness sufficiently to converse a little, and was able to ride to his own house with Gen. Wilson, his fate was sealed. He lingered until the morning of 12 June, when his spirit passed out into the unknown. Two days later all that was mortal of him was buried at Roslyn, L. I., beside his wife, who died 27 July, 1865. 

Since the poet's death the name of one of the city pleasure-grounds has been changed (in 1884) to Bryant park, where there will be soon unveiled a noble bronze statue of the poet, to be erected by his many friends and admirers. In the Metropolitan museum of art may be seen a beautiful silver vase, presented to Bryant in 1876, and an admirable bronze bust of heroic size, executed from life by Launt Thompson. Among the many portraits of Bryant, painted by prominent American artists, the poet preferred Inman's and Durand's; but these were supplanted in his estimation by photographs of later days, from one of which was taken the fine steel portrait that accompanies this article. A complete edition of his poetical and prose works (4 vols., 8vo) was published in 1883-'4. See “Homes of American Authors” (New York, 1853); “The Bryant Homestead Book” (1870); “Presentation to Bryant at Eighty Years” (1876); “Bryant Memorial Meeting of the Goethe Club” (1878); Symington's “Biographical Sketch of Bryant” (1880); Godwin's “Life of Bryant” (1883); Wilson's “Bryant and his Friends” (1886, two editions, one on large paper and illustrated). A new life of Bryant, by John Bigelow, is now (1886) in preparation. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 422-426.

 

 

BUCHANAN, George, orator, spoke out against slavery, wrote: An Oration on the Moral and Political Evil of Slavery (Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 93n5)

 

 

BUCHANAN, James M., Illinois, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

BUCHANAN, Thomas.  American Colonization Society, Executive Committee, 1839-1840.  First Governor of the Commonwealth of Liberia.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 241)

 

 

BUCKINGHAM, Goodsell, Richland County, Ohio, abolitionist.  Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37, Vice-President, 1837-38.

 

 

BUEL, Daniel, Washington County, Ohio, abolitionist.  Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36.

 

 

BUFFUM, Arnold, 1782-1859, Smithfield, Rhode Island, Indiana, New York, New York, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, temperance reformer, philanthropist.  Maor of Lynn, Massachusetts.  Member, Massachusetts House of Representatives.  Co-founder (with William Lloyd Garrison) and first president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, in 1832.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society in December 1833.  Manager, Massachusetts, 1833-1837; Manager, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1835-1837; Vice President, 1834-1836.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1846-1855.  Lectured extensively against slavery.  Visited England to promote abolitionism.  Was influenced by English anti-slavery leaders Clarkson and Wilberforce. (Drake, 1950, pp. 137, 157-158, 162-163, 178; Pease, 1965, pp. 418-427; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 218, 401, 433; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 195-198, 209-210; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 18, 20, 22, 58, 62, 66, 67; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Buffum, Arnold, Lectures Showing the Necessity for a Liberty Party, and Setting Forth its Principles, Measures and Object, 1844; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 241; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 320)

 

 

BUFFUM, James M., Lynn, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1845-53.

 

 

BUFFUM, James Needham, 1807-1887, Mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts, abolitionist, supporter of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1845-1848.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 114, 119, 120, 121, 123, 125, 210, 211, 221, 225, 250, 342; New York Times obituary: June 13, 1888)

 

 

BUFFUM, William, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40, Executive Committee, 1840-41

 

 

BURCHARD, Charles, 1810-1879, New York, Wisconsin, political leader, opposed slavery.  Member of the Whig and Liberty Parties.  Major in the Civil War.

 

 

BURDICK, Alfred B., Westerly, Rhode Island, abolitionist.  American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1855-59.

 

 

BURDICK, Stephen, New York, abolitionist.  American Abolition Society. (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

BURGESS, Daniel, Hartford, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-41, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-43

 

 

BURGESS, Dyer, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37, Vice-President, 1837-39

 

 

BURGESS, Ebenezer, Berlington, Vermont, educator.  Agent of the American Colonization Society.  Went to Africa to found colony.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 41-47, 54, 59, 156)

 

 

BURLEIGH, Charles Calistus, 1810-1878, Connecticut, radical abolitionist.  Leader of the Pennsylvania Free Produce Association.  Lectured extensively on evils of slavery.  Edited Pennsylvania Freeman paper of the Eastern Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in temperance, peace and women’s rights movements.  (Drake, 1950, p. 171; Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 265, 273; Mabee, 1970, pp. 34, 35, 66, 298, 368; Pease, 1965, pp. 172-177; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 455; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 284; Burleigh, “Slavery and the North” [Anti-Slavery Tract No. 10], New York, 1855, pp. 2-3, 8-10; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 959; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II, New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 320)

 

BURLEIGH, Charles C., abolitionist, b. in Plainfield, Conn., 10 Nov., 1810; d. in Florence, Mass., 14 June, 1878. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Windham co., Conn., but soon became interested in the anti-slavery movement, in which he attained high distinction as an orator and an earnest worker. He, with his brother, edited an abolitionist newspaper called “The Unionist,” the publisher being Miss Prudence Crandall (q. v.), who was indicted for keeping a colored school in Connecticut. He rendered efficient service to Mr. Garrison in Boston in protecting him from the violence of the mob in 1835, and was one of the speakers in Pennsylvania hall, in Philadelphia, when that building was burned by a mob in 1838. He was one of the earliest advocates of women's rights and of liberalism in religion, as he was also of temperance principles, in behalf of which he spoke frequently. For fifteen years he was resident speaker of the free Congregational society in Florence, Mass., and for one year preached in Bloomington, Ill. He was the author of “Thoughts on the Death Penalty” (1845), and a tract on the Sabbath, which advanced anti-Sabbatarian views. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 455.

 

 

BURLEIGH, Gertrude, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, p. 73)

 

 

BURLEIGH, William Henry, 1812-1871, Connecticut, journalist.  Active in temperance, peace and women’s rights movements.  Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society. Editor of the anti-slavery newspapers Christian Freeman, newspaper of the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, and the Charter Oak.  Leader of the Liberty Party.  In 1836, he was appointed a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  In 1840-1841, Burleigh was a Manager of the AASS.  As a result of his protesting the war against Mexico, which he felt was being fought for the “slave power,” Burleigh was attacked by mobs and barely escaped being hurt.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 265, 273, 301; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 455; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 280; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 961)

 

BURLEIGH, William Henry, journalist, b. in Woodstock, Conn., 2 Feb., 1812 ; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 18 March, 1871. He was a lineal descendant, on his mother's side, of Gov. Bradford. His father, a graduate of Yale in 1803, had been a popular and successful teacher, but in 1827 became totally blind. William, who had been bred on a farm and educated principally by his father, was now apprenticed to a clothier and afterward to a village printer. He contributed to the columns of the newspaper it was a part of his duty to print, not in written communications, but by setting up his articles without the intervention of writing. From the autumn of 1832 till 1835 he was almost constantly engaged in editorial duties and in charge of papers advocating one or all of the great reforms then agitating the public mind—anti-slavery, temperance, and peace. Though naturally one of the most genial and amiable of men, Mr. Burleigh was stern in his adherence to principle. In 1836 he added to his editorial duties the labor of lecturing in behalf of the American anti-slavery society, and defending their views. For a time he had charge of the “Literary Journal” in Schenectady, then became in 1837 editor of the Pittsburg “Temperance Banner,” afterward called the “Christian Witness,” the organ of the western Pennsylvania anti-slavery society. In 1843 he was invited to Hartford by the executive committee of the Connecticut anti-slavery society, and took charge of its organ, the “Christian Freeman,” which soon became the “Charter Oak,” a vigorously edited and brilliant defender of the anti-slavery and temperance reforms. Mr. Burleigh afterward took charge of the Washington “Banner.” He struck trenchant blows at popular vices and political depravity in his papers, and received his reward more than once in mob violence. But while he deemed this heroic defence of unpopular doctrines a duty, and maintained it with unfaltering heart, he disliked controversy, and, whenever he could command the means for it, he would establish a purely literary paper, which, though generally short-lived, always contained gems of poetry and prose from his prolific pen, and avoided controversial topics. In 1850 he disposed of the “Charter Oak” to the free-soilers, the nucleus of the republican party, and removed to Syracuse, and subsequently to Albany, N. Y., to be the general agent and lecturer of the New York state temperance society and-editor of the “Prohibitionist.” When in 1855 Gov. Clark offered him, unsolicited, the place of harbor-master of the port of New York, he accepted it and removed to Brooklyn. For the next fifteen years he was either harbor-master or port-warden, but found time for much literary and some political labor. In the political campaigns he was in demand as a speaker, and his thorough knowledge of all the questions before the people, together with his eloquence, made him popular. He was also in request as a lyceum lecturer, especially on anti-slavery subjects. A collection of his poems was published in 1841, followed by enlarged editions in 1845 and 1850. A part of these were after his death published, with a memoir by his widow (Boston, 1871).—His wife, Celia, reformer, b. in Cazenovia, N. Y., in 1825; d. in Syracuse, 26 July, 1875. She was a teacher, and in 1844 married C. B. Kellum and removed with him to Cincinnati. She was divorced from him, and in 1851 married Charles Channey Burr; was again divorced, and in 1865 married Mr. Burleigh. She was the first president of the Woman’s club, Brooklyn, and took an active part in advocating woman suffrage and other reform movements. After Mr. Burleigh's death she prepared herself for the ministry, and was pastor of a Unitarian church in Brooklyn, Conn., until 1873; but failing health compelled her to resign in October, 1871, when she went to the water-cure establishment of Dr. Jackson in Danville, N. Y. Mrs. Burleigh had a wide reputation as an able writer and an eloquent speaker. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 455.

 

 

BURLEY, Alice, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

BURLING, William, b. 1678, Flushing, Long Island, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Tried to have fellow Quakers give up slaveholding.  He called it a sin.  Wrote tracts against slavery, circa 1718.  (Basker, 2005, p. 120; Drake, 1950, pp. 34, 36-37, 107)

 

 

BURLINGAME, Anson, 1820-1870, New Berlin. New York, diplomat, lawyer, orator, Republican United States Congressman.  Anti-slavery activist in the House of Representatives.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 456-457; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 289).

 

BURLINGAME, Anson, diplomatist, b. in New Berlin, Chenango co., N. Y., 14 Nov., 1820; d. in St. Petersburg, Russia, 23 Feb., 1870. He was the descendant of a family who were among the early settlers of Rhode Island. His father, a farmer, removed, when Anson was three years old, to a farm in Seneca co., Ohio, where they lived for ten years, and in 1833 again removed to Detroit, and after two years more to a farm at Branch, Mich. In 1837 Anson was admitted to the University of Michigan, and six years later went to Cambridge, Mass., and entered the law-school of Harvard university, where he was graduated in 1846. He began the practice of the law in Boston, and a year or two later became an active member and a popular orator of the free-soil party, then recently formed. In the political campaign of 1848 he acquired a wide reputation as a public speaker in behalf of the election of Van Buren and Adams. In 1849-'50 he visited Europe. In 1852 he was elected to the Massachusetts senate, and in 1853 he served as a member of the state constitutional convention, to which he was elected by the town of Northborough, though he resided in Cambridge. He joined the American party on its formation in 1854, and in that year was elected by it to the 34th congress. In the following year he co-operated in the formation of the republican party, to which he ever afterward steadily adhered. In congress he bore himself with courage and address, and was recognized as one of the ablest debaters on the anti-slavery side of the house. For the severe terms in which he denounced the assault committed by Preston S. Brooks upon Senator Sumner, in 1856, he was challenged by Brooks. He promptly accepted the challenge, and named rifles as the weapons, and Navy island, just above Niagara Falls, as the place. To the latter proposition Mr. Brooks demurred, alleging that, in order to meet his opponent in Canada, in the then excited state of public feeling, he would have to expose himself to popular violence in passing through “the enemy's country,” as he called the northern states. The matter fell through, but the manner in which Mr. Burlingame had conducted himself greatly raised him in the estimation of his friends and of his party; and on his return to Boston, at the end of his term, he was received with distinguished honors. He was re-elected to the 35th and 36th congresses; but failing, after an animated and close contest, to be returned to the 37th, his legislative career ended in March, 1861. He was immediately appointed by President Lincoln minister to Austria; but that government declined to receive, in a diplomatic capacity, a man who had spoken often and eloquently in favor of Hungarian independence, and had moved in congress the recognition of Sardinia as a first-class power. He was then sent as minister to China. In 1865 he returned to the United States with the intention of resigning his office; but the secretary of state urged him to resume his functions for the purpose of carrying out important projects and negotiations that he had initiated. To this he finally consented. When, in 1867, he announced his intention of returning home, Prince Kung, regent of the empire, offered to appoint him special envoy to the United States and the great European powers, for the purpose of framing treaties of amity with those nations—an honor never before conferred on a foreigner. This place Mr. Burlingame accepted, and, at the head of a numerous mission, he arrived in the United States in March, 1868. On 28 July supplementary articles to the treaty of 1858 were signed at Washington, and soon afterward ratified by the Chinese government. These articles, afterward known as “The Burlingame Treaty,” marked the first official acceptance by China of the principles of international law, and provided, in general, that the privileges enjoyed by western nations under that law—the right of eminent domain, the right of appointing consuls at the ports of the United States, and the power of the government to grant or withhold commercial privileges and immunities at their own discretion, subject to treaty—should be secured to China; that nation undertaking to observe the corresponding obligations prescribed by international law toward other peoples. Special provisions also stipulated for entire liberty of conscience and worship for Americans in China, and Chinese in America; for joint efforts against the cooly trade; for the enjoyment by Chinese in America and Americans in China of all rights in respect to travel and residence accorded to citizens of the most favored nation; for similar reciprocal rights in the matter of the public educational institutions of the two countries, and for the right of establishing schools by citizens of either country in the other. The concluding article disclaims, on the part of the United States, the right of interference with the domestic administration of China in the matter of railroads, telegraphs, and internal improvements, but agrees that the United States will furnish assistance in these points on proper conditions, when requested by the Chinese government. From America Mr. Burlingame proceeded in the latter part of 1868 to England, and thence to France (1869), Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Prussia, in all of which countries he was favorably received, and in all of which, but France, to which he intended returning, he negotiated important treaties or articles of agreement. He reached St. Petersburg early in 1870, and had just entered upon the business of his mission when he died of pneumonia, after an illness of only a few days. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BURNET, Jacob, 1770-1853, born in Newark, New Jersey, Cincinnati, Ohio, jurist, lawyer, college president.  Ohio Supreme Court Justice.  Vice-President, 1836-1841, American Colonization Society (ACS).  Member and first President of the Cincinnati auxiliary of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 458; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 294; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 138-140

 

BURNET, Jacob, jurist, b. in Newark, N. J., 22 Feb., 1770; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 10 May, 1853, was graduated at Princeton in 1791, studied law in the office of Judge Boudinot, and was admitted to the bar in 1796. The same year he removed to Ohio, where he became distinguished as a lawyer and was a leading citizen in the new settlement of Cincinnati. In 1799 he was appointed to the legislative council of the territory, continuing a member of that body, in which he took the most prominent part in the preparation of legislative measures, until the formation of a state government. In 1812 he was a member of the state legislature, a judge of the supreme court of Ohio in 1821-'8, and in 1828-'31 U. S. senator. He was chosen by the legislature of Kentucky a commissioner to adjust certain territorial disputes with Virginia. He took part in the establishment of the Lancastrian academy in Cincinnati, and was one of the founders of the Cincinnati college, and its first president, and was active in reorganizing the Medical college of Ohio. He was a delegate to the Harrisburg convention in 1839, and was mainly instrumental in securing the nomination of Harrison to the presidency. He was the first president of the Colonization society of Cincinnati. His efforts to alleviate the distress felt by purchasers of western lands, on account of indebtedness to the government which they were unable to discharge, resulted in an act of congress granting relief to the entire west, extricating the settlers from serious financial distress. The debt due to the government amounted to $22,000,000, exceeding the volume of currency in circulation in the west, and threatening both farmers and speculators with bankruptcy. The people of the southwest were in the same situation; all the banks had suspended payment, and forcible resistance was threatened if the government should attempt to dispossess the settlers. Judge Burnett drew up a memorial to congress, proposing a release of back interest and permission to settlers to relinquish as much of the land entered as they were unable to pay for. The memorial was generally approved by the inhabitants of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and in 1821 congress granted relief in the form desired. In 1830 Judge Burnett secured the revocation of the forfeiture of the congressional land-grant to the state of Ohio for the extension of the Miami canal, and an additional grant that emboldened the legislature of Ohio to carry out the work. He published “Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory” (New York, 1847). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BURNS, Anthony, c. 1830-1862, fugitive slave, abolitionist, clergyman.  (Mabee, 1970, pp.308-312, 324, 373, 418n31; Pease, 1965, pp. lxxviii-lxxix, 251; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 56, 212-213, 303, 415, 477-478; Stevens, 1856; Von Frank, 1998; Boston Slave Riot and the Trial of Anthony Burns, 1854; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404, 460; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 308)

 

BURNS, Anthony, fugitive slave, b. in Virginia about 1830; d. in St. Catharines, Canada, 27 July, 1862. He effected his escape from slavery in Virginia, and was at work in Boston in the winter of 1853-'4. On 23 May, 1854, the U. S. house of representatives passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealing the Missouri compromise, and permitting the extension of negro slavery, which had been restricted since 1820. The news caused great indignation throughout the free states, especially in Boston, where the anti-slavery party had its headquarters. Just at this crisis Burns was arrested by U.S. Marshal Watson Freeman, under the provisions of the fugitive-slave act, on a warrant sworn out by Charles F. Suttle. He was confined in the Boston court-house under a strong guard, and on 25 May was taken before U. S. Commissioner Loring for examination. Through the efforts of Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker, an adjournment was secured to 27 May, and in the mean time a mass-meeting was called at Faneuil hall, and the U.S. marshal summoned a large posse of extra deputies, who were armed and stationed in and about the court-house to guard against an expected attempt at the rescue of Burns. The meeting at Faneuil hall was addressed by the most prominent men of Boston, and could hardly be restrained from adjourning in a body to storm the court-house. While this assembly was in session, a premature attempt to rescue Burns was made under the leadership of Thomas W. Higginson. A door of the courthouse was battered in, one of the deputies was killed in the fight, and Col. Higginson and others of the assailants were wounded. A call for re-enforcements was sent to Faneuil hall, but in the confusion it never reached the chairman. On the next day the examination was held before Commissioner Loring, Richard H. Dana and Charles M. Ellis appearing for the prisoner. The evidence showed that Burns was amenable under the law, and his surrender to his master was ordered. When the decision was made known, many houses were draped in black, and the state of popular feeling was such that the government directed that the prisoner be sent to Virginia on board the revenue cutter “Morris.” He was escorted to the wharf by a strong guard, through streets packed with excited crowds. At the wharf the tumult seemed about to culminate in riot, when the Rev. Daniel Foster (who was killed in action early in the civil war) exclaimed, “Let us pray!” and silence fell upon the multitude, who stood with uncovered heads, while Burns was hurried on board the cutter. A more impressively dramatic ending, or one more characteristic of an excited but law-abiding and God-fearing New England community, could hardly be conceived for this famous case. Burns afterward studied at Oberlin college, and eventually became a Baptist minister, and settled in Canada, where, during the closing years of his life, he presided over a congregation of his own color. See “Anthony Burns, A History,” by C. E. Stevens (Boston, 1854). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 460.

 

 

BURR, Aaron, 1756-1836, Newark, New Jersey, soldier, statesman, antislavery activist.  Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 465-467; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 313)

 

BURR, Aaron, statesman, b. in Newark, N. J., 6 Feb., 1756; d. on Staten Island, N. Y., 14 Sept., 1836. His mother was Esther Edwards, the flower of the remarkable family to which she belonged, celebrated for her beauty as well as for her superior intellect and devout piety. In the truest sense, Aaron Burr was well born. Jonathan Edwards, his grandfather, illustrious as divine and metaphysician, had been elected to succeed his son-in-law as president of Princeton, but died of a fever, resulting from inoculation for small-pox, before he had fairly entered upon his work. Mrs. Burr, his daughter, died of a similar disease sixteen days later. The infant Aaron and his sister Sarah, left doubly orphaned, were placed in charge of their uncle, the Rev, Timothy Edwards, of Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), N. J. A handsome fortune having been bequeathed to them by their father, their education was conducted in a liberal manner; a private tutor was provided, Tapping Reeve, who afterward married his pupil, Sarah Burr, and became judge of the supreme court of Connecticut. A bright, mischievous boy, and difficult to control, Aaron was still sufficiently studious to be prepared to enter Princeton at the age of eleven, though he was not admitted on account of his extreme youth. He was very small, but strikingly handsome, with fine black eyes and the engaging ways that became a fascination in his maturer life. In 1769 he was allowed as a favor to enter the sophomore class, though only in his thirteenth year. He was a fairly diligent student and an extensive reader, and was graduated with distinction in September, 1772. Stories of wild dissipation during his college course are probably exaggerations. Just before his graduation the college was profoundly stirred by religious excitement, and young Burr, who confessed that he was moved by the revival, resorted to Dr. Witherspoon, the president, for advice. The doctor quieted his anxiety by telling him that the excitement was fanatical. Not entirely satisfied, he went in the autumn of the next year to live for a while in the family of the famous theologian, Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem, Conn., with the ostensible purpose of settling his mind with regard to the claims of Christianity. The result was a great surprise to his friends, if not to himself; he deliberately rejected the gospel and adopted the infidelity then so rife in Europe and America. The form of unbelief accepted by him was that of Lord Chesterfield, along with his lordship's peculiar views of morality. Here is probably the key to a comprehension of Burr's entire life. He resolved to be a “perfect man of the world,” according to the Chesterfieldian code. Most of the next year (1774) he passed in Litchfield, Conn., where he began the study of the law under Tapping Reeve, who had married his sister. At the beginning of the revolution, in 1775, Burr hastened to join the patriot army near Boston. He had a genuine passion for military life, and was singularly qualified to excel as a soldier. Here, fretted by inaction, he resolved to accompany Col. Benedict Arnold in his expedition to Quebec. Against the expostulations of all his friends and the commands of his uncle, Timothy, he persisted in his determination. Out of the memorable hardships and disasters of that expedition young Burr came back with the rank of major and a brilliant reputation for courage and ability. Soon after his return he became a member of Gen. Washington's family. From some cause the place did not please him, and after about six weeks he withdrew from Washington's table and accepted an appointment as aide to Gen. Putnam. This incident was extremely unfortunate for him. During their brief association Burr contracted prejudices against Washington which grew into deep dislike, and Washington got impressions of Burr that ripened into settled distrust. In July, 1777, Burr was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, with the command of his regiment, the colonel preferring to remain at home. In September, while occupying the house near Ramapo Pass, of which a representation is here given, he defeated the enemy near Hackensack and drove them back to Paulus Hook. At Monmouth he distinguished himself at the head of a brigade. While Burr's command lay in Orange co., N. Y., he became acquainted with Mrs. Theodosia Prevost, an intelligent and accomplished lady living at Paramus, widow of an English officer who had recently died in the West Indies. She was ten years his senior and had two sons. In March, 1779, after four years of service, he resigned his commission on account of broken health. In the autumn of 1780, his health having improved, Burr resumed the study of law, first with Judge Patterson, of New Jersey, and afterward with Thomas Smith, of Haverstraw, N.Y. On 17 April, 1782, he was admitted to the bar in Albany, the rule that required three years spent in study having been in his case relaxed on account of his service as a soldier. Now, at the age of twenty-six, he took an office in Albany and almost immediately commanded a large practice. Being at last in a condition to warrant this step, he married Mrs. Prevost, 2 July, 1782, and at once began housekeeping in Albany in handsome style. In the first year of his marriage his daughter, Theodosia, was born, the only child of this union. In the latter part of the next year, just after the British had evacuated the city, he returned to New York and devoted himself to his profession for eight years, having during that period twice served as a member of the New York legislature. He stood among the leaders of the bar, with no rival but Alexander Hamilton. Obtaining possession of Richmond Hill, a fine New York mansion with ample grounds, he dispensed a liberal hospitality. Talleyrand, Volney, and Louis Philippe were among his guests. In 1788, just after the adoption of the constitution, Burr entered the arena of politics as a candidate of the anti-federal party, though he was not distinctly identified with those who nominated him, and soon afterward he was appointed by Gov. Clinton attorney-general, an office which he held for two years. In 1791 he was elected to the U. S. senate over Gen. Philip Schuyler, to the great surprise of the country and the keen disappointment of Hamilton, Schuyler's son-in-law. The federalists had a majority in the legislature, and Schuyler was one of the pillars of the federal party. The triumph of Burr under these circumstances was mysterious. For six years he served in the senate with conspicuous ability, acting steadily with the republican party. Mrs. Burr died of cancer in 1794. Among the last words he ever spoke was this testimony to the wife of his youth: “The mother of my Theo was the best woman and finest lady I have ever known.” After her death the education of his daughter engrossed a large share of his attention. In 1797 the tables turned, and his defeated antagonist, Gen. Schuyler, was almost unanimously elected to his seat in the senate. Burr was shortly afterward made a member of the New York assembly. Into the presidential contest of 1800 he entered with all his energy. The republicans triumphed; but between the two highest candidates there was a tie, each receiving seventy-three votes, which threw the election into house of representatives. In connection with this affair, Burr was charged with intriguing to defeat the public will and have himself chosen to the first office, instead of Jefferson. After a fierce struggle of seven days, the house elected Jefferson president and Burr vice-president. He was then forty-five years old and at the top-of his fortune. His daughter had made a highly satisfactory marriage, and his pecuniary prospects were improved. In 1801, just before entering upon his duties as vice-president, he was a member of a convention of the state of New York for revising its constitution, and was made chairman by unanimous vote. But a great change was at hand. Near the close of his term of office as vice-president, Burr, finding himself under a cloud with his party, sought to recover his popularity by being a candidate for the governorship of New York, but was defeated by Morgan Lewis. In this contest Alexander Hamilton had put forth his utmost energies against Burr. Though the relations of these political leaders had remained outwardly friendly, they had and long been rivals, and Hamilton had not hesitated to express in private his distrust of Burr, and to balk several of his ambitious projects. In the gubernatorial canvass Hamilton had written concerning his rival in a very severe manner, and some of his expressions having got into the newspapers, Burr immediately fastened upon them as ground for a challenge. A long correspondence ensued, in which Hamilton vainly sought to avoid extremities. At length the challenge was accepted, and the parties met on the bank of the Hudson, at Weehawken, N. J., at seven o'clock A. M., 7 July, 1804. At the first fire Hamilton fell mortally wounded. But Burr's shot was more fatal to himself than to his foe; he left that “field of honor” a ruined man. The tragedy aroused an unprecedented excitement, before which Burr felt it wise to fly. The coroner's inquest having returned a verdict of murder, he escaped to South Carolina and took refuge in the home of his daughter.  Though an indictment for murder was obtained against him, the excitement subsided, and he was left unmolested. After a season he ventured to Washington, and completed his term of service as vice-president. Though his political prospects were now blasted and his name execrated, his bold and resolute spirit did not break. Courage and fortitude were the cardinal virtues of his moral code, and his restless mind was already employed with new and vast projects. Early in 1805 he turned his course toward the great west, then a new world. From Pittsburg he floated in a boat, specially built for him, down to New Orleans, stopping at many points, and often receiving enthusiastic attention. After some time spent in the southwest, he slowly returned to Washington, where he sought from the president an appointment suitable to his dignity. Foiled in this effort, he turned more earnestly to his mysterious western projects. His purpose seems to have been to collect a body of followers and conquer Texas—perhaps Mexico—establishing there a republic of which he should be the head. With this he associated the hope that the western states, ultimately falling away from the union, would cast in their lot with him, making New Orleans the capital of the new nation. As a rendezvous and refuge for his followers, he actually bought a vast tract of land on Washita river, for which the sum of $40,000 was to be paid. It was a wild scheme, and, if not technically treasonable, was so near to it as to make him a public enemy. Events had advanced rapidly, and Burr's plans were nearly ripe for execution, when the president, who had not been ignorant of what was maturing, issued a proclamation, 27 0ct., 1806, denouncing the enterprise and warning the people against it. The project immediately collapsed. On 14 Jan., 1807, Burr was arrested in Mississippi territory, and, having escaped, was again arrested in Alabama, whence he was conveyed to Richmond, Va. Here was held the memorable trial for treason, beginning 22 May, 1807, and lasting, with some interruptions, for six months. In the array of distinguished counsel, William Wirt was pre-eminent for the prosecution and Luther Martin for the defence. Burr himself took an active part in the case. On 1 Sept. the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on the indictment for treason, and some time afterward the prisoner was acquitted, on technical grounds, of the charge of misdemeanor. Though Burr was now free, his good name was not restored by the issue of the trial, and he soon sailed for England, still animated by new schemes and hopes. After various adventures in that country, he was expelled as an “embarrassing” person, and went to Sweden. Having spent some time in Copenhagen and various cities of Germany, he reached Paris in February, 1810. Here, kept under government surveillance, and refused permission to return to the United States, he was reduced to the severest pecuniary straits. Returning again to England, he was obliged to remain there in desperate extremities for a year and a half. At last he got away in the ship “Aurora,” and reached Boston in May, 1812. Disguised under the name of Arnot, as well as with wig, whiskers, and strange garments, the returning exile entered the city in a most humiliating plight. The government prosecutions still hung over his head, and some of his creditors had executions against him, which might throw him into a prison. He ventured to New York, however, reaching that place four years after leaving it. He soon opened an office in Nassau street, old friends rallied around him, and the future began to brighten somewhat, when he was stunned by the information that his only grandchild, Theodosia's son, aged eleven, was dead. A still more crushing blow soon came. The daughter, who was his idol, perished at sea while on a voyage from Charleston to New York in January, 1813. Burr was now fifty-seven years old. Shunned by society, though with a considerable practice, he lived on for twenty-three years. At the age of seventy-eight he married Madame Jumel, widow of a French merchant, who had a considerable fortune. The union soon proved unhappy, owing to Burr's reckless use of his wife's money, and they finally separated, though not divorced. In his last days Burr was dependent on the charity of a Scotch woman, a friend of former years, for a home. He died at Port Richmond, Staten Island, and his remains lie, according to his request, in the cemetery at Princeton, near those of his honored father and grandfather. In person, Burr was small, often being spoken of as “little Burr,” but his appearance and manners were fascinating. In his case the finest gifts of nature and fortune were spoiled by unsound moral principles and the absence of all genuine convictions. His habits were licentious. He was a master of intrigue, though to little purpose. He was a respectable lawyer and speaker, but lacked the qualities of a statesman. Dauntless resolution and cool self-possession never forsook him. On the morning of his duel with Hamilton he was found by a friend in a sound sleep. Though a skeptic, he was not a scoffer. In his last hours he said of the holy Scriptures: “They are the most perfect system of truth the world has ever seen.” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BURR, David I., Virginia, businessman.  Member and active supporter of the Richmond auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 109-189)

 

 

BURRIS, Samuel D., 1808-1869, African American anti-slavery activist.  Aided fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p. 412)

 

 

BURRITT, Elihu, 1810-1879, reformer, free produce activist, advocate of compensated emancipation (Burritt, 1856, pp. 11-18, 30-33; Dumond, 1961, p. 350; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 195, 202, 203, 236, 257, 327, 329, 334, 340, 343, 363, 365, 366, 369, 372, 378, 420n1; Pease, 1965, pp. 200-205, 427; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. 1, p. 469; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 328)

 

BURRITT, Elihu, reformer, b. in New Britain, Conn., 8 Dec., 1810; d. there, 9 March, 1879. He was the son of a shoemaker, was educated in the common schools of his native place, and in 1828, after his father's death, was apprenticed to a blacksmith. The stories of the old revolutionary soldiers who came to his father's house had given him a desire to know more of books, and, when his apprenticeship was ended, he studied Latin, French, and mathematics with his brother, the principal of a small boarding-school. He attempted to perform the duties of a teacher as a means of support, but poor health prevented success. He returned to his forge, still continuing his studies, often watching the castings in his furnace with a Greek grammar in his hand. After beginning the study of Hebrew, he thought of going to sea and using his wages to buy oriental books at the first port, but gave up this plan, and, going to Worcester, Mass., resumed work at the anvil and the study of languages, for which the antiquarian library there gave him special facilities. Here he translated all the Icelandic sagas relating to the discovery of America, and obtained the name of the “learned blacksmith.” In 1839 he published for a year a monthly periodical to teach French, called “The Literary Gemini.” Mr. Burritt made his first public appearance in 1841 as a lecturer maintaining the doctrine that all mental attainments are the result of persistent study and effort. In 1842 he established the “Christian Citizen” at Worcester, a weekly journal, devoted to anti-slavery, peace, temperance, and self-culture. Four years later he went to Europe, and during a visit of three years devoted himself to co-operation with the English peace advocates. During this time also he developed the basis of an international association known as the League of universal brotherhood, which aimed at the abolition of war and the promotion of fraternal relations and feelings between different countries. At this time he was proprietor and editor of the “Peace Advocate,” and published a periodical tract, the “Bond of Brotherhood.” He was prominent in organizing the first peace congress, and took part in two subsequent congresses, in 1849 and 1850. In 1852 he became editor of the “Citizen of the World,” Philadelphia, in which he urged the compensated emancipation of southern slaves. His disappointment at the failure of his project was great. He had advocated it clearly and forcibly, and to its advancement had devoted all his time and resources, living at times almost in poverty. Mr. Burritt then retired to a small farm which he owned at New Britain. He made a brief visit to England in 1863, and during the following two years he published three new books and several volumes of general writings. He was appointed U. S. consul at Birmingham in 1865, returned to America in 1870, and spent the remainder of his days in his native village. He published “Sparks from the Anvil” (London, 1848); “Miscellaneous Writings” (1850); “Olive Leaves” (1853); “Thoughts of Things at Home and Abroad” (Boston, 1854); “Hand-Book of the Nations” (New York, 1856); “A Walk from John O'Groat's to Land's End” (London, 1864); “The Mission of Great Sufferings” (1867); “Walks in the Black Country” (1868); “Lectures and Speeches” (1869); “Ten Minute Talks” (1873); and “Chips from Many Blocks” (1878). See “Life of Elihu Burritt,” by Charles Northend (New York, 1879). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BUSH, Abigail Norton, c. 1810 - c. 1899, abolitionist, radical reformer, women’s rights activist, member of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in Rochester, New York.  Wife of radical abolitionist Henry Bush.  President of the Women’s Rights Convention in Rochester, New York, in 1848.

 

 

BUSH, Alice, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

BUSH, Henry, manufacturer, abolitionist, brother of Obadiah Newcomb Bush, married to abolitionist Abigail Norton Bush.

 

 

BUSH, Obadiah Newcomb, 1797-1851, New York, educator, businessman, abolitionist.  Vice president of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Member of the Underground Railroad.  Brother of Henry Bush.

 

 

BUSH, Oren N., Rochester, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

BUSTEED, Richard, lawyer, jurist, Union general, anti-slavery advocate. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 476)

 

BUSTEED, Richard, lawyer, b. in Cavan, Ireland, 16 Feb., 1822. His father, George Washington Busteed, was a Dublin barrister, and at one time held a colonel's commission in the British army. In 1829 the elder Busteed was appointed chief secretary of the island of St. Lucia, but his zeal in the cause of emancipation led to his removal from office, and, after returning to Ireland, he emigrated to London, Canada, where he established a paper called “The True Patriot.” Richard began work on this paper as a type-setter, mid afterward accompanied his father to Cincinnati, Ohio, to Hartford, Conn., and finally to New York, where he worked on the “Commercial Advertiser.” At this time he was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist church. After a visit to Ireland for his health in 1840, he began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. His management of the defence in several celebrated extradition cases soon made his reputation, and he became a successful lawyer. In 1856 he was elected corporation counsel of New York city, holding the office till 1859, and in the presidential campaign of 1860 he was a supporter of Douglas, and a bitter opponent of Lincoln, but after the attack on Sumter he became a strong union man. On 7 Aug., 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers by President Lincoln, and assigned to duty, first in New York and then in Washington. In December, 1862, he took command of a brigade at Yorktown, Va. Gen. Busteed's course in support of the administration, and on the slavery question, had raised against him many enemies, who determined to prevent his confirmation. The five colonels of his brigade sent a joint letter to the senate, testifying to the improvement in discipline made by their commands under him. His name, however, was not sent to that body for confirmation, as on 10 March, 1863, he sent his resignation to the president. On 17 Sept., 1863, Gen. Busteed was appointed by President Lincoln to be U. S. district judge for Alabama. He was unanimously confirmed by the senate on 20 Jan., 1864, and in the autumn of 1865 he opened the court. He decided that the test-oath prescribed by congress was unconstitutional, so far as it applied to attorneys practising before U. S. courts, and this decision was followed by judges in other states, the supreme court afterward delivering a similar opinion. In November, 1865, Judge Busteed had a controversy with the U. S. military authorities in Alabama, which excited great interest, and involved important questions relating to the suspension of the habeas corpus act. In 1874 he resigned and resumed the practice of law in New York city. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 476.

 

 

BUSTILL, Joseph Cassey, 1822-1895, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  African American conductor on the Underground Railroad.

 

 

BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin, 1818-1893, New York, attorney, political leader, opponent of slavery, Civil War Union General, Republican member of the U.S. Congress.  Founding member and officer of the Albany auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  As Union General, he refused to return runaway slaves to Southerners at Fort Monroe.  This led to a federal policy of calling enslaved individuals who fled to Union lines contraband of war.  (Burin, 2005, p. 162; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 477-478; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 357; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 81, 129, 178, 224)

 

BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin, lawyer, b. in Deerfield, N. H., 5 Nov., 1818. He is the son of Capt. John Butler, who served under Jackson at New Orleans. He was graduated at Waterville college (now Colby university), Maine, in 1838, was admitted to the bar in 1840, began practice at Lowell, Mass., in 1841, and has since had a high reputation as a lawyer, especially in criminal cases. He early took a prominent part in politics on the democratic side, and was elected a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1853, and of the state senate in 1859. In 1860 he was a delegate to the democratic national convention that met at Charleston. When a portion of the delegates reassembled at Baltimore, Mr. Butler, after taking part in the opening debates mid votes, announced that a majority of the delegates from Massachusetts would not further participate in the deliberations of the convention, on the ground that there had been a withdrawal in part of the majority of the states; and further, he added, “upon the ground that I would not sit in a convention where the African slave-trade, which is piracy by the laws of my country, is approvingly advocated.” In the same year he was the unsuccessful democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts. At the time of President Lincoln's call for troops in April, 1861, he held the commission of brigadier-general of militia. On the 17th of that month he marched to Annapolis with the 8th Massachusetts regiment, and was placed in command of the district of Annapolis, in which the city of Baltimore was included. On 13 May, 1861, he entered Baltimore at the head of 900 men, occupied the city without opposition, and on 16 May was made a major-general, and assigned to the command of Fort Monroe and the department of eastern Virginia. While he was here, some slaves that had come within his lines were demanded by their masters; but he refused to deliver them up on the ground that they were contraband of war; hence arose the designation of “contrabands,” often applied to slaves during the war. In August he captured Forts Hatteras and Clark on the coast of North Carolina. He then returned to Massachusetts to recruit an expedition for the gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi. On 23 March, 1862, the expedition reached Ship island, and on 17 April went up the Mississippi. The fleet under Farragut having passed the forts, 24 April, and virtually captured New Orleans, Gen. Butler took possession of the city on 1 May. His administration of affairs was marked by great vigor. He instituted strict sanitary regulations, armed the free colored men, and compelled rich secessionists to contribute toward the support of the poor of the city. His course in hanging William Mumford for hauling down the U. S. flag from the mint, and in issuing “Order No. 28,” intended to prevent women from insulting soldiers, excited strong resentment, not only in the south, but in the north and abroad, and in December, 1862, Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation declaring him an outlaw. On 10 May, 1862, Gen. Butler seized about $800,000 which had been deposited in the office of the Dutch consul, claiming that arms for the confederates were to be bought with it. This action was protested against by all the foreign consuls, and the government at Washington, after an investigation, ordered the return of the money. On 16 Dec., 1862, Gen. Butler was recalled, as he believes, at the instigation of Louis Napoleon, who supposed the general to be hostile to his Mexican schemes. Near the close of 1863 he was placed in command of the department of Virginia and North Carolina, and his force was afterward designated as the Army of the James. In October, 1864, there being apprehensions of trouble in New York during the election, Gen. Butler was sent there with a force to insure quiet. In December he conducted an ineffectual expedition against Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, N. C., and soon afterward was removed from command by Gen. Grant. He then returned to his residence in Massachusetts. In 1866 he was elected by the republicans a member of congress, where he remained till 1879, with the exception of the term for 1875-'7. He was the most active of the managers appointed in 1868 by the house of representatives to conduct the impeachment of President Johnson. He was the unsuccessful republican nominee for governor of Massachusetts in 1871; and in 1878 and 1879, having changed his politics, was the candidate of the independent greenback party and of one wing of the democrats for the same office, but was again defeated. In 1882 the democrats united upon him as their candidate, and he was elected, though the rest of the state ticket was defeated. During his administration, he made a charge of gross mismanagement against the authorities of the Tewksbury almshouse; but, after a long investigation, a committee of the legislature decided that it was not sustained. In 1883 he was renominated, but was defeated. In 1884 he was the candidate of the greenback and anti-monopolist parties for the presidency, and received 133,825 votes. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

BUTLER, J., Waterbury, Vermont, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1834, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

BUTLER, Ovid, 1801-1881, Augusta, New York, lawyer, newspaper publisher, university founder, abolitionist.  Founded abolitionist newspaper, Free Soil Banner, in 1849. Helped found Northwestern Christian University in 1855.  It was later renamed Butler University.

 

 

BUTLER, Pardee, 1816-1888, Kansas, farmer, clergyman, abolitionist.  He was a victim of a pro-slavery mob in Kansas in August 1855, and a Republican Party organizer in Kansas in May-June 1856..

 

 

BUZBY, Samuel, Delaware, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

 

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CADY, Josiah, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

CALDWELL, Elias Boudinet, founding officer and first Secretary of the American Colonization society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Burin, 2005, p. 14; Campbell, 1971, p. 7; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 24-27, 29, 30, 74, 97)

 

 

Caldwell, Joseph, Dr., Reverend, 1773-1835, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, university president.  Chief officer of the Chapel Hill auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 497-498; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 409; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

CALDWELL, Joseph, educator, b. in Lammington, N. J., 21 April, 1773; d. in Chapel Hill, N. C., 24 Jan., 1835. He was graduated at Princeton in 1791, delivering the Latin salutatory, and then taught school in Lammington and Elizabethtown, where he began the study of divinity. He became tutor at Princeton in April, 1795, and in 1796 was appointed professor of mathematics in the University of North Carolina. He found the institution, then only five years old, in a feeble state, nearly destitute of buildings, library, and apparatus, and to him is ascribed the merit of having saved it from ruin. He was made its president in 1804, and held the office till his death, with the exception of the years from 1812 till 1817. Princeton gave him the degree of D. D. in 1816. In 1824 he visited Europe to purchase apparatus and select books for the library of the university. A monument to his memory has been erected in the grove surrounding the university buildings. Dr. Caldwell published “A Compendious System of Elementary Geometry,” with a subjoined treatise on plane trigonometry (1822), and “Letters of Carleton” (1825). The latter had previously appeared in a newspaper in Raleigh, and were designed to awaken an interest in internal improvements. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CAMERON, Simon, 1799-1889, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, statesman, U.S. Senator, Secretary of War, 1861-1862, under President Lincoln.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 508; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 437)

 

CAMERON, Simon, statesman, b. in Lancaster co., Pa., 8 March, 1799; d. there, 26 June, 1889. He early received a fair English education, and began to learn the printer's trade when but nine years of age. He worked as a journeyman in Lancaster, Harrisburg, and Washington, and so improved his opportunities that in 1820 he was editing a newspaper in Doylestown, Pa., and in 1822 one in Harrisburg. As soon as he had accumulated sufficient capital he became interested in banking and in railroad construction in the central part of the state. He was for a time adjutant-general of Pennsylvania. He was elected to the U. S. senate in 1845 for the term ending in 1849, and during this period acted with the democrats on important party questions, such as the Missouri compromise bill. This was repealed in 1854, and Mr. Cameron became identified with the “people's party,” subsequently merged with the republicans, As its candidate he was re-elected to the senate for the full term of six years beginning in 1857, a period that covered the exciting crisis of secession. During this time he was so earnest an advocate of peace that his loyalty was suspected. At the republican convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln he was strongly supported for the presidency, and again for the vice-presidency; but lack of harmony in the Pennsylvania delegation prevented his nomination to the latter office. Mr. Lincoln at once called him to the cabinet as secretary of war, and he proved equal to the arduous duties of the place. He advocated more stringent and aggressive war measures than Mr. Lincoln was prepared to carry out, and when Gen. Butler asked for instructions regarding fugitive slaves, directed him to employ them “under such organizations and in such occupations as exigencies may suggest or require.” Similar instructions were given to Gen. Sherman and other officers in the field. In the original draft of his annual report to congress, in December, 1861, he boldly advocated arming fugitive slaves; but this was modified, on consultation with the cabinet. Mr. Cameron resigned the secretaryship 11 Jan., 1862, was at once appointed minister to Russia, and his influence undoubtedly tended in a large measure to secure the friendship of that powerful nation during the civil war. His official conduct in a certain transaction was censured by the house of representatives, 30 April, 1862; but Mr. Lincoln immediately sent a message assuming, with the other heads of departments, an equal share in the responsibility. He resigned as minister to Russia 8 Nov., 1862, and remained at home until 1866, when he was elected U. S. senator, and appointed chairman of the committee on foreign affairs on the retirement of Mr. Sumner in 1872. He was sent to the senate for the fourth time in 1873, but resigned in favor of his son. During the years of his active public life he was a powerful political leader, practically dictating the policy of the republican party in Pennsylvania, and wielding a strong influence over its policy in the nation at large. The accompanying view represents “Lochiel,” the residence at Harrisburg of the “Czar of Pennsylvania politics,” as Cameron has been called. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CAMP, David M., Swanton, Vermont, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40.

 

 

CAMPBELL, A. R., Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1842-46, 1846-.

 

 

CAMPBELL, Alexander, 1779-1857, anti-slavery activist, b. Virginia, moved to Ohio in 1830, representative to the Ohio legislature, member of the U.S. Senate, 1809-1813, first Vice President of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, 1835 (Dumond, 1961, p. 93)

 

 

CAMPBELL, Alfred G., abolitionist, Trenton, New Jersey, Paterson, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1849-50, 1854-64, Manager, 1852-53.

 

 

CAMPBELL, Amos, 1833-1837, Ackworth, New Hampshire, abolitionist.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

CAMPBELL, Archibald, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

CAMPBELL, David, Andover, Ohio, abolitionist. American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1842.

 

 

CAMPBELL, George W., Reverend, South Berwick, Maine.  Agent of the American Colonization Society.  Traveled in New York and Vermont.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 131)

 

 

CAMPBELL, Robert, Georgia, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1838-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

CAMPBELL, Thomas, Campbell County, Ohio, abolitionist.  Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-38.

 

 

CAMPBELL, Tunis Gulic, 1812-1891, African American abolitionist, Georgia political leader, moral reformer, temperance activist and lecturer.  Lectured with Frederick Douglass. Worked to help resettle recently-freed slaves near Port Royal, South Carolina.  Later was Bureau agent for Freedman’s Bureau on Georgia Islands.  Resisted acts to reverse gains made by African Americans by President Johnson administration during Reconstruction. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p. 500; American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 299.)

 

 

CANNING, Stratford, British Minister to the United States.  Supporter of the American Colonization society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 70)

 

 

CAPRON, Effingham L., 1791-1851, New England, Smithfield, Rhode Island, Uxbridge, Massachusetts, Society of Friends, Quaker, philanthropist, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Vice president, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1836-1840, 1840-1860.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 137-140; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

CARBERRY, Thomas, charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

CAREY, George, abolitionist, Cincinnati, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40.

 

 

CAREY, Mathew, 1760-1839, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, publisher, philanthropist.  Strong advocate for colonization and the American Colonization Society.  Printed pamphlets for the Society, “Letters on the Colonization Society.”  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 524-525; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 491; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 128, 183, 215)

 

CAREY, Mathew, publisher, b. in Ireland, 28 Jan., 1760; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 16 Sept., 1839. He received a liberal education, and when he was fifteen years old his father gave him a list of twenty-five trades from which to make the choice of his life-work. He selected the business of printer and bookseller, and two years afterward brought out his first pamphlet, a treatise on duelling, followed by an address to Irish Catholics, so inflammatory that young Carey was obliged to avoid prosecution by flight to Paris. During his stay there he became acquainted with Benjamin Franklin, then representing the United States at the court of Versailles, who gave him employment. Returning to Ireland after a year's stay, he established a new paper called the “Volunteer’s Journal,” which, by its bold and able opposition to the government, became a power in politics, and eventually brought about the legislative independence of Ireland. A too violent attack upon parliament and the ministry led to his arraignment before the house of commons for libel in 1784, and he was imprisoned until the dissolution of parliament. After his liberation he sailed for America, reaching Philadelphia, 15 Nov., 1784, and two months afterward began to publish “The Pennsylvania Herald,” the first newspaper in the United States that furnished accurate reports of legislative debates, Carey acting as his own reporter. He fought a duel with Col. Oswald, editor of a rival journal, and received a wound that confined him to his house for more than sixteen months. Soon after this he began the publication of “The American Museum,” which he conducted for six years. In 1791 he married, and opened a small bookselling shop. During the yellow-fever epidemic two years later he was a member of the committee of health, and tireless in his efforts for the relief of sufferers. The results of his extensive observation were collected and published in his “History of the Yellow Fever of 1793.” In the same year he founded the Hibernian society. In 1796 he was one of a few citizens who, under the direction of Bishop White, formed the first American Sunday-school society. With characteristic vigor he engaged in the discussions concerning the United States bank, writing articles for newspapers and publishing pamphlets, which he distributed at his own expense. In 1814 appeared his “Olive Branch, or Faults on Both Sides, Federal and Democratic,” designed to harmonize the antagonistic parties of the country pending the war with Great Britain. It passed through ten editions, and is still a recognized authority in regard to the political history of the period. In 1819 he published his “Vindici­æ Hibernicæ,” an examination and refutation of the charges against his countrymen in reference to the butcheries alleged to have been committed by them in the rebellion of 1641. From this time he devoted himself almost exclusively to politico-commercial pursuits, publishing in 1820 the “New Olive Branch,” in which he endeavored to show how harmonious were the real interests of the various classes of society, and in 1822 “Essays on Political Economy.” This was followed by a series of tracts extending to more than 2,000 pages. The object of all these was to demonstrate the necessity of the protective system as the only means of advancing the real interests of all classes in the community. He was active in the promotion of all the public works of the city and state, and advocated the system of internal improvements that led to the construction of the Pennsylvania canals. He interested himself in forwarding education and in establishing the charitable institutions for which Philadelphia is now famous. In 1833-'4 he contributed his autobiography to the “New England Magazine.”  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CAREY, Shepard, 1805-1866, Maine, abolitionist, political leader.  U.S. House of Representatives, 1843, 1850-1853.  Candidate for Governor in Liberty Party in Maine in 1854, lost.

 

 

CARLTON, William, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-

 

 

CARMAN, Joshua, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, founded anti-slavery church, Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1796, leader of Emancipating Baptists (Dumond, 1961, p. 91; Locke, 1901, pp. 44, 90)

 

 

CARMICHAEL, Daniel, abolitionist, Brooklyn, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1843-44, 1845-46.

 

 

CARPENTER, James, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1843-.

 

 

CARPENTER, Philo, 1805-1886, Chicago, Illinois, pharmacist, abolitionist.  Helped found Chicago chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1838, along with Dr. Charles V. Dyer, Calvin DeWolf and Robert V. Dyer.  Active as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.  His home was used to hide fugitive slaves escaping north to Canada. (Campbell, Tom, Fighting Slavery in Chicago, Chicago, IL: Ampersand, Inc., 2009)

 

 

CARR, Overton, founding charger member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

CARRINGTON, William, Virginia.  Strong supporter of the American Colonization Society.  Contributed funds to the Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

CARROLL, Charles, 1737-1832, Carrollton, Maryland, signer of the Declaration of Independence.  President of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Head of the Baltimore auxiliary of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 536-537; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 522; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 70, 110-111, 183)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biogarphy:

CARROLL, Charles, of Carrollton, last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Annapolis, Md., 20 Sept., 1737; d. in Baltimore, 14 Nov., 1832. The sept of the O’Carrolls was one of the most ancient and powerful in Ireland. They were princes and lords of Ely from the 12th to the 16th century. They sprang from the kings of Munster, and intermarried with the great houses of Ormond and Desmond in Ireland, and Argyll in Scotland. Charles Carroll, grandfather of Carroll of Carrollton, was a clerk in the office of Lord Powis in the reign of James II., and emigrated to Maryland upon the accession of William and Mary in 1689. In 1691 he was appointed judge and register of the land-office, and agent and receiver for Lord Baltimore's rents. His son Charles was born in 1702, and died in 1782, leaving his son Charles, the signer, whose mother was Elizabeth Brook. Carroll of Carrollton, at the age of eight years, was sent to France to be educated under the care of the Society of Jesus, which had controlled the Roman Catholics of Maryland since its foundation. He remained six years in the Jesuit college at St. Omer's, one year in their college at Rheims, and two years in the college of Louis Le Grand. Thence he went for a year to Bourges to study civil law, and from there he returned to college at Paris. In 1757 he entered the Middle Temple, London, for the study of the common law, and returned to Maryland in 1765. In June, 1768, he married Mary Darnall, daughter of Col. Henry Darnall, a young lady of beauty, fortune, and ancient family. Carroll found the public mind in a ferment over many fundamental principles of government and of civil liberty. In a province founded by Roman Catholics on the basis of religious toleration, the education of Catholics in their own schools had been prohibited by law, and Carroll himself had just returned from a foreign land, whither he had been driven by the intolerance of his home authorities to seek a liberal education. Not only were Roman Catholics under the ban of disfranchisement, but all persons of every faith and no faith were taxed to support the established church, which was the church of England. The discussion as to the right of taxation for the support of religion soon extended from the legislature to the public press. Carroll, over the signature “The First Citizen,” in a series of articles in the “Maryland Gazette,” attacked the validity of the law imposing the tax. The church establishment was defended by Daniel Dulany, leader of the colonial bar, whose ability and learning were so generally acknowledged that his opinions were quoted as authority on colonial law in Westminster hall, and are published to this day, as such, in the Maryland law reports. In this discussion Carroll acquitted himself with such ability that he received the thanks of public meetings all over the province, and at once became one of the “first citizens.” In December, 1774, he was appointed one of the committee of correspondence for the province, as one of the initial steps of the revolution in Maryland, and in 1775 was elected one of the council of safety. He was elected delegate to the revolutionary convention from Anne Arundel co., which met at Annapolis, 7 Dec., 1775. In January, 1776, he was appointed by the Continental congress one of the commissioners to go to Canada and induce those colonies to unite with the rest in resistance to Great Britain. On 4 July, 1776, he, with Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, William Paca, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, and Robert Alexander, was elected deputy from Maryland to the Continental congress. On 12 Jan., 1776, Maryland had instructed her deputies in congress not to consent to a declaration of independence without the knowledge and approbation of the convention. Mainly owing to the zealous efforts of Carroll and his subsequent colleagues, the Maryland convention, on 28 June, 1776, had rescinded this instruction, and unanimously directed its representatives in congress to unite in declaring “the united colonies free and independent states,” and on 6 July declared Maryland a free, sovereign, and independent state. Armed with this authority, Carroll took his seat in congress at Philadelphia, 18 July, 1776, and on 2 Aug., 1776, with the rest of the deputies of the thirteen states, signed the Declaration of Independence. It is said that he affixed the addition “of Carrollton” to his signature in order to distinguish him from his kinsman, Charles Carroll, barrister and to assume the certain responsibility himself of his act. He was made a member of the board of war, and served in congress until 10 Nov., 1776. In December, 1776, he was chosen a member of the first senate of Maryland, in 1777 again sent to congress, serving on the committee that visited Valley Forge to investigate complaints against Gen. Washington, and in 1788 elected the first senator from the state of Maryland under the constitution of the United States. He drew the short term of two years in the federal senate in 1791, and was again elected to the state senate, remaining there till 1801. In 1797 he was one of the commissioners to settle the boundary-line between Maryland and Virginia. On 23 April, 1827, he was elected one of the directors of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company, and on 4 July, 1828, laid the foundation-stone of the beginning of that undertaking. His biographer, John H. B. Latrobe, writes to the senior editor of this Cyclopædia: “After I had finished my work I took it to Mr. Carroll, whom I knew very well indeed, and read it to him, as he was seated in an arm-chair in his own room in his son-in-law's house in Baltimore. He listened with marked attention and without a comment until I had ceased to read, when, after a pause, he said: ‘Why, Latrobe, you have made a much greater man of me than I ever thought I was; and yet really you have said nothing in what you have written that is not true.’ . . . In my mind's eye I see Mr. Carroll now—a small, attenuated old man, with a prominent nose and somewhat receding chin, small eyes that sparkled when he was interested in conversation. His head was small and his hair white, rather long and silky, while his face and forehead were seamed with wrinkles. But, old and feeble as he seemed to be, his manner and speech were those of a refined and courteous gentleman, and you saw at a glance whence came by inheritance the charm of manner that so eminently distinguished his son, Charles Carroll of Homewood, and his daughters, Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Caton.” The accompanying view represents his spacious mansion, known as Carrollton, still owned and occupied by his descendants. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

IT has been asserted that the American colonies, now the United States, began seriously to entertain the design of throwing off their allegiance to the British king, soon after the conquest of Canada by the arms of the British and provincial forces. There is, however, no evidence to sustain that assertion; and the probability is, that the colonies, although they each had cause for discontent, had never been united in their complaints until the British parliament united them by a series of general grievances. The charters granted to the various colonies had been uniformly violated so soon as they began to thrive; and they, in their weakness and sincere attachment to “the mother country,” had patiently submitted. Yet it is evident that they retained, from generation to generation, a lively sense of their natural and chartered rights. The descendants of those who had braved the dangers and hardships of the wilderness for the sake of civil and religious liberty, inherited the spirit of their fathers;—what the fathers had gained by patient toil, unbending fortitude, or by charter from the king, their children claimed as their birthright.

In 1764, parliament, for the first time, attempted to raise a revenue in the colonies without their consent. This led to a discussion of the right in the provincial assemblies and among the people, and the general sentiment appears to have been, that “taxation and representation were inseparable.” In 1765 the famous Stamp Act was passed; and the policy of the British government being unveiled, an universal expression of indignation and opposition was echoed through the colonies. In addition to these general causes for complaint, each colony remembered its own individual grievances. It is only our purpose, on this occasion, to trace the causes of discontent in Maryland; and to show, that when her sons embarked their “lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor,” in their country’s cause, they had reason and justice on their side.

The charter of Maryland was obtained by Lord Baltimore, from Charles I., in June, 1632. By the charter it was declared, that the grantee was actuated by a laudable zeal for extending the Christian religion and the territories of the empire. Lord Baltimore was a Roman Catholic; and his avowed intention was, to erect an asylum in America for the Catholic faith. In honor of the queen the province was named, and its endowment was accompanied with immunities more ample than any other of the colonies. Lord Baltimore was created the absolute proprietary, saving the allegiance due to the crown—license was given to all British subjects to transport themselves thither, and they and their posterity were declared entitled to the liberties of Englishmen, as if they had been born within the kingdom; with powers to make laws for the province, “not repugnant to the jurisprudence of England,”—power was given to the proprietary, with assent of the people, to impose all just and proper subsidies, which were granted to him for ever; and it was covenanted on the part of the king, that neither he nor his successors should at any time impose, or cause to be imposed, any tollages on the colonists, or their goods and tenements, or on their commodities, to be laden within the province. The proprietary was also authorized to appoint officers, repel invasions, and suppress rebellions. The charter contained no special reservative of royal prerogative to interfere in the government of the province. Thus was laid the foundation of a popular government not likely to be willingly renounced when once possessed.

No efforts were spared by Lord Baltimore to facilitate the population and happiness of the colony; and in five years it had increased to such an extent that a code of laws became necessary. Lord Baltimore composed and submitted a body of laws to the colonists for their assent, but they not approving of them, prepared a code for themselves. At a very early period the proprietary had declared in favor of religious toleration; in 1649 the assembly adopted that principle by declaring, “that no persons professing to believe in JESUS CHRIST should be molested in respect to their religion, or in the free exercise thereof;” thus meriting the distinguished praise of being the first of the American States in which religious toleration was established by law. In 1654 Cromwell sent commissioners to reduce the colony to his subjection, who, although they met with no opposition in Maryland, abolished its institutions and introduced religious discord. They inflamed the Protestants against the Catholics, until, exasperated to extremity, the parties met in an engagement, when the partizans of the proprietary government were defeated, the governor deposed, and a new assembly formed, by which a law was passed depriving the Catholics of the protection of law in the community. With the restoration of Charles II., in 1661, tranquillity was restored to the province; but in a few years that tranquillity was again disturbed by a series of petty vexations, originating in the strife and jealousy of the ruling party in Britain, on account of religion. The king’s ministers commanded that all the offices of the provincial government should in future be committed exclusively to Protestants, and not only in this was the charter violated, but also by the appointment of revenue officers and the exacting of imposts. In 1686 James II. determined to overthrow the proprietary governments of the colonies, but the more important affairs in which he was engaged at home, during his short reign, prevented the consummation of his threat.*[1] On the accession of William III. a Protestant association was formed, which, under the authority and approbation of the king, usurped the direction of the affairs of the province, keeping up the farce of a Papist plot as an excuse for their conduct. Lord Baltimore was deprived, by an act of the privy council, of the political administration, although they could find no fault in him, except that he was of the Catholic faith. With the proprietary’s government the liberal principles of his administration were subverted. The Church of England was established, and a tax levied to support it.

Sanctioned by the authority and instructed by the example of the British government, the newly modelled legislature of Maryland proceeded to enact a series of laws which completely disfranchised the Catholics, by depriving them of all political and religious privileges, and of the ordinary means of education. By an act, passed in 1704 and renewed in 1715, it was ordained that the celebration of Mass, or the education of youth by a Papist, should be punished by transportation to England. These acts were afterwards modified; but the evils inflicted on the colony by the violations of the charter, were not removed until the connection with Great Britain was dissolved by the Revolution. In 1702, in the midst of this state of affairs, Charles Carroll, the father of CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON, was born. We may readily suppose with what attachment to the royal cause he arrived at manhood. We are informed that “he took an active part in the affairs of the provincial government; and in the religious disputes of the times stood prominent as one of the leading and most influential members of the Catholic party.” On the eighth of September, 1737, O. S., his son, CHARLES CARROLL, surnamed OF CARROLLTON, was born at Annapolis; and at eight years old was taken to France to be educated. He remained there until 1757, when he visited London and commenced the study of law. In 1764, he returned to Maryland a finished scholar and an accomplished gentleman. About this period the respective rights of the colonies and of the king’s government began to be discussed; religious disputes subsided and were forgotten, in the new and interesting topics of the time. The celebrated Stamp Act, in 1765, produced an universal excitement, and elicited, from men of the highest character and talents in the country, the most energetic and decisive expressions of opinion. Among those who came boldly forward in vindication of the colonists was CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON.

The Stamp Act was repealed and the excitement ceased; but in the colonies the principle of parliamentary taxation was a settled question.

In June, 1768, Mr. CARROLL married.

In 1771-2, Mr. CARROLL’S talents as an advocate of popular rights, were again brought into requisition. The house of delegates, after an investigation, framed and passed a law regulating the fees of the civil officers of the colonial government, but the upper house refused to concur in it. After the adjournment of the assembly, the governor issued a proclamation commanding and enjoining all officers not to take other or greater fees than those therein mentioned. The people viewed this measure as an attempt to fix a tax upon them by proclamation, and in that light considered it as an unjust and arbitrary exercise of official authority. A newspaper contest ensued between numerous advocates of the people and of the governor. At length the parties stood in silence watching the progress of a single combat between the champion of the people, Mr. CARROLL, and his antagonist, the provincial secretary. In this controversy, Mr. CARROLL’S talents and principles were brought fully before the public, and received the applause of the prominent men of the day. His antagonist was silenced, and the governor’s proclamation suspended on a gallows and burnt by the common hangman. The above controversy was conducted by the parties under fictitious signatures, and before it was known who had been the writer to whom the laurel was awarded, the citizens of Annapolis instructed their representatives to address a letter of thanks, through the newspaper, to the “distinguished advocate of the rights of his country;” but when it was generally known that “the distinguished advocate,” was CHARLES CARROLL, “the people of Annapolis, not satisfied with the letter of the delegates, came in a body to thank him for his exertions in defence of their rights.” Mr. CARROLL had evidently made up his mind to abide the issue of the contest, which he foresaw had only been commenced with the pen to be terminated with the bayonet; and he took repeated occasions so to express his convictions to friends and foes. As the great drama of the Revolution advanced, Mr. CARROLL’S popularity evidently became more extensive, and his advice and influence more frequently sought. After the delegates in 1774 had prohibited the importation of tea, a brig arrived at Annapolis with a quantity on board; it was court time, and a great number of people were assembled from the neighboring counties, and so irritated were they, that personal violence was threatened to the captain and consignees of the vessel and destruction to the cargo. Application was made to Mr. CARROLL for advice and protection, by the owner of the vessel. He advised him to burn the vessel and the tea it contained to the water’s edge, as the most effectual means of allaying the popular excitement. His counsel was followed, the sails were set, the colors displayed, and the brig burnt amidst the acclamations of the multitude.

In February, 1776, Mr. CARROLL, then a member of the Maryland convention, was appointed by the continental congress on a commission to visit Canada, in conjunction with Dr. Franklin, Samuel Chase, and the Rev. John Carroll, the object of which was to induce the Canadians to unite their efforts with the United Provinces in the struggle for liberty; but the defeat of Montgomery’s army, the contributions levied on the inhabitants, and the invincible opposition of the priests, rendered their mission abortive. Mr. CARROLL returned to Philadelphia just as the subject of independence was under discussion; he was decidedly in favor of it, but was not a member of congress; and the delegates from Maryland had been instructed to refuse their assent to it. He proceeded to Annapolis with all speed, and in his place in the convention advocated the cause of independence with such effect, that on the 28th of June new instructions were given in the place of the old ones, and on the 4th of July, 1776, the votes of the Maryland delegation were given for independence.

On the same day, Mr. CARROLL was appointed a delegate to congress, and took his seat as a member, for the first time, on the 18th. On the next day a secret resolution was adopted, directing the Declaration to be engrossed on parchment, and signed by all the members, which was accordingly done on the 2d of August. As Mr. CARROLL had not given a vote on the adoption of that instrument, he was asked by the President if he would sign it; “most willingly,” he replied, and immediately affixed his name to that “record of glory,” which has endeared him to his country, and rendered his name immortal. By those who have the curiosity to compare that signature with the autograph accompanying our portrait, it will be perceived that the first was traced by a firm and manly hand, the latter after a lapse of more than half a century, and at an age when “the keepers of the house tremble.” Both fac similes are correct.

Mr. CARROLL assisted in the formation of the constitution of Maryland in 1776, and continued in congress until 1778.

He served in the senate of the state for several years, was a member of the United States senate, from 1788 to 1791, from which time until 1801 he was an active member of the senate of his native state.

For the next thirty years he dwelt in the retirement of private life, in the enjoyment of tranquillity, health, fortune, and the richest reward of his patriotic labors; the veneration and gratitude of his country. After the death of Jefferson and Adams, in 1826, he was the sole survivor of the immortal band whose talents and inflexible virtues, in the midst of peril, pledged for their country, all that men esteem of value; life, fortune, honor: and the sole inheritor of the rich legacy of glory which they had left. But, on the 14th of November, 1832, the mandate which all must obey, summoned to the tomb the last of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; that deed of noble daring which gave his country “a place among nations,” and opened an asylum for the oppressed of all. To it the eyes of all nations are turned for instruction and example, and it is evident that the political institutions of the old world are gradually conforming to its model, to which they must very nearly approach, before the people, for whose happiness governments are framed, will be content.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 1.

[1]About this time Charles Carroll (the son of Daniel Carroll, of Kings county, Ireland, and grandfather of CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON,) came into the colony.

 

 

CARROLL, George A., founding charger member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

CARROLL, Henry, founding member and Manager of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

CARSON, Andrew, abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

CARTER, Gaius, Becket, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40.

 

 

CARTER, James G., Lancaster, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1842-45, Executive Committee, 1843-45.

 

 

CARTER, Robert, 1819-1879, Albany, New York, newspaper editor.  Member and active in the Free Soil Party.  Edited the Boston Commonwealth, a paper of the Free Soilers.  Early member of the Republican party.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 541-542)

 

CARTER, Robert, editor, b. in Albany, N. Y., 5 Feb., 1819; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 15 Feb., 1879. He received a common-school education, and passed one term in the Jesuit college of Chambly, Canada. In his fifteenth year he was appointed assistant librarian in the state library at Albany, where he remained till 1838. At this time he began to publish poems and sketches in the daily papers, his first contribution being a long poem, which he dropped stealthily into the editor's letterbox, and which appeared the next day with flattering comments, but so frightfully misprinted that he hardly knew it. This experience and a natural aptitude led him to acquire proof-reading as an accomplishment, at which he became very expert. In 1841 he went to Boston, where he formed a life-long friendship with James Russell Lowell, and together they began “The Pioneer,” a literary monthly magazine, which Duyckinck says was “of too fine a cast to be successful.” Nevertheless, its want of success was due, not to the editors, but to the publisher, who mismanaged it and failed when but three numbers had been issued. Among the contributors were Poe, Hawthorne, Whittier, Neal, Miss Barrett (afterward Mrs. Browning), and the sculptor Story. Mr. Carter began in its pages a serial novel entitled “The Armenian's Daughter.” He next spent two years in editing statistical and geographical works, and writing for periodicals. His story, “The Great Tower of Tarudant,” ran through several numbers of the “Broadway Journal,” then edited by Poe. In 1845 he became a clerk in the post-office at Cambridge, and in 1847-'8 was private secretary to Prescott the historian. His elaborate article on the character and habits of Prescott, written for the New York “Tribune” just after the historian's death in 1859, was re-published in the memorial volume issued by the Massachusetts historical society. Mr. Carter joined the free-soil party in 1848, and in 1850 wrote for the Boston “Atlas” a series of brilliant articles in reply to Francis Bowen's attack on the Hungarian revolutionists. These articles were re-published in a pamphlet, “The Hungarian Controversy” (Boston, 1852), and are said to have caused the rejection of Mr. Bowen's nomination as professor of history at Harvard. At the same time Carter edited, with Kossuth's approval, a large volume entitled “Kossuth in New England” (Boston, 1852). In 1851-'2 he edited, at first as assistant of John G. Palfrey and afterward alone, the Boston “Commonwealth,” the chief exponent of the free-soilers. For two years he was secretary of the state committee of the free-soil party, and in the summer of 1854 he obtained the consent of the committee to call a convention, which he did without assistance, sending out thousands of circulars to men whose names were on the committee's books. The convention met in Worcester, 20 July, was so large that no hall could contain it, and held its session in the open air. A short platform drawn up by him was adopted, together with the name “Republican,” and on his motion a committee of six was appointed to organize the new party, John A. Andrew being made its chairman. In 1855 Carter edited the Boston “Telegraph,” in conjunction with W. S. Robinson and Hildreth the historian; in 1856 he edited the “Atlas”; and in 1857-'9 he was Washington correspondent of the New York “Tribune.” His next work was with Messrs. Ripley and Dana on the first edition of the “American Cyclopædia” (1859-'63), in which many important articles were from his pen, including “Egypt,” “Hindostan,” “Mormons,” and the history of the United States. In January, 1864, he was appointed private secretary of the treasury agent whose headquarters were at Beaufort, S. C.; and from July of that year till October, 1869, he edited the Rochester, N. Y., “Democrat,” doing such work for it as was seldom done on any but metropolitan journals. When news came of the assassination of President Lincoln, he wrote, without consulting any book or memoranda, an article giving a brief but circumstantial account, with dates, of every celebrated case of regicide. He was editor of “Appletons’ Journal” in 1870-'3, and then became associate editor for the revision of the “American Cyclopædia.” But in 1874 impaired health compelled him to discontinue his literary work, and in the next three years he made three tours in Europe. He was the author of “A Summer Cruise on the Coast of New England” (Boston, 1864), which passed through several editions; and he left unpublished memoirs, of which only the first volume was complete in manuscript.—His first wife, Ann Augusta Gray, was a successful writer of poems and tales for the young.—His second wife, Susan Nichols, is principal of the female art school in Cooper institute, New York, and has published hand-books of art and contributed largely to periodicals.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CARTWRIGHT, Peter, 1785-1872, born in Virginia, went to Kentucky in 1790, then to Illinois in 1824, state senator in Ohio (Dumond, 1961, p. 93; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 544-545; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 546)

 

CARTWRIGHT, Peter, clergyman, b. in Amherst co., Va., 1 Sept., 1785; d. near Pleasant Plains, Sangamon co., Ill., 25 Sept., 1872. His father was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and about 1790 removed with his family to Logan co., Ky. At that time, according to his own account, there was not a newspaper printed south of Green river, no schools worth the name, and no mills within forty miles. Clothing was home-made from the cotton and flax, and imported tea, coffee, and sugar were unknown. Methodist preachers had just begun to ride “circuits” in that section, and the Rev. John Lurton obtained permission to hold public services in Mr. Cartwright's cabin when in the neighborhood. After a few years a conference was formed, known as the western conference, the seventh then in the United States. In 1801 a camp-meeting was held at Cane Ridge, at which nearly 2,000 persons were converted. Peter was then a wild boy of sixteen, fond of horse-racing, card-playing, and dancing. He was soon awakened to a sense of his sinfulness, but fought against his convictions for some time, plunging more recklessly than ever into his dissipations, until, after a night's dance and debauch at a wedding some miles from his father's house, he fell under conviction of sin, and began to pray. He sold a favorite race-horse, burned his cards, gave up gambling, to which he was greatly addicted, and, after three months' earnest seeking was converted. He immediately began to preach as a “local,” but in 1803 was received into the regular ministry, and ordained an elder in 1806 by Bishop Asbury. In 1823 Mr. Cartwright removed from the Cumberland district and sought a home in Illinois, settling the year following in Sangamon co., then peopled only by a few hardy and enterprising pioneers. After a few years he was elected to the legislature, wherein his rough-and-ready wit and his unflinching courage made him the victor in many debates. He attended annual conferences with almost unfailing regularity for a series of years, and was always a conspicuous member. Year after year he attended camp-meetings, finding his greatest happiness in them. He was a delegate to numerous general conferences, and retained his interest in religion to the last. From a very early period he was a zealous opponent of slavery, and was rejoiced when the Methodist Episcopal church was rid of all complicity with it by the division in 1844. Nevertheless, he retained his allegiance to the democratic party, and was its candidate for congress in 1846, in opposition to Abraham Lincoln, who defeated him by a majority of 1,500. For more than fifty years he was presiding elder in the church, which he saw rise, from 72,874 members when he joined it, to about 1,750,000 when he was called away. He was a powerful preacher and a tireless worker. His quaint and eccentric habits, and his exhaustless fund of stories, drawn largely from personal experience, gained favor and popularity wherever he went. Numerous stories are told of his personal prowess in dealing with the rough characters of the frontier, who often sought to interrupt his meetings, and whom, if report be true, he invariably vanquished by moral suasion if possible, or, failing that, by the arm of flesh. In conference meetings he was loved, revered, and dreaded, for he hesitated not to arraign the house of bishops to their face; but his influence was powerful, and his strong good sense often shaped the policy of the whole denomination. He published several pamphlets, of which his “Controversy with the Devil” (1853) was perhaps the most famous. “The Autobiography of the Rev. Peter Cartwright” (New York, 1856) was edited by William P. Strickland. See also Dr. Abel Stevens' “Observations on Dr. Cartwright,” and his many books treating of the history of Methodism, and “The Backwoods Preacher” (London, 1869). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 546.

 

 

CARY, Lott, 1780-1828, Charles City co., Virginia, formerly enslaved individual.  Vice President, American Colonization Society, in 1828.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 16-17, 67, 68; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 548; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 555)

 

CARY, Lott, negro slave, b. in Charles City co., Va., in 1780; d. in Monrovia, Africa, 8 Nov., 1828. In 1804 he was sent to Richmond, and hired out as a common laborer. Gifted with a high order of native intelligence, he soon taught himself, with slight assistance, to read and write, and, having a remarkable memory and sense of order, he became one of the best shipping-clerks in the Richmond tobacco warehouses. Until 1807 he was an unbeliever, but during that year became converted to Christianity, and was ever afterward a leader among the Baptists of his own color. In 1813 he purchased his own freedom and that of his two children for $850. As a freeman he maintained his habits of industry and economy, and when the colonization scheme was organized had accumulated a sum sufficiently large to enable him to pay his own expenses as a member of the colony sent out to the African coast in 1822. He was with the colony during its early wars with the barbarous natives, and rendered invaluable services as a counsellor, physician, and pastor. He was elected vice-agent of the colonization society in 1826, and during the absence of Mr. Ashmun, the agent, acted in his place. On the evening of 8 Nov., 1828, he was making cartridges in anticipation of an attack from slave-traders, when an accidental explosion fatally injured him and seven of his companions. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CARY, Mary Ann Shadd, 1823-1893, African American, abolitionist leader. (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 446-447; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p. 596)

 

 

CASSEY, Amy Matilda, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, pp. 75-76, 97, 116, 116n)

 

 

CASSEY, Joseph, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-37.

 

 

CATTO, Octavius Valentine, 1839-1871, African American educator, activist, soldier.  Opposed slavery.  Recruited Black soldiers for the Union Army.  Established Union League Association.  Served as a Major in the Army. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p. 611)

 

 

CHACE, Elizabeth Buffum, 1806-1899, Society of Friends, Quaker, women’s suffrage leader, penal reform leader, abolitionist leader.  Co-founder of the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Fall River, Massachusetts, 1836.  Member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, founded by her father, Arnold Buffum, in 1832.  Contributed articles for abolitionist newspaper, Liberator.  Her home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  She resigned from the Society of Friends in 1843 as a result of its continuing pro-slavery position.  At the end of the Civil War, she was elected Vice President of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  She published her memoirs in 1891, Anti-Slavery Reminiscences. Her grandfather, parents, husband, two sisters, and two brothers-in-law were all abolitionists.  (Drake, 1950, p. 158; Mabee, 1970, pp. 225, 280, 290, 424n54; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 44, 218; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 22, 37, 49-52, 58, 67, 69-71, 73, 159, 171, 191-192, 208-209, 219-221, 232n5; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 584; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 158-159; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 609)

 

 

CHAFFEE, Calvin C., 1811-1896, physician, politician, U.S. Congressman, abolitionist.  (Blaustein, 1991)

 

 

CHALMERS, John, Jr., charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258)

 

 

CHAMBERLAIN, Homer M., Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1839-

 

 

CHAMBERLAIN, Jeremiah, 1794-1851, clergyman, educator, abolitionist.  President of Centre College, Kentucky, 1822-1825.  Founder and President of Oakland College in Mississippi, 1830-1851.  Co-founded Mississippi Colonization Society.  He was murdered for his anti-slavery stance on September 5, 1851, by a pro-slavery planter.

 

 

CHAMBERLAIN, Lewis, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CHAMBERS, Ezekiel Forman, 1788-1867, Maryland, jurist, soldier, U.S. Senator from Maryland.  Supported the American Colonization Society (ACS) in the Senate.  Proposed bill in Senate to support the ACS with federal funding.  Defended colonization from detractors.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 566; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 602; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 176, 207)

 

CHAMBERS, Ezekiel F., senator, b. in Kent county, Md., 28 Feb., 1788; d. in Charleston, Md., 30 Jan., 1867. He was graduated at Washington college, Md., in 1805, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1808. He performed military service in the war of 1812, and subsequently attained the rank of brigadier-general of militia. Though elected in 1822 to the state senate against his will, he took an active part in the legislation of that body, and in 1825 arranged a system for the more effectual recovery of slaves. In 1826 he was elected U. S. senator from Maryland, and in 1832 re-elected. He distinguished himself as one of the ablest debaters and antagonists in that body. In 1834 he was appointed chief judge of the second judicial district and a judge of the court of appeals, which places he held till 1857, when the Maryland judiciary became elective. In 1850 he was a member of the constitutional convention of the state. In 1852 President Fillmore offered him the post of secretary of the navy on the resignation of Sec. Graham, but the condition of his health compelled him to decline. Yale conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1833, and Delaware in 1852. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CHANDLER, Elizabeth Margaret, 1807-1834, poet, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  Member of the Free Produce Society.  Co-founded the first anti-slavery society in Michigan, the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society, in Lenawee County, Michigan Territory, October 8, 1832, with Laura Haviland.  Writer for Benjamin Lundy’s Genius of Universal Emancipation after 1829.  In 1836, Chandler’s anti-slavery writings were published. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 279-281, 350-351; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 90-91, 97, 111, 113, 120; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 573; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 613; Mason, Martha J. Heringa, ed. Remember the Distance That Divides Us. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2004)

 

CHANDLER, Elizabeth Margaret, author, b. in Centre, near Wilmington, Del., 24 Dec., 1807; d. 22 Nov., 1834. She was the daughter of Thomas Chandler, a Quaker farmer, was educated at the Friends' school in Philadelphia, and began at an early age to write verses. Her poem “The Slave-Ship,” written when she was eighteen years old, gained the prize- offered by the “Casket,” a monthly magazine. She became a contributor to the “Genius of Universal Emancipation,” a Philadelphia periodical favoring the liberation of the slaves, and in it nearly all her subsequent writings appeared. In 1830, with her aunt and brother, she removed to a farm near Tecumseh, Lenawee co., Mich., and from there continued her contributions in prose and verse on the subject of slavery. A collection of her poems and essays was edited, with a memoir, by Benjamin Lundy (Philadelphia, 1836). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 573.

 

 

CHANDLER, Thomas, abolitionist, Adrian, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-42.

 

 

CHANDLER, William, abolitionist.  Founder and first President, Delaware Abolition Society, 1827.

 

 

CHANDLER, William Eaton, b. 1835, Concord, New Hampshire.

 

CHANDLER, William Eaton, cabinet minister, b. in Concord, N. H., 28 Dec., 1835. He studied law in Concord, and at the Harvard law-school, where he was graduated in 1855. For several years after his admission to the bar in 1856 he practised in Concord, and in 1859 was appointed reporter of the New Hampshire supreme court, and published five volumes of reports. From the time of his coming of age Mr. Chandler was actively connected with the republican party, serving first as secretary, and afterward as chairman of the state committee. In 1862 he was elected to the New Hampshire house of representatives, of which he was speaker for two successive terms in 1863-'4. In November, 1864, he was employed by the navy department as special counsel to prosecute the Philadelphia navy-yard frauds, and on 9 March, 1865, was appointed first solicitor and judge-advocate-general of that department. On 17 June, 1865, he became first assistant secretary of the treasury. On 30 Nov., 1867, he resigned this place and resumed law practice. During the next thirteen years, although occupying no official position except that of member of the Constitutional convention of New Hampshire in 1876, he continued to take an active part in politics. He was a delegate from his state to the Republican national convention in 1868, and was secretary of the national committee from that time until 1876. In that year he advocated the claims of the Hayes electors in Florida before the canvassing board of the state, and later was one of the counsel to prepare the case submitted by the republican side to the electoral commission. Mr. Chandler afterward became an especially outspoken opponent of the southern policy of the Hayes administration. In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican national convention, and served as a member of the committee on credentials, in which place he was active in securing the report in favor of district representation, which was adopted by the convention. During the subsequent campaign he was a member of the national committee. On 23 March, 1881, he was nominated for U. S. solicitor-general, but the senate refused to confirm, the vote being nearly upon party lines. In that year he was again a member of the New Hampshire legislature. On 7 April, 1882, he was appointed secretary of the navy. Among the important measures carried out by him were the simplification and reduction of the unwieldy navy-yard establishment; the limitation of the number of annual appointments to the actual wants of the naval service; the discontinuance of the extravagant policy of repairing worthless vessels; and the beginning of a modern navy in the construction of the four new cruisers recommended by the advisory board. The organization and successful voyage of the Greely relief expedition in 1884 were largely due to his personal efforts. Mr. Chandler was a strenuous advocate of uniting with the navy the other nautical branches of the federal administration, including the light-house establishment, the coast survey, and the revenue marine, upon the principle, first distinctly set forth by him, that “the officers and seamen of the navy should be employed to perform all the work of the National government upon or in direct connection with the ocean.” Mr. Chandler is controlling owner of the daily “Monitor,” a republican journal, and its weekly, the “Statesman,” published in Concord, N. H. In June, 1887, he was elected U. S. senator. N.H. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CHANDLER, Zachariah, 1813-1879, statesman, abolitionist.  Mayor of Detroit, 1851-1852.  U.S. Senator 1857-1975, 1879.  Secretary of the Interior, 1875-1877. Active in Underground Railroad in Detroit area.  Helped organize the Republican Party in 1854.  Introduced Confiscation Bill in Senate, July 1861.  Was a leading Radical Republican Senator.  Chandler was a vigorous opponent of slavery.  He opposed the Dred Scott U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Fugitive Slave Law.  In 1858, opposed the admission of Kansas as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 574-575; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 618; Congressional Globe)

 

CHANDLER, Zachariah, senator, b. in Bedford, N. H., 10 Dec., 1813; d. in Chicago, Ill., 1 Nov., 1879. After receiving a common-school education he taught for one winter, at the same time managing his father's farm. He was noted when a youth for physical strength and endurance. It is said that, being offered by his father the choice between a collegiate education and the sum of $1,000, he chose the latter. He removed to Detroit in 1833 and engaged in the dry-goods business, in which he was energetic and successful. He soon became a prominent whig, and was active in support of the so-called “underground railroad,” of which Detroit was an important terminus. His public life began in 1851 by his election as mayor of Detroit. In 1852 he was nominated for governor by the whigs, and, although his success was hopeless, the large vote he received brought him into public notice. He was active in the organization of the republican party in 1854, and in January, 1857, was elected to the U. S. senate to succeed Gen. Lewis Cass. He made his first important speech on 12 March, 1858, opposing the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, and continued to take active part in the debates on that and allied questions. In 1858, when Senator Green, of Missouri, had threatened Simon Cameron with an assault for words spoken in debate, Mr. Chandler, with Mr. Cameron and Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, drew up a written agreement, the contents of which were not to be made public till the death of all the signers, but which was believed to be a pledge to resent an attack made on any one of the three. On 11 Feb., 1861, he wrote the famous so-called “blood letter” to Gov. Blair, of Michigan. It received its name from the sentence, “Without a little blood-letting this Union will not, in my estimation, be worth a rush.” This letter was widely quoted through the country, and was acknowledged and defended by Mr. Chandler on the floor of the senate. Mr. Chandler was a firm friend of President Lincoln, though he was more radical than the latter in his ideas, and often differed with the president as to matters of policy. When the first call for troops was made, he assisted by giving money and by personal exertion. He regretted that 500,000 men had not been called for instead of 75,000, and said that the short-term enlistment was a mistake. At the beginning of the extra session of congress in July, 1861, he introduced a sweeping confiscation-bill, thinking that stern measures would deter wavering persons from taking up arms against the government; but it was not passed in its original form, though congress ultimately adopted his views. On 16 July, 1862, Mr. Chandler vehemently assailed Gen. McClellan in the senate, although he was warned that such a course might be politically fatal. He was, however, returned to the senate in 1863, and in 1864 actively aided in the re-election of President Lincoln. He was again elected to the senate in 1869. During all of his terms he was chairman of the committee on commerce and a member of other important committees, including that on the conduct of the war. In October, 1874, President Grant tendered him the post of secretary of the interior, to fill the place made vacant by the resignation of Columbus Delano, and he held this office until President Grant's retirement, doing much to reform abuses in the department. He was chairman of the Republican national committee in 1876, and took an active part in the presidential campaign of that year. He was again elected to the senate in February, 1879, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Isaac P. Christiancy, who had succeeded him four years before. On 2 March, 1879, he made a speech in the senate denouncing Jefferson Davis, which brought him into public notice again, and he was regarded in his own state as a possible presidential candidate. He went to Chicago on 31 Oct., 1879, to deliver a political speech, and was found dead in his room on the following morning. During the greater portion of his life Mr. Chandler was engaged in large business enterprises, from which he realized a handsome fortune. He was a man of commanding appearance, and possessed an excellent practical judgment, great energy, and indomitable perseverance. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 574-575.

 

 

CHANNING, Reverend William Ellery, 1780-1842, Unitarian clergyman, orator, writer, strong opponent of slavery.  Active in the peace, temperance, and educational reform movements.  Published anti-slavery works, The Slavery Question, in 1839, Emancipation in 1840, and The Duty of the Free States, in 1842. (Brown, 1956; Channing, “Slavery,” 1836; Dumond, 1961, pp. 273, 352-353; Filler, 1960, pp. 33, 34, 59, 80, 88, 93, 101, 128, 141, 184; Goodell, 1852, pp. 419, 560; Mabee, 1970, pp. 15, 16, 43, 51, 79, 105, 384n14; Pease, 1965, pp. xxxix-xl, lvii, lx, 114-118, 240-245; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 43, 46, 162, 169; Sorin, 1971, p. 72; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 576-577; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, pp. 7-8; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 160-163; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 680)

 

CHANNING, William Ellery, clergyman, b. in Newport, R. I., 7 April, 1780; d. in Bennington, Vt., 2 Oct., 1842. His boyhood was passed in Newport, where his first strong religious impressions were received from the preaching of Dr. Samuel Hopkins. As a youth, he appears, though small in person and of a sensibility almost feminine, to have been vigorous, athletic, and resolute, showing from childhood a marked quality of moral courage and mental sincerity. In his college life at Harvard, where he was graduated in 1798, he showed a singular capacity to win the ardent personal attachment of his fellows; and, though he was very young, his literary qualities seem even then to have been fully developed, his style being described by his classmate, Judge Story, as “racy, flowing, full, glowing with life, chaste in ornament, vigorous in structure, and beautiful in finish.” He was also conspicuous in the students' debating-clubs, and shared fully in the political enthusiasms of the day, refusing the commencement oration assigned him until granted permission to speak on his favorite theme. Among the authors of his choice at this time, Hutcheson appears to have inspired his profound conviction of “the dignity of human nature,” Ferguson (“Civil Society”) his faith in social progress and his “enthusiasm of humanity,” and Price (“Dissertations”) that form of idealism which “saved me,” he says, “from Locke's philosophy.” As a private instructor in Richmond, Va., in the family of D. M. Randolph, in 1798-1800, he felt “the charm of southern manners and hospitality,” and at the same time acquired an abhorrence of the social and moral aspects of slavery, then equally abhorred by the most intelligent men and women at the south. Here he became eagerly interested in political discussions growing out of the revolutionary movements in Europe, and a keen admirer of such writers as Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, and especially Rousseau; but, as if by a certain unconscious reaction against these influences, he gave special study to the historical evidences of Christianity, to which class of evidences he ever after strongly adhered, and was confirmed in his purpose to prepare for the ministry. He also disciplined himself by a vigorously ascetic way of life—exposure to cold, hardship, and fatigue, with scant diet (leading to permanent “contraction of the stomach” with painful dyspepsia), insufficient clothing, and excessive devotion to study. The ill-effect of these practices, aggravated by the exposures of his return voyage to Newport, followed him through life, and “from the time of his residence in Richmond to the day of his death he never knew a day of unimpaired vigor.” After a short stay in Newport, where the influences of early life were renewed and deepened, he returned to Cambridge as a student of theology, with the title and petty income of “regent,” a sort of university scholarship. At this period Bishop Butler and William Law were the writers that chiefly influenced his opinions; and he is represented as having had a tendency to Calvinistic views, though “never in any sense a Trinitarian.” His first and only pastoral settlement was over the church in Federal street, Boston, 1 June, 1803, which he accepted, in preference to the more distinguished place in Brattle square, partly on the ground that a smaller and feebler congregation might not overtax his strength. Here he was shortly known for a style of religious eloquence of rare “fervor, solemnity, and beauty.” His views at this time—and indeed, prevailingly, during his later life—are described as “rather mystical than rational”; in particular, as to the controverted doctrine of Christ's divinity, holding “that Jesus Christ is more than man, that he existed before the world, that he literally came from heaven to save our race, that he sustains other offices than those of a teacher and witness to the truth, and that he still acts for our benefit, and is our intercessor with the Father.” Early in his ministry, however, Mr. Channing was closely identified with that movement of thought, literary and philosophic as well as theological, which gave birth to the “Anthology Club,” and to a series of journals, of which those longest-lived and of widest repute were the “North American Review” and the “Christian Examiner.” Essays published in these journals, especially those on Milton and on the character of Napoleon, gave him literary reputation in Europe as well as at home. The intellectual movement in question was marked by an increasing interest in questions of theological and textual criticism, and by a leaning toward, if not identification with, the class of opinions that began about 1815 to be currently known as Unitarian. Though Mr. Channing was disinclined to sectarian names or methods, though he never desired to be personally called a Unitarian, and would have chosen that the movement of liberal theology should go on within the lines of the New England Congregational body, to which he belonged from birth, yet he became known as the leader of the Unitarians, and may almost be said to have first given to the body so called the consciousness of its real position and the courage of its convictions by his sermon delivered in Baltimore, 5 May, 1819, at the ordination of Jared Sparks. This celebrated discourse may be regarded less as a theological argument, for which its method is too loose and rhetorical, than as a solemn impeachment of the Calvinistic theology of that day at the bar of popular reason and conscience. And a similar judgment may be passed, in general, upon the series of controversial discourses that he delivered in the succeeding years. For about fifteen years, making the middle period of his professional life—a life interrupted only by a few months' stay in Europe (1822-'3) and a winter spent in Santa Cruz (1830-'31)—Mr. Channing was best known to the public as a leader in the Unitarian body, and the record of this time survives in several volumes of eloquent and noble sermons, which constitute still the best body of practical divinity that the Unitarian movement in this country has produced. Very interesting testimony to the habit and working of his mind at this period is also to be found in the volume of “Reminiscences” by Miss E. P. Peabody (Boston, 1880). A sermon on the “Ministry at Large” in Boston (1835) strongly illustrates the sympathetic as well as religious temper in which he now undertook those discussions of social topics—philanthropy, moral reform, and political ethics—by which his later years were most widely and honorably distinguished. From organized charity the way was open to questions of temperance and public education, which now began to take new shapes; and from these again, to those that lie upon the border-ground of morals and politics—war and slavery. Regarding the last, indeed, which may be taken as a type of the whole, it does not appear that he ever adopted the extreme opinions, or approved the characteristic modes of action, of the party known as abolitionists. But his general and very intense sympathy with their aims was of great moral value in the anti-slavery movement, now taking more and more a political direction. Of this the earliest testimony was a brief but vigorous essay on slavery (1835), dealing with it purely on grounds of moral argument; followed the next year by a public letter of sympathy to James G. Birney (“The Abolitionists”), who had just been driven from Cincinnati with the destruction of his press and journal; and again, in 1837, by a letter to Henry Clay on the annexation of Texas, a policy which the writer thought good ground to justify disunion. The event that, more than any other, publicly associated his name and influence with the anti-slavery party was a meeting held in Faneuil Hall, 8 Dec., 1837, after the death of Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was shot while defending his press at Alton, Ill., when for the first time Mr. Channing stood side by side, upon the public platform, with men in whom he now saw the champions of that freedom of discussion which must be upheld by all good citizens. His later writings on the subject are a letter on “The Slavery Question” (1839) addressed to Jonathan Phillips; a tract on “Emancipation” (1840), suggested by a work of J. J. Gurney's on emancipation in the British West Indies; and an argument (1842) on “The Duty of the Free States,” touching the case of the slaves on board the brig “Creole,” of Richmond, who had seized the vessel and carried her into the port of Nassau. His last public act was an address delivered in Lenox. Mass., 1 Aug., 1842, commemorating the West India emancipation. A few weeks later, while on a journey, he was seized with an attack of autumn fever, of which he died. Interesting personal recollections remain, now passing into tradition, of Channing's rare quality and power as a pulpit orator, of which a single trait may here be given: “From the high, old-fashioned pulpit his face beamed down, it may be said, like the face of an angel, and his voice floated clown like a voice from higher spheres. It was a voice of rare power and attraction, clear, flowing, melodious, slightly plaintive, so as curiously to catch and win upon the hearer's sympathy. Its melody and pathos in the reading of a hymn was alone a charm that might bring men to the listening like the attraction of sweet music. Often, too, when signs of physical frailty were apparent, it might be said that his speech was watched and waited for with that sort of hush as if one was waiting to catch his last earthly words.” Numerous writings of Dr. Channing were published singly, which were gathered shortly before his death (5 vols., Boston, 1841), to which a sixth volume was added subsequently, and also, in 1872, a volume of selected sermons entitled “The Perfect Life.” All are included in a single volume published by the American Unitarian association (Boston). A biography was prepared by his nephew, W. H. Channing (3 vols., Boston, 1848). Translations of Channing's writings “have been, either wholly or in part, published in the German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Icelandic, and Russian languages.” While in America he is best known as a theologian and preacher, his influence abroad is said to be chiefly as a writer on subjects of social ethics. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 576-577.

 

 

CHAPIN, Chauncey, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1841-42.

 

 

CHAPIN, David, New York, abolitionist.  American Abolition Society.  (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CHAPIN, Edwin Hubbell, 1814-1880, Union Village, Washington County, New York, clergyman, opponent of slavery.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 579-580; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 15)

 

CHAPIN, Edwin Hubbell, clergyman, b. in Union Village, Washington co. , N. Y., 29 Dec., 1814; d. in New York city, 27 Dec., 1880. He received his early training at the Bennington, Vt., seminary, his parents having removed to that town, and. after completing the seminary course, studied law in Troy, N. Y., but soon went to Utica and became editor of “The Magazine and Advocate,” a periodical devoted to the interests of Universalism. About the same time he determined to study for the ministry, and was ordained in 1837. His first pastoral duties were in Richmond, Va., where he remained for three years, and then removed to Charlestown, Mass. After six years spent there, he was invited to take charge of the School street Universalist church in Boston, as the colleague of the venerable Hosea Ballou. In 1848 he accepted an invitation from the 4th Universalist church of New York city, then situated near City Hall park. His preaching proved so attractive that a larger building became necessary, and within four years two changes were made to more spacious quarters. In 1850 Dr. Chapin went to Europe as a delegate to the peace congress at Frankfort-on-the-Main. In the period preceding the civil war he was conspicuous among the opponents of negro slavery, and during its continuance lent his great influence to the support of the government. At the close of the war, when the flags of the New York regiments were delivered to the keeping of the state, Dr. Chapin was appointed orator for the occasion, and made an address of remarkable power and eloquence. In 1866 his congregation removed to the “Church of the Divine Paternity,” 45th street and 5th avenue, New York city, where it has since remained. Dr. Chapin had long been one of the most prominent of metropolitan preachers, and the new church became one of the points to which throngs of church-goers—and, which is more important, throngs of non-church-goers—resorted whenever it was known that the pastor would speak. Although he was zealous and diligent in his church duties, he was among the most popular of public lecturers, and, while his health permitted, his services were constantly in demand. He was not a profound student in the scholarly acceptation of the term, but as a student and interpreter of human nature, in its relations to the great questions of the time, he had few superiors. His denominational religious associations were with the Universalists; but his sympathies were of the broadest character, and he numbered among his personal friends many of the staunchest advocates of orthodoxy, who could not but admire his eloquence, however much they may have dissented from his religious teaching. In creeds Dr. Chapin did not believe; but he preached a wise conduct in life, and included in the range of his pulpit themes every topic, social or political, that affects the well-being of mankind. In 1856 he received the degree of S. T. D. from Harvard, and in 1878 that of LL. D. from Tufts. He was a trustee of Bellevue medical college and hospital and a member of many societies. The Chapin Home for aged and indigent men and women, named in his honor, remains a monument to his memory. In 1872 he succeeded Dr. Emerson as editor of the “Christian Leader.” The closing years of his life were marked by failing physical powers, though his mind was as brilliant as ever. He travelled in Europe, but was unable to regain his wonted vigor, and for a long time before his death he suffered from nervous depression that no doubt hastened the end. Most of his sermons and lectures were collected and published in book form. The titles are “Hours of Communion” (New York, 1844); “Discourses on the Lord's Prayer” (1850); “Characters in the Gospels” (1852); “Moral Aspects of City Life” (1853); “Discourses on the Beatitudes” (1853); “True Manliness” (New York, 1854); “Duties of Young Men” (1855); “The Crown of Thorns—a Token for the Suffering, probably the most widely read of his books (1860); “Living Words” (Boston, 1861); “The Gathering”—memorial of a meeting of the Chapin family (Springfield, Mass., 1862); “Humanity in the City”; “Providence and Life”; and “Discourses on the Book of Proverbs.” With James G. Adams as his associate, he compiled “Hymns for Christian Devotion” (1870). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CHAPIN, Josiah, abolitionist, Providence, Rhode Island, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-43.

 

 

CHAPIN, Rulon, New York, abolitionist.  American Abolition Society.  (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CHAPLIN, William Lawrence, 1796-1871, abolitionist leader, Farmington, NY.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839-1840.  Agent of the New York Anti-Slavery Society.  He was known as “The General.”  (Dumond, 1961, p. 297; Goodell, 1852, pp. 246, 445, 463, 556; Sorin, 1971, p. 113. Radical Abolitionist)

 

 

CHAPMAN, Henry G., abolitionist, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Treasurer, 1835-40, 1840-42.

 

 

CHAPMAN, Maria Weston, 1806-1885, educator, writer, newspaper editor, prominent abolitionist leader, reformer.  Advocate of immediate, uncompensated emancipation.  Editor of the anti-slavery newspaper The Liberty Bell.  Also helped to edit William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, the Liberator.  Co-founded and edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard.  Leader and founder of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), which she founded and organized with twelve other women, including three of her sisters.  The Society worked to educate Boston’s African American community and to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.  In 1840, Chapman was elected to the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  She was Councillor of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society from 1841-1865.  Her husband was prominent abolitionist Henry Grafton Chapman. (Dumond, 1961, p. 273; Filler, 1960, pp. 55, 76, 129, 143, 184; Mabee, 1970, pp. 62, 68, 72, 80, 105, 249, 259, 274; Pease, 1965, pp. xliv-l, li, lii, lxx, 205-212; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 199, 367, 402; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 97, 119, 123, 135, 137, 173, 185, 190-191, 206-208; Weston, “How Can I Help Abolish Slavery?, or Councels to the Newly Converted,” New York, 1855; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 581; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, pp. 19-20; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 163-164; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 710; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 315)

 

CHAPMAN, Maria Weston, reformer, b. in Weymouth, Mass., in 1806; d. there in 1885. She was a daughter of Warren Weston, of Weymouth. After being educated in her native town and in England, she was principal of the newly established Young ladies' high-school in Boston in 1829-'30. She was married in 1830, and in 1834 became an active abolitionist. Her husband died in 1842, and in 1848 she went to Paris, France, where she aided the anti-slavery cause with her pen. She returned to this country in 1856, and in 1877 published the autobiography of her intimate friend, Harriet Martineau.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 581. 

 

 

CHAPMAN, Mary G., abolitionist leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Yellin, 1994)

 

 

CHAPMAN, William M., abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.

 

 

CHASE, Jeremiah Townly, Annapolis, Maryland, Chief Justice of the Maryland Court of Appeals.  Member of the Annapolis auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 70)

 

 

CHASE, Salmon Portland, 1808-1873, statesman, Governor of Ohio, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1864-1873, abolitionist, member, Liberty Party, Free Soil Party, Anti-Slavery Republican Party.  “A slave is a person held, as property, by legalized force, against natural right.” – Chase.

 

“The constitution found slavery, and left it, a state institution—the creature and dependant of state law—wholly local in its existence and character.  It did not make it a national institution… Why, then, fellow-citizens, are we now appealing to you?...Why is it that the whole nation is moved, as with a mighty wind, by the discussion of the questions involved in the great issue now made up between liberty and slavery?  It is, fellow citizens—and we beg you to mark this—it is because slavery has overleaped its prescribed limits and usurped the control of the national government.  We ask you to acquaint yourselves fully with the details and particulars belonging to the topics which we have briefly touched, and we do not doubt that you will concur with us in believing that the honor, the welfare, the safety of our country imperiously require the absolute and unqualified divorce of the government from slavery.”

 

“Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles and building up the organization of the party of constitutional freedom then inaugurated.  Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, the demands upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed severely all my ability… It seems to me now, on looking back, that I could not help working if I would, and that I was just as really called in the course of Providence to my labors for human freedom as ever any other laborer in the great field of the world was called to his appointed work.”

 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 19, 30, 34, 61, 70-73, 76-78, 84, 123, 124, 177, 178, 209, 220, 225, 226, 228, 247, 248, 259; Dumond, 1961; Filler, 1960, pp. 142, 176, 187, 197-198, 229, 246; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4-5, 8-9, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 33-36, 61-64, 67, 68, 70-72, 76, 87, 89, 94, 118, 129, 136, 156, 165, 166, 168-169, 177, 187, 191, 193, 195-196, 224, 228, 248; Pease, 1965, pp. 384-394; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 46, 56, 58, 136, 173, 298, 353-354, 421, 655-656; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 585-588; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 34; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 739; Hart, Albert Bushnell, Salmon Portland Chase, 1899)

 

CHASE, Salmon Portland, statesman, b, in Cornish, N. H., 13 Jan., 1808; d. in New York city, 7 May, 1873. He was named for his uncle, Salmon, who died in Portland, and he used to say that he was his uncle's monument. He was a descendant in the ninth generation of Thomas Chase, of Chesham, England, and in the sixth of Aquila Chase, who came from England and settled in Newbury, Mass., about 1640. Salmon Portland was the eighth of the eleven children of Ithamar Chase and his wife Jannette Ralston, who was of Scottish blood. He was born in the house built by his grandfather, which still stands overlooking Connecticut river and in the afternoon shadow of Ascutney mountain. Of his father's seven brothers, three were lawyers, Dudley becoming a U. S. senator; two were physicians; Philander became a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church; and one, like his father, was a farmer. His earliest teacher was Daniel Breck, afterward a jurist in Kentucky. When the boy was eight years old his parents removed to Keene, where his mother had inherited a little property. This was invested in a glass-factory; but a revision of the tariff, by which the duty on glass was lowered, ruined the business, and soon afterward the father died. Salmon was sent to school at Windsor, and made considerable progress in Latin and Greek. In 1820 his uncle, the bishop of Ohio, offered to take him into his family, and the boy set out in the spring, with his brother and the afterward famous Henry R. Schoolcraft, to make the journey to what was then considered the distant west. They were taken from Buffalo to Cleveland by the “Walk-in-the-Water,” the first steamboat on the great lakes. He spent three years in Worthington and Cincinnati with his uncle, who attended to his education personally till he went to England in 1823, when the boy returned home, the next year entered Dartmouth as a junior, and was graduated in 1826. He at once established a classical school for boys in Washington, D. C., which he conducted with success, at the same time studying law with William Wirt. Mr. Chase gave much of his leisure to light literature, and a poem that was addressed by him to Mr. Wirt's daughters was printed and is still extant. In 1830, having completed his studies, he closed the school, was admitted to the bar in Washington, and settled in Cincinnati, where he soon obtained a large practice. In politics he did not identify himself with either of the great parties; but on one point he was clear from the first: he was unalterably opposed to slavery, and in this sentiment he was confirmed by witnessing the destruction of the “Philanthropist” office by a pro-slavery mob in 1836. In 1837 he defended a fugitive slave woman, claimed under the law of 1793, and took the highest ground against the constitutionality of that law. One of the oldest lawyers in the court-room was heard to remark concerning him: “There is a promising young man who has just ruined himself.” In 1837 Mr. Chase also defended his friend James G. Birney in a suit for harboring a negro slave, and in 1838 he reviewed with great severity a report of the judiciary committee of the state senate, refusing trial by jury to slaves, and in a second suit defended Mr. Birney. When it became evident, after the brief administration of Harrison was over and that of Tyler begun, that no more effective opposition to the encroachments of slavery was to be expected from the Whig than from the Democratic party, a Liberty party was organized in Ohio in December, 1841, and Mr. Chase was foremost among its founders. The address, which was written by Mr. Chase, contained these passages, clearly setting forth the issues of a mighty struggle that was to continue for twenty-five years and be closed only by a bloody war: “The constitution found slavery, and left it, a state institution—the creature and dependant of state law—wholly local in its existence and character. It did not make it a national institution. . . . Why, then, fellow-citizens, are we now appealing to you? . . . Why is it that the whole nation is moved, as with a mighty wind, by the discussion of the questions involved in the great issue now made up between liberty and slavery? It is, fellow-citizens—and we beg you to mark this—it is because slavery has overleaped its prescribed limits and usurped the control of the national government. We ask you to acquaint yourselves fully with the details and particulars belonging to the topics which we have briefly touched, and we do not doubt that you will concur with us in believing that the honor, the welfare, the safety of our country imperiously require the absolute and unqualified divorce of the government from slavery.” Writing of this late in life Mr. Chase said: “Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles and building up the organization of the party of constitutional freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, and the demands upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed severely all my ability. . . . It seems to me now, on looking back, that I could not help working if I would, and that I was just as really called in the course of Providence to my labors for human freedom as ever any other laborer in the great field of the world was called to his appointed work.” Mr. Chase acted as counsel for so many blacks who were claimed as fugitives that he was at length called by Kentuckians the “attorney-general for runaway negroes,” and the colored people of Cincinnati presented him with a silver pitcher “for his various public services in behalf of the oppressed.” One of his most noted cases was the defence of John Van Zandt (the original of John Van Trompe in “Uncle Tom's Cabin”) in 1842, who was prosecuted for harboring fugitive slaves because he had overtaken a party of them on the road and given them a ride in his wagon. In the final hearing, 1846, William H. Seward was associated with Mr. Chase, neither of them receiving any compensation. 

When the Liberty party, in a national convention held in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1843, nominated James G. Birney for president, the platform was almost entirely the composition of Mr. Chase. But he vigorously opposed the resolution, offered by John Pierpont, declaring that the fugitive-slave-law clause of the constitution was not binding in conscience, but might be mentally excepted in any oath to support the constitution. In 1840 the Liberty party had cast but one in 360 of the entire popular vote of the country. In 1844 it cast one in forty, and caused the defeat of Mr. Clay. The free-soil convention that met in Buffalo in 1848 and nominated Martin Van Buren for president, with Charles Francis Adams for vice-president, was presided over by Mr. Chase. This time the party cast one in nine of the whole number of votes. In February, 1849, the Democrats and the free-soilers in the Ohio legislature formed a coalition, one result of which was the election of Mr. Chase to the U. S. senate. Agreeing with the Democracy of Ohio, which, by resolution in convention, had declared slavery to be an evil, he supported its state policy and nominees, but declared that he would desert it if it deserted the anti-slavery position. In the senate, 26 and 27 March, 1850, he made a notable speech against the so-called “compromise measures,” which included the fugitive-slave law, and offered several amendments, all of which were voted down. When the Democratic convention at Baltimore nominated Franklin Pierce for president in 1852, and approved of the compromise acts of 1850, Senator Chase dissolved his connection with the Democratic party in Ohio. At this time he addressed a letter to Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, suggesting and vindicating the idea of an independent democracy. He made a platform, which was substantially that adopted at the Pittsburg convention, in the same year. He continued his support to the independent democrats until the Kansas-Nebraska bill came up, when he vigorously opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, wrote an appeal to the people against it, and made the first elaborate exposure of its character. His persistent attacks upon it in the senate thoroughly roused the north, and are admitted to have influenced in a remarkable degree the subsequent struggle. During his senatorial career Mr. Chase also advocated economy in the national finances, a Pacific railroad by the shortest and best route, the homestead law (which was intended to develop the northern territories), and cheap postage, and held that the national treasury should defray the expense of providing for safe navigation of the lakes, as well as of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 

In 1855 he was elected governor of Ohio by the opponents of the Pierce administration. His inaugural address recommended single districts for legislative representation, annual instead of biennial sessions of the legislature, and an extended educational system. Soon after his inauguration occurred the Garner tragedy, so called, in which a fugitive slave mother, near Cincinnati, attempted to kill all of her children, and did kill one, to prevent them from being borne back to slave-life in Kentucky. This and other slave-hunts in Ohio so roused and increased the anti-slavery sentiment in that place that Gov. Chase was re-nominated by acclamation, and was re-elected by a small majority, though the American or know-nothing party had a candidate in the field. In the national Republican convention, held at Chicago in 1860, the vote on the first ballot stood: Seward, 173½; Lincoln, 102; Cameron, 50½; Chase, 49. On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln lacked but four of the number necessary to nominate, and these were given by Mr. Chase's friends before the result was declared. When Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated president, 4 March, 1861, he made Gov. Chase secretary of the treasury. The difficulty that he was immediately called upon to grapple with is thus described by Mr. Greeley: “When he accepted the office of secretary of the treasury the finances were already in chaos; the current revenue being inadequate, even in the absence of all expenditure or preparation for war, his predecessor (Cobb, of Georgia) having attempted to borrow $10,000,000, in October, 1860, and obtained only $7,022,000—the bidders to whom the balance was awarded choosing to forfeit their initial deposit rather than take and pay for their bonds. Thenceforth he had tided over, till his resignation, by selling treasury notes, payable a year from date, at 6 to 12 per cent. discount; and when, after he had retired from the scene, Gen. Dix, who succeeded him in Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, attempted (February, 1861) to borrow a small sum on twenty-year bonds at 6 per cent., he was obliged to sell those bonds at an average discount of 9½ per cent. Hence, of Mr. Chase's first loan of $8,000,000, for which bids were opened (2 April) ten days before Beauregard first fired on Fort Sumter, the offerings ranged from 5 to 10 per cent. discount; and only $3,099,000 were tendered at or under 6 per cent. discount—he, in the face of a vehement clamor, declining all bids at higher rates of discount than 6 per cent., and placing soon afterward the balance of the $8,000,000 in two-year treasury notes at par or a fraction over.” When the secretary went to New York for his first loan, the London “Times” declared that he had “coerced $50,000,000 from the banks, but would not fare so well at the London Exchange.” Three years later it said “the hundredth part of Mr. Chase's embarrassments would tax Mr. Gladstone's ingenuity to the utmost, and set the [British] public mind in a ferment of excitement.” In his conference with the bankers the secretary said he hoped they would be able to take the loans on such terms as could be admitted. “If you can not,” said he, “I shall go back to Washington and issue notes for circulation; for it is certain that the war must go on until the rebellion is put down, if we have to put out paper until it takes a thousand dollars to buy a breakfast.” At this time the amount of coin in circulation in the country was estimated at $210,000,000; and it soon became evident that this was insufficient for carrying on the war. The banks could not sell the bonds for coin, and could not meet their obligations in coin, and on 27 Dec., 1861, they agreed to suspend specie payment at the close of the year. In his first report, submitted on the 9th of that month, Sec. Chase recommended retrenchment of expenses wherever possible, confiscation of the property of those in arms against the government, an increase of duties and of the tax on spirits, and a national currency, with a system of national banking associations. This last recommendation was carried out in the issue of “greenbacks,” which were made a legal tender for everything but customs duties, and the establishment of the national banking law. His management of the finances of the government during the first three years of the great war has received nothing but the highest praise. He resigned the secretaryship on 30 June, 1864, and was succeeded a few days later by William P. Fessenden. On 6 Dec., 1864, President Lincoln nominated him to be chief justice of the United States, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Roger B. Taney, and the nomination was immediately confirmed by the senate. In this office he presided at the impeachment trial of President Johnson in 1868. In that year his name was frequently mentioned in connection with the Democratic nomination for the presidency, and in answer to a letter from the chairman of the democratic national committee he wrote: 

“For more than a quarter of a century I have been, in my political views and sentiments, a Democrat, and I still think that upon questions of finance, commerce, and administration generally, the old Democratic principles afford the best guidance. What separated me in former times from both parties was the depth and positiveness of my convictions on the slavery question. On that question I thought the Democratic party failed to make a just application of Democratic principles, and regarded myself as more democratic than the Democrats. In 1849 I was elected to the senate by the united votes of the old-line Democrats and independent Democrats, and subsequently made earnest efforts to bring about a union of all Democrats on the ground of the limitation of slavery to the states in which it then existed, and non-intervention in these states by congress. Had that union been effected, it is my firm belief that the country would have escaped the late civil war and all its evils. I never favored interference by congress with slavery, but as a war measure Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation had my hearty assent, and I united, as a member of his administration, in the pledge made to maintain the freedom of the enfranchised people. I have been, and am, in favor of so much of the reconstruction policy of congress as based the re-organization of the state governments of the south upon universal suffrage. I think that President Johnson was right in regarding the southern states, except Virginia and Tennessee, as being, at the close of the war, without governments which the U.S. government could properly recognize—without governors, judges, legislators, or other state functionaries; but wrong in limiting, by his reconstruction proclamations, the right of suffrage to whites, and only such whites as had the qualification he required. On the other hand, it seemed to me, congress was right in not limiting, by its reconstruction acts, the right of suffrage to the whites; but wrong in the exclusion from suffrage of certain classes of citizens, and of all unable to take a prescribed retrospective oath, and wrong also in the establishment of arbitrary military governments for the states, and in authorizing military commissions for the trial of civilians in time of peace. There should have been as little military government as possible; no military commissions, no classes excluded from suffrage, and no oath except one of faithful obedience and support to the constitution and laws, and sincere attachment to the constitutional government of the United States. I am glad to know that many intelligent southern Democrats agree with me in these views, and are willing to accept universal suffrage and universal amnesty as the basis of reconstruction and restoration. They see that the shortest way to revive prosperity, possible only with contented industry, is universal suffrage now, and universal amnesty, with removal of all disabilities, as speedily as possible through the action of the state and national governments. I have long been a believer in the wisdom and justice of securing the right of suffrage to all citizens by state constitutions and legislation. It is the best guarantee of the stability of institutions, and the prosperity of communities. My views on this subject were well known when the Democrats elected me to the senate in 1849. I have now answered your letter as I think I ought to answer it. I beg you to believe me—for I say it in all sincerity—that I do not desire the office of president, nor a nomination for it. Nor do I know that, with my views and convictions, I am a suitable candidate for any party. Of that my countrymen must judge.” 

Judge Chase subsequently prepared a declaration of principles, embodying the ideas of his letter, and submitted it to those Democrats who desired his nomination, as a platform in that event. But this was not adopted by the convention, and the plan to nominate him, if there was such a plan, failed. In June, 1870, he suffered an attack of paralysis, and from that time till his death he was an invalid. As in the case of President Lincoln and Sec. Stanton, his integrity was shown by the fact that, though he had been a member of the administration when the government was spending millions of dollars a day, he died comparatively poor. His remains were buried in Washington; but in October, 1886, were removed, with appropriate ceremony, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and deposited in Spring Grove cemetery near that city. Besides his reports and decisions, Mr. Chase published a compilation of the statutes of Ohio, with annotations and an historical sketch (3 vols., Cincinnati, 1832). See “Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase,” by J. W. Schuckers (New York, 1874). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 585-588.

 

 

CHASE, Samuel, 1741-1811, Maryland, founding father, jurist.

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

CHASE, Samuel, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Somerset co., Md., 17 April, 1741; d. 19 June, 1811. His father, an Episcopalian clergyman of English birth, and a fine classical scholar, had charge of his early education, and sent him, at the age of eighteen, to study law at Annapolis, where he was admitted to the bar in 1761 and began practice. He was soon prominent in his profession, and became a member of the colonial legislature, where he distinguished himself by his independent bearing and by his opposition to the royal governor. He voted at one time for a resolution relating to the support of the clergy, by which his father, then rector of St. Paul's, Baltimore, lost half his income. He was an ardent patriot, vehemently resisted the stamp-act, and was prominent in an assemblage of the “Sons of liberty” at Annapolis that forcibly opened the public offices, destroyed the stamps, and burned the collector in effigy. He afterward published a letter to the authorities, avowing and defending his connection with this affair. The Maryland convention sent him as one of five delegates to the Continental congress of 1774, and he continued a member of successive congresses until the end of 1778. The Maryland delegates were restricted, by special instructions of the convention, from voting for independence, and Mr. Chase, chafing at being obliged to withhold open support from a measure he so enthusiastically favored, gladly accepted from congress a mission to Canada, in company with Benjamin Franklin and Charles Carroll. The mission, the object of which was to persuade Canada to join the colonies, was fruitless; and on his return Mr. Chase canvassed the state of Maryland, and obtained from county meetings expressions of patriotic sentiment that the convention could not resist. It now voted for independence, and Mr. Chase returned to Philadelphia just in time to join in adopting the decisive resolution. He was appointed on most of the important committees in congress, where his industry was unwearied. In 1778 he drafted an eloquent address to the people of the country, in answer to papers that had been circulated by the tories. During the last two or three years of the war he devoted himself to his private law business, which he had not hesitated to neglect, while in congress, for his public duties. In 1783 he was sent to England by the Maryland legislature, as agent of the state, to recover money that had been invested by it in the bank of England before the war. He remained there for nearly a year, succeeded in recovering $650,000, and made the acquaintance of many eminent lawyers, including Pitt, Fox, and Edmund Burke, whose guest he was for a week. Chase was thanked by the legislature for his “zeal and fidelity, diligence and ability” in this mission. He removed to Baltimore in 1786, became chief justice of a newly established criminal court there in 1788, and also a member of the Maryland convention that adopted the federal constitution. Although he did not think this instrument democratic enough, lamented the “monarchical principles” that had come into vogue, and was an admirer of France, he was throughout his life an earnest federalist. In 1791 he became chief justice of the general court of Maryland, and in 1794 distinguished himself by his course on the occasion of a riot. He had caused the arrest of two popular men as leaders; but they refused to give bail, and the sheriff was apprehensive of a rescue should he take them to prison. “Call out the posse comitatus, then,” said the judge. “Sir,” was the reply, “no one will serve.” “Summon me, then; I will be the posse comitatus; I will take them to jail.” Such was the state of the public mind that the grand jury, instead of presenting the rioters, presented the judge for holding a place in two courts at the same time. He simply told them that they had meddled with topics beyond their province. Washington made Judge Chase an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme court in 1796, and in 1804 his political opponents in congress, led by John Randolph, of Virginia, secured his impeachment by the house for misdemeanor in the conduct of the trials of Fries and Callender for sedition, five years before, and for a recent address to a Maryland grand jury. The requisite two thirds not being obtained, he was discharged by the senate on 5 March, 1805, resumed his seat on the bench, and retained it till his death. The impeachment of Judge Chase excited much sympathy, even among his opponents, on account of his age, his services to the country, and the purity of his judicial record. There is no doubt, however, that it did good in checking the overbearing conduct prevalent at that time on the bench. Judge Chase was better fitted for an advocate than for a judge. He was somewhat irascible, free in censure where he thought it deserved, and always ready to express his political opinions, even on the bench; but the purity of his motives seems beyond question. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

THE REV. THOMAS CHASE, the father of the subject of these pages; was the only son of Samuel Chase, of a highly respectable family in Great Britain. At the age of eighteen Thomas was sent to Eaton College, where, by his close application and untiring zeal, he became a proficient in the Latin and Hebrew languages, and soon after he received the honors of the College. The professorship of those languages was tendered to him, which he gladly accepted, as his father had lately suffered some loss in his pecuniary affairs.

In 1738 he fled from the persecution of Cromwell to the Island of Jamaica, where he practised physic, which science he had studied during his leisure hours at Eaton. He remained in Jamaica but a few months, whence he sailed to the American Colonies; and Somerset County, Maryland, was the place he chose for his residence.

In January, 1740, he was married to Matilda Walker, the daughter of a respectable farmer. The fruit of this union was one son; and the day that presented Mr. CHASE an heir deprived him of his amiable helpmate.

In 1743 Mr. T. Chase was honored with the appointment of rector of St. Paul’s parish in Baltimore, whither he removed with his infant son, who had received the name of SAMUEL.

Deprived of the tender care of a mother, SAMUEL was the sole object of his father’s love, and under the direction of this kind parent he received his education.

At the age of eighteen he went to Annapolis, where he studied law under the direction of John Hammond and John Hall; and in 1761 he was admitted to the Provincial Courts.

The year following he was united to Miss Anne Baldwin of Annapolis, a lady of distinguished merit, pious, amiable, affable and courteous. This union was blessed with six children, two only of whom are now living—SAMUEL CHASE, his second son, at present holding an office of judge in the District of Columbia, and Miss Anne Chase.

Mr. CHASE soon became distinguished as a lawyer, and engaged with great zeal in opposing the odious and oppressive measures of Great Britain.

In 1764 he commenced his public life in the General Assembly of Maryland, and was an active member of that body for upwards of twenty years.

He was among the first opposers of the Stamp Act, and engaged, in the most decisive manner, to frustrate its malignant effects. He was one of the framers of the famous “Declaration of Rights of Maryland,” and its firm supporter.

His leisure hours were also devoted to his country, in arousing the people to a sense of their wrongs by essays and pamphlets.

In 1774 he was chosen a delegate to the first Congress.

In 1776 he was again chosen to represent Maryland in the general Congress; and it may be said that Maryland, who had refused her consent, was induced by his entreaties to unite in declaring the United States free and independent.

His whole conduct in this Assembly was marked by activity and zeal, and a firm adherence to the principles of liberty breathed forth in the Declaration of Independence.

The name of CHASE is found on many of the most important committees, and he was ever at his post.

In 1782 he was appointed by the Governor of Maryland, Agent and Trustee of the State of Maryland to recover the stock in the Bank of England owned by the State; and for this purpose he proceeded to England, where he remained one year, enjoying the intimacy of Fox, Pitt, Burke, and other great luminaries of the day. It would not be amiss here to state that the late William Pinckney was a student in his office at this time. Young Pinckney styled Mr. CHASE his “Patron and his Friend.”

In March, 1783, Mr. CHASE was married to Miss Hannah Kilty Giles of London, by whom he had two daughters; the eldest, Eliza, the widow of Dr. Skipwith Coale, now residing in Baltimore; and Mary, his second daughter, who was married to the eldest son of Commodore Barney, and who has proved herself an American matron, worthy to be the daughter of Judge CHASE and daughter-in-law of a hero.

In 1786 the liberality of the late Col. John Eager Howard induced him to remove to Baltimore.

In 1791 he was appointed Judge of the General Court of Maryland, and in 1793 he received the appointment of Judge of the Criminal Court for Baltimore County; but it being thought unconstitutional to hold these two offices, he resigned his seat in the General Court.

In 1796 General Washington offered him a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. It was in the discharge of his duties in this Court that faction armed his opponents, and he was arraigned at the bar of his country to defend his slandered character. His defence on this occasion has been pronounced the most able production of the bar of this country; Aaron Burr, then Vice-President of the United States, presided at this trial; and the even-handed justice he dealt out was ever a subject of praise by Mr. CHASE.

The late Chief Justice Marshall, in a letter dated May 6th, 1834, to one of Judge CHASE’S descendants, writes of Judge CHASE:—

“He possessed a strong mind, great legal knowledge, and was a valuable judge, whose loss was seriously felt by his survivors.

“He was remarkable also for his vivacity and companionable qualities. He said many things which were much admired at the time, but I have not treasured them in my memory so as to be able to communicate them.”

Judge Duvall, in a letter of the same date, writes:—

“I knew Judge CHASE intimately, from the year 1775 until the time of his decease. At the commencement of the revolution, Mr. CHASE, as an advocate at the bar, was at least on a level with the ablest lawyers in Maryland, and in my judgment he never had a superior.

“He was constantly engaged in public life, and in legislative assemblies he was more able and powerful than at the bar.

“The late Chancellor Hanson always said that Mr. CHASE was the ablest speaker he ever heard in a legislative assembly; and Mr. Hanson was capable of forming a correct opinion.

“His knowledge increased with his years. During the Revolutionary contest it may be said with truth, that in Maryland he was the foremost in supporting American rights. Always at his post in the legislature, he took the lead: and his talents enabled him to be formidable and influential. His zeal and patriotism led him into many political controversies, all of which he maintained with ability.

“Mr. CHASE’s opinions as a Judge of the Supreme Court are held in high estimation. Whilst on the bench of the General Court of Maryland, his opinions were applauded. He was an able civilian and jurist.

“The truth of these general remarks, as to Mr. CHASE’S character is known to every man who lived in his time and during the revolution.”

In his private life he was a kind husband, a fond parent, and a lenient master. For many months he had suffered under a severe disease, ossification of the heart, and had purposed a journey to the North for the benefit of his health; but on the day previous he was taken suddenly ill, he called for writing materials, but it was too late; and he died without making a will, on the 19th of June, 1811, at the mature age of seventy years, a great and good man.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 4.

 

 

CHASE, William M.,   , Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1841-42

 

 

CHEADLE, Rial, Ohio, abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad.  Aided fugitive slaves.

 

 

CHEANEY, Person Colby, 1828-1901, Manchester, New Hampshire, statesman, soldier, abolitionist, businessman, paper manufacturer, Republican politician, abolitionist.  U.S. Senator, 35th Governor of New Hampshire.  His father was abolitionist Moses Cheney.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 54)

 

 

CHEEVER, George Barrell, 1807-1890, Salem, MA, clergyman, author, abolitionist.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1835-1837.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 597; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 48)

 

CHEEVER, George Barrell, clergyman and author, b. in Hallowell, Me., 17 April, 1807. He was the son of Nathaniel Cheever, who removed from Salem, Mass., to Hallowell and established the “American Advocate,” was graduated at Bowdoin in 1825, at Andover seminary in 1830, and was ordained pastor of Howard street Congregational church, Boston, in 1832. While at Andover and Salem he contributed prose and verse to the “North American Review,” “Biblical Repository,” and other periodicals. Engaging in the Unitarian controversy, he wrote a “Defence of the Orthodoxy of Cudworth,” and, espousing the temperance cause, published in a Salem newspaper in 1835 an allegory entitled “Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery.” The friends of the deacon made a riotous attack on Mr. Cheever, and he was tried for libel and imprisoned thirty days. Resigning his pastorate, he went to Europe, contributed letters to the “New York Observer,” and on his return in 1839 took charge of the Allen street Presbyterian church, New York city. He delivered lectures on the “Pilgrim's Progress,” and on “Hierarchical Despotism,” the latter being in answer to a discourse of Bishop Hughes. In 1843, in three public debates with J. L. O'Sullivan, he argued for capital punishment. He was in Europe in 1844 as corresponding editor of the New York “Evangelist,” of which he was principal editor after his return in 1845. From 1846 until he retired in 1870 he was pastor of the Church of the Puritans, which was organized for him, in New York, and was distinguished as a preacher for his rigorous and forcible application of orthodox principles to questions of practical moment, such as the Dred Scott decision, the banishment of the Bible from the public schools, the operation of railroads on Sundays, the war with Mexico, intemperance, and slavery. On retiring from the pulpit, Dr. Cheever gave his house in New York to the American board of commissioners for foreign missions and the American missionary association, to be held jointly, and fixed his residence at Englewood, N. J. He contributed much to the “Independent” and the “Bibliotheca Sacra.” Among his publications are “Commonplace Book of Prose” (Cooperstown, 1828); “Studies in Poetry” (Boston, 1830); an edition of the “Select Works of Archbishop Leighton” (1832); “Commonplace Book of Poetry” (Philadelphia, 1839); “God's Hand in America” (New York, 1841); “Lectures on Hierarchical Despotism”; “Lectures on the ‘Pilgrim's Progress’” (1844); “Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Switzerland” (1845-'6); “Defence of Capital Punishment” (1846); with J. E. Sweetser, “Christian Melodies, a Selection of Hymns and Tunes”; “Poets of America” (Hartford, 1847); “The Hill of Difficulty” (1847); “Journal of the Pilgrims, Plymouth, New England, 1620,” reprinted from the original volumes, with illustrations (1848); “Punishment by Death, its Authority and Expediency” (1849); “Windings of the River of the Water of Life” (New York, 1849); “The Voice of Nature to her Foster-Child, the Soul of Man” (1852); “Powers of the World to Come” (1853); “Thoughts for the Afflicted”; “The Right of the Bible in our Public Schools” (1854); “Lectures on the Life, Genius, and Insanity of Cowper” (1856); “God against Slavery, and the Freedom and Duty of the Pulpit to Rebuke it” (1857); “Guilt of Slavery and Crime of Slaveholding” (1860). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 597.

 

 

CHEEVER, Henry T., Jewitt City, Connecticut, S. Royalston, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Secretary, 1859-62, 1862-64

 

 

CHENEY, Abigail, New Hampshire, abolitionist.  Wife of abolitionist Moses Cheney.  Conductor on the Underground Railroad.  (Cheney, 1907)

 

 

CHENEY, Ednah Dow Littlehale, 1824-1904, abolitionist, women’s rights activist (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 164-165; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 777)

 

 

CHENEY, Moses, 1793-1875, New Hampshire, printer, state legislator, abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad in Peterborough.  He was printer for abolitionist, free will Baptist newspaper, The Morning Star.  (Cheney, 1907)

 

 

CHENEY, Oren B.

 

 

CHENEY, Person Colby, 1828-1901

 

 

CHESTER, Elisha W., New York, New York, abolitionist.  American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1853-55

 

 

CHENEY, Moses, 1793-1875, New Hampshire, abolitionist, printer, state legislator from New Hampshire.  Cheney printed the abolitionist newspaper, The Morning Star, a Free Will Baptist newspaper.  He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad and an associate of African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.  Husband of Abigail Cheney.  (Cheney, 1907)

 

 

CHENEY, Oren B., 1816-1903, Maine, Free Will Baptist clergyman, state legislator in Maine, educator, newspaper editor, abolitionist.  Editor of The Morning Star.  Founder and President of Bates College.  Conductor on the Underground Railroad for seven years.  Son of abolitionists Moses and Abigail Cheney.  (Cheney, 1907)

 

 

CHENEY, Person Colby, 1828-1901, abolitionist, businessman, Union Army officer.  Son of Moses and Abigail Cheney.  Later, Governor and Senator from New Hampshire.  (Cheney, 1907)

 

 

CHILD, David Lee, 1794-1874, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, author, journalist.  Leader, manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Child served as a manager and a member of the Executive Committee of the AASS, 1840-1843, Vice-President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1836.  Published The Despotism of Freedom—or The Tyranny and Cruelty of American Republican Slaveholders.  Co-editor with his wife, Lydia, of The Anti-Slavery Standard.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 269; Mabee, 1970, pp. 193, 327; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 398, 399; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 603-604; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 65; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 165-166; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 804; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 324)

 

CHILD, David Lee, journalist, b. in West Boylston, Mass., 8 July, 1794; d. in Wayland, Mass., 18 Sept., 1874. He was graduated at Harvard in 1817, and was for some time sub-master of the Boston Latin-school. He was secretary of legation in Lisbon about 1820, and subsequently fought in Spain, “defending what he considered the cause of freedom against her French invaders.” Returning to this country in 1824, he began in 1825 to study law with his uncle, Tyler Bigelow, in Watertown, Mass., and was admitted to the bar. He went to Belgium in 1836 to study the beet-sugar industry, and afterward received a silver medal for the first manufacture of the sugar in this country. He edited the “Massachusetts Journal,” about 1830, and while a member of the legislature denounced the annexation of Texas, afterward publishing a pamphlet on the subject, entitled “Naboth's Vineyard.” He was an early member of the anti-slavery society, and in 1832 addressed a series of letters on slavery and the slave-trade to Edward S. Abdy, an English philanthropist. He also published ten articles on the same subject (Philadelphia, 1836). During a visit to Paris in 1837 he addressed an elaborate memoir to the Société pour l'abolition d'esclavage, and sent a paper on the same subject to the editor of the “Eclectic Review” in London. John Quincy Adams was much indebted to Mr. Child's facts and arguments in the speeches that he delivered in congress on the Texan question. With his wife he edited the “Anti-Slavery Standard” in New York in 1843-'44. He was distinguished for the independence of his character, and the boldness with which he denounced social wrongs and abuses. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 603-604.

 

 

CHILD, Lydia Maria Francis, 1802-1880, author, reformer, abolitionist, member Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.  Wrote for the Liberty Bell.  Executive Committee, American Anti-Slavery Society.  Prolific writer and ardent abolitionist.  In 1840’s, edited National Anti-Slavery Standard newspaper.  Child published: Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (1833), Romance of the Republic (1867), Authentic Accounts of American Slavery (1835), The Evils of Slavery, and the Cure of Slavery (1836), Anti-Slavery Catechism (1836), The Right Way, the Safe Way, Proved by Emancipation in the British West Indies and Elsewhere (1860), Freedmen’s Book (1865), and articles “The Patriarchal Institution” and “The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Law,” (1860), and edited Harriet Ann Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861).  (Drake, 1950, pp. 117, 176; Dumond, 1961, pp. 273, 281; Karcher, 1994; Mabee, 1970, pp. 37, 70, 108, 193, 320, 325, 359, 360; Meltzer, 1992; Meltzer & Holland, 1982; Nathan, 1991, p. 131; Pease, 1965, pp. 86-91; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 44, 199, 221-222, 398, 399, 519; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 97-98, 113-114, 185; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 603-604; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 67; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 167-170; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 806; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 324-325)

 

CHILD, Lydia Maria, author, b. in Medford, Mass., 11 Feb., 1802; d. in Wayland, Mass., 20 Oct., 1880, was descended from Richard Francis, who came from England and settled in Cambridge in 1636. Miss Francis attended the common schools, and studied with her brother, Rev. Convers Francis, D. D., afterward professor in the divinity-school at Cambridge. When seventeen years of age she chanced to read an article in the “North American Review,” discussing the field offered to the novelist by early New England history. Although she had never thought of becoming an author, she immediately wrote the first chapter of a novel entitled “Hobomok,” and, encouraged by her brother's commendation, finished it in six weeks, and published it (Cambridge, 1821). From this time until her death she wrote continually. She had taught for one year in a seminary in Medford, Mass., and kept a private school in Watertown, Mass., from 1824 till 1828, when she was married. She began, in 1826, the publication of the “Juvenile Miscellany,” the first monthly periodical for children issued in the United States, and supervised it for eight years. In 1831 both Mr. and Mrs. Child became deeply interested in the subject of slavery, through the writings and the personal influence of William Lloyd Garrison. Mrs. Child's “Appeal for that Class of Americans called African” (Boston, 1833) was the first anti-slavery work printed in America in book-form, and was followed by several smaller works on the same subject. The “Appeal” attracted much attention, and Dr. Channing, who attributed to it part of his interest in the slavery question, walked from Boston to Roxbury to thank Mrs. Child for the book. She had to endure social ostracism, but from this time was a conspicuous champion of anti-slavery. On the establishment by the American anti-slavery society of the “National Anti-Slavery Standard” in New York city, in 1840, she became its editor, and conducted it till 1843, when her husband took the place of editor-in-chief, and she acted as his assistant till May, 1844. During her stay in New York, Mrs. Child was an inmate of the family of Isaac T. Hopper, the Quaker philanthropist. After leaving New York, Mr. and Mrs. Child settled in Wayland, Mass., where they spent the rest of their life. In 1859 Mrs. Child wrote a letter of sympathy to John Brown, then a prisoner at Harper's Ferry, offering her services as a nurse, and enclosing the letter in one to Gov. Wise. Brown replied, declining her offer, but asking her to aid his family, which she did. She also received a letter of courteous rebuke from Gov. Wise, and a singular epistle from the wife of Senator Mason, author of the fugitive slave law, threatening her with future damnation. She replied to both in her best vein, and the whole series of letters was published in pamphlet-form (Boston, 1860), and had a circulation of 300,000. Mrs. Child's anti-slavery writings contributed in no slight degree to the formation of public sentiment on the subject. During her later years she contributed freely to aid the national soldiers in the civil war, and afterward to help the freedmen. Wendell Phillips, in his address at Mrs. Child's funeral, thus delineated her character: “She was the kind of woman one would choose to represent woman's entrance into broader life. Modest, womanly, sincere, solid, real, loyal, to be trusted, equal to affairs, and yet above them; a companion with the password of every science and all literature.” Mrs. Child's numerous books, published during a period of half a century, include, besides the works already mentioned, “The Rebels, or Boston before the Revolution,” a novel containing an imaginary speech of James Otis, and a sermon by Whitefield, both of which were received by many people as genuine (Boston, 1822); “The First Settlers of New England” (1829); “The American Frugal Housewife,” a book of kitchen economy and directions (1829; 33d ed., 1855); “The Mother's Book,” “The Girl's Own Book,” and the “Coronal,” a collection of verses (1831); “The Ladies' Family Library,” a series of biographies (5 vols., 1832-'5); “Philothea,” a romance of Greece in the days of Pericles (1835); “Letters from New York,” written to the Boston “Courier” (2 vols., 1843-'5); “Flowers for Children” (3 vols., 1844-'6); “Fact and Fiction” (1846); “The Power of Kindness” (Philadelphia, 1851); “Isaac T. Hopper, a True Life” (1853); “The Progress of Religious Ideas through Successive Ages,” an ambitious work, showing great diligence, but containing much that is inaccurate (3 vols., New York, 1855); “Autumnal Leaves” (1856); “Looking Toward Sunset” (1864); the “Freedman's Book” (1865); “Miria, a Romance of the Republic” (1867); and “Aspirations of the World” (1878). A volume of Mrs. Child's letters, with an introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips, was published after her death (Boston, 1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 603-604. 

 

 

CHILDS, William H. , New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

CHIVINGTON, John, abolitionist.

 

 

CHON, Katherine, abolitionist

 

 

CHRISTIANCY, Isaac Peckham, b. 1812, Johnstown, New York.

 

CHRISTIANCY, Isaac Peckham, senator, b. in Johnstown (now Bleecker), N. Y., 12 March, 1812. He was educated at the academies of Kingsborough and Ovid, N. Y., and when thirteen years old became the main support of his father's family. After teaching school he studied law with John Maynard till 1836, when he removed to Monroe, Mich., and, on the completion of his law studies, was admitted to the bar. He was prosecuting attorney for Monroe county from 1841 till 1846, and in 1848 was a delegate to the Buffalo free-soil convention, having left the democratic party on the question of slavery. He was a member of the state senate from 1850 till 1852, and in the latter year was the free-soil candidate for governor. He was one of the founders of the republican party in Michigan, and was a delegate to its first national convention in Philadelphia in 1856. He purchased the Monroe “Commercial” in 1857, and became its editor, and in the same year was an unsuccessful candidate for U. S. senator. He was elected a judge of the State supreme court in 1857, re-elected in 1865 and 1873, both times without opposition, and became chief justice in January, 1872. He was elected U. S. senator in 1875, and, resigning in February, 1879, on account of ill health, was sent as minister to Peru, where he remained for two years. During the civil war Judge Christiancy was for a time on the staff of Gen. Custer and that of Gen. A. A. Humphreys. His judicial opinions, which are to be found in the “Michigan Reports” from volumes 5 to 31, inclusive, contain the best work of his life. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CHRISTY, David, b. 1802, abolitionist. (Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 97)

 

 

CHURCH, Jefferson, abolitionist, Springfield, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1851-53, Vice President.

 

 

CHURCH, William, abolitionist, New York, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-41

 

 

CHURCHMAN, Mordecai, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 131)

 

 

CINQUE, b. circa 1800, Caw-Mendi, Africa.

 

CINQUE, chief of the Mendi Africans, b. in Caw-Mendi, Africa, about 1800. In the spring of 1839 he was captured by slave-traders, with a large company of his countrymen and women, and taken to Havana, Cuba. Fifty-two of them were purchased by Montes and Ruiz, two Cuban planters, and shipped for a port on the southern coast of Cuba, on the schooner “Amistad.” Cinque organized a plan for regaining the freedom of the captives, and, when four days out from Havana, gave the prearranged signal for revolt. The captain of the schooner was killed with one of his crew, and two others were wounded in the fight that followed, while the rest surrendered. The passengers and crew were treated kindly and sent ashore; but Montes and Ruiz; the nominal owners, were retained on board and given to understand that they must navigate the vessel to Africa. The Spaniards managed to steer northward by night and during foggy weather, and after a few days sighted Montauk Point, L. I., where they anchored, and were presently taken in charge by the U. S. coast survey schooner “Washington,” whose commander, Lieut. Gedney, claimed salvage for vessel and cargo, Montes and Ruiz, through the Spanish minister, claimed the Africans as their property. The whole company was sent to Farmington, Conn., where quarters were provided for them pending the decision of the courts. The philanthropists of New England took an active interest in the case, engaged Roger Sherman Baldwin and other eminent lawyers as counsel, and began energetically to educate and convert the heathen thus brought to their doors. It is noteworthy that the residents of the little village where this strange colony was planted soon outgrew their dread of the Africans, and during the months of their stay learned to regard them without apprehension. Cinque exercised a stern rule over them, and would permit no transgression. Many of them, including their chief, learned to read and write a little, and acquired some ideas of civilization. In the mean time the case came up before the U. S. district court for the state of Connecticut, the U. S. district attorney appearing on behalf of Montes and Ruiz as well as of the Spanish minister. Never before had the country been so sharply divided on a question touching slavery. All trials for violation of the law prohibiting the slave-trade had until this time been held before southern courts, and no one had been convicted. The pro-slavery party regarded with natural apprehension the result of such a trial on the soil of a free state. Mr. John Quincy Adams, who was the anti-slavery leader in the house of representatives at the time, introduced resolutions calling on the president to communicate to congress the process or authority by which these Africans, charged with no crime, were kept in custody. Further than this, it was held by the advanced anti-slavery leaders that slavery and slave-dealing constitute a perpetual war between the enslaver and the enslaved. They alleged the right of persons held as were the “‘Amistad’ captives,” not only to overpower their guards whenever they could do so, but to hold them as prisoners and the ship and cargo as their lawful prize. They held that the U. S. government had no right to interfere between the Africans and the Cuban planters, and that the former had a valid claim to the ship and her cargo. After a protracted investigation the Connecticut court decided against the libellants, who promptly appealed to the U. S. supreme court. The venerable John Quincy Adams appeared with Mr. Baldwin as counsel. The progress of the trial was watched with intense interest by the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions throughout the country. The court eventually declared in substance that these Africans were born free, that they had never been legally held as slaves, and that they were amenable to no punishment for anything they had done. They were sent back to their native land at the public expense, and a Mendi mission was established and is still maintained for their benefit by the American missionary association not far from Sierra Leone. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CLAFLIN, Horace Brigham, 1811-1885, Milford, Massachusetts, merchant, philanthropist, opponent of slavery.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 618; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 110)

 

CLAFLIN, Horace Brigham, merchant, b. in Milford, Mass., 18 Dec., 1811; d. in Fordham, N. Y., 14 Nov., 1885. He was the son of John Claflin, a general country storekeeper, farmer, and justice of the peace, and received his education at the common school and Milford academy. His first business experience was as a clerk in his father's employ, and in 1831, with his brother Aaron and his brother-in-law, Samuel Daniels, he succeeded to his father's business. In 1832 they opened a dry-goods store in Worcester, in connection with their establishment in Milford. This venture proved successful, and in 1833 Aaron took the Milford store, leaving the other partners in exclusive possession of the Worcester business. In 1843 Horace removed to New York, and, with William F. Bulkley, organized the house of Bulkley & Claflin and began a wholesale dry-goods business at No. 46 Cedar street. In 1850 the firm built a store at No. 57 Broadway, which they occupied from January, 1851, until 1853. Mr. Bulkley retired from the partnership in July, 1851, when, with William H. Mellen and several of his principal clerks, he continued his business as Claflin, Mellen & Co. Meanwhile their trade increased very rapidly, and larger accommodation became necessary. Mr. Claflin, with others, then erected the Trinity building, at No. 111 Broadway, whither the business was transferred. In 1861 another change was necessary, and the enormous warehouse on Worth street, extending from Church street to West Broadway, was secured. The beginning of the civil war, coming suddenly at this time, found the firm's assets largely locked up and rendered almost worthless, and they were compelled to ask from their creditors an extension of time in which to settle their accounts. These liabilities were subsequently paid with interest long before maturity, and the house entered upon a career of unparalleled prosperity. At the beginning of 1864 Mr. Mellen retired from the firm, which then adopted the style of H. B. Claflin & Co. The panic of 1873 again caused the firm to ask their creditors for an extension of five months, with interest added in settlement of their open accounts. Notwithstanding the enormous amounts that they were unable to collect at that time, no paper with their name on it went to protest, and their notes were all paid in three months, sixty days before maturity. During a single year the sales of this house have amounted to $72,000,000; and the ability of Mr. Claflin may be judged by the magnitude of the business, which from 1865 to the time of his death far exceeded that of any other commercial house in the world. He was a man of domestic habits and of exemplary life, fond of books and of horses. Almost daily, no matter what the weather might be, he drove from ten to twenty miles. He was prominently associated with Mr. Beecher's church in Brooklyn, where he resided during the winter. His acts of charity were frequent and unostentatious, and to many of the benevolent institutions of Brooklyn he was a liberal donor. It was a great satisfaction to him to assist young men, and probably no other person in the United States aided so many beginners with money and credit until they were able to sustain themselves. In politics he was a strong republican until the canvass of 1884, when he supported the democratic candidate for the presidency. Mr. Claflin was a man of very strong convictions, and in 1850, when it cost something to be known as an opponent of slavery, he was an uncompromising friend of freedom. See “Tribute of the Chamber of Commerce to the Memory of Horace B. Claflin” (New York, 1886). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CLAFLIN, Jehiel C., abolitionist, West Brookfield, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1855-1853.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice President, 1841-1860.

 

 

CLAFLIN, William H., Newton, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1859-62

 

 

CLAPP, Richard, abolitionist, Dorchester, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1852-60.

 

 

CLARK, Ambrose W., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

CLARK, Daniel, 1809-1891, lawyer, jurist, organizer and founder of the Republican Party, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, ardent supporter of the Union.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 625; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 125; Congressional Globe)

 

CLARK, Daniel, senator, b. in Stratham, Rockingham co., N. H., 24 Oct., 1809. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1834 with the highest honors of his class, studied law, and began practice at Epping, N. H., in 1837. He removed to Manchester, N. H., in 1839, and was a member of the legislature for five years. He was elected U. S. senator in 1857 for the unexpired term of James Bell, deceased, and was re-elected in 1861, serving till he resigned in July, 1866. He was president pro tem. of the senate for some time in 1864-'5. On 11 July, 1861, Senator Clark offered a resolution, which was adopted, expelling from the senate the southern senators who had left their seats on the secession of their states. He took an active part in the debates of the senate, and was a steadfast supporter of the government during the civil war. On his resignation, he was appointed by President Johnson U. S. judge for the district of New Hampshire. He was president of the New Hampshire constitutional convention of 1876. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 625. 

 

 

CLARK, Dexter, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CLARK, John, 1758-1833, b. Inverness, Scotland, clergyman, anti-slavery activist.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 628)

 

CLARK, John, clergyman, b. in Petty, near Inverness, Scotland, 29 Nov., 1758; d. in St. Louis. Mo., 11 Oct., 1833. He received a common-school education, worked for a few years as a copyist in public offices in Inverness, and in 1778 shipped as a sailor on board a transport. He then served one year on a privateer, sailed as second mate to the West Indies, and was impressed into the British navy at Barbadoes. He deserted and shipped on board a merchantman, which was captured by the Spanish, and Clark was for nineteen months a prisoner at Havana. Soon after he was released he was again impressed, but escaped by swimming two miles to shore, when the vessel was off Charleston. S. C. After various adventures, he taught a backwoods school in South Carolina, and then in Georgia, where he was also appointed a class-leader among the Methodists. After a visit to his home, which he reached by working his way before the mast, he returned to the United States in 1789 and became an itinerant Methodist preacher in Georgia. He had scruples on the subject of slavery, and once refused his yearly salary of $60 because it was the proceeds of slave labor. He withdrew from the Methodist church in 1796 on account of doctrinal differences, and went to Illinois, where he taught, preached, and finally joined the anti-slavery Baptists calling themselves “The Baptized Church of Christ: Friends of Humanity.” When not teaching, “Father Clark,” as he was called, made long preaching tours. One of these, in 1807, was to the “Florida Parishes” in Louisiana, a journey of 1,200 miles, which was performed alone, in a frail canoe. He returned to Illinois on foot, and revisited Louisiana in 1811. Father Clark preferred to travel on foot, and on one occasion, when he was seventy years old, walked all night to fulfil an appointment, going sixty-six miles over a muddy road. Unlike many western pioneer preachers, he was neat in his dress and quiet in his manner. A sketch of him has been published by an old pioneer (New York, 1855). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 628. 

 

 

CLARK, John G., anti-slavery activist, S. Kingston, Rhode Island, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-40.

 

 

CLARK, Myron Holley, 1806-1892, Governor of New York State.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 630; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 138)

 

CLARK, Myron Holley, governor of New York, b. in Naples, Ontario co., N. Y., 23 Oct., 1806. His grandfather, Col. William Clark, removed from Berkshire county, Mass., to Ontario county, N. Y., in 1790. Myron was educated in a district school at Naples, attending from three to four months annually, when between six and seventeen years old. After filling several offices in his native town, and becoming lieutenant-colonel of state militia, he was sheriff of Ontario county for two years, and, having removed to Canandaigua, was president of that village in 1850 and 1851, and state senator from 1852 till 1854. During Mr. Clark's first term as senator in 1852-'3, the law was passed consolidating the several railroads now forming the New York central, and it was largely by his persistent firmness that the provision limiting passenger fares to two cents a mile was adopted. As chairman of the committee on the subject, he was influential in securing the passage of the prohibitory liquor law that was vetoed by Gov. Seymour. In 1854 the anti-slavery wings of both the whig and democratic parties, the prohibitionists, and several independent organizations separately nominated Mr. Clark for governor, and he was elected by a small majority, his supporters in some of their state organizations taking the name of “republicans,” thus making him the earliest state candidate of that party. During his administration a new prohibitory law was passed, and signed by him. It remained in force about nine months, when it was set aside by the court of appeals. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CLARK, Peter H., 1829-1925, free African American, Ohio, abolitionist, publisher, editor, writer, orator.  Published anti-slavery newspaper, The Herald of Freedom, in Ohio. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 58)

 

 

CLARKE, Augustine, 1771-1841, Danville, Vermont, attorney, banker, politician, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

CLARKE, E. W., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971, p. 50)

 

 

CLARKE, Freeman, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

CLARKE, George L., 1813-1890, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.  Member of Free-Soil and Liberty Parties.

 

 

CLARKE, J. C., New York, American Colonization Society, Director, 1840-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

CLARKE, James Freeman, 1779-1839, jurist, lawyer, opponent of slavery.  Governor of Kentucky.  U.S. Congressman.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 628)

 

 

CLARKE, Lewis G., 1815-1897, African American, anti-slavery lecturer, author, escaped slave.  Dictated his recollections of slavery to abolitionist Joseph C. Lovejoy in 1845.  Published as Narratives of the Sufferings of Lewis and Milton Clarke… (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 100; American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 979)

 

 

CLARKE, Matthew E., Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Manager, 1835-39, Executive Committee, 1839-1840.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

CLARKE, Peleg C., abolitionist, Coventry, Rhode Island, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40, 1840-42.

 

 

 

CLARKSON, Matthew, 1758-1825, Regent of the State University of New York, member of the New York Manumission Society.  Petitioned Congress against slavery on behalf of the New York Manumission Society.  Introduced bill to end slavery in New York Assembly. (Goodell, 1852, p. 95; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 160, 166; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 166)

 

 

CLARKSON, Thomas, abolitionist (Basker, 2005, pp. 3, 57, 128, 132, 148, 162, 169 170, 241; Bruns, 1977, pp. 79, 145, 314; Goodell, 1852, pp. 56-59, 66, 355-360, 393, 444)

 

 

CLARY, Dr. Lyman, abolitionist, indicted in the rescue of fugitive slave, Jerry.

 

 

CLAY, Cassius Marcellus, 1810-1903, Madison County, Kentucky, anti-slavery political leader, emancipationist, large landowner, statesman, lawyer, diplomat, soldier, newspaper publisher. Prominent anti-slavery activist with Kentucky State legislature and member of the Republican Party.  Published anti-slavery paper, True American, in Lexington, Kentucky. (Blue, 2005, pp. 151, 171; Clay, 1896; Dumond, 1961, p. 258; Filler, 1960, pp. 213, 221, 248, 256, 272; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 237, 258-259, 327, 336, 372; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 5, 63, 64, 71, 107, 147, 156, 199; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 380, 619; Smiley, 1962; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 503, 577, 639-640; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 18; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 171-173; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 311-312)

 

CLAY, Cassius Marcellus, politician, b. in Madison county, Ky., 19 Oct., 1810, studied at Transylvania university, but afterward entered the junior class at Yale, and was graduated there in 1832. While in New Haven he heard William Lloyd Garrison, and, although his parents were slave-holders, became an earnest abolitionist. He began to practise law in his native county, and was elected to the legislature in 1835, but was defeated the next year on account of his advocacy of internal improvements. He was again elected in 1837, and in 1839 was a member of the convention that nominated Gen. Harrison for the presidency. He then removed to Lexington, and was again a member of the legislature in 1840, but in 1841 was defeated, after an exciting canvass, on account of his anti-slavery views. The improved jury system and the common-school system of Kentucky are largely due to his efforts while in the legislature. Mr. Clay denounced the proposed annexation of Texas, as intended to extend slavery, and in 1844 actively supported Henry Clay for the presidency, speaking in his behalf in the northern states. On 3 June, 1845, he issued in Lexington the first number of an anti-slavery paper entitled “The True American.” Mob violence had been threatened, and the editor had prepared himself for it. He says in his memoirs: “I selected for my office a brick building, and lined the outside doors with sheet-iron, to prevent it being burned. I purchased two brass four-pounder cannon at Cincinnati, and placed them, loaded with shot and nails, on a table, breast high; had folding-doors secured with a chain, which could open upon the mob and give play to the cannon. I furnished my office with Mexican lances, and a limited number of guns. There were six or eight persons who stood ready to defend me. If defeated, they were to escape by a trap-door in the roof; and I had placed a keg of powder with a match, which I could set off and blow up the office and all my invaders; and this I should most certainly have done in case of the last extremity.” In August, while the editor was sick, his press was seized by the mob and taken to Cincinnati, and he himself was threatened with assassination; but, notwithstanding all opposition, he continued to publish the paper, printing it in Cincinnati and circulating it through Kentucky. This was not his only narrow escape. He was continually involved in quarrels, had several bloody personal encounters, and habitually spoke in political meetings, with a bowie knife concealed about him, and a brace of pistols in the mouth of his grip-sack, which he placed at his feet. When war with Mexico was declared, Mr. Clay entered the army as captain of a volunteer infantry company that had already distinguished itself at Tippecanoe in 1811. He took this course because he thought a military title necessary to political advancement in a “fighting state” like Kentucky. On 23 Jan., 1847, while in the van, more than 100 miles in advance of the main army, he was taken prisoner, with seventy-one others, at Encarnacion, and marched to the city of Mexico. On one occasion, after the escape of some of the captives, the lives of the remainder were saved by Capt. Clay's gallantry and presence of mind. After being exchanged, he returned to Kentucky, and was presented by his fellow-citizens with a sword in honor of his services. He worked for Gen. Taylor's nomination in the convention of 1848, and carried Kentucky for him. He called a convention of emancipationists at Frankfort, Ky., in 1849, and in 1850, separating from the whig party, was an anti-slavery candidate for governor, receiving about 5,000 votes. He labored energetically for Frémont's election in 1856, and for Lincoln's in 1860, but took pains to separate himself from the “radical abolitionists,” holding that all interference with slavery should be by legal methods. On 28 March, 1861, he was appointed minister to Russia. He returned to this country in June, 1862, having been commissioned major-general of volunteers, and shortly afterward made a speech in Washington, declaring that he would never draw his sword while slavery was protected in the seceding states. He resigned on 11 March, 1863, and was again sent as minister to Russia, publicly supported the revolutionary movement in Cuba, and became president of the Cuban aid society. In 1871 he delivered an address by invitation at the St. Louis fair, urging speedy reconciliation with the north, and at the same time attacking President Grant's administration. He was identified with the liberal republican movement in 1872, and supported his old friend Horace Greeley for the presidency. He afterward joined the democratic party, and actively supported Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, but advocated Blaine's election in 1884. In 1877 Mr. Clay shot and killed a negro, Perry White, whom he had discharged from his service and who had threatened his life. Mr. Clay was tried, and the jury gave a verdict of “justifiable homicide.” A volume of his speeches was edited by Horace Greeley (1848), and he has published “The Life, Memoirs, Writings, and Speeches of Cassius M. Clay” (2 vols., Cincinnati, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 503, 577, 639-640.

 

 

CLAY, Henry, 1777-1852, Kentucky, statesman, political leader, U.S. Senator, Congressman, Speaker of the House of Representatives, 12th, 13th, and 18th Congress, Presidential candidate.  Founder of the American Colonization Society and its President from 1837-1852, Vice President, 1833-1837.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 11, 24, 27, 29, 47, 50-51, 55, 123-124, 166-167; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 640; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 173; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27-29, 30, 113, 116, 139, 143, 174, 184-187, 207, 245)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

CLAY, Henry, statesman, b. in Hanover county, Va., in a district known as “The Slashes,” 12  April, 1777; d. Washington, D. C., 29 June, introduced resolutions expressing approval of the 1852. His father, a Baptist clergyman, died when Henry was four years old, leaving no fortune.  Henry received some elementary instruction in a log school-house, doing farm and house work when not at school. His mother married again and removed to Kentucky. When fourteen years of age he was placed in a small retail store at Richmond, and in 1792 obtained a place in the office of Peter Tinsley, clerk of the high court of chancery. There he attracted the attention of Chancellor Whyte, who employed him as an amanuensis, and directed his course of reading. In 1796 he began to study law with Robert Brooke, attorney-general of Virginia, and in 1797, having obtained a license to practise law from the judges of the court of appeals, he removed to Lexington, Ky. During his residence in Richmond he had made the acquaintance of several distinguished men of Virginia, and became a leading member of a debating club. At Lexington he achieved his first distinction in a similar society. He soon won a lucrative practice as an attorney, being especially successful in criminal cases and in suits growing out of the land laws. His captivating manners and his striking eloquence made him a general favorite. His political career began almost immediately after his arrival at Lexington. A convention was to be elected to revise the constitution of Kentucky, and in the canvass preceding the election Clay strongly advocated a constitutional provision for the gradual emancipation of the slaves in the state; but the movement was not successful. He also participated vigorously in the agitation against the alien and sedition laws, taking position as a member of the republican party. Several of his speeches, delivered in mass meetings, astonished the hearers by their beauty and force. In 1799 he married Lucretia Hart, daughter of a prominent citizen of Kentucky. In 1803 he was elected to a seat in the state legislature, where he excelled as a debater. In 1806 Aaron Burr passed through Kentucky, where he was arrested on a charge of being engaged in an unlawful enterprise dangerous to the peace of the United States. He engaged Clay's professional services, and Clay, deceived by Burr as to the nature of his schemes, obtained his release.   In the winter of 1806 Clay was appointed to a seat in the U. S. Senate to serve out an unexpired He was at once placed on various committees, and took an active part in the debates, especially in favor of internal improvements. In the summer of 1807 his county sent him again to the legislature, where he was elected speaker of the assembly. He opposed and defeated a bill prohibiting the use of the decisions of British courts and of British works on jurisprudence as authority in the courts of Kentucky. In December, 1808, he introduced resolutions expressing approval of the embargo laid by the general government, denouncing the British orders in council, pledging the general government the active aid of Kentucky in anything determined upon to resist British exactions, and declaring that President Jefferson was entitled to the thanks of the country. He offered another resolution, recommending that the members of the legislature should wear only clothes that were the product of domestic manufacture. This was his first demonstration in favor of the encouragement of home industry. About this resolution he had a quarrel with Humphrey Marshall, which led to a duel, in which both parties were slightly wounded. In the winter of 1809 Clay was again sent to the U. S. senate to fill an unexpired term of two years. He made a speech in favor of encouraging home industries, taking the ground that the country should be enabled to produce all it might need in time of war, and that, while agriculture would remain the dominant interest, it should be aided by the development of domestic manufactures. He also made a report on a bill granting a right of pre-emption to purchasers of public lands in certain cases, and introduced a, bill to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontier, a subject on which he expressed very wise and humane sentiments. During the session of 1810-'1 he defended the administration of Mr. Madison with regard to the occupation of West Florida by the United States by a strong historical argument, at the same time appealing, in glowing language, to the national pride of the American people. He opposed the renewal of the charter of the U. S. bank, notwithstanding Gallatin's recommendation, on the ground of the unconstitutionality of the bank, and contributed much to its defeat.  On the expiration of his term in the senate. Clay was sent to the national house of representatives by the Lexington district in Kentucky, and immediately upon taking his seat, 4 Nov., 1811, was elected speaker by a large majority. Not confining himself to his duties as presiding officer, he took a leading part in debate on almost all important occasions. The difficulties caused by British interference with neutral trade were then approaching a crisis, and Clay put himself at the head of the war party in congress, which was led in the second line by such young statesmen as John C. Calhoun, William Lowndes, Felix Grundy, and Langdon Cheves, and supported by a strong feeling in the south and west. In a series of fiery speeches Clay advocated the calling out of volunteers to serve on land, and the construction of an efficient navy. He expected that the war with Great Britain would be decided by an easy conquest of Canada, and a peace dictated at Quebec. The Madison administration hesitated, but was finally swept along by the war furor created by the young Americans under Clay's lead, and war against Great Britain was declared in June, 1812. Clay spoke at a large number of popular meetings to fill volunteer regiments and to fire the national spirit. In congress, while the events of the war were unfavorable to the United States in consequence of an utter lack of preparation and incompetent leadership, Clay vigorously sustained the administration and the war policy against the attacks of the federalists. Some of his speeches were of a high order of eloquence, and electrified the country. He was re-elected speaker in 1813. On 19 Jan., 1814, he resigned the speakership, having been appointed by President Madison a member of a commission, consisting of John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin, to negotiate peace with Great Britain. The American commissioners met the commissioners of Great Britain at Ghent, in the Netherlands, and, after five months of negotiation, during which Mr. Way stoutly opposed the concession to the British of the right of navigating the Mississippi and of meddling with the Indians on territory of the United States, a treaty of peace was signed, 24 Dec., 1814. From Ghent Clay went to Paris, and thence with Adams and Gallatin to London, to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain. 

After his return to the United States, Mr. Clay declined the mission to Russia, offered by the administration. Having been elected again to the house of representatives, he took his seat on Dec. 4, 1815, and was again chosen speaker. He favored the enactment of the protective tariff of 1816, and also advocated the establishment of a U. S. bank as the fiscal agent of the government, thus reversing his position with regard to that subject. He now pronounced the bank constitutional because it was necessary in order to carry on the fiscal concerns of the government. During the same session he voted to raise the pay of representatives from $6 a day to $1,500 a year, a measure that proved unpopular, and his vote for it came near costing him his seat. He was, however, re-elected, but then voted to make the pay of representatives a per diem of $8, which it remained for a long period. In the session of 1816-'7 he, together with Calhoun, actively supported an internal improvement bill, which President Madison vetoed. In December, 1817, Clay was re-elected speaker. In opposition to the doctrine laid down by Monroe in his first message, that congress did not possess, under the constitution, the right to construct internal improvements, Clay strongly asserted that right in several speeches. With great vigor he advocated the recognition of the independence of the Spanish American colonies, then in a state of revolution, and severely censured what he considered the procrastinating policy of the administration in that respect. In the session of 1818-'9 he criticised, in an elaborate speech, the conduct of Gen. Jackson in the Florida campaign, especially the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister by Jackson's orders. This was the first collision between Clay and Jackson, and the ill feelings that it engendered in Jackson's mind were never extinguished. At the first session of the 16th congress, in December, 1819, Clay was again elected speaker almost without opposition. In the debate on the treaty with Spain, by which Florida was ceded to the United States, he severely censured the administration for having given up Texas, which he held to belong to the United States as a part of the Louisiana purchase. He continued to urge the recognition of the South American colonies as independent republics. 

In 1819-'20 he took an important part in the struggle in congress concerning the admission of Missouri as a slave state, which created the first great political slavery excitement throughout the country. He opposed the “restriction” clause making the admission of Missouri dependent upon the exclusion of slavery from the state, but supported the compromise proposed by Senator Thomas, of Illinois, admitting Missouri with slavery, but excluding slavery from all the territory north of 36° 30, acquired by the Louisiana purchase. This was the first part of the Missouri compromise, which is often erroneously attributed to Clay. When Missouri then presented herself with a state constitution, not only recognizing slavery, but also making it the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as would be necessary to prevent free negroes or mulattoes from coming into the state, the excitement broke out anew, and a majority in the house of representatives refused to admit Missouri as a state with such a constitution. On Clay's motion, the subject was referred to a special committee, of which he was chairman. This committee of the house joined with a senate committee, and the two unitedly reported in both houses a resolution that Missouri be admitted upon the fundamental condition that the state should never make any law to prevent from settling within its boundaries any description of persons who then or thereafter might become citizens of any state of the Union. This resolution was adopted, and the fundamental condition assented to by Missouri. This was Clay's part of the Missouri compromise, and he received general praise as “the great pacificator.” 

After the adjournment of congress, Clay retired to private life, to devote himself to his legal practice, but was elected to the 18th congress, which met in December, 1823, and was again chosen speaker. He made speeches on internal improvements, advocating a liberal construction of constitutional powers, in favor of sending a commissioner to Greece, and in favor of the tariff law, which became known as the tariff of 1824, giving his policy of protection and internal improvements the name of the “American system.” 

He was a candidate for the presidency at the election of 1824. His competitors were John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and William H. Crawford, each of whom received a larger number of electoral votes than Clay. But, as none of them had received a majority of the electoral vote, the election devolved upon the house of representatives. Clay, standing fourth in the number of electoral votes received, was excluded from the choice, and he used his influence in the house for John Quincy Adams, who was elected. The friends of Jackson and Crawford charged that there was a corrupt understanding between Adams and Clay, and this accusation received color from the fact that Adams promptly offered Clay the portfolio of secretary of state, and Clay accepted it. This was the origin of the “bargain and corruption” charge, which, constantly repeated, pursued Clay during the best part of his public life, although it was disproved by the well-established fact that Clay, immediately after the result of the presidential election in 1824 became known, had declared his determination to use his influence in the house for Adams and against Jackson. As secretary of state under John Quincy Adams, Clay accepted an invitation, presented by the Mexican and Colombian ministers, to send commissioners of the United States to an international congress of American republics, which was to meet on the Isthmus of Panama, to deliberate upon subjects of common interest. The commissioners were appointed, but the Panama congress adjourned before they could reach the appointed place of meeting. In the course of one of the debates on this subject, John Randolph, of Roanoke, denounced the administration, alluding to Adams and Clay as a “combination of the Puritan and the blackleg.” Clay thereupon challenged Randolph to a duel, which was fought on 8 April, 1826, without bloodshed. He negotiated and concluded treaties with Prussia, the Hanseatic republics, Denmark, Colombia, Central America, and Austria. His negotiations with Great Britain concerning the colonial trade resulted only in keeping in force the conventions of 1815 and 1818. He made another treaty with Great Britain, extending the joint occupation of the Oregon country provided for in the treaty of 1818; another referring the differences concerning the northeastern boundary to some friendly sovereign or state for arbitration; and still another concerning the indemnity to be paid by Great Britain for slaves carried off by British forces in the war of 1812. As to his commercial policy, Clay followed the accepted ideas of the times, to establish between the United States and foreign countries fair reciprocity as to trade and navigation. He was made president of the American colonization society, whose object it was to colonize free negroes in Liberia on the coast of Africa. 

In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected president, and after his inauguration Clay retired to his farm of Ashland, near Lexington, Ky. But, although in private life, he was generally recognized as the leader of the party opposing Jackson, who called themselves “national republicans,” and later “whigs,” Clay, during the years 1829-'31, visited several places in the south as well as in the state of Ohio, was everywhere received with great honors, and made speeches attacking Jackson's administration, mainly on account of the sweeping removals from office for personal and partisan reasons, and denouncing the nullification movement, which in the mean time had been set on foot in South Carolina. Yielding to the urgent solicitation of his friends throughout the country, he consented in 1831 to be a candidate for the U. S. senate, and was elected. In December, 1831, he was nominated as the candidate of the national republicans for the presidency, with John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, for the vice-presidency. As the impending extinguishment of the public debt rendered a reduction of the revenue necessary, Clay introduced in the senate a tariff bill reducing duties on unprotected articles, but keeping them on protected articles, so as to preserve intact the “American system.” The reduction of the revenue thus effected was inadequate, and the anti-tariff excitement in the south grew more intense. The subject of public lands having, for the purpose of embarrassing him as a presidential candidate, been referred to the committee on manufactures, of which he was the leading spirit, he reported against reducing the price of public lands and in favor of distributing the proceeds of the lands' sales, after certain deductions, among the several states for a limited period. The bill passed the senate, but failed to pass the house. As President Jackson, in his several messages, had attacked the U. S. bank, Clay induced the bank, whose charter was to expire in 1836, to apply for a renewal of the charter during the session of 1831-'2, so as to force the issue before the presidential election. The bill renewing the charter passed both houses, but Jackson vetoed it, denouncing the bank in his message as a dangerous monopoly. In the presidential election Clay was disastrously defeated, Jackson receiving 219 electoral votes, and Clay only 49. 

On 19 Nov., 1832, a state convention in South Carolina passed an ordinance nullifying the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832. On 10 Dec., President Jackson issued a proclamation against the nullifiers, which the governor of South Carolina answered with a counter-proclamation. On 12 Feb., 1833, Clay introduced, in behalf of union and peace, a compromise bill providing for a gradual reduction of the tariff until 1842, when it should be reduced to a horizontal rate of 20 per cent. This bill was accepted by the nullifiers, and became a law, known as the compromise of 1833. South Carolina rescinded the nullification ordinance, and Clay was again praised as the “great pacificator.” In the autumn of 1833, President Jackson, through the secretary of the treasury, ordered the removal of the public deposits from the U. S. bank. Clay, in December, 1833, introduced resolutions in the senate censuring the president for having “assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws.” The resolutions were adopted, and President Jackson sent to the senate an earnest protest against them, which was severely denounced by Clay. During the session of 1834-'5 Clay successfully opposed Jackson's recommendation that authority be conferred on him for making reprisals upon French property on account of the non-payment by the French government of an indemnity due to the United States. He also advocated the enactment of a law enabling Indians to defend their rights to their lands in the courts of the United States; also the restriction of the president's power to make removals from office, and the repeal of the four-years act. The slavery question having come to the front again, in consequence of the agitation carried on by the abolitionists, Clay, in the session of 1835-'6, pronounced himself in favor of the reception by the senate of anti-slavery petitions, and against the exclusion of anti-slavery literature from the mails. He declared, however, his opposition to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. With regard to the recognition of Texas as an independent state, he maintained a somewhat cold and reserved attitude. In the session of 1836-'7 he reintroduced his land bill without success, and advocated international copyright. His resolutions censuring Jackson for the removal of the deposits, passed in 1834, were, on the motion of Thomas H. Benton, expunged from the records of the senate, against solemn protests from the whig minority in that body. 

Martin Van Buren was elected president in 1836, and immediately after his inauguration the great financial crisis of 1837 broke out. At an extra session of congress, in the summer of 1837, he recommended the introduction of the sub-treasury system. This was earnestly opposed by Clay, who denounced it as a scheme to “unite the power of the purse with the power of the sword.” He and his friends insisted upon the restoration of the U. S. bank. After a struggle of three sessions, the sub-treasury bill succeeded, and the long existence of the system has amply proved the groundlessness of the fears expressed by those who opposed it. Clay strongly desired to be the whig candidate for the presidency in 1840, but failed. The whig national convention, in December, 1839, nominated Harrison and Tyler. Clay was very much incensed at his defeat, but supported Harrison with great energy, making many speeches in the famous “log-cabin and hard-cider” campaign. After the triumphant election of Harrison and Tyler, Clay declined the office of secretary of state offered to him. Harrison died soon after his inauguration. At the extra session of congress in the summer of 1841, Clay was the recognized leader of the whig majority. He moved the repeal of the sub-treasury act, and drove it through both houses. He then brought in a bill providing for the incorporation of a new bank of the United States, which also passed, but was vetoed by President Tyler, 16 Aug., 1841. Another bank bill, framed to meet what were supposed to be the president's objections, was also vetoed. Clay denounced Tyler instantly for what he called his faithlessness to whig principles, and the whig party rallied under Clay's leadership in opposition to the president. At the same session Clay put through his land bill, containing the distribution clause, which, however, could not go into operation because the revenues of the government fell short of the necessary expenditures. At the next session Clay offered an amendment to the constitution limiting the veto power, which during Jackson's and Tyler's administrations had become very obnoxious to him; and also an amendment to the constitution providing that the secretary of the treasury and the treasurer should be appointed by congress; and a third forbidding the appointment of members of congress, while in office, to executive positions. None of them passed. On 31 March, 1842, Clay took leave of the senate and retired to private life, as he said in his farewell speech, never to return to the senate. 

During his retirement he visited different parts of the country, and was everywhere received with great enthusiasm, delivering speeches, in some of which he pronounced himself in favor hot of a “high tariff,” but of a revenue tariff with incidental protection repeatedly affirming that the protective system had been originally designed only as a temporary arrangement to be maintained until the infant industries should have gained sufficient strength to sustain competition with foreign manufactures. It was generally looked upon as certain that he would be the Whig candidate for the presidency in 1844. In the mean time the administration had concluded a treaty of annexation with Texas. In an elaborate letter, dated 17 April, 1844, known as the “Raleigh letter,” Clay declared himself against annexation, mainly because it would bring on a war with Mexico, because it met with serious objection in a large part of the Union, and because it would compromise the national character. Van Buren, who expected to be the democratic candidate for the presidency, also wrote a letter unfavorable to annexation. On 1 May, 1844, the whig national convention nominated Clay by acclamation. The democratic national convention nominated not Van Buren, but James K. Polk for the presidency, with George M. Dallas for the vice-presidency, and adopted a resolution recommending the annexation of Texas. A convention of anti-slavery men was held at Buffalo, N. Y., which put forward as a candidate for the presidency James G. Birney. The senate rejected the annexation treaty, and the Texas question became the main issue in the presidential canvass. As to the tariff and the currency question, the platforms of the democrats and whigs differed very little. Polk, who had the reputation of being a free-trader, wrote a letter apparently favoring a protective ta riff, to propitiate Pennsylvania, where the cry was raised. “Polk, Dallas, and the tariff of 1842.” Clay, yielding to the entreaties of southern whigs, who feared that his declaration against the annexation of Texas might injure his prospects in the south, wrote another letter, in which he said that, far from having any personal objection to the annexation of Texas, he would be “glad to see it without dishonor, without war, with the common consent of the Union, and upon fair terms.” This turned against him many anti-slavery men in the north, and greatly strengthened the Birney movement. It is believed that it cost him the vote of the state of New York, and with it the election It was charged, apparently upon strong grounds that extensive election frauds were committed by the Democrats in the city of New York and in the state of Louisiana, the latter becoming famous as the Plaquemines frauds; but had Clay kept the anti-slavery element on his side, as it was at the beginning of the canvass, these frauds could not have decided the election. His defeat cast the whig party into the deepest gloom, and was lamented by his supporters like a personal misfortune. 

Texas was annexed by a joint resolution which passed the two houses of congress in the session of 1844-'5, and the Mexican war followed. In 1846, Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, moved, as an amendment to a bill appropriating money for purposes connected with the war, a proviso that in all territories to be acquired from Mexico slavery should be forever prohibited, which, however, failed in the senate. This became known as the “Wilmot proviso.” One of Clay's sons was killed in the battle of Buena Vista. In the autumn of 1847, when the Mexican army was completely defeated, Clay made a speech at Lexington, Ky., warning the American people of the dangers that would follow if they gave themselves up to the ambition of conquest, and declaring that there should be a generous peace, requiring no dismemberment of the Mexican republic, but “only a just and proper fixation of the limits of Texas,” and that any desire to acquire any foreign territory whatever for the purpose of propagating slavery should be “positively and emphatically” disclaimed. In February and March, 1848, Clay was honored with great popular receptions in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and his name was again brought forward for the presidential nomination. But the whig national convention, which met on 7 June, 1848, preferred Gen. Zachary Taylor as a more available man, with Millard Fillmore for the vice-presidency. His defeat in the convention was a bitter disappointment to Clay. He declined to come forward to the support of Taylor, and maintained during the canvass can attitude of neutrality. The principal reason he gave was that Taylor had refused to pledge himself to the support of whig principles and measures, and that Taylor had announced his purpose to remain in the field as a candidate, whoever might be nominated by the whig convention. He declined, on the other hand, to permit his name to be used by the dissatisfied whigs. Taylor was elected, the free-soilers, whose candidate was Martin Van Buren, having assured the defeat of the democratic candidate, Gen. Cass, in the state of New York. In the spring of 1849 a convention was to be elected in Kentucky to revise the state constitution, and Clay published a letter recommending gradual emancipation of the slaves. By a unanimous vote of the legislature assembled in December, 1848, Clay was again elected a U. S. senator, and he took his seat in December, 1849. 

By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, New Mexico and California, including Utah, had been acquired by the United States. The discovery of gold had attracted a large immigration to California. Without waiting for an enabling act, the inhabitants of California, in convention, had framed a constitution by which slavery was prohibited, and applied to congress for admission as a state. The question of the admission of California as a free state, and the other question whether slavery should be admitted into or excluded from New Mexico and Utah, created the intensest excitement in congress and among the people. Leading southern men threatened a dissolution of the Union unless slavery were admitted into the territories acquired from Mexico. On 29 Jan., 1850, Clay, who was at heart in favor of the Wilmot proviso, brought forward in the senate a “comprehensive scheme of compromise,” which included (1) the speedy admission of California as a state; (2) the establishment of territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah without any restriction as to slavery; (3) a settlement of the boundary-line between Texas and New Mexico substantially as it now stands; (4) an indemnity to be paid to Texas for the relinquishment of her claims to a large portion of New Mexico; (5) a declaration that slavery should not be abolished in the District of Columbia; (6) the prohibition of the slave-trade in the district; and (7) a more effective fugitive-slave law. These propositions were, on 18 April, 1850, referred to a special committee, of which Clay was elected chairman. He reported three bills embodying these different subjects, one of which, on account of its comprehensiveness, was called the “omnibus bill.” After a long struggle, the omnibus bill was defeated; but then its different parts were taken up singly, and passed; covering substantially Clay's original propositions. This was the compromise of 1850. In the debate Clay declared in the strongest terms his allegiance to the Union as superior to his allegiance to his state, and denounced secession as treason. The compromise of 1850 added greatly to his renown; but, although it was followed by a short period of quiet, it satisfied neither the south nor the north. To the north the fugitive-slave law was especially distasteful. In January, 1851, forty-four senators and representatives, Clay's name leading, published a manifesto declaring that they would not support for any office any man not known to be opposed to any disturbance of the matters settled by the compromise. In February, 1851, a recaptured fugitive slave having been liberated in Boston, Clay pronounced himself in favor of conferring upon the president extraordinary powers for the enforcement of the fugitive-slave law, his main object being to satisfy the south, and thus to disarm the disunion spirit.

After the adjournment of congress, on 4 March, 1851, his health being much impaired, he went to Cuba for relief, and thence to Ashland. He peremptorily enjoined his friends not to bring forward his name again as that of a candidate for the presidency. To a committee of whigs in New York he addressed a public letter containing an urgent and eloquent plea for the maintenance of the Union. He went to Washington to take his seat in the senate in December, 1851, but, owing to failing health, he appeared there only once during the winter. His last public utterance was a short speech addressed to Louis Kossuth, who visited him in his room, deprecating the entanglement of the United States in the complications of European affairs. He favored the nomination of Fillmore for the presidency by the whig national convention, which met on 16 June, a few days before his death. Clay was unquestionably one of the greatest orators that America ever produced; a man of incorruptible personal integrity; of very great natural ability, but little study; of free and convivial habits; of singularly winning address and manners; not a cautious and safe political leader, but a splendid party chief, idolized by his followers. He was actuated by a lofty national spirit, proud of his country, and ardently devoted to the Union. It was mainly his anxiety to keep the Union intact that inspired his disposition to compromise contested questions. He had in his last hours the satisfaction of seeing his last great work, the compromise of 1850, accepted as a final settlement of the slavery question by the national conventions of both political parties. But only two years after his death it became evident that the compromise had settled nothing. The struggle about slavery broke out anew, and brought forth a civil war, the calamity that Clay had been most anxious to prevent, leading to general emancipation, which Clay would have been glad to see peaceably accomplished. He was buried in the cemetery at Lexington, Ky., and a monument consisting of a tall column surmounted by a statue was erected over his tomb. The accompanying illustrations show his birthplace and tomb. See “Life of Henry Clay,” by George D. Prentice (Hartford, Conn., 1831); “Speeches,” collected by R. Chambers (Cincinnati, 1842); “Life and Speeches of Henry Clay,” by J. B. Swaim (New York, 1843); “Life of Henry Clay,” by Epes Sargent (1844, edited and completed by Horace Greeley, 1852); “Life and Speeches of Henry Clay,” by D. Mallory (1844; new ed., 1857); “Life and Times of Henry Clay,” by Rev. Calvin Colton (6 vols., containing speeches and correspondence, 1846-'57; revised ed., 1864); and “Henry Clay,” by Carl Schurz (2 vols., Boston, 1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

“If all this be as is now represented, he has acquired fame enough.”

DANIEL WEBSTER.

IN every country, an active politician must occupy a conspicuous place in the public eye. In every country, and in our own, especially, the more conspicuous he is rendered by his talents, energy, decision of character, or peculiar principles, the more will he become the favorite of some, and the object of reproach to others. Where men and principles must be tried at the bar of public opinion, as in our country, or in Great Britain, and we may now add, in France, it is impossible to prevent this result. Nor, is it desirable that it should be otherwise, saving, the bitterness and coarseness of invective, with which political opponents are too often assailed, in the eager strife of parties. To such an extent does this prevail in our land of free presses, that it is to moderate politicians often a subject of deep mortification and regret. To most of those who have been the prominent men of our country these remarks are applicable, and yet, no sooner are they removed from the stage of action, than their country remembers their services with a just regard. Is it right that public men should struggle through a life of anxious toil and unfaltering patriotism, with only the hope of posthumous justice to their integrity and their talents? Certainly not;—we shall therefore make our selections, alike from the distinguished living and the illustrious dead.

Among the names which belong to, and are interwoven with, the history of the United States, that of HENRY CLAY stands in bold relief. Like many others in our country, he has been the builder of his own fortunes; having risen from poverty and obscurity to professional eminence and political dignity, by the energetic and assiduous exercise of his intellectual powers.

HENRY CLAY was born on the 12th of April, 1777, in Hanover county, Virginia. His father, who was a respectable clergyman, died while HENRY was quite young; in consequence of which, he received no other education, than could be acquired at a common school. He was placed at an early age in the office of Mr. Tinsley, clerk of the high court of chancery, at Richmond, where his talents and amiable deportment won for him, the friendship of some of the most respectable and influential gentlemen in the state. At nineteen, he commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to practice when twenty years of age. He soon after removed to Lexington, Kentucky, and continued his studies there about a year longer; during which time he practised public speaking in a debating society. In his first attempt he was much embarrassed, and saluted the president of the society with the technical phrase, gentlemen of the jury; but gaining confidence as he proceeded, he burst the trammels of his youthful diffidence, and clothing his thoughts in appropriate language, gave utterance to an animated and eloquent address. He soon obtained an extensive and lucrative practice; and the reputation which the superiority of his genius acquired, was maintained by his legal knowledge and practical accuracy.

Mr. CLAY’S political and professional career began nearly at the same time; but as we cannot give the details of his varied and busy life within the limits of this sketch, we shall only mark the most prominent points, particularly, where he has taken a stand in support of his favorite principles and measures.

In 1798, when the people of Kentucky were preparing to frame a constitution for the state, a plan was proposed for the gradual emancipation of slaves. Mr. CLAY zealously exerted his talents in favor of it; he wrote for the journals, and declaimed at the public meetings, but his efforts failed of success.

The next great question of a public character in which he took a part, found him arrayed with the popular party, in vindicating the freedom of the press, and in opposition to the sedition law, which was viewed by one political party, as an attempt to control it. His speeches on the subject are said to have exhibited much of that energy of character and power of eloquence, which have since distinguished him on all great public occasions.

In 1803, he was elected a member of the legislature, and soon took rank among the ablest men of the state. In 1806, General Adair resigned his seat in the senate of the United States, and Mr. CLAY was elected to fill the vacancy for one year. He made his debut, in a speech in favor of the erection of a bridge over the Potomac at Georgetown, which is said to have decided the question in favor of the measure, and is the first of his efforts in support of his favorite principle of internal improvement. On his return to Kentucky, he was reëlected to the state legislature, and at the next session was chosen speaker, by a large majority. He held that station for several years, during which he frequently took a part in the debates. He particularly distinguished himself at the first session after his return from congress, by a powerful speech in defence of the common law. A resolution had been introduced to forbid the reading of any British decision, or elementary work on law, in the Kentucky courts. The prejudices of the people, and of a majority of the assembly, were believed to be in favor of the motion; Mr. CLAY moved an amendment, the effect of which was, to exclude those British decisions only, which are of a subsequent date to the declaration of independence. The prejudices against which he contended, were removed by his masterly exposition of the subject. The common law, which viewed in the darkness of ignorance, appeared mysterious and inexplicable; locked up, as was supposed, in a thousand musty volumes; was shown to be simple and easy of comprehension, by the application of a few plain principles. On this occasion, by one of the most extraordinary efforts of his genius, and a brilliant exhibition of his legal knowledge and oratorical powers, Mr. CLAY succeeded in carrying his amendment, by an almost unanimous vote.

In 1809, Mr. CLAY was again elected to the United States’ senate for two years, in the place of Mr. Thurston. At this time, the country had arrived at one of those periods, when the strength of its institutions was to be tried, by the menaces and impositions of foreign powers. The policy of the United States has ever been, a noninterference in the affairs of Europe; but notwithstanding the neutrality of the government, to such a height had the animosity of the belligerent European powers arrived, that each strove to injure the other, even at the expense of justice, and by a violation of our neutral rights. Several expedients had been resorted to, by which it was hoped an appeal to arms might be averted, our commercial rights respected, and our national honor remain untarnished; but at the same time a just apprehension was felt, that after all, our pacific measures might prove abortive, and that it was necessary to prepare for war. To this end, a bill was brought into the senate, to appropriate a sum of money for the purchase of cordage, sail cloth, and other articles; to which an amendment was offered giving the preference to American productions and manufactures. It was on this occasion Mr. CLAY first publicly appeared as the advocate of domestic manufactures, and of the protective policy which has since been called “the American system.” Mr. CLAY also participated in other important questions before the senate, and amongst them, that respecting the title of the United States to Florida, which he sustained with his usual ability.

His term of service in the senate having expired, he was elected a member of the house of representatives, and in the winter of 1811 took his seat in that body, of which he was chosen speaker, by a vote that left no doubt of the extent of his influence, or of the degree of respect entertained for his abilities. This station he continued to hold until 1814. Previous to the time when the preparations for war, before alluded to, became a subject of interest, Mr. CLAY had been rather a participator in the discussion of affairs, than a leader, or originator of any great measures, such as have since characterized the national policy; but from that period, he is to be held responsible as a principal, for the impulse which he has given to such of them, as will probably be left to the calm judgment of posterity. As early as 1811, we find him in his place advocating the raising of a respectable military force. War he conceived inevitable,—that in fact, England had begun it already; and the only question was, he said, whether it was to be “a war of vigor, or a war of languor and imbecility.” “He was in favor of the display of an energy correspondent to the feelings and spirit of the country.” Shortly afterward, with equal fervor, he recommended the gradual increase of the navy; a course of national policy, which has fortunately retained its popularity, and still remains unchanged.

In 1814, Mr. CLAY was appointed one of the commissioners, who negotiated the treaty of Ghent. When he resigned the speaker’s chair on the eve of his departure to Europe, he addressed the house in a speech, “which touched every heart in the assembly, and unsealed many a fountain of tears”; to which the house responded by passing a resolution, almost unanimously, thanking him for the impartiality, with which he had administered the arduous duties of his office. In the spring, after the termination of the negotiations at Ghent, he went to London with two of his former colleagues, Messrs. Adams and Gallatin; and there entered upon a highly important negotiation, which resulted in the commercial convention, which has been made the basis of most of our subsequent commercial arrangements with foreign powers. On his return to his own country, he was every where greeted with applause, and was again elected to the house of representatives in congress, of which he continued to be a member until 1825, when he accepted the appointment of secretary of state under President Adams.

One of the great results of our foreign policy, after the war, was the recognition of the independence of the Spanish colonies. On this subject, Mr. CLAY entered with all his heart and soul, and mind and strength,—he saw “the glorious spectacle of eighteen millions of people struggling to burst their chains and to be free”; and he called to mind the language of the venerated father of his country: “Born in a land of liberty, my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in my country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.” We regret that we cannot enter into the details of his efforts in that cause; it must suffice to notice, that at first they were not successful, yet he was not discouraged, but renewed them the following year, when he carried the measure through the house of representatives. The president immediately thereafter, appointed five ministers plenipotentiary to the principal Spanish American states. While on this subject, we must not permit the occasion to pass without remarking; that much as we admire those British statesmen, who are bending the powers of their noble minds and splendid talents, to the great cause of human liberty and human happiness, we cannot allow them, nor one of them, to appropriate to himself the honor of having “called a new world into existence.” That honor belongs not to George Canning, as a reference to dates will show. If there be glory due to any one mortal man more than to others, for rousing the sympathies of freemen for a people struggling to be free, that glory is due to HENRY CLAY; although he has never had the vanity to say so himself. His exertions won the consent of the American people, to sustain the president in the decisive stand which HE took, when the great European powers contemplated an intervention on behalf of Spain; and it was THAT which decided Great Britain, in the course which she pursued. The Spanish American states have acknowledged their gratitude to Mr. CLAY by public acts; his speeches have been read at the head of their armies; and his name will find as durable a place in the history of the South American republics, as in the records of his native land.

In the domestic policy of the government, there have been two points, to which Mr. CLAY’S attention has been particularly directed, since the late war; both of them, in some degree, resting their claims on the country, from circumstances developed by that war. We are not about to discuss them, but merely to indicate them as his favorite principles, to support which his splendid talents have been directed. These are internal improvements, and the protection of domestic manufactures by means of an adequate tariff. With regard to these measures, the statesmen, and the people of the country, have been much divided,—sometimes, there has been a difference of opinion as to the expediency of them, and sometimes, constitutional objections have been advanced. He has been, however, their steadfast champion, and has been supposed to have connected them, with the settled policy of the country. How far this may prove true, time only can decide.

The right, claimed by South Carolina, to nullify an act of Congress, the warlike preparations made by that state to resist compulsion, and the excitement throughout the country, occasioned by the conflict of interests and opinions, and the hopes and fears of the community, will never be forgotten by the present generation. A civil war and the dissolution of the union, or the destruction of the manufacturing interests, which had grown up to an immense value under the protective system; for a time seemed the only alternatives. During the short session of congress in 1832-3, various propositions were made to remove the threatened evils, by a rëadjustment of the tariff; but the time passed on in high debate, and the country looked on in anxious hope, that some measure would be devised, by which harmony and security might be restored. Two weeks only remained to the end of the session, and nothing had been effected; when Mr. CLAY, “the father of the American system,” himself brought in the olive branch. On the 12th of February, he arose in his place in the senate, and asked leave to introduce a bill, to modify the various acts, imposing duties on imports; he at the same time addressed the senate in explanation of his course, and of the bill proposed. “The basis,” Mr. CLAY said, “on which I wish to found this modification, is one of time; and the several parts of the bill to which I am about to call the attention of the senate, are founded on this basis. I propose to give protection to our manufactured articles, adequate protection, for a length of time, which, compared with the length of human life, is very long, but which is short, in proportion to the legitimate discretion of every wise and parental system of government—securing the stability of legislation, and allowing time for a gradual reduction, on one side; and on the other, proposing to reduce the rate of duties to that revenue standard for which the opponents of the system have so long contended.”

The bill was read, referred to a committee, reported on, and brought to its final passage in the senate within a few days. In the mean time, it had been made the substitute for a bill under discussion, in the house of representatives, and was adopted in that body by a large majority and sent to the senate, where it had its final reading on the 26th, and when approved by the president became a law.

We should not, in this place, have alluded to the course pursued by one of the states, to effect a modification of the tariff, had it not been so inseparably connected with, what we doubt not, will be hereafter considered one of the most important acts of Mr. CLAY’S public life. “He expressly declared that he thought the protective system in extreme danger; and that it would be far better for the manufacturers, for whose interests he felt the greatest solicitude, to secure themselves by the bill, than take the chances of the next session of congress, when, from the constitution of both houses, it was probable a worse one would be passed.” On the other hand, he urged the proposition “as a measure of mutual concession,—of peace, of harmony. He wanted to see no civil war; no sacked cities; no embattled armies; no streams of American blood shed by American arms.” We trust, that the crisis is passed, and that we shall continue for ever a united, prosperous, and happy people.

The tariff has had its effect so far, that a new era has commenced, and it is very probable, that the revenue of the country will finally be settled down to a standard, only sufficient, to meet the expenses of the government. In connection with this subject, we wish to preserve the following extract from the speech of Mr. Verplanck, in January, 1833, in support of a bill to reduce the tariff, reported by him to congress:

“The last war left the nation laboring under a weight of public debt. The payment of that war debt was one of the great objects of the arrangement of our revenue system at the peace, and it was never lost sight of in any subsequent arrangement of our tariff system. Since 1815, we have annually derived a revenue from several sources, but by far the largest part from duties on imports, of sometimes twenty, sometimes twenty-five, and recently thirty-two and thirty three millions of dollars a year.

“Of this sum, ten millions always, but of late a much larger proportion, has been devoted to the payment of the interest and principal of the public debt. At last that debt has been extinguished. The manner in which those burthens were distributed under former laws, has been, heretofore, a subject of complaint and remonstrance. I do not propose to inquire into the wisdom or justice of those laws. The debt has been extinguished by them—let us be grateful for the past.”

Many other interesting incidents are presented in the public life of Mr. CLAY, to which we shall only advert; such, as the part he took in the Missouri question; in the election of Mr. Adams; on the subject of sending a commissioner to Greece; on the colonization of the negroes; and more recently, his labors in favor of rechartering the United States Bank, and for the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands for the purposes of internal improvement, education, &c.

Mr. CLAY received from Mr. Madison the successive offers of a mission to Russia, and a place in the cabinet; and from Mr. Monroe a situation in his cabinet, and the mission to England; all of which he declined.

On the great Cumberland road, there has been erected a large and beautiful monument, surmounted by a figure of Liberty, and inscribed “HENRY CLAY.” These are evidences of the estimation in which Mr. CLAY has been held by his contemporaries; others might be adduced, but they would be superfluous.

Twice he has been nominated for the presidency, but without success. We trust that he is too firm in his republican principles to murmur, and that his friends will in some measure be consoled, by reflections similar to that, which we have adopted as a motto to this article.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 1.

 

 

CLAYTON, George R., Milledgeville, Georgia, State Treasurer of Georgia, member of the Milledgeville auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

CLEMENT, John, abolitionist, Townsend, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1855-1856, 1857-1860.

 

 

CLEVELAND, Charles D., abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.

 

 

CLEVELAND, Giles B., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CLEVELAND, John P., abolitionist, Detroit, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40, Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1843.

 

 

CLEVERLY, Joseph, abolitionist, Abington, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40.

 

 

CLOPPNER, J. C., , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

CLOTHIER, Caleb, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave, and Hicksite Anti-Slavery Association (Drake, 1950, pp. 154, 156, 172)

 

 

COALE, Edward J., Maryland, bookseller.  Manager of the Maryland Society of the American Conolization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 111)

 

 

COATES, Lindley, 1794-1856, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Ardent abolitionist who helped escaped slaves.  Member of the Underground Railroad.  Petitioned Congress on November 19, 1835, to “Secure the rights of freedom to every human being residing within the constitutional jurisdiction of Congress, and [to] prohibit every species of traffic in the persons of men [i.e., the internal slave trade], which is as inconsistent in principle and inhuman in practice as the foreign slave trade.” (Drake, 1950, pp. 146, 149; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

COATES, Samuel, 1748-1830, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, merchant, director of the First Bank of the United States, member and delegate of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society (PAS), Committee of Twenty-Four (Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 224, 238, 240n15; Nash, 1991, p. 129; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 238)

 

 

COBB, Amasa, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

COBB, Sylvanus, 1798-1866, Norway, Maine, clergyman, newspaper editor, temperance and anti-slavery leader.  Editor of the Christian Freeman for 20 years.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p.668; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 245)

 

COBB, Sylvanus, clergyman, b. in Norway, Me., in July, 1799; d. in East Boston, 31 Oct., 1866. In 1828 he was settled over Universalist churches at Malden and Waltham, Mass., and in 1838 took charge of the “Christian Freeman,” which he edited for more than twenty years. He was for many years a leader in the anti-slavery and temperance movements. Dr. Cobb's published works include “The New Testament, with Explanatory Notes” (Boston, 1864); “Compend of Divinity” and “Discussions.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

COBURN, John P., 1811-1873, African American, abolitionist, businessman. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 146)

 

 

COCHRANE, Clark B., 1817-1867, New Boston, New Hampshire.

 

COCHRANE, Clark B., lawyer, b. in New Boston. N. H., in 1817; d. in Albany, N. Y., 5 March, 1867. He was graduated at Union, and devoted himself to the study of law. In 1844 he was chosen a member of the assembly, on the democratic ticket, from Montgomery county. He was one of the primitive barnburners, supported Van Buren and Adams in 1848, and in 1854 vigorously opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill, after which he acted with the republican party. In 1856 he was elected to congress from the Schenectady district, and in 1858 was re-elected. The following year, his health becoming affected by the excitement of congressional life, he was obliged to return home for temporary rest, and after the expiration of his term resided in Albany, devoting himself to his profession. In 1865 he accepted a nomination for the legislature. He was the acknowledged leader of the house, and his tact in quieting angry debate gave him the title of “The Great Pacificator.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

COCKE, John Hartwell, 1780-1866, Fluvanna County, Virginia, general, reformer, temperance advocate.  Vice President, 1833-1841, of the American Colonization Party (ACS).  Life member and supporter of the ACS.  President of two ACS auxiliaries in Albemarle and Fluvanna counties in Virginia.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 38, 44, 61, 63, 102; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 672; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, p. 253)

 

COCKE, John Hartwell, b. in Surry county, Va., 19 Sept., 1780; d. in Fluvanna county, Va., 1 July, 1866. He was graduated at William and Mary in 1798, and was general commanding the Virginia troops at Camp Carter and Camp Holly, on the Chickahominy, in 1812 and 1813, in defence of the city of Richmond. He was vice-president of the American temperance society and of the American colonization society, and a member of the first board of visitors of the University of Virginia. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 672.

 

 

CODDING, Ichabod, 1811-1866, born in Bristol, New York, clergyman, anti-slavery agent, commissioned in 1836.  Lectured against slavery.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 119, 120; Dumond, 1961, p. 186; Filler, 1960, pp. 152, 232, 247; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 673)

 

 

COFFIN, Addison, Indiana, North Carolina, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, manager of North Carolina Underground Railroad, 1836-1852 (Drake, 1950, pp. 162, 185)

 

 

COFFIN, Alfred, Indiana, North Carolina, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, manager of North Carolina Underground Railroad, 1836-1852 (Drake, 1950, p. 185)

 

 

COFFIN, Joshua, 1792-1864, Tyngborough, PA, educator, author, ardent abolitionist, founder of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832.  He was its co-founder and first recording secretary.  Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1834-1837. (Coffin, 1860; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, 675)

 

COFFIN, Joshua, antiquary, b. in Newbury, Mass., 12 Oct., 1792; d. there, 24 June, 1864. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1817, and taught for many years, numbering among his pupils the poet Whittier, who addressed to him a poem entitled “To My Old School-Master.” Mr. Coffin was ardent in the cause of emancipation, and was one of the founders of the New England anti-slavery society in 1832, being its first recording secretary. He published “The History of Ancient Newbury” (Boston, 1845), genealogies of the Woodman, Little, and Toppan families, and magazine articles. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 675.

 

 

COFFIN, Levi, 1798-1877, Newport, Indiana, philanthropist, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, conductor Underground Railroad, established Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends.  Active in Free Labor Movement, which encouraged people not to trade in goods produced by slave labor.  Helped start the Western Freedman’s Aid Commission.  Wrote Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, Reputed President of the Underground Railroad, Cincinnati, OH: Western Tract Society.  Helped three thousands slaves to freedom.  Coffin was a manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  (Drake, 1950, pp. 162, 165, 186, 187, 197; Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 92; Mabee, 1970, pp. 141, 225, 273, 280, 283; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 75, 231-232, 488, 489; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 675; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 177-178; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 148)

 

COFFIN, Levi, philanthropist, b. near New Garden, N. C., 28 Oct., 1798; d. in Avondale, Ohio, 16 Sept., 1877. His ancestors were natives of Nantucket. He assisted on his father's farm and had but little schooling, yet he became a teacher. The cruel treatment of the negroes, and the Quakers principles under which he was reared, enlisted his sympathies in favor of the oppressed race, and at the age of fifteen he began to aid in the escape of slaves. Subsequently he organized a Sunday-school for negroes, and in 1822 opened his first school. In 1826 he settled in Wayne county, Ind., where he kept a country store. Being prosperous in this undertaking, he soon enlarged his business in various lines, including also the curing of pork. In 1836 he built an oil-mill and began the manufacture of linseed-oil. Meanwhile his interest in the slaves continued, and he was active in the “underground railroad,” a secret organization, whose purpose was the transportation of slaves from member to member until a place was reached where the negro was free. Thousands of escaping slaves were aided on their way to Canada by him, including Eliza Harris, who subsequently became known through “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” The question of using only “free-labor goods” had been for some time agitated throughout the United States, and in 1846 a convention was held in Salem, Ind., at which Mr. Coffin was chosen to open such a store in Cincinnati. Accordingly he moved to that city in April, 1847. The undertaking proved successful, and he continued to be so occupied for many years. His relations with the “underground railroad” were also continued, and he became its president. In 1863 he was associated in the establishment of the freedmen's bureau, and during the following year was sent to Europe as agent for the Western freedmen's aid commission. He held meetings in all of the prominent cities in Great Britain, enlisted much sympathy, and secured funds. Again in 1867 he visited Europe in the same capacity. When the colored people of Cincinnati celebrated the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the United States constitution, he formally resigned his office of president of the “underground railroad,” which he had held for more than thirty years. The story of his life is told in “Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the Reputed President of the Underground Railroad” (Cincinnati, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 675.

 

 

COFFIN, Vestal, Society of Friends, Quaker, Guilford, established station of the Underground Railroad (Drake, 1950, p. 119)

 

 

COFFROTH, Alex, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

COGSWELL, Daniel, abolitionist, New Hampshire, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842, 1844-1845.

 

 

COGSWELL, Mason Fitch, Dr., 1731-1830, Hartford, Connecticut, physician.  Member of the Hartford Committee of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 679-680; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 86)

 

COGSWELL, Mason Fitch, physician, b. in Canterbury, Conn., 28 Sept., 1761; d. in Hartford, Conn., 10 Dec., 1830. His mother died while he was young, and he was adopted by Samuel Huntington, president of the Continental congress and governor of Connecticut, who sent him to Yale, where he was graduated in 1780 as valedictorian of his class, and its youngest member. He studied with his brother James, a surgeon in the Revolutionary army, at the soldiers’ hospital in New York, and became one of the most distinguished surgeons in the country. He married Mary Austin Ledyard, and settled in Hartford, Conn. He was the first to introduce in the United States the operation of removing a cataract from the eye, and also the first to tie the carotid artery (1803). His daughter, Alice, became deaf and dumb from severe illness at an early age, and her father's attention was thus called to the possibility of educating deaf-mutes. Mainly through his influence the first deaf-and-dumb asylum in the country, that at Hartford, was established in 1820, and Alice became its first pupil. He was also one of the founders of the Connecticut retreat for the insane at Hartford. He was for ten years president of the Connecticut medical society, one of the last survivors of the “old school,” and persisted in wearing knee-breeches and silk stockings, which he held to be the only proper dress for a gentleman. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

COLBY, Isaac, abolitionist.  Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-36, Manager, 1836-39.

 

 

COLDEN, Cadallader David, 1769-1834, New York, lawyer, soldier, opponent of slavery, 54th Mayor of New York City, U.S. Congressman.  President of the New York Manumission Society (established 1785).  (Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 287)

 

 

COLE, Cornelius, b. 1822, lawyer.  Member of the National Republican Committee, 1856-1860.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California, 1863-1865.  U.S. Senator, 1867-1873.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 685; Congressional Globe)

 

COLE, Cornelius, senator, b. in Lodi, N. Y., 17 Sept., 1822. He was graduated at Wesleyan university, Middletown, Conn., in 1847, and, after studying law in the office of William H. Seward, was admitted to the bar. In 1849 he crossed the plains to California, and, after working a year in the gold mines, began the practice of law. He was district attorney of Sacramento city and county from 1859 till 1862, was a member of the National republican committee from 1856 till 1860, and during the latter year edited a newspaper. He then removed to Santa Cruz, and was a representative from California in the 38th congress as a union republican, serving from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1865. He was elected U. S. senator to succeed James A. McDougall, democrat, serving from 4 March, 1867, till 3 March, 1873. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 685.

 

 

COLEMAN, Elihu, d. 1789, Nantucket, carpenter, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Early Quaker opponent of slavery.  Wrote pamphlet, “A Testimony Against that Anti-Christian Practice of Making Slaves of Men.”  Cole believed that slavery was un-Christian and against the precepts of the Golden Rule. (Bruns, 1977, pp. 39-45; Drake, 1950, pp. 34, 37-39, 49, 63; Locke, 1901, pp. 24, 25, 33; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 12)

 

 

COLES, Edward, 1786-1868, statesman, abolitionist, Governor of Illinois (elected 1822), member American Colonization Society.  Private secretary to President James Madison, 1809-1815.  Manumitted his slaves in 1819.  Worked with fellow abolitionist James Lemen to keep Illinois a free state.  Opposed pro-slavery group in Illinois state legislature. (Burin, 2005, p. 47; Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 92, 100-101; Locke, 1901, pp. 24, 25, 33; Ress, 2006; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 37, 233-234; Ress, 2006; Washburne, 1882; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 687; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 296; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 226; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 143)

 

COLES, Edward, governor of Illinois, b. in Albemarle county, Va., 15 Dec., 1786; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 7 July, 1868. He was educated at Hampden-Sidney college, and at William and Mary, where he was graduated in 1807. He was private secretary to President Madison from 1810 till 1816, and in 1817 sent on a confidential diplomatic mission to Russia. He returned in 1818, and in 1819 removed to Edwardsville, Ill., and freed all the slaves that had been left him by his father, giving to each head of a family 160 acres of land. He was appointed registrar of the U. S. land-office at Edwardsville, and in 1822 was nominated for governor on account of his well-known anti-slavery sentiments. He served from 1823 till 1826, and during his term of office prevented the pro-slavery party from obtaining control of the state after a bitter and desperate conflict. The history of this remarkable struggle has been written by Elihu B. Washburne (Chicago, 1882). Gov. Coles removed to Philadelphia in 1833, and in 1856 read before the Pennsylvania historical society a “History of the Ordinance of 1787” (Philadelphia, 1856). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 687.

 

 

COLFAX, Schuyler, 1823-1885, Vice President of the United States, statesman, newspaper editor.  Member of Congress, 1854-1869.  Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana.  Secretary of State.  Opposed slavery as a Republican Member of Congress. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 687-688; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 297; Congressional Globe; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 297)

 

COLFAX, Schuyler, statesman, b. in New York city, 23 March, 1823; d. in Mankato, Minn., 13 Jan., 1885. His grandfather was Gen. William Colfax, who commanded the life-guards of Washington throughout the Revolutionary war. His father died a short time before the son's birth, and in 1834 his mother married George W. Matthews. After attending the public schools till he was ten years of age, and serving three years as clerk in his step-father's store, Schuyler went with the family to Indiana in 1836, and settled in New Carlisle, St. Joseph co., where Mr. Matthews soon became postmaster. The boy continued to serve as his clerk, and began a journal to aid himself in composition, contributing at the same time to the county paper. His step-father retired from business in 1839, and Colfax then began to study law, but afterward gave it up. In 1841 Mr. Matthews was elected county auditor, and removed to South Bend, making his step-son his deputy, which office Colfax held for eight years. In 1842 he was active in organizing a temperance society in South Bend, and continued a total abstainer throughout his life. At this time he reported the proceedings of the state senate for the Indianapolis “Journal” for two years. In 1844 he made campaign speeches for Henry Clay. He had acted as editor of the South Bend ·”Free Press” for about a year when, in company with A. W. West, he bought the paper in September, 1845, and changed its name to the “St. Joseph Valley Register.” Under his management, despite numerous mishaps and business losses, the “Register” quadrupled its subscription in a few years, and became the most influential journal, in support of whig politics, in that part of Indiana: Mr. Colfax was secretary of the Chicago harbor and river convention of July, 1847, and also of the Baltimore whig convention of 1848, which nominated Taylor for president. The next year he was elected a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state of Indiana, and in his place, both by voice and vote, opposed the clause that prohibited free colored men from settling in that state. He was also offered a nomination for the state senate, but declined it. In 1851 he was a candidate for congress, and came near being elected in a district that was strongly democratic. He accepted his opponent's challenge to a joint canvass, travelled a thousand miles, and spoke seventy times. He was again a delegate to the whig national convention in 1852, and, having joined the newly formed republican party, was its successful candidate for congress in 1854, serving by successive re-elections till 1869. In 1856 he supported Fremont for president, and during the canvass made a speech in congress on the extension of slavery and .the aggressions of the slave-power. This speech was used as a campaign document, and more than half a million copies were circulated. He was chairman of several important committees of congress, especially that on post-offices and post-roads, and introduced many reforms, including a bill providing for a daily overland mail-route from St. Louis to San Francisco, reaching mining-camps where letters had previously been delivered by express at five dollars an ounce. Mr. Colfax favored Edward Bates as the republican candidate for the presidency in 1860. His name was widely mentioned for the office of postmaster - general in Lincoln's cabinet, but the president selected C. B. Smith, of Indiana, on the ground, as he afterward wrote Colfax, that the latter was “a young man running a brilliant career, and sure of a bright future in any event.” In the latter part of 1861 he ably defended Fremont in the house against the attack of Frank P. Blair. In 1862 he introduced a bill, which became a law, to punish fraudulent contractors as felons, and continued his efforts for reform in the postal service. He was elected speaker of the house on 7 Dec., 1863, and on 8 April, 1864, descended from the chair to move the expulsion of Mr. Long, of Ohio, who had made a speech favoring the recognition of the southern confederacy. The resolution was afterward changed to one of censure, and Mr. Colfax's action was widely commented on, but generally sustained by Union men. On 7 May, 1864, he was presented by citizens of Indiana then in Washington with a service of silver, largely on account of his course in this matter. He was twice re-elected as speaker, each time by an increased majority, and gained the applause of both friends and opponents by his skill as a presiding officer, often shown under very trying circumstances. In May, 1868, the republican national convention at Chicago nominated him on the first ballot for vice-president, Gen. Grant being the nominee for president, and, the republican ticket having been successful, he took his seat as president of the senate on 4 March, 1869. On 4 Aug., 1871, President Grant offered him the place of secretary of state for the remainder of his term, but he declined. In 1872 he was prominently mentioned as a presidential candidate, especially by those who, later in the year, were leaders in the liberal republican movement, and, although he refused to join them, this was sufficient to make administration men oppose his renomination for the vice-presidency, and he was defeated in the Philadelphia convention of 1872. In December, 1872; he was offered the chief editorship of the New York “Tribune,” but declined it. In 1873 Mr. Colfax was implicated in the charger of corruption brought against members of congress who had received shares of stock in the credit mobilier of America. The house judiciary committee reported that there was no ground for his impeachment, as the alleged offence, if committed at all, had been committed before he became vice-president. These charges cast a shadow over the latter part of Mr. Colfax's life. He denied their truth, and his friends have always regarded his character as irreproachable. His later years were spent mostly in retirement in his home at South Bend, Ind., and in delivering public lectures, which he did frequently before large audiences. His first success in this field had been in 1865 with a lecture entitled “Across the Continent,” written after his return from an excursion to California. The most popular of his later lectures was that on “Lincoln and Garfield.” Mr. Colfax was twice married. After his death, which was the result of heart disease, public honors were paid to his memory both in congress and in Indiana. See “Life of Colfax” by O. J. Hollister (New York, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 687-688.

 

 

COLGATE, William, 1783-1857, New York, merchant, prominent philanthropist.  Officer in the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 688-689; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 299; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 40, 84)

 

COLGATE, William, manufacturer, b. in the county of Kent, England, 25 Jan., 1783; d. in New York city. Constrained by political considerations, his family emigrated to this country in 1798, and settled in Harford county, Md. Young Colgate came to New York in 1804, and became apprentice to a soap-boiler, whose business he subsequently followed with an intelligence and industry that commanded the largest success. In 1808 he united with a Baptist church, and was soon recognized as one of the leading Christian men of New York. In all the missionary and educational enterprises of his denomination he was distinguished for zeal and liberality. He was a member of the board of managers of the American Bible society, but felt constrained by his religious convictions to withdraw from it, and to unite in the formation of the American and foreign Bible society, of which he was made treasurer. In 1850 he joined twelve others, laymen and clergymen, in the organization of the American Bible union, and of this society he remained treasurer until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

COLLAMER, Jacob, 1791-1865, lawyer, jurist.  U.S. Senator from Vermont.  U.S. Senator, 1854-1865.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 689; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 297; Congressional Globe)

 

COLLAMER, Jacob, senator, b. in Troy, N. Y., 8 Jan., 1791; d. in Woodstock, Vt., 9 Nov., 1865. In childhood he removed with his father to Burlington, and, earning his own support, was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1810, studied law at St. Albans, made the frontier campaign as a lieutenant of artillery in the militia, and was admitted to the bar at St. Albans in 1813. Until 1833 he practised law in Washington, Orange, and Windsor counties, Vt., and in 1821-'2 and 1827-'8 represented the town of Royalton in the assembly. In 1833 he was elected an associate justice of the supreme court of Vermont, and continued on the bench until 1842, when he declined a re-election. In 1843 he was chosen as a whig to represent the 2d district in congress, was re-elected in 1844 and 1846, but in 1848 declined to be again a candidate. In March, 1849, he was appointed postmaster-general by President Taylor, but on the death of the president resigned with the rest of the cabinet. He was soon afterward again elected judge of the supreme court of Vermont, holding that office until 1854, when he was chosen U. S. senator, which office he held at the time of his death. He served as chairman of the committee on post-offices and post-roads, and was also chairman of that on the library. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 689. 

 

 

COLLIN, Nicholas, abolitionist, Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Committee of Twenty-Four (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

COLLINS, Amos M., abolitionist, Hartford, Connecticut, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1837.

 

 

COLLINS, Isaac, 1746-1817, born Delaware, Society of Friends, Quaker, printer, published anti-slavery literature in 1770s (Basker, 2005, pp. 55-56; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 691-692)

 

COLLINS, Isaac, publisher, b. in Delaware, 16 Feb., 1746; d. in Burlington, N. J., 21 March, 1817. He was the son of an immigrant from Bristol, England, learned the printer's trade, went to Philadelphia at the age of twenty-one, where he worked as a journeyman, in 1770 was appointed public printer in New Jersey, and removed to Burlington. In 1771 he began the publication of an almanac, which he issued annually for more than twenty years. In 1778 he removed to Trenton, and there printed 5,000 copies of a family Bible that was remarkably free from typographical errors. To secure accuracy, the proofs were read eleven times. In 1796 he went to New York city, but returned to Burlington in 1808. His sons also followed the business of their father; and the house of Charles Collins is now the oldest publishing firm in the United States. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 691-692. 

 

 

COLLINS, John Anderson, 1810-1879, abolitionist, social reformer.  General Agent and Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  Edited anti-slavery magazine, Monthly Garland.  (Filler, 1960, pp. 24, 110, 135; Mabee, 1970, pp. 76, 80, 81, 82, 88, 112, 114, 119, 120, 123, 124, 125, 212, 264, 394n30, 394n31, 398n13; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 307; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 253)

 

 

COLLINS, William, abolitionist, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1851-1852.

 

 

COLMAN, Lucy Newhall, 1817-1906, Rochester, New York, abolitionist.  Lectured against slavery in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois.  Helped and supported by Frederick Douglass.  (Sernett, 2002, pp. 55-56; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 313; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 260)

 

 

COLSON, Edward, Martinsburg, Virginia.  Nephew of John Marshal, advocate of American Colonization Society and colonization.  Defended the Society against attacks.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 221)

 

 

COLVER, Nathaniel, 1794-1870, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, clergyman, anti-slavery agent.  Baptist minister.  Lectured against slavery in New York State.  Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1839-1840.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 188, 393n22; Goodell, 1852, pp. 505-506; “The Friend of Man,” March 27, 1837; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 699; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 324)

 

COLVER, Nathaniel, clergyman, b. in Orwe11, Vt., 10 May, 1794; d. in Chicago, 25 Dec., 1870. His father, a Baptist minister, removed, while Nathaniel was a child, to Champlain, in northern New York, and thence to West Stockbridge, Mass., where the son was converted and decided to enter the Baptist ministry. Though he had but slender opportunities of early education, he made himself a respectable scholar. After brief pastorates in various places he was called in 1839 to Boston, where he co-operated in organizing the church since famous as Tremont Temple. His ministry here was remarkable for its bold, uncompromising, and effective warfare upon slavery and intemperance, as well as for its directly spiritual results. On leaving Boston in 1852, Mr. Colver was pastor at South Abingdon, Mass., at Detroit, at Cincinnati, and finally, in 1861, at Chicago. While in Cincinnati he received from Denison university the degree of D. D. In Chicago he was invited to take the professorship of doctrinal theology in the theological seminary in process of organization in that city. In 1867-'70 he was president of the Freedman's institute in Richmond, Va. Dr. Colver bore a conspicuous part in the anti-masonic, anti-slavery, and temperance movements of his day. He wrote much for the press, and published, besides occasional addresses, three lectures on Odd-fellowship (1844). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 699.   

 

 

COLWELL, Stephen, 1800-1872, Pennsylvania, philanthropist, author.  Director of the American Colonization Society, 1839-1841.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 700; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 327; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

COLWELL, Stephen, author, b. in Brooke county, Va., 25 March, 1800; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 15 J an., 1872. He was graduated in 1819 at Jefferson college, Pa., studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Virginia in 1821. Removing to Pittsburg, Pa., he practised law for ten years, when he became an iron merchant in Philadelphia. He devoted much of his time to the study of political economy, and soon began to write for the press. He acquired large wealth, which he devoted to charitable purposes, to the endowment of professorships, to the encouragement of scientific investigation, and to the collection of a large and valuable library, including a very complete selection of works on his favorite topics of political and social science. During the civil war Mr. Colwell was among the foremost supporters of the National government in its struggle against secession. He lent his name and his money to the cause, and strengthened the hands of the administration by every means in his power. He was one of the founders of the Union league of Philadelphia, and an associate member of the U. S. sanitary commission. After the war he was appointed a commissioner to examine the whole internal revenue system of the United States, with a view to suggesting such modifications as would distribute and lighten the necessary burdens of taxation—a problem of peculiar importance at that crisis of the nation 's history. To this work he devoted much time and study, and his advice had due weight in determining the financial policy of the government. He bequeathed his library to the University of Pennsylvania with an endowment for a professorship of social science. His first published work, under the signature of “Mr. Penn,” was entitled “Letter to Members of the Legislature of Pennsylvania on the Removal of Deposits from the Bank of the United States by Order of the President” (1834). Still concealing his identity under the name of “Jonathan B. Wise,” he published “The Relative Position in our Industry of Foreign Commerce, Domestic Production, and Internal Trade” (Philadelphia, 1850). He was the author of “New Themes for the Protestant Clergy” (1851); “Polities for American Christians” (1852); “Hints to Laymen,” and “Charity and the Clergy” (1853); “Position of Christianity in the United States, in its Relation with our Political System and Religious Instruction in the Public Schools” (1855); “The South; a Letter from a Friend in the North with Reference to the Effects of Disunion upon Slavery” (1856). The same year he edited, with notes, “List's Treatise on National Economy.” His last and most important work is “The Ways and Means of Commercial Payment” (1858). Besides these publications in book-form, he was the author of a noteworthy article in the “Merchant's Magazine,” entitled “Money of Account” (1852), and another essay on the same subject in the “Banker’s Magazine” (1855). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 700.  

 

 

COMINGS, Benjamin, abolitionist, New Hampshire, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1847-48, Vice-President, 1848-54.

 

 

CONDOL, Samuel, New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society.  (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CONDOL, William, New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CONGER, Ellison, abolitionist, Newark, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1848-53.

 

 

CONNESS, John, b. 1821.  Union Republican U.S. Senator from California.  U.S. Senator 1863-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 708; Congressional Globe)

 

CONNESS, John, senator, b. in Ireland, 20 Sept., 1821. He emigrated to the United States at the age of thirteen, learned the trade of a piano-forte maker, and worked in New York city until the discovery of gold in California. He went to that state in 1849, engaged in mining, and afterward became a merchant. He was a member of the California legislature in 1853-'4 and in 1860-'1, a candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1859, and the union democratic candidate for governor in 1861, receiving 30,944 votes, to 32,751 cast for the Breckinridge democratic candidate, and 56,036 for Leland Stanford, the successful republican candidate. He was elected as a union republican to succeed Milton S. Latham, a democrat, to the U. S. senate, and sat from 4 March, 1863, till 4 March, 1869, serving on the committees on finance and the Pacific railroad, and as chairman of the committee on mines and mining. He resided in Massachusetts after the conclusion of his term. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 708.

 

 

CONWAY, Daniel Moncure, 1832-1907, abolitionist, clergyman, author, women’s rights advocate. Unitarian minister. (Drake, 1950, p. 175; Mabee, 1970, pp. 322, 329, 336, 343, 363-365, 366, 369, 372; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 711-712; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 364)

 

CONWAY, Moncure Daniel, author, b. in Stafford county, Va., 17 March, 1832. His father was a magistrate and a member of the Virginia legislature; his mother a daughter of Surgeon-General Daniel. He received his early education at Fredericksburg academy, and was graduated at Dickinson college, Pa., in 1849, where he united with the Methodist church. He began the study of law at Warrenton, Va., and while there wrote for the Richmond “Examiner,” of which his cousin, John M. Daniel, was editor, in support of extreme southern opinions. He abandoned the law to enter the Methodist ministry, joined the Baltimore conference in 1850, was appointed to the Rockville circuit, and in 1852 to Frederick circuit. He was a contributor to the “Southern Literary Messenger” and published a pamphlet entitled “Free Schools in Virginia,” in which he advocated the adoption of the New England common-school system. Having undergone a change of political and religious convictions, partly through the influence of a settlement of Quakers among whom he lived, he left the Methodist ministry and entered the divinity-school at Cambridge, Mass., where he was graduated in 1854. He then returned to Virginia, in the hope of preaching his humanitarian ideas and transcendental and rationalistic doctrines; but upon reaching Falmouth, where his parents resided, was obliged by a band of neighbors to leave the state under threats because he had befriended Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave from the same district. The same year he became pastor of the Unitarian church in Washington, D. C., where he preached until he was dismissed on account of some anti-slavery discourses, especially one delivered after the assault on Senator Sumner. In 1857 he was settled over the Unitarian church in Cincinnati, Ohio. There he published, among other pamphlets, “A Defence of the Theatre” and “The Natural History of the Devil.” The publication of books on slavery and its relation to the civil war led to an invitation to lecture on this subject in New England, as he had already lectured gratuitously throughout Ohio. During the war his father's slaves escaped from Virginia and were settled by him in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was for a time editor of the Boston “Commonwealth.” In 1863 he went to England to enlighten the British public in regard to the causes of the war, and there wrote and lectured as a representative of the anti-slavery opinions of the north. He also contributed to “Fraser's Magazine” and the “Fortnightly Review.” Toward the close of 1863 he became the minister of South Place religious society in London, remaining there until he returned to the United States in 1884. He was long the London correspondent of the Cincinnati “Commercial.” “The Rejected Stone, or Insurrection versus Resurrection in America,” first appeared under the pen-name “A Native of Virginia,” and attracted much attention before the authorship became known. “The Golden Hour” was a similar work. Mr. Conway was a frequent contributor to the daily liberal press in England, and has written extensively for magazines in that country and in the United States. A series of articles entitled “South Coast Saunterings in England” appeared in “Harper's Magazine” in 1868-'9. He has published in book form “Tracts for To-day” (Cincinnati, 1858); “The Rejected Stone” (Boston, 1861); “The Golden Hour” (1862); “Testimonies concerning Slavery” (London, 1865); “The Earthward Pilgrimage,” a moral and doctrinal allegory (London and New York, 1870); “Republican Superstitions,” a theoretical treatise on politics, in which he objects to the extensive powers conferred on the president of the United States by the Federal constitution, and advocates, with Louis Blanc, a single legislative chamber (London, 1872); “The Sacred Anthology,” a selection from the sages and sacred books of all ages (London and New York, 1873); “Idols and Ideals” (London and New York, 1877); “Demonology and Devil-Lore” (1879); “A Necklace of Stories” (London, 1880); “The Wandering Jew and the Pound of Flesh” (London and New York, 1881); “Thomas Carlyle” (1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 711-712.

 

 

CONWAY, Ellen Davis Dana, abolitionist, feminist wife of Daniel M. Conway.

 

 

CONWAY, Martin Franklin, 1827-1882, Hartford County, Maryland.  U.S. Congressman, diplomat, abolitionist.  Supported Kansas Free-State Movement.  (Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 363)

 

 

COOK, James, abolitionist, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-40.

 

 

COOK, William, Hamilton County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-38

 

 

COON, Jacob, Belmont County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-38

 

 

COOPER, Arthur, 1789-1853, African American community leader, elder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, former slave. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 257)

 

 

COOPER, David, New Jersey, farmer, abolitionist, Society of Friends, pamphleteer, wrote, A Mite Cast into the Treasury: or, Observations on Slave Keeping, published 1772, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Petitioned Congress three times to abolish slavery, even lobbied President George Washington. Also wrote, A Serious Address to the Rulers of America, on the Inconsistency of their Conduct Respecting Slavery, Trenton, 1783.  (Basker, 2005, pp. ix, 31-77; Bruns, 1977, pp. 184-191, 440, 475; Dumond, 1961, pp. 24, 76; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 372; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 94, 152, 159)

 

 

COOPER, Griffith M., abolitionist, Williamson, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1852-1853.

 

 

COOPER, John, anti-slavery writer (Bruns, 1977, pp. 440, 456-459; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 141-143)

 

 

COOPER, Peter, 1791-1883, New York anti-slavery activist, Native American rights advocate, industrialist, inventor, philanthropist.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 730-732; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 409)

 

COOPER, Peter, philanthropist, b. in New York city, 12 Feb., 1791; d. there, 4 April, 1883; His mother was the daughter of John Campbell, a successful potter in New York, who became an alderman of the city and was deputy quartermaster during the Revolutionary war. Mr. Campbell contributed liberally to the cause of American freedom, and received in acknowledgment a large quantity of Continental money. On his father's side Mr. Cooper was of English descent, and both his grandfather and his father served in the Continental army. The latter, who became a lieutenant during the war, was a hatter, and at the close of the war resumed his business in New York. Peter was born about this period, and he remembered the time when, as a boy, he was employed to pull hair out of rabbit-skins, his head being just above the table. He continued to assist his father until he was competent to make every part of a hat. The elder Cooper determined to live in the country, and removed to Peekskill, where he began the brewing of ale, and the son was employed in delivering the kegs. Later, Catskill became the residence of the family, and the hatter's business was resumed, to which was added the making of bricks. Peter was made useful in carrying and handling the bricks for the drying process. These occupations proved unsatisfactory, and another move was made, this time to Brooklyn, where the father and son again made hats for a time, after which they settled in Newburg and erected a brewery. Peter meanwhile acquired such knowledge as he could, for his schooling appears to have been limited to half days during a single year. In 1808 he was apprenticed to John Woodward, a carriage-maker, with whom he remained until he became of age. During this time he constructed a machine for mortising the hubs of carriages, which proved of great value to his employer, who at the expiration of his service offered to establish him in business. This, however, was declined, and Cooper settled in Hempstead, L. I., where for three years he manufactured machines for shearing cloth, and at the end of this engagement he had saved sufficient money to buy the right of the state of New York for a machine for shearing cloth. He began the manufacture of these machines on his own account, and the enterprise was thoroughly successful, largely owing to the interruption of commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain by the war, and also on account of an improvement devised by himself. At this time he married Sarah Bedel, of Hempstead, who proved a devoted wife during fifty-six years of married life. With the cessation of hostilities the value of this business depreciated, and he turned his shop into a factory for making cabinet-ware. Later he entered the grocery business in New York, but soon afterward the profits acquired by the sale of his machines and in the grocer's shop were invested in a glue-factory, which he purchased with all its stock and buildings then on a lease of twenty-one years. These works were situated on the “old middle road,” between 31st and 34th streets, New York city, and there the business of manufacturing glue, oil, whiting, prepared chalk, and isinglass was continued until the expiration of the lease, when he bought ten acres of ground in Maspeth avenue, Brooklyn, where the business has since been continued. In 1828 he purchased 3,000 acres of land within the city limits of Baltimore, and he erected the Canton iron-works, which was the first of his great enterprises tending toward the development of the iron industry in the United States. This purchase was made at a time when there was great commercial excitement in Baltimore on account of the building of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. It was feared that the many short turns in the road would make it useless for locomotive purposes. The stockholders had become discouraged, and the project seemed about to be abandoned, when Peter Cooper came to the rescue and built, in 1830, from his own designs, the first locomotive engine ever constructed on this continent. By its means the possibility of building railroads in a country with little capital, and with immense stretches of very rough surface, in order to connect commercial centres, without the deep cuts, tunnelling, and levelling that short curves might avoid, was demonstrated, and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was saved from bankruptcy. He determined to dispose of his Baltimore property, and a portion of it was purchased by Horace Abbott, which in time became the Abbott iron company. The remainder was sold to Boston capitalists, who formed the Canton iron company. He received part of his payment in stock at $44 a share, which he subsequently sold at $230. He then returned to New York and built an iron-factory, which he afterward turned into a rolling-mill, where he first successfully applied anthracite coal to the puddling of iron, and made iron wire for several years. In 1845 he built three blast-furnaces in Phillipsburg, near Easton, Pa., which were the largest then known, and, to control the manufacture completely, purchased the Andover iron-mines, and built a railroad through a rough country for eight miles, in order to bring the ore down to the furnaces at the rate of 40,000 tons a year. Later the entire plant was combined into a corporation known as the Ironton iron-works. At these works the first wrought-iron beams for fireproof buildings were made. The laying of the Atlantic cable was largely due to his persistent efforts in its behalf. He was the first and only president of the New York, Newfoundland, and London telegraph company. It became necessary to expend large sums in its construction, much of which came directly from Mr. Cooper. The banks were unwilling to trust the corporation, and invariably drew on the president as claims matured. The company was frequently in his debt to the extent of ten to twenty thousand dollars. The first cable lasted scarcely a month, and a dozen years elapsed before the original investments were recovered. In spite of public ridicule and the refusal of capitalists to risk their money, Mr. Cooper clung to the idea, until at last a cable became an assured success. The original stock, which had been placed on the market at $50 a share, was then disposed of to an English company at $90. Mr. Cooper served in both branches of the New York common council, and strongly advocated, when a member of that body, the construction of the Croton aqueduct He was a trustee in the Public school society first founded to promote public schools in New York, and when that body was merged in the board of education he became a school commissioner. But he is most widely known in connection with his interest in industrial education. His own experience early impressed him with the necessity of affording proper means for the instruction of the working classes. With this idea he secured the property at the junction of 3d and 4th avenues, between 7th and 8th streets, amd from plans of his own making “The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art” was erected. In 1854 the corner-stone was laid, and five years later, on its completion, a deed was executed in fee simple transferring this property to six trustees, who were empowered to devote all rents and income from it “to the instruction and improvement of the inhabitants of the United States in practical science and art.” A scheme of education was devised which should include “instruction in branches of knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread; in laws of health and improvement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as individuals; in social and political science, whereby communities and nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power; and finally in matters which affect the eye, the ear, and the imagination, and furnish a basis for recreation to the working classes.” Free courses of lectures on social and political science were established; also a free reading-room; and collections of works of art and science were provided, and a school for instruction of women in the art of design by which they may gain an honorable livelihood. When sufficient funds have been collected, it is proposed to establish a polytechnic school. The building with its improvements has cost thus far nearly $750,000. It has an endowment of $200,000 for the support of the free reading-room and library. The annual expense of the schools varies from $50,000 to $60,000, and is derived from the rents of such portions of the edifice as are used for business purposes. Mr. Cooper devoted much careful thought and study to questions of finance and good government. He became active in the greenback movement, and published several political pamphlets on the subject of the currency. In 1876 he was nominated by the national independent party as their candidate for president, and in the election that followed received nearly 100,000 votes. In all affairs concerning the advancement and welfare of New York city Mr. Cooper was prominent. No public gathering seemed complete without his well-known presence on the platform. He was a regular attendant of the Unitarian church, and liberal in his donations to charitable institutions, to many of which he held the relation of trustee. His various addresses and speeches were collected in a volume entitled “Ideas for a Science of Good Government, in Addresses, Letters, and Articles on a Strictly National Currency, Tariff, and Civil Service” (New York, 1883). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 730-732.           

 

 

COOPER, Thomas, abolitionist. (Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 2, p. 2)

 

 

COPELAND, John Anthony, Jr., 1834-1859, free African American man with John Brown during his raid at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; hanged with John Brown, December 1859 (see entry for John Brown).  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 480; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 269)

 

 

COPELAND, Melvin, abolitionist, Hartford, Connecticut, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1839.

 

 

COPELAND, Oberlinites John, Jr., free African American man with John Brown during his raid at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859; hanged with John Brown, December 1859 (see entry for John Brown).  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407)

 

 

COPPINGER, William, d. 1892, lifelong employee of the American Colonization Society, starting in 1838.  Later served as its Secretary.  (Burin, 2005, p. 97; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 249)

 

 

COPPOC, Barclay, Iowa, Society of Friends, Quaker, joined John Brown in his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, in 1859.  Escaped capture.  (See entry for John Brown).  (Drake, 1950, p. 192; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407)

 

 

COPPOC, Edwin, Iowa, Society of Friends, Quaker, joined John Brown in his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, in 1859.  Hanged with John Brown.  (See entry for John Brown).  (Drake, 1950, p. 192; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 327; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407)

 

 

CORAM, Robert, Delaware, abolitionist, member, delegate, The Delaware Society for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, Wilmington, Delaware, founded 1789 (Basker, 2005, pp. 224, 240n40)

 

 

CORLISS, Hiram, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

CORNING, Jasper, Charleston, South Carolina.  Supported the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 128)

 

 

CORNISH, James, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 69)

 

 

CORNISH, Reverend Samuel Eli, 1795-1858, free African American, New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, clergyman, publisher, editor, journalist. Presbyterian clergyman. Published The Colonization Scheme Considered and its Rejection by Colored People and A Remonstrance Against the Abuse of Blacks, 1826.  Co-editor, Freedom’s Journal, first African American newspaper.  Editor, The Colored American, 1837-1839.  Leader and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Manager, AASS, 1834-1837.  In 1840, joined the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS).  Executive Committee, AFASS, 1840-1855. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 170, 328, 330; Mabee, 1970, pp. 51, 58, 93, 104, 129, 134, 150, 159, 190, 277, 278, 294, 398n20, 415n14, 415n15; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 38-39, 47; Sorin, 1971, pp. 82, 83, 90, 92-93; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 527)

 

 

CORWIN, Thomas, 1794-1865, Lebanon, Ohio, attorney, statesman, diplomat, opposed slavery, U.S. Congressman, Governor of Ohio, U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Treasury.  Director of the American Colonization Society, 1833-1834.  (Mitchell, 2007, p. 33, 35, 160, 172, 173, 266n; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 403; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 751; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 457; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 549; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 138, 207)

 

CORWIN, Thomas, statesman, b. in Bourbon county, Ky., 29 July, 1794; d. in Washington, D. C., 18 Dec., 1865. In 1798 his father, Matthias, removed to what is now Lebanon, Ohio, and for many years represented his district in the legislature. The son worked on the home farm till he was about twenty years old, and enjoyed very slender educational advantages, but began the study of law in 1815, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1818. His ability and eloquence as an advocate soon gained him an extensive practice. He was first chosen to the legislature of Ohio in 1822, serving seven years, and was chosen to congress in 1830, from the Miami district as a whig, of which party he was an enthusiastic member. His wit and eloquence made him a prominent member of the house of representatives, to which he was re-elected by the strong whig constituency that he represented for each successive term till 1840, when he resigned to become the whig candidate for governor of Ohio, and canvassed the state with Gen. Harrison, addressing large gatherings in most of the counties. He was unsurpassed as an orator on the political platform or before a jury. At the election he was chosen by 16,000 majority, Gen. Harrison receiving over 23,000 in the presidential election that soon followed. Two years later, Gov. Corwin was defeated for governor by Wilson Shannon, whom he had so heavily beaten in 1840. In 1844 the Whigs again carried the state, giving its electoral vote to Mr. Clay, and sending Mr. Corwin to the U. S. senate, where he made in 1847 a notable speech against the war in Mexico. He served in the senate until Mr. Fillmore's accession to the presidency in July, 1850, when he was called to the head of the treasury. After the expiration of Mr. Fillmore's term he returned to private life and the practice of law at Lebanon, Ohio. In 1858 he was returned once more a representative in congress by an overwhelming majority, and was re-elected with but slight opposition in 1860. On Mr. Lincoln's accession to the presidency he was appointed minister to Mexico, where he remained until the arrival of Maximilian, when he came home on leave of absence, and did not return, remaining in Washington and practising law, but taking a warm interest in public affairs, and earnestly co-operating in every effort to restore peace. His style of oratory was captivating, and his genial and kindly nature made him a universal favorite. His intemperate speech against the Mexican war hindered his further political advancement. He was a faithful public servant, led a busy life, lived frugally, and, although he had been secretary of the U. S. treasury, failed to secure a competency for his family. See the “Life and Speeches” of Thomas Corwin, edited by Isaac Strohn (Dayton. 1859).—His brother, Moses B., b. in Bourbon county, Ky., 5 Jan., 1790; d. in Urbana, Ohio, 7 April, 1872, received a common-school education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practised at Urbana. He was a member of the legislature in 1838-'9, and was elected as a whig to congress in 1848, against his son, John A., who was nominated as a Democrat. He was again elected in 1854.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 751

 

 

COVODE, John, 1808-1871, abolitionist.  U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania, serving 1855-1863, representing the 35th District and the Republican Party.  (Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 756; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 470)

 

 

COWAN, Edgar, 1815-1885, lawyer.  U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania 1861-1867.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 756; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 605; Congressional Globe; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 470)

 

COWAN, Edgar, senator, b. in Sewickley, Westmoreland co., Pa., 19 Sept., 1815; d. in Greensburg, Pa., 29 Aug., 1885. He was early thrown on his own resources, becoming by turns clerk, boat-builder, school-teacher, and medical student, but finally entered Franklin college, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1839. He then studied law in Greensburg, Pa., and was admitted to the bar in 1842. In 1861 he was elected to the U. S. senate by the people's party, and served till 1867, distinguishing himself as a ready and fearless debater. He was chairman of the committees on patents, finance, and agriculture, and a member of that on the judiciary. He was a delegate to the Union convention at Philadelphia in 1866, and in January, 1867, was appointed minister to Austria, but was not confirmed by the senate. At the close of his term he resumed the practice of law in Greensburg. Senator Cowan was a man of large proportions and great physical strength, being six feet four inches in height. He published various speeches and addresses in pamphlet form. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 756.             

 

 

COWDRY, Harris, abolitionist, Acton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-1848.

 

 

COWLES, Betsy Mix, 1810-1876, educator, reformer, abolitionist.  Organized the Ashtabula County Female Anti-Slavery Society.  Worked closely with abolitionist leader Abby Kelley in the Western Anti-Slavery Society (WASS).  African American and women’s civil rights advocate.  (American National Biography, 2002)

 

 

COWLES, Henry, 1803-1881, Austinburgh, Ohio, clergyman, educator, anti-slavery activist, reformer.  Manager, 1834-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 757)

 

COWLES, Henry, clergyman, b. in Norfolk, Conn., 24 April, 1803; d. 6 Sept., 1881. He was graduated at Yale in 1826, and held Congregational pastorates from 1828 till 1835. He was a professor of theology at Oberlin from 1835 till 1848. He published “Notes” on the Bible (16 vols., New York, 1867-'81); “Hebrew History” (New York, 1873); and other works. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 757.

 

          

COWLES, Horace, Farmington, Connecticut, abolitionist. American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Manager, 1833-40, 1840-41.

 

 

COX, Abby Ann, New York City, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 41)

 

 

COX, Abraham L., 1800-1864, New York, surgeon, opponent of slavery, abolitionist leader.  Founding member and recording secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1833-1836.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 218; Sorin, 1971, p. 32n; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I)

 

COX, Abraham Siddon, surgeon, b. in New York in 1800; d. at Lookout Mountain, Tenn., 29 July, 1864. He had been for many years one of the most eminent medical practitioners of New York city. At the beginning of the war he became a surgeon in the army, and at the time of his death was surgeon-in-chief of the 1st division, 20th corps, Army of the Cumberland. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I.

 

 

COX, Gershom A., Reverend, clergyman, abolitionist, Maine.  Founder and first Vice President of the Portland Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.

 

 

COX, Hannah Pierce [Pearce], 1797-1876, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, Underground Railroad activist. (Hersch, 1978; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 53, 246; Smedley, 1969; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 758; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 474)

 

COX, Hannah, abolitionist, b. in Longwood, near Philadelphia, in 1796; d. there, 15 April, 1876. She joined the first movement in favor of emancipation, being a co-laborer with Benjamin Lundy, Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and John G. Whittier. For years she and her husband, who survived her in his 91st year, received fugitive slaves. Their golden wedding was celebrated in 1873, when poems were sent by Whittier and Bavard Tavlor. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 758.

 

 

COX, John, Pennsylvania, Underground Railroad activist, abolitionist. (Hersch, 1978; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 53, 246; Smedley, 1969)

 

 

 

COX, Samuel Hanson, 1793-1880 New York, radical abolitionist leader, Presbyterian clergyman, orator. American Anti-Slavery Society. (Sorin, 1971, pp. 74, 114; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 481; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 630; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 760; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 228)

 

COX, Samuel Hanson, clergyman, b. in Rahway, N. J., 25 Aug., 1793; d. in Bronxville, Westchester co., N. Y., 2 Oct., 1881. His father, who at the time of his death, in 1801, was engaged in mercantile enterprises in New York city, was descended from a family that in the 17th century settled on the eastern shore of Maryland, where the name, diversely spelled, has been long connected with the Quakers of Talbot county. By intermarriages with other families of the peninsula, this connection was rendered nominal at different periods; but, as the father of Dr. Cox had maintained his relations with the society, he received his academic education at their high-school or college at Westtown, near Philadelphia. He also received private instruction in Philadelphia, and was a law-student in Newark, N. J., in 1812, when, with Southard, Frelinghuysen, and others that became eminent, he organized a volunteer corps of riflemen, which occasionally served in the war, notably at Fort Green, L. I. He studied theology in Philadelphia under Dr. Wilson, a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman. The degree of M. A. was conferred upon him by Princeton, and that of D. D. by Williams. He was ordained in 1817, and accepted the pastorate of Mendham, Morris co., N. J. In 1821 he removed to New York as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Spring street, and thence to Laight street in 1825. His congregation here was largely composed of wealthy merchants. He took a leading part in the foundation of the University of the city of New York and in literary conventions, one of which was presided over by John Quincy Adams, called to aid in its organization. He was appointed to open the instructions of the university with the late Dr. McIlvaine, afterward bishop of Ohio, and delivered one of the two memorable courses of lectures in the winter of 1831-'2, his department being that of moral philosophy. During the cholera season of the latter year he remained at his post until stricken down by the disease. In impaired health Dr. Cox went to Europe in 1833, where a speech, delivered at the anniversary of the British and foreign Bible society in London, gained him distinction and opened the way to honors and attentions in Europe. The anti-slavery sentiment then predominant in England made a great impression on Dr. Cox, and he publicly defended his country, when it was gratuitously assailed on that point, and delivered a celebrated sermon against slavery, soon after his return, which, though moderate in tone, drew upon him a great share of the violence with which the agitators were then visited. He was never identified with their extreme measures, and afterward took a leading conservative position in all questions connected with the south, which for a long time disturbed the Presbyterian church. In recognition of this service to the counsels of his brethren, he received the degree of LL. D. from a southern college. In other questions his theological standing was with the new school, of which he was a prominent champion. In the order and discipline of his church, however, he maintained the highest and most thorough old-school position. He was elected professor of pastoral theology in the Theological seminary at Auburn in 1834, but in 1837 became pastor of the 1st Presbyterian congregation in Brooklyn, L. I., where he built a new church in Henry street. In 1845 Dr. Cox attended the Evangelical alliance in London. In 1852, his health declining, he visited Nassau, but with so little good effect that, against the remonstrances of his people and the most liberal proposals on their part, he resigned his charge, and retired to a pleasant property, which they enabled him to purchase, at Owego, N. Y. He considered his career as a pastor at an end, but frequently delivered lectures and appeared in pulpits in New York for several years subsequently. He was for many years professor of ecclesiastical history in the Union theological seminary of New York. His contributions to periodicals and journalistic literature were numerous. His work on “Quakerism” (1833) is in part an autobiography. In connection with the duties of his chair, he edited Bower's “History of the Popes” (New York, 1847). He also presided for a time over the Ladies' college at Le Roy, N. Y. For the last twelve years of his life he lived in retirement in Westchester county. Although much criticised for personal eccentricities, he was generally recognized as a man of high character and commanding talents, of great boldness in expressing his strong convictions, and of singular power as an orator. Dr. Cox was the eldest of three sons, all of whom attained professional eminence. JAMES died prematurely in Philadelphia in 1830. ABRAHAM LIDON, after a brilliant practice in New York, where he became professor of surgery in the medical college now connected with the New York university, of which he was one of the founders, died in the service of his country near Chattanooga in 1863. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888. 

 

 

COXE, John D., abolitionist leader, founding member of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Bruns, 1977, p. 514)

 

 

COXE, Richard S., Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Manager, 1833-34, Executive Committee, 1840-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

COXE, Tench, 1755-1824, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, political economist, abolitionist leader.  Founding member and secretary of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787. (Basker, 2005, pp. 80, 81-85, 92, 101-102; Bruns, 1977, pp. 384, 510-512, 514; Nash, 1991, pp. 124-125, 141; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 762; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 488; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 636)

 

COXE, Tench, political economist, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 22 May, 1755; d. there, 17 July, 1824. His mother was a daughter of Tench Francis. His father came of a family well known in American affairs. One ancestor was a proprietor of the province of West Jersey, and sent out the first ship that ever entered the Mississippi from the gulf. Another wrote “A Description of the Province of Carolana,” and drew that scheme for the union of the colonies against French aggression which Franklin copied in the “Albany Plan.” Tench received his education in the Philadelphia schools, and intended to study law; but his father determined to make him a merchant, and he was placed in the counting-house of Coxe & Furman, becoming a partner at the age of twenty-one. Those were the times that tried men's souls, and the boy proved unequal to the trial. In 1776 he resigned from the militia, turned royalist, left the city to join the British, and came back in 1777 with the army under Howe. When Howe left, Coxe was arrested and paroled. He now turned whig, and began a long political career. In 1786 he was sent to the Annapolis convention, and in 1788 to the Continental congress. He next became a federalist, and was made assistant secretary of the treasury in 1789, and commissioner of the revenue in 1792; but from this place Adams removed him. He then turned republican, and in the canvass of 1800 published Adams's famous letter to him regarding Pinckney. For this he was reviled by the federalists as a renegade, a tory, and a British guide, and was rewarded by Jefferson in 1803 with the place of purveyor of public supplies, which he held till 1812. In 1804 Coxe organized and led a party at Philadelphia opposed to the election to congress of Michael Lieb, and this brought him again into public notice. Though a republican, he was for three months daily abused by the “Aurora”; was called a tory, a Federal rat, a British guide who had entered Philadelphia in 1777 with laurel in his hat, and his party was nicknamed the “quids.” The term is commonly supposed to have been first applied to the little band led by John Randolph in 1806, but this is a mistake. The claims of Tench Coxe to remembrance are his labors in behalf of American manufactures, and his statistical writings on political economy. He deserves, indeed, to be called the father of the American cotton industry. He it was who first attempted to bring an Arkwright machine to the United States, and first urged the people of the south to give their time to raising cotton. His speech before the delegates of the constitutional convention is in the “American Museum” of September, 1787. His treasury papers are in the “American State Papers” (vol. i., Finance). His chief works are: " An Inquiry into the Principles for a Commercial System for the United States” (1787); “Examination of Lord Sheffield's Observations on the Commerce of the United Provinces” (1792); “View of the United States” (1787-'94). He wrote also on naval power, on encouragement of arts and manufactures, on the cost, trade, and manufacture of cotton, on the navigation act, and on arts and manufactures in the United States. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 762.

 

 

COXE, William, Jr., New Jersey, abolitionist, member, delegate, The New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, founded 1793 (Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 224, 227, 239n6)

 

 

CRAFT, Ellen, 1827-1900, African American, author, former slave who escaped to freedom in 1848 with William Craft.  Wrote Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: Or the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, 1860.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 137-138; Hersch, 1978; Mabee, 1970, pp. 285-286, 290, 302, 303, 316, 336; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 53, 246; Smedley, 1969, pp. 51, 184, 209, 246-247, 464, 489; Still, 1883; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 647; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 315)

 

 

CRAFT, William, c. 1826-1890, African American author, former slave who escaped to freedom in 1848 with Ellen Craft.  Wrote Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: Or the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, 1860.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 137-138; Hersch, 1978; Mabee, 1970, pp. 285-286, 290, 302, 303, 316, 336; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 53, 246; Smedley, 1969, pp. 51, 184, 209, 246-247, 464, 489; Still, 1883; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 648; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 315)

 

 

CRANCH, William, Judge, 1769-1855, jurist.  Manager of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 767-768; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 501; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 208)

 

CRANCH, William, jurist, b. in Weymouth, Mass., 17 July, 1769; d. in Washington, 1 Sept., 1855. His father, Richard, a native of England, was for many years a member of the Massachusetts legislature, was a judge of the court of common pleas, and the author of “Views of the Prophecies concerning Anti-Christ.” William was graduated at Harvard in 1829, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in July, 1790. After practising for three years in the courts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in October, 1794, he removed to Washington. In 1801 President Adams appointed him junior assistant judge of the circuit court of the District of Columbia. In 1805 President Jefferson made him chief justice of the same court, an office that he held till 1855. During that period but two of his decisions were overruled by the U. S. supreme court. Among the last services imposed upon him by congress was the final hearing of patent causes after an appeal from the commissioner of patents. He published nine volumes of reports of the U. S. supreme court, and six volumes of reports of the circuit court of the District of Columbia (1801 to 1841). He also prepared a code of laws for the district, published a memoir of John Adams (1827), and in 1831 an address on temperance. He was a member of the academy of arts and    Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CRANDALL, Phineas, abolitionist, Fall River, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-36, 1839-1840.

 

 

CRANDALL, Prudence, 1803-1889, Canterbury, Connecticut, Society of Friends, Quaker, educator, abolitionist.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 211-217; Foner, 1984; Fuller, 1971; Goodell, 1852, pp. 393, 436; Mabee, 1970, pp. 148, 149, 150, 373; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 247-248; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 13, 89, 199, 203, 211, 223; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 768; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 192-193; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 667; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 307)

 

CRANDALL, Prudence, educator, b. in Hopkinton, R. I., 3 Sept., 1803. She was educated at the Friends' boarding-school in Providence, and in 1831, under the patronage of residents of the town, established the Canterbury, Conn., boarding-school. In 1833 her school had become one of the best of its kind in the state. At this time Miss Crandall admitted a young negro girl as a pupil, and thereby incurred the displeasure of nearly all her former patrons, who threatened to withdraw their daughters from her care. Opposition strengthened her decision to educate the oppressed race, and, after consultation with several of the anti-slavery leaders, she issued a circular announcing that on the first Monday of April, 1833, she would open a school “for the reception of young ladies and little misses of color.” “Terms, $25 per quarter, one half paid in advance.” In the list of references are the names of Arthur Tappan, Samuel J. May, William Lloyd Garrison, and Arnold Buffum. The circular was first published in the “Liberator” of 2 March, 1833. In Canterbury there was great indignation, and several public meetings were held. Messrs. May and Buffum appeared on behalf of Miss Crandall, but were denied a hearing on the ground that they were interlopers. The town pledged itself to oppose the school, and a petition was sent to the legislature, praying for an act prohibiting private schools for non-resident colored persons. Such an act was passed in May; but in the mean time, in spite of all opposition, Miss Crandall had opened her school, and began her work with a respectable number of pupils. She was arrested and imprisoned under the new law, and in August and October was twice brought to trial. She was convicted, and the case was then carried up to the supreme court of errors, where judgment was reversed on a technicality in July, 1834. Pending this decision, Miss Crandall was the object of persecutions of the most annoying description. The term “boycott,” not then known, best describes the measures that were taken to compel the suspension of her school. Finally her house was set on fire and the building so damaged by a mob that it was, deemed best to abandon the undertaking. Such was the beginning of the higher education for colored people in New England. After the breaking up of her school, she married the Rev. Calvin Philleo, a Baptist clergyman, who died in 1876. They lived at various places in New York and Illinois, and she now (1886) resides in Elk Falls, Kansas. Miss Crandall's portrait was painted by Francis Alexander in 1838, for the American anti-slavery society, and became the property of Samuel J. May, who gave it to Cornell university, in the library of which it is still preserved. The illustration presented above is from that portrait. Her life has been written by the Rev. John C. Kimball (a pamphlet, printed privately, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 768.

 

 

CRANE, William, 1790-1866, Richmond, Virginia, merchant, philanthropist.  Active supporter of the American Colonization Society in the Richmond auxiliary.  Created the Richmond African Baptist Ministry Society as a part of the Richmond Baptist Foreign Ministry Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 1; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 109, 128)

 

CRANE, William, merchant, b. in Newark, N. J., 6 May, 1790; d. in Baltimore, Md., 28 Sept., 1866. In Richmond, Va., where he resided from 1811 till 1834, he was distinguished for his zeal in promoting the religious welfare of the colored people. He was the founder of the Richmond African Baptist missionary society which sent out Lott Cary to Liberia, and he taught the first school for blacks in Richmond, and was one of the originators of Richmond college, giving to it $1,000. His benefactions to other religious objects were large. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CRAVATH, Erastas Milo, 1833-1900, Homer, New York, clergyman, educator, abolitionist, Union Army soldier.  Field agent for the American Missionary Association (AMA), 1865.  Established schools for former slaves.  Co-founder of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1866.

 

 

CRAWFORD, James, 1810-1888, African American, escaped slave, Baptist clergyman, abolitionist leader. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 327)

 

 

CRAWFORD, William Harris, 1772-1834, Georgia, statesman, U.S. Congressman from Georgia.  Vice-President, 1833-35, of the American Colonization Society.  Member, Milledgeville auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Burin, 2005, p. 14; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 6; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 527; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

CRAWFORD, William Harris, statesman, b. in Amherst county, Va., 24 Feb., 1772; d. in Elbert county, Ga., 15 Sept., 1834. His father, who was in reduced circumstances, removed first to South Carolina and then to Columbia county, Ga. After teaching school at Augusta the boy studied law, began practice at Lexington in 1799, and was one of the compilers of the first digest of the laws of Georgia. He became a member of the state senate in 1802, and in 1807 was chosen U. S. senator to fill a vacancy. The political excitement of the period led him to engage in two duels, in one of which his opponent fell, and in the second of which he was himself wounded. He was re-elected in 1811, acquiesced in the policy of a U. S. bank, and in 1812 was chosen president pro tem. of the senate. He was at first opposed to the war with Great Britain, but eventually gave it his support; and in 1813, having declined the place of secretary of war, accepted that of minister to France, where he formed a personal intimacy with Lafayette. In 1816, on the retirement of Mr. Dallas, he was appointed secretary of the treasury. He was prominently urged as a candidate for the presidency, but remained at the head of the treasury department, where he adhered to the views of Mr. Jefferson, and opposed the federal policy in regard to internal improvements, then supported by a considerable section of his own party. This position on the great question of the time subjected him to virulent hostility from opponents of his own party; and Mr. Calhoun, who was one of these opponents, became a dangerous rival for the democratic nomination for the presidency, to succeed Monroe. Crawford, however, as the choice of the Virginia party, and the representative of the views of Jefferson, secured the nomination of a congressional caucus in February, 1824; and in the election that followed he received the electoral votes of Virginia and Georgia, with scattering votes from New York, Maryland, and Delaware—in all, 41. No choice having been made by the electoral college, the election reverted to the house of representatives, where John Quincy Adams was elected over Jackson and Crawford, through the influence of Henry Clay, the fourth candidate before the people, who brought his friends to the support of Adams. The result was also due, in a measure, to the confirmed ill health of Mr. Crawford, and perhaps to imputations brought against his conduct of the treasury department. These charges he promptly refuted, and a committee that included Daniel Webster and John Randolph unanimously declared them to be unfounded. But his health rendered it impossible for him to continue in public life; and, although he recovered his strength partially, he took no part after this date in politics. Returning to Georgia, he became circuit judge, which office he continued  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.



Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD was born in Nelson County, Virginia, 24th February, 1772. In 1779, his father, Joel Crawford, removed with his family to Stevens’ Creek, Edgefield District, South Carolina, about thirty miles above Augusta. The next winter, the British troops having taken Savannah and Augusta, Mr. Crawford returned north over Broad River, into Chester District. Soon after South Carolina was overrun by the British, he was seized and thrown into Camden jail as a rebel. Here he remained the greater part of the summer, and was released on some of his neighbors becoming his security. In 1783 he removed into Georgia, and settled on Kiokee Creek, Columbia County.

The disturbances of the country had an unfavorable influence upon its schools. The advantages for educating its youth were at best very meagre. Young CRAWFORD went to school a few months while his parents resided in South Carolina, and discovered such capacity for receiving instruction, as determined his father, when permanently settled in Georgia, to send him to Scotland, and give him a thorough education. He made arrangements with a Scotch merchant in Augusta, for supplying his son with funds during his residence at the University; but the merchant, in a fit of derangement, having attempted to cut his own throat, Mr. Crawford thought it unsafe to entrust him with funds and with the superintendence of his son. Having abandoned the idea of sending him abroad, he put him to school in the country, and gave him the best English education he could, and in 1788 set him to teaching school. Before this year expired, his father died, and the disease then prevalent in the country (probably small-pox) swept away most of the valuable servants of the family, and reduced them to very narrow circumstances. To aid his mother in supporting a large and almost helpless family, young CRAWFORD taught school, more or less, for three or four years. In 1794 the Reverend Dr. Waddel opened a Latin school in Columbia, called Carmel Academy. The desire of obtaining a classical education, which had been lost sight of since his father’s death, now revived, and Mr. CRAWFORD entered the Academy, and remained in it two years, studying the usual Latin and Greek authors, philosophy, and the French language. The last year he was usher in the school, and received for his services one third of the tuition money. In this situation he remained until April 1796, and made the best possible use of his opportunities. In that month, this obscure usher, not dreaming of politics, but still anxious to increase his stock of useful learning, with a hope finally to obtain a profession, bent his way to Augusta, there to fling himself in the way of fortune’s gambols, and to receive whatever the sportings of her fancy might turn up to all unknown but bold adventurer. His means were, however, perfectly inadequate to the objects he had in view. He obtained a situation in the Richmond Academy, where he remained in the double character of student and instructor until the year 1798, when he was appointed Rector of that institution. During his residence in Augusta he studied law, to the practice of which he was admitted in the course of that year. He was a self-taught law scholar. It may be remarked, that while he was engaged in his scholastic and professional studies, he supported a character for the most exemplary morality and prudence, and was a most indefatigable, close, and laborious student.

Mr. CRAWFORD was a man considerably above ordinary height, large, muscular, and well-proportioned. His head and face were remarkably striking, and impressed the beholder at once with the belief that he must possess more than ordinary powers of intellect. His complexion was fair, and, until late in life, ruddy. His features were strong and regular. When at rest, they indicated great firmness and perseverance of character. When he smiled, an engaging benignity overspread his whole countenance. His eyes, before they were affected by his protracted illness at Washington, were clear blue, mild, though radiant. Those who never made his acquaintance until his return to Georgia, will be apt to consider this description of his person overwrought, while those who knew him in the prime of life will hardly think it does him justice. His deportment was affable, his step firm, his gait erect and manly, but not ostentatious, indicating courage and independence.

His manners, though free from stiffness and hauteur, were never very graceful. They were such, however, as to make all about him feel easy. There was in him a certain consciousness of superior mind, as has been said of another, which could not always be repressed nor withdrawn from observation. He was at all times a man of decided feelings—warm in his attachments, and vehement, in his resentments. He was prompt to repel insults, and equally prompt to forgive whenever an appeal was made to his clemency. No personal labor was too great to be endured, if by it he could elevate modest merit from poverty to comfort, or advance the interests and honor of his friends. No child of distress ever made an unsuccessful appeal to his charity. His rule was to give something in every case, but to regulate the amount by the necessities which urged the call.

Few men have felt such perfect contempt for show and display as Mr. CRAWFORD. His dress was always plain, and never at all in his way. Indeed, he gave himself no care whatever about what he should wear. At the age of thirty-two, after a seven years’ engagement, which had been suspended by his poverty, he married Susannah Girardin, of Augusta, who still survives, and who resides at Woodlawn, his country-seat, where he settled in 1804, and where he resided from that period to the day of his death, except when engaged in the public service. After marriage, he referred the subject of dress to Mrs. Crawford, who was as plain and unaffected in her taste as himself. Though his situation in public life often required him, out of respect to the customs of the country, and to avoid the charge of eccentricity, to keep up a style and equipage of unwonted splendor, it was manifest that his heart was not in it; nor does any one, at all acquainted with the man, believe for a moment, that his opposition to these things proceeded from penuriousness, or any kindred sentiment. He was a man of unquestioned liberality. He was seldom known to ask the price of any thing, and never considered any thing dear that added to the pleasure and comfort of himself or family. At an early age he imbibed the sentiment, that dandyism and intellectuality were antagonistic traits of character; and he was heard to say, a short time before his death, that amidst an extensive acquaintance with men of distinction in this country and in Europe, he had seen but two dandies who were men of genius. Modest virtue, sound sense, and stern integrity were the surest passports to his esteem. With these, a poor man was a prince in his affections; without them, a prince was the poorest of all beings.

Mr. CRAWFORD'S house has often been styled “Liberty Hall” by those familiar with the unrestrained mirthfulness, hilarity, and social glee which marked his fireside; and the perfect freedom with which every child, from the eldest to the youngest, expressed his or her opinion upon the topics suggested by the moment, whether those topics referred to men or measures. His children were always encouraged to act out their respective characters precisely as they were, and the actions and sentiments of each were, always a fair subject of commendation, or good-humored ridicule by the rest. They criticised the opinions and conduct of the father, with the same freedom as those of each other, and he acknowledged his errors or argued his defence with the same kind spirit and good temper as distinguished his course towards them in every other case. The family government was one of the best specimens of democracy the world has ever seen. There was nothing like faction in the establishment. According to the last census, before marriage and emigration commenced, the population was ten, consisting of father and mother and eight children, of whom five are sons and three daughters. Suffrage on all questions was universal, extending to male and female. Freedom of speech and equal rights were felt and acknowledged to be the birthright of each. Knowledge was a common stock, to which each felt a peculiar pleasure in contributing according as opportunity enabled him. When afflictions or misfortunes came, each bore a share in the common burden. When health and prosperity returned, each became emulous of heightening the common joy. Chess, drafts, and other games, involving calculation and judgment, and plays which called for rapid thought, quick perception, and ready answers, formed sources of in-door amusements. Those requiring vigor of nerve and agility of muscle were performed upon the green. In all these sports upon the green and in the house, Mr. CRAWFORD was, even down to his last days, the companion of his children; delighting them often by taking part himself. Though the disease of which he suffered so much while at Washington deprived him of his activity, his zeal for the gratification of his children, and his delight in contributing all he could to their happiness, knew no abatement. As a husband, he was kind, affectionate, and devoted. He was never ostentatious in his attachments to any one, always evincing his regard more by substantial beneficence than by words. No parent was ever better beloved of his children than he. His home instructions were of incalculable advantage to them. He never contented himself with merely sending them to schools of highest arid best repute, but made a personal examination of them almost every day, that he might see and know for himself how they progressed and how they were taught. He was in the habit of drawing them around him in a class, and requiring them to read with him. On these occasions, the Bible was his chief class-book, and Job and Psalms his favorite portions. The attention and instructions here mentioned were faithfully accorded during the whole time of his cabinet service at Washington, except during his extreme illness. After his return from Georgia, and his partial recovery from his disease, he still kept up an intimate acquaintance with the progress of his younger children, and the manner of their instruction at school; though his general debility prevented his being so indefatigable as he had been. At no time of his life did he ever lose sight of the importance of storing the minds of his children with virtuous principles. The strict observance of truth, the maintenance of honor, generosity, and integrity of character, he never ceased to enjoin upon them as indispensable to respectability and happiness.

It is not within the knowledge of any of his children that he was ever guilty of profane swearing. He never made a profession of religion, but was a decided believer in Christianity, a life member of the American Bible Society, a Vice-President of the American Colonization Society, and a regular contributor to the support of the gospel.

Though Mr. CRAWFORD’S strides to political preferment were long and unusually rapid, as will be seen in the course of this sketch, they were not free from those difficulties and embarrassments which have often beset the way of those who have aspired to places of high honor and distinction. In all ages of the world, men of low minds and corrupt hearts have so far controlled popular sentiment, as to infuse into it principles, which, when subjected to the tests of enlightened wisdom, sound ethics, and the highest and best dictates of refined humanity, must, without hesitation, be pronounced erroneous. The history of man evinces that no order of intelligence on earth has, at all times hitherto, been sufficiently strong, successfully to oppose those practices which have been the legitimate result of such principles. Thus much must be conceded of those mortal conflicts which spring from the law of honor, as exhibited in the opinions, and enforced by the examples, of some of the most illustrious statesmen and patriots of this country and Europe. That the subject of this notice was, in the commencement of his career, himself imbued with this philosophy, (this false philosophy,) and that he gave a practical illustration of his faith upon two occasions, it were useless to deny or conceal. It is believed, however, that he ever afterwards looked upon this part of his history with deep and poignant regret. The only affair[1] of this kind, with which he was afterwards connected, was one not of his own, and in which he consented to act as second, only that he might restore peace between the parties. This he did most effectually, and by his course in the matter seemed the abiding confidence of all concerned.

In the spring of 1799, Mr. CRAWFORD removed into Oglethorpe County; and without money or patron commenced the practice of law, in what was then called the Western, now the Northern Circuit of Georgia. Such were his perseverance, industry, and talents, that he soon attracted the notice of that distinguished statesman and sound jurist, Peter Early, then at the head of his profession in the Up Country, and to whom he became warm and ardently attached. His great professional zeal, that always made his client’s cause his own, his unremitted attention to business, his punctuality and promptness in its despatch, his undisguised frankness and official sincerity, disdaining the little artifices and over-reaching craft of the profession, combined with a dignity which, springing from self-respect alone, was entirely unmingled with affectation, his honesty and irreproachable moral character, accompanied with manners the most plain, simple, and accessible, secured for him a public and private reputation seldom equalled, and never surpassed in any country. His most prominent virtue was a bold and lofty ingenuousness of mind; in any intercourse whatever with him it was his most striking trait, and yet it was far from being studied. He never engaged, by a smooth and flexible manner, either in the utterance of his sentiments or the tendency of his address: in the first he was polite and unassuming, though confident and decided; in the latter he was easy without ostentation, and commanding without arrogance. In the court-house, as well as at home, the blind veneration and respectful awe, by no means inconsiderable, which were usually paid to the graces and proud carriage of person, the fascinating richness and gaiety of apparel, and the splendor of equipage, he neither claimed nor desired; brought up and educated altogether free from such vain allurements, he never suffered his native strength of mind and unaffected manly simplicity to yield in the slightest degree to their influence. After Mr. Early went to Congress in 1802, Mr. CRAWFORD might fairly be said to stand at the head of the bar in his circuit.

As a lawyer, he was courteous and liberal. As a speaker, not so much distinguished for fluency or elegance of style, as clearness of illustration and cogency of argument. In a conversation with the writer during his judicial service, he said he did not remember to have lost a case at the bar in which he had had the concluding speech. As a pleader, he was exceedingly neat and accurate. His hand-writing was large, plain, elegant, and free. He left nothing to be supplied by the clerk; and his opposing counsel might see at the first glance the complaint or defence of his client, set forth with a convincing clearness that created a feeling in advance that it must be just. His speeches were always short, rarely exceeding half an hour in any case. He had the faculty of seizing at once upon all the strong points of a case, and presenting each in its natural order with a simplicity, brevity, perspicuity and force, which told with unfailing effect upon the minds of the court and jury. He was always armed with such discrimination as enabled him to detect the least flaw in the argument of his adversary, and no fallacy was allowed to pass unexposed. No incident connected with the testimony, which could be wielded to the advantage of his client or against his opponent, ever escaped the tenacity of his memory. His social intercourse with the members of the profession, whom he considered worthy of his respect, was unrestrained; and many and loud were the roars of laughter that succeeded his well-told anecdotes. His presence was an effectual antidote to dulness; his mirth was irresistible. Stupid, indeed, was the man who could not yield some sparks of intellect when brought into social intercourse with him. Although he left society largely in arrears to him of the score of contribution to social enjoyment, no man was easier pleased, none felt a livelier sympathy in the interests and feelings of others.

Oglethorpe called him four years to represent her in the Legislature, and during that period she found in him a faithful respresentative. Many laws, now of force in the State, bear the impress of his wisdom as a legislator. It was as a member of the Legislature of Georgia that he laid the foundation for that extensive and permanent popularity as a politician which he ever afterwards enjoyed. In 1807 he was elected to the Senate of the United States, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the death of the great, and good, and highly-gifted Abraham Baldwin; and re-elected in 1811 without opposition. On entering the Senate of the United States, Mr. CRAWFORD came in immediate collision with that veteran debater, the Honorable William B. Giles of Virginia. The very creditable manner in which he sustained himself in that contest, won for him, in the outset, a high reputation for talents, which he retained as long as he continued to be a member of that body. Most of those who were numbered in the republican ranks in 1810 and later, even up to 1812, were somewhat distrustful of the navy as a means of national defence, and opposed its considerable enlargement. A very current sentiment of those days was, that the navy was but too well calculated to embroil us with other nations. It will be remembered that the reduction of the navy was a prominent feature in Mr. Jefferson’s administration. It must be confessed that Mr. CRAWFORD participated in this opinion to a considerable extent. But, in common with most of his political friends and associates, its brilliant achievements during the last war, won him over to a more favorable opinion of that department of the public service. In fact, he became a strong advocate of the navy. After the peace, in 1815, one of the first measures adopted, was an act of Congress for the increase of the navy, and an annual appropriation of $1,000,000 to that object. In this measure nine tenths of both houses concurred, and the wisdom and propriety of it received Mr. CRAWFORD’S hearty acquiescence. Shortly after, in one of his reports, he styles the navy “an essential means of national defence.” In all questions of appropriation he was the uncompromising advocate of the rule, that the objects and places of expenditure should be distinct and specific, so as to leave as little as possible to executive discretion. He was a warm and decided advocate for an early resort to arms, to redress the injuries and indignities heaped upon this country by Great Britain, and which laid the foundation for the last war. This is manifest from his votes in the Senate upon every question leading to a declaration of war throughout the years 1811 and 1812.

He voted for the bill authorizing fifty thousand volunteers to be received by the President—for increasing the army twenty-five thousand—for an act concerning the navy, fitting out certain frigates; and was friendly to the passage of an act for increasing the navy, passed 2d January 1813, by which the building of four seventy-fours and six forty-four gun frigates was authorized. His vote is to be found recorded for the passage of the law by which war was declared, and uniformly against every proposition for its modification. He was then President, pro tempore, of the Senate; and had been elevated to that distinguished station during the session of Congress in which the war was declared, and at a time when no man of equivocal political opinions, or doubtful sentiments, on the question of peace or war, would have been, by a decidedly republican Senate, placed in that dignified office. This will readily account for Mr. CRAWFORD’S not having made a speech in favor of a declaration of war; he was the presiding officer of the Senate, and had been so more than four months; and by the peculiar rule of that body could not, without leaving the station to which he had been called, participate in debate.

The embargo, and the bank, formed two other questions of grave import and high national excitement during his senatorial career. His course upon both was prompt, fearless, and independent. The former he opposed in the teeth of a popular and powerful administration; to the latter he gave a vigorous support, though unqualified opposition to it upon constitutional grounds was at that day, as it still is, one of the tests of republican discipleship. It is known, however, to his intimate friends, that the careful perusal of the secret debates of the convention which framed the constitution, and the debates upon the adoption of that instrument by the States, produced a change in his opinion upon the constitutionality of the bank.

In 1813, after declining the office of Secretary of War, tendered him by President Madison, he was sent minister to the Court of St. Cloud.

The Argus, in which he sailed, under the command of Captain Allen, entered the port of L’Orient the 11th of July, 1813, being twenty-one days from New-York.

What he did during his two years’ residence at Paris, is already a matter of recorded history. It is enough to say, in this place, that his official notes evinced the clearest understanding of the questions pending between the two governments, and in them the rights of this country are set forth in the strongest and most imposing light, and pressed upon the empire, and afterwards upon the crown, with a force of logic, a confident boldness, and ceaseless vigilance, worthy of such a cause. During his stay at Paris he was the confidential friend and correspondent of our eminently distinguished negotiators for peace at Ghent.

Among the most pleasing incidents connected with his residence in Paris, was the acquaintance he formed with the hero of two hemispheres, the illustrious La Fayette. It would seem from the letters of this great and good man, which Mr. CRAWFROD has preserved with more than his usual care, that their acquaintance ripened into the strongest personal friendship; and that their intercourse was of the most confidential character. In these letters the politics of France are discussed with an unsuspecting freedom on the part of the General, and often with an unsparing severity, rarely surpassed in the interchange of opinions between sworn friends in the freest government on earth. To Mr. CRAWFORD’S auspices he principally confided the direction and management of his patents to the land granted him by Congress, in Louisiana, as a small return for his unparalleled sacrifices in the cause of freedom, his timely and efficient aid, and his brilliant achievements in our revolutionary struggle. This correspondence was sustained on both sides with undiminished confidence and cordiality so long as the General lived.

On his return from France in 1815, he found that he had been appointed Secretary of War, in which department he served but a few months. In October following he was made Secretary of the Treasury by Mr. Madison, and was that winter strongly solicited to allow his name to be put in nomination for the Presidency. But he promptly declined, saying that he was young enough to wait, and advised his friends to nominate and support Mr. Monroe. A caucus was held, in which Mr. Monroe received but a small majority of votes as the nominee over Mr. CRAWFORD, though he had so positively declined to allow his name to be run. A number of his strongest and most intimate friends refused to attend the caucus, resolving, as he would not allow them to vote for him, they would vote for no one else. It has often been confidently asserted by a great number of experienced politicians of that day, that if he had permitted his name to be put in nomination at that time, he might have been elected with perfect ease. This, of course, was a calculation founded on the signs of the times, a conclusion which may have been brought about as much by the propulsive power of strong political attachments, as by calm and dispassionate reasoning upon the course of events and the aspect of affairs. They knew that Mr. CRAWFORD could have been nominated without difficulty. The event showed the influence of such a nomination, as it resulted in the election of Mr. Monroe.

In 1817 Mr. CRAWFORD was re-appointed to the office of Secretary of the Treasury by Mr. Monroe, and continued in that office till 1825, when he declined its acceptance under Mr. Adams’s administration. Much of the period during which Mr. CRAWFORD acted as Secretary of the Treasury, times were very doubtful—our domestic relations embarrassed—pecuniary difficulties pressing upon the people—home and foreign commerce fluctuating—commercial capital deranged—a public debt to be managed, and, above all, a miserably depreciated and ruined currency had to be dealt with. The political essayists of those days agreed that it required ceaseless vigilance and profound ability to preserve the national estate from bankruptcy. But the public credit was never better at any period of the republic than during his administration of the affairs of the Treasury. The national debt was faithfully discharged, and the burdens of government upon the people were for the most part light and inconsiderable. At the time of greatest difficulty the estimated and actual receipts of the Treasury only varied ten per cent., while the estimates of his distinguished predecessors had varied from seventeen to twenty-one per cent. But perhaps the best evidence of his fidelity, zeal, and ability as cabinet officer in this department, was the length of time he served, the unbounded confidence reposed in him by Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe during the whole period of his service; the great interest manifested for his retention in that office by Mr. Gallatin; and Mr. J. Q. Adams’s opinion of his merit, as evinced in his tendering him that office during his administration. Such men are rarely deceived in their estimate of character and qualifications.

Many believe that Mr. CRAWFORD would have been chosen President in 1825, instead of Mr. Adams, if at the time of his election his health had not been so bad as to induce the J;ielief that he could t1ot survive his disease. He received an honorable vote from the electoral colleges. Whether his defeat were the result of illness or other cause, those who know his family, know that the prospect of retreating into private life, and of enjoying without interruption the society of the father, was hailed as a joyous era in the family history. If it were asserted that Mr. CRAWFORD himself experienced a secret gratification at the result, so far as he was concerned, and so far as his happiness was involved, few would credit the declaration. And yet none would doubt its truth who knew the facts. All believed that the atmosphere of Washington nourished the disease which was wasting his remaining strength and threatening his life; and under such circumstances, the honors of the presidency were as the small dust of the balance compared with the prospect of his restoration of health.

In 1827, after the death of Judge Dooly, Mr. CRAWFORD was appointed by Governor Troup, without solicitation, Judge of the Northern Circuit of Georgia. In 1828 the Legislature elected him to the same office without opposition. Three years after he was a candidate for re-election; and though he had an opponent whose plans for his defeat were well concocted, he obtained his election on the first balloting.

One effect of Mr. CRAWFORD’S long and distressing illness, to which allusion has been so often made, was, that it entailed upon him considerably more excitability of temper than he had ever before manifested. He used occasionally to exhibit this new trait of character, which was the offspring of disease, while upon the bench. His greatest annoyance was, what he called a “silly speech;” and though such speeches were of rare occurrence at the bar in his circuit, yet they did sometimes come out, and when they did, the Judge’s patience was sure to suffer. Nevertheless he was considered able, upright, and impartial. His distinguishing trait, as a Judge, was, that he would not be tied down to the strict technicalities of law when they would work a manifest injustice to either of the parties litigant. In such a case he would say, “Summum jus is sometimes summa injuria, and I must so construe the rule as to do the parties substantial justice.” Those of his decisions which were made with deliberation, are considered as high authority as those of any Judge the State has ever had. The case of the State vs. Tassels may be mentioned as one of the most important which came before him while upon the bench. It did not originate in his circuit; but having been referred to all the Judges, he was appointed by the rest to write out the opinion. If any should still believe the slander that his mind was made imbecile by his illness at Washington, let him read its refutation in that decision.

He was in the active discharge of the duties of Judge of the Northern Circuit when he died. He set out on his way to Court on Saturday, and was taken sick that night at the house of a friend, and died at 2 o’clock the succeeding Monday morning, being the 15th September, l834. His physicians were of the opinion that his disease was an affection of the heart. He died apparently without pain or fever. He sleeps at Woodlawn, under a plain mound of earth, without tombstone or inscription; and no one near him but a little grandson of two years old, who had preceded him by about fifteen months.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 4.

[1] Eppes and Randolph.

 

 

CRESSON, Elliot, 1796-1854, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, philanthropist, supported American Colonization Society. (Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 125, 128, 193, 240, 189-190, 216-218, 224, 234, 238-239; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 7-8; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 540)

 

CRESSON, Elliott, philanthropist, b. in Philadelphia, 2 March, 1796; d. there, 20 Feb., 1854. He was a member of the Society of Friends, became a successful merchant in Philadelphia, and devoted his attention to benevolent objects, especially the promotion of the welfare of the Indians and negroes in the United States. He conceived the intention of becoming a missionary among the Seminoles of Florida, but afterward gave his mind to the scheme of colonizing American negroes in Africa, engaged in establishing the first colony of liberated slaves at Bassa Cove, on the Grain coast, became president of the Colonization society, and labored as its agent in New England in the winter of 1838-'9, in the southern states in 1839-'40, and in Great Britain in 1840-'2 and 1850-'3. He left in his will $122,000 to various benevolent institutions, and a lot, valued at $30,000, for a home for superannuated merchants and gentlemen. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 7-8.

 

 

CRESWELL, John Angel James, 1828-1891, statesman, lawyer.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland, 1863-1865.  U.S. Senator 1865-.  Supported the Union.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 8; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 541; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 726; Congressional Globe)

 

CRESWELL, John A. J., statesman, b. in Port Deposit, Cecil co., Md., 18 Nov., 1828. He was graduated at Dickinson college, Pa., in 1848, studied law, and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1850. He was a member of the state legislature in 1860 and 1862, and assistant adjutant-general for Maryland in 1862-'3. He was elected to congress, and served from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1865; and, having distinguished himself as an earnest friend of the Union, was elected as a republican to the U. S. senate in March, 1865, to fill the unexpired term of Thomas H. Hicks. On 22 Feb., 1866, he delivered, at the request of the House of representatives, a memorable eulogy of his friend and colleague, Henry Winter Davis. He was a delegate to the Baltimore convention of 1864, the Philadelphia loyalists' convention of 1866, the Border states convention held in Baltimore in 1867, and the Chicago republican convention of 1868. In May, 1868, he was elected secretary of the U. S. senate, but declined. On 5 March, 1869, he was appointed by President Grant postmaster-general of the United States, and served till 3 July, 1874. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 8.

 

 

CRITTENDEN, John J., Frankfort, Kentucky, American Colonization Society, Director, 1837-41

 

 

CROCKER, Edwin B., abolitionist.

 

 

CROMWELL, Robert I., 1830-1880, African American, medical doctor, writer, abolitionist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 348)

 

 

CROOKS, Adam, 1824-1874, anti-slavery advocate, temperance activist, Wesleyan Methodist minister. (Haines, 1990)

 

 

CROSBY, Fanny, 1820-1915, poet, lyricist, composer, abolitionist.  Supported anti-slavery Whig Party, later Lincoln and the Union.  Wrote patriotic poems and songs.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 567)

 

 

CROSBY, Josiah, abolitionist, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-43.

 

 

CROSBY, William Bedlow, 1786-1865, New York, philanthropist.  Officer in the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 17; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 40)

 

CROSBY, William Bedlow, philanthropist, b. in New York city, 7 Feb., 1786 ; d. there, 18 March, 1865. His parents died when he was two years old, and he was adopted by Col. Henry Rutgers, his mother's uncle, from whom he received a large part of the old Rutgers estate, comprising most of the present seventh ward of New York city. He never engaged in business, but gave his time and attention to the care of his property and to works of benevolence. He was connected with many societies, and spent a large part of his income in private charities. By virtue of his father's service in the war of the Revolution, he was made a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CROSS, John, clergyman, anti-slavery agent.  Congregational Minister.  Lectured on abolition and anti-slavery. (Dumond, 1961, p. 186)

 

 

CROSS, Joseph Warren, Boxboro, W. Boylston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-

 

 

CROSWELL, Harry, Reverend, 1778-1858, New Haven, Connecticut, clergyman.  Member, New Haven Committee of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 21; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 571; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 86)

 

CROSWELL, Harry, clergyman, b. in West Hartford, Conn., 16 June, 1778; d. in New Haven, Conn., 13 March, 1858. He was educated under the care of Rev. Dr. Perkins and Dr. Noah Webster. When quite young, he entered his brother's printing-office in Catskill, N. Y., and soon became editor of a paper issued there. He founded a Federalist newspaper called the “Balance” in Hudson, N. Y., in 1802, which became noted for the bitterness and scathing sarcasm of its editorials; and M r. Croswell became involved in many libel suits. The most celebrated of these was caused by an article on Jefferson, published in the “Wasp,” a paper controlled by Mr. Croswell, and Alexander Hamilton's last and one of his finest speeches was made in Croswell's defence at the trial. Croswell afterward edited a political newspaper in Albany, whither he removed in 1809, and was again prosecuted for libel by a Mr. Southwick, who recovered damages. Croswell called on his friends for money to make good this amount, and on their refusal determined to enter the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church, though he had been brought up a Congregationalist. He was ordained deacon, 8 May, 1814, and had charge of Christ church, Hudson, till 1 Jan., 1815, when he became rector of Trinity church, New Haven, Conn., then the only Episcopal church in the city, holding services in an old wooden building on Church street till the opening of the new church edifice, on 22 Feb., 1816. He remained in New Haven till his death. One who knew him writes: “His tall figure and manly form, clerical garb, and high-topped boots with knee-buckles, impressed every beholder as they saw him walk the streets of New Haven. He was not a great preacher, but he had an extraordinary knowledge of human nature, and could ingratiate himself into every man's heart.” Trinity college gave him the degree of D. D. in 1831. He published “Young Churchman's Guide” (4 vols.); “Manual of Family Prayers” (New Haven); “Guide to the Holy Sacrament”; and a “Memoir” of his son, Rev. William Croswell, D. D. (New York, 1854). He left in manuscript “Annals of Trinity Church” and a voluminous diary. See “Letters of Waldegrave,” by Rev. G. W. Nichols (New York, 1886).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CROTHERS, Samuel, 1783-1856, Greenfield, Ohio, abolitionist, clergyman, noted theologian.  Vice president, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Organized Paint Valley Abolitionist Society. Worked in Chillicothe Presbytery of Ohio.  Wrote articles against slavery in quarterly anti-slavery magazine.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 91-92, 135; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 21)

 

CROTHERS, Samuel, clergyman, b. near Chambersburg, Pa., 22 Oct., 1783; d. in Oswego, Ill., 20 July, 1856. He went to Lexington, Ky., with his father in 1787, entered the academy there in 1798, and, after studying at the New York theological seminary, returned to Kentucky in 1809, and was licensed to preach by the Kentucky presbytery. After a year of missionary work, he was settled, in 1810, over the churches of Chillicothe and Greenfield, Ohio, but in 1813 devoted himself to the latter alone. In company with his former teacher in New York, Dr. Mason, he opposed close communion, and the exclusive use of what has been called inspired psalmody. Trouble growing out of his opinions on these subjects led him, in 1818, to resign his charge and move to Winchester, Ky.; but he returned to Greenfield in 1820, organized a new church, and remained pastor of it till his death. Dr. Crothers was a concise and vigorous writer and an eloquent preacher. See “Life and Writings of Samuel Crothers,” by Rev. A. Ritchie (Cincinnati 1857). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 21.

 

 

CROWE, John Finley, abolitionist, newspaper publisher, The Abolitionist Intelligencer, founded 1822, Shelby, Kentucky, and editor of the Missionary Magazine of the Kentucky Abolition Society.  Crowe and his associates were constantly under threat.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 95, 118; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 37)

 

 

CROZER, Samuel, agent of the American Colonization Society.  Went to Africa with Samuel Bacon and John Banson to supervise the society’s first expedition to send freemen to Africa under the Slave Act of 1819.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 57-61)

 

 

CROZIER, Hiram F., abolitionist, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1849-1851.

 

 

CRUKSHANK, Joseph, abolitionist leader, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Guardians, the Philadelphia Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Basker, 2005, pp. x, 5, 33, 104, 106, 111; Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

CRUMMELL, Alexander, 1819-1898, African American, clergyman, professor, African nationalist, anti-slavery activist and lecturer.  Lectured in England against American slavery.  Supported colonization of Blacks to Africa.  Worked in New York office of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Correspondent for the Colored American.  (Rigsby, 1987; Wilson, 1989; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 820; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 366)

 

 

CUFFEE, Paul (Cuffe), 1759-1818, free Black, sea captain, author, A Brief Account of the Settlement and Present Situation of the Colony of Sierra Leone, 1812, Society of Friends from Massachusetts, Quaker, abolitionist, among the first Americans to colonize free Blacks in Africa (Drake, 1950, pp. 123-125; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 23, 24, 32, 164, 192, 568; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 9-11, 19, 34; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 26; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 585)

 

CUFFEE, Paul, philanthropist, b. on one of the Elizabeth isles, near New Bedford, Mass., in 1759; d. 7 Sept., 1818. His father was a negro, born in Africa, who had been a slave, and his mother an Indian. He followed a seafaring life, became owner of a vessel, which he manned entirely with negroes, and acquired a large fortune. He was an influential member of the Society of Friends. In his later years he interested himself in the scheme of colonizing American freedmen on the western coast of Africa, corresponded with friends of the enterprise in England and Africa, visited the colony in his own ship in 1811 to study its advantages, and in 1815 carried out thirty-eight colored emigrants and provided means for establishing them in Africa. He applied to the British government for leave to land other companies of colored people in Sierra Leone, but died before the permission came. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, Pt. 2, pp. 585.

 

 

CULLUM, Jeremiah H., Reverend, Baltimore, Maryland, clergyman.  Agent for the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, p. 202)

 

 

CULVER, Erastus D., Brooklyn, New York, abolitionist leader.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. (Sorin, 1971, p. 104)

 

 

CULVER, Mr., anti-slavery member of Congress, Washington County (Appletons, 1888)

 

 

CUMMINGS, Hiram, Duxbury, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1843-46

 

 

CURTIS, Benjamin Robbins, 1809-1874, Watertwon, Massachusetts, jurist, lawyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1851-1857.  Dissented from majority court decision on the Dred Scott case.  Argued that U.S. Congress had the legal rght to prohibit slavery, and disagreed with the decision that held that “a person of African descent could not be a citizen of the United States.”  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 35; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 609)

 

CURTIS, Benjamin Robbins, jurist, b. in Watertown, Mass., 4 Nov., 1809; d. in Newport, R.I., 15 Sept., 1874. He was graduated at Harvard in 1829, admitted to the bar in 1832, and, after practising for a short time in Northfield, Mass., removed to Boston. The extent and readiness of his attainments, his accuracy, and his logical mind, soon made him prominent in his profession. In 1851 President Fillmore appointed him to the U. S. supreme bench. In the celebrated “Dred Scott” case he dissented from the decision of the court and made a powerful argument in support of his conclusions. He upheld the right of congress to prohibit slavery, and declared his dissent from “that part of the opinion of the majority of the court in which it is held that a person of African descent cannot be a citizen of the United States.” On this memorable occasion only one other justice of the seven coincided with the opinion of Judge Curtis. He resigned in 1857, and resumed practice in Boston, frequently appearing before the supreme court at Washington in important cases. He was for two years a member of the Massachusetts legislature, but took little part in politics, devoting himself with earnestness to his profession. In the impeachment trial of President Johnson in 1868 Judge Curtis was one of the counsel for the defence. The answer to the articles of impeachment was read by him, and was largely his work. He opened the case in a speech that occupied two days in delivery, and that was commended for legal soundness and clearness. He was the democratic candidate for CT. S. senator in 1874. He published “Reports of Cases in the Circuit Courts of the United States” (2 vols., Boston, 1854); “Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States,” with notes and a digest (22 vols., Boston); and “Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States,” from the origin of the court to 1854. Of his “Memoir and Writings” (2 vols., Boston, 1880), the first volume contains a memoir by George Ticknor Curtis, and the second “Miscellaneous Writings,” edited by his son, Benjamin R. Curtis. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CURTIS, Harvey Wllard, 1824-1902, Ohio, abolitionist.  Republican lawmaker from Ohio.  Active in the Underground Railroad, his house was a station for fugitive slaves.

 

 

CURTIS, Jonathan, abolitionist, Pittsfield, New Hampshire, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-41.

 

 

CURTIS, Spencer W., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CURTISS, H. W., Dr., 1824-1902, Ohio, statesman, opponent of slavery.  Republican lawmaker from Ohio.  President of the Ohio Senate.  Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, 1877-1878.  Aided fugitive slaves.  His home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  (Brenn, 1880; Crabb, 1897)

 

 

CURTISS, R., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

CUSHING, Caleb, 1800-1879, Boston, Massachusetts, statesman, soldier, lawyer, politician, U.S. Attorney General.  Argued against slavery and defended the principles of the American Colonization Society and colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 38-39; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 623; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 210)

 

 

CUSHING, Caleb, statesman, b. in Salisbury, Mass., 17 Jan., 1800; d. in Newburyport, Mass., 2 Jan., 1879. He was graduated at Harvard in 1817, and for two years was a tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and settled in Newburyport. He rose rapidly in his profession, and, although busily engaged with his practice, found time to devote to literature and politics, and was a frequent contributor to periodicals. In 1825 he was elected a representative to the lower house of the Massachusetts legislature, and in 1826 a member of the state senate. At this time he belonged to the then republican party. In 1829 Mr. Cushing visited Europe, and remained abroad two years. In 1833 he was again elected a representative from Newburyport to the Massachusetts legislature for two years, but in 1834 was elected from the Essex north district of Massachusetts a representative to congress, and served for four consecutive terms, until 1843. He supported the nomination of John Quincy Adams for the presidency, and was a whig until the accession of John Tyler. When the break in the whig party occurred, during the administration of President Tyler, Mr. Cushing was one of the few northern whigs that continued to support the president, and became classed as a democrat. Soon afterward he was nominated for secretary of the treasury, but the senate refused to confirm him. He was subsequently confirmed as commissioner to China, and made the first treaty between that country and the United States. On his return he was again elected a representative in the Massachusetts legislature. In 1847 he raised a regiment for the Mexican war at his own expense, became its colonel, and was subsequently made brigadier-general. While still in Mexico he was nominated by the democratic party of his state for governor, but failed in the election. From 1850 till 1852 he was again a member of the legislature of his native state, and, at the expiration of his term, was appointed associate justice of the state supreme court. In 1853 President Pierce appointed him U. S. attorney-general, from which office he retired in 1857. In 1857, 1858, and 1859 he again served in the legislature of Massachusetts. In April, 1860, he was president of the Democratic national convention in Charleston, S. C., and was among the seceders from that body who met in Baltimore. At the close of 1860 he was sent to Charleston by President Buchanan, as a confidential commissioner to the secessionists of South Carolina; but his mission effected nothing. Mr. Cushing was frequently employed during the civil war in the departments at Washington, and in 1866 was appointed one of the three commissioners to revise and codify the laws of congress. In 1868 he was sent to Bogotá to arrange a diplomatic difficulty. In 1872 he was one of the counsel for the United States at the Geneva conference for the settlement of the Alabama claims, and in 1873 was nominated for the office of chief justice of the United States; but the nomination was subsequently withdrawn. A year later he was nominated and confirmed as minister to Spain, whence he returned home in 1877. His publications include a “History of the Town of Newburyport’ (1826); “The Practical Principles of Political Economy” (1826); “Historical and Political Review of the Late Revolution in France” (2 vols., Boston, 1833); “Reminiscences of Spain” (2 vols., Boston, 1833); “Growth and Territorial Progress of the United States” (1839); “Life of William H. Harrison” (Boston, 1840); and “The Treaty of Washington” (New York, 1873). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CUSHING, Henry W., abolitionist, Providence, Rhode Island.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833, Vice President, 1833-1837. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

CUSHING, Milton B., , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-38

 

 

CUSHING, William, 1732-1810, lawyer, jurist, opponent of slavery, member of the Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, First Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, appointed by George Washington, Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1794.  Wrote in the case Commonwealth v. Jennings, 1783, which abolished slavery in the state of Massachusetts.  Cushing wrote:  “As to the doctrine of slavery and the right of Christians to hold Africans in perpetual servitude, and sell and treat them as we do our horses and cattle, that… has been heretofore countenanced by the Province Laws… a different idea has taken place with the people of America more favorable to the natural rights of mankind, and to that natural, innate desire of Liberty, with which Heaven… has inspired all the human race.  And upon this ground our Constitution of Government, by which the people of this Commonwealth have solemnly bound themselves, sets out with declaring that all men are born free and equal—and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and to have it guarded by the laws, as well as life and property—in short is totally repugnant to the idea of being born slaves… the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual servitude of a rational creature, unless his liberty is forfeited by some criminal conduct or given up by personal consent or contract.” (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 24, 235; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 40; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 633; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 918)

 

CUSHING, William, jurist, b. in Scituate, Mass., 1 March, 1732; d. there, 13 Sept., 1810. He was graduated at Harvard in 1751, studied law with Jeremy Gridley, became attorney-general of Massachusetts, was appointed judge of probate of Lincoln county, Me., in 1768, became judge of the Massachusetts superior court in 1772, chief justice in 1777, and in 1780 was chosen the first chief justice of Massachusetts under the state constitution. At the beginning of the Revolution he stood almost alone among the superior officials in supporting the cause of independence. His grandfather and his father (both named John) were judges of the superior court, and his father, whom he succeeded as chief justice, presided over the trial of British soldiers for the Boston massacre of 5 March, 1770. On 27 Sept., 1789, Judge Cushing was appointed an associate justice of the U. S. supreme court. President Washington nominated him chief justice in 1796, but he declined. He was one of the founders of the American academy of arts and sciences in 1780. In 1788 he was vice-president of the Massachusetts convention that ratified the federal constitution. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 40.

 

 

CUSHMAN, J. H., Roxbury, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1846

 

 

CUSHMAN, John P., abolitionist, Troy, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37.

 

 

CUSTIS, George Washington Parke, 1781-1857, author, member of the American Colonization Society.  Stepson of George Washington.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 45; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 9; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 119)

 

CUSTIS, George Washington Parke, author, b. at Mount Airy, Md., 30 April, 1781; d. at Arlington House, Fairfax co., Va., 10 Oct., 1857. His father, Col. John Parke Custis, the son of Mrs. Washington by her first husband, was aide-de-camp to Washington at the siege of Yorktown, and d. 5 Nov., 1781, aged twenty-eight. The son had his early home at Mount Vernon, pursued his classical studies at St. John's college and at Princeton, and remained a member of Washington's family until the death of Mrs. Washington in 1802, when he built Arlington House on an estate of 1,000 acres near Washington, which he had inherited from his father. After the death in 1852 of his sister, Eleanor Parke Custis, wife of Maj. Lawrence Lewis, he was the sole surviving member of Washington’s family, and his residence was for many years a favorite resort, owing to the interesting relics of that family which it contained. Mr. Custis married in early life Mary Lee Fitzhugh, of Virginia, and left a daughter, who married Robert E. Lee. The Arlington estate was confiscated during the civil war, and is now held as national property, and is the site of a national soldiers’ cemetery. The house is represented in the accompanying illustration. Mr. Custis was in his early days an eloquent and effective speaker. He wrote orations and plays, and during his latter years executed a number of large paintings of Revolutionary battles. His “Recollections of Washington,” originally contributed to the “National Intelligencer,” was published in book-form, with a memoir by his daughter and notes by Benson J. Lossing (New York, 1860). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CUTHBERT, John A., 1788-1881, U.S. Congressman, Georgia, member of the Putnam County, Georgia, auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 45-46; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

CUTHBERT, John A., jurist, b. in Savannah, Ga., 3 June, 1788; d. near Mobile, Ala., 22 Sept., 1881. His father was a colonel in the Revolutionary army. He was graduated at Princeton in 1805, and in 1809 became a law student in New York. In 1810 he was elected to the legislature of Georgia, from Liberty county, which he continued to represent for years. During the war of 1812 he commanded a volunteer company to protect the coast. In 1818 Georgia elected her representatives in congress on one general ticket, and Cuthbert was thus chosen. At that time the Missouri question occupied the attention of congress, and Judge Cuthbert took an active and zealous part in maintaining the southern side of it. In 1831 he became editor, and subsequently proprietor, of “The Federal Union,” a paper published at Milledgeville, Ga., and in 1837 removed to Mobile to practise his profession. In 1840 he was elected judge of the county court of Mobile, and in 1852 appointed judge of the circuit court. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

CUTLER, Calvin, abolitionist, Maine, Winham, New Hampshire.  Vice president, 1833-1835, Manager, 1835-1840, and founding member of the  American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

CUTLER, Hannah Maria Tracy, 1815-1896, Becket, Massachusetts, abolitionist, physician.  Leader of the Temperance and women’s suffrage-rights movements, lecturer, educator, physician.  Helped found Women’s Anti-Slavery Society, member of the Free Soil Party, organizer of the Woman’s Kansas Aid Convention in 1856.  Served as President of the Western Union Aid Commission in Chicago, 1862-1864.  (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 46)

 

CUTLER, Hannah Maria Tracy, physician, b. in Becket, Berkshire co., Mass., 25 Dec., 1815. She is a daughter of John Conant, and was educated in the common school of Becket. In 1834 she married the Rev. J. M. Tracy, who died in 1843. Subsequently she prepared herself for teaching, and was matron of the Deaf and dumb asylum at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1848-'9. In July, 1851, she visited England as a newspaper correspondent at the World's fair. She was also at the same time a delegate from the United States at the peace congress in London, and while in England delivered the first lectures ever given there on the legal rights of women. In 1852 she married Samuel Cutler and removed to Illinois, where she labored assiduously for the reform of the laws relating to women. She was president of the Western union aid commission, Chicago, Ill., in 1862-'4. In 1873 she visited France, in company with her son, J. M. Tracy, artist, and remained there till 1875. After her graduation as a physician at the Homeopathic college in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1879, she settled at Cobden, Ill., where she has practised with success. She is the author of “Woman as she Was, Is, and Should be” (New York, 1846); Phillipia, or a Woman's Question” (Dwight, Ill., 1886); and “The Fortunes of Michael Doyle, or Home Rule for Ireland” (Chicago, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 46.

 

 

CUYLER, Samuel, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

 

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DAGGETT, Aaron S., 1837-1938, Maine, Civil War Union general, abolitionist.

 

 

DAGGETT, David, 1764-1851, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. Senator, jurist, Mayor of New Haven.  Supporter of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 53; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 26; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 72)

 

DAGGETT, David, jurist, b. in Attleborough, Mass., 31 Dec., 1764; d. in New Haven, Conn., 12 April, 1851. He was graduated at Yale in 1783, studied and practised law in New Haven, became state's attorney in 1811, mayor of the city in 1828, and held other local offices. From 1791 till 1813 he was a member of the Connecticut legislature, serving in 1794 as speaker, and from 1797 till 1804 and 1809 till 1813 as a member of the council or upper house. He voted as a presidential elector for Charles C. Pinckney in 1804 and 1808, and for De Witt Clinton in 1812. He was elected a U. S. senator in the place of Chauncey Goodrich, who resigned, and served from 24 May, 1813, till 3 March, 1819, when he returned to his extensive practice at the bar in Connecticut. From 1826 till 1832 he was a judge of the Connecticut supreme court, and then chief judge till 1834, when he reached the age of seventy years, and was retired under the statute. He became an instructor in the New Haven law-school in 1824, and was professor of jurisprudence from 1826 until he was compelled by the infirmities of age to resign the chair. A sketch of his life by the Rev. Samuel W. S. Dutton, D. D., appeared in 1851. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DAILY, Samuel Gordon, 1823-1866, abolitionist.  Member of the Nebraska Territorial House of Representatives.  U.S. Congressman.

 

 

DALE, Richard, 1756-1826, retired naval officer, merchant, importer.  Member of the Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 56; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 32; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 39, 72)

 

DALE, Richard, naval officer, b. near Norfolk, Va., 6 Nov., 1756; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 26 Feb., 1826. He entered the merchant service at the age of twelve, and at nineteen commanded a ship. In 1776 he became a lieutenant in the Virginia navy, and was soon afterward captured and confined in a prison-ship at Norfolk, where some royalist school-mates persuaded him to embark on an English cruiser against the vessels of his state. He was wounded in an engagement with an American flotilla, and, while confined to his bed in Norfolk, resolved “never again to put himself in the way of the bullets of his own countrymen.” After the Declaration of Independence he became a midshipman on the American brig “Lexington,” which was captured on the coast of France by the English cutter “Alert” in 1777. Dale was thrown into Mill prison, at Plymouth, with the rest of the officers and crew of the “Lexington,” on a charge of high treason, but escaped, with many of his fellow prisoners, in February, 1778, was recaptured, escaped again, disguised as a British naval officer, and reached France, where he joined John Paul Jones's squadron as master's mate. Jones soon made him first lieutenant of the “Bon Homme Richard,” and in that capacity he fought with distinction in the famous battle with the “Serapis,” on 23 Sept., 1779, and received a severe splinter wound. After the sinking of the “Bon Homme Richard” in that engagement, Dale served with Jones in the “Alliance,” and afterward in the “Ariel.” He returned to Philadelphia on 28 Feb., 1781, was placed on the list of lieutenants in the navy, and joined the “Trumbull,” which was captured in August of that year by the “Iris” and the “Monk.” Dale received his third wound in the engagement. He was exchanged in November, obtained leave of absence, and served on letters of marque and in the merchant service till the close of the war. He was appointed captain in 1794, but, with the exception of a short cruise in the “Ganges,” during the troubles with France, was not in active service till 1801, when he was given command of a squadron and ordered to the Mediterranean during the hostilities with Tripoli. Although he was greatly hampered by his instructions, so that no serious enterprise could be attempted, he prevented the Tripolitans from making any captures during his command. He returned to the United States in April, 1802, and was again ordered to the Mediterranean, but, becoming dissatisfied, he resigned his commission on 17 Dec., and, having gained a competency, spent the rest of his life in retirement. Dale enjoyed the distinction of having been praised by Lord Nelson, who, after critically watching the seamanship of the commodore's squadron, said that there was in the handling of those trans-Atlantic ships a nucleus of trouble for the navy of Great Britain. The prediction was soon verified. Two of Com. Dale's sons held commissions in the navy.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DALTON, Thomas, 1794-1883, free African American, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Leader, Massachusetts General Colored Association.  Leader, New England Anti-Slavery Society.  Wife was Lucy Dalton.  Organized anti-slavery conventions with abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.

 

 

DANA, Charles Anderson, 1819-1897, New Hampshire, newspaper editor, author, government official, anti-slavery activist and abolitionist leader.  Proprietor and managing editor of Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune.  As editor, he had the Tribune actively advocate for the anti-slavery cause.  The Tribune became one of the leading newspapers promoting anti-slavery.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 64-65; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 49; Wilson, J. H., Life of Charles A. Dana. New York, 1907)

 

DANA, Charles Anderson, editor, b. in Hinsdale, N. H., 8 Aug., 1819. He is a descendant of Jacob, eldest son of Richard Dana, progenitor of most of those who bear the name in the United States. His boyhood was spent in Buffalo, N. Y., where he worked in a store until he was eighteen years old. At that age he first studied the Latin grammar, and prepared himself for college, entering Harvard in 1839, but after two years a serious trouble with his eyesight compelled him to leave. He received an honorable dismissal, and was afterward given his bachelor's and master's degrees. In 1842 he became a member of the Brook Farm association for agriculture and education, being associated with George and Sophia Ripley, George William Curtis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Theodore Parker, William Henry Channing, John Sullivan Dwight, Margaret Fuller, and other philosophers more or less directly concerned in the remarkable attempt to realize at Roxbury a high ideal of social and intellectual life. One of the survivors of Brook Farm speaks of Mr. Dana as the only man of affairs connected with that unitarian, humanitarian, and socialistic experiment. His earliest newspaper experience was gained in the management of the “Harbinger,” which was devoted to social reform and general literature. After about two years of editorial work on Elizur Wright's Boston Chronotype,” a daily newspaper, Mr. Dana joined the staff of the New York “Tribune” in 1847. The next year he spent eight months in Europe, and after his return he became one of the proprietors and the managing editor of the “Tribune,” a post which he held until 1 April, 1862. The extraordinary influence and circulation attained by that newspaper during the ten years preceding the civil war was in a degree due to the development of Mr. Dana's genius for journalism. This remark applies not only to the making of the “Tribune” as a newspaper, but also to the management of its staff of writers, and to the steadiness of its policy as the leading organ of anti-slavery sentiment. The great struggle of the “Tribune” under Greeley and Dana was not so much for the overthrow of slavery where it already existed as against the further spread of the institution over unoccupied territory, and the acquisition of slave-holding countries outside of the Union. It was not less firm in its resistance of the designs of the slave-holding interest than wise in its attitude toward the extremists and impracticables at the north. In the “Tribune's” opposition to the attempt to break down the Missouri compromise and to carry slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and in the development and organization of that popular sentiment which gave birth to the Republican party and led to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Mr. Dana bore no unimportant part. Writing of the political situation in 1854, Henry Wilson says, in his “Rise and Fall of the Slave Power”: “At the outset, Mr. Greeley was hopeless and seemed disinclined to enter the contest. He told his associates that he would not restrain them, but, as for himself, he had no heart for the strife. They were more hopeful; and Richard Hildreth, the historian, Charles A. Dana, the veteran journalist, James S. Pike, and other able writers, opened and continued a powerful opposition in its columns, and did very much to rally and reassure the friends of freedom and to nerve them for the fight.” In 1861 Mr. Dana went to Albany to advance the cause of Mr. Greeley as a candidate for the U. S. senate, and nearly succeeded in nominating him. The caucus was about equally divided between Mr. Greeley's friends and those of Mr. Evarts, while Ira Harris had a few votes which held the balance of power, and, at the instigation of Thurlow Weed, the supporters of Mr. Evarts went over to Judge Harris. During the first year of the war the ideas of Mr. Greeley and those of Mr. Dana in regard to the proper conduct of military operations were somewhat at variance; and this disagreement resulted in the resignation of Mr. Dana, after fifteen years' service on the “Tribune.” He was at once employed by Secretary Stanton in special work of importance for the war department, and in 1863 was appointed assistant secretary of war, which office he held until after the surrender of Lee. His duties as the representative of the civil authority at the scene of military operations brought him into close personal relations with Mr. Stanton and Mr. Lincoln, who were accustomed to depend much upon his accurate perception and just estimates of men and measures for information of the actual state of affairs at the front. At the time when Gen. Grant's character and probable usefulness were unknown quantities, Mr. Dana's confidence in Grant's military ability probably did much to defeat the powerful effort then making to break down the rising commander. Of this critical period Gen. Sherman remarks in his “Memoirs”: “One day early in April, 1863, I was up at Grant's headquarters [at Vicksburg], and we talked over all these things with absolute freedom. Charles A. Dana, assistant secretary of war, was there, and Wilson, Rawlins, Frank Blair, McPherson, etc. We all knew, what was notorious, that Gen. McClernand was intriguing against Gen. Grant, in hopes to regain command of the whole expedition, and that others were raising clamor against Grant in the newspapers of the north. Even Mr. Lincoln and Gen. Halleck seemed to be shaken; but at no instant did we (his personal friends) slacken in our loyalty to him.” Mr. Dana was in the saddle at the front much of the time during the campaigns of northern Mississippi and Vicksburg, the rescue of Chattanooga, and the marches and battles of Virginia in 1864 and 1865. After the war his services were sought by the proprietors of the Chicago “Republican,” a new daily, which failed through causes not within the editor's control. Returning to New York, he organized in 1867 the stock company that now owns the “Sun” newspaper, and became its editor. The first number of the “Sun” issued by Mr. Dana appeared on 27 Jan., 1868, and for nearly twenty years he has been actively and continuously engaged in the management of that successful journal, and solely, responsible for its conduct. He made the “Sun” a democratic newspaper, independent and outspoken in the expression of its opinions respecting the affairs of either party. His criticisms of civil maladministration during Gen. Grant's terms as president led to a notable attempt on the part of that administration, in July, 1873, to take him from New York on a charge of libel, to be tried without a jury in a Washington police court. Application was made to the U. S. district court in New York for a warrant of removal; but in a memorable decision Judge Blatchford, now a justice of the supreme court of the United States, refused the warrant, holding the proposed form of trial to be unconstitutional. Perhaps to a greater extent than in the case of any other conspicuous journalist, Mr. Dana's personality is identified in the public mind with the newspaper that he edits. He has recorded no theories of journalism other than those of common sense and human interest. He is impatient of prolixity, cant, and the conventional standards of news importance. Mr. Dana's first book was a volume of stories translated from the German, entitled “The Black Ant” (New York and Leipsic, 1848). In 1855 he planned and edited, with George Ripley, the “New American Cyclopaedia.” The original edition was completed in 1863. It has since been thoroughly revised and issued in a new edition under the title of “The American Cyclopaedia” (16 vols., New York, 1873-'6). With Gen. James H. Wilson he wrote a “Life of Ulysses S. Grant” (Springfield, 1868). His “Household Book of Poetry, a collection of the best minor poems of the English language,” was first published in 1857, and has passed through many editions, the latest, thoroughly revised, being that of 1884. He has also edited, with Rossiter Johnson, “Fifty Perfect Poems” (New York, 1883). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DANE, Nathan, 1752-1835, jurist, anti-slavery activist, delegate to the Continental Congress, 1785-1788, Massachusetts, framed Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (Appletons, 1888, Vol. II, p. 72; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 63; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 158n; ; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 76)

 

DANE, Nathan, jurist, b. in Ipswich, Mass., 27 Dec., 1752; d. in Beverly, Mass., 15 Feb., 1835. He was graduated at Harvard in 1778, and, after studying law, was admitted to its practice and settled in Beverly. His acquirements made him a safe and able counsellor, and with his large and diversified experience he became one of the most prominent lawyers of New England. He entered at once into political life, and from 1782 till 1785 was a member of the Massachusetts legislature. In 1785 he was a delegate to the continental congress, and was continued as such by re-election until 1788. During his career in the national legislature he rendered much efficient service by his work on committees, and was the framer of the celebrated ordinance passed by congress in 1787 for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio. It was adopted without a single alteration, and contains the emphatic statement “that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory.” He also incorporated in this ordinance a prohibition against all laws impairing the obligation of contracts, which the convention that formed the constitution of the United States a few months afterward extended to all the states of the Union by making it a part of that constitution. In 1790 he was elected to the Massachusetts senate, and again elected in 1794 and 1796. He was appointed judge of the court of common pleas for Essex county in 1794, but, after taking the oath of office, almost immediately resigned, and in 1795 was appointed a commissioner to revise the laws of the state. In 1811 he was delegated to revise and publish the charters that had been granted in Massachusetts, and in 1812 was selected to make a new publication of the statutes. During the same year he was chosen a presidential elector. He was a delegate to the Hartford convention in 1814, and also to the Massachusetts constitutional convention in 1820, but declined serving on account of deafness. For fifty years he devoted his Sundays to theological studies, excepting during the hours of public worship, reading generally the Scriptures in their original languages. In 1829 he gave $10,000, which he increased by $5,000 in 1831, for the foundation of the Dane professorship of law in Harvard law-school, requesting that his friend, Judge Joseph Story, should occupy the chair, which he did until his death. He published “A General Abridgment and Digest of American Law” (9 vols., Boston, 1823-‘9), and “Appendix” (1830). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 72.

 

 

DANFORTH, Joshua Nobel, Reverend, 1798-1861, clergyman.  Agent for the American Colonization Society in New York and New England, 1834-1838.  He established a headquarters office in Boston.  He organized numerous auxiliaries and recruited notable members, such as Herman Humphrey, President of Amherst College, and noted historian, George Bancroft.  His assistants were Reverend Charles Walker and Reverend Cyril Pearl.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 73; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 196-197, 201-202, 204, 209-210, 227)

 

DANFORTH, Joshua Noble, clergyman, b. in Pittsfield, Mass., 1 April, 1798; d. in New Castle, Del, 14 Nov., 1861. He was graduated at Williams in 1818, and spent two years at the Princeton theological seminary. After being ordained by the New Brunswick presbytery, on 30 Nov., 1825, he was installed pastor of the church in New Castle, Del., where he remained until 1828, when he accepted a call to Washington. In 1832-'4 he was agent of the American colonization society, from 1834 till 1838 pastor of the Congregational church in Lee, Mass., and then for fifteen years in charge of the 2d Presbyterian church in Alexandria, Va. In 1860 he again accepted an agency for the American colonization society. Dr. Danforth received in 1855 the degree of D. D. from Delaware college. He contributed largely to the religious and secular press, and wrote “Gleanings and Groupings from a Pastor's Portfolio” (New York, 1852).  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DANGERFIELD, Newby, free African American man with John Brown during his raid at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859; hanged with John Brown, 1859 (see entry for John Brown).

 

 

DANIEL, Peter Vivian, 1784-1860, Virginia, lawyer, jurist, political leader.  Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.  Supported colonization and the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 75; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 69; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 179)

 

DANIEL, Peter Vivian, jurist, b. in Stafford county, Va., 24 April, 1784; d. in Richmond, Va., 30 June, 1860. His father, Travers Daniel, was a son of Peter Daniel, who married a daughter of Raleigh Travers, of the Virginia house of burgesses. The residence of Travers Daniel, Crow’s Nest, near the mouth of Potomac creek, was celebrated for its hospitalities, and the family bore an important part in public affairs. Peter Vivian was graduated at Princeton in 1805, and studied law in the office of Edmund Randolph (of Washington’s cabinet), whose daughter, Lucy Nelson Randolph, he married in 1811. He was chosen a member of the privy council of Virginia in 1812, and served part of the time as lieutenant-governor of the state until 1835. In 1836 he was appointed by President Van Buren to be judge of the district circuit court of Virginia, and was raised to the supreme court, 3 March, 1841, to succeed Mr. Justice Barbour. Judge Daniel was a democrat, and a personal as well as political friend of President Jackson. He was a gentleman of fine taste in literature, possessed musical accomplishments, and his judicial opinions are marked by care and clearness. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DANIELS, Edward, 1828-1916, Boston, Massachusetts, geologist, educator, abolitionist, Union officer in the Civil War.

 

 

DARGAN, Edmund Strother, 1805-1879, legislator, jurist. (American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 103; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 74)

 

 

DARLING, Joshua, New Hampshire, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1837-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

DAVENPORT, Franklin, 1755-1832, abolitionist, soldier, New Jersey legislature, U.S. Senator 1789-1799, U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey 1799-1801, member and delegate of the New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, founded 1793, nephew of Benjamin Franklin.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 239n9; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 82)

 

DAVENPORT, Franklin, senator, b. in Philadelphia, Pa.; d. in Woodbury, N. J., about 1829. He received an academic education, and, after studying law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Woodbury. During the Revolutionary war he served as captain of the artillery in Col. Newcomb's New Jersey brigade, and for some time was under Col. Samuel Smith in Fort Mifflin. He was a colonel in the New Jersey line during the whiskey insurrection in 1794, and marched with the troops to Pittsburg. Subsequently he became the first surrogate of Gloucester county, and was appointed U. S. senator to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Rutherford, serving from 19 Dec., 1798, till 3 March, 1799. He was then sent to congress, and served through the entire term from 2 Dec., 1799, till March, 1801. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 82.

 

 

DAVIDSON, William B., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Co-founder and officer of the Philadelphia Society of the American Colonization Society in October 1826.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 125)

 

 

DAVIS, Asa, abolitionist, Washington County, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1852-54.

 

 

DAVIS, David Brion, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, reorganized April 23, 1787 (Bruns, 1977, p. 487; Nash, 1991, p. 124; Sorin, 1971, pp. 14-17)

 

 

DAVIS, Edward M., abolitionist, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1842-44, Vice-President, 1848-64.

 

 

DAVIS, Elnathan, abolitionist, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1847.

 

 

DAVIS, Eunice, Boston, Massachusetts, African American, abolitionist, leader, board member, Boston Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Yellin, 1994, pp. 56, 58n40)

 

 

DAVIS, George T., abolitionist, Greenfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40, 1840-41.

 

 

DAVIS, Gustavus F., abolitionist, Hartford, Connecticut.  Vice president, 1834-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

DAVIS, Henry Winter, 1817-1865, statesman, lawyer.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District of Maryland, 1854, 1856, 1858, 1863-1865.  Anti-slavery activist in Congress.  Supported enlistment of African Americans in Union Army.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 97-98; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 119; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 198; Congressional Globe)

 

DAVIS, Henry Winter, statesman, b. in Annapolis, Md., 16 Aug., 1817; d. in Baltimore, 30 Dec., 1865. His father, Rev. Henry Lyon Davis, of the Protestant Episcopal church, was the president of St. John's college, at Annapolis, and rector of St. Ann's parish. He lost both offices on account of his Federal politics, and removed to Wilmington, Del., leaving his son with Elizabeth Brown Winter, an aunt, who possessed a noble character, and was rigid in her system of training children. The boy afterward went to Wilmington, and was instructed under his father's supervision. In l827 the family returned to Maryland and settled in Anne Arundel county. Here Henry Winter became much attached to field-sports, and gave little promise of scholarly attainments. He roamed about the country, always attended by one of his father's slaves, with an old fowling-piece upon his shoulder, burning much powder and returning with a small amount of game. The insight into slavery that he thus gained affected him strongly. He said, in after years: “My familiar association with the slaves, while a boy, gave me great insight into their feelings and views. They spoke with freedom before a boy what they would have repressed before a man. They were far from indifferent to their condition; they felt wronged, and sighed for freedom. They were attached to my father, and loved me, yet they habitually spoke of the day when God would deliver them.” He was educated in Alexandria, and at Kenyon college, where he was graduated in 1837. His father died in that year, leaving a few slaves to be divided between himself and his sister, but he would not allow them to be sold, although he might have pursued his studies with ease and comfort. Rather than do this he obtained a tutorship, and, notwithstanding these arduous tasks, read the course of law in the University of Virginia, which he entered in 1839. The expenses of his legal studies were defrayed with the proceeds of some land that his aunt had sold for the purpose. He began practice in Alexandria, Va., but first attained celebrity in the Episcopal convention of Maryland by his defence of Dr. H. V. D. Johns against the accusation of Bishop Whittingham for having violated the canon of the Episcopal church in consenting to officiate in the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1850 he removed to Baltimore, where he held a high social and professional position. He was a prominent whig, and known as the brilliant orator and controversialist of the Scott canvass in 1852. He was elected a member of congress for the 3d district of Maryland (part of Baltimore) in 1854, and re-elected in 1856, serving on the committee of ways and means. After the dissolution of the whig party he joined the American or Know-nothing party. He was re-elected to congress in 1858, and in 1859 voted for Mr. Pennington, the republican candidate for speaker, thus drawing upon himself much abuse and reproach. The legislature of Maryland “decorated him with its censure,” as he expressed it on the floor of the house; but he declared to his constituents that, if they would not allow their representative to exercise his private judgment as to what were the best interests of the state, “You may send a slave to congress, but you can not send me.” After the attack on the 6th Massachusetts regiment in Baltimore in 1861, Mr. Davis published a card announcing himself as an “unconditional union” candidate for congress, and conducted his canvass almost alone amid a storm of reproach and abuse, being defeated, but receiving about 6,000 votes. When Mr. Lincoln was nominated in 1860, Mr. Davis was offered the nomination for vice-president, but declined it; and when the question of his appointment to the cabinet was agitated, he urged the selection of John A. Gilmer in his stead. He was again in congress in 1863-'5, and served as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs. Although representing a slave state, Mr. Davis was conspicuous for unswerving fidelity to the Union and advocacy of emancipation. He heartily supported the administration, but deprecated the assumption of extraordinary powers by the executive, and denounced congress as cowardly for not authorizing by statute what it expected that department to do. He early favored the enlistment of negroes in the army, and said, “The best deed of emancipation is a musket on the shoulder.” In the summer of 1865 he made a speech in Chicago in favor of negro suffrage. Mr. Davis was denounced by politicians as impractical. He used to say that he who compromised a moral principle was a scoundrel, but that he who would not compromise a political measure was a fool. Mr. Davis possessed an unusually fine library, and was gifted with a good memory and a brilliant mind, which was united with many personal advantages. Inheriting force and scholarship from his father, he had received also a share of his mother's milder qualities, which won many friends, although, to the public, he seemed stern and dictatorial. At his death congress set apart a day for the commemoration of his public services, an honor never before paid to an ex-member of congress. He published a book entitled the “War of Ormuzd and Ahriman in the Nineteenth Century” (Baltimore, 1853). His collected speeches, together with a eulogy by his colleague, John A. J. Cresswell, were published in New York in 1867. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 97-98.

 

 

DAVIS, John, 1787-1854, Northborough, Massachusetts, lawyer, statesman, four-term U.S. Congressman, Governor of Massachusetts, U.S. Senator, 1835-1841.  Opposed the war with Mexico and introduction of slavery in U.S. territories.  Supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the Compromise Acts of 1850.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 103-104; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p.133)

 

DAVIS, John, statesman, b. in Northborough, Mass., 13 Jan., 1787; d. in Worcester, Mass., 19 April, 1854. He was graduated at Yale with honor in 1812, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1815, and practised with success in Worcester. He was elected to congress as a whig in 1824, and re-elected for the four succeeding terms, sitting from December, 1825, till January, 1834, and taking a leading part as a protectionist in opposing Henry Clay's compromise tariff bill of 1833, and in all transactions relating to finance and commerce. He resigned his seat on being elected governor of Massachusetts. At the conclusion of his term as governor he was sent to the U.S. senate, and served from 7 Dec., 1835, till January, 1841, when he resigned to accept the governorship a second time. In the senate he was a strong opponent of the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, and took a conspicuous part in the debates as an advocate of protection for American industry, replying to the free-trade arguments of southern statesmen in speeches that were considered extremely clear expositions of the protective theories. A declaration in one of his speeches, that James Buchanan was in favor of reducing the wages of American workingmen to ten cents a day, was the origin of the epithet “ten-cent Jimmy,” which was applied to that statesman by his political opponents for several years. A short speech against the sub-treasury, delivered in 1840, was printed during the presidential canvass of that year as an electioneering pamphlet, of which more than a million copies were distributed. He was again elected U. S. senator, and served from 24 March, 1845, till 3 March, 1853, but declined a re-election, and died suddenly at his home. He protested vigorously against the war with Mexico. In the controversy that followed, over the introduction of slavery into the U. S. territories, he earnestly advocated its exclusion. The Wilmot proviso received his support, but the compromise acts of 1850 encountered his decided opposition. He enjoyed the respect and confidence of his constituents in an unusual degree, and established a reputation for high principles that gained for him the popular appellation of “honest John Davis.”—His wife, who was a sister of George Bancroft, the historian, died in Worcester, Mass., 24 Jan., 1872, at the age of eighty years.  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DAVIS, Patten, abolitionist, West Randolph, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1848-64, Vice, President, 1849-55.

 

 

DAVIS, Paulina Kellogg Wright, 1813-1876, abolitionist, feminist, women’s rights activist, reformer.  Davis was married to abolitionist Francis Wright.  They served on the executive committee of the Central New York Anti-Slavery Society.  Their house was attacked by an angry mob for their anti-slavery activities.  After the death of her husband, she re-married, to anti-slavery Democrat Thomas Davis, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1852.  In May 1850, in Boston, Davis and other women’s rights activists planned and organized the first national women’s rights convention.  (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 214-216; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 216; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 106; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 141)

 

DAVIS, Paulina (WRIGHT), reformer, b. in Bloomfield, N. Y., 7 Aug., 1813; d. in Providence, R. I., 24 Aug., 1876. She married Francis Wright, of Utica, N. Y., in 1833, and after his death became in 1849 the wife of Thomas Davis, of Providence, R. I., who was a member of congress in 1853-'5. For thirty-five years she labored zealously to promote the rights of women, established “The Una,” the first woman-suffrage paper, wrote a history of woman-suffrage reform, and gave lectures in the principal cities of the United States. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 214-216.

 

 

DAVIS, Thomas, 1806-1895, North Providence, Rhode Island, manufacturer, Member of U.S. House of Representatives, 1853-1855, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1848-52.  Disapproved of the Missouri Compromise.

 

 

DAVIS, Thomas T., 1810-1872, lawyer.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1862 and 1864 from Syracuse, New York.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 97; Congressional Globe)

 

DAVIS, Thomas T., lawyer, b. in Middlebury, Vt., 22 Aug., 1810; d. in Syracuse, N. Y., 2 May, 1872, was graduated at Hamilton college in 1831. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Syracuse in 1833. He was counsel for the principal manufacturing establishments of that city, and took an active interest in railroad and mining enterprises. In 1862 he was elected to congress, and re-elected in 1864. After that date he resided in Syracuse, devoting himself to his law practice. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 97.

 

 

DAVIS, Timothy, Framingham, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1857-60-.

 

 

DAWES, Henry Laurens, 1816-1903, Massachusetts, judge, U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts.  Served in Congress 1857-1873. U.S. Senator 1875-1893.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 107; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 149; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 250; Congressional Globe)

 

DAWES, Henry Laurens, statesman, b. in Cummington, Mass., 30 Oct., 1816. He was graduated at Yale in 1839, became a teacher, and edited the Greenfield “Gazette,” and subsequently the Adams Transcript.” He was admitted to the bar in 1842, and served in the legislature from 1848 till 1850, when he became a member of the state senate. He was a member of the Constitutional convention in 1853, and attorney for the western district of Massachusetts, continuing until 1857, when he was elected to congress, and served as a member of the committee on Revolutionary claims. He remained in congress by successive re-elections until 1878. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention in Philadelphia, and in 1875 he succeeded Charles Sumner in the senate, and was re-elected in 1881 and 1887. He has been chairman of the committee on ways and means, has served on committee on public buildings and grounds, and inaugurated the measure by which the completion of the Washington monument was undertaken. He is the author of many tariff measures, and assisted in the construction of the wool and woollen tariff of 1868, which was the basis of all wool and woollens from that time until 1883. He is also a member of the committees on approbations, civil service, fisheries, Revolutionary claims, and Indian and naval affairs. He was appointed on a special committee to investigate the Indian disturbances in the Indian territory, upon which he made a valuable report. The entire system of Indian education due to legislation was created by Mr. Dawes. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 107.

 

 

DAWES, William, abolitionist. Attended World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.  Supporter of Oberlin College.

 

 

DAWKINS, Horace H., free African American.  President, Geneva Colored Anti-Slavery Society, New York, founded 1836. (Sernett, 2002, p. 64)

 

 

DAY, George T., Providence, Rhode Island, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1859-64

 

 

DAY, Jeremiah, 1773-1867, New Haven, Connecticut, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841.  President of Yale College.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 111-112; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 161; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 72)

 

DAY, Jeremiah, educator, b. in New Preston, Conn., 3 Aug., 1773; d. in New Haven, Conn., 22 Aug., 1867. He was graduated at Yale with high honor in 1795. When Dr. Dwight was appointed president of that college, Mr. Day was invited to be his successor as head-master in Greenfield school, where he remained one year. The following year he became a tutor at Williams, where he remained until 1798, when he was offered a similar place at Yale. He began to preach as a candidate for the ministry, but before taking charge of any parish was elected to the professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy at Yale, in 1801, but was not able to enter upon these new duties until 1803. He was made president of Yale in 1817, which office he held until his resignation in 1846. Having previously studied theology, Dr. Day was ordained the same day that he was inaugurated president. In 1817 he received the degree of LL. D. from Middlebury, in 1818 the degree of D. D. from Union, and the latter also from Harvard in 1831. His learning and talents, united with kindness of heart and soundness of judgment, secured the respect of his pupils as well as their affection. He published an “Algebra” in 1814, which passed through numerous editions, the latest of which was issued in 1852, by the joint labors of himself and Prof. Stanley. He wrote also “Mensuration of Superficies and Solids” (1814); “An Examination of President Edwards's Inquiry as to the Freedom of the Will” (1814); “Plane Trigonometry” (1815); “Navigation and Surveying” (1817); “An Inquiry on the Self-determining Power of the Will, or Contingent Volition” (1838; 2d ed., 1849); and occasional sermons. He contributed papers to the “American Journal of Science and Arts,” the “New Englander,” and other periodicals. An address commemorative of his life and services was delivered by President Woolsey (1867). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DAY, William Howard, 1825-1900, African American anti-slavery advocate, writer, orator, printer.  Husband of abolitionist Lucy Stanton Sessions, who published the abolitionist newspaper, Aliened American. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 154)

 

 

DAYTON, William Lewis, 1807-1864, lawyer, statesman, diplomat, U.S. Senator.  Member of the Free Soil Whig Party.  Opposed slavery and its expansion into the new territories.  Opposed the Fugitive Slave bill of 1850.  Supported the admission of California as a free state and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.  First vice presidential nominee of Republican Party in 1856, on the ticket with John C. Frémont.  Lost the election to James Buchanan.  (Goodell, 1852, p. 570; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 59; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 113; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 166; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 280)

 

DAYTON, William Lewis, statesman, b. in Baskingridge, N. J., 17 Feb., 1807; d. in Paris, France, 1 Dec., 1864. He was graduated at Princeton in 1825, and received the degree of LL. D. from that college in 1857. He studied law in Litchfield, Conn., and was admitted to the bar in 1830, beginning his practice in Trenton, N. J. In 1837 he was elected to the state council (as the senate was then called), being made chairman of the judiciary committee. He became associate judge of the supreme court of the state in 1838, and in 1842 was appointed to fill a vacancy in the U. S. senate. His appointment was confirmed by the legislature in 1845, and he was also elected for the whole term. In the senate debates on the Oregon question, the tariff, annexation of Texas, and the Mexican war, he took the position of a free-soil whig. He was the friend and adviser of President Taylor, and opposed the fugitive-slave bill, but advocated the admission of California as a free state, and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In 1856 he was nominated by the newly formed republican party for vice-president. In March, 1857, he was made attorney-general for the state of New Jersey, and held that office until 1861, when President Lincoln appointed him minister to France, where he remained until his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 113.

 

 

DE BAPTISTE, George, 1814-1875, free African American abolitionist, businessman.  Aided fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad in Madison, Indiana, as well as Ohio and Kentucky areas.  Became active in abolition movement n Detroit area. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 538; American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 306)

 

 

DE WITT, Alexander, Massachusetts, abolitionist

 

 

DEAN, James E., abolitionist, New Haven, Connecticut, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37

 

 

DEITZLER, George Washington, 1826-1884, abolitionist. (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 201)

 

 

DELANY, Martin Robinson, 1812-1885, free African American, publisher, editor, journalist, writer, physician, soldier. Publisher of abolitionist newspaper, North Star in Rochester, New York, with Fredrick Douglass. Published The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, 1852. Published The Ram’s Horn in New York.  Supported colonization of African Americans in 1854. Led National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1854.  Recruited thousands of African Americans for service in the Civil War.  First African American major in the U.S. Army.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 133, 145, 400n18; Pease, 1965, pp. 319-330; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 32, 50, 55, 164, 192, 251-252, 264, 275, 704-705; Sernett, 2002, pp. 151, 240, 314n61; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 219; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 382)

 

 

DELAVAN, Edward Cornelius, 1793-1871, Ballston Center, New York, reformer, temperance activist, abolitionist.  Life member of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Sought to defend the ACS against attacks by William Lloyd Garrison.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-39. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 134; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 201)

 

DELAVAN, Edward Cornelius, reformer, b. in Schenectady county, N. Y., in 1793; d. in Schenectady, 15 Jan., 1871. He was a wine-merchant, and acquired a fortune. At one time he owned much real estate in Albany, including the Delavan house, which he erected. In 1828, in company with Dr. Eliphalet Nott, he formed the State temperance society in Schenectady, and entered with zeal into the cause of temperance reform, devoting .his ample means to its promotion, speaking, lecturing, and writing on the subject, and employing others in all these ways to further the cause. He met with great opposition in this work. In 1835 he wrote to the Albany “Evening Journal,” charging an Albany brewer with using filthy and stagnant water for malting. The brewer prosecuted him for libel, and the trial, which took place in 1840 and attracted wide attention, occupied six days, and resulted in a verdict for Delavan. After this, several similar suits that had been begun against him for damages aggregating $300,000, were abandoned. Mr. Delavan had the proceedings of this trial printed in pamphlet-form for distribution as a tract. He procured, about 1840, several drawings of the human stomach when diseased by the use of alcoholic drinks, from postmortem examinations made by Prof. Sewall, of Washington, D. C. These he bad engraved and printed in colors, and made very effective use of them. He also published for years, at his own expense, a periodical advocating, often with illustrations, the temperance cause; this was subsequently merged in the “Journal of the American Temperance Union,” to whose funds he was a most liberal contributor. He had trained himself to public speaking, and became an efficient advocate of the cause he had so much at heart. Mr. Delavan presented to Union college a collection of shells and minerals valued at $30,000. He lost a large portion of his property a few years before his death. He published numerous articles and tracts, and “Temperance in Wine Countries” (1860). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DELONG, James C. , New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

DEMING, Henry Chapion, 1815-1872, lawyer, soldier.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut, 1863, 1865.  Colonel, commanding 12th Connecticut Regiment.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 138-139; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 230; Congressional Globe)

 

DEMING, Henry Champion, lawyer, b. in Middle Haddam, Conn., in 1815; d. in Hartford, 9 Oct., 1872. He was graduated at Yale in 1836, and at Harvard law-school in 1839. He then opened a law office in New York city, but devoted himself chiefly to literature, being engaged with Park Benjamin in editing the “New World,” a literary monthly. He removed to Hartford in 1847, served in the lower house of the legislature in 1849-'50 and 1859-'61, and in 1851 was a member of the state senate. He was mayor of Hartford in 1854-'8 and in 1860-'2, having been elected as a democrat. Early in the war he opposed coercion, even after the fall of Sumter, and when asked to preside at a war-meeting on 19 April, 1861, declined in a letter in which he said that he would support the Federal government, but would not “sustain it in a war of aggression or invasion of the seceded states.” When Washington was threatened, however, he favored the prosecution of the war, and on 9 Oct., 1861, was elected by acclamation speaker pro tempore of the state house of representatives, the republican majority thus testifying their approval of his course. In September, 1861, he accepted a commission as colonel of the “charter oak” regiment (the 12th Connecticut), recruited especially for Gen. Butler's New Orleans expedition. After the passage of the forts his regiment was the first to reach New Orleans, and was assigned by Gen. Butler the post of honor at the custom-house. Col. Deming was on detached duty, acting as mayor of the city from October, 1862, till February, 1863. He then resigned, returned home, and in April, 1863, was elected to congress as a republican, and served two terms, being a member of the committee on military affairs, and chairman of that on expenditures in the war department. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention in Philadelphia, and from 1869 till his death was U. S. collector of internal revenue for his district. Mr. Deming was one of the most eloquent public speakers in New England, a gentleman of fine culture and of refined literary taste. He published translations of Eugene Sue's “Mysteries of Paris” and “Wandering Jew” (1840), a eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, delivered by invitation of the Connecticut legislature in 1865, “Life of Ulysses S. Grant” (Hartford, 1868), and various addresses. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 138-139.

 

 

DEMING, Samuel, abolitionist, Farmington, Connecticut, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-43.

 

 

DENHAM, Obed, b. Virginia, abolitionist, went to Ohio in 1797, founded town of Bethel, founded Baptist Church on anti-slavery principles (Dumond, 1961, p. 93)

 

 

DENISON, Charles Wheeler, 1809-1881, New York City, abolitionist leader, author, clergyman, newspaper editor, The Emancipator.  Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833. (Dumond, 1961, p. 182; Sorin, 1971; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 140)

 

DENISON, Charles Wheeler, author, b. in New London, Conn., 11 Nov., 1809; d.14 Nov., 1881. Before he was of age he edited a newspaper in his native town. He afterward became a clergyman, edited the “Emancipator,” the first antislavery journal published in New York, and took part in other similar publications. In 1853 he was U. S. consul in British Guiana. He spent some time among the operatives of Lancashire, speaking in behalf of the National cause during the American civil war, and in 1867 edited an American paper in London, being at the same time pastor of Grove Road chapel, Victoria park. During the last two years of the war he served as post chaplain in Winchester, Va., and as hospital chaplain in Washington. He published “The American Village and other Poems” (Boston, 1845); “Paul St. Clair,” a temperance story; “Out at Sea,” poems (London, 1867); “Antonio, the Italian Boy” (Boston, 1873); “The Child Hunters,” relating to the abuses of the padrone system (Philadelphia, 1877); and a series of biographies published during the war, including “The Tanner Boy” (Grant); “The Bobbin Boy” (Banks); and “Winfield; the Lawyer's Son” (Hancock). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp.140.

 

 

DENNET, Oliver, abolitionist, Portland, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-1845, Vice-President, 1845-1851.

 

 

DENNISON, William, 1815-1882, Civil War governor of Ohio, lawyer, founding member of Republican Party, state Senator, opposed admission of Texas and the extension of slavery into the new territories.  Anti-slavery man, supporter of Abraham Lincoln. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 142; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 241; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 446)

 

DENNISON, William, war governor of Ohio, b. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 23 Nov., 1815; d. in Columbus, 15 June, 1882. His father was a prosperous business man, and had him prepared for college in the best schools of Cincinnati. He was graduated at Miami in 1835, studied law in Cincinnati, under the direction of Nathaniel Pendleton and Stephen Fales, and practised in Columbus until 1848, in which year he was chosen to the state legislature. About this period Mr. Dennison became interested in banking and in railroad affairs, and was president of the Exchange bank and president of the Columbus and Xenia railroad company. In 1856 he was a delegate to the first National convention of the Republican party. He was chosen governor of Ohio in 1860 by the Republicans, and delivered his first message to the general assembly in 1861. At his suggestion the legislature voted $3,000,000 to protect the state “from invasion and insurrection,” and conferred power upon the executive to raise troops. Gov. Dennison was an anti-slavery man and an ardent admirer of President Lincoln. In response to his call for 11,000 troops, he offered 30,000, sending agents to Washington to urge their acceptance. He took possession of the telegraph lines and railroads in the name of the state, and seized money in transitu from Washington to Ohio, which he gave to the quartermaster-general to clothe and equip soldiers. Gov. Dennison was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1864, and was elected chairman. He was appointed by President Lincoln postmaster-general in 1864, and continued in that office, under President Johnson, until his resignation in 1866. Gov. Dennison was a member of the National Republican convention at Chicago in 1880, and was leader of the friends of Senator John Sherman during the struggle for the nomination. He was also a candidate for senator in that year. He contributed largely to Dennison college, Granville, Ohio. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 142.

 

 

DENNY, Samuel, Circleville, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39

 

 

DEWEY, Josiah, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

DEWEY, Loring Daniel, 1791-1867, New York, clergyman, reformer, abolitionist, Agent of the American Colonization Society.  Toured New England and New York, raised funds and founded auxiliaries.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 79-87 passim)

 

 

DEWITT, Luke, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

DE WITT, Thomas, 1791-1874, clergyman, member of the Colonization society.  (Staudenraus, 1961; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 160)

 

 

DE WOLF, Calvin, abolitionist.  Co-founded Chicago Chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1838 with Philo Carpenter.

 

 

DEXTER, Samuel, 1761-1816, lawyer, jurist.  Member of U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts.  U.S. House of Representatives, 1793-1795.  U.S. Senator, December 1799-June 1800.  Opposed slavery as member of U.S. House of Representatives.  Secretary of War and Treasury.  (Appletons, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 161-162; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 280; Locke, 1901, pp. 71, 93; Annals of Congress)

 

DEXTER, Samuel, jurist, b. in Boston, 14 May, 1761; d. in Athens, N. Y., 3 May, 1816, was graduated at Harvard in 1781, and having studied law at Worcester, Mass., with Levi Lincoln, was admitted to the bar in 1784. After practising for some years in Worcester and Middlesex counties, he removed to Boston, which he made his home for the remainder of his life. He was a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1788-'90, served in the lower house at Washington in 1793-'5, and was elected to the U. S. senate, in which body he sat from 2 Dec., 1799, until June, 1800, when he resigned, on being appointed secretary of war by President Adams. This office he held until 31 Dec., 1800, when he was named secretary of the treasury, which place he filled until the inauguration of President Jefferson. He then returned to the practice of the law, appearing every winter at Washington in important cases before the U. S. supreme court. He was a close reasoner and an able logician, and in pleading chose to rely more on the strength of his arguments than on ad captandum appeals to the jury; yet he could be pathetic and impressive in addressing himself to the feelings and the moral sense. He began life a decided federalist, but gradually separated from the party, supporting President Jefferson's war policy, and in 1812 going with the republicans in advocating a contest with England. But he never considered himself a member of the latter organization, and, on being nominated as the republican candidate for governor of Massachusetts, in 1816, a few weeks before his death, he published an address to the electors, declaring that he differed radically with that party. His name was not withdrawn, however, and he was defeated by a majority for his opponent of 2,000 out of 47,000 votes. In 1815 he was offered a special embassy to Spain by President Madison, but declined it. In 1813 he received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard. He was the first president of the first society formed in Massachusetts for the promotion of temperance, in which question he took great interest. He died of scarlet fever, in the prime of life, while visiting Athens, N. Y., to attend the wedding of his son. He was the author of the reply of the senate to the address of President Adams on the death of Washington, and published a “Letter on Freemasonry”; “Progress of Science,” a poem (1780); and “Speeches and Political Papers,” besides political pamphlets. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 161-162.

 

 

DIAMOND, Isaac M., New York City.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

DICKEY, James H., b. 1780, Virginia, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, freed slaves he had inherited, worked in Salem, Ohio, after 1810 (Dumond, 1961, p. 91)

 

 

DICKEY, William, b. South Carolina, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, Bloomington, Ohio, served for 40 years. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 91, 135)

 

 

DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, 1842-1932, anti-slavery activist, African American rights activist, women’s rights activist, orator, lecturer, educator, Quaker (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 235-237; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 557; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 171-172; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Supp. 1, p. 244)

 

DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, orator, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 28 Oct., 1842. Her father died when she was two years old, leaving her in poverty, and she was educated in the free schools of the society of Friends, of which her parents were members. Her early days were a continuous struggle against adverse circumstances, but she read eagerly, devoting all her earnings to the purchase of books. She wrote an article on slavery for the “Liberator” when only fourteen years old, and made her first appearance as a public speaker in 1857, at meetings for discussion held by a body calling themselves “Progressive Friends,” chiefly interested in the anti-slavery movement. A sneering and insolent tirade against women, by a person prominent at these meetings, called from the spirited girl a withering reply, her maiden speech. From this time she spoke frequently, chiefly on temperance and slavery. She taught school in Berks county, Pa., in 1859-'60, and was employed in the U. S. mint in Philadelphia from April to December, 1861, but was dismissed for saying, in a speech in West Chester, that the battle of Ball's Bluff “was lost, not through ignorance and incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general” (McClellan). She then made lecturing her profession, speaking chiefly on political subjects. William Lloyd Garrison heard one of her anti-slavery speeches in an annual meeting of the Progressive Friends, held at Kennett, Chester co., Pa., with great delight, and on his return to Boston spoke of the “girl orator” in such terms that she was invited to speak in the fraternity course at Music Hall, Boston, in 1862, and chose for her subject the “National Crisis.” From Boston she went to New Hampshire, at the request of the Republican state committee, to speak in the gubernatorial canvass, and thence was called to Connecticut. On election night a reception was tendered her at Hartford, and immediately thereafter she was invited to speak in Cooper institute by the Union League of New York, and shortly afterward in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, by the Union League of that city. From this time to the end of the civil war she spoke on war issues. In the autumn of 1863 she was asked by the Republican state committee of Pennsylvania to speak throughout the coal regions in the canvass to re-elect Curtin, the male orators at the committee's command being afraid to trust themselves in a district that had recently been the scene of draft riots. Ohio offered her a large sum for her services, but she decided in favor of Pennsylvania. On 16 Jan., 1864, at the request of prominent senators and representatives, she spoke in the capitol at Washington, giving the proceeds, over $1,000, to the Freedmen's relief society. She also spoke in camps and hospitals, and did much in aid of the national cause. After this her addresses were made chiefly from the lyceum platform. On the termination of the war she spoke on “Reconstruction” and on “Woman's Work and Wages.” In 1869-'70, after a visit to Utah, she lectured on “Whited Sepulchres.” Later lectures, delivered in the northern and western states, were “Demagogues and Workingmen,” “Joan of Arc” and “Between us be Truth,” the last-named being delivered in 1873 in Pennsylvania and Missouri, where obnoxious bills on the social evil were before the legislatures. In 1876 Miss Dickinson, contrary to the advice of many of her friends, left the lecture platform for the stage, making her first appearance in a play of her own, entitled “A Crown of Thorns.” It was not favorably received by the critics, and Miss Dickinson afterward acted in Shakespeare's tragedies, still meeting with little success. “Aurelian” was written in 1878 for John McCullough, but was withdrawn by the author when the failing powers of the great tragedian made it apparent that he would be unable to appear in it. It has never been put upon the stage, but Miss Dickinson has given readings from it. She lectured on “Platform and Stage” in 1879, and in 1880 wrote “An American Girl” for Fanny Davenport, which was successful. Miss Dickinson's published works are “What Answer?” a novel (Boston, 1868); “A Paying Inied the doctrine afterward known as “popular sovereignty.” (See BUTTS, ISAAC.) Among the measures that have since been adopted, Mr. Dickinson earnestly advocated the free passage of weekly newspapers through the mails in the county where published. His conservative course in the senate not only secured him the vote of Virginia for the presidential nomination in the Democratic convention of 1852, but a strongly commendatory letter from Daniel Webster, 27 Sept., 1850, in which the writer asserted that Mr. Dickinson's “noble, able, manly, and patriotic conduct in support of the great measures” of that session had “entirely won his heart” and received his “highest regard.” In 1852 President Pierce nominated Mr. Dickinson for collector of the port of New York, and the nomination was confirmed by the senate; but the office was declined. At the beginning of the civil war in 1861, Mr. Dickinson threw all his influence on the side of the government regardless of party considerations, and for the first three years devoted himself to addressing public assemblages in New York, Pennsylvania, and the New England states. In 1861 he was nominated for attorney-general of his state, and was elected by 100,000 majority. He was nominated by President Lincoln to settle the northwestern boundary question, but declined, as he also did a nomination by Gov. Fenton to fill a vacancy in the court of appeals of the state of New York. He subsequently accepted the office of district-attorney for the southern district of New York, and performed its duties almost till the day of his death. In the Republican national convention of 1864, when President Lincoln was renominated, Mr. Dickinson received 150 votes for the vice-presidential nomination. As a debater he was clear, profound, and logical, and not infrequently overwhelmed his opponents with scathing satire. His speeches were ornamented with classical allusions and delivered without apparent effort. Among his happiest efforts are said to have been his speech in the National democratic convention at Baltimore in 1852, in which, having received the vote of Virginia, he declined in favor of Gen. Cass, and his eulogy of Gen. Jackson in 1845. Mr. Dickinson's brother has published his “Life and Works” (2 vols., New York, 1867).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 171-172.

 

 

DICKINSON, James T., abolitionist, Norwich, Connecticut.  Manager, 1833-1834, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

DICKINSON, John, 1732-1808, founding father, statesman, political pamphleteer, Congressman from Delaware, opponent of slavery and slave trade (Appletons, 1888, Vol. II, p. 173; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 299; Dumond, 1961, pp. 40-41; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 566; Encyclopaedia Americana, 1830, Vol. IV, pp. 227-228)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

DICKINSON, John, publicist, b. in Maryland, 13 Nov., 1732; d. in Wilmington, Del., 14 Feb., 1808. He was the son of Samuel D. Dickinson, who removed to Delaware, became chief justice of the county of Kent, and died. 6 July, 1760, aged seventy-one. John studied law in Philadelphia, and subsequently passed three years in reading in the Temple in London. On his return he practised successfully in Philadelphia. His first appearances in public life were as a member of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1764, and of the Colonial congress convened in New York to oppose the stamp-act in 1765. In the latter year he began to write against the policy of the British government, and, being a member of the 1st Continental congress (1774), was the author of a series of state papers put forth by that body, which won for him a glowing tribute from Lord Chatham. Among them were the “Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec,” the first “Petition to the King,” the “Address to the Armies,” the second “Petition to the King,” and the “Address” to the several states. Of the first “Petition,” which has been credited to Lee, it has been said that “it will remain an imperishable monument to the glory of its author and of the assembly of which he was a member, so long as fervid and manly eloquence and chaste and elegant composition shall be appreciated.” In June, 1776, he opposed the adoption of the Declaration of Independence because he doubted the wisdom of the measure “without some prelusory trials of our strength,” and before the terms of the confederation were settled and foreign assistance made certain. When the question came to be voted upon, he absented himself intentionally, but proved that his patriotism was not inferior to that of those who differed with him, by enlisting as a private in the army and remaining until the end of his term of service. He served again as a private in the summer of 1777 in Delaware, and in October of the same year was commissioned as a brigadier-general. In April, 1779, he was elected to congress from Delaware, and in May wrote another “Address to the States.” In 1780 he was chosen a member of the Delaware assembly, and in the following year elected president of the state. From 1782 till 1785 he filled the same office in Pennsylvania, and served as a member of the convention that framed the Federal constitution. In 1788 he wrote nine letters over the signature of “Fabius,” urging the adoption of the constitution, and these were followed in 1797 by a series of fourteen, written to promote a friendly feeling toward France. In 1783 he was influentia1 in founding and largely endowed Dickinson college, Carlisle, Pa. At this time he was living in Wilmington, Del., where he collected his political writings in 1801. The remaining seven years of his life were passed in retirement. Besides the writings mentioned, he was the author of “Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies” (Philadelphia, 1767; reprinted, with a preface by Dr. Franklin, London, 1768; French translation, Paris, 1769). In 1774 appeared his “Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America.” In 1796 he received the degree of LL. D. from the College of New Jersey. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 173.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

To the successful prosecution of the war of independence, the power of the pen was almost as essential as that of the sword. To arouse and sustain a spirit of resistance; to give to the proclamations, addresses, and resolutions of congress a tone becoming the dignity of that body, and the destiny of the country, and to command the respect, and secure the support of the enlightened in Europe, required genius and cultivation of the highest order, and the most commanding influence. In this department of the patriotic contest, none surpassed the subject of this memoir.

JOHN DICKINSON was born in Maryland, on the 2d day of Nov., O. S., in the year 1732. Unlike many of his patriotic comrades, fortune smiled upon his early birth. The greatest advantages of youthful nurture and cultivation, formed a character admirably adapted to supply the deficiencies of many of his associates, whose loftiness of sentiment, and purity of patriotism, he was thus prepared efficiently to sustain. He was the eldest son by a second marriage of Samuel Dickinson, Esq., who, some years after his birth, removed to his estate near Dover, in Delaware, and filled the office of first judge of the court of common pleas. His mother, whose name was Mary Cadwalader, was a descendant from one of the earliest settlers of Pennsylvania. His father had sent his two eldest sons to England to be educated, but the deep affliction produced by their death in that kingdom, probably deterred him from continuing the practice, and accordingly JOHN imbibed the rudiments of knowledge in his native land. A domestic calamity may thus have been the cause of a course of education being abandoned, which might have implanted foreign doctrines in the mind, and dried up the fountain of patriotism from the breast, of the author of the Farmer’s Letters, and of the Petition of Congress to the King. Happily the American plant was not spoiled by being transplanted at too tender an age; and in its own native soil was permitted to acquire a matured growth and a firm structure. The late Chancellor Kilen, of Delaware, then a young man, was the tutor of JOHN, but how long he continued under his charge, and in what manner he completed his education, we have not been able to learn. The subsequent elevation of the preceptor, and the known proficiency of the pupil, in all the branches of knowledge essential to an accomplished scholar, are conclusive evidence of their qualifications and assiduity.

After having studied law under John Moland, Esq., of Philadelphia, he went to England, where he remained for three years at the Temple in London. On his return he established himself in the practice of the law in Philadelphia, where his abilities and acquirements procured for him eminent success.

His first appearance in public life was in the year 1764, as a member of the assembly of Pennsylvania. A controversy which existed between that assembly and the proprietors, founded on a claim by the latter to have their estates exempted from taxation, occasioned the first display of his abilities and eloquence as a statesman. A proposition having been made to petition the king for a change of the government of the province, Mr. DICKINSON, on the 24th of May, delivered an elaborate speech in opposition to it. Believing the measure to be fraught with rashness and danger, that the remedy bore no proportion to the existing evil, and that it was calculated to involve the province in a disastrous conflict with a superior power, he exerted himself to prevent its adoption. The aggressions of the British parliament, which finally involved the country in war, did not commence until the 24th of March of that year; but in this preliminary controversy, we can observe the cautious policy for which Mr. DICKINSON’S conduct was distinguished throughout his public career.

On the 11th of September, 1765, he was appointed a delegate to a general congress, which assembled at New York in October, and was the author of the resolutions of that body, promulgating their hostility to the measures of Great Britain, and the principles which they considered as inherent in their system of government, and to which they ever after strenuously adhered. During this year he commenced his compositions against the aggressions of England, which were continued with vigor and striking effect, until the close of the conflict.

The first production of his pen appears to have been a pamphlet published that year, entitled, “The Late Regulations respecting the British Colonies on the continent of America, considered in a Letter from a Gentleman in Philadelphia to his Friend in London,” in which, with great spirit and elegance of style, as well as force of argument, he exhibited the impolicy of the ministerial measures, both as they related to a profitable intercourse between the mother country and her colonies, and in reference to the discontents which would inevitably be produced by her illegal and oppressive exactions.

The committee of correspondence of the legislature of Barbadoes, in a letter to their agent in London, remonstrating against the English system of taxation, took occasion to compare their loyal submission “with the rebellious opposition given to authority by their fellow subjects in the northern colonies.” Mr. DICKINSON took fire at the ignominious epithet so contumeliously cast upon his countrymen, and, in an admirable letter addressed to the Barbadoes committee, printed with the signature of a North American, in 1766, repelled the accusation, and, with his usual force and animation, vindicated the conduct of his fellow citizens.

But the work which most extensively spread his reputation, was the celebrated Farmer’s Letters to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, which were published in 1767, and consisted of twelve letters. Few productions have ever been attended with more signal effect, or procured for their author more extensive fame. His object in writing them was to arouse the attention of his country to the illegality of British taxation, and to the necessity of adopting rigorous measures to induce the mother country to retrace her steps of oppression. Distinguished for purity of diction and elegance of composition, they richly merit the applause which has been bestowed upon them. In a style of great vigor, animation, and simplicity, he portrayed the unconstitutionality of the conduct of Great Britain, the imminent peril to American liberty which existed, and the fatal consequences of a supine acquiescence in ministerial measures, more fatal as precedents than by the immediate calamities they were calculated to produce. The Farmer’s Letters were read with intense interest, and produced the effect not merely of enlightening the public mind, but of exciting the feelings of the people to a determination not to submit to the oppressive exactions of the mother country.

Avoiding all violence of expression and of doctrine, and repelling the idea of forcible opposition, they breathe a spirit of firm independence, an ardent love of liberty, and an unconquerable resolution to yield to any sacrifice rather than tamely submit to despotism. Mr. DICKINSON was reluctant to encourage acts of hostility to the mother country, and accordingly we find that peaceful opposition was all that he then contemplated. Although he subsequently united ardently in the military operations of the colonies, yet the principles which he inculcated in the Farmer’s Letters, of moderation in all the measures of opposition, seem to have followed him throughout the contest, and to have occasioned that opposition to the declaration of independence, which it will be proper hereafter more fully to describe. The idea of separation from the mother country was to him revolting, and he therefore urged his countrymen to a peaceful but firm resistance to the ambitious schemes of enlarging the power of Great Britain. He enlightened the public mind, aroused the feelings, and was finally carried forward by the current which he had so powerfully contributed to set in motion. An allusion to his principles seems necessary, fully to comprehend his character and the motives by which he was influenced. At all times active and energetic in his opposition to the measures of Great Britain, he did not unite in sentiment with the majority of his patriotic associates, in those daring measures which gave so decided a cast to the revolution. In enlightening the people, and in exciting their feelings, he was a prominent leader. It was only the boldest measures that he struggled to retard, but when once adopted, no man was more fearless or animated in urging them to a successful termination.

The author of the Farmer’s Letters received the most flattering commendations. At a meeting of the inhabitants of Boston, at Faneuil hall, it was resolved that the thanks of the town should be given to him, and Dr. Church, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, the hero of Bunker Hill, and John Roe, were appointed a committee to prepare and publish a letter of thanks. A highly complimentary letter was accordingly published, in which, after paying a tribute of respect to the author, they say that, “to such eminent worth and virtue, the inhabitants of the town of Boston, the capital of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in full town meeting assembled, express their gratitude. Though such superior merit must assuredly, in the closest recess, enjoy the divine satisfaction of having served, and possibly saved this people; though veiled from our view, you modestly shun the deserved applause of millions; permit us to intrude upon your retirement, and salute the Farmer as the friend of Americans, and the common benefactor of mankind.” The answer of the Farmer was published in the Boston Gazette. An edition of the Letters was published in 1769, in Virginia, with a preface written by Richard Henry Lee, and in May, 1768, Dr. Franklin caused them to be republished in London, with a preface from his own elegant pen, urging them upon the attention of the public. In 1769, they were translated into French and published at Paris.

Mr. DICKINSON was, in 1774, a member of a committee from the several counties of Pennsylvania, convened for the purpose of giving to the assembly, by whom delegates to congress were to be chosen. He prepared a series of resolutions and a letter of instruction which, amidst the numerous acts of a similar description in the several colonies, attracted peculiar attention, by their precise and determinate manner, as well as by the merit of being the most formal and complete exposition of the rights of the colonies, and of their grievances, which had then been published. After having been reported by the committee without objection, they were so far modified as to separate the argumentative part from the rest, but the whole were ordered to be published,—the former as an “Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America.” The committee unanimously agreed “that their thanks should be given from the chair to JOHN DICKINSON, for the great assistance they have received from the laudable application of his eminent abilities to the service of his country in the above performance.” In his reply to this tribute of respect, which was communicated to him formally from the chair, he very modestly observed,—“The mere accident of meeting with particular books, and conversing with particular men, led me into the train of sentiments, which the committee are pleased to think just; and others with the like opportunities of information would much better have deserved to receive the thanks they now generously give.”

Mr. DICKINSON took his seat in congress as a deputy from Pennsylvania, on the 17th of October, 1774, and immediately became engaged in the composition of the addresses of that body, which shed so much lustre on its proceedings, and now constitute no small portion of its fame. A dignified and elegant appeal to the inhabitants of Quebec, designed to enlist them in the common cause of the defence of their rights, emanated from his pen. But it was the petition to the king which won the highest admiration, on both sides of the Atlantic, and which will remain an imperishable monument to the glory of its author, and of the assembly of which he was a member, so long as fervid and manly eloquence, and chaste and elegant composition, shall be appreciated. Containing a clear exposition of the grounds of complaint, communicated in a respectful manner, it breathes a spirit of uncompromising freedom, and was calculated to strike deep into the heart, if any thing short of adulation could reach it, of him to whom it was addressed. However vain may have been the idea of awakening the king to a sense of the wrongs which, under his immaculate authority were committed, the eloquent composition of DICKINSON reached other hearts, and rallied to the support of the sacred cause in which he had so earnestly embarked, a host of advocates whose applause and benedictions cheered the votaries of freedom in the gloomiest hours of their tribulations. He was not originally a member of the committee appointed to perform the delicate and important duty of framing an address from an assembly, which professed to be composed of loyal subjects, to their distant monarch, but it consisted of Mr. Henry, Mr. Lee, J. Adams, Johnson, and Rutledge. It was appointed on the first of October, and Mr. DICKINSON’S enemies having succeeded in retarding his election to congress, he did not take his seat until the 17th. Mr. Henry actually prepared and reported an address which, not according with the views of congress, was recommitted, and Mr. DICKINSON was on the 21st added to the committee, and on the 24th reported the petition which was adopted. In patriotism Patrick Henry and JOHN DICKINSON resembled each other, but in many respects they bore the most decided contrast. Mr. Henry was an orator of incomparable powers; impetuous, undisciplined, and ready not only to support the boldest measures, but eager to rush onward in the revolutionary career, looking to nothing short of independence, and affecting no respect for a monarch whose authority he could not brook. Mr. DICKINSON, equally devoted to his country, looked with habitual respect upon the mother country and her king, and until the irrevocable step was taken by the declaration of independence, considered the restoration of harmony between the two countries, based upon the security of the rights of the colonies, as the consummation of sound policy and enlightened patriotism. With extensive stores of learning, and a highly polished intellect, were associated that caution, and perhaps hesitancy, which induced him to avoid rashness as one of the greatest errors that could be committed, and to deprecate the breaking of the ranks of peaceful opposition, by the chivalrous spirits, who, perhaps, stirred up by his own eloquent compositions, sounded in his ears the war-notes of revolution, as the only remedy for the grievances which he had so inimitably portrayed. Mr. Henry’s draught, besides being defective in point of composition, was filled with asperities which did not comport with th conciliatory disposition of congress.

As there was no deficiency of men prepared and anxious to press the revolutionary car on to its goal, it was fortunate for the country that congress possessed one man of the peculiar constitution of JOHN DICKINSON; for through his instrumentality, whilst they were rushing with a patriotic impetuousness into the midst of a sanguinary revolution, and their country was rapidly bursting its fetters and rising into national existence; their cause was invested with a dignity, moderation, and firmness; their motives were exhibited in a condition of purity; and the holy principles of civil liberty, which they were struggling to sustain, were promulgated to the world with a force and clearness, which commanded the respect of the civilized world, and have commended the conflict to the nations of the earth as an example which has been gazed at with admiration, and on several occasions followed with ardor.

With the view of making another effort to arrest the progress of oppression, Mr. DICKINSON urged the propriety of presenting a second petition to the king; but it was warmly opposed in congress as altogether futile; the determination to persist in error being as manifest as the discontent it had produced. The confidence he had inspired, and his deservedly great influence, enabled him, however, to accomplish his object; and the second petition to the king, written by him, ranks with its predecessor in usefulness to the cause, as well as in the peculiar merits of the composition. The highest encomiums were bestowed upon them, and it is believed that they powerfully contributed to draw upon congress the celebrated panegyric of Lord Chatham, in which, after alluding to the writings of antiquity, and the patriotism of Greece and Rome, he gave to that body a preference over the assemblies of the master states of the world. The literature of the revolution is a proud field for an American to contemplate. Filled with noble sentiments, lofty patriotism, untainted virtue, and a wisdom which seems to combine all that is essential for the protection of human freedom, there is a rich vein of eloquence irrigating the teeming soil, which the proudest and most cultivated nations of the earth might exult to call their own.

One of the most eloquent and soul-stirring productions of Mr. DICKINSON’S pen, was the declaration of congress of July 6th, 1775, setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms, which was proclaimed at the head of the several divisions of the army. He appears, when writing this admirable composition, to have been excited to a pitch of enthusiasm, not surpassed by the most chivalrous of the revolutionary patriots; and to have uttered his eloquent invectives against despotism, with a spirit prophetic of the glorious result. “We are reduced,” said he, “to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers or resistance by force The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.”

Allusion has already been made to the conciliatory views of Mr. DICKINSON, and to his repugnance to a final separation from Great Britain. In producing a measure of the vast importance of the declaration of independence, it was to have been expected that a great difference of opinion respecting its propriety should exist. Accordingly we find that members of congress became converts to the measure at various periods, and that several whose patriotism was unquestionable, and whose opposition to the despotism of Great Britain had been distinguished by brilliant exertions and extensive sacrifices, refused to coöperate in its adoption. JOHN DICKINSON was the most conspicuous of them. Believing that it was at least premature; that the country was not prepared to sustain it; that it would interfere with foreign alliances, since nations hostile to Great Britain would not be likely to advocate the American cause, when their hostility to Great Britain was gratified by the severance of the British empire; and that dissensions might spring up among the colonies, unless some provision was made for the settlement of their controversies before “they lost sight of that tribunal, which had hitherto been the umpire of all their differences,” he exerted himself to retard its adoption. But it was in vain. His own eloquent compositions had sunk too deeply into the hearts of the people, and their feelings were aroused to too high a pitch of indignation at the conduct of Great Britain, to falter in their march to national independence. A majority of the Pennsylvania delegation were opposed to the declaration; but on the 4th of July, Mr. DICKINSON and another member, Mr. Morris, thought fit so far to withdraw their opposition, as, by their absence, to leave a majority of one in its favor. The vote of Pennsylvania was thus added to those of her sister states. The signatures of some of the members, who at the time had strenuously opposed it, were subsequently affixed to it, and are transmitted to posterity as contemporaneous participators in that act of daring intrepidity. But Mr. DICKINSON’S name has never been associated with it, nor does it appear that he ever recanted the opinion which he had expressed of its propriety, although he not merely acquiesced in it, but engaged with his accustomed zeal and assiduity in preparing and carrying into effect the measures necessary to sustain it. However much we may

regret that his name is not enrolled on that instrument, which is now the pride and the boast of every American, it would not only be uncharitable, but it would be wantonly to dim the lustre of one of the brightest of the revolutionary luminaries, to suspect the purity of his motives, or to diminish the gratitude of the country to him. Party spirit at that period was powerful, and his enemies successfully assailed him. His reëlection to congress was defeated, and the public lost his services for about two years, on the theatre for which he was the best adapted. He soon, however, exhibited convincing evidence that his course with regard to the declaration of independence, did not proceed from a disposition to shield himself from danger, and that his patriotism was too ardent to be cooled by the frowns of his countrymen. He was actually at camp performing military duty, when the loss of his election to congress occurred. We have been able to glean but few particulars of his military services. It appears that he marched with his regiment to Elizabethtown to meet the enemy, and served as a private soldier in Capt. Lewis’s company, when on a similar expedition to the Head of Elk. In October, 1777, he received from Mr. McKean, then president of Pennsylvania, a commission of brigadier-general; the duties of which he fulfilled in a satisfactory manner.

In, April, 1779, he was unanimously elected to congress, and resumed the performance of his legislative duties with his accustomed ardor and effect. In the month of May, he wrote the address of that body to the states, upon the situation of public affairs; a production distinguished by his usual felicity of composition and warmth of patriotic feeling. The condition of the country is vividly described, and the states are urged to exertion to rescue it from the abject situation to which a depreciated paper currency, a prodigality in the expenditure of the public money, and the exhaustion of war, had reduced it.

In 1780, he was elected to represent the county of Newcastle in the assembly of Delaware; and was in the same year, unanimously elected president of that state, by the two branches of the legislature. In 1782, he was elected president of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania, which office he continued to fill until October, 1785.

It is natural to suppose that a man who was so deeply indebted to literature as Mr. DICKINSON, and whose life had been so sedulously devoted to the application of its inestimable riches to the service of his country, would not, amidst his numerous benefactions, overlook education, the main spring of republican greatness and stability. The act of assembly incorporating a college to be established in the borough of Carlisle, has happily perpetuated the remembrance of his munificent patronage of learning, as well as the public sense of his exalted merit. It declares that—“In memory of the great and important services rendered to his country by his excellency JOHN DICKINSON, Esq., president of the supreme executive council, and in commemoration of his very liberal donation to the institution, the said college shall be forever hereafter called and known by the name of Dickinson College.” The institution which was thus brought into existence under the auspices and by the liberality of this great man, is destined, it is hoped, to be a perpetual monument to his fame, and a perennial fountain of unadulterated knowledge and patriotism. Fortunately located near the centre of a powerful state, surrounded by ample resources for its sustenance, and accessible to all the means which give facility to education, its prosperous career is a fit subject for patriotic aspirations. Clouds, it is true, have occasionally darkened its prospects; but in the midst of its adversities, its fame, the advantages of its position, and the exertions of the friends of education, have twice raised it from a prostrate condition, and it bids fair to fulfil the benevolent and patriotic anticipations of its founder. In the selection of the locality of the institution, Mr. DICKINSON appears, as in all of his other public services, to have been actuated by disinterested motives, and to have looked beyond the present time to advance the permanent good of the community. Philadelphia had been, and Wilmington was destined to be, the place of his residence. Carlisle was out of the sphere of his movements and of his influence, but being the centre of a large and growing community, in bestowing his bounty and his services, he looked beyond the time and the space in which he lived.

The formation of a constitution for the United States, was a task to which Mr. DICKINSON’S extensive political knowledge, great abilities, and enlightened views, were peculiarly adapted. Having participated in the adoption of the articles of confederation, and had abundant experience of their numerous deficiencies, and of the total impracticability of preserving public honor, social order, or even national existence, with their contracted powers and feeble authority, Mr. DICKINSON met the convention of 1787, as a delegate from Delaware, with a clear conviction of the momentous duty assigned to him, and a firm determination to leave no effort untried to rescue the country from impending ruin. His exertions were not confined to the convention. The constitution, when submitted to the people for their ratification, met with violent, and in some quarters with unprincipled, opposition. Mr. DICKINSON published nine letters, with the signature of Fabius, in its defence. Although he did not enter into all the details of the plan reported by the convention, nor attempt that systematic vindication of it which was performed by the “Federalist,” yet the letters of Fabius are a valuable acquisition to our stock of constitutional literature, and present a conclusive chain of reasoning on many important topics which they discussed. He very properly disregarded the fear of consolidation from the operations of the federal government, and considered the guarantees of the states, furnished by the organization of the federal system, as entirely adequate to the protection of the rights of the states, and that the freedom of the people would be more likely to be placed in jeopardy by the weakness than by the strength of the federal authority.

In the year 1792, he was a member of the convention which formed the constitution of Delaware, and displayed his usual activity and abilities in the performance of all the duties which the occasion required.

In the year 1797, he published another series of letters bearing the signature of Fabius, which were occasioned by the special call of congress to meet on the 25th of March. His gratitude and predilection for France, are strongly depicted in them; and although they are more than usually discursive, they are replete with liberal and generous sentiments. He professed to write from the impulse of duty, but complains that “neither my time, nor my infirmities, will permit me to be attentive to style, arrangement, or the labors of consulting former publications.” Breathing an ardent desire for the extension of freedom, he seems to have viewed the exertions in France in its behalf, with admiration and high expectation; and to have looked upon the conduct of England with a jealous eye, as partaking of that description which he had devoted the prime of his life in combating.

Wilmington had been selected by him as the place of his residence, where, retired from the toil and anxieties of public life, enjoying an affluent fortune, surrounded by friends who loved him, and by books which, to him, were a constant source of consolation, he spent the concluding years of his life, dispensing among others the blessings which he enjoyed himself, and receiving in return the heartfelt tribute of popular veneration.

He was married on the 19th of July, 1770, to Mary Norris, only daughter of Isaac Norris, of Fair Hill, Philadelphia county, and had two daughters, who survive him.

He died on the 14th of Feb., 1808, at the age of seventy-five. Mr. DICKINSON deserves to be ranked among the most distinguished men of the age in which he lived. Whether we consider the extent of his participation in producing the revolutionary war, and in urging it to a prosperous termination, the steadiness of purpose which directed his path, the inflexible spirit with which he adhered to the cause amidst the numerous discouragements which beset his career, the lustre which his admirable compositions shed upon his country, his accomplishments as a scholar, the purity of his character, and elevation as an orator and statesman, an exalted station must be assigned to him in the highest rank of our most illustrious countrymen. It is, however, chiefly in his labors as an author, that his greatest merit consists. His writings are conspicuous for energy, perspicuity, and simplicity of style, and often rise to strains of impassioned eloquence. His principles were of the most liberal cast consistent with social order. His sentiments were as pure as they were exalted, and a rich vein of benevolent feeling pervades every production of his pen. His devotion to the cause of human freedom, teems in every page. Furnishing copious and exact information of many of the most prominent transactions of the revolution, and of the controversy in which it originated, in a style of unadulterated purity and elegance, his writings constitute a valuable portion of the literature of the country. We there hear the voice of the first congress, and see exhibited the fortitude and patriotism of the fathers of the republic.

Mr. DICKINSON was charged with advocating a timid policy, inconsistent with the spirit which became the great cause in which he had embarked, but nothing of the sort appears in his writings. Although he did orally advise congress to pursue a less daring course than that which was successfully adopted, when he wielded the pen, he invariably made congress speak in a manner that became its dignity, fearlessness, and exalted position, in the presence of the world and of after ages. Many of his views were peculiar. He had early acquired the opinion, that separation from England ought not to be sought after, but that the true object of pursuit was to coerce her to yield to the requisitions of freedom and of justice; and it clung to him throughout the contest. But he supported his associates in the execution of their most energetic measures, and devoted an undivided affection to the cause of his country, no matter by whom, nor in what manner directed. “Two rules I have laid down for myself throughout this contest,” said he on an important question in congress, in 1779, “to which I have constantly adhered, and still design to adhere. First, on all occasions where I am called upon, as a trustee for my countrymen, to deliberate on questions important to their happiness, disdaining all personal advantages to be derived from a suppression of my real sentiments, and defying all dangers to be risked by a declaration of them, openly to avow them; and secondly, after thus discharging this duty, whenever the public resolutions are taken, to regard them, though opposite to my opinion, as sacred, because they lead to public measures in which the common weal must be interested, and to join in supporting them as earnestly as if my voice had been given for them.

“If the present day is too warm for me to be calmly judged, I can credit my country for justice some years hence.”

Having seen the patriot faithful to the end of his career, and undeviating in his course, the peculiarity of his opinions, at a critical conjuncture, should not affect the estimate which posterity should place upon his patriotism and public services. In private life he was conspicuous for the dignity and simplicity of his manners, the benevolence of his disposition, the purity of his morals, and his veneration for religion. His conversation was distinguished for its vivacity, and enriched by the extensive stores of knowledge which, in study and in active life, he had accumulated. His charities were as munificent as they were well directed, and displayed an exalted spirit of benevolence and patriotism. As an orator, his admirers assigned to him a high grade of excellence. If his tongue partook of the fluency and animation of his pen, he must have rivalled the eloquence of his contemporaries, whose oratory has been the theme of such exalted and well merited commendation.

He possessed the most delicate sense of honor, and cherished his character for integrity with the fondest regard; of which the following occurrence, with which we shall close this brief memoir, is a striking illustration, and also vindicates his title to one of his noblest productions. Chief Justice Marshall, in the first volume of his life of Washington, erroneously ascribed the address to the king to Mr. Lee. This produced a remonstrance from Mr. DICKINSON, who, in a letter to Dr. Logan, dated Sept. 15, 1804, gives a detailed account of the proceedings of Congress, and fully vindicates his title to the authorship. The error was subsequently corrected by the chief justice. “I have said,” says Mr. DICKINSON, “that the chief justice has cast a reflection upon my character, and a very serious one it is, from whatever cause it has proceeded. The severity of the reflection arises from this circumstance. In the year 1800, two young printers applied to me for my consent to publish my political writings, from which they expected to derive some emolument. I gave my consent, and in the following year they published in this place, two octavo volumes as my political writings.

“This publication being made in the town where I reside, no person of understanding can doubt that I must be acquainted with the contents; of course I must be guilty of the greatest baseness if, for my credit, I knowingly permitted writings which I had not composed, to be publicly imputed to me, without a positive and public contradiction of the imputation. This contradiction I never made and never shall make, conscious, as I am, that every one of those writings was composed by me.

“The question whether I wrote the first petition to the king, is of little moment; but the question whether I have countenanced an opinion that I did write it, though in reality I did not, is to me of vast importance.”

                                                                                         A. B.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 3.

 

 

DICKSON, John, abolitionist, W. Bloomfield, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37.

 

 

DICKSON, Reverend Moses, 1824-1901, free African American, anti-slavery leader, clergyman, activist, underground abolitionist.  Minister, African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.  Founded Knights of Liberty in St. Louis, Missouri, 1846. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 50; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 2)

 

 

DIGGES, William Dudley, charter member of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

DILLINGHAM, Richard, 1823-1850, Society of Friends (Quaker), abolitionist.  Arrested, tried and convicted for aiding three fugitive slaves in Tennessee in December 1848.  Imrpisoned in Tennessee State Penitentiary.  Died of cholera while there in June 1850.  (Coffin, 2001)

 

 

DILLWYN, William, New Jersey, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Petitioned New Jersey Assembly in Trenton to emancipate all slaves in province. (Bruns, 1977, pp. 270-278, 314, 486, 488; Drake, 1950, pp. 87, 91; Zilversmit, 1967, p. 96)

 

 

DIMOND, Isaac M., abolitionist, New York, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1833-1834.

 

 

DISOSWAY, Gabriel Poillon, 1799-1868, New York, merchant, philanthropist.  Member and supporter of the American Colonization Society.  Co-founder of Randolph Macon College at Ashland, Virginia.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 182; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 58, 196)

 

DISOSWAY, Gabriel Poillon, antiquary, b. in New York city, 6 Dec., 1799; d. on Staten Island, 9 July, 1868. He was graduated at Columbia in 1819, went to Petersburg, Va., where he resided for several years, returned to New York, and became a merchant. He was one of the founders of Randolph-Macon college, established at Ashland, Va., in 1832. He contributed frequently to the newspaper and periodical press, and published “The Earliest Churches of New York and its Vicinity” (New York, 1865). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DIXON, James, 1814-1873, lawyer.  Republican U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator representing Connecticut.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 186; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 328; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 646; Congressional Globe)

 

DIXON, James, senator, b. in Enfield, Conn., 5 Aug., 1814; d. in Hartford, 27 March, 1873. He was graduated at Williams with distinction in 1834, studied law in his father's office, and began practice in Enfield, but soon rose to such eminence at the bar that he removed to Hartford, and there formed a partnership with Judge William W. Ellsworth. Early combining with his legal practice an active interest in public affairs, he was elected to the popular branch of the Connecticut legislature in 1837 and 1838, and again in 1844. In 1840 he married Elizabeth L., daughter of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Cogswell, professor in the Connecticut theological institute. Mr. Dixon at an early date had become the recognized leader of the Whig party in the Hartford congressional district, and was chosen in 1845 a member of the U. S. house of representatives. He was re-elected in 1847, and was distinguished in that difficult arena alike for his power as a debater and for an amenity of bearing that extorted the respect of political opponents even in the turbulent times following the Mexican war, and the exasperations of the sectional debate precipitated by the “Wilmot Proviso.” Retiring from congress in 1849, he was in that year elected from Hartford to a seat in the Connecticut senate, and, having been re-elected in 1854, was chosen president of that body, but declined the honor, because the floor seemed to offer a better field for usefulness. During the same year he was made president of the Whig state convention, and, having now reached a position of commanding influence, he was in 1857 elected U. S. senator, and participated in all the parliamentary debates of the epoch that preceded the civil war. He was remarkable among his colleagues in the senate for the tenacity with which he adhered to his political principles, and for the clear presage with which he grasped the drift of events. Six years afterward, in the midst of the civil war, he was re-elected senator with a unanimity that had had no precedent in the annals of Connecticut. During his service in the senate he was an active member of the committee on manufactures, and during his last term was at one time appointed chairman of three important committees. While making his residence in Washington the seat of an elegant hospitality, he was remarkable for the assiduity with which he followed the public business of the senate, and for the eloquence that he brought to the discussion of grave public questions as they successively arose before, during, and after the civil war. Among his more notable speeches was one delivered 25 June, 1862, on the constitutional status created by the so-called acts of secession—a speech that is known to have commanded the express admiration of President Lincoln, as embodying what he held to be the true theory of the war in the light of the constitution and of public law. To the principles expounded in that speech Mr. Dixon steadfastly adhered during the administration alike of President Lincoln and of his successor. In the impeachment trial of President Johnson he was numbered among the Republican senators who voted against the sufficiency of the articles, and from that date he participated no longer in the councils of the Republican party. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 186.

 

 

DIXON, Nathan Fellows, b. 1833, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.  Member of 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Congress.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 187; Congressional Globe)

 

DIXON, Nathan Fellows, lawyer, b. in Westerly, R. I., 1 May, 1812; d. there, 11 April, 1861, was graduated at Brown in 1833, attended the law-schools at New Haven and Cambridge, and practised his profession in Connecticut and Rhode Island from 1840 till 1849. He was elected to congress from Rhode Island in 1849, and was one of the governor's council appointed by the general assembly during the Dorr troubles of 1842. In 1844 he was a presidential elector, and in 1851 was elected as a Whig to the general assembly of his state, where, with the exception of two years, he held office until 1859. In 1863 he went to congress as a Republican, and served as a member of the committee on commerce. He was a member of the 39th, 40th, and 41st congresses, and declined re-election in 1870. He, however, resumed his service in the general assembly, being elected successively from 1872 till 1877. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 187.

 

 

DOAK, Samuel, 1749-1830, Virginia, educator, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, founder of Martin Academy, Little Limestone (near Jonesboro), North Carolina, founder and president of Washington College, 1795. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 91, 348; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 187-188; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 332; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 653)

 

DOAK, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Augusta county, Va., in August, 1749; d. in Bethel, N. C., 12 Dec., 1830. He was graduated at Princeton in 1775, became tutor in Hampden Sidney college, studied theology there, and was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Hanover in 1777. He removed to the Holston settlement (then part of North Carolina, but now a part of east Tennessee), and two years later to a settlement on the Little Limestone, in Washington county, where he bought a farm, built a log school-house and a small church, and founded the “Salem Congregation.” The school he established at this place was the first that was organized in the valley of the Mississippi. In 1785 it was incorporated by the legislature of North Carolina as Martin academy, and in 1795 became Washington college. He presided over it from the time of its incorporation till 1818, when he removed to Bethel and opened a private school, which he named Tusculum academy. Mr. Doak was a member of the convention of 1784 that formed the constitution of the commonwealth of Frankland. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Washington and Greenville colleges in 1818. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 187-188.

 

 

DOBBINS, George W., Maryland.  Manager, Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, p. 154)

 

 

DODGE, William B., abolitionist, Salem, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.

 

 

DODGE, William Earle, Sr., 1805-1883, Hartford, Connecticut, merchant, abolitionist.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 352)

 

DODGE, William Earl, merchant, b. in Hartford, Conn., 4 Sept., 1805; d. in New York city, 9 Feb., 1883, received a common-school education, and worked for a time in his father's cotton mill. At the age of thirteen he removed to New York city with his family, and entered a wholesale dry-goods store, remaining there eight years. Afterward he engaged in the same business on his own account, continuing till 1833, when he married the daughter of Anson G. Phelps, and became a member of the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co. He continued at the head of this house till 1879. Mr. Dodge was one of the first directors of the Erie railroad, and was interested in other railways and in several insurance corporations. He also owned large districts of woodland, and had numerous lumber and mill interests, besides being concerned in the development of coal and iron mines. He was elected president of the New York chamber of commerce three times in succession. He was a trustee of the Union theological seminary, one of the founders of the Union league club of New York city, vice-president of the American Bible society, president of several temperance associations, and took great interest in the welfare of the freedmen. He was a member of the peace convention of 1861, and in 1866-'7, having successfully contested the election of his Democratic opponent, James Brooks, was a representative in congress, serving on the committee on foreign affairs. President Grant appointed him a member of the Indian commission. He left a large fortune, and made several bequests to religious and charitable institutions. A bronze statue of him has been placed at the junction of Broadway and Sixth Avenue, New York city. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DOLE, Ebenezer Hallowell, Maine.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

DOLE, S. F., abolitionist, Middletown, Connecticut.  Manager, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

DOLLANGER, John Jr., Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1843-, 1846-

 

 

DONALD, Samuel, abolitionist, Indiana, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40.

 

 

DONALDSON, Christian, Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-38

 

 

DONALDSON, Thomas, abolitionist, Clermont County, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1846-64.

 

 

DONALDSON, William, abolitionist, Cincinnati, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-1840.

 

 

DONNELLY, Ignatius Loyola, 1831-1901, author.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota 1863-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 201; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 369; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 730; Congressional Globe)

 

DONNELLY, Ignatius, author, b. in Philadelphia, 3 Nov., 1831. He was educated in the public schools of his native city, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised. He went to Minnesota in 1857, was elected lieutenant-governor in 1859, and again in 1861, and was then elected to congress as a republican, serving from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1869. Besides doing journalistic work he has written an “Essay on the Sonnets of Shakespeare”; “Atlantis, the Antediluvian World” (New York, 1882), in which he attempts to demonstrate that there once existed in the Atlantic ocean, opposite the straits of Gibraltar, a large island, known to the ancients as “Atlantis”; and “Ragnarok” (1883), in which he tries to prove that the deposits of clay, gravel, and decomposed rocks, characteristic of the drift age, were the result of contact between the earth and a comet. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 201.

 

 

DOOLITTLE, James Rood, 1815-1897, lawyer, jurist.  Democratic and Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, 1857-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 201-202; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 374; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 746; Congressional Globe)

 

DOOLITTLE, James Rood, senator, b. in Hampton, Washington co., N. Y., 3 Jan., 1815. After attending Middlebury academy, he entered Geneva (now Hobart) college, where he was graduated in 1834. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1837, and practised at Rochester and at Warsaw, N. Y. He was elected district attorney of Wyoming county, N. Y., in 1845, and also served for some time as a colonel of militia. He removed to Wisconsin in 1851, and was elected judge of the first judicial circuit of that state in l858, but resigned in 1856, and was elected U. S. senator as a Democratic Republican, to succeed Henry Dodge, serving two terms, from 1857 till 1869. He was a delegate to the peace convention of 1861. While in the senate, he served as chairman of the committee on Indian affairs and as member of other important committees. During the summer recess of 1865, he visited the Indians west of the Mississippi as a member of a special senate committee. He took a prominent part in debate on the various war and reconstruction measures, upholding the national government, but always insisting that the seceding states had never ceased to be a part of the Union. He opposed the fifteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, on the ground that each state should determine questions of suffrage for itself. Mr. Doolittle retired from public life in 1869, and has since resided in Racine, Wis., though practising law in Chicago. He was president of the Philadelphia national union convention of 1866, and also of the Baltimore national Democratic convention of 1872, which adopted the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency. Judge Doolittle has been a trustee of Chicago university since its foundation, served for one year as its president, and was for many years a professor in its law school. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 201-202.

 

 

DORRANCE, Gardner, Amherst, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-

 

 

DOTEN, David, abolitionist, Sumner, Maine, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842.

 

 

DOUAI, Adolph Karl Daniel, 1819-1888, Germany, socialist, abolitionist, newspaper editor and publisher, educator.  Published newspaper, San Antonio Deutsche Zeitung [German News], which strongly editorialized against slavery.  Opposed slavery in the territory of Texas in articles, a very unpopular editorial position, which caused him to lose the publication.  (Randers-Pehrson, 2000)

 

 

DOUGHERTY, Alexander M., abolitionist, Newark, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-40.

 

 

DOUGHERTY, Sara, free African American, co-founder Free African Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1878. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 156)

 

 

DOUGHERTY, Thomas (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

DOUGHTY, George, abolitionist, Jamaica, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1844.

 

 

DOUGLAS, H. Ford, 1831-1865, African American, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist, military officer, newspaper publisher, born a slave.  Active in anti-slavery movement in Ohio.  Garrisonian abolitionist.  Advocated for African American emigration.  Published Provincial Freeman.  Published in Canada.  Served as African American officer in artillery unit.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 61; American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 796)

 

 

DOUGLAS, Richard H., Maryland, ship owner.  Manager, Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 111)

 

 

DOUGLAS, William, 1804-1862, African American abolitionist, church community leader in Baltimore, Maryland, and later in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He was active in the Anti-Slavery Society.

 

 

DOUGLASS, Anna Murray, 1813-1882, African American, anti-slavery activist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, wife of Frederick Douglass. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 66)

 

 

DOUGLASS, Frederick, 1817-1895, African American, escaped slave, author, diplomat, orator, newspaper publisher, radical abolitionist leader.  Published The North Star abolitionist newspaper with Martin Delany.  Wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas: An American Slave, in 1845.  Also wrote My Bondage, My Freedom, 1855.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1848-1853.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 331-333; Filler, 1960; Foner, 1964; Mabee, 1970; McFeely, 1991;  Quarles, 1948; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 264-265; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 217; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 251-254; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 816; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 309-310; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 67)

 

DOUGLASS, Frederick, orator, b. in Tuckahoe, near Easton, Talbot co., Md., in February, 1817. His mother was a negro slave, and his father a white man. He was a slave on the plantation of Col. Edward Lloyd, until at the age of ten he was sent to Baltimore to live with a relative of his master. He learned to read and write from one of his master's relatives, to whom he was lent when about nine years of age. His master allowed him later to hire his own time for three dollars a week, and he was employed in a ship-yard, and, in accordance with a resolution long entertained, fled from Baltimore and from slavery, 3 Sept., 1838. He made his way to New York, and thence to New Bedford, Mass., where he married and lived for two or three years, supporting himself by day-labor on the wharves and in various workshops. While there he changed his name from Lloyd to Douglass. He was aided in his efforts for self-education by William Lloyd Garrison. In the summer of 1841 he attended an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket, and made a speech, which was so well received that he was offered the agency of the Massachusetts anti-slavery society. In this capacity he travelled and lectured through the New England states for four years. Large audiences were attracted by his graphic descriptions of slavery and his eloquent appeals. In 1845 he went to Europe, and lectured on slavery to enthusiastic audiences in nearly all the large towns of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. In 1846 his friends in England contributed $750 to have him manumitted in due form of law. He remained two years in Great Britain, and in 1847 began at Rochester, N.Y., the publication of '”Frederick Douglass's Paper,” whose title was changed to “The North Star,” a weekly journal, which he continued for some years. His supposed implication in the John Brown raid in 1859 led Gov. Wise, of Virginia, to make a requisition for his arrest upon the governor of Michigan, where he then was, and in consequence of this Mr. Douglass went to England, and remained six or eight months. He then returned to Rochester, and continued the publication of his paper. When the civil war began in 1861 he urged upon President Lincoln the employment of colored troops and the proclamation of emancipation. In 1863, when permission was given to employ such troops, he assisted in enlisting men to fill colored regiments, especially the 54th and 55th Massachusetts. After the abolition of slavery he discontinued his paper and applied himself to the preparation and delivery of lectures before lyceums. In September, 1870, he became editor of the “New National Era” in Washington, which was continued by his sons, Lewis and Frederick. In 1871 he was appointed assistant secretary to the commission to Santo Domingo; and on his return President Grant appointed him one of the territorial council of the District of Columbia. In 1872 he was elected presidential elector at large for the state of New York, and was appointed to carry the electoral vote of the state to Washington. In 1876 he was appointed U. S. marshal for the District of Columbia, which office he retained till 1881, after which he became recorder of deeds in the District, from which office he was removed by President Cleveland in 1886. In the autumn of 1886 he revisited England, to inform the friends he had made as a fugitive slave of the progress of the African race in the United States, with the intention of spending the winter on the continent and the following summer in the United Kingdom. His published works are entitled “Narrative of my Experience in Slavery” (Boston, 1844); “My Bondage and my Freedom” (Rochester, 1855); and “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass” (Hartford, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 217.

 

 

DOUGLASS, Grace Bustill, 1782-1842, African American activist, abolitionist.  Co-founder of the Female Anti-Slavery Society.  (Yellin, 1994, p. 11; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 71)

 

 

DOUGLASS, Hezekiah Ford

 

 

DOUGLASS, Roswell, Lowell, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1842-44

 

 

DOUGLASS, Sarah Mapps, 1806-1882, African American, abolitionist leader, educator, writer, lecturer.  Organizer, member and manager of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Participant and organizer of the Anti-Slavery Conventions of American Women in 1838-1839. (Yellin, 1994, pp. 10-11, 71, 76-77, 96-97, 116-117, 117n, 148, 156, 164-165, 169, 237-238; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 255-256; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 821; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 76)

 

 

DOW, Lorenzo, 1777-1834, abolitionist.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 218-219; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 410)

 

DOW, Lorenzo, clergyman, b. in Coventry, Conn., 16 Oct., 1777; d. in Georgetown, D. C., 2 Feb., 1834. In his youth he was disturbed by religious speculations until he accepted Methodist doctrines, and determined, in opposition to the wishes of his family, to become a preacher of that denomination, though his education was very limited. In 1796 he made an unsuccessful application for admission into the Connecticut conference; but two years later he was received, and in 1799 was appointed to the Cambridge circuit, N. Y. During the year he was transferred to Pittsfield, Mass., and afterward to Essex, Vt., but remained there only a brief time, as he believed he had a divine call to preach to the Catholics of Ireland. He made two visits to Ireland and England, in 1799 and 1805, and by his eccentric manners and attractive eloquence drew after him immense crowds, who sometimes indulged in a spirit of bitter persecution. He introduced camp-meetings into England, and the controversy about them resulted in the organization of the Primitive Methodists. In 1802 he preached in the Albany district, N. Y., “against atheism, deism, Calvinism, and Universalism.” He passed the years 1803 and 1804 in Alabama, delivering the first Protestant sermon within the bounds of that state. In 1807 he extended his labors into Louisiana, and followed the settlers to the extreme borders of civilization. After 1799 he had no official relation to the ministry of the Methodist church, but continued to adhere to and to preach the prominent doctrines of that communion till his death. During his later years his efforts were more specially directed against the Jesuits, whom he regarded as dangerous enemies to pure religion and to republican government. His singularities of manner and of dress excited prejudices against him, causing him to be called “Crazy Dow,” and counteracted the effect of his eloquence. Nevertheless he is said to have preached to more persons than any man of his time. Among his numerous writings are “Polemical Works” (New York, 1814); “The Stranger in Charleston, or the Trial and Confession of Lorenzo Dow” (Philadelphia, 1822); “A Short Account of a Long Travel, with Beauties of Wesley” (Philadelphia, 1823); “Journal and Miscellaneous Writings,” edited by John Dowling (New York, 1836); and “History of a Cosmopolite, or the Writings of the Rev. Lorenzo Dow, containing his Experience and Travels in Europe and America up to near his Fiftieth Year; also his Polemic Writings” (Cincinnati, 1851; often reprinted). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 218-219.

 

 

DOW, Neal, b. 1804, abolitionist (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 218-219; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 411)

 

DOW, Neal, temperance reformer, b. in Portland, Me., 20 March, 1804. He is of Quaker parentage, attended the Friends' academy in New Bedford, Mass., and was trained in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits. He was chief engineer of the Portland fire department in 1839, and in 1851 and again in 1854 was elected mayor of the city. He became the champion of the project for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, which was first advocated by James Appleton in his report to the Maine legislature in 1837, and in various speeches while a member of that body. (See APPLETON, JAMES.) Through Mr. Dow's efforts, while he was mayor, the Maine liquor law, prohibiting under severe penalties the sale of intoxicating beverages, was passed in 1851. After drafting the bill, which he called “A bill for the suppression of drinking-houses and tippling-shops,” he submitted it to the principal friends of temperance in the city, but they all objected to its radical character, as certain to insure its defeat. It provided for the search of places where it was suspected that liquors intended for sale were kept; for the seizure, condemnation, and confiscation of such liquors, if found; and for the punishment of the persons keeping them by fine and imprisonment. Notwithstanding the discouragement of friends, he went to the legislature, then in session at Augusta, had a public hearing in the hall of representatives, which was densely packed by the legislators and citizens of the town, and at the close of the hearing the bill was unanimously accepted by the committee. It was printed that night, was laid on the desks of the members the next morning, and on that day, the last of the session, was passed through all its stages, and was enacted without any change whatever. Mr. Dow was a member of the Maine legislature in 1858-'9. On 31 Dec., 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 13th Maine volunteers, and with his regiment he joined Gen. Butler's expedition to New Orleans. He was commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers, 28 April, 1862, and placed in command of the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi, and afterward of the district of Florida. He was wounded twice in the attack on Port Hudson, 27 May, 1863, and taken prisoner while lying in a house near. After imprisonment for over eight months in Libby prison and at Mobile, he was exchanged. He resigned on 30 Nov., 1864. In 1857, and again in 1866 and 1874, Mr. Dow went to England at the invitation of the United Kingdom temperance alliance, and addressed crowded meetings in all the large cities. He has spent many years in endeavoring, by public speeches in the United States and Canada, as well as in Great Britain, and by frequent contributions to magazines and newspapers, to win the popular sanction for prohibitory legislation. In 1880 he was the candidate for the national prohibition party for president of the United States, and received 10,305 votes. In 1884 an amendment to the constitution of Maine was adopted by a popular vote of nearly three to one, in which it was declared that the manufacture, sale, and keeping for sale of intoxicating beverages was for ever forbidden, and commanding the legislature to enact suitable laws for the enforcement of the prohibition. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 218-219.

 

 

DOWLING, John, 1807-1878, Newport, Rhode Island, abolitionist, clergyman, educator, author.  Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1834-1835. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 220)

 

DOWLING, John, clergyman, b. in Pavensey, Sussex, England, 12 May, 1807; d. in Middletown, N. Y., 4 July, 1878. In an irregular way he acquired a classical education, and became a tutor in a classical institution in London in 1826. Three years later he established a boarding-school a few miles from Oxford, where he taught until 1832. In that year he emigrated to the United States and united with the Baptist church in Catskill, N. Y., where he was ordained. In 1834 he removed to Newport, R.I., and two years later was called to a church in New York. He afterward preached in Providence, Philadelphia, Newark, and other places. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Transylvania university. Dr. Dowling's published works include “Vindication of the Baptists” (New York); “Exposition of the Prophecies” (1840); “Defence of the Protestant Scriptures” (1843); “History of Romanism” (1845), of which 30,000 copies were sold in less than ten years; “Power of Illustration”; “Nights and Mornings”; and “Judson Offering.” He edited a Conference hymn-book (1868); Noel's work on “Baptism,” the works of Lorenzo Dow, Conyer's “Middleton, on the Conformity of Popery and Paganism”; “Memoir of the Missionary Jacob Thomas”; and a translation from the French of Dr. Cote's work on “Romanism.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 220.

 

 

DOWLING, Thomas, abolitionist, Catskill, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1839.

 

 

DOWNER, Joel G., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971, p. 105)

 

 

DOWNING, George Thomas, 1819-1903, African American, civil rights activist, abolitionist (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Boks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 81)

 

 

DOWNING, L. S., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

DOWNING, William, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

DRATON, Daniel, captain of the Pearl, in 1848 attempted to transport and free 76 slaves; arrested and imprisoned.  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 51)

 

 

DRESSLER, Amos, anti-slavery agent, educator, Lane University alumnus.  Worked in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  Was beaten, tarred and feathered by mob.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 186; Mabee, 1970, pp. 31-33, 35, 37, 152, 153, 257; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 199-200)

 

 

DRESSLER, Horace, d. 1877, lawyer, defended fugitive slaves in New York courts (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 231)

 

DRESSER, Horace, lawyer, d. 27 Jan., 1877. He was graduated at Union in 1828. Mr. Dresser was one of the first lawyers who spoke in the New York courts in behalf of the negro race, and his best energies were devoted to defending and assisting fugitive slaves. He wrote much on constitutional questions, and published “The Battle Record of the American Rebellion” (New York, 1863), and “Internal Revenue Laws as Amended to July, 1866” (New York, 1866).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 231.

 

 

DREW, Benjamin Jr., Andover, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-

 

 

DREW, Charles, , abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-1836.

 

 

DRIGGS, John F., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

DRURY, Asa, abolitionist, Granville, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39.

 

 

DUER, William Alexander, 1780-1858, New York City, New York, jurist, educator.  President of Columbia College.  Officer of the New York City auxiliary of the American colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 245-246; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 488; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 135)

 

DUER, William Alexander, jurist, b. in Rhinebeck, N. Y., 8 Sept., 1780; d. in New York, 30 May, 1858, studied law in Philadelphia, and with Nathaniel Pendleton in New York. During the quasi war with France in 1798 he obtained the appointment of midshipman in the navy, and served under Decatur. On the adjustment of the French question, he resumed his studies with Pendleton, and was admitted to the bar in 1802. He engaged in business with Edward Livingston, who was then district attorney and mayor of New York, and, after his removal to New Orleans, formed a professional partnership with his brother-in-law, Beverley Robinson. About this time ho contributed to a partisan weekly paper called the “Corrector,” conducted by Dr. Peter Irving in support of Aaron Burr. Mr. Duer shortly afterward joined Livingston at New Orleans, and studied Spanish civil law. He was successful, but, owing to the climate and to his marriage with the daughter of William Denning, a prominent whig of New York, he was induced to resume practice in the latter city. Here he contributed literary articles to the “Morning Chronicle,” the newspaper of his friend Peter Irving. He next opened an office in Rhinebeck, and in 1814 was elected to the state assembly, where he was appointed chairman of a committee on colleges and academies, and succeeded in passing a bill, which is the original of the existing law on the subject of the common-school income. He was also chairman of the committee that arranged the constitutionality of the state law vesting the right of navigation in Livingston and Fulton, and throughout his service bore a prominent pad in promoting canal legislation. He was judge of the supreme court from 1822 till 1829, when he was elected president of Columbia college, where he remained until failing health compelled him to resign in 1842. During his administration he delivered to the senior class a course of lectures on the constitutional jurisprudence of the United States (published in 1833; revised ed., 1856). He delivered a eulogy on President Monroe from the portico of the city hall. After his retirement he resided in Morristown, N. J., where he wrote the life of his grandfather, Lord Stirling (published by the Historical society of New Jersey). In 1847 he delivered an address in the college chapel before the literary societies of Columbia, and in 1848 an historical address before the St. Nicholas society, which gives early reminiscences of New York, and describes the scenes connected with the inauguration of President Washington, both of which were published. He was the author of two pamphlets addressed to Cadwallader D. Colden on the “Steam boat Controversy,” and the “Life of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling” (New York, 1847). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

DUFFIELD, George, abolitionist, Detroit, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-1835.

 

 

DUFFIN, James W., Secretary, Geneva Colored Anti-Slavery Society, founded 1836, New York (Sernett, 2002, pp. 64-75)

 

 

DUGDALE, Joseph A., abolitionist, Farmington, Ohio, Selma Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1841-43, Manager, 1843-51.

 

 

DUNBAR, Reverend Duncan, 1791-1864, New York, clergyman, abolitionist.  Executive Committee, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1837-1840. (Goodell, 1852, p. 188; Yellin, 1994, pp. 39, 43n; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 255)

 

DUNBAR, Duncan, clergyman, b. in the northern highlands of Scotland about 1791; d. in New York city, 28 July, 1864. When about twenty years old he removed to Aberdeen and engaged in business, occasionally preaching as a layman. He settled in the province of New Brunswick in 1817, where he became a Baptist, and was immersed in the harbor of St. John, 31 Oct., 1818. He was soon afterward ordained, removed to the United States in December, 1823, and held pastorates in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Most of his ministry was spent in the McDougal street Baptist church in New York city. He was for twenty years a member of the board of managers of the American and foreign Bible society. See his life by his son-in-law, Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin (New York, 1878). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 255.

 

 

DUNBAR, Jane Anna, New York, abolitionist, daughter of Reverend Dunbar (Yellin, 1994, p. 43n40)

 

 

DUNCAN, Charles, Monroe County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-39

 

 

DUNCAN, James, Vevay, Indiana (near Cincinnati), clergyman.  Published influential anti-slavery tract, “A Treatise on Slavery, in which is Shown Forth the Evil of Slaveholding, Both from the Light of Nature and Divine Revelations,” 1824.  Wrote Slaveholders Prayer, published by American Anti-Slavery Society in New York and Cincinnati in 1840.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 140-141)

 

 

DUNCAN, Stephan, Natchez, Mississippi, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1836-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

DUNHAM, James H., Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

DUNLAP, William, New York, abolitionist, member of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, New York, founded 1785 (Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 224, 225, 227, 238, 239n4)

 

 

DUNLAVY, Francis, Warren County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39

 

 

DUNLOP, William, b. Kentucky, went to Ohio in 1796, manumitted his slaves, paid for release of John B. Mahan, who freed fugitive slaves (Dumond, 1961, p. 93)

 

 

DUNN, W.W., , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1850-

 

 

DUPRE, Lewis, author, wrote anti-slavery book, An Admonitionary Picture and a Solemn Warning Principally Addressed to Professing Christians in the Southern States

 

 

DURANT, G. W., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

DURFEE, Gilbert H., Fall River, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40

 

 

DWIGHT, Theodore, 1764-1846, lawyer, author, editor, Massachusetts.  Opposed slavery.  Gave noteworthy anti-slavery speech at Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom, May 8, 1794.  (American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 189; Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vo. 3, Pt. 1, p. 569; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V)

 

DWIGHT, Theodore, journalist, b. in Northampton, Mass., 15 Dec., 1764; d. in New York city, 12 June, 1846, studied law in New Haven with his cousin, Judge Pierrepont Edwards, and began practice at Haddam, Conn., but removed to Hartford in 1791, and became eminent in his profession. He at one time removed to New York to become the law-partner of his cousin, Aaron Burr, but disagreed with the latter's political opinions and returned to Hartford, where he edited the “Courant” and the “Connecticut Mirror,” the organ, in that state, of the Federal party, in which he had become prominent. He was also an active member of a club of young poets known as “the Hartford wits,” and is said to have been a principal contributor to the “Political Greenhouse” and the “Echo.” In 1806 he was chosen to congress to fill the vacancy caused by John Cotton Smith's resignation, serving till 3 March, 1807, and declining a renomination. While in congress he had several sharp passages of wit with John Randolph. He was a member of the state council in 1809-'15, and secretary of the celebrated “Hartford Convention” of 1814. In 1815 he removed to Albany and established the “Daily Advertiser,” but relinquished it after two years, to found the New York “Daily Advertiser,” a journal which he conducted until 1836, when, retiring from active life, he removed to Hartford, but returned to New York three years before his death. Mr. Dwight was a brilliant writer as well as able debater. Although he wrote too much and too rapidly for lasting fame, his political articles were bright and spicy, and his satirical and sketchy “New Year's Verses,” in the “Mirror,” were always looked for with eagerness. Mr. Dwight was a man of unflinching integrity and an outspoken opponent of slavery. In person he was tall and fine-looking. He published a “History of the Hartford Convention” (New York, 1833), and “Character of Thomas Jefferson, as exhibited in his own Writings” (Boston, 1839). The latter is written with a strong Federal bias. An outline of this “Life and Writings” was published by the New York historical society (1846), and a sketch of his character by Dr. Francis appeared subsequently under its auspices. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V.

 

 

DWIGHT, Theodore, 1796-1866, Connecticut, abolitionist, author, reformer, son of Theodore Dwight, 1764-1846. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 47, 113; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 103f, 103n, 126, 151, 155, 166, 170, 171, 178, 183; Mason, 2006, pp. 31, 86, 147, 225, 229, 293-294n157; ; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 570; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 195)

 

DWIGHT, Theodore, author, b. in Hartford, Conn., 3 March, 1796; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 16 Oct., 1866, was graduated at Yale in 1814, and began to study theology with his uncle, President Dwight, but illness forced him to abandon it in 1818, and he visited Europe for his health. He removed to Brooklyn in 1833, and engaged in various public and philanthropic enterprises, becoming a director of many religious and educational societies, and being active from 1826 till 1854 in multiplying and perfecting Sunday-schools. In 1854-'8 he engaged with George Walter in a systematic effort to send free-soil settlers to Kansas, and it is estimated that, directly or indirectly, they induced 9,000 persons to go thither. Mr. Dwight was a prolific writer, and at various times was on the editorial staff of the New York “Daily Advertiser,” his father's paper, the “American Magazine,” the “Family Visitor,” the “Protestant Vindicator,” the “Christian Alliance,” the “Israelite Indeed,” and the “New York Presbyterian,” of which he was at one time chief editor and publisher. In his later years he was employed in the New York custom-house. Mr. Dwight was familiar with six or eight languages. At the time of his death, which was the result of a railroad accident, he was translating educational works into Spanish, for introduction into the Spanish-American countries. He published “A Tour in Italy in 1821” (New York, 1824); “New Gazetteer of the United States,” with William Darby (Hartford, 1833); “President Dwight's Decisions of Questions discussed by the Senior Class in Yale College in 1813-'4” (New York, 1833); “History of Connecticut” and “The Northern Traveller” (1841); “Summer Tour of New England” (1847); “The Roman Republic of 1849” (1851); “The Kansas War; or the Exploits of Chivalry in the 19th Century” (1859); and the “Autobiography of Gen. Garibaldi,” edited (1859). He was also the author of numerous educational works. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V.

 

 

DWIGHT, Timothy, 1752-1817, New Haven, Connecticut, anti-slavery writer, educator, clergyman.  Pastor, Congregational Church at Greenfield Hill.  President of Yale.  Member of the American Colonization Society Committee in New Haven.  Condemned slavery and its brutality in his writings.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 77, 87; Mason, 2006, pp. 52, 102, 220, 266nn80-81; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 281-282; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 192; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 86)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

DWIGHT, Timothy, educator, b. in Northampton, Mass., 14 May, 1752; d. in New Haven, Conn., 11 Jan., 1817. He was the great-grandson of Nathaniel, who was brother to Capt. Henry Dwight, of Hatfield (see DWIGHT, JOSEPH). His father, Maj. Timothy Dwight (Yale, 1744), was a lawyer by education, and became a prosperous merchant of Northampton; his mother was Mary, third daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, a lady of great mental ability and force of character. During the boy's earlier years she devoted herself to his education. At twelve he was sent to the Rev. Enoch Huntingdon's school in Middletown, where he was fitted for college, matriculating at Yale in 1765. He was graduated in 1769, having but one rival in scholarship, Nathan Strong. After leaving college he was principal of the Hopkins grammar-school in New Haven for two years. In the autumn of 1771 he was given the post of tutor in his alma mater, and in the same year began his ambitious epic, “The Conquest of Canaan.” He was made M. A. in 1772, and on taking his degree delivered a dissertation on the “History, Eloquence, and Poetry of the Bible,” which attracted much attention. While a tutor, he studied law, with the intention of adopting it as a profession; but in 1777, there being a great dearth of chaplains in the Continental army, he was licensed to preach, and soon afterward became chaplain in Parsons's brigade, of the Connecticut line. While holding this office he wrote several stirring patriotic songs, one of which, “Columbia,” became a general favorite. His father's sudden death in 1778 recalled him to the care of his widowed mother and her family, with whom he remained at Northampton, Mass., five years, tilling the farm and preaching occasionally in the neighboring churches. He also kept a day-school for both sexes, in which Joel Barlow, the poet, was a teacher; and after the capture of New Haven by the British he had under his care several of the students of Yale. In 1782 he was a member of the Massachusetts legislature, but refused a nomination to congress. Receiving a call from the church at Greenfield Hill, a beautiful rural parish in Fairfield, Conn., he removed thither in 1783; and shortly afterward he established an academy, which soon acquired a national reputation, students being attracted from all parts of the country and from the West Indies. In this school Dr. Dwight became the pioneer of higher education for women, assigning his female students the same advanced studies as those pursued by the boys, and earnestly advocating the practice. The College of New Jersey gave him the degree of S. T. D. in 1787, and Harvard that of LL. D. in 1810. In 1799 he declined a call from the Dutch Reformed church at Albany. During this period he proposed and agitated, until he secured, the union of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches of New England. In 1795, on the death of Dr. Stiles, he was called to the presidency of Yale college, an office which he held until his death in 1817. On this long and successful administration of the affairs of Yale college Dr. Dwight's claims to distinction largely rest. When he assumed control there were but 110 students; the curriculum was still narrow and pedantic; the freshmen were in bondage to the upper-class men, and they in turn to the faculty. President Dwight abolished the primary-school system, and established among the class-men, and between them and the faculty, such rules as are usually observed by gentlemen in social intercourse. He introduced the study of oratory into the curriculum, and himself gave lectures on style and composition. He also abolished the system of fines for petty offences. At his death the number of students had increased to 313. In politics he was a federalist of the Hamilton school, and he earnestly deprecated the introduction of French ideas of education. His published works fill thirteen large octavo volumes, and his unpublished manuscripts would fill almost as many more. While he was a tutor in college, imprudence in the use of his eyes had so weakened them that he could use them neither for study nor writing, and he was afterward obliged to employ an amanuensis very frequently. His most ambitious work was his epic, The Conquest of Canaan.” A critic, writing in the “North American Review” (vii., 347), said its author had invented a medium between absolute barbarism and modern refinement. “There is little that is really distinctive, little that is truly oriental, about any of his persons or scenes…. It is occasionally animated, and in description sometimes picturesque and poetical.” His pastoral poem, “Greenfield Hill” (1794), in which was introduced a vivid description of the burning of Fairfield by the British in 1779, was much more popular. In 1800 he revised Watts's Psalms, adding translations of his own, and a selection of hymns, both of which were adopted by the general assembly of the Presbyterian church. The best known of these is the version of the 137th Psalm, beginning, “I love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode.” His “Travels in New England and New York” (4 vols., New Haven, 1821; London, 1823) was pronounced by Robert Southey the most important of his works. His “Theology Explained and Defended in a Course of 173 Sermons” (5 vols., Middletown, Conn., 1818; London, 1819; new ed., with memoir by his son, Rev. Sereno E. Dwight, New York, 1846) has gone through a score of editions in this country and at least one hundred abroad, and on it rests his reputation as a theologian. Besides these works and numerous discourses he published “America, a Poem” (1772; “The Genuineness and Authenticity of the New Testament” (1793); “Triumph of Infidelity, a Satire” (1797); “Discourse on the Character of Washington” (1800); “Observations on Language” (1816); and “Essay on Light” (1816). See, besides, the memoir by his son, and the life in vol. xiv. of Sparks's “American Biography,” by Rev. William B. Sprague. Dr. Dwight married, in March, 1777, Mary, daughter of Benjamin Woolsey, of Long Island, who bore him eight sons. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 281-282.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

This eminent divine was born of reputable parents, in Northampton, Massachusetts, in the year 1752. His mother was a daughter of the celebrated metaphysician and theologian, President Edwards, and is said to have inherited much of the uncommon powers of her father. She early perceived the promise of superior genius in her son, and cherished its progressive developments with all a mother’s fondness. His advancement in learning, while almost in his infancy, was wonderfully rapid; and we are told by his biographers, that at the age of six years he studied through Lilly’s Latin grammar twice, without the knowledge of his father. When he had just passed his thirteenth year, he was admitted a member of Yale college, and he went through his collegiate course with great credit. Immediately after graduating, he opened a grammar school in New Haven, which he continued for two years, when he was chosen a tutor in the college. During the period he was occupied with his school, he made a regular division of his time, devoting six hours of the day to his pupils, and eight hours to his private studies. He was for six years a tutor in the college, and was a laborious and successful teacher. So popular was he with the students, that on his resignation, and when only twenty-five years of age, a petition was presented by them to the corporation of the college, soliciting his appointment to the presidency. In directing his private studies at this time, he turned his attention more particularly to rhetoric and belles lettres, which had been but little cultivated in our seminaries previous to the revolution, and his early productions in prose and verse, in conjunction with those of Trumbull, Humphreys, and Barlow, formed an era in American literature.

In 1771 he commenced writing the “Conquest of Canaan,” a regular epic poem, which employed his leisure hours until 1774, when it was completed. On receiving the degree of Master of Arts, in 1772, he pronounced an oration on the history, eloquence, and poetry of the Bible, which was published in this country and in England. In order to economize his time at this period, and to avoid the necessity of exercise, he restricted himself to certain abstemious rules in diet, which, in the end, greatly impaired his health, and he was at length reluctantly compelled to lay aside his books. His physician recommended the daily use of severe bodily exercise, which he had endeavored to forego, and it is said, that during a twelvemonth he walked and rode upwards of five thousand miles, besides resuming, no doubt, that good old system of living to which he had been accustomed. The result, in a short time, was the complete restoration of his health, which continued good for the ensuing forty years of his life, and until he was attacked by his last illness.

In 1777 the different classes in the college were separated on account of the war, and he repaired, with his class, to Weathersfield, in Connecticut, where he remained from May to September. During this summer he was licensed to preach as a Congregational minister. In September he was nominated a chaplain in the army, and immediately joined the brigade of General Parsons, in the Massachusetts line. While in the army he wrote several patriotic songs, which were much admired and widely circulated.

In 1778 he received the melancholy tidings of the death of his father, upon which he resigned his situation in the army, and returned to Northampton, to assist his widowed mother in the education and support of her family. Here he remained about five years, laboring on the farm during the week, and preaching every Sabbath in one of the neighboring towns, besides establishing a school, which was largely patronized. During this period he was twice elected a member of the legislature of Massachusetts.

In 1783 he was ordained a minister in the parish of Greenfield, in Connecticut. Besides attending to his parochial duties, he also opened an academy here, which soon acquired a reputation then unequalled in our country; and in the course of twelve years, he taught more than one thousand scholars in the various branches of English and classical literature. During his residence at Greenfield he published the “Conquest of Canaan,” for which, at the close of the war, he had obtained a list of three thousand subscribers. He however withheld its publication at that time, and now printed it at his own expense. It was shortly afterwards republished in England, and received the approbation of Darwin and Cowper, the former, particularly, commending the smoothness and melody of the versification. There are many splendid passages in this poem, and if it was not popular with all classes of readers, something may, doubtless, be attributed to the theme; and although the author himself declared in after life that “it was too great an undertaking for inexperienced years,” still, it must be considered an extraordinary production for a youth of twenty-two.”

In 1794 he published his poem entitled “Greenfield Hill,” named after the beautiful spot where he resided.

In 1795 he was elected president of Yale college, on the death of President Styles. On his accession to this office, he found the college in a depressed state, owing to the want of funds and other causes; but his distinguished reputation as an instructer brought to it a great increase of students, and he soon succeeded in establishing two new professorships, and in greatly extending the library and philosophical apparatus. He not only enlarged the sphere of instruction, but changed the whole system of government of the college, while he reformed the modes and elevated the tone of education, directing the students to a loftier aim in literary and moral improvement. The effects were soon abundantly visible, and Yale college has ever since ranked with the first institutions of learning in our country. During the twenty-one years he presided over it, a greater number of students were educated there than in any other similar institution.

In 1796 he commenced a regular course of travelling through New England and the state of New York, which he continued during the spring and fall vacations in each succeeding year, until a short time before his death. In these excursions, undertaken principally for the purposes of health, and of relaxation from his sedentary duties in the college, he was in the habit of making brief notes, upon the spot, of every thing interesting which he saw or heard, for the immediate gratification of his family; and these notes were afterwards written out by him, or to his dictation, by an amanuensis, and have been published since his death, under the title of “Travels in New England and New York,” in four volumes octavo. This work contains a mass of useful and interesting information upon a great variety of topics, with amusing anecdotes and graphic sketches of scenery and character. A most valuable portion of it is its historical notices of the origin and customs of the aborigines of our country. He also left behind him, ready for the press, a complete system of divinity, contained in one hundred and seventy-three discourses or lectures, which formed his course in the college as professor of theology, and which have been published, both in England and this country, under the title of “Theology Explained and Defended.” He continued the active performance of his duties until near the close of his life, and heard the recitation of a theological class a week before his death. During his illness, which continued about two years, he occasionally occupied himself in poetical composition, to divert his mind from his painful sufferings. Four days previous to his death, he performed the last of his literary and earthly labors; and as he laid his manuscript aside, which was a theological dissertation, he said to his family, “I have now finished.” He died at his residence in New Haven, January 11th, 1817, after severe and repeated attacks of his disease, the character of which, it is said, was not well understood.

In this brief sketch, it is not to be expected that full justice can be done to the character of President DWIGHT. We shall endeavor, however, to present our own views of it, derived from personal knowledge, and the observations of others, who have written his biography. As poetry did not form the business of his life, but was written merely as a mode of literary relaxation, there have been those among us who surpassed him in this department of literature, and as a poet, therefore, we do not ask for him the highest meed of praise. His mind, perhaps, was too logical and argumentative, his train of thought too methodical, and his memory too retentive of facts and details, and too much engrossed with them, to leave room for the display of that brilliant fancy which the highest flights of poetry require. His stronger mental powers he had subjected to a severe discipline from early youth, and we suspect that the philosophy of Bacon and Locke had always more charms for him than the music of the Doric reed. Still, some of his smaller poetical pieces are extremely beautiful.

But the fame of Dr. DWIGHT was not built upon his poetry, and does not rest upon it. As an instructer, he stood pre-eminent among his contemporaries, from the opening of his grammar school in New Haven, while a mere youth, to the close of his career as president of Yale college. He early made innovations upon previous methods of instruction, which were dictated by his powerful and original genius, and they were attended with signal success, as many who now occupy high places amongst us can bear witness. The art of the pedagogue, under his hands, expanded into a noble vocation, which commanded respect and veneration, and elevated science and literature in our country to a rank which, before his time, they had not attained. Over his pupils he exercised an unbounded influence, which was cemented in affection; and his unwearied efforts at all times were, to pour into their minds that ripe knowledge, which it had been the whole business of his life to treasure up from study, meditation, and a familiar intercourse with the world. He was versed in almost every subject of science and art, and besides his own peculiar and professional studies, he had acquired inexhaustible treasures in natural philosophy, chemistry, history, geography, statistics, philology, husbandry, and domestic economy; and which were so methodically arranged in his mind, as to be always at command, and when he became animated in discourse, were poured forth from his lips in a perpetual stream of knowledge arid wisdom.

Dr. DWIGHT’S colloquial powers were very great, and no one who had the pleasure of listening to his conversation ever failed to be impressed with a high opinion of his great attainments, and a profound respect for his character, which was heightened by his polished and courteous address. To strangers he was urbane and affable, and among the friends of his fireside, he intermingled, in his social converse, flashes of wit with practical wisdom, the utile cum dulci, in the most fascinating degree. His temper was ardent, but his heart was full of kindness, and probably no husband, father, or friend, was ever more beloved than he was by those to whom he stood in these relations. To them his loss was irreparable, and a whole community sympathized in their sorrows. His memory was a storehouse of anecdotes upon all subjects, which he had been industriously collecting from books, and a long and attentive observation of mankind; and little of what he had once learned was afterwards forgotten. Hence his society was greatly courted, and the attentions which he uniformly received from all classes of his fellow citizens, were richly repaid by the instruction and pleasure which his conversation afforded.

As a theologian he stood at the head of his profession, at the time of his death, and was inferior in learning to none of his predecessors, if we except, perhaps, his maternal grandfather, President Edwards. As a proof of the correctness of this high praise, we confidently refer to his voluminous theological works, and the criticisms which have been pronounced upon them, both at home and abroad. He was an eloquent preacher, and although his discourses were addressed to the understanding rather than the passions of his hearers, who were statedly the members of the college, yet, when the subject admitted of oratorical display, he showed himself equal to the highest efforts of the art. His sublime conceptions of the Deity, especially of the divine attributes of love and mercy, on which he delighted to dwell, when embodied in his powerful and impressive language, were only second to those of the great English epic poet; while in touches of pathos, particularly in his funeral discourses, or over the premature grave of youthful genius, he opened a direct and easy avenue to the stoutest heart, and his appeals were irresistible. His voice was clear, distinct, and loud, and its inflections, although few, were musical and agreeable; the only defect in his elocution was, too marked and frequent an emphasis, and too little variety in his tones; but his manner was dignified, earnest, and impressive, evincing sincere and ardent piety, and a feeling heart. The effect of his eloquence was enhanced by his fine personal appearance, graceful gestures, and an eye of fire.

In his intercourse with his fellow men and his “walk with God,” he was every thing which the most devout Christian or rigid moralist could desire; and when he expired, our country was bereaved of a great and good man, and learning and religion sustained a loss not easily to be supplied.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 1.

 

 

DYER, Charles Volney, Dr., 1808-1878, Clarendon, Vermont, abolitionist, jurist, businessman, Underground Railroad activist.  Co-founded Chicago chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1838 with Philo Carpenter.  Station master on the Underground Railroad.  Gubernatorial candidate with Liberty Party in 1848.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 285; Campbell, 2009)

 

DYER, Charles Volney, Abolitionist, b. in Clarendon, Vt., 12 June, 1808; d. at Lake View, near Chicago, 24 April, 1878. He was graduated at the medical department of Middlebury college in 1830, and began practice in Newark, N. J., in 1831, but removed in 1835 to Chicago, and soon became acting surgeon in Fort Dearborn. He was successful in his practice and business adventures, retiring from the former in 1854, and becoming agent for the “underground railroad” in Chicago. One instance illustrates the courage of Dr. Dyer: In 1846 a fugitive from Kentucky was caught in Chicago by his master and an armed posse, bound tightly with ropes, and guarded while a man went for a blacksmith to rivet the manacles that were to be put upon him. Dr. Dyer, hearing of the arrest, went hurriedly to the Mansion house and to the room where the victim was confined, burst open the door, cut the cords, and told the fugitive to go, which he did before his captors recovered from their surprise and bewilderment at such unexpected and summary proceedings. A bully, with brandishing Bowie-knife, rushed toward the doctor, who stood his ground and knocked down his assailant with his cane. Sympathizing friends subsequently presented the doctor a gold-headed hickory cane of gigantic proportions, appropriately inscribed, which is now in the library of the Chicago historical society. At an anti-slavery convention in 1846 at Chicago, Dr. Dyer was chairman of the committee for establishing the “National Era” at Washington, an organ of the Abolition party, established 7 Jan., 1847. Dr. Dyer had a genial nature, which manifested itself in ready witticisms and pleasant conversation, except when he chanced to come in contact with shams, impostors, or hypocrites, for which he had a most profound contempt and abundant words to express his detestation. In recognition of Dr. Dyer's sterling integrity and the great service he had rendered the cause of anti-slavery. President Lincoln, who knew him well, appointed him in 1863 judge of the mixed court at Sierra Leone, for the suppression of the slave-trade, after which appointment he passed two years travelling in Europe. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

 

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EAMES, James H., abolitionist, Providence, Rhode Island, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-40.

 

 

EARLE, Edward, abolitionist, Worcester, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-41.

 

 

EARLE, John Milton, 1794-1874, Leicester, Massachusetts, businessman, abolitionist, statesman, political leader, newspaper publisher, pioneer and leader in the anti-slavery/abolitionist movement.  Member of Whig and Free Soil parties.  Husband of abolitionist Sarah H. Earle.

 

 

EARLE, Mary, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, pp. 80, 8n, 84)

 

 

EARLE, Phoebe, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, p. 80)

 

 

EARLE, Sarah H., 1799-1858, society of Frinds (Quaker), abolitionist, women’s rights activist.  Co-founded and organized Worcester Anti-Slavery Society and Worcester County Anti-Slavery Society, South Division, 1841-1859.

 

 

EARLE, Thomas, 1796-1849, Worcester, Massachusetts, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist leader, journalist, lawyer, political leader, Philadelphia, PA.  Edited Pennsylvania Freeman.  Petitioned Congress to amend U.S. Constitution to compensate slaveholders in the South who freed their slaves.  Vice presidential candidate for abolitionist Liberty Party. Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1839-1840. (Bonner, 1948; Drake, 1950, p. 149; Dumond, 1961, p. 297; Goodell, 1852, p. 471; Pennsylvania Freeman, April 23, 1840; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 288-289; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 597; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 231)

 

EARLE, Thomas, lawyer, b. in Leicester, Mass., 21 April, 1796; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 14 July, 1849, was educated at Leicester academy, In 1817 he removed to Philadelphia, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits for a few years, but subsequently studied law and practised his profession. He became distinguished also as a journalist, editing in succession the “Columbian Observer,” “Standard,” “Pennsylvanian,” and “Mechanics’ Free Press and Reform Advocate.” In 1837 he took an active part in calling the Constitutional convention of Pennsylvania, of which he was a prominent member, and it is supposed that he made the original draft of the new constitution. He lost his popularity with the Democratic party by advocating the extension of the right of suffrage to negroes. He was the candidate of the liberty party for vice-president in 1840, but the nomination was repudiated by the abolitionists, whom that party was supposed to represent. Mr. Earle subsequently took little part in political affairs. He devoted his time principally to literary work, and published an “Essay on Penal Law”; an “Essay on the Rights of States to Alter and to Annul their Charters”; “Treatise on Railroads and Internal Communications” (1830); and a “Life of Benjamin Lundy.” At the time of his death he was engaged in a translation of Sismondi's “Italian Republics,” and in the compilation of a “Grammatical Dictionary of the French and the English Languages.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 288-289.

 

 

EARLE, William B., abolitionist, Worcester, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1841-51.

 

 

EASTON, Joshua, , Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-36

 

 

EASTON, Reverend Hosea, 1787-1837, African American, clergyman, author, abolitionist (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 185)

 

 

EAYRE, J.H., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-

 

 

EAYRS, Joseph, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1837-40

 

 

ECKLEY, Ephraim R., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

EDDY, John S., abolitionist, Providence, Rhode Island, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-43

 

 

EDDY, Morton, S. Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40, 41-42, 43-44-

 

 

EDDY, Nathaniel, Middleboro, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-40

 

 

EDGERTON, Sidney, 1818-1900, abolitionist.  (Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 20)

 

 

EDMUNDSON, William, Society of Friends, Quaker, Germantown, Pennsylvania, early Quaker opponent of slavery (Drake, 1950, pp. 8-10, 14-15, 37, 51; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 7, 432)

 

 

EDWARDS, Bela Bates, 1802-1852, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman, editor.  Member of the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Boston.  Defended the American Colonization Society and colonization as a means to end slavery.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 307; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 27; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 133, 210)

 

EDWARDS, Bela Bates, clergyman, another great-grandson of Samuel, mentioned in the preceding sketch, b. in Southampton, Mass., 4 July, 1802; d. in Athens, Ga., 20 April, 1852. He was graduated at Amherst in 1824, and at Andover in 1830. He was licensed to preach in the latter year, but was never ordained. After serving as tutor at Amherst, he acted as assistant secretary of the American education society in 1828-'33. He edited the “American Quarterly Register” in 1828-'42; the “American Quarterly Observer,” which he founded, in 1833-'5 ; the “American Biblical Repository,” with which the latter was united, in 1835-'8; and the “Bibliotheca Sacra” in 1844-'52. He was appointed professor of Hebrew in Andover theological seminary in 1837, received the degree of D. D. from Dartmouth in 1844, and in 1848 was elected associate professor of sacred literature. During his twenty-four years of editorial labor he issued thirty-one octavo volumes of the periodicals with which he was connected. His work in connection with the “Quarterly Register” was especially valuable. He designed to make it a storehouse of facts for present and future generations, and it contains indispensable materials for the historian. In the pages of the other periodicals named, Dr. Edwards’s contributions were chiefly criticisms of current (especially biblical) literature and disquisitions on the science of education. While occupied with his labors in this field he published several works, among which are the “Eclectic Reader” (1835); “Biography of Self-Taught Men” (1831); “Memoir of Henry Martin,” with an introductory essay (1831); “Memoirs of E. Cornelius” (1833); a volume on the “Epistle to the Galatians”; and the “Missionary Gazetteer” (1832). He was also a frequent contributor to the religions press, and wrote various pamphlets and the more important portions of several books in collaboration with Profs. Sears, Felton, and Park. Among the latter are “Selections from German Literature” and “Classical Studies.” He was also associated with Samuel H. Taylor in the translation of Kühner’s Greek Grammar.” In 1845 he was compelled to visit Florida for his health, and on his return sailed for Europe, where he spent a year. In 1851 he was again compelled to go south, and was residing there the following winter, when he died. He was an ideal editor and professor, uniting great erudition and a sound judgment with a deep, earnest, and uniform piety. A selection from his sermons and addresses, with a memoir by Prof. Edwards A. Park, was published in Boston in 1853. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

EDWARDS, Cyrus, 1893-1877, Illinois, lawyer.  Actively supported the American Colonization Society in Illinois.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 306; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 143)

 

EDWARDS, Cyrus, lawyer, b. in Montgomery county, Md., 17 Jan, 1793; d. in Upper Alton, Ill., in September, 1877. In the early history of Illinois he was one of its most prominent and useful citizens. He was frequently elected to the legislature, and was especially conspicuous as a friend of education. He was active in originating the State normal school at Bloomington, and was for thirty-five years president of the board of trustees of Shurtleff college, to which institution he gave real estate valued at $10,000, besides other generous donations. He received the degree of LL. D. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

EDWARDS, John B., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971, p. 102)

 

 

EDWARDS, Dr. Reverend Jonathon, 1745-1801, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, college president.  Wrote The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade, 1791.  Son of noted theologian, Jonathan Edwards.  (Bruns, 1977, pp. 290, 293-302, 317, 340; Dumond, 1961, pp. 47, 345; Goodell, 1852, pp. 28, 92, 111, 127, 130; Locke, 1901, pp. 41, 90, 103, 183, 186, 187, 191; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 107, 153; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 311-312; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 37; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 334)

 

EDWARDS, Jonathan, Jr., theologian, second son of Jonathan, Sr., b. in Northampton, Mass., 26 May, 1745; d. in Schenectady, N. Y., 1 Aug., 1801. When he was six years old the family removed to Stockbridge, at that time almost solely inhabited by Indians. Here he became so proficient in the Indian language as to surpass in the thoroughness of his scholarship all other Anglo-Americans of that day. As it was his father's wish that he should become a missionary to the aborigines, he was sent, in 1755, to the Rev. Gideon Hawley, who was stationed on the Susquehanna river, to learn the dialect of the Oneidas. In consequence of the breaking out of war between England and France, in which the colonies were involved, young Edwards remained there only six months, and acquired but an imperfect knowledge of the language. The death of his father, soon followed by that of his mother, and their removal to Princeton, N. J., materially changed his plans. Although left with insufficient means to complete his education, he determined to go forward, and, with the aid of friends, entered the grammar-school at Princeton in February, 1760. The following year he matriculated at the College of New Jersey, at which institution he was graduated in 1765. He Began the study of theology under the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, D. D., and received a licence to preach from the Association of Litchfield county, Conn., In 1766. In 1767 he was appointed tutor at Princeton, where he remained for two years, till he became, in January, 1769, pastor of the society at White Haven, Conn. Several members of his Church were advocates of the “half-way covenant,” while he, like his father, decidedly opposed it. His pastorate was also disturbed by the reaction among the New England churches that followed the extravagances that accompanied the “great awakening” of 1740-'2, and by the demoralizing influences of the Revolutionary war. The result of these untoward circumstances was a dismissal from his charge, 19 May, 1795, for the ostensible reason that the society was unable to support a minister. In 1796 he was called to the church in Colebrook, Litchfield co., Conn. Here, in a retired country parish, he found opportunity to pursue his favorite theological and metaphysical inquiries, and would have been willing to spend the remainder of his days there; but he was called, in the summer of 1799, to the presidency of the then recently established college at Schenectady, N. Y. He was warmly welcomed by both students and citizens, and the talent for government that he subsequently displayed surprised even those who knew him best, his discipline being mild and affectionately parental; but he died the second summer after his inauguration. He received the degree of D. D. from the College of New Jersey in 1785. His career resembled that of his distinguished father in so many particulars that the coincidence has attracted universal attention. They bore the same name, and were distinguished scholars and divines. Both were tutors for equal periods in the colleges where they were respectively educated. Both, after being settled in the ministry, were dismissed on account of their doctrinal opinions, and were again settled in retired places, where they had leisure to prepare and publish their works. Both were called from the discharge of these duties to be presidents of colleges, and both died shortly after inauguration, one in the fifty-fifth and the other in the fifty-seventh year of his age, each having preached on the first Sabbath of the year from the text, “This year thou shalt die.” Nor was this resemblance confined merely to outward circumstances; intellectually the two men were much alike. Dr. Emmons is reported to have said that “the father had more reason than the son; yet the son was a better reasoner than the father”; and Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, remarked that “the son greatly resembled his venerable father in metaphysical acuteness, ardent piety, and the purest exemplariness of Christian deportment.” The younger Edwards devoted a large portion of his life to the study and interpretation of his father's writings. He was thus well fitted to edit the latter's works, and did prepare for the press the “History of the Work of Redemption,” two volumes of sermons, and two volumes of “Miscellaneous Observations on Important Theological Subjects.” In 1797 Dr. Edwards published “A Dissertation concerning Liberty and Necessity,” which is, perhaps, the fairest exposition extant of the father's “theory of the will.” He also printed numerous articles in the “New York Theological Magazine” under the signatures “I” and “O” and many sermons in which his views were carefully elaborated. Among the latter may be mentioned three discourses “On the Necessity of the Atonement and its Consistency with Free Grace in Forgiveness” (1785). They have been frequently republished, and form the basis of what is now known as the “Edwardean theory of the atonement.” Dr. Edwards also ranked high as a philologist, and his “Observations on the Language of the Muhhekaneew Indians,” etc., elicited the enthusiastic praises of Humboldt. Nearly all his published writings were reprinted in two octavo volumes, edited, with a memoir, by Tryon Edwards (Andover, 1842). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 311-312.

 

 

EELLS, Samuel, 1810-1842, New York, abolitionist, philosopher, essayist, lawyer.  Law partner of abolitionist Salmon P. Chase.

 

 

EGGLESTON, Nathaniel, abolitionist, Brooklyn, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1853-52

 

 

EINHORN, Rabbi David, b. 1809, Bavaria, abolitionist. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 317; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 65)

 

EINHORN, David, b. in Dispeck, Bavaria, 10 Nov., 1809; d. in New York city, 2 Nov., 1879. He was educated at the rabbinical school of Fuerth, and subsequently at the universities of Munich and Wurzburg. Espousing the cause of radical reform in Judaism, he was chosen rabbi at Hopstadter, and afterward chief rabbi of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was called to Pesth in 1851, where his advanced views met with such opposition that his temple was closed by the Austrian government. In 1855 Dr. Einhorn was invited to assume charge of a Hebrew congregation in Baltimore, Md., and during his incumbency published a prayer-book, which has a wide circulation in the United States, and also a German magazine, “Sinai,” devoted to interests of radical reform. In 1861 he was such a staunch Unionist that his Baltimore pastorate was exchanged for one in Philadelphia. In 1866 Dr. Einhorn removed to New York, where he held a rabbinical position till his death. A collection of his addresses has been issued in German. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 317.

 

 

ELA, David H., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1839-40

 

 

ELDER, Peter Percival, 1823-1914, political leader, businessman, newspaperman, abolitionist.  Went to Kansas in 1857 to support the Free State Movement.  Elected state senator in 1859.  (Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Chicago, 1912, Vol. III, pt. 2)

 

 

ELDRED, William, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

ELIOT, Thomas Dawes, 1808-1870, lawyer.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, 1854-1855, 1859-1869.  Founder of the Republican Party from Massachusetts.  Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill as a member of Congress.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Active in the Free soil Party.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 325; Congressional Globe)

 

ELIOT, Thomas Dawes, congressman, b. in Boston, Mass., 20 March, 1808; d. in New Bedford, Mass., 12 June, 1870. He was graduated at Columbian college, Washington, D. C., in 1825, studied law in Washington and New Bedford, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. After being a member of both houses of the legislature, he was elected to congress as a Whig, to fill the unexpired term of Zeno Scudder, serving from 17 April, 1854, till 3 March, 1855, and making an eloquent speech on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which was published (Washington, 1854). He was prominent in the Free-soil convention at Worcester, Mass., in 1855, and on the dissolution of the Whig party was active among the founders of the Republican party in Massachusetts. He declined its nomination for attorney-general in 1857, but was afterward elected to congress again for five successive terms, serving from 1859 till 1869. Mr. Eliot took an active part in the proceedings of the house, particularly in the legislation on the protection and welfare of the negroes. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ELIOT, William Greenleaf, 1811-1887, educator, clergyman, opponent of slavery.  Active in Sanitary Commission in the Civil War.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 325)

 

ELIOT, William Greenleaf, educator, b. in New Bedford, Mass., 5 Aug., 1811; d. at Pass Christian, Miss., 23 Jan., 1887. His great-grandfather was brother to the great-grandfather of Charles William Eliot, president of Harvard. He was graduated at Columbian college, Washington, D. C., in 1831, and at Harvard divinity-school in 1834. In the latter year he was ordained pastor of the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) in St. Louis, Mo., a place which he held until 1872. During all this time he was energetically employed in improving the condition and advancing the interests of the public schools of St. Louis. A man of untiring energy and rare administrative ability, he was engaged in all sorts of public and philanthropic enterprises, and has probably done more for the advancement of St. Louis and all the southwest than any other man that has lived in that section. He was always a bold and outspoken opponent of slavery. In 1861 he was found among the small band of resolute men who assisted Gens. Nathaniel Lyon and Francis P. Blair in preserving Missouri to the Union; and during the war he was active in the western sanitary commission. In 1872 he was chosen to succeed Dr. Chauvenet as chancellor of Washington university in St. Louis, and held the office until his death. He has published a “Manual of Prayer” (Boston, 1851); “Discourses on the Doctrines of Christianity” (Boston, 1852; 22d ed., 1886); “Lectures to Young Men” (1853; 11th ed., 1882); “Lectures to Young Women” (1853; 13th ed., enlarged, with the title “Home Life and Influence,” St. Louis, 1880); “The Unity of God” (Boston, 1854); “Early Religious Education” (1855); “The Discipline of Sorrow” (1855); “The Story of Archer Alexander, from Slavery to Freedom” (Boston, 1885); and a great number of pamphlets, tracts, discourses, and review articles. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ELLERY, William, 1727-1820, founding father, signer of the Declarartion of Independence.  Supported Rufus King in trying to abolishi slavery in the country.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 326; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 86)

 

ELLERY, William, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Newport, R. I., 22 Dec., 1727; d. there, 15 Feb., 1820. His father, of the same name, was graduated at Harvard in 1722, became a successful merchant in Newport, served successively as judge, senator, and lieutenant-governor of the colony, and died in 1764. The younger William received his early education mostly from his father, and was graduated at Harvard in 1747. He married in 1750, engaged in business in Newport, and was for some time naval officer of Rhode Island. He began the practice of law in Newport in 1770, having served for two years previous as clerk of one of the courts. He was an active patriot, and in May, 1776, was chosen the colleague of Stephen Hopkins, as delegate to the Continental congress, and took his seat on the 14th of that month. He became an influential member of that body, serving on the committee to consider the ways and means of establishing expresses between the continental posts, on those on the treasury and on marine affairs, and on the special committee for purchasing clothing for the army. During this session he signed the Declaration of Independence, and he was accustomed in later years to relate with great vivacity the incidents connected with that event. “I was determined,” he said, “to see how they all looked as they signed what might be their death-warrant. I placed myself beside the secretary, Charles Thomson, and eyed each closely as he affixed his name to the document. Undaunted resolution was displayed in every countenance.” Mr. Ellery continued a member of the congress till 1786, with the exception of the years 1780 and 1782, and, overcoming his natural diffidence, became a ready debater. He was a member of important committees, but did especially good service on the board of admiralty, where he had much influence, and probably originated the plan of fitting out fire-ships at Newport. During the British occupation of Rhode Island, Mr. Ellery's house was burned and much of his other property injured. In 1779 he was a member of a committee to arrange some diplomatic difficulties among the American commissioners to Europe, and was chairman of a committee to consider means of relieving the distress brought upon the Rhode Islanders by the British occupation. In 1782 he presented to congress a plan for organizing a department of foreign affairs. In 1785 he actively supported Rufus King in his effort to abolish slavery throughout the country, seconding King's resolution to that effect. He was appointed commissioner of the continental loan-office for Rhode Island in 1786, was for a short period chief justice of the Rhode Island superior court, and from 1790 till his death was collector of Newport, being retained in the office in spite of frequent and frank avowals of political differences with several administrations. Mr. Ellery was of moderate stature, with a large head and impressive features. He was fond of study and literature, and was highly esteemed for his social qualities, being intimate with all the distinguished men of his time. He retained the full use of his faculties to the close of his long life, and died holding in his hand a copy of Cicero's “De Officiis,” which he had been reading. See a biography of Ellery by his grandson, Edward T. Channing, in Sparks's “American Biography,” vol. vi., and Goodrich's “Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence.” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ELLES, Oliver J., abolitionist, W. Cornwall, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37, 1837-39, 1840-42

 

 

ELLIOT, Samuel Mackenzie, 1811-1857, physician, abolitionist leader, Union Army officer.  Active in the New York abolition movement.

 

 

ELLIS, John Millott, 1831-1894, anti-slavery advocate, clergyman, educator.  Proponent of emancipation of enslaved individuals during the Civil War.

 

 

ELLIS, William H., abolitionist, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-42

 

 

ELLSWORTH, Harry Leavitt, 1791-1858, Hartford, Connecticut, American Colonization Society, Executive Committee, 1840-1841.  Son of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth.  President of the Aetna Life Insurance Company.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 110; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 72, 86)

 

 

ELLSWORTH, Oliver, 1745-1807, founding father, lawyer, political leader, opponent of slavery.  Was a drafter of the United States Constitution.  United States Senator from Connecticut, 1789-1796.  Third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1796-1800.  Ellsworth argued before the Continental Convention against the foreign slave trade.  In order to gain Southern support for the passage of the Constitution, he endorsed the Three-Fifths Compromise on the Enumeration of Slaves.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 335-336; Encyclopaedia Americana, 1830, Vol. IV, pp. 483-484; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 111)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ELLSWORTH, Oliver, jurist, b. in Windsor, Conn., 29 April, 1745; d. there, 26 Nov., 1807. He entered Yale in 1762. but afterward went to Princeton, where he was graduated in 1766 with high rank as a scholar. After a year's study of theology he abandoned it for the law, and was admitted to the bar of Hartford county in 1771. He married in the following year, and for three years divided his attention between farming and practice. Becoming states' attorney in 1775, he sold his farm, removed to Hartford, and soon acquired a larger and more remunerative practice than any other member of the Connecticut bar. As a Whig he was chosen, at the outbreak of the Revolution, to represent Windsor in the general assembly, was one of the committee of four, called “the Pay-table,” that managed all the military finances of the colony, and in October, 1778, took his seat as a delegate to the Continental congress, where he served on the marine committee (acting as a board of admiralty) and the committee of appeals. By yearly election, from 1780 till 1784, he was a member of the governor's council, in which he held unrivalled influence, and in June, 1783, left his seat in congress and, although re-elected, declined to serve. In 1784 he declined the appointment of commissioner of the treasury, tendered by congress, but accepted a legislative assignment as judge of the Connecticut superior court, which he held until made a member of the Federal convention at Philadelphia in May, 1787. Here he was conspicuous in advocacy of the rights of the individual states, and it was on his motion that the words “National government” were expunged from the constitution and the words “Government of the United States” substituted. His name was not affixed to that document, because pressing domestic considerations compelled his return home as soon as all of the provisions of the constitution had been completed; but his force and energy were successful the next year in securing its ratification, against much opposition, in the Connecticut state convention. When the new government was organized at New York in 1789, he was one of the senators from Connecticut, and was chairman of the committee for organizing the U. S. judiciary, the original bill, in his own handwriting, passing with but slight alterations, and its provisions being still in force. His watchfulness over the public expenditures earned for him the title of “the Cerberus of the Treasury,” and his abilities were strenuously exercised in building up the financial credit of the government, and for the encouragement and protection of manufactures. John Adams spoke of him as “the finest pillar of Washington's whole administration,” and he was, by common consent, the Federalist leader in the senate. The mission of John Jay to England in 1794 was suggested by him, and by his influence Jay's treaty, though strenuously opposed in the house of representatives, was defended and approved by the senate. In March, 1796, he was appointed chief justice of the U. S. supreme court, and served with distinguished ability till 1799, when President Adams, on the recommendation of the senate, appointed him, with Patrick Henry and Gov. William R. Davie, an extraordinary commission to negotiate with France, the relations between which nation and the United States were then severely strained. On reaching Paris, 2 March, 1800, they found Napoleon Bonaparte at the head of the new republic, and soon concluded a satisfactory adjustment of all disputes. The negotiations and discussions were conducted almost exclusively by Judge Ellsworth, and secured all the points most essential to the securing of peace, including a recognition from France of the rights of neutral vessels, and an indemnity for depredations on American commerce. Ill health preventing his immediate return, Mr. Ellsworth sent home his resignation as chief justice and visited England, where, while trying the mineral springs at Bath and elsewhere, he became the recipient of marked attention from the court and from leading public men, as well as from the English bench and bar. After his return to his home in April, 1801, his impaired health decided him to remain free from the cares of public life, but in 1802 he was again elected a member of the governor's council, which acted as a supreme court of errors, being the final court of appeals in Connecticut from all inferior courts of state jurisdiction. In May, 1807, on a reorganization of the state judiciary, he was appointed chief justice of the supreme court, but failing health compelled his resignation within a few months, and he died soon afterward. His extraordinary endowments, accomplishments as an advocate, integrity as a judge, patriotism as a legislator and ambassador, and sincerity as a Christian, were fitly complemented by a fine personal presence and by manners at once plain, unaffected, and social, yet tinctured with a courtliness and dignity which impressed all with whom he came in contact. In 1790 Yale, and in 1797 both Dartmouth and Princeton, conferred on him the degree of LL. D. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 335-336.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

No country has been so distinguished as our own by the number and prominence of its self-made men. In science, they have been her pioneers, disarming even the lightning of its terror; in prosperity, they have been the guardians of her dearest treasures; in the hour of danger they have gathered, as the Macedonian phalanx, to her side.

The subject of this memoir was not born in obscurity, or compelled to struggle with poverty and ignorance on his passage to renown. Yet he was strictly of that number who, in the “baptism of fame, have given themselves their own name;” and for whom industry and internal resource have stood in the place of parentage and of patrimony.

He sprang, as have many of our mightiest and noblest, from the hardy yeomanry of New England. If he was indebted to education for his greatness, he was still more indebted to patient labor; as the firmly-rooted oak owes less to culture, than to its power of enduring those changes of climate which roughen its trunk but reveal its energy.

OLIVER ELLSWORTH was born in Windsor, one of the most anciently settled towns in Connecticut, on the 29th of April, 1745, of respectable parents, inured to the pursuits of agriculture. From them he derived the virtues of industry, economy, and integrity, which were incorporated with the elements of his character. He derived also physical benefits from a system of nurture which rejected all luxurious indulgence. Of him it might be said, as it was of Chief Justice Marshall, that “his health was invigorated by the athletic exercises to which his father inured him.” Perhaps, also, from some sternness of parental discipline, which was often a feature of these early times, his mind drew a portion of its Spartan firmness. His boyhood was so divided between agricultural toils and classical studies, as to impress the invaluable lessons of the worth of time and the necessity of application.

At the age of seventeen he entered Yale College, whence he afterwards removed to Princeton, and received there his honorary degree at the completion of his twenty-first year. It is not known that his academic course exhibited any remarkable superiority. Precocity was not a feature of his mind. The slow ripening of its powers betokened a deep root and long-continued harvest.

After terminating his collegiate studies, he engaged in the instruction of youth, that most honorable employment to which so many of our greatest men have for a time devoted themselves. Though surrounded by gay companions, he was enabled to resist their influence, and make choice of that piety which was to be his guide on the slippery heights of honor, and his strength amid the feebleness of hoary hairs. It laid its strong foundation at that momentous period when youth is most tempted to contend with the restrictions of morality and to forget God. His clear-sighted and majestic mind acknowledged the truth of revelation, and humbled itself at the foot of the cross with child-like simplicity. His public profession of a Christian’s faith, made when religion was less fashionable than it is at present, gave proof of that fearless integrity in duty which is an element of true greatness. He had a predilection for Theology, and made respectable progress in its preparatory studies; but ultimately decided on the profession of law.

His marriage was early in life, and the result of mutual attachment. The lady, who was of the highly-respected family of the Wolcotts, by her unwearied and judicious attention to domestic care, left his mind at liberty for higher departments. They became the parents of nine children, six of whom still survive, connected with the aristocracy of their native State.

At the commencement of his household establishment, he found himself thrown upon his own resources. A farm of wild land in the parish of Wintonbury, and an axe, were the gifts of his father, with the understanding that they completed his full moiety of the paternal estate. But as the shield given by the Spartan mothers to their sons, with the charge, “return with it or return upon it,” enkindled an indomitable courage; so the consciousness of entire self-dependence awoke a spirit which was to conquer all obstacles. In those rough preliminary toils, by which land is cleared and subjected to cultivation, he performed the service of a day-laborer, and at night pursued those studies by which his future eminence was to be attained. The materials with which the fences of his farm were to be constructed he wrought with his own hands from the trees that grew upon it, nor remitted this branch of labor until it was completely enclosed. With hands swollen by unaccustomed effort, and painful from the wounds of thorns with which he contended, he came every morning during the session of the courts, to Hartford, returning at night to take charge of his cattle, and to sustain the imperative duties of an agriculturist. In this union of differing and difficult professions he evinced great mental vigor and physical endurance. It is impossible to view the future Chief Justice of the United States at this period of his existence without peculiar and touching interest. At dawn, like Cincinnatus, at his plough, and at eve laying his hand on the mighty fabric of jurisprudence, as if, like the chosen people, he followed the “pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.”

It would seem that no ambition of distinction had at this time stimulated his career. Perhaps his mind was not fully aware of its own Herculean powers. Its moving principle had been the simple consciousness of duty,—a desire to provide for a growing family, and to be found faithful in the stewardship of entrusted time and talents.

During a period of extreme exertion, while sustaining a difficult cause at the bar in Hartford, he received a new incentive—the voice of praise. “Who is that young man? He speaks well.” These were the words of a stranger. They sank into his heart. As he went homeward, he ruminated upon them. “He speaks well.” It was a new idea to him. Vanity was not inherent to an intellect of his order, but the sweetness of merited praise came when it began to be needed as an encouragement on its arduous course. Of this incident he spoke, even in his latest years, to his children. It would be interesting, were it possible to discover who thus touched with electric spark that mighty mind, and aided in developing its latent force.

The increase of his business imposed the necessity of a removal to Hartford. There he received the lucrative office of States’ attorney, and was yearly elected representative to the general assembly. At the commencement of the war of the Revolution he took firm ground in favor of the independence of the country. He even went out with the militia of the county when incursions were made by the enemy into his native State. This he did, not from any complacency in military life, but to show his approbation of the cause for which resistance was hazarded. In 1777 he was chosen a delegate to Congress; in 1784 a Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut; and in 1789 a senator of the United States, under their new confederation. His talents as a man, and his learning as a jurist, were now put in strict requisition for the public good. The system of policy which he advocated was dignified and consistent. Avoidance of useless expenditure, prompt execution of the laws, an open and severe simplicity, were its distinguishing features. The regimen that promotes the health of republics was well understood by him. It was the same which, as an individual, he had pursued with safety and success.

His mind had the capacity of intense and stern application. Never was this more folly tested than during those seven years when he filled a seat in the senate of the United States. So deep was his love of country, that when any important point, involving her interests, was in discussion, he has been known to pass the whole night traversing his chamber, and repelling sleep, until he had possessed himself of the subject in all its bearings. With such forgetfulness of self did he tax his energies, that after the termination of such questions he would be left exhausted, as after some extreme physical exertion.

It was remarked, that from these labors in the senate his mind evidently gained breadth and expansion. As the period of his continuance there extended beyond his fiftieth year, an argument is thus obtained to disprove the theory that rigidity settles upon intellect as upon the muscles, and that age may limit its improvement as easily as to chain the limbs from their elastic play.

In the spring of 1796 he received the appointment of Chief Justice of the United States. It was the universal suffrage of the nation that there was in him a fitness for the high honor of a place in that body, which, like the ancient Ephori, lifted the supremacy of the law above all other symbols of earthly majesty. In the discharge of the duties of this elevated station he displayed an immoveable patience, and a judgment of men and things matured by long experience. His clear conceptions of right and wrong were never confused by a heated imagination or morbid feelings. He was slow in arriving at the truth, but in his decisions inflexible. His impartiality won the confidence of all; and throughout his whole judicial career, his integrity remained untarnished and above suspicion.

It was with reluctance that the nation saw him about to be withdrawn from a post where she was hourly deriving benefits from his wisdom, to assume the office of ambassador to France. But a crisis in our political intercourse with that kingdom, involving danger of hostilities, required peculiar skill in negotiation, and he was appointed, in conjunction with Governor Davie of North Carolina, and the Hon. William V. Murray, then resident minister at the Hague. This was a nomination which he would not have desired; and though his patriotism induced him to acquiesce, it was at an expense of health from which he never fully recovered. Physical infirmities, which before his departure had revealed themselves, became confirmed by the hardships of a protracted voyage and the fatigues of foreign travel, into incurable diseases.

It was at the close of the year 1799 that he took passage to Europe. He found the government of France, then under the consulship of Bonaparte, unsettled and fluctuating. Duplicity and intrigue gave coloring to its diplomacy. His upright mind, severe in rectitude, found there little congeniality. Its earnestness for the right, and its strict morality, were even marked as traits of imbecility, by a cabinet whose pole-star was expediency.

After concluding the business entrusted to him, he passed over into England, and experienced high gratification from a view of that glorious island, and an acquaintance with its illustrious men. He was accompanied on his travels in Europe by his eldest son, a promising youth, whose unremitting devotion to his collegiate studies had seriously impaired his health. It was difficult, even by the excitement and novelty of foreign cities, to divert his attention from books. He received, therefore, but slight benefit from change of scene; and his death, which took place soon after his return, while making trial of the more genial climate of the West Indies, was a deep affliction to the affectionate father.

An incident connected with his return from Europe, shows the place that religion habitually held in his soul. He had resigned the office of Chief Justice of the United States, that he might devote the remainder of his life to that retirement and domestic tranquillity from which he had been so long an exile. His arrival at his home was therefore anticipated with an eagerness proportioned to his long absence, and to the cheering hope of retaining him there. At his beautiful mansion in Windsor all was joyful expectancy. His children listened to the echo of every approaching wheel, and saddened at perceiving that it had not brought their father. At length his own carriage was indeed descried. The whole family group hastened forth to welcome him. Wife, and son, and daughter, and servant born in his house, were there. It was a thrilling moment. The profound statesman, whose wealth and fame had been purchased by no sacrifice of virtue, wearied with those services which had rendered his name illustrious, was coming to share the repose of his native shades, and to be parted from them no more. He alighted from his carriage. But he spoke not to his wife. He returned not the embrace of his children. He glanced not even at his twin boys, the youngest of that beloved circle. Leaning over his gate, and covering his face, he first silently breathed a prayer of gratitude to that Being who gave him once more to see his habitation in safety and in peace. He took not the full cup of joy that was pressed to his lips until it had been hallowed by devotion, until he had humbly, yet openly, acknowledged the God who had “led him all his life long, to that day.

His resolution to abstain from all public service in future, he found it impossible perfectly to preserve. The urgent solicitations of the people, combining with a patriotism which never slumbered, induced him, in 1802, to accept the office of member of the Council of Connecticut, in which he continued till his death. In 1807 he received the appointment of Chief Justice of his native State; but his increasing infirmities led him to decline the offered honor.

The leisure to which he had been for many years a stranger, enabled him to cultivate domestic enjoyment, and to recur, as an occasional amusement, to agricultural occupation. His ardent affections found delight in the society of his children. The love of children had always been one of his prominent traits of character. From the chicanery and selfishness of mankind, he turned with renewed pleasure to their simplicity. It was remarked of him in early life, that when deeply engaged in those absorbing studies which afterwards won for him fortune and renown, he daily spent some time in caressing his neighbor’s children. He even seemed disappointed when any circumstance prevented this accustomed intercourse. Though there were long periods in which he was compelled to seclude himself from the pleasures of the domestic circle, yet he would sometimes permit his own little ones to enter his study when occupied in the severest toils of thought, and draw pictures for their amusement. “I like to indulge them in this way,” he observed; “and when it is necessary to deny them, I send them to their mother.”

As they advanced in age, their improvement, and the formation of their habits, were felt by him in their full importance. The incalculable worth of time, the duty of industry, the folly of extravagance, the necessity of rectitude and piety, were impressed both by precept and example. In his letters, when absent from them, his rules for conduct and principle were expressed with striking adaptation to their difference of age or character. His family letters, notwithstanding the magnitude and pressure of public business, were exhibitions of correct and beautiful chirography. In one of these, addressed to his wife, while a senator in the first Congress convened at New-York, in 1789, he says:—

“The family in which I live have no white children. But I often amuse myself with a colored one about the size of our little daughter, who peeps into my door now and then, with a long story, which I cannot more than half understand. Our two sons I sometimes fancy that I pick out among the little boys playing at marbles in the street. Our eldest daughter is, I trust, alternately employed, between her book and her wheel. You must teach her what is useful, the world will teach her enough of what is not. The nameless little one I am hardly enough acquainted with to have much idea of; yet I think she occupies a corner of my heart, especially when I consider her at your breast.”

Alluding to the death of an infant, several years after the event had taken place, he says, in a letter to his wife:—“He who bore your countenance and my name—the world has never been the same to me since his death.”

These traits of household tenderness are peculiarly delightful in great men. Perhaps we unconsciously associate with them some idea of sternness, and are cheered when we find them linked to our common nature by its gentler sympathies. In tracing to their familiar sources the warm current of his affections, we find that neither the toils of an absorbing profession, the tumults of political life, nor the cares of greatness, made him insensible to the enjoyments of the fireside, indifferent to the innocent sports of infancy, or regardless of the humble happiness of childhood.

His long intercourse with, men of education and rank created no contempt for the rustic society and conversation of a retired country village. He knew how to demean himself to men of low degree. His was that simple moral greatness, which never fears to demean itself by association with inferiors. He especially pitied those in a state of servitude. He treated them with a kindness and sympathy that won their confidence without diminishing their respect. He felt that in a republic the grades of distinction ought not to be jealously defined. His dignity had no need of the petty props of haughtiness and reserve.

Mingled with his, high intellectual endowments, was a clear and direct common sense. This kept him from mistake in the every-day affairs of life, where sometimes the greatest men have been so much at a loss, as to subject themselves to the scoffs of the vulgar, and even to bring greatness into disrepute among the multitude. He was thoroughly and practically acquainted with many of those details which wealth seldom understands and often despises. This was remarked with wonder during his tour through the southern States. There, in the court-yard of a public house, when the stage-coach had sustained same injury, the inquiry was once made, “Who is that gentleman who understands every thing, and is eloquent about a coach-wheel?” “The Chief Justice of the United States,” was the reply.

His example before his household was calculated to impress the importance of that religion which he revered and loved. Guests occasionally present at their morning and evening devotions, were solemnized by the fervor and sublimity of his prayers. He inculcated on all under his roof a reverence for the sabbath; and was in the habit of gathering them around him, and reading them a sermon, in addition to the public worship of the day. During the changes of an eventful life, the fluctuations of revolution, the interruptions incidental to high office, the gaiety of the court of France, and the desultory habits imposed by foreign travel, he never overlooked the sacred obligation of the sabbath, or shunned to give infidelity a “reason for the hope that was in him.”

As he approached the close of life, the Inspired Volume, which had from youth been his guide and counsellor, became more and more dear. Like a new book, it revealed to him unknown treasures. It was both affecting and sublime, to see one who had attained such eminence in the knowledge of human laws, sitting at the feet of the Supreme Lawgiver with the docility of a child. Day and night, while he stood on the verge of a higher existence, did his soul, disengaging itself from earthly things, search the scriptures of truth with solemnity and delight. His last illness was sustained with the fortitude of a Christian; and his death took place on the 26th of November, 1807, in the sixty-third year of his age.

In contemplating his elevated character, we are struck with the prominence of high and inflexible rectitude, and of that patriotism which, forgetful of self, firmly endured toil and sustained privation. What was said of his excellent friend, Roger Sherman, might with equal propriety be affirmed of him—that his “actions, whether public or private, were attended by the secret interrogatory, what course is right? and that he never once propounded to himself the question, will it be popular?” He has also been heard to assert, that in youth he took Sherman for his model; and the elder President Adams remarked, in his sententious manner, that “this was praise enough for both.” Let it also be added, as a part of the fame of Judge ELLSWORTH, that his pure principles, and the wisdom which regulated his political course, won for him both the praise and friendship of Washington.

The structure of his mind was lofty and well-balanced. His eloquence rested on the basis of the reasoning powers. It aimed not to dazzle, but to convince. It has been pronounced deficient in the graces of imagination. But the devotion with which he embraced that majestic and severe science, which takes cognizance of man in his capacity of “impeding or being impeded;” which demands dexterity to untwist thespider-web of invention, strength to strike and wisdom to arrest those ideas of justice which come “only as the lightning flash amid the storm of human passions,” scarcely comports with the play of fancy or the luxury of leisure. The department of imagination was therefore in him uncultivated. Thought, accustomed, like the laborer, to split the “unwedgeable and knotty oak,” could not stoop to trim the vine or to train the flower. In his mind the sentiment of the beautiful was overpowered by combinations derived from the useful and the just. But the truth that philosophy seeks, and the faith that Christianity imposes, held ever their high places in his soul.

We perceive in him a predominance of those virtues which give permanence to republics—indefatigable industry, opposition to luxury and extravagance, contempt of show and pretension, inflexible integrity, respect for men of low degree, love of country, and fear of God. His was the intellectual and moral power that would have arrested heterogeneous and fluctuating particles, and settled them into order and durability.

Educate a race with his principles and habits, and let them determine the question, whether a republic is a form of government intrinsically and necessarily perishable.

The name of OLIVER ELLSWORTH, by every succeeding generation in this land of freedom, should be held venerable and dear; coupled with the memory of our early liberties, and with the virtues that preserve them.

It will not be inapposite to close this brief sketch with the inscription on his monument, from the pen of his valued friend, the late Chauncey Goodrich, Governor of the State of Connecticut:

 

To the Memory of

OLIVER ELLSWORTH, LL.D.

An assistant in the Council, and

a Judge of the Superior Court

of the State of Connecticut;

A member of the Convention which formed,

and of the State Convention of Connecticut which adopted

the Constitution of the United States:

Senator, and Chief Justice of the United States:

One of the Envoys Extraordinary, and

Ministers Plenipotentiary,

who made the Convention of 1801,

between the United States and the French Republic.

Amiable and exemplary

in all the relations of the domestic, social, and Christian character.

Pre-eminently useful

in all the elevated offices he sustained;

Whose great talents,

under the guidance of inflexible integrity,

consummate wisdom,

and enlightened zeal,

employed in his country’s cause and service,

placed him among the first of the illustrious statesmen

who achieved the Independence,

and established the Government of the American Republic;

reflecting lustre

on the character of his native State,

and of the United States.

Born at Windsor, on the 29th of April, 1745:

and there died,

on the 26th of November, 1807.

Conjugal affection and filial piety

have erected this monument.

 

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 4.

 


 

EMBREE, Elihu, 1782-1820, Quaker, abolitionist (former slaveholder). Published anti-slavery newspaper, Manumission Intelligencer, in 1819 in Jonesboro, then The Emancipator, founded 1820.  These may have been the first American periodicals solely devoted to the anti-slavery cause.  Member of the Manumission Society of Tennessee.  Embree also supported racial equality. Opposed the admission of Missouri as a slave state.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 127-128; Dumond, 1961, pp. 95, 136, 166; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 36, 130, 276-277, 310, 571-572; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 478; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 124)

 

 

EMERSON, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882, author, poet, abolitionist. Wrote antislavery poetry. (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 132; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 343-348)

 

EMERSON, Ralph Waldo, author, b. in Boston, Mass., 25 May, 1803; d. in Concord, Mass., 27 April, 1882. He was the second of five sons of the Rev. William Emerson, minister of the 1st church, Boston. His grandfather at the sixth remove, Rev. Joseph Emerson, of Mendon, Mass., married the granddaughter of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, who was one of the founders of Concord, Mass., and minister of the first church there. Joseph's grandson, of the same name, was pastor at Malden, and married a daughter of the Rev. Samuel Moody, of York, Me., and three of the sons of this union were clergymen; among them William, Ralph Waldo's grandfather, who presided over the church in Concord at the time of the first battle of the Revolutionary war, which took place close by the minister's manse. This grandfather also had married the daughter of a minister, the Rev. Daniel Bliss, his predecessor in the pulpit at Concord. Thus the tendency and traditions of Ralph Waldo Emerson's ancestry were strong in the direction of scholarly pursuits and religious thought. His family was one of those that constitute, as Dr. Holmes says, the “academic races” of New England. His father (see EMERSON, WILLIAM) was a successful but not popular preacher, whose sympathies were far removed from Calvinism. He published several sermons, and was editor of the “Monthly Anthology” from 1805 till 1811, a periodical that had for contributors John Thornton Kirkland, Joseph S. Buckminster, John S. J. Gardiner, William Tudor, and Samuel C. Thacher. It was largely instrumental in developing a taste for literature in New England, and led to the establishment of the “North American Review.” The mother of Waldo was a woman “of great patience and fortitude, of the serenest trust in God, of a discerning spirit, and the most courteous bearing.” He strongly resembled his father. His aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, a woman of high intellectual attainments, was one of his early companions; and in some printed extracts from her journals a mode of thought and expression remarkably similar to that of the now celebrated essayist is traceable. His youngest brother, Charles Chauncey, who died young, in 1834, was distinguished by a singularly pure and sweet character, and contributed to the “Harvard Register” three articles in which there are passages strikingly like portions of the essays afterward produced by Ralph Waldo. The latter concentrated in himself the spiritual and intellectual tendencies of several generations. He entered the grammar-school at the age of eight, and the Latin-school, under Master Gould, in 1815; but neither here nor at Harvard did he show unusual ability. After leaving college he engaged in teaching, and began the study of theology under the direction of Dr. Channing, although not regularly enrolled at the Cambridge divinity-school. He read Plato, Augustine, Tillotson, Jeremy Taylor, and had from boyhood been an enthusiast regarding Montaigne's essays, of which he said: “It seems to me as if I had myself written the book in some former life.” In 1826 he was “approbated to preach” by the Middlesex association of ministers; but his health forced him to pass the winter in South Carolina and Florida. He was ordained in March, 1829, as colleague of Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., in the pastorate of the 2d church, Boston, and succeeded to Ware's place within eighteen months. His preaching was eloquent, simple, and effective. He took part actively in the city’s public affairs, and showed a deep interest in philanthropic movements, opening his church, also, to the anti-slavery agitators. In 1832, however, he resigned his pastorate, and did not thereafter regularly resume ministerial labors. Having decided that the use of the elements in the communion was a mistaken formality—the true communion, as he thought, being purely spiritual—he refused to make the compromise proposed, that he should put his own construction on the Lord's supper, leaving his congregation to retain their view. The parting with his flock was friendly, and, although long misunderstood in certain quarters, he always maintained a strong sympathy with Christianity. For several years he had been writing poetry, but he published no literary work during the term of his pastorate. The poem “Good-bye, Proud World,” incorrectly attributed to the date of his resignation, was written before he entered the ministry. Excepting this piece, little poetry of his early period has been given to the world. He had married, in 1829, Miss Ellen Louisa Tucker, who died in February, 1832. In 1833 he went to Europe for his health, visiting Sicily, Italy, and France, and preaching in London and Edinburgh. At this time he met Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle, forming with the last-named writer an enduring friendship, which is one of the most interesting in literary annals. It resulted in a correspondence, which was continued for thirty-six years, and has been published under the editorship of Charles Eliot Norton (Boston, 1883). Returning to the United States in 1834, Mr. Emerson preached in New Bedford, declined a call to settle there, and went to Concord, where he remained. In the next winter he began lecturing, the subjects of his choice being, curiously enough, “Water” and “The Relation of Man to the Globe.” But he soon found themes better suited to his genius, in a course of biographical lectures given in Boston, discussing Luther, Milton, Burke, Michael Angelo, and George Fox. Two of these were published in the “North American Review.” This course was followed by ten lectures on English literature in 1835, twelve on the philosophy of history in 1836, and in 1837 ten on human culture. Much of the matter embraced in them was afterward remoulded and brought out in his later volumes of essays, or condensed into the rhythmic form of poems. Mr. Emerson married, in September, 1835, Miss Lidian Jackson, of Plymouth, Mass. He then left the “Old Manse,” where he had been staying with Dr. Ripley, and moved into a house on the old Lexington road, along which the British had retreated from Concord in 1775. In this “plain, square, wooden house,” surrounded by horse-chestnut and pine trees, with pleasant garden-grounds attached, he made his home for the rest of his life; and, through his presence there, the village became “the Delphi of New England.” On 19 April, 1836, the anniversary of the Concord fight, Emerson's hymn, composed for the occasion and containing those lines which have since resounded almost as widely as the fame of the deed,

“Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world,”

was sung at the dedication of the battle-monument. In September of the same year his first book, “Nature,” an idealistic prose essay in eight chapters—which had been written in the same room of the “Old Manse” in which Hawthorne afterward wrote his “Mosses”—was published anonymously in Boston. During the summer he had supplied the pulpit of the Concord Unitarian church for three months, and in the autumn he preached a while for a new society at East Lexington; but he refused to become its pastor, saying: “My pulpit is the lyceum platform.” Doubts had arisen in his mind as to the wisdom of public prayer, the propriety of offering prayer for others, and the rightfulness of adhering to any formal worship. From this time his career became distinctively that of a literary man, although for several years he confined himself mainly to lecturing, and most of his prose writings were first given to the public orally. Carlyle had said to Longfellow that when Emerson came to Craigenputtock it was “like the visit of an angel.” In 1836 he edited early sheets of Carlyle's “Sartor Resartus,” and in 1838 three volumes of the same author's essays, all of these appearing in book-form in this country before they did so in England, and netting a comfortable sum for Carlyle. “Nature,” similarly, met with considerable appreciation in England, but in the United States it took twelve years to sell 500 copies. The character of the book was both methodical and rhapsodical. It taught that the universe consists of nature and the soul, and that external nature serves four purposes—viz.: commodity, beauty, language, and discipline. It ministers to the senses; then to the love of beauty; then it gives us language—i.e., supplies words as the signs of natural facts, by which we interpret our own spirits. Natural laws applied to man become moral laws; and thus we perceive the highest use of nature, which is discipline. It trains reason, develops the intellect, and becomes the means of moral culture. Thus nature speaks always of spirit, suggests the idea of the absolute, teaches worship of God, whom we cannot describe, and shows us that nature itself is only an apparition of God. “The mind is a part of the nature of things,” and God is revealed directly to the soul, spirit being present all through nature, but acting upon us through ourselves and not from without. In verbal style this treatise has great beauty, and rises to the plane of a prose poem; but the contents perplexed theologians. The author was accused of pantheism, though it is hard to see how the belief so named differs from the professed Christian doctrine of the omnipresence of God. Most of the practical people in the community regarded Emerson as crazy, revolutionary, or a fool who did not know his own meaning. Ex-president John Quincy Adams wrote concerning him in 1840: “After failing in the every-day vocations of a Unitarian preacher and school-master, he starts a new doctrine of transcendentalism, declares all the old revelations superannuated and worn out, and announces the approach of new revelations.”

The term transcendentalists was somewhat vaguely applied to a number of writers, among whom Emerson was the chief; but they did not constitute a regularly organized group, and had no very well-defined aims in common that could warrant the classification. Emerson himself disclaimed it later, saying “there was no concert of doctrinaires to establish certain opinions or to inaugurate some movement in literature, philosophy, or religion . . . but only two or three men and women, who read alone, with some vivacity. Perhaps all of these were surprised at the rumor that they were a school or a sect, but more especially at the name of ‘Transcendentalism.’” Nevertheless, the scholars and writers of the period under notice, who numbered considerably more than two or three, finally adopted the name that had been forced upon them by changing the name of a periodical gathering held by them from the “Symposium” to “The Transcendental Club.” A period of new intellectual activity had begun about 1820, on the return of Edward Everett from Europe, laden with treasures of German thought, which he put into circulation. Gradually his influence, and that of Coleridge and Carlyle in England, produced a reaction against the philosophy of Locke and Bentham, which, denying all innate ideas, and insisting upon purely mechanical revelation, had hitherto ruled Unitarians in Old and New England. The reactionists affirmed the existence of innate ideas, and a faculty in man that transcends the senses and the understanding. Supported by Goethe's deep love of nature as a companion of man, and Wordsworth's conception of it as interfused with spirit, Emerson this year the result of his observations in England was published in the volume entitled “English Traits,” which gained cordial recognition both at home and abroad, and has been translated into several foreign languages. It is certainly the best analysis of the English people that has been written by an American, and probably the best produced in any country. The style is succinct and exact, sown with epigram, as in most of Emerson's writings; but, the purpose being more objective than that of his essays, the saving common sense that underlies all of his thinking is here brought constantly and predominantly into view. Previously to this publication he had given seven lectures in Freeman place chapel, Boston, and another in New York, and had also made addresses before the Anti-slavery society in both cities. While in the ministry he alone had opened a church to abolition speakers, and his sympathies were always on the side of emancipation. In 1835 he countenanced Harriet Martineau in her outspoken condemnation of slavery, and in the height of her unpopularity invited her to his house. Again, in 1844, he spoke stirringly on the anniversary of West Indian emancipation, and scourged his countrymen for tolerating negro servitude. His own plan was to buy the slaves, at a cost of $2,000,000,000, and he put faith in moral and spiritual influences to remove the evil, rather than in legislation. He never formally united with the abolition party, but he encouraged it, and his influence was great. As the contest grew warmer, he rose to the emergency and took a more active part, even making campaign speeches for John G. Palfrey, who, having missed re-election to congress on account of his anti-slavery course in that body, was nominated as free-soil candidate for governor of Massachusetts. The assault on Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks called forth another vigorous speech. In November, 1859, he said before the Parker fraternity that John Brown, were he to be hanged, would “make the gallows glorious, like the cross.” A few days afterward he spoke at a John Brown meeting at Tremont temple, with Wendell Phillips, and took part in another at Concord, and in still a third at Salem, Mass. In January, 1861, also, he addressed the Anti-slavery society at Boston, in the face of disturbance by a mob. Though he was not a chief agitator of the cause, these efforts, so alien to his retired habits as a student, poet, and meditative writer, made him a marked advocate of freedom.

The “Atlantic Monthly” made its first appearance in November, 1857, with James Russell Lowell as the editor, and Emerson became a contributor, printing in all twenty-eight poems and prose articles in the first thirty-seven volumes. “The Romany Girl,” “Days,” “Brahma,” “Waldeinsamkeit,” “The Titmouse,” “Boston Hymn,” “Saadi,” and “Terminus,” which are among his best-known poems, belong to this period; and in the “Atlantic” in 1858 appeared his essay on Persian poetry, which is instructive as to the influence of oriental verse upon Emerson's. He continued to lecture in different parts of the country, and at the Burns festival in Boston in January, 1859, made an after-dinner speech which is described as imbued with a passion uncommon in his utterances. Its effect on the assembly was said, by a competent judge who had heard the chief orators of the time, to have surpassed anything accomplished by them, and it seems to have indicated a reserve power in Emerson seldom suspected. In 1860 and 1862 he lost by death his friend Theodore Parker and his intimate companion Thoreau, both of whom he celebrated in memorial addresses. The “Conduct of Life” was published in the former year—a series of essays on fate, power, wealth, culture, behavior, worship, considerations by the way, beauty, and illusions. With a diminished admixture of mysticism, it offered a larger proportion of practical philosophy, and stated the limitations of fate in life, while but reaffirming the liberty of the individual. Hitherto Emerson's books had sold very slowly; but of the “Conduct of Life” the whole edition, 2,500 copies, was sold in two days. This is an index of the great change that had occurred in the popular estimate of him since the issuing of his first volume, “Nature,” twenty-seven years before. He who had been feared as a revolutionist, or laughed at as erratic, was now, at the age of fifty-seven, accepted as a veritable prophet and sage. The people and the times had, in a measure, grown up to him. A new “Dial” having been established in Cincinnati about this time, he wrote for its pages. During the civil war he delivered a lecture on “American Civilization” at the Smithsonian institution in February, 1862; an address in Boston on the emancipation proclamation, September of the same year; and at Concord, 19 April, 1865, he pronounced a brief eulogy on Abraham Lincoln.

On 30 May, 1867, he attended at the organization of the Free religious association in Boston, and stated his view as to religion briefly thus: As soon as every man is apprised of the Divine presence in his mind, and sees that the law of duty corresponds with the laws of physical nature—that duty, social order, power of character, wealth of culture, perfection of taste, all draw their essence from this moral sentiment—“then we have a religion that exalts, that commands all the social and all the private action.” Emerson passed many severe criticisms on his countrymen, publicly accused America of wanting in faith, hope, enthusiasm, and in a letter to Carlyle called it an intelligent but sensual, avaricious America. The war, with its heroisms and exhibitions of moral strength, gave him new courage, new belief in the national future. His Phi Beta Kappa oration of 1867 on “The Progress of Culture” expressed even more sanguine expectation than “The American Scholar,” thirty years before. He received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1866, and was elected to the board of overseers in 1867. He began to feel the approach of age, and in 1866 wrote the noble poem “Terminus.”

“It is time to be old, 
To take in sail; 
  .      .      .      .     .  
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail, 
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime.”

Nevertheless, in the following year he brought out “May-Day,” a long poem, the freshest and most youthful in tone of any that he had written, accompanied by many other pieces, some of which had appeared previously. In the next three years, 1868-'70, he read at Harvard a number of lectures on “The Natural History of the Mind,” which have not been collected. The essays entitled Society and Solitude” were published in 1870. They are noticeable for an easy, almost conversational tone, differing remarkably from the earlier published essays and “English Traits.” The same is true of “Letters and Social Aims” (1875). Emerson's method of composition was to jot down notes from reading and observation, which were entered in a commonplace book, with a memorandum on the margin. From this he drew the material for his lectures, which, heard from the platform, were flowing in style and clear in sequence. When he prepared them for publication, much of the incidental matter and connecting links were struck out. The latest two volumes were arranged for the press when the author, growing old, gave them a less rigorous revision, and relied upon help from others. In 1870 and 1871 he wrote introductions to a translation of Plutarch's “Morals” and W. E. Channing's poem “The Wanderer.” “Parnassus,” a collection of poems by British and American authors, was brought out, with a short introduction, in 1874. Emerson was nominated in the latter year for the lord-rectorship of Glasgow university by the independents, and was defeated by a vote of 500 in his favor against 700 for Benjamin Disraeli. In 1875 he made a short address at the unveiling of French's statue of “The Minute-Man” on the Concord battle-field. He responded to an invitation from two societies of the University of Virginia in 1876 by lecturing to them on “The Scholar.” In March, 1878, he read a paper at the Old South church, Boston, on “The Fortune of the Republic,” in which, commenting with sagacity on current tendencies in the national life, he said: “Let the passion for America cast out the passion for Europe.” The same year he printed in the “North American Review” “The Sovereignty of Ethics”; in 1879 he read “The Preacher” in Divinity college, Cambridge, and an essay on “Superlatives” was published in “The Century” magazine for February, 1882, shortly before his death. Two posthumous volumes of essays and reminiscences have appeared: “Miscellanies,” and “Lectures and Biographical Sketches”; and many brief poems heretofore unpublished have been included in a new edition.

In July, 1872, Emerson's house at Concord was partly destroyed by fire. This shock hastened the decline of his mental powers, which had already set in, and impaired his health. His friends spontaneously asked to be allowed to rebuild the house, and deposited in bank for him over $11,000, at the same time suggesting that he go abroad for rest and change. With his daughter Ellen he visited England and the Nile, and returned to Concord in May, 1873, to find his house rebuilt, and so perfectly restored to its former state that few could have discovered any change (see view on page 346). Welcomed by the citizens in a mass, he drove to his home, passing beneath a triumphal arch-erected in his honor, amid general rejoicing.

After 1867 Emerson wrote no poems, and little prose, but revised his poetry and arranged the “Selected Poems.” Always inclined to slow speech, sometimes pausing for a word, he succumbed to a gradual aphasia, which made it difficult for him to converse. He forgot the names of persons and things. He had some difficulty in discriminating printed letters, and for the last five years of his life was unable to conduct correspondence. Yet he read through all his own published works “with much interest and surprise,” and tried to arrange his manuscripts, which he examined thoroughly. He also, following his custom of reading a paper annually before the Concord lyceum, gave there, in 1880, his hundredth lecture to the local audience. On that occasion the several hundred people in the hall spontaneously arose at his entrance and remained standing until he had taken his place on the platform. He took an interest in the Concord school of philosophy, organized in 1880, and supplied to its sessions an essay on “Natural Aristocracy.” Most of these later productions were put together from portions of earlier compositions. Throughout this time of decline he retained the perfect courtesy and consideration for others that had always characterized him. He was apparently quite able to comprehend the essence of things around him, and, to a certain extent, ideas; but the verbal means of communication were lost. He had so long regarded language and visible objects as mere symbols, that the symbols at last melted away and eluded him. He continued to read everything in printed form that he found upon his table, whispering the words over like a child, and was fond of pointing out pictures in books. In April, 1882, he took a severe cold, and, attended by his son, Dr. Edward Waldo Emerson, died of pneumonia. He was buried in the cemetery at Concord, near the graves of Hawthorne and Thoreau, in ground over which he had often walked and talked with them and with Margaret Fuller.

Emerson was tall and slender, not of robust physique, rather sallow in the face, with an aquiline nose, brown hair, and eyes of the “strongest and brightest blue.” His head was below the average in circumference, long, narrow, but more nearly equal in anterior and posterior breadth than most heads. His appearance was majestic. He was calm, kindly in expression, and frequently smiled, but seldom laughed. His manners were dignified but exquisitely simple. He was a ready listener, and often seemed to prefer listening, as if he were to be instructed rather than to instruct. He rarely showed irritation. His hospitality was almost unbounded, and he frequently waited upon the humblest of his guests with his own hands. He was never well-to-do until in his latest years. In 1838 he wrote to Carlyle that he possessed about $22,000 at interest, and could earn $800 in a winter by lecturing; but never had a dollar “to spend on a fancy.” He worked hard every summer writing, and every winter travelling and lecturing. His habits were regular and his diet frugal, the only peptic luxury in which he indulged being pie at breakfast. Every morning was spent in his study, and he would go all day without food unless called to eat. His bed-time was ten o'clock, but, if engaged in literary work, he would sit up until one or two, and was able to do this night after night. He fulfilled the duties of a citizen by attending town-meetings punctiliously. Much question has been made whether Emerson was rather a poet than a philosopher, or whether he was a philosopher at all. An exact philosopher he was not; but all that he wrote and said was based upon philosophic ideas. He was an intellectual rather than an emotional mystic, an idealist who insisted upon the application of idealism to the affairs of daily life. He believed that “Nature is the incarnation of a thought. . . . The world is mind precipitated.” He believed in the Over-Soul as a light guiding man, the light of intuitive perception, in God as the soul of the world, and in the human soul as one with that Over-Soul. He was not able to formulate these or other beliefs of his logically. Writing to his former colleague, Henry Ware, he said: “I could not give an account of myself if challenged . . . . I do not know what arguments are in reference to any expression of a thought. I delight in telling what I think; but if you ask me how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am the most helpless of mortal men.” This continued to be his position to the end. He relied upon intuition, and thought that every one might bring himself into accord with God on that basis. He expressed what he felt at the moment, and some of his sayings, even in a single essay, seem to be mutually opposed. But, if the whole of his works be taken together, a type of thought may be discerned in the conflicting expressions, coherent and suggestive, like that presented by the photographs of several generations of a family superimposed on one plate. In the beginning he seems to have looked somewhat askance at science; but in the 1849 edition of “Nature” he prefixed some verses that said:

“And, striving to be man, the worm 
Mounts through all the spires of form.”

This came out ten years before Darwin's “Origin of Species,” and twenty years sooner than “The Descent of Man.” Lamarck's theories, however, had been popularized in 1844. But Emerson here showed how quick he was to seize upon the newest thought in science or elsewhere if it seemed to be true. Eleven years passed, and he declared in the essay on “Worship,” in “Conduct of Life”: “The religion which is to guide and fulfil the present and coming ages must be intellectual. The scientific mind must have a faith which is science . . . . There will be a new church founded on moral science, at first cold and naked . . . but it will have heaven and earth for its beams and rafters, science for symbol and illustration. It will fast enough gather beauty, music, picture, poetry.” While he thus advanced in viewing science, he advanced also in viewing all other subjects; but it was from the point of view of intuition and oneness with what he called the Over-Soul. Everything that he said must be looked at in the light of his own remark, “Life is a train of moods.” But his moods rest upon the certainty, to him, of his own intuition. Emerson's presentation of his views is generally in a large degree poetic. His poems sum up and also expand his prose. The seeming want of technical skill in his verse is frequently due to a more subtile art of natural melody which defied conventional rules of versification. The irregular lines, the flaws of metre and rhyme, remind us of the intermittent breathings of an Æolian harp. Emerson's poetic instrument may have been a rustic contrivance, but it answered to every impulse of the winds and the sighs of human feeling, from “Monadnoc” to the “Threnody” upon the death of his child-son. Sometimes he unconsciously so perfected his poetic lines that, as Dr. Holmes says, a moment after they were written they “seemed as if they had been carved on marble for a thousand years,” as this in “Voluntaries”:

“So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
So near is God to man, 
When duty whispers low, Thou must,  
The youth replies, I can.”

Matthew Arnold has pronounced his essays “the most important work done in prose” in this century; but Prof. C. C. Everett, discussing the qualities of Emerson in the “Andover Review” for March, 1887, describes his philosophy as that of a poet, and adds, “so his ethics is the ethics of a poet.” He regards the poems as the most complete and worthy expression of Emerson's genius. But Dr. Everett's discovery of passion in Emerson's poetry is not generally accepted by other critics. As has been well remarked by another writer, the verse, in general abstractly and intellectually beautiful, kindles to passion only when the chosen theme is distinctly American or patriotic. Emerson constantly preached by life and pen a new revelation, a new teacher of religion and morals, putting himself always in the place of a harbinger, a John crying in the wilderness. Julian Hawthorne has written of him: “He is our future living in our present, and showing the world, by anticipation, what sort of excellence we are capable of.” His own life conformed perfectly to the idealism that he taught; but he regarded himself as a modest link in the chain of progress. He made his generation turn their eyes forward instead of backward. He enforced upon them courage, self-reliance, patriotism, hope. People flocked to him from all quarters, finally, for advice and guidance. The influence that he exercised not only upon persons since grown eminent, such as Prof. Tyndall, who found a life's inspiration in his thought, but also upon thousands unknown, is one of his claims to recognition. Another is that, at a time when, it is conceded, the people of the United States were largely materialistic in their aims, he came forward as the most idealistic writer of the age, and also as a plain American citizen. He was greatly indebted to preceding authors. It has been ascertained that he named in his writings 3,393 quotations from 868 individuals, mostly writers. “The inventor only knows how to quote,” said Emerson; and, notwithstanding his drafts upon the treasury of the past, he is the most original writer as a poet, seer, and thinker that America possesses. The doctrine of the “many in one,” which he incessantly taught, is exemplified in himself and his works. The best extant accounts of Emerson are “Ralph Waldo Emerson, his Life, Writings, and Philosophy,” by George Willis Cooke (Boston, 1881); “Ralph Waldo Emerson,” by Oliver Wendell Holmes (Boston, 1884); “Emerson at Home and Abroad,” by Moncure D. Conway; “Biographical Sketch,” by Alexander Ireland; “The Genius and Character of Emerson, Lectures at the Concord School of Philosophy,” edited by F. B. Sanborn (Boston, 1885). See, also, F. B. Sanborn's “Homes and Haunts of Emerson.” J. E. Cabot, of Boston, has in charge a life authorized by Emerson's family, which may include extracts from his diaries and other unpublished matter. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 343-348.

 

 

ENDICOTT, William, 1809 – 1881, abolitionist, of Danvers, Massachusetts, he wrote often for abolition papers. A lineal descendant of John Endecott, the first and longest-serving Governor of Massachusetts, he pursued the craft of morocco dressing, but left it to follow humanitarian pursuits.  In 1831, he was on a ship that was shipwrecked off the Fiji Islands, but miraculously, he survived to write a short book about it published 42 years after his death, called “Wrecked among Cannibals in the Fijis,” describing the cannibalistic acts he witnessed firsthand.  When he returned from Fiji, he became an inspector at the Salem Courthouse, where he worked until his death in 1881. (Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: No Union with the Slaveholders, 1841-1849, page 316; Alfred P. Putnam, “History of the Antislavery Movement in Danvers,” Danvers Historical Collections, 30:22-23, 1942.)

 

 

ENDICOTT, William, 1826-1914, abolitionist, of Beverly, Massachusetts, financial manager for abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison.  Also a descendant of Governor John Endecott, and the son of a respectable dry goods merchant in Beverly, he could not attend college for health reasons and chose instead a business career.   He became a wealthy merchant, known as an innovator in department-store-style merchandising and he developed extensive connections with prominent Bostonians.  As his wealth grew, he served as a trustee and/or treasurer of many of Boston’s financial, cultural, and charitable institutions.  He also took active interest in politics, local and national, which included participating in efforts to keep Kansas free of slavery, lending money to William Lloyd Garrison, taking care of Garrison’s financial affairs, and serving on a committee to create in 1885 the famous statue of Garrison that is on Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston’s Back Bay. (“With Eclat: the Boston Athenaeum and the Origin of the Museum of Fine Arts,” Hina Hirayama, Google E-book, p.168,)

 

 

ENGLISH, David, founding officer and original Treasurer of the American Colonization Society, 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 26, 30)

 

 

ENGLISH, James Edward, 1812-1890, statesman, businessman.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut 1861-1865 as War Democrat.  Governor of Connecticut, 1867-1870.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 358; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 165; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 527; Congressional Globe)

 

ENGLISH, James Edward, statesman, b. in New Haven, Conn., 13 March, 1812. He received a common-school education, and served an apprenticeship in a carpenter's shop. Here his energy and capacity were such that before he had attained his majority he was made master builder. He then engaged in the lumber-trade, and subsequently in real estate, banking, and manufacturing enterprises, and became one of the richest men in Connecticut. In 1848 he was a member of the New Haven common council, and elected a member of the state general assembly in 1855, and elected to the senate in 1856-'8. He was then elected to congress as a War-Democrat, and served from 1861 till 1865, voting with the Republicans for the abolition of slavery. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia national union convention in 1866, and was governor of Connecticut in 1867-'70. He then travelled extensively in Europe and the United States. In 1875 he was elected U. S. senator to fill a vacancy, and served till the following spring. He is president of the New Haven savings bank, and a manager of Adams express co. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 358.

 

 

EQUIANO, Olaudah (Olauda Ikwuano), c. 1745-1797, African American, author, merchant, explorer, former slave, abolitionist. Wrote autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, 1789, England.  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 101, 184, 382, 394, 395; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 547; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 260)

 

 

ERNEST, Sarah O., abolitionist, Cincinnati, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1857-60.

 

 

ESTEN, George W., abolitionist, Boonton, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-39.

 

 

ETTING, Solomon, Maryland, merchant, banker.  Manager of the Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society.  Co-founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 20, 192; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 111)

 

 

EVANS, Andrew, abolitionist, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1852-53.

 

 

EVANS, Hugh Davey, 1792-1868, Baltimore, Maryland, author, lawyer.  Prominent member of the Maryland Colonization Society. (Campbell, 1971, p. 192; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 382; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 203)

 

EVANS, Hugh Davey, author, b. in Baltimore, Md., 26 April, 1792; d. there, 16 July, 1868. He left school at thirteen years of age on account of his health, and in 1810 began to study law. He was admitted to practice in Baltimore on 19 April, 1815, took rank, while yet a young man, with Pinckney, Wirt, Reverdy Johnson, and the other leaders of the Maryland bar, and afterward attained eminence as a constitutional lawyer. He was prominent for many years in the councils of the Protestant Episcopal church, and in 1843-'56 edited “The True Catholic,” a high-church periodical. He was also connected with the Philadelphia “Register” in 1853, contributing to it “Thoughts on Current Events,” with the New York “Churchman” in 1854-'6, and the New York “Church Monthly” in 1857-'8, and in the two years last mentioned edited the “Monitor,” a weekly paper published in Baltimore. He was a prominent member of the Maryland colonization society, and prepared a code of laws for the Maryland colony in Liberia (Baltimore, 1847). He received the degree of LL. D. from St. James's college, Maryland, in 1852, and from that time till 1864 was lecturer there on civil and ecclesiastical law. During the civil war Mr. Evans was an earnest supporter of the National government, and in 1861 wrote to the London “Guardian” a letter in defence of the arrests made in Baltimore in that year, which attracted much attention. His published works include “Essay on Pleading” (Baltimore, 1827); “Maryland Common-Law Practice” (1837; revised ed., 1867); “Essays to prove the Validity of Anglican Ordinations,” in reply to Archbishop Kenrick's book on the subject (Baltimore, 1844; second series, 2 vols., 1851); “Theophilus Americanus,” an American adaptation, with additions, of Canon Wordsworth's “Theophilus Anglicanus” (Philadelphia, 1851); “Essay on the Episcopate of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States” (1855); and several pamphlets. After his death appeared his “Treatise on the Christian Doctrine of Marriage,” which he considered his best work (New York, 1870), and a memoir by Rev. Hall Harrison, founded on recollections written by himself (Hartford, Conn., 1870). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

EVANS, John, abolitionist, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Inspection, Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

 

EVANS, Joshua, 1731-1798, anti-slavery activist, Quaker, clergyman, journalist, New Jersey. (Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 75-76)

 

 

EVERARD, Andrew, abolitionist, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1850-52.

 

 

EVEREST, Asa, abolitionist, Brooklyn, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1851-52.

 

 

EVERETT, Alexander Hill, 1792-1847, Boston, Massachusetts, newspaper editor of the North American Review, anti-slavery advocate.  Defended the American Colonization Society, and colonization, as anti-slavery.  Raised funds for the Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 386-387; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 220; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 135, 210, 214)

 

EVERETT, Alexander Hill, b. in Boston; Mass., 19 March, 1792; d. in Macao, China, 28 June, 1847. He was a son of the Rev. Oliver Everett (who was pastor of the New south church in Boston from 1782 to 1792), and was graduated at Harvard in 1806 with the highest honors of his class, although the youngest of its members. After leaving college he was for a year assistant teacher in Phillips Exeter academy, then studied law in the office of John Quincy Adams, whom in 1809 he accompanied to Russia, residing for two years in his family, attached to the legation. At the close of the war between the United States and Great Britain, Gov. Eustis, of Massachusetts, was appointed minister to the Netherlands, and Mr. Everett went with him as secretary of legation, but after a year of service returned home. On the retirement of Gov. Eustis he was appointed his successor, with the rank of charge d’affaires, and held this post from 1818 till 1824. In 1825-'9 he was minister to Spain, after which he returned home and became proprietor and editor of the “North American Review,” to which he had, during the editorship of his brother Edward, been one of the chief contributors. From 1830 till 1835 he sat in the legislature of Massachusetts; in 1840 he resided, as a confidential agent of the United States, in the island of Cuba, and while there was appointed president of Jefferson college, Louisiana, but was soon obliged by failing health to return to New England. On the return of Caleb Cushing from his mission to China, Mr. Everett was appointed commissioner to that empire, and sailed for Canton, 4 July, 1845. He was detained by illness at Rio Janeiro, and returned home, but in the summer of 1846 made a second and more successful attempt to reach his destination, and died in Macao. Mr. Everett’s first published compositions appeared in the “Monthly Anthology,” the vehicle of the Anthology club of Boston, which consisted of George Ticknor, William Tudor, Dr. Bigelow and Rev. J. S. J. Gardiner, Alexander H. Everett, and Rev. Messrs. Buckminster, Thacher, and Emerson. The “Monthly Anthology,” established by Phineas Adams, was published from 1803 till 1811 Mr. Everett published “Europe, or a General Survey of the Political Situation of the Principal Powers, with Conjectures on their Future Prospects” (London and Boston, 1822; translated into German, French, and Spanish, the German version edited by Prof. Jacobi, of the University of Halle); “New Ideas on Population, with Remarks on the Theories of Godwin and Malthus” (London and Boston, 1822); “America, or a General Survey of the Political Situation of the Several Powers of the Western Continent, with Conjectures on their Future Prospects, by a Citizen of the United States” (Philadelphia, 1827; London, 1828); “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays” (first series, Boston, 1845; second series, 1847); and “Poems” (1845). To Sparks’s “American Biography” Mr. Everett contributed the lives of Joseph Warren and Patrick Henry. His principal contributions to the “North American Review” are on the following subjects: French Dramatic Literature; Louis Bonaparte; Private Life of Voltaire; Literature of the 18th Century; Dialogue on Representative Government, between Dr. Franklin and President Montesquieu; Bernardin de St. Pierre; Madame de Staël; J. J. Rousseau; Mirabeau; Schiller; Chinese Grammar; Cicero on Government; Degerando’s History of Philosophy; Lord Byron; British Opinions on the Protecting System; The American System; Life of Henry Clay; Early Literature of Modern Europe; Early Literature of France; Origin and Character of the Old Parties; and Thomas Carlyle. His principal contributions to the “Democratic Review” are the following: The Spectre Bride-groom, from Bürger; The Water-King, a Legend of the Norse; The Texas Question; and The Malthusian Theory. His contributions to the “Boston Quarterly Review” were chiefly, if not altogether, devoted to an exposition of questions connected with the currency. Among Mr. Everett’s published orations are the following: On the Progress and Limits of the Improvement of Society; The French Revolution; The Constitution of the United States; Discovery of America by the Northmen; Battle of New Orleans; and Battle of Bunker Hill.  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

EVERETT, Edward, statesman.  Supporter of colonization and the American Colonization Society.  (Burin, 2005, p. 28; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 207, 245w)

Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

THE incidents in the life of EDWARD EVERETT, and his public labors, have been so various and numerous, that the most concise record of them will crowd upon the limits within which it is necessary to confine our biographical notices.

He was born in Dorchester, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. His father, Oliver Everett, was the son of a farmer in the town of Dedham, of the same county, and descended from one of the original planters of that place, where the family still remains, like their predecessors for five generations, respectable cultivators of the soil. Deprived, by the narrow circumstances of his family, of early opportunities of education, he succeeded in preparing himself for College after he became of age; and was graduated at Cambridge in 1779, when twenty-eight years old.

In 1782 he was ordained over the New South Church in Boston, from which he obtained a dismission in 1792. President Allen, in his biographical dictionary, speaks of his “high reputation,” and of “the very extraordinary powers of his mind.” On leaving the ministry, he retired to a small farm in Dorchester; and among other marks of the estimation in which he was held, was made a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Norfolk County. He died at the age of 51, on the 19th of December, 1802.

The subject of this memoir, who was the fourth in a family of eight children, was born on the 11th of April, 1794. His education, till he was thirteen years of age, was obtained almost exclusively at the public schools in Dorchester and Boston, to which latter place the family removed after his father’s decease. In 1807 he was sent to the Academy at Exeter, N. H. Here, under the tuition of Dr. Abbott, he completed his preparation for College. He entered Harvard University at Cambridge, in August, 1807, and graduated in 1811 with the highest honors of his class, and with a reputation which has seldom been attained at so early an age.

Under the influence of the late Rev. J. S. Buckminster, who was the minister of his family in Boston, he was induced to select the profession of Theology. His studies were pursued with the benefit of the direction and advice of President Kirkland, of whose family he was a member. In 1812 he was appointed Latin tutor in the University. In the autumn of 1813, being then less than nineteen and a half years of age, he was settled as the successor of Buckminster over the Brattle Street Church in Boston. In addition to the ordinary duties of his ministry, which he performed with a fidelity and success of which all who heard him are the witnesses, he wrote and published a Defence of Christianity, against a peculiar form of infidelity then broached by some persons of considerable pretensions to learning. This is an elaborate and most able work, and displays resources of erudition which would be thought worthy of admiration in a scholar of advanced age.

Having been appointed by the Corporation and Overseers of Harvard University Professor of Greek Literature, he obtained a dismission from his congregation, and was inducted into office at Cambridge when under twenty-one years of age. For the improvement of his health, and in order to perfect his preparation for the duties to which he was called as connected with the college, he was permitted and enabled, by the corporation, to travel in Europe, and to reside for a season at some of the principal foreign universities.

He embarked from Boston in the spring of 1815, in one of the first ships that sailed after the conclusion of the treaty of peace with Great Britain. On arriving at Liverpool he heard of the escape of Napoleon from Elba, and was in London when the battle of Waterloo was fought. From London he proceeded towards Germany, accompanied by his distinguished friend and countryman, Mr. George Ticknor. They passed a few days at Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Leyden, and the other Dutch cities; and proceeded through Westphalia to Gottingen in the kingdom of Hanover. Here, at this most celebrated German University he spent more than two years of assiduous application to study. The vacations were employed in excursions to the principal cities and universities of North Germany. During one of these vacations he visited the Hague, where his brother was residing in a diplomatic capacity. On another occasion he made a journey on foot through the Hartz Mountains.

The winter of 1817 he spent in Paris, acquiring, among other branches of knowledge, an acquaintance with the Italian and modern Greek languages. Here he enjoyed the society of such men as Visconti, Humboldt, the Abbé de Pradt, Benjamin Constant, Sismondi, Koray, and General Lafayette. In the spring of 1818 he went over to England, spent some time at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, visited Wales and the Lakes, made an excursion to Edinburgh and the Highlands of Scotland, passed a few days with Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, and became acquainted with Dugald Stewart, and many of the other leading characters of Scotland and England.

In the fall of 1818 he returned to France, and proceeded to Switzerland and Italy, accompanied by General Lyman, late mayor of Boston. They took the road to Lyons, passed a few days at Geneva, visited Chamouni and the glaciers of Mont Blanc, made a circuit through Lausanne, Bern, Lucerne, Schweitz, Altdorf, and the Valais; crossed the Simplon to Milan; went through Lombardy to Venice, and then back over the Appenines to Florence. The winter was spent at Rome, in laborious study. While there, he saw Canova, and had frequent opportunities of meeting, among other distinguished persons, the members of the Bonaparte family,—the mother of Napoleon, the princess Borghese his sister, Louis the ex-King of Holland, and Lucien.

In February, 1819, still accompanied by Mr. Lyman, he went to Naples; and after visiting the places of interest in the neighborhood of that city, crossed over to Bari on the Adriatic; and thence travelled on horseback, through a country where there were no carriage roads nor public conveyances, and much infested with brigands, by the way of Lecce to Otranto. From Otranto they took passage to Corfu, and from thence in a row-boat they proceeded to the coast of Albania. At Yanina, its capital, they were received with great kindness by Ali Pacha, and his sons Muctar and Yeli Pacha. They bore letters to this famous chieftain from Lord Byron. Crossing Mount Pindus, and going north as far as the Vale of Tempe, they returned through Thessaly to Thermopylæ, passing by Pharsalia, and taking the road over Mount Parnassus to Delphi, Thebes, and Athens. They then made an excursion over the Isthmus of Corinth to Sparta, and returning to the north, embarked in the Gulf of Yolo for the Dardanelles. After visiting the site of Troy, they reached Constantinople. This tour over Greece took place about ten months before the breaking out of the war with Ali Pacha, which brought on the Greek revolution.

Towards the end of June, 1819, they passed the Balkan Mountains, not far from the route taken afterwards by the Russian army. Crossing the Danube at Nicopol, they went through Wallachia to Bucharest, and entered Austria at the pass of Rotenthurm, in the Carpathian Mountains. After a week’s quarantine in the secluded vale of the Aluda they proceeded to Hermanstadt, the capital of Transylvania, and thence through the Bannat of Temeswar across Hungary to Vienna. After leaving this beautiful metropolis, they traversed Austria, the Tyrol, and Bavaria; and returning by the way of Paris and London, took passage for America, September, 1819. The whole time spent by Mr. EVERETT in his travels and studies in Europe and Asia, was nearly four years and seven months.

Shortly after his arrival in Boston, he was solicited to assume the editorial charge of the North American Review. Its number of subscribers, at that time, was inconsiderable. The effect produced by him upon its circulation was instantaneous, and great beyond parallel in our literary history. Many of its numbers passed into a second and even a third edition. He gave it an American character and spirit; and such was the tone he imparted to it, that it commanded, not only the admiration and applause of his own countrymen, but the respect and acknowledgments of foreign critics and scholars. He defended our institutions and character with so much spirit and power, that the voice of transatlantic detraction was silenced; and in one memorable instance, an apology to the people of the United States was drawn from the editor of a British periodical. His editorial connexion with the North American Review lasted four years, from 1819 to the close of 1823; but he has continued to contribute to its pages to this day. It has been enriched by the contributions of many of our ablest scholars, but no single writer has done so much to secure and maintain its high stand and wide-spread influence as EDWARD EVERETT; and if he had written nothing else, his articles in that journal would constitute a monument of genius, eloquence, erudition, and patriotism, which would secure to him an enviable reputation. His lectures on Greek literature, delivered to the students of Harvard University, are remembered with respectful gratitude by all whose privilege it was to be connected with the college during his continuance in office there. At the same time he delivered two courses of lectures in Boston on Ancient Art, which, as well as his collegiate lectures, remain still unpublished. When, after having received such corrections and additions as his mature experience and leisure may enable him to bestow upon them, they shall be given to the world, those who heard them are confident that they will be regarded as one of the noblest contributions ever made to our literature.

While residing at Cambridge, he kept up a correspondence with his learned friends abroad, particularly with the scholars and patriots of Greece; and by his zealous exertions did much to awaken the interest which, throughout the country and in the halls of Congress, was expressed in behalf of that renowned people in their long and glorious struggle for liberty and independence.

In the discharge of his duties as Professor at Cambridge he was faithful, constant, and eminently successful. He did not confine himself to what was absolutely required of him; but by voluntary and gratuitous labors and offices of kindness, conferred benefits upon the students, which are not forgotten by them, however widely they may have been dispersed in the course of their subsequent lives. He prepared, while professor, a Greek grammar and a Greek class-book for the use of the students.

In 1824 he delivered the oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge. General Lafayette was among his auditors. This performance established his fame as an orator. About this time a vacancy occurred in the Congressional District to which Cambridge belongs; the gentleman who for many years had occupied the seat, having declined a re-election. The most popular political character in the district was put in nomination by one of the largest conventions ever assembled within it. A few young men made a volunteer nomination of EDWARD EVERETT. His talents and qualifications were not unknown to the intelligent people of Middlesex, and, to the astonishment of all, he was elected by a decisive majority.

Contrary to his expectation at the time of accepting a nomination, his connexion with the University, as an instructor, ceased on his election to Congress; but he was immediately chosen by the overseers to fill a vacancy at their board.

In December, 1825, he took his seat in Congress, to which he was re-elected for five successive Congresses by overwhelming majorities. His legislative labors were very great. For the whole period often years he was always on the Committee of Foreign Affairs, a part of the time its chairman. He drew up many of its reports, particularly that on the Panama Mission. After having reported to the House on our claims upon foreign powers for spoliation, he continued to discuss the subject in the North American Review, and finally collected all the facts and arguments, in reference to the question, as it stood with each foreign power concerned in it, into a volume.

Much of the credit for having finally procured the adjustment of these claims is due to him.

He was chairman of the Select Committee, during Mr. Adams’s Presidency, on the Georgia controversy; and always took a leading part, while in Congress, in the efforts that were made to protect the Indians from injustice. In the spring of 1827 he addressed a series of letters to Mr. Canning on the subject of the colonial trade, which were extensively re-published. He always served on the Library Committee, and generally on that for the Public Buildings; together with John Sergeant, he constituted the minority on the famous Retrenchment Committee. He drew the report for the Committee in favor of the heirs of Fulton. Together with the present Governor of Connecticut, Mr. Ellsworth, he constituted the minority of the Bank investigating Committee, which was despatched to Philadelphia, and wrote the minority report. He wrote the minority report of the Committee of Foreign Relations in reference to the controversy with France, in the spring of 1835; distinguished himself by the high ground he took on the subject in debate, and supplied, in the last clause of his report, the words of the resolution unanimously passed, in reference to it, by the House of Representatives. He also, at the same session, prepared a statement on French spoliations prior to 1800, which was printed by order of the House.

Such were some of his Congressional labors. He was emphatically, there as everywhere, a working man. He made himself perfectly acquainted with every subject that came before the House. His Speeches and Reports exhaust all the facts and arguments that belong to their topics. His manner of speaking was simple, elegant, and persuasive; and always secured attention. He was firm and steadfast in his political course; but urbane, respectful, and just toward his opponents. He disarmed his enemies, and was faithful to his friends; and his whole deportment was consistent with the history of his life, and will be readily acknowledged by his associates, of every party, to have been every way becoming the gentleman, the scholar, and the patriot.

In the interim of Congress, during the summer of 1829, he made an extensive tour through the south-western and western states, and was everywhere received with marked attentions, having been honored by public dinners in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, without distinction of party. When, in 1833, General Jackson visited New England, Mr. Everett was selected by his constituents in Charlestown to address him on Bunker Hill. The reply of the President was expressive of marked respect for his character and talents.

During the whole of his political career, up to this time, he has been mindful of the duty he owes to our literature. His pen has been active in innumerable ways; and each year he has been, without cessation, pouring forth a series of orations, lectures, and addresses of an historical, patriotic, philanthropic, and classical character; a large number of which have been collected in a volume, which is extensively circulated throughout the country. As a writer and speaker, he is surpassed by no one in grace, purity, and richness of style. His voice and manner of delivery are in harmony with the character of his sentiments. He never wearies, cannot be exhausted, and invariably causes delight to the hearts of his hearers. Whether with or without preparation, in the chair of State, from the academical stage, or in the unforeseen and ever-varying conjunctures of the literary or political festival, he is never taken by surprise, but adorns all that he touches.

In the spring of 1835, he took his leave of the House of Representatives, having declined a re-election.

On the election of Governor Davis to the Senate of the United States, in Feburary, 1835 he was nominated as his successor; and in the ensuing November was elected by a large majority. In 1836 he was re-elected to the same office, and in 1837 he received the largest majority ever given in Massachusetts in a contested election.

Excellent and distinguished as the Governors of Massachusetts have ever been, it is quite certain that no chief magistrate ever enjoyed a higher degree of the confidence of the people of that State than EDWARD EVERETT. His administration is a model of republican simplicity, fidelity, industry, and usefulness. He neglects no duty, and aims at no display. While in the discharge of his public office, he is dignified, firm, and regardful of the trust committed to him. When not engaged in official duty, he is undistinguishable from the body of his fellow-citizens; attracting attention only by the conscientious carefulness with which he fulfils every obligation as a citizen, a head of a family, and a man.

His administration has already begun to show the fruits of his industry and wisdom in the various ways in which it has advanced the public welfare. He is steadily and efficiently promoting a reform in the law, encouraging internal improvement, and the development of the physical and mechanical energies of the State; elevating the standard and diffusing the blessings of education; increasing the usefulness, and preventing abuses of the banking system; revising the militia, arresting the progress of disorder, and providing the means of its suppression; securing the public archives from destruction and loss, and unfolding all the capacities of the State, particularly its great resources, agriculture and the arts. Resolves, laws, and commissions, for these and other important objects, have been suggested or favored by his influence. When it is considered that he is yet in the prime of life, and that, blessed with a good constitution, sound and pure health, and the most temperate, and perfectly disciplined habits of mind and body, it is not too much to indulge the hope that for many years to come his benignant and invaluable influence will be felt upon the refinement, the literature, and the government of Massachusetts and of the Union.

In this sketch but a small proportion of Governor EVERETT’S writings have been enumerated. Many of the incidents in his life, and of his public services, which would claim a place in a full and complete biography, are necessarily omitted. The circumstances of his early education, and the course of his travels and studies when abroad, have been detailed with some minuteness, from a belief that every intelligent and reflecting reader will be curious to trace the progress, and ascertain the means by which such a character has been formed.

Besides the professional and political honors to which he has attained, Governor EVERETT is a member of various scientific and literary institutions at home and abroad. He is familiarly acquainted, not only with the ancient monuments of learning, but with the languages and literature of the principal modern nations; and is understood, amidst the cares of office, to keep fresh and bright all his acquirements of erudition and taste. As a politician, he may, perhaps, encounter the prejudices of some; but as a man of genius and learning, a finished scholar and accomplished gentleman, an ardent republican, a promoter of his country’s welfare, and a defender of its honor, he is undoubtedly regarded with liberal and just pride, and a sincere good-will, by all his countrymen, of every party, and in every part of the land.

C.W.U.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 4.

 

 

EVERETT, Joshua T., abolitionist, Princeton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40, 1840-58, 59-60-.

 

 

EWING, Thomas, 1789-1871, West Liberty, Ohio, statesman, attorney, Whig U.S. Senator, 1831-1837, from Oho, opposed slavery as a Senator.  Secretary of the Treasury, 1841-1847.  Secretary of the nterior.  Opposed Fugitive Slave Law, Henry Clay’s Compromise Bill, and called for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.  Adopted Civil War General William T. Sherman as a boy.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 393-394; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 237)

 

EWING, Thomas, statesman, b. near West Liberty, Ohio co., Va., 28 Dec., 1789; d. in Lancaster, Ohio, 26 Oct., 1871. His father, George Ewing, served in the Revolutionary army, and removed with his family in 1792 to the Muskingum river, and then to what is now Athens county, Ohio. In this unsettled district young Ewing's education was necessarily imperfect. His sister taught him to read, and in the evenings he studied the few books at his command. In his twentieth year he left his home and worked in the Kanawha salt establishments, pursuing his studies at night by the light of the furnace-fires. He remained here till he had earned enough money to clear from debt the farm that his father had bought in 1792, and had qualified himself to enter the Ohio university at Athens, where, in 1815, he received the first degree of A. B. that was ever granted in the Northwest. He then studied law in Lancaster, was admitted to the bar in 1816, and practised with success for fifteen years. In 1831-'7 he served as U. S. senator from Ohio, having been chosen as a Whig. He supported the protective tariff system of Clay, and advocated a reduction in the rates of postage, a recharter of the U. S. bank, and the revenue collection bill, known as the “force-bill.” He opposed the removal of the deposits from the U. S. bank, and introduced a bill for the settlement of the Ohio boundary question, which was passed in 1836. During the same session he brought forward a bill for the reorganization of the general land-office, which was passed, and also presented a memorial for the abolition of slavery. In July, 1836, the secretary of the treasury, issued what was known as the “specie circular.” This directed receivers in land-offices to accept payments only in gold, silver, or treasury certificates, except from certain classes of persons for a limited time. Mr. Ewing brought in a bill to annul this circular, and another to make it unlawful for the secretary to make such a discrimination, but these were not carried. After the expiration of his term in 1837 he resumed the practice of his profession. He became secretary of the treasury in 1841, under Harrison, and in 1849 accepted the newly created portfolio of the interior, under Taylor, and organized that department. Among the measures recommended in his first report, 3 Dec., 1849, were the establishment of a mint near the California gold-mines, and the construction of a railroad to the Pacific. When Thomas Corwin became secretary of the treasury in 1850, Mr. Ewing was appointed to succeed him in the senate. During this term he opposed the fugitive slave law, Clay's compromise bill, reported a bill for the establishment of a branch mint in California, and advocated a reduction of postage, and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. He retired from public life in 1851, and again resumed his law-practice in Lancaster. He was a delegate to the peace congress of 1861. During the civil war he gave, through the press and by correspondence and personal interviews, his counsel and influence to the support of the National authorities. While he devoted much of his time to political subjects, the law was his favorite study and pursuit. He early won and maintained throughout his life unquestioned supremacy at the bar of Ohio; and ranked in the supreme court of the United States among the foremost lawyers of the nation. In 1829, just after his father's death, Gen. William T. Sherman, then a boy nine years of age, was adopted by Mr. Ewing, who afterward appointed him to the U. S. military academy, and in 1850 he married Ellen, the daughter of his benefactor. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

 

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FAIRBANK, Calvin, 1816-1898, New York state, Methodist Minister, abolitionist.  Convicted of aiding fugitive slaves in Kentucky.  Active in Undergraound Railroad.  He was arrested again in 1851.  He served 17 years fr helping slaves escape.  (Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 247)

 

 

FAIRBANKS, Dexter, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40, Executive Committee, 1839-

 

 

FAIRBANKS, Asa, abolitionist, Providence, Rhode Island, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1846-64

 

 

FAIRBANKS, Dexter, abolitionist, New York, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-42.

 

 

FAIRBANKS, Drury, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-38

 

 

FAIRCHILD, Edward H., anti-slavery agent.  Lectured against slavery in Erie and Crawford Counties in Ohio.  Later was first president of Berea College.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 188, 393n23)

 

 

FAIRFAX, Ferdinando, charter member of the American Colonization Society, founded in Washington, DC, in 1816.  Favored individual manumission of slaves.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 10-11, 14; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 2-4, 252n2)

 

 

FAIRFIELD, John, d. 1861, abolitionist.  Aided fugitive slaves as a “conductor” in the Underground Railroad in Western Virginia.  Rescued and aided fugitive slaves for more than 12 years.  (Switala, 2001; Wagner, 2007)

 

 

FARMER, John, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist reformer. Farmer was disowned by Quakers for his stand against slavery (Drake, 1950, pp. 29-32, 34, 36-38, 40, 47, 51, 136, 159; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 433; Soderlund, 1985, pp. 22, 35, 249)

 

 

FARNHAM, Eliza, 1815-1864, anti-slavery activist, prison reformer, novelist.  (Farnham, Eliza, My Early Days, 1859, an autobiographical novel)

 

 

FARNSWORTH, Amos, abolitionist, Groton, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40, 1840-42, 1843-53.

 

 

FARNSWORTH, Benjamin Franklin, 1793-1851, abolitionist, educator, Providence, Rhode Island.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1836.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 411)

 

FARNSWORTH, Benjamin Franklin, educator. b. in Bridgeton, Me., 17 Dec., 1793; d. in Louisville, Ky., 4 June, 1851. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1813, studied for the ministry, and was pastor of the Baptist church at Edenton, N. C., for two years. From 1821 till 1823 he was principal of the Bridgewater, Mass., academy, and then took charge of a girls' high-school at Worcester, Mass. He next edited the “Christian Watchman,” of Boston, which he left, in 1826, to take the chair of theology at the New Hampton, N. H., theological institute. Here he remained until 1833, when, after teaching school for a time in Providence, R. I., he was elected president of Georgetown, Ky., college, from which he afterward received the degree of D. D. The following year he was chosen president of the University of Louisville, where he remained until his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 411.

 

 

FARNSWORTH, John Franklin, 1820-1897, Chicago, Illinois, Union soldier.  Colonel, 8th Illinois Cavalry, later commissioned Brigadier General, 1861-1862.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois, 1857-1861, 1863-1873.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 411-412; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 284; Congressional Globe)

 

FARNSWORTH, John Franklin, legislator, b. in Eaton, Quebec, Canada, 27 March, 1820. He removed with his parents to Michigan in 1834, received an academic education, studied and practised law, and afterward went to Chicago, Ill. He was elected to congress as a Republican, and served from 1857 till 1861, when he became colonel of the 8th Illinois cavalry. He subsequently raised the 17th Illinois regiment, by order of the war department, and was commissioned brigadier-general, 29 Nov., 1862, but was compelled to resign from the army in March, 1863, owing to injuries received in the field. He then removed to St. Charles, Ill., and from 1863 till 1873 was again a member of congress. Since 1873 he has been engaged in the practice, of his profession in Washington, D. C. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 411-412.

 

 

FAUGÈRES, Margaretta Bleecker, 1771-1801, New York, playwright, poet, abolitionist.  Wrote and published extensively on the anti-slavery movement.

 

 

FAYERWEATHER, Sarah Ann Harris, 1812-1878, African American, anti-slavery reformer (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 329)

 

 

FEE, Reverend John Gregg, 1816-1901, American Missionary Association, clergyman, educator, abolitionist.  Founder of Berea College, Madison County, Kentucky. (Filling, 1960, pp. 213, 222, 247, 272; Goodell, 1852, p. 492; Mabee, 1970, pp. 141, 142, 157203, 220, 228, 229, 232, 236, 238, 241, 258, 326, 339, 376; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 166, 380; Autobiography of John G. Fee, Berea, Kentucky, 1891; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 310, Vol. 7, p. 786)

 

 

FELL, Stephen, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

FENDALL, Philip Ricard, 1794-1868, Alexandria, Virginia, Recording Secretary, American Colonization Society, 1834-41, Executive Committee, 1839-40.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 429-430; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 226)

 

FENDALL, Philip Ricard, lawyer, b. in Alexandria, Va., in 1794; d. in Washington, D. C., 16 Feb., 1868. He was graduated at Princeton in 1815, and was admitted to the bar in Alexandria about 1820. Some years later he removed to Washington, D. C., where he filled the office of district attorney in 1841-'5, and 1849-'53. He ranked for years as the ablest advocate of the capital, and wrote much on literary and political topics. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FENTON, Reuben Eaton, 1819-1885, Carroll Chatauqua County, New York, statesman, lawyer, U.S. Congressman.  Voted against extension of slavery in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.  Elected Governor in 1864.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 430-431; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 326)

 

FENTON, Reuben Eaton, statesman, b. in Carroll, Chautauqua co., N. Y., 4 July, 1819; d. in Jamestown, N. Y., 25 Aug., 1885. His early education was obtained at Pleasant Hill and Fredonia academies, in his native county. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, and began practice in Jamestown, but, finding law uncongenial, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and in a few years acquired moderate fortune. Meanwhile he took active interest in politics, and in 1843 was elected supervisor of the town of Carroll, which office he held for eight years. In 1852 Mr. Fenton was elected to congress, and was active in the contest over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, being one of the forty-four northern Democrats that voted against the further extension of slavery. This action resulted in his defeat in 1854, when he was nominated by the Whigs and Democrats against the Know-nothing candidate. The Republicans of his district nominated Mr. Fenton for congress in 1856, and he was elected by a large majority, serving from 1857 till 1864, when he resigned, having been chosen governor of his state. He heartily supported the cause of the Union in the civil war, and stood firmly by President Lincoln and his cabinet in their war measures. He was inaugurated governor at the opening of the year 1865, and was re-elected by an increased majority. In 1868 he was elected to succeed Edwin D. Morgan as U. S. senator, and served from 1869 to 1875. The only public trust held by him after leaving the senate was that of chairman of the U. S. commission at the International monetary conference in Paris in 1878. Mr. Fenton actively promoted the interests of the community in which he lived. He projected the bringing of two new railroads into Jamestown, and was one of the main contributors toward establishing there a Swedish orphanage. He also served a term as president of the village. His last public address was made on the occasion of Gen. Grant's funeral, when a memorial service was held in Walnut Grove, his place of residence. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FERRIS, Benjamin, Wilmington, Delaware, abolitionist.  Vice president and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 442; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 854)

 

FERRIS, Benjamin, author, d. in Wilmington, Del., in 1867. He was a watchmaker, lived for many years in Philadelphia, and was clerk of the Philadelphia meeting of Friends. He published “History of the Early Settlements on the Delaware, from its Discovery to the Colonization under William Penn” (Wilmington, 1846). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 442.

 

 

FERRIS, Zeba, abolitionist, Delaware, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40.

 

 

FESSENDEN, Samuel, 1784-1869, Portland, Maine, lawyer, jurist, soldier, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1839, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Leader, active member of the Liberty Party.  Early member of the Republican Party.  Father of Treasury Secretary William Pitt Fessenden and Congressman Samuel Clement Fessenden.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 301; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 443; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 346)

 

FESSENDEN, Samuel, lawyer, b. in Fryeburg, Me., 16 July, 1784; d. near Portland, Me., 13 March, 1869. His father, the Rev. William Fessenden, graduated at Harvard in 1768, was the first minister of Fryeburg, and frequently a member of the Massachusetts legislature. He also served as judge of probate. Samuel received his early education at the Fryeburg academy, and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1806. He studied law with Judge Dana, of Fryeburg, was admitted to the bar in 1809, and began practice at New Gloucester, where he rose to distinction in his profession. In 1815-'16 he was in the general court of Massachusetts, of which state Maine was then a district, and in 1818-'19 represented his district in the Massachusetts senate. For fourteen years he was major-general of the 12th division of Massachusetts militia, to which office he was elected on leaving the senate, and to which he gave much attention. He removed to Portland in 1822, and about 1828 declined the presidency of Dartmouth. He was an ardent Federalist, and one of the early members of the anti-slavery party in Maine. In 1847 he was nominated for governor and for congress by the Liberty party, receiving large votes. For forty years he stood at the head of the bar in Maine. He was an active philanthropist. He published two orations and a treatise on the institution, duties, and importance of juries. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Bowdoin in 1846. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 443.

 

 

FESSENDEN, Samuel Clement, 1815-1881, Maine, lawyer, jurist, U.S. Congressman, Maine 37th, Congress 1861-1863, abolitionist.  Father was Samuel Fessenden (1784-1869).  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 443-444)

 

FESSENDEN, Samuel Clement, lawyer, b. in New Gloucester, Me., 7 March, 1815; d. in 1881, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1834, and at Bangor theological seminary in 1837, and was pastor of the 2d Congregational church in Thomaston (now Rockland) from then till 1856. In that year he established the “Maine Evangelist,” and in 1858 studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice. He was elected judge of the municipal court of Rockland, and was a representative from Maine to the 37th congress, serving from July, 1861, till March, 1863. Until the rise of the Republican party he was an abolitionist. In 1865 he was appointed a member of the board of examiners of the U. S. patent-office. In 1879 he was U. S. consul at St. John's, N. B. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 443-444.

 

 

FESSENDEN, William Pitt, 1806-1869, lawyer, statesman, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.  Elected to Congress in 1840 as a member of the Whig Party opposing slavery.  Moved to repeal rule that excluded anti-slavery petitions before Congress.  Strong leader in Congress opposing slavery.  Elected to the Senate in 1854.  He opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill as well as the Dred Scott Supreme Court Case.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Prominent leader of the anti-slavery faction of the Republican Party in the U.S. Senate.  As U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Father was abolitionist Samuel Fessenden.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 443-444; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 368; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 861; Congressional Globe)

 

FESSENDEN, William Pitt, senator, b. in Boscawen, N. H., 16 Oct., 1806; d. in Portland, Me., 8 Sept., 1869, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1823, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1827. He practised law first in Bridgeton, a year in Bangor, and afterward in Portland, Me. He was a member of the legislature of that state in 1832, and its leading debater. He refused nominations to congress in 1831 and in 1838, and served in the legislature again in 1840, becoming chairman of the house committee to revise the statutes of the state. He was elected to congress as a Whig in 1840, serving one term, during which time he moved the repeal of the rule that excluded anti-slavery petitions, and spoke upon the loan and bankrupt bills, and the army. He gave his attention wholly to his law business till he was again in the legislature in 1845-'6. He acquired a national reputation as a lawyer and an anti-slavery Whig, and in 1849 prosecuted before the supreme court an appeal from an adverse decision of Judge Story, and gained a reversal by an argument which Daniel Webster pronounced the best he had heard in twenty years. He was again in the legislature in 1853 and 1854, when his strong anti-slavery principles caused his election to the U. S. senate by the vote of the Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats. Taking his seat in February, 1854, he made, a week afterward, an electric speech against the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which placed him in the front rank of the senate. He took a leading part in the formation of the Republican party, and from 1854 till 1860 was one of the ablest opponents of the pro-slavery measures of the Democratic administrations. His speech on the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, in 1856, received the highest praise, and in 1858 his speech on the Lecompton constitution of Kansas, and his criticisms of the opinion of the supreme court in the Dred Scott case, were considered the ablest discussion of those topics. He was re-elected to the senate in 1859 without the formality of a nomination. In 1861 he was a member of the Peace congress. By the secession of the southern senators the Republicans acquired control of the senate, and placed Mr. Fessenden at the head of the finance committee. During the civil war he was the most conspicuous senator in sustaining the national credit. He opposed the legal-tender act as unnecessary and unjust. As chairman of the finance committee, Mr. Fessenden prepared and carried through the senate all measures relating to revenue, taxation, and appropriations, and, as declared by Mr. Sumner, was “in the financial field all that our best generals were in arms.” When Sec. Chase resigned in 1864, Mr. Fessenden was called by the unanimous appeal of the nation to the head of the treasury. It was the darkest hour of our national finances. Sec. Chase had just withdrawn a loan from the market for want of acceptable bids; the capacity of the country to lend seemed exhausted. The currency had been enormously inflated, and gold was at 280. Mr. Fessenden refused the office, but at last accepted in obedience to the universal public pressure. When his acceptance became known, gold fell to 225, with no bidders. He declared that no more currency should be issued, and, making an appeal to the people, he prepared and put upon the market the seven-thirty loan, which proved a triumphant success. This loan was in the form of bonds bearing interest at the rate of 7·30 per cent., which were issued in denominations as low as $50, so that people of moderate means could take them. He also framed and recommended the measures, adopted by congress, which permitted the subsequent consolidation and funding of the government loans into the four and four-and-a-half per cent bonds. The financial situation becoming favorable, Mr. Fessenden, in accordance with his expressed intention, resigned the secretaryship in 1865 to return to the senate, to which he had now for the third time been elected. He was again made chairman of the finance committee, and was also appointed chairman of the joint committee on reconstruction, and wrote its celebrated report, pronounced one of the ablest state papers ever submitted to congress. It vindicated the power of congress over the rebellious states, showed their relations to the government under the constitution and the law of nations, and recommended the constitutional safeguards made necessary by the rebellion. Mr. Fessenden was now the acknowledged leader in the senate of the Republicans, when he imperilled his party standing by opposing the impeachment of President Johnson in 1868. He gave his reasons for voting “not guilty” upon the articles, and was subjected to a storm of detraction from his own party such as public men have rarely met. His last service was in 1869, and his last speech was upon the bill to strengthen the public credit. He advocated the payment of the principal of the public debt in gold, and opposed the notion that it might lawfully be paid in depreciated greenbacks. His public character was described as of the highest type of patriotism, courage, integrity, and disinterestedness, while his personal character was beyond reproach. He was noted for his swiftness of retort. He was a member of the Whig national conventions that nominated Harrison (1840), Taylor (1848), and Scott (1852). For several years he was a regent of the Smithsonian institution. He received the degree of LL.D. from Bowdoin in 1858, and from Harvard in 1864. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 443-444.

 

 

FEW, William, 1748-1828, soldier, statesman, political leader, founding father, abolitionist.  Representative of Georgia at the Constitutional Convention.  U.S. Senator.  Soldier in the Revolutionary War.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 352)

 

 

FIELD, Chester, Worcester, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1859

 

 

FIELD, Issac, abolitionist, Iowa Territory, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40.

 

 

FIELD, Dr. Nathaniel, 1805-1888, Jeffersonville, IN, physician, legislative representative, clergyman, abolitionist.  Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1839.  Aided fugitive slaves.  He inherited slaves from his relatives and immediately emancipated them.  He also aided fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 450)

 

FIELD, Nathaniel, physician, b. in Jefferson county, Ky., 7 Nov., 1805; d. in Jeffersonville, Clark co., Ind., 28 Aug., 1888. His father served. in the Revolutionary war, and emigrated to Kentucky in 1784. Nathaniel was educated in the best schools, and was graduated at Transylvania medical school, Lexington, Ky. He first settled in northern Alabama, and practised there three years, when he returned to Kentucky. In the autumn of 1829 he removed to Jeffersonville, Ind., where he afterward resided. He was a member of the legislature from 1838 till 1839. In the spring of the latter year he organized the city government of Jeffersonville, under a charter that he drafted and had passed by the legislature. In 1830 he established the first Christian (or Campbellite) church in that city, and in 1847 the Second Advent Christian church. He served as pastor of the former for seventeen years, and of the latter for forty years, without compensation, believing it to be wrong to earn a livelihood by preaching, or to “make merchandise of the gospel.” He voted against the entire township, in 1834, on the proposition to expel the free negroes, and was compelled to face a mob in consequence. He was one of the original abolitionists of the west, and emancipated several valuable slaves that he had inherited. He held a debate, in 1852, with Elder Thomas P. Connelly on the “State of the Dead,” and the arguments were published in book-form. He also published a humorous poem, entitled “Arts of Imposture and Deception Peculiar to American Society” (1858). Dr. Field was the author of a monograph on “Asiatic Cholera,” contributed many essays to medical journals, and prepared in manuscript lectures on “Capital Punishment,” “The Mosaic Record of Creation,” “The Age of the Haman Race,” and “The Chronology of Fossils.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 450.

 

 

FINDLEY, William, 1741-1821, member of U.S. Congress, elected 1791-1799 and 1803-1817, Pennsylvania, opposed slavery (Appletons, 1888, Vol. II, p. 458; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 153; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 385; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 918)

 

FINDLAY, William, governor of Pennsylvania, b. in Mercersburg, Pa., 20 June, 1768; d. in Harrisburg, Pa., 12 Nov., 1846. After receiving a common-school education, he became a farmer, and early took part in politics as a Democrat. His first office was that of brigade-inspector of militia. He was elected to the legislature in 1797 and 1803, and in 1807-'17 was state treasurer. He was governor from 1817 till 1820, and in the latter year was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election. Party spirit ran high during his administration, and in 1817 his opponents secured the appointment of a committee to investigate the late treasurer's conduct of his office. This investigation, though Gov. Findlay offered no witness in his behalf, resulted in a report that his conduct had been “not only faithful, but meritorious and beneficial to the state.” The building of the state capitol was begun during Gov. Findlay's administration, and its corner-stone was laid by him. He was elected to the U. S. senate in 1821, and served one term, and in 1827-'40. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 458.

 

 

FINLEY, C. B., , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-37

 

 

FINLEY, James B.,  abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1853-55

 

 

FINLEY, James C., Dr., Cincinnati, Ohio.  Manager of the Cincinnati auxiliary of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Son of ACS founder Reverend Robert S. Finley.  Volunteered to go to Liberia.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 140)

 

 

FINLEY, Robert, Reverend, 1772-1817, clergyman, founding officer and Vice President, American Colonization Society, 1816.  (Burin, 2005; Campbell, 1971, pp. 12, 18, 38-40, 42, 80, 94, 97, 131, 189; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 460; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p., p. 391; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 15-35 passim, 26, 30, 33, 69)

 

 

FINLEY, Robert Smith, 1804-1860, Cincinnati, Ohio.  Member and Secretary of the Cincinnati auxiliary of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Son of ACS founder Robert S. Finley.  Traveling agent for the Society.  Organized numerous societies in Ohio.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 460; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 140, 144-145, 147, 210, 227, 231-232, 234)

 

 

FINNEY, Reverend Charles Grandison, 1792-1875, clergyman, advocate of social reforms, author, publisher, president of Oberlin College, Ohio, 1851-1866, abolitionist.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1841.  American Presbyterian Minister and leader in the “Second Great Awakening” in the United States.  Also considered one of the “fathers of modern revivalism,” 1825-1835, in upstate New York and Manhattan.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 154, 158-159, 163; Goodell, 1852, p. 492; Mabee, 1970, pp. 130, 151, 153, 218, 253, 291, 339, 403n25; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 511, 518; Sorin, 1971, pp. 12, 55, 67, 69, 97, 111-112; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 461; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 394; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 290-292; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 935)

 

FINNEY, Charles Grandison, clergyman, b. in Warren, Litchfield co., Conn., 29 Aug., 1792; d. in Oberlin, Ohio, 16 Aug., 1875. He removed with his father to Oneida county, N. Y., in 1794, and when about twenty years old engaged in teaching in New Jersey. He began to study law in Jefferson county, N. Y., in 1818, but, having been converted in 1821, studied theology, was licensed to preach in the Presbyterian church in 1824, and began to labor as an evangelist. He met with great success in Utica, Troy, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. On his second visit to the last city, in 1832, the Chatham street theatre was bought and made into a church for him, and the New York “Evangelist” established as an advocate of the revival. His labors here resulted in the establishment of seven “free Presbyterian” churches, and in 1834 he became pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle, which had been built especially for him. Mr. Finney accepted, in 1835, the professorship of theology at Oberlin, which had just been founded by his friends, and retained it until his death. Here he assisted in establishing the “Oberlin Evangelist,” and afterward the “Oberlin Quarterly.” He also became pastor of the Congregational church in Oberlin in 1837; but continued at intervals to preach in New York and elsewhere. He spent three years in England as a revivalist, in 1849-'51 and 1858-'60, adding to his reputation for eloquence, and in 1851-'66 was president of Oberlin. Prof. Finney relied greatly on doctrinal preaching in his revivals, as opposed to animal excitement, and his sermons were plain, logical, and direct. He was an Abolitionist, an anti-mason, and an advocate of total abstinence. His chief works are “Lectures on Revivals,” which have been translated into several foreign languages (Boston, 1835; 13th ed., 1840; enlarged ed., Oberlin, 1868); “Lectures to Professing Christians” (Oberlin, 1836); “Sermons on Important Subjects” (New York, 1839); and “Lectures on Systematic Theology” (2 vols., Oberlin, 1847; London, 1851). After his death were published his “Memoirs,” written by himself (New York, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 461.

 

 

FISHER, George T., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

FISHER, Miers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lawyer, abolitionist, Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS), founded 1775.  Represented PAS in legal cases opposing slavery.  Founding member, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 80, 92)

 

 

FISK, John M., abolitionist, West Brookfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40, 1840-55

 

 

FISK, Lydia M., abolitionist, Oberlin, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-41

 

 

FISK, Sereno, Billerica, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-

 

 

FISK, Wilbur, 1792-1839, Middletown, Connecticut, educator, President of Wesleyan University.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1836-1840.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 467-468; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 415; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 132, 231)

 

FISK, Wilbur, educator, b. in Brattleboro, Vt., 31 Aug., 1792; d. in Middletown, Vt., 22 Feb., 1839, was graduated at Brown in 1815, and studied law, but, after a long and serious illness, abandoned the profession and entered the itinerant ministry in 1818, when he was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church. He took high rank as a pulpit orator, was pastor for two years in Craftsbury, Vt., and in 1819 removed to Charlestown, Mass. At the conference of 1820 he was admitted into full membership, ordained as a deacon in 1822, and from 1823 till 1827 was presiding elder of the Vermont district, which then comprised the whole of Vermont east of the Green mountains. He was placed upon the superannuated list, but was requested, in so far as health would allow, to act as agent for Newmarket academy, at that time the only Methodist institution in New England. While here, he was chosen to make the address of welcome to Lafayette in 1824. He was also a delegate to the general conference in that year, and was chosen to write the address to the British conference. He was chaplain of the Vermont legislature in 1826, and was one of the founders and principal of the Wesleyan academy in Wilbraham, Mass., 1826-'31, and a delegate to the general conference of 1828, when he was elected bishop of the Canada conference, but declined. In 1829 he also refused the presidency of La Grange college, Alabama, and a professorship in the University of Alabama. In 1830 he was chosen first president of the Wesleyan university, in whose organization he had materially aided. The duties of that office were entered upon in 1831; the institution under his direction became the most influential of any in the Methodist denomination in America. At the general conference of 1832 his appeals in behalf of Indian missions resulted in the organization of the Oregon mission, and he was at this time instrumental in founding Williamstown academy. For years he was useful to educational interests at large by recommending or furnishing professors and presidents to the rapidly multiplying colleges of the far west. In search of health, he passed the winter of 1835-'6 in Italy, and the summer of 1836 in England, when he also represented the M. E. church of the Wesleyan conference as a delegate. He was elected bishop of that church in 1836, but declined. In 1839 he became a member of the board of education of Connecticut. He was said to be unsurpassed in eloquence and fervor as a preacher, and was often compared to Fénélon, being endowed with like moral and mental traits. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Augusta college, Kentucky, in 1829, and by Brown in 1835. His published works are: “Inaugural Address” (New York, 1831); “Calvinistic Controversy” (1837); “Travels in Europe” (1838); “Sermons and Lectures on Universalism: Reply to Pierpont on the Atonement, and other Theological and Educational Works and Sermons.” His account of his European travels had a wide circulation and wits greatly admired. His “Life and Writings” were published by the Rev. Joseph Holdich, D. D. (New York, 1842). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FITCH, Charles, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1837-38

 

 

FITCH, Eleazer Thompson, 1791-1871, New Haven, Connecticut, educator, theologian.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Bruns, 1977, p. 514; Locke, 1901, p. 92; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 470)

 

FITCH, Eleazar Thompson, educator, b. in New Haven, Conn., 1 Jan., 1791; d. there, 31 Jan., 1871. He was graduated at Yale in 1810, and afterward was a teacher at East Windsor Hill, and subsequently in the New Haven Hopkins grammar-school. In 1812 he entered Andover theological seminary, where, after completing the regular course, he remained, pursuing advanced studies, giving assistance in instruction, and preaching, until his election, in 1817, to succeed President Dwight in the office of professor of divinity at Yale. One branch of his work was to teach theology to graduates, and in this his classes increased so that he was led to urge upon the corporation the founding of a theological department, which was organized in 1822. In this department he filled the chair of homiletics, at the same time being college preacher and pastor, and giving instruction in the academical department in natural theology and the evidences of Christianity. He delivered to successive classes a series of sermons in systematic theology, and some of his doctrinal views thus presented becoming publicly controverted, he was compelled to defend them as publicly. Impaired health compelled him to resign his office as professor, yet he retained his connection with the theological seminary as lecturer until 1861, and with the theological faculty as professor emeritus until his death. At his resignation he became a member of the “Circle of retired Clergymen and Laymen,” in whose meetings he took an active part. He wrote theological reviews and other articles for periodicals, and a volume of his sermons was published in 1871. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 470.

 

 

FITZHUGH, Carroll Ann, 1805-1875, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.  Active in aiding fugitive slaves in her home, along with her abolitionist husband, Gerrit Smith.  Prominent supporter of the abolitionst movement.

 

 

FITZHUGH, William Henry, 1792-1830, Ravenswood, Virginia, philanthropist.  Vice-President of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Wrote articles promoting the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 475; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 114, 174, 177)

 

FITZHUGH, William Henry, philanthropist, b. in Chatham, Stafford co., Va., 8 March, 1792; d. in Cambridge, Md., 21 May, 1830. He was a son of William F. Fitzhugh, a patriot of the Revolution, was graduated at Princeton in 1808, and settled on the patrimonial domain of “Ravensworth,” Fairfax co., Va. He was elected vice-president of the American colonization society, and took an active interest in it, supporting it both with voice and pen. In 1826 he published a series of essays in behalf of the cause, over the signature of “Opimius,” in the columns of the Richmond “Inquirer.” He was also the author of an address delivered on the ninth anniversary of the association, and of a review of “Tazewell's Report” in the “African Repository” (August and November, 1828). In one of his essays he expresses the opinion that “the labor of the slave is a curse on the land on which it is expended,” which seems like a truism now, but was bold doctrine then. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FLANNER, William, Jefferson County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-38

 

 

FLETCHER, Calvin, 1798-1866, Indianapolis, Indiana, banker, farm owner, state legislator.  Member of the Whig, Free Soil and, later, Republican parties.  Supported colonization movement in Indiana.  During Civil War, he promoted the organization of U.S. Colored Troops in Indiana.  (Diary of Calvin Fletcher)

 

 

FLETCHER, Leonard, abolitionist, Chester County, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-40

 

 

FLETCHER, Ryland, Proctorville, Vermont, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

FLINT, George, abolitionist, Rutland, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1859-60-

 

 

FOLGER, Robert H., abolitionist, Massillon, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-41

 

 

FOLLEN, Charles Theodore, 1796-1840, Massachusetts, educator, professor, writer, clergyman, Unitarian minister, abolitionist.  Fired from Harvard University for his anti-slavery oratory.  Wrote Lectures on Moral Philosophy, which strongly opposed slavery.  Influenced by abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier and abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, he became active in the New England Anti-Slavery Society.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice President, 1834-1835, 1836-1837, Member Executive Committee, 1837-1838, 1860-1863.  Counsellor of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1859-1960.  Wrote anti-slavery Address to the People of the United States, which he delivered to the Society’s first convention in Boston.  Supported political and legal equality for women.  (Goodell, 1852, pp. 418, 469; Pease, 1965, pp. lxi, 224-233; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 288; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 491-492; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 492; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 301-302)

 

FOLLEN, Charles Theodore Christian, educator, b. in Romrod, Germany, 4 Sept., 1796; d. in Long Island sound, 13 Jan., 1840. He was the second son of Christopher Follen, an eminent jurist. He was educated at the preparatory school at Giessen, where he distinguished himself for proficiency in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, and Italian. At the age of seventeen he entered the University of Giessen, and began the study of jurisprudence, but presently, on hearing the news of Napoleon's defeat at Leipsic, he enlisted in a corps of riflemen. A few weeks after enlisting, his military career was cut short by an acute attack of typhus fever, which seemed for a time to have completely destroyed his memory. After his recovery he returned to the university, where he took the degree of doctor of civil law in 1817. In the following year he lectured on the pandects in the University of Jena. Here he was arrested on suspicion of complicity with the fanatical assassin, Sand, in the murder of Kotzebue. The suspicion was entirely groundless. After his acquittal he returned to Giessen, but soon incurred the dislike of the government through his liberal ideas in politics. His brother had already been thrown into jail for heading a petition begging for the introduction of a representative government. Dr. Follen, perceiving that he was himself in danger, left Germany and went to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Lafayette. In 1820 the French government ordered all foreigners to quit France, and Dr. Follen repaired to Zurich, where he became professor of Latin in the cantonal school of the Grisons. He was soon afterward transferred to the University of Basel, as professor of civil law, and here. in association with the celebrated De Wette, he edited the literary journal of the university, and published an essay on the “Destiny of Man,” and another on “Spinoza's Doctrine of Law and Morals.” In 1824 the governments of Russia, Austria, and Prussia demanded of the Swiss government that Dr. Follen should be surrendered to “justice” for the crime of disseminating revolutionary doctrines, and, finding the Swiss government unable to protect him, he made his escape to America, and, after devoting a year to the study of the English language, was appointed instructor in German at Harvard. He studied divinity with Dr. W. E. Channing, began preaching in 1828, and also served as instructor in ecclesiastical history in the Harvard divinity-school. In 1830 he was appointed professor of German literature at Harvard. There was no regular foundation for such a professorship it was merely continued from time to time by a special vote of the corporation. About this time Dr. Follen became prominently connected with the anti-slavery movement, which was then extremely unpopular at Harvard, and in 1834 the corporation refused to continue his professorship. Thrown thus upon his own resources, after nearly ten years of faithful and valuable service at the university, Dr. Follen supported himself for a time by teaching and writing, living at Watertown, Milton, and Stockbridge. In 1836 he was formally ordained as a Unitarian minister, and preached occasionally in New York, Washington, and Boston. He continued conspicuous among the zealous advocates of the abolition of slavery. In 1840 he was settled over a parish in East Lexington, Mass., but while on his way from New York to Boston he lost his life in the burning of the steamer “Lexington.” He published a “German Reader” (Boston, 1831; new ed., with additions by G. A. Schmitt, 1858); and “Practical Grammar of the German Language” (Boston, 1831). His complete works, containing lectures on moral philosophy, miscellaneous essays and sermons, and a fragment of a treatise on psychology, and a memoir by his widow, were published after his death (5 vols., Boston, 1842). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 491-492.

 

 

FOLLEN, Eliza Lee Cabot, 1787-1860, co-founder, leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) in 1833, writer, church organizer. American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee member, 1846-1860.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1846-1860.  Wrote “Anti-Slavery Hymns and Songs” and “A Letter to Mothers in the States.”  (Hansen, 1993; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 288; Sterling, 1991; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 491-492; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 492)

 

FOLLEN, Eliza Lee Cabot, author, b. in Boston, 15 Aug., 1787; d. in Brookline, Mass., 26 Jan., 1860, was the daughter of Samuel Cabot, of Boston, and married Dr. Follen in 1828. After her husband's death she educated their only son, whom, with other pupils, she fitted for Harvard. She edited the “Child's Friend” in 1843-'50. Mrs. Follen was an intimate friend of William Ellery Channing, and was a zealous opponent of slavery. Besides the memoir of her husband, mentioned above, she published “The Well-Spent Hour” (Boston, 1827); “The Skeptic” (1835); “Poems” (1839); “To Mothers in the Free States” (1855); “Anti-Slavery Hymns and Songs” (1855); “Twilight Stories” (1858); and “Home Dramas” (1859). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 491-492.

 

 

FONERDON, Adam, Maryland, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage, founded 1789.  (Basker, 2005, p. 224)

 

 

FOOT, Charles E., Liberty League (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 51)

 

 

FOOT, Solomon, 1802-1866, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator.  Opposed war with Mexico.  Opposed slavery and its extension into new territories.  Founding member of the Republican Party.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Congressional Globe; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 495; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 498)

 

FOOT, Solomon, senator, b. in Cornwall, Addison co., Vt., 19 Nov., 1802; d. in Washington, D. C., 28 March, 1866. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1826, was principal of Castleton, Vt., seminary in 1826-'8, tutor in Vermont university in 1827, and in 1828-'31 held the chair of natural philosophy in the Vermont academy of medicine, Castleton. He was admitted to the bar in the latter year, and began practice in Rutland, where he lived until his death. He was a member of the legislature in 1833, 1836-'8, and 1847, speaker of the house in 1837-'8 and 1847, delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1836, and state attorney for Rutland in 1836-'42. He was then elected to congress as a Whig, and served from 1843 till 1847. He was an unsuccessful candidate for clerk of the house in 1849, was then chosen U. S. senator from Vermont, and served from 1851 till his death, becoming a Republican in 1854. He was chairman of important committees, and was president pro tempore of the senate during a part of the 36th congress and the whole of the 37th. Senator Foot was prominent in debate, and took an active part in the discussions on the admission of Kansas to the Union in 1858. He was chosen president of the Brunswick and Florida railroad company about 1854, and visited England to negotiate the bonds of the company. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 495.

 

 

FOOTE, Charles C., Michigan, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1856-59

 

 

FOOTE, Hiram, 1808-1889, abolitionist, agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Hartford, Connecticut (Dumond, 1961, p. 185)

 

 

FOOTE, J. A., Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-39

 

 

FORBES, Abner, Vermont, general, soldier.  Officer, Vermont auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-38.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 76)

 

 

FORBES, John Murray, 1813-1898, industrial entrepreneur, abolitionist, philanthropist, American railroad magnate.  President of the Michigan Central Railroad and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.  Opposed the introduction of slavery into Kansas and supplied money and weapons to the cause.  Forbes was an elector for Abraham Lincoln in 1860.  (Hughes, Sarah Forbes, ed. Life and Recollections of John Murray Forbes. Houghton, Mifflin, 1899.  Pearson, Henry. An American Railroad Builder: John Murray Forbes. Houghton, Mifflin, 1911.  Pease & Pease, 1972)

 

 

FORD, Lewis, abolitionist, Abington, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1855-58.

 

 

FOREST, David M., founding charter member of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

FORMAN, E., charter member of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

FORREST, John R., Vermont, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1856-58

 

 

FORTEN, Charlotte, 1837-1914, free African American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, women’s rights activist, writer, intellectual (Billington, 1953; Mabee, 1970, pp. 105, 161, 162, 308; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 289, 410, 416, 482; Stevenson, 1988; Yellin, 1994, pp. 69, 94, 98-99, 116, 116n, 164)

 

 

FORTEN, James, Jr., Philadelphia, PA, African American, abolitionist, son of James Forten, Sr.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1844.  (Pease, 1965, pp. 233-240)

 

 

FORTEN, James, Sr., 1766-1842, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, businessman, social reformer, free African American community leader, led abolitionist group. Co-founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Organized first African American Masonic Lodge in 1797. Petitioned Congress to pass law to end slavery and the changing of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.  Opposed Pennsylvania Senate bill that would restrict Black settlement in the state.  Supported temperance and women’s rights movements. American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice President, 1834-1835, Manager, 1835-1840.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 296-317; Billington, 1953; Douty, 1968; Dumond, 1961, pp. 170-171, 328, 340; Mabee, 1970, pp. 93, 104, 105, 161, 308; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 34, 105, 290; Winch, 2002; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 305-306; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 536; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 276; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 446)

 

 

FORTEN, Margaretta, 1808-1875, free African American, officer, Female Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia, daughter of James Forten.  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 416; Winch, 2002; Yellin, 1994, pp. 7, 79, 75, 115-116, 164, 237; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 447)

 

 

FORTEN, Robert Bridges, 1813-1864, African American (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 449)

 

 

FORTEN, Robert, free African American, abolitionist, social activist, son of James Forten, father of Charlotte Forten. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 288; Winch, 2002)

 

 

FORTEN, Sarah Louisa, free African American, Female Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia (Yellin, 1994, pp. 7, 98, 103-104, 114-116, 206)

 

 

FOSTER, Abby Kelley, 1810-1887, Worcester, Massachusetts, reformer, orator, abolitionist leader, women’s rights activist, temperance reformer, member Massachusetts and American Anti-Slavery Societies, co-founded abolitionist paper, Anti-Slavery Bugle in Ohio. Activist in the Underground Railroad. (Drake, 1950, p. 158; Sterling, 1991; Dumond, 1961, p. 281; Mabee, 1970, pp. 42, 77, 199, 213, 224, 266, 300, 323, 328, 329, 336; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 162, 169, 290-291, 465; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 42, 49, 63, 73, 149, 189-191, 210-211, 214, 216; Yellin, 1994, pp. 19, 26, 27, 31, 43, 148-149, 154, 170, 173, 175, 176, 223, 231-248, 267-268, 280-281, 286, 288, 289, 292, 294, 296, 332; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 515; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 542; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 308-310; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 289; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 323-324; Sterling, Dorothy. Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelley and the Politics of Antislavery. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1991.)

 

FOSTER, Abby Kelley, reformer, b. in Pelham, Mass., 15 Jan., 1811; d. in Worcester, Mass., 14 Jan., 1887. Her parents, who were descendants of Irish Quakers, removed to Worcester while she was an infant. Her education was finished at the Friends' school in Providence, R. I., after which she taught for several years in Worcester and Millbury, and in a Friends' school in Lynn, Mass. She resigned her post about 1837, and began lecturing as an anti-slavery advocate, being the first woman to address mixed audiences in favor of abolition. Though sincere in her convictions and womanly in her delivery, she suffered many indignities in Connecticut during her lectures, While speaking in Pennsylvania, she met Stephen S. Foster, whom she married in New Brighton, Pa., 21 Dec., 1845. The two continued their public addresses, and on one tour in Ohio Mrs. Foster spoke every day for six weeks. They settled on a farm near Worcester, which was their home up to the time of Mr. Foster's death. About 1850 Mrs. Foster began to be actively interested in the cause of woman suffrage, making many speeches in its advocacy, and that of prohibition. She took an extreme view of these questions, and in argument was pronounced and aggressive. Alike in their belief regarding woman suffrage and their protests against taxation without representation, both Mr. and Mrs. Foster refused to pay taxes on their home estate because the wife was not permitted to vote, and this resolution was followed by the sale of the home for two consecutive years, but it was bought in by friends, and finally redeemed by Mr. Foster. Mrs. Foster's last public work was an effort made to raise funds to defray the expenses of securing the adoption of the 15th amendment in the doubtful states. In June, 1886, she attended an anti-slavery reception in Boston. The day preceding her fatal illness she finished a sketch of her husband for this work. Personally Mrs. Foster was amiable and unassuming, but never lacked the courage to proclaim and defend her advanced opinions. James Russell Lowell pays this tribute to Mrs. Foster:        

“A Judith there, turned Quakeress, 
Sits Abby in her modest dress.     
No nobler gift of heart or brain.    
No life more white from spot or stain,      
Was e'er on freedom's altar lain  
Than hers—the simple Quaker maid.”

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 515.

 

 

FOSTER, Charles, , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1844-45

 

 

FOSTER, Henry Allen, b. 1800, Cazenovia, New York, U.S. Congressman and Senator.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society, 1838-41.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 511; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

FOSTER, Henry Allen, senator, b. in Hartford, Conn., 7 May, 1800. He removed to Cazenovia, N. Y., in early life, and, after receiving a common school education, entered the law office of David B. Johnson, and was admitted to the bar in 1822. He was a member of the state senate from 1831 till 1834, and again from 1841 till 1844. He was a representative in congress from 1837 till 1839, having been elected as a Democrat, and in 1844 was appointed United States senator in place of Silas Wright, Jr., serving till 1847. From 1863 till 1869 he held the office of judge of the fifth district of the supreme court. He has resided for many years in Rome, N. Y.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FOSTER, Lafayette Sabine, 1806-1880, statesman, Connecticut State Representative, Mayor of Norwich, Connecticut, U.S. Senator 1854-1867, Republican Party, opposed to slavery.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 512-513; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 553; Congressional Globe)

 

FOSTER, Lafayette Sabine, statesman, b. in Franklin, Conn., 22 Nov., 1806; d. in Norwich, Conn., 19 Sept., 1880. His father, Capt. Daniel, was an officer of the Revolution, who was descended on his mother's side from Miles Standish, and served with distinction at the battles of White Plains, Stillwater, and Saratoga. The son earned the means for his education by teaching, was graduated with the first honors at Brown in 1828, studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Centreville, Md., while conducting an academy there in 1830. He returned to Connecticut, completed his legal studies in the office of Calvin Goddard, who had been his first preceptor, was admitted to the Connecticut bar in November, 1831, and opened an office in Hampton in 1833, but in 1834 settled at Norwich. He took an active interest in politics from the outset of his professional life. was the editor of the Norwich “Republican,” a Whig journal, in 1835, and in 1839 and 1840 was elected to the legislature. He was again elected in 1846 and the two succeeding years, and was chosen speaker. In 1851 he received the degree of LL. D. from Brown university. In 1851-'2 he was mayor of Norwich. He was twice defeated as the Whig candidate for governor, and in 1854 was again sent to the assembly, chosen speaker, and elected to the U. S. senate on 19 May, 1854, by the votes of the Whigs and Free-soilers. Though opposed by conviction to slavery, he resisted the efforts to form a Free-soil party until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He delivered a notable speech in the senate on 25 June. 1856, against the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and opposed the Lecompton constitution for Kansas in 1858. He was a member of the Republican party from its organization in 1856, and in 1860 was again elected to the senate. In December, 1860, he spoke in approval of the Powell resolution to inquire into the distracted state of the country, though he was one of the few who at that time believed that the southern leaders would force a disruption of the Union, and was in favor of resisting the extension of slavery beyond the limits recognized in the constitution, even at the cost of civil war. Mr. Foster was intimately connected with the administration, and was often a spokesman of Mr. Lincoln's views. On 11 March, 1861, he moved the expulsion of Senator Lewis T. Wigfall, of Texas. In 1863 he advocated an appropriation for the gradual manumission of slaves in Missouri. In 1864, on the question of the repeal of the fugitive slave act, he spoke in favor of preserving the earlier law of 1793, and thereby incurred the reproaches of the radical members of his party. He also opposed the bill granting the voting franchise to colored citizens of the District of Columbia without an educational qualification. He served on the committees on Indian affairs and land claims, and was chairman of the committee on pensions, and during the civil war of that on foreign relations. In 1865 he was chosen president of the senate pro tempore. After Andrew Johnson became president, Mr. Foster was acting vice-president of the United States. During the subsequent recess he travelled on the plains as member of a special commission to investigate the condition of the Indians. His senatorial term of office expired in March, 1867, and he was succeeded by Benjamin F. Wade in the office of vice-president. On account of his moderate and conservative course in the senate his re-election was opposed by a majority of the Republicans in the Connecticut legislature, and he withdrew his name, though he was urged to stand as an independent candidate, and was assured of the support of the Democrats. He declined the professorship of law at Yale in 1869, but after his retirement from the bench in 1876 delivered a course of lectures on “Parliamentary Law and Methods of Legislation.” In 1870 he again represented the town of Norwich in the assembly, and was chosen speaker. He resigned in June of that year in order to take his seat on the bench of the supreme court, having been elected by a nearly unanimous vote of both branches of the legislature. His most noteworthy opinion was that in the case of Kirtland against Hotchkiss, in which he differed from the decision of the majority of the court (afterward confirmed by the U. S. supreme court) in holding that railroad bonds could not be taxed by the state of Connecticut when the property mortgaged was situated in Illinois. In 1872 he joined the Liberal Republicans and supported Horace Greeley as a candidate for the presidency. In 1874 he was defeated as a Democratic candidate for congress. He was a judge of the Connecticut superior court from 1870 till 1876, when he was retired, having reached the age of seventy years, and resumed the practice of law. In 1878-'9 he was a commissioner from Connecticut to settle the disputed boundary question with New York, and afterward one of the three commissioners to negotiate with the New York authorities for the purchase of Fisher's Island. He was also a member of the commission appointed in 1878 to devise simpler rules and forms of legal procedure for the state courts. By his will he endowed a professorship of English law at Yale, bequeathed his library to the town of Norwich, and gave his home for the free academy there. See “Memorial Sketch” (printed privately, Boston, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 512-513.

 

 

FOSTER, Newall A., abolitionist, Portland, Maine, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1845-53.

 

 

FOSTER, S. H., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

FOSTER, Stephen Symounds, 1809-1881, divinity student, radical abolitionist, women’s rights activist.  Founded New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society.  Manager, 1843-1845, Amiercan Anti-Slavery Society.  Husband of abolitionist and women’s rights activist Abby Kelly Foster.  Their home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  Wrote The Brotherhood of Thieves; Or a True Picture of the American Church and Clergy, in 1843, an anti-slavery book. (Drake, 1950, pp. 158, 176-177; Mabee, 1970, pp. 223, 250, 251, 262, 266, 270, 272, 279, 297, 323, 324, 327, 329, 378, 394n24, 419n8; Pease, 1965, pp. 134-142, 474-479; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 169, 290; Stevens, 1843; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 514-515; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 558; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 307)

 

FOSTER, Stephen Symonds, abolitionist, b. in Canterbury, N. H., 17 Nov., 1809; d. near Worcester, Mass., 8 Sept., 1881. He learned the carpenter's trade, then studied with the intention of becoming a minister, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1838, and studied theology in the Union theological seminary, New York; but, because he was precluded from advocating abolition in the pulpit, he deserted that profession in order to engage in the anti-slavery contest. He was an earnest orator, a master of denunciation and invective, and was frequently the victim of mob violence. He is described in one of Lowell's anti-slavery poems as “A kind of maddened John the Baptist, To whom the harshest word comes aptest, Who, struck by stone or brick ill starred, Hurls back an epithet as hard, Which, deadlier than stone or brick, Has a propensity to stick." While in the theological seminary he induced some of his classmates to join with him in a meeting to protest against the warlike preparations then going on, arising from the dispute with Great Britain over the northeastern boundary. The refusal of the faculty to allow the chapel to be used for such a meeting made him dissatisfied with the churches because they countenanced war, and when he became an anti-slavery agitator of the moral-force school, instead of a Congregational minister, he directed his attacks chiefly against the church and the clergy, because they upheld slavery. Since the people of the New England towns could not be induced to attend anti-slavery lectures, he was accustomed to attend church meetings and claim there a hearing for the enslaved, and was often expelled by force, and several times imprisoned for disturbing public worship. Other abolitionists adopted the same plan of agitation, which was very effective. He lived for many years on a farm in the suburbs of Worcester. He published articles in periodicals on the slavery question, and in 1843 a pamphlet entitled “The Brotherhood of Thieves, a True Picture of the American Church and Clergy,” in the form of a letter to Nathaniel Barney, a reprint of which was issued by Parker Pillsbury (Concord, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 514-515.

 

 

FOSTER, Theodore, Methodist clergyman, anti-slavery activist.  Co-editor of the Signal of Liberty with Guy Beckley, the newspaper of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 187)

 

 

FOULKE, William Parker, 1816-1865, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lawyer, prison reformer, pamphleteer, philanthropist, abolitionist.  Foulke was a member and vice president of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society.

 

 

FOWLER, Bathsheba, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

FOWLER, Orin, 1791-1852, Lebanon, Connecticut, clergyman.  Free-Soil U.S. Congressman, temperance activist, strong opponent of slavery.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 517; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 565)

 

FOWLER, Orin, clergyman, b. in Lebanon, Conn., 29 July, 1791; d. in Washington, D. C., 3 Sept., 1852. He was graduated at Yale in 1815, studied theology under President Dwight, taught in the academy in Fairfield, Conn., for a year, was licensed to preach on 14 Oct., 1817, made a missionary tour in the Mississippi valley in 1818, and in 1819 was settled over a Congregational church in Plainfield, Conn. He was dismissed by this society in 1831, but was immediately called to a church in Fall River, of which he remained pastor until he entered congress. In 1841 he delivered three discourses containing a history of Fall River since 1620, and an account of the boundary dispute between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was appointed by a committee of citizens to defend the interests of the town before the boundary commissioners, published a series of articles on the subject in the Boston “Atlas,” and was elected in 1847 to the state senate, where he secured the rejection of the decision of the boundary commission by a unanimous vote. His constituents were so pleased with his ability as a legislator that they elected him in 1848 as a Free-soil Whig to the National house of representatives, and re-elected him for the following term. He was an advocate of temperance laws, and a strong opponent of slavery. In March, 1850, he replied to Daniel Webster's speech in justification of the fugitive-slave law. Be was the author of a “Disquisition on the Evils attending the Use of Tobacco” (1833), and “Lectures on the Mode and Subjects of Baptism” (1835). His “History of Fall River, with notices of Freeborn and Tiverton,” was republished in 1862 (Fall River). Appletons’ Cycolpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FOWLER, Thomas, Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

FRANK, Augustus, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

FRANKLIN, Benjamin, 1706-1790, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, statesman, inventor, diplomat, lawyer, publisher, author, philosopher, opponent of slavery. President of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, 1787-1790. 

            Franklin wrote: “The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species.  The galling chains that bind his body do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affectations of his heart.  Accustomed to move like a mere machine, by the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear.  He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn out by extreme labor, age, and disease.

            “Attention to emancipated blacks, it is therefore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national policy; but, as far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities.

            “To instruct, to advise, to qualify those who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty; to promote in them habits of industry; to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances; and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life,--these are the great outlines of our annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow creatures.” (Basker, 2005, pp. v, 5, 76, 80, 82, 85, 92, 101, 128, 133, 217, 219, 239, 247, 322; Bruns, 1977, pp. 5, 31, 46, 137, 195, 236, 267, 269, 376, 394, 510; Drake, 1950, pp. 39, 43, 46, 69-70, 85, 94, 101, 104; Dumond, 1961, pp. 126-127; Goodell, 1852, pp. 30, 40, 54, 96, 100; Hammond, 2011, pp. 32, 34-36, 50, 61-65, 170-174, 254, 268; Locke, 1901, pp. 25, 48, 50, 57, 58, 93, 98, 114, 136; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 14, 15, 17, 21, 25-26, 27, 94, 97; 103, 456, 547-551; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 164-165, 166; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 526-533; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 585; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 395; Encyclopaedia Americana, 1830, Vol. V, pp. 290-294)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

FRANKLIN, Benjamin, statesman and philosopher, b. in Boston, Mass., 17 Jan., 1706; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 17 April, 1790. (See representation of birthplace on page 531.) His family had lived for at least three centuries in the parish of Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, on a free-hold of about thirty acres. For several generations the head of the family seems to have been the village blacksmith, the eldest son being always bred to that business. Benjamin's grandfather, Thomas, born in 1598, removed late in life to Banbury, in Oxfordshire, while his eldest son, Thomas, remained on the estate at Ecton. This Thomas received a good education, and became a scrivener. He came to be one of the most prominent men in his county, and formed a friendship with the Earl of Halifax. In mental characteristics he is said to have borne a strong likeness to his immortal nephew. The second son, John, was a dyer of woollens, and lived in Banbury. The third son, Benjamin for some time a silk-dyer in London, emigrated to Boston at an advanced age, and left descendants there. He took a great interest in politics, was fond of writing verses, and invented a system of short-hand. The fourth son, Josiah, born in 1655, served an apprenticeship with his brother John, at Banbury, but removed to New England in 1682. From the beginning of the Reformation the family had been zealous Protestants, and in Mary's reign had incurred considerable danger on that account. Their inclination seems to have been toward Puritanism, but they remained in the Church of England until late in the reign of Charles II., when so many clergymen were dispossessed of their holdings for non-conformity, and proceeded to carry on religious services in conventicles forbidden by law. Among these dispossessed clergymen in Northamptonshire were friends of Benjamin and Josiah, who became their warm adherents and attended their conventicles. The persecution of these non-conformists led to a small Puritan migration to New England, in which Josiah took part. He settled in Boston, where he followed the business of soap-boiler and tallow-chandler. He was twice married, the second time to the daughter of Peter Folger, one of the earliest settlers of New England, a man of some learning, a writer of political verses, and a zealous opponent of the persecution of the Quakers. By his first wife Josiah Franklin had seven children; by his second, ten, of whom the illustrious Benjamin was the youngest son. For five generations his direct ancestors had been youngest sons of youngest sons. As a child he showed such precocity that his father at first thought of sending him to Harvard and educating him for the ministry; but the wants of his large family were so numerous that presently he felt that he could not afford the expense of this. At the age of ten, after little more than a year at the grammar-school, Benjamin was set to work in his father's shop, cutting wicks and filling moulds for candles. This was so irksome to him that he began to show symptoms of a desire to run away and go to sea. To turn his mind from this, his father at length decided to make him a printer. He was an insatiable reader, and the few shillings that found their way into his hands were all laid out in books. His elder brother, James, had learned the printer's trade, and in 1717 returned from England with a press, and established himself in business in Boston. In the following year Benjamin was apprenticed to his elder brother, and, becoming interested and proficient in the work, soon made himself very useful. He indulged his taste for reading, which often kept him up late into the night. Like so many other youthful readers, he counted Defoe and Bunyan among his favorites, but presently we find him studying Locke's “Essay on the Human Understanding,” and the Port Royal logic. While practising himself in arithmetic and the elements of geometry, he was also striving to acquire a prose style like that of Addison. He wrote little ballads and songs of the chap-book sort, and hawked them about the streets, sometimes with profit to his pocket. At the same time an inborn tendency toward free-thinking was strengthened by reading Shaftesbury and Collins, until some worthy people began to look askance at him and call him an infidel. In 1721 James Franklin began printing and publishing the “New England Courant,” the third newspaper that appeared in Boston, and the fourth in America. For this paper Benjamin wrote anonymous articles, and contrived to smuggle them into its columns without his brother's knowledge of their authorship; some of them attracted attention, and were attributed to various men of eminence in the colony. The newspaper was quite independent in its tone, and for a political article that gave offence to the colonial legislature James Franklin was put into jail for a month, while Benjamin was duly admonished and threatened. Finding himself somewhat unpopular in Boston, and being harshly treated by his brother, whose violent temper he confesses to have sometimes provoked by his sauciness, Benjamin at length made up his mind to run away from home and seek his fortune. He raised a little money by selling some of his books, and in October, 1723, set sail in a sloop for New York. Unable to find employment there as a printer, he set out for Philadelphia, crossing to Amboy in a small vessel, which was driven upon the coast of Long Island in a heavy gale. Narrowly escaping shipwreck, he at length reached Amboy in the crazy little craft, after thirty hours without food or drink, except a drop from a flask of what he called “filthy rum.” From Amboy he made his way on foot across New Jersey to Burlington, whence he was taken in a row-boat to Philadelphia, landing there on a Sunday morning, cold, bedraggled, and friendless, with one Dutch dollar in his pocket. But he soon found employment in a printing-office, earned a little money, made a few friends, and took comfortable lodgings in the house of a Mr. Read, with whose daughter Deborah he proceeded to fall in love. It was not long before his excellent training and rare good sense attracted the favorable notice of Sir William Keith, governor of Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia printers being ignorant and unskilful, Keith wished to secure Franklin's services, and offered to help set him up in business for himself and give him the government printing, such as it was. Franklin had now been seven months in Philadelphia, and, his family having at length heard news of him, it was thought best that he should return to Boston and solicit aid from his father in setting up a press in Philadelphia. On reaching Boston he found his brother sullen and resentful, but his father received him kindly. He refused the desired assistance, on the ground that a boy of eighteen was not fit to manage a business, but he commended his industry and perseverance, and made no objection to his returning to Philadelphia, warning him to restrain his inclination to write lampoons and satires, and holding out hopes of aid in case he should behave industriously and frugally until twenty-one years of age.

On Franklin's return to Philadelphia, the governor promised to furnish the money needful for establishing him in business, and encouraged him to go over to London, in order to buy a press and type and gather useful information. But Sir William was one of those social nuisances that are lavish in promises but scanty in performance. It was with the assurance that the ship's mail-bag carried letters of introduction and the necessary letter of credit that young Franklin crossed the ocean. On reaching England, he found that Keith had deceived him. Having neither money nor credit wherewith to accomplish the purpose of his journey or return to America, he sought and soon found a place as journeyman in a London printing-house. Before leaving home he had been betrothed to Miss Read. He now wrote to her that it would be long before he should return to America. His ability and diligence enabled him to earn money quickly, but for a while he was carried away by the fascinations of a great city, and spent his money as fast as he earned it. In the course of his eighteen months in London he gained much knowledge of the world, and became acquainted with some distinguished persons, among others Dr. Mandeville and Sir Hans Sloane; and he speaks of his “extreme desire” to meet Sir Isaac Newton, in which he was not gratified. In the autumn of 1726 he made his way back to Philadelphia, and after some further vicissitudes was at length (in 1729) established in business as a printer. He now became editor and proprietor of the “Pennsylvania Gazette,” and soon made it so popular by his ably-written articles that it yielded him a comfortable income. During his absence in England, Miss Read, hearing nothing from him after his first letter, had supposed that he had grown tired of her. In her chagrin she married a worthless knave, who treated her cruelly, and soon ran away to the West Indies, where he died. Franklin found her overwhelmed with distress and mortification, for which he felt himself to be partly responsible. Their old affection speedily revived, and on 1 Sept., 1730, they were married. They lived most happily together until her death, 19 Dec., 1774.

As Franklin grew to maturity he became noted for his public spirit and an interest at once wide and keen in human affairs. Soon after his return from England he established a debating society, called the “Junto,” for the discussion of questions in morals, politics, and natural philosophy. Among the earliest members may be observed the name of the eminent mathematician, Thomas Godfrey, who soon afterward invented a quadrant similar to Hadley's. For many years Franklin was the life of this club, which in 1743 was developed into the American philosophical society. In 1732 he began publishing an almanac for the diffusion of useful information among the people. Published under the pen-name of “Richard Saunders,” this entertaining collection of wit and wisdom, couched in quaint and pithy language, had an immense sale, and became famous throughout the world as “Poor Richard's Almanac.” In 1731 Franklin founded the Philadelphia library. In 1743 he projected the university that a few years later was developed into the University of Pennsylvania, and was for a long time considered one of the foremost institutions of learning in this country.

From early youth Franklin was interested in scientific studies, and his name by and by became associated with a very useful domestic invention, and also with one of the most remarkable scientific discoveries of the 18th century. In 1742 he invented the “open stove, for the better warming of rooms,” an invention that has not yet entirely fallen into disuse. Ten years later, by wonderfully simple experiments with a kite, he showed that lightning is a discharge of electricity; and in 1753 he received the Copley medal from the Royal society for this most brilliant and pregnant discovery.

A man so public-spirited as Franklin, and editor of a prominent newspaper besides, could not long remain outside of active political life. In 1736 he was made clerk of the assembly of Pennsylvania, and in 1737 postmaster of Philadelphia. Under his skilful management this town became the center of the whole postal system of the colonies, and in 1753 he was made deputy postmaster-general for the continent. Besides vastly increasing the efficiency of the postal service, he succeeded at the same time in making it profitable. In 1754 Franklin becomes a conspicuous figure in Continental politics. In that year the prospect of war with the French led several of the royal governors to call for a congress of all the colonies, to be held at Albany. The primary purpose of the meeting was to make sure of the friendship of the Six Nations, and to organize a general scheme of operations against the French. The secondary purpose was to prepare some plan of confederation which all the colonies might be persuaded to adopt. Only the four New England colonies, with New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, sent commissioners to this congress. The people seem to have felt very little interest in the movement. Among the newspapers none seem to have favored it warmly except the “Pennsylvania Gazette,” which appeared with a union device and the motto “Unite or Die!” At the Albany congress Franklin brought forward the first coherent scheme ever propounded for securing a permanent Federal union of the thirteen colonies. The plan contemplated the union of all the colonies under a single central government, under which each colony might preserve its local independence. The legislative assembly of each colony was to choose, once in three years, representatives to attend a Federal grand council, which was to meet every year at Philadelphia, as the city most convenient of access from north and south alike. This grand council was to choose its own speaker, and could neither be dissolved nor prorogued except by its own consent, or by especial order of the crown. The grand council was to make treaties with the Indians, and regulate trade with them; and it was to have sole power of legislation on all matters concerning the colonies as a whole. To these ends it could lay taxes, enlist soldiers, build forts, and nominate civil officers. Its laws were to be submitted to the king for approval; and the royal veto, in order to be effective, must be exercised within three years. To this grand council each colony was to send a number of representatives, proportioned to its contributions to the continental military service, the minimum number being two, the maximum seven. With the exception of such matters of general concern as were to be managed by the grand council, each colony was to retain its powers of legislation intact. In an emergency any colony might singly defend itself against foreign attack, and the Federal government was prohibited from impressing soldiers or seamen without the consent of the local legislature. The supreme executive power was to be vested in a president or governor-general, appointed and paid by the crown. He was to have a veto on all the acts of the grand council, and was to nominate all military officers, subject to its approval. No money could be issued save by joint order of the governor-general and council. “This plan,” said Franklin, “is not altogether to my mind; but it is as I could get it.” To the credit of its great author, it should be observed that this scheme—long afterward known as the “Albany plan”—contemplated the formation of a self-sustaining Federal government, and not of a mere league. It aimed at creating “a public authority as obligatory in its sphere as the local governments were in their spheres”; and in this respect it was much more complete than the articles of confederation under which the thirteen states contrived to live from 1781 till 1789. But public opinion was not yet ripe for the adoption of such bold and comprehensive ideas. After long debate, the Albany congress decided to adopt Franklin's plan, and copies of it were sent to all the colonies for their consideration; but nowhere did it meet with popular approval. A town-meeting in Boston denounced it as subversive of liberty; Pennsylvania rejected it without a word of discussion; not one of the assemblies voted to adopt it. When sent over to England, to be inspected by the ministers of the crown, it only irritated and alarmed them. In England it was thought to give too much independence of action to the colonies; in America it was thought to give too little. The scheme was, moreover, impracticable, because the desire for union on the part of the several colonies was still extremely feeble; but it shows on the part of Franklin wonderful foresightedness. If the Revolution had not occurred, we should probably have sooner or later come to live under a constitution resembling the Albany plan. On the other hand, if the Albany plan had been put into operation, it might perhaps have so adjusted the relations of the colonies to the British government that the Revolution would not have occurred.

The only persons that favored Franklin's scheme were the royal governors, and this was because they hoped it might be of service in raising money with which to fight the French. In such matters the local assemblies were extremely niggardly. At the beginning of the war in 1755, Franklin had been for some years the leading spirit in the assembly of Pennsylvania, which was engaged in a fierce dispute with the governor concerning the taxation of the proprietary estates. The governor contended that these should be exempt from taxation; the assembly insisted rightly that these estates should bear their due share of the public burdens. On another hotly disputed question the assembly was clearly in the wrong; it insisted upon issuing paper money, and against this pernicious folly governor after governor fought with obstinate bravery. In 1755 the result of these furious contentions was that Braddock's army was unable to get any support except from the steadfast personal exertions of Franklin, who used his great influence with the farmers to obtain horses, wagons, and provisions, pledging his own property for their payment. Until the question of the proprietary estates should be settled, the operations of the war seemed likely to be paralyzed. In 1757 Franklin was sent over to England to plead the cause of the assembly before the privy council. This business kept him in England five years, in the course of which he became acquainted with the most eminent people in the country. His discoveries and writings had won him a European reputation. Before he left England, in 1762, he received the degree of LL. D. from the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. His arguments before the privy council were successful; the sorely vexed question was decided against the proprietary governors; and on his return to Pennsylvania in 1762 he received the formal thanks of the assembly. It was not long before his services were again required in England. In 1764 Grenville gave notice of his proposed stamp-act for defraying part of the expenses of the late war, and Franklin was sent to England as agent for Pennsylvania, and instructed to make every effort to prevent the passage of the stamp-act. He carried out his instructions ably and faithfully; but when the obnoxious law was passed in 1765, he counselled submission. In this case, however, the wisdom of this wisest of Americans proved inferior to the “collective wisdom” of his fellow-countrymen. Warned by the fierce resistance of the Americans, the new ministry of Lord Rockingham decided to reconsider the act. In an examination before the house of commons, Franklin's strong sense and varied knowledge won general admiration, and contributed powerfully toward the repeal of the stamp-act. The danger was warded off but for a time, however. Next year Charles Townshend carried his measures for taxing American imports and applying the proceeds to the maintenance of a civil list in each of the colonies, to be responsible only to the British government. The need for Franklin's services as mediator was now so great that he was kept in England, and presently the colonies of Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia chose him as their agent. During these years he made many warm friendships with eminent men in England, as with Burke, Lord Shelburne, Lord Howe, David Hartley, and Dr. Priestley. His great powers were earnestly devoted to preventing a separation between England and America. His methods were eminently conciliatory; but the independence of character with which he told unwelcome truths made him an object of intense dislike to the king and his friends, who regarded him as aiming to undermine the royal authority in America. George III. is said to have warned his ministers against “that crafty American, who is more than a match for you all.” In 1774 this dread and dislike found vent in an explosion, the echoes of which have hardly yet died away. This was the celebrated affair of the “Hutchinson letters.”

For several years a private and unofficial correspondence had been kept up between Hutchinson, Oliver, and other high officials in Massachusetts, on the one hand, and Thomas Whately, who had formerly been private secretary to George Grenville, on the other. The choice of Whately for correspondent was due to the fact that he was supposed to be very familiar at once with colonial affairs and with the views and purposes of the king's friends. In these letters Hutchinson had a great deal to say about the weakness of the royal government in Massachusetts, and the need for a strong military force to support it; he condemned the conduct of Samuel Adams and the other popular leaders as seditious, and enlarged upon the turbulence of the people of Boston; he doubted if it were practicable for a colony removed by 3,000 miles of ocean to enjoy all the liberties of the mother country without severing its connection with her; and he had therefore reluctantly come to the conclusion that Massachusetts must submit to “an abridgment of what are called English liberties.” Oliver, in addition to such general views, maintained that judges and other crown officers should have fixed salaries assigned by the crown, so as to become independent of popular favor. There can be no doubt that such suggestions were made in perfect good faith, or that Hutchinson and Oliver had the true interests of Massachusetts at heart, according to their lamentably inadequate understanding of the matter. But to the people of Massachusetts, at that time, such suggestions could but seem little short of treasonable. Thomas Whately died in June, 1772, and all his papers passed into the custody of William, his brother and executor. In the following December, before William Whately had opened or looked over the packet of letters from Hutchinson and his friends, it was found that they had been purloined by some person unknown. It is not certain that the letters had ever really passed into William Whately's hands. They may have been left lying in some place where they might have attracted the notice of some curious busybody, who forthwith laid hands upon them. This point has never been satisfactorily cleared up. At all events, they were brought to Franklin as containing political intelligence that might prove important. At this time Massachusetts was furiously excited over the attempt of Lord North's government to have the salaries of the judges fixed and paid by the crown instead of the colonial assembly. The judges had been threatened with impeachment should they dare to receive a penny from the royal treasury, and at the head of the threatened judges was Oliver's younger brother, the chief justice of Massachusetts. As agent for the colony, Franklin felt it to be his duty to give information of the dangerous contents of the letters now laid before him. Although they purported to be merely a private and confidential correspondence, they were not really “of the nature of private letters between friends.” As Franklin said, “they were written by public officers to persons in public station, on public affairs, and intended to procure public measures”; they were therefore handed to other public persons, who might be influenced by them to produce those measures; their tendency was to incense the mother country against her colonies, and, by the steps recommended, to widen the breach, which they effected. The chief caution “from the writers to Thomas Whately” with respect to privacy was, to keep their contents from “the knowledge of the colonial agents in London,” who, the writers apprehended, “might return them, or copies of them, to America.” Franklin felt as Walsingham might have felt on suddenly discovering, in private and confidential papers, the incontrovertible proof of some popish plot against the life of Queen Elizabeth. From the person that brought him the letters he got permission to send them to Massachusetts, on condition that they should be shown only to a few people in authority, that they should not be copied or printed, that they should presently be returned, and that the name of the person from whom they were obtained should never be disclosed. This last condition was most thoroughly fulfilled. The others must have been felt to be mainly a matter of form; it was obvious that, though they might be literally complied with, their spirit would inevitably be violated. As Orlando Hutchinson writes, “we all know what this sort of secrecy means, and what will be the end of it”; and, as Franklin himself observed, “there was no restraint proposed to talking of them, but only to copying.” The letters were sent to the proper person, Thomas Cushing, speaker of the Massachusetts assembly, and he showed them to Hancock, Hawley, and the two Adamses. To these gentlemen it could have been no new discovery that Hutchinson and Oliver held such opinions as were expressed in the letters; but the documents seemed to furnish tangible proof of what had long been suspected, that the governor and his lieutenant were plotting against the liberties of Massachusetts. They were soon talked about at every town-meeting and on every street-corner. The assembly twitted Hutchinson with them, and asked for copies of these and other such papers as he might see fit to communicate. He replied, somewhat sarcastically, “If you desire copies with a view to make them public, the originals are more proper for the purpose than any copies.” Mistaken and dangerous as Hutchinson's policy was, his conscience acquitted him of any treasonable purpose, and he must naturally have preferred to have the people judge him by what he had really written rather than by vague and distorted rumors. His reply was taken as sufficient warrant for printing the letters, and they were soon in the possession of every reader in England or America who could afford sixpence for a political tract. On the other side of the Atlantic they aroused as much excitement as on this, and William Whately became concerned to know who could have purloined the letters. On slight evidence he charged a Mr. Temple with the theft, and a duel ensued in which Whately was wounded. Hearing of this affair, Franklin published a card in which he avowed his own share in the transaction, and in a measure screened all others by drawing the full torrent of wrath and abuse upon himself. All the ill-suppressed spleen of the king's friends was at once discharged upon him. Meanwhile the Massachusetts assembly formally censured the letters, as evidence of a scheme for subverting the constitution of the colony, and petitioned the king to remove Hutchinson and Oliver from office. In January, 1774, the petition was duly brought before the privy council in the presence of a large and brilliant gathering of spectators. The solicitor-general, David Wedderburn, instead of discussing the question on its merits, broke out with a violent and scurrilous invective against Franklin, whom he derided as a man of letters, calling him a “man of three letters,” the Roman slang expression for f-u-r, a thief. Of the members of government present, Lord North alone preserved decorum; the others laughed and clapped their hands, while Franklin stood as unmoved as the moon at the baying of dogs. He could afford to disregard the sneers of a man like Wedderburn, whom the king, though fain to use him as a tool, called the greatest knave in the realm. The Massachusetts petition was rejected as scandalous, and next day Franklin was dismissed from his office of postmaster-general.

They are in error who think it was this personal insult that led Franklin to favor the revolt of the colonies, as they are also wrong who suppose that his object in sending home the Hutchinson letters was to stir up dissension. His conduct immediately after passing through this ordeal is sufficient proof of the unabated sincerity of his desire for conciliation. The news of the Boston tea-party arriving in England about this time, led presently to the acts of April, 1774, for closing the port of Boston and remodelling the government of Massachusetts. The only way in which Massachusetts could escape these penalties was by indemnifying the East India company for the tea that had been destroyed; and Franklin, seeing that the attempt to enforce the new acts must almost inevitably lead to war, actually went so far as to advise Massachusetts to pay for the tea. Samuel Adams, on hearing of this, is said to have observed: “Franklin may be a good philosopher, but he is a bungling politician.” Certainly in this instance Franklin showed himself less far-sighted than Adams and the people of Massachusetts. The moment had come when compromise was no longer possible. To have yielded now, in the face of the arrogant and tyrannical acts of April, would have been not only to stultify the heroic deeds of the patriots in the last December, but it would have broken up the nascent union of the colonies; it would virtually have surrendered them, bound hand and foot, to the tender mercies of the king. That Franklin should have suggested such a step, in order to avoid precipitating a conflict, shows forcibly how anxious he was to keep the peace. He remained in England nearly a year longer, though many things were done by the king's party to make his stay unpleasant. During the autumn and winter he had many conversations with persons near the government, who were anxious to find out how the Americans might be conciliated without England's abandoning a single one of the wrong positions that she had taken. This was an insolvable problem, and when Franklin had become convinced of this he reluctantly gave it up and returned to America, arriving in Philadelphia on 5 May, 1775, to find that the shedding of blood had just begun. On the next day the assembly of Pennsylvania unanimously elected him delegate to the 2d Continental congress, then about to assemble. He now became a zealous supporter of the war, and presently of the Declaration of Independence. When congress, in July, decided to send one more petition to the king, he wrote a letter which David Hartley read aloud in the house of commons. “If you flatter yourselves,” said Franklin, “with beating us into submission, you know neither the people nor the country. The congress will await the result of their last petition.” A little more than two years afterward, in December, 1777, as parliament sat overwhelmed with chagrin at the tidings of Burgoyne's surrender, Hartley pulled out this letter again and upbraided the house with it. “You were then” said he, “confident of having America under your feet, and despised every proposition recommending peace and lenient measures.” When this unyielding temper had driven the Americans to declare their independence of Great Britain, Franklin was one of the committee of five chosen by congress to draw up a document worthy of the occasion. To the document, as drafted by Jefferson, he seems to have contributed only a few verbal emendations. The Declaration of Independence made it necessary to seek foreign alliances, and first of all with England's great rival, France. Here Franklin's world-wide fame and his long experience of public life in England enabled him to play a part that would have been impossible for any other American. He had fifteen years of practice as an ambassador, and was thoroughly familiar with European politics. In his old days of editorial work in Philadelphia, with his noble scholarly habit of putting every moment to some good use, he had learned the French language, with Italian and Spanish also, besides getting some knowledge of Latin. He was thus possessed of talismans for opening many a treasure-house, and among all the encyclopædist philosophers of Paris it would have been hard to point to a mind more encyclopædic than his own. Negotiations with the French court had been begun already, through the agency of Arthur Lee and Silas Deane, and in the autumn of 1776 Franklin was sent out to join with these gentlemen in securing the active aid and cooperation of France in the war. His arrival, on 21 Dec., was the occasion of great excitement in the fashionable world of Paris. By thinkers like D'Alembert and Diderot he was regarded as the embodiment of practical wisdom. To many he seemed to sum up in himself the excellences of the American cause—justice, good sense, and moderation. It was Turgot that said of him, “Eripuit cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis.” As symbolizing the liberty for which all France was yearning, he was greeted with a popular enthusiasm such as perhaps no French man of letters except Voltaire has ever called forth. Shopkeepers rushed to their doors to catch a glimpse of him as he passed along the sidewalk, while in evening salons jewelled ladies of the court vied with one another in paying him homage.

As the first fruits of his negotiations, the French government agreed to furnish two million livres a year, in quarterly instalments, to aid the American cause. Arms and ammunition were sent over, and Americans were allowed to fit out privateers in French ports, and even to bring in and sell their prizes. Further than this France was not yet ready to go. She did not wish to incur the risk of war with England until an American alliance could seem to promise her some manifest advantage. This surreptitious aid continued through the year 1777, until the surrender of Burgoyne put a new face upon things. The immediate consequence of that great event was an attempt on the part of Lord North's government to change front, and offer concessions to the Americans, which, if they had ever been duly considered, might even at this late moment have ended in some compromise between England and the United States. Now, if ever, was the moment for France to interpose, and she seized it. On 6 Feb., 1778, the treaty was signed at Paris which ultimately secured the independence of the United States. For the successful management of this negotiation, one of the most important in the annals of modern diplomacy, the credit is almost solely due to Franklin. Another invaluable service was the negotiation of loans without which it would have been impossible for the United States to carry on the war. As the Continental congress had no power to levy taxes, there were but three ways in which it could pay the expenses of the army: (1) By requisitions upon the state governments; (2) by issuing its promissory notes, or so-called “paper money”; (3) by foreign loans. The first method brought in money altogether too slowly; the second served its purpose for a short time, but by 1780 the continental notes had became worthless. The war of independence would have been an ignominious failure but for foreign loans, and these were made mostly by France and through the extraordinary sagacity and tact of Franklin. It is doubtful if any other man of that time could have succeeded in getting so much money from the French government, which found it no easy matter to pay its own debts and support an idle population of nobles and clergy upon taxes wrung from a groaning peasantry. During Franklin's stay in Paris the annual contribution of 2,000,000 livres was at first increased to 3,000,000, and afterward, in 1781, to 4,000,000. Besides this, which was a loan, the French government sent over 9,000,000 as a free gift, and guaranteed the interest upon a loan of 10,000,000 to be raised in Holland. Franklin himself, just before sailing for France, had gathered together all the cash he could command for the moment, beyond what was needed for immediate necessities, and amounting to nearly £4,000, and put it into the United States treasury as a loan.

On the fall of Lord North's ministry in March, 1782, Franklin sent a letter to his friend, Lord Shelburne, expressing a hope that peace might soon be made. When the letter reached London, the new ministry, in which Shelburne was secretary of state for home and colonies, had already been formed, and Shelburne, with the consent of the cabinet, replied by sending over to Paris an agent to talk with Franklin informally, and ascertain the terms upon which the Americans would make peace. The person chosen for this purpose was Richard Oswald, a Scottish merchant of frank disposition and liberal views. In April there were several conversations between Oswald and Franklin, in one of which the latter suggested that, in order to make a durable peace, it was desirable to remove all occasion for future quarrel; that the line of frontier between New York and Canada was inhabited by a lawless set of men, who in time of peace would be likely to breed trouble between their respective governments; and that therefore it would be well for England to cede Canada to the United States. A similar reasoning would apply to Nova Scotia. By ceding these countries to the United States, it would be possible, from the sale of unappropriated lands, to indemnify the Americans for all losses of private property during the war, and also to make reparation to the Tories whose estates had been confiscated. By pursuing such a policy, England, which had made war on America unjustly, and had wantonly done it great injuries, would achieve not merely peace, but reconciliation with America, and reconciliation, said Franklin, is “a sweet word.” This was a very bold tone for Franklin to take; but he knew that almost every member of the Whig ministry had publicly expressed the opinion that the war against America was unjust and wanton; and being, moreover, a shrewd hand at a bargain, he began by setting his terms high. Oswald seems to have been convinced by Franklin's reasoning, and expressed neither surprise nor reluctance at the idea of ceding Canada. The main points of this conversation were noted upon a sheet of paper, which Franklin allowed Oswald to take to London and show to Lord Shelburne, first writing upon it an express declaration of its informal character. On receiving this memorandum, Shelburne did not show it to the cabinet, but returned it to Franklin without any immediate answer, after keeping it only one night. Oswald was presently sent back to Paris, empowered as commissioner to negotiate with Franklin, and carried Shelburne's answer to the memorandum that desired the cession of Canada for three reasons. The answer was terse: “1. By way of reparation.—Answer: No reparation can be heard of. 2. To prevent future wars.—Answer: It is to be hoped that some more friendly method will be found. 3. As a fund of indemnification to loyalists.—Answer: No independence to be acknowledged without their being· taken care of.” Besides, added Shelburne, the Americans would be expected to make some compensation for the surrender of Charleston, Savannah, and the city of New York, still held by British troops. From this it appears that Shelburne, as well as Franklin, knew how to begin by asking more than he was likely to get. England was no more likely to listen to a proposal for ceding Canada than the Americans were to listen to the suggestion of compensating the British for surrendering New York. But there can be little doubt that the bold stand thus taken by Franklin at the outset, together with the influence he acquired over Oswald, contributed materially to the brilliant success of the American negotiations. This is the more important to be noted in connection with the biography of Franklin, since in the later stages of the negotiations the initiative passed almost entirely out of his hands, and into those of his colleagues, Jay and Adams. The form that the treaty took was mainly the work of these younger statesmen; the services of Franklin were chiefly valuable at the beginning, and again, to some extent, at the end. There were two grave difficulties in making a treaty. The first was, that France was really hostile to the American claims. She wished to see the country between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi divided between England and Spain; England to have the region north of the Ohio, and the region south of it to remain an Indian territory under the protectorate of Spain, except a narrow strip on the western slope of the Alleghanies, over which the United States might exercise protectorship. In other words, France wished to confine the United States to the east of the Alleghanies, and forever prevent their expansion westward. France also wished to exclude the Americans from all share in the fisheries, in order to prevent the United States from becoming a great naval power. As France, up to a certain point, was our ally, this antagonism of interests made the negotiation extremely difficult. The second difficulty was the unwillingness of the British government to acknowledge the independence of the United States as a condition that must precede all negotiation. The Americans insisted upon this point, as they had insisted ever since the Staten Island conference in 1776; but England wished to withhold the recognition long enough to bargain with it in making the treaty. This difficulty was enhanced by the fact that, if this point were conceded to the Americans, it would transfer the conduct of the treaty from the colonial secretary, Shelburne, to the foreign secretary, Fox; and these two gentlemen not only differed widely in their views of the situation, but were personally bitter enemies. Presently Fox heard of the private memorandum that Shelburne had received from Franklin but had not shown to the cabinet, and he concluded, quite wrongly, that Shelburne was playing a secret part for purposes of his own. Accordingly, Fox made up his mind at all events to get the American negotiations transferred to his own department; and to this end, on the last day of June, he moved in the cabinet that the independence of the United States should be unconditionally acknowledged, so that England might treat as with a foreign power. The motion was lost, and Fox prepared to resign his office; but the very next day the death of Lord Rockingham broke up the ministry. Lord Shelburne now became prime minister, and other circumstances occurred which simplified the problem. In April the French fleet in the West Indies had been annihilated by Rodney; in September this was followed by the total defeat of the combined French and Spanish forces at Gibraltar. This altered the situation seriously England, though defeated in America, was victorious as regarded France and Spain. The avowed object for which France had entered into alliance with the Americans was to secure the independence of the United States, and this point was now substantially gained. The chief object for which Spain had entered into alliance with France was to drive the English from Gibraltar, and this point was now decidedly lost. France had bound herself not to desist from the war until Spain should recover Gibraltar; but now there was little hope of accomplishing this, except by some fortunate bargain in the treaty. Vergennes now tried to satisfy Spain at the expense of the United States, and he sent a secret emissary under an assumed name to Lord Shelburne, to develop his plan for dividing the Mississippi valley between England and Spain. This was discovered by Jay, who counter-acted it by sending a messenger of his own to Shelburne, who thus perceived the antagonism that had arisen between the allies. It now became manifestly for the advantage of England and the United States to carry on their negotiations without the intervention of France, as England preferred to make concessions to the Americans rather than to the house of Bourbon. By first detaching the United States from the alliance, she could proceed to browbeat France and Spain. There was an obstacle in the way of a separate negotiation. The chevalier Luzerne, the French minister at Philadelphia, had been busy with congress, and that body had sent instructions to its commissioners at Paris to be guided in all things by the wishes of the French court. Jay and Adams, overruling Franklin, took the responsibility of disregarding these instructions; and the provisions of the treaty, so marvellously favorable to the Americans, were arranged by a separate negotiation with England. In the arrangement of the provisions, Franklin played an important part, especially in driving the British commissioners from their position with regard to the compensation of loyalists. After a long struggle upon this point, Franklin observed that, if the loyalists were to be indemnified, it would be necessary also to reckon up the damage they had done in burning villages and shipping, and then strike a balance between the two accounts; and he gravely suggested that a special commission might be appointed for this purpose. It was now getting late in the autumn, and Shelburne felt it to be a political necessity to bring the negotiation to an end before the assembling of parliament. At the prospect of endless discussion, which Franklin's suggestion involved, the British commissioners gave way and accepted the American terms. Affairs having reached this point, it remained for Franklin to lay the matter before Vergennes in such wise as to avoid a rupture of the cordial relations between America and France. It was a delicate matter, for, in dealing separately with the English government, the Americans laid themselves open to the charge of having committed a breach of diplomatic courtesy; but Franklin managed it with entire success.

On the part of the Americans the treaty of 1783 was one of the most brilliant triumphs in the whole history of modern diplomacy. Had the affair been managed by men of ordinary ability, the greatest results of the Revolutionary war would probably have been lost; the new republic would have been cooped up between the Atlantic and the Alleghanies; our westward expansion would have been impossible without further warfare; and the formation of our Federal union would doubtless have been effectively hindered or prevented. To the grand triumph the varied talents of Franklin, Adams, and Jay alike contributed. To the latter is due the credit of detecting and baffling the sinister designs of France; but without the tact of Franklin this probably could not have been accomplished without offending France in such wise as to spoil everything.

Franklin's last diplomatic achievement was the negotiation of a treaty with Prussia, in which was inserted an article looking toward the abolition of privateering. This treaty, as Washington observed at the time, was the most liberal that had ever been made between independent powers, and marked a new era in international morality. In September, 1785, Franklin returned to America, and in the next month was chosen president of Pennsylvania. He was re-elected in 1786 and 1787. In the summer of the latter year he was a delegate to the immortal convention that framed the constitution of the United States. He took a comparatively small part in the debates, but some of his suggestions were very timely, as when he seconded the Connecticut compromise. At the close of the proceedings he made a short speech, in which he said: “I consent to this constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best.” His last public act was the signing of a memorial addressed to congress by an anti-slavery society of which he was president. This petition, which was presented on 12 Feb., 1790, asked for the abolition of the slave-trade, and for the emancipation of slaves. The southern members of congress were very indignant, and Mr. Jackson, of Georgia, undertook to prove, with the aid of texts from Scripture, the sacredness of the institution of slavery. On 23 March, Franklin wrote an answer, which was published in the “National Gazette.” It was an ingenious parody of Jackson's speech, put into the mouth of a member of the “divan of Algiers,” and fortified by texts from the Koran. This characteristic article, one of the most amusing he ever published, was written within four weeks of his death.

The abilities of Franklin were so vast and so various, he touched human life at so many points, that it would require an elaborate essay to characterize him properly. “He was at once philosopher, statesman, diplomatist, scientific discoverer, inventor, philanthropist, moralist, and wit, while as a writer of English he was surpassed by few men of his time. History presents few examples of a career starting from such humble beginnings and attaining to such great and enduring splendor. The career of a Napoleon, for example, in comparison with Franklin's, seems vulgar and trivial. The ceaseless industry of Franklin throughout his long life was guided to an extraordinary degree by the clear light of reason, and inspired by a warm and enthusiastic desire for the improvement of mankind. He is in many respects the greatest of Americans, and one of the greatest men whose names are recorded in history. In accordance with his wishes, Franklin's remains were deposited beside those of his wife and daughter, in the yard of Christ church, at the corner of 5th and Arch streets, Philadelphia, under a plain marble stone inscribed “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin.” (See accompanying illustration.) In early life he had written a fanciful epitaph for himself, which was published in the “New England Courant” and has become famous: “The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author.”

Franklin left a charming “Autobiography,” covering the earlier part of his life down to his arrival in London in 1757. The best edition is the one edited by John Bigelow (Philadelphia, 1868). His works were edited by Jared Sparks (10 vols., Boston, 1850). In 1885 a large mass of unedited manuscripts, by Franklin or relating to him, collected by the late Henry Stevens, of Vermont, for a long time a resident in London, was purchased by congress. A new edition of Franklin's complete works, edited by John Bigelow and containing much new material obtained from the Stevens manuscripts, is now in course of publication (10 vols., New York, 1887). See Condorcet's “Éloge de Franklin” (Paris, 1790); Bauer's “Washington and Franklin” (Berlin, 1803-'6); Schmaltz's “Leben Benj. Franklin's” (Leipsic, 1840); Parton's “Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin” (2 vols., New York, 1864); Mignet's “Vie de Franklin” (Paris, 1873); and Hale's “Franklin in France” (Boston, 1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 526-533.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

FRANKLIN was unquestionably a very remarkable man; one who, in any age or country, would, by the mere force of his native talents, have made a respectable figure in life. It is probable, however, that had his lot thrown him in an older or more refined community than America was in his youth, he would not have been contemplated as the sun of the system. He, like many other distinguished characters, was much indebted to circumstance. It must be admitted, too, that he had many conceits, or fancies; that he was by no means without his foibles; and that, in his own phrase, he committed some great errors in the early part of his career.

This is not said with any view of detracting from the eminent merit of Dr. FRANKLIN, but as his own and the candid opinion of posterity; when he looked back upon his errors, he freely confessed them, pointing out to others the rocks and quicksands on which he struck, or into which his passions or his inclinations had plunged him. Most of his mistakes seem to have been the effect of constitution, or at least constitutional organization favored their growth. His passions were not violent; his affections were rather steady than warm; his sensibilities rather correct than acute.

It has been ascertained that the Franklin family were settled at the village of Ecton, in Northamptonshire, England, on a freehold estate, of about thirty acres, more than three hundred years ago; the eldest sons generally having been blacksmiths. “Our humble family,” observes FRANKLIN, in the admirable memoir which he wrote of his own life, “early embraced the reformed religion. Our forefathers continued protestants through the reign of Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of persecution, on account of their zeal against popery.”

The family preserved its attachment to the Church of England, till towards the close of the reign of Charles II., when some of its members, amongst whom was Josias the father of BENJAMIN, the subject of this memoir, became non-conformists. Marrying early in life, Josias came with his first wife and a few children to America; BENJAMIN was born in Boston, January 17th, 1706; he was the fifteenth of seventeen children; his father attained the age of eighty-seven, and his mother that of eighty-five. Over their grave at Boston, some years after their death, our philosopher placed a stone, bearing the following inscription:—

“HERE LIE

JOSIAS FRANKLIN, and Abiah his wife; they lived together with reciprocal affection fifty-nine years, and, without private fortune, without lucrative employment, by assiduous labor and honest industry, decently supported a numerous family, and educated with success thirteen children and seven grandchildren. Let this example, reader, encourage thee diligently to discharge the duties of thy calling, and to rely on the support of Divine Providence.

 He was pious and prudent,

She discreet and virtuous.

Their youngest son, from a sentiment of filial duty, consecrates

This stone

To their memory.”

The father had emigrated to enjoy religious freedom; he was a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler. Young FRANKLIN, having been intended for the ministry, was sent to a grammar school when eight years of age; but as the father’s circumstances frustrated that design, he was taken home, and employed in cutting wicks, filling moulds, and waiting on his parents, performing in fact the duties of an errand boy and youngest apprentice. Not liking that occupation, in which he continued two years, he wished to become a sailor; but it was at length determined that he should be a printer; he was accordingly bound to one of his brothers, who, having learned the trade in London, had returned and settled in Boston. Previously to this, the youth had evinced a strong partiality for reading; it was now in some measure gratified, and conceiving a passion for poetry, he wrote two ballads on local subjects, which his brother printed, and then despatched him about the town to sell the copies. Finding, however, that prose was more likely to become his forte than verse, he paid great attention to a volume of the Spectator, which accidentally fell into his hands; his nights were now devoted to perusing such books as his limited resources enabled him to obtain. It is curious and interesting to trace the progress of his mind, and we therefore enumerate some of the books which thus early engaged his attention. Defoe’s Essays on Projects, and Dr. Mathers on Doing Good, were among his earliest studies: the style of the Spectator delighted him; in his memoirs will be found an account of his exertions to imitate it. Aware of the difficulties he must encounter without a knowledge of arithmetic, in which he had failed at school, he now borrowed a little treatise, which he mastered without assistance; he then studied navigation. At the age of sixteen, he read Locke on the Human Understanding, the Port Royal Logic, and Xenophon’s Memorabilia.

At this age, he adopted a system of vegetable diet, by which he saved one half the money allowed for his board; and he states that by abstaining from flesh, he found his apprehension quicker, and the faculties of his mind in general improved. We now find the philosophic young typographer purchasing books with the little sums he was enabled to save by the frugality of his diet.

His brother commenced, during this apprenticeship, the publication of a newspaper, the second that had appeared in America. After having assisted in setting the types, and printing the paper, young FRANKLIN was sent to distribute the copies. At this time, though yet a boy, he enjoyed the singular pleasure of being the admired author of many essays in the periodical; a circumstance which he had the address to keep a secret, for some time, even from his brother; but on its becoming known, he was severely lectured for his presumption, and treated with great severity. From the passionate disposition of his relative, who even went so far as to beat him, he regarded his apprenticeship as the most horrid species of servitude. “Perhaps,” says he, “this harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might be a means of impressing me with the aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to me through my whole life.”

It so turned out, that one of the political articles gave offence to the general court of the colony; the publisher was imprisoned, and forbidden to print any more copies; to elude this prohibition, BENJAMIN was now made the nominal editor, and his indentures were ostensibly cancelled. His brother having obtained his release, our youth took advantage of this act, to assert his freedom, and thus escape from the ill usage he had been subjected to. He had in the course of his reading imbibed, from Shaftesbury and Collins, those sceptical notions which he is known to have held during a part of his life. The odium to which these subjected him, his father’s displeasure, and his brother’s abuse, seemed to leave him no alternative but to seek another home; and at the age of seventeen, he embarked on board a small vessel bound to New York.

Not meeting with employment in that city, he proceeded to Philadelphia, where, on his arrival, he did not think it prudent, in consequence of his small stock of money, to treat himself with a dinner. He therefore bought three pennyworth of bread, and receiving three large rolls, a far greater quantity than he expected, he made a satisfactory meal of one, and gave the remaining two to a poor woman and her children; his whole stock was now a single dollar. “Who would have dreamed,” says Brissot de Warville, “that this poor wanderer would become one of the legislators of America, the ornament of the new world, the pride of modern philosophy.”

Having worked for a short time with a printer at Philadelphia, he attracted Sir William Keith’s notice; Sir William was then governor of the province of Pennsylvania, and wished to see a paper established; he therefore induced FRANKLIN to return to Boston and solicit pecuniary aid from his father, on the promise of great encouragement from the governor. The father, however, refused the required aid, on the ground that he was too young—only eighteen—to be entrusted with such a concern. In consequence of this refusal, Sir William said he would advance the sum that might be necessary, and our tyro should go to England and purchase the requisite materials, for which he would give him letters of credit.

To England, therefore, FRANKLIN went, though he had never obtained the promised letters, having been deluded by promises of their being sent on board the ship after him, and hoping, during the progress of the voyage, that they were in the governor’s packet, and to receive them on its being opened. What were his feelings on finding himself in this just expectation cruelly deceived? The letters delivered to his keeping had no reference to him or his affairs; he was, in London without money, friends, or credit, almost three years before the period of manhood. His freethinking ideas received a check when he remembered that Sir William had agreed with him on topics of religion: from the disgraceful abandonment of moral obligation which FRANKLIN experienced in him, and subsequently in other freethinkers, he began to doubt the soundness of the principles of those who lived without God in the world. The moral duties are very feebly performed, if not grossly violated, by those who acknowledge not the force of religious ties.

In London, where he arrived in 1725, he soon found employment at Palmer’s printing-office. Whilst there, happening to be engaged on a new edition of Wollaston’s “Religion of Nature,” he wrote and printed a little metaphysical tract by way of answer, under the title of “A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain.” On reading this treatise, his master complimented him on his talents, but condemned its principles as abominable. The pamphlet, however, procured him an introduction to Dr. Mandeville, who promised to present him to Sir Isaac Newton, but did not keep his word. Sir Hans Sloane, hearing that he had a purse made of asbestos, invited him to his house, exhibited his curiosities, and purchased the purse for a handsome sum.

Although guilty of some excesses while in London, he afterwards became a model of temperance and industry, and even reformed his brother printers by his example and exhortation.

While in London, he continued to devote his leisure hours, to books and study, and in 1726, after a stay of eighteen months, he returned to America, with Mr. Denham, a merchant of Philadelphia, as his clerk, on a salary of £50 a year. On his arrival, he found that his old sweetheart, Miss Read, had been induced by her parents, in consequence of his neglect, which FRANKLIN justly regarded as one of the great errors of his life, to marry another man. Extraordinary circumstances, however, prevented that couple from ever living together; and, at a subsequent period, FRANKLIN married the lady, who proved an excellent and invaluable wife.

His truly worthy master, Mr. Denham, died in the course of the ensuing year, when FRANKLIN returned to his original, business, first under Keimer his former master, then with a young man of the name of Meredith; they printed a newspaper, which was conducted with much ability, and acquired FRANKLIN some reputation; the project was very profitable, and afforded him an opportunity of distinguishing himself as a political writer. He also opened a shop for the sale of books and stationery.

In 1732, having had leisure for both reading and writing, he began to publish “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” which he continued with great success for many years. “The Way to Wealth,” extracted from that publication, and consisting of numerous and valuable concise maxims, has been translated into various languages, and inserted in almost every newspaper and magazine in England and America.

About this period, FRANKLIN was one of a number of individuals who originated the Library Company of Philadelphia. The combination was at first small. FRANKLIN printed the first notices of the meetings of the directors, and circulated them himself; the payments were made very slowly, and some time elapsed before the organization of the company. The subject of our brief biography performed the duties of librarian for a short period, for which he received a salary. At a subsequent period, when the project was agitated of erecting the present ornamental and substantial structure, for the books of the institution, Dr. FRANKLIN intimated that he should bequeath his own collection to the company as soon as a suitable building might be prepared. This intention was never fulfilled; he left only eighteen quarto volumes to them. The statue which graces the front of the library, was executed in Italy, by order and at the expense of William Bingham, Esq.; it is one of the few statues of marble in the country, and is justly admired, if not for its striking resemblance, at least as a work of art. It is probably owing to this figure, and the knowledge of the fact of his being one of the founders, that the institution has obtained the sobriquet of the Franklin Library.

When a new issue of paper money was made at Philadelphia, FRANKLIN displayed great ingenuity in sketching and engraving the border for the notes, and in conducting the letter-press; and when in want of new letter, as no letter-foundry then existed on the American continent, he used types as punches, and struck the matrices in lead. He also made his own printing-ink, and was frequently his own joiner. “Reading,” says he, “was the only amusement I allowed myself. I spent no time in taverns, gaming, or frolics of any kind; and my industry in my business continued as indefatigable as it was necessary. My original habits of frugality continued, and my father having, among his instructions to me when a boy, frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon, ‘Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men;’ I thence considered industry as a mean of obtaining distinction, which encouraged me; though I did not think I should ever literally stand before kings, which, however, has since happened, for I have stood before five, and even had the honor of sitting down with one (the king of Denmark) to dinner. We have an English proverb that says,

‘He that would thrive,

 Must ask his wife;’

It was lucky for me that I had one as much disposed to industry and frugality as myself. She assisted me cheerfully in my business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old linen rags for the paper-makers, &c. We kept no idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was for a long time bread and milk, (no tea) and I ate it out of a two-penny porringer, with a pewter spoon; but mark how luxury will enter families, and make a progress in spite of principle: being called one morning to breakfast, I found it in a china bowl, with a spoon of silver. They had been bought for me without my knowledge, by my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of three and twenty shillings; for which she had no other excuse or apology to make, but that she thought her husband deserved a silver spoon and china bowl, as well as any of his neighbors. This was the first appearance of plate and china in our house, which afterwards, in a course of years, as our wealth increased, augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in value.”

Such are a few of the interesting particulars communicated by this eminent man himself, for the benefit and amusement of his countrymen. His industry, frugality, activity, intelligence; his plan for bettering the condition of the province, for introducing improved systems of education; his municipal services, made him an object of attention to the whole population. He was consulted by the governor and council, on the most important occasions, and soon elected a member of the assembly.

At the age of twenty-seven, he undertook to learn Spanish, French, and Italian; and when he had nearly mastered them, he applied himself to Latin. He was prominent as a founder of the university of Pennsylvania, and of the American Philosophical Society, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Pennsylvania Hospital, though he has received more credit in that particular, than he is properly entitled to, as the records of that charity sufficiently show. We do not design to take from Dr. FRANKLIN, any praise to which he is fairly entitled; fortunately for his fame, he does not require any adventitious aid to command our reverence, and that of all posterity.

Dr. FRANKLIN started in 1741 the “General Magazine and Historical Chronicle,” and invented in 1742, the Franklin stove; for this improvement on the old fashioned open fireplace, he refused a patent, on the ground that such inventions ought to be made universally subservient to the common good of mankind; an example which the citizens of this nation have been slow to follow. This stove, though still occasionally seen, is in turn superseded by later improvements, and the general introduction of anthracite. Being in Boston, in 1746, he witnessed some experiments in electricity; they were imperfectly performed, but were nevertheless the origin of one of the most brilliant discoveries in natural philosophy, which alone would have been fame enough to have established a claim to immortality.

Upon his return to Philadelphia, he repeated the same experiments with complete success, and adding others, of which some accounts had reached him from England, the science for a time wholly occupied his ambition. He acquired by practice a dexterity in performing those experiments, and soon diffused his fame through the world, and drew upon his native country the regard and attention of all Europe. He was the first who fired gun-powder, gave magnetism to needles of steel, melted metals, and killed animals of considerable size, by means of electricity.

The various steps by which he acquired his knowledge of this science, are too well known to need repetition here. A relation of his experiments was communicated by FRANKLIN himself, in letters to a friend in London. “Nothing,” says Priestley, “was ever written on the subject of electricity more justly admired, in all parts of Europe, than these letters. Electricians everywhere employed themselves in repeating his experiments, or exhibiting them for money. All the world in a manner, even kings themselves, flocked to see them, and all retired full of admiration for the invention of them.” On the continent his discoveries were made public by the celebrated Buffon; the experiments were repeated by M. de Loz, before Louis XV., and were verified by many other philosophers. In Turin, by Father Beccaria; in Russia, by Professor Richmann, who, in the experiment of the kite, perished by a stroke of lightning.

The rights of the colonies had ever been a favorite subject, which he advocated both with his pen and in private, as our dearest prerogative. It was determined to hold a general congress at Albany; to this, FRANKLIN was named as deputy, and on the route, he digested a plan of union, regulating all the great political interests of the colonies and the mother country. His plan was adopted, congress proposing a general government for the provinces, to be administered by a president appointed by the crown, assisted by a grand council, to be chosen by the various provincial assemblies; the council was to have the power of laying taxes for the common exigencies. This Albany plan, as it was called, although unanimously sanctioned by congress, was rejected by the board of trade, as savoring too much of the democratic, and by the assemblies, as having too much of the influence of the mother country.

Appointed deputy post-master-general in 1751, he applied his mind to facilitating the intercourse between the different settled portions of the continent. In this he met with frequent difficulties incident to a new country, where the want of roads formed an almost insurmountable obstacle to the best laid schemes; but he persevered, and to him we are indebted for some suggestions which, having been acted on, have served to perfect the present admirable system of transportation, which equalizes so rapidly the very distant points of our vast country. In his official capacity, he advanced large sums from his private funds to assist General Braddock, though he feared the result of his expedition, and had made some fruitless suggestions with regard to its conduct. When Braddock’s defeat was ascertained, he introduced a bill for establishing a volunteer militia; he accepted a commission as a commander, and raised a corps of five hundred and sixty men, with whom he went through a laborious campaign, and was chosen colonel after his return, by the officers of a regiment.

The proprietaries of Pennsylvania claiming to be exempted from taxation, an unpleasant dispute arose, and Colonel FRANKLIN was deputed by the provincial assembly, in 1757, to visit England as their agent. He published soon after a large work, entitled the “Historical Review,” which was much liked, and increased his reputation, both at home and abroad, and he received the additional appointment of agent for the provinces of Massachusetts, Maryland, and Georgia. The degree of doctor of laws was now conferred on him by the university of Oxford, as well as by those in Scotland, and the Royal Society elected him a follow.

The personal connections which Dr. FRANKLIN formed during this residence in England, were of the most valuable and distinguished kind; he corresponded extensively with the most eminent individuals of the continent, and his letters to his friends and constituents must have occupied much of his time. A recent volume, edited by Jared Sparks, of his “Familiar Letters,” assists us materially in forming an estimate of his private character, while the “Diplomatic Correspondence,” lately published by act of congress, proves how sincerely he loved his native country, and what care he took of her interests while residing in his official capacity at the court of France. These letters added to his own memoirs and works, afford ample evidence, if any were wanting, of the striking union of a cultivated mind with a native and brilliant imagination.

He returned to America in 1762, and would have gladly rested himself in the bosom of domestic life, surrounded by his fellow citizens, who appreciated his talents and respected his patriotism; but in this he was destined to be disappointed. New difficulties arose between the province and the proprietaries, and FRANKLIN was again invested with the appointment of agent, in 1764. New and important events were on the eve of transpiring, and FRANKLIN appeared in England, no longer as simply a colonial agent, but as the representative of America. Thirty-nine years had elapsed since his first landing on the British shore as a destitute and forlorn, nay, a deluded mechanic.

Great Britain had already announced the project of taxing her colonies, and Dr. FRANKLIN was the bearer of a remonstrance from the province of Pennsylvania against it, which he presented to Mr. Grenville before the passage of the justly odious stamp act. Throughout the existence of that measure, he opposed its operations in every possible mode, bending the energies of his prolific mind, to prove the unconstitutionality as well as the impolicy of casting a yoke on the shoulders of an indignant community who were likely to bear it with an ill grace.

His conduct on this occasion was highly praiseworthy. When the repeal was about to be attempted, it was concerted by his friends, that he should appear before the house of commons, and be examined on the whole question at issue. Here he displayed (February 3d, 1766,) so much firmness, readiness, and epigrammatic simplicity of manner, and information so much to the point on subjects of commerce, policy of government, finance, &c.; his precision of language was so remarkable, that the effect was irresistible, and the repeal inevitable.

Dr. FRANKLIN became still more bold and vehement in his expostulations, on the passage of the revenue acts of 1767. He then openly predicted to the English, that general resistance by the colonies, and a separation from the mother country, would be the inevitable result of those and other similar measures of the ministry. These were, however, madly pursued; FRANKLIN saw the coming storm with a clear vision and undaunted firmness; but he continued to adhere to his original plan, to make every effort to enlighten the public mind in England, to arrest the ministry in their infatuation, and to inculcate proper moderation and patience, as well as constancy and unanimity, on the part of his countrymen. He took every suitable means, at the same time, to keep on good terms with the British government, aware of the importance of such a standing to enable him to serve his country effectually; but he ceased not to proclaim the rights, justify the proceedings, and animate the courage of the suffering colonists. He was not ignorant, to use his own words, “that this course would render him suspected, in England of being too much an American, and in America, of being too much of an Englishman.” This be braved in the conscious panoply of his own esteem, and continued to serve his country till circumstances, which we shall briefly hint at, induced him hastily to embark for home.

His transmission of the celebrated letters of Hutchinson and Oliver, in 1772, which had been placed in his hands, is matter of history, and not the least memorable of his acts at this opening period of the American revolution. His own share in the transaction was immediately avowed, though he could never be prevailed upon to divulge the names of the persons from whom he had received those documents. The Massachusetts assembly, indignant in consequence of these letters, petitioned the ministry, through Dr. FRANKLIN, when he was immediately held up as the mark for the virulent abuse, the hatred and ridicule of the periodical press, who would fain have extended the feeling to the whole nation. The spirit and wit with which he met the conflict, are particularly exemplified in his two satirical papers; “The Prussian Edict,” and the “Rules for Reducing a Great Empire to a Small One.”

When the discussion of the petition before the privy council came on, FRANKLIN was present. Weddeburn, (since Lord Loughborough,) the solicitor-general, assailed him in a very ungentlemanly and undignified manner, descending even to coarse invective. He styled the venerable philosopher, and official representative of four of the American provinces, a “thief and a murderer,” who had “forfeited all the respect of society and of men.” This impotent rage only tended still further to inflame the breasts of the petitioners, who now saw their agent dismissed from his place of deputy postmaster-general. A chancery suit was instituted in relation to the letters, with a view of preventing him from entering upon his own vindication.

Notwithstanding this treatment, the British ministry knew their man too well to leave any means in their power untried to convert the republican notions which had taken root in his bosom. Attempts were actually made, as the schism between the two countries widened, to corrupt the man they had discovered they had no power to intimidate; “any reward,” “unlimited recompense,” “honor and recompense beyond his expectations,” were held up to him to induce a change of conduct. But they all proved unavailing, for he was as inaccessible to bribery as to threats. He was about this time directed to present the famous petition of the first American congress.

At the period when Lord Chatham proposed his plan for a reconciliation between the colonies and the parent country, Dr. FRANKLIN attended behind the bar, in the house of lords. While Chatham was using his powerful eloquence in favor of his plan of pacification, he eulogized FRANKLIN as “one whom Europe held in high estimation for his knowledge and wisdom; who was an honor, not to the English nation only, but to human nature.” This, from such a speaker, must be admitted as high praise.

He soon after was informed that it was the intention of ministers to arrest him, as guilty of fomenting a rebellious spirit in the colonies, and he immediately embarked for America, where he was enthusiastically received, and immediately elected a member of congress.

Dr. FRANKLIN served on many of the most arduous of the committees of that body, particularly as a member of the committee of safety, and of that of foreign correspondence, where he exerted all his influence in favor of the Declaration of Independence, of which instrument he is one of the signers.

Supplies from abroad becoming necessary to the infant republic, Dr. FRANKLIN was sent to France, in 1776, as commissioner plenipotentiary to that court, where he soon succeeded in gaining the confidence of the Count de Vergennes, though not at first publicly recognised. The reception of information that Burgoyne had surrendered, put a new aspect upon our affairs abroad, and our plenipotentiary had the happiness to conclude the first treaty of the new states, with a foreign power, on the 6th of February, 1778. The American was now in high favor at court, sought for in all circles of fashionable society, and extremely useful in forwarding the views of his government, furnishing supplies, and corresponding with the prominent leaders of the revolution.

While resident there, he produced a work entitled “Comparison of Great Britain and America, as to Credit,” by the publication of which he did much to establish the credit of America, throughout Europe; it appeared in 1777. The treaty with France, and the capture of Burgoyne, created of course a great sensation in England, and no sooner were they known than the British ministry began to talk of a reconciliation. Efforts, plain and insidious, were made to sound FRANKLIN as to the terms that might probably, be obtained; his answer uniformly was, “nothing but independence.” He had next to guard against the attempts made to separate France from our interests, and succeeded in defeating them. He was now one of the commissioners for negotiating the peace with the mother country.

These negotiations fairly closed, he earnestly requested, in 1782, to be recalled, stating his anxiety to be again in the bosom of his family; but this was refused. He continued in Paris, where his venerable age, his simplicity of manners, his scientific reputation, the ease, gaiety, and richness of his conversation—all contributed to render him an object of admiration to courtiers, fashionable ladies and savans. He regularly attended the meetings of the Academy of Sciences, and was appointed one of the committee which exposed Mesmer’s animal magnetism.

During this period, Dr. FRANKLIN negotiated two treaties; one with Prussia, and one with Sweden.

On his return to Philadelphia, after having served his country fifty-three years, he filled the office of president of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and served as a delegate in the federal convention, in 1787, and approved the constitution then formed.

Dr. FRANKLIN died April 17, 1790, his faculties and affections unimpaired to the last, and lies buried in Christ Church burying-ground, at the corner of Arch and Fifth streets, Philadelphia, where a plain marble slab covers his remains and those of his wife, on which is inscribed simply,

 BENJAMIN AND DEBORAH FRANKLIN, 1790. 

A complete edition of his works was published in London, in 1806, in three volumes, octavo. His memoirs, with his posthumous writings, were published by his grandson, William Temple Franklin, in 1819, in three volumes, quarto, and a later edition in Philadelphia, in nine volumes, octavo.

Dr. FRANKLIN was free from any deep religious bias; for some time he subscribed towards the support of a Presbyterian clergyman, in Philadelphia; but after attending him a few weeks, and finding that he was rather an indifferent preacher, and rarely inculcated a moral principle, he withdrew, and confined himself to the use of a small liturgy, or form of prayer, drawn up in 1728, entitled, “Articles of Belief, and Acts of Religion.” “About the same time,” he observes, “I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection; I wished to live without committing any fault at any time, and to conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company, might lead me into. On the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was by the endeavor a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been, if I had not attempted it.”

Blessed with, an excellent constitution, aided by temperance, Dr. FRANKLIN enjoyed a long continuance of robust health. As he advanced in years, however, he became subject to fits of the gout, to which, in 1782, a nephritic colic was superadded. From that time, he was afflicted with the stone as well as the gout, and for the last twelve months of his life, those complaints confined him almost entirely to his bed. Early in the spring of 1790, he was attacked by fever, and a complaint of his breast, which proved fatal, and his long and useful life was closed without a groan. He left one son, William, a zealous loyalist, and a daughter, married to Mr. Bache, a merchant of Philadelphia.

We have thus given the leading facts in the life of FRANKLIN, from his cradle to the grave. It is necessary to the proper completion of our pleasing task, to add a few remarks for the purpose of illustrating the character of so remarkable an individual. His early bias to literature was fostered in some measure by his father, who entertaining a high estimate for literary merit, applauded the industry, and excited the emulation of the son. In this he was standing in his own light, for it abstracted the youth from the pursuit of the trade by which the family lived, and induced him to disenthral himself from the fetters of so rude and inglorious an occupation. It, however, was a fortunate circumstance for the country. The business of a printer led him naturally amongst books, and his inquiring mind to the cultivation of letters; to promote this object, he early formed a literaly club with a few ingenious young men about his own age, who conferred together on the subject of their studies, a practice which may be warmly recommended—many of our most eminent men trace to such associations the development of their minds.

Of FRANKLIN’S youthful levity on the subject of religion, it is necessary to remark, that when he had acquired a riper age, and more ample intelligence, he emphatically condemned it; but the extreme aversion, which, like many others of honest feelings, he entertained for that senseless dogmatism and mischievous intolerance which prevailed, both in Europe and America, led him sometimes to express sentiments on religious subjects, that by the severity of his age, were not always approved. He believed that honest men without any regard to religious denominations, were equally entitled to esteem. He insisted that in discussing the mysteries of our faith, much less time should be spent than in practising the duties which it enjoins; and indeed in all the business of his life, in morals and politics, as well as religion, he was much more an advocate for practice than speculation. But of the pure and innocent service of the Deity; of the essential doctrines of Christianity, no man has ever spoken with more reverence; and with such a life as FRANKLIN generally led, we should, perhaps, offer an injury to religion in supposing him, as some have done, an enemy to its prevalence, or a stranger to its benign influence.

The resolution he took up in his twenty-first year, was one which might more frequently be adopted than we see it to be. He was then on his voyage from England, and employed himself in marking down its incidents in a journal. It struck him while thus amusing himself, that it was unbecoming the character of a man to whom heaven has imparted intelligence and reason, to fluctuate without a design through life; and he then resolved to form some plan for his future conduct, by which he might promote his fortune, and procure respect and reputation in society. This plan is prefaced by the following reflections. “Those who write of the art of poetry, teach us, that if we would write what would be worth the reading, we ought always before we begin, to form a regular design of our piece; otherwise we shall be in danger of incongruity. I am apt to think it is the same as to life. I have never fixed a regular design in life: by which means it has been a confused variety of different scenes. I am now entering upon a new one; let me, therefore, make some resolutions, and form some schemes of action, that henceforth, I may live in all respects like a rational creature.”

To these remarks, he attached a set of rules and moral principles, which, while they show his noble ardor for virtue, may afford those animated with the same spirit, no unprofitable example. They are partly as follow:—

“I resolve to be extremely frugal, for some time, until I pay what I owe.

“To speak the truth in every instance, and give no one expectations that are not likely to be answered; but aim at sincerity in every word and action, the most amiable excellence in a rational being.

“To apply myself industriously in whatever business I take in hand, and not divert my mind by any foolish project of growing suddenly rich; for industry and patience are the surest means of plenty.

“I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of every body,” &c.

To these resolutions, though formed in the ardor of youthful imagination, he adhered with a scrupulous fidelity.

Soon after his return to Philadelphia, he instituted another club, in connection with several young men of respectable character and abilities, denominated “The Junto,” of which he has spoken in his memoirs with great affection. Subjects of a scientific, moral, or political cast, were discussed at their meetings. The association endured with undiminished vigor, for thirty years, and was at last succeeded by the present Philosophical Society.

It is a just remark, that the exigencies in which FRANKLIN had passed his early youth, and the expedients he was forced to adopt, that he might improve his fortune, drew him from all barren speculations towards those only which might tend to ameliorate the condition and happiness of his species. All his leading enterprises appear to have been undertaken with an eye to the public good, and even to minor affairs he gave the same tendency. To practice virtue, and disseminate it among mankind, he considered his duty wherever he went, and he allowed no common distraction of life to turn him from his laudable purpose. Like Lycurgus, he wished that the praise of virtue and contempt for vice should be interwoven with all the actions of men, and that excellent objects and actions should be perpetually before the gaze of the multitude. He carried this so far, as even to assist in making the common devices on coins, which are so constantly under our inspection, of a character to convey a prudential maxim; thus the old penny he caused to be impressed with the word “Fugio”—I fly; and on the reverse, “mind your own business.”

His Poor Richard’s Almanac he made the vehicle of conveying moral apothegms, precepts of economy, rules for the preservation of health, and such general principles of instruction as were most adapted to the purposes of common life. Of this Almanac ten thousand copies were circulated in America every year; this, considering the then limited population, sufficiently exhibits the estimation in which it was held. The last, 1757, in which he collected the principal matter of the preceding numbers, was republished in various forms in Great Britain, and thence translated into foreign languages, was dispersed and read with great avidity throughout the whole continent. An edition in a large folio volume has just been published in Paris in the highest style of typographical art, under the title of “Le Bon Homme Richard.”

His efforts to diffuse literature, form libraries, &c., were the means of disseminating a taste for polite letters; reading became everywhere the fashionable amusement, spreading its influence even to the humble walks of life. This, in a republican state, is an object of importance, where some equality in the diffusion of intellectual, as well as physical benefits, is essential to the purity and permanence of political institutions.

His discoveries in electricity have been already noticed. It cannot be expected that we should here enumerate all the experiments he made, or the treatises he composed on the various branches of science; for there is scarcely one that has not occupied some portion of his time and attention. He made use of oil to show its effects in stilling the waters of the ocean; he endeavored to ascertain whether boats are not drawn with more difficulty in small canals, than in large bodies of water; to improve the art of swimming, and to prove that thirst may be allayed by bathing in salt water. He made observations, also, in his several voyages, on the gradual progress of the north-east storms along the American coast, contrary to the direction of the winds; and likewise, for the benefit of navigation, made experiments on the course, velocity, and temperature of the gulf stream. He made also curious observations on the air; upon the relative powers of metals in the conducting of heat, and of the different degrees acquired by congenial bodies of various colors, from the rays of the sun. He composed likewise an ingenious treatise upon the formation of the earth, and the existence of an universal fluid; music, too, came in for a share of his grasping mind, and he cultivated that science with success. He revived and improved the harmonica, performing upon that instrument with taste.

It was a peculiarity which gave FRANKLIN a great advantage from his early youth, to have mingled business with study and speculation. He thus acquired theoretical and practical knowledge together, and was skilful in applying his information. Lord Kaimes was highly gratified to become his correspondent, from the delight he took in him as a philosopher; their friendship, formed in Europe, subsisted until the termination of their lives.

It is probable that in the first outbreak of difficulties with the mother country, FRANKLIN entertained no farther design than that of vindicating the constitutional liberties of his country, and that no ambition for her independence had at this time entered his imagination; he continued to still the angry passions which had been kindled by the operation of bad or over-bearing laws, till they were insupportable. He still kept up discussions with the parliament, and maintained some appearance of impartiality; but by the introduction of British troops, into Boston, and the tumults and massacres occasioned by that measure; by all the proceedings, indeed, of the government subsequent to the repeal of the stamp act, he knew well that passions were inflamed too fierce and vengeful to be appeased by the application of gentle remedies. He observed, also, not only in the minds of those who were entrusted with the supreme management of affairs in England, but throughout the whole nation, that there prevailed a spirit of arrogance and contempt for Americans, or in the phraseology of the times, “the rebels of the colonies,” which must have confirmed his opinions on that subject. Though he still recommended, in all his letters to the colonies, a moderation and decorum, that the ministry might have no pretext that might justify a more open violation of their liberties; there is, nevertheless, a strain of vehemence in all his writings of this period, which indicate that he was himself not less exasperated than his ardent countrymen at home.

During his long residence in England, he had been treated with all the rancor and malice, the resentful and unmanly arrogance, which power usually produces in ignoble minds. The worthy portion of the community, however, approved his various merits, and he has expressed in his letters, his gratification at the marks of attachment, friendship, generosity, and affectionate attention which he received.

On his voyage homewards, he had employed himself in philosophical speculations, and in writing a circumstantial detail of the whole of his public operations during his absence; this constitutes a very interesting portion of his biography published by his grandson, furnishing many conspicuous examples of his devotion to liberty, of his spirit and patriotism; and affords a specimen of those diplomatic talents which proved so beneficial to his country.

When appointed in 1776, with John Adams and Edward Rutledge, to hear certain propositions of English commissioners who had arrived on our coast to propose terms of accommodation, or rather “offer pardon upon submission,” to congress, Lord Howe, the chief of the embassy, endeavored to wheedle him by kind words into using his influence in promoting the great object of “the king’s paternal solicitude.” His reply was highly honorable to his patriotism and abilities; he insisted that directing pardons to be offered to the colonies, who were the parties injured, expressed “that opinion of our baseness, ignorance, and insensibility, which your uninformed and proud nation has long been pleased to entertain of us; but it can have no other effect than that of increasing our resentments.” He continues in a noble strain of independent sentiment, and concludes, “when you find reconciliation impossible on any terms given you to propose, I believe you will then relinquish so odious a command, and return to a more honorable private station.”

When Dr. FRANKLIN left America for France, he placed the whole of his possessions in money, between three and four thousand pounds, in the hands of congress, thus testifying his confidence in the success of their cause, and inducing others of greater means to imitate so laudable an example.

His colleagues, Mr. Adams, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Laurens, assisted materially to lighten his labors; advantages were gained by their joint exertions very far beyond what either in France or America had been anticipated; and if we may judge from the tenor of FRANKLIN’S letters, far beyond his own expectation. “Had it not been,” says he, “for the justice of our cause, and the consequent interposition of Providence, in which we had faith, we must have been ruined. If I had ever before been an atheist, I should now have been convinced of the being and government of a Deity. It is he that abases the proud and elevates the humble; may we never forget his goodness, and may our future conduct manifest our gratitude.”

In his treaties with Sweden and Prussia, Dr. FRANKLIN introduced an article highly honorable to his memory, and one which he had attempted in vain to add to his negotiations with Great Britain; it was the prohibiting from injuries of war, the property and persons of unarmed individuals. This principle has been acknowledged to a greater or less degree since by civilized nations, and may be dated in a measure to the influence of the subject of our biography.

A defensive war Dr. FRANKLIN thought justifiable, but he preferred peace whenever it could be obtained, provided it was honorable; nor was he without a hope that the interests of nations might prevail over the perversity of human nature, so far as to produce some alleviation of the calamities insuperably attendant upon warfare. “I hope,” he says in one of his letters, “that mankind will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats; for in my opinion, there never was a good war, nor a bad peace. What vast additions to the convenience and comforts of living might we acquire, if the money spent in wars had been employed in works of public utility; what an extension of agriculture, even to tops of the mountains!” “When,” says he to Dr. Priestley, “shall we make that discovery in moral philosophy, which will instruct men to compose their quarrels without bloodshed? When will men cease to be wolves to one another, and learn, that even successful wars at length become misfortunes to those who urgently commence them?”

On Dr. FRANKLIN’S return from France, he was attended at his landing by the members of congress, of the university, and by the principal citizens, who, formed into processions, went out to escort him; amidst their acclamations he was conducted to his dwelling. He received from public assemblies of every description, the most affectionate addresses; all testifying their gratitude for his services, and joy at his safe return. General Washington, in a public letter, greeted his arrival with the same grateful sentiments, and he says himself, “I am surrounded by friends, and have an affectionate good daughter and son-in-law to take care of me. I have got into my niche, a very good house, which I built twenty-four years ago, and out of which I have been ever since kept by foreign employments.”

He continued in his retirement to ponder deeply on the condition of man, and to seek by every means in his power to promote the interest of his fellow creatures. Several of his writings at this period, and later, when entirely disabled from going abroad by his infirmities, are evidence of this fact. Many societies, the philosophical, of which he was president, that for political inquiries, for alleviating the miseries of public prisons, and for promoting the abolition of slavery, held their meetings at his house, to enjoy the benefit of his council.

When his death was known, congress ordered a general mourning for him throughout America, of one month. In France, the expression of public grief was highly flattering to his memory; there the event was solemnized under the direction of the municipality of Paris, by funeral orations; the national assembly decreed that each of the members should wear mourning for three days, “in commemoration of the event,” and that a letter of condolence for the irreparable loss they had sustained, should be directed to the American congress. These were honors truly glorious, and such as were never before paid by any public body of one nation to a citizen of another.

In stature, FRANKLIN was above the middle size; manly, athletic, and gracefully proportioned. His countenance had an air of serenity and peace; the natural effect of conscious integrity. The harmony of the features is remarkable; seeming formed at once to excite love and veneration, command authority, or conciliate esteem. His mind was stored with knowledge, which he had a very happy manner of imparting, enlivening his conversation by ingenious illustrations, sprightly thoughts or pleasantry, winning even the morose. Amidst all the pageantry of European courts, where a large portion of his life was passed, as well as in the intercourse he kept up with the most fashionable society, he retained his republican dress and the simplicity of his manners, never showing any mean pride in concealing the humility of his birth.

Such was Dr. FRANKLIN. In estimating his character, much regard must be had to the times; and faults of education or habit may well be pardoned in one whose main design was undoubtedly good.

                                                                                              S.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 2.

 

 

FRANKLIN, Thomas, Jr., New York, abolitionist, member of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, founded New York 1785 (Basker, 2005, pp. 223-224)

 

 

FRASER, K.

 

 

FREEMAN, Amos N., abolitionist, Portland, Maine, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1853-55.

 

 

FREEMAN, Robert, Chicago, Illinois, abolitionist.  Co-founded the Chicago Chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) in 1838, along with Philo Carpenter and Dr. Charles Dyer.  (Camptbell, 2009)

 

 

FRELINGHUYSEN, Theodore, 1787-1862, Franklin, Somerset Co., Newark, New Jersey, attorney, jurist, statesman, opposed slavery.  U.S. Senator, 1829-1836.  Mayor of Newark, New Jersey.  Chancellor of the University of New York.  Whig Vice Presidential candidate.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841.  Member of the board of the African Education Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 543-544; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 16; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 16, 86, 128, 189-190, 207, 225, 228)

 

FRELINGHUYSEN, Theodore, lawyer, b. in Franklin, Somerset co., N. J., 28 March, 1787; d. in New Brunswick, N. J., 12 April, 1861, was sent at the age of eleven to the grammar-school connected with Queen's college (now Rutgers), where he remained two years, but, on the resignation of the rector of the school, returned to his home at Millstone. Having no great disposition to apply himself to study, he persuaded his father to give him the privilege of remaining at home and becoming a farmer. But consent to this plan had been only partially obtained when his father was called away on public business. His step-mother, a wise and estimable woman, believing that this arrangement would not be a judicious one, packed young Theodore's trunk and sent him to the classical academy recently established at Baskingridge, N. J., by the Rev. Dr. Robert Finley. Here he completed his preparatory studies, and in 1802 was admitted to the junior class of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, from which he was graduated with high honors in 1804. In the mean time, his father having died, his elder brother, John, a lawyer, had taken charge of the homestead at Millstone. In the office of this brother he began the study of law, and, after being admitted to the bar, removed to Newark, N. J., where he married, and entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he soon attained eminence. In 1817 he was appointed attorney-general by a legislature whose majority was opposed to him in politics. Twice afterward he was reappointed on the expiration of his term of office, and finally resigned it in 1829, having been elected a senator of the United States. Prior to this, however, he had declined the office of justice of the supreme court, tendered to him in 1826. The first important matter on which he addressed the senate was the bill for the removal of the Indians beyond the Mississippi river. This speech availed nothing, however, except to bring its author prominently before the nation, and to give to him the title of the “Christian statesman.” He also took an active part in the discussion of the pension bill, the president's protest, the removal of the deposits from the U. S. bank, the compromise, and the tariff. His senatorial term expired in 1835, when he resumed his professional labors in Newark. In 1836 Newark was incorporated as a city. In the following year Mr. Frelinghuysen was elected its mayor, and in 1838 he was re-elected to the same position. In 1839 he was unanimously chosen chancellor of the University of New York, and while in the occupancy of this office was, in May, 1844, nominated by the Whig national convention at Baltimore for the vice-presidency of the United States on the same ticket with Henry Clay. He continued in the discharge of his duties as chancellor of the university until 1850, when he accepted the presidency of Rutgers college, and in the same year was formally inducted into that office, continuing in it until the day of his death. Mr. Frelinghuysen was an earnest advocate of the claims of organized Christian benevolence, and it is said of him that no American layman was ever associated with so many great national organizations of religion and charity. He was president of no less than three of these during some period of their existence, while his name may be found on the lists of officers of all the rest with scarcely an exception. For sixteen years he was president of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions. From April, 1846, till his death he was president of the American Bible society; from 1842 till 1848, of the American tract society; from 1826 till near the close of his life, vice-president of the American Sunday-school union; and for many years vice-president of the American colonization society. In the work of all these institutions he took an active part. His remains were buried in the grounds of the 1st Reformed Dutch church in New Brunswick, N. J. See a memoir of him by Rev. Talbot W. Chambers, D.D. (1863).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FRÉMONT, Jessie Benton, 1824-1902, writer, political activist, opponent of slavery.  Wife of John Charles Frémont.  (Denton, 2007)

 

 

FRÉMONT, John Charles, 1813-1890, California, Army officer, explorer.  In 1856, was first candidate for President from the anti-slavery Republican Party.  Lost to James Buchanan.  Early in his career, he was opposed to slavery and its expansion into new territories and states.  Third military governor of California, 1847. First U.S. Senator from the State of California, 1850-1851.  He was elected as a Free Soil Democrat, and was defeated for reelection principally because of his adamant opposition to slavery.  Frémont supported a free Kansas and was against the provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.  On August 30, 1861, Frémont issued an unauthorized proclamation to free slaves owned by secessionists in his Department in Missouri.  Lincoln revoked the proclamation and relieved Frémont of command.  In March 1862, Frémont was given commands in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 8, 10, 12-13, 58, 77, 78, 105, 131, 153, 173, 178, 206, 225, 239, 245, 252, 261-263, 268-269; Chaffin, 2002; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 89, 93, 94-95, 97-98, 138, 139, 145, 149, 159, 161, 172, 215, 219-225, 228-230, 243; Nevins, 1939; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 59, 65, 140, 242-243, 275, 369, 385, 687; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 545-548; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 19; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 459; Chaffin, Tom, Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire, New York: Hill and Wang, 2002; Eyre, Alice, The Famous Fremonts and Their America, Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1948; Nevins, Allan, Fremont: Pathmarker of the West, Volume 1: Fremont the Explorer; Volume 2: Fremont in the Civil War, 1939, rev ed. 1955)

 

FRÉMONT, John Charles, explorer, b. in Savannah, Ga., 21 Jan., 1813. His father, who was a Frenchman, had settled in Norfolk, Va., married Anne Beverley Whiting, a Virginian lady, and supported himself by teaching his native language. After his death, which took place in 1818, his widow removed with her three infant children to Charleston, S. C. John Charles entered the junior class of Charleston college in 1828, and for some time stood high, especially in mathematics; but his in attention and frequent absences at length caused his expulsion. He then employed himself as a private teacher of mathematics, and at the same time taught an evening school. He became teacher of mathematics on the sloop-of-war “Natchez” in 1833, and after a cruise of two years returned, and was given his degree by the college that had expelled him. He then passed a rigorous examination at Baltimore for a professorship in the U. S. navy, and was appointed to the frigate “Independence,” but declined, and became an assistant engineer under Capt. William G. Williams, of the U. S. topographical corps, on surveys for a projected railroad between Charleston and Cincinnati, aiding particularly in the exploration of the mountain passes between North Carolina and Tennessee. This work was suspended in 1837, and Frémont accompanied Capt. Williams in a military reconnaissance of the mountainous Cherokee country in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, made rapidly, in the depth of winter, in anticipation of hostilities with the. Indians. On 7 July, 1838, while engaged with Jean Nicolas Nicollet in exploring, under government authority, the country between the Missouri and the northern frontier, he was commissioned by President Van Buren as 2d lieutenant of topographical engineers. He went to Washington in 1840 to prepare his report, and while there met Jessie, daughter of Thomas H. Benton, then senator from Missouri. An engagement was formed, but, as the lady was only fifteen years of age, her parents objected to the match; and suddenly, probably through the influence of Col. Benton, the young officer received from the war department an order to make an examination of the river Des Moines on the western frontier. The survey was made rapidly, and shortly after his return from this duty the lovers were secretly married, 19 Oct., 1841. In 1842, Frémont was instructed by the war department to take charge of an expedition for the exploration of the Rocky mountains, particularly the South pass. He left Washington on 2 May, and in four months had carefully examined the South pass and explored the Wind River mountains, ascending their highest point, since known as Frémont's peak (13,570 ft.). His report of the expedition was laid before congress in the winter of 1842-'3, and attracted much attention both at home and abroad. Immediately afterward, Frémont determined to explore the unknown region between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific, and set out in May, 1843, with thirty-nine men. On 6 Sept., after travelling over 1,700 miles, he came in sight of Great Salt lake. His investigations corrected many vague and erroneous ideas about this region, of which no accurate account had ever been given, and had great influence in promoting the settlement of Utah and the Pacific states. It was his report of this expedition that gave to the Mormons their first idea of Utah as a place of residence. After leaving Great Salt lake, he explored the upper tributaries of the Columbia, descended the valley of that river to Fort Vancouver, near its mouth, and on 10 Nov. set out on his return. His route lay through an almost unknown region leading from the Lower Columbia to the Upper Colorado, and was crossed by high and rugged mountain-chains. Deep snow soon forced him to descend into the great basin, and he presently found himself, in the depth of winter, in a desert, with the prospect of death to his whole party from cold and hunger. By astronomical observation he found that he was in the latitude of the bay of San Francisco; but between him and the valleys of California was a snow-clad range of mountains, which the Indians declared no man could cross, and over which no reward could induce them to attempt to guide him. Frémont undertook the passage without a guide, and accomplished it in forty days, reaching Sutter's Fort, on the Sacramento, early in March, with his men reduced almost to skeletons, and with only thirty-three out of sixty-seven horses and mules remaining. Resuming his journey on 24 March, he crossed the Sierra Nevada through a gap, and after another visit to Great Salt lake returned to Kansas through the South pass in July, 1844, having been absent fourteen months. The reports of this expedition occupied in their preparation the remainder of 1844. Frémont was given the double brevet of 1st lieutenant and captain in January, 1845, at the instance of Gen. Scott, and in the spring of that year he set out on a third expedition to explore the great basin and the maritime region of Oregon and California. After spending the summer in exploring the watershed between the Pacific and the Mississippi, he encamped in October on the shore of the Great Salt lake, and after crossing the Sierra Nevada with a few men, in the dead of winter, to obtain supplies, left his party in the valley of the San Joaquin while he went to Monterey, then the capital of California, to obtain from the Mexican authorities permission to proceed with his exploration: This was granted, but was almost immediately revoked, and Frémont was ordered to leave the country without delay. Compliance with this demand was impossible, on account of the exhaustion of Frémont's men and his lack of supplies, and it was therefore refused. The Mexican commander, Gen. Jose Castro, then mustered the forces of the province and prepared to attack the Americans, who numbered only sixty-two. Frémont took up a strong position on the Hawk's peak, a mountain thirty miles from Monterey, built a rude fort of felled trees, hoisted the American flag, and, having plenty of ammunition, resolved to defend himself. The Mexican general, with a large force, encamped in the plain immediately below the Americans, whom he hourly threatened to attack. On the evening of the fourth day of the siege Frémont withdrew with his party and proceeded toward the San Joaquin. The fires were still burning in his deserted camp when a messenger arrived from Gen. Castro to propose a cessation of hostilities. Frémont now made his way northward through the Sacramento valley into Oregon without further trouble, and near Tlamath lake, on 9 May, 1846, met a party in search of him with despatches from Washington, directing him to watch over the interests of the United States in California, there being reason to apprehend that the province would be transferred to Great Britain, and also that Gen. Castro intended to destroy the American settlements on the Sacramento. He promptly returned to California, where he found that Castro was already marching against the settlements. The settlers flocked to Frémont's camp, and in less than a month he had freed northern California from Mexican authority. He received a lieutenant-colonel's commission on 27 May, and was elected governor of California by the American settlers on 4 July. On 10 July, learning that Com. Sloat, commander of the United States squadron on that coast, had seized Monterey, he marched to join him, and reached that place on 19 July, with 160 mounted riflemen. About this time Com. Stockton arrived at Monterey with the frigate “Congress” and took command of the squadron, with authority from Washington to conquer California. At his request Frémont organized a force of mounted men, known as the “California battalion,” of which he was appointed major. He was also appointed by Com. Stockton military commandant and civil governor of the territory, the project of making California independent having been relinquished on receipt of intelligence that war had begun between the United States and Mexico. On 13 Jan., 1847, Frémont concluded with the Mexicans articles of capitulation, which terminated the war in California and left that country permanently in the possession of the United States. Meantime Gen. Stephen W. Kearny, with a small force of dragoons, had arrived in California. A quarrel soon broke out between him and Com. Stockton as to who should command. Each had instructions from Washington to conquer and organize a government in the country. Frémont had accepted a commission from Com. Stockton as commander of the battalion of volunteers, and had been appointed governor of the territory. Gen. Kearny, as Frémont's superior officer in the regular army, required him to obey his orders, which conflicted with those of Com. Stockton. In this dilemma Frémont concluded to obey Stockton's orders, considering that he had already fully recognized that officer as commander-in-chief, and that Gen. Kearny had also for some time admitted his authority. In the spring of 1847 despatches from Washington assigned the command to Gen. Kearny, and in June that officer set out overland for the United States, accompanied by Frémont, whom he treated with deliberate disrespect throughout the journey. On the arrival of the party at Fort Leavenworth, on 22 Aug., Frémont was put under arrest and ordered to report to the adjutant-general at Washington, where he arrived on 16 Sept., and demanded a speedy trial. Accordingly a court-martial was held, beginning 2 Nov., 1847, and ending 31 Jan., 1848, which found him guilty of “mutiny,” “disobedience of the lawful command of a superior officer,” and “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline,” and sentenced him to be dismissed from the service. A majority of the members of the court recommended him to the clemency of President Polk. The president refused to confirm the verdict of mutiny, but approved the rest of the verdict and the sentence, of which, however, he remitted the penalty. Notwithstanding this, Frémont at once resigned his commission, and on 14 Oct., 1848, set out on a fourth expedition across the continent, at his own expense, with the object of finding a practicable passage to California by way of the upper waters of the Rio Grande. With thirty-three men and 120 mules he made his way through the country of the Utes, Apaches, Comanches, and other Indian tribes then at war with the United States. In attempting to cross the great Sierra, covered with snow, his guide lost his way, and Frémont's party encountered horrible suffering from cold and hunger, a portion of them being driven to cannibalism. All of his animals and one third of his men perished, and he was forced to retrace his steps to Santa Fe. Undaunted by this disaster, he gathered another band of thirty men, and after a long search discovered a secure route by which he reached the Sacramento in the spring of 1849. He now determined to settle in California, where, in 1847, he had bought the Mariposa estate, a large tract of land containing rich gold-mines. His title to this estate was contested, but after a long litigation, it was decided in his favor in 1855 by the supreme court of the United States. He received from President Taylor in 1849 the appointment of commissioner to run the boundary-line between the United States and Mexico, but, having been elected by the legislature of California, in December of that year, to represent the new state in the U. S. senate, he resigned his commissionership and departed for Washington by way of the isthmus. He took his seat in the senate, 10 Sept., 1850, the day after the admission of California as a state. In drawing lots for the terms of the respective senators, Frémont drew the short term, ending 4 March, 1851. The senate remained in session but three weeks after the admission of California, and during that period Frémont devoted himself almost exclusively to measures relating to the interests of the state he represented. For this purpose he introduced and advocated a comprehensive series of bills, embracing almost every object of legislation demanded by the peculiar circumstances of California. In the state election of 1851 in California the Anti-slavery party, of which Frémont was one of the leaders, was defeated, and he consequently failed of re-election to the senate, after 142 ballotings. After devoting two years to his private affairs, he visited Europe in 1852, and spent a year there, being received with distinction by many eminent men of letters and of science. He had already, in 1850, received a gold medal from the king of Prussia for his discoveries, had been awarded the “founder's medal” of the Royal geographical society of London, and had been elected an honorary member of the Geographical society of Berlin. His explorations had gained for him at home the name of the “Pathfinder.” While in Europe he learned that congress had made an appropriation for the survey of three routes from the Mississippi valley to the Pacific, and immediately returned to the United States for the purpose of fitting out a fifth expedition on his own account to complete the survey of the route he had taken on his fourth expedition. He left Paris in June, 1853, and in September was on his march across the continent. He found passes through the mountains on the line of latitudes 38° and 39°, and reached California in safety, after enduring great hardships. For fifty days his party lived on horse-flesh, and for forty-eight hours at a time were without food of any kind. In the spring of 1855 Frémont with his family took up his residence in New York, for the purpose of preparing for publication the narrative of his last expedition. He now began to be mentioned as an anti-slavery candidate for the presidency. In the first National Republican convention, which met in Philadelphia on 17 June, 1856, he received 359 votes to 196 for John McLean, on an informal ballot, and on the first formal ballot Frémont was unanimously nominated. In his letter of acceptance, dated 8 July, 1856, he expressed himself strongly against the extension of slavery and in favor of free labor. A few days after the Philadelphia convention adjourned, a National American convention at New York also nominated him for the presidency. He accepted their support in a letter dated 30 June, in which he referred them for an exposition of his views to his forthcoming letter accepting the Republican nomination. After a spirited and exciting contest, the presidential election resulted in the choice of Mr. Buchanan by 174 electoral votes from nineteen states, while Frémont received 114 votes from eleven states, including the six New England states, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Maryland gave her eight electoral votes for Mr. Fillmore. The popular vote for Frémont was 1,341,000; for Buchanan, 1,838,000; for Fillmore, 874,000. In 1858 Frémont went to California, where he resided for some time. In 1860 he visited Europe. Soon after the beginning of the civil war he was made a major-general of the regular army and assigned to the command of the newly created western department. After purchasing arms for the U. S. government, in Europe, he returned; he arrived in St. Louis on 26 July, 1861, and made his headquarters there, fortifying the city, and placing Cairo in security by a demonstration with 4,000 troops. After the battle of Wilson's Creek, on 10 Aug., where Gen. Nathaniel Lyon was slain, Frémont proclaimed martial law, arrested active secessionists, and suspended the publication of papers charged with disloyalty. On 31 Aug. he issued a proclamation assuming the government of the state, and announcing that he would emancipate the slaves of those in arms against the United States. President Lincoln wrote to him, approving all of the proclamation except the e20mancipation clause, which he considered premature. He asked Frémont to withdraw it, which he declined, and the president annulled it himself in a public order. In the autumn Frémont moved his army from the Missouri river in pursuit of the enemy. Meanwhile many complaints had been made of his administration, it being alleged that it was inefficient, though arbitrary and extravagant, and after an investigation by the secretary of war he was, on 2 Nov., 1861, relieved from his command just as he had overtaken the Confederates at Springfield. It is claimed by Frémont's friends that this was the result of a political intrigue against him. On leaving his army, he went to St. Louis, where he was enthusiastically received by the citizens. In March, 1862, he was given the command of the newly created “mountain district” of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In the early part of June his army engaged a superior force under Gen. Jackson for eight days, with constant sharp skirmishing, the enemy retreating slowly and destroying culverts and bridges to cause delay. The pursuit was terminated with a severe engagement on the evening of 6 June, in which Jackson's chief of cavalry, Gen. Ashby, was killed, and by the battle of Cross-Keys on 8 June. It is claimed by Gen. Frémont that if McDowell's force had joined him, as promised by the president, Jackson's retreat would have been cut off; as it was, the latter made good his escape, having accomplished his purpose of delaying re-enforcements to McClellan. On 26 June the president issued an order creating the “Army of Virginia,” to include Frémont's corps, and giving the command of it to Gen. Pope. Thereupon Frémont asked to be relieved, on the ground that he could not serve under Gen. Pope, for sufficient personal reasons. His request having been granted, he went to New York to await further orders, but received no other command during the war, though, as he says, one was constantly promised him. On 31 May, 1864, a convention of Republicans, dissatisfied with Mr. Lincoln, met at Cleveland and tendered to Gen. Frémont a nomination for president, which he accepted. In the following September a committee of Republicans representing the administration waited on him and urged his withdrawal, as “vital to the success of the party.” After considering the matter for a week, he acceded to their request, saying in his letter of withdrawal that he did so “not to aid in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part toward preventing the election of the Democratic candidate.”

Since 1864 Gen. Frémont has taken little part in public affairs, but has been active in railway matters. He procured from the Texas legislature a grant of state land in the interest of the Memphis and El Paso railway, which was to be part of a proposed trans-continental road from Norfolk to San Diego and San Francisco. The French agents employed to place the land-grant bonds of this road on the market made the false declaration that they were guaranteed by the United States. In 1869 the senate passed a bill giving Frémont's road the right of way through the territories, an attempt to defeat it by fixing on him the onus of the misstatement in Paris having been unsuccessful. In 1873 he was prosecuted by the French government for fraud in connection with this misstatement. He did not appear in person, and was sentenced by default to fine and imprisonment, no judgment being given on the merits of the case. In 1878-'81 Gen. Frémont was governor of Arizona. He has published “Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842, and to Oregon and North California in 1843-'4” (Washington, 1845; New York, 1846; London, 1849); “Col. J. C. Frémont's Explorations,” an account of all five of his expeditions (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1859); and “Memoirs of my Life” (New York, 1886). See also the campaign biographies by John Bigelow (New York, 1856), and Charles W. Upham (Boston, 1856). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 545-548.

 

 

FRENCH, Robert, 1802-1882, politician, abolitionist, pemperance activist.  Mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts.  Massachusetts state senator.  Co-founder and Presidnt of the New Bedford Young Man’s Anti-Slavery Society.  Member of the Whig and Free Soil parties.  Opposed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and successfully passed legislation to oppose it in New Bedford.

 

 

FRENEAU, Philip, 1752-1832, poet, ship’s captain, newspaper editor, writer, abolitionist.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 549)

 

FRENEAU, Philip, poet, b. in New York city, 2 Jan., 1752; d. near Freehold, N. J., 18 Dec., 1832. He was graduated at Princeton in 1771. Some of his published poems were written before he left college. He made a voyage to the Danish West Indies in 1776, and there wrote several of his longest poems. In 1778 he visited Bermuda, and on his return became a contributor to “The United States Magazine,” edited by Hugh H. Brackenridge. On a second voyage in 1780 to the West Indies he was captured by an English cruiser, and his experiences as a prisoner are recorded in bitter terms in “The British Prison-Ship.” On regaining his liberty the next year, he wrote frequently in prose and verse for the “Freeman's Journal.” After the close of the war he was variously employed as an editor, and master of a vessel in voyages to the West Indies and to the southern states until 1790, when he became editor of the New York “Daily Advertiser.” Jefferson became interested in him, and appointed him translator for the state department, and at the same time Freneau assumed the editorship of the “National Gazette.” The violence of this paper's attacks on the Federalists aroused Hamilton's ire, who accused Freneau of being the pensioned tool of Jefferson, which compelled the latter to write an explanatory letter to Washington. Freneau's next newspaper undertaking was the “Jersey Chronicle,” which he published for a short time at his residence, Mount Pleasant, N. J. In 1797 he issued in New York the “Time-piece and Literary Companion,” but his connection with it was brief. Between this time and his death in 1832 he seems to have done little of public interest. He lost his life from exposure, having got astray in a bog meadow on returning to his home from the village near which be lived. His first literary publication, “A Poem on the Rising Glory of America” (Philadelphia, 1771), was written for the college commencement. Brackenridge has been considered the joint author in this production, on the strength of a statement on the title-page to Brackenridge's poem on “Divine Revelation,” which reads: “By the same person . . . who, Sept. 25, 1771, delivered a small poem on ‘The Rising Glory of America.’” Freneau undoubtedly composed the poem, as he included it in his collected poems, published by himself at Monmouth, N. J. Brackenridge merely recited the piece at the commencement. Freneau published “Voyage to Boston,” a poem (New York, 1774; reprinted in Philadelphia, 1775); “General Gage's Confession” (New York, 1775); “The British Prison-Ship,” a poem in four cantos (1781); “The Poems of Philip Freneau, written chiefly during the Late War” (1786; reprinted, with a preface by J. R. Smith, in London, 1861); “A Journey from Philadelphia to New York, by Robert Slender, Stocking-weaver” (1787; republished in 1809, under the title “A Laughable Poem, or Robert Slender's Journey, from Philadelphia to New York”); “The Miscellaneous Works of Mr. Philip Freneau” (1788); “The Village Merchant,” a poem (1794); “Poems written between the Years 1768 and 1794” (1795; new ed., Monmouth, N. J., 1799); “Letters on Various Interesting and Important Subjects, by Robert Slender” (1799); “Poems written and published during the American Revolutionary War” (1809); and “A Collection of Poems on American Affairs” (New York, 1815). Evert A. Duyckinck edited an edition of his “Poems of the American Revolution” (New York, 1865). Freneau also made a translation of Abbé Robins's “Voyages and Travels” (Philadelphia, 1783).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FROST, Daniel, Jr., abolitionist, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-39

 

 

FROST, John, abolitionist, Whitesborough, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-35

 

 

FROTHINGHAM, Octavius Brooks, 1822-1895, Boston, Massachusetts, author, clergyman, orator, anti-slavery leader and activist.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 556)

 

FROTHINGHAM, Octavius Brooks, author, b. in Boston, 26 Nov., 1822, was graduated at Harvard in 1843, and, after three years in the divinity school, was ordained pastor of the North church (Unitarian) at Salem, Mass., 10 March, 1847. He preached in Jersey City, N. J., in 1855-'9, then removed to New York, and became pastor of a congregation that in 1860 was organized as the “Third Unitarian Congregational church,” and represented the most radical branch of his denomination. He dissolved this society in 1879 and went to Europe, and on his return in 1881 formally withdrew from specific connection with any church, and devoted himself to literature in Boston. He has been a leader in the movement that has for its object the promotion of rationalist ideas in theology, and has contributed largely to various journals and reviews. In 1867 he became first president of the Free religious association. He was for a time art-critic of the “New York Tribune.” Mr. Frothingham has published more than 150 sermons, and is the author of the following works: “Stories from the Lips of the Teacher” (Boston, 1863); “Stories from the Old Testament” (1864); “Child's Book of Religion” (1866); “The Religion of Humanity” (New York, 1873); “Life of Theodore Parker” (Boston, 1874); “Transcendentalism in New England” (New York, 1876); “The Cradle of the Christ” (1877); “Life of Gerrit Smith” (1878); “Life of George Ripley” (Boston, 1882); and “Memoir of William Henry Channing” (1886).—Nathaniel Langdon's daughter, Ellen, b. in Boston, 25 March, 1835, has devoted herself to German literature, and has translated Lessing's “Nathan der Weise” (1868); Goethe's “Hermann und Dorothea” (1870); Lessing's “Laokoon” (1874); and Grillparzer’s “Saooho” (1876). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FRY, Joseph, abolitionist, member of the Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies, January 1794 (Basker, 2005, p. 225)

 

 

FULLER, Aaron, abolitionist, Maine, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-42

 

 

FULLER, Cyrus, abolitionist, Plymought, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1854-64

 

 

FULLER, James Canning, Skaneateles, New York, abolitionist, Society of Friends, Quaker, operated station on the Underground Railroad.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.  (Sernett, 2002, p. 57)

 

 

FULLER, John E., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-39

 

 

FULLER, Lydia, Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS).  (Yellin, 1994, p. 61)

 

 

FULLER, Sarah Margaret, 1810-1850, author, reformer, women’s rights advocate, opponent of slavery.  Daughter of anti-slavery Congressman Timothy Fuller.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 561-562)

 

FULLER, Sarah Margaret, Marchioness Ossoli, author, b. in Cambridgeport, Mass., 23 May, 1810; d. off Fire Island beach, 16 July, 1850, was the eldest of eight children. She derived her first teaching from her father, studied Latin at the age of six, and injured her health by over-application. At thirteen she was a pupil at the famous school of Dr. Park, in Boston, where she began the study of Greek. Thence she went to a school in Groton, kept by the Misses Prescott. On the sudden death of her father, Margaret vowed that she would do her whole duty toward her brothers and sisters, and she faithfully kept the vow, teaching school in Boston and Providence, and afterward taking private pupils, for whom she was paid at the rate of two dollars an hour. During the transcendental period she knew intimately the leading minds of the time—Emerson, Hawthorne, Ripley, Channing, Clarke, Hedge—and in the company of such was very brilliant, meeting them as equals. She first met Emerson in 1835, and the next year visited him at Concord. She went occasionally to Brook Farm, though never fully believing in the success of that experiment, and never living there. She held conversations in Boston, conducted the “Dial,” translated from the German, projected works, and wrote the “Summer on the Lakes,” the record of a season spent in travelling from June to September, 1843. In December, 1844, she went to New York as literary critic of the “Tribune,” then under the management of Horace Greeley, in whose household she at first lived. While in New York, she visited the prisons, penitentiaries, asylums, theatres, opera-houses, music-halls, picture-galleries, and lecture-rooms, writing about everything in the “Tribune,” and doing much to move the level of thought on philanthropic, literary, and artistic matters. Her intimacies here were mainly with practical, honest, striving people. Even William H. Channing was a minister at large, C. P. Cranch received boarders, and Lydia Maria Child was connected with the press. This she called her “business life,” and she pursued it unremittingly for about twenty months, after which, having saved a little money, she went to Europe on the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Spring. This was in 1846. In Europe she saw the foremost people in the literary, social, political, and reformatory world, spent the late summer and autumn in travelling, established herself for a time at Rome in the spring of 1847, passed that summer in Switzerland and the more northern Italian cities, and returned to Rome in October. She was married in December to Giovanni Angelo, Marquis Ossoli, was a mother in 1848, and entered with zeal into the Italian struggle for independence in 1849. Her conduct during the siege of the city by the French was of the most heroic, disinterested, humane, and tender kind. Her service in the hospitals won the heartiest praise. She was a friend of Mazzini. Though racked with anxiety for her husband and child, she appeared entirely oblivious of herself. On the capture of Rome by the French in June, 1849, and the consequent dispersal of the leaders in the defence, she and her husband took refuge in Rieti, a village in the mountains of Abruzzi, where the child had been left in charge of a confidential nurse, and after some months removed to Florence, which, after a delightful sojourn, they left for Leghorn, whence passage for America was taken on the “Elizabeth,” a merchant vessel that sailed 17 May, 1850. Horace Sumner, a younger brother of Charles Sumner, and Celeste Paolini, a young Italian girl, were the only other passengers. The voyage began disastrously. The captain died of small-pox, and was buried at sea in the waters off Gibraltar. Head winds kept them there a week. The boy was dangerously seized with small-pox soon afterward. As the voyage neared its ending, a violent southeast wind became in the evening a gale, by midnight a hurricane, and the vessel was driven on the shore at Fire Island in the early morning at four o'clock. The wreck was complete. A great wave swept the deck, and carried all before it. The boy was drowned in the arms of the steward while the latter was trying to reach the land, and the lifeless body was carried on the beach. Neither mother nor father was heard of more. Of Ossoli little is known. It is not strange that to most people he should be a name only, for he was married but a short time, he was not seen out of his native country, and there was known but slightly save to a small number of friends, while his inability to speak any language except his own naturally prevented his mingling with Americans. But he was a gentleman, sincere, true, and self-respecting. All we know of him is to his credit. He was sufficiently educated for his rank in society. That he was a devoted husband is certain, ready to share his wife's fortune whatever it might be, and in all respects thoughtful of her happiness, believing in her entirely. His future in this country would have been melancholy. He must have been dependent on the efforts of his wife, and those efforts, even though incessant and reasonably successful, might not have availed to support a family. It will be seen that her career naturally fell into three divisions. The first period lasted till her life in New York in 1844. The second included her experience there. The third embraced her activity in Rome. The first, which may be called the transcendental epoch, could not be repeated. It was extremely interesting, exciting, stimulating to the mind. She was under stimulating influences. Self-culture was then the key-note of her endeavor. The third could not be reproduced. That extraordinary episode, with its raptures of self-devotion, was as exceptional, in its way, as the first. The second epoch—that of literary production—was still open to her, enlarged and simplified. She was essentially a critic. She was not a reformer, and could not have been, had her means been ever so ample. She lived by her pen, and her livelihood must have been precarious—so much so that some of her admirers looked on the final catastrophe as a deliverance for her. What she might have become if she had lived, it is useless to conjecture. She possessed brilliant gifts of many kinds. She had a warm heart, but her natural talent was for literature. She wrote a great deal for magazines, various papers, a complete account of which may be found in Higginson's “Life.” Her collected works, including “Summer on the Lakes” (1843), “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” (1844), and “Papers on Literature and Art” (1846), were edited by her brother, Rev. Arthur B. Fuller (Boston, 1855). Her book on the Roman republic was lost with her. The life of Margaret Fuller has been written by Emerson, Clarke, and Channing, edited for the most part by William Henry Channing (1852). This is strongest on the transcendental side. There is also a memoir of her by Julia Ward Howe, in the “Eminent Women” series (Boston, 1883), and one by Thomas Wentworth Higginson in the “American Men of Letters” series (Boston, 1884). The last is the most complete, though somewhat warped by the author's idea that Margaret Fuller’s career culminated in philanthropy.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FULLER, Timothy, 1778-1835, U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts, voted against extension of slavery in 1819.  In the Congressional debates, Congressman Fuller said: “All Europe, the whole civilized world, are spectators of the scene.  Our Declaration of Independence, our Revolution, our State institutions, and, above all, the great principles of our Federal Constitution, are arrayed on one side, and our legislative acts and national measures, the practical specification of our real principles and character, on the other.” (Dumond, 1961, p. 104; 16 Cong., 1 Sess., 1819-1920, II, p. 1467; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 561)

 

FULLER, Timothy, congressman, b. in Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, Mass., 11 July, 1778; d. in Groton, Mass., 1 Oct., 1835. His father, Timothy, the first settled minister of Princeton, Mass., was third in descent from Thomas, who emigrated from England in 1638. The younger Timothy was graduated at Harvard in 1801 with the second honors. After teaching in Leicester academy, he studied law with Levi Lincoln, and practised successfully in Boston. He was a state senator in 1813-'6, and was then elected to congress as an antifederalist, serving from 2 Jan., 1818, till 3 March, 1825. He was speaker of the state house of representatives in 1825, a member of the executive council in 1828, and in 1831 was a member of the legislature from Groton, whither he had removed about 1826. While in congress, he was chairman of the committee on naval affairs, and was distinguished as an orator, making effective speeches in behalf of the Seminole Indians, and against the Missouri compromise. He was an ardent supporter of John Quincy Adams, and published a pamphlet entitled “The Election for the Presidency Considered,” which was widely circulated. Mr. Fuller was a hard-working lawyer, and an active and public-spirited man. He died suddenly of cholera, intestate and insolvent. Besides the works mentioned above, he published an oration delivered at Watertown, 4 July, 1809, and an address before the Massachusetts peace society (1826). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 561.

 

 

FURNESS, William Henry, 1802-1896, Unitarian clergyman, abolitionist, reformer.  Supported rights for African Americans and Jews.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 565-566; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 316)

 

FURNESS, William Henry (fur'-ness), clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 20 April, 1802. He was graduated at Harvard in 1820, and completed his theological studies at Cambridge in 1823. In January, 1825, he was ordained pastor of the 1st Congregational Unitarian church in Philadelphia, where he remained until he retired from the ministry, in 1875. He received the degree of D. D. from Harvard in 1847, and that of Doctor of Letters from Columbia at its centennial anniversary in 1887. The theological position of Dr. Furness is peculiar, belonging as he does to the extreme humanitarian school, as distinguished from that of Canning, Peabody, and Norton. He accepts, for the most part, the miraculous facts of the New Testament, yet accounts for them by the moral and spiritual forces resulting from the pre-eminent character of the Saviour, who, in his view, is an exalted form of humanity. One of his constant labors as a preacher and an author has been to ascertain the historical truth and develop the spiritual ideas of the records of the life of Christ. His books reveal a highly cultivated intellect, impelled by enthusiastic ardor, and enriched by a glowing fancy. “Æsthetic considerations,” remarks a writer of his own denomination, “weigh more with him than historical proofs, and vividness of conception than demonstration.” In the anti-slavery movement Dr. Furness took an intense interest, preaching frequently on the subject. From 1845 till 1847 he edited an annual entitled “The Diadem.” Besides many occasional sermons he is the author of “Remarks on the Four Gospels” (Philadelphia, 1835; London, 1837); “Jesus and His Biographers” (Philadelphia, 1838); “Domestic Worship,” a volume of prayers (1842; 2d ed., Boston, 1850); “A History of Jesus” (Philadelphia and London, 1850; new ed., Boston; 1853); “Discourses” (Philadelphia, 1855); “Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth " (Boston, 1 859); “The Veil partly Lifted and Jesus becoming Visible” (Boston, 1864); “The Unconscious Truth of the Four Gospels” (Philadelphia, 1868); “Jesus” (1871); “The Power of Spirit Manifest in Jesus of Nazareth” (1877); “The Story of the Resurrection Told Once More” (1885); and “Verses: Translations and Hymns” (Boston, 1886). He has also translated from the German Schubert's “Mirror of Nature” (1849); “Gems of German Verse” (1851); “Julius and Other Tales” (1856; enlarged ed., 1859); and translated and edited Dr. Daniel Schenkel's “Characterbild Jesu,” an elaborate essay written as a reply to Renan's work, under the title of “Character of Jesus Portrayed” (2 vols., Boston, 1866). His version of Schiller's “Song of the Bell” is considered the best that has been made. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

FUSSELL, Bartholomew, Kennett, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Drake, 1950, p. 140; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

FUSSELL, Edwin, abolitionist, Pendleton, Indiana, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1842-44, 1844-64

 

 

 

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GADSEN, Christopher Edwards, Reverend, 1785-1852, Charleston, South Carolina, clergyman.  Rector of St. Philips, later Bishop of South Carolina.  Agent of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 568; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

GADSDEN, Christopher Edwards, P. E. bishop, b. in Charleston, S. C., 25 Nov., 1785; d. there, 24 June, 1852, obtained his early education in the “Associate Academy” in Charleston. In 1802 he entered the junior class in Yale college, and was graduated with honor in 1804. John C. Calhoun was a member of the same class, and the friendship formed with young Gadsden continued through life. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Benjamin Moore, in St. Paul's chapel, New York city, 25 July, 1807, and priest by Bishop Madison, in Williamsburg, Va., 14 April, 1810. In January, 1808, he took charge of the ancient parish of Berkeley, S. C., but in February, 1810, he was chosen to be assistant minister of St. Philip's church, Charleston. On the death of the rector, in 1814, Mr. Gadsden was elected to fill his place. He received the degree of D. D. from South Carolina college in 1815. After the death of Bishop Bowen in 1839, Dr. Gadsden was elected bishop, and was consecrated in Trinity church, Boston, Mass., 21 June, 1840. Bishop Gadsden's episcopate of twelve years was marked by great devotion, energy, prudence, and discretion, and he displayed noble qualities which endeared him to both clergy and laity. On his visitations he was particularly attentive to the colored people, often collecting them for purposes of devotion and instruction. He confirmed more than twenty of them on the first occasion when he administered the rites. He edited for several years the “Gospel Messenger,” published several occasional sermons, a tract on “The Prayer-Book as it Is,” and three valuable charges to the clergy, and an essay on the life of Bishop Dehon (1833).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GAGE, Frances Dana, 1808-1884, journalist, poet, reformer, temperance leader, women’s rights, anti-slavery leader.  Lectured on abolition and was often threatened with physical violence.  Her home was burned three times.  During the Civil War, she taught newly freed slaves and was active as a volunteer with the Sanitary Commission.  In 1863, she was appointed Superintendent of a refuge of more than 500 freed slaves at Paris Island, South Carolina.  Gage was married to abolitionist James L. Gage, a lawyer from McConnelsville, Ohio. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 568-569; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 84; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 326-328; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 605; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 321)

 

GAGE, Frances Dana, reformer, b. in Marietta, Ohio, 12 Oct., 1808; d. in Greenwich, Conn., 10 Nov., 1884. Her father, Col. Joseph Barker, went from New Hampshire with the first company of pioneers that settled Ohio. Miss Barker married in 1829 James L. Gage, a lawyer of McConnellsville, Ohio. She early became an active worker in the temperance, anti-slavery, and woman's rights movements, and in 1851 presided over a woman's-rights convention in Akron, Ohio, where her opening speech attracted much attention. She removed in 1853 to St. Louis, where she was often threatened with violence on account of her anti-slavery views, and twice suffered from incendiarism. In 1857-'8 she visited Cuba, St. Thomas, and Santo Domingo, and on her return wrote and lectured on her travels. She afterward edited an agricultural paper in Ohio; but when the civil war began she went south, ministered to the soldiers, taught the freedmen, and, without pay, acted as an agent of the Sanitary commission at Memphis, Vicksburg, and Natchez. In 1863-'4 she was superintendent, under Gen. Rufus Saxton, of Paris island, S. C., a refuge for over 500 freedmen. She was afterward crippled by the overturning of a carriage in Galesburg, Ill., but continued to lecture on temperance till August, 1867, when she was disabled by a paralytic shock. Mrs. Gage was the mother of eight children, all of whom lived to maturity. Four of her sons served in the National army in the civil war. Mrs. Gage wrote many stories for children, and verses, under the pen-name of “Aunt Fanny.” She was an early contributor to the “Saturday Review,” and published “Poems” (Philadelphia, 1872); “Elsie Magoon, or the Old Still-House” (1872); “Steps Upward” (1873); and “Gertie's Sacrifice.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 568-569.

 

 

GAGE, James L., 1800-1863, McConnelsville, Ohio, lawyer, abolitionist.  Husband of Francis Dana Gage.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 568)

 

 

GAGE, Matilda Joslyn, 1826-1898, abolitionist, reformer, woman’s suffrage advocate.  Daughter of noted abolitionist Dr. H. Joslyn. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 569; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 86; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 607)

 

GAGE, Matilda Joslyn, reformer. b. in Cicero, N. Y., 24 March, 1826. Her father, Dr. H. Joslyn, was an active abolitionist, and she inherited from him an interest in the questions of woman suffrage and slavery. She was educated in De Peyster and Hamilton, N. Y., and in 1845 was married to Henry H. Gage, a merchant in Cicero. From 1852 till 1861 she wrote and spoke on reform measures, and was an eager advocate of the abolition of slavery at any cost. In 1862, on the presentation of colors to a company of the 122d Now York regiment, Mrs. Gage made an address in which she prophesied the failure of any course that did not abolish slavery. In 1872 she was elected president of the National woman suffrage association, and of the New York state woman's suffrage society, and she is now (1887) vice-president of each, and one of a special committee to arrange for an international council of women to meet in Washington in 1888. From 1878 till 1881 Mrs. Gage edited and published the “The National Citizen” in Syracuse, N.Y. She is the author of “Woman as an Inventor” (New York, 1870), and “The History of Woman Suffrage,” with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (3 vols., New York, 1881-'6). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 569.

 

 

GALBRAITH, David L., abolitionist, New Garden, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-53

 

 

GALBRAITH, Nathan, Columbiana County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39

 

 

GALE, George Washington, 1789-1861, Galesburgh, Illinois, anti-slavery advocate, clergyman.  Presbyterian minister.  Founder of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, which was anti-slavery.  Founder Oneida Manuel Labor Institute.  American Anti-Slavery Society Manager, 1837-1840.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 159; Filler, 1960, p. 32; Muelder, 1959; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 574; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 99; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 630)

 

GALE, George Washington, educator, b. in Northeast, Dutchess co., N. Y., 3 Dec., 1789; d. in Galesburg, Ill., 13 Sept., 1862. He was graduated at Union in 1814, and licensed as a Presbyterian clergyman in October, 1819, when he took charge of the church at Adams, Jefferson co., N. Y. His pastorate was distinguished by a powerful revival of religion, in which Charles G. Finney and other eminent men were among the converts. He resigned his charge in 1823, and afterward established the Oneida manual labor institute at Whitesboro, N. Y., where he remained from 1827 till 1834. His life work was the organization of Knox college at Galesburg, Ill., in 1835. He was a man of strong prejudices and acute intellect. He received the degree of D. D. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 574.

 

 

GALE, Milton, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1850

 

 

GALES, Joseph, Jr., 1786-1860, Washington, DC, journalist, newspaper editor.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society, 1833-41.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 575; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 100; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

GALES, Joseph, journalist, b. in Eckington, near Sheffield, Eng., 10 April, 1786; d. in Washington, D. C., 21 July, 1860, was educated at the University of North Carolina, learned printing in Philadelphia, and in 1807 became the assistant, and afterward the partner, of Samuel Harrison Smith, who had removed the “Independent Gazetteer” to Washington and changed its name to the “National Intelligencer.” In 1810 he succeeded to the sole proprietorship of the journal, which was then published tri-weekly. In 1812 he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, William Winston Seaton, and in January, 1813, began the daily issue of the “Intelligencer,” which was finally suspended, after the death of both partners, in 1869. From the time of their coming together up to 1820, Gales and Seaton were the exclusive reporters as well as the editors of their journal, one devoting himself to the house, the other to the senate. As a rule they only published running reports, but on special occasions the proceedings were given entire. But for their industry, a most important part of our national record would now be lost. Notably was this true in the case of the memorable debate between Hayne and Webster. The original notes of the latter's speech form a volume of several hundred pages, and, corrected and interlined by the statesman's own hand, were carefully treasured by Mr. Gales. At this period he had abandoned the practice of reporting, and the full reproduction of that particular oration was an exception to the custom of the office. The “Intelligencer” was a strong advocate of the war of 1812, and when the British under Admiral Cockburn entered Washington, the anger of that officer seemed to be especially aroused against the journal, one of whose editors was English by birth. He at first proposed burning the office, but being dissuaded by occupants of the adjoining houses, wreaked his revenge upon the printing materials and other property. He ordered the valuable library to be taken into the street and burned, himself assisting in the destruction, the type thrown from the windows, and the presses broken, thus causing a loss of several thousand dollars. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GALES, Joseph, Sr., 1760-1841, Raleigh, North Carolina, Washington, DC, newspaper editor.  Editor of the Raleigh Register.  Treasurer, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1834-39, Executive Committee, 1839-40, officer of the Raleigh auxiliary of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 574-575; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 100; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 71,77, 235)

 

GALES, Joseph, journalist, b. in England in 1760; d. in Raleigh, N. C., 24 Aug., 1841. He was originally a printer and bookseller at Sheffield, where he established and published the “Register.” His democratic principles having involved him in difficulty with the government, he sold his journal in 1793 to James Montgomery, the poet, who had been brought up in his family, and emigrated to the United States, settling in Philadelphia. There he edited the “Independent Gazetteer,” in which, being a proficient stenographer, he first printed short-hand reports of the debates in congress. In 1799 he sold the paper to Samuel Harrison Smith and removed to Raleigh, N. C., where he founded a new “Register,” the publication of which he continued until he had reached an advanced age, when he transferred it to his son, Weston Raleigh, and went to Washington to spend the remainder of his life with his eldest son, Joseph. Here he became interested in African colonization, and was an active member of the American colonization society almost to the day of his death. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GALLADAY, Peter H., Preble County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

GALLATIN, Abraham Alfonse Albert, 1761-1849, statesman, diplomat.  U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania.  U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.  Opposed the war with Mexico, its annexation of the Northern territories, and the extension of slavery to new territories. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 577-579; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 103; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 127, 160, 161; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 639)

 

GALLATIN, Albert, statesman, b. in Geneva, Switzerland, 29 Jan., 1761; d. in Astoria, L. I., 12 Aug., 1849. He was descended from an ancient patrician family of Geneva, whose name had long been honorably connected with the history of Switzerland. His father, Jean Gallatin, was engaged in trade, and died when the boy was two years old, while his mother, Sophie Albertine Rolaz du Rosey, survived her husband seven years. Young Albert, who had been baptized by the name Abraham Alfonse Albert, was confided to the care of Mademoiselle Pictet, a relative of his father, and from her he received his early education. In 1773 he was sent to a boarding-school, and a year later entered the University of Geneva, where he was graduated in 1779, standing first in mathematics, natural philosophy, and Latin translation. The liberal spirit of the times was not without its influence on the young man. His grandmother, Madame Susanne Gallatin-Vaudenet, was a woman of strong character, with many friends, among whom were Frederick, landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and Voltaire. Through her influence, a commission of lieutenant-colonel in the Hessian troops, then serving in America, was offered to Gallatin; but he declined it, saying that he would “never serve a tyrant.” In opposition to the wishes of his family, he secretly left Geneva in April, 1780, with his college friend, Henri Serre, for America, where they might “drink in a love for independence in the freest country of the universe.” He sailed from l'Orient late in May, 1780, and reached Boston on 14 July. His experiences for the ensuing year or so were far from encouraging; he wandered from Boston to Maine, where he engaged in trading. He served as a volunteer against a threatened invasion by the British, and at one time was in temporary command of a small fort in Passamaquoddy. His trading ventures failed, and he returned to Boston with a reduced purse in October, 1781. Here for a time he supported himself by giving instruction in the French language, and in July, 1782, was granted permission to teach the students of Harvard in that language, receiving from the corporation a compensation of $300 for his services. When peace was restored, he left Boston and went to Philadelphia, by way of New York, to deliver the letters to eminent Americans which he had received in Paris. In Philadelphia, through the influence of his friend, Savary de Valcoulon, he was led to invest in large tracts of land in West Virginia. This venture proved successful, and in February, 1784, he settled in Fayette county, Pa., then a part of Virginia, where he opened a country store. During the next few years he was constantly engaged in purchasing property and in locating claims for others, spending his winters generally in Richmond, then the gayest city in the Union. He appears to have been interested in politics, and his ideas seem to have influenced the speeches of John Smilie, who represented Fayette county in the convention of ratification held in September, 1787. Two years later he was a member of the State constitutional convention held in Philadelphia, and was among those who shared the anti-federalist views then prevalent. This was his entrance into the public service. In 1790 he was sent to the legislature from Fayette county, and was re-elected in the two following years. He took an active part in its proceedings, and in 1793 was elected to the U. S. senate; but, after serving two months, he was declared ineligible by a strict party vote on the ground that he had been a citizen of the United States only eight years, having taken the oath of allegiance in October, 1785. In November, 1793, he married Hannah, the daughter of Com. James Nicholson, and this alliance greatly widened his political connection. A year later, through his tact, courage, and fidelity, he succeeded in bringing about a peaceful settlement of the “Whiskey Insurrection.” Indeed, historians have agreed in giving to Gallatin the honor of preventing a more serious outbreak. At the subsequent election he was chosen to represent Fayette county in the Pennsylvania legislature, and also was elected to congress. His election to the legislature was contested, and finally declared void after a long debate, during which he made his speech “on the western elections.” Another election was then held, in which Gallatin was victorious. After remaining in the legislature till 12 March, he obtained leave of absence. He entered congress on 7 Dec., 1795, as a follower of James Madison, who was then the leader of the Republican opposition, and continued a member of that body until his appointment as secretary of the treasury in 1801. One of the first measures introduced by him was a bill calling for the precise condition of the treasury. His object was to establish the expenses of the government in each department of the service on a permanent footing, for which annual appropriations should be made, and for any important expenditure to insist on a special appropriation. He also came into prominence when the house demanded from the president papers connected with the treaty of 1796 with Great Britain. The president returned answer that he considered it a dangerous precedent to admit the right of the house to see the papers, and absolutely refused compliance with the request. In the debate that followed, Gallatin charged John Jay and other Federalists with having pusillanimously surrendered the honor of their country. In reply to this, Uriah Tracy, of Connecticut, said: “I cannot be thankful to that gentleman for coming all the way from Geneva to give Americans a character for pusillanimity.” Throughout his congressional career Gallatin participated in all of the important debates, but always made the treasury department and its control, past and present, the object of his unceasing criticism. The establishment of the committee of ways and means was due to his suggestion, and he was ever a warm advocate of internal improvements. His third term closed in 1801. In the first term he asserted his power, and took his place in the councils of the party. In his second, he became its acknowledged chief. In the third, he led its forces to final victory. Besides maintaining his views in debate, he published pamphlets on “A Sketch of the Finances of the United States” (Philadelphia, 1796) and “Views of the Public Debt, Receipts and Expenditures of the United States” (1800). When Thomas Jefferson became president, Gallatin was made secretary of the treasury, and held the office continuously until 1813. He at once applied himself to the mastery of the details of the public finances, and undertook not only the reduction of the debt, but also of the taxes. His management of the treasury department was eminently successful, and he soon obtained a reputation as one of the greatest financiers of the age. The public debt on 1 Jan., 1802, was $86,712,632.25, and this he reduced until, on 1 Jan., 1812, it was only $45,209,737.90. In his annual reports, which were models of clearness, he pointed out methods for the gradual extinction of the debt. In 1812 his report says: “The redemption of principal has been effected without the aid of any internal taxes, either direct or indirect, without any addition during the last seven years to the rate of duties on importations, which, on the contrary, have been impaired by the repeal of the duty on salt, and notwithstanding the great diminution of commerce during the last four years.” The war of 1812 then occurred, and the national debt increased steadily until it reached, on 1 Jan., 1816, $127,334,933.74. After negotiating several loans, he severed his connection with the treasury department, and he was sent with James A. Bayard to St. Petersburg as U. S. commissioner to treat for peace with Great Britain under the mediation which the emperor Alexander had offered to the United States. The British government refused to accept the intervention of a foreign power, and the conference was not held. Meanwhile he was continued as commissioner, and subsequently was associated in the negotiations conducted at Ghent. After months of tedious delay, during which the British, flushed with their successes on the continent over Napoleon, made exorbitant demands, a treaty was signed on Christmas day of 1814. Gallatin's biographer, Henry Adams, says: “Far more than contemporaries ever supposed, or than is now imagined, the treaty of Ghent was the special work and the peculiar triumph of Mr. Gallatin.” John Austin Stevens says: “By his political life Mr. Gallatin acquired an American reputation; by his management of the finances of the United States he placed himself among the first political economists of the day; but his masterly conduct of the treaty of Ghent showed him the equal of the best of European statesmen on their own peculiar ground of diplomacy.” His services were rewarded with the appointment of minister to France in February, 1815, but he spent some time in travel both in Europe and in the United States, finally entering on the duties of his office in January, 1816. Meanwhile he took part in the commercial convention held in London during the summer of 1815. During his career in Paris he aided John Quincy Adams in preparing a commercial treaty with Great Britain, and also was associated with William Eustis in negotiating a treaty with the Netherlands in 1817. He left France in 1823, and returned to the United States, where he was occupied for some time in attention to his private affairs, refusing a seat in the cabinet as secretary of the navy, and declining to be a candidate for the vice-presidency, to which he was nominated by the Democratic party. In 1826, at the solicitation of President Adams, he accepted the appointment of envoy extraordinary to Great Britain, and negotiated commercial treaties by means of which full indemnification was obtained from England for injuries that had been sustained by citizens of the United States in consequence of violations of the treaty of Ghent. On his return to the United States he settled in New York city, where from 1831 till 1839, he was president of the National bank of New York. In 1831 he published his “Considerations on the Currency and Banking System of the United States,” and during the same year he was a member of the free-trade convention held in Philadelphia, preparing for that body the memorial which was submitted to congress. Mr. Gallatin was likewise associated in the movement which led in October, 1830, to the foundation of the New York university. He became the first president of the council, but resigned at the end of the year. After his resignation from the bank, his life was devoted to literature, and especially to historical and ethnological researches. In 1839 he prepared an argument in behalf of the United States to be laid before the king of the Netherlands as an umpire on the Maine boundary question, and in connection with this undertaking he collected a statement of the facts, which he revised and, together with the speech of Daniel Webster, a copy of the Jay treaty, and eight maps, published at his own expense as the “Right of the United States to the Northeastern Boundary” (New York, 1840). He presided in 1844 at a meeting held in New York to protest against the annexation of Texas, and, in the course of the address which he made, said that “the resolution of the house declaring the treaty of annexation by the United States of America and the republic of Texas to be the fundamental law of union between them was a direct and undisguised usurpation of power and a violation of the constitution.” The war with Mexico he regarded as “the only blot upon the escutcheon of the United States,” and he published “Peace with Mexico” (1847) and “War Expenses” (1848), pamphlets of which 150,000 were gratuitously circulated, and which had undoubted influence in bringing about peace. In 1846, when Lord Ashburton visited the United States in connection with the treaty which bears his name, Mr. Gallatin published a pamphlet on the “Oregon Question,” which was distinguished by impartiality, moderation, and power of reasoning. It put before the people, as well as the negotiators, the precise merits of the controversy, and powerfully contributed to the ultimate peaceful settlement. In 1842 he was associated in the establishment of the American ethnological society, becoming its first president, and in 1843 he was elected to hold a similar office in the New York historical society, an honor which was annually conferred on him until his death. His scientific publications include “Synopsis of the Indian Tribes within the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and in the British and Russian Possessions in North America” (Cambridge, 1836) and “Notes on the Semi-Civilized Nations of Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America, with Conjectures on the Origin of Semi-Civilization in America” (New York, 1845). John Austin Stevens says of him: “To a higher degree than any American, native or foreign born, unless Franklin, with whose broad nature he had many traits in common, Albert Gallatin deserves the proud title, aimed at by many, reached by few, of Citizen of the World.” See “Writings of Albert Gallatin,” by Henry Adams (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1879); “Life of Albert Gallatin,” by Henry Adams (1879); and “Albert Gallatin,” by John Austin Stevens, in “American Statesman Series” (Boston, 1883). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 577-579.

 

 

GALLAUDET, Thomas Hopkins, 1787-1851, Hartford, Connecticut, clergyman, educator.  Principal of the Hartford Deaf and Dumb Asylum.  Active in Boston auxiliary of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Raised considerable funds for colonization.  Worked with ACS agent Leonard Bacon.  Member and supporter of the Connecticut Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 579; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 111; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 126-134, 158, 162-163, 193-194)

 

GALLAUDET, Thomas Hopkins, educator, b. in Philadelphia, 10 Dec., 1787; d. in Hartford, Conn., 9 Sept., 1851. His family was of Huguenot origin. At an early age he moved with his parents to Hartford, Conn. He was graduated at Yale in 1805, and after hesitating for some time as to whether he should study law, engage in trade, or study divinity, entered the Theological seminary at Andover in 1811. He was licensed to preach in 1814. His attention having been called to the neglected condition of the deaf and dumb in this country, he went to Europe in 1815, visiting in suc­cession London, Edinburgh, and Paris. The work which had been begun in France in 1760, by De l’Epée, was successfully carried on by the Abbé Sicard; and that which had been begun near Edinburgh, at an earlier date, by Thomas Braidwood, and later transferred to London, was under the charge of Dr. Joseph Watson, a nephew of Braidwood. Gallaudet made himself familiar with the methods in use at both establishments, and, returning to the United States in 1816, he brought with him as assistant Laurent Clerc, a deaf-mute, and pupil of Sicard. In the following year, his arrangements having been completed, he began work in Hartford, Conn., with seven pupils. His school soon became a prosperous asylum, and its founder, amid much encouragement, remained in charge as president until 1830, when he resigned on ac­count of ill health. He continued, however, to take an active part in the management of the institution, as one of its directors, and to give it the benefit of his wisdom and experience. In 1838 he became chaplain of the retreat for the insane at Hartford, Conn., which office he retained till his death. During his lifetime he published extensively. Among his works are “Sermons Preached to an English Congregation in Paris” (London, 1818); “Bible Stories for the Young”; “Child’s Book of the Soul” (3d ed., 1850); “Youth's Book of Natural Theology,” and other similar works. He also was a contributor to the “Annals of the Deaf and Dumb” (Hartford). A biography of Gallaudet was published by Heman Humphrey, D. D. (New York, 1858). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GALLOWAY, Abraham Hankins, 1737-1870, African American, fugitive slave, abolitionist, Union spy.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 577)

 

 

GALLOWAY, Samuel, 1811-1872, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, Ohio, opponent of slavery  (Dumond, 1961, p. 219; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 582; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 117)

 

GALLOWAY, Samuel, lawyer, b. in Gettysburg, Pa., 20 March, 1811; d. in Columbus, Ohio, 5 April, 1872. He was of Scotch-Irish parentage. After removing to Ohio in 1819, he was graduated at Miami in 1833, at the head of his class, and in the following year taught a classical school at Hamilton, Ohio. In 1835 he was elected professor of ancient languages in Miami, but resigned in consequence of ill health in 1836. He resumed teaching in 1838, first at Springfield, Ohio, and later as professor of ancient languages at South Hanover college, Indiana. In 1841 he returned to Ohio, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. He practised in Chillicothe, Ohio, until1844, when he was elected to be secretary of state and removed to Columbus. He held this office for eight years, and after declining a re-election resumed his profession. In 1854 he was elected to congress as a Republican and served one term. He was defeated by S. S. Cox in 1856, and again in 1858. Mr. Galloway took an active part in the political conflicts arising out of the Kansas question. He rendered important legal services to the war department during the civil war. He was active in religious matters, and was for thirteen years a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 582.

 

 

GALT, Thomas, 1805-1857, Pennsylvania, Illinois, abolitionist, clergyman.  Founder and Vice President of the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society.

 

 

GALUSHA, Elon, 1790-1859, Perry, NY, anti-slavery activist, abolitionist leader, Baptist clergyman, lawyer, reformer.  First President of the Baptist Anti-Slavery Society.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1840.  Supported the Liberty Party.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 349; Goodell, 1852, pp. 496, 499; Sorin, 1971; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 584)

 

GALUSHA, Elon, clergyman, b. in Shaftsbury, Vt.; d. in Lockport, N. Y., 13 June, 1859, was ordained to the Baptist ministry in early life, and served as pastor of churches in Whitesborough, Utica, Rochester, and Lockport, N. Y. At one time he was president of the Baptist missionary convention of New York. He was an attractive preacher, and one of the most widely known and esteemed among the Baptist ministers of his generation. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 584.

 

 

Galusha, Jonas, 1753-1834, New Hampshire, statesman, lawyer, jurist.  Former Governor of New Hampshire.  Headed local auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 584; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 132)

 

GALUSHA, Jonas, statesman, b. in Norwalk, Conn., 11 Feb., 1753; d. in Shaftsbury, Vt., 24 Sept., 1834. He removed to Shaftsbury in 1775, and in the battle of Bennington led two companies. Besides filling many minor offices, he was councillor for thirteen years, judge of the supreme court for two years, and governor of the state from 1809 till 1813, and again from 1815 till 1820. In 1808, 1820, and 1824 he was a presidential elector. He was president of the constitutional conventions of 1814 and 1822. In his religious sentiments Gov. Galusha took an interest in the affairs of the Baptist church, of which he was a member. –His son, Elon, clergyman, b. in Shaftsbury, Vt.; d. in Lockport, N. Y., 13 June, 1859, was ordained to the Baptist ministry in early life, and served as pastor of churches in Whitesborough, Utica, Rochester, and Lockport, N. Y. At one time he was president of the Baptist missionary convention of New York. He was an attractive preacher, and one of the most widely known and esteemed among the Baptist ministers of his generation. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GAMBLE, Hamilton Rowan, 1798-1864, lawyer, political leader.  Member of the American Colonization Society. Governor and Secretary of State of Missouri.  Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice (Whig Party).  Dissented in Missouri Supreme Court decision of “Dred Scott v. Emerson” case, 16th Governor of Missouri, 1861-1864. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 587; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 120; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 670)

 

GAMBLE, Hamilton Rowan, governor of Missouri, b. in Winchester, Va., 29 Nov., 1798; d. in Jefferson City, Mo., 31 Jan., 1864. His education was received principally at Hampden Sidney, and when about eighteen years of age he was admitted to the bar of Virginia. In 1818 he went to Missouri, and resided several years in Franklin, Howard co. He was elected secretary of state in 1824, which office he held one year. He then became a successful lawyer in St. Louis, served on the bench from 1851 till 1855, and was presiding judge of the supreme court of Missouri. At one time he was a member of the state house of representatives. In 1861 he was elected to the State constitutional convention, which body appointed him provisional governor of Missouri, the regular governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, having joined the secession party. He held this office until his death. In the State convention of 1861, as chairman of the committee on Federal relations, Gov. Gamble made a report expressing a hope for an amicable adjustment of the existing difficulties without civil war. He pronounced the president's call for troops unconstitutional, and appealed to the legislature to unite for the preservation of the state. Later the governor was authorized to receive a loan of $500,000 and to purchase ammunition, and the state military was put under his command, On 12 June, 1861, he issued a proclamation calling into service 50,000 of the state militia “for the purpose of repelling invasion, and for the protection of the lives, liberty, and property of the citizens.” On 12 June, 1862, the State convention passed a resolution expressing confidence in the integrity and patriotism of the governor and state officers. On 13 June he submitted a message to the convention, declaring that he would furnish aid to any state that would adopt a measure of emancipation. On 22 July, Gov. Gamble summoned the militia to defend the state against Confederate guerillas. He called the adjourned State convention to reassemble in June, 1863, to consult and act on the subject of emancipation, and, after expressing a desire for peace, offered his resignation, which was not accepted. Gov. Gamble in 1838 organized the 2d Presbyterian church in St. Louis. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 587.

 

 

GANNETT, Ezra Stiles, Reverend, 1801-1871, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman.  Co-founder of the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Boston.  Co-founded monthly paper, The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom.  Strong supporter of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  He defended the ACS and its policies against criticism by William Lloyd Garrison.  Gave sermons against slavery in his church.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 588-589; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 134, 206, 214)

 

GANNETT, Ezra Stiles, clergyman, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 4 May, 1801; d. near Boston, Mass., 25 June, 1871. He was a grandson of President Ezra Stiles of Yale. He was graduated at Harvard with first honors in 1820, studied divinity, and in 1824 became the colleague of Dr. William E. Channing in Boston, finally succeeding him as pastor. He was a foremost figure in the Unitarian controversy which agitated the New England churches in 1825-'35, but in the latter year was driven by illness to Europe, and during the summer following his return was seized with a paralytic stroke, which left him a cripple for life. He became co-editor of the “Christian Examiner,” and his lectures on Unitarian doctrines were the delight of Boston theologians. He delivered the annual election sermon in 1842, in 1843 the “Dudleian lecture,” and in that year was given the degree of D. D. by Harvard. He took part in a second controversy which arose in the Unitarian denomination, and, circumscribed as he was by his infirmity, he did a large amount of ministerial and literary work. He was president of the American Unitarian association in 1847-'51, of the Benevolent fraternity of churches in 1857-'62, and an overseer of Harvard in 1835-'58. On the bronze bas-reliefs of the soldiers’ monument on Boston common his face appears in the sanitary commission group; and the Freedman's aid society had his best labors in its behalf. He was killed by a railway accident. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GANO, Stephan, Reverend, 1762-1828, Providence, Rhode Island, clergyman.  Committee member, American Colonization Society, Rhode Island.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 589; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 125; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 86)

 

GANO, Stephen, clergyman, b. in New York city, 25 Dec., 1762; d. in Providence, R. I., 18 Aug., 1828, was prevented by the Revolutionary war from receiving a collegiate education, and pursued a short course of study with reference to the medical profession. He was appointed a surgeon in the army at the age of nineteen, and for two years was in the public service. While practising as a physician at Tappan, now Orangetown, N. Y., he was converted, and, at once feeling it his duty to give himself to the Christian ministry, was ordained 2 Aug., 1786. After preaching for a time in the vicinity of New York he was called, in 1792, to the pastorate of the 1st Baptist church in Providence, R. I. He accepted the call and spent the remainder of his days in ministering, with distinction and success, to this, the oldest Baptist church in the United States. He was one of the overseers of Brown university from 1794 till his death. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GARDNER, Charles W., 1782-1863, African American, Episcopal clergyman, abolitionist (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 590)

 

 

GARDNER, Eliza Ann, 1831-1922, African American, abolitionist.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 592)

 

 

GARDNER, Oliver, abolitionist, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1848-57

 

 

GARFIELD, James Abram, 1831-1881, lawyer, Union general.  Lt. Colonel, 42nd Regiment Ohio Volunteers.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Twentieth President of the United States.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 599-605; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 145; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 715; Congressional Globe)

 

GARFIELD, James Abram, twentieth president of the United States, b. in Orange, Cuyahoga co., Ohio, 19 Nov., 1831; d. in Elberon, N. J., 19 Sept., 1881. His father, Abram Garfield, was a native of New York, but of Massachusetts ancestry, descended from Edward Garfield, an English Puritan, who in 1630 was one of the founders of Watertown. His mother, Eliza Ballou, was born in New Hampshire, of a Huguenot family that fled from France to New England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. Garfield, therefore, was from lineage well represented in the struggles for civil and religious liberty, both in the Old and in the New World. Abram Garfield, his father, moved to Ohio in 1830, and settled in what was then known as “The Wilderness,” now as the “Western Reserve,'” which was occupied by Connecticut people. Abram Garfield made a prosperous beginning in his new home, but died, after a sudden illness, at the age of thirty-three, leaving a widow with four small children, of whom James was the youngest. In bringing up her family, unaided in a lonely cabin (see accompanying illustration), and impressing on them a high standard of moral and intellectual worth, Mrs. Garfield displayed an almost heroic courage. It was a life of struggle and privation; but the poverty of her home differed from that of cities or settled communities—it was the poverty of the frontier, all shared it, and all were bound closely together in a common struggle, where there were no humiliating contrasts in neighboring wealth. At three years of age James A. Garfield went to school in a log hut, learned to read, and began that habit of omnivorous reading which ended only with his life. At ten years of age he was accustomed to manual labor, helping out his mother's meagre income by work at home or on the farms of the neighbors. Labor was play to the healthy boy; he did it cheerfully, almost with enthusiasm, for his mother was a staunch Campbellite, whose hymns and songs sent her children to their tasks with a feeling that the work was consecrated; but work in winter always yielded its claims to those of the district school, where he made good progress, and was conspicuous for his assiduity. By the time he was fourteen, young Garfield had a fair knowledge of arithmetic and grammar, and was particularly apt in the facts of American history, which he had eagerly gathered from the meagre treatises that circulated in that remote section. Indeed, he read and re-read every book the scanty libraries of that part of the wilderness supplied, and many he learned by heart. Mr. Blaine attributes the dignity and earnestness of his style to his familiarity with the Bible and its literature, of which he was a constant student. His imagination was especially kindled by the tales of the sea; a love for adventure took strong possession of him. He so far yielded to it that in 1848 he went to Cleveland and proposed to ship as a sailor on board a lake schooner. But a glance showed him that the life was not the romance he had conceived. He turned promptly from the shore, but, loath to return home without adventure and without money, drove some months for a boat on the Ohio canal. Little is known of this experience, except that he secured promotion from the tow-path to the boat, and a story that he was strong enough and brave enough to hold his own against his companions, who were naturally a rough set. During the winter of 1849-'50 he attended the Geauga seminary at Chester, Ohio, about ten miles from his home. In the vacations he learned and practised the trade of a carpenter, helped at harvest, taught, did anything and everything to get money to pay for his schooling. After the first term, he asked and needed no aid from home; he had reached the point where he could support himself. At Chester he met Miss Lucretia Rudolph, his future wife. Attracted at first by her interest in the same intellectual pursuits, he quickly discovered sympathy in other tastes, and a congeniality of disposition, which paved the way for the one great love of his life. He was himself attractive at this time, exhibited many signs of intellectual superiority, and was physically a splendid specimen of vigorous young manhood. He studied hard, worked hard, cheerfully ready for any emergency, even that of the prize-ring; for, finding it a necessity, he one day thrashed the bully of the school in a stand-up fight. His nature, always religious, was at this period profoundly stirred in that direction. He was converted under the instructions of a Campbellite preacher, was baptized and received into that denomination. They called themselves “The Disciples,” contemned all doctrines and forms, and sought to direct their lives by the Scriptures, simply interpreted as any plain man would read them. This sanction to independent thinking, given by religion itself, must have had great influence in creating that broad and catholic spirit in this young disciple which kept his earnest nature out of the ruts of moral and intellectual bigotry. From this moment his zeal to get the best education grew warmer; he began to take wider views, to look beyond the present into the future. As soon as he finished his studies in Chester, he entered (1851) the Hiram eclectic institute (now Hiram college), at Hiram, Portage co., Ohio, the principal educational institution of his sect. He was not very quick of acquisition, but his perseverance was indomitable, and he soon had an excellent knowledge of Latin and a fair acquaintance with algebra, natural philosophy, and botany. He read Xenophon, Cæsar, and Virgil with appreciation; but his superiority was more easily recognized in the prayer-meetings and debating societies of the college, where he was assiduous and conspicuous. Living here was inexpensive, and he readily made his expenses by teaching in the English departments, and also gave instruction in the ancient languages. After three years he was well prepared to enter the junior class of any eastern college, and had saved $350 toward the expenses of such an undertaking out of his salary. He hesitated between Yale, Brown, and Williams colleges, finally choosing Williams on the kindly promise of encouragement sent him by its president, Mark Hopkins. It was natural to expect he would choose Bethany college, in West Virginia, an institution largely controlled and patronized by the “Disciples of Christ.” Garfield himself seems to have thought some explanation for his neglect to do so necessary, and with particularity assigns as reasons that the course of instruction at Bethany was not so extended as in the old New England colleges; that Bethany was too friendly in opinion to slavery; and—most significant of all the reasons he gave—that, as he had inherited by birth and association a strong bias toward the religious views there inculcated, he ought especially to examine other faiths. Entering Williams in the autumn of 1854, he was duly graduated with the highest honors in the class of 1856. His classmates unite with President Hopkins in testifying that in college he was warm-hearted, large-minded, and possessed of great earnestness of purpose and a singular poise of judgment. All speak, too, of his modest and unassuming manners. But, outside of these and other like qualities, such as industry, perseverance, courage, and conscientiousness, Garfield had exhibited up to this time no signs of the superiority that was to make him a conspicuous figure. But the effects of twenty-five years of most varied discipline, cheerfully accepted and faithfully used, begin now to show themselves, and to give to history one of its most striking examples of what education—the education of books and of circumstances—can accomplish. Garfield was not born, but made; and he made himself by persistent, strenuous, conscientious study and work. In the next six years he was a college president, a state senator, a major-general in the National army, and a representative-elect to the National congress. American annals reveal no other promotion so rapid and so varied.

On his return to Ohio, in 1856, he resumed his place as a teacher of Latin and Greek at Hiram institute, and the next year (1857), being then only twenty-six years of age, he was made its president. He was a successful officer, and ambitious, as usual, beyond his allotted task. He discussed before his interested classes almost every subject of current interest in scholarship, science, religion, and art. The story spread, and his influence with it; he became an intellectual and moral force in the Western Reserve. It was greatest, however, over the young. They keenly felt the contagion of his manliness, his sympathy, his thirst for knowledge, and his veneration for the truth when it was found. As an educator, he was, and always would have been, eminently successful; he had the knowledge, the art to impart it, and the personal magnetism that impressed his love for it upon his pupils. His intellectual activity at this time was intense. The canons of his church permitted him to preach, and he used the permission. He also pursued the study of law, entering his name, in 1858, as a student in a law-office in Cleveland, but studying in Hiram. To one ignorant of the slow development that was characteristic of Garfield in all directions, it would seem incredible that he now for the first time began to show any noticeable interest in politics. He seems never to have even voted before the autumn of 1856. No one who knew the man could doubt that he would then cast it, as he did, for John C. Frémont, the first Republican candidate for the presidency. As moral questions entered more and more into politics, Garfield's interest grew apace, and he sought frequent occasions to discuss these questions in debate. In advocating the cause of freedom against slavery, he showed for the first time a skill in discussion, which afterward bore good fruit in the house of representatives. Without solicitation or thought on his part, in 1859 he was sent to represent the counties of Summit and Portage in the senate of Ohio. Again in this new field his versatility and industry are conspicuous. He makes exhaustive investigations and reports on such widely different topics as geology, education, finance, and parliamentary law. Always looking to the future, and apprehensive that the impending contest might leave the halls of legislation and seek the arbitrament of war, he gave especial study to the militia system of the state, and the best methods of equipping and disciplining it.

The war came, and Garfield, who had been farmer, carpenter, student, teacher, lawyer, preacher, and legislator, was to show himself an excellent soldier. In August, 1861, Gov. William Dennison commissioned him lieutenant-colonel in the 42d regiment of Ohio volunteers. The men were his old pupils at Hiram college, whom he had persuaded to enlist. Promoted to the command of this regiment, he drilled it into military efficiency while waiting orders to the front, and in December, 1861, reported to Gen. Buell, in Louisville, Ky. Gen. Buell was so impressed by the soldierly condition of the regiment that he gave Col. Garfield a brigade, and assigned him the difficult task of driving the Confederate general Humphrey Marshall from eastern Kentucky. His confidence was such that he allowed the young soldier to lay his own plans, though on their success hung the fate of Kentucky. The undertaking itself was difficult. Gen. Marshall had 5,000 men, while Garfield had but half that number, and must march through a state where the majority of the people were hostile, to attack an enemy strongly intrenched in a mountainous country. Garfield, nothing daunted, concentrated his little force, and moved it with such rapidity, sometimes here and sometimes there, that Gen. Marshall, deceived by these feints, and still more by false reports, which were skilfully prepared for him, abandoned his position and many supplies at Paintville, and was caught in retreat by Garfield, who charged the full force of the enemy, and maintained a hand-to-hand fight with it for five hours. The enemy had 5,000 men and twelve cannon; Garfield had no artillery, and but 1,100 men. But he held his own until re-enforced by Gens. Granger and Sheldon, when Marshall gave way, leaving Garfield the victor at Middle Creek, 10 Jan., 1862, one of the most important of the minor battles of the war. Shortly afterward Zollicoffer was defeated and slain by Gen. Thomas at Mill Spring, and the Confederates lost the state of Kentucky. Coming after the reverses at Big Bethel, Bull Run, and the disastrous failures in Missouri, Gen. Garfield's triumph over the Confederate forces at Middle Creek had an encouraging effect on the entire north. Marshall was a graduate of West Point, and had every advantage in numbers and position, yet seems to have been out-generaled at every point. He was driven from two fortified positions, and finally completely routed—all within a period of less than a fortnight in the month of January, 1862. In recognition of these services, especially acknowledged by Gen. Buell in his General Order No. 40 (20 Jan., 1862), President Lincoln promptly made the young colonel a brigadier-general, dating his commission from the battle of Middle Creek. During his campaign of the Big Sandy, while Garfield was engaged in breaking up some scattered Confederate encampments, his supplies gave out, and he was threatened with starvation. Going himself to the Ohio river, he seized a steamer, loaded it with provisions, and, on the refusal of any pilot to undertake the perilous voyage, because of a freshet that had swelled the river, he stood at the helm for forty-eight hours and piloted the craft through the dangerous channel. In order to surprise Marshall, then intrenched in Cumberland Gap, Garfield marched his soldiers 100 miles in four days through a blinding snow-storm. Returning to Louisville, he found that Gen. Buell was away, overtook him at Columbia, Tenn., and was assigned to the command of the 20th brigade. He reached Shiloh in time to take part in the second day's fight, was engaged in all the operations in front of Corinth, and in June, 1862, rebuilt the bridges on the Memphis and Charleston railroad, and exhibited noticeable engineering skill in repairing the fortifications of Huntsville. The unhealthfulness of the region told upon him, and on 30 July, 1862, under leave of absence, he returned to Hiram, where he lay ill for two months. On 25 Sept., 1862, he went to Washington, and was ordered on court-martial duty, and gained such reputation in this practice that, on 25 Nov., he was assigned to the case of Gen. Fitz-John Porter. In February, 1863, he returned to duty under Gen. Rosecrans, then in command of the Army of the Cumberland. Rosecrans made him his chief-of-staff, with responsibilities beyond those usually given to this office. In this field, Garfield's influence on the campaign in Middle Tennessee was most important. One familiar incident shows and justifies the great influence he wielded in its counsels. Before the battle of Chickamauga (24 June, 1863), Gen. Rosecrans asked the written opinion of seventeen of his generals on the advisability of an immediate advance. All others opposed it, but Garfield advised it, and his arguments were so convincing, though pressed without passion or prejudice, that Rosecrans determined to seek an engagement. Gen. Garfield wrote out all the orders of that fateful day (19 Sept.), excepting one—and that one was the blunder that lost the day. Garfield volunteered to take the news of the defeat on the right to Gen. George H. Thomas, who held the left of the line. It was a bold ride, under constant fire, but he reached Thomas and gave the information that saved the Army of the Cumberland. For this action he was made a major-general, 19 Sept., 1863, promoted for gallantry on a field that was lost. With a military future so bright before him, Garfield, always unselfish, yielded his own ambition to Mr. Lincoln's urgent request, and on 3 Dec., 1863, resigning his commission, and hastened to Washington to sit in congress, to which he had been chosen fifteen months before, as the successor of Joshua R. Giddings. In the mean time Thomas had received command of the Army of the Cumberland, had reorganized it, and had asked Garfield to take a division. His inclination was to accept and continue the military career, which had superior attractions; but he yielded to the representations of the President and Sec. Stanton, that he would be more useful in the house of representatives.

Gen. Garfield was thirty-two years old when he entered congress. He found in the house, which was to be the theatre of his lasting fame, many with whom his name was for the next twenty years intimately associated. Schuyler Colfax was its speaker, and Conkling, Blaine, Washburne, Stevens, Fenton, Schenck, Henry Winter Davis, William B. Allison, and William R. Morrison were among its members. His military reputation had preceded him, and secured for him a place in the committee on military affairs, then the most important in congress. His first speech (14 Jan., 1864), upon a motion to print extra copies of Gen. Rosecrans's official report, was listened to with attention; and, indeed, whenever he spoke upon army matters, this was the case. But the attention was given to the man for the information he possessed, and imparted rather than to the orator; for in effective speech, as in every other matter in which Garfield succeeded, he came to excellence only by labor and practice. He was soon regarded as an authority on military matters, and his opinion was sought as an expert, experienced and careful. To these questions he gave all necessary attention, but they did not exhaust his capacity. He began at this time, and ever afterward continued, a thorough study of constitutional and financial problems, and to aid him in these researches he labored to increase his familiarity with the German and French languages. In this, his first session, he had to stand almost alone in opposition to the bill that increased the bounty paid for enlistment. He advocated liberal bounties to the veterans that reenlisted, but would use the draft to secure raw recruits. History vindicated his judgment. In the same session he spoke on the subject of seizure and confiscation of rebel property, and on free commerce between the states. On 13 Jan., 1865, he discussed exhaustively the constitutional amendment to abolish slavery.

In the 39th congress (1865) he was changed, at his own request, from the committee on military affairs to the ways and means committee, which then included Messrs. Morrison, of Illinois, Brooks and Conkling, of New York, and Allison, of Iowa. His reason for choosing this new field was that, the war being ended, financial questions would have supreme importance, and he wished to have his part in their solution. In the 40th congress (1867) he was restored to his old committee on military affairs, and made its chairman. In March, 1866, he made his first speech on the question of the public debt, foreshadowing, in the course of his remarks, that republican policy which resulted in the resumption of specie payment, 1 Jan., 1879. From this moment until the treasury note was worth its face in gold, he never failed, on every proper occasion, in the house and out, to discuss every phase of the financial question, and to urge upon the National conscience the demands of financial honor. In May, 1868, he spoke again on the currency, dealing a staggering blow to the adherents of George H. Pendleton, who, under the stress of a money panic, were clamoring for the government to “make the money-market easier.” It may be said that he was at this, as at later times, the representative and champion of the sound-money men in congress, and first and last did more than any one else, probably, in settling the issues of this momentous question. In 1877 and 1878 he was again active in stemming a fresh tide of financial fallacies. He treated the matter this time with elementary simplicity, and gave in detail reasons for a hard-money policy, based not so much upon opinion and theory as upon the teachings of history.

In the 41st congress a new committee—that on banking and currency—was created, and Garfield was very properly made its chairman. This gave him new opportunities to serve the cause in which he was heartily enlisted, and no one now seeks to diminish the value of that service. The most noticed and most widely read of these discussions was a speech on the National finances, which he delivered in 1878, at Faneuil hall, Boston. It was circulated as a campaign document by thousands, and served to win a victory in Massachusetts and to subdue for a while the frantic appeals from the west for more paper money. He served also on the select committee on the census (a tribute to his skill in statistics) and on the committee on rules, as an appreciation of his practical and thorough knowledge of parliamentary law. In the 42d and 43d congresses he was chairman of the committee on appropriations. In the 44th, 45th, and 46th congresses (the house being Democratic) he was assigned a place on the committee of ways and means. In reconstruction times, Garfield was earnest and aggressive in opposition to the theories advocated by President Johnson. He was a kind man, and not lacking in sympathy for those who, from mistaken motives, had attempted to sever their connection with the Federal Union; but he was not a sentimentalist, and had too earnest convictions not to insist that the results won by so much treasure and blood should be secured to the victors. An old soldier, he would not see Union victories neutralized by evasions of the constitution. On these topics no one was his superior in either branch of congress, and no opponent, however able, encountered him here without regretting the contest.

In 1876, Gen. Garfield went to New Orleans, at President Grant's request, in company with Senators Sherman and Matthews and other Republicans, to watch the counting of the Louisiana vote. He made a special study of the West Feliciana parish case, and embodied his views in a brief but significant report. On his return, he made, in January, 1877, two notable speeches in the house on the duty of congress in a presidential election, and claimed that the vice-president had a constitutional right to count the electoral vote. He was opposed to an electoral commission; yet, when the commission was ordered, Gen. Garfield was chosen by acclamation to fill one of the two seats allotted to Republican representatives. His colleague was George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. Garfield discussed before the commission the Florida and Louisiana returns, on 9 and 16 Feb., 1877. Mr. Blaine left the house in 1877 for the senate, and this made Garfield the undisputed leader of the Republican party in the house. He was at this time, and subsequently, its candidate for speaker.

The struggle begun in the second session of the 45th congress (1879), when the Democratic majority sought to control the president through the appropriations, gave Garfield a fine opportunity to display his powers as a leader in opposition. The Democratic members added to two general appropriation bills, in the shape of amendments, legislation intended to restrain the use of the army as a posse to keep the peace at elections, to repeal the law authorizing the employment of deputy U. S. marshals at the elections of members of congress, and to relieve jurors in the U. S. courts from the obligation of the test oath. The senate, which was Republican, refused to concur in these amendments, and so the session ended. An extra session was promptly called, which continued into midsummer. Contemporary criticism claims that, in this contest, Gen. Garfield reached, perhaps, the climax of his congressional career. A conservative man by nature, he revolted at such high-handed measures, and in his speech of 29 March, 1879, characterized them as a “revolution in congress.” Against this insult to the spirit of the law he protested with unwonted vigor. Like Webster in 1832, he stood the defender of the constitution, and his splendid eloquence and resistless logic upheld the prerogatives of the executive, and denounced these attempts by the legislature to prevent or control elections, however disguised, as an attack upon the constitution. He warned the house that its course would end in nullification, and protested that its principle was the “revived doctrine of state sovereignty.” (See speeches of 26 April, 10 and 11 June, and 19 and 27 June, 1879.) The result of it was that the Democrats finally voted $44,600,000 of the $45,000,000 of appropriations originally asked—a great party victory, to which Gen. Garfield largely contributed. His arguments had the more weight because not partisan, but supported by a clear analysis and statement of the relations between the different branches of the government. His last speech to the house was made on the appointment of special deputy marshals, 23 April, 1880. At the same time he made a report of the tariff commission, which showed that he was still a sincere friend to protection. He was already United States senator-elect from Ohio, chosen after a nomination of singular unanimity, 13 Jan., 1880.

Where there is government by party, no leader can escape calumny; hence it assailed Garfield with great venom. In the presidential canvass of 1872, he, with other Republican representatives, was charged with having bought stock in the Credit Mobilier, sold to them at less than its value to influence their action in legislation affecting the Union Pacific railroad. A congressional investigation, reporting 13 Feb., 1875, seemed to establish these facts so far as Garfield was concerned. He knew nothing of any connection between the two companies, much less that the Credit Mobilier controlled the railway. Garfield denied that he ever owned the stock, and was vaguely contradicted by Oakes Ames, who had no evidence of his alleged sale of $1,000 worth of the stock to Garfield, except a memorandum in his diary, which did not agree with Ames's oral testimony that he paid Garfield $329 as dividend on the stock. Garfield admitted that he had received $300 in June, 1868, from Ames, but claimed that it was a loan, and that he paid it in the winter of 1869. It was nowhere claimed that Garfield ever received certificate, or receipt, or other dividends, to which, if the owner of the stock, he was entitled, or that he ever asked for them. The innocence of Gen. Garfield was generally recognized, and, after the circumstances became known, he was not weakened in his district. Another investigation in the same congress (43d) gave calumny a second opportunity. This was the investigation into the conduct of the government of the District of Columbia. It revealed startling frauds in a De Golyer contract, and Garfield's name was found to be in some way connected with it. The facts, corroborated in an open letter by James M. Wilson, chairman of the committee, were: In May, 1872, Richard C. Parsons, a Cleveland attorney, then marshal of the supreme court in Washington, having the interests of the patents owned by De Golyer in charge, was called away. He brought all his material to Garfield, and asked him to prepare the brief. The brief was to show the superiority of the pavement (the subject of patent) over forty other kinds, and did not otherwise concern the contract or have anything to do with its terms. The fraud, as is generally understood, was in the contract, not in the quality of the pavement. Garfield prepared the brief and delivered it to Parsons; but did not himself make the argument. Parsons sent Garfield subsequently $5,000, which was a part of the fee Parsons had received for his own services. As thoughtful people reviewed the case, there was no harsher criticism than that suggested by Gen. Garfield's own lofty standard of avoiding even the appearance of evil—that he had not shown his usual prudence in avoiding any connection, even the most honest, in any way, with any matter that could in any shape come up for congressional review. It was the cruel and unjust charges made in connection with these calumnies which sent the iron into his soul, and made wounds which he forgave but never forgot.

In June, 1880, the Republican convention to nominate a successor to President Hayes was held in Chicago, and to it came Garfield, naturally, at the head of the Ohio delegation. He sympathized heartily with the wish of that delegation to secure the nomination for John Sherman, and labored loyally for that end. There could be no criticism of his action, nor could there be any just criticism of his loyalty to his candidate, except (and that he never concealed) that he wished more to defeat the nomination of Grant than to secure that of Senator Sherman. He believed a third term such a calamity that patriotism required the sacrifice of all other considerations to prevent it. That view he shared with Mr. Blaine, also a candidate in this convention, whose instructions to his friends were, “Defeat a third term first, and then struggle for the prize of office afterwards. Success in the one case is vital; success in the other is of minor importance.” On the thirty-third ballot Grant had 306 votes, the remaining 400 being divided between Blaine, Edmunds, and Washburne. The hope of the Grant men or the Blaine men to secure the prize faltered, and in the thirty-fourth ballot Wisconsin broke the monotony by announcing thirty-six votes for James A. Garfield. This put the spark to fuel that had been unconsciously prepared for it by the events of the long struggle. In all the proceedings, peculiar fitness had put Garfield to the front as the counsellor and leader of the anti-Grant majority, and the exhibition of his splendid qualifications won increasing admiration and trust. His tact and readiness in casual debate, and the beauty and force of the more elaborate effort in which he nominated Sherman, won the wavering convention. On the thirty-sixth ballot the delegates broke their ranks and rushed to him. He received 399 votes, and then his nomination (8 June, 1880) was made unanimous. Gen. Garfield left the convention before the result was announced, and accepted the nomination by letter. This was a thoughtful document, and acceptable to the Republican voters. Disregarding precedent, he spoke in his own behalf in Ohio, New York, and other states. He spoke sensibly and with great discretion, and his public appearance is thought to have increased his popularity. He was elected (2 Nov., 1880) over his competitor, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, by the votes of every northern state except New Jersey, Nevada, and California. His inaugural address, 4 March, 1881, was satisfactory to the people generally, and his administration began with only one cloud in the sky. His cabinet was made up as follows: James G. Blaine, of Maine, secretary of state; William Windom, of Minnesota, secretary of the treasury; Wayne MacVeagh, of Pennsylvania, attorney-general; Thomas L. James, of New York, postmaster-general; Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, secretary of the interior; Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, secretary of war; William H. Hunt, of Louisiana, secretary of the navy. There was bitter dissension in the party in New York, and Garfield gave much consideration to his duty in the premises. He was willing to do anything except yield the independence of the executive in his own constitutional sphere. He would give to the New York senators, Conkling and Platt, more than their share of offices; but they should not be allowed to interfere with or control the presidential right of nomination. He made nominations to the senate—as many, it is said, as twelve—in that interest, and then (23 March, 1881) sent in the name of William H. Robertson, a leader in the other faction, as collector of the port of New York. Senator Conkling protested, and then openly resisted his confirmation. Yielding to him in the interest of senatorial courtesy, his Republican colleagues, in caucus, 2 May, 1881, agreed to let contested nominations lie over practically until the following December. This was a substantial victory for Mr. Conkling; but it was promptly met by the president, who, a few days afterward (5 May), withdrew all the nominations that were pleasing to the New York senator. This brought the other senators to terms. Mr. Conkling, recognizing defeat, and Mr. Platt with him, resigned their offices, 16 May, 1881. On 18 May, Collector Robertson was confirmed. The early summer came, and peace and happiness and the growing strength and popularity of his administration cheered the heart of its chief. At a moment of special exaltation, on the morning of 2 July, 1881, he was shot by a disappointed office-seeker. The avowed object was to promote to the presidential chair Vice-President Arthur, who represented the Grant or “stalwart” wing of the party. The president was setting out on a trip to New England, anticipating especial pleasure in witnessing the commencement exercises of his alma mater at Williamstown. He was passing through the waiting-room of the Baltimore and Potomac depot, at nine o'clock that morning, leaning on the arm of Mr. Blaine, when the assassin fired at him with a pistol. The first ball passed through his coat-sleeve; the second entered by the back, fractured a rib, and lodged deep in the body. The president was carried to the White House, where, under the highest medical skill, and with every comfort that money and devotion could bring, he lingered for more than ten weeks between life and death. The country and the world were moved by the dastardly deed; and the fortitude and cheerfulness with which the president bore his suffering added to the universal grief. Daily bulletins of his condition were published in every city in the United States and in all the European capitals. Many of the crowned heads of Europe sought by telegraphic inquiry more particular news, and repeated their wishes for his recovery. A day of national supplication was set apart and sacredly observed, and the prayers at first seemed answered. His physicians were hopeful, and gave expression to their hope. His condition seemed to improve; but when midsummer came, the patient failed so perceptibly that a removal was hazarded. On 6 Sept., 1881, he was taken to Elberon, N. J., by a special train. He bore the journey well, and for a while, under the inspiration of the invigorating sea-breezes, seemed to rally. But on 15 Sept., 1881, symptoms of blood-poisoning appeared. He lingered till the 19th, when, after a few hours of unconsciousness, he died peacefully. A special train (21 Sept.) carried the body to Washington, through a country draped with emblems of mourning, and through crowds of reverent spectators, to lie in state in the rotunda of the capitol two days, 22 and 23 Sept. The final services held here were never surpassed in solemnity and dignity, except on 27 Feb., 1882, when, in the hall of representatives, at the request of both houses of congress, his friend, James G. Blaine, then secretary of state, delivered a memorial address, in the presence of the president and the heads of all the great departments of the government, so perfect that the criticism of two continents was unqualified praise. In a long train, crowded with the most illustrious of his countrymen, which in its passage, day or night, was never out of the silent watch of mourning citizens, who stood in city, field, and forest, to see it pass, Garfield's remains were borne to Cleveland and placed (26 Sept., 1882) in a beautiful cemetery, which overlooks the waters of Lake Erie. The accompanying illustration represents the imposing monument that is to mark his last resting-place.

His tragic death assures to Garfield the attention of history. It will credit him with great services rendered in various fields, and with a character formed by a singular union of the best qualities—industry, perseverance, truthfulness, honesty, courage—all acting as faithful servants to a lofty and unselfish ambition. Without genius, which can rarely do more than produce extraordinary results in one direction, his powers were so many and well-trained that he produced excellent results in many. If history shall call Garfield great, it will be because the development of these powers was so complete and harmonious. It has no choice but to record that, by the wise use of them, he won distinction in many fields: a teacher so gifted that his students compare him with Arnold of Rugby; a soldier, rising by merit in rapid promotion to highest rank; a lawyer heard with profit and approbation in the supreme court; an eloquent orator, whose own ardent faith kindled his hearers, speaking after thorough preparation and with practised skill, but refusing always to win victory by forensic trick or device; a party leader, failing in pre-eminence only because his moral honesty would not let him always represent a party victory as a necessity of national well-being. In all these characters he was the friend of learning and of virtue, and would probably ask no other epitaph than the tribute of a friend, who said that, “among the public men of his era, none had higher qualities of statesmanship and greater culture than James A. Garfield.”

Garfield's speeches are almost a compendium of the political history of the stirring era between 1864 and 1880. Among those worthy of special mention, on account of the importance of the subjects or the attractive and forcible presentation of them, are the following: On the Enrolling and calling out of the National Forces (25 Jan., 1864); on the Reconstruction of the Southem States (February, 1866); on Civil-Service Reform, in the congress of 1870 and other congresses; on the Currency and the Public Faith (April, 1874); on the Democratic Party and the South (4 Aug., 1876), of which a million copies were distributed as a campaign document; the speech in opposition to the Wood bill, which was framed to break down the protective tariff (4 June, 1878); the speeches on Revolution in Congress (4 March and 4 April, 1879); on Congressional Nullification (10 June, 1879); on Treason at the Polls (11 June, 1879); and on the Democratic Party and Public Opinion (11 Oct., 1879). Among his speeches in congress, less political in character, were that on the National Bureau of Education (8 June, 1866); a series on Indian Affairs, covering a period of several years; one on the Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion (2 March, 1869); two on the Census (6 April and 16 Dec., 1879); one on Civil-Service Reform; many addresses on the silver question; and one on National aid to education (6 Feb., 1872). He found time to make frequent orations and addresses before societies and gatherings outside of congress. His address on College Education, delivered before the literary societies of Hiram college (14 June, 1867), is an admirable plea for a liberal education, and on a subject in which the author was always deeply interested. On 30 May, 1868, he delivered an address on the Union Soldiers, at the first memorial service held at Arlington, Va. A eulogy of Gen. Thomas, delivered before the Army of the Cumberland, 25 Nov., 1870, is one of the happiest of his oratorical efforts. On the reception by the house of the statues of John Winthrop and Samuel Adams, he spoke with a great wealth of historical allusion, and all his memorial addresses, especially those on his predecessor in congress, Joshua R. Giddings, Lincoln, and Profs. Morse and Henry, are worthy of study. But in all this series nothing will live longer than the simple words with which, from the balcony of the New York custom-house, he calmed the mob frenzied at the news of Lincoln's death: “Fellow-citizens: Clouds and darkness are around him; His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds; justice and judgment are the establishment of his throne; mercy and truth shall go before his face! Fellow-citizens! God reigns, and the Government at Washington lives.”

After the death of President Garfield, a popular subscription for his widow and children realized over $360,000. The income of this fund is to be paid to Mrs. Garfield during her life, after which the principal is to be divided among the children—four sons and a daughter. More than forty of Garfield's speeches in congress have been published in pamphlet-form, as has also his oration on the life of Gen. George H. Thomas. A volume of brief selections, entitled “Garfield's Words,” was compiled by William R. Balch (Boston, 1881). His works have been edited by Burke A. Hinsdale (2 vols., Boston, 1882). The most complete life of President Garfield is that by James R. Gilmore (New York, 1880).

A monument to President Garfield, designed by John Q. A. Ward, was erected in Washington, D. C., by the Society of the army of the Cumberland, and dedicated on 12 May, 1887. It consists of a bronze statue of Garfield, l0½ feet high, standing on a circular pedestal, 18 feet in height, with buttresses, on which are three reclining figures, representing a student, a warrior, and a statesman. The U. S. government gave the site and the granite pedestal, besides contributing to the cost of the statues, and furnishing cannon to be used in their casting. (See page 602.) The unusual attitude of the arms is explained by the fact that Gen. Garfield was left-handed.—His wife, Lucretia Rudolph, b. in Hiram, Portage co., Ohio, 19 April 1832, was the daughter of a farmer named Rudolph. She first met her husband when both were students at Hiram, Ohio, and was married 11 Nov., 1858, in Hudson, Ohio, soon after his accession to the presidency of the college. Seven children were born to them, of whom four sons and one daughter are living (1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 599-605.

 

 

GARLAND, Hudson M., Virginia, American Colonization Society, Executive Committee, 1840-1841.  (Staudenraus, 1961)

 

 

GARLAND, James, Lynchburg, Virginia, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1838-41, Director, 1839-1841.  (Staudenraus, 1961)

 

 

GARNER, Peter M., 1809-1868, Pennsylvania, pioneer abolitionist, teacher, helped slaves escape. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 606)

 

GARNER, Peter M., abolitionist, b. in Lancaster county, Pa., 4 Dec., 1809; d. in Columbus, Ohio, 12 June, 1868. He removed to Fairview, Guernsey co., Ohio, with his parents, became a teacher, and was a pioneer in the anti-slavery movement in Ohio. In 1845, with two other citizens, he was seized by Virginians and taken to Parkersburg and thence to Richmond, and held in confinement six months, on a charge of assisting slaves to escape, but was finally released on his own recognizance. From 1847 till 1860 he taught in the Ohio penitentiary at Columbus, and during the war had charge of the military prisoners. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 606.

 

 

GARNET, Henry Highland, 1815-1882, African American, abolitionist leader, clergyman, diplomat, publisher.  Member Liberty Party.  Former fugitive slave.  Published The Past and Present Condition and Destiny of the Colored Race, 1848.  Publisher with William G. Allen of The National Watchman, Troy, New York, founded 1842.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 329-333; Mabee, 1970, pp. 57, 60, 61, 62, 64, 152, 255, 273, 294, 296, 325, 337, 338; Pasternak, 1995; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 33, 164, 192, 305-306, 329; Sernett, 2002, pp. 22, 67, 70-71, 116-117, 206, 209, 240; Sorin, 1971, pp. 89-92, 97, 113; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 606; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 154; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 332-333; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 735; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 608)

 

GARNET, Henry Highland, clergyman, b. in New Market, Md., 23 Dec., 1815; d. in Monrovia, Liberia, 13 Feb., 1882. He was a pure-blooded negro of the Mendigo tribe, of the Slave Coast, and born in slavery. His parents escaped with him to Bucks county, Pa., where they remained a year, and in 1826 settled in New York city. He was educated in Canaan academy, N. H., and the Oneida institute, near Utica, N. Y., where he was graduated with honor in 1840. He taught in Troy, N. Y., studied theology under Dr. Nathaniel S. S. Beman, was licensed to preach in 1842, and was pastor of a Presbyterian church in Troy for nearly ten years. For a short time he also published “The Clarion,” a newspaper. In 1846 he was employed by Gerrit Smith to distribute a gift of land among colored people. He went to Europe in 1850 in the interest of the free-labor movement, and lectured in Great Britain on slavery for three years. In 1851 he was a delegate to the peace congress at Frankfort. He went to Jamaica as a missionary for the United Presbyterian church of Scotland in 1853, but returned to the United States on account of failing health, and in 1855 entered on the pastorate of Shiloh Presbyterian church in New York city. In 1865 he accepted a call to a church in Washington, D. C. After a successful pastorate of four years he resigned to become president of Avery college, but gave up that post soon afterward, and returned to Shiloh church. President Garfield offered him the appointment of minister and consul-general to Liberia, and after the accession of President Arthur the nomination was made and confirmed by the senate. He arrived at Monrovia on 23 Dec., 1881, and entered auspiciously upon his diplomatic duties, but soon succumbed to the climate. A memorial school, organized by his daughter, Mrs. M. H. Garnet Barboza, was endowed in honor of him at Brewersville, Liberia. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 606.

 

 

GARNETT, James Mercer, 1770-1843, Essex County, Virginia, agriculturist, political leader.  Organized Liberian Society to raise funds for the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 607; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 156; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

GARNETT, James Mercer, agriculturist and politician, b. in Essex county, Va., 8 June, 1770; d. there in May, 1843. He was a founder and the first president of the U. S. agricultural society, and wrote extensively on rural economy. He was also interested in educational progress, maintained a female seminary in his own house for twelve years, and was active in introducing into Virginia improved methods of instruction. He acted with the Democratic party, and engaged in a controversy with Matthew Carey, the protectionist. He was an intimate friend of his colleague in congress, John Randolph, of Roanoke. .After serving for several years in the Virginia legislature he was twice elected to the National house of representatives, and served from 2 Dec., 1805, to 3 March, 1809. In 1829 he was a member of the Virginia constitutional convention. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GARRARD, James, 1749-1822, Governor of Kentucky 1796-1804, soldier, clergyman.  Tried unsuccessfully to exclude guarantees of the continuance of slavery from Kentucky State Constitution.  Opposed slavery as horrid evil. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 608; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 159; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 739)

 

GARRARD, James, governor of Kentucky, b. in Stafford county, Va., 14 Jan., 1749; d. in Bourbon county, Ky., 9 Jan., 1822. While engaged as a militia officer in the Revolutionary war he was called from the army to a seat in the Virginia legislature. Here he was a zealous advocate of the bill for the establishment of religious liberty. Having removed with the early settlers to Kentucky, in 1783, and settled on Stoner river, near Paris, he became there a political leader, and was a member of the convention which framed the first constitution of the state. Here he was ordained to the Baptist ministry. In 1791, pending the convention just named, he was chairman of a committee that reported to the Elkhorn Baptist association a memorial and remonstrance in favor of excluding slavery from the commonwealth by constitutional enactment. He was elected governor in 1796, and re-elected in 1800, serving eight years. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 608.

 

 

GARRETSON, Jesse, abolitionist, New Lisbon, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-44, Vice-President, 1844-45

 

 

GARRETT, Thomas, 1783-1871, Wilmington, Delaware, abolitionist leader, Society of Friends, Quaker, member of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, operator of the Underground Railroad, helped 2,700 Blacks escape to freedom, 1840-1860.  Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1843-1864.  Officer in the Delaware Abolition Society in 1827.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 185, 187; Dumond, 1961; McGowan, 1977; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 74, 306, 464, 488; Still, 1883; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 609; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 165)

 

GARRETT, Thomas, abolitionist, b. in Upper Darby, Pa., 21 Aug., 1783; d. in Wilmington, Del., 23 Jan., 1871. He was of Quaker parentage, learned his father's trade, that of an edge-tool maker, removed to Wilmington in 1820, and became a wealthy iron merchant. He was devoted to the cause of emancipation from the time when a colored female servant was kidnapped from his father's house, in 1807, and for forty years gave aid and succor to fugitive slaves, and concealed their flight so skilfully that slave-owners usually gave up the chase when they learned that their runaways had fallen into his hands. As many as 3,000 fugitives from Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia owed their liberty to him. He never enticed negroes to escape, and shrewdly avoided any breach of the law that could be proved against him. In May, 1848, however, he was compelled to pay heavy damages to owners of escaped slaves, and, after the passage of the fugitive-slave law, incurred the penalty of a fine that swept away the remainder of his fortune. In answer to the reprimand of the U. S. district judge before whom he was tried, he said that he had always helped a fellow-being to liberty when he could, and should continue to do so. His fellow-townsmen readily advanced him the capital to begin business again, and before he died he had again acquired a competence. In accordance with his dying instructions, his body was borne to the grave by colored men of Wilmington. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 609.

 

 

GARRIGUES, Abraham, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 131)

 

 

GARRIGUES, William A., abolitionist, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-41

 

 

GARRISON, William Lloyd, 1805-1879, journalist, printer, preeminent American abolitionist leader.  Founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  President and Member of the Executive Committee, AASS, 1843-1864.  Founder, editor, Liberator, weekly newspaper founded in 1831, published through December 1865.  Corresponding Secretary, 1840-1844, Counsellor, 844-1860, Massachusetts Anti-Slaery Society.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 185, 187; Dumond, 1961, pp. 137, 167, 168, 169, 172, 173, 179, 182, 190, 273, 283, 286-287; Filler, 1960; Garrison, 1885-1889, 4 volumes; Goodell, 1852, 1852, pp. 396-397, 401, 405, 410, 419, 436, 455-456, 458-459, 460, 469, 512, 541; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Kraditor, 1969; Mabee, 1970, pp. 2, 8, 26, 28, 131, 149, 152, 376, 378, 398n15; Mayer, 1998; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 41-42, 106, 131, 152, 179, 208-209, 289, 307-309, 321, 378, 463; Sorin, 1971; Stewart, 1992; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 610-612; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 168; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 332-334; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 761; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 305-306; Merrill, Walter M. Against the Wind and Tide. 1963; Thomas, John L. The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison. 1963)

 

GARRISON, William Lloyd, journalist, b. in Newburyport, Mass., 10 Dec., 1805; d. in New York city, 24 May, 1879. His father, Abijah Garrison, was a sea-captain, a man of generous nature, sanguine temperament, and good intellectual capacity, who ruined himself by intemperance. His mother, Fanny Lloyd, was a woman of exceptional beauty of person and high character, and remarkable for inflexible fidelity to her moral convictions. They emigrated from Nova Scotia to Newburyport a short time before the birth of Lloyd, and not long afterward the father left his family and was never again seen by them. At fourteen years of age Lloyd was apprenticed to the printing business in the office of the Newburyport “Herald,” where he served until he was of age, becoming foreman at an early day, and displaying a strong natural taste and capacity for editorship. From the first he was remarkable for his firmness of moral principle, his quick appreciation of ethical distinctions, and an inflexible adherence to his convictions at whatever cost to himself. His aims and purposes were of the highest, and those who knew him best foresaw for him an honorable career. His apprenticeship ended, he became editor for a time of the Newburyport “Free Press,” which he made too reformatory for the popular taste at that day. To this paper John G. Whittier, then unknown to fame, sent some of his earliest poems anonymously, but the editor, discovering his genius, penetrated his incognito, and they formed a friendship that was broken only by death. Mr. Garrison's next experiment in editorship was with the “National Philanthropist” in Boston, a journal devoted to the cause of temperance. We next hear of him in Bennington, Vt., whither he went in 1828 to conduct the “Journal of the Times,” established to support John Quincy Adams for re-election as president. Before leaving Boston, he formed an acquaintance with Benjamin Lundy, the Quaker abolitionist, then of Baltimore, where he was publishing the “Genius of Universal Emancipation,” a journal that had for its object the abolition of American slavery. Going to New England with the distinct purpose of enlisting the clergy in his cause, Lundy was bitterly disappointed by his want of success; but he mightily stirred the heart of young Garrison, who became his ally, and two years later his partner, in the conduct of the “Genius of Universal Emancipation.” This journal, up to that time, had represented the form of abolition sentiment known as gradualism, which had distinguished the anti-slavery societies of the times of Franklin and Jay, and fully answered the moral demands of the period. These societies were at this time either dead or inactive, and, since the Missouri contest of 1819-'20, the people of the north had generally ceased to strive for emancipation, or even to discuss the subject. With the exception of Lundy's earnest though feeble protest, supported mainly by Quakers, the general silence and indifference were unbroken. The whole nation had apparently come to the settled conclusion that slavery was intrenched by the constitution, and all discussion of the subject a menace to the Union. The emancipation of slaves in any considerable numbers, at any time or place, being universally regarded as dangerous to the public peace, the masters were held excusable for continuing to hold them in bondage. Mr. Garrison saw this state of things with dismay, and it became clear to him that the apathy which tended to fasten slavery permanently upon the country as an incurable evil could be broken only by heroic measures. The rights of the slaves and the duties of the masters, as measured by sound moral principles, must be unflinchingly affirmed and insisted upon. Slavery being wrong, every slave had a right to instant freedom, and therefore immediate emancipation was the duty of the masters and of the state. What was in itself right could never be dangerous to society, but must be safe for all concerned: and therefore there could be no other than selfish reasons for continuing slavery for a single day. In joining Lundy, Garrison at once took this high ground, creating thereby a strong excitement throughout the country. His denunciations of the domestic slave-trade, then rife in Baltimore, subjected him to the penalties of Maryland law, and he was thrust into jail. When released upon the payment of his fine by Arthur Tappan, of New York, he immediately resumed the work of agitation by means of popular lectures, and on 1 Jan., 1831, founded “The Liberator,” a weekly journal, in Boston, which he continued for thirty-five years, until slavery was finally abolished. It was small at first, but after a few years was enlarged to the usual size of the newspapers of that day. The spirit of the paper was indicated by this announcement in the first number: “I am aware that many object to the severity of my language, but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him moderately to rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.” It was a purely moral and pacific warfare that he avowed. No appeal was made to the passions of the slaves, but to the consciences of the masters, and especially of the citizens of the free states, involved by the constitution in the guilt of slavery. But he was charged with a design to promote slave insurrections, and held up to public scorn as a fanatic and incendiary. The state of Georgia offered $5,000 reward for his apprehension, and the mails from the south brought him hundreds of letters threatening him with death if he did not abandon his moral warfare. The whole land was speedily filled with excitement, the apathy of years was broken, and the new dispensation of immediatism justified itself by its results. In 1832 the first society under this dispensation was organized in Boston; within the next two years the American anti-slavery society was formed in Philadelphia, upon a platform of principles formulated by Mr. Garrison; and from this time the movement, in spite of powerful efforts to crush it, grew with great rapidity. Governors of states hinted that the societies were illegal, and judges affirmed that the agitators were liable to arrest as criminals under the common law. Mr. Garrison aggravated his offence, in the eyes of many, by his opposition to the scheme of African colonization, which, under the pretence of unfriendliness to slavery, had gained public confidence at the north, while in truth it fostered the idea that the slaves were unfit for freedom. His “Thoughts on African Colonization,” in which he judged the society out of its own mouth, was a most effective piece of work, defying every attempt at an answer. From 1833 till 1840 anti-slavery societies on Mr. Garrison's model were multiplied in the free states, many lecturers were sent forth, and an extensive anti-slavery literature was created. The agitation assumed proportions that greatly encouraged its promoters and alarmed its opponents. Attempts were made to suppress it by the terror of mobs; Elijah P. Lovejoy, in 1837, at Alton, Ill., was slain while defending his press, and in 1835 Garrison was dragged through the streets of Boston with a rope around his body, his life being saved with great difficulty by lodging him in jail. Marius Robinson, an anti-slavery lecturer, in Mahoning county, Ohio, was tarred and feathered in a cruel way; Amos Dresser, a theological student, while selling cottage Bibles at Nashville, Tenn., was flogged in the public square because it happened that, without his knowledge, some of his Bibles were wrapped in cast-off antislavery papers; and in Charleston, S. C., the post-office was broken open by a mob, which made a bonfire of anti-slavery papers and tracts sent through the mails to citizens of that city. In 1840 the abolition body was rent in twain, mainly by two questions, viz.: 1. Whether they should form an anti-slavery political party. 2. Whether women should be allowed to speak and vote in their societies. On the first of these questions Mr. Garrison took the negative, on the ground that such a party would probably tend to delay rather than hasten the desired action in respect to slavery. On the second he took the affirmative, on the ground that the constitutions of the societies admitted “persons” to membership without discrimination as to sex. This division was never healed, and thenceforth Mr. Garrison was recognized chiefly as the leader of the party agreeing with him upon these two questions. Personally he was a non-resistant, and therefore a non-voter; but the great body of his friends had no such scruples, and held it to be a duty to exercise the elective franchise in opposition to slavery. In 1844 Mr. Garrison became convinced that the constitution of the United States was itself the main support of slavery, and as such was to be repudiated. Borrowing the words of Isaiah, he characterized it as “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.” His influence carried the anti-slavery societies over to this ground, which they firmly held to the end of the conflict. Few of the members had any scruples as to forceful government. They simply declared that they could not conscientiously take part in a government that bound them by oath, in certain contingencies, to support slavery. The political party anti-slavery men went their way, leaving the work of moral agitation to Garrison and his associates, who were still a powerful body, with large resources in character, argument, and influence. The two classes, though working by divergent methods, had yet a common purpose, and, though controversy between them at times waxed warm, their agreements were broad and deep enough to insure mutual respect and a no inconsiderable degree of co-operation. The political anti-slavery leaders recognized the value of the moral agitation as a means for the regeneration of public sentiment, and for keeping their own party up to its work; and the agitators bore glad witness to the sincerity of men who, though they could not see their way clear to a repudiation of the constitution, were bent upon doing all that they could under it to baffle the designs of the slave-power. Thousands of the political abolitionists made regular and liberal contributions to sustain the work of moral agitation, and the agitators rejoiced in every display of courage on the part of their voting friends, and in whatever good they could accomplish. The civil war brought the sincere opponents of slavery, of whatever class, into more fraternal relations. Mr. Garrison was quick to see that the pro-slavery Union was destroyed by the first gun fired at Sumter, and could never be restored. Thenceforth he and his associates labored to induce the government to place the war openly and avowedly on an anti-slavery basis, and to bend all its efforts to the establishment of a new Union from which slavery should be forever excluded. In this they had the co-operation of the most enlightened and earnest leaders and members of the Republican party, and on 1 Jan., 1863, their united labors were crowned with success. President Lincoln's proclamation of freedom to the slaves was a complete vindication of the doctrine of immediate emancipation; while the conditions of reconstruction gave the country a new constitution and a new Union, so far as slavery was concerned. When the contest was over, the leaders of the Republican party united with Mr. Garrison's immediate associates in raising for him the sum of $30,000, as a token of their grateful appreciation of his long and faithful service; and after his death the city of Boston accepted and erected a bronze statue to his memory. During the struggle in which he took so prominent a part he made two visits to England, where he was received with many marks of distinction by the abolitionists of that country, as the acknowledged founder of the anti-slavery movement in the United States. The popular estimate of his character and career is doubtless expressed in the words of John A. Andrew, war-governor of Massachusetts: “The generation which immediately preceded ours regarded him only as a wild enthusiast, a fanatic, or a public enemy. The present generation sees in him the bold and honest reformer, the man of original, self-poised, heroic will, inspired by a vision of universal justice, made actual in the practice of nations; who, daring to attack without reserve the worst and most powerful oppression of his country and his time, has outlived the giant wrong he assailed, and has triumphed over the sophistries by which it was maintained.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 610-612.

 

 

GASSON, J., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

GASTINE, Civique, 1793-1822, reformer, wrote anti-slavery literature, called for equality between Blacks and Whites (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 613-614)

 

GASTINE, Civique, West Indian reformer, b. in Fort de France, Martinique, in 1793; d. in Port au Prince, Hayti, 12 June, 1822. He was of a wealthy family, and from early childhood was impressed by his mulatto nurse with sympathy for the colored race. In 1803 he was sent to New Orleans to receive his education, and in 1809 came to Philadelphia to study law. A pamphlet, which he published there regarding the emancipation of the negroes, gave rise to some attacks on him, and when in 1813 he spoke at a public meeting in favor of equality between blacks and whites, he was in danger of being lynched, and fled to Paris. He escaped conscription there in 1814 as an American citizen, and in 1815 began the publication of the paper “L’ami du noir.” He was condemned several times to fines and imprisonment for offensive articles, and, when he published his “Lettre au roi sur l’indpéndance de la république de Haiti et l’abolition de l’esclavage dans les colonies françaises” and “De la nécessité de faire un traité de commerce avec Haiti” (Paris, 1821), the government took advantage of Gastine's violent personal attacks to confiscate the work and banish the author. He went to Hayti in 1821, and was enthusiastically received on his arrival at Port au Prince by the public and President Boyer, who appointed him secretary of foreign relations, and granted him a yearly pension of 5,000 francs. By public subscription a magnificent property at Aux Cayes was presented to Gastine, but he only enjoyed it a few months. He published, besides the two works already mentioned, “Histoire de la république de Haiti, l’esclavage et le colon” (Paris, 1819); “L'Esclavage aux États-Unis” (1819); and “Histoire de l'esclavage dans la Louisiane” (1820). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 613-614.

 

 

GATCH, Philip (American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 8)

 

 

GATES, Cyrus, 1802-1891, Maine, New York, abolitionist, cartographer.  Active in hiding fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad.  His home was used to hide slaves.

 

 

GATES, Seth Merrill, 1800-1877, abolitionist leader, lawyer, newspaper editor, U.S. Congressman, Whig Party, Western New York.  Anti-slavery political leader in House of Representatives.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 295; Mabee, 1970, p. 128; Sorin, 1971, p. 104; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 615-616)

 

GATES, Seth Merrill, lawyer, b. in Winfield, Herkimer co., N. Y., 16 Oct., 1800; d. in Warsaw, N. Y., 24 Aug., 1877. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1827, and began practice in Le Roy. He was elected to the state legislature in 1832, but declined a re-election. During this session he was instrumental in procuring a charter for the first railroad in western New York, being a portion of the present New York Central. In 1838 he purchased the “Le Roy Gazette,” which he edited for several years. He was elected to congress in 1838, and re-elected in 1840. On the expiration of his congressional service, he removed to Warsaw, and continued his law-practice. On account of his hostility to slavery, a reward of $500 was offered by a southern planter for his “delivery in Savannah, dead or alive.” In 1848 he was the Free-soil candidate for lieutenant-governor of New York, but was defeated. He drew up the protest of the Whig members of congress in 1843 against the annexation of Texas, erroneously attributed in several histories to Mr. Adams's pen; and the correspondence between Mr. Gates and ex-President John Quincy Adams, who signed the protest, is still in the possession of his son. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 615-616.

 

 

GAW, Gilbert, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 131)

 

 

GAY, Sydney Howard, 1814-1888, New York, NY, author, newspaper editor, abolitionist.  Member of the Garrisonian abolitionists.  Became traveling lecturing agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) in 1842.  Gay was a member of the Executive Committee from 1844-1864 and Corresponding Secretary, 1846-1849.  Appointed editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard in 1844, published in New York.  Served until 1858, when he became an editor with the Tribune.  He was the wartime managing editor of the Tribune.  Ardent supporter of Lincoln and the Union.  (Mabee, 1970, p. 298; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 618-619; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 195; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 806)

 

GAY, Sydney Howard, author, b. in Hingham, Mass., in 1814; d. in New Brighton, Staten Island, 25 June, 1888, entered Harvard, but was obliged to give up study on account of his health. The degree of A. B. was afterward conferred upon him. After some years, spent partly in travel, partly in a counting-house in Boston, he began the study of law in his father's office in Hingham. But he soon abandoned it from conscientious scruples concerning the oath to support the constitution of the United States; for he came to the conclusion that, if one believed slavery to be absolutely and morally wrong, he had no right to swear allegiance to a constitution that recognized it as just and legal, and required the return of fugitives from bondage. Of the “Garrisonian abolitionists,” with whom he thereafter cast his lot, he says: “This handful of people, to the outside world a set of pestilent fanatics, were among themselves the most charming circle of cultivated men and women that it has ever been my lot to know.” In 1842 he became a lecturing agent for the American anti-slavery society, and in 1844 editor of the “Anti-Slavery Standard,” published in New York. This place he retained till 1858, when he became editorially connected with the “Tribune,” of which, from 1862 till 1866, he was managing editor. Henry Wilson, afterward vice-president of the United States, said: “The man deserved well of his country who kept the ‘Tribune’ a war paper in spite of Greeley.” Mr. Gay was managing editor of the Chicago “Tribune” from 1868 till the great fire of 1871. During the following winter he acted with the relief committee, and wrote their first public report, in the spring of 1872, of their great work of the past six months. Subsequently, for two years, he was on the editorial staff of the New York “Evening Post.” In 1874, William Cullen Bryant, being invited to join a great publishing-house in the enterprise of preparing an illustrated history of the United States, consented on condition that Mr. Gay should be its author, as he himself could not think of undertaking such a work at his advanced age. Mr. Bryant wrote the preface to the first volume, while the history itself was written by Mr. Gay, with the help of several collaborators in special chapters, to whom he gives credit in his prefaces. This work (4 vols., 8vo, New York, 1876-'81), beginning with the prehistoric races of America and coming down to the close of the civil war, introduced a new treatment of American history, which has been followed by later writers and has become popular. Mr. Gay afterward wrote a “Life of James Madison” (Boston, 1884). He was engaged on a life of Edmund Quincy for the series of the “American Men of Letters,” when he was interrupted by a long and serious illness. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 618-619.

 

 

GAYLEY, Samuel M., abolitionist, Wilmington, Delaware, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-40

 

 

GAZZAM, J. P., abolitionist, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40.

 

 

GEARY, John White, general, statesman, soldier.  Became territorial governor of Kansas on August 18, 1856.  Opposed slavery.  Defended state against pro-slavery “border ruffians” from Missouri.  As Governor, in 1857, he vetoed pro-slavery laws of legislature.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 620-621; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 203; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 819; U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, DC: GPO, 1881-1901. Series 1; Warner, 1964.)

 

GEARY, John White, soldier, b. near Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland co., Pa., 30 Dec., 1819; d. in Harrisburg, Pa., 8 Feb., 1873. His father was of Scotch-Irish descent. The son entered Jefferson college, but, on account of his father's loss of property and sudden death, was compelled to leave and contribute toward the support of the family. After teaching he became a clerk in a commercial house in Pittsburgh, and afterward studied mathematics, civil engineering, and law. He was admitted to the bar, but never practised his profession. After some employment as civil engineer in Kentucky, he was appointed assistant superintendent and engineer of the Alleghany Portage railroad. When war was declared with Mexico, in 1846, he became lieutenant-colonel of the 2d regiment of Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, and commanded his regiment at Chapultepec, where he was wounded, but resumed his command the same day at the attack on the Belen gate. For this service he was made first commander of the city of Mexico, and colonel of his regiment. He was appointed in 1849 to be first postmaster of San Francisco, with authority to establish the postal service throughout California. He was the first American alcalde of San Francisco, and a “judge of the first instance.” These offices were of Mexican origin, the “alcalde” combining the authority of sheriff and probate judge with that of mayor, and the judge of the first instance presiding over a court with civil and criminal as well as admiralty jurisdiction. Col. Geary served until the new constitution abolished these offices. In 1850 he became the first mayor of San Francisco. He took a. leading part in the formation of the new constitution of California, and was chairman of the territorial Democratic committee. In 1852 he retired to his farm in Westmoreland county, Pa., and remained in private life until 1856, when he was appointed territorial governor of Kansas, which office he held one year. He then returned to Pennsylvania, and at the beginning of the civil war raised the 28th Pennsylvania volunteers. He commanded in several engagements, and won distinction at Bolivar Heights, where he was wounded. He occupied Leesburg, Va., in March, 1862, and routed Gen. Hill. On 25 April, lS62, he received the commission of brigadier-general of U. S. volunteers. He was severely wounded in the arm at Cedar Mountain, 9 Aug., 1862, and in consequence could not take part in the battle of Antietam. At the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg he led the 2d division of the 12th corps. The corps to which Gen. Geary's regiment was attached joined the Army of the Cumberland, under Gen. Hooker's command, to aid in repairing the disaster at Chickamauga, and he took part in the battles of Wauhatchie and Lookout Mountain, in both of which he was distinguished. He commanded the 2d division of the 20th corps in Sherman's march to the sea, and was the first to enter Savannah after its evacuation, 22 Dec., 1864. In consideration of his services at Fort Jackson he was appointed military governor of Savannah, and in 1865 he was promoted to be major-general by brevet. He was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 1866, and held this office until two weeks before his death. During his administration the debt of the commonwealth was reduced, an effort to take several millions from the sinking fund of the state bonds was prevented, a disturbance at Williamsport quelled, and a bureau of labor statistics established by the legislature, 12 April, 1872. Gov. Geary possessed great powers of application and perception, force of will, and soundness of judgment, and was popular among his troops. The general assembly has erected a monument at his grave in Harrisburg. See “Gov. Geary's Administration in Kansas,” by John H. Gihon (Philadelphia, 1857).”  Source: Wilson, James Grant, & Fiske, John (Eds.). Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York: Appleton, 1888, 1915.

 

 

GERRY, Elbridge, 1744-1814, Massachusetts, statesman, founding father.  Member of the Constitutional Convention.  U.S. Congressman.  Supported and encouraged rights of citizens to petition Congress for redress of grievances against slavery.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 206; Locke, 1901, p. 140; Annals of Congress, 1 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 1230, 1246; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 630-632; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 222; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 866; Encylopaedia Americana, 1830, Vol. V, pp. 480-481)

 

GERRY, Elbridge, statesman, b. in Marblehead, Mass., 17 July, 1744; d. in Washington, D. C., 23 Nov., 1814. His father, Thomas Gerry, came from Newton, England, to this country in 1730, and established himself as a merchant in Marblehead. Elbridge was graduated at Harvard in 1765, and the subject for master's degree assigned to his class at the annual commencement afforded him an opportunity, under the guise of discussing the right of a people to evade ruinous innovations in trade and revenue laws, to give his views on the principles of the stamp-act and the other oppressive revenue measures that had been lately enacted by the British government. Gerry, on leaving college, entered commercial life, and in a short time had amassed a considerable fortune. His public career began in 1773, when he sat in the general court of Massachusetts bay, as the representative of Marblehead, and from this time until his death in 1814 he was, with short interruptions, in continuous public life. In 1773 the assembly appointed a committee of correspondence, consisting of Hancock, Orne, and Gerry, whose duty it should be to keep informed on all governmental acts relative to the British colonies, and communicate with the sister colonies thereupon. Gerry was an active member of this committee, and warmly supported Samuel Adams in his dealings with Gov. Hutchinson. In 1774, despite the prohibitory order of Gov. Gage, an assembly election took place, and the delegates convened at Salem, but adjourned first to Concord and then to Cambridge. The members organized as a provincial congress, and held sessions thereafter annually at Cambridge and Watertown. Gerry was a conspicuous member of this revolutionary body, and as a committee of safety and supplies attended to the collection of ammunition and provisions for the militia. He drafted a bill, which was adopted in 1775, providing for the fitting out of privateers and the establishment of an admiralty court for the adjudication of prizes. The putting into effect of this measure was the initiatory step toward a national navy. In January, 1776, Mr. Gerry was chosen a delegate to the Continental congress. Associated with him on the Massachusetts delegation were Hancock, the Adamses, and Paine. He acted on the standing committee on the treasury, on that for providing the means of furnishing supplies to the army, on the issue of bills of credit, on the best methods of conducting the business of legislation in congress, and others. The committee on supplies, consisting of Sherman, Gerry, and Lewis, attended Washington at his headquarters near New York, to inquire into the necessities of the troops and the best means of supplying their wants, and as a result of their mission some measures of reform in regard to furnishing clothing, in the system of appointments and promotions, in the enlistment of the militia, in the administration of the quartermaster-general's department, and in the plan of hospital establishments, were approved by congress. Mr. Gerry early advocated the scheme for declaring the independence of the colonies, and, when the proposition was before congress, promoted the passage of the measure with all his powers of argument, seconding at the final stages the motion for adoption, and affixing his signature on its enactment. Congress convened at Philadelphia, 4 March, 1777, and Gerry attended the entire session, during which he reported a resolution authorizing the seizure of private property on the presentation of certificates of value, as a substitute for the wretched system of supply, which had thrown on the country a flood of depreciating currency. The congress, having little appreciation of the embarrassments of the army, sent out a committee, composed of Morris, Gerry, and Jones, to examine Washington at his post on the Schuykill with regard to the prosecution of a winter campaign to make up for the losses of the summer and autumn of 1777. Their report expressed some dissatisfaction, conveying the idea that a more vigorous exertion of the military power might be made. The plottings of the “Conway cabal” had, without doubt, an effect upon the congressional committee, but it is improbable that they contemplated lending themselves to the schemes for Washington's overthrow. The Massachusetts members did not escape from the charge of complicity, but Gerry's correspondence shows that the imputation was unfounded in his case, although he cherished resentment at the opposition of the army to congressional promotions. Mr. Gerry is credited with having, during this session, devised the plan of operations for Gates's campaign against Burgoyne. Negotiations for a treaty of peace were opened in the spring of 1779, and, at the instigation of Mr. Gerry, the protection of the fishery rights was made a stipulated article for a settlement. It was while he was chairman of the treasury committee in the congress of 1780, to which body he had been elected for the fifth time in November, 1779, that Mr. Gerry came into the conflict with Benedict Arnold, whose accounts he overhauled in a manner highly displeasing to that officer.

Mr. Gerry's sensitiveness as to the rights of a delegate from a sovereign state involved him in a difficulty with congress in February, 1780, which led him to vacate his seat in that body, holding that the rights of his state had been infringed in a refusal of congress to order the yeas and nays on a question of order raised by him. He laid his complaint before the legislature, which passed resolutions of protest. This incident suspended Mr. Gerry's congressional service for about three years. In 1783, on a joint ballot in the general court, he was recalled to the position of a representative in congress. Meanwhile his constituents had given him their suffrages for state senator and simultaneously for representative, there being at that time no provision against plurality of office. He undertook only the duty of representing his town in the lower house, declining senatorial service. The congress to which Gerry was now elected concluded the treaty of peace with Great Britain, and he was on the committee to arrange the matter. The states at that time regarded their delegates in the light of ministers from independent sovereignties, and the Massachusetts legislature required from Mr. Gerry a fortnightly report of his proceedings. The proposition to organize the Society of the Cincinnati met with the determined opposition of Gerry, who lost no opportunity in public and private of pointing out the dangerous character of such an unrepublican institution. A riot in Philadelphia in 1783 caused a removal of congress to Princeton in June of that year. This event brought up the plan of a federal city, and two committees, with Gerry as chairman of each, were appointed to examine sites. In April, 1785, Mr. Gerry's constituents repeated their performance of designating him for two elective offices, while he still held his place in congress. His term there expired in September, 1785, and he accepted a seat in the popular branch of the legislature of his state. The sentiment of Massachusetts as to a constitutional convention as expressed by the legislature in 1785 was in favor of establishing “the Federal government on a firm basis, and to perfect the Union,” declaring that “the present powers of congress of the United States, as contained in the articles of confederation, are not fully adequate to the great purposes they were originally designed to effect.” These resolutions were given to Gerry, Holten, and King, in the form of instructions, but they construed them as merely advisory, and opposed every move in the congress of 1785 toward giving enlarged powers to the National government. They wrote a letter to Gov. Bowdoin in justification of their action, saying that “any alteration of the confederation is premature; the grant of commercial power should be temporary; . . . the cry for more power in congress comes especially from those whose views are extended to an aristocracy.” Gov. Bowdoin replied to the effect that if it was hazardous to intrust congress with powers necessary to its well-being, the Union could not long subsist. The letters of Gerry and King being concurred in by Samuel Adams, then president of the senate, stayed any demonstration of disapproval by the general court. Despite this antagonistic attitude, Mr. Gerry was elected delegate to the convention. He took part in all its deliberations, and succeeded in introducing into the constitution some of his propositions, and his energies were directed throughout to the prevention of the incorporation in the system of any features which he regarded as monarchical or tending to aristocracy. At the final moment, regardless of the pleadings of Washington and Franklin, Gerry, Randolph, and Mason withheld their assent to the constitution as adopted by the convention. Gerry returned to Massachusetts to seek an election to the State federal convention, but was defeated by Francis Dana. The convention extended to him an invitation to attend its sessions, for the purpose of answering questions of fact in regard to the constitution, but at the outset he created a commotion in the assembly by offering in writing a reply to a query, some members thinking that he sought to interject an argument under the guise of answering a question. The letter which caused the trouble, together with an account of the scene in the convention, taken from the “Massachusetts Sentinel,” is printed in the edition of the debates and proceedings of the convention, published by the legislature in 1856. Mr. Gerry stated eight objections to the constitution, all of which he could waive, were it not that the National legislature had general power to make “necessary and proper” laws, to raise “armies and money” without limit, and to establish “a star chamber as to civil cases.” Weary of sitting in a body to which he had not been chosen, he soon withdrew.

After the adoption of the constitution, Gerry was in accord with the Republican party, which elected him to the 1st National congress in 1789, and re-elected him in 1791. In 1797 President Adams nominated him as a colleague with Marshall and Pinckney to go on a mission to France to obtain amends for French depredations on our commerce. In France they suffered many indignities at the hands of Talleyrand, who sent mysterious agents with disgraceful propositions, involving bribery and humiliation. Marshall and Pinckney soon became disgusted, and sailed for home, but Gerry thought it his duty to hold on, in the hope of preventing a rupture with France. (See ADAMS, JOHN.) The affair aroused great indignation in the United States, and his recall was soon ordered.

In 1800 the Republican party nominated Mr. Gerry for governor, and in a close election he was defeated by Caleb Strong. In 1810 his efforts for the same office were rewarded with success, and he served for two terms. His administration was at a period of high party spirit, and he put into full effect the Jeffersonian principles of civil service. The incumbents of the civil offices were speedily removed from office, and their places filled by sympathizers with the Republican party, causing a great outcry in the opposition papers. The Federal press became so vituperative in its denunciations that Gov. Gerry resorted to the extraordinary step of making the matter the subject of a special message to the legislature, transmitting at the same time a report of the attorney- and solicitor-general regarding the libellous articles. The message caused great excitement and the opposition responded by charging the governor with usurping his powers. The disaffection created by these proceedings, and the unpopularity occasioned by the partisan redistricting of the state, which was called by the Federalists the “Gerrymander,” effected an overturn at the next election, the Federalists gaining control of the house, and electing Caleb Strong governor. The ex-governor's devotion and services to the Republican party were rewarded in 1812 with the office of vice-president, and he held this office at the time of his death, which occurred while he was on his way to the capitol. He married Ann, daughter of Charles Thomson, secretary of congress, who, with three sons and six daughters, survived him. Mr. Gerry's career, though characterized by devotion to party, and such episodes as the refusal to assent to a vote of thanks to Hancock on his retirement from the presidency of congress, the opposition to the Society of the Cincinnati, and the unhappy French mission, was honorable and useful; and his patriotic services in the Revolutionary struggle entitle him to a high place among the statesmen of the early days of the republic. A monument was erected to his memory in the congressional burial-ground at Washington by the government. (See accompanying illustration.) His messages to the legislature have been published as follows: “Speech of His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to both Houses of the Legislature, at the Session commencing on the Second Wednesday in January, 1812” (Boston, 1811); “Legislature of Massachusetts. Speech, June 7, 1811. At twelve o'clock, His Excellency the Governor, attended by His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor and the Honorable Council (completely attired in cloth of American manufacture), met the two Branches of the Legislature” (Boston, 1811); “Message from His Excellency the Governor, February 27, 1812, regarding Libellous Articles” (Boston, 1812). See his life by James T. Austin (2 vols., Boston, 1828-'9); and a sketch, by Henry D. Gilpin, in Sanderson's “Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 630-632.

 

 

GIBBONS, Abby (Abigail) Hopper, 1801-1893, Society of Friends, Quaker, women’s prison reformer, philanthropist, abolitionist, daughter of Isaac and Sarah Hopper, wife of noted abolitionist James Sloan Gibbons.  Gibbons was a member of the Executive Committee from 1841-1844.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  The Manhattan Anti-Slavery Society.  (Emerson, 1897; Yellin, 1994, p. 43n41; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 636; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 237; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 347-348; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 906)

 

GIBBONS, Abigail Hopper, philanthropist, b. in Philadelphia, 7 Dec., 1801, is a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, the Quaker philanthropist. After teaching in Philadelphia and New York, she married Mr. Gibbons in 1833, and in 1836 removed to New York with him. In 1845 Mrs. Gibbons aided her father in forming the Women's prison association, and in founding homes for discharged prisoners, and frequently visited the various prisons in and about New York. She was the principal founder of the Isaac T. Hopper home, and for twelve years was president of a German industrial school for street children, the attendance at which increased in four months from 7 to nearly 200. Throughout the war Mrs. Gibbons gave efficient aid in hospital and camp, often at personal risk, and in 1863, during the draft riots, her house was one of the first to be sacked by the mob, owing to the well-known anti-slavery sentiments of herself and her husband. The attention of the rioters was first called to the house by some one who pointed it out as the residence of Horace Greeley, After the war she planned and organized a Labor and aid association for the widows and orphans of soldiers. She aided in establishing the New York infant asylum in 1871, and the New York diet kitchen in 1873, and has been one of the active managers of both these institutions. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 636.

 

 

GIBBONS, Henry, abolitionist, Wilmington, Delaware, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40, Vice-President, 1840-43

 

GIBBONS, Henry, physician, b. in Wilmington, Del., 20 Sept., 1808; d. there, 5 Nov., 1884, was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1829, practised in Wilmington till 1841, and then in Philadelphia, where he was professor of the principles and practice of medicine in the Philadelphia college of medicine. He removed in 1850 to San Francisco, Cal., where he became, in 1861, professor of materia medica in the medical college of the Pacific (now Cooper medical college), being transferred to the chair of the principles and practice of medicine in 1868. He was president of the California state board of health from its establishment in 1873 till his death, and edited the “Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal” for twenty years. Dr. Gibbons was a founder of the California academy of sciences. He published a prize essay on “Tobacco” and several addresses and essays. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II.

 

 

GIBBONS, James Sloan, 1810-1892, Philadelphia, PA, New York, NY, Society of Friends, Quaker, merchant, abolitionist, philanthropist.  Member of the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839-1840, 1840-1844.  Married to abolitionist Abigale Hooper.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 160, 162, 198; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 636; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 242)

 

GIBBONS, James Sloan, merchant, b. in Wilmington, Del., 1 July, 1810, was educated in private schools in his native city, and in early life removed to Philadelphia, where he became a merchant. He came to New York in 1835, and has since been connected with banks and finance in that city. He has contributed to various literary and financial periodicals, and has published “The Banks of New York, their Dealers, the Clearing-House, and the Panic of 1857” (New York, 1858), and “The Public Debt of the United States” (1867). His song, “We are coming, Father Abraham,” was very popular during the civil war. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 636.

 

 

GIBBONS, William, abolitionist, Wilmington, Delaware, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-37

 

 

GIBBS, Josiah Willard, Sr., 1790-1861, New Haven, Connecticut, abolitionist, philologist, author.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 630; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 247)

 

GIBBS, Josiah Willard, philologist, b. in Salem, Mass., 30 April, 1790; d. in New Haven, Conn., 25 March, 1861. He was graduated at Yale in 1809, and from 1811 till 1815 was connected with the college as tutor. Subsequently he spent some years at Andover, where he devoted himself to the study of Hebrew and biblical literature, producing at this time some of his most important works. In 1824 he was called to New Haven, and became professor of sacred literature in the theological school of Yale college, which chair he retained until his death. He also held the office of librarian from 1824 till 1843, and in 1853 received the degree of LL. D. from Princeton. Prof. Gibbs was a constant contributor of articles on points of biblical criticism, archæology and philological science to the “Christian Spectator,” “Biblical Repository,” “New Englander,” and the “American Journal of Science.” He was particularly fond of grammatical and philological studies, and attained a high reputation for thoroughness and accuracy in them. His work appears in several of the most important philological books published during the century, and among others in the revised edition of Webster's “Unabridged Dictionary” and Prof. William C. Fowler's “English Language in its Elements and its Forms” (New York, 1850). For some years he was one of the publishing committee of the American oriental society. Prof. Gibbs published a translation of Storr's “Historical Sense of the New Testament” (Boston, 1817); a translation of Gesenius's “Hebrew Lexicon of the Old Testament” (Andover, 1824; London, 1827); an abridged form of Gesenius's “Manual Hebrew and English Lexicon” (1828); “Philological Studies with English Illustrations” (New Haven, 1856); “A New Latin Analyst” (1859); and “Teutonic Etymology” (1860).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GIBBS, Leonard, abolitionist, New York, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-46

 

 

GIBBS, Mifflin Wistar (American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 8)

 

 

GIDDINGS, Howard, abolitionist

 

 

GIDDINGS, Joshua Reed, 1795-1865, lawyer, statesman, U.S. Congressman, Whig from Ohio, elected in 1838. First abolitionist elected to House of Representatives. Worked to eliminate “gag rule,” which prohibited anti-slavery petitions. Served until 1859.  Leader and founder of the Republican Party. Argued that slavery in territories and District of Columbia was unlawful.  Active in Underground Railroad.  Was censured by the House of Representatives for his opposition to slavery.  Opposed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and against further expansion of slavery into the new territories acquired during the Mexican War of 1846. (Blue, 2005, pp. 69, 84, 86, 100, 163, 165, 188, 199, 201, 202, 216, 218-220, 221, 224, 245; Dumond, 1961, pp. 243-245, 302, 339, 368; Filler, 1960, pp. 103, 145, 186, 224, 247, 258, 264, 268; Locke, 1901, pp. 64, 175; Mabee, 1970, pp. 56, 63, 261, 305, 306; Miller, 1996; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 6, 23-26, 32-33, 45, 48-49, 54-55, 60, 61, 63, 65, 69-72, 131, 136, 162-163, 166-167; Pease, 1965, pp. 411-417; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 45, 47-49, 56, 173, 305, 316-318; Stewart, 1970; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 641-642; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 260; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 946)

 

GIDDINGS, Joshua Reed, statesman, b. in Athens, Bradford co., Pa., 6 Oct., 1795; d. in Montreal, Canada, 27 May, 1864. His parents removed to Canandaigua, N. Y., and in 1806 to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where the boy worked on his father's farm, and by devoting his evenings to hard study made up somewhat for his limited educational advantages. In 1812 he enlisted in a regiment commanded by Col. Richard Hayes, being the youngest member, and was in an expedition sent to the peninsula north of Sandusky bay. There, 29 Sept., 1812, twenty-two men, of whom he was one, had a skirmish with Indians, in which six of the soldiers were killed and six wounded. Mr. Giddings afterward erected a monument there to the memory of his fallen comrades. After the war he became a teacher, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1820. He was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1826, served one term, and declined a re-election. In 1838 'he was elected, as a Whig, to congress, where he had hardly taken his seat before he became prominent as an advocate of the right of petition, and the abolition of slavery and the domestic slave-trade. He had been known as an active abolitionist before his election. His first attempt to discuss the subject on the floor of congress, 11 Feb., 1839, was thwarted by the gag rule; but two years later, 9 Feb., 1841, he delivered a notable speech on the war with the Indians in which he maintained that the contest was waged solely in the interest of slavery, the object being to enslave the Maroons of that state, who were affiliated with the Seminoles, and break up the asylums for fugitives. This subject he set forth more elaborately years afterward in his “Exiles of Florida” (Columbus, Ohio, 1858; new ed., New York, 1863). In the autumn of 1841 the “Creole” sailed from Virginia for Louisiana with a cargo of slaves, who got possession of the vessel, ran into the British port of Nassau, N. P., and, in accordance with British law, were set free. In the excitement that followed, Daniel Webster, secretary of state, wrote to Edward Everett, U.S. minister at London saying that the government would demand indemnification for the owners of the slaves. Thereupon Mr. Giddings, 21 March, 1842, offered in the house of representatives a series of resolutions in which it was declared that, as slavery was an abridgment of a natural right, it had no force beyond the territorial jurisdiction that created it; that when an American vessel was not in the waters of any state it was under the jurisdiction of the United States alone, which had no authority to hold slaves; that the mutineers of the “Creole” had only their natural right to liberty, and any attempt to re-enslave them would be unconstitutional and dishonorable. So much excitement created by these resolutions that Mr. Giddings, on the advice of his friends, withdrew them, but said he would present them again at some future time. The house then, on motion of John Minor Botts, of Virginia, passed a resolution of (125 to 69), and by means of the previous question denied Mr. Giddings an opportunity to speak in his own defence. He at once resigned seat and appealed to his constituents, who re-elected him by a large majority. In the discussion of the “Amistad” case (see CINQUE), Mr. Giddings took the same ground as in the similar case of the “Creole,” and in a speech a few years later boldly maintained that to treat a human being as property was a crime. In 1843 he united with John Quincy Adams and seventeen other members of congress in issuing an address to the people of the country, declaring that the annexation of Texas “would be identical with dissolution”; and in the same year he published, under the pen-name of “Pacificus,” a notable series of political essays. A year later he and Mr. Adams presented a report discussing a memorial from the Massachusetts legislature, in which they declared that the liberties of the American people were founded on the truths of Christianity. On the Oregon question, he held that the claim of the United States to the whole territory was just, and should be enforced, but predicted that the Polk administration would not keep the promise on which it had been elected—expressed in the motto “Fifty-four forty, or fight”—and his prediction was fulfilled. In 1847 he refused to vote for Robert C. Winthrop, the candidate of his party for speaker of the house, on the ground that his position on the slavery question was not satisfactory; and the next year, for the same reason, he declined to support the candidacy of Gen. Taylor for the presidency, and acted with the Free-soil party. In 1849, with eight other congressmen, he refused to support any candidate for the speakership who would not pledge himself so to appoint the standing committees that petitions on the subject of slavery could obtain a fair consideration; and the consequence was the defeat of Mr. Winthrop and the election of Howell Cobb, the Democratic candidate. Mr. Giddings opposed the compromise measures of 1850, which included the fugitive-slave law, and the repeal of the Missouri compromise, taking a prominent part in the debates. In 1850, being charged with wrongfully taking important papers from the post-office, he demanded an investigation, and was exonerated by a committee that was composed chiefly of his political opponents. It was shown that the charge was the work of a conspiracy. In 1856, and again in 1858, he suddenly became unconscious, and fell while addressing the house. His congressional career of twenty years continuous service ended on 4 March, 1859, when he declined another nomination. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him U. S. consul-general in Canada, which office he held until the time of his death. One who knew him personally writes: “He was about six feet one-inch in height, broad-shouldered, of very stalwart build, and was considered the most muscular man on the floor of the house. Whenever he spoke he was listened to with great attention by the whole house, the members frequently gathering around him. He had several affrays on the floor, but invariably came out ahead. On one occasion he was challenged by a southern member, and promptly accepted, selecting as the weapons two raw-hides. The combatants were to have their left hands tied together by the thumbs, and at a signal castigate each other till one cried enough. A look at Mr. Giddings's stalwart frame influenced the southerner to back out.” Mr. Giddings published a volume of his speeches (Boston, 1853), and wrote “The Rebellion: its Authors and Causes,” a history of the anti-slavery struggle in congress, which was issued posthumously (New York, 1864). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 641-642.

 

 

GIDDINGS, Lura Maria, abolitionist, member of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Daughter of Joshua Reed Giddings.  (Blue, 2005, p. 183)

 

 

GIDDINGS, Salmon, Missouri, clergyman, pioneer missionary, member of the Colonization Society. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 642-643)

 

GIDDINGS, Salmon, clergyman, b. in Hartland, Conn., 2 March, 1782; d. in St. Louis, Mo., 1 Feb., 1828. He was graduated at Williams in 1811, studied theology at Andover seminary, and was ordained to the ministry in 1814. In 1814-'5 he was tutor at Williams, and occasionally preached among the neighboring Congregational churches. Deciding to become a missionary, he set out on horseback, in December, 1815, for St. Louis, which was then regarded as in the far west. He reached the city in April, 1816, assembled a small congregation, and became the pioneer missionary of the Presbyterian church to the country west of the Mississippi. In 1816 Mr. Giddings organized a Presbyterian church at Bellevue settlement, eighty miles southwest of St. Louis, and during the next ten years formed eleven other congregations—five in Missouri, and six in Illinois. In the spring of 1822 he explored Nebraska and Kansas territories, preparatory to establishing missions among the Indians. On this tour of many weeks, without white companions, and hundreds of miles from any white settlement, he visited several Indian nations, held councils with their chiefs, and was received with hospitality. In 1826 Mr. Giddings was installed pastor of the 1st Presbyterian church in St. Louis. He was an active member of the first Bible, Sunday-school, and tract societies of Missouri, and of the first colonization society in that state. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 642-643.

 

 

GIFFORD, Josiah, abolitionist, Sandwich, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1841-47

 

 

GILBERT, Abijah, 1806-1881, New York, advocate of abolitionism.  Member of the Whig and Republican Parties.  U.S. Senator from Florida, 1869-1875.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 644; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress)

 

GILBERT, Abijah, senator, b. in Gilbertsville, Otsego co., N. Y., 18 June, 1806; d. there, 23 Nov., 1881. His grandfather, Abijah, settled in Otsego (then Montgomery) county in 1787, and his father, Joseph, was engaged there in manufacturing and other business. The son entered Hamilton college, but did not complete his course, owing to illness. He engaged in mercantile pursuits in the country, and afterward in New York city, but retired in 1850. In politics he was a strong Whig, and afterward a Republican, and was an early advocate of the abolition of slavery. After the civil war he removed to St. Augustine, Fla., and took an active part in the reconstruction of the state. He was elected to the U. S. senate as a Republican, and served from 1869 till 1875, after which he retired to private life, continuing to reside in St. Augustine till just before his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 644.

 

 

GILBERT, Elias S., Iowa, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1856-59

 

 

GILBERT, Mary, Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS).  (Yellin, 1994, p. 61)

 

 

GILBERT, Timothy, 1797-1865, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, religious organizer, businessman.  Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1846-, Manager, 1850, Executive Committee, 1850.  Member American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention.  His home was a station on the Underground Railroad in Boston, MA.

 

 

GILCHRIST, Archibald, abolitionist, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1851-53

 

 

GILDERSLEEVE, Wm. C., Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

GILLELAND, James, Red Oak, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

GILLET, Eliphalet, Hallowell, Maine.  Regional agent for the American Colonization Society and Secretary of the Maine Missionary Society.  Brother-in-law of Ralph Gurley.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 131)

 

 

GILLET, Jason, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

GILLETT, Francis, 1807-1879, Connecticut, U.S. Senator, Congressman, co-founder of the Republican Party, anti-slavery advocate.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 652; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 490)

 

 

GILLETT, H. S., , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

GILLILAND, James, b. 1761, South Carolina, Red Oak, Ohio, Presbyterian clergyman, anti-slavery activist.  Vice President and Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.  Censured and silenced for speaking for slave emancipation in 1796.  Moved to Brown County, Ohio, in 1805.  Pastor, Red Oak Church, with mixed race congregation.  Known as “Father Gilliland.”  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 91, 134-135; Locke, 1901, p. 90)

 

 

GILLINGHAM, Lucas, abolitionist, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1842-47

 

 

GILMAN, Winthrop Sargent, 1808-1884, banker, abolitionist sympathizer.  Aided abolitionist Elijah Parrish Lovejoy.  Hid his printing press.

 

 

GILMER, Thomas Walker, 1802-1844, Virginia, statesman, lawyer, Governor of Virginia, U.S. Congressman.  Member of the American Colonization Society (ACS) and Secretary of the Albemarle, Virginia, auxiliary of the ACS.  Worked with William Broadnax in March 1833 to get state appropriation for support of the ACS.  It appropriated $18,000 a year for five years.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 657; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 308; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 107, 183-184)

 

GILMER, Thomas Walker, statesman, b. in Virginia; d. near Washington, D. C., 28 Feb., 1844. He studied law, practised in Charlottesville, Va., and served for many years in the state legislature, for two sessions as speaker. In 1840-'1 he was governor of Virginia. In 1841 he entered congress, and, although he had been elected as a Whig, sustained President Tyler's vetoes. He was re-elected as a Democrat in 1842 by a close vote. His competitor, William L. Goggin, contested the result without success. On 15 Feb., 1844, he was appointed by President Tyler secretary of the navy, and resigned his seat in congress on 18 Feb. to enter on the duties of the office, but ten days later was killed by the bursting of a gun on board the United States steamer “Princeton.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GINNINGS, Dorus, free African American, founded Free African Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787

 

 

GLOUCESTER, John, 1776-1822, African American, founder of African American Presbyterians, abolitionist (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 61)

 

 

GODDING, Alvah, abolitionist, Winchester, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-41

 

 

GOLDSBOROUGH, Charles, 1765-1834, Annapolis, Maryland, statesman, U. S. Congressman, Governor of Maryland, 1818-1819.  Member of the Annapolis auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p 672; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 365; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 70)

 

GOLDSBOROUGH, Charles, statesman, b. in Maryland in 1760; d. in Shoals, Md., 13 Dec., 1834. He served in congress as a Federalist from 2 Dec., 1805, to 3 March, 1817, and was governor of Maryland in 1818-'19. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GOLDSBOROUGH, Robert Henry, 1780-1836, New Easton, Maryland.  Charter founding member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in 1816.  Democratic U.S. Senator from Maine, 1813-1819, 13835-1836.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 673; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 258n14)

 

 

GOOCH, Daniel W., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

GOODELL, Reverend William, 1792-1878, New York City, reformer, temperance activist, radical abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1839, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Published anti-slavery newspaper, The Investigator, founded 1829 in Providence, Rhode Island; merged with the National Philanthropist the same year.  Wrote Slavery and Anti-Slavery, 1852. Co-founder of the New York Anti-Slavery Society, 1833.  Editor of The Emancipator, and The Friend of Man, in Utica, New York, the paper of the New York Anti-Slavery Society.  Co-founded the Anti-Slavery Liberty Party in 1840.  Was its nominee for President in 1852 and 1860.  In 1850, edited American Jubilee, later called The Radical Abolitionist. (Blue, 2005, pp. 19, 20, 23, 25, 32, 34, 50, 53, 54, 101; Drake, 1950, p. 177; Dumond, 1961, pp. 167, 182, 264-265, 295; Goodell, 1852; Mabee, 1970, pp. 48, 107, 187, 228, 246, 249, 252, 300, 333, 341, 387n11, 388n27; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 1, 7, 22, 29, 31, 35, 46, 63, 64, 71, 72, 162-163, 199, 225, 257n; Pease, 1965, pp. 411-417; Sorin, 1971, pp. 411-417; Van Broekhoven, 2001, pp. 30-31, 35-36, 87; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 384; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 236)

 

 

GOODHUE, Jonathan, 1783-1848, New York, merchant-trader, officer of the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 679; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

GOODHUE, Jonathan, merchant, b. in Salem, Mass., 21 June, 1783; d. in New York city in 1848, received a liberal education, and at the age of fifteen entered the counting-room of John Norris, of Salem, who was extensively engaged in trade with Europe and the West Indies. After two voyages as supercargo, Mr. Goodhue established himself in business in New York city in 1807. The long embargo, and the subsequent war with England, were unfavorable to his business, and on receipt of the news of the conclusion of peace he despatched an express to Boston, with instructions to proclaim the tidings in every town on the route. After this period Mr. Goodhue became a prosperous merchant. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GOODLOE, Daniel Reaves, 1814-1902, associate editor and editor of anti-slavery newspaper, The National Era, in Washington, DC, the newspaper of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Worked, with abolitionist leader Gamaliel Bailey.  Goodloe also wrote for the New York Tribune.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 265; Filler, 1960, pp. 63, 116, 122, 152, 156, 240, 261, 263-264; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 39, 162; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 390)

 

 

GOODNOW, Isaac Tichenor, 1814-1894, Boston, MA, abolitionist, educator, political leader.  Actively supported the New England Emigrant Aid Company and its effort to keep Kansas as a free state.  Went to Kansas to support the movement.

 

 

GOODRICH, Joseph, 1800-1867, businessman, politician, abolitionist.  Active in local Underground Railroad.

 

 

GOODWIN, E. W., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

GOODYEAR, George, Ashburnham, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-40

 

 

GORDON, Andrew, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 69)

 

 

GORDON, George, Iberia, Ohio, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

GORDON, Reverend Dr. William, 1729-1807, clergyman.  Pastor of the Third Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts.  Opposed slavery.  (Appletons, 1888, Vol. II, p. 687; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 426; Locke, 1901, pp. 40, 62, 62n2; Moore, “Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts,” p. 177; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 110, 112, 153)

 

GORDON, William, clergyman, b. in Hitchin, England, in 1730; d. in Ipswich, England, 19 Oct., 1807. He was settled over a large independent society at Ipswich, and afterward at Old Gravel Lane, Wapping; and came to Massachusetts in 1770. After preaching a year to the Third church in Roxbury, he became its pastor, 6 July, 1772. During the Revolution he took an active part in public measures, and while chaplain to the Provincial congress of Massachusetts preached a fast-day sermon, strongly expressing his political sentiments. He was dismissed from his post, as the legislature regarded his prayers as intended rather to dictate their measures than to implore the divine direction on them. He returned to England in 1786, and published his “History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States,” a minute and generally faithful narrative (4 vols., London, 1788). The value of this work was somewhat impaired by the expurgation of such passages as might incur prosecution. He subsequently settled at St. Neot's, Huntingdonshire. Besides his history, he published “A Plan of a Society for making Provision for Widows by Life Annuities” (1772); “First Anniversary Sermon after the Declaration of Independence, 4 July, 1777”; and an “Abridgment of Edwards's Work on ‘The Affections.’” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 687.

 

 

GOSS, Benjamin, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-39

 

 

GOSS, Roswell, abolitionist, New York, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-44

 

 

GOTT, Leonard, Sandy Bay, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-

 

 

GOULD, Daniel, anti-slavery agent (Dumond, 1961, p. 185)

 

 

GOULD, Lydia, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

GOULD, Samuel L., abolitionist, agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Ohio area. (Dumond, 1961, p. 184)

 

 

GOULD, Thomas, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1839-, Executive Committee, 1839-

 

 

GOVE, John C., abolitionist, Boston (Roxbury), Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1842-43, Treasurer, 1850-

 

 

GRAHAM, Daniel M., abolitionist, New York, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society,  Executive Committee, 1853-55

 

 

GRAHAM, Isabella, Mrs., 1742-1814, New York, pioneer philanthropist, reformer, activist.  Member of the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 702; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 474; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

GRAHAM, Isabella, philanthropist, b. in Lanarkshire, Scotland, 29 July, 1742; d. in New York city, 27 July, 1814. She was the daughter of John Marshall, who educated her carefully. In 1765 she married Dr. John Graham, a physician of Paisley, and accompanied him with his regiment to Canada, where she spent four years. Her husband was then ordered to the island of Antigua, where he died in 1774. Mrs. Graham returned to Scotland, but in 1789 came to New York city, and established a school for young ladies, in which for many years she was eminently successful. Before leaving Scotland she had founded the Penny society, now known as the Society for the relief of the destitute sick, and she continued to labor in the same field in New York. Among the more important of the institutions established by her are the Widows and Orphans’ asylum societies, the Society for the promotion of industry, and the first Sunday-school for ignorant adults. She also aided in organizing the first missionary society, and the first monthly missionary prayer-meeting in the city of her residence. She was the first president of the Magdalen society, systematically visited the inmates of the hospital and the sick female convicts in the state-prison, and distributed Bibles and tracts long before there was a Bible or tract society in New York—Her daughter, Joanna, who survived her, was the mother of George W. Bethune (q. v.). Of the “Life and Letters” of Mrs. Graham (1816; last edition, London, 1838) more than 50,000 copies have been sold in this country, and many editions issued in England and Scotland. See “Letters and Correspondence,” selected by her daughter, Mrs. Bethune (New York, 1838); and Mason’s “Memoir of Isabella Graham,” published by the American tract society. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GRAHAM, J. T., abolitionist, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-37

 

 

GRANDY, Moses, c. 1786-?, African American, former slave, anti-slavery activist, author of slave narrative.  Author of “Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy.” (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 139)

 

 

GRAVES, Frederick W., abolitionist, Alton, Illinois, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

GREELEY, Hannaford, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist

 

 

GREELEY, Horace, 1811-1872, journalist, newspaper publisher, The New York Tribune. American Anti-Slavery Society. Major opponent of slavery. Co-founder, Liberal Republican Party in 1854.  Supporter of the Union. (Blue, 2005, pp. 62, 110, 147-149, 159, 182, 253, 258, 262; Dumont, 1961, p. 352; Filler, 1960, pp. 6, 45, 56, 88, 112, 117, 163, 219, 237, 259; Greely, 1866; Greely, 1868; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 33, 54, 78, 81, 86, 96, 98, 116-117, 136, 138, 143, 146, 153, 154, 199, 204, 217-220, 227-229, 233; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 65, 67, 69, 141, 324, 476, 692-695; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 734-741; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 529; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 370-373; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 647)

 

GREELEY, Horace, journalist, b. in Amherst, H., 3 Feb., 1811; d. in Pleasantville, near New York city, 29 Nov., 1872. His birthplace is shown in the accompanying engraving. On both sides his ancestors were of Scotch-Irish origin, but had been settled in New England for some generations. His father Zaccheus Greeley, was a small farmer, always poor, and, by the time Horace was ten years old, a bankrupt and a fugitive from state, to escape arrest for debt. Horace was the third child, four followed him, and when the little homestead of fifty acres of stony land at Amherst was lost and his father became a day-laborer at West Haven, Vt., the united exertions of all that were able to work brought the family only a hard and bare subsistence. Horace had been a precocious child, feeble, and not fond of sports, but with a strong bent to books. He could read before he could talk plainly, when he was not yet three years old, and he was soon after the acknowledged chief in the frequent contests of the village spelling-match. He received only a common-school education, and after his sixth year had schooling only in winter, laboring at other times in the field with his father and brothers. When six years old he declared he would be a printer, and at eleven he tried to be apprenticed in the village office. He was rejected then on account of his youth, but tried again, three years later, at East Poultney, Vt., in the office of the “Northern Spectator,” and was accepted as an apprentice for five years, to be boarded and lodged, and, after six months, to be paid at the rate of $40 a year. He learned the business rapidly, became an accurate compositor, gained the warm regard of his employer and of the whole village, showed a special aptitude for politics and political statistics, rose to be the neighborhood oracle on disputed points, took a leading part in the village debating-society, and was intrusted with a portion of the editorial work on the paper. Meantime he spent next to nothing, dressed in the cheapest way, went without a coat in summer and without an overcoat in winter, was laughed at as “gawky” and “stingy,” and sent almost every cent of his forty dollars a year to his father. At last, in June, 1830, the paper was suspended, and young Greeley, then in his twentieth year, was released from his apprenticeship, and turned out upon the world as a “tramping jour printer.” Fourteen months of such experience sufficed. He visited his father, who had now removed to the “new country” near Erie, Pa., worked with him on the farm when he could not find employment in country printing-offices, sent home most of his earnings, when he could, and at last decided to seek his fortune in New York. With his wardrobe in a bundle, slung over his shoulder by a stick, he set out on foot through the woods, walked to Buffalo, thence made his way, partly on canal-boats, partly by walking the tow-path, to Albany, and then down the Hudson on a tug-boat. With $10 in his pocket, and his stick and bundle still over his shoulder, on 18 Aug., 1831, he entered the city in which he was to be recognized as the first of American journalists. He wandered for days from one printing-office to another vainly searching for work. His grotesque appearance was against him; nobody supposed he could be a competent printer, and most thought him a runaway apprentice. At last an Irishman at the cheap boarding-house he had found told him of an office where a compositor was needed; a Vermont printer interceded for him, when he was about to be rejected on his appearance, and at last he was taken on trial for the day. The matter assigned him had been abandoned by other printers because of its uncommon difficulty. At night his was found the best day’s work that anybody had yet done, and his position was secure.

He worked as a journeyman printer in New York for fourteen months, sometimes in job-offices, for a few days each in the offices of the “Evening Post” and the “Commercial Advertiser,” longer in that of the “Spirit of the Times, making friends always with the steady men he encountered, and saving money. Finally, in January, 1833, he took part in the first effort to establish a penny paper in New York. His partner was Francis V. Story, a fellow-printer; they had $150 between them, and on this capital and a small lot of type bought on credit from George Bruce, on his faith in Greeley's honest face and talk, they took the contract for printing the “Morning Post.” It failed in three weeks, but they had only lost about one third of their capital, and still had their type. They had therefore become master job-printers, and Greeley never worked again as a journeyman. They got a “Bank-note Reporter” to print, which brought them in about $15 a week, and a little tri-weekly paper, “The Constitutionalist,” which was the lottery organ. Its columns regularly contained the following card: “Greeley and Story, No. 54 Liberty street, New York, respectfully solicit the patronage of the public to their business of letter-press- printing, particularly lottery-printing, such as schemes, periodicals, and so forth, which will be executed on favorable terms.”

Mr. Greeley had renewed his habit of writing for the papers on which he was employed as a compositor. He was thus a considerable contributor to the “Spirit of the Times,” and now, by an article contributed to the “Constitutionalist,” defending the lotteries against a popular feeling then recently aroused, he attracted the attention of Dudley S. Gregory, of Jersey City, the agent of a great lottery association, whose friendship soon became helpful and was long-continued. His partner, Story, died after seven months, and his brother-in-law, Jonas Winchester, was taken into the partnership instead. The firm prospered, and by 1834 Mr. Greeley again began to think of editorship. The firm now considered itself worth $3,000. With this capital and the brains of the senior partner, the “New Yorker,” the best literary weekly then in America, was founded. Shortly before its appearance James Gordon Bennett visited Mr. Greeley and proposed to unite with him in establishing a new paper to be called the “New York Herald.” In declining, Mr. Greeley recommended another partner, who accepted and continued the partnership with Bennett until the “Herald” office was burned, when he retired. The “New Yorker” appeared on 22 March, 1834, sold one hundred copies of its first number, and for three months scarcely increased its circulation from this point over one hundred copies a week. By September, however, it had risen to 2,500. At the end of a year it was 4,500, at the end of the second year 7,000, and of the third 9,500. It was steadily popular with the press and people, and steadily unsuccessful pecuniarily. The first year showed a loss of $3,000, the second year of $2,000 more, and the third year of a further $2,000. Mr. Greeley became widely known and respected as its editor, was able to add to his income by furnishing editorials to the “Daily Whig” and other journals, and within four years had attained such prominence that the tow-headed printer who was mistaken for a runaway apprentice and dismissed from the “Evening Post” office, because the proprietors wished to have “at least decent looking men at the cases,” was selected by William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed as the best man available for the conduct of a campaign paper, which they desired to publish at Albany, to be called the “Jeffersonian.” He continued his work on the “New Yorker,” but went back and forth between New York and Albany each week. The “Jeffersonian,” for a campaign paper, was unusually quiet, calm, and instructive; but it seems to have given the Whig central committee satisfaction, and it still further brought its editor to the notice of the press and of influential men throughout the state. The “Jeffersonian” lasted until the spring of 1839, and Mr. Greeley was paid a salary of $1,000 for conducting it. A few months later the country entered upon the extraordinary popular excitements attending the presidential canvass of 1840, and when Mr. Greeley, prompt to seize the opportunity, issued simultaneously at New York and Albany, under the firm-name of “H. Greeley & Co.,” the first number of a new campaign paper called the “Log Cabin,” it sprang at once into a remarkable circulation; 20,000 copies of the first issue were printed, and this was thought to be an extravagant supply; but it was speedily exhausted. Other editions were called for, and finally, the type having been distributed, the number had to be rese, and in all 48,000 copies were sold. In a few weeks 60,000 subscriptions had been received, and the advance did not cease until the weekly issue had risen to between 80,000 and 90,000 copies—a circulation then absolutely unprecedented. The “Log Cabin” was a vivacious political journal, much more aggressive than the “Jeffersonian” had been, and displaying many of the personal peculiarities of its editor, his quaintness, his homely common sense, and an extraordinary capacity for compact and pungent statement. It printed rough caricatures of Van Buren and other Democrats, gave a good deal of campaign poetry, with music attached, and yet made room for lectures upon the “Elevation of the Laboring Classes.” In all the heat and fury of that turbulent campaign its editor set in one respect an example of moderation not always followed in contests of a much later date. In answer to a correspondent he said flatly: “Articles assailing the personal character of Mr. Van Buren or any of his supporters cannot be published in the ‘Log Cabin.’” Meantime, Mr. Greeley was widely consulted, was appointed on campaign committees, asked to make speeches, and called hither and thither to aid in adjusting political differences. He had become a person of influence and a political factor. He continued his paper for one week after the term promised, in order to send to his readers a complete account of the victory, the election of Gen. Harrison as president, with as full returns of the vote as possible. After an interval of a few weeks it was resumed as a family political paper, and continued until it was able, on 3 April, 1841, to announce that “on Saturday, April 10th instant, the subscriber will publish the first number of a new morning journal of politics, literature, and general intelligence. ‘The Tribune,’ as its name imports, will labor to advance the interests of the people and to promote their moral, social, and political well-being. The immoral and degrading police reports, advertisements, and other matter which have been allowed to disgrace the columns of our leading penny papers will be carefully excluded from this, and no exertion spared to render it worthy of the hearty approval of the virtuous and refined, and a welcome visitant at the family fireside. Horace Greeley, 30 Ann street.”

Until this time Mr. Greeley had acquired great reputation, but no money. In spite of the brilliant success of the “Log Cabin,” and the general esteem for the “New Yorker,” neither had ever been profitable, and their editor, always talked of as “able, but queer,” began also to be recognized as lacking in business qualifications. He gave credit profusely, loaned money when he had it to almost any applicant, made his paper sometimes too good for the popular demand, and had no faculty for advertising his own wares. Once, when admitting that his paper was not profitable, he frankly said: “Since the ‘New Yorker’ was first issued, seven copartners in its publication have successively withdrawn from the concern, generally, we regret to say, without having improved their fortunes by the connection, and most of them with the conviction that the work, however valuable, was not calculated to prove lucrative to its proprietors. ‘You don't humbug enough’ has been the complaint of more than one of our retiring associates; ‘You ought to make more noise, and vaunt your own merits. The world will never believe you print a good paper unless you tell them so.’ Our course has not been changed by these representations.”

Mr. Greeley, although eccentric enough in his appearance and habits, had thus far developed but few eccentricities of thought. He was temperate almost to the verge of total abstinence, partly, no doubt, from taste, partly also, perhaps, from his observations on the intemperate habits common about his father's early home in New Hampshire. He was opposed to slavery, but rather deprecated northern interference: approved of the colonization society, and opposed anti-slavery societies at the north. He believed prohibition impracticable, but was warmly in favor of high license. He was vehemently in favor of a protective tariff, and always, as he expressed it, “an advocate of the interests of unassuming industry.” He had been captivated by vegetarian notions, and was for a short time an inmate of a Grahamite boarding-house. There he met Miss Cheney, a young teacher from Connecticut, who was making a short stay in New York, on her way to North Carolina. She was a highly nervous, excitable person, full of ideas, prone to “isms,” and destined to have a strong and not always helpful influence on his life. He continued the acquaintance by correspondence, became engaged, married her in North Carolina, and made a short wedding-journey, of which his first visit to Washington was the principal feature. About the same period he contributed a good many verses to the “Log Cabin”—“Historic Pencillings,” “Nero's Tomb,” “Fantasies,” “On the Death of William Wirt,” etc. They are not destitute of poetic feeling, but in later years he was never glad to have them recalled. In 1859, learning that Robert Bonner, of the “New York Ledger,” proposed to include them among representative poems in a volume to be made up from authors not appearing in Charles A. Dana's “Household Book of Poetry,” Mr. Greeley wrote: “Mr. Bonner, be good enough—you must—to exclude me from your new poetic Pantheon. I have no business therein, no right and no desire to be installed there. I am no poet, never was (in expression), and never shall be. True, I wrote some verses in my callow days, as I suppose most persons who can make intelligible pen-marks have done; but I was never a poet, even in the mists of deluding fancy. . . . Within the last ten years I have been accused of all possible and some impossible offences against good taste, good morals, and the common weal; I have been branded aristocrat, communist, infidel, hypocrite, demagogue, disunionist, traitor, corruptionist, and so forth, and so forth, but cannot remember that any one has flung in my face my youthful transgressions in the way of rhyme. . . . Let the dead rest! and let me enjoy the reputation, which I covet and deserve, of knowing poetry from prose, which the ruthless resurrection of my verses would subvert, since the unobserving majority would blindly infer that I considered them poetry.”

In establishing the “Tribune,” Mr. Greeley had considerable reputation; wide acquaintance among newspaper men and practical politicians, one thousand dollars in money borrowed from James Coggeshall, and the promise from another source of a thousand more, which was never realized. He had employed, some time before, at $8 a week, a young man fresh from the University of Vermont. This young man, Henry J. Raymond, now became his chief assistant in the conduct of the new paper, and gradually a considerable force of people of similar fitness gathered about him, the paper always having an attraction for men of intellect and scholarly tastes. In the early years it thus enjoyed the services of George William Curtis, William Henry Fry, Charles A. Dana, Margaret Fuller, Albert Brisbane, Bayard Taylor, Count Gurowski, and others. Of its first number, 5,000 copies were printed, and, as Mr. Greeley said, “with difficulty given away.” About 600 subscribers had been procured through the exertions of his personal and political friends. Being published at first at one cent a copy, it was regarded as a serious rival by the cheap papers, and the “Sun” especially undertook to interfere with its circulation by forbidding its newsboys to sell the new paper. The public considered this unfair, and the “Tribune” was greatly helped. In four weeks it reached a circulation of 6,000; in four weeks more its circulation had risen to the limit of the press, being between 11,000 and 12,000. Its business management was chaotic, but by July the chances for a permanent success were so clear that Thomas McElrath, a business man of excellent standing, was taken in as an equal partner. A weekly issue was projected, and on 20 Sept. the “New Yorker” and the “Log Cabin” were merged in the first number of “The New York Weekly Tribune,” which soon attained considerable circulation and ultimately became a great political and social force in rural communities, particularly in the period of the anti-slavery discussion prior to and during the war for the Union. From this time forward Mr. Greeley's business prosperity was secure, but the “Tribune” might easily have been far more successful from the mere money point of view if its editor had been less outspoken and indifferent to the light in which the New York public might regard his opinions. The controlling influences in the city were then largely favorable to free-trade: but he made the “Tribune” aggressively protectionist. A commercial community was necessarily conservative, but the “Tribune” soon came to be everywhere regarded as radical. New York had close business connections with the south, but the “Tribune” gradually became more and more explicit in its anti-slavery utterances. The prevailing religious faith among the better educated classes was orthodox; Mr. Greeley connected himself almost from the outset with a Universalist church. He aimed always to practise the utmost hospitality toward new ideas and their exponents, so that people soon talked of the “isms” of the “Tribune.” Sympathizing profoundly with workingmen, he was led constantly to schemes for bettering their condition, and became interested in the theories of Fourier. Before the “Tribune” was a year old he had discussed the subject of “Fourierism in France” in an article beginning thus: “We have written something, and shall yet write much more, in illustration and advocacy of the great social revolution which our age is destined to commence, in rendering all useful labor at once attractive and honorable, and banishing want and all consequent degradation from the globe. The germ of this revolution is developed in the writings of Charles Fourier.” In March, 1842, he began publishing, under a contract with a number of New York Fourierites, one column daily on the first page of the “Tribune” on Fourierite topics, from the pen of Albert Brisbane. The theories here advanced were also occasionally defended in the editorial columns. Mr. Greeley became a subscriber to one or two Fourierite associations, notably that of the “American Phalanx” at Red Bank, N. J., and occasionally addressed public meetings on the subject. When the famous Brook Farm experiment was abandoned, its chief, George Ripley, sought employment on the “Tribune,” and was soon its literary editor. Another of its members, Charles A. Dana, became in time the “Tribune's” managing editor. Another, Margaret Fuller, contributed literary work and occasional editorials, and lived in Mr. Greeley's family; and another, George William Curtis, was also employed. In 1846 Henry J. Raymond, who had now, owing to some disagreement, left the “Tribune” and become a leading editor on the “Courier and Enquirer,” saw that Fourierism offered an inviting point for attack upon the “Tribune.” Mr. Greeley, whose conduct of the paper was always argumentative and pugnacious, responded to some criticism by challenging Mr. Raymond to a thorough discussion of the whole subject, in a series of twelve articles and replies, to be published in full in all the editions of each paper. Mr. Raymond accepted, and made therein his first wide reputation in New York. Mr. Greeley's articles were undoubtedly able, but he was not so adroit a fencer as his opponent, and he had the unpopular side. The discussion left on the public mind the impression that Mr. Raymond was the victor, and the Fourierite movement from that date began its decline in America. Mr. Greeley was always careful to mark his dissent from many of Fourier's propositions. In the discussion Mr. Raymond endeavored to force him into the position that no man can rightfully own land (substantially the doctrine of which Henry George has since been the apostle), but Mr. Greeley indignantly repudiated it. In later years he dwelt upon the principle of association as the only one in Fourier's scheme that particularly attracted him; and in the form of co-operation among working-men this always received his zealous support. 

The rappings and alleged spiritual manifestations of the Fox sisters at Rochester early attracted attention in the “Tribune,” and were fairly described and discussed without absolute incredulity. In 1848, at Mrs. Greeley's invitation, the Fox sisters spent some time in his family as his guests. He listened attentively to what they said, inquired with interest into details, but hesitated to accept doctrine of actual spiritual communications, at any rate failed, he said, to see that any good of them. Nevertheless, the open-minded readiness that he displayed in investigating this, any other new subject presented to him, led to identification for some time in the public mind that as effective a weapon as could be used against the “Tribune” in commercial and conservative New York to call it a Fourierite and spiritualistic organ. With all his radicalism, however, there were two subjects on which, then and throughout life, he was steadily conservative. He constantly defended the sanctity and permanence of the family relation, and protested against anything in legislation, or public practice tending to break down the sanction of the Sabbath as a day of rest.

Meanwhile, the “Tribune” prospered moderately and almost continuously, and if Mr. Greeley had not been hopelessly incapable in business matters, should soon have placed him in a position of comfortable independence. In twenty-four years it invested from its earnings $382,000 in real estate and machinery, and divided among its owners a sum equal to an annual average of over $50,000. But Mr. Greeley inherited his father's tendency to reckless indorsements for his friends, was readily imposed upon by adventurers, and found it easier to give a dollar to every applicant than to inquire into his deserts. In spite of an income liberal for those days, he was thus often in serious straits for money, lived in an extremely plain if not always economical fashion. Presently, as his property became more valuable, he contracted the habit of money for immediate necessities by parting with some of it. After it was clear to practical that the “Tribune” was a success, he sold of it to Thomas McElrath for $2,000. By the time it was seven years old he owned less than a third of it. In 1860 his interest was reduced to twentieths, in 1868 to less than one tenth, and by 1872 he actually owned only six shares out of the hundred into which the property was then divided. Meantime, though always hampered by his business ideas, the property had advanced in until in 1867 he was able to sell at $6,500 a share, and his last sale was at $9,600. The price the daily “Tribune” was kept at one cent until the beginning of its second volume, when it was advanced to two cents for a single number, or nine a week. It then had 12,000 subscribers, and did not lose 200 of them by the increase in price. A year later it had reached a circulation of 20,000, and advertisements were so numerous that frequent supplements were issued. After a time the price was again advanced to three cents, and finally to four. The circulation rose to a steady average of 35,000 to 40,000, and there were periods of extraordinary interest, especially during the civil war, when for months it reached from 60,000 to 65,000. The weekly edition, being free then from competition, with strong weekly issues in the inland cities, gained a wide circulation throughout the entire north, being probably more generally read for some years in the northern states and territories than any other one newspaper. During political canvasses it sometimes reached a total circulation of a quarter of a million copies, and often for years ranged steadily above 100,000 copies a week. A semi-weekly edition was begun for the benefit of weekly readers enjoying mail facilities that led them to want their news oftener, and this edition ultimately attained a steady circulation of from 15,000 to 20,000 copies.

First Whig, then Anti-slavery Whig, then Republican, the “Tribune's” political course was generally in accord with the more popular and aggressive tendency of these parties. But it was also a highly individualized journal, constantly representing many opinions advocated by its editor irrespective of party affiliations, and sometimes against them. He held that the worst use any man could be put to was to hang him, and for many years vehemently opposed capital punishment. He favored the movement for educating women as physicians, and sought in many ways to widen the sphere of their employments. But he opposed woman suffrage unless it could be first shown that the majority of women themselves desired it. He assailed repudiation in every form, north or south, and was the bitterest critic of the repudiating states. In practice a total abstinent, he always favored the repression of the liquor traffic, and, where possible, its prohibition. He did not believe prohibition possible in states like New York, and there he favored high license and local option. He thought popular education had been directed too much toward literary rather than practical ends, sum and earnestly favored the substitution of scientific for classical studies. He gave the first newspaper reports of popular lectures by Prof. Louis Agassiz and other eminent scientists; but he thought ill of theatres, and in the early days of the “Tribune” would not insert their advertisements. He encouraged the discussion of a reformed spelling; but, while allowing the phonetic system to be commended in his columns, refused to adopt it. He gave much space to accounts of all co-operative movements among laborers, and sought to encourage co-operation in America as a surer protection for labor than trades-unionism. He sought to remain on good terms with the latter, and even accepted the first presidency of Typographical Union No. 6; but when subsequently, under this union, to a strike was ordered in his office to prevent the insertion of an advertisement for printers by a rival paper, he gave notice that thenceforward he would tolerate no trades-union meddling, should mind his own business, and require them to mind theirs. He was a warm friend to every movement in behalf of the Irish people, and particularly for the restoration to them of a greater measure of self-government. He advocated judicious but liberal appropriations for internal improvements, and was conspicuous in urging government aid for the construction of the first Pacific railroad. He strove to diffuse knowledge of the west and promote its settlement, giving much space to descriptions of different localities, and making removal to the west his panacea for all sorts of misfortune and ill-luck in the east. He actively encouraged one of his agricultural editors to establish a colony in Colorado on land that could be cultivated only by irrigation, and was proud that the successful town founded by this colony was called by his name, and that its first newspaper bore as its title the “Greeley Tribune,” in an enlarged facsimile of his own handwriting. He had personally a great fondness for farming, but little success at it, though he derived great comfort and recreation from his experiments on the farm that he bought at Chappaqua, thirty-three miles north of New York, where his family resided in the summer, and where for many years he spent his Saturdays chopping down or trimming his trees, and occasionally assisting at other farm labor. He favored an international copyright. He constantly watched for new men in literature, was one of the first editors in America to recognize the rising genius of Dickens, and copied a sketch by “Boz” in the first issue of his first newspaper. He was one of the earliest in the east to discover Bret Harte, and perhaps the earliest to recognize Swinburne. He held frequent public discussions—one with Samuel J. Tilden and Parke Godwin on protection, another with Robert Dale Owen on marriage and divorce. He frequently addressed, in his editorial columns, open letters to distinguished public men, promptly printed replies if any came, and was apt to follow these with a telling rejoinder. Thurlow Weed, Benjamin F. Butler, Oliver P. Morton, John J. Crittenden, Samuel J. Tilden, and many others, were thus singled out. He was fond of taking readers into his confidence. Thus he published details of his experiments in farming, and printed serially a charming autobiography. He announced his intended movements, particularly his trips to Europe and through the west. The latter proved an ovation, especially in the territories and in California. Being arrested once in Paris as a director of the American world's fair, at the suit of a disappointed French exhibitor, he published a graphic and amusing account of his imprisonment in Clichy. He admired Fenimore Cooper, and yet was involved in the series of libel suits instituted by that novelist, through a letter (written by Thurlow Weed) published anonymously in the “Tribune”; whereupon he pleaded his own case, and promptly published an amusing report of the trial and the adverse verdict. Sometimes, especially in discussion, he was less good-humored. In an angry letter to a state officer about some public documents advertised in the New York “Times,” he referred to its editor as “that little villain, Raymond.” Replying to a charge against him by the “Evening Post” of some corrupt association with the slave interest, he began, “You lie, villain, wilfully, wickedly, basely lie.” A subscriber in Aurora, N. Y., discontinued his newspaper on the ground of Greeley's opposition to William H. Seward, and angrily said his only regret in parting was that he was under the necessity of losing a three-cent stamp to do it. Greeley published the letter with this reply: “The painful regret expressed in yours of the 19th inst. excites my sympathies. I enclose you a three-cent stamp to replace that whose loss you deplored, and remain, Yours placidly.” Quaint letters like this, the oddities of his excessively crabbed handwriting, peculiarities of dress, his cravat (apt to be awry), his white coat, his squeaky voice, his shuffling manner, came to be universally known, and only seemed to add to the personal fondness with which his readers and a large portion of the general public regarded him. He became, in spite of almost every oratorical defect, a popular speaker, always in demand, and always greeted with the loudest applause on whatever occasion, social, educational, reformatory, or political, he appeared. As early as January, 1843, he was announced as a lecturer on the subject of “Human Life,” the advertisement being accompanied with the request, “If those who care to hear will sit near the desk, they will favor the lecturer's weak and husky voice.” He was afterward able to make this weak and husky voice heard by mass meetings of thousands, and by the delivery of lectures throughout the west he often more than doubled in a winter the annual salary that he received from the “Tribune.” But he went, whenever he could, wherever he was asked, whether paid or not. He was always ready to write for other people's papers, too, sometimes for pay, because he needed the money, but almost as readily without it, because he craved new audiences.

In 1848 he was elected to the National house of representatives, to fill a vacancy for three months. Regarding as an abuse the methods then pursued by congressmen in charging mileage, he published a list of the members' mileage accounts. This caused great indignation, which was heightened by the free comments on congressional proceedings contributed daily to the “Tribune” over his signature. Thus he said that if either house “had a chaplain who dared preach of the faithlessness, neglect of duty, iniquitous waste of time, and robbery of the public by congressmen, there would be some sense in the chaplain business; but any ill-bred Nathan or Elijah who should undertake such a job would be kicked out in short order.” He broke down the mileage abuse. He also introduced the first bill giving homesteads, free, to actual settlers on the public lands. In 1861 he was a candidate for U. S. senator against William M. Evarts, defeating Evarts, but being defeated in turn by the combination between Evarts's supporters and a few men favoring Ira Harris, of Albany, who was elected. In 1864 he was one of the Republican presidential electors. In 1867 his friends again put him forward for the senate, but his candor in needlessly restating the views he held on general amnesty, then very unpopular, made his election impossible. The same year he was chosen delegate-at-large to the convention for revising the state constitution. At first he took great interest in the proceedings, but grew weary of the endless talk, and finally refused either to attend the body or draw his salary. Two years later he was made the Republican candidate for state comptroller, at a time when the election of the ticket was known to be hopeless, and in 1870 he was again nominated for congress by the Republicans in a hopelessly Democratic district, where he reduced the adverse majority about 1,700, and ran largely ahead of the Republican candidate for governor. On the death of Charles G. Halpine (“Miles O'Reilly”), he accepted an appointment to the city office that Halpine had held, and discharged the duties gratuitously, turning over the salary to Col. Halpine's widow. With one notable exception, this completes his career as office-holder or candidate for office.

Mr. Greeley's hostility to slavery grew stronger from the beginning of his editorial career. In 1848 he was intense in opposition to the Mexican war, on the ground that it was intended to secure more slave territory. In 1852 he sympathized with the Free-soil movement, and disapproved of the Whig platform—“spat upon it,” as he said editorially—but nevertheless supported the Whig candidate, Gen. Winfield Scott, because he thought that better than, by supporting a ticket that he knew could not be elected, to risk the success of the Democrats. In 1856 he was an enthusiastic supporter of John C. Frémont, and during the next four or five years may be said to have been the chief inspiration and greatest popular leader in the movement that carried the Republican party into power. He was indicted in Virginia in 1856 for circulating incendiary documents—viz., the “Tribune.” Postmasters in many places in the south refused to deliver the paper at all, and persons subscribing for it were sometimes threatened with lynching. Congressman Albert Rust made a personal assault upon him in Washington, and no northern name provoked at the south more constant and bitter denunciation. Throughout the Kansas-Nebraska excitement the “Tribune” was constantly at a white heat, and its voluminous correspondence and ringing editorials greatly stimulated the northern movement that made Kansas a free state. Still, he favored only legal and constitutional methods for opposing the aggressions of slavery, and brought upon himself the hostility of the Garrison and Wendell Phillips abolitionists, who always distrusted him and often stigmatized him as cowardly and temporizing.

Up to this time the popular judgment regarded Seward, Weed, and Greeley as the great Republican triumvirate. But in 1854 Mr. Greeley had addressed a highly characteristic letter to Gov. Seward complaining that Seward and Weed had sometimes used their political power to his detriment, and shown no consideration for his difficulties, while some of Seward's friends thought Greeley an obstacle to the governor's advancement. Having labored to secure a legislature that would send Mr. Seward to the U. S. senate, it seemed to him “a fitting time to announce the dissolution of the political firm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley by the withdrawal of the junior partner.” The letter showed that the writer was hurt, but it was not unfriendly in tone, and it ended thus: “You have done me acts of valued kindness in the line of your profession; let me close with the assurance that these will be ever gratefully remembered by Yours, Horace Greeley.” Gov. Seward's friends claimed that on account of Greeley's disappointment as an office-seeker, as shown in this private letter, he had resolved to prevent Seward's nomination for the presidency in 1860. Mr. Greeley denied this emphatically, but declared that he did not think the nomination advisable, and that in opposing Seward he discharged a public duty, in utter disregard of personal considerations. At any rate, he did oppose him successfully. The Seward men prevented his reaching the National convention as a delegate from New York; but he secured a seat as delegate from Oregon in place of an absentee, and made such an effectual opposition to Mr. Seward that he may fairly be said to have brought about the nomination of Abraham Lincoln. In the canvass that followed, the “Tribune” was still a great national force. Immediately after the election Mr. Greeley said: “If my advice should be asked respecting Mr. Lincoln's cabinet, I should recommend the appointment of Seward as secretary of state. It is the place for him, and he will do honor to the country in it.”

When the civil war approached. Mr. Greeley at first shrank from it. He hoped, he said, never to live in a Union whereof one section was pinned to the other by bayonets. But after the attack on Fort Sumter and the uprising at the north he urged the most vigorous prosecution of the war, to the end that it might be short. He chafed at the early delays, and the columns of his paper carried for weeks a stereotyped paragraph, “On to Richmond!” demanding the speediest advance of the National armies. Rival newspapers hastened in consequence to hold him responsible for the disaster at Bull Run, and his horror at the calamity, and sensitiveness under the attacks, for a time completely prostrated him. He subsequently replied to his critics in an editorial, which became famous, headed “Just Once,” wherein he defended the demands for aggressive action, though denying that the “On to Richmond” paragraph was his, and saying he would have preferred not to iterate it. Henceforth he would bar all criticism on army movements in his paper “unless somebody should undertake to prove that Gen. Patterson is a wise and brave commander.” If there was anything to be said in Patterson's behalf, he would make an exception in his favor. He continued to support the war with all possible vigor, encourage volunteering, and sustain the drafts, meantime making more and more earnest appeals that the cause of the war—slavery—should be abolished. Finally he addressed to President Lincoln a powerful letter on the editorial page of the “Tribune,” which he entitled “The Prayer of Twenty Millions.” He made in it an impassioned appeal for the liberty of all slaves whom the armies could reach, and said: “On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who does not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion, and at the same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and futile; that the rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a year if slavery were left in full vigor; that army officers who remain to this day devoted to slavery can at best be but half-way loyal to the Union; and that every hour of deference to slavery is an hour of added and deepened peril to the Union. I appeal to the testimony of your ambassadors in Europe. It is freely at your service, not mine. Ask them to tell you candidly whether the seeming subserviency of your policy to the slave-holding, slavery-upholding interest is not the perplexity, the despair of statesmen and of parties; and be admonished by the general answer.” This appeal made a profound impression upon the country, and drew from the president within two days one of his most characteristic and remarkable letters, likewise published in the “Tribune.” Mr. Lincoln, after saying that “if there be perceptible in it [Mr. Greeley's letter] an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right,” continued: “My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery. . . . What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it helps to save this Union, and what I forbear I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. . . . I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere should be free.” The emancipation proclamation was issued within a month after this correspondence.

In 1864 Mr. Greeley became convinced that the rebels were nearer exhaustion than was thought, and that by a little diplomacy they could be led into propositions for surrender. He accordingly besought the president to send some one to confer with alleged Confederate commissioners in Canada. Mr. Lincoln finally sent Mr. Greeley himself, subsequently despatching one of his private secretaries, Col. John Hay, to the spot to watch the proceedings. It was found that the so-called commissioners had not sufficient authority. The negotiations failed, and Mr. Greeley's share in the business brought upon him more censure than it deserved. As soon as the surrender did come he was eager for universal amnesty and impartial suffrage, and he thought the treatment of Jefferson Davis a mistake. When, after imprisonment and delay, the government still failed to bring Mr. Davis to trial, Mr. Greeley visited Richmond and in the open court-room signed his bail-bond. This act provoked a storm of public censure. He had been writing a careful history of the civil war under the title of “The American Conflict.” The first volume had an unprecedented sale, and he had realized from it far more than from all his other occasional publications combined. The second volume was just out, and its sale was ruined, thousands of subscribers to the former volume refusing to take it. On the movement of George W. Blunt, an effort was made in the Union League club to expel Mr. Greeley. This roused him to a white heat. He refused to attend the meeting, and addressed to the president of the club one of his best letters. “I shall not attend your meeting this evening. . . . I do not recognize you as capable of judging or even fully apprehending me. You evidently regard me as a weak sentimentalist, misled by a maudlin philosophy. I arraign you as narrow-minded blockheads, who would like to be useful to a great and good cause, but don't know how. Your attempt to base a great enduring party on the heat and wrath necessarily engendered by a bloody civil war is as though you should plant a colony on an iceberg which had somehow drifted into a tropical ocean. I tell you here that, out of a life earnestly devoted to the good of human kind, your children will recollect my going to Richmond and signing the bail-bond as the wisest act, and will feel that it did more for freedom and humanity than all of you were competent to do, though you had lived to the age of Methuselah. I ask nothing of you, then, but that you proceed to your end by a brave, frank, manly way. Don't sidle off into a mild resolution of censure, but move the expulsion which you purposed and which I deserve if I deserve any reproach whatever. . . . I propose to fight it out on the line that I have held from the day of Lee's surrender. So long as any man was seeking to overthrow our government, he was my enemy; from the hour in which he laid down his arms, he was my formerly erring countryman.” The meeting was held, but the effort at any censure whatever failed.

Mr. Greeley did not greatly sympathize with the movement to make the foremost soldier of the war president in 1868, but he gave Gen. Grant a cordial support. He chafed at the signs of inexperience in some of the early steps of the administration, and later at its manifest disposition to encourage, in New York, chiefly the wing of the Republican party that had been unfriendly to himself. He disapproved of Gen. Grant's scheme for acquiring Santo Domingo, and was indignant at the treatment of Charles Sumner and John Lothrop Motley. The course of the “carpet-bag” state governments at the south, however, gave him most concern, and brought him into open hostility to the administration he had helped to create. In 1871 he made a trip to Texas, was received everywhere with extraordinary cordiality, and returned still more outspoken against the policy of the government toward the states lately in rebellion. Dissatisfied Republicans now began to speak freely of him as a candidate for the presidency against Gen. Grant. Numbers of the most distinguished Republicans in the senate and elsewhere combined in the formation of the Liberal Republican party, and called a convention at Cincinnati to nominate a national ticket. Eastern Republicans, outside of New York at least, generally expected Charles Francis Adams to be the nominee, and he had the united support of the whole revenue reform and free-trade section. But Mr. Greeley soon proved stronger than any other with western and southern delegates. On the sixth ballot he received 332 votes, against 324 for Adams, a sudden concentration of the supporters of B. Gratz Brown upon Mr. Greeley having been effected. Immediate changes swelled his majority, so that when the vote was finally announced it stood: Greeley, 482; Adams, 187. In accepting the nomination, which he had not sought, but by which he was greatly gratified, Mr. Greeley made the restoration of all political rights lost in the rebellion, together with a suffrage impartially extended to white and black on the same conditions, the cardinal principle of the movement. His letter ended with this notable passage: “With the distinct understanding that, if elected, I shall be the president, not of a party, but of the whole people, I accept your nomination in the confident trust that the masses of our countrymen, north and south, are eager to clasp hands across the bloody chasm which has too long divided them, forgetting that they have been enemies in the joyful consciousness that they are and must henceforth remain brethren.”

Mr. Greeley's nomination at first caught the popular fancy, and his canvass promised for a time to resemble that of 1840, in the enthusiastic turmoil of which he had first risen to national prominence. But, contrary to his judgment (though in accordance with that of close friends), the Democrats, instead of putting no ticket in the field, as he had expected, formally nominated him. This action of his life-long opponents alienated many ardent Republicans. The first elections were considered in his favor, and when in the summer North Carolina voted, it was believed that his friends had carried the state. The later official vote, however, gave the state to the Grant party, and from that time the Greeley wave seemed to be subsiding. At last, on appeals from his supporters, who thought extraordinary measures needful, he took the stump in person. The series of speeches made in his tour, extending from New England through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, evoked great enthusiasm. All sides regarded them as an exhibition of brilliant and effective work unprecedented in that generation. But they were not enough to stem the rising tide. Mr. Greeley received 2,834,079 of the popular vote, against Gen. Grant's 3,597,070; but he carried none of the northern states, and of the southern states only Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.

He had always been more sensitive to attacks and reverses than the public imagined, and now the strain proved too great. The canvass had been one of extraordinary bitterness, his old associates reviling him as a turn-coat and traitor, and some of the caricatures being unparalleled for their ferocity. His wife, always feeble, and of late years suffering greatly from a combination of nervous and other diseases, fell ill while he was absent on his tour. On his return he watched almost continuously for weeks at her bedside, and he buried her in the closing weeks of the canvass. For years he had been a sufferer from insomnia; he had necessarily lost much sleep, and during and after his wife's illness he scarcely slept at all. He was not disappointed in the election, for he had known for weeks that defeat was inevitable. Nor did this act, though generally disapproved by his friends, weaken his friendships. Henry Ward Beecher wrote: “You may think, amidst clouds of smoke and dust, that all your old friends who parted company with you in the late campaign will turn a momentary difference into a life-long alienation. It will not be so. I speak for myself, and also from what I perceive in other men's hearts. Your mere political influence may for a time be impaired, but your own power for good in the far wider fields of industrial economy, social and civil criticism, and the general well-being of society, will not be lessened, but augmented.” But Mr. Greeley's nervous exhaustion resulted in an inflammation of the upper membrane of the brain. He resumed his editorial duties, but in a few days was unable to continue them. He remained sleepless, delirium soon set in, and he died on 29 Nov., 1872.

The personal regard in which he was held, even by his bitterest opponents, at once became manifest. His body lay in state in the city hall, and a throng of many thousands moved during every hour of the daylight through the building to see it. The president, vice-president, and chief justice of the United States, with a great number of the leading public men of both parties, attended the funeral, and followed the hearse, preceded by the mayor of the city and other civic authorities, down Fifth avenue and Broadway. John G. Whittier described him as “our later Franklin,” and the majority of his countrymen have substantially accepted that phrase as designating his place in the history of his time, while members of the press consider him perhaps the greatest editor, and certainly the foremost political advocate and controversialist, if not also the most influential popular writer, the country has produced. In 1867 Francis B. Carpenter painted a portrait of Mr. Greeley for the “Tribune” association; a larger one, executed by Alexander Davis, was exhibited in the Paris salon, afterward became the property of Whitelaw Reid, and is now (1887) in the “Tribune” counting-room. At the time of Mr. Greeley's visit to Rome, Hiram Powers made a portrait bust, and at a later date Ames Van Wart executed one in marble, on a commission from Marshall O. Roberts. The bronze bust in Greenwood cemetery was presented by the printers of the United States. John Q. A. Ward is now (1887) completing a colossal sitting figure, to be cast in bronze and placed at the entrance of the “Tribune” building. The accompanying portrait is from an excellent photograph by Bogardus. Mr. Greeley's works are “Hints Toward Reforms” (New York, 1850); “Glances at Europe” (1851); “History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension” (1856); “Overland Journey to San Francisco” (1860); “The American Conflict” (2 vols., Hartford, 1864-'6); “Recollections of a Busy Life” (New York, 1868; new ed., with appendix containing an account of his later years, his argument on marriage and divorce with Robert Dale Owen, and miscellanies, New York, 1873); “Essays on Political Economy” (Boston, 1870); and “What I Know of Farming” (New York, 1871). He also assisted his brother-in-law, John F. Cleveland, in editing “A Political Text-Book” (New York, 1860), and supervised for many years the annual issues of the “Whig Almanac” and the “Tribune Almanac.” Lives of Horace Greeley have been written by James Parton (New York, 1855; new eds., 1868, and Boston, 1872); L. U. Reavis (New York, 1872); and Lewis D. Ingersoll (Chicago, 1873). There is also a “Memorial of Horace Greeley” (New York, 1873). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 734-741.

 

 

GREEN, Beriah, 1795-1874, Whitesboro, New York, reformer, clergyman, abolitionist.  President, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Active supporter of the anti-slavery Liberty Party. (Blue, 2005, pp. 17, 34-35; Dumond, 1961, pp. 159, 295; Goodell, 1852, pp. 395-396, 556; Green, 1836; Mabee, 1970, pp. 20, 21, 24, 25, 40, 45, 46, 109, 151, 152, 227, 252, 257, 363, 366, 369; Pease, 1965, pp. 182-191; Sernett, 2002, 36-39, 46, 55, 72, 78, 93-94, 99, 105-106, 108, 113, 116, 122, 125; Sorin, 1971, pp. 25, 60, 90, 96, 97, 130; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 742; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 539; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 480; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 326)

 

GREEN, Beriah, reformer, b. in New York state in 1794; d. in Whitestown, N. Y., 4 May, 1874. He was graduated at Middlebury college in 1819, and studied theology with the intention of becoming a Presbyterian minister, but formed a creed of his own, which did not admit of his joining any denomination. He removed to Kennebunk, Me., in 1820, and the following year to Ohio, and was professor of sacred literature in the Western Reserve college. His determined opposition to slavery shortened his stay in this community, and three years later he became president of the Oneida institute, Ohio. Throughout his life he was the earnest friend of Gerrit Smith and other abolitionists, and in 1834, having taken an active part in the formation of the American anti-slavery society, was chosen its president. Mr. Green was also a temperance advocate and promoter of public education. In 1845 he founded the Manual labor school in Whitestown, N. Y. He had just addressed the board of excise in the town-hall of Whitestown, urging the prohibition of intoxicating liquors, and was waiting at the head of a line of citizens to place his vote in the ballot-box, when he fell dead. He published “History of the Quakers” (Albany, 1823) and “Sermons and Discourses, with a Few Essays and Addresses” (Utica, N. Y., 1833). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 742.

 

 

GREEN, Caleb, abolitionist, Minnesota, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1852-64

 

 

GREEN, Jacob D., 1813-?, African American, former slave, anti-slavery lecturer.  Author of slave account, “Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green, A Runaway Slave, From Kentucky, Containing an Account of his Three Escapes, in 1839, 1846, and 1848,” 1864. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 173)

 

 

GREEN, John, Kentucky.  Supported colonization and tried to raise state tax to support the colonization movement.  Friend of anti-slavery American Colonization Society representative Robert J. Breckinridge.  Wrote anti-slavery articles in local papers.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 145-146)

 

 

GREEN, Mary, delegate to the (Garrisonian) Anti-Slavery Society, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Eastern Branch, Philadelphia (Dumond, 1961, p. 286)

 

 

GREEN, Mrs. William, first director of the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Chatham Street Chapel, New York City, founded in 1834. (Yellin, 1994, p. 33-34)

 

 

GREEN, Reverend Jacob, 1722-1790, anti-slavery activist, writer (Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 140, 144, 145; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 548)

 

 

GREEN, Samuel A., abolitionist, West Winfield, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-48

 

 

GREEN, Shields, free African American man (former slave) with John Brown during his raid at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859; hanged with John Brown, 1859 (see entry for John Brown).  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 62, 63, 327; Sernett, 2002, pp. 210-212, 328n50)

 

 

GREEN, William P., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

GREEN, William, Jr., New York City, abolitionist leader.  Treasurer of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833-1836, Executive Committee, 1833-1835, Manager, 1835-1837. (Sorin, 1971, pp. 73n, 102; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

GREENE, Anne Terry, abolitionist, fiancée and later wife of abolitionist leader Wendell Phillips (Yellin, 1994, p. 35)

 

 

GREENE, Henry K., abolitionist, Charlestown, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-35

 

 

GREENE, Martha W., abolitionist, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1843-44

 

 

GREENLEAF, Jonathan, Reverend, 1785-1865, Wells, Maine, clergyman, author, editor.  Agent for the Maine auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 756; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 131)

 

GREENLEAF, Jonathan, clergyman, b. in Newburyport, Mass., 4 Sept., 1785; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 24 April, 1865, was licensed to preach in 1814, and was pastor at Wells, Me., in 1815-'28. He then took charge of the Mariner's church, Boston, removed to New York in 1833, and edited the “Sailor's Magazine.” He was also secretary of the Seamen's friend society, first in Boston and then in New York, till 1841. He organized the Wallabout Presbyterian church in Brooklyn in 1843, and was its pastor till his death. Bowdoin gave him the degree of M. A. in 1824, and Princeton that of D. D. in 1863. Dr. Greenleaf published “Sketches of the Ecclesiastical History of Maine” (Portsmouth, N. H., 1821); “History of New York Churches” (New York, 1846); and “Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family.” (1854). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GREENLEAF, Patrick H., abolitionist, Portland, Maine.  Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

GREENOUGH, Horatio, , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive committee, 1843-44

 

 

GREGG, Amos, abolitionist leader, Committee of Twenty-Four, Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

GREW, Henry, 1781-1862, Society of Friends, Quaker, clergyman, religious writer, reformer, abolitionist.  Daughters were Mary and Susan Grew, both abolitionists.  Active in abolition movements.  Member of the New England Anti-Slavery Soceity.  Attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England, in June 1840.  (Yellin, 1994, pp. 71, 312, 333)

 

 

GREW, Mary, 1813-1896, abolitionist leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  Leader of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.  Grew was an officer of the state branch of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Co-editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman.  Was active in the Free Produce Association.  In 1840, Grew and other women were elected as delegates at the World Anti-Slavery Convention.  They were, however, excluded from the floor.  After 1840, she was involved in women’s rights and other reform activities.  Daughter of abolitionist Henry Grew.  She was a stronger supporter and friend of prominent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.  (Van Broekhoven, 2002, p. 206; Yellin, 1994, pp. 43, 71-72, 76, 84-85, 163, 176-177, 301-302, 326)

 

 

GREW, Susan, abolitionist, leader of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, daughter of abolitionist Henry Grew (Van Broekhoven, 2002, p. 206; Yellin, 1994, pp. 71, 80)

 

 

GRIFFIN, Edwin Dorr, Reverend, 1770-1837, New York, co-founder and officer in the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Secretary of the African Education Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 764; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 619; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 17, 40)

 

GRIFFIN, Edward Dorr, clergyman, b. in East Haddam, Conn., 6 Jan., 1770; d. in Newark, N. J., 8 Nov., 1837. He was graduated at Yale in 1790, and studied theology under Jonathan Edwards, of New Haven, who was subsequently president of Union college. He was licensed as a preacher in October, 1792, and in January, 1793, began his ministerial work at New Salem, Conn. In June, 1795, Mr. Griffin was ordained pastor of the Congregational church at New Hartford, and afterward held pastorates at Newark, N. J., and Boston, Mass. Union college gave him the degree of D. D. in 1808, and he became professor of rhetoric in the recently established Andover theological seminary, 21 June, 1809, which chair he filled until 1811. In 1821 he was chosen president of Williams, and remained there till 1836. He was an eloquent and popular preacher, and published “Lectures delivered in Park Street Church, Boston” (Boston, 1813), and “Sixty Sermons on Practical Subjects” (New York, 1844). A selection from his works, with a memoir of the author by Rev. William B. Sprague, D. D., was published after his death (2 vols., 1839). See also “Recollections of Rev. E. D. Griffin,” by Parsons Cooke (1856). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GRIFFING, Charles Stockman Spooner, abolitionist leader, member Western Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in the Underground Railroad in Ohio.  Husband of Josephine Sophia White Griffing.  (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 375-376)

 

 

GRIFFING, Josephine Sophia White, 1814-1872, Connecticut, abolitionist leader, women’s rights leader, active in Underground Railroad in Ohio, wife of Charles Stockman Spooner Griffing, also a strong abolitionist, member and agent for the Western Anti-Slavery Society, major writer for abolitionist paper The Anti-Slavery Bugle.  The Griffing home was a station on the Underground Railroad in Ohio.  Active in Women’s National Loyal League, which tried to outlaw slavery.  Agent for the National Freedman’s Relief Association of the District of Columbia.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 375-376; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 574)

 

 

GRIFFITTS, Samuel Powel, b. 1759, Pennsylvania, physician, director of U.S. Mint, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS), founded 1775, Committee of Twenty-Four. (Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 239n13; Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

GRIMES, James Wilson, 1816-1872, statesman, lawyer.  U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Governor of Iowa, 1854-1858.  Supported by Whigs and Free Soil Democrats.  Elected as Republican Senator in 1859.  Re-elected 1865. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 767; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 630; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 617; Congressional Globe)

 

GRIMES, James Wilson, statesman, b. in Deering, Hillsborough co., N. H., 20 Oct., 1816; d. in Burlington, Iowa, 7 Feb., 1872. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1836, and in the same year went west and began to practise law in Burlington, Iowa, then in what was known as the “Black Hawk Purchase,” in the territory of Michigan. From 4 July, 1836, till 12 June, 1838, it was part of Wisconsin territory, and in 1837-'8 Mr. Grimes was assistant librarian of the territorial library. After the formation of Iowa territory he was a delegate to its assembly in 1838 and 1843, and in 1852, after its admission to the Union, was a member of the legislature. He was governor of the state in 1854-'8, having been elected by Whigs and Free-soil Democrats, and while holding the office did much to foster Free-soil sentiment in his state. On 28 Aug., 1856, he wrote an official letter to President Pierce protesting against the treatment of Iowa settlers in Kansas. He was elected to the U. S. senate as a Republican in 1859, and re-elected in 1865., His first speech, delivered on 30 Jan., 1860, was a reply to Robert Toombs, who had accused Iowa of passing laws in violation of the rights of sister states, and after this he spoke frequently, and was known as a hard-working member of the senate. In 1861 he was a delegate to the peace convention. He was a member of the committee on naval affairs from 24 Jan., 1861, till the end of his service, and was its chairman from December, 1864. He strongly advocated the building of iron-clads, and the abandonment of stone fortifications for harbor defence. Mr. Grimes was noted for his independence of character, which frequently brought him into conflict with his party associates in the senate. Thus, although he favored a vigorous prosecution of the war, he considered President Lincoln's enlargement of the regular army in 1861 a dangerous precedent, and later he opposed a high protective tariff. In the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, Mr. Grimes was one of the few Republican senators who voted “not guilty,” and this act brought upon him a storm of condemnation which lasted but a short time, owing to the evident fact, that his vote had been strictly in accordance with what he considered his duty. Mr. Grimes had a stroke of paralysis in 1869, and in April of that year went abroad, resigning his seat in the senate on 6 Dec. He returned in September, 1871, apparently improved, but died soon afterward of heart disease. Mr. Grimes founded a professorship at Iowa college, at Grinnell, and gave money for scholarships there and at Dartmouth, receiving the degree of LL. D. from both colleges. He also established a free public library in Burlington, Iowa. See “Life of James W. Grimes,” by William Salter (New York, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 767.

 

 

GRIMES, John,  abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

GRIMES, Leonard A., 1815?-1873, African American, clergyman, abolitionist.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 234)

 

 

GRIMES, William W., 1824-1891, African American, clergyman, abolitionist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 238)

 

 

GRIMKÉ, Angelina Emily (Mrs. Theodore Weld), Society of Friends, Quaker, reformer, radical abolitionist leader, feminist, author, orator; wrote An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, 1836, member Anti-Slavery Society of New York.  Sister of abolitionist leader Sarah Moore Grimké.  Married to noted abolitionist Theodore Weld.  (Barnes & Dumond, 1934; Ceplair, 1989; Drake, 1950, pp. 157-158, 173n; Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 93, 185, 190-193, 195-196, 278-279; Lerner, 1967; Lumkin, 1974; Mabee, 1970, pp. 13, 28, 35, 36, 93, 129, 140, 188, 190, 191, 194, 213, 241, 266, 347, 348, 358, 376; Perry, 2001; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 44, 162, 173-174, 199, 289, 290, 308, 321-322, 416, 465, 511; Soderlund, 1985, p. 13; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 26-31, 36, 63, 70, 80, 97, 99, 100, 114, 122, 148; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 768; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 425; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 634; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 379-382; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 621; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 325; Barnes, Gilbert H., ed. Letters of Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Sara Grimké, 1822-1844, 2 Vols. 1934.)

 

 

GRIMKÉ, Sarah Moore, 1792-1873, Society of Friends, Quaker, reformer, radical abolitionist, feminist, orator, author, women’s rights advocate, political activist.  Wrote An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States, 1836.  Member of the Anti-Slavery Society of New York.  Sister of abolitionist leader Angelina Emily Grimké.  (Birney, 1885; Ceplair, 1989; Drake, 1950, pp. 157-158; Dumond, 1961, pp. 190, 275; Lerner, 1967; Mabee, 1970, pp. 47, 92, 129, 141, 194, 266, 342; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 44, 162, 199, 290, 308, 322-323, 362, 416, 433, 465, 519; Soderlund, 1985, p. 13; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 26-31, 36, 63, 70, 80, 97, 99, 100, 114, 122, 148; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 768; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 635; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 379-382; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 627; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 325; Barnes, Gilbert H., ed. Letters of Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Sara Grimké, 1822-1844, 2 Vols. 1934.)

 

GRIMKÉ, Sarah Moore, reformer, b. in Charleston, S. C., 6 Nov., 1792; d. in Hyde Park, N. Y., 23 Dec., 1873. After the death of her father, she and her sister Angelina, afterward Mrs. Theodore D. Weld (q. v.), having long been convinced of the evils of slavery, emancipated their negroes and left their home. In her own account of the event, Miss Grimké says: “As I left my native state on account of slavery, deserted the home of my fathers to escape the sound of the driver's lash and the shrieks of the tortured victims, I would gladly bury in oblivion the recollections of those scenes with which I have been familiar. But it may not, can not be; they come over my memory like gory spectres, and implore me with resistless power in the name of humanity, for the sake of the slave-holder as well as the slave, to bear witness to the horrors of the southern prison-house.” Miss Grimké went to Philadelphia in 1821, and became one of the most active members of the Anti-slavery society, also advocating women's rights. She lectured in New England, and afterward made her home with the Weld family, teaching in their school, which was established in Belleville, N. J., in 1840. She published in 1827 an “Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States”—an effective anti-slavery document—and afterward wrote “Letters on the Condition of Woman and the Equality of the Sexes” (Boston, 1838). She also translated Lamartine's “Joan of Arc” (1867). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 768.

 

 

GRINNELL, Josiah Bushnell, 1821-1891, New Haven, Vermont, abolitionist, Republican Party co-founder, theologian, lawyer.  Founded First Congregational Church, Washington, DC, in 1851.  Founded town of Grinnell, Iowa.  Iowa State Senator, 1856-1860.  Congressman 1863-1867.  Supported radical abolitionist John Brown.  Advocated for use of colored troops in the Union Army.  As Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  (Mabee, 1970, p. 356; Payne, 1938; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 323-324; Schuchmann, 2003; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 1-2; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 4; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 634; Congressional Globe)

 

GRINNELL, Josiah Bushnell, congressman, b. in New Haven, Vt., 22 Dec., 1821; d. in Marshalltown, Ta., 31 March, 1891. He was graduated at Auburn theological seminary, entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church, and preached seven years in Union Village, N. Y., Washington, D. C., and New York city. He founded the Congregational church at Grinnell, Iowa, in 1854, and preached there gratuitously for several years, but afterward retired from the ministry and became an extensive wool-grower. He was a member of the state senate in 1856-'60, special agent of the post-office department in 1861-'3, and in 1863-'7 was a representative in congress, having been elected as a Republican. He was a special agent of the treasury department in 1868, and in 1884 was appointed commissioner of the U. S. bureau of animal industries. When in the Iowa senate Mr. Grinnell took an active part in the formation of the state free-school system, and was also the correspondent and confidant of John Brown, entertaining him and his company. “In my library,” says Mr. Grinnell in a recent letter, “secretly, in the gleam of bayonets, and near a miniature arsenal for the protection of a score of ex-slaves, he wrote a part of his Virginia proclamation.” Mr. Grinnell was active in aiding the escape of fugitive slaves, and at one time a reward was offered for his head. He was connected with the building of six railroads, and laid out five towns, including that of Grinnell, Iowa, which was named for him. He gave the proceeds of the sale of building-lots in that town to Grinnell university, now merged in Iowa college, and was for some time its president. He published “Home of the Badgers” (Milwaukee, Wis., 1845); “Cattle Industries of the United States” (New York, 1884); and numerous valuable pamphlets and addresses. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 1-2.

 

 

GRISCOM, John, Dr., 1774-1852, New York, educator, reformer, activist.  Member of the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 2; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. p. 7; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 40, 84)

 

GRISCOM, John, educator, b. in Hancock’s Bridge, Salem co., N. J., 27 Sept., 1774; d. in Burlington, N. J., 26 Feb., 1852. His education was acquired at the Friends’ academy in Philadelphia, and later he was given charge of the Friends’ monthly-meeting school, in Philadelphia, with which he continued for thirteen years. In 1806 he removed to New York, where he was actively engaged in teaching for twenty-five years. He was one of the first to teach chemistry, and gave public lectures on this subject to his classes early in 1806. When the medical department of Queen’s (now Rutgers) college was established in 1812, he was appointed to the chair of chemistry and natural history, which he held until 1828. His colleague, Dr. John W. Francis, said of him that “for thirty years Dr. Griscom was the acknowledged head of all teachers of chemistry among us” in New York. He was the projector of the New York high-school, an institution on the Lancaster or monitorial system of instruction, which had great success from 1825 till 1831, under his supervision. For many years Dr. Griscom’s lectures were given in the “New York Institution,” which had been built in 1795 for an almshouse. Halleck, in his “Fanny,” thus alludes to the building and its occupants:

“It remains
To bless the hour the Corporation took it
Into their heads to give the rich in brains
The worn-out mansion of the poor in pocket,
Once ‘the old almshouse,’ now a school of wisdom,
Sacred to Scudder's shells and Dr. Griscom.”

From 1832 till 1834 he had charge of a Friends’ boarding-school in Providence, R. I., also lecturing in various places on chemistry and natural philosophy. Subsequently he resided in Haverford, Pa., and then in Burlington, N. J., where he was town superintendent and trustee of public schools, and also was associated in the reorganization of the common-school system of New Jersey. During his residence in New York he was instrumental in organizing the Society for the prevention of pauperism and crime, which was the parent of many important reform movements. For many years he contributed abstracts of chemical papers from the foreign journals to Silliman’s “Journal of Science.” He was also the author of “A Year in Europe” (New York, 1823), and “Monitorial Instruction” (1825). See a “Memoir of John Griscom,” by his son (New York, 1859). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

GRIST, Samuel, Virginia, bought land, supplies, tools, and livestock for one thousands slaves in Brown County, Ohio.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 93)

 

 

GRISWOLD, Alexander Viets, (Bishop), 1766-1843, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society, 1840-41.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 2; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 7; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

GRISWOLD, John Augustus, 1818-1872, manufacturer.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York.  Mayor of Troy, NY, 1850.  Raised regiment for Union Army.  Supervised building of U.S.S. Monitor, the first ironclad Union Navy ship.  Elected U.S. Congressman 1862, served 1863-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 3; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 4; Congressional Globe)

 

GRISWOLD, John Augustus, manufacturer, b. in Nassau, Rensselaer co., N. Y., 11 Nov., 1818; d. in Troy, N. Y., 31 Oct., 1872. He went to Troy in 1839, and was for a time an inmate of the family of his uncle, Gen. Wool. He became interested in the Rensselaer iron company, in which he was afterward the principal partner. He was mayor of Troy in 1850, and was an active supporter of the National government during the civil war, aiding in raising three regiments of infantry, as well as the “Black-horse cavalry,” and the 21st New York, or “Griswold light cavalry.” In 1861, in connection with C. S. Bushnell and John F. Winslow, he contracted to build Ericsson's “Monitor,” and it was mainly due to him that the vessel was completed in the hundred days allowed by the government for her construction. The “Monitor” was built at great pecuniary risk, as her price, $275,000, was not to be paid till it had been practically shown that she could withstand the enemy's fire at the shortest ranges. Mr. Griswold was elected to congress in 1862 as a war Democrat, but subsequently joined the Republicans, and was re-elected by them, serving altogether from 1863 till 1869. He was an efficient member of the committee on naval affairs, and effectively defended the policy of the government in the construction of monitors when it was attacked in the house. He also aided in building the monitor “Dictator.” In 1868 he was the Republican candidate for governor of New York, but was defeated, though his party claimed that he received a majority of the votes actually cast. Mr. Griswold did much to advance the prosperity of Troy, and contributed liberally to its charities. He was a trustee of Rensselaer polytechnic institute in 1860-'72. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 3.

 

 

GRISWOLD, Whiting, 1814-1874, lawyer, politician, abolitionist.  Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate.

 

 

GROSVENOR, Cyrus Pitt, 1792-1879, Salem, Massachusetts, clergyman, abolitionist leader, anti-slavery agent, anti-slavery Baptist minister, educator.  Lectured on anti-slavery.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) Vice President, 1834-1835, Manager, 1839-1840, 1840-1841.  Member of the Liberty Party.  Leader of the anti-slavery movement in Massachusetts and Connecticut.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 188, 285, 393n24; Putnam, 1893, p. 14, “Friend of Man,” October 6, 1836, May 10, 1837)

 

 

GRUBB, Edward Burd, Sr., 1810-1867, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Burlington, New Jersey, abolitionist, industrialist.  (Grubb, David, 2008, The Grubb Family of Grubbs Landing, Delaware, Higginson Book Co.)

 

 

GRUBER, Reverend Jacob, clergyman.  Preached against slavery; called it a sin.  Gave sermon in Washington County, Maryland, on August 16, 1818.  He was indicted on grounds of sedition.  He was defended by attorney Rodger B. Tanney (later Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court).  He was defended on the principle of free speech.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 142-147; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 35, 472)

 

 

GUNN, John N., abolitionist, Washington, Connecticut, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-42, Vice-President, 1842-43

 

 

GURLEY, Ralph Randolph, 1797-1872, Washington, DC, clergyman, co-founder of Liberia.  Secretary, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1833-41, Executive Committee, 1839-41.  Agent for the ACS.  Served as administrator (Secretary), keeping records and writing the Annual Report.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 16, 23-24, 64, 100; Campbell, 1971, pp. 9, 10, 48, 49, 53, 97, 112, 113, 138, 174; Dumond, 1961, pp. 172, 199-200; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 163; Sorin, 1971, p. 30; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 13-14; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 56; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 731; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 35, 76, 78-79, 94-103, 119-135, 171, 197-198, 202-204, 207-209, 213-214, 222-223, 237-239, 242, 307-308)

 

GURLEY, Ralph Randolph, clergyman, b. in Lebanon, Conn., 26 May, 1797; d. in Washington, D. C., 30 July, 1872. He was graduated at Yale in 1818, removed to Washington, D. C., and was licensed to preach as a Presbyterian, but was never ordained. From 1822 till 1872 he acted as the agent and secretary of the American colonization society, visited Africa three times in its interests, and was one of the founders of Liberia. He also went to England to solicit aid in the work of colonization. During the first ten years of his agency the annual income of the society increased from $778 to $40,000. He delivered addresses in its behalf in all parts of the country, edited “The African Repository,” and, besides many reports, wrote the “Life of Jehudi Ashmun” (New York, 1839); “Mission to England for the American Colonization Society” (1841); and “Life and Eloquence of Rev. Sylvester Larned” (New York, 1844). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 13-14.

 

 

GUTHRIE, Austin A., abolitionist, Putnam, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-41

 

 

GUTHRIE, Stephen, Morgan County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

 

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HABERSHAM, Robert, Savannah, Georgia, District Attorney.  Member of the Savannah auxiliary of the American Colonization society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

HAINES, Caspar, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, reorganized April 23, 1787 (Nash, 1991, p. 124)

 

 

HALE, David, 1791-1849, Boston, Massachusetts, journalist, philanthropist.  Member of the American Colonization Society Committee in Boston.   Nephew of soldier and patriot Nathan Hale.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 31; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 98; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 86)

 

 

HALE, Edward Everett, 1822-1909, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman, Unitarian minister, writer, abolitionist leader.  Co-founder of the Freedman’s Aid Society in 1862, which aided African Americans.  (Adams, 1977; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 325-326; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 32-33, Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 99; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 816)

 

HALE, Edward Everett, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 3 April, 1822, after studying at the Boston Latin-school, was graduated at Harvard in 1839. He then spent two years as an usher in the Latin-school, and read theology and church history with the Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop and the Rev. John G. Palfrey. In 1842 he was licensed to preach by the Boston association of Congregational ministers, after which he spent several years in ministering to various congregations, passing the winter of 1844-'5 in Washington. His first regular settlement was in 1846 as pastor of the Church of the Unity in Worcester, Mass., where he remained until 1856. In that year he was called to the South Congregational (Unitarian) church in Boston, where he still (1887) remains. Mr. Hale's influence has been extensively felt in all philanthropic movements. His book “Ten Times One is Ten” (Boston, 1870) led to the establishment of clubs devoted to charity, which are now scattered throughout the United States, with chapters in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the islands of the Pacific. These associations have a membership that is supposed to exceed 50,000 in number, and are called “Harry Wadsworth clubs.” They have for their motto: “Look up and not down; look forward and not back; look out and not in; lend a hand.” The “Look-up Legion,” a similar organization among the Sunday-schools, is due to his inspiration, and includes upward of 5,000 members. He also has taken great interest in the Chautauqua literary and scientific circle, of which he is one of the counsellors, and is a frequent contributor to the “Chautauquan.” Mr. Hale has served his college as a member of the board of overseers for successive terms, and has been very active in advancing the interests of Harvard. He has also held the office of president of the ? B K society, and in 1879 received the degree of S. T. D. from Harvard. As a boy he learned to set type in his father's printing-office, and he has served on the “Daily Advertiser” in every capacity from reporter up to editor-in-chief. Before he attained his majority he wrote his full share in the monthly issues of the “Monthly Chronicle” and the “Boston Miscellany.” In later years he edited the “Christian Examiner,” and also the “Sunday-School Gazette.” In 1869 he founded, with the American Unitarian association, “Old and New,” for the purpose of giving wider currency to liberal Christian ideas through the medium of a literary magazine. Six years afterward this journal was merged into “Scribner's Monthly.” In 1886 he again returned to journalism and began the publication of “Lend a Hand; a Record of Progress and Journal of Organized Charity.” As a writer of short stories Mr. Hale has achieved signal distinction. His “My Double, and How he undid Me,” published in the “Atlantic Monthly” in 1859, at once caught the popular fancy. “The Man Without a Country,” published anonymously in the “Atlantic” during 1863, produced a deep impression on the public mind, and has a permanent place among the classic short stories of American writers. His “Skeleton in the Closet” also well known, was contributed to the “Galaxy” in 1866. He has been associated in several literary combinations, among which is “Six of One by Half a Dozen of the Other” (Boston, 1872), a social romance jointly constructed by Harriet B. Stowe, Adeline D. T. Whitney, Lucretia P. Hale, Frederick W. Loring, Frederic B. Perkins, and Mr. Hale himself, its projector. His historical studies began when he was connected with the “Advertiser,” and for six years he was its South American editor, having been led to the study of Spanish and Spanish-American history at a time when he expected to be the reader and amanuensis of William H. Prescott, the historian. Beginning in this way, his studies have increased until he is regarded as an authority on Spanish-American affairs. He has contributed important articles to Justin Winsor's “History of Boston” to his “History of America” to Bryant and Gay's “Popular History of the United States,” and frequent papers to the proceedings of the American antiquarian society. Of the latter, perhaps the most important is his discovery of how California came to be so named. He has edited “Original Documents from the State Paper Office, London, and the British Museum, illustrating the History of Sir W. Raleigh's First American Colony and the Colony at Jamestown, with a Memoir of Sir Ralph Lane” (Boston, 1860), and John Lingard's “History of England” (13 vols., Boston, 1853). Besides the foregoing he has published “The Rosary” (Boston, 1848); “Margaret Percival in America” (1850); “Sketches of Christian History” (1850); “Letters on Irish Emigration” (1852); “Kansas and Nebraska” (1854); “Ninety Days’ Worth of Europe” (1861); with the Rev. John Williams. “The President's Words” (1865); “If, Yes, and Perhaps” (1868); “Puritan Politics in England and New England” (1869); “The Ingham Papers” (1869); “How To Do It” (1870); “His Level Best, and Other Stories” (1870); “Daily Bread, and Other Stories” (1870); “Ups and Downs, an Every-Day Novel” (1871); “Sybaris, and Other Homes” (1871); “Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day” (1874); “In His Name” (1874); “A Summer's Vacation, Four Sermons” (1874); “Workingmen's Homes, Essays and Stories” (1874); “The Good Time Coming, or Our New Crusade” (1875); “One Hundred Years” (1875); “Philip Nolan's Friends” (New York, 1876); “Back to Back” (1877); “Gone to Texas, or the Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman” (Boston, 1877); “What Career?” (1878); “Mrs. Merriam's Scholars” (1878); “The Life in Common” (1879); “The Bible and its Revision” (1879); “The Kingdom of God” (1880); “Crusoe in New York” (1880); “Stories of War” (1880); “June to May” (1881); “Stories of the Sea” (1881); “Stories of Adventure” (1881); “Stories of Discovery” (1883); “Seven Spanish Cities” (1883); “Fortunes of Rachel” (New York, 1884); “Christmas in a Palace” (1884); “Christmas in Narragansett” (1884); “Stories of Invention” (Boston, 1885); “Easter” (1886); “Franklin in France” (1887); “The Life of Washington” (New York, 1887); and “The History of the United States.”—Another brother, Charles, journalist, b. in Boston, Mass., 7 June, 1831; d. there, 1 March, 1882, was graduated at Harvard in 1850, and entered his father's employ as a reporter. In 1852 he began the publication of “To-day, a Boston Literary Journal,” a weekly of which only two volumes were published, and later became junior editor of the “Daily Advertiser.” Meanwhile he also contributed to the “North American Review” and to the “Nautical Almanac.” In 1855 he was chosen to the legislature from one of the Boston districts, and continued be re-elected until 1860, being speaker during his last term, and the youngest man ever chosen that office. From 1864 till 1870 he was U. S. consul-general to Egypt, and it was largely his efforts that John H. Surratt was arrested and sent back to the United States. In 1871 he returned to Boston, and was elected in that to the state senate. He was appointed chairman of the committee on railroads, in which capacity he drew up the general railroad act now in force, and was active in securing its enactment. In 1872-'3 he was assistant secretary of state under Hamilton Fish. He then returned to Boston, began the study of law, and in 1874 was admitted to the bar. In the same year he was again elected to the legislature, and continued to serve in that body for four years. During the latter part of his life he lived in retirement, occupied in literary work, and was much of the time an invalid. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 32-33.

 

 

HALE, James T., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery

 

 

HALE, John Parker, 1806-1873, New Hampshire, statesman, diplomat, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator.  Member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  President of the Free Soil Party, 1852.  Elected to Congress in 1842, he opposed the 21st Rule suppressing anti-slavery petition to Congress.  Refused to support the annexation of Texas in 1845.  Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1846, he was the first distinctively anti-slavery Senator.  Adamantly opposed slavery for his 16 years in office.  U.S. Senator, 1847-1853, 1855-1865.  In 1851, served as Counsel in the trial of rescued slave Shadrach.  In 1852, he was nominated for President of the United States, representing the Free Soil Party.  As U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 8, 35, 51-54, 74, 100-102, 121, 126, 152, 164, 170, 205, 220; Filler, 1960, pp. 187, 189, 213, 247; Goodell, 1852, p. 478; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 20, 28, 29, 33-37, 43-46, 51, 60, 63-65, 68, 72, 254n; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 54, 298; Sorin, 1971, pp. 130, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 33-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 105; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 862; Congressional Globe)

 

HALE, John Parker, senator, b. in Rochester, N. H., 31 March, 1806; d. in Dover, N. H., 19 Nov., 1873. He studied at Phillips Exeter academy, and was graduated at Bowdoin in 1827. He began his law studies in Rochester with Jeremiah H. Woodman, and continued them with Daniel M. Christie in Dover, where he was admitted to the bar, 20 Aug., 1830. In March, 1832, he was elected to state house of representatives as a Democrat. On 22 March, 1834, he was appointed U. S. district attorney by President Jackson, was reappointed by President Van Buren, 5 April, 1838, and was removed, 17 June, 1841, by President Tyler on party grounds. On 8 March, 1842, he was elected to congress, and took his seat, 4 Dec., 1843. He opposed the 21st rule suppressing anti-slavery petitions, but supported Polk and Dallas in the presidential canvass of 1844, and was nominated for re-election on a general ticket with three associates. The New Hampshire legislature, 28 Dec., 1844, passed resolutions instructing their representatives to vote for the annexation of Texas, and President Polk, in his message of that year, advocated annexation. On 7 Jan., 1845, Mr. Hale wrote his noted Texas letter, refusing to support annexation. The State convention of his party was re assembled at Concord, 12 Feb., 1845, and under the lead of Franklin Pierce struck Mr. Hale's name from the ticket, and substituted that of John Woodbury. Mr. Hale was supported as an independent candidate. On 11 March, 1845, three Democratic members were elected, but there was no choice of a fourth. Subsequent trials, with the same result, took place 23 Sept. and 29 Nov., 1845, and 10 March, 1846. During the repeated contests, Mr. Hale thoroughly canvassed the state. At his North Church meeting in Concord, 5 June, 1845, Mr. Pierce was called out to reply, and the debate is memorable in the political history of New Hampshire. At the election of 10 March, 1846, the Whigs and Independent Democrats also defeated a choice for governor, and elected a majority of the state legislature. On 3 June, 1846, Mr. Hale was elected speaker; on 5 June, the Whig candidate, Anthony Colby, was elected governor; and on 9 June, Mr. Hale was elected U. S. senator for the term to begin 4 March, 1847. In a letter from John G. Whittier, dated Andover, Mass., 3d mo., 18th, 1846, he says of Mr. Hale: “He has succeeded, and his success has broken the spell which has hitherto held reluctant Democracy in the embraces of slavery. The tide of anti-slavery feeling, long held back by the dams and dykes of party, has at last broken over all barriers, and is washing down from your northern mountains upon the slave-cursed south, as if Niagara stretched its foam and thunder along the whole length of Mason and Dixon's line. Let the first wave of that northern flood, as it dashes against the walls of the capitol, bear thither for the first time an anti- slavery senator.” On 20 Oct., 1847, he was nominated for president by a National liberty convention at Buffalo, with Leicester King, of Ohio, for vice-president, but declined, and supported Mr. Van Buren, who was nominated at the Buffalo convention of 9 Aug., 1848. On 6 Dec., 1847, he took his seat in the senate with thirty-two Democrats and twenty-one Whigs, and remained the only distinctively anti-slavery senator until joined by Salmon P. Chase, 3 Dec., 1849, and by Charles Sumner, 1 Dec., 1851. Mr. Hale began the agitation of the slavery question almost immediately upon his entrance into the senate, and continued it in frequent speeches during his sixteen years of service in that body. He was an orator of handsome person, clear voice, and winning manners, and his speeches were replete with humor and pathos. His success was due to his powers of natural oratory, which, being exerted against American chattel - slavery, seldom failed to arouse sympathetic sentiments in his audiences. Mr. Hale opposed flogging and the spirit-ration in the navy, and secured the abolition of the former by law of 28 Sept., 1850, and of the latter by law of 14 July, 1862. He served as counsel in 1851 in the important trials that arose out of the forcible rescue of the fugitive slave Shadrach from the custody of the U. S. marshal in Boston. In 1852 he was nominated at Pittsburg, Pa., by the Free-soil party for president, with George W. Julian as vice-president, and they received 157,685 votes. His first senatorial term ended, and he was succeeded by Charles G. Atherton, a Democrat, on 4 March, 1853, on which day Franklin Pierce was inaugurated president. The following winter Mr. Hale began practising law in New York city. But the repeal of the Missouri compromise measures again overthrew the Democrats of New Hampshire; they failed duly to elect U. S. senators in the legislature of June, 1854, and in March, 1855, they completely lost the state. On 13 June, 1855, James Bell, a Whig, was elected U. S. senator for six years from 3 March, 1855, and Mr. Hale was chosen for the four years of the unexpired term of Mr. Atherton, deceased. On 9 June, 1858, he was re-elected for a full term of six years, which ended on 4 March, 1865. On 10 March, 1865, he was commissioned minister to Spain, and went immediately to Madrid. Mr. Hale was recalled in due course, 5 April, 1869, took leave, 29 July, 1869, and returned home in the summer of 1870. Mr. Hale without sufficient cause, attributed his recall to a quarrel between himself and Horatio J. Perry, his secretary of legation, in the course of which a charge had been made that Mr. Hale's privilege, as minister, of importing free of duty merchandize for his official or personal use, had been exceeded and some goods put upon the market and sold. Mr. Hale's answer was, that he had been misled by a commission-merchant, instigated by Mr. Perry. The latter was removed 28 June, 1869. Mr. Hale had been one of the victims of the “National hotel disease,” and his physical and mental faculties were much impaired for several years before his death. Immediately upon his arrival home he was prostrated by paralysis, and shortly afterward received a fracture of one of the small bones of the leg when thrown down by a runaway horse. In the summer of 1873 his condition was further aggravated by a fall that dislocated his hip. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 33-34.

 

 

HALE, Josiah W., abolitionist, Brandon, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

HALE, Matthew, abolitionist, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Employ, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

HALE, Salma, 1787-1866, historian, congressman, abolitionist.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III)

 

HALE, Salma, historian, b. in Alstead, Cheshire co., N. H., 7 March, 1787; d. in Somerville, Mass., 19 Nov., 1866. His father, David Hale, joined the American army after the battle of Lexington, and served throughout the Revolutionary war. Salma, the third of fourteen children, was apprenticed to a printer in Walpole, N. H. At seventeen he wrote an English grammar (Worcester, Mass., 1804), which was afterward rewritten under the title “A New Grammar of the English Language” (New York, 1831). At the age of eighteen he became editor of “The Political Observatory,” at Walpole, N. H. He then studied law, became clerk of the court of common pleas for Cheshire county, and removed to Keene, N. H., in 1813. In 1817-'34 he was clerk of the supreme judicial court, and in the latter year was admitted to the bar. ln 1816 he was elected to congress as a Republican, but declined a re-election. He subsequently devoted himself to the preparation of a “History of the United States,” which gained a prize of $400 and a gold medal that had been offered by the American academy of belles-lettres of New York “for the best-written history of the United States, which shall contain a suitable exposition of the situation, character, and interests, absolute and relative, of the American republic, calculated for a class-book in academies and schools.” This was first published under the title of “The History of the United States of America, from their First Settlement as Colonies to the Close of the War with Great Britain in 1815” (1821). It was afterward continued to 1845, and went through many editions. Mr. Hale was a trustee of Dartmouth in 1816, and of the University of Vermont in 1823, and received honorary degrees from each. He was secretary to the commissioners for determining the northeastern boundary-line of the United States, was president of the New Hampshire historical society in 1830, a member of the New Hampshire house of representatives in 1828 and 1844, and of the senate in 1824 and 1845. He was a contributor to newspapers and periodicals, was instrumental in organizing the first agricultural society in New Hampshire, and in promoting temperance, education, the abolition of slavery, and the Unitarian movement. While in congress he opposed the Missouri compromise. His works include “The Administration of John Q. Adams and the Opposition by Algernon Sidney” (Concord, N. H., 1826); “Conspiracy of the Spaniards against Venice, translated from Abbé Rea , and of John Lewis Fiesco against Genoa, translated from Cardinal De Retz” (Boston, 1828); “Annals of the Town of Keene, from its First Settlement in 1734 to 1790” (Concord, N. H., 1826, and a continuation to 1815, Keene, 1851); “An Oration on the Character of Washington” (Keene, N. H., 1832); “Address on the Connection of Chemistry and Agriculture,” delivered before the Cheshire county agricultural society (Keene, 1848); and an “Address before the New Hampshire Historical Society in 1828” (Concord, 1832; Manchester, 1870). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

HALL, James, Dr., physician.  Colonial doctor for the American Colonization Society in Africa.  Served as General Agent of the Maryland State Colonization society.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 55, 56, 58, 69, 70-90, 119-120, 126-127, 149, 166-170, 182-183, 193, 200, 205, 207-209)

 

 

HALL, Primus, 1756-1842, African American abolitionist.  Formerly enslaved individual.

 

 

HALL, Prince, 1753-1807, African American, abolitionist, former slave. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 312)

 

 

HALL, Robert Bernard, 1812-1868, Episcopal clergyman, member of the Massachusetts State Senate, U.S. Congressman, 1855-1859, one of twelve founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in 1832 and the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1832  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 43; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 315)

 

HALL, Robert Bernard, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 28 Jan., 1812; d. in Plymouth, Mass., 15 April, 1868. He entered the Boston public Latin-school in 1822, and studied theology at New Haven in 1833-'4. He was ordained to the ministry of the orthodox Congregational church, but afterward became an Episcopalian. In 1855 he was a member of the Massachusetts senate and was elected to congress in 1855 on the Know-Nothing ticket, and again in 1857 on the Republican ticket. He was a delegate to the Union convention in Philadelphia in 1866. Mr. Hall was one of the twelve founders of the New England anti-slavery society in Boston in January, 1832, and was one of the founders of the American antislavery society in Philadelphia in December, 1833. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Iowa central college in 1858.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 43.

 

 

HALL, Willard, 1780-1875, Delaware, lawyer, jurist.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society, 1840-41.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 45; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 146; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

HALLOWELL, Edward Neddles, 1837-1871, soldier, brother of abolitionist Richard Price Hallowell.  Superceded Colonel Robert Gould Shaw as the commander of the 54th Massachusetts (U.S. Colored Troops).  He was Brevetted Brigadier General at the end of the Civil War. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 160-161)

 

 

HALLOWELL, Mary Post, 1823-1913, suffragist, reformer, abolitionist  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 52)

 

 

HALLOWELL, Norwood Penrose, 1839-1914, Philadelphia, PA, abolitionist, soldier.  Deputy Commander of the all-Black 54th Massachusetts, Colonel Commander of the 55th Massachusetts.  Participated in the siege of Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor.

 

 

HALLOWELL, Richard Price, 1835-1904, merchant, reformer, ardent abolitionist.  Follower of Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 52; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 160)

 

HALLOWELL, Richard Price, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 16 Dec., 1835. He studied for two years at Haverford college, in 1859 removed to West Medford, Mass., and during the same year began business in Boston as a wool-merchant. He was identified with the abolition movement led by Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison, and during the civil war was made a special agent by Gov. John A. Andrew, of Massachusetts, to recruit for the negro regiments. Mr. Hallowell is treasurer of the Free religious association, and vice-president of the New England woman suffrage association. He has contributed many articles to the “Index,” and has published “The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts” (Boston, 1883) and “The Pioneer Quakers” (1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 160-161.

 

 

HALSEY, Job Foster, 1800-1881, Allegheny Town, Pennsylvania, theologian.  Founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Manager, 1833-35, 1835-37 (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 54)

 

HALSEY, Job Foster, clergyman, b. in Schenectady, N. Y., 12 July, 1800; d. in Norristown, Pa., 7 March, 1881, was graduated at Union in 1819, studied theology with his brother, and spent the years from 1823 till 1826 at Princeton seminary. From 1826 till 1828 he held charge of the Old Tennent church in Freehold, N. J. He was agent for the American Bible society in New Jersey in 1828-'9, for the American tract society in Albany, N. Y., in 1829-'30, and for the Sunday-school union in Pittsburg in 1830-'1. From 1831 till 1836 he was pastor of the First church in Alleghany City, Pa., and in 1835-'6 a professor in Marion manual-labor college, Missouri. He was principal of Raritan seminary for young ladies in Perth Amboy, N. J., from 1836 till 1848, pastor at West Bloomfield (now Montclair), N. J., from 1852 till 1856, and pastor of the 1st Presbyterian church in Norristown, Pa., from 1856 till he resigned in 1881. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 54.

 

 

HALSEY, Luther, 1794-1880, Princeton, New Jersey, clergyman, professor, educator.  Officer of the New Jersey auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 54; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 85)

 

 

HALSTEAD, C. S., abolitionist, Brooklyn, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society,  Rec. Secretary, 1848-50

 

 

HALSTEAD, William, Trenton, New Jersey, American Colonization Society, Director, 1839-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

HAMBLETON, James, Columbiana County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

HAMILTON, Alexander, 1757-1804, founding father, statesman, first Secretary of the Treasury, anti-slavery activist, second President of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, founded in 1785. (Zilversmit, 1967, p. 166; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 56-60; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 171; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 905; Encylopaedia Americana, 1830, Vol. VI, pp. 152-153)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HAMILTON, Alexander, statesman, b. in the island of Nevis, West Indies, 11 Jan., 1757; d. in New York city, 12 July, 1804. A curious mystery and uncertainty overhang his birth and parentage, and even the accounts of his son and biographer vary with and contradict each other. The accepted version is, that he was the son of James Hamilton, a Scottish merchant, and his wife, a French lady named Faucette, the divorced wife of a Dane named Lavine. According to another story, his mother was a Miss Lytton, and her sister came subsequently to this country, where she was watched over and supported by Hamilton and his wife. A similar doubt is also connected with his paternity, which now cannot be solved, even were it desirable. His father became bankrupt “at an early day,” to use Hamilton's own words, and the child was thus thrown upon the care of his mother's relatives. His education seems to have been brief and desultory, and chiefly due to the Rev. Hugh Knox, a Presbyterian clergyman of Nevis, who took a great interest in the boy and kept up an affectionate correspondence with him in after-days when his former pupil was on the way to greatness. In 1777 his old tutor wrote to Hamilton that he must be the annalist and biographer, as well as the aide-de-camp, of Gen. Washington, and the historiographer of the American war of independence. Before Hamilton was thirteen years of age it was apparently necessary that he should earn his living, and he was therefore placed in the office of Nicholas Cruger, a West Indian merchant. His precocity was extraordinary, owing, perhaps in some measure, to his early isolation and self-dependence, and at an age when most boys are thinking of marbles and hockey he was writing to a friend and playmate of his ambition and his plans for the future. Most boys have day-dreams; but there is a definiteness and precision about Hamilton's that make them seem more like the reveries of twenty than of thirteen. Even more remarkable was the business capacity that he displayed at this time. His business letters, many of which have been preserved, would have done credit to a trained clerk of any age, and his employer was apparently in the habit of going away and leaving this mere child in charge of all the affairs of his counting-house. The boy also wrote for the local press, contributing at one time an account of a severe hurricane that had devastated the islands, which was so vivid and strong a bit of writing that it attracted general attention. This literary success, joined probably to the friendly advocacy of Dr. Knox, led to the conviction that something ought to be done for a boy who was clearly fitted for a higher position than a West Indian counting-house. Funds were accordingly provided by undefined relatives and more distinct friends, and thus equipped, Hamilton sailed for Boston, Mass., where he arrived in October, 1772, and whence he proceeded to New York. Furnished by Dr. Knox with good letters, he speedily found friends and counsellors, and by their advice went to a school in Elizabethtown, N. J., where he studied with energy to prepare for college, and employed his pen in much writing, of both prose and poetry. He entered King's college, New York, now Columbia, and there with the aid of a tutor made remarkable progress. While he was thus engaged, our difficulties with England were rapidly ripening. Hamilton's natural inclinations were then, as always, toward the side of order and established government, but a visit to Boston in the spring of 1774, and a close examination of the questions in dispute, convinced him of the justice of the cause of the colonies. His opportunity soon came. A great meeting was held in the fields, 6 July, 1774, to force the lagging Tory assembly of New York into line. Hamilton was among the crowd, and as he listened he became more and more impressed, not by what was said, but by what the speakers omitted to say. Pushing his way to the front, he mounted the platform, and while the crowd cried “A collegian! A collegian!” this stripling of seventeen began to pour out an eloquent and fervid speech in behalf of colonial rights.

Once engaged, Hamilton threw himself into the struggle with all the intense energy of his nature. He left the platform to take up the pen, and his two pamphlets—“A Full Vindication” and “The Farmer Refuted”—attracted immediate and general attention. Indeed, these productions were so remarkable, at a time when controversial writings of great ability abounded, that they were generally attributed to Jay and other well-known patriots. The discovery of their authorship raised Hamilton to the position of a leader in New York. Events now moved rapidly, the war for which he had sighed in his first boyish letter came, and he of course was quick to take part in it. Early in 1776 he was given the command of a company of artillery by the New York convention, and by his skill in organization, and his talent for command, he soon had a body of men that furnished a model of appearance and discipline at a time when those qualities were as uncommon as they were needful. At Long Island and at White Plains the company distinguished itself, and the gallantry of the commander, as well as the appearance of the men, which had already attracted the notice of Gen. Greene, led to an offer from Washington of a place on his staff. This offer Hamilton accepted, and thus began the long and intimate connection with Washington which suffered but one momentary interruption. Hamilton filled an important place on Washington's staff, and his ready pen made him almost indispensable to the commander-in-chief. Beside his immediate duties, the most important task that fell to him was when he was sent to obtain troops from Gen. Gates, after the Burgoyne campaign. This was a difficult and delicate business; but Hamilton conducted it with success, and, by a wise admixture of firmness and tact, carried his point. He also took such part as was possible for a staff officer in all the battles fought by Washington, and in the André affair he was brought into close contact both with André and Mrs. Arnold, of whom he has left a most pathetic and picturesque description. On 16 Feb., 1781, Hamilton took hasty offence at a reproof given him by Washington, and resigned from the staff, but he remained in the army, and at Yorktown commanded a storming party, which took one of the British redoubts. This dashing exploit practically closed Hamilton's military service in the Revolution, which had been highly creditable to him both as a staff and field officer.

In the midst of his duties as a soldier, however, Hamilton had found time for much else. On his mission to Gates he met at Albany Miss Elizabeth Schuyler, whom he married on 14 Dec., 1780, and so became connected with a rich and powerful New York family, which was of marked advantage to him in many ways. During the Revolution, too, he had found leisure to study finance and government, and his letters on these topics to Robert Morris and James Duane display a remarkable grasp of both subjects. He showed in these letters how to amend the confederation and how to establish a national bank, and his plans thus set forth were not only practicable, but evince his peculiar fitness for the great work before him. His letters on the bank, indeed, so impressed Morris that when Hamilton left the army and was studying law, Morris offered him the place of continental receiver of taxes for New York, which he at once accepted. At the same time he was admitted to the bar, and he threw himself into the work of his profession and of his office with his wonted zeal. The exclusion of the Tories from the practice of the law gave a fine opening to their young rivals on the patriot side; but the business of collecting taxes was a thankless task, which only served to bring home to Hamilton more than ever the fatal defects of the confederation. From these uncongenial labors he was relieved by an election to congress, where he took his seat in November, 1782. The most important business then before congress was the ratification of peace; but the radical difficulties of the situation arose from the shattered finances and from the helplessness and imbecility of the confederation. Hamilton flung himself into these troubles with the enthusiasm of youth and genius, but all in vain. The case was hopeless. He extended his reputation for statesmanlike ability and brilliant eloquence, but effected nothing, and withdrew to the practice of his profession in 1783, more than ever convinced that the worthless fabric of the confederation must be swept away, and something better and stronger put in its place. This great object was never absent from his mind, and as he rapidly rose at the bar he watched with a keen eye the course of public affairs, and awaited an opening. Matters went rapidly from bad to worse. The states were bankrupt, and disintegration threatened them. Internecine commercial regulations destroyed prosperity, and riot and insurrection menaced society. At last Virginia, in January, 1786, proposed a convention at Annapolis, Md., to endeavor to make some common commercial regulations. Hamilton's opportunity had come, and, slender as it was, he seized it with a firm grasp. He secured the election of delegates from New York, and in company with Egbert Benson betook himself to Annapolis in September, 1786. After the fashion of the time, only five states responded to the call; but the meagre gathering at least furnished a stepping-stone to better things. The convention agreed upon an address, which was drawn by Hamilton, and toned down to suit the susceptibilities of Edmund Randolph. This address set forth the evil condition of public affairs, and called a new convention, with enlarged powers, to meet in Philadelphia, 2 May, 1787. This done, the next business was to make the coming convention a success, and Hamilton returned to New York to devote himself to that object. He obtained an election to the legislature, and there fought the hopeless battles of the general government against the Clintonian forces, and made himself felt in all the legislation of the year; but he never lost sight of his main purpose, the appointment of delegates to Philadelphia. This he finally accomplished, and was chosen with two leaders of the opposition, Yates and Lansing, to represent New York in the coming convention. Hamilton's own position despite his victory in obtaining delegates was trying; for in the convention the vote of the state, on every question, was cast against him by his colleagues. He, however, did the best that was possible. At an early day, when a relaxing and feeble tendency appeared in the convention, he introduced his own scheme of government, and supported it in a speech of five hours. His plan was much higher in tone, and much stronger, than any other, since it called for a president and senators for life, and for the appointment of the governors of states by the national executive. It aimed, in fact, at the formation of an aristocratic instead of a Democratic republic. Such a scheme had no chance of adoption, and of course Hamilton was well aware of this, but it served its purpose by clearing the atmosphere and giving the convention a more vigorous tone. After delivering his speech, Hamilton withdrew from the convention, where his colleagues rendered him hopelessly inactive, and only returned toward the end to take part in the closing debates, and to affix his name to the constitution. It was when the labors of the convention were completed and laid before the people that Hamilton's great work for the constitution really began. He conceived and started “The Federalist,” and wrote most of those famous essays which rivetted the attention of the country, furnished the weapons of argument and exposition to those who “thought continentally” in all the states, and did more than any thing else toward the adoption of the constitution. In almost all the states the popular majority was adverse to the constitution, and in the New York ratifying convention the vote stood at the outset two to one against adoption. In a brilliant contest, Hamilton, by arguments rarely equalled in the history of debate, either in form or eloquence, by skilful management, and by wise delay, finally succeeded in converting enough votes, and carried ratification triumphantly. It was a great victory, and in the Federal procession in New York the Federal ship bore the name of “Hamilton.” From the convention the struggle was transferred to the polls. George Clinton was strong enough to prevent the choice of senators, but at the election he only retained his own office by a narrow majority; his power was broken, and the Federalists elected four of the six representatives in congress. In this fight Hamilton led, and when the choice of senators was finally made he insisted, in his imperious fashion, on the choice of Rufus King and Gen. Schuyler, thus ignoring the Livingstons, a political blunder that soon cost the Federalists control of the state of New York.

In April, 1789, Washington was inaugurated, and when the treasury department was at last organized, in September, he at once placed Hamilton at the head of it. In the five years that ensued Hamilton did the work that lies at the foundation of our system of administration, gave life and meaning to the constitution, and by his policy developed two great political parties. To give in any detail an account of what he did would be little less than to write the history of the republic during those eventful years. On 14 Jan., 1790, he sent to congress the first “Report on the Public Credit,” which is one of the great state papers of our history, and which marks the beginning and foundation of our government. In that wonderful document, and with a master's hand, he reduced our confused finances to order, provided for a funding system and for taxes to meet it, and displayed a plan for the assumption of the state debts. The financial policy thus set forth was put into execution, and by it our credit was redeemed, our union cemented, and our business and commercial prosperity restored. Yet outside of this great work and within one year Hamilton was asked to report, and did report fully, on the raising and collection of the revenue, and on a scheme for revenue cutters; as to estimates of income and expenditure; as to the temporary regulation of the currency; as to navigation-laws and the coasting-trade; as to the post-office; as to the purchase of West Point; as to the management of the public lands, and upon a great mass of claims, public and private. Rapidly, effectively, and successfully were all these varied matters dealt with and settled, and then in the succeeding years came from the treasury a report on the establishment of a mint, with an able discussion of coins and coinage; a report on a national bank, followed by a great legal argument in the cabinet, which evoked the implied powers of the constitution; a report on manufactures, which discussed with profound ability the problems of political economy and formed the basis of the protective policy of the United States; a plan for an excise; numerous schemes for improved taxation; and finally a last great report on the public credit, setting forth the best methods for managing the revenue and for the speedy extinction of the debt. In the midst of these labors Hamilton was assailed in congress by his enemies, who were stimulated by Jefferson, led by James Madison and William B. Giles, and in an incredibly short time, in a series of reports on loans, he laid bare every operation of the treasury for three years, and thereafter could not get his foes, even by renewed invitations, to investigate him further.

Outside of his own department, Hamilton was hardly less active, and in the difficult and troubled times brought on by the French revolution he took a leading part in the determination of our foreign policy. He believed in a strict neutrality, and had no leaning to France. He sustained the neutrality proclamation in the cabinet, and defended it in the press under the signature of “Pacificus.” He strenuously supported Washington in his course toward France, and constantly urged more vigorous measures toward Edmond Charles Genet (q. v.) than the cabinet as a whole would adopt. During this period, too, his quarrel with Jefferson, which really typified the growth of two great political parties, came to a head. Jefferson sustained and abetted Freneau in his attacks upon the administration and the financial policy, and upon the secretary of the treasury most especially. Hamilton, too, forgetful of the dignity of his office, took up his pen and in a series of letters to the newspapers lashed Jefferson until he writhed beneath the blows. At last Washington interfered, and a peace was patched up between the warring secretaries; but the relation was too strained to endure, and Jefferson soon resigned and retired to Virginia. Hamilton was contemplating a similar step, but postponed taking it because he wished to complete certain financial arrangements, and he also felt unwilling to leave his office until the troubles arising in Pennsylvania from the excise were settled. These disturbances culminated in open riot and insurrection; but Washington and Hamilton were fully prepared to deal with the emergency. A vigorous proclamation was issued, an overwhelming force, which Hamilton accompanied, was marched into the insurgent counties, and the so-called rebellion faded away.

Hamilton now felt free to withdraw from the cabinet, a step that he was compelled to take from a lack of resources sufficient to support a growing family, and he accordingly resigned on 31 Jan., 1795. His neglected practice at once revived, and he soon stood at the head of the New York bar. But even his incessant professional duties could not keep him from public affairs. The Jay negotiation, which he had done much to set on foot, came to an end, and the treaty that resulted from it produced a fierce outburst of popular rage, which threatened to overwhelm Washington himself. Hamilton defended the treaty with voice and pen, writing a famous series of essays signed “Camillus,” which had a powerful influence in changing public opinion. He was also consulted constantly by Washington, almost as much as if he had continued in the cabinet, and he furnished drafts and suggestions for messages and speeches, besides taking a large share in the preparation of the “Farewell Address.”

Hamilton not only corresponded with and advised the president, but maintained the same relation with the members of the cabinet, and this fact was one fruitful source of the dissensions that arose in the Federalist party after the retirement of Washington. Hamilton supported John Adams loyally, if not very cordially, at the election of 1796, and intended to give him an equally loyal support when he assumed office, but the situation was an impossible one. Adams was the leader of the party de jure, Hamilton de facto, and at least three members of the cabinet looked from the first beyond their nominal and official chief to their real chief in New York. If Adams had possessed political tact, he might have managed Hamilton; but he neither could nor would attempt it, and Hamilton, on his side, was equally imperious and equally determined to have his own way. The two leaders agreed as to the special commission to France, and the commission went. They agreed as to the attitude to be assumed after the exposure of the “X. Y. Z.” correspondence, and all went well. But, when it came to the provisional army, Adams's jealousy led him to resist Hamilton's appointment to the command, and a serious breach ensued. The influence of Washington prevailed, however, and Hamilton was given the post of inspector-general. For two years he was absorbed in the military duties thus imposed upon him, and his genius for organization comes out strongly in his correspondence relating to the formation, distribution, and discipline of the army. In the mean time the affairs of the party went from bad to worse. Mr. Adams reopened negotiations with France, which disgusted the war-Federalists, and then expelled Timothy Pickering and James McHenry from the cabinet, 12 May, 1800. He also gave loud utterance to his hatred of Hamilton, which speedily reached the latter's ears, and the Federalist party found themselves face to face with an election and torn by bitter quarrels. The Federalists were beaten by their opponents under the leadership of Burr in the New York elections, and Hamilton, smarting from defeat, proposed to Jay to call together the old legislature and refer the choice of electors to the people in districts. The proposition was wrong and desperate, and wholly unworthy of Hamilton, who seems to have been beside himself at the prospect of his party's impending ruin and the consequent triumph of Jefferson. He also made the fatal mistake of openly attacking Adams, and the famous pamphlet that he wrote against the president, after depicting Adams as wholly unfit for his high trust, lamely concluded by advising all the Federalists to vote for him. Such proceedings could have but one result, and the Federalists were beaten. The victors, however, were left in serious difficulties, for Burr and Jefferson received an equal number of votes, and the election was thrown into the house of representatives. The Federalists, eager for revenge on Jefferson, began to turn to Burr, and now Hamilton, recovered from his fit of anger, threw himself into the breach, and, using all his great influence, was chiefly instrumental in securing the election of Jefferson, thereby fulfilling the popular will and excluding Burr, a great and high-minded service, which was a fit close to his public life.

After the election of Jefferson, Hamilton resumed the practice of his profession, and withdrew more and more into private life. But he could not separate himself entirely from politics, and continued to write upon them, and strove to influence and strengthen his party. As time wore on, and the breach widened between Jefferson and Burr, the latter renewed his intrigues with the Federalists, but through Hamilton's influence was constantly thwarted, and was finally beaten for the governorship of New York. Burr then apparently determined to fix a quarrel upon his life-long enemy, which was no difficult matter, for Hamilton had used the severest language about Burr—not once, but a hundred times—and it was easy enough to bring it home to him. Hamilton had no wish to go out with Burr, but he was a fighting man, and, moreover, he was haunted by the belief that democracy was going to culminate in the horrors of the French revolution, that a strong man would be needed, and that society would turn to him for salvation—a work for which he would be disqualified by the popular prejudice if he declined to fight a duel. He therefore accepted the challenge, met Burr on 11 July, 1804, on the bank of the Hudson at Weehawken, and fell mortally wounded at the first fire. His tragic fate called forth a universal burst of grief, and drove Burr into exile, an outcast and a conspirator. The accompanying illustration represents the tomb that marks his grave in Trinity churchyard, New York. The preceding one, on page 57, is a picture of “The Grange,” Hamilton's country residence on the upper part of Manhattan island. The thirteen trees that he planted to symbolize the original states of the Union survive in majestic proportions, and the mansion is still standing on the bluff overlooking the Hudson on one side and Long Island sound on the other, not far from 145th Street.

As time has gone on Hamilton's fame has grown, and he stands to-day as the most brilliant statesman we have produced. His constructive mind and far-reaching intellect are visible in every part of our system of government, which is the best and noblest monument of his genius. His writings abound in ideas which there and then found their first expression, and which he impressed upon our institutions until they have become so universally accepted and so very commonplace that their origin is forgotten. He was a brave and good soldier, and might well have been a great one had the opportunity ever come. He was the first political writer of his time, with an unrivalled power of statement and a clear, forcible style, which carried conviction in every line. At the time of his death he was second to no man at the American bar, and was a master in debate and in oratory. In his family and among his friends he was deeply beloved and almost blindly followed. His errors and faults came from his strong, passionate nature, and his masterful will impatient of resistance or control. Yet these were the very qualities that carried him forward to his triumphs, and enabled him to perform services to the American people which can never be forgotten.

There are several portraits of the statesman by John Trumbull, and one by Wiemar; also a marble bust, modelled from life, by Ceracchi in 1794, of which the accompanying illustration, on page 56, is a copy. A full-length statue of Hamilton stands in the Central Park of New York.

Hamilton was the principal author of the series of essays called the “Federalist,” written in advocacy of a powerful and influential national government, which were published in a New York journal under the signature of “Publius” in 1787-'8, before the adoption of the Federal constitution. There were eighty-five papers in all, of which Hamilton wrote fifty-one, James Madison fourteen, John Jay five, and Madison and Hamilton jointly three, while the authorship of the remaining twelve have been claimed by both Hamilton and Madison. As secretary of the treasury, he presented to congress an elaborate report on the public debt in 1789, and one on protective duties on imports in 1791. In the “Gazette of the United States,” under the signature “An American,” he assailed Jefferson's financial views, while both were members of Washington's cabinet (1792); under that of “Pacificus,” defended in print the policy of neutrality between France and England (1793); and in a series of essays, signed “Camillus,” sustained the policy of ratifying Jay's treaty (1795). Other signatures used by him in his newspaper controversies were “Ciito,” “Lucius Crassus,” “Phocion,” and “Scipio.” In answer to the charges of corruption made by Monroe, he published a pamphlet, containing his correspondence with Monroe on the subject and the supposed incriminating letters on which the charges were based (1797). His “Observations on Certain Documents” (Philadelphia, 1797) was republished in New York in 1865. In 1798 he defended in the newspapers the policy of increasing the army. His “Works,” comprising the “Federalist,” his most important official reports, and other writings, were published in three volumes (New York, 1810). “His Official and other Papers,” edited by Francis L. Hawks, appeared in 1842. In 1851 his son, John C., issued a carefully prepared edition of his “Works,” comprising his correspondence and his political and official writings, civil and military, in seven volumes. A still larger collection of his “Complete Works,” including the “Federalist,” his private correspondence, and many hitherto unpublished documents, was edited, with an introduction and notes, by Henry Cabot Lodge (9 vols., 1885). In 1804 appeared a “Collection of Facts and Documents relative to the Death of Major-General Alexander Hamilton,” by William Coleman. The same year his “Life” was published in Boston by John Williams, under the pen-name “Anthony Pasquin,” a reprint of which has been issued by the Hamilton club (New York, 1865). A “Life of Alexander Hamilton” (2 vols., 1834-'40) was published by his son, John Church, who also compiled an elaborate work entitled “History of the Republic of the United States, as traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and his Contemporaries,” the first volume of which contains a sketch of his father's career (1850-'8). See also his “Life” by Henry B. Renwick (1841); “Life and Times of Alexander Hamilton,” by Samuel M. Smucker (Boston, 1856); “Hamilton and his Contemporaries,” by Christopher J. Riethmueller (1864); “Life of Hamilton,” by John T. Morse, Jr. (1876); “Hamilton, a Historical Study,” by George Shea (New York, 1877); “Life and Epoch of Alexander Hamilton,” by the same author (Boston, 1879); and “Life of Hamilton,” by Henry Cabot Lodge (American statesmen series, 1882). A list of the books written by or relating to Hamilton has been published under the title of “Bibliotheca Hamiltonia” by Paul L. Ford (New York, 1886).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, whose life is deeply interwoven with the history of the American revolution, with the formation and adoption of the constitution of the United States, and with the civil administration of Washington, was born in the island of Nevis, in the British West Indies, January 11th, 1757. He was of Scottish descent. His paternal grandfather resided at the family seat of Grange in Ayrshire, in Scotland. His father was bred a merchant, and went to the West Indies in that character, where he became unsuccessful in business, and subsequently lived in a state of pecuniary dependence. His mother was of a French family, and possessed superior accomplishments of mind and person. She died when he was a child, and he received the rudiments of his early education in the island of St. Croix.

He was taught when young to speak and write the French language fluently, and he displayed an early and devoted attachment to literary pursuits. His studies were under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Knox, a respectable Presbyterian clergyman, who gave to his mind a strong religious bias, which was never eradicated, and which displayed itself strongly and with consoling influence on his death-bed, though it may have been checked and diverted during the ardor and engrossing scenes of his military and political life. In 1769, he was placed as a clerk in the counting-house of Mr. Nicholas Cruger, an opulent and highly respectable merchant of St. Croix. Young HAMILTON went through the details of his clerical duty with great assiduity and fidelity, and he manifested a capacity for business, which attracted the attention and confidence of his patron. He displayed, at that early age, the most aspiring ambition, and showed infallible symptoms of superior genius. '”I contemn,” said he in a letter to a confidential schoolfellow, “the grovelling condition of a clerk, to which my fortune condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station; I mean to prepare the way for futurity.” This extraordinary feeling and determined purpose in a youth of twelve years; this ardent love for fame, and the still stronger attachment to character, were felt and exhibited in every period of his after life.

While he was in Mr. Cruger’s office, HAMILTON devoted all his leisure moments to study. Mathematics, chemistry, ethics, biography, knowledge of every kind, occupied his anxious researches. In 1772, he gave a precise and elegant description of the hurricane which had recently swept over some of the islands, and which was anonymously published in the island of St. Christopher, where it excited general attention, and contributed to give a happy direction to his future fortunes. When the author became known, his relations and patrons resolved to send him to the city of New York, for the purpose of a better education.

He arrived in New York in October, 1772, and was immediately placed at a grammar school, at Elizabethtown, in New Jersey, under the tuition of Mr. Francis Barber, who afterwards was distinguished as an accomplished officer in the American service. HAMILTON entered King’s (now Columbia) College at the close of 1773, where he soon “gave extraordinary displays of richness of genius and energy of mind.”

His active and penetrating mind was employed, even at college, in sustaining and defending the colonial opposition to the acts of the British parliament. In July 1774, while a youth of seventeen, he appeared as a speaker at a great public meeting of citizens in the fields, (now the park in front of the city hall,) and enforced the duty of resistance by an eloquent appeal to the good sense and patriotism of his auditors. He also vindicated the cause of the colonies with his pen in several anonymous publications. In December 1774, and February 1775, he was the author of some elaborate pamphlets in favor of the pacific measures of defence, recommended by congress. He suggested at that early day the policy of giving encouragement to domestic manufactures, as a sure means of lessening the need of external commerce. He anticipated ample resources at home, and, among other things, observed that several of the southern colonies were so favorable in their soil and climate to the growth of cotton, that such a staple alone, with due cultivation, in a year or two would afford products sufficient to clothe the whole continent. He insisted upon our unalienable right to the steady, uniform, unshaken security of constitutional freedom; to the enjoyment of trial by jury; and to the right of freedom from taxation, except by our own immediate representatives; and that colonial legislation was an inherent right never to be abandoned or impaired.

In the course of this pamphlet controversy, HAMILTON became engaged, though unsuspected by his opponents, in an animated discussion with Dr. Cooper, principal of the college, and with wits and politicians of established character on the ministerial side of the question. The profound principles, able reasoning, and sound policy contained in the pamphlets, astonished his adversaries; and the principal of them held it to be absurd to suppose that so young a man as HAMILTON could be the author. He was thenceforward cherished and revered by the whigs of New York as an oracle.

The war had now commenced in Massachusetts bay, and HAMILTON, young, ardent, and intrepid, was among the earliest of his fellow-citizens to turn his mind to the military service. In 1775, and while at college, he joined a volunteer corps of militia in the city of New York, studied the details of military tactics, and endeavored to reduce them to practice. And while he was most active in promoting measures of resistance, lie was busy also in studying the science of political economy, relative to commerce, the balance of trade, and the circulating medium; and which were soon to become prominent topics of speculation under the new aspects of social and political organization, of which the elements were then forming. In checking the wild spirit of mobs, he showed himself equally the intrepid advocate of freedom, and the enemy of all popular misrule and licentiousness.

On the 14th March, 1776, HAMILTON was appointed captain of a provincial company of artillery, in the city of New York, and in that rank he was soon in active service, and brought up the rear of the army in the retreat from Long Island. He was in the action at White Plains, on the 28th of October, 1776, and by that time his character and conduct had attracted the observing eye of Washington. He was with his artillery company, firm and active, in the retreat through New Jersey, and resisted the progress of the British troops on the banks of the Raritan. He was with his command at Trenton and Princeton, and he continued in the army until the 1st of March, 1777, when he was appointed aid-de-camp to General Washington, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Colonel HAMILTON remained in the family of the commander-in-chief until February, 1781, and during that long and eventful period of the war, he was, in the language of Washington himself, “his principal and most confidential aid.” In that auspicious station, and in the very general intercourse with the officers of the army and the principal men of the country which it created, he had ample opportunities to diffuse the knowledge of his talents and the influence of his accomplishments. As he spoke the French language with facility, he became familiar with the officers of the French army in America, and with the distinguished foreign officers in the American service. He recommended himself to their confidence by his kindness and his solicitude to serve them in the best manner. Their attachment and admiration were won by his genius and the goodness and frankness of his heart. This was particularly the case in respect to the Marquis Lafayette, and the Baron Steuben.

The principal labor of the correspondence of the commander-in-chief fell upon HAMILTON; and the most elaborate communications of that kind are understood to have been made essentially with his assistance. In November 1777, he was deputed by Washington to procure from General Gates at Albany reinforcements of troops, which were exceedingly wanted for the army before Howe in Philadelphia. His object was to obtain the three continental brigades, then under Gates, and without any northern enemy to employ them. But General Gates insisted on retaining at least two of the brigades, and would only consent to part with the weakest of the three. The negotiation was conducted by Colonel HAMILTON with consummate discretion; and without having recourse to the absolute authority of the commander-in-chief, he overcame, by dint of argument, the unreasonable reluctance and dangerous temper of insubordination in Gates, and procured the march to head quarters of two of the brigades. In 1778, the accuracy of HAMILTON’S judgment was tested on the subject of the inspector-general of the army, and in the appointment of Baron Steuben, and the designation of his powers and duties. He was in the same year intrusted by General Washington with much discretion respecting a general exchange of prisoners with the enemy; and he was very efficient and most happy in his advice in favor of the attack of the enemy upon their retreat through New Jersey, in June 1778, in opposition to the opinion of a majority of a council of war consulted on that occasion. The determination to attack led on to the action of Monmouth, in which fresh honor was added to the American arms. Colonel HAMILTON was that day in the field under the Marquis Lafayette, and his merit was very conspicuous in the activity, skill, and courage which he displayed.

The finances of the United States had become involved in great disorder, and the enormous issues of paper currency to the amount of two hundred millions of dollars, and its consequent depreciation almost to worthlessness, had prostrated public credit. The government and the army were reduced to the greatest difficulties and distress, from the want of means to sustain themselves, and support the war. In this extremity, the mind of Colonel HAMILTON was turned to the contemplation of the subject, and the means of relief. He was led on to those profound investigations in reference to the complicated subjects of finance, currency, taxation, and the fittest means to restore confidence, by the mastery of which he was afterwards destined to be “the founder of the public credit of the United States.” In. 1779, he addressed a letter to Robert Morris, one of the first commercial characters of the country, giving in detail his plan of finance. The restoration of the depreciated currency, and of credit and confidence, was not to be effected by expedients within our own resources. The only relief, as he declared, was to be sought in a foreign loan to the extent of two millions sterling, assisted by a vigorous taxation, and a bank of the United States to be instituted by congress for ten years, and to be supported by the foreign as well as by domestic loans in the depreciated currency at a very depreciated ratio. This institution was to rest on the firm footing of public and private faith, and was to supply the want of a circulating medium, and absorb the depreciated paper, and furnish government with the requisite loans. The scheme was in part adopted in June 1780, by the voluntary institution, through the agency of a number of patriotic individuals, of the bank of Pennsylvania, and which received the patronage of congress. Colonel HAMILTON looked with intense anxiety on the distresses of the country, and he perceived and avowed the necessity of a better system of government, and one not merely advisory, but reorganized on foundations of greater responsibility, and more efficiency. He addressed a very interesting letter to Mr. Duane, a member of congress from New York, on the state of the nation. This letter appears at this day, with all the lights and fruits of our experience, as masterly in a preeminent degree. He went on to show the defects and total inefficiency of the articles of confederation, and to prove that we stood in need of a national government, with the requisite sovereign powers, such, indeed, as the confederation theoretically contained, but without any fit organs to receive them. He suggested the idea of a national convention to amend and reorganize the government. This was undoubtedly the ablest and truest production on the state of the union, its finances, its army, its miseries, its resources, its remedies, that appeared during the revolution. It contained in embryo the existing federal constitution, and it was the production of a young man of the age of twenty-three.

In October 1780, HAMILTON earnestly recommended to General Washington the selection of General Greene, for the command of the southern army, which Gates had just left in disorganization and scattered fragments. He had early formed an exalted opinion of the merits of Greene, and entertained unmeasured confidence in his military talents, and “whose genius,” as he said, “carried in it all the resources of war.” In December 1780, he married the second daughter of Major-General Schuyler, and in the February following, he retired from the family of General Washington, but still retained his rank in the army, and was exceedingly solicitous to obtain a separate command in some light corps. Being relieved from the active duties imposed upon him as an aid, his mind became thoroughly engrossed with the situation of the country, which was in every view replete with difficulties, and surrounded with danger. Public credit was hastening to an irretrievable catastrophe. In April 1781, he addressed a letter to Mr. Morris, the superintendant of finance, on the state of the currency and finances, and he transmitted the plan of a national bank, as the only expedient that could give to government an extensive and sound paper credit, and as being essential to our success and safety. He reasoned out the utility and policy of a bank, and met and answered the objections to it with a force, perspicuity, and conclusiveness, that swept away every difficulty, and carried with it almost universal conviction. The plan of a national bank was submitted to congress by Mr. Morris, in May, 1781 and they adopted it with great unanimity, and resolved to incorporate and support it under the name of the Bank of North America. That institution, with the incipient and more feeble aid of the bank of Pennsylvania, then in operation, was of inestimable service in restoring and sustaining the credit of the country; in bringing forward our resources, and carrying on the operations of the army during the concluding scenes of the war.

The last act of Colonel HAMILTON’S military life, was at the siege of Yorktown, in Virginia. After repeated solicitations, he was at last gratified with the command of a corps of light infantry, attached to the division under the command of his friend, the Marquis Lafayette, and he was so fortunate as to be able to lead the night attack by assault of one of the enemy’s redoubts, and which was carried with distinguished rapidity and bravery. This event was the consummation of his wishes. The active service of the army had now ended. He immediately turned his attention to the duties and business of civil life; and having selected the profession of the law, he fitted himself for admission, in 1782, to the bar of the supreme court of New York with surprising facility, and with high credit to his industry and research.

 The country being about to settle down in peace, our civil government became the primary object of attention to reflecting statesmen. The defects of the confederation had grown to be prominent and glaring. The machine had become languid and worthless, and especially after the extraordinary energy and enthusiasm of the war-spirit, which had once animated it, had been withdrawn. In the winter of 1781-2, Mr. HAMILTON wrote a number of anonymous essays in the country papers in New York, under the signature of the Continentalist, in which he went largely into an examination of the defects of the confederation, and into an enumeration of the powers with which it ought to be clothed. In the summer of 1782, he was appointed by the legislature of New York, a delegate to congress. The same legislature that appointed him unanimously passed resolutions, introduced into the senate by General Schuyler, declaring that the confederation was defective in not giving to congress power to provide a revenue for itself, or in not investing them with funds from established and productive sources; and that it would be advisable for congress to recommend to the states to call a general convention to revise and amend the confederation.[1]

Colonel HAMILTON took his seat in congress, in November, 1782, and continued there until the autumn of 1783, and the proceedings of congress immediately assumed a new and more vigorous tone and character. He became at once engaged in measures calculated to relieve the embarrassed state of the public finances, and avert the dangers which beset the union of the states. His efforts to reanimate the power of the confederation, and to infuse some portion of life and vigor into the system, so as to render it somewhat adequate to the exigencies of the nation, were incessant. He was sustained in all his views, by that great statesman, the superintendant of finance, and by some superior minds in congress, and especially by Mr. Madison, whose talents, enlightened education, and services, were of distinguished value in that assembly. On the 6th of December, 1782, he moved and carried a resolution that the superintendant of finance represent to the legislatures of the several states, the indispensable necessity of complying with the requisitions of congress, for raising specified sums of money towards sustaining the expenses of government, and paying a year’s interest on the domestic debt. On the 11th of the same month, he was chairman of the committee which reported the form of an application to the governor of Rhode Island, urging in persuasive terms, the necessity and reasonableness of the concurrence on the part of that state, in a grant to congress of a general import duty of five per cent., in order to raise a fund to discharge the national debt. It contained the assurance that the increasing discontents of the army, the loud clamors of the public creditors, and the extreme disproportion between the annual supplies and the demands of the public service, were invincible arguments in favor of that source of relief; and that calamities the most menacing might be anticipated if that expedient should fail. So again on the 16th of December, he was chairman of the committee that made a report of a very superior character in vindication of the same measure. On the 20th of March, 1783, Mr. HAMILTON submitted to congress another plan of a duty of five per cent., ad valorem, on imported goods, for the discharge of the army debt. On the 22d of that month, he again, as chairman, reported in favor of a grant of five years’ full pay to the officers of the army, as a commutation for the half pay for life which had some time before been promised by congress. On the 24th of April following, he, as one of the committee, agreed to the report which Mr. Madison drew and reported as chairman, containing an address to the states in recommendation of the five per cent. duty; a document equally replete with clear and sound reasoning, and manly and elegant exhortation.

If such a series of efforts to uphold the authority and good faith of the nation failed at the time, yet HAMILTON and the other members of congress who partook of his fervor and patriotism, had the merit, at least, of preserving the honor of congress, while every other attribute of power was lost. There are other instances on record in the journals of that memorable session, in which Colonel HAMILTON was foremost to testify national gratitude for services in the field, and to show a lively sense of the sanctity of national faith. He was chairman of the committee which reported resolutions honorable to the character and services of Baron Steuben; and he introduced a resolution calling upon the states to remove every legal obstruction under their local jurisdictions in the way of the entire and faithful execution of the treaty of peace. His seat in congress expired at the end of the year 1783; but his zeal for the establishment of a national government, competent to preserve us from insult abroad and degradation and dissension at home, and fitted to restore credit, to protect liberty, and to cherish and display our resources, kept increasing in intensity. His statesman-like views became more and more enlarged and comprehensive, and the action of his mind more rapid, as we approached the crisis of our destiny.

On the recovery of New York in the autumn of 1783, Mr. HAMILTON assumed the practice of the law; but his mind was still deeply occupied with discussions concerning the public welfare. In the winter of 1784, his pamphlet productions under the signature of Phocion, and addressed “to the considerate citizens of New York,” excited very great interest. Their object was to check the intemperate spirit which prevailed on the recovery of the city of New York; to vindicate the constitutional and treaty rights of all classes of persons inhabiting the southern district of New York, then recently recovered from the enemy’s possession; and to put a stop to every kind of proscriptive policy and legislative disabilities, as being incompatible with the treaty of peace, the spirit of whiggism, the dictates of policy, and the voice of law and justice. His appeal to the good sense and patriotism of the public was not made in vain. The force of plain truth carried his doctrines along against the stream of prejudice, and overcame every obstacle.

Colonel HAMILTON had scarcely began to display his great powers as an advocate at the bar, when he was again called into public life. He was elected a member of assembly for the city of New York, in 1786, and in the ensuing session he made several efforts to surmount the difficulties, and avert the evils, which encompassed the country. The state of Vermont was in fact independent, but she was not in the confederacy. His object was to relieve the nation from such a peril, and he introduced a bill into the house of assembly renouncing jurisdiction over that state, and preparing the way for its admission into the union. His proposition was ably resisted by counsel, heard at the bar of the house, and acting on behalf of claimants of lands in Vermont, under grant from New York. Mr. HAMILTON promptly met and answered the objections to the bill with his usual ability and familiar knowledge of the principles of public law. In the same session he made bold but unavailing efforts to prop up and sustain the tottering fabric of the confederation, and the prostrate dignity and powers of congress. His motion and very distinguished speech in favor of the grant to congress of an import duty of five per cent., was voted down in silence without attempting an answer. But a new era was commencing. The clouds began to disperse, and the horizon was soon seen to kindle and glow with the approaches of a brighter day. HAMILTON was destined to display the rich fruits of his reflection and experience, and his entire devotedness to his country’s cause in a more exalted sphere. In the same session he was appointed one of the three New York delegates to the general convention, recommended by congress to be held at Philadelphia, in May, 1787, to revise and amend the articles of confederation.

His services in that convention were immensely valuable. All contemporary information confirms it. His object was to make the experiment of a great federative republic, moving in the largest sphere, and resting entirely on a popular basis, as complete, satisfactory, and decisive as possible, in favor of civil liberty, public security and national greatness. He considered the best interests of mankind, and the character of free and popular institutions, as being deeply, and perhaps finally, involved in the result. Experimental propositions were made in the convention, and received as suggestions for consideration. The highest toned proposition which he ever made, was that the president and senate should be elected by electors chosen by the people, and that they as well as the judges should hold their offices during good behavior, and that the house of representatives should be elected triennially. His opinions essentially changed during the progress of the discussions, and he became satisfied that it would be dangerous to the public tranquillity, to elect by popular election a chief magistrate with so permanent a tenure; and towards the close of the convention, his subsequent plan gave to the office of president a duration of only three years.

When the constitution adopted by the convention was submitted to the consideration of the American people, Mr. HAMILTON, in association with Mr. Jay and Mr. Madison, commenced a series of essays under the signature of Publius, in explanation and vindication of the principles of the government. Those essays compose the two Volumes of that celebrated and immortal work “The Federalist.” Several numbers appeared successively every week in the New York papers, between October, 1787, and the spring of 1788. The whole work consists of eighty-five numbers. Mr. Jay wrote five, Mr. Madison upwards of twenty, and Mr. HAMILTON the residue. The value of the union, the incompetency of the articles of confederation to preserve it, and the necessity of a government organized upon the principles, and clothed with the powers, of the one presented to the public, were topics discussed with a talent, force, information, skill, and eloquence, to which we had not been accustomed. Mr. HAMILTON was also a member of the New York state convention, which met at Poughkeepsie in June, 1788. That convention was composed of many distinguished individuals of great weight of character. Most of them had been disciplined in the varied services of the revolution. But as Mr. HAMILTON had been a leading member of the national convention, and had signed the instrument before them, he felt and nobly sustained the weight of the responsibility attached to his situation and as he had been also a leading writer in the Federalist, his mind was familiar with the principles of the constitution, and with every topic of debate. The wisdom of the commentator was displayed and enforced by the eloquence of the orator. He was prompt, ardent, energetic, and overflowing with an exuberance of argument and illustration.

After the constitution had been adopted by the requisite number of states, it went into operation in the course of the year 1789; and when the treasury-department was established, Colonel HAMILTON was appointed secretary of the treasury. He remained in that office upwards of five years, and resigned it in January, 1795, after having built up and placed on sound foundations the fiscal concerns of the nation confided to his care, so as to leave to his successors little more to do than to follow his precepts, and endeavor to shine by the imitation of his example. His great duty consisted in devising and recommending a suitable provision for the gradual restoration of public credit and the faithful discharge of the national debt. His reports as secretary, made under the direction of the house of representatives, were so many didactic dissertations, laboriously wrought and highly finished, on some of the most difficult and complicated subjects in the science of political economy. Among those reports, the most interesting were, first, his report of January, 1790, on a provision for the support of public credit, in which he showed the necessity of funding the public debt; the inexpedience of discrimination between original and present holders of it; and the expediency of assuming the state debt. Second, his report of December, 1790, on the establishment of a national bank, in which he demonstrated that it was within the reach of the legitimate powers of the government, and essential to the convenient and prosperous administration of the national finances. His reasoning was so clear and cogent, that it carried the measure triumphantly through congress; notwithstanding the objections of Mr. Jefferson in the executive cabinet, he satisfied the cautious and solid judgment of Washington. Third, his report of December, 1791, on the subject of domestic manufactures. This was one of his most elaborate reports, equally distinguished for knowledge and strength; and he seems not to have entertained a doubt, either of the constitutional right of congress to exercise its sound discretion on the subject or of the wisdom of the legislative encouragement of them in particular cases. Fourth, his report of January, 1795, on a plan for the further support of public credit. In his view, the true principle to render public credit immortal, was to accompany the creation of debt with the means of extinguishing it; and he recommended a provision for augmenting the sinking fund, so as to render it commensurate with the entire debt of the United States. By these financial measures which he had the honor to suggest and recommend, he enabled his country to feel and develope its immense resources; and under his administration public credit was awakened from death unto life, and rose with fair proportions and gigantic strength, so as to engage the attention and command the confidence of Europe. In connection with these splendid results, the integrity and simplicity with which he conducted his department, and which the most jealous and penetrating inquisition into all the avenues of his office could never question, forms with posterity one of his fairest titles to fame.

While Colonel HAMILTON presided over the treasury department, the French revolution burst forth with destructive violence, and brought on an embittered war between Great Britain and the French republic. Being a member of President Washington’s cabinet council, Mr. HAMILTON was one of the advisers of the proclamation of neutrality in April, 1793, and he supported it by his vigorous pen. That proclamation was the index to the foreign policy of Washington, and it was temperately but firmly maintained against the intrigue and insolence of the French minister to the United States, and against all the force and fury of the turbulent passions of the times, engendered and inflamed by the French democracy. He aided the American policy of neutrality in some fugitive pieces under the signature No Jacobin, and in the more elaborate essays of Pacificus, and vastly more so by his advice in favor of the timely mission of Chief Justice Jay, as minister extraordinary to Great Britain, in the spring of 1794.

After Colonel HAMILTON’s return to private life and to the practice of his profession in the city of New York, he felt himself called upon by a sense of duty to vindicate the justice and wisdom of Mr. Jay’s treaty, which had adjusted and extinguished the complaints and difficulties existing between the two nations. This he did in a series of essays under the signature of Camillus, in the summer of 1795. They were profound and exhausting commentaries on particular branches of public law, and sustained with great ability and a thorough knowledge of the subject, the grounds on which our treaty and neutral claims and commercial interests had been ascertained and adjusted.

On reassuming his profession, Colonel HAMILTON entered at once into an overwhelming share of professional business. He was a great favorite with the New York merchants; and he justly deserved to be so, for he had uniformly proved himself to be an enlightened, intrepid, and persevering friend to the commercial prosperity of the country. He was a great master of commercial law, as well as of the principles of international jurisprudence. There were no deep recesses of the science which he did not explore. He would occasionally draw from the fountains of the civil law, and illustrate and enforce the enlightened decisions of Mansfield, by the severe judgment of Emerigon, and the lucid commentaries of Valin. In short, he conferred dignity and high reputation on the profession, of which he was indisputably the first of the first rank, by his indefatigable industry, his thorough researches, his logical powers, his solid judgment, his winning candor, and his matchless eloquence.

In the spring of 1798, he was involved once more in political discussion. The depredations of France upon our commerce, and the insults heaped upon our ministers, left to this country no alternative but open and determined resistance. At that crisis Mr. HAMILTON published a number of essays in the New York papers under the signature of Titus Manlius, with a view to rouse the people of this country to a sense of impending danger, and to measures of defence which should be at once vigorous and effectual. No productions of any pen ever portrayed in more just and more glowing colors, the atrocities of revolutionary France towards her own people, and towards other nations, under the impetus of unprincipled ambition and ruthless fanaticism. He suggested that we ought to suspend our treaties with France, fortify our harbors, protect our commerce, attack their predatory cruisers on our coast, create a respectable naval force, and raise, organize, and discipline a respectable body of troops, as an indispensable precaution against attempts at invasion. The facts were so undeniable, and the conclusions so just, that in the summer of 1798, all those precautionary and necessary measures were literally carried into execution by congress, and received the prompt and hearty sanction of the nation. At the earnest recommendation of General Washington, HAMILTON was appointed inspector-general of the small provincial army that was raised in that year.

That public trust did not detach him from his profession, nor long detain him from its duties. He continued his devotedness to the bar during the short residue of his life. In the winter of 1804, Colonel Burr was proposed at Albany as a candidate for governor. General HAMILTON, at a public meeting of persons belonging to the federal party, decidedly objected to the nomination, declaring that he deemed Colonel Burr an unsafe and unfit person to be placed in such a trust, and that he would never unite with his party on such a candidate. Declarations of that kind made on public and patriotic grounds, and when it was his right and his duty to make them if he thought so, (and of which no one doubted,) cost him his life. In the summer following, after Colonel Burr had lost the election, he deemed it expedient to call General HAMILTON personally to account for what he had said. The latter very mistakingly thought it necessary to meet his antagonist in the field. He fell on the 12th July, 1804, and all America mourned over the fate of such an innocent and illustrious victim.                                                                                                                                                                      J. K.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 2.

[1] This sketch has hitherto been chiefly made from materials contained in the first volume of the “Life of ALEXANDER HAMILTON,” by his son, John C. Hamilton. That volume carries the biography down to this period, and it is a production deeply interesting. The filial reverence of the historian awakens our sensibility, and he commands our confidence by his frankness, his pains-taking research, his documentary accuracy, and sound principles, his just reflections, and perspicuous and elegant narration.

 

 

HAMILTON, Lavinia, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

HAMILTON, Morgan Calvin, 1809-1893, Alabama, abolitionist, soldier.  U.S. Senator from Texas, 1870-1877.  Member of the Radical wing of the Republican Party.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.)

 

HAMILTON, Morgan Calvin, senator, b. near Huntsville, Ala., 25 Feb., 1809. He received a common-school education, and removed to the republic of Texas in 1837, where he was a clerk in the war department in 1839-'45, and during the greater part of the last three years was acting secretary of war. He was appointed comptroller of the state treasury in September, 1867, was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1868, and on the reconstruction of the state was elected to the U. S. senate as a Republican, and was re-elected, serving from 1870 till 1877.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

HAMILTON, Robert, 1819-1870, African American, abolitionist leader, journalist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 319, Vol. 8, p. 449)

 

 

HAMILTON, Thomas, New York, New York, American Abolition Society, Recording Secretary, 1855-59

 

 

HAMLIN, Hannibal, 1809-1891. Vice President of the United States, 1861-1865, under President Abraham Lincoln.  Congressman from Maine, 1843-1847.  U.S. Senator from Maine, 1848-1857, 1857-1861, and 1869-1881.  Governor of Maine, January-February 1857.  In February 1857, he resigned as Governor of Maine to return to the U.S. Senate.  In 1861, he was elected U.S. Vice President.  Was an adamant opponent of the extension of slavery into the new territories.  Supported the Wilmot Proviso and spoke against the compromise laws of 1850.  Strongly opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  Early founding member of the Republican Party.  Supported Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and creation of Black regiments for the Union Army. (Harry Draper Hunt (1969). Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, Lincoln's first Vice-President. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2142-3. OCLC 24587.   Charles Eugene Hamlin (1899). The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin. Syracuse University Press. OCLC 1559174; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 65-66; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 196)

 

HAMLIN, Hannibal, statesman, b. in Paris, Oxford co., Me., 27 Aug., 1809; d. in Bangor, Me., 4 July, 1891. He prepared for college, but was compelled by the death of his father to take charge of the farm until he was of age. He learned printing, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1833, and practised in Hampden, Penobscot co., until 1848. He was a member of the legislature from 1836 till 1840, and again in 1847, and was speaker of the lower branch in 1837-'9 and 1840. In 1840 he received the Democratic nomination for member of congress, and, during the exciting Harrison campaign, held joint discussions with his competitor, being the first to introduce that practice into Maine. In 1842 he was elected as a Democrat to congress, and re-elected in 1844. He was chosen to the U. S. senate for four years in 1848, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of John Fairfield, and was re-elected in 1851, but resigned in 1857 to be inaugurated governor, having been elected to that office as a Republican. Less than a month afterward, on 20 Feb., he resigned the governorship, as he had again been chosen U. S. senator for the full term of six years. He served until January, 1861, when he resigned, having been elected vice-president on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. He presided over the senate from 4 March, 1861, till 3 March, 1865. In the latter year he was appointed collector of the port of Boston, but resigned in 1866. From 1861 till 1865 he had also acted as regent of the Smithsonian institution, and was reappointed in 1870, continuing to act for the following twelve years, during which time he became dean of the board. He was again elected and re-elected to the U. S. senate, serving from 4 March, 1869, till 3 March, 1881. In June of that year he was named minister to Spain, but gave up the office the year following and returned to this country. He received the degree of LL. D. from Colby university, then Waterville college, of which institution he was trustee for over twenty years. Senator Hamlin, although a Democrat, was an original anti-slavery man, and so strong were his convictions that they finally led to his separation from that party. Among the significant incidents of his long career of nearly fifty years may be mentioned the fact that, in the temporary and involuntary absence of David Wilmot from the house of representatives, during the session of the 29th congress, at the critical moment when the measure, since known as “the Wilmot proviso,” had to be presented or the opportunity irrevocably lost, Mr. Hamlin, while his anti-slavery friends were in the greatest confusion and perplexity, seeing that only a second's delay would be fatal, offered the bill and secured its passage by a vote of 115 to 106. In common, however, with Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Hamlin strove simply to prevent the extension of slavery into new territory, and did not seek to secure its abolition. In a speech in the U. S. senate, 12 June, 1856, in which he gave his reasons for changing his party allegiance, he thus referred to the Democratic convention then recently held at Cincinnati: “The convention has actually incorporated into the platform of the Democratic party that doctrine which, only a few years ago, met with nothing but ridicule and contempt here and elsewhere, namely, that the flag of the Federal Union, under the constitution of the United States, carries slavery wherever it floats. If this baleful principle be true, then that national ode, which inspires us always as on a battle-field, should be re-written by Drake, and should read: 

‘Forever float that standard sheet!  
Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With slavery's soil beneath our feet,   
And slavery's banner streaming o'er us.’” 

When he had been elected vice-president on the ticket with Mr. Lincoln, he accepted an invitation to meet the latter at Chicago, and, calling on the president-elect, found him in a room alone. Mr. Lincoln arose, and, coming toward his guest, said abruptly: “Have we ever been introduced to each other, Mr. Hamlin?” “No, sir, I think not,” was the reply. “That also is my impression,” continued Mr. Lincoln; "but I remember distinctly while I was in congress to have heard you make a speech in the senate. I was very much struck with that speech, senator— particularly struck with it—and for the reason that it was filled, chock up, with the very best kind of anti-slavery doctrine.” “Well, now,” replied Hamlin, laughing, “that is very singular, for my one and first recollection of yourself is of having heard you make a speech in the house—a speech that was so full of good humor and sharp points that I, together with others of your auditors, was convulsed with laughter.” The acquaintance, thus cordially begun, ripened into a close friendship, and it is affirmed that during all the years of trial, war, and bloodshed that followed, Abraham Lincoln continued to repose the utmost confidence in his friend and official associate. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

HAMMOND, Thomas H., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

HANBY, Benjamin Russell, 1833-1867, composer, abolitionist.  Active in the local Underground railroad with his father, Bishop William Hanby.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 217)

 

 

HANNA, A. F., abolitionist, Cadiz, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-41

 

 

HANNA, Benjamin, abolitionist, Ohio, aided fugitive slaves in Ohio.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 137-138)

 

 

HANNA, Robert, abolitionist, Cadiz, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-42, 1843-46

 

 

HARDING, Sewall, Medway, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

HARLAN, James, 1820-1899, statesman.  Whig U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Elected Senator in 1855 representing Iowa.  Re-elected, served until 1865, when appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Lincoln.  Re-elected to Senate in 1866, served until 1873.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 83-84; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 269; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 94; Congressional Globe)

 

HARLAN, James, statesman, b. in Clarke county, Ind., 26 Aug., 1820; d. in Des Moines, Iowa, 5 Oct., 1899. He was graduated at the Indiana Asbury university, held the office of superintendent of public instruction, and was president of Iowa Wesleyan university. He was elected to the U. S. senate in 1855 as a Whig, and served as chairman of the committee on public lands, but his seat was declared vacant on a technicality on 12 Jan., 1857. On the 17th of the same month he was re-elected for the term ending in 1861, and in the latter year was a delegate to the Peace convention. He was re-elected to the senate for the term ending in 1867, but resigned in 1865, having been appointed by President Lincoln secretary of the interior. He was again elected to the senate in 1866, and was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention of that year. He was chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia and Indian affairs, and also served on those on foreign relations, agriculture, and the Pacific railroad. In 1869 he was appointed president of the Iowa university. After leaving the senate in 1873 he became editor of the “Washington Chronicle.” From 1882 till 1885 he was presiding judge of the court of commissioners of Alabama claims. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 83-84.

 

 

HARMON, David P., abolitionist, Haverhill, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1854-60

 

 

HARNED, William, abolitionist, New York, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Rec. Secretary, 1846-47

 

 

HARPER, Charles C., Baltimore, Maryland.  Active in the American Colonization Society movement with his father, Robert Goodloe Harper.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 38, 52, 53; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 101, 110-111, 161, 190)

 

 

HARPER, Frances Ellen Watkins, 1825-1911, African American, poet, writer, abolitionist, political activist. Wrote antislavery poetry. (Hughes, Meltzer, & Lincoln, 1968, p. 105; Yellin, 1994, pp. 97, 148, 153, 155-157, 295; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 372)

 

 

HARPER, Robert Goodloe, 1765-1825, Fredericksburg, Virginia, Baltimore, U.S. Senator, lawyer.  Founding officer, Baltimore auxiliary, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1817.  Active advocate and supporter of the colonization movement.  Invented the name “Liberia” for ACS colony.  Father of ACS activist Charles C. Harper.  (Burin, 2005, p. 66; Campbell, 1971, pp. 21, 88; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 88; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 285; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 39, 65, 70, 84, 104, 110, 169, 174)

 

HARPER, Robert Goodloe, senator, b. near Fredericksburg, Va., in 1765; d. in Baltimore, Md., 15 Jan., 1825. He was the son of poor parents, who, during his childhood, removed to Granville, N. C. At the age of fifteen he served, under Gen. Greene, in a troop of horse, composed of the youth of the neighborhood, during the closing scenes of the southern campaign of the Revolution. He was graduated at Princeton in 1785, studied law in Charleston, S. C., and was admitted to the bar in 1786. He soon removed to the interior of the state where he became known through a series of articles on a proposed change in the constitution. He was elected to the legislature and subsequently sent to congress, serving from 9 Feb., 1795, till 3 March, 1801, and warmly supporting the administrations of Washington and Adams. He served in the war of 1812, being promoted from the rank of colonel to that of major-general. Soon after the defeat of the Federalists he married the daughter of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and removed to Baltimore, Md., where he attained eminence at the bar. He was employed with Joseph Hopkinson as counsel for Judge Samuel Chase, of the U.S. supreme court, in his impeachment trial. At a dinner given at Georgetown, D. C., 5 June, 1813, in honor of the recent Russian victories, he gave as a toast “Alexander the Deliverer,” following it with a speech eulogizing the Russians. On the publication of the speech, Robert Walsh addressed the author a letter in which he expressed the opinion that the oration underrated the military character of Napoleon, and failed to point out the danger of Russian ascendency. To this letter Harper made an elaborate reply, Walsh responded, and the correspondence was then (1814) published in a volume. Harper was elected to the U. S. senate from Maryland to serve from 29 Jan., 1816, till 3 March, 1821, but resigned in the former year to become one of the Federalist candidates for vice-president. In 1819-'20 he visited Europe with his family, and after his return employed himself chiefly in the promotion of schemes of internal improvements. He was an active member of the American colonization society, and the town of Harper, near Cape Palmas, Africa, was named in his honor. His pamphlet, entitled “Observations on the Dispute between the United States and France” (1797), acquired great celebrity. He also printed “An Address on the British Treaty” (1796); “Letters on the Proceedings of Congress”; and “Letters to His Constituents” (1801). A collection of his various letters, addresses, and pamphlets was published with the title “Select Works” (Baltimore, 1814). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HARRINGTON, Theophilis, 1762-1813, jurist, political leader, abolitionist.  Ruled in court case against a slaveholder in June 1804.

 

 

HARRIS, Ira, 1802-1875, jurist.  Republican U.S. Senator from New York.  Served as U.S. Senator from 1861-1867.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 91; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 310; Congressional Globe)

 

HARRIS, Ira, jurist, b. in Charleston, Montgomery co., N. Y., 31 May, 1802; d. in Albany, N. Y., 2 Dec., 1875. He was brought up on a farm, was graduated at Union college in 1824, studied law in Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1828. During the succeeding seventeen years he attained a high rank in his profession. He was a member of the assembly in 1844 and 1845, having been chosen as a Whig, and in 1846 was state senator and a delegate to the Constitutional convention. In 1848 he became judge of the supreme court, and held that office for twelve years. In February, 1861, Judge Harris was elected U. S. senator from New York, as a Republican, serving from 4 July, 1861, to 3 March, 1867. In the senate Mr. Harris served on the committee on foreign relations and judiciary, and the select joint committee on the southern states. Although he supported the administration in the main, he did not fear to express his opposition to all measures, however popular at the time, that did not appear to him either wise or just. Judge Harris was for more than twenty years professor of equity, jurisprudence, and practice in the Albany law-school, and during his senatorial term delivered a course of lectures at the law-school of Columbian university, Washington, D. C. He was for many years president of the board of trustees of Union college, was one of the founders of Rochester university, of which he was the chancellor, and was president of the American Baptist missionary union and other religious bodies.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HARRIS, William Logan, 1817-1887, Ohio, abolitionist, clergyman.  Active in abolition movement in Ohio.

 

 

HARRISON, Benjamin

 

 

HARRISON, Jesse Burton, Lynchburg, Virginia, orator, lawyer, politician.  Agent for the American Colonization Society (ACS) in Lynchburg, Virginia.  Wrote articles advocating for the ACS and colonization.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 109, 183, 205)

 

 

HARRISON, Marcus, abolitionist, Decatur, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-40

 

 

HARRISON, Thomas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, co-founder and leader of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, founded 1775, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 80, 92; Locke, 1901, pp. 133, 133n; Nash, 1991, pp. 80, 115, 117, 123-124, 130-131, 163)

 

 

HART, Reverend Levi, Connecticut, petitioned against slavery (Bruns, 1977, pp. 293, 340-348, 365-376; Locke, 1901, pp. 41, 41n2; Park, “Memoir of Samuel Hopkins,” in Hopkins’ Works, I, pp. 123, 125-126; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 107, 153, 156)

 

 

HARTT, Henry A., abolitionist, New York, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1860-64

 

 

HASKELL, Benjamin F., Cornwall, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-42

 

 

HASTINGS, Charles, abolitionist, Detroit, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

HASTINGS, Erastus P., Detroit, Michigan.  Vice president, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

HASTINGS, Samuel D, 1816-1903, Massachusetts, abolitionist, reformer, businessman.  As a Wisconsin state assemblyman in 1849, Hastings introduced bills to oppose slavery, particularly the admission of new slave states.  (Dictionary of Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society)

 

 

HASTINGS, Seth, member of the U.S. Congress from Massachusetts, opposed slavery as member of U.S. House of Representatives (Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 150, 151)

 

 

HATCH, Asa D., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1846-

 

HATHAWAY, Joseph C., abolitionist, Farmington, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-42, Rec. Secretary, 1840-42, 1843-44, Executive Committee, 1840-41, 1842-43, Vice-President, 1844-46

 

 

HAVEN, Gilbert, 1821-1880, clergyman, African American civil rights advocate, abolitionist.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 407)

 

 

HAVILAND, Charles, Jr., New York, abolitionist.  Husband of noted abolitionist leader Laura Smith Haviland.  Helped organize the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society in Michigan in 1832.  Co-founded the Raisin Institute, a progressive racially integrated school.  Operated a station on the Underground Railroad.  (Danforth, 1961; Dumond, 1961, pp. 279-281; Haviland, 1882; Lindquist, 1999)

 

 

HAVILAND, Laura Smith, 1808-1898, New York, Society of Friends, Quaker, anti-slavery activist.  October 8, 1832, co-founded the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society in Lenawee County, Michigan Territory, with Elizabeth Chandler.  Founded the Raisin Institute.  Helped fugitive slaves.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 279, 401n18, 32; Haviland, 1882)

 

 

HAWES, Joel, Reverend, 1789-1867, Hartford, Connecticut, clergyman, author.  Member of the Hartford Committee of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 119; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 86)

 

HAWES, Joel, clergyman, b. in Medway, Mass., 22 Dec., 1789; d. in Gilead, Conn., 5 June, 1867. He was of humble parentage, and had few opportunities for early education. He was graduated at Brown in 1813, studied theology at Andover, and on 4 March, 1818, was ordained pastor of the 1st Congregational church in Hartford, Conn., of which he was sole pastor until 1860, senior pastor until 1864, and pastor emeritus until his death. In 1844 he visited Europe and the east, spending several months in Asia Minor and Turkey, where his daughter was a missionary. He was a frequent contributor to the religious press and periodicals, and published “Lectures to Young Men,” which had a large circulation in the United States and Great Britain (Hartford, 1828); “Tribute to the Memory of the Pilgrims” (1830); “Memoir of Normand Smith” (1839); “Character Everything to the Young” (1843); “The Religion of the East” (1845); “Looking-Glass for the Ladies, or the Formation and Excellence of Female Character” (1845); “Washington and Jay” (1850); and “An Offering to Home Missionaries,” discourses on home missions, which he published at his own expense for distribution to the missionaries of the American home missionary society (1865.) Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HAWKS, John Milton, 1826-1910, Manchester, New Hampshire, physician, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1859-1864.  Aided freedmen during and after the Civil War.  Advocate of enlisting African Americans for the Union Army.

 

 

HAWLEY, C. M. , New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

HAWLEY, Joseph Roswell, 1826-1905, statesman, clergyman, lawyer, editor, opponent of slavery, Union officer.  Member of the Free Soil Party.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Chairman of Connecticut Free Soil State Committee.  He opposed pro-slavery Know-Nothing Party and aided in anti-slavery organizing.  Helped organize and found the Republican Party in 1856.  In 1857, became editor of the Republican newspaper, Evening Press in Hartford.  Enlisted in the Union Army, rising to the rank of Brigadier General, commanding both a division and a brigade.  (Appletons, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 123-124; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 421; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 351)

 

HAWLEY, Joseph Roswell, statesman, b. in Stewartsville, N. C., 31 Oct., 1826. He is of English-Scotch ancestry. His father, Rev. Francis Hawley (descended from Samuel, who settled in Stratford, Conn., in 1639), was b. in Farmington, Conn. He went south early and engaged in business, but afterward entered the Baptist ministry. He married Mary McLeod, a native of North Carolina, of Scotch parentage, and the family went to Connecticut in 1837, where the father was an active anti-slavery man. The son prepared for college at the Hartford grammar-school and the seminary in Cazenovia. N. Y., whither the family removed about 1842. He was graduated at Hamilton in 1847, with a high reputation as a speaker and debater. He taught in the winters, studied law at Cazenovia and Hartford, and began practice in 1850. He immediately became chairman of the Free-soil state committee, wrote for the Free-soil press, and spoke in every canvass. He stoutly opposed the Know-Nothings, and devoted his energies to the union of all opponents of slavery. The first meeting for the organization of the Republican party in Connecticut was held in his office, at his call, 4 Feb., 1856. Among those present were Gideon Welles and John M. Niles. Mr. Hawley gave three months to speaking in the Frémont canvass of 1856. In February, 1857, he abandoned law practice, and became editor of the Hartford “Evening Press,” the new distinctively Republican paper. His partner was William Faxon, afterward assistant secretary of the navy. He responded to the first call for troops in 1861 by drawing up a form of enlistment, and, assisted by Drake, afterward colonel of the 10th regiment, raising rifle company A, 1st Connecticut volunteers, which was organized and accepted in twenty-four hours, Hawley having personally engaged rifles at Sharp's factory. He became the captain, and is said to have been the first volunteer in the state. He received special praise for good conduct at Bull Run from Gen. Erastus D. Keyes, brigade commander. He directly united with Col. Alfred H. Terry in raising the 7th Connecticut volunteers, a three years' regiment, of which he was lieutenant-colonel. It went south in the Port Royal expedition, and on the capture of the forts was the first sent ashore as a garrison. It was engaged four months in the siege of Fort Pulaski, and upon the surrender was selected as the garrison. Hawley succeeded Terry, and commanded the regiment in the battles of James Island and Pocotaligo, and in Brannan's expedition to Florida. He went with his regiment to Florida, in January, 1863, and commanded the post of Fernandina, whence in April he undertook an unsuccessful expedition against Charleston. He also commanded a brigade on Morris Island in the siege of Charleston and the capture of Fort Wagner. In February, 1864, he had a brigade under Gen. Truman Seymour in the battle of Olustee, Fla., where the whole National force lost 38 per cent. His regiment was one of the few that were armed with the Spencer breech-loading rifle. This weapon, which he procured in the autumn of 1863, proved very effective in the hands of his men. He went to Virginia in April, 1864, having a brigade in Terry's division, 10th corps, Army of the James, and was in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, Deep Run, Derbytown Road, and various affairs near Bermuda Hundred and Deep Bottom. He commanded a division in the fight on the Newmarket road, and engaged in the siege of Petersburg. In September, 1864, he was made a brigadier-general, having been repeatedly recommended by his immediate superiors. In November, 1864, he commanded a picked brigade sent to New York city to keep the peace during the week of the presidential election. He succeeded to Terry's division when Terry was sent to Fort Fisher in January, 1865, afterward rejoining him as chief of staff, 10th corps, and on the capture of Wilmington was detached by Gen. Schofield to establish a base of supplies there for Sherman's army, and command southeastern North Carolina. In June he rejoined Terry as chief of staff for the Department of Virginia. In October he went home, was brevetted major-general, and was mustered out, 15 Jan., 1866. In April, 1866, he was elected governor of Connecticut, but he was defeated in 1867, and then, having united the “Press” and the “Courant,” he resumed editorial life, and more vigorously than ever entered the political contests following the war. He was always in demand as a speaker throughout the country. He was president of the National Republican convention in 1868, secretary of the committee on resolutions in 1872, and chairman of that committee in 1876. He earnestly opposed paper money theories. In November, 1872, he was elected to fill a vacancy in congress caused by the death of Julius L. Strong. He was re-elected to the 43d congress, defeated for the 44th and 45th, and re-elected to the 46th (1879-'81). He was elected senator in January, 1881, by the unanimous vote of his party, and re-elected in like manner in 1887 and 1893 for the term ending 4 March, 1899. In the house he served on the committees on claims, banking and currency, military affairs, and appropriations; in the senate, on the committees on coast defences, railroads, printing, and military affairs. He is chairman of the committee on civil service, and vigorously promoted the enactment of civil-service-reform legislation. He was also chairman of a select committee on ordnance and war-ships, and submitted a long and valuable report, the result of careful investigation into steel production and heavy gun-making in England and the United States. In the National convention of 1884 the Connecticut delegation unanimously voted for him for president in every ballot. He was president of the U. S. centennial commission from its organization in 1872 until the close of its labors in 1877, gave two years exclusively to the work, was ex-officio member of its committees, and appointed all save the executive. He received the degree of LL. D. from Hamilton in 1875, and from Yale in 1886. Of the former institution he is a trustee. Ecclesiastically he is a Congregationalist. Gen. Hawley is an ardent Republican, one of the most acceptable extemporary orators in the republic, a believer in universal suffrage, the American people and the “American way,” is a “hard-money” man, would adjust the tariff so as to benefit native industries, urges the reconstruction of our naval and coast defences, demands a free ballot and a fair count everywhere, opposes the tendency to federal centralization, and is a strict constructionist of the constitution in favor of the rights and dignity of the individual states. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 123-124.

 

 

HAWLEY, Orestes K., abolitionist, Austinburgh, Ohio.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

HAWLEY, Silas Jr., abolitionist, Groton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-41.  (Frederick Douglass Papers)

 

 

HAWLEY, William, Reverend, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Manager, 1833-39, Vice-President, 1839-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 54, 112, 235)

 

 

HAWLEY, William Merrill, 1802-1869, lawyer, jurist, State Senator.  Member, Free Soil Radical Delegation in August 1848.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 124)

 

HAWLEY, William Merrill, lawyer, b. in Delaware county, N. Y., 23 Aug., 1802; d. in Hornellsville, N. Y., 9 Feb., 1869. His father, one of the earliest settlers in western New York, was a farmer, and unable to give his children a classical education. William went to the common school, and at the age of twenty-one removed to Almond, Alleghany co., where be cleared a piece of land for tillage. In the spring of 1824 be was elected constable, and began the study of law to assist him in this office. He was admitted to the bar in 1826, removed to Hornellsville the next year, and practised his profession until his appointment in 1846 as first judge of Steuben county. He served in the state senate, was a delegate to the Democratic national convention of 22 May, 1848, which met in Baltimore, and was identified with the “Free-soil radical delegation,” which culminated in the National convention of 9 Aug., 1848, held in Buffalo, N. Y., in which Martin Van Buren was nominated for the presidency. Judge Hawley was one of the committee appointed to introduce the resolutions the essential elements of which were afterward adopted by the Republican party. After his retirement from the state senate he did not again enter public life, but, devoting himself to his profession, acquired a large fortune, and practised until a short time before his death. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HAYDEN, Harriet, African American, wife of Lewis Hayden.  Aided fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad.  Their home was a station.

 

 

HAYDEN, Joel, Haydensville, Massachusetts, Williamsberg, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1841-42, Vice-President, 1842-, 1844-

 

 

HAYDEN, Lewis, 1811-1888, African American, fugitive slave, businessman, abolitionist, lecturer, politician. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 459)

 

 

HAYES, Lucy Webb, 1831-1889, abolitionist.  First Lady of the United States.  Wife of Rutherford B. Hayes.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 143)

 

 

HAYES, Rutherford Birchard, 1822-1893, Delaware, Ohio,, 19th President of the United States, 1877-1881.  Governor of Ohio, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1865-1867, abolitionist, lawyer, soldier.  Defended fugitive slaves in pre-Civil War court cases.  His wife, Lucy, Webb, was also an abolitionist.  Early member of the Republican Party.  Served with distinction as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War.  (Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 134-143)

 

HAYES, Rutherford Birchard, nineteenth president of the United States, b. in Delaware, Ohio, 4 Oct., 1822; d. in Fremont, Ohio, 17 Jan., 1893. His father had died in July, 1822, leaving his mother in modest circumstances. The boy attended the common schools, and began early the study of Latin and Greek with Judge Sherman Finch, of Delaware. Then he was sent to an academy at Norwalk, Ohio, and in 1837 to Isaac Webb's school, at Middletown, Conn., to prepare for college. In the autumn of 1838 he entered Kenyon college, at Gambier, Ohio. He excelled in logic, mental and moral philosophy, and mathematics, and also made his mark as a debater in the literary societies. On his graduation in August, 1842, he was awarded the valedictory oration, with which he won much praise. Soon afterward he began to study law in the office of Thomas Sparrow, at Columbus, Ohio, and then attended a course of law lectures at Harvard university, entering the law-school on 22 Aug., 1843, and finishing his studies there in January, 1845. As a law student he had the advantage of friendly intercourse with Judge Story and Prof. Greenleaf, and he also attended the lectures of Longfellow on literature and of Agassiz on natural science, prosecuting at the same time the study of French and German. On 10 May, 1845, after due examination, he was admitted to practice in the courts of Ohio as an attorney and counsellor at law. He established himself first at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), where, in April, 1846, he formed a law partnership with Ralph P. Buckland (q. v.), then a member of congress. In November, 1848, having suffered from bleeding in the throat, Mr. Hayes went to spend the winter in the milder climate of Texas, where his health was completely restored. Encouraged by the good opinion and advice of professional friends to seek a larger field of activity, he established himself, in the winter of 1849-'50, in Cincinnati. His practice at first being light, he earnestly and systematically continued his studies in law and literature, also enlarging the circle of his acquaintance by becoming a member of various societies, among others the literary club of Cincinnati, in the social and literary entertainments of which at that time such men as Salmon P. Chase, Thomas Ewing, Thomas Corwin, Stanley Matthews, Moncure D. Conway, Manning F. Force, and others of note, were active participants. He won the respect of the profession, and attracted the attention of the public as attorney in several criminal cases which gained some celebrity, and gradually increased his practice.

On 30 Dec., 1852, he married Miss Lucy W. Webb, daughter of Dr. James Webb, a physician of high standing in Chillicothe, Ohio. In January, 1854, he formed a law partnership with H. W. Corwine and William K. Rogers. In 1856 he was nominated for the office of common pleas judge, but declined. In 1858 he was elected city solicitor by the city council of Cincinnati, to fill a vacancy caused by death, and in the following year he was elected to the same office at a popular election by a majority of over 2,500 votes. Although he performed his duties to the general satisfaction of the public, he was, in April, 1861, defeated for re-election as solicitor, together with the whole ticket. Mr. Hayes, ever since he was a voter, had acted with the Whig party, voting for Henry Clay in 1844, for Gen. Taylor in 1848, and for Gen. Scott in 1852. Having from his youth always cherished anti-slavery feelings, he joined the Republican party as soon as it was organized, and earnestly advocated the election of Frémont in 1856, and of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. At a great mass-meeting, held in Cincinnati immediately after the arrival of the news that the flag of the United States had been fired upon at Fort Sumter, he was made chairman of a committee on resolutions to give voice to the feelings of the loyal people. His literary club formed a military company, of which he was elected captain, and this club subsequently furnished to the National army more than forty officers, of whom several became generals. On 7 June, 1861, the governor of Ohio appointed Mr. Hayes a major of the 23d regiment of Ohio volunteer infantry, and in July the regiment was ordered into West Virginia. On 19 Sept., 1861, Maj. Hayes was appointed by Gen. Rosecrans judge advocate of the Department of Ohio, the duties of which office he performed for about two months. On 24 Oct., 1861, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On 14 Sept., 1862, in the battle of South Mountain, he distinguished himself by gallant conduct in leading a charge and in holding his position at the head of his men, after being severely wounded in his left arm, until he was carried from the field. His regiment lost nearly half its effective force in the action. On 24 Oct., 1862, he was appointed colonel of the same regiment. He spent some time at his home while under medical treatment, and returned to the field as soon as his wound was healed. In July, 1863, while taking part in the operations of the National army in southwestern Virginia, Col. Hayes caused an expedition of two regiments and a section of artillery, under his own command, to be despatched to Ohio for the purpose of checking the raid of the Confederate Gen. John Morgan, and he aided materially in preventing the raiders from recrossing the Ohio river and in compelling Morgan to surrender. In the spring of 1864 Col. Hayes commanded a brigade in Gen. Crook's expedition to cut the principal lines of communication between Richmond and the southwest. He again distinguished himself by conspicuous bravery at the head of his brigade in storming a fortified position on the crest of Cloyd mountain. In the first battle of Winchester, 24 July, 1864, commanding a brigade in Gen. Crook's division, Col. Hayes was ordered, together with Col. James Mulligan, to charge what proved to be a greatly superior force. Col. Mulligan fell, and Col. Hayes, flanked and pressed in front by overwhelming numbers, conducted the retreat of his brigade with great intrepidity and skill, checking the pursuit as soon as he had gained a tenable position. He took a creditable part in the engagement at Berryville and at the second battle of Winchester, 19 Sept., 1864, where he performed a feat of extraordinary bravery. Leading an assault upon a battery on an eminence, he found in his way a morass over fifty yards wide. Being at the head of his brigade, he plunged in first, and, his horse becoming mired at once, he dismounted and waded across alone under the enemy's fire. Waving his cap, he signalled to his men to come over, and, when about forty had joined him, he rushed upon the battery and took it after a hand-to-hand fight with the gunners, the enemy having deemed the battery so secure that no infantry supports had been placed near it. At Fisher's Hill, in pursuing Gen. Early, on 22 Sept., 1864, Col. Hayes, then in command of a division, executed a brilliant flank movement over mountains and through woods difficult of access, took many pieces of artillery, and routed the enemy. At the battle of Cedar Creek, 19 Oct., 1864, the conduct of Col. Hayes attracted so much attention that his commander, Gen. Crook, on the battle-field took him by the hand, saying: “Colonel, from this day you will be a brigadier-general.” The commission arrived a few days afterward, and on 13 March, 1865, he received the rank of brevet major-general “for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of 1864 in West Virginia, and particularly at the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, Va.” Of his military services Gen. Grant, in the second volume of his memoirs, says: “On more than one occasion in these engagements Gen. R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as president of the United States, bore a very honorable part. His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry, as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than mere personal daring. Having entered the army as a major of volunteers at the beginning of the war, Gen. Hayes attained, by his meritorious service, the rank of brevet major-general before its close.” While Gen. Hayes was in the field, in August, 1864, he was nominated by a Republican district convention at Cincinnati, in the second district of Ohio, as a candidate for congress. When a friend suggested to him that he should take leave of absence from the army in the field for the purpose of canvassing the district, he answered: “Your suggestion about getting a furlough to take the stump was certainly made without reflection. An officer fit for duty, who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in congress, ought to be scalped.” He was elected by a majority of 2,400. The Ohio soldiers in the field nominated him also for the governorship of his state. The accompanying illustration is a view of his home in Fremont.

After the war Gen. Hayes returned to civil life, and took his seat in congress on 4 Dec., 1865. He was appointed chairman of the committee on the library. On questions connected with the reconstruction of the states lately in rebellion he voted with his party. He earnestly supported a resolution declaring the sacredness of the public debt and denouncing repudiation in any form; also a resolution commending President Johnson for declining to accept presents, and condemning the practice as demoralizing in its tendencies. He opposed a resolution favoring an increase of the pay of members. He also introduced in the Republican caucus a set of resolutions declaring that the only mode of obtaining from the states lately in rebellion irreversible guarantees was by constitutional amendment, and that an amendment basing representation upon voters, instead of population, ought to be acted upon without delay. These resolutions marked the line of action of the Republicans. In August, 1866, Gen. Hayes was renominated for congress by acclamation, and, after an active canvass, was re-elected by the same majority as before. He supported the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. In the house of representatives he won the reputation, not of an orator, but of a working legislator and a man of calm, sound judgment. In June, 1867, the Republican convention of Ohio nominated him for the governorship. The Democrats had nominated Judge Allen G. Thurman. The question of negro suffrage was boldly pushed to the foreground by Gen. Hayes in an animated canvass, which ended in his election, and that of his associates on the Republican ticket. But the negro-suffrage amendment to the state constitution was defeated at the same time by 50,000 majority, and the Democrats carried the legislature, which elected Judge Thurman to the United States senate. In his inaugural address, Gov. Hayes laid especial stress upon the desirability of taxation in proportion to the actual value of property, the evils of too much legislation, the obligation to establish equal rights without regard to color, and the necessity of ratifying the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States. In his message to the legislature, delivered in November, 1868, he recommended amendments to the election laws, providing for the representation of minorities in the boards of the judges and clerks of election, and for the registration of all the lawful voters prior to an election. He also recommended a comprehensive geological survey of the state, which was promptly begun. In his second annual message he warmly urged such changes in the penal laws, as well as in prison discipline, as would tend to promote the moral reformation of the culprit together with the punishment due to his crime.

In June, 1869, Gov. Hayes was again nominated by the Republican state convention for the governorship, there being no competitor for the nomination. The Democratic candidate was George H. Pendleton. The platform adopted by the Democratic state convention advocated the repudiation of the interest on the U. S. bonds unless they be subjected to taxation, and the payment of the national debt in greenbacks. In the discussions preceding the election, Gov. Hayes pronounced himself unequivocally in favor of honestly paying the national debt and an honest money system. He was elected by a majority of 7,500. In his second inaugural address, delivered on 10 Jan., 1870, he expressed himself earnestly against the use of public offices as party spoils, and suggested that the constitution of the state be so amended as to secure the introduction of a system making qualification, and not political services and influence, the chief test in determining appointments, and giving subordinates in the civil service the same permanence of place that is enjoyed by officers of the army and navy. He also advocated the appointment of judges, by the executive, for long terms, with adequate salaries, as best calculated to “afford to the citizen the amplest possible security that impartial justice will be administered by an independent judiciary.” In his correspondence with members of congress, he urged a monthly reduction of the national debt as more important than a reduction of taxation, the abolition of the franking privilege, and the passage of a civil-service-reform law. In his message addressed to the legislature on 3 Jan., 1871, he recommended that the policy embodied in that provision of the state constitution which prohibited the state from creating any debt, save in a few exceptional cases, be extended to the creation of public debts by county, city, and other local authorities, and further that for the remuneration of public officers a system of fixed salaries, without...

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.   

 

 

HAYNES, Reverend Lemuel, 1753-1833, former slave, Revolutionary War veteran, early abolitionist, clergyman.  Wrote essay “Liberty Further Extended,” criticizing slavery in the United States, called slavery corrupt and sinful.  (Cooley, 1837; Newman, 1900; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 330-331; Saillant, 2003)

 

 

HAYT, Charles, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

HAZARD, Rowland Gibson, 1801-1888, author.  State Senator, Rhode Island.  Freed captured African Americans in New Orleans.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 149; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 471)

 

 

HAZARD, Thomas (“College Tom”), 1720-1798, Rhode Island, Society of Friends, Quaker, early abolitionist leader (Drake, 1950, pp. 50, 89, 97, 191; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 149; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 472; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 419-420)

 

HAZARD, Thomas Robinson, author, b. in South Kingston, R. I., in 1784; d. in New York in March, 1876. He was educated at the Friends' school in Westtown, Chester co., Pa., and subsequently engaged in farming, and assisted his father in the woollen business. He then established a woollen mill at Peacedale, R. I., and acquired a fortune. In 1836 he purchased an estate at Vaucluse, R. I., and in 1840 retired from his manufacturing business. He caused many reforms to be introduced in the management of insane asylums and poor-houses in Rhode Island. He was, for years preceding his death, an enthusiastic spiritualist, and wrote much in support of their views. He is the author of “Facts for the Laboring Man” (1840); “Capital Punishment” (1850); “Report on the Poor and Insane” (1850); “Handbook of the National American Party” (1856); “Appeal to the People of Rhode Island” (1857); and “Ordeal of Life” (Boston, 1870). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 149.

 

 

HEARN, William, abolitionist, Indiana, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1854-64

 

 

HEATH, William, 1737-1814, Massachusetts, soldier, statesman.  Member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Ratifying Convention.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 43; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 154; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 490; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 473)


HEATH, William, soldier, b. in Roxbury, Mass., 7 March, 1737; d. there, 24 Jan., 1814. He was brought up on the same farm on which his ancestor settled in 1636. He was active in organizing the militia before the Revolution, was a captain in the Suffolk regiment, of which he afterward became colonel, joined the artillery company of Boston, and was chosen its commander in 1770, in which year he wrote a series of essays in a Boston newspaper on the importance of military discipline and skill in the use of arms over the signature “A Military Countryman.” He was a representative in the general assembly in 1761, and again in 1771-'4, a member of the committees of correspondence and safety, and of the Provincial congress in 1774-'5. He was appointed a provincial brigadier-general on 8 Dec., 1774, performed valuable services in the pursuit of the British troops from Concord on 19 April, 1775, organized and trained the undisciplined forces at Cambridge before the battle of Bunker Hill, was made a major-general of provincial troops on 20 June, 1775, and upon the organization of the Continental army was, on 22 June, commissioned as a brigadier-general, and stationed with his command at Roxbury. On 9 Aug., 1776, he was made a major-general in the Continental army. In March, 1776, he was ordered to New York, and opposed the evacuation of the city. After the battle of White Plains he took command of the posts in the Highlands. In 1777 he was assigned to the command of the eastern department, embracing Boston and its vicinity, and had charge of the prisoners of Burgoyne's army at Cambridge. In June, 1779, he was ordered to the command of the posts on the Hudson, with four regiments, and remained in that vicinity till the close of the war, going to Rhode Island for a short period on the arrival of the French forces in July, 1780. He returned to his farm after the war, was a member of the convention that ratified the Federal constitution, a state senator in 1791-'2, probate judge of Norfolk county in 1793, and was elected lieutenant- governor in 1806, but declined the office. He was the last surviving major-general of the Revolutionary army, and published “Memoirs of Major-General William Heath, containing Anecdotes, Details of Skirmishes, Battles, etc., during the American War” (Boston, 1798). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 154.

 

 

HEDDING, Simeon, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

HEILPRIN, Michael, 1823-1888, opponent of slavery.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 158; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 502)

 

HEILPRIN, Michael, b. in Piotrkow, Poland, in 1823; d. in Summit, N. J., 10 May, 1888. He joined the Hungarians in 1848, and was attached in 1849 to the literary bureau of the department of the interior during Kossuth's brief sway. In 1856 he came to the United States, and soon acquired a reputation for scholarship, both in the oriental and modern languages. He was a frequent contributor to literary journals, and his work in connection with the “American Cyclopædia” shows his industry, breadth of view, and exact scholarly attainments. Mr. Heilprin felt a special interest in the Russian-Jewish emigrants to the United States since 1882, and his intelligent direction and ardent personal sympathy led to the establishment of several successful agricultural colonies in this country. He published “The Historical Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews” (vols. i. and ii., New York, 1879-'80).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HELPER, Hinton Rowan, 1829-1909, North Carolina, abolitionist leader, diplomat, writer.  Wrote anti-slavery book, The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It, 1857.  It argued that slavery was bad for the South and its economy.  The book was banned from distribution in the South.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 353; Mabee, 1970, pp. 196, 197, 219, 240, 327; Pease, 1965, pp. 163-172; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 60, 63, 114, 225-226, 333-334, 426, 682-684; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 161-162; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 517; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 420-422; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 542)

 

HELPER, Hinton Rowan, author, b. near Mocskville, Davie co., N. C., 27 Dec., 1829. He was graduated at Mocksville academy in 1848. In 1851 he went to California by way of Cape Horn, and spent nearly three years on the Pacific coast. He was appointed U. S. consul at Buenos Ayres, Argentine Republic, in 1861, and held this office until 1867. In 1867 he returned to Asheville, N. C., where he resided until he settled in New York. He has travelled extensively through North, South, and Central America, in Europe, and also in Africa. He is the projector of the “Three Americas Railway,” which he proposes shall eventually form one connected line from Bering strait to the Strait of Magellan. He was the originator and efficient promotor of the commercial commission from the United States to Central and South America. Mr. Helper was brought into notice just before the civil war by his “Impending Crisis of the South” (New York, 1857). In this book he earnestly opposed slavery on economical grounds, although he was not friendly to the colored race. The work was used by the Republican party as a campaign document in 1860, and 140,000 copies were sold between 1857 and 1861. His other works are “The Land of Gold” (Baltimore, 1855); “Nojoque, a Question for a Continent” (New York and London, 1867); “The Negroes in Negroland, the Negroes in America, and the Negroes Generally” (New York, 1868); and “The Three Americas Railway” (St. Louis, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 161-162.

 

 

HEMPHILL, Joseph, 1770-1842, jurist, Congressman from Pennsylvania.  Opposed extension of slavery into the new territories.  Speaking on the concept of citizenship in relation to slavery, he state in the debate of 1820: “If being a native, and free born, and of parents belonging to no other nation or tribe, does not constitute a citizen in this country, I am at a loss to know in what manner citizenship is acquired by birth… when a foreigner is naturalized, he is only put in the place of a native freeman.  This is the genuine idea of naturalization… But citizenship is rather in the nature of a compact, expressly or tacitly made; it is a political tie, and the mutual obligations are contribution and protection.”  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 107-108, 383n34; 16 Cong., 2 Sess., 1820-21, p. 599; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 162; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 521; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 556)

 

HEMPHILL, Joseph, jurist, b. in Delaware co., Pa., in 1770; died in Philadelphia, Pa., 29 May, 1842. He received an academic education, studied law, and began to practice in Chester co. He was an active Federalist, and in 1800 was elected to congress, serving one term, and distinguishing himself by a speech on the judiciary bill in 1801. In 1803 he removed to Philadelphia, was appointed the first president judge of that city and county, and served again in congress from 6 Dec., 1819, till 1826. In 1829 he was again elected, and served one term. He was a member of the state legislature, in 1831-'2. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 162.

 

 

HENDERSON, Archibald, 1768-1822, Raleigh, North Carolina, lawyer, former U.S. Congressman.  Officer in the Raleigh auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Brother of Leonard Henderson.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 164; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 523; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

HENDERSON, John Brooks, 1826-1913, lawyer.  U.S. Senator from Missouri.  Appointed Senator in 1863.  Member of the Republican Party.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 163-164; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 527; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 569; Congressional Globe)

 

HENDERSON, John Brooks, senator, b. near Danville, Va., 16 Nov., 1826. He removed with his parents to Missouri in 1836, spent his early years on a farm, and taught while receiving his education. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1848, and in that year and 1856 was elected to the legislature, originating the state railroad and banking laws in 1857. He was a presidential elector in 1856 and 1860, and opposed Pierce's administration after the president's message on the Kansas question. Mr. Henderson was a delegate to the Charleston Democratic convention of 1860, and to the State convention of 1861 to determine whether Missouri should secede. In June, 1861, he equipped a regiment of state militia, which he commanded for a time. On the expulsion of Trusten Polk from the U. S. Senate, in 1862, he was appointed to fill the vacancy, and in 1863 was elected for the full term ending in 1869, serving as chairman on the committee on Indian affairs. He was one of the seven Republican senators whose votes defeated the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. He was a commissioner to treat with hostile tribes of Indians in 1867, and in 1875 was appointed assistant U. S. district attorney to prosecute men that were accused of evading the revenue laws, but reflected on President Grant in one of his arguments and was removed from this office. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 163-164.

 

 

HENDERSON, Leonard, 1772-1833, Raleigh, North Carolina, jurist, former U.S. Congressman.  Officer in the Raleigh auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Brother of Archibald Henderson.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 164-165; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 529; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

HENKLE, Moses Montgomery, 1798-1864, Springfield, Methodist clergyman, missionary.  Agent for the American Colonization society in Ohio.  He founded auxiliaries of the ACS in Bellbrook, Bainbridge, Eaton, Full Creek, Germantown, Lancaster and Oxford.  Signed up prominent Ohio politicians to the cause of colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 167; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 138)

 

HENKLE, Moses Montgomery, clergyman, b. in Pendleton county, Va., 23 March, 1798; d. in Richmond, Va., in 1864, became an itinerant minister of the M. E. church in Ohio in 1819, was for some time a missionary to the Wyandotte Indians, and preached in that state and in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. He established a religious magazine, and associated himself in 1845 with Dr. McFerrin in the editorship of the “Christian Advocate” at Nashville. In 1847 he established the “Southern Ladies’ Companion,” which he conducted for eight years. He taught in Philadelphia and other places, and was thus engaged in Baltimore, Md., during the civil war, but was sent within the Confederate lines. He published, among other books, a volume of “Masonic Addresses” (1848); “The Primary Platform of Methodism” (1851); “Analysis of Church Government” (1852); “Life of Bishop Bascom” (1853); and “Primitive Episcopacy” (1856). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HENRY, Patrick, 1736-1799, Virginia, statesman, founding father, opponent of slavery.  Henry wrote in 1773: “I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them [slaves].  I will not, I can not justify it.  However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and to lament my own want of conformity to them.”  (Bruns, 1977, pp. 221, 310, 348-350, 382-383, 389, 508; Drake, 1950, pp. 71, 83, 85; Mason, 2006, pp. 21, 250n140, 250n147, 293-294n157; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 95, 152; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 173-175; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 544; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 615)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HENRY, Patrick, statesman, b. at Studley, Hanover co., Va., 29 May, 1736; d. in Red Hill, Charlotte co., Va., 6 June, 1799. His father, John Henry, was a Scotchman, son of Alexander Henry and Jean Robertson, a cousin of the historian William Robertson and of the mother of Lord Brougham. His mother was Sarah Winston, of the English family of that name. The father of Patrick Henry gave his son a classical education, but he entered upon business at an early age. At eighteen he married, and, having tried farming and merchandise without success, became a lawyer in 1760. His fee-books show a large practice from the beginning of his professional life; but his surpassing powers as an orator were not discovered till, in December, 1763, he argued what is known as the “Parson's cause.” This was a suit brought by a minister of the established church in Virginia to recover his salary, which had been fixed at 16,000 pounds of tobacco. A short crop had caused a great advance in its market price, and induced the colonial legislature to pass an act commuting the salaries of the ministers into money at the rate of two pence for a pound of tobacco, which was its former price. This act had not been approved by the king, but the house of burgesses determined to enforce it. In his speech for the defence Mr. Henry displayed powers of oratory of the first order, and boldly struck the key-note of the American Revolution by arguing that “a king, by disallowing acts of a salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience.” The passage of the stamp-act by the British parliament in 1765 was made known in the colonies in May, 1765. They had remonstrated against its proposed passage; but no one was bold enough to counsel resistance to its enforcement until, upon the resignation of a member of the Virginia house of burgesses from Louisa county, Mr. Henry was elected to fill the vacancy. On 29 May, 1765, nine days after taking his seat, and on his twenty-ninth birthday, he moved a series of resolutions defining the rights of the colony, and pronouncing the stamp-act unconstitutional and subversive of British and American liberty. These were resisted by all the men that had been previously leaders in that body. After a speech of great eloquence, which was described by Thomas Jefferson as surpassing anything he ever heard, Mr. Henry carried five of his resolutions, the last by a majority of only one. The whole series were published, and the public mind became so inflamed that everywhere resistance to the tax was openly made, and its enforcement became impracticable. Mr. Henry at once became the leader in his colony. In May, 1773, he, with Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and Dabney Carr, carried through the Virginia house of burgesses a resolution establishing committees of correspondence between the colonies, which gave unity to the Revolutionary agitation, and in May, 1774, he was foremost in the movement to call a Continental congress. At this time the celebrated George Mason first met Henry, and recorded his estimate of him in these words: “He is by far the most powerful speaker I ever heard. Every word he says not only engages but commands the attention, and your passions are no longer your own when he addresses them. But his eloquence is the smallest part of his merit. He is, in my opinion, the first man upon this continent, as well in abilities as public virtues, and had he lived in Rome about the time of the first Punic war, when the Roman people had arrived at their meridian glory, and their virtues not tarnished, Mr. Henry's talents must have put him at the head of that glorious commonwealth.”

He was a delegate to the 1st Continental congress, and opened its deliberations by a speech that won him the reputation of being the foremost orator on the continent. In this speech he declared, “I am not a Virginian, but an American.” In congress, Henry served on several important committees, among which was that to prepare the address to the king. The first draft of this paper is said to have been from his pen; but as it was too advanced for the party represented by John Dickinson, the latter was added to the committee and modified the address, if he did not recast it. At a most critical period in the deliberations of that congress, Joseph Galloway, a Tory, introduced a plan of reconciliation between the mother country and the colonies, which would have left them in somewhat the same relations to each other as were subsequently established between England and Canada. The plan was advocated by some of the foremost members, and it was believed that it had the approval of the government. Mr. Henry led the opposition to it, and was the only one noted by John Adams in his diary as opposing it in debate. It was defeated by the vote of one colony only, and thus the destiny of the continent was changed. On 25 March, 1775, Mr. Henry moved in the Virginia convention that the colony be put into a state of defence at once, preparatory to the war, which was imminent, and carried his motion by a speech that for true eloquence has never been surpassed. In May following he led a volunteer force against Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, in order to compel him to restore the colony's gunpowder, which had been removed by him from the public magazine and put on board a British ship. This was the first resistance by arms to the British authority in that colony. After obtaining from the governor remuneration for the gunpowder, he repaired to the Continental congress, then holding its second session, and at its close accepted the commission of colonel of the 1st Virginia regiment, and commander of all the Virginia forces, which had been given him by the convention of his state in his absence. His want of military experience gave occasion to some jealousy on the part of other officers, and when the Virginia troops were soon afterward taken into the Continental army, congress, in commissioning the officers, made a subordinate a brigadier-general, and offered Col. Henry the command of a single regiment, which slight was followed by his refusal to accept the commission. He was at once elected to the Virginia convention, which met in May, 1776. Here he arranged the introduction of the resolutions directing the delegates in congress to move for independence, and determining that the colony should at once frame a bill of rights and a constitution as an independent state. By his powers of oratory he overcame all opposition, and obtained a unanimous vote for the resolutions. He was active in the formation of the constitution of his state, which served as a model for the other states, and he proposed the section of the Virginia bill of rights that guarantees religious liberty. Through his exertions, Virginia afterward asked and obtained an amendment to the Federal constitution, embodying in it a similar guarantee. On the adoption of the constitution in 1776, he was elected the first governor of the state, and was re-elected in 1777 and in 1778. Not being eligible under the constitution for four years afterward, he returned to the legislature, but was again elected governor in 1784 and 1785, and in 1786 declined a re-election. He was again elected in 1796, but again declined. During his first service as governor he had to inaugurate a new government in the midst of the Revolutionary war, and his executive talents were put to a severe test, which they stood in such a manner as greatly added to his renown. In 1777 he planned and sent out the expedition, under Gen. George Rogers Clarke, which conquered the vast territory northwest of the Ohio, and forced England to yield it at the treaty of peace. At the close of the war he advocated the return of the banished Tories, and opening our ports at once to immigration and to commerce. He resisted the performance on our part of the treaty with Great Britain until that power had performed her treaty obligation to surrender the northwestern posts. He was a firm and persistent advocate of our right to the free navigation of the Mississippi, whose mouth was held by Spain, a matter of such importance that at one time it threatened the disruption of the Union.

He early saw the defects in the articles of confederation, and advocated a stronger Federal government. He declined the appointment as delegate to the convention that framed the constitution of the United States, because of private reasons; but served in the state convention of 1788, which ratified it. He advocated the adoption of amendments to the constitution before its ratification by Virginia, and offered the amendments that were recommended by the convention, the most important of which have been adopted. Many of his predictions as to the future of the Federal government read like prophecy in the light of subsequent history. Among other things, he distinctly foretold the abolition of slavery by congress, in a speech in the convention, delivered 24 June, 1788 (see Elliott's “Debates,” vol. iii, p. 589), in which he said: “Among ten thousand implied powers which they may assume, they may, if engaged in war, liberate every one of your slaves if they please. And this must and will be done by men, a majority of whom have not a common interest with you . . . . Another thing will contribute to bring this event about. Slavery is detested. We feel its fatal effects; we deplore it with all the pity of humanity. Let all these considerations, at some future period, press with full force on the minds of congress. Let that urbanity, which I trust will distinguish America, and the necessity of national defence—let all these things operate on their minds; they will search that paper and see if they have power of manumission. And have they not, sir? Have they not power to provide for the general defence and welfare? May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery? May they not pronounce all slaves free? and will they not be warranted by that power? This is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. The paper speaks to the point. They have the power in clear, unequivocal terms, and will clearly and certainly exercise it.” The adoption of the first eleven amendments having quieted in a great measure his apprehensions as to the constitution, he sustained the administration of Washington, though not fully approving of all its measures. The earliest manifestations of the French revolution caused him to predict the result, and the influence of French infidelity and Jacobinism upon America excited his alarm, lest they should produce disunion and anarchy. He retired from public life in 1791, after a continuous service of twenty-six years, but continued the practice of law, which he had resumed at the close of the Revolution with great success. He was appointed by Gov. Henry Lee U. S. senator in 1794. Washington offered to make him secretary of state in 1795, and afterward chief justice of the United States, and President John Adams nominated him as a special minister to France. But the state of his health, and the care of a large family, caused him to decline these offices. In 1799, on the passage of the Virginia resolutions claiming the right of a state to resist the execution of an obnoxious act of congress, he was induced by an appeal of Washington to offer himself for a seat in the legislature, for the purpose of resisting what they both considered a doctrine fraught with the greatest danger to the Union. He did not approve of the alien and sedition laws, which occasioned the resolutions, and in his speech as a candidate he urged the use of every constitutional means to effect their repeal. He was elected, but died before taking his seat.

The transcendent powers of Mr. Henry as an orator are testified to by so many men of the greatest culture and ability that he justly ranks among the great orators of the world. Among the distinguished men that heard him, and have left on record their impressions, the following may be mentioned; Dr. Archibald Alexander said of him: “From my earliest childhood I had been accustomed to hear of the eloquence of Patrick Henry. On this subject there existed but one opinion in the country. The power of his eloquence was felt equally by the learned and the unlearned. No man who ever heard him speak on any important occasion could fail to admit his uncommon power over the minds of his hearers . . . . The power of Henry's eloquence was due, first, to the greatness of his emotion and passion, accompanied with a versatility which enabled him to assume at once any emotion or passion which suited his ends. Not less indispensable, secondly, was a matchless perfection of the organs of expression, including the apparatus of voice, intonation, pause, gesture, attitude, and indescribable play of countenance. In no instance did he ever indulge in an expression that was not instantly recognized as nature itself; yet some of his penetrating and subduing tones were absolutely peculiar, and as inimitable as they were indescribable. These were felt by every hearer in all their force. His mightiest feelings were sometimes indicated and communicated by a long pause, aided by an eloquent aspect, and some significant use of his fingers.” Thomas Jefferson attended the debate on the resolutions against the stamp act, and wrote concerning it: “I heard the splendid display of Mr. Henry's talents as a popular orator. They were great indeed, such as I have never heard from any other man. He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote.” And in describing Edmund Pendleton, Mr. Jefferson said of him: “He had not, indeed, the poetical fancy of Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and overwhelming diction.” Mr. Wirt, in his “Life of Henry,” says that Mr. Jefferson considered him “the greatest orator that ever lived.” John Randolph, of Roanoke, pronounced him the greatest of orators, and declared that he was “Shakespeare and Garrick combined.”

Mr. Henry was twice married—first to Sarah Shelton, daughter of a neighbor, and afterward to Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge, a granddaughter of Gov. Alexander Spotswood. He was a devoted Christian, and left a spotless character. His life has been written by William Wirt (1817), by Alexander H. Everett in Sparks's “American Biography,” and by Moses Coit Tyler in the series of “American Statesmen” (Boston, 1887).  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.


Biograpphy from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

PATRICK HENRY was born of respectable parentage, in the county of Hanover, state of Virginia, on the 29th of May, 1736. He displayed in his youth none of those admirable qualities which, in after life, rendered him the admiration of his country, and the terror of her enemies. Deficient in early education, and deprived of the opportunities of improvement by which the powers of his mind could be developed, his genius, which was at a future period destined to shine so brilliantly, was involved in obscurity until aroused from its dormant condition, by circumstances which brought all its powerful energies into action, and displayed its vigor and splendor to his astonished associates and countrymen. Agriculture and shop keeping were successively pursued and abandoned by him. Failure attended his early career, and in whatever avocations he was engaged, or when struggling to subdue his undisciplined spirits to the useful employments of life, he seemed to be doomed to an humble and unprosperous condition. At the age of eighteen, he married a Miss Shelton. After all other means of subsistence had failed, he determined to exchange manual labor for the practice of the law, and after studying for about six weeks, obtained, in the twenty-fourth year of his age, with great difficulty, a license to practice. It was not, however, until he had reached his twenty-seventh year, that an opportunity occurred for a trial of his strength at the bar, when the powers of his unrivalled genius were exhibited in full relief, and placed him at once in the highest rank of his profession. The cause in which he first made his appearance before a court and jury, was familiary called the parsons’ cause, and involved a question upon which the country was very much excited; the clergy and people being arrayed in opposition. A decision of the court on a demurrer in favor of the claims of the clergy, had left nothing undetermined but the amount of damages in the cause which was pending. The counsel who had been concerned for the defendants having retired from the management of the case, Mr. HENRY was retained, and on a writ of inquiry of damages, he took advantage of the opportunity furnished of addressing the jury, to enter into a discussion of the points which had been previously settled, and although in deviation from regular practice, succeeded by the force of his eloquence in inducing the jury to give but nominal damages. The management of the cause gained for him the most enthusiastic applause, and brought him so prominently before the public, that he became the idol of the people whom he had so efficiently served, and received the most earnest demonstrations of their admiration.

In 1764, he removed to the county of Louisa, and in the fall of that year, appeared before a committee of the house of burgesses, then sitting at Williamsburg, as counsel in the case of a contested election, and amidst the fashion and splendor of the seat of government, the rustic orator commanded attention and respect.

A wider field for the display of his eloquence was soon open to him, and as the controversy with Great Britain began to thicken, the champion of the people’s rights was called into the public counsels, to rebuke the spirit of despotism, and sustain the drooping spirits of his countrymen, by an eloquence which springing from the great fountain of nature, no power could control or subdue. The seat of a member of the house of burgesses was vacated to make room for him, and in the month of May, 1765, he was elected a member. He was now destined to act among the most accomplished and distinguished men of the country. Following no other guide than his pure and patriotic spirit, and using no other instrument of action but his own matchless eloquence, he rapidly ascended to the loftiest station in the confidence and affections, both of the legislature and of the people. Taking at once a bold stand, he rallied around him the opposition, and became the envy and the terror of the aristocracy. His plebeian origin and rustic appearance were singularly contrasted with the rich veins of intellectual wealth, which the collisions of debate and party strife brought to the public view. By his almost unaided skill, he defeated the aristocracy in a favorite measure, and acquired an ascendency at the outset of his public career which enabled him to give the impress of his own undaunted spirit to the future counsels of the state. In 1765, “alone, unadvised and unassisted,” he wrote on the blank leaf of an old law book the resolutions of 1765, denouncing the stamp act and asserting the rights of the people. On offering them to the legislature, they met with violent opposition, which drew from Mr. HENRY one of the most vivid and powerful efforts of his eloquence. Breasting the storm, and bidding defiance to the cries of treason, by which in vain it was attempted to silence him, he secured their adoption, and thus gave an impulse to public feeling, and a character to the contest, which essentially aided the revolutionary cause. In the year 1767, or 1768, he removed from Louisa to his native county, and continued without intermission in public life, until after the close of the war. The higher courts engaged his attention, and although a want of familiarity with the common law, and a dislike to the forms of practice obstructed his progress, he found in the trial of criminal causes an extensive sphere for the exercise of his abilities, and the acquisition of a professional reputation.

In the assembly he continued to espouse the cause of the people, and permitted no opportunity to escape, of stimulating them and their representatives to repel the aggressions of the mother country. Prior to the commencement of hostilities, he predicted the dissolution of the connection which subsisted between her and her colonies, and the triumph of the latter.

The house of burgesses having been, in 1774, dissolved by Governor Dunmore, in consequence of their energetic opposition to tyranny, the members recommended a convention of the people to deliberate on the critical posture of affairs, and particularly to appoint delegates to a congress to be convened at Philadelphia. Mr. HENRY was elected a member of the convention, and by that body was appointed with Messrs Randolph, Lee, Washington, Bland, Harrison, and Pendleton, delegates to congress, which assembled at Carpenter’s Hall, on the 4th of September. The most illustrious men of America who had been heretofore strangers, or only known to one another by fame, were now brought by the common danger which hung over their country, into the closest intercourse. The organized masses of virtue, intelligence, and genius, formed a body which attracted by its wisdom, firmness and patriotism, the admiration of mankind, and must ever reflect unfading lustre on the country whose destinies they controlled, and whose freedom they achieved. Mr. HENRY’S magical eloquence first broke the solemn silence which succeeded their organization, and in breasts so lofty and so pure, the undisciplined and untutored voice of patriotism and of native genius found a response, which sustained its boldest exertions. The impartial judgments of the greatest and most accomplished men awarded to him the highest place among orators.

Unfortunately for Mr. HENRY, he did not excel in composition, for having been placed on a committee to prepare an address to the king, he did not fulfil the expectations which his eloquence had created, and accordingly his draft was recommitted, and John Dickinson added to the committee, who reported the celebrated address which so much increased his reputation.

The Virginia convention met a second time in March, 1775, at Richmond, when Mr. HENRY brought forward a series of resolutions containing a plan for the organization of the militia. In defiance of the opposition of the ablest and most patriotic members of the convention, they were sustained by a torrent of irresistible eloquence from Mr. HENRY, who inspired the convention with a determined spirit of resistance. An opportunity soon occurred for a trial of his courage, as well as of his influence with the people. The prohibition of the exportation of powder from Great Britain, was followed by attempts to procure the possession of magazines in America, by which the colonists would be deprived of the means of defence. A large quantity of gun-powder was clandestinely removed from the colonial magazine at Williamsburg, and placed on board of armed British vessels. The excitement which it produced, extorted from the governor a promise for its return, by which public feeling was for the time appeased, but subsequent threats and rumors of fresh encroachments on the magazine, together with the irritation produced by the battles of Concord and Lexington, aroused the country to arms. The movements of the military corps was, however, arrested by the exertions of Mr. Randolph. But Mr. HENRY, determined not to submit to the aggressions of the British governor, despatched express riders to the members of the Independent Company of Hanover to meet him in arms at Newcastle. Having aroused their patriotism by all the efforts of his eloquence, by the resignation of the captain, he became the commander, and they commenced their march for Williamsburg. The country was electrified. Other companies joined the revolutionary standard of PATRICK HENRY, and at least five thousand men were in arms, rushing to his assistance. The governor issued a proclamation denouncing the movement. The greatest consternation prevailed at Williamsburg; even the patriots were alarmed, and despatched messenger after messenger to induce him to abandon the enterprise; but undaunted, he resolutely pursued his march. The governor, after making preparations for his defence, deemed it most prudent to avoid a conflict, and accordingly ordered Mr. HENRY to be met at Newcastle with a compensation in money for the powder. Another proclamation from the governor denouncing him, not only fell harmless before him, but seemed to render him an object of greater public regard. Mr. HENRY’S journey to congress, which had been interrupted by this event, was now resumed, and became, as far as the borders of Virginia, a triumphant procession.

The affair of the gun-powder brought Mr. HENRY to the notice of the colonial convention in a military point of view, and accordingly “he was elected colonel of the first regiment, and commander of all the forces raised and to be raised for the defence of the colony.” Having resigned his commission, he was elected a delegate to the convention which met on the 6th of May, 1776, at Williamsburg. On the 1st of July, he was elected the first republican governor of Virginia, and was continued in that station by an unanimous vote, until 1778. A wish having been expressed to reëlect him for the fourth term, he declined being a candidate, on the ground that the constitution had declared the governor to be ineligible after the third year, although an impression existed on the minds of some of the members of the legislature, that his appointment for the first year having been made prior to the adoption of that instrument, should not be counted in his term of service under it. Mr. HENRY entertaining a different opinion, communicated his views to the assembly, “that they might have the earliest opportunity of deliberating upon the choice of his successor.” Few opportunities occurred for distinction during his gubernatorial career, but he appears to have performed all the duties of the station, to the satisfaction of the country, and to have retired with an increase of reputation and popularity. During the gloomiest period of the conflict for independence, a project was twice started to create a dictation, and whilst the most satisfactory evidence exists that Mr. HENRY had no participation in it, it is highly honorable to him, that the drooping spirits of his countrymen were turned to him as the safest depository of uncontrolled authority. After retiring from the executive department, Mr. HENRY became once more a representative in the assembly, and continued to enlighten the public councils by the splendor of his eloquence, and his liberal views of public policy. Among the measures which he advocated after the close of the war, the return of the British refugees, the removal of restraints on British commerce, even before the treaty by which that object was accomplished, and the improvement of the condition of the Indians, were conspicuous. On the 17th of November, 1784, he was again elected governor of Virginia. His circumstances, owing to the smallness of the salaries which he had received, and the sacrifices he had made in the public service, had become embarrassed, which induced him to retire from that station in the fall of 1786, whilst yet a year remained of his constitutional term, and also to decline accepting the appointment which was tendered to him by the legislature, of a seat in the convention to revise the constitution of the United States.

“On his resigning the government,” says his accomplished biographer Mr. Wirt, “he retired to Prince Edward county, and endeavored to cast about for the means of extricating himself from his debts. At the age of fifty years, worn down by more than twenty years of arduous service in the cause of his country, eighteen of which had been occupied by the toils and tempests of the revolution, it was natural for him to wish for rest, and to seek some secure and placid port in which he might repose himself from the fatigues of the storm. This, however, was denied him; and after having devoted the bloom of youth and the maturity of manhood to the good of his country, he had now in his old age to provide for his family.” He accordingly resumed the practice of the law, in which the powers of his eloquence secured him constant employment. But it was difficult for him to abstract himself entirely from public affairs, and the formation of the constitution of the United States, respecting which he entertained most erroneous views, enlisted his feelings once more in political struggle as a member of the convention, assembled for its adoption, at Richmond, on June 2d, 1788.

Professing to be alarmed at the character and extent of the powers conferred on the federal government. Mr. HENRY exerted all his great abilities to produce its defeat. Fortunately for the country, Virginia possessed, and was enabled to bring in opposition to his constitutional views, an array of great men, who, although inferior to him in eloquence, surpassed him in knowledge, and by their combined exertions, were able to counterbalance the influence which his skill in debate, unquestionable patriotism, and long continued services, enabled him to wield. Madison, Marshall, Pendleton, Wythe, Nicholas, Randolph, Innis, and Lee, were the bulwarks of that sacred shield of liberty, the constitution of the United States, against which our patriotic orator, with his wonted vigor and matured skill, week after week, cast the darts of his stupendous eloquence. Ridicule, sarcasm, pathos, and argument were resorted to, to accomplish his object, and with untiring energy, he assailed it as a system and in detail, as the one plan or the other seemed best calculated for the purposes of the veteran tactician. He denounced it as a consolidated, instead of a confederated, government, and charged the convention by which it was framed, with an assumption of power, when, by the preamble they declared the instrument to emanate from the people of the United States, instead of the states by which they were appointed. The powers conferred on the government, were, in his opinion, dangerous to freedom, and he condemned the whole system as pregnant with hazard, and ruinous to liberty. Mr. HENRY was combated with admirable skill, and triumphantly defeated.

His failure in the convention did not however affect his influence, and in the subsequent fall, he possessed in the assembly the confidence and popularity which had so long clung to him. He succeeded in procuring the election of candidates for the senate of the United States in opposition to those nominated by his antagonists; and also in procuring the adoption of a series of resolutions favorable to a convention of the states to alter the constitution, which had been so recently adopted. In the spring of 1791, he declined a reëlection to the assembly, with the view of retiring altogether from public life. Necessity compelled him to continue the practice of the law, and in the fall of that year, he argued before the circuit court of the United States the celebrated case of the British debts, with an eloquence and professional ability which extorted the admiration of the bench, and the crowded audience which his great reputation had assembled. Such was the curiosity to hear him, that a quorum of the legislature could not be obtained, and a large concourse were subjected to disappointment by the multitude which thronged the court room. For three days he riveted the attention of a promiscuous audience, whilst discussing the usually uninteresting details of complicated law points. His success in the practice or the law was eminently distinguished, and being relieved by the assistance of other counsel from the necessity of turning his attention to such branches of the practice as were unsuitable to him, his genius had ample scope to range in the direction most congenial to it.

In the year 1796, he was once more elected governor of Virginia, which he declined. He also refused to accept the embassy to Spain, which was offered to him during the administration of Washington, and that to France, to which he was appointed by Mr. Adams. His declining health and advanced age, rendered retirement more desirable to him than ever; but prior to the close of his earthly career, he was induced to forego the comforts and peace of domestic life, to embark in the stormy conflicts of political controversy. Believing that the democratic party in Virginia were yielding to passion, and advocating principles hostile to the safety of the country, and opposed to the constitution of the United States, Mr. HENRY espoused the cause of that instrument, the adoption of which he had so strenuously resisted. The Virginia resolutions of 1798 filled him with alarm, and although subsequent events have shown that the authors of them did not harbor intentions hostile to the union, Mr. HENRY firmly believed that he saw in their train the most ruinous consequences. He presented himself at the spring election of 1799, at the county of Charlotte, as a candidate for the house of delegates, and in an eloquent address to the people, expressed his alarm at the conduct of the party opposed to the national administration, his belief that their measures were not in accordance with the constitution, and his determination to support that instrument. He reminded them of his opposition to it on the very grounds that the powers which they were then condemning, were conferred, denied the right of a state to decide on the validity of federal laws, and declared his firm belief, that the destruction of the constitution would be followed by the total loss of liberty.

His usual success attended him, and he was elected. His health, however, yielded to the disease with which he had been afflicted for two years, and he expired on the 6th of June, 1799.

Mr. HENRY was twice married, and was the parent of fifteen children, eleven of whom survived him. In domestic life, he was conspicuous for his simplicity, frankness, and morality. Without ostentation, his retirement was enlivened by the cheerfulness of his disposition, and the stores of practical knowledge which a long career in public life had enabled him to accumulate. He was a firm Christian, and devoted much of his time in the concluding years of his life to reading works on religion. Temperate in his habits, indulgent to his children, and rigid in his morals, there was but little in his conduct for detraction to act upon. The charge of apostacy was made against him on account of his determination to sustain the constitution of the United States, which he had so strongly opposed; but when we reflect upon the incalculable blessings which it has showered upon the country, and how triumphantly it has refuted, by its practical operations, the objections which were made to it, we cannot but admire the frank and honorable conduct of the patriotic orator, who did not hesitate to sustain a system which experience must have convinced him he had erroneously opposed. The eloquence of Mr. HENRY has been attested by evidence to which every American will yield conviction. Unrivalled in its influence, it was one of the causes of the independence of the country: the remembrance of it deserves to be perpetuated to after ages, as one of the most striking characteristics of the contest for freedom. In recurring to the events of that struggle, with the virtues, patriotism, and heroism for which it was conspicuous, will ever be associated in grateful remembrance, the impetuous, patriotic, and irresistible eloquence of PATRICK HENRY.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 2

 

 

HENSHAW, Josiah, abolitionist, W. Brookfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1851-60-

 

 

HENSON, Josiah, 1789-1883, born a slave in Maryland, led one hundred slaves to freedom, founded Community of Former Slaves in Ontario, Canada; said to be the basis for Uncle Tom in Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Founded British American Manual Labor Institute in Canada.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 337; Lobb, 1971; Mabee, 1970, p. 173; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 26, 38, 335-336, 486; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 178; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 544; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 621)

 

HENSON, Josiah, clergyman, b. in Port Tobacco, Charles co., Md., 15 June, 1787; d. in Dresden, Ontario, in 1881. He was a pure-blooded negro, and was born and bred as a slave. The story of his life served as the foundation for Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe's novel of “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” When a young man and a preacher, he took all his master's slaves to a relative in Kentucky, to prevent their passing into the hands of creditors. There they were hired out to neighboring planters. He worked most of the time for a good-natured master named St. Clair, whose young daughter read to him. His arms were crippled, like those of Uncle Tom in the novel, the result of a blow from the Maryland overseer. He paid $500 toward purchasing his freedom, but was taken to New Orleans by his master's son to be sold, when the latter was attacked with yellow fever, and the slave accompanied him back to Kentucky and nursed him through his sickness. He finally escaped with his wife, carrying his two children on his back through the swamps to Cincinnati, where he had friends among the colored people, and then across the wilderness to Sandusky, whence they were conveyed to Canada by the benevolent captain of a schooner. “Uncle Si,” as he was called, settled with his family at Colchester, Ontario. He was the captain of a company of colored men during the Canadian rebellion. Subsequently he took up a tract of land on Sydenham river, where the town of Dresden was afterward situated. There he prospered as a farmer, and was the pastor of a church. At the age of fifty-five he began to learn to read and write. He met Mrs. Stowe, and described to her the events of his life. He also wrote an “Autobiography,” which was afterward published, with an introduction by Mrs. Stowe (Boston, 1858). In 1850 he went to England, and lectured in London. He visited England again in 1852, and a third time in 1876, on which occasion he lectured and preached in various cities, and was entertained at Windsor Castle by Queen Victoria. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 178.

 

 

HEPBURN, John, Society of Friends, Quaker, early anti-slavery activist, promoted colonization project as early as 1715.  Wrote that slavery was “anti-Christian and vile.”  Wrote The American Defense of the Golden Rule, or An Essay to Prove the Unlawfulness of Making Slaves of Men, 1715.  (Bruns, 1977, pp. 16-31; Drake, 1950, pp. 34-36, 38, 121; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 12, 94; Zilversmit, 1967, p. 66)

 

 

HERBERT, John Carlyle, Beltsville, Maryland, planter, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 30, 70)

 

 

HERRICK, Anson, 1812-1868, journalist.  Democratic Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Served in Congress December 1863-March 1865.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 187; Congressional Globe)

 

HERRICK, Anson, journalist, b. in Lewiston, Me., 21 Jan., 1812; d. in New York city, 5 Feb., 1868. His father was a representative in congress from Maine. The son received a common-school education, and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to a printer. In 1833 he established “The Citizen” at Wiscassett, Me., and in 1836 removed to New York city and worked as a journeyman printer till 1838, when he began the publication of the New York “Atlas,” a weekly journal. In 1857 he was appointed naval store-keeper of the port of New York, and in 1862 was elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 3 Dec., 1863, to 3 March, 1865. He was a delegate in 1866 to the National Union convention at Philadelphia. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 187.

 

 

HERSEY, John, Reverend, clergyman.  Assistant agent for the Maryland State Colonization Society in Africa.  Assistant to Dr. James Hall.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 58, 69-71, 74, 78-79)

 

 

HEWS, William H., abolitionist, Haverhill, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-41

 

 

HEYWOOD, Ezra Hervey, 1829-1893, abolitionist, temperance activist, women’s rights advocate.  Member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  Follower of William Lloyd Garrison.  (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 727; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 428-429; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 609)

 

 

HIBBON, Thomas, Clinton County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-38

 

 

HICKMAN, William, b. 1747 in Virginia, clergyman.  Pastor in Baptist Church at Forks of the Elkhorn, Lexington, Kentucky, censured for anti-slavery views.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 90)

 

 

HICKS, Elias, 1748-1830, clergyman, abolitionist leader.  Long Island farmer.  Society of Friends, Quaker minister. Founder of Hicksite sect of Quakerism, which believed in a radical form of abolitionism.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 116-118, 120, 155, 160; Hicks, 1861; Pease, 1965, pp. 143-148; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 195-196; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 6; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 430-431; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 744)

 

HICKS, Elias, minister of the Society of Friends, b. in Hempstead, N. Y., 19 March, 1748; d. in Jericho, N. Y., 27 Feb., 1830. His youth was passed in carelessness and indifference to religious subjects, but not without frequent checks of conscience for his neglect of duty. At the age of about twenty years the subject of religion deeply affected his mind, and wrought a thorough change in his conduct. He became interested in the principles and testimonies of the society of which he was a member, and when about twenty-seven years of age he began his ministry, soon became an acknowledged minister of the society, and for more than fifty years labored with unwearied diligence. He travelled through almost every state in the Union, and also through Canada several times, and, notwithstanding the fact that his circumstances were not affluent, he never received the least compensation for his services. When not engaged in religious service, he was diligently occupied with his own hands upon his farm. He was in early life deeply impressed with the injustice and cruelty of keeping slaves, and was among the first that brought the subject frequently and forcibly before his religious society. Not only in his public discourses, but also by his pen, his views on this subject widely diffused themselves throughout the community, and through his exertions, conjoined with those of other philanthropists, the state of New York was induced to pass the act that on 4 July, 1827, gave freedom to every slave within its limits. As a preacher he was lucid and powerful, and wielded an influence that has been scarcely attained by any other member of his society. The prominent theme of his ministry was “obedience to the light within,” which he considered as the foundation of true Quakerism. In the latter years of his life he gave ground for uneasiness to some of the society by his views concerning the dogmatic opinions of theologians concerning the pre-existence, deity, incarnation, and vicarious atonement of Christ. He considered that the personality of the meek, wise, majestic prophet of Galilee was overlaid with theological verbiage and technicality, which greatly impaired its practical value and authority as an example to mankind. Hicks's ministry was marked by much dignity and power. Notwithstanding his pure, blameless, and upright walk among men, his doctrinal views became the cause of dissatisfaction, which led to a separation in all, or nearly all, the yearly meetings on the continent, his friends and supporters in most of the yearly meetings being largely in the majority. The contest was conducted with much acrimony, which, to the credit of all concerned, is rapidly passing away. Those members of the society that adhere to the teachings of Elias Hicks are commonly known as “Hicksites,” a name that was originally given in derision, but they recognize no other name than that of “Friends.” Mr. Hicks published “Observations on Slavery” (New York, 1811); “Sermons” (1828); “Elias Hicks's Journal of his Life and Labors” (Philadelphia, 1828); and “The Letters of Elias Hicks” (1834). See also Samuel M. Janney's “History of the Religious Society of the Friends” (1859). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 195-196.

 

 

HICKS, John F., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

HIEBERT, Lamont, abolitionist.

 

 

HIGBY, William, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

HIGGINS, James W., abolitionist, Jersey City, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

HIGGINSON, Thomas Wentworth Storrow, 1823-1911, author, editor, Unitarian clergyman, radical abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, secretly supported radical abolitionist John Brown, and his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, on October 16, 1859.  Served as a Colonel in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first African American regiment formed under the Federal Government.  (Edelstein, 1968; Mabee, 1970, pp. 309, 312, 318, 319, 321, 336, 345, 377; Renehan, 1995; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 138, 207, 327, 337-338, 478-479; Rossbach, 1982; Sernett, 2002, pp. 205, 208, 211, 213, 325-326n3; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 199; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 16; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 431-434; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 757; Wells, Anna Mary. Dear Preceptor… 1963.  Higginson, Thomas, Army Life in a Black Regiment, 1870)

 

HIGGINSON, Thomas Wentworth, author, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 22 Dec., 1823, was graduated at Harvard in 1841 and at the divinity-school in 1847, and in the same year was ordained pastor of the 1st Congregational church in Newburyport, Mass. He left this church on account of anti-slavery preaching in 1850, and in the same year was an unsuccessful Free-soil candidate for congress. He was then pastor of a free church in Worcester, Mass., from 1852 till 1858. when he left the ministry, and devoted himself to literature. He had been active in the anti- slavery agitation of this period, and for his part in the attempted rescue of a fugitive slave (see BURNS, ANTHONY) was indicted for murder with Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, and others, but was discharged through a flaw in the indictment. He also aided in the organization of parties of free-state emigrants to Kansas in 1856, was personally acquainted with John Brown, and served as brigadier-general on James H. Lane's staff in the free-state forces. He became captain in the 51st Massachusetts regiment, 25 Sept., 1862, and on 10 Nov. was made colonel of the 1st South Carolina volunteers (afterward called the 33d U.S. colored troops), the first regiment of freed slaves mustered into the national service. He took and held Jacksonville, Fla., but was wounded at Wiltown Bluff, S. C., in August, 1863, and in October, 1864, resigned on account of disability. He then engaged in literature at Newport, R. I., till 1878, and afterward at Cambridge, Mass., where he has since resided. He is an earnest advocate of woman suffrage, and of the higher education for both sexes. He was a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1880 and 1881, serving as chief of staff to the governor during the same time, and in 1881-'3 was a member of the state board of education. He is the author of “Out-door Papers” (Boston, 1863); “Malbone, an Old port Romance” (1869); “Army Life in a Black Regiment” (1870; French translation by Madame de Gasparin, 1884); “Atlantic Essays” (1871); “The Sympathy of Religions” (1871); “Old port Days” (1873); “Young Folks' History of the United States” (1875; French translation, 1875; German translation, Stuttgart, 1876); “History of Education in Rhode Island” (1876); “Young Folks' Book of American Explorers” (1877); “Short Studies of American Authors” (1879); “Common-Sense about Women” (1881); “Life of Margaret Fuller Ossoli” (“American Men of Letters” series, 1884); “Larger History of the United States” (New York, 1885); “The Monarch of Dreams” (1886); “Hints on Writing and Speech-making” (1887);
“Women and Men” (1888); “The Afternoon Landscape” (poems, 1889); “Travellers and Outlaws” (1889); “Life of Francis Higginson” (1891); “The New World and the New Book” (1892); “Concerning all of us” (1892); “Such as they are” (poems, with Mary Thacher Higginson, 1893); “Massachusetts in the Army and Navy” (1895-'6); “Book and Heart” (1897); “The Procession of the Flowers” (1897); “Cheerful Yesterdays” (autobiography, 1898); “Tales of the Enchanted Islands” (1898). He has also translated the “Complete Works of Epictetus” (Boston, 1865), and edited “Harvard Memorial Biographies” (2 vols., 1866).
Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 199.

 

 

HILDRITH, Richard, historian, author (Dumond, 1961, p. 273; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 44)

 

 

HILL, Moses, abolitionist, Maine, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

HILTON, John J., abolitionist, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1836-40, 40-46, Vice-President, 1846-60-

 

 

HILTON, John Telemachus, 1801-1864, African American, abolitionist, civil rights activist (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 5, p. 615)

 

 

HILTON, Lavinia, abolitionist. (Yellin, 1994, pp. 48n, 129, 130n, 134)

 

 

HIMES, Joshua V., Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS).  Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1843.

 

 

HIMROD, William, 1791-1873, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  Opposed Fugitive Slave Act.  Aided fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad.

 

 

Hinckley, Orramel S., Reverend, Tennessee, clergyman.  Agent of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in Tennessee.  Brother-in-law of ACS agent Ralph Gurley.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 145)

 

 

HINDE, Thomas Spottswood, 1785-1846, Illinois, opponent of slavery, newspaper editor, clergyman, author, historian, businessman.  Early and outspoken opponent of slavery.

 

 

HINES, Stephen D., Sandy Hill, New York.  Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

HITCHCOCK, George Beckworth, clergyman, abolitioninst.  Active in the Underground Railroad in Lewis, Iowa.

 

 

HODGE, Charles, 1797-1878, Princeton, New Jersey, professor, theologian.  Officer, New Jersey auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Burin, 2005, p. 117; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 223; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 98; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 85)

 

 

HODGE, Charles E., abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1856-60

 

 

HODGSON, Joseph, abolitionist, Delaware, member and delegate of the Delaware Abolition Society, founded 1788 (Basker, 2005, p. 224)

 

 

HOFFMAN, George, Maryland, railroad organizer.  First president of the Maryland State Colonization society, 1831.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 19, 38, 192)

 

 

HOFFMAN, Jacob.  Founding officer and manager of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

HOFFMAN, John, Baltimore, Maryland.  Original co-founder and officer of the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 20, 192-193)

 

 

HOFFMAN, Peter, Baltimore, Maryland.  Leader and original co-founder of the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 20, 192)

 

 

HOLCOMB, Jedadiah, abolitionist, Brandon, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-45

 

 

HOLLEN, Samuel, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

HOLLEY, Myron, 1779-1841, Rochester, New York, abolitionist leader, political leader, reformer. Founder of the Liberty Party. Published the anti-slavery newspaper, Rochester Freeman. (Blue, 2005, pp. 20, 23, 25, 26; Chadwick, 1899; Dumond, 1961, pp. 295-296, 404n16; Goodell, 1852, pp. 470, 474, 556; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 16-17, 21; Sernett, 2002, pp. 107-109, 112, 180, 305-306n17; Sorin, 1971; Wright, 1882; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 236; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 150; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 62)

 

HOLLEY, Myron, reformer, b. in Salisbury, Conn., 29 April, 1779; d. in Rochester, N. Y., 4 March, 1841. He was graduated at Williams in 1799, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1802. He began practice in Salisbury, but in 1803 settled in Canandaigua, N. Y. Finding the law uncongenial, he purchased the stock of a local bookseller and became the literary purveyor of the town. In 1810-'14 he was county-clerk, and in 1816 was sent to Albany as an assemblyman. The project of the Erie canal was at that time the great subject of interest, and through the efforts of Mr. Holley a board of commissioners was appointed, of whom he was one. His work thenceforth, until its completion, was on the Erie canal. For eight years his practical wisdom, energy, and self-sacrifice made him the executive power, without which this great enterprise would probably have been a failure. On the expiration of his term of office, in 1824, as canal-commissioner and treasurer of the board, he retired to Lyons, where with his family he had previously removed. The anti-Masonic excitement of western New York, arising from the abduction of William Morgan, soon drove Mr. Holley into prominence again. This movement culminated in a national convention being held in Philadelphia in 1830, where Henry D. Ward, Francis Granger, William H. Seward, and Myron Holley were the representatives from New York. An “Address to the People of the United States,” written by Holley, was adopted and signed by 112 delegates. The anti-Masonic adherents presented a candidate in the next gubernatorial canvass of New York, and continued to do so for several years, until the Whigs, appreciating the advantages of their support, nominated candidates that were not Masons. This action resulted, in 1838, in the election of William H. Seward. Meanwhile, in 1831, Mr. Holley became editor of the Lyons “Countryman,” a journal devoted to the opposition and suppression of Masonry; but after three years, this enterprise not having been successful, he went to Hartford, and there conducted the “Free Elector” for one year. He then returned to Lyons, but soon disposed of his property and settled near Rochester, where for a time he lived in quiet, devoting his attention to horticulture. When the anti-slavery feeling began to manifest itself Mr. Holley became one of its adherents. At this time he was offered a nomination to congress by the Whig party, provided he would not agitate this question; but this proposition he declined. He participated in the meeting of the anti-slavery convention held in Cleveland in 1839, and was prominent in the call for a national convention to meet in Albany, to take into consideration the formation of a Liberty party. At this gathering the nomination of James G. Birney was made, and during the subsequent canvass Mr. Holley was active in support of the candidate, both by continual speaking and by his incessant labors as editor of the Rochester “Freeman.” Mr. Holley's remains rest in Mount Hope cemetery, at Rochester, and the grave is marked by an obelisk, with a fine medallion portrait in white marble, the whole having been paid for in one-cent contributions by members of the Liberty party, at the suggestion of Gerrit Smith. See “Myron Holley; and What he did for Liberty and True Religion,” by Elizur Wright (Boston, 1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 236.

 

 

HOLLEY, Sallie, abolitionist, women’s rights leader, orator, lecturer, graduate of Oberlin College. (Chadwick, 1899; Dumond, 1961, pp. 281, 402n40, 402n41; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 53, 219-220)

 

 

HOLLINGSWORTH, Jesse, Maryland, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage, founded 1789.  (Basker, 2005, p. 224)

 

 

HOLLISTER, David S., abolitionist, Wisconsin, Territory, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40

 

 

HOLMES, James H., abolitionist.  Husband of abolitionist Julia A. Holms.

 

 

HOLMES, Julia Archibald, 1838-1887, Lawrence, Kansas, abolitionist.

 

 

HOLMES, Oliver, Jr., dentist.  Colonial agent and leader of expedition to Africa for the Maryland State Colonization Society in February 1836.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 87, 89,90, 91-92, 119, 127)

 

 

HOLTON, Edward D., abolitionist.

 

 

HOLYOKE, William, Hamilton County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-37

 

 

HOOPER, Samuel, 1808-1875, merchant.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts.  Elected in 1860, served until his death in 1875.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 252; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 203; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 144; Congressional Globe)

 

HOOPER, Samuel, merchant, b. in Marblehead, Mass., 3 Feb., 1808; d. in Washington, D. C., 13 Feb., 1875. After receiving a common-school education he entered at an early age the counting-house of his father, who was engaged in European and West Indian trade. As agent of this enterprise the son visited Russia, Spain, and the West Indies. About 1832 he became junior partner in the mercantile house of Bryant, Sturgis, and Co., in Boston, where he remained for ten years, and then was a member of the firm of William Appleton and Co., who were engaged in the China trade. He was much interested in the iron business and its relation to questions of political economy, and possessed shares in the mines and furnaces near Port Henry, Lake Champlain, and in the Bay-State rolling-mills, South Boston. In 1851 He was elected to the Massachusetts house of representatives, where he served three years, declining a re-election, and in 1857 became state senator, but refused a renomination on account of his business enterprises. In 1860 he was elected to congress, as a Republican, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Appleton, and was re-elected at each successive biennial election until his death. He served on the committees on ways and means, on banking and currency, and on the war debts of the loyal states. The success of the national loan of April, 1861, was greatly due to his efforts. In 1869 Chief-Justice Chase wrote a letter attributing the success of the bill that provided for the national banking system to the “good judgment, persevering exertions, and disinterested patriotism of Mr. Hooper.” In 1866 he was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention. He presented $50,000 to Harvard, in 1866, to found a school of mining and practical geology in close connection with the Lawrence scientific school, and in that year received the degree of M. A. from the university. He wrote two pamphlets on currency, which became well known for their broad and comprehensive treatment of this subject. His house in Washington, which was noted for its hospitality, was the headquarters of Gen. George B. McClellan in 1861-'2. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 252.

 

 

HOPKINS, Augustus, Stark County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Recording Secretary, 1837-39

 

 

HOPKINS, Johns, 1795-1873, abolitionist, entrepreneur, philanthropist.  His family were Quakers and freed their slaves in 1807.  Worked with prominent abolitionists Myrtilla Miner and Henry Ward Beecher.  Strong supporter of Lincoln and the Union during the Civil War.  Supported African American institutions.  After the war, founder of Johns Hopkins Institutes in Baltimore, Maryland.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 256; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 213)

 

HOPKINS, Johns, philanthropist, b. in Anne Arundel county, Md., 19 May, 1795; d. in Baltimore. 24 Dec., 1873. His parents were Quakers, and their son was trained to a farming life, but received a fair education. At seventeen years of age he went to Baltimore, became a clerk in his uncle's wholesale grocery-store, and in a few years accumulated sufficient capital to establish himself in the grocery trade with a partner. Three years later, in 1822, he founded, with his two brothers, the house of Hopkins and Brothers. He rapidly added to his fortune until he had amassed large wealth. Retiring from business as a grocer in 1847, he engaged in banking and railroad enterprises, became a director in the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company, and, in 1855, chairman of its finance committee. Two years afterward, when the company was seriously embarrassed, he volunteered to endorse its notes, and risked his private fortune in its extrication. He was one of the projectors of a line of iron steamships between Baltimore and Bremen, and built many warehouses in the city. In March, 1873, be gave property valued at $4,500,000 to found a hospital which, by its charter, is free to all, regardless of race or color, presented the city of Baltimore with a public park, and gave $3,500,000 to found the Johns Hopkins university, which was first proposed by him in 1867, and was opened in 1876. It embraces schools of law, medicine, science, and agriculture, and publishes the results of researches of professors and students. At his death he left a fortune of $10,000,000, including the sums set apart for the endowment of the university and hospital, which were devised to the trustees in his will. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HOPKINS, Reverend Dr. Samuel, 1721-1803, Newport, Rhode Island, theologian, opponent of slavery. Pastor of the First Congregational Church of New port, Rhode Island.  Wrote A Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of Africans, 1776.  (Basker, 2005, p. 136; Bruns, 1977, pp. 290, 293, 340, 397, 457, 492; Drake, 1950, pp. 85, 88, 97-99, 123; Dumond, 1961, pp. 22-23; Goodell, 1852, pp. 28, 41, 76, 92, 109, 114, 120-122, 127; Locke, 1901, pp. 40, 55, 58, 60, 64, 65, 86, 90, 103n, 187, 192; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 20, 22-23, 331; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 107, 118-119, 121, 153, 154, 156-157; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 257-258; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 217; Dark, “Memoir of Samuel Hopkins,” in Hopkins’ Works, Vol. I, pp. 116, 140, 160; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 186)

 

HOPKINS, Samuel, theologian, b. in Waterbury, Conn., 17 Sept., 1721; d. in Newport, R. I., 20 Dec., 1803. He was brought up on a farm, graduated at Yale in 1741, and trained in theology by Jonathan Edwards. In 1743 he was ordained pastor of the church at Housatonnuc (afterward Great Barrington), Mass., but in January, 1769, he was dismissed because his church was reduced in numbers. On 11 April, 1770, he was settled over a church in Newport, R I. In December, 1776, when the British took possession of Newport, he retired to Great Barrington. During the summer of 1777 he preached to a large congregation at Newburyport, Mass., and subsequently at Canterbury and Stamford, Conn. In the spring of 1780, after the evacuation of Newport by the British, he returned, but found his congregation diminished and impoverished. For the remainder of his life he was obliged to depend on the weekly contributions of his hearers and the assistance of friends. In January, 1799, paralysis deprived him of the use of his limbs. He was an early advocate of the emancipation of negro slaves, freed his own, and originated the idea of sending the liberated slaves to Africa to act as agents of civilization. The agitation that was begun by him led to organized political action in Rhode Island and the passing of a law, in 1774, forbidding the importation of negroes into the colony, followed after the Revolution by an act of the legislature declaring all children of slaves that should be born subsequent to 1 March, 1785, to be free. He was the author of the modifications of the Calvinistic theology that came to be known as Hopkinsianism. He believed that the inability of the unregenerate is owing to moral and not to natural causes, and that sinners are free agents and deserving of punishment, though all acts, sinful as well as righteous, are the result of the decrees of providence. The essence of sin, he thought, consisted in the disposition and intention of the mind. Dr. Hopkins was an exceedingly modest and devout man, and exemplified the disposition of unselfishness and benevolence which he regarded as the basis of a Christian life. He was the original of one of the principal characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's “Minister's Wooing.” His theological theories, which created an epoch in the development of religious thought in New England, were first presented from the pulpit, and were developed, with some modifications, after his death, by his friends, Stephen West, Nathaniel Emmons, and Samuel Spring. Among his published sermons are “Sin, through Divine Interposition, an Advantage to the Universe; and yet this is no Excuse for Sin or Encouragement to it” (1759); “An Inquiry whether the Promises of the Gospel are made to the Exercises and Doings of Persons in the Unregenerate State” (1765); “The True State and Character of the Unregenerate” (1769); and “An Inquiry into the Nature of True Holiness” (1773). His “Dialogue Showing it to be the Duty and Interest of the American States to Emancipate all their African Slaves” appeared in 1776. His theological views were expounded in “A System of Doctrines Contained in Divine Revelation” (1793). He published a “Life of President Edwards” and lives of Susannah Anthony (1796), and Mrs. Osborn (1798). A dialogue on the nature and extent of true Christian submission, an address to professing Christians, and sketches of his own life were included in a collection of his works published by Dr. Stephen West (Stockbridge, 1805). A subsequent edition of his collected writings contains a memoir by Dr. Edwards A. Park (Boston, 1852). A “Treatise on the Millennium,” originally published with the “System of Divinity,” was reissued in 1854. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

HOPKINS, Stephen, 1707-1785, Rhode Island, founding father, political leader, signer of the Declaration of Independence.  Hopkins was a slaveholder.  He manumitted several of his slaves, but not all, during his lifetime.  In 1774, as a Rhode Island Assemblyman, he introduced a bill prohibiting importing slaves into the colony, which was passed.  This was one of the earliest anti-slavery laws enacted in the United States.  Hopkins was a practicing Quaker.  (Arnold, 1894; Austin, 1887; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 259; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 219)

 

HOPKINS, Stephen, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Providence, R. I., 7 March, 1707; d. there, 13 July, 1785. He was brought up as a farmer, and inherited an estate in Scituate. He was a member of the assembly in 1732-'3 and 1735-'8, and in 1736 was appointed a justice of the peace and one of the justices of the court of common pleas. He was the first town-clerk of Scituate. During his whole life he was largely employed as a land-surveyor. In 1741 he was again chosen to represent the town of Scituate in the assembly, and was elected speaker. In 1742 he sold his farm and removed to Providence, where he made a survey of the streets and lots, and afterward began business as a merchant and ship-builder. The same year he was sent to the assembly from Providence, and was again chosen speaker. In 1751 he was elected for the fourteenth time to the general assembly, and later in the year appointed chief justice of the superior court. He was a delegate from Rhode Island to the convention that met at Albany in 1754 for the purposes of concerting a plan of military and political union of the colonies and arranging an alliance with the Indians, in view of the impending war with France. He was one of the committee that drafted a plan of colonial union, which was accepted by the convention, but objected to in the various colonies and in Great Britain. In 1755 Mr. Hopkins was elected governor of the colony, and held that office, with the exception of two years, when he was defeated by his political rival, Samuel Ward, until 1764. After Ward had occupied the governor's chair for two years, Hopkins was again elected in 1767; but in October of that year he renounced further candidature for the sake of uniting the contending factious and putting an end to a party strife that distracted the colony. While he was governor, Hopkins had a controversy with William Pitt, prime minister of England, in relation to the contraband trade with the French colonies. He was one of the earliest and most strenuous champions of colonial rights against the encroachments of the English parliament. In 1765 he wrote a pamphlet entitled “The Grievances of the American Colonies Candidly Examined,” which was printed by order of the general assembly, and reissued in London the next year. In 1765 he was elected chairman of a committee appointed at a special town-meeting held in Providence to draft instructions to the general assembly on the stamp-act. The resolutions reported and adopted were nearly identical with those that Patrick Henry introduced into the house of burgesses of Virginia. In 1770 he was again elected to the general assembly. He was appointed a member of the committee on correspondence the following year, and was successively re-elected to the assembly till 1775. While holding a seat in the assembly, and afterward in the Continental congress, he filled the office of chief justice of Rhode Island as well, being appointed for the second time to that station in 1770. In 1773 he emancipated his slaves, and in 1774 brought forward a bill in the assembly which prohibited the importation of negroes into the colony. He was elected, with Samuel Ward, to represent Rhode Island in the general congress in August, 1774, and was appointed on the first two committees. In the beginning of the Revolution he was one of the committee of safety of the town of Providence, and in May, 1775, was elected to the 2d congress. In the 3d congress he had William Ellery as his colleague. The signature of Hopkins to the Declaration of Independence is written with a trembling hand for the reason that he had suffered for several years from a paralytic affection which prevented him from writing except by guiding the right hand with the left, though in early life he had been famed for the elegance of his penmanship. He was a delegate from Rhode Island to the commission that was appointed by the New England states to consult on the defence of their borders and the promotion of the common cause, and presided over the meetings in Providence in 1776 and in Springfield, Mass., in 1777. He was not a member of the congress in 1777, but in the following year was a delegate for the last time. Mr. Hopkins was a powerful and lucid speaker, and used his influence in congress in favor of decisive measures. He worshipped with the Friends, but professed religious views so latitudinarian that he was called by his enemies an infidel. His knowledge of the business of shipping made him particularly useful in congress as a member of the naval committee in devising plans for fitting out armed vessels and furnishing the colonies with a naval armament, and in framing regulations for the navy. He was also a member of the committee that drafted the articles of confederation for the government of the states. In 1777 he was an active member of the general assembly of Rhode Island. He was a founder of the town library of Providence in 1750, which was burned in 1758, but re-established through his instrumentality. Besides the work already mentioned, he was the author of a “History of the Planting and Growth of Providence,” which appeared in the Providence “Gazette” in 1765. See “Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island Statesman,” by William E. Foster (Providence, 1884).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HOPKINS, Timothy M, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

HOPKINS, William, abolitionist, Fremont, Indiana, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1856-64

 

 

HOPPER, Anna, daughter of Lucretia Mott, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, pp. 71, 75)

 

 

HOPPER, Isaac Tatem, 1771-1852, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, prison reformer, philanthropist, radical abolitionist leader, member Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Abolition Society, Treasurer of the Anti-Slavery Society, operator of the Underground Railroad, helped 3,000 Black fugitive slaves to Canada.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 148, 160, 162, 187; Mabee, 1970, pp. 27, 29, 30, 100, 105, 111, 225, 273, 276, 277, 374; Nash, 1991, p. 131; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 261; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 224; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 445-446; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 202)

 

HOPPER, Isaac Tatem, philanthropist, b. in Deptford township, Gloucester co., N. J., 3 Dec., 1771; d. in New York city, 7 May, 1852. He learned the tailor's trade of an uncle in Philadelphia. He early joined the Quakers, and afterward became a believer in the doctrines taught by Elias Hicks, whose followers were subsequently known as Hicksites. When he was young, Philadelphia was infested by slave kidnappers, who committed many outrages. Under these circumstances the Pennsylvania abolition society, of which Mr. Hopper became an active and leading member, was frequently called upon to protect the rights of colored people, and in time he became known to every one in Philadelphia as the friend and adviser of the oppressed race in all emergencies. He was one of the founders and the secretary of a society for the employment of the poor; overseer of the Benezet school for colored children; teacher, without recompense, in a free school for colored adults; inspector of the prison, without a salary; member of a fire company, and guardian of abused apprentices. When pestilence was raging, he was devoted to the sick, and the poor were continually calling upon him to plead with importunate landlords and creditors. He was not unfrequently employed to settle estates involved in difficulties, which others were disinclined to undertake, and he had occasional applications to exert his influence over the insane, for which he had a peculiar tact. Although he was a poor man with a large family, his house was for many years a home for impoverished Quakers, and he transacted much business for the Society of Friends. In 1829 he removed to New York to take charge of a book-store established by the Hicksite Quakers. In the autumn of 1830, being called to Ireland on business connected with his wife's estate, he availed himself of the opportunity to visit England. In both countries he was at first treated somewhat cavalierly by the orthodox Quakers, and pointed out as the one “who has given Friends so much trouble in America.” His candor and amiability, however, soon removed these unfavorable impressions, and he had no occasion ultimately to complain of his reception. On his return to New York, he threw himself heart and soul into the work of the Prison association, whose aims and plans of action were entirely in accordance with his views. To render such practical aid as would enable the repentant to return to society, by engaging in some honest calling, he devoted the greater part of his time and attention. No disposition was too perverse for his efforts at reform; no heart so hard that he did not try to soften; no relapses could exhaust his patience, which, without weak waste of means, continued “hoping all things” while even a dying spark of good feeling remained. In the spring of 1841, the demand for Hicksite books having greatly diminished, Friend Hopper became treasurer and book-agent for the Anti-slavery society. Although he had reached the age of seventy, he was as vigorous as a man of fifty. In 1845 he relinquished these offices, and devoted the rest of his life entirely to the work of the Prison association. In his labors he was greatly assisted by a married daughter, Abby H. Gibbons, who was as vigilant and active in behalf of women discharged from prison as was her father in behalf of men. Through her exertions, an asylum was founded for these unfortunates, which was called the “Isaac T. Hopper Home. The aged philanthropist frequently had occasion to visit Albany, N. Y., to represent the association and to address the legislature. Judge Edmonds thus refers to one of these occasions: “His eloquence was simple and direct, but most effective. If he was humorous, his audience were full of laughter; if solemn, a death-like stillness reigned; if pathetic, tears flowed all around him.” He had often to plead for the pardon of prisoners, and Gov. John Young, of New York, once said to him: “Friend Hopper, I will pardon any convict whom you say you conscientiously believe I ought to pardon.” The career of this untiring benefactor is best summed up in the words of one of his own sect: “The Bible requires us to love our neighbors as well as ourselves; and Friend Hopper has loved them better!” His life was written by Lydia Maria Child (Boston, 1853).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 261.

 

 

HOPPER, Sarah, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave  (Drake, 1950; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III)

 

 

HORTON, George Firman, 1806-1886, physician, temperance activist, abolitionist.  Active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 266)

 

HORTON, George Firman, physician. b. in Terrytown, Bradford co., Pa., 2 Jan., 1806; d. there, 20 Dec., 1886. He was educated at Rensselaer polytechnic institute, Troy, N. Y., and in the medical department of Rutgers college, and began practice in his; native town in 1829. He became an advocate of the temperance cause in 1830, and was a member of the American anti-slavery society almost from the time of its foundation till the extinction of slavery. He was for twelve years treasurer and town-clerk of his township, from 1830 till 1856 postmaster at Terrytown, and in 1872 was elected a delegate to the Constitutional convention of Pennsylvania for revising the state constitution. He was a skilful botanist and entomologist. He published reports of his cases in the “Transactions of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society”; “Reports on the Geology of Bradford County” (1858); and “The Horton Genealogy” (1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 266.

 

 

HORTON, George Moses, North Carolina slave, published book of poetry, The Hope of Liberty, 1824 (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 20-21, 278; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 232)

 

 

HORTON, Jonathon, anti-slavery activist, Methodist (Dumond, 1961, p. 187)

 

 

HORTON, Jotham, anti-slavery advocate.  Helped found the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1843 with abolitionists Orange Scott and LaRoy Sunderland in 1843.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 187; Matlack, 1849, p. 162)

 

 

HOTCHKISS, Giles, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

HOUGH, Reuben, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

HOUGH, Stanley, New York, abolitionist leader, editor, newsletter of the New York Anti-Slavery Society (NYASS), Friend of Man, after 1839.  (Sernett, 2002, p. 53; Sorin, 1971)

 

 

HOVEY, Charles Fox, Boston, Massachusetts, 1807-1859, businessman, philanthropist, abolitionist, reformer.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1848-59, Vice President 1848-1855, Counsellor, 1855-1860.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  Hovey was an active supporter of the Women’s Rights Movement.  He helped support the abolitionist movement with significant funding.  (Abbot; Richard, 1991)

 

 

HOWARD, A. G., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

HOWARD, Benjamin Chew, 1791-1872, Maryland, statesman, U.S. Congressman.  Manager of the Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 276-277; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 275; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 111)

 

HOWARD, Benjamin Chew, Baltimore county, Md., 5 Nov., 1791; d. in Baltimore, Md., 6 March, 1872. He was graduated at Princeton in 1809, studied law, and practised in Baltimore. In 1814 he assisted in organizing troops for the defence of Baltimore, and commanded the “mechanical volunteers” at the battle of North Point Oil 12 Sept. of that year. He served in congress in 1829-'33, having been chosen as a Democrat, and again in 1835-'9, when he was chairman of the committee on foreign relations, and drew up its report on the boundary question. From 1843 till 1862 he was reporter of the supreme court of the United States, and in 1861 he was a delegate to the peace congress. Princeton gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1869. He published “Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of the United States from 1843 till 1855” (Baltimore, 1855). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HOWARD, Cecilia, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

Howard, Charles, Maryland.  Manager of the Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Brother-in-law of ACS leader Francis Scott Key.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 38, 43, 44, 86-87, 192, 204, 209, 242; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

HOWARD, Jacob Merritt, 1805-1871, lawyer.  Republican U.S. Senator from Michigan.  U.S. Congressman 1841-1843.  Founding member of Republican Party in 1854.  Elected in 1862.  Served until March 1871.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 277; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 278; Dumond, 1961, p. 313; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 304; Congressional Globe)

 

HOWARD, Jacob Merritt, senator, b. in Shaftsbury, Vt., 10 July, 1805; d. in Detroit, Mich., 2 April, 1871. By teaching he gained the means of obtaining an education at Williams college, where he was graduated in 1830. Removing to Detroit, Mich., in 1832, he studied law, was admitted to the bar the next year, and was a member of the legislature in 1838. In 1840 he was elected to congress, serving from 1841 till 1843, and in 1854-'8 was attorney-general of Michigan. In 1854 Mr. Howard drew up the platform of the first convention ever held by the Republican party, and is accredited with giving the party its name. He was elected to the U. S. senate in 1862, as a Republican, to fill the unexpired term of Kinsley S. Bingham, deceased, was re-elected in 1865, and served until 3 March, 1871. During his term as senator he was chairman of the ordnance committee. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalist convention of 1866, and in that year Williams gave him the degree of LL. D. He published a “Translation from the French of the Secret Memoirs of the Empress Josephine” (New York, 1847). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 277.

 

 

HOWARD, James, Maryland, businessman, railroad president.  First Secretary and founding member of the Maryland State Colonization society in 1831.  (Campbell, 1971, p. 20)

 

 

Howard, John Eager, 1752-1826, Maryland, Revolutionary War soldier and hero, federalist Governor and U.S. Senator.  Member of the Baltimore auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 277; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 279; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 70)

 

HOWARD, John Eager, soldier, b. in Baltimore county, Md., 4 June, 1752; d. there, 12 Oct., 1827. His grandfather, Joshua, an officer in the Duke of York's army during the Monmouth rebellion, was the first of the name of Howard that settled in this country. John's father, a wealthy planter, bred him to no profession, but gave him an excellent education under the care of tutors. At the beginning of the Revolution he joined the American army, commanded a company of the flying camp under Gen. Hugh Mercer at the battle of White Plains, 28 Oct., 1776. Upon the disbanding of his corps in December of this year, he was commissioned major in the 4th Maryland regiment of the line, and was engaged at Germantown and Monmouth. In 1780, as lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Maryland regiment, he fought at Camden under Gen. Horatio Gates, and in the latter part of the year joined the army under Gen. Nathanael Greene. He displayed great gallantry at the battle of Cowpens, 17 Jan., 1781, and the bayonet-charge under his command secured the American victory. At one time of this day he held the swords of seven British officers, who had surrendered to him. In honor of his services at this battle he received a medal from congress. He materially aided Gen. Greene in effecting his retreat at Guilford Court-House, 15 March, 1781, and at the battle of Hobkirk's Hill, on 15 April, succeeded to the command of the 2d Maryland regiment. At Eutaw Springs, where his command was reduced to thirty men, and he was its only surviving officer, he made a final charge, and was severely wounded. From 1789 till 1792 he was governor of Maryland, and he was U. S. senator in 1796-1803. He declined, in 1796, a seat in Washington's cabinet. In anticipation of war with France, Washington selected him in 1798 as one of his major-generals. During the panic in Baltimore in 1814, subsequent to the capture of Washington by the British troops, he prepared to take the field, and was an earnest opponent of capitulation. In 1816 he was a candidate for vice-president. His wife, MARGARET, was a daughter of Chief-Justice Benjamin Chew. The illustration represents his residence of “Belvedere,” which was in an extensive park, and remained standing until recently. Lafayette was entertained there in 1824. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HOWARD, Oliver Otis, 1830-1919, abolitionist, Union Major General, commander of the 11th Corps of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Tennessee, the Right Wing of General Sherman’s March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign, November 1864-April 1865.  Recipient of the Medal of Honor.  Founder and director of the Freeman’s Bureau, 1865-1874.  Founder of Howard University, Washington, DC.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 278; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 279; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11; Cullum, 1891; U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, DC: GPO, 1881-1901. Series 1; Warner, 1964.)

 

HOWARD, Oliver Otis, soldier, b. in Leeds, Me., 8 Nov., 1830. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1850, and at the U. S. military academy In 1854, became 1st lieutenant and instructor in mathematics in 1854, and resigned in 1861 to take command of the 3d Maine regiment. He commanded a brigade at the first battle of Bull Run, and for gallantry in that engagement was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 3 Sept., 1861. He was twice wounded at the battle of Fair Oaks, losing his right arm on 1 June, 1862, was on sick-leave for six months, and engaged in recruiting service till September of this year, when he participated in the battle of Antietam, and afterward took Gen. John Sedgwick's division in the 2d corps. In November, 1862, he became major-general of volunteers. He commanded the 11th corps during Gen. Joseph Hooker's operations in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, 2 May, 1863, served at Gettysburg, Lookout Valley, and Missionary Ridge, and was on the expedition for the relief of Knoxville in December, 1863. He was in occupation of Chattanooga from this time till July, 1864, when he was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee in the invasion of Georgia, was engaged at Dalton, Resaca, Adairsville, and Pickett's Mill, where he was again wounded, was at the surrender of Atlanta, and joined in pursuit of the Confederates in Alabama, under Gen. John B. Hood, from 4 Oct. till 13 Dec., 1864. In the march to the sea and the invasion of the Carolinas he commanded the right wing of Gen. William T. Sherman's army. He became brigadier-general in the U. S. army, 21 Dec., 1864. He was in command of the Army of the Tennessee, and engaged in all the important battles from 4 Jan. till 26 April, 1865, occupying Goldsborough, N. C., 24 March, 1865, and participating in numerous skirmishes, terminating with the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Durham, N. C., 26 April, 1865. In March of this year he was brevetted major-general for gallantry at the battle of Ezra Church and the campaigns against Atlanta, Ga. He was commissioner of the Freedmen's bureau at Washington from March, 1865, till July, 1874, and in that year was assigned to the command of the Department of the Columbia. In 1877 he led the expedition against the Nez Perces Indians, and in 1878 led the campaign against the Bannocks and Piutes. In 1881-'2 he was superintendent of the U. S. military academy. In 1886 Gen. Howard was commissioned major-general, and given command of the division of the Pacific, Bowdoin college gave him the degree of A. M. in 1853, Waterville college that of LL. D. in 1865, Shurtleff college the same in 1865, and Gettysburg theological seminary in 1866. He was also made a chevalier of the Legion of honor by the French government in 1884. Gen. Howard was retired in 1894, and in 1898 was active in the movement for National volunteer reserves. He has contributed various articles to magazines, and has published “Donald's School Days” (1879); “Chief Joseph, or the Nez Perces in Peace and War” (1881); and “General Taylor” (in the “Great Commanders” series, New York, 1893). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 278.

 

 

HOWARD, Roland, abolitionist.  Brother of General Oliver Otis Howard.  (Marching in Proud Company, Civil War Recollections of Oliver Otis Howard [pamphlet, reprint], Anthoensen Press, Portland, ME, 1983)

 

 

HOWE, Appleton, Weymouth, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

HOWE, Eber Dudley, 1798-1885, abolitionist.  Publisher of the newspaper, Painesville Telegraph, in Painsville, Ohio, which had an anti-slavery editorial policy.  Howe was active in the Underground Railroad.

 

 

HOWE, Julia Ward, 1819-1910, abolitionist, women’s suffrage advocate, social activist, poet, essayist. Author of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Wife of abolitionist Samuel Gridley Howe, whom she aided in the publishing and editing of the Boston Anti-slavery newspaper, the Commonwealth before the Civil War. (Clifford, 1979; Grant, 1994; Richards, 1916; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 341-342; Williams, 1999; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 291; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 451-453; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 331)

 

HOWE, Julia Ward, b. in New York city, 27 May, 1819, is the daughter of Samuel Ward, a New York banker. Her mother, Julia Rush Ward, was the author of various occasional poems. Julia was carefully educated, partly at home and partly in private schools in New York. Her tutor in German and Latin was Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell. At an early age Miss Ward wrote plays and poems. After her father's death she visited Boston, and met there Dr. Howe, whom she married in 1843. She afterward continued her studies, learned to speak fluently in Italian, French, and Greek, and became a student of Kant, Hegel, Spinoza, Comte, and Fichte. She also wrote philosophical essays, which she read at her house before her literary friends. For some time before the civil war she conducted with her husband the Boston “Commonwealth,” an anti-slavery paper. In 1861, while on a visit to the camps near Washington, with Gov. John A. Andrew and other friends, Mrs. Howe wrote the “Battle-Hymn of the Republic,” which soon became popular. She espoused the woman-suffrage movement in 1869, and was one of the founders of the New England women's club, of which she has been president since 1872. She has also presided over several similar associations, including the American woman-suffrage association. In 1872 she was a delegate to the World's prison reform congress in London, and in the same year aided in founding the Woman's peace association there. In 1884-'5 she presided over the Woman's branch of the New Orleans exposition. She has delivered numerous lectures, and has often addressed the Massachusetts legislature in aid of reforms. She has preached in Rome, Italy, Santo Domingo, and from Unitarian pulpits in this country. She has also read lectures at the Concord school of philosophy. Mrs. Howe has published two volumes of poems, entitled “Passion Flowers” (Boston, 1854), and “Words for the Hour” (1857); “The World's Own,” a drama, which was acted at Wallack's theatre, New York, in 1855 (1857); “A trip to Cuba” (1860); “Later Lyrics” (1866); “From the Oak to the Olive” (1868); “Modern Society,” two lectures (1881); and “Life of Margaret Fuller” (1883). She has also edited “Sex and Education,” a reply to Dr. Edward H. Clarke's “Sex and Education” (1874); and wrote for Edwin Booth, in 1858, “Hippolytus,” a tragedy, which has been neither acted nor published.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

HOWE, Dr. Samuel Gridley, 1801-1876, abolitionist leader, philanthropist, physician, reformer.  Actively participated in the anti-slavery movement.  Free Soil candidate for Congress from Boston in 1846.  From 1851-1853 he edited the anti-slavery newspaper, the Commonwealth.  Active with the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War.  Member of the American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission, 1863. Supported radical abolitionist John Brown. Husband of Julia Ward Howe.  (Filler, 1960, pp. 43, 56, 117, 181, 204, 214, 238, 241, 268; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 32, 117, 119-120, 213; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 165, 207, 327, 388, 341; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 283; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 296; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 453-456; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 342)

 

HOWE, Samuel Gridley, philanthropist, b. in Boston, Mass., 10 Nov., 1801; d. there, 9 Jan., 1876. He was graduated at Brown in 1821, and at the Harvard medical school in 1824. After completing his studies he went to Greece, where he served as surgeon in the war for the independence in 1824-'7, and then as the head of the regular surgical service, which he established in that country. In 1827 he returned to the United States in order to obtain help for the Greeks when they were threatened with a famine, and later founded a colony on the isthmus of Corinth, but in consequence of prostration by swamp-fever he was obliged in 1830 to leave the country. In 1831, his attention having been called to the need of schools for the blind, for whose education no provision had been made in this country, he again visited Europe in order to study the methods of instruction then in use for the purpose of acquiring information concerning the education of the blind. While in Paris he was made president of the Polish committee. In his efforts to convey and distribute funds for the relief of a detachment of the Polish army that had crossed into Prussia, he was arrested by the Prussian authorities, but, after six weeks' imprisonment, was taken to the French frontier by night and liberated. On his return to Boston in 1832 he gathered several blind pupils at his father's house, and thus gave origin to the school which was afterward known as the Perkins institution, and of which he was the first superintendent, continuing in this office until his death. His greatest achievement in this direction was the education of Laura Bridgman (q. v.). Dr. Howe also took an active part in founding the experimental school for the training of idiots, which resulted in the organization of the Massachusetts school for idiotic and feeble-minded youth in 1851. He was actively engaged in the anti-slavery movement, and was a Free-soil candidate for congress from Boston in 1846. During 1851-'3 he edited the “Commonwealth.” Dr. Howe took an active part in the sanitary movement in behalf of the soldiers during the civil war. In 1867 he again went to Greece as bearer of supplies for the Cretans in their struggle with the Turks, and subsequently edited in Boston “The Cretan.” He was appointed, in 1871, one of the commissioners to visit Santo Domingo and report upon the question of the annexation of that island to the United States, of which he became an earnest advocate. In 1868 he received the degree of LL. D. from Brown. His publications include letters on topics of the time; various reports, especially those of the Massachusetts commissioners of idiots (Boston, 1847-'8); “Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution” (New York, 1828); and a “Reader for the Blind,” printed in raised characters (1839). See “Memoir of Dr. Samuel G. Howe,” by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe (Boston, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 283.

 

 

HOWE, Timothy Otis, 1816-1883, lawyer, jurist.  Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin.  Elected 1861, served until 1879.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 284; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 297; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 343; Congressional Globe)

 

HOWE, Timothy Otis, senator, b. in Livermore, Me., 24 Feb., 1816; d. in Kenosha, Wis., 25 March, 1883. He received a common-school education, working on a farm during his vacations. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Readfield. He was an ardent Whig and admirer of Henry Clay, and in 1840 was in the legislature, where he was active in debate. Impaired health occasioned his removal to Wisconsin in the latter part of this year, and opening a law-office in Green Bay, then a small village, he continued his residence there throughout his life. He was an unsuccessful candidate for congress in 1848, and two years afterward was elected circuit judge. The circuit judges were also judges of the supreme court, and during part of his term he served as chief justice of the state. Resigning his judgeship in 1855, he resumed his profession, and was an efficient Republican speaker in the canvass of 1856. In the trial that was held to ascertain whether William Boynton or Coles Bashford was lawful governor of Wisconsin, Mr. Howe appeared as Bashford's counsel and gained his case, and his success largely increased his reputation. In 1861 he was elected U. S. senator as a Republican, serving till 1879. During his long career he served on the committees of finance, commerce, pensions, and claims, was one of the earliest advocates of universal emancipation, and in a speech in the senate on 29 May, 1861, advocated in strong terms the negro-suffrage bill for the District of Columbia. He also urged the right of the National government to establish territorial governments over the seceded states. He made able speeches in 1865-'6 against the policy of Andrew Johnson, and voted in favor of his impeachment. He supported the silver bill in 1878, denounced President Hayes's policy regarding civil-service reform in the southern states, and opposed the anti-Chinese bill. On the death of Salmon P. Chase, President Grant offered Judge Howe a judgeship in the supreme court, which he declined. He had left the senate when the third-term question came up, but favored the election of Grant, and in 1880 spoke strongly in its support. In 1881 he was a U. S. delegate to the International monetary conference in Paris. In December, 1881, he was appointed postmaster-general by President Arthur, and, although his term of service was little more than a year, a reduction of postage was effected, postal-notes were issued, and reform measures urged with great force. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 284.

 

 

HOWELL, David, 1747-1826, educator, professor of law, acting president of Brown University, abolitionist leader, Providence Society.  Petitioned Congress for implementation of House Resolution of March, 1790, against slavery. (Bruns, 1977, p. 515; Dumond, 1961, p. 57; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 284; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 301)

 

HOWELL, David, jurist, b. in New Jersey, 1 Jan., 1747; d. in Providence, R. I., 29 July, 1826. He was graduated at Princeton in 1766, and, removing to Rhode Island, was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Brown in 1769, also holding the chair of law from 1790 till 1824. In the interval he filled the several offices of member of the Continental congress in 1782-'5, attorney-general in 1789, judge of the supreme court, commissioner for settling the boundaries of the United States, and district attorney, and from 1812 until his death was a district judge of Rhode Island. Brown gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1793. Judge Howell was distinguished for wit, learning, and eloquence, and was a forcible political speaker. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 284.

 

 

HOWELLS, Henry C., Zanesville, Ohio, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, 1841-1842, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

HOWLAND, Asa, Conway, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-40

 

 

HOWLAND, Emily, 1827-1929, Sherwood, Cayuga County, New York, opponent of slavery, philanthropist, educator.  Society of Friends, Quaker.  Worked with freed slaves and on Underground Railroad.  Teacher at the Normal School for Colored Girls in Washington, DC, 1857-1859.  (Breault, 1981; Sernett, 2002, pp. 264-265, 338-339n29)

 

 

HOYT, Daniel, abolitionist, Sandwich, New Hampshire, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-40

 

 

HOYT, George, abolitionist, Athol, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1848-50

 

 

HOYT, John C., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

HUBBARD, Asahel W., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

HUBBARD, Jeremiah, North Carolina, clergyman. Society of Friends, Quaker minister. Advocated colonization of Blacks to Africa, as a solution to slavery. (Drake, 1950, pp. 141-142, 162)

 

 

HUBBARD, John H., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

HUBBARD, Samuel, 1785-1847, Boston, Massachusetts, lawyer, jurist.  Member of the American Colonization Society Committee in Boston.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 204; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 86)

 

HUBBARD, Samuel, jurist, b. in Boston, Mass., 2 June, 1785; d. there, 24 Dec., 1847. He was graduated at Yale in 1802, studied law, and settled in Biddeford, Me. In 1810 he returned to Boston, and became a partner of his former law tutor, Judge Charles Jackson. His ability and character won him the foremost place at the bar. From 1842 until his death he was a judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts. Harvard conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1842. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HUDSON, Erasmus Darwin, 1805-1880, Torrington, Connecticut, abolitionist, temperance advocate, physician.  Lecturing agent for the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, 1837-1849.  General Agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Wrote article on abolition.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 296)

 

HUDSON, Erasmus Darwin, surgeon, b. in Torringford, Conn., 15 Dec., 1805; d. in Riverside, Greenwich, Conn., 31 Dec., 1880. He was educated by a private tutor and at Torringford academy, and was graduated in medicine at Berkshire medical college in 1827. He practised in Bloomfield, and became a member of the Connecticut medical society. In 1828 he lectured on temperance, and from 1837 till 1849 was lecturing agent of the Connecticut anti-slavery society and general agent of the American anti-slavery society. During the civil war he was appointed by the U. S. government to fit apparatus to special cases of gunshot injuries of bone, resections, ununited fractures, and amputations at the knee- and ankle-joints. He invented several prothetic and orthopædic appliances, which received awards at the Exposition universelle of Paris in 1857, and at the Centennial exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. From 1850 till his death he resided in New York, devoting himself to orthopædic surgery and mechanical apparatus for deformities, artificial limbs, etc. He was a contributor to “The Liberator” and the “Anti-Slavery Standard” (Boston and New York, 1837-'49), was co-editor of “The Charter Oak” (Hartford, 1838-'41), and published numerous reported cases in the “Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion” (Washington, 1870-'2). He wrote an “Essay on Temperance” (1828), and published monographs on “Resections” (New York, 1870); “Syme's Amputation” (New York, 1871); and “Immobile Apparatus for Ununited Fractures” (New York, 1872).

 

 

HUDSON, James, abolitionist, New York, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-43

 

 

HUDSON, Timothy B., Oberlin, Ohio, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1856-58

 

 

HUDSON, William N., Geauga County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-39

 

 

HUGHES, Daniel, abolitionist, Underground Railroad.

 

 

HULBURD, Calvin T., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

HUMPHREY, Heman, 1779-1861, Amherst, Massachusetts, clergyman, temperance and anti-slavery advocate.  President of Amherst College.  Supported American Colonization Society.  Raised funds for the Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 312; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 369; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 132)

 

HUMPHREY, Heman, clergyman, b. in West Simsbury, Conn., 26 March, 1779; d. in Pittsfield, Mass., 3 April, 1861. He taught to enable him to attend college, and was graduated at Yale in 1805. After studying theology under Timothy Dwight, he was pastor of the Congregational church at Fairfield, Conn., in 1807-'17, in Pittsfield in 1817-'23, and president of Amherst in 1823-'45. Taking charge of that institution in its infancy, he contributed largely to its growth and prosperity, and impressed upon it much of his own character. He was one of the pioneers of the temperance reform in 1810, preached six sermons on intemperance, and in 1813 drew up a report to the Fairfield association of ministers, which is believed to be the first temperance tract that was published in the United States. Among the most celebrated of his tracts on this subject is his “Parallel between Intemperance and the Slave-Trade,” which was also a formidable indictment of slavery. For fifty years he was a constant contributor to periodicals and literary journals. Middlebury gave him the degree of D. D. in 1823. He published “Essays on the Sabbath” (New York, 1830); “Tour in France, Great Britain, and Belgium” (1838); “Domestic Education” (Amherst, 1840); “Letters to a Son in the Ministry” (New York, 1842); “Life and Writings of Prof. Nathan W. Fiske” (1850); “Life and Writings of Thomas S. Gallaudet” (1857); and “Sketches and History of Revivals” (1859). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

HUMPHREYS, Richard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, anti-slavery supporter (Drake, 1950, p. 139n)

 

 

HUNN, John, 1818-1894, Delaware, farmer, abolitionist. Active in the Underground Railroad in New Castle County, Delaware.

 

 

HUNT, Harriot Kezia, MD, 1805-1875, physician, medical reformer, abolitionist, women’s rights activist (Hunt, Harriot, Glances and Glimpses, 1856, J. R. Chadwick [autobiography]; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 385; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 459-460)

 

 

HUNT, J., abolitionist, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

HUNT, John, 1740-1824, Burlington County, New Jersey, American Friends (Quaker) Minister, abolitionist.

 

 

HUNT, John, Delaware County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

HUNT, Richard P., abolitionist, Waterloo, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-43

 

 

HUNT, Samuel, Franklin, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1859-64

 

 

HUNT, T. W., abolitionist, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

HUNTER, David Dard (“Black David”), 1802-1886, General, U.S. Army.  In 1862, he organized and formed all-Black U.S. Army regiments without authorization from the Union War Department.  Established the African American First South Carolina Volunteer Regiment in May 1862.  Without authorization, he issued a proclamation that emancipated slaves in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.  President Lincoln ordered the Black troops disbanded and countermanded the emancipation order.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 372; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 66, 140, 243, 275, 690-691; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 321; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 100; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 516)

 

HUNTER, David, soldier, b. in Washington, D. C., 21 July, 1802; d. there, 2 Feb., 1886. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1822, appointed 2d lieutenant in the 5th infantry, promoted 1st lieutenant in 1828, and became a captain in the 1st dragoons in 1833. He was assigned to frontier duty, and twice crossed the plains to the Rocky mountains. He resigned his commission in 1836, and engaged in business in Chicago. He re-entered the military service as a paymaster, with the rank of major, in March, 1842, was chief paymaster of Gen. John E. Wool's command in the Mexican war, and was afterward stationed successively at New Orleans, Washington, Detroit, St. Louis, and on the frontier. He accompanied President-elect Lincoln when he set out from Springfield for Washington in February, 1861, but at Buffalo was disabled by the pressure of the crowd, his collar-bone being dislocated. On 14 May he was appointed colonel of the 6th U. S. cavalry, and three days later was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded the main column of McDowell's army in the Manassas campaign, and was severely wounded at Bull Run, 21 July, 1861. He was made a major-general of volunteers, 13 Aug., 1861, served under Gen. Frémont in Missouri, and on 2 Nov. succeeded him in the command of the western department. From 20 Nov., 1861, till 11 March, 1862, he commanded the Department of Kansas. Under date of 19 Feb., 1862, Gen. Halleck wrote to him: “To you, more than any other man out of this department, are we indebted for our success at Fort Donelson. In my strait for troops to reënforce Gen. Grant, I applied to you. You responded nobly, placing your forces at my disposition. This enabled us to win the victory.” In March, 1862, Gen. Hunter was transferred to the Department of the South, with headquarters at Port Royal, S. C. On 12 April he issued a general order in which he said: “All persons of color lately held to involuntary service by enemies of the United States, in Fort Pulaski and on Cockspur island, Ga., are hereby confiscated and declared free in conformity with law, and shall hereafter receive the fruits of their own labor.” On 9 May, in general orders declaring Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina (his department) under martial law, he added, “Slavery and martial law, in a free country, are altogether incompatible. The persons in these three states, heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free.” Ten days later this order was annulled by the president. (See LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.) In May Gen. Hunter organized an expedition against Charleston, in which over 3,000 men were landed on James island, but it was unsuccessful. Later he raised and organized the 1st South Carolina volunteers, the first regiment of black troops in the National service. Thereupon a Kentucky representative introduced into congress a resolution calling for information on the subject. This being referred to Gen. Hunter by the secretary of war, the general answered: “No regiment of fugitive slaves has been or is being organized in this department. There is, however, a fine regiment of persons whose late masters are fugitive rebels—men who everywhere fly before the appearance of the National flag, leaving their servants behind them to shift, as best they can, for themselves.” In August Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation to the effect that, if Gen. Hunter or any other U. S. officer who had been drilling and instructing slaves as soldiers should be captured, he should not be treated as a prisoner of war, but held in close confinement for execution as a felon. In September Gen. Hunter was ordered to Washington and made president of a court of inquiry, to investigate the causes of the surrender of Harper's Ferry, and other matters. In May, 1864, he was placed in command of the Department of West Virginia. He defeated a Confederate force at Piedmont on 5 June, and attacked Lynchburg unsuccessfully on the 18th. From 8 Aug., 1864, till 1 Feb., 1865, he was on leave of absence, after which he served on courts-martial, being president of the commission that tried the persons who conspired for the assassination of President Lincoln. He was brevetted major-general U. S. army, 13 March, 1865, and mustered out of the volunteer service in January, 1866, after which he was president of a special-claims commission and of a board for the examination of cavalry officers. He was retired from active service, by reason of his age, 31 July, 1866, and thereafter resided in Washington. Gen. Hunter married a daughter of John Kinzie, who was the first permanent citizen of Chicago. Mrs. Hunter survived her husband. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 321.

 

 

HUNTT, Henry, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Manager, 1833-1834.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

HURD, Abel, Mulatto seaman.  Sent to Africa by Robert G. Harper to explore for the American Colonization Society.  Died on expedition.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 110)

 

 

HURLBUT, Joseph, Cartersville, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

HUSSEY, Erastus, 1800-1889, Battle Creek, Michigan, political leader, abolitionist leader, agent, Underground Railroad.  Helped more than one thousand slaves escape after 1840.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Member of the Free Soil and Liberty Parties.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 339)

 

 

HUSSEY, Samuel F., Portland, Maine, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

HUSSEY, Sarah, 1799-1858, Massachusetts, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.  Founder and organizer of Worcester Anti-Slavery Sewing Circle and Worcester County Anti-Slavery Society, South Division.  Wife of abolitionist John Milton Earle.  Organized anti-slavery fairs.  Cousin of Lucretia Mott.

 

 

HUTCHINS, Isaac T., Killingly, Connecticut, American Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1855-58, Vice-President, 1858-59

 

 

HUTCHINS, Samuel, Norridgework, Maine, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

HUTCHINS, Wells A., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

HUTCHINSON Family, Jesse, 1778-1851, Jesse Jr., Judson, Asa, John, b. 1821, Abby, b. 1829; family singers. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 334; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936)

 

HUTCHINSON, Jesse, farmer, b. in Middleton, Mass., 3 Feb., 1778; d. in Milford, N. H., 16 Feb., 1851. His ancestor, Richard, came to this country from England in 1634, acquired much land in Salem, Mass., and was paid a premium by the state for “setting up” the first plough in Massachusetts. He married Mary Leavitt, of Mount Vern on, N. H., in 1800, and resided on a farm in Milford for several years. They occasionally sang in chorus, taking parts in the quartets of ballads and sacred music, and were the parents of the “Hutchinson family,” who achieved a reputation as popular singers, and were identified with the anti-slavery and temperance movements. The religious sentiment of New England was noticeable in their productions and repertory. The family became abolitionists when it required courage to face political prejudice, and some of them were excommunicated from the Baptist church on this account. The children numbered sixteen, three of whom died in infancy. All inherited musical talent, and people came from far and near to hear them sing in chorus in prayer-meetings, or at home. They were often urged to appear in public, and in the summer of 1841 the four youngest children, Judson, John, Asa, and Abby, made a successful concert-tour in New England. In 1843 the family appeared in New York city, and achieved an immediate success. N. P. Willis spoke of them as a “nest of brothers with a sister in it.” They accompanied themselves with a violin and violoncello, and excelled in sacred and descriptive songs, and in ballads, both humorous and pathetic. Their own productions were received with most enthusiasm by the popular taste, although their melodies were simple and crudely harmonized. They were coworkers with Garrison, Greeley, Rogers, and other leaders of anti-slavery reform, often aiding in mass conventions, singing popular and original songs with their quartet chorus. In 1845 they travelled in Great Britain and Ireland, and met with popular success. They travelled from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the political canvasses of 1856 and 1860, forming several bands from a third generation in their family. During the civil war some of these bands visited recruiting-stations to encourage volunteer enlistments, and after the battle of Bull Run they went to Virginia, where they were expelled from the National lines by Gen. McClellan because they sang Whittier's “Ein Feste Burg” as an anti-slavery song. Appeal was made to President Lincoln, who said, after Sec. Chase read the obnoxious song in a cabinet-meeting: “It is just the character of song that I desire the soldiers to hear.” By the unanimous consent of the cabinet and the order of President Lincoln, they were re-admitted to the National camps.—The eldest son, Jesse, wrote many songs for popular airs, which he sang with effect. The principal of these were the “Emancipation Song,” “Family Song,” “Old Granite State,” “Good Old Days of Yore,” “The Slave Mother,” “The Slave's Appeal,” “Good Time Coming,” and “Uncle Sam's Farm.” It was he that organized the company.—Judson was the humorist, excelling in burlesque and political songs, some of which were an Italian burlesque, “The Bachelor's Lament,” “Away Down East” “The Modern Belle” “Anti-Calomel,” “Jordan,” and “The Humbugged Husband.”—Asa was the basso, and the executive member of the troupe.—John, b. in Milford, N. H., 4 Jan., 1821, possessed the most vocal talent. Among his songs and those of his son Henry were “Will the New Year come To-Night, Mother?” “Bingen on the Rhine,” “The Newfoundland Dog,” “The Bridge of Sighs,” “The People's Advent,” and Russell's “Ship on Fire.”—Abby, the contralto, b. in Milford, N. H., 29 Aug., 1829, began at an early age to sing with her brothers. She was admired for her simplicity and archness, and sang “Over the Mountain and over the Moor” “The Slave's Appeal,” “The Spider and the Fly,” “Jamie's on the Stormy Sea” and “The May Queen.” She married Ludlow, Patton, of New York city, in 1849, and has since lived in retirement. Her brothers continued to appear in concerts, and from time to time have, brought before the public their own families of, young singers. They were followed by many bands of imitators. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 334.

 

 

HYATT, Thaddeus, 1816-1901, inventor, abolitionist.  Supporter of militant abolitionist John Brown.

 

 

 

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IDE, Jacob, West Medway, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

INGALLS, John James, 1833-1900, political leader, abolitionist.  Activist in the Kansas Free State anti-slavery forces.  Editor of Atchison newspaper, Freedom’s Champion.  U. S. Senator from Kansas, 1873-1891.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 463)

 

 

INGERSOLL, Ebon C., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

INGERSOLL, Jared, 1749-1822, lawyer, argued legal case against slavery (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 347; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 468; Locke, 1901, p. 127)

 

INGERSOLL, Jared, jurist, b. in Connecticut in 1749; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 31 Oct., 1822, was graduated at Yale in 1766. He then went to London, studied law at the Middle Temple for five years, and was then more than eighteen months in Paris, where he formed the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin. On his return he became a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, and, although the son of a loyalist, espoused the cause of the colonies in the Revolution. He was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental congress in 1780-'1, a representative in the convention that framed the Federal constitution in 1787, twice attorney-general of Pennsylvania, U. S. district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, and received and declined the appointment of chief judge of the Federal court. In 1812 he was the Federal candidate for vice-president of the United States, but was defeated. At the time of his death he was presiding judge of the district court of Philadelphia county. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

INGRAHAM, Sarah, abolitionist, editor of New York’s Advocate of Moral Reform. (Yellin, 1994, p. 42)

 

 

IREDELL, James, 1788-1853, North Carolina, lawyer, jurist, U.S. Senator, Governor of North Carolina.  President of Edenton auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Son of Governor (Justice) Iredell.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 355; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 108)

 

IREDELL, James, senator, b. in Edenton, N. C., 2 Nov., 1788; d. there, 13 April, 1853, was graduated at Princeton in 1806, and studied law. In the war of 1812-'15 he raised a company of volunteers, and, marching with them to Norfolk, took part in the defence of Craney island. After the peace he returned to his profession, and was sent to the state house of representatives in 1816. He was speaker in 1817 and 1818, and was returned to the legislature for many years. In March, 1819, he was nominated a judge of the superior court, but resigned two months later. He was elected governor of North Carolina in 1827, and on the resignation of Nathaniel Macon was sent to the U. S. senate, serving from 23 Dec., 1828, till 3 March, 1831. He subsequently practised law in Raleigh, and for many years was reporter of the decisions of the supreme court. He was one of three commissioners who were appointed to collect and revise the laws in force in the state. The result of their labors was the revised statutes passed at the session of 1836-'7, and afterward published (Raleigh, 1837). His, reports of law-cases in the supreme court fill thirteen volumes, and the reports of cases in equity eight volumes (Raleigh, 1841-'52). He published also a “Treatise on the Law of Executors and Administrators,” and a “Digest of all the Reported Cases in the Courts of North Carolina, 1778 to 1845” (Raleigh, 1839-'46). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

IRISH, Lydia C., abolitionist, New Lisbon, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-49, 1850-53

 

 

ISHAM, Warren, Portage County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

IVES, Eli, New Haven, Connecticut, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1838, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

 

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JACKSON, Edmund, abolitionist, Chelsea, Massachusetts.  Executive Committee, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1862-1864, Counsellor, 1842-1845, Auditor, 1845-1860.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.

 

 

JACKSON, Eliphet, Massachusetts.

 

 

JACKSON, Francis, 1789-1861, Boston, Massachusetts, merchant, social reformer, abolitionist.  President of the Anti-Slavery Society.  Supported the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS).  Generously supported abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp and their anti-slavery newspaper, the Liberator.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) Member, Executive Committee, 1840-1861, Vice President, 1840-1861, Treasurer, 1844-1861.  Vice President, 1836-1837, and President, 1839-1860, of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  Boston Vigilance Committee.  (The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 318)

 

 

JACKSON, James Caleb, 1811-1895, New York, abolitionist leader.  Member, Executive Committee, 1840-1841, Corresponding Secretary, 1840-1842, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). (Sorin, 1971, pp. 95-96, 130-131; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 547; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 752)

 

 

JACKSON, William, 1783-1855, Massachusetts, newspaper publisher, abolitionist, temperance activist.  U.S. Congressman, Whig Party.  Vice president, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Founding member, Liberty Party.  President of the American Missionary Society from 1846-1854.(Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III; Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 561)

 

JACKSON, William, financier, b: in Newton, Mass., 2 Sept., 1783; d. there, 26 Feb., 1855. He received a common-school education, and was trained to mercantile life. He was a member of the state house of representatives from 1829 till 1832, and in the latter year was elected to congress as a Whig. He was re-elected for the following term, but declined a second re-nomination. He was one of the earliest promoters of railroads in Massachusetts, delivering an address to the legislature in favor of the new method of locomotion, which was derisively received. Subsequently he delivered the address in various cities of New England, awakening an interest in railroads, and when their construction was begun superintended the works on the Boston and Worcester, Boston and Albany, and other lines. He was a pioneer in the temperance movement and an early opponent of slavery, being one of the founders of the Liberty party, which was afterward merged into the Free-soil party. From 1848 till his death he was the president of the Newton bank. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

JACOBS, Ann Harriet, 1813-1897, author, former slave (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 64, 184, 348-349, 372, 684-685)

 

 

JACOBS, John S., 1815-1873, African American, fugitive slave, abolitionist, author of slave narrative, “A True Tale of Slavery,” in 1861. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 288)

 

 

JAMES, Thomas, 1804-1891, African American, former slave, clergyman, abolitionist.  Wrote slave narrative, “Life of Rev. Thomas James, by Himself,” 1886. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 320)

 

 

JAMES, Thomas Chalkley, Dr., 1766-1835, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, physician.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1833-1836.  Founder and officer of the Pennsylvania Society of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 399; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 588; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 125)

 

JAMES, Thomas Chalkley, physician, b. in Philadelphia in 1766; d. there, 25 July, 1835. His father, Abel, a Quaker of Welsh origin, was a successful merchant of Philadelphia, and his mother was a daughter of Thomas Chalkley, the Quaker preacher. The son was educated at Robert Prout's school, studied medicine, and was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1787. He then went as surgeon of a ship to the Cape of Good Hope, and studied in London and Edinburgh from 1790 till 1793, when he returned to the United States. In 1803 he established the School of obstetrics in Philadelphia, and for twenty-five years was physician and obstetrician in the Pennsylvania hospital. He was for some years president of the Philadelphia college of physicians, and was professor of midwifery in the University of Pennsylvania from 1811 till 1834. Dr. James was founder of the Pennsylvania historical society, and contributed to the “Port-folio” in 1801, under the signature “P. D.,” translations of the “Idyls” of Gessner. He was associate editor of the “Eclectic Repertory.” Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

JANEWAY, Jacob Jones, Reverend, 1774-1858, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, clergyman.  Official of the General Assembly, founding officer of the Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society in 1817.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 401; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 39, 72)

 

JANEWAY, Jacob Jones, clergyman, b. in New York city, 20 Nov., 1774; d. in New Brunswick, N. J., 27 June, 1858. His family came from England early in the 17th century, one of whom bore with him the charter of Trinity church, of which he was a vestryman. He died about 1708. Jacob was graduated at Columbia in 1794, and after studying theology with Dr. John H. Livingston was ordained in 1799 a colleague of Dr. Ashbel Green in the 2d Presbyterian church of Philadelphia, where he remained till 1828. After holding for one year the chair of theology in the Western theological seminary, he was pastor of a Dutch Reformed church in New Brunswick, N. J., for two years. He was elected a trustee of Rutgers in 1820, and in 1833-'9 was vice-president of that college and professor of literature, the evidences of Christianity, and political economy. He then became a trustee of Princeton, and was engaged till his death in general missionary work and in supervision of theological and collegiate institutions in the Presbyterian church. He was a director of Princeton theological seminary from 1813 till 1830 and again from 1840 till 1858, and president of the board from 1849 till 1858. He joined his friend, Dr. Jonathan Cogswell, of New Brunswick, in the gift of a church to the Presbyterians of that city. His publications include “Commentaries on Romans, Hebrews, and Acts” (3 vols., Philadelphia., 1866); “Internal Evidence of the Holy Bible”; “Communicants’ Manual”; “On Unlawful Marriage” (New York, 1844); “Review of Dr. Schaff on Protestantism”; and essays and letters on religious subjects. See “Memoir of Rev. Jacob J, Janeway,” by his son, Thomas L. Janeway (Philadelphia, 1861). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

JANES, D. P., abolitionist, New London, Connecticut, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

JANNEY, Joseph, abolitionist, Washington, DC, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-38

 

 

JAY, John, 1745-1829, New York, lawyer, statesman, founding father, diplomat, anti-slavery leader.  President of the Continental Congress.  First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  Governor of the State of New York, 1795-1801.  New York State’s leading opponent of slavery.  Founder and president of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves and Protecting such of them as Have Been Liberated, founded 1785.  Attempted to end slavery in 1777 and 1785.  In 1799, he signed into law the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, which eventually freed all the slaves in New York.  This act was arguably the most comprehensive and largest emancipation in North America before the Civil War.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 64-66, 73-74, 75, 77, 239, 319, 321, 322, 347-348, 350-351; Dumond, 1961, pp. 28, 47, 87; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 408-411; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 5; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 891; Encylopaedia Americana, 1831, Vol. VII, pp. 180-181)

 

Biography from Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

JAY, John, statesman, b. in New York city, 12 Dec., 1745; d. in Bedford, Westchester co., N. Y., 17 May, 1829. He was of Huguenot descent, and was educated in part by Pastor Stoope, of the French church at New Rochelle, and was graduated at Kings (now Columbia), New York, in 1766. He studied law with Benjamin Kissam, having Lindley Murray as his fellow-student, and in 1766 was admitted to the bar. When news of the passage of the Boston port bill reached New York, on 16 May, 1776, at a meeting of citizens, Jay was appointed a member of a committee of fifty-one to correspond with the other colonies. Their reply to the Boston committee, attributed to Jay, recommended, as of the utmost moment, “a congress of deputies from the colonies in general.” Jay was a delegate to the congress, which met in Philadelphia, 5 Sept. As one of a committee of three he prepared the “Address to the People of Great Britain,” which Jefferson, while ignorant of the authorship, declared to be “a production certainly of the finest pen in America.” Jay was an active member of the committee of observation in New York, on whose recommendation the counties elected a provincial congress, and also of a committee of association of 100 members. invested by the city of New York with general undefined powers. He was a member also of the 2d congress, which met in Philadelphia, 10 May, 1775, and drafted the “Address to the People of Canada and of Ireland”; and he carried against a strong opposition a petition to the king, which was signed by the members on 8 July. The rejection of this petition, leaving no alternative but submission or resistance, opened the way for a general acquiescence in the Declaration of Independence. Jay was a member of the secret committee appointed by congress, 29 Nov., 1775, after a confidential interview with a French officer, “to correspond with the friends of America in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the world.” While he was attending congress at Philadelphia, Jay's presence was requested by the New York convention, which required his counsel. This convention met at White Plains, 9 July, 1776, and on Jay's motion unanimously approved the Declaration of Independence, which on that day was received from congress. The passage of a part of Lord Howe's fleet up the Hudson induced the appointment by the convention of a secret committee vested with extraordinary powers, of which Jay was made chairman, as also of a further committee for defeating conspiracies in the state against the liberties of America. The resolutions relating to this committee were drawn by him; and its minutes, many of which are in his hand, show the energy with which it exercised its powers by arrests, imprisonments, and banishments, and the vigorous system demanded by the critical condition of the American cause. The successes of the British in New York, and the retreat and needs of Washington's army, had induced a feeling of despondency, and Jay was the author of an earnest appeal to his countrymen, which by order of congress was translated into German and widely circulated.

Jay drafted the state constitution adopted by the convention of New York, which met successively at Harlem, Kingsbridge, Philip's Manor, White Plains, Poughkeepsie, and Kingston. He was appointed chief justice of the state, holding his first term at Kingston on 9 Sept., 1777, and acting also in the council of safety, which directed the military occupation of the state and wielded an absolute sovereignty. He was visited at Fishkill, in the autumn of 1778, by Gen. Washington for a confidential conversation on the invasion of Canada by the French and American forces, which they concurred in disapproving, chiefly on the probability that if conquered it would be retained by France. Chief-Justice Jay was again sent to congress on a special occasion, the withdrawal of Vermont from the jurisdiction of New York, and three days after taking his seat he was, 1 Dec., 1778, elected its president. The next September he wrote his letter, in the name of congress, on currency and finance. On 27 Sept., 1778, he was appointed minister to Spain, and later one of the commissioners to negotiate a peace. He sailed with Mrs. Jay, on 20 Oct., in the American frigate “Confederacy,” which, disabled by a storm, put into Martinico, whence they proceeded in the French frigate “Aurora,” which brought them to Cadiz, 22 Jan., 1780. Jay, while received with personal courtesy, found no disposition to recognize American independence, and congress added to the embarrassing position of the minister at a reluctant court by drawing bills upon him for half a million of dollars, on the assumption that he would have obtained a subsidy from Spain before they should have become due. Jay accepted the bills, some of which were afterward protested, the Spanish court advancing money for only a few of them, and the rest were afterward paid with money borrowed by Franklin from France.

While in Spain Jay was added by congress to the peace commissioners, headed by John Adams, and at the request of Franklin, on 23 June, 1782, he went to Paris, where Franklin was alone. The position of the two commissioners was complicated by the fact that congress, under the persistent urgency of Luzerne, the French minister at Philadelphia, had materially modified the instructions originally given to Mr. Adams, and on 15 June, 1781, had instructed its commissioners “to make the most candid and confidential communications upon all subjects to the ministers of our generous ally, the king of France; to undertake nothing in their negotiations for peace and truce without their knowledge and concurrence, and ultimately to govern yourselves by their advice and opinion.” Two arguments were used in support of this instruction: First, that the king was explicitly pledged by his minister to support the United States “in all points relating to their prosperity”; and next, that “nothing would be yielded by Great Britain which was not extorted by the address of France.” An interesting memoir in the French archives, among the papers under the head of “Angleterre,” shows that the interests of France required that the ambition of the American colonies “should be checked and held down to fixed limits through the union of the three nations,” England, France, and Spain. Before the arrival of Jay, Franklin had had an informal conversation, first with Grenville, and then with Mr. Oswald, who had been sent by the cabinet of Rockingham. On 6 Aug. Oswald presented to Jay and Franklin a commission prescribing the terms of the enabling act, and authorizing him “to treat with the colonies and with any or either of them, and any part of them, and with any description of men in them, and with any person whatsoever, of and concerning peace,” etc. This document led to a new complication in the American commission by developing a material difference of opinion between Jay and Franklin. When the commission was submitted to Vergennes, that minister held that it was sufficient, and advised Fitzherbert to that effect. Franklin believed it “would do.” But Jay declined to treat under the description of “colonies” or on any other than an equal footing. Oswald adopted Jay's view, but the British cabinet did not, and Jay's refusal to proceed soon stayed the peace negotiations of the other powers, which Vergennes had arranged should proceed together, each nation negotiating for itself.

During Jay's residence in Spain he had learned much of the aims and methods of the Bourbon policy, and a memoir submitted to him by Rayneval, as his “personal views” against our right to the boundaries, an intercepted letter of Marbois, secretary of legation at Philadelphia, against our claim to the fisheries, and the departure for England with precautions for secrecy of Rayneval himself, the most skilful and trusted agent of Vergennes, convinced him that one object of Rayneval's mission was to prejudice Shelburne against the American claims. As a prudent counter-move to this secret mission, Jay promptly despatched Benjamin Vaughan, an intimate friend and agent of Shelburne, to counteract Rayneval's adverse influence to the American interests. This was done without consultation with Franklin, who did not concur with Jay in regard to Rayneval's journey, and who retained his confidence in the French court and was embarrassed and constrained by his instructions. It appears from “Shelburne's Life” that Rayneval, in his interview with Shelburne and Grantham, after discussing other questions, proceeded to speak about America; and “here Rayneval played into the hands of the English ministers, expressing a strong opinion against the American claims to the fisheries and the valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio”; and that Vaughan arrived almost simultaneously, bringing the “considerations” prepared by Jay, which enforced these points: 1. That, as Britain could not conquer the United States, it was for her interest to conciliate them; 2. That the United States would not treat except on an equal footing; 3. That it was the interest of France, but not of England, to postpone the acknowledgment of independence to a general peace; 4. That a hope of dividing the fisheries with France would be futile, as America would not make peace without them; 5. That any attempt to deprive the United States of the navigation of the Mississippi, or of that river as a boundary would irritate America; 6. That such an attempt, if successful, would sow the seeds of war in the very treaty of peace. The disclosure of the grave difference between the Americans and their allies on the terms of peace, with the opportunity it afforded to England, consistently with the pride, interest, and justice of Great Britain, and with the national jealousy of France, seems to have come to the cabinet with the force of a revelation, and its effect upon their policy was instantaneous and complete. A new commission in the form drafted by Jay, authorizing Oswald to treat with “the United States” of America, was at once ordered, and Lord Shelburne wrote to Oswald that they had said and done “everything which had been desired,” and that they had put the greatest confidence ever placed in man in the American commissioners. Vaughan returned “joyfully” with the new commission on 27 Sept., and on 5 Oct. Jay handed to Oswald the plan of a treaty including the clauses relating to independence, the boundaries, and the fisheries, and Oswald, in enclosing it to his government, wrote: “I look upon the treaty as now closed.” The great success of the English at Gibraltar, however, which determined the ministry to resist the demands of France and Spain, induced them to attempt some modification of the concessions to the Americans, even when they had been made by Oswald with the approval of the cabinet. Strachey and Fitzherbert were therefore ordered to assist Oswald, and on 25 Oct. John Adams arrived from Holland, where he had negotiated a treaty. He expressed to Franklin his entire approval of Jay's views and action, and Franklin, at their next meeting with Oswald, said to Jay: “I am of your opinion, and will go on with these gentlemen without consulting the court”; and Jay, in writing to Livingston, spoke of their perfect unanimity, and specially acknowledged Mr. Adams's services on the eastern boundaries and Franklin's on the subject of the Tories. The provisional articles, signed 30 Nov., 1782, to take effect on a peace between France and England, were communicated to Vergennes, who wrote to Rayneval in England that the concessions of the English exceeded all that he had believed possible, and Rayneval replied: “The treaty seems to me like a dream.” A new loan from France to America marked the continuance of their good understanding, and Hamilton wrote to Jay that the terms of the treaty exceeded the anticipations of the most sanguine.

            The violation of the instructions of congress displeased a part of that body. Mr. Madison, who had voted for the instruction, wrote: “In this business Jay has taken the lead, and proceeded to a length of which you can form little idea. Adams has followed with cordiality. Franklin has been dragged into it.” Mr. Sparks, in his “Life of Franklin,” contended that the violation of their instructions by the American commissioners, in concluding and signing their treaty without the concurrence of the French government, was “unjustifiable.” By some error still unexplained, he represented the correspondence of Vergennes in the French archives as disproving the suspicions, which it authoritatively confirms. A map of North America, given in the “Life of Shelburne,” showing “the boundaries of the United States, Canada and the Spanish possessions, according to the proposals of the court of France,” shows that obedience by the American commissioners to the instruction to govern themselves by the opinion of Vergennes, would have shut out the United States from the Mississippi and the Gulf, and would have deprived them of nearly the whole of the states of Alabama and Mississippi, the greater part of Kentucky and Tennessee, the whole of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, and the navigation of the Mississippi. The definitive treaty, a simple embodiment of the provisional articles, for nothing more could be procured from the cabinet of Fox and North, was signed 3 Sept., 1783, and Jay returned to New York in July, 1784, having been elected by congress secretary for foreign affairs, then the most important post in the country, which he held until the establishment of the Federal government in 1789. In that work he had taken a deep interest, as is shown by his correspondence with Washington and Jefferson, and on the formation of the National constitution he joined Hamilton and Madison in contributing to the “Federalist,” and published an address to the inhabitants of New York in favor of the constitution. He was an active member of the New York convention, which, after a long struggle, adopted the constitution “in full confidence” that certain amendments would be adopted, and Jay was appointed to write the circular letter that secured the unanimous assent of the convention. On the organization of the Federal government, President Washington asked Jay to accept whatever place he might prefer, and Jay took the office of chief justice of the supreme court, when he resigned the post of president of the Abolition society. In 1792 he consented to be a candidate for the governorship of New York, but the canvassers declined on technical grounds to count certain votes given for Jay, which would have made a majority in his favor, and Gov. Clinton was declared elected. In 1794 Jay was nominated by Washington as a special envoy to Great Britain, with which other relations were then strained, and he concluded with Lord Grenville on 19 Nov., 1794, the convention known in American history as “Jay's treaty,” which was assailed with furious denunciations by the Democratic party, whose tactics severely tested the firmness of Washington's character and the strength of his administration. The treaty and its ratification against an unexampled opposition avoided a war with Great Britain. An English opinion of the treaty, which in America was denounced as a complete surrender to England, was expressed by Lord Sheffield when, on the occurrence of the rupture with America, he wrote, “We have now a complete opportunity of getting rid of that most impolitic treaty of 1794, when Lord Grenville was so perfectly duped by Jay.” Five days before his return from England, Jay was elected governor of New York, an office to which he was re-elected in April, 1798. On the close of his second term, in 1801, Jay declined a return to the chief justiceship of the supreme court, to which he was reappointed by President Adams, and passed the remainder of his life on his estate in Westchester county, N. Y., a property which had descended to Mr. Jay through his mother, Mary Van Cortlandt. It is situated some forty-five miles north of New York city about midway between the Hudson river and Long Island sound. The Bedford house, as the mansion is called, is placed on an eminence overlooking the whole beautiful rolling region between the two great bodies of water. It is now the summer residence of his grandson, John Jay. See illustration on page 410. The last office that he filled was the presidency of the American Bible society. Daniel Webster said of him; “When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell on John Jay, it touched nothing less spotless than itself.” The life of John Jay bas been written by his son, and also by Henry B. Renwick (New York, 1841). See “The Life and Times of John Jay,” by William Whitlock (New York, 1887). He married on 28 April, 1774, Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, eldest daughter of Gov. William Livingston. She accompanied her husband to Spain, and later was with him in Paris, where she was a great favorite in society, and they resided with Benjamin Franklin at Passy. John Adams's daughter says of her at this time; “Every person who knew her here bestows many encomiums on Mrs. Jay. Madame de Lafayette said she was well acquainted with her, and very fond of her, adding that Mrs. Jay and she thought alike, that pleasure might be found abroad, but happiness only at home in the society of one's family and friends.” During the week of Washington's inauguration he dined with the Jays, and a few days later Mrs. Washington was entertained at Liberty hall by Gov. Livingston, Mrs. Livingston, and Mrs. Jay. During the following season hospitalities were frequently exchanged between the president and the Jays. The portrait of Mrs. Jay is from an original portrait painted by Robert E. Pine, and now in the possession of her grandson, the colleges in America and also “Reflections and Observations on the Gout” (London, 1772). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 408-411.


Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

THE revocation of the edict of Nantes compelled a large number of the best citizens of France to abandon their country, or apostatize from their religion. Among those huguenots who sought a home upon a foreign shore was Pierre Jay, the great-grandfather of the subject of this memoir, who emigrated to England in 1685, with, a sufficient property to place him above dependence.

His son, Augustus, was abroad when his family left France, and shortly afterwards returned without being aware of the troubles and flight of his friends. He soon found means to escape from the risk and danger to which he was exposed in his native land, and embarked for America.

He landed at Charleston, S. C., but finding the climate unfavorable to his health, he proceeded to the north, and finally settled in New York, where he married the daughter of Mr. Balthazar Bayard, who was also a descendant of a protestant French family. Surrounded by friends who were able and willing to promote his interests, he successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits, and lived in the enjoyment of the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens until 1751, when he died at the age of eighty-six.

He left three daughters, and one son, named Peter, who was married to Mary, the daughter of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, by whom he had ten children. Peter Jay was a merchant, diligent in business, persevering and prudent; so that by the time he had arrived at the meridian of life, he had acquired a sufficient fortune, and retired to an estate he had purchased at Rye, on Long Island Sound.

His wife was a lady of mild temper and gentle manners, and of a cultivated mind. Both were pious. The subject of this sketch was their eighth child, of whom it will now be our business to speak more particularly.

JOHN JAY was born in the city of New York, on the 12th of December, 1745. From childhood he manifested a grave and studious disposition. He acquired the rudiments of English and Latin grammar under the instruction of his mother; and at eight years of age, was placed at the boarding school of the Rev. Mr. Stoope, at New Rochelle, where he remained two years; after which he had the advantage of a private tutor until he was fourteen. In 1760, he entered King’s, now Columbia college, where he pursued his studies with a devoted application and perseverance, and conducted himself with exemplary propriety. Some defects, which had probably passed unnoticed in the circle of his own family, gave him no little trouble when he came to mingle with strangers. His articulation was indistinct; his pronunciation of the letter L, exposed him to ridicule; and he had acquired such a habit of rapid reading, that he could with great difficulty be understood. These imperfections by a determined effort he corrected. Before he had completed his collegiate course, he had decided to study law, and therefore, paid particular attention to those branches which he considered most useful in his future profession. He graduated on the 15th of May, 1764, with the highest collegiate honors, and soon after became a student in the office of Benjamin Kissam, Esq., a lawyer of eminence. The late Lindley Murray, who was his fellow student for about two years, thus speaks of him. “His talents and virtues gave at that period pleasing indications of future eminence; he was remarkable for strong reasoning powers, comprehensive views, indefatigable application, and uncommon firmness of mind. With these qualifications, added to a just taste in literature and ample stores of learning and knowledge, he was happily prepared to enter on that career of public virtue by which he was afterward honorably distinguished and made instrumental in promoting the good of his country.

In 1768, Mr. JAY was admitted to the bar, and immediately entered on an extensive and profitable practice. He married in 1774, Sarah, the daughter of William Livingston, Esq., afterwards governor of New Jersey. At this time his professional reputation was high, and his prospects bright, but the political horizon was darkened by the approaching storm. He espoused the cause of his country with all the ardor of youth, while the dignity and gravity of his deportment gave him the influence of riper years. Where he was known he was confided in, and the reputation of his talents and sterling qualities went before him. Thus he entered the broad field of politics, not to work his way to eminence by slow and toilsome steps, but to take his stand at once among the sages and chosen fathers of the people.

The first news of the Boston Port Bill roused the patriots of New York. A public meeting was held on the 16th of May, 1774, when a committee of fifty was appointed to correspond with the other colonies. Mr. JAY was one of this committee, and also of a subcommittee to answer the letters received. He was afterwards elected one of the delegates from the city of New York to the first congress, which convened at Philadelphia on the 5th of September, 1774. He took his seat on the first day of the session. He was not yet twenty-nine years of age, and was the youngest member of that immortal band of patriots. All of them have long since departed; Mr. JAY was the last.

He was a member of the first committee appointed by congress, and was the author of the “Address to the People of Great Britain,” which Mr. Jefferson, without knowing the writer, pronounced “a production of the finest pen in America;” an opinion which it justly deserved, and which must have been generally conceded by his associates, if we may judge by the numerous labors of a similar character which were afterwards awarded to him by congress, and by the New York convention.

The address to the inhabitants of Canada, that to the people of Ireland, the appeal of the convention of New York to their constituents, which congress earnestly recommended to the serious perusal arid attention of the inhabitants of the United States, and ordered to be printed in German, at the expense of the continent; and the address from congress to their constituents, on the state of their financial affairs, were among his subsequent productions; and they all bear the stamp of his genius, and evince the glowing fervor of his patriotism.

It is impossible to read these addresses without being reminded of the wells of classic learning, which supplied the rushing current of his thoughts with a style and language of never failing vigor and attractive beauty. It would scarcely be extravagant to say, they united the eloquence of Cicero with the pious patriotism of Maccabeus; it is certain that they prove their author to have been deeply imbued with the spirit of the ancient patriots, and not less those of Palestine than of Greece and Rome.

After Mr. JAY’S return from congress, he was elected by the citizens of New York, a member of a “committee of observation;” and soon after of a committee of association, with general and indefined powers, which they exercised, in the absence of all legislative authority, by calling on the citizens to arm and perfect themselves in military discipline, and by ordering the militia to patrol the streets at night to prevent the exportation of provisions. The provincial congress assembled in May, 1775, and relieved the committee of their responsibility.

When the second congress assembled in Philadelphia on the 10th of May, 1775, Mr. JAY again attended as a delegate from New York. The battle of Lexington had occurred in the recess, and it was now apparent that hostilities were inevitable. An army was therefore to be organized, and preparations made for defence. To act on the defensive, and “to repel force by force,” was the utmost extent of hostility which this congress would sanction; there were some of the members, and many of the citizens, who were not prepared to throw off their allegiance to the king, at least not until some further efforts were made to obtain redress. That all such might be left without excuse, Mr. JAY advocated another petition to the king, which he succeeded in carrying against a strong opposition. It proved, as he had anticipated, a useless appeal to the monarch, but added numerous friends to the American cause.

The exposed situation of New York, induced congress to recommend to the provincial legislature to arm and train the militia; but unfortunately that province was distracted by a much larger proportion of tories than any other of the northern colonies, and in many instances the commissions for the field officers were declined. In this strait, Mr. JAY accepted of a colonel’s commission, but he never acted under it, as his presence in congress was deemed of more importance. Until the spring of 1776, congress had restrained their measures within the bounds of forbearance, and had kept open the door of reconciliation; it then became apparent that the British ministry were determined to listen to no remonstrances, nor to stop short of a complete subjugation of the colonies. Congress, therefore, determined to abandon their hitherto defensive system, and to employ their arms in annoying their enemies, and especially to assail their commerce by privateers, which could speedily be despatched from numerous ports. This movement they thought, necessary to explain and justify, and the task of preparing a suitable declaration was assigned to a committee of which Mr. JAY was a member. In April, 1776, while attending the general congress, he was elected to represent the city and county of New York in the colonial congress, which assembled on the 14th of May. Subjects of the highest importance were here to be acted on, which required all the firmness and wisdom of the ablest statesmen. The presence of Mr. JAY was required. He attended accordingly, for by appointment of this body he held his seat in congress, and not by an election of the people. The convention therefore had a right to command his presence, and he was directed not to leave them until further orders. He was not permitted to return to his seat in the continental congress, but was constantly and actively engaged during the residue of the year in his native state, and was thus deprived of the honor of being in his seat when the declaration of independence was adopted. Had he been there he would have advocated it; for although he has been “estimated” to have “kept the proceedings and preparations a year behind,”[1] nothing can be more certain than that he was himself at least a year in advance of most of his own constituents.

On the 31st of May, Mr. JAY reported to the New York convention, or congress, a series of resolutions, which were agreed to, calling on the people to elect deputies to a new convention with power to establish a form of government. That he recommended the establishment of a regular government in the state, and thereby renouncing all connexion with the British crown, is sufficiently expressive of his views on the subject of independence, but the following may also be added. The new convention with power to establish a permanent government for New York, met at Whiteplains on the 9th of July, and on the same day the declaration of Independence was received from congress. This important document was immediately referred to a committee of which Mr. JAY was chairman, and he almost instanter reported the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted.

“Resolved, unanimously, That the reasons assigned by the continental congress for declaring these united colonies free and independent states, are cogent and conclusive; and that while we lament the cruel necessity which has rendered this measure unavoidable, we approve the same, and will, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, join with the other colonies in supporting it.”

A few days after this he was appointed a member of a secret committee, for the purpose of obstructing the navigation of the Hudson river. The activity and zeal which he displayed on this occasion were no doubt stimulated by the unbounded confidence which he could not but feel was reposed in his integrity and judgment. He was dispatched by the committee to Connecticut for a supply of cannon and shot, “with authority to impress carriages, teams, sloops, and horses, and to call out detachments of the militia, and generally to do, or cause to be done, at his discretion, all such matters and things as he might deem necessary or expedient to forward and complete the business committed to his care.”

He was successful in his exertions, and in a short time had twenty cannon delivered at West Point. 

So numerous and important were the subjects which claimed the attention of the convention at this eventful period, that the special business of their appointment could not be taken up until the 1st of August, when a committee of which, as usual, Mr. JAY was one, was appointed to report a form of government; but the report was not perfected until the following year. In the mean time the convention exercised all the powers of government with a vigor and firmness, which, when the circumstances of the state are considered, are truly astonishing. The ability, energy, and decision of Mr. JAY, kept him in constant employment, so that we may safely say, whatever was done, he was among the foremost and most industrious performers.

He prepared the draft of the constitution which, with several amendments, was adopted on the 20th of April, 1777, but having been a few days before summoned to attend his dying mother, some articles which he intended to offer as amendments were omitted and some additions made, of which he did not approve. The state of New York being now provided with a constitution, Mr. JAY received the appointment of chief justice of the supreme court, and as the judges of that court were by the new constitution restrained from holding any other office than that of a delegate to congress on special occasions, and no such occasion existing at that time, his seat in congress was vacated.

Before the convention dissolved in May, 1777, they appointed a council of safety, from among their own members, to administer the government until the legislature should be organized. As one of this council, Mr. JAY was almost constantly occupied until the following September. On the 9th of that month, the first term of the supreme court was held at Kingston, and the chief justice presided. This was one of the most interesting periods of his official life: the government under which the people had been born, and which their education and habits had taught them to venerate, had just been abolished, and a new one formed on new principles, in the very seat of war, and in the presence of victorious enemies. Ticonderoga had fallen; one British army was approaching from the north, another from the south; the disaffected, numerous and active, and the friends of their country, sinking in despair. How worthy is the patriot of our admiration, who, at such a crisis, could retain his firmness, and with an unruffled mind and undiverted eye look forward to the end of his labors, with the full assurance of the righteousness of the cause, and of the favor of heaven. Such a patriot was JOHN JAY.

The controversy between the legislature of New York, and the people of Vermont, afforded a “special occasion” to send the chief justice as a delegate to congress. He accordingly took his seat in that body on the 7th of December, 1778, and three days after, was elected president, on the resignation of Mr. Laurens. This office he held until the 27th of September, 1779, when he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to Spain. To obtain the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States, to negotiate a treaty of alliance, and to procure pecuniary aid, were the objects of his mission.

He sailed on the 20th of October, in the frigate Confederacy, which had been ordered to France, to carry home the French minister, Mr. Gerard; but on the 7th of November, the ship was dismasted in a storm, and with difficulty reached Martinico on the 18th of December; on the 28th, Mr. JAY embarked at St. Pierres in the French frigate Aurora, and arrived at Cadiz on the 22d of January, 1780. Having communicated his commission to the Spanish court, he was invited to Madrid, but at the same time was given to understand, that the formalities of an official reception must be deferred. He soon found, that although Spain was at war with our common enemy, she was not inclined to form an alliance with us, to grant us aid, or even to acknowledge our independence, unless on conditions which he was little inclined to comply with. The Spanish minister required that the United States should guaranty to Spain the possession of Florida, and the exclusive right of navigation on the Mississippi. To this, Mr. JAY, who looked forward to the future consequences of thus shutting up the mouth of one of our most important rivers, would not consent.[2] To add to the perplexity of his situation, he learned, soon after his arrival in Spain, that congress had adopted a singular expedient for raising money, (on the presumption of a successful negotiation,) by drawing on him for the payment of bills to the amount of half a million of dollars at six months sight.

These bills soon began to be presented for acceptance. He obtained the promise from the Spanish government, of the means to meet drafts to the amount of about thirteen thousand dollars, and this encouraged him to hope for further pecuniary aid; but he was held in suspense until it was probably supposed that his embarrassments had rendered him more docile, when he was again urged to relinquish the claim of the United States, to the navigation of the Mississippi. This he again declined, and he was then informed that Spain would advance no more money. Mr. JAY then came to the resolution of becoming personally responsible, by accepting all future bills which might be presented, and thus at least preserve the credit of the United States, for the next six months, and trust to a change of circumstances for a disembarrassment. By the assistance of Dr. Franklin, who was then in France, and some further aid from Spain, all the bills which he accepted were paid, though not all of them as they became due. While thus laboring to overcome the great difficulties of his mission, he had the mortification to learn that congress had authorized him to relinquish the right of navigating the Mississippi below the southern boundary of the United States. According to these new instructions, he presented the plan of a treaty, but at the same time he required, on his own responsibility, that a treaty should be immediately concluded, or that the United States should not in future be bound by the offers now made. This proposal was not accepted, and the negotiation was again deferred.

Early in the summer of 1782, having been appointed one of the commissioners for negotiating a peace with England, Mr. JAY proceeded to Paris, where Count d’Arahda, the Spanish ambassador, was authorized to continue negotiations with him; but these progressed no further than an interchange of the views of their respective governments in relation to the western boundary of the United States. It will not be necessary to explain the instructions which were given to the commissioners of the United States, charged with the important duty of terminating the war, further than to state generally, that they were such as left the terms of peace under the control of the French minister, whose advice and opinions were to govern the American commissioners. These instructions were particularly displeasing to Mr. JAY, who thought the dignity of his country compromised, and her minister degraded, by being placed under the direction of a foreign power. He nevertheless continued to act under the commission, but earnestly requested congress to relieve him from his station. What may have been the motive of the desire to control the negotiations, or what the policy of the French minister in the advice which he gave, and the opinions declared in relation to the American claims of territorial limits, and the fisheries, we shall not stop to inquire; the motives and acts of our own minister, are mote to our present purpose, and these were undoubtedly of the highest and purest character. During his residence at Madrid, he had imbibed suspicions that the French court, though sincerely desirous to render us independent of Great Britain, were not willing to favor our views at the expense of Spain, or even to see us acquire such power and importance as might lead us to dispense with their patronage, and to pursue our own objects without regard to their wishes or advice. These suspicions were strengthened after his arrival at the French capital, by the influence employed to dissuade him and his colleagues from insisting on several points which they deemed of high importance, and which they finally obtained.

His enlarged views of the future greatness of America, his respect for her honor, and his firm determination never to be an instrument to diminish it, led him to disobey the instructions which degraded him to the station of a subaltern agent of a foreign minister, and obedience to which would, in his opinion, endanger the interests, and tarnish the glory of his country.

When the negotiation commenced, Mr. JAY and Dr. Franklin were the only American commissioners present. Mr. Adams and Mr. Laurens were their coadjutors; the former joined them on the 26th of October, the latter on the 29th of November. In July, 1782, Mr. Richard Oswald was authorized by the king of Great Britain, “to treat, consult of, and conclude a peace or truce, with any commissioner, or commissioners, named or to be named by the thirteen colonies or plantations in North America,” &c. According to their instructions, Dr. Franklin and Mr. JAY consulted Count de Vergennes, and he advised them to proceed; but Mr. JAY objected to treat with the British commissioner, unless the independence of his country was first recognised, and he took upon himself, without the concurrence of Dr. Franklin or the knowledge of the French minister, to assure Mr. Oswald of his determination not to enter upon any negotiation in which he should be recognised only as a commissioner from colonies. The British cabinet being informed of this objection replied, that it was intended to recognise the independence of the United States by treaty, but Mr. JAY continued firm in his resolution, and at length Mr. Oswald received a commission authorizing him to treat with the “commissioners of the United States of America.”

The negotiation now commenced, and in a few weeks the preliminary articles were agreed to without the knowledge of the French government, and were signed by Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. JAY, and Mr. Laurens, on the 30th of November, but were not to take effect until peace should be concluded between Great Britain and France. By these articles all the claims of the United States were granted, and France being thus deprived of all pretext for continuing the war, a preliminary treaty was arranged and signed between France and Great Britain, on the 20th of January, 1783; congress proclaimed a cessation of hostilities on the 11th of April, and on the 15th, formally ratified the treaty. In September, the definitive treaties between the belligerant powers were signed at Paris, and the American definitive treaty was ratified by congress on the 14th of January, 1784.

Mr. JAY’S health had suffered severely from the climate of Spain, and his subsequent close application to business had added to his indisposition. By the advice of his physician he visited Bath, and derived essential benefit from the use of the waters. He then returned to Paris, and being freed from the cares of public duty, he had leisure to enjoy the polished and elevated society in which he moved. But his heart’s desire was now to return to the land of his nativity, and a private station. He declined the appointment as a commissioner to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, and having heard it rumored that he would probably be appointed minister to England, he wrote to the secretary of foreign affairs earnestly requesting not to be considered a candidate for that station. As soon, therefore, as the definitive treaty was signed, he prepared to return home, he resigned his Spanish mission, and having attended to the settlement of his accounts, he left Paris on the 16th of May, 1784, and arrived in New York on the 24th of July. He was greeted by his friends and fellow citizens in the most affectionate and grateful manner, and learned that on the probability of his return having been made known to congress, that body had elected him their secretary for foreign affairs, and soon after his arrival, the state legislature appointed him one of their delegates to congress. He continued at the head of the department of foreign affairs, and in the faithful discharge of its laborious duties until the organization of the government under the federal constitution.

It is generally known that Mr. JAY used extraordinary exertions to secure the adoption of that instrument by the state of New York, where the question was held for some time in suspense. It will not be improper in this plate to review the immediate causes of those exertions, with a sketch of his opinions and views of passing events. Mr. JAY held the office of foreign secretary a little over four years; during that time all the powers of government were vested in congress. It had been perceived even before the conclusion of the war, that this body possessed in fact very little real power, and when the first great object of the contest had been secured, every succeeding occasion for the exercise of sovereignty betrayed the imbecility and insufficiency of the government. The official station of Mr. JAY constantly brought this embarrassing fact to his view to his great mortification and regret. His letters written at this period express his wishes distinctly. His own words will best illustrate his sentiments. In a letter to J. Lowell, in 1785, he says; “It is my first wish to see the United States assume and merit the character of one great nation whose territory is divided into different states, merely for more convenient government. In another to John Adams, in 1786, he repeats the sentiment thus. “It is one of the first wishes of my heart to see the people of America become one nation in every respect.” This was the abstract desire induced by occasions of frequent occurrence. The most prominent of these were, the Algerine war in 1785, when congress could not command the funds to redeem the captives, nor to build a navy which he recommended. In 1786, the negotiations with Spain were renewed in relation to the disputed navigation of the Mississippi below the southern boundary of the states, which broke off unadjusted, as Spain refused to grant the right, and the United States persisted in claiming it. Mr. JAY was an honest minister, he never hesitated to express his opinions, and on this occasion he remarked to congress, that if they insisted on the navigation of the Mississippi at that time, “the Spanish forts on its banks would be strengthened, and that nation would then bid us defiance with impunity, at least until the American nation should become more really and truly a nation than it is at present. For unblessed with an efficient government, destitute of funds, and without public credit, at home or abroad, we should be obliged to wait in patience for better days, or plunge into an unpopular and dangerous war.” About the same time it was proposed to negotiate a loan in Europe, and the subject being referred to him, he reported against it, considering it improper “because the federal government in its present state, is rather paternal and persuasive than coercive and efficient. Congress can make no certain dependence on the states for any specific sums to be required and paid at any given periods, and consequently are not in capacity safely to pledge their honor and faith for the repayment of any specific sums they may borrow.” When, therefore, a convention was appointed, and a constitution formed and recommended to the states for their approval, which promised, if not all he desired, at least as much as could reasonably be expected, he was better prepared than most men in the country for advocating its adoption. Still, it was for some time doubtful whether it would be approved or not. There was a strong party in the opposition, some of whom thought the old confederation with modifications would be sufficient, and some were unwilling to relinquish any of the rights of the states; thus originated two great parties in the country. Mr. JAY was not a member of the convention by whom the constitution of the United States was framed, but its superiority to the articles of confederation was too obvious to allow of any hesitation on his part; he accordingly united with Mr. Madison and Colonel Hamilton, in the publication of a series of essays in explanation and commendation of the document, when it was submitted to the people for a final decision. These essays, collected in the well known work, “the Federalist,” now form a standard book of reference on most great constitutional questions. After the second, third, fourth, and fifth numbers of these essays were written by Mr. JAY, he was for some time prevented from a continuation by an unfortunate occurrence. Some young physicians, after violating the grave for subjects of anatomical study, had the folly to exhibit parts of limbs at their window to the passengers in the street. A serious riot was the consequence. The magistrates of the city of New York, to protect the physicians from violence, shut them up in prison, but the mob, determined not to be disappointed in their vengeance, assembled for the purpose of executing summary punishment on the culprits. Mr. JAY, and other gentlemen, armed and placed themselves under the command of Colonel Hamilton, to prevent the outrage. This party was attacked by the rioters with stones, one of which struck Mr. JAY on the temple, and nearly deprived him of life. He however recovered, but only in time to write the sixty-fourth number of the Federalist. He also published an address to the people of the state of New York, in favor of the adoption of the constitution, and when the legislature called a convention to decide the question, Mr. JAY was elected one of the delegates from the city. The convention consisted of fifty-seven members, forty-six of whom were understood at the time to be anti-federalists; nevertheless, the constitution was adopted; but only by a majority of three votes.

Mr. JAY received the very gratifying testimony of the respect and confidence of President Washington, who, on the organization of the departments, requested him to select any office he might prefer. He did so, and was accordingly appointed the first chief justice of the United States.

In April, 1794, he was appointed envoy extraordinary to Great Britain, to negotiate a treaty for the regulation of commerce, and a settlement of the disputes between the two countries, in relation to the infractions of the treaty of peace. On the 19th of November following, he concluded and signed with Lord Grenville a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, between his Britannic majesty and the United States. This treaty gave great offence to France, and produced a fearful excitement in the United States. Forty years have since passed away, and at no subsequent period has the stability of the government been placed in more imminent peril. The judgment of Washington, however, approved the treaty, and his firmness carried the country through the crisis, but the minister who negotiated the treaty was assailed and denounced by a numerous and powerful antagonist party. For this Mr. JAY was prepared, as his letters written at that time declare. “I carried with me to Europe,” said he to Edmund Randolph, “and I brought back from thence a fixed opinion, that no treaty whatever with Great Britain would escape a partial, but violent opposition. I did clearly discern that any such treaty would be used as a pretext for attacks on the government, and for attempts to diminish the confidence which the great body of the people reposed in it.” In another letter, addressed to General Henry Lee, after expressing a sentiment similar to the above, he said, “apprised of what had happened in Greece and other countries, I was warned by the experience of ages riot to calculate on the constancy of any popular tide, whether favorable or adverse, which erroneous or transitory impressions might occasion. The treaty is as it is, and the time will certainly come, when it will universally receive exactly that degree of commendation or censure which, to candid and enlightened minds, it shall appear to deserve.” Mr. JAY arrived at New York, in May, 1795, and found that he had been elected governor of the state. He felt bound by the circumstances under which he had been elected, to accept the honor conferred, and accordingly resigned the office of chief justice. He held the station of governor until 1801, when, having declined to be considered again a candidate, he withdrew from public life to the peaceful shades of his paternal estate at Bedford.

President Adams attempted to retain his services for the public, by nominating him to the senate for his former seat on the bench of the supreme court, but he had deliberately made up his mind to retire, and declined the honor, on the ground “that his duty did not require him to accept it.” The public services of Mr. JAY fill a broad space in the history of his country, but the value of them has been variously estimated amidst the zealous strife of contending political parties, and it is perhaps even yet too soon to attempt an adjustment of the balance. We shall therefore be content to leave it to the calm judgment of our readers.

That Mr. JAY, at the age of fifty-six, should have abandoned all participation in public affairs, excited some surprise at the time; but a view of his private character and motives affords a sufficient explanation.

Through all his life, he was influenced mainly by a sense of duty. At no period the creature of impulse, whatever he undertook to do, was the result of cool, dispassionate conviction, so that whatever was the labor or the difficulty of the performance, he pressed forward regardless of the consequences. So long as he believed it to be his duty to serve the public, he remained at his post, and having “borne the heat and burden of the day,” until he saw the institutions of his country, which he had assisted to rear, effective and prosperous, he naturally turned towards a station and mode of life that from early youth had been his desire. Firm in his political principles, and decidedly attached to one of the great parties of his day, he was yet tolerant of the opinions of others; he never deserted his friends, nor sought to purchase an opponent; he never asked a vote nor an office, nor did he ever remove an officer for his political views. Being therefore neither factious, ambitious, nor anxious for distinction, he was willing, when he saw the administration of the government passing out of the hands of his political friends, to give a fair trial to their successors.

In 1802, he had the misfortune to lose his excellent and beloved wife, which left a breach in the family circle at Bedford, that was long and painfully felt.

Mr. JAY’S life exhibited a beautiful illustration of the power of religion. It was never laid aside for convenience, nor brought forward on special occasions for effect, but it was a pervading influence equally acknowledged and obeyed from day to day, in public and in private. In the very storm and tempest of political passion—and there is none more reckless—his private character was always respected by his antagonists. By his friends he was venerated. In his retirement, he devoted much of his time to study and reflection; and while he was prudent, economical and diligent in the improvement of his estate, he lived in constant preparation for “another and a better world.”

He was a plain republican in his manners; warm and enduring in his friendships, and liberal in his benevolence. He was a member of most of the great religious associations of his time, and succeeded Elias Boudinot, as president of the American Bible Society.

For several years before his death, Mr. JAY’S health had gradually declined. In 1827, he was dangerously ill, so that his recovery was not expected. When apprised of his danger by his son, he received the information without any apparent emotion, but in the course of the day he conversed with cheerfulness and animation.

On being urged to tell his children on what his hopes were founded, and whence he drew his consolation, he replied, “they have THE BOOK.” From this attack, however, he recovered, but continued feeble and gradually declining until the 14th of May, 1829, when he was suddenly seized with palsy, which almost deprived him of the power of speech, though his mind remained perfect to the last.

He departed on the 17th of the same month, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

The public acts of Mr. JAY form an important part of our early national history. A memoir of his life by his son, William Jay, with selections from his correspondence and miscellaneous papers, has recently been published in two octavo volumes, which we hope will find a place in the library of every American, who designs to set before his children a bright example of public and private virtue.

“It would be difficult,” says a late writer, “to point out a character in modern times more nearly allied to the Aristides drawn by Plutarch, than that of JOHN JAY. Justice, stern and inflexible, holds the first place in his exalted mind.” Yet Plutarch admits, “that although in all his own private concerns, and in those of his fellow-citizens, Aristides was inflexibly just, in affairs of state he did many things, according to the exigency of the case, to serve his country, which seemed often to have need of the assistance of injustice.” In this respect the resemblance fails between the ancient and the modern, JOHN JAY never departed from the strictest rule of right; and the patriot and the Christian may equally point to him with admiration and applause.

                                                                                             J. H.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Vol. 2

[1] Jefferson’s Correspondence, Letter CLXXIV.

[2] Dr. Franklin approved of Mr. JAY’S resistance to this proposition, observing, “poor as we are, yet as I know we shall be rich, I would rather agree with them to buy at a great price, the whole of the Mississippi, than sell a drop of its waters. A neighbor might as well ask me to sell my front door.”

 

 

JAY, John, 1817-1894, New York, diplomat, lawyer.  Grandson of Chief Justice John Jay.  President of the New York Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society in 184.  Active and leader in the Free soil Party and founding member of the Republican Party.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 413-414; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 10; Drake, 1950, pp. 95, 98)

 

JAY, John, diplomatist, b. in New York city, 23 June, 1817; d. there, 5 May, 1894, was graduated at Muhlenberg's institute, and at Columbia in 1836. After his admission to the bar in 1839 he became well known by his active opposition to slavery and his advocacy of St. Philip's colored church, which was admitted to the Protestant Episcopal convention after a nine years' contest. He was secretary of the Irish relief committee of 1847, and was counsel for many fugitive slaves, including George Kirk, two Brazilian slaves that were landed in New York, Henry Long, and the Lemmons. (See ARTHUR, CHESTER ALAN.) In 1854 he organized the meetings at the Broadway tabernacle, that resulted in the state convention at Saratoga on 10 Aug., and in the dissolution of the Whig and the formation of the Republican party at Syracuse, 27 Sept., 1855. During the civil war he acted with the Union league club, of which he was president in 1866, and again in 1877. In 1868, as state commissioner for the Antietam cemetery, he reported to Gov. Reuben E. Fenton on the chartered right of the Confederate dead of that campaign to burial, a right questioned by Gov. John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, and Hon. John Covode. In 1869 he was sent as minister to Austria, where his diplomatic work included a naturalization treaty, the establishment of a convention on trademarks, and the supervision of the U. S. commission to the world's fair of 1873. He resigned and returned to the United States in 1875, afterward residing in New York city. In 1877 he was appointed by Sec. Sherman chairman of the Jay commission to investigate the system of the New York custom-house, and in 1883 was appointed by Gov. Cleveland as the Republican member of the state civil service commission, of which he was made president. Mr. Jay was active in the early history of the American geographical and statistical society, and was long manager and corresponding secretary of the New York historical society. He was also the first president of the Huguenot society, organized in 1855 in New York. In connection with his political career, Mr. Jay delivered numerous addresses on questions connected with slavery, and also bearing on its relation to the Episcopal church, of which he was a leader among the laity. His speeches and pamphlets, which have been widely circulated, include “America Free, or America Slave” (1856); “The Church and the Rebellion” (1863); “On the Passage of the Constitutional Amendment abolishing Slavery” (1864); “Rome in America” (1868); “The American Foreign Service” (1877); “The Sunday-School a Safe-guard to the Republic”; “The Fisheries Question”; “The Public School a Portal to the Civil Service.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 413-414.

 

 

JAY, Peter Augustus, 1776-1843, anti-slavery activist.  Son of first Chief Justice of the United States and diplomat John Jay.  President of the New York Manumission Society in 1816, and President of the Anti-Slavery New York Public School Society.  Advocated for suffrage for free African Americans.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 103; Sorin, 1971, p. 77; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 11)

 

JAY, Peter Augustus, lawyer, b. in Elizabethtown, N. J., 24 Jan., 1776; d. in New York city, 20 Feb., 1843, was graduated at Columbia in 1794, and became his father's private secretary, and in that capacity accompanied him when he was sent as minister to England in 1794. On his return he studied law and achieved a high rank at the New York bar. In 1816 he was a member of the assembly, being active in promoting legislation for the building of the Erie canal, and with his brother William supported the bill recommending the abolition of slavery in New York state. He held the office of recorder of New York city in 1819-'21, and was a member of the New York constitutional convention in 1821. Mr. Jay was a trustee of Columbia in 1812-'17, and again in 1823-'43, being chairman in 1832. In 1840-'3 he was president of the New York historical society, and he was connected with several literary and charitable societies. He received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1831, and from Columbia in 1835. His great learning and strength of intellect, his masterly reasoning, his wisdom and his pre-eminent moral excellence, combined with his thorough refinement and dignity as a man, made him a very marked and remarkable jurist and member of society. Mr. Jay was one of the members of the Kent club, composed of prominent members of the bar, and was active in the social affairs of New York city. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

JAY, William, 1789-1858, Bedford, NY, jurist, anti-slavery activist, abolitionist leader, anti-slavery Liberty Party. Son of first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay. In 1819, he strongly opposed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed the extension of slavery into the new territories. Drafted the constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Corresponding Secretary, 1835-1838, Executive Committee, 1836-1837, AASS.  Vice President, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS).  He was removed as a judge of Westchester County, in New York, due to his antislavery activities. Supported emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia and the exclusion of slavery from new territories, although he did not advocate interfering with slave laws in the Southern states. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 47, 159, 226, 286, 301; Mabee, 1970, pp. 73, 107, 199, 251, 253, 295; Sorin, 1971, pp. 51, 77-81, 96, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 11; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 473-475; Jay, W., Life and Writings of John Jay, 1833; Jay, W., An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies, 1834; Jay, W., A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery, 1837; Jay, W., War and Peace, 1848; Jay, W., Review of the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War, 1849)

 

JAY, William, jurist, b. in New York city, 16 June; 1789; d. in Bedford, N. Y., 14 Oct., 1858, studied the classics at Albany with the Rev. Thomas Ellison, of Oxford, England. Among his classmates was James Fenimore Cooper, with whom he formed a life-long friendship, and who inscribed to Jay “Lionel Lincoln” and some of his “Letters from Europe.” Jay was graduated at Yale in 1808, and studied law with John B. Henry of Albany, but was compelled to relinquish the profession by weakness of the eyes. He retired to his father's home at Bedford, and in 1812 married Augusta, daughter of John McVickar, a lady “in whose character were blended all the Christian graces and virtues.” In 1815 he published a “Memoir on the Subject of a General Bible Society for the United States,” and in 1810 assisted Elias Boudinot and others in forming the American Bible society, of which he was for years an active and practical promoter, and its principal champion against the vigorous attacks of the high-churchmen led by Bishop Hobart. The interest in the controversy extended to England, and Jay's numerous letters and pamphlets on the subject have been commended as models of that sort of warfare. In 1818 Jay was appointed to the bench of Westchester county by Gov. DeWitt Clinton. His office as first judge was vacated by the adoption of the new constitution in 1821, but he was subsequently reappointed, without regard to politics, until he was superseded in 1843 by Gov. Bouck at the demand of a pro-slavery faction. In 1826, Jay, who in 1819, during the Missouri controversy, had written strongly against the extension of slavery, demanding that congress should “stand between the living and the dead, and stay the plague,” was instrumental in calling the attention of the New York legislature and of congress to the necessity of reforming the slave-laws of the District of Columbia. A free colored man, Gilbert Horton, of Somers, Westchester co., who had gone to Washington, was there arrested as a runaway and advertised by the sheriff to be sold as a fugitive slave, to pay his jail fees, unless previously claimed by his master. Jay called a public meeting, which demanded the interposition of Gov. DeWitt Clinton. This was promptly given, Horton was released, and a petition circulated for the abolition of slavery in the District. The New York assembly, by a vote of fifty-seven to thirty-nine, instructed their representatives in congress to vote for the measure. Pennsylvania passed a similar bill, and upon the memorial presented by Gen. Aaron Ward, the house of representatives, after a prolonged debate, referred the subject to a special committee. In 1828-'9 the debate was renewed in congress, and resolutions and petitions multiplied, from Maine to Tennessee.

Among Jay's writings at this time were essays on the Sabbath as a civil and divine institution, temperance, Sunday-schools, missionary and educational efforts, and an essay on duelling, to which, in 1830, while the authorship was unknown, a medal was awarded by the Anti-duelling association of Savannah, by a committee of which Judge James M. Wayne and Gov. Richard W. Habersham were members. In 1833 he published the “Life and Writings of John Jay.” Its careful sketch of the peace negotiations of 1782, and its exposition of the hostility of France to the American claims was questioned by Dr. Sparks, but their accuracy was certified by Lord St. Helens (Mr. Fitzherbert), and has since been confirmed by the Vergennes correspondence and the “Life of Shelburne.” In October, 1832, President Jackson appointed Judge Jay a commissioner to adjust all unsettled matters with the western Indians; but the appointment, which was unsolicited, was declined. Judge Jay contributed a paper on the anti-slavery movement to the first number of the “Emancipator,” published in New York, 1 May, 1833. In October of the same year the New York city anti-slavery society was formed, and in December an Anti-slavery convention met at Philadelphia to form the American anti-slavery society. Each of these bodies, at Judge Jay's suggestion, disclaimed the right of congress to interfere with slavery in the states, while claiming for congress power to suppress the domestic slave-trade and to abolish slavery in the territories under its exclusive jurisdiction. The significance of the principles and action of these societies is illustrated by the interesting historic facts: first, that nullification in South Carolina in 1832, when a medal was struck inscribed “John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy,” was the precursor of the secession of 1861, showing that the pro-slavery policy during the interval was a part of the secession scheme; and next, that the anti-slavery movement, organized in 1833 on strictly constitutional grounds, culminated in the Republican party, by which slavery was abolished and the republic preserved. The same year, 1833, was noted for the persecution and trial in Connecticut of Prudence Crandall (q. v.), and for the decision of Judge Daggett that colored persons could not be citizens. Judge Jay's review of that decision and his able enforcement of the opposite doctrine were approvingly quoted by Chancellor Kent in his “Commentaries.” The years 1834 and 1835 were memorable for the attempt to arrest, by threats and violence, the expression of anti-slavery sentiments. Judge Jay, in a charge to the grand jury, called their attention to the prevailing spirit of lawless violence, and charged them that any law that might be passed to abridge in the slightest degree the freedom of speech or the press, to shield any one subject from discussion, would be null and void. He prepared also, for the American anti-slavery society, an address to the public, restating their views and principles, which was widely published throughout America and Europe. In 1834 Judge Jay published his “Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies,” which was read “by scholars and statesmen and exerted a powerful influence!” “The work,” wrote Prof. E. Wright, Jr., “sells faster than it can be printed,” and it was presently reprinted in London. In December, 1835, President Jackson, in his message, assailed the character and designs of the anti-slavery movement, accusing the Abolitionists of circulating through the mails “inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, and calculated to stimulate them to insurrection and all the horrors of civil war,” and the president suggested to congress a law forbidding the circulation through the mails of incendiary documents. On 28 Dec. the executive committee addressed to the president what Henry Wilson called “an elaborate and dignified protest from the polished and pungent pen of Judge Jay,” denying his accusations, and offering to submit their publications to the inspection of congress.

Judge Jay's next work, “A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery” (1837), made a deep impression, and had a rapid sale. This was followed in 1839 by a startling presentation of facts on “The Condition of the Free People of Color in the United States,” in 1840 by an address to the friends of constitutional liberty on the violation by the house of representatives of the right of petition, and a review from his pen of the case of the “Amistad” negroes (see CINQUE) was read by John Quincy Adams in congress as a part of his speech on the subject. In 1842 Judge Jay reviewed the argument by Mr. Webster on the slaves of the “Creole.” The two subjects to which Judge Jay's efforts were chiefly devoted were those of war and slavery. His writings on the first, both before and after he became president of the American peace society, had no little influence at home and abroad. In his volume entitled “War and Peace; the Evils of the First, with a Plan for securing the Last” (New York, 1848), he suggested stipulation by treaty referring international disputes to arbitration, as a plan based upon obvious principles of national policy, and adapted to the existing state of civilized society. The suggestion met with the warm approval of Joseph Sturge, the English philanthropist, who visited Judge Jay at Bedford while the work was still in manuscript, and it was embodied by Mr. Sturge in a volume published by him on his return to England. The plan was heartily approved by Mr. Cobden, who wrote to Judge Jay: “If your government is prepared to insert an arbitration clause in the pending treaties, I am persuaded it will be accepted by our government.” The main feature of the plan, arbitration, after approval by successive peace congresses in Europe (at Brussels in 1848, at Paris in 1849, at London in 1851) was virtually recommended by Protocol No. 23, of the Congress of Paris, held in 1856 after the Crimean war, which protocol was unanimously adopted by the plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey. These governments declared their wish that the states between which any serious misunderstanding might arise should, before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. The honor of its introduction in the congress belongs to Lord Clarendon, whose services had been solicited by Joseph Sturge and Henry Richard, and it was supported by all of his colleagues in the congress. It was subsequently referred to by Lord Derby as worthy of immortal honor. Lord Malmsbury pronounced it an act “important to civilization and to the security of the peace, of Europe,” and it was somewhat later approved by all the other powers to whom it was referred, more than forty in number. Among Judge Jay's other writings on this subject are his letter on the “Kossuth Excitement” (1852); an address before the American peace society at Boston (1845), and a petition from the society to the U. S. senate in behalf of stipulated arbitration (1853). Perhaps under this head should be included his historic and searching “Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War” (Boston, 1849). In 1846 Judge Jay republished, with an elaborate preface, the concluding chapter of Bishop Wilber-force's “History of the Church in America,” which had been announced by two American publishers who relinquished the design when it was found to contain a reproof of the American church for its course on slavery. This was followed by a letter on the same subject to Bishop Ives, of North Carolina. “The Calvary Pastoral, a Tract for the Times,” rebuked the attempt to convert the Episcopal church into a popish church without a pope. In 1849 appeared “An Address to the Non-Slave-holders of the South, on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery.” This was in part embodied in an address to the people of California, which was effectively circulated on the Pacific coast in English and Spanish. In 1850 Judge Jay addressed a letter to William Nelson, on Clay's compromise measures; and this was followed by a review of Mr. Webster's declaration that slavery was excluded from California and New Mexico by the law of physical geography. Subsequent letters and addresses included one to Samuel A. Elliott, in reply to his apology for the fugitive-slave bill, an address to the anti-slavery Christians of the United States, and in 1853 several letters and reviews of the conduct of the American tract society in the interest of slavery. The same year a volume of Judge Jay's miscellaneous writings on slavery was published in Boston. In 1854 he had the satisfaction of seeing the Republican party founded on the anti-slavery principles that he had early advocated. Of his anti-slavery labors Horace Greeley said: “As to Chief-Justice Jay, the father, may be attributed, more than to any other man, the abolition of negro bondage in this state [New York], so to Judge William Jay, the son, the future give the credit of having been one of the earliest advocates of the modern anti-slavery movements, which at this moment influence so radically the religion and the philanthropy of the country, and of having guided by his writings, in a large measure, the direction which a cause so important and so conservative of the best and most precious rights of the people should take.” He left in manuscript a commentary on the Bible.—Peter Augustus's son, John Clarkson, physician, b. in New York city, 11 Sept., 1808; d. in Rye, N.Y., 15 Nov., 1891, was graduated at the College of physicians and surgeons in 1831. In addition to his practice of medicine he made a specialty of conchology, and acquired the most complete and valuable collection of shells in the United States. This and his costly library on this branch of science were purchased by Catherine Wolfe and presented, in memory of her father, to the American museum of natural history, where it is known as the Jay collection. In 1832 he became a member of the Lyceum of natural history (now New York academy of sciences), and was its treasurer in 1836-'43. He took an active part in the efforts that were made during that time to obtain subscriptions for the new building, and bore the principal burden in planning and superintending its construction. He was one of the founders of the New York yacht-club, and for some time its secretary. From 1859 till 1880 he was a trustee of Columbia college. The shells collected by the expedition of Com. Matthew C. Perry to Japan were submitted to him for examination, and he wrote the article on that subject in the government reports. Dr. Jay was the author of “Catalogue of Recent Shells” (New York, 1835); “Description of New and Rare Shells” (1836); and later editions of his catalogue, in which he enumerates about 11,000 well-marked varieties, and at 7,000 well-established species. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

JENCKES, John, abolitionist, Providence, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-37

 

 

JENCKES, Thomas Allen, 1818-1875, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.  Served as Congressman from 1863-1871.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 425-426; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 41; Congressional Globe)

 

 

JENKINS, David, 1811-1877, free African American, abolitionist leader, newspaper editor and publisher, writer, lecturer, community activist.  Publisher of anti-slavery newspaper, Palladium of Liberty, in Columbus, Ohio. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 355)

 

 

JENKINS, Huron, abolitionist, Delaware, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-40

 

 

JENNINGS, Jonathan, abolitionist, Delaware, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-38

 

 

JESSUP, William, 1797-1868, Pennsylvania, jurist, abolitionist, temperance activist.  Leader of the Republican Party.  Wrote party platform for election of 1860. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 431)

 

JESSUP, William, jurist, b. in Southampton, N. Y., 21 June, 1797; d. in Montrose, Pa., 11 Sept., 1868. He was graduated at Yale in 1815, removed to Montrose in 1818, and was admitted to the bar there. From 1838 till 1851 he was presiding judge of the 11th judicial district of Pennsylvania, and in April, 1861, was one of the committee of three that was sent by the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio to confer with President Lincoln relative to raising 75,000 men. He was a pioneer in the cause of education and temperance in northern Pennsylvania, and the chief founder of the County agricultural society. In 1848 Hamilton college conferred on him the degree of LL.D. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 431.

 

 

JOCELYN, Simeon S., New Haven, Connecticut, New York, NY, abolitionist leader.  Vice President, 1834-1835, Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Member of the Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1855.  Co-founded the Amistad Committee. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 169, 171, 175-176; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 30, 31, 150, 235, 396n5; Sorin, 1971; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 326)

 

 

JOHNSON, Cave, Kentucky, strong supporter of the American Colonization Society in Kentucky.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 139)

 

 

JOHNSON, Jacob, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 131)

 

 

JOHNSON, John B., Logan County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

JOHNSON, Mary, abolitionist, member of the New England Non-Resistance Society (Yellin, 1994, pp. 151, 253n, 289)

 

 

JOHNSON, Mathew, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

JOHNSON, Nathan, 1797-1880, African American, former slave, abolitionist leader, community leader.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Manager, 1839-1840, 1841-1842.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 479)

 

 

JOHNSON, Oliver, 1809-1889, anti-slavery leader, newspaper editor, printer, reformer.  An early supporter of William Lloyd Garrison.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Member Executive Committee, 1841-1843, Manager, 1852-1853.  Occasionally helped Garrison in the editing of The Liberator.  In 1832, co-founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society.  Lectured extensively against slavery.  Johnson edited various anti-slavery newspapers, including the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the Pennsylvania Freeman, and the Anti-Slavery Bugle.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 86, 87, 214, 215, 226, 261, 262, 297, 335, 368; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 367; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 446; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 412; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 107)

 

JOHNSON, Oliver; editor, b. in Peacham, Vt., 27 Dec., 1809; d. in Brooklyn, N.Y., 10 Dec., 1889. He served in the office of the “Watchman,” at Montpelier, Vt., and in 1831 became the editor of the newly established “Christian Soldier.” From 1865 till 1870 he was managing editor of the “Independent,” after which he became the editor of the “Weekly Tribune,” which post he resigned in 1872 to become editor of the “Christian Union.” He was active in the cause of anti-slavery as lecturer and editor, and was one of the twelve that organized the New England anti-slavery society in 1832. He published “William Lloyd Garrison and his Times, or Sketches of the Anti-slavery Movement in America” (Boston, 1880). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 446.

 

 

JOHNSON, Reverdy, 1796-1876, lawyer, diplomat, statesman, U.S. Senator, opposed annexing territories acquired in the war with Mexico.  Strongly opposed the extension of slavery into the new territories.  Ardent supporter of the Union.  Believed that African Americans should be recruited into the Union Army and as a result should gain their emancipation. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 446-447; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 112; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 116)

 

JOHNSON, Reverdy, statesman, b. in Annapolis, Md., 21 May, 1796; d. there, 10 Feb., 1876. He was educated at St. John's college, studied law with his father, John Johnson, chancellor of the state, and was admitted to the bar in 1815. He began to practise in Upper Marlboro', Prince George county, was appointed deputy attorney-general for that judicial district, and in 1817 removed to Baltimore, where he practised with success. ln 1821 he was elected to the state senate for a term of five years, and soon distinguished himself for his intelligent, bold, and comprehensive discussion of the question of state and Federal policy that was agitating the country. He was re-elected for the succeeding term, but resigned at the end of the second year to become attorney-general in President Taylor's cabinet. In 1845 he was sent to the U. S. senate as a Whig, serving till 1849. One of the most striking characteristics of Mr. Johnson's public life was his occasional disregard of party dictation. A memorable instance of this independent action was his hearty support of the Mexican war measures of Polk's administration, in spite of the violent opposition of the Whigs. On the accession of President Fillmore, Mr. Johnson resigned, and for more than twenty years afterward he was exclusively engaged in his professional duties, appearing during that time in the trial of celebrated cases in almost every part of the country, from New England to California. In 1854 he was employed by some English claimants to argue a case in London before an Anglo-American commission. During his residence of several months in England he was received with marked attention by the barristers and judges of that country, and left a reputation behind him which had not been forgotten when, fourteen years afterward, he went as minister to the court of St. James. Whether in or out of office, Mr. Johnson was invariably outspoken in his opinions of all public matters. His decided opposition to the proscriptive doctrines of the “Know-Nothing” party led him, together with many of the Whig leaders in Maryland, to unite with the Democrats in 1856 and in the subsequent support of Buchanan's administration. In the presidential contest of 1860 Mr. Johnson joined the Douglas wing of the party, and was active in his efforts to secure its success. He was a member of the peace congress in Washington in 1861 and in 1862. Throughout the civil war he supported the National cause, and sustained the measures of the administration. When peace was restored he urged the readmission of the southern states without delay. He voted for the first reconstruction bill, supported that measure when it was vetoed by President Johnson, and opposed the second bill. During his term he was engaged by the government as an umpire in adjusting questions that had arisen in New Orleans during the civil war. In 1868 he resigned his seat in the senate, having been appointed by President Johnson to succeed Charles Francis Adams as minister to England, where he negotiated the “Johnson-Clarendon” treaty for the settlement of the Alabama claims, which was rejected by the senate. In his negotiations with Lord Clarendon he procured a perfect recognition of everything that our government claimed in the international controversies growing out of the civil war. The failure of the senate to ratify the Johnson-Clarendon treaty was due to party jealousy, and nothing more than was embraced in the terms of Mr. Johnson's protocol was afterward obtained from Great Britain. Mr. Johnson's popularity among Englishmen was proverbial, and his recall by President Grant, in 1869, and the nomination of his Republican successor became a party necessity. Although seventy-three years of age when he returned from England, he resumed his law practice with his early eagerness. In 1872 he supported Horace Greeley for president. He was constantly employed in court and office practice until his death, which was caused by apoplexy, and which took place at the executive mansion in Annapolis, where he had been the guest of the governor, and was awaiting the call of a case in the court of appeals. In conjunction with Mr. Thomas Harris he reported the decisions of the Maryland court of appeals, known as “Harris's and Johnson's Reports” (7 vols., 1820-'7). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 446-447.     

 

 

JOHNSON, Robert, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

JOHNSON, Rowland, 1816-1886, New York, NY, reformer, abolitionist leader.  Vice president, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1858-1864.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 448)

 

JOHNSON, Rowland, reformer, b. in Germantown, Pa., 24 May, 1816; d. in West Orange, N.J., 25 Sept., 1886. His parents were members of the Society of Friends, and in early life he was a preacher of that denomination. In 1850 he removed to New York, and became a broker and commission-merchant in that city. He was among the earliest supporters of the abolition movement, and at one time was the leader of the anti-slavery party in New York. He was also one of the first members of the Union league club, and was active in charitable organizations. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.      

 

 

JOHNSON, Samuel, 1822-1882, Unitarian clergyman, abolitionist, reformer, writer (The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 312; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 119)

 

 

JOHNSON, Thomas P., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

JOHNSON, William, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.

 

 

JOHNSON, William Henry, 1833-1918, African American, abolitionist, journalist, lecturer, soldier. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 504)

 

 

JOHNSTON, Nathan R., abolitionist, Topsham, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vic-President, 1863-64

 

 

JOLLIFE, J., Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-39

 

 

JONES, Absolom, 1746-1818, free African American, slave, first African American Protestant priest.  Founded Free African Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787.  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 25-26, 156, 158-159, 280, 290, 294-295, 559-560)

 

 

JONES, B. S., co-founder and editor, with Elizabeth H. Jones, of the abolitionist newspaper, the Anti-Slavery Bugle, in New Lisbon, Ohio, in 1845.  They edited the paper until 1849.  It was the official newspaper of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. (Dumond, 1961, p. 265)

 

 

JONES, Elizabeth H., co-founder and editor, with B. S. Jones, of the abolitionist newspaper, the Anti-Slavery Bugle, in New Lisbon, Ohio, in 1845.  They edited the paper until 1849.  It was the official newspaper of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. (Dumond, 1961, p. 265)

 

 

JONES, John, 1816-1879, African American, abolitionist, civil rights activist and leader, conductor on the Underground Railroad.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 555)

 

 

JONES, Norris, abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

JONES, Richard, abolitionist, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Employ, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

JONES, Walter, 1776-1861, Washington, DC, general, soldier, noted constitutional lawyer.  American Colonization Society founding officer and Board of Managers, 1816, Vice-President, 1833-1841, Manager, 1834-1839, Director, 1839-1840.  Worked with Henry Clay and other notables.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, pp. 203-204; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 51, 208)

 

 

JONES, William R., abolitionist, Maryland, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-35

 

 

JONSON, George W., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971, p. 35n)

 

 

JUDSON, Aaron, agent, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1834. Was a former student at the Oneida Institute.  Helped found Oneida County Anti-Slavery Society. (Sernett, 2002, pp. 41-42)

 

 

JUDSON, Everton, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

JULIAN, George Washington, 1817-1899, Society of Friends, Quaker, statesman, lawyer, radical abolitionist leader from Indiana, vice president of the Free Soil Party, 1852.  Member of U.S. Congress from Indiana, 1850-1851.  Was against the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.  Fought in court to prevent fugitive slaves from being returned to their owners.  Joined and supported early Republican Party.  Re-elected to Congress, 1861-1871.  Supported emancipation of slaves.  Husband of Ann Elizabeth Finch, who was likewise opposed to slavery.  After her death in 1860, he married Laura Giddings, daughter of radical abolitionist Joshua Giddings.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 486; Blue, 2005, pp. ix, 9, 10, 11, 13, 161-183, 210, 225-229, 259-260, 265-270; Riddleberger, 1966; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 54, 354-355; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 245; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 486-487; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 315)

 

JULIAN, George Washington, statesman, b. near Centreville, Ind., 5 May, 1817; d. in Irvington, Ind., 7 July, 1899. He taught for three years, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1840. He was elected to the Indiana house of representatives in 1845 as a member of the Whig party; but becoming warmly interested in the slavery question through his Quaker training, severed his party relations in 1848, became one of the founders and leaders of the Free-soil party, was a delegate to the Buffalo convention, and was then elected to congress, serving from 3 Dec., 1849, to 3 March, 1851. In 1852 he was a candidate for the vice-presidency on the Free-soil ticket. He was a delegate to the Pittsburg convention of 1856, the first National convention of the Republican party, and was its vice-president, and chairman of the committee on organization. In 1860 he was elected as a Republican to congress, and served on the joint committee on the conduct of the war. He was four times re-elected, and served on the committee on reconstruction, and for eight years as chairman of the committee on public lands. He espoused the cause of woman suffrage as early as 1847, and in 1868 proposed in congress a constitutional amendment conferring the right to vote on women. During the discussions on reconstruction he was zealous in demanding the electoral franchise for the negro. In 1872 he joined the Liberal Republicans, and supported Horace Greeley for president. His most strenuous efforts in congress were directed to the championship of the homestead policy and the preservation of the public lands for the people. In May, 1885, he was appointed surveyor-general of New Mexico. He had published “Speeches on Political Questions,” containing a sketch of his life by Lydia Maria Child (Boston, 1872), and “Political Recollections” (Chicago, 1884), and had contributed to magazines and reviews articles dealing with political reforms.—His brother, Isaac Hoover, journalist, b. in Wayne county, Ind., 19 June, 1823, removed to Iowa in 1846, resided there till 1850, and returning to Indiana settled in Centreville and edited the “Indiana True Republican,” which he afterward published in Richmond, Ind., under the title of “The Indiana Radical.” He occupied several local offices in that town, removed to San Marco, Texas, in 1873, and since that date has edited the “San Marco Free Press.” He has published, besides numerous poems, pamphlets, and essays, a “Memoir of David Hoover” (Richmond, Ind., 1857). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

JUSTICE, Huldah, vice president of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Yellin, 1994, pp. 71, 74-75)

 

 

 

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KAGI, John Henry, 1835-1859, attorney, militant abolitionist.  Second in command under John Brown on his raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry.  He was killed in the raid.  Aided fugitive slaves in Nebraska in 1855.  Participated in anti-slavery activities in Kansas, 1856-1857, where he joined John Brown’s group.

 

 

KANE, Thomas Leiper, Brevet Brigadier General, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lawyer, abolitionist, principal in the Underground Railroad, Union General.  Served under General Henry W. Slocum in the Twelfth Corps. (Gallagher, 1993, pp. 92-93; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 258)

 

 

KANOUSE, Peter, Boontoon, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-38

 

 

KANOUSE, William R., Maryland.  American Anti-Slavery Society.

 

 

KASSON, John Adams, 1822-1910, lawyer, diplomat.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa.  Served as a Congressman from 1863-1867, 1873-1877, 1881-1884.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 494; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 260; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 392; Congressional Globe)

 

KASSON, John Adams, lawyer, b. near Burlington, Vt., 11 Jan., 1822. After graduation in the University of Vermont in 1842, he studied law in Massachusetts, and was admitted to the bar. He practised law in St. Louis, Mo., until 1857, when he removed to Des Moines. Iowa. He was chairman of the Republican state committee from 1858-'60, when he was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln first assistant postmaster-general, which office he resigned in 1862, and was elected to congress as a Republican, serving from 1863-'7. He was U. S. postal commissioner to Paris in 1863, and again in 1867, when he negotiated postal conventions with Great Britain and other nations. He was a member of the Iowa house of representatives from 1868-'73, when he was again elected to congress, serving from 1 Dec., 1873, till 3 March, 1877. He was appointed U. S. minister to Austria in 1877, having first declined the mission to Spain, and remained in Vienna until 1881, when he was again elected to congress, serving from 4 March, 1881, till his appointment on 4 July, 1884, as minister to Germany, where he was succeeded in 1885 by George H. Pendleton. He was president of the committee on the centennial celebration of the adoption of the constitution, held in Philadelphia in September, 1887. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 494.

 

 

KEEP, John, 1781-1870, Oberlin, Ohio, educator, college trustee.  Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-38.  Opposed slavery, women’s and African American rights advocate.  Trustee of Oberlin College from 1834-1870.  Attended World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.

 

 

KEESE, Samuel, abolitionist, Peru, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-42

 

 

KEIGHN, John, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, reorganized April 23, 1787 (Nash, 1991, p. 124)

 

 

KEITH, George, circa 1639-1716, b. Aberdeen, Scotland, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Early Quaker opponent of slavery. As a result, he was declared an apostate and disowned by the Philadelphia church in 1692.  Wrote early protest of slavery and owning slaves, An Exhortation and Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negroes, in 1693.  Exhorted Quakers to free their slaves.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 502; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 289; Bruns, 1977, pp. 5-9, 17, 31, 39; Drake, 1950, pp. 14-15, 20; Dumond, 1961, p. 17; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 8, 93; Zilversmit, 1967, p. 57; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 460)

 

KEITH, George, clergyman, b. in Aberdeen, Scotland, about 1639; d. in Sussex, England, in 1716. He was educated in the schools of the Church of Scotland and at the University of Aberdeen. Becoming a Quaker in 1664, he suffered confiscation and imprisonment, and in 1675 was engaged with Robert Barclay in a discussion before the students of Aberdeen university concerning Quaker doctrines. A continuance of persecutions induced Keith to emigrate to the United States in 1684. He became a surveyor in New Jersey, and was engaged to determine the boundary-line between the eastern and western parts of the state. He removed to Philadelphia in 1689, and took charge of a Friends' school, but left it to travel in New England, where he engaged in controversy with John Cotton and Increase Mather. On his return to Philadelphia he became involved in disputes with his own sect. He then went to London and met William Penn in controversy, who pronounced him an apostate and dismissed him from the society. Keith responded in an able argument, and formed a society of his own known as the Christian or Baptist Quakers, or Keithians. Becoming again dissatisfied, he was ordained in the Church of England, and in 1702 was sent by the Society for propagating the gospel on a mission to Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He was signally successful in this work, 700 Quakers under his influence receiving baptism in the Episcopal church. He subsequently returned to England, and became rector of Edburton, Sussex. Bishop Burnet, who was his fellow-student at Aberdeen, says of him in his “History of My Own Times”: “Keith was the most learned man ever in the Quaker sect, well versed both in the Oriental tongues and in philosophy and mathematics.” Besides theological works, he published “Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck” (London, 1706); “Standard of the Quakers” (1702; republished in Janney's “History of Friends,” Philadelphia, 1867); and “New Theory of Longitude” (1709). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 502.

 

 

KELLEY, Abby (Foster), 1811-1887, Pelham, Massachusetts, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist leader, women’s rights activist, radical social reformer, orator, lecturer.  Active supporter of the American Anti-Slavery Society, doing lectures, fundraising, and participating in anti-slavery conferences and distributing petitions.  Married abolitionist Stephan S. Foster.  Member of the Underground Railroad, Worcester, Massachusetts. (Bacon, 1974; Drake, 1950, pp. 14, 158, 176-177; Dumond, 1961, pp. 191, 275-276, 286; Mayer, 1998; Morin, 1994; Sterling, 1991; Yellin, 1994)

 

 

KELLEY, William Darrah, 1814-1890, lawyer, jurist, abolitionist.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  Elected in 1860.  Called the “Father of the House.”  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Gates, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 510; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 505; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 494; Congressional Globe; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 299)

 

KELLEY, William Darrah, congressman, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 12 April, 1814; d. in Washington, D. C., 9 Jan., 1890. His grandfather, John, was a Revolutionary officer, of Salem county, N. J. William was apprenticed first to a printer and subsequently to a jeweller in Boston, where, while following his trade, he acquired a reputation as a writer and speaker. Returning to Philadelphia in 1840 he studied law, was admitted to the bar the next year, and while practising his profession devoted much time to literary pursuits. He was attorney-general of the state in 1845-'6, and a judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia from 1846 till 1856. Until 1848 Mr. Kelley was a Democrat and free-trader, but in 1854 he joined the Republican party, became a protectionist and an ardent abolitionist, and delivered in Philadelphia in 1854 an address on “Slavery in the Territories,” that became widely known. In 1860 he was a delegate to the National Republican convention, and was elected to congress, where he was for many years before his death the senior member of the house in continuous service. He was a member of numerous committees, such as those on naval affairs, agriculture, and Indian affairs, was chairman of that on weights and measures in the 40th congress, and of that on the Centennial celebration. He was often called the “Father of the House,” and was popularly known as “Pig-iron Kelley.” In addition to many political speeches and literary essays, he published “Address at the Colored Department of the House of Refuge” (Philadelphia, 1850); “Reasons for abandoning the Theory of Free Trade and adopting the Principle of Protection to American Industry” (1872); “Speeches, Addresses”; “Letters on Industrial and Financial Questions” (1872); “Letters from Europe” (1880); and “The New South” (1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 505. 

 

 

KELLOGG, Francis W., 1810-1878, Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Served in Congress 1859-1865, 1868-1869.  Raised six regiments of cavalry for the Union Army.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 505; Congressional Globe)

 

 

KELLOGG, Orlando, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

KELLOGG, Spencer, Utica, New York, abolitionist leader, treasurer of the New York Anti-Slavery Society (NYASS).  Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1834-1835.  (Sernett, 2002, p. 52; Sorin, 1971, p. 103n)

 

 

KEMP, James Bishop, 1764-1827, Baltimore, Maryland, clergyman.  Vice President of the Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 318; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 111, 115)

 

 

KENNARD, John H., Baltimore, Maryland.  Traveling agent for the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Baltimore, Maryland.  Recruited emigrants for colony in Africa.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 101-102)

 

 

KENNEDY, James M., abolitionist, Kentucky, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-37

 

 

KENNEDY, John H., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Philadelphia Society of the American Colonization Society.  Assistant to head Ralph Gurley.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 125-126, 174, 175)

 

 

KENNEDY, John Pendleton, 1795-1875, author, political leader.  Opposed extension of slavery in the new U.S. territories.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 517)

 

 

KENNEY, Gerrit, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

KENT, George, abolitionist, Concord, New Hampshire, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-40, 1840-41

 

 

KER, John, Mississippi, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1839-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

KETCHUM, Edgar, New York, New York, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

KEY, Francis Scott, 1779-1843, Washington, DC, author of the U.S. national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner.  American Colonization Society founding officer and Board of Managers, Vice-President, 1833-1841, Manager, 1834-1839, Director, 1839-1840.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 14, 24; Campbell, 1971, pp. 7, 10; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 529-530; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 363; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 51, 55-56, 114, 124, 126, 130, 189-190, 208)

 

KEY, Francis Scott, author, b. in Frederick county, Md., 9 Aug., 1780; d. in Baltimore, Md., 11 Jan., 1843, was the son of John Ross Key, a Revolutionary officer. He was educated at St. John's college, studied law in the office of his uncle, Philip Barton Key, and began to practise law in Frederick City, Md., but subsequently removed to Washington, where he was district attorney for the District of Columbia. When the British invaded Washington in 1814, Ross and Cockburn with their staff officers made their headquarters in Upper Marlboro, Md., at the residence of a planter, Dr. William Beanes, whom they subsequently seized as a prisoner. Upon hearing of his friend's capture, Key resolved to release him, and was aided by President Madison, who ordered that a vessel that had been used as a cartel should be placed at his service, and that John S. Skinner, agent for the exchange of prisoners, should accompany him. Gen. Ross finally consented to Dr. Beanes's release, but said that the party must be detained during the attack on Baltimore. Key and Skinner were transferred to the frigate “Surprise,” commanded by the admiral's son, Sir Thomas Cockburn, and soon afterward returned under guard of British sailors to their own vessel, whence they witnessed the engagement. Owing to their position the flag at Fort McHenry was distinctly seen through the night by the glare of the battle, but before dawn the firing ceased, and the prisoners anxiously watched to see which colors floated on the ramparts. Key's feelings when he found that the stars and stripes had not been hauled down found expression in “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which gained for him a lasting reputation. On arriving in Baltimore he finished the lines which he had hastily written on the back of a letter, and gave them to Capt. Benjamin Eades, of the 27th Baltimore regiment, who had participated in the battle of North Point. Seizing a copy from the press, Eades hastened to the old tavern next to the Holliday street theatre, where the actors were accustomed to assemble. Mr. Key had directed Eades to print above the poem the direction that it was to be sung to the air “Anacreon in Heaven.” The verses were first read aloud by the printer, and then, on being appealed to by the crowd, Ferdinand Durang mounted a chair and sang them for the first time. In a short period they were familiar throughout the United States. A collection of Key's poems was published with an introductory letter by Roger B. Taney (New York, 1857). James Lick bequeathed the sum of $60,000 for a monument to Key, to be placed in Golden Gate park, San Francisco, Cal., and it was executed by William W. Story in Rome in 1885-'7. The height of this monument is fifty-one feet. It consists of a double arch, under which a bronze figure of Key is seated. It is surmounted by a bronze statue of America with an unfolded flag. The material is travertine, a calcareous stone of a reddish yellow hue, extremely porous, but of great durability. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

KEYES, Perley G. , New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

KEYS, William, Highland County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39

 

 

KILBOURN, Asahel, Portage County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-39

 

 

KILTY, William, 1757-1821, Annapolis, Maryland, Army surgeon, lawyer, jurist, Chancellor (governor) of Maryland.  Member of the Annapolis auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 375; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 70)

 

 

KIMBALL, David T., Ipswich, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

KIMBALL, George, abolitionist, Illinois, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-38

 

 

KIMBALL, John S., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-36

 

 

KIMBALL, Joseph Horace, 1813-1836, author, anti-slavery agent, editor of the Herald of Freedom newspaper of the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 537; Dumond, 1961, pp. 188, 393n25)

 

KIMBALL, Joseph Horace, author, b. in Pembroke, N. H., 26 April, 1813; d. in West Concord, N. H., 11 April, 1836. He resided in Concord, N. H., where he edited “The Herald of Freedom,” an anti-slavery journal. After a visit to the West India islands he published jointly with two friends “Emancipation in the West Indies: a Six Months’ Tour in Antigua, Barbadoes, and Jamaica in 1837” (New York, 1838). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

KIMBER, Abby, Pennsylvania, delegate to the (Garrisonian) Anti-Slavery Society, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Eastern Branch, Philadelphia (Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Yellin, 1994, p. 332)

 

 

KIMBER, Emmor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave (Drake, 1950, p. 154)

 

 

KING, Austin Augustus, 1802-1870, statesman, lawyer, jurist.  Democratic Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri.  Served as Congressman December 1863-March 1865, and as Governor of Missouri.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 538; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 382; Congressional Globe)

 

KING, Austin Augustus, statesman, b. in Sullivan county, Tenn., 20 Sept., 1801; d. in St. Louis, Mo., 22 April, 1870. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1822, and in 1830 removed to Missouri, where he continued to practise. In 1834 he was chosen to the legislature, and he was re-elected in 1836. In 1837 he was appointed judge of the circuit court, holding the office till 1848, when he was chosen governor of Missouri, his term expiring in 1853. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Charleston, where he made an effective speech in behalf of Stephen A. Douglas. He subsequently took the ground that the war for the Union was unnecessary. In 1862 he was restored to his old place as circuit judge, but shortly afterward resigned to take a seat in the 38th congress, to which he had been elected, serving from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1865. He then devoted himself to the practice of his profession. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 538.

 

 

KING, Dexter S., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-, 1846-?-50-, Manager, 1842-, Executive Committee, 1842-, 1846-, 1850, President, 1844-45

 

 

KING, John Alsop, 1788-1867, statesman, lawyer, soldier, political leader, diplomat, U.S. Congressman, Governor of New York, son of Rufus King.  He opposed compromises on issues of slavery, especially the Fugitive Slave Law.  Supported admission of California as a free state.  Active in the Whig Party and later founding member of the Republican Party in 1856.  Elected Governor of New York in 1856, serving one term.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 543-544; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 394)

 

KING, John Alsop, statesman, b. in New York city, 3 Jan., 1788; d. in Jamaica, N. Y., 7 July, 1867, was, with his brother Charles, placed at school at Harrow during his father's residence in England. Thence he went to Paris, and then returned to New York, where he was admitted to the bar. In 1812, when war with Great Britain was declared, he gave his services to the country, and was later a lieutenant of cavalry stationed in New York. Soon after the war he removed to Jamaica, N. Y., near his father's home, and was for several years practically engaged in farming. He was elected in 1819 and in several subsequent years to the assembly of the state, and, with his brother Charles, opposed many of the schemes of De Witt Clinton. He was, however, friendly to the canal, and was chosen to the state senate after the adoption of the new constitution. From- this he resigned in order that he might, as secretary of legation, accompany his father on his mission to Great Britain. The failure of the latter's health obliged him to return, and his son remained as charge d'affaires until the arrival of the new minister. Returning home to his residence at Jamaica, he was again, in 1838, sent to the assembly, and in 1849 he took his seat as a representative in congress, having been elected as a Whig. He strenuously resisted the compromise measures, especially the fugitive-slave law, and advocated the admission of California as a free state. He was an active member of several Whig nominating conventions, presided over that at Syracuse, N. Y., in 1855, where the Republican party was formed, and in 1856, in the convention at Philadelphia, warmly advocated the nomination of Gen. Frémont. He was elected governor of New York in 1856, entered on the duties of the office, 1 Jan., 1857, and specially interested himself in internal improvements and popular education. On the expiration of his term he declined a renomination on account of increasing age, and retired to private life, from which he only emerged, at the call of Gov. Morgan, to become a member of the Peace convention of 1861. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and was active in its diocesan conventions. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

KING, Leicester, 1789-1856, Warren, Ohio, abolitionist leader, political leader, businessman, jurist, leader of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Manager, 1837-1839, and Vice President, 1839-1840, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Ohio State Senator, 1835-1839.  Member, Whig Party.  U.S. Vice Presidential candidate, Liberty Party, in 1848.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 302; Mitchell, 2007, p. 24; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 50)

 

 

KING, Preston, 1806-1865, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, politician.  Son of founding father Rufus King.  Opponent of the extension of slavery into the new territories acquired from Mexico after 1846.  Supporter of the Wilmot Proviso in Congress.  Co-founder of Free Soil Party.  Later organized Republican Party and supported William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 708; Encylopaedia Americana, 1831, Vol. VII, pp. 326-328; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 396)

 

KING, Preston, senator, b. in Ogdensburg, N. Y., 14 Oct., 1806; drowned in Hudson river, 12 Nov., 1865. He was graduated at Union in 1827, studied law, and practised in St. Lawrence county, N. Y. He entered politics in early life, was a strong friend of Silas Wright, and an admirer of Andrew Jackson, and established the “St. Lawrence Republican” at Ogdensburg in 1830, in support of the latter. He was for a time postmaster there, and in 1834-'7 a member of the state assembly. He was a representative in congress in 1843-'7 and in 1849-'53, having been elected as a Democrat, but in 1854 joined the Republican party, was its candidate for secretary of state in 1855, and in 1857-'63 served as U. S. senator. Early in 1861, in the debate on the naval appropriation bill, Mr. King said that the Union could not be destroyed peaceably, and was one of the first to give his opinion thus plainly. In closing, he said: “I tell these gentlemen, in my judgment this treason must come to an end—peacefully, I hope; but never, in my judgment, peacefully by the ignominious submission of the people of this country to traitors—never. I desire peace, but I would amply provide means for the defence of the country by war, if necessary.” After the expiration of his term, Mr. King resumed the practice of law in New York city. He was a warm friend of Andrew Johnson, and, as a member of the Baltimore convention of 1864, did much to secure his nomination for the vice-presidency. After his accession to the presidency, Mr. Johnson appointed Mr. King collector of the port of New York. Financial troubles and the responsibilities of his office unsettled his mind, and he committed suicide by jumping from a ferry-boat into the Hudson river. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

KING, Reverend William, clergyman.  Scotch Presbyterian minister.  Founded Colony of Former Slaves in Kent County under the Elgin Association.  Took slaves to Canada.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 337)

 

 

KING, Rufus, 1775-1827, Massachusetts, statesman, founding father, lawyer, diplomat, soldier, early opponent of slavery.  Member of the Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  U.S. Congressional Representative and U.S. Senator.  Wrote clause in Northwest Ordinance excluding slavery from Northwest Territories.  It stated, in part, “that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the states,” and that this should “remain a fundamental principle of the Constitution…”  As a Senator in 1819, he opposed the admission of Missouri as a slave state.  King entered proposals in the Senate to abolish slavery.  His son was anti-slavery activist John Alsop King.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 542-543; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 398; Dumond, 1961, pp. 38, 40, 103, 131-132; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 158n; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 713)

 

KING, Rufus, statesman, b. in Scarborough, Me., in 1755; d. in New York city, 29 April, 1827. He was the eldest son of Richard King, a successful merchant of Scarborough, and was graduated at Harvard in 1777, having continued his studies while the college buildings were occupied for military purposes. He then studied law with Theophilus Parsons at Newburyport. While so engaged, in 1778, he became aide to Gen. Sullivan in his expedition to Rhode Island, and after its unsuccessful issue was honorably discharged. In due time he was admitted to the bar, where he took high rank, and was sent in 1783 to the general court of Massachusetts. Here he was active in the discussion of public measures, and especially in carrying against powerful opposition the assent of the legislature to grant the 5-per-cent impost to the congress of the confederation, which was requisite to enable it to insure the common safety. In 1784, by an almost unanimous vote of the legislature, Mr. King was sent a delegate to the old congress, sitting at Trenton, and again in 1785 and 1786. In this body, in 1785, he moved “that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the states described in the resolution of congress in April, 1784, otherwise than in punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been personally guilty; and that this regulation shall be made an article of compact, and remain a fundamental principle of the constitution between the original states and each of the states named in the said resolve.” Though this was not at the time acted upon, the principle was finally adopted almost word for word in the famous ordinance of 1787 for the government of the northwestern territory, a provision which had been prepared by Mr. King, and which was introduced into congress by Nathan Dane, his colleague, while Mr. King was engaged in Philadelphia as a member from Massachusetts of the convention to form a constitution for the United States. He was also appointed by his state to the commissions to settle the boundaries between Massachusetts and New York, and to convey to the United States lands lying west of the Alleghanies. While in congress in 1786 he was sent with James Monroe to urge upon the legislature of Pennsylvania the payment of the 5-per-cent impost, but was not so successful as he had been in Massachusetts. In 1787 Mr. King was appointed one of the delegates from his state to the convention at Philadelphia to establish a more stable government for the United States. In this body he bore a conspicuous and able part. He was one of the members to whom was assigned the duty of making a final draft of the constitution of the United States. When the question of its adoption was submitted to the states, Mr. King was sent to the Massachusetts convention, and, although the opposition to it was carried on by most of the chief men of the state, his familiarity with its provisions, his clear explanation of them, and his earnest and eloquent statement of its advantages, contributed greatly to bring about its final adoption. Mr. King had now given up the practice of law, and having in 1786 married Mary, the daughter of John Alsop, a deputy from New York to the first Continental congress, he took up his residence in New York in 1788. The next year he was elected to the assembly of the state, and while serving in that body “received the unexampled welcome of an immediate election with Schuyler to the senate” of the United States. In this body he was rarely absent from his seat, and did much to put the new government into successful operation. One of the grave questions that arose was that of the ratification of the Jay treaty with Great Britain in 1794. Of this he was an earnest advocate, and when he and his friend Gen. Hamilton were prevented from explaining its provisions to the people in public meeting in New York, they united in publishing, under the signature of “Camillus,” a series of explanatory papers, of which those relating to commercial affairs and maritime law were written by Mr. King. This careful study laid the foundation of much of the readiness and ability that he manifested during his residence in England as U. S. minister, to which post, while serving his second term in the senate, he was appointed by Gen. Washington in 1796, and in which he continued during the administration of John Adams and two years of that of Thomas Jefferson. The contingencies arising from the complicated condition of affairs, political and commercial, between Great Britain and her continental neighbors, required careful handling in looking after the interests of his country; and Mr. King, by his firm and intelligent presentation of the matters intrusted to him, did good service to his country and assisted largely to raise it to consideration and respect. In 1803 he was relieved, at his own request, from his office, and, returning to this country, removed to Jamaica, L. I. There, in the quiet of a country life, he interested himself in agriculture, kept up an extensive correspondence with eminent men at home and abroad, and enriched his mind by careful and varied reading. He was opposed on principle to the war of 1812 with England, when it was finally declared, but afterward gave to the government his support, both by money and by his voice in private and in the U. S. senate, to which he was again elected in 1813. In 1814 he made an eloquent appeal against the proposed desertion of Washington after the British had burned the capitol. In 1816, without his knowledge, he was nominated as governor of New York, but was defeated, as he was also when a candidate of the Federal party for the presidency against James Monroe. During this senatorial term he opposed the establishment of a national bank with $50,000,000 capital; and, while resisting the efforts of Great Britain to exclude the United States from the commerce of the West Indies, contributed to bring about the passage of the navigation act of 1818. The disposal of the public lands by sales on credit was found to be fraught with much danger. Mr. King was urgent in calling attention to this, and introduced and carried a bill directing that they should be sold for cash, at a lower price, and under other salutary restrictions. In 1819 he was again elected to the senate by a legislature that was opposed to him in politics as before. Mr. King resisted the admission of Missouri with slavery, and his speech on that occasion, though only briefly reported, contained this carefully prepared statement: “Mr. President, I approach a very delicate subject. I regret the occasion that renders it necessary for me to speak of it, because it may give offence where none is intended. But my purpose is fixed. Mr. President, I have yet to learn that one man can make a slave of another. If one man cannot do so, no number of individuals can have any better right to do it. And I hold that all laws or compacts imposing any such condition upon any human being are absolutely void, because contrary to the law of nature, which is the law of God, by which he makes his ways known to man, and is paramount to all human control.” He was equally opposed to the compromise offered by Mr. Clay on principle, and because it contained the seeds of future troubles. Upon the close of this senatorial term he put upon record, in the senate, a resolution which he fondly hoped might provide a way for the final extinction of slavery. It was to the effect that, whenever that part of the public debt for which the public lands were pledged should have been paid, the proceeds of all future sales should be held as a fund to be used to aid the emancipation of such slaves, and the removal of them and of free persons of color, as by the laws of the states might I be allowed to any I territory beyond the limits of the United States. His purpose to retire to private life was thwarted by an urgent invitation from John Quincy Adams, in 1825, to accept the mission to Great Britain. Mr. King reluctantly acquiesced and sailed for England, where he was cordially received, but after a few months he was obliged, through failing health, to return home. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 542-543.

 

 

KINGSBURY, Harmon, Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-39

 

 

KINGSLEY, Alpheus, Norwich, Connecticut, abolitionist.  Manger, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

KINNE, DAVID W., abolitionist, New York, American Abolition Society. (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

KINNEY, C. C., New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

KIRBY, Georgianna, abolitionist, California, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-41

 

 

KIRKLAND, William, abolitionist, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40

 

 

KIRKPATRICK, Peter, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-39

 

 

KIRKWOOD, Samuel Jordan, 1813-1894, statesman, political leader.  Governor of Iowa, 1860-1864, 1876-1877.  U.S. Senator, 1865-1867, 1877-1881.  Secretary of the Interior, 1881-1882.  Anti-slavery Senator.  Early leader in the Republican Party.  Strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln and the Union.  (Clark, 1917; Lathrop, 1893; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 557; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 436)

 

KIRKWOOD, Samuel Jordan, senator, b. in Harford county, Md., 20 Dec., 1813; d. in Iowa city, Iowa, 1 Sept., 1894. His only schooling was received in Washington, D. C., and ended when he was fourteen. He removed to Ohio in 1835, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. From 1845 till 1849 he was prosecuting attorney of Richland county, and in 1850-'1 was a member of the State constitutional convention. He removed to Iowa in 1855, engaged in milling and farming, and in 1 856 served in the state senate. He was elected governor of Iowa in 1859, and re-elected in 1861. He placed in the field nearly or quite fifty regiments of infantry and cavalry, all but the first being enlisted for three years, and throughout the war there was no draft in Iowa, as her quota was always filled by volunteers. He was offered in 1862 the appointment of U. S. minister to Denmark, and, in the hope of his acceptance, Mr. Lincoln held the appointment open until the expiration of Mr. Kirkwood's term as governor, but he then made his refusal final. In 1866 he was elected U. S. senator as a Republican, to fill the unexpired term of James Harlan. In 1875 he was for a third time governor of the state, and the next year was re-elected U. S. senator, serving till 1881, when he resigned to enter the cabinet of President Garfield as secretary of the interior. After 1882 he held no public office. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

KITE, Benjamin, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 131)

 

 

KITTRIDGE, Ingalls, Beverly, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-37

 

 

KNAPP, Chauncey L., abolitionist, Montpelier, Vermont, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40, 1840-41

 

 

KNAPP, Isaac, Boston, Massachusetts, printer, newspaper editor and publisher, abolitionist.  Helped William Lloyd Garrison found abolitionist newspaper, Liberator, in 1831.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  He was indicted in Raleigh, North Carolina, for circulating the paper there.  Co-founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society.  Served as editor and publisher of the Liberator until 1842.  Published and distributed numerous anti-slavery pamphlets.  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 463; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892)

 

 

KNEVELS, John, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

KNIPE, Joseph Farmer, abolitionist, General.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 563)

 

KNIPE, Joseph Farmer, soldier, b. in Mount Joy, Lancaster co., Pa., 30 Nov., 1823. He was educated in a private school, served in the ranks through the war with Mexico, and then engaged in mercantile business in Harrisburg, Pa., until 1861, when he organized the 46th Pennsylvania regiment, and was commissioned its colonel. He was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers 29 Nov., 1862, and served in the Army of the Potomac, and in that of the Cumberland, commanding a brigade and then a division, till the fall of Atlanta, when he became chief of cavalry of the Army of the Tennessee. Gen. Knipe received two wounds at Winchester, Va., two at Cedar Mountain, Ga., and one at Resaca, Ga. He was mustered out of service in September, 1865, and is now (1887) superintendent of one of the departments in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

KNOWLTON, Ebenezer, 1815-174, Pittsville, New Hampshire, abolitionist, clergyman.  Member of the Maine House of Representatives and the U.S. House of Representatives, 1855-1857.  Early member of the Republican Party.  Lifelong opponent of slavery and temperance activist.  Founder of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.  Coordinator of Free Will Baptist newspaper, Morning Star.

 

 

KNOX, Samuel, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

 

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LADD, Benjamin, Smithfield, Ohio, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, tried to bring 400 Southern Blacks to Ohio, near Sandusky, in July 1821 (Drake, 1950; Dumond, 1961, p. 137)

 

 

LADD, William, 1788-1841, Minot, Maine, peace advocate, philanthropist, opponent of slavery.  Organized an auxiliary of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in Maine.  Defended colonization to those who opposed it.  Ladd stated that the ACS “deserves the patronage of all who are, from principle, opposed to slavery.”  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 585; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 527; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 131, 210)

 

LADD, William, philanthropist, b. in Exeter, N. H., 10 May, 1778; d. in Portsmouth, N. H., 9 April, 1841. He was graduated at Harvard in 1797, and on leaving college embarked as a sailor on one of his father’s vessels, became a skilful navigator, and was captain of some of the finest ships that sailed from New England ports until he left the ocean at the beginning of the war of 1812. He resided at Minot, Me., and took an active part in organizing the American peace society, of which he was for many years president. The society was founded in 1828, and for a long period he was the only active and responsible officer. He gave his main attention to this society and the object it represented until the end of his life. In its interests he edited the “Friend of Peace,” established by Dr. Noah Worcester, and the “Harbinger of Peace,” which succeeded it as the organ of the society, and published a number of essays and occasional addresses on the subject of peace, including an “Address to the Peace Society of Maine” (1824), one to that of Massachusetts (1825), and “An Essay on the Congress of Nations” (Boston, 1840). He carried his views to the extent of denying the right of defensive war, and caused this principle to be incorporated into the constitution of his society. See his “Memoir,” by John Hemmenway (Boston, 1872). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

LAFAYETTE, Marquis de, 1757-1834, France, general, Revolutionary War hero.  Honorary Vice President, 1825, and member of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 118; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 586-590)

 

 

LAFAYETTE, George, France, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1835-41

 

 

LAFAYETTE, Marie J., France, honorary Vice President of the American Colonization Society, 1833-1835.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 118)

 

 

LA GRANGE, Oscar Hugh, 1837-1915, abolitionist, soldier.  LaGrange was active in the Bleeding Kansas conflict.  He helped to free Sherman Booth from incarceration.  He was a Union Army officer, serving in the Army of the Cumberland under General W. T. Sherman.  (Eicher, 2001, p. 750)

 

 

LAIRD, John, Manager of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

LANE, Charles, 1800-1870, transcendentalist, voluntarist, abolitionist, reformer, vegetarian advocate.  Co-founded the utopian community of Fruitlands in Harvard, Massachusetts.  Contributed letter to the abolitionist newspapers Liberator and Herald of Freedom.  (Watner, 1982.)

 

 

LANE, Henry Smith, 1811-1881, U.S. Senator.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 607; Congressional Globe; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 574)

 

LANE, Henry Smith, senator, b. in Montgomery county, Ky., 24 Feb., 1811; d. in Crawfordsville, Ind., 11 June, 1881, worked on a farm and attended school at intervals till he was sixteen years old. He began the study of law at eighteen, was admitted to the bar at twenty-one, and, removing to Indiana, practised his profession till 1854. He was in the legislature in 1837, and the next year was elected to congress as a Republican, serving till 1843. The defeat of Henry Clay for the presidency retired Mr. Lane from political life for sixteen years. At the first National Republican convention he made so effective a speech that, in June, 1856, he was elected permanent president of that body, and for several years he led the Republican party in the state. The election of 1858 gave the Republicans the majority of both houses of the Indiana legislature. In 1859, with the aid of the “Americans,” they elected Mr. Lane to the U. S. senate, hoping to annul the informal election of 1858 that gave the seat to Jesse D. Bright. The case was referred to the congressional committee on elections, which reported in favor of the validity of the former election, and sustained Mr. Bright, Mr. Lane became governor of Indiana in 1860, and in February of that year was elected to the U. S. senate, serving till 1867. He retired from politics at the end of his term, and, except as Indian peace-commissioner under Gen. Grant, undertook no regular public service. He was a delegate to the loyalists' convention in 1866, to the Chicago national Republican convention in 1868, and to that of Cincinnati in 1876. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 607.

 

 

LANE, James Henry, 1814-1866, lawyer, soldier.  Union General.  U.S. Senator from Kansas, 1861-1866.  Elected Senator in 1861 and in 1865.  Active in the abolitionist movement in Kansas in the 1850’s.  A leader in the Jay Hawkers and Free Soil militant groups.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 606; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 576; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 121; Congressional Globe)

 

LANE, James Henry, soldier, b. in Lawrenceburg, Ind., 22 June, 1814; d. near Leavenworth, Kansas, 1 July, 1866, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, and elected to the city council of Lawrenceburg. In May, 1846, he enlisted as a private in the 3d Indiana volunteer regiment, organizing for the Mexican war, was chosen colonel, and commanded a brigade at Buena Vista. He became colonel of the 5th Indiana regiment in 1847, and in 1848 was chosen lieutenant-governor of Indiana. From 1853 till 1855 he was a representative in congress, having been chosen as a Democrat, and voted for the repeal of the Missouri compromise. In 1855 he went to Kansas, where he took an active part in politics as a leader of the Free-state party, and was made chairman of the executive committee of the Topeka constitutional convention. He was elected by the people major-general of the free-state troops, and was active in driving out the Missouri invaders. In 1856 he was elected to the U. S. senate by the legislature that met under the Topeka constitution; but the election was not recognized by congress, and he was indicted in Douglas county for high treason and forced to flee from the territory. In 1857 he was president of the Leavenworth constitutional convention, and again made major-general of the territorial troops. In 1858 he shot a neighbor named Jenkins in a quarrel about a well, for which he was tried and acquitted. On the admission of Kansas to the Union in 1861, he was elected to the U. S. senate, serving on the committees of Indian affairs and agriculture. In May, 1861, he commanded the frontier guards that were organized for the defence of Washington, and on 18 Dec. he was made brigadier-general of volunteers; but the appointment was cancelled, 21 March, 1862. He commanded the Kansas brigade in the field for four months, rendering good service in western Missouri. He narrowly escaped from the Lawrence massacre in August, 1863, and was an aide to Gen. Curtis during Gen. Sterling Price's raid in October, 1864. He was a delegate to the Baltimore convention of 1864. He was re-elected to the United States senate in 1865, but in the following year, while on his way home, he was attacked with paralysis, his mind became unsettled, and he committed suicide. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 606.

 

 

LANE, Lunsford, 1803-1870, North Carolina, author, former slave, abolitionist.  Published The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C., Embracing an Account of his Early Life, the Redemption by Purchase of Himself and Family from Slavery, and his Banishment from his Place of Birth for the Crime of Wearing a Colored Skin. 1842. (Dumond, 1961, p. 330; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 30)

 

 

LANGDON, Jervis, abolitionist, Elmira, New York, father-in-law of Mark Twain (Gates, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 588)

 

 

LANGSTON, Charles Henry, 1817-1892, African American (Black mother, White father), abolitionist leader.  He and his brother, Gideon, were the first African Americans to attend Oberlin College.  Active in Ohio Negro Convention Movement.  Helped found the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in 1858.  Active in Liberty, Free Soil and Republican parties.  Involved in slave rescue in violation of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  Recruited Black troops for the Union Army.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 5-6, 13, 65-67, 66-78, 83-84, 86-88, 118, 120, 156, 266-267)

 

 

LANGSTON, Gideon, abolitionist, brother of Charles Henry Langston.  He and his brother, Charles, were the first African Americans to attend Oberlin College.   (Blue, 2005, pp. 65-67)

 

 

LANGSTON, John Mercer, 1829-1897, free African American, lawyer, diplomat, educator, abolitionist, political leader.  Brother of Charles Henry Langston.  Graduate of Oberlin College.  Helped found the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society with his brother Charles in 1858.  First African American elected to Congress from Virginia.  U. S. Congressman, Virginia, 4th District, 1890-1891.  First Dean of Howard University law school, Washington, DC. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 612; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 597; Blue, 2005, pp. 5-6, 65-66, 69, 72-76, 78, 79, 81, 85-88; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 164; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 7, p. 162)

 

LANGSTON, John Mercer, educator, b. in Louisa county, Va., 14 Dec., 1829; d. 15 Nov., 1897. He was by birth a slave, but was emancipated at the age of six years. He was graduated at Oberlin, and at the theological department. After studying law he was admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1854, and practised his profession there until 1869, during which time he was clerk of several townships in Ohio, being the first colored man that was elected to an office of any sort by popular vote. He was also a member of the board of education of Oberlin. In 1869 he was called to a professorship of law in Howard university, Washington, D. C., and became dean of the faculty of the law department and active in its organization, remaining there seven years. He was appointed by President Grant a member of the board of health of the District of Columbia, and was elected its secretary in 1875. In 1877-'85 he was U. S. minister and consul-general in Hayti. On his return to this country in 1885 he was appointed president of the Virginia normal and collegiate institute in Petersburg, which office he continued to hold. In addition to various addresses and papers on political, biographical, literary, and scientific subjects, Mr. Langston was the author of a valuable volume of selected addresses entitled “Freedom and Citizenship” (Washington, 1883). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

LANSING, Dirck Cornelius, 1758-1857, New York, clergyman, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1851-1855.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 615)

 

LANSING, Dirck Cornelius, clergyman, b. in Lansingburg, Rensselaer co., N. Y., 3 March, 1785; d. in Walnut Hills, Ohio, 19 March, 1857. He was graduated at Yale in 1804, became a Presbyterian clergyman, and was a trustee of Auburn seminary from 1820 till 1830, its vice-president from 1820 till 1824, and professor of sacred rhetoric and pastoral theology from 1821 till 1826, serving without salary and raising large sums for the seminary. Williams gave him the degree of D. D. in 1826. He published “Sermons on Important Subjects” (Auburn, 1825).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III.

 

 

LANSING, John Jr., 1754-1829(?), Albany, New York, jurist.  Officer and founding member of the Albany auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Son of Chancellor John Lansing.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 615; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 608; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 81)

 

 

LATROBE, John Hazlehurst Boneval, 1803-1891, Baltimore, Maryland, lawyer.  Manager, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1833-1834.  President of the ACS, appointed in 1853.  Manager, Maryland State Colonization Society.  Son of U.S. Capitol architect Benjamin Latrobe.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 12, 18, 20-21, 54, 73, 135, 139, 141, 144, 148, 155, 165, 174, 192, 203-207, 212, 239, 241-242; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 27; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 110-111, 112, 157-161, passim 189, 190-191, 232-233, 308)

 

 

LAURENS, Henry, 1724-1792, statesman, South Carolina, opponent of slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 630-631; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 32; Bruns, 1977, pp. 427-428; Drake, 1950, p. 85; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 23, 362; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 261)

 

LAURENS, Henry, statesman, b. in Charleston, S. C., in 1724; d. there, 8 Dec., 1792. His ancestors were Huguenots, who had left France at the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He was educated in Charleston and became clerk in a counting-house there, from which he was transferred to a similar house in London in order to acquire a business education. Upon his return he engaged in mercantile pursuits and acquired a fortune. He was conspicuous in his opposition of British aggression, and had frequent contests with the crown judges, especially in respect to their decisions in marine law and in the courts of admiralty, and the pamphlets that he published against these measures gave evidence of great legal ability. He also served in a military campaign against the Cherokees, of which he left a diary in manuscript. Retiring from business, he went to England in 1771 to superintend the education of his sons, and travelled through Great Britain and on the continent. While in London he was one of the thirty-eight Americans who signed a petition in 1774 to dissuade parliament from passing the Boston port bill. He returned to Charleston in that year, was a member of the 1st Provincial congress there in 1775, and drew up a form of association to be signed by all the friends of liberty. He also became president of the council of safety. In 1776 he was made vice-president of South Carolina under the new constitution and elected a delegate to the Continental congress, of which he became president after the resignation of John Hancock, serving from 1 Nov., 1777, till 10 Dec., 1778. In 1779 he was appointed minister to Holland to negotiate a treaty that had been unofficially proposed to William Lee by Van Berckel, pensionary of Amsterdam. He sailed on the packet “Mercury,” which was captured by the British frigate “Vestal,” of twenty-eight guns, off Newfoundland. Mr. Laurens threw his papers overboard; but they were recovered, and gave evidence of his mission. The refusal of Holland to punish Van Berckel, at the dictation of Lord North's ministry, was instantly followed by war between Great Britain and that country. Mr. Laurens was taken to London, examined before the privy council, and imprisoned in the Tower, on 6 Oct., 1780, on “suspicion of high treason,” for nearly fifteen months, during which his health was greatly impaired. He was ill when he entered, but no medical attendance was provided, and it was more than a year before he was granted pen and ink to draw a bill of exchange to provide for himself. But he obtained a pencil, and frequent communications were carried by a trusty person to the outside world, and he even corresponded with American newspapers. 

When his son John appeared in Paris in 1781 to negotiate a loan with France. Mr. Laurens was informed that his confinement would be the more rigorous because the young man had openly declared himself an enemy to the king and his country. It was suggested that if Mr. Laurens would advise his son to withdraw from his commission, such action would be received with favor at the British court; but he replied that his son was a man who would never sacrifice honor, even to save his father's life. Laurens received attention from many friends, among whom was Edmund Burke. Twice he refused offers of pardon if he would serve the British ministry. While a prisoner he learned of his son John's death in a skirmish in South Carolina, and on 1 Dec., 1781, he addressed a petition to the house of commons, in which he said that he had striven to prevent a rupture between the crown and colonies, and asked for more liberty. He was soon afterward released without trial, and was commissioned by congress one of the ministers to negotiate peace. He then went to Paris, where, with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, he signed the preliminaries of the treaty, 30 Nov., 1782, and was instrumental in the insertion of a clause prohibiting, on the British evacuation, the “carrying away any negroes or other property of the inhabitants.” On his return to Charleston he was welcomed with enthusiasm and offered many offices, which his impaired health forced him to decline. He retired to his plantation near Charleston and devoted his life to agriculture. His will concluded with this request: “I solemnly enjoin it on my son, as an indispensable duty, that, as soon as he conveniently can, after my decease, he cause my body to be wrapped in twelve yards of tow-cloth and burned until it be entirely consumed, and then, collecting my bones, deposit them wherever he may think proper.” This was the first cremation in this country. Some of Laurens's political papers have been published in the collections of the South Carolina historical society, and his rebus letter to Lord George Gordon is reprinted in the “Magazine of American History” (December, 1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 630-631.

 

 

LAURIE, James, Reverend, 1778-1853, Washington, DC, clergyman.  American Colonization Society founding officer and Board of Managers, 1816, Manager, 1833-1839, Vice-President, 1838-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 30, 54, 235; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 632)

 

LAURIE, James, clergyman, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, 11 Feb., 1778; d. in Washington, D. C., 18 April, 1853. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and licensed to preach in 1800. About 1802 the Rev. John M. Mason, who was then in Scotland, urged him to emigrate to the United States and enter the service of the Associate Reformed church. This denomination had formed a new congregation in Washington, D. C., of which Mr. Laurie was installed pastor in June, 1803. For several years he preached in the old treasury building, which was burned by the British in 1814. He labored to build a church, and travelled from Boston, Mass., to Savannah to solicit aid with such success that in 1807 a brick edifice was opened for service, which was the second Protestant church in Washington. He held charge of this pastorate for forty-six years, and was also employed in the treasury, holding office till his death. Williams gave him the degree of D. D. in 1815. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

LAWRENCE, Amos Adams, 1814-1886, merchant, philanthropist, anti-slavery activist.  Principal manager and treasurer of the Kansas Emigrant Aid Society.  Worked to keep Kansas a free state.  Lawrence, Kansas, was named in his honor. (Lawrence, William, Life of Amos A. Adams, with Extracts from his Diary and Correspondence, 1888; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 639; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 47)

 

LAWRENCE, Amos Adams, b. in Boston, Mass., 31 July, 1814; d. in Nahant, Mass., 22 Aug., 1886, was graduated at Harvard in 1835, entered mercantile life, invested capital in cotton-manufactories, and became president or director of many banks and industrial corporations in Massachusetts; also an officer in numerous charitable institutions. In 1853-'4 he associated himself with Eli Thayer and others in the colonization of Kansas and its development into a free state, and was the treasurer and principal manager of the Emigrant aid association, which sent out parties of settlers from New England during the Kansas struggle. He was twice nominated by the Whigs and Unionists for governor of Massachusetts. In the beginning of the civil war he aided in recruiting the 2d Massachusetts cavalry regiment. He built Lawrence hall, the Episcopal theological school in Cambridge, and was its treasurer for many years. In 1857-'60 he was treasurer of Harvard college, and in 1880 was chosen an overseer. The town of Lawrence, Kansas, and Lawrence university, at Appleton, Wisconsin, were named in his honor. A “Memoir” of him has been prepared by his son William (Boston, 1888). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 639.

 

 

LAWRENCE, John, New York.  (Annals of Congress, 1 Congress, 2 Sess., p. 1241)

 

 

LAWSON, George, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

LAWTON, Anna, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

LAWTON, Eliza Logan, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

LAY, Benjamin, 1682-1759, Colchester, EnglLand, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker leader, anti-slavery activist, temperance activist, and opponent of the death penalty.  Lay promoted colonization projects.  He published “Apostates!” and “All Slave Keepers, That Keep the Innocent in Bondage…”  At a Society of Friends meeting in Philadelphia in 1758, he encouraged Quakers who were slaveholders to “set them at liberty, making a Christian provision for them.”  He was excommunicated by the Quakers twice for his anti-slavery activities.  He lobbied governors of neighboring provinces against the evils of slavery.  Poet John Greenleaf Whittier said of Lay that he was an “irrepressible prophet who troubled the Israel of slaveholding Quakerism, clinging like a rough chestnut to the skirts of its respectability and settling like a pertinacious gadfly on the sore places of its conscience.”  He was lifelong friends with Benjamin Franklin.  (Bruns, 1977, pp. 46-64; Drake, 1950, pp. 34, 37, 43-48, 51, 55, 107, 115-116, 121, 136, 177; Nash, 1991, pp. x, 48-49, 50, 52-53, 57, 63, 202; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 15, 94, 433; Soderlund, 1985, pp. 4, 15-17, 23n, 32, 35, 78, 149, 166-167, 173-175, 186-187; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 67-69, 72, 75; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 643; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 63; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 514-515; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13; Vaux, R., Memoirs of the Lives of Benjamin Lay and Ralph Sandford, 1815; Rowntree, C. B., 1936, “Benjamin Lay (1681-1759),” The Journal of the Friends’ Historical Society, 33.)

 

LAY, Benjamin, philanthropist, b. in Colchester, England, in 1677; d. in Abington, Pa., in 1759. In 1710 he settled in Barbadoes as a merchant, but, becoming obnoxious to the people by his abolition principles, he removed to the British colonies and settled at Abington, Pa., where he was one of the earliest and most zealous opponents of slavery. He was originally a member of the Society of Friends, but left it in 1717, because slave-holding was permitted to its members. Afterward he returned to the society when it assumed an attitude that was similar to his own. Mr. Lay was little over four feet in height, wore clothes of his own manufacture, and was distinguished scarcely less for his eccentricities than for his philanthropy. At one time he attempted to fast for forty days, but long before the expiration of that time his abstinence nearly proved fatal. To show his indignation against slave-holders he carried a bladder filled with blood into a meeting, and in the presence of the congregation thrust a sword, which he had concealed under his coat, into the bladder, and sprinkling the blood on several Friends exclaimed, “Thus shall God shed the blood of those who enslave their fellow-creatures.” Upon the introduction of tea into Pennsylvania he delivered a lecture against its use   

 

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 643.  

 

 

LEACH, Eldridge G., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Recording Secretary, 1844-46, Executive Committee, 1846-

 

 

LEAR, B. L., founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

LEARY, Lewis Sherrard, free African American man with John Brown during his raid at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, October 16, 1859; hanged with John Brown, December 1859 (see entry for John Brown). (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 62, 327)

 

 

LEAVITT, Hart, 1809-1881, Massachusetts, legislator, prominent abolitionist.  Brother to abolitionist Roger Hooker Leavitt and Joshua Leavitt.  Active in abolitionist organizations and in the Underground Railroad.

 

 

LEAVITT, Harvey F., Vergennes, Vermont, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40, 1840-41.

 

 

LEAVITT, Joshua, 1794-1873, New York, reformer, temperance activist, editor, lawyer, clergyman, abolitionist leader.  Active supporter of the American Colonization Society.  Helped in raising funds for the Society.  Founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), New York, 1833.  Manager, AASS, 1833-1837.  Executive Committee, AASS, 1834-1840.  Recording Secretary, AASS, 1838-1840.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (A&FASS).  Advocated political action to end slavery, which led him to help found the Liberty Party.  Edited the newspaper, The Evangelist, which was founded by abolitionists Arthur and Lewis Tappan.  He later became editor of The Emancipator, which was founded by Arthur Tappan in 1833.  Leavitt toured extensively, lecturing against slavery.  His speeches were edited into a pamphlet entitled, “The Financial Power of Slavery.”  It was one of the most widely circulated documents against slavery.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 20, 25, 34, 45, 50, 54, 94, 119, 122; Davis, 1990; Dumond, 1961, pp. 159, 175, 179, 266, 286, 301; Filler, 1960, pp. 24, 63, 101, 132, 142, 150, 168, 172, 174, 177, 189, 194, 266-267; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 1, 7-8, 17, 20, 28-30, 36, 45-49, 167, 217; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 363-364; Sorin, 1971, pp. 51, 68-71, 96, 131, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 649-650; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 84; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 518-519; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 339; papers in the Library of Congress; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 129-130, 214, 219)

 

LEAVITT, Joshua, reformer, b. in Heath, Franklin co., Mass., 8 Sept., 1794; d. in Brooklyn, N.Y., 16 Jan., 1873. He was graduated at Yale in 1814, admitted to the bar in 1819, and began to practise in Putney, Vt., in 1821. In 1823 he abandoned his profession for the study of theology, and was graduated at Yale divinity-school in 1825. He settled the same year at Stratford, Conn., where he had charge of a Congregational church until 1828. In 1819, while a student of law in Heath, Mr. Leavitt organized one of the first Sabbath-schools in western Massachusetts, embracing not only the children, but the entire congregation, all of whom were arranged in classes for religious instruction. He also became interested in the improvement of the public schools. Before he entered the theological seminary he prepared a new reading-book, called “Easy Lessons in Reading” (1823), which met with an extensive sale. He subsequently issued a “Series of Readers” (1847), but these were not as popular. When the American temperance society was formed he became its first secretary, and was one of its travelling agents, in many places delivering the first temperance lecture the people had heard. In 1828 he removed to New York city as secretary of the American seamen's friend society and editor of the “Sailor's Magazine.” He established chapels in Canton, the Sandwich islands, Havre, New Orleans, and other domestic and foreign ports. He also aided in founding the first city temperance society, and became its secretary. He became in 1831 editor and proprietor of the newly established “Evangelist,” which under his management soon grew to be the organ of the more liberal religious movements, and was outspoken on the subjects of temperance and slavery. Mr. Leavitt bore a conspicuous part in the early anti-slavery conflict. His denunciation of slavery cost his paper its circulation in the south and a large proportion of it in the north, well-nigh compelling its suspension. To offset this loss he undertook the difficult feat of reporting in full the revival lectures of Charles G. Finney (q. v.), which, though not a short-hand reporter, he accomplished successfully. The financial crisis of 1837 compelled him, while erecting a new building, to sell out the “Evangelist.” In 1833 he aided in organizing the New York anti-slavery society, and was a member of its executive committee, as well as of that of the National anti-slavery society in which it was merged. He was one of the abolitionists who were obliged to fly for a time from the city to escape mob violence. In 1837 he became editor of the “Emancipator,” which he afterward moved to Boston, and he also published in that city “The Chronicle,” the earliest daily anti-slavery paper. In the convention that met at Albany in 1840 and organized the Liberal party, Mr. Leavitt took an active part, and he was also chairman of the national committee from 1844 till 1847. In 1848 Mr. Leavitt became office-editor of the New York “Independent,” and was connected editorially with it until his death. Mr. Leavitt was an earnest and powerful speaker. In 1855 Wabash college conferred on him the degree of D. D. Dr. Leavitt's correspondence with Richard Cobden, and his “Memoir on Wheat,” setting forth the unlimited capacity of our western territory for the growth and exportation of that cereal, were instrumental in procuring the repeal of the English corn laws. During a visit to Europe he also became much interested in Sir Rowland Hill's system of cheap postage. In 1847 he founded the Cheap postage society of Boston, and in 1848-'9 he labored in Washington in its behalf, for the establishment of a two-cent rate. In 1869 he received a gold medal from the Cobden club of England for an essay on our commercial relations with Great Britain, in which he took an advanced position in favor of free-trade. Besides the works already mentioned, he published a hymn-book for revivals, entitled the “Christian Lyre” (1831). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 649-650.

 

 

LEAVITT, Roger, Heath, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Father of abolitionists Roger Hooker Leavitt and Joshua Leavitt.

 

 

LEAVITT, Roger Hooker, 1805-1885, Claremont, Massachusetts, abolitionist leader, landowner, industrialist, temperance activist, soldier.  President, Franklin County Anti-Slavery Society.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1838-1840, 1840-1841.  Gubernatorial candidate for Massachusetts on the Liberty Party ticket.  Brother of abolitionist leader Joshua Leavitt.  Stationmaster on the Underground Railroad.

 

 

LEE, Chloe, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

LEE, Edmund I, Mayor of Alexandria, Virginia.  American Colonization Society founding officer and Board of Managers, 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 30, 258n14)

 

 

LEE, John, Frederick, Maryland, charter member of the American Colonization Society in 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 258n14)

 

 

LEE, Ludwell, Frederick County, Virginia.  Member of the Frederick County auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Son of Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 70)

 

 

LEE, Luther, 1800-1889, clergyman, Methodist congregation, Utica, New York, abolitionist leader.  Began his abolitionist career in 1837.  Helped create Wesleyan anti-slavery societies.  In 1843, co-founded the anti-slavery Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America, of which he became president.  Lecturer for New York Anti-Slavery Society (NYASS) and agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Member, Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1846-1852.  Luther was attacked on a number of occasions by pro-slavery advocates.  In 1840, Lee helped to co-found the Liberty Party.  (Filler, 1960, p. 123; Sernett, 2002, pp. 57-58, 59, 80-83, 299n8, 300n16; Sorin, 1971; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, 603; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 115; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 384)

 

LEE, Luther, clergyman, b. in Schoharie, N. Y., 30 Nov., 1800. He joined the Methodist Episcopal church in 1821, soon began to preach, and in 1827 entered the Genesee conference, becoming an itinerant missionary, preacher, and successful temperance lecturer. He began to preach against slavery in 1836, was mobbed several times, and in 1841 established and edited “The New England Christian Advocate,” an anti-slavery journal, at Lowell, Mass. He subsequently edited “The Sword of Truth,” and in 1842 seceded from the Methodist church, began a weekly journal, “The True Wesleyan,” and when the Wesleyan Methodist connection was organized, became pastor of that church in Syracuse, N. Y. He was the first president of the first general conference of the new church, was editor of the organ of that body, “The True Wesleyan,” till 1852, and after that date was successively pastor of churches in Syracuse and Fulton, N. Y. In 1854-'5 he edited a periodical entitled “The Evangelical Pulpit.” He became president and professor of theology in the Michigan union college at Leoni in 1856, resigning the next year to officiate in churches in Ohio. From 1864 till 1867 he was connected with Adrian college, Mich., and at the latter date returned to the Methodist Episcopal church, slavery, which was the cause of the organization of the Wesleyan connection, having ceased to exist. Since 1867 he has been a member of the Michigan conference, and is now (1887) superannuated. His publications include “Universalism Examined and Refuted” (New York, 1836); “The Immortality of the Soul” (1846); “Revival Manual” (1850); “Church Polity” (1850); “Slavery Examined in the Light of the Bible” (1855); and “Elements of Theology” (1856). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 603.

 

 

LEE, Richard Bland, 1761-1827, statesman.  Member of the first U.S. Congress.  Brother of Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee.  Charter member of the American Colonization Society in 1816.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 117; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 258n14)

 

 

LEE, Richard Henry, Frederick County, Virginia.  Member of the Frederick County auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Grandson of Revolutionary War hero, light horseman, Henry Lee.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 70)

 

 

LEEDS, Samuel, New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1850-51.

 

 

LEEMAN, William H., radical abolitionist, accompanied John Brown in his raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, on October 16, 1859.  Lee wrote to his mother, “We are now all privately gathered in a slave state, where we are determined to strike for freedom, incite the rebels to rebellion, and establish a free government.” (See entry for John Brown.) (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 207, 327)

 

 

LEGGETT, Isaac, Society of Friends, Quaker, operated station of the Underground Railroad in his home

 

 

LEMEN, James, New Design, Virginia, organized Baptist Churches on abolitionist principles.  Worked against pro-slavery petitions. Sent to U.S. Congress.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 92)

 

 

LEMOYNE, Francis Julius, 1798-1879, Washington, Pennsylvania, physician, abolitionist leader.  Le Moyne became active in the abolitionist movement in the 1830s.  Was against the colonization movement.  Le Moyne was a manager in the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1840, 1840-1841.  Vice President of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1851.   In 1840, ran as the vice presidential candidate of the Liberty Party.  Also unsuccessfully ran on Pennsylvania abolitionist tickets, 1841, 1844, 1847.  Was active in helping fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad.  Founded Le Moyne College in 1870 in Memphis, Tennessee.  (Blue, 2005, p. 25; Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 266, 301; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 46; Sernett, 2002, pp. 109, 111; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 687; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 163)

 

LE MOYNE, Francis Julius, abolitionist, b. in Washington, Pa., 4 Sept., 1798; d. there, 14 Oct., 1879. His father was a royalist refugee from France, who practised medicine in Washington. The son was graduated at the college there in 1815, studied medicine with his father and at the Medical college in Philadelphia, and began practice in his native town in 1822. In 1835 he assisted in organizing an anti-slavery society in Washington, and from that time entered earnestly into the abolition movement. He was the first candidate of the Liberty party for vice-president, his nomination having been proposed in a meeting at Warsaw, N. Y., 13 Nov., 1839, and confirmed by a national convention at Albany, 1 April, 1840. Though he and James G. Birney, the nominee for president, declined the nomination, they received 7,059 votes in the election of 1840. In 1841, 1843, and 1847 Le Moyne was the candidate of the same party for governor of Pennsylvania. At a later period he became widely known as an advocate of cremation. He erected in 1876, near Washington, Pa., the first crematory in the United States. Dr. Le Moyne founded the public library in Washington, gave $25,000 for a colored normal school near Memphis, Tenn., and endowed professorships of agriculture and applied mathematics in Washington college. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 687.

           

 

 

LEONARD, Johnathan J., Meriden, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1847-1850.

 

 

LETCHWORTH, John, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 131)

 

 

LETTSOM, Dr. John Coakley, physician, London, England, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist (Drake, 1950, pp. 123-124)

 

 

LEVINGTON, William, 1793-1836, African American, political and community leader, lawyer, abolitionist, organized and led new African American Ohio State Anti-Slavery Society. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 7, p. 256)

 

 

LEWIS, Enoch, 1776-1856, mathematician, educator, publisher, African Observer, Society of Friends, Quaker, Wilmington, Delaware, moderate abolitionist, editor, anti-slavery monthly, the African Observer. Organized Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 703; Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 132, 145, 171-173; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 211)

 

LEWIS, Enoch, mathematician, b. in Radnor, Delaware co., Pa., 29 Jan., 1776; d. in Philadelphia, 14 June, 1856. He belonged to the Society of Friends. He early exhibited a talent for mathematics, at the age of fourteen was usher in a country school, and at fifteen became principal. In the autumn of 1792 he removed to Philadelphia, studied mathematics, teaching half of each day to earn his support, and in 1795 was engaged as a surveyor in laying out towns in western Pennsylvania. He was in charge of the mathematical department in the Friends' academy in Philadelphia, in 1796-'9, subsequently was mathematical tutor at the Westtown, Pa., school, and in 1808 opened a private school for mathematical students, which he successfully taught for several years. He edited several mathematical works, with notes, and about 1819 published a treatise on arithmetic that was followed by one on algebra, and by a work on plane and spherical trigonometry. In 1827 he became editor of a monthly called “The African Observer,” which continued only one year, and from 1847 till his death he was in charge of “The Friends' Review.” His publications include a “Life of Penn” in the “Friends' Library,” treatises on “Oaths” and on “Baptism,” and a “Vindication of the Society of Friends,” in answer to Dr. Samuel H. Cox's “Quakerism not Christianity.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II.

 

 

LEWIS, Evan, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wilmington, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, president of the Anti-Slavery Convention of 1833 (Drake, 1950, pp. 130, 140, 145; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

LEWIS, Graceanna, 1821-1912, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, educator, naturalist, illustrator, social reformer.  Society of Friends, Quaker, wrote “An Appeal to Those Members of the Society of Friends who Knowing the Principles of the Abolitionist, Stand Aloof from the Anti-Slavery Enterprise,” 1846.  Lewis was active in anti-slavery, temperance and women’s suffrage movements.  Hid and protected fugitive slaves in her home in the Underground Railroad. (Drake, 1950, p. 179; National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1899)

 

 

LEWIS, John S., , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

LEWIS, Mary (?), African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

LEWIS, Melancton, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

LEWIS, Sarah, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, pp. 80, 84)

 

 

LEWIS, William, abolitionist leader, lawyer, founding member, counselor, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102)

 

 

LIBBY, Peter, Buxton, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1851-1864.

 

 

LIDDON, Abraham, abolitionist leader, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Guardians, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

LIGHT, George C., Kentucky, clergyman.  Agent for the American Colonization Society in Kentucky.  Worked with Robert S. Finley.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 145)

 

 

LILLIE, William, New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1844-1851.

 

 

LINCOLN, Abraham, 1809-1865, 16th President of the United States (1861-1865), opponent of slavery.  Issued Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863, freeing slaves in southern states.  By the end of the Civil War, more than four million slaves were liberated from bondage.  (Basler, Ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, New Jersey, Rutgers University, 1953, 9 Vols; Dumond, 1961, pp. 224-225, 356; Miers, E. S., Lincoln Day by Day – A Chronology, Vols. 1-3; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 65, 66, 140, 241-243, 275, 368-370, 385, 690-691; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 715-727; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 242; National Archives and Records Administration [NARA], College Park, Maryland; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 662)

 

LINCOLN, Abraham, sixteenth president of the United States, b. in Hardin county, Ky., 12 Feb., 1809; d. in Washington, D. C., 15 April, 1865. His earliest ancestor in America seems to have been Samuel Lincoln, of Norwich, England, who settled in Hingham, Mass., where he died, leaving a son, Mordecai, whose son of the same name removed to Monmouth, N. J., and thence to Berks county, Pa., dying there in 1735. He was a man of some property, which at his death was divided among his sons and daughters, one of whom, John Lincoln, having disposed of his land in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, established himself in Rockingham county, Va. The records of that county show that he was possessed of a valuable estate, which was divided among five sons, one of whom, named Abraham, emigrated to Kentucky about 1780. At this time Daniel Boone was engaged in those labors and exploits in the new country of Kentucky that have rendered his name illustrious; and there is no doubt that Abraham Lincoln was induced by his friendship for Boone to give up what seems to have been an assured social position in Virginia and take his family to share with him the risks and hardships of life in the new territory. The families of Boone and Lincoln had been closely allied for many years. Several marriages had taken place between them, and their names occur in each other's wills as friends and executors. The pioneer Lincoln, who took with him what for the time and place was a sufficient provision in money, the result of the sale of his property in Virginia, acquired by means of cash and land-warrants a large estate in Kentucky, as is shown by the records of Jefferson and Campbell counties. About 1784 he was killed by Indians while working with his three sons—Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas—in clearing the forest. His widow removed after his death to Washington county, and there brought up her family. The two elder sons became reputable citizens, and the two daughters married in a decent condition of life. Thomas, the youngest son, seems to have been below the average of the family in enterprise and other qualities that command success. He learned the trade of a carpenter, and married, 12 June, 1806, Nancy Hanks, a niece of the man with whom he learned his trade. She is represented, by those who knew her at the time of her marriage, as a handsome young woman of twenty-three, of appearance and intellect superior to her lowly fortunes. The young couple began housekeeping with little means. Three children were born to them; the first, a girl, who grew to maturity, married, and died, leaving no children; the third a boy, who died in infancy; the second was Abraham Lincoln. Thomas Lincoln remained in Kentucky until 1816, when he resolved to remove to the still newer country of Indiana, and settled in a rich and fertile forest country near Little Pigeon creek, not far distant from the Ohio river. The family suffered from diseases incident to pioneer life, and Mrs. Lincoln died in 1818 at the age of thirty-five. Thomas Lincoln, while on a visit to Kentucky, married a worthy, industrious, and intelligent widow named Sarah Bush Johnston. She was a woman of admirable order and system in her habits, and brought to the home of the pioneer in the Indiana timber many of the comforts of civilized life. The neighborhood was one of the roughest. The president once said of it: “It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods, and there were some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond readin’, writin’, and cipherin’ to the rule of three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education.” But in spite of this the boy Abraham made the best use of the limited opportunities afforded him, and learned all that the half-educated backwoods teachers could impart; and besides this he read over and over all the books he could find. He practised constantly the rules of arithmetic, which he had acquired at school, and began, even in his early childhood, to put in writing his recollections of what he had read and his impressions of what he saw about him. By the time he was nineteen years of age he had acquired a remarkably clear and serviceable handwriting, and showed sufficient business capacity to be intrusted with a cargo of farm products, which he took to New Orleans and sold. In 1830 his father emigrated once more, to Macon county, Ill. Lincoln had by this time attained his extraordinary stature of six feet four inches, and with it enormous muscular strength, which was at once put at the disposal of his father in building his cabin, clearing the field, and splitting from the walnut forests, which were plentiful in that county, the rails with which the farm was fenced. Thomas Lincoln, however, soon deserted this new home, his last migration being to Goose Nest Prairie, in Coles county, where he died in 1851, seventy-three years of age. In his last days he was tenderly cared for by his son. 

Abraham Lincoln left his father's house as soon as the farm was fenced and cleared, hired himself to a man named Denton Offutt, in Sangamon county, assisted him to build a fiat-boat, accompanied him to New Orleans on a trading voyage, and returned with him to New Salem, in Menard county, where Offutt opened a store for the sale of general merchandise. Little was accomplished in this way, and Lincoln employed his too abundant leisure in constant reading and study. He learned during this time the elements of English grammar, and made a beginning in the study of surveying and the principles of law. But the next year an Indian war began, occasioned by the return of Black Hawk with his bands of Sacs and Foxes from Iowa to Illinois. Lincoln volunteered in a company raised in Sangamon county, and was immediately elected captain. His company was organized at Richland on 21 April, 1832; but his service in command of it was brief, for it was mustered out on 27 May. Lincoln immediately re-enlisted as a private, and served for several weeks in that capacity, being finally mustered out on 16 June, 1832, by Lieut. Robert Anderson, who afterward commanded Fort Sumter at the beginning of the civil war. He returned home and began a hasty canvass for election to the legislature. His name had been announced in the spring before his enlistment; but now only ten days were left before the election, which took place in August. In spite of these disadvantages, he made a good race and was far from the foot of the poll. Although he was defeated, he gained the almost unanimous vote of his own neighborhood, New Salem giving him 277 votes against 3. He now began to look about him for employment, and for a time thought seriously of learning the trade of a blacksmith; but an opportunity presented itself to buy the only store in the settlement, which he did, giving his notes for the whole amount involved. He was associated with an idle and dissolute partner, and the business soon went to wreck, leaving Lincoln burdened with a debt which it required several years of frugality and industry for him to meet; but it was finally paid in full. After this failure he devoted himself with the greatest earnestness and industry to the study of law. He was appointed postmaster of New Salem in 1833, an office which he held for three years. The emoluments of the place were very slight, but it gave him opportunities for reading. At the same time he was appointed deputy to John Calhoun, the county surveyor, and, his modest wants being supplied by these two functions, he gave his remaining leisure unreservedly to the study of law and politics. He was a candidate for the legislature in August, 1834, and was elected this time at the head of the list. He was re-elected in 1836, 1838, and 1840, after which he declined further election. After entering the legislature he did not return to New Salem, but, having by this time attained some proficiency in the law, he removed to Springfield, where he went into partnership with John T. Stuart, whose acquaintance he had begun in the Black Hawk war and continued at Vandalia. He took rank from the first among the leading members of the legislature. He was instrumental in having the state capital removed from Vandalia to Springfield, and during his eight years of service his ability, industry, and weight of character gained him such standing among his associates that in his last two terms he was the candidate of his party for the speakership of the house of representatives. In 1846 he was elected to congress, his opponent being the Rev. Peter Cartwright. The most important congressional measure with which his name was associated during his single term of service was a scheme for the emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia, which in the prevailing temper of the time was refused consideration by congress. He was not a candidate for re-election, but for the first and only time in his life he applied for an executive appointment, the commissionership of the general land-office. The place was given to another man, but President Taylor's administration offered Mr. Lincoln the governorship of the territory of Oregon, which he declined.  Mr. Lincoln had by this time become the most influential exponent of the principles of the Whig party in Illinois, and his services were in request in every campaign. After his return from congress he devoted himself with great assiduity and success to the practice of law, and speedily gained a commanding position at the bar. As he says himself, he was losing his interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri compromise aroused him again. The profound agitation of the question of slavery, which in 1854 followed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, awakened all the energies of Lincoln's nature. He regarded this act, in which Senator Douglas was the most prominent agent of the reactionary party, as a gross breach of faith, and began at once a series of earnest political discussions which immediately placed him at the head of the party that, not only in Illinois but throughout the west, was speedily formed to protest against and oppose the throwing open of the territories to the encroachments of slavery. The legislature elected in Illinois in the heat of this discussion contained a majority of members opposed to the policy of Douglas. The duty of selecting a senator in place of Gen. Shields, whose term was closing, devolved upon this legislature, and Mr. Lincoln was the unanimous choice of the Whig members. But they did not command a clear majority of the legislature. There were four members of Democratic antecedents who, while they were ardently opposed to the extension of slavery, were not willing to cast their votes for a Whig candidate, and adhered tenaciously through several ballots to Lyman Trumbull, a Democrat of their own way of thinking. Lincoln, fearing that this dissension among the anti-slavery men might result in the election of a supporter of Douglas, urged his friends to go over in a body to the support of Trumbull, and his influence was sufficient to accomplish this result. Trumbull was elected, and for many years served the Republican cause in the senate with ability and zeal. 

As soon as the Republican party became fully organized in the nation, embracing in its ranks the anti-slavery members of the old Whig and Democratic parties, Mr. Lincoln, by general consent, took his place at the head of the party in Illinois; and when, in 1858, Senator Douglas sought a re-election to the senate, the Republicans with one voice selected Mr. Lincoln as his antagonist. He had already made several speeches of remarkable eloquence and power against the pro-slavery reaction of which the Nebraska bill was the significant beginning, and when Mr. Douglas returned to Illinois to begin his canvass for the senate, he was challenged by Mr. Lincoln to a series of joint discussions. The challenge was accepted, and the most remarkable oratorical combat the state has ever witnessed took place between them during the summer. Mr. Douglas defended his thesis of non-intervention with slavery in the territories (the doctrine known as “popular sovereignty,” and derided as “squatter sovereignty”) with remarkable adroitness and energy. The ground that Mr. Lincoln took was higher and bolder than had yet been assumed by any American statesman of his time. In the brief and sententious speech in which he accepted the championship of his party, before the Republican convention of 16 June, 1858, he uttered the following pregnant and prophetic words: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all the one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, north as well as south.” This bold utterance excited the fears of his timid friends, and laid him open to the hackneyed and conventional attacks of the supporters of slavery; but throughout the contest, while he did not for an instant lower this lofty tone of opposition to slavery and hope of its extinction, he refused to be crowded by the fears of his friends or the denunciations of his enemies away from the strictly constitutional ground upon which his opposition was made. The debates between him and Senator Douglas aroused extraordinary interest throughout the state and the country. The men were perhaps equally matched in oratorical ability and adroitness in debate, but Lincoln's superiority in moral insight, and especially in farseeing political sagacity, soon became apparent. The most important and significant of the debates was that which took place at Freeport. Mr. Douglas had previously asked Mr. Lincoln a series of questions intended to embarrass him, which Lincoln without the slightest reserve answered by a categorical yes or no. At Freeport, Lincoln, taking his turn, inquired of Douglas whether the people of a territory could in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution. By his reply, intimating that slavery might be excluded by unfriendly territorial legislation, Douglas gained a momentary advantage in the anti-slavery region in which he spoke, but dealt a fatal blow to his popularity in the south; the result of which was seen two years afterward at the Charleston convention. The ground assumed by Senator Douglas was, in fact, utterly untenable, and Lincoln showed this in one of his terse sentences. “Judge Douglas holds,” he said, “that a thing may lawfully be driven away from a place where it has a lawful right to go.” 

This debate established the reputation of Mr. Lincoln as one of the leading orators of the Republican party of the Union, and a speech that he delivered at Cooper Institute, in New York, on 27 Feb., 1860, in which he showed that the unbroken record of the founders of the republic was in favor of the restriction of slavery and against its extension, widened and confirmed his reputation; so that when the Republican convention came together in Chicago in May, 1860, he was nominated for the presidency on the third ballot, over William H. Seward, who was his principal competitor. The Democratic convention, which met in Charleston, S. C., broke up after numerous fruitless ballotings, and divided into two sections. The southern half, unable to trust Mr. Douglas with the interests of slavery after his Freeport speech, first adjourned to Richmond, but again joined the other half at Baltimore, where a second disruption took place, after which the southern half nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and the northern portion nominated Mr. Douglas. John Bell, of Tennessee, was nominated by the so-called Constitutional Union party. Lincoln, therefore, supported by the entire anti-slavery sentiment of the north, gained an easy victory over the three other parties. The election took place on 6 Nov., and when the electoral college cast their votes Lincoln was found to have 180, Breckinridge 72, Bell 39, and Douglas 12. The popular vote stood: for Lincoln 1,866,462; for Douglas, 1,375,157; for Breckinridge, 847,953; for Bell, 590,631. 

The extreme partisans of slavery had not even waited for the election of Lincoln, to begin their preparations for an insurrection, and as soon as the result was declared a movement for separation was begun in South Carolina, and it carried along with her the states of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. A provisional government, styled the “Confederate States of America,” of which Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was made president, was promptly organized, and seized, with few exceptions, all the posts, arsenals, and public property of the United States within their limits. Confronted by this extraordinary crisis, Mr. Lincoln kept his own counsel, and made no public expression of his intentions or his policy until he was inaugurated on 4 March, 1861. 

He called about him a cabinet of the most prominent members of the anti-slavery parties of the nation, giving no preference to any special faction. His secretary of state was William H. Seward, of New York, who had been his principal rival for the nomination, and whose eminence and abilities designated him as the leading member of the administration; the secretary of the treasury was Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, whose pre-eminence in the west was as unquestioned as Seward's in the east; of war, Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, the most influential politician of that state; of the navy, Gideon Welles, of Connecticut; of the interior, Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana; the border slave-states were represented in the government by Edward Bates, of Missouri, attorney-general, and Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, postmaster-general—both of them men of great distinction of character and high standing as lawyers. Seward, Smith, and Bates were of Whig antecedents; all the rest of Democratic. The cabinet underwent, in the course of Mr. Lincoln's term, the following modifications: Sec. Chase, after a brilliant administration of the finances, resigned in 1864 from personal reasons, and was succeeded by William P. Fessenden, of Maine; Sec. Cameron left the war department at the close of the year 1861, and was appointed minister to Russia, and his place was taken by Edwin M. Stanton, a war Democrat of singular energy and vigor, and equal ability and devotion; Sec. Smith, accepting a judgeship, gave way to John P. Usher, of Indiana; Attorney-General Bates resigned in the last year of the administration, and was succeeded by James Speed, of Kentucky; and Postmaster-General Blair about the same time gave way to William Dennison, of Ohio. 

In his inaugural address President Lincoln treated the acts of secession as a nullity. He declared the Union perpetual and inviolate, and announced with perfect firmness, though with the greatest moderation of speech and feeling, the intention of the government to maintain its authority and to hold the places under its jurisdiction. He made an elaborate and unanswerable argument against the legality as well as the justice of secession, and further showed, with convincing clearness, that peaceful secession was impossible. “Can aliens make treaties,” he said, “easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war; you cannot fight always, and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you.” He pleaded for peace in a strain of equal tenderness and dignity, and in closing he said: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have a most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it.” This speech profoundly affected the public opinion of the north; but in the excited state of sentiment that then controlled the south it naturally met only contempt and defiance in that section. A few weeks later the inevitable war began, in an attack upon Fort Sumter by the secessionists of South Carolina under Gen. G. T. Beauregard, and after a long bombardment the fort surrendered on 13 April, 1861. The president instantly called for a force of 75,000 three-months' militiamen, and three weeks later ordered the enlistment of 64,000 soldiers and 18,000 seamen for three years. He set on foot a blockade of the southern ports, and called congress together in special session, choosing for their day of meeting the 4th of July. The remaining states of the south rapidly arrayed themselves on one side or the other; all except Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were drawn into the secession movement, and the western part of Virginia, adhering to the Union, under the name of West Virginia, separated itself from that ancient commonwealth. 

The first important battle of the war took place at Bull Run. near Manassas station, Va., 21 July, 1861, and resulted in the defeat of the National troops under Gen. Irwin McDowell by a somewhat larger force of the Confederates under Gens. Joseph E. Johnston and Beauregard. Though the loss in killed and wounded was not great, and was about the same on both sides, the victory was still one of the utmost importance for the Confederates, and gave them a great increase of prestige on both sides of the Atlantic. They were not, however, able to pursue their advantage. The summer was passed in enlisting, drilling, and equipping a formidable National army on the banks of the Potomac, which was given in charge of Gen. George B. McClellan, a young officer who had distinguished himself by a successful campaign in western Virginia. In spite of the urgency of the government, which was increased by the earnestness of the people and their representatives in congress, Gen. McClellan made no advance until the spring of 1862, when Gen. Johnston, in command of the Confederate army, evacuated the position which, with about 45,000 men, he had held during the autumn and winter against the Army of the Potomac, amounting to about 177,000 effectives. Gen. McClellan then transferred his army to the peninsula between the James and York rivers. Although there was but a force of 16,000 opposed to him when he landed, he spent a month before the works at Yorktown, and when he was prepared to open fire upon them they were evacuated, and Gen. Johnston retreated to the neighborhood of Richmond. The battle of Seven Pines, in which the Confederates, successful in their first attack, were afterward repelled, was fought on 31 May, 1862. Johnston was wounded, and the command devolved upon Gen. Robert E, Lee, who in the latter part of June moved out from his position before Richmond and attacked McClellan's right flank, under Gen. Fitz-John Porter, at Gaines's Mills, north of the Chickahominy. Porter, with one corps, resisted the Confederate army all day with great gallantry, unassisted by the main army under McClellan, but withdrew in the evening, and McClellan at once began his retreat to the James river. Several battles were fought on the way, in which the Confederates were checked; but the retreat continued until the National army reached the James. Taking position at Malvern Hill, they inflicted a severe defeat upon Gen. Lee, but were immediately after withdrawn by Gen. McClellan to Harrison's Landing. Here, as at other times during his career, McClellan labored under a strange hallucination as to the numbers of his enemy. He generally estimated them at not less than twice their actual force, and continually reproached the president for not giving him impossible re-enforcements to equal the imaginary numbers he thought opposed to him. In point of fact, his army was always in excess of that of Johnston or Lee. The continual disasters in the east were somewhat compensated by a series of brilliant successes in the west. In February, 1862, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had captured the Confederate forts Henry and Donelson, thus laying open the great strategic lines of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and, moving southward, had fought (6 and 7 April) the battle of Shiloh, with unfavorable results on the first day, which were turned to a victory on the second with the aid of Gen. D. C. Buell and his army, a battle in which Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was killed and the Confederate invasion of Kentucky baffled. Farragut, on 24 April, had won a brilliant naval victory over the twin forts above the mouths of the Mississippi, which resulted in the capture of New Orleans and the control of the lower Mississippi. After Gen. McClellan's retreat to the James, the president visited the army at Harrison's Landing (8 July), and, after careful consultations with the corps commanders, became convinced that in the actual disposition of the officers and the troops there was no reasonable expectation of a successful movement upon Richmond by McClellan. An order was therefore issued for the withdrawal of the army from the James, and, Gen. Halleck having been appointed general-in-chief, Gen. Pope was sent forward from Washington with a small force to delay the Confederate army under Gen. Lee unti1 the Army of the Potomac could arrive and be concentrated to support him. McClellan's movements, however, were so deliberate, and there was such a want of confidence and co-operation on the part of his officers toward Gen. Pope, that the National army met with a decisive defeat on the same battle-field of Bull Run that saw their first disaster. Gen. Pope, disheartened by the lack of sympathy and support that he discerned among the most eminent officers of the Army of the Potomac, retreated upon Washington, and Gen. McClellan, who seemed to be the only officer under whom the army was at the moment willing to serve, was placed in command of it. Gen. Lee, elated with his success, crossed the Potomac, but was met by the army under McClellan at South Mountain and Antietam, and after two days of great slaughter Lee retreated into Virginia. 

President Lincoln availed himself of this occasion to give effect to a resolve that had long been maturing in his mind in an act the most momentous in its significance and results that the century has witnessed. For a year and a half he had been subjected to urgent solicitations from the two great political parties of the country, the one side appealing to him to take decided measures against slavery, and the other imploring him to pursue a conservative course in regard to that institution. His deep-rooted detestation of the system of domestic servitude was no secret to any one; but his reverence for the law, his regard for vested interests, and his anxiety to do nothing that should alienate any considerable body of the supporters of the government, had thus far induced him to pursue a middle course between the two extremes. Meanwhile the power of events had compelled a steady progress in the direction of emancipation. So early as August, 1861, congress had passed an act to confiscate the rights of slave-owners in slaves employed in a manner hostile to the Union, and Gen. Frémont had seized the occasion of the passage of this act to issue an order to confiscate and emancipate the slaves of rebels in the state of Missouri. President Lincoln, unwilling, in a matter of such transcendent importance, to leave the initiative to any subordinate, revoked this order, and directed Gen. Frémont to modify it so that it should conform to the confiscation act of congress. This excited violent opposition to the president among the radical anti-slavery men in Missouri and elsewhere, while it drew upon him the scarcely less embarrassing importunities of the conservatives, who wished him to take still more decided ground against the radicals. On 6 March, 1862, he sent a special message to congress inclosing a resolution, the passage of which he recommended, to offer pecuniary aid from the general government to states that should adopt the gradual abolishment of slavery. This resolution was promptly passed by congress; but in none of the slave-states was public sentiment sufficiently advanced to permit them to avail themselves of it. The next month, however, congress passed a law emancipating slaves in the District of Columbia, with compensation to owners, and President Lincoln had the happiness of affixing his signature to a measure that he had many years before, while a representative from Illinois, fruitlessly urged upon the notice of congress. As the war went on, wherever the National armies penetrated there was a constant stream of fugitive slaves from the adjoining regions, and the commanders of each department treated the complicated questions arising from this body of “contrabands”, as they came to be called, in their camps, according to their own judgment of the necessities or the expediencies of each case, a discretion which the president thought best to tolerate. But on 9 May, 1862, Gen. David Hunter, an intimate and esteemed friend of Mr. Lincoln's, saw proper, without consultation with him, to issue a military order declaring all persons theretofore held as slaves in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina forever free. The president, as soon as he received this order, issued a proclamation declaring it void, and reserving to himself the decision of the question whether it was competent for him, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any state or states free, and whether at any time or in any case it should have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the government to exercise such supposed power, and prohibiting to commanders in the field the decision of such questions. But he added in his proclamation a significant warning and appeal to the slave-holding states, urging once more upon them the policy of emancipation by state action. “I do not argue,” he said; “I beseech you to make the argument for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. . . . Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been done, by one effort, in all past time, as in the providence of God it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have cause to lament that you have neglected it.” He had several times endeavored to bring this proposition before the members of congress from the loyal slave-holding states, and on 12 July he invited them to meet him at the executive mansion, and submitted to them a powerful and urgent appeal to induce their states to adopt the policy of compensated emancipation. Be told them, without reproach or complaint, that he believed that if they had all voted for the resolution in the gradual emancipation message of the preceding March, the war would now have been substantially ended, and that the plan therein proposed was still one of the most potent and swift means of ending it. “Let the states,” he said, “which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly that in no event will the states you represent ever join their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the contest.” While urging this policy upon the conservatives, and while resolved in his own mind upon emancipation by decree as a last resource, he was the subject of vehement attacks from the more radical anti-slavery supporters of the government, to which he replied with unfailing moderation and good temper. Although in July he had resolved upon his course, and had read to his cabinet a draft of a proclamation of emancipation which he had then laid aside for a more fitting occasion (on the suggestion from Mr. Seward that its issue in the disastrous condition of our military affairs would be interpreted as a sign of desperation), he met the reproaches of the radical Republicans, the entreaties of visiting delegations, and the persuasions of his eager friends with arguments showing both sides of the question of which they persisted in seeing only one. To Horace Greeley, on 22 Aug., Mr. Lincoln said: “My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” And even so late as 13 Sept. he said to a delegation of a religious society, who were urging immediate action: I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the pope's bull against the comet . . . . I view this matter as a practical war measure, to be decided on according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion.” Still, he assured them that he had not decided against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but that the matter occupied his deepest thoughts. The retreat of Lee from Maryland after his defeat at Antietam seemed to the president to afford a proper occasion for the execution of his long-matured resolve, and on 22 Sept. he issued his preliminary proclamation, giving notice to the states in rebellion that, on 1 Jan., 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof should then be in rebellion against the United States, should be then, thenceforward, and forever free. When congress came together on 1 Dec. he urged them to supplement what had already been done by constitutional action, concluding his message with this impassioned appeal: “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We—even we here-hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.” It was hardly to be expected, however, that any action would be taken by congress before the lapse of the hundred days that the president had left between his warning and its execution. On 1 Jan., 1863, the final proclamation of emancipation was issued. It recited the preliminary document, and then designated the states in rebellion against the United States. They were Arkansas, Texas, a part of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, excepting certain counties. The proclamation then continued: “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.” The criticisms and forebodings of the opponents of emancipation had well-nigh been exhausted during the previous three months, and the definitive proclamation was received with general enthusiasm throughout the loyal states. The dissatisfaction with which this important measure was regarded in the border states gradually died away, as did also the opposition in conservative quarters to the enlistment of negro soldiers. Their good conduct, their quick submission to discipline, and their excellent behavior in several battles, rapidly made an end of the prejudice against them; and when, in the winter session of congress of 1863-'4, Mr. Lincoln again urged upon the attention of that body the passage of a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, his proposition met with the concurrence of a majority of congress, though it failed of the necessary two-third vote in the house of representatives. During the following year, however, public opinion made rapid progress, and the influence of the president with congress was largely increased after his triumphant re-election. In his annual message of 6 Dec., 1864, he once more pleaded, this time with irresistible force, in favor of constitutional emancipation in all the states. As there had been much controversy during the year in regard to the president's anti-slavery convictions, and the suggestion had been made in many quarters that, for the sake of peace, he might be induced to withdraw the proclamation, he repeated the declaration made the year before: “While I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation; nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any of the acts of congress. If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it.” This time congress acted with alacrity, and on 31 Jan., 1865, proposed to the states the 13th amendment to the constitution, providing that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. The states rapidly adopted the amendment by the action of their legislatures, and the president was especially pleased that his own state of Illinois led the van, having passed the necessary resolution within twenty-four hours. Before the year ended twenty-seven of the thirty-six states (being the necessary three fourths) had ratified the amendment, and President Johnson, on 18 Dec., 1865, officially proclaimed its adoption. 

While the energies of the government and of the people were most strenuously occupied with the war and the questions immediately concerning it, the four years of Mr. Lincoln's administration had their full share of complicated and difficult questions of domestic and foreign concern. The interior and post-office departments made great progress in developing the means of communication throughout the country. Mr. Chase, as secretary of the treasury, performed, with prodigious ability and remarkable success, the enormous duties devolving upon him of providing funds to supply the army at an expense amounting at certain periods to $3,000,000 a day; and Mr. Seward, in charge of the state department, held at bay the suppressed hostility of European nations. Of all his cabinet, the president sustained with Mr. Seward relations of the closest intimacy, and for that reason, perhaps, shared more directly in the labors of his department. He revised the first draft of most of Seward's important despatches, and changed and amended their language with remarkable wisdom and skill. He was careful to avoid all sources of controversy or ill-feeling with foreign nations, and when they occurred he did his best to settle them in the interests of peace, without a sacrifice of national dignity. At the end of the year 1861 the friendly relations between England and the United States were seriously threatened by the capture of the Confederate envoys, Mason and Slidell, on board a British merchant-ship. (See WILKES, CHARLES.) Public sentiment approved the capture, and, as far as could be judged by every manifestation in the press and in congress, was in favor of retaining the prisoners and defiantly refusing the demand of England for their return. But when the president, after mature deliberation, decided that the capture was against American precedents, and directed their return to British custody, the second thought of the country was with him. His prudence and moderation were also conspicuously displayed in his treatment of the question of the invasion of Mexico by France, and the establishment by military power of the emperor Maximilian in that country. Accepting as genuine the protestations of the emperor of the French, that he intended no interference with the will of the people of Mexico, he took no measures unfriendly to France or the empire, except those involved in the maintenance of unbroken friendship with the republican government under President Juarez, a proceeding that, although severely criticised by the more ardent spirits in congress, ended, after the president's death, in the triumph of the National party in Mexico and the downfall of the invaders. He left no doubt, however, at any time, in regard to his own conviction that “the safety of the people of the United States and the cheerful destiny to which they aspire are intimately dependent upon the maintenance of free republican institutions throughout Mexico.” He dealt in a sterner spirit with the proposition for foreign mediation that the emperor of the French, after seeking in vain the concurrence of other European powers, at last presented singly at the beginning of 1863. This proposition, under the orders of the president, was declined by Mr. Seward on 6 Feb., in a despatch of remarkable ability and dignity, which put an end to all discussion of overtures of intervention from European powers. The diplomatic relations with England were exceedingly strained at several periods during the war. The building and fitting out of Confederate cruisers in English ports, and their escape, after their construction and its purpose had been made known by the American minister, more than once brought the two nations to the verge of war; but the moderation with which the claims of the United States were made by Mr. Lincoln, the energy and ability displayed by Sec. Seward and by Mr. Charles Francis Adams in presenting these claims, and, it must now be recognized, the candor and honesty with which the matter was treated by Earl Russell, the British minister for foreign affairs, saved the two countries from that irreparable disaster; and the British government at last took such measures as were necessary to put an end to this indirect war from the shores of England upon American commerce. In the course of two years the war attained such proportions that volunteering was no longer a sufficient resource to keep the army, consisting at that time of nearly a million men, at its full fighting strength. Congress therefore authorized, and the departments executed, a scheme of enrolment and draft of the arms-bearing population of the loyal states. Violent opposition arose to this measure in many parts of the country, which was stimulated by the speeches of orators of the opposition, and led, in many instances, to serious breaches of the public peace. A frightful riot, beginning among the foreign population of New York, kept that city in disorder and terror for three days in July, 1863. But the riots were suppressed, the disturbances quieted at last, and the draft was executed throughout the country. Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, one of the most eloquent and influential orators of the Democratic party, was arrested in Ohio by Gen. Burnside for his violent public utterances in opposition to the war, tried by a military court, and sentenced to imprisonment during the continuance of the war. The president changed his sentence to that of transportation within the lines of the rebellion. These proceedings caused a great ferment among his party in Ohio, who, by way of challenge to the government, nominated him for governor of that state. A committee of its prominent politicians demanded from the president his restoration to his political rights, and a correspondence took place between them and the president, in which the rights and powers of the government in case of rebellion were set forth by him with great lucidity and force. His letters exercised an important influence in the political discussions of the year, and Mr. Vallandigham was defeated in his candidacy by John Brough by a majority of 100,000 votes.

The war still continued at a rate that appears rapid enough in retrospect, but seemed slow to the eager spirits watching its course. The disasters of the Army of the Potomac did not end with the removal of Gen. McClellan, which took place in November, 1862, as a consequence of his persistent delay in pursuing Lee's retreating army after the battle of Antietam. Gen. Burnside, who succeeded him, suffered a humiliating defeat in his attack upon the intrenched position of the Confederates at Fredericksburg. Gen. Hooker, who next took command, after opening his campaign by crossing the Rapidan in a march of extraordinary brilliancy, was defeated at Chancellorsville, in a battle where both sides lost severely, and then retired again north of the river. Gen. Lee, leaving the National army on his right flank, crossed the Potomac, and Hooker having, at his own request, been relieved and succeeded by Gen. Meade, the two armies met in a three days' battle at Gettysburg, Pa., where Gen. Lee sustained a decisive defeat, and was driven back into Virginia. His flight from Gettysburg began on the evening of the 4th of July, a day that in this year doubled its lustre as a historic anniversary. For on this day Vicksburg, the most important Confederate stronghold in the west, surrendered to Gen. Grant. He had spent the early months of 1863 in successive attempts to take that fortress, all of which had failed; but on the last day of April he crossed the river at Grand Gulf, and within a few clays fought the successful battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, and the Big Black river, and shut np the army of Pemberton in close siege in the city of Vicksburg, which he finally captured with about 30,000 men on the 4th of July. 

The speech that Mr. Lincoln delivered at the dedication of the National cemetery on the battlefield of Gettysburg, 19 Nov., 1863, was at once recognized as the philosophy in brief of the whole great struggle, and has already become classic. There are slightly differing versions; the one that is here given is a literal transcript of the speech as he afterward wrote it out for a fair in Baltimore: 

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” 

Gen. Grant was transferred to Chattanooga, where, in November, with the troops of Thomas, Hooker, and Sherman, he won the important victory of Missionary Ridge; and then, being appointed lieutenant-general and general-in-chief of the armies of the United States, he went to Washington and entered upon the memorable campaign of 1864. This campaign began with revived hopes on the part of the government, the people, and the army. The president, glad that the army had now at its head a general in whose ability and enterprise he could thoroughly confide, ceased from that moment to exercise any active influence on its movements. He wrote, on 30 April, to Gen. Grant: “The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints upon you. . . . If there is anything wanting which is in my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you.” Grant crossed the Rapidan on 4 May, intending to move by the right flank of Gen. Lee; but the two armies came together in a gloomy forest called the Wilderness, where, from the 5th to the 7th of May, one of the most sanguinary battles known to modern warfare was fought. Neither side having gained any decisive advantage in this deadly struggle, Grant moved to the left, and Lee met him again at Spottsylvania Court-House, where for ten days a series of destructive contests took place, in which both sides were alternately successful. Still moving to the left, Grant again encountered the enemy at the crossing of North Anna river, and still later at Cold Harbor, a few miles northeast of Richmond, where, assaulting Gen. Lee's army in a fortified position, he met with a bloody repulse. He then crossed the James river, intending by a rapid movement to seize Petersburg and the Confederate lines of communication south of Richmond, but was baffled in this purpose, and forced to enter upon a regular siege of Petersburg, which occupied the summer and autumn. While these operations were in progress, Gen. Philip H. Sheridan had made one of the most brilliant cavalry raids in the war, threatening Richmond and defeating the Confederate cavalry under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, and killing that famous leader. While Grant lay before Richmond, Gen. Lee, hoping to induce him to attack his works, despatched a force under Gen. Early to threaten Washington; but Grant sent two corps of his army northward, and Early—after a sharp skirmish under the fortifications of Washington, where Mr. Lincoln was personally present—was driven back through the Shenandoah valley, and on two occasions, in September and October, was signally defeated by Gen. Sheridan. 

Gen. William T. Sherman, who had been left in command of the western district formerly commanded by Grant, moved southward at the same time that Grant crossed the Rapidan. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, one of the ablest of the Confederate generals, retired gradually before him, defending himself at every halt with the greatest skill and address; but his movements not proving satisfactory to the Richmond government, he was removed, and Gen. John B. Hood appointed in his place. After a summer of hard fighting, Sherman, on 1 Sept., captured Atlanta, one of the chief manufacturing and railroad centres of the south, and later in the autumn organized and executed a magnificent march to the seaboard, which proved that the military power of the Confederacy had been concentrated at a few points on the frontier, and that the interior was little more than an empty shell. He reached the sea-coast early in December, investing Savannah on the 10th, and capturing the city on the 21st. He then marched northward with the intention of assisting Gen. Grant in the closing scenes of the war. The army under Gen. George H. Thomas, who had been left in Tennessee to hold Hood in check while this movement was going on, after severely handling the Confederates in the preliminary battle of Franklin, 30 Nov., inflicted upon Hood a crushing and final defeat in the battle of Nashville, 16 Dec., routing and driving him from the state. 

During the summer, while Grant was engaged in the desperate and indecisive series of battles that marked his southward progress in Virginia, and Sherman had not yet set out upon his march to the sea, one of the most ardent political canvasses the country had ever seen was in progress at the north. Mr. Lincoln, on 8 June, had been unanimously renominated for the presidency by the Republican convention at Baltimore. The Democratic leaders had postponed their convention to a date unusually late, in the hope that some advantage might be reaped from the events of the summer. The convention came together on 29 Aug. in Chicago. Mr. Vallandigham, who had returned from his banishment, and whom the government had sagaciously declined to rearrest, led the extreme peace party in the convention. Prominent politicians of New York were present in the interest of Gen. McClellan. Both sections of the convention gained their point. Gen. McClellan was nominated for the presidency, and Mr. Vallandigham succeeded in imposing upon his party a platform declaring that the war had been a failure, and demanding a cessation of hostilities. The capture of Atlanta on the day the convention adjourned seemed to the Unionists a providential answer to the opposition. Republicans, who had been somewhat disheartened by the slow progress of military events and by the open and energetic agitation that the peace party had continued through the summer at the north, now took heart again, and the canvass proceeded with the greatest spirit to the close. Sheridan's victory over Early in the Shenandoah valley gave an added impulse to the general enthusiasm, and in the October elections it was shown that the name of Mr. Lincoln was more popular, and his influence more powerful, than any one had anticipated. In the election that took place on 8 Nov., 1864, he received 2,216,000 votes, and Gen. McClellan 1,800,000. The difference in the electoral vote was still greater, Mr. Lincoln being supported by 212 of the presidential electors, while only 21 voted for McClellan.  

President Lincoln's second inaugural address, delivered on 4 March, 1865, will forever remain not only one of the most remarkable of all his public utterances, but will also hold a high rank among the greatest state papers that history has preserved. As he neared the end of his career, and saw plainly outlined before him the dimensions of the vast moral and material success that the nation was about to achieve, his thoughts, always predisposed to an earnest and serious view of life, assumed a fervor and exaltation like that of the ancient seers and prophets. The speech that he delivered to the vast concourse at the eastern front of the capitol is the briefest of all the presidential addresses in our annals; but it has not its equal in lofty eloquence and austere morality. The usual historical view of the situation, the ordinary presentment of the intentions of the government, seemed matters too trivial to engage the concern of a mind standing, as Lincoln's apparently did at this moment, face to face with the most tremendous problems of fate and moral responsibility. In the briefest words he announced what had been the cause of the war, and how the government had hoped to bring it to an earlier close. With passionless candor he admitted that neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration it had attained. “Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding”; and, passing into a strain of rhapsody, which no lesser mind and character could ever dare to imitate, he said: “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. ‘Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.’ If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences, which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both north and south this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’ With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan—to do all which may and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.” 

The triumphant election of Mr. Lincoln, no less than the steady progress of the National armies, convinced some of the more intelligent of the southern leaders that their cause was hopeless, and that it would be prudent to ascertain what terms of peace could be made before the utter destruction of their military power. There had been already several futile attempts at opening negotiations; but they had all failed of necessity, because neither side was willing even to consider the only terms that the other side would offer. There had never been a moment when Mr. Lincoln would have been willing to receive propositions of peace on any other basis than the recognition of the national integrity, and Mr. Davis steadfastly refused to the end to admit the possibility of the restoration of the national authority, In July, certain unauthorized persons in Canada, having persuaded Horace Greeley that negotiations might be opened through them with the Confederate authorities, Mr. Lincoln despatched him to Niagara Falls, and sent an open letter addressed, “To whom it may concern” (see illustration). It is in the possession of Mr. William H. Appleton, of New York, and now appears in fac-simile for the first time. This document put an end to the negotiation. The Confederate emissaries in Canada, and their principals in Richmond, made no use of this incident except to employ the president's letter as a text for denunciation of the National government, But later in the year, the hopelessness of the struggle having become apparent to some of the Confederate leaders, Mr. Davis was at last induced to send an embassy to Fortress Monroe, to inquire what terms of adjustment were possible. They were met by President Lincoln and the secretary of state in person. The plan proposed was one that had been suggested, on his own responsibility, by Mr. Francis Preston Blair, of Washington, in an interview he had been permitted to hold with Mr. Davis in Richmond, that the two armies should unite in a campaign against the French in Mexico for the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine, and that the issues of the war should be postponed for future settlement. The president declined peremptorily to entertain this scheme, and repeated again the only conditions to which he could listen: The restoration of the national authority throughout all the states, the maintenance and execution of all the acts of the general government in regard to slavery, the cessation of hostilities, and the disbanding of the insurgent forces as a necessary prerequisite to the ending of the war. The Confederate agents reported at Richmond the failure of their embassy, and Mr. Davis denounced the conduct of President Lincoln in a public address full of desperate defiance. Nevertheless, it was evident even to the most prejudiced observers that the war could not continue much longer. Sherman's march had demonstrated the essential weakness of the Confederate cause; the soldiers of the Confederacy—who for four years, with the most stubborn gallantry, had maintained a losing fight—began to show signs of dangerous discouragement and insubordination; recruiting had ceased some time before, and desertion was going on rapidly. The army of Gen. Lee, which was the last bulwark of the Confederacy, still held its lines stoutly against the gradually enveloping lines of Grant; but their valiant commander knew it was only a question of how many days he could hold his works, and repeatedly counselled the government at Richmond to evacuate that city, and allow the army to take up a more tenable position in the mountains. Gen. Grant's only anxiety each morning was lest he should find the army of Gen. Lee moving away from him, and late in March he determined to strike the final blow at the rebellion. Moving for the last time by the left flank, his forces under Sheridan fought and gained a brilliant victory over the Confederate left at Five Forks, and at the same time Gens. Humphreys, Wright, and Parke moved against the Confederate works, breaking their lines and capturing many prisoners and guns. Petersburg was evacuated on 2 April. The Confederate government fled from Richmond the same afternoon and evening, and Grant, pursuing the broken and shattered remnant of Lee's army, received their surrender at Appomattox Court-House on 9 April. About 28,000 Confederates signed the parole, and an equal number had been killed, captured, and dispersed in the operations immediately preceding the surrender. Gen. Sherman, a few days afterward, received the surrender of Johnston, and the last Confederate army, under Gen. Kirby Smith, west of the Mississippi, laid down its arms. 

President Lincoln had himself accompanied the army in its last triumphant campaign, and had entered Richmond immediately after its surrender, receiving the cheers and benedictions, not only of the negroes whom he had set free, but of a great number of white people, who were weary of the war, and welcomed the advent of peace. Returning to Washington with his mind filled with plans for the restoration of peace and orderly government throughout the south, he seized the occasion of a serenade, on 11 April, to deliver to the people who gathered in front of the executive mansion his last speech on public affairs, in which he discussed with unusual dignity and force the problems of reconstruction, then crowding upon public consideration. As his second inaugural was the greatest of all his rhetorical compositions, so this brief political address, which closed his public career, is unsurpassed among his speeches for clearness and wisdom, and for a certain tone of gentle but unmistakable authority, which shows to what a mastery of statecraft he had attained. He congratulated the country upon the decisive victories of the last week; he expressly asserted that, although he had been present in the final operations, “no part of the honor, for plan or execution, was his”; and then, with equal boldness and discretion, announced the principles in accordance with which he should deal with the restoration of the states. He refused to be provoked into controversy, which he held would be purely academic, over the question whether the insurrectionary states were in or out of the Union. “As appears to me,” he said, “that question has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and any discussion of it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad, as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all—a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded states, so-called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those states, is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding, or even considering, whether these states have ever been out of the Union than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these states and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the states from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it.” In this temper he discussed the recent action of the Unionists of Louisiana, where 12,000 voters had sworn allegiance, giving his full approval to their course, but not committing himself to any similar method in other cases; “any exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement . . . . If we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white men, ‘You are worthless or worse, we will neither help you, nor be helped by you.’ To the blacks we say, ‘This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from you and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how’. . . . If, on the contrary, we sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse is made true. Concede that it is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.” These words were the last he uttered in public; on 14 April, at a cabinet meeting, he developed these views in detail, and found no difference of opinion among his advisers. The same evening he attended a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford's theatre, in Tenth street. He was accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and two friends—Miss Harris, a daughter of Senator Ira Harris, of New York, and Maj.Henry R. Rathbone. In the midst of the play a shot was heard, and a man was seen to leap from the president's box to the stage. Brandishing a dripping knife, with which, after shooting the president, he had stabbed Maj. Rathbone, and shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis!—the south is avenged!” he rushed to the rear of the building, leaped upon a horse, which was held there in readiness for him, and made his escape. The president was carried to a small house on the opposite side of the street, where, surrounded by his family and the principal officers of the government, he breathed his last at 7 o'clock on the morning of 15 April. The assassin was found by a squadron of troops twelve days afterward, and shot in a barn in which he had taken refuge. The illustration on page 722 represents the house where Mr. Lincoln passed away.  The body of the president lay in state at the Capitol on 20 April and was viewed by a great concourse of people; the next day the funeral train set out for Springfield, Ill. The cortege halted at all the principal cities on the way, and the remains of the president lay in state in Baltimore, Harrisburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chicago, being received everywhere with extraordinary demonstrations of respect and sorrow. The joy over the return of peace was for a fortnight eclipsed by the universal grief for the dead leader. He was buried, amid the mourning of the whole nation, at Oak Ridge, near Springfield, on 4 May, and there on 15 Oct., 1874, an imposing monument—the work of the sculptor Larkin G. Mead—was dedicated to his memory. The monument is of white marble, with a portrait-statue of Lincoln in bronze, and four bronze groups at the corners, representing the infantry, cavalry, and artillery arms of the service and the navy. (See accompanying illustration.) 

The death of President Lincoln, in the moment of the great national victory that he had done more than any other to gain, caused a movement of sympathy throughout the world. The expressions of grief and condolence that were sent to the government at Washington, from national, provincial, and municipal bodies all over the globe, were afterward published by the state department in a quarto volume of nearly a thousand pages, called “The Tribute of the Nations to Abraham Lincoln.” After the lapse of twenty years, the high estimate of him that the world appears instinctively to have formed at the moment of his death seems to have been increased rather than diminished, as his participation in the great events of his time has been more thoroughly studied and understood. His goodness of heart, his abounding charity, his quick wit and overflowing humor, which made him the hero of many true stories and a thousand legends, are not less valued in themselves; but they are cast in the shade by the evidences that continually appear of his extraordinary qualities of mind and of character. His powerful grasp of details, his analytic capacity, his unerring logic, his perception of human nature, would have made him unusual in any age of the world, while the quality that, in the opinion of many, made him the specially fitted agent of Providence in the salvation of the country, his absolute freedom from prejudice or passion in weighing the motives of his contemporaries and the deepest problems of state gives him pre-eminence even among the illustrious men that have preceded and followed him in his great office. Simple and modest as he was in his demeanor, he was one of the most self-respecting of rulers. Although his kindness of heart was proverbial, although he was always glad to please and unwilling to offend, few presidents have been more sensible of the dignity of their office, and more prompt to maintain it against encroachments. He was at all times unquestionably the head of the government, and, though not inclined to interfere with the routine business of the departments, he tolerated no insubordination in important matters. At one time, being conscious that there was an effort inside of his government to force the resignation of one of its members, he read in open cabinet a severe reprimand of what was going on, mentioning no names, and ordering peremptorily that no questions should be asked, and no allusions be made to the incident then or thereafter. He did not except his most trusted friends or his most powerful generals from this strict subordination. When Mr. Seward went before him to meet the Confederate envoys at Hampton Roads, Mr. Lincoln gave him this written injunction: “You will not assume to definitely consummate anything”; and, on 3 March, 1865, when Gen. Grant was about to set out on his campaign of final victory, the secretary of war gave him, by the president's order, this imperative instruction: “The president directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no conference with Gen. Lee, unless it be for the capitulation of Gen. Lee's army, or on some other minor and purely military matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or to confer upon any political question. Such questions the president holds in his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meanwhile, you are to press to the utmost your military advantages.” When he refused to comply with the desire of the more radical Republicans in congress to take Draconian measures of retaliation against the Confederates for their treatment of black soldiers, he was accused by them of weakness and languor. They never seemed to perceive that to withstand an angry congress in Washington required more vigor of character than to launch a threatening decree against the Confederate government in Richmond. Mr. Lincoln was as unusual in personal appearance as in character. His stature was almost gigantic, six feet and four inches; he was muscular but spare of frame, weighing about 180 pounds. His hair was strong and luxuriant in growth, and stood out straight from his head; it began to be touched with gray in his last years. His eyes, a grayish brown, were deeply set, and were filled, in repose, with an expression of profound melancholy, which easily changed to one of uproarious mirth at the provocation of a humorous anecdote, told by himself or another. His nose was long and slightly curved, his mouth large and singularly mobile. Up to the time of his election he was clean-shaven, but during his presidency the fine outline of his face was marred by a thin and straggling beard. His demeanor was, in general, extremely simple and careless, but he was not without a native dignity that always protected him from anything like presumption or impertinence. 

Mr. Lincoln married, on 4 Nov., 1842, Miss Mary Todd, daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. There were born of this marriage four sons. One, Edward Baker, died in infancy; another, William Wallace, died at the age of twelve, during the presidency of Mr. Lincoln; and still another, Thomas, at the age of eighteen, several years after his father's death. The only one that grew to maturity was his eldest son, Robert. The house in which Mr. Lincoln lived when he was elected president, in Springfield, Ill., was conveyed to the state of Illinois in 1887 by his son, and a collection of memorials of him is to be preserved there perpetually. (See illustration on page 717.) 

There were few portraits of Mr. Lincoln painted in his lifetime; the vast number of engravings that have made his face one of the most familiar of all time have been mostly copied from photographs. The one on page 715 is from a photograph taken in 1858. There are portraits from life by Frank B. Carpenter, by Matthew Wilson, by Thomas Hicks, and an excellent crayon drawing by Barry. Since his death G. P. A. Healy, William Page, and others have painted portraits of him. There are two authentic life-masks: one made in 1858 by Leonard W. Volk (see illustration on page 723), who also executed a bust of Mr. Lincoln before his election in 1860, and another by Clark Mills shortly before the assassination. There are already a number of statues: one by Henry Kirke Brown in Union square, New York (see page 720); another by the same artist in Brooklyn; one in the group called “Emancipation,'” by Thomas Ball, in Lincoln Park, Washington, D. C., a work which has especial interest as having been paid for by the contributions of the freed people; one by Mrs. Vinnie Ream Hoxie in the Capitol; one by Augustus St. Gaudens in Chicago, set up in Chicago, 22 Oct., 1887; and one by Randolph Rogers in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia (see illustration on page 721). There is a bust by Thomas D. Jones, modelled from life in 1860. 

The Lincoln bibliography is enormous, comprising thousands of volumes. See John Russell Bartlett's “Catalogue of Books and Pamphlets relating to the Civil War in the United States” (Boston, 1866). The most noteworthy of the lives of Lincoln already published are those of Joseph H. Barrett (Cincinnati, 1865); Henry J. Raymond (New York, 1865); Josiah G. Holland (Springfield, Mass., 1866); Ward H. Lamon (only the first volume, Boston, 1872); William O. Stoddard (New York, 1884); and Isaac N. Arnold (Chicago, 1885). Briefer lives have also been written by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, William D. Howells, Carl Schurz, Charles G. Leland, John Carroll Power, and others. The most complete and exhaustive work upon his life and times appeared in the “Century” magazine, written by his private secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay (reissued in 10 vols., New York, 1890). The same authors prepared a complete edition of all his writings, speeches, and letters (2 vols., 1894).—His wife, Mary Todd, b. in Lexington, Ky., 12 Dec., 1818; d. in Springfield, Ill.. 16 July, 1882, was the daughter of Robert S. Todd, whose family were among the most influential of the pioneers of Kentucky and Illinois. Her great-uncle, John Todd, was one of the associates of Gen. George Rogers Clark, in his campaign of 1778, and took part in the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Being appointed county lieutenant by Patrick Henry, at that time governor of Virginia, he organized the civil government of what became afterward the state of Illinois. He was killed in the battle of Blue Licks, 18 Aug., 1782, of which his brother Levi, Mrs. Lincoln's grandfather, who also accompanied Clark's expedition as a lieutenant, was one of the few survivors. Mary Todd was carefully educated in Lexington. When twenty-one years of age she went to Springfield to visit her sister, who had married Ninian W. Edwards, a son of Ninian Edwards, governor of the state. While there she became engaged to Mr. Lincoln, whom she married, 4 Nov., 1842. Her family was divided by the civil war; several of them were killed in battle; and, devoted as Mrs. Lincoln was to her husband and the National cause, this division among her nearest kindred caused her much suffering. The death of her son, William Wallace, in 1862, was an enduring sorrow to her. One of her principal occupations was visiting the hospitals and camps of the soldiers about Washington. She never recovered from the shock of seeing her husband shot down before her eyes; her youngest son, Thomas, died a few years later, and her reason suffered from these repeated blows. She lived in strict retirement during her later years, spending part of her time with her son in Chicago, a part in Europe, and the rest with her sister, Mrs. Edwards, in Springfield, where she died of paralysis. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 715-727.

 

 

LINCOLN, Sumner, Gardiner, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-1848, Vice-President, 1848-1849.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1845.

 

 

LINDENSCHIVATZ, Max, New York, New York, American Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1856-57

 

 

LINDSEY, Harvey, American Colonization Society, Executive Committee, 1840-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

LINDSLEY, Philip, 1786-1855, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, clergyman, educator, abolitionist.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 731; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 279)

 

LINDSLEY, Philip, educator, b. in Morristown, N. J., 21 Dec., 1786; d. in Nashville, Tenn., 25 May, 1855. He was graduated at Princeton in 1804, and after teaching he was appointed in 1807 tutor in Latin and Greek at Princeton. Meanwhile he studied theology, and was licensed to preach in April, 1810. In 1812 he returned to Princeton, after preaching in various places, as senior tutor. He was made professor of languages in 1813, and at the same time became secretary of the board of trustees. In 1817 he was elected vice-president of Princeton, and, after the resignation of Ashbel Green in 1822, he was for one year acting president, but in the succeeding year was chosen president of Cumberland college (now University of Nashville), and also of Princeton, both of which he declined; but later he was again offered the presidency of Cumberland. He was finally induced to visit Nashville, and the result of his trip was his acceptance of the office in 1824. He continued his relations with that college until 1850, when he accepted the professorship of archæology and church polity in the Presbyterian theological seminary in New Albany, Ind., which he held until 1853. Meanwhile he declined the presidency of numerous colleges. He was chosen moderator in 1834 of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church, held in Philadelphia, and in 1855 commissioner of the presbytery to the general assembly in Nashville. In 1825 he received the degree of D. D. from Dickinson college. His publications, consisting chiefly of baccalaureate addresses and occasional sermons, were collected by Leroy J. Halsey, and published as “Dr. Lindsley's Complete Works and a Biography” (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1868). See also “A Sketch of the Life and Educational Labors of Philip Lindsley,” by Leroy J. Halsey (Hartford, 1859). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

LINES, Charles B., New Haven, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-1837.

 

 

LIPPENCOTT, William, abolitionist, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Employ, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

LIPSCOMB, Phillip D., Reverend, Maryland, clergyman.  Traveling agent for the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, p. 202)

 

 

LITTLEHALE, Sargent Smith, abolitionist.  Father of Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 164-165)

 

 

LITTLEJOHN, DeWitt C., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

LIVERMORE, Samuel, 1732-1803, New Hampshire, lawyer, statesman.  Member of Congress, U.S. Senator 1785-1805, Chief Justice of the State of New Hampshire.  Voted against Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 740-741; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 307; Dumond, 1961, p. 104; Annals of Congress, 2 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 861; 15 Cong., 2 Sess., 1818-1819, p. 1192; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 761)

“In the present slaveholding states let slavery continue, for our boasted constit8tion connives at it; but do not, for the sake of cotton and tobacco, let it be told to future ages, that while pretending to love liberty, we have purchased an extensive country to disgrace it with the foulest reproach of nations.” (Dumont, 1961, p. 104)

 

LIVERMORE, Samuel, statesman, b. in Waltham, Mass., 14 May, 1732; d. in Holderness, N. H., 18 May, 1803. He was graduated at Princeton in 1752, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1757, beginning to practise the following year at Portsmouth, N. H. He was a member of the general court of that province in 1768-'70, and in 1775 removed to Holderness, of which he was one of the original grantees and the principal proprietor. He was appointed king's attorney in 1769, and after the change of government he was state's attorney for three years. He was also judge-advocate of admiralty before the Revolution, and a delegate to the Continental congress from 7 Feb., 1780, until he resigned, 21 June, 1782, and again in 1785. He was chief justice of the state supreme court from 1782 till 1789, and in 1788 a member of the convention that adopted the Federal constitution. He was elected a representative from New Hampshire to the 1st and 2d congresses, serving from 4 March, 1789, till 2 March, 1793. In the latter year he was chosen U. S. senator, served as president of the senate during two sessions, and resigned in 1801 on account of failing health. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 740-741.

 

 

LLOYD, John I., Maryland, lawyer.  Manager, Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 111)

 

 

LOAN, Benjamin F., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

LOCKE, Joseph J., Barre, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1851-1852.

 

 

LOCKE, Theodore, D., Barre, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1842-1848.

 

 

LOCKHART, Jesse, abolitionist, Russellville (Dumond, 1961, p. 135)

 

 

LOCKWOOD, Julia, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 43n40)

 

 

LOCKWOOD, Roe, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 43n40)

 

 

LOGAN, Anna, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

LOGUEN, Jermain Wesley, 1813-1872, New York, African American, clergyman, speaker, author, former slave, abolitionist leader.  American Abolition Society.  Bishop, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.  Supported the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Conductor, Underground Railroad, aiding hundreds of fugitive slaves, in Syracuse, New York.  In 1851, he himself escaped to Canada when he was indicted for helping a fugitive slave.  Wrote autobiography, The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, A Narrative of Real Life. 1859. (Dumond, 1961, p. 334; Mabee, 1970, pp. 294, 307; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 677-678; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 368; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 848; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 7, p. 358; Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

LONG, David, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-38

 

 

LONG, John Dixon, 1817-1894, New Town, Maryland, writer, anti-slavery activist.  Wrote Pictures of Slavery in Church and State, in 1857.

 

 

LONG, Richard, Ross County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-36, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882, poet. Wrote antislavery poetry. (Hughes, Meltzer, & Lincoln, 1968, p. 105; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 382)

 

LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth, poet, b. in Portland, Me., 27 Feb., 1807; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 24 March, 1882, was the second son in a family that included four sons and four daughters. His birthplace, on Fore street, is shown in the engraving on page 11. He was named for a brother of his mother, who, a youth of nineteen, lately commissioned lieutenant in the U. S. navy, and serving before Tripoli under Com. Preble, had perished in the fire-ship “Intrepid,” which was blown up in the night of 4 Sept., 1804. The boyhood of the poet was happy. A sweeter, simpler, more essentially human society has seldom existed than that of New England in the first quarter of this century, and the conditions of life in Portland were in some respects especially pleasant and propitious. The beautiful and wholesome situation of the town on the sea-shore; the fine and picturesque harbor that afforded shelter to the vessels by which a moderate commerce with remote regions was carried on, giving vivacity to the port and widening the scope of the interests of the inhabitants; the general diffusion of comfort and intelligence; the traditional purity and simplicity of life; the absence of class distinctions; the democratic kindliness of spirit; the pervading temper of hopefulness and content—all made Portland a good place in which to be born and grow up. Like the rest of New England it was provincial, it had little part in the larger historic concerns of the world, it possessed no deep wells of experience or of culture, and no memorials of a distant past by which the imagination might be quickened and nurtured; it was a comparatively new place in a comparatively new country. The sweetness of Longfellow's disposition showed itself in his earliest years. He was a gentle, docile, cheerful, intelligent, attractive child; “one of the best boys in school” was his teacher's report of him at six years old. He was fond of books, and his father's library supplied him with the best in English. He was sensitive to the charm of style in literature, and a characteristic glimpse of his taste, and of the influences that were shaping him, is afforded by what he said in later life in speaking of Irving: “Every boy has his first book; I mean to say, one book among all others which in early youth first fascinates his imagination, and at once excites and satisfies the desires of his mind. To me this first book was the ‘Sketch-Book’ of Washington Irving. I was a school-boy when it was published [in 1819], and read each succeeding number with ever-increasing wonder and delight, spell-bound by its pleasant humor, its melancholy tenderness, its atmosphere of reverie. . . . The charm remains unbroken, and whenever I open the pages of the ‘Sketch-Book,’ I open also that mysterious door which leads back into the haunted chambers of youth.” Already, when he was thirteen years old, he had begun to write verses, some of which found place in the poet's corner of the local newspaper. In 1821 he passed the entrance examinations for Bowdoin, but it was not until 1822 that Longfellow left home to reside at the college. Among his classmates was Nathaniel Hawthorne, with whom he speedily formed an acquaintance that was to ripen into a life-long friendship. His letters to his mother and father during his years at college throw a pleasant light upon his pursuits and his disposition; they display the early maturity of his character; the traits that distinguished him in later years are already clearly defined; the amiability, the affectionateness, the candor, and the cheerful spirit of the youth are forecasts of the distinguishing qualities of the man. His taste for literary pursuits, and his strong moral sentiment and purpose, are already developed. A few sentences from his letters will serve to exhibit him as he was at this time. “I am in favor of letting each one think for himself, and I am very much pleased with Gray's poems, Dr. Johnson to the contrary notwithstanding.” “I have very resolutely concluded to enjoy myself heartily wherever I am.” “Leisure is to me one of the sweetest things in the world.” “I care but little about politics or anything of the kind.” “I admire Horace very much indeed.” “I conceive that if religion is ever to benefit us, it must be incorporated with our feelings and become in every degree identified with our happiness.” “Whatever I study I ought to be engaged in with all my soul, for I will be eminent in something.” “I am afraid you begin to think me rather chimerical in many of my ideas, and that I am ambitious of becoming a rara avis in terris. But you must acknowledge the usefulness of aiming high at something which it is impossible to overshoot, perhaps to reach.” He was writing much, both verse and prose, and his pieces had merit enough to secure publication, not only in the Portland paper, but in more than one of the magazines, and especially in the “United States Literary Gazette,” published in Boston, in which no fewer than sixteen poems by him appeared in the course of the year 1824-'5. Very few of these were thought by their author worth reprinting in later years, and though they all show facile versification and refined taste, none of them exhibit such original power as to give assurance of his future fame. Several of them display the influence of Bryant both in form and thought. Long afterward, in writing to Bryant, Longfellow said: “Let me acknowledge how much I owe to you, not only of delight but of culture. When I look back upon my earlier verses. I cannot but smile to see how much ill them is really yours.” He owed much also to others, and in these youthful compositions one may find traces of his favorite poets from Gray to Byron.

As the time for leaving college drew near, it became necessary for him to decide on a profession, He was averse to the ministry, to medicine, and, in spite of his father's and grandfather's example, to the law. In 1824 he writes to his father: “I am altogether in favor of the farmer's life.” But a few months later he says: “The fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature. My whole soul burns most ardently for it, and every earthly thought centres in it. . . . Surely there never was a better opportunity offered for the exertion of literary talent in our own country than is now offered. . . . Nature has given me a very strong predilection for literary pursuits, and I am almost confident in believing that, if I can ever rise in the world, it must be by the exercise of my talent in the wide field of literature.” In reply to these ardent aspirations his father wisely urged that, though a literary life might be very pleasant to one who had the means of support, it did not offer secure promise of a livelihood, and that it was necessary for his son to adopt a profession that should afford him subsistence as well as reputation; but he gave his consent readily to his son's passing a year in Cambridge, after leaving college, in literary studies previous to entering on the study of a profession.

Before the time for this arrived a new prospect opened, full of hope for the young scholar. He had distinguished himself in college by his studious disposition, his excellent conduct, and his capacity as a writer, and when their rank was assigned to the members of his class at graduation, he stood upon the list as the fourth in general scholarship in a class of thirty-eight. Just at this time the trustees of the college determined to establish a professorship of modern languages, and, not having the means to obtain the services of any one that was already eminent in this department, they determined to offer the post conditionally to the young graduate of their own college, who had already given proof of character and abilities that would enable him after proper preparation to fill the place satisfactorily. The proposal was accordingly made to him that he should go to Europe for the purpose of fitting himself for this chair, with the understanding that on his return he should receive the appointment of professor. It was a remarkable testimony to the impression that Longfellow had made and to the confidence he had inspired. Nothing could have been more delightful to him than the prospect it opened. It settled the question of his career in accordance with the desire of his heart, and his father gladly approved.

After passing the autumn and winter of 1825-'6 in preparatory studies at home in Portland, Longfellow sailed for Havre in May, 1826. The distance of Europe from America, measured by time, was far greater then than now. Communication was comparatively infrequent and irregular; the interval of news was often months long; the novelty of such an experience as that on which Longfellow entered was great. “Madam,” said a friend to his mother, “you must have great confidence in your son.” “It is true, Henry,” she wrote, “your parents have great confidence in your uprightness and in that purity of mind which will instantly take alarm on coming in contact with anything vicious or unworthy. We have confidence; but you must be careful and watchful.” Sixty years ago Europe promised more to the young American of poetic temperament than it does to-day, and kept its promise better. Longfellow's character was already so mature, his culture so advanced, and his temperament so happy, that no one could be better fitted than he to profit by a visit to the Old World. A voyage to Europe is often a voyage of discovery of himself to the young American; he learns that he possesses imagination and sensibilities that have not been evoked in his own land and for which Europe alone can provide the proper nurture. So it was with Longfellow. He passed eight months in Paris and its neighborhood, steadily at work in mastering the language, and in studying the literature and life of France. In the spring of 1827 he went from France to Spain, and here he spent a like period in similar occupations. It was a period of great enjoyment for him. At Madrid he had the good fortune to make acquaintance with Irving, who was then engaged in writing his “Life of Columbus,” of Alexander Everett, the U. S. minister, and of Lieut. Alexander Slidell , U. S. navy (afterward honorably known as Com. Slidell-Mackenzie), who in his “Year in Spain” pleasantly mentions and gives a characteristic description of the young traveller. In December, 1827, Longfellow left Spain for Italy, where he remained through a year that was crowded with delightful experience and was well employed in gaining a rich store of knowledge. His studies were constant and faithful, and his genius for language was such that when he went to Germany at the end of 1828 he had a command of French, Spanish, and Italian such as is seldom gained by a foreigner. He established himself at Göttingen in February, 1829, and was pursuing his studies there when he was called home by letters that required his return. He reached the United States in August, and in September, having received the appointment of professor of modern languages at Bowdoin college, with a salary of $800, he took up his residence at Brunswick. He was now twenty-two years old, and probably, with the exception of Mr. George Ticknor, was the most accomplished scholar in this country of the languages and literatures of modern Europe. He devoted himself zealously to teaching, to editing for his classes several excellent text-books, and to writing a series of lectures on the literatures of France, Spain, and Italy. The influence of such a nature and such tastes and learning as his was of the highest value in a country college remote from the deeper sources of culture. “His intercourse with the students,” wrote one of his pupils, “was perfectly simple, frank, and manly. They always left him not only with admiration, but guided, helped, and inspired.” In addition to his duties as professor he performed those of librarian of the college, and in April. 1831, he published in the “North American Review” the first of a series of articles, which were continued at irregular intervals for several years, upon topics that were connected with his studies. His prose style was already formed, and was stamped with the purity and charm that were the expression of his whole nature, intellectual and moral. Poetry he had for the time given up. Of those little poetic attempts dating from his college years he wrote, that he had long ceased to attach any value to them. “I am all prudence now, since I can form a more accurate judgment of the merit of poetry. If I ever publish a volume, it will be many years first.”

In September, 1831, he married Miss Mary Potter, of Portland. It was a happy marriage. About the same time he began to publish in the “New England Magazine” the sketches of travel that afterward were collected, and, with the addition of some others, published under the title of “Outre Mer; a Pilgrimage beyond the Sea” (New York, 1835). This was his earliest independent contribution to American literature, and in its pleasant mingling of the record of personal experience, with essays on literature, translations, and romantic stories, and in the ease and grace of its style, it is a worthy prelude and introduction to his later more important work. The narrowness of the opportunities that were afforded at Bowdoin for literary culture and conversation prevented the situation there from being altogether congenial to him, and it was with satisfaction that he received in December, 1834, an invitation to succeed Mr. George Ticknor in the Smith professorship of modern languages at Harvard, with the suggestion that, before entering on its duties, he should spend a year or eighteen months in Europe for study in Germany. He accordingly resigned the professorship at Bowdoin, which he had held for five years and a half, and in April, 1835, he set sail with his wife for England. In June he went to Denmark, and, after passing the summer at Copenhagen and Stockholm studying the Danish, Swedish, and Finnish languages, he went in October to Holland on his way to Germany. At Amsterdam and Rotterdam he was detained by the serious illness of Mrs. Longfellow, and employed his enforced leisure in acquiring the Dutch language. Near the end of November his wife died at Rotterdam. The blow fell heavily upon him; but his strong religious faith afforded him support, and he was not overmastered by vain grief. He soon proceeded to Heidelberg, and sought in serious and constant study a relief from suffering, bereavement, and dejection. For a time he was cheered by the companionship of Bryant, whom he met here for the first time. In the spring he made some excursions in the beautiful regions in the neighborhood of the Rhine, and he spent the summer in Switzerland and the Tyrol. In September he was at Paris, and in October he returned home.

In December, 1836, he established himself at Cambridge, and entered upon his duties as professor. For the remainder of his life Cambridge was to be his home. Lowell, in his delightful essay, “Cambridge Thirty Years Ago,” has preserved the image of the village much as it was at this period. The little town was not yet suburbanized; it was dominated by the college, whose professors, many of them men of note, formed a cultivated and agreeable society. Limited as were its intellectual resources as compared with those that it has since acquired, its was the chief centre in New England of literary activity and cultivated intelligence. Longfellow soon found friends, who speedily became closely attached to him, both in Boston and Cambridge, alike of the elder and younger generation of scholars, chief among whom were George Ticknor, William H. Prescott, Andrews Norton, John G. Palfrey, Cornelius C. Felton, Charles Sumner, George S. Hillard, and Henry R. Cleveland. His delightful qualities of heart and mind, his social charm, his wide and elegant culture, his refinement, the sweetness of his temper, the openness of his nature, and his quick sympathies, made him a rare acquisition in any society, and secured for him warm regard and affection. He employed himself busily in instruction and the writing of lectures, and in 1837 he began once more to give himself to poetry, and wrote the poems that were to be the foundation of his future fame. In the autumn of this year he took up his residence at Craigie House, a fine old colonial mansion, consecrated by memories of Washington's stay in it, which was thenceforward to be his abode for life. Here, in 1837, be wrote “The Reaper and the Flowers,” and in June, 1838, “The Psalm of Life,” which, on its publication in the “Knickerbocker Magazine” for October, instantly became popular, and made its author's name well known. It was the sound of a new voice, a most musical and moving one, in American poetry. In February, 1838, he was lecturing on Dante; in the summer of that year his course was on “The Lives of Literary Men.” He was writing also for the “North American Review,” and during the year he began his “Hyperion.” It was a busy and fruitful time. “Hyperion” was published in New York in 1839. It was a romance based upon personal experience. The scene was laid among the sites he had lately visited in Europe; the characters were drawn in part from life. He put into his story the pain, the passion, and the ideals of his heart. It was a book to touch the soul of fervent youth. It had much beauty of fancy, and it showed how deeply the imagination of the young American had been stirred by the poetic associations of Europe, and enriched by the abundant sources of foreign culture. It was hardly out of press before it was followed by the publication, in the late autumn, of his first volume of poems, “Voices of the Night.” This contained, in addition to his recent poems, a selection of seven of his early poems—

all that he wished to preserve—and numerous translations from the Spanish, Italian, and German. The little volume of 144 pages contained poems that were stamped with the impress of an original genius whose voice was of a tone unheard before. “The Psalm of Life,” “The Reaper and the Flowers,” “The Footsteps of Angels,” “The Beleaguered City,” speedily became popular, and have remained familiar to English readers from that day to this. “Nothing equal to some of them was ever written in this world—this western world, I mean,” wrote his friend Hawthorne. Before a year was out the volume had come to a third edition. From this time Longfellow's fame grew rapidly. Success and reputation were to him but stimulants to new exertions. Essentially modest and simple, praise or flattery could do him no harm. His genial and sound nature turned all experience to good.

During the next two or three years, while his laborious duties as instructor were faithfully and successfully discharged, he still found time for study, and his vein of poetry was in full flow. In 1841 his second volume of poems was published; it was entitled “Ballads and other Poems,” and contained, among other well-known pieces, “The Wreck of the Hesperus,” “The Village Blacksmith,” and “Excelsior.” It confirmed the impression that had been made by the “Voices of the Night,” and henceforth Longfellow stood confessedly as the most widely read and the best beloved of American poets. In the spring of 1842, his health having been for some time in an unsatisfactory state, he received leave of absence for six months from the college, and went abroad. After a short stay in Paris he made a journey, abounding in interest and poetic suggestions, through Belgium, visiting Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, and Brussels, and proceeded to Marienberg-on-the-Rhine, where he spent a quiet but pleasant summer at a water-cure establishment. Here he made acquaintance with the German poet Freiligrath, and the cordial friendship then formed with him was maintained by letters until Freiligrath's death, more than thirty years afterward. In October he passed some delightful days in London, as the guest of Charles Dickens, with whom he had come into very cordial relations in America early in the same year, and in November he was again at home engaged in his familiar pursuits. On the return voyage he wrote “Poems on Slavery,” which were published in a thin pamphlet before the end of the year. They were the expression not so much of poetic emotion as of moral feeling. They attracted much attention, as the testimony of a poet, by nature disinclined to censure, against the great national crime of which the worst evil was its corrupting influence upon the public conscience. It was to that conscience that these poems appealed, and they were received on the one hand with warm approval, on the other with still warmer condemnation. In June, 1843, he married Frances Appleton, daughter of the Hon. Nathan Appleton, of Boston. He had been attached to her since their first meeting in Switzerland in 1836, and something of his feeling toward her had been revealed in his delineation of the character of Mary Ashburton in “Hyperion.” She was a woman whose high and rare qualities of character found harmonious expression in beauty of person and nobility of presence. Seldom has there been a happier marriage. From this time forward for many years Longfellow's life flowed on as peacefully and with as much joy as ever falls to man. His fortunes were prosperous. His books were beginning to bring him in a considerable income; his wife's dowry was such as to secure to him pecuniary ease; Craigie House, with the pleasant fields in front of it reaching to the river Charles, was now his own, and his means enabled him to gratify his taste for a refined hospitality no less than to satisfy the generous impulses of his liberal disposition, and to meet the multitude of appeals for help that came to him from the poor and suffering, who, though they might be remote and unknown to him, felt confident of his sympathy. The general character of these years and of their influence on him is reflected in his work. His genius found in them the moment of its fullest expansion and happiest inspiration. In the year of his marriage “The Spanish Student” was published in a volume. It had been mainly written three years before, and was first printed in “Graham's Magazine” in 1842. In 1846 “The Belfry of Bruges and other Poems” appeared; among the “other Poems” were “The Old Clock on the Stairs” and “The Arsenal at Springfield.” This was followed by “Evangeline” (1847), of which Hawthorne wrote to him: " I have read it with more pleasure than it would be decorous to express,” and which thousands upon thousands have read, and will read, with hearts touched and improved by its serene and pathetic beauty. Then appeared “Kavanagh,” a tale in prose (1849); “The Seaside and the Fireside,” containing “The Building of the Ship,” “Resignation,” “The Fire of Driftwood,” and twenty other poems (1850); and “The Golden Legend” (1851).

During all these years he had continued to discharge the active duties of his professorship, but they had gradually become irksome to him, and in 1854, after nearly eighteen years of service at Harvard, he resigned the place. “I want to try, he wrote to Freiligrath, “the effect of change on my mind, and of freedom from routine. Household occupations, children, relatives, friends, strangers, and college lectures so completely fill up my days that I have no time for poetry; and, consequently, the last two years have been very unproductive with me. I am not, however, very sure or sanguine about the result.” But he was hardly free from the daily duties of instruction before he was at work upon “Hiawatha,” and in the course of the year he wrote many shorter pieces, among his best, such as “The Rope-Walk,” “My Lost Youth,” and “The Two Angels.” “Hiawatha” was published in 1855, and in 1858 appeared “The Courtship of Miles Standish,” with about twenty minor poems.

But the days of joyful inspiration and success were drawing to their close. In July, 1861, an inexpressible calamity, by which all his later life was shadowed, fell upon him, in the sudden and most distressing death of his wife by fire. His recovery from its immediate, shattering effect was assisted by the soundness of his nature, the strength of his principles, and the confidence of his religious faith, but it was long before he could resume his usual occupations, or find interest in them. After several months, for the sake of a regular pursuit that might have power more or less to engage his thought, he took up the translation of the “Divine Comedy.” He found the daily task wholesome, and gradually he became interested in it. For the next three or four years the translation, the revision of it for the press, and the compilation of the notes that were to accompany it, occupied much of his time. The work was published in 1867, and took rank at once as the best translation in English of Dante's poem. The accomplishment of this task had not only been a wholesome restorative of intellectual calm, but had been the means of bringing about in a natural and simple way the renewal of social pleasures and domestic hospitalities. In the revision of the work, Longfellow had called to his aid his friends, James Russell Lowell and the present writer; and the “Dante Club” thus formed met regularly at Craigie House one evening every week for two or three winters. Other friends often joined the circle, and the evenings ended with a cheerful supper. Thus, by degrees, with the passing of time, the current of life began once more to run on in a tranquil course, and though without a ray of the old sunlight, equally without a shadow of gloom. At the end of 1863 he published “Tales of a Wayside Inn,” a volume in which there was no lowering of tone, no utterance of sorrow, but full vigor and life in such poems as “Paul Revere's Ride,” “The Birds of Killingworth,” “The Children's Hour,” and others. The printing of the translation of the “Divine Comedy” was begun about the same time, and the text of the “Inferno” was completed in season to send to Florence the volume, not yet published, as an offering in honor of Dante, on occasion of the celebration in that city of the sixth centenary of the poet's birth in May, 1865. The whole translation, with its comment, was finally published in 1867. In the same year appeared a little volume of original poems, entitled “Flower de Luce,” and in succeeding years, at irregular intervals, he wrote and published “The New England Tragedies” (1868); “The Divine Tragedy” (1871); “Three Books of Song” (1872); “Aftermath” (1874); “The Masque of Pandora” (1875); “Keramos” (1878); and “Ultima Thule” (1880). A little volume containing his last poems was published in 1882, after the poet's death, with the title of “In the Harbor.”

These years had been marked by few striking events in his external life. They had been spent for the most part at Cambridge, with a summer residence each year at Nahant. His interests were chiefly domestic and social; his pursuits were the labors and the pleasures of a poet and a man of letters. His hospitality was large and gracious, cordial to old friends, and genial to new acquaintances. His constantly growing fame burdened him with a crowd of visitors and a multitude of letters from “entire strangers.” They broke in upon his time, and made a vast tax upon his good nature. He was often wearied by the incessant demands, but he regarded them as largely a claim of humanity upon his charity, and his charity never failed. He had a kind word for all, and with ready sacrifice of himself he dispensed pleasure to thousands. In 1868 and 1869, accompanied by his daughters, he visited Europe for the last time, and enjoyed a delightful stay in England, in Paris, and especially in Italy. Fame and the affection that his poems had awakened for him, though personally unknown, in the hearts of many in the Old World not less than in the New, made his visit to Europe a series of honors and of pleasures. But he returned home glad to enjoy once more its comparative tranquillity, and to renew the accustomed course of the day. His last years were the fitting close of such a life. In 1875 he read at Brunswick, on the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation, the beautiful poem “Morituri Salutamus.” It ended with the characteristic verse—

“For age is opportunity no less 
Than youth itself, though in another dress, 
And as the evening twilight fades away, 
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.” 

On his seventy-fourth birthday, 27 Feb., 1881, he wrote in his diary:

“I am surrounded by roses and lilies. Flowers everywhere—
‘And that which should accompany old age, 
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends.’”

But he had had already warnings of declining health, and in the course of this year he suffered, greatly from vertigo, followed by nervous pain and depression. The serenity of his spirit was unaffected. On the 18th he suffered a chill, and became seriously ill. On the 24th he sank quietly in death. The lines given in fac-simile were the last by the poet, 15 March, 1882, and are from closing stanza of the “Bells of San Blas.” 

No poet was ever more beloved than he; none was ever more worthy of love. The expressions of the feeling toward him after death were deep, affecting, and innumerable. One of the most striking was the placing of his bust in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey in March, 1884. It was the first instance of such an honor being paid to an American poet. His bust stands near the tomb of Chaucer, between the memorials to Cowley and Dryden. (See illustration on page 14.) On this occasion Mr. Lowell, then U. S. minister in England, said: “Never was a private character more answerable to public performance than that of Longfellow. Never have I known a more beautiful character.” A bronze statue of Longfellow, by Franklin Simmons, was erected in Portland in September, 1888. His “Life” has been written by his brother Samuel, in three volumes (Boston, 1886-'7). This work, mainly compiled from the poet's diaries and letters, is a full and satisfactory picture of the man. In this life there is a bibliography of his works. The meadow, across the street, in front of the poet's home, stretching down the river Charles, so often commemorated in his verse, was given by his children shortly after his death to the Longfellow memorial association, on condition that it should be kept open forever, and properly laid out for public enjoyment. The view over the river, of the hills of Brighton and Brookline, as seen from the windows of Longfellow's study, will thus be kept open, and associated with his memory. 

The vignette on page 10 is from a portrait made in 1856 by Samuel Laurence; the frontispiece on steel is a copy of one of the latest photographs of the poet. The illustration on page 12 represents Longfellow's home, Craigie House. It was built by Col. John Vassall in 1759, and on his flight to England, at the beginning of the Revolution, was confiscated. It served as Washington's headquarters till the evacuation of Boston, and then, after passing through various hands, it was purchased on 1 J an., 1793, by Andrew Craigie, who built the west wing. Mr. Craigie had made a fortune as apothecary-general to the Continental army, and he entertained in the house with lavish hospitality. After his death his widow, whose income had become reduced, let rooms to various occupants, among whom were Jared Sparks and Edward Everett. Finally the house passed into Longfellow's hands, as is related above. It is now (1887) occupied by his eldest daughter. His study remains unaltered as he left it. Mr. Longfellow had two sons and three daughters, by his second wife. His eldest son, CHARLES, entered the National service in 1861, and was badly wounded at Mine Run. His daughters, as children, were the subjects of a celebrated portrait group by Thomas Buchanan Read. –Henry Wadsworth's brother, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Portland, Me., 18 June, 1819, was graduated at Harvard in 1839 and at the divinity-school there in 1846. He first accepted a call to a church at Fall River in 1848, but in 1853 became the pastor of a Unitarian congregation in Brooklyn, N. Y. In 1860 he resigned his charge and went abroad. On his return he resided at Cambridge, Mass., continuing to preach, but having no pastoral charge till in 1878 he became the minister of a church in Germantown , Pa. In 1882 be again returned to Cambridge. In addition to writing several essays that appeared in the “Radical” (1866-'71), and many hymns that have a place in other collections than his own, he compiled, in association with Rev. Samuel Johnson, “A Book of Hymns” (Boston, 1846; revised ed., entitled “Hymns of the Spirit,” 1864). He published “A Book of Hymns and Tunes,” for congregational use (1859), and a small volume for the vesper service that he had instituted. He is also the editor, in connection with Thomas W. Higginson, of “Thalatta, a Book for the Seaside,” a collection of poetry, partly original (1853). His latest publications are the "”Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow” (2 vols., 1886), and “Final Memorials of Henry W. Longfellow” (1887). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

LONGLEY, Thomas, Hawley, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-40

 

 

LONGYEAR, John Westley, 1820-1875, jurist, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan.  Served in Congress 1863-1867.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 17; Congressional Globe)

 

LONGYEAR, John Wesley, jurist, b. in Shandaken, Ulster co., N. Y., 22 Oct., 1820; d. in Detroit; Mich., 10 March, 1875. He was educated at Lima, N. Y., and, removing in 1844 to Michigan, was admitted to the bar in 1846, settling the next year in Lansing, where he acquired an extensive practice. He was elected to congress as a Republican in 1862, served till 1867, and during both terms was chairman of the committee on expenditures on the public buildings. He was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention in Philadelphia in 1866, a member of the Michigan constitutional convention in 1867, and in 1870 became U. S. judge of the southern district of the state. His decisions, especially those in admiralty and bankruptcy cases, were extensively quoted.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 17.

 

 

LOOKERMAN, John, founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

LORD, Nathan, 1793-1870, Hanover, New Hampshire, abolitionist, clergyman.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1833-1834.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888)

 

LORD, Nathan, clergyman, b. in Berwick, Me., 28 Nov., 1793; d. in Hanover, N.H., 9 Sept., 1870. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1809, and at Andover theological seminary in 1815. He was pastor of the Congregational church in Amherst, N. H., from 1816 till 1828, and at the latter date, on the resignation of Rev. Bennett Tyler, became president of Dartmouth. Under his administration the professorships of Greek literature and language, of astronomy and meteorology, of modern languages, of intellectual philosophy, and of natural history were established, three new halls and a chapel were built, the observatory was added, the “Chandler scientific department” was founded by the gift of $50,000 from Abiel Chandler, and 1,824 students were graduated. He retired in 1863. Dr. Lord upheld the institution of slavery, and thus incurred the censure of most northern people; but while he advocated his views in letters and sermons. Dartmouth was the only college in the United States for many years where colored students were admitted, and while under his care they were treated with uniform kindness and courtesy. He inclined to the old-school system of theology, and to a literal interpretation of the prophesies. Dartmouth gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1864, and Bowdoin that of D. D. in 1828. He occasionally contributed to theological reviews, edited with an introductory notice, the selected sermons of his son, Rev. John King Lord (Boston, 1850), and published numerous sermons, essays, and letters. Among the latter are “Letter to Rev. Daniel Dana, D. D., on Park's ‘Theology of New England’” (1852); “An Essay on the Millennium,” read to the General convention of New Hampshire (1854); and “Two· Letters to Ministers of all Denominations on Slavery” (1854-'5), in which he endeavored, by biblical arguments, to prove the lawfulness of that institution. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV.

 

 

LORING, Ellis Gray, 1803-1858, Boston, Massachusetts, lawyer, abolitionist leader.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Manager, AASS, 1833-1840, 1840-1843, Executive Committee, 1843-1844.  Husband to abolitionist Louisa Loring of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS).  Auditor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1844-1845.  Co-founded and wrote the constitution of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.  Financially aided the abolitionist newspaper the Liberator.  Was the attorney for the defense of a slave child in Massachusetts Supreme Court.  This resulted in a landmark ruling that every slave brought to the state by the owner was legally free.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 317; Mabee, 1970, p. 124; Yellin, 1994, p. 51; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 27; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 416; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 318)

 

LORING, Ellis Gray, b. in Boston, Mass., in 1803; d. there, 24 May, 1858. He entered Harvard college in 1819, but was not graduated with his class, afterward studied law, was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and became eminent. He was one of the twelve that formed the first anti-slavery society in Boston in 1833. He distinguished himself chiefly in the defence of the slave-child “Med” in the Massachusetts supreme court, where he succeeded in obtaining the decision that every slave brought on Massachusetts soil by the owner was legally free; a case precisely analogous to the celebrated “Somerset” case in England. By this argument he achieved the unusual success of convincing the opposing counsel, Benjamin R. Curtis, afterward justice of the U. S. supreme court, who shook hands with him after the trial, saying: “Your argument has entirely converted me to your side, Mr. Loring.” He also attracted some attention as the author of a “Petition in behalf of Abner Kneeland,” which was headed by the name of Rev. Dr. William E. Channing; Abner Kneeland (q. v.) was a professed atheist who was indicted for blasphemy, and Mr. Loring's petition was a strong plea in behalf of freedom of speech. Several of Mr. Loring's arguments and addresses were published at different times, including “An Address before the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society” (Boston, 1838). At the New England anti-slavery convention, 27 May, 1858, two days after his death, Wendell Phillips said: “The great merit of Mr. Loring's anti-slavery life was, he laid on the altar of the slave's needs all his peculiar tastes. Refined, domestic, retiring, contemplative, loving literature, art, and culture, he saw there was no one else to speak, therefore he was found in the van. It was the uttermost instance of self-sacrifice—more than money, more than reputation, though he gave both.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 27.

 

 

LORING, Louisa, Boston, Massachusetts, leader of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), wife of Ellis Gray Loring (Yellin, 1994, pp. 47-51, 62, 250n, 253n, 262, 269)

 

 

LOTHROP, Stillman, Watertown, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-1840, 1840-1854.

 

 

LOUGE, Rebecca, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Yellin, 1994, p. 62)

 

 

LOVE, Thomas C., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971, p. 104)

 

 

LOVEJOY, Elijah Parrish, 1802-1837, Albion, Maine, newspaper publisher, editor, writer, clergyman, abolitionist leader.  Murdered by anti-abolitionists.  In 1833, he became editor of the St. Louis newspaper the Observer.  In the paper, he opposed slavery and supported graduate emancipation.  Due to threats, he moved the paper to Alton, Illinois, in 1836.  There, his life was threatened and his press was destroyed three times by pro-slave mobs.  A fourth press was established on November 7, 1837, and was immediately destroyed and during the attack, Lovejoy was shot and killed by the mob.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 6, 20, 90-94, 96, 105, 269; Dumond, 1961, pp. 92, 223-226, 232; Pease, 1965, pp. 268-272, 318; Mabee, 1970, pp. 38-50, 67, 116, 249, 277, 292, 293, 295, 296, 279, 375, 377; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 378-380, 601-602; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 34-35; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 434; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 541-543; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 4; Dillon, Merton L. Elijah P. Lovejoy: Abolitionist Editor. 1961.)

 

LOVEJOY, Elijah Parish, abolitionist, b. in Albion, Me., 9 Nov., 1802; d. in Alton, Ill., 7 Nov., 1837. He was the son of a Presbyterian clergy-man, was graduated at Waterville college in 1826, and in 1827 went to St. Louis, Mo., and established a school. He contributed prose and verse to the newspapers, was known of as a vigorous writer, and in 1829 became editor of a political paper, in which he advocated the claim of Henry Clay as a candidate for the presidency. In as 1832, in consequence of a change in his religious views, he decided to become a minister, and, after a course of theological study at Princeton, was licensed to preach by the Philadelphia presbytery on 18 April, 1833. On his return to St. Louis he established a religious he paper called the “Observer,” in which he reprobated slavery. Repeated threats of mob violence impelled him to remove his paper in July, 1836, to Alton, Ill. His press was destroyed by mobs three times within a year; yet he procured a fourth one, and was engaged in setting it up, when a mob, composed mostly of Missourians, again attacked the office. With his friends he defended the building, and one of his assailants was killed. After the attacking party had apparently withdrawn, Mr. Lovejoy opened the door, when he was instantly pierced by five bullets and died in a few minutes. His “Memoir” was published by his brothers, Joseph C. and Owen, with an introduction by John Q. Adams (New York, 1838). See also, “Narrative of Riots at Alton, in Connection with the Death of Lovejoy,” by Edward Beecher at (Alton, 1838), and “The Martyrdom of Lovejoy,” by Henry Tanner (Chicago, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 34-35.

 

 

LOVEJOY, Joseph C., Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Corresponding Secretary, 1846, Executive Committee, 1846,1850

 

 

LOVEJOY, Julia Louisa (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 34-35)

 

 

LOVEJOY, Owen, 1811-1864, clergyman, abolitionist leader, lawyer, U.S. Congressman.  Illinois Anti-Slavery Society.  Member and Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in Underground Railroad.  Member, Illinois State Legislature.  Brother of anti-slavery newspaper publisher, Elijah Parrish Lovejoy.  Like his brother, Owen Lovejoy was a strong supporter of William Lloyd Garrison.  He was elected to Congress in 1856 and actively supported the abolition of slavery in Congress until his death in 1864.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 6, 11, 13, 90-116, 265-270; Dumond, 1961, p. 186; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4, 48, 91, 131, 188; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 141, 196; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 34-35; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 435; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 6)

 

LOVEJOY, Owen, abolitionist, b. in Albion, Me., 6 Jan., 1811; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 25 March, 1864, worked on his father's farm till he was eighteen years old, and then entered Bowdoin, but left before graduation, emigrated to Alton, Ill., and studied theology. He was present when his brother was murdered, and was moved by that event to devote himself to the overthrow of slavery. He became pastor of a Congregational church at Princeton, Ill., in 1838. Although anti-slavery meetings were forbidden by the laws of Illinois, he openly held them in all parts of the state, announcing at each one the time and place for the next meeting. This course subjected him to frequent fines and to violence and intimidation; but by his eloquence and persistency he won many adherents, and eventually the repressive laws were repealed. He resigned his pastoral charge in 1854 on being elected a member of the legislature. In 1856 he was sent to congress, and was continued there by re-election until his death. At the beginning of the civil war he delivered in the house of representatives a remarkable speech against slavery, in which he recounted the circumstances of his brother's death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 34-35.

 

 

LOWE, Susan, married to prominent abolitionist Augustus Wattles, helped him found an African American trade school in Indiana (Dumond, 1961, pp. 280-281)

 

 

LOWELL, Charles, 1782-1861, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman, opponent of slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 42-43)

 

LOWELL, Charles Russell, soldier, b. in Boston, 2 Jan., 1835; d. near Middletown, Va. , 20 Oct., 1864, was graduated at Harvard in 1854, with the first honors, and after several years of European travel was employed for some time in steel and iron works, and on the Burlington and Missouri River railroad. In the spring of 1861, while superintending iron-works in Cumberland valley, Md., he offered his services to the government, and on 14 May he was commissioned captain in the 6th cavalry. He served on Gen. McClellan's staff till November, 1862, when he organized the 2d Massachusetts cavalry, and on 15 April, 1863, was made its colonel. He commanded a brigade of cavalry in Virginia, was actively engaged in the pursuit of Mosby's guerillas, and afterward under Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley, and was made brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from 19 Oct., 1864, on recommendation of Gen. Sheridan, for his services in the latter campaign. In his three years of service twelve horses had been shot under him, yet he escaped without injury till the battle of Cedar Creek, where he was wounded while in the advance of Gen. Getty's division, but refused to leave his command. In the moment of victory he received additional wounds, which caused his death on the following day. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 42-43.

 

 

LOWELL, James Russell, 1819-1891, poet, essayist, journalist, anti-slavery activist, temperance and labor reform advocate. Wrote antislavery poetry.  Married to abolitionist Maria White Lowell.  Became a contributing editor to the abolitionist newpaper, Pennsylvania Freeman.  Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1847-1852.  (Filler, 1960, pp. 29, 141, 185; Mabee, 1970, pp. 66, 208, 257, 342; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 155, 267n; Pease, 1965, pp. 310-315; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 468; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 39-42; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 458; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 40)

 

LOWELL, James Russell, poet and essayist, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 22 Feb., 1819. He is a son of the Rev. Charles Lowell (q. v.), and in genius and character is the hereditary representative of the heart and brains that founded New England. He was the youngest of five children. From both parents were transmitted high intelligence, sound principles, and right ideals, but the poetic and imaginative faculty came from the mother. His birthplace was the old Tory mansion now called “Elm wood” a large three-story, square, wooden house in the early colonial style, situated in spacious grounds, surrounded by magnificent elms and pines planted by his father, with an outlook on Charles river. (See view on page 40.) Lowell was fitted for college by William Wells (who was the senior of the firm to whom we owe the series of Wells and Lilly classics), entered Harvard in his sixteenth year, and was graduated in 1838. His first-published literary production, unless possibly some poems for “Harvardiana,” which he edited in 1837-'8, was his notable class poem, composed under peculiar circumstances. At the time of writing it the collegiate senior was undergoing a brief period of rustication at Concord, in consequence of inattention to his text-books. His forced sojourn in this Arcadia of scholarship and reform brought him into relationship with the transcendentalists, who at that day were in the habit of gathering at the home of Emerson, with whom then began that friendship which, despite the playful sallies of the younger poet in his earlier writings, only terminated with the death of the elder. The young satirist saw the humorous side of the social movements of the day, and the class-poem, scintillating with wit, attacked the abolitionists, Carlyle, Emerson, and the transcendentalists. In the law-school of Harvard, Lowell received the degree of LL. B., and was admitted to the bar in 1840. The only record of the practice of his profession is found in a story entitled “My First Client,” published in the “Boston Miscellany.” Henceforth he gave himself entirely to literature. In 1841 a volume of poems, written under the influence of affection for a woman of genius who became his wife, was published under the title of “A Year's Life.” The key-note of the poems, buoyant with youth and love, is in the closing lines:           

“The poet now his guide hath found,              
And follows in the steps of Love.” 

The volume was never re-published, and of the seventy poems only a small part have been deemed worthy of re-printing by the author. His marriage to the woman who inspired these poems took place in 1844. Maria White was an ardent abolitionist, and no doubt her influence assisted in turning his thoughts to the serious side of that cause to which he rendered immortal service. To understand Lowell's career, it is necessary to remember that he was not only a poet, a scholar, and a humorist, but always a conservative and a critic. No man was more thoroughly imbued than he with the fundamental principles of American democracy—a democracy without demagogism—no man more jealous than he of the untarnished reputation of America in politics and literature, no man more quick to see any departure from the high ideal of the republic, and his flaming pen was turned to attack whatever assailed this ideal—at one time slavery, at another time vicious political methods threatening the purity of democratic society. His radicalism was always conservative, his criticism always constructive. Lowell and his wife were regular contributors to the “Liberty Bell,” and his name appears in 1848 in “The Anti-Slavery Standard” as corresponding editor. In this paper, from 1843 to 1846, his poems during that period mostly appeared. Later the “Boston Courier” was the vehicle of his productions, and in its columns the first series of the “Biglow Papers” was given to the public, beginning in the issue for June, 1846, and ending in 1848. This satire was an event of the first importance in the history of the world's literature. In wit, scholarship, and penetrating knowledge of human nature, it took the place, which it has ever since maintained, of a masterpiece. Age has only increased its reputation, and it is a recognized classic both in England and America. The test of its power and universality is the constant quotation from it on both sides of the Atlantic. Locally its effect was amazing. It consisted of a series of poems in the Yankee dialect, ostensibly by Mr. Hosea Biglow, and edited, with an introduction, notes, glossary, index, and “notices of an independent press,” by “Homer Wilbur, A. M., pastor of the first church in Jaalam, and prospective member of many literary, learned, and scientific societies.” In the main it was a satire on slavery and the Mexican war, but there was scarcely any cant, hypocrisy, or meanness in politics, the pulpit, and the press that was not hit by it. The hitherto despised abolitionists, the subject of gibes and satire, found a champion who turned the batteries of the scholar, in unequalled wit, merriment, and ridicule, upon their enemies and the enemies of the free republic, exposing to the laughter of the world the sneaking attitude of compromising politicians and of those who wore the livery of heaven in the cause of human slavery. Thereafter the fight took on a very different character; it was respectable to be on the side of freedom. The “Biglow Papers” will no doubt preserve the Yankee dialect, and cause it to be studied ages hence in order to the comprehension of the effect upon our national life of one of the most opportune allies that freedom ever had.  

His interest in the anti-slavery contest did not prevent Lowell from purely literary labors. In 1843 he undertook the editing of “The Pioneer, a Literary and Critical Magazine,” in joint editor-ship with Robert Carter (q. v.); and Poe, Hawthorne, Neal, Dwight, Jones Very, Parsons, Elizabeth Barrett (Mrs. Browning), Whittier, and William W. Story were contributors. Only three numbers were published, the venture failing through financial disaster to the publishers. In this magazine was begun a series of essays on the poets and dramatists, which afterward formed the material for “Conversations with Some of the Old Poets” (Cambridge, 1845). In 1844 came a volume of verse, containing “A Legend of Brittany,” with thirty-three miscellaneous poems and thirty-seven sonnets (among them sonnets to Wendell Phillips and Joshua R. Giddings), written in a vein that foreshadowed and even announced the poet's position in the great anti-slavery revolution. These were followed in 1845 by “The Vision of Sir Launfal,” one of the most exquisite productions of his genius, a poem founded on the legend of the Holy Grail, which is said to have been composed in a sort of frenzy in about forty-eight hours, during which the poet scarcely ate or slept. The “Conversations on the Poets” was Lowell's first work in literary criticism, and was the basis of his lectures before the Lowell institute, 1854-'5, and of his lectures in Harvard university during his professorship of modern languages and belles-lettres. A third volume of poems, containing many new anti-slavery pieces, was published in 1848, and the same year was brought out anonymously the “Fable for Critics,” a youthfully daring but amusing and racy skit at the American poets, in which the laughing author did not spare himself. In 1849 a collected edition of his poems in two volumes was published, the “Biglow Papers” and “A Year's Life” being omitted. In the mean time Lowell had been a contributor to the “Dial,” the “Democratic Review,” the “Massachusetts Quarterly Review,” in which he reviewed Thoreau's first volume in 1849, and to “Putnam's Monthly” in 1853 and several years later. In 1851 the poet and his wife travelled in Europe, visiting England, France, and Switzerland, and residing for some time in Italy. The chief fruits of this journey were the essays on Italian art and literature and his eminence as a student and interpreter of Dante. In the autumn of 1852 he was again in America and in October, 1853, he sustained the greatest sorrow of his life in the death of his wife, who had long been an invalid. In January, 1855, on Mr. Longfellow's resignation, Lowell was appointed his successor as professor of modern languages and belles-lettres in Harvard university, and after two years' study abroad, during which time he greatly extended his knowledge of Italian, French, and Spanish, and became one of the first authorities in old French and Provençal poetry, he assumed the duties of his professorship. From 1857 till 1862 he wrote many essays, not since re-published, for the “Atlantic Monthly,” and in 1863 he became, with Prof. Charles Eliot Norton, joint editor of the “North American Review,” a connection which he maintained till 1872. The “Atlantic Monthly,” founded in 1857, of which Lowell was the first editor, was set on foot by Holmes, Longfellow, Emerson, and Lowell, and Emerson's study was the scene of the gathering of the great literary lights of Boston, when the enterprise was discussed and the character of the magazine settled upon.     

The Kansas struggle, 1856-'8, enlisted Lowell's sympathies; he was in accord with the leading anti-slavery men, and at one time, says Frank B. Sanborn, contemplated transferring his Hosea Biglow to Kansas to report in the vernacular the doings there, but “the flighty purpose never was o'ertook.” The outbreak of the civil war caused a revival of the dramatis personæ of the “Biglow Papers,” in which the disunionists at home and their sympathizers in England were equally brought under the lash of his stinging satire. It went straight to the American heart. This second series of “Biglow Papers” first appeared in the “Atlantic,” and was published in a volume in 1867. The “Fireside Travels,” containing the pleasant gossip about “Cambridge Thirty Years Ago,” the delightful “Moosehead Journal,” and notes of travel on the Mediterranean and in Italy, had appeared in the mean time. The “Atlantic” for January, 1867, contained “Fitz Adam's Story,” a poem intended to form part of a longer one, “The Nooning,” which has been announced as about to be published as far back as 1851, but has never been completed. It was omitted from “Under the Willows, and other Poems” (Boston, 1869), with the following explanation: “‘Fitz Adam’s Story,’ which some good friends will miss, is also left to stand over, because it belongs to a connected series, which it is hoped may be completed if the days should be propitious.” The volumes of prose, “Among my Books” and “My Study Windows,” issued in 1870, comprising the choicest of Lowell's literary essays, seemed to mark the close of his greatest literary activity; but the appearance recently of such a paper as that on the poet Grey shows that only opportunity is needed for the gathering of the maturest fruits of his critical genius. In 1872 he made another visit to Europe, and on his return the “Centennial” period called out his efforts in the production of three patriotic odes, the first at Concord, 19 April, 1875, the second under the Washington elm, 3 July of the same year, and the third for 4 July, 1876. He was a presidential elector in 1876.    

In 1877 Mr. Lowell was appointed by President Hayes to the Spanish mission, from which he was transferred in 1880 to the court of St. James. His diplomatic career closed with his recall by President Cleveland in 1885. In Madrid, in an atmosphere congenial to him as a student, he sustained the honor of the American name, and received the confidence and admiration that had been formerly extended to Washington Irving. His residence in London, although clouded and saddened by the long illness and by the death in February, 1885, of his second wife, Miss Frances Dunlap, of Portland, Me., whom he had married in September, 1857, was as honorable to him as to the country he represented, an unbroken series of successes in the world of society and the world of letters. Called upon to settle no serious international differences, he bore himself with the tact and dignity that was to be desired in our representative to a great and friendly power, mindful always that his mission was to maintain cordial amity instead of seeking causes of alienation. And no man in our generation has done more than Lowell to raise American institutions and American character in the estimation of our English kin. His graceful and natural oratory was in demand on scores of public occasions. The most noteworthy of his public addresses was that on Coleridge, delivered at the unveiling of the bust of the poet in Westminster Abbey in May, 1885. The volume entitled “Democracy and other Addresses” (Boston, 1887) includes the foreign speeches, and those spoken at the dedication of the public library of Chelsea and at the Harvard anniversary. Mr. Lowell's political life is confined within the eight years of his terms of office at Madrid and London. His recall brought out expressions of deep regret in the English press, and he returned to the United States to receive the plaudits of his countrymen. Temporary political criticisms there were, but they were such as a man can afford to leave to the judgment of time, which will not fail to compare his own ideal of what the republic should be with the notions of his critics. Since his return to private life Mr. Lowell's home has been with his only child, the wife of Edward Burnett, at Southboro, Mass. He resumed his lectures at Cambridge, and in the winter of 1887 gave a course on the English dramatists before the Lowell institute. The same winter he read a paper before the Union league club of Chicago on the authorship of Richard III. In the summer of 1887 he again visited England, receiving everywhere the highest honors that could be paid to a private citizen. The degree of D. C. L. was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford in 1873, and that of LL. D. by the University of Cambridge, England, in 1874. During his residence in England as minister he was elected rector of the University of St. Andrews.             

The following is a list of his works and their various editions: “Class Poem” (Boston, 1838); “A Year's Life” (1841); “Poems” (Cambridge, 1844); “The Vision of Sir Launfal” (Boston, 1845; 2d ed., 1848, and included in “Vest-Pocket Series”); “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets” (1845); “Poems” (1848); “The Biglow Papers” (1848); “A Fable for Critics” (1848); “Poems” (2 vols., 1849); “Life of Keats,” prefacing an edition of his works (1854); “Poems” (2 vols., 1854); “Poetical Works” (2 vols., 1858); “Mason and Slidell, a Yankee Idyl” (1862); “Fireside Travels” (1864); “The President's Policy” (1864); “Ode recited at the Commemoration of the Living and Dead Soldiers of Harvard University,” 21 July, 1865; “The Biglow Papers,” 2d series (1867); “Under the Willows, and other Poems” (1869); “Among my Books” (1870); “The Courtin’” (1874); “Three Memorial Poems” (1876); “Among my Books,” 2d series (1876); and “Democracy, and other Addresses” (1887). “The Literary World” (Boston) of 27 June, 1885, is a Lowell number, containing estimates of Mr. Lowell's literary and personal qualities, with testimonies from prominent writers, and a bibliography. Francis H. Underwood published in 1882 a biographical sketch; and Stedman's “American Poets,” a volume called “Homes and Haunts of our Elder Poets,” and Haweis's “American Humorists,” contain essays upon Mr. Lowell. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 39-42.

 

 

LOWELL, Maria White, 1821-1853, Watertown, Massachusetts, poet, abolitionist, temperance advocate, women’s rights activist, wife of poet and anti-slavery activist James Russell Lowell.  Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS).  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 42)

 

LOWELL, Maria White, poet, b. in Watertown, Mass., 8 July, 1821; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 27 Oct., 1853, married Mr. Lowell in 1844. She possessed great beauty of person and character, and was an accomplished linguist. Her death, which took place the same night that one of Mr. Longfellow's children was born, called forth from Longfellow his poem beginning,  

“Two angels, one of life and one of death,       
Passed o'er our village, as the morning broke.”  

A volume of her poems, which are characterized by tenderness and delicacy of feeling, was printed privately after her death (Cambridge, 1855). The best known of them are “The Alpine Shepherd” and “The Morning-Glory.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 42. 

 

 

LOWNES, Caleb, abolitionist leader, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Education, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

LOWRIE, Walter, 1784-1868, New York, New York, educator, merchant, religious leader, statesman.  U.S. Senator, western Pennsylvania, 1819-1825, Secretary of the Senate, 1825-1836.  Member of the Executive Committee, American Colonization Society (ACS), Manager, 1834-1837, Vice President, 1836-1841. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 104-105; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 45; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 476; Annals of Congress; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 230, 235)

 

“The Government of the Union flows as directly from the people as does the government of any of the States.  The circumstance that the delegates who formed the present Constitution, were appointed by the State Legislatures does not detract from this idea; because the instrument was afterward submitted to the people, and had it not bee approved by them, it would have had no more authority than the sweeping of you floor.  The Government of the United States, through limited in its powers, is supreme within the proper sphere of its action.  The respective Governments of the United States and of the several States are sovereign within their proper spheres, and no farther.  Hence it follows that the States are limited sovereignties.  It follows, also, that the right to admit new States, being within the sphere of the General Government is a right which, to that Government, is perfect… the power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations for the territories, and the power to admit new States into the Union, have been given, by the people of the United States, to Congress.  They are powers f the General Government, within the proper sphere of its action, and of course sovereign and supreme.” (Annals of Congress, 16 Cong., 1 Sess., 1819-1820, I p. 107)

 

LOWRIE, Walter, senator, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, 10 Dec., 1784; d. in New York city, 14 Dec., 1868. He was brought to the United States when eight years of age by his parents, who settled in Huntingdon county, Pa., but subsequently removed to Butler county. Young Lowrie received a good education, but prosecuted his studies amid many difficulties. At the age of eighteen, he began a course of study with a view to entering the ministry, but was led to change his purpose. He was subsequently a member of the legislature for several years, and was afterward elected U. S. senator from Pennsylvania, and served from 6 Dec., 1819, till 3 March, 1825. On the expiration of his term he was elected secretary of the U. S. senate, an office he held for twelve years. While in the latter body he made his influence felt as a decided and earnest religious man. He was a founder of the Congressional prayer-meeting and the Congressional temperance society, and for many years served as a member of the executive committee of the American colonization society. In 1836 he became corresponding secretary of the Western foreign missionary society, afterward the Presbyterian board of foreign missions. He continued in the charge of his various duties until he was disabled by old age in 1868. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 45.

 

 

LOWRY, John, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

LOZIER, Clemence Sophia Harned, 1813-1888, Plainfield, New Jersey, physician, abolitionist, feminist activist.  President of New York Suffrage League.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 48; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 480)

 

LOZIER, Clemence Sophia, physician, b. in Plainfield, N. J., 11 Dec., 1812; d. in New York city, 26 April, 1888. She was the youngest daughter of David Harned, and in 1829 married Abraham W. Lozier, of New York, but soon afterward, her husband's health failing, she opened a select school and taught for eleven years. During this time she was associated with Mrs. Margaret Pryor in visiting the poor and abandoned, under the auspices of the Moral reform society. After her husband's death she determined to study medicine, attended her first lectures at Rochester eclectic medical college in 1849, and was graduated at the Syracuse medical college in 1853. Dr. Lozier at once began practice as a homœpathist in New York, where she continued to reside, and in the surgery required by the diseases of her own sex displayed peculiar skill, performing many capital operations in the removal of tumors. In 1860 she began a course of lectures on medical subjects in her own parlors, which in 1863 resulted in the founding of the New York medical college and hospital for women, where she was clinical professor of diseases of women and children, and also dean of the faculty, for more than twenty years. This institution was the first distinctively woman's medical college to be established in New York state. Dr. Lozier took an active interest in all that pertains to the elevation of her sex, for thirteen years was president of the New York city woman suffrage society, and for four years of the National woman suffrage society. She also held office in other philanthropic and reform associations, and was an occasional contributor to medical journals. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

LUCA, Alexander C., New Haven, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

LUDLOW, Henry G., 1797-1867, New York, New York, abolitionist, clergyman.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.  Worked with the New York Amistad Committee.

 

 

LUDLOW, James D., Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

LUDLOW, James G., Cincinnati, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

LUFBOROUGH, Nathan, founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

LUNDY, Benjamin, 1789-1839, Pennsylvania, philanthropist, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist leader, anti-slavery author and editor.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Manager, 1833-1834, 1837-1838, 1838-1840, Vice President, 1834-1835.  Organized the anti-slavery Union Humane Society, St. Clairsville, Ohio, in 1816.  In 1821, he founded and published the newspaper, Genius of Universal Emancipation, in Greenville, Tennessee.  It was circulated in more than 21 states and territories, including slave states.  He was a member of the Tennessee Manumission Society.  In August 1825, he founded the Maryland Anti-Slavery Society, which advocated for direct political action to end slavery.  He lectu4red extensively and helped organize numerous anti-slavery groups in the Northeast.  Supported establishing colonies of freed slaves in Mexico.  In 1836, published The National Enquirer and Constitutional Advocate of Universal Liberty, a weekly paper.  In 1837, co-founded the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  (Adams, 1908; Dillon, 1966; Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 128, 130-131, 136, 156; Dumond, 1961, pp. 95, 136-137, 166; Earle, 1847; Filler, 1960, pp. 5, 26, 55, 57, 60, 99, 101, 105, 128, 130; Mabee, 1970, pp. 11-13, 18, 42, 186, 190, 192, 193, 199, 276, 376, 387n11, 390n21; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 33, 36, 39, 45, 105, 110, 310-311; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 54; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 506; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 546-548; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 137; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 308)

 

LUNDY, Benjamin, philanthropist, b. in Hardwick, Warren co., N.J., 4 Jan., 1789; d. in Lowell, La Salle co., Ill., 22 Aug., 1839. His parents were members of the Society of Friends. When he was about nineteen years of age he removed to Wheeling, Va., where he remained for four years, working the first eighteen months as an apprentice to a saddler. While there his attention was first directed to the evils of slavery, and determined his future course as an Abolitionist. On leaving Wheeling he went to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, and then to St. Clairsville in that state, where, in 1815, he originated an anti-slavery association, called the “Union humane society,” and wrote an appeal on the subject of slavery. Soon afterward he became a contributor of anti-slavery articles to the “Philanthropist” newspaper, published at Mt. Pleasant. In the autumn of 1819 he removed to St. Louis, Mo., at the time that the Missouri question was attracting universal attention, and devoted himself to an exposition of the evils of slavery in the newspapers of that state and Illinois. Returning to Mt. Pleasant, he began in January, 1812, the publication of the “Genius of Universal Emancipation,” a monthly, the office of which was soon removed to Jonesborough, Tenn., and thence to Baltimore in 1824, when it became a weekly. In the latter part of 1825 Mr. Lundy visited Hayti to make arrangements with the government of that island for the settlement of such freed slaves as might be sent thither. In 1828 he visited the eastern states, where he lectured and formed the acquaintance of William Lloyd Garrison, with whom he afterward became associated in editing his journal. In the winter of 1828-'9 he was assaulted for an alleged libel and nearly killed in Baltimore by a slave-dealer named Austin Woolfolk. Lundy was indirectly censured by the court and compelled to remove his paper to Washington, and finally to Philadelphia, where he gave it the name of “The National Inquirer,” and finally it merged into “The Pennsylvania Freeman.” In 1829 he went a second time to Hayti, and took with him several slaves that had been emancipated for that purpose. In the winter of 1830 he visited the Wilberforce colony of fugitive slaves in Canada, and then went to Texas to provide a similar asylum under the Mexican flag, renewing his visit in 1833, but was baffled by the events that led to the annexation of Texas. In 1838 his property was burned by the pro-slavery mob that fired Pennsylvania Hall, Philadelphia. In the winter of 1838-'9 he removed to Lowell, La Salle co., Ill., with the intention of publishing the '”Genius” there, but his design was frustrated by his death. He was the first to establish anti-slavery periodicals and to deliver anti-slavery lectures, and probably the first to induce the formation of societies for the encouragement of the produce of free labor. See “The Life, Travels, and Opinions of Benjamin Lundy.” By Thomas Earl (Philadelphia, 1847).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 54.

 

 

LYMAN, Huntington, New Orleans, Louisiana, abolitionist agent.  Manager, 1834-1835, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Ohio area. (Abolitionist; Dumond, 1961, pp. 163, 184-185)

 

 

LYMAN, Samuel, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

 

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M’ELHENNEY, William, abolitionist leader, Acting Committee, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, p. 92)

 

 

MACDONALD, Alexander, New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1849-1855.

 

 

MACDONELL, Miles

 

MACDONELL, Miles, governor of Assiniboia, b. in Inverness, Scotland, in 1767; d. at Point Fortune, on Ottawa river, in 1828. His father, Col. John Macdonell, of Scothouse, Inverness-shire, at the invitation of Sir William Johnson, came to this country in 1773, with several of his friends, and settled at Caughnawaga, on Mohawk river, in New York. At the beginning of the Revolutionary war, Col. Macdonell migrated with his family to Canada, and took up his residence at St. Andrews, near Cornwall, where he died in 1810. The son Miles, who showed military tendencies at an early age, was appointed ensign in the king's royal regiment of New York in 1792, lieutenant in the royal Canadian volunteers in 1794, and captain in the same corps in 1796. At the request of Lord Selkirk he visited London in 1803, and was induced by that nobleman to assume the post of governor of his projected colony on Red river, Northwest territory. He arrived there with the first body of colonists, composed principally of evicted Scottish Highlanders from the Sutherland estates, in 1812, and was at once met with opposition from the agents of the Northwest company, whose headquarters were at Montreal. On 11 June, 1815, the Northwest company's servants attacked and fired upon the colonists, and demanded the surrender of Gov. Macdonell, who, to save the effusion of blood, gave himself up voluntarily. He was taken to Montreal as a prisoner, and charges preferred against him by his enemies, but his case was not tried. During his ten or twelve years' connection with Lord Selkirk's Red river settlement he was its leading spirit and took an active and decided part in the feuds of the Hudson bay and Northwest trading companies. His latter years were spent at his farm at Osnaburg, Upper Canada, but he died at the residence of his brother, John.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MACFARLAND, William, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Secretary, 1834-1835.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

MACK, Enoch, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Dover, New Hampshire, abolitionist.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Later, served as a Vice President, AASS, 1841-1844.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

MACLEAN, John, 1771-1814, Princeton, New Jersey, professor, chemist.  Officer in New Jersey auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 143-144; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 127; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 85)

 

MACLEAN, John, educator, b. in Glasgow, Scotland, 1 March, 1771; d. in Princeton, N. J., 17 Feb., 1814. He studied chemistry and surgery at Edinburgh, London, and Paris, completed his medical course at Glasgow, and was admitted a member of the faculty of that city at the age of twenty-one. While in Paris he became an adherent of the new theories of chemistry that had been developed by Lavoisier. Embracing republican views, he determined to become an American citizen, and emigrated to the United States in April, 1795. He settled in Princeton, N. J., where he delivered a course of lectures on chemistry, and on 1 Oct., 1795, was appointed professor of chemistry and natural history in the college. In April, 1797, he was appointed professor of mathematics, and natural philosophy also. His chemical instructions embraced the practical applications of chemistry to agriculture and manufactures as well as theoretical science. In the second year of his instructions at Princeton he wrote two “Lectures on Combustion” in answer to a pamphlet by Dr. Joseph Priestley that upheld the phlogistic theory, and a controversy between Priestley and Maclean was carried on for some time in the columns of the New York “Medical Repository.” In 1812 Dr. Maclean accepted the chair of natural philosophy and chemistry at William and Mary college, but at the end of the college year was compelled by sickness to resign. His “Memoir” was written by his son John (printed privately, Princeton, 1885). His son, John, educator, b. in Princeton, N. J., 3 March, 1800; d. there, 10 Aug., 1886, was graduated at Princeton in 1816, taught for a year, entered the Princeton theological seminary in 1818, and was tutor of Greek in the college while attending theological lectures for two years. In 1822 he was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. In 1829 he exchanged this chair for that of ancient languages. In 1847 he was relieved of the charge of the Latin department. In 1854 he succeeded Dr. James Carnahan as president of the college, which office he resigned in 1868. He was given the degree of D. D. by Washington college, Pa., in 1841, and that of LL. D. by the University of the state of New York in 1854. The legislature of New Jersey, in establishing the common-school system of the state, followed the suggestions of a lecture on “A School System for New Jersey,” delivered by Dr. Maclean before the Literary and philosophical society of New Jersey in January, 1828, and afterward published and widely distributed in pamphlet-form (Princeton, 1829). In the discussion of the questions that divided the Presbyterian church into the old- and new-school branches he took an active part, publishing a series of letters in “The Presbyterian,” afterward issued in pamphlet-form, in defence of the action of the assembly of 1837. Notable among his many contributions to the “Princeton Review” were two articles in 1841 controverting the argument that unfermented grape-juice was used by Jesus Christ in instituting the sacrament of the supper, as affirmed in two prize essays that were widely circulated by the temperance societies of England and the United States. After retiring from the presidency he prepared a “History of the College of New Jersey” (Philadelphia, 1877).   Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MACOMB, Alexander, Washington, DC, General in Chief, United States Army, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 155; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 155)

 

 

MADISON, James, 1751-1836, Virginia, founding father, fourth President of the United States.  American Colonization Society, President, 1833-1837.  Madison stated that it was his “earnest prayer, that every success may reward the labors of an institution… so noble in its object of removing a great evil from its own country.”  (Burin, 2005, p. 10; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 165-171; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 182; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 7, 24, 107, 180, 183, 187)

 

MADISON, James, fourth president of the United States, b. in Port Conway, Va., 16 March, 1751; d. at Montpelier, Orange co., Va., 28 June, 1836. His earliest paternal ancestor in Virginia seems to have been John Madison, who, in 1653, took out a patent for land between the North and York rivers on Chesapeake bay. There was a Capt. Isaac Madison in Virginia in 1623-'5, but his relationship to John Madison is matter of doubt. John's son, named also John, was father of Ambrose Madison, who married, 24 Aug., 1721, Frances, daughter of James Taylor, of Orange county, Va. Frances had four brothers, one of whom, Zachary, was grandfather of Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States. The eldest child of Ambrose and Frances was James Madison, b. 27 March, 1723, who married, 15 Sept., 1749, Nelly Conway, of Port Conway. The eldest child of James and Nelly was James, the subject of this article, who was the first of twelve children. His ancestors, as he says himself in a note furnished to Dr. Lyman C. Draper in 1834, “were not among the most wealthy of the country, but in independent and comfortable circumstances.” James's education was begun at an excellent school kept by a Scotchman named Donald Robertson, and his studies, preparatory for college, were completed at home under the care of the Rev. Thomas Martin, clergyman of the parish. He was graduated at Princeton in 1772, and remained there another year, devoting himself to the study of Hebrew. On returning home, he occupied himself with history, law, and theology, while teaching his brothers and sisters. Of the details of his youthful studies little is known, but his industry must have been very great; for, in spite of the early age at which he became absorbed in the duties of public life, the range and solidity of his acquirements were extraordinary. For minute and thorough knowledge of ancient and modern history and of constitutional law he was unequalled among the Americans of the Revolutionary period; only Hamilton, and perhaps Ellsworth and Marshall, approached him in this regard. For precocity of mental development he resembled Hamilton and the younger Pitt, and, like Washington, he was distinguished in youth for soundness of judgment, keenness of perception, and rare capacity for work. Along with these admirable qualities, his lofty integrity and his warm interest in public affairs were well known to the people of Orange, so that when, in the autumn of 1774, it was thought necessary to appoint a committee of safety, Madison was its youngest member. Early in 1776 he was chosen a delegate to the State convention, which met at Williamsburg in May. The first business of the convention was to instruct the Virginia delegation in the Continental congress with regard to an immediate declaration of Independence. Next came the work of making a constitution for the state, and Madison was one of the special committee appointed to deal with this problem. Here one of his first acts was highly characteristic. Religious liberty was a matter that strongly enlisted his feelings. When it was proposed that, under the new constitution, “all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience,” Madison pointed out that this provision did not go to the root of the matter. The free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, is something which every man may demand as a right, not something for which he must ask as a privilege. To grant to the state the power of tolerating is implicitly to grant it to the power of prohibiting, whereas Madison would deny to it any jurisdiction whatever in the matter of religion. The clause in the bill of rights, as finally adopted at his suggestion, accordingly declares that “all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience.” The incident illustrates not only Madison's liberality of spirit, but also his precision and forethought in so drawing np an instrument as to make it mean all that it was intended to mean. In his later career these qualities were especially brilliant and useful. Madison was elected a member of the first legislature under the new state constitution, but he failed of re-election because he refused to solicit votes or to furnish whiskey for thirsty voters. The new legislature then elected him a member of the governor's council, and in 1780 he was sent as delegate to the Continental congress. The high consideration in which he was held showed itself in the number of important committees to which he was appointed. As chairman of a committee for drawing up instructions for John Jay, then minister at the court of Madrid, he insisted that, in making a treaty with Spain, our right to the free navigation of the Mississippi river should on no account be surrendered. Mr. Jay was instructed, accordingly, but toward the end of 1780 the pressure of the war upon the southern states increased the desire for an alliance with Spain to such a point that they seemed ready to purchase it at any price. Virginia, therefore, proposed that the surrender of our rights upon the Mississippi should be offered to Spain as the condition of an offensive and defensive alliance. Such a proposal was no doubt ill-advised. Since Spain was already, on her own account and to the best of her ability, waging war upon Great Britain in the West Indies and Florida, to say nothing of Gibraltar, it is doubtful if she could have clone much more for the United States, even if we had offered her the whole Mississippi valley. The offer of a permanent and invaluable right in exchange for a temporary and questionable advantage seemed to Mr. Madison very unwise; but as it was then generally held that in such matters representatives must be bound by the wishes of their constituents, he yielded, though under protest. But hardly had the fresh instructions been despatched to Mr. Jay when the overthrow of Cornwallis again turned the scale, and Spain was informed that, as concerned the Mississippi question, congress was immovable. The foresight and sound judgment shown by Mr. Madison in this discussion added much to his reputation.

His next prominent action related to the impost law proposed in 1783. This was, in some respects, the most important question of the day. The chief source of the weakness of the United States during the Revolutionary war had been the impossibility of raising money by means of Federal taxation. As long as money could be raised only through requisitions upon the state governments, and the different states could not be brought to agree upon any method of enforcing the requisitions, the state governments were sure to prove delinquent. Finding it impossible to obtain money for carrying on the war, congress had resorted to the issue of large quantities of inconvertible paper, with the natural results. There had been a rapid inflation of values, followed by sudden bankruptcy and the prostration of national credit. In 1783 it had become difficult to obtain foreign loans, and at home the government could not raise nearly enough money to defray its current expenses. To remedy the evil a tariff of five per cent. upon sun dry imports, with a specific duty upon others, was proposed in congress and offered to the several  states for approval. To weaken as much as possible the objections to such law, its operation was limited to twenty-five years. Even in this mild form, however, it was impossible to persuade the several states to submit to Federal taxation. Virginia at first assented to the impost law, but afterward revoked her action. On this occasion Mr. Madison, feeling that the very existence of the nation was at stake, refused to be controlled by the action of his constituents. He persisted in urging the necessity of such an impost law, and eventually had the satisfaction of seeing Virginia adopt his view of the matter. 

The discussion of the impost law in congress revealed the antagonism that existed between the slave-states and those states which had emancipated their slaves. In endeavoring to apportion equitably the quotas of revenue to be required of the several states, it was observed that, if taxation were to be distributed according to population, it made a great difference whether or not slaves were to be counted as population. If slaves were to be counted, the southern states would have to pay more than their equitable share into the treasury of the general government; if slaves were not to be counted, it was argued at the north that they would be paying less than their equitable share. Consequently at that time the northern states were inclined to maintain that the slaves were population, while the south preferred to regard them as chattels. The question was settled by a compromise that was proposed by Mr. Madison; according to this arrangement the slaves were rated as population, but in such wise that five of them were counted as three persons. 

In 1784 Mr. Madison was again elected to the Virginia legislature, an office then scarcely inferior in dignity, and superior in influence, to that of delegate to the Continental congress. His efforts were steadfastly devoted to the preparation and advocacy of measures that were calculated to increase the strength of the Federal government. He supported the proposed amendment to the articles of confederation, giving to congress control over the foreign trade of the states; and, pending the adoption of such a measure, he secured in that body the passage of a port bill restricting the entry of foreign ships to certain specified ports. The purpose of this was to facilitate the collection of revenue, but it was partially defeated in its operation by successive amendments increasing the number of ports. While the weakness of the general government and the need for strengthening it were daily growing more apparent, the question of religious liberty was the subject of earnest discussion in the Virginia legislature. An attempt was made to lay a tax upon all the people of that state “for the support of teachers of the Christian religion.” At first Madison was almost the only one to see clearly the serious danger lurking in such a tax; that it would be likely to erect a state church and curtail men's freedom of belief and worship. Mr. Madison's position here well illustrated the remark that intelligent persistence is capable of making one person a majority. His energetic opposition resulted at first in postponing the measure. Then he wrote a “Memorial and Remonstrance,” setting forth its dangerous character with wonderful clearness and cogency. He sent this paper all over the state for signatures, and in the course of a twelvemonth had so educated the people that, in the election of 1785, the question of religious freedom was made a test question, and in the ensuing session the dangerous bill was defeated, and in place thereof it was enacted “that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess and, by argument, maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” In thus abolishing religious tests Virginia came to the front among all the American states, as Massachusetts had come to the front in the abolition of negro slavery. Nearly all the states still imposed religions tests upon civil the office-holders, from simply declaring a general belief in the infallibleness of the Bible, to accepting the doctrine of the Trinity. Madison's “Religious Freedom Act” was translated into French and Italian, and was widely read and commented upon in Europe. In our own history it set a most valuable precedent for other states to follow.

The attitude of Mr. Madison with regard to paper money was also very important. The several states had then the power of issuing promissory notes and making them a legal tender, and many of them shamefully abused this power. The year 1786 witnessed perhaps the most virulent craze for paper money that has ever attacked the American people. In Virginia the masterly reasoning and the resolute attitude of a few great political leaders saved the state from yielding to the delusion, and among these leaders Mr. Madison was foremost. But his most important, work in the Virginia legislature was that which led directly to the Annapolis convention, and thus ultimately to the framing of the constitution of the United States. The source from which such vast results were to flow was the necessity of an agreement between Maryland and Virginia with regard to the navigation of the Potomac river, and the collection of duties at ports on its banks. Commissioners, appointed by the two states to discuss this question, met early in 1785 and recommended that a uniform tariff should be adopted and enforced upon both banks. But a further question, also closely connected with the navigation of the Potomac, now came up for discussion. The tide of westward migration had for some time been pouring over the Alleghanies, and, owing to complications with the Spanish power in the Mississippi valley, there was some danger that the United States might not be able to keep its hold upon the new settlements. It was necessary to strengthen the commercial ties between east and west, and to this end the Potomac company was formed for the purpose of improving the navigation of the upper waters of the Potomac and connecting them by good roads and canals with the upper waters of the Ohio at Pittsburg—an enterprise which, in due course of time, resulted in the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. The first president of the Potomac company was George Washington, who well understood that the undertaking was quite as important in its political as in its commercial bearings. At the same time it was proposed to connect the Potomac and Delaware rivers with a canal, and a company was organized for this purpose. This made it desirable that the four states—Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania—should agree upon the laws for regulating interstate traffic through this system of water-ways. But from this it was but a short step to the conclusion that, since the whole commercial system of the United States confessedly needed overhauling, it might perhaps be as well for all the thirteen states to hold a convention for considering the matter. When such a suggestion was communicated from the legislature of Maryland to that of Virginia, it afforded Mr. Madison the opportunity for which he had been eagerly waiting. Some time before he had prepared a resolution for the appointment of commissioners to confer with commissioners from the other states concerning the trade of the country and the advisableness of intrusting its regulation to the Federal government. This resolution Mr. Madison left to be offered to the assembly by some one less conspicuously identified with federalist opinions than himself; and it was accordingly presented by Mr. Tyler, father of the future president of that name. The motion was unfavorably received and was laid upon the table, but when the message came from Maryland the matter was reconsidered and the resolution passed. Annapolis was selected as the place for the convention, which assembled on 11 Sept., 1786. Only five states—Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York—were represented at the meeting. Maryland, which had first suggested the convention, had seen the appointed time arrive without even taking the trouble to select commissioners. As the representation was so inadequate, the convention thought it best to defer action, and accordingly adjourned after adopting an address to the states, which was prepared by Alexander Hamilton. The address incorporated a suggestion from New Jersey, which indefinitely enlarged the business to be treated by such a convention; it was to deal not only with the regulation of commerce, but with “other important matters.” Acting upon this cautious hint, the address recommended the calling of a second convention, to be held at Philadelphia on the second Monday of May, 1787. Mr. Madison was one of the commissioners at Annapolis, and was very soon appointed a delegate to the new convention, along with Washington, Randolph, Mason, and others. The avowed purpose of the new convention was to “devise such provisions as shall appear necessary to render the constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to report to congress such an act as, when agreed to by them and confirmed by the legislatures of every state, would effectually provide for the same.” The report of the Annapolis commissioners was brought before congress in October, in the hope that congress would earnestly recommend to the several states the course of action therein suggested. At first the objections to the plan prevailed in congress, but the events of the winter went far toward persuading men in all parts of the country that the only hope of escaping anarchy lay in a thorough revision of the imperfect scheme of government under which we were then living. The paper-money craze in so many of the states, the violent proceedings in the Rhode Island legislature, the riots in Vermont and New Hampshire, the Shays rebellion in Massachusetts, the dispute with Spain about the navigation of the Mississippi, and the consequent imminent danger of separation between north and south, had all come together; and now the last ounce was laid upon the camel's back in the failure of the impost amendment. In February, 1787, just as Mr. Madison, who had been chosen a delegate to congress, arrived in New York, the legislature of that state refused its assent to the amendment, which was thus defeated. Thus, only three months before the time designated for the meeting of the Philadelphia convention, congress was decisively informed that it would not be allowed to take any effectual measures for raising a revenue. This accumulation of difficulties made congress more ready to listen to the arguments of Mr. Madison, and presently congress itself proposed a convention at Philadelphia identical with the one recommended by the Annapolis commissioners, and thus in its own way sanctioned their action.

The assembling of the convention at Philadelphia was an event to which Mr. Madison, by persistent energy and skill, had contributed more than any other man in the country, with the possible exception of Alexander Hamilton. For the noble political structure reared by the convention, it was Madison that furnished the basis. Before the convention met he laid before his colleagues of the Virginia delegation the outlines of the scheme that was presented to the convention as the “Virginia plan.” Of the delegates, Edmund Randolph was then governor of Virginia, and it was he that presented the plan, and made the opening speech in defence of it, but its chief author was Madison. This “Virginia plan” struck directly at the root of the evils from which our Federal government had suffered under the articles of confederation. The weakness of that government had consisted in the fact that it operated only upon states and not upon individuals. Only states, not individuals, were represented in the Continental congress, which accordingly resembled a European congress rather than an English parliament. The delegates to the Continental congress were more like envoys from sovereign states than like members of a legislative body. They might deliberate and advise, but had no means of enforcing their will upon the several state governments; and hence they could neither raise a revenue nor preserve order. In forming the new government, this fundamental difficulty was met first by the creation of a legislative body representing population instead of states, and secondly by the creation of a Federal executive and a Federal judiciary. Thus arose that peculiar state of things so familiar to Americans, but so strange to Europeans that they find it hard to comprehend it: the state of things in which every individual lives under two complete and well-rounded systems of laws—the state law and the Federal law—each with its legislature, its executive, and its judiciary, moving one within the other. It was one of the longest reaches of constructive statesmanship ever known in the world, and the credit of it is due to Madison more than to any other one man. To him we chiefly owe the luminous conception of the two coexisting and harmonious spheres of government, although the constitution, as actually framed, was the result of skilful compromises by which the Virginia plan was modified and improved in many important points. In its original shape that plan went further toward national consolidation than the constitution as adopted. It contemplated a national legislature to be composed of two houses, but both the upper and the lower house were to represent population instead of states. Here it encountered fierce opposition from the smaller states, under the lead of New Jersey, until the matter was settled by the famous Connecticut compromise, according to which the upper house was to represent states, while the lower house represented population. Madison's original scheme, moreover, would have allowed the national legislature to set aside at discretion such state laws as it might deem unconstitutional. It seems strange to find Madison, who afterward drafted the Virginia resolutions of 1798, now suggesting and defending a provision so destructive of state rights. It shows how strongly he was influenced at the time by the desire to put an end to the prevailing anarchy. The discussion of this matter in the convention, as we read it to-day, brings out in a very strong light the excellence of the arrangement finally adopted, by which the constitutionality of state laws is left to be determined through the decisions of the Federal supreme court.

In all the discussions in the Federal convention Mr. Madison naturally took a leading part. Besides the work of cardinal importance which he achieved as principal author of the Virginia plan, especial mention must be made of the famous compromise that adjusted the distribution of representatives between the northern and the southern states. We have seen that in the congress of 1788, when it was a question of taxation, the south was inclined to regard slaves as chattels, while the north preferred to regard them as population. Now, when it had come to be a question of the apportionment of representation, the case was reversed: it was the south that wished to count slaves as population, while the north insisted that they should be classed as chattels. Here Mr. Madison proposed the same compromise that had succeeded in congress four years before; and Mr. Rutledge, of South. Carolina, who had supported him on the former occasion, could hardly do otherwise than come again to his side. It was agreed that in counting population, whether for direct taxation or for representation in the lower house of congress, five slaves should be reckoned as three individuals. In the history of the formation of our Federal Union this compromise was of cardinal importance. Without it the Union would undoubtedly have gone to pieces at the outset, and it was for this reason that the northern abolitionists, Gouverneur Morris and Rufus King, joined with Washington and Madison and with the pro-slavery Pinckneys in subscribing to it. Some of the evils resulting from this compromise have led historians, writing from the abolitionist point of view, to condemn it utterly. Nothing can be clearer, however, than that, in order to secure the adoption of the constitution, it was absolutely necessary to satisfy South Carolina. This was proved by the course of events in 1788, when there was a strong party in Virginia in favor of a separate confederacy of southern states. By South Carolina's prompt ratification of the constitution this scheme was completely defeated, and a most formidable obstacle to the formation of a more perfect union was removed. Of all the compromises in American history, this of the so-called “three-fifths rule” was probably the most important: until the beginning of the civil war there was hardly a political movement of any consequence not affected by it.

Mr. Madison's services in connection with the founding of our Federal government were thus, up to this point, of the most transcendent kind. We have seen that he played a leading part in the difficult work of getting a convention to assemble; the merit of this he shares with other eminent men, and notably with Washington and Hamilton. Then he was chief author of the most fundamental features in the constitution, those which transformed our government from a loose confederacy of states into a Federal nation; and to him is due the principal credit for the compromise that made the adoption of the constitution possible for all the states. After the adjournment of the convention his services did not cease. Among those whose influence in bringing about the ratification of the constitution was felt all over the country, he shares with Hamilton the foremost place. The “Federalist,” their joint production, is probably the greatest treatise on political science that has ever appeared in the world, at once the most practical and the most profound. The evenness with which the merits of this work are shared between Madison and Hamilton is well illustrated by the fact that it is not always easy to distinguish between the two, so that there has been considerable controversy as to the number of papers contributed by each. According to Madison's own memorandum, he was the author of twenty-nine of the papers, while fifty-one were written by Hamilton, and five by Jay. (See HAMILTON, ALEXANDER.) The question is not of great importance. Very probably Mr. Madison would have had a larger share in the work had he not been obliged, in March, 1788, to return to Virginia, in order to take part in the State convention for deciding upon the ratification of the constitution. The opposition in Virginia was strong and well organized, and had for leaders such eminent patriots as Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee. The debates in the convention lasted nearly a month, and for a considerable part of this time the outlook was not promising. The discussion was conducted mainly between Madison and Henry, the former being chiefly assisted by Marshall, Wythe, Randolph, Pendleton, and Henry Lee, the latter by Mason, Monroe, Harrison, and Tyler. To Mr. Madison, more than to any one else, it was due that the constitution was at length ratified, while the narrowness of the majority—89 to 79—bore witness to the severity of the contest. It did not appear that the people of Virginia were even yet convinced by the arguments that had prevailed in the convention. The assembly that met in the following October showed a heavy majority of anti-Federalists, and under Henry's leadership it called upon congress for a second National convention to reconsider the work done by the first. Senators were now to be chosen for the first U. S. senate, and Henry, in naming Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson, both anti-Federalists, as the two men who ought to be chosen, took pains to mention James Madison as the one man who on no account whatever ought to be elected senator. Henry was successful in carrying this point. The next thing was to keep Mr. Madison out of congress, and Henry's friends sought to accomplish this by means of the device afterward known as “gerrymandering”; but the attempt failed, and Madison was elected to the first national house of representatives. His great knowledge, and the part he had played in building up the framework of the government, made him from the outset the leading member of the house. His first motion was one for raising a revenue by tariff and tonnage duties. He offered the resolutions for creating the executive departments of foreign affairs, of the treasury, and of war. He proposed twelve amendments to the constitution, in order to meet the objection, urged in many quarters, that that instrument did not contain a bill of rights. The first ten of these amendments were adopted and became part of the constitution in 1791.

The first division of political parties under the constitution began to show itself in the debates upon Hamilton's financial measures as secretary of the treasury, and in this division we see Madison acting as leader of the opposition. By many writers this has been regarded as indicating a radical change of attitude on his part, and sundry explanations have been offered to account for the presumed inconsistency. He has been supposed to have succumbed to the personal influence of Jefferson, and to have yielded his own convictions to the desires and prejudices of his constituents. Such explanations are hardly borne out by what we know of Mr. Madison's career up to this point; and, moreover, they are uncalled for. If we consider carefully the circumstances of the time, the presumed inconsistency in his conduct disappears. The new Republican party, of which he soon became one of the leaders, was something quite different in its attitude from the anti-Federalist party of 1787-'90. There was ample room in it for men who in these critical years had been stanch Federalists, and as time passed this came to be more and more the case, until after a quarter of a century the entire Federalist party, with the exception of a few inflexible men in New England, had been absorbed by the Republican party. In 1790, since the Federal constitution had been actually adopted, and was going into operation, and since the extent of power that it granted to the general government must be gradually tested by the discussion of specific measures, it followed that the only natural and healthful division of parties must be the division between strict and loose constructionists. It was to be expected that anti-Federalists would become strict constructionists, and so most of them did, though examples were not wanting of such men swinging to the opposite extreme of politics, and advocating an extension of the powers of the Federal government. But there was no reason in the world why a Federalist of 1787-'90 must thereafter, in order to preserve his consistency, become a loose constructionist. It was entirely consistent for a statesman to advocate the adoption of the constitution, while convinced that the powers specifically granted therein to the general government were ample, and that great care should be taken not to add indefinitely to such powers through rash and loose methods of interpretation. Not only is such an attitude perfectly reasonable in itself, but it is, in particular, the one that a principal author of the constitution would have been very likely to take; and no doubt it was just this attitude that Mr. Madison took in the early sessions of congress. The occasions on which he assumed it were, moreover, eminently proper, and afford an admirable illustration of the difference in temper and mental habit between himself and Hamilton. The latter had always more faith in the heroic treatment of political questions than Madison. The restoration of American credit in 1790 was a task that demanded heroic measures, and it was fortunate that we had such a man as Hamilton to undertake it. But undoubtedly the assumption of state debts by the Federal government, however admirably it met the emergency of the moment, was such a measure as might easily create a dangerous precedent, and there was certainly nothing strange or inconsistent in Madison's opposition to it. A similar explanation will cover his opposition to Hamilton's national bank; and indeed, with the considerations here given as a clew, there is little or nothing in Mr. Madison's career in congress that is not thoroughly intelligible. At the time, however, the Federalists, disappointed at losing a man of so much power, misunderstood his acts and misrepresented his motives, and the old friendship between him and Hamilton gave way to mutual distrust and dislike. Mr. Madison sympathized with the French revolutionists, though he did not go so far in this direction as Jefferson. In the debates upon Jay's treaty with Great Britain he led the opposition, and supported the resolution asking President Washington to submit to the house of representatives copies of the papers relating to the negotiation. The resolution was passed, but Washington refused on the ground that the making of treaties was intrusted by the constitution to the president and the senate, and that the lower house was not entitled to meddle with their work.

At the close of Washington's second administration Mr. Madison retired for a brief season from public life. During this difficult period the country had been fortunate in having, as leader of the opposition in congress, a man so wise in counsel, so temperate in spirit, and so courteous in demeanor. Whatever else might be said of Madison's conduct in opposition, it could never be called factious; it was calm, generous, and disinterested. About two years before the close of his career in congress he married Mrs. Dolly Payne Todd, a beautiful widow, much younger than himself; and about this time he seems to have built the house at Montpelier which was to be his home during his later years. But retirement from public life, in any real sense of the phrase, was not yet possible for such a man. The wrath of the French government over Jay's treaty led to depredations upon American shipping, to the sending of commissioners to Paris, and to the blackmailing attempts of Talleyrand, as shown up in the X. Y. Z. despatches. (See ADAMS, JOHN.) In the fierce outburst of indignation that in America greeted these disclosures, in the sudden desire for war with France, which went so far as to vent itself in actual fighting on the sea, though war was never declared, the Federalist party believed itself to be so strong that it proceeded at once to make one of the greatest blunders ever made by a political party, in passing the alien and sedition acts. This high-handed legislation caused a sudden revulsion of feeling in favor of the Republicans, and called forth vigorous remonstrance. Party feeling has, perhaps, never in this country been so bitter, except just before the civil war. A series of resolutions, drawn up by Mr. Madison, was adopted in 1798 by the legislature of Virginia, while a similar series, still more pronounced, drawn up by Mr. Jefferson, was adopted in the same year by the legislature of Kentucky. The Virginia resolutions asserted with truth that, in adopting the Federal constitution, the states had surrendered only a limited portion of their powers; and went on to declare that, whenever the Federal government should exceed its constitutional authority, it was the business of the state governments to interfere and pronounce such action unconstitutional. Accordingly, Virginia declared the alien and sedition laws unconstitutional, and invited the other states to join in the declaration. Not meeting with a favorable response, Virginia renewed these resolutions the next year. There was nothing necessarily seditious, or tending toward secession, in the Virginia resolutions; but the attitude assumed in them was uncalled for on the part of any state, inasmuch as there existed, in the Federal supreme court, a tribunal competent to decide upon the constitutionality of acts of congress. The Kentucky resolutions went further. They declared that our Federal constitution was a compact, to which the several states were the one party and the Federal government was the other, and each party must decide for itself as to when the compact was infringed, and as to the proper remedy to be adopted. When the resolutions were repeated in 1799, a clause was added, which went still further and mentioned “nullification” as the suitable remedy, and one that any state might employ. In the Virginia resolutions there was neither mention nor intention of nullification as a remedy. Mr. Madison lived to witness South Carolina's attempt at nullification in 1832, and in a very able paper, written in the last year of his life, he conclusively refuted the idea that his resolutions of 1798 afforded any justification for such an attempt, and showed that what they really contemplated was a protest on the part of all the state governments in common. Doubtless such a remedy was clumsy and impracticable, and the suggestion of it does not deserve to be ranked along with Mr. Madison's best work in constructive statesmanship; but it certainly contained no logical basis for what its author unsparingly denounced as the “twin heresies” of nullification and secession.

In 1799 Mr. Madison was again elected a member of the Virginia assembly, and in 1801, at Mr. Jefferson's urgent desire, he became secretary of state. In accepting this appointment he entered upon a new career, in many respects different from that which he had hitherto followed. His work as a constructive statesman, which was so great as to place him in the foremost rank among the men that have built up nations, was by this time substantially completed. During the next few years the constitutional questions that had hitherto occupied him played a part subordinate to that played by questions of foreign policy, and in this new sphere Mr. Madison was not, by nature or training, fitted to exercise such a controlling influence as he had formerly brought to bear in the framing of our Federal government. As secretary of state, he was an able lieutenant to Mr. Jefferson, but his genius was not that of an executive officer so much as that of a law-giver. He brought his great historical and legal learning to bear in a paper entitled “An Examination of the British Doctrine which subjects to Capture a Neutral Trade not open in the Time of Peace.” But the troubled period that followed the rupture of the treaty of Amiens was not one in which legal arguments, however masterly, counted for much in bringing angry and insolent combatants to terms. In the gigantic struggle between England and Napoleon the commerce of the United States was ground to pieces as between the upper and the nether millstone, and in some respects there is no chapter in American history more painful for an American citizen to read. The outrageous affair of the “Leopard” and the “Chesapeake” was but the most flagrant of a series of wrongs and insults, against which Jefferson's embargo was doubtless an absurd and feeble protest, but perhaps at the same time pardonable as the only weapon left us in that period of national weakness.

Affairs were drawing slowly toward some kind of crisis when, at the expiration of Jefferson's second term, Mr. Madison was elected president of the United States by 122 electoral votes against 47 for Cotesworth Pinckney, and 6 for George Clinton, who received 113 votes for the vice-presidency, and was elected to that office. The opposition of the New England states to the embargo had by this time brought about its repeal, and the substitution for it of the act declaring non-intercourse with England and France. By this time many of the most intelligent Federalists, including John Quincy Adams, had gone over to the Republicans. In 1810 congress repealed the non-intercourse act, which, as a measure of intimidation, had proved ineffectual. Congress now sought to use the threat of non-intercourse as a kind of bribe, and informed England and France that if either nation would repeal its obnoxious edicts, the non-intercourse act would be revived against the other. Napoleon took prompt advantage of this, and informed Mr. Madison's government that he had revoked his Berlin and Milan decrees as far as American ships were concerned; but at the same time he gave secret orders by which the decrees were to be practically enforced as harshly as ever. The lie served its purpose, and congress revived the non-intercourse act as against Great Britain alone. In 1811 hostilities began on sea and land, in the affair of Tippecanoe and of the “President” and “Little Belt.” The growing desire for war was shown in the choice of Henry Clay for speaker of the house of representatives, and Mr. Madison was nominated for a second term, on condition of adopting the war policy. On 18 June, 1812, war was declared, and before the autumn election a series of remarkable naval victories had made it popular. Mr. Madison was re-elected by 128 electoral votes against 89 for. De Witt Clinton, of New York. The one absorbing event, which filled the greater part of his second term, was the war with Great Britain, which was marked by some brilliant victories and some grave disasters, including the capture of Washington by British troops, and the flight of the government from the national capital. Whatever opinion may be held as to the character of the war and its results, there is a general agreement that its management, on the part of the United States, was feeble. Mr. Madison was essentially a man of peace, and as the manager of a great war he was conspicuously out of his element. The history of that war plays a great part in the biographies of the military and naval heroes that figured in it; it is a cardinal event in the career of Andrew Jackson or Isaac Hull. In the biography of Madison it is an episode which may be passed over briefly. The greatest part of his career was finished before he held the highest offices; his renown will rest chiefly or entirely upon what he did before the beginning of the 19th century.

After the close of his second term in 1817 Mr. Madison retired to his estate at Montpelier, where he spent nearly twenty happy years with books and friends. This sweet and tranquil old age he had well earned by services to his fellow-creatures such as it is given to but few men to render. Among the founders of our nation, his place is beside that of Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Marshall; but his part was peculiar. He was preeminently the scholar, the profound, constructive thinker, and his limitations were such as belong to that character. He was modest, quiet, and reserved in manner, small in stature, neat and refined, courteous and amiable. In rough party strife there were many who could for the moment outshine him. He was not the sort of hero for whom people throw up their caps and shout themselves hoarse, like Andrew Jackson, for example. But his work was of a kind that will be powerful for good in the world long after the work of the men of Jackson's type shall have been forgotten. The portrait on steel is from a painting by Gilbert Stuart, and the vignette is copied from a drawing by Longacre made at Montpelier in July, 1833, when Mr. Madison was in his eighty-third year. The view on page 169 represents his residence.

A satisfactory biography of Madison and a complete edition of his writings are things still to be desired. His interesting account of the Federal convention is published in Eliot's “Debates.” See also the “Madison Papers” (3 vols., Washington, 1840). For biographies there is the cumbrous work of William C. Rives (3 vols., Boston, 1859-'68) and the sketch by Sydney Howard Gay in the “American Statesmen” series (Boston, 1884). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MAFFITT, John Newland, 1795-1850, Boston, Massachusetts, Methodist clergyman.  Strong supporter and advocate for colonization and the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 172; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 134)

 

MAFFITT, John Newland, clergyman, b. in Dublin, Ireland, 28 Dec., 1795; d. near Mobile, Ala., 28 May, 1850. He was destined for mercantile life by his parents, who belonged to the Established church; but embracing the Wesleyan doctrines in 1813, he determined to become a minister, and, meeting with opposition at home, emigrated to the United States in 1819, and in 1822 entered the New England conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. After preaching for twelve years as an itinerant in various cities of the eastern states, he became a local preacher in New York city in 1832, and thereafter travelled, preached, and lectured at his own discretion. In 1833, in conjunction with Rev. Lewis Garrett, he established in Nashville, Tenn., the “Western Methodist,” which was subsequently transformed into the “Christian Advocate,” and adopted as the central organ of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. Great numbers assembled to listen to his sermons in the south and southwest, and many converts were added to the church. He was agent for La Grange college, Ala., in 1836-'7, and was subsequently for a short time professor of elocution and belles-lettres in that institution, but resided chiefly in the Atlantic cities. In 1841 he was chaplain to the National house of representatives. In 1845-'6 he edited a literary and religious monthly, called the “Calvary Token,” that he had established at Auburn, N. Y. In 1847, on the occasion of a second marriage, charges were brought against his moral character, in consequence of which he removed from New York to Arkansas. He preached in various cities, but his popularity was affected and his mind troubled by the suspicions he had incurred, and his power as a pulpit orator was gone. Mr. Maffitt was the author of “Tears of Contrition,” a recountal of his religious experiences (1821); “Pulpit Sketches” (Boston, 1828); and a volume of “Poems” (1839). He left an “Oratorical Dictionary” and an “Autobiography.”  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MAGILL, Jonathan P., New Hope, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842, 1843-1852.

 

 

MAHAN, Asa, 1799-1889, Ohio, clergyman, abolitionist, president of Oberlin College 1835-1850.  Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1834-1835. (Mabee, 1970, pp. 218, 403n25; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 176; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 208; Dumond, 1961, p. 165; Abolitionist)

 

MAHAN, Asa, clergyman, b. in Vernon, N.Y., 9 Nov., 1800. He was graduated at Hamilton college in 1824, and at Andover theological seminary in 1827. On 10 Nov., 1829, he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Pittsford, N. Y., and in 1831 he was called to the pastorate of a Presbyterian church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He accepted the presidency of Oberlin in 1835, with the chair of intellectual and moral philosophy, and the assistant professorship of theology, but after fifteen years was chosen president of Cleveland university, Cleveland, Ohio, and professor of mental and moral philosophy there. In 1855 he resumed pastoral work, and had charge of Congregational parishes at Jackson in 1855-'7 and at Adrian in 1857-'60. He was president of Adrian college, Mich., in 1860-'71, and since then has resided in England. President Mahan has received the degree of D. D. from Hillsdale in 1858, and that of LL. D. from Adrian in 1877. He has been an active advocate of the religious views that are known as Perfectionist, and has published “Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection” (Boston, 1839). His other works include “System of Intellectual Philosophy” (New York, 1845); “The Doctrine of the Will” (Oberlin, 1846); “The True Believer: his Character, Duties, and Privileges” (New York, 1847); “The Science of Moral Philosophy” (Oberlin, 1848); “Election and the Influence of the Holy Spirit” (New York, 1851); “Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed” (Boston, 1855); “The Science of Logic” (New York, 1857); “Science of Natural Theology” (Boston, 1867); “Theism and Anti-Theism in their Relations to Science” (Cleveland, 1872); “The Phenomena of Spiritualism scientifically Explained and Exposed” (New York, 1876); “Critical History of the late American War” (1877); “A System of Mental Philosophy” (Chicago, 1882); and “Critical History of Philosophy” (New York 1883). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 176.

 

 

MAHAN, John B., Brown County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

MALVIN, John, 1793-1880, African American, abolitionist, community and civil rights activist.  Active participant in the Underground Railroad in Ohio.  Member of the Cleveland Anti-Slavery Society and Vice President of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in the Negro Convention Movement. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 7, p. 473)

 

 

MANN, Daniel, Princeton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Treasurer, 1844-45, Executive Committee, 1846

 

 

MANN, Horace, 1796-1859, Boston, Massachusetts, educator, political leader, social reformer.  U.S. Congressman, Whig Party, from Massachusetts.  Co-founder of the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Boston.  Co-founded monthly paper, The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom.  He defended the American Colonization Society and its policies against criticism by William Lloyd Garrison.  Opposed extension of slavery in territories annexed in the Mexican War of 1846.  Said, “I consider no evil as great as slavery...”  Argued against the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.  Reelected to Congress and served from April 1848 until March 1853.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 64, 157, 160, 168, 170, 171, 261, 294, 409n9; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 190-191; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 240; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 424; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 204)

 

MANN, Horace, educator, b. in Franklin, Mass., 4 May, 1796; d. in Yellow Springs, Ohio, 2 Aug., 1859. His father was a farmer in limited circumstances, and the son was forced to procure by his own exertions the means of obtaining an education. He earned his school-books when a child by braiding straw, and his severe and frugal life taught him habits of self-reliance and independence. From ten years of age to twenty he had never more than six weeks’ schooling during any year, and he describes his instructors as “very good people, but very poor teachers.” He was graduated at Brown in 1819, and the theme of his oration, “The Progressive Character of the Human Race,” foreshadowed his subsequent career. After his graduation he was tutor in Latin and Greek in Brown, entered the Litchfield , Conn., law-school in 1821, and in 1823 was admitted to the bar, opening an office in Dedham, Mass. He was elected to the legislature in 1827, and in that body was active in the interests of education, public charities, and laws for the suppression of intemperance and lotteries. He established through his personal exertions the State lunatic asylum at Worcester, and in 1833 was chairman of its board of trustees. He continued to be returned to the legislature as representative from Dedham till his removal to Boston in 1833, when he entered into partnership with Edward G. Loring. In the practice of his profession he adopted the principle never to take the unjust side of any cause, and he is said to have gained four fifths of the cases in which he was engaged, the influence that he exerted over the juries being due in a great measure to the confidence that all felt in his honesty of purpose. He was elected to the state senate from Boston in 1833, was its president in 1836-'7, and from the latter year till 1848 was secretary of the Massachusetts board of education. While in the legislature he was a member and part of the time chairman of the committee for the revision of the state statutes, and a large number of salutary provisions were incorporated into the code at his suggestion. After their enactment he was appointed one of the editors of the work, and prepared its marginal notes and its references to judicial decisions. On entering on his duties as secretary to the Massachusetts board of education he withdrew from all other professional or business engagements and from politics. He introduced a thorough reform into the school system of the state, procuring the adoption of extensive changes in the school law, establishing normal schools, and instituting county educational conventions. He ascertained the actual condition of each school by “school registers,” and from the detailed reports of the school committees made valuable abstracts that he embodied in his annual reports. Under the auspices of the board, but at his own expense, he went to Europe in 1843 to visit schools, especially in Germany, and his seventh annual report, published after his return, embodied the results of his tour. Many editions of this report were printed, not only in Massachusetts, but in other states, in some cases by private individuals and in others by legislatures, and several editions were issued in England. By his advocacy of the disuse of corporal punishment in school discipline he was involved in a controversy with some of the Boston teachers that resulted in the adoption of his views. By his lectures and writings he awakened an interest in the cause of education that had never before been felt. He gave his legal opinions gratuitously, superintended the erection of a few buildings, and drew plans for many others. In his “Supplementary Report” (1848) he said: “From the time I accepted the secretaryship in June, 1837, until May, 1 848, when I tendered my resignation of it, I labored in this cause an average of not less than fifteen hours a day; from the beginning to the end of this period I never took a single day for relaxation, and months and months together passed without my withdrawing a single evening to call upon a friend.” In, the spring of 1848 he was elected to congress as a Whig, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams. His first speech in that body was in advocacy of its right and duty to exclude slavery from the territories, and in a letter in December of that year he said: “I think the country is to experience serious times. Interference with slavery will excite civil commotion in the south. But it is best to interfere. Now is the time to see whether the Union is a rope of sand or a band of steel.” Again he said: “I consider no evil as great as slavery, and I would pass the Wilmot proviso whether the south rebel or not.” During the first session he volunteered as counsel for Drayton and Sayres, who were indicted for stealing seventy-six slaves in the District of Columbia, and at the trial was engaged for twenty-one successive days in their defence. In 1850 he was engaged in a controversy with Daniel Webster in regard to the extension of slavery and the fugitive-slave law. Mann was defeated by a single vote at the ensuing nominating convention by Mr. Webster's supporters; but, on appealing to the people as an independent anti-slavery candidate, he was re-elected, serving from April, 1848, till March, 1853. In September, 1852, he was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Free-soil party, and the same day was chosen president of Antioch college, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Failing in the election for governor, he accepted the presidency of the college, in which he continued until his death. He carried that institution through pecuniary and other difficulties, and satisfied himself of the practicality of co-education. His death was hastened by his untiring labors in his office. He published, besides his annual reports, his lectures on education, and his voluminous controversial writings, “A Few Thoughts for a Young Man” (Boston, 1850); “Slavery: Letters and Speeches” (1851); “Powers and Duties of Woman” (1853); and “Sermons” (1861). See “Life of Horace Mann,” by his wife (1865); “Life and Complete Works of Horace Mann” (2 vols., Cambridge, 1869); and “Thoughts selected from the Writings of Horace Mann” (1869). His lectures on education were translated into French by Eugène de Guer, under the title of “De l'importance de l'éducation dans une république,” with a preface and biographical sketch by Edouard R. L. Laboulaye (Paris, 1873).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 190-191.

 

 

MANN, Joel, Salem, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1842-43

 

 

MANSFIELD, L. Delos, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

MARCY, William Learned, 1786-1857, New York, statesman.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1837-1840.  U.S. Senator and Governor of New York.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. p. 203; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 274)

 

MARCY, William Learned, statesman, b. in Southbridge, Mass., 12 Dec., 1786; d. in Ballston Spa., N. Y., 4 July, 1857. He was graduated at Brown in 1808, and then studied law in Troy, N. Y., where, after being admitted to the bar, he opened an office. The war with Great Britain soon began, and young Marcy, holding a lieutenancy in a light-infantry company, tendered the services of his command to the governor of New York. This offer was accepted, and the company was sent to French Mills, on the northern frontier. On the night of 23 Oct., 1812, he surprised and captured the Canadian forces that were stationed at St. Regis. These were the first prisoners taken on land, and their flag was the first captured during the war. This exploit gained for him recognition from Gen. Henry Dearborn, and his command was attached to the main army, but, after serving the time for which he had enlisted, he returned to his practice, having attained the rank of captain. In 1816 he was appointed recorder of Troy, but his opposition to De Witt Clinton led to his removal from office, and remains as one of the earliest cases of political proscription in the history of New York. He then became editor of the “Troy Budget,” a daily newspaper, which he soon made a well-known organ of the Democratic party. The earnest support that he gave to Martin Van Buren resulted in his affiliation with the division of the Democratic party of which Van Buren was leader, and in 1821 he was made adjutant-general of the state militia. He was a member of the “Albany regency.” (See CAGGER, PETER.) His political capabilities showed themselves to advantage in the passage of the act that authorized a convention to revise the constitution. He became in 1823 comptroller of the state, an important office at that time, owing to the large expenditures on the Erie and Champlain canals, and the increase of the state debt. In 1829 he was appointed one of the associate justices of the supreme court of New York, and in that capacity presided over numerous important trials, among which was that of the alleged murderers of William Morgan (q. v.). He continued on the bench until 1831, when he was elected as a Democrat to the U. S. senate, serving from 5 Dec., 1831, and becoming chairman of the judiciary committee. His maiden speech was in answed to Henry Clay's aspersions on Martin Van Buren, and was followed soon afterward by his answer to Daniel Webster's speech on the apportionment. His career as a senator gained for him a strong hold on the confidence of the people of his state and elsewhere. He resigned in 1833 to fill the governorship of New York, to which he had been elected, and held that office through three terms, until 1839. For a fourth time he was nominated, but he was defeated by William H. Seward. In 1839 he was appointed by Martin Van Buren one of the commissioners to decide upon the claims against the government of Mexico, under the convention of that year, and was so occupied until 1842. He presided over the Democratic state convention at Syracuse in September, 1843, and during the subsequent canvass he used his influence in causing the state of New York to cast its votes for James K. Polk, by whom, after his election, he was invited to become secretary of war. The duties of that office were performed by him with signal ability, especially during the Mexican war. The difficulties of his task were somewhat increased by the fact that the two victorious generals, Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor, were of the opposing political party, and charged Mr. Marcy with using his official power to embarrass and retard their military operations. These accusations were made so persistently and openly that it became necessary for him to defend him self against such attacks, which he did with so much force that he completely silenced all censure. During his term of office he exerted his diplomatic powers to advantage in the settlement of the Oregon boundary question, also advocating the tariff of 1846, and opposing all interference on the slavery question. At the close of his term of office he retired to private life, but in 1853 he returned to Washington as secretary of state under Franklin Pierce. While in this office he carried on a correspondence with the Austrian authorities in reference to the release of Martin Koszta by Capt. Duncan N. Ingraham (q. v.). The questions that were involved were in a measure new, and affected all governments that recognized the laws of nations. His state papers on Central American affairs, on the enlistment question, on the Danish sound dues, and on many other topics of national interest, still further exhibited his ability as a writer, statesman, and diplomatist. On the close of Pierce's administration, he again retired to private life, and four months afterward he was found dead one evening in his library with an open volume before him. Mr. Marcy had the reputation of being a shrewd political tactician, and probably has never been surpassed in this respect by any one in New York except Martin Van Buren. He was regarded among his countrymen of all parties as a statesman of the highest order of administrative and diplomatic ability. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MARRIOT, Charles, Athens, New York, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist. Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), member of the Executive Committee, 1840-1842, Manager, 1834-1838. (Drake, 1950, pp. 160, 162; Mabee, 1970, pp. 186, 387n11; Abolitionist)

 

 

MARSH, Charles, 1765-1849, Vermont, attorney, U.S. Congressman.  Life member, original charter member, and supporter of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Officer, Vermont auxiliary of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 216; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 70, 76)

 

MARSH, Charles, lawyer, b. in Lebanon, Conn., 10 July, 1765; d. in Woodstock, Vt., 11 Jan., 1849. He settled with his parents in Vermont before the Revolutionary war, and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1786. After studying law he was admitted to the bar and practised at Woodstock, Vt., for about fifty years, becoming the senior member of the profession in Vermont. In 1797 he was appointed by President Washington to the office of district attorney of his state, and later was elected as a Federalist to congress, serving from 4 Dec., 1815, to 3 March, 1817. While in Washington he was a founder of the American colonization society, and he was a liberal benefactor of various missionary and Bible societies. He was prominent in the Dartmouth college controversy, a trustee in 1809-'49, and received the degree of LL. D. from that college in 1828. Mr. Marsh was president of the Vermont Bible society and vice-president of the American Bible society and of the American education society. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MARSHALL, John, 1755-1835, Virginia, jurist, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  American Colonization Society (ACS), Vice-President, 1833-1836.  Life member of the ACS.  President of county auxiliaries in Virginia.  Donated funds to ACS.  Supported colonization movement.  Marshall believed that colonization would help the country and prevent “a danger [slavery] whose extent can scarcely be estimated.”  He counseled freedmen to go to Liberia.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 70, 107, 108, 118, 180, 224; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 222-225; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 315)

 

Marshall, John, jurist, b. in Germantown, Fauquier co., Va., 24 Sept., 1755; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 6 July, 1835, received from childhood a thorough course of domestic education in English literature, and when he was sufficiently advanced his father procured the services of a private teacher, Rev. James Thompson, an Episcopal clergyman from Scotland, who was afterward minister of Leeds parish. At fourteen years of age John was sent to Westmoreland county, and placed at the school where his father and Washington had been pupils. James Monroe was one of his fellow-students. After remaining there for a year he returned to Oak Hill and continued his classical studies under the direction of Mr. Thompson, but he never had the benefit of a college education. He began the study of law at the age of eighteen, and used Blackstone's “Commentaries,” then recently published, but he had hardly begun his legal studies when the controversy with the mother country came to a crisis. The tea bill, the Boston port bill, the congress of 1774, followed one another in quick succession, and every question at issue was thoroughly discussed at Oak Hill just at the period of young Marshall's life to make the most indelible impression upon his intellectual and moral character. Military preparations were not neglected. John Marshall joined an independent body of volunteers and devoted himself with much zeal to the training of a company of militia in his neighborhood. Among the first to take the field was Thomas Marshall. A regiment of minutemen was raised in the summer of 1775 in Culpeper, Orange, and Fauquier counties, of which be was appointed major, and his son John a lieutenant. On their green hunting-shirts they bore the motto “Liberty or death!” and on their banner was the emblem of a coiled rattlesnake, with the inscription “Don't tread on me!” They were armed with rifles, knives, and tomahawks. They had an engagement with Gov. Dunmore's forces at Great Bridge on 9 Dec., in which Lieut. Marshall showed coolness and skill in handling his men. After this, in 1776, the father and son were in separate organizations. Thomas Marshall was appointed colonel in the 3d Virginia infantry of the Continental line, and John's company was reorganized and attached to the 11th regiment of Virginia troops, which was sent to join Washington's army in New Jersey. Both were in most of the principal battles of the war until the end of 1779. John was promoted to a captaincy in May, 1779. His company distinguished itself at the battle of the Brandywine. He was engaged in the pursuit of the British and the subsequent retreat at Germantown, was with the army in winter-quarters at Valley Forge, and took part in the actions at Monmouth, Stony Point, and Paulus Hook. His marked good sense and discretion and his general popularity often led to his being selected to settle disputes between his brother officers, and he was frequently employed to act as deputy judge-advocate. This brought him into extensive acquaintance with the officers, and into personal intercourse with Gen. Washington and Col. Alexander Hamilton, an acquaintance that subsequently ripened into sincere regard and attachment. The term of enlistment of his regiment having expired, Capt. Marshall, with other supernumerary officers, was ordered to Virginia to take charge of any new troops that might be raised by the state, and while he was detained in Richmond during the winter of 1779-'80, awaiting the action of the legislature, he availed himself of the opportunity to attend the law lectures of George Wythe, of William and Mary college, and those of Prof. (afterward Bishop) Madison on natural philosophy. In the summer of 1780 Marshall received a license to practise law, but, on the invasion of Virginia by Gen. Alexander Leslie in October, he joined the army again under Baron Steuben, and remained in the service until Arnold, after his raid on James river, had retired to Portsmouth. This was in January, 1781. He then resigned his commission, and studied law.

He had spent nearly six years in arduous military service, exposed to the dangers, enduring the hardships, and partaking the anxieties of that trying period. The discipline of those six years could not have failed to strengthen the manliness of his character and greatly enlarge his knowledge of the chief men, or those who became such, from every part of the country, and of their social and political principles. Though it was a rough and severe school, it was instructive, and produced a maturity and self-dependence that could not have been acquired by a much longer experience under different circumstances. As soon as the courts were re-opened young Marshall began practice, and quickly rose to high distinction at the bar. In the spring of 1782 he was elected to the house of burgesses, and in the autumn a member of the state executive council. On 3 Jan., 1783, he married Mary Willis Ambler, daughter of the state treasurer, with whom he lived for nearly fifty years, and about the same time he took up his permanent residence in Richmond. In the spring of 1784 he resigned his seat at the council board in order to devote himself more exclusively to his profession, but he was immediately returned to the legislature by Fauquier county, though he retained only a nominal residence there. In 1787 he was elected to represent Henrico, which includes the city of Richmond. He was a decided advocate of the new U. S. constitution, and in 1788 was elected to the state convention that was called to consider its ratification. His own constituents were opposed to its provisions, but chose him in spite of his refusal to pledge himself to vote against its adoption. In this body he spoke only on important questions, such as the direct power of taxation, the control of the militia, and the judicial power—the most important features of the proposed government, the absence of which in the Confederation was the principal cause of its failure. On these occasions he generally answered Patrick Henry, the most powerful opponent of the constitution, and he spoke with such force of argument and breadth of views as greatly to affect the final result, which was a majority in favor of ratification. The acceptance of the constitution by Virginia was entirely due to the arguments of Marshall and James Madison in the convention which recorded eighty-nine votes for its adoption against seventy-nine contrary voices. When the constitution went into effect, Marshall acted with the party that desired to give it fair scope and to see it fully carried out. His great powers were frequently called into requisition in support of the Federal cause, and in defence of the measures of Washington's administration. His practice, in the mean time, became extended and lucrative. He was employed in nearly every important cause that came up in the state and United States courts in Virginia. In addition to these labors, he served in the legislature for the two terms that followed the ratification of the constitution, contemporary with the sittings of the first congress under it, when those important measures were adopted by which the government was organized and its system of finance was established, all of which were earnestly discussed in the house of burgesses. He also served in the legislatures of 1795 and 1796, when the controversies that arose upon Jay's treaty and the French revolution were exciting the country. At this post he was the constant and powerful advocate of Washington's administration and the measures of the government. The treaty was assailed as unconstitutionally interfering with the power of congress to regulate commerce; but Marshall, in a speech of remarkable power, demonstrated the utter fallacy of this argument, and it was finally abandoned by the opponents of the treaty, who carried a resolution simply declaring the treaty to be inexpedient.

In August, 1795, Washington offered him the place of attorney-general, which had been made vacant by the death of William Bradford, but he felt obliged to decline it. In February, 1796, he attended the supreme court at Philadelphia to argue the great case of the British debts, Ware vs. Hylton, and while he was there received unusual attention from the leaders of the Federalist party in congress. He was now, at forty-one years of age, undoubtedly at the head of the Virginia bar; and in the branches of international and public law, which, from the character of his cases and his own inclination, he had profoundly studied, he probably had no superior, if he had an equal, in the country. In the summer of 1796 Washington tendered him the place of envoy to France to succeed James Monroe, but he declined it, and Gen. Charles C. Pinckney was appointed. As the French Directory refused to receive Mr. Pinckney, and ordered him to leave the country, no other representative was sent to France until John Adams became president. In June, 1797, Mr. Adams appointed Messrs. Pinckney, Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry as joint envoys. Marshall's appointment was received with great demonstrations of satisfaction at Richmond, and on setting out for Philadelphia he was escorted several miles out of the city by a body of light horse, and his departure was signalized by the discharge of cannon. The new envoys were as unsuccessful in establishing diplomatic relations with the French republic as Gen. Pinckney had been. They arrived at Paris in October, 1797, and communicated with Talleyrand, the minister for foreign affairs, but were cajoled and trifled with. Secret agents of the minister approached them with a demand for money—50,000 pounds sterling for private account, and a loan to the government. Repelling these shameful suggestions with indignation, the envoys sent Talleyrand an elaborate paper, prepared by Marshall, which set forth with great precision and force of argument the views and requirements of the United States, and their earnest desire for maintaining friendly relations with France. But it availed nothing. Pinckney and Marshall, who were Federalists, were ordered to leave the territories of the republic, while Gerry, as a Republican, was allowed to remain. The news of these events was received in this country with the deepest indignation. “History will scarcely furnish the example of a nation, not absolutely degraded, which has experienced from a foreign power such open contumely and undisguised insult as were on this occasion suffered by the United States, in the persons of their ministers,” wrote Marshall afterward in his “Life of Washington.”

Marshall returned to the United States in June, 1798, and was everywhere received with demonstrations of the highest respect and approval. At a public dinner given to him in Philadelphia, one of the toasts was “Millions for defence; not a cent for tribute,” which sentiment was echoed and re-echoed throughout the country. Patrick Henry wrote to a friend: “Tell Marshall I love him because he felt and acted as a republican, as an American.” In August Mr. Adams offered him a seat on the supreme bench, which had been made vacant by the death of Judge James Wilson, but he declined it, and his friend, Bushrod Washington, was appointed. In his letter to the secretary of state, declaring his intention to nominate Marshall, President Adams said: “Of the three envoys the conduct of Marshall alone has been entirely satisfactory, and ought to be marked by the most decided approbation of the public. He has raised the American people in their own esteem, and if the influence of truth and justice, reason and argument, is not lost in Europe, he has raised the consideration of the United States in that quarter of the world.” As the elections approached, Mr. Marshall was strongly urged to become a candidate for congress, consented much against his inclination, was elected in April, 1799, and served a single session. One of the most determined assaults that was made against the administration at this session was in relation to the case of Jonathan Robbins, alias Thomas Nash, who had been arrested in Charleston at the instance of the British consul, on the charge of mutiny and murder on the British frigate “Hermione,” and who, upon habeas corpus, was delivered up to the British authorities by Judge Thomas Bee, in pursuance of the requisition of the British minister upon the president, and of a letter from the secretary of state to Judge Bee advising and requesting the delivery. Resolutions censuring the president and Judge Bee were offered in the house; but Marshall, in a most elaborate and powerful speech, triumphantly refuted all the charges and assumptions of law on which the resolutions were based, and they were lost by a decided vote. This speech settled the principles that have since guided the government and the courts of the United States in extradition cases, and is still regarded as an authoritative exposition of international law on the subject of which it treats. The session lasted till 14 May, but on the 7th Marshall was nominated as secretary of war in place of James McHenry, who had resigned; and before confirmation, on the 12th, he was nominated and appointed secretary of state in place of Timothy Pickering, who had been removed. He filled this office with ability and credit during the remainder of Adams's administration. His state papers are luminous and unanswerable, especially his instructions to Rufus King, minister to Great Britain, in relation to the right of search, and other difficulties with that country.

Chief-Justice Ellsworth having resigned his seat on the bench in November, 1800, the president, after offering the place to John Jay, who declined it, conferred the appointment on Mr. Marshall. The tradition is, that after the president had had the matter under consideration for some time, Mr. Marshall (or Gen. Marshall, as he was then called) happened one day to suggest a new name for the place, when Mr. Adams promptly said: “General Marshall, you need not give yourself any further trouble about that matter. I have made up my mind about it.” “I am happy to hear that you are relieved on the subject,” said Marshall. “May I ask whom you have fixed upon?” “Certainly,” said the president; “I have concluded to nominate a person whom it may surprise you to hear mentioned. It is a Virginia lawyer, a plain man by the name of John Marshall.” He was nominated on 20 Jan., unanimously confirmed, and presided in the court at the February term, though he was still holding the office of secretary of state. He at once took, and always maintained, a commanding position in the court, not only as its nominal but as its real head. The most important opinions, especially those on constitutional law, were pronounced by him. The thirty volumes of reports, from 1st Cranch to 9th Peters, covering a period of thirty-five years, contain the monuments of his great judicial power and learning, which are referred to as the standard authority on constitutional questions. They have imparted life and vigor not only to the constitution, but to the national body politic. It is not too much to say that for this office no other man could have been selected who was equally fitted for the task he had before him. To specify and characterize the great opinions that he delivered would be to write a treatise on American constitutional law. They must themselves stand as the monuments and proper records of his judicial history. It is reported by one of his descendants that he often said that if he was worthy of remembrance his best biography would be found in his decisions in the supreme court. Their most striking characteristics are crystalline clearness of thought, irrefragable logic, and a wide and statesman-like view of all questions of public consequence. In these respects he has had no superior in this or any other country. Some men seem to be constituted by nature to be masters of judicial analysis and insight. Such were Papinian, Sir Matthew Hale, and Lord Mansfield, each in his particular province. Such was Marshall in his. They seemed to handle judicial questions as the great Euler did mathematical ones, with giant ease. As an instance of the simplicity with which he sometimes treated great questions may be cited his reasoning on the power of the court to decide upon the constitutionality of acts of congress. It had been claimed before; but it was Marshall's iron logic that settled it beyond controversy. “It is a proposition too plain to be contested,” said he, in Marbury vs. Madison, “that the constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it; or that the legislature may alter the constitution by an ordinary act. Between these alternatives there is no middle ground. The constitution is either a superior, paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and, like other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. If the former part of the alternative be true, then a 1egislative act contrary to the constitution is not law; if the latter part be true, then written constitutions are absurd attempts, on the part of the people, to limit a power in its own nature illimitable.”

The incidents of Marshall's life, aside from his judicial work, after he went upon the bench, are few. In 1807 he presided, with Judge Cyrus Griffin, at the great state trial of Aaron Burr, who was charged with treason and misdemeanor. Few public trials have excited greater interest than this. President Jefferson and his adherents desired Burr's conviction, but Marshall preserved the most rigid impartiality and exact justice throughout the trial, acquitting himself, as always, to the public satisfaction. In 1829 he was elected a delegate to the convention for revising the state constitution of Virginia, where he again met Madison and Monroe, who were also members, but much enfeebled by age. The chief justice did not speak often, but when he did speak, though he was seventy-four years of age, his mind was as clear and his reasoning as solid as in younger days. His deepest interest was excited in reference to the independence of the judiciary. He remained six years after this on the bench of the supreme court. In the spring of 1835 he was advised to go to Philadelphia for medical advice, and did so, but without any beneficial result, and died in that city.

In private Chief-Justice Marshall was a man of unassuming piety and amiability of temper. He was tall, plain in dress, and somewhat awkward in appearance, but had a keen black eye, and overflowed with geniality and kind feeling. He was the object of the warmest love and veneration of all his children and grandchildren. Judge Marshall published, at the request of the first president's family, who placed their records and private papers at his disposal, a “Life of Washington” (5 vols., Philadelphia, 1804-'7), of which the first volume was afterward issued separately as “A History of the American Colonies” (1824). The whole was subsequently revised and condensed (2 vols., 1832). In this work he defended the policy of Washington's administration against the arguments and detractions of the Republicans. A selection from his decisions has been published, entitled “The Writings of John Marshall, late Chief Justice of the United States, upon the Federal Constitution” (Boston, 1839), under the supervision of Justice Joseph Story. His life has been written by George Van Santvoord, in his “Sketches of the Chief Justices” (New York, 1854); and by Henry Flanders, in his “Lives and Times of the Chief Justices” (2d series, Philadelphia, 1858). See also “Eulogy on the Life and Character of Marshall,” by Horace Binney (Philadelphia, 1835); “Discourse upon the Life, Character, and Services of John Marshall,” in Joseph Story's “Miscellaneous Writings” (Boston, 1852); “Chief-Justice Marshall and the Constitutional Law of his Time,” an address by Edward J. Phelps (1879); and “John Marshall,” by Allan B. Magruder (Boston, 1885). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MARSHALL, Thomas, Virginia, advocate of colonization.  Son of John Marshall.  Said that slavery is “ruinous to Whites—retards improvements—roots out industrious population…”  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 225; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 181)

 

 

MARTIN, John Sella, 1832-1876, African American, former slave, clergyman, abolitionist, orator and lecturer against slavery.  Agent for newspaper, Provincial Freeman.  Wrote articles in the Liberator.  Endorsed African Civilization Society colonization plans. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 7, p. 530)

 

 

MARTIN, Luther, c. 1748-1826, Maryland, founding father, lawyer, opponent of slavery.  First Attorney General in the State of Maryland, Member of the Continental Congress, and Member of the Federal Convention.  Said of slavery that it is “inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution and dishonorable to the American character.” (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 233; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 343; Bruns, 1977, p. 522; Locke, 1901, p. 92; Mabee, 1970, p. 378; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 605)

 

MARTIN, Luther, lawyer, b. in New Brunswick, N. J., 9 Feb., 1748; d. in New York city, 10 July, 1826. He was graduated at Princeton in 1766, and at once went to Queenstown, Md., where he studied law and supported himself by teaching. In 1771 he was admitted to the bar, and afterward settled in Somerset, Md., where he attained a lucrative practice. At one of the early terms of the Williamsburg, Va., court he defended thirty-eight persons, of whom twenty-nine were acquitted. He was appointed in 1774 one of the commissioners of his county to oppose the claims of Great Britain, and also a member of the convention that was called at Annapolis for a similar purpose. In August, 1777, he published a reply to the address that was sent out by the brothers Howe from their ships in Chesapeake bay; also an address “to the inhabitants of the peninsula between the Delaware and the Chesapeake to the southward of the British lines,” which was circulated on printed handbills. In 1778 he was appointed attorney-general of Maryland, and in 1787 he was sent by the Maryland legislature as one of the delegates to the convention that framed the U. S. constitution, but he opposed the constitution and left the convention rather than sign the instrument. His opposition to this measure led to his being called “the Federal bull-dog” by his antagonist, Thomas Jefferson. In 1804 he appeared as counsel for the defence in the impeachment of Samuel Chase (q. v.) before the U. S. senate. He is described on this occasion as the rollicking, witty, audacious attorney-general of Maryland; drunken, generous, slovenly, grand, shouting with a school-boy's fun at the idea of tearing John Randolph's indictment to pieces, and teaching the Virginia Democrats some law. A year later he resigned from the attorney-generalship of Maryland, but continued his law practice, then the largest in that state. He again brought himself into notice as counsel for Aaron Burr in the latter's trial at Richmond in 1807, and at its close entertained both Burr and Harman Blennerhassett at his residence in Baltimore. In 1814-'16 he held the office of chief judge of the court of oyer and terminer in Baltimore, and in 1818 he was again appointed attorney-general of Maryland, but two years later a stroke of paralysis made him entirely dependent upon his friends, as he had never saved money. The Maryland legislature passed an act in 1822, that is unparalleled in American history, requiring every lawyer in the state to pay annually a license fee of $5, the entire proceeds to be paid over to trustees “for the use of Luther Martin.” His last days were spent in New York city, where Burr, who was his debtor in every sense, gave him a home in his own house. He was the author of a “Defence of Capt. Cresap,” whose daughter he married in 1783, “from the charge of murder made in Jefferson's notes”; “Genuine Information delivered to the Legislature of the State of Maryland relative to the Proceedings of the General Convention lately held at Philadelphia” (Philadelphia, 1788); and a series of pamphlets called “Modern Gratitude” (1801-'2). See “Luther Martin, the Federal Bull-Dog,” by Henry P. Goddard (Baltimore, 1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 233.

 

 

MARTINEAU, Harriet, 1802-1876, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), delegate of the (Garrisonian) Anti-Slavery Society, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Mabee, 1970, p. 53; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 613)

 

 

MARTYN, Grace, abolitionist, first director of the Ladies New York City Anti-Slavery Society (LNYCASS), founded New York City, 1835 (Yellin, 1994, p. 34)

 

 

MARTYN, Reverend J. H. (Yellin, 1994)

 

 

MARTYN, Sarah Towne Smith, 1805-1879, author, reformer, temperance activist, abolitionist (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 352; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 579-580)

 

 

MARVIN, James M., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

MASH, Joseph, Sandwich, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-1840

 

 

MASLIN, James, Maryland, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Chester-Town Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others Unlawfully Held in Bondage, founded 1791.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 224, 241n24)

 

 

MASON, George, 1725-1792, statesman.  Virginia Constitutionalist.  Slaveholder who himself opposed slavery on moral grounds.  Authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights.  Opposed the U.S. Constitution because of the stand on the issue of slavery.  Mason wrote: “Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed by slaves.  They [slaves] prevent the immigration of whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country.  They produce a pernicious effect on manners.  Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.  They bring the judgment of heaven on a country.”  Mason did not sign the U.S. Constitution and stated during the Virginia Ratifying Convention debate: “Under the royal government, this evil was looked upon as a great oppression, and was one of the great causes of our separation from Great Britain.  Its exclusion has been a principal object of this state and most of the states in the Union.  The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself and disgraceful to mankind… As much as I value a union of all the states, I would not admit the Southern States into the Union unless they agree to the discontinuance of this disgraceful trade, because it would bring weakness, and not strength, to the Union.” (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 241-242, 721-722; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 361; Bruns, 1977, pp. 389, 522-523; Dumond, 1961, pp. 24, 28, 41; Locke, 1901, pp. 89f, 90n, 93; Mason, 2006, pp. 33-34, 250n140, 293-294n157; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. )

 

MASON, George, statesman, b. in Doeg's (afterward Mason's) Neck, Stafford (now Fairfax) co., Va., in 1725; d. there, 7 Oct., 1792, after his marriage built Gunston Hall, on the Potomac, which continued in the family until after the civil war. It is situated in Truro parish, which includes Mount Vernon. There he resided until his death. (See accompanying illustration.) In 1769 he drew up the non-importation resolutions which were presented by Washington in the Virginia assembly, and unanimously adopted. One of these pledged the Virginia planters to purchase no slaves that should be brought into the country after 1 Nov. of that year. In support of the political rights of his native state, Mason printed a pamphlet entitled “Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with Some Remarks upon Them,” and at a meeting of the people of Fairfax, 18 July, 1774, he presented a series of twenty-four resolutions reviewing the whole ground of controversy between Great Britain and the colonies, recommending a congress, and urging non-intercourse with the mother-country. These were sanctioned by the Virginia convention in the following August, and substantially reaffirmed by the Continental congress in October of the same year. In 1775 the convention of Virginia desired to elect him as a delegate to congress, but he declined for family reasons. He was made a member of the committee of safety, which was charged with the executive government of the colony, and in 1776 he drafted the declaration of rights and the constitution of Virginia, which were unanimously adopted. James Madison pronounced Mason to be the ablest debater he had ever known. His talents in this direction were displayed in the first legislature that was held under the new constitution of Virginia, when he brought forward a measure that provided for the repeal of all the old disabling acts, the legalizing of all forms of worship, and the releasing of dissenters from the payment of parish rates. In 1777 he was elected to the Continental congress, but declined to serve. Ten years later he was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the United States. He took an active part in its debates, always being found on the liberal side. In the discussion on the question whether the house of representatives should be chosen directly by the people, he maintained that no republican government could stand without popular confidence, and that confidence could only be secured by giving to the people the selection of one branch of the legislature. He also favored the election of the president by the people for a term of seven years with ineligibility afterward. Propositions to make slaves equal to freemen as a basis of representation and to require a property qualification from voters, met with his strong disapproval. He also spoke with great energy against the clause that prohibited the abolition of the slave-trade till 1808, declaring that, as slavery was a source of national weakness and demoralization, the general government should have power to prevent its increase. In some of his attempts to render the constitution more democratic, Mr. Mason was defeated in the convention, and when the instrument was completed he declined to sign it. He was especially dissatisfied with the extended and indefinite powers that were conferred on congress and the executive. On his return to Virginia he was chosen a member of the convention to which the constitution was referred for ratification or rejection, and, with Patrick Henry, led the opposition to its adoption, insisting on certain amendments. These comprised a bill of rights and about twenty alterations in the body of the measure, several of which were afterward adopted. He was elected the first U. S. senator from Virginia, but declined, and retired to Gunston Hall, where he resided until his death. Mr. Mason is referred to by Thomas Jefferson as “a man of the first order of wisdom, of expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the lore of our former constitution, and earnest for the republican change on democratic principles.” He is described, when fifty years of age, as of commanding presence and lofty bearing, of an athletic and robust frame, a swarthy complexion, with black hair sprinkled with gray, a grave face, and dark, radiant eyes. His statue stands, with those of Jefferson, Henry, and other illustrious Virginians, at the base of Crawford's colossal statue of Washington in front of the capitol at Richmond.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 241-242.

 

 

MASON, John, General, Georgetown, DC, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1840.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 30, 51)

 

 

MASON, Samson, Springfield, Ohio, American Colonization Society, Director, 1839-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

MASTERS, Zerah, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

MATLACK, Timothy, 1736-1829, Quaker Revolutionary War era leader, Delegate to the Second Continental Congress, in 1780.  Pennsylvania State leader.  Opposed to slavery.  Helped pass “An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery,” in 1780.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 410)

 

 

MATLACK, White, 1745-1824, New Jersey, New York, businessman, New York Quaker, abolitionist.  Member of the New York Manumission Society.

 

 

MATTHEWS, Phoebe, wife of abolitionist Edward Weed.  Helped him on lecture tours in Ohio. (Dumond, 1961, p. 280)

 

 

MATTHEWS, Stanley, 1824-1889, lawyer, jurist, newspaper editor, anti-slavery activist, soldier and U.S. Senator.  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1881-1889.  Assistant editor of the anti-slavery newspaper, the Cincinnati Morning Herald, the first abolitionist paper there.  Served in the Union Army, attaining the rank of Colonel, commanding both a regiment and a brigade.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 262; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 418)

 

MATTHEWS, Stanley, jurist, b. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 21 July, 1824. He was graduated at Kenyon college in 1840, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, settling in Maury county, Tenn. He shortly afterward returned to Cincinnati, early engaged in anti-slavery movements, and in 1846-'9 was an assistant editor of the “Cincinnati Herald” the first daily anti-slavery newspaper in that city. He became judge of the court of common pleas of Hanover county in 1851, was state senator in 1855, and in 1858-'61 was U. S. attorney for the southern district of Ohio. In March, of the last-named year, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 23d Ohio regiment, and served in West Virginia, participating in the battles of Rich Mountain and Carnifex Ferry. In October, 1861, he became colonel of the 57th Ohio regiment, and in that capacity commanded a brigade in the Army of the Cumberland, and was engaged at Dobb's Ferry. Murfreesborough, Chickamauga, and Lookout Mountain. He resigned from the army in 1863, to become judge of the superior court of Cincinnati, and was a presidential elector on the Lincoln and Johnson ticket in 1864, and on the Grant and Colfax ticket in 1868. In 1864 he was a delegate from the presbytery of Cincinnati to the General assembly of the Presbyterian church in Newark, N. J., and as one of the committee on bills and overtures reported the resolutions that were adopted by the assembly on the subject of slavery. He was defeated as Republican candidate for congress in 1876, and in the next year was one of the counsel before the electoral commission, opening the argument in behalf of the Republican electors in the Florida case, and making the principal argument in the Oregon case. In March he was elected U. S. senator in place of John Sherman, who had resigned. In 1881 he was appointed associate justice of the U. S. supreme court.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MATTISON, Hiram, 1811-1868, Norway, Herkimer County, New York, clergyman, reformer, abolitionist.  Sought to exclude slaveholders from church membership in Methodist denomination.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 262; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 423)

 

MATTISON, Hiram, clergyman, b. in Norway, N. Y., 11 Feb., 1811; d. in Jersey City, N.J., 24 Nov., 1868. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1835, was appointed agent of the American Bible society for the state of New Jersey in 1841, and, resuming pastoral work the next year, was successively stationed in Watertown and Rome, N. Y. From 1846 till 1860 he was largely employed in the preparation of works on astronomy and in lecturing. In 1856-'7 he was pastor of churches in Adams and Syracuse, N. Y., and took an active part in anti-slavery movements. By correspondence with the Methodists of Great Britain in 1859, he obtained the names of about 85,000 petitioners to the general conference of 1860, praying that body to extirpate slavery from the Methodist Episcopal church, and a like paper from 45,000 petitioners in central New York was largely due to his efforts. In November, 1861, he withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal church, because, as he affirmed, of its toleration of slave-holding, soon afterward becoming pastor of St. John's independent Methodist church of New York city. He returned to his former connection in 1865, and was stationed in Jersey City, where he vehemently opposed the claims of the Roman Catholic church, and published a tract on the case of Mary Anne Smith, a Methodist, whose father, a Roman Catholic, he alleged, had unjustly caused her arrest and detention in a Magdalen asylum, in New York city. His controversies with the Roman Catholics led to his appointment in 1868 as district secretary to the American and foreign Christian union. His numerous works include “The Trinity and Modern Arianism” (New York, 1843); “Tracts for the Times” (1843); “Elementary Astronomy, accompanied by Maps” (1846); Burritt's “Geography of the Heavens,” edited and revised (1850); “High-School Astronomy” (1853); “Spirit-Rapping Unveiled” (1854); “Sacred Melodies” (1859); “Impending Crisis” (1859); “Immortality of the Soul” (1866); “Resurrection of the Body” (1866); “Defence of American Methodism” (1866); and “Popular Amusements” (1867). See “Work Here, and Rest Hereafter, a Life of Rev. Hiram Mattison,” by Rev. Nicholas Vansant, with an introduction by Rev. Edward Thomson (New York, 1870). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 262.

 

 

MAXCY, Virgil, 1785-1844, Baltimore, Maryland, lawyer, state lawmaker, diplomat.  Original founding member of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Protégé of ACS leader Robert G. Harper.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 267; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 434; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 110-111, 258n14)

 

MAXEY, Virgil, lawyer, b. in Attleborough, Mass., about 1785; d. on Potomac river, 28 Feb., 1844, studied law with Robert Goodloe Harper, of Maryland, and settled in the practice of his profession in that state, where he soon became eminent as an advocate. He also took an interest in politics, was a member of the Maryland legislature, serving at different times in both houses, became solicitor to the U. S. treasury, and afterward was chargé d’affaires in Belgium from 1837 till 1842. He was one of the victims of the explosion of a heavy gun on board the steamer “Princeton” during a visit to the ship of President John Tyler and his party. (See TYLER.) Mr. Maxey's publications include a valuable “Compilation of the Laws of Maryland from 1692 to 1809” (4 vols., Annapolis, 1809), and an “Oration” before the Phi Beta Kappa society (1833).  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MAXON, D. E., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

MAXWELL, William, 1784-1857, Norfolk, Virginia, author, lawyer, editor, educator, college president.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1836-1841.  Vice President, Richmond, Virginia, auxiliary of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 272; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 445; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 107)

 

MAXWELL, William, author, b. in Norfolk, Va., 27 Feb., 1784; d. near Williamsburg, Va., 9 June, 1857. He was graduated at Yale in 1802, studied law in Richmond, Va., was admitted to the Norfolk bar in 1808, and attained to eminence as a Constitutional lawyer. He edited the literary department of the “New York Journal of Commerce” in 1827, served in the Virginia legislature in 1830, and in the state senate in 1832-'8, and from November of the latter year till 1844 was president of Hampden Sidney college, Va. He then removed to Richmond, was engaged in reviving the Virginia historical and philosophical society, and in 1848 established the “Virginia Historical Register,” of which he edited six volumes (1848-'53). He was a member of the Bible and colonization societies, active in the cause of education, and in 1828 erected at his own expense in Norfolk, Va., a lyceum for the diffusion of useful knowledge by means of lectures and scientific experiments. Hampden Sidney gave him the degree of LL. D. He published a “Memoir of Rev. John H. Rice” (Philadelphia, 1835). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MAY, Abby, 1800-1877, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, temperance activist and women’s suffrage advocate.  Wife of abolitionist and transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott.  Mother of novelist Louisa May Alcott.

 

 

MAY, Samuel Joseph, Reverend, 1797-1871, Brooklyn, Connecticut, reformer, abolitionist leader, temperance advocate, clergyman, early advocate of women’s rights.  Unitarian minister.  Organized local auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  May was an advocate for immediate, uncompensated emancipation of slaves.  Vice president, 1848-1861, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Agent of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, an officer of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  May was opposed to both the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War.  He adamantly opposed both the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and actively advocated resistance to it.  Active in Underground Railroad in Syracuse, New York.  In 1851, he helped rescue a fugitive slave, Jerry McHenry, from the federal government.  Early supporter of William Lloyd Garrison.  In 1856, he joined the anti-slavery Republican Party, supporting John Frémont for the presidency of the United States.  (Bruns, 1977, p. 456; Drake, 1950, p. 176; Dumond, 1961, pp. 182, 211-212, 273, 276; Filler, 1960, pp. 34, 44, 59, 65-66, 216; Mabee, 1970, pp. 12, 13, 20, 22-24, 26, 28, 29, 35, 37, 43-48, 78-79, 93, 124, 132, 149, 156, 168-170, 232, 272, 287, 289, 296, 300, 307, 308, 310, 359, 360, 368; Sernett, 2002, pp. 63, 102, 132, 134-144, 175, 176, 274-275, 312-313n39; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 273; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 447; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 585-586; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 313; May, Samuel Joseph. Memoir of Samuel Joseph May. Boston, 1873; May, Samuel Joseph, Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict. Boston, 1868; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 169.  Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 127)

 

MAY, Samuel Joseph, reformer, b. in Boston, Mass., 12 Sept., 1797; d. in Syracuse, N. Y., 1 July, 1871. He was graduated at Harvard in 1817, studied divinity at Cambridge, and in 1822 became pastor of a Unitarian church at Brooklyn, N. Y. He was early interested in the anti-slavery cause, wrote and preached on the subject, and in 1830 was mobbed and burned in effigy at Syracuse for advocating immediate emancipation. He was a member of the first New England anti-slavery society m 1832, and, when Prudence Crandall (q. v.) was proscribed and persecuted for admitting colored girls to her school in Canterbury, Conn., he was her ardent champion. He was also a member of the Philadelphia convention of 1833 that formed the American anti-slavery society, and signed the “Declaration of Sentiments,” of which William Lloyd Garrison was the author. In 1835 he became the general agent of the Massachusetts anti-slavery society, for which, by a union of gentleness and courage, he was peculiarly fitted, and in this capacity he lectured and travelled extensively. He was pastor of the Unitarian church at South Scituate, Mass., in 1836-'42, and became at the latter date, at the solicitation of Horace Mann, principal of the Girls' normal school at Lexington, Mass. He returned to the pulpit in 1845, and from that date till three years previous to his death was pastor of the Unitarian society in Syracuse, N.Y. Mr. May was active in all charitable and educational enterprises, and did much to increase the efficiency of the public-school system in Syracuse. He published “Education of the Faculties” (Boston, 1846); “Revival of Education” (Syracuse, N. Y., 1855); and “Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict” (Boston, 1868). See “Memoir of Samuel Joseph May,” edited by George B. Emerson, Samuel May, and Thomas J. Mumford (Boston, 1873).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 273.

 

 

MAY, Samuel Jr., Leicester, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1849-1864, Corresponding Secretary, 1854-1860, Vice President, 1840-1848.  Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.

 

 

MAYLIN, Thomas, Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-38

 

 

MCABOY, P. L., Gallia County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

MCALLISTER, Archibald, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888; Congressional Globe)

 

 

MCBRIDE, John R., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888; Congressional Globe)

 

 

MCCLINTOCK, Thomas, Waterloo, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1848, Vice-President, 1848-1856.

 

 

MCCLURE, J. H., Kentucky, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1832-1837.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

MCCLURG, Joseph Washington, 1818-1900, lawyer, legislator, soldier.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri.  Served in Congress December 1863-1868.  Elected Governor of Missouri in 1868.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 91; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 597; Congressional Globe)

 

McCLURG, Joseph Washington, legislator, b. in St. Louis county, Mo., 22 Feb., 1818. He was educated at Oxford college, Ohio, and taught in Louisiana and Mississippi in 1835-'6. He then went to Texas, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and made clerk of the circuit court in 1840. In 1844 he returned to Missouri and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1861 he suffered from Confederate depredations on his property, became colonel of the Osage regiment, and subsequently of a regiment of National cavalry. He was a member of the state conventions of Missouri in 1861-'2-'3, and was elected and re-elected to congress while residing in Linn Creek, Camden co., first as an Emancipation and afterward as a Republican candidate, serving from 7 Dec., 1863, till 1868, when he resigned. In the latter year he was elected governor and served the full term. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 91.

 

 

MCCORMICK, Richard S., New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-1842.

 

 

MCCREE, John, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, secretary, Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS), Committee of Twenty-Four (Basker, 2005, pp. 225, 238; Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

MCCRUMMELL, James, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833 (Dumond, 1961, p. 329; Mabee, 1970, p. 21; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 161; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

MCCULLOUGH, Samuel, Shelby County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

MCDONOGH, John, 1779-1850, New Orleans, Louisiana, philanthropist.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1834-1841.  Allowed his slaves to purchase their freedom at a “moderate” sum.  He sent them to Africa at his own expense.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 239, 243; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 106; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 19)

 

 

MCDOUGALL, Francis Harriet Whipple Green, 1805-1878, author, poet, reformer, abolitionist. Women’s rights advocate, labor rights activist. (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 558-559; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 542)

 

 

MCFARLAND, Armor, Coshocton County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

MCFARLAND, Samuel, Washington, Pennsylvania, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1855-59

 

 

MCGILL, George R., acting agent for the Maryland State Colonization Society and the American Colonization Society in the colony in Africa.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 52, 64, 73-74, 119, 169, 241)

 

 

MCGILL, Samuel Ford, Dr., Governor of the colony in Africa established by the Maryland State Colonization Society.  Succeeded John Brown Russwurm as Governor after he died in Africa.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 119-121, 157, 188, 165-166, 169, 170, 2017, 214, 224, 231-233)

 

 

MCGREGOR, Alexander, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

MCKAYE, James, abolitionist, member American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission, U.S. War Department, 1863.  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 165; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV)

 

 

MCKEE, C. B., Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

MCKEEN, Silas, Reverend, clergyman.  Member and strong advocate of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 132)

 

 

MCKENDREE, William, Sumner County, Virginia, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1836.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

MCKENNEY, William, Reverend, clergyman.  Successful and effective agent of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  In 1824, set up local societies of the ACS in Deleware, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia.  Set up societies in Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Lynchburg and Hampton.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 42-45, 56, 57, 65, 68, 95, 97, 100-103, 189; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 105-108, 114, 115)

 

 

MCKIM, Isaac, Baltimore, Maryland, wealthy shipper, merchant.  American Colonization Society Vice-President, 1817, 1833-39.  Member of the Annapolis auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 41, 70, 111)

 

 

MCKIM, James Miller, 1810-1874, reformer, abolitionist.  Founding member and anti-slavery agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Manager, AASS, 1843-1853.  Lectured on anti-slavery in Pennsylvania.  Publishing agent, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  Editor, Pennsylvania Freeman. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 136; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 103; Dumond, 1961, pp. 188, 393n26; Mabee, 1970, pp. 202, 269, 273, 289, 303, 305, 342, 421n14; Yellin, 1994, pp. 76, 161-162, 162n, 168, 287; Friend of Man, February 1, 1837; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 115)

 

McKIM, James Miller, reformer, b. in Carlisle, Pa., 14 Nov., 1810; d. in West Orange, N. J., 13 June, 1874. He studied at Dickinson and Princeton colleges, and in 1835 was ordained pastor of a Presbyterian church at Womelsdorf, Pa. A few years before this the perusal of a copy of Garrison's “Thoughts on Colonization” had made him an Abolitionist. He was a member of the convention that formed the American anti-slavery society, and in October, 1836, left the pulpit to accept a lecturing agency under its auspices. He delivered addresses throughout Pennsylvania, although often subjected to obloquy, and even danger from personal violence. In 1840 he removed to Philadelphia, and became the publishing agent of the Pennsylvania anti-slavery society. His office was subsequently changed to that of corresponding secretary, in which capacity he acted for a quarter of a century as general manager of the affairs of the society, taking an active part in national as well as local anti-slavery work. Mr. McKim's labors frequently brought him in contact with the operations of the “underground railroad,” and he was often connected with the slave cases that came before the courts, especially after the passage of the fugitive-slave law of 1850. In the winter of 1862, immediately after the capture of Port Royal, he was instrumental in calling a public meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia to consider and provide for the wants of the 10,000 slaves that had been suddenly liberated. One of the results of this meeting was the organization of the Philadelphia Port Royal relief committee. He afterward became an earnest advocate of the enlistment of colored troops, and as a member of the Union league aided in the establishment of Camp William Penn, and the recruiting of eleven regiments. In November, 1863, the Port Royal relief committee was enlarged into the Pennsylvania freedman's relief association, and Mr. McKim was made its corresponding secretary. In this capacity he travelled extensively, and labored diligently to establish schools at the south. He was connected from 1865 till 1869 with the American freedman's union commission, and used every effort to promote general and impartial education at the south. In July, 1869, the commission having accomplished all that seemed possible at the time, it decided unanimously, on Mr. McKim's motion, to disband. His health having meantime become greatly impaired, he soon afterward retired from public life. In 1865 he assisted in founding the New York “Nation.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 136.

 

 

MCKIM, Sarah J., abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, pp. 73, 76)

 

 

MCLAIN, William, Reverend, clergyman.  Agent, officer and leader of the American Colonization Society.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 77, 79, 97, 107, 113, 148-149; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 239-240)

 

 

MCLANCE, Louis, Smyrna, Delaware, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

MCLEAN, John, 1785-1861, Morris County, New Jersey, jurist, attorney.  U.S. Supreme Court Justice, January 1830-.  Dissented against the majority of Justices on the Dred Scott case, stating that slavery was sanctioned only by local laws.  Free Soil and later Republican Party candidate for President of the U.S.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 144; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 127)

 

MCLEAN, John, jurist, b. in Morris county, N. J., 11 March, 1785; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 April, 1861. In 1789 his father, a poor man with a large family, removed to the west and settled, first at Morganstown, Va., subsequently at Nicholasville, Ky., and finally, in 1799, on a farm in Warren county, Ohio. Young McLean worked on the farm that his father had cleared till he was sixteen years old, then received private instruction in the classics for two years, and at the age of eighteen went to Cincinnati to study law, and, while acquiring his profession, supported himself by writing in the office of the clerk of the county. In the autumn of 1807 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Lebanon. In October, 1812, he was elected to congress from his district, which then included Cincinnati, by the Democratic party, defeating two competitors in an exciting contest, and was re-elected by the unanimous vote of the district in 1814. He supported the Madison administration, originated the law to indemnify individuals for the loss of property in the public service, and introduced an inquiry as to pensioning the widows of fallen officers and soldiers. He declined a nomination to the U. S. senate in 1815, and in 1816 was elected judge of the supreme court of the state, which office he held till 1822, when President Monroe appointed him commissioner of the general land-office. In July, 1823, he was appointed postmaster-general, and by his energetic administration introduced order, efficiency, and economy into that department. The salary of the office was raised from $4,000 to $6,000 by an almost unanimous vote of both houses of congress during his administration. He was continued in the office by President John Q. Adams, and was asked to remain by Gen. Jackson in 1829, but declined, because he differed with the president on the question of official appointments and removals. President Jackson then tendered him in succession the war and the navy departments, and, on his declining both, appointed him an associate justice of the U. S. supreme court. He entered upon his duties in January, 1830. His charges to grand juries while on circuit were distinguished for ability and eloquence. In December, 1838, he delivered a charge in regard to aiding or favoring “unlawful military combinations by our citizens against any foreign government with whom we are at peace,” with special reference to the Canadian insurrection and its American abettors. The most celebrated of his opinions was that in the Dred Scott case, dissenting from the decision of the court as given by Chief-Justice Taney, and enunciating the doctrine that slavery was contrary to right and bad its origin in power, and that in this country it was sustained only by local law. He was long identified with the party that opposed the extension of slavery, and his name was before the Free-soil convention at Buffalo in 1848 as a candidate for nomination as president. In the Republican national convention at Philadelphia in 1856 he received 196 votes for the same office to 359 for John C. Frémont. In the Republican convention at Chicago in 1860 he also received several votes. He published “Reports of the United States Circuit Court” (6 vols., 1829-'55); a “Eulogy on James Monroe” (1831); and several addresses. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MCLEOD, Alexander, 1774-1833, New York, anti-slavery activist, clergyman.  Presbyterian minister. Wrote, “Negro Slavery Unjustifiable, A Discourse by Alexander McLeod,” A.M., Pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation in the City of New York New York, 1802. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 145; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 131; Baird, “Collection of Acts,” p. 818; Dumond, 1961, pp. 80, 87, 348; Locke, 1901, pp. 45, 90; Mason, 2006, pp. 14, 133, 231, 261-262n12)

 

McLEOD, Alexander, clergyman, b. in the island of Mull, Scotland, 12 June, 1774; d. in New York city, 17 Feb., 1833. His father, Rev. Niel McLeod, was the entertainer of Dr. Samuel Johnson on the latter's visit to Mull. The son came to this country while yet young, was graduated at Union college in 1798, licensed to preach in the following year, and ordained over two churches—one in New York and one in Wallkill, N. Y. The latter charge he soon resigned; but he retained the former, the first Reformed Presbyterian church of New York, until his death. McLeod was long well known among the clergy of New York city, and was eminent both as a writer and as a preacher. He was for some time one of the editors of the “Christian Magazine.” Among his published works are “Negro Slavery Unjustifiable” (New York, 1802); “The Messiah” (1803); “Ecclesiastical Catechism” (1807); “On the Ministry” (1808); “Lectures on the Principal Prophecies of the Revelation” (1814); “View of the Late War” (1815); “The Life and Power of True Godliness” (1816); and “The American Christian Expositor” (2 vols., 1832-'3). A memoir of McLeod was published by Samuel B. Wylie, D. D. (New York, 1855).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 145.

 

 

MCPHAIL, John, Norfolk, Virginia.  American Colonization Society representative in Norfolk.  Chartered ships for the Society, arranged for supplies, and aided colonists in Norfolk.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 109-110, 115, 159, 179, 180)

 

 

MEACHAM, Alfred Benjamin, 1826-1882, clergyman, reformer, author, historian, Native American rights advocate, abolitionist.

 

 

MEADE, William, 1789-1862, Virginia, clergyman, soldier.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1834-1841.  Influential member of the Colonization Society.  Freed his slaves.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27-28, 53-54, 70-74, passim 189-190; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 282-283; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 480)

 

MEADE, William, P. E. bishop; b. near Millwood, Frederick (now Clarke) co., Va., 11 Nov., 1789; d. in Richmond, Va., 14 March, 1862, was graduated at Princeton in 1808, studied theology, was made deacon, 24 Feb., 1811, and ordained priest, 10 Jan., 1814. He began his ministry in his native parish as assistant to Rev. Alexander Balmaine, but in the autumn of 1811 he became rector of Christ church, Alexandria, Va., where he remained for eighteen months. He then returned to Millwood, succeeding the rector on the death of the latter in 1821. Being independent in his pecuniary circumstances, Mr. Meade officiated gratuitously for many years in his own parish and in the surrounding country. ln 1813-‘14 he took an active part in procuring the election of Dr. Richard C. Moore, of New York, as the successor of Bishop James Madison in the episcopate of Virginia, and contributed materially to the establishment of a diocesan theological seminary at Alexandria, and various educational and missionary societies connected with his denomination. In 1819 he went to Georgia as a commissioner to negotiate for the release of certain recaptured Africans who were about to be sold, and succeeded in his mission. On his journey he was active in establishing auxiliaries to the American colonization society, and was similarly occupied during a subsequent trip through the middle and eastern states. He emancipated his own slaves, but the experiment proved so disastrous to the negroes that he ceased to advise its repetition by others. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MECHLIN, Joseph, Dr., colonial agent in Africa for the American Colonization society.  Replaced Dr. Richard Randall, who had died in Africa in April 1829.  Served four years, until 1833.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 47-50, 64, 72-73; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 164-167, 207, 222, 226)

 

 

MELENDY, John, Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-38

 

 

MELENDY, Luther, Amherst, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1842, 1845-1852.

 

 

MELLEN, Prentiss, 1764-1840, lawyer.  U.S. Senator from Maine, 1818-1820.  Chief Justice, Maine Supreme Court, 1820-1834.  First President of the Portland Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 292; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 517)

 

MELLEN, Prentiss, jurist, b. in Sterling, Mass., 11 Oct., 1764; d. in Portland, Me., 31 Dec., 1840, was graduated at Harvard in 1784, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. He began practice at Bridgewater, Mass., removed in 1792 to Biddeford, and in 1806 to Portland, Mass. (afterward Maine), and was a member of the executive council of Massachusetts in 1806-'9 and 1817. He was elected U. S. senator from Massachusetts in place of Eli P. Ashmun, who had resigned, and served from 16 Nov., 1818, till 15 May, 1820, when he resigned in consequence of the separation of Maine from Massachusetts. He was elected the first chief justice of the new state, and served from 1820 till 1834, when he was disqualified by age. He afterward practised law at Portland, Me. Judge Mellen was a trustee of Bowdoin from 1817 till 1836. His judicial decisions are published in the first eleven volumes of the “Maine Reports.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 292.

 

 

MERCER, Charles Fenton, 1778-1858, Leesburg, Virginia, soldier, political leader, opponent of slavery.  Vice President, American Colonization Society, 1834-1841, Director, 1839-1840, life member.  Called the “American Wilberforce.”  Introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress for the federal government to “make such regulations and arrangements, as he deem expedient, for safeguarding, support and removal of” the Africans in the United States.  $100,000 was appropriated by the bill.  It became the Slave Trade Act of 1819.  It became law on March 4, 1819.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 61; Mason, 2006, pp. 124-125, 269; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 163; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 31, 48, 50-51, 70, 73, 176-178, 184, 207, 307; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 300; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 539)

 

MERCER, Charles Fenton, soldier, b. in Fredericksburg, Va., 6 June, 1778; d. in Howard, near Alexandria, Va., 4 May, 1858. He was graduated at Princeton in 1797, and commissioned captain of cavalry the next year by Gen. Washington, in anticipation of war with France, but subsequently studied law, and after a tour abroad in 1802-'3, practised his profession. He was a member of the Virginia legislature in 1810-'17, and during the war of 1812 was aide to the governor and in command of the defences of Norfolk, with the rank of brigadier-general. He was chairman of the committee on finances in the legislature in 1816, and introduced the bill for the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, of which he became president. He was elected to congress as a Federalist in this year, and returned till 1840, a longer period of continued service than that of any of his contemporaries. He was an active protectionist, and an opponent of slavery. He visited Europe in 1853 and conferred with eminent men of several countries in the interests of abolition. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 300.

 

 

MERCER, John Francis, 1759-1821, soldier, statesman, planter.  Delegate to the Continental Congress.  Congressman from Maryland.  Voted against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 301; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 543; Dumond, 1961, p. 61; Annals of Congress, 2 Con., 2 Sess., p. 861; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 327)

 

MERCER, John Francis, statesman, b. in Stafford county, Va., 17 May, 1759; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 30 Aug., 1821. He was graduated at William and Mary college in 1775, entered the 3d Virginia regiment as lieutenant in 1776, became captain in 1777, and was aide to Gen. Charles Lee till the battle of Monmouth, when his sympathy with that officer in his disgrace induced him to resign from the army. He returned to Virginia, but soon afterward raised and equipped, at his own expense, a troop of horse, of which he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and, joining Gen. Robert Lawson's brigade, he served with it at Guilford and elsewhere until it was disbanded. He then attached his command to the forces under Lafayette, with whom he remained until the surrender at Yorktown. After the war he studied law with Thomas Jefferson, and from 1782 till 1785 was a delegate from Virginia to the Continental congress. He married Sophie, daughter of Richard Sprigg, of West River, Md., in 1785, removed to “Cedar Park,” his wife's estate, and soon became a leader in Maryland politics. He was a delegate to the convention that framed the U. S. constitution, but opposed the plan that was adopted, and withdrew without signing the document. He was in congress in 1792-'4, served in the legislature for several years, was governor of Maryland in 1801-'3, and after several years of retirement was again in the legislature. Gov. Mercer was the trusted personal and political friend of Jefferson. He died while on a visit to Philadelphia for medical advice. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 301.

 

 

MERCER, Margaret, 1791-1846, Lynchburg, Virginia, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist, reformer, educator.  Active supporter of the American Colonization Society in Lynchburg.  Slaveholder who freed her slaves in 1846 and paid their way to Liberia.  Raised money for colonization.  Daughter of the Governor of Maryland, John Francis Mercer.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 34, 38, 39, 60, 67, 103-104, 115; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 301; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 546; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 110-231; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 331)

 

 

Meredith, William, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, bank president.  Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 303; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 39)

 

MEREDITH, William Morris, cabinet officer, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 8 June, 1799; d. there, 17 Aug., 1873. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1812, studied law, and about 1820 began practice. He was in the legislature in 1824-'8, president of the select council of Philadelphia in 1834-'49, and a member of the State constitutional convention of 1837. He became secretary of the U. S. treasury in 1849, and held office until the death of President Taylor. He was attorney-general of Pennsyl vania in 1861-'7, and president of the State constitutional convention in 1873. As a lawyer, Mr. Meredith occupied for many years the foremost rank in his native state, and was constantly engaged in important cases in the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and that of the United States. As a ready and able legal debater, he had few superiors in this country. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MERRILL, Amos B., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Recording Secretary, 1842-43, Executive Committee, 1842-

 

 

MERRILL, Joseph, , Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

MERRITT, Joseph, Merrit, Michigan, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1852-1864.

 

 

MERRITT, Timothy, 1775-1845, clergyman  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 308)

 

MERRITT, Timothy, clergyman, b. in Barkhamsted, Litchfield co., Conn., in October, 1775; d. in Lynn, Mass., 2 May, 1845. He began preaching in 1794, and served as a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church in various parts of New England. While at Malden, Mass., in 1831, he was an editor of “Zion's Herald,” published in Boston, and from 1832 till 1835 he resided in New York city as assistant editor of “The Christian Advocate and Journal.” While in Boston he established a monthly entitled “A Guide to Christian Perfection.” Mr. Merritt was an able writer, an eloquent preacher, an accomplished debater, and occupied a high place among the Methodist ministers of his time. He atoned for early deficiencies by subsequent vigorous intellectual discipline. He published “Christian Manual” (New York, 1824); “Memoir of Miss S. H. Bunting” (1833); “Convert's Guide and Preacher's Assistant” (1841); “Discussion against Universal Salvation”; “On the Validity and Sufficiency of Infant Baptism”; and “Lectures and Discourses on Universal Salvation,” with Rev. Wilbur Fiske, D. D. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 308. 

 

 

METCALFE, Thomas, 1780-1855, Kentucky, political leader, Governor of Kentucky, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator.  Supported the American Colonization Society and colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 312; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 584; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 139)

 

METCALFE, Thomas, governor of Kentucky, b. in Fauquier county, Va., 20 March, 1780; d. in Nicholas county, Ky., 18 Aug., 1855. His parents, who were poor, emigrated to Kentucky and settled in Fayette county. After a few months in a country school the son worked with a stone-cutter, devoting his leisure to study. He served in the war of 1812, and in 1813 commanded a company with credit at the battle of Fort Meigs. While he was absent on this campaign be was elected to the legislature, in which he served three years. He was afterward chosen to congress as a Henry Clay Democrat, serving from 6 Dec., 1819, till 1 June, 1828, when he resigned. From 1829 till 1833 he was governor of Kentucky. He was a member of the state senate in 1834, and president of the board of internal improvement in 1840. Gov. Metcalfe was appointed U. S. senator in place of John J. Crittenden, resigned, serving from 3 July, 1848, till 3 March, 1849, when he retired to his farm between Maysville and Lexington. He was a friend and follower of Henry Clay, and often boasted of his early labors as a stone-mason, delighting in being called the “Old Stone Hammer.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MIDDLETON, Jonathan, New York, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1837.

 

 

MIFFLIN, Warner, 1745-1798, Virginia, Elder of the Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist leader.  Delegate of the Delaware Abolition Society.  Lobbied to pass 1782 Virginia law for private manumission of slaves.  Wrote A Serious Expostulation with the Members of the House of Representatives of the United States.  (Basker, 2005; Bruns, 1977; Drake, 1950, pp. 75-76, 93, 95, 105, 107-108, 112-113; Dumond, 1961, pp. 20, 76; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 319-320; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 608)

 

MIFFLIN, Warner, reformer, b. in Accomac county, Va., 21 Oct., 1745; d. near Camden, Del., 16 Oct., 1798, was the son of Daniel Mifflin, a planter and slave-owner, and the only Quaker within sixty miles of his plantation. The son early cherished an interest in behalf of the slaves. .In giving an account of his conversion to anti-slavery views, he writes of himself: “About the fourteenth year of my age a circumstance occurred that tended to open the way for the reception of those impressions which have since been sealed with indelible clearness on my understanding. Being in the field with my father's slaves, a young man among them questioned me whether I thought it could be right that they should be toiling in order to raise me, and that I might be sent to school, and by and by their children must do so for mine. Some little irritation at first took place in my feelings, but his reasoning so impressed me as never to be erased from my mind. Before I arrived at the age of manhood I determined never to be a slave-owner.” Nevertheless, he did become the owner of slaves—some on his marriage through his wife's inheritance, and others from among his father's, who followed him to his plantation in Delaware, whither the son had removed and settled. Finally, determining that he would “be excluded from happiness if he continued in this breach of the divine law,” he freed all his slaves in 1774 and 1775, and his father followed the example. The son, on the day fixed for the emancipation of his slaves, called them one after another into his room and informed them of his purpose to give them their freedom, and this is the conversation that passed with one of them: “Well, my friend James,” said he, “how old art thou?” “I am twenty-nine and a half years, master.” “Thou should’st have been free, as thy white brethren are, at twenty-one. Religion and humanity enjoin me this day to give thee thy liberty; and justice requires me to pay thee for eight years and a half service, at the rate of ninety-one pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence, owing to thee; but thou art young and healthy; thou had’st better work for thy living; my intention is to give thee a bond for it, bearing interest at seven and a half per cent. Thou hast now no master but God and the laws.” From this time until his death his efforts to bring about emancipation were untiring. Through his labors most of the members of his society liberated their slaves. He was an elder of the Society of Friends, and travelled from state to state preaching his anti-slavery doctrines among his people, and in the course of his life visited all the yearly meetings on the continent. He was much encouraged in his work by the words of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. Referring to these, he writes: “Seeing this was the very substance of the doctrine I had been concerned to promulgate for years, I became animated with hope that if the representatives were men, and inculcated these views among the people generally, a blessing to this nation would accompany these endeavors.” In l782 he appeared before the legislature of Virginia, and was instrumental in having a law enacted that admitted of emancipation, to which law may be attributed the liberation of several thousand negroes. In 1783 he presented a memorial to congress respecting the African slave-trade, and he subsequently visited, in the furtherance of his work, the legislatures of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. In 1791 he presented his noted “Memorial to the President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the United States” on the subject of slavery, and, on account of some reflections that were cast on him, he published a short time afterward his serious expostulations with the house of representatives in relation to the principles of liberty and the inconsistency and cruelty of the slave-trade and slavery. These essays show the undaunted firmness and zeal of the writer, his cogent reasoning and powerful appeals to the understanding and the heart. From conviction he was against war, and on principle opposed the Revolution. On the day of the battle of Germantown he was attending the yearly meeting of the Quakers at Philadelphia, and the room in which they were assembled was darkened by the smoke of the battle. At this meeting the Friends renewed their “testimony” against the spirit of war, and chose Mifflin to undertake the service of communicating it to Gen. Washington and Gen. Howe. To perform this duty, he had to walk in blood and among the dead bodies of those that had fallen in the fight. In his conversation with Washington he said: “I am opposed to the Revolution and to all changes of government which occasion war and bloodshed.” After Washington was elected president, Mifflin visited him in New York, and in the course of the interview the president, recollecting an assertion of Mifflin’s at Germantown, said: “Mr. Mifflin, will you please tell me on what principle you were opposed to the Revolution?” “Yes, Friend Washington, upon the principle that I should be opposed to a change in the present government. All that was ever gained by revolution is not an adequate compensation for the poor mangled soldiers, for the loss of life or limb.” To which Washington replied: “I honor your sentiments; there is more in that than mankind have generally considered.” With reference to Mifflin, Brissot, in his '”New Travels in the United States of America” (London, 1792), says: “I was sick, and Warner Mifflin came to me. It is he that first freed all his slaves; it is he who, without a passport, traversed the British army and spoke to Gen. Howe with so much firmness and dignity; it is he who, fearing not the effects of the general hatred against the Quakers, went, at the risk of being treated as a spy, to present himself to Gen. Washington, to justify to him the conduct of the Quakers; it is he that, amid the furies of war, equally a friend to the French, the English, and the Americans, carried succor to those who were suffering. Well! this angel of peace came to see me.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 319-320.

 

 

MILES, George, Westminster, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1845-1860.

 

 

MILES, Mary E., African American, abolitionist, from Boston, Massachusetts.  Wife of abolitionist Henry Bibb.  Published with husband the anti-slavery journal Voice of the Fugitive. (Gates, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 533)

 

 

MILLARD, David, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1841.

 

 

MILLER, Daniel, Jr., Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave (Drake, 1950, p. 154)

 

 

MILLER, Elizabeth Smith, 1822-1911, feminist dress reformer, abolitionist.  Active in women’s suffrage and rights.  Originated bloomer costume for women.  (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 479; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 587-589)

 

 

MILLER, Jonathan Peckham, 1797-1874, Montpelier, Vermont, reformer, abolitionist, Manager, 1834-1837, American Anti-Slavery Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 328; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 632)

 

MILLER, Jonathan P., reformer, b. in Randolph, Vt., in 1797; d. in Montpelier in 1847. He was educated at the University of Vermont and became a lawyer. In 1824 he went to Greece as a volunteer, and after the siege and fall of Missolonghi in April, 1826, he returned to Vermont and lectured through New York and the New England states for the benefit of the Greek cause. At the solicitation of the Boston and New York Greek committee Col. Miller went to Greece a second time as their general agent, and distributed several cargoes of provisions and clothing to the suffering Greeks, returning to Montpelier, Vt., in 1827. He introduced anti-slavery resolutions into the Vermont legislature in 1833. He was a delegate from his state to the world's anti-slavery convention in London in 1840, and from that time until his death gave a large part of his time and fortune to the furtherance of the anti-slavery cause. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 328.

 

 

MILLER, Samuel Freeman, 1816-1890, lawyer, jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Supported emancipation.  Leader of the Republican Party.  Appointed by Abraham Lincoln as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 328-329; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 637; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 516; Congressional Globe)

 

MILLER, Samuel Freeman, jurist, b. in Richmond, Ky., 5 April, 1816. He was graduated at the medical department of Transylvania university, Ky., in 1838, practised for a short time, and afterward became a lawyer. He was strongly in favor of emancipation, and did much to further that cause, and, although he took no part in politics, the course of public affairs induced him to remove in 1850 from Kentucky to Iowa, where he became a leader of the Republican party. He was offered and declined numerous offices, and devoted himself to his profession, in which he took high rank. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln associate justice of the U. S. supreme court, which office he still (1888) occupies. He was the orator at the constitutional centennial celebration at Philadelphia.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 328-329.

 

 

MILLIGAN, James, Rygate, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.

 

 

MILLISACK, Jacob, Leesburg, Ohio, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1852-1864.

 

 

Mills, Samuel John, 1783-1818, Torrington, Connecticut, clergyman.  Founded schools for African American children.  Member of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Went to Africa on behalf of the ACS to found colony.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 333; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 15; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 18-19, 28, 37-47 passim, 156)

 

MILLS, Samuel John, clergyman, b. in Torringford, Conn., 21 April,1783; d. at sea, 16 June, 1818, was graduated at Williams in 1809, and at Andover theological seminary in 1812. While in college he determined to devote his life to missionary work, and in 1810 addresses that he and several of his classmates made before the General association of Massachusetts resulted in the formation of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions. During 1812-'13 he was exploring agent of the Massachusetts and Connecticut missionary societies in the west and southwest, and in 1814-'15 missionary and Bible agent in the southwest. While in New Orleans during the early part of 1815 he was unable to purchase a single Bible in that city, and, in consequence, he procured a supply in both the French and English languages, and distributed many. Finding that seventy or eighty thousand families at the south and west were destitute of a Bible, he suggested the formation of a national society. His efforts contributed to the establishment of the American Bible society in May, 1816, and meanwhile, on 21 June, 1815, he was ordained. Subsequently the education of the colored people claimed his attention, and in 1816 the synod of New York and New Jersey established a school for the education of young men of color that wished to be preachers and teachers of their race. After the school was established Mr. Mills became its agent in the middle states, and was successful in obtaining funds for its support. The American colonization society was founded on 1 Jan., 1817, and Mr. Mills was chosen to explore in its behalf the coast of western Africa, and select the most eligible site for a settlement. He reached Africa in March, 1818, spent two months on that continent, and began his homeward voyage in May. Mr. Mills was called the “Father of foreign mission work in Christian America.” He published an account of his two visits to the south (Andover, 1815). See “Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel J. Mills,” by Gardner Spring (New York, 1854). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MILNOR, James, 1773-1844, Pennsylvania, New York, opponent of slavery, lawyer, clergyman.  Member of U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, 1811-1813.  Milnor was an officer in the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society in 1798.  Member of New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 334; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 40)

 

MILNOR, James, clergyman, b. in Philadelphia, 20 June, 1773; d. in New York city, 8 April, 1844. His parents were members of the Society of Friends. He entered the University of Pennsylvania, but, owing to family embarrassments, was not graduated. He began the study of law in 1789, in Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar in 1794. He began practice in Norristown, Pa., but removed to Philadelphia in 1797, where he soon obtained a large practice. In 1805 he entered political life. He was elected a member of the select council of his native city, re-elected for three years in 1807, and became president of the council in 1808. He was then chosen a member of congress, serving from 4 Nov., 1811, till 3 March, 1813, and, being strongly Federalist in his principles, opposed the second war with Great Britain, in 1812. Soon after returning home he became a candidate for orders in the Protestant Episcopal church. While studying for the ministry he busied himself effectively as catechist and lay reader. He was made deacon, 14 Aug., 1814, and priest, 27 Aug., 1815, by Bishop White. He was elected assistant minister in St. Peter's and the United churches, Philadelphia, in 1814, but two years later he accepted the rectorship of St. George's church, New York city, where he remained until his death. He received the degree of D. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1819. He visited Europe in 1830 as delegate to the British and Foreign Bible society. His remaining years were spent in parochial work and in aiding the various charitable institutions in Philadelphia. Dr. Milnor's publications were “Oration on Masonry,” before the Grand lodge of Pennsylvania (1811); “Thanksgiving-Day Sermon” (1817); “A Plea for the American Colonization Society” (New York, 1826); “Sermon on the Death of De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York” (New York, 1828); and “A Charitable Judgment of the Opinions and Conduct of Others Recommended,” which was delivered on the Sunday before his death (1844). See a “Memoir,” by the Rev. John S. Stone, D.D. (New York, 1855). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV.

 

 

MINER, Myrtilla, 1815-1864, New York, educator, philanthropist, abolitionist.  Opened Normal School for Colored Girls in Washington, DC, in 1851.  Minor was opposed to slavery.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 336; Encyclopedia Britanica; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 23)

 

MINER, Myrtilla, philanthropist, b. in Brookfield, Madison co., N. Y., 4 March, 1815; d. in Washington, D. C., 17 Dec., 1864. She began teaching when fifteen years of age, and was afterward employed in a school for the education of planters' daughters in Whitesville, Wilkinson co., Miss. She remained there two years, became familiar with the evils of slavery, and determined to devote her life to the elevation of the negro race. She decided to found a normal school for free colored girls in Washington, although she had but $100 with which to meet expenses. On 3 Dec., 1851, the school was opened in a small apartment with six pupils. During the second month the number of pupils increased to forty, and in 1853 a permanent location for the school with increased accommodation was purchased for $4,300, Harriet Beecher Stowe contributing $1,000 from the proceeds of the sale of “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” Thenceforth the school was a great success. In 1860 indications of approaching civil war led to the temporary abandonment of the school, and in 1861 Miss Miner went to California for the benefit of her health, but met with an accident there and returned to die in Washington. While she was absent in California in 1863, congress passed an act for the incorporation of her normal school. She had suffered severe persecution in consequence of her efforts to elevate the colored people. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MINES, John, Leesburg, Frederick County, Virginia, clergyman.  Pastor, Leesburg Presbyterian Church.  Member, Frederick auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 70)

 

 

MITCHELL, Daniel, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1847-1853.

 

 

MITCHELL, James, Reverend, clergyman.  Traveling agent for the American Colonization Society in the 1840s.  He represented Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin.  Organized new state auxiliaries.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 242)

 

 

MITCHELL, Levi, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

MITCHELL, P. J., Justice of the New York Supreme Court (Dumond, 1961, pp. 317, 407n6)

 

 

MITCHELL, Robert Byington, 1823-1882, lawyer, political leader, Union soldier.  Member of the Kansas Territorial Legislature, 1857-1858.  Active in Free State anti-slavery movement in Kansas in 1856.  Colonel, 2nd Kansas Volunteers.  Commander 13th U.S. Army Division.  Fought in Battle of Perryville.  1865-1867 Governor of New Mexico.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 346; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 60; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 625)

 

MITCHELL, Robert B., lawyer, b. in Richland county, Ohio, 4 April, 1823; d. in Washington, D. C., 26 Jan., 1882. He was educated at Washington college, Pa., and then studied law. During the Mexican war he served in the Ohio volunteers as 1st lieutenant, and on its conclusion he resumed the practice of his profession. In 1856 he moved to Kansas, and took an active part with the free-state men in their struggle with the pro-slavery party. He was a member of the territorial legislature in 1857-'8, and treasurer in 1858-'61. At the beginning of the civil war he was made colonel of the 2d Kansas volunteers, and was severely wounded at the battle of Wilson's Creek. On his recovery he raised a regiment of cavalry, and was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on 8 April, 1862. He was given command of the 13th division of Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army, and participated in the battle of Perryville. During 1865-'7 he was governor of New Mexico, and, after completing his term of office, settled in Washington, D. C., where he remained until his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 346.

 

 

MITCHELL, S. L., Member of Congress from New York.  Opposed slavery as member of the U.S. House of Representatives. (Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 146; Annals of Congress)

 

 

MITCHELL, Warren G., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

MITER, John, abolitionist.  Agent and Manager, 1833-1837, of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Worked in Newark, New Jersey, area.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 185; Abilitionist, Vol. II)

 

 

MOFFITT, Lemuel, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

MONTEITH, John M., Elyria, Ohio, abolitionist.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

MONTGOMERY, J. H., Augusta, Georgia, jurist, Supreme Courts of Georgia.  Member, Augusta auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

MONTGOMERY, James, 1814-1871, Ashtabula County, Ohio, radical/militant abolitionist, Union Army Colonel in the Civil War.  In 1854, became leader of a local Free State organization.  In 1857, organized a “Self Protective Company” to oppose pro-slavery settlers.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 369; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 97)

 

MONTGOMERY, James, pioneer, b. in Ashtabula county, Ohio, 22 Dec., 1814; d. in Linn county, Kan., 6 Dec., 1871. He came with his family early in life to Kentucky, and taught, ultimately becoming a Campbellite preacher. Later he devoted himself to farming, but in 1854 went to southern Kansas, where he was one of the earliest settlers. His residence in Linn county was burned by the Missourians in 1856, and this resulted in his taking an active part in the disturbances that followed. The retaliatory visits into Missouri were frequently led by him, and his discretion, courage, and acknowledged ability gained for him the confidence and support of the southern counties. His enrolled company included nearly 500 men, all of whom were old residents of the territory, and consequently familiar with the peculiar mode of fighting that was followed on the border. Capt. Montgomery was one of the acknowledged leaders of the free-state cause during 1857-'61. Next to John Brown he was more feared than any other, and a contemporary sketch of the “Kansas Hero,” as he was then called, says: “Notwithstanding every incentive to retaliate actuates them to demand blood for blood, yet Montgomery is able to control and direct them. He truly tempers justice with mercy, and he has always protected women and children from harm, and has never shed blood except in conflict or in self-defence.” In 1857 he represented his county in the Kansas senate, and at other times he was a member of the legislature. At the beginning of the civil war he was made colonel of the 10th Kansas volunteers, but soon afterward was given command of the 1st North Carolina colored volunteers. These troops he led on a raid from Hilton Head into Georgia in July, 1863, and at the battle of Olustee, Fla., on 20 Feb., 1864, was one of the few officers that escaped with his life. Horace Greeley says of his regiment and the 54th Massachusetts: “It was admitted that these two regiments had saved our little army from being routed.” At the close of the war he returned to Kansas and passed the last years of his life at his home in Linn county. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MOORE, Cornelius, Ohio.  Traveling agent for the American Colonization Society in Oho in 1834.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 140)

 

 

MOORE, E.D., Kingston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40

 

 

MOORE, Ester, Maryland native, abolitionist, original member of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (Yellin, 1994, pp. 69, 161)

 

 

MOORE, George W., New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

MOORE, John, New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

MOORE, Joseph, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1857-1864.

 

 

MOORE, Lindley Murray, 1788-1871, New York, educator, abolitionist leader, temperance activist, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Married to abolitionist, reformer, Abigail Lydia Mott.  Co-founded and was first president and recording secretary of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Society.  Wrote abolitionist book, Autographs of Freedom, 1853. (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

MOORE, Risdon, Speaker of the Illinois State Legislature.  Abolitionist, manumitted his slaves.  Highly criticized for anti-slavery advocacy.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 93)

 

 

MOORHEAD, James Kennedy, 1806-1884.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  In Congress from December 1859-March, 1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 385; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 147; Congressional Globe)

 

MOORHEAD, James Kennedy, congressman, b. in Halifax, Dauphin co., Pa., 7 Sept., 1806; d. in Pittsburg, Pa., 6 March, 1884. He received a limited education, spending his youth on a farm, and was apprenticed to a tanner. He was a contractor for building the Susquehanna branch of the Pennsylvania canal, became superintendent of the Juniata division, and was the first to place a passenger packet on this line. In 1836 he removed to Pittsburg and established there the Union cotton-factory. In 1838 he was appointed adjutant-general of the state, and in 1840 he became postmaster of Pittsburg. He was elected to congress as a Republican, holding his seat from 5 Dec., 1859, till 3 March, 1869, and serving on the committees on commerce, national armories, manufactures, naval affairs, and ways and means. In 1868 he was a delegate to the National Republican convention at Chicago. He was identified with the principal educational and charitable institutions of Pittsburg, was president of its chamber of commerce, of the Monongahela navigation company, and several telegraph companies, and was a delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian council in Belfast, Ireland, in 1884. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 385.

 

 

MOREL, Junius C., c. 1806, African American, former slave, educator, reformer, civil rights activist, editor.  Wrote numerous articles for African American papers.  Served as an agent for Frederick Douglass’s Northern Star.  Member of Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 8, p. 271)

 

 

MOREY, Henry Lee, abolitionist.

 

 

MORGAN, Edwin Dennison, 1811-1883, merchant, soldier, statesman.  Member of the Whig Party, Anti-Slavery Faction.  Republican U.S. Senator from New York.  Chairman of the Republican National Committee, 1856-1864.  Governor of New York, 1858-1862.  Commissioned Major General of Volunteers, he raised 223,000 troops for the Union Army.  U.S. Senator, 1863-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 398; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 168; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 825; Congressional Globe)

 

MORGAN, Edwin Dennison, governor of New York, b. in Washington, Berkshire co., Mass., 8 Feb., 1811; d. in New York city, 14 Feb., 1883. At the age of seventeen he removed to Hartford, Conn., where he entered the store of his uncle, Nathan Morgan, and became a partner in 1831. He was a member of the city council there in 1832. Removing to New York in 1836, he established himself in business and became a successful merchant.  During the cholera epidemic he remained in the city to assist the poor. From 1850 till 1863 he was a member of the state senate, serving at one time as president pro tempore. He was vice-president of the National Republican convention that met in Pittsburg, 22 Feb., 1856, and from 1856 till 1864 was chairman of the Republican national committee. In 1858 he was elected governor of New York, which office he held until 1862. During his term the state debt was reduced, an increase in canal revenue was made, 223,000 troops were sent from New York to the army, and New York harbor was put in a state of defence. On 28 Sept., 1861, he was made a major-general of volunteers, the state of New York being created a military department under his command, and for his services under this commission he declined compensation. On the expiration of his term he was elected to the U. S. senate as a Republican, serving from 4 M arch, 1863, till 3 March, 1869. He opened the proceedings of the Baltimore convention of 1864, and was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention of 1866, but took no part in its action. In 1865 he declined the office of secretary of the U. S. treasury, which was offered him by President Lincoln. In 1872 he was chairman of the National Republican committee, and conducted the successful campaign that resulted in the second election of Gen. Grant. He was a Republican candidate for U. S. senator in 1875, and in 1876 for governor of New York. In 1881 President Arthur offered him the portfolio of secretary of the treasury, which he declined, owing to his advanced age. Gov. Morgan gave more than $200,000 to the New York union theological seminary and to Williams college library buildings, and $100,000 for a dormitory. His bequests for charitable and religious purposes amounted to $795,000. In 1867 he received the degree of LL. D. from Williams. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 398.

 

 

MORGAN, John, Cincinnati, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-1835.

 

 

MORRILL, Anson Peaslee, 1803-1887, anti-slavery governor of Maine, U.S. Congressman, 1861-1863.  Brother of abolitionist Lot Myrick Morrill.  Early founding member of the Republican Party in 1856.  (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 884; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 408; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 196)

 

MORRILL, Anson Peaslee, statesman, b. in Belgrade, Kennebec co., Me., 10 June, 1803; d. in Augusta, Me., 4 July, 1887. He received a common-school education and devoted himself to mercantile pursuits in his native town. He soon bought an interest in a woollen-mill, and subsequently became connected with several extensive manufactories. In 1833 he was elected as a Democrat to the legislature, in 1839 he was made sheriff of Somerset county, and in 1850 he became land-agent. In 1853, when the Democratic convention decided to oppose prohibition, he cut loose from that party, and was a candidate for governor on the Free-soil and Prohibition tickets, but was defeated. The following year he was again a candidate, and, although there was no choice by the people, he was elected by the legislature, being the first Republican governor of Maine. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election, being defeated in the legislature through a coalition between the Whigs and Democrats. The party that Gov. Morrill had formed served as the nucleus for the movement in 1856 when the National Republican party first took the field, and he was a delegate to the convention that nominated John C. Frémont for president. He was elected to congress in 1860, and served from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1863. Declining a re-election, he became largely interested in railroads in his native state, and remained out of politics until 1881, when he was sent to the legislature. He removed to Augusta in 1876.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV.

 

 

MORRIL, David Lawrence, 1772-1849, theologian, physician, statesman.  U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from New Hampshire.  U.S. Senator from December 1817-March 1823.   Opposed extending slavery into the new territories stated in debate in Congress in 1819: “The states now existing which have thought proper to admit slavery, may retain their slaves as long as they please; but, after the commencement of 1808, Congress may by law prohibit the importation of any more, and restrain those who are then in servitude to the territory or States where they may be found.”  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 408; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 195; Dumond, 1961, p. 105; 16 Cong., 1 Sess., 1819-1820, p. 139; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 880)

 

MORRIL, David Lawrence, senator, b. in Epping, Rockingham co., N. H., 10 June, 1772; d. in Concord, N. H., 28 Jan., 1849. After receiving an academical and medical education, he began to practise at Epsom, Merrimack co., N. H., in 1793, but in 1800 turned his attention to the study of theology, was licensed to preach, and served as pastor of the Congregational church at Goffston, N. H., from 1802 till 1811. From 1807 till 1830 he again practised medicine, and he sat as a representative in the general court from 1808 till 1817, being elected speaker in 1816. He was chosen U. S. senator as an Adams Democrat, and served from 1 Dec., 1817, till 3 March, 1823, when he was sent to the state senate and elected its president. In 1824 he was a candidate for governor, and, there being no choice by the people, he was elected by the convention. In the two following years he was chosen by the people. In 1831 he removed to Concord, where he edited the “New Hampshire Observer,” a religious journal. He received the honorary degree of M. D. from Dartmouth college in 1821, and that of LL. D. from the University of Vermont in 1825. He was connected with many charitable, medical, and agricultural associations, and published several sermons, orations, and controversial pamphlets. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 408.

 

 

MORRILL, Justin Smith, 1810-1898, abolitionist.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont.  Served as Congressman December 1855-March 1867.  U.S. Senator 1873-1891.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 409; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 198; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 882; Congressional Globe)

 

MORRILL, Justin Smith, senator, b. in Strafford, Orange co., Vt., 14 April, 1810. He received a common-school education, and engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1848, when he turned his attention to agriculture. He was elected to congress as a Republican, and five times re-elected, serving from 3 Dec., 1855, until 3 March, 1867. He was the author of the “Morrill” tariff of 1861, and acted as chairman of the committee of ways and means in 1864-'5. He was elected U.S. senator from Vermont in 1867, and re-elected in 1873, 1879, and 1886. His present term will expire in 1891. He is the author of a Self-Consciousness of Noted Persons” (Boston, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 409.

 

 

MORRILL, Lot Myrick, 1813-1883, lawyer, statesman, temperance advocate, opposed slavery, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1876, two-term Republican Governor of Maine, U.S. Senator, 1861-1869.  Joined the Republican Party due to his position against slavery and its expansion into the new territories.  Supported the bill in Congress that emancipated slaves in Washington, DC.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. After the war, he supported higher education for African Americans.  In 1866, he supported voting rights for African Americans in Washington, DC.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 408-409; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 149; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 884; Congressional Globe; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress)

 

MORRILL, Lot Myrick, secretary of the treasury, b. in Belgrade, Kennebec co., Me., 3 May, 1813; d. in Augusta, Me., 10 Jan., 1883, entered Waterville college (now Colby university) in 1835, but did not remain through the year. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He removed to Augusta, established himself in practice, and was an active member of the Democratic party in Maine. In 1854 he was elected to the legislature, and on his re-election in 1856 he was chosen president of the senate. Subsequently Mr. Morrill denounced the course of his party on the question of slavery in Kansas, severed his connection with his former associates, was nominated in 1857 by the Republicans for governor, and elected by over 15,000 majority. He was twice re-elected. In 1860 Gov. Morrill was chosen to the U. S. senate to fill the vacancy caused by Hannibal Hamlin's election to the vice-presidency. He entered the senate, 17 Jan., 1861, was placed on important committees, and attended the Peace conference of that year. During the two that followed he took an active part in public affairs, and in 1863 was elected senator for the term that ended in 1869. In the Republican caucus for a successor, Mr. Morrill was defeated by a single vote: but, as William P. Fessenden died in 1869, Morrill was appointed to serve out the remainder of Fessenden's term. In 1871 he was again elected senator, and in the discharge of his duties devoted much attention to financial questions. He opposed the bill for inflating the currency, which was vetoed by President Grant, and was in favor of the resumption act of 1875. He was noted as being a hard worker in committee-rooms, and was especially familiar with naval and Indian affairs. On Sec. William W. Belknap's resignation, President Grant asked Senator Morrill to take a seat in the cabinet, but he declined. In June, 1876, he was made secretary of the treasury. In November, 1876, he made an address to the moneyed men of New York from the steps of the sub-treasury department, and in his annual report in December he urged immediate and yet gradual contraction of the currency, and declared that specie payments could be resumed in 1879. When Mr. Hayes became president in 1877 he offered Mr. Morrill a foreign mission, but it was declined. He was appointed in March collector of customs for Portland district, Me., which post he held at the time of his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 408-409.

 

 

MORRILL, Ruth, Portland, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-1853.

 

 

MORRIS, Daniel, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

MORRIS, Gouverneur, 1752-1816, Pennsylvania, statesman, diplomat, founding father, opponent of slavery.  He called slavery a “nefarious institution… the curse of Heaven on the state where it prevailed…a defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity.” Working with John Jay, Morris tried to abolish slavery in the State of New York.  (Bruns, 1977, pp. 520-521; Dumond, 1961, pp. 28, 38, 40-41; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 139-140; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 209; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 896; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 415-416)

 

MORRIS, Gouverneur, senator, b. in Morrisania, N. Y., 31 Jan., 1752; d. there, 6 Nov., 1816, was graduated at King's (now Columbia.) college in 1768, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1771. At the age of eighteen he published a series of anonymous newspaper articles against a project, then before the New York assembly, for raising money by issuing bills of credit. He was a delegate to the 1st Provincial congress in 1775, and early attracted attention by a report and speech on the mode of issuing a paper currency by the Continental congress, the chief suggestions of which that body subsequently adopted. He served on the committee that drafted the state constitution in 1776, and the following year took the seat of his half-brother, Lewis, in the Continental congress, which he held until 1780. When the army was in winter-quarters at Valley Forge, Mr. Morris spent some time there as one of a committee that had been appointed to examine, with Gen. Washington, into the condition of the troops. He was also chairman of a committee of five in 1779 whose duty was to consider despatches from the American commissioners in Europe, and whose report formed the basis of the treaty of peace. In the early part of 1780 he published a series of essays signed '”An American,” in the “Pennsylvania Packet,” on the state of the national finances, which were then at their lowest ebb. In May of the same year he was thrown from his carriage in Philadelphia, where he was then residing, and his leg was so severely injured that it had to be amputated. To a friend who called the next day to offer consolation, and who pointed out the good effects that such a trial might produce on his character by preventing him from indulging in the pleasures and dissipations of life, he replied: “My good sir, you argue the matter so handsomely, and point out so clearly the advantages of being without legs, that I am almost tempted to part with the other.” During the remainder of his life he wore a wooden leg, which once proved valuable to him. Being assailed by the Paris mob with cries of “Aristocrat” during the French revolution, while he was driving through the streets of that city, he turned the taunts into cheers by thrusting his wooden leg out of the carriage-window and shouting: “An aristocrat! Yes, one who lost his limb in the cause of American liberty. “In 1781 Robert Morris (q. v.) was placed at the head of the finances of the nation, which hitherto had been managed by a committee of congress. His first act was to appoint Gouverneur Morris his assistant. The latter accepted the office, and fulfilled its duties three years and a half. In 1786, on the death of his mother, he purchased from his brother, Staats Long, the Morrisania estate, which he henceforth made his home. (See illustration.) In 1787 he took his seat as a delegate in the convention that framed the U. S. constitution, the draft of that instrument being placed in his hands for final revision. On 18 Dec., 1788, Morris sailed for France, and reached Paris on 3 Feb. following, where he was engaged in the transaction of private business for the next two years. In January, 1791, he went to England, having been appointed by President Washington a confidential agent to negotiate with the British government regarding certain unfulfilled articles of the treaty of peace. Conferences were prolonged till September without result. During his stay in London he was made U. S. minister to France. Being succeeded in that office by James Monroe in August, 1794, he made an extensive tour throughout Europe, and while at Vienna used strenuous efforts to obtain the release of Lafayette from confinement in the fortress of Olmütz. He returned to this country toward the close of 1798, and the following spring was elected to the U. S. senate from New York, to fill a vacancy, and served from 3 May, 1800, till 3 March, 1803. During this period he actively opposed the abolition of the judiciary system and the discontinuance of direct taxation, but favored the purchase of Louisiana. He was an active advocate of New York's great canal project, and acted as chairman of the canal commissioners from their first appointment in 1810 until his death. Morris, like many energetic men, was in the habit of expressing his opinions with a freedom that often involved him in difficulties, which his gift of sarcasm tended to increase. His openness and sincerity of character, however, were held by his friends to atone for these defects. Of his abilities as a public speaker James Renwick says in his “Life of Clinton”: “Morris was endowed by nature with all the attributes necessary to the accomplished, orator, a fine and commanding person, a most graceful demeanor, which was rather heightened than impaired by the loss of one of his legs, and a voice of much compass, strength, and richness.” In person he so closely resembled Washington that he stood as a model of his figure to Houdon, the sculptor. When on his death-bed he said: “Sixty-five years ago it pleased the Almighty to call me into existence here, on this spot, in this very room; and how shall I complain that He is pleased to call me hence?” On the day of his death he asked about the weather. Being told it was fine, he replied (his mind, like Daniel Webster's, recurring to Gray's “Elegy”): “A beautiful day; yes, but 

‘Who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,      
This pleasing, anxious being ere resigned, 
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,      
N
or cast one longing, lingering look behind?’”

He was the author of “Observations on the American Revolution” (1779); “An Address to the Assembly of Pennsylvania on the Abolition of the Bank of North America” (1785); “An Address in Celebration of the Deliverance of Europe from the Yoke of Military Despotism” (1814); an “Inaugural Discourse” before the New York historical, society on his appointment as its president, and funeral orations on Washington, Hamilton, and Gov. George Clinton. He also contributed, toward the close of his life, political satires in prose and verse to the newspaper press. See “Memoirs of Gouverneur Morris, with Selections from his Papers and Correspondence,” by Jared Sparks (3 vols., Boston, 1832), and “Gouverneur Morris,” by Theodore Roosevelt, in the “American Statesman Series” (1888). His granddaughter, ANNIE CARY, is now (1888) preparing for publication the “Journals and Letters” of her grandfather. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 415-416.

 

 

MORRIS, Thomas, 1776-1844, Cincinnati, Ohio, Virginia, first abolitionist Senator, 1833, vice president of the Liberty Party, abolitionist, Ohio lawmaker 1806-1830, Chief Justice of the State of Ohio 1830-1833, U.S. Senator 1833-183?.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (A&FASS), 1840-1844.  Vice President of the American Colonization Society (ACS), 1839-1841.  Fought for right to petition Congress against slavery.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 92, 135, 243, 244, 286, 300; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 11, 18, 23-24, 27; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 48; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 916; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 418; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 226)

 

MORRIS, Thomas, senator, b. in Augusta county, Va., 3 Jan., 1776; d. in Bethel, Ohio, 7 Dec., 1844. His father was a Baptist clergyman of Welsh descent. The son removed to Columbia, Ohio, in 1795, entered the service, as a farm-hand, of Rev. John Smith, first U. S. senator from Ohio, and in 1800 settled in Clermont county. While engaged in farming be studied law, and in 1804 was admitted to the bar. He was elected to the legislature in 1806, was continuously a member for twenty-four years, became eminent in his profession, was a judge of the supreme court, and was chosen U. S. senator in 1832. He was an ardent opponent of slavery, engaged in important debates with John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay in defence of the right of petition and the duty of the government to favor abolition, and was active in support of the freedom of the press. His anti-slavery sentiments being distasteful to the Democratic party, by whom he was elected, he was not returned for a second term, and in March, 1839, he retired. He was nominated for vice-president by the Liberal party at the Buffalo convention in August, 1844. His death occurred a month after the election. Mr. Morris was an energetic politician, and a fearless champion of liberty and the right of individual opinion. See his “Life and Letters,” edited by his son, Benjamin F. Morris (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1855).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 418.

 

 

MORROW, James, Jefferson County, Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1839-1840.

 

 

Morrow, Jeremiah, 1771-1852, Ohio, political leader, U.S. Senator and Congressman.  Strong supporter of colonization and the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 422; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 235; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 138)

 

MORROW, Jeremiah, senator, b. in Gettysburg, Pa., 6 Oct., 1771; d. in Warren county, Ohio, 22 March, 1852. He removed to the northwest territory in 1795, and in 1802 was a delegate to the convention that formed the Ohio constitution. He was elected to congress as a Democrat on the admission of Ohio into the Union, served in 1803-'13, and was chairman of the committee on public lands. In 1814 he was commissioner to treat with all the Indians west of Miami river. He was a member of the U. S. senate in 1813-'19, governor of Ohio in 1822-'6, served in the state senate in 1826-'8, subsequently became canal commissioner, and for several years was president of the Little Miami railroad. In 1841-'3 he again served in congress. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

MORSE, Reverend Jedidiah, 1761-1826, geographer, Congregational clergyman, opposed and wrote of moral evil of slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 424; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 245; Locke, 1901, p. 91; Mason, 2006, pp. 26, 243n24, 254n30)

 

MORSE, Jedidiah, clergyman, b. in Woodstock, Conn., 23 Aug., 1761; d. in New Haven, Conn., 9 June, 1826. He was graduated at Yale in 1783, and in September of that year established a school for young ladies in New Haven, meanwhile pursuing theological studies under Dr. Jonathan Edwards and Dr. Samuel Watts. In the summer of 1785 he was licensed to preach, but continued to occupy himself with teaching. He became a tutor at Yale in June, 1786, but, resigning this office, was ordained on 9 Nov., 1786, and settled in Medway, Ga., where he remained until August of the following year. He spent the winter of 1787-'8 in New Haven in geographical work, preaching on Sundays to vacant parishes in the vicinity. In May, 1787, he was invited to preach at Charlestown, Mass., where he was installed on 30 April, 1789. This pastorate he held until 1820, when he removed to New Haven, and there spent the remainder of his life. He took great interest in the subject of civilizing and Christianizing Indians, and in 1820 he was appointed by the secretary of war to visit and observe various tribes on the border, in order to ascertain their actual condition, and to devise the most suitable means for their improvement. This work occupied his attention during two winters and the results of his investigations were embodied in a “Report to the Secretary of War on Indian Affairs” (New Raven, 1822). In 1795 he received the degree of D. D. from the University of Edinburgh, and he was an active member of the Massachusetts historical society and of various literary and scientific bodies. Throughout his life he was much occupied with religious controversy, and in upholding the faith of the New England church against the assaults of Unitarianism. Ultimately his persevering opposition to the so-called liberal views of religion brought on him a persecution that affected deeply his naturally delicate health. He was very active in 1804 in the movement that resulted in enlarging the Massachusetts general assembly of Congregational ministers, and in 1805 unsuccessfully opposed, as a member of the board of overseers, the election of Henry Ware to the Hollis professorship of divinity in Harvard. Dr. Morse did much toward securing the foundation of Andover theological seminary, especially by his successful efforts in preventing the establishment of a rival institution in Newburg, which had been projected by the Hopkinsians. He participated in the organization of the Park street church in Boston in 1808, when all the Congregational churches of that city, except the Old South church, had abandoned the orthodox faith. In 1805 he established the “Panopolist” for the purpose of illustrating and defending the commonly received orthodoxy of New England, and continued its sole editor for five years. This journal still exists as “The Missionary Herald.” Dr. Morse published twenty-five sermons and addresses on special occasions; also “A Compendious History of New England,” with Rev. Elijah Harris (Charlestown, 1804); and “Annals of the American Revolution” (Hartford, 1824). He early showed considerable interest in the study of geography, and adapted from some of the larger English works a text-book that was so frequently copied by his pupils that he published it as “Geography Made Easy” (New Haven, 1784), and it was the first work of that character published in the United States. Subsequently he issued “American Geography” (Elizabethtown, 1789); “The American Gazetteer” (London, 1789); and “Elements of Geography” (1797). These books had an extensive circulation, and gained for him the title of “Father of American Geography.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 424.

 

 

MORTON, Elihu P.,   , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1841-44

 

 

MORTON, Oliver Perry, 1823-1877, statesman, lawyer, jurist, anti-slavery activist.  Member of the Republican Party.  U.S. Senator and Governor of Indiana, 1861. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 431-432; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 262; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 956)

 

MORTON, Oliver Perry, statesman, b. in Saulsbury, Wayne co., Ind., 4 Aug., 1823; d. in Indianapolis, Ind., 1 Nov., 1877. His father, a native of New Jersey, whose ancestors came from England with Roger Williams, dropped the first syllable in the family name of Throckmorton. At the age of fifteen the son was taken from school and indentured to a brother, who was a hatter. After working at this trade four years he determined to fit himself for the bar, spent two years at Miami university, studied law at Centreville, and began practice there in 1847. He soon attained professional eminence, and was elected a circuit judge in 1852, but at the end of a year, when his term expired by the adoption of a new state constitution, he willingly left the bench, and before resuming practice spent a year at a law-school in Cincinnati. Having been a Democrat with anti-slavery convictions, he entered into the people's movement in 1854, took an active part in the formation of the Republican party, and was a delegate to the Pittsburg convention the same year, and the candidate of the new party for governor. In a joint canvass with Ashbel P. Willard, the Democratic nominee, he established a reputation for political ability, but was beaten at the polls, and returned to his law practice. In 1860 he was nominated for lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Henry S. Lane, and during the canvass took strong ground in favor of exacting from the southern states obedience to the constitution. Up on convening, the legislature elected Gov. Lane U. S. senator, and on 16 Jan., 1861, Mr. Morton took the oath as governor. He opposed every compromise with the Secessionist party, nominated to the Peace congress men of equally pronounced views, began to prepare for the coming conflict before Fort Sumter was fired upon, and when President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers he offered to send 10,000 from Indiana. The state's quota was raised at once. He reconvened the legislature on 24 April, obtained authority to borrow $2,000,000, and displayed great energy and ability in placing troops in the field and providing for their care and sustenance. He gave permission to citizens of Indiana to raise troops in Kentucky, allowed Kentucky regiments to be recruited from the population of two of the southern counties, procured arms for the volunteer bodies enlisted for the defence of Kentucky, and by thus co-operating with the Unionists in that state did much toward establishing the ascendency of the National government within its borders. When the question of the abolition of slavery arose, the popular majority no longer upheld the governor in his support of the National administration. In 1862 a Democratic legislature was chosen, which refused to receive the governor's message, and was on the point of taking from him the command of the militia, when the Republican members withdrew, leaving both houses without a quorum. In order to carry on the state government and pay the state bonds, he obtained advances from banks and county boards, and appointed a bureau of finance, which, from April, 1863, till January, 1865, made all disbursements of the state, amounting to more than $1,000,000. During this period he refused to summon the legislature. The supreme court condemned this arbitrary course, but the people subsequently applauded his action, and the state assumed the obligations that he incurred. The draft laws provoked the Secessionists in Indiana to form secret organizations and commit outrages on Union men. They plotted against the life of Gov. Morton and arranged a general insurrection, to take place in August, 1864. The governor discovered their plans and arrested the leaders of the Knights of the golden circle, or Sons of liberty, as the association was called. In 1864 he was nominated for governor, and defeated Joseph E. McDonald by 20,883 votes, after an animated joint canvass. He resigned in January, 1867, to take his seat in the U. S. senate, to which he was re-elected in 1873. In the senate he was chairman of the committee on privileges and elections and the leader of the Republicans, and for several years he exercised a determining influence over the political course of the party. On the question of reconstruction he supported the severest measures toward the southern states and their citizens. He labored zealously to secure the passage of the 15th amendment to the constitution, was active in the impeachment proceedings against President Johnson, and was the trusted adviser of the Republicans of the south. After supporting the Santo Domingo treaty he was offered the English mission by President Grant, but declined, lest his state should send a Democrat to succeed him in the senate. At the Republican National convention in 1876 Mr. Morton, in the earlier ballots, received next to the highest number of votes for the presidential nomination. He was a member of the electoral commission of 1877. After having a paralytic stroke in 1865 he was never again able to stand without support, yet there was no abatement in his power as a debater or in the effectiveness of his forcible popular oratory. Immediately after his return from Europe, whither he had gone to consult specialists in nervous diseases, he delivered, in 1866, a political speech of which more than 1,000,000 copies were circulated in pamphlet-form. After visiting Oregon in the spring of 1877 as chairman of a senatorial committee to investigate the election of Lafayette Grover, he had another attack of paralysis, and died soon after reaching his home. See “Life and Public Services of Oliver Perry Morton” (Indianapolis, 1876).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 431-432.

 

 

MOSES, Theodore P., New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-1845, Vice-President, 1854-1859.

 

 

MOTT, Abigale Lydia, Albany, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-1841, Vice-President, 1858-1864.  Co-founded Rochester Anti-Slavery Society.  Sister of Lucretia Mott.

 

 

MOTT, James, 1778-1868, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, philanthropist, merchant, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, husband of Lucretia Mott.  Manager and Vice President of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Co-founder, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Soceity.  Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania.  Association for Advocating the Cause of the Slave.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 140, 154; Mabee, 1970, pp. 9, 131, 305, 345, 406n13; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 387-388, 464; Yellin, 1994, pp. 69, 82, 276-278, 287, 294-295, 306, 313, 318-319, 333; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 441; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 288; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 19)

 

MOTT, James, philanthropist, b. in North Hempstead, L. I., 20 June, 1788; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 26 Jan., 1868. At nineteen he became a teacher in a Friends' boarding-school in Dutchess county, N.Y. He removed to New York city, and in 1810 to Philadelphia, and became a partner of his wife's father in mercantile business, in which he continued more than forty years, retiring with a competency. He was a participant in the movement against slavery and one of the earliest friends of William L. Garrison. In 1833 he aided in organizing in Philadelphia the National anti-slavery society, and in 1840 was a delegate from the Pennsylvania society to attend the World's anti-slavery convention at London, where he was among those who ineffectually urged the admission of the female delegates from the Pennsylvania and other societies. In 1848 he presided over the first Woman's rights national convention, at Seneca Falls, N.Y. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and in later life aided in maturing the plans of government and instruction for the Friends' college at Swarthmore, near Philadelphia. He published “Three Months in Great Britain.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 441.

 

 

MOTT, Lucretia Coffin (Mrs. James Mott), 1793-1880, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, reformer, suffragist, co-founder and first president of the Philadelphia Female American Anti-Slavery Society, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave, member of the Hicksite Anti-Slavery Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wrote memoir, Life, 1884.  (Bacon, 1999; Drake, 1950, pp. 140, 149, 154, 156, 157, 172, 176; Mabee, 1970, pp. 3, 13, 31, 68, 77, 94, 186, 188, 189, 201, 204, 224, 225, 226, 241, 289, 314, 326, 350, 374, 378; Palmer, 2001; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 47, 157, 387-388, 416, 464, 519; Yellin, 1994, pp. 18, 26, 43, 74, 159-162, 175-176, 286-287, 301-302, 327-328; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 441; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 288; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 595-597; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 21; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 310-311; Cromwell, Otelia. Lucretia Mott. 1958.)

 

MOTT, Lucretia, reformer, b. on the island of Nantucket, Mass., 3 Jan., 1793; d. near Philadelphia, Pa., 11 Nov., 1880, was descended through her father, Capt. Thomas Coffin, from one of the original purchasers of the island. When she was eleven years old her parents removed to Boston, Mass. She was educated in the school where Mr. Mott was teaching, and became a teacher there at the age of fifteen. In 1809 she joined her parents, who had removed to Philadelphia, where she married in 1811. In 1817 she took charge of a small school in Philadelphia, and in 1818 appeared in the ministry of the Friends, and soon became noted for the clearness, refinement, and eloquence of her discourses. In the division of the society, in 1827, she adhered to the Hicksite branch. She early became interested in the movement against slavery, and remained one of its most prominent and persistent advocates until the emancipation. In 1833 she assisted in the formation at Philadelphia of the American anti-slavery society, though, owing to the ideas then accepted as to the activities of women, she did not sign the declaration that was adopted. Later, for a time, she was active in the formation of female anti-slavery organizations. In 1840 she went to London as a delegate from the American anti-slavery society to the World's anti-slavery convention, but it was there decided to admit no women. She was received, however, with cordiality, formed acquaintance with those most active in the movement in Great Britain, and made various addresses. The action of the convention in excluding women excited indignation, and led to the establishment of woman's rights journals in England and France, and to the movement in the United States, in which Mrs. Mott took an active part. She was one of the four women that called the convention at Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848, and subsequently devoted part of her efforts to the agitation for improving the legal and political status of women. She held frequent meetings with the colored people, in whose welfare and advancement she felt deep interest, and was for several years president of the Pennsylvania peace society. In the exercise of her “gift” as a minister, she made journeys through New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and into Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana, where she did not refrain from denouncing slavery. She was actively interested in the Free religious associations formed in Boston about 1868, and in the Woman's medical college in Philadelphia. See her “Life,” with that of her husband, edited by her granddaughter, Anna Davis Hallowell (Boston, 1884).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 441.

 

 

MOTT, Richard, 1804-1888, Mamaroneck, New York, abolitionist.  Mayor of Toledo, Ohio.  Anti-slavery Republican U.S. Congressman, 1855-1859.  Brother of James Mott and brother-in-law of Lucretia Mott.

 

 

MUDGE, Benjamin Franklin, 1817-1879, lawyer, geologist, educator abolitionist, temperance and anti-slavery activist.  Protected fugitive slaves.  Mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts. 

 

 

MUNRO, Peter Jay, 1767-1833, jurist, abolitionist, member of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, founded 1785.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 461; Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 239n4, 5)

 

MUNRO, Peter Jay, jurist, b. in Rye, N. Y., 10 Jan., 1767; d. in Mamaroneck, N. Y., 23 Sept., 1833, was educated in New York, under the direction of his uncle, John Jay, until his thirteenth year, when he accompanied the latter to Europe on his appointment by congress to the mission to Spain, landing at Cadiz in November, 1779. Mr. Jay remained in Spain, although not formally received as minister, until 1782, residing at Madrid. During this time Mr. Munro's education was carried on under Spanish masters, and he became thoroughly versed in Spanish and French. In June, 1782, Mr. Jay left Spain with his family and went to Paris. During the peace negotiations, as well as after his trouble with Carmichael and Brockholst Livingston, his official secretaries, Mr. Jay committed many matters to his nephew in a similar capacity. Mr. Munro returned to New York with Mr. Jay on 24 July, 1784. He began at once the study of the law, and after a brief period was placed as a student in the office of Aaron Burr, whom Mr. Jay deemed the best practitioner of the day, and in due time was admitted to the bar. He soon acquired a lucrative practice, and from 1800 till 1826, when his health gave way, was one of the chief lawyers of New York. In 1821, with his cousin, Peter A. Jay, and Jonathan Ward, he was elected from Westchester county, where he had a countryseat, to represent that county in the Constitutional convention of that year. In that body Mr. Munro took an active part, being, by the appointment of its president, Gov. Tompkins, chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1826, while he was engaged in active practice, Mr. Munro had an attack of paralysis, and, though he partially recovered and lived for seven years afterward, he spent the residue of his life as a country gentleman. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 461.

 

 

MUNSELL, Luke, Dr., Kentucky, Marion County, Indiana, abolitionist.  Strong supporter of colonization and the American Colonization Society.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1837, 1837-1840.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 139)

 

 

MURRAY, Daniel, Maryland, founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 35-36; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

MURRAY, John Jr., Society of Friends, Quaker, member of the New York Manumission Society (Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 160, 166)

 

 

MURRAY, Joseph T., 1834-1907, Massachusetts, abolitionist, inventor.  Worked with James N. Buffam, John Greenleaf Whittier and William Lloyd Garrison.

 

 

MURRAY, Orson S., Orwell, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1840, 1840-1844.

 

 

MURRY, Jane Ann, free African American, co-founder Free African Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787 (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 156)

 

 

MYERS, Amos, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

MYERS, Harriet, died 1865, African American, abolitionist, member of the Underground Railroad in Albany, New York, wife of abolitionist and newspaper publisher Stephen Myers.

 

 

MYERS, Leonard, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

MYERS, Stephen, 1800-?, African American, newspaper editor and publisher, abolitionist, freed from slavery in his youth.  Chairman of the Vigilance Committee of Albany, New York, which aided fugitive slaves.  His home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  Worked with leading African American abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.  Community leader in Albany, New York.  Publisher of the newspaper, The Elevator.  Also published The Northern Star and Freeman’s Advocate.

 

 

MYRICK, Luther, Cazenovia, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1842.

 

 

 

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NEAL, Elizabeth, delegate to the (Garrisonian) Anti-Slavery Society, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Eastern Branch, Philadelphia.  Attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in June 1840.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 286)

 

 

NEAL, Isaac, 1793-1844, theologian, teacher, writer, American Colonization Society.

 

NEAL, Isaac, clergyman, b. in Bedford, N. H., in 1793; d. in Amherst, Mass., 28 April, 1844, was graduated at Yale in 1814. He studied theology, was ordained and became a teacher at the asylum for the deaf and dumb in Hartford, Conn., and afterward labored as a missionary among the colored people in Washington, D. C., and other southern cities, being employed by the American colonization society. He was proficient in mathematics and the natural sciences, and had a talent for mechanics, one of his inventions being an air-tight stove. He was a voluminous writer for the newspaper and periodical press, contributing forty-five letters signed “Hampden” to the New York “Commercial Advertiser,” and eighty letters over the signature of “Timoleon” to the Boston “Courier.” Among his unpublished manuscripts is a commentary on the books of “Daniel” and “Revelation.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

NEAL, John, 1793-1876, Portland, Maine, author, activist, women’s rights activist, anti-capital punishment activist.  Secretary of the Portland, Maine, American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 484; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 398; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 219-220)

 

NEAL, John, author, b. in Falmouth, Mass. (now Portland, Me.), 25 Aug., 1793; d. there, 21 June, 1876. He was of English descent, and for two generations of Quaker stock on both sides. He left school at twelve years of age, but educated himself by continuous reading, which he systematically pursued through life. Neal was variously employed as shop-boy, accountant, and salesman, and then taught penmanship, drawing, and painting, though he was without experience. Later he established himself in the dry-goods trade in Boston, and then he formed a partnership in Baltimore with John Pierpont, the poet. This firm failed in trade in 1816, and dissolved, taking out of the business only a warm and life-long friendship. Neal then studied law in Baltimore, was a member of the Delphian club of that city, famous for its wits, and supported himself by his pen, copying, indexing, and writing poems, novels, essays, and criticisms for the press. His first productions appeared in the “Portico” magazine. He was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1819, and practised his profession. In 1823 he sailed for England, as he said, “to answer on the spot the question ‘Who reads an American book?’” As a pioneer in American literature his success at home and abroad was a surprise to all. Preceding James Fenimore Cooper by several years, while Nathaniel Hawthorne was yet a boy and his compatriot, Charles Brockden Brown, less widely known or less quickly accepted, Neal attracted and compelled attention to American topics and American writings at a time when English literature was regarded as a monopoly of Great Britain. He was the first American contributor to the English and Scotch quarterlies. His sketches of the five American presidents and the five candidates for the presidency in “Blackwood’s,” and a series of like articles on American politics and customs, won for the young author reputation and money. At this time, though in need of money and, as he said, “hopelessly in debt, but hopeful,” he spent the whole of his first “Blackwood” check for two gold pencils that caught his eye in a shop-window, and sent one to his twin sister, Rachel, who was then teaching school in Portland. His writings attracted the notice of Jeremy Bentham, who invited and easily persuaded “Yankee Neal” to come and live with him as one of his students and secretaries, where various literary celebrities were to be met. In 1827 Neal returned to the United States, intending to resume the practice of law in Baltimore, but, in consequence of opposition and threatened persecution from his fellow-townsmen when he visited his sister, he characteristically sent for his law-library and opened his offices in his native place. On 1 Jan., 1828, he began his editorship of “The Yankee,” and for half a century was a frequent but irregular contributor to most of the magazines and newspapers. He wrote much of what is known as Paul Allen’s “History of the American Revolution” in a wonderfully short time, and his pen remained active through life.

He was an earnest opponent of capital punishment, more especially of public executions, and he was the first to advocate in 1838, in a Fourth-of-July oration, the right of woman suffrage. He was abstemiously temperate, yet he wrote in opposition to the Maine liquor law. He was a firm believer in physical training, and established the first gymnasium in this country, copied from the foreign models, and, being an expert gymnast, horseman, swordsman, and boxer, he established and taught classes of young men, and even in his last years kept up his own physical exercise as his only medicine. Phrenology, mesmerism, and spiritualism one after another, attracted his attention and examination, and counted him as among their fairest and least prejudiced investigators. With a quick eye and ready sympathy he sought out, welcomed, and encouraged young men, or gently and successfully discouraged those that afterward were grateful for his advice. Edgar A. Poe received his first encouragement from Mr. Neal. With the instincts of a born journalist, he dashed off novels with great rapidity, while, in the stern spirit of a reformer, he edited forgotten newspapers. He fulminated against fleeting and frivolous opinions, and whipped into a light and airy froth some of the graver issues of life. He was read out of the Society of Friends in his youth, as he says, “for knocking a man head over heels, for writing a tragedy, for paying a militia fine, and for desiring to be turned out whether or no,” but he became late in life an earnest Christian, uniting with the church in 1850. His works include “Keep Cool” (2 vols., Baltimore, 1817); “Niagara” (1819); “Goldan” (1819); “Errata” (2 vols., New York, 1823); “Randolph” (1823); “Seventy-Six” (2 vols., Baltimore, 1823); “Logan” (4 vols., London, 1823); “Brother Jonathan” (3 vols., 1825); “Rachel Dyer” (Portland, 1828); “Principles of Legislation,” translated from the manuscript of Jeremy Bentham, with biographies of Bentham and Pierre Dumont (Boston, 1830); “The Down Easters” (2 vols., New York, 1833); “One Word More” (Portland, 1854); “True Womanhood” (Boston, 1859); “Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life” (1869); and “Great Mysteries and Little Plagues” (1870). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

NEALL, Daniel, Jr., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Member of the Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania.  Member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 154, 156; Yellin, 1994, pp. 286, 292-293)

 

 

NEALL, Daniel, Society of Friends, Quaker, member of the Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave.  (Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 154, 156)

 

 

NEALL, Elizabeth, abolitionist, Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, pp. 84, 301-302, 307, 316, 332-333)

 

 

NEALL, Rebecca Bunker, abolitionist, member of the New England Non-Resistance Society (Yellin, 1994, pp. 292-293)

 

 

NEEDLES, Edward, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, president of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. (Drake, 1950, p. 153)

 

 

NEEDLES, John, Baltimore, Maryland, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-1840, 1840-4182.

 

 

NEEDLES, Mary, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, pp. 74, 80)

 

 

NELL, Lavinia, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

NELL, Louisa, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

NELL, William Cooper, 1816-1874, African American, abolitionist leader, author, civil rights activist, community leader.  Wrote Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812.  First African American to be appointed a clerk in the U.S. Post Office.  Active in equal rights for African American school children in Boston, Massachusetts.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 98, 105, 116, 124, 126, 150, 157, 164, 165, 166, 171-181, 291n24, 295, 337; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 54; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 489; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 413; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 8, p. 429)

 

NELL, William Cooper, author, b. in Boston, Mass., 20 Dec., 1816; d. there, 25 May, 1874. He was of African descent. He was graduated at Boston grammar-school, winning a medal for scholarship, read law with William I. Bowditch, and was prepared for admission to the bar, but by advice of Wendell Phillips would not take the oath of allegiance to the constitution with slavery. He became a clerk in the Boston post-office in 1861, being the first colored man to hold a post under the National government, and remained there till his death. Mr. Nell was active in his efforts for the improvement of his race, obtaining equal school privileges for the colored youth of Boston, and forming many literary societies. Besides several pamphlets, he published “Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776-1812”; and “Colored Patriots of the American Revolution,” with an introduction by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Boston, 1855).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 489.

 

 

NELSON, David, Quincy, Illinois, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS).

 

 

NELSON, David, 1793-1844, Tennessee, abolitionist leader, Army surgeon, clergyman.  Pastor in the Presbyterian Church, Danville, Kentucky, in 1828.  President of Marion College, Palmyra, Missouri.  Advocate of compensated emancipation.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 491; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 414; Dumond, 1961, pp. 92, 135, 199, 223; Mabee, 1970, p. 35; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 617)

 

NELSON, David, clergyman, b. near Jonesborough, Tenn., 24 Sept., 1793; d. in Oakland, Ill., 17 Oct., 1844. He was educated at Washington college, Va., and studied medicine at Danville, Ky., and Philadelphia, where he was graduated. He went to Canada with a Kentucky regiment as surgeon in the war of 1812, subsequently accompanied the army of Gen. Andrew Jackson to Alabama and Florida, and after the establishment of peace settled in practice in Jonesborough. He had early in life made a profession of religion, but had relapsed into infidelity. Becoming convinced anew of the truth of Christianity, he left a lucrative professional career to enter the Presbyterian ministry, and was licensed in April, 1825. He preached for nearly three years in Tennessee, and at the same time was connected with the “Calvinistic Magazine” at Rogersville. In 1828 he succeeded his brother Samuel as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Danville, Ky., and in 1830 he removed to Missouri and established Marion college, twelve miles from Palmyra, of which he became president. In 1836, in consequence of the slavery question, Dr. Nelson, who was an ardent advocate of emancipation, removed to the neighborhood of Quincy, Ill., and established an institute for the education of young men. In addition to articles for the religious press, he published “Cause and Cure of Infidelity” (New York, 1836), which has been republished in London and elsewhere. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 491.

 

 

NELSON, Homer A., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

NELSON, Hugh, 1768-1836, Virginia, U.S. Congressman, diplomat, jurist.  Vice-President of Richmond, Virginia, auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Son of Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 492; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 416; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 107)

 

 

NESMITH, James Willis, 1820-1885, jurist, lawyer.  U.S. Senator from Oregon.  U.S. Senator 1861-1867.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 494-495; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 430; Congressional Globe)

 

NESMITH, James Willis, senator, b. in New Brunswick, Canada, 23 July, 1820; d. in Polk county, Oregon, 17 June, 1885. He was left an orphan at an early age, received no education, and was forced to earn his livelihood. He removed to the United States, and in 1843 went with the first emigrants to Oregon, where he took an active part in forming the provisional government. He was made a judge in 1845, having studied law during two years in Oregon City. He commanded as captain two expeditions against the Indians during the Cayuse war of 1848, and the Yakima war in 1855. In 1853-'5 he was U. S. marshal for Oregon. He was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon and Washington territories in 1857, and was elected U. S. senator for the term from 1861 till 1867, serving on the committees on military and Indian affairs, a special committee that was appointed to visit the Indian tribes of the west, and those on commerce and Revolutionary claims. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia union convention of 1866, and subsequently was appointed U. S. minister to Austria, but was not confirmed. While engaged in farming in Oregon he was elected to congress as a Democrat to fill a vacancy, serving from 1 Dec., 1873, till 3 March, 1875. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 494-495.

 

 

DENEUVILLE, M. Hyde, French Minister to the United States.  Life member of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

NEVIN, John W., Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1837.

 

 

NEWBOLD, William, Trenton, New Jersey, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist. (Drake, 1950, p. 129)

 

 

NEWCOMB, Harvey, 1803-1863, clergyman, strong advocate for Black and Native American rights.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 502; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 450; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 328)

 

NEWCOMB, Harvey, clergyman, b. in Thetford, Vt., 2 Sept., 1803; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 30 Aug., 1863. He removed to western New York in 1818, engaged in teaching for eight years, and from 1826 till 1831 edited several journals, of which the last was the “Christian Herald,” in Pittsburg, Pa. For the ten following years he was engaged in writing and preparing books for the American Sunday-school union. He was licensed to preach in 1840, took charge of a Congregational church in West Roxbury, Mass., and subsequently held other pastorates. He was an editor of the Boston “Traveller” in 1849, and in 1850-'1 assistant editor of the “New York Observer,” also preaching in the Park street mission church of Brooklyn, and in 1859 he became pastor of a church in Hancock, Pa. He contributed regularly to the Boston “Recorder” and to the “Youth's Companion,” and also to religious journal. He wrote 178 volumes, of which fourteen are on church history, the others being chiefly books for children including “Young Lady's Guide” (New York, 1839); “How to be a Man” (Boston, 1846); “How to be a Lady” (1846); and “Cyclopaedia of Missions” (1854; 4th ed., 1856). He also was the author of “Manners and Customs of the North American Indians” (2 vols., Pittsburg, 1835). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 502.

 

 

NEWCOMB, J., Braintree, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40

 

 

NEWHALL, Benjamin F., 1802-1863, abolitionist.  Member, Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1842-1843.  Member, Liberty and Free Soil Parties.  Active in Underground Railroad.

 

 

NEWTON, Alexander Herritage, 1837-1921, African American, abolitionist, soldier, clergyman.  Minister, African American Episcopal (AME) Church.  Worked aiding fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 8, p. 448)

 

 

NEWTON, Calvin, Thomaston, Maine, Waterville College, Maine, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Member, Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS), 1840-1844.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

NICHOLAS, John, 1756(?)-1819, jurist.  Democratic Member of U.S. Congress from Virginia, 1793-1801.  Opposed slavery as Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 511; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 483; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 160; Annals of Congress)

 

NICHOLAS, John, jurist, b. in Williamsburg, Va., 19 Jan., 1761; d. in Geneva, N. Y., 31 Dec., 1819, was elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 2 Dec., 1793, till 3 March, 1801. He removed to Geneva, N. Y., in 1803, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. From 1806 till 1809 he was a state senator, and he was first judge of the court of common pleas in Ontario county from 1806 until his death.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 511.

 

 

NICHOLS, C.C., Chelsea, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1850, Executive Committee, 1850

 

 

NICHOLS, Clarina I. Howard, 1810-1885, Vermont, journalist, educator, reformer, active in abolition, temperance and women’s rights movements.  Active in Kansas Free State movement, and in the Underground Railroad, aiding fugitive slaves.  (Blackwell, 2010)

 

 

NILES, Hezekiah, 1777-1839, Baltimore, Maryland, newspaper editor for the Baltimore Morning Chronicle and the Niles Register, 1811-1836.  Vice President of the Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 521; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 521; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 111, 173)

 

NILES, Hezekiah, editor, b. in Chester county, Pa., 10 Oct., 1777; d. in Wilmington, Del., 2 April, 1839. He learned printing, and about 1800 became a member of an unsuccessful publishing firm in Wilmington. He then removed to Baltimore, Md., where for six years he edited a daily paper. He is chiefly known as the founder, printer, and publisher of “Niles's Register,” a weekly journal published in Baltimore, which he edited from 1811 until 1836, and which is considered so valuable as a source of information concerning American history that the first 32 volumes, extending from 1812 till 1827, were reprinted. The “Register” was continued by his son, William Ogden Niles, and others, until 27 June, 1849, making altogether 76 volumes. He advocated the protection of national industry, and was with Mathew Cary a champion of the “American system.” In addition to a series of humorous essays entitled “Quill Driving,” published in a periodical, he compiled a work entitled “Principles and Acts of the Revolution” (Baltimore, 1822). The towns of Niles, Mich., and Niles, Ohio, were named in his honor. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

NILES, Nathaniel, 1741-1828, lawyer, jurist, theologian.  U.S. Congressman from Vermont, October 1791-March 1795.  Voted against Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 521; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 523; Annals of Congress, 2 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 861)

 

NILES, Nathaniel, lawyer, b. in South Kingston, R. I., 3 April, 1741; d. in West Fairlee, Vt., 31 Oct., 1828, studied at Harvard, and was graduated in 1766 at Princeton, where he was known as “Botheration primus.” Subsequently he studied medicine and law, taught for a time in New York city, and then studied theology under Dr. Joseph Bellamy. He preached in various New England towns, and finally settled in Norwich, Conn., where he invented a process of making wire from bar-iron by water-power. He afterward erected a wool-card manufactory in that town. After the Revolution he bought a tract of land in Orange county, Vt., in what is now West Fairlee, being the first inhabitant of that place, and preaching in his own house there for nearly forty years. He was a member of the Vermont legislature, serving as its speaker in 1784, a judge of the supreme court, six times a presidential elector, and a representative to congress, serving from 24 Oct., 1791, till 3 March, 1795. He was also a “censor” for revising the state constitution. He received the degree of A. M. in 1772 from Harvard, and in 1791 from Dartmouth, of which institution he was a trustee from 1793 till 1820. He published “Four Discourses on Secret Prayer” (1773); “Two Discourses on Confession of Sin and Forgiveness” (1773); two upon “Liberty”; two sermons entitled “The Perfection of God,” the “Fountain of Good” (1777); a sermon on “Vain Amusements”; and a “Letter to a Friend concerning the Doctrine that Impenitent Sinners have the Natural Power to make to Themselves New Hearts.” He contributed papers to the “Theological Magazine,” and was the author of “The American Hero,” a popular war-song during the Revolution, written upon hearing of the news of the battle of Bunker Hill. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 521.

 

 

NILES, William Watson, West Fairles, Vermont, clergyman.  Agent of the American Colonization Society in New England.  Traveled in Maine and Eastern Massachusetts.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 122-123, 130, 131)

 

 

NOBLE, Linnius P., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

NORRIS, Joseph P., abolitionist leader, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Guardians, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

NORTH, John W., Northfield, Minnesota, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1855-57

 

 

NORTH, William, Freetown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839

 

 

NORTHRUP, A. T., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

NORTHUP, Solomon, b. 1808, free African American man.  Northup was kidnapped by slavers in Washington City in 1841 and illegally forced into slavery for 12 years.  In 1853, he was rescued by Northern abolitionists and returned to his family in Washington.  Northup wrote Twelve Years a Slave in that same year.  He worked as a member of the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves to flee to Canada.  His book was published by Northern abolitionists, and was used prominently in the abolitionist cause.  The date of his death is unknown.  His book was made into a major motion picture by the same name in 2013.  It was nominated and awarded the Best Pictur Oscar in 2014.  (Northup, 1853; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 47, 55)

 

 

NORTON, Elihu P., Edgartown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1842-

 

 

NORTON, Jesse O., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

NORTON, John T., New York.  Officer of the New York Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 129)

 

 

NORTON, John T., Farmington, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-1840, 1840-1841.  Vice President, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS).

 

 

NOURSE, James, Reverend, clergyman.  Agent of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in North Carolina.  Founded auxiliaries of the ACS in Cumberland, Randolph and Rowan Counties in North Carolina.  Grandson of Benjamin Rittenhouse.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 108)

 

 

NYE, Charles, Sandwich, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

NYE, Horace, Muskingham County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

 

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O’KELLY, James, 1735-1826, Virginia, North Carolina, Methodist clergyman, opponent of slavery.  Wrote anti-slavery work, Essay on Negro Slavery.  (Kilbore, 1963)

 

 

O’NEILL, Charles, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888; Congressional Globe)

 

 

OAKES, William, Ipswich, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.

 

 

ODELL, Moses Fowler, 1818-1866, Brooklyn, New York, statesman.  Fusion Democratic, later War Democratic, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York.  Congressman 1861-1865.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 556; Congressional Globe)

 

 

ODIORNE, James C., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Treasurer, 1835-36

 

 

OLDDEN, John, abolitionist leader, Acting Committee, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, p. 92)

 

 

ONDERDONK, Bishop, Episcopal bishop, New York, abolitionist

 

 

ORDWAY, Abigail, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, p. 61)

 

 

ORR, Isaac, Reverend, Bedford, New Hampshire, clergyman, educator, author.  General agent and Secretary for the American Colonization Society in Albany, New York.  Traveled Philadelphia to Portland, Maine.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 593; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 129-130, 133, 189-190)

 

 

ORTH, Godlove Stein, 1817-1882, lawyer, diplomat.  Member of the anti-slavery faction of the Whig Party.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana.  U.S. Congressman December 1863-March 1871, December 1873-March 1875.  Voted for Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, establishing citizenship, due process and equal protections, and establishing voting rights for African Americans. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 594-595; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 60; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 772; Congressional Globe)

 

ORTH, Godlove Stoner, statesman, b. near Lebanon, Lebanon co., Pa., 22 April, 1817; d. in Lafayette, Ind., 16 Dec., 1882. He was a descendant of Balthazer Orth, a German, who in 1742 purchased of John Thomas and Richard Penn, the proprietors of Pennsylvania, 282 acres of land in Lebanon county, whereon the birthplace of Godlove Orth was soon afterward built and still stands. His Christian name is a translation of the German Gottlieb, which was borne by many of his ancestors. He was educated at Pennsylvania college, Gettysburg, Pa., studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1839, and began to practise in Indiana. He was a member of the senate of that state from 1842 till 1848, and served one year as its presiding officer. In the latter year he was presidential elector on the Taylor and Fillmore ticket. He represented Indiana in the Peace conference of 1861. The part that he took in its debates gave him a wide reputation, and his definitions of “state rights” and “state sovereignty” have been quoted by Hermann von Holst with approval. In 1862, when a call was made for men to defend Indiana from threatened invasion, he organized a company in two hours, and was made captain and placed in command of the U. S. ram “Horner,” in which he cruised in the Ohio river, and did much to restore order on the borders of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. He was elected and re-elected to congress as a Republican, serving from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1871. Two years later he was chosen a member of the 43d congress, and served from 1 Dec., 1873, till 3 March, 1875. During his long congressional career he was the chairman and member of many important committees. He urged the vigorous prosecution of the war, and voted for the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the constitution. After his return to congress in 1866 he began to labor to secure from European governments the recognition of the right of expatriation, and lived to see it recognized in the treaties of the United States with most of the other powers. In 1868, at the request of the administration, he undertook the management of the legislation that looked to the annexation of Santo Domingo. At the same session he framed the “Orth bill,” which reorganized the diplomatic and consular system, and much of which is still in force. Early in 1871 a recommendation, urging his appointment as minister to Berlin, was signed by every member of the U. S. senate and house of representatives, and President Grant at one time intended to comply with the request, but circumstances arose that rendered the retention of George Bancroft desirable. Mr. Orth soon afterward declined the office of commissioner of internal revenue. In 1876 he was the Republican candidate for governor, but withdrew from the canvass. He had frequently been a member of the congressional committee on foreign affairs, and in March, 1875, was appointed minister to Austria, after declining the mission to Brazil. He returned to the United States in 1877, and was again elected to congress, serving from 18 March, 1879, until his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 594-595.  

 

 

ORTON, Philo A., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

OSBORN, Charles, 1775-1850, Kentucky and Mt. Pleasant, Ripley, Ohio, farmer, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, opponent of colonization.  Publisher of The Philanthropist, founded 1817.  With John Rankin, organized the Manumission Society of Tennessee in 1815.  Founder of anti-slavery newspaper, Manumission Intelligencer, in 1819.   (Drake, 1950, pp. 128, 162, 165; Dumond, 1961, pp. 95, 136; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 66; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 621-623)

 

 

OSGOOD, Samuel, Springfield, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

OSTRANDER, R. N., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

OTEY, James Hervey, Bishop, 1800-1863, Tennessee, clergyman.  Vice-President of the American Colonization Society, 1840-1841.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 604; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 90; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

OTEY, James Hervey, P. E. bishop, b. in Liberty, Bedford co., Va., 27 Jan., 1800; d. in Memphis, Tenn., 23 April, 1863. His father, Isaac Otey, was a farmer in easy circumstances, and frequently represented his county in the house of burgesses. James was one of the younger children in a family of twelve. He early evinced a love of study and of general reading, and, after attending an excellent school in his native county, was sent in his seventeenth year to the University of North Carolina, where he was graduated in 1820. He received honors in belles-lettres, and was immediately appointed tutor in Latin and Greek. In 1823 he took charge of a school in Warrenton, N. C. There his attention was turned to the ministry, and he was ordained both deacon and priest in the Protestant Episcopal church by Bishop Ravenscroft. In 1827 he removed to Tennessee and settled in the town of Franklin, but he changed his residence to Columbia in 1835, and finally to Memphis. On 14 Jan., 1834, he was consecrated bishop of Tennessee. Next to the duties of his episcopate the bishop's heart was most engaged with the work of Christian education. It seemed to be a passionate desire with him to establish in the southwest a large institution in which religion should go hand-in-hand with every lesson of a secular character, and young men be prepared for the ministry. Accordingly, after establishing, with the assistance of Rev. Leonidas Polk, a school for girls, called the “Columbia Institute,” he devoted a great part of his laborious life to the realization of his ideal. For full thirty years (1827-'57) he failed not, in public and in private, by night and by day, to keep this subject before the people of the southern states, until the successful establishment of the University of the south at Suwanee, Tenn., in which he was also aided by Bishop Leonidas Polk. The life of Bishop Otey was one of hard and unceasing labor. He lived to see the few scattered members of his church in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida, as well as Tennessee, organized into dioceses and in successful operation. He was known throughout the south and southwest as the Good Bishop. Though he was strongly opposed to secession, he wrote a letter to the secretary of state, remonstrating against coercion. The reply to this letter changed his views on the subject, and he declined to attend the general convention of his church in the seceding states that was held in Georgia soon afterward. In person the bishop was of a commanding stature, being six feet and two inches in height, and of fitting proportions. He published many addresses, sermons, and charges, and a volume containing the “Unity of the Church” and other discourses (Vicksburg, 1852). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

OTIS, James, 1725-1783, statesman, founding father, Otis wrote in The Rights of the British Colonist Asserted and Proved: “The Colonists are by the law of nature free born, as indeed all men are, white or black” (Bruns, 1977, pp. 103-105; Drake, 1950, pp. 71, 85; Dumond, 1961, p. 19; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 19, 96, 372; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 605-607; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 101; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 838)

 

OTIS, James, statesman, b. in West Barnstable, Mass., 5 Feb., 1725; d. in Andover, Mass., 23 May, 1783. He was descended in the fifth generation from John Otis, one of the first settlers of Hingham. This John Otis came with his family from Hingham, in Norfolk, England, in June, 1635. His grandson, John, born in Hingham, Mass., in 1657, removed to Barnstable, where he died, 30 Nov., 1727. He was for eighteen years colonel of militia, for twenty years representative, for twenty-one years member of the council, for thirteen chief justice of common pleas, and judge of probate. Two of his sons, John and James, were known in public life. John was representative for Barnstable, and afterward for several years a member of the council until his death in 1756. James, born in Barnstable in 1702, became eminent at the bar. Like his father, he was colonel of militia, justice of common pleas, and judge of probate, and was for some time a member of the council. He married Mary Allyne, or Alleyne, of Wethersfield, Conn., daughter of Joseph Allyne, of Plymouth. Of their thirteen children, several died in infancy. The eldest son, James, the subject of this sketch, was fitted for college under the care of the Rev. Jonathan Russell, of Barnstable, and was graduated at Harvard in 1743. After two years spent in the study of general literature he began the study of law in 1745 in the office of Jeremiah Gridley, who was then one of the most distinguished lawyers in this country. In 1748 he began the practice of law at Plymouth, but soon found that the scanty business of such a place did not afford sufficient scope for his powers. He removed to Boston in 1750, and soon rose to the foremost rank in his profession. His business became very lucrative, and he won a reputation for extraordinary eloquence, while his learning and integrity were held in high and well-deserved esteem. It was in those days noted as remarkable that he was once called as far as Halifax in the dead of winter to act as counsel for three men accused of piracy. He procured the acquittal of his clients, and received the largest fee that had ever been paid to a Massachusetts lawyer. Until this time he continued his literary studies, and in 1760 published “Rudiments of Latin Prosody,” which was used as a text-book at Harvard. A similar work on Greek prosody remained in manuscript until it was lost, along with many others of his papers. Early in 1755 Mr. Otis married Miss Ruth Cunningham, daughter of a Boston merchant. Of their three children, the only son, James, died at the age of eighteen; the elder daughter, Elizabeth, married Capt. Brown, of the British army, and ended her days in England; the younger, Mary, married Benjamin, eldest son of the distinguished Gen. Lincoln. Mr. Otis seems always to have lived happily with his wife, but she failed to sympathize with him in his political career, and remained herself a stanch loyalist until her death, 15 Nov., 1789. 

His public career began in 1761. On the death of Chief-Justice Sewall in 1760, Gov. Bernard appointed Thomas Hutchinson to succeed him. James Otis, the father, had set his heart upon obtaining this place, and both father and son were extremely angry at the appointment of Hutchinson. The latter, who was a very fair-minded man and seldom attributed unworthy motives to political opponents, neverthele ss declares in his “History of Massachusetts Bay” that chagrin and disappointment had much to do with the course of opposition to government which the Otises soon followed. The charge deserves to be mentioned, because it is reiterated by Gordon, who sided with the patriots, but it is easy to push such personal explanations altogether too far. No doubt the feeling may have served to give an edge to the eloquence with which Mr. Otis attacked the ministry; but his political attitude was too plainly based on common sense, and on a perception of the real merits of the questions then at issue, to need any other explanation. On the accession of George III. it was decided to enforce the navigation acts, which for a long time American shipmasters and merchants had habitually evaded. One of the revenue officers in Boston petitioned the superior court for “writs of assistance,” which were general search-warrants, allowing officials of the custom-house to enter houses or shops in quest of smuggled goods, but without specifying either houses or goods. There can be little doubt that the issue of such search-warrants was strictly legal. They had been authorized by a statute of Charles II., and two statutes of William III. had expressly extended to custom-house officers in America the same privileges that they enjoyed in England. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the issue of such warrants in general terms and without most sedulous provisions against arbitrary abuse was liable to result in a most odious form of oppression. It contravened the great principle that an Englishman's house is his castle, and it was not difficult to show that men of English blood and speech could be counted on to resist such a measure. The conduct of Mr. Otis on this occasion is an adequate answer to the charge that his conduct was determined by personal considerations. He then held the crown office of advocate-general, with an ample salary and prospects of high favor from government. When the revenue officers called upon him, in view of his position, to defend their cause, he resigned his office and at once undertook to act as counsel for the merchants of Boston in their protest against the issue of the writs. A large fee was offered him, but he refused it. “In such a cause,” said he, “I despise all fees.” The case was tried in the council chamber at the east end of the old town-hall, or what is now known as the “Old State-House,” at the head of State street, in Boston. Chief-Justice Hutchinson presided, and Gridley argued the case for the writs in a most powerful and learned speech. The reply of Otis, which took five hours in the delivery, was probably one of the greatest speeches of modern times. It went beyond the particular legal question immediately at issue, and took up the whole question of the constitutional relations between the colonies and the mother country. At the bottom of this, as of all the disputes that led to the Revolution, lay the ultimate question whether Americans were bound to yield obedience to laws that they had no share in making. This question, and the spirit that answered it flatly and doggedly in the negative, were heard like an undertone pervading all the arguments in Otis's wonderful speech, and it was because of this that John Adams, who was present, afterward declared that on that day “the child Independence was born.” No doubt the argument must have gone far in furnishing weapons for the popular leaders in the contest that was impending. Hutchinson reserved his decision until advice could be had from the law-officers of the crown in London; and when next term he was instructed by them to grant the writs, this result added fresh impetus to the spirit that Otis's eloquence had aroused. At the ensuing election, in May, 1761, Mr. Otis was chosen representative, and in the following year he opposed the motion for granting a sum of money to make good the expenses of a naval expedition to the northeast, which Gov. Bernard had made upon his own responsibility. When taken to task for this conduct, Mr. Otis justified himself in a pamphlet entitled “The Rights of the Colonies Vindicated” (1764). In this masterly argument the author planted himself squarely upon the ground that in all questions relating to the expenditure of public money the rights of a colonial legislature were as sacred as the rights of the house of commons. In June, 1765, Mr. Otis moved that a congress of delegates from all the colonies be called together to consider what should be done about the stamp-act. In that famous congress which met in October in New York he was a delegate and one of the committee for preparing an address to parliament. In 1767, when elected speaker of the Massachusetts assembly, he was negatived by Gov. Bernard. On the news of Charles Townshend's revenue acts, the assembly prepared a circular letter to be sent to all the colonies, inviting concerted resistance. The king was greatly offended at this, and instructions were sent to Bernard to dismiss the assembly unless it should rescind its circular letter. In the debate upon this royal order Otis made a fiery speech, in which he used the expression: “We are asked to rescind, are we? Let Great Britain rescind her measures, or the colonies are lost to her forever.” 

In the summer of 1769 he got into a controversy with some revenue officers, and attacked them in the Boston “Gazette.” A few evenings afterward, while sitting in the British coffee-house, he was assaulted by one Robinson, a commissioner of customs, supported by several army or navy officers. Mr. Otis was savagely beaten, and received a sword-cut in the head, from the effects of which he never recovered. He had already shown some symptoms of mental disease, but from this time he rapidly grew worse until his reason forsook him. He brought suit against Robinson, who was assessed in £2,000 damages for the assault; but when the penitent officer made a written apology and begged pardon for his irreparable offence, Mr. Otis refused to take a penny. With this lamentable affair his public career may be said to have ended, for, although in 1771 he was again chosen to the legislature, and was sometimes afterward seen in court or in town-meeting, he was unable to take part in public business. In June, 1775, he was living, harmlessly insane, at the house of his sister, Mercy Warren, at Watertown. When he heard the rumor of battle on the 17th, he stole quietly away, borrowed a musket at some farm-house by the roadside, and joined the minute-men, who were marching to the aid of the troops on Bunker Hill. He took an active part in that battle, and after it was over made his way home again toward midnight. The last years of his life were spent in Andover. Early in 1778, in a lucid interval, he went to Boston and argued a case in the common pleas, but found himself unequal to such exertion, and after a short interval returned to Andover. Six weeks after his return, as he was standing in his front doorway in a thunder-shower, leaning on his cane and talking to his family, he was struck by lightning and instantly killed. It was afterward remarked that he had been heard to express a wish that he might die in such a way. He was a man of powerful intelligence, with great command of language and a most impressive delivery, but his judgment was often unsound, and his mental workings were so fitful and spasmodic that it was not always easy to tell what course he was likely to pursue. For such prolonged, systematic, and cool-headed work as that of Samuel Adams he was by nature unfit, but the impulse that he gave to the current of events cannot be regarded as other than powerful. His fame will rest chiefly upon the single tremendous speech of 1761, followed by the admirable pamphlet of 1764. His biography has been ably written by William Tudor (Boston, 1823).

 

 

OWEN, Robert Dale, 1801-1877, author, abolitionist, diplomat, reformer.  Member of the American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission and the U.S. War Department, 1863.  Democratic Congressman from Indiana.  Anti-slavery and women’s rights activist.  Strong advocate of wartime emancipation of slaves.  Wrote “The Wrong of Slavery, the Right of Emancipation, and the Future of the African Race” (Philadelphia, 1864), of which Secretary Salmon P. Chace wrote that it “had more effect in deciding the president to make the [Emancipation] Proclamation than all other communications combined.”  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 165, 397; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 615-616; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 118; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 861)

 

OWEN, Robert Dale, author, b. in Glasgow, Scotland, 9 Nov., 1800; d. at his summer residence on Lake George, N.Y., 17 June, 1877, was educated under private tutors at home, and in 1820 was sent to Emanuel von Fellenberg's school at Hofwyl, near Berne, Switzerland, where he remained three years. In 1825 he came to the United States and aided his father in his efforts to found the colony at New Harmony, Ind. On the failure of that experiment he returned to Europe, and there spent some time in study, but returned to this country in 1827 and became a citizen. In November, 1828, he began in New York, with Frances Wright, the publication of “The Free Inquirer,” a weekly paper, devoted to the promulgation of pronounced socialistic ideas and the denial of the supernatural origin of Christianity. This journal was continued until 1832, when he returned to New Harmony. He was elected to the legislature of Indiana in 1835, and sat for three terms, during which, largely owing to his influence, one half of that part of the surplus revenue of the United States that had been appropriated to the state of Indiana was devoted to the support of public schools. He was sent to congress as a Democrat in 1843, and served twice, but was defeated for a third term. Mr. Owen, in January, 1844, introduced in congress a joint resolution relative to the occupation of Oregon, which, though it failed at that session, passed during the next, and became the basis of the settlement of the northwestern boundary that was effected in 1846. He also introduced in December, 1845, the bill under which the Smithsonian institution was organized, and was made chairman of the select committee on that subject, having as a colleague John Quincy Adams, who had made two unsuccessful attempts in former sessions to procure action in the matter. He was afterward appointed one of the regents of the Smithsonian, as well as chairman of its building committee. His speeches in congress on the Oregon question, the tariff, and the annexation of Texas had a wide circulation. In 1850 he was chosen a member of the convention that assembled to remodel the constitution of Indiana, and was made chairman of its committee on rights and privileges, and then chairman of its revision committee. He was a member of the legislature in 1851, was again made chairman of the committee on revision, and was the author of a bill that secured to widows and married women independent rights of property. On the enactment of this measure, the women of Indiana presented him with a testimonial “in acknowledgment of his true and noble advocacy of their independent rights.” In 1853 he was appointed chargé d'affaires at Naples, and he was raised to the grade of minister in 1855, remaining as such until 1858, in the meanwhile negotiating two valuable treaties with the Neapolitan government. After his return to the United States he devoted himself to various public interests, and in 1860 he discussed with Horace Greeley, in the columns of the New York “Tribune,” the subject of divorce. This discussion, reprinted in pamphlet-form, had a circulation of 60,000 copies. In 1862 he served on a commission relative to, ordnance and ordnance stores, and audited claims that amounted to $49,500,000, and in 1863 he was chairman of a commission that was appointed by the secretary of war to examine the condition of the recently emancipated freedmen of the United States. The results of his observations were published as “The Wrong of Slavery, the Right of Emancipation, and the Future of the African Race in the United States” (Philadelphia, 1864). In 1863 he published an address to the citizens of Indiana, showing the disastrous consequence that would follow from the success of the effort of certain politicians to reconstruct the Union with New England left out. The Union league of New York published 50,000 copies of this letter, and the Union league of Philadelphia an additional 25,000. During the civil war he further wrote and published a letter to the president, one to the secretary of war, one to the secretary of the treasury, and another to the secretary of state, advocating the policy of emancipation as a measure that was sanctioned alike by the laws of war and by the dictates of humanity. Sec. Chase wrote that his letter to Lincoln “had more effect in deciding the president to make his proclamation than all the other communications combined.” Mr. Owen was a believer in spiritualism, and was one of its foremost advocates in the United States. In 1872 he received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Indiana. He published “Outlines of the System of Education at New Lanark” (Glasgow, 1824); “Moral Physiology” (New York, 1831); “Popular Tracts” (1831); “Discussion with Origen Bachelor on the Personality of God and the Authority of the Bible” (1832); “Pocahontas: A Drama” (1837); “Hints on Public Architecture” (1849); “A Treatise on the Construction of Plank-Roads” (1856); “Footprints on the Boundary of Another World” (Philadelphia, 1859); “Beyond the Breakers” (1870); “Debatable Land Between this World and the Next” (New York, 1872); and “Threading My Way,” an autobiography (1874). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 615-616.

 

 

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PACKARD, Charles, Lancaster, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1842-44

 

 

PACKARD, Theodore, Shelburn, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-40

 

 

PADELFORD, Seth, 1807-1878, political leader, statesman, abolitionist.  31st Governor of Rhode Island.  Worked with New England Emigrant Aid Society, which aided anti-slavery settlers in Kansas.  Member of Republican Party.  Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, 1863-1865, Governor in 1869-1873.

 

 

PAGE, John, 1743-1808, statesman, soldier.  Member of Congress from Virginia.  Served in Congress March 1789-March 1797.  Governor of Virginia, 1802.  Opposed slavery as Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 624; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 137; Locke, 1901, p. 93; Annals of Congress)

 

PAGE, John, governor of Virginia, b. at Rosewell, Gloucester co., Va., 17 April, 1744; d. in Richmond, Va., 11 Oct., 1808, was graduated in 1763 at William and Mary, where he was the associate and intimate friend of Thomas Jefferson, of whom he was a follower in polities afterward. He was with Washington in one of his western expeditions against the French and Indians. Afterward he was a representative in the Virginia house of burgesses and a member of the colonial council. In 1776 he was a visitor of the College of William and Mary. In the same year he was a delegate to the convention that framed the Virginia state constitution. During the Revolutionary struggle he rendered important services as a member of the committee of public safety, and as lieutenant-governor of the commonwealth, contributing from his fortune to the public cause. He was an officer for the county of Gloucester during the war, where he raised a regiment of militia to repel a British invasion. He also contributed freely from his private fortune to the public cause. There is still in existence a letter from Edmund Pendleton urging Gov. Page to accept payment for the lead taken from Rosewell for making bullets. He was elected one of the earliest Representatives in congress from Virginia, upon the adoption of the Federal constitution, and was re-elected three times, serving from 4 March, 1789, till 3 March, 1797. In 1800 he was chosen one of the electors for president, and in December, 1802, was made governor of Virginia, succeeding James Monroe. After serving three years he was followed by William Cabell, as the state constitution at that time did not permit the same person to hold the office more than three years in succession, and was soon appointed by President Jefferson U. S. commissioner of loans for Virginia, which office he held at the time of his death. Gov. Page published “Addresses to the People” (1796 and 1799). He was distinguished for his theological learning, as well as for his soldierly and statesman-like qualities, and at one time his friends desired him to take holy orders in order to become the first bishop of Virginia. There is a portrait of him executed in 1758 by Benjamin West, also a later one by Charles W. Peale. Gov. Page preserved many letters from leaders of the Revolution, and left these and other material for memoirs of his time. These papers were lost after his death, but many of them were recovered in Boston in 1887. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 624.

 

 

PAGE, Simon, Hallowell, Maine, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

PAINE, Armancy, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-1846.

 

 

PAINE, Elijah, 1757-1842, Brooklyn, New York, Vermont, jurist, farmer.  United States Senator, 1795-1801.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1840-41.  President of the Vermont auxiliary of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 628; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 148; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 76)

 

PAINE, Elijah, jurist, b. in Brooklyn, Conn., 21 Jan., 1757; d. in Williamstown, Vt., 28 April, 1842. He was graduated at Harvard in 1781, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1784, began to practise in Vermont, and became largely interested in the development of that state. He engaged in agricultural enterprises and in the manufacture of American cloths, for which purpose he constructed an establishment at a cost of $40,000 in Northfield, Vt., then a wilderness. He also built a turn pike about twenty miles in length over the eastern spurs of the Green mountains. Mr. Paine was a member and secretary of the convention to revise the state constitution in 1786, and in 1789 was commissioner to adjust the claims of New York and Vermont. He was a member of the legislature from 1787 till 1791, at the end of which term he was appointed judge of the supreme court, holding this office until 1795. He was then elected U. S. senator, as a Federalist, serving from 7 Dec., 1795, till 3 March, 1801, and from that year until his death he was U. S. judge for the district of Vermont. He was a member of the American academy of arts and sciences, of the American antiquarian society, and of other learned bodies, and was president of the Vermont colonization society. He was an earnest promoter of education, being a trustee of Dartmouth and Middlebury colleges, and of the University of Vermont. In 1782 he pronounced the first oration before the Phi Beta Kappa society of Harvard. Dartmouth gave him the honorary degree of A. B. in 1786, and Harvard that of LL. D. in 1812, which degree he also received from the University of Vermont in 1825. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

PAINE, Ephraim, supported abolition (Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 147-148)

 

 

PAINE, H. M., New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

PAINE, John A., New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

PAINE, Thomas, 1737-1809, founding father printer, author, statesman, abolitionist.  Wrote Slavery in America (1775), Common Sense (1776) and The Rights of Man (1791).  Member of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  Drafted gradual aboltion law in Pennsylvania.  “But to go to nations with whom there is no war, who have no way provoked, without farther design of conquest, purely to catch inoffensive people, like wild beasts, for slaves, is an height of outrage against Humanity and Justice, that seems left by Heathen nations to be practiced by pretended Christians…  As these people are not convicted of forfeiting freedom, they have still a natural, perfect right to it; and the Governments, whenever they come, should in justice set them free, and punish those who hold them in slavery…  Certainly one may, with as much reason and decency, plead for murder, robbery, lewdness, and barbarity as for this practice.” (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 925; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 631-632; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 159; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 519-520; Davis, 1975; Dumond, 1961, p. 19; Nash, 1991; Soderlund, 1985)

 

PAINE, Thomas, b. in Thetford, Norfolk, England, 29 Jan., 1737; d. in New York, 8 June, 1809. His father, a Quaker, was a stay-maker, and Paine was brought up to the trade. He left home before reaching his majority, and went to London, but soon moved to Sandwich, where he married the daughter of an exciseman and entered the excise service. On the death of his wife, who lived but a year, he returned to London, and, after teaching, re-entered the excise service, in which he remained for some years, employing some of his leisure time in writing prose and verse and preaching from dissenting pulpits. He was selected by his official associates to embody in a paper their complaints and desires regarding the management of the excise; and on this work he displayed such ability as a writer that Benjamin Franklin, then the Pennsylvania colony's agent at London, suggested that America would be a more satisfactory field for the exercise of his special abilities. Naturally a republican and radical, and so persistent a critic of England's government and political customs that he seemed almost to hate his native land, Paine came to this country in 1774, and, through letters from Franklin, at once found work for his pen. Within a year he became editor of the “Pennsylvania Magazine,” and in the same year contributed to Bradford's “Pennsylvania Journal” a strong anti-slavery essay. The literary work that gave him greatest prominence, and probably has had more influence than all his other writings combined, was “Common Sense,” a pamphlet published early in 1776, advocating absolute independence from the mother country. In this little book appeared all the arguments that had been made in favor of separation, each being stated with great clearness and force, yet with such simplicity as to bring them within the comprehension of all classes of readers. The effect of this pamphlet was so powerful, instantaneous, and general that the Pennsylvania legislature voted Paine £500, the university of the state conferred upon him the degree of M. A., and the Philosophical society admitted him to membership. “Common Sense” soon appeared in Europe in different languages, and is still frequently quoted by republicans in European nations. His “Crisis,” which appeared at irregular intervals during the war for independence, was also of great service to the patriot cause; the first number, published in the winter of 1776, was read, by Washington's order, to each regiment and detachment in the service, and did much to relieve the despondency that was general in the army at that time. It has frequently been asserted that Paine was the author of the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, but the evidence offered is far from conclusive. After serving a short time in the army as aide to Gen. Nathanael Greene, he became secretary of the congressional committee on foreign affairs, and losing this place in 1779, through charges against Silas Deane, commissioner to France, he became clerk of the Pennsylvania legislature. While holding this place Paine made an urgent appeal to the people in behalf of the army, which was in extreme destitution and distress, and he proved his earnestness by subscribing his entire salary for the year to the fund that was raised. In 1781 he was associated with Col. Laurens in the successful effort to obtain loans from France and Holland. The nation was profoundly grateful for Paine's services, and endeavored to reward him. Soon after peace was declared congress voted him $3,000, the state of New York gave him a large farm in Westchester county, and Pennsylvania again made him clerk of her legislature. 

The close of the war deprived him for a time of the intense mental stimulus that seemed necessary to his pen, and he turned his attention to mechanics, one of his inventions being an iron bridge, which he endeavored, in 1787, to introduce in Europe. Reaching France during the revolutionary period, he published, under an assumed name, a pamphlet advocating the abolition of royalty. In 1791 he published in England his “Rights of Man,” in reply to Burke's “Reflections on the French Revolution.” For this he was outlawed by the court of king's bench, in spite of an able defence by Lord Erskine. Escaping from England, he went to France, where he was received as a hero and elected a member of the National convention. His republicanism, however, was not extreme enough to please the Jacobins; he opposed the beheading of the king, urging that Louis should be banished to America. The Jacobins finally expelled him from the convention on the ground that he was a foreigner, although he had become a French citizen by naturalization, and Robespierre had him thrown into the Luxembourg prison, where he spent nearly a year in anticipation of the guillotine. Released finally through the efforts of James Monroe, American minister to France, he resumed his seat in the convention, and gave lasting offence to the people of the United States by writing an abusive letter to President Washington, whom he accused of not endeavoring to secure his release from prison. He also alienated most of his American friends and admirers who were religiously inclined by his “Age of Reason” (2 parts, London and Paris, 1794-'5), an attack upon the Bible, written partly while he was in the Luxembourg prison. Six years later, however, when he returned to the United States, he still stood so high in public esteem that President Jefferson allowed him, at his own request, to be brought home by an American sloop-of-war, and he was favorably received in society. He took no active part in politics after his return, and it is generally admitted that intemperance and other vices had weakened his mental abilities. In 1809 he died in New York, and by his own direction was buried on his farm at New Rochelle, where he had spent most of the seven last years of his life. A few years later William Cobbett, the English radical, removed Paine's bones to England, with the hope of increasing enthusiasm for the republican ideas of which Paine was still the favorite exemplar in print; but the movement did not produce the desired effect, and it is believed that the remains found their final resting-place in France. The monument for which Paine provided in his will still stands over his first grave, beside the road from New Rochelle to White Plains. 

In addition to the books that made him prominent as a republican, patriot, and unbeliever, Paine wrote many pamphlets, some published anonymously. Most of them were on political topics of the time; but he also wrote largely on economics and applied science. Among his later works were suggestions on the building of war-ships, iron bridges, the treatment of yellow fever, Great Britain's financial system, and the principles of government; he also formulated and published a plan by which governments should impose a special tax on all estates, at the owner's death, for the creation and maintenance of a fund from which all persons, on reaching twenty-one years, should receive a sum sufficient to establish them in business, and by which all in the decline of life should be saved from destitution. 

Few men not occupying his official or ecclesiastical position have been as widely known as Paine, or subjects of opinions so contradictory. Abhorrence of his anti-religious writings has made many critics endeavor to belittle his ability and attribute his “Common Sense,” “Crisis,” and “Rights of Man” to the inspiration of other minds. It is known that “Common Sense” was written at the suggestion of the noted Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia. But beyond doubt Washington, Franklin, and all other prominent men of the Revolutionary period gave Paine the sole credit for everything that came from his pen, and regarded his services to the patriot cause as of very high and enduring quality. His “Rights of Man,” if the undenied statement as to its circulation (a million and a half copies) is correct, was more largely read in England and France than any other political work ever published. His “Age of Reason,” although very weak as an attack upon the Scriptures, when compared with some of the later criticisms of the German school, and even of some followers of Bishop Colenso, was so dreaded in its day that more than twenty replies, by as many famous divines, quickly appeared; among these was Bishop Watson's famous “Apology for the Bible.” Many of Paine's later acquaintances believed that the author of the “Age of Reason” was not proud of his most berated book. Paine admitted, on his return to this country, that he regretted having published the work, for, while he did not disavow any of the contents, he had become convinced that it could do no good and might do much harm. It is known that Benjamin Franklin, himself a doubter, counselled Paine not to publish the “Age of Reason,” saying: “Burn this piece before it is seen by any other person, whereby you will save yourself a good deal of mortification from the enemies it may raise you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance.” The fault of the book was not merely that it questioned cherished religious beliefs, but that it attacked them with invective and scurrility of a low order. Paine's apologists plead in extenuation that much of the book was written in prison, under circumstances that destroyed the faith of thousands more religious than the author of the “Age of Reason” It must be noted that Paine never was an atheist; born a Quaker, and roaming through the various fields of dissent from the established faith, he always believed in the existence of a God, and had high and unselfish ideals of the Christian virtues. Men who died not many years ago remembered that in the last few years of his life Paine frequently preached on Sunday afternoons in a grove at New Rochelle, and that his sermons were generally earnest and unobjectionable homilies. By nature Paine was a special pleader, and neither education nor experience ever modified his natural bent. He was a thinker of some merit, but had not enough patience, continuity, or judicial quality to study any subject thoroughly. Whatever conscience he possessed was generally overborne by the impulse of a strong nature that never had practised self-control. He; lacked even the restraint of family influence; his first wife lived but a short time, from his second wife he soon separated, an irregular attachment to the wife of a Paris publisher did not improve his character, and he had no children nor any relative in this country. Although affectionate and generous, he was so self-willed and arrogant that none of his friendships could be lasting after they became close. Between improvidence and the irregularities of his life he frequently fell into distresses that embittered his spirit and separated him from men who admired his abilities and desired to befriend him. In spite of his faults, however, the sincerity of his devotion to the cause of liberty cannot be doubted, nor can the magnitude of his service to the United States be diminished. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 631-632.

 

 

PAINTER, Charles C., d. 1895, abolitionist, Native American advocate, clergyman.

 

 

PALFREY, John Gorham, 1796-1881, author, theologian, educator, opponent of slavery.  Member of Congress from Massachusetts from 1847-1849 (Whig Party).  Early anti-slavery activist.  Palfrey was known as a “Conscience Whig” who adamantly opposed slavery.  He freed 16 slaves whom he inherited from his father, who was a Louisiana plantation owner.  While in Congress, Palfrey was a member of a small group of anti-slavery Congressmen, which included Joshua Giddings, of Ohio, Amos Tuck, of New Hampshire, Daniel Gott, of New York, David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois.  In 1848, Palfrey failed to be reelected because of his anti-slavery views.  In 1851, he was an unsuccessful Free Soil candidate for the office of Governor in Massachusetts.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 634; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 169; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 932)

 

PALFREY, John Gorham, author, b. in Boston, Mass., 2 May, 1796; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 26 April, 1881, received his elementary education at a boarding-school kept by the father of John Howard Payne at Exeter, and was graduated at Harvard in 1815. He afterward studied theology, and was ordained pastor of the Brattle street Unitarian church, Boston, 17 June, 1818, as successor to Edward Everett. His pastorate continued until 1830, when he resigned, and in 1831 he was appointed professor of sacred literature in Harvard, which chair he held till 1839. During the period of his professorship he was one of three preachers in the University chapel, and dean of the theological faculty. He was a member of the house of representatives during 1842-'3, secretary of state in 1844-'8, and was a member of congress from Massachusetts, having been chosen as a Whig, from 6 Dec., 1847, till 3 March, 1849. In the election of 1848 he was a Free-soil candidate, but was defeated. He was postmaster of Boston from 29 March, 1861, till May, 1867, and after his retirement went to Europe, where he represented the United States at the Anti-slavery congress in Paris in the autumn of 1867. After his return he made his residence in Cambridge. He was an early anti-slavery advocate, and liberated and provided for numerous slaves in Louisiana that had been bequeathed to him. He was editor of the “North American Review” in 1835-'43, delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell institute in Boston in 1839 and 1842, contributed in 1846 a series of articles on “The Progress of the Slave Power” to the “Boston Whig,” and was in 1851 one of the editors of the “Commonwealth” newspaper. He was the author of two discourses on “The History of Brattle Street Church”; “Life of Col. William Palfrey,” in Sparks's “American Biography”; “A Review of Lord Mahon's History of England,” in the “North American Review “; and also published, among other works, “Academical Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiquities” (4 vols., Boston, 1833- '52), “Elements of Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, and Rabbinical Grammar” (1835); “Discourse at Barnstable, 3 Sept., 1839, at the Celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of the Settlement of Cape Cod” (1840); “Abstract of the Returns of Insurance Companies of Massachusetts, 1 Dec., 1846” ( 1847); “The Relation between Judaism and Christianity” (1854); and “History of New England to 1875” (4 vols., 1858-'64). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 634.

 

 

PALMER, D. B., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

PARKER, Charles,  abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1851-1852.

 

 

PARKER, Gilman, Haverhill, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

PARKER, John P., 1827-1900, African American, former slave, abolitionist, businessman.  Born a slave.  Bought his freedom.  Worked in aiding fugitive slaves from Kentucky in the Cincinnati area.  May have helped more than 1,000 fugitive slaves.  Recruited volunteers for the U.S. Colored Regiment.  Wrote autobiography, His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Runderground Railroad. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 8, p. 592; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 36; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 522-523; Gara, 1961; Griftler, 2004; Hagendorn, 2002; Horton, 1997)

 

 

PARKER, Jonathan, Member of Congress from Virginia.  Opposed slavery as member of U.S. House of Representatives. (Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 138f, 139; Annals of Congress)

 

 

PARKER, Josiah, 1751-1810, Virginia, Revolutionary War soldier, politician, Member of the first Congress.  Supported citizens’ right to petition Congress against slavery.  Called slavery “a practice so nefarious.”  Voted against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 54; Annals of Congress, 1 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1230; 2 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 861; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 234)

 

 

PARKER, Mary S., leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 199; Yellin, 1994, pp. 36, 43, 51-53, 55, 61, 64, 174, 176)

 

 

PARKER, Reverend Theodore, 1810-1860, Boston, Massachusetts, Unitarian clergyman, abolitionist leader, reformer.  Secretly supported radical abolitionist John Brown, and his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, on October 16, 1859.  Opposed Fugitive Slave Act.  Organizer, Committee of Vigilance to help fugitive slaves escape capture in Boston, Massachusetts.  Wrote anti-slavery book, To a Southern Slaveholder, in 1848.  Also wrote Defense.  Supported the New England Emigrant Aid Society and the Massachusetts Kansas Committee.  Member of the Secret Six group that clandestinely aided radical abolitionist John Brown.  (Chadwick, 1900; Dirks, 1948; Drake, 1950, p. 176; Filler, 1960, pp. 6, 94, 126, 140, 141, 184, 204, 214, 239, 241, 268; Mabee, 1970, pp. 13, 82, 233, 253, 254, 256, 273, 302, 309, 316, 318, 320, 321; Pease, 1965, pp. 654, 656; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 207, 289, 327, 337, 338, 478; Sernett, 2002, pp. 69, 205, 211, 213; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 654-655; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 238; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 43; Commager, Henry S. Theodore Parker. 1947.)

 

PARKER, Theodore, clergyman, b. in Lexington, Mass., 24 Aug., 1810; d. in Florence, Italy, 10 May, 1860. His grandfather, Capt. John Parker, commanded the company of minute-men that were fired on by the British troops on 19 April, 1775. Theodore was the youngest of eleven children. From the father, a Unitarian and Federalist, he inherited independence of mind, courage, and Jove of speculation; from his mother, depth of religious feeling. The family were poor, and the boy was brought up to labor on the farm. At the age of six he was sent to the district school, which was then taught by young students from Harvard. The instruction was never systematic, quite rudimental, and very meagre, but the boy's thirst for knowledge overcame all obstacles. At eight he had read translations of Horner and Plutarch, together with such other works in prose and verse as were accessible, including Rollin's “Ancient History.” At the age of sixteen he was allowed to go to a school at Lexington for one quarter, an expensive indulgence, costing four dollars. Here he began algebra, and extended his knowledge of Latin and Greek. At the age of seventeen he taught himself. No school could give him enough. He studied all the time, and remembered all he learned, for his memory was as amazing as his hunger for acquisition. This year militia duties were added, and Theodore threw himself into these with his usual ardor, rose to rank in his company, and learned how to fight. All the time he was the light of his home, charming among his mates, exuberant, joyous, a pure, natural boy in all his instincts. One day in August, 1830, having obtained leave of absence from his father, he walked to Cambridge, was examined, admitted, walked back, and told his unsuspecting father, then in bed, that he had entered Harvard college. For a year he stayed at home and worked on the farm, but kept up with his class, and went to Cambridge only to be examined. Under these circumstances he could not obtain his bachelor's degree, and that of A. M. was conferred on him as a mark of honor in 1840. In March, 1831, he became assistant teacher in a private school in Boston, and toiled ten hours a day. In 1832 he undertook a private school at Watertown. There he remained ten years, becoming intimate with Convers Francis, the large-minded Unitarian minister there, reading his books, teaching in his Sunday-school with Lydia Cabot, whom he afterward married, and working his way toward the ministry. While in Watertown he read Cicero, Herodotus, Thucydides, Pindar, Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, and Æschylus; wrote a history of the Jews for his Sunday-school class, studied French metaphysics, began Hebrew in Charlestown, whither he walked on Saturdays to meet Mr. Seixas, a Jew, and began the pursuit of theology. In 1834 he went to the divinity-school, and his religious feeling took a conservative turn at that time. He seemed rather over-weighted with erudition, though by no means dry. His first venture in preaching was at Watertown from the pulpit of his friend, Mr. Francis. Then followed a period of “candidating” at Barnstable, Concord, Waltham, Leominster, and elsewhere. In June, 1837, he was ordained as minister at West Roxbury. This was a season of study, friendship, social intercourse, intellectual companionship, solid achievement in thought, unconscious preparation for the work he was to do. Here he gradually became known as an iconoclast. He was at West Roxbury about seven years, until February, 1845. During that time the Unitarian controversy was begun, the overworked student had passed a year in Europe, examining, meditating, resolving, clearing his purpose, and making sure of his calling, and the future career of the “heresiarch” was pretty well marked out. In January, 1845, a small company of gentlemen met and passed a resolution “that the Rev. Theodore Parker shall have a chance to be heard in Boston.” This was the beginning of the ministry at the Melodeon, which began formally in December. In that month an invitation from Boston—a society having been formed—was accepted. On 3 Jan., 1846, a letter resigning the charge at West Roxbury was written, and the installation took place the next day. The preaching at the Melodeon had been most successful, and it remained only to withdraw entirely, as he had in part, from his old parish, and to reside in the city. The ministrations at the Melodeon lasted about seven years, until 21 Nov., 1852, when the society took possession of the Music hall, then just completed. Here his fame culminated. He had met, at Brook Farm, which lay close to him at West Roxbury, the finest, most cultivated, most ardent intellects of the day; he had made the acquaintance of delightful people; he bad studied and talked a great deal; he had been brought face to face with practical problems of society. He was independent of sectarian bonds, he stood alone, he could bring his forces to bear without fear of wounding souls belonging to the regular Unitarian communion, and he was thoroughly imbued with the modern spirit. His work ran very swiftly. No doubt he was helped by the reform movements of the time, the love of poverty played its part, the natural sympathy with an outcast centred on him, the passion for controversy drew many, and the heretics saw their opportunity. But all these combined will not explain his success. True, he had no grace of person, no beauty of feature, no charm of expression, no music of voice, no power of gesture; his clear, steady, penetrating, blue eye was concealed by glasses. Still, notwithstanding these disadvantages, his intensity of conviction, his mass of knowledge, his warmth and breadth of feeling, his picturesqueness of language, his frankness of avowal, fascinated young and old. He had no secrets. He was ready for any emergency. He shrank from no toil. His interest in the people was genuine, hearty, and disinterested. He aimed constantly at the elevation of his kind through religion, morality, and education. He was interested in everything that concerned social advancement. Peace, temperance, the claims of morals, the treatment of animosity, poverty, and the rights of labor, engaged his thought. He did not neglect spiritualism or socialism, but devoted to these subjects a vast deal of consideration. Mr. Parker's interest in slavery began early. In 1841 he delivered a sermon on the subject, which was published, but it was not until 1845 that his share in the matter became engrossing. Then slavery became prominent in National politics, and menaced seriously republican institutions; then men began to talk of the “slave power.” Wendell Phillips somewhere tells of Theodore's first alliance with the Abolitionists, not in theory, for he did not agree with their policy, but in opposition to the prevailing sentiment. It was at the close of a long convention. There had been hard work. Phillips had been among the speakers, Parker among the listeners. As they left the hall, the latter joined him, took his arm, and said: '”Henceforth you may consider my presence by your side.” And faithfully he kept his promise. Probably no one—not Garrison, not Phillips himself—did more to awaken and enlighten the conscience of the north. By speeches, sermons, letters, tracts, and lectures he scattered abroad republican ideas. As a critic of pro-slavery champions, as a shielder of fugitives, as an encourager of fainting hearts, he was felt as a warrior. His labors were incessant and prodigious. He was preacher, pastor, visitor among the poor, the downtrodden, and the guilty; writer, platform speaker, lyceum lecturer, and always an omnivorous reader. His lecturing engagements numbered sometimes seventy or eighty in a season. In 1849 he established the “Massachusetts Quarterly Review,” a worthy successor of the “Dial,” but more muscular and practical—“a tremendous journal, with ability in its arms and piety in its heart.” The editorship was pressed upon Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Sumner, but devolved at last on Parker, who was obliged also to write many of the articles, as his contributors failed him. The “Quarterly,” thanks to him, lived three years, and died at length quite as much through the stress of political exigency as through the want of support, though that was insufficient. The fugitive-slave bill was passed in 1850, and entailed a vast deal of toil and excitement. He took more than one man's share of both, was a leader of the committee of vigilance, planned escapes, and entertained runaway slaves. During the fearful agitations incident to the escape of William and Ellen Craft, the chase after Shadrach, the return of Sims, and the surrender of Burns, his energies were unintermitting. Then came the struggle with the slave-holders in the west, when John Brown came to the front, in which he bore an active part, being an early friend and helper of the hero of Ossawattomie. But for extraordinary strength in youth, a buoyant temperament, love of fun and jest, fondness for work, moderation in eating and drinking, sufficient sleep, exercise in the open air, and capacity for natural enjoyment, such excessive labor must have exhausted even his vitality. These supported him, and but for an unfortunate experience he might have lived to an old age. Indeed, he expected to do so. He used to say that if he safely passed forty-nine he should live to be eighty. But he inherited a tendency to consumption. In the winter of 1857, during a lecturing tour through central New York, he took a severe cold, which finally, in spite of all his friends could do, settled upon his lungs. On the morning of 9 Jan., 1859, he had an attack of bleeding at the lungs. At once he was taken to Santa Cruz, and in May he left the island for Southampton. The summer was spent in Switzerland, and in the autumn he went to Rome. The season being wet, he steadily lost ground, and could with difficulty reach Florence where he died. He lies in the Protestant cemetery there. (See illustration.)  Theodore Parker's system was simple. It was, so far as it was worked out, theism based on transcendental principles. The belief in God and the belief in the immortality of the soul were cardinal with him; all else in the domain of speculative theology he was ready to let go. He followed criticism up to this line; there he stood stoutly for the defence. He was a deeply religious man, but he was not a Christian believer. He regarded himself as a teacher of new ideas, and said that the faith of the next thousand years would be essentially like his. It is sometimes said that Parker was simply a deist; but they who say this must take into account the strong sweep of his personal aspiration, the weight of his convictions, his devotion to humanity, the enormous volume of his feelings. There is no deist whom he even remotely resembled. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, Hobbes, Hume, suggest oppositions only. Parker affirmed and denied merely in order to make his affirmation more clear. He was a great believer, less a thinker than a doer. His bulky resources were so much fuel to his flame. His sympathies were all modern; he looked constantly forward, and was prevented only by his plain, common sense from accepting every scheme of his generation that wore a hopeful aspect. But he saw the weak points in reforms that he himself aided. He criticised women while working for their elevation, and laughed at negroes while toiling against their bondage. He was not aesthetic, and had no taste in painting, sculpture, music, poetry, or the delicacies of literature. He knew about them as he knew about everything, but his power was moral and religious, and it was inseparable from his temperament, which was human and practical on the side of social experiment. He bequeathed his library of 13,000 volumes to the Boston public library. He was a prolific author, publishing books, pamphlets, sermons, essays without number, but never with a literary, always with a philanthropic, intention. His publications include “Miscellaneous Writings” (Boston, 1843); “Sermons on Theism, Atheism, and Popular Theology” (1852); “Occasional Sermons and Speeches” (2 vols., 1852); “Additional Speeches and Addresses” (2 vols., 1855); “Trial of Theodore Parker for the Misdemeanor of a Speech in Faneuil Hall against Kidnapping,” a defence that he had prepared to deliver in case he should be tried for his part in the Anthony Burns case (1855); and “Experience as a Minister.” His “Discourse on Matters pertaining to Religion” (1842) still presents the best example of his theological method; his “Ten Sermons of Religion” (1853) the best summary of results. His complete works were edited by Frances Power Cobbe (12 vols., London, 1863-'5); (10 vols., Boston, 1870). A volume of “Prayers” was issued in 1862, and one entitled “Historic Americans” in 1870. It included discourses on Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. “Lessons from the World of Matter and the World of Mind,” selected from notes of his unpublished sermons, by Rufus Leighton, was edited by Frances P. Cobbe (London, 1865). See also “Théodore Parker sa vie et ses oeuvres,” by Albert Réville (Paris, 1865). On the death of Mrs. Parker in 1880, Franklin B. Sanborn was made literary executor, and he, it is said, intends to issue some new material. Mr. Parker's life has been presented several times; most comprehensively by John Weiss (2 vols., New York, 1864), and by Octavius B. Frothingham (Boston, 1874). Studies of him have been made in French and English. There is a fragment of autobiography and innumerable references to him as the founder of a new school in theology. There are busts of Parker by William W. Story and Robert Hart.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 654-655.

 

 

PARKER, Thomas, abolitionist leader, Acting Committee, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, p. 92; Bruns, 1977, p. 515)

 

 

PARKHURST, Jabez, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

PARKHURST, Jonathan, Essex County, New Jersey, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

PARKMAN, John, Greenfield, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-1840, 1840-1841.

 

 

PARRIS, Albion Kieth, 1788-1857, Portland, Maine, lawyer, jurist, U.S. Congressman and Senator, Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, former Governor of Maine.  Co-founder of the local auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 659; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 254; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 211)

 

 

PARRIS, Susan, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, p. 74)

 

 

PARRISH, Dillwyn, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave. (Drake, 1950, p. 154)

 

 

PARRISH, Isaac, 1811-1852, Philadelphia, physician, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 659)

 

 

PARRISH, John, 1729-1807, preacher, Society of Friends, Quaker, anti-slavery activist.  Wrote Remarks on the Slavery of Black People (1806), in which he said:  “I am no politician, but it is clear that the fundamentals of all good governments, being equal liberty and impartial justice, the constitution and laws ought to be expressed in such unequivocal terms as not to be misunderstood, or admit of double meaning…  A house divided against itself cannot stand; neither can a government or constitution.”  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 659; Bruns, 1977, p. 470; Dumond, 1961; Locke, 1901, pp. 65, 132, 173, 175-177)

 

PARRISH, John, preacher, b. in Baltimore county, Md., 7 Nov., 1729; d. in Baltimore, Md., 21 Oct., 1807. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and followed Anthony Benezet in pleading the cause of the African race. He published “Remarks on the Slavery of the Black People” (Philadelphia, 1806).     Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 659.

 

 

PARRISH, Dr. Joseph, 1779-1840, abolitionist, Society of Friends, Hicksite Quaker, Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania, leader and president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (Drake, 1950, p. 113; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 659)

 

PARRISH, Joseph, physician, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 2 Sept., 1779; d. there, 18 March, 1840, followed the business of a hatter until he was of age, when, yielding to his own inclinations, he became a student under Dr. Caspar Wistar, and was graduated at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1805. He was appointed resident physician of the yellow-fever hospital in the autumn of that year, and in 1806 one of the physicians of the Philadelphia dispensary, which post he held until 1812. He was also surgeon to the Philadelphia almshouse from 1806 until 1822, of the Pennsylvania hospital in 1816-'29, and consulting physician to the Philadelphia dispensary in 1835-'40. Dr. Parrish achieved reputation by his scientific attainments, which were somewhat unusual in that time. Among his experiments were a series that led to a proof of the harmlessness of the “poplar worm,” supposed at that time to be exceedingly venomous. In 1807 he began the delivery of a popular course of lectures on chemistry, which he subsequently repeated at various times. Notwithstanding his large practice, he also received medical students, and at one time had thirty under his instruction. Dr. Parrish was associated in the organization and subsequent management of the Wills hospital for the lame and blind, and was president of the board of managers in that institution from its beginning until his death. He was active in the proceedings of the College of physicians and in the medical society of Philadelphia. He contributed largely to the medical journals, and was one of the editors of “The North American Medical and Surgical Journal.” His books include “Practical Observations on Strangulated Hernia and some of the Diseases of the Urinary Organs” (Philadelphia, 1836), and an edition of William Lawrence's “Treatise on Hernia,” with an appendix. Says Dr. George B. Wood in his “Memoir of the Life and Character of Joseph Parrish” (Philadelphia, 1840): “Perhaps no one was personally known more extensively in the city, or had connected himself by a greater variety of beneficent services with every ramification of society.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 659.

 

 

PARRISH, Joseph, Jr., b. 1818, Burlington, New Jersey, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1841-1846.

 

PARRISH, Joseph, physician, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 11 Nov., 1818, was graduated at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1844, and then settled in Burlington, N.J. He returned to his native city in 1855, and in 1856 was called to fill the chair of obstetrics in Philadelphia medical college, but soon resigned to go abroad. While he was in Rome his attention was directed to the imperfect management of the insane hospital, and by addressing the pope he succeeded in rectifying the abuse. On his return in 1857 he was appointed superintendent of the Pennsylvania training-school for feeble-minded children, and this institution, with its buildings, grew up under his management. At the beginning of the civil war he entered the service of the U. S. sanitary commission, for which, under orders from the president, he visited many hospitals and camps with orders for supplies and hospital stores. Dr. Parrish also had charge of the sanitary posts of White House and City Point, and subsequently visited the governors of the loyal states, whom he aided in the organization of auxiliary associations for the continued supply of hospital stores. When the war was over he established and conducted for seven years the Pennsylvania sanitarium for the treatment of alcoholic and opium inebriety. In 1875 he settled in Burlington, N. J., where he has since continued in charge of a home for nervous invalids. He has been most active in relation to the care of inebriates, and in 1872 he was summoned before the committee on habitual drunkards of the British house of commons. His advice and recommendations were approved and adopted by the committee, and were made the basis of a law that is now in existence. He issued the first call for the meeting that resulted in the formation of the American association for the cure of inebriates, and has since been president of that organization. Dr. Parrish was vice-president of the International congress on inebriety in England in 1882, and was a delegate to the International medical congress in Washington in 1887. He is also a member of scientific societies both at home and abroad. In 1848 he established the “New Jersey Medical and Surgical Reporter,” which is now issued from Philadelphia without the state prefix and under new management. He also edited “The Sanitary Commission Bulletin,” and has been associated in the control of other publications, such as the Hartford '”Quarterly Journal of Inebriety.” Dr. Parrish is the author of many papers and addresses on topics pertaining to that branch of medical science, and “Alcoholic Inebriety from a Medical Standpoint” (Philadelphia, 1883). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 659.

 

 

PASTORIUS, Francis Daniel, 1651- c. 1720, lawyer, poet, scholar, educator, opponent of slavery.  Founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania.  In 1688, signed the Germantown Quaker Petition against slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 668-669; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 290)

 

PASTORIUS, Francis Daniel, colonist, b. in Sommerhausen, Franconia, Germany, 26 Sept., 1651; d. in Germantown, Pa., 27 Sept., 1719. He was the son of a judge of Windsheim, educated in the classical and modern languages, and all the science of his age, and had entered upon the practice of law, when, having joined the sect of Pietists, he concerted with some of his co-religionists a plan for emigrating to Pennsylvania. They purchased 25,000 acres, but abandoned the intention of colonizing the land themselves. Pastorius, their agent, had formed the acquaintance of William Penn in England, and became a convert to the Quaker doctrines. He was engaged by his associates, who in 1686 organized as the Frankfort land-company, and by some merchants of Crefeld, who had secured 15,000 acres, to conduct a colony of German and Dutch Mennonites and Quakers to Pennsylvania. He arrived on 20 June, 1683, and on 24 Oct. began to lay out Germantown. He was until his death a man of influence among the colonists, was its first bailiff, and devised the town-seal, which consisted of a clover on one of whose leaves was a vine, another a stalk of flax, and the third a weaver's spool with the motto “Vinum, Linum, et Textrium.” In 1687 he was elected a member of the assembly. In 1688 he was one of the signers of a protest to the Friends' yearly meeting at Burlington against buying and selling slaves, or holding men in slavery, which was declared to be “an act irreconcilable with the precepts of the Christian religion.” This protest began the struggle against that institution in this country, and is the subject of John G. Whittier's poem, “The Pennsylvania Pilgrim.” For many years he taught in Germantown and Philadelphia, and many of the deeds and letters required by the German settlers were written by him. He published a pamphlet, consisting in part of letters to his father, and containing a description of the commonwealth and its government, and advice to emigrants, entitled “Umständige geographische Beschreibung der allerletzt erfundenen Provintz Pennsylvaniae” (Frankfort-on-Main, 1700). Several volumes were left by him in manuscript, containing philosophical reflections, poems, and notes on theological, medical, and legal subjects. His Latin prologue to the Germantown book of records has been translated by Whittier in the ode beginning “Hail to Posterity.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 668-669.

 

 

PATTERSON, Daniel Todd, 1786-1839, Naval Commander, USS Constitution (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 671; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 301; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 134)

 

PATTERSON, Daniel Tod, naval officer, b. on Long Island, N. Y., 6 March, 1786; d. in Washington, D. C., 15 Aug., 1839. He entered the U. S. navy as a midshipman in August, 1800, and was attached to the frigate “Philadelphia,” under Capt. William Bainbridge when she ran upon a reef off Tripoli, and was taken by a flotilla of gun-boats. Patterson was kept a prisoner in Tripoli until 1805, and in 1807 he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1813 he was made commander, and in 1814 bad charge of the naval forces at New Orleans, co-operating ably with Gen. Andrew Jackson, and receiving the thanks of congress. He commanded the flotilla that captured and destroyed the forts and other defences of Jean Lafitte (q. v.) on the island of Barataria. Subsequently be attained the rank of captain, and had charge of the “Constitution” in 1826-'8, while on the Mediterranean. In 1828 he was made naval commissioner, and in 1832-'6 he commanded the Mediterranean squadron, after which he was, until his death, commandant of the navy-yard at Washington. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 671.

 

 

PATTERSON, James Willis, 1823-1893, educator.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire.  Congressman 1863-1867.  Elected U.S. Senator 1866-1873.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 672; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 303; Congressional Globe)

 

PATTERSON, James Willis, senator, b. in Henniker, Merrimack co., N. H., 2 July, 1823. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1848, and studied divinity at Yale, but was not licensed to preach. He was tutor at Dartmouth in 1852-'4, professor of mathematics there in 1854-'9, and occupied the chair of astronomy and meteorology from the latter date till 1865. He was school commissioner for Grafton county in 1858-'61, and at the same time secretary of the state board of education, and prepared the state reports for five years. He was in the legislature in 1862, was elected to congress as a Republican in the same year, served till 1867, and in 1866 was chosen U.S. senator, serving one term, during which he was the author of the measure constituting consular clerkships, and the bill for establishing colored schools in the District of Columbia, and was chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia and of that on retrenchment and reform. At the close of the congressional investigation of the Credit Mobilier (see AMES, OAKES) the senate committee reported a resolution expelling Mr. Patterson, 27 Feb., 1873; but no action was taken upon it, and five days later his term expired. He was a regent of the Smithsonian institution in 1864-'5, and was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention in 1866. In 1 877-'8 he was again a member of the New Hampshire legislature, and in 1885 he was appointed state superintendent of public instruction in New Hampshire. Iowa college gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1868. In 1880 he was the orator at the unveiling of the Soldiers’ monument in Marietta, Ohio. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 672.

 

 

PATTERSON, Robert, 1743-1824, Pennsylvania, mathematician, educator, soldier, member and delegate of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, founded 1775 (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 672; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 303; Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 240n14; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 139)

 

PATTERSON, Robert, director of the mint, b. near Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland, 30 May, 1743; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 22 July, 1824. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1768, found employment as a teacher, and in 1774 became principal of the academy in Wilmington, Del. When the Revolution began, he volunteered in the patriot army was at first a military instructor, and subsequently adjutant, assistant surgeon, and brigade-major. He was elected professor of mathematics in the University of Pennsylvania in 1779, occupied that chair for thirty-five years, and in 1810-'13 was vice-provost of that institution. Chief-Justice William Tilghman says of him: “Arduous as were his duties in the university, he found time for other useful employments. He was elected a member of the select council of Philadelphia, and was chosen its president in 1799. In 1805 he received from President Jefferson, with whom he had been in habits friendship, the appointment of director of the mint. This office he filled with great success until his last illness.” Mr. Patterson took an active part in the proceedings of the American philosophical society, and was its president from 1819 until his death, being a constant contributor to its “Transactions.” The University of Pennsylvania gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1819. He published “The Newtonian System” (Philadelphia, 1808) and a treatise on “Arithmetic” (Pittsburg, Pa., 1819); and edited James Ferguson's “Lectures on Mechanics” (2 vols., 1806); his “Astronomy” (1809); John Webster's “Natural Philosophy” (1808); and Rev. John Ewing's “Natural Philosophy,” with a memoir of the author (1809). See “Records of the Family of Robert Patterson (the Elder)” (printed privately, Philadelphia, 1847). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 672.

 

 

PATTERSON, Thomas, charter member of the American Colonization Society, founded in Washington, DC, in December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

PATTERSON, William, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

PATTON, William, 1798-1879, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, clergyman, opponent of slavery, father of abolitionist William Weston Patton.  (Appleton’s, 1888; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 317)

 

 

PATTON, William Weston, 1821-1889, South Boston, Massachusetts, theologian, educator, college president, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist.  Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1845-46.  On September 3, 1862, petitioned Lincoln to issue a proclamation of emancipation.  President of Howard University, 1877-1889.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 677-678)

 

PATTON, William Weston, clergyman, b. in New York city, 19 Oct., 1821, was graduated at the University of the city of New York in 1839 and at the Union theological seminary in 1842. After taking charge of a Congregational church in Boston, Mass., for three years, he became pastor of one in Hartford, Conn., in 1846, and in Chicago, Ill., in 1857. From 1867 till 1872 he was editor of “The Advance” in that city, and during 1874 he was lecturer on modern skepticism at Oberlin, Ohio, and Chicago theological seminaries, since which time he has been president of Howard university, Washington, D. C., filling the chair of natural theology and evidences of Christianity in its theological department. He took an earnest part in the anti-slavery movement, and was chairman of the committee that presented to President Lincoln, 13 Sept., 1862, the memorial from Chicago asking him to issue a proclamation of emancipation. He was vice-president of the Northwestern sanitary commission during the civil war, and as such repeatedly visited the eastern and western armies, publishing several pamphlet reports. In 1886 he went, on behalf of the freedmen, to Europe, where, and in the Orient, he remained nearly a year. He received the degree of D. D. from Asbury (now De Pauw) university, Ind., in 1864, and that of LL. D. from the University of the citv of New York in 1882. He is the author of “The Young Man” (Hartford, 1847; republished as “The Young Man's Friend,” Auburn. N. Y., 1850); “Conscience and Law” (New York, 1850); “Slavery and Infidelity” (Cincinnati, 1856); “Spiritual Victory” (Boston, 1874); and “Prayer and its Remarkable Answers” (Chicago, 1875).   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 677-678.

 

 

PAUL, Nathaniel, 1793-1839, New Hampshire, clergyman, abolitionist.  Founder of the First African Baptist Church in Albany, New York.  Advocated for immediate emancipation.  Against American Colonization Society.  Co-founded Freedom’s Journal, 1827-1829.  Worked with Albany Anti-Slavery Society.  (Pease, 1963; Quarles, 1969; Swift, 1989; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 523-524)

 

 

PAUL, Susan, 1809-1841, African American, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.  Paul authored the first autobiography of an African American published in the United States, entitled, Memoir of James Jackson, published in 1835. (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

PAYNE, John A., Newark, New Jersey, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1842-1844.

 

 

PEABODY, David, Worcester, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

PEABODY, Elizabeth, 1804-1894, Billenica, Massachusetts, educator, anti-slavery activist.

 

 

PEARL, Cyril, Reverend, Bolton, Connecticut, clergyman.  Agent for the American Colonization Society (ACS), representing Vermont and Maine.  He was assistant to ACS agent Reverend Joshua Danforth.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 197)

 

 

PEARSON, Robert, New Jersey, abolitionist, member and delegate of the New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, founded in New Jersey, 1793 (Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 239n6)

 

 

PECK, Alfred, New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

PECK, Harriet (Yellin, 1994, pp. 187-188, 190, 193, 193n, 196)

 

 

PECK, Sheldon, 1797-1869, radical abolitionist, social reformer, advocate for women’s rights, temperance, racial equality, education, pacifism.  Called for immediate end to slavery.  Agent for abolitionist newspaper, Western Citizen.  Delegate for the Liberty Party.

 

 

PEERS, Benjamin Orrs, 1800-1842, clergyman, university president, successful agent of the American Colonization Society.  Traveled in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio, founding numerous auxiliaries and raising funds.  Organized auxiliaries in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Canfield, Canton, and Columbus.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 699; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 389; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 137-139)

 

 

PEIRCE, Cyrus, 1790-1860, Nantucket, Massachusetts, educator, Unitarian minister, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

PELOUBET, Chabrier, Bloomfield, New Jersey, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

PEMBERTON, James, 1723-1808, merchant, Society of Friends, Quaker.  President of the Abolition Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1790-1803.  Aided numerous slaves.  (Basker, 2005, pp., x, 80, 84-85, 92, 101; Bruns, 1977, pp. 510, 514; Drake, 1950, pp. 54, 93-94, 102, 113, 122; Locke, 1901, p. 92; Nash, 1991, pp. 49, 65, 124-125, 130; Soderlund, 1985, pp. 44, 140, 151, 161, 170, 171, 197, 199; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 159, 160; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 706; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 413)

 

PEMBERTON, James, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, 26 Aug., 1723; d. there, 9 Feb., 1808, after completing his education in the Quaker schools, entered on a successful mercantile career. Although not so distinguished a man among the Quakers as his brother Israel, he wielded a large influence in both church and public affairs. He was one of the founders, and a member of the board of managers, of the Pennsylvania hospital, was early interested in the negroes, and became one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania abolition society, of which, on Benjamin Franklin's death in 1790, he was chosen president. During the Indian wars he united with his brothers to restore peace. Many of the Indian chiefs that came to Philadelphia enjoyed his hospitality. An important object with him during his life was the distribution of religious and instructive books, for which he gave liberally. In 1756, while holding a place in the assembly, he resigned his seat because the service, involving the consideration of military measures, was incompatible with his principles. In the following year he published “An Apology for the People called Quakers, containing some Reasons for their not complying with Human Injunctions and Institutions in Matters relative to the Worship of God.” He was among those that, in 1777, were exiled to Virginia. His country-seat, on Schuylkill river, was occupied by some of Lord Howe's officers when the British held Philadelphia. It passed into the possession of the National government, and is now the site of the U. S. naval asylum. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 706.

 

 

PEMBERTON, John, 1727-1795, Delaware, abolitionist leader, Society of Friends, Quaker, leader and delegate of the Delaware Abolition Society, founded 1788, vice president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Abolition of Slavery, 1787 (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 706-707; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 413; Basker, 2005, pp. 225, 240n19; Nash, 1991, pp. 49, 56, 65, 163; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 269)

 

PEMBERTON, John, Quaker preacher, b. in Philadelphia, 27 Nov., 1727; d. in Pyrmont, Westphalia, Germany, 31 Jan., 1795, received a good education, and engaged in business as a merchant. In 1750 he made a voyage to Europe for his health and the prosecution of some business matters. Shortly after his arrival in London, Pemberton accompanied his friend, John Churchman, on a religious tour. He subsequently travelled with Churchman, preaching the doctrines of the Friends, through England, Ireland, Scotland, and Holland, and after three years returned to this country. He took a deep interest in the Indians, and was active in his efforts to maintain peaceful relations between them and the whites. In 1777 he was among those Quakers who were arrested in Philadelphia and sent in exile to Virginia. His journal, containing an account of the same, is printed in “Friends' Miscellany” (vol. viii.). In 1782 he made another religious visit to Great Britain and Ireland which continued until 1789, his meetings being frequently held in barns and in the open air, because other places could not be had. “An Account of the Last Journey of John Pemberton to the Highlands and other Places in Scotland in the Year 1787,” written by his companion, Thomas Wilkinson, is printed in “Friends' Miscellany.” Pemberton returned to Philadelphia in 1789, and in 1794 again went abroad on a missionary tour into Holland and Germany, in which countries he labored until his death. On quitting Amsterdam, he issued an address to the inhabitants of that city, entitled “Tender Caution and Advice to the Inhabitants of Amsterdam.” See his journal of travels in Holland and Germany in “Friends' Miscellany” (vol. viii.). He left a large estate, much of which he gave by his will to the several charitable, benevolent, and religious organizations with which he had been associated, and for the purpose of aiding in the formation of like organizations. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 706-707.

 

 

PENNINGTON, James William Charles, 1807-1870, African American, American Missionary Association, fugitive slave, abolitionist, orator, clergyman.  Member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Published The Fugitive Blacksmith in London in 1844.  One of the first African American students to attend Yale University. Served as a delegate to the Second World Conference on Slavery in London.  Active in the Amistad slave case.  Recruited African American troops for the Union Army.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 330-334; Mabee, 1970, pp. 65, 100, 101, 140, 194, 203, 269, 338, 339, 413n1; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 52, 73, 166, 413-414; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 441; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 300)

 

 

PENNOCK, Abraham, Philadelphia, Society of Friends, Quaker, Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania, abolitionist, editor Non Slaveholder (Drake, 1950, pp., 130, 172-173; Mabee, 1970, p. 389n7)

 

 

PENNOCK, Mary C., abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994)

 

 

PENNYPACKER, Elijah Funk, 1804-1888, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, reformer, abolitionist.  Manager, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS), 1841-1842.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 719; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 446)

 

PENNYPACKER, Elijah Funk, reformer, b. in Chester county, Pa., 20 Nov., 1804; d. in Phoenixville, Pa., 4 Jan., 1888. He was educated in the private schools in Burlington, N. J., taught there, and subsequently engaged in land surveying in Phoenixville, Pa. He then became interested in real estate, was in the legislature in 1831-'5, chairman of its committee on banks, and a principal mover in the establishment of public schools. In 1836-'8 he was a canal commissioner. He joined the Society of Friends about 1841, and thenceforth for many years devoted himself to the abolition movement, becoming president of the local anti-slavery society, and of the Chester county, and Pennsylvania state societies. He was an active manager of the “Underground railroad,” and his house was one of its stations. With John Edgar Thompson he made the preliminary surveys of the Pennsylvania railroad. He aided the suffering poor in Ireland in the famine of 1848, and subsequently identified himself with the Prohibition party, becoming their candidate for state treasurer in 1875. He was an organizer of the Pennsylvania mutual fire insurance company in 1869, and was its vice-president till 1879, when he became president, holding office till January, 1887, when he resigned. John G. Whittier says of him: “In mind, body, and brave championship of the cause of freedom he was one of the most remarkable men I ever knew.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 719.

 

 

PENROSE, Jonathan, abolitionist leader, vice president of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society (PAS), 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 81, 92; Bruns, 1977, p. 514; Nash, 1991, pp. 124-125)

 

 

PEPPER, Calvin, abolitionist agent, the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  (Dumond, 1961, p. 180)

 

 

PERHAM, Sidney, b. 1819.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine.  Served in Congress 1863-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Governor of Maine 1871-1874.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 727; Congressional Globe)

 

PERHAM, Sidney, governor of Maine, b. in Woodstock, Me., 27 March, 1819. He was educated in the public schools, and subsequently was a teacher and farmer. He was a member of the state board of agriculture in 1852-'3, speaker of the legislature in 1854, a presidential elector in 1856, and clerk of the supreme judicial court of Oxford county in 1859-'63. He was elected to congress as a Republican, and served in 1863-'9. He was governor of Maine in 1871-'4.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 727.

 

 

PERKINS, Jared, Nashua, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1841.

 

 

PERKINS, Jesse, S. Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40

 

 

PERO, Martha Ann, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

PERRY, Gardiner B., East Bradford, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-1835.

 

 

PERRY, John M. S., Mendon, Massachusetts, abolitionist. Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

PETER, George, founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

PETERS, John, founding officer and Board of Managers, American Colonization Society, 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 30, 258n14)

 

 

PETERS, John S., Connecticut, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut.  Member and supporter of the Connecticut Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 126)

 

 

PETERS, Richard, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, reorganized April 23, 1787 (Nash, 1991, p. 124)

 

 

PETTENGILL, Moses, Newburyport, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.

 

 

PHELPS, Amos Augustus, Reverend, 1805-1847, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman, editor. Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833;  Manager, 1834-1835, Vice-President, 1834-1835, Executive Committee, 1836-1838, Recording Secretary, 1836-1840.  Editor, Emancipation and The National Era. Husband of abolitionist Charlotte Phelps. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 182, 185, 266, 276, 285; Pease, 1965, pp. 71-85; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 290; Yellin, 1994, pp. 47, 54, 54n, 59-60, 125; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 751; Phelps, “Lectures on Slavery and its Remedy,” Boston, 1834; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 132, 228-229)

 

PHELPS, Amos Augustus, clergyman, b. in Farmington, Conn., in 1805; d. in Roxbury, Mass., 12 Sept., 1847. He was graduated at Yale in 1826, and at the divinity-school there in 1830, was pastor of Congregational churches in Hopkinton and Boston, Mass., in 1831-'4, became agent of the Massachusetts anti-slavery society at the latter date, and was pastor of the Free church, and subsequently of the Maverick church, Boston, in 1839-'45. He also edited the “Emancipation,” and was secretary of the American anti-slavery society for several years. He published “Lectures on Slavery and its Remedy” (Boston, 1834); “Book of the Sabbath” (1841); “Letters to Dr. Bacon and to Dr. Stowe” (1842); and numerous pamphlets on slavery. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 751.

 

 

PHELPS, Anson Greene, 1781-1853, merchant, philanthropist.  President of the Colonization Society of the State of Connecticut.  Director, American Colonization Society, 1839-1840. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 751; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 525; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 135, 240)

 

PHELPS, Anson Greene, merchant, b. in Simsbury, Conn., 12 March, 1781; d. in New York city, 30 Nov., 1853. He learned the trade of a saddler, and established himself in Hartford, Conn., with a branch business in Charleston, S. C. In 1815 he became a dealer in tin plate and heavy metals in New York city. Having accumulated a large fortune1 partly by investments in real estate, he devoted himself to benevolent enterprises, and was president of the New York blind asylum, the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, and the New York branch of the Colonization society. He bequeathed $371,000 to charitable institutions, and placed in the hands of his only son a fund of $100,000, the interest of which was to be distributed in charity. In addition to large legacies to his twenty-four grandchildren, he intrusted $5,000 to each to be used in charity. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 751.

 

 

PHELPS, Charlotte Brown, first president, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), wife of abolitionist leader Reverend Amos Phelps (Yellin, 1994, pp. 47-49, 47n, 125)

 

 

PHELPS, Isaac, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

PHILBRICK, Samuel, Brookline, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1837-1840, 1840-1841, Treasurer, 1842-1860-.

 

 

PHILLBRICK, Eliza S., Massachusetts, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 332)

 

 

PHILLEO, Calvin, abolitionist, married to abolitionist Prudence Crandall

 

 

PHILLIPS, Ann, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, pp. 50, 56, 62, 309, 311n, 333)

 

 

PHILLIPS, John, 1823-1903, Richmond, Vermont, physician, politician, abolitionist.

 

 

PHILLIPS, Stephen Clarendon, 1801-1857, philanthropist.  U.S. Congressman, Whig Party.  Also member of Free Soil Party.  (Mabee, 1970, p. 161; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 437; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 763)

 

 

PHILLIPS, Wendell, 1811-1884, lawyer, orator, reformer, abolitionist leader, Native American advocate.  Member of the Executive Committee, 1842-1864, and Recording Secretary, 1845-1864, of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Called “abolition’s golden trumpet.”  Counseller, 1840-1843, of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  Advocate of Free Produce movement.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 182, 186, 273, 340; Filler, 1960, pp. 39, 42, 45, 59, 80, 94, 130, 138, 140, 183, 204, 206, 214, 275; Hofstadter, 1948; Irving, 1973; Mabee, 1970, pp. 72, 86, 105, 109, 116, 123, 124, 136, 165, 169, 173, 180, 193, 200, 243, 248, 261, 262, 269, 271, 278, 279, 286, 289, 295, 301, 309, 316, 337, 364, 369; Pease, 1965, pp. 339, 459-479; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 54, 56, 169, 309, 399, 476, 602-605; Stewart, 1998; Yellin, 1994, pp. 35, 82, 86, 260, 306, 308n, 309-311, 311n, 333; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 759-762; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 546; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 454; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 314-315; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 529-531; Bartlett, Irving H. Wendell Phillips: Brahmin Radical. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961; Sherwin, Oscar. Profit of Liberty: The Life and Times of Wendell Phillips. New York: Bookman, 1958)

 

PHILLIPS, Wendell, orator, b. in Boston, Mass., 29 Nov., 1811; d. there, 2 Feb., 1884, entered the Boston Latin-school in 1822, and was graduated at Harvard in 1831, in the same class with the historian J. Lothrop Motley. As a student he showed no particular interest in reforms; indeed, he bore the reputation of having defeated the first attempt to form a temperance society at Harvard. Handsome in person, cultivated in manners, and of a kindly and generous disposition, he was popular among his fellow-students, and was noted for his fine elocution and his skill in debate. His heart had responded to Webster's fiery denunciation at Plymouth in 1820 of that “work of hell, foul and dark,” the slave-trade. “If the pulpit be silent whenever or wherever there may be a sinner bloody with this guilt within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust.” He had taken a boy's part in honoring Lafayette, and in the midst of such associations he was unconsciously fitted for his career. In college his favorite study was history. He gave a year to the story of the English revolution of 1630, reading everything concerning it that he could find. With equal care he studied the period of George III., and Dutch history also so far as English literature enabled him to do so. His parents were of the Evangelical faith, and in one of the revivals of religion that followed the settlement of Dr. Lyman Beecher in Boston he became a convert, and he did not at any subsequent time depart from the faith of his fathers. While he denounced the churches for their complicity with slavery, he made no war upon their creeds. A fellow-student remembers well his earnest religiousness in college, and his “devoutness during morning and evening prayers which so many others attended only to save their credit with the government.” Though orthodox himself, he welcomed those of other faiths, and even of no faith, to the anti-slavery platform, resisting every attempt to divide the host upon sectarian or theological grounds. He entered the Harvard law-school for a term of three years, and in 1834 was admitted to the bar. He was well equipped for his profession in every respect save one, viz., that he appears to have had no special love for it and small ambition for success therein. “If,” he said to a friend, “clients do not come, I will throw myself heart and soul into some good cause and devote my life to it.” The clients would doubtless have come in no long time if he had chosen to wait for them, but the “good cause” presented its claims first, and was so fortunate as to win the devotion of his life. “The Liberator,” founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, had already forced the slavery question upon public attention and created an agitation that the leaders of society were vainly endeavoring to suppress. It has been said, probably with truth, that the first person to interest Mr. Phillips in this subject was the lady—Miss Anne Terry Greene—who afterward became his wife and, as he himself has said, “his counsel, his guide, his inspiration,” during his whole subsequent life. Of all the young men of Boston at that period, there was hardly one whose social relations, education, and personal character better fitted him for success as an aspirant for such public honors as Massachusetts was accustomed to bestow upon the most gifted of her sons. But if ambitions or aspirations of this sort were ever indulged, he had the courage and the moral power to resist their appeals and devote himself to what he felt to be a righteous though popularly odious cause. The poet James Russell Lowell has embalmed the memory of his early self-abnegation in a sonnet, of which these lines form a part:

“He stood upon the world's broad threshold; wide
The din of battle and of slaughter rose;
He saw God stand upon the weaker side
That sunk in seeming loss before its foes. 
.       .       .      .        . Therefore he went
And joined him to the weaker part,
Fanatic named, and fool, yet well content
So he could be nearer to God's heart,
And feel its solemn pulses sending blood
Through all the wide-spread veins of endless good.”

Looking from his office-window on 21 Oct., 1835, he saw the crowd of “gentlemen of property and standing” gathered in Washington and State streets to break up a meeting of anti-slavery ladies and “snake out that infamous foreign scoundrel, Thompson,” and “bring him to the tar-kettle before dark”—the same Thompson of whom Lord Brougham said in the house of lords at the time of the passage of the British emancipation act: “I rise to take the crown of this most glorious victory from every other head and place it upon his. He has done more than any other man to achieve it”; and of whom John Bright said: “I have always considered him the liberator of the slaves in the English colonies; for, without his commanding eloquence, made irresistible by the blessedness of his cause, I do not think all the other agencies then at work would have procured their freedom.” The mob, disappointed in its expectation of getting possession of the eloquent Englishman, “snaked out” Garrison instead, and Phillips saw him dragged through the streets, his person well-nigh denuded of clothing, and a rope around his waist ready to strangle him withal, from which fate he was rescued only by a desperate ruse of the mayor, who locked him up in the jail for safety. This spectacle deeply moved the young lawyer, who from that hour was an avowed Abolitionist, though he was not widely known as such until the martyrdom of Elijah P. Lovejoy (q. v.) in 1837 brought him into sudden prominence and revealed him to the country as an orator of the rarest gifts. The men then at the head of affairs in Boston were not disposed to make any open protest against this outrage upon the freedom of the press; but William Ellery Channing, the eminent preacher and writer, was resolved that the freedom-loving people of the city should have an opportunity to express their sentiments in an hour so fraught with danger to the cause of American liberty, and through his persistent efforts preparations were made for a public meeting, which assembled in Faneuil hall on 8 Dec., 1837. It was the custom to hold such meetings in the evening, but there were threats of a mob, and this one on that account was appointed for a daylight hour.

            The hall was well filled, Jonathan Phillips was called to the chair, Dr. Channing made an impressive address, and resolutions written by him, fitly characterizing the outrage at Alton, were introduced. George S. Hillard, a popular young lawyer, followed in a serious and well-considered address. Thus far everything had gone smoothly; but now uprose James T. Austin, attorney-general of the state, a member of Dr. Channing's congregation, but known to be bitterly opposed to his anti-slavery course. He eulogized the Alton murderers, comparing them with the patriots of the Revolution, and declared that Lovejoy had “died as the fool dieth.” Mr. Phillips was present, but with no expectation of speaking. There were those in the hall, however, who thought him the man best fitted to reply to Austin, and some of these urged the managers to call upon him, which they consented to do. As he stepped upon the platform, his manly beauty, dignity, and perfect self-possession won instant admiration. His opening sentences, uttered calmly but with deep feeling, revealed his power and raised expectation to the highest pitch. “When,” said he, “I heard the gentleman [Mr. Austin] lay down principles which placed the rioters, incendiaries, and murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the hall] would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American, the slanderer of the dead. Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned and swallowed him up.”

            These stinging words were greeted with applause, which showed that the young orator had but expressed the conviction and the feeling of the vast majority of the assembly, and that it was not in the power of the dissidents to defeat the purpose for which it had been convened. Freedom of speech was vindicated and mobocracy and assassination were rebuked in Faneuil hall, while the hated Abolitionists rejoiced that they had found a champion fitted to maintain their cause in any presence or emergency. From that hour to the end of the anti-slavery conflict the name of Wendell Phillips was everywhere, and among all classes, the accepted synonym of the highest type of American eloquence. In no half-way fashion did he espouse the anti-slavery cause. He accepted without reservation the doctrines that Garrison had formulated—viz.: slavery under all circumstances a sin; immediate emancipation a fundamental right and duty; colonization a delusion and a snare; the blood-guiltiness of the church in seeking apologies for slavery in the Bible, and the spuriousness of the statesmanship that sought to suppress agitation and held that liberty and slavery could be at peace under one and the same government. He did the work of a lecturing agent, obeying every call so far as his strength permitted, without any pecuniary reward. When he could command fifty or one hundred dollars for a lecture on any other subject, he would speak on slavery for nothing if the people consented to hear him. It is hardly possible to estimate the value to the anti-slavery cause of services so freely rendered by a man of such gifts and attainments, in the years when that cause was struggling under a weight of odium which not even his eloquence sufficed to overcome. As a speaker he was above all others the popular favorite, and his tact in gaining a hearing in spite of mob turbulence was extraordinary. His courage lifted him above fear of personal violence, while his wit illuminated his argument as the lightning illumines the heavens. The Abolitionists were proud of a defender who could disarm if he could not wholly conquer popular hostility, who might be safely pitted against any antagonist, and whose character could in no way be impeached. In every emergency of the cause he led the charge against its enemies, and never did he surrender a principle or consent to a compromise. His fidelity, no less than his eloquence, endeared him to his associates, while his winning manners charmed all who met him in social life. The strongest opponents of the anti-slavery cause felt the spell of his power and respected him for his shining example of integrity and devotion.

            In the divisions among the Abolitionists, which took place in 1839-'40, he stood with Garrison in favor of recognizing the equal rights of women as members of the anti-slavery societies, in stern opposition to the organization by Abolitionists, as such, of a political party, and in resistance to the attempt to discredit and proscribe men upon the anti-slavery platform on account of their religious belief. In 1840 he represented the Massachusetts Abolitionists in the World's anti-slavery convention in London, where he pleaded in vain for the admission of the woman delegates sent from this country. He took a prominent part in discussing the provisions of the constitution of the United States relating to slavery, and after mature reflection came with Garrison to the conclusion that what were popularly called the “compromises” of that instrument were immoral and in no way binding upon the conscience; and in 1843-'4 he was conspicuous among those who led the anti-slavery societies in openly declaring this doctrine as thenceforth fundamental in their agitation. This was done, not upon the ground of non-resistance, or on account of any objection to government by force, but solely because it was held to be immoral to wield the power of civil government in any manner or degree for the support of slavery. There was no objection to political action, as such, but only to such political action as made voters and officers responsible for executing the provisions that made the national government the defender of slavery. Of course, those who took this ground were constrained to forego the ballot until the constitution could be amended, but there remained to them the moral power by which prophets and apostles “subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness”— the power of truth, of an unfettered press, and a free platform. And these instrumentalities they employed unflinchingly to expose the character of slavery, to show that the national government was its main support, and to expose the sin and folly, as they thought, of maintaining a Union so hampered and defiled. They accepted this as their clearly revealed duty, in spite of the odium thereby involved; and they went on in this course until the secession of the slave states brought them relief by investing the president with power to emancipate the slaves, under the rules of war.

            Thenceforth Mr. Phillips devoted himself to the task of persuading the people of the loyal states that they were honorably released from every obligation, implied or supposed, to respect the “compromises” of the constitution, and that it was their right and duty to emancipate the slaves as a measure of war, and as a means of forming a regenerated and disenthralled Union. In this he was sustained not only by the whole body of Abolitionists of whatever school, but by a great multitude of people who had long stood aloof from their cause, and the effort was crowned with success in the president's proclamation of 1 Jan., 1863. From that moment the civil war became an anti-slavery war as well as a war for national unity, and thousands of Abolitionists who had followed the lead of Phillips hastened to enter the ranks.

            In all these conflicts Phillips stood shoulder to shoulder with Garrison, and was followed by a body of people, not indeed very numerous, but of wide moral influence. In 1864 Mr. Phillips opposed, while Garrison favored, the re-election of President Lincoln. In the spring of 1865, when Garrison advocated the dissolution of the American anti-slavery society, on the ground that, slavery being abolished, there was no further need of such an association, Mr. Phillips successfully opposed him, contending that it should not disband until the negro had gained the ballot. This division led to some unpleasant controversy of no long continuance. Mr. Phillips became president of the society in place of Mr. Garrison, and it was continued under his direction until 1870.

            In the popular discussion of the measures for reconstructing the Union he took a prominent part, mainly for the purpose of guarding the rights of the negro population, to whom he thus greatly endeared himself. He had previously won their gratitude by his zealous efforts in behalf of fugitive slaves, and to abolish distinctions of color in schools, in public conveyances, and in places of popular resort. He was at all times an earnest champion of temperance, and in later years the advocate of prohibition. He was also foremost among those claiming the ballot for woman. He advocated the rights of the Indians, and labored to reform the penal institutions of the country after the slavery question was settled. He espoused the cause of the labor reformers, and in 1870 accepted from them and from the Prohibitionists a nomination as candidate for governor. He advocated what has been called the “greenback” theory of finance. “The wages system,” he said, “demoralizes alike the hirer and the hired, cheats both, and enslaves the workingman,” while “the present system of finance robs labor, gorges capital, makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, and turns a republic into an aristocracy of capital.” He lent his aid to the agitation for the redress of the wrongs of Ireland. In 1881 he delivered an address at the centennial anniversary of the Phi Beta Kappa of Harvard college, which was pronounced, on very high authority, “an oration of great power and beauty, full of strong thoughts and happy illustrations, not unworthy of any university platform or academic scholar,” though containing some sentiments from which a portion of his audience strongly dissented. As an avowed critic of public men and measures, speaking year after year, almost always extemporaneously, and often amidst scenes of the greatest excitement, nothing less than a miracle could have prevented him from sometimes falling into mistakes and doing injustice to opponents; but it is believed that there is nothing in his record to cast a shadow upon his reputation as one who consecrated great gifts and attainments to the welfare of his country. His last public address was delivered on 26 Dec., 1883, at the unveiling of Miss Whitney's statúe of Harriet Martineau, at the Old South church, in Boston. A little more than a month after this the great orator passed from earth. The event was followed by a memorial meeting in Faneuil hall, and by appropriate action on the part of the legislature and the city government. After the funeral the remains were taken from the church to Faneuil hall, whither they were followed by a vast multitude. Mr. Phillips published “The Constitution a Pro-Slavery Contract” (Boston, 1840) and “Review of Webster's 7th of March Speech” (1850). A collection of his speeches, letters, and lectures, revised by himself, was published in 1863 in Boston. Among his lectures on other than anti-slavery topics were “The Lost Arts,” “Toussaint l'Ouverture,” and “Daniel O'Connell.” His life has been written by George Lowell Austin (Boston, 1888). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 759-762.

 

 

PHILLIPS, William, 1750-1827, Massachusetts, benefactor, philanthropist.  Founding officer, Vice President, American Colonization Society, 1816.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 763; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 548; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

PHILLIPS, William, benefactor, b. in Boston, Mass., 10 April, 1750; d. there, 26 May, 1827. He engaged in business with his father, of the same name, who was a benefactor of Andover theological seminary, and acquired a fortune. During the Revolutionary war he was an ardent patriot, and subsequent to 1800 he was frequently a member of the legislature, also lieutenant-governor in 1812-'23. At his death he bequeathed large sum of money to Phillips academy, to Andover theological seminary, and other institutions. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

PHOENIX, Samuel F., Wisconsin, Territory, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1837.

 

 

PIERCE, Cyrus, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1849-1860-.

 

 

PIERCE, John B., San Francisco, California, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1850-1852.

 

 

PIERPONT, John, 1785-1866, Massachusetts, poet, lawyer, Unitarian theologian, temperance reformer, abolitionist leader, member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Liberty Party candidate for Massachusetts.  Free Soil candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1850. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 14; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 286; Dumond, 1961, p. 301)

 

PIERPONT, John, poet, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 6 April, 1785; d. in Medford, Mass., 26 Aug., 1866. He was a great-grandson of James, who is noticed below. He was graduated at Yale in 1804, and after assisting for a short time in the academy at Bethlehem, Conn., in the autumn of 1805 went to South Carolina, and passed nearly four years as a private tutor in the family of Col. William Allston. After his return in 1809 he studied law at Litchfield, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practised for a time in Newburyport, Mass. The profession proving injurious to his health, he relinquished it, and engaged in business as a merchant, first in Boston, and afterward in Baltimore. In 1816 he abandoned commerce for theology, which he studied, first at Baltimore, and afterward at Cambridge divinity-school. In April, 1819, he was ordained pastor of the Hollis street church, Boston. In 1835 he made a tour through Europe and Asia Minor, and on his return he resumed his pastoral charge in Boston, where he continued till 10 May, 1845. The freedom with which he expressed his opinions, especially in regard to the temperance cause, had given rise to some feeling before his departure for Europe; and in 1838 there sprung up between himself and a part of his parish a controversy which lasted seven years, when, after triumphantly sustaining himself against the charges of his adversaries, he requested a dismissal. He then became for four years pastor of a Unitarian church in Troy, N. Y., on 1 Aug., 1849, was settled over the Congregational church in Medford, and resigned, 6 April, 1856. He was a zealous reformer, powerfully advocated the temperance and anti-slavery movements, was the candidate of the Liberty party for governor, and in 1850 of the Free-soil party for congress. After the civil war began, though seventy-six years of age, he went into the field as chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment, but, finding his strength unequal to the discharge of his duties, he soon afterward resigned, and was appointed to a clerkship in the treasury department at Washington, which he held till his death. Mr. Pierpont was a thorough scholar, a graceful and facile speaker, and ranked deservedly high as a poet. He published “Airs of Palestine” (Baltimore, 1816); re-issued, with additions, under the title “Airs of Palestine, and other Poems” (Boston, 1840). One of his best-known poems is “Warren's Address at the Battle of Bunker Bill.” His long poem that he read at the Litchfield county centennial in 1851 contains a description of the “Yankee boy” and his ingenuity, which has often been quoted. He also published several sermons and addresses. See Wilson's “Bryant and his Friends” (New York, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 14.

 

 

PIKE, Frederick Augustus, 1817-1886, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine.  Member of Congress 1861-1869.  Active in emancipation of slaves.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 18-19; Congressional Globe)

 

PIKE, Frederick Augustus, congressman, b. in Calais, Me., 9 Dec., 1817; d. there, 2 Dec., 1886, spent two years at Bowdoin, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He served eight terms in the Maine legislature, was its speaker in 1860, and was elected to congress as a Republican, retaining his seat in 1861-'9, and serving for six years as chairman of the naval committee. He was active in his efforts for emancipation and for necessary taxation, and the closing sentence of his speech in congress in 1861—“Tax, fight, emancipate”—became a watchword of his party. He was in the legislature in 1870-'1, and was defeated as a candidate of the Liberal Republican party in 1872. In 1875 he was a member of the Maine constitutional convention. He retired from the practice of law after his congressional service. Mr. Pike was an early and active Abolitionist, a friend of education, and for many years an eminent member of the bar. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 18-19.

 

 

PIKE, James Shepard, 1811-1882, journalist, diplomat, anti-slavery activist.  Washington correspondent and associate editor of the New York Tribune. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 18; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 595; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 512)

 

PIKE, James Shepherd, journalist, b. in Calais, Me., 8 Sept., 1811; d. there, 24 Nov., 1882. He was educated in the schools of his native town, entered mercantile life in his fifteenth year, and subsequently became a journalist. He was the Washington correspondent and associate editor of the New York “Tribune” in 1850-'60, and was an able and aggressive writer. He was several times a candidate for important offices in Maine, and a potent influence in uniting the anti-slavery sentiment in that state. In 1861-'6 he was U. S. minister to the Netherlands. He supported Horace Greeley for the presidency in 1872, and about that time visited South Carolina and collected materials for his principal work, A Prostrate State” (New York, 1876). He also published “The Restoration of the Currency” (1868); “The Financial Crisis, its Evils, and their Remedy” (1869); “Horace Greeley in 1872” (1873); “The New Puritan” (1878); and “The First Blows of the Civil War” (1879). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 18. 

 

 

PILLSBURY, Parker, 1809-1898, Concord, New Hampshire, reformer, newspaper editor.  Garrisonian abolitionist.  Wrote and published: Act of the Anti-Slavery Apostles, Rochester, NY, 1883.  Wrote: The Church as it is; or The Forlorn Hope of Slavery, Boston, 1847.  Agent for the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and American Anti-Slavery Societies.  Served as a Manager in the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1853.  (Drake, 1950, p. 177; Dumond, 1961, p. 268; Mabee, 1970, pp. 114-115, 123, 200, 206-208, 214, 215, 221, 223, 233, 250, 262, 297, 329, 333, 335-337, 361-363, 389, 371, 494n24; Sernett, 2002, pp. 213, 218; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 20; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 608)

 

PILLSBURY, Parker, reformer, b. in Hamilton, Mass., 22 Sept., 1809. He removed to Henniker, N. H., in 1814, and was employed in farm-work till 1835, when he entered Gilmanton theological seminary. He was graduated in 1838, studied a year at Andover, supplied the Congregational church at New London, N. H., for one year, and then abandoned the ministry in order to engage in anti-slavery work. He was a lecturing agent of the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and American anti-slavery societies from1840 till the abolition of slavery, and edited the “Herald of Freedom” at Concord, N.H., in 1840 and 1845- '6, and the “National Anti-Slavery Standard” in New York city in 1866. In 1868-'70 he was the editor of the “Revolution,” a woman suffrage paper in New York city. Afterward he was a preacher for Free religious societies in Salem and Toledo, Ohio, Battle Creek, Mich., and other western towns. Besides pamphlets on reform subjects, he has published “Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles” (Rochester, N. Y., 1883). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 20.

 

 

PINKERTON, Allan, 1819-1884, Glasgow, Scotland, detective, Union spy, abolitionist.  Founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 622)

 

 

PINKNEY, William, 1764-1822, Maryland, statesman, diplomat, lawyer, anti-slavery activist. Attorney General of the United States.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 26; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 626; Dumond, 1961, p. 106; Locke, 1901, pp. 92, 120f, 166, 179, 181)

 

PINKNEY, William, statesman; b. in Annapolis, Md., 17 March, 1764; d. in Washington, 25 Feb., 1822. His father was an Englishman by birth and was a loyalist during the American Revolution. Young Pinkney showed his independent spirit as a boy by joining the patriotic side. Owing to the troubled state of the times, his early education was imperfect, but he made up for this deficiency by diligent application as he approached manhood. He first chose medicine as a profession, but becoming acquainted with Judge Samuel Chase, who offered to take him as a pupil, he began the study of law at Baltimore in 1788, and three years afterward was admitted to the bar. He practised successfully in Harford county, Md., for a few years, and was sent from that district in 1788 to the State convention that ratified the constitution of the United States. In the same year he was elected to the house of delegates, in which he continued to represent Harford county till his return to Annapolis in 1792. His speeches in the legislature by his natural eloquence and his pure and felicitous diction won for him more than a local reputation. From 1792 till 1795 he was a member of the executive council of Maryland. In 1796 President Washington appointed him a commissioner on the part of the United States, under Jay's British treaty of 1794, to determine the claim of American merchants to compensation for losses and damages by acts of the English government. This was the beginning of his diplomatic career abroad. The particular service, involving the consideration of many nice questions of admiralty law, gave employment to Pinkney's best powers. He remained in England until 1804, when he returned home and resumed the practice of the law in Baltimore. The next year he was appointed attorney-general of the state of Maryland. In 1806 he was again sent to England as commissioner, jointly with James Monroe, to treat with the English government respecting its continued aggression, in violation of the rights of neutrals. When Mr. Monroe retired in 1807, Pinkney was left as resident minister in London, in which post he remained until President Madison recalled him in 1811, at his own earnest solicitation. On his return to Maryland he was elected a member of the state senate, and at the close of the year President Madison appointed him attorney-general of the United States. He was an earnest advocate of the war of 1812, and defended the policy of the government both by his pen and sword, being wounded at the battle of Bladensburg while leading a company of riflemen. In 1814 he resigned his post as attorney-general when the law was passed requiring that officer to reside at the seat of government. In 1815 he was elected to congress from Baltimore, but he resigned the next year on being appointed by President Monroe minister to Russia and special envoy to Naples. He remained abroad two years, but, feeling the want of his legal income, he resigned in 1818, returned to Baltimore, and resumed the practice of his profession. He was engaged in most of the chief cases in the supreme court of the United States during the next four years. In 1820 he was elected to the U. S. senate and took an active part in the discussion on the admission of Missouri into the Union. He continued also his labors in the supreme court, and while engaged in his double duties at the bar and in the senate he was attacked by the illness that terminated his life. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 26.

 

 

PINNEY, John B., Reverend, Presbyterian clergyman.  Agent for the American Colonization Society in Africa.  Appointed in 1833.  (Burin, 2005, p. 82; Campbell, 1971, p. 137; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 167, 240)

 

 

PITT, William, the Younger, 1759-1806, son of William Pitt, British Prime Minister.  Appointed Prime Miniser himself.  Opposed British slave trade.  Appointed William Wilberforce to lead anti-slavery actions in British Parliament.  (Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 531-532)

 

 

PITTS, Hiram, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

PLATT, Zephaniah, 1796-1871, Jackson County, Michigan, jurist, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-1850.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV)

 

PLATT, Zephaniah, jurist, b. in Plattsburg, N. Y., in 1796; d. in Aiken, S. C., 20 April, 1871, removed to Michigan in early life, studied and subsequently practised law, and was appointed by the U. S. government its attorney to settle its claims on the Pacific coast. He was state attorney-general for several years, and took high rank at the bar. He removed to South Carolina at the close of the civil war, and from 1868 until his death was judge of the 2d circuit. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V.

 

 

PLEASANTS, Israel, abolitionist, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Virginia Abolition Society, relative of Robert Pleasants (Basker, 2005, pp. 225, 241n26)

 

 

PLEASANTS, James, 1769-1839, Virginia, lawyer, U.S. Senator, Governor of Virginia.  Vice President of Richmond auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 39; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 6; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 107, 108)

 

PLEASANTS, James, senator, b. in Goochland county, Va., 24 Oct., 1769; d. at his residence, “Contention,” Goochland county, Va., 9 Nov., 1839. He was a first cousin of Thomas Jefferson. He was educated by private tutors, studied law, was admitted to the bar of his native county, and enjoyed an extensive practice, especially as an advocate. He was a member of the legislature in 1796, having been elected as a Republican, clerk of the house in 1803-'11, and from the latter date till 1819 was in congress. He then became U. S. senator, served in 1819-'22, when he resigned, and was governor of Virginia for the succeeding three years. During his term of office, in 1824, Lafayette visited Virginia. He was a delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention in 1829-'30, and subsequently declined the appointment of judge of the circuit court and of the Virginia court of appeals. The county of Pleasants, now W. Va., is named in his honor. John Randolph of Roanoke said of him: “James Pleasants never made an enemy nor lost a friend.” Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

PLEASANTS, Robert, 1723-1801, Richmond, Virginia, abolitionist, educator, abolitionist, plantation owner, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Founder and President of the Virginia Abolition Society in 1790.  A slave-holder, he freed his slaves in 1782.  Pleasants petitioned the State of Virginia and U.S. Congress to end slave trade.  Wrote numerous letters to leaders regarding the morality of slavery.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 225, 241n26; Bruns, 1977, pp. 221, 310, 348-349, 389, 466, 470; Dumond, 1961, pp. 20, 34)

 

 

PLEASANTS, Samuel, abolitionist, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Virginia Abolition Society, relative of Robert Pleasants (Basker, 2005, pp. 225, 241n26)

 

 

PLUMB, Joseph, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

PLUMB, Theron, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

PLUMLY, Benjamin R., Trenton, New Jersey, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1846-1849.

 

 

PLUMLY, Rebecca, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, p. 73)

 

 

POLK, Josiah, successful agent for the American Colonization Society in Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Alabama.  He organized and founded auxiliaries in numerous cities in Tennessee, including one in Kingsport, Knoxville, Jonesboro, Memphis, Murfreesboro and Nashville.  He also founded a Society in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  He founded 40 auxiliaries.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 141, 143)

 

 

POLK, William, 1758-1834, Raleigh, North Carolina, soldier, colonel, hero of the Revolutionary War.  Officer in the Raleigh auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.    (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 56-57; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 43; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

POMEROY, Samuel Clarke, 1816-1891, Republican U.S. Senator from Kansas.  Active in Kansas “Free State” convention of 1859.  U.S. Senator 1861-1873.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 60; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 54; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 649; Congressional Globe)

 

POMEROY, Samuel Clarke, senator, b. in Southampton, Mass., 3 Jan., 1816. He was educated at Amherst, and then spent some time in New York. Subsequently he returned to Southampton, and, besides holding various local offices, was a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1852-'3. He was active in organizing the New England emigrant aid company, of which he was financial agent. In 1854 he conducted a colony to Kansas, and located in Lawrence, making the first settlement for that territory. Afterward he removed to Atchison, where he was mayor in 1859. He was conspicuous in the organization of the territorial government, and participated in the Free-state convention that met in Lawrence in 1859. During the famine in Kansas in 1860-'1 he was president of the relief committee. Mr. Pomeroy was a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1856 and 1860. He was elected as a Republican to the U. S. senate in 1861, and re-elected in 1867. He was candidate for a third term in 1873, but charges of bribery were suddenly presented before the Kansas legislature, and in consequence he failed of election. A committee chosen by the legislature reported the matter to the U, S. senate, which investigated the case, and a majority report found the charges not sustained. The matter then came before the courts of Kansas, and after some months' delay the district attorney entered a nolle prosequi, stating to the court that he had no evidence upon which he could secure conviction. Mr. Pomeroy then made Washington his place of residence. He is the author of numerous speeches and political pamphlets. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 60.

 

 

POMEROY, Swan L., Bangor, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-1835, Manager, 1836-1839.

 

 

POMEROY, Theodore Medad, b. 1824, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York.  Re-elected Congressman from March 1861-March 1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 61; Congressional Globe)

 

POMEROY, Theodore Medad, lawyer, b. in Cayuga, N. Y., 31 Dec., 1824. He was graduated at Hamilton in 1842, and then studied law. Settling in Auburn, he practised his profession in that city, and was in 1850-'6 district attorney for Cayuga county. In 1857 he was elected a member of the lower branch of the New York legislature. He was then sent to congress as a Republican, and served, with re-elections, from 4 March, 1861, till a March, 1869. On the resignation of Schuyler Colfax from the speakership Mr. Pomeroy was elected on 3 March, 1869, to fill the vacancy. Subsequently he resumed the practice of his profession in Auburn, and engaged in banking business. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 61.

 

 

POND, James, 1838-1903, Cuba, New York, Union Army officer.  Received Medal of Honor in Civil War.  Active in Underground Railroad.  Helped fugitive slaves.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 60)

 

 

POND, Preston, , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1841-42

 

 

POND, Samuel, Bucksport, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

PORTER, Alexander, 1796-1844, St. Martinsville, Louisiana, jurist, U.S. Whig Senator, 1834-1837, 1843-1844. American Colonization Society (ACS), Vice-President, 1834-1841.  President, Louisiana auxiliary of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 71; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 81; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 147)

 

 

PORTER, Arthur L., Detroit, Michigan, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

PORTER, Benjamin, Marblehead, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.

 

 

PORTER, James, 1808-1888, clergyman, abolitionist.  Member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 77)

 

PORTER, James, clergyman, b. in Middleborough, Mass., 21 March, 1808: d. in Brooklyn, N.Y., 16 April, 1888. At the age of sixteen he entered a cotton-factory in his native town with the intention of learning the business of a manufacturer, but three years later he determined to study for the ministry. He attended the Kent's Hill seminary at Readfiel d, Me., and at the age of twenty-two was admitted a member of the New England conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. During the early period of his ministry Dr. Porter held many pastorates in and near Boston. For several years he was a presiding elder of the conference, and from 1844 till 1872 he was a delegate to the general conference. From 1852 till 1855 he was a member of the board of overseers of Harvard, being the first Methodist clergyman to hold that office. From 1855 till 1871 he was trustee of Wesleyan university, which conferred upon him the degree of A. M. In 1856 he was elected one of the book agents in New York city, having in charge the Methodist book concern, which office he held for twelve years. From 1868 till 1882 he was secretary of the National temperance society, and he was also one of the earlier members of the New England anti-slavery society. He was closely connected with the abolition movement, and was at one time in danger from the mob while delivering a speech in Boston upon the subject. He was a preacher of the old school, colloquial in manner, but of commanding presence. In 1856 he received the degreee of D. D. from McKendrick college, Illinois. Besides contributing frequently to various periodicals, Dr. Porter published “Camp Meetings Considered” (New York, 1849); “Chart of Life” (1855); “True Evangelist” (1860); “The Winning Worker; or the Possibilities, Duty, and Methods of Doing Good to Men” (1874); “Compendium of Methodism” (1875); “History of Methodism” (1876); “Revival of Religion” (1877); “Hints to Self-educated Ministers, etc.” (1879); “Christianity Demonstrated by Experience, etc.” (1882); “Self-Reliance Encouraged, etc.” (1887); and “Commonplace Book.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 77. 

 

 

PORTER, Maria G., abolitionist, Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society (Sernett, 2002, p. 190; Yellin, 1994, pp. 28, 30)

 

 

PORTER, Samuel D., Rochester, New York, abolitionist.  Manager of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Soceity (AFASS), 1843-1844.  Secretary of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Society.  Member of the Liberty Party. Active in Underground Railway.  (Sernett, 2002, pp. 181-182)

 

 

PORTER, Susan Farley, abolitionist, president of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society (RLASS), Rochester, New York, founded 1835 (Sernett, 2002, pp. 58, 60; Yellin, 1994, pp. 26-30)

 

 

POSEY, John Wesley, 1801-184tionist, physician (surgeon in the Union Army).  Active in Underground Railroad in Indiana.  Helped found Anti-Slavery League in Indiana.

 

 

POST, Albert L., Montrose, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1841.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1844.

 

 

POST, Amy Kirby, 1802-1889, Rochester, New York, reformer, American Society of Friends, Radical Hicksite, Quaker, abolitionist leader.  Active participant in the Underground Railroad.  Women’s rights activist.  Co-founder of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society (WNYASS).  Helped form the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends (YMCF).  (Drake, 1950; Sernett, 2002, pp. xiv, 60, 61, 181, 340n50; Yellin, 1994, pp. 27-30, 149)

 

 

POST, Isaac, 1798-1872, Rochester, New York, philanthropist, abolitionist leader, reformer, American Society of Friends, Radical Hicksite, Quaker, women’s rights activist.  Co-founder of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society (WNYASS).  Served on the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1842-1843.  Helped form the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends (YMCF), which opposed slavery.  Helped establish African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 84; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 117; Sernett, 2002, pp. 60, 180-181, 266, 340n50)

 

POST, Isaac, philanthropist, b. in Westbury, Queens co., N. Y., 26 Feb., 1798; d. in Rochester, N. Y., 9 May, 1872. Being the son of Quaker parents, he was educated at the Westbury Friends’ school. He engaaed in the drug business, and removed to Scipio, N. Y., in 1823, and to Rochester, N. Y., in 1836, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a warm adherent of William Lloyd Garrison, and one of the earliest laborers in the anti-slavery cause. His door was ever open to those who had escaped from bondage, and his hostility to the fugitive-slave law was bitter and uncompromising. He was a member of the Hicksite branch of the Quakers, but left that body because, in his opinion, it showed itself subservient to the slave power. Mr. Post resided in Rochester when public attention was first attracted to the manifestations by the Fox sisters, and became one of the earliest converts to Spiritualism. He was the author of “Voices from the Spirit World, being Communications from Many Spirits, by the Hand of Isaac Post, Medium” (Rochester, 1852). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 84.

 

 

 

POST, Joseph, 1803-1880, Westbury, New York, abolitionist, Society of Friends (Quaker).  Served on the Executive Committee, 1842-1843, and as a Manager, 1843-1844, of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS).  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 84)

  

POST, Joseph, b. in Westbury, L. I., 30 Nov., 1803; d. there, 17 Jan., 1888, resembled Isaac in his profession of abolition principles. He was at one time proscribed and persecuted within his own sect, but lived long enough to witness a complete revolution of sentiment, and to be the recipient of many expressions of confidence and esteem from his coreligionists. When Isaac T. Hopper, Charles Marriot, and James S. Gibbons were disowned by the Society of Friends, on account of their outspoken opposition to slavery, they received encouragement and support from Joseph Post. Mr. Post passed his life in the same house in which he was born and died.    Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 84.

 

 

POST, Ruben, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Manager, 1833-1834.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

POTTER, Alonzo, 1800-1865, Beekman, New York, clergyman, college president, temperance advocate, opponent of slavery.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 124)

 

 

POTTER, Anson, Cranston, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-1835.

 

 

POTTER, Ray, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, clergyman.  Manager, founding member and agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 180; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

POULSON, Zachariah, 1761-1844, abolitionist, publisher, “American Daily Advertise, Reformer,” Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 92-93; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 139; Basker, 2005, p. 239n1)

 

POULSON, Zachariah, publisher, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 5 Sept., 1761; d. there, 31 July, 1844. His father, of the same name, was brought from Denmark to Philadelphia in infancy, and became a printer. The son was a pupil of Christopher Sower, in whose printing establishment at Germantown, Pa., was printed, in German, the first edition of the Bible published in the United States. For many years he was printer to the senate of Pennsylvania. On 1 Oct., 1800, he began the publication of the “American Daily Advertiser,” the first daily in the United States, which he had purchased from David C. Claypoole, and he continued as its editor and proprietor till its discontinuance, 28 Dec., 1839. He issued “Poulson's Town and Country Almanac” (1789-1801), and was the publisher of Robert Proud's “History of Pennsylvania” (1797-'8), the mystical works of William Gerar de Bram, and other valuable books. He was a founder and president of the Philadelphia society for alleviating the miseries of public prisons, and a member and benefactor of various other benevolent associations. He was also for twenty-one years librarian of the Library company of Philadelphia, six years its treasurer, and thirty-two years a director, and his portrait, by Thomas Sully, hangs in its hall in that city. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 92-93.

 

 

POWELL, William F., New York, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-44

 

 

POWELL, William Peter, 1807-c. 1879, African American, abolitionist leader, activist, born a slave, Garrisonian abolitionist.  Active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society and the New England Anti-Slavery Society since early 1830s.  Served on the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS), 1841-1844.  Helped Committee of Thirteen in New York City to oppose Fugitive Slave Act. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 207)

 

 

PRATT, Caleb S., 1832-1861, Boston, Massachusetts, anti-slavery activist in Bleeding Kansas.

 

 

 

PRENTICE, John, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

PRENTISS, Samuel, 1782-1857, Vermont, jurist, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1837-1840.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 107; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 190)

 

 

PRESTON, Ann, 1813-1872, Westgrove, Pennsylvania, Quaker, educator, active in temperance and abolition movements.

 

 

PRESTON, Jonas, 1764-1836, Pennsylvania, philanthropist, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1834, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 113; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 203)

 

PRESTON, Jonas, philanthropist, b. in Chester county, Pa., 25 Jan., 1764; d. in Philadelphia, 4 Jan., 1836. His father, of the same name, was a physician. His grandfather, William Preston, a Quaker, in 1718 emigrated from Huddersfield, England, and settled in Pennsylvania. Jonas entered on the study of medicine under Dr. Thomas Bond, of Philadelphia, and concluded his studies in the medical schools of Edinburgh and Paris, being graduated from the former about 1785. On his return he settled in Wilmington, Del., afterward removed for a time to Georgia, but returning to Chester, Pa., succeeded in establishing an extensive practice, particularly in obstetrics, in which he was celebrated. At the period of the whiskey insurrection he volunteered his medical aid, and served with the troops. He was for many years a member of the legislature, serving in both the assembly and the senate. About 1812 he removed to Philadelphia, where he took an active interest in several benevolent and other institutions, such as the Pennsylvania hospital, Friend's asylum, Penn bank, and Schuylkill navigation company. His extensive observation in the practice of his profession led him to form the opinion, expressed in his will, “that there ought to be a lying-in hospital in the city of Philadelphia for indigent married women of good character,” and he bequeathed about $400,000 for the founding of such an institution. Within a few months after his death the legislature of Pennsylvania passed an act incorporating “The Preston Retreat.” The corner-stone of the hospital building was laid, 17 July, 1837, and the institution is one of the noted charities in Philadelphia. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 113.

 

 

PRICE, Hiram, 1814-1901.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa.  Congressman 1863-1869, 1876-1881.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 117-118; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 212; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 860; Congressional Globe)

 

PRICE, Hiram, congressman, b. in Washington county, Pa., 10 Jan., 1814. He received a common-school education, was for a few years a farmer, and then a merchant. He removed to Davenport, Iowa, in 1844, was school-fund commissioner of Scott county for eight years, and as such had the school lands allotted and appraised. He was collector, treasurer, and recorder of the county during seven years of the time when he was school-fund commissioner, and was president of the State bank of Iowa during its existence, except for the first year. When the civil war began, the state of Iowa had no available funds, and he furnished from his individual means quarters and subsistence for several months for about 5,000 men, infantry and cavalry. With Ezekiel Clark he advanced about $25,000 to pay to the 1st, 2d, and 3d Iowa regiments their “state pay,” and carried the same to them, at much personal risk from the “bushwhackers” in northern Missouri. Mr. Price was elected to congress as a Republican, serving in 1863-'9. He declined to be a candidate again, and spent some time abroad. He was again elected in 1876 and 1878, and then again declined re-election. He was appointed commissioner of Indian affairs in 1881, and served in that office until shortly after the inauguration of President Cleveland.   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 117-118.

 

 

PRICE, Reese E., Hamilton County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39

 

 

PRIME, H. V., New York, abolitionist.  American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

PRINCE, Littleton, d. 1833.  Hanged for aiding runaway slave in Pike County, Alabama.

 

 

PRINCE, Nancy, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

PRINDLE, Cyrus, 1800-1885, Canaan, Connecticut, abolitionist.  One of the founders of the Wesleyan Church of America.

 

 

PRITCHETT, E. C., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

PROUDFIT, Alexander Montcrief, 1770-1843, New York, clergyman, author.  Director, American Colonization Society, 1839-1840.  Secretary of the New York Colonization Society, 1835.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 128; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

PROUDFIT, Alexander Moncrief, clergyman, b. in Pequea, Pa., 10 Nov., 1770; d. in New Brunswick, N. J., 23 Nov., 1843. He was graduated at Columbia in 1792, studied theology under Dr. John H. Livingston, and was pastor of the Associate Reformed church in Salem, N. Y., from 1794 till 1835. He became secretary of the New York colonization society in the latter year, and held office till his resignation in 1841. Williams gave him the degree of D. D. in 1812. For a short time during his pastorate he was professor of pastoral theology in the Associate Reformed seminary in Newburg, N. Y. He published numerous sermons and addresses, including “The One Thing Needful” (New York, 1804); “Ruin and Recovery of Man” (1806); “Theological Works” (4 vols., 1815); and a work on the “Parables” (1820). See a memoir of him by Rev. John Forsyth (New York, 1844). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 128.

 

 

PROUT, Jacob W., led colonization expedition to Africa for the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 44, 46, 48, 110)

 

 

PROUT, William A., African Colony Commissioner for the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 169, 215-217, 219-221, 225-229)

 

 

PRYNE, Abram, Syracuse, New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1855-56

 

 

PUCKETT, Clarkson, Winchester, Indiana, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1846-1852, Vice-President, 1852-1854.

 

 

PUGH, Sarah, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  Served as a Manager, 1843-1844, and Member of the Executive Committee, 1844-1853, of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Eastern Branch, Philadelphia.  Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. (Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Yellin, 1994, pp. 11, 74-76, 78, 80, 82, 84-85, 163, 163n, 175, 301-302, 307, 326)

 

 

PURVIS, Harriet Davy Forten, 1810-1884, African American, abolitionist leader, social reformer, active in Philadelphia area.  Daughter of James Forten. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 279)

 

 

PURVIS, Joseph, abolitionist, brother of Robert Purvis. Founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Served as a Manager of the AASS, 1840-1841. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Winch, 2002)

 

 

PURVIS, Robert, 1810-1898, Philadelphia, African American, benefactor, abolitionist leader, reformer, women’s rights activist, temperance activist.  Vice president and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Served as a Manager, 1833-1840, 1840-1842, and as a Vice President, 1842-1864, of the AASS.  President, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, 1845-1850.  Chairman of the General Vigilance Committee, 1852-1857.  Associated with William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips.  Active in the Underground Railroad, 1831-1861.  Aided thousands of escaped slaves.  His home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  Friend and supporter of Lucretia Mott and the women’s rights movement.  Author, wrote Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens with Disenfranchisement to the People of Pennsylvania.  Brother of Joseph Purvis.  Husband of Harriet Davy Forten.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 333; Mabee, 1970, pp. 21, 57, 58, 99, 106, 109, 111, 121, 181, 191, 265, 276, 294, 305, 321, 338, 414n11, 422n27; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 45, 161, 162, 464; Winch, 2002; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 137; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. I. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 413; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 281)

 

PURVIS, Robert, benefactor, b. in Charleston, S. C., 4 Aug., 1810. His father, William Purvis, was a native of Northumberland, England, and his mother was a free-born woman of Charleston, of Moorish descent. Robert was brought to the north in 1819. His father, though residing in a slave state, was never a slave-holder, but was an Abolitionist in principle. Before Robert attained the age of manhood he formed the acquaintance of Benjamin Lundy, and in conjunction with him was an early laborer in the anti-slavery cause. Mr. Purvis was a member of the Philadelphia convention of 1833 which formed the American anti-slavery society, was its vice-president for many years, and signed its declaration of sentiments. He was also an active member of the Pennsylvania society, and its president for many years. His house was a well-known station on the “Underground railroad,” and his horses, carriages, and his personal attendance were always at the service of fugitive slaves. His son, CHARLES BURLEIGH, is surgeon-in-chief of the Freedmen's hospital at Washington, D. C., and a professor in the medical department of Howard university. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 137.

 

 

PURVIS, Sarah Louisa Forten, 1814-1883, African American, poet, abolitionist leader. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 283)

 

 

PUTNAM, Caroline, anti-slavery lecturer, worked with co-lecturer Sally Holley (Chadwick 1899; Dumond, 1961, pp. 281, 402n40, 41)

 

 

PUTNAM, George, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-1841.

 

 

PUTNAM, Hiram, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

PUTNAM, Jane, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

PUTNAM, Jesse, Danvers, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice President, 1839-, Manager, 1842-

 

 

PYLE, Robert, Concord, Society of Friends, Quaker, early Colonial Quaker opposed to slavery on moral grounds, advocated liberation of slaves (Drake, 1950, pp. 20-21, 34)

 

 

 

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QUINCY, Edmund, 1808-1877, Dedham, Massachusetts, author, anti-slavery writer, abolitionist leader.  Served as a Manager, 1838-1840, 1840-1842, member of the Executive Committee, 1843-1864, Vice President, 1848-1864, and Corresponding Secretary, 1853-1856, of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS).  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1849-1860.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 70, 72, 73, 75, 77, 80, 200, 224, 248, 250, 255, 256, 257, 260, 262, 297, 313; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 153; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 306)

 

QUINCY, Edmund, author, b. in Boston, 1 Feb., 1808; d. in Dedham, 17 May, 1877, was graduated at Harvard in 1827. He deserves especial mention for the excellent biography of his father, above mentioned. His novel “Wensley” (Boston, 1854) was said by Whittier to be the best book of the kind since the “Blithedale Romance.” His contributions to the anti-slavery press for many years were able and valuable. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 153.

 

 

QUINCY, Josiah, 1772-1864, statesman.  U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts.  Opposed slavery as Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 151-152; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 308; Bruns, 1977, pp. 222-223; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 132, 152; Mabee, 1970, p. 75; Mason, 2006, pp. 46, 53, 64, 66-70, 73, 85, 146, 190, 216-217, 256n65, 257n82; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 37)

 

Quincy, Josiah, statesman, b. in Boston, 4 Feb., 1772; d. in Quincy, Mass., 1 July, 1864. He was fitted for college at Phillips academy, Andover, and was grnduated at Harvard in 1790 at the head of his class. He studied law with William Tudor, and was admitted to the bar in 1793. His practice was not large, and he had considerable leisure to devote to study and to politics. In 1797 he married Miss Eliza Susan Morton, of New York. On 4 July, 1798, he delivered the annual oration in the Old South meeting-house, and gained such a reputation thereby that the Federalists selected him as their candidate for congress in 1800. The Republican newspapers ridiculed the idea of a member of congress only twenty-eight years old, and called aloud for a cradle to rock him in. Mr. Quincy was defeated. In the spring of 1804 he was elected to the state senate of Massachusetts, and in the autumn of that year he was elected to congress. During his senatorship he was active in urging his state to suggest an amendment to the Federal constitution, eliminating the clause that permitted the slave-states to count three fifths of their slaves as part of their basis of representation. If such a measure could have had any chance of success at that moment, its effect would of course have been to break up the Union. Mr. Quincy dreaded the extension of slavery, and foresaw that the existence of that institution was likely to bring on a civil war; but it was not evident then, as it is now, that a civil war in 1861 was greatly to be preferred to civil war or peaceable secession in 1805. As member of congress, Mr. Quincy belonged to the flarty of extreme Federalists known as the “Essex junto.” The Federalists were then in a hopeless minority; even the Massachusetts delegation in congress had ten Republicans to seven Federalists. In some ways Mr. Quincy showed a disposition to independent action, as in refusing to follow his party in dealing with Randolph's malcontent faction known as the “quids.” He fiercely opposed the embargo and the war with England. But his most famous action related to the admission of Louisiana as a state. There was at that time a strong jealousy of the new western country on the part of the New England states. There was a fear that the region west of the Alleghanies would come to be more populous than the original thirteen states, and that thus the control of the Federal government would pass into the hands of people described by New Englanders as “backwoodsmen.” Gouverneur Morris had given expression to such a fear in 1787 in the Federal convention. In 1811, when it was proposed to admit Louisiana as a state, the high Federalists took the ground that the constitution had not conferred upon congress the power to admit new states except such as should be formed from territory already belonging to the Union in 1787. Mr. Quincy maintained this position in a remarkable speech, 4 Jan., 1811, in which he used some strong language. “Why, sir, I have already heard of six states, and some say there will be at no great distance of time more. I have also heard that the mouth of the Ohio will be far to the east of the centre of the contemplated empire . . . . It is impossible such a power could be granted. It was not for these men that our fathers fought. It was not for them this constitution was adopted. You have no authority to throw the rights and liberties and property of this people into hotch-pot with the wild men on the Missouri, or with the mixed, though more respectable, race of Anglo-Hispano-Gallo-Americans, who bask on the sands in the mouth of the Mississippi. . . . I am compelled to declare it. as my deliberate opinion that, if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved; that the states which compose it are free from their moral obligations; and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation—amicably, if they can; violently, if they must.” This was, according to Hildreth, “the first announcement on the floor of congress of the doctrine of secession.” Though opposed to the war with England, Mr. Quincy did not go so far as some of the Federalists in refusing support to the administration; his great speech on the navy, 25 Jan., 1812, won applause from all parties. In that year he declined a re-election to congress. For the next ten years he was most of the time a member of the Massachusetts legislature, but a great part of his attention was given to his farm at Quincy. He was member of the convention of 1820 for revising the state constitution. In the following year he was speaker of the house. From 1823 to 1828 he was mayor of Boston, and his administration was memorable for the number of valuable reforms effected by his energy and skill. Everything was overhauled—the police, the prisons, the schools, the streets, the fire department, and the great market was built near Faneuil hall. In 1829 he was chosen president of Harvard, and held that position until 1845. During his administration Dane hall was built for the law-school and Gore hall for the university library; and it was due mainly to his exertions that the astronomical observatory was founded and equipped with its great telescope, which is still one of the finest in the world. In 1834, in the face of violent opposition, Mr. Quincy succeeded in establishing the principle that “where flagrant outrages were committed against persons or property by members of the university, within its limits, they should be proceeded against, in the last resort, like any other citizens, before the courts of the commonwealth.” The effect of this measure was most wholesome in checking the peculiar kinds of ruffianism which the community has often been inclined to tolerate in college students. Mr. Quincy also introduced the system of marking, which continued to be used for more than forty years at Harvard. By this system the merit of every college exercise was valued according to a scale of numbers, from one to eight, by the professor or tutor, at the time of its performance. Examinations were rated in various multiples of eight, and all these marks were set down to the credit of the individual student. Delinquencies of various degrees of importance were also estimated in multiples of eight, and charged on the debit side of the account. At the end of the year the balance to the student's credit was compared with the sum-total that an unbroken series of perfect marks, unaffected by deductions, would have yielded, and the resulting percentage determined the rank of the student. President Quincy was also strongly in favor of the elective system of studies, in so far as it was compatible with the general state of advancement of the students in his time, and with the means of instruction at the disposal of the university. The elective experiment was tried more thoroughly, and on a broader scale, under his administration than under any other down to the time of President Eliot. From 1845 to 1864 Mr. Quincy led a quiet and pleasant life, devoted to literary and social pursuits. He continued till the last to take a warm interest in politics, and was an enthusiastic admirer of President Lincoln. His principal writings are “History of Harvard University” (2 vols., Boston, 1840); “History of the Boston Athenaeum” (Boston, 1851); “Municipal History of Boston” (Boston, 1852); “Memoir of J. Q. Adams” (Boston, 1858); and “Speeches delivered in Congress” (edited by his son, Edmund, Boston, 1874). His biography, by his son, Edmund (Boston, 1867), is an admirable work. See also J. R. Lowell's “My Study Window,” pp. 83-114. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 151-152.

 

 

QUINN, William Paul, 1788-1873, African American, leader of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, clergyman.  Actively supported abolition and anti-slavery movements. Also associated with Black emigrationist movements. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 302)

 

 

 

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RABUN, William, 1771-1819, Milledgeville, Georgia, political leader, former Governor of Georgia.  Member of the Milledgeville auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 157; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

RABUN, William, statesman, b. in Halifax county, N. C., 8 April, 1771; d. at Powelton, Hancock co., Ga., 24 Oct., 1819. To this place his father had removed from North Carolina when he was a youth. The son was frequently elected to the legislature. In 1817 he was president of the state senate, and as such became ex-officio governor of the state on the resignation of Gov. Mitchell. In the following year he was elected to the same post by popular vote, and died in office. While he was governor he had a sharp correspondence with Gen. Andrew Jackson growing, out of the Seminole war, then in progress. Gov. Rabun’s devotion to the church of which he was a member was not surpassed by his fidelity as a civilian. While he was governor he performed the duties of chorister and clerk in the Baptist church at Powelton. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

RALSTON, Gerald, London, Great Britain, Vice-President, American Colonization Society, 1840-1841.  Founder and officer of the Philadelphia Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 125, 126, 182, 222)

 

 

RALSTON, Robert, 1761-1836, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, businessman, philanthropist, Director of the Bank of the United States.  Vice-President, 1833-37, and member of the Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 156; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 164; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 30, 39)

 

 

RAMSEY, Alexander, 1815-1903.  Republican U.S. Senator from Minnesota.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  U.S. Congressman (Whig Party) elected 1842, serving until 1847, from Pennsylvania.  First Territorial Governor of Minnesota, 1849-1853.  Governor of state 1860-1863.  Elected U.S. Senator 1863, serving until 1875.  Appointed Secretary of War in 1879.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V., p. 168; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 341; Congressional Globe)

 

RAMSEY, Alexander, secretary of war, b. near Harrisburg, Pa., 8 Sept., 1815. He was educated at Lafayette college, and in 1828 became clerk in the register's office of his native county. He was secretary of the Electoral college of Pennsylvania in 1840, the next year was clerk of the state house of representatives, was elected to congress as a Whig in 1842, and served till 1847. He was chairman of the state central committee of Pennsylvania in 1848, and was appointed first territorial governor of Minnesota in 1849, holding office till 1853. During this service he negotiated a treaty at Mendota for the extinction of the title of the Sioux halfbreeds to the lands on Lake Pepin, and two with the Sioux nation by which the U. S. government acquired all the lands in Minnesota west of Mississippi river, thus opening that state to colonization. He also made treaties with the Chippewa Indians on Red river in 1851 and 1853. He became mayor of St. Paul, Minn., in 1855, was governor of the state in 1860-'3, and in the latter year was elected to the U. S. senate as a Republican, holding his seat in 1863-'75, and serving as chairman of the committees on Revolutionary claims and pensions, on post-roads and on territories. He became secretary of war in 1879, succeeding George W. McCrary, and held office till the close of Hayes's administration. He was appointed by President Arthur, in 1882, a member of the Utah commission, under the act of congress known as the Edmunds bill (see EDMUNDS, GEORGE F.), continuing in that service till 1886. In 1887 he was a delegate to the centennial celebration of the adoption of the constitution of the United States. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 168. 

 

 

RAND, Asa, 1783-1871, Lowell, Massachusetts, abolitionist, clergyman, editor.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 168)

 

RAND, Asa, clergynian, b. in Rindge, N.H., 6 Aug., 1783; d. in Ashburnham, Mass., 24 Aug., 1871. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1806, and ordained as a minister of the Congregational church in January, 1809. After a pastorate of thirteen years' duration at Gorham, Me., he edited the “Christian Mirror” at Portland, Me., in 1822-'5, afterward conducted the “Recorder” and the “Youth's Companion” at Boston, and in 1833 established a book-store and printing-office at Lowell. He published the “Observer” at this place, lectured against slavery, and was then pastor of churches at Pompey and Peterborough, N. Y. He published “Teacher's Manual for Teaching in English Grammar” (Boston, 1832), and “The Slave-Catcher caught in the Meshes of the Eternal Law” (Cleveland 1852). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 168.

 

 

RANDALL, Alexander, 1819-1872, Ames, New York, jurist, lawyer, abolitionist.  Sixth Governor of Wisconsin, 1858-1861.  Advocate for Black voting rights.  Raised troops for Union Army.  Postmaster General, 1866-1869.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 344)

 

 

RANDALL, Daniel B., Hallowell, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

RANDALL, Richard, Dr., Washington, DC, physician.  Member of the Board of Directors of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Randall replaced Jehudi Ashmun as Colonial Agent in Africa for the ACS.  Died in Africa in April 1829.  (Campbell, 1971,p. 11; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 162)

 

 

RANDALL, William H., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

RANDOLPH, Edmund Jennings, 1753-1813, Williamsburg, Virginia, founding father, lawyer.  Governor of Virginia.  Second United States Secretary of State.  First United States Attorney General.  As a delegate from Virginia to the Continental Convention, Randolph wrote and introduced the Virginia Plan, which strongly opposed the importation of slaves.  (Dumond, 1961; Randolph, 1855; Reardon, 1975; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 176-177; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 353)

 

RANDOLPH, Edmund Jennings, statesman, b. in Williamsburg, Va., 10 Aug., 1753; d. in Clarke county, Va., 13 Sept., 1813. He was distinguished for scholarship and eloquence at William and Mary college, and at eighteen years of age was orator to commemorate the royal founders, the oration being printed by the faculty. After studying law with his father he was admitted to the bar. He was a favorite of Lord Dunmore, and when his parents left for England was only withheld from sailing with them by enthusiasm for the American cause. Washington took him into his family as aide-decamp, 15 Aug., 1775, and Randolph received the guests at headquarters; but on the sudden death of his uncle Peyton he returned to Williamsburg. In the Virginia convention of 1776 he assisted in framing the constitution and passing the bill of rights. He opposed the demand of Patrick Henry that the governor should have power of veto. At the close of the convention he was elected mayor of Williamsburg, and he was also the first attorney-general of Virginia under the new constitution. In 1779 he was elected to congress, but soon resigned. In 1780 he was re-elected, and remained in congress two years. There he was occupied with foreign affairs. He resigned his seat in 1782, and after his father's death in 1788 succeeded to the property of his uncle Peyton, which had become encumbered with claims against his father. These he might have met by selling the negroes, but, being conscientiously opposed to this, he had to work hard at his profession. He was one of the commissioners at the Annapolis convention which induced congress to summon the Constitutional convention of 1787. Being governor of Virginia (1786-'88), he largely influenced the choice of delegates, and it was due to his persuasion that Washington's resolution not to attend was overcome. As leader of the Virginia delegation he introduced the general plan of a constitution that had been agreed on among them as a basis for opening the convention. He also drafted a detailed scheme of his own, which was discovered in 1887 among the papers of George Mason. His career in the convention was brilliant, and elicited admiration from Benjamin Franklin, who generally voted with him. He earnestly opposed the single executive, the presidential re-eligibility and pardoning power, the vice-presidential office, and senatorial equality of states. He desired an executive commission chosen by the national legislature, and resembling that of the present Swiss republic. He favored a strong Federal government which was to have power of directly negativing state laws that should be decided to be unconstitutional by the supreme court. On his motion the word “slavery” was eliminated from the constitution. He refused to sign the document except on condition that a second National convention should be called after its provisions had been discussed in the country; but in the Virginia convention of 1788 he advocated its ratification on the ground that a ninth state was needed to secure the Union, and that within the Union amendments might be passed. The opposition, led by Patrick Henry, was powerful, ancl the ratification, even by a small majority (ten), was mainly due to Gov. Randolph, whose inflexible independence of party was then and after described as, vacillation. He urged amendments; owing to his vigilance the clause of Art. VI., on religious tests for office, implying power over the general subject, was supplemented by the first article added to the constitution. He resigned the governorship in 1788, and secured a seat in the assembly for the purpose of working on the committee for making a codification of the state laws. The code published at Richmond in folio, 1794, was mainly his work. While so occupied he was appointed by the president (27 Sept., 1789) attorney-general of the United States. In response to a request of the house of representatives he wrote an extended report (1790) on the judiciary system. Among the many important cases arising under the first administrat ion of the constitution was Chisholm vs. Georgia, involving the right of an alien to sue a state. To the dismay of his southern friends, Randolph proved that right to the satisfaction of the court. His speech was widely circulated as a pamphlet, and was reprinted by legislative order in Massachusetts, while the alarm of debtors to England led to the 11th amendment. Early in 1795 Randolph issued, under the name of “Germanicus,” an effective pamphlet against the “Democratic societies,” which were charged with fomenting the whiskey rebellion at Pittsburg, and exciting an American Jacobinism. Randolph tried to pursue, as usual, a non-partisan course in foreign affairs with a leaning toward France, Washington doing the 1ike. Jefferson having retired, Randolph accepted, very reluctantly, 2 Jan., 1794, the office of secretary of state. His advice that an envoy should go to England, but not negotiate, was overruled. He advised the president to sign the Jay treaty only on condition that the “provision order” for the search of neutral ships were revoked. The Republicans were furious that the president and Randolph should think of signing the treaty apart from the “provision order”; but Washington, after the objectionable 12th article had been eliminated, was willing to overlook its other faults, but for the order issued to search American ships and seize the provisions on them. Meanwhile France was so enraged about the treaty that Monroe could hardly remain in Paris. During Jay's secret negotiations, the French minister, Fauchet, left Philadelphia in anger. The president had carried on through Randolph soothing diplomacy with France, and especially flattered the vanity of Fauchet, the French minister in Philadelphia, with an affectation of confidence. The Frenchman did not fail in despatches to his employers to make the most of this. Also, being impecunious, he hinted to his government that with “several thousand dollars” he could favorably influence American affairs, alleging a suggestion by Randolph to that effect. This despatch was intercepted by a British ship and forwarded to the English minister in Philadelphia (Hammond) just in time to determine the result of the struggle concerning the treaty. Washington had made up his mind not to sign the treaty until the “provision order” was revoked, and so informed the secretary of state in a letter from Mount Vernon, 22 July, 1795. The intercepted despatch of Fauchet altered this determination, and the treaty was signed without the condition. The only alternatives of the administration were to acknowledge the assurances diplomatically given to Fauchet, as egregiously falsified by him, or, now that they might be published, accept Randolph as scapegoat. It is difficult to see how Washington could have saved his friend, even if ready to share his fate. Randolph, having indignantly resigned his office, pursued Fauchet (now recalled) to Newport, and obtained from him a full retractation and exculpation. He then prepared his “Vindication.” After the intercepted letter was shown him, but withheld from the doomed secretary, Washington treated Randolph with exceptional affection, visiting his house, and twice giving him the place of honor at his table. It is maintained by Randolph's biographer (M. D. Conway) that this conduct, and his failure to send for the other despatches alluded to, indicate Washington's entire disbelief of the assertions of Fauchet, whose intrigues he well knew (despatch to Monroe, 29 July, 1795). Randolph had attended to Washington's law-business in Virginia, always heavy, steadily refusing payment, and could hardly have been suspected of venality. The main charge against Randolph was based on Fanchet's allegation of “précieuses confessions” made to him by the secretary. But that despatch was closely followed by another, discovered in 1888, at Paris, in which Fauchet announced that he had found them “fausses confidences.” The charge of intrigue and revea1ing secrets is thus finally disposed of. In addition to the “Vindication of Mr. Randolph's Resignation” (Philadelphia, 1795), the ex-secretary wrote a remarkable pamphlet, published the following year, “Political Truth, or Animadversions on the Past and Present State of Public Affairs.” After his resignation, Randolph was received with public demonstrations of admiration in Richmond, where he resumed the practice of law. The ruin of his fortunes was completed by an account made up against him of $49,000 for “moneys placed in his hands to defray the expenses of foreign intercourse.” Under the system of that period the secretary of state personally disbursed the funds provided for all foreign service, and if any money were lost through the accidents of war, or the failure of banks, he was held responsible. After repeated suits in which juries could not agree, Randolph, confident in the justice of his case, challenged an arbitration by the comptroller of the treasury, Gabriel Duval, who decided against him. Thereupon his lands, and the negroes so conscientiously kept from sale and dispersion, were made over to Hon. Wilson Cary Nicholas, by whom the debt was paid in bonds, from which the government gained $7,000 more than the debt and interest. Meanwhile Randolph had again taken his place at the head of the Virginia bar. He was one of the counsel of Aaron Burr on his trial for treason at Richmond. He also wrote an important “History of Virginia,” the greater part of which is now in possession of the Historical society of Virginia. Though much used by historians, it has never been published. In it there is an admirable sketch of the life and character of Washington, concerning whom no bitterness survived in his breast. For the fullest account of Edmund Randolph, and of his ancestors, see “Omitted Chapters of History, disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph,” by Moncure D. Conway (New York, 1888). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 176-177.

 

 

RANDOLPH, John, charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, December 1816.

 

 

RANDOLPH, Peter, c. 1825-1897, African American, former slave, clergyman, author, anti-slavery activist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 331)

 

 

RANDOLPH, Thomas Jefferson, 1792-1875, anti-slavery advocate, Virginia, grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.  Co-founded Manumission Society of Tennessee in 1815 with Charles Osborne.  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 41, 496; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 173-174; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 369)

 

RANDOLPH, Thomas Jefferson, b. at Monticello, 12 Sept., 1792; d. at Edge Hill, Albemarle co., Va., 8 Oct., 1875, was Thomas Jefferson's oldest grandson, and was described by his grandfather as “the staff of his old age.” When six years of age he used to walk five miles to an “old-field school,” so called, and used to say that he had a watch in his pocket before he had shoes on his feet. He went to school in Philadelphia at fifteen, and afterward in Charlottesville. Va. In 1824 he married Jane Hollins, daughter of Gov. Wilson Cary Nicholas. After the sale of Jefferson's property, debts to the extent of $40,000 remained, and these were paid by Randolph out of regard for his grandfather's honor. He also supported and educated his brothers and sisters. He had been appointed literary executor of Jefferson, and in 1829 published the “Life and Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson” (4 vols., Boston). Being in the Virginia legislature at the time of the Southampton negro insurrection in 1832, he introduced a bill for emancipation on what was called the “post-natal” plan, originally suggested by Jefferson. This was necessarily postponed to the following session, and then failed through the resentment excited by the harangues of George Thompson, who was regarded as an “abolition emissary” from Great Britain. Randolph was an eminent financier, and secured the passage of a tax-bill through the Virginia legislature in 1842 which placed the state finances on a sound basis. He wrote an able pamphlet, entitled “Sixty Years' Reminiscences of the Currency of the United States,” a copy of which was presented to every member of the legislature. It is still a document of historical interest. In 1851-'2 he was in the convention that revised the Virginia constitution. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 173-174.     

 

 

RANKIN, Alexander, Claremont County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36, 1836-38

 

 

RANKIN, John, 1793-1886, New York, clergyman, author, abolitionist leader.  Executive Committee, vice president, 1833-1835, and Treasurer, 1836-1840, of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Anti-slavery agent.  Kentucky Abolition Society.  Wrote Letters on American Slavery in 1833.  Son-in-law of abolitionist Samuel Doak (1749-1830).  Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Ripley, Ohio. Had and protected fugitive slaves in his home.  Rankin wrote:  “I consider involuntary slavery a never-failing fountain of the grossest immorality, and one of the deepest sources of human misery; it hangs like the mantle of night over our republic, and shrouds its rising glories.  I sincerely pity the man who tinges his hand in the unhallowed thing that is fraught with the tears, and sweat, and groans, and blood of hapless millions of innocent, unoffending people…  It is considered a crime for him [the slave] to aspire above the rank of the groveling beast.  He must content himself with being bought and sold, and driven in chains from State to State, as a capricious avarice may dictate.”  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 91, 95, 134-136, 178, 186, 348; Filler, 1960, pp. 17-18, 74, 261; Pease, 1965, pp. 73n, 102; Hegedorn, 2002; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 42; Sorin, 1971, pp. 87-88, 118-123; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 180; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 320; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 563-564)

 

RANKIN, John, clergyman, b. near Dandridge, Jefferson co., Tenn., 4 Feb., 1793; d. in Ironton, Ohio, 18 March, 1886. From 1817 till 1821 he was pastor of two Presbyterian churches in Carlisle, Ky., and about 1818 founded an anti-slavery society. Removing to Ripley, Ohio, he was pastor of the 1st and 2d Presbyterian churches for forty-four years. He joined the Garrison anti-slavery movement, and was mobbed for his views more than twenty times. About 1824 he addressed letters to his brother in Middlebrook, Va., dissuading him from slave-holding, which were published in Ripley, in the “Liberator,” in 1832, and afterward in book-form in Boston and Newburyport, and ran through many editions. He assisted Eliza and her child, the originals of those characters in “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” to escape. He founded the American reform book and tract society of Cincinnati, and was the author of several books, including “The Covenant of Grace” (Pittsburg, 1869). See his life entitled “The Soldier, the Battle, and the Victory,” by Rev. Andrew Ritchie (Cincinnati, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 180.

 

 

RANTOUL, Robert, Jr., 1805-1852, statesman, reformer, lawyer, writer, publisher, industrialist, U.S. Congressman.  Democratic and Free Soil Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Served one term, December 1851-1852.  Strong opponent of slavery and the Fugitive Slave laws.  Opposed extension of slavery into the new territories.  Served as defense counsel for escaped slave Thomas Simms in Massachusetts State Court.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 182-183; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 381)

 

Rantoul, Robert, statesman, b. in Beverly, Mass., 13 Aug., 1805; d. in Washington, D. C., 7 Aug., 1852, was graduated at Harvard in 1826, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and began practice in Salem, but transferred his practice in 1830 to South Reading, Mass. In 1832 he removed to Gloucester. He was elected to the legislature in 1834, serving four years, and assuming at once a position as a leader of the Jacksonian Democracy, in which interest he established at Gloucester a weekly journal. In the legislature he formed a friendship with John G. Whittier, who wrote a poem in his memory. He sat upon the first commission to revise the laws of Massachusetts, and was an active member of the judiciary committee. He interested himself in the establishment of lyceums. In 1836-'8 he represented the state in the first board of directors of the Western railroad, and in 1837 became a member of the Massachusetts board of education. In 1839 he established himself in Boston, and in 1840 he appeared in defence of the Journeymen bootmakers' organization, indicted for a conspiracy to raise wages, and procured their discharge on the ground that a combination of individuals to effect, by means not unlawful, that which each might legally do, was not a criminal conspiracy. He defended in Rhode Island two persons indicted for complicity in the Dorr rebellion of 1842, Daniel Webster being the opposing counsel. He was appointed U. S. district attorney for Massachusetts in 1845, and held that office till 1849, when he resigned. He delivered in April, 1850, at Concord the address in commemoration of the outbreak of the Revolution. In 1850 he was the organizer and a corporator of the Illinois Central railroad. Daniel Webster having withdrawn from the senate in 1850, on being appointed secretary of state, and having been succeeded by Robert C. Winthrop, Mr. Rantoul was elected, serving nine days. He was chosen as an opponent of the extension of slavery by a coalition of Democrats and Free-soilers to the National house of representatives, and served from 1 Dec., 1851, till his death. In 1852 he was refused a seat in the National Democratic convention on the ground that he and his constituents were disfranchised by their attitude toward slavery. He was an advocate of various reforms, and delivered lectures and speeches on the subject of educational advancement, several of which were published, and while a member of the Massachusetts legislature prepared a report in favor of the abolition of the death-penalty that was long quoted by the opponents of capital punishment. He took a prominent part in the agitation against the fugitive-slave law. As counsel in 1851 for Thomas Simms, the first escaped slave delivered up by Massachusetts, he took the ground that slavery was a state institution, and that the general government had no power to return fugitives from justice, or runaway apprentices or slaves, but that such extradition was a matter for arrangement between the states. He lent his voice and pen to the movement against the use of stimulants, but protested against prohibitory legislation as an in vasion of private rights. After leaving the legislature, where the variety of his learning, the power of his eloquence, ancl his ardent convictions against the protection of native industry and other enlargements of the sphere of government, and in favor of educational and moral reforms had attracted attention, he became a favorite lecturer and political speaker throughout New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. He edited a “Workingmen's Library,” that was issued by the lyceums and two series of a “Common School Library” that was published under the sanction of the Massachusetts board of education. See his “Memoirs, Speeches, and Writings,” edited by Luther Hamilton (Boston, 1854). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 182-183.  

 

 

RAPP, Willhelm, 1828-1907, Germany, newspaper editor, anti-slavery activist.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 383)

 

 

RAWLE, William, 1759-1836, lawyer, educator, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  President of the Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania, 1826.  President of the Pennsylvania Abolition society, founded 1775, 1787.  Appointed U.S. District Attorney in Pennsylvania in 1791.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102, 223, 224-225, 227, 239; Bruns, 1977, p. 514; Drake, 1950, p. 118; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 189; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 400)

 

RAWLE, William, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, 28 April, 1759; d. there, 12 April, 1836, was educated at the Friends' academy, and was yet a student when the war for independence was begun. His immediate relatives and connections were loyalists. On the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, young Rawle accompanied his step-father, Samuel Shoemaker, who had been one of the civil magistrates of the city under Howe, to New York, and there began the study of the law. Mr. Rawle completed his studies in the Middle Temple, London, and returned to Philadelphia, where, in 1783, be was admitted to the bar. In 1791 he was appointed by President Washington U. S. district attorney for Pennsylvania. By direction of the president, Mr. Rawle accompanied the U. S. district judge and the military on the western expedition in 1794, and it became his duty to prosecute the offenders after the insurrections in that year and in 1798 had been put down. In 1792 be was offered by the president the office of judge of the U. S. district court for Pennsvlvania, but declined it on account of his youth and professional prospects. He was for many years the attorney and counsel for the Bank of the United States. From 1786 till his death he was a member of the American philosophical society, and for twenty years he was one of its councillors. In 1789 he was chosen to the assembly. He was one of the original members of the Society for political inquiries, founded by Franklin, whieh held its weekly meetings at his house. From 1796 till his death he was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. He was the chancellor of the Associated members of the bar of Philadelphia, and when, in 1827, this in stitution was merged in the Law association of Philadelphia, he became chancellor of the latter in 1822, and held the office till his death. He was chosen the first vice-president of the Law academy, was one of the founders of the Historical society of Pennsylvania in 1824, and its first president. He was also a member of the Agricultural, Humane, Linnaean, and Abolition societies, and was long president of the latter. For many years he was secretary and afterward a director of the Library company of Philadelphia. In 1830 he was appointed, with Thomas I. Wharton and Joel Jones, to revise the civil code of Pennsylvania, and he was the principal author of the reports of the commission, the results of whose labors are embodied in statutes that still remain in force. Among his published writings are “An Address before the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture” (Philadelphia, 1819); “Two Addresses to the Associated Members of the Bar of Philadelphia” (1824); “A View of the Constitution of the United States” (1825); and “The Study of the Law” (1832). To the literature of the Historical society he contributed a “Vindication of the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder’s ‘History of the Indian Nations,’” a “Biographical Sketch of Sir William Keith,” and “A Sketch of the Life of Thomas Mifflin.” He left various manuscripts on theological matters, among them an “Essay on Angelic Influences,” and an argument on the evidences of Christianity. He was a fine classical scholar. He translated from the Greek the “Phaedo” of Plato, adding thereto a commentary thereon. These “would in themselves alone,” according to David Paul Brown, “suffice to protect his name against oblivion.” He received the degree of LL. D. from Princeton in 1827, and from Dartmouth in 1828. See a sketch of him by Thomas I. Wharton (Philadelphia, 1840). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 189.   

 

 

RAY, Charles Bennett, 1807-1886, New York, New York, African American, journalist, educator, clergyman, abolitionist leader.  American Missionary Association (AMA).  Newspaper owner and editor, The Colored American.  African American.  Member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFAAS), 1847-1851, 1853-1855, Recording Secretary, 1849-1855.  One of the first African Americans to participate in abolitionist party on a national level.  Member and activist with the Underground Railroad.  Co-founder and director, New York Vigilance Committee, which aided and protected fugitive slaves.  Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. (Blue, 2005, p. 98; Dumond, 1961, pp. 268, 330, 333; Mabee, 1970, pp. 58, 59, 62, 95-97, 111, 134, 146, 181, 338, 339, 415n14; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 48, 166; Sernett, 2002, pp. 64, 116, 132, 199, 201; Sorin, 1971, pp. 93-94; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 403; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 201; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 353)

 

 

RAYMOND, Asa, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

RAYNER, Mrs., Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, p. 61)

 

 

READ, James, abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V; Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

REALF, Richard, 1834-1878, abolitionist.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 434)

 

 

REASON, Patrick Henry, 1816-1898, New York City, African American, printmaker, abolitionist.  Member, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 367)

 

 

REDPATH, James, 1833-1891, author, editor, abolitionist leader.  New York Tribune. Interviewed enslaved individuals in the South and reported on conditions of slavery in the South.  Published his interviews with enslaved individuals in book, The Roving Editor: or, Talks with Slaves.  Redpath became a friend of militant abolitionist John Brown.  He later wrote, The Public Life of John Brown (1859).  (Horner, 1926; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 358; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 206; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 443; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 681-682; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 257; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 567-568)

 

REDPATH, James, author, b. in Berwick-on-Tweed, Scotland, 24 Aug., 1833. He emigrated with his parents to Michigan. At the age of eighteen years he came to New York, and since then he has mainly devoted himself to journalism. At the age of nineteen he became an editor of the New York “Tribune,” and soon afterward he formed a resolution to visit the southern states in order to witness for himself the conditions and effects of slavery. He not only visited the plantations of slave-owners as a guest, but went on foot through the southern seaboard states. In the course of his long journey he slept frequently in slave-cabins, and visited the religious gatherings and merry-makings where the negroes consorted. Although at that period it was social outlawry to speak the truth about slavery, he did not hesitate to do so, and he consequently became noted as a fiery Abolitionist. In 1855 he becarne the Knnsas correspondent of the St. Louis “Democrat.” He took an active part in the events of that time, and in 1859 made two visits to Hayti. During the second one he was appointed by President Geffrard commissioner of emigration in the United States. Immediately upon his return home, Mr. Redpath fqunded the Haytian bureau of emigration in Boston and New York, and several thousand negroes availed themselves of it. In connection with the Haytian bureau Mr. Redpath established a weekly newspaper called “Pine and Palm,” in which were advocated the emigration movement and the general interests of the African race in this country. He was also appointed Haytian consul in Philadelphia and then joint commissioner to the United States, and was largely instrumental in procuring recognition of Haytian independence. He was with the armies of Gen. William T. Sherman and Gen. George H. Thomas during the civil war, and subsequently with Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore in Charleston. At the latter place he was appointed superintendent of education, organized the school system of South Carolina, and founded the Colored orphan asylum at Charleston. In 1868 he established the Boston lyceum bureau, and subsequently Redpath's lecture bureau. In 1881 he went to Ireland, partly to recruit his health and partly to describe the famine district for the New York “Tribune.” On his return in the following year he made a tour of the United States and Canada, lecturing on Irish subjects, and in the same year founded a newspaper called “Redpath's Weekly,” devoted to the Irish cause. In 1886 he became an editor of the “North American Review.” Besides contributions to the newspapers, magazines, and reviews, he has published “Hand-Book to Kansas” (New York, 1859); “The Roving Editor” (1859); “Echoes of Harper's Ferry” (Boston, 1860); “Southern Notes” (1860); “Guide to Hayti” (1860); “The John Brown Invasion” (1860); “Life of John Brown” (1860); “John Brown, the Hero” (London, 1862); and “Talks about Ireland” (New York, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 206.

 

 

REED, Alexander, Pennsylvania, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1839-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

REED, George B., Deep River, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-37, 1839-40.

 

 

REED, Joseph, 1741-1785, statesman, political leader, lawyer, soldier, jurist, abolitionist.  Member of the Continental Congress.  President, Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.  Co-founder, University of Pennsylvania.  Proposed gradual abolition of slavery.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 208-209; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 451)

 

REED, Joseph, statesman, b. in Trenton, N. J., 27 Aug., 1741; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 5 March, 1785. He was graduated at Princeton in 1757, and then studying law with Robert Stockton, was admitted to the bar in 1763, after which he spent two years as a law student in the Middle Temple, London. On his return in 1765 he followed his profession in Trenton, and in 1767 was appointed deputy secretary of New Jersey, but in 1770 he went again to England, where he married Esther De Berdt, daughter of Dennis De Derdt (q. v.), agent of Massachusetts. He returned to this country in October, and settled in Philadelphia, where he followed his profession with success. He took an active part in the popular movements in Pennsylvania, was confidential correspondent of Lord Dartmouth, who was then colonial secretary, and strove to persuade the ministry to measures of moderation. He was appointed a member of the committee of correspondence for Philadelphia in November, 1774, and in January, 1775, was president of the 2d Provincial congress. On the formation of the Pennsylvania associated militia after the battle of Lexington, he was chosen lieutenant-colonel, and, when George Washington was appointed to the command of the American forces, Mr. Reed left his practice in Philadelphia to become Gen. Washington's military secretary. As he had been educated to the orderly and methodical transaction of business, and was a ready writer, there is no doubt that the opening of books of record, preparing forms, directing correspondence, composing legal and state papers, and establishing the general rules and etiquette of headquarters, can be traced principally to him. In October, 1775, he returned to Philadelphia, and in January, 1776, he was chosen member of the assembly, although at the time he was acting chairman of the committee of safety. He was appointed on 5 June adjutant-general of the American army, with the rank of colonel, and was exceedingly active in the campaign that terminated with the battle of Long Island. Admiral Howe, who reached New York in July, 1776, was charged, as special commissioner, with opening negotiations with the Americans, and under a flag of truce a meeting took place, at which Col. Reed represented Gen. Washington, but, the communication from the British admiral being addressed to “George Washington, Esquire,” he declined to receive it. In 1777, on Washington's solicitation, he was appointed brigadier-general and tendered command of all the American cavalry, and meanwhile, on 20 March, 1777, he was appointed first chief justice of Pennsylvania under the new constitution; but he declined both of these offices, preferring to remain attached to Washington's headquarters as a volunteer aide without rank or pay, in which capacity he served with credit at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. In September, 1777, he was elected to the Continental congress, but continued with the army and was again chosen in December. He declined the commissionership of Indian affairs in November, 1778, but accepted the chairmanship of a committee to confer with Washington concerning the management of the ensuing campaign, to concert measures for the greatest efficiency of the army. The city of Philadelphia, in October, 1777, elected him to the assembly, and the county made him a member of the council; but he declined the former election. In December, 1778, he was chosen president of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania, and he was continued in that office for three years. During his administration he aided in founding the University of Pennsylvania, and favored the gradual abolition of slavery and the doing away with the proprietary powers of the Penn family. While Benedict Arnold (q. v.) was in command of Philadelphia, after the evacuation by the British, he was led into extravagances that resulted in his being tried by court-martial. In the presentation of the charges Gov. Reed, as president of the council, took an active part, and so incurred the odium of the friends of Arnold. After the failure of the British peace commissioners to treat with congress, at tempts were made to bribe high officials, and, among others, Gov. Reed was approached and offered £10,000, together with any office in the colonies in his majesty's gift. His reply was: “I am not worth purchasing, but, such as I am, the king of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it.” In 1780 he was invested with extraordinary powers, and largely through his influence the disaffection of the Pennsylvania line in the army was suppressed. He resumed the practice of his profession in 1781, and was appointed by congress one of the commission to settle the dispute between the states of Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Failing health led to his visiting England in 1784, hoping that a sea-voyage would restore him; but he returned in a few months, and died soon afterward. Meanwhile he had been chosen to congress, but he never took his seat. Gov. Reed was charged with meditating a treacherous abandonment of the American cause, and a determination to go over to the British, and George Bancroft in his history introduced the statement on what appeared to be reliable testimony. A bitter controversy ensued, in which William B. Reed (q. v.) took part, and it was ultimately shown that he had been confounded with Col. Charles Read (q. v.). He published “Remarks on Gov. Johnstone's Speech in Parliament” (Philadelphia, 1779), and “Remarks on a Late Publication in the ‘Independent Gazetteer,’ with an Address to the People of Pennsvlvania” (1783). The latter elicited “A Reply” by John Cadwalader. See “Life of Joseph Reed,” by Henry Reed, in Sparks's “American Biography” (Boston, 1846), and “Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed,” by his grandson, William B. Reed (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1847).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

REED, Samuel, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

REED, William, Taunton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40

 

 

REEDER, Andrew Horatio, 1807-1864, territorial governor of Kansas Territory, anti-slavery political leader, removed from office by President Franklin Pierce for not enforcing pro-slavery laws; elected territorial representative October 9, 1855  (Dumond, 1961, p. 331; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 32, 45, 436-437; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 211-212; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 462; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 284)

 

REEDER, Andrew Horatio, governor of Kansas, b. in Easton, Pa., 6 Aug., 1807; d. there, 5 July, 1864. He spent the greater part of his life in Easton, Pa., where he practised law, and was a Democratic politician, but declined office till 1854, when he was appointed the first governor of Kansas. Gov. Reeder had come to the territory a firm Democrat, but the conduct of the “border ruffians” shook his partisanship. He prescribed distinct and rigid rules for the conduct of the next legislature, which, it was then believed, would determine whether Kansas would become a free or a slave state. But all his precautions came to naught. On 30 March, 1855, 5,000 Missourians took possession of nearly every election-district in the territory. Of the total number of votes cast 1,410 were found to be legal and 4,908 illegal, 5,427 were given to the pro-slavery and 791 to the free-state candidates. But on 6 April, 1855, Gov. Reeder issued certificates of election to all but one third of the claimants, and the returns in these cases he rejected on account of palpable defects in the papers. As a lawyer he recognized that he had the power to question the legality of the election of the several claimants only in those cases where there were protests lodged, or where there were palpable defects in the retμrns. Notices were sent throughout the territory that protests would be received and considered, and the time for filing protests was extended so that facilities might be given for a full hearing of both sides. In nearly two thirds of the returns there were no protests or official notice of frauds, and the papers were on their face regular. In the opinion of Gov. Reeder, this precluded him from withholding certificates, and he accordingly issued them, notwithstanding his personal belief that the claimants had nearly all been fraudulently elected. His contention always was that any other course would have been revolutionary. This action endowed the notoriously illegal legislature with technical authority, and a few weeks later, when Gov. Reeder went to Washington, D. C., to invoke the help of the administration, the attorney-general refused to prosecute, as Reeder's own certificate pronounced the elections true. One of the first official acts of this legislature was to draw up a memorial to the president requesting Gov. Reeder’s removal, but before its bearer reached Washington the governor was dismissed by President Pierce. He then became a resident of Lawrence, Kan., where the free-state movement began. Its citizens held a convention at Big Springs, a few miles west of that town, on 5 Sept., 1855. Gov. Reeder wrote the resolutions, addressed the convention, and received their nomination, by acclamation, for the post of territorial delegate to congress. These resolutions declared that “we will endure no longer the tyrannical enactments of the bogus legislature, will resist them to a bloody issue,” and recommended the “formation of volunteer companies and the procurement of arms.” On 9 Oct., at a separate election, Mr. Reeder was again chosen delegate to congress. Under the newly framed territorial constitution, which was known as the Topeka constitution, a legislature formed of the free-state party, 15 July, 1856, elected him, with James H. Lane, to the U. S. senate, which choice congress refused to recognize, and neither senator took his seat. At the beginning of the civil war he and Gen. Nathaniel Lyon were the first brigadier-generals that were appointed by President Lincoln. But Mr. Reeder declined, on the plea that he was too far advanced in life to accept high office in a new profession. He returned to Easton, Pa., where he resided until his death. See “Life of Abraham Lincoln,” by John G. Nicolay and John Hay. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 211-212.

 

 

REID, William W., Rochester, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.

 

 

REMINGTON, B. F., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

REMOND, Charles Lenox, 1810-1873, free African American, Boston, Massachusetts, orator, abolitionist leader.  Member, 1849-1860, Vice President, and delegate of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Member of the Executive Committee, 1843-1848, and a Manager, 1848-1853, AASS.  He attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.  Agent for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  First Black abolitionist employed as spokesman in anti-slavery cause (in 1838).  Recruited African American soldiers for the Union Army.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 331; Leeman, pp. 302-310; Mabee, 1970, pp. 61, 64, 103, 104, 106, 122, 124, 131, 157, 161, 173, 177, 180, 252, 254, 258, 261, 264, 294, 320, 322-324, 335, 373; Pease, 1965, pp. 314, 335-342; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 32, 45, 436-437; Wheaton, 1996; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 499; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 335; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 404)

 

 

REMOND, Sarah Parker, 1826-1894, African American, abolitionist, orator, women’s rights activist, physician,  friend of abolitionist Abby Kelley.  Sister to Charles Lenox Remond.  (Wheaton, 1996; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 499; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 686-687; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 337; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 406)

 

 

RENTOUL, William S., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

REYNOLDS, Nathan, abolitionist, Big Flats, New York (Gates, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 588)

 

 

RHOADES, Zenas, N. Marlboro, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1844-1850.

 

 

RHODES, Samuel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends (Orthodox), Quakers, supported Free Labor cause, in 1844, founded the Free Produce Association of Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Drake, 1950, pp. 172-173, 181; Mabee, 1970, pp. 142, 202, 239, 355, 363)

 

 

RICE, Alexander Hamilton, 1818-1895.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Boston, Massachusetts.  Four term Congressman, December 1859-March 1867.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 232-233; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 534; Congressional Globe)

 

RICE, Alexander Hamilton, governor of Massachusetts, b. in Newton Lower Falls, Mass., 30 Aug., 1818. He received a business training in his father's paper-mill at Newton and in a mercantile house in Boston, and, after his graduation at Union college in 1844, established himself in the paper business at Boston. He became a member of the school committee, entered the common council, was chosen president of that body, and in 1855 and 1857 was elected mayor of Boston on a citizens' ticket. During his administration the Back Bay improvements were undertaken, the establishment of the Boston city hospital was authorized, and on his recommendation the management of the public institutions was committed to a board composed in part of members of the common council and in part chosen from the general body of citizens. He served several years as president of the Boston board of trade, and has been an officer or trustee of numerous financial and educational institutions. He was elected to congress by the Republican party for four successive terms, serving from 5 Dec., 1859, till 3 March, 1867. He served on the committee on naval affairs, and, as chairman of that committee in the 38th congress introduced important measures. He was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention at Philadelphia in 1866, and to the Republican national convention in 1868. He was governor of Massachusetts in 1876, 1877, and 1878. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 232-233. 

 

 

RICE, Reverend David, 1733-1816, Hancock County, Virginia, abolitionist, educator, clergyman.  Presbyterian Church of Danville, Kentucky.  Co-founder of Hampden-Sydney College and Transylvania University.  Member of the Kentucky Abolition Society.  Opponent of slavery.  Wrote speech, “Slavery Inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy.”  Rice wrote: “A slave is a human creature made by law the property of another human creature, and reduced by mere power to an absolute, unconditional subjection to his will…  A slave claims his freedom; he pleads that he is a man, that he was by nature free, that he has not forfeited his freedom, nor relinquished it… His being long deprived of this right, by force or fraud, does not annihilate it; it remains; it is still his right… If my definition of a slave is true, he is a rational creature reduced by the power of legislation to the state of a brute, and thereby deprived of every privilege of humanity… that he may minister to the ease, luxury, lust, pride, or avarice of another, no better than himself… a free moral agent, legally deprived of free agency, and obliged to act according to the will of another free agent of the same species; and yet he is accountable to his Creator for the use he makes of his own free agency.”  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 233-234; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 537; Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 134-135; Locke, 1901, pp. 90, 117f, 166, 170, 183, 186; Martin, 1918; Sorin, 1971, p. 39; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 407)

 

RICE, David, clergyman, b. in Hanover county, Va., 29 Dec., 1733; d. in Green county, Ky., 18 June, 1816. He was graduated at Princeton in 1761, studied theology, was licensed to preach in 1762, and was installed as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Hanover, Va., in December, 1763. At the end of five years he resigned on account of dissensions among the church-members, and three years later he took charge of three congregations in the new settlements of Bedford county, Va., where he labored with success during the period of the Revolution. When Kentucky was opened to settlement he visited that country in October, 1783, removed thither with his family, and in 1784 organized in Mercer county the first religious congregation in Kentucky, and opened in his house the earliest school. He was the organizer and the chairman of a conference that was held in 1785 for the purpose of instituting a regular organization of the Presbyterian church in the new territory, and the principal founder of Transylvania academy, which developed into Transylvania university. He was a member of the convention that framed a state constitution in 1792. In 1798 he removed to Green county. His wife, Mary, was a daughter of Rev. Samuel Blair. He published an “Essay on Baptism” (Baltimore, 1789); a “Lecture on Divine Decrees” (1791); “Slavery Inconsistent with Justice and Policy” (1792); “An Epistle to the Citizens of Kentucky Professing Christianity, those that Are or Have Been Denominated Presbyterians” (1805); and “A Second Epistle to the Presbyterians of Kentucky,” warning them against the  errors of the day (1808); also “A Kentucky Protest against Slavery” (New York, 1812).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 233-234. 

 

 

RICE, John H., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

RICHARDS, Samuel, abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Bruns, 1977, p. 514; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

RICHARDS, William M., Deerfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

RICHARDSON, Asa, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

RICHARDSON, Charles L., Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1843-48.

 

 

RICHARDSON, Jonas, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

RICKETSON, Daniel, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist (Drake, 1950, p. 184)

 

 

RIDDELL, William, S. Deerfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President,

 

 

RIDGELLY, Abraham, Maryland, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Chester-Town Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others Unlawfully Held in Bondage, founded 1791.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 224, 241n24)

 

 

RIGGS, Joseph, Lawrence County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

RILEY, Bennet, 1787-1853, soldier, territorial governor of California  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 52; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 254; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 608; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 512)

 

RILEY, Bennett, soldier, b. in Alexandria, Va., 27 Nov., 1787; d. in Buffalo, N. Y., 9 June, 1853. He entered the army from civil life at an early period, being appointed from Maryland an ensign of rifles, 19 Jan., 1813, and continued in the service until he died. He became lieutenant on 12 March, served in the war of 1812, and was promoted captain, 6 Aug., 1818, major, 26 Sept., 1837, and lieutenant-colonel, 1 Dec., 1839. He served with gallantry in 1823 in an action with the Arickaree Indians, and for his services at Chakotta, Fla., 2 June, 1840, he was brevetted colonel. In the Mexican war of 1846-'7 he was given important commands. He led the 2d infantry under Scott, and the 2d brigade of Twiggs's division in the valley of Mexico. He received the brevet of brigadier-general, 18 April, 1847, for gallantry at Cerro Gordo, and that of major-general, 20 Aug., 1847, for Contreras. After one of his successful engagements with the enemy Gen. Winfield Scott assured him that his bravery had secured a victory for the American army. At the conclusion of the war Gen. Riley was placed in command of the Pacific department, with headquarters at Monterey. He was appointed military governor of California, and served as the first chief magistrate of the territory and until the admission of the state into the Union. He became colonel of the 1st infantry on 31 Jan., 1850. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 254.  

 

 

RITCHIE, John, 1817-1887, Indiana, anti-slavery activist, Union Army officer.  Moved to Kansas in 1855 to support the efforts to have Kansas enter the Union as a Free State.  Served as a delegate in two Kansas Constitutional Conventions.  He supported Free Stater leader James H. Lane.  Served as a Colonel in the Civil War.

 

 

RITTER, Thomas, New York, New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1855-1856.

 

 

RIVES, William Cabel, 1793-1868, Albemarle County, Virginia, U.S. Congressman, Senator, protégé of Thomas Jefferson.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1838-1841.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 267; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 635; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 107-207)

 

 

ROANE, John, Virginia, U.S. Congressman.  Member and supporter of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 107)

 

 

ROBBINS, James W., Lenox, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

ROBBINS, Sampson, Lockport, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-46

 

 

ROBERTS, Anthony Ellmaker, 1803-1885, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  U.S. Marshal.  Two-term Member of Congress from the Ninth District of Pennsylvania, 1855-1859.  Republican leader in Republican Party in Pennsylvania.  Opposed slavery.  Roberts was supported by Congressional leader Thaddeus Stevens.  (Herringshaw, 1902; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1949)

 

 

ROBERTS, Benjamin Franklin, 1814-1881, African American, abolitionist, printer, journalist, newspaper publisher, opposed colonization.  Published the Anti-Slavery Herald in Boston, Massachusetts. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 481)

 

 

ROBERTS, Daniel, Manchester, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

ROBERTS, John M., Maryland, agent for the Maryland State Colonization Society.  Hired in 1838.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 107-108)

 

 

ROBERTS, Jonathan Manning, 1771-1854, Upper Merion County, Pennsylvania, U.S. Senator, U.S. Congressman, opponent of slavery.  Called for the prohibition of slavery from Missouri in the Senate.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 274; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 9)

 

ROBERTS, Jonathan Manning, investigator, b. in Montgomery county, Pa., 7 Dec., 1821; d. in Burlington, N. J., 28 Feb., 1888, studied law, was admitted to the bar at Norristown, Pa., in 1850, and practised his profession for about a year, but abandoned it and engaged in commercial pursuits. These proving financially successful, he found time to gratify his desire for metaphysical investigations. He also took an interest in politics, being an enthusiastic Whig and strongly opposed to slavery. He was a delegate to the Free-soil convention at Buffalo, N. Y., that nominated Martin Van Buren for president in 1848, and subsequently canvassed New Jersey for that candidate. When the so-called spiritual manifestations at Rochester, N. Y., first attracted public attention, Mr. Roberts earnestly protested against the possibility of their having a supernatural origin. After several years of patient inquiry he came to the conclusion that they were facts that could be explained on scientific principles and resulted from the operation of natural causes. This conviction led to his establishing an organ of the new faith at Philadelphia in 1878 under the title of “Mind and Matter.” His fearless advocacy of his peculiar views involved him in litigation and caused his imprisonment. Finding the publication of a journal too great a tax on his resources, he abandoned it, and devoted the rest of his life to study and authorship. Among his manuscript, of which he left a large amount, is “A Life of Apollonius of Tyana” and “A History of the Christian Religion,” which he completed just before his death.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ROBESON, Andrew, New Bedford, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-, 1843-53, 1862-63.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1860.

 

 

ROBINSON, Andrew, Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1846.

 

 

ROBINSON, Charles, 1818-1894, territorial governor, Kansas, member Free Soil Anti-Slavery Party, 1855  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 58; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 283; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 34; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 641)

 

ROBINSON, Charles, governor of Kansas, b. in Hardwick, Mass., 21 July, 1818. He was educated at Hadley and Amherst academies and at Amherst college, but was compelled by illness to leave in his second year. He studied medicine at Woodstock. Vt., and at Pittsfield, Mass., where he received his degree in 1843, and practised at Belchertown, Springfield, and Fitchburg, Mass., till 1849, when he went to California by the overland route. He edited a daily paper in Sacramento called the “Settler's and Miner's Tribune” in 1850, took an active part in the riots of 1850 as an upholder of squatter sovereignty, was seriously wounded, and, while under indictment for conspiracy and murder, was elected to the legislature. He was subsequently discharged by the court without trial. On his return to Massachusetts in 1852 he conducted in Fitchburg a weekly paper called the “News” till June, 1854, when he went to Kansas as confidential agent of the New England emigrants' aid society, and settled in Lawrence. He became the leader of the Free-state party, and was made chairman of its executive committee and commanderin-chief of the Kansas volunteers. He was a member of the Topeka convention that adopted a free-state constitution in 1855, and under it was elected governor in 1856. He was arrested for treason and usurpation of office, and on his trial on the latter charge was acquitted by the jury. He was elected again by the Free-state party in 1858, and for the third time in 1859, under the Wyandotte constitution, and entered on his term of two years on the admission of Kansas to the Union in January, 1861. He organized most of the Kansas regiments for the civil war. He afterward served one term as representative and two terms as senator in the legislature, and in 1882 was again a candidate for governor. In 1887 he became superintendent of Haskell institute in Lawrence. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 283.

 

 

ROBINSON, Marius R., 1806-1876, Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, abolitionist.  Alumnus of Lane University.  Editor of The Ohio Anti-Slavery Bugle, 1849-18??.  The newspaper was the official organ of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society.  Worked with Augustus Wattles to set up schools for free Blacks.  Worked with abolitionist James G. Birney in editing Philanthropist.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1840-1843.  Antislavery agent.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 160, 164, 174, 185, 220, 264)

 

 

ROBINSON, Martin, b. 1812, African American abolitionist

 

 

ROBINSON, Rowland T., North Ferrisburg, Vermont, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-40, 1840-43.

 

 

ROBINSON, Sophia, leader, Boston Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS)

 

 

ROCK, John Stewart, 1826-1866, African American, activist, lawyer, physician, dentist, supporter of abolition movement.  Member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which opposed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  Opposed colonization.  Recruited soldiers for US colored regiments. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 545)

 

 

ROCKEFELLER, Laura Spelman, 1839-1915, philanthropist, teacher, abolitionist.  Wife of Standard Oil founder, John D. Rockefeller.

 

 

ROCKWELL, Reuben, Colebrook, Connecticut, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-1837.

 

 

RODEE, Daniel L., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

RODNEY, Caesar Augustus, 1772-1824, Delaware, statesman, lawyer, diplomat.  U.S. Congressman, 1803-1805.  Later, Attorney General of the United States under Presidents Jefferson and Madison.  Rodney wrote:  “When we shall proclaim to every stranger and sojourner, the moment he sets his foot on American earth, the ground on which he stands is holy and consecrated by the genius of universal emancipation.  No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion, incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted on the altar of slavery; the first moment he touches the sacred soil of America, the altar and the god shall sink together in the dust; his soul shall walk abroad in her own majesty; his body shall swell beyond the measure of his chains, which burst from around him, and he shall stand redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the great genius of universal emancipation.”  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 300; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 82; Dumond, 1961, pp. 83-84; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 735)

 

RODNEY, Caesar Augustus, statesman, b. in Dover, Del., 4 Jan., 1772; d. in Buenos Ayres, South America, 10 June, 1824, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1793, and practised at Wilmington, Del. He was elected to congress from Delaware as a Democrat, serving from 17 Oct., 1803, till 3 March, 1805, was a member of the committee of ways and means, and one of the managers in the impeachment of Judge Samuel Chase. In 1807 he was appointed by President Jefferson attorney-general of the United States, which place he resigned in 1811. During the war with Great Britain in 1812 he commanded a rifle corps in Wilmington which was afterward changed to a light artillery company, which did good service on the frontiers of Canada. In 1813 he was a member of the Delaware committee of safety. He was defeated for congress and in 1815 was state senator from New Castle county. In 1817 he was sent to South America by President Monroe as one of the commissioners to investigate and report upon the propriety of recognizing the independence of the Spanish-American republics, which course he strongly advocated on his return to Washington. In 1820 he was re-elected to congress, and in 1822 be became a member of the U.S. senate, being the first Democrat that had a seat in that body from Delaware. He served till 27 Jan., 1823, when he was appointed minister to the United provinces of La Plata. With John Graham he published “Reports on the Present State of the United Provinces of South America” (London, 1819). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 300.

 

 

ROGERS, Elymas Payson, 1815-1861, African American, clergyman, poet, missionary, educator, prominent abolitionist.  Wrote anti-slavery satires, “A Poem on the Fugitive Slave Law,” and “The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Considered,” 1856. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 554)

 

 

ROGERS, J. V., , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-39

 

 

ROGERS, John, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1840-1857.

 

 

ROGERS, Moses, New York, abolitionist, member of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, founded 1785 (Basker, 2005, p. 223)

 

 

ROGERS, Nathaniel Peabody, 1794-1846, Concord, New Hampshire, newspaper publisher, editor, writer, abolitionist.  Established early anti-slavery newspaper, Herald of Freedom, in Concord, New Hampshire.  He edited the paper from 1838-1846.  Participated in the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society.  Served as a Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1840, 1842-1844.  Rogers attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.  Wrote anti-slavery articles.  His articles were reprinted in the New York Tribune under the pen name Old Man of the Mountain.  Supported the women’s rights movement.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 309; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 320)

 

ROGERS, Nathaniel Peabody, editor, b. in Portsmouth, N. H., 3 June, 1794; d. in Concord, N.H., 16 Oct., 1846. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1816, and practised law until 1838, when he established in Concord, N. R., the “Herald of Freedom,” a pioneer anti-slavery newspaper. He also wrote for the New York “Tribune” under the signature of “The Old Man of the Mountain.” His fugitive writings were published, with a memoir, by the Rev. John Pierpont (Concord, 1847). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 309. 

 

 

ROGERS, Robert V., Pickaway County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

ROGERS, Thomas, abolitionist, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Employ, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

ROGERS, Timothy, Society of Friends, Quaker, Ferrisburg, Vermont, operated a station of the Underground Railroad in his home (Drake, 1950, p. 119)

 

 

ROGERS, William C., Utica, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1842.

 

 

ROGERS, William, 1751-1824, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, clergyman, educator, College of Philadelphia, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Education, Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, 1790, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 239n11; Locke, 1901, pp. 91, 168; Nash, 1991, p. 129)

 

 

ROLLINS, Edward Henry, 1824-1889.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire.  Served in Congress July 1861-March 1867.  U.S. Senator 1877-1883.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 312-313; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 120; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 787; Congressional Globe)

 

ROLLINS, Edward Henry, senator, b. in Somersworth (now Rollinsford), N. H., 3 Oct., 1824. Several of his ancestors, who were among the first settlers of New Hampshire, served in the Revolutionary army, and his great-grandfather, Ichabod, was an active patriot and a member of the state convention that resolved itself into an independent government on 5 Jan., 1776. His name was given to the portion of Somersworth in which he resided. Edward Henry was educated in Dover, N. H, and South Berwick, Me., became a druggist's clerk in Concord and Boston, and subsequently entered business there on his own account. In 1855-'7 he was a member of the legislature, serving in the last year as speaker, and he was chairman of the New Hampshire delegation to the National Republican onvention of 1860. He served in congress from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1867, and was a firm opponent of the measure that was adopted in July, 1864, doubling the land-grant of the Union Pacific railroad company, and making the government security a first instead of a second mortgage upon the road. From 1868 till 1876 he was secretary and treasurer of the company, and from 4 March, 1877, till 4 March, 1883, he was U. S. senator. He was a founder of the First national bank in Concord, is an owner of Fort George island, Fla., arid is now (1888) president of the Boston, Concord, and Montreal railroad company. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 312-313.

 

 

ROLLINS, James Sidney, 1812-1888, lawyer, soldier.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri.  After Mexican War (1846), opposed extension of slavery into the new territories.  Served as Congressman July 1861-March 1865.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol., V, p. 313; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 121; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 788; Congressional Globe)

 

ROLLINS, James Sidney, lawyer, b. in Richmond, Madison co., Ky., 19 April, 1812; d. near Columbia, Mo., 9 Jan., 1888. After graduation at the University of Indiana in 1830 and at the law-school of Transylvania university, Ky., in 1834, he practised law in Boone county, Mo. He served on the staff of Gen. Richard Gentry during the Black Hawk war, and in 1836 became an editor of the Columbia “Patriot,” a Whig journal. From 1838 till 1844, and again in 1854-'6, he served in the Missouri house of representatives, and he was a member of the state senate from 1846 till 1850, boldly opposing the extension of slavery into the territories. He was defeated as the Whig candidate for governor in 1848 and 1857. Mr. Rollins was a delegate to the Baltimore convention of 1844, which nominated Henry Clay for president, and was active in the canvass that followed. He was elected to congress as a Conservative, taking his seat in the special session that was called by President Lincoln, serving from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1865. In 1862 he introduced a bill to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific, which, with a few amendments, became a law in July, 1862, and under its provisions the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Kansas Pacific railroads were built. He voted for the adoption of the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, although at the time he was one of the largest slave-owners in Boone county. He was a delegate to the Phila delphia Union convention in 1866, and in that year served again in the legislature of Missouri, where he introduced and secured the passage of a bill to establish a normal department in the state university. He was appointed a director of the Union Pacific railroad company, but resigned, and again served in the state senate, introducing a bill to establish an agricultural and mechanical college. He was also the author of many important measures that were passed by the legislature to advance the interests of the state university, and from 1869 till 1887 was president of its board of curators, which in 1872 declared him “Pater Universitatis Missouriensis.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 313.   

 

 

ROMEYN, John Brodhead, Reverend, b. 1777, New York, clergyman.  Member of the auxiliary of the New York American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 315; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 17, 40)

 

ROMEYN, John Brodhead, clergyman, b. in Marbletown, Ulster co., N. Y., 8 Nov., 1777; d. in New York city, 22 Feb., 1825, was graduated at Columbia in 1795, and in 1798 was licensed to preach. He became pastor of the Reformed Dutch church in Rhinebeck, N. Y., in 1799, and of the Presbyterian church in Schenectady in 1803, was in charge of the church in Albany for the succeeding four years, and then accepted the charge of the Cedar street church, New York city, which he held until his death. Princeton gave him the degree of D. D. in 1809. Dr. Romeyn was one of the most popular preachers of his day, and an able theologian. He declined calls to numerous wealthy parishes, and the presidencies of Transylvania university and Dickinson college. He was one of the founders of Princeton theological seminary, a trustee of that institution and of Princeton college, and at the age of thirty-three was moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church. He published a large number of occasional discourses, which were collected and republished (2 vols., New York, 1816). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

ROPER, William, Boston, Massachusetts.  Corresponding Committee of the Massachusetts auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Worked with Ralph Gurley.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 130, 159, 165)

 

 

ROOT, David, 1790-1873, Dover, New Hampshire, clergyman, abolitionist.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1835-1840.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 319)

 

ROOT, David, clergyman b. in Pomfret, Vt., in 1790; d. in Chicago, Ill., 30 Aug., 1873. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1816, entered the ministry, and was pastor successively of Presbyterian churches in Georgia and Cincinnati, Ohio, and of the Congregational church in Dover, N. H. In the latter city he identified himself with the Anti-slavery party, which he served with such devotion that he suffered persecution both there and in Waterbury, Conn., whence he subsequently removed. He then held pastorates in Guilford and New Haven, Conn., till 1852, when he retired. He gave $10,000 to endow a professorship in Beloit college, Wis., $20,000 to Yale theological seminary, and $5,000 to the American missionary society. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 319.

 

 

ROOT, Joseph Pomeroy, 1826-1885, physician, politician, abolitionist.  Leader of the Kansas Free State movement.  Elected to Territorial State Senate under the Topeka Convention.  Later elected Lieutenant Governor of Kansas.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 150)

 

 

ROPES, George, Portland, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1842-1846.

 

 

ROSE, Ernestine Louise, 1810-1892, born in Russia Poland as Ernestine Louise Polowsky.  Feminist and women’s rights activist, abolitionist.  Lectured on abolition, women’s rights/suffrage/human rights/equality.  Married to Robert Owen.  (Kolmerten, 1999)

 

 

ROSS, Alexander Milton, b. 1832, anti-slavery activist (Mabee, 1970, p. 285; Rodriguez, 2007; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 327)

 

ROSS, Alexander Milton, Canadian naturalist, b. in Belleville, Ont., 13 Dec., 1832. He attended school at Belleville till his eleventh year, when the death of his father compelled his removal. He evinced a great love for natural history at an early age. In his boyhood he came to New York city, and after struggling with many adversities became a compositor on the “Evening Post.” William Cullen Bryant, its editor, was much interested in him, and remained his friend ever afterward. During this period he became acquainted with Garibaldi, who was then a resident of New York; and in 1874 Ross was instrumental in securing a pension for Garibaldi from the Italian government. In 1851 he began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. Valentine Mott, in New York, and after four years of unremitting toil, working as a compositor during the day and studying medicine at night, he received his degree of M. D. in 1855. Soon after his graduation he was appointed a surgeon in the forces in Nicaragua, under William Walker. In 1856 he became, actively engaged in the anti-slavery struggle in the United States becoming a personal friend of John [illegible]. During the civil war he served for [illegible] a surgeon in the National army, a [illegible] friends he was employed by President Lincoln as presidential correspondent in Canada, where he rendered important services to the U. S. government, receiving the thanks of the president and Sec. Seward. At the close of the war Dr. Ross offered his services to President Juarez of Mexico, and received the appointment of surgeon in the Mexican army. After the overthrow of the empire he returned to Canada and began to collect and classify the fauna and flora of that country, a work that had never before been attempted by a native. He has collected and classified hundreds of species of birds, eggs, mammals, reptiles, and fresh-water fish, 3,400 species of insects, and 2,000 species of Canadian flora. After his return to Canada he became a member of the College of physicians and surgeons of Quebec and Ontario, and was one of the founders of the Society for the diffusion of physiological knowledge in 1881. Dr. Ross has been appointed treasurer and commissioner of agriculture for the province of Ontario, and he has removed from Montreal to Toronto. He was knighted by the emperor of Russia, and by the kings of Italy, Greece, and Saxony in 1876, and by the king of Portugal in 1877. He was appointed consul in Canada by the kings of Belgium and Denmark, and received the decoration of the “Académie Française” from the government of France in 1879. He is a member of many scientific societies, and is the author of “Recollections of an Abolitionist” (Montreal, 1867); “Birds of Canada” (1872); “Butterflies and Moths of Canada” (1873); “Flora of Canada” (1873); “Forest Trees of Canada” (1874); “Ferns and Wild Flowers of Canada” (1877); “Mammals, Reptiles, and Fresh-water Fishes of Canada” (1878); “Vaccination a Medical Delusion” (1885); and “Medical Practice of the Future” (1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 327.

 

 

ROSS, Edmund Gibson, 1826-1907, U.S. Senator.  Editor, Kansas Tribune, Free State Newspaper.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 327-328; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 175; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 905)

 

ROSS, Edmund Gibson, senator, b. in Ashland, Ohio, 7 Dec., 1826. He was apprenticed at an early age to a printer, received a limited education, and in 1847 removed to Wisconsin, where he was employed in the office of the Milwaukee “Sentinel” for four years. He went to Kansas in 1856, was a member of the Kansas constitutional convention in 1859, and served in the legislature until 1861. He was also editor of the Kansas “State Record” and the Kansas “Tribune,” which was the only Free-state paper in the territory at that time, the others having been destroyed. In 1862 he enlisted in the National army as a private, and in 1865 became major. On his return to Kansas, after the war, he was appointed to succeed James H. Lane in the U. S. senate, and was elected to fill out the term, serving from 25 July, 1866, till 4 March, 1871. He voted against the impeachment of President Johnson, thus offending the Republican party, with which he had always acted, and was charged with having adopted this course from mercenary and [illegible]. After his term ended he returned to Kansas, united with the Democratic party, and was defeated as their candidate for governor in 1880. In 1882 he removed to New Mexico, where he published a newspaper, and in May, 1885, was appointed by President Cleveland governor of that territory. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 327-328.     

 

 

ROSS, George T., Colonel, US Army

 

 

ROSS, James, 1762-1847, U.S. Senator 1974, lawyer, helped escaped slaves whom he represented in Philadelphia.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 329; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 178; “Port Folio,” Philadelphia, PA, 1816; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 914)

 

ROSS, James, senator, b. in York county, Pa., 12 July, 1762; d. in Alleghany City, Pa., 27 Nov., 1847. He entered the school of the Rev. Dr. John McMillan and accepted the post of teacher of Latin. In 1782 Mr. Ross became a student at law, was admitted to the bar in 1784, went to Washington, Pa., where he practised until in 1795 he removed to Pittsburg. In 1789 Mr. Ross was elected a member of the convention to frame a new constitution for the state. The ability that he displayed in this body gave him a reputation which, with his fame as an orator and lawyer, secured his election to the U. S. senate, in April, 1794, for the unexpired term, ending 3 March. 1797, of Albert Gallatin, who had been thrown out because he had not been for nine years a citizen, as required by the constitution. In 1797 he was again elected to succeed himself. To Senator Ross undoubtedly belongs the chief credit of the peaceful ending of the whiskey insurrection. On 17 July, 1794, Gen. Neville, the chief excise officer, was attacked, and his house and other property were destroyed. At a tumultuous meeting of the people at Washington, Pa., a rally of armed men was called, to be held on 1 Aug., at Braddock's Field. Mr. Ross, in a powerful speech, alone opposed the will of an excited populace. He was told that he had that day destroyed all chances of future political preferment, but, nothing daunted, he attended the Braddock's Field meeting and also that of the delegates from western Pennsylvania and Virginia, at Parkinson's Ferry. By his personal appeals and arguments a party was formed, which, if not very numerous, included many citizens of note, several of whom had been active on the other side. While he was at Parkinson's Ferry a messenger from the capital brought Senator Ross the information that he had been appointed by Washington the chief of a commission to compose the insurrection. Senator Ross more than prepared the way for his colleagues, and the insurrection was virtually at an end before they joined him. Mr. Ross had been for several years intimate with Gen. Washington, being consulted as counsel, and now, at the president's request, became his attorney in fact for the sole management of his large estates in western Pennsylvania. While still in the senate, he was nominated, in 1799, as governor of the state. The nomination was esteemed to be equivalent to an election, but Mr. Ross refused to canvass the state in his own behalf and was defeated. At the next election Mr. Ross was again nominated and was again unsuccessful. The same disposition to defend the right, regardless of personal consequences, that had induced him, as a boy at Dr. McMillan's school, to volunteer against marauding Indians, that had separated him from friends and neighbors during the whiskey war, that in the senate had urged war against Spain to protect the mouths of the Mississippi for the use of the west, induced him to befriend the cause of a party of friendless negro slaves who had escaped from their masters and found refuge in Philadelphia. Impassioned oratory gained the case. The “Port Folio,” published in Philadelphia in 1816, says that Mr. Ross received the thanks of the Abolition society; but the generous act diminished his popularity. In 1808, for the third time, he was nominated for governor, and was again unsuccessful. With this election the power of the Federalists in Pennsylvania was broken, and with it the political life of Mr. Ross came to an end. He declined to connect himself with other parties; only as a Federalist would he hold public office. Except a short sketch in the “Port Folio” for 1816, there is no published life of James Ross, and even that in great measure consists of extracts from his speeches. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 329.

 

 

ROTCH, William, Nantucket, Society of Friends, Quaker, ship owner (Drake, 1950, pp. 88, 97, 102)

 

 

ROWE, Sylvester, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

ROWLAND, Isaiah, Delaware, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Delaware Abolition Society, founded 1788 (Basker, 2005, p. 223)

 

 

ROWLEY, Reuben, Wrentham, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1842-44

 

 

RUBY, George Thompson, 1841-1882, African American, politician, journalist, editor, abolitionist. Writer, editor, Kansas Anti-Slavery publication, Crusader of Freedom.  Correspondent for William Lloyd Garrison’s Anti-Slavery Standard. Wrote biography of militant abolitionist John Brown. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 606)

 

 

RUGGLES, David, 1810-1849, New York, free African American, journalist, publisher, editor, anti-slavery activist and abolitionist leader.  Agent for Emancipator and Journal of Public Morals of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Founded Mirror of Liberty, first Black magazine.  Active in the New York Committee of Vigilance and the Underground Railroad, which aided fugitive slaves.  Advocate of Free Produce movement.  Wrote pamphlet, “The Extinguisher.”  Contributed articles to abolitionist newspapers, The Emancipator and The Liberator.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 340; Hodges, 2010; Mabee, 1970, pp. 84-85, 107-108, 113-114, 278, 285, 397n1, 398n20, 415n16; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 45; Sorin, 1971, pp. 34, 84n, 87, 113; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 624; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 584-585)

 

 

RUSH, Christopher, New York, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841-1851.

 

 

RUSH, Dr. Benjamin, 1746-1813, Pennsylvania, founding father of the United States, physician, author, humanitarian, educator, opponent of slavery.  Active in the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of the Abolition of Slavery (Pennsylvania Abolition Society).  Wrote “An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America Upon Slave Keeping,” an anti-slavery pamphlet published in 1773.  Secretary and member of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, 1787.  Rush wrote: “Slavery is so foreign to the human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it.  All of the vices which are charged upon the negroes in the southern colonies and West Indies… are the genuine offspring of slavery, and serve as an argument to prove they [African Americans] were not intended by Providence for it.”   (Basker, 2005, pp. 33, 80, 81, 92, 101, 217, 223-228, 240, 308, 316; Brodsky, 2004; Bruns, 1977, pp. 79, 224-246, 269, 304-306, 325, 358, 376, 384, 491, 510, 514; Drake, 1950, pp. 85, 94, 115, 119; Dumond, 1961, pp. 20, 52-53, 87; Locke, 1901, pp. 48, 52, 55, 56, 58, 59, 62; Mabee, 1970, p. 270; Nash, 1990; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 21, 25-26, 156, 253, 456; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 90, 94-95, 169, 224-225; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 349; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 227; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 707-710; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 72; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 585-586)

 

RUSH, Benjamin, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Byberry township, Pa., 24 Dec., 1745; d. in Philadelphia, 19 April, 1813. His ancestor, John, who was a captain of horse in Cromwell's army, emigrated to this country in 1683, and left a large number of descendants. Benjamin's father died when the son was six years old. His earliest instructor was his uncle, Rev. Samuel Finley, subsequently president of Princeton, who prepared him for that college. He was graduated in 1760, and subsequently in the medical department of the University of Edinburgh in 1768, after studying under Dr. John Redman, of Philadelphia. He also attended medical lectures in England and in Paris, where he enjoyed the friendship of Benjamin Franklin, who advanced the means of paying his expenses. In August, 1769, he retumed to the United States and settled in Philadelphia, where he was elected professor of chemistry in the City medical college. In 1771 he published essays on slavery, temperance, and health, and in 1774 he delivered the annual oration before the Philosophical society on the “Natural History of Medicine among the Indians of North America.” He early engaged in pre-Revolutionary movements, and wrote constantly for the press on colonial rights. He was a member of the provincial conference of Pennsylvania, and chairman of the committee that reported that it had become expedient for congress to declare independence, and surgeon to the Pennsylvania navy from 17 Sept., 1775, to 1 July, 1776. He was then elected to the latter body, and on 4 July, 1776, signed the declaration. He married Julia, a daughter of Richard Stockton, the same year, was appointed surgeon-general of the middle department in April, 1777, and in July became physician-general. Although in constant attendance on the wounded in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, the Brandy wine, Germantown, and in the sickness at Valley Forge, he found time to write four long public letters to the people of Pennsylvania, in which he commented severely on the articles of confederation of 1776, and urged a revision on the ground of the dangers of giving legislative powers to a single house. In February, 1778, he resigned his military office on account of wrongs that had been done to the soldiers in regard to the hospital stores, and a coldness between himself and Gen. Washington, but, though he was without means at that time, he refused all compensation for his service in the army. He then returned to Philadelphia, resumed his practice and duties as professor, and for twenty-nine years was surgeon to the Pennsylvania hospital, and port physician to Philadelphia in 1790-'3. He was a founder of Dickinson college and the Philadelphia dispensary, and was largely interested in the establishment of public schools, concerning which he published an address, and in the founding of the College of physicians, of which he was one of the first censors. He was a member of the State convention that ratified the constitution of the United States in 1787, and of that for forming a state constitution in the same year, in which he endeavored to procure the incorporation of his views on public schools, and a penal code on which he had previously written essays. After that service he retired from political life. While in occupation of the chair of chemistry in Philadelphia medical college, he was elected to that of the theory and practice of medicine, to which was added the professorship of the institutes and practice of medicine and clinical practice in 1791, and that of the practice of physic in 1797, all of which he held until his death. During the epidemic of yellow fever in 1793 he rendered good service, visiting from 100 to 120 patients daily, but his bold and original practice made him enemies, and a paper edited by William Cobbett, called “Peter Porcupine’s Gazette,” was so violent in its attacks upon him that it was prosecuted, and a jury rendered a verdict of $5,000 damages, which Dr. Rush distributed among the poor. His practice during the epidemic convinced him that yellow fever is not contagious, and he was the first to proclaim that the disease is indigenous. From 1799 till his death he was treasurer of the U. S. mint. “His name,” says Dr. Thomas Young, “was familiar to the medical world as the Sydenham of America. His accurate observations and correct discrimination of epidemic diseases well entitled him to this distinction, while in the original energy of his reasoning he far exceeded his prototype.” He was a member of nearly every medical, literary, and benevolent institution in this country, and of many foreign societies, and for his replies to their queries on the subject of yellow fever received a medal from the king of Prussia in 1805, and gifts medal from the king of Prussia in 1805, and gifts from other crowned heads. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin as president of the Pennsylvania society for the abolition of slavery, was president of the Philadelphia medical society, vice-president and a founder of the Philadelphia Bible society, advocating the use of the Scriptures as a textbook in the public schools, an originator of the American philosophical society, of which he was a vice-president in 1799-1800. He taught, more clearly than any other physician of his day, to distinguish diseases and their effects, gave great impulse to the study of medicine in this country, and made Philadelphia the centre of that scienec in the United States, more than 2,250 students having attended his lectures during his professorship in the Medical college of Philadelphia. Yale gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1812. His publications include “Medical Inquiries and Observations” (5 vols., Philadelphia, 1789-'98; 3d ed., 4 vols., 1809); “Essays, Literary, Moral, and Philosophical” (1798; 2d ed., 1806); “Sixteen Introductory Lectures” (1811); and “Diseases of the Mind” (1812; 5th ed., 1835). He also edited several medical works. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 349.

 

 

RUSH, Richard, 1780-1859, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, statesman, diplomat.  Founding member, 1816, and Vice-President, 1833-1840, of the American Colonization Society.  Son of abolitionist Benjamin Rush.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 350; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 231; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 30)

 

RUSH, Richard, statesman. b. in Philadelphia, 29 Aug., 1780; d. there, 30 July, 1859, was graduated at Princeton in 1797, and admitted to the bar of Philadelphia in 1800, and early in his career won distinction by his defence of William Duane, editor of the “Aurora,” on a charge of libelling Gov. Thomas McKean. He became solicitor of the guardians of the poor of Philadelphia in 1810, and attorney-general of Pennsylvania in 1811, comptroller of the U. S. treasury in November of the same year, and in 1814-'17 was U. S. attorney-general. He became temporary U. S. secretary of state in 1817, and was then appointed minister to England, where he remained till 1825, negotiating several important treaties, especially that of 1818 with Lord Castlereagh respecting the fisheries, the north west boundary-line, conflicting claims beyond the Rocky mountains, and the slaves of American citizens that were carried off on British ships, contrary to the treaty of Ghent. He was recalled in 1825 to accept the portfolio of the treasury which had been offered him by President Adams, and in 1828 he was a candidate for the vice-presidency on the ticket with Mr. Adams. In 1829 he negotiated in Holland a loan for the corporations of Washington, Georgetown, D. C., and Alexandria, Va. He was a commissioner to adjust a boundary dispute between Ohio and Michigan in 1835, and in 1836 was appointed by President Jackson a commissioner to obtain the legacy of James Smithson (q. v.), which he left to found the Smithsonian institution. The case was then pending in the English chancery court, and in August, 1838, Mr. Rush returned with the amount, $508,318.46. He was minister to France in 1847-'51, and in 1848 was the first of the ministers at that court to recognize the new republic, acting in advance of instruction from his government. Mr. Rush began his literary career in 1812, when he was a member of the Madison cabinet, by writing vigorous articles in defence of the second war with England. His relations with John Quincy Adams were intimate, and affected his whole career. He became an anti-Mason in 1831, in 1834 wrote a powerful report against the Bank of the United States, and ever afterward co-operated with the Democratic party. He was a member of the American philosophical society. His publications include “Codification of the Laws of the United States” (5 vols., Philadelphia, 1815); “Narrative of a Residence at the Court of London from 1817 till 1825” (London, 1833); a second volume of the same work, “Comprising Incidents, Official and Personal, from 1819 till 1825” (1845; 3d ed., under the title of the “Court of London from 1819 till 1825, with Notes by the Author's Nephew,” 1873); “Washington in Domestic Life,” which consists of personal letters from Washington to his private secretary, Col. Tobias Lear, and some personal recollections (1857); and a volume of “Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous, including a Glance at the Court and Government of Louis Philippe, and the French Revolution of 1848,” published by his sons (1860). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

RUSSELL, George W., Worcester, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-37

 

 

RUSSELL, Philemon R., West Boylston.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

RUSSWURM, John Brown, 1799-1851, African American, anti-slavery newspaper editor.  Co-editor of Freedom’s Journal, with Samuel Cornish.  Became senior editor in 1827.  Freedom’s Journal was the first newspaper in the United States to be owned, edited and published by African Americans.  Later, editor of Rights of All.  Governor of Maryland in Liberia, the colony of the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 50-52, 90-91, 114, 122-125, 127-130, 132-134, 136-137, 141-145, 152, 165; Dumond, 1961, p. 329; Sagarin, 1970; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 253; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 117.)

 

 

RUTGERS, Henry, 1745-1830, New York, real estate magnate, philanthropist, colonel.  Founding officer, Vice President, 1816, officer, New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 355; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 255; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 30, 40, 80)

 

RUTGERS, Henry, patriot, b. in New York city 7 Oct., 1745; d. there, 17 Feb., 1830. He was graduated at Columbia in 1766, served as a captain in the American army at the battle of White Plains, and subsequently was a colonel of New York militia. During the British occupation of New York city his house was used as a barrack and hospital. Col. Rutgers was a member of the New York legislature in 1784, and was frequently re-elected. He was the proprietor of land on East river, in the vicinity of Chatham square, and in other parts of the city, and gave sites for streets, schools, churches, and charities. He presided over a meeting that was held on 24 June, 1812, to prepare against an expected attack of the British, and contributed toward defensive works. From 1802 till 1826 he was one of the regents of the State university. He gave $5,000 for the purpose of reviving Queen's college in New Jersey, the name of which was changed to Rutgers college on 5 Dec., 1825. See memoir in “New York Genealogical and Biographical Record” of April, 1886; and “The Rutgers Family of New York,” by Ernest H. Crosby (New York, 1886). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

RYCRAFT, John, rescued fugitive slaves Joshua Glover from jail in Wisconsin in 1854.  He was arrested, tried and convicted under provisions of the Federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  His conviction was overturned in Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1854-1855.

 

 

RYLAND, William, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Manager, 1833-1834.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

 

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SACKETT, William Augustus, 1811-1895, New York, lawyer, politician.  Elected to U.S. House of Reprsentatives from New York as a member of the Whig Party.  Served in Congress two terms from 1849-1853.  Opposed extension of slavery into the New territories and the fugitive slave laws.  Early member of the Republican Party.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 364-365)

 

SACKETT, William Augustus, congressman, b. in Aurelius, Cayuga co., N. Y., 18 Nov., 1812. His ancestors came from England in 1632, settled in Massachusetts, and continued to live in New England until 1804, when his father moved to Cayuga county, N. Y. He received an academic education, studied law in Seneca Falls and Skaneateles, was admitted to the bar in 1834, and soon secured a lucrative practice. Elected to congress as a Whig, he served from 3 Dec., 1849, till 3 March, 1853. He took part in the controversy in relation to the admission of California as a free state, and both spoke and voted for admission. He earnestly opposed the fugitive-slave law, and was uncompromisingly in opposition to slavery and the admission of any more slave states. From the committee on claims he made a report on the power of consuls, which had an influence in the final modification of those powers. He removed to Saratoga Springs in 1857, where he still resides. In 1876-'8 he travelled extensively in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land, and wrote letters describing his journeys that were published. He has been a Republican since the organization of the party, and has been active as a public speaker.—His son, WILLIAM, was colonel of the 9th New York cavalry, and was killed while leading a charge under Gen. Sheridan at Trevillian Station, Va. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 364-365.

 

 

SAFFORD, A. H., Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1842-43

 

 

SAFFORD, Nathaniel, New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-1842, Member, 1840-1848.

 

 

SAILER, John, Michigan City, Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

SALEM, Philis, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

 

SANBORN, Charles Henry, b. 1822, Hampton Fall, New Hampshire, physician, lawmaker, anti-slavery activist, brother of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 364-365)

 

SANBORN, Charles Henry, physician, h. in Hampton Falls, N. H., 9 Oct., 1822. He was educated in the common schools of New Hampshire, taught for several years, was graduated at Harvard medical school in 1856, and has since practised medicine at Hampton Falls. He was active in the political revolt of the Independent Democrats of New Hampshire in 1845, which ended in detaching the state from its pro-slavery position. In 1854-'5 he was a member of the legislature. He published “The North and the South” (Boston, 1856). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 364-365.

 

 

SANBORN, Franklin Benjamin, 1831-1917, abolitionist leader, journalist, prison and social reformer, Secretary of the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee.  Secretly supported radical abolitionist John Brown, and his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, on October 16, 1859.  Brother of Charles Sanborn.  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 327, 338, 476, 478-479; American Reformers, pp. 715-716; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 384; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 326; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 237)

 

SANBORN, Franklin Benjamin, reformer, b. in Hampton Falls, N. H., 15 Dec., 1831, was graduated at Harvard in 1855, and in 1856 became secretary of the Massachusetts state Kansas committee. His interest in similar enterprises led to his active connection with the Massachusetts state board of charities, of which he was secretary in 1863-'8, a member in 1870-'6, and chairman in 1874-'6, succeeding Dr. Samuel G. Howe. In 1875 he made a searching investigation into the abuses of the Tewksbury almshouse, and in consequence the institution was reformed. Mr. Sanborn was active in founding the Massachusetts infant asylum and the Clarke institution for deaf-mutes, and has devoted much attention to the administration of the Massachusetts lunacy system. In 1879 he helped to reorganize the system of Massachusetts charities, with special reference to the care of children and insane persons, and in July, 1879, he became inspector of charities under the new board. He called together the first National conference of charities in 1874, and was treasurer of the conference in 1886-'8. In 1865 he was associated in the organization of the American social science association, of which he was one of the secretaries until 1868, and he has been since 1873 its chief secretary. With Bronson Alcott and William T. Harris he aided in establishing the Concord summer school of philosophy in 1879, and was its secretary and one of its lecturers. Since 1868 he has been editorially connected with the Springfield “Republican,” and has also been a contributor to newspapers and reviews. The various reports that he has issued as secretary of the organizations of which he is a member, from 1865 till 1888, comprise auout forty volumes. He has edited William E. Channing's “Wanderer” (Boston, 1871) and A. Bronson Alcott's “Sonnets and Canzonets” (1882) and “New Connecticut” (1886); and is the author of “Life of Thoreau” (1882) and “Life and Letters of John Brown” (1885). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 384.  

 

 

SANBORN, John, Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-1845.

 

 

SANDERSON, Jeremiah Burke, 1821-1875, African American, clergyman, abolitionist, anti-slavery leader.  Minister, African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.  Agent and lecturer for Garrison’s Liberator.  Member of abolition groups in New Bedford area. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 52)

 

 

SANDIFORD, Ralph, 1693-1733, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, reformer, called for immediate end to slavery, printed anti-slavery book, A Brief Examination of the Practice of the Times, by Foregoing and the Present Dispensation, 1729. For this action, he was excommunicated by the Society of Friends.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 122-123; Bruns, 1977, pp. 31-38, 39, 46, 50-51; Drake, 1950, pp. 34, 37, 39-43, 48, 51, 55, 136, 160; Locke, 1901, pp. 24, 25, 27, 29, 33, 173; Soderlund, 1985, pp. 23, 25, 35, 166-167, 174, 186; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 67, 72; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 387)

 

SANDIFORD, Ralph, author, b. in Liverpool, England, about 1693; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 28 May, 1733. H e was the son of John Sandiford, of Liverpool, and in early life was a sailor. He emigrated to Pennsylvania, where he settled on a farm and became a Quaker preacher. Sandiford was one of the earliest public advocates of the emancipation of negro slaves, and in support of his views published “A Brief Examination of the Practice of the Times, by the Foregoing and Present Dispensation, etc.” (Philadelphia, 1729; 2d ed., enlarged, 1730). These were printed by Franklin and Meredith. Franklin says, in a letter dated 4 Nov., 1789: “I printed a book for Ralph Sandiford against keeping negroes in slavery, two editions of which he distributed gratis.” Sandiford's doctrines met with but little favor, except among the poor, who were brought into competition with slave labor. The chief magistrate of the province threatened Sandiford with punishment if he permitted his writings to be circulated, but, notwithstanding, he distributed the work wherever he thought it would be read. Sandiford was buried in a field, on his own farm, near the house where he died. The executors of his will had the grave enclosed with a balustrade fence, and caused a stone to be placed at the head of it, inscribed: “In Memory of Ralph Sandiford, Son of John Sandiford, of Liverpool. He Bore a Testimony against the Negroe Trade and Dyed ye 28th of ye 3rd Month, 1733, Aged 40 Years.” See “Memoir of Benjamin Lay and Ralph Sandiford,” by Robert Vaux (Philadelphia, 1815; London, 1816). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 387.

 

 

SANDS, David, 1745-1818, abolitionist, Quaker preacher. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 388; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 342)

 

SANDS, David, Quaker preacher, b. on Long Island, N. Y., 4 Oct., 1745; d. in Cornwall, N. Y., in June, 1818. He became a merchant, but entered the Society of Friends, married a member of that denomination, and began to preach in 1772. He labored in this country and Canada till 1794, and then in Europe till he was sixty years of age. See “David Sands, Journal of his Life and Gospel Labors” (New York, 1848). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 388.

 

 

SANSOM, Joseph, 1767-1826, poet, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  Wrote anti-slavery poem, “A Poetical Epistle to the Enslaved Africans, in the Character of an Ancient Negro, Born a Slave in Pennsylvania,” published in 1790. (Drake, 1950, pp. 106-107, 127)

 

 

SARGENT, Catherine, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, p. 62)

 

 

SARGENT, Henrietta, leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Yellin, 1994, pp. 51, 62, 64, 253n)

 

 

SARGENT, John T., Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1862-1864.  Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1852-1860.

 

 

SAUNDERS, Adeline, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

SAUNDERS, Prince, d. 1839, African American, author, supporter of colonization movement, anti-slavery activist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 70)

 

 

SAVAGE, William H., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SAWYER, Leicester Ambrose, 1807-1898, New Haven, Connecticut, abolitionist, clergyman.  Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1837-1840.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 407; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 393)

 

SAWYER, Leicester Ambrose, clergyman, b. in Pinckney, N.Y., 28 July, 1807. He was graduated at Hamilton college in 1828, studied theology at Princeton for two years, and was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1832. He was pastor of various churches in New York and Connecticut, and was president of Central college, Ohio, in 1842-'7. From his entrance into the ministry he devoted himself to the study of the Bible in the original tongues, and finally, abandoning the commonly received doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures, he left the Presbyterian church in 1854, and until 1859 was pastor of a Congregational church in Westmoreland, N. Y. Since 1860 he has resided at Whitesboro, N.Y., where he has engaged in literary work, and was for a time connected with the Utica “Morning Herald.” He has published “Elements of Biblical Interpretation” (New Haven, 1836); “Mental Philosophy” (1839); “Moral Philosophy” (1845); “Critical Exposition of Baptism” (Columbus, Ohio, 1845); “Organic Christianity, or the Church of God” (1854); “Reconstruction of Biblical Theories, or Biblical Science Improved” (1862); and “Final Theology, Vol. I., Introduction to the New Testament, Historic, Theologic, and Critical” (Whitesboro, N.Y., 1879). He also made a new translation of the New Testament (Boston, 1858), and his “American Bible,” with critical studies, is now in course of publication in numbers (1860-'88). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 393.

 

 

SAYRES, Edward, captain of the Pearl, attempted to free 76 slaves valued at $100,000, caught and imprisoned (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 51)

 

 

SCARLETT, Margaret, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

SCHAFF, J. S., founding charter member of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

SCHENCK, Robert Cumming, 1809-1890, diplomat, Union general.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Three-term Whig Representative to Congress, December 1843-March 1851.  Re-elected December 1863, 1864, 1866, 1868.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 417-418; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 427; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 370; Congressional Globe)

 

SCHENCK, Robert Cumming, diplomatist, b. in Franklin, Ohio, 4 Oct., 1809, was graduated at Miami university in 1827, and remained as a resident graduate and tutor for three years longer, then studied law with Thomas Corwin, was admitted to the bar, and established himself in practice at Dayton, Ohio. He was a member of the legislature in 1841-'2, displaying practical knowledge and pungent wit in the debates, and was then elected as a Whig to congress, and thrice re-elected, serving from 4 Dec., 1843, till 3 March, 1851. He was a member of important committees, and during his third term was the chairman of that on roads and canals. On 12 March, 1851, he was commissioned as minister to Brazil. In 1852, with John S. Pendleton, who was accredited to the Argentine Republic as chargé d'affaires, he arranged a treaty of friendship and commerce with the government of that country and one for the free navigation of the river La Plata and its great tributaries. They also negotiated treaties with the governments of Uruguay and Paraguay. He left Rio Janeiro on 8 Oct., 1853, and after his return to Ohio engaged in the railroad business. He offered his services to the government when the civil war began, and was one of the first brigadier-generals appointed by President Lincoln, his commission bearing the date of 17 May, 1861. He was attached to the military department of Washington, and on 17 June moved forward by railroad with a regiment to dislodge the Confederates at Vienna, but was surprised by a masked battery, and forced to retreat. On meeting re-enforcements, he changed front, and the enemy retired. His brigade formed a part of Gen. Daniel Tyler's division at the first Bull Run battle, and was on the point of crossing the Stone Bridge to make secure the occupation of the plateau, when the arrival of Confederate re-enforcements turned the tide of battle. He next served in West Virginia under Gen. William S. Rosecrans, and was ordered to the Shenandoah valley with the force that was sent to oppose Gen. Thomas J. Jackson. Pushing forward by a forced march to the relief of Gen. Robert H. Milroy, he had a sharp and brilliant engagement with the enemy at McDowell. At Cross Keys he led the Ohio troops in a charge on the right, and maintained the ground that he won until he was ordered to retire. Gen. John C. Frémont then intrusted him with the command of a division. At the second battle of Bull Run he led the first division of Gen. Franz Sigel's corps. He was wounded in that action by a musket-ball, which shattered his right arm, incapacitating him for active service till 16 Dec., 1862, when he took command of the middle department and eighth corps at Baltimore, having been promoted major-general on 18 Sept. After performing effective services in the Gettysburg campaign, he resigned his commission on 3 Dec., 1863, in order to take his place in the house of representatives, in which he served as chairman of the committee on military affairs. He was re-elected in 1864, and was placed at the head of the same committee, where he procured the establishment of the National military and naval asylum. In 1865 he was president of the board of visitors to the U. S. military academy, and was one of the committee of congress on the death of President Lincoln, serving also on the committee on retrenchment. In 1866 he attended the Loyalists' convention at Philadelphia and the soldiers' convention at Pittsburg, Pa. He was re-elected to congress in 1866 and in 1868, when his opponent was Clement L. Vallandigham, serving as chairman of the committee of ways and means and of the ordnance committee. On 22 Dec., 1870, he received the appointment of minister to Great Britain. In 1871 he was one of the “Alabama” commission. He resigned his post in 1876 in consequence of the failure of the Emma silvermine company, in which he had permitted himself to be chosen a director, and resumed the practice of law in Washington, D. C. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 417-418.

 

 

SCHMUCKER, Simon Samuel, 1799-1873.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 421-422)

 

SCHMUCKER, Samuel Simon, theologian, b. in Hagerstown, Md., 28 Feb., 1799; d. in Gettysburg, Pa., 26 July, 1873, spent two years in the University of Pennsylvania, and then taught in York in 1816. He began theological studies under the direction of his father, but in 1818 entered Princeton seminary, where he was graduated in 1820. Among his fellow-students at Princeton were Bishops McIlvaine and Johns, and Dr. Robert Baird. After being licensed, he was his father's assistant for a few months, and then followed a call to New Market, Va. He was ordained at Frederick, Md., 5 Sept., 1821, and served his first charge in 1820-'6. He interested himself at once in the preparation of young men for the ministry, took an active part in the organization of the general synod in 1821, and was throughout his life one of the leaders of that body. He was the author of the formula for the government and discipline of the Evangelical Lutheran church, which, adopted by the general synod in 1827, has become the ground-plan of the organization of that body. From its establishment in 1826 till his resignation in 1864 he was chairman of the faculty of the theological seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., and for four years he was the only instructor. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him in 1830 by Rutgers and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1846 he took an active part in the establishment of an ecclesiastical connection between the Lutheran church in Europe and America, and was a delegate to the Evangelical alliance which met in London during that year. He aided much in preparing the way for the latter by his “Fraternal Appeal” to the American churches, with a plan for union (1838), which was circulated extensively in England and the United States. His published works number more than one hundred. Among them are “Biblical Theology of Storr and Flott,” translated from the German (2 vols., Andover, 1826; reprinted in England, 1845); “Elements of Popular Theology” (1834); “Kurzgefasste Geschichte der Christlichen Kirche, auf der Grundlage der Busch'en Werke” (Gettysburg, Pa., 1834); “Fraternal Appeal to the American Churches on Christian Union” (Andover, 1838); “Portraiture of Lutheranism” (Baltimore, 1840); “Retrospect of Lutheranism” (1841); “Psychology, or Elements of Mental Philosophy” (New York, 1842); “Dissertation on Capital Punishment” (Philadelphia, 1845); “The American Lutheran Church, Historically, Doctrinally, and Practically Delineated” (1851); “Lutheran Manual” (1855); “American Lutheranism Vindicated” (Baltimore, 1856); “Appeal on Behalf of the Christian Sabbath” (Philadelphia, 1857); “Evangelical Lutheran Catechism” (Baltimore, 1859); “The Church of the Redeemer” (1867); “The Unity of Christ's Church” (New York, 1870); and a large number of discourses and addresses, and articles in the “Evangelical Review” and other periodicals. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

SCHOELCHER, Victor, b. 1804, French statesman, prominent abolitionist leader.  Traveled extensively throughout the world (including the USA) to study slavery and advocated emancipation (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 423)

 

SCHOELCHER, Victor (shel'-ker), French statesman, b. in Paris, 21 July, 1804. He is the son of a wealthy merchant, studied at the College Louis le Grand, and became a journalist, bitterly opposing the government of Louis Philippe and making a reputation as a pamphleteer. After 1826 he devoted himself almost exclusively to advocacy of the abolition of slavery throughout the world, contributing a part of his large fortune to establish and promote societies for the benefit of the negro race. In 1829-'31 he made a journey to the United States, Mexico, and Cuba to study slavery, in 1840-'2 he visited for the same purpose the West Indies, and in 1845-'7 Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and the west coast of Africa. On 3 March, 1848, he was appointed under-secretary of the navy, and caused a decree to be issued by the provisional government which acknowledged the principle of the enfranchisement of the slaves through the French possessions. As president of a commission, Schoelcher prepared and wrote the decree of 27 April, 1848, which enfranchised the slaves forever. He was elected to the legislative assembly in 1848 and 1849 for Martinique, and introduced a bill for the abolition of the death-penalty, which was to be discussed on the day on which Prince Napoléon made his coup d’état. After 2 Dec. he emigrated to London, and, refusing to take advantage of the amnesties of 1856 and 1869, returned to France only after the declaration of war with Prussia in 1870. Organizing a legion of artillery, he took part in the defence of Paris, and in 1871 he was returned to the national assembly for Martinique. In 1875 he was elected senator for life. His works include “De l’esclavage des noirs et de la législation colonial” (Paris, 1833); “Abolition de l’esclavage” (1840); “Les colonies françaises de l’Amérique” (1842); “Les colonies étrangères dans l’Amérique et Hayti” (2 vols., 1843); “Histoire de l’esclavage pendant les deux dernières années” (2 vols., 1847); “La vérité aux ouvriers et cultivateurs de la Martinique” (1850); “Protestation des citoyens frarnçais negres et mulatres contre des accusations calomnieuses” (1851); “Le procès de la colonie de Marie-Galante” (1851); and “La grande conspiration du pillage et du meurtre à la Martinique” (1875).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 423.  

 

 

SCHURZ, Carl, 1829-1906, abolitionist leader, political leader, journalist, lawyer, Union general, Secretary of the Interior. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 428-429; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 466; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 726-729)

 

SCHURZ, Carl, statesman, b. in Liblar, near Cologne, Prussia, 2 March, 1829. After studying at the gymnasium of Cologne, he entered the University of Bonn in 1846. At the beginning of the revolution of 1848 he joined Gottfried Kinkel, professor of rhetoric in the university, in the publication of a liberal newspaper, of which he was at one time the sole conductor. In the spring of 1849, in consequence of an attempt to promote an insurrection at Bonn, he fled with Kinkel to the Palatinate, entered the revolutionary army as adjutant, and took part in the defence of Rastadt. On the surrender of that fortress he escaped to Switzerland. In 1850 he returned secretly to Germany, and effected the escape of Kinkel from the fortress of Spandau. In the spring of 1851 he was in Paris, acting as correspondent for German journals, and he afterward spent a year in teaching in London. He came to the United States in 1852, resided three years in Philadelphia, and then settled in Watertown, Wis. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he delivered speeches in German in behalf of the Republican party, and in the following year he was an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant-governor of Wisconsin. During the contest between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln for the office of U. S. senator from Illinois in 1858 he delivered his first speech in the English language, which was widely published. Soon afterward he removed to Milwaukee and began the practice of law. In 1859-'60 he made a lecture-tour in New England, and aroused attention by a speech in Springfield, Mass., against the ideas and policy of Mr. Douglas. He was a member of the Republican national convention of 1860, and spoke both in English and German during the canvass. President Lincoln appointed him minister to Spain, but he resigned in December, 1861, in order to enter the army. In April, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and on 17 June he took command of a division in the corps of Gen. Franz Sigel, with which he participated in the second battle of Bull Run. He was made major-general of volunteers, 14 March, 1863, and at the battle of Chancellorsville commanded a division of Gen. Oliver O. Howard's corps. He had temporary command of this corps at Gettysburg, and subsequently took part in the battle of Chattanooga. During the summer of 1865 he visited the southern states, as special commissioner, appointed by President Johnson, for the purpose of examining their condition. In the winter of 1865-'6 he was the Washington correspondent of the New York “Tribune,” and in the summer of 1866 he removed to Detroit, where he founded the “Post.” In 1867 be became editor of the “Westliche Post,” a German newspaper published in St. Louis. He was temporary chairman of the Republican national convention in Chicago in 1868, where he moved an amendment to the platform, which was adopted, recommending a general amnesty. In January, 1869, he was chosen U. S. senator from Missouri, for the term ending in 1875. He opposed some of the chief measures of President Grant's administration, and in 1872 took an active part in the organization of the Liberal party, presiding over the convention in Cincinnati that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency. After the election of 1872 he took an active part in the debates of the senate in favor of the restoration of specie payments and against the continuation of military interference in the south. He advocated the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in the presidential canvass of 1876, and in 1877 President Hayes appointed him secretary of the interior. He introduced competitive examinations for appointments in the interior department, effected various reforms in the Indian service, and adopted systematic measures for the protection of the forests on the public lands. After the expiration of the term of President Hayes he became editor of the “Evening Post” in New York city, giving up that place in January, 1884. In the presidential canvass of that year he was one of the leaders of the “Independent” movement, advocating the election of Grover Cleveland. He remained an active member of the civil service reform league. Among his more celebrated speeches are “The Irrepressible Conflict” (1858): “The Doom of Slavery” (1860); “The Abolition of Slavery as a War Measure” (1862); and “Eulogy on Charles Sumner” (1874). Of his speeches in the senate, those on the reconstruction measures, against the annexation of Santo Domingo, and on the currency and the national banking system attracted much attention. He has published a volume of speeches (Philadelphia, 1865) and a “Life of Henry Clay” (Boston, 1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 428-429.

 

 

SCOFIELD, Glenni William, b. 1817, lawyer, jurist.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  Congressman December 1863-March 1875.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 434; Congressional Globe)

 

SCOFIELD, Glenni William, jurist, b. in Chautauqua county, N. Y., 11 March, 1817. After graduation at Hamilton college in 1840, he removed to Pennsylvania, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. He was a member of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1850-'l and of the state senate in 1857-'9, and in 1861 was appointed president judge of the 18th judicial district. He was then elected to congress as a Republican, and served from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1875. He took an active part in the reconstruction measures, and served on important committees, being chairman of that on naval affairs. On 28 March, 1878, he was appointed register of the treasury, and he served until 1881, when he was appointed an associate justice of the U. S. court of claims. Hamilton gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1884. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 434.

 

 

SCOTT, James, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1836.

 

 

SCOTT, Orange, 1800-1847, Springfield, Massachusetts, Methodist clergyman, anti-slavery agent, abolitionist leader.  Member of Congress from Pennsylvania.  Entered anti-slavery cause in 1834.  Lectured in New England.  In 1839, founded and published the American Wesleyan Observer, an anti-slavery publication.  Withdrew from Methodist Church to co-found the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1843 with Jotham Horton.  Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1838-1840, Executive Committee, 1847-1851, 1853-1855, Recording Secretary 1849-1855.  American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 187, 285, 349; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 140; Mabee, 1970, pp. 46, 228-229; Matlack, 1849, p. 162; Annals of Congress; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 438; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 497; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 503; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 315)

 

SCOTT, Orange, clergyman, b. in Brookfield, Vt., 13 Feb., 1800; d. in Newark, N.J., 31 July, 1847. His parents removed to Canada in his early childhood, and remained there about six years, but afterward returned to Vermont. The son's early education was limited to thirteen months' schooling at different places. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1822, and became one of the best-known clergymen of his denomination in New England. He was presiding elder of the Springfield district, Mass., in 1830-'4, and of Providence district, R.I., in 1834-'5. Mr. Scott was active as a controversialist. About 1833 he became an earnest anti-slavery worker, and his zeal in this cause brought much unpopularity upon him. His bishop preferred charges against him in 1838, before the New England conference, but they were not sustained. Finally, with others, he withdrew from the church in 1842, and on 31 May, 1843, organized the Wesleyan Methodist church in a general ccnvention at Utica, N.Y., of which Mr. Scott was president. Till 1844 he conducted “The True Wesleyan,” in advocacy of the principles of the new church, which were opposed both to slavery and to the episcopal form of church government. In 1846 failing health forced him to retire from the ministry. Besides many contributions to the press, he was the author of “An Appeal to the Methodist Episcopal Church” (Boston, 1838). See his life, by the Rev. Lucius C. Matlack (New York, 1847). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 438.

 

 

SCOTT, Thomas, opposed slavery.  Spoke of slavery as “one of the most abominable things on earth.  If there was neither God nor devil, I should oppose it upon the principles of humanity, and the law of nature.”  He vowed to “support every constitutional measure likely to bring about its total abolition.  Perhaps, in our Legislative capacity, we can go no further than to impose a duty of ten dollars, but I do not know how far I might go, if I was one of the Judges of the United States, and those people were to come before me and claim their emancipation; but I am sure I would go as far as I could.” (Basker, 2005, pp. 128, 133; Dumond, 1961)

 

 

SCUDDY, Marshall S., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Treasurer, 1846, Executive Committee , 1843- , Manager, 1846

 

 

SEARS, Susan, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, p. 61)

 

 

SEATON, William Winston, 1785-1866, Washington, DC, journalist, newspaper editor, Mayor of Washington, DC.  American Colonization Society, Manager, 1833-1839, Executive Committee, 1839-1841.  Editor of the National Intelligencer in Washington, DC.  Elected Mayor of Washington, DC, in 1840, serving 12 years in office.  Co-published Annals of Congress.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 448; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

SEDGWICK, Theodore, 1780-1839, lawyer.  Member of the U.S. Congress from Massachusetts, opposed slavery in Congress.  Advocated Free Trade and temperance reform. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 451; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 551; Locke, 1901, p. 93; Annals of Congress)

 

SEDGWICK, Theodore, lawyer, b. in Sheffield, Mass., 31 Dec., 1780; d. in Pittsfield, Mass., 7 Nov., 1839, was graduated at Yale in 1798, studied law with his father, was admitted to the bar in 1801, and practised at Albany till 1821, when he removed to Stockbridge, Mass., owing to impaired health, and retired from the active practice of his profession. He afterward interested himself in agriculture, was repeatedly chosen president of the Agricultural society of the county, was a member of the legislature in 1824, 1825, and 1827, and in the last year carried through a bill for the construction of a railroad across the mountains from Boston to Albany, which had been generally regarded as a chimerical scheme. He was for a series of years the unsuccessful candidate of the Democratic party for lieutenant-governor. He was an earnest advocate of free-trade and temperance, and an opponent of slavery. His death resulted from a stroke of apoplexy, which occurred at the close of an address to the Democratic citizens of Pittsfield. He published “Hints to my Countrymen” (1826); “Public and Private Economy, illustrated by Observations made in Europe in 1836-'7” (3 vols., New York, 1838); and addresses to the Berkshire agricultural association (1823 and 1830). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 451.  

 

 

SEELEY, Uri, Geauga County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-39

 

 

SELDEN, Henry Rogers, 1805-1885, lawyer, jurist, abolitionist.  Republican Lieutenant Governor for New York State.  Opposed to the extension of slavery to the territories.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 456-457)

 

SELDEN, Henry Rogers, jurist, b. in Lyme, Conn., 14 Oct., 1805; d. in Rochester, N. Y., 18 Sept., 1885. In 1825 he removed to Rochester, N. Y., where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1880. He began practice in Clarkson, Monroe co., but returned to Rochester in 1859; and was reporter of the court of appeals in 1851-'4. He was a Democrat, but, being opposed to the extension of slavery, aided in the formation of the Republican party, and in 1856 was its successful candidate for the lieutenant-governorship. He attended the Republican national convention at Chicago in 1860, and concurred with his colleagues from New York in advocating the nomination of William H. Seward, but acquiesced in the nomination of Abraham Lincoln. In July, 1862, Mr. Selden was appointed a judge of the court of appeals to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of his brother, and he was afterward elected for a full term, but resigned in 1864. In 1872 he attended the Cincinnati convention that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency, and, though opposed to this course, reluctantly supported him in his canvass. He published “Reports, New York Court of Appeals, 1851-'4” (6 vols., Albany, 1853-'60). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

SELLERS, John, Jr., Delaware, County, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-45.

 

 

SERGEANT, John, 1779-1852, lawyer.  U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania.  Opposed extension of slavery into the territories.  Stated in Congressional debate of 1819:  “It is to no purpose, to say that the question of slavery is a question of state concern.  It affects the Union, in its interests, its resources, and character, permanently; perhaps forever.  One single State, to gratify the desire of a moment, may do what all the Union cannot undo; may produce an everlasting evil, shame and reproach.  And why?  Because it is a State right…  Sir, you may turn this matter as you will; Missouri, when she becomes a State, grows out of the Constitution; she is formed under the care of Congress, and admitted by Congress; and if she has a right to establish slavery, it is a right derived directly from the Constitution, and conferred upon her through the instrumentality of Congress.”  Further, Sergeant said, “If Missouri be permitted to establish slavery, we shall bring upon ourselves the charges of hypocrisy and insincerity, and upon the Constitution a deep stain, which must impair its lustre, and weaken its title to the public esteem.”  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 462-463; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 588; Dumond, 1961, pp. 103, 105, 107, 213-214, 383n24, 29; 16 Cong., 1 Sess., 1819-1820, II, p. 1201)

 

SERGEANT, John, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, 5 Dec., 1779; d. there, 25 Nov., 1852, was graduated at Princeton in 1795, and, abandoning his intention to become a merchant, studied law, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1799. For more than half a century he was known throughout the country as one of the most honorable and learned members of his profession and its acknowledged leader in Philadelphia. He entered public life in 1801, when he was appointed commissioner of bankruptcy by Thomas Jefferson, was a member of the legislature in 1808-'10, and of congress in 1815-'23, 1827-'9, and 1837-'42. In 1820 he was active in securing the passage of the Missouri compromise. He was appointed one of the two envoys in 1826 to the Panama congress, was president of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1830, and Whig candidate for the vice-presidency on the ticket with Henry Clay in 1832. He declined the mission to England in 1841, and his last public service was that of arbitrator to determine a long-pending controversy. The question at issue concerned the title to Pea Patch island as derived by the United States from the state of Delaware, and by James Humphrey claiming through Henry Gale from the state of New Jersey. This involved the question of the boundary between the two states, or, in other words, the claim to Delaware river, and the decision in favor of the United States incidentally decided the boundary dispute in favor of Delaware. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 462-463.

 

 

SESSIONS, Horace, Pomfret, Connecticut, clergyman.  Agent for the American Colonization Society, Rhode Island and Connecticut.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 123-124)

 

 

SESSIONS, Lucy Stanton Day, 1831-1910, African American, educator, author, abolitionist.  Graduate of Oberlin College.  Early African American woman writer. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 153)

 

 

SEVERENCE, Caroline M. Seymour, 1820-1914, Canandaigua, New York, abolitionist, suffragist, women’s rights activist.  Member of the Boston Anti-Slavery Society.  Married to abolitionist Theodore C. Severence.  (Elwood-Akers, 2010; Severence, 1906)

 

 

SEVERENCE, Theodore C., abolitionist, husband of abolitionist Caroline Severence.  (Severence, 1906)

 

 

SEWALL, Charles, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837.

 

 

SEWALL, Samuel, 1652-1730, Massachusetts, jurist, early Colonial opponent of slavery.  Wrote essay, “The Selling of Joseph,” 1700, which spoke out against slavery.  Sewall was the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreior Court of Judicature.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 120-121; Bruns, 1977, pp. 10-14; Dumond, 1961, pp. 16-17; Francis, 2005; La Plante, 2007, 2008; Locke, 1901, pp. 16-20, 23, 27, 34, 52, 131, 192; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 467-468; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 610; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 671)

 

SEWALL, Samuel, jurist, b. in Bishopstoke, England, 28 March, 1652; d. in Boston, Mass., 1 Jan., 1730. His early education was received in England before his parents came to New England. They went to Newbury, Mass., and his lessons were continued there. He was fitted to enter Harvard in 1667, and took his first degree in 1671, his second in 1675. He studied divinity and had preached once before his marriage, but after that event, which took place on 28 Feb., 1677, he left the ministry and entered public life. His wife was Hannah Hull, the daughter and only child of John and Judith (Quincy) Hull. The position which his father-in-law held as treasurer and mint-master undoubtedly had somewhat to do with the change in the young man's plans. One of his first ventures after his marriage was to assume charge of the printing-press in Boston. This was under his management for three years, when other engagements compelled him to relinquish it. His family connections, both through his marriage and on the maternal and paternal sides, brought him in contact with some of the most prominent men of the day. In 1684 he was chosen an assistant, serving for two years. In 1688 he made a voyage to England, and remained abroad a year in the transaction of business, visiting various points of interest. In 1692 he became a member of the council and judge of the probate court. Judge Sewall appeared prominently in judging the witches during the time of the Salem witchcraft. His character was shown more clearly at that time and immediately afterward than at any other time during his long life. He was extremely conscientious in the fulfilment of duty, and yet, when he found he was in error, was not too proud to acknowledge it. Of all the judges that took part in that historic action, he was the only one that publicly confessed his error. The memory of it haunted him for years, until in January, 1697, he confessed in a “bill,” which was read before the congregation of the Old South church in Boston by the minister. During its reading, Sewall remained standing in his place. The action was indicative of the man. During the remaining thirty-one years of his life he spent one day annually in fasting and meditation and prayer, to keep in mind a sense of the enormity of his offence. In 1699 he was appointed a commissioner for the English Society for the propagation of the gospel in New England. Soon afterward he was appointed their secretary and treasurer. His tract, entitled “The Selling of Joseph,” in which he advocated the rights of the slaves, was published in 1700. He was very benevolent and charitable, and his sympathies were always with the down-trodden races of humanity. In 1718 he was appointed chief justice, and served till 1728, when he retired on account of the increasing infirmities of old age. He also published “The Accomplishment of Prophecies” (1713); “A Memorial Relating to the Kennebec Indians” (1721); “A Description of the New Heaven” (1727). The Massachusetts historical society have published his diary, which covers the larger portion of his life, in their “Historical Collections,” and it has also published his letter-book, in which he kept copies of his important letters. These throw light upon the civil and social life of the day in a marked degree, and strengthen the opinion that he was a man of eminent ability and of sterling character. In addition to his diary, he kept a “commonplace book,” in which he recorded quotations from various authors whose works he had read. At the time of his death he had also filled twelve manuscript volumes with abstracts of sermons and addresses that he had heard at various times. His funeral sermon, by the Rev. Thomas Prince, was highly eulogistic, but evidently a just tribute to one of the most remarkable... 

 

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 467-468.

 

 

SEWALL, Samuel E., Boston, Massachusetts.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Leader, active member, Liberty Party. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 301, 405n12; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

SEWALL, Thomas, 1786-1845, Washington, DC, physician.  Manager, American Colonization Society, 1834-39.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 469; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

Sewall, Thomas, physician, b. in Augusta, life., 16 April, 1786; d. in Washington, D. C., 10 April, 1845, was graduated in medicine at Harvard in 1812, and practised in Essex, Mass., till 1820, when he removed to Washington. In 1821 he was appointed professor of anatomy in the National medical college of Columbian university. He began his lectures when the college first opened in 1825, and continued them till his death. He published, among other works, “The Pathology of Drunkenness” (Albany), which was translated into German, and established his reputation as an original investigator in Europe as well as in the United States. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

SEWARD, William Henry, 1801-1872, statesman, U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, U.S. Senator from New York, abolitionist, member Anti-Slavery Republican Party  (Baker, 1884; Dumond, 1961, pp. 292, 302, 355-356; Gienapp, 1987; Holt, 1999; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 9, 10, 54, 119-121, 160, 162, 165-167, 168, 177, 191-192, 198, 247; Pease, 1965, pp. 177-181, 483-485; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 52, 62, 136, 138, 240, 513, 634-636; Sewell, 1976; Van Deusen, 1976; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 470-472; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 615; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 676; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 613-616)

 

SEWARD, William Henry, statesman, b. in Florida, Orange co., N.Y., 16 May, 1801; d. in Auburn, N. Y., 10 Oct., 1872. His father, Dr. Samuel S. Seward, descended from a Welsh emigrant to Connecticut, combined medical practice with a large mercantile business. His mother was of Irish extraction. The son was fond of study, and in 1816 entered Union, after clue preparation at Farmers' Hall academy, Goshen, N. Y. He withdrew from college in 1819, taught for six months in the south, and after a year's absence returned, and was graduated in 1820. After reading law with John Anthon in New York city, and John Duer and Ogden Hoffman in Goshen, he was admitted to the bar at Utica in 1822, and in January, 1823, settled in Auburn, N. Y., as the partner of Elijah Miller, the first judge of Cayuga county, whose daughter, Frances Adeline, he married in the following year. His industry and his acumen and power of logical presentation soon gave him a place among the leaders of the bar. In 1824 he first met Thurlow Weed at Rochester, and a close friendship between them, personal and political, continued through life. In that year also he entered earnestly into the political contest as an advocate of the election of John Quincy Adams, and in October of that year drew up an address of the Republican convention of Cayuga county, in which he arraigned the “Albany regency” and denounced the methods of Martin Van Buren's supporters. He delivered an anniversary address at Auburn on 4 July, 1825. He was one of the committee to welcome Lafayette, and in February, 1827, delivered an oration expressive of sympathy for the Greek revolutionists. On 12 Aug., 1827, he presided at Utica over a great convention of young men of New York in support of the re-election of John Q. Adams. He declined the anti-Masonic nomination for congress in 1828, but joined that party on the dissolution of the National Republican party, with which he had previously acted, consequent upon the setting aside of its candidate for Andrew Jackson. In 1830 he was elected as the anti-Masonic candidate for the state senate, in which body he took the lead in the opposition to the dominant party, and labored in behalf of the common schools and of railroad and canal construction. He proposed the collection of documents in the archives of European governments for the “Colonial History of New York,” advocated the election of the mayor of New York by the direct popular vote, and furthered the passage of the bill to abolish imprisonment for debt. At the close of the session he was chosen to draw up an address of the minority of the legislature to the people. On 4 July, 1831, he gave an address to the citizens of Syracuse on the “Prospects of the United States.” On 31 Jan., 1832, he defended the U.S. bank in an elaborate speech in the state senate, and at the close of that session again prepared an address of the minority to their constituents. In 1833 he travelled through Europe, writing home letters which were afterward published in the “Albany Evening Journal.” In January, 1834, he denounced the removal of the U. S. bank deposits in a brilliant and exhaustive speech. He drew up a third minority address at the close of this his last session in the legislature. On 16 July, 1834, he delivered a eulogy of Lafayette at Auburn.

The Whig party, which had originated in the opposition to the Jackson administration and the “Albany regency,” nominated him for governor on 13 Sept., 1834, in the convention at Utica. He was defeated by William L. Marcy, and returned to the practice of law in the beginning of 1835. On 3 Oct. of that year he made a speech at Auburn on education and internal improvements. In July, 1836, he quitted Auburn for a time in order to assume an agency at Westfield to settle the differences between the Holland land company and its tenants. While there he wrote some political essays, and in July, 1837, delivered an address in favor of universal education. He took an active part in the political canvass of 1837, which resulted in a triumph of the Whigs. He was again placed in nomination for governor in 1838, and after a warm canvass, in which he was charged with havnig oppressed settlers for the benefit of the landcompany, and was assailed by anti-slavery men, who had failed to draw from him an expression of abolitionist principles, he was elected by a majority of 10,421. The first Whig governor was hampered in his administration by rivalries and dissension within the party. He secured more humane and liberal provisions for the treatment of the insane, a mitigation of the methods of discipline in the penitentiary, and the improvement of the common schools. His proposition to admit Roman Catholic and foreign-born teachers into the public schools, while it was applauded by the opposite party, drew upon him the reproaches of many of the Protestant clergy and laity, and subjected him to suspicion and abuse. His recommendations to remove disabilities from foreigners and to encourage, rather than restrict, emigration, likewise provoked the hostility of native-born citizens. His proposition to abolish the court of chancery and make the judiciary elective was opposed by the bench and the bar, yet within a few years the reform was effected. At his suggestion, specimens of the natural history of the state were collected, and, when the geological survey was completed, he prepared an elaborate introduction to the report, reviewing the settlement, development, and condition of the state, which appeared in the work under the title of “Notes on New York.” In the conflict between the proprietors and the tenants of Renselaerwyck he advocated the claims of the latter, but firmly suppressed their violent outbreaks. He was re-elected, with a diminished majority, in 1840. A contest over the enlargement of the Erie canal and the completion of the lateral canals, which the Democrats prophesied would plunge the state into a debt of forty millions, grew sharper during Gov. Seward's second term, and near its close the legislature stopped the public works. His projects for building railroads were in like manner opposed by that party.

In January, 1843, Seward retired to private life, resuming the practice of law at Auburn. He continued an active worker for his party during the period of its decline, and was a frequent speaker at political meetings. In 1843 he delivered an address before the Phi Beta Kappa society at Union college on the “Elements of Empire in America.” He entered largely into the practice of patent law, and in criminal cases his services were in constant demand. Frequently he not only defended accused persons gratuitously, but gave pecuniary assistance to his clients. Among his most masterly forensic efforts were an argument for freedom of the press in a libel suit brought by J. Fenimore Cooper against Horace Greeley in 1845, and the defence of John Van Zandt, in 1847, against a criminal charge of aiding fugitive slaves to escape. At the risk of violence, and with a certainty of opprobrium, he defended the demented negro Freeman, who had committed a revolting murder, emboldened, many supposed, by Seward's eloquent presentation of the doctrine of moral insanity in another case. In September, 1847, Seward delivered a eulogy on Daniel O'Connell before the Irish citizens of New York, and in 1848 a eulogy on John Quincy Adams before the New York legislature. He took an active part in the presidential canvass, and in a speech at Cleveland described the conflict between freedom and slavery, saying of the latter: “It must be abolished, and you and I must do it.”

In February, 1849, Seward was elected U. S. senator. His proposal, while governor, to extend suffrage to the negroes of New York, and many public utterances, placed him in the position of the foremost opponent of slavery within the Whig party. President Taylor selected Seward as his most intimate counsellor among the senators, and the latter declined to be placed on any important committee, lest his pronounced views should compromise the administration. In a speech delivered on 11 March, 1850, in favor of the admission of California, he spoke of the exclusion of slavery as determined by “the higher law,” a phrase that was denounced as treasonable by the southern Democrats. On 2 July, 1850, he delivered a great speech on the compromise bill. He supported the French spoliation bill, and in February, 1851, advocated the principles that were afterward embodied in the homestead law. His speeches covered a wide ground, ranging from a practical and statistical analysis of the questions affecting steam navigation, deep-sea exploration, the American fisheries, the duty on rails, and the Texas debt, to flights of passionate eloquence in favor of extending sympathy to the exiled Irish patriots, and moral support to struggles for liberty, like the Hungarian revolution, which he reviewed in a speech on “Freedom in Europe,” delivered in March, 1852. After the death of Zachary Taylor many Whig senators and representatives accepted the pro-slavery policy of President Fillmore, but Seward resisted it with all his energy. He approved the nomination of Winfield Scott for the presidency in 1852, but would not sanction the platform, which upheld the compromise of 1850. In 1853 he delivered an address at Columbus, Ohio, on '”The Destiny of America,” and one in New York city on “The True Basis of American Independence.” In 1854 he made an oration on “The Physical, Moral, and Intellectual Development of the American People” before the literary societies of Yale college, which gave him the degree of LL. D. His speeches on the repeal of the Missouri compromise and on the admission of Kansas made a profound impression. He was re-elected to the senate in 1855, in spite of the vigorous opposition of both the Native American party and the Whigs of southern sympathies. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he zealously supported John C. Frémont, the Republican candidate. In 1857 he journeyed through Canada, and made a voyage to Labrador in a fishing-schooner, the “Log” of which was afterward published. In a speech at Rochester, N. Y., in October, 1858, he alluded to the “irrepressible conflict,” which could only terminate in the United States becoming either entirely a slave-holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation. He travelled in Europe, Egypt, and Palestine in 1859.

In 1860, as in 1856, Seward's pre-emiment position in the Republican party made him the most conspicuous candidate for the presidential nomination. He received 173½ votes in the first ballot at the convention, against 102 given to Abraham Lincoln, who was eventually nominated, and in whose behalf he actively canvassed the western states. Lincoln appointed him secretary of state, and before leaving the senate to enter on the duties of this office he made a speech in which he disappointed some of his party by advising patience and moderation in debate, and harmony of action for the sake of maintaining the Union. He cherished hopes of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and, while declining in March, 1861, to enter into negotiations with commissioners of the Confederate government, he was in favor of evacuating Fort Sumter as a military necessity and politic measure, while re-enforcing Fort Pickens, and holding every other post then remaining in the hands of the National government. He issued a circular note to the ministers abroad on 9 March, 1861, deprecating foreign intervention, and another on 24 April, defining the position of the United States in regard to the rights of neutrals. Negotiations were carried on with European governments for conventions determining such rights. He protested against the unofficial intercourse between the British cabinet and agents of the Confederate states, and refused to receive despatches from the British and French governments in which they assumed the attitude of neutrals between belligerent powers. On 21 July he sent a despatch to Charles F. Adams, minister at London, defending the decision of congress to close the ports of the seceded states. When the Confederate commissioners were captured on board the British steamer “Trent” he argued that the seizure was in accordance with the British doctrine of the “right of search,” which the United States had resisted by the war of 1812. The release of these prisoners, at the demand of the British government, would now commit both governments to the maintenance of the American doctrine; so they would be “cheerfully given up.” He firmly rejected and opposed the proposal of the French emperor to unite with the English and Russian governments in mediating between the United States and the Confederate government. He made the Seward-Lyons treaty with Great Britain for the extinction of the African slave-trade. The diplomatic service was thoroughly reorganized by Sec. Seward; and by his lucid despatches and the unceasing presentation of his views and arguments, through able ministers, to the European cabinets, the respect of Europe was retained, and the efforts of the Confederates to secure recognition and support were frustrated. In the summer of 1862, the army having become greatly depleted, and public proclamation of the fact being deemed unwise, he went to the north with letters from the president and secretary of war, met and conferred with the governors of the loyal states, and arranged for their joint proffer of re-enforcements, to which the president responded by the call for 300,000 more troops. Mr. Seward firmly insisted on the right of American citizens to redress for the depredations of the “Alabama,” and with equal determination asserted the Monroe doctrine in relation to the French invasion of Mexico, but, by avoiding a provocative attitude, which might have involved his government in foreign war, was able to defer the decision of both questions till a more favorable time. Before the close of the civil war he intimated to the French government the irritation felt in the United States in regard to its armed intervention in Mexico. Many despatches on this subject were sent during 1865 and 1866, which gradually became more urgent, until the French forces were withdrawn and the Mexican empire fell. He supported President Lincoln's proclamation liberating the slaves in all localities in rebellion, and three years later announced by proclamation the abolition of slavery throughout the Union by constitutional amendment. In the spring of 1865 Mr. Seward was thrown from his carriage, and his arm and jaw were fractured. While he was confined to his couch with these injuries President Lincoln was murdered and on the same evening, 14 April, one of the conspirators gained access to the chamber of the secretary, inflicted severe wounds with a knife in his face and neck, and struck down his son, Frederick W., who came to his rescue. His recovery was slow and his sufferings were severe. He concluded a treaty with Russia for the cession of Alaska in 1867. He negotiated treaties for the purchase of the Danish West India islands and the Bay of Samana, which failed of approval by the senate, and made a treaty with Colombia to secure American control of the Isthmus of Panama, which had a similar fate. Sec. Seward sustained the reconstruction policy of President Johnson, and thereby alienated the more powerful section of the Republican party and subjected himself to bitter censure and ungenerous imputations. He opposed the impeachment of President Johnson in 1868, and supported the election of Gen. Grant in that year. He retired from office at the end of eight years of tenure in March, 1869. After a brief stay in Auburn, he journeyed across the continent to California, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska, returning through Mexico as the guest of its government and people. In August, 1870, he set out on a tour of the world, accompanied by several members of his family. He visited the principal countries of Asia, northern Africa, and Europe, being received everywhere with great honor. He studied their political institutions, their social and ethnological characteristics, and their commercial capabilities. Returning home on 9 Oct., 1871, he devoted himself to the preparation of a narrative of his journey, and after its completion to a history of his life and times, which was not half finished at the time of his death. The degree of LL. D. was given him by Union in 1866. He published, besides occasional addresses and numerous political speeches, a volume on the “Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams” (Auburn, 1849). An edition of his “Works” was published, which contains many of his earlier essays, speeches, and addresses, with a memoir by George E. Baker, reaching down to 1853 (3 vols., New York, 1853). To this a fourth volume was added in 1862, and a fifth in 1884, containing his later speeches and extracts from his diplomatic correspondence. His official correspondence during the eight years was published by order of congress. The relation of his “Travels Around the World” was edited and published by his adopted daughter, Olive Risley Seward (New York, 1873). Charles F. Adams published an “Address on the Life, Character, and Services of Seward” (Albany, 1873), which was thought by some to have extolled him at the expense of President Lincoln's fame, and elicited replies from Gideon Welles and others. Mr. Seward's “Autobiography,” which extends to 1834, has been continued to 1846 in a memoir by his son, Frederick W., with selections from his letters (New York, 1877). The vignette portrait represents Gov. Seward in early life, and the other illustration is a view of his residence at Auburn. There is a bronze statue of Mr. Seward, by Randolph Rogers, in Madison square, New York.—His son, Augustus Henry, soldier, b. in Auburn, N.Y., 1 Oct., 1826; d. in Montrose, N.Y., 11 Sept., 1876, was graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1847, served through the Mexican war as lieutenant of infantry, afterward in Indian territory till 1851, and then on the coast survey till 1859, when he joined the Utah expedition. He was made a captain on 19 Jan., 1859, and on 27 March, 1861, a major on the staff. He served as paymaster during the civil war, receiving the brevets of lieutenant-colonel and colonel at its close.—Another son, Frederick William, lawyer, b. in Auburn, N.Y., 8 July, 1830, was graduated at Union in 1849, and after he was admitted to the bar at Rochester, N. Y., in 1851, was associate editor of the Albany “Evening Journal” till 1861, when he was appointed assistant secretary of state, which office he held for the eight years that his father was secretary. In 1867 he went on a special mission to Santo Domingo. He was a member of the New York legislature in 1875, and introduced the bill to incorporate the New York elevated railroad and the amendments to the constitution providing for a reorganization of the state canal and prison systems, placing each under responsible heads, and abolishing the old boards. He was assistant secretary of state again in 1877-'81, while William M. Evarts was secretary. Union conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1878. His principal publication is the “Life and Letters” of his father (New York, 1877), of which the second volume is now (1888) in preparation. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 470-472.

 

 

SEWELL, Louisa, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, p. 50)

 

 

SEXTON, Pliny, Palyra, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1852-1864.

 

 

SEYMOUR, Aseph, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SEYS, John, Reverend, Maryland, clergyman, missionary.  Traveling agent of the Maryland State Colonization Society.  Later worked for the American Colonization Society in Ohio.  (Campbell, 1971, pp. 199, 200, 201, 204, 209)

 

 

SHADD, Abraham Doras, 1801-1882, Chester County, Pennsylvania, African American, abolitionist leader.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Member of the Underground Railroad.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 163)

 

 

SHADD-Cary, Mary Ann Camberton, 1823-1893, see Cary, Mary Ann Camberton Shadd

 

 

SHANNON, Thomas B., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

SHARP, George, Stamford, Connecticut, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-53

 

 

SHARP, George, Stratford, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-1837, 1841-1853.

 

 

SHARP, Granville, anti-slavery activist (Basker, 2005, pp. 3, 32, 55, 82, 128, 132, 170, 238, 241, 291, 295; Bruns, 1977, pp. 79, 108, 193-199, 262-267, 302-306, 310-311, 314, 325, 351, 486, 488, 491; Drake, 1950, pp. 56, 85, 91, 119, 121; Locke, 1901, pp. 52, 131, 192; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 101, 290; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 89-90)

 

 

SHARPE, Hezekiah D., New York, New York, American Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1855-59, Auditor, 1858-59

 

 

SHAW, Benjamin, Vermont, abolitionist leader, National Convention of Friends of Immediate Emancipation, Albany, New York, 1840 (Dumond, 1961, p. 297)

 

 

SHAW, Francis George, 1809-1882, humanitarian, reformer, abolitionist.  Father of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 707; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 486; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 751)

 

SHAW, Francis George, b. in Boston, Mass., 23 Oct., 1809; d. in West New Brighton, Staten island, N. Y., 7 Nov., 1882, entered Harvard in 1825, but left in 1828 to enter his father's counting-room, and engaged actively in business. In 1841, his health being impaired, he withdrew to West Roxbury, near Brook Farm, where an experiment in associative life, in which he was interested, was begun under the leadership of George Ripley. In 1847 he left West Roxbury, and, after living more than three years upon the north shore of Staten island, he went to Europe with his family. After four years he returned in 1855 to Staten island, where he resided until his death. While living at West Roxbury he was a member of the school committee and one of the overseers of the poor, a justice of the peace, and president of the first common council of Roxbury when that town became a city. He was also foreman of the jury of Norfolk county that first proposed the establishment of the State reform-school of Massachusetts. During his residence on Staten island he was a trustee of the village in which he lived, a trustee of the Seaman's retreat and of the S. R. Smith infirmary, treasurer of the American union of associationists and of the Sailor's fund, president of the Freedman's relief association and of the New York branch of the Freedman's union commission, and connected with various local organizations. He was also a hereditary member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Possessed of an ample fortune, he held it as a trust for the unfortunate. All good causes, the help of the poor, the ignorant, the criminal, and the enslaved, had always his ready sympathy and his hearty support. He was the author of several translations from George Sand, Fourier, and Zschokke. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 486. 

 

 

SHAW, Robert Gould, 1837-1863, abolitionist, Colonel, 54th Massachusetts Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops, killed in action.  Sone of Francis George Shaw.  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 67, 144; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 486; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 751)

 

SHAW, Robert Gould, soldier, b. in Boston, 10 Oct., 1837; d. at Fort Wagner, S. C., 18 July, 1863, entered Harvard in 1856, but left in March, 1859. He enlisted as a private in the 7th New York regiment on 19 April, 1861, became 2d lieutenant in the 2d Massachusetts on 28 May, and 1st lieutenant on 8 July. He was promoted to captain, 10 Aug., 1862, and on 17 April, 1863, became colonel of the 54th Massachusetts, the first regiment of colored troops from a free state that was mustered into the U. S. service. He was killed in the assault on Fort Wagner while leading the advance with his regiment. A bust of him has been made by Edmonia Lewis, the colored sculptor, a portrait by William Page is in Memorial hall at Harvard, and it is proposed to place a memorial of him, consisting of an equestrian figure in high relief, on the front wall of the state-house yard in Boston. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 486.

 

 

SHAW, William Smith, 1778-1826, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.  Wrote in his historic decision, Commonwealth v. Aves (1836) regarding slavery in Massachusetts:  “How, or by what act particularly, slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, whether by the adoption of the opinion in Sommersett’s case, as a declaration and modification of the common law, or by the Declaration of Independence, or by the Constitution of 1780, it is not now very easy to determine, and it is rather a matter of curiosity than utility; being agreed on all hands, that if not abolished before, it was so by the declaration of rights.” (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 487; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 49)

 

 

SHEDD, James A., Iowa, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1854-1857.

 

 

SHEPARD, Charles O., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SHEPARD, George B., Hallowell, Maine, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, 1838-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

SHEPPARD, Moses, 1771-1857, Baltimore, Maryland, businessman, philanthropist.  American Friends (Quaker).  Member of the Protective Society of Maryland to protect free African Americans.  The American Anti-Slavery Society.  Society of Friends Indian Affairs Committee.  Lobbied Maryland General Assembly to block legislation to keep free Blacks out of the state.  Sheppard was a Manager of the American Colonization Society (ACS), 1833-1834.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 496-497; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961_

 

 

SHERATT, W. R., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

SHERMAN, Henry, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SHERMAN, Jarvis, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SHERMAN, John, 1823-1900, statesman.  Whig U.S. Congressman, 1855.  Republican U.S. Senator.  Brother of General William T. Sherman.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Brother of Union commander, General William T. Sherman.  (Appletons’, 1888, pp. 506-508; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 84; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 813; Congressional Globe)

 

SHERMAN, John, statesman, b. in Lancaster, Ohio, 10 May, 1823, after the death of their father in 1829, leaving the large family with but limited means, the boy was cared for by a cousin named John Sherman, residing in Mount Vernon, where he was sent to school. At the age of twelve he returned to Lancaster and entered the academy to prepare himself for college. In two years he was sufficiently advanced to enter the sophomore class, but a desire to be self-supporting led to his becoming junior rodman in the corps of engineers engaged on the Muskingum. He was placed in charge of the section of that work in Beverly early in 1838, and so continued until the summer of 1839, when he was removed because he was a Whig. The responsibilities attending the measurements of excavations and embankments, and the levelling for a lock to a canal, proved a better education than could have been procured elsewhere in the same time. He began the study of law in the office of his brother Charles, and in 1844 was admitted to the bar. He formed a partnership with his brother in Mansfield, and continued with him until his entrance into congress, during which time his ability and industry gained for him both distinction and pecuniary success.

Meanwhile, in 1848, he was sent as a delegate to the Whig convention, held in Philadelphia, that nominated Zachary Taylor for the presidency, and in 1852 he was a delegate to the Baltimore convention that nominated Winfield Scott. His attitude as a conservative Whig, in the alarm and excitement that followed the attempt to repeal the Missouri compromise, secured his election to the 34th congress, and he took his seat on 3 Dec., 1855. He is a ready and forcible speaker, and his thorough acquaintance with public affairs made him an acknowledged power in the house from the first. He grew rapidly in reputation as a debater on all the great questions agitating the public mind during that eventful period: the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the Dred-Scott decision, the imposition of slavery upon Kansas, the fugitive-slave law, the national finances, and other measures involving the very existence of the republic. His appointment by the speaker, Nathaniel P. Banks, as a member of the committee to inquire into and collect evidence in regard to the border-ruffian troubles in Kansas was an important event in his career. Owing to the illness of the chairman, William A. Howard, of Michigan, the duty of preparing the report devolved upon Mr. Sherman. Every statement was verified by the clearest testimony, and has never been controverted by any one. This report, when presented to the house, created a great deal of feeling, and intensified the antagonisms in congress, being made the basis of the canvass of 1856. He acted with the Republican party in supporting John C. Frémont for the presidency because that party resisted the extension of slavery, but did not seek its abolition. In the debate on the submarine telegraph he showed his opposition to monopolists by saying: “I cannot agree that our government should be bound by any contract with any private incorporated company for fifty years; and the amendment I desire to offer will reserve the power to congress to determine the proposed contract after ten years.” All bills making appropriations for public expenditures were closely scrutinized, and the then prevalent system of making contracts in advance of appropriations was denounced by him as illegal. At the close of his second congressional term he was recognized as the foremost man in the house of representatives. He had from deep and unchanged conviction adopted the political faith of the Republican party, but without any partisan rancor or malignity toward the south.

He was re-elected to the 36th congress, which began its first session amid the excitement caused by the bold raid of John Brown. In 1859 he was the Republican candidate for the speakership. He had subscribed, with no knowledge of the book, for Hinton R. Helper's “Impending Crisis,” and this fact was brought up against him and estranged from him a few of the southern Whigs, who besought him to declare that he was not hostile to slavery. He refused, and after eight weeks of balloting, in which he came within three votes of election, he yielded to William Pennington, who was chosen. Mr. Sherman was then made chairman of the committee of ways and means. He took a decided stand against ingrafting new legislation upon appropriation bills, saying: “The theory of appropriation bills is, that they shall provide money to carry on the government, to execute existing laws, and not to change existing laws or provide new ones.” In 1860 he was again elected to congress, and, when that body convened in December, the seceding members of both houses were outspoken and defiant. At the beginning of President Buchanan's administration the public indebtedness was less than $20,000,000, but by this time it had been increased to nearly $100,000,000, and in such a crippled condition were its finances that the government had not been able to pay the salaries of members of congress and many other demands. Mr. Sherman proved equal to the occasion in providing the means for the future support of the government. His first step was to secure the passage of a bill authorizing the issue of what are known as the treasury-notes of 1860.

On the resignation of Salmon P. Chase, he was elected to his place in the senate, and took his seat on 4 March, 1861. He was re-elected senator in 1867 and in 1873. During most of his senatorial career he was chairman of the committee on finance, and served also on the committees on agriculture, the Pacific railroad, the judiciary, and the patent office. After the fall of Fort Sumter, under the call of President Lincoln for 75,000 troops he tendered his services to Gen. Robert Patterson, was appointed aide-de-camp without pay, and remained with the Ohio regiments till the meeting of congress in July. After the close of this extra session he returned to Ohio, and received authority from Gov. William Denison to raise a brigade. Largely at his own expense, he recruited two regiments of infantry, a squadron of cavalry, and a battery of artillery, comprising over 2,300 men. This force served during the whole war, and was known as the “Sherman brigade.” The most valuable services rendered by him to the Union cause were his efforts in the senate to maintain and strengthen the public credit, and to provide for the support of the armies in the field. On the suspension of specie payments, about the first of January, 1862, the issue of United States notes became a necessity. The question of making them a legal tender was not at first received with favor. Mainly through the efforts of Senator Sherman and Sec. Chase, this feature of the bill authorizing their issue was carried through congress. They justified the legal-tender clause of the bill on the ground of necessity. In the debates on this question Mr. Sherman said: “I do believe there is a pressing necessity that these demand-notes should be made legal tender, if we want to avoid the evils of a depreciated and dishonored paper currency. I do believe we have the constitutional power to pass such a provision, and that the public safety now demands its exercise.” The records of the debate show that he made the only speech in the senate-in favor of the national-bank bill. Its final passage was secured only by the personal appeals of Sec. Chase to the senators who opposed it. Mr. Sherman's speeches on state and national banks are the most important that he made during the war. He introduced a refunding act in 1867, which was adopted in 1870, but without the resumption clause. In 1874 a committee of nine, of which he was chairman, was appointed by a Republican caucus to secure a concurrence of action. They agreed upon a bill fixing the time for the resumption of specie payment at 1 Jan., 1879. This bill was reported to the caucus and the senate with the distinct understanding that there should be no debate on the side of the Republicans, and that Mr. Sherman should be left to manage it according to his own discretion. The bill was passed, leaving its execution dependent upon the will of the secretary of the treasury for the time being.

Mr. Sherman was an active supporter of Rutherford B. Hayes for the presidency in 1876, was a member of the committee that visited Louisiana to witness the counting of the returns of that state. He was appointed secretary of the treasury by President Hayes in March, 1877, and immediately set about providing a redemption fund by means of loans. Six months before 1 Jan., 1879, the date fixed by law for redemption of specie payments, he had accumulated $140,000,000 in gold, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the legal-tender notes gradually approach gold in value until, when the day came, there was practically no demand for gold in exchange for the notes. In 1880 Mr. Sherman was an avowed candidate for the presidential nomination, and his name was presented in the National convention by James A. Garfield. During the contest between the supporters of Gen. Grant and those of James G. Blaine, which resulted in Mr. Garfield's nomination, Mr. Sherman's vote ranged from 90 to 97. He returned to the senate in 1881, and on the expiration of his term in 1887 was re-elected to serve until 1893. At present (1888) he is chairman of the committee on foreign relations, and is an active member of the committees on expenditures of public money, finance, and rules. In December, 1885, he was chosen president of the senate pro tem., but he declined re-election at the close of his senatorial term in 1887. His name was presented by Joseph B. Foraker in nomination for the presidency at the National convention held in 1884, but the Ohio delegation was divided between him and James G. Blaine, so that he received only 30 votes from this state. Again in 1888 his name was presented by Daniel H. Hastings, in behalf of the Pennsylvania delegation at the National convention, and on the first ballot he received 229 votes and on the second 249, being the leading candidate, and continued so until Benjam Harrison received the support of those whose names were with drawn. Mr. Sherman has published “Selected Speeches and Reports on Finance and...

 

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 506-508.

 

 

SHERMAN, Roger, 1721-1793, founding father, opponent of slavery. Signer of the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.  Sherman opposed a tax on slaves because it would imply that they were property and not human beings.  (Bruns, 1977, pp. 394, 522-523; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 97; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 123, 124; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 501-502; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 88; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002)

 

SHERMAN, Roger, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Newton, Mass., 19 April, 1721; d. in New Haven, Conn., 23 July, 1793. His great-grandfather, Capt. John Sherman, came from England to Watertown, Mass., about 1635. His grandfather and father were farmers in moderate circumstances. In 1723 the family removed to Stonington, Mass., where he spent his boyhood and youth. He had no formal education except that which was obtained in the ordinary country schools, but by his own unaided exertions he acquired respectable attainments in various branches of learning, especially mathematics, law, and politics. He was early apprenticed to a shoemaker, and continued in that occupation until he was twenty-two years of age. It is said that while at work on his bench he was accustomed to have before him an open book, so that he could devote every spare minute to study. At the age of nineteen he lost his father, and the principal care and support of a large family thus devolved upon him, with the charge of a small farm. In 1743 he removed with his family to New Milford, Conn., performing the journey on foot, and taking his shoemaker's tools with him. Here, in partnership with his brother, he engaged in mercantile business. In 1745 he was appointed surveyor of lands for the county in which he resided, a post for which his early attention to mathematics qualified him. Not long afterward he furnished the astronomical calculations for an almanac that was published in New York, and he continued this service for several years. Meanwhile, encouraged to this step by a judicious friend, he was devoting his leisure hours to the study of the law, and made such progress that he was admitted to the bar in 1754. In 1755 he was elected a representative of New Milford in the general assembly of Connecticut, and the same year he was appointed a justice of the peace. In 1759 he was made one of the judges of common pleas in Litchfield county. Two years later he removed to New Haven, where the same appointments were given him. In addition to this, he became treasurer of Yale college, from which, in 1765, he received the honorary degree of M. A. In 1766 he was appointed judge of the superior court of Connecticut, and in the same year was chosen a member of the upper house of the legislature. In the former office he continued twenty-three years; in the latter, nineteen. When the Revolutionary struggle began Roger Sherman devoted himself unreservedly to the patriot cause. In such a crisis he was obliged to be a leader. In August, 1774, he was elected a delegate to the Continental congress, and was present at its opening on 5 Sept. following. Of this body he was one of the most active members. Without showing gifts of popular speech, he commanded respect for his knowledge, judgment, integrity, and devotion to duty. He served on many important committees, but the most decisive proof of the high esteem in which he was held is given in the fact that, with Adams, Franklin. Jefferson, and Livingston, he was appointed to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Independence, to which document he subsequently affixed his signature. Though a member of congress, he was at the same time in active service on the Connecticut committee of safety. In 1783 he was associated with Judge Richard Law in revising the statutes of the state, and in 1784 he was elected mayor of New Haven, which office he continued to hold until his death. He was chosen, in conjunction with Dr. Samuel Johnson and Oliver Ellsworth, a delegate to the convention of 1787 that was charged with the duty of framing a constitution for the United States. Documentary proof exists that quite a number of the propositions that he offered were incorporated in that instrument. In the debates of the Constitutional convention he bore a conspicuous part. He was also a member of the State convention of Connecticut that ratified the constitution, and was very influential in securing that result. A series of papers that he wrote under the signature of “Citizen” powerfully contributed to the same end. Immediately after the ratification of the constitution he was made a representative of Connecticut in congress, and took an active part in the discussions of that body. In February, 1790, the Quakers having presented an address to the house on the subject of “the licentious wickedness of the African trade for slaves,” Mr. Sherman supported its reference to a committee, and was successful in his efforts, though he was strongly opposed. He was promoted in 1791 to the senate, and died while holding this office. The career of Roger Sherman most happily illustrates the possibilities of American citizenship. Beginning life under the heaviest disadvantages, he rose to a career of ever-increasing usefulness, honor, and success. He was never removed from an office except by promotion or because of some legislative restriction. Thomas Jefferson spoke of him as “a man who never said a foolish thing”; and Nathaniel Macon declared that “he had more common sense than any man I have ever known.” In early life he united with the Congregational church in Stonington, and through his long career he remained a devout and practical Christian. Mr. Sherman was twice married, and among his descendants are Senators William M. Evarts and George F. Hoar. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 501-502.

 

 

SHIELDS, Thomas, abolitionist leader, Acting Committee, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, p. 92; Bruns, 1977, p. 515)

 

 

SHIPLEY, Judith, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, p. 61)

 

 

SHIPLEY, Simon B., Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1840-1844.

 

 

SHIPLEY, Simon G., , Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-40

 

 

SHIPLEY, Thomas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Member of the Free Produce Society of Pennsylvania. (Drake, 1950, pp. 118, 130, 140; Mabee, 1970, pp. 24, 30, 275, 278; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

SHOEMAKER, Jacob, Jr., abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Bruns, 1977, p. 515; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

SHORT, William, 1759-1849, Pennsylvania, diplomat, American Friends (Quaker), anti-slavery activist.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1840-41.  Supported the ACS with a $10,000 bequest.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 516; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 128; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 126, 243)

 

SHORT, William, diplomatist, b. in Spring Garden, Va., 30 Sept., 1759; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 5 Dec., 1849. He was educated at William and Mary college, and at an early age was chosen a member of the executive council of Virginia. When Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France in 1785, Short accompanied him as secretary of legation, and after his departure was made charge d’affaires on 26 Sept., 1789, his commission being the first one that was signed by Gen. Washington as president, but he was not regularly commissioned till 20 April, 1790. He was transferred to the Hague as minister-resident on 16 Jan., 1792. On 19 Dec. of the same year he left for Madrid, having been appointed on 18 March commissioner plenipotentiary with William Carmichael to treat with the Spanish government concerning the Florida and Mississippi boundaries, the navigation of the Mississippi, commercial privileges, and other open questions. When Carmichael, who was chargé d’affaires, left for home Short was commissioned as minister-resident, 28 May, 1794, with power, as sole commissioner, to conclude the negotiations, which resulted in the treaty of friendship, commerce, and boundaries that was signed on 27 Oct., 1795. He left for Paris three days later, and returned to the United States soon afterward. His state papers, especially those relating to the Spanish negotiations, are marked by ability and research. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

SHOTWELL, William, New York, New York, abolitionist.  American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Treasurer, 1841-46, Executive Committee, 1846-47.

 

 

SIGOURNEY, Lydia Huntley, 1791-1865, Hartford, Connecticut, author.  Outspoken supporter of colonization and supporter of the American Colonization Society.  Leader of Hartford Female African Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 525; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 155; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 127)

 

SIGOURNEY, Lydia Huntley, author, b. in Norwich, Conn., 1 Sept., 1791; d. in Hartford, Conn., 10 June, 1865. She was the daughter of Ezekiel Huntley, a soldier of the Revolution. She read at the age of three, and at seven wrote simple verses. After receiving a superior education at Norwich and Hartford, she taught for five years a select class of young ladies in the latter city. In 1815, at the suggestion and under the patronage of Daniel Wadsworth, she published her first volume, “Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.” In 1819 she became the wife of Charles Sigourney, a Hartford merchant of literary and artistic tastes. Without neglecting her domestic duties, she thenceforth devoted her leisure to literature, at first to gratify her own inclinations and subsequently, after her husband had lost the greater part of his fortune, to add to her income. She soon attained a reputation that secured for her books a ready sale. In her posthumous “Letters of Life” (1866) she enumerates forty-six distinct works, wholly or partially from her pen, besides more than 2,000 articles in prose and verse that she had contributed to nearly 300 periodicals. Several of her books also attained a wide circulation in England, and they were also much read on the continent. She received from the queen of the French a handsome diamond bracelet as a token of that sovereign's esteem. Her poetry is not of the highest order. It portrays in graceful and often felicitous language the emotions and sympathies of the heart, rather than the higher conceptions of the intellect. Her prose is graceful and elegant, and is modelled to a great extent on that of Addison and the Aikins, who, in her youth, were regarded as the standards of polite literature. All her writings were penned in the interest of a pure morality, and many of them were decidedly religious. Perhaps no American writer has been more frequently called upon for gratuitous occasional poems of all kinds. To these requests she generally acceded, and often greatly to her own inconvenience. But it was not only through her literary labors that Mrs. Sigourney became known. Her whole life was one of active and earnest philanthropy. The poor, the sick, the deaf-mute, the blind, the idiot, the slave, and the convict were the objects of her constant care and benefaction. Her pensioners were numerous, and not one of them was ever forgotten. During her early married life, she economized in her own wardrobe and personal luxuries that she might be able to relieve the needy, while later in her career she saved all that was not absolutely needed for home comforts and expenses for the same purpose. Her character and worth were highly appreciated in the city that for more than fifty years was her home. She never left it after her marriage, except when in 1840 she visited Europe, a record of which journey she published in “Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands” (Boston, 1842). During her residence abroad two volumes of her poems were issued in London. Besides the foregoing and an edition of poetical selections from her writings, illustrated by Felix O. C. Darley (Philadelphia, 1848), her books include “Traits of the Aborigines of America,” a poem (Hartford, 1822); “Sketch of Connecticut Forty Years Since” (1824); “Letters to Young Ladies” (New York, 1833; 20th ed., 1853; at least five London eds.); “Letters to Mothers” (1838; several London eds.); “Pocahontas, and other Poems” (1841); “Scenes in My Native Land” (Boston, 1844); “Voice of Flowers” (Hartford, 1845); “Weeping Willow” (1846); “Water-Drops,” a plea for temperance (New York, 1847); “Whisper to a Bride” (Hartford, 1849); “Letters to My Pupils” (New York, 1850); “Olive Leaves” (1851; London, 1853); “The Faded Hope,” a memorial of her only son, who died at the age of nineteen (1852); “Past Meridian” (1854); “Lucy Howard's Journal” (1857); “The Daily Counsellor,” a volume of poetry (Hartford, 1858); “Gleanings,” from her poetical writings (1860); and “The Man of Uz, and other Poems” (1862).  Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

SILLIMAN, Benjamin, 1779-1864, Connecticut, educator, scientist, opponent of slavery.  Member and active supporter of the Connecticut Society of the American Colonization Society.  Supported Kansas Free State movement.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 528-529; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p 160.; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 126)

 

SILLIMAN, Benjamin, scientist, b. in North  Stratford (now Trumbull), Conn., 8 Aug., 1779;  d. in New Haven, Conn., 24 Nov., 1864, was graduated at Yale in 1796, and, after spending a year at  home, taught at Wethersfield, Conn. In 1798 be returned to New Haven, where he began the study of law with Simeon Baldwin, and in 1799 was appointed tutor at Yale, which place he held until he was admitted to the bar in 1802.  Natural science was at that time beginning to attract the attention of educators, and, at the solicitation of President Dwight, he abandoned the profession of law and devoted himself to science. In September, 1802, he was chosen professor of chemistry and natural history at Yale, with permission to qualify himself for teaching these branches. Procuring a list of books from Prof. John MacLean (q. v.), of Princeton, he proceeded to Philadelphia, where, during two winters, he studied chemistry under Prof. James Woodhouse, then professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1804 he delivered a partial course of lectures on chemistry, and during the following year he gave a complete course. He went abroad in March, 1805, to procure scientific books and apparatus, and spent about a year in study in Edinburgh and London, also visiting the continent and making the acquaintance of distinguished men of science. On his return he devoted himself to the duties of his chair, which included chemistry, mineralogy, and geology, until 1853, when he was made professor emeritus, but, at the special request of his colleagues, continued his lectures on geology until 1855, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law, James D. Dana. While in Edinburgh he became interested in the discussions, then at their height, between the Wernerians and Huttonians, and attended lectures on geology; and on his return he began a study of the mineral structure of the vicinity of New Haven. About 1808 he persuaded  the corporation of Yale to purchase the cabinet of  minerals of Benjamin D. Perkins, and a few years  later he secured the loan of the magnificent collection of George Gibbs (q. v.), which in 1825 became the property of the college. His scientific work, which was extensive, began with the examination in 1807 of the meteor that fell near Weston, Conn. He procured fragments, of which he made a chemical analysis, and he wrote the earliest and best authenticated account of the fall of a meteor in America. In 1811 he began an extended course of experiments with the oxy-hydric or compound blow-pipe that was invented by Robert Hare, and he succeeded in melting many of the most refractory minerals, notably those containing alkalies and alkaline earths, the greater part of which had never been reduced before. After Sir Humphry Davy's discovery of the metallic bases of the alkalies, Prof. Silliman repeated the experiments and obtained for the first time in this country the metals sodium and potassium. In 1822, while engaged in a series of observations on the action of a powerful voltaic battery that he had made, similar to Dr. Hare's “deflagrator,” he noticed that the charcoal points of the negative pole increased in size toward the positive pole, and, on further examination, he found that there was a corresponding cavity on the point of the latter. He inferred, therefore, that an actual transfer of the matter of the charcoal points from one to another took place, and, on careful examination, he found that the charcoal had been fused. This fact of the fusion of the carbon in the voltaic arc was long disputed in Europe, but is now universally accepted. In 1830 he explored Wyoming valley and its coal-formations, examining about one hundred mines and localities of mines; in 1832-'3 he was engaged under a commission from the secretary of the treasury in a scientific examination on the subject of the culture and manufacture of sugar, and in 1836 he made a tour of investigation among the gold-mines of Virginia, His popular lectures began in 1808 in New Haven, where he delivered a course in chemistry. He delivered his first course in Hartford in 1834, and in Lowell, Mass., in the autumn of that year. During the years that followed he lectured in Salem, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis, New Orleans, and elsewhere in the United States. In 1838 he opened the Lowell institute in Boston with a course of lectures on geology, and in the three following years he lectured there on chemistry. This series was without doubt the most brilliant of the kind was ever delivered in this country, and its influence in developing an interest in the growing science was very great. Many of the present leaders in science trace their first inspiration to these popular expositions of Prof. Silliman. Through his influence in 1830 the historical paintings of Col. John Trumbull, and the building in which they were formerly deposited (now the college treasury), were procured for Yale. He opposed slavery in all its forms. Among the various colonies sent out from the eastern states during the Kansas troubles was one that was organized in New Haven, and, at a meeting held prior to its departure in April, 1856, the discovery was made that the party was unprovided with rifles. A subscription was proposed at once, and Prof. Silliman spoke in favor of it. This insignificant action was soon noised abroad, and, owing to the strong feeling between the partisans of slavery and those opposed to it, the matter was discussed in the U. S. senate. During the civil war he was a firm supporter of President Lincoln, and exerted his influence toward the abolition of slavery. The degree of M. D. was conferred on him by Bowdoin in 1818, and that of LL. D. by Middlebury in 1826. Prof. Silliman was chosen first president in 1840 of the American association of geologists and naturalists, which has since grown into the American association for the advancement of science, and he was one of the corporate members the named by congress in the formation of the National academy of sciences in 1863. Besides his connection with other societies in this country and abroad, he was corresponding member of the Geological societies of Great Britain and France. In 1818 he founded the “American Journal of Science,” which he conducted as sole editor until 1838, and as senior editor until 1846, when he transferred the journal to his son and to James D. Dana. This journal is now the oldest scientific paper in the United States. Prof. Silliman edited three editions of William Henry's “Elements of Chemistry” (Boston, 1808-'14), also three editions of Robert Bakewell's “Introduction to Geology” (New Haven, 1829, 1833, and 1839), and was the author of “Journals of Travels in England, Holland, and Scotland” (New York, 1810); “A Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec in the Autumn of 1819” (1820); “Elements of Chemistry in the Order of Lectures given in Yale College” (2 vols., New Haven, 1830-'1); “Consistency of Discoveries of Modern Geology with the Sacred History of the Creation and Deluge” (London, 1837); and “Narrative of a Visit to Europe in 1851” (2 vols., 1853). He was called by Edward Everett the “Nestor of American Science.” Prof. Silliman was married twice. His first wife was Harriet Trumbull, the daughter of the second Gov. Jonathan Trumbull. One of his daughters married Prof. Oliver P. Hubbard, and another Prof. James D. Dana. A bronze statue of Prof. Silliman was erected on the Yale grounds in front of Farnam college in 1884. See “Life of Benjamin Silliman,” by George P. Fisher (2 vols., New York, 1866). Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

SIMMONS, Anthony, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1841-1841.

 

 

SIMMONS, George Frederick, 1814-1855, Unitarian clergyman, active opponent of slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 532)

 

SIMMONS, George Frederick, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 24 March, 1814; d. in Concord, Mass., 5 Sept., 1855. He was graduated at Harvard in 1832, and, after being employed as a private tutor, prepared for the ministry at Cambridge divinity-school, where he completed his course in 1838. He was ordained the same year as an evangelist of the Unitarian denomination, and at once went to Mobile, Ala., where he began his ministry. Owing to his decided opposition to slavery, he remained there only until 1840, when he was obliged to fly for his life, and barely escaped the fury of a mob. In November, 1841, he was ordained pastor of the Unitarian church at Waltham, Mass. Meantime he had become deeply interested in certain theological questions which he felt he could not solve while engaged in pastoral work, and so resigned in the spring of 1843 and sailed for Europe, where he remained until October, 1845, spending most of the time at the University of Berlin, and being brought much in contact with the German historian, Neander. In Febrnary, 1848, he was called to Springfield, Mass., as the successor of Dr. William B. O. Peabody. Here, while he was greatly admired by part of his congregation, others regarded him with less favor, and in 1851 he was compelled to resign, after preaching two sermons on a riotous assault that had been made in the town on George Thompson, the English anti-slavery apostle. In January, 1854, he was installed pastor of a church at Albany, N. Y., but in the summer of 1855 he was attacked by typhus fever, from the effects of which he never rallied. Mr. Simmons was distinguished by an acutely philosophical mind, a strong sense of right, and a thoughtful and reverent spirit. “I knew him well,” said his classmate, Samuel Osgood, “loved him much, and respected him even more.” He was retiring in his habits, and his somewhat unsocial nature was no doubt an obstacle in the way of his exercising a proper influence on his flock. He published “Who was Jesus Christ?” a tract (Boston, 1839); “Two Sermons on the Kind Treatment and on the Emancipation of Slaves, preached at Mobile, with a Prefatory Statement” (1840); “A Letter to the So-Called ‘Boston Churches’” (1846); “The Trinity,” a lecture (1849); “Public Spirit and Mobs,” two sermons delivered at Springfield on the Sunday after the Thompson riot (1851); and “Faith in Christ the Condition of Salvation” (1854). Six of his sermons were published in one volume soon after his death (Boston, 1855). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 532.

 

 

SIMMONS, William, charter member of the American Colonization society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

SIMS, James, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SINGLETON, Benjamin “Pap,” 1809-1900, African American, escaped slave, abolitionist, businessman, community leader.  Active in the Underground Railroad.  Singleton organized migration of Black colonists, called “Exodusters,” to found settlements in Kansas in 1879-1880.  (Entz, Gary R. “Benjamin ‘Pap’ Singleton: Father of the Kansas Exodus.” In Portraits of African-American Life Since 1865, ed. By Nina Mjagkij. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2003.  Entz, Gary R. “Image and Reality on the Kansas Prairie: ‘Pap’ Singleton’s Cherokee County Colony.” Kansas History, 19 (summer 1996): 124-139.

 

 

SIPKINS, Henry, 1788-1838, African American, writer, orator, community activist.  Wrote pamphlet, “An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade,” in 1809.  (Basker, 2005, pp. xii-xiii, 276-295)

 

 

SISSON, Joseph, Jr., Pawtucket, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842, 1846-1847.

 

 

SKINNER, judge, former Governor.  Organized and headed local auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 132)

 

 

SLADE, William, 1786-1859.  Governor of Vermont.  U.S. Congressman from Vermont (Whig party).  Submitted numerous anti-slavery petitions to Congress, December 1837.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 243-245, 295; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 547; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 203)

 

SLADE, William, governor of Vermont, b. in Cornwall, Vt., 9 May, 1786; d. in Middlebury, Vt., 18 Jan., 1859. He was graduated at Middlebury college in 1807, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1810, and began practice at Middlebury. He was a presidential elector in 1812, and in 1814-' 15 published and edited the “Columbian Patriot” in connection with bookselling and job-printing, but was not successful. In 1815 he was elected secretary of state, which office he held eight years, and in 1816-'22 he was judge of the Addison county court. He was afterward state's attorney for the same county. Mr. Slade was clerk in the state department at Washington from 1823 till 1829, when he resumed the practice of law in Middlebury. He was a member of congress in 1831-'43, in 1844 was reporter of the supreme court of Vermont, and in 1844-'6 served as governor of that state. In 1846-'56 he was secretary of the National board of popular education. He published “Vermont State Papers” (Middlebury, 1823); “The Laws of Vermont to 1824” (Windsor, 1825); Reports of the Supreme Court of Vermont, Vol. XV.” (Burlington, 1844); and pamphlets and congressional speeches. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 547.  

 

 

SLATON, James, Vermont, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-49.

 

 

SLEEPER, Reuben, Mount Morris, New York, abolitionist leader.  Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1839-1840.  (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SLOAN(E), William, Harrison County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-38

 

 

SLOAN, Ithamar C., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

SLOANE, James Renwick Wilson, 1833-1886, clergyman, educator.  President of Richmond College, Ohio, and Geneva College, Ohio.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 550)

 

SLOANE, James Renwick Wilson, educator, b. in Topsham, Orange co., Vt., 29 May, 1833; d. in Alleghany City, Pa., 6 March, 1886. He was graduated at Jefferson college, Canonsburg, Pa., in 1847, and studied theology at the Reformed Presbyterian seminary in northwestern Ohio, where he was graduated in 1853. In 1854 he became pastor at Rushsylvania, Ohio; and in 1856-'68 he held a charge in New York city. He was president of Richmond college, Ohio, in 1848-'50, of Geneva college, in the same state, in 1851-'6, and professor of systematic theology and homiletics in Alleghany theological seminary from 1868 till his death. He was also pastor of the 1st Reformed Presbyterian church in Alleghany. He published numerous sermons and literary addresses. See his “Life and Work,” edited by his son, William (New York, 1888). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 550.    

 

 

SLOANE, James, Member of Congress from New Jersey, opposed slavery as Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 145f, 149, 152f; Annals of Congress)

 

 

SLOANE, Richard Rush, b. 1828, lawyer, jurist, opponent of slavery.  Helped in escape of slaves.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 550)

 

SLOANE, Rush Richard, lawyer, b. in Sandusky, Erie co., Ohio; 18 Sept., 1828. He was educated at Wesleyan academy, Norwalk, Ohio, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was city clerk of Sandusky, Ohio, in 1855-'7, was electecl judge of the probate court for Erie county in 1857, and re-elected in 1860, was appointed by President Lincoln to the general agency of the post-office department, serving from 1861 till 1866, and was mayor of Sandusky in 1870, 1880, and 1881. Mr. Sloane was an ardent anti-slavery man, and was instrumental in the escape of seven slaves in Sandusky, on 20 Oct., 1850, where they had been arrested by their masters. He was prosecuted, and paid over $4,000 damages and costs, being the first victim of the fugitive-slave law of 1850. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 550.

 

 

SLOCUM, Henry Warner, 1827-1894, New York, lawyer, entrepreneur, Major General, United States Army, Commander, Twelfth, Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps, Sherman’s Army of Georgia, 1864-1865.  Slocum was an abolitionist before the Civil War.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 551-552; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 216; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 104; Cullum, 1891; U.S. Congress, Biographical Directory of The United States Congress, 1774–2005. Washington, DC: GPO, 2005; U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, DC: GPO, 1881-1901. Series 1; Warner, 1964)

 

SLOCUM, Henry Warner, soldier, b. in Delphi, Onondaga co., N. Y., 24 Sept., 1827. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1852, appointed 2d lieutenant in the 1st artillery, and ordered to Florida the same year. He was promoted 1st lieutenant in 1855, but resigned in October, 1856, and, returning to New York, engaged in the practice of law at Syracuse, and was a member of the legislature in 1859. At the opening of the civil war he tendered his services, and on 21 May, 1861, was appointed colonel of the 27th New York volunteers. He commanded this regiment at the battle of Bull Run on 21 July, where he was severely wounded, on 9 Aug. was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and was assigned to the command of a brigade in Gen. William B. Franklin's division of the Army of the Potomac. In the Virginia peninsula campaign of 1862 he was engaged in the siege of Yorktown and the action at West Point, Va., and succeeded to the command of the division on 15 May, on Franklin's assignment to the 6th corps. At the battle of Gaines's Mills, 27 June, he was sent with his division to re-enforce Gen. Fitz-John Porter, who was then severely pressed by the enemy, and rendered important service, as he did also at the battles of Glendale and Malvern Hill, his division occupying the right of the main line at both engagements. He was promoted to the rank of major-general of volunteers, 4 July, 1862, engaged in the second battle of Bull Run, at South Mountain, and at Antietam, and in October was assigned to the command of the 12th army corps. In the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg he took an active part. At Gettysburg he commanded the right wing of the army, and contributed largely to the National victory. Having been transferred with his corps to the west, he served in the Department of the Cumberland till April, 1864, when, his corps being consolidated with the 11th, he was assigned to a division and the command of the district of Vicksburg. In August, 1864, he succeeded Gen. Joseph Hooker in the command of the 20th corps, which was the first body of troops to occupy Atlanta, Ga., on 2 Sept. In Sherman's march to the sea and invasion of the Carolinas, he held command of the left wing of the army, and participated in all its engagements from the departure from Atlanta till the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Durham station, N. C. In September, 1865, Gen. Slocum resigned from the army and resumed the practice of law in Brooklyn, N. Y. In 1866 he declined the appointment of colonel of infantry in the regular army. In 1865 he was the unsuccessful candidate of the Democrats for secretary of state of New York, in 1868 he was chosen a presidential elector, and he was elected to congress the same year, and reelected in 1870. In 1876 he was elected president of the board of city works, Brooklyn, which post he afterward resigned, and in 1884 he was again elected to congress. He was one of the commissioners of the Brooklyn bridge, and was in favor of making it free to the public.”  Source: Wilson, James Grant, & Fiske, John (Eds.). Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York: Appleton, 1888, 1915.

 

 

SMART, Hugh, Greenville, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

SMILIE, John, 1741-1812, soldier.  Democratic Member of U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania, opposed slavery in U.S. Congress.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 554; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 151, 153; Mason, 2006, p. 144; Annals of Congress)

 

SMILIE, John, member of congress, b. in Ireland in 1741; d. in Washington, D. C., 30 Dec., 1812. He came to Pennsylvania in 1760, settled in Lancaster county, and served during the war of the Revolution in both military and civil capacities. He was a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania, served in congress, as a Democrat, in 1793-'5 and in 1799-1813, and was chairman of the committee on foreign relations. He was a presidential elector in 1796. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 554.   

 

 

SMITH, Emma, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, p. 61)

 

 

SMITH, Ezra C., New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1845.

 

 

SMITH, Franklin Webster, 1826-1911, Boston, Massachusetts, businessman, anti-slavery.  Early member of the Republican Party.  Supported election of Abraham Lincoln.

 

 

SMITH, George H., Salem, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-38

 

 

SMITH, George, 1747-1820, born in Virginia, clergyman, anti-slavery activist in Kentucky. Baptist minister. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 90-91; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 427)

 

 

SMITH, Gerrit, 1797-1874, Peterboro, New York, large landowner, reformer, philanthropist, radical abolitionist.  Supporter of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Served as a Vice President of the ACS, 1833-1836.  Also supported the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Served as a Vice President of the AASS, 1836-1840, 1840-1841.  Vice President of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840.  Active in the Underground Railroad.  Member of the Liberty Party.  Member of the Pennsylvania Free Produce Association.  Secretly supported radical abolitionist John Brown.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 19, 20, 25, 26, 32-36, 50, 53, 54, 68, 101, 102, 105, 112, 132, 170; Dumond, 1961, pp. 200, 221, 231, 295, 301, 339, 352; Filler, 1960; Friedman, 1982; Frothingham, 1876; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 37, 47, 55, 56, 71, 72, 104, 106, 131, 135, 150, 154, 156, 187-189, 195, 202, 204, 219, 220, 226, 227, 237, 239, 246, 252, 253, 258, 307, 308, 315, 320, 321, 327, 342, 346; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 5, 8, 13, 16, 22, 29, 31, 36, 112, 117-121, 137, 163, 167, 199, 224-225, 243; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 46, 50, 51, 56, 138, 163, 206, 207, 327, 338, 452-454; Sernett, 2002, pp. 22, 36, 49-55, 122-126, 129-132, 143-146, 169, 171, 173-174, 205-206, 208-217, 219-230; Sorin, 1971, pp. 25-38, 47, 49, 52, 66, 95, 96, 102, 126, 130; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 128, 129, 165, 189-190, 201, 213, 221, 224, 225, 230-231; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 583-584; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 270; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 322-323; Harlow, Ralph Volney. Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer. New York: Holt, 1939.)

 

SMITH, Gerrit, philanthropist, b. in Utica, N. Y., 6 March, 1797; d. in New York city, 28 Dec., 1874, was graduated at Hamilton college in 1818, and devoted himself to the care of his father's estate, a large part of which was given to him when he attained his majority. At the age of fifty-six he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was elected to congress as an independent candidate in 1852, but resigned after serving through one session. During his boyhood slavery still existed in the state of New York, and his father was a slave-holder. One of the earliest forms of the philanthropy that marked his long life appeared in his opposition to the institution of slavery, and his friendship for the oppressed race. He acted for ten years with the American colonization society, contributing largely to its funds, until he became convinced that it was merely a scheme of the slave-holders for getting the free colored people out of the country. Thenceforth he gave his support to the Anti-slavery society, not only writing for the cause and contributing money, but taking part in conventions, and personally assisting fugitives. He was temperate in all the discussion, holding that the north was a partner in the guilt, and in the event of emancipation without war should bear a portion of the expense; but the attempt to force slavery upon Kansas convinced him that the day for peaceful emancipation was past, and he then advocated whatever measure of force might be necessary. He gave large sums of money to send free-soil settlers to Kansas, and was a personal friend of John Brown, to whom he had given a farm in Essex county, N.Y., that he might instruct a colony of colored people, to whom Mr. Smith had given farms in the same neighborhood. He was supposed to be implicated in the Harper's Ferry affair, but it was shown that he had only given pecuniary aid to Brown as he had to scores of other men, and so far as he knew Brown's plans had tried to dissuade him from them. Mr. Smith was deeply interested in the cause of temperance, and organized an anti-dramshop party in February, 1842. In the village of Peterboro, Madison co., where he had his home, he built a good hotel, and gave it rent-free to a tenant who agreed that no liquor should be sold there. This is believed to have been the first temperance hotel ever established. But it was not pecuniarily successful. He had been nominated for president by an industrial congress at Philadelphia in 1848, and by the land-reformers in 1856, but declined. In 1840, and again in 1858, he was nominated for governor of New York. The last nomination, on a platform of abolition and prohibition, he accepted, and canvassed the state. In the election he received 5,446 votes. Among the other reforms in which he was interested were those relating to the property-rights of married women and female suffrage and abstention from tobacco. In religion he was originally a Presbyterian, but became very liberal in his views, and built a non-sectarian church in Peterboro, in which he often occupied the pulpit himself. He could not conceive of religion as anything apart from the affairs of daily life, and in one of his published letters he wrote: “No man's religion is better than his politics; his religion is pure whose politics are pure; whilst his religion is rascally whose politics are rascally.” He disbelieved in the right of men to monopolize land, and gave away thousands of acres of that which he had inherited, some of it to colleges and charitable institutions, and some in the form of small farms to men who would settle upon them. He also gave away by far the greater part of his income, for charitable purposes, to institutions and individuals. In the financial crisis of 1837 he borrowed of John Jacob Astor a quarter of a million dollars, on his verbal agreement to give Mr. Astor mortgages to that amount on real estate. The mortgages were executed as soon as Mr. Smith reached his home, but through the carelessness of a clerk were not delivered, and Mr. Astor waited six months before inquiring for them. Mr. Smith had for many years anticipated that the system of slavery would be brought to an end only through violence, and when the civil war began he hastened to the support of the government with his money and his influence. At a war-meeting in April, 1861, he made a speech in which he said: “The end of American slavery is at hand. The first gun fired at Fort Sumter announced the fact that the last fugitive slave had been returned. . . . The armed men who go south should go more in sorrow than in anger. The sad necessity should be their only excuse for going. They must still love the south; we must all still love her. As her chiefs shall, one after another, fall into our hands, let us be restrained from dealing revengefully, and moved to deal tenderly with them, by our remembrance of the large share which the north has had in blinding them.” In accordance with this sentiment, two years after the war, he united with Horace Greeley and Cornelius Vanderbilt in signing the bail-bond of Jefferson Davis. At the outset he offered to equip a regiment of colored men, if the government would accept them. Mr. Smith left an estate of about $1,000,000, having given away eight times that amount during his life. He wrote a great deal for print, most of which appeared in the form of pamphlets and broadsides, printed on his own press in Peterboro. His publications in book-form were “Speeches in Congress” (1855); “Sermons and Speeches” (1861); “The Religion of Reason” (1864); “Speeches and Letters” (1865); “The Theologies” (2d ed., 1866); “Nature the Base of a Free Theology” (1867); and “Correspondence with Albert Barnes” (1868). His authorized biography has been written by Octavius B. Frothingham (New York, 1878).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 583-584.

 

 

SMITH, Green C., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888; Congressional Globe)

 

 

SMITH, Horace E., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SMITH, Hugh C.,   , American Colonization Society, Manager, 1833-1834.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

SMITH, Humphrey “Yankee,” 1774-1857, New Jersey, abolitionist, anti-slavery advocate in Clay County, Missouri.  (Smith, Calvin, 1907; Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 1901)

 

 

SMITH, Israel, Bainbridge, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1836.

 

 

SMITH, Ithamer, Waitsfield, Vermont, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1858-59

 

 

SMITH, James McCune (Communipaw), 1813-1865, New York, New York, African American, abolitionist leader, community leader, activist.  James McCune Smith was the first African American to receive a medical degree.  He was also the first African American to operate a pharmacy in the U.S.  He was a leader in the abolitionist American Anti-Slavery Society.  In 1853, he helped organize the National Council of Colored People, with Frederick Douglass.  In addition, he co-organized the Committee of Thirteen, in New York City, to aid escaped slaves through the Underground Railroad after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.  Recording Secretary, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1852-1855.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 268, 333; Mabee, 1970, p. 134; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 454; Smith, James McCune, The Destiny of the People of Color, 1841; Smith, James McCune, A Lecture on the Haitian Revolution, 1841; Sorin, 1971, p. 82; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 288; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 216; Congressional Globe; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 345; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 639-641)

 

 

SMITH, James W., New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-1835.

 

 

SMITH, John, Andover, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-1841.

 

 

SMITH, John C., Sharon, Connecticut, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

SMITH, Joshua Bowen, 1813-1879, Boston, Massachusetts, African American, abolitionist, community leader.  Abolition leader and supporter of William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Parker and George Luther Stearns.  Aided fugitive slaves in Boston area.  Founded the New England Freedom Association, which aided runaway slaves. Active member of the Boston Vigilance Committee. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 349, Vol. 11, p. 489)

 

 

SMITH, Judith Winsor, 1821-1921, abolitionist, women’s rights and suffrage activist.

 

 

SMITH, Oliver, , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1841-42

 

 

SMITH, Richard H, American Colonization Society, Treasurer, 1833-1834.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 189-190)

 

 

SMITH, Samuel, Delaware, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-1838.

 

 

SMITH, Samuel Harrison, Washington, Maryland, soldier, general.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1833-41.  Original co-founding member of the ACS in Washington, DC, in December 1816.  Vice President of the Maryland Society of the ACS.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 15, 30, 111, 208)

 

 

SMITH, Samuel Stanhope, 1750-1819, President of Princeton College, New Jersey.  Declared slavery was “a moral wrong and a political evil.”  Called for voluntary manumission.  (Birney, 1890, p. 26-27; Locke, 1901, p. 90; Mason, 2006, p. 149; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 344; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 283; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 15, 30, 111, 208)

 

 

SMITH, Stephen, 1795-1873, African American, former slave, businessman, clergyman, abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, temperance activist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 383)

 

 

SMITH, William R., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SMITHERS, Nathaniel, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

SMYTH, William, Brunswick, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1837.

 

 

 

SNOW, Benjamin, Jr., Fitchburg, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1844-1860.

 

 

SNOWDON, Samuel, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, Boston, Massachusetts (Gates, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 379)

 

 

SNYDER, Jacob, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SOULE, Bishop, Maryland, clergyman.  Vice President of the Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 111)

 

 

SOULE, Silas Stillman, 1838-1865, Bath, Maine, radical/militant abolitionist, Kansas Territory Jay Hawker, Union Army officer.

 

 

SOUTHARD, Henry, 1749-1842, Member of Congress from New Jersey 1801-1811 and 1815-1821.  Opposed slavery as Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V., p. 613; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 145, 145; Annals of Congress)

 

SOUTHARD, Henry (suth'-ard), congressman, b. on Long Island, N. Y., in October, 1749; d. in Baskingridge, N. J., 2 June, 1842. The family name was formerly Southworth. His father, Abraham, removed to Baskingridge in 1757. The son was brought up on a farm and earned money as a day-laborer to purchase land for himself. He was an active patriot during the Revolution, served in the state house of representatives for nine years, and sat in congress in 1801-'11 and 1815-'21, having been chosen as a Democrat. Mr. Southard was a man of superior talents and possessed a remarkable memory. Until he had passed ninety years he neither wore glasses nor used a staff. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 613.

 

 

SOUTHARD, Nathaniel, New York, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-1841.

 

 

SOUTHARD, Samuel Lewis, 1787-1842, Trenton, New Jersey, attorney.  Whig U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy, 1823-1829.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1834-1841.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 613; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 411; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

SOUTHARD, Samuel Lewis, senator, b. in Baskingridge, N. J., 9 June, 1787; d. in Fredericksburg, Va., 26 June, 1842, was graduated at Princeton in 1804, taught in his native state, and then went to Virginia as tutor in the family of John Taliaferro. After studying law and being admitted to the bar in that state, he returned to New Jersey and settled at Remington. He was appointed law-reporter by the legislature in 1814, became associate justice of the state supreme court in 1815, was a presidential elector in 1820, and was chosen to the U. S. senate as a Whig in place of James J. Wilson, who had resigned, serving from 16 Feb., 1821, till 3 March, 1823. In 1821 he met his father on a joint committee, and they voted together on the Missouri compromise. In September, 1823, he became secretary of the navy, and he served till 3 March, 1829, acting also as secretary of the treasury from 7 March till 1 July, 1825, and taking charge of the portfolio of war for a time. When he was dining with Chief-Justice Kirkpatrick, of New Jersey, soon after his appointment to the navy, the judge, aware of his ignorance of nautical affairs, said: “Now, Mr. Southard, can you honestly assert that you know the bow from the stern of a frigate?” On his retirement from the secretaryship of the navy in 1829 he became attorney-general of New Jersey, and in 1832 he was elected governor of the state. He was c hosen U. S. senator again in 1833, and served till his resignation on 3 May, 1842. In 1841, on the death of President Harrison and the consequent accession of John Tyler, he became president of the senate. He was made a trustee of Princeton in 1822, and in 1833 the University of Pennsylvania gave him the degree of LL. D. Mr. Southard published “Reports of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1816-'20” (2 vols., Trenton, 1819-'20), and numerous addresses, including a “Centennial Address” (1832), and “Discourse on William Wirt” (Washington, 1834).—Samuel Lewis's son, SAMUEL LEWIS, clergyman (1819-'59), was graduated at Princeton in 1836, and took orders in the Protestant Episcopal church. He published “The Mystery of Godliness,” a series of sermons (New York, 1848), and single discourses.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

SOUTHEBY, William A., Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker.  As early as 1696, Southeby condemned the institution of slavery.  In 1712, he petitioned Quaker officials to reject and abolish slavery.  Wrote a paper opposing slavery and was censured by fellow Quakers in Philadelphia. (Drake, 1950, pp. 19, 28-29, 34, 36, 40, 47, 51, 55; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 9, 11, 93, 94; Soderlund, 1985, pp. 4, 19, 22, 32, 35, 49, 174, 186, 187; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 62-66)

 

 

SOUTHER, Samuel, Worcester, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1861-64

 

 

SOUTHGATE, Edward, Reverend, Kentucky.  Agent for the American Colonization Society (ACS) in Kentucky.  Worked with Robert S. Finley of the ACS.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 145)

 

 

SOUTHMAYD, Daniel S., Lowell, Massachusetts.  Manager, 1833-1834, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

SOUTHWICK, Abby, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, pp. 353n, 301-302, 307, 316, 333)

 

 

SOUTHWICK, Edward, Augusta, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

SOUTHWICK, Hannah (Yellin, 1994, p. 289)

 

 

SOUTHWICK, Joseph, Maine, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1848.  (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

SOUTHWICK, Sarah H. (Yellin, 1994, pp. 50, 62, 273n, 289)

 

 

SOUTHWICK, Thankful, leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 199; Yellin, 1994, pp. 56, 62, 64, 253n, 280, 289, 292)

 

 

SPALDING, Rufus Paine, 1798-1886, jurist.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio.  One of the organizers of the Republican Party.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 620-621; Congressional Globe)

 

SPALDING, Rufus Paine, jurist, b. in West Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard, Mass., 3 May, 1798; d. in Cleveland, Ohio, 29 Aug., 1886. He was graduated at Yale in 1817, and subsequently studied law under Zephania Swift, chief justice of Connecticut, whose daughter, Lucretia, he married in 1822. In 1819 he was admitted to practice in Little Rock, Ark., but in 1821 he went to Warren, Ohio. Sixteen years later he moved to Ravenna, Ohio, and he was sent to the legislature in 1830-'40 as a Democrat, serving as speaker in 1841-'2. In 1840 he was elected judge of the supreme court of Ohio for seven years, but when, three years later, the new state constitution was adopted, he declined a re-election and began practice in Cleveland. In l852 he entered political life as a Free-soiler, and he was one of the organizers of the Republican party. He was a member of congress in 1863-'9, where he served on important committees, but he subsequently declined all political honors. Judge Spalding exeicised an important infiuence in restoring the Masonic order to its former footing after the disappearance of William Morgan. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 620-621.   

 

 

SPAULDING, Timothy, LaPorte County, Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-1840.

 

 

SPEAR, John Murray, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1846-55, Vice-President, 1843-46.  Severely beaten by a mob of pro-slavery supporters in Portland, Maine.

 

 

SPEED, James, 1812-1887, Kentucky, lawyer, soldier, statesman, U.S. Attorney General.  Ardent opponent of slavery.  Early friend of Abraham Lincoln.  Emancipation candidate for Kentucky State Constitutional Convention.  Unionist State Senator.  U.S. Attorney General appointed by President Lincoln in 1864, he served until 1866.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 625-626; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 440)

 

SPEED, James, lawyer, b. in Jefferson county, Ky., 11 March, 1812; d. there, 25 June, 1887. He was graduated at St. Joseph's college, Bardstown, Ky., in 1828, studied law at Transylvania, and began practice at Louisville. His ancestors were identified with that state from pioneer days, and were active participants in the best political life of the young commonwealth. Inheriting a repugnance to every form of oppression and injustice, he was naturally opposed to slavery, and his well-known opinions on that subject prevented his taking any prominent part in politics until the opening of the civil war. He was then nearly fifty years old, but he had established his reputation as a jurist, and was recognized even by those wholly opposed to him on the issues of the time as able, consistent, and upright. He also held at this time a chair in the law department of the University of Louisville. A powerful element in Kentucky strove to commit the state to the disunion cause, and against that element he exercised all his...

 

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 625-626.

 

 

SPENCER, Thomas, Salem, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1835.

 

 

SPERRY, Calvin, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

SPERRY, Croyden S., Brooklyn, New York, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Rec. Secretary, 1847-48

 

 

SPOONER, Bourne, Plymouth, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1845-1853, Vice-President, 1863-1864.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1847-1860.

 

 

SPOONER, Lysander, 1808-1887, lawyer, author, radical abolitionist leader.  Wrote, “Unconstitutionality of Slavery,” 1845, “A Defense for Fugitive Slaes,” 1850, and “A Plan for the Abolition of Slavery (and) to tell Non-Slaveholders of the South” in 1858.  (Cover, 1975; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 162; Shivley, Charles, ed., The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner; Wiecek, 1977; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 634-635; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 466; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 750-752; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 651-652)

 

SPOONER, Lysander, lawyer, b. in Athol, Mass., 19 Jan., 1808; d. in Boston, Mass., 14 May, 1887. He studied law in Worcester, Mass., but on completing his course of reading found that admission to the bar was permitted only to those who had studied for three years, except in the case of college graduates. This obnoxious condition at once engaged his attention and he succeeded in having it removed from the statute-books. In 1844 the letter postage from Boston to New York was twelve and a half cents and to Washington twenty-five cents. Mr. Spooner, believing that the U. S. governruent had no constitutional right to a monopoly of the mails, established an independent service from Boston to New York, carrying letters at the uniform rate of five cents. His business grew rapidly, but the government soon overwhelmed him with prosecutions, so that he was compelled to retire from the undertaking, but not until he had shown the possibility of supporting the post-office department by a lower rate of postage. His efforts resulted in an act of congress that reduced the rates, followed in 1851 and subsequent years by still further reductions. Mr. Spooner was an active Abolitionist, and contributed largely to the literature of the subject, notablyby his “Unconstitutionality of Slavery” (1845), the tenets of which were supported by Gerrit Smith, Elizur Wright, and others of the Liberty party, but were opposed by the Garrisonians. He defended Thomas Drew, who in 1870 declined to take his oath as a witness before a legislative committee on the ground that in the matter it was investigating it had no authority to compel him to testify. The case was adversely decided on the ground of precedent, but the principles of Mr. Spooner's argument were afterward sustained by the U.S. supreme court. His writings include “A Deistic Reply to the Alleged Supernatural Evidences of Christianity” and “The Deistic Immortality, and an Essay on Man's Accountability for his Belief” (1836); “Credit, Currency, and Banking” (1843); “Poverty, Causes and Cure” (1846); “A Defence for Fugitive Slaves” (1856); “A New System of Paper Currency” (1861); “Our Financiers” (1877); “The Law of Prices” (1877); “Gold and Silver as Standards of Value” (1878); and “Letter to Grover Cleveland on his False Inaugural Address” (1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 634-635.

 

 

SPRAGUE, Seth, Duxbury, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1848.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1847-1860.

 

 

SPRAGUE, William, 1830-1930, Union officer.  Governor of Rhode Island, 1860-1863.  Republican U.S. Senator from Rhode Island.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888. Vol. V, p. 638; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 457; Congressional Globe)

 

SPRAGUE, William, governor of Rhode Island, b. in Cranston, R. I., 12 Sept., 1830, received his education in common schools, served in his father's factory, and engaged in making calico-prints. Subsequently he became a manufacturer of linen, woollen goods, and iron, a builder of locomotives, and an owner of railroads and steamships. In 1860-'3 he was governor of Rhode Island. He had served as colonel in the state militia, offered a regiment and a battery of light-horse artillery for service in the civil war, and with this regiment participated in the battle of Bull Run, where his horse was shot under him. He received a commission as brigadier-general of volunteers, which he declined. He also served in other actions during the peninsular campaign, including Williamsburg and the siege of Yorktown. He was chosen to the U. S. senate as a Republican, was a member of the committee on manufactures, and chairman of that on public lands, his term extending from 4 March, 1863, till 3 March, 1875, when he resumed the direction of his manufacturing establishments. He operated the first rotary machine for making horseshoes, perfected a mowing-machine, and also various processes in calico-printing, especially that of direct printing on a large scale with the extract of madder without a chemical bath. Gov. Sprague claims to have discovered what he calls the “principle of the orbit as inherent in social forces.” He asserts that money is endowed with two tendencies, the distributive and the aggregative, and that when the latter predominates, as before the civil war, decadence results; but that when the former is in the ascendancy, as was until recently the case, there is progress. He received the degree of A. M. from Brown in 1861, of which university he has been a trustee since 1866. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 638.   

 

 

SPRING (nee Buffum), Rebecca, abolitionist.  Member, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS).  Daughter of abolitionists Arnold and Rebecca Buffum.  Married abolitionist, philanthropist Marcus Spring. (Yellin, 1994, pp. 41, 76)

 

 

SPRING, Gardiner, 1785-1873, Newburyport, Massachusetts, New York, clergyman, lawyer, author. American Colonization Society, Director, 1839-1840.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 639-640; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 17)

 

 

SPRING, Marcus, New York, abolitionist, founded and funded Raritan Bay Union at Eaglewood, New Jersey, an abolitionist community.  Husband of abolitionist Rebecca Buffum Spring (Yellin, 1994, p. 76n18)

 

 

SPRINGSTEAD, Mary, Cazenovia, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1853.

 

 

ST. CLAIR, Alanson, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1831-, Executive Committee, 1839-

 

 

STAFFORD, Atkinson, Newburyport, Massachusetts, abolitionist.

 

 

STAFFORD, J. S., Cummington, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1850-56

 

 

STANFORD, John C., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

STANLEY, William H., New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1842.

 

 

STANTON, Benjamin, Indiana, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, editor of the Free Labor Advocate newspaper of the Friends Anti-Slavery Society.  Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1840. (Drake, 1950, p. 165)

 

 

STANTON, Daniel, 1708-1770, Friends Society (Quaker), preacher  (Drake, 1950, pp. 61, 68; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 648)

 

STANTON, Daniel, Quaker preacher, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1708; d. there, 28 June, 1770. He began to preach in 1728, travelled in New England and the West Indies, went to Europe in 1748, and visited the southern colonies in 1760, preaching zealously against slavery as well as worldliness and the vices of society. See “Journal of his Life, Travels, and Gospel Labors” (Philadelphia, 1772). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 648.

 

 

STANTON, Edwin McMasters, 1814-1869, statesman, lawyer, anti-slavery activist.  U. S. Secretary of War, 1862-1867.  Favored Wilmot Proviso to exclude slavery from the new territories acquired by the U.S. after the War with Mexico in 1846.  Member of the Free Soil movement.  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 65, 67, 69, 72, 144, 147-148; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 648-649; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 517; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 558)

 

STANTON, Edwin McMasters, statesman, b. in Steubenville Ohio, 19 Dec., 1814; d. in Washington, D. C., 24 Dec., 1869. His father, a physician died while Edwin was a child. After acting for three years as a clerk in a book-store, he entered Kenyon college in 1831, but left in 1833 to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1836, and, beginning practice in Cadiz, was in 1837 elected prosecuting attorney. He returned to Steubenville in 1839, and was supreme court reporter in 1842-'5, preparing vols. xi., xii., and xiii. of the Ohio reports. In 1848 he removed to Pittsburg, Pa., and in 1857, on account of his large business in the U. S. supreme court, he established himself in Washington. During 1857-'8 he was in California, attending to important land cases for the government. Among the notable suits that he conducted were the first Erie railway litigation, the Wheeling bridge case, and the Manney and McCormick reaper contest in 1859. When Lewis Cass retired from President Buchanan's cabinet, and Jeremiah S. Black was made secretary of state, Stanton was appointed the latter's successor in the office of attorney-general, 20 Dec., 1860. He was originally a Democrat of the Jackson school, and, until Van Buren's defeat in the Baltimore convention of 1844, took an active part in political affairs in his locality. He favored the Wilmot proviso, to exclude slavery from the territory acquired by the war with Mexico, and sympathized with the Free-soil movement of 1848, headed by Martin Van Buren. He was an anti-slavery man, but his hostility to that institution was qualified by his view of the obligations imposed by the Federal constitution. He had held no public offices before entering President Buchanan's cabinet except those of prosecuting attorney for one year in Harrison county, Ohio, and reporter of the Ohio supreme court for three years, being wholly devoted to his profession. While a member of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, he took a firm stand for the Union, and at a cabinet meeting, when John B. Floyd, then secretary of war, demanded the withdrawal of the United States troops from the forts in Charleston harbor, he indignantly declared that the surrender of Fort Sumter would be, in his opinion, a crime, equal to that of Arnold, and that all who participated in it should be hung like André. After the meeting, Floyd sent in his resignation. President Lincoln, though since his accession to the presidency he had held no communication with Mr. Stanton, called him to the head of the war department on the retirement of Simon Cameron, 15 Jan., 1862. As was said by an eminent senator of the United States: “He certainly came to the public service with patriotic and not with sordid motives, surrendering a most brilliant position at the bar, and with it the emolument of which, in the absence of accumulated wealth, his family was in daily need.” Infirmities of temper he had, but they were incident to the intense strain upon his nerves caused by his devotion to duties that would have soon prostrated most men, however robust, as they finally prostrated him. He had no time for elaborate explanations for refusing trifling or selfish requests, and his seeming abruptness of manner was often but rapidity in transacting business which had to be thus disposed of, or be wholly neglected. As he sought no benefit to himself, but made himself an object of hatred to the dishonest and the inefficient, solely in the public interest, and as no enemy ever accused him of wrong-doing, the charge of impatience and hasty temper will not detract from the high estimate placed by common consent upon his character as a man, a patriot, and a statesman.

Mr. Stanton's entrance into the cabinet marked the beginning of a vigorous military policy. On 27 Jan., 1862, was issued the first of the president's war orders, prescribing a general movement of the troops. His impatience at Gen. George B. McClellan's apparent inaction caused friction between the administration and the general-in-chief, which ended in the latter's retirement. Be selected Gen. Ulysses S. Grant for promotion after the victory at Fort Donelson, which Gen. Henry W. Halleck in his report had ascribed to the bravery of Gen. Charles F. Smith, and in the autumn of 1863 he placed Grant in supreme command of the three armies operating in the southwest, directed him to relieve Gen. William S. Rosecrans before his army at Chattanooga could be forced to surrender. President Lincoln said that he never took an important step without consulting his secretary of war. It has been asserted that, on the eve of Mr. Lincoln's second inauguration, he proposed to allow Gen. Grant to make terms of peace with Gen. Lee, and that Mr. Stanton dissuaded him from such action. According to a bulletin of Mr. Stanton that was issued at the time, the president wrote the despatch directing the general of the army to confer with the Confederate commander on none save purely military questions without previously consulting the members of the cabinet. At a cabinet council that was held in consultation with Gen. Grant, the terms on which Gen. William T. Sherman proposed to accept the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston were disapproved by all who were present. To the bulletin announcing the telegram that was sent to Gen. Sherman, which directed him to guide his actions by the despatch that had previously been sent to Gen. Grant, forbidding military interference in the political settlement, a statement of the reasons for disapproving Sherman's arrangement was appended, obviously by the direction of Sec. Stanton. These were: (1) that it was unauthorized; (2) that it was an acknowledgment of the Confederate government; (3) that it re-established rebel state governments; (4) that it would enable rebel state authorities to restore slavery; (5) that it involved the question of the Confederate states debt; (6) that it would put in dispute the state government of West Virginia; (7) that it abolished confiscation, and relieved rebels of all penalties; (8) that it gave terms that had been rejected by President Lincoln; (9) that it formed no basis for peace, but relieved rebels from the pressure of defeat, and left them free to renew the war. Gen. Sherman defended his course on the ground that he had before him the public examples of Gen. Grant's terms to Gen. Lee's army, and Gen. Weitzel's invitation to the Virginia legislature to assemble at Richmond. His central motive, in giving terms that would be cheerfully accepted, he declared to be the peaceful disbandment of all the Confederate armies, and the prevention of guerilla warfare. He had never seen President Lincoln's telegram to Gen. Grant of 3 March, 1865, above quoted, nor did he know that Gen. Weitzel's permission for the Virginia legislature to assemble had been rescinded.

A few days before the president's death Sec. Stanton tendered his resignation because his task was completed, but was persuaded by Mr. Lincoln to remain. After the assassination of Lincoln a serious controversy arose between the new president, Andrew Johnson, and the Republican party, and Mr. Stanton took sides against the former on the subject of reconstruction. On 5 Aug., 1867, the president demanded his resignation; but he refused to give up his office before the next meeting of congress, following the urgent counsels of leading men of the Republican party. He was suspended by the president on 12 Aug. On 13 Jan., 1868, he was restored by the action of the senate, and resumed his office. On 21 Feb., 1868, the president informed the senate that he had removed Sec. Stanton, and designated a secretary ad interim. Mr. Stanton refused to surrender the office pending the action of the senate on the president's message. At a late hour of the same day the senate resolved that the president bad not the power to remove the secretary. Mr. Stanton, thus sustained by the senate, refused to surrender the office. The impeachment of the president followed, and on 26 May, the vote of the senate being “guilty,” 35, “not guilty,” 19, he was acquitted—two thirds not voting for conviction. After Mr. Stanton's retirement from office he resumed the practice of law. On 20 Dec., 1869, he was appointeel by President Grant a justice of the supreme court, and he was forthwith confirmed by the senate. Four days later he expired.

The value to the country of his services during the civil war cannot be overestimated. His energy, inflexible integrity, systematized industry, comprehensive view of the situation in its military, political, and international aspects, his power to command and supervise the best services of others, and his unbending will and invincible courage, made him at once the stay of the president, the hope of the country, and a terror to dishonesty and imbecility. The vastness of his labors led to brusqueness in repelling importunities, which made him many enemies. But none ever questioned his honesty, his patriotism, or his capability. A “Memoir” of Mr. Stanton is at present in preparation by his son, Lewis M. Stanton. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 648-649.

 

 

STANTON, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902, reformer, suffragist, abolitionist leader, co-founder of the Women’s National Loyal League in 1863, co-founded American Equal Rights Association (AERA) in 1866  (Drake, 1950; Filler, 1960, pp. 35, 137, 277; Gordon, Ann D., ed., The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, 1997; Griffiths, Elizabeth, In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1984. Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 47, 170, 388, 465, 519; Sorin, 1971, pp. 66-67; Wellman, Judith, The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Women’s Rights Convention, 2004; Yellin, 1994, pp. 30, 85-87, 149, 157, 301, 302n; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 650; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 521; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 562; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 655-656)

 

STANTON, Elizabeth Cady, reformer, b. in Johnstown, N.Y., 12 Nov., 1815, is the daughter of Judge Daniel Cady, and, after receiving her first education at the Johnstown academy, was graduated at Mrs. Emma Willard's seminary in Troy, N. Y., in 1832. While attending the World's anti-slavery convention in London in 1840 she met Lucretia Mott, with whom she was in sympathy, and with whom she signed the call for the first Woman's rights convention. This was held at her home in Seneca Falls, on 19 and 20 July, 1848, on which occasion the first formal claim of suffrage for women was made. She addressed the New York legislature on the rights of married women in 1854, and in advocacy of divorce for drunkenness in 1860, and in 1867 spoke before the legislature and the constitutional convention, maintaining that during the revision of the constitution the state was resolved into its original elements and that citizens of both sexes had a right to vote for members of that convention. She canvassed Kansas in 1867 and Michigan in 1874, when the question of woman suffrage was submitted to the people of those states, and since 1869 she has addressed congressional committees and state constitutional conventions upon this subject, besides giving numerous lectures. She was president from 1855 till 1865 of the national committee of her party, of theWoman's loyal league in 1863, and of the National woman suffrage association until 1873. In 1868 she was a candidate for congress. She has written many calls to conventions and addresses, and was an editor with Susan B. Anthony and Parker Pillsbury of '”The Revolution,” which was founded in 1868, and is joint author of '”History of Woman's suffrage” (vols. i. and ii., New York, 1880; vol. iii., Rochester, 1886).—Their son, Theodore, journalist, b. in Seneca Falls, N. Y., 10 Feb., 1851, was graduated at Cornell in 1876. In 1880 he was the Berlin correspondent of the New York “Tribune,” and he is now (1888) engaged in journalism in Paris, France. He is a contributor to periodicals, translated and edited Le Goff's “Life of Thiers” (New York, 1879), and is the author of The Woman Question in Europe” (1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 650. 

 

 

STANTON, Henry Brewster, 1805-1887, New York, New York, Cincinnati, Ohio, abolitionist leader, anti-slavery agent, journalist, author.  Worked with William T. Allan and Birney.  Financial Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Manager, 1834-1838, Corresponding Secretary, 1838-1840, and Executive Committee of the Society, 1838.  Secretary, 1840-1841, and Member of the Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1844.  Leader of the Liberty Party.  Wrote for abolitionist newspapers.  Worked against pro-slavery legislation at state level.  Later edited the New York Sun.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 164, 219, 238-240, 286; Filler, 1960, pp. 68, 72, 134, 137, 156, 189, 301; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14016, 18, 28, 36, 45, 47, 101, 162, 223; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 162; Sorin, 1971 p. 63-67, 97, 131, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 649-650; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 525)

 

STANTON, Henry Brewster, journalist, b. in Griswold, New London co., Conn., 29 June, 1805; d. in New York city, 14 Jan., 1887. His ancestor, Thomas, came to this country from England in 1635 and was crown interpreter-general of the Indian dialects, and subsequently judge of the New London county court. His father was a manufacturer of woollens and a trader with the West Indies. After receiving his education the son went in 1826 to Rochester, N. Y., to write for Thurlow Weed's newspaper, “The Monroe Telegraph,” which was advocating the election of Henry Clay to the presidency. He then began to make political speeches. He removed to Cincinnati to complete his studies in Lane theological seminary, but left it to become an advocate of the anti-slavery cause. At the anniversary of the American anti-slavery society in New York city in 1834 he faced the first of the many mobs that he encountered in his tours throughout the country. In 1837-'40 he was active in the movement to form the Abolitionists into a compact political party, which was resisted by William Lloyd Garrison and others, and which resulted in lasting dissension. In 1840 he married Elizabeth Cady, and on 12 May of that year sailed with her to London, having been elected to represent the American anti-slavery society at a convention for the promotion of the cause. At its close they travelled through Great Britain and France, working for the relief of the slaves. On his return he studied law with Daniel Cady, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Boston, where he gained a reputation especially in patent cases, but he abandoned his profession to enter political life, and removing to Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1847, represented that district in the state senate. He was a member of the Free-soil party previous to the formation of the Republican party, of which he was a founder. Before this he had been a Democrat. For nearly half a century he was actively connected with the daily press, his contributions consisting chiefly of articles on current political topics and elaborate biographies of public men. Mr. Stanton contributed to Garrison's “AntiSlavery Standard” and “Liberator,” wrote for the New York “Tribune,” and from 1868 until his death was an editor of the New York “Sun.” Henry Ward Beecher said of him: “I think Stanton has all the elements of old John Adams; able, stanch, patriotic, full of principle, and always unpopular. He lacks that sense of other people's opinions which keeps a man from running against them.” Mr. Stanton was the author of “Sketches of Reforms and Reformers in Great Britain and Ireland” (New York, 1849), and “Random Recollections” (1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 649-650.

 

 

STANWOOD, Atkinson, Newburyport, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1855-60-

 

 

STARR, Isaac H., Delaware, abolitionist and delegate to the Delaware Society for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, Wilmington, Delaware, founded 1789.  Treasurer, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Abolition of Slavery, 1787.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 224, 240; Dumond, 1961, p. 76)

 

 

STAUGHTON, William, Reverend, 1770-1829, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, clergyman, Baptist educator.  Founding officer of the Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 654-655; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 539; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 39)

 

STAUGHTON, William, clergyman, b. in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, 4 Jan., 1770; d. in Washington, D. C., 12 Dec., 1829. He was graduated at the Baptist theological institution, Bristol, in 1792, and the next year came to this country, landing at Charleston. After preaching for more than a year at Georgetown, S. C., he removed to New York city, and thence to New Jersey, residing for some time at Bordentown, where, in 1797, he was ordained, and then at Burlington. At the latter place he remained until 1805, when he accepted a call to the pastorate of the 1st Baptist church of Philadelphia. After a successful ministry there of six years, he identified himself with a new enterprise, which resulted in the formation of a church and the erection of a large house of worship on Sansom street. His pastorate of this church, extending from 1811 till 1822, was one of great success. Besides preaching regularly three times on Sunday and once or twice during the week, he was the principal of a Baptist theological school. In 1822 he was called to the presidency of Columbian college, D. C., which office he resigned in 1827, and was elected in 1829 president of Georgetown college, Ky. He died in Washington, while on his way to this new field of service. He was probably the most eloquent Baptist minister of his time in this country. He received from Princeton the degree of D. D. in 1801. Besides a volume of poems, which he issued when he was seventeen years old, his publications consisted of a few occasional sermons and discourses, among them “Eulogium on Dr. Benjamin Rush” (1813). See a “Memoir” by Rev. S. W. Lynd (Boston, 1834). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

STEARNS, Frank Preston, 1846-1917, writer, abolitionist.  Worked with abolitionist leader Elizur Wright.  Member of and active in American Anti-Slavery Society.  (Stearns, 1907)

 

 

STEARNS, George Luther, 1809-1867, Medford, Massachusetts, merchant, industrialist, Free Soil supporter, abolitionist.  Chief supporter of the Emigrant Aid Company which financed anti-slavery settlers in the Kansas Territory.  Founded the Nation, Commonwealth, and Right of Way newspapers.  Member of the “Secret Six” who secretly financially supported radical abolitionist John Brown, and his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, on October 16, 1859.  Recruited African Americans for the all-Black 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiments, U.S. Army.  (Filler, 1960, p. 268; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 207, 327, 338; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 655; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 543)

 

STEARNS, George Luther, merchant, b. in Medford, Mass., 8 Jan., 1809; d. in New York, 9 April, 1867. His father, Luther, was a teacher of reputation. In early life his son engaged in the business of ship-chandlery, and after a prosperous career undertook the manufacture of sheet- and pipe-lead, doing business in Boston and residing in Medford. He identified himself with the anti-slavery cause, became a Free-soiler in 1848, aided John Brown in Kansas, and supported him till his death. Soon after the opening of the civil war Mr. Stearns advocated the enlistment of negroes in the National army. The 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments, and the 5th cavalry (colored), were largely recruited through his instrumentality. He was commissioned major through the recommendation of Sec. Stanton, and was of great service to the National cause by enlisting negroes for the volunteer service in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Tennessee. He was the founder of the “Commonwealth” and “Right of Way” newspapers for the dissemination of his ideas. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 655.    

 

 

STEBBINS, Giles B., Wisconsin, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1850-1851, 1851-1852, Manager, 1852-1853.

 

 

STEDMEN, William, Randolph, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1848-1856.

 

 

STEEL, William, 1809-1881, reformer, abolitionist leader, southeastern Ohio, active in Underground Railroad (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V., p. 659)

 

STEEL, William, reformer, b. in Biggar, Scotland, 26 Aug., 1809; d. in Portland, Ore., 5 Jan., 1881. He came to the United States with his parents in 1817 and settled near Winchester, Va., but removed soon afterward to Monroe county, Ohio, where, from 1830 till the civil war, he was an active worker in the “Underground railroad,” of which he was one of the earliest organizers. During these years large numbers of slaves were assisted to escape to Canada, and in no single instance was one retaken after reaching him. At one time the slave-holders of Virginia offered a reward of $5,000 for his head, when he promptly addressed the committee, offering to bring it to them if the money were placed in responsible hands. He acquired a fortune as a merchant, but lost it in 1844. From 1872 till his death he resided with his sons in Oregon. In the early days of the anti-slavery movement Mr. Steel was the recognized leader of the Abolitionists in southeastern Ohio. He was at one time a candidate of the Liberty party for congress, and in 1844 circulated in eastern Ohio the “great petition,” whose signers agreed to vote for Henry Clay if he would emancipate his one slave. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 659.

 

 

STEELE, John B., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

STEPHENS, George E., 1832-1888, African American, journalist, soldier, abolitionist.  Wrote for the New York Weekly Anglo-African newspaper.  Enlisted and fought in 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  Supported equal pay for colored troops in the Union Army. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 509)

 

 

STEPHENS, Uriah Smith, 1821-1882, labor leader, abolitionist leader (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 581; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 759-762)

 

 

STERETT, Samuel, Maryland, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage, founded 1789.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 99, 103, 224-225, 227)

 

 

STERLING, G.W., Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1841-42

 

 

STERLING, John M., Cleveland, Ohio, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

STERN, Nathaniel, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

STEVENS, Aaron Dwight, 1831-1860, militant abolitionist.  Chief aid to abolitionist John Brown in his unsuccessful raid on the U.S. Arsenal in Harper’s Ferry.  He was tried and executed for this action on March 16, 1860.

 

 

STEVENS, John L., 1820-1895, author, journalist, clergyman, newspaper publisher, diplomat, anti-slavery activist and leader, political leader.  Co-founder of the Republican Party in Maine.  Co-owner and editor of the Kennebec Journal in Augusta.

 

 

STEVENS, Thaddeus, 1792-1868, statesman, lawyer, abolitionist leader.  Anti-slavery leader in U.S. House of Representatives.  As member of Whig Party and leader of the radical Republican Party, urged Lincoln to issue Emancipation Proclamation.  Led fight to pass Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, abolishing slavery and establishing citizenship, due process and equal protections for African Americans.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 677-678; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 620; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 764-767; Congressional Globe; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 711)

 

STEVENS, Thaddeus, statesman, b. in Danville, Caledonia co., Vt., 4 April, 1792; d. in Washington, D. C., 11 Aug., 1868. He was the child of poor parents, and was sickly and lame, but ambitious, and his mother toiled to secure for him an education. He entered Vermont university in 1810, and after it was closed in 1812 on account of the war he went to Dartmouth, and was graduated in 1814. He began the study of law in Peacham, Vt., continued it while teaching an academy in York, Pa., was admitted to the bar at Bel Air, Md., established himself in 1816 at Gettysburg, Pa., and soon gained a high reputation, and was employed in many important suits. He devoted himself exclusively to his profession till the contest between the strict constructionists, who nominated Andrew Jackson for the presidency in 1828, and the national Republicans, who afterward became the Whigs, drew him into politics as an ardent supporter of John Quincy A dams. He was elected to the legislature in 1833 and the two succeeding years. By a brilliant speech in 1835, he defeated a bill to abolish the recently established common-school system of Pennsylvania. In 1836 he was a member of the State constitutional convention, and took an active part in its debates, but his anti-slavery principles would not permit him to sign the report recommending an instrument that restricted the franchise to white citizens. He was a member of the legislature again in 1837, and in 1838, when the election dispute between the Democratic and anti-Masonic parties led to the organization of rival legislatures, he was the most prominent member of the Whig and anti-Masonic house. In 1838 he was appointed a canal commissioner. He was returned to the legislature in 1841. He gave a farm to Mrs. Lydia Jane Pierson, who had written poetry in defence of the common schools, and thus aided him in saving them. Having incurred losses in the iron business, he removed in 1842 to Lancaster, Pa., and for several years devoted himself to legal practice, occupying the foremost position at the bar. In 1848 and 1850 he was elected to congress as a Whig, and ardently opposed the Clay compromise measures of 1850, including the fugitive-slave law. On retiring from congress, March, 1853, he confined himself to his profession till 1858, when he was returned to congress as a Republican. From that time till his death he was one of the Republican leaders in that body, the chief advocate of emancipation, and the representative of the radical section of his party. His great oratorical powers and force of character earned for him the title, applied to William Pitt, of the “great commoner.” He urged on President Lincoln the justice and expediency of the emancipation proclamation, took the lead in all measures for arming and for enfranchising the negro, and initiated and pressed the fourteenth amendment to the Federal constitution. During the war he introduced and carried acts of confiscation, and after its close he advocated rigorous measures in reorganizing the southern states on the basis of universal freedom. He was chairman of the committee of ways and means for three sessions. Subsequently, as chairman of the house committee on reconstruction, he reported the bill which divided the southern states into five military districts, and placed them under the rule of army officers until they should adopt constitutions that conceded suffrage and equal rights to the blacks. In a speech that he made in congress on 24 Feb., 1868, he proposed the impeachment of President Johnson. He was appointed one of the committee of seven to prepare articles of impeachment, and was chairman of the board of managers that was appointed on the part of the house to conduct the trial. He was exceedingly positive in his convictions, and attacked his adversaries with bitter denunciations and sarcastic taunts, yet he was genial and witty among his friends, and was noted for his uniform, though at times impulsive, acts of charity. While skeptical in his religious opinions, he resented slighting remarks regarding the Christian faith as an insult to the memory of his devout mother, whom he venerated. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by the University of Vermont in 1867. He chose to be buried in a private cemetery, explaining in the epitaph that he prepared for his tomb that the public cemeteries were limited by their charter-rules to the white race, and that he preferred to illustrate in his death the principle that he had advocated through his life of “equality of man before his Creator.” The tomb is in a large lot in Lancaster, which he left as a burial-place for those who cannot afford to pay for their graves. He left a part of his estate to found an orphan asylum in Lancaster, to be open to both white and colored children. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 677-678.

 

 

STEWARD, Austin, 1793-1865, African American, former slave, anti-slavery activist, reformer.  Steward was born a slave in Prince William County, Virginia.  Wrote autobiography, Twenty-two Years a Slave, and Forty Years Freeman; Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, published in Rochester, New York, in 1857. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 511; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 683)

 

STEWART, Austin, author, b. in Prince William county, Va., about 1793; d. after 1860. He was born in slavery, and when a lad was taken to Bath, N. Y. He afterward fled to Canandaigua, and in 1817 he engaged successfully in business in Rochester. In 1826 he delivered an oration at the celebration of the New York emancipation act, and in 1830 he was elected vice-president of the National convention of negroes at Philadelphia. The following year he removed to a small colony that had been established in Canada West, named the township Wilberforce, and was chosen its president. He used his own funds to carry on the affairs of the colony, but, finding that no more land would be sold to the colonists by the Canada company, returned to Rochester in 1837. He afterward opened a school in Canandaigua, and after two years became an agent for the “Anti-Slavery Standard.” He published “Twenty-two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman” (2d ed., Rochester, N. Y., 1859). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 683.

 

 

STEWART, Alvan, 1790-1849, Utica, New York, reformer, educator, lawyer, abolitionist leader, temperance activist.  Member, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Vice President, 1834-1835, and Manager, 1837-1840, AASS.  Member of the Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1844-149.  Founder, leader, Liberty Party.  Founder, New York State Anti-Slavery Society (NYSASS), 1835.  (Blue, 2005, pp. xiii, 4-5, 9, 13, 15-36, 49, 50, 63, 68, 92-94, 98, 145, 266; Dumond, 1961, pp. 225-226, 293-295, 300; Filler, 1960, pp. 151, 177; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 39, 40, 41, 246, 293; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4-5, 9, 13, 15-36, 49, 50, 63, 92, 98; Sernett, 2002, pp. 49, 52, 73, 112, 122; Sorin, 1971, pp. 25, 32, 33, 47-52, 60, 103n, 115, 132; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 218-220; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 683; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 5; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 768-769; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 742)

 

STEWART, Alvan, reformer, b. in South Granville, Washington co., N. Y., 1 Sept., 1790; d. in New York city, 1 May, 1849. His parents removed when he was five months old to Crown Point, N.Y., and in 1795, losing their possessions through a defective title, to Westford, Chittenden co., Vt., where the lad was brought up on a farm. In 1808 he began to teach and to study anatomy and medicine. In 1809 he entered Burlington college, Vt., supporting himself by teaching in the winters, and, visiting Canada in 1811, he received a commission under Gov. Sir George Prevost as professor in the Royal school in the seigniory of St. Armand, but he returned to college in June, 1812. After, the declaration of war he went again to Canada, and was held as a prisoner. On his return he taught and studied law in Cherry Valley, N.Y., and then in Paris, Ky., making his home in the former place, where he practised his profession and won reputation. He was a persistent advocate of protective duties, of internal improvements, and of education. He removed to Utica in 1832, and, though he continued to try causes as counsel, the remainder of his life was given mainly to the temperance and anti-slavery causes. A volume of his speeches was published in 1860. Among the most conspicuous of these was an argument, in 1837, before the New York state anti-slavery convention, to prove that congress might constitutionally abolish slavery; on the “Right of Petition” at Pennsylvania hall, Philadelphia, and on the “Great Issues between Right and Wrong” at the same place in 1838; before the joint committee of the legislature of Vermont; and before the supreme court of New Jersey on a habeas corpus to determine the unconstitutionality of slavery under the new state constitution of 1844, which last occupied eleven hours in delivery. His first published speech against slavery was in 1835, under threats of a mob. He then drew a call for a state anti-slavery convention for 21 Oct., 1835, at Utica. As the clock struck the hour he called the convention to order and addressed it, and the programme of business was completed ere the threatened mob arrived, as it soon did and dispersed the convention by violence. That night the doors and windows of his house were barred with large timbers, and fifty loaded muskets were provided, with determined men to handle them, but the preparations kept off the menaced invasion. “He was the first,” says William Goodell, the historian of abolitionism, “to insist earnestly, in our consultations, in committee and elsewhere, on the necessity of forming a distinct political party to promote the abolition of slavery.” He gradually brought the leaders into it, was its candidate for governor, and this new party grew, year by year, till at last it held the balance of power between the Whigs and Democrats, when, uniting with the former, it constituted the Republican party. The characteristics of Mr. Stewart's eloquence and conversation were a strange and abounding humor, a memory that held large resources at command, readiness in emergency, a rich philosophy, strong powers of reasoning, and an exuberant imagination. A collection of his speeches, with a memoir, is in preparation by his son-in-law, Luther R. Marsh. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 683.

 

 

STEWART, Archibald, Madison County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39

 

 

STEWART, Austin, see STEWARD, Austin

 

 

STEWART, James W., African American, businessman, anti-slavery activist.  Husband of abolitionist Maria W. Stewart. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 524)

 

 

STEWART, John E., African American, abolitionist, publisher of The African Sentinel and Journal of Liberty, founded 1831, Albany, New York (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 41)

 

 

STEWART, Maria W., 1803-1879, Hartford, Connecticut, free African American woman, author, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, civil rights advocate, orator.  Published Religion and Pure Principles of Morality—The Sure Foundation on Which we Must Build, in 1831. Contributor to the abolitionist newspaper, Liberator.  Also wrote, Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart (1835).  (Richardson, 1987; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 41, 289, 463-464; Yellin, 1994, pp. 4, 6-7, 10, 125, 128-129, 156-157, 206; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 524; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 656-658; Garcia, Jennifer Anne, Maria W. Stewart: America’s First Black Feminist, 1998, master’s thesis; Richardson, Marilyn, Maria W. Stewart: America’s First Black Woman Political Writer, Indiana University Press, 1988)

 

 

STEWART, Philo P., Troy, New York, abolitionist, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64

 

 

STEWART, Robert, Ross County, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1840, Vice-President, 1840-1856.

 

 

STEWART, Samuel, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

STEWART, William, Illinois, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1839.

 

 

STICKNEY, Angeline, 1830-1892, suffragist, mathematician, abolitionist.  Wife of astronomer Asaph Hall.

 

 

STICKNEY, Hannah J., abolitionist, member of the New England Non-Resistance Society (Yellin, 1994, pp. 87, 289)

 

 

STILES, Ezra, 1727-1795, clergyman, educator, anti-slavery activist.  President of Yale College and President of the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 687-688; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; Bruns, 1977, pp. 290, 293; Dumond, 1961, pp. 47, 57; Locke, 1901, pp. 40, 90, 91, 192; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 20, 481)

 

STILES, Ezra, clergyman and educator, b. in North Haven, Conn., 29 Nov., 1727; d. in New Haven, Conn., 12 May, 1795. His ancestor, John, came from Bedfordshire, England, and settled in Windsor Conn., in 1635, and John's grandson, Isaac, the father of Ezra, was graduated at Yale in 1722 and ordained pastor of the church in North Haven, then a part of New Haven, which charge he held until his death, 14 May, 1760. He published the “Prospect of the City of Jerusalem” (New London, 1742); “Looking-Glass for Changelings” (1743); “The Declaration of the Association of the County of New Haven concerning the Rev. George Whitefield” (Boston, 1745); and “The Character and Duty of Soldiers” (New London, 1755). Ezra was graduated at Yale in 1746, and in 1749 was chosen tutor there. About this time Benjamin Franklin sent an electric apparatus to Yale, and, becoming interested in the new science, Mr. Stiles made some of the first experiments in electricity in New England. Having studied theology, he was licensed in 1749, and in April, 1750, preached to the Housatonic Indians in Stockbridge Mass., but, owing to religious doubt, resolved to abandon the ministry for the law, and, being admitted to the bar in 1753, practised for two years in New Haven. In February, 1755, he delivered a Latin oration in honor of Dr. Franklin on the occasion of his visit to Yale, and formed a friendship with Franklin that lasted until death. In 1756 he became pastor of the 2d church in Newport, R. I., and during his residence there, in addition to his professional duties, devoted himself to literary and scientific research, corresponding with learned men in almost every part of the world. In 1767 he began the study of Hebrew and other Oriental languages. His congregation having been scattered by the occupation of Newport by the British, he removed in 1777 to Portsmouth, N. H., to become pastor of the North church, and thence to New Haven, to accept the presidency of Yale college, which post he held from 23 June, 1778, until his death, serving also as professor of ecclesiastical history, and after the death of Prof. Naphtali Daggett as professor of divinity, also lecturing on philosophy and astronomy. He was accounted, both at home and abroad, as the most learned and accomplished divine of his clay in this country. He received the degrees of A. M. from Harvard in 1754, and that of S. T. D. from Edinburgh in 1765, Dartmouth in 1780, and Princeton in 1784. Princeton also gave him the degree of LL. D. in the last-named year. His publications are “Oratio Funebris pro Exequis Jonathan Law”, (New London, 1751); “Discourse on the Christian Union” (Boston, 1761; 2d ed., 1791); “Discourse on Saving Knowledge” (Newport, 1770); “The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor," a sermon before the legislature (Hartford, 1783); “Account of the Settlement of Bristol , R. I.” (Providence, 1785); and “History of Three of the Judges of Charles I., Major-General Whalley, Major-General Goffe, and Col. Dixwell, etc., with an Account of Mr. Theophilus Whale, of Narragansett,” who was supposed to have been also one of the judges (Hartford, 1794). Dr. Stiles left unfinished an “Ecclesiastical History of New England.” His diary and forty-five volumes of manuscripts are preserved in the library of Yale. His daughter, Mary, married Dr. Abiel Holmes, who wrote his “Life” (Boston, 1798). See also the “Life of Ezra Stiles,” by James Luce Kingsley, in Sparks’s “American Biography.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 687-688.

 

 

STILL, William, 1821-1902, African American, abolitionist, writer.  “Conductor” on the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia area, 1851-1861.  Member of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  Wrote fugitive slave narratives.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 689; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 22; Mabee, 1970, pp. 108, 270, 273, 275, 279, 287, 288, 289, 292, 338, 339, 414n3, 415n18; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 53, 74, 204, 307, 464, 482, 489; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 775; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 313-314; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 10, p. 536)

 

STILL, William, philanthropist, b. in Shamony, Burlington co., N. J., 7 Oct., 1821. He is of African descent, and was brought up on a farm. Coming to Philadelphia in 1844, he obtained a clerkship in 1847 in the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-slavery society. He was chairman and corresponding secretary of the Philadelphia branch of the “underground railroad” in 1851-'61, and busied himself in writing out the narratives of fugitive slaves. His writings constitute the only full account of the organization with which he was connected. Mr. Still sheltered the wife, daughter, and sons of John Brown while he was awaiting execution in Charlestown, Va. During the civil war he was commissioned post-sutler at Camp William Penn for colored troops, and was a member of the Freedmen's aid union and commission. He is vice-president and chairman of the board of managers of the Home for aged and infirm colored persons, a member of the board of trustees of the Soldiers' and sailors' orphans' home, and of other charitable institutions. In 1885 he was sent by the presbytery of Philadelphia as a commissioner to the general assembly at Cincinnati. He was one of the original stockholders of “The Nation,” and a member of the Board of trade of Philadelphia. His writings include “The Underground Rail-Road” (Philadelphia, 1878); “Voting and Laboring”; and “Struggle for the Rights of the Colored People of Philadelphia.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 689.

 

 

STOCKING, Samuel, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-1835.

 

 

STOCKTON, Robert Field, Lieutenant, U.S. Navy.  Supported African colonization and the American Colonization Society.  Assigned to the U.S. Navy schooner on its expedition to establish a colony in Africa.  (Burin, 2005, pp. 15, 141; Campbell, 1971, pp. 8, 21; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 694-695; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 16, 57, 63-66, 85, 157)

 

STOCKTON, Robert Field, naval officer, b. in Princeton, N. J., 20 Aug., 1795; d. there, 7 Oct., 1866, studied at Princeton college, but before completing his course he entered the U. S. navy as a midshipman, 1 Sept., 1811. He joined the frigate “President” at Newport, 14 Feb., 1812, and made several cruises in that ship with Com. Rodgers, with whom he went as aide to the “Guerrière” at Philadelphia; but, as the ship was unable to go to sea, Rodgers took his crew to assist in defending Baltimore. Before the arrival of the British, Stockton went to Washington and became the aide of the secretary of the navy, after which he resumed his post with Com. Rodgers and took part in the operations at Alexandria. He then went with Rodgers to Baltimore and had command of 300 sailors in the defence of that city against the British army. He was highly commended, and promoted to lieutenant, 9 Sept., 1814. On 18 May, 1815, he sailed in the “Guerrière,” Decatur's flag-ship, for the Mediterranean after the declaration of war with Algiers, but he was transferred soon afterward to the schooner “Spitfire” as 1st lieutenant, in which vessel he participated in the capture of the Algerine frigate “Mahouda,” and led the boarders at the capture of the Algerine brig “Esledio” in June, 1815. In February, 1816, he joined the ship-of-the-line “Washington” and made another cruise in the Mediterranean, in the course of which he was transferred to the ship “Erie,” of which he soon became executive officer. The American officers very often had disputes with British officers, and frequent duels took place. At one time in Gibraltar, Stockton had accepted challenges to fight all the captains of the British regiment in the garrison, and several meetings took place. In one case after wounding his adversary he escaped arrest by knocking one of the guard from his horse, which he seized and rode to his boat. Stockton came home in command of the “Erie” in 1821. Shortly after his return the American colonization society obtained his services to command the schooner “Alligator” for the purpose of founding a colony on the west coast of Africa. He sailed in the autumn of 1821, and after skilful diplomatic conferences obtained a concession of a tract of territory near Cape Mesurado, which has since become the republic of Liberia. In November, 1821, the Portuguese letter-of-marque “Mariana Flora” fired on the “Alligator,” which she mistook for a pirate. After an engagement of twenty minutes the Portuguese vessel was taken and the capture was declared legal, though the prize was returned by courtesy to Portugal. On a subsequent cruise in the “Alligator” he captured the French slaver “Jeune Eugenie,” by which action the right to seize slavers under a foreign flag was first established as legal. He also captured several piratical vessels in the West Indies. From 1826 until December, 1838, he was on leave, and resided at Princeton, N. J. He organized the New Jersey colonization society, became interested in the turf, and imported from England some of the finest stock of blooded horses. He also took an active part in politics, and became interested in the Delaware and Raritan canal, for which he obtained the charter that had originally been given to a New York company, and vigorously prosecuted the work. His whole fortune and that of his family were invested in the enterprise, which was completed, notwithstanding the opposition of railroads and a financial crisis, by which he was obliged to go to Europe to negotiate a loan. He retained his interest in this canal during his life, and the work stands as an enduring monument to his energy and enterprise. In December, 1838, he sailed with Com. Isaac Hull in the flag-ship “Ohio” as fleet-captain of the Mediterranean squadron, being promoted to captain on 8 Dec. He returned in the latter part of 1839, and took part in the presidential canvass of 1840 in favor of Gen. William Henry Harrison. After John Tyler became president, Stockton was offered a seat in the cabinet as secretary of the navy, which he declined. The U. S. steamer “Princeton” (see ERICSSON, JOHN) was built under his supervision, and launched at Philadelphia early in 1844. He was appointed to command the ship, and brought her to Washington for the inspection of officials and members of congress. On a trial-trip down the Potomac river, when the president, cabinet, and a distinguished company were on board, one of the large guns burst and killed the secretary of state, secretary of the navy, the president’s father-in-law, and several of the crew, while a great many were seriously injured. A naval court of inquiry entirely exonerated Capt. Stockton. Shortly after this event he sailed in the “Princeton” as bearer of the annexation resolutions to the government of Texas. In October, 1845, he went in the frigate “Congress” from Norfolk to serve as commander-in-chief of the Pacific squadron, on the eve of the Mexican war. He sailed around Cape Horn to the Sandwich islands, and thence to Monterey, where he found the squadron in possession under Com. John D. Sloat, whom Stockton relieved. News of the war had been received by the squadron before his arrival, and Monterey and San Francisco were captured. Stockton assumed command of all American forces on the coast by proclamation, 23 July, 1846. He organized a battalion of Americans in California and naval brigades from the crews of the ships. Col. John C. Frémont also co-operated with him. He sent Frémont in the “Cyane” to San Diego, while he landed at Santa Barbara and marched thirty miles with the naval brigade to the Mexican capital of California, the city of Los Angeles, of which he took possession on 13 Aug. He then organized a civil government for the state, and appointed Col. Frémont governor. Rumors of a rising of the Indians compelled him to return to the north in September. The force that he left at Los Angeles was besieged by the Mexicans in his absence, and Stockton was obliged to sail to San Diego after finding all quiet in the northern part of California. The Mexicans had also recaptured San Diego. He landed at that place, drove out the enemy, and sent a force to the rescue of Gen. Stephen W. Kearny, who had been defeated by the Mexicans on the way to San Diego. Gen. Kearny, with sixty dragoons, then served under Stockton’s orders, and the force proceeded to Los Angeles, 150 miles distant. An engagement took place at San Gabriel on 8 Jan., 1847, followed by the battle of La Mesa the next day, in which the Mexicans were routed. Col. Frémont had raised an additional force of Californians, by which the force under Stockton amounted to more than 1,000 men. Negotiations were opened with the Mexican governor, and the entire province of California was ceded to the United States and evacuated by the Mexican authorities. The treaty with Mexico was subsequently confirmed. Gen. Kearny raised a dispute with Stockton for his assumption of command over military forces, but Stockton's course was sustained by virtue of his conquest. On 17 Jan., 1847, he returned to San Diego, and then sailed to Monterey, where he was relieved by Com. William B. Shubrick. Stockton returned home overland during the summer. He was the recipient of honors by all parties, and the legislature of New Jersey gave him a vote of thanks and a reception. The people of California, in recognition of his services, named for him the city of Stockton, and also one of the principal streets of San Francisco. On 28 May, 1850, he resigned from the navy in order to settle his father-in-law’s estate in South Carolina and attend to his private interests. He continued to take part in politics, was elected to the U. S. senate, and took his seat, 1 Dec., 1851, but resigned, 10 Jan., 1853, and retired to private life. During his brief service in the senate he introduced and advocated the bill by which flogging was abolished in the navy. He also urged measures for coast defence. After he resigned from the senate he devoted himself to the development of the Delaware and Raritan canal, of which he was president until his death. He continued to take an interest in politics, became an ardent supporter of the “American” party, and was a delegate to the Peace congress that met in Washington, 13 Feb., 1861. See his “Life and Speeches” (New York, 1856). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

STODDARD, William H., Northampton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

STONE, Anson J., , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Recording Secretary, 1843-44

 

 

STONE, Lucy, 1818-1893, women’s rights activist, abolitionist, friend of abolitionist Abby Kelley.  Agent, American Anti-Slavery Society.  Gave lectures on slavery.  Wife of abolitionist Henry Blackwell. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 702-703; Blackwell, 1930; Dumond, 1961, p. 281; Hays, 1961; Kerr, 1992; Million, 2003; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 291, 338, 465; Yellin, 1994, pp. 86, 148, 247, 260, 295-296; Blackwell, Alice Stone, Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman’s Rights. 2001; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 80; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 777-780; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 863; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 316-317)

 

STONE, Lucy, reformer, b. in West Brookfield, Mass., 13 Aug., 1818. Her grandfather was a colonel in the Revolution, and led 400 men in Shays's rebellion. Her father was a prosperous farmer. In determining to obtain a collegiate education, she was largely influenced by her desire to learn to read the Bible in the original, and satisfy herself that the texts that were quoted against the equal rights of women were correctly translated. She was graduated at Oberlin in 1847, and in the same year gave her first lecture on woman's rights in her brother's church at Gardner, Mass. She became lecturer for the Massachusetts anti-slavery society in 1848, travelling extensively in New England, the west, and Canada, and speaking also on woman's rights. In 1855 she married Henry B. Blackwell (brother of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell), a merchant of Cincinnati and an Abolitionist, retaining by his consent her own name. A few years later, while she lived in New Jersey, her property was seized for taxes, and she published a protest against “taxation without representation.” In 1869 Mrs. Stone was instrumental in forming the American woman's suffrage association. In the following year she became co-editor of the “Woman's Journal” in Boston, and from 1872 to the present time (1888) she has been editor-in-chief, with her husband and daughter as associates. Mrs. Stone again lectured in the west, in behalf of the woman suffrage amendments, in 1867-'82. She has held various offices in the national, state, and local woman suffrage associations. “Lucy Stone,” says Mrs. Stanton, “first really stirred the nation's heart on the subject of woman's wrongs.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 702-703

 

 

STONE, Thomas Treadwell, b. 1801, Waterford, Maine, clergyman, abolitionst.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 703)

 

STONE, Thomas Treadwell, clergyman, b. in Waterford, Me., 9 Feb., 1801. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1820, studied theology, and was pastor of the Congregational church at Andover, Me., in 1824-'30, of that at East Machias in 1832-'46, of the 1st church (Unitarian) at Salem, Mass., in 1846-'52, of the 1st Congregational church at Bolton, Mass., in 1852-'60, and of the 1st ecclesiastical society, Brooklyn, Conn., from 1863 till 1871, when he retired from the active duties of the ministry. He afterward removed to Bolton, Mass., where he has since resided. He received the degree of D. D. from Bowdoin in 1866, was principal of Bridgeton academy. 1830-'32, one of the early members of the Transcendental school, contributed to various religious periodicals, and published “Sermons on War” (Boston, 1829); “Sketches of Oxford County, Me.” (Portland, 1830); “Sermons” (Boston, 1854); “The Rod and the Staff” (1856); and separate sermons and addresses.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

STONE, William B., abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1848-50.

 

 

STONE, William Leete, 1792-1844, New York, author, newspaper editor, American Colonization Society (ACS), Executive Committee, 1839-1840.  Officer in the New York City auxiliary of the ACS.  Advocated the abolition of slavery by Congress.  Published anti-slavery articles in his newspapers.  Drafted petition for emancipation of slaves at the Anti-Slavery Convention in Baltimore in 1825.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 705; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 90; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 73, 135)

 

STONE, William Leete, author, b. in New Paltz, N. Y., 20 April, 1792; d. in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 15 Aug., 1844. His father, William, was a soldier of the Revolution and afterward a Presbyterian clergyman, who was a descendant of Gov. William Leete. The son removed to Sodus, N. Y., in 1808, where he assisted his father in the care of a farm. The country was at that time a wilderness, and the adventures of young Stone during his early pioneer life formed material that he afterward wrought into border tales. At the age of seventeen he became a printer in the office of the Cooperstown “Federalist,” and in 1813 he was editor of the Herkimer “American,” with Thurlow Weed as his journeyman. Subsequently he edited the “Northern Whig” at Hudson, N. Y., and in 1817 the Albany “Daily Advertiser.” In 1818 he succeeded Theodore Dwight in the editorship of the Hartford “Mirror.” While at Hartford, Jonathan M. Wainwright (afterward bishop), Samuel G. Goodrich (Peter Parley), Isaac Toucey, and himself alternated in editing a literary magazine called “The Knights of the Round Table.” He also edited while at Hudson “The Lounger,” a literary periodical which was noted for its pleasantry and wit. In 1821 he succeeded Zachariah Lewis in the editorship of the New York “Commercial Advertiser,” becoming at the same time one of its proprietors, which place he held until his death. Brown university gave him the degree of A. M. in 1825. Mr. Stone always advocated in its columns the abolition of slavery by congressional action, and at the great anti-slavery convention at Baltimore in 1825 he originated and drew up the plan for slave emancipation which was recommended at that time to congress for adoption. In 1824 his sympathies were strongly enlisted in behalf of the Greeks in their struggles for independence, and, with Edward Everett and Dr. Samuel G. Howe, was among the first to draw the attention of the country to that people and awaken sympathy in their behalf. In 1825, with Thurlow Weed, he accompanied Lafayette on his tour through part of the United States. He was appointed by President Harrison minister to the Hague, but was recalled by Tyler. Soon after the Morgan tragedy (see MORGAN, WILLIAM) Mr. Stone, who was a Freemason, addressed a series of letters on “Masonry and Anti-Masonry” to John Quincy Adams, who in his retirement at Quincy had taken interest in the anti-Masonic movement. In these letters, which were afterward collected and published (New York, 1832), the author maintained that Masonry should be abandoned, chiefly because it had lost its usefulness. The writer also cleared away the mists of slander that had gathered around the name of De Witt Clinton, and by preserving strict impartiality he secured that credence which no ex-parte argument could obtain, however ingenious. In 1838 he originated and introduced a resolution in the New York historical society directing a memorial to be addressed to the New York legislature praying for the appointment of an historical mission to the governments of England and Holland for the recovery of such papers and documents as were essential to a correct understanding of the colonial history of the state. This was the origin of the collection known as the “New York Colonial Documents” made by John Romeyn Brodhead, who was sent abroad for that purpose by Gov. William H. Seward in the spring of 1841. He was the first superintendent of public schools in New York city, and while holding the office, in 1844, had a discussion with Archbishop Hughes in relation to the use of the Bible in the public schools. Although the influence of Col. Stone (as he was familiarly called, from having held that rank on Gov. Clinton's staff) extended throughout the country, it was felt more particularly in New York city. He was active in religious enterprises and benevolent associations. His works are “History of the Great Albany Constitutional Convention of 1821” (Albany, 1822); “Narrative of the Grand Erie Canal Celebration,” prepared at the request of the New York common council (New York, 1825); “Tales and Sketches,” founded on aboriginal and Revolutionary traditions. (2 vols., 1834); “Matthias and His Impostures” (1833); “Maria Monk and the Nunnery of the Hotel Dieu,” which put an end to an extraordinary mania (see MONK, MARIA) (1836); “Ups and Downs in the Life of a Distressed Gentleman,” a satire on the fashionable follies of the day (1836); “Border Wars of the American Revolution” (1837); “Life of Joseph Brant” (1838); “Letters on Animal Magnetism” (1838); “Life of Red Jacket” (1840; new ed., with memoir of the author by his son, William L. Stone, 1866); “Poetry and History of Wyoming,” including Thomas Campbell's “Gertrude of Wyoming” (1841; with index, Albany, 1864); and “Uncas and Miantonomoh”(1842).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

STORRS, George, New Hampshire, Montpelier, Vermont, Methodist clergyman, anti-slavery agent, abolitionist.  Member of the New Hampshire Conference, which founded an anti-slavery group in 1835.  Storrs was a Manager, 1835-1836, and a Vice President 1835-1837, of the American Anti-Slavery Society and a Member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1841.  He was censured by the Methodist Church for his anti-slavery activities in 1836.  He was also arrested by authorities for “disturbing the peace.”  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 187, 245, 392n19)

 

 

STORRS, Nathan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

STORUM, William H., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

STOW, Baron, 1801-1869, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman, abolitionist, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.  Stow was a Vice President of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1834-1836.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V., p. 713; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 114)

 

STOW, Baron, clergyman, b. in Croydon, N. H., 16 June, 1801; d. in Boston, Mass., 27 Dec., 1869. He was graduated at Columbian college, Georgetown, D. C., in 1825, and in 1827 was ordained to the ministry in Portsmouth, N. H., where he was settled as pastor of the Baptist church. In 1832 he was called to the pastorate of the Baldwin place Baptist chnrch in Boston, in which connection he had a successful ministry of sixteen years. At the close of this term of service he became pastor of the Rowe street (now Clarendon avenue) church, and continued in this relation until 1867, when he retired from regular ministerial work. He twice visited Europe for the benefit of his health. Dr. Stow performed a large amount of work as a member of the executive committee of the American missionary union. He was a graceful and vigorous writer, as well as one of the most eloquent and successful preachers of his denomination. He was one of the compilers of the “Psalmist,” a hymnal (1849), and editor of “Daily Manna” and the “Missionary Enterprise” (1846), a volume of sermons on missions, to which he contributed one of great merit. He was the author of “Memoir of Harriet Dow” (Boston, 1832); “History of the Baptist Mission to India” (1835); “History of the Danish Mission on the Coast of Coromandel” (1837); “Daily Manna” (1842); “The Whole Family in Heaven and Earth” (1845); “Christian Brotherhood” (1859); and “First Things” (1859). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 713.

 

 

STOWE, Calvin Ellis, 1802-1866, clergyman, husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 713; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 196, 467)

 

STOWE, Calvin Ellis, clergyman, b. in Natick, Mass., 6 April, 1802; d. in Hartford, Conn., 22 Aug., 1886. His ancestors came from London to Boston in 1634. Mr. Stowe was a lad of six years when his father died, leaving a widow and two boys to struggle with poverty, and at the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a paper-maker. He was early distinguished for his insatiable craving for books, and acquired the rudiments of Latin by studying at odd moments during his apprentice-ship in the paper-mill. His earnest desire and determined efforts to gain an education attracted the attention of benevolent people, who resolved to assist him, and in November, 1820, he was sent to the academy in Gorham, Me. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1824, remained there one year as librarian and instructor, and in September, 1825, entered the theological seminary at Andover, Mass. In the seminary, at the instigation of Prof. Moses Stuart, he completed a scholarly translation of Jahn's “Hebrew Commonwealth” (Andover, 1828; 2 vols., London, 1829). In 1828 he was graduated, and in the following year he became editor of the Boston “Recorder,” the oldest religious paper in the United States. In addition to his editorial labors, he published a translation from the Latin, with notes, of “Lowth's Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews” (1829). In 1830 he was appointed professor of Greek in Dartmouth, and he married in 1832 Eliza, daughter of Rev. Bennett Tyler, of Portland, Me. The same year he removed to Walnut Hills, near Cincinniiti, Ohio, having been called to the chair of sacred literature in Lane theological seminary. In August, 1834, his wife died without children, and in January, 1836, he married Harriet Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Lyman Beecher, the president of the seminary. Prof. Stowe became convinced by his experience as an instructor that the great need of the west at that time was an efficient common-school system, and, without neglecting his professional duties, he devoted himself heart and soul to this work. In May, 1836, he sailed for England, primarily to purchase a library for Lane seminary, but he received at the same time an official appointment from the state legislature to visit as agent the public schools of Europe, particularly those of Prussia. On his return he published his “Report on Elementary Education in Europe.” In 1850 Prof. Stowe accepted a professorship in Bowdoin, and in 1852 he was appointed to fill the chair of sacred literature at Andover seminary. In 1853 and 1856 he visited Europe with Mrs. Stowe. In 1864, owing to failing health and increasing infirmities, he resigned his professorship and removed to Hartford, Conn. Besides the works mentioned above, he published “Introduction to the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible” (Cincinnati, 1835); “The Religions Element in Education,” a lecture (1844); “The Right Interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures,” inaugural address (Andover, 1853); and “Origin and History of the Books of the Bible, both Canonical and Apocryphal” (Hartford, 1867). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 713.

 

 

STOWE, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896, author, reformer, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852  (Adams, 1989; Crozier, 1969; Gerson, 1965; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 466-468; Wagenknecht, 1965; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 713-715; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 115; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20, p. 906; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 660-664)

 

STOWE, Harriet Elizabeth Beecher, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 14 June, 1812, is the third daughter and sixth child of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher. When she was a mere child of four years, Mrs. Beecher died, yet she never ceased to influence the lives of her children. Mrs. Stowe writes: “Although my mother's bodily presence disappeared from our circle, I think that her memory and example had more influence in moulding her family than the living presence of many mothers.” After her death, Mrs. Stowe was placed under the care of her grandmother at Guilford, Conn. Here she listened, with untiring interest, to the ballads of Sir Walter Scott and the poems of Robert Burns. The “Arabian Nights,” also, was to her a dream of delight—an enchanted palace, through which her imagination ran wild. After her father's second marriage, her education was continued at the Litchfield academy under the charge of Sarah Pierce and John Brace. Of Mr. Brace and his methods of instruction Mrs. Stowe ever speaks with the greatest enthusiasm. “Mr. Brace exceeded all teachers that I ever knew in the faculty of teaching composition,” she writes. “Much of the inspiration and training of my early days consisted not in the things I was supposed to be studying, but in hearing, while seated unnoticed at my desk, the conversation of Mr. Brace with the older classes.” Nor, indeed, were the influences in her home less stimulating to the intellect. Dr. Beecher, like the majority of the Calvinistic divines of his day, had his system of theology vast and comprehensive enough to embrace the fate of men and angels, and to fathom the counsels of the Infinite. His mind was kept in a state of intense and joyous intellectual activity by constantly elaborating, expounding, and defending this system. Consequently his children grew up in an atmosphere surcharged with mental and moral enthusiasm. There was no trace of morbid melancholy or ascetic gloom in Dr. Beecher. He was sound in body, sound in mind, and the religious influence which he exerted on the minds of his children was healthy and cheerful. Under such circumstances it is not surprising to find a bright and thoughtful child of twelve years writing a school composition on the profound theme “Can the Immortality of the Soul be proved from the Light of Nature?” The writer took the negative side of the question, and argued with such power and originality that Dr. Beecher, when it was read in his presence, not knowing the author, asked with emphasis, “Who wrote that?” “Your daughter, sir,” quickly answered Mr. Brace. Says Mrs. Stowe, speaking of this event: “It was the proudest moment of my life. There was no mistaking father's face when he was pleased, and to have interested him was past all juvenile triumphs.”

Dr. Beecher read with enthusiasm, and encouragecl his children to read, both Byron and Scott. When nine or ten years of age, Mrs. Stowe was deeply impressed by reading Byron's “Corsair.” “I shall nevar forget how it electrified and thrilled me,” she writes. “I went home absorbed and wondering about Byron, and after that listened to everything that father and mother said at table about him.” Byron's death made an enduring, but at the same time solemn and painful, impression on her mind. She was eleven years old at the time, and usually did not understand her father's sermons, but the one that he preached on this occasion she remembers perfectly, and it has had a deep and lasting influence on her life. At the time of the Missouri agitation Dr. Beecher's sermons and prayers were burdened with the anguish of his soul for the cause of the slave. His passionate appeals drew tears down the hardest faces of the old farmers who listened to them. Night and morning, in family devotions, he appealed to heaven for “poor, oppressed, bleeding Africa, that the time of deliverance might come.” The effect of such sermons and prayers on the mind of an imaginative and sensitive child can be easily conceived. They tended to make her, what she has been from earliest childhood, the enemy of all slavery. In 1824, when thirteen years of age, Mrs. Stowe went to Hartford to attend the school that had been established there by her eldest sister, Catherine. Here she studied Latin, read Ovid and Virgil, and wrote metrical translations of the former, which displayed a very respectable knowledge of Latin, a good command of English, with considerable skill in versification. At the age of fourteen she taught with success a class in “Butler's Analogy,” and gained a good reading knowledge of French and Italian. As scholar and teacher she remained with her sister in Hartford till the autumn of 1832, when both removed with their father to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Dr. Beecher assumed the presidency of Lane theological seminary and the pastorate of the 2d Presbyterian church. At this time Mrs. Stowe compiled an elementary geography for a western publisher, which was extensively used, and again engaged in teaching with her sister in Cincinnati. She wrote lectures for her classes in history, and, as a member of a literary club, called the Semi-Colon, humorous sketches and poems.

In January, 1836, she married Mr. Stowe. During her residence in Cincinnati she frequently visited the slave states, and acquired the minute knowledge of southern life that was so conspicuously displayed in her subsequent writings. Fugitive slaves were frequently sheltered in her house, and assisted by her husband and brothers to escape to Canada. During the riots in 1836, when James G. Birney's press was destroyed and free negroes were hunted like wild beasts through the streets of Cincinnati, only the distance from the city and the depths of mud saved Lane seminary and the Yankee Abolitionists at Walnut Hills from a like fate. Many a night Mrs. Stowe sank into uneasy slumber, expecting to be roused by the howlings of an angry mob, led by the agents of exasperated and desperate slave-holders. In 1849 Mrs. Stowe published “The Mayflower, or Short Sketches of the Descendants of the Pilgrims” (New York; new ed., with additions, Boston, 1855), being a collection of papers which she had from time to time contributed to various periodicals. In 1850 she removed with her husband and family to Brunswick, Me., where the former had just been called to a professorship in Bowdoin. It was at the height of the excitement caused by the passage of the fugitive-slave law. It seemed to her as if slavery were about to extend itseif over the free states. She conversed with many benevolent, tender-hearted, Christian men and women, who were blind and deaf to all arguments against it, and she concluded that it was because they did not realize what slavery really meant. She determined, if possible, to make them realize it, and, as a result of this determination, wrote “Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life among the Lowly.” In the mean time Prof. Stowe was appointed to the chair of biblical literature in the theological seminary at Andover. Mass., and removed thither with his family about the time that this remarkable book was published. Neither Mrs. Stowe nor any of her friends had the least conception of the future that awaited her book. She was herself very despondent. It does not seem to have been very widely read when it appeared in the “National Era,” at Washington, D. C., from June, 1851, till April, 1852, before it was issued in book-form (Boston, 1852). Mrs. Stowe says: “It seemed to me that there was no hope; that nobody would hear; that nobody would read, nobody would pity; that this frightful system which had pursued its victims into the free states might at last threaten them even in Canada.” Nevertheless, nearly 500,000 copies of this work were sold in the United States alone in the five years following its publication. It has been translated into Armenian, Bohemian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Illyrian, Polish, Portuguese, modern Greek, Russian, Servian, Spanish, Swedish, Wallachian, Welsh, and other languages. These versions are to be found in the British museum in London, together with the most extensive collection of the literature of this book. In reply to the abuse and recrimination that its publication called forth, Mrs. Stowe published, in 1853, “A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, presenting the Original Facts and Documents upon which the Story is founded, together with Corroborative Statements verifying the Truth of the Work.” She also wrote “A Peep into Uncle Tom's Cabin, for Children” (1853). The story has been dramatized in various forms; once by the author as “The Christian Slave; a Drama” (1855). The character of Uncle Tom was suggested by the life of Josiah Henson (q. v.).

 So reduced was Mrs. Stowe's health by her severe and protracted labors that complete rest and change of scene became necessary. Consequently, in the spring of 1853, accompanied by her husband and brother, the Rev. Charles Beecher, she sailed for England. In the following year appeared “Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands,” a collection of letters of Mrs. Stowe and. her brother during their travels in Europe (2 vols., Boston, 1854). In 1856 she published “Dred, a Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.” The same book was reissued, in 1866, under the title “Nina Gordon,” but has now been again issued under the original title. About this time Mrs. Stowe made a second visit to England, and an extended tour of the continent. In the judgment of some critics, by far the ablest work that has come from Mrs. Stowe's pen, in a purely literary point of view, is the “Minister's Wooing” (New York, 1859). It was first given to the public as a serial in the “Atlantic Monthly,” and James Russell Lowell said of it: “We do not believe that there is any one who, by birth, breeding, and natural capacity, has had the opportunity to know New England so well as she, or who has the peculiar genius so to profit by the knowledge. Already there have been scenes in the ‘Minister's Wooing’ that, in their lowness of tone and quiet truth, contrast as charmingly with the timid vagueness of the modern school of novel-writers as the ‘Vicar of Wakefield’ itself; and we are greatly mistaken if it do not prove to be the most characteristic of Mrs. Stowe's works, and that on which her fame will chiefly rest with posterity.” Mrs. Stowe received letters containing similar expressions of commendation from William E. Gladstone, Charles Kingsley, and Bishop Whately.

In 1864 Prof. Stowe resigned his professorship at Andover and removed to Hartford, Conn., where the family have since resided, making their winter home in Mandarin, Fla., until Prof. Stowe's increasing infirmities made the journey no longer possible. In 1869 Mrs. Stowe published “OldTown Folks,” a tale of New England life, and in September of the same year, moved thereto by reading the Countess Guiccioli's “Recollections of Lord Byron,” contributed a paper to the “Atlantic Monthly” on “The True Story of Lady Byron's Life.” In reply to the tempest of adverse criticism that this paper evoked, she published “Lady Byron vindicated: a History of the Byron Controversy” (Boston, 1869). Her seventieth birthday was celebrated with a garden party, mainly of literary people, in Cambridge, Mass. She spent the summer of 1888, in failing health, at North Haven, Long Island. George Sand has paid the following tribute to the genius of Mrs. Stowe: '”I cannot say she has talent as one understands it in the world of letters, but she has genius as humanity feels the need of genius—the genius of goodness, not that of the man of letters, but of the saint. . . . Pure, penetrating, and profound, the spirit that thus fathoms the recesses of the human soul.” The accompanying steel engraving represents Mrs. Stowe as she appeared in middle life; the vignette, at threescore and ten.

Besides the works that have been mentioned, Mrs. Stowe has written “Geography for my Children” (Boston, 1855); “Our Charley, and what to do with him” (1858); “The Pearl of Orr's Island; a Story of the Coast of Maine” (1862); “Agnes of Sorrento” (1862); “Reply on Behalf of the Women of America to the Christian Address of many Thousand Women of Great Britain” (1863); “The Ravages of a Carpet” (1864); “House and Home Papers, by Christopher Crowfield” (1864); “Religious Poems” (1865); “Stories about our Dogs” (1865); “Little Foxes” (1865); “Queer Little People” (1867); “Daisy's First Winter, and other Stories” (1867); “The Chimney Corner, by Christopher Crowfield” (1868); “Men of our Times” (Hartford, 1868); “The American Woman's Home,” with her sister Catherine (Philadelphia, 1869); “Little Pussy Willow” (Boston, 1870); “Pink and White Tyranny” (1871); “Sam Lawson's Fireside Stories” (1871); “My Wife and I” (1872); “Palmetto Leaves” (1878); “Betty's Bright Idea, and other Tales” (1875); “We and Our Neighbors” (1875); “Footsteps of the Master” (1876); “Bible Heroines” (1878); “Poganuc People” (1878); and “A Dog's Mission” (1881). Most of these works have been republished abroad. There is also a selection from her writings entitled “Golden Fruit in Silver Baskets” (London, 1859). In 1868 she became co-editor with Donald G. Mitchell of “Hearth and Home” in New York. Her life will be written by her son, the Rev. Charles Edward Stowe, who is pastor of Windsor avenue Congregational church in Hartford, Conn. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 713-715.

 

 

STREETER, Sereno W., abolitionist, agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Ohio Area.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 184)

 

 

STRONG, Butler, Wethersfield, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1852.

 

 

STRONG, C. B., Putnam County, Georgia, judge, Supreme Courts of Georgia.  Member of the Putnam County auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

STUART, Charles, 1783-1865, author, anti-slavery agent, abolitionist.  Worked with abolitionist leader Gerrit Smith. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 728; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 162; Dumond, 1961, pp. 169, 173, 180)

 

STUART, Charles, author, b. in Jamaica, West Indies, about 1783; d. near Lake Simcoe, Canada, in 1865. His father was a British officer, who fought at Bunker Hill and in other battles of the Revolution, and was subsequently stationed in the West Indies. The son at the age of eighteen, when living at Belfast, Ireland, received a lieutenant's commission in the Madras army. He was promoted captain, received a severe wound in an encounter with native insurgents, and after thirteen years' service, returned to England, and was retired with a pension. Some time later he received a grant of land on Lake Simcoe, and was commissioned as a local magistrate. About 1822 he settled in Utica, N. Y., as principal of the academy, which he taught for several years. From that period he spent much of his time in the United States. He was one of the early emancipationists, and took part with Gerrit Smith in anti-slavery meetings. Capt. Stuart was the author of several pamphlets that were published by the British and foreign anti-slavery society, the most effective of which was “Prejudice Vincible,” which was reprinted in this country. He published a volume of short poems, and a religious novel entitled “Parraul of Lum Sing, or the Missionary and the Mountain Chiefs.” His principal other works were “The West India Question: Immediate Emancipation would be Safe and Profitable” (New Haven, 1833); “Memoirs of Granville Sharp” (New York, 1836); and “Oneida and Oberlin: the Extirpation of Slavery in the United States” (Bristol, 1841). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 728.

 

 

STUART, Robert, Detroit, Michigan, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1839-1840.

 

 

STULL, John I., charter member of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 258n14)

 

 

STURGE, Joseph, 1793-1859, English author, member of the Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  Visited USA to study slavery in 1841.  Wrote, Visit to the United States in 1841 (Boston, 1842; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 733; Richard, 1864)

 

STURGE, Joseph, English author, b. in Elverton, Gloucestershire, England, in 1793; d. in Birmingham, 1 May, 1859. He was a member of the Society of Friends, established himself as a corn-factor in Birmingham in 1820, acquired great wealth, and devoted himself, among other philanthropic objects, to the abolition of slavery. To familiarize himself with the subject of slavery, he visited the West Indies in 1837, and four years later the United States. He published “The West Indies in 1837” (London, 1838), and “Visit to the United States in 1841” (Boston, 1842). The “Memoirs of Joseph Sturge” were written by Henry Richard (London, 1864). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 733. 

 

 

STURGES, Daniel, Milledgeville, Georgia.  Member of the Milledgeville auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

STURGES, Jonathan, 1740-1819, lawyer.  U.S. Congressman from Connecticut.  Member of the 1st and 2nd Congress.  Served March 1789-March 1793.  Voted against Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 734; Annals of Congress, 2 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 861)

 

STURGES, Jonathan, member of congress, b. in Fairfield, Conn., 23 Aug., 1740; d. there, 4 Oct., 1819. He was graduated at Yale in 1759, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised at Fairfield. He took an active part in the pre-Revolutionary movements, and was a representative from Connecticut in the 1st and 2d congresses, serving from 4 March, 1789, till 2 March, 1793. He was a judge of the state supreme court in 1793-1805, and was a presidential elector in 1797 and 1805. Re received the degree of LL. D. from Yale in 1806. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 734.

 

 

SUGAR, Nathan, Marshalton, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1841.

 

 

SULLIVAN, Caterine M., leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 199)

 

 

SUMNER, Charles, 1811-1874, statesman, lawyer, writer, editor, educator, reformer, abolitionist leader.  U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Blue, 1994, 2005; Mabee, 1970, pp. 74, 103, 173, 178, 248, 354, 261, 299, 329, 337, 356, 368, 393n17; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 60, 62, 67-68, 89, 174, 238, 243; Potter, 1976; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 54, 59, 201-203, 298, 657-660; Sewell, 1988; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 744-750; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 214; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 783-785; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 137; Congressional Globe; Donald, David. Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Knopf, 1960.)

 

SUMNER, Charles, statesman, b. in Boston, Mass., 6 Jan., 1811; d. in Washington, D. C., 11 March, 1874. The family is English, and William Sumner, from whom Charles was descended in the seventh generation, came to America about 1635 with his wife and three sons, and settled in Dorchester, Mass. The Sumners were generally farmers. Job, grandfather of Charles, entered Harvard in 1774, but in the next year he joined the Revolutionary army, and served with distinction during the war. He was not graduated, but he received in 1785 an honorary degree from the college. He died in 1789, aged thirty-three. Charles Pinckney Sumner (b. 1776, d. 1839), father of Charles, was graduated at Harvard in 1796. He was a lawyer and was sheriff of Suffolk county from 1825 until a few days before his death. In 1810 he married Relief Jacob, of Hanover, N. H., and they had nine children, of whom Charles and Matilda were the eldest and twins. Matilda died in 1832. Sheriff Sumner was an upright, grave, formal man, of the old Puritan type, fond of literature and public life. His anti-slavery convictions were very strong, and he foretold a violent end to slavery in this country. In his family he was austere, and, as his income was small, strict economy was indispensable. Charles was a quiet boy, early matured, and soon showed the bent of his mind by the purchase for a few cents of a Latin grammar and '”Liber Primus” from a comrade at school. In his eleventh year he was placed at the Latin-school where Wendell Phillips, Robert C. Winthrop, James Freeman Clarke, and other boys, afterward distinguished men, were pupils. Sumner excelled in the classics, in general information, and in writing essays, but he was not especially distinguished. Just as he left the Latin-school for college he heard President John Quincy Adams speak in Faneuil hall, and at about the same time he heard Daniel Webster's eulogy upon Adams and Jefferson. It was in a New England essentially unchanged from the older, but refined and softened, that Sumner grew up. At the age of fifteen he was reserved and thoughtful, caring little for sports, slender, tall, and awkward. His thirst for knowledge of every kind, with singular ability and rapidity in acquiring it, was already remarkable. He had made a compend of English histoiy in eighty-six pages of a copybook, and had read Gibbon's history.

In September, 1826, he began his studies at Harvard. In the classics and history and forensics, and in belles-lettres, he was among the best scholars. But he failed entirely in mathematics. His memory was extraordinary and his reading extensive. Without dissipation of any kind and without sensitiveness to humor, generous in his judgment of his comrades, devoted to his books, and going little into society, he was a general favorite, although his college life gave no especial promise of a distinguished career. In his junior year he made his first journey from home, in a pedestrian tour with some classmates to Lake Champlain, returning by the Hudson river and the city of New York. In 1830 he was graduated, and devoted himself for a year to a wide range of reading and study in the Latin classics and in general literature. He resolutely grappled with mathematics to repair the defect in his education in that branch of study, wrote a prize essay on commerce, and listened carefully to the Boston orators, Webster, Everett, Choate, and Channing. No day, no hour, no opportunity, was lost by him in the pursuit of knowledge. His first interest in public questions was awakened by the anti-Masonic movement, which he held to be a “great and good cause,” two adjectives that were always associated in his estimate of causes and of men. Mindful of Dr. Johnson's maxim, he diligently maintained his friendships by correspondence and intercourse. On 1 Sept., 1831, he entered Harvard law-school, of which Judge Joseph Story was the chief professor. Story had been a friend of Sumner's father, and his friendly regard for the son soon ripened into an affection and confidence that never ceased. Sumner was now six feet and two inches in height, but weighing only 120 pounds, and not personally attractive. He was never ill, and was an untiring walker; his voice was strong and clear, his smile quick and sincere, his laugh loud, and his intellectual industry and his memory were extraordinary. He began the study of law with the utmost enthusiasm, giving himself a wide range, keeping careful notes of the moot-court cases, writing for the “American Jurist,” and preparing a catalogue of the library of the Law-school. He joined the temperance society of the professional schools and the college. His acquirements were already large, but he was free from vanity. His mental habit was so serious that, while his talk was interesting, he was totally disconcerted by a jest or gay repartee. He had apparently no ambition except to learn as much as he could, and his life then, as always, was pure in word and deed.

The agitation of the question of slavery had already begun. “The Liberator” was established by Mr. Garrison in Boston on 1 Jan., 1831. The “nullification movement” in South Carolina occurred while Sumner was at the Law-school. He praised President Jackson's proclamation, and saw civil war impending; but he wrote to a friend in 1832: “Politics I begin to loathe; they are for a day, but the law is for all time.” He entered the law-office of Benjamin Rand, in Boston, in January, 1834, wrote copiously for the “Jurist,” and went to Washington for the first time in April. The favor of Judge Story opened to Sumner the pleasantest houses at the capital, and his professional and gerieral accomplishments secured an ever-widening welcome. But Washington only deepened his love for the law and his aversion to politics. In September, 1834, he was admitted to the bar. During the month that he passed in Washington, Sumner described his first impression of the unfortunate race to whose welfare his life was to be devoted: “For the first time I saw slaves [on the journey through Maryland], and my worst preconception of their appearance and ignorance did not fall as low as their actual stupidity. They appear to be nothing more than moving masses of flesh, unendowed with anything of intelligence above the brutes. I have now an idea of the blight upon that part of our country in which they live.” Anticipating hearing Calhoun, he says: “He will be the last man I shall ever hear speak in Washington.” In 1835 he was appointed by Judge Story a commissioner of the circuit court of the United States and reporter of Story's judicial opinions, and he began to teach in the Law-school during the judge's absence. This service he continued in 1836-'7, and he aided in preparing a digest of the decisions of the supreme court of Maine. He wrote upon literary and legal topics, he lectured and edited and pleaded, and he was much overworked in making a bare livelihood. In 1835 his interest in the slavery question deepened. The first newspaper for which he subscribed was “The Liberator,” and he writes to Dr. Francis Lieber, then professor in the college at Columbia, S.C.: “What think you of it? [slavery] Should it longer exist? Is not emancipation practicable? We are becoming Abolitionists, at the north, fast.” The next year, 1836, his “blood boils” at an indignity offered by a slavemaster to the Boston counsel of a fugitive slave. Sumner now saw much of Channing, by whose wisdom and devotion to freedom he was deeply influenced. His articles in the “Jurist” had opened correspondence with many eminent European publicists. His friends at home were chiefly among scholars, and already Longfellow was one of his intimate companions. In the summer of 1836 he made a journey to Canada, and in December, 1837, he sailed for France.

He carried letters from distinguished Americans to distinguished Europeans, and his extraordinary diligence in study and his marvellous memory had equipped him for turning every opportunity to the best account. During his absence he kept a careful diary and wrote long letters, many of which are printed in the memoir by Edward L. Pierce, and there is no more graphic and interesting picture than they present of the social and professional life at that time of the countries he visited. Sumner remained in Paris for five months, and carefully improved every hour. He attended 150 university lectures by the most renowned professors. He walked the hospitals with the great surgeons. He frequented the courts and theatres and operas and libraries and museums. He was a guest in the most famous salons, and he saw and noted everything, not as a loiterer, but as a student. On 31 May, 1838, he arrived in England, where he remained for ten months. No American had ever been so universally received and liked, and Carlyle characteristically described him as “Popularity Sumner.” He saw and studied England in every aspect, and in April, 1839, went to Italy and devoted himself to the study of its language, history, and literature, with which, however, he was already familiar. In Rome, where he remained for some months, he met the sculptor Thomas Crawford, whom he warmly befriended. Early in October, 1839, he left Italy for Germany, in the middle of March, 1840, he was again in England, and in May, 1840, he returned to America.

He showed as yet no sign of political ambition. The “hard-cider campaign” of 1840, the contest between Harrison and Van Buren, began immediately after his return. He voted for Harrison, but without especial interest in the measures of the Whig party. In announcing to a brother, then in Europe, the result of the election, he wrote: “I take very little interest in politics.” The murder of Lovejoy in November, 1837, and the meeting in Faneuil hall, where Wendell Phillips made his memorable speech, and the local disturbances that attended the progress of the anti-slavery agitation throughout the northern states, had plainly revealed the political situation. But Sumner's letters during the year after his return from Europe do not show that the question of slavery had especially impressed him, while his friends were in the most socially delightful circles of conservative Boston. But in 1841 the assertion by Great Britain, of a right to stop any suspected slaver to ascertain her right to carry the American flag, produced great excitement. Sumner at once showed his concern for freedom and his interest in great questions of law by maintaining in two elaborate articles, published in a Boston newspaper early in 1842, the right and the justice of such an inquiry. Kent, Story, Choate, and Theodore Sedgwick approved his position. This was his first appearance in the anti-slavery controversy. In 1842 Daniel Webster, as secretary of state, wrote his letter upon the case of the “Creole,” contending that the slaves who had risen against the ship's officers should not be liberated by the British authorities at Nassau. Sumner strongly condemned the letter, and took active part in the discussion. He contended that the slaves were manumitted by the common law upon passing beyond the domain of the local law of slavery; and if this were not so, the piracy charged was an offence under the local statute and not under the law of nations, and no government could be summoned to surrender offenders against the municipal law of other governments. In April, 1842, he writes: “The question of slavery is getting to be the absorbing one among us, and growing out of this is that other of the Union.” He adjured Longfellow to write verses that should move the whole land against the iniquity. But his social relations were still undisturbed, and his unbounded admiration of Webster showed his generous mind. '”With the moral devotion of Channing,” he said of Webster, “he would be a prophet.”

In July, 1843, Sumner published in the “North American Review” an article defending Com. Alexander Slidell Mackenzie for his action in the case of the “Somers” mutiny, when a son of John C. Spencer, secretary of war, was executed. He published also a paper upon the political relations of slavery, justifying the moral agitation of the question. In this year he contributed largely to the “Law Reporter,” and taught for the last time in the Law-school. In the election of 1844 Sumner took no part. He had no special sympathy with Whig views of the tariff and the bank, and already slavery seemed to him to be the chief public question. He was a Whig, as he said in 1848, because it seemed to him the party of humanity, and John Quincy Adams was the statesman whom he most admired. He was overwhelmed with professional work, which brought on a serious illness. But his activity was unabated, and he was elected a member of various learned societies. His letters during 1844 show his profound interest in the slavery question. He speaks of the “atrocious immorality of John Tyler in seeking to absorb Texas,” and “the disgusting vindication of slavery” by Calhoun, which he regrets that he is too busy to answer. In 1845 he was deeply interested in the question of popular education, and was one of the intimate advisers of Horace Mann. Prison-discipline was another question that commanded his warmest interest, and his first public speech was made upon this subject at a meeting of the Prison-discipline society, in May, 1845. This was followed, on 4 July, by the annual oration before the civil authorities of Boston, upon “The True Grandeur of Nations.” The oration was a plea for peace and a vehement denunciation of war, delivered, in commemoration of an armed revolutionary contest, to an audience largely military and in military array. This discourse was the prototype of all Sumner's speeches. It was an elaborate treatise, full of learning and precedent and historical illustration, of forcible argument and powerful moral appeal. The effect was immediate and striking. There were great indignation and warm protest on the one hand, and upon the other sincere congratulation and high compliment. Sumner's view of the absolute wrong and iniquity of war under all circumstances was somewhat modified subsequently; but the great purpose of a peaceful solution of international disputes he never relinquished. The oration revealed to the country an orator hitherto unknown even to himself and his friends. It showed a moral conviction, intrepidity, and independence, and a relentless vigor of statement, which were worthy of the best traditions of New England. Just four months later, on 4 Nov., 1845, Sumner made in Faneuil hall his first anti-slavery speech, at a meeting of which Charles Francis Adams was chairman, to protest against the admission of Texas. This first speech had all the characteristics of the last important speech he ever made. It was brief, but sternly bold, uncompromising, aggressive, and placed Sumner at once in the van of the political anti-slavery movement. He was not an Abolitionist in the Garrisonian sense. He held that slavery was sectional, not national; that the constitution was meant to be a bond of national liberty as well as union, and nowhere countenanced the theory that there could be property in men; that it was to be judicially interpreted always in the interest of freedom; and that, by rigorous legal restriction and the moral force of public opinion, slavery would be forced to disappear. This was subsequently the ground held by the Republican party. Sumner added to his reputation by an elaborate oration at Cambridge, in August, 1846, upon “The Scholar, the Jurist, the Artist, the Philanthropist,” of which the illustrations were his personal friends, then recently dead, John Pickering, Judge Story, Washington Allston, and Dr. Channing. The reference to Channing gave him the opportunity, which he improved, to urge the duty of anti-slavery action. It was the first time that the burning question of the hour had been discussed in the scholastic seclusion of the university.

In September, 1846, at the Whig state convention held in Faneuil hall, Sumner spoke upon the “Anti-Slavery Duties of the Whig Party,” concluding with an impassioned appeal to Mr. Webster to lead the Whigs as an anti-slavery party. He sent the speech to Mr. Webster, who, in replying coolly, politely regretted that they differed in regard to political duty. In October, Sumner wrote a public letter to Robert C. Winthrop, representative in congress from Boston, censuring him severely for his vote in support of the Mexican war. He wrote as a Whig constituent of Mr. Winthrop's, and during his absence from Boston he was nominated for congress, against Mr. Winthrop, by a meeting of Whigs, including Charles Francis Adams and John A. Andrew. But he immediately and peremptorily declined, and he warmly supported Dr. Samuel G. Howe, who was nominated in his place. During this period, when “Conscience Whigs” were separating from “Cotton Whigs,” Sumner was untiring in his public activity. He spoke often, and he argued before the supreme court of the state the invalidity of enlistments for the Mexican war, and delivered a lecture upon “White Slavery in the Barbary States,” which was elaborated into a pamphlet, and was a valuable historical study of the subject. In June, 1847, a speech upon prison-discipline showed his interest in the question to be unabated. On 29 Sept., 1847, he spoke for the last time as a Whig, in the State convention at Springfield, in support of a resolution that Massachusetts Whigs would support only an anti-slavery man for the presidency. The resolution was lost, and upon the Whig nomination of Gen. Zachary Taylor, 1 June, 1848, a convention of anti-slavery men of both parties was called at Worcester on 28 June, at which Sumner, Charles Francis Adams, Samuel Hoar (who presided), and his son, E. Rockwood Hoar, with many other well-known Whigs, withdrew from the Whig party and organized the Free-soil party. “If two evils are presented to me,” said Sumner in his speech, alluding to Cass and Taylor, “I will take neither.” Sumner was chairman of the Free-soil state committee, which conducted the campaign in Massachusetts for Van Buren and Adams, nominated at the Buffalo convention. In October, 1848, he was nominated for congress in the Boston district, receiving 2,336 votes against 1,460 for the Democratic candidate. But Mr. Winthrop received 7,726, and was elected. In May, 1849, he renewed his plea for peace in an exhaustive address before the American peace society on “The War System of the Commonwealth of Nations,” and on 5 Nov., 1850, his speech, after the passage of the Fugitive-slave law, was like a war-cry for the Free-soil party, and was said to have made him senator. In the election of members of the legislature the Free-soilers and Democrats united, and at a caucus of members of the Free-soil party Sumner was unanimously selected as their candidate for U. S. senator. He was more acceptable to the Democrats because he had never been an extreme Whig, and the Democratic caucus, with almost equal unanimity, made him its candidate. The legislature then chose George S. Boutwell governor, Henry W. Cushman lieutenant-governor, and Robert Rantoul, Jr., senator for the short term. These were all Democrats. The house of representatives voted, on 14 Jan., 1851, for senator, casting 381 votes, with 191 necessary to a choice. Sumner received 186, Robert C. Winthrop 167, scattering 28, blanks 3. On 22 Jan., of 38 votes in the senate, Sumner received 23, Winthrop 14, and H. W. Bishop 1, and Sumner was chosen by the senate. The contest in the house continued for three months. Sumner was entreated to modify some expressions in his last speech; but he refused, saying that he did not desire the office, and on 22 Feb. he asked Henry Wilson, president of the senate, and the Free-soil members, to abandon him whenever they could elect another candidate. On 24 April, Sumner was elected senator by 193 votes, precisely the necessary number of the votes cast.

When he took his seat in the senate he was as distinctively the uncompromising representative of freedom and the north as Calhoun had been of slavery and the south. But it was not until 26 Aug., 1852, just after the Democratic and Whig national conventions had acquiesced in the compromises of 1850, that Sumner delivered his first important speech, “Freedom National, Slavery Sectional.” It treated the relations of the national government to slavery, and the true nature of the constitutional provision in regard to fugitives. The speech made a profound impression. The general view was accepted at once by the anti-slavery party as sound. The argument seemed to the anti-slavery sentiment to be unanswerable. Seward and Chase both described it as “great,” and it was evident that another warrior thoroughly equipped was now to be encountered by the slave power. On 23 Jan., 1854, Stephen A. Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska bill, by which the Missouri compromise was repealed, and on 21 Feb., 1854, Sumner opposed it in a speech characteristically comprehensive and exhaustive, reviewing the history of the restriction of slavery. On the eve of the passage of the bill he made a solemn and impressive protest, and his reply to assailants, 28 June, 1854, stung his opponents to madness. He was now the most unsparing, the most feared, and the most hated opponent of slavery in congress. On 17 March, 1856, Mr. Douglas introduced a bill for the admission of Kansas as a state. On 19 and 20 May, Sumner delivered a speech on the “Crime against Kansas,” which again aroused the country, and in which he spoke, in reference to the slave and free-soil factions in Kansas, of “the fury of the propagandists and the calm determination of their opponents,” who through the whole country were “marshalling hostile divisions, and foreshadowing a conflict which, unless happily averted by freedom, will become war—fratricidal, parricidal war.” It provoked the bitterest rejoinders in the senate, to which Sumner replied contemptuously. In his speech he had sharply censured Senator Butler, of South Carolina, and Senator Douglas, and two days after the delivery of the speech, as Sumner was sitting after the adjournment writing at his desk alone in the senate-chamber, Preston Smith Brooks, a relative of Butler's and a representative from South Carolina, entered the chamber, and, after speaking a few words to Sumner, struck him violently upon the head with a bludgeon, and while Sumner was trying in vain to extricate himself from the desk and seize his assailant, the blows continued until he sank bloody and senseless to the floor. This event startled the country as a presage of civil war. The excitement was universal and profound. The house of representatives refused to give the two-third vote necessary to expel Brooks, but he resigned and appealed to his constituents, and was unanimously re-elected. Sumner was long incapacitated for public service. On 3 Nov., 1856, he returned to Boston to vote, and was received with acclamation by the people and with the highest honor by the state and city authorities. On 13 Jan., 1857, he was re-elected senator, receiving all but ten votes, and on 7 March, 1857, he sailed for Europe, where he submitted to the severest medical treatment. With characteristic energy and industry, in the intervals of suffering, he devoted himself to a thorough study of the art and history of engraving.

For nearly four years he was absent from his seat in the senate, which he resumed on 5 Dec., 1859, at the opening of the session. He was still feeble, and took no part in debate until the middle of March, and on 4 June, 1860, on the question of admitting Kansas as a free state, he delivered a speech upon “The Barbarism of Slavery,” which showed his powers untouched and his ardor unquenched. Mr. Lincoln had been nominated for the presidency, and Sumner's speech was the last comprehensive word in the parliamentary debate of freedom and slavery. The controversy could now be settled only by arms. This conviction was undoubtedly the explanation of the angry silence with which the speech was heard in the senate by the friends of slavery. During the winter of secession that followed the election Sumner devoted himself to the prevention of any form of compromise, believing that it would be only a base and fatal surrender of constitutional principles. He made no speeches during the session. By the withdrawal of southern senators the senate was left with a Republican majority, and in the reconstruction of committees on 8 March, 1861, Sumner was made chairman of the committee on foreign affairs. For this place he was peculiarly fitted. His knowledge of international law, of the history of other states, and of their current politics, was comprehensive and exact, and during the intense excitement arising from the seizure of the “Trent” he rendered the country a signal service in placing the surrender of Slidell and Mason upon the true ground. (See MASON, JAMES MURRAY.) While there was universal acquiescence in the decision of the government to surrender the commissioners, there was not universal satisfaction and pride until on 9 Jan., 1862, Sumner, in one of his ablest speeches, showed incontestably that our own principles, constantly maintained by us, required the surrender. One of the chief dangers throughout the civil war was the possible action of foreign powers, and especially of England, where iron-clad rams were being built for the Confederacy, and on 10 Sept., 1863, Sumner delivered in New York a speech upon “Our Foreign Relations,” which left nothing unsaid. Happily, on 8 Sept., Lord Russell had informed the American minister, Charles Francis Adams, that the rams would not be permitted to leave English ports.

Throughout the war, both in congress and upon the platform, Sumner was very urgent for emancipation, and when the war ended he was equally anxious to secure entire equality of rights for the new citizens. But while firm upon this point, and favoring the temporary exclusion of recent Confederates from political power, he opposed the proposition to change the jury law for the trial of Jefferson Davis, and disclaimed every feeling of vengeance. He was strong in his opposition to President Andrew Johnson and his policy. But the great measure of the Johnson administration, the acquisition of Alaska by treaty, was supported by Sumner in a speech on 9 April, 1867, which is an exhaustive history of Russian America. He voted affirmatively upon all the articles of impeachment of President Johnson, which in a long opinion he declared to be one of the last great battles with slavery.

Early in the administration of President Grant, 10 April, 1869, Sumner opposed the Johnson-Clarendon treaty with England, as affording no means of adequate settlement of our British claims. In this speech he asserted the claim for indirect or consequential damages, which afterward was proposed as part of the American case at the Geneva arbitration, but was discarded. In his message of 5 Dec., 1870, President Grant, regretting the failure of the treaty to acquire Santo Domingo, strongly urged its acquisition. Sumner strenuously opposed the project on the ground that it was not the wish of the “black republic,” and that Baez, with whom, as president of the Dominican republic, the negotiation had been irregularly conducted, was an adventurer, held in his place by an unconstitutional use of the navy of the United States. Sumner's opposition led to a personal rupture with the president and the secretary of state, and to alienation from the Republican senators, in consequence of which, on 10 March, 1871, he was removed, by the Republican majority of the senate, from the chairmanship of the committee on foreign affairs. He was assigned the chairmanship of the committee on privileges and elections; but, upon his own motion, his name was stricken out. On 24 March he introduced resolutions, which he advocated in a powerful speech, severely arraigning the president for his course in regard to Santo Domingo. In December, 1871, he refused again to serve as chairman of the committee on privileges and elections. Early in 1872 he introduced a supplementary civil-rights bill, which, since January, 1870, he had vainly sought to bring before the senate. It was intended to secure complete equality for colored citizens in every relation that law could effect; but it was thought to be unwise and impracticable by other Republican senators, and as drawn by Sumner it was not supported by them. He introduced, 12 Feb., 1872, resolutions of inquiry, aimed at the administration, into the sale of arms to France during the German war. An acrimonious debate arose, during which Sumner's course was sharply criticised by some of his party colleagues, and he and Senators Trumbull, Schurz, and Fenton were known as anti-Grant Republicans.

Sumner was urged to attend the Liberal or anti-Grant Republican convention, to be held at Cincinnati, 1 May, which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency, and the chairmanship, and authority to write the platform were offered to him as inducements. But he declined, and in the senate, 31 May, declaring himself a Republican of the straitest sect, he denounced Grantism as not Republicanism in a speech implying that he could not support Grant as the presidential candidate of the party. The Republican convention, 5 June, unanimously renominated Grant, and the Democratic convention, 9 June, adopted the Cincinnati platform and candidates. In reply to a request for advice from the colored citizens of Washington, 29 July, Sumner, in a long letter, advised the support of Greeley, on the general ground that principles must be preferred to party. In a sharp letter to Speaker Blaine, 5 Aug., he set forth the reasons of the course he had taken.

But the strain of the situation was too severe. His physicians ordered him to seek recreation in Europe, and he sailed early in September, leaving the manuscript of a speech he had proposed to deliver in Faneuil hall at a meeting of Liberal Republicans. He opposed the election of Grant upon the ground that he was unfaithful to the constitution and to Republican principles, and otherwise unfitted for the presidency; and he supported Greeley as an original and unswerving Republican, nominated by Republicans, whose adoption as a candidate by the Democratic party proved the honest acquiescence of that party in the great results of the civil war. He returned from Europe in time for the opening of the session, 2 Dec., 1872. The Republican majority omitted him altogether in the arrangement of the committees, leaving him to be placed by the Democratic minority. But Sumner declined to serve upon any committee, and did not attend the Republican caucus. On the first day of the session he introduced a bill forbidding the names of battles with fellow-citizens to be continued in the army register or placed on the regimental colors of the United States. From this time he took no party part and made no political speech, pleading only for equality of civil rights for colored citizens. At the next session, 1 Dec., 1873, he was placed on several committees, not as chairman, but as one of the minority, and he did not refuse to serve, but attended no meetings. During this session the cordial relations between Sumner and the Republicans were almost wholly restored, and in Massachusetts the Republican feeling for him was very friendly. Again, promptly but vainly, 2 Dec., 1873, he asked consideration of the civil-rights bill. On 27 Jan., 1874, he made for the bill a last brief appeal, and on 11 March, 1874, after a short illness, he died. The bill that was his last effort to serve the race to whose welfare his public life had been devoted was reported, 14 April, 1874, substantially as originally drawn, and passed the senate, 22 May. But it failed in the house, and the civil-rights bill, approved 1 March, 1875, was a law of less scope than his, and has been declared unconstitutional by the supreme court.

Sumner's death was universally lamented. One of the warmest and most striking eulogies was that of Lucius Q. C. Lamar, then a representative in congress from Mississippi, who had been a sincere disciple of Calhoun and a Confederate officer, but who recognized in Sumner a kindred earnestness and fidelity. The later differences with his party were forgotten when Sumner died, and only his great service to the country in the most perilous hour, and his uncompromising devotion to the enslaved race, were proudly and enthusiastically remembered. Among American statesmen his life especially illustrates the truth he early expressed, that politics is but the application of moral principles to public affairs. Throughout his public career he was the distinctive representative of the moral conviction and political purpose of New England. His ample learning and various accomplishments were rivalled among American public men only by those of John Quincy Adams, and during all the fury of political passion in which he lived there was never a whisper or suspicion of his political honesty or his personal integrity. He was fortunate in the peculiar adaptation of his qualities to his time. His profound conviction, supreme conscientiousness, indomitable will, affluent resources, and inability to compromise, his legal training, serious temper, and untiring energy, were indispensable in the final stages of the slavery controversy, and he had them all in the highest degree. “There is no other side,” he said to a friend with fervor, and Cromwell's Ironsides did not ride into the fight more absolutely persuaded that they were doing the will of God than Charles Sumner. For ordinary political contests he had no taste, and at another time and under other circumstances he would probably have been an all-accomplished scholar or learned judge, unknown in political life. Of few men could it be said more truly than of him that he never lost a day. He knew most of the famous men and women of his time, and he was familiar with the contemporaneous political, literary, and artistic movement in every country. In public life he was often accounted a man of one idea; but his speeches upon the “Trent” case, the Russian treaty, and our foreign relations showed the fulness of his knowledge and the variety of his interest. He was dogmatic, often irritable with resolute opposition to his views, and of generous self esteem, but he was of such child-like simplicity and kindliness that the poisonous sting of vanity and malice was wanting. During the difference between Sumner and his fellow-Republicans in the senate, one of them said that he had no enemy but himself, and Sumner refused to speak to him for the rest of the session. But the next autumn his friend stepped into an omnibus in New York in which Sumner was sitting, and, entirely forgetting the breach, greeted him with the old warmth. Sumner responded as warmly, and at once the old intimacy was completely restored. From envy or any form of ill-nature he was wholly free. No man was more constant and unsparing in the warfare with slavery and in the demand of equality for the colored race; but no soldier ever fought with less personal animosity. He was absolutely fearless. During the heat of the controversy in congress his life was undoubtedly in danger, and he was urged to carry a pistol for his defence. He laughed, and said that he had never fired a pistol in his life, and, in case of extremity, before he could possibly get it out of his pocket he would be shot. But the danger was so real that, unknown to himself, he was for a long time under the constant protection of armed friends in Washington. The savage assault of Brooks undoubtedly shortened Sumner's life, but to a friend who asked him how he felt toward his assailant, he answered: “As to a brick that should fall upon my head from a chimney. He was the unconscious agent of a malign power.” Personally, in his later years, Sumner was of commanding presence, very tall, and of a stalwart frame. His voice was full, deep, and resonant, his elocution declamatory, stately, and earnest. His later speeches in the senate he read from printed slips, but his speech upon Alaska, which occupied three hours in the delivery, was spoken from notes written upon a single sheet of paper, and it was subsequently written out. Few of the bills drawn by him became laws, but he influenced profoundly legislation upon subjects in which he was most interested. He was four times successively elected to the senate, and when he died he was the senior senator of the United States in consecutive service. In October, 1866, when he was fifty-five years old, Sumner married Mrs. Alice Mason Hooper, of Boston, daughter-in-law of his friend, Samuel Hooper, representative in congress. The union was very brief, and in September, 1867, Mr. and Mrs. Sumner, for reasons that were never divulged, were separated, and they were ultimately divorced. Of the “Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner,” written by his friend and literary executor, Edward L. Pierce, two volumes, covering the period to 1845, have been published (Boston, 1877). His complete works in fifteen volumes are also published (Boston, 1870-'83). The notes by himself and his executors supply a chronology of his public career. There are several portraits of Sumner. A crayon drawing by Eastman Johnson (1846) hung in Longfellow's study, and is engraved in Pierce's memoir. A large daguerreotype (1853) is also engraved in the memoir. A crayon by William W. Story (1854) for Lord Morpeth is now at Castle Howard, Yorkshire. An oil portrait by Moses Wight (1856) is in the Boston public library, another by Morrison (1856) in the library of Harvard college. A portrait by Edgar Parker was painted several years before his death. There is a photograph in the “Memorial History of Boston”; a photograph (1869) engraved in his works; another (1871) engraved in the city memorial volume of Sumner; a full-length portrait by Henry Ulke (1873) for the Haytian government—copy presented to the state of Massachusetts by James Wormely (1884), now in the State library; a photograph (1873), the last likeness ever taken, engraved in the state memorial volume; Thomas Crawford's bust (1839) in the Boston art museum; Martin Milmore's bust (1874) in the state-house, a copy of which is in the Metropolitan art museum, New York; a bronze statue by Thomas Ball (1878) in the Public garden, Boston; and a statuette in plaster by Miss Whitney (1877), an admirable likeness. The illustration on page 747 represents Mr. Sumner's tomb in Mt. Auburn cemetery, near Boston. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 744-750.

 

 

SUNDERLAND, Reverend Le Roy, 1804-1885, Andover, Massachusetts, and New York, author, orator, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1836, 1836-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Sunderland was a member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1841.  Co-founder of Wesleyan Methodist Church. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 187, 349; Matlack, 1849, p. 162; Pease, 1965, pp. 280-297, 439-445; Sorin, 1971; Yellin, 1994, p. 43n; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 1; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 222; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 153)

 

SUNDERLAND, Le Roy, author, b. in Exeter, R. I., 18 May, 1802; d. in Quincy, Mass., 15 May, 1885. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker at East Greenwich, R. I., was converted to Methodism, became a preacher at Walpole, Mass., in 1823, and was soon known as an orator of great power. He was prominent in the temperance and anti-slavery movements, presided at the meeting in New York city in October, 1834, when the first Methodist anti-slavery society was organized, and in December wrote the “Appeal” to Methodists against slavery, which was signed by ministers of the church in New England. He was appointed a delegate to the first anti-slavery convention in the west at Cincinnati, in 1841, and to the World's convention in 1843, in London. His preaching was attended by strange phenomena. Under his first sermon the entire audience was “struck down by the power of God,” as it was then called; and ever afterward when he preached with reference to the awakening of sinners such manifestations appeared to a greater or less extent. His study of such phenomena had doubtless a determinative effect in his subsequent denial of Christianity, which he opposed during forty years preceding his death. He edited “The Watchman” in New York in 1836-'43; “The Magnet” in 1842-'3; “The Spirit World,” at Boston, in 1850-'2; and was a large contributor to various religious periodicals. He published “Biblical Institutes” (New York, 1834); “Appeal on the Subject of Slavery” (Boston, 1834); “History of the United States” (New York, 1834); “History of South America” (1834); “Testimony of God against Slavery” (Boston, 1834); “Anti-Slavery Manual” (New York, 1837); “Mormonism Exposed” (1842); “Pathetism, with Practical Instructions” (1843); “Book of Health” (1847); “Pathetism: Man considered in Respect to his Soul, Mind, Spirit” (1847); “Pathetism: Statement of its Philosophy, and its Discovery Defended” (1850); “Book of Psychology” (1852); “Theory of Nutrition and Philosophy of Healing without Medicine”; “Book of Human Nature” (1853); and “The Trance, and how it Introduced” (Boston, 1860). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 1.

 

 

SUNDERLAND, Mehitable, abolitionist, wife of Reverend Le Roy Sunderland (Yellin, 1994, p. 43n40)

 

 

SURKS, Silas, Roxbury, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1850, Executive Committee, 1850

 

 

SUTTON, John, Kentucky, clergyman, co-leader of Emancipating Baptists, Kentucky, founder of Abolition Church (Brown, 1889, p. 226; Locke, 1901, pp. 44, 90)

 

 

SWAIM, Mary A., Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1841, 1846-1853.

 

 

SWAIN, William, d. 1834, newspaper editor, Patriot, Greensborough, North Carolina, anti-slavery activist.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 95, 166)

 

 

SWAN, Caleb, abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, Easton, Massachusetts  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 3-4)

 

SWAN, Caleb, soldier, b. in Maine; d. in Washington, D. C., 20 Nov., 1809. He became an ensign in the 4th Massachusetts Continental infantry, 26 Nov., 1779, and was afterward transferred to the 8th infantry, which in 1784 became part of the 1st American regiment of infantry. On 8 May, 1792, he was appointed paymaster-general of the U. S. army, which post he held until his resignation on 30 June, 1808. He wrote “Some Account of the North western Lakes of America” (1798). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 3-4.

 

 

SWAN, James, 1754-1830, soldier, anti-slavery writer, financial agent.   Published anti-slavery tract called, “A Dissuasion to Great Britain and the Colonies, From the Slave-Trade to Africa, 1773.” (Bruns, 1977, pp. 261, 428; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 99-100; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 4; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 234)

 

SWAN, James, soldier, b. in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1754; d. in Paris, France, 18 March, 1831. He came to Boston at an early age, was a clerk there, and, espousing the patriot cause, was one of the “Boston tea-party.” He was aide-de-camp to Gen. Joseph Warren at Bunker Hill, where he was wounded, acted as treasurer and receiver-general, became captain in Ebenezer Crafts's regiment of artillery, and participated in the expedition that drove the British fleet out of Boston harbor. He was also secretary to the Massachusetts board of war, a member of the legislature in 1778, and afterward adjutant-general of the state. Being involved in debt, he went to Paris in 1787, and became known there by the publication of “Causes qui sont opposées au progrès du commerce entre la France et les États-Unis de l’Amérique” (1790). After acquiring a fortune he returned to the United States in 1795 and was noted for his charity and munificence. In 1798 he went to Europe again and engaged in large commercial operations until 1815, when, upon the suit of a German with whom he had transactions, he was arrested and thrown into the prison of St. Pelagie in Paris, where he remained until July, 1830, living in luxury and maintaining an unceasing litigation in the French courts. He published “Dissuasion from the Slave-Trade” (Boston, 1773); “On the Fisheries” (1784); “Fisheries of Massachusetts” (1786); and “Address on Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce” (1817). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI.

 

 

SWAN, Joseph Rockwell, 1802-1884, jurist, legal writer, judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, ardent abolitionist.  Overrode court judgment in U.S. District Cout of a negro prisoner convicted of violation of the Fugitive Slave Law. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 4; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 234; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 184)

 

SWAN, Joseph Rockwell, jurist, b. in Westernville, Oneida co., N. Y., 28 Dec., 1802; d. in Columbus, Ohio, 18 Dec., 1884. He was educated in Aurora, N. Y., and in 1824 removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he studied law in the office of his uncle, Judge Gustavus Swan, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Franklin and the adjoining counties. In 1830 he was made prosecuting attorney, and in 1834 he was elected judge of the court of common pleas, but he resigned this post in 1815, and practised his profession until 1854. In that year he was elected judge of the supreme court, serving until 1859, when his most important decision was delivered. The supreme court of the state, under a writ of habeas corpus, sought to override the judgment of the U. S. district court in Ohio in attempting to discharge from jail a prisoner that had been sentenced by that court for violation of the fugitive-slave law. Judge Swan decided that the state could not interfere with the action of the U. S. courts, and the discharge of the prisoner was refused. At the same time he said that if he were appealed to personally he would protect any slave from his pursuers. He was the author of important statutes that were passed by the legislature and a delegate to the Constitutional convention of Ohio in 1850. In 1860 he became president of the Columbus and Xenia railroad, and from that time till 1876 he acted as solicitor for several railroads. He published “Treatise on Justices of the Peace and Constables in Ohio” (Columbus, 1836; 12th ed., 1885); “Statutes of Ohio” (1841); “Manual for Executors and Administrators” (1843); “Practice in Civil Actions and Proceedings at Law in Ohio and Precedents in Pleading” (2 vols., 1845); “Swan's Pleading and Practice” (2 vols., 1851); “Commentaries on Pleadings under the Ohio Code” (Cincinnati, 1860); and “Supplement to the Revised Statutes of Ohio, etc., in Force August, 1868,” with notes by Milton Sayler (1869).   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 4.

 

 

SWANWICK, John, Member of U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania.  Opposed slavery in U.S. House of Representatives. (Locke, 1901, p. 93; Annals of Congress)

 

 

SWAYNE, Noah Haynes, 1804-1884, lawyer, jurist, anti-slavery activist.  Represented former slaves in fugitive slave cases.  Appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as a justice to the U. S. Supreme Court.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 5-6; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 239)

 

SWAYNE, Noah Haynes, jurist, b. in Culpeper county, Va., 7 Dec., 1804; d. in New York city, 8 June, 1884. H.is ancestor, Francis Swayne, came to this country with William Penn, and the farm on which he settled near Philadelphia is still in possession of his descendants. Noah's father, Joshua, removed to Virginia, and the son, after receivmg a good education in Waterford, Va., studied law in Warrenton, was admitted to the bar in 1823, removed to Ohio, and in 1825 opened an office in Coshocton. In 1826-'9 he was prosecuting attorney of the county, and he then entered the Ohio legislature, to which he was elected as a Jefferson Democrat. He was appointed U. S. district attorney for Ohio in 1831, removed to Columbus, and served until 1841. In 1833 he declined the office of presiding judge of the common pleas. Subsequently he practised law until he was appointed, with Alfred Kelly and Gustavus Swan, a fund commissioner to restore the credit of the state. He also served on the commission that was sent by the governor to Washington to effect a settlement of the boundary-line between Ohio and Michigan, and in 1840 was a member of the committee to inquire into the condition of the blind. The trial of William Rossane and others in the U. S. circuit court at Columbus in 1853 for burning the steamboat “Martha Washington,” to obtain the insurance, was one of his most celebrated cases. He also appeared as counsel in fugitive-slave cases, and, owing to his anti-slavery opinions, joined the Republican party on its formation, liberating at an early date the slaves that he received through his marriage in 1832. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln a justice of the supreme court of the United States, and he served until 1881, when he resigned on account of advanced age. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Dartmouth and Marietta in 1863, and by Yale in 1865.—His son, Wager, lawyer, b. in Columbus, Ohio, 10 Nov., 1834, was graduated at Yale in 1856, and at the Cincinnati law-school in 1859. On his admission to the bar he practised in Columbus. He was appointed major of the 43d Ohio volunteers on 31 Aug., 1861, became lieutenant-colonel on 14 Dec., 1861, colonel on 18 Oct., 1862, served in all the marches and battles of the Atlanta campaign, lost a leg at Salkahatchie, S. C., and was brevetted brigadier- general, U. S. volunteers, on 5 Feb., 1865, becoming full brigadier-general on 8 March, 1865, and major-general on 20 June, 1865. He was made colonel of the 45th regular infantry on 28 July, 1866, and on 2 March, 1867, was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. army, for gallant and meritorious services in the action of. Rivers Bridges, S. C., and major-general for services during the war. He was mustered out of the volunteer service on 1 Sept., 1867. Gen. Swayne was a commissioner of the freedmen's bureau in Alabama, where he commanded the U. S. forces, and was also intrusted with the administration of the reconstruction acts of congress, organizing an extensive system of common schools for colored children, who had none, and establishing at Montgomery, Selma, and Mobile important high-schools, which still remain, and also Talladega college. He retired on 1 J uly, 1870, and practised law in Toledo, Ohio, but in 1880 he removed to New York city, where he is counsel for railroad and telegraph corporations. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 5-6.

 

 

SWEET, Samuel N., Adams, New York, abolitionist.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). (Abolitionist, Vol. 1)

 

 

SWIFT, Zephaniah, 1759-1823, jurist, U.S. Congressman 1793-1797, anti-slavery activist (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 12; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 250; Dumond, 1961, pp. 47, 47n6; Locke, 1901, pp. 92, 103n, 168; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 212)

 

SWIFT, Zephaniah, jurist, b, in Wareham, Mass., in February, 1759; d. in Warren, Ohio, 27 Sept., 1823. He was graduated at Yale in 1778, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Windham, Conn. He was elected to congress, serving from 2 Dec., 1793, till 3 March, 1797, and was appointed in 1800 secretary to Oliver Ellsworth, minister to France. In 1801 he was appointed a judge of the state supreme court, and he was its chief justice in 1806-'19. He was a member of the Hartford convention of New England Federalists, sat in the state house of representatives, and was a member of a commission to revise the laws of Connecticut. He published “Oration on Domestic Slavery” (Hartford, 1791); “System of the Laws of Connecticut” (2 vols., Windham, 1795-'6); “Digest of the Laws of Evidence in Civil and Criminal Cases, and a Treatise on Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes” (Hartford, 1810); and “Digest of the Laws of Connecticut” (2 vols., New Haven, 1822-'3).—His daughter, MARY A., published about 1833 “First Lessons on Natural Philosophy,” which was a popular text-book for many years, and was translated into Karen (1846) and into Burmese (1848). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 12.

 

 

SWISSHELM, James (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 32; Blue, 2005, pp. 8, 140-143, 149, 153-154)

 

 

SWISSHELM, Jane Grey Cannon, 1815-1884, abolitionist leader, women’s rights advocate, journalist, reformer.  Free Soil Party.  Liberty Party.  Republican Party activist.  Established Saturday Visitor, an abolition and women’s rights newspaper.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 13; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 253; Blue, 2005, pp. 8-9, 50, 138-160, 268, 269; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 217; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 316; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 668-670)

 

SWISSHELM, Jane Grey, b. near Pittsburg, Pa., 6 Sept., 1815; d. in Swissvale, Pa., 22 July, 1884. When she was eight years of age her father, James Cannon, died, leaving a family in straitened circumstances. The daughter worked at manual labor and teaching till she was twenty-one, when she married James Swisshelm, who several years afterward obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion. Two years later she removed with her husband to Louisville, Ky. In this city she became an outspoken opponent of slavery, and her first written attack upon the system appeared in the Louisville “Journal” in 1842. She also wrote articles favoring abolition and woman's rights in the “Spirit of Liberty,” of Pittsburg, for about four years. In 1848 she established the Pittsburg “Saturday Visitor,” a strong abolition and woman's rights paper, which, in 1856, was merged with the weekly edition of the Pittsburg “Journal.” In 1857 she went to St. Cloud, Minn., and established the St. Cloud “Visitor.” Her bold utterances caused a mob to destroy her office and its contents, and to throw her printing-press into the river. But she soon began to publish the St. Cloud “Democrat.” When Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the presidency, she spoke and wrote in his behalf and for the principles of which he was the representative. When the civil war began and nurses were wanted at the front, she was one of the first to respond. After the battle of the Wilderness she had charge of 182 badly wounded men at Fredericksburg for five days, without surgeon or assistant, and saved them all. She was a prolific writer for newspapers and magazines, and published “Letters to Country Girls” (New York, 1853), and an autobiography entitled “Half of a Century” (1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI.

 

 

 

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TALLMADGE, James, Jr., 1778-1853, lawyer, soldier.  U.S. Congressman, New York.  Introduced legislation in House of Representatives to prohibit slavery in new state of Missouri in 1819.  Challenged Illinois right to statehood with state constitution permitting existence of slavery in the new state.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 318-321, 327, 349; Dumond, 1961, pp. 101-103, 106; Hammond, 2011, pp. 138, 150-151, 272; Mason, 2006, pp. 155, 177, 181, 184, 185, 191, 209; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 35, 129, 386, 471-472; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 26; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 285; Tallmadge Amendment, pp. 177-212; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 281)

Tallmadge declared: “The interest, honor, and faith of the nation required it scrupulously to guard against slavery’s passing into a territory where they [Congress] have power to prevent its entrance.” (16 Con., 1 Sess., 1819-1820, II, p. 1201)

Tallmadge further said: “If the western country cannot be settled without slaves, gladly would I prevent its settlement till time shall be no more.”

 

TALLMADGE, James, lawyer, b. in Stanford, Dutchess co., N. Y., 28 Jan., 1778; d. in New York city, 29 Sept., 1853. His father, Col. James (1744 to 1821), led a company of volunteers at the capture of Gen. John Burgoyne. After graduation at Brown in 1798 the son studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised several years in Poughkeepsie and New York, and also gave attention to agriculture, owning a farm in Dutchess county. For some time he was private secretary to Gov. George Clinton, and during the war of 1812-'15 he commanded a company of home-guards in the defence of New York. He was elected a representative to congress as a Democrat, and served from 1 Dec., 1817, till 3 March, 1819, but declined a re-election. In that body he defended Gen. Andrew Jackson's course in the Seminole war, and introduced, as an amendment to the bill authorizing the people of Missouri to form a state organization, a proposition to exclude slavery from that state when admitted to the Union. In support of this amendment Gen. Tallmadge delivered a powerful speech, 15 Feb., 1819, in opposition to the extension of slavery. This was widely circulated, and was translated into German. He was a delegate to the New York constitutional conventions of 1821 and 1846, a member of the state assembly in 1824, and delivered a speech on 5 Aug., 1824, on the bill to provide for the choice by the people of presidential electors. In 1825-'6 he was lieutenant-governor of New York, and while holding this office he delivered a speech at the reception of Lafayette in New York on 4 July, 1825. In 1836 he visited Russia, and aided in introducing into that country several American mechanical inventions, especially cotton-spinning machinery. From 1831 till 1850 he was president of the American institute, of which he was a founder. He also aided in establishing the University of the city of New York, which gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1838, and he was president of its council for many years. Gen. Tallmadge was a leading exponent of the Whig doctrine of protection to American industry, and published numerous speeches and addresses which were directed to the encouragement of domestic production. He also delivered a eulogium at the memorial ceremonies of Lafayette by the corporation and citizens of New York, 26 June, 1834. Gen. Tallmadge was an eloquent orator and vigorous writer. His only daughter was one of the most beautiful women in the country, and after her return from Russia, to which court she accompanied her father, married Philip S, Van Rensselaer, of Albany, third son of the patroon. Their only surviving son, James Tallmadge Van Rensselaer, is a well-known lawyer of New York city. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 26.

 

 

TALLMADGE, Nathaniel P., New York, New York, politician.  Officer in the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 129)

 

 

TAPPAN, Arthur, 1786-1865, New York City, merchant, radical abolitionist leader, educator.  Co-founder and president of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Manager, 1833-1837, and Member of the Executive Committee, 1833-1840 of the AASS. President of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1855, Member of the Executive Committee, 1840-1855.  (Blue, 2005; Burin, 2005, pp. 84, 89; Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Filler, 1960, pp. 26, 40, 55, 58, 60-61, 63-64, 68, 84, 132, 262; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 8, 9, 14-18, 21, 38-41, 44, 48, 51, 55, 71, 107, 129, 134, 151, 152, 153, 200, 234, 235, 242, 285, 293, 340; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 106, 161, 162, 163, 166, 320, 362; Sorin, 1971, pp. 73, 75, 102, 114; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 33; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 209; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 311; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 320-321; Tappan, Lewis. Life of Arthur Tappan. New York, Hurd and Houghton: 1870; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 671-673; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 128, 131, 161, 163-165, 189-190)

 

TAPPAN, Arthur, b. in Northampton, Mass., 22 May, 1786; d. in New Haven, Conn., 23 July, 1865, was locked up while an infant in a folding bedstead. When he was discovered life was almost extinct, and headaches, to which he was subject daily through life, were ascribed to this accident. He received a common-school education, and served a seven years' apprenticeship in the hardware business in Boston, after which he established himself in Portland, Me., and subsequently in Montreal, Canada, where he remained until the beginning of the war of 1812. In 1814 he engaged with his brother Lewis in importing British dry-goods into New York city, and after the partnership was dissolved he successfully continued the business alone. Mr. Tappan was known for his public spirit and philanthropy. He was a fouder of the American tract society, the largest donor for the erection of its first building, and was identified with many charitable and religious bodies. He was a founder of Oberlin college, also erecting Tappan hall there, and endowed Lane seminary in Cincinnati, and a professorship at Auburn theological seminary. With his brother Lewis he founded the New York “Journal of Commerce” in 1828, and established “The Emancipator” in 1833, paying the salary of the editor and all the expenses of its publication. He was an ardent Abolitionist, and as the interest in the anti-slavery cause deepened he formed, at his own rooms, the nucleus of the New York city anti-slavery society, which was publicly organized under his presidency at Clinton hall on 2 Oct., 1833. Mr. Tappan was also president of the American anti-slavery society, to which he contributed $1,000 a month for several years, but he withdrew in 1840 on account of the aggressive spirit that many members manifested toward the churches and the Union. During the crisis of 1837 he was forced to suspend payments, and he became bankrupt in 1842. During his late years he was connected with the mercantile agency that his brother Lewis established. He incurred the hatred of the southern slave-holders by his frequent aid to fugitives, and by his rescuing William Lloyd Garrison from imprisonment at Baltimore. See his “Life,” by Lewis Tappan (New York, 1871). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33.

 

 

TAPPAN, Charles, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1839-.  Supported the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 131, 195-196)

 

 

TAPPAN, John, Boston, Massachusetts, member of the American Colonization Society Committee in Boston.  (Campbell, 1971, p. 94; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 86, 130)

 

 

TAPPAN, Juliana, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, pp. 26-27, 40n, 41-43)

 

 

TAPPAN, Lewis Northey, 1788-1873, New York, NY, merchant, radical abolitionist leader.  Co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1855, Treasurer, 1840-1842, Secretary, 1842-1844, Corresponding Secretary, 1845-1846, 1848-1855.  Leader of the Philadelphia Free Produce Association.  Wrote Life. (Blue, 2005; Burin, 2005, p. 89; Dumond, 1961, pp. 159, 218, 287; Filler, 1960, pp. 26, 31, 50, 55, 61, 63, 68, 72, 94, 102, 130, 136, 138, 144, 150, 152, 158, 164, 165, 168, 174, 177, 189, 194, 210, 247, 262; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 8, 9, 13-19, 21, 24, 26, 38, 42-49, 51, 55, 58, 91, 93, 104, 105, 130, 190, 151-156, 190, 202, 219-221, 226-229, 233, 234, 251-253, 257, 334, 340, 341, 343, 344, 345; Mitchell, 2007; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 106, 161, 162, 163, 166, 174, 290, 362; Sorin, 1971, pp. 70, 93, 96, 102, 113, 114, 131; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 32-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 203; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 311; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 321; Tappan, Lewis. Life of Arthur Tappan. New York, Hurd and Houghton: 1870; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 673-675; Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery, 1969; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 76, 128-129, 219, 228, 230)

 

TAPPAN, Lewis, merchant, b. in Northampton, Mass., 23 May, 1788; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 21 June, 1873, received a good education, and at the age of sixteen became clerk in a dry-goods house in Boston. His employers subsequently aided him in establishing himself in business, and he became interested m calico-print works and in the manufacture of cotton. In 1827 he removed to New York and became a member of the firm of Arthur Tappan and Co., and his subsequent career was closely identified with that of his brother Arthur. With the latter he established in 1828 the “Journal of Commerce,” of which he became sole owner in 1829. In 1833 he entered with vigor into the anti-slavery movement, in consequence of which his house was sacked and his furniture was destroyed by a mob in July, 1834, and at other times he and his brother suffered personal violence. He was also involved in the crisis of 1837, and afterward withdrew from the firm and established the first mercantile agency in the country, which he conducted with success. He was chief founder of the American missionary association, of which he was treasurer and afterward president, and was an early member of Plymouth church, Brooklyn. He published the life of his brother mentioned above, but afterward joined in the free-soil movement at its inception. He was widely known for his drollery and wit and for his anti-slavery sentiments. Judge Tappan published “Cases decided in the Court of Common Pleas,” with an appendix (Steubenville, 1831). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 32-34.

 

 

TAPPAN, Mason Weare, 1817-1886, lawyer, soldier.  U.S. Congressman, Free Soil Party, 1855-1861.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33-34)

 

TAPPAN, Mason Weare, lawyer, b. in Newport, N. H., 20 Oct., 1817; d. in Bradford, N. H., 24 Oct., 1886. His father, a well-known lawyer, settled in Bradford in 1818, and was a pioneer in the anti-slavery movement. The son was educated at Kimball union academy, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1841, and acquired a large practice. He was early identified with the Whig party, and afterward was a Free-soiler and served in the legislature in 1853-'5. He was elected to congress as a Free-soiler, by a combination of the Whigs, Free-soilers, Independent Democrats, and Americans, at the time of the breaking up of the two great parties, Whigs and Democrats. He served from 3 Dec., 1855, till 3 March, 1861, and was a member of the special committee of thirty-three on the rebellious states. On 5 Feb., 1861, when a report was submitted recommending that the provisions of the constitntion should be obeyed rather than amended, he made a patriotic speech in support of the government. Mr. Tappan was one of the earliest to enlist in the volunteer army, and was colonel of the 1st New Hampshire regiment from May till August, 1861. Afterward he resumed the practice of law, and held the office of attorney-general of the state for ten years preceding his death. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' convention of 1866, and presided over the New Hampshire Republican convention on 14 Sept., 1886. In the presidential election of 1872 he supported his life-long friend, Horace Greeley. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33-34.

 

 

TAPPAN, Samuel Foster, 1831-1913, Manchester, Massachuetts, journalist, Union Army officer, abolitionist, Native American rights activist.  Co-founded Lawrence, Kansas, as part of the New England Emigrant Aid Company.  Active in the Free Soil movement to keep slavery out of the territory of Kansas.  Served as a correspondint for the New York Tribune, reporting on the anti-slavery activities there.  Related to the abolitionist Tappan family.

 

 

TAPPING, Lewis, Iowa Territory, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40

 

 

TARRANT, Carter, Virginia, Baptist clergyman, co-leader of the Emancipating Baptists, anti-slavery activist, Woodford County, Kentucky.  Chaplain, U.S. Army, founded anti-slavery church in Kentucky.  (Brown, 1889, p. 226; Dumond, 1961, p. 91; Locke, 1901, pp. 44, 90)

 

 

TATTNAL, Edward R., Savannah, Georgia.  Member of the Savannah auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Son of former Governor Josias Tattnal.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

 

TAYLOR, George W., Society of Friends, Quaker.  Editor of the Non-Slave Holder.  Free Produce Association. (Drake, 1950, pp. 172-174)

 

 

TAYLOR, John Louis, 1769-1829, Raleigh, North Carolina, jurist.  Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.  Officer in the Raleigh auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Burin, 2005, p. 14; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 46; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 334; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 71, 108)

 

TAYLOR, John Louis, jurist, b. in London, England, 1 March, 1769; d. in Raleigh, N. C., 29 Jan., 1829. He was brought to the United States at the age of twelve by a brother, his father having died. He was for two years at William and Mary college, then removed to North Carolina, studied law, and, after being admitted to the bar, settled in Fayetteville, which he represented in the legislature in 1792-'4. He removed to New Berne in 1796, and in 1798 was elected a judge of the superior court. In 1808 he was chosen by his colleagues to preside over the supreme court, which was then composed of judges of the superior court who met at Raleigh to review questions that arose on the circuits. When a new tribunal was instituted in 1818 he was appointed one of the judges, and continued as chief justice till his death. In 1817 he was appointed a commissioner to revise the statute laws of North Carolina. The work was completed and published in 1821, and a continuation by Judge Taylor appeared in 1825. He began to take notes of cases that came before him soon after he was elevated to the bench. His publications include “Cases in the Superior Courts of Law and Equity of the State of North Carolina” (New Berne, 1802); “The North Carolina Law Repository” (2 vols., 1814-'16); “Charge to the Grand Jury of Edgecombe, exhibiting a View of the Criminal Law” (1817); “Term Reports” (Raleigh, 1818); and a treatise “On the Duties of Executors and Administrators” (1825). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

TAYLOR, John W., 1784-1854, abolitionist.  Nine term Democratic U.S. Congressman from New York, 1813-1833.  Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Proposed legislation in 1819 to prohibit slavery in Arkansas Territory.  Later organized the Whig and National Republican Parties.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 318, 319, 321, 324, 327, 349; Dumond, 1961, p. 104; Mabee, 1970, pp. 86, 191, 193, 199, 202, 204; Mason, 2006, pp. 146, 148, 181, 186; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 35, 36, 298;  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 46; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 235)

 

Taylor said during debate: “Our votes this day will determine whether the high destinies of this region, of these generations, shall be fulfilled, or whether we shall defeat them by permitting slavery, with all its baleful consequences, to inherit the wind.” (15 Cong., 2 Sess., 1818-1819, p. 1170)

 

TAYLOR, John W., speaker of the house of representatives, b. in Charlton, Saratoga co., N. Y., 20 March; 1784; d. in Cleveland, Ohio, 8 Sept., 1854. He was graduated at Union in 1803, organized the Ballston Centre academy in that year, studied law in Albany, was admitted to the bar in 1807, and practised in Ballston, becoming a justice of the peace in 1808, then state commissioner of loans, and in 1811-'12 a member of the legislature. He was elected to congress as a Democrat and a supporter of the war with Great Britain, and was re-elected nine times in succession, serving altogether from 24 May, 1813, till 2 March, 1833. On 20 Nov., 1820; owing to the absence of Henry Clay, Taylor was chosen in his place as speaker, and served till the end of the second session, during which the Missouri compromise was passed. On the question of the admission of Missouri to the Union he delivered the first speech in congress that plainly opposed the extension of slavery. He was again elected speaker on the organization of the 19th congress, serving from 5 Dec., 1825, till 3 March, 1827. He was one of the organizers of the National Republican, and afterward of the Whig, party. After retiring from congress he practised law at Ballston, and was a member of the state senate in 1840-'1 , but resigned in consequence of a paralytic stroke, and from 1843 till his death lived with a daughter in Cleveland. He was the orator of the Phi Beta Kappa society at Harvard in 1827, and frequently spoke in public on literary as well as on national topics. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 46.

 

 

TEAGUE, Colin, Richmond, Virginia.  Went to Africa as missionary in support of the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 109)

 

 

TEN EYCK, John Conover, 1814-1879, lawyer.  Republican U.S. Senator from New Jersey.  Was a Whig until 1856.  Joined Republican Party in 1856.  Chosen Senator in 1859.  Served until March 1865.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 62; Congressional Globe)

 

 

THACHER, George, 1754-1824, jurist.  Delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress 1787-1788.  U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts.  Voted against Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 68; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 387; Dumond, 1961; Hammond, 2011, p. 213; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 143, 160-162; Annals of Congress, 2 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 861)

 

THACHER, George, jurist, b. in Yarmouth, Me., 12 April, 1754; d. in Biddeford, Me., 6 April, 1824. He was graduated at Harvard in 1776, and afterward studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1778. He was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental congress in 1787-'8, and from 4 March, 1789, to 3 March, 1801, he represented the Maine district of Massachusetts in congress. He served as judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts, and afterward of that of Maine, from 1800 till 1824, and was a delegate to the Maine constitutional convention in 1819. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 68.

 

 

THACHER, Moses, North Wrentham, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

THARIN, Robert Seymour Symmes, b. 1830, Charleston, South Carolina, lawyer (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 70)

 

THARIN, Robert Seymour Symmes (tha'rin), lawyer, b. at Magnolia, near Charleston, S. C., 10 Jan., 1830. The family-seat at Magnolia was also the birthplace of Robert's father, William Cunnington Tharin, grandson of its founder, Col. William Cunnington, an officer on Gen. Francis Marion's staff. Robert was graduated at the College of Charleston in 1857 and at the law-school of the University of New York in 1863. He began practice in Wetumpka, Ala., in 1859. During the political excitement of this time, he became known for his Union sentiments and his sympathy with non-slaveholders. He advocated the establishment of small farms and factories, the emigration of the blacks to Africa, the representation of non-slaveholders, who were in the majority, in legislatures, conventions, and congress, and the repeal of the ordinance of secession. His Union sentiments led to an attack on him by a mob in 1861, and he fled to Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Tharin then settled in Richmond, Ind., and enlisted as a, private in the Indiana volunteers, but was mustered out in 1862. While he was in the service he wrote a letter to the London “Daily News,” denouncing his former law-partner, William L. Yancey, who was then commissioner from the southern Confederacy to England. This letter, Mr. Yancey afterward confessed, was worth an army corps to the Union, as it defeated recognition. He returned to the south after the war, and in 1884 was corporation counsel of Charleston, S. C. In February, 1888, he was tendered, by the Industrial conference at Washington, a nomination for president of the United States, but declined on the ground that the body was not a convention, and that presidential conventions are dangerous to the people who are not represented therein. He is now employed in the auditor's office in Washington. He is the author of “Arbitrary Arrests in the South” (New York, 1863), and “Letters on the Political Situation” (Charleston, S. C., 1871).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

THATCHER, Benjamin Bussey, 1809-1840, Boston, Massachusetts, author.  Co-founder of the Young Men’s Colonization Society of Boston.  Published and edited, in 1833, The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom, published monthly.  Defended the American Colonization Society and colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 70-71; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 393; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 201, 204, 210, 223)

 

THATCHER, Benjamin Bussey, author, b. in Warren, Me., 8 Oct., 1809; d. in Boston, 14 July, 1840. His father, Samuel, a graduate of Harvard in 1793 and a lawyer, represented Massachusetts in congress in 1802-'5, serving afterward eleven years in the legislature. He was a trustee of Harvard and a founder of Warren academy. The son, upon his graduation at Bowdoin in 1826, studied law and was admitted to the bar in Boston, but devoted himself to literature. In 1836-'8 he travelled in Europe for his health, contributing during the time to British and American periodicals. He wrote for the “North American Review” in 1831, and contributed to the “Essayist” several critiques on American poets which attracted notice. He edited the “Boston Book” in 1837, the “Colonizationist,” a periodical in the interests of the Liberian cause, which he further aided by eloquent speeches, and a volume of Mrs. Hemans's poems, to which he contributed a preface. He left in manuscript an account of his residence in Europe. His poems, some of which are in Griswold's “Poets and Poetry of America” (1842), and his reviews and essays, have never been collected. He published “Biography of North American Indians” (2 vols., New York, 1832; new ed., 1842); “Memoir of Phillis Wheatley” (Boston, 1834); “Memoir of S. Osgood Wright” (1834); “Traits of the Boston Tea-Party” (1835)”; “Traits of Indian Manners, etc.” (1835); and “Tales of the American Revolution” (1846). Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

THATCHER, Ezekial, Banstable, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1854-1860-.

 

 

THATCHER, Moses, N. Wrentham, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1833-37

 

 

THATCHER, Tyler, , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1843-44

 

 

THAYER, Eli, 1819-1899, Worcester, Massachusetts, abolitionist, educator, Congressman, established Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society, 1854, which changed to New England Aid Company in 1855  (Filler, 1960, pp. 238-239; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 56; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 71-72; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 402; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 488)

 

THAYER, Eli, educator, b. in Mendon, Mass., 11 June, 1819. He was graduated at Brown in 1845, was subsequeptly principal of the Worcester academy, and in 1848 founded the Oread institute, collegiate school for young ladies, in Worcester, Mass., of which he is treasurer. He was for several years a member of the school board of Worcester, and in 1853 an alderman of the city. In 1853-'4 he was a representative in the legislature, and while there originated and organized the Emigrant aid company, laboring till 1857 to combine the northem states in support of his plan to send anti-slavery settlers into Kansas. Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, and Ossawatomie were settled under the auspices of his company. Gov. Charles Robinson, at the quarter-centennial celebration of Kansas, at Topeka, said: “Without these settlements Kansas would have been a slave state without a struggle; without the Aid society these towns would never have existed; and that society was born of the brain of Eli Thayer.” Charles Sumner also said that he would rather have the credit that is due to Eli Thayer for his Kansas work than be the hero of the battle of New Orleans. In 1857-'61 Mr. Thayer sat in congress as a Republican, serving on the committee on militia, and as chairman of the committee on public lands. In 1860 he was a delegate for Oregon to the National Republican convention at Chicago and labored for the nomination of Lincoln. He has patented many inventions, which cover a wide field. Among these are a hydraulic elevator in use in this country and in Europe, a sectional safety steam boiler, and an automatic boiler-cleaner, or sediment-extractor. He has published a volume of congressional speeches (Boston, 1860); several lectures (Worcester, 1886); and is now writing a history of the Emigrant aid company that he organized and its influence on our national history. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 71-72.

 

 

THAYER, Martin Russell, b. 1819, jurist.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  In Congress 1862-1867.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 73; Congressional Globe)

 

THAYER, Martin Russell, jurist, b. in Petersburg, Va., 27 Jan., 1819, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1840, admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1842, and began to practise in that city. In 1862-'7 he sat in congress, having been elected as a Republican, serving in the committee on the bankrupt law and as chairman of the committee on private land claims. In 1862 he was appointed a commissioner to revise the revenue laws of Pennsylvania, and in 1867, declining re-election to congress, he was appointed one of the judges of the district court of the county of Philadephia, and he has recently been re-elected. In 1873 he was appointed on the board of visitors to West Point, and wrote the report. In the succeeding year he became president-judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia. He is the author of “The Duties of Citizenship” (Philadelphia, 1862); “The Great Victory: its Cost and Value” (1865); “The Law considered as a Progressive Science” (1870); “On Libraries” (1871); “The Life and Works of Francis Lieber” (1873); and “The Battle of Germantown” (1878). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 73.

 

 

THOMAS, Francis, 1799-1876, lawyer, statesman.  Opposed slavery in Maryland State Constitutional Convention of 1850.  Governor of Maryland, 1841-1844.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland.  In Congress December 1831-March 1841 and 1861-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, p. 78; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 429; Congressional Globe)

 

THOMAS, Francis, governor of Maryland, b. in Frederick county, Md., 3 Feb., 1799; d. near Frankville. Md., 22 Jan., 1876. He was graduated at St. John's college, Annapolis, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1820, and began practice in Frankville. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1822, 1827, and 1829, being speaker the last year, was elected to five consecutive congresses, serving from 5 Dec., 1831, till 3 March, 1841, was president of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal company in 1839-'40, and governor of Maryland in 1841-'4. During his canvass for the governorship he fought a duel with William Price. He was a member of the State constitutional convention in 1850, and was instrumental in having a measure adopted that weakened the power of the slave-holding counties. He was again in congress from 1861 till 1869. During the civil war Mr. Thomas supported the Union cause, raised a volunteer brigade of 3,000 men, but he refused a command. He was a delegate to the Loyalist convention of 1866, and subsequently opposed President Johnson. He was appointed collector of internal revenue for the Cumberland district, and served from April, 1870, till he was appointed minister to Peru, 25 March, 1872. He held this post till 9 July, 1875, and afterward retired to his farm near Frankland, where he was killed by a locomotive while walking on the railroad-track. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 78.

 

 

THOMAS, James H., Edgartown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40

 

 

THOMAS, John, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

THOMAS, Lorenzo, 1804-1875, Major General, U.S. Army  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 85; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 441; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 516)

 

THOMAS, Lorenzo, soldier, b. in New Castle, Del., 26 Oct., 1804; d. in Washington, D. C., 2 March, 1875. His father, Evan, was of Welsh extraction, and served in the militia during the war of 1812, and one of his uncles was a favorite officer of Gen. Washington. He was at first destined for mercantile pursuits, but received an appointment to the U. S. military academy, and was graduated there in 1823. He served in the 4th infantry in Florida till 1831, and again in the Florida war of 1836-'7, and as chief of staff of the army in that state in 1839-'40, becoming captain, 23 Sept., 1836, and major on the staff and assistant adjutant-general, 7 July, 1838. He there did duty in the last-named office at Washington till the Mexican war, in which he was chief of staff of Gen. William O. Butler in 1846-'8, and of the Army of Mexico till June, 1848, and received the brevet of lieutenant-colonel for gallantry at Monterey. He was then adjutant-general at army headquarters, Washington, till 1853, and chief of staff to Gen. Winfield Scott till 1861, when he was brevetted brigadier-general on 7 May, and made adjutant-general of the army on 3 Aug., with the full rank of brigadier-general. Here he served till 1863, when he was intrusted for two years with the organization of colored troops in the southern states. When President Johnson removed Edwin M. Stanton from his post as secretary of war he appointed Gen. Thomas secretary ad interim, 21 Feb., 1868, but, owing to Stanton's refusal to vacate, Thomas did not enter on the office. He was brevetted major-general, United States army, on 13 March, 1865, for services during the civil war, and on 22 Feb., 1869, he was retired. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 85.

 

 

THOMAS, N. P., Whippany, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-1840.

 

 

THOMAS, Phillip Evan, 1776-1861, Baltimore, Maryland, merchant, banker, Quaker, social activist.  Vice-President, 1833-40, member of the Baltimore auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Co-founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 85; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 442; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 70, 111)

 

THOMAS, Philip Evan, merchant, b. in Mount Radnor, Montgomery co., Md., 11 Nov., 1776; d. in Yonkers, N. Y., 1 Sept., 1861. His ancestor, Philip, came to this country from Wales in 1651, and was a member of the Society of Friends. The son settled in Baltimore, Md., and in 1800 established himself in the hardware business. He was president of the Mechanics’ bank for many years, and president of the Maryland Bible society. He was a member of the Indian committee from the Baltimore yearly meeting of Quakers to the Indians at Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1804, and through his efforts the intrigues of the Ogden land company with the chiefs to dispossess the remnant of the Six Nations of their reservations in western New York were defeated, the chiefs were deposed, and a republican form of government was established. Mr. Thomas was an originator of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, resigning his post as director of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal to give his attention to this enterprise. He was the first president of the company, which office he resigned in 1836. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

THOME, Arthur, Augusta, Kentucky, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1839-1840.

 

 

THOME, James A., 1809-1873, August, Kentucky, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist, educator, clergyman.  Father was a slaveholder.  Thome was a member and Vice President, 1839-1840, of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) and professor at Oberlin College.  (Dumond, 1961m pp., 152, 155, 174; Filler, 1960, pp. 68, 140; Mabee, 1970, p. 272; Pease, 1965, pp. 91-93)

 

 

THOMPSON, Cyrus, LeRoy, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1846.

 

 

THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce, 1795-1868, Vermont, abolitionist, noted author, novelist, lawyer, political leader.  Member of the Liberty Party.  Editor, from 1849-1856, of the anti-slavery newspaper, Green Mountain Freeman.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 454)

 

THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce, author, b. in Charlestown (now a part of Boston), Mass., 1 Oct., 1793; d. in Montpelier, Vt., 6 June, 1868. He was the grandson of Daniel, who was a cousin of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, and was killed at the battle of Lexington. He was brought up on a farm, prepared himself for college under difficulties, taught for one winter, and then entered Middlebury college, where he was graduated in 1820. Going to Virginia as a family tutor, he studied law there, and was admitted to the bar in 1823, after which he returned to Vermont and settled in Montpelier. He was register of probate in 1824, and clerk of the legislature in 1830-'3, and was then appointed to compile the “Laws of Vermont from 1824 down to and including the Year 1834” (Montpelier, 1835). He was judge of probate from 1837 till 1840, from 1843 till 1845 clerk of the supreme and county courts, and from 1853 till 1855 secretary of state. From 1849 till 1856 he edited a weekly political paper called the “Green Mountain Free man.” He was a popular lecturer before lyceums and orator on public occasions. Mr. Thompson began to contribute poems and sketches to periodicals while he was in college, and continued to write frequently for the newspapers and magazines, besides publishing political pamphlets. He took part in the anti-Masonic controversy, and published a satirical novel on the subject, entitled “The Adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esq., or Freemasonry Practically Illustrated,” which appeared under the pen-name of “A Member of the Vermont Bar” (Middlebury, 1835). In 1835 he wrote for the “New England Galaxy,” of Boston, a prize tale called “May Martin, or the Money-Diggers,” which was issued in book-form (Montpelier, 1835), and reprinted in London. Next appeared “The Green Mountain Boys,” a romance, in which the principal men connected with the history of Vermont in the Revolutionary period are brought into the plot (Montpelier, 1840; republished in Boston and London); “Locke Amsden, or the Schoolmaster” (Boston, 1845); “Lucy Hosmer, or the Guardian and the Ghost” (1848); and “The Rangers, or the Tory's Daughter” (1851). His later romances are “Tales of the Green Mountains” (1852); “Gaut Gurley, or the Trappers of Lake Umbagog” (1857); “The Doomed Chief, or Two Hundred Years Ago,” based on the story of King Philip (Philadelphia, 1860); and “Centeola, and other Tales” (New York, 1864). He was also the author of a “History of Montpelier, 1781-1860, with Biographical Sketches” (Montpelier, 1860). In later life he published monographs on topics of American history and on biographical subjects in various magazines. A novel, with the title of “The Honest Lawyer, or the Fair Castaway,” was left unfinished. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

THOMPSON, E. N., Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1836.

 

 

THOMPSON, Edwin, 1809-1888, Lynn, Massachusetts, reformer, orator, clergyman, temperance reformer, abolitionist, Society of Friends, Quaker, traveling anti-slavery lecturer.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 89)

 

THOMPSON, Edwin, reformer, b. in Lynn, Mass., in July, 1809; d. in East Walpole, Mass., 22 May, 1888. He was of Quaker descent, and early interested himself in the anti-slavery movement. At the suggestion of Wendell Phillips, he became a public speaker in its furtherance, travelling through the state, often on foot, lecturing in churches and school-houses, and winning a reputation as an orator by his fluency and great fund of anecdotes. While speaking in New Bedford, he roused Frederick Douglass to take up active work in behalf of his race. He was also interested from an early period in the temperance reform, which he did much to promote. Mr. Thompson was ordained as a Universalist clergyman in 1840, and afterward resided at East Walpole. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 89.

 

 

THOMPSON, George, 1804-1878, English abolitionist, reformer, orator.  Helped organize abolitionist groups in the United States.  Worked with abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison.  (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 43, 221; Yellin, 1994, pp. 28, 49-50, 69, 172-173, 221, 260, 260n, 282, 310-312, 311n, 320n; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 90; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 679-680; Rice, C. Duncan, The Scots Abolitionists, 1833-1861, 1981; Temperely, Howard, British Anti-Slavery, 1833-1870, 1972)

 

THOMPSON, George, English reformer, b. in Liverpool, England, 18 June, 1804; d. in Leeds, England, 7 Oct., 1878. He entered actively into the agitation against slavery in the British colonies, and contributed largely to its downfall, and subsequently to that of the apprentice system. Afterward he joined the Anti-corn-law league, and also took an active part in forming the India association. In 1834, at the request of William Lloyd Garrison and others, he came to the United States to speak in behalf of the abolition of slavery. He addressed meetings in various parts of the northern states, and his efforts led to the formation of more than 150 anti-slavery societies; but he was often threatened by mobs, and finally in Boston, Mass., escaped death only by fleeing in a small row-boat to an English vessel and going to St. John, New Brunswick, whence he sailed for England in November, 1835. Mr. Thompson's visit created such excitement that President Jackson denounced him in a message to congress. He made a second visit to this country in 1851, and another during the civil war, when a public reception was given to him in the house of representatives, at which President Lincoln and his cabinet were present. He aided greatly in preventing the recognition of the southern Confederacy by the British government. Mr. Thompson was also concerned in the work of the National parliamentary reform association. In 1847 he was chosen a member of parliament for the Tower Hamlets. About 1870 a testimonial fund was raised for him by his admirers in this country and England. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 90.

 

 

THOMPSON, Henry, radical abolitionist, son-in-law to abolitionist John Brown (see entry for John Brown). (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 206)

 

 

THOMPSON, Jeremiah, 1784-1835, New York, ship magnate, cotton exporter.  Officer of the New York auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 461; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 40)

 

 

THOMPSON, John Edgar, Underground Railroad

 

 

THOMPSON, Joseph Parrish, 1819-1979, Berlin, Germany, scholar, author, abolitionist.  Wrote Christianity and Emancipation (1863).  “Worked unceasingly to arouse public opinion in behalf of Negro slaves” (Scribner’s, p. 465).  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 93; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 464)

 

THOMPSON, Joseph Parrish, scholar, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 7 Aug., 1819; d. in Berlin, Germany, 20 Sept., 1879. He was graduated at Yale in 1838, studied theology for a few months in Andover seminary, and then at Yale from 1839 till 1840, when he was ordained as a Congregational minister. He was pastor of the Chapel street church in New Haven from that time till 1845, and during this period was one of the founders of the “New Englander.” From 1845 till his resignation in 1871 he had charge of the Broadway tabernacle in New York city. Dr. Thompson devoted much time to the study of Egyptology, in which he attained high rank. In 1852-'3 he visited Palestine, Egypt, and other eastern countries, and from that time he published continual contributions to this branch of learning in periodicals, the transactions of societies, and cyclopædias. He lectured on Egyptology in Andover seminary in 1871, and in 1872-'9 resided in Berlin, Germany, occupied in oriental studies, took an active part in the social, political, and scientific discussions, and was a member of various foreign societies, before which he delivered addresses, and contributed essays to their publications. These have been issued under the title of “American Comments on European Questions” (New York, 1884). In 1875 Dr. Thompson went to England to explain at public meetings “the attitude of Germany in regard to Ultramontanism,” for which service he was rewarded by the thanks of the German government, expressed in person by Prince Bismarck, and Dr. Thompson originated the plan of the Albany Congregationalist convention in 1852, and was a manager of the American Congregational union and the American home missionary society. He also aided in establishing the New York “Independent.” Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1856, and the University of New York that of LL. D. in 1868. He published “Memoir of Timothy Dwight” (New Haven, 1844); “Lectures to Young Men” (New York, 1846); “Hints to Employers” (1847); “Memoir of David Hale” (1850); “Foster on Missions, with a Preliminary Essay” (1850); “Stray Meditations” (1852; revised ed., entitled “The Believer's Refuge," 1857); “The Invaluable Possession” (1856); “Egypt, Past and Present” (Boston, 1856); “The Early Witnesses” (1857); “Memoir of Rev. David T. Stoddard” (New York, 1858); “The Christian Graces” (1859); “The College as a Religious Institution” (1859); “Love and Penalty” (1860); “Bryant Gray” (1863); “Christianity and Emancipation” (1863); “The Holy Comforter” (1866); “Man in Genesis and Geology” (1869); “Theology of Christ, from His Own Words” (1870); “Home Worship” (1871); “Church and State in the United States” (1874); “Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, for the Young” (1875); “The United States as a Nation,” lectures (1877); and “The Workman: his False Friends and his True Friends” (1879).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

THOMPSON, Joseph Pascal, 1818-1894, African American, former slave, clergyman, medical doctor, abolitionist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 148)

 

 

THOMPSON, Phishey, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Treasurer, 1839-1841.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

THOREAU, Henry David, 1817-1862, poet, author of Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), reformer and anti-slavery activist.  Wrote antislavery poetry.  Gave lectures and wrote on slavery’s immorality.  Wrote anti-slavery essay, “Reform and the Reformers” and “Herald of Freedom.”  Advocate of passive resistance to civil government.  Active participant in Underground Railroad.  Supporter of radical abolitionist John Brown.  (Appletons’, 1888, vol. VI, pp. 100-101; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 491; Filler, 1960, pp. 45, 94, 120, 158, 183, 215, 241, 267; Glick, 1972; Gougeon, 1995; Harding, 1982; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 215, 248, 263, 265, 266, 267, 321, 322, 342, 376; Richardson, 1986; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 476-477; Taylor, 1996; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 599)

 

THOREAU, Henry David, author, b. in Concord, Mass., 12 July, 1817; d. there, 6 May, 1862. His grandfather, John Thoreau, came from St. Helier, a parish in the island of Jersey, about 1773, and moved from Boston to Concord in 1800. Henry, the third of four children, went to school in Boston for a little more than a year, then attended the schools in Concord, fitted for college at a private school, entered Harvard in 1833, and was graduated in 1837, a fair scholar but not eminent. The family being in humble circumstances, the father was assisted in paying his small expenses by the boy's aunts, his elder sister, who was then teaching, the beneficiary fund of the college, and Henry's own exertions at school-keeping. Thoreau afterward led a literary life, writing, lecturing, reading, and meeting his modest physical needs by surveying, pencil-making, engineering, and carpentering. He was never married, and never left Concord except for a lecturing-tour, or a pedestrian excursion. Cities he disliked; civilization he did not believe in. Nature was his passion, and the wilder it was the more he loved it. He was a fine scholar, especially in Greek, translated two of the tragedies of Æschylus, was intimate with the Greek anthology, and knew Pindar, Simonides, and all the great lyric poets. In English poetry he preferred Milton to Shakespeare, and was more familiar with the writers of the 17th century than with modern men. He was no mean poet himself; in fact, he possessed the essential quality of the poet—a soaring imagination. He possessed an eye and an ear for beauty, and had he been gifted with the power of musical expression, would have been distinguished. No complete collection of his pieces has ever been made or could be, but fragments are exquisite. Emerson said that his poem on “Smoke” surpassed any by Simonides. That Thoreau was a man of aspiration, a pure idealist, reverent, spiritual, is plain from his intimacy with Bronson Alcot and Emerson, the latter of whom spoke these words at his funeral: “His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a home.” His religion was that of the transcendentalists. The element of negation in it was large, and in his case conspicuous and acrid. Horace Greeley found fault with his “defiant pantheism,” and an editor struck out the following passage from a contribution: “It [the pine-tree] is as immortal as I am, and, perchance, will go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still.” His doctrine was that of individualism. Therein he differed from Emerson, who was sympathetic and began at the divine end. Thoreau began with the ground and reasoned up. He saw beauty in ashes, and “never chanced to meet with any man so cheering and elevating and encouraging, so infinitely suggestive, as the stillness and solitude of the Well-meadow field.” He aimed at becoming elemental and spontaneous. He wrote hymns to the night quite in the pagan fashion. His very aptitudes brought him in contact with the earth. His aspect suggested a faun, one who was in the secret of the wilderness. Mr. Sanborn, his friend and biographer, thus describes him: “He is a little under size, with a huge Emersonian nose, bluishgray eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy weather-beaten face, which reminds one of some shrewd and honest animal's—some retired philosophical woodchuck or magnanimous fox.” Another friend mentions his sloping shoulders, his long arms, his large hands and feet. “I fancy,” he wrote, “the saying that man was created a little lower than the angels should have been a little lower than the animals.” He built a hut on the shore of Walden pond in 1845, and lived there, with occasional absences, about two years and a half. He built on Emerson's land, though he had wished to build elsewhere. The house had no lock to the door, no curtain to the window. It belonged to nature as much as to man, and to all men as much as to any one. When Thoreau left it, it was bought by a Scotch gardener, who carried it off a little way and used it as a cottage. Then a farmer bought it, moved it still farther away, and converted it into a tool-house. A pile of stones marks the site of Thoreau's hut. He went into the woods, not because he wished to avoid his fellow-men, as a misanthrope, but because he wanted to confront Nature, to deal with her at first hand, to lead his own life, to meet primitive conditions; and having done this, he abandoned the enterprise, recommending no one to try it who had not “a pretty good supply of internal sunshine. . . . To live alone comfortably, he must have that self-comfort which rays out of Nature—a portion of it at least.” At Walden he labored, studied, meditated, edited his first book, the “Week,” and gauged his genius. He redeemed and consecrated the spot. The refusal to pay taxes, and his consequent imprisonment, were due to a more specific cause— namely, his dissent from thetheory of human government and from the practice of the American state, which supported slavery. He stood simply and plainly on the rights and duty of the individual. The act was heroic as he performed it, and, when read by the light of his philosophy, was consistent. Thoreau was anything but sour, surly, or morose. He could sing, and even dance, on occasion.  He was sweet with children; fond of kittens; a sunbeam at home; the best of brothers, gentle, patient, helpful. Those he loved he gave his heart to, and if they were few it was perhaps because his affections were not as expansive as they were deep. But he showed little emotion, having learned, like the Indian, to control his feelings. He cultivated stoicism. He had the pride as well as the conceit of egotism, and while the latter gave most offence to those who did not know him well, the former was the real cause of his conduct. Thoreau had no zeal of authorship, yet he wrote a great deal, and left a mass of manuscripts, mostly in prose, for he produced very few verses after he was thirty years old. The “Dial,” the “Democratic Review,” “Graham's Magazine,” “The Union Magazine,” “Putnam's Magazine,” the “Atlantic Monthly,” the “Tribune,” all contained contributions from him. Every volume of the “Dial” had something; the third volume many articles. The essay on “Resistance to Civil Government” was printed in “Æsthetic Papers.” Only two of the seven volumes of his printed works appeared in his lifetime—“A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers” (Boston, 1849) and “Walden, or Life in the Woods” (1854). The others are “Excursions in Fieid and Forest,” with a memoir by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1863); “The Maine Woods” (1864); “Cape Cod” (1865); “Letters to Various Persons,” with nine poems (1865); and “A Yankee in Canada,'” with anti-slavery and reform papers (1866). His life has been written by William Ellery Channing under the title “The Poet-Naturalist” (1873), and by Franklin B. Sanborn in the “American Men of Letters” series (1882). The former is a rhapsody rather than a biography, and is largely composed of extracts from Thoreau's journals, which had never seen the light before. It also contains a full list of his publications. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 100-101.

 

 

THORNTON, Jessy Quinn, 1810-1888, jurist, lawyer.  Chief Justice of the Oregon Provisional Government, 1847.  Supporter of “Wilmot Proviso” to prohibit extension of slavery in the new territories acquired after war with Mexico.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 502; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 607)

 

 

THORNTON, William, 1761-1828, from West Indian island of Tortola, physician, architect, inventor, public official, humanitarian, reformer, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  Founding member and Board of Managers, American Colonization Society.  Early advocate of Black colonization, active in colonization activities; a former slave holder, he returned his slaves to Africa. (Burin, 2005, p. 9; Drake, 1950, pp. 123-124; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 104-105; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 504; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 609; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 5-13, 26, 66; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 5-8, 7-13, 66, 91)

 

THORNTON, William, superintendent of the patent-office, b. in Tortola, W. I.; d. in Washington, D. C., in 1827. He was educated as a physician, and lived for many years in Philadelphia, where he was well known in the circle of scientific men, being chosen a member of the American philosophical society on 19 Jan., 1787. He was a skilled architect, and designed the Philadelphia library building, which was completed in 1790. He removed to Washington, D. C., when the seat of government was transferred to that place, and drew the plans and superintended the erection of the first capitol building in its early stages. He was one of the first to act as commissioner of public buildings, and was the first head of the patent-office, being appointed superintendent in 1802, and serving till the time of his death. He published “Cadmus, or the Elements of Written Language” (Philadelphia, 1793).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 104-105.

 

 

THROOP, Amos Gager, 1811-1894, businessman, politician, abolitionist, philanthropist.  In 1891, he founded the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), earlier knonw as Throop University.  Mayor of Pasadena, California, elected in 1888.

 

 

THURSTON, Ariel, lawyer, jurist (Gates, 2013, Vol. 6, p. 588)

 

 

THURSTON, Daniel, Winthrop, Maine, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

THURSTON, David, Winthrop, Maine, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1833-40

 

 

TIERNAN, Luke, Baltimore, Maryland.  Original founder and leader of the Maryland State Colonization Society.  (Campbell, 1971, p. 192)

 

 

TIFFLIN, Edward, 1766-1829, Ohio, statesman, clergyman, Governor of Ohio.  Strong supporter of the American Colonization Society and colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 114; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 535; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 138)

 

TIFFIN, Edward, statesman, b. in Carlisle, England, 19 June, 1766; d. in Chillicothe, Ohio, 9 Aug., 1829. After receiving an ordinary English education, he began the study of medicine, and continued it after his removal to Charlestown, Va., in 1784, receiving his degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789. In the same year he married Mary, sister of Gov. Thomas Worthington. In 1790 he united with the Methodist church, and soon afterward he became a local preacher, being ordained deacon, by Bishop Asbury, 19 Nov., 1792. In 1796 he removed to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he continued both to preach and to practise medicine. At Deer Creek, twelve miles distant, he organized a flourishing congregation, long before that part of the country was visited by travelling preachers. In 1799 he was chosen to the legislature of the Northwest territory, of which he was elected speaker, and in 1802 he was president of the convention that formed the constitution of the state of Ohio. He was elected the first governor of the state in 1803, and re-elected two years later. During his second term he arrested the expedition of Aaron Burr, near Marietta, Ohio. After the expiration of his service he was chosen U. S. senator, to succeed his brother-in-law, Thomas Worthington, and took his seat in December, 1807, but early in the following year his wife died, and on 3 March, 1809, he resigned from the senate and retired to private life. Shortly afterward he married again, and was elected to the legislature, serving two terms as speaker. In the autumn of 1810 he resumed the practice of medicine at Chillicothe, and in 1812, on the creation by act of congress of a commissionership of the general land-office, he was appointed by President Madison as its first incumbent. He removed to Washington, organized the system that has continued in the land-office till the present time, and in 1814 was active in the removal of his papers to Virginia, whereby the entire contents of his office were saved from destruction by the British. Wishing to return to the west, he proposed to Josiah Meigs, surveyor-general of public lands northwest of Ohio river, that they should exchange offices, which was done, after the consent of the president and senate had been obtained. This post he held till 1 July, 1829, when he received, on his death-bed, an order from President Jackson to deliver the office to a successor. Dr. Tiffin continued to preach occasionally in his later years. Three of his sermons were published in the “Ohio Conference Offering” in 1851. In a letter of introduction to Gen. Arthur St. Clair, Gen. Washington speaks of Dr. Tiffin as being “very familiar with law.” Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

TILDEN, William P., Concord, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1843-48, Manager, 1848-53.

 

 

TILTON, David, Edgartown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

TILTON, Theodore, 1835-1907, New York, editor, abolitionist leader.  Originally supported gradual emancipation and African colonization. Later supported militant abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy and called for immediate abolition.  Worked as tireless anti-slavery leader through mid-1840s.  Encouraged Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to found the American Equal Rights Association, 1866.  (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 170; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 120; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 551; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 681)

 

TILTON, Theodore, journalist, b. in New York city, 2 Oct., 1835. He was graduated at the College of the city of New York in 1855, was employed for a year on the New York “Observer,” and then became an editor of the “Independent,” continuing on the staff from 1856 till 1871, the latter part of the time as editor-in-chief. He edited also, about six months of the last year, the Brooklyn “Union.” He then established the “Golden Age,” an independent political and literary weekly, but retired from it at the end of two years. In 1874 he charged Henry Ward Beecher with criminal intimacy with his wife (see BEECHER), and the case, tried by Plymouth church and the public courts, attracted wide attention. Mr. Tilton has written many political and reformatory articles, which have been reprinted in pamphlets. He has gained much reputation as an orator, being a constant and eloquent speaker in behalf of woman's rights, and, before the civil war, in opposition to slavery. For twenty years he was a lyceum lecturer, speaking in nearly every northern state and territory. He went abroad in 1883, and has since remained there. Among his works are “The Sexton's Tale, and other Poems” (New York, 1867); “Sancta Sanctorum, or Proof-Sheets from an Editor's Table” (1869); “Tempest Tossed,” a romance (1873; republished in 1883); “Thou and I,” poems (1880); and “Suabian Stories,” ballads (1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 120. 

 

 

TINGLEY, C. T., , Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1838-40

 

 

TODD, John, 1750-1782, soldier.  Member of the Virginia legislature.  Introduced bill for African American emancipation.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 126)

 

TODD, John, soldier, b. in Montgomery county, Pa., in 1750; d. at the Blue Licks, Ky., 19 Aug., 1782. He took part in the battle of Point Pleasant, Va., in 1774, as adjutant-general to Gen. Andrew Lewis. He settled as a lawyer in Fincastle, Va., but, with his brothers, emigrated to Fayette county, Ky., in 1775, took part in the organization of the Transylvania colonial legislature that year with Daniel Boone, and penetrated southwest as far as Bowling Green, Ky. In 1776 he settled near Lexington and was elected a burgess to the Virginia legislature, being one of the first two representatives from Kentucky county, where he served as county lieutenant and colonel of militia. He accompanied Gen. George Rogers Clark to Vincennes and Kaskaskia, and succeeded him in command of the latter place. In 1777 he was commissioned by Gov. Patrick Henry of Virginia, to be colonel and commandant of Illinois county, and served two years. He organized the civil government of this county, which afterward became the state of Illinois. Col. Todd went to Virginia in 1779, and was a member of the legislature in 1780, where he procured land-grants for public schools, and introduced a bill for negro emancipation. Afterward he returned to his family in Kentucky. While there he, as senior colonel, commanded the forces against the Indians in the battle of Blue Licks, where he was killed.—LEVI, brother of John, was a lieutenant under George Rogers Clark in the expedition of 1778, and one of the few survivors of the Blue Licks; and Levi's son, ROBERT S., was the father of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 126.

 

 

TODD, John, abolitionist leader, founding member, Electing Committee, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Education, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nash, 1991, p. 129; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

TODD, John, 1818-1894, Wets Hanover, Pennsylvania, clergyman, abolitionist, temperance activist, station master on the Underground Railroad.  Supporter of radical militant abolitionist John Brown.  Co-founder of Tabor College in Tabor, Iowa.  (Morgan, James Patrick, John Todd and the Underground Railroad: Biography of an Iowa Abolitionist, McFarland, 2006)

 

 

TODD, John D., founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

TOMKINS, Daniel D., 1774-1825, statesman.  Vice President of the United States.  Advocate for the abolishment of slavery in the United States.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 130; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 738; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936)

 

TOMPKINS, Daniel D., vice-president of the United States, b. in Fox Meadows (now Scarsdale), Westchester co., N. Y., 21 June, 1774; d. on Staten island, N. Y., 11 June, 1825. His father was Jonathan G. Tompkins, a farmer, who performed services useful to his country during the Revolutionary conflict. The son was graduated at Columbia in 1795, studied law, was admitted to the bar in New York city in 1797, gained rapid success in his profession, and soon began to take part in politics, being elected to the State constitutional convention of 1801, and in the same year to the assembly. He was a leader of the Republican party in his state, and in 1804 was elected to the National house of representatives, but resigned on 2 July, before the meeting of congress, in order to take his seat on the bench of the supreme court of New York, having been nominated an associate justice on the promotion of James Kent to the chief justiceship. On 9 June, 1807, he resigned in order to become the candidate for governor of the Democratic wing of his party in opposition to Morgan Lewis. He was elected by a majority of 4,000 votes, and found himself in accord with the legislature in his support of the foreign policy of the Jefferson administration. He was continued in the office by the reunited Republican factions at the elections of 1809 and 1811. In 1812, in order to prevent the establishment of the Bank of North America in New York city as the successor to the defunct United States bank of Philadelphia, he resorted to the extraordinary power of proroguing the legislature that the constitution then gave him, which no governor ever used except himself in this instance. The charter of the bank had been approved by the house, a part of the Republicans voting with the Federalists, and when the legislature reassembled it was at once passed. In the election of 1813 his majority was reduced from 10,000 to 4,000, and there was a hostile lower house in the next legislature. Nevertheless, his bold act made him very popular with the common people, and his active patriotism during the war with Great Britain increased their admiration. He placed the militia in the field, and did more than the Federal government for the success of the operations on the Canadian border, pledging his personal and official credit when the New York banks refused to lend money on the security of the U. S. treasury notes without his indorsement. He advanced the means to maintain the military school at West Point, to continue the recruiting service in Connecticut, and to pay the workmen that were employed in the manufactory of arms at Springfield. He bought the weapons of private citizens that were delivered at the arsenal in New York city, and in a short time 40,000 militia were mustered and equipped for the defence of New York, Plattsburg, Sackett's Harbor, and Buffalo. When Gen. John Armstrong retired from the secretaryship of war after the sacking of Washington, President Madison invited Tompkins to enter the cabinet as secretary of state in the place of James Monroe, who assumed charge of the war department; but he declined on the ground that he could be of more service to the country as governor of New York. He was reelected in 1815, and in April, 1816, was nominated for the vice-presidency of the United States. His talents and public services were more conspicuous than those of James Monroe, but the northern Democrats were not strong enough to command the first place on the ticket. Before resigning the governorship and entering on the office of vicepresident, to which he was elected by 183 out of 217 votes, he sent a message to the legislature, dated 28 Jan., 1817, recommending that a day be fixed for the abolition of slavery within the bounds of the state, and the assembly, acting on his suggestion, decreed that all slaves should be free on and after 4 July, 1827. He was re-elected vice-president by 215 of the 228 votes that were cast in 1820, and in the same year was proposed by his friends as a candidate for governor; but his popularity had diminished, and charges of dishonesty were made in connection with his large disbursements during the war with Great Britain. He was a delegate to the State constitutional convention of 1821. The suspicion of embezzlement, which were due to a confusion in his accounts, unbalanced his mind and brought on a melancholy from which he sought escape in intoxicating drinks, thereby shortening his life. He was one of the founders of the New York historical society, one of the corporators of the city schools, and a regent of the State university. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 130.

 

 

TOMLINSON, Carver, Illinois, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1858-64.

 

 

TOMLINSON, Gideon, 1780-1854, Connecticut, politician, lawyer, U.S. Senator, Congressman, Governor of Connecticut.  Member of the Connecticut Society of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 129; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 126)

 

TOMLINSON, Gideon, senator, b. in Stratford, Conn., 31 Dec., 1780; d. in Fairfield, Conn., 8 Oct., 1854. His grandfather was an officer at the capture of Ticonderoga. He was graduated at Yale in 1802, became a lawyer, and practised at Fairfield. He was elected a member of congress in 1818, serving from 1819 till 1827. He was chosen governor of Connecticut in that year, and continued in this office till 1831, when he resigned and was elected U. S. senator, serving till 1837. Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

TON, John, 1826-1896, Akersloot, North Holland, abolitionist.  Active in the Underground Railroad, aiding fugitive slaves.  Worked with other abolitionists in the area, including Cornelius Kuyper, Charles Dyer, and Charles and Henry Dalton.

 

 

TORREY, Charles Turner, 1813-1846, Massachusetts, clergyman, reformer, abolitionist leader.  Wrote Memoir of the Martyr.  Leader, the National Convention of Friends of Immediate Emancipation, Albany, New York, 1840.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 285; Mabee, 1970, pp. 266, 268; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 138; Pennsylvania Freeman, April 23, 1850; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 595; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 757)

 

TORREY, Charles Turner, reformer, b. in Scituate, Mass., in 1813; d. in Baltimore, Md., 9 May, 1846. His ancestor, James, was an early settler of Scituate. (See TORREY, WILLIAM.) Charles was graduated at Yale in 1830, studied theology, and occupied Congregational pastorates in Princeton, N.J., and Salem, Mass., but soon relinquished his professional duties to devote himself to anti-slavery labors in Maryland. In 1843 he attended a slaveholders’ convention in Baltimore, reported its proceedings, and was arrested and put in jail. In 1844, having been detected in his attempt to aid in the escape of several slaves, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to a long imprisonment in the state penitentiary, where he died of consumption that was brought on by ill usage. His body was taken to Boston, and his funeral attended from Tremont temple by an immense concourse of people. The story of his sufferings and death excited eager interest both in this country and in Europe, and “Torrey's blood crieth out” became a watch-word of the Abolition party, giving new impetus to the anti-slavery cause. He published a “Memoir of William R. Saxton” (Boston, 1838), and “Home, or the Pilgrim's Faith Revived,” a volume of sketches of life in Massachusetts, which he prepared in prison (1846). See “Memoir of the Martyr Torrey” (1847).   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 138.

 

 

TORREY, Martin, Foxboro, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1842-, Executive Committee, 1843-45

 

 

TOWNSEND, Jonas Holland, 1820-1872, African American, journalist, abolitionist leader, community activist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 216)

 

 

TOWNSEND, Joseph, 1739-1816, Methodist clergyman, Maryland, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage, founded 1789.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 224-225, 238, 241)

 

 

TOWNSLEY, Theodore, radical abolitionist, follower of abolitionist John Brown (see entry for John Brown.) (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 206)

 

 

TRACY, Frederick P., , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Corresponding Secretary, 1844-45

 

 

TRACY, Henry W., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

TRACY, John, d. 1844, Ohio, antislavery lecturer and activist, aided fugitive slaves.  Husband of abolitionist and women’s rights leader Hannah Tracy Cutler.

 

 

TRACY, Joseph, 1793-1874, Vermont, clergyman, newspaper editor.  Editor of the Vermont Chronicle and the Boston Recorder.  Secretary for the Massachusetts Colonization Society.  Supported the American Colonization Society and colonization.  Highly active in the founding of Liberia College.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 152; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 623; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 212, 240, 308)

 

TRACY, Joseph, clergyman, b. in Hartford, Vt., 3 Nov., 1794; d. in Beverly, Mass., 24 March, 1874. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1814, studied divinity, and was pastor of the Congregational churches in West Thetford and West Fairlee, Vt., from 1821 till 1829. He subsequently edited the “Chronicle” at Windsor, Vt., for five years, and the Boston “Recorder” for one year. He then became secretary of the Massachusetts colonization society, and of the American colonization society for Massachusetts, which posts he held until his death. The University of Vermont gave him the degree of D. D. in 1859. He was associated with Prof. Henry B. Smith for several years in the editorship of the “American Theological Review.” He published “Three Last Things” (Boston, 1839); “The Great Awakening, a History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield” (New York, 1842); “History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions” (1842); “Refutation of Charges against the Sandwich Island Missionaries” (Boston, 1844); and “A Memorial of the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the American Colonization Society” (1867). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 152.

 

 

TRACY, Myron, Hartford, Vermont, clergyman.  Agent in New England for the American Colonization Society.  Traveled in Massachusetts and Vermont.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 122-123, 130)

 

 

TRACY, Uriah, 1755-1807, abolitionist, lawyer, political leader, general.  U.S. House of Representatives, Connecticut.  U.S. Senator.  Member of the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom and Relief of Persons Unlawfully Holden in Bondage, founded c. 1790.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 153; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 624; Basker, 2005, pp. 223-224, 238-239; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 798)

 

TRACY, Uriah, senator, b. in Franklin, Conn., 2 Feb., 1755; d. in Washington, D. C., 19 July, 1807. He was graduated at Yale in 1778, admitted to the bar in 1781, and practised successfully in Litchfield for many years. He served in the legislature in 1788-'93, and in congress in 1793-'6, having been chosen as a Federalist. At the latter date he was elected to the U. S. senate in place of Jonathan Trumbull, who had resigned, serving until the time of his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 153. 

 

 

TRASK, George, 1798-1875, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Warren, Massachusetts, clergyman. Massachusetts Abolition Society, President, 1846, Vice-President, 1846-, 1850-.  Also active in the temperance movement and anti-tobacco use.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 154)

 

TRASK, George, clergyman, b. in Beverly. Mass., 15 Aug., 1798; d. in Fitchburg, Mass., 25 Jan., 1875. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1826, and at Andover theological seminary in 1829, was ordained, 15 Sept., 1830, and held pastorates in Framingham, Warren, and Fitchburg, Mass., till 1850, after which he was a temperance agent in the last-named town until his death. Mr. Trask became specially known for his efforts against the use of tobacco, in opposition to which he labored earnestly with voice and pen. He delivered many lectures throughout the United States, and was the author of many anti-tobacco tracts. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 154.

 

 

TRAVERS, George, founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, in December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

TREADWELL, Seymour Boughton, 1795-1867, political leader, temperance and anti-slavery activist.  Wrote, “American Liberties and American Slavery Morally and Politically Illustrated,” 1838.  Editor of anti-slavery newspaper, Michigan Freeman.  (Appletons’, 1888, vol. VI, pp. 155-156)

 

TREADWELL, Seymour Boughton, politician, b. in Bridgeport, Conn., 1 June, 1795; d. in Jackson, Mich., 9 June, 1867. His parents removed in his infancy to Monroe county, N. Y., where he was educated. He taught in western New York and Ohio, and in 1830 engaged in trade in Albion, N. Y., where he began to attract notice as a temperance and anti-slavery advocate. He removed to Rochester in 1837, and went to Michigan in 1839 to conduct the “Michigan Freeman,” an anti-slavery organ, at Jackson. He took an active part in all the conventions and movements of the Abolitionists, supporting James G. Birney for president in 1840 and 1844 and John P. Hale in 1852. In 1854 he was nominated by the Free-soil party for commissioner of the state land-office and twice elected. He acquired note, especially by a remarkable state paper in which he denied the constitutionality of the payment by the state of the expenses of the judges of the supreme court. The correctness of his views on the question was maintained by the state auditors in opposition to the attorney-general. He lived in retirement after 1859 on a farm near Jackson. He became first known to the public as the author of a work entitled “American Liberties and American Slavery Morally and Politically Illustrated” (Rochester, 1838). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 155-156. 

 

 

TREADWELL, U.S. Congressman from New York, voted against Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.  (Dumond, 1961; Annals of Congress, 2 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 861)

 

 

TREAT, George, 1819-1907, Frankfort, Maine, businessman, abolitionist.

 

 

TREVOR, Joseph, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1842.

 

 

TROY, William, 1827-1905, Essex County, Virginia, enslaved African American, Baptist minister, author.  Active in the Underground Railroad.  Wrote Hair Breadth Escapes from Slavery to Freedom in 1861.

 

 

TRUE, Charles Kittridge, 1809-1878, abolitionist, educator, Methodist clergyman, author, censured for abolitionist views (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 165-166; Sernett, 2002, p. 81)

 

TRUE, Charles Kittridge, educator, b. in Portland, Me., 14 Aug., 1809; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 20 June, 1878. He was graduated at Harvard in 1832, and was subsequently pastor of various Methodist churches, and principal of the Amenia seminary, N. Y. He was professor of moral and intellectual philosophy at Wesleyan in 1849-'60. Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1849. He edited the “Oregonian and Indian Advocate” in 1839, in Boston, Mass., and was the author of “Elements of Logic” (Boston, 1840); “Shawmut or the Settlement of Boston” (1845) ; “John Winthrop and the Great Colony” (New York, 1875); “Life and Times of Sir Walter Raleigh” (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1878); “Life and Times of John Knox” (1878); “Memoirs of John Howard” (1878); “The Thirty Years' War” (1879); “Heroes of Holland” (1882); and “Life of Capt. John Smith” (1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 165.

 

 

TRUMBULL, Lyman, 1813-1896,  lawyer, jurist, U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 166; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 19; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 877; Congressional Globe)

 

TRUMBULL, Lyman, senator, b. in Colchester, Conn., 12 Oct., 1813, began to teach at sixteen years of age, and at twenty was at the head of an academy in Georgia, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. He removed to Belleville, Ill., and in 1841 was secretary of the state of Illinois. In 1848 he was elected one of the justices of the state supreme court. In 1854 he was chosen to represent his district in congress, but before his term began he was elected U. S. senator, and took his seat, 4 March, 1855. Until that time he had affiliated with the Democratic party, but on the question of slavery he took a decided stand against his party and his colleague, Stephen A. Douglas, especially on the question of “popular sovereignty.” In 1860 he was brought forward by some Republicans as a candidate for president. He had no desire to be so considered, and when his friend, Abraham Lincoln, was nominated, he labored with earnestness for his election. In 1861 he was re-elected to the U. S. senate, in which he did good service for the National cause, and was one of the first to propose the amendment to the Federal constitution for the abolition of slavery. He was one of the five Republican senators that voted for acquittal in the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, and afterward he acted with the Democratic party, whose candidate for governor of Illinois he was in 1880. Since his retirement from congress he has had a lucrative lawpractice in Chicago. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 166.

 

 

TRUTH, Sojourner (Isabella Baumfree), 1797?-1883, African American, anti-slavery activist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.  Wrote The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, 1850.  Recruited African American soldiers for the Union Army.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 83-85, 145, 270, 337, 342; Mabee, 1993; Painter, 1996; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 481-482; Stetson, 1994; Yellin, 1994, pp. 30, 139-158; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 603; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 814-816; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 880; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 236)

 

SOJOURNER TRUTH, lecturer, b. in Ulster county, N. Y., about 1775; d. in Battle Creek. Mich., 26 Nov., 1883. Her parents were owned by Col. Charles Ardinburgh, of Ulster county, and she was sold at the age of ten to John J. Dumont. Though she was emancipated by the act of New York which set at liberty in 1817 all slaves over the age of forty, she does not appear to have obtained her freedom until 1827, when she escaped and went to New York city. Subsequently she lived in Northampton, Mass., and in 1851 began to lecture in western New York, accompanied by George Thompson, of England, and other Abolitionists, making her headquarters in Rochester, N. Y. Subsequently she travelled in various parts of the United States, lecturing on politics, temperance, and women's rights, and for the welfare of her race. She could neither read nor write, but, being nearly six feet in height and possessing a deep and powerful voice, she proved an effective lecturer. She carried with her a book that she called “The Book of Life,” containing the autographs of many distinguished persons that were identified with the anti-slavery movement. Her name was Isabella, but she called herself “Sojourner,” claiming to have heard this name whispered to her from the Lord. She added the appellation of “Truth” to signify that she should preach nothing but truth to all men. She spent much time in Washington, D. C., during the civil war, and passed her last years in Battle Creek, Mich., where a small monument was erected near her grave, by subscription. See “Narrative of Sojourner Truth, drawn from her 'Book of Life,' with Memorial Chapter,” by Mrs. Francis W. Titus (Battle Creek, 1884). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

TUBMAN, Harriet, 1822-1913, African American, abolitionist, member Underground Railroad, orator.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 284, 321; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 37, 52, 307, 482-483, 489; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 172; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 27; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 816-817; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 888; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 238)

 

TUBMAN, Harriet, abolitionist, b. near Cambridge, Dorchester co., Md., about 1821. She was the child of slaves of pure African blood, whose name was Ross. Her original Christian name of Araminta she changed to Harriet. When about thirteen years old she received a fracture of the skull at the hands of an enraged overseer, which left her subject during her whole life to fits of somnolency. In 1844 she married a free colored man named Tubman. In 1849, in order to escape being sent to the cotton-plantations of the south, she fled by night, and reached Philadelphia in safety. In December, 1850, she visited Baltimore and brought away her sister and two children, and within a few months returned to aid in the escape of her brother and two other men. Thenceforth she devoted herself to guiding runaway slaves in their flight from the plantations of Maryland along the channels of the “underground railroad,” with the assistance of Thomas Garrett and others. At first she conducted the bands of escaped slaves into the state of New York, but, when the fugitive-slave act began to be strictly enforced, she piloted them through to Canada. She made nineteen journeys, and led away more than 300 slaves. A reward of $40,000 was offered for her apprehension. Among the people of her race and the agents of the “underground railroad”' she was known as “Moses.” During the civil war she performed valuable service for the National government as a spy and as a nurse in the hospitals. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 172.

 

 

TUCK, Amos, 1810-1879, Parsonfield, Maine, lawyer, politician, abolitionist.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Free-Soil and Whig anti-slavery member of the U.S. Congress.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 27)

 

 

TUCKER, Benjamin, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Nash, 1991, p. 131)

 

 

TUCKER, J. N. T., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

TUCKER, St. George, 1752-1827, Williamsburg, Virginia, jurist, professor of law at William and Mary University, opponent of slavery, slaveholder.  Author of five-volume edition, Blackstone’s Commentaries (1803), and Dissertation on Slavery, with a Proposition for its Gradual Abolition in Virginia (1796).  Advocate for gradual abolition of slavery.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 174-175; Cullen, 1987; Dumond, 1961, pp. 28, 77-79; Hammond, 2011, pp. 123, 126; Locke, 1901, pp. 91, 129f, 184, 194; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 38; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 895; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 684-686; Finkelman, Paul, Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson, 2001)

 

TUCKER, St. George, jurist, b. in the island of Bermuda, 10 July, 1752; d. in Warminster, Nelson co., Va., 10 Nov., 1828, came to Virginia in 1771 to complete his education, was graduated at William and Mary in 1772, finished a course of law, and began practice in the colonial courts. In June, 1775, he returned to Bermuda, but he came again to Virginia in January, 1777, and bore arms in defence of the colonies, serving as lieutenant-colonel at the siege of Yorktown. In 1778 he married Frances Bland, mother of John Randolph. After the war he resumed the practice of law, was made a judge of the general court of Virginia in 1787, and in 1789 professor of law in the College of William and Mary, succeeding Chancellor George Wythe. He was appointed in 1804 president-judge of the Virginia court of appeals, and in 1813 judge of the U. S. district court of Virginia. He was a member of the Annapolis convention of 1786 that recommended the convention by which the constitution was formed. He was a poet as well as a jurist. William and Mary college gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1790, and he left dramas—tragedy and comedy—and several minor poems, some of them gems. The one entitled “Resignation,” beginning “Days of my youth,” was highly praised by John Adams. “The Probationary Odes of Jonathan Pindar, Esq., a Cousin of Peter's, and a Candidate for the Post of Poet Laureate, to the C. U. S. In Two Parts,” is the title of a volume of political satires by Judge Tucker (1796). He also published “Dissertation on Slavery, with a Proposition for its Gradual Abolition in Virginia” (1796); “Letters on the Alien and Sedition Laws” (1799); an essay on the question “How far the Common Law of England is the Common Law of the United States?” an annotated edition of Blackstone's commentaries (Philadelphia, 1803); and a “Commentary on the Constitution,” as an appendix to the last-mentioned work.—Another brother was Dr. NATHANIEL, who, when very young, published a poem called “The Bermudian” (London, 1774). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 174-175.

 

 

TUCKERMAN, Henry Tuckerman, 1813-1871, Boston, Massachusetts, author.  Co-founder of the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Boston.  Co-founded monthly paper, The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom.  He defended the American Colonization Society and its policies against criticism by William Lloyd Garrison.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 177; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 45; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 204)

 

TUCKERMAN, Henry Theodore, author, b. in Boston, Mass., 20 April, 1813; d. in New York city, 17 Dec., 1871, was prepared to enter college, but the condition of his health compelled a cessation of study, and in 1833 he went to Europe, where he remained nearly a year, passing most of the time in Italy. “The Italian Sketch-Book” (Philadelphia, 1835) was the fruit of his sojourn abroad. His academical studies were resumed on his return, but were again relinquished, and he made a second voyage to Europe in 1837, remaining abroad until the summer of 1839. This journey embraced a tour of Sicily and lengthened residences in Palermo and Florence. The literary outcome of this second trip was “Isabel, or Sicily: a Pilgrimage” (1839). With greatly improved health, he now devoted himself to letters, and was for years a regular and frequent contributor to periodicals. These writings were in due course collected and published at intervals. Scholarly taste, wide reading, and varied learning are displayed in these numerous compositions. The criticisms are well tempered and sympathetic; the sentiments are wholesome; the style, if perhaps lacking in vigor, is graceful, melodious, and refined. In the works that relate especially to art and artist life a command of knowledge and just appreciation are clearly exhibited. Mr. Tuckerman's prose writings are a valuable contribution to polite literature. The two volumes of poetry are not remarkable, though “Love and Fame,” “Mary,” and “The Apollo Belvidere” are still admired. He was much beloved socially, in virtue of grace of manners and irreproachable personal worth. He spent many summers at Newport, where a pleasant memorial of him, presented by his sister, may be seen in the “Redwood Library,” consisting of a complete set of Mr. Tuckerman's writings in a beautiful ebony case, His works, besides those mentioned above, include “Rambles and Reveries” (1841); “Thoughts on the Poets,” principally English (1846; German translation by Dr. Emile Müller, Marburg, 1856); “Artist Life, or Sketches of American Painters” (New York, 1847); “Characteristics of Literature” (Philadelphia, 1849; 2d series, 1851); “The Optimist,” a volume of miscellaneous essays (New York, 1850); “Life of Commodore Silas Talbot” (1851); “Poems” (Boston, 1851); “A Month in England” (1853); “Memorial of Horatio Greenough” (New York, 1853); “Leaves from the Diary of a Dreamer” (1853); “Mental Portraits, or Studies of Character” (London, 1853; revised and enlarged as “Essays, Biographical and Critical, or Studies of Character,” Boston, 1857); “Essay on Washington, with a Paper on the Portraits of Washington” (New York, 1859)”; “America and Her Commentators” (1864); “A Sheaf of Verse” (1864); “The Criterion, or the Test of Talk about Familiar Things” (1866); “Maga Papers about Paris” (1867); “Book of the Artists,” a study of the rise and progress of art in America (1867); and “Life of John Pendleton Kennedy” (1871). See addresses by Henry W. Bellows and Evert A. Duyckinck (New York, 1872). Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

TUFTS, Hannah, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, p. 62)

 

 

TURNER, Asa, Jr., Quincy, Illinois, Iowa, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1839, 1839-1840.

 

 

TURNER, Eliza Sproat, 1826-1903, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, writer, poet, women’s rights activist and leader, abolitionist.  Leader of the Women’s Congress.  Founder of the New Century Club.  Co-founder, New Century Guld of Working Women.  Member of the Phildelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in the 1850s.  Co-founder of the Pennsylvania Women’s Suffrage Association in 1869.

 

 

TUTTLE, Uriel, Torrington, Connecticut, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

TWINING, William, Madison, Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

TWOMBLEY, John H., Worcester, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1859-61

 

 

TYLER, Charles M., Natick, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1863-64

 

 

TYSON, Elisha, Baltimore, 1749-1824, Maryland, Acting Committee, Maryland Abolition Society, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, provided legal aid and care for fugitive slaves, active in helping between 1790-1824  (Drake, 1950, pp. 118-121, 129; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 204)

 

TYSON, Elisha, philanthropist, b. in Montgomery county, Pa., in 1749; d. in Baltimore, Md., 16 Feb., 1824. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and an early member of the Maryland society for the abolition of Slavery, appeared frequently before the judicial tribunals in behalf of negroes, and procured the passage of several laws to ameliorate their condition. In 1818 he retired from business to devote his attention to the abolition movement, and established the Protection society of Maryland, to insure the colored population of the state the enjoyment of their legal privileges. See his “Life,” by a citizen of Baltimore (Baltimore, 1825). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 204.

 

 

 

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UNDERWOOD, John, Kentucky, American Colonization Society, Recording Secretary, 1833-34, Manager, 1840-41, Director, 1836-41.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

 

UNDERWOOD, John Curtiss, 1808-1873, Litchfield, New York, jurist, opponent of slavery.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 210; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 113)

 

UNDERWOOD, John Curtiss, jurist, b. in Litchfield, Herkimer co., N. Y., in 1808; d. in Washington, D. C., 7 Dec., 1873. He was graduated at Hamilton in 1832, and removed to Clarke county, Va., where he engaged in farming, and in 1856 was a delegate to the convention that nominated John C. Frémont for president. Being proscribed for his political sentiments, and especially for his opposition to slavery, he removed to New York, where he became secretary to a company that was formed to deal in southern lands. In 1861 he was nominated consul at Callao, Peru, but he accepted instead the office of fifth auditor in the treasury department, and while there was appointed judge of the district court of Virginia. Early in the civil war he affirmed the right of the U. S. government to confiscate the enemy's property, and also maintained the civic rights of colored citizens. In his district Jefferson Davis was indicted for treason, and he refused in June, 1866, to admit the prisoner to bail, on the ground that he was in custody of the military authorities. He still presided in May, 1867, when the Confederate leader was released. Judge Underwood was bitterly assailed for his maintenance of the rights of colored citizens and for his zeal in enforcing the Federal laws, and was forced into litigation on account of his decree sanctioning confiscation. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 210.

 

 

UPHAM, William, 1792-1853, Leicester, Massachusetts, lawyer, member of Vermont House of Representatives, Whig U.S. Senator, 1843-1853.  Opposed slavery.  He stated, “Slavery is a crime against humanity and a sore evil in the body politic.”  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 213) 

 

UPHAM, William, senator, b. in Leicester, Mass., in August, 1792; d. in Washington, D. C., 14 Jan., 1853. He removed with his father to Vermont in 1802, was educated at the State university, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and began practice in Montpelier. In 1827-'8 he served in the legislature, was state's attorney for Washington county in 1829, and served again in the legislature in 1830. Elected a U. S. senator as a Whig, he served from 4 Dec., 1843, until his sudden death by small-pox.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

UPSON, Charles, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

URY, John, d. 1741.  Accused, tried and hanged for his involvement in the New York Slave Insurrection of 1741.  He was executed an August 29, 1741.

 

 

 

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VAN EPPS, Abraham, Vernon, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1846.

 

 

VAN NESS, Cornelius Peter, 1782-1852, Vermont, jurist, political leader.  Governor of Vermont.  Officer, Vermont auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 249; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 76)

 

VAN NESS, Cornelius Peter, jurist, b. in Kinderhook, N. Y., 26 Jan., 1782; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 15 Dec., 1852, was educated for the bar, removed to Burlington, Vt., and practised his profession with success until 1809, when he became U. S. district attorney. From that year until his death he occupied public office. He was collector of the port of Burlington in 1815-'18, a commissioner to settle the U. S. boundary-lines under the treaty of Ghent in 1817-'21, a member of the legislature in 1818-'21, having been chosen, as a Democrat, chief justice of Vermont in 1821-'3, governor from the latter date till 1829, and U. S. minister to Spain in 1829-'37. In 1844-'5 he was collector of the port of New York. The University of Vermont gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1823. He published a “Letter to the Public on Political Parties, Caucuses, and Conventions” (Washington, D. C., 1848). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

VAN RENSSELAER, Stephen, 1764-1839, New York, soldier, U.S. Congressman.  Vice-President, American Colonization Society (ACS), 1836-41.  Founding member and officer of the Albany auxiliary of the ACS.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 251-252; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 81)

 

VAN RENSSELAER, Stephen, eighth patroon, b. in New York, 1 Nov., 1765; d. in Albany, N. Y., 26 Jan., 1839, was graduated at Harvard in 1782, and the next year married Margaret, daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler. He was always addressed by courtesy as the patroon, although with the establishment of the colonial government he lost his baronial rights. After leaving college he entered at once on the improvement of his splendid although somewhat diminished estates, and, to induce farmers to settle on his lands, placed rentals so low that they yielded only one per cent. at a fair valuation. In consequence he soon had 900 farms of 150 acres each under cultivation. Having secured his patrimony, he entered politics, and, as a great landholder and at the same time an ardent patriot, was destined to bridge the chasm between the two opposite political systems. He was chosen to the assembly in 1789 as a Federalist, became a leader of that party, was state senator in 1791-'6, lieutenant-governor in 1795, and in 1798 and 1808-'10 was in the assembly. He became major of militia in 1786, colonel in 1788, and major-general in.1801. He was one of the first to propose the establishment of a canal between Hudson river and the great lakes, was appointed in 1810 a commissioner to report to the assembly on the route, and made an investigating tour of it the same year, the report of which was favorably received in 1811; but the project was delayed by the beginning of the second war with Great Britain. In 1812 he was appointed to command the U. S. forces on the northern frontier. Although he opposed the war as premature, he at once organized a militia force that was sufficient in numbers to overrun the province of Upper Canada. But he had no regular soldiers, and his officers were deficient in both courage and military skill. On 13-14 Oct., 1812, he fought the battle of Queenston Heights. The importance of that place arose from the fact that it was the terminus of the portage between Lake Ontario and the upper lakes. Gen. Van Rensselaer had minute information as to the situation and strength of each post of the enemy on the western bank of Niagara river, and his portion of his grandfather Killian's estate what was known as the Claverack patent, containing about 62,000 acres of land in Columbia county, and 1,500 acres out of the manor proper, opposite the city of Albany. He built a substantial brick house on the latter estate and one at Claverack, which is still standing. He was employed in many public capacities, being mayor of Albany, commissioner of Indian affairs, and a representative in the assembly. In 1698 he bought from the Schaghticoke Indians a tract of six square miles on Hoosac river, for which he procured a patent. This purchase interfered greatly with the city of Albany, and, Van Rensselaer declining to sell his patent to the council, the controversy became a state affair. In 1699 the dispute was amicably settled and he passed his patent over to the city. His wife was a granddaughter of Anneke Jans Bogardus, through whom their descendants became heirs to Trinity church farm.  Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

VAN RENSSELAER, Thomas, 1800-1850, New York, NY, African American abolitionist, editor.  Executive Committee, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1840-1842.  Co-founded newspaper, The Ram’s Horn. (Mabee, 1970, pp. 130, 270, 391n27; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 317)

 

 

VAN VALKENBURGH, Robert Bruce, 1821-1888, lawyer, Union Colonel.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York.  Member of Congress 1861-1865.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 256; Congressional Globe)

 

VAN VALKENBURG, Robert Bruce, congressman, b. in Steuben county, N. Y., 4 Sept., 1821; d. at Suwanee Springs, Fla., 2 Aug., 1888. He received an academic education, adopted the profession of law, and served three terms in the New York assembly. When the civil war opened he was placed in command of the state recruiting depot at Elmira, N. Y., and organized seventeen regiments for the field. He served in congress in 1861-'5, having been chosen as a Republican, and took the field in 1862 as colonel of the 107th regiment of New York volunteers, which he commanded at Antietam. In the 38th congress he was chairman of the committees on the militia, and expenditures in the state department. He was appointed by President Johnson in 1865 acting commissioner of Indian affairs, during the absence of the commissioner, and in 1866-'9 was U. S. minister to Japan. He became a resident of Florida when he returned from that mission, and was chosen associate justice of the state supreme court, which place he held at his death. Judge Van Valkenburg was an able politician and jurist. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 256. 

 

 

VAN VLIET, Peter, Iowa Territory, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1839-1840.

 

 

VAN WINKLE, Peter Godwin, 1808-1872.  U.S. Senator from newly-formed State of West Virginia.  Served as Senator 1863-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 257; Congressional Globe; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 219)

 

VAN WINKLE, Peter G., senator, b. in New York city, 7 Sept., 1808; d. in Parkersburg, W. Va., 15 April, 1872. He removed to Parkersburg, Va., in 1835, and practised the profession of law there till 1852, when he became treasurer and subsequently president of a railroad company. He was a member of the Virginia constitutional convention in 1850, and of the Wheeling reorganizing convention in 1861, was in the West Virginia legislature from the formation of the new state till 1863, and in that year became U. S. senator, having been chosen as a Unionist for the term that ended in 1869. He was chairman of the committee on pensions in that body, was a member of those on finance, pensions, post-offices, and post-roads, and in the impeachment of President Johnson was one of the members that voted for acquittal. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 257.

 

 

VAN ZANDT, John, d. 1847, abolitionist.  Member and participant in the Underground Railroad in Ohio.  Van Zant was a former slaveholder from Kentucky.  He was sued in court by the owner of slaves he harbored in his home in Ohio.  His case was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court in Jones vs. Van Zandt in 1847.  The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jones, upholding the principle that slavery was constitutionally protected.  Van Zandt was financially ruined by the courtand legal fees.  He died that same year.

 

 

VARNUM, Joseph Bradley, 1750-1821, soldier, Member of Congress from Massachusetts 1780-1795.  Opposed slavery as Member of U.S. House of Representatives.  U.S. Senator 1811-1817.  Two-term Speaker of House of Representatives 1807-1811.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 261-262; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 228; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 161; Annals of Congress, I Cong., 2 Sess.; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 278)

 

VARNUM, Joseph Bradley, senator, b. in Dracutt. Mass., 29 Jan., 1750; d. there, 21 Sept., 1821, at the age of eighteen was commissioned captain by the committee of the colony of Massachusetts bay, and in 1787 colonel by the commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was made brigadier-general in 1802, and in 1805 major-general of the state militia, holding the latter office at his death in 1821. From 1780 till 1795 he was a member of the house of representatives and senate of Massachusetts, and in 1787 and 1795 he served as a member of the governor's council. From 1795 till 1811 he was a member of the National house of representatives, during which time he was chosen speaker two terms, from 1807 till 1811, being the immediate predecessor of Henry Clay. From 1811 till 1817 he was U. S. senator from Massachusetts, being elected in opposition to Timothy Pickering, and he was president pro tempore of the senate and acting vice-president of the United States from 6 Dec., 1813, till 17 April, 1814. He was a member of the State convention to ratify the constitution of the United States in 1787, and that of 1820 to revise the constitution of Massachusetts, acting as the presiding officer in the absence of President John Adams and Chief-Justice Parker. In 1813 he was a candidate for governor of Massachusetts against Caleb Strong, the incumbent of that office, but was defeated. Gen. Varnum was among the earliest patriots of the Revolution, having raised and commanded as captain a company of minute-men from his native town, which participated in engagements in Rhode Island and New York. For his assistance in putting down Shays's rebellion in 1787 he received a personal letter of thanks from Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, commanding the state forces. Henry Wilson, in his “History of Slavery,” quotes him in the debate on the bill for the government of the Mississippi territory before the house in March, 1798, as having been very strong and outspoken in his opposition to negro servitude. In politics, unlike his brother, Gen. James M. Varnum, who was a Federalist, he was a Democrat, and a strong and consistent supporter of the administration of Thomas Jefferson. After his retirement in 1817 from congress he was again chosen to represent his district in the legislature, and when he died he was the senior member of the senate of Massachusetts. Among the portraits of the speakers of the National house of representatives at the capitol in Washington there is a fine oil-painting of Gen. Varnum by Charles L. Elliott, a gift from the state of Massachuetts. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 261-262.

 

 

VASHON, George Boyer, 1824-1876, African American, writer, lawyer, anti-slavery activist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 327)

 

 

VASHON, John B., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

VASHON, Susan Paul Smith, 1838-1912, African American, educator, writer.  Wrote articles for abolitionist papers. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 329)

 

 

VAUX, Roberts, 1786-1836, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, jurist, philanthropist, education reformer, supported American Colonization Society  (Drake, 1950, pp. 139-140; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 270; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 239; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 304)

 

 

VENARD, Stephan, 1823-1891, Lebanon, Ohio, abolitionist.  Active in the Underground Railroad in Indiana.

 

 

VESEY, Denmark, c. 1767-1822, African American abolitionist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 339; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 283-284; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 258; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 721-723)

 

VESEY, Denmark, conspirator, b. about 1767; d. in Charleston, S. C., 2 July, 1822. He was an African of great physical strength and energy, who had been purchased in St. Thomas, when fourteen years old, by a sea-captain of Charleston, S. C., whom he accompanied in his voyages for twenty years, learning various languages. He purchased his freedom in 1800, and from that time worked as a carpenter in Charleston, exercising a strong influence over the negroes. For four years he taught the slaves that it would be right to strike a blow for their liberty, comparing their situation to that of the Israelites in bondage, and repeating the arguments against slavery that were made in congress by speakers on the Missouri compromise bill. In conjunction with a negro named Peter Poyas, he organized a plot for a general insurrection of slaves in and about Charleston, which was disclosed by a negro whom one of the conspirators approached on 25 May, 1822. Several thousand slaves from neighboring islands, organized in military formations and provided with pikes and daggers, were to arrive in canoes, as many were accustomed to do on Sunday, and with one stroke take possession of the city, the forts, and the shipping in the harbor. Nearly all the slaves of Charleston and its vicinity, many from remoter plantations, and a large number of whites, were in the plot. The leaders that were first arrested maintained such secrecy and composure that they were discharged from custody, and proceeded to develop their plans. An attempt was made to carry them out on 16 June, but the insurrection was promptly suppressed. At length, on the evidence of informers, the chief conspirators were arrested and arraigned for trial on 19 June. The two courts were organized under a colonial law, and consisted each of two lawyers and five freeholders, among whom were William Drayton, Robert Y. Hayne, Joel R. Poinsett, and Nathaniel Hayward. Denmark Vesey showed much dialectic skill in cross-examining witnesses by counsel and in his final plea. He and five of the ringleaders were hanged first, and twenty-nine others on later dates, all save one keeping up to the end their calm demeanor and absolute reticence, even under torture. On the day of Vesey's execution a second effort was made to rouse the blades, but two brigades of troops, on guard day and night, were sufficient to deter them from action. The slaves were ready, however, to embrace the first opportunity, and re-enforcements of United States troops were sent in August to guard against a renewal of the insurrection.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

VINTON, Samuel Finley, 1792-1862, South Hadley, Massachusetts, Whig U.S. Congressman, attorney.  Aided President Lincoln in the process of emancipating slaves in the District of Columbia by Congress.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 303; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 284)

 

VINTON, Samuel Finley, congressman, b. in South Hadley, Mass., 25 Sept., 1792; d. in Washington, D. C., 11 May, 1862. He was graduated at Williams in 1814, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1816, and began to practise in Gallipolis, Ohio. He was chosen to congress as a Whig, serving from 1 Dec., 1823, till 3 March, 1837, was a presidential elector on the Harrison ticket, and served again in congress in 1843-'51. His last public service was in 1862, when he was appointed by President Lincoln to appraise the slaves that had been emancipated in the District of Columbia by act of congress. He published numerous congressional and other speeches, including “Argument for Defendants in the Case of Virginia vs. Garner and Others for an Alleged Abduction of Slaves” (1865). His daughter, Madeleine, married Admiral John A. Dahlgren.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

VOSE, Richard H., Augusta, Maine, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

VROOM, Peter Dumont, 1791-1873, Somerville, New Jersey, lawyer, state legislator, Governor of New Jersey, diplomat.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1838-1841.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 308; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 295; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

VROOM, Peter Dumont, governor of New Jersey, b. in Hillsborough township, N. J., 12 Dec., 1791; d. in Trenton, N. J., 18 Nov., 1873. He was the son of Col. Peter D. Vroom, a Revolutionary officer. He was graduated at Columbia in 1808, admitted to the bar in 1813, and practised in various counties of New Jersey. He was a member of the legislature in 1826-'9, and in the latter year was elected governor of New Jersey as a Jackson Democrat by joint ballot of the two houses, which was the method of election at that time. He was re-elected in 1830-'1 and 1833-'6, and in 1837 was appointed by President Van Buren a commissioner to adjust the claims of the Indians in Mississippi, was a member of congress in 1839-'41, having been chosen as a Democrat, and a member of the State constitutional convention in 1844. In 1852 he was a presidential elector, and in 1853-'7 was minister to Prussia. He was appointed reporter of the supreme court of New Jersey in 1865, and in 1868 was again a presidential elector. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Columbia in 1837 and by Princeton in 1850. He published “Reports of the Supreme Court of New Jersey” (6 vols., Trenton, 1866-'73). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

 

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WADE, Benjamin Franklin, 1800-1878, lawyer, jurist, U.S. Senator, strong and active opponent of slavery.  In 1839, opposed enactment of stronger fugitive slave law, later calling for its repeal.  U.S. Senator, March 1851-1869.  Opposed Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854.  Reported bill to abolish slavery in U.S. Territories in 1862.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  (Appletons’, 1888, pp. 310-311; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 303; Blue, 2005, pp. 11-13, 213-237; Filler, 1960, pp. 103, 151, 229; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 23, 25, 48-49, 54, 71, 116, 132, 143-144, 172, 189, 216, 217, 227, 228, 230; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 499; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 431; Congressional Globe)

 

WADE, Benjamin Franklin, senator, b. in Feeding Hills, near Springfield, Mass., 27 Oct., 1800; d. in Jefferson, Ohio, 2 March, 1878. His ancestor, Jonathan, came from Norfolk, England, to Massachusetts in 1632. His father, James, a soldier of the Revolution, removed to Andover, Ohio, in 1821. The son's education was received chiefly from his mother. He shared in the pioneer work of his new home, and in 1823, after aiding in driving a herd of cattle to Philadelphia, went to Albany, N. Y., where he spent two years in teaching, also beginning the study of medicine with his brother, and at one time working as a common laborer on the Erie canal to obtain funds. On his return to Ohio he began the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1827, and began practice in Jefferson. He formed a partnership with Joshua R. Giddings in 1831, and in 1835 was elected prosecuting attorney of Asht.abula county, which office he held till 1837. In that year he was chosen as a Whig to the state senate, where, as a member of the judiciary committee, he presented a report that put an end to the granting of divorces by the legislature. In 1839 he was active in opposition to the passage of a more stringent fugitive-slave law, which commissioners from Kentucky were urging on the legislature. The law passed, but his forcible speech against it did much to arouse state pride on the subject and to make it a dead letter. His action cost him his re-election to the senate, but he was chosen again in 1841. In February, 1847, he was elected by the legislature president-judge of the 3d judicial district, and while on the bench he was chosen, on 15 March, 1851, to the U. S. senate, where he remained till 1869. He soon became known as a leader of the small anti-slavery minority, advocated the homestead bill and the repeal of the fugitive-slave law, and opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1854, the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution of 1858, and the purchase of Cuba. After the assault on Charles Sumner, Robert Toombs avowed in the senate that he had witnessed the attack, and approved it, whereupon Mr. Wade, in a speech of great vehemence, threw down the gage of personal combat to the southern senators. It was expected that there would be an immediate challenge from Toombs, but the latter soon made peace. Subsequently Mr. Wade, Zachariah Chandler, and Simon Cameron made a compact to resent any insult from a southerner by a challenge to fight. This agreement was made public many years afterward. Wade was present at the battle of Bull Run with other congressmen in a carriage, and it is related that after the defeat seven of them alighted, at Wade's proposal, being armed with revolvers, and for a quarter of an hour kept back the stream of fugitives near Fairfax Court-House. This incident, as narrated in the journals, made a sensation at the time. Mr. Wade labored earnestly for a vigorous prosecution of the war, was the chairman and foremost spirit of the joint committee on the conduct of the war in 1861-'2, and was active in urging the passage of a confiscation bill. As chairman of the committee on territories, he reported a bill in 1862 to abolish slavery in all the territories. He was instrumental in the advancement to the portfolio of war of Edwin M. Stanton, whom he recommended strongly to President Lincoln. Though he cordially supported the administration, he did not hesitate to criticise many of its acts, and after the adjournment of the 38th congress he issued, with Henry Winter Davis, what became known as the Wade-Davis manifesto, condemning the president's proposed reconstruction policy. Mr. Wade became president pro tempore of the senate, and thus acting vice-president of the United States, on 2 March, 1867, succeeding Lafayette S. Foster. He advised President Johnson to put on trial for treason a few of the Confederate leaders and pardon the rest, and was radical in his ideas of reconstruction. In the impeachment of President Johnson he voted for conviction. In 1869, at the close of his second term, he was succeeded in the senate by Allen G. Thurman, and he then returned to his home in Jefferson, Ohio. He was one of the chief members of the Santo Domingo commission in 1871, and then became attorney for the Northern Pacific railroad. He was chairman of the Ohio delegation in the Cincinnati national convention of 1876, and earnestly advocated the nomination of Rutherford B. Hayes, but after his accession to the presidency Mr. Wade bitterly condemned his course in relation to the southern states. Though Mr. Wade had been called “Frank Wade” in Ohio, from his middle name, he was known in congress and throughout the country as Ben or “Old Ben” Wade. He was popularly looked upon as one of the bulwarks of the National cause in the darkest hours of the civil war, and was widely admired and respected for his fearlessness, independence, and honesty. His rugged and forcible style of oratory always commanded attention. See his “Life,” by Albert G. Riddle (Cleveland, Ohio, 1888).—His son, JAMES FRANKLIN, entered the army on 14 May, 1861, as 1st lieutenant of the 6th U. S. cavalry, and rose in rank till at the close of the war he was major and brevet brigadier-general of volunteers. He became lieutenant-colonel on 20 March, 1879, and colonel of the 5th cavalry on 21 April, 1887. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 310-311.

 

 

WADE, Edward, Ohio, prominent abolitionist (Blue, 2005, pp. 11-13, 213, 226, 236, 268; Dumond, 1961, pp. 302, 363; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 23, 25, 26, 48, 65, 71, 72; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 56)

 

 

WAGONER, Henry O., 1816-1901, African American, abolitionist, journalist, political leader.  Active in abolitionist newspaper, Western Citizen, and Frederick Douglass’s Frederick Douglass’ Paper, a weekly publication.  Active in Underground Railroad in Chicago area.  Helped enlist soldiers for the Black Union Army regiments. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 356)

 

 

WALES, John, Delaware, abolitionist.  Co-founder and first Vice President, Delaware Abolition Society, 1827.

 

 

WALKER, Amasa, 1799-1875, Boston, Massachusetts, political economist, abolitionist.  Republican U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts.  Active and vigorous opponent of slavery.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) Manager, 1837-1840, 1840-1841, 1843-1844, Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1841.  Co-founder of Free Soil Party in 1848.  Served in Congress December 1862 through March 1863.  (Filler, 1960, pp. 60, 254; Mabee, 1970, pp. 258, 340, 403n25; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 324-325; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 338; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 485)

 

WALKER, Amasa, political economist, b. in Woodstock, Conn., 4 May, 1799; d. in Brookfield, Mass., 29 Oct., 1875. He received a district-school education in North Brookfield, where among his fellow-students was William C. Bryant. In 1814 he entered commercial life, and in 1820 formed a partnership with Allen Newell in North Brookfield, but three years later withdrew to become the agent of the Methuen manufacturing company. In 1825 he formed with Charles G. Carleton the firm of Carleton and Walker, of Boston, Mass., but in 1827 he went into business independently. In 1840 he withdrew permanently from commercial affairs, and in 1842 he went to Oberlin, Ohio, on account of his great interest in the college there, and gave lectures on political economy at that institution until 1848. After serving in the legislature, he became the Free-soil and Democratic candidate for speaker, and in 1849 was chosen to the Massachusetts senate, where he introduced a plan for a sealed-ballot law, which was enacted in 1851, and carried a bill providing that Webster's Dictionary should be introduced into the common schools of Massachusetts. He was elected secretary of state in 1851, re-elected in 1852, and in 1853 was chosen a member of the convention for revising the state constitution, becoming the chairman of the committee on suffrage. He was appointed in 1853 one of the examiners in political economy in Harvard, and held that office until 1860, and in 1859 he began an annual course of lectures on that subject in Amherst, which he continued until 1869. Meanwhile, in 1859, he was again elected to the Massachusetts legislature, and in 1860 he was chosen a member of the electoral college of that state, casting his ballot for Abraham Lincoln. He was also elected as a Republican to congress, and served from 1 Dec., 1862, till 3 March, 1863. Mr. Walker is best known for his work in avocating new and reformatory measures. In 1839 he urged a continuous all-rail route of communication between Boston and Mississippi river, and during the same year he became president of the Boston temperance society, the first total abstinence association in that city. He was active in the anti-slavery movement, though not to the extent of recommending unconstitutional methods for its abolition, and in 1848 he was one of the founders of the Free-soil party. Mr. Walker was a member of the first International peace congress in London in 1843, and was one of its vice-presidents, and in 1849 he held the same office in the congress in Paris. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Amherst in 1867. In 1857 he began the publication of a series of articles on political economy in “Hunt's Merchant's Magazine,” and he was accepted as an authority on questions of finance. Besides other contributions to magazines, he published “Nature and Uses of Money and Mixed Currency” (Boston, 1857), and “Science of Wealth, a Manual of Political Economy” (1866), of which eight editions have been sold, and it has been translated into Italian. With William B. Calhoun and Charles L. Flint he issued “Transactions of the Agricultural Societies of Massachuetts” (7 vols., 1848-'54). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 324-325.

 

 

WALKER, Charles, Reverend, Rutland, Vermont, clergyman.  Agent of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in New England.  Assistant to ACS agent Reverend Joshua N. Danforth of Boston.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 197)

 

 

WALKER, David, 1796?-1830, born Wilmington, North Carolina, free African American, author, abolitionist.  Wrote Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World.  Mother was free; father was a slave.  Founder of the Massachusetts General Colored Association, which opposed colonization.  Walker was a subscription agent for the newspaper, Freedom’s Journal. (Aptheker, 1965; Burrow, 2003; Drake, 1950, p. 131; Dumond, 1961, pp. 114-115; Hammond, 2011, pp. 96, 177; Hinks, 1997; Mabee, 1970, pp. 258, 340, 403n25; Pease, 1965, pp. 298-310; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 25, 39, 172, 463, 501-502, 581-585, 588; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 340; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 487; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 378; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 735-737)

 

 

WALKER, Edwin G., 1831?-1901, African American, lawyer, politician, abolitionist.  Participated in Boston’s abolition groups. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 380)

 

 

WALKER, Isaac P., 1813-1872, lawyer, U.S. Senator, anti-slavery Democrat from Wisconsin.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 326-327)

 

WALKER, Isaac P, senator, b. in 1813; d. in Milwaukee, Wis., 1 April, 1872. He adopted the profession of law, removed to Wisconsin in 1841, practised in Milwaukee, and took an active part in early political events in the state. He served in the territorial congress in 1847-'8, and in the latter year was chosen to the U. S. senate as an Anti-slavery Democrat. His policy in that body was deemed timid by his constituents, for, although he wished to preserve the Union, he did not properly represent their attitude on the Wilmot proviso. He was not returned in the next election, retired from politics, and resumed the practice of law. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 326-327.

 

 

WALKER, John, Gurnsey County, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842.

 

 

WALKER, Jonathon, 1799-1878, abolitionist, reformer.  Attempted to aid escape of slaves from Pensacola, Florida.  Was caught, tried and convicted, and branded on hand with “SS” for “slave stealer.”  His story revealed evil of slave trade and slave laws.  (Filler, 1960, p. 164; Mabee, 1970, pp. 266, 268, 269, 298; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 328)

 

WALKER, Jonathan, reformer, b. on Cape Cod, Mass., in 1799; d. near Muskegon, Mich., 1 May, 1878. He was captain of a fishing vessel, in his youth, but about 1840 he went to Florida, where he became a railroad-contractor. He was interested in the condition of the slaves, and in 1844 aided several of them in an attempt to make their escape in an open boat from the coast of Florida to the British West Indies. After doubling the capes, he was prostrated by illness, and the crew being ignorant of navigation, they would all have been drowned had they not been rescued by a wreckingsloop that took Walker to Key West, whence he was sent in irons to Pensacola. On his arrival there he was put in prison, chained to the floor, and deprived of light and proper food. Upon his trial in a U. S. court, he was convicted, sentenced to be heavily fined, put on the pillory, and branded on his right hand with a hot iron with the letters “S. S.,” for “slave-stealer,” a U. S. marshal executing the sentence. He was then remanded to jail, where he was confined eleven months, and released only after the payment of his fine by northern Abolitionists. For the subsequent five years he lectured on slavery in the northern and western states. He removed to Michigan about 1850, where he resided near Muskegon until his death. A monument was erected to his memory on 1 Aug., 1878. He was the subject of John G. Whittier's poem “The Man with the Branded Hand.” See “Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,” by Henry Wilson (Boston, 1874). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 328.

 

 

WALKER, Mary Edwards, 1832-1919, feminist, physician (surgeon), Union Army surgeon, womens rights and suffrage activist, abolitionist.  Received the Medal of Honor for her services during the Civil War, the only woman to have received this honor.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 352)

 

 

WALKER, Robert John, 1801-1869, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, statesman, lawyer, United States Senator.  Sustained treaty for suppressing the African slave trade.  Advocate for gradual emancipation and colonization of slaves.  Freed his own slaves.  During Civil War, supported emancipation as a necessity for Union victory.  Strong supporter of the Union.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 329; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 355)

 

WALKER, Robert John, statesman, b. at Northumberland, Pa., 23 July, 1801; d. in Washington, D. C., 11 Nov., 1869. His father was a soldier of the Revolution, and a judge of the common pleas, of the high court of errors and appeals of Pennsylvania, and of the U. S. district court. After his graduation in August, 1819, at the state university at Philadelphia, with the first honor of a large class, he began the practice of law at Pittsburg, Pa., in 1822, with great success. In 1826 he removed to Mississippi, where he entered vigoronsly into law and politics, taking an active part in 1832 and 1833 against nullification and secession. In January, 1833, in the Natchez “Journal,” he made an extended argument against the doctrine of disunion and in favor of coercion against rebellious states, which was highly extolled by James Madison. In January, 1836, he was Union candidate for the U.S. senate in opposition to George Poindexter, and was elected, and at this time he influenced the legislature of Mississippi to adopt resolutions denouncing nullification and secession as treason. In 1840 he was re-elected to the U. S. senate by a two-to-one majority over t.he orator Sergeant S. Prentiss. During his service in the senate he took an active part in its debates, especially in opposition to John C. Calhoun. He supported the administrations of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren; but when the latter disapproved of the annexation of Texas, Walker opposed him, and in the Baltimore convention of 1844 labored for the nomination of James K. Polk to the presidency. By Mr. Polk he was appointed secretary of the treasury, which office he held till 5 March, 1849. In his course in the senate Mr. Walker opposed the Bank of the United States and the distribution of the surplus revenue among the states, advocating, instead, its application to the public defences. He opposed a protective tariff, and in a speech on 3 March, 1836, proposed the celebrated Homestead bill. He sustained with much energy the treaty for suppressing the African slave-trade, and throughout his political career always and consistently advocated gradual emancipation, exhibiting his sincerity in 1838 by manumitting all his own slaves. He sustained New York in the McLeod case, and introduced and carried the resolution of 1837 recognizing the in dependence of Texas. He was the first to propose the annexation of Texas by a letter in the public prints in January, 1844, recommending, as a condition, a scheme for gradual emancipation and colonization, which was fiercely attacked by John C. Calhoun. While secretary of the treasury he prepared and carried the tariff of 1846, various loan bills, the warehousing system, the Mexican tariff, and the bill to organize the department of the interior. After leaving the treasury, he was offered by President Pierce in 1853 the post of commissioner to China, which he declined. The part that he took in the events that immediately preceded the civil war was active. He opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, though after it became a law he supported it on the ground that was assumed by Stephen A. Douglas. In 1857 he accepted the post of governor of Kansas on the pledge of President Buchanan that the state constitution should be submitted to the vote of the people; but after rejecting the forged and fraudulent returns in Kansas, and opposing the Lecompton constitution, Mr. Walker resigned, and, going before congress, defeated the attempt to force the corrupt measure on the territory. After Abraham Lincoln's election Mr. Walker took ground, earnestly and immediately, in favor of re-enforcing the southern forts and of sustaining the Union by force if necessary. In April, 1861, he addressed a great meeting in Union square, New York, advocating prompt and vigorous measures, and he did this when many of the best men of both parties deprecated a resort to extremities. His decided course had great influence in shaping the policy of the government. Early in 1863 he joined James R. Gilmore in the conduct of the “Continental Monthly,” which the latter had established the year before to advocate emancipation as a political necessity, and he wrote for it some of its ablest political articles. In the same year he was appointed by the government financial agent of the United States in Europe, and succeeded in negotiating $250,000,000 of the 5-20 bonds. Returning to the United States in November, 1864, he devoted himself thereafter to a large law-practice in Washington, and to writing for the “Continental Monthly” articles on financial and political topics, in which he was understood to present the views of the state and treasury departments. During this period he was influential in procuring the ratification of the Alaska treaty and in securing the passage of the bill for a railroad to the Pacific. During his public life of nearly forty years Mr. Walker exercised a strong and often controlling influence on affairs. He had a broad and comprehensive mind, and a patriotism that embraced the whole country. As a financier he takes high rank.   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI.

 

 

WALLACE, John, Muskingham County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-38

 

 

WALLCUT, Robert F., N. Dennis, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1845-47, Recording Secretary, 1847-61-.

 

 

WALN, Robert, 1765-1836, businessman, economist.  Member of the U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania.  Served in Congress 1798-1801 in Federalist Party.  Opposed slavery in U.S. House of Representatives.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 339; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 387; Locke, 1901, p. 93; Annals of Congress)

 

WALN, Robert, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 22 Feb., 1765; d. there, 24 Jan., 1836. His great-great-grandfather, Nicholas, an English Quaker, came to this country with William Penn in 1682, and bought a tract of land in what is now the city of Philadelphia. He took an active part in public affairs, was a member of the first grand jury that was called in 1683, and represented Bucks county in the first legislature of Pennsylvania from that year till 1695, when he removed to Philadelphia, and in 1711 became a director in the first public school of that city. He died there in 1721. Robert was educated at the Friends' academy in his native city. Be inherited a large estate, and with his brother Jesse continued the business that had been established by his father, which became widely known in the East India and China trade, and almost equalled that of Stephen Girard in the comprehensive character of its enterprises. He served in the legislature several years, and in congress from 1798 till 1801 as a Federalist, and was a member of the common council of Philadelphia. During the war of 1812 he built one of the first cotton-factories in the country, and, being also largely interested in iron-works, he became a strong protectionist. He was the author of an “Answer to the Anti-Protective Report of Henry Lee,” while the excitement on the tariff question was at its height, and of “Seven Letters to Elias Hicks,” which attracted great attention. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 339.  

 

 

WANER, Joseph, Delaware, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Delaware Society for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, founded 1789.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 224, 225, 238, 241n20)

 

 

WARD, Austin, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WARD, George W., Plymouth, New Hampshire, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WARD, Samuel, 1786-1839, New York, New York, banker, philanthropist, temperance activist.  Friend and supporter of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 354; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 438; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 227)

 

WARD, Samuel, banker, b. in Rhode Island, 1 May, 1786; d. in New York city, 27 Nov., 1839, received a common-school education, entered a banking-house as clerk, and in 1808 was taken into partnership, continuing a member of the firm of Prime, Ward and King until his death. In 1838 he secured through the Bank of England a loan of nearly $5,000,000 to enable the banks to resume specie payments, and established the Bank of commerce, becoming its president. He was a founder of the University of the city of New York and of the City temperance society, of which he was the first president, and was active in organizing mission churches, a patron of many charities, and the giver of large sums in aid of Protestant Episcopal churches and colleges in the west. Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WARD, Samuel Ringgold, 1817-1866, New York, American Missionary Association (AMA), African American, abolitionist leader, newspaper editor, author, orator, clergyman.  Member of the Liberty Party and the Free Soil Party.  Wrote Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro, His Anti-Slavery Labours in the United States, Canada and England, 1855.  Lecturer for American Anti-Slavery Society.  Member and contributor to the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. (Dumond, 1961, p. 330; Mabee, 1970, pp. 128, 135, 136, 294, 307, 400n19; Sernett, 2002, pp. 54-55, 62-64, 94, 117, 121, 126, 142, 149, 157-159, 169, 171-172; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 34, 46, 48, 53, 166, 446-447, 454; Sorin, 1971, pp. 85-89, 96, 104, 132; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 440; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 649; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 380)

 

 

WARD, Thomas W., Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-40

 

 

WARDNER, Allen, 1786-1877, Alstead, New Hampshire, banker, businessman, politician.  Member of the American Colonization Society.

 

 

WARE, John Fothergill Waterhouse, 1818-1881, Boston, Massachusetts, Unitarian clergyman, helped African Aemricans and opposed slavery.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 357; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 450)

 

WARE, John Fothergill Waterhouse, clergyman, b. in Boston, 31 Aug., 1818; d. in Milton, Mass., 26 Feb., 1881, was graduated at Harvard in 1838 and at the divinity-school in 1842. He was first settled as a pastor of the Unitarian society at Fall River, Mass., afterward was stationed at Cambridgeport, and in 1864 became pastor of the Unitarian church in Baltimore, Md. During his residence in Baltimore he gave much attention to the religious needs and other wants of the negroes, and before and during the civil war was an anti-slavery man. Mr. Ware returned to Boston, and in 1872 became pastor of the Arlington street church. He organized a Unitarian society at Swampscott, Mass., of which he was pastor at the time of his death, as well as of the Boston church. He was a favorite with the members of the Grand army of the republic, having been a worker among the soldiers during the civil war, and was a frequent orator before their organizations. He published “The Silent Pastor” (Boston, 1848); “Hymns and Tunes for Sunday-School Worship” (1858-'56-'60); and “Home Life: What it Is, and what it Needs” (1873).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WARE, Nicholas, 1769-1824, Augusta, Georgia, U.S. Senator.  Member of the Augusta auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Proponent of colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 358; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

WARE, Nicholas, senator, b. in Caroline county, Va., in 1769; d. in New York city, 7 Sept., 1824. While a youth he accompanied his father, Capt. Robert Ware, to Edgefield, S. C. He afterward studied medicine at Augusta, Ga., and then law, completing his studies at the Litchfield, Conn., law-school. He attained success in his profession at Augusta, represented Richmond county in the Georgia legislature, was mayor of Augusta, afterward judge of the city court, and U. S. senator from Georgia in 1821-'4. He was president of the board of trustees of Richmond county academy, Augusta, at the time of his death, and was also a trustee of the University of Georgia at Athens. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WARE, S., S. Deerfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-

 

 

WARNER, James, Brooklyn, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1844-1855.

 

 

WARNER, John, abolitionist leader, founding member, Electing Committee, Acting Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

WARREN, Asa, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WARREN, James, Cincinnati, Ohio, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1834, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WARREN, JLLF, Brighton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1842-43

 

 

WASHBURN, Elihu Benjamin, 1816-1887, statesman, lawyer.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Congressman from December 1853 through march 1869.  Called “Father of the House.”  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 370-371; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 504; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 750; Congressional Globe)

 

WASHBURN, Elihu Benjamin, statesman, b. in Livermore, Me., 23 Sept., 1816; d. in Chicago, Ill., 22 Oct., 1887, wrote his family name with a final “e.” He was educated at public schools, and, after working on his father's farm, entered the office of the “Christian Intelligencer” in Gardiner in 1833 as a printer's apprentice. The paper was discontinued a year later, and he was chosen to teach in the district school. In May, 1835, he entered the office of the “Kennebec Journal,” at Augusta, where he continued for a year, during which time he rose gradually until he became an assistant of the editor, and acquired his first knowledge of political life during the sessions of the state legislature. He then decided to study law, and entered Kent's Hill Seminary in 1836. After a year in that institution he began his professional studies in the office of John Otis in Hallowell, who, impressed by his diligence and ambition, aided him financially and took him into his own home to board. In March, 1839, he entered the law-school at Harvard, where among his class-mates were Richard H. Dana. Charles Devens, and William M. Evarts. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, and at once determined to establish himself in the west. Settling in Galena, Ill., he there entered into law-partnership with Charles S. Hempstead, and, being a strong Whig, made speeches in behalf of that party, which had nominated William H. Harrison for the presidency. In 1844 he was a delegate to the Whig national convention in Baltimore that selected Henry Clay as its candidate, and on his return he visited that statesman in Washington. Meanwhile his business increased, and he was frequently called upon to practise in the supreme court of the state. In 1848 he was nominated for congress in the Galena district, but was defeated by Col. Edward D. Baker. In 1852, as a delegate to the National Whig convention, he advocated the nomination of Gen. Winfield Scott, and in the same year he was elected to congress, serving thereafter from 5 Dec., 1853, till 6 March, 1869. He soon gained an excellent reputation, and, on the election of Nathaniel P. Banks as speaker in 1855, was given the chairmanship of the committee on commerce, which he held for ten years. He was selected by the house to accompany William H. Seward, representing the senate, to receive Abraham Lincoln when he arrived in Washington after his election. From the length of his continuous service he became recognized as the “Father of the House,” and in that capacity administered the oath as speaker to Schuyler Colfax three times, and to James G. Blaine once. From his continual habit of closely scrutinizing all demands that were made upon the treasury and persistently demanding that the finances of the government should be administered with the strictest economy, he acquired the name of the “Watch-dog of the Treasury.” He was a steadfast friend of Ulysses S. Grant during the civil war, and every promotion that the latter received was given either solely or in part upon the recommendation of Mr. Washburne. Subsequently he originated the bills that made Gen. Grant lieutenant-general and general. Mr. Washburne was a member of the joint committee on reconstruction and chairman of the committee of the whole house in the matter of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. He opposed all grants of the public lands and all subsidies to railroad companies, and resisted with all his power what he called “the greatest legislative crime in history”—the bill that subordinated the first mortgage of the government on the Pacific railroad to the mortgage of the railroad companies. He also opposed “log rolling” river and harbor bills, all extravagant appropriations for public buildings, all subsidies for steamship lines, and all undue renewals of patents. Among the important bills that he introduced was the one that provided for the establishment of national cemeteries. At the beginning of his administration President Grant appointed Mr. Washburne secretary of state, which office he resigned soon afterward to become minister to France. This place he held during the Franco-Prussian war, and on the withdrawal of the German ambassador, the latter was ordered by Count Bismarck to turn over his archives to the American legation. At the request of Bismarck, and with the permission of the French minister of foreign affairs, he exercised his official influence with remarkable tact and skill for the protection of the Germans in Paris and acted as the representative of the various German states and other foreign governments. When the empire was overthrown, Mr. Washburne was the first foreign representative to recognize the new republic. He remained in Paris during the siege, and was at his post when the Commune ruled the city. He visited the venerable archbishop Darboy of Paris when he was hurried to prison, and succeeded in having the prelate removed to more comfortable quarters, but failed to prevent his murder. He retained the respect and good-will of the French during all the changes of government, and the emperor of Germany recognized his services by conferring upon him the Order of the Red Eagle. This he declined, owing to the provision of the U. S. constitution that prevented its acceptance, but on his resignation in 1877 the emperor sent him his life-size portrait, and he was similarly honored by Bismarck, Thiers, and Gambetta. On his return to this country he settled in Chicago, and in 1880 his name was brought forward as a candidate for the presidency, but he refused to have it presented to the convention. He was president of the Chicago historical society from November, 1884, till his death, and was frequently invited to lecture on his foreign experiences. He wrote a series of articles on that subject for “Scribner's Magazine,” which were expanded into “Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869-1877” (2 vols., New York, 1887). His collection of pictures, documents, and autographs he desired to be given to the city of Chicago, provided they should be exhibited free to the general public. Efforts are being made to secure the erection of a suitable building in Lincoln park for their exhibition. Mr. Washburne edited “History of the English Settlement in Edwards County, Illinois” (Chicago, 1882); and “The Edwards Papers” (1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 370-371.

 

 

WASHBURN, Ichabod, 1798-1868, Worcester, Massachusetts, manufacturer, philanthropist, abolitionist.  Church Anti-Slavery Society, Treasurer, 1859-1864.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 501)

 

 

WASHBURN, William Barrett, 1820-1887, businessman. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts.  U.S. Senator.  Served in Congress 1863-1872, and U.S. Senate May 1874-March 1875.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 372; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; Congressional Globe)

 

WASHBURN, William Barrett, senator, b. in Winchendon, Mass., 31 Jan., 1820; d. in Springfield, Mass., 5 Oct., 1887. He was graduated at Yale in 1844, and became a manufacturer at Greenfield, Mass., where he was for many years president of the National bank, and which he represented in both branches of the legislature in 1850-'4. He was identified with the Republican party from its organization in 1856, and at the beginning of the civil war contributed liberally to the National cause. In 1862 he was sent to congress as a Republican, and he was returned biennially till on 1 Jan., 1872, he resigned his seat to become governor of Massachusetts. This office he resigned also during his third term to fill the vacancy that was made in the U. S. senate by the death of Charles Sumner, serving from 1 May, 1874, till 3 March, 1875, when he withdrew from public affairs. Besides holding many offices of trust under corporate societies, he was a trustee of Yale, of the Massachu'setts agricultural college, and of Smith college, of which he was also a benefactor, and a member of the board of overseers of Amherst from 1864 till 1877. Harvard conferred the degree of LL. D. upon him in 1872. By his will he made the American board, the American home missionary society, and the American missionary association residuary legatees, leaving to each society about $50,000. He was also a great benefactor of the Greenfield public library. He died suddenly while attending a session of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, of which he was a member.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 372.

 

 

WASHINGTON, Augustus, 1820-1875, African American, abolitionist, newspaper publisher, Liberian statesman, Black civil rights activist, educator.  Rejected, then later supported African colonization.  Emigrated to Liberia.  Elected to Liberian House of Representatives in 1863 and later became Speaker.  In 1871, elected to Liberian Senate. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 458)

 

 

WASHINGTON, Bushrod, 1762-1829, Washington, DC, founding officer and life member and supporter of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 384; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 508; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 30, 34, 36, 51, 70, 128, 173)

 

WASHINGTON, Bushrod, jurist, b. in Westmoreland county, Va., 5 June, 1762; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 26 Nov., 1829, was the son of John Augustine, a younger brother of the general. He was graduated at William and Mary in 1778, studied law with James Wilson, of Philadelphia, and began practice in his native county. His professional duties were interrupted by his entrance into the patriot army, and he served as a private in the Revolution. He was a member of the Virginia house of delegates in 1 787, and the next year of that to ratify the constitution of the United States. He subsequently removed to Alexandria, and thence to Richmond, Va. He was appointed an associate justice of the U. S. supreme court in 1798, which office he held until his death. Judge Washington was the first president of the Colonization society, and a learned jurist. He was the favorite nephew of Gen. Washington. At the death of Mrs. Washington he inherited the mansion and 400 acres of the Mount Vernon estate. He died without issue. Judge Washington’s publications include “Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of Appeals of Virginia” (2 vols., Richmond, Va., 1798-'9), and “Reports of Cases determined in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the 3d Circuit, from 1803 till 1827,” edited by Richard Peters (4 vols., 1826-'9). Of these Horace Binney says in his “Life of Bushrod Washington” (printed privately, Philadelphia, 1858): “I have never thought that his reports of his own decisions did him entire justice, while they in no inadequate manner at all fully represent his judicial powers, nor the ready command he held of his learning in the law.” See also a sketch of Judge Washington in Mr. Justice Story's “Miscellaneous Writings” (Philadelphia, 1852).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WATERBURY, Calvin, abolitionist, agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS),m worked in Ohio and New York.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 185)

 

 

WATERS, George, Holden, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40

 

 

WATERS, Henry, abolitionist.  American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1853-55.

 

 

WATKINS, William, Baltimore, Maryland, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-35.

 

 

WATTLES, Augustus, 1807-1883, established school for free Blacks.  Agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Worked with Emigrant Aid Society in Lawrence, Kansas.  Edited Herald of Freedom.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 164-165; Mabee, 1970, pp. 104, 155, 394n31, 403n29)

 

 

WATTLES, John O., Clermont County, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-42.

 

 

WAUGH, J. S., Butler County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39

 

 

WAY, Henry H., Indiana, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, editor of the Free Labor Advocate newspaper of the Friends Anti-Slavery Society (Drake, 1950, p. 165)

 

 

WAYLAND, Francis, 1796-1865, New York, New York, educator, physician, anti-slavery activist.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 397; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 558)

 

WAYLAND, Francis, educator, b. in New York city, 11 March, 1796; d. in Providence, R. I., 30 Sept., 1865. He was the son of Francis Wayland, a Baptist minister, who emigrated from England, and was the pastor of churches in Poughkeepsie, Troy, Albany, and Saratoga Springs. The son was graduated in 1813 at Union college, then under the presidency of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, whose spirit and methods influenced largely his own future course as a college president. Immediately upon his graduation he spent three years in the study of medicine. Having meanwhile united with a Baptist church, and feeling that duty called him to the Christian ministry, he entered in 1816 the Andover theological seminary, but at the end of a year he left to become a tutor in Union college, which office he held for four years. He was called in 1821 to the pastorate of the 1st Baptist church in Boston, and soon became recognized as a man of rich and varied gifts. His preaching, though unaided by an attractive delivery, was greatly admired for its broad and deep thoughtfulness and its fine grace of expression. His sermons on “The Moral Dignity of the Missionary Enterprise” (1823) and “The Duties of an American Citizen” (1825) placed him in the front rank of American preachers. The former, in particular, has obtained wide celebrity. In 1826 he accepted a professorship in Union college, but he left it in February, 1827, to take the presidency of Brown university, which office he filled for twenty-eight years with distinguished honor to himself and the highest advantage to the university. It felt at once in all its departments the inspiration of a new life, and speedily enjoyed a greatly enlarged prosperity. Dr. Wayland's instructions in psychology, political economy, and ethics, especially the last, were in a high degree stimulating to his pupils, while his strong personality was felt by the students of every class as an educating and elevating force. Not satisfied with the old text-books, he prepared lectures on all the subjects that he taught. He delivered weekly sermons to the students in the chapel, often attended their prayer-meetings, and gathered them for Bible instruction. In all these services he was singularly effective. Though he was naturally conservative, his clear perceptions and sound judgment made him a pioneer reformer in educational methods. In 1850 his views led to a reorganization of Brown university, so as to give a place to the more modern branches of learning, and to allow a larger liberty in the election of studies, changes that since his day have almost universally been adopted. After his retirement from the presidency in 1855 he served for a year and a half as pastor of the 1st Baptist church in Providence. Subsequently he gave his strength to religious and humane work, devoting much time to the inmates of the Rhode Island state prison and reform school. He received the degree of D. D. from Union in 1827 and Harvard in 1829, and that of LL. D. from the latter in 1852. Dr. Wayland was a prolific author. Besides about fifty sermons and addresses, his published works are “Occasional Discourses” (Boston, 1833); “Elements of Moral Science” (New York, 1835; abridged ed. for schools, Boston, 1836; with notes and analysis by Joseph Angus, D. D., London, 1857; with analysis by Rev. George B. Wheeler, 1863; translated into several foreign languages) “Elements of Political Economy” (New York, 1837; abridged ed., Boston, 1840); “Moral Law of Accumulation” (Boston, 1837); “The Limitations of Human Responsibility” (1838); “Thoughts on the Present Collegiate System in the United States” (1842); '”Domestic Slavery considered as a Scriptural Institution,” a correspondence between Dr. Wayland and Rev. Richard Fuller, of Beaufort, S. C. (1845); “Sermons delivered in the Chapel of Brown University” (1849); “Report to the Corporation of Brown University on the Changes in the System of Collegiate Education” (Providence, 1850); memoirs of Harriet Ware (1850) and Adoniram Judson (2 vols., Boston, 1853); “Elements of Intellectual Philosophy” (1854); “Notes on the Principles and Practices of Baptist Churches” (1857); “Sermons to the Churches” (1858); “Salvation by Christ” (1859); “Letters on the Ministry of the Gospel,” addressed to Heman Lincoln (1863); and “Memoir of Thomas Chalmers, D. D.” (1864). See a memoir, with selections from his personal reminiscences and correspondence, by his sons, Francis and Heman Lincoln Wayland (2 vols., New York, 1867), and his funeral sermon by Prof. George I. Chace (1866).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WAYNE, James Moore, 1790-1867, Savannah, Georgia, jurist, Court of Common Pleas.  Member of the Savannah auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 400; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 565; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)

 

WAYNE, James Moore, jurist, b. in Savannah, Ga., in 1790; d. in Washington, D. C., 5 July, 1867. He was graduated at Princeton in 1808, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1810, and began practice at Savannah. He served for two years in the state house of representatives, was elected mayor of Savannah in 1823, and chosen judge of the superior court in 1824, serving for five years. He was a member of congress in 1829-'35, took an active part as a debater, and was a supporter of Gen. Andrew Jackson, who appointed him, 9 Jan., 1835, associate justice of the U. S. supreme court. His opinions upon admiralty jurisprudence are cited as being of high authority. In congress he favored free-trade, opposed internal improvements by congress, except of rivers and harbors, and opposed a recharter of the U. S. bank, claiming that it would confer dangerous political powers upon a few individuals. He took an active part in the removal of the Indians to the west. Judge Wayne presided in two conventions that were held for revising the constitution of Georgia. Princeton college gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1849. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WEAVER, James Baird, 1833-1912, Dayton, Ohio, U.S. Congressman, Civil War Union officer, candidate for U.S. President, opponent of slavery.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 401)

 

WEAVER, James B., candidate for the presidency, b. in Dayton, Ohio, 12 June, 1833. He was graduated at the law-school of Ohio university, Cincinnati, in 1854. In April, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the 2d Iowa infantry, was elected a lieutenant, rose to be major on 3 Oct., 1861, and after the senior field-officers had fallen at Corinth was commissioned colonel, 12 Oct., 1862. He was brevetted brigadier-general on 13 March, 1865, for gallantry in action. After the war he resumed legal practice, was elected district attorney of the 2d judicial district of Iowa in 1866, and was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the 5th district of the state in 1867, serving six years. He became editor of the “Iowa Tribune,” published at Des Moines, and was elected to congress, taking his seat on 18 March, 1879. In June, 1880, he was nominated for the presidency by the convention of the National Greenback-Labor party, and in the November election he received 307,740 votes. He was returned to congress after an interval of two terms by the vote of the Greenback-Labor and Democratic parties, taking his seat on 7 Dec., 1885, and in 1886 was re-elected.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WEBB, Mary, 1828-1859, African American, orator.  Gave dramatic readings of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  Dramatic readings were organized by Samuel Gridley Howe, which helped publicize the anti-slavery cause. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 552)

 

 

WEBB, Samuel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-41.

 

 

WEBSTER, Daniel, 1782-1852, Boston, Massachusetts, statesman, U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Congressman, lawyer, orator, author, strong opponent of slavery.  Vice President of the American Colonization Society, 1833-1841.  President of the Society for the Suppression of the Slave Trade in 1822. (Baxter, 1984; Blue, 2005; Mabee, 1970, pp. 175, 197, 261, 291, 307; Mitchell, 2007; Peterson, 1987; Remini, 1997; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 331-332, 508-509; Shewmaker, 1990; Smith, 1989; Webster, 1969; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 406-415; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 585; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 865; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27, 76, 245)

 

WEBSTER, Daniel, statesman, b. in Salisbury (now Franklin), N.H., 18 Jan., 1782; d. in Marshfield, Mass., 24 Oct., 1852, was the second son of Ebenezer Webster by his second wife, Abigail Eastman. He seemed so puny and sickly as an infant that it was thought he would not live to grow up. He was considered too delicate for hard work on the farm, and was allowed a great deal of time for play. Much of this leisure he spent in fishing and hunting, or in roaming about the woods, the rest in reading. In later life he could not remember when he learned to read. As a child his thirst for knowlec1ge was insatiable; he read every book that came within reach, and conned his favorite authors until their sentences were in great part stored in his memory. In May, 1796, he was sent to Exeter academy, where he made rapid progress with his studies, but was so overcome by shyness that he found it impossible to stand up and “speak pieces” before his school-mates. In spite of this timidity, some of his riatural gifts as an orator had already begun to show themselves. His great, lustrous eyes and rich voice, with its musical intonations, had already exerted a fascination upon those who came within their range; passing teamsters would stop, and farmers pause, sickle in hand, to hear him recite verses of poetry or passages from the Bible. In February, 1797, his father sent him to Boscawen, where he continued his studies under the tuition of the Rev. Samuel Wood. Although Ebenezer Webster found it difficult, by unremitting labor and strictest economy, to support his numerous family, he still saw such signs of promise in Daniel as to convince him that it was worth while, at whatever sacrifice, to send him to college. In view of this decision, he took him from school, to hasten his preparation under a private tutor, and on the journey to Boscawen he informed Daniel of his plans. The warm-hearted boy, who had hardly dared hope for such good fortune, and keenly felt the sacrifice it involved, laid his head upon his father's shoulder and burst into tears. After six months with his tutor he had learned enough to fulfil the slender requirements of those days for admission to Dartmouth, where he was duly graduated in 1801. At college, although industrious and punctual in attendance and soon found to be very quick at learning, he was not regarded as a thorough scholar. He had not, indeed, the scholarly temperament—that rare combination of profound insight, sustained attention, microscopic accuracy, iron tenacity, and disinterested pursuit of truth—which characterizes the great scientific discoverer or the great historian. But, while he had not these qualities in perfect combination—and no one knew this better than Mr. Webster himself—there was much about him that made him more interesting and remarkable, even at that early age, than if he had been consummate in scholarship. He was capable of great industry, he seized an idea with astonishing quickness, his memory was prodigious, and for power of lucid and convincing statement he was unrivalled. With these rare gifts he possessed that supreme poetic quality that defies analysis, but is at once recognized as genius. He was naturally, therefore, considered by tutors and fellow-students the most remarkable man in the college, and the position of superiority thus early gained was easily maintained by him through life and wherever he was placed. While at college he conquered or outgrew his boyish shyness, so as to take pleasure in public speaking, and his eloquence soon attracted so much notice that in 1800 the townspeople of Hanover selected this undergraduate to deliver the Fourth-of-July oration. It has been well pointed out by Henry Cabot Lodge that “the enduring work which Mr. Webster did in the world, and his meaning and influence in American history, are all summed up in the principles enunciated in that boyish speech at Hanover,” which “preached love of country, the grandeur of American nationality, fidelity to the constitution as the bulwark of nationality, and the necessity and the nobility of the union of the states.” After leaving college, Mr. Webster began studying law in the office of Thomas W. Thompson, of Salisbury, who was afterward U.S. senator. Some time before this he had made up his mind to help his elder brother, Ezekiel, to go through college, and for this purpose he soon found it necessary to earn money by teaching school. After some months of teaching at Fryeburg, Me., he returned to Mr. Thompson's office. In July, 1804, he went to Boston in search of employment in some office where he might complete his studies. He there found favor with Christopher Gore, who took him into his office as student and clerk. In March, 1805, Mr. Webster was admitted to the bar, and presently he began practising his profession at Boscawen. In 1807, having acquired a fairly good business, he turned it over to his brother, Ezekiel, and removed to Portsmouth, where his reputation grew rapidly, so that he was soon considered a worthy antagonist to Jeremiah Mason, one of the ablest lawyers this country has ever produced. In June, 1808, he married Miss Grace Fletcher, of Hopkinton, N. H.

His first important political pamphlet, published that year, was a criticism on the embargo. In 1812, in a speech before the Washington benevolent society at Portsmouth, he summarized the objections of the New England people to the war just declared against Great Britain. He was immediately afterward chosen delegate to a convention of the people of Rockingham county, and drew up the so-called “Rockingham Memorial,” addressed to President Madison, which contained a formal protest against the war. In the following autumn was elected to congress, and on taking his seat, in May, 1813, he was placed on the committee on foreign relations. His first step in congress was the introduction of a series of resolutions aimed at the president, and calling for a statement of the time and manner in which Napoleon's pretended revocation of his decrees against American shipping had been announced to the United States. His first great speech, 14 Jan., 1814, was in opposition to the bill for encouraging enlistments, and at the close of that year he opposed Sec. Monroe’s measures for enforcing what was khown as the “draft of 1814.” Mr. Webster's attitude toward the administration was that of the Federalist party to which he belonged; but he did not go so far as the leaders of that party in New England. He condemned the embargo as more harmful to ourselves than to the enemy, as there is no doubt it was; he disapproved the policy of invading Canada, and maintained that our wisest course was to increase the strength of the navy, and on these points history will probably judge him to have been correct. But in his opinion, that the war itself was unnecessary and injurious to the country, he was probably, like most New Englanders of that time, mistaken. Could he have foreseen and taken into account. the rapid and powerful development of national feeling in the United States which the war called forth, it would have modified his view, for it is clear that the war party, represented by Henry Clay and his friends, was at that moment the truly national party, and Mr. Webster's sympathies were then, as always, in favor of the broadest nationalism, and entirely opposed to every sort of sectional or particularist policy. This broad, national spirit, which was strong enough in the two Adamses to sever their connection with the Federalists of New England, led Mr. Webster to use his influence successfully to keep New Hampshire out of the Hartford convention. In the 13th congress, however, he voted 191 times on the same side with Timothy Pickering, and only 4 times on the opposite side. In this and the next congress the most important work done by Mr. Webster was concerned with the questions of currency and a national bank. He did good service in killing the pernicious scheme for a bank endowed with the power of issuing irredeemable notes and obliged to lend money to the government. He was disposed to condemn outright the policy of allowing the government to take part in the management of the bank. He also opposed a protective tariff, but, by supporting Mr. Calhoun's bill for internal improvements, he put himself on record as a loose constructionist. His greatest service was unquestionably his resolution of 26 April, 1816, requiring that all payments to the national treasury must be made in specie or its equivalents. This resolution, which he supported in a very powerful speech, was adopted the same day by a large majority, and its effect upon the currency was speedily beneficial. In the course of this session he declined, with grim humor, a challenge sent him by John Randolph.

In June, 1816, he removed to Boston, and at the expiration of his second term in congress, 4 March, 1817, he retired for a while to private life. His reason for retiring was founded in need of money and the prospect of a great increase in his law-practice. On his removal to Boston this prospect was soon realized in an income of not less than $20,000 a year. One of the first cases upon which he was now engaged was the famous Dartmouth college affair. While Mr. Webster's management of this case went far toward placing him at the head of the American bar, the political significance of its decision was such as to make it an important event in the history of the United States. It shows Mr. Webster not only as a great constitutional lawyer and consummate advocate, but also as a powerful champion of Federalism. In its origin Dartmouth college was a missionary school for Indians, founded in 1754 by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, at Lebanon, Conn. After a few years funds were raised by private subscription for the purpose of enlarging the school into a college, and as the Earl of Dartmouth had been one of the chief contributors, Dr. Wheelock appointed him and other persons trustees of the property. The site of the college was fixed in New Hampshire, and a royal charter in 1769 created it a perpetual corporation. The charter recognized Wheelock as founder, and appointed him president, with power to name his successor, subject to confirmation by the trustees. Dr. Wheelock devised the presidency to his son, John Wheelock, who accordingly became his successor. The charter, in expressly forbidding the exclusion of any person on account of his religious belief, reflected the broad and tolerant disposition of Dr. Wheelock, who was a liberal Presbyterian, and as such had been engaged in prolonged controversy with that famous representative of the strictest Congregationalism, Dr. Joseph Bellamy. In 1793 Bellamy's pupil, Nathaniel Niles, became a trustee of Dartmouth, and between him and John Wheelock the old controversy was revived and kept up with increasing bitterness for several years, dividing the board of trustees into two hostile parties. At length, in 1809, the party opposed to President Wheelock gained a majority in the board, and thus became enabled in various ways to balk and harass the president, until in 1815 the quarrel broke forth into a war of pamphlets and editorial articles that convulsed the whole state of New Hampshire. The Congregational church was at that time the established church in New Hampshire, supported by taxation, and the Federalist party found its strongest adherents among the members of that church. Naturally, therefore, the members of other churches, and persons opposed on general principles to the establishment of a state church, were inclined to take sides with the Republicans. In 1815 President Wheelock petitioned the legislature for a committee to investigate the conduct of the trustees, whom he accused of various offences, from intolerance in matters of religion to improper management of the funds. Thus the affair soon became a party question, in whieh the Federalists upheld the trustees, while the Republicans sympathized with the president. The legislature granted the petition for a committee, but the trustees forthwith, in a somewhat too rash spirit of defiance, deposed Mr. Wheelock and chose a new president, the Rev. Francis Brown. In the ensuing state election Mr. Wheelock and his sympathizers went over to the Republicans, who thus succeeded in electing their candidate for governor, with a majority of the legislature. In June, 1816, the new legislature passed an act reorganizing the college, and a new board of trustees was at once appointed by the governor. Judge Woodward, secretary of the old board, went over to the new board, and became its secretary, taking with him the college seal. The new board proceeded to expel the old board, which forthwith brought suit against Judge Woodward in an action of trover for the college seal. The case was tried in May, 1817, with those two great lawyers, Jeremiah Mason and Jeremiah Smith, as counsel for the plaintiffs. It was then postponed till September, when Mr. Webster was secured by the plaintiffs as an additional counsel. The plaintiffs contended that, in the case of a corporation chartered for private uses, any alleged misconduct of the trustees was properly a question for the courts, and not for the legislature, which in meddling with such a question plainly transcended its powers. Their chief reliance was upon this point, but they also contended that the act of legislature reorganizing the college was an act impairing the obligation of a contract, and therefore a violation of the constitution of the United States. The state court at Exeter decided against the plaintiffs, and the point last mentioned enabled them to carry up their case to the supreme court of the United States. As the elder counsel were unable to go to Washington, it fell to Mr. Webster to conduct the case, which was tried in March, 1818. Mr. Webster argued that the charter of Partmouth college created a private corporation for administering a charity; that in the administration of such uses the trustees have a recognized right of property; that the grant of such a charter is a contract between the sovereign power and the grantees, and descends to their successors; and that, therefore, the act of the New Hampshire legislature, in taking away the government from one board of trustees and conferring it upon another, was a violation of contract. These points were defended by Mr. Webster with masterly cogency, and re-enforced by illustrations calculated to appeal to the Federalist sympathies of the chief justice. He possessed in the highest degree the art of so presenting a case that the mere statement seemed equivalent to demonstration, and never did he exhibit that art in greater perfection or use it to better purpose than in this argument. A few sentences at the close, giving utterance to deep emotion, left judges and audience in tears. The decision, rendered in the autumn, sustained Mr. Webster and set aside the act of the legislature as unconstitutional. It was one of those far-reaching decisions in which the supreme court, under John Marshall, fixed the interpretation of the constitution in such wise as to add greatly to its potency as a fundamental instrument of government. The clause prohibiting state legislation in impairment of contracts, like most such general provisions, stood in need of judicial decisions to determine its scope. By bringing under the protection of this clause every charter granted by a state, the decision in the Dartmouth college case went further perhaps than any other in our history toward limiting state sovereignty and extending the jurisdiction of the Federal supreme court.

In the Massachusetts convention of 1820 for revising the state constitution Mr. Webster played an important part. He advocated with success the abolition of religious tests for office-holders, and in a speech in support of the feature of property-representation in the senate he examined the theory and practice of bicameral legislation. His discussion of that subject is well worthy of study. In the same year, at the celebration of the second centennial of the landing of the Pilgrims, his commemorative oration was one of the noblest ever delivered. In 1825, on the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill monument (see illustration), he attained still higher perfection of eloquence; and one year later, on the deaths of Adams and Jefferson, his eulogy upon those statesmen completed a trio of historical addresses unsurpassed in splendor. The spirit of these orations is that of the broadest patriotism, enlightened by a clear perception of the fundamental importance of the Federal union between the states and an ever-present consciousness of the mighty future of our country and its moral significance in the history of the world. Such topics have often been treated as commonplaces and made the theme of vapid rhetoric; but under Daniel Webster's treatment they acquired a philosophical value and were fraught with most serious and earnest meaning. These orations were conceived in a spirit of religious devotion to the Union, and contributed powerfully toward awakening such a sentiment in those who read them afterward, while upon those who heard them from the lips of the majestic speaker the impression was such as could never be effaced. The historian must assign to them a high place among the literary influences that aroused in the American people a sentiment of union strong enough to endure the shock of civil war.

In 1822 Mr. Webster was elected to congress from the Boston district, and he was twice reelected by a popular vote that was almost unanimous. When he took his seat in congress in December, 1823, the speaker, Henry Clay, appointed him chairman of the judiciary committee. In that capacity he prepared and carried through the “Crimes act,” which was substantially a thorough remodelling of the criminal jurisprudence of the United States. The preparation of this bill showed in the highest degree his constructive genius as a legislator, while in carrying it through congress his parliamentary skill and persuasiveness in debate were equally conspicuous. In 1825 he prepared a bill for increasing the number of supreme court judges to ten, for making ten Federal circuits, and otherwise strengthening the working capacity of the court; but this bill, after passing the house, was lost in the senate. Of his two most celebrated speeches in congress during this period, the first was on the revolution in Greece. Mr. Webster moved, 19 Jan., 1824, the adoption of his own resolution in favor of making provision for a commissioner to Greece should President Monroe see fit to appoint one. In his speech on this occasion he set forth the hostility of the American people to the principles, motives, and methods of the “Holy Alliance,” and their sympathy with such struggles for self-government as that in which the Greeks were engaged. The resolution was not adopted, but Mr. Webster's speech made a profound impression at home and abroad. It was translated into several European languages, and called forth much foreign comment. The other great speech, delivered on 1 and 2 April, 1824, was what is commonly called his “free-trade speech.” A bill had been introduced for revising the tariff in such a way as to extend the operation of the protecive system. In this speech Mr. Webster found fault with the phrase “American policy,” as applied by Mr. Clay to the system of high protective duties. “If names are thought necessary,” said Mr. Webster, “it would be well enough, one would think, that the name should be in some measure descriptive of the thing; and since Mr. Speaker denominates the policy which he recommends a ‘new policy in this country’; since he speaks of the present measure as a new era in our legislation; since he professes to invite us to depart from our accustomed course, to instruct ourselves by the wisdom of others, and to adopt the policy of the most distinguished foreign states—one is a little curious to know with what propriety of speech this imitation of other nations is denominated an ‘American policy,’ while, on the contrary, a preference for our own established system, as it now actually exists and always has existed, is called a ‘foreign policy.’ This favorite American policy is what America has never tried; and this odious foreign policy is what, as we are told, foreign states have never pursued. Sir, that is the truest American policy which shall most usefully employ American capital and American labor.” After this exordium, Mr. Webster went on to give a masterly exposition of some of the elementary theorems of political economy and a survey, at once comprehensive and accurate, of the condition of American industry at the time. He not only attacked Mr. Clay's policy on broad national grounds, but also showed more specifically that it was likely to prove injurious to the maritime commerce in which the New England states had so long taken the lead; and he concluded by characterizing that policy as “so burdensome and so dangerous to the interest which has steadily enriched, gallantly defended, and proudly distinguished us, that nothing can prevail upon me to give it my support.” Upon this last clause of his speech he was afterward enabled to rest a partial justification of his change of attitude toward the tariff. The other chief incidents in his career in the house of representatives were his advocacy of a national bankrupt law, his defence of William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury, against sundry charges brought against him by Ninian Edwards (q. v.), lately senator from Illinois, and his defence of President Adams's policy in the matter of Georgia and the Creek Indians.

In politics Mr. Webster occupied at this time an independent position. The old Federalist party, to which he had formerly belonged, was completely broken down, and the new National Republican party, with its inheritance of many of the principles, motives, and methods of the Federalists, was just beginning to take shape under the leadership of Adams and Clay. Between these eminent statesmen and Mr. Webster the state of feeling was not such as to insure cordial co-operation, but in their views of government there was similarity enough to bring them together in opposition to the new Democratic party represented by Jackson, Benton, and Van Buren. With the extreme southern views of Crawford and Calhoun it was impossible that he should sympathize, although his personal relations with those leaders were quite friendly, and after the death of Calhoun, the noblest eulogium upon his character and motives was made by Mr. Webster. There is a sense in which all American statesmen may be said to be intellectually the descendants and disciples either of Jefferson or of Hamilton, and as a representative follower of Hamilton, Mr. Webster was sure to be drawn rather toward Clay than toward Jackson. The course of industrial events in New England was such as to involve changes of opinion in that part of the country, which were soon reflected in a complete reversal of Mr. Webster's attitude toward the tariff. In 1827 he was elected to the U.S. senate. In that year an agitation was begun by the woollen-manufacturers, which soon developed into a promiscuous scramble among different industries for aid from government, and finally resulted in the tariff of 1828. That act, which was generally known at the time as “the tariff of abominations,” was the first extreme application of the protective system in our Federal legislation. When the bill was pending before the senate in April, 1828, Mr. Webster made a memorable speech, in which he completely abandoned the position he had held in 1824, and from this time forth he was a supporter of the policy of Mr. Clay and the protectionists. For this change of attitude he was naturally praised by his new allies, who were glad to interpret it as a powerful argument in favor of their views. By every one else he was blamed, and this speech has often been cited, together with that of 7 March, 1850, as proving that Mr. Webster was governed by unworthy motives and wanting in political principle. The two cases, as we shall see, are not altogether parallel. Probably neither admits of entire justification, but in neither case did Mr. Webster attempt to conceal or disguise his real motives. In 1828 he frankly admitted that the policy of protection to manufactures by means of tariff duties was a policy of which he had disapproved, whether as a political economist or as a representative of the interests of New England. Against his own opposition and that of New England, the act of 1824 had passed. “What, then, was New England to do? . . . Was she to hold out forever against the course of the government, and see herself losing on one side and yet make no effort to sustain herself on the other? No, sir. Nothing was left for New England but to conform herself to the will of others. Nothing was left to her but to consider that the government had fixed and determined its own policy; and that policy was protection.” In other words, the tariff policy adopted at Washington, while threatening the commercial interests of New England, had favored the investment of capital in manufactures there, and it was not becoming in a representative of New England to take part in disturbing the new arrangement of things. This argument, if pushed far enough, would end in the doctrine—now apparently obsolete, though it has often been attacked and defended—that a senator is simply the minister of his state in congress. With Mr. Webster it went so far as to modify essentially his expressions of opinion as to the constitutionality of protective legislation. He had formerly been inclined to interpret the constitution strictly upon this point, but in 1828 and afterward his position was that of the loose constructionists. Here the strong Federalist bias combined with that temperament which has sometimes been called “opportunism” to override his convictions upon the economic merits of the question.

This tariff of 1828 soon furnished an occasion for the display of Mr. Webster's strong Federalist spirit in a way that was most serviceable for his country and has earned for him undying fame as an orator and statesman. It led to the announcement of the principles of nullification by the public men of South Carolina, with Mr. Calhoun at their head. During President Jackson's first term the question as to nullification seemed to occupy everybody's thoughts and had a way of intruding upon the discussion of all other questions. In December, 1829, Samuel A. Foote, of Connecticut, presented to the senate a resolution inquiring into the expediency of limiting the sales of the public lands to those already in the market, besides suspending the surveys of the public lands and abolishing the office of surveyor-general. The resolution was quite naturally resented by the western senators as having a tendency to check the growth of their section of the country. The debate was opened by Mr. Benton, and lasted several weeks, with increasing bitterness. The belief in the hostility of the New England states toward the west was shared by many southern senators, who desired to unite south and west in opposition to the tariff. On 19 Jan., 1830, Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina, attacked the New England states, accusing them of aiming by their protective policy at aggrandizing themselves at the expense of all the rest of the Union. On the next day Mr. Webster delivered his “first speech on Foote's resolution,” in which he took up Mr. Hayne's accusations and answered them with great power. This retort provoked a long and able reply from Mr. Hayne, in which he not only assailed Mr. Webster and Massachusetts and New England, but set forth quite ingeniously and elaborately the doctrines of nullification. In view of the political agitation then going on in South Carolina, it was felt that this speech would work practical mischief unless it should meet with instant refutation. It was finished on 25 Jan., and on the next two days Mr. Webster delivered his “second speech on Foote's resolution,” better known in history as the “Reply to Hayne.” The debate had now lasted so long that people had come from different parts of the country to Washington to hear it, and on 26 Jan. the crowd not only filled the galleries and invaded the floor of the senate-chamber, but occupied all the lobbies and entries within hearing and even beyond. In the first part of his speech Mr. Webster replied to the aspersions upon himself and New England; in the second part he attacked with weighty argument and keen-edged sarcasm the doctrine of nullification. He did not undertake to deny the right of revolution as a last resort in cases with which legal and constitutional methods are found inadequate to deal; but he assailed the theory of the constitution maintained by Calhoun and his followers, according to which nullification was a right, the exercise of which was compatible with loyal adherence to the constitution. His course of argument was twofold; he sought to show, first, that the theory of the constitution as a terminable league or compact between sovereign states was unsupported by the history of its origin, and, secondly, that the attempt on the part of any state to act upon that theory must necessarily entail civil war or the disruption of the Union. As to the sufficiency of his historical argument there has been much difference of opinion. The question is difficult to deal with in such a way as to reach an unassailable conclusion, and the difficulty is largely due to the fact that in the various ratifying conventions of 1787-'9 the men who advocated the adoption of the constitution did not all hold the same opinions as to the significanee of what they were doing. There was great divergence of opinion, and plenty of room for antagonisms of interpretation to grow up as irreconcilable as those of Webster and Calhoun. If the South Carolina doctrine distorted history in one direction, that of Mr. Webster probably departed somewhat from the record in the other; but the latter was fully in harmony with the actual course of our national development, and with the increased and increasing strength of the sentiment of union at the time when it was propounded with such powerful reasoning and such magnificent eloquence in the “Reply to Hayne.” As an appeal to the common sense of the American people, nothing could be more masterly than Mr. Webster's demonstration that nullification practically meant revolution, and their unalterable opinion of the soundness of his argument was amply illustrated when at length the crisis came which he deprecated with such intensity of emotion in his concluding sentences. To some of the senators who listened to the speech, as, for instance, Thomas H. Benton, it seemed as if the passionate eloquence of its close concerned itself with imaginary dangers never likely to be realized; but the event showed that Mr. Webster estimated correctly the perilousness of the doctrine against which he was contending. For genuine oratorical power, the “Reply to Hayne” is probably the greatest speech that has been delivered since the oration of Demosthenes on the crown. The comparison is natural, as there are points in the American orator that forcibly remind one of the Athenian. There is the fine sense of proportion and fitness, the massive weight of argument due to transparent clearness and matchless symmetry of statement, and along with the rest a truly Attic simplicity of diction. Mr. Webster never indulged in mere rhetorical flights; his sentences, simple in structure and weighted with meaning, went straight to the mark, and his arguments were so skilfully framed that while his most learned and critical hearers were impressed with a sense of their conclusiveness, no man of ordinary intelligence could fail to understand them. To these high qualifications of the orator was added such a physical presence as but few men have been endowed with. Mr. Webster's appearance was one of unequalled dignity and power, his voice was rich and musical, and the impressiveness of his delivery was enhanced by the depth of genuine manly feeling with which he spoke. Yet while his great speeches owed so much of their overpowering effect to the look and manner of the man, they were at the same time masterpieces of literature. Like the speeches of Demosthenes, they were capable of swaying the reader as well as the hearer, and their effects went far beyond the audience and far beyond the occasion of their delivery. In all these respects the “Reply to Hayne” marks the culmination of Mr. Webster's power as an orator. Of all the occasions of his life, this encounter with the doctrine of nullification on its first bold announcement in the senate was certainly the greatest, and the speech was equal to the occasion. It struck a chord in the heart of the American people which had not ceased to vibrate when the crisis came thirty years later. It gave articulate expression to a sentiment of loyalty to the Union that went on growing until the American citizen was as prompt to fight for the Union as the Mussulman for his prophet or the cavalier for his king. It furnished, moreover, a clear and comprehensive statement of the theory by which that sentiment of loyalty was justified. Of the men who in after-years gave up their lives for the Union, doubtless the greater number had as school-boys declaimed passages from this immortal speech and caught some inspiration from its fervid patriotism. Probably no other speech ever made in congress has found so many readers or exerted so much influence in giving shape to men's thoughts.

Three years afterward Mr. Webster returned to struggle with nullification, being now pitted against the master of that doctrine instead of the disciple. In the interval South Carolina had attempted to put the doctrine into practice, and had been resolutely met by President Jackson with his proclamation of 10 Dec., 1832. In response to a special message from the president, early in January, 1833, the so-called “Force bill,” empowering the president to use the army and navy, if necessary, for enforcing the revenue laws in South Carolina, was reported in the senate. The bill was opposed by Democrats who did not go so far as to approve of nullification, but the defection of these senators was more than balanced by the accession of Mr. Webster, who upon this measure came promptly to the support of the administration. For this, says Benton, “his motives . . . were attacked, and he was accused of subserviency to the president for the sake of future favor. At the same time all the support which he gave to these measures was the regular result of the principles which he laid down against nullification in the debate with Mr. Hayne, and he could not have done less without being derelict to his own principles then avowed. It was a proud era in his life, supporting with transcendent ability the cause of the constitution and of the country, in the person of a chief magistrate to whom he was politically opposed, bursting the bonds of party at the call of duty, and displaying a patriotism worthy of admiration and imitation. Gen. Jackson felt the debt of gratitude and admiration which he owed him; the country, without distinction of party, felt the same. . . . He was the colossal figure on the political stage during that eventful time; and his labors, splendid in their day, survive for the benefit of distant posterity” (“Thirty Years’ View,” i., 334). The support of the president's policy by Mr. Webster, and its enthusiastic approval by nearly all the northern and a great many of the southern people, seems to have alarmed Mr. Calhoun, probably not so much for his personal safety as for the welfare of his nullification schemes. The story that he was frightened by the rumor that Jackson had threatened to begin by arresting him on a charge of treason is now generally discredited. He had seen enough, however, to convince him that the theory of peaceful nullification was not now likely to be realized. It was not his aim to provoke an armed collision, and accordingly a momentary alliance was made between himself and Mr. Clay, resulting in the compromise tariff bill of 12 Feb., 1833. Only four days elapsed between Mr. Webster's announcement of his intention to support the president and the introduction of this compromise measure. Mr. Webster at once opposed the compromise, both as unsound economically and as an unwise and dangerous concession to the threats of the nullifiers. At this point the Force bill was brought forward, and Mr. Calhoun made his great speech, 15-16 Feb., in support of the resolutions he had introduced on 22 Jan., affirming the doctrine of nullification. To this Mr. Webster replied, 16 Feb., with his speech entitled “The Constitution not a Compact between Sovereign States,” in which he supplemented and re-enforced the argument of the “Reply to Hayne.” Mr. Calhoun's answer, 26 Feb., was perhaps the most powerful speech he ever delivered, and Mr. Webster did not reply to it at length. The burden of the discussion was what the American people really did when they adopted the Federal constitution. Did they simply create a league between sovereign states, or did they create a national government, which operates immediately upon individuals, and, without superseding the state governments, stands superior to them, and claims a prior allegiance from all citizens? It is now plain to be seen that in point of fact they did create such a national government; but how far they realized at the outset what they were doing is quite another question. Mr. Webster's main conclusion was sustained with colossal strength; but his historical argument was in some places weak, and the weakness is unconsciously betrayed in a disposition toward wire-drawn subtlety, from which Mr. Webster was usually quite free. His ingenious reasoning upon the meaning of such words as “compact” and “accede” was easily demolished by Mr. Calhoun, who was, however, more successful in hitting upon his adversary's vulnerable points than in making good his own case. In fact, the historical question was not really so simple as it presented itself to the minds of those two great statesmen. But in whatever way it was to be settled, the force of Mr. Webster's practical conclusions remained, as he declared in the brief rejoinder with which he ended the discussion: “Mr. President, turn this question over and present it as we will—argue it as we may—exhaust upon it all the fountains of metaphysics—stretch over it all the meshes of logical or political subtlety—it still comes to this: Shall we have a general government? Shall we continue the union of the states under a government instead of a league? This is the upshot of the whole matter; because, if we are to have a government, that government must act like other governments, by majorities; it must have this power, like other governments, of enforcing its own laws and its own decisions; clothed with authority by the people and always responsible to the people, it must be able to hold its course unchecked by external interposition. According to the gentleman's views of the matter, the constitution is a league; according to mine, it is a regular popular government. This vital and all-important question the people will decide, and in deciding it they will determine whether, by ratifying the present constitution and frame of government, they meant to do nothing more than to amend the articles of the old confederation.” As the immediate result of the debates, both the Force bill and the Compromise tariff bill were adopted, and this enabled Mr. Calhoun to maintain that the useful and conservative character of nullification had been demonstrated, since the action of South Carolina had, without leading to violence, led to such modifications of the tariff as she desired. But the abiding result was, that Webster had set forth the theory upon which the Union was to be preserved, and that the administration, in acting upon that theory, had established an extremely valuable precedent for the next administration that should be called upon to meet a similar crisis.

The alliance between Mr. Webster and President Jackson extended only to the question of maintaining the Union. As an advocate of the policy of a national bank, a protective tariff, and internal improvements, Mr. Webster's natural place was by the side of Mr. Clay in the Whig party, which was now in the process of formation. He was also at one with both the northern and the southern sections of the Whig party in opposition to what Mr. Benton called the “demos krateo” principle, according to which the president, in order to carry out the “will of the people,” might feel himself authorized to override the constitutional limitations upon his power. This was not precisely what Mr. Benton meant by his principle, but it was the way in which it was practically illustrated in Jackson's war against the bank. In the course of this struggle Mr. Webster made more than sixty speeches, remarkable for their wide and accurate knowledge of finance. His consummate mastery of statement is nowhere more thoroughly exemplified than in these speeches. Constitutional questions were brought up by Mr. Clay's resolutions censuring the president for the removal of the deposits, and for dismissing William J. Duane, secretary of the treasury. In reply to the resolutions, President Jackson sent to the senate his remarkable “Protest,” in which he maintained that in the mere discussion of such resolutions that body transcended its constitutional prerogatives, and that the president is the “direct representative of the American people,” charged with the duty, if need be, of protecting them against the usurpations of congress. The Whigs maintained, with much truth, that this doctrine, if carried out in all its implications, would push democracy to the point where it merges in Cæsarism. It was now that the opposition began to call themselves Whigs, and tried unsuccessfully to stigmatize the president's supporters as “Tories.” Mr. Webster's speech on the president's protest, 7 May, 1834, was one of great importance, and should be read by every student of our constitutional history. In another elaborate speech, 16 Feb., 1835, he tried to show that under a proper interpretation of the constitution the power of removal, like the power of appointment, was vested in the president and senate conjointly, and that “the decision of congress in 1789, which separated the power of removal from the power of appointment, was founded on an erroneous construction of the constitution.” But subsequent opinion has upheld the decision of 1789, leaving the speech to serve as an illustration of the way in which, under the stress of a particular contest, the Whigs were as ready to strain the constitution in one direction as the Democrats were inclined to bend it in another. An instance of the latter kind was Mr. Benton's expunging resolution, against which Mr. Webster emphatically protested.

About this time Mr. Webster was entertaining thoughts of retiring, for a while at least, from public life. As he said, in a letter to a friend, he had not for fourteen years had leisure to attend to his private affairs, or to become acquainted by travel with his own country. This period had not, however, been entirely free from professional work. It was seldom that Mr. Webster took part in criminal trials, but in this department of legal practice he showed himself qualified to take rank with the greatest advocates that have ever addressed a jury. His speech for the prosecution, on the trial of the murderers of Capt. Joseph White, at Salem, in August, 1830, has been pronounced superior to the finest speeches of Lord Erskine. In the autumn of 1824, while driving in a chaise with his wife from Sandwich to Boston, he stopped at the beautiful farm of Capt. John Thomas, by the sea-shore at Marshfield. For the next seven years his family passed their summers at this place as guests of Capt. Thomas; and, as the latter was growing old and willing to be eased of the care of the farm, Mr. Webster bought it of him in the autumn of 1831. Capt. Thomas continued to live there until his death, in 1837, as Mr. Webster's guest. For the latter it became the favorite home whither he retired in the intervals of public life. It was a place, he said, where he “could go out every day in the year and see something new.” Mr. Webster was very fond of the sea. He had also a passion for country life, for all the sights and sounds of the farm, for the raising of fine animals, as well as for hunting and fishing. The earlier years of Mr. Webster's residence at Marshfield, and of his service in the U. S. senate, witnessed some serious events in his domestic life. Death removed his wife, 21 Jan., 1828, and his brother Ezekiel, 10 April, 1829. In December, 1829, he married Miss Caroline Le Roy, daughter of a wealthy merchant in New York. Immediately after this second marriage came the “Reply to Hayne.” The beginning of a new era in his private life coincided with the beginning of a new era in his career as a statesman. After 1830 Mr. Webster was recognized as one of the greatest powers in the nation, and it seemed natural that the presidency should be offered to such a man. His talents, however, were not those of a party leader, and the circumstances under which the Whig party was formed were not such as to place him at its head. The elements of which that party was made up were incongruous, the bond of union between them consisting chiefly of opposition to President Jackson's policy. In the election of 1836 they had not time in which to become welded together, and after the brief triumph of 1840 they soon fell apart again. In 1836 there was no general agreement upon a candidate. The northern Whigs, or National Republicans, supported by the anti-Masons, nominated Gen. William H. Harrison; the southern or “state-rights” Whigs nominated Hugh L. White; the legislature of Massachusetts nominated Mr. Webster, and he received the electoral vote of that state only. Over such an ill-organized opposition Mr. Van Buren easily triumphed. In March, 1837, on his way from Washington to Boston, Mr. Webster stopped in New York and made a great speech at Niblo's garden, in which he reviewed and criticised the policy of the late administration, with especial reference to its violent treatment of the bank. In the course of the speech he used language that was soon proved prophetic by the financial crisis of that year. In the summer he made a journey through the western states. In the next session of congress his most important speeches were those on the sub-treasury bill. The second of these, delivered 12 March, 1838, contained some memorable remarks on the course of Mr. Calhoun, who had now taken sides with the administration. No passage in all his speeches is more graphic than that in which, with playful sarcasm, he imagines Gen. Jackson as coming from his retirement at the Hermitage, walking into the senate-chamber, and looking across “to the seats on the other side.” The whole of that portion of the speech which relates to nullification is extremely powerful. Mr. Calhoun, in his reply, “carried the war into Africa,” and attacked Mr. Webster's record. He was answered, 22 March, by a speech that was a model for such parliamentary retorts. Mr. Webster never sneered at his adversaries, but always rendered them the full meed of personal respect that he would have demanded for himself. He discussed questions on their merits, and was too great to descend to recriminations. His Titanic power owed very little to the spirit of belligerency. Never was there an orator more urbane or more full of Christian magnanimity.

In the summer of 1839 Mr. Webster with his family visited England, where he was cordially received and greatly admired. On his return in December he learned that the Whigs had this time united upon Gen. Harrison for their candidate in the hope of turning to their own uses the same kind of unreflecting popular enthusiasm that had elected Jackson. The panic of 1837 aided them still more, and Mr. Webster made skilful use of it in a long series of campaign speeches, during the summer of 1840, in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He accepted the office of secretary of state in President Harrison's administration, and soon showed himself as able in diplomacy as in other departments of statesmanship. There was a complication of difficulties with Great Britain which seemed to be bringing us to the verge of war. There was the longstanding dispute about the northeastern boundary, which had not been adequately defined by the treaty of 1783, and along with the renewal of this controversy came up the cases of McLeod and the steamer “Caroline,” the slave-ship “Creole,” and all the manifold complications that these cases involved. The Oregon question, too, was looming in the background. In disentangling these difficulties Mr. Webster showed wonderful tact and discretion. He was fortunately aided by the change of ministry in England, which transferred the management of foreign affairs from the hands of Lord Palmerston to those of Lord Aberdeen. Edward Everett was then in London, and Mr. Webster secured his appointment as minister to Great Britain. In response to this appointment, Lord Ashburton, whose friendly feeling toward the United States was known to every one, was sent over on a special mission to confer with Mr. Webster, and the result was the Ashburton treaty of 1842, by which an arbitrary and conventional line was adopted for the northeastern boundary, while the loss thereby suffered by the states of Maine and Massachusetts was to be indemnified by the United States. It was also agreed that Great Britain and the United States should each keep its own squadron to watch the coast of Africa for the suppression of the slave-trade, and that in this good work each nation should separately enforce its own laws. This clause of the treaty was known as the “cruising convention.” The old grievance of the impressment of seamen, which had been practically abolished by the glorious victories of American frigates in the war of 1812-'15, was now formally ended by Mr. Webster's declaration to Lord Ashburton that henceforth American vessels would not submit themselves to be searched. Henceforth the enforcement of the so-called “right of search” by a British ship would be regarded by the United States as a casus belli. When all the circumstances are considered, this Ashburton treaty shows that Mr. Webster's powers as a diplomatist were of the highest order. In the hands of an ordinary statesman the affair might easily have ended in a war; but his management was so dexterous that, as we now look back upon the negotiation, we find it hard to realize that there was any real danger. Perhaps there could be no more conclusive proof or more satisfactory measure of his really brilliant and solid success.

While these important negotiations were going on, great changes had come over the political horizon. There had been a quarrel between the northern and southern sections of the Whig party (see TYLER, JOHN), and on 11 Sept., 1841, all the members of President Tyler's cabinet, except Mr. Webster, resigned. It seems to have been believed by many of the Whigs that a unanimous resignation on the part of the cabinet would force President Tyler to resign. The idea came from a misunderstanding of the British custom in similar cases, and it is an incident of great interest to the student of American history; but there was not the slightest chance that it should be realized. Had there been any such chance, Mr. Webster defeated it by staying at his post in order to finish the treaty with Great Britain. The Whigs were inclined to attribute his conduct to unworthy motives, and no sooner had the treaty been signed, 9 Aug., 1842, than the newspapers began calling upon him to resign. The treaty was ratified in the senate by a vote of 39 to 9, but it had still to be adopted by parliament, and much needless excitement was occasioned on both sides of the ocean by the discovery of an old map in Paris, sustaining the British view of the northeastern boundary, and another in London, sustaining the American view. Mr. Webster remained at his post in spite of popular clamor until he knew the treaty to be quite safe. In the hope of driving him from the cabinet, the Whigs in Massachusetts held a convention and declared that President Tyler was no longer a member of their party. On a visit to Boston, Mr. Webster made a noble speech in Faneuil hall, 30 Sept., 1842, in the course of which he declared that he was neither to be coaxed nor driven into an action that in his own judgment was not conducive to the best interests of the country. He knew very well that by such independence he was likely to injure his chances for nomination to the presidency. He knew that a movement in favor of Mr. Clay had begun in Massachusetts, and that his own course was adding greatly to the impetus of that movement. But his patriotism rose superior to all personal considerations. In May, 1843, having seen the treaty firmly established, he resigned the secretaryship and returned to the practice of his profession in Boston. In the canvass of 1844 he supported Mr. Clay in a series of able speeches. On Mr. Choate's resignation, early in 1845, Mr. Webster was re-elected to the senate. The two principal questions of Mr. Polk's administration related to the partition of Oregon and the difficulties that led to war with Mexico. The Democrats declared that we must have the whole of Oregon up to the parallel of 54° 40', although the 49th parallel had already been suggested as a compromise-line. In a very able speech at Faneuil hall, Mr. Webster advocated the adoption of this compromise. The speech was widely read in England and on the continent of Europe, and Mr. Webster followed it by a private letter to Mr. Macgregor, of Glasgow, expressing a wish that the British government might see fit to offer the 49th parallel as a boundary-line. The letter was shown to Lord Aberdeen, who adopted the suggestion, and the dispute accordingly ended in the partition of Oregon between the United States and Great Britain. This successful interposition disgusted some Democrats who were really desirous of war with England, and Charles J. Ingersoll, member of congress from Pennsylvania and chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, made a scandalous attack upon Mr. Webster, charging him with a corrupt use of public funds. Mr. Webster replied in his great speech of 6 and 7 April, 1846, in defence of the Ashburton treaty. The speech was a triumphant vindication of his public policy, and in the thorough investigation of details that followed, Mr. Ingersoll's charges were shown to be utterly groundless.

During the operations on the Texas frontier, which brought on war with Mexico, Mr. Webster was absent from Washington. In the summer of 1847 he travelled through the southern states, and was everywhere received with much enthusiasm. He opposed the prosecution of the war for the sake of acquiring more territory, because he foresaw that such a policy must speedily lead to a dangerous agitation of the slavery question. The war brought Gen. Zachary Taylor into the foreground as a candidate for the presidency, and some of the Whig managers actually proposed to nominate Mr. Webster as vice-president on the same ticket with Gen. Taylor. He indignantly refused to accept such a proposal; but Mr. Clay's defeat in 1844 had made many Whigs afraid to take him again as a candidate. Mr. Webster was thought to be altogether too independent, and there was a feeling that Gen. Taylor was the most available candidate and the only one who could supplant Mr. Clay. These circumstances led to Taylor's nomination, which Mr. Webster at first declined to support. He disapproved of soldiers as presidents, and characterized the nomination as “one not fit to be made.” At the same time he was far from ready to support Mr. Van Buren and the Free-soil party, yet in his situation some decided action was necessary. Accordingly, in his speech at Marshfield, 1 Sept., 1848, he declared that, as the choice was really between Gen. Taylor and Gen. Cass, he should support the former. It has been contended that in this Mr. Webster made a great mistake, and that his true place in this canvass would have been with the Free-soil party. He had always been opposed to the further extension of slavery; but it is to be borne in mind that he looked with dread upon the rise of an anti-slavery party that should be supported only in the northern states. Whatever tended to array the north and the south in opposition to each other Mr. Webster wished especially to avoid. The ruling purpose of his life was to do what he could to prevent the outbreak of a conflict that might end in the disruption of the Union; and it may well have seemed that there was more safety in sustaining the Whig party in electing its candidate by the aid of southern votes than in helping into life a new party that should be purely sectional. At the same time, this cautious policy necessarily involved an amount of concession to southern demands far greater than the rapidly growing anti- slavery sentiment in the northern states would tolerate. No doubt Mr. Webster's policy in 1848 pointed logically toward his last great speech, 7 March, 1850, in which he supported Mr. Clay's elaborate compromises for disposing of the difficulties that had grown out of the vast extension of territory consequent upon the Mexican war. (See CLAY, HENRY.) This speech aroused intense indignation at the north, and especially in Massachusetts. It was regarded by many people as a deliberate sacrifice of principle to policy. Mr. Webster was accused of truckling to the south in order to obtain southern support for the presidency. Such an accusation seems inconsistent with Mr. Webster's character, and a comprehensive survey of his political career renders it highly improbable. The “Seventh-of-March.” speech may have been a political mistake; but one cannot read it to-day, with a clear recollection of what was thought and felt before the civil war, and doubt for a moment the speaker's absolute frankness and sincerity. He supported Mr. Clay's compromises because they seemed to him a conclusive settlement of the slavery question. The whole territory of the United States, as he said, was now covered with compromises, and the future destiny of every part, so far as the legal introduction of slavery was concerned, seemed to be decided. As for the regions to the west of Texas, he believed that slavery was ruled out by natural conditions of soil and climate, so that it was not necessary to protect them by a Wilmot proviso. As for the fugitive-slave law, it was simply a provision for carrying into effect a clause of the constitution, without which that instrument could never have been adopted, and in the frequent infraction of which Mr. Webster saw a serious danger to the continuance of the Union. He therefore accepted the fugitive-slave law as one feature in the proposed system of compromises; but, in accepting it, he offered amendments, which, if they had been adopted, would have gone far toward depriving it of some of its most obnoxious and irritating features. By adopting these measures of compromise, Mr. Webster believed that the extension of slavery would have been given its limit, that the north would, by reason of its free labor, increase in preponderance over the south, and that by and by the institution of slavery, hemmed in and denied further expansion, would die a natural death. That these views were mistaken, the events of the next ten years showed only too plainly, but there is no good reason for doubting their sincerity. There is little doubt, too, that the compromises had their practical value in postponing the inevitable conflict for ten years, during which the relative strength of the north was increasing and a younger generation was growing up less tolerant of slavery and more ready to discard palliatives and achieve a radical cure. So far as Mr. Webster's moral attitude was concerned, although he was not prepared for the bitter hostility that his speech provoked in many quarters, he must nevertheless have known that it was quite as likely to injure him at the north as to gain support for him in the south, and his resolute adoption of a policy that he regarded as national rather than sectional was really an instance of high moral courage. It was, however, a concession that did violence to his sentiments of humanity, and the pain and uneasiness it occasioned is visible in some of his latest utterances.

On President Taylor's death, 9 July, 1850, Mr. Webster became President Fillmore's secretary of state. An earnest attempt was made on the part of his friends to secure his nomination for the presidency in 1852; but on the first ballot in the convention he received only 29 votes, while there were 131 for Gen. Scott and 133 for Mr. Fillmore. The efforts of Mr. Webster's adherents succeeded only in giving the nomination to Scott. The result was a grave disappointment to Mr. Webster. He refused to support the nomination, and took no part in the campaign. His health was now rapidly failing. He left Washington, 8 Sept., for the last time, and returned to Marshfield, which he never left again, except on 20 Sept. for a brief call upon his physician in Boston. By his own request there were no public ceremonies at his funeral, which took place very quietly, 29 Sept., at Marshfield. The steel engraving of Webster is from a portrait made about 1840, the vignette from a painting by James B. Longacre, executed in 1833. The other illustrations represent the Bunker Hill monument, his residence and grave at Marshfield, and the imposing statue by Thomas Ball, erected in the Central park, New York. See Webster's “Works,” with biographical sketch by Edward Everett (6 vols., Boston, 1851); “Webster's Private Correspondence,” edited by Fletcher Webster (2 vols., Boston, 1856); George Ticknor Curtis's “Life of Webster” (2 vols., New York, 1870); Edwin P. Whipple’s “Great Speeches of Webster” (Boston, 1879); and Henry Cabot Lodge's “Webster,” in “American Statesmen' Series” (Boston, 1883).—Daniel's son, Fletcher, lawyer, b. in Portsmouth, N.H., 23 July, 1813; d. near Bull Run, Va., 30 Aug., 1862, was graduated at Harvard in 1833, studied law with his father, and was admitted to the bar. He was private secretary to his father during part of the latter's service as secretary of state, secretary of legation in China under Caleb Cushing in 1843, a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1847, and from 1850 till 1861 surveyor of the port of Boston. He became colonel of the 12th Massachusetts regiment, 26 June, 1861, served in Virginia and Maryland, and was killed at the second battle of Bull Run. Besides editing his father's private correspondence, Col. Webster published an “Oration before the Authorities of the City of Boston, July 4, 1846.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 406-415.

 

 

WEBSTER, Delia, 1817-1876, Vergennes, Vermont, teacher, abolitionist.  Had station on the Underground Railroad in Trimble County, Kentucky.  She was arrested and convicted for aiding fugitive slaves.

 

 

WEBSTER, Edwin H., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

WEBSTER, John C., Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Church Anti-Slavery Society, President, 1859-64

 

 

WEBSTER, Nathan, Haverhill, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1841-51.

 

 

WEBSTER, Noah, 1758-1843, lexicographer, lawyer, wrote against slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 417-418; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 594; Dumond, 1961, p. 47; Locke, 1901, pp. 92-93; Zilversmit, 1967, p. 172; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 874)

 

WEBSTER, Noah, philogist, b. in Hartford, Conn., 16 Oct., 1758; d. in New Haven, Conn., 28 May, 1843. His father was a farmer, a descendant in the fourth generation of John Webster, who previous to 1660 was one of the magistrates and governor of Connecticut. His mother was a descendant of William Bradford, second governor of Plymouth colony. Noah entered Yale in 1774, but his studies were interrupted by the war of independence, and in his junior year he served in his father's company of militia. He was graduated in 1778, in the same class with Joel Barlow, Uriah Tracy, and Oliver Wolcott. He became a teacher, gave his leisure hours to the study of law, and in 1781 was admitted to the bar. But the state of the country was unfavorable to law business, and he resumed teaching at Goshen, N. Y. Here he began the compilation of text-books, and published “A Grammatical Institute of the English Language” (3 parts, Hartford, 1783-'5). This consisted of a spelling-book, a grammar, and a reading-book; and so successful was the speller that for twenty years while he was at work on his dictionary it supported him and his family, though his royalty was less than one cent on a copy. It is still in use, and 62,000,000 copies have been published. After the war the question of giving the soldiers pay for five years beyond their term of enlistment was discussed under great excitement, and in Connecticut a convention was held to protest against the passage of a bill for that purpose. Mr. Webster published a series of articles, under the signature of “Honorius,” favoring the bill, and they were said to have been the principal cause of a revulsion of popular feeling, as indicated in the next election. This turned his attention to governmental matters, and in 1784 he published a pamphlet entitled “Sketehes of American Policy,” in which he argued that a new system of government was necessary for the country, in which the people and congress should act without the constant intervention of the states. This is believed to have been the first movement toward a national constitution. In the spring of the next year Mr. Webster visited the southern states, to petition their legislatures for a copyright law, and at Mount Vernon gave Washington a copy of his pamphlet. In 1786 he delivered, in several cities, a course of lectures, which were published under the title “Dissertations on the English Language” (1789). In 1787 he was superintendent of an academy in Philadelphia, and after the adjournment of the Constitutional convention published a pamphlet on “The Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution.” In 1788 he established in New York the “American Magazine,” but it lived only twelve months, and the next year he settled in Hartford as a lawyer, and married a daughter of William Greenleaf, of Boston. His friend, John Trumbull, the poet, referring to the dullness of business, wrote: “I fear he will breakfast upon Institutes, dine upon Dissertations, and go to bed supperless.” Yet he enjoyed a profitable practice for four years, when he removed to New York and established a daily paper, the “Minerva” (subsequently changed to “Commercial Advertiser”), to support Washington's administration. In 1794 he published a pamphlet on “The Revolution in France,” which was widely circulated; and in 1795 he wrote ten of the twelve articles under the signature of “Curtius,” to sustain the Jay treaty, which were said by Rufus King to have done more than anything else to render that treaty acceptable to the people. A little later he wrote a history of pestilences, containing a large collection of facts and his own theories (2 vols., New York and London, 1799). He had removed to New Haven in 1798, and devoted himself to literature. In 1802 he produced a treatise on blockade and rights of neutrals, and also “The Origin and State of Banking Institutions and Insurance Offices.”

Mr. Webster had long been studying the origin and structure of his mother tongue, and in 1807 he published the first results of his special labors, under the title “A Philosophical and Practical Grammar of the English Language.” He objected to the ordinary English grammars, on the ground that they attempted to make the language conform to the Greek and Latin; but his book was never very successful. In the preceding year, 1806, he had published a vocabulary of words not contained in any existing lexicon, and he now began work upon his “American Dictionary of the English Language.” To collect new words, and make fuller and more exact definitions, was the special work to which he devoted many years, and he made a “synopsis of words in twenty languages,” which is still in manuscript. He also went to Europe in 1824 to consult literary men and examine works not to be found on this side of the Atlantic, and in the library of the University of Cambridge finished his dictionary, returning with the manuscript in June, 1825. In 1828 an edition of 2,500 copies was printed, followed by one of 3,000 in England. In 1840-'l he published an enlarged edition, in two volumes. The first edition had contained 12,000 words and 40,000 definitions that were not to be found in any similar work, and in each successive edition the number has been in creased. Just before his death he revised the appendix and added several hundred words. In that year also he published “A Collection of Papers on Political, Literary, and Moral Subjects,” which included a treatise “On the Supposed Change in the Temperature of Winter.”

In 1812, for more economical living, he had removed to Amherst, Mass., where he was instrumental in founding Amherst college, and became the first president of its board of trustees. He was the centre of a small literary circle there, and his large library was always open to his neighbors. In 1822 he resumed his residence in New Haven, and the next year Yale gave him the degree of LL. D. He was for several years an alderman of New Haven, was a judge of one of the Connecticut courts, and sat in the legislatures of that state and Massachusetts. He is described as a genial man, of great frankness, who rendered all the affairs of his household perfectly systematic, and never was in debt. He read the Bible thoroughly, believed fully in its inspiration, had deep religious convictions, and during the last thirty-five years of his life was a member of an orthodox Congregational church. He was tall and slender, but perfectly erect. His wife survived him four years. They had one son and six daughters. Dr. Webster's life has been written by one of his daughters, as an introduction to his great dictionary, and by Horace E. Scudder, in the “Men of Letters” series (Boston, 1882).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 417-418.

 

 

WEBSTER, Reverend Samuel, Salisbury, Massachusetts, promoted immediate emancipation of slaves (Locke, 1901, pp. 40, 50)

 

 

WEED, Edward, abolitionist, agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Ohio Area.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 185; Filler, 1960, p. 146; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 80, 86, 88, 104, 106, 116, 129, 143, 146, 154, 168, 174, 206, 227, 228, 229; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 513)

 

 

WEED, Thurlow, 1797-1882, journalist, opponent of slavery  (Sorin, 1971, p. 63; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 419-420; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 598; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 882)

 

WEED, Thurlow, journalist, b. in Cairo, Greene co., N.Y., 15 No1., 1797; d. in New York city, 22 Nov., 1882. At twelve years of age he entered a printing-office in Catskill, N. Y. Soon afterward he removed with his father's family to the frontier village of Cincinnatus, Cortland co., N. Y., and aided in clearing the settlement and in farming, but in 1811 returned to the printing business, and was successively employed in several newspaper offices. At the beginning of the second war with Great Britain he enlisted as a private in a New York regiment, and served on the northern frontier. In 1815 he removed to New York city, where he was employed in the printing establishment of Van Winckle and Wiley. They were the publishers at that time of William Cobbett's “Weekly Register,” and Weed became acquainted with the eccentric author by carrying proof-sheets to him. He went to Norwich, Chenango co., N. Y., in 1819, established the “Agriculturist,” and two years afterward removed to Manlius, N. Y., where he founded the “Onondaga County Republican.” In 1824 he became owner and editor of the “Rochester Telegraph,” the second daily paper that was published west of Albany. While Mr. Weed was editing that journal Lafayette visited the United States, and Weed accompanied him in a part of his tour throughout the country. Difficulties arising out of the anti-Mason excitement caused Mr. Weed's retirement from the “Telegraph” in 1826, and in the same year he founded the “Anti-Mason Enquirer.” He was a member of the legislature in 1825. In 1830 he established the Albany “Evening Journal,” which took a conspicuous part in the formation of the Whig and the Republican parties, being equally opposed to the Jackson administration and to nullification. During the thirty-five years of his control of that organ it held an influential place in party journalism, and brought Mr. Weed into intimate relations with politicians of all parties. His political career began in 1824 in the presidential conflict that resulted in the election of John Quincy Adams. He succeeded in uniting the Adams and Clay factions, and was acknowledged by the leaders of his party to have contributed more than any other to their success in that canvass. He was active in the nomimttion of William Henry Harrison in 1836 and 1840, of Henry Clay in 1844, of Gen. Winfield Scott in 1852, and of John C. Frémont in 1856. In 1860 he earnestly advocated the nomination of William H. Seward for the presidency, but he afterward cordially supported Abraham Lincoln, whose re-election he promoted in 1864. He subsequently aided the regular nominations of the Republican party, and did good service in the canvass of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant for the presidency. Especially in his own state he influenced the elections, and in the constitutional crisis that arose from the presidential election in 1876 he guided in a powerful degree the decisions of his party. He had visited Europe several times before the civil war, and in 1861 with Archbishop Hughes and Bishop McIlvaine he was sent abroad to prevail on foreign governments to refrain from intervention in behalf of the Confederacy. In this service he stoutly defended the national interests, and, through his influence with English and French statesmen, brought about a result that permanently affected the feeling of Europe toward the United States. His “Letters” from abroad were collected and published (New York, 1866). He became editor of the New York “Commercial Advertiser” in 1867, but was compelled to resign that office the next year, owing to failing health, and did not again engage in regular work. Mr. Weed was tall, with a large head, overhanging brows, and massive person. He had great natural strength of character, good sense, judgment, and cheerfulness. From his youth he possessed a geniality and tact that drew all to him, and it is said that he never forgot a fact or a face. He was a journalist for fifty-seven years, and, although exercising great influence in legislation and the distribution of executive appointments, he refused to accept any public office. He was one of the earliest advocates of the abolition of imprisonment for debt, was a warm opponent of slavery, supported the policy of constructing and enlarging the state canals, and aided various railway enterprises and the establishment of the state banking system. He took an active part in the promotion of several New York city enterprises—the introduction of the Croton water, the establishment of the Metropolitan police, the Central park, the harbor commission, and the Castle Garden depot and commission for the protection of immigrants. He gave valuable aid to many charitable institutions, and devoted a large part of his income to private charity. He published some interesting “Reminiscences” in the “Atlantic Monthly” (1876), and after his death his “Autobiography,” edited by his daughter, appeared (Boston, 1882), the story of his life being completed in a second volume by his grandson, Thurlow Weed Barnes (1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 419-420.

 

 

WEEKS, Refine, poet, New York, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist (Drake, 1950, p. 127)

 

 

WEEKS, William Raymond, 1783-1848, Newark, New Jersey, clergyman, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-39.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 420)

 

WEEKS, William Raymond, clergyman, b. in Brooklyn, Conn., 6 Aug., 1783; d. in Oneida, N.Y., 27 June, 1848. He was graduated at Princeton in 1809, studied at Andover theological seminary, and was pastor of Presbyterian churches in New York state from 1812 till 1832, when he accepted a charge in Newark, N. J., which he held till 1846. Williams gave him the degree of D. D. in 1828. He is the author of “Nine Sermons” (1813), a series of tracts (1834-'41), and a posthumous volume entitled “Pilgrim's Progress in the Nineteenth Century” (1849). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 420.

 

 

WEEMAN, Ebenezer, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1846

 

 

WEINER, Theodore, radical abolitionist, follower of John Brown (see entry for John Brown).

 

 

WEISS, John, 1818-1879, Boston, Massachusetts, author, clergyman, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 422; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 615)

 

WEISS, John, author, b. in Boston, Mass., 28 June, 1818; d. there, 9 March, 1879. His father, a German Jew, was a barber in Worcester, Mass. John was graduated at Harvard in 1837, and at the divinity-school in 1843, meanwhile studying abroad. He then was settled over the Unitarian church in Watertown, Mass., but withdrew on account of his anti-slavery opinions, and was pastor at New Bedford a short time, resigning on account of the failure of his health. After several years of study and travel he resumed his pastorate in Watertown, and preached there in 1859-'70. Mr. Weiss was an ardent Abolitionist, an advocate of women's rights, a rationalist in religion, and a disciple of the transcendental philosophy. He delivered courses of lectures on “Greek Religious Ideas.” “Humor in Shakespeare,” and “Shakespeare's Women.” Of his lectures on Greek religious ideas, Octavius B. Frothingham says: “They were the keenest interpretation of the ancient myths, the most profound, luminous, and sympathetic, I have met with.” He is the author of many reviews, sermons, and magazine articles on literary, biographical, social, and political questions, “Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker” (2 vols., New York, 1864), and “American Religion” (1871). He also edited and translated “Henry of Afterdingen,” a romance by Friedrich Van Hardenberg (Boston, 1842); “Philosophical and Æsthetic Letters and Essays of Schiller,” with an introduction (1845); and “Memoir of Johann G. Fichte,” by William Smith (1846). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WELD, Angelina Grimké, 1805-1879, reformer, author, wife of Theodore Weld  (Barnes, 1933; Drake, 1950, p. 158; Thomas, 1950; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 425; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936)

 

WELD, Angelina Emily Grimké, reformer, b. in Charleston, S. C., 20 Feb., 1805, is the daughter of Judge John F. Grimké, of South Carolina, but in 1828, with her sister, Sarah M. Grimké (q. v.), she joined the Society of Friends in Philadelphia, afterward emancipating the slaves that she inherited from her parents in 1836. She was the author of an “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South,” which was republished in England with an introduction by George Thompson, and was associated with her sister in delivering public addresses under the auspices of the American anti-slavery society, winning a reputation for eloquence. The controversy that the appearance of the sisters as public speakers caused was the beginning of the woman's rights agitation in this country. She married Mr. Weld on 14 May, 1838, and was afterward associated with him in educational and reformatory work. Besides the work noticed above, she wrote “Letters to Catherine E. Beecher,” a review of the slavery question (Boston, 1837). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 425.

 

 

WELD, Ezra Greenleaf, 1801-1874, Hampton, Connecticut, photographer, abolitionist, brother of prominent abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld.

 

 

WELD, Theodore Dwight, 1803-1895, Cincinnati, Ohio, New York, NY, reformer, abolitionist leader, anti-slavery lobbyist.  Co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) in December 1833.  Manager, 1833-1835, and Corresponding Secretary, 1839-1840, of the Society.  Published American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (1839).  Also wrote The Bible Against Slavery (1839) and Slavery and the Internal Slave Trace in the United States (London, 1841).  Married to abolitionist Angelina Grimké.  (Barnes, 1933; Drake, 1950, pp. 138, 140, 158, 173; Dumond, 1961, pp. 161, 176, 180, 183, 185, 220, 240-241; Filler, 1960, pp. 32, 56, 67, 72, 102, 148, 156, 164, 172, 176, 206; Hammond, 2011, pp. 268, 273; Mabee, 1970, pp. 17, 33, 34, 38, 92, 93, 104, 146, 151, 152, 153, 187, 188, 191, 196, 348, 358; Pease, 1965, pp. 94-102; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 46, 106, 321-323, 419, 486, 510-512; Sorin, 1971, pp. 42-43, 53, 60, 64, 67, 70n; Thomas, 1950; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 425; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 625; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 681-682; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 928; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 318; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 740-741; Abzug, Robert H. Passionare Liberator: Theodore Dwight Weld and the Dilemma of Reform, New York, 1980; Dumond, Dwight L., ed., Letters of Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Grimké Weld and Sarah Grimké, 1822-144, 1965)

 

WELD, Theodore Dwight, reformer, b. in Hampton, Conn., 23 Nov., 1803. He entered Phillips Andover academy in 1819, but was not graduated, on account of failing eyesight. In 1830 he became general agent of the Society for the promotion of manual labor in literary institutions, publishing afterward a valuable report (New York, 1833). He entered Lane theological seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1833, but left that institution on the suppression of the Anti-slavery society of the seminary by the trustees. Mr. Weld then became well known as an anti-slavery lecturer, but in 1836 he lost his voice, and was appointed by the American anti-slavery society editor of its books and pamphlets. In 1841-'3 he labored in Washington in aid of the anti-slavery members of congress, and in 1854 he established at Eagleswood, N. J., a school in which he received pupils irrespective of sex and color. In 1864 he removed to Hyde Park, near Boston, and devoted himself to teaching and lecturing. Mr. Weld is the author of many pamphlets, and of “The Power of Congress over the District of Columbia” (New York, 1837); “The Bible against Slavery” (1837); “American Slavery as it Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses” (1839); and “Slavery and the Internal Slave Trade in the United States” (London, 1841). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 425.

 

 

WELLS, Alfred, 1814-1867, Dagsboro, Sussex County, Delaware, lawyer, jurist, U.S. Congressman, newspaper publisher, anti-slavery activist.  Mamber, anti-slavery Nebraska Party, and later the Republican Party.  U.S. Congressman, 36th Congress, 1859-1861.

 

 

WELLS, Eleazer M., Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WELLES, Gideon, 1802-1878, newspaper editor.  Secretary of the Navy, Lincoln’s cabinet.  Opposed the extension of slavery.  Allowed African American refugees to join the U.S. Navy.  Secretary of the Navy 1861-1869.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 427; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 629; Welles’ diaries, manuscripts, Library of Congress)

 

WELLES, Gideon, secretary of the navy, b. in Glastonbury, Conn., 1 July, 1802; d. in Hartford, Conn., 11 Feb., 1878, entered Norwich university, Vt., but, without being graduated, began to study law. In 1826 he became editor and part owner of the Hartford “Times” with which he remained connected till 1854, though he retired from the responsible editorship in 1836. He made his paper the chief organ of the Democratic party in the state. It was the first to advocate the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency, and earnestly upheld his administration. Mr. Welles was a member of the legislature in 1827-‘35, and both in that body and in his journal attacked with severity the proposed measure to exclude from the courts witnesses that did not believe in a future state of rewards and punishments. He also labored for years to secure the abolition of imprisonment for debt, opposed special and private legislation, and secured the passage of general laws for the organization of financial corporations. He began an agitation for low postage before the subject had begun to attract general attention. He was chosen comptroller of the state by the legislature in 1835, and elected to that office by popular vote in 1842 and 1843, serving as postmaster of Hartford in the intervening years. From 1846 till 1849 he was chief of the bureau of provisions and clothing in the navy department at Washington. Mr. Welles had always opposed the extension of slavery. He identified himself with the newly formed Republican party in 1855, and in 1856 was its candidate for governor of Connecticut. In 1860 he labored earnestly for the election of Abraham Lincoln, and on the latter's election Mr. Welles was given the portfolio of the navy in his cabinet. Here his executive ability compensated for his previous lack of special knowledge, and though many of his acts were bitterly criticised, his administration was popular with the navy and with the country at large. His facility as a writer made, his state papers more interesting than such documents usually are. In his first report, dated 4 July, 1861, he announced the increase of the effective naval force from forty-two to eighty-two vessels. This and the subsequent increase in a few months to more than 500 vessels was largely due to his energy. In the report that has just been mentioned he also recommended investigations to secure the best iron-clads, and this class of vessels was introduced under his administration. In the cabinet Mr. Welles opposed all arbitrary measures, and objected to the declaration of a blockade of southern ports, holding that this was a virtual acknowledgment of belligerent rights, and that the preferable course would be to close our ports to foreign commerce by proclamation. By request of the president, he presented his ideas in writing; but the cabinet finally yielded to the views of Sec. Seward. Early in the war, on 25 Sept., 1861, he ordered that the negro refugees that found their way to U. S. vessels should be enlisted in the navy. He held his post till the close of President Johnson's administration in 1869. In 1872 he acted with the Liberal Republicans, and in 1876 he advocated the election of Samuel J. Tilden, afterward taking strong grounds against the electoral commission and its decision. After his retirement from office he contributed freely to current literature on the political and other events of the civil war, and provoked hostile criticism by what many thought his harsh strictures on official conduct. In 1872 he published an elaborate paper to show that the capture of New Orleans in 1862 was due entirely to the navy, and in 1873 a volume entitled “Lincoln and Seward.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 427.

 

 

WELLS, Richard, abolitionist leader, Committee of Twenty-Four/Committee of Education, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Nash, 1991, p. 129; Zilversmit, 1967, p. 97)

 

 

WELLS, Samuel, Whitesboro, New York, abolitionist leader.  Manager, 1839-1840, of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  (Abolitionist; Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WELLS, Woolsey, Akron, Ohio, abolitionist.  Manager, 1834-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WELTON, Alonzo, New Jersey, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-1839.

 

 

WENDOVER, F. H., founding charter member of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

WENTWORTH, John, 1815-1888, New Hampshire, lawyer, editor, newspaper publisher.  U.S. congressman, 1843-1851, 1853-1855, 1865-1867.  Mayor of Chicago, Illinois, elected in 1857 and 1860.  Anti-slavery advocate.  Early co-founder of an anti-slavery political party that became the Republican Party.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 436; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 657)

 

WENTWORTH, John, journalist, b. in Sandwich, N. H., 5 March, 1815; d. in Chicago, Ill., 16 Oct., 1888, was a son of Paul Wentworth, and the grandson on his mother's side of Col. Amos Cogswell, a Revolutionary officer. After graduation at Dartmouth in 1836, he settled in Illinois in 1836, attended the first meeting to consider the propriety of organizing the town of Chicago into a city, did much to procure its charter, and voted at its first city election in May, 1837. He studied law at Chicago, attended lectures at Harvard law-school, and was admitted to practice in Illinois in 1841. While studying law he conducted the Chicago “Democrat,” which he soon purchased and made the chief daily paper of the northwest and of which he was publisher, editor, and proprietor until 1861. Being elected to congress as a Democrat, he served from 4 Dec., 1843, till 3 March, 1851, and again from 5 Dec., 1853, till 3 March, 1855. He introduced in that body the first bill favoring the establishment of the present national warehouse system, was instrumental in securing the grant of land to the state of Illinois out of which was constructed the present Illinois Central railroad. He was one of the Democrats and Whigs in congress that assembled at Crutchet's, at Washington, the morning after the repeal of the Missouri compromise passed the house, and resolved to ignore all party lines and form an anti-slavery party. Out of this grew the present Republican party, with which he afterward acted. He was elected mayor of Chicago in 1857 and again in 1860, and was the first Republican mayor elected in the United States after the formation of the party, and issued the first proclamation after Fort Sumter was fired upon, calling on his fellow-citizens to organize and send soldiers to the war. He introduced the first steam fire-engine, “Long John,” in Chicago in 1857, and later two others, the “Liberty” and “Economy.” Upon each occasion of his assumption of the mayor's office he found a large floating debt, and left money in the treasury for his successor. In 1861 he was a member of the convention to revise the constitution of Illinois, and he was a member of the board of education in 1861-'4 and in 1868-'72. He served again in congress from 4 Dec., 1865, till 3 March, 1867, was a member of the committee of ways and means, and was an earnest advocate of the immediate resumption of specie payments. Mr. Wentworth had been a member of the Illinois state board of agriculture, and was the largest real estate owner in Cook county. He received the degree of LL. D. from Dartmouth, to which college he gave $10,000, and was elected president of its alumni in 1883. Owing to his extreme height he was called “Long John” Wentworth. In addition to lectures and writings upon the early history of Chicago, and historical contributions to periodicals, he was the author of “Genealogical, Bibliographical, and Biographical Account of the Descendants of Elder William Wentworth” (Boston, 1850), and “History of the Wentworth Family” (3 vols., 1878).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WESS, Samuel, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

WESTON, Anne Warren, Weymouth, Massachusetts, abolitionist leader.  Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS).  Executive Committee, American Anti-Slavery society (AASS), 1843-1864.  Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1844-1860.   (Dumond, 1961, p. 275; Mabee, 1970, p. 222; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 199; Yellin, 1994, pp. 40n, 41, 43n, 45, 56, 57n, 61-62, 64, 173, 176n, 253n, 258, 259, 289, 294)

 

 

WESTON, Caroline, abolitionist leader.  Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1843-1859.(Rodriguez, 2007, p. 199; Yellin, 1994, pp. 60, 62, 64n, 65, 172, 176, 253n, 256, 285, 294)

 

 

WESTON, Deborah, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Yellin, 1994, pp. 40n, 43n, 62, 172, 173, 176, 257-259, 285, 294)

 

 

WETMORE, Lauren, New York, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1851-1853.

 

 

WETMORE, Oliver, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WHALEY, Kellian V., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

WHEATON, Charles A. , New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WHEATON, Josephus, clergyman, Holliston, Massachusetts, anti-slavery advocate. Gave memorable anti-slavery sermon.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 147-149)

 

 

WHEATON, Laban M., , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President

 

 

WHEELER, Charles, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

WHEELER, Edmund, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

WHEELER, Ezra, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

WHEELER, J. R., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

WHEELER, Newell, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

WHILLISTON, John P., , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1841-42; 45-46

 

 

WHIPPER, William J., 1804?-1876, free African American, abolitionist, reformer, activist, writer, advocate of non-violence. (Dumond, 1961, p. 340; Mabee, 1970, pp. 36, 57, 58, 62, 64, 71, 92, 106, 134, 187, 193, 197, 203, 248, 276, 277, 293, 298, 305-307, 337, 342, 390n15; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 44; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 12, p. 6)

 

 

WHIPPLE, Charles K., Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-1837, Executive Committee, 1840-1841.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1846-1860.

 

 

WHIPPLE, George, Oberlin, Ohio, New York, abolitionist, clergyman, educator.  Secretary of the anti-slavery American Missionary Association (AMA).  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.  American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1844-1855, Treasurer, 1846-1855.  Teacher at Lane University.  Professor and principal, Oberlin College.  Worked in Freeman’s Bureau after the Civil War.  Agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 163, 165, 185; Mabee, 1970, pp. 153, 235, 403n25; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 166)

 

 

WHIPPLE, Levi, Muskingham County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39

 

 

WHIPPLE, Prince, ? – 1797, African American, slave, soldier in Revolutionary War, abolitionist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 12, p. 10)

 

 

WHITAKER, William, N. Salem, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-40

 

 

WHITCOMB, James, Michigan, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1839.

 

 

WHITCOMB, Rueben Jr., Howard, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1846

 

 

WHITE, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918, Homer, New York, diplomat, historian, educator.  Co-founder and first President of Cornell University.  Opponent of slavery.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 467-468; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 88)

 

WHITE, Andrew Dickson, educator, b. in Homer, N. Y., 7 Nov., 1832. He was of New England parentage, studied one year at Hobart college, N. Y., and passed the remainder of his collegiate course at Yale, where he was graduated in 1833. After graduation he spent about two years in Europe, chiefly at Paris and Berlin, in the prosecution of historical studies. He was also attaché to the American legation in St. Petersburg for six months, and travelled on foot through many of the historical localities of the continent, especially in northern and western France. He returned home in 1856, studied history for one year at Yale, and in 1857 was elected professor of history and English literature in the University of Michigan. In 1862 he resigned in consequence of impaired health, returned to Syracuse, where he had formerly resided, was elected to the state senate for that place, and was re-elected in 1864. While state senator he introduced bills that codified the school laws, created the new system of normal schools, and incorporated Cornell university. In 1867 he became first president of Cornell, which post he filled until failing health compelled him to retire in 1885. He visited Europe in 1867-'8 for the purpose of examining into the organization of the principal schools of agriculture and technology and of purchasing books and apparatus for his university at the request of its trustees. In January, 1871, he was appointed one of the U. S. commissioners to Santo Domingo, and aided in preparing the report of the commission. He was president of the Republican state convention of New York in October, 1871, and was U. S. minister to Germany from 1879 till 1881. From his own resources President White contributed about $100,000 to the equipment of Cornell university, and on 19 Jan., 1887, be endowed the new school of history and political science in that institution with his historical library numbering 30,000 volumes, besides 10,000 valuable pamphlets and many manuscripts, all of which cost him more than $100,000. As a permanent tribute to him the board of college managers decided to designate the new school as “The President White school of history and political science.” Besides contributions to periodicals, he has published “Outlines of a Course of Lectures on History” (Detroit, 1861); “A Word from the Northwest” (London, 1863), in response to strictures in the American “Diary” of Dr. William Howard Russell; “Syllabus of Lectures on Modern History” (Ithaca, 1876); “The Warfare of Science” (New York, 1876); “The New Germany” (1882); “On Studies in General History and in the History of Civilization” (1885); and “A History of the Doctrine of Cornets” (1886).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WHITE, William, Bishop, 1748-1836, Pennsylvania, Episcopal Bishop, Vice-President, 1833-37, and founding officer and head of the Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society in 1817.  White supported missionary societies, and advocated colonization as a “safe, gradual, voluntary and entire emancipation of slavery.”  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 476-477; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 121; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 39, 72, 213)

 

WHITE, William, P. E. bishop, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 4 April, 1748; d. there, 17 July, 1836. His father, Col. Thomas White, removed to Philadelphia from Maryland in 1745, and married Esther, widow of John Neuman, and daughter of Abraham Hewlings, of Burlington, N. J., 7 May, 1747. There were two children of this marriage, William, and Mary, who became the wife of Robert Morris. William entered the English department of the College and academy of Philadelphia at the age of seven, and at ten the Latin-school. He was graduated in 1765, and soon began his theological studies, which he completed in 1770. In October of this year he sailed for England to obtain holy orders, bringing such testimonials that, although he was several months under the required age, he obtained from the archbishop of Canterbury a faculty allowing him to be ordained. He was ordered deacon in the Chapel royal, St. James's palace, Westminster, 23 Dec., 1770, by Dr. Young, bishop of Norwich, acting for the bishop of London, who had episcopal oversight of all the colonies, and was ordained priest in the chapel of Fulham palace, 25 April, 1772, by the bishop of London. He sailed for this country, where he arrived on 13 Sept., and soon afterward became assistant minister of Christ and St. Peter's churches. On 11 Feb., 1773, he married Mary, daughter of Capt. Henry Harrison, mayor of Philadelphia. Within a few years he became rector of the united parishes of Christ, St. Peter's, and St. James's. The degree of D. D. was given him by the University of Pennsylvania in 1782, it being the first honorary degree of that college. All the clergy of Philadelphia sided with the colonies during the Revolution, none more zealously than Dr. White. Upon the occupation of Philadelphia by the British forces, he removed in September, 1777, to Harford county, Md., but he returned after the evacuation, and resumed his duties. Then began the long and trying struggle to sustain the life of the church, in which he took an active part. Almost despairing of success in obtaining the episcopate, which was essential to the reorganization of the church, Dr. White, in August, 1782, put forth a pamphlet with the title “The Case of the Episcopal Churches Considered” (Philadelphia, 1782), in which he advocated the appointment of superintendents, with similar powers, to take the place of bishops in the government of the church. This plan, which found favor largely in the middle and southern states, was bitterly opposed by the clergy of Connecticut, and negotiations for peace having advanced to the point of probability, the pamphlet was withdrawn from circulation, and the plan was abandoned. On 27 March, 1784, the clergy of the city of Philadelphia, and lay representatives from its parishes, met in Dr. White's study to take steps for the organization of the church in Pennsylvania, which meeting resulted in the assembling of a council in Christ church, 26 May, 1784, the first council in which laymen had been represented. Proposals were sent out to the churches in other states to meet in general convention, Dr. White's letters helping largely in bringing about this result. The first meeting of that body was held in New York in October, 1784, though delegates were sent only on the authority of their several parishes. On Tuesday, 27 Sept., 1785, clerical and lay deputies from several states met in Christ church, Philadelphia, and organized as a general convention, of which Dr. White was chosen president. Steps were taken at once by the appointment of committees to draft a constitution for the church, and to prepare a schedule of necessary alterations in the liturgy. Dr. White made the original draft of the constitution, and also prepared an address to the archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, asking for the episcopate at their hands. He was also largely instrumental in giving shape to the liturgy and offices of the Prayer-Book which were to be submitted to the authorities of the Church of England with the address. At the convention of the diocese of Pennsylvania in 1786 he was elected its first bishop, and sailed for England in company with Dr. Samuel Provoost, of New York, seeking consecration, arriving in London. 29 Nov., 1786. After many delays, and the passage of a special enabling act by parliament, he was, with Dr. Provoost, at last consecrated in the chapel of Lambeth palace, 4 Feb., 1787, by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Peterborough. He reached Philadelphia again on Easter Sunday, 7 April, 1787, and entered upon his trying duties, not the least of which concerned the recognition of the consecration of Bishop Seabury, in all of which his mild temper and broad charity were effective in restoring peace and harmony to the councils of the church. He was appointed chaplain to congress in 1787, which office he held till 1801. Besides his episcopal duties, he was foremost in many public charities and enterprises, and held the presidency of the Philadelphia Bible society, dispensary, Prison society, Asylum for the deaf and dumb, and Institution for the blind. He died at the advanced age of eighty-eight, after living to see the church in the states thoroughly organized and rapidly growing, and consecrating eleven bishops. His remains were buried in the church-yard of Christ church, but in December, 1870, were removed and placed beneath the floor of the chancel. The centennial anniversary of his consecration was appropriately celebrated in Lambeth palace, London, and in Christ church, Philadelphia. Besides the “Pastoral Letters” of the house of bishops (1808-1835), five addresses to the trustees, professors, and students of the General theological seminary (1822-'9), and episcopal charges, Bishop White published “Lectures on the Catechism” ( Philadelphia, 1813); “Comparative View of the Controversy between the Calvinists and the Arminians” (2 vols., 1817); “Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America” (1820; 2d ed., with continuation, New York, 1835); and “Commentary on Questions in the Ordination Offices” and “Commentary on Duties of Public Ministry” (1 vol., 1833). His “Opinions on Interchanging with Ministers of Non-Episcopal Communions, Extracted from his Charges, Addresses, Sermons, and Pastoral Letters,” appeared in 1868. See his life by Rev. Dr. Bird Wilson (Philadelphia, 1839). Portraits of Bishop White have been painted by Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, and Henry Inman. The accompanying vignette is copied from a drawing by James B. Longacre. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WHITE, Jacob C., Jr., 1837-1902, African American, educator, reformer, abolitionist, Free Produce advocate.  (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 12, p. 31)

 

 

WHITE, Jacob Clement, Sr., 1806-1872, African American, abolitionist, businessman, father of Jacob C. White, Jr. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 12, p. 32)

 

 

WHITE, James, Essex County, New Jersey, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WHITE, Lydia, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  Original founding member of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. (Drake, 1950, p. 140; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 416; Yellin, 1994, pp. 69, 161, 163, 278-279)

 

 

WHITE, T. Joiner, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

WHITE, William, free African American, co-founded Free African Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787 (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 156)

 

 

WHITEALL, James, abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nathan, 1991)

 

 

WHITEHEAD, Jonathan, Franklin County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

WHITFIELD, James Monroe, 1822-1871, African American, abolitionist, orator, poet, supported African American emigration, Black nationalism. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 12, p. 53)

 

 

WHITING, William, Concord, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1853-60-.

 

 

WHITING, William E., New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1844-55, Treasurer, 1846-55.

 

 

WHITMAN, Edmund, U.S. Army, abolitionist

 

 

WHITMAN, Isaac, Portland, Maine, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1834, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833 (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WHITMAN, Walt, 1819-1892, poet, essayist, journalist. Wrote antislavery poetry.  Supported the Wilmot Proviso and was opposed to the inclusion of slavery in the new territories.  His poetry presented his views on the equality of the races.  Supported the abolition of slavery, but did not necessarily support the tactics of the abolitionist movement.  In 1856, he wrote to the people of the South, in an unpublished work, “You are either to abolish slavery, or it will abolish you.” (Hughes, Meltzer, & Lincoln, 1968; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 485-486; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 143)

 

WHITMAN, Walt, or Walter, poet, b. in West Hills, Long Island, N. Y., 31 May, 1819. He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn and New York city, and learned printing, working at that trade in summer and teaching in winter. Subsequently he also acquired skill as a carpenter. For brief periods he edited newspapers in New Orleans and in Huntington, L. I. In 1847-'8 he made long pedestrian tours through the United States, generally following the courses of the great western rivers, and also extended his journey through Canada. His chief work, “Leaves of Grass” (New York, 1855), is a series of poems dealing with moral, social, and political problems, and more especially with the interests involved in 19th century American life and progress. In it he made a new and abrupt departure as to form, casting his thoughts in a mould the style of which is something between rhythmical prose and verse, altogether discarding rhythm and regular metre, but uttering musical thoughts in an unconventional way which is entirely his own. Expecting the opposition and abuse with which his volume was assailed, he speaks of it as a sortie on common literary use and wont, on both spirit and form, adding that a century may elapse before its triumph or failure can be assured. For thirty years Whitman has been correcting and adding to this work, and he says that he looks upon “Leaves of Grass” “now finished to the end of its opportunities and powers, as my definitive carte visite to the coming generations of the New World, if I may assume to say so.” In the war Whitman's brother was wounded on the battle-field, which led to the poet's at once hastening to join him in the camp, where he afterward remained as a volunteer army nurse at Washington and in Virginia in 1862-'5. His experiences during this service are vividly recorded in “Drum-Taps” (1865) and “Memoranda during the War” (1867). His fatigue and night-watching in 1864 brought on a serious illness, from which he has never entirely recovered. In 1870 he published a volume of prose essays called “Democratic Vistas,” a new edition of which has been issued by Walter Scott (London, 1888), with a preface written by Whitman in April of the same year. In this volume he explains that he uses the word “Democrat” in its widest sense as synonymous with the American form of government. From 1865 till 1874 Whitman held a government clerkship in Washington. In February, 1873, the lingering effects of his nursing fatigues and illness during the war culminated in a severe paralytic attack. He left Washington for Camden, N. J., and was recovering when in May of the same year his mother died somewhat suddenly in his presence. This shock caused a relapse. He abandoned Washington and has continued to reside at Camden. Mr. Whitman has been called “the good gray poet.” His admirers, especially in England, have been extravagant in their praise of his works, comparing him with the best of the classic writers, and in this country Ralph Waldo Emerson said on the appearance of “Leaves of Grass”: “I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed . . . . I find incomparable things incomparably said.” On the other hand, the peculiar form of his writings prevents their popularity, and their substance has been widely regarded as of no value. “Leaves of Grass” has even been condemned for indecency on account of its outspokenness, and when a complete edition of the work was published (Boston, 1881) the Massachusetts authorities objected to its sale in that state on the ground of immorality. Besides the works already mentioned, Whitman has published “Passage to India” (1870); “After All, not to Create Only” (1871); “As Strong as a Bird on Pinions Free” (1872); “Two Rivulets,” including “Democratic Vistas” and “Passage to India” (1873); “Specimen Days and Collect” (1883); “November Boughs” (1885); and “Sands at Seventy” (1888). A selection of his poems, by William M. Rossetti, was published (London, 1868). Besides the complete edition of “Leaves of Grass” that has been mentioned, another, edited by Prof. Edward Dowden, has since been issued (Glasgow, Scotland). A popular selection, with introduction by Ernest Rhys, was published by Walter Scott (London, 1886). See “The Good Gray Poet, a Vindication,” by William D. O’Connor (New York, 1866), and “Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person,” by John Burroughs (1866). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 485-486.

 

 

WHITON, James M., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1842-43

 

 

WHITSON, Thomas, Chester County, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Vice President and Manager, 1833-1837, AASS. (Drake, 1950, pp. 140, 149; Mabee, 1970, pp. 280-281, 422n27; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WHITTIER, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892, Haverhill, Massachusetts, poet, journalist, newspaper publisher and editor, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist.  Wrote antislavery poetry.  Publisher and editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman.  Founding member, Manager, and Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Member of the Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Leader and active with the Liberty Party.  Member, Free Soil Party.  Called for immediate abolition of slavery in the United States.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 5, 37-64; Drake, 1950, pp. 113, 127, 137, 140-142, 158-159, 176, 181, 195; Dumond, 1961, pp. 167, 245, 286, 301; Filler, 1960, pp. 56, 66, 90, 105, 134, 148, 151, 194; Mabee, 1970, pp. 2, 4, 9, 11-13, 18, 21-22, 25-26, 29-30, 35-36, 48, 51, 65, 194, 211, 309, 326, 329, 359, 368, 373, 378; Pease, 1965, pp. 65, 102-104, 123-128; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 161, 433, 641, 723; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 493-494; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 173; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 23, p. 350; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. I. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 407)

 

WHITTIER, John Greenleaf, poet, b. in Haverhill, Mass., 17 Dec., 1807. His parents were members of the Society of Friends, and to the principles and practices of this sect he always remained faithful, conforming even to its peculiarities of speech and garb in a community where such observance, by being singular, must often have been trying to a temperament so shy and sensitive as his. His first American ancestor came to Massachusetts in 1638, and the conversion to Quakerism took place in the second generation of the family, after the settlement of the Bay Colony, at a time when that sect was sternly persecuted. There may therefore be something of heredity in the unswerving constancy of Whittier to unpopular opinions. At the date of his birth Haverhill was still a farming village, one of the prettiest among the many pretty hamlets which then gave a peaceful charm to the rural scenery of Massachusetts. Born on a farm, Whittier's first occupations were those of a farmer's boy, driving the kine to and from pasture, riding to mill, fetching in wood for the undying kitchen-fire, and helping in the lighter labors of haying and harvest. He was thus early brought into that intimate communion with Mother Earth and with Nature which cames not by mere observation, and which gives such a peculiar charm of picturesque truth to so many of his poems. How much he thus learned and to how good profit he put it are visible in many of his poems, but especially in his “Snow-Bound,” which, in addition to its other merits, has now also a historical value as a vivid picture of modes of life even then obsolescent and now almost as far away as those pictured by Homer. And not only will the scenery of New England, both outward and domestic, live in his verse, but it is worth remark that the nobler qualities of the Puritans have nowhere found such adequate literary expression since Milton as in this member of a sect which they did their utmost to suppress. Almost alone among American poets, he has revived the legends of his neighborhood in verse, and his “Floyd Ireson” is among the best of modern ballads, surpassed by none save Scott, if even by him. His schooling in other respects must have been scanty enough, since his only opportumty during boyhood would be the nearest district school (taught commonly by a college student younger than some of his rustic pupils), where he got such training in the simpler rudiments of knowledge as was possible under the conditions then existing. And this training, as usually in the country, was limited to the winter months, when farm-work was necessarily suspended. He has recorded his indebtedness during boyhood to Dr. Elms Weld, of Haverhill, who gave him the freedom of his library.

A farm-hand taught him shoemaking, the common occupation during winter in the fishing and farmmg villages along the coast, and by this means he earned enough to warrant his attending Haverhill academy during six months of 1827. He was now sufficiently learned, according to the simpler notions of those days, to be himself a teacher, and taught in the district school of West Amesbury during the following winter. This supplied the means for another six months at the academy. In Whittier's case, as in that of so many other New Englanders, nothing is more characteristic or more touching than the persistent resolve to get the best education within their reach at whatever sacrifice.

The literary impulse in him must have been strong, for while yet in his nineteenth year he contributed anonymous verse to the poet's corner of the “Free Press,” a journal edited by W. L. Garrison in Newburyport, and enjoyed the furtive bliss of print. Garrison saw signs of promise in these immature experiments, sought out the author, and gave him the precious encouragement of praise and sympathy. This led to a lasting friendship, and, with the traditions of his sect, may have had some influence in preparing Whittier to enlist in the anti-slavery crusade which began with the establishment of the “Liberator” in 1831, and afterward caught so much of its inspiration from his fervid lyrics. The ambition to become a poet was awakened in him appropriately enough by a copy of Robert Burns's poems, which fell into his hands in his fourteenth year.

His father dying, he carried on the farm for the next five years, and in 1835 was sent to the general court from Haverhill. During all these years he had been an industrious writer, seeking an outlet in all directions and contributing poems to John Neal's “Yankee” and to the “New England Magazine,” where the “Autocrat” began his admirable discourses. In 1829 he undertook the editorship of the “American Manufacturer” in Boston, and in 1830 succeeded George D. Prentice as editor of the “Haverhill Gazette” during the first six months of the year, and then of the “New England Weekly Review” in Hartford, Conn. This office he resigned in 1832 on account of failing health and returned home. In 1836 he became secretary of the American anti-slavery society, and afterward removed to Philadelphia, where for a year (1838-'9) he edited the “Pennsylvania Freeman.” This he did with such sincerity that its printing-office was sacked and burned by a mob. At that time it required the courage of passionate conviction to maintain principles the noisier profession of which was to become profitable a few years later. Delicate as his organization was, Whittier faced many a brutal mob with unflinching composure. He was never a mere fanatic, but always quick to recognize and celebrate high qualities even in an adversary, as many of his poems show. He refused to follow Garrison in the renunciation of political action as one means of reform. In 1840 he took up his abode in Amesbury, a quiet village near his birthplace, and there (with the exception of six months spent at Lowell as editor of the “Middlesex Standard”), in the simple dignity of a frugal independence, the fruit of his own literary labors, he has lived ever since, and happily still lives, known and loved wherever our tongue is spoken. From 1847 to 1859 he contributed editorially to the “National Era,” an anti-slavery newspaper published at Washington, in which '”Uncle Tom's Cabin” was first printed.

In his seclusion Whittier was never idle, nor did he neglect his duties as a citizen while confirming his quality as a poet. Whenever occasion offered, some burning lyric of his flew across the country, like the fiery cross, to warn and rally. Never mingling in active politics (unless filling the office of presidential elector may be called so), he probably did more than anybody in preparing the material out of which the Republican party was made. When the civil war was impending he would have evaded it if possible by any concession short of surrender, as his “Word for the Hour” (January, 1861) shows. While the war continued he wrote little with direct reference to it, and never anything that showed any bitterness toward the authors of it. After it was over he would have made the terms of settlement liberal and conciliatory. He was too wise and too humane to stir the still living embers of passion and resentment for any political end however dear to him.

Of all American poets, with the single exception of Longfellow, Whittier has been the most popular, and in his case more than in that of any other the popularity has been warmed through with affection. This has been due in part to the nobly simple character of the man, transparent through his verse, in part to the fact that his poetry, concerning itself chiefly with the obvious aspects of life and speculation, has kept close to the highest levels of the average thought and sentiment. His themes have been mainly chosen from his own time and country—from his own neighborhood even—he deals with simple motives and with experiences common to all, and accordingly his scenery (whether of the outward or the inward eye) is domestically welcome to all his countrymen. He is never complex in thought or obscure in expression, and if sometimes his diction might gain in quality by a more deliberate choice, yet the pellucid simplicity of his phrase and the instant aptness of his epithet as often secure a more winning felicity through his frankness of confidence in the vernacular. His provincialisms of word or accent have an endearing property to the native ear, though even that will consent to a few of his more licentious rhymes. One feels that it is a neighbor who is speaking. Nor should the genial piety of his habitual thought and the faith that seeks no securer foothold than the Rock of Ages, on which the fathers stood so firmly, be overlooked among the qualities that give him a privilege of familiar entrance to a multitude of hearts and minds which would be barred against many higher, though not more genuine, forms of poetry. His religion has the sincerity of Cowper's without those insane terrors that made its very sincerity a torture. There are many points of spiritual likeness between the English and the American poet, especially in their unmetaphysicized love of outward natures, their austerity tempered with playful humor, and in that humanity of tone which establishes a tie of affectionate companionship between them and their readers. Whittier has done as much for the scenery of New England as Scott for that of Scotland. Many of his poems (such, for example, as “Telling the Bees”), in which description and sentiment mutually inspire each other, are as fine as any in the language.

Whittier, as many of his poems show, and as, indeed, would be inevitable, has had his moments of doubt and distrust, but never of despair. He has encountered everywhere the moral of his inscription on a sun-dial, convinced that “there's light above me by the shade below.” He, like others, has found it hard to reconcile the creed held by inheritance with the subtle logic of more modern modes of thought. As he himself has said:

“He reconciled as best he could
Old faith and fancies new.”

But his days have been “bound each to each with natural piety”; he has clung fast to what has been the wholesome and instructive kernel of all creeds; he has found consolation in the ever-recurring miracles, whether of soul or sense, that daily confront us, and in the expression of his own delight and wonder and gratitude for them has conveyed that solace to the minds and hearts of all his readers. One quality above all others in Whittier—his innate and unstudied Americanism—has rendered him alike acceptable to his countrymen and to his kindred beyond the sea. His first volume was “Legends of New England,” in prose and verse (Hartford, 1831), which has been followed by “Moll Pitcher” (1832); “Mogg Megone” (Boston, 1836); “Ballads” (1838); “Lays of My Home, and other Poems” (1843); “Miscellaneous Poems” (1844); the first English edition of his poetry, entitled “Ballads, and other Poems,” with an introduction by Elizur Wright (London, 1844); “The Stranger in Lowell” (1845); “Supernaturalism in New England” (New York and London, 1847); “Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal” (Boston, 1849); “Voices of Freedom” (Philadelphia, 1849); a larger English collection of his “Poetical Works” (London, 1850); “Old Portraits and Modern Sketches” (Boston, 1850); “Songs of Labor, and other Poems,” and “The Chapel of the Hermits, and other Poems” (1853); “A Sabbath Scene: a Sketch of Slavery in Verse” (1853); “Literary Recreations and Miscellanies” (1854); “The Panorama, and other Poems” (1856); “Complete Poetical Works” (2 vols., 1857); “Home Ballads and Poems” (1860); “Snow-Bound” (1862); a new edition of his “Complete Poetical Works” (1863); “In War Time, and other Poems” (1863); “National Lyrics” (1865); a collection of his “Prose Works” (2 vols., 1866); “The Tent on the Beach” (1867); “Among the Hills” (1868); an illustrated edition of his “Complete Poetical Works” (1868); one corresponding in typography with the “Prose Works” (1869); a volume of his “Ballads of New England” contains sixty illustrations by various artists (1869); “Miriam, and other Poems” (1870); “The Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and other Poems”  (1872); “Hazel Blossoms” (1874); “Mabel Martin” (1875); a new collected edition of his “Poetical Works” comprising poems that he had written till the date of publication (1875); “Centennial Hymn” (1876); “The Vision of Echard, and other Poems” (1878); “The King's Missive, and other Poems” (1881); “Bay of Seven Islands, and other Poems” (1883); “Poems of Nature” (1885); and “St. Gregory's Guest, and Recent Poems” (1886). A final edition of his poetical and prose works has been supervised by himself, and includes his sister's poems (7 vols., 1888-'9). See a “Biography,” by Francis H. Underwood (Boston, 1875; new ed., 1883), and “John G. Whittier: his Life, Genius, and Writings,” by W. Sloane Kennedy (1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 493-494.

 

 

WHITTLESAY, Chauncy, Middletown, Connecticut, lawyer.  Member of the Connecticut auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Freed his slaves and sent them to Liberia.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 127)

 

 

WHITTLESAY, Elisha, 1783-1863, Canfield, Ohio, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1836-41.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 495-496; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

WHITTLESAY, Elisha, lawyer, b. in Washington, Conn., 19 Oct., 1783; d. in Washington, D.C., 7 Jan., 1863. He was brought up on a farm, received an academical education, studied law, and on his admission to the bar began practice in Canfield, Ohio, in 1806. He served as an aide-de-camp during the war of 1812-'15, was for sixteen years prosecuting attorney of his district, a member of the Ohio state house of representatives in 1820-'1, and served in congress from Ohio by successive elections from 1 Dec., 1823, till 9 July, 1838, when he resigned. He was one of the founders of the Whig party, was appointed by President Harrison in 1841 auditor of the post-office department, and by President Taylor in 1849 first comptroller of the treasury, from which post he was removed by President Buchanan in 1857, but he was reappointed by President Lincoln in 1861, and held office till his death. In 1845 he was appointed general agent and director of the Washington national monument association, and contributed greatly to the success of that enterprise.  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 495-96.

 

 

WICHELL, John, Illinois, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1851-1857.

 

 

WICKS, L. D., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

WILD, Edward Augustus, 182-1891, Brookline, Massachusetts, homeopathic doctor, Brigadier General in the Union Army, abolitionist.  Recruited African American soldiers for the Union Army.  Commanded a brigade of U.S. Colored Troops.  (Bowe, 1888; Casstevens, 2005; Heitman, 1903; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 504-505)

 

WILD, Edward Augustus, soldier, b. in Brookline, Mass., 25 Nov., 1825. He was graduated at Harvard in 1844, and on 21 April, 1861, became captain in the 1st Massachusetts regiment, with which he served in the peninsular campaign, being wounded at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks. He became major of the 32d Massachusetts, 24 July, 1862, lieutenant-colonel on 7 Aug., and colonel of the 35th on 20 Aug., and took part in the battle of South Mountain, where his left arm was shattered. After assisting Gov. John A. Andrew in raising and organizing colored troops in February-April, 1863, he was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 24 April, and, with the exception of a few months at the siege of Charleston, served in North Carolina, recruiting colored troops. In December he led an expedition through the eastern counties of the state, and on 18 Jan., 1864, he took command of the district of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va. He commanded a brigade in the affair at Wilson's wharf, and was in front of Petersburg when he was placed under arrest on 23 June, 1864, for refusing to obey the order of his superior to relieve his brigade quartermaster and take another. The finding of the court-martial was set aside by the commanding general, and this action was subsequently confirmed by the judge-advocate-general at Washington. He afterward served on the expedition to Roanoke river in December, 1864, and then before Richmond till its capture, and in 1865 superintended the operations of the Freedmen's bureau in Georgia. On 15 Jan., 1866, he was mustered out of service. Since the war Gen. Wild has been engaged in silver-mining.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WILDE, Samuel, Brooklyn, New York, abolitionist, American Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1855-59.

 

 

WILDER, A. Carter, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

WILEY, John, founding charter member of the American Colonization Society in Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

WILKESON, Samuel, 1781-1848, Buffalo, New York, manufacturer, businessman, real estate, political leader, jurist, president, American Colonization Society (ACS).  Director of the ACS, 1839-1841, Member of the Executive Committee, 1839-1841.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 509-510; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 218; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 237-239, 308)

 

WILKESON, Samuel, manufacturer, b. in Carlisle, Pa., in 1781; d. in the mountains of Tennessee in July, 1848. His father, John, a native of Ireland of Scotch descent, came to this country in 1760, settled in Delaware, and served against the British in the war of the Revolution. The son received few educational advantages, and worked on a farm till about 1806, when he began his career as a builder and owner of vessels and a trader on Lake Erie and elsewhere. During the war of 1812 he supplied Gen. William Henry Harrison with transports for the use of the troops in invading Canada. In 1814 he settled in Buffalo and engaged in business as a merchant. In 1819 he was an active advocate of the construction of the Erie canal, and in 1822 he was chiefly instrumental in securing the selection of Buffalo as its terminus. He was appointed first judge of the Erie court of common pleas in February, 1821, though he was without a legal education, was elected to the state senate in 1842, and served in that body and in the court for the correction of errors for six years. In 1836 he was elected mayor of Buffalo. He erected and put in operation a furnace in Mahoning county, Ohio, the first in this country to “blow in” on raw bituminous coal and smelt iron with that fuel uncoked, built the first iron-foundry in Buffalo, and established in that city the business of manufacturing steam-engines, stoves, and hollow-ware. He favored a system of gradual and compensated emancipation of the slaves, and advocated the colonization of the negroes on the west coast of Africa. He afterward removed to Washington, the headquarters of the American colonization society, over which he presided, for two years edited its organ, the “African Repository,” directed the affairs of the colony of Liberia, establishing commercial relations between it and Baltimore and Philadelphia, and gathered colonists wherever he could in the south. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 509-510.

 

 

WILKESON, Samuel, Jr., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WILKINSON, Joseph, Maryland, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Chester-Town Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others Unlawfully Held in Bondage, founded 1791.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 224, 241n24)

 

 

WILKINSON, Morton Smith, b. 1819, lawyer.  Republican U.S. Senator from Minnesota.  U.S. Senator from 1859-1865.  U.S. Congressman from March 1869-March 1871.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 512; Congressional Globe)

 

WILKINSON, Morton Smith, senator, b. in Skaneateles, Onondaga co., N. Y., 22 Jan., 1819. He received an academical education, went to Illinois in 1837, was engaged for two years in railroad business, afterward returned to his native place, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar in Syracuse in 1842, and in 1843 began practice at Eaton Rapids, Mich. He removed to St. Paul, Minn., in 1847, was elected a member of the first territorial legislature in 1849, and was appointed one of a board of commissioners to prepare a code of laws for the territory. He was elected to the U. S. senate as a Republican in 1859, and held his seat till 1865, serving as chairman of the committee on Revolutionary claims, and as a member of the committee on Indian affairs. He was a delegate to the Baltimore convention of 1864 and to the Loyalists' convention of 1866 at Philadelphia, and served in congress from Minnesota from 4 March, 1869, till 3 March, 1871. He was a member of the state senate in 1874-'7, and afterward united with the Democratic party. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 512.

 

 

WILLARD, B. W., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

WILLEY, Austin, 1806-1896, reformer, abolitionist, clergyman. Congregational minister.  Editor of Advocate of Freedom. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 518; Dumond, 1961, pp. 301, 405n12; Willey, Austin, The History of the Anti-Slavery Cause in State and Nation, Portland, Maine, 1886)

 

WILLEY, Austin, reformer, b. in Campton, N. H., 24 June, 1806. He was educated at Pembroke academy, studied at Bangor theological seminary, where he was graduated in 1837, and in 1839 became editor of the “Advocate of Freedom,” an anti-slavery paper that had been established in the preceding year at Brunswick, Me., which he conducted until the abolition of slavery. He was also an early advocate of prohibition, and contributed to the adoption of the Maine law. He has published in book-form a “Family Memorial” (San Francisco, 1865), and “History of the Anti-Slavery Cause in State and Nation” (Portland, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 518.

 

 

WILLEY, Waitman Thomas, 1811-1900, lawyer.  U.S. Senator from Virginia (1861), later West Virginia (1863).  Served in Senate until March 1871.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 519; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 246; Congressional Globe)

 

WILLEY, Waitman Thomas, senator, b. in Monongalia county, Va. (now W. Va.), 18 Oct., 1811. He was graduated at Madison college, Uniontown, Pa., in 1831, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1833. He was clerk of the county and circuit courts successively from 1841 till 1855, and a member in 1850-'1 of the Virginia constitutional convention. Mr. Willey was a delegate to the State convention that met at Richmond in February, 1861, and after the adoption of the ordinance of secession was elected by the Unionist legislature at Wheeling to occupy the seat in the U. S. senate that was vacated by James M. Mason, taking his seat on 13 July, 1861. He attended the convention that decided to create a new state, was chosen to represent West Virginia in the senate, and took his seat on 3 Dec., 1863. In the following year he was re-elected for the full term that ended on 3 March, 1871, and served as chairman of the committees on patents and on claims. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention at Philadelphia, and in 1871 he was a member of the Constitutional convention of West Virginia. He has written for reviews and delivered lectures on various subjects, including a series on “Methodism” in 1853. Allegheny college gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1863. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 519.

 

 

WILLIAM, Julia, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

WILLIAMS, Anthony D., Vice Agent of the American Colonization Society, traveling in Boston, New York and Philadelphia.  Publicly debated the merits of the Society and its goals.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 211, 213)

 

 

WILLIAMS, Austin F., Farmington, Connecticut, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1848-51.

 

 

WILLIAMS, Caroline, African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)

 

 

WILLIAMS, Chauncey P., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WILLIAMS, Henry W., Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Recording Secretary, 1842-47.

 

 

WILLIAMS, Herbert, LaPorte County, Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40, Vice-President, 1840-44.

 

 

WILLIAMS, John S., , Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Auditor, 1835-36

 

 

WILLIAMS, Julia, 1811-1870, Charleston, South Carolina, abolitionist, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts.  Married to prominent leader of the abolitionist movement, Henry Highland Garnett.  Worked for freedman in Washington, DC, after the Civil War.  (Gold, 1993; Yellin, 1994, p. 61)

 

 

WILLIAMS, Peter, Jr., 1780-1840, New York City, African American, clergyman, author, abolitionist, political leader.  Early in his career, he favored Black colonization.  Co-founder of first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal in 1827.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Manager, 1833-1836, and Member of the Executive Committee, 1834-1835, of the AASS. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 155; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 12, p. 160)

 

 

WILLIAMS, Ransom, New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1844-1849.

 

 

WILLIAMS, Samuel, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WILLIAMS, Thomas, 1779-1876, Hartford, Connecticut, Providence, Rhode Island, clergyman, abolitionist. Manager, 1833-1834, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Member of the Executive Committee of the American Colonization Society, 1840-1841.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 180; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 533; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

WILLIAMS, Thomas, clergyman, b. in Pomfret, Conn., 5 Nov., 1779; d. in Providence, R. I., 29 Sept., 1876. He studied for two years at Williams, then entered Yale, was graduated in 1800, and tanght at Beverly, Mass., and Woodstock and Norwich, Conn., till 1803, when he opened a school for colored pupils in Boston, Mass. He was there licensed in order to act as chaplain of the almshouse, was sent to New York state as a missionary in the same year, and repeated his tour in 1804 and 1805, after being ordained as an evangelist on 16 May, 1804. From 1807 till his death, except while officiating as pastor at Foxborough, Mass., in 1816-'21, at Attleborough in 1823-'7, at Hebronville in 1827-'30, and at Barrington, R. I., in 1835, he resided mainly at Providence, and, while holding no charge, preached to colored people and others through the state of Rhode Island. He drafted the articles of faith and the rules of the Rhode Island evangelical consociation, and was its first scribe. Of his many printed sermons, some of which were signed by the pen-name “Demens Egomet,” one was called “An Explicit Avowal of Nothingarianism,” another had the title “Jehovah, or Uni-trini-tarianism,” and others commemorated the first settlement of Rhode Island and the revival of religion in 1740. Several volumes of collected sermons were issued at various times. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 533.

 

 

WILLIAMS, Thomas, 1806-1872, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  Served as Congressman from December 1863 through 1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 533; Congressional Globe)

 

WILLIAMS, Thomas, lawyer, b. in Greensburgh, Westmoreland co., Pa., 28 Aug., 1806. He was graduated at Dickinson college in 1825, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1828, and entered into practice at Pittsburg. He served in the state senate from 1838 till 1841. In 1861 he entered the state house of representatives, and after serving two years was elected to congress as a Republican, taking his seat on 7 Dec., 1863. He was twice re-elected, was a member of the committee on the judiciary during his entire period of service, and in March, 1868, acted as one of the managers of the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 533.

 

 

WILLIAMSON, Passmore, 1822-1895, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, businessman and abolitionist.  Secretary of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and Vigilance Committee.  Aided escaped slaves Jane Johnson and her two sons in 1855.  He was subsequently jailed for his actions.  (Still, 1872)

 

 

WILLISTON, John P., Northampton, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-1844.

 

 

WILLISTON, Samuel W., E. Hampton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-40

 

 

WILLSON, Joseph, 1817-1895, African American, author, printer, dentist, anti-slavery activist.  Member, Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 197)

 

 

WILMER, William Holland, Reverend, 1782-1827, Alexandria, Virginia, Episcopal clergyman, college president.  Charter member, co-founder and supporter of the American Colonization Society.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 543; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 315; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 28, 48, 87, 137)

 

WILMER, William Holland, clergyman, b. in Kent county, Md., 29 Oct., 1782; d. in Williamsburg, Va., 24 July, 1827. His ancestors were early settlers of Maryland, and his uncle, James J. Wilmer, a clergyman of the Episcopal church, was secretary of the first meeting of the clergy of the United States in 1783. On his motion the “Church of England in the colonies” adopted the name of the Protestant Episcopal church. William was educated at Washington college in Kent county, and was for some time occupied in mercantile pursuits. He was admitted to orders in 1808 by Bishop Claggett, and was rector of Chester parish, Md., in 1808-'12, and of St. Paul's, Alexandria, Va., in 1812-'22. He was elected rector of St. John's, Washington city, in 1816, but declined. In 1819 he began the publication of the “Washington Theological Repertory,” and he continued in connection with it until 1826. During his pastorate in Alexandria he built the present St. Paul’s church, was an originator of the Education society of the District of Columbia, and its president for several years, aiding in preparing for orders the first graduates of the Virginia Protestant Episcopal seminary, of which he was a founder. When it was removed from Fairfax Court-House to Alexandria in 1823, he was appointed professor of systematic theology, ecclesiastical history, and church polity, and he was chosen assistant rector of the Monumental church, Richmond, Va., in 1826, but declined. The same year he became president of William and Mary college, and rector of the church in Williamsburg, which posts he held till his death. Dr. Wilmer was very active and efficient in trying to resuscitate the Episcopal church in Virginia, and used his pen freely and effectually. He was a delegate to general conventions in 1821-'6, and president of the house of clerical and lay deputies. He received the degree of D. D. from Brown in 1820. He published numerous sermons on special occasions (1813-'20); many able articles in the “Theological Repertory” (1819-'26); “Episcopal Manual” (1815); and “Controversy with Baxter, a Jesuit Priest” (1818). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WILMOT, David, 1814-1868, lawyer, jurist, anti-slavery activist, U.S. Congressman, Pennsylvania.  He was an early founder of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania.  Introduced Wilmot Proviso into Congress to exclude slavery in territories acquired from Mexico in 1846-1849.  The Proviso stated:  “Provided, That, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.”  Congressman Wilmot’s writings suggest that one of his motives was to protect White laborers in the new territory.  In a New York speech, Wilmot talked of the end of slavery when he stated, “Keep it within its given limits… and in time it will wear itself out.  Its existence can only be perpetrated by constant expansion…  Slavery has within itself the seeds of its own destruction.”  In 1856, Wilmot attended the Republican national convention and supported John C. Frémont as its presidential candidate.  He was appointed by the Pennsylvania state legislature to serve in the U.S. Senate from 1861-1863. (Blue, 2005, pp. 10, 13, 52, 105, 184-212, 265; Dumond, 1961, pp. 359-360; Going, 1966; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 32-33, 47-48, 60, 92, 98, 146, 147, 255n; Morrison, 1967; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 49, 133, 252, 261, 397, 476, 513, 517-518; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 544; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 317; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 23, p. 553)

 

WILMOT, David, jurist, b. in Bethany, Pa., 20 Jan., 1814; d. in Towanda, Pa., 16 March, 1868. He received an academical education at Bethany and at Aurora, N. Y., was admitted to the bar at Wilkesbarre, Pa., in 1834, and soon began practice at Towanda, where he afterward resided. His support of Martin Van Buren in the presidential canvass of 1836 brought him into public notice, and he was subsequently sent to congress as a Democrat, serving from 1 Dec., 1845, to 3 March, 1851. During the session of 1846, while a bill was pending to appropriate $2,000,000 for the purchase of a part of Mexico, he moved an amendment “that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory.” This, which became known as the “Wilmot proviso,” passed the house, but was rejected by the senate, and gave rise to the free-soil movement. Mr. Wilmot was president-judge of the 13th district of Pennsylvania in 1853-'61, a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1856, and 1860, acting as temporary chairman of the latter, was defeated as the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in 1857, and elected to the U. S. senate as a Republican, in place of Simon Cameron, who resigned to become secretary of war in President Lincoln's cabinet, serving from 18 March, 1861, to 3 March, 1863. In that body he was a member of the committees on pensions, claims, and foreign affairs. He was appointed by President Lincoln judge of the U. S. court of claims in 1863, and died in office. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 544.

 

 

WILSMARTH, Lucinda, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1844.

 

 

WILSON, David, Illinois, Richmond, Indiana, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-42, 1842-46.

 

 

WILSON, Harriet E., free African American woman, wrote Our Nig or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, a novel and exposé on racism and exploitation of African Americans in the North (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 62)

 

 

WILSON, Henry, 1812-1875, abolitionist leader, statesman, U.S. Senator and Vice President of the U.S.  Massachusetts state senator.  Member, Free Soil Party.  Founder of the Republican Party.  Strong opponent of slavery.  Became abolitionist in 1830s.  Opposed annexation of Texas as a slave state.  Bought and edited Boston Republican newspaper, which represented the anti-slavery Free Soil Party.  Called for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1815.  Introduced bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and the granting of freedom to slaves who joined the Union Army.  Supported full political and civil rights to emancipated slaves.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 548-550; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 322; Congressional Globe)

 

WILSON, Henry, statesman, b. in Farmington, N. H., 16 Feb., 1812; d. in Washington, D. C., 22 Nov., 1875. He was the son of a farm-laborer, whose ancestors were from the north of Ireland, and at the age of ten was apprenticed to a farmer till the age of twenty-one. During those eleven years of service he received not more than twelve months' schooling altogether, but read more than a thousand volumes. When his apprenticeship terminated in December, 1833, he set out from Farmington on foot in search of work, which he found at Natick, Mass., in the house of a shoemaker. On attaining his majority he had his name, which was originally Jeremiah Jones Colbaith, changed by legislative enactment to the simpler one of Henry Wilson. He learned the trade of his employer and followed it for two years, earning enough money to return to New Hampshire and study in the academies at Stafford, Wolfborough, and Concord. At the same time he made his appearance in public life as an ardent Abolitionist during the attempts that were made in 1835 to stop the discussion of the slavery question by violent means. The person to whom he had intrusted his savings became insolvent, and in 1838, after a visit to Washington, where his repugnance to slavery was intensified by the observation of its conditions, he was compelled to relinquish his studios and resume shoemaking at Natick. In 1840 he appeared in the political canvass as a supporter of William Henry Harrison, addressing more than sixty Whig meetings, in which he was introduced as the “Natick cobbler.” In that year and the next he was elected to the Massachusetts house of representitives, and then after a year's intermission served three annual terms in the state senate.

He was active in organizing in 1845 a convention in Massachusetts to oppose the admission of Texas into the Union as a slave state, and was made, with John Greenleaf Whittier, the bearer of a petition to congress against the proposed annexation, which was signed by many thousands of Massachusetts people. In the following year he presented in the legislature a resolution condemnatory of slavery, supporting it with a comprehensive and vigorous speech. In 1848 he went as a delegate to the Whig national convention in Philadelphia, and on the rejection of anti-slavery resolutions spoke in protest and withdrew. On his return he defended his action before his constituents, and soon afterward bought the Boston “Republican” newspaper, which he edited for two years, making it the leading organ of the Free-soil party. He was chairman of the Free-soil state committee in 1849-'52. In 1850 he returned to the state senate, and in the two following years he was elected president of that body. He presided over the Free-soil national convention at Pittsburg in 1852, and in the ensuing canvass acted as chairman of the national committee of the party. As chairman of the state committee he had arranged a coalition with the Democrats by which George S. Boutwell was elected governor in 1851 and Charles Sumner and Robert Rantoul were sent to the U. S. senate. He was a candidate for congress in 1852, and failed of election by only ninety-three votes, although in his district the majority against the Free-soilers was more than 7,500. In 1853 he was a member of the State constitutional convention and proposed a provision to admit colored men into the militia organization. In the same year he was defeated as the Free-soil candidate for governor. He acted with the American party in 1855, with the aid of which he was chosen to succeed Edward Everett in the U. S. senate. He was a delegate to the American national convention in Philadelphia in that year, but, when it adopted a platform that countenanced slavery, he and other Abolitionists withdrew. He had delivered a speech in advocacy of the repeal of the fugitive-slave law and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia shortly after taking his seat in the senate in February, 1855. On the disruption of the American organization through the secession of himself and his friends, he took an active part in the formation of the Republican party, with the programme of opposition to the extension of slavery. On 23 May, 1856, the morning after his colleague in the senate, Charles Sumner, was assaulted by Preston S. Brooks, Mr. Wilson denounced the act as “brutal, murderous, and cowardly.” For this language he was challenged to a duel by Brooks; but he declined on the ground that the practice of duelling was barbarous and unlawful, at the same time announcing that he believed in the right of self-defence.

During the next four years he took part in all the important debates in the senate, delivering elaborate speeches on the admission of Kansas, the treasury-note bill, the expenditures of the government, the Pacific railroad project, and many other topics. His speeches bore the impress of practical, clear-sighted statesman ship, and if the grace of oratory and polished diction was wanting, they always commanded attention and respect. The congressional records during his long term of service in the senate show that he was one of the most industrious and efficient members of that body, and that his name stands connected with nearly all the important acts and resolves. Strong in his convictions, he was fearless in their expression, but he was scrupulously careful in his statements, and the facts he adduced were never successfully disputed. In March, 1859, he made a notable reply to James H. Hammond, of South Carolina, in defence of free labor, which was printed and widely circulated through the northern states. He had been continued in the senate for a full term by an almost unanimous vote of the Massachusetts legislature in the preceding January. In March, 1861, he was made chairman of the committee on military affairs, of which he had been a member during the preceding four years. He induced congress to authorize the enlistment of 500,000 volunteers at the beginning of hostilities between the states, and during the entire period of the war he remained at the head of the committee, and devised and carried measures of the first importance in regard to the organization of the army and the raising and equipment of troops, as well as attending to the many details that came before the committee. He had been connected with the state militia as major, colonel, and brigadier-general from 1840 till 1851, and in 1861 he raised the 22d regiment of Massachusetts volunteers, and marched to the field as its colonel, serving there as an aide to Gen. George B. McClellan till the reassembling of congress.

During the session of 1861-'2 he introduced the laws that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, put an end to the “black code,” allowed the enrolment of blacks in the militia, and granted freedom to slaves who entered the service of the United States and to their families. During the civil war he made many patriotic speeches before popular assemblages. He took a prominent part in the legislation for the reduction of the army after the war and for the reconstruction of the southern state governments, advocating the policy of granting full political and civil rights to the emancipated slaves, joined with measures of conciliation toward the people who had lately borne arms against the United States government. He was continued as senator for the term that ended in March, 1871, and near its close was re-elected for six years more. He was nominated for the office of vice-president of the United States in June, 1872, on the ticket with Ulysses S. Grant, and was elected in the following November, receiving 286 out of 354 electoral votes. On 3 March, 1873, he resigned his place on the floor of the senate, of which he had been a member for eighteen years, in order to enter on his functions as president of that body. The same year he was stricken with paralysis, and continued infirm till his death, which was caused by apoplexy.

It is but just to say of Henry Wilson that with exceptional opportunities which a less honest statesman might have found for enriching himself at the government's expense, or of taking advantage of his knowledge of public affairs and the tendency of legislation upon matters of finance and business, he died at his post of duty, as he had lived, rich only in his integrity and self-respect. Among his many published speeches may be mentioned “Personalities and Aggressions of Mr. Butler” (1856); “Defence of the Republican Party” (1856); “Are Workingmen Slaves?” (1858); “The Pacific Railroad” (1859); and “The Death of Slavery is the Life of the Nation” (1864). He was the author of a volume entitled “History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United States Congresses,” in which he relates the progress of the bills relating to slavery and cites the speeches of their friends and opponents (Boston, 1865); of a history of legislation on the army during the civil war, with the title of “Military Measures of the United States Congress” (1866); of a small volume called “Testimonies of American Statesmen and Jurists to the Truths of Christianity,” being an address that he gave before the Young men's Christian association at Natick (1867); of a “History of the Reconstruction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865-'8” (1868); of a series of articles on Edwin M. Stanton that were reprinted from a magazine, with those of Jeremiah S. Black, with the title of “A Contribution to History” (Easton, Pa., 1868); of a published oration on “The Republican and Democratic Parties” (Boston, 1868); and of a great work bearing the title of “History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,” on which he labored indefatigably during his last illness, yet was not quite able to complete (3 vols., Boston , 1872-'5). See his “Life and Public Services,” which was written by his friend, Thomas Russell, and Rev. Elias Nason, who was his pastor for many years (1872). Congress directed to be printed a volume of “Obituary Addresses,” that were delivered in both houses, on 21 Jan., 1876 (Washington, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 548-550.

 

 

WILSON, Hiram V., 1803-1864, Ackworth, New Hampsire, abolitionist, cleric, agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Ohio.  Helped set up schools and aid Blacks who escaped to Canada.  Founded British-American Manual Labor Institute of the Colored Settlements of Upper Canada.  Delagate to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1843.  (Blue, 2005, pp. 80, 82-85; Dumond, 1961, p. 164; Henson, 1858, pp. 167-171; Siebert, 1898, p. 199; Woodson, 1915, p. 25; The Emancipator, February 22, 1837)

 

 

WILSON, J. R., Coldenham, New Jersey, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1834-1835.

 

 

WILSON, James, , Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36

 

 

WILSON, James F., b. 1838, lawyer.  Ohio State Senator.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio.  Elected to Congress in 1861.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 552; Congressional Globe)

 

WILSON, James F., senator, b. in Newark, Ohio, 19 Oct., 1828. He received a classical education, studied law, and in 1853 began practice in Iowa, making Fairfield his residence. He was a member of the State constitutional convention in 1856, and in the following year entered the legislature. He passed into the state senate in 1859, was chosen its president in 1861, and in the same year was elected to congress to fill the vacancy that was caused by the resignation of Samuel R. Curtis, taking his seat on 2 Dec. He was re-elected for the following term, serving as chairman of the judiciary committee, and on his second and third re-election was placed at the head of the same committee, and of that on unfinished business. In 1868 he was one of the managers of the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. In 1869 he was made a commissioner for the Pacific railroad. He was elected a senator from Iowa for the term that will expire on 4 March, 1889, and was appointed on the committee on foreign affairs. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 552.

 

 

WILSON, James, 1742-1798, founding father, signer of the Declaration of Independence, opponent of slavery, member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Ratifying Convention (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. XI, p. 550; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 326; Dumond, 1961, pp. 37, 40, 43; Locke, 1901, p. 93; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 23, p. 586)

 

WILSON, James, signer of the Declaration Independence, b. near St. Andrew's, Scotland, Sept., 1742; d. in Edenton, N. C., 28 Aug., 1798. After receiving a university education at St. Andrew's, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, he emigrated to this country about 1763, remained for some time in New York city, and in 1766 went to Philadelphia, Pa., where he was for several months tutor in Latin at the City college, which was afterward merged in the University of Pennsylvania. “He left this employment to study law with John Dickinson, was admitted to the bar in 1767, began practice in Reading, but soon removed to Carlisle, and was established in his profession before the Revolution, having made his reputation by an argument in an important land case against the proprietors of Pennsylvania. He espoused the popular cause from the beginning of the difficulties with the British government, contributing many essays to the controversy. He was a member of the Provincial meeting of deputies of 15 July, 1774, and a delegate to the Provincial convention of 23 Jan., 1775. When three representatives were added to the Pennsylvania delegation on 6 May, 1775, he was selected with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Willing, and was present at the opening of congress on 10 May. He was successively re-elected on 3 Nov., 1775, 20 July, 1776, and 10 March, 1777, but was superseded at the election of 14 Sept., 1777, because he had hesitated to declare for independence while there remained a prospect of obtaining justice from parliament. He had resisted separation on 8 June, 1776, after the legislature of Pennsylvania had withdrawn its restrictions on the votes of its representatives; yet on 1 July he and John Morton were the first of the Pennsylvania delegates to vote for independence, and they were the only ones, except Benjamin Franklin, who voted for the adoption of the declaration on 4 July. He took an important part in the discussion of military and commercial questions, and opposed the views of the southern delegates on questions of slavery and taxation, believing it to be the duty of congress to discourage slave-holding. In July, 1775, when the Indians were divided into three departments, he was appointed by congress commissioner and superintendent of Indian affairs for the middle department. He was a member of committees to consider the state of the colonies and measures for their defence, to supply the treasury, to investigate the condition of the army, to suppress internal enemies, to re-enforce Washington's army, and to strengthen the American cause in Canada; was one of the authors of an appeal to the assembly of Jamaica, a letter to the people of Canada, and an address to the United colonies, and served on the standing committees for Indian affairs and for hearing appeals on libels from the decisions of the state admiralty courts, as well as on the first board of war. When hostilities began, Wilson was chosen colonel of a battalion of militia that was raised in Cumberland county, with which he took part in the New Jersey campaign of 1776, but afterward he took no part in active operations, owing to his civil appointments. When party spirit caused his removal from the Pennsylvania delegation in congress, he went to Annapolis, Md., and practised there for a year, at the end of which he settled permanently in Philadelphia. On 5 June, 1779, he was appointed advocate-general for the French government in the United States, the appointment being confirmed by letters-patent from the king on 18 Feb., 1781. On 31 Dec., 1781, he was appointed by congress a director of the Bank of North America. He made himself obnoxious to the democracy by denying the right of the town council to regulate the price of food, opposing the more liberal provisions of the constitution, and acting as counsel for Tories who were prosecuted for treason, and when he and other citizens of conservative views were threatened, they gathered in his house, where, on 4 Oct., 1779, they were attacked by the mob and militia, and, after many shots were exchanged, were rescued by the city troop. There was loss of life on both sides, and the feeling against Wilson was such that he absented himself from the city for a time. On 23 May, 1782, he was appointed a brigadier-general of militia. He acted as counsel for Pennsylvania before the court of arbitration that in November, 1782, decided against the claims of Connecticut to the lands of the Wyoming settlement. On 12 Nov. of that year he was re-elected to congress, taking his seat on 2 Jan., 1783. He proposed the plan of general taxation which was adopted on 12 Feb., 1783. He was not a member of congress in 1784, but was returned in 1785, and continued by re-election till the adoption of the present constitution. He was a member of the Federal convention, and in its debates supported direct popular suffrage and a single executive. He exercised much influence in determining the character of the constitution, and was appointed on the committee of detail. He explained and defended the constitution, as finally framed, in the Pennsylvania convention for its ratification. Having been the chief of the Republican party in Pennsylvania, which approved a firmer government than the Federation, and was bitterly opposed by the Constitutional party, Mr. Wilson now became a leader of the Federalists. In the convention of 1789-'90 for framing a new state constitution he successfully advocated the plan of the direct election of state senators. He was appointed on the serving there as an aide to Gen. George B. McClellan till the reassembling of congress.

During the session of 1861-'2 he introduced the laws that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, put an end to the “black code,” allowed the enrolment of blacks in the militia, and granted freedom to slaves who entered the service of the United States and to their families. During the civil war he made many patriotic speeches before popular assemblages. He took a prominent part in the legislation for the reduction of the army after the war and for the reconstruction of the southern state governments, advocating the policy of granting full political and civil rights to the emancipated slaves, joined with measures of conciliation toward the people who had lately borne arms against the United States government. He was continued as senator for the term that ended in March, 1871, and near its close was re-elected for six years more. He was nominated for the office of vice-president of the United States in June, 1872, on the ticket with Ulysses S. Grant, and was elected in the following November, receiving 286 out of 354 electoral votes. On 3 March, 1873, he resigned his place on the floor of the senate, of which he had been a member for eighteen years, in order to enter on his functions as president of that body. The same year he was stricken with paralysis, and continued infirm till his death, which was caused by apoplexy.

It is but just to say of Henry Wilson that with exceptional opportunities which a less honest statesman might have found for enriching himself at the government's expense, or of taking advantage of his knowledge of public affairs and the tendency of legislation upon matters of finance and business, he died at his post of duty, as he had lived, rich only in his integrity and self-respect. Among his many published speeches may be mentioned “Personalities and Aggressions of Mr. Butler” (1856); “Defence of the Republican Party” (1856); “Are Workingmen Slaves?” (1858); “The Pacific Railroad” (1859); and “The Death of Slavery is the Life of the Nation” (1864). He was the author of a volume entitled “History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United States Congresses,” in which he relates the progress of the bills relating to slavery and cites the speeches of their friends and opponents (Boston, 1865); of a history of legislation on the army during the civil war, with the title of “Military Measures of the United States Congress” (1866); of a small volume called “Testimonies of American Statesmen and Jurists to the Truths of Christianity,” being an address that he gave before the Young men's Christian association at Natick (1867); of a “History of the Reconstruction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865-'8” (1868); of a series of articles on Edwin M. Stanton that were reprinted from a magazine, with those of Jeremiah S. Black, with the title of “A Contribution to History” (Easton, Pa., 1868); of a published oration on “The Republican and Democratic Parties” (Boston, 1868); and of a great work bearing the title of “History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,” on which he labored indefatigably during his last illness, yet was not quite able to complete (3 vols., Boston , 1872-'5). See his “Life and Public Services,” which was written by his friend, Thomas Russell, and Rev. Elias Nason, who was his pastor for many years (1872). Congress directed to be printed a volume of “Obituary Addresses,” that were delivered in both houses, on 21 Jan., 1876 (Washington, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 550.  

 

 

WILSON, James, Keene, New Hampshire, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)

 

 

WILSON, John I., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WILSON, John Leighton, 1809-1886, Sumter County, South Carolina clergyman, missionary, anti-slavery activist.  Wrote influential pamphlet that caused the British government to keep its naval squadron off the African coast in order to suppress the illegal African slave trade.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 554-555; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 337)

 

WILSON, John Leighton, missionary, b. in Sumter county, S. C., 25 March, 1809; d. near Mayesville, S. C., 13 July, 1886. He was graduated at Union college in 1829, and at the Columbia (S. C.) theological seminary in 1833, being a member of the first class that was educated in that institution. He was ordained as a missionary the same year, and, after studying Arabic at Andover seminary, sailed in November on a voyage of exploration to western Africa, returning in the following spring. As a result of his investigations, he decided that Cape Palmas was a promising field for missionary work. In May, 1834, he was married, and returned with his wife to Africa before the close of that year. Here they labored until 1841, during which period they organized a church of forty members, educated more than one hundred native youth, and reduced the Grebo language to writing, publishing a grammar and dictionary, and translating the gospels of Matthew and John, together with several small volumes, into the native tongue. In 1842 Mr. and Mrs. Wilson removed to the Gaboon river, 1,200 miles southeast of Cape Palmas, and began a new mission among the Mpongwe people. Here again the language was reduced to writing for the first time, and a grammar, a vocabulary, parts of the Bible, and several small volumes were published. In the spring of 1853, owing to failing health, he and his wife returned to the United States. The following autumn he became secretary of the board of foreign missions of the Presbyterian church, and continued to discharge his duties until the beginning of the civil war, when he returned to his home in the south. On the organization of the Southern Presbyterian church, Dr. Wilson was appointed secretary of foreign missions, and continued to act as such until 1885, when he was made secretary emeritus. For seven years during this period the home mission work was combined with that of foreign missions, he taking charge of both. In 1852 a strong effort was made in the British parliament to withdraw the British squadron from the African coast, under the impression that the foreign slave-trade could not be suppressed. To prove that this view was erroneous, Dr. Wilson wrote a pamphlet, and pointed out what was necessary to make the crusade against the traffic successful. The pamphlet, falling into the hands of Lord Palmerston, was republished in the “United Service Journal,” and also in the parliamentary “Blue Book,” an edition of 10,000 copies being circulated throughout the United Kingdom. Lord Palmerston subsequently informed Dr. Wilson that his protest had silenced all opposition to the squadron's remaining on the coast, and in less than five years the trade itself was brought to an end. Dr. Wilson edited “The Foreign Record” (New York, 1853-'61), which gave an account of the progress of work in the foreign missionary field, and “The Missionary” (Baltimore, 1861-'85). He received the degree of D. D. from Lafayette college in 1854. While in Africa he sent to the Boston society of natural history the first specimen of the gorilla that was sent from there. He contributed to the “Southern Presbyterian Review” and other periodicals. He also published “Western Africa: its History, Condition, and Prospects” (New York, 1857). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WILSON, William Joseph, 1818?-1878, African American, abolitionist leader, educator, Black voting rights activist, labor leader.  Correspondent for Frederick Douglass’ Paper. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 12, p. 237)

 

 

WILTENBERGER, Christian, agent of the American Colonization society.  Went to Africa on the Society’s second expedition to Africa.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 62)

 

 

WIMPLE, Peter C., New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

WINANS, William, 1788-1857, Mississippi, clergyman.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1838-1841.  Influential Episcopal churchman.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 559; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 373; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

 

WINANS, William, clergyman, b. in Pennsylvania, 3 Nov., 1788; d. in Amite county, Miss., 31 Aug., 1857. He entered the Western conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1808, went to Mississippi as a missionary in 1812, was a pioneer of his church in that state and Louisiana, and took a conspicuous part in the organization of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. He exerted a wide influence in his denomination, and took part in the discussion of political questions. He published “Discourses on Fundamental Religious Subjects,” edited by the Rev. Thomas O. Summers, D. D. (Nashville). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WINCHESTER, James, planter, Speaker of the Maryland State Senate, abolitionist, member and delegate of the Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage, founded 1789.  (Basker, 2005, p. 224; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 560-561)

 

 

WINDER, William Henry, 1775-1824, Baltimore, Maryland, lawyer, soldier, general.  Founding officer of the Baltimore auxiliary of the American Colonization Society, 1816.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 382; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 39)

 

 

WINDOM, William, 1827-1891, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Served in U.S. Congress 1859-1869, U.S. Senate, 1870-1877.  (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 562; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 383; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 23, p. 631; Congressional Globe)

 

 

WING, Asa, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)

 

 

WING, Conway Phelps, 1809-1828, Marietta, Ohio, clergyman, anti-slavery activist.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 563-564)

 

WING, Conway, Phelps, clergyman, b. near Marietta, Ohio, 12 Feb., 1809. He was graduated at Hamilton college in 1828 and at Auburn theological seminary in 1831, and was ordained and installed pastor of the church at Sodus, Wayne co., N. Y., by the presbytery of Geneva in 1832, remaining there till 1836. He was afterward pastor at Ogden, N. Y., at Monroe, Mich., where he is now pastor emeritus, at Huntsville, Ala., and at Carlisle, Pa. Mr. Wing took an active part in the revivals of 1832-'5, and in the anti-slavery agitation in western New York, and was zealous in his opposition to slavery in Tennessee and Alabama. He received the degree of D. D. from Dickinson college in 1857. He was an adherent to the new-school branch of the Presbyterian church, but an earnest supporter of the reunion in 1869 and 1870, and was a member of the joint committee of reconstruction for the church in the latter year. He has translated from the German “A History of the Christian Church,” by Dr. Charles Hase, with Dr. Charles E. Blumenthal (New York, 1856); and published “History of the Presbyteries of Donegal and Carlisle” (Carlisle, 1876); “History of the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle” (1877); “History of Cumberland County, Pa.” (1879); and “Historical and Genealogical Register of the Descendants of John Wing, of Sandwich” (New York, 1885; 2d ed., 1888).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WINSLOW, Emily A., abolitionist.  Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, (Garrisonian) Anti-Slavery Society (Dumont, 1961, p. 286; Yellin, 1994, pp. 73, 301-302, 316, 332-333)

 

 

WINSLOW, Isaac, Danvers, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-1840.  Father of Emily Winslow, also a prominent abolitionist.  Attended World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.

 

 

WINSLOW, Nathan, Portland, Maine, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-40, 1840-44, Vice-President, 1844-1845.

 

 

WISE, Daniel, 1813-1898, clergyman, educator, abolitionist, newspaper editor.  Lectured in the cause of abolition of slavery.  Appointed editor of Zion’s Herald, he advocated anti-slavery.   (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 579; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 422)

 

WISE, Daniel, clergyman, b. in Portsmouth, England, 10 Jan., 1813. He was educated at Portsmouth grammar-school, came to the United States in 1833, and, entering the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, was pastor of various churches in 1837-'52, and then editor of “Zion's Herald” in Boston till 1856. From that time till 1872 he was editor of the Sunday-school publications of his denomination, and from 1860 till 1872 he was also editor of the tract publications. Since 1872 he has been engaged chiefly in literary work. Wesleyan university gave him the degree of D. D. in 1859. Dr. Wise published and edited in 1838-'44 the first Methodist Sunday-school paper in this country. Among his many works, which are chiefly for youth, are “Life of Lorenzo Dow” (Lowell, Mass., 1840); “History of London” (1841); “Personal Effort” (Boston, 1841); “The Cottage on the Moor” (New York, 1845); “The McGregor Family” (1845); “Lovest Thou Me?” (Boston, 1846); “Guide to the Saviour” (New York, 1847); “Bridal Greetings” (1850); “Life of Ulric Zwingle” (1850); “Aunt Effie” (1852); “My Uncle Toby's Library” (12 vols., Boston, 1853); “Popular Objections to Methodism Considered and Answered” (1856); “The Squire of Walton Hall: a Life of Waterton, the Naturalist” (1874); “The Story of a Wonderful Life: Pen Pictures from the Life of John Wesley” (Cincinnati, 1874); “Vanquished Victors” (Cincinnati, 1876); “Lights and Shadows of Human Life” (New York, 1878); “Heroic Methodists” (1882); “Sketches and Anecdotes of American Methodists” (1883); “Our Missionary Heroes and Heroines” (1884); “Boy Travellers in Arabia” (1885); “Men of Renown” (Cincinnati, 1886); and “Some Remarkable Women” (1887). He has used the pen-names of “Francis Forrester, Esq.,” and “Lawrence Lancewood.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI.

 

 

WISTAR, Dr. Caspar, 1761-1818, physician, educator, president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (Locke, 1901, p. 93; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 433; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 23, p. 700)

 

 

WISTAR, John, 1759-1815, New Jersey, abolitionist, Society of Friends, member and delegate of the New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, founded New Jersey, 1793.  (Basker, 2005, pp. 223, 239n8)

 

 

WITTSON, Thomas, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist

 

 

WOOD, Amos, Concord, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1845-1853.

 

 

WOOD, Horatio G., Middleboro, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1842-1847.

 

 

WOOD, Samuel Newitt, 1825-1891, New York, newspaper publisher, lawyer, politician, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  His home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  Active in the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Served as an officer in the Union Army, attaining the rank of Brigadier General in 1864.  (Drake, 1950, p. 125; Moon, William Prairie Earth, 1998)

 

 

WOODBRIDGE, Frederick Enoch, 1819-1888, lawyer.  Vermont State Senator.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Served in U.S. Congress December 1863 to March 1869. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 600; Congressional Globe)

 

WOODBRIDGE, Frederick Enoch, lawyer, b. in Vergennes, Vt., 29 Aug., 1819; d. there, 26 April, 1888, after graduation at the University of Vermont in 1840, studied law under his father, Enoch D. Woodbridge, was admitted to the bar in 1842, and practised in his native town. He was long a member of the legislature, state auditor in 1850-'2, prosecuting attorney in 1854-'8, and many times mayor of his native city. In 1860-'2 he served in the state senate, of which he was president pro tempore in 1861. He was then elected to congress as a Republican, served from 7 Dec., 1863, till 3 March, 1869, and was a member of the committees on the judiciary and private land-claims, and chairman of that on the pay of officials of congress. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention of 1866. Mr. Woodbridge engaged in railroad enterprises, and for several years was vice-president and active manager of the Rutland and Washington railroad. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 600.

 

 

WOODHULL, Victoria Claflin, 1838-1827, reformer, activist, feminist, leader of the women’s rights and suffrage movement, opponent of slavery.  First woman to run for the Presidency in the United States.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 492)

 

 

WOODSIDE, John, founding charter member of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

WOODWARD, Solomon, Teunton, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-1841.

 

 

WOOLMAN, John, 1720-1772, Mount Holly, New Jersey, Society of Friends, Quaker leader, Free Labor Movement, radical abolitionist leader.  Encouraged merchants and consumers not to purchase goods made by slave labor.  Traveled extensively among Quakers, speaking out against slavery.  He wrote and published Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes: Recommended to the Professor of Christianity of Every Denominations, 1754.  In a letter to his fellow Quaker, Woolman said, “Now dear Friends if we continually bear in mind the royal law of doing to others as we would be done by, we shall never think of bereaving our fellow creatures of that valuable blessing, liberty, nor to grow rich by their bondage.”  (Bruns, 1977, pp. 16, 68-78, 223, 246-247, 383; Cady, 1965; Drake, 1950, pp. 51-64, 68-71, 107, 115, 155, 189, 200; Dumond, 1961, pp. 17-19, 22, 87; Locke, 1901, pp. 27-31, 34, 94; Pease, 1965, pp. 5-14; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 16, 18, 232, 433, 457-458, 519-520, 551-553; Soderlund, 1985, pp. 4, 9, 10, 13, 17, 26-27, 29, 30, 43, 44n, 45, 47, 49, 52, 78, 94, 96, 97, 136, 140, 166, 171, 175, 176, 186, 199; Sox, 1999; Woolman, 1922; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 70-72, 75, 77, 106, 169, 227; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 609-610; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 516; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 23, p. 854)

 

WOOLMAN, John, Quaker preacher, b. in Northampton, Burlington co., N. J., in August, 1720; d. in York, England, 7 Oct., 1772. He worked on a farm with his father till he was twenty- one years of age, when he became clerk to a storekeeper at Mount Holly, where he opened a school for poor children, and first began to speak at the meetings of the sect. Wishing to visit the various societies of Friends throughout the colonies, and to preach to them, he first learned the trade of a tailor, as best adapted for supporting him in the itinerant life that he had resolved to lead. In 1746 he set out on a tour, with Isaac Andrews, to visit the Friends in the back settlements of Virginia, and he spent a great part of his life in such journeys, for the purpose of preaching. He spoke and wrote much against slavery. In 1763 he visited the Indians on Susquehanna river. Early in 1772 he went to England, and, while attending the quarterly meeting at York, he was smitten with small-pox, and died, after a few days' illness. Woolman's writings have been much admired, and were highly praised by Charles Lamb. Perhaps the most interesting of his works is the posthumous “Journal of John Woolman's Life and Travels in the Service of the Gospel” (Philadelphia, 1775, edited, with an introduction, by John G. Whittier, 1871). Woolman also published “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes” (Philadelphia, 1753; 2d part, 1762); “Considerations on Pure Wisdom and Human Policy, on Labor, on Schools, and on the Right Use of the Lord's Outward Gifts” (1768); “Considerations on the True Harmony of Mankind, and How it is to be Maintained” (1770); and “An Epistle to the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings of Friends” (1772). His “Serious Considerations, with Some of his Dying Expressions,” appeared after his death (London, 1773). Various manuscripts that he left were included in an edition of his works (2 parts, Philadelphia, 1774-'5). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 609-610.

 

 

WORCESTER, Noah, Brighton, Massachusetts.  Founded a joint temperance and colonization society of the American Colonization Society.  Also and advocate for Free Blacks.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 131)

 

 

WORCESTER, Samuel M., Amherst, Massachusetts, professor, Amherst College.  Volunteered to be a local agent of the American Colonization Society.  Wrote pro-colonization articles for the Boston Recorder.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 132)

 

 

WORRELL, Edward, abolitionist.  Officer, Delaware Abolition Society, 1827.

 

 

WORK, Alanson, Missouri.  Convicted of aiding fugitive slaves in Missouri in 1841.  He received a 12-year sentence.  Faher of Henry Clay Work.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 614)

 

 

WORK, Henry Clay, 1832-1884, Middletown, Connecticut, composer, songwriter, abolitionist.  Active in the Underground Railroad.  Wrote Union songs, including “Marching Through Georgia.”  Son of abolitionist Alanson Work.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 614; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 531)

 

WORK, Henry Clay, song-writer, b. in Middletown, Conn., 1 Oct., 1832; d. in Hartford, Conn., 8 June, 1884. He was the son of Alanson Work, who was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment in 1841 in Missouri for assisting fugitive slaves to escape. While young the son removed with his father to Illinois, where he received a common-school education. He returned to Connecticut, was apprenticed to a printer, and employed his leisure in studying harmony. His first success was achieved during the civil war, when he sprang into favor by his war-songs, among which were “Kingdom Coming,” “Marching through Georgia,” and “Babylon is Fallen.” His songs number nearly one hundred, and include “Nicodemus the Slave,” “Lily Dale,” and “My Grandfather's Clock.” He went to Europe in 1865, and on his return invested the fortune that his songs had brought him in a fruit-raising enterprise in Vineland, N. J., which was a failure. In 1875 he became connected as composer with Root and Cady, the music-publishers, who had published Work's songs until the plates were destroyed by the Chicago fire of 1871. Mr. Work was also an inventor, and patented a knitting-machine, a walking doll, and a rotary engine.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

WORTH, Daniel, North Carolina, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1858-59

 

 

WORTH, Edmund, Fisherville, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-1840.

 

 

WORTHINGTON, Henry, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)

 

 

WORTHINGTON, W. G. D., founding charter member of the American Colonization Society, Washington, DC, December 1816.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 258n14)

 

 

WRIGHT, Chester, Reverend, clergyman.  Agent, American Colonization Society (ACS).  Secretary of the Vermont auxiliary of the ACS.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 27)

 

 

WRIGHT, Elizur Jr., 1804-1885, New York City, reformer, editor, abolitionist leader.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Leader, Liberty Party.  Editor of the Massachusetts Abolitionist, founded 1839.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 177, 179, 245, 301; Filler, 1960, pp. 61, 63, 74, 132, 135, 156, 193; Goodheart, 1990; Mabee, 1970, pp. 189, 190, 256, 322, 339, 364; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 6-8, 13-14, 16-17, 20, 44, 46, 67, 72; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 46, 521-522; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 621-622; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 548; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 24, p. 11)

 

WRIGHT, Elizur, reformer, b. in South Canaan, Conn., 12 Feb., 1804; d. in Medford, Mass., 21 Nov., 1885. His father, Elizur (1762-1845), was graduated at Yale in 1781, and became known for his mathematical learning and devotion to the Presbyterian faith. In 1810 the family removed to Tallmadge, Ohio, and the son worked on the farm and attended an academy that was conducted by his father. His home was often the refuge for fugitive slaves, and he early acquired anti-slavery opinions. He was graduated at Yale in 1826, and taught in Groton, Mass. In 1829-'33 he was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Western Reserve college, Hudson, Ohio. Mr. Wright attended the convention in Philadelphia in December, 1833, that formed the American anti-slavery society, of which he was chosen secretary, and, removing to New York, he took part in editing the “Emancipator.” He conducted the paper called “Human Rights” in 1834-'5, and the “Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine” in 1835-'8, and through his continued opposition to slavery incurred the enmity of its advocates. His house was once besieged by a mob, and an attempt was made to kidnap him and convey him to North Carolina. He removed to Boston in 1839, and became editor of the “Massachusetts Abolitionist.” For several years he was connected with the press, and in 1846 he established the “Chronotype,” a daily newspaper which he conducted until it was merged in the “Commonwealth” (1850), of which he was for a time the editor. Mr. Wright was twice indicted and tried for libel, in consequence of his severe strictures on the liquor interests while publishing the “Chronotype,” and again in 1851 for aiding the rescue in Boston of Shadrach, a runaway slave. Between 1853 and 1858, besides editing the “Railroad Times,” he gave his attention to invention and mechanics, constructing a spike-making machine, a water-faucet, and an improvement in pipe-coupling. He patented the last two, and manufactured them for a short time. In 1853 he published “Life Insurance Valuation Tables” (2d ed., revised and enlarged, 1871), and in 1858 he secured an act of the Massachusetts legislature to organize an insurance commission, on a basis that required the annual valuation of the policy liabilities of all life-insurance companies in the state. He was appointed insurance commissioner of Massachusetts under this act, which office he held until 1866. He obtained the passage of the Massachusetts non-forfeiture act of 1861, and also its substitute in 1880, which was embodied with some change in the insurance codification bill of 1887. He devised a new formula for finding the values of policies of various terms, now known as the “accumulation formula,” and, in order to facilitate his work, invented and afterward patented (1869) the arithmeter, a mechanical contrivance for multiplication and division, based on the logarithmic principle. Afterward he became consulting actuary for life-insurance companies. He was a delegate to the convention of 1840, which formed the Liberty party and nominated James G. Birney for the presidency, and edited “The Free American” in 1841. He was a promoter of the convention at Philadelphia on 4 July, 1876, which organized the National liberal league to support state secularization, and was the second president of the league, being twice re-elected. He was a member of the Forestry association, was instrumental in obtaining the Massachusetts forestry act of 1882, and labored for a permanent forest preserve. He wrote an introduction to Whittier's “Ballads, and other Poems” (London, 1844); and published a translation in verse of La Fontaine's “Fables” (2 vols., Boston, 1841; 2d ed., New York, 1859); “Savings Bank Life Insurance, with Illustrative Tables” (1872); “The Politics and Mysteries of Life Insurance” (1873); and “Myron Holley, and what he did for Liberty and True Religion,” a contribution to anti-slavery records (1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 621-622.

 

 

WRIGHT, Frances “Fanny”, 1795-1852, Dundee, Scotland, Utica, New York, reformer, author, orator, abolitionist.  First woman in America to actively oppose slavery.  Founded Nashoba Plantation to train free Blacks to be self-sufficient.  Manager, American Anti-Slaery Society (AASS), 1843-1845.  (Eckardt, 1984; Filler, 1960, pp. 26, 68, 113; Pease, 1965, pp. 38-43; Perkins, 1939; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 30, 110, 396-397, 522-523; Wright, 1972; Yellin, 1994, pp. 10n, 223-224; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 622; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 549; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 24, p. 14)

 

WRIGHT, Fanny, reformer, b. in Dundee, Scotland, 6 Sept., 1795; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 14 Dec., 1852. Her father was an intimate friend of Adam Smith, Dr. William Cullen, and other scientific and literary men. She became an orphan at an early age, was brought up as a ward in chancery by a maternal aunt, and early adopted the philosophy of the French materialists. She travelled in this country in 1818-'20, and was introduced by Joseph Rodman Drake in the first of the “Croaker” papers. On her return to England she published her “Views of Society and Manners in America” (London, 1821; Paris, 1822). On the invitation of Lafayette she went to Paris, and in 1825 she returned to this country. She purchased 2,400 acres in Tennessee, at Neshoba (now Memphis), and established there a colony of emancipated slaves, whose social condition she sought to elevate. Neshoba, which was held in trust for her by Gen. Lafayette, was restored by him when he discovered that her plans could not be carried out without conflicting with the laws of the state. The negroes in the colony were afterward sent to Hayti. In 1833-'6 she appeared as a public lecturer in the eastern states, where her attacks upon slavery and other social institutions attracted large audiences and led to the establishment of “Fanny Wright societies,” but her freedom of speech caused great opposition and the hostility of the press and the church. Fitz-Greene Halleck said her chief theme was “just knowledge,” which she pronounced “joost nolidge.” She then became associated with Robert Dale Owen in New Harmony, Ind., edited there “The Gazette,” and lectured in behalf of his colony, but with little success. In 1838 she visited France, and married there M. D'Arusmont, whose system of philosophy resembled her own, but she was soon separated from him, resumed her own name, and resided with her daughter in Cincinnati, Ohio, until her death. Her last years were spent in retirement. She was benevolent, unselfish, eccentric, and fearless. She published in London in 1817 “Altdorf,” a tragedy, founded on the tradition of William Tell and unsuccessfully played at the Park theatre; “A few Days in Athens, being a Translation of a Greek Manuscript discovered in Herculaneum” (London, 1822); and a “Course of Popular Lectures on Free Inquiry, Religion, Morals, Opinions, etc., delivered in the United States” (New York, 1829; 6th ed., 1836). See “Biography, Notes, and Political Letters of Fanny Wright D'Arusmont,” published by John Windt (London, 1844), and “Memoir of Fanny Wright, the Pioneer Woman in the Cause of Women's Rights,” by Amos Gilbert (Cincinnati, 1855). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 622. 

 

 

WRIGHT, Henry Clarke, 1797-1870, Boston, Massachusetts, reformer, orator, author, abolitionist leader.  Executive Committee, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1859-1864.  (Filler, 1960, pp. 55, 109, 115, 120, 129, 131, 133, 138, 263; Mabee, 1970, pp. 42, 43, 46, 47, 67-69, 71-75, 77, 80, 82, 94, 140, 195-197, 293, 296, 324, 329, 336, 345, 346, 359, 361, 367, 371; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 399; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 623; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 24, p. 28)

 

WRIGHT, Henry Clarke, reformer, b. in Sharon, Litchfield co., Conn., 29 Aug., 1797; d. in Pawtucket, R.I., 16 Aug., 1870. For many years he was a noted lecturer on anti-slavery topics, and was an advocate of peace, socialism, and spiritualism, on all of which subjects his convictions were vehement, and were delivered with eloquence. At one time he was conspicuous among the band of anti-slavery orators that assembled annually in New York at the anniversary of the American anti-slavery society, and by its earnestness enlisted the sympathy of the people. He was the author of “Man-Killing by Individuals and Nations Wrong” (Boston, 1841); “A Kiss for a Blow” (London, 1843; new ed., 1866); “Defensive War proved to be a Denial of Christianity” (1846); “Human Life Illustrated” (Boston, 1849); “Marriage and Parentage” (1854); and “The Living Present and the Dead Past” (1865). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 623.

 

 

WRIGHT, Luther, Woburn, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-38

 

 

WRIGHT, Martha Coffin, 1806-1875, Boston, Massachusetts, feminist, abolitionist, sister to women’s rights leader Lucretia Coffin Mott.  (Penney, 2004)

 

 

WRIGHT, Paulina, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, p. 73)

 

 

WRIGHT, Peter, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1840.

 

 

WRIGHT, Richard S., Schenectady, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1840.

 

 

WRIGHT, Robert, 1752-1826, Maryland, U. S. Congressman and Senator, Governor of Maryland.  Co-founder and charter member of the American Colonization Society.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 564; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 27)

 

 

WRIGHT, Silas, 1795-1847, statesman, Congressman, U.S. Senator, soldier, favored restriction and abolition of slavery.  Congressman from December 1827 through March 1829, U.S. Senator from 1833 to December 1844, Governor of New York State, 1844-1847. Opposed expansion of slavery into the new territories acquired from Mexico. (Filler, 1960, p. 90; Garraty, 1949, pp. 165-166, 406-407; Mitchell, 2007, p. 34; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 627; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 565)

 

WRIGHT, Silas, b. in Amherst, Mass., 24 May, 1795; d. in Canton, St. Lawrence co., N. Y., 27 Aug., 1847. His early life was spent on his father's farm in Weybridge, Vt., and after graduation at Middlebury college in 1815 he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Canton. In 1820 he was appointed surrogate of St. Lawrence county, and in 1823-'7 he was a member of the state senate, where he opposed the political advancement of De Witt Clinton, regarding it as dangerous to the Democratic party, of which he was a firm adherent throughout his life. In 1827 he made a report to the senate developing the financial policy with which he was identified throughout his life, and which he subsequently enforced as a political measure, while he was governor of New York. In 1827 he was made brigadier-general of the state militia. He served in congress from 3 Dec., 1827, till 3 March, 1829, and there voted for the protective tariff of 1828, and for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the expediency of abolishing slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. In 1829 he was appointed comptroller of New York, which office he held until 1833, when he was chosen to the U. S. senate in place of William L. Marcy. In that body he served on the committee on finance, supported the force bill and Henry Clay's compromise bill of 1833, introduced the first sub-treasury bill, which became a law, defended President Jackson's removal of the deposits from the U. S. bank, and delivered a speech opposing Daniel Webster's motion to recharter that institution. He also voted against receiving a petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in favor of excluding from the mails all “printed matter calculated to excite the prejudices of the southern states in regard to the question of slavery.” Mr. Wright opposed the distribution among the states of the surplus Federal revenues, supported the independent treasury scheme of Van Buren, maintained in reference to the abolition of slavery the right of petition and the sovereignty of congress over the territories in 1838, and voted for the tariff of 1842 and for the annexation of Texas. His term extended from 11 Jan., 1833, till 1 Dec., 1844, when he resigned to become governor of New York, which post he held until 1847, during which period he opposed the calling of a convention to revise the state constitution, vetoed a bill to appropriate money for canal improvements, and took decided ground against the anti-rent rioters, declaring Delaware county in a state of insurrection and calling out a military force. He was defeated as candidate for re-election in 1846. When in April, 1847, the application of the Wilmot proviso to the territories that had been obtained from Mexico was under discussion, Mr. Wright emphatcically declared that the arms and the money of the Union ought never to be used for the acquisition of territory for the purpose of planting slavery. In May, 1847, he wrote a letter expressing himself in favor of using the money of the Federal government to improve the harbors of the northern lakes. He refused several offers of cabinet offices and foreign missions. After his term as governor he retired to his farm in Canton, which he cultivated with his own hands. His mind was logical and powerful, and he was considered a clear and practical statesman. Horatio Seymour said: “Mr. Wright was a great man, an honest man; if he committed errors, they were induced by his devotion to his party. He was not selfish; to him his party was everything—himself nothing.” There is a good portrait of him by James Whitehouse in the New York city-hall. See “Eulogy on Silas Wright,” by Henry D. Gilpin (Philadelphia, 1847); his “Life and Times,” by Jabez D. Hammond (Syracuse, 1848); and his “Life,” by John S. Jenkins (Utica, 1852). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 627.

 

 

WRIGHT, Theodore Sedgwick, 1797-1847, African American, New York, clergyman, abolitionist leader, orator.  American Missionary Association (AMA).  Manager, 1834-1840, and Member of the Executive Committee, 1834-1840, of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1843-1847.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 330; Mabee, 1970, pp. 29, 51, 58, 59, 61, 62, 91, 105-106, 115, 129, 130, 150, 188, 226, 276, 285; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 47, 166, 305-306; Sorin, 1971, pp. 81-85, 90-92, 97; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 24, p. 62; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 12, p. 320)

 

 

WRIGHT, William, Adams County, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1841.

 

 

WYMAN, Jonas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1844.

 

 

WYTHE, George, 1726-1806, Virginia lawmaker, law professor, opponent of slavery.  Member of committee that proposed gradual emancipation of slaves in Virginia.  Signatory of the Declaration of Independence.  Virginia Representative to the Continental Congress.  (Locke, 1901, pp. 76, 91; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 634; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 586)

 

WYTHE, George, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Elizabeth City county, Va., in 1726; d. in Richmond, Va., 8 June, 1806. His father was a wealthy planter, and his mother, who possessed unusual intelligence and learning, gave him his early education. Under her tuition he became an accomplished Latin and Greek scholar, an excellent mathematician, acquired a liberal knowledge of the sciences, and was further instructed at William and Mary; but the death of both parents before he attained his majority and the consequent uncontrolled possession of a large fortune led him into extravagance and dissipation. He reformed when he was about thirty years old, studied law under John Lewis, an eminent practitioner, and quickly rose to the front rank at the Virginia bar. Early in life he was chosen to the house of burgesses, where he was recognized as one of the leaders, and he continued to serve until the beginning of the Revolution. On 14 Nov., 1764, he was appointed a member of its committee to prepare and report a petition to the king, a memorial to the house of lords, and a remonstrance to the house of commons on the proposed stamp-act. He drew up the last-named paper, but it so far exceeded the demands of his colleagues in boldness and truth that it was viewed as bordering on treason, and accepted only after much modification. From that time he continued to exert all his influence in favor of the independence of the colonies, and in August, 1775, he was appointed “delegate to the Continental congress from Virginia, signing the Declaration of Independence on 4 July of the next year. On 5 Nov., 1776, he was appointed by the legislature, with Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Pendleton, George Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee, on a committee to revise the state laws of British and colonial enactment, and to prepare bills for re-enacting them with such alterations as were required under the new government. Mason and Lee did not serve, but so industrious were the other three members of the committee that on 18 June, 1779, they had prepared 126 bills, which they reported to the assembly. .He became speaker of the house of delegates in 1777, the same year was chosen one of the three judges of the chancery court of Virginia., and, on the reorganization of the court of equity, was constituted sole chancellor, which post he held for more than twenty years. Before the close of the Revolution, debts had been incurred between American and British merchants, and the recovery of these was the subject of the 6th article of John Jay's treaty with Great Britain, but popular feeling was strong against legal decrees in favor of British claimants. Chancellor Wythe was the first judge in the United States that decided the claims to be recoverable. He lost almost all his property during the Revolution, but he supplemented his small income as chancellor, which was £300 a year, by accepting the professorship of law in William and Mary, which he held in 1779-'89. In the latter year his arduous duties compelled his resignation, and he removed to Richmond, Va. In December, 1786, he was chosen a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the United States, and he regularly attended its sessions, but, being absent on the last day, failed to sign the constitution. He was subsequently twice a presidential elector. In the latter part of his life he emancipated his slaves, furnishing them with means of support until they learned to take care of themselves. In the eighty-first year of his age, while he was still in the full vigor of his intellect and the exercise of the duties of the chancellorship, he was poisoned. His nephew, George Wythe Sweeny, was tried for the crime, but was acquitted. William and Mary gave Judge Wythe the degree of LL. D. in 1790. He was twice married, but his only child died in infancy. Among his pupils were two presidents of the United States, a chief justice, and others who attained high rank in the legal profession. Thomas Jefferson, his law pupil and devoted adherent, said of him in notes that he made in 1820 for a biography of Wythe, which he never completed: “No man ever left behind him a character more venerated than George Wythe. His virtue was of the purest kind, his integrity inflexible, his justice exact. He might truly be called the Cato of his country, without the avarice of the Roman, for a more disinterested person never lived. He was of middle size, his face manly, comely, and engaging. Such was George Wythe, the honor of his own and the model of future times.” The engraving shows his house in Williamsburg, Va. He published “Decisions in Virginia by the High Court of Chancery, with Remarks upon Decrees by the Court of Appeals” (Richmond, 1795; 2d ed., with a memoir by Benjamin B. Minor (1852). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

 

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YALE, Calvin, Reverend, Vermont, clergyman.  Member and advocate for the American Colonization Society.  Stated that colonization “may ultimately lead to the extinction of slavery…”  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 132)

 

 

YATES, William, abolitionist, agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Worked at Flushing, Long Island.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 185)

 

 

YEAMAN, George Helm, b. 1829, lawyer, jurist, diplomat, writer.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Elected to Congress 1862, served until March 1865. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 639; Congressional Globe)

 

YEAMAN, George Helm, lawyer, b. in Hardin county, Ky., 1 Nov., 1829. He was educated at an academy, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1852, and began to practise at Owensborough, Ky. In 1854 he was elected a judge of Daviess county. In 1861 he was chosen a member of the legislature, and in 1862 he recruited a regiment for the National army. The same year he was sent to congress as a Unionist to fill a vacancy, and, being re-elected, he served from 1 Dec., 1862, till 3 March, 1865. In the latter year he was appointed by President Johnson minister to Denmark, which office he held till 7 Nov., 1870, since which time he has practised law in New York. Besides pamphlets on “Naturalization” (1867) and “Privateering” (1868). Mr. Yeaman has published “A Study of Government” (Boston, 1870). He has also written for periodicals on the labor and currency questions. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 639.

 

 

YOUNG, Joseph, New York, American Abolition Society (Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)

 

 

YOUNG, Robert Alexander, free African American, wrote The Ethiopian Manifesto Issued in Defense of the Black Man’s Rights in the Scale of Universal Freedom, 1828 (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 39, 501)

 

 

 

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ZAKRZEWSKA, Marie Elizabeth, 1829-1902, physician, radical abolitionist.  Associated with Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 642)

 

 

ZANE, William, abolitionist leader, Acting Committee, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787 (Basker, 2005, p. 92)

 

 


Special Category

This is a special category that we have created for individuals who in theory opposed slavery.  Some of these individuals, in practice, owned or traded in slaves.  Some of the people represented here may have even supported slavery during their, yet came to oppose it.  Some of these individuals supported the Colonization movement to remove all enslaved and free Blacks from the United States.  These individuals reflect the complex character of slavery in America.  This portion of the website will be developed in the coming months.

Please see our section on the American Colonization Society.

JEFFERSON, Thomas, 1743-1826, Virginia, statesman, writer, inventor, member of the Continental Congress, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, President of the United States, 1801-1809, Vice President of the United States, 1797-1801.  Although Thomas Jefferson owned slaves himself and never freed his slaves during his lifetime, he tried to prevent the Constitution from legally authorizing slavery in the United States; he always opposed slavery in theory, if not in practice.  Jefferson wrote:  “The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies where it was, unhappily, introduced in their infant state.  But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa.” He also wrote:  “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other.  Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal… The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to the worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities.”  Jefferson further stated, when referring to insurrections of the period: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever… The Almighty has no attributes which can take sides with us in such a contest.”  Jefferson’s ambivalence with regard to slavery is summed up by words he wrote to a friend in 1802:  “We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go.  Justice is on one scale, and self-preservation is on the other.”  (Basker, 2005, pp. 62-64, 75, 244, 246, 319, 323, 324; Drake, 1950, pp. 71-72, 83, 85, 112, 115; Dumond, 1961, pp. 20, 24, 27-28, 84, 113, 127; Hammond, 2011, pp. ii, xiv, xv, 21, 53-54, 58, 69-78, 127, 138-139, 210, 215-216, 298, 129, 165-166; Liscomb & Berg,1903-1904; Mason, 2006, pp. 13-14, 35, 47, 95, 171-172, 174, 177-178, 187, 199, 202, 232, 240-241n21; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 19, 22-23, 25, 31, 38, 55, 104, 130, 152, 209, 233, 279, 284, 296, 350-352, 372, 403-405, 562-565; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 415-423; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 17; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 909; American Reformers, pp. 474-479; Encylopaedia Americana, 1831, Vol. VII, pp. 181-185; Hinks & McKivigan, eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and abolition, Vol. 2, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT: 2007, pp. 385-387)


Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

JEFFERSON, Thomas, third president of the United States, b. in Shadwell, Albemarle co., Va., 13 April, 1743; d. at Monticello, in the same county, 4 July, 1826. His father was Peter Jefferson, who, with the aid of thirty slaves, tilled a tobacco and wheat farm of 1,900 acres; a man physically strong, a good mathematician, skilled in surveying, fond of standard literature, and in politics a British Whig. Like his fathers before him, Peter Jefferson was a justice of the peace, a vestryman of his parish, and a member of the colonial legislature. The first of the Virginia Jeffersons, who were of Welsh extraction, was a member of the Virginia legislature of 1619, noted as the first legislative body ever convened on the western continent. Peter married in 1738 Jane, daughter of Isham Randolph, a wealthy and conspicuous member of the family of that name. Of their ten children, Thomas was the third, born in a plain, spacious farm-house, traces of which still exist. He inherited a full measure of his father's bodily strength and stature, both having been esteemed in their prime the strongest men of their county. He inherited also his father's inclination to liberal politics, his taste for literature, and his aptitude for mathematics. Peter Jefferson died in 1757, when his son Thomas was fourteen years of age. On his death-bed he left an injunction that the education of his son, already well advanced in a preparatory school, should be completed at the College of William and Mary, a circumstance which his son always remembered with gratitude, saying that if he had to choose between the education and the estate his father left him, he would choose the education. His schoolmates reported that at school he was noted for good scholarship, industry, and shyness. Without leaving his father's land he could shoot turkeys, deer, foxes, and other game. His father in his last hours had specially charged his mother not to permit him to neglect the exercise requisite for health and strength; but the admonition was scarcely necessary, for the youth was a keen hunter and had been taught by his father to swim his horse over the Rivanna, a tributary of the James, which flowed by the estate. The Jeffersons were a musical family; the girls sang the songs of the time, and Thomas, practising the violin assiduously from boyhood, became an excellent performer. At seventeen, when he entered the College of William and Mary, he was tall, raw-boned, freckled, and sandy-haired, with large feet and hands, thick wrists, and prominent cheek-bones and chin. His comrades described him as far from handsome, a fresh, healthy-looking youth, very erect, agile, and strong, with something of rusticity in his air and demeanor. The college was not then efficient nor well equipped, but there was one true educator connected with it, Dr. William Small, of Scotland, professor of mathematics. Jefferson gratefully remembered him as an ardent student of science, who possessed a happy talent for communicating knowledge, a man of agreeable manners and enlightened mind. He goes so far as to say in his autobiography that his coming under the influence of Dr. Small “probably fixed the destinies of my life.” The learned and genial professor became attached to his receptive pupil, made him the daily companion of his walks, and gave him those views of the connection of the sciences and of the system of things of which man is a part which then prevailed in the advanced scientific circles of Europe. Prof. Small was a friend of the poet Erasmus Darwin, progenitor of an illustrious line of learned men. Jefferson was a hard student in college, and at times forgot his father's dying injunction as to exercise. He kept horses at Williamsburg, but as his love of knowledge increased his rides became shorter and less frequent, and even his beloved violin was neglected. There was a time, as he remembered, when he studied fifteen hours a day. Once a week the lieutenant-governor, Francis Fauquier, had a musical party at the “palace,” to which the guests, in the good old style of that century, brought their instruments. Jefferson was always present at these parties with his violin, and participated in the concert, the governor himself being also a performer. From Fauquier, a man of the world of the period, he learned much of the social, political, and parliamentary life of the Old World. George Wythe, afterward chancellor, was then a young lawyer of Williamsburg. He was one of the highly gifted men that frequented the governor's table, and contributed essentially to the forming of Jefferson's mind.

On his graduation, Jefferson entered upon the study of law, under the guidance of George Wythe. As his father's estate was charged with the maintenance of a large family, a profession was necessary to the student, and he entered upon his preparation for the bar with all his energy and resolution. On coming of age, in April, 1764, he assumed the management of the estate, and was appointed to two of his father's offices—justice of the peace and vestryman. He gave much attention to the cultivation of his lands, and remained always an attentive, zealous, and improving farmer. He attached importance all his life to the fact that his legal training was based upon the works of Lord Coke, of whom he said that “a sounder Whig never wrote, nor one of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called British liberties.” It was his settled conviction that the early drill of the colonial lawyers in “Coke upon Lyttleton” prepared them for the part they took in resisting the unconstitutional acts of the British government. Lawyers formed by Coke, he would say, were all good Whigs; but from the time that Blackstone became the leading text-book “the profession began to slide into Toryism.” His own study of Coke led him to extend his researches into the origins of British law, and led him also to the rejection of the maxim of Sir Matthew Hale, that Christianity is parcel of the laws of England. His youthful treatise on this complex and difficult point shows us at once the minuteness and the extent of his legal studies. While he was a student of law, he was an eye-witness of those memorable scenes in the Virginia legislature which followed the passage of the stamp-act. He was present as a spectator in the house when Patrick Henry read his five resolutions, written upon a blank leaf torn from a “Coke upon Lyttleton,” enunciating the principle that Englishmen living in America had all the rights of Englishmen living in England, the chief of which was, that they could only be taxed by their own representatives. When he was an old man, seated at his table at Monticello, he loved to speak of that great day, and to describe the thrill and ecstasy of the moment when the wonderful orator, interrupted by cries of “Treason,” uttered the well-known words of defiance: “If this be treason, make the most of it!” Early in 1767, about his twenty-fourth birthday, Jefferson was admitted to the bar of Virginia, and entered at once upon the practice of his profession. Connected through his father with the yeomen of the western counties, and through his mother with the wealthier planters of the eastern, he had not long to wait for business. His first account-book, which still exists, shows that in the first year of his practice he was employed in sixty-eight cases before the general court of the province, besides county and office business. He was an accurate, painstaking, and laborious practitioner, and his business increased until he was employed in nearly five hundred cases in a single year, which yielded an average profit of about one pound sterling each. He was not a fluent nor a forcible speaker, and his voice soon became husky as he proceeded; but James Madison, who heard him try a cause, reports that he acquitted himself well, and spoke fluently enough for his purpose. He loved the erudition of the law, and attached great importance to the laws of a country as the best source of its history. It was he who suggested and promoted the collection of Virginia laws known as “Henning's Statutes at Large,” to which he contributed the most rare and valuable part of the contents. He practised law for nearly eight years, until the Revolutionary contest summoned him to other labors.

His public life began 11 May, 1769, when he took his seat as a member of the Virginia house of burgesses, Washington being also a member. Jefferson was then twenty-six years old. On becoming a public man he made a resolution “never to engage, while in public office, in any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear any other character than that of a farmer.” At the close of his public career of nearly half a century he could say that he had kept this resolution, and he often found the benefit of it in being able to consider public questions free from the bias of self-interest. This session of the burgesses was short. On the third day were introduced the famous four resolutions, to the effect that the colonies could not be lawfully taxed by a body in which they were not represented, and that they might concur, co-operate, and practically unite in seeking a redress of grievances. On the fifth day of the session the royal governor, Lord Botetourt, dissolved the house; but the members speedily reassembled in the great room of the Raleigh tavern, where similar resolutions, with others more pointed, were passed. The decency and firmness of these proceedings had their effect. Before many months had passed the governor summoned the assembly and greeted them with the news that parliament had abandoned the system of taxing the colonies—a delusive statement, which he, however, fully believed himself authorized to make. Amid the joy—too brief—of this supposed change of policy, Jefferson made his first important speech in the house, in which he advocated the repeal of the law that obliged a master who wished to free his slaves to send them out of the colony. The motion was promptly rejected, and the mover, Mr. Bland, was denounced as an enemy to his country.

On 1 Jan., 1772, Jefferson married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a beautiful and childless young widow, daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer in large practice at the Williamsburg bar. His new house at Monticello, a view of which is given on page 419, was then just habitable, and he took his wife home to it a few days after the ceremony. Next year the death of his wife's father brought them a great increase of fortune—40,000 acres of land and 135 slaves, which, when the encumbrances were discharged, doubled Jefferson's estate. He was now a fortunate man indeed; opulent in his circumstances, happily married, and soon a father. We see him busied in the most pleasing kinds of agriculture, laying out gardens, introducing new products, arranging his farms, completing and furnishing his house, and making every effort to convert his little mountain, covered with primeval forest, into an agreeable and accessible park. After many experiments he domesticated almost every tree and shrub, native and foreign, that could survive the Virginia winter. The contest with the king was soon renewed, and the decisive year, 1774, opened. It found Thomas Jefferson a thriving and busy young lawyer and farmer, not known beyond Virginia; but when it closed he was a person of note among the patriots of America, and was proscribed in England. It was he who prepared the “Draught of Instructions” for Virginia's Delegation to the Congress which met at Philadelphia in September. That congress, he thought, should unite in a solemn address to the king; but they should speak to him in a frank and manly way, informing him, as the chief magistrate of an empire governed by many legislatures, that one of those legislatures—namely, the British parliament—had encroached upon the rights of thirteen others. They were also to say to the king that he was no more than the chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws and circumscribed with definite powers. He also spoke, in this very radical draught, of “the late deposition of his majesty, King Charles, by the Commonwealth of England” as a thing obviously right. He maintained that the parliament of Virginia had as much right to pass laws for the government of the people of England as the British legislature had to pass laws for the government of the people of Virginia. “Can any one reason be assigned,” he asked, “why a hundred and sixty thousand electors in the island of Great Britain should give law to four millions in the states of America?” The draught, indeed, was so radical on every point that it seemed to the ruling British mind of that day mere insolent burlesque. It was written, however, by Jefferson in the most modest and earnest spirit, showing that, at the age of thirty-one, his radical opinions were fully formed, and their expression was wholly unqualified by a knowledge of the world beyond the sea. This draught, though not accepted by the convention, was published in a pamphlet, copies of which were sent to England, where Edmund Burke caused it to be republished with emendations and additions of his own. It procured for the author, to use his own language, “the honor of having his name inserted in a long list of proscriptions enrolled in a bill of attainder.” The whole truth of the controversy was given in this pamphlet, without any politic reserves.

In March, 1775, Jefferson, who had been kept at Monticello for some time by illness, was in Richmond as a member of the convention which assembled in the parish church of St. John to consider what course Virginia should take in the crisis. It was as a member of this body that Patrick Henry, to an audience of 150 persons, spoke the prophetic words in solemn tones as the key to the enigma: “We must fight! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms.” These sentences, spoken twenty-seven days before the affair of Lexington, convinced the convention, and it was agreed that Virginia should arm. A committee of thirteen was appointed to arrange a plan, among the members of which were Patrick Henry, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, the speaker, Edmund Pendleton, and Thomas Jefferson. The plan they agreed upon was this: The populous counties to raise and drill infantry companies; the other counties horsemen, and both to wear the hunting-shirt, which Col. Washington told them was the best field-uniform he knew of. The last act of this convention was to appoint that, in case a vacancy should occur in the delegation of Virginia to congress, Thomas Jefferson should supply the place. A vacancy occurred, and on 20 June, 1775, the day on which Washington received his commission as commander-in-chief, Jefferson reached Philadelphia, and took his seat the next morning in congress. Before the sun set that day congress received news of the stirring battle of Bunker Hill.

Jefferson was an earnest, diligent, and useful member of the congress. John Adams, his fellow-member, describes him as “so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation that he soon seized upon my heart.” His readiness in composition, his profound knowledge of British law, and his innate love of freedom and justice, gave him solid standing in the body. On his return to Virginia he was re-elected by a majority that placed him third in the list of seven members. After ten days' vacation at home, where he then had a house undergoing enlargement, and a household of thirty-four whites and eighty-three blacks, with farms in three counties to superintend, he returned to congress to take his part in the events that led to the complete and formal separation of the colonies from the mother-country. In May, 1776, the news reached congress that the Virginia convention were unanimous for independence, and on 7 June Richard Henry Lee obeyed the instructions of the Virginia legislature by moving that independence should be declared. On 10 June a committee of five was appointed to prepare a draught of the Declaration—Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Mr. Jefferson, being the chairman of the committee, was naturally asked to write the document. He then lived near what is now the corner of Market and Seventh streets. The paper was written in a room of the second floor, upon a little writing-desk three inches high, of his own contriving, which still exists. Congress subjected his draught to a severe and prolonged revision, making many suppressions, additions, and alterations, most of which were improvements. One passage was suppressed in which he gave expression to the wounded feelings of the American people in being so unworthily treated by brethren and fellow-citizens. The document was debated in congress on 2, 3, and 4 July. Thursday, the 4th, was a warm day, and the members in the afternoon became weary and impatient with the long strain upon their nerves. Jefferson used to relate with much merriment that the final vote upon the Declaration was hastened by swarms of flies, which came from a neighboring stable, and added to the discomfort of the members. A few days afterward he was one of a committee to devise a seal for the new-born power. Among their suggestions (and this was the only one accepted by congress) was the best legend ever appropriated, E pluribus unum, a phrase that had served as a motto on the cover of the “Gentleman's Magazine” for many years. It was originally borrowed from “Moretum,” one of Virgil's minor poems.

Having thus linked his name imperishably with the birthday of the nation, Jefferson resigned his seat in congress, on the ground that the health of his wife and the condition of his household made his presence in Virginia indispensable. He had also been again elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and his heart was set upon the work of purging the statute-books of unsuitable laws, and bringing up Virginia to the level of the Declaration. He had formed a high conception of the excellence of the New England governments, and wished to introduce into his native state the local institutions that had enabled those states to act with such efficiency during the war. After some stay at home he entered upon this work at Williamsburg, where, 8 Oct., 1776, a messenger from congress informed him that he had been elected joint commissioner, with Franklin and Deane, to represent the United States at Paris. After three days of consideration, he resisted the temptation to go abroad, feeling that his obligations to his family and his state made it his duty to remain at home. In reorganizing Virginia, Jefferson and his friends struck first at the system of entail, which, after three weeks' earnest debate, was totally destroyed, so that all property in Virginia was held in fee simple and could be sold for debt. He next attempted, by a short and simple enactment, to abolish the connection between church and state. He was able to accomplish but a small portion of this reform at that session, but the work was begun, and nine years later the law drawn by Jefferson, entitled “An Act for establishing Religious Freedom,” completed the severance. This triumph of equal rights over ancient prejudices and restriction Jefferson always regarded as one of his most important contributions to the happiness of his country. Some of his utterances on this subject have passed into familiar proverbs: “Government has nothing to do with opinion,” “Compulsion makes hypocrites, not converts,” “It is error alone which needs the support of government; truth can stand by itself.” It was he who drew the bill for establishing courts of law in the state, and for prescribing their powers and methods. It was he also who caused the removal of the capital to Richmond. He carried the bill extirpating the principle of primogeniture. It was the committee of which he was chairman that abolished the cruel penalties of the ancient code, and he made a most earnest attempt to establish a system of public education in the state. During two years he and his colleagues, Hamilton, Wythe, Mason, and Francis Lightfoot Lee, toiled at the reconstruction of Virginia law, during which they accomplished all that was then possible, besides proposing many measures that were passed at a later day. He could write to Dr. Franklin in 1777 that the people of Virginia had “laid aside the monarchical and taken up the republican government with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes.” It was Jefferson and his friends who wrought this salutary change, and they were able to effect it because, during the first three years of the war, Virginia was almost exempt from disturbance. In the spring of 1779, when Burgoyne's army, as prisoners of war, were encamped near Monticello, Jefferson was assiduous in friendly attentions both to the British and the Hessians, throwing open his house and grounds to them, and arranging many agreeable concerts for their entertainment. A British captain, himself a good violinist, who played duets with Jefferson at this time, told the late Gen. John A. Dix, of New York, that Thomas Jefferson was the best amateur he had ever heard.

In January, 1779, the Virginia legislature elected Jefferson governor of the state, to succeed Patrick Henry, whose third term ended on 1 June. The two years of his governorship proved to be the severest trial of his life. With slender and fast diminishing resources, he had to keep up the Virginia regiments in the army of Washington, and at the same time to send all possible supplies to the support of Gen. Gates in his southern campaign. The western Indians were a source of constant solicitude, and they were held in check by that brave and energetic neighbor of Gov. Jefferson, George Rogers Clarke. The British and Hessian prisoners also had to be supplied and guarded. In the midst of his first anxieties he began the reorganization that he had long desired of the College of William and Mary. Soon, however, his attention was wholly absorbed by the events of the war. On 16 Aug., 1780, occurred the disastrous defeat of Gates at Camden, which destroyed in a day all that Jefferson had toiled to accumulate in warlike material during eight agonizing weeks. On the last day of 1780, Arnold's fleet of twenty-seven sail anchored in Chesapeake bay, and Arnold, with nine hundred men, penetrated as far as Richmond; but Jefferson had acted with so much promptitude, and was so ably seconded by the county militia, that the traitor held Richmond but twenty-three hours, and escaped total destruction only through a timely change in the wind, which bore him down the river with extraordinary swiftness. In five days from the first summons twenty-five hundred militia were in pursuit of Arnold, and hundreds more were coming in every hour. For eighty-four hours Gov. Jefferson was almost continuously in the saddle; and for many months after Arnold's first repulse, not only the governor, but all that Virginia had left of manhood, resources, and credit, were absorbed in the contest. Four times in the spring of 1781 the legislature of Virginia was obliged to adjourn and fly before the approach or the threat of an enemy. Monticello was captured by a troop of horse, and Jefferson himself narrowly escaped. Cornwallis lived for ten days in the governor's house at Elk Hill, a hundred miles down the James, where he destroyed all the growing crops, burned the barns, carried off the horses, killed the colts, and took away twenty-seven slaves. During the public disasters of that time there was the usual disposition among a portion of the people to cast the blame upon the administration, and Jefferson himself was of the opinion that, in such a desperate crisis, it was best that the civil and the military power should be intrusted to the same hand. He therefore declined a re-election to a third term, and induced his friends to support Gen. Thomas Nelson, commander-in-chief of the militia, who was elected. The capture of Cornwallis in November, 1781, atoned for all the previous suffering and disaster. A month later Jefferson rose in his place in the legislature and declared his readiness to answer any charges that might be brought against his administration of the government; but no one responded. After a pause, a member offered a resolution thanking him for his impartial, upright, and attentive discharge of his duty, which was passed without a dissenting voice.

On 6 Sept., 1782, Jefferson's wife died, to his unspeakable and lasting sorrow, leaving three daughters, the youngest four months old. During the stupor caused by this event he was elected by a unanimous vote of congress, and, as Madison reports, “without a single adverse remark,” plenipotentiary to France, to treat for peace. He gladly accepted; but, before he sailed, the joyful news came that preliminaries of peace had been agreed to, and he returned to Monticello. In June, 1783, he was elected to congress, and in November took his seat at Annapolis. Here, as chairman of a committee on the currency, he assisted to give us the decimal currency now in use. The happy idea originated with Gouverneur Morris, of New York, but with details too cumbrous for common use. Jefferson proposed our present system of dollars and cents, with dimes, half-dimes, and a great gold coin of ten dollars, with subdivisions, such as we have now. Jefferson strongly desired also to apply the decimal system to all measures. When he travelled he carried with him an odometer, which divided the miles into hundredths, which he called cents. “I find,” said he, “that every one comprehends a distance readily when stated to him in miles and cents; so he would in feet and cents, pounds and cents.” On 7 May, 1784, congress elected Jefferson for a third time plenipotentiary to France, to join Franklin and Adams in negotiating commercial treaties with foreign powers. On 5 July he sailed from Boston upon this mission, and thirty-two days later took up his abode in Paris. On 2 May, 1785, he received from Mr. Jay his commission appointing him sole minister plenipotentiary to the king of France for three years from 10 March, 1785. “You replace Dr. Franklin,” said the Count de Vergennes to him, when he announced his appointment. Jefferson replied: “I succeed; no one can replace him.” The impression that France made upon Jefferson's mind was painful in the extreme. While enjoying the treasures of art that Paris presented, and particularly its music, fond of the people, too, relishing their amiable manners, their habits and tastes, he was nevertheless appalled at the cruel oppression of the ancient system of government. “The people,” said he, “are ground to powder by the vices of the form of government,” and he wrote to Madison that government by hereditary rulers was a “government of wolves over sheep, or kites over pigeons.” Beaumarchais's “Marriage of Figaro” was in its first run when Jefferson settled in Paris, and the universal topic of conversation was the defects of the established régime. Upon the whole, he enjoyed and assiduously improved his five years' residence in Europe. His official labors were arduous and constant. He strove, though in vain, to procure the release of American captives in Algiers without paying the enormous ransom demanded by the dey. With little more success, he endeavored to break into the French protective system, which kept from the kingdom the cheap food that America could supply, and for want of which the people were perishing and the monarchy was in peril. He kept the American colleges advised of the new inventions, discoveries, and books of Europe. He was particularly zealous in sending home seeds, roots, and nuts for trial in American soil. During his journey to Italy he procured a quantity of the choicest rice for the planters of South Carolina, and he supplied Buffon with American skins, skeletons, horns, and similar objects for his collection. In Paris he published his “Notes on Virginia,” both in French and English, a work full of information concerning its main subject, and at the same time surcharged with the republican sentiment then so grateful to the people of France. In 1786, when at length the Virginia legislature passed his “Act for Freedom of Religion,” he had copies of it printed for distribution, and it was received with rapture by the advanced Liberals. It was his custom while travelling in France to enter the houses of the peasants and converse with them upon their affairs and condition. He would contrive to sit upon the bed, in order to ascertain what it was made of, and get a look into the boiling pot, to see what was to be the family dinner. He strongly advised Lafayette to do the same, saying: “You must ferret the people out of their hovels as I have done, look into their kettles, eat their bread, loll on their beds, on pretence of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft.” His letters are full of this subject. He returns again and again to the frightful inequalities of condition, the vulgarity and incapacity of the hereditary rulers, and the hopeless destiny of nineteen twentieths of the people. His compassion for the people of France was the more intense from his strong appreciation of their excellent qualities. Having received a leave of absence for six months, he returned with his daughters to Virginia, landing at Norfolk, 18 Nov., 1789. H is reception was most cordial. The legislature appointed a committee of thirteen, with Patrick Henry at their head, to congratulate him on his return, and on the day of his landing he read in a newspaper that President Washington, in settling the new government, had assigned to Thomas Jefferson the office of secretary of state. “I made light of it,” he wrote soon afterward, “supposing I had only to say no, and there would be an end of it.” On receiving the official notification of his appointment, he told the president that he preferred to retain the office he held. “But,” he added, “it is not for an individual to choose his post. You are to marshal us as may be best for the public good.” He finally accepted the appointment, and after witnessing at Monticello, 23 Feb., 1790, the marriage of his eldest daughter, Martha, to Thomas Mann Randolph, he began his journey to New York. During his absence in France, his youngest daughter, Lucy, had died, leaving him Martha and Maria. On Sunday, 21 March, 1790, he reached New York, to enter upon the duties of his new office. He hired a house at No. 57 Maiden lane, the city then containing a population of 35,000. His colleagues in the cabinet were Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury; Henry Knox, secretary of war; and Edmund Randolph, attorney-general. Jefferson's salary was $3,500, and that of the other members of the cabinet $3,000, a compensation that proved painfully inadequate.

He soon found himself ill at ease in his place. He had left Paris when the fall of the Bastile was a recent event, and when the revolutionary movement still promised to hopeful spirits the greatest good to France and to Europe. He had been consulted at every stage of its progress by Lafayette and the other Republican leaders, with whom he was in the deepest sympathy. He left his native land a Whig of the Revolution; he returned to it a Republican-Democrat. In his reply to the congratulations of his old constituents, he had spoken of the “sufficiency of human reason for the care of human affairs.” He declared “the will of the majority to be the natural law of every society, and the only sure guardian of the rights of man.” He added these important words, which contain the most material article of his political creed: “Perhaps even this may sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary, and short-lived. Let us, then, forever bow down to the general reason of society. We are safe with that, even in its deviations, for it soon returns again to the right way.” To other addresses of welcome he replied in a similar tone. He brought to New York a settled conviction that the republican is the only form of government that is not robbery and violence organized. Feeling thus, he was grieved and astonished to find a distrust of republican government prevalent in society, and to hear a preference for the monarchical form frequently expressed. In the cabinet itself, where Hamilton dominated and Knox echoed his opinions, the republic was accepted rather as a temporary expedient than as a final good. Jefferson and Hamilton, representing diverse and incompatible tendencies, soon found themselves in ill-accord, and their discussions in the cabinet became vehement. They differed in some degree upon almost every measure of the administration, and on several of the most vital their differences became passionate and distressing. In May, 1791, by openly accepting and eulogizing Thomas Paine's “Rights of Man,” a spirited reply to Burke's “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” Jefferson placed himself at the head of the Republican party in the United States. The difference between the two chief members of the cabinet rapidly developed into a personal antipathy, and both of them ardently desired to withdraw. Both, however, could have borne these disagreeable dissensions, and we see in their later letters that the real cause of their longing to resign was the insufficiency of their salaries. Jefferson's estate, much diminished by the war, was of little profit to him in the absence of the master's eye. Gen. Washington, who did equal justice to the merits of both these able men, used all his influence and tact to induce them to remain, and, yielding to the president's persuasions, both made an honest attempt at external agreement. But in truth their feelings, as well as their opinions, were naturally irreconcilable. Their attitude toward the French revolution proves this. Hamilton continually and openly expressed an undiscriminating abhorrence of it, while Jefferson deliberately wrote that if the movement “had desolated half the earth,” the evil would have been less than the continuance of the ancient system. Writing to an old friend he went farther even than this: “Were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now is.” On every point of difficulty created by the French revolution the disagreement between the two secretaries was extreme. On other subjects there was little real concord, and it was a happy moment for both when, on 1 Jan., 1794, President Washington accepted Jefferson's resignation. He left office at a fortunate time for his reputation, since his correspondence with the English plenipotentiary, George Hammond, and the French plenipotentiary, Edmond Genet, had just been published in a large pamphlet. Jefferson's letters to those gentlemen were so moderate, so just, and so conciliatory as to extort the approval of his opponents. Chief-Justice Marshall, an extreme Federalist, remarks, in his “Life of Washington,” that this correspondence lessened the hostility of Jefferson's opponents without diminishing the attachment of his friends. Five days after his release from office he set out for home, having been secretary of state three years and ten months.

All his interest in the cultivation of the soil now returned to him, and he supposed his public life ended forever. In September, 1794, after the retirement of Hamilton from the cabinet, Washington invited Jefferson to go abroad as special envoy to Spain; but he declined, declaring that “no circumstances would evermore tempt him to engage in anything public.” Nevertheless, in 1796, Washington having refused to serve a third term in the presidency, he allowed his name to be used as that of a candidate for the succession. The contest was embittered by the unpopularity of the Jay treaty with Great Britain. Jefferson had desired the rejection of the treaty, and he remained always of the opinion that by its rejection the government of the United States might at length have secured “a respect for our neutral rights” without a war. Jefferson had a narrow escape from being elected to the presidency in 1796. John Adams received seventy-one electoral votes, and Jefferson sixty-eight, a result that, as the law then stood, gave him the vice-presidency. In view of the duties about to devolve upon him, he began to prepare, chiefly for his own guidance in the chair of the senate, his “Manual of Parliamentary Practice,” a code that still substantially governs all our deliberative bodies. He deeply felt the importance of such rules, believing that when strictly enforced they operated as a check on the majority, and gave “shelter and protection to the minority against the attempts of power.” Jefferson much enjoyed the office of vice-president, partly from the interest he took in the art of legislation and partly because his presidency of the Philosophical society brought him into agreeable relations with the most able minds of the country. He took no part whatever in the administration of the government, as Mr. Adams ceased to consult him on political measures almost immediately after his inauguration. The administration of Adams, so turbulent and eventful, inflamed party spirit to an extreme degree. The reactionary policy of Hamilton and his friends had full scope, as is shown by the passage of the alien and sedition laws, and by the warlike preparations against France. During the first three years Jefferson endeavored in various ways to influence the public mind, and thus to neutralize in some degree the active and aggressive spirit of Hamilton. He was clearly of opinion that the allien and sedition laws were not merely unconstitutional, but were so subversive of fundamental human rights as to justify a nullification of them. The Kentucky resolutions of 1798, in which his abhorrence of those laws was expressed, were originally drawn by him at the request of James Madison and Col. W. C. Nicholas. “These gentlemen,” Jefferson once wrote, “pressed me strongly to sketch resolutions against the constitutionality of those laws.” In consequence he drew and delivered them to Col. Nicholas, who introduced them into the legislature of Kentucky, and kept the secret of their authorship. These resolutions, read in the light of the events of 1798, will not now be disapproved by any person of republican convictions; they remain, and will long remain, one of the most interesting and valuable contributions to the science of free government. It is fortunate that this commentary upon the alien and sedition laws was written by a man so firm and so moderate, who possessed at once the erudition, the wisdom, and the feeling that the subject demanded.

Happily the presidential election of 1800 freed the country from those laws without a convulsion. Through the unskilful politics of Hamilton and the adroit management of the New York election by Aaron Burr, Mr. Adams was defeated for re-election, the electoral vote resulting thus: Jefferson, 73; Burr, 73; Adams, 65; Charles C. Pinckney, 64; Jay, 1. This strange result threw the election into the house of representatives, where the Federalists endeavored to elect Burr to the first office, an unworthy intrigue, which Hamilton honorably opposed. After a period of excitement, which seemed at times fraught with peril to the Union, the election was decided as the people meant it should be: Thomas Jefferson became president of the United States and Aaron Burr vice-president. The inauguration was celebrated throughout the country as a national holiday; soldiers paraded, church-bells rang, orations were delivered, and in some of the newspapers the Declaration of Independence was printed at length. Jefferson's first thought on coming to the presidency was to assuage the violence of party spirit, and he composed his fine inaugural address with that view. He reminded his fellow-citizens that a difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” He may have had Hamilton in mind in writing this sentence, and, in truth, his inaugural was the briefest and strongest summary he could pen of his argument against Hamilton when both were in Washington's cabinet. “Some honest men,” said he, “fear that a republican government cannot be strong—that this government is not strong enough. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest on earth. I believe it is the only one where every man, at the call of the laws, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.” Among the first acts of President Jefferson was his pardoning every man who was in durance under the sedition law, which he said he considered to be “a nullity as absolute and palpable as if congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image.” To the chief victims of the alien law, such as Kosciuszko and Volney, he addressed friendly, consoling letters. Dr. Priestley, menaced with expulsion under the alien law, he invited to the White House. He wrote a noble letter to the venerable Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, who had been avoided and insulted during the recent contest. He gave Thomas Paine, outlawed in England and living on sufferance in Paris, a passage home in a national ship. He appointed as his cabinet James Madison, secretary of state; Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury; Henry Dearborn, secretary of war; Robert Smith, secretary of the navy; Gideon Granger, postmaster-general; Levi Lincoln, attorney-general—all of whom were men of liberal education. With his cabinet he lived during the whole of his two terms in perfect harmony, and at the end he declared that if he had to choose again he would select the same individuals. With regard to appointments and removals the new president found himself in an embarrassing position, as all our presidents have done. Most of the offices were held by Federalists, and many of his own partisans expected removals enough to establish an equality. Jefferson resisted the demand. He made a few removals for strong and obvious reasons; but he acted uniformly on the principle that a difference of politics was not a reason for the removal of a competent and faithful subordinate. The few removals that he made were either for official misconduct or, to use his own language, “active and bitter opposition to the order of things which the public will has established.” He abolished at once the weekly levee at the White House, as well as the system of precedence that had been copied from the court etiquette of Europe. When congress assembled he sent them a message, instead of delivering to them a speech, which had the effect of preventing, as he remarked, “the bloody conflict to which the making an answer would have committed them.” He abolished also all the usages that savored of royalty, such as the conveyance of ministers in national vessels, the celebration of his own birthday by a public ball, the appointment of fasts and thanksgiving-days, the making of public tours and official visits. He refused to receive, while travelling, any mark of attention that would not have been paid to him as a private citizen, his object being both to republicanize and secularize the government completely. He declined also to use the pardoning power unless the judges who had tried the criminal signed the petition. He refused also to notice in any way the abuse of hostile newspapers, desiring, as he said, to give the world a proof that “an administration which has nothing to conceal from the press has nothing to fear from it.”

A few of the acts of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which includes a great part of the history of the United States for eight years, stand out boldly and brilliantly. That navy which had been created by the previous administration against France, Jefferson at once reduced by putting all but six of its vessels out of commission. He despatched four of the remaining six to the Mediterranean to overawe the Barbary pirates, who had been preying upon American commerce for twenty years; and Decatur and his heroic comrades executed their task with a gallantry and success which the American people have not forgotten. The purchase of Louisiana was a happy result of the president's tact and promptitude in availing himself of a golden chance. Bonaparte, in pursuit of his early policy of undoing the work of the seven-years' war, had acquired the vast unknown territory west of the Mississippi, then vaguely called Louisiana. This policy he had avowed, and he was preparing an expedition to hold New Orleans and settle the adjacent country. At the same time, the people of Kentucky, who, through the obstinate folly of the Spanish governor, were practically denied access to the ocean, were inflamed with discontent. At this juncture, in the spring of 1803, hostilities were renewed between France and England, which compelled Bonaparte to abandon the expedition which was ready to sail, and he determined to raise money by selling Louisiana to the United States. At the happiest possible moment for a successful negotiation, Mr. Jefferson's special envoy, James Monroe, arrived in Paris, charged with full powers, and alive to the new and pressing importance of the transfer, and a few hours of friendly parleying sufficed to secure to the United States this superb domain, one of the most valuable on the face of the globe. Bonaparte demanded fifty millions of francs. Marbois, his negotiator, asked a hundred millions, but dropped to sixty, with the condition that the United States should assume all just claims upon the territory. Thus, for the trivial sum of little more than $15,000,000, the United States secured the most important acquisition of territory that was ever made by purchase. Both parties were satisfied with the bargain. “This accession,” said the first consul, “strengthens forever the power of the United States, and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride.” The popularity of the administration soon became such that the opposition was reduced to insignificance, and the president was re-elected by a greatly increased majority. In the house of representatives the Federalists shrank at length to a little band of twenty-seven, and in the senate to five. Jefferson seriously feared that there would not be sufficient opposition to furnish the close and ceaseless criticism that the public good required. His second term was less peaceful and less fortunate. During the long contest between Bonaparte and the allied powers the infractions of neutral rights were so frequent and so exasperating that perhaps Jefferson alone, aided by his fine temper and detestation of war, could have kept the infant republic out of the brawl. When the English ship “Leopard,” within hearing of Old Point Comfort, poured broadsides into the American frigate “Chesapeake,” all unprepared and unsuspecting, killing three men and wounding eighteen, parties ceased to exist in the United States, and every voice that was audible clamored for bloody reprisals. “I had only to open my hand,” wrote Jefferson once, “and let havoc loose.” There was a period in 1807 when he expected war both with Spain and Great Britain, and his confidential correspondence with Madison shows that he meant to make the contest self-compensating. He meditated a scheme for removing the Spanish flag to a more comfortable distance by the annexation of Florida, Mexico, and Cuba, and thus obtaining late redress for twenty-five years of intrigue and injury. A partial reparation by Great Britain postponed the contest. Yet the offences were repeated; no American ship was safe from violation, and no American sailor from impressment. This state of things induced Jefferson to recommend congress to suspend commercial intercourse with the belligerents, his object being “to introduce between nations another umpire than arms.” The embargo of 1807, which continued to the end of his second term, imposed upon the commercial states a test too severe for human nature patiently to endure. It was frequently violated, and did not accomplish the object proposed. To the end of his life, Jefferson was of opinion that, if the whole people had risen to the height of his endeavor, if the merchants had strictly observed the embargo, and the educated class given it a cordial support, it would have saved the country the war of 1812, and extorted, what that war did not give us, a formal and explicit concession of neutral rights.

On 4 March, 1809, after a nearly continuous public service of forty-four years, Jefferson retired to private life, so seriously impoverished that he was not sure of being allowed to leave Washington without arrest by his creditors. The embargo, by preventing the exportation of tobacco, had reduced his private income two thirds, and, in the peculiar circumstances of Washington, his official salary was insufficient. “Since I have become sensible of this deficit,” he wrote, “I have been under an agony of mortification.” A timely loan from a Richmond bank relieved him temporarily from his distress, but he remained to the end of his days more or less embarrassed in his circumstances. Leaving the presidency in the hands of James Madison, with whom he was in the most complete sympathy and with whom he continued to be in active correspondence, he was still a power in the nation. Madison and Monroe were his neighbors and friends, and both of them administered the government on principles that he cordially approved. As has been frequently remarked, they were three men and one system. On retiring to Monticello in 1809, Jefferson was sixty-six years of age, and had seventeen years to live. His daughter Martha and her husband resided with him, they and their numerous brood of children, six daughters and five sons, to whom was now added Francis Eppes, the son of his daughter Maria, who had died in 1804. Surrounded thus by children and grandchildren, he spent the leisure of his declining years in endeavoring to establish in Virginia a system of education to embrace all the children of his native state. In this he was most zealously and ably assisted by his friend, Joseph C. Cabell, a member of the Virginia senate. What he planned in the study, Cabell supported in the legislature; and then in turn Jefferson would advocate Cabell's bill by one of his ingenious and exhaustive letters, which would go the rounds of the Virginia press. The correspondence of these two patriots on the subject of education in Virginia was afterward published in an octavo of 528 pages, a noble monument to the character of both. Jefferson appealed to every motive, including self-interest, urging his scheme upon the voter as a “provision for his family to the remotest posterity.” He did not live long enough to see his system of common schools established in Virginia, but the university, which was to crown that system, a darling dream of his heart for forty years, he beheld in successful operation. His friend Cabell, with infinite difficulty, induced the legislature to expend $300,000 in the work of construction, and to appropriate $15,000 a year toward the support of the institution. Jefferson personally superintended every detail of the construction. He engaged workmen, bought bricks, and selected the trees to be felled for timber. In March, 1825, the institution was opened with forty students, a number which was increased to 177 at the beginning of the second year. The institution has continued its beneficent work to the present day, and still bears the imprint of Jefferson's mind. It has no president, except that one of the professors is elected chairman of the faculty. The university bestows no rewards and no honors, and attendance upon all religious services is voluntary. His intention was to hold every student to his responsibility as a man and a citizen, and to permit him to enjoy all the liberty of other citizens in the same community. Toward the close of his life Jefferson became distressingly embarrassed in his circumstances. In 1814 he sold his library to congress for $23,000—about one fourth of its value. A few years afterward he endorsed a twenty-thousand-dollar note for a friend and neighbor whom he could not refuse, and who soon became bankrupt. This loss, which added $1,200 a year to his expenses, completed his ruin, and he was in danger of being compelled to surrender Monticello and seek shelter for his last days in another abode. Philip Hone, mayor of New York, raised for him, in 1826, $8,500, to which Philadelphia added $5,000 and Baltimore $3,000. He was deeply touched by the spontaneous generosity of his countrymen. “No cent of this,” he wrote, “is wrung from the tax-payer. It is the pure and unsolicited offering of love.” He retained his health nearly to his last days, and had the happiness of living to the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He died at twenty minutes to one P. M., 4 July, 1826. John Adams died a few hours later on the same day, saying, just before he breathed his last, “Thomas Jefferson still lives.” He was buried in his own grave-yard at Monticello, beneath a stone upon which was engraved an inscription prepared by his own hand: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.” He died solvent, for the sale of his estate discharged his debts to the uttermost farthing. His daughter and her children lost their home and had no means of support. Their circumstances becoming known, the legislature of South Carolina and Virginia each voted her a gift of $10,000, which gave peace and dignity to the remainder of her life. She died in 1836, aged sixty-three, leaving numerous descendants.

The writings of Thomas Jefferson were published by order of congress in 1853, under the editorial supervision of Henry A. Washington (9 vols., 8vo). This publication, which leaves much to be desired by the student of American history, includes his autobiography, treatises, essays, selections from his correspondence, official reports, messages, and addresses. The most extensive biography of Jefferson is that of Henry S. Randall (3 vols., New York, 1858). See also the excellent work of Prof. George Tucker, of the University of Virginia, “The Life of Thomas Jefferson” (2 vols., Philadelphia and London, 1837)”; “The Life of Thomas Jefferson,” by James Parton (Boston, 1874); and “Thomas Jefferson,” by John T. Morse, Jr., “American Statesmen” series (Boston, 1883). A work of singular interest is “The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson,” by his great-granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph (New York, 1871). Jefferson's “Manual of Parliamentary Practice” has been repeatedly republished; the Washington edition of 1871 is among the most recent. Consult also the “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Miscellanies of Thomas Jefferson,” by Thomas J. Randolph (4 vols., Boston, 1830). The lovers of detail must not over-look “Jefferson at Monticello,” compiled by Rev. Hamilton W. Pierson, D. D., of Kentucky, from conversations with Edmund Bacon, who was for twenty years Jefferson's steward and overseer. The correspondence between Jefferson and Cabell upon education in Virginia is very rare. An impression of Jefferson's seal, shown in the illustration on page 420, is now in the possession of George Bancroft.

The portraits of Jefferson, which were as numerous in his own time as those of a reigning monarch usually are, may well baffle the inquirer who would know the express image of his face and person. They differ greatly from one another, as in truth he changed remarkably in appearance as he advanced in life, being in youth raw-boned, freckled, and somewhat ungainly, in early manhood better looking, and in later life becoming almost hand-some—in friendly eyes. The portrait by Rembrandt Peale, taken in 1803, which now hangs in the library of the New York historical society, is perhaps the most pleasing of the later pictures of him now accessible. The portrait by Matthew Brown, painted for John Adams in 1786, and engraved for this work, has the merit of presenting him in the prime of his years. Daniel Webster's minute description of his countenance and figure at fourscore was not accepted by Mr. Jefferson's grandchildren as conveying the true impression of the man. “Never in my life,” wrote one of them, “did I see his countenance distorted by a single bad passion or unworthy feeling. I have seen the expression of suffering, bodily and mental, of grief, pain, sadness, just indignation, disappointment, disagreeable surprise, and displeasure, but never of anger, impatience, peevishness, discontent, to say nothing of worse or more ignoble emotions. To the contrary, it was impossible to look on his face without being struck with its benevolent, intelligent, cheerful, and placid expression. It was at once intellectual, good, kind, and pleasant, whilst his tall, spare figure spoke of health, activity, and that helpfulness, that power and will, ‘never to trouble another for what he could do himself,’ which marked his character.” Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

UNDERWOOD, Joseph Rogers, 1791-1876, U.S. Senator, U.S. Congressman.  Supported African Colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 210; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 114)


Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

UNDERWOOD, Joseph Rogers, senator, b. in Goochland county, Va., 24. Oct., 1791; d. near Bowling Green, Ky., 23 Aug., 1876. He is a descendant of William Thomas Underwood, who settled in Virginia about 1680. His family being in adverse circumstances, he was adopted by his maternal uncle, Edward Rogers, a soldier of the Revolution, who had emigrated to Kentucky in 1783. Removing to that state in 1803, the boy was educated in various schools and was graduated at Transylvania in 1811, after which he studied law in Lexington, Ky. He was the first volunteer to be attached to the regiment of Colonel William Dudley for co-operation with the northern army on the Canada border, was made a lieutenant, and when the captain of his company was killed in Dudley's defeat, 5 May, 1813, the command devolved upon him. Underwood was wounded, and with the remnant of Dudley's regiment was forced to surrender. After undergoing cruel treatment from the Indians, he was released on parole and returned to his home. He was admitted to the bar in the same year, and settled in Glasgow, Ky., where he was also trustee of the town and county attorney until he removed to Bowling Green in 1823. He served in the legislature in 1816-'19 and again in 1825-'6, was a candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1828, and from that year till 1835 was judge of the court of appeals. Being elected to congress as a Whig, he served from 7 Dec., 1835, till 3 March, 1843, and in 1845 was chosen to represent Warren county in the legislature, serving as speaker of the house. He was elected a U.S. senator as a Whig, and, after serving from 6 Dec., 1847, till 3 March, 1853, again practised his profession. In 1824 and 1844 he was a presidential elector on the Henry Clay ticket, and he was a delegate to the National Democratic convention...   

Source: Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 210.

 

 


Special Category

 

This is a special category that we have created for individuals who in theory opposed slavery.  Some of these individuals, in practice, owned or traded in slaves.  Some of the people represented here may have even supported slavery during their, yet came to oppose it.  Some of these individuals supported the Colonization movement to remove all enslaved and free Blacks from the United States.  These individuals reflect the complex character of slavery in America.  This portion of the website will be developed in the coming months.

 

Please see our section on the American Colonization Society.

 

 

JEFFERSON, Thomas, 1743-1826, Virginia, statesman, writer, inventor, member of the Continental Congress, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, President of the United States, 1801-1809, Vice President of the United States, 1797-1801.  Although Thomas Jefferson owned slaves himself and never freed his slaves during his lifetime, he tried to prevent the Constitution from legally authorizing slavery in the United States; he always opposed slavery in theory, if not in practice.  Jefferson wrote:  “The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies where it was, unhappily, introduced in their infant state.  But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa.” He also wrote:  “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other.  Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal… The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to the worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities.”  Jefferson further stated, when referring to insurrections of the period: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever… The Almighty has no attributes which can take sides with us in such a contest.”  Jefferson’s ambivalence with regard to slavery is summed up by words he wrote to a friend in 1802:  “We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go.  Justice is on one scale, and self-preservation is on the other.”  (Basker, 2005, pp. 62-64, 75, 244, 246, 319, 323, 324; Drake, 1950, pp. 71-72, 83, 85, 112, 115; Dumond, 1961, pp. 20, 24, 27-28, 84, 113, 127; Hammond, 2011, pp. ii, xiv, xv, 21, 53-54, 58, 69-78, 127, 138-139, 210, 215-216, 298, 129, 165-166; Liscomb & Berg,1903-1904; Mason, 2006, pp. 13-14, 35, 47, 95, 171-172, 174, 177-178, 187, 199, 202, 232, 240-241n21; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 19, 22-23, 25, 31, 38, 55, 104, 130, 152, 209, 233, 279, 284, 296, 350-352, 372, 403-405, 562-565; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 415-423; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 17; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 909; American Reformers, pp. 474-479; Encylopaedia Americana, 1831, Vol. VII, pp. 181-185; Hinks & McKivigan, eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and abolition, Vol. 2, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT: 2007, pp. 385-387)


Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

JEFFERSON, Thomas, third president of the United States, b. in Shadwell, Albemarle co., Va., 13 April, 1743; d. at Monticello, in the same county, 4 July, 1826. His father was Peter Jefferson, who, with the aid of thirty slaves, tilled a tobacco and wheat farm of 1,900 acres; a man physically strong, a good mathematician, skilled in surveying, fond of standard literature, and in politics a British Whig. Like his fathers before him, Peter Jefferson was a justice of the peace, a vestryman of his parish, and a member of the colonial legislature. The first of the Virginia Jeffersons, who were of Welsh extraction, was a member of the Virginia legislature of 1619, noted as the first legislative body ever convened on the western continent. Peter married in 1738 Jane, daughter of Isham Randolph, a wealthy and conspicuous member of the family of that name. Of their ten children, Thomas was the third, born in a plain, spacious farm-house, traces of which still exist. He inherited a full measure of his father's bodily strength and stature, both having been esteemed in their prime the strongest men of their county. He inherited also his father's inclination to liberal politics, his taste for literature, and his aptitude for mathematics. Peter Jefferson died in 1757, when his son Thomas was fourteen years of age. On his death-bed he left an injunction that the education of his son, already well advanced in a preparatory school, should be completed at the College of William and Mary, a circumstance which his son always remembered with gratitude, saying that if he had to choose between the education and the estate his father left him, he would choose the education. His schoolmates reported that at school he was noted for good scholarship, industry, and shyness. Without leaving his father's land he could shoot turkeys, deer, foxes, and other game. His father in his last hours had specially charged his mother not to permit him to neglect the exercise requisite for health and strength; but the admonition was scarcely necessary, for the youth was a keen hunter and had been taught by his father to swim his horse over the Rivanna, a tributary of the James, which flowed by the estate. The Jeffersons were a musical family; the girls sang the songs of the time, and Thomas, practising the violin assiduously from boyhood, became an excellent performer. At seventeen, when he entered the College of William and Mary, he was tall, raw-boned, freckled, and sandy-haired, with large feet and hands, thick wrists, and prominent cheek-bones and chin. His comrades described him as far from handsome, a fresh, healthy-looking youth, very erect, agile, and strong, with something of rusticity in his air and demeanor. The college was not then efficient nor well equipped, but there was one true educator connected with it, Dr. William Small, of Scotland, professor of mathematics. Jefferson gratefully remembered him as an ardent student of science, who possessed a happy talent for communicating knowledge, a man of agreeable manners and enlightened mind. He goes so far as to say in his autobiography that his coming under the influence of Dr. Small “probably fixed the destinies of my life.” The learned and genial professor became attached to his receptive pupil, made him the daily companion of his walks, and gave him those views of the connection of the sciences and of the system of things of which man is a part which then prevailed in the advanced scientific circles of Europe. Prof. Small was a friend of the poet Erasmus Darwin, progenitor of an illustrious line of learned men. Jefferson was a hard student in college, and at times forgot his father's dying injunction as to exercise. He kept horses at Williamsburg, but as his love of knowledge increased his rides became shorter and less frequent, and even his beloved violin was neglected. There was a time, as he remembered, when he studied fifteen hours a day. Once a week the lieutenant-governor, Francis Fauquier, had a musical party at the “palace,” to which the guests, in the good old style of that century, brought their instruments. Jefferson was always present at these parties with his violin, and participated in the concert, the governor himself being also a performer. From Fauquier, a man of the world of the period, he learned much of the social, political, and parliamentary life of the Old World. George Wythe, afterward chancellor, was then a young lawyer of Williamsburg. He was one of the highly gifted men that frequented the governor's table, and contributed essentially to the forming of Jefferson's mind.

On his graduation, Jefferson entered upon the study of law, under the guidance of George Wythe. As his father's estate was charged with the maintenance of a large family, a profession was necessary to the student, and he entered upon his preparation for the bar with all his energy and resolution. On coming of age, in April, 1764, he assumed the management of the estate, and was appointed to two of his father's offices—justice of the peace and vestryman. He gave much attention to the cultivation of his lands, and remained always an attentive, zealous, and improving farmer. He attached importance all his life to the fact that his legal training was based upon the works of Lord Coke, of whom he said that “a sounder Whig never wrote, nor one of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called British liberties.” It was his settled conviction that the early drill of the colonial lawyers in “Coke upon Lyttleton” prepared them for the part they took in resisting the unconstitutional acts of the British government. Lawyers formed by Coke, he would say, were all good Whigs; but from the time that Blackstone became the leading text-book “the profession began to slide into Toryism.” His own study of Coke led him to extend his researches into the origins of British law, and led him also to the rejection of the maxim of Sir Matthew Hale, that Christianity is parcel of the laws of England. His youthful treatise on this complex and difficult point shows us at once the minuteness and the extent of his legal studies. While he was a student of law, he was an eye-witness of those memorable scenes in the Virginia legislature which followed the passage of the stamp-act. He was present as a spectator in the house when Patrick Henry read his five resolutions, written upon a blank leaf torn from a “Coke upon Lyttleton,” enunciating the principle that Englishmen living in America had all the rights of Englishmen living in England, the chief of which was, that they could only be taxed by their own representatives. When he was an old man, seated at his table at Monticello, he loved to speak of that great day, and to describe the thrill and ecstasy of the moment when the wonderful orator, interrupted by cries of “Treason,” uttered the well-known words of defiance: “If this be treason, make the most of it!” Early in 1767, about his twenty-fourth birthday, Jefferson was admitted to the bar of Virginia, and entered at once upon the practice of his profession. Connected through his father with the yeomen of the western counties, and through his mother with the wealthier planters of the eastern, he had not long to wait for business. His first account-book, which still exists, shows that in the first year of his practice he was employed in sixty-eight cases before the general court of the province, besides county and office business. He was an accurate, painstaking, and laborious practitioner, and his business increased until he was employed in nearly five hundred cases in a single year, which yielded an average profit of about one pound sterling each. He was not a fluent nor a forcible speaker, and his voice soon became husky as he proceeded; but James Madison, who heard him try a cause, reports that he acquitted himself well, and spoke fluently enough for his purpose. He loved the erudition of the law, and attached great importance to the laws of a country as the best source of its history. It was he who suggested and promoted the collection of Virginia laws known as “Henning's Statutes at Large,” to which he contributed the most rare and valuable part of the contents. He practised law for nearly eight years, until the Revolutionary contest summoned him to other labors.

His public life began 11 May, 1769, when he took his seat as a member of the Virginia house of burgesses, Washington being also a member. Jefferson was then twenty-six years old. On becoming a public man he made a resolution “never to engage, while in public office, in any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear any other character than that of a farmer.” At the close of his public career of nearly half a century he could say that he had kept this resolution, and he often found the benefit of it in being able to consider public questions free from the bias of self-interest. This session of the burgesses was short. On the third day were introduced the famous four resolutions, to the effect that the colonies could not be lawfully taxed by a body in which they were not represented, and that they might concur, co-operate, and practically unite in seeking a redress of grievances. On the fifth day of the session the royal governor, Lord Botetourt, dissolved the house; but the members speedily reassembled in the great room of the Raleigh tavern, where similar resolutions, with others more pointed, were passed. The decency and firmness of these proceedings had their effect. Before many months had passed the governor summoned the assembly and greeted them with the news that parliament had abandoned the system of taxing the colonies—a delusive statement, which he, however, fully believed himself authorized to make. Amid the joy—too brief—of this supposed change of policy, Jefferson made his first important speech in the house, in which he advocated the repeal of the law that obliged a master who wished to free his slaves to send them out of the colony. The motion was promptly rejected, and the mover, Mr. Bland, was denounced as an enemy to his country.

On 1 Jan., 1772, Jefferson married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a beautiful and childless young widow, daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer in large practice at the Williamsburg bar. His new house at Monticello, a view of which is given on page 419, was then just habitable, and he took his wife home to it a few days after the ceremony. Next year the death of his wife's father brought them a great increase of fortune—40,000 acres of land and 135 slaves, which, when the encumbrances were discharged, doubled Jefferson's estate. He was now a fortunate man indeed; opulent in his circumstances, happily married, and soon a father. We see him busied in the most pleasing kinds of agriculture, laying out gardens, introducing new products, arranging his farms, completing and furnishing his house, and making every effort to convert his little mountain, covered with primeval forest, into an agreeable and accessible park. After many experiments he domesticated almost every tree and shrub, native and foreign, that could survive the Virginia winter. The contest with the king was soon renewed, and the decisive year, 1774, opened. It found Thomas Jefferson a thriving and busy young lawyer and farmer, not known beyond Virginia; but when it closed he was a person of note among the patriots of America, and was proscribed in England. It was he who prepared the “Draught of Instructions” for Virginia's Delegation to the Congress which met at Philadelphia in September. That congress, he thought, should unite in a solemn address to the king; but they should speak to him in a frank and manly way, informing him, as the chief magistrate of an empire governed by many legislatures, that one of those legislatures—namely, the British parliament—had encroached upon the rights of thirteen others. They were also to say to the king that he was no more than the chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws and circumscribed with definite powers. He also spoke, in this very radical draught, of “the late deposition of his majesty, King Charles, by the Commonwealth of England” as a thing obviously right. He maintained that the parliament of Virginia had as much right to pass laws for the government of the people of England as the British legislature had to pass laws for the government of the people of Virginia. “Can any one reason be assigned,” he asked, “why a hundred and sixty thousand electors in the island of Great Britain should give law to four millions in the states of America?” The draught, indeed, was so radical on every point that it seemed to the ruling British mind of that day mere insolent burlesque. It was written, however, by Jefferson in the most modest and earnest spirit, showing that, at the age of thirty-one, his radical opinions were fully formed, and their expression was wholly unqualified by a knowledge of the world beyond the sea. This draught, though not accepted by the convention, was published in a pamphlet, copies of which were sent to England, where Edmund Burke caused it to be republished with emendations and additions of his own. It procured for the author, to use his own language, “the honor of having his name inserted in a long list of proscriptions enrolled in a bill of attainder.” The whole truth of the controversy was given in this pamphlet, without any politic reserves.

In March, 1775, Jefferson, who had been kept at Monticello for some time by illness, was in Richmond as a member of the convention which assembled in the parish church of St. John to consider what course Virginia should take in the crisis. It was as a member of this body that Patrick Henry, to an audience of 150 persons, spoke the prophetic words in solemn tones as the key to the enigma: “We must fight! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms.” These sentences, spoken twenty-seven days before the affair of Lexington, convinced the convention, and it was agreed that Virginia should arm. A committee of thirteen was appointed to arrange a plan, among the members of which were Patrick Henry, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, the speaker, Edmund Pendleton, and Thomas Jefferson. The plan they agreed upon was this: The populous counties to raise and drill infantry companies; the other counties horsemen, and both to wear the hunting-shirt, which Col. Washington told them was the best field-uniform he knew of. The last act of this convention was to appoint that, in case a vacancy should occur in the delegation of Virginia to congress, Thomas Jefferson should supply the place. A vacancy occurred, and on 20 June, 1775, the day on which Washington received his commission as commander-in-chief, Jefferson reached Philadelphia, and took his seat the next morning in congress. Before the sun set that day congress received news of the stirring battle of Bunker Hill.

Jefferson was an earnest, diligent, and useful member of the congress. John Adams, his fellow-member, describes him as “so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation that he soon seized upon my heart.” His readiness in composition, his profound knowledge of British law, and his innate love of freedom and justice, gave him solid standing in the body. On his return to Virginia he was re-elected by a majority that placed him third in the list of seven members. After ten days' vacation at home, where he then had a house undergoing enlargement, and a household of thirty-four whites and eighty-three blacks, with farms in three counties to superintend, he returned to congress to take his part in the events that led to the complete and formal separation of the colonies from the mother-country. In May, 1776, the news reached congress that the Virginia convention were unanimous for independence, and on 7 June Richard Henry Lee obeyed the instructions of the Virginia legislature by moving that independence should be declared. On 10 June a committee of five was appointed to prepare a draught of the Declaration—Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Mr. Jefferson, being the chairman of the committee, was naturally asked to write the document. He then lived near what is now the corner of Market and Seventh streets. The paper was written in a room of the second floor, upon a little writing-desk three inches high, of his own contriving, which still exists. Congress subjected his draught to a severe and prolonged revision, making many suppressions, additions, and alterations, most of which were improvements. One passage was suppressed in which he gave expression to the wounded feelings of the American people in being so unworthily treated by brethren and fellow-citizens. The document was debated in congress on 2, 3, and 4 July. Thursday, the 4th, was a warm day, and the members in the afternoon became weary and impatient with the long strain upon their nerves. Jefferson used to relate with much merriment that the final vote upon the Declaration was hastened by swarms of flies, which came from a neighboring stable, and added to the discomfort of the members. A few days afterward he was one of a committee to devise a seal for the new-born power. Among their suggestions (and this was the only one accepted by congress) was the best legend ever appropriated, E pluribus unum, a phrase that had served as a motto on the cover of the “Gentleman's Magazine” for many years. It was originally borrowed from “Moretum,” one of Virgil's minor poems.

Having thus linked his name imperishably with the birthday of the nation, Jefferson resigned his seat in congress, on the ground that the health of his wife and the condition of his household made his presence in Virginia indispensable. He had also been again elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and his heart was set upon the work of purging the statute-books of unsuitable laws, and bringing up Virginia to the level of the Declaration. He had formed a high conception of the excellence of the New England governments, and wished to introduce into his native state the local institutions that had enabled those states to act with such efficiency during the war. After some stay at home he entered upon this work at Williamsburg, where, 8 Oct., 1776, a messenger from congress informed him that he had been elected joint commissioner, with Franklin and Deane, to represent the United States at Paris. After three days of consideration, he resisted the temptation to go abroad, feeling that his obligations to his family and his state made it his duty to remain at home. In reorganizing Virginia, Jefferson and his friends struck first at the system of entail, which, after three weeks' earnest debate, was totally destroyed, so that all property in Virginia was held in fee simple and could be sold for debt. He next attempted, by a short and simple enactment, to abolish the connection between church and state. He was able to accomplish but a small portion of this reform at that session, but the work was begun, and nine years later the law drawn by Jefferson, entitled “An Act for establishing Religious Freedom,” completed the severance. This triumph of equal rights over ancient prejudices and restriction Jefferson always regarded as one of his most important contributions to the happiness of his country. Some of his utterances on this subject have passed into familiar proverbs: “Government has nothing to do with opinion,” “Compulsion makes hypocrites, not converts,” “It is error alone which needs the support of government; truth can stand by itself.” It was he who drew the bill for establishing courts of law in the state, and for prescribing their powers and methods. It was he also who caused the removal of the capital to Richmond. He carried the bill extirpating the principle of primogeniture. It was the committee of which he was chairman that abolished the cruel penalties of the ancient code, and he made a most earnest attempt to establish a system of public education in the state. During two years he and his colleagues, Hamilton, Wythe, Mason, and Francis Lightfoot Lee, toiled at the reconstruction of Virginia law, during which they accomplished all that was then possible, besides proposing many measures that were passed at a later day. He could write to Dr. Franklin in 1777 that the people of Virginia had “laid aside the monarchical and taken up the republican government with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes.” It was Jefferson and his friends who wrought this salutary change, and they were able to effect it because, during the first three years of the war, Virginia was almost exempt from disturbance. In the spring of 1779, when Burgoyne's army, as prisoners of war, were encamped near Monticello, Jefferson was assiduous in friendly attentions both to the British and the Hessians, throwing open his house and grounds to them, and arranging many agreeable concerts for their entertainment. A British captain, himself a good violinist, who played duets with Jefferson at this time, told the late Gen. John A. Dix, of New York, that Thomas Jefferson was the best amateur he had ever heard.

In January, 1779, the Virginia legislature elected Jefferson governor of the state, to succeed Patrick Henry, whose third term ended on 1 June. The two years of his governorship proved to be the severest trial of his life. With slender and fast diminishing resources, he had to keep up the Virginia regiments in the army of Washington, and at the same time to send all possible supplies to the support of Gen. Gates in his southern campaign. The western Indians were a source of constant solicitude, and they were held in check by that brave and energetic neighbor of Gov. Jefferson, George Rogers Clarke. The British and Hessian prisoners also had to be supplied and guarded. In the midst of his first anxieties he began the reorganization that he had long desired of the College of William and Mary. Soon, however, his attention was wholly absorbed by the events of the war. On 16 Aug., 1780, occurred the disastrous defeat of Gates at Camden, which destroyed in a day all that Jefferson had toiled to accumulate in warlike material during eight agonizing weeks. On the last day of 1780, Arnold's fleet of twenty-seven sail anchored in Chesapeake bay, and Arnold, with nine hundred men, penetrated as far as Richmond; but Jefferson had acted with so much promptitude, and was so ably seconded by the county militia, that the traitor held Richmond but twenty-three hours, and escaped total destruction only through a timely change in the wind, which bore him down the river with extraordinary swiftness. In five days from the first summons twenty-five hundred militia were in pursuit of Arnold, and hundreds more were coming in every hour. For eighty-four hours Gov. Jefferson was almost continuously in the saddle; and for many months after Arnold's first repulse, not only the governor, but all that Virginia had left of manhood, resources, and credit, were absorbed in the contest. Four times in the spring of 1781 the legislature of Virginia was obliged to adjourn and fly before the approach or the threat of an enemy. Monticello was captured by a troop of horse, and Jefferson himself narrowly escaped. Cornwallis lived for ten days in the governor's house at Elk Hill, a hundred miles down the James, where he destroyed all the growing crops, burned the barns, carried off the horses, killed the colts, and took away twenty-seven slaves. During the public disasters of that time there was the usual disposition among a portion of the people to cast the blame upon the administration, and Jefferson himself was of the opinion that, in such a desperate crisis, it was best that the civil and the military power should be intrusted to the same hand. He therefore declined a re-election to a third term, and induced his friends to support Gen. Thomas Nelson, commander-in-chief of the militia, who was elected. The capture of Cornwallis in November, 1781, atoned for all the previous suffering and disaster. A month later Jefferson rose in his place in the legislature and declared his readiness to answer any charges that might be brought against his administration of the government; but no one responded. After a pause, a member offered a resolution thanking him for his impartial, upright, and attentive discharge of his duty, which was passed without a dissenting voice.

On 6 Sept., 1782, Jefferson's wife died, to his unspeakable and lasting sorrow, leaving three daughters, the youngest four months old. During the stupor caused by this event he was elected by a unanimous vote of congress, and, as Madison reports, “without a single adverse remark,” plenipotentiary to France, to treat for peace. He gladly accepted; but, before he sailed, the joyful news came that preliminaries of peace had been agreed to, and he returned to Monticello. In June, 1783, he was elected to congress, and in November took his seat at Annapolis. Here, as chairman of a committee on the currency, he assisted to give us the decimal currency now in use. The happy idea originated with Gouverneur Morris, of New York, but with details too cumbrous for common use. Jefferson proposed our present system of dollars and cents, with dimes, half-dimes, and a great gold coin of ten dollars, with subdivisions, such as we have now. Jefferson strongly desired also to apply the decimal system to all measures. When he travelled he carried with him an odometer, which divided the miles into hundredths, which he called cents. “I find,” said he, “that every one comprehends a distance readily when stated to him in miles and cents; so he would in feet and cents, pounds and cents.” On 7 May, 1784, congress elected Jefferson for a third time plenipotentiary to France, to join Franklin and Adams in negotiating commercial treaties with foreign powers. On 5 July he sailed from Boston upon this mission, and thirty-two days later took up his abode in Paris. On 2 May, 1785, he received from Mr. Jay his commission appointing him sole minister plenipotentiary to the king of France for three years from 10 March, 1785. “You replace Dr. Franklin,” said the Count de Vergennes to him, when he announced his appointment. Jefferson replied: “I succeed; no one can replace him.” The impression that France made upon Jefferson's mind was painful in the extreme. While enjoying the treasures of art that Paris presented, and particularly its music, fond of the people, too, relishing their amiable manners, their habits and tastes, he was nevertheless appalled at the cruel oppression of the ancient system of government. “The people,” said he, “are ground to powder by the vices of the form of government,” and he wrote to Madison that government by hereditary rulers was a “government of wolves over sheep, or kites over pigeons.” Beaumarchais's “Marriage of Figaro” was in its first run when Jefferson settled in Paris, and the universal topic of conversation was the defects of the established régime. Upon the whole, he enjoyed and assiduously improved his five years' residence in Europe. His official labors were arduous and constant. He strove, though in vain, to procure the release of American captives in Algiers without paying the enormous ransom demanded by the dey. With little more success, he endeavored to break into the French protective system, which kept from the kingdom the cheap food that America could supply, and for want of which the people were perishing and the monarchy was in peril. He kept the American colleges advised of the new inventions, discoveries, and books of Europe. He was particularly zealous in sending home seeds, roots, and nuts for trial in American soil. During his journey to Italy he procured a quantity of the choicest rice for the planters of South Carolina, and he supplied Buffon with American skins, skeletons, horns, and similar objects for his collection. In Paris he published his “Notes on Virginia,” both in French and English, a work full of information concerning its main subject, and at the same time surcharged with the republican sentiment then so grateful to the people of France. In 1786, when at length the Virginia legislature passed his “Act for Freedom of Religion,” he had copies of it printed for distribution, and it was received with rapture by the advanced Liberals. It was his custom while travelling in France to enter the houses of the peasants and converse with them upon their affairs and condition. He would contrive to sit upon the bed, in order to ascertain what it was made of, and get a look into the boiling pot, to see what was to be the family dinner. He strongly advised Lafayette to do the same, saying: “You must ferret the people out of their hovels as I have done, look into their kettles, eat their bread, loll on their beds, on pretence of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft.” His letters are full of this subject. He returns again and again to the frightful inequalities of condition, the vulgarity and incapacity of the hereditary rulers, and the hopeless destiny of nineteen twentieths of the people. His compassion for the people of France was the more intense from his strong appreciation of their excellent qualities. Having received a leave of absence for six months, he returned with his daughters to Virginia, landing at Norfolk, 18 Nov., 1789. H is reception was most cordial. The legislature appointed a committee of thirteen, with Patrick Henry at their head, to congratulate him on his return, and on the day of his landing he read in a newspaper that President Washington, in settling the new government, had assigned to Thomas Jefferson the office of secretary of state. “I made light of it,” he wrote soon afterward, “supposing I had only to say no, and there would be an end of it.” On receiving the official notification of his appointment, he told the president that he preferred to retain the office he held. “But,” he added, “it is not for an individual to choose his post. You are to marshal us as may be best for the public good.” He finally accepted the appointment, and after witnessing at Monticello, 23 Feb., 1790, the marriage of his eldest daughter, Martha, to Thomas Mann Randolph, he began his journey to New York. During his absence in France, his youngest daughter, Lucy, had died, leaving him Martha and Maria. On Sunday, 21 March, 1790, he reached New York, to enter upon the duties of his new office. He hired a house at No. 57 Maiden lane, the city then containing a population of 35,000. His colleagues in the cabinet were Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury; Henry Knox, secretary of war; and Edmund Randolph, attorney-general. Jefferson's salary was $3,500, and that of the other members of the cabinet $3,000, a compensation that proved painfully inadequate.

He soon found himself ill at ease in his place. He had left Paris when the fall of the Bastile was a recent event, and when the revolutionary movement still promised to hopeful spirits the greatest good to France and to Europe. He had been consulted at every stage of its progress by Lafayette and the other Republican leaders, with whom he was in the deepest sympathy. He left his native land a Whig of the Revolution; he returned to it a Republican-Democrat. In his reply to the congratulations of his old constituents, he had spoken of the “sufficiency of human reason for the care of human affairs.” He declared “the will of the majority to be the natural law of every society, and the only sure guardian of the rights of man.” He added these important words, which contain the most material article of his political creed: “Perhaps even this may sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary, and short-lived. Let us, then, forever bow down to the general reason of society. We are safe with that, even in its deviations, for it soon returns again to the right way.” To other addresses of welcome he replied in a similar tone. He brought to New York a settled conviction that the republican is the only form of government that is not robbery and violence organized. Feeling thus, he was grieved and astonished to find a distrust of republican government prevalent in society, and to hear a preference for the monarchical form frequently expressed. In the cabinet itself, where Hamilton dominated and Knox echoed his opinions, the republic was accepted rather as a temporary expedient than as a final good. Jefferson and Hamilton, representing diverse and incompatible tendencies, soon found themselves in ill-accord, and their discussions in the cabinet became vehement. They differed in some degree upon almost every measure of the administration, and on several of the most vital their differences became passionate and distressing. In May, 1791, by openly accepting and eulogizing Thomas Paine's “Rights of Man,” a spirited reply to Burke's “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” Jefferson placed himself at the head of the Republican party in the United States. The difference between the two chief members of the cabinet rapidly developed into a personal antipathy, and both of them ardently desired to withdraw. Both, however, could have borne these disagreeable dissensions, and we see in their later letters that the real cause of their longing to resign was the insufficiency of their salaries. Jefferson's estate, much diminished by the war, was of little profit to him in the absence of the master's eye. Gen. Washington, who did equal justice to the merits of both these able men, used all his influence and tact to induce them to remain, and, yielding to the president's persuasions, both made an honest attempt at external agreement. But in truth their feelings, as well as their opinions, were naturally irreconcilable. Their attitude toward the French revolution proves this. Hamilton continually and openly expressed an undiscriminating abhorrence of it, while Jefferson deliberately wrote that if the movement “had desolated half the earth,” the evil would have been less than the continuance of the ancient system. Writing to an old friend he went farther even than this: “Were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now is.” On every point of difficulty created by the French revolution the disagreement between the two secretaries was extreme. On other subjects there was little real concord, and it was a happy moment for both when, on 1 Jan., 1794, President Washington accepted Jefferson's resignation. He left office at a fortunate time for his reputation, since his correspondence with the English plenipotentiary, George Hammond, and the French plenipotentiary, Edmond Genet, had just been published in a large pamphlet. Jefferson's letters to those gentlemen were so moderate, so just, and so conciliatory as to extort the approval of his opponents. Chief-Justice Marshall, an extreme Federalist, remarks, in his “Life of Washington,” that this correspondence lessened the hostility of Jefferson's opponents without diminishing the attachment of his friends. Five days after his release from office he set out for home, having been secretary of state three years and ten months.

All his interest in the cultivation of the soil now returned to him, and he supposed his public life ended forever. In September, 1794, after the retirement of Hamilton from the cabinet, Washington invited Jefferson to go abroad as special envoy to Spain; but he declined, declaring that “no circumstances would evermore tempt him to engage in anything public.” Nevertheless, in 1796, Washington having refused to serve a third term in the presidency, he allowed his name to be used as that of a candidate for the succession. The contest was embittered by the unpopularity of the Jay treaty with Great Britain. Jefferson had desired the rejection of the treaty, and he remained always of the opinion that by its rejection the government of the United States might at length have secured “a respect for our neutral rights” without a war. Jefferson had a narrow escape from being elected to the presidency in 1796. John Adams received seventy-one electoral votes, and Jefferson sixty-eight, a result that, as the law then stood, gave him the vice-presidency. In view of the duties about to devolve upon him, he began to prepare, chiefly for his own guidance in the chair of the senate, his “Manual of Parliamentary Practice,” a code that still substantially governs all our deliberative bodies. He deeply felt the importance of such rules, believing that when strictly enforced they operated as a check on the majority, and gave “shelter and protection to the minority against the attempts of power.” Jefferson much enjoyed the office of vice-president, partly from the interest he took in the art of legislation and partly because his presidency of the Philosophical society brought him into agreeable relations with the most able minds of the country. He took no part whatever in the administration of the government, as Mr. Adams ceased to consult him on political measures almost immediately after his inauguration. The administration of Adams, so turbulent and eventful, inflamed party spirit to an extreme degree. The reactionary policy of Hamilton and his friends had full scope, as is shown by the passage of the alien and sedition laws, and by the warlike preparations against France. During the first three years Jefferson endeavored in various ways to influence the public mind, and thus to neutralize in some degree the active and aggressive spirit of Hamilton. He was clearly of opinion that the allien and sedition laws were not merely unconstitutional, but were so subversive of fundamental human rights as to justify a nullification of them. The Kentucky resolutions of 1798, in which his abhorrence of those laws was expressed, were originally drawn by him at the request of James Madison and Col. W. C. Nicholas. “These gentlemen,” Jefferson once wrote, “pressed me strongly to sketch resolutions against the constitutionality of those laws.” In consequence he drew and delivered them to Col. Nicholas, who introduced them into the legislature of Kentucky, and kept the secret of their authorship. These resolutions, read in the light of the events of 1798, will not now be disapproved by any person of republican convictions; they remain, and will long remain, one of the most interesting and valuable contributions to the science of free government. It is fortunate that this commentary upon the alien and sedition laws was written by a man so firm and so moderate, who possessed at once the erudition, the wisdom, and the feeling that the subject demanded.

Happily the presidential election of 1800 freed the country from those laws without a convulsion. Through the unskilful politics of Hamilton and the adroit management of the New York election by Aaron Burr, Mr. Adams was defeated for re-election, the electoral vote resulting thus: Jefferson, 73; Burr, 73; Adams, 65; Charles C. Pinckney, 64; Jay, 1. This strange result threw the election into the house of representatives, where the Federalists endeavored to elect Burr to the first office, an unworthy intrigue, which Hamilton honorably opposed. After a period of excitement, which seemed at times fraught with peril to the Union, the election was decided as the people meant it should be: Thomas Jefferson became president of the United States and Aaron Burr vice-president. The inauguration was celebrated throughout the country as a national holiday; soldiers paraded, church-bells rang, orations were delivered, and in some of the newspapers the Declaration of Independence was printed at length. Jefferson's first thought on coming to the presidency was to assuage the violence of party spirit, and he composed his fine inaugural address with that view. He reminded his fellow-citizens that a difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” He may have had Hamilton in mind in writing this sentence, and, in truth, his inaugural was the briefest and strongest summary he could pen of his argument against Hamilton when both were in Washington's cabinet. “Some honest men,” said he, “fear that a republican government cannot be strong—that this government is not strong enough. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest on earth. I believe it is the only one where every man, at the call of the laws, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.” Among the first acts of President Jefferson was his pardoning every man who was in durance under the sedition law, which he said he considered to be “a nullity as absolute and palpable as if congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image.” To the chief victims of the alien law, such as Kosciuszko and Volney, he addressed friendly, consoling letters. Dr. Priestley, menaced with expulsion under the alien law, he invited to the White House. He wrote a noble letter to the venerable Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, who had been avoided and insulted during the recent contest. He gave Thomas Paine, outlawed in England and living on sufferance in Paris, a passage home in a national ship. He appointed as his cabinet James Madison, secretary of state; Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury; Henry Dearborn, secretary of war; Robert Smith, secretary of the navy; Gideon Granger, postmaster-general; Levi Lincoln, attorney-general—all of whom were men of liberal education. With his cabinet he lived during the whole of his two terms in perfect harmony, and at the end he declared that if he had to choose again he would select the same individuals. With regard to appointments and removals the new president found himself in an embarrassing position, as all our presidents have done. Most of the offices were held by Federalists, and many of his own partisans expected removals enough to establish an equality. Jefferson resisted the demand. He made a few removals for strong and obvious reasons; but he acted uniformly on the principle that a difference of politics was not a reason for the removal of a competent and faithful subordinate. The few removals that he made were either for official misconduct or, to use his own language, “active and bitter opposition to the order of things which the public will has established.” He abolished at once the weekly levee at the White House, as well as the system of precedence that had been copied from the court etiquette of Europe. When congress assembled he sent them a message, instead of delivering to them a speech, which had the effect of preventing, as he remarked, “the bloody conflict to which the making an answer would have committed them.” He abolished also all the usages that savored of royalty, such as the conveyance of ministers in national vessels, the celebration of his own birthday by a public ball, the appointment of fasts and thanksgiving-days, the making of public tours and official visits. He refused to receive, while travelling, any mark of attention that would not have been paid to him as a private citizen, his object being both to republicanize and secularize the government completely. He declined also to use the pardoning power unless the judges who had tried the criminal signed the petition. He refused also to notice in any way the abuse of hostile newspapers, desiring, as he said, to give the world a proof that “an administration which has nothing to conceal from the press has nothing to fear from it.”

A few of the acts of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which includes a great part of the history of the United States for eight years, stand out boldly and brilliantly. That navy which had been created by the previous administration against France, Jefferson at once reduced by putting all but six of its vessels out of commission. He despatched four of the remaining six to the Mediterranean to overawe the Barbary pirates, who had been preying upon American commerce for twenty years; and Decatur and his heroic comrades executed their task with a gallantry and success which the American people have not forgotten. The purchase of Louisiana was a happy result of the president's tact and promptitude in availing himself of a golden chance. Bonaparte, in pursuit of his early policy of undoing the work of the seven-years' war, had acquired the vast unknown territory west of the Mississippi, then vaguely called Louisiana. This policy he had avowed, and he was preparing an expedition to hold New Orleans and settle the adjacent country. At the same time, the people of Kentucky, who, through the obstinate folly of the Spanish governor, were practically denied access to the ocean, were inflamed with discontent. At this juncture, in the spring of 1803, hostilities were renewed between France and England, which compelled Bonaparte to abandon the expedition which was ready to sail, and he determined to raise money by selling Louisiana to the United States. At the happiest possible moment for a successful negotiation, Mr. Jefferson's special envoy, James Monroe, arrived in Paris, charged with full powers, and alive to the new and pressing importance of the transfer, and a few hours of friendly parleying sufficed to secure to the United States this superb domain, one of the most valuable on the face of the globe. Bonaparte demanded fifty millions of francs. Marbois, his negotiator, asked a hundred millions, but dropped to sixty, with the condition that the United States should assume all just claims upon the territory. Thus, for the trivial sum of little more than $15,000,000, the United States secured the most important acquisition of territory that was ever made by purchase. Both parties were satisfied with the bargain. “This accession,” said the first consul, “strengthens forever the power of the United States, and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride.” The popularity of the administration soon became such that the opposition was reduced to insignificance, and the president was re-elected by a greatly increased majority. In the house of representatives the Federalists shrank at length to a little band of twenty-seven, and in the senate to five. Jefferson seriously feared that there would not be sufficient opposition to furnish the close and ceaseless criticism that the public good required. His second term was less peaceful and less fortunate. During the long contest between Bonaparte and the allied powers the infractions of neutral rights were so frequent and so exasperating that perhaps Jefferson alone, aided by his fine temper and detestation of war, could have kept the infant republic out of the brawl. When the English ship “Leopard,” within hearing of Old Point Comfort, poured broadsides into the American frigate “Chesapeake,” all unprepared and unsuspecting, killing three men and wounding eighteen, parties ceased to exist in the United States, and every voice that was audible clamored for bloody reprisals. “I had only to open my hand,” wrote Jefferson once, “and let havoc loose.” There was a period in 1807 when he expected war both with Spain and Great Britain, and his confidential correspondence with Madison shows that he meant to make the contest self-compensating. He meditated a scheme for removing the Spanish flag to a more comfortable distance by the annexation of Florida, Mexico, and Cuba, and thus obtaining late redress for twenty-five years of intrigue and injury. A partial reparation by Great Britain postponed the contest. Yet the offences were repeated; no American ship was safe from violation, and no American sailor from impressment. This state of things induced Jefferson to recommend congress to suspend commercial intercourse with the belligerents, his object being “to introduce between nations another umpire than arms.” The embargo of 1807, which continued to the end of his second term, imposed upon the commercial states a test too severe for human nature patiently to endure. It was frequently violated, and did not accomplish the object proposed. To the end of his life, Jefferson was of opinion that, if the whole people had risen to the height of his endeavor, if the merchants had strictly observed the embargo, and the educated class given it a cordial support, it would have saved the country the war of 1812, and extorted, what that war did not give us, a formal and explicit concession of neutral rights.

On 4 March, 1809, after a nearly continuous public service of forty-four years, Jefferson retired to private life, so seriously impoverished that he was not sure of being allowed to leave Washington without arrest by his creditors. The embargo, by preventing the exportation of tobacco, had reduced his private income two thirds, and, in the peculiar circumstances of Washington, his official salary was insufficient. “Since I have become sensible of this deficit,” he wrote, “I have been under an agony of mortification.” A timely loan from a Richmond bank relieved him temporarily from his distress, but he remained to the end of his days more or less embarrassed in his circumstances. Leaving the presidency in the hands of James Madison, with whom he was in the most complete sympathy and with whom he continued to be in active correspondence, he was still a power in the nation. Madison and Monroe were his neighbors and friends, and both of them administered the government on principles that he cordially approved. As has been frequently remarked, they were three men and one system. On retiring to Monticello in 1809, Jefferson was sixty-six years of age, and had seventeen years to live. His daughter Martha and her husband resided with him, they and their numerous brood of children, six daughters and five sons, to whom was now added Francis Eppes, the son of his daughter Maria, who had died in 1804. Surrounded thus by children and grandchildren, he spent the leisure of his declining years in endeavoring to establish in Virginia a system of education to embrace all the children of his native state. In this he was most zealously and ably assisted by his friend, Joseph C. Cabell, a member of the Virginia senate. What he planned in the study, Cabell supported in the legislature; and then in turn Jefferson would advocate Cabell's bill by one of his ingenious and exhaustive letters, which would go the rounds of the Virginia press. The correspondence of these two patriots on the subject of education in Virginia was afterward published in an octavo of 528 pages, a noble monument to the character of both. Jefferson appealed to every motive, including self-interest, urging his scheme upon the voter as a “provision for his family to the remotest posterity.” He did not live long enough to see his system of common schools established in Virginia, but the university, which was to crown that system, a darling dream of his heart for forty years, he beheld in successful operation. His friend Cabell, with infinite difficulty, induced the legislature to expend $300,000 in the work of construction, and to appropriate $15,000 a year toward the support of the institution. Jefferson personally superintended every detail of the construction. He engaged workmen, bought bricks, and selected the trees to be felled for timber. In March, 1825, the institution was opened with forty students, a number which was increased to 177 at the beginning of the second year. The institution has continued its beneficent work to the present day, and still bears the imprint of Jefferson's mind. It has no president, except that one of the professors is elected chairman of the faculty. The university bestows no rewards and no honors, and attendance upon all religious services is voluntary. His intention was to hold every student to his responsibility as a man and a citizen, and to permit him to enjoy all the liberty of other citizens in the same community. Toward the close of his life Jefferson became distressingly embarrassed in his circumstances. In 1814 he sold his library to congress for $23,000—about one fourth of its value. A few years afterward he endorsed a twenty-thousand-dollar note for a friend and neighbor whom he could not refuse, and who soon became bankrupt. This loss, which added $1,200 a year to his expenses, completed his ruin, and he was in danger of being compelled to surrender Monticello and seek shelter for his last days in another abode. Philip Hone, mayor of New York, raised for him, in 1826, $8,500, to which Philadelphia added $5,000 and Baltimore $3,000. He was deeply touched by the spontaneous generosity of his countrymen. “No cent of this,” he wrote, “is wrung from the tax-payer. It is the pure and unsolicited offering of love.” He retained his health nearly to his last days, and had the happiness of living to the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He died at twenty minutes to one P. M., 4 July, 1826. John Adams died a few hours later on the same day, saying, just before he breathed his last, “Thomas Jefferson still lives.” He was buried in his own grave-yard at Monticello, beneath a stone upon which was engraved an inscription prepared by his own hand: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.” He died solvent, for the sale of his estate discharged his debts to the uttermost farthing. His daughter and her children lost their home and had no means of support. Their circumstances becoming known, the legislature of South Carolina and Virginia each voted her a gift of $10,000, which gave peace and dignity to the remainder of her life. She died in 1836, aged sixty-three, leaving numerous descendants.

The writings of Thomas Jefferson were published by order of congress in 1853, under the editorial supervision of Henry A. Washington (9 vols., 8vo). This publication, which leaves much to be desired by the student of American history, includes his autobiography, treatises, essays, selections from his correspondence, official reports, messages, and addresses. The most extensive biography of Jefferson is that of Henry S. Randall (3 vols., New York, 1858). See also the excellent work of Prof. George Tucker, of the University of Virginia, “The Life of Thomas Jefferson” (2 vols., Philadelphia and London, 1837)”; “The Life of Thomas Jefferson,” by James Parton (Boston, 1874); and “Thomas Jefferson,” by John T. Morse, Jr., “American Statesmen” series (Boston, 1883). A work of singular interest is “The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson,” by his great-granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph (New York, 1871). Jefferson's “Manual of Parliamentary Practice” has been repeatedly republished; the Washington edition of 1871 is among the most recent. Consult also the “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Miscellanies of Thomas Jefferson,” by Thomas J. Randolph (4 vols., Boston, 1830). The lovers of detail must not over-look “Jefferson at Monticello,” compiled by Rev. Hamilton W. Pierson, D. D., of Kentucky, from conversations with Edmund Bacon, who was for twenty years Jefferson's steward and overseer. The correspondence between Jefferson and Cabell upon education in Virginia is very rare. An impression of Jefferson's seal, shown in the illustration on page 420, is now in the possession of George Bancroft.

The portraits of Jefferson, which were as numerous in his own time as those of a reigning monarch usually are, may well baffle the inquirer who would know the express image of his face and person. They differ greatly from one another, as in truth he changed remarkably in appearance as he advanced in life, being in youth raw-boned, freckled, and somewhat ungainly, in early manhood better looking, and in later life becoming almost hand-some—in friendly eyes. The portrait by Rembrandt Peale, taken in 1803, which now hangs in the library of the New York historical society, is perhaps the most pleasing of the later pictures of him now accessible. The portrait by Matthew Brown, painted for John Adams in 1786, and engraved for this work, has the merit of presenting him in the prime of his years. Daniel Webster's minute description of his countenance and figure at fourscore was not accepted by Mr. Jefferson's grandchildren as conveying the true impression of the man. “Never in my life,” wrote one of them, “did I see his countenance distorted by a single bad passion or unworthy feeling. I have seen the expression of suffering, bodily and mental, of grief, pain, sadness, just indignation, disappointment, disagreeable surprise, and displeasure, but never of anger, impatience, peevishness, discontent, to say nothing of worse or more ignoble emotions. To the contrary, it was impossible to look on his face without being struck with its benevolent, intelligent, cheerful, and placid expression. It was at once intellectual, good, kind, and pleasant, whilst his tall, spare figure spoke of health, activity, and that helpfulness, that power and will, ‘never to trouble another for what he could do himself,’ which marked his character.” Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.

 

 

UNDERWOOD, Joseph Rogers, 1791-1876, U.S. Senator, U.S. Congressman.  Supported African Colonization.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 210; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 114)

 

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

UNDERWOOD, Joseph Rogers, senator, b. in Goochland county, Va., 24. Oct., 1791; d. near Bowling Green, Ky., 23 Aug., 1876. He is a descendant of William Thomas Underwood, who settled in Virginia about 1680. His family being in adverse circumstances, he was adopted by his maternal uncle, Edward Rogers, a soldier of the Revolution, who had emigrated to Kentucky in 1783. Removing to that state in 1803, the boy was educated in various schools and was graduated at Transylvania in 1811, after which he studied law in Lexington, Ky. He was the first volunteer to be attached to the regiment of Colonel William Dudley for co-operation with the northern army on the Canada border, was made a lieutenant, and when the captain of his company was killed in Dudley's defeat, 5 May, 1813, the command devolved upon him. Underwood was wounded, and with the remnant of Dudley's regiment was forced to surrender. After undergoing cruel treatment from the Indians, he was released on parole and returned to his home. He was admitted to the bar in the same year, and settled in Glasgow, Ky., where he was also trustee of the town and county attorney until he removed to Bowling Green in 1823. He served in the legislature in 1816-'19 and again in 1825-'6, was a candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1828, and from that year till 1835 was judge of the court of appeals. Being elected to congress as a Whig, he served from 7 Dec., 1835, till 3 March, 1843, and in 1845 was chosen to represent Warren county in the legislature, serving as speaker of the house. He was elected a U.S. senator as a Whig, and, after serving from 6 Dec., 1847, till 3 March, 1853, again practised his profession. In 1824 and 1844 he was a presidential elector on the Henry Clay ticket, and he was a delegate to the National Democratic convention at…  Source: Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 210.

 

 

WASHINGTON, George, 1732-1799, Westmoreland County, Virginia, general, statesman, first President of the United States.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 373-384. Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. XIX, pp. 509-527.