LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ SANTA CRUZ Gift ol Cabrillo Colleoe SANTA CRUZ .rf-*^- rtarris Lavini ^ O IT II COUNTRYMEN: OR BRIEF MEMOIRS EMINENT AMERICANS, BY BENSON J. LOSSING, AUTHOR or "THE PICTORIAL FI ELD-BOO-K~"O F THE BE VOLUTI ON," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY ONE HUNDRED AND THREE PORTRAITS, BY LO88ING AND BABBITT. NEW YORK: ENSIGN, B R I D G M A N & FANNING, 156 WILLIAM STREET. 1 8 5 5 . Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by ENSIGN, BRIDGMAN, A FANNING, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. %&- In the note on page 196, it is erroneously stated that J. G. W. Trumbull, Esq., of Norwich, Connecticut, had been governor of that State. F..D BY 47 PEBFATOEY EEMAEKS. " T have often heard," says Sallust, " that Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio, and other renowned persons of the Roman Commonwealth, used to say that, whenever they beheld the images of their ancestors, they felt their minds vehemently excited to virtue. It could not be the wax, nor the marble, that possessed .this power ; but the recollections of their great actions kindled a generous flame in their breasts, which could not be quelled till they, also, by Virtue, had acquired equal fame and glory." With the earnest desire of producing precisely such effects up- on the minds and hearts of the young people of our country, this volume has been prepared ; this CENOTAPH this honorary monu- ment has been erected. The Roman youth were excited to great and virtuous deeds by the sight of material objects and the voices of Orators ; our youth have their aspirations for noble achievements awakened and cherished more by the silent yet potential ministra- tions of Books which tell of men worthy to be imitated as examples, or studied as warnings, than by merely sensuous impressions. Biography is History teaching by example. It is the basis of all historical structures. The Chronicles of the nations are composed yi PREFACE. of the sayings and doings of their men and women. These make up the sum of History. The materials for this book have been drawn from the Annals of the United States of America, as Colonies and as a Federal Republic. Such men have been selected, as examples, who seemed to illustrate by their lives, some special phase in the political, religious, and social life of our country, during its wonderful progress from its earliest settlement until the present time. I have endeavored to present such prominent points of character and deeds, in their lives, as would give the reader a general idea of their relative position to the history of their times ; and have also aimed to make the brief sketches so attractive and suggestive, as to excite a desire in the young to know more of these characters and their historical relations, and thus to persuade them to enter upon the pleasant and profitable employment of studying the prominent persons and events of our Republic. If this volume shall achieve that result, the pleasure experienced by the Author in the preparation of it, will be distrib- uted according to his desire. YORK, April, 1855. \ a INDEX A PORTRAIT ACCOMPANIES THOSE MARKED WITH AN *. PAGE PAGE, PAGE A. C. 1 Flint, Timothy . . 391 Adams, Samuel * Adams, John * Adams, John Q. . Allerton, Isaac 76 Calvert, Leonard . 87 *Calhoun, John C. 809 Canonicus 14 "Carroll, John 223 *Franklin, Benjamin 326i Franklin, William ^5 Francis, John W., jr. 49 *Fulton, Robert 39 . 129 . 406 . 155 Allison, Francis . 47 *Carroll, Charles . 146 Alexander, William 106 Carver, Jonathan . 74 G. Allen, Ethan Allstou, Washington . *Ames, Fisher Anderson, Richard C. . Armstrong, John . * Arnold, Benedict Asbury, Francis . Ashe, John . Ashman, Jehudi . * As tor, John Jacob *Audubon, John J. B. Bacon, Nathaniel . *Bainbridge, William . *Baldwin, Thomas Baldwin, Abraham *Ballou, Hosea Bartram, John 128 Cary, Lott . 262 *Carey, Matthew . 71i Gaswell, Richard . 299 *Channing, William E. . 316 Chauncey, Isaac . 135 Chittenden, Thomas . -J5 *Church, Benjamin 99 *Claiborne, William C. C 325 *CIarke, George R. 379 *Clay, Henry . 272 *ciinton, Dewitt . Clinton, George . *Colden, Cadwallader . 42 Colburn, Zerah 340 Colles, Christopher 204 Cooper, Thomas . 256 *Cooper, James F. 318 Copley, John S. . 45 Cornplanter . Q.V? Gadsden, Christopher .a Galloway, Joseph o?$ Gallatin, Albert . % Gallaudet, Thomas H. ?|f Gaston, William . -. Gates, Horatio q*o Girard, Stephen . ?OQ Godfrey, Thomas ing Gordon, William . - *Graham, Isabella . OOQ Gray, William rf oo *Greene, Nathaniel o-j Greene, Joseph (> QR *Greenough, Horatio 2oq Gridley, Richard . g[ Grundy, Felix 52 231 H. 109 72 . 321 . 881 . 850 . 295 . 271 (59 . 166 . 332 . 214 59 V . 130 . 393 . 122 . 366 Barlow, Joel . 117 *Coxe, Tench . . ^ Habersham, Joseph 134 Bard, Samuel 118 Craik, James 64 Hale, Nathan . 212 Barney, Joshua Barry, John . 120 Crockett, David . 121 Cruger, Henry 'l\ *IIamilton, Alexander 26b *Hancock, John . . 213 . 159 Barton, William . 137 Harnett, Cornelius 83 Bayard, James A. 267 D. Harrison, Benjamin . 103 Belknap, Jeremy . 104 Dana, Francis ' 92 *Harrison, AVilliarn H. . 240 Biddle, Nicholas . 346 Davie, William R. 89 Harrington, Jonathan 376 Bland, Richard . 142 \ Davidson, Lucretia M. 315 *Hayne, Robert Y. . 280 Blennerhassett, Harman *Booue, Daniel 377 1 Day, Stephen 192; Deane, Silas . 11 Hedding, Elijah . 79 *Henry, Patrick . . 38-2 . 1-J6 Boudinot, Elias . 133 Dearborn, Henry . 328 Henderson, Richard . 180 Boudoin, James . 65 Decatur, Stephen 343 Hicks, Elias . . 268 Bowditch, Nathaniel . 246 De Kalb, Baron . 291 Holmes, Abiel . . 329 Boyleston, Zabdiel 61 *Dickenson, John . 209 Hooker, Thomas . 26 Bradford, William Brainerd, David . 62 1 Downing, Andrew J. . 101 Drayton; William 11. . 375 *Hopkinson, Francis 86 Hopkins, Samuel 57 . 240 Brant, Joseph 158 Dunlap, William . 337 Hopkins, Stephen . 320 Brewster, William Brooks, John 10 *Dwight, Timothy 145 107 Hopkinson, Joseph Howard, John E. . . 370 . 141 Brown, Charles B. 290 -g Howe, Robert . 173 Brown, Jacob Brown, James Brown, Moses Bnel, Jesse . 348 *Edwards, Jonathan 071 Eliot, John . 35g *Ellsworth, Oliver m Hull, William \:, Humphreys, David 10 2 Hutchinson, Thomas . 219 215 . 58 *Burr, Aaron . 253 ,-, T Burke, JSdanus . 258 F. Jim Burnett, Robert . Byrd, William 401 *Ferguson, Catharine . 31 Fitch, John . 404 Inman, Henry 93 Izard, Ralph . 386 . 282 viii INDEX. J. PAGE PAGE PAOK *Jackson, James . *Jackson, Andrew . 131 Muhlenberg, Peter 244 *Murray, Lindley . 210 *Shelby, Isaac 68 Sherman, Roger . 98 168 *Jav Tohn 171 *Slater, Samuel 313 *Jefferson, Thomas Johnson, William Johnson, Richard M. . 188 N. 100 Nelson, Thomas, jr. 367 *Newell, Harriet . Smith, John . HI Smith, Samuel 285 Spencer, Ambrose 34 324 392 *Jones, John Paul . Jones, David *Judson, Adoniram *Judson, Anne 11. . 95 140 Q 864 ^Q Oglcthorpe, James E. *Olin, Stephen Stan dish, Miles Stark, John . Steuben, Baron De 51 Stevens, Ebeuezer 384 stiles, Ezra . . . 13 248 144 148 49 Osceola . 357 *Story, Joseph 289 . *Kent, James *0tis, James . 335 Otis, Harrison G. . . 162 *Stuart, Gilbert C. . . 402 *Stuyvesant, Peter 114 22 *King, Rufus . 150 Sullivan, John 347 Kinnison, David . 403 p Sumter, Thomas . 236 *Kirklaud, Samuel Knox, Henry Kosciusczko, Thaddeus 97? Paine, Thomas . QAfl *Paine, Robert Treat Patterson, Robert M. . 198 . 228 T. . 396 Talbot, Silas . . . 211 Peale, Charles W. . 170 *Taylor, Zachary . 353 . La Fayette, M. do *Penn, William . 287 *p e rry, Oliver H. . 24 Telfair, Edward . . 348 Tennent, William 252 116 Lamb, John . Langdon, John ' . Laurens, Henry . 263 Peters, Richard . 154 Phipps, William . 161 Philip, King . . . 169 Thacher, William 21 Thomas, Isaiah 38 *Thomson, Charles 254 149 46 Lawrence, James Ledyard, John 352 philipse, Mary . 2 Physic, Philip S. . 227 *Trumbull, Jonathan . . 330 *Trumbull, John . 43 196 Lee, Ann M Pickens, Andrew . 194 Trumbull, John . 259 Lee, Henry . 1 2 Pickering, Timothy . 165 Lee, Richard H. . 186 pierce, Benjamin, . 283 TT Lee, Charles . 307 Pike, Zebulon M. 191 OT Lee, Arthur . Legare, Hugh S. . 234 *pinckney, Charles C. 308 Pinckney, Thomas : 143 Uncas . 230 y e 01 Leisler, Jacob Lillington, John A. 64 *Pinkney, William "4 *Pocahontas . 237 *y an R en sselaer, Stephen 260 Lincoln, BenjamLi 298 *p ik, James K. . 388 ^rr *Livingston, Robert R. 105 Pontiac 70 "' *Livingston, Edward 174 Porter, David 302 *W T arren, Mercy . 85 *Livingston, John H. Lovel, John . Lyman, Phineas . 200 Preble, Edward . 97 Prentiss. Sargcant S. H3 Prescott, William *Putnam, Rufus . 199 Warren, Joseph . 397 Warner, Seth 175 *Washington, George . 182 'Washington, Martha . 190 206 55 119 M. Putnam, Israel 226 Wayne, Anthony . 286 *Macdonough, Thomas Macomb, Alexander M'Intosh, Lachlin M'Kean Thomas 323 303 ! Q. 279 Quincy, Josiah, jr. Weare, Meshech . *Webster, Noah . 1CT * Webster, Daniel . b V*Weems, Mason L. 183 224 276 112 Macon, Nathaniel 812 -n *West, Benjamin . 29 Madison, James . *Madison, James . Manly, John . *Marion, Francis . *Marshall, John Martin, Francois X. Mason, John . *Mather, Cotton . Mather, Increase . Meigs, Return J. . Mercer, Hugh Miantonomoh *Mitchill, Samuel L. Milnor, James Miller, William . *Monroe, James QQS *Ramsay, David . | 14 Randolph, Peyton -104. Randolph, Edmund 2i6 *Randolph, John . 243 *Red Jacket . 28 Reed, Joseph 27 *Rittenhouse, David 48 Rivington, James 362 Rodders, John 396 Rogers, Robert 20; Ruggles, Timothy 232 *Rumford, Count . 360 *Rush, Benjamin . 387 Rutledge, John --804 *Wheatley, Phillis . 167 Wheaton, Henry . 84 Wheelock, Eleazer . 170 *White, William . . 292 Whitney, Eli . 264 *Whipple, Abraham . . 207 AVeiser, Conrad . 35 *AA T illiams, Roger . . 208 Williamson, Hugh . 372 Willett, Marinus . 77 AVilson, Alexander 73 *Winthrop, John . . 269 W'inslow, Edward 78 Winthrop, John . . 153 AVirt, AVilliam Witherspoon, -Jonn 249 334 32 53 132 220 251 18 156 247 181 9 23 44 218 179 Montgomery, Richard . *Morris, Robert . 157 S. 90 St. Clair W r olcott, Oliver . . 242 Wooster, David . 238 322 Morris, Gouverneur Morgan, Daniel *Motte, Rebecca . 202 *Schuyler, Philip . 222 Seabiiry, Samuel . 75 Sears, Isaac . . 189, Woods, Leonard . . 110 Wright, Silas . 251 Wright, Benjamin 890 355 363 Moultrie, William 262 i Sevler,John . . 331 1 Wythe, George . 278 JOHN WINTHKOP. r PHE PILGRIM FATHERS' planted the seeds of the Plymouth Colony, amid the JL December snows, in 1620. Eight years afterward other emigrants, with John Endicott at their head, as governor, founded the colony of the Massa- chusetts Bay, at Salem. In 1629, John Winthrop, a wealthy Puritan, resolved to convert his large estate into money, and link his fortunes with this new colony. He was chosen to succeed Endicott, as governor, before he left England, and soon after his arrival in June, 1630, he chose the peninsula of Shawmut, on 1. In the year 1608, John Robinson, a pious pastor of a flock in the north of England, who would not conform to the rituals of the Established Church, fled, with his people, to Holland, to avoid persecution. They felt that they were only Pilgrims, and assumed that name. Toward the close of 1620. about 100 of them, including women and children, arrived on the shores of Cape Cod Bay in the ship May Flower, and planted a colony where the town of Plymouth now stands. They are known as The Pilgrim Fathers. 10 WILLIAM BREWSTER. which the city of Boston now stands, for a residence, because pure water gushed from its hills. There he founded the future metropolis of New England. 1 John Winthrop was born in Groton, Suffolk county, England, on the 12th of June, 1587, and was educated for the profession of the law. Theological studies possessed greater charms for him, and the peculiar seriousness of his mind led him to Puritanism, 2 as he found it at the beginning of King Charles' reign. Because of his many admirable qualities, he was chosen governor under the charter granted in 1629, and was therefore really the first governor of Massa- chusetts, notwithstanding the earlier services of Endicott, as head of the actual settlers. Winthrop held his first court, composed of deputy-governor Dudley and mem- bers of the Council, on the 23d of August, 1630, under a large tree at Charles- town ; and the first topic brought under consideration was a suitable provision for the support of the gospel. Mr. Winthrop was a man of great benevolence. It was his practice to send his servants among the people at meal-time, on trifling errands, with instructions to report the condition of their tables. When informed of any who appeared to want, he always sent a supply from his own abundance. He was also merciful as a magistrate, for he considered it expe- dient to temper the severity of law with more lenity in an infant colony than in a settled state. Because of his lenity toward offenders, he was charged, in 1636, of dealing "too remissly in point of justice." The ministers decided that "the safety of the gospel " required more rigor ; and, contrary to the motions of his own liberal heart, he was obliged to yield. So zealous were the chief men of the colony in favor of rigorous discipline, that deputy Dudley, a bigot of the strictest stamp, was chosen governor, in place of Winthrop, in 1634; but the latter was re-elected in 1637, and held the office of chief magistrate most of the time, until his death. Governor Winthrop came to America a wealthy man, but died quite poor. His benevolent heart kept his hand continually open, and he dispensed comforts to the needy, without stint. He regarded all men as equally dear in the eyes of their Maker, yet his early education blinded him to the dignity of true democ- racy. He regarded it with much disfavor ; and when the people of Connecticut asked his advice concerning the organization of a government, he replied, " The best part of a community is always the least, and of that least part the wiser are still less." He had little faith in " the people." Worn out with toils and afflictions, this faithful and upright magistrate entered upon his final rest on the 26th of March, 1649, at the age of sixty-one years. WILLIAM BREWSTER. ONE of the noblest of the Pilgrim Fathers, was William Bre wster, the spiritual guide of those who landed on Plymouth Rock, in bleak December, 1620. He was born in England in 1560, and was educated at Cambridge. William Davidson, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to Holland, was his friend and patron in youth. When a wicked policy caused the Queen to disgrace and even de- stroy innocent men, Davidson, who had been appointed Secretary of State, was a great sufferer. Brewster, with a grateful loyalty, adhered to him as long as 1. Boston was so named in honor of John Cotton, minister of Boston, England, who came to America in 1633, and was appointed teacher in the church in Winthrop's capital. 2. Those who would not conform to the rituals of the Established Church of England, and professed great purity of life, as well as of doctrine, were called PURITANS, in derision. It has since become an honorable title. STEPHEN DAY. 11 he could serve him, and then retired among his friends in the North of England. His religious zeal there burned brightly, and his hand and purse were ever open in well-doing. He finally became disgusted with the assumptions and tyranny of the Established Church, and joined a society of separatists, under the pastoral care of John Robinson. Mr. Brewster's house was their Sabbath meeting-place for worship ; and when, finally, these non-conformists were obliged to flee from hierarchical persecution, that good Christian attempted to leave friends and country, and follow. He was arrested, with others, and imprisoned at Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1607 ; but as soon as he obtained his liberty, he sailed for Holland. His estate had become exhausted, and at Leyden he opened a school for instruction in the English language. He also established a printing-press there, and published several books. Mr. Brewster was greatly beloved, and was chosen an elder in the church at Leyden, over which his old pastor presided. It was in that capacity that he sailed, with " the youngest and strongest" of Mr. Robinson's flock, in the May Flower, late in 1620. He suffered and rejoiced with the PILGRIMS, in all their strange vicissitudes ; and for almost nine years, he was the only regular dis- penser of the "Word of Life to the Puritans, in the little church at Plymouth. He preached twice every Sunday ; but could never be persuaded to administer the sacraments. It was in that church at Plymouth that the largest liberty was first granted to the laity, It was a common practice for a question to be pro- pounded on the Sabbath, and all who felt "gifted" were allowed to speak upon it. This liberty finally became a great annoyance to the ministers, and much difficulty ensued. It had free scope while Elder Brewster officiated, but when Rev. Ralph Smith was settled as pastor over the Plymouth church, he en- deavored to check it. Elder Brewster died on the 16th of April, 1644, at the age of eighty-three years. STEPHEN DAY. THE first printer who practiced his art within the domain of the United States was Stephen Day, a native of London. The Rev. Jesse G lover, one of the earliest patrons of Harvard College, presented that institution with a font of type, and others contributed money to buy a press. In 1638, Mr. Glover, then in London, engaged Day to accompany him to America, to take charge of the printing-house at Cambridge. Glover died on the voyage, but Day arrived in safety, with his patron's widow and children, and commenced work in January, 1639. His first production was The Freeman's Oath; and soon afterward he printed an Almanac made by a mariner named Pierce, in which the year begins with March. The first look the first one printed in America was the Psalms in Meter, containing three hundred pages, and was known as The Bay Psalm Book, He printed several Almanacs, and also some astronomical calculations by Urian Oakes, then a youth, and afterward President of Harvard College. Day was an unskilful printer ; yet, being the only one in the colony, he was so much esteemed, that the general court of Massachusetts granted him three hundred acres of land, in 1641. He frequently complained that his printing was unprofitable. He continued in the business until the beginning of 1649, when his establishment went into the hands of Samuel Greene, who came to Cam- bridge with his parents at the age of sixteen years. Greene continued the business until near the close of the century, and many writers have spoken of him as the first printer. Day expired at Cambridge, n the 22d of December, 1668, at the age of about fifty-eight years.. 12 BENJAMIN CHURCH. BENJAMIN CHURCH. "MEXT to Miles Standish, the warrior-pilgrim of the May Flower, Benjamin ll Church was the most distinguished military hero in early New England history. He was bora at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1639, and was instructed in the trade of a carpenter, by his father. He went to Duxbury to reside, and was pursuing his vocation there when King Philip's war broke out. 1 That great chief of the Wampanoags had long kept inviolate the treaty made with the white people by his father, Massasoit; but when provocations multiplied when he saw spreading settlements reducing his domains, acre by acre, breaking up his hunting grounds, diminishing his fisheries, and menacing his nation with servitude or annihilation, his patriotism was aroused, and he willingly listened to the hot young warriors around him, who counselled a war of extermination against the English. Philip struck the first blow at Swanzey, thirty-five miles south-west from Plymouth ; and for almost a year this dreadful war went on, and extended even to the valley of the Connecticut river. Nearly all of the New England tribes joined Philip in his enterprise. The white people banded, and struck the savages with vigorous blows in all directions. Among their 1. Philip was a son of Massasoit, and he and his brother were named respectively Philip and Alex- ander, by the white people, in compliment to their brnvery. Because, after the death of his father, he became chief sachem of his powerful tribe, he was called King Philip. See page 38. MILES STANDISH. 13 leaders, Captain Church was the bravest of the brave; and in the Spring of 1676 he completely broke the power of the New England tribes. Almost three thousand Indians had been slain or had bowed in submission, and Philip was a hunted fugitive. He was chased from place to place, and refused to yield. He cleft the head of a warrior who dared to propose submission ; and a curse upon the white people was ever upon his lips. At length the " last of the Wampa- noags " was compelled to yield to the pressure of circumstances, He went stealthily back to the home of his fathers, at Mount Hope. Soon his wife and son were made prisoners, and his spirit drooped. "Now my heart breaks," said the brave warrior ; " I am ready to die." A few days afterward a faithless Indian shot him, in a swamp, and Captain Church, with his own sword, cut off the dead sachem's head. Lacking the magnanimity of a true soldier, the pro- fessed Christian leader disfigured the senseless body, then quartered it, and hung it upon trees, declaring, "Forasmuch as he caused many an Englishman's body to lie unburied and rot above the ground, not one of his bones shall be buried." The chieftain's head was carried to Plymouth on a pole, where it was exposed for several years, and his right hand was sent to the governor of Mas- sachusetts. The rude sword of Church which cut off Philip's head is now a cherished relic in the library of the Historical Society of the "Old Bay State." If we censure Church's want of magnanimity as a soldier, what shall we say of the Christian charity of. the Plymouth people in the disposal of King Philip's son. It was a subject for serious consideration. Some of the elders of the church proposed putting him to death ; while the more merciful ones proposed to sell him into slavery in Bermuda. The most profitable measure appeared the kindest, and the innocent child was sold into perpetual bondage. Captain Church lived many years after the war, at different places in the vicinity of Narraganset Bay, in Rhode Island. His last place of residence was Little Compton, where, on the 17th of January, 1718, he was thrown from a horse. He was very corpulent, and the shock of his fall ruptured a blood vessel, which caused his death in the course of a few hours, at the age of seventy- nine years. MILES STANDISH. THE " Hero of New England," as Captain Standish is called, was, like many other heroes and great men, rather diminutive in person. Hubbard, the his- torian, says, when speaking of him, "A little chimney is soon fired: so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very small stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper." He was born in Lancashire, England, about the year 1584. He was a soldier by profession, and was serving in the Netherlands when Mr. Robinson, 'with his PILGRIM flock, settled at Leyden. There he joined the Puritans, and came with them to America, in the May Flower. When that vessel anchored in Cape Cod Bay, and it was thought expedient to explore the bleak shore to find a good landing-place, Standish was among the first to volunteer for the service. He was one of those who passed the first Christian Sabbath, after their arrival, in deep snow upon a barren island in Plymouth harbor ; and he was the second man who stepped upon Plymouth Rock. Standish was very serviceable to the English when the Indians showed signs of hostility, and they relied much upon his military skill and personal bravery. Wherever the duties of his profession called him, there he was always found. Two years after the establishment of the Puritans at Plymouth, he was called to 14 ISAAC ALLERTON. protect a new colony at Wissagusset (now Weymouth), who had exasperated the Indians by begging and stealing. They had been sent over by a wealthy London merchant, and most of them were quite unfit for the business of found- ing a state. The Indians resolved to destroy them ; but, through the agency of Massasoit, a firm friend of the English, the conspiracy was revealed to the Plymouth people in time for Captain Standish to march thither with a small company and avert the blow. When he arrived, his anger was fiercely kindled by the insolence of Pecksuot, the chief, and his few followers. Pecksuot sharpened his knife in the presence of Standish, and said, " Though you are a great captain, you are but a little man ; and though I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage." Standish had the prudence to check his resentment ; but the next day, when the chief, and about the same number of his followers as Slandish had with him, were in a room with the white people, the captain gafre a signal, and five of the savages were slam. Standish snatched Pecksuot's knife from him, and with it slew its owner. When Mr. Robinson (the original pastor of the PILGRIMS, and who remained in Holland) heard of this event, he wrote to the Church of Plymouth "to consider the dis- position of their captain, who was of a warm temper. He hoped that the Lord had sent him among them for good, if they used him right ; but he doubted whether there was not wanting that tenderness of the life of man, made after God's image, which was meet ; and he thought that it would have been happy if they had converted some before they had killed any." Captain Standish settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts, about 1631 ; and a place near his residence is still called Captain's Hill. During almost the whole time of his residence in the colony, he was an assistant magistrate. He died at his house in Duxbury, in the year 1656. ISAAC ALLEKTpN. ^FHE May Flower passengers may all be considered " distinguished Americans," J- because they left their birth-land forever, and became founders and citizens of a new empire in this Western World. Of the noble band who signed a con- stitution of government 1 , in the cabin of the May Flower, at Cape Cod, Isaac Allerton was the fifth to append his name to that instrument. He survived the terrors of the first winter in New England, 2 afterward became the agent of the settlers in negotiating the purchase of the new possessions from those of the company in London, who had furnished capital for the enterprise; 3 and, as an enterprising trader, became the founder of the commerce of New England. He established a trading post near the mouth of the Kennebeck, in 1627, and made several business voyages to England. He also established 'trading posts at Penobscot and Machias. In 1635, he opened a profitable trade with New Haven, New Amsterdam, Virginia, and even with the West Indies. He finally made New Amsterdam (now New York) his chief place of residence, and traded prin- cipally in tobacco. In 1643, when the English began to exert a considerable influence in the affairs of New Amsterdam, and a council of eight men repre- sented the people, Mr. Allerton was chosen to fill a seat in that body. 1. The first written constitution adopted by a free people. 2. Of the one hundred PILGRIMS only forty survived. 3. Some London merchants formed a partnership with the PILGRIMS, and furnished capital for the enterprise. The service of each emigrant was valued as a capital of ten pounds, and allvprofits were reserved until the end of seven years. The community system did not work well, and at the eiid of the seven years, the settlers bought' of the merchants their interest in the venture. CANONIC US. 15 Mr. Allerton was accompanied in the May Flower by his wife and four chil- dren. His wife died soon after their arrival; and in 1627, he married Fear, a daughter of Elder Brewster, the spiritual guide of the- PILGRIM adventurers. 1 She, also, died in 1634. He was again marrried, for we have an account of his shipwreck, with his wife, on the coast of Massachusetts, in 1644. The time and place of his death is not known, some asserting that he returned to England, and others that he died in the city of New Amsterdam (New York), in 1 659. CANONICIJS. NB of the most renowned sachems among the New England tribes was Canonicus, the head of the Narragansets when the PILGRIM FATHERS found- ed New Plymouth. He regarded the advent of the white men with a jealous fear; and in 162'2, feeling strong, with about five thousand fighting men around him, he sent a challenge to Governor Bradford, of the Plymouth colony, not- withstanding Massasoit, the chief sachem of the Wampanoags, was the friend of the English. His token of defiance was a bundle of arrows, tied with a snake skin. Bradford sagaciously filled the skin with powder and ball, and sent it back to Canonicus. The chief had never seen the like before, and he regarded these substances with superstitious awe. They were sent from village to village, and excited so much alarm, that the sachem sued for peace, and made a treaty of friendship, which he never violated ; notwithstanding, he often re- ceived provocations that would have justified him in scattering all compacts to the winds. When Roger Williams became an exile from Massachusetts, he found a friend in Canonicus, who gave him all the land in the vicinity of Providence, for a set- tlement. Williams found more love and generous sentiment in the heart of that forest monarch than among his own countrymen at Boston. When the Pequot war broke out in 1637, Canonjcus stood firmly in defence of the English; and a deputation from Massachusetts, who appeared before his island throne opposite Newport, were received with friendly assurances. His palace was a building fifty feet in length, made of upright poles, covered with branches and mats. The royal dinner given to the ambassadors consisted of boiled chestnuts for bread, plenty of venison, and a dessert of boiled pudding made of pounded In- dian corn, well filled with whortle-berries. After again assuring the ambassadors of his friendly intentions, he advised the Pequots to bury the hatchet. They refused to listen, and were utterly destroyed by the combined forces of the Eng- lish, the Narragansets, the Mohegans, and the Niantics. In 1638, Canonicus began to feel the infirmities of age, and resigned his gov- ernment into the hands of his nephew, Miantonomoh. That chief was afterward made a prisoner by Uncas, "the last of the Mohegans," and murdered by the consent of the English. The resentment of Canonicus was aroused, and he could hardly be- restrained from declaring war against the white people. Prudent counsels prevailed in his cabinet, and peace was maintained. In the beautiful month of June, 1647, this "wise and peaceable prince," as Williams calls him, died at his seat on Conannicut Island, opposite Newport, at the age of eighty- five years. 1. The practice of the Puritans of giving their children the names of moral qualities, was exemplified in Brewster's family. His two daughters were named respectively Fear and Lave ; and his son's name was Wrestling. 16 POCAHONTAS. POCAHONTAS. " She was a soft landscape of mild earth, Where all was harmony and calm quiet, Luxuriant, budding." BYRON. SUCH was the sweet little Indian girl, the favorite daughter of the powerful Emperor of the Powhatan Confederacy 1 in Virginia, when the white people laid the foundations of a new empire there. When a site for a settlement was chosen, Captain Smith, the boldest of those early adventurers, penetrated the interior, and was taken prisoner. His captor carried him in triumph from vil- lage to village, and then presented him to the Emperor, in his forest palace at Werowocomoco. Smith was condemned to die. With his arms pinioned, and his head upon a huge stone, he was doomed to have his brains dashed out by a blow from a club. When the executioner advanced, Pocahontas, then a girl ten or twelve years of age, leaped from her father's side, where she sat trem- bling, clasped the head of Smith in her arms, and implored his life. ' How could that stern old king deny The angel pleading in her eye? How mock the sweet, imploring grace, That breathed in beauty from her face, And to her kneeling action gRve Aim 10 ner Kneeling action gave A power to soothe, and still subdue, Until, though humble as a slave, To more than queenly sway she grew?" ?" SIMMS. The Emperor yielded, and Smith was spared. 1. This was a confederacy of more than twenty Indian tribes in the vicinity of the James, York and Potomac rivers. Powhatan was not the family name of the father of Pocahontas, but the title of the emperor, the same as the title of Pharaoh, for the Egyptian kings, in the time of the Jewish bondage. JOHN" ELIOT. 17 Two years after this event, the Indians formed a conspiracy to exterminate the white people. Again Pocahontas became an angel of deliverance. During a dark and stormy night she left her father's cabin, sped to Jamestown, informed Smith of his danger, and was back to her couch before dawn. It was no 'won- der that the English regarded the Indian princess with great esteem ; and "yet, when Smith had left the colony, and indolence and licentiousness had full sway, that gentle girl was ruthlessly torn from her kindred, and held a prisoner on board of an English vessel. Argall, a rough, half-piratical mariner, desirous of extorting advantageous terms of peace from her father, bribed a savage, .by the gift^f a copper kettle, to betray her into his hands. Powhatan loved his child' tenderly, and offered five hundred bushels of corn, and a promise of friendship toward the English, for her ransom. But other bonds, more holy than those of Argall, now detained her. While on the ship, a mutual attachment had budded and blossomed between her and John Rolfe, a fine young Englishman, of good family. "With the consent of her father, Pocahontas received Christian baptism, with the title of "the Lady Rebecca," and she and her lover were married. In 1616, Pocahontas accompanied her husband to England, where she was received at Court with all the distinction due to a princess. But the silly bigot on the throne was highly indignant because one of his subjects had dared to marry a lady of royal blood, and absurdly apprehended that Rolfe might lay claim "to the crown of Virginia!" Afraid of the royal displeasure, Captain Smith, who was then in England, would not allow her to call him father, as she desired to do. She could not comprehend the cause ; and her tender, simple heart was greatly grieved by what seemed to be his want of affection for her. She remained in England about a year ; and when ready to embark for America with her husband, she was taken sick, and died at Gravesend, in the flowery month of June, 1617, when not quite twenty-two years of age. She left one son, Thomas Rolfe, who afterward became quite a distinguished man in Vir- ginia. His only child was a daughter, and from her some of the leading fam- ilies in Virginia trace their descent. Among these were the Boilings, Hem- mings, Murrays, Guys, Eldridges and Randolphs. The late John Randolph, of Roanoke, boasted of his descent from the Indian princess. JOHN ELIOT. p RE AT efforts have been made from time to time to Christianize portions of VJ the aboriginals of our country, but none have been more successful than those put forth during the early days of New England settlements, by one who has been justly termed the Apostle to the Indians. John Eliot was born in Essex county, England, in 1604. He was educated at tl\e university of Cam- bridge, and was engaged in school teaching for several years. He became a gospel minister; and in 1631, arrived at Boston, and commenced ministerial labors there. He was afterward associated with Mr. Wilde at the head of a congregation in Roxbury ; and these, with Richard Mather, were appointed, in 1639, to make a new metrical version of the Psalms. Looking out upon the dusky tribes around him, the heart of Mr. Eliot was troubled by a view of their spiritual destitution, and_ he resolved to preach the gospel among those heathen neighbors. The twenty tribes known to the Eng- lish spoke a similar language, and when he had mastered it sufficient to be un- derstood by them, he began his labors. His first sermon was preached to them 18 ROGER WILLIAMS. in the present town of Newton, in October, 1646. He saw blossoms of promise at that first gathering, and very soon fruit appeared, to his great joy. Although violently opposed by the Indian priests, whose "craft was in danger," and also by some of the sachems and chiefs, he was not dismayed, but penetrated the deep wilderness in all directions, relying solely upon his God for protection. Finally, an Indian town was built at Natick, and a house of worship, the first for the use of the Indians ever erected by Protestants in America/ was reared there in 1660. Many received the rites of baptism and the Lord's Supper, after being thoroughly instructed in religious doctrines and duties. Mr. Eliot translated the New Testament into the Indian language, and pub- lished it,in 1661; and in the course of a few years he established several con- gregations among these children of the forest, extending even as far as Cape Cod. He obtained unbounded influence over them ; and he was also their pro- tector when, during King Philip's war, the Massachusetts people wished to exterminate the Indians, without discrimination. It was estimated that there were five thousand "praying Indians," as the converts were called, among the New England tribes, when Philip raised the hatchet. "When the weight of fourscore years bowed the pious apostle, and he could no longer visit the Indian churches, he persuaded a number of families to send their negro servants to him to be instructed in Gospel truth, and thus he labored for benighted minds, until the last. With the triumphant words, " welcome joy," upon his lips, the venerable and faithful servant died, on the 20th of May, 1690, at the age of eighty -six years. ROGERWILLIAMS. THE annunciation of new theories, whether in science, government, religion, or ethics, which clash with prevailing dogmas, is always met with scoffs and frowns, if not with actual persecution. The stand-point of reformers is always in advance of current ideas, and the true value of such men can only be appreciated when their labors have ceased, and they are sleeping with the dead. To such a character we turn when we contemplate Roger Williams, the great champion of toleration, and of private judgment in religious matters. He was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. He was a minister in the Church of England for a short time, but his independent principles soon led him to non-conformity, and he came to America to indulge in the free exercise of his opinions. He arrived in February, 1631, and in April following, he was chosen assistant minister at Salem. His extreme views concerning entire sep- aration from the Church .of England were not palatable to many of his brethren : and his asserted independence of the magistracy in religious matters drew upon him the condemnation of that entire class and their friends. He left Salem and went to Plymouth in 1632 ; but, on the death of the minister at the former place, he returned there, and took sole charge of the congregation, in 1634. There he proclaimed his peculiar views with more vehemence than ever ; and in his excessive zeal for toleration, and individual liberty of thought and action, he became as intolerant as his opposers, without their excuse of care for the stability, of the church and civil government. He asserted that an oath ought not to be administered to an unregenerate man ; that a Christian ought not to 1. French Jesuits had already established missionary stations on the St. Lawrence, and even on the borders of the great lakes. ROGER WILLIAMS. 19 pray with an unregenerate man; that "grace" at table ought to be omitted; and having formed a separate congregation, he even refused to commune with members of his own church who did not separate entirely from all connection with the "polluted New England churches." He finally declared the Massa- chusetts charter void, because the land had not been purchased from the Indians, and "reviled magistrates." "The general court passed a sentence of banishment against him in 1635, and early in January, 1636, he left the colony for the wil- derness toward Narraganset Bay, to avoid being seized and sent to England. After severe trials and hardships, he purchased lands frOm the Indians at the head of Narraganset Bay, and there founded a town, and named it Providence. He offered a free asylum to all persecuted people, and many joined him there. Time mellowed his extreme opinions, and he became a pattern of toleration. He also became a Baptist ; and when he formed a civil government, it was purely democratic. He, as the head, had no privileges but those which were common to all. He labored zealously for the spiritual and temporal good of the Indians; and in 1643 he went to England to obtain a royal charter. Already other settlements of his friends had been made on Ehode Island. 1 In the spring of 1644, a free charter of incorporation was granted, and these several settle- ments were united under the title of the Rhode Island and. Providence Planta- 1. The Indian name was Aquiday, or Aquitneclc. It was named Rhode Island because of its supposed resemblance to the aucieut Island of Rhodes. 20 MIANTONOMOH. tions. He again went to England in 1651, as agent for the colony, where he remained until 1654. On his return he was made president of the colony, in which office he was succeeded, in 1657, by Benedict Arnold. Eoger "Williams was an eminent peace-maker between the white people and the Indians, and on two occasions he no doubt saved those who banished him to the wilderness, from utter destruction. While all sects were permitted to enjoy entire freedom within his domains, he was fierce in controversy against the Quakers. In 1672, he held a public dispute with leaders of that sect at New- port, for three days, and one day at Providence, an account of which he after- ward published, under the title of " George Fox digged out of his Burrows." A preacher, named Burroughs, was one of the disputants in favor of the principles of Fox. Roger "Williams died at Providence, in April, 1683, aged eighty-four years. His name is cherished as the first founder of a state in the New World, where freedom to worship God according to the dictates of the individual conscience, was made an organic law. MIANTONOMOH. ONE of the most renowned of the warriors of the New England Indians, was Miantonomoh, sachem of the Narragansets, and nephew and successor of Canonicus. He took a share in the government of his aged uncle, in 1636, and was the warm friend and benefactor of the first settlers of Rhode Island. He joined Captain Mason against the Pequods in 1637 ; and the following year he was associated with Uncas, the chief sachem of the Mohegans, in a treaty of peace and friendship with the English at Hartford The two sachems agreed not to make war upon each other, without first appealing to the English. An occasion soon appeared. Uncas was the aggressor; and by the consent of the governor at Hartford, Miantonomoh, at the head of eight . hundred warriors, marched into the Mohegan country. A severe battle ensued on a great plain near Norwich. By stratagem Uncas gained the victory, and Miantonomoh was made a prisoner, with one of his brothers, and two sons of Canonicus. They were sent to Hartford, and the English were asked to decide what should be done with the royal prisoner. The question was referred to an ecclesiastical tribunal, consisting of five of the principal ministers of New England. They decided to hand him over to Uncas for " execution 'without torture," within the dominions of that sachem. It was an ungenerous and wicked decision, for Miantonomoh had ever been a firm friend of the English, without the selfish incentives that governed Uncas. But just then, a covetous desire to possess the land of Uncas made them willing to secure his favor, even by so foul a pro- cedure. Delighted with the verdict of his Christian allies, the equally savage Mohegan, with a few trusty followers, conducted Miantonomoh to the spot where he was captured, near Norwich, and there a brother of Uncas stepped up behind the unsuspecting victim and cleft his head with a hatchet. The noble Mian- tonomoh was buried where he was slain ; and to this day the locality is called Sachem's Plain. This transaction aroused the fierce ire of the Narragansets against the English, and they had the sympathy of the surrounding tribes. Hatred of the English and of their boasted Christianity, became deep-rooted, and was one of the principal causes which led to the bloody contest known as King Philip's war, about thirty years later. Miantonomoh was about forty-four years of age at the time of his death. WILLIAM PHIPPS. 21 WILLIAM PHIPPS, " /CIRCUMSTANCES make men what they are," is a general truth which V few persons of observation will deny. William Phipps illustrated the truth in his life and character, in an eminent degree. He was born in the then far-off wilderness at Pemaquid, now Bristol, in the state of Maine, on the 2d of February, 1651. His father was a gun-smith, and migrated to America, with Winthrop's party, in 1630. William was the tenth of twenty-six children by the same mother. He lived in the wilderness until he was eighteen years of age, without any special aim for life. Then he was apprenticed to a ship carpenter for four years. At the expiration of his minority and servitude ho went to Boston, and there, for the first time, studied reading and writing. Charmed with the tales of seamen, among whom his business cast his lot, he resolved to seek his fortunes on the ocean. He left Boston when he was twenty- four years of age, and after many adventures and hardships, he discovered a Spanish wreck on the coast of St. Domingo, and from it fished up pearls, plate, and jewels, to the value of a million and a half of dollars. With this treasure he sailed for England, where he divided the booty so equitably among the sea- men, that his own share amounted to only eighty thousand dollars. That was a large fortune for the time ; and James the Second was so much charmed by the talent and general character of Phipps, that he knighted him. Three years afterward he returned to Boston, where he took rank in the best society. In 1690, Sir William Phipps commanded an expedition against Port Royal, in the French territory of Acadie, now Nova Scotia. His expedition comprised eight or nine vessels, and about eight hundred men. He seized Port Royal, brought Acadie into subjection, and obtained sufficient property, by plundering the people, to pay the expenses of the enterprise. This success encouraged the New England colonies to coalesce with New York in efforts to subdue Canada, then held by the French. Sir William commanded a naval expedition against Quebec, which Massachusetts alone fitted out. He sailed from Boston with thirty-four vessels and a thousand men, reached Quebec in safety, and landed his troops ; but the strength of the city, and the lack of cooperation on the part of the land troops, caused him to abandon the undertaking and return home. He was soon afterward sent to England to solicit aid in further warfare against the French and Indians. He also asked for the restoration of the old charter of Massachusetts, taken away by Andros. 1 Aid for war was refused; and King William, instead of restoring the old charter, granted a new one, under which Sir William was appointed the first governor, by the king, on the nomination of Increase Mather. He arrived at Boston in May, 1692, and was instrumental in stopping prosecutions for witchcraft, then in fearful activity in the colony. 2 The same year he went to Pemaquid, with four hundred and fifty men, and built a fort there. He was removed from office in 1694, when he went to Eng- land, and received positive promises of restoration. But death soon closed his career. He died in London, on the 18th of February, 1695, at the age of forty- four years. 1. Ednvml Andros was sent to New England, by James the Second, to tal\e away the several charters of the colonies, and consolidate the whole under one government, with himself at the head as the direct representative of royalty. The revolution of 16S8, drove James from the throne, and placed William of Orange and his wife, Mary, there. It was to William that Phipps appealed for the restoration of the charters taken away by Andros. The new charter was uot so acceptable to the people as the old one. 2. See sketch of Dr Mather. 22 PETER STUYYESANT. PETER STUYVESANT. THE founding of the great commercial city of New York was the work of beaver-hunting Hollanders, at a time when ships from the Zuyder-Zee were in the far^distant waters of the East Indies, and the navies that sailed from the Texel were mistresses of the ocean. Holland then controlled the commerce of the world. A company was chartered to plant trading stations in the region discovered by Henry Hudson, 1 and when settlements were established there, governors were sent to administer political rule. Of the five employed at dif- ferent times by the company, Peter Stuyvesant was the ablest and the last. He was a son of a clergyman in Friesland, where he was born in 1602, and was edu- cated for the ministry in the High School at Franeker. There he acquired a knowledge of Latin, with which he played the pedant in after life. Liking the military art better than theology, he entered the army, and rose to distinction 1. Hudson discovered the Bay of New York and the river bearing his name, at the close of the Sum- mer of 1609. He was then in the service of the Dutch East India Company. EDWARD WINSLOW. 23 on account of his bravery. His talent commended him to the Dutch "West India Company, 1 and he was appointed its first director, or governor, of Curacoa. In 1644, Stuyvesant led an expedition against the Portuguese on the island of St. Martin, and lost a leg in an engagement there. He went to Holland for surgical aid, and soon afterward he received the appointment of first director of the province of New Netherland, as the Dutch possessions on the Hudson were called. He arrived at New Amsterdam (now New York) in May, 1647. He found everything in confusion, and the seeds of democracy growing rapidly, be- cause of the tyrannous and dishonest rule of his predecessor. Stuyvesant was an aristocrat, and his profession made him an iron man, as a ruler. He at once commenced much-needed reforms, and declared his honest desire to improve the condition of the people; but he told them frankly that he considered it "treason to petition against one's magistrates, whether there be cause or not." Governed by such sentiments, he ruled vigorously for almost twenty years. He destroyed the power of a growing Swedish colony on the Delaware, 2 settled boundary dis- putes with the English in Connecticut, and by conciliatory measures made the Indians so friendly, that the New England people believed the silly story that he was leagued with the savages to destroy the Puritans. When Charles the Second was restored to the throne of his fathers, he gave the territory of New Netherland to his brother James, Duke of York. The duke sent a fleet to take possession. 3 Stuyvesant yielded with great reluctance; and in September, 1664, New Amsterdam was surrendered to the English, and was named New York. Stuyvesant retired to his bouerie or farm, near the East River, where he lived in dignity and quiet until August, 1682, when he died. His wife was Ruth Bayard, a Huguenot. Their remains lie in a vault under St. Mark's Church, in the city of New York. EDWARD WINSLOW. ONE of the most accomplished men who came to America in the May Flower, was Edward Winslow, a native of Worcestershire, England, where he was born on the 19th of October, 1595. Whilst travelling in Europe, he became acquainted, at Leyden, with the Rev. John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims there. He joined that church in 1617, married a young lady there, and made Leyden his place of residence until his departure for America. He was one of the companions of Miles Standish in the search for a landing-place for the May Flower passengers ; and being a young man of great energy, he became one of the most useful men in the colony. Massasoit became much attached to him ; and in 1623, hearing of the severe illness of that sachem, Winslow visited him, and by the skilful use of some medicines, restored him to health, and won his unbounded gratitude. On that occasion, as on many others, the brave young Hobbomac, one of Massasoit's warriors, who lived with the white people, was guide and interpreter. In the following Autumn, Mr. Winslow went to England as an agent for the colony ; and the next Spring he returned, and introduced 1. This company was formed after the discoveries of Hudson, and was invested with almost vice-regal powers for carrying on trade and making settlements in America and on the coast of Afiica. 2. Peter Minuit, an offended director of the Dutch West India Company, went to Sweden and proposed to lead a colony of Swedes to the New World. A Swedish Went India Company was formed ; and in the Spring of 16.38, Minuit and a considerable number of settlers located upon the Delaware, on the site of the present New Castle. They called the country New Sweden, and proposed to establish a provincial government, but the more powerful Dutch overthrew all their plans, and the colonists became subjects to Stuyvesant. 3. England claimed all America from Newfoundland to Florida, by virtue of early coast explorations. 24 WILLIAM PENN. the first cattle into New England. 1 He made voyages to England and other places for the benefit of the Plymouth colony, and for private commercial pur- suits; and, in 1633, was elected governor. Twice, subsequently, he was elected chief magistrate of the colony, when Bradford declined serving, and always per- formed his duties with great satisfaction to his constituents. He made many coast voyages, even as far south as Manhattan, for trading purposes ; and in 1635, went to England again, when, on a charge of performing illegal clerical services at Plymouth, made by the mendacious Thomas Morton, he was impris- oned four months. There, and during a subsequent visit to his native country, he was active in founding a society for propagating the gospel in New England, which was incorporated in 1649. He was so highly esteemed in his native country, that public employments were thrust upon him, and he never returned to America. He was appointed a commissioner to determine the amount of the restitution to be made to England, by Denmark, for marine spoliations ; and in 1655, Cromwell appointed him the first of three commissioners to superintend an expedition against the Spaniards, in the West Indies, in which admiral Penn, father of William, was a conspicuous actor. Governor Winslow accompanied the expedition. It failed to accomplish its object ; and while the fleet was passing between the islands of St. Domingo and Jamaica, he died of a fever, on the 8th of May, 1655, at the age of sixty years. Mr. Winslow's wife was among those of the May Flower, who died during the Winter and Spring of 1621. William White also died at about the same time, and within two months after- ward Winslow and White's widow were married. This was the first marriage of Europeans in New England. Mrs. Winslow was not only the first bride, but the mother of the first white child born in New England, her son, Peregrine White, having been born on board the May Flower while that vessel lay an- chored in Cape Cod Bay. WILLIAM PENN. IN glorious contrast with the inhumanity of Spaniards, Frenchmen, and many Englishmen, stands the record on History's tablet of the kindness and jus- tice toward the feeble Indian, of the founder of Pennsylvania, " Thpu'lt find," said the Quaker, " in me and mine, But friends and brothers to thee and to thine, Who abuse no power, and admit no line 'Twixt the red man and the white." And bright was the spot where the Quaker came To leave his hat, his drab, and his name, That will sweetly sound from the trump of Fame, 'Till its final blast shall die. HANNAH F. GOULD. William Penn was born in the city of London, on the 14th of October, 1644, and was educated at Oxford. His father was the eminent admiral Penn, a great favorite of royalty. William was remarkable, in early youth, for brilliant talent and unaffected piety. While yet a student he heard one of the new sect of Quakers preach, and, with other students, became deeply impressed with the evangelical truths which they uttered. He; with several others, withdrew from the Established Church, worshipped by themselves, and for non-conformity were expelled from the college. Penn's father sought, in vain, to reclaim him ; and when, at length, he refused to take off his hat in the presence of the admiral, and 1 Horses were not introduced until 1644. The people often rode on bulls. It is said that when John Alden went to be married to Priscilla Mnllins, he covered his bull with a handsome cloth On his re- turn, he seated his bride on the animal's back, and he led him by a rope fastened to a ring in his nose WILLIAM PENN. 25 even of the king, he was expelled from the parental roof. He was sent to gay France, where he became a polished gentleman after a residence of two years ; and on his return he studied law in London until the appearance of the great plague in 1665. He was sent to Ireland in 1666, to manage an estate there belonging to his father, but was soon recalled, because he associated with Qua- kers. Again expelled from his father's house, he became an itinerant Quaker preacher, made many proselytes, suffered revilings and imprisonments "for conscience sake," and at the age of twenty-four years, wrote his celebrated work, entitled No Cross, no Grown, while in prison because of his non-conformity to the Church of England. He was released in 1670, and soon afterward be- came possessor of the large estates of his father, who died that year. He con- tinued to write and preach in defence of his sect, and went to Holland and Germany, for that purpose, in 1677. In March, 1681, Penn procured from Charles the Second, a grant of the terri- tory in America which yet bears his name ; and two years afterward he visited the colony which he had established there. He founded Philadelphia city of brotherly love toward the close of the same year ; and within twenty-four months afterward, two thousand settlers were planting their homes there. Penn returned to England in 1684, and through his influence with the king, obtained 9 26 THOMAS HOOKER. the release of thirteen hundred Quakers, then in prison. Because of his personal friendship toward James, the successor of Charles (who was driven from the throne by the revolution of 1688, and had his place filled by his daughter, Mary, and William, Prince of Orange), he was suspected of adherence to the fallen monarch, and was imprisoned, and deprived of his proprietary rights. These were restored to him in 1694 ; and in 1 699, he again visited his American colony. He remained in Pennsylvania until 1701, when he hastened to England to cp- pose a parliamentary proposition to abolish all proprietary governments in America. He never returned. In 1712, he was prostrated by a paralytic dis- order. It terminated his life on the 30th of July, 1718, at the age of seventy- four years. Penn was greatly beloved by the Indians ; and it is worthy of remark that not a drop of Quaker's blood was ever shed by the savages. THOMAS HOOKER, THE true heroes of America are those who, from time to time, have left the comforts of civilized life and planted the seeds of new states deep in the wilderness. Among the remarkable men of that stamp was the Reverend Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one of the pioneer settlers in Connecticut. He was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1586, and was educated in Emanuel College, Cambridge. He began his labors as a Christian minister at about the time of the death of James the First, when Archbishop Laud began to harass the non-conformists. In 1630, Mr. Hooker was silenced, because of his non-conformity to the Established Church, and he founded a grammar school at Chelmsford. His influence was great ; and falling under the ban of Laud, he was obliged to fly to Holland, where he became an assistant minister to Dr. Ames, both at Delft and Rotterdam. He came to America with the Reverend Mr. Cotton, in 1633, and was made pastor of the church at Cambridge in the Autumn of that year. In 1636, this "light of the western churches," with other ministers, their families and flocks, in all about one hundred, left the vicinity of Boston for the Connecticut valley, where the English had already planted settlements. It was a toilsome journey through the swamps and forests. They took quite a number of cows with them. These browsed upon the shrubs and grazed in swamp borders, and thelf milk afforded subsistence for the wanderers. The journey was made in the pleasant month of June, and on the 4th of July they reached the flowery banks of the Connecticut, and received the hearty greetings of wel- come of the little band of settlers who were seated on the site of the present city of Hartford. There, in the little meeting-house already built, Mr. Hooker preached when the Sabbath came, and administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to all. A greater portion of Mr. Hooker's followers settled at Hartford, while some chose Wethersfield for a residence; and others, from Roxbury,went up the river twenty miles, and founded Springfield. Mr. Hooker was one of the most powerful preachers of his time, and wrote much and well, on religious subjects. "While preaching in the great church of Leicester, before he left England, one of the magistrates of the town sent a fiddler to the church-yard to disturb the worship. Mr. Hooker's powerful voice not only drowned the music, but it attracted the fiddler to the church door. He listened to the great truths uttered, and became converted. Mr. Hooker was a man of great" benevolence, and in every sphere of life he was eminently useful. He died at Hartford, of an epidemic fever, on the 7th of July, 1647, at the age of sixty-one years. COTTON MATHEK, COTTON MATHER, SOME of the early New England divines, as well as the magistrates, were ex- ceedingly superstitious, while their piety and general good sense could not be doubted. Cotton Mather, one of the earliest of American-born clergymen, was a prominent specimen of the kind of men alluded to. He was born in Boston, on the 12th of February, 1663, and was educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated at the early age of sixteen years. He was so expert in learning, that before he was nineteen years old, the degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him, by the college. At the age of twenty-two years, he was ordained a gospel minister, and became the assistant of his father, Increase Mather. Preaching and authorship were the joint professions of his life, and he excelled all others, of his time, in both. He became master of several languages, and was considered a prodigy of learning. He held a fluent pen, yet his writ- ings were not fitted for immortality. They lacked solidity and that true genius which is undying. Many of his productions are already forgotten, and none but his Magnolia will probably " live forever." Its extravagances form its chief element of vitality. "With all his learning, Dr. Mather was a man of narrow views, a conceited heart, and unsound judgment. He was a firm believer in witchcraft, and probably did more than any other man to promote the spread of that fearful delusion, known in history as Salem Witchcraft 1 . He wrote a book 1. A belief in wi'chcraft was almost ur.iversnl, at that time. It had produced terrible trr.gedies on the 28 JOHN MASON. on the subject, and stimulated the authorities to prosecute all suspected persons. Several years before, his father had published an account of all the supposed cases of witchcraft in New England, under the title of "Remarkable Provi- dences," which directed public attention to the subject. After the delusion had passed away, Cotton Mather's credulity was exposed by a man named Calef, in a series of letters. Mather sneered at him at first, but when Calef laid his blows on thick and fast, the Doctor called him "a coal from hell," and prosecuted him for slander. The suit was wisely withdrawn. "With all his vagaries and folly, Dr. Mather exhibited much good sense. Dr. Franklin has thus illustrated the fact, in a letter to Mr. Mather's son, Samuel, whose house and fine library were consumed at Charlestown during the battle on Breed's Hill, in 1775. "The last time I saw your father was in the begin- ning of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. He re- ceived me in his library ; and on my taking leave, showed me a shorter way out of the house through a narrow passage, which was crossed by a beam overhead. "We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turning partly towards him, when he said hastily, 'Stoop! stoop!' I did not under- stand him until I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man that never missed an occasion of giving instruction, and upon this he said to me, ' You are young, and have the world before you$ stoop as you go through it, and you will escape many hard thumps.' This advice, thus beat into my head, has fre- quently been of use to me ; and I often think of it when I see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon people by carrying their heads too high." Cotton Mather married three times, and had fifteen children. He died on the 13th of February, 1728, at the age of sixty-five years. * JOHN MASON. MILES STANDISII is called the "hero of New England" because of priority. There were other men of that olden time who were greater " heroes " than he, when measured by the common standard. John Mason was a greater "hero" than Standish, for he caused the destruction of more Indians than his rival for the palm. He was born in England about the year 1600. He was a soldier by profession, and had practiced his murderous art in that cock-pit of Europe, the Netherlands. In 1630, he came to America, and was one of the original settlers at Dorchester. He went to the Connecticut Valley in 1635, and assisted in founding a settlement at Windsor. The peace of the little colony was soon disturbed by the depredations of the powerful Pequods, whose chief rendezvous was between the Thames and Mystic rivers. They believed the white people to be friendly to their enemies, the Mohegans and Narragansets, and they had resolved to exterminate them. They kidnapped children, stole cattle, and finally made murderous attacks upon the outskirts of the settlement at Saybrook, near the mouth of the Connecticut river. The danger became im- minent, and Captain Mason went down to Saybrook, with some followers, to reinforce and command the garrison of the little fort there.- In the Spring of 1637, the settlers in the Connecticut Valley declared war continent of Europe, nearly two hundred years before. Within fifty or sixty years, during the sixteenth century, more than one hundred thousand persons accused of witchcraft, perished in the flames, in Germany alone. The delusion prevailed in Massachusetts for more than six months, in 1692 ; and during that time, twenty persons suffered death, fifty-five were tortured or frightened into a confession of witchcraft, and over one hundred were imprisoned. The delusion commenced at Danvers, and spread over a great extent of country in the vicinity of Boston. BENJAMIN WEST. 29 against the Pequods, and the Plymouth and Massachusetts people promised to assist them. Through the influence of Koger "Williams, the Narragansets be- came allies of the English; and when, late in May, Captain Mason, with eighty white men and seventy Mohegan Indians, anchored his pinnaces near Conanni- cut Island, he was joined by Miantonomoh, the great chief of the Narragansets, with two hundred warriors. With these, Mason proceeded toward the Pequod country, and was joined, on the way, by the Niantics. Sassacus, a fierce warrior, was the chief sachem of the Pequods. He could summon two thousand braves to the field, and his confidence in his great strength made him less vigilant than a weak leader would have been. He had no intelligence or suspicion of the approach of Mason, from the East. He was first informed of it by the seven sur- vivors of a dreadful massacre. The invaders crept as stealthily along as a panther, and just at dawn, on the 5th of June, 1637, fell upon the chief fort of the Pequods, on the Mystic river. Before sunrise, more than six hundred men, women, and children, hdd perished by weapons, or by the flames of their own burning wig- wams. Only seven escaped to arouse the nation to vengeance. The English, aware of their danger, hastened toward Saybrook; but the power of the Pequods was broken. When, a few days afterward, about one hundred Massachusetts men joined Mason, Sassacus and his followers fled westward, hotly pursued by the English. They took shelter in Sasco swamp, near Fairfield, where, after a severe battle, they all surrendered, except Sassacus and a few others, who fled to the Mohawks for refuge. There the great sachem was treacherously slain. The blow was terrible. A nation had disappeared in a day. 1 The New England tribes were awed ; and for forty years afterward the colonists were unmolested by them. Soon after the war, the governor, of Connecticut appointed Mason major-general of all the forces of the colony, which office he filled until his death. He was also a civil magistrate for eighteen consecutive years; and in 1660, he was elected deputy-governor. He retired from public life in 1670; and in 1673, he died at Norwich, at the age of seventy -two years. BENJAMIN WEST. " fFHERE have been more volumes written about this great painter in Eng- JL land," says Lester, "than there have been pages devoted to him in the land of his birth." Here he grew to young manhood, and chose the mother of his children ; in sunny Italy he achieved his first triumph in high art, and in England he reigned and died. His birth occurred at Springfield, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October, 1738. He was the youngest of the nine children of excellent Quaker parents; and at seven years of age, while keeping flies from the sleeping baby of his eldest sister, he sketched her portrait so accurately with black and red ink, that his mother, snatching the paper (which he modestly attempted to conceal) from his hand, exclaimed, "I declare he has made a likeness of little Sally ! " His parents encouraged his efforts, and the Indians supplied him with some of the pigments with which they painted their faces. His mother's "indigo bag" furnished him with blue, and from pussy's tail he drew the material for his brushes. Such was the juvenile be- 1. Captain Mason wrote a Brief Memoir of the Pequod War. It makes one shudder to read his blas- phemous allusion to the interposition of God in favor of the English, as if the poor Indian was not liii object of the care and love of the Deity ! Happily the time is rapidly passing by when men believe that they are doing God service by slaughtering, maiming, or in the least injuring, with vengeful feelings, any of his creatures. 30 BENJAMIN WEST. ginning of the greatest historical painter of the last century such were the first buddings of the genius of that boy, who would not ride in company with another, because he aspired to nothing greater than a tailor's shop-board. "Do you really mean to be a tailor?" asked little West. "Indeed I do," replied his boy-companion. "Then you may ride alone," exclaimed the young aspirant, leaping to the ground. "I mean to be a painter, and be the companion of kings and emperors; I '11 not ride with one willing to be a tailor!" At the age of fifteen years, young West had learned the use of proper colors, and was a popular portrait painter. The pursuit of such art was contrary to tho discipline of the Quakers. A meeting was called to consult upon the matter. At length one arose and said, " God hath bestowed on this youth a genius for art ; shall we question his wisdom ? I see the Divine hand in this ; we shall do well to sanction the art and encourage this youth." Then the sweet women of the assembly rose up and kissed him. The men, one by one, laid their hands on his head, and thus Benjamin West was solemnly consecrated to the service of the great art. His pictures produced both money and fame, and wealthy men furnished him with means to go to Italy, to study the works of the great masters. There every step was a triumph, and he became the best painter in Italy. He crossed the Alps and went to England. There prejudice and bad taste met him, but his genius overcame both. Among his earliest and best WILLIAM BYRD. 31 patrons was Archbishop Drummond, who introduced him to the young King, George the Third. His majesty was delighted, and ordered him to paint The Departure of Regulus, that noble picture exhibited in the New York Crystal Palace, in 1853. That achievement placed him on the throne of English art. The King, and Reynolds, and "West, founded the Royal Academy ; and he who, in the face of every obstacle, created a public taste for high art, was properly appointed "Painter to his Majesty." He designed thirty grand pictures, illus- trative of The Progress of Revealed Religion, and completed twenty-eight of them, besides a great number of other admirable works. But when insanity clouded the mind of King George, and his libertine son, the Prince of Wales, obtained power, the great painter was neglected. The king of art, who had ruled for five and thirty years, was soon an exile from the court of his excellent friend, and many cherished anticipations of his prime were blighted in his de- clining years. But when royalty deserted him, the generous people sustained him. He achieved great triumphs in his old age; and finally, on the llth of March, 1820, when in the eighty-second year of his life, he was laid by the side of Reynolds and Opie in St. Paul's Cathedral. WILLIAM BYRD. ABOUT half-way between Richmond and Old Jamestown, on the James River, in Virginia, is a fine -brick mansion, surrounded by a fertile plantation, known as Westover. It was the residence of Colonel William Byrd, a wealthy cavalier, who came from England during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He was really the founder of the city of Richmond, at the Falls of the James River. A small fortification had been erected there, as a defense against the Indians, as early as 1645; but about 1680, Colonel Byrd, having received a conditional grant of land at the Falls, sent more than fifty able-bodied men there to make a settlement. He erected a mill and other buildings for the use of their productions, and the settlement was known as Byrd's Warehouse. In 1682, Colonel Byrd was a member of the governor's council, and he was much in public employment, until his death. When, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, a large number of Huguenots, or French Protestants, came to America, three hundred of them were cared for, with parental solicitude, by Colonel Byrd, and they found pleasant homes in the Virginia colony. Many of these were educated men, and in Colonel Byrd they found an agreeable companion. Ho possessed fine literary and scientific tastes, and had the largest library in Amer- ica, at that time. In 1723, he was one of the commissioners appointed to estab- lish the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. Toward the close of his Mfe he employed his pen on scientific subjects, and was made a member of the London Royal Society. His munificence and stylo of living were un- equalled in the colonies. They were like those of an English nobleman. Ho died in 1743, at the age of almost eighty *years, leaving his homestead, and a splendid fortune, to his son William. He, too, became a public man ; and in 1756, was a commissioner to treat with the Indians on the western borders of Virginia. He accompanied the expedition against Fort Duquesne, under Wash- ington's command, in 1758. Being a spendthrift and a gambler, his immense wealth was greatly lessened, at his death. His widow occupied the Westover property at the time of our revolution ; and there Benedict Arnold (who was her relative) landed, when he invaded Virginia in the service of his royal purchaser, in 1781. De Chastellux, one of Rochambeau's officers, speaks rapturously of the beauty of Westover, and the pleasures of society there. 32 ELEAZER WHEELOCK. ELEAZER WHEELOCK. 'THOSE good men who by personal sacrifices and diligent efforts seek to elevate 1 their fellow-beings of low degree, should be remembered and honored. Among those of the past who deserve such reward, is Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of the first school for the Christian education of Indian youths in New England. He was born at Windham, Connecticut, in April, 1711 ; and in 1733, was graduated at Yale College. Two years afterward he was ordained a gospel minister, and settled as pastor, at Lebanon. There he opened a school for the education of English children; and in 1743, his first Indian pupil was admitted. He was a Mohegan youth of nineteen years, named Samson Occum, who had been converted to Christianity under the preaching of a clergyman at Norwich. Before entering Mr. Wheelock's school, Occum had learned to spell out sentences in the Bible for the edification of his eager dusky listeners. He was anxious to become a spiritual teacher of his tribe. He remained with Mr. Wheelock be- tween four and five years, and afterward became a very successful preacher among the natives on the east end of Long Island. His success with Occum induced Mr. Wheelock to attempt the education of other Indian youths, with special reference to their preparation for missionary labors, believing that they would be more efficient among the savages, than white preachers. 1 In 1762, he had more than twenty Indian youths in his school, the expenses being paid by voluntary subscriptions, small legislative grants, and contributions from the Boston commissioners of the Scotch society for propagating Christian knowledge. A farmer, named Moor, gave a house and some land, adjoining Mr. Wheelock's residence, for the use of the institution, and it became known as Moor's Indian Charity School. To increase its usefulness, it was determined to seek aid in England; and in 1766, Occum and Eev. Mr. Whitaker of Norwich, went thither for that purpose. The money collected by them was put into the hands of trustees, in England, at the head of whom was the Earl of Dartmouth ; and its expenditure was intrusted to the Scotch society. Hoping to be more efficient on the borders of the Indian country, wherein white settlements had not yet been planted, Dr. Wheelock resigned his pastoral charge at Lebanon, and established his school at Hanover, in New Hampshire. He also founded a college there, and named it Dartmouth, in honor of the Earl, notwithstanding that gentleman was opposed to the project, fearing it might interfere with the Indian School.2 Governor Wentworth gave it a charter, and for nine years Dr. Wheelock labored vigorously at the head of each establish- ment. The war for Independence seriously affected the prosperity of both en- terprises, yet the self-sacrificing founder saw glorious fruit produced by his planting. Among those white missionaries whom he prepared for their woik, was the faithful Kirkland, so long a noble laborer among the tribes in the in- terior of New York. Dr. Wheelock died at Hanover, on the 24th of April, 1779, at the age of sixty-eight years. 1. This opinion proved to be erroneous. About one-half of those educated for the ministry returned to their old habits and vices, when they got among their people again. Among Mr. Wheelock's pupils was Brant, the celebrated Mohawk chief. 2. This fact exhibits the modesty of Dr. Wheelock, and at the same time shows that undue deference which all persons formerly rendered to titles and dignities. The college ought to perpetuate the name of Dr. Wheelock, by its own litle. CADWALLADER GOLDEN. 33 CAI3WALLADEK GOLDEN. 'THE representatives of royal power, in America, generally regarded the people JL as their subjects, rather than as fellow-citizens, and ruled by despotic power rather than by kindness and conciliation. There were honorable exceptions, and among these was Cadwallader Golden, whose character and public life were truthfully portrayed, more than forty years ago, by John W. Francis, M.D., now [1854] the Nestor of literature and science in New York. Golden was acting governor of New York when the stamp-act riots occurred, and was treated with indignity by a mob, because he was the representative of the king, and at the same time was highly respected by them as a man and valuable citizen. Cadwallader Golden was born in Dunse, Scotland, on the 17th of February, 1688. He completed his collegiate studies at the university of Edinburgh, in 1705, and after devoting three years to the study of mathematics and medical science, he came to America, where he remained five years, as a practicing physician. He went to Great Britain in 1715, and formed the acquaintance of Halley and other leading men of science ; and the following year he married a pretty Scotch girl, returned to America, and settled in the city of New York. Golden soon abandoned his profession, for public employment. He was made surveyor-general of the province, a master in chancery, and finally became one 34 JOHN SMITH. of the governor's council. About the year 1750, he obtained a patent for a large tract of unsettled land near Newburgh, in Orange county, and named his manor, Coldenham. There, after the year 1755, he resided, with his family, most of the time, engaged in agriculture and in literary and scientific pursuits. Many learned essays from his pen enriched the medical and scientific publications of his day ; and his History of the Five Nations of Indians, is a noble monument in testimony of his careful and judicious researches in that special field of inquiry. Almost all of the scientific men of Europe were his correspondents, and Franklin and other leading Americans were among his intimate epistolary friends. Botany was his favorite study, and he was a constant and valued correspondent of Lin- naeus, the great master of the science, for a series of years. His voluminous papers are now among the choice treasures of the New York Historical Society. In 1760, Dr. Golden was appointed lieutenant-governor of the province of New York, and became the acting magistrate, at eighty years of age. He managed public affairs with great prudence during all the trying scenes of the Stamp- Act excitement; and the Sons of Liberty respected him, while they defied his delegated power. He was released from office, by Governor Try on, in 1775, and retired to his country seat, at Flushing, Long Island, where he died on the 28th of September, 1776; a few days before that great conflagration which con- sumed more than five hundred buildings in the city of New York. Governor Golden was then almost eighty-nine years of age. JOHN SMITH. THERE are men whose career appears meteor-like in brilliancy and progress, which nevertheless makes permanent impressions upon the world's history, and beams in the firmament of past events, with steady, planetary lustre. John Smith belongs to the meteor-heroes of our race. He was born at Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1559, and in early childhood was distinguished for his daring spirit and love of adventure. At the age of thirteen years, he sold his books and satchel to procure money to pay his way to the sea-shore, for he had resolved to try life on the ocean wave. He was prevented from embarking, and apprenticed to a merchant. Two years afterward he ran away, went to France, and then to the Low Countries, and there studied military tactics. With a por- tion of his deceased father's estate, young Smith, at the age of seventeen years, went abroad, like a knight-errant, in search of adventures. On a voyage from Marseilles to Naples, a great storm arose. The crew of the vessel were Eoman Catholics, who. believing the young heretic Englishman to be a Jonah, cast him into the sea to Appease the angry waters. He swam to a small island, and there embarked in a French vessel for Alexandria, in Egypt. From thence he went to Italy, and then to Austria, where he entered the imperial army. His valor soon procured him the command of a troop of horse, which, in the war against the Turks, obtained the name of The Fiery Dragoons. On one occasion, during a siege, a Turkish officer offered to engage in a duel with any Christian soldier, "to amuse the ladies." The lot fell to Smith. They fought in sight of both armies. Smith cut off his antagonist's head, and carried it in triumph to the Austrian camp; and then fought two other Turkish champions with the same result. He was afterward captured and sold to a Pacha, who sent his prisoner as a present to his sweetheart, to be her slave. Her love was excited, and to insure his safety, she sent Smith to her brother. The Turk treated the captive cruelly. Soon an opportunity for escape was offered, when Smith killed his DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 35 tyrant, fled into Muscovy, and found his way to Austria. The war had ended, and Smith departed from the Adriatic, with a French sea-captain, for Morocco. He was engaged in a sea-fight near the Canary Islands, with the Spaniards ; and then, after a long absence, returned to his native countn r . His restless spirit now yearned for adventures in the New "World, and accompanying the first English expedition which successfully planted a settlement in America, he be- came the real founder of the Virginia colony. The settlers became jealous of his talent, on the voyage, and, ignorant that he was named in the "sealed box" 1 as one of the Council, they put him in irons, under the plea that he intended to make himself King of Virginia. He was released when his name appeared among the appointed rulers. He possessed great energy, and he not only sup- ported good government by his presence, but saved the colony from destruction. He was rescued from death by Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian king, while a prisoner among them ; and he acquired such influence over the savages, that they were friendly to the English while Smith ruled the colony. He ex- plored the coast from Pamlico Sound to the Delaware river, and constructed a map of the country. An accident caused him to go to England for surgical at- tendance. Five years afterward he made a trading voyage to America, explored the coast from the Thames to the Penobscot, made a map of the country, and called it New England. Smith offered to accompany the Pilgrim Fathers, to America, in 1620, but on account of his aristocratic notions, his proffered ser- vices were declined. He died in London, in 1631, at the age of seventy-two years. DAVID RITTENHOUSE. "VfEAR the banks of the beautiful "Wissahiccon, in the vicinity of Germantown, li four miles from Philadelphia, lived three hermits a century and a half ago ; and near their hiding-places from the world's ken, a mile from the old village where the good count Zinzendorf, 1 the Moravian, labored and reposed, was the birth-place of one whose name is co-extensive with scientific knowledge. It was David Eittenhouse, the eminent mathematician, who was born in Rox- borough township, on the 8th of April, 1732. His father was a humble farmer, and David was his chief assistant when his life approached young manhood. The geometrical diagrams which disfigured his implements of labor, the barn doors, and the pig-sty, attested the peculiar workings of his brain while yet a mere lad. These indications of genius would doubtless have been disregarded, and his aspirations remained unsatisfied, had not a feeble body made the aban- donment of field labor a stern necessity. David was apprenticed to a clock and mathematical instrument maker, and the pursuit being consonant with his taste, he was eminently successful. Rittenhouse was a severe student, but on account of his pecuniary wants, ho was deprived, in a great degree, of the most valuable sources of information, especially concerning the progress of science in Europe, While Newton and Liebnitz were warmly disputing for the honor of first discoverer of Fluxion,*, Rittenhouse, entirely ignorant of what they had done, became the inventor of that remarkable feature in algebraical analysis. Applying the knowledge which 1. The silly King James, instead of making an open appointment of a council for the govcrrraert of Virginia, placed their names in a sealed box, with directions not to open it until their arrival on the shores of the New World. 1. Zimendw much they are mistaken, who think that Mother 's dead, When through her ministrations so many souls aie saved. In union with the Father, she is the second Eve, Dispensing full salvation to all who do believe." THOMAS GODFREY. A PLAIN" mechanic was one day replacing a pane of glass in a window on the north side of Arch Street, Philadelphia, opposite a pump, when a girl, after filling her pail with water, placed it on the side walk. The mechanic observed the rays of the sun reflected from the window, into the pail of water. This cir- cumstance produced a train of reflections in a highly mathematical mind, and led to an important discovery. That mechanic was Thomas Godfrey, who was born about a mile from Germantown, in Pennsylvania, in the year 1704. Godfrey's early education was limited ; and at a proper age he was appren- ticed to a glazier, in Philadelphia. He entered into the business on his own account in 1725, and was employed in glazing Christ Church and the State House, 1 both of which are yet standing in the old part of Philadelphia. From early boyhood Godfrey exhibited great taste for figures ; and, like Rittenhouse, he often exhibited his diagrams in his place of labor. A work on mathematics having fallen into his hands, he soon mastered the science, and then he learned the Latin language, so as to read the works of the best writers upon his favorite subject. In the Summer of 1729, Godfrey was employed by James Logan to glaze some windows in his library, and there he first saw Newton's Principia. He borrowed the work; and early in 1730, he communicated his invention of the Quadrant (an astronomical and nautical instrument, of great value) to that gen- tleman. His reflections on the Arch Street incident, with the perusal of New- ton's work, had resulted in this invention. Mr. Logan took great interest in the matter, and conveyed information of the invention to the Royal Society of London, through his friend, Sir Hans Sloane. That institution rewarded Mr. Godfrey for his ingenuity, by presenting to him a quantity of household fur- niture, valued at one thousand dollars, but divided the honor of first discoverer equally between him and John Hadley, then vice-president of the institution. That the sale honor was justly due to Godfrey, there can be no doubt, for the fact appears to be well authenticated, that the first instrument made of brass, from Godfrey's wooden model, was taken by the inventor's brother, captain of a vessel in the "West India trade, to the island of Jamaica, and there exhibited to some English naval officers. Among these was a nephew of John Hadley. He purchased the instrument of Captain Godfrey for a large sum of money, and took it to his uncle, in London, who was a mathematical instrument maker. That gentleman made another instrument like it, except a few alterations, arid presented it to the Royal Society, with an explanatory paper, as his invention. 1. Independence Hall, wherein Congress was assembled when the Declaration of Independence was adopted on the 4th of July, 1776, is in this State House. The exterior of the building has been somewhat changed since then. 70 PONTIAC. That presentation occurred on the 13th of May, 1731, just about the time that Sir Hans Sloane called the attention of the Society to Godfrey's invention. The American inventor, like Columbus, lost the honor of having his name identified with the discovery, and the instrument is known as Hadley's Quadrant. Mr. Godfrey died in Philadelphia, in December, 1749, at the age of forty -five years. PONTIAC. S~ AVAGE and treacherous as he is, the native Indian, in his forest home, has many generous and noble qualities, such as we have been taught to admire when displayed by Roman warrior or Greek law-giver. Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawa tribe a hundred years ago, possessed these in an eminent degree ; and had his natural endowments been nurtured under the warm sun of civilization, no doubt his name would have been high among the great ones of earth. But he was forest born, and forest bred, and history speaks of him only as a great chief, filled with deadly hatred of the white man, and renowned for bloody deeds and bloodier intentions. Pontiac, when he first became known to the white man, was ruler of the whole north-west portion of our present domain. Where Cleveland now stands in its pride, Major Rogers first met the great chief, one bright morning in the Autumn of 1760. He informed Pontiac that the English had taken Canada from the French, and then made a treaty of friendship with him. Though Pon- tiac had been the fast friend of the French during the war just ended, he now appeared upon the field of history, for the first time, in the full strength of mature manhood. He was doubtless sincere in his treaty with the English, but the non-fulfilment of their promises, and the influence of French emissaries, soon made him trample all compacts beneath his feet. He did more, far more than any North American Indian ever effected before or since. He confederated all the Indian tribes of the North-west to utterly exterminate the English, or drive them from all their posts on the great lakes, and in the country around the head waters of the Ohio. Like Philip of Mount Hope, Pontiac viewed the approach of white settlements with jealousy and alarm. He saw, in the future, visions of the displacement, perhaps destruction, of his race, by the palefaces; and he determined to strike a blow for life and country. So adroitly were his plans matured, that the commanders of the western forts had no suspicion of his con- spiracy until it was ripe, and the first blow had been struck. Early in the Summer of 1763, within a fortnight, all of the posts in possession of the "English, west of Oswego, fell into his hands, except Niagara. Fort Pitt, and Detroit. Early the following Spring, Colonel Bradstreet penetrated the country to Detroit, with a strong force. The Indians were speedily subdued, their power was broken, and the hostile tribes sent their chiefs to ask for pardon and peace. The haughty Pontiac refused to bow. He went to the country of the Illinois tribe, where he was basely murdered, in 1769, by a Peoria Indian, who was bribed by an English trader to do the deed, for a barrel of rum. The place of his murder was at Cahokia, on the east side of the Mississippi, a little below St. Louis. A great man fell, when Pontiac died. He was the greatest of all chiefs known to the white men, and deserved a better fate. It is said that during his operations in 1763, he appointed a commissary, and even issued bills of credit, which passed current among the French inhabitants of the North-west. "When he died, he wore a uniform presented to him by Montcalm, who esteemed him highly. Pontiac was an actor in the last scene in the drama of the French and Indian "War. FISHER AMES. 71 FISHER AMES. " TTAPPILY he did not need the smart of guilt to make him virtuous, nor the 11 regret of folly to make him wise," were the words uttered by one who knew Fisher Ames well, and appreciated his noble character. He was a son of Dr. Ames, a physician and a wit, 1 of Dedham, Massachusetts, where he was born on the 9th of April, 1756. He was a delicate child; and so precocious was he in the acquirement of knowledge, that at six years of age he commenced the study of Latin. At the age of twelve he was admitted to Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1774. That was a year of great gloom in Massa- chusetts, and indeed throughout the whole country ; and as young Ames' mother was poor, and the times made a choice of business difficult, he taught a common school for awhile. He read and studied incessantly, and, finally, prepared for the profession of the law, under "William Tudor, in Boston. He commenced its 1. He kept a public-house at Dedham, and or. one occasion, the colonial judges having, as he thought, decided a case against him unlawfully, he sketched their honors upon a sign-board in front of his tavern, in their full-bottomed wigs, tippling, with their backs to an open volume, labelled "Province Law." The Boston authorities sent some officers to Dedham, to remove the sign. The doctor was pre- pared for them ; and when they arrived, they found nothing hanging but a board, on which was in- scribed, " A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign, but no sign shall be given them." JOSEPH GALLOWAY. practice at Dedham, in 1781, and soon stood at the head of the bar in his native district. From early youth he had exhibited rare oratorical powers. These powers now had fine opportunities for expansion, and with pen and tonguo Fisher Ames soon attracted the attention of all classes of his countrymen. Ho was a member of the convention for ratifying the Federal Constitution, in 1788, and there his eloquence gained him the heartiest applause. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts Legislature the same year, and in 1789, he was the first representative of his district, in the Federal Congress. There he was the chief speaker in all important debates. It is said that on one occasion, 1 in 1796, his eloquence was so powerful, that a member, opposed to him, movedr that the question on which he had spoken should be postponed until the next day, " that they should not act under the influence of an excitement of which their calm judgment might not approve." John Adams bluntly said, in allusion to that speech, "there was n't a dry eye in the house, except some of the jack- asses that occasioned the necessity of the oratory." Mr. Ames was the author of the " Address of the House of Representatives," to President "Washington, on his signifying his intention to withdraw from office. At about the same time, his own feeble health compelled him to decline a re- election, and he retired partially from public life. He was a member of the council of his State for some years; and in 1800, he pronounced a eulogy on Washington, before the State Legislature. He was chosen President of Harvard College, in 1805, but he declined the honor. His powers of life gradually failed for several years; and on the 4th of July, 1808, his pulse ceased to beat, at the age of fifty years. In the old church-yard at Dedham is a plain white monu- ment, on which is the simple inscription FISHER AMES. Mr. Ames was a fluent and voluminous writer, and his collected productions are among the choicest things in our literature. JOSEPH GALLOWAY. AMONG- the eminent loyalists of Pennsylvania, who adhered to the patriot cause until the war had fairly begun, Joseph Galloway was, perhaps, the most distinguished. He was born in Maryland, in 1730, and early in life ho went to Philadelphia to practice law, in which profession he soon took a high rank. He obtained a beautiful wife and a considerable fortune by marrying the daughter of Lawrence G-rowdon, who was Speaker of the Assembly of Pennsyl- vania, for many years. Mr. Galloway was a member of that body in 1764, and his sympathies, as manifested by his words and actions, were always on the side of the people. So well convinced were the people of his staunch republicanism, that he was elected a member of the first Continental Congress in 1774, and was a very active participant in the debates in that body. He submitted a plan of union between Great Britain and the colonies, by which the latter might be comparatively independent, with a president at their head, appointed by the king. His plan was not adopted ; and when the Congress agreed upon a non- importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation scheme, called the American Association, Mr. Galloway signed it. He was never in favor of a political sepa- ration from Great Britain, yet he was always in favor of the most stringent meas- ures for compelling the government to redress the grievances of the colonists. In 1775, he began to show signs of wavering, by earnestly asking to be excused 1- Speech on Jay's Treaty. TIMOTHY RUGGLES. 73 from serving as a delegate in the Continental Congress; and in 1776, when the question of independence began to be agitated, he abandoned the Whigs, and became one of the most violent and prescriptive Loyalists. Afraid to remain in Philadelphia, he joined the royal army in New York, where he remained until early in the Summer of 1788, when he went to England, accompanied by his only daughter. 1 In 1779, he was summoned before parliament to testify concerning the state of affairs in America. He was severe upon General Howe and other British officers, in relation to their stupid management. He kept up an extensive correspondence with the Loyalists, in America, during the remain- der of the war, and wrote several pamphlets on subjects connected with the hostilities. Mr. Galloway's large estates in Pennsylvania were confiscated ; and when a commission was appointed, in London, for prosecuting the claims of the Loyalists, he was made a member of the board for Delaware and Pennsylvania. A large part of his property was afterward restored to his daughter, and is still in possession of his descendants. Mr. Galloway never returned to America. He died in England, in September, 1803, at the age of seventy-three years. During the war, all the Whig writers took delight in making him a target for their wit and scorn. Trumbull, in his McFingall, gave him many hard hits ; and Philip Frenau, and other poets, scorched him severely. TIMOTHY RUOOLES. rERE were many able men who stood in opposition to the British govern- ment in the first revolutionary movements of the American colonies, but who timidly receded when the quarrel became fierce, and the government ut- tered its menacing thunders. Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, was of that class. He was born at Rochester, in that province, in 1711, and was graduated at Harvard in 1732. He became a lawyer; and at the age of twenty-five years, he was an influential member of the General Assembly. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was often called to measure forensic weapons with the Otises, father and son. He was fond of military life, and held the commission of colonel in the provincial forces under Sir William Johnson. At the battle at Lake George, in 1755, he was second in command to Johnson; 2 and was active in the campaigns of the two years following, under Amherst, when he held the com- mission of Brigadier-general. He also served with distinction, under that officer, in 1759-'60, in his expedition against Quebec and Montreal. In 1762, he was appointed chief justice of the common pleas, and was Speaker of the Assembly at the same time. In 1763, he made Hard wick his residence, where he practiced his profession. The storm of the Revolution soon began to lower ; and when, in the Autumn of 1765, a congress of delegates, from the different provinces, to consider the grievances of the people, was held at New York, General Ruggles was a delegate thereto, from Massachusetts, and was chosen president of the convention. He was unwilling to go as far as his colleagues, and refused his cooperation in the proceedings of the congress, for which he was 1. It is supposed that Galloway's departure from Philadelphia was hastened by the discovery that his daughter was about to marry Judge Griffin, a firm Whig, and afterward President of the Continental Congress. 2. For his good conduct in that campaign, he was rewarded with the almost sinecure office of Sur- veyor-general of the king's forests. It was a lucrative office, with very little labor. 74: JONATHAN CARVER. greatly censured. From that time he ranked among the royalists, and in 1774, was made a councillor, and accepte'd the office. That act made him very ob- noxious to the patriots, and he was compelled to leave the country, and take refuge under royal military rule, in Boston. His large estates were confiscated, and he became a refugee, when the British were driven from Boston, by Wash- ington, in the Spring of 1776. He afterward returned to the vicinity of New York, and organized a corps of about three hundred loyalists, but seems not to have performed much active service. In 1779, he went to Nova Scotia, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1798, when he was eighty-seven years of age. General Ruggles was a scholar, but rude in manners and speech. He has many descendants in Nova Scotia. JONATHAN CARVER. THE earliest A merican-born traveller, of note, was Jonathan Carver, who first saw the light of life, in Connecticut, in 1732. He was educated for the medical profession, but chose the military art as a vocation, and led a company of Connecticut provincials in some of the expeditions against the French in northern New York, from 1756 to 1759. He served with reputation until the peace in 1763, and soon afterward he formed the bold resolution to explore the continent of America from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean. He also hoped thereby to be instrumental in finding the long-sought north-west passage to India. Mr. Carver left Michillimackinac in the Autumn of 1766. That was the most westerly of the British military posts. Bearing a few gifts for the Indians, he penetrated the present Minnesota Territory to the head waters of the St. Pierre, more than a thousand miles from the point of his departure. He was foiled in his grand design ; and after spending some time on the northern and eastern shores of Lake Superior, exploring its bays and tributaries, carefully observing the productions of nature and the habits of the Indians, he returned to the set- tlements, and laid his papers before the governor of Massachusetts, at Boston. He had been absent about two years, and had travelled over seven thousand miles. Having carefully arranged his journals and charts, Mr. Carver went to Eng- land for the purpose of publishing them. He petitioned the king for a re-im- bursement of funds which he had spent in the service of the government, in these explorations, but his claims were deferred. He received permission, how- ever, to publish his papers, and he sold them to a bookseller. Just as they were ready for the press, he was ordered to deliver all his charts and papers into the hands of the Commissioners of Plantations, and he was compelled to re-purchase them from the bookseller. Ten years elapsed before he was allowed to lay them before the public. In disappointment and poverty, he became a lottery clerk ; and finally, in 1779, his necessities induced him to sell his name to a historical compilation, published in folio, and entitled The New Universal Traveller. This act caused the loss of his clerkship, and many professed friends abandoned him. He died in the suburbs of London, in extreme want, in 1780, at the age of only forty-eight years. Such is sometimes the fate of genius. An edition of his travels was published in Boston in 1797. REBECCA MOTTE. 75 REBECCA MOTTE. THE fortitude, courage, and unfaltering patriotism of the women of the Revolu- tion, were remarkably and universally displayed. Everywhere in every province, they were actors as well as sufferers; and many a scheme of British aggression was frustrated by the sisters, wives, and daughters of those who were in the camp or field. South Carolina presents many such bright examples, but none appear more brilliant than Rebecca Motte, whose unwavering courage and fidelity, as well as sacrifices, attest her ardent patriotism. She was the youngest daughter of Robert Brewton, who emigrated to America in 1733, and married, at Charleston, an accomplished young lady, a native of Ireland. He made Charleston his residence, and there Rebecca was born on the 28th of June, 1738. At the age of twenty, she married Jacob Motte, a descendant of one of the Huguenot families of South Carolina. He owned a fine plantation near the banks of the Congaree, and there Mrs. Motte, the mother of six children, and a widow, resided during the War for Independence. After the fall of Charleston, in 1780, the British commander sought to hold military possession of South Carolina, by establishing fortified camps in the in- terior. The fine mansion of Mrs. Motte was taken possession of, fortified for the purpose, and named Port Motte. The garrison was commanded by Major McPherson, in May, 1781, when Marion and Lee appeared and commenced a siege. Mrs. Motte had been driven from her mansion by the British, and had 76 SAMUEL ADAMS. taken up her abode in her farm-house, whither her mother 1 (who resided with her) had carried a beautiful bow and bundle of arrows, presented to her son by an East India captain. Having but one cannon, the Americans could make but little impression on the British works. Lee's fertile mind conceived the idea of dislodging the enemy by burning the mansion, that act to be effected by hurling ignited combustibles upon the dry roof, by means of arrows. He suggested the plan to Mrs. Motte. She heartily approved of it, notwithstanding it involved the destruction of her property ; and she presented Lee with the East India bow and arrows, for the service. The hoped-for result was accomplished ; and after the British had surrendered, Mrs. Motte regaled the officers of both armies with a sumptuous dinner. One of her daughters married General Thomas Pinckney, one of the most valuable officers of the South. Mrs. Motte lived, greatly beloved by all, until the year 1815, when she died, at the age of seventy-seven years. " Her children " (and children's children) " rise up and call her blessed." SAMUEL ADAMS. " OUCH is the obstinacy and inflexible disposition of the man, that he can kJ never be conciliated by any office or gift whatever," was the unintentional eulogium of Samuel Adams, by the royal governor, Hutchinson, when asked why he did not purchase the patriot by offers of place and money. The eulogium was just, for a more inflexible patriot never bared his arm for conflict, than that scion of the old Puritan stock of Boston. He was born in that city on the 27th of September, 1722, and in 1740, was graduated at Harvard College. His ideas of popular rights seem to have had an early growth, for in 1743, when he re- ceived the degree of Master of Arts, he proposed for discussion the question, "Is it lawful to resist the supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved ?" He maintained the affirmative, with great vigor. His pen was early employed in political discussion, and the soundness of his judgment, and purity of his thoughts, made him very popular, even before public affairs called his patriotism into activity. His earliest public office was that of tax-gatherer, by which he became personally acquainted with all classes of people. In 1765, he was chosen a member of the Massachusetts Assembly. He was also clerk of that body, and for almost ten years he swayed a powerful influence in the Colonial Assembly, as a leading and bold representative of the republican party among the people. Step by step, inch by inch, Samuel Adams fought the enemies of popular liberty during the dark hours whicli preceded the bursting of the storm of the Revolution ; and he was the most active of the patriots of Boston in ex- citing the people to acts like that of the destruction of the cargoes of tea, in 1773. When royal government was repudiated, in 1774, he was chosen a member of the provincial council ; and when General Gage sent his secretary to dissolve the assembly, just previous to that popular congress, he found the door of the legislative chamber locked, and the key was in Samuel Adams' pocket. Adams 1. Mrs. Brewton was remarkable for her boldness in the presence of danger, and for her keen wit. While in Charleston, when the British had possession of that city, her society was courted by the elite among the conquerors, notwithstanding she often made them feel the keenness of her sarcasm. On going into the city, an officer inquired, "What news from the country?" "All nature smiles," she repliei, " for everything is Greene, down to Monk's Corner." General Greene had just taken possession of the State down to that point. Just before the siege of Fort Motte, a young British subaltern insulted the family, by giving the names of different American officers to pine saplings, and then cutting off their tops with his sword. After their surrender, Mrs. Brewton requested him to amuse her again, in that way, and expressed her regret that the loss of his sword would deny her the privilege. Colonel Mon- crief occupied Governor Rntledge's house, in Charleston. Passing it with a British officer, Mrs. Brew- ton took a piece of a crape flounce accidentally torn from her dress, and tied it to the front railing, ob serving that the house and friends of the governor ought to mourn for his absence. She was arrested, and sent to Philadelphia a few hours afterward. EGBERT ROGERS. 77 was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, in 1774, and there he was an exceedingly useful public servant for several years. He was an earnest ad- vocate of the resolution which declared the colonies "free and independent states;" and when some members faltered through fear of failure, the stern Puritan exclaimed, " I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of a thousand were to survive, and retain his liberty ! One such free man must possess more virtue, and enjoy more happiness, than a thousand slaves ; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what he hath so nobly preserved." Such was the temper of the man who originated the idea of a Colonial Congress, in 1765, and was the earliest advocate of a Continental Congress, in 1774. He affixed his signature to the Declaration of Independence in 1776; and in 1781, he retired from Congress, but not from public life. He was a leading member of the Massachusetts convention to form a state consti- tution; and in 1789, he was chosen lieutenant-governor of his native State. In 1794, he was elected governor, as the successor of John Hancock, and was an- nually re-elected, until 1797, when the infirmities of old age compelled him to retire from public life. On the morning of the 2d of October, 1803, that noble patriot expired, in the city of his birth, at the age of eighty-two years. ROBERT ROQERS. THE French and Indian war developed much military genius among the J_ American colonists, which was afterward brought into requisition by the demands of the revolutionary contest. It did not always take its place on the side of republicanism, as in the case of Ruggles and many others. Major Robert Rogers, the bold commander of a corps of Rangers, and a companion-in-arms with Putnam and Stark, was another example of defection to the cause of free- dom in America. He was a native of Dunbarton, in New Hampshire, and hav- ing entered the military service in 1755, became an eminent commander of a corps which performed signal services as scouts, and executors of small but important enterprises, when not engaged with the main army. After the peace in 1763, he returned to his native place, and received the half-pay of a regular British officer of his rank, until the War for Independence broke out. In 1766, he was made governor of Michillimackinac, in the far North-west, where he had confronted the confederates of Pontiac, a few years before. He was accused of a design to plunder his own fort, and was sent in irons to Montreal. After his release he went to England, was presented to the king, and met with royal favor ; but extravagant habits led him into debt, and he was cast into prison. He finally returned to America, and when the revolutionary contest began, the color of his politics was doubtful. His movements, toward the close of 1775, gave reason to suspect him of being a spy; and in June, 1776, "Washington had him arrested, at South Amboy, and brought to New York, where he professed great friendship for his native country. He was released on parole, by Congress, and directed to return to New Hampshire, which he did. He soon afterward boldly espoused the royal cause, raised a corps, which he called the Queen's Rangers, and was with Howe, in Westchester, previous to the battle at White Plains. He soon afterward left his corps in command of Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, and went to England. By an act of his native State, he was banished, and never returned to America. When, and where he died, is not on History's record. He was a brave soldier ; but. according to his own confession, his half- pay from the crown made him an adherent of royalty. 78 BENJAMIN EUSH. BENJAMIN RUSH. MANY faithful practitioners of the medical art have justly borne the honorable title given to St. Luke, of "beloved physician;" but none have better de- served it than Dr. Rush of Philadelphia. He was born at Byberry, about twelve miles north-east from that city, on the 24th of December, 1745. When six years of age, death deprived him of his father, and his mother placed him under the care of his maternal uncle, Dr. Finley, who was at the head of an academy in Maryland. Desirous of giving him a classical education, his mother sold her little estate in the country, engaged in trade in Philadelphia, with success, and in 1759, was able to place him in college at Princeton, where he was graduated at the close of 1760. The medical profession was his choice; and he studied the science under the eminent Doctors Redman and Shipperi, until 1766, when he went to Edinburgh to complete his scientific studies there. In the Summer of 1768, he went to Paris; and in the Autumn he returned home, bearing the diploma of Doctor of Medicine, which he had received at Edinburgh. He im- mediately commenced practice in Philadelphia, and never was success more brilliant. His skill, polished manners, intelligence, and kind attentions to the poor, made him popular with all classes, and he soon found himself possessed of a very lucrative practice. SILAS DEANE. 79 In 1769, Dr. Rush was appointed professor of chemistry in the Medical Col- lege of Philadelphia, yet his professional duties did not occupy his whole time. He espoused the patriot cause immediately after his return home, and his pen became a powerful instrument in arousing the people to energetic action in favor of popular freedom. He declined a proffered seat in the Continental Congress in 1775; but when, the following year, some of the Pennsylvania delegates were opposed to independence, and withdrew, he consented to take the seat of one of them, and his name was affixed to the great Declaration, in August. The following year, Congress appointed him physician-general of the middle depart- ment; and from that time he declined all public employment, until 1787, when he was a member of the Pennsylvania convention which ratified the Federal Constitution. In 1789, he was made professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the Medical College of Philadelphia; and in 1796, he was made professor of the practice of medicine in the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He held his three professorships until his death. His lectures were of the highest order, and students from all parts of the United States flocked to Philadelphia, to attend them. Dr. Rush was also connected with the United States mint, for many years. "When, in 1793, the yellow fever appeared in Philadelphia, of most malignant type, and many alarmed physicians fled, Dr. Rush remained at the post of duty, with a few faithful students, and was instrumental in saving scores of lives. Some of his pupils died, and he was violently attacked by the disease, yet he did not remit his labors, when he could leave his bed. For his fidelity in that trying hour he was greatly beloved. Nor did his usefulness end with his life. The impress of his mind and energy is upon several institutions ; and the general appreciation of his character was manifested by his being made honorary mem- ber of many literary and scientific societies, at home and abroad. 1 In all stations he exhibited the character of a consistent Christian, and his principles remained unscathed amid all the infidelity which French writers had infused into the minds of men in high places, toward the close of the last century. That great and good man died peacefully at Philadelphia, on the 19th of April, 1813, when in the sixty-eighth year of his age. That event was the disappearance of a bright star from the social firmament. SILAS DEANE. rpHE first diplomatic agent employed by the Continental Congress, in Europe, i. was Silas Deane, a native of Groton, Connecticut. The date of his birth is unknown. He was graduated at Yale College in 1758, and being an active patriot, was chosen a delegate to the first Continental Congress, in 1774. Early in 1776, he was sent by that body, as a political and commercial agent, to the court of France, to sound the cabinet of Louis the Sixteenth on the subject of granting military supplies to the revolted colonies. The French King, willing to injure England, listened to Deane's overtures with eager ears, and he obtained noble verbal promises. In the Autumn of 1776, when the colonies had been declared independent, Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee were appointed commission- ers, with Mr. Deane, to negotiate treaties with foreign powers. They met at 1. He founded the Philadelphia Dispensary, in 1786 ; and he was also one of (he principal founders of Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was president of the American Society for the aboli- tion of slavery ; of the Philadelphia Medical Society ; vice-president of the Philadelphia Bible Society : and one of the vice-presidents of the American Philosophical Society. 80 TENCH COXE. Paris, in December of that year, but it was soon discovered by Deane's col- leagues, that his appointment was an injudicious one. He exceeded his instruc- tions concerning the employment of engineers for the continental army, and he was profuse in his promises of offices of high rank, to induce French gentlemen to go to America. Influenced by Deane's promises, many French officers came over, and Congress became very much embarrassed by their applications for commissions. Deane was recalled in the Autumn of 1777, and John Adams was appointed in his place. Deane arrived at Philadelphia the following Spring, in company with Mr. Gerard, the first minister sent hither by France, after the treaty of amity between the two governments, in February, 1778. He was called upon to ex- plain his official course abroad, before the assembled Congress, but he did not entirely acquit himself of the suspicion that he had misapplied the public funds, while in office, and he evaded thorough scrutiny by pleading that his vouchers were left among his papers, in Europe. In order to mislead public opinion, he published an address, in which he arraigned members of Congress and those in charge of the operations of the office for foreign affairs, at Philadelphia. Thomas Paine was at the head of that office, and in his reply to Deane, he revealed some secrets concerning transactions with the French government, and was requested to resign. In 1784, Deane published another address to the people of the United States, complaining of ill treatment by the government. Very little at- tention was paid to his complaints, and he soon afterward went to England. He died in extreme poverty at Deal, in England, in 1789, at the age of about fifty years. TENCH COXE. AS we survey the labors of useful men, we are often compelled to regret the paucity of their personal history, left on record. We admire their deeds, and wish to know more of the men, but Time has drawn the veil of oblivion, even over the traditions of their private life. Such is the case in relation to Tench Coxe, one of the most indefatigable of the publiC'Spirited men of our country, and to whom the Cotton interest, especially, is vastly indebted, for he labored long, assiduously, and efficiently, in its behalf. He was a grandson of Dr. Daniel Coxe, physician to the Queen of Charles the Second, arid of Queen Anne, of England, who became one of the principal proprietors of the soil of "West Jersey. His son, William Coxe, married the daughter of Tench Francis, attorney-general of the province of Pennsylvania, and these were the parents of Tench Coxe, who was born in Philadelphia, on the 22d of May, 1755. His chief distinction is that of a lucid and powerful advocate of the cultivation of cotton in the United States, and of other industrial pursuits. He says that as early as 1785, when he was but thirty years of age, he "felt pleasing convictions that the United States, in its extensive regions south of Anne Arundel and Talbot counties, Maryland, would certainly become a great cotton producing country." He made these suggestions public at that time ; and after the convention at Annapolis, in 1786, called to consider the business and general interests of the new Republic, the matter received considerable attention. While the conven- tion that framed the Federal Constitution was in session in Philadelphia, in 1787, Mr. Coxe delivered an admirable address on his favorite theme, before a large number of gentlemen who had assembled in that city, for the purpose of estab- lishing a society for the encouragment of manufactures and the useful arts. That address thoroughly awakened the public mind. Before that time, not a TENCH COXE. 81 bale of cotton had ever been exported from the United States to any country, and no planter had adopted its cultivation as a "crop." What a change has taken place within less than seventy years ! That then neglected article has now become a staple of several of the States of our Union, and the source of great national wealth. From 1787, until the death of Mr. Coxe, on the 17th of July, 1824, there was never any important movement in favor of the introduction and promotion of manufactures, in which his name did not appear prominent. In 1794, he published a large octavo volume, which contained what he had previously written on the subject of the growth of cotton, and cognate topics. At that time he was commissioner of the revenue at Philadelphia, and his whole time was devoted to the investigation of the subjects of national industry and national prosperity. In 1806, he published an essay on naval power and the encourage- ment of manufactures. The following year he published a memoir on the culture and manufacture of cotton, and this was followed by other similar productions, at various times, until his death, when at the age of sixty-eight years. Tench Coxe is regarded by those who appreciate his usefulness, as a national bene- factor. 4* 82 JOHN LEDYARD. JOHN LED YARD. rPHE world has never produced a more indefatigable traveller and explorer, L than John Ledyard, the eldest son of a sea captain, who resided at Groton, Connecticut. There John was born in 1751. His father died while he was yet a lad; and after his mother had married again, he was taken into the family of his grandfather, at Hartford, and treated as a son. His guardian died, when John was about eighteen years of age, and he entered Dartmouth College as a divinity student. He became dissatisfied, and resolved to leave the institution. He had already been a wanderer among the Five Nations in New York for three months, and had tasted the pleasures of exciting travel. Having no money to pay travelling expenses to Hartford, he constructed a canoe, laid in " sea stores " contributed by kind friends, and all alone he made a perilous voyage down the winding Connecticut and its numerous rapids, to Hartford, a distance of one hundred and forty miles. This first adventure revealed the spirit within. He soon made his way to New London, and shipped as a common sailor, for Gibraltar. There he joined the army, but being released, he made his way back by way of the Barbary coast and the West Indies, in 1771. He then sailed from New York to England, where he entered the navy, and as corporal of marines, accompanied Captain Cook in his third and last great voyage. Ever brave and resolute, young Ledyard became the favorite of his commander, and he was frequently intrusted with little enterprises, whiqh required skill and courage. lie was with Cook when lie was killed by the people of the Sandwich Islands, in 1778. After visiting the shores of Kamschatka, the expedition re- turned to England, and Ledyard came to America. He arrived after an absence of eight years, and took lodgings under his mother's roof at Southold, Long Island, without being recognized by her, for some hours. The war of the Revo- lution was then in progress, and Ledyard could not consistently remain among the enemies of his country, so he crossed over to Connecticut, joined his friends at Hartford, and there wrote an account of the voyage with Captain Cook. Ledyard now planned a voyage to the north-west coast of America, but re- ceived very little encouragement. He sailed for Cadiz, thence to L'Orient, and going to Paris, he had an interview there with Mr. Jefferson and La Fayette. They approved of his projected voyage, for commercial purposes, to the north- west coast, and Paul Jones, then in Paris, entered heartily into the scheme. The plan failed, however, and Ledyard conceived the bold project of making a journey by land, through the Russian dominions, to Behring's Straits, by way of Kamschatka, and thus reach the north-west coast. He went to London, and Sir Joseph Banks and other scientific gentlemen contributed funds to aid him in his enterprise. He proceeded to Hamburg, thence to Copenhagen and Stock- holm ; and without a companion he traversed the country north of the Gulf of Bothnia, under the Arctic circle, and made his way to St. Petersburg. There he procured a passport from the Empress Catharine, and started for Siberia, over the Ural Mountains. After dreadful hardships, which few men could have en- dured, he reached Yakutsk, on the great Lena river, six thousand miles east- ward of St. Petersburg. He pushed on further to the Kamschatkan Sea, but finding much ice, he returned to Yakutsk, to await the opening of Spring. There, for reasons unknown to him, he was suspected of being a spy, and was seized by two Russian soldiers, in the name of the Empress. In the depth of "Winter he was conveyed through the north of Tartary, by the way of Moscow, to the confines of Poland, and there his conductors wished him a pleasant jour- ney, and told him he would be hanged if he entered the Russian dominions CORNELIUS HARNETT. again. Ragged and penniless, he made his way to Konigsberg, where a cor- respondent of Sir Joseph Banks gave him five guineas, with which he proceeded to England. There he found a project on foot, for exploring the interior of Africa. Ledyard at once engaged, with enthusiasm, in the enterprise. When one of the managers of the association, which had been formed for the purpose, asked Ledyard how soon he would be ready to start, he promptly replied, " To- morrow morning." After writing to his mother, he sailed from London, in June, 1788, reached Cairo on the 19th of August, and then prepared to penetrate the interior. He joined a caravan for Sennaar, and was on the point of departure, with high hopes, when he was attacked by a bilious fever, which terminated his life on the 17th of January, 1789, at the age of thirty-seven years. Led}^ard was a fluent and even elegant writer. He was a man of keen observation, and his notes of travel, truthful in the extreme, exhibited tales of romantic interest, such as the brain of the most expert writer of fiction could never have conceived. His narrative of Captain Cook's voyage, published at Hartford, in 1783, is full of exciting interest. From his papers in the possession of his relative, Dr. Isaac Ledyard, Mr. Sparks, the historian, compiled an interesting life of the traveller, and published it in 1828. CORNELIUS HARNETT. ONE of the chief master spirits of the Revolution, in North Carolina, was Cor- nelius Harnett, of Wilmington. He was born in England in 1723, and came to America in early life. He was a man of wealth and distinction before the disputes, which led to the Revolution, commenced ; and he was among the earliest of the Southern patriots to denounce the Stamp Act and kindred meas- ures. In 1770 and 1771, he represented the borough of Wilmington in the colonial legislature, and was chairman of the most important committees of that body. In conjunction with Robert Howe (afterward a general in the Revolu- tion) and Judge Maurice Moore, Mr. Harnett was appointed by the Assembly to draw up a remonstrance against the appointment of commissioners, by the royal governor, to run the southern boundary of the province, and he was then known as one of the firmest Whigs 1 in all the South. Josiah Quincy, the young and ardent patriot of Boston, visited Mr. Harnett in 1773, and after describing the pleasures of a visit spent with him and Robert Howe, he spoke of Harnett's unflinching integrity, and called him "the Samuel Adams of North Carolina." Toward the close of that year, Mr. Harnett was made chairman of the committee of correspondence, of Wilmington District, and, throughout the Cape Fear region, he was the master spirit of the storm of the revolution, as it gathered and burst over the country. When a provincial congress was called, in 1775, he was then the representative of his old constituents ; and in that Congress at Halifax, on the Roanoke, in 1776, from which issued the first official voice in favor of the inde-; pendence of the colonies, Cornelius Harnett was a bold leader, and with his own hand drew up those noble instructions to the North Carolina delegates in the Continental Congress. When, in the Spring of 1776, Sir Henry Clinton appeared at Cape Fear, with a British fleet, Harnett and Howe were honored with an exemption from the terms of a general pardon, because, like John Hancock and Samuel Adams, they were considered arch^rebels, When, on the 26th of July, 1, The terms Whig and Tory were copied from the political vocabulary of Great Britain, where they originated in the time of Charles the Second. The term Whig denoted the opposers of government, and that of Tory its adherents. In that relation to public affairs, they were first used in America, about the year 1770. The Republicans were called Whigs, the Loyalists, Tories. 84: PEYTON RANDOLPH. 1776, the Declaration of Independence arrived at Halifax, Harnett read it to the people, who, when he had finished it, took him upon their shoulders, and bore him in triumph through the town. In the Autumn, he drafted a State Constitution and Bill of Rights. When, under that constitution, Richard Cas- well was made governor of the new State, Harnett was one of his council. He was afterward a member of the Continental Congress, and his name is attached to the Articles of Confederation. 1 When, in 1780 and 1781, the British took possession of the country around the Cape Fear, Harnett was made a prisoner, and died while a captive. Upon a slab of brown stone, at the head of his grave in St. James' church- vard, Wilmington, is the simple inscription "CORNELIUS HARNETT. Died 1781, aged fifty-eight years." PEYTON RANDOLPH. rPHE chroniclers of ancient dynasties are often foiled in their researches con- JL cerning early kings, and when they have lost the clue of regular descent, or find it leading back into the domains of mere myth, they conveniently con- clude that the first monarch of the line was begotten by a god. We have no such difficulty in this great republican empire of the West, for dynasties change with men, and eyes are yet undimmed which saw the first chief magistrate of this free nation. He was a Virginian a native of the State called "the mother of presidents " and his name was Peyton Randolph. He was born in the year 1723, and was a descendant of one of the oldest of the aristocratic families of Virginia who boast of having the royal blood of Powhatan 2 in their veins. According to a then prevailing custom, young Randolph was sent to England to be educated. He was graduated at Oxford, with honor, and received the de- gree of Master of Arts. He commenced the study of law on his return home; and so rapid was his success in his profession, that he was made attorney-general of the colony of Virginia, in 1756, when thirty- three years of age. At that time, the French and Indian War was progressing, and the Indians, incited by the French, were desolating the Virginia frontier/ Narratives of these outrages aroused the indignation of Mr. Randolph, and collecting a hundred men, he led them to the borders of the Indian country, and taught the savages some terrible retributory lessons. Toward the close of that contest, Mr. Randolph was elected to a seat in the Virginia Legislature, and he often presided over that body. There his influence was very great, and as the storm of the Revolution came on apace, his voice was ever heard on the side of freedom. Mr. Randolph was elected a delegate to the first Continental Congress, which assembled in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, on the 5th of September, 1774. Charles Thomson recorded on that day: "The Congress proceeded to the choice of a President, when the Hon. Peyton Randolph, Esq., was unanimously elected." This vote made him really the first President of the United States, for then and there our Union had its birth. He was again chosen President when another Congress met at the same place, in May following, but feeble health compelled him to resign the office, fourteen days afterward, when John Hancock was chosen to fill his place. Mr. Randolph resumed his seat in Congress early the following Autumn; and on the 22d of October, 1775, he died at Philadelphia, from the effects of apoplexy, in the fifty-third year of his age. 1. These formed a constitution of government for the United States, until 1789, -when the present Federal Constitution went into operation, as a substitute. 2. See sketch of Pocahontas. MERCY WARREN. 85 / ^ 7 1> MERCY WARREN. JAMES OTIS was a noble actor in the earlier scenes of the Revolution, and his beloved sister, Mercy, equally patriotic in her more limited sphere, was a faithful recorder of those acts, and of the subsequent events which led to the founding of our republic. She was the third child of Colonel Otis, of Barnstable, Massachusetts, and was born there on the 25th of September, 1728. As eldest daughter, much of her childhood and youth was spent in domestic employments, and her leisure was devoted to reading and study. Her opportunities for edu- cation were limited, but she found a never-failing source of instruction in the conversation and the library of Rev. Jonathan Russell, the parish minister. There she read Raleigh's History of the World, and that gave her a taste for such practical and important knowledge. Her gifted brother, James, was also her aid and adviser in literary pursuits ; and so great was the attachment between them, that when the insanity which clouded his intellect, at the last, was mani- fested by ravings, her voice, alone, could calm his spirit. At the age of twenty- six years, Miss Otis became the wife of James Warren, a merchant of Plymouth, and a man of congenial mind and temper. Her life passed happily in alternate employments in domestic duties, in needle-work, and in the use of the pen in prose and poetry, until the gathering storm of the Revolution disturbed the re- pose of all families. Her brother was then uttering his noble thoughts in tho senate ; and she too, fired with patriotic ardor, labored with her pen, in the great WILLIAM HEN11Y DRAYTON. cause. She was in correspondence with most of the controlling spirits of that day, and her political opinions were consulted by many who gave them vital action in the council and the field. Her roof was always a free shelter to patriots of every condition, and there D'Estaing and other French officers spent many pleasant and instructive hours. In 1775, was published her satirical drama, in two acts, entitled The Group, in which she introduced many of the leading Tory characters of the day. It had a powerful effect at the time. She early con- ceived the idea of preparing a faithful chronicle of the war, and for that purpose she kept a journal, from the commencement to the end. After the war, her poetical pieces were collected into a volume, dedicated to General Washington. It contained her tragedies, The Sack of Rome, and The Ladies of Castile. The first was so much esteemed, that John Adams, then United States minister in London, expressed a desire to have it performed upon the stage in that city, "before crowded houses, for the honor of America." Her History of the Revolu- tion was published at Boston, in three volumes, in 1805, though completed several years before. She was then seventy-eight years of age, and yet possessed much of the personal grace and vivacity of mind, mentioned by Rochefoucault, who visited her seven years before. The preface, written at that time, shows remark- able mental vigor. Her earnest prayer always was, to be spared the loss of her mental faculties, while she lived, and the boon was vouchsafed. When, on the 19th of October, 1814, her spirit took its flight, her reason was unclouded, though its earthly tenement was almost eighty-eight years of age. WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON. ONE of the most brilliant and promising young men of South Carolina, when the revolutionary contest began, was Judge Drayton, a scion of one of the oldest and best distinguished cavalier families of the South. He was a nephew of Governor Bull, and was born in September, 1742. For about eleven years he was a student at Windsor and Oxford, in England ; and on his return to South Carolina, he prepared for the profession of the law. He went to England again in 1771, and there published the discussions between the friends and op- ponents of the government, in Charleston. He was introduced at court, and being fully impressed with the belief that Great Britain would speedily redress the grievances of the colonists, he accepted the appointment of a seat in the royal governors council. Being soon undeceived, he opposed government meas- ures with great energy, and was finally dismissed for his contumacy. In September, 1774, Mr. Drayton published a pamphlet, addressed to the Continental Congress, in which the grievances of the Americans were clearly stated, and an able Bill of Rights presented. He yet held the position of one of his majesty's justices, to which he had been appointed in 1771, and was the only native-born citizen who had ever been honored with that office. He re- tained his position until the Spring of 1775, when the royal judges made their last circuit. During the following Summer he labored manfully in the cause of freedom, as President of the Provincial Congress of South Carolina ; and in the Autumn, when the British sloops of war, Tamar and Cherokee, menaced Charles- ton with bombardment, because of the rebellious movements of its citizens, he was appointed, by the committee of safety, to the command of the armed ship, Prosper, employed to oppose them. Commodore Drayton returned their fire promptly several times, and thus actual hostilities at the South commenced. JOHN ADAMS. 87 In March, 1776, Judge Drayton was chosen chief justice of the then revolted colony of South Carolina, by the unanimous voice of his Whig countrymen ; and his admirable charge to the grand jury, delivered a month afterward, was hailed throughout the land as one of the noblest expressions of patriotic public senti- ment yet uttered. It placed the author in the same honorable position as John Hancock and Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, who were denounced as arch- traitors. From that time, until the close of his career, he was regarded as one of the chief leaders of the rebellion in the South, and yet he found time to chronicle, in minute detail, the preliminary and current events of the great struggle. He became a member of the Continental Congress, and died suddenly while in the discharge of his legislative duties, in Philadelphia, on the 3d of September, 1779, at the age of thirty-seven years. "A Memoir of the American Revolution, from its commencement to the year 1776," prepared by Judge Drayton, was revised and published by his son, Governor John Drayton, in 1821. JOHN ADAMS. IN our Republic, where offices and titles are not hereditary, it is seldom that father and son both occupy the same post of honor; and it is still more rare, in any country, for both to be equally distinguished for talent and useful- ness, as in the case of the elder and younger Adams. They both occupied im- portant diplomatic stations, and both became chief magistrate of the United States. John Adams, the elder, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, on the 30th of October, 1735, and was a lineal descendant of one who fled to America, to avoid the persecutions of Laud, during the reign of Charles the First. His maternal ancestor was John Alden, of the May Flower, and thus he was an in- heritor of a love of freedom. He received a primary education at a common school in Braintree, and there he was prepared for a scholarship in Harvard College, where he was graduated at the age of twenty years. The law was his chosen profession ; and under Mr. Putnam, of Worcester, he made rapid progress, not only in that study, but in the acquirement of general information, for he there had the free use of an extensive library, belonging to Mr. Gridley, the attorney-general of Massachusetts. The value of such a fountain of knowledge, to him, was soon apparent; and when, in 1758, he commenced the practice of law at Braintree, he gave ample assurance of speedy eminence, both as a pro- fessional and a public man. He was admitted as a barrister, in 1761, and at the same time took part with Otis and others in denunciations of Writs of As- sistance. When the tempest raised in America by the Stamp Act was at its height, Mr. Adams wrote and published his famous Essay on the Canon and feudal Law, which at once placed him high the public esteem. Mr. Adams married in 1766, and soon afterward made Boston his place of residence. There he took front rank with the political agitators, and was one of the most prudent, yet decided of the popular leaders. 1 In 1770, he was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts Assembly; and in 1774, he was chosen one of five to represent that province in the First Continental Congress. He was again elected to the same office in 1775, and nominated Georgo Washington for the important station of commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States. On 1. His popularity was put to the severest test in 1770, when Captain Preston, and some of his soldiers who had fired upon a mob and killed three people [see note on page 59], were tried for murder. Adams, in the face of greatly-excited public opinion, consented, as a lawyer, to defend Preston, and he was acquitted. The faith of the people, in Adams, was so unwavering, that this seeming treason to their cause did not lesson his character in their esteem. JOHN ADAMS. the Gth of May, 1776, he offered a resolution, in Congress, equivalent to a dec- laration of independence, and when that subject assumed a more definite form, soon afterward, he was one of the ablest advocates of the measure. His signa- ture was affixed to the great instrument which declared the colonies "free and independent States." Mr. Adams labored on assiduously in Congress, 1 until appointed, by that body, to fill the place of Silas Deane at the French court. Franklin had done all the necessary diplomatic work, and Mr. Adams returned in 1779. He then assisted in framing a state constitution for Massachusetts, and while thus employed, was appointed a minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a peace, and form a commercial treaty, with Great Britain. He was very active while abroad, and at one time was intrusted with no less than six missions. 2 In 1781, he was associated with Franklin, Jay, and Laurens, in various nego- tiations, and was the first of the American commissioners who signed the defin- itive treaty of peace, with Great Britain, in 1783. He was the first United States minister to the British court, and did not return home until 1788. He was elected the first vice-president of the United States, under the Federal 1. In the course of the eighteen months preceding his departure for Europe, Mr. Adams had been on ninety different comrnittees, and was chairman of twenty-five of them. 2. To treat for peace with Great Britain ; to make a commercial treaty with Great Britain ; to nego- tiate the same with the States General of Holland ; the same with the Prince of Oranpre ; to pledge the faith of the United States to the Armed Neutrality ; and to negotiate a loan of ten millions of dollars. WILLIAM RICHARDSON DAVIE. 80 Constitution, in 1789, and in 1796, he was elevated to the presidential chair. At the close of his term, in 1801, he retired from public life, but lived to see his son occupy the chair of chief magistrate, twenty -four years afterward. In 1824, he was chosen president of the Massachusetts convention for revising the state constitution, which he assisted in forming forty-five years before, but he declined the honor. His powers of life were then failing; and on the 4th of July, 1826, he expired, with the words " Independence forever !" upon his lips, in the ninety- second year of his age. 1 WILLIAM RICHARDSON DAVIE. WHEN" the first thunder-peal of the Revolution rolled over the South, hun- dreds of her gallant sons seized their arms, and rushed to the field ; and many, who were living in obscurity, then burst the chrysalis of comparative in- significance and became honored leaders of the popular mind. Among these was William Richardson Davie. He was born at Egremont, near White Haven, England, on the 20th of June, 1756. His father brought him to America when he was a small child, and on his return, left him with his maternal uncle, Rev. William Richardson, of South Carolina. At a proper age, he was placed under the care of Dr. Witherspoon, of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, where he was graduated in 1776, a few weeks before Washington and his broken army passed through there, in their flight toward the Delaware. Young Davie returned to North Carolina, full of patriotic fire, and resolved on becoming a soldier. He could not then obtain a commission, so he went to Salisbury and studied law, supposing the war would not continue many months. But as the clouds thickened, young Davie became restive, and he induced a popular friend to raise a troop of dragoons, of which the fledgling hero was made lieutenant. They marched toward Charleston, and the command devolving on Lieutenant Davie, he procured the attachment of his corps to the legion of Count Pulaski. In that capacity he fought at Stono Ferry, in June, 1779, where he was so badly wounded that he was confined for five months in a hospital. In 1780, Davie was placed at the head of a legionary corps, with a commission of major from the governor of North Carolina. He spent the last shilling of a bequest made by his lately-deceased uncle and guardian, in equipping this corps, and then went to the field to oppose the progress of the British troops toward the interior of the Carolinas. He nobly aided Sumter in his operations in the vicinity of the Catawba, early in August, and was hastening to join the army of Gates, when it was defeated and dispersed near Camden. He was afterward with Rutherford at Ramsour's Mills, and nobly confronted the enemy at Charlotte, after a brilliant display of courage and skill at Wahab's Plantation. For his services during that campaign, he was rewarded with the commission of colonel commandant of the cavalry of North Carolina. When Greene took command of the southern army, he appointed Colonel Davie his commissary-general. In all the important operations which followed, Davie was exceedingly efficient ; and at the trying hour at Ninety-Six, in the 'Summer of 1781, Greene sent Colonel Davie to present the condition of his army to the legislature of North Carolina. He performed the service well ; and prospects 1. Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson both expired on the same day, and at almost the same hour. They were both on the committee that framed the Declaration of Independence ; both voted for that instru- ment just fifty years before ; both signed it : both had been foreign ministers ; and bo*h had been Pres- ident of the ' Republic they had helped to establish. The coincidence of their deaths was therefore quite remarkable. 90 EGBERT MORRIS. of peace appearing in the Autumn, he left the army, married a daughter of General Allen Jones, in 1783, and in the town of Halifax, on the Roanoke, com- menced the practice of law. In that pursuit he soon became eminent, and was chosen a delegate to the convention which framed the Federal Constitution. In 1797, he was commissioned a major-general of militia, and the next year, he was appointed a brigadier in the army of the United States. In 1798, he was elected governor of the State of North Carolina, and was soon afterward appointed, by President Adams, an associate envoy extraordinary to France, with Ellsworth and Murray. After his return, he went to reside at Tivoli, a beautiful estate on the Catawba river, in South Carolina. His wife died in 1803, and he remained in retirement until his own death, which occurred at Tivoli, in December, 1820, when he was in the sixty -fourth year of his age. General Davie was one of the founders of the North Carolina University, at Chapel Hill. He was chiefly in- strumental in procuring the erection of the buildings for that institution ; and, as grand master of the masonic fraternity, he laid the corner-stone. ROBERT MORRIS. IT is an often demonstrated truth, that "money is the sinew of war." It was eminently so during the revolutionary struggle, when its strength and use- fulness in the cause of freedom, were controlled by Robert Morris, a wealthy and influential merchant of Philadelphia. He was born in Lancashire, England, in January, 1733. His father was a Liverpool merchant extensively engaged in the American trade, who came to America in 1744, and settled on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. His son, Robert, with his grandmother, followed in 1746, and was placed in a school in Philadelphia, where an inefficient teacher wasted his time and patience. 1 In 1749, young Morris was placed in the count- ing-room of Charles Willing, of Philadelphia ; and on the death of his employer, in 1754, he entered into a partnership with that gentleman's son, which con- tinued thirty-nine years. That firm soon became the most wealthy and exten- sive among the importers of Philadelphia, and consequently they were the heaviest losers by the non-importation agreements, 2 which gave such a deadly blow at the infant commerce of the colonies, after the passage of the Stamp Act. Yet they patriotically joined the league, and made the sacrifice for the good of the cause of right. In November, 1775, Mr. Morris was elected to a seat in the Continental Con- gress, 3 where his exceeding great usefulness was soon discovered. Its appreci- ation was manifested by placing him upon committees, having in charge the "ways and means" for carrying on the war. In the Spring of 1776, he was chosen, by Congress, a special commissioner to negotiate bills of exchange, and to take other measures to procure money for government. At that time, no man's credit, in America, for wealth and honor, stood higher than that of Robert Morris. He was again elected to Congress after the Declaration of Independence 1. On one occasion Robert's father censured him for his tardiness in learning. His reply and excuse wove, "Why, sir, I have learned all that the master could teach me." 2. One of the measures adopted by the colonists to compel Great Britain to do them justice, was that of American merchants everywhere agreeing not to import any more poods from the mother country, until all obnoxious acts should be repealed. These leagues, recommended by the Continental Congress in 1774, and generally subscribed to, had a powerful effect on Parliament, for in the Lower House (Com- mons) (he mercantile interest had a potential representation. 3. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached Philadelphia, Mr. Morris and some friends, mem- bers of the St. Geo'-ge's Society, were celebrating their anniversary. There the subject was discussed, and Morris and a few others, by solemn vow, dedicated themselves to the cause of the Revolution. ROBERT MORRIS. 91 had been adopted, and being favorable to that measure, he signed the document, with most of the others, on the second day of August following. Toward the close of that year, when the half-naked, half-famished American army were about to cease the struggle, in despair, he evinced hie faith in the success of the con- flict, and his own warm patriotism, by loaning for the government, on his own responsibility, ten thousand dollars. 1 It gave food and clothing to the gallant little band under Washington, who achieved the noble victory at Trenton, and a new and powerful impetus was thereby given to the Revolution. Mr. Morris was continually active in the great cause during the whole of the war. He fitted out many privateers. Some were lost, others were successful in bringing him rich prizes ; and at the . return of peace he estimated that his losses and gains were about equal. In May, 1781 about the gloomiest period of the struggle, Mr. Morris submitted to Congress a plan for a National Bank. It was approved, and the Bank of North America, with Robert Morris as its soul, was established, and became a very efficient fiscal agent. He was assisted by Gouverneur Morris ; and through the active agency, in financial matters, of these gentlemen, much of the success which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis, 1. " I want money," said Morris to a Quaker friend, " for the use of the army." " What security canst thou give?" asked the lender. " My note a'nd my honor,-' responded Morris. " Robert, thou shalt have it," was the prompt reply. 92 FRANCIS DANA. at Yorktown, must be attributed. 1 During that year Mr. Morris accepted the office of Financial Agent (Secretary of the Treasury) of the United States. After the war, he was twice a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and he was one of the framers of the Federal Constitution. He was a senator in the first Congress convened under that instrument ; and "Washington appointed him his first Secretary of the Treasury. He declined the office, and named Alexander Hamilton as more capable, than himself; to perform the duties. At the close of his senatorial term, Mr. Morris retired from public life, not so rich in money, by half, as when he entered the arena. Soon the remainder of his large fortune was lost by speculations in wild land, in the western part of the State of New York, afterward purchased by an association known as The Holland Land Com- pany. On the 8th of May, 1806, Robert Morris, the great Financier of the Revolution, died in comparative poverty, at the age of a little more than seventy- three years. FRANCIS DANA. MASSACHUSETTS is pre-eminent among the States in the production of dis- tinguished men. Prominent among those of whom she may be justly proud, is the name of Francis Dana, who was born at Charlestown, near Boston, in August, 1742. He was educated at Harvard University, and chose the law as his profession. In the midst of the confusion and distress incident to the closing of the port of Boston, by parliamentary decree, in 1774,- Mr. Dana went to England, and passed a year with his brother, a clergyman, at "Wroxeter. He returned to America at the close of 1775, took an active port, as a patriot, in the exciting political proceedings of the time, and in the Autumn of 1776, was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress. In that important station he remained until November, 1779, when ho accompanied John Adams to Paris, as Secretary of Legation. Toward the close of 1780, Congress appointed Mr. Dana minister plenipoten- tiary at the court of Russia. The Empress Catherine would not openly receive him, for fear of offending England, but he was allowed to remain in St. Peters- burg until the close of the war, when he returned home, and was immediately chosen a delegate to the Congress of 1784. Mr. Dana was an efficient advocate of the Federal Constitution, in th.e Massachusetts convention, and exerted great influence in the political affairs of his State. President Adams appreciated his worth, and offered him the office of envoy extraordinary to France, with Messrs. Marshall and Pinckney, in 1797. He declined the honor, and EJbridge Gerry, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, accepted it. Mr. Dana had then held the important office of chief justice of Massachusetts, for five years, to which he had been appointed by President Washington. He retained his seat on the bench until 1806, when he retired to private life, but not to a life of inaction. He was a thorough Federalist; and during the exciting political period, from the election of Jefferson in 1800, until his death, his pen was often busy. Judge Dana died at his residence in Cambridge, near Boston, on the 25th of April, 1811, at the age of sixty-eight years. 1. The Bank of North America did not go into operation until December, 1781. Yet Morris, on his own personal responsibility, was acting as efficiently as the bank could then have done, in providing funds for the American army under Washington, in making its successful expedition into Virginia. 2. In consequence of the destruction of two cargoes of tea in Boston Harbor, in December, 1773, and other rebellious movements, the British parliament ordered the port of that city to be closed, and all its public offices to be removed. This blow at the business of that thriving town, was a retaliatory meas- ure, and produced great irritation throughout the colonies. JOHN FITCH. JOHN FITCH. THE records of human inventions are full of instances of originators being deprived of the honors and emoluments due to them. John Fitch, an early applicant of steam power to the propulsion of boats, is a remarkable instance of that kind. He was born between Hartford and Windsor, 1 in Connecticut, on the 21st of January, 1743. At the age of eight years, he was taken from school, and put to labor on a farm ; after which he had but one month in each year to devote to study under instruction. But most of the leisure moments of child- hood were employed with his books ; and at the age of eleven years, he planted and raised some potatoes, for the express purpose of purchasing a complete Geography. His health was naturally feeble, and he appears to have been overworked on the farm. He ran away from home, and was afterward appren- ticed to a clock-maker. He learned the business imperfectly, and abandoned it at his majority, for that of a brass-founder. He married a young lady, in 1767, but incompatibility of temper and views caused them to separate at the end of two years. They had two children, but a reconciliation never took place, and the cloud always deeply shadowed his path of life. Mr. Fitch was a silversmith in Trenton, New Jersey, when the British army entered it, and destroyed his shop and contents, in the Winter of 1776, because he was engaged in repairing American arms. He joined the army, and was with Washington at Valley Forge. There he heard some officers speak of the fertility of Kentucky. He procured the appointment of deputy surveyor, and in the Spring of 1780, set out on foot, for that untraversed wilderness beyond the Alleghanies. He returned to Philadelphia the following year, the owner of six- teen hundred acres of fine land in the Ohio Valley, and filled with dreams of future opulence. Again he started for the great West, and while descending the Ohio, with some others, in the Spring of 1782, he was made a prisoner by the Indians, where Marietta now stands. He was redeemed from captivity, at Detroit, by a British officer, went to Canada, and returning to Pennsylvania, he constructed a map of the Western Country. He now conceived the idea of "gaining a force by steam;" and in August, 1785, he presented the subject to the Continental Congress, and asked for aid to try experiments in applying the power to the propulsion of vessels, by means of wheels or paddles. At about this time, Mr. Rumsey, of Virginia, had conceived a similar idea, and Mr. Fitch, disappointed and exasperated by what he deemed the stupidity of Congress, went from State to State, in search of aid, but without success. He engaged in a bitter contro- versy with Rurnsey, in relation to priority of invention ; and in the meanwhile, new claimants appeared. Yet all seemed to have distinct plans, with identical aim the moving of a boat by means of steam-power. Fitch and Rumsey pro- cured protective statutes from different State legislatures. The former organ- ized a stock company, to carry out his designs, in 1786, but little was effected by it. The State of Pennsylvania refused to lend him one hundred and fifty pounds, to procure an engine from England. With another mechanic, he suc- ceeded in constructing an engine and boat; and on the 1st of May, 1789, the first steamboat was seen moving upon the waters of the Delaware. The boat went at the rate of eight miles an hour, and yet there was not confidence enough in the project, to sustain the persevering inventor. To him success was as "clear as any problem in Euclid;" and in a letter to Franklin, he expressed his full belief that "steamboats would answer for sea voyages, as well as inland naviga- 1. The house in which he was born stood upon the dividing line of those towns, and it is said that hi irth occurred in the Windsor portion of the dwelling. 94 JOHN ALEXANDER LLLLINGTON. tion" Despairing of gaining funds to perfect his invention, in America, Fitch went to France and England, in 1792; but, disappointed and almost penniless, he returned home, and retired to Kentucky. He found a good deal of his land occupied; and in 1797, he commenced ejectment suits. Soon after this his mind and body began to give way under the pressure of long-continued excitements, and, though temperate through life, he determined to shorten his days by the excessive use of spirituous liquors. He foretold the time of his death by a mathematical calculation, and on the 2d of July, 1798, he died at Bardstown, Kentucky, and was buried there. Had his countrymen appreciated his inven- tions, and sustained his efforts, the glory awarded to Fulton would doubtless have been due to John Fitch, full twenty years earlier than the success of the former established his own fame. JOHN ALEXANDER LILLINGTON. rE Cape Fear region of North Carolina abounded with true Republicans, when the party lines between Whigs and Tories were distinctly drawn, just before the war of the Revolution was lighted up. John A. Lillington was one of the truest stamp. He was the son of a British military officer, who was a member of the royal council of Barbadoes, in 1698. His son John, captivated by the glowing accounts given of North Carolina, emigrated thither, and settled within the present limits of New Hanover county; and in 1734, built a fine mansion there, which he called Lillington Hall. It stands on the north branch of the Cape Fear river, about thirty miles from "Wilmington. The proprietor inherited the military tastes of his father ; and when the notes of preparation for the Revolution were heard all over the land, his skill was brought into re- quisition. He was also a member of the Wilmington committee of safety in 1775 ; and when the Scotch Highlanders and others in the vicinity of Cross Creek (Fayetteville), took up arms for the king, under Donald McDonald, in the Winter of 1776, Colonel Lillington commanded one of the provincial corps which marched against, and defeated them, at Moore's Creek, under the general command of Colonel Caswell. It was the initial battle of the Revolution in the South, and the victory was hailed with delight. Colonel Lillington was made a brigadier ; and from that time, until the approach of Gates, in 1780, he was active in the council and field. Both he and his son joined the army of Gates, and partici- pated in the disgrace of defeat at Camden. General Lillington remained in service until the close of the war, when he withdrew from public life, and sought repose in the bosom of his family at Lil- lington Hall. There appears to be no record of the birth or death of General Lillington. The slab over his grave, near his mansion, has an appropriate in- scription, but it bears no date, except that of his battle at Moore's Creek. It tells us, however, that "To intellectual powers of a high order, he united incor- ruptible integrity, devoted and self-sacrificing patriotism." Tradition avers, that he possessed a frame of Herculean proportions and strength, and that, in his generous kindness to all around him, must we find the reason of the salvation of Lillington Hall from the flames, when all others in the neighborhood were desolated. The Tories loved him for his goodness of heart; the Whigs revered him for his stern patriotism. JOHN PAUL JONES. 95 JOHN PAUL JONES. O OMEWHERE, in the great city of Paris, rest the remains of one of the bravest O naval commanders known in history, but, like the sepulchre of General Greene, its identity is lost to this generation, and the reproach of that oblivion rests upon the government of the United States. John Paul Jones is the naval hero of the elder war for American independence; and, like many of the patriots of that struggle, whom we delight to honor, he was born beyond the Atlantic. His birth occurred on the 6th of July, 1747, at Arbigland, on the Frith of Sol- way, Scotland. At the age of twelve years he was apprenticed to a ship-master in the Virginia trade. In 1766, he became mate of a Jamaica "slaver" (as vessels engaged in the importation of negroes, from Africa, were called), and two years afterward, while on his way to Scotland, in another vessel, he became master by the death of the two chief officers. In that position he was retained, though only twenty-one years of age. On the death of his mother, in 1773, he settled in Virginia. 1 "When the Devolution broke out, he offered his services to 1. He went there to take charge of some property belonging to a deceased brother. His original name was John Paul, but, for reasons not known, he added the name of Jones, after settling in Vir- ginia. KICHAKD CASWELL. Congress, and received the commission of a lieutenant in the navy, near tho close of 1775. He soon afterward became commander of a vessel, with which he took sixteen prizes. In 1777, he was ordered to Paris, to arrange some naval operations with the American commissioners there; and in the Spring of 1778, he was spreading universal alarm along the coasts of Scotland, by his bold ex- ploits. At Whitehaven, he captured two forts with thirty cannon; and at another time, almost succeeded in making the Earl of Selkirk, at Kirkcudbright, a prisoner. After a very successful cruise in the British waters, he returned to Brest, with two hundred prisoners of war and much booty. At the close of tho Summer of 1779, he made another cruise, with a little squadron, his flag-ship being the Borihomme Richard; and on the evening of the 23d of September, he had an engagement with the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, two strong English vessels that were convoying the Baltic merchant fleet. He had already captured thirteen vessels during the cruise, and boldly attacked these. It was one of the most desperate sea-fights that ever occurred. At one time the Richard and Serapis were side by side, lashed together, and thus poured broadsides into each other, while with pike, cutlass, and pistol, the combatants fought hand to hand upon both vessels. After a conflict of two hours, the British vessel sur- rendered; but Jones' flag-ship was so shattered, that, sixteen hours after the victory, it went beneath the deep waters of Bridlington Bay. This victory gave Jones great eclat, both in America and Europe. King Louis of France presented him with an elegant gold-mounted sword, with appropriate emblems and motto upon its blade ; and Congress then voted special thanks to the victor, and had a gold medal struck in his honor, and presented to him, eight years afterward. Captain Jones returned to Philadelphia, in 1781; and when peace was estab- lished, he went to Europe as agent for the recovery of prize money. He re- turned to America in 1787, and the following year he was solicited to join the Russian navy, with the commission of rear-admiral. He served against the Turks, in the Black Sea, for awhile, but disliking the position, he retired to Paris, on a pension from the Empress Catharine, in 1789. There he resided most of the time, until his death, which occurred on the 18th of July, 1792, a few days before the arrival of a commission for him, from President Washington, to treat with Algiers. Though the minute circumstances of his death have been related, and the French National Assembly noticed it by an eulogistic resolution though it is said that his body was placed in a leaden coffin to be conveyed to the United States, if asked for, yet "the place of his sepulchre is not known unto this day." RICHARD CASWELL. THE first victory of republican troops in North Carolina, was won by those under the command of a lawyer in the prime of life ; and the first incum- bent of the chair of chief magistrate of that State, after it became a sovereign commonwealth by the act of the people, was that same lawyer, Richard Gas- well. He was a native of Maryland, where he was born on the 3d of August, 1729. In 1746, he went to North Carolina, where, through influential letters of introduction, he found employment in one of the public offices. He became deputy-surveyor of the colony; and in 1753, was made clerk of the county court of Orange. He studied law with William Heritage (his second father-in-law), obtained a license, and practiced with great success. He was chosen a member of the Colonial Assembly from Johnston county, in 1754, and continued to rep- JOHN LOVELL. 97 resent that district until 17 71. During the last two years of his legislative duties in the Colonial Assembly, he was Speaker, and at the same time he held the office of colonel of the militia of his county. In that capacity he commanded the right wing of Governor Tryou's forces at the battle of the AUamance, his re- gard for law and order causing him to condemn the rebellious movements of the Regulators. 1 He was one of the delegates of North Carolina, in the Con- tinental Congress, in 1774, and was re-elected the following year ; but being chosen treasurer of the southern district of his State, he resigned his seat in the Autumn, and returned home. In February, 1776, Colonel Caswell was the commander of the provincial forces who defeated the Scotch Loyalists in a battle upon Moore's Creek, in New Hanover county, North Carolina ; and in April following, the Provincial Con- gress gave him the commission of a brigadier, for the district of Newbern. He was chosen president of the Provincial Council, which framed a constitution for the State, in the Autumn of 1776, and was elected the first governor under that instrument. During the stormy period of the three succeeding years, he held that office, performed his duty with rare faithfulness and ability, and refused compensation for his services. He led the troops of North Carolina, under Gates, in 1780, and was a participant in the disastrous defeat of the Americans at Cam- den. From 1782 to 1784, he was Speaker of the State Senate, and controller- general. Then he was again elected governor of the State. He filled that office until 1786, when he became ineligible, according to the provisions of the con- stitution. The following year, he was chosen a delegate to the convention which formed the Federal Constitution in the city of Philadelphia ; and when the General Assembly of his State met, he was chosen Speaker of the Senate. But his course on earth was nearly finished. Domestic bereavements had clouded his life with melancholy ; and while presiding in the Senate, on the 5th of Novem- ber, 1787, he was prostrated by paralysis. He lingered in almost insensibility, until the tenth, when he expired, in the sixtieth year of his age. JOHN LOVELL. " 'THE Master" of many of the leading men of the "War for Independence, in 1 New England, was John Lovell, a descendant of one of the first settlers in the Massachusetts colony. He was born in 1708, and was graduated at Harvard College, at the age of twenty years. He succeeded Jeremiah Gridley as assistant in the South Grammar School of Boston, and in 1738, was placed at its head, where he exercised pedagogue authority for almost forty years. He wrote several political and theological pamphlets; and in 1743, he delivered a funeral oration, on the death of Peter Faneuil, the founder of Faneuil Hall, which was published. Unlike a great proportion of his earlier pupils, Master Lovell was a Loyalist, and left Boston, with other refugees, when the British were driven from that city in March, 1776. He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1778, at the age of seventy years. 1. The people of the interior of North Carolina, were chiefly of Scotch-Irish descent, and thoroughly imbued with independence of spirit. They warmly sympathized with their brethren of the sea-board in opposing the Stamp Act ; and in 1771, an association of the principal inhabitants of Orange and adjacent counties, was formed to resist the growing rapacity of office holders, and regulate the political affairs of their section. They called themselves Regulators. Tryon, then governor of the colony, led an armed force against them, and in May, 1771, they had a bloody skirmish on the AUamance Creek. The Regu- lators were overpowered, and six of the prisoners then captured, were hung at Hillsborough. There, really, the first Hood of the Revolution was shed. 98 ISAAC SHELBY. V -- ISAAC SHELBY. IF being a hero in two wars, with a long interval of useful service in civil life, should command the reverence of posterity, surely Isaac Shelby, of Ken- tucky, may worthily make claim to such reverential regard. He was born a few miles from Hagerstown, Maryland, on the llth of December, 1750, and inherited from his Welsh ancestors that courage and perseverance for which he was so distinguished. He became a professional surveyor ; and, at the age of twenty- one years, he settled in Western Virginia. He was with his father, Evan Shelby, in the battle at Point Pleasant, in 1774, and was afterward employed by Hen- derson and others, as a surveyor, in Kentucky. In July, 1776, he was appointed to the command of a company of minute-men, by the Virginia committee of safety ; and the following year, Governor Patrick Henry appointed him commis- sary of supplies. In 1778, he was attached to the Continental commissary de- partment; and in the Spring of 1779, he was elected to a seat in the Virginia Legislature, from Washington county. Governor Jefferson gave him the com- mission of major, in the Autumn of that year, about which time he was engaged in defining the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, which JOHN ASHE. 99 placed his residence in the latter State. A new county of Sullivan was formed, and Governor Caswell appointed him colonel of that district. He took very little part in military affairs, until the Summer of 1780, when Charleston fell into the hands of the British, and the subjugation of the whole South seemed inevitable. Colonel Shelby was then locating lands for himself, in Kentucky. His country needed his services, arid they were freely given. He hastened home, raised a corps of three hundred mounted riflemen, crossed the mountains, and joined Colonel McDowell, on the Broad River. He was very active in that vicinity ; and with Colonels Campbell, Sevier, and other brave officers and soldiers, he fought the decisive and successful battle, with Major Ferguson, on King's Moun- tain, in October, 1780. He suggested to General Greene that expedition which resulted so brilliantly for Morgan, and his country, at the Cowpens. In the cam- paign of 1781, Shelby was under the command of Marion, for awhile; and the following year, he was elected to a seat in the North Carolina Legislature. He afterward made Kentucky his residence, and was one of the framers of its con- stitution, in 1792. He was elected the first governor of the new State, and after an interval of comparative repose, he was again the incumbent of that import- ant office, in 1812. Another war with Great Britain was then impending. The fire of 1776 still warmed his bosom, and he called his countrymen to arms, when the proclamation of war went forth. Henry Clay presented him with a sword, voted by the legislature of North Carolina for his gallantry at King's Mountain, thirty-two years before, and with that weapon he marched at the head of four thousand Kentucky volunteers, toward the Canada frontier, in 1813, though the snows of threescore and three Summers were upon his head. He fought gal- lantly upon the Thames, in Canada ; and for his valor there, Congress honored him with a gold medal. President Monroe appointed him Secretary of War, in 1817, but he declined the honor, for he coveted the repose which old age de- mands. His last public act was the holding of a treaty with the Chickasaw Indians, in 1818, with General Jackson for his colleague. His sands of life were- now nearly exhausted. In February, 1820, he was prostrated by paralysis, yet he lived, somewhat disabled, until the 18th of July, 1826, when apoplexy ter- minated his life. He was then almost seventy-six years of age. JOHN A SI-IE. THE resistance to official oppression in some of the interior counties of North Carolina, in 1771, known as the Regulator movement, was not viewed, by many good men, as a legitimate part of the general opposition to government measures, then rampant throughout the colonies ; and some who were the most earnest in denouncing the Stamp Act, 1 zealously assisted Governor Tryon, in his measures for suppressing these insurgents. Of these, John Ashe was conspic- uous. He was born in England, in 1721, and at the age of six years, he accom- panied his father to America, and grew to manhood near the banks of the Cape Fear river, in North Carolina. He was a representative in the Colonial Assem- bly for several years, and from 1762 to 1765, he was Speaker of that body. Ho 1. In order to raise a revenue from the American colonies, to replenish the exhausted treasury of England after the French and Indian War, the Parliament decreed that every "piece of paper, parch- ment, or vellum," on which any legal instrument was written, should bear the government stamp, to make it valid, for which certain prices were to be paid, according to the character of the instrument. The Americans justly regarded it as a scheme to tax them, indirectly, without their consent, and they resisted. The country was greatly excited, and the colonies were on the eve of rebellion, when the ob- noxious act was repealed. It became a law in 1765, and was repealed in 1766. 100 WILLIAM JOHNSON. warmly opposed the Stamp Act. and, with Hugh "Waddell and others, he exer- cised his authority as colonel of the militia of his county, and led an armed force to Wilmington, to compel the stamp distributer 1 to resign. He commanded a part of the troops in Governor Tryon's expedition against the Regulators, in 17 71. On one occasion, during that expedition, while he was out reconnoitring, he was caught by some of the insurgents, tied to a tree, and severely whipped, Ho afterward became convinced of the justice of the seemingly rebellious movement, and was one of the most zealous of the revolutionary patriots of the South. In the Colonial Assembly, he advocated republicanism ; and as a member of the Provincial Congress, and of the'committee of safety at Wilmington, he was ex- ceedingly active. He first suggested a Provincial Congress ; and at the head of five hundred men, he destroyed Fort Johnson, in 1775. For this he was denounced as an arch-rebel, but the republicans were more numerous than ad- herents of the crown, and he was unharmed. With eloquent words and ener- getic acts, he aroused the whole country around Wilmington, early in 1776; and he also raised and equipped a regiment. Ho was made a brigadier, and was active in his section until he joined Lincoln on the Savannah, in the Autumn of 1778, with regiments from Halifax, Wilmington, Newbern, and Edenton. With these he pursued the British down the right bank of the Savannah, from Augusta, early in 1779, but in a battle at Brier Creek, was defeated, with great loss. He then returned home ; and when the British took possession of Wilmington, in 1781, General Ashe was made a prisoner, and his family suffered much. During his captivity he was attacked by the small-pox. While sick, he was released on parole, but died while accompanying his family to a place of quiet, in October, 1781, at the age of sixty years. WILLIAM JOHNSON. THE only " baronial hall " yet in existence in the United States, is that of Sir William Johnson, at Johnstown, a few miles north of the Mohawk river. Its first proprietor, William Johnson, was a native of Ireland, where he was born about the year 1714. He was a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, a dis- tinguished naval commander in the British service. Sir Peter married Miss Watts, of New York, and purchased an extensive tract of land upon the Mo- hawk. When about twenty years of age, young Johnson came to America to look after his uncle's possessions in the wilderness. He learned the Indian language, and soon acquired a great influence, especially over the Mohawk tribes, within whose domains he resided. He built a large stone mansion on the Mo- hawk, near the present village of Amsterdam, called it Fort Johnson, and re- sided there twenty years before he built Johnson Hall, above alluded to. He was shrewd, cunning, and licentious. Many of the half-breed warriors of the Mohawks, who took sides against the Republicans in the War for Independence, were his children, for he had numerous Indian concubines, among whom was a sister of the famous Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant. He also had a white wife, the pretty daughter of a German emigrant, by whom he had a son and two daughters. 2 1. Men were appointed in all the colonies to sell the stamps, or stamped paper. The office was so obnoxious to the people, that none were allowed to exercise it. 2. In those days, emigrants were often sold to service, by their own consent, to pay their passage- money to America. The girl alluded to had been purchased by a man named Phillips, in the Mohawk Valley. She attracted the attention of Johnson ; the sequel was told to a neighbor by Phillips himself : " Johnson, that tammed Irishman, came todder day and offered me five pounds for her, threatening to DAVID BRAINERD. 101 In 1755, Johnson was intrusted with the command of the provincial troops of New York, in an expedition against the French and Indians on Lake Champlain. He had a severe battle with them at the head of Lake George, in which he was early wounded, and the command devolved on General Lyman. The provincials were victorious, and Johnson received the honors of knighthood, and five thousand pounds sterling, because of the victory. He was also appointed super- intendent of Indian affairs, with a handsome salary, and continued to hold his military commission. In 1759, he was again in the field ; and his superior officer (Pricleaux) being killed in an attack upon Fort Niagara, he became commander- in-chief, and was successful. Such was now his influence over the Indians, that when Lord Amherst was at Oswego, in 1760, preparing to proceed against Mon- treal, Sir William furnished him with a thousand Iroquois warriors. He died at Johnson Hall, on the llth of July, 1774, at the age of about sixty years. He had commenced a powerful opposition to the republican movements in the Mohawk Valley, and the mantle of his influence fell upon his son, Sir John Johnson, who succeeded to his title, office, and estates DAVID BRAINEKD. TO leave the endearments of home and the pleasures of civilized life, and spend the strength of manhood among pagans, with the sole aim of doing good to the needy, is true heroism an exhibition of chivalry, worthy of the honors of knighthood. Prominent on the list of such self-sacrificing champions, is the name of David Brainerd, eminent as a missionary among the Indians of our land. He was born at East Haddam, Connecticut, on the 20th of April, 1718. In 1739, he entered Yale College, as a student; and in 1743, he was expelled from that institution, first, because he had disobeyed orders, in attending prohibited meetings of those who were attached to the preaching of Whitefield and Tennant, and secondly, because he indiscreetly questioned the piety of one of the tutors, and would not acknowledge his error. He then commenced theological studies, with a view of becoming a missionary, for he ardently desired to be a teacher of the poor Indians, in the knowledge of the gospel. At the age of twenty- five years he began his labors among the Stockbridge Indians, in the vicinity of Kinderhook, New York. He lived in a wigwam, slept on straw, and ate boiled corn, hasty-pudding, and samp. Though feeble in body, and often ill, he persevered; and when, in 1744, his "flock" agreed to go to Stockbridge, he went with his glad tidings to the Delaware Indians. He continued in the vi- cinity of Easton nearly a year, during which time he visited the tribes on the Susquehannah in the "Wyoming Valley and vicinity. Then he returned, and took up his abode among the New Jersey Indians at Crosswicks, where he was remarkably successful. In less than a year, he baptized seventy-seven converts, and the whole tribe became thoroughly reformed in their morals. His health gradually gave way, and he was compelled to leave the field of duty, where his heart lingered. He went to Boston in July, 1747, and returning to Northamp- ton, he took up his abode with Jonathan Edwards. In the family of that great and good man his flower of life faded, and when the leaves began to fall in Autumn, he fell, like an apple early ripe, into the lap of the grave." His spirit went from earth on the 9th of October, 1747, when he was only twenty-nine years of age. horsewhip me and steal her, if I would not sell. I tot five pounds pether as a flogging, took it, and he 's got the gal." 102 OLIVER ELLSWOETH. OLIVER ELLSWORTH. "YTEVER was the harmony between private and public virtue more complete, ll than that exhibited in the character and career of one of the most beloved of New England patriots and jurists, Oliver Ellsworth. He was born at Wind- sor, the point of earliest settlement in Connecticut, on the 29th of April, 1745. His father was a respectable farmer, and with the strong common sense of his class, he prepared Oliver for the stern duties of life, by habits of labor, applica- tion, and frugality. His mental superiority was early discovered, and his father alternated the lad's daily life, between vigorous physical labors, and studies preparatory to a collegiate course of education. He entered Yale College at the age of seventeen years, but greater advantages appearing at Princeton, ho com- pleted his studies there, where he was graduated in 1766. His talents were not brilliant, and precocity did not show blossoms of promise as precursors of the fruit of disappointment. Slowly but strongly his intellect unfolded, while he labored with unceasing energy upon a rough farm, where his toil was sweetened by the sympathies of a charming wife, one of the "Wolcott family. His evenings were devoted to the study of the law, and at the age of about twenty-five, he commenced its practice in the vicinity of Hartford. His ambition soared not to place and honor, and the farmer-lawyer, at that time, gave but little promise of being a chief justice of the United States. The electric spark of vitality to his latent greatness and loftier aspirations was communicated by a stranger, in BENJAMIN HARRISON. 103 court, whom Ellsworth heard remark, and inquire, after one of his forensic efforts, " Who is that young man? He speaks well." Young Ellsworth pondered these words, and bright visions of fame broke upon his mind. Increase of legal business induced Ellsworth to make Hartford his rc3idence, and there he received the appointment of State's Attorney. As the quarrel with Great Britain progressed, he was always found on the side of the people. Ho even went to the field with the militia of his State, when the war broke out. In 1777, he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, and in 1780, took a seat in the council of his native State. He continued a member of that body until 1784, when he was appointed a judge of the superior court of Con- necticut. Judge Ellsworth was a warm friend of the Federal Constitution, did much toward effecting its ratification, in his State, and in 1789, was elected the first representative of Connecticut in the Senate of the United States. There he became greatly distinguished for his legislative qualities, stern integrity, and faithful devotion to the public interest. For seven years he served his country nobly in the national councils. In the Spring of 1796, he was appointed chief justice of the United States. He was now in the full prime of life, and his mind in its utmost vigor. He bore the ermine with majesty, and cast it off in unsul- lied purity when, toward the close of 1799, President Adams appointed him, with Davie and Murray, an ambassador to the French court, at the head of which was the youthful Bonaparte. After negotiating a treaty for which they were sent, Judge Ellsworth visited other parts of the Continent, and England. "While lingering in Great Britain for the benefit of the health of himself and an invalid son, he resigned the office of chief justice. He returned home early in 1801, and was immediately elected to the council of his State. His health was now becoming impaired by a distressing internal disease ; and when, in May, 1807, he was appointed chief justice of Connecticut, he declined the office, for he was conscious that his death was near. Sis months afterward, his prophecy was fulfilled. He died on the 26th of November, 1807, at the age of sixty-two years. BENJAMIN HARRISON. " TVTE are about to take a very dangerous step, but we confide in you, and are M ready to support you in every measure you shall think proper to adopt," were the significant words of the constituents of Benjamin Harrison, as he was about to proceed to take his seat hi the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia, in 1774, as a delegate from Virginia. They were the words of men who knew their servant well, and allowed no shadow of distrust to cloud their hopes. He was a patriot of the truest stamp. The exact time of his birth is not certainly known. It occurred at Berkeley, the seat of his father, on the James River, a few miles above the residence of Colonel Byrd, at Westover. He was educated at the college of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, but on account of the sud- den death of his father, 1 and some difficulty with one of the professors, he was not graduated, and never took his degree. In 1764, young Harrison was elected a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he soon became an in- fluential leader. He was chosen Speaker of that body, and when the Stamp Act excitement shook royal power in Virginia, the governor tried to win him to the support of government, by offering him a seat in his council. Harrison re- 1. The venerable rain and two of his four daughters were killed by Lghtr.ing, in his house, at Ber- keley,' during a terrible thunder-storm. 104 JEREMY BELKNAP. jected the offer, boldly avowed his republican principles, and from that time became identified with the revolutionary party in Virginia. He was one of the representatives of Virginia in the first Continental Congress, when his relative, Peyton Randolph, was chosen its president. In the Autumn of 1775, he was one of a committee of Congress who visited the American army at Cambridge, to devise plans for the future, with Washington; and the following year he warmly supported, and affixed his signature to, the Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the Foreign Committee until its dissolution in 1777, and at that time he returned to Virginia, and took his seat in the House of Burgesses. He was chosen speaker, and held that station until 1782, when he was elected governor of Virginia. As military lieutenant of his county, he was very active in endeavors to capture Arnold, the traitor, and with Nelson, kept the militia disciplined and vigilant, until the great victory at Torktown. Mr. Harrison served as governor, two terms, and then retired to private life. He was again brought into the public service by being chosen governor, in 1791. On the day after the election, he invited a party of friends to dine with him. He had re- cently recovered from a severe attack of gout in the stomach ; indulgence on that occasion invited its return, and the day following was his last on earth. He died in April, 1791. William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States, was his son. JEREMY BELKNAP. AMONG- the writers of New England, Jeremy Belknap, D.D., holds a high rank. He was a descendant of one of the early inhabitants of Boston, and was born in that city on the 4th of June, 1744. He was prepared for college in the grammar school of the celebrated John Lovell, and was graduated at Har- vard, in 1762. While a lad, he was remarkable for the beauty and chasteness of his compositions, and his friends saw in him the germ of an elegant writer. He was equally fluent and correct in his conversation ; and the profession of a gospel minister being consonant with his seriousness of thought, he applied him- self to the study of theology. In 17 67, he was ordained pastor of the church at Dover, New Hampshire, where he passed twenty years of his ministerial life, in the enjoyment of the cordial esteem of men of every class. He wrote consider- able in favor of the colonies, before the war, but took very little part in public affairs during the Revolution. Toward the close of his labors in Dover, he wrote a history of New Hampshire, in two large volumes, which gained him great reputation as an accurate chronicler. In 1787, Dr. Belknap was called to the pastoral charge of a congregational church in Boston, and there he spent the remainder of his years, a faithful minister and an assiduous student. The fields of literature had great charms for him, and in pursuit of the pleasures to be found therein, he spent much time. The last literary labor of his life was an American Biography, in which he exhibited much patient research and careful analysis. He did not live to complete it, for, in June, 1798, he was suddenly prostrated by paralysis of the whole system, and died on the 20th of that month, at the age of fifty-four years. He experienced the " privilege " for which he aspired, as expressed in the following lines, found among his papers: " When faith and patience, hope and love, TTave made us meet for heaven above, How blest the privilege to rise, Siatched, in a moment, to the skies ! Unconscious to resign our breath, Nor taste the bitterness of death." ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. 105 ROBERT R. LIVINOSTON. VERT few of the American settlers were descendants of aristocratic families, except the cavaliers of Virginia, and as a general rule, they were staunch republicans when the great political question of right and power was to be de- cided between the colonists and Great Britain. Robert Livingston, the first of the name who emigrated to America, was a lineal descendant of the Earl of Livingstone, 1 of Scotland. From him descended the family of that name so numerous at the period of the Revolution, and since, and who were all remark- able for their unflinching patriotism during the great struggle. Robert R. Livingston was a great grandson of the first "lord of the manor." 2 To the care- ful research and accurate pen of John W. Francis, M.D., we are indebted for a record of the chief events of his life. He was born in the city of New York, in 1747, and was educated at King's (now Columbia) College, where he was grad- uated in 1764. He studied law under the guidance of William Smith, chief justice of New York, and became an eminent practitioner of that profession. 1. He was hereditary governor of Linlithgow Castle, in -which Mary, Queen of Scots, was born, and his daughter was one of the four ladies who accompanied that unfortunate Queen to France. 2. The Manor of Livingston, in Columbia county, New York. It was one of those manorial estates, established under the patroon privileges of the Dutch rule in that province. See note 1, page 260. O 106 WILLIAM 'ALEXANDER. His zeal for popular liberty was thoroughly awakened during the excitement incident to the Stamp Act. and he was an early participant in those movements which resulted in revolution. The brave General Montgomery, who fell at Quebec, had married his sister, and that event intensified his devotion to the republican cause. In 1776, he was elected a member of the Continental Con- gress, at the same time holding the office of delegate in the Provincial Congress of New York. He was appointed one of the committee to draft a Declaration of Independence, but, being called to duties at home, before the final vote was taken, his name does not appear upon that instrument. Mr. Livingston was made Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Secretary of State) when the new organization of government, under the Articles of Confederation, was completed ; and performed the duties of that station with rare ability, until 1783, when he was appointed Chancellor of the State of New York. He was a warm supporter of the Federal Constitution, in the New York convention held at Poughkeepsie in 1788, to consider it; and on the 30th of April, the following year, he administered the oath of office to Washington, the first President of the United States. In 1801, Mr. Jefferson appointed him resident minister at the court of Napoleon, and he successfully negotiated the purchase of Louisiana, from the French, for fifteen millions of dollars. By his enlightened patronage of Robert Fulton, in his experiments in steam navigation, he conferred a lasting benefit on mankind, and his name will always be honorably associated with that inventor, and the wonderful results of those experiments. Chancellor Livingston died at his seat, at Clermont, in Columbia county, on the 26th of February, 1813, in the sixty-sixth years of his age. "His person," says Dr. Francis, who knew him intimately, " was tall and commanding, and of patrician dignity. Gentle and courteous in his manners, pure and upright in his morals, his benefactions to the poor were numerous and unostentatious. In his life, he was without reproach in death, victorious over its terrors." WILLIAM ALEXANDER. ONLY one, of all the American officers of the Revolution, bore a title of nobility by descent of patent, and his was disputed and denied. That officer was William Alexander, who claimed the title of Earl of Stirling. He was the son of James Alexander, of Scotland, who took refuge in America, in 1716, after a warm participation in the cause of the son of James the Second, " pretender" to the rightful heirship of the throne of England. William was born in the city of New York, in 1726. His mother was the widow of David Provoost, a bold smuggler in the early part of the last century, and well known by the name of " Ready Money Provoost." Young Alexander joined the army in the French and Indian war, and was secretary to General Shirley. He accompanied that officer to England, in 1755, and there made the acquaintance of some of the leading men of the realm. By their advice, he instituted proceedings to obtain the title of Earl of Stirling, to which his father was heir-presumptive when he left Scotland. Although he did not obtain a legal recognition of the title, his right to it was generally conceded, and from that time he was addressed as Earl of Stirling. He returned to America in 1761, married the daughter of Philip Livingston (sister of Governor Livingston, of New Jersey), and built a fine man- sion, on his estate, at Baskenridge. He was a member of the New Jersey Provincial Council for a number of years ; and when the choice between repub- licanism and royalty had to be made, he was found on the side of the people. TIMOTHY DWIGHT. 107 In 1775, the Provincial Convention of New Jersey appointed him colonel of the first regiment of militia, and in March, 1776, Congress gave him the commission of a brigadier. General Lee left him in command at New York in April, and in August, he fought valiantly in the battle near Brooklyn, and was made prisoner. He was exchanged ; and in February following, Congress made him a major- general. He performed active and varied services until the Summer of 1781, when he. was ordered to the command of the northern army, with his head- quarters at Albany. An invasion from Canada was then expected. Indeed it was commenced under St. Leger, but the vigorous preparations of Stirling in- timidated him, and the scheme was abandoned. Late in the Autumn, he took command in New Jersey, and had jurisdiction and general supervision of military affairs, in that State and in New York, to Fishkill above the Hudson Highlands. Lord Stirling was again in command at Albany, in 1782, where he died, on the 15th of January, 1783, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. It is a singular fact, that during the War for Independence, Lord Stirling -had command, at different times, of every brigade of the American army, except those of South Carolina and Georgia. TIMOTHY DWIGHT. THWENTY days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the JL Continental Congress, a young man, twenty four years of age, addressed the students of Yale College on the subject of the future of the States then just declared "free and independent," in language truly prophetic. 1 That young prophet was Timothy Dwight, a grandson of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, and many years the honored president of that ancient institution of learning. He was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 14th of May, 1752. He was educated at Yale College, where he was graduated in 1769. From that period, until 1771, he taught a grammar school, in New Haven, and at the same time he devoted eight hours each day to severe study. At the age of nineteen years he was chosen a tutor in Yale College, and performed the duties of his station with great satisfaction for six years. It was while he was engaged in that vocation that he delivered the address above alluded to. He took his second degree in 1772, and, on that occasion, he delivered a learned dissertation on the history, eloquence, and poetry of the Bible. At about that time he com- menced his sacred epic, The Conquest of Canaan, and finished it at the age of twenty-two years. Severe application and want of bodily exercise now seriously affected his health, but it was speedily restored by a change of habits, and sick- ness was a stranger to him during the next forty years. 2 Mr. Dwight married in the Spring of 1777 ; and in June following, he was licensed to preach the gospel. In September, he withdrew from the college, was appointed chaplain to General Parson's brigade, and joined the Continental 1. After speaking of the establishment of a republican government, having for its basis (he virtue and intelligence of the people, he referred to the necessary influence which such a government would have on the general advancement of mankind. He spoke of Ihe yet undeveloped resources of the soil and mines, the organization of new States, the vast increase of population ; and then referred to the condition of that portion of the Continent under Spanish rule, from which during the last twenty years, we have received such vast accessions of territory. After speaking of the vices and degradation of the people, he says, " the moment our interest demands it, these extensive regions will be our own ; the present race of inhabitants will either be entirely exterminated, or revive to the native human dignity, by the gen- erous nnd beneficent influence of just laws and rational freedom. " 2. He was always afflicted with a painful disease of the eyes, caused by his intense use of them in study too soon after recovering from the small-pox. 108 TIMOTHY DWIGHT. ^ Army, at "West Point, on tho Hudson. There he wrote several patriotic songs, of which the one commencing, " Columbia ! Columbia ! to glory arise, The queen of the world, and the child of the skies," was the most celebrated. That, too, like his address the year before, was truly prophetic. On receiving the news of his father's death, he left the army, settled at the homestead in Northampton, and with filial regard cherished his aged mother, for several years. He preached occasionally in the neighboring towns, and superintended a school at Hadley. In 1781, he was elected a member of the Massachusetts legislature, but he soon abandoned civil employment for that of clerical duties. He was ordained pastor of a church at Greenfield, near Fair- field, Connecticut, where he opened an academy, and labored industriously in the cause of religion and education, for twelve years. The building in which he taught school, on "Greenfield Hill," is yet [1854] standing. In 1785, his Con- quest of Canaan was first published, three thousand subscribers for it having been obtained. In 1794, another poem, called Greenfield Hill, was published, and increased his fame as an epic poet. Higher and more arduous duties now awaited him. On the death of Dr. Stiles, in 1795, he was chosen President of Yale College, and for ten years performed the duties and received the emolu- ments of Professor of Theology, in that institution, by annual appointment, when CHEISTOPHER GADSDEN. 109 the office became permanent. In 1800, he completed his revision of Watts' Psalms and Hymns, to which he added thirty-nine of his own; and in 1809, he published almost two hundred of his most important sermons, in five volumes. From 1805 until 1815, he spent his college vacations in travelling through New England and the State of New York, taking full notes of what he saw and heard. These formed the basis of his published Travels, in four volumes. After suffer- ing for nearly a year from an acute disease, he died, on the llth of January, 1817, at the age of almost sixty-five years. Dr. Dwight was the author of a great many published discourses and pamphlets on various subjects, chiefly of a theological and philosophical character. CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN. or those who adhered to Great Britain when the "War for Independ- JL ence commenced, were very numerous in South Carolina, and it required greater courage on the part of the "Whigs, or opposers of government, to avow their principles, than in communities where such loyalists were exceptions. Bold among the boldest, was Christopher Gadsden in denouncing British oppression, even as early as the period of the Stamp Act. 1 He was a native of Charleston, South Carolina, where he was born in 1724. He was sent "home," as England was called, to be educated, and remained several years with his relatives in the west of England. He returned to Charleston at the age of sixteen years, and was soon afterward apprenticed to a merchant in Philadelphia, where he remained till he was twenty-one years of age. Ho then went to England ; and on the death of the purser of the vessel in which he returned, he was appointed to fill his place. He retained that situation two years, and then engaged in mercantile business in Charleston. Gadsdcn's father owned a large property in Charleston, but lost it all in play with Lord Anson, a celebrated admiral in the British navy, who visited that city in 1733. That portion of the town still bears the name of Ansonborough. Christopher was successful, purchased all the property that once belonged to his father, and lived in the " Anson house," as it was called, till his death. Henry Laurens was his nearest neighbor and dearest friend, and they always acted shoulder to shoulder as unflinching patriots. Gadsden was appointed a delegate to the Congress which assembled at New York in 1765, in consequence of the passage of the Stamp Act ; and from that period, through all the storms of the Eevolution, until the fall of Charleston, in 1780, he was regarded as the most reliable of the patriot leaders, both civil and military. He was chosen a delegate to the first Continental Congress, in 1774 ; and in that body, urged an immediate attack upon General Gage at Boston, before he should be reinforced by fresh troops from Great Britain. He was considered rash, but the measure was only delayed a few months. In 1775, Mr. Gadsden was elected senior colonel of three regiments raised at Charleston, and was subsequently made a brigadier. He was active at the time of the attack on Charleston, in 1776; and two years afterward he gave his efficient aid in forming a republican constitution for his native State. He re- signed his military commission in 1779, and was lieutenant-governor of the State, 1. Under a wide-spreading live oak, a little north of the residence of Mr. Gadsden, the patriots used to assemble during the Summer and Autumn of 1765, and even the next Summer after the Stamp A ct was repealed, to discuss the political question of the day. From that circumstance, the green oak, IP e the famous Boston elm, was called Libert;/ Tree. Under that tree, Gadsden boldly warned the people, in 1776, not to rejoice too much, for the repeal was only a show of justice. 110 SAMUEL SEABURY. when Charleston was captured by Sir Henry Clinton, in May, 1780. A few weeks after the capitulation, he was treacherously taken from his bed at night, and, with others, was conveyed on board prison ships, in violation of the solemn stipulations contained in the articles of capitulation. They were taken to St. Augustine ; and because the venerable patriot would not submit to indignities at the hands of Governor Tonyn, he was cast into a loathsome prison, where he remained until exchanged in June, 1781, eleven months afterward. From St. Augustine he sailed to Philadelphia, with other prisoners. On his return to Charleston, he was elected a member of the State legislature, where, notwith- standing his bad treatment, he generously opposed the confiscation of the prop- erty of the Loyalists. He was elected governor of his State, in 1782, but declined the honor. He remained in private life until his death, on the 28th of August, 1805, at the age of eighty-one years. SAMUEL SEABURY. THE first Protestant Bishop, in the United States, was the son of a Congrega- tional minister who preached at Groton, Connecticut, and afterward became an episcopal clergyman at New London. That son, Samuel Seabury, was born at New London, in 1728; was graduated at Yale College, in 1751, and was or- dained a priest, in London, P]ngland, in 1753. He had previously commenced a course of medical study, in Scotland, but circumstances caused him to choose the ministry as a profession, and he studied theology, in London. On his return to America, he was settled in the ministry at New Brunswick, New Jersey, for a little while, and then he complied with a call to Jamaica, Long Island, where he remained from 1757 until the close of 1766. From Jamaica he went to West Chester, in "Westchester county, New York, and there he was settled when the war of the Revolution broke out. Like many of his clerical brethren, he adhered to the crown ; and in consequence of his signing a protest against the measures of the "Whigs, he became very obnoxious to the republican party. In the Autumn of 1775, a party of horsemen, led by Isaac Sears, of New York, came from Connecticut, entered the city at noon-day, destroyed the print- ing-press of James Rivington (the editor of the Royal Gazette), carried off his types, to the tune of Yankee Doodle, and made bullets of them. On their way back to Connecticut, they seized Mr. Seabury, conveyed him to New Haven, kept him a prisoner there, for some time, and then paroled him to Long Island. He had kept a school at West Chester, for some time. That was broken up, and his church was converted into a hospital. Finding no peace within the limits of his parole, he fled to the arms of the British in New York, after they had taken possession of that city in the Autumn of 1776. He served as a chaplain to Colonel Fanning's corps of Loyalists, toward the close of the Revolution, and when peace came, he returned to his native town. In 1784, at the request of his clerical and lay brethren in the East, Mr. Seabury went to London, to seek episcopal consecration. Some difficulties prevented the accomplishment of his wishes, and he went to Scotland, where, on the 4th of November, of that year, he was consecrated a Bishop, by three non-juring prelates of the Scottish Church. 1 He presided over the diocese of Connecticut and Rhode Island, with great dig- 1. Those who regarded the deposition of James the Second, in 1688, as illegal, and refused to swear allegiance to the new sovereigns, William and Mary, his successors. Among these were several Scotch Bishops, who were deprived of their sees, in 1690. The Scotch Episcopal Church has always differed from that of England, in ecclesiastical matters, and its ministers have been called non-jurors, even until now. THOMAS NELSON, JR. Ill nity and energy, for about twelve years, when he was called to give an account of his stewardship to his heavenly Master. He was buried at New London, where he expired, and over his grave is a plain, elevated slab, upon which it is recorded that he died on the 25th of February, 1798, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. The piety and benevolence of Bishop Seabury endeared him to all, of whatever name or creed, for he was a true Christian. THOMAS NELSON, JR. C ELF-SACRIFICING patriotism was frequently exhibited during the revolu- U tionary struggle, and oftentimes private property was cheerfully given for the public good. Everywhere, personal ease and family endearments were abandoned for the hardships of public life. Thomas Nelson, jr., of Yorktown, Virginia, was of that class of patriots. He was born at Yorktown, on the 26th of December, 1738. According to the common practice among the wealthy, in Virginia, at that time, he was sent to England to be educated, where he remained until 1761, when he returned home. He watched the progress of difficulties between Great Britain and her colonies with lively interest, and his sympathies were always with the latter. He first appeared in public life, in 1774, when ho was elected a member of the House of Burgesses, of Virginia, and he was one of eighty-nine members of that assembly who, when dissolved by the royal governor (Dunmore), met at the Raleigh tavern, organized, and appointed dele- gates to the first Continental Congress. He was a member of a provincial con- vention held in the Spring of 1775, in which Patrick Henry uttered those sublime words, " Give me liberty or give me death!" and was one of the boldest patriots therein. He there first proposed the organization of the militia of the colony, for the defence of its liberties, and he was appointed to the command of a regi- ment after such organization was effected. Ho was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress, in 1775, and the following year he signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1777, severe and protracted illness compelled him to resign his seat and return home. By activity in military life, for awhile, Mr. Nelson's health was improved, and ho was again elected a delegate to Congress, in 1779. But ill health compelled him to resign in April following. When British dep- redators by land and sea menaced that portion of the country, General Nelson, at the head of the militia of Lower Virginia, was active in its defence. In 1781, he succeeded Jefferson, as governor of the State ; and in both civil and military capacities, he was exceedingly active and efficient. He even pledged his private fortune as security for the State, in order to raise funds to keep the militia in the field ; and the combined French and American armies found him a powerful auxiliary in the siege of Yorktown, in the Autumn of 1781. During that siege, his own fine mansion, situated within the enemy's lines, was occupied by British officers. He observed that in the storm of balls which the besiegers were pour- ing upon the town and the British works, his own house was spared. He begged the cannoniers not to regard his property with favor, and actually directed a piece himself, so that the balls would fall upon his mansion. It had the effect to drive the officers from that strong retreat, and no doubt hastened the sur- render of Cornwallis. A month after the surrender, General Nelson heeded tho warnings of declining health, and retired to private life. The remainder of his days were spent in quiet, alternately at his mansion in Yorktown, and upon his estate at Offley. He died at tho former place on tho 4th of January, 1789, in the fifty-third year of his age. 112 MASON L. WEEMS. MASON L. WEEMS. IT is a singular fact that Dr. "Weems, the earliest biographer of "Washington and Marion, a man extensively known in the world of letters, and who oc- cupied a large place in the public attention, while he lived, should be almost without a record in his country's annals. I have never met with a notice of the time and place of his birth. Ho received a good plain education, studied the science of medicine, as a life avocation, but became a preacher of the Gospel, in communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church, in Virginia. He officiated, for awhile, in Pohick church, a few miles from Mount Vernon, of which Wash- ington was vestryman previous to the Revolution, and who was also one of Weems' parishioners afterward. Mr. Weems was a man of very considerable attainments as a scholar, physician, and divine ; and his philanthropy and be- nevolence were unbounded. He used wit and humor freely ; and his eccentric- ities and sometimes singular conduct, lessened the esteem of people for his character as a clergyman. He wrote lives of Washington, Penn, Franklin, and Marion, when an increasing family, and the operations of benevolence, made heavy drafts upon his income. He also became an agent for the sale of a quarto Bible, published by the eminent Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, at the commencement of the present century, in which business he was wonderfully suc- cessful. He always preached, when invited, during his travels, and harangued people at public gatherings at courts and fairs, where he offered his Bibles, and other good books, for sale. His fund of anecdote was inexhaustible j and after PHINEAR LYMAN. 113 giving a promiscuous audience the highest entertainment of fun, he found them in good mood to purchase his books. In his vocation, he accomplished a vast amount of good ; and a large family and numerous friends lamented his death with the most earnest grief. He died at Beaufort, South Carolina, on the 23d of May, 1825, at an advanced age. PHINEAS LYMAN. A SSURANCE, supported by titled influence, often wears an epaulette and a J\. star, while true merit is rewarded with faint praise and an honorable scar. Such a lesson of life did experience teach Phineas Lyman, a brave officer of provincial troops, during the French and Indian war. He was born in Durham, Connecticut, in the year 1716. He was one of the Berkeleyan scholars in Yale, 1 and received his first degree in 1738. The following year he was appointed a tutor in that institution, in which avocation he was engaged for three years, at the same time he was studying the theory of law. He commenced its practice at Suffield, in 1743, and he soon arose to the front rank at the bar of Hampshire county. He was elected a member of the Colonial Assembly, in 1750, and in 1753, was chosen to a seat in the council. At the age of thirty-nine years, he was appointed major-general of the Connecticut forces, and took the field in the Spring of 1755. He concentrated between five and six thousand troops on the upper waters of the Hudson, built Fort Ed ward, and there awaited the arrival of his commander-in-chief, General William Johnson, who was to lead the provin- cials against the French on Lake Champlain. The fortress was first called Fort Lyman, in honor of the Connecticut general, but its name was changed in defer- ence to a scion of royalty. In the severe battle with the French and Indians, near the head of Lake George, in September of that year. General Lyman bore the most conspicuous part, and yet Johnson, jealous of his merits, withheld praise. Through the agency of titled friends at court, Johnson received the patent of a baronet, and twenty thousand dollars to support its dignity, as a reward for a victory won chiefly through the skill and bravery of General Ly- man. The patriotic hero did not allow personal considerations to stand in the way of public duty, and he served with distinction during the whole war. He was the commander of the expedition which captured Havana, in 1762; and after the peace in 1763, he went to England, as agent of a company called The Military Adventurers soldiers of the war who asked for an appropriation of land for a colony in the Mississippi and Yazoo country. The same company had purchased an extensive tract of land on the Susquehannah, and General Lyman was intrusted with the management of matters connected with that purchase. Deluded month after month by idle promises from the changing ministry, in England, he at length came back, after wasting eleven years abroad, and almost losing his mind. He returned in 1774, and at about that time, a tract of land having been granted, in the Mississippi and Yazoo country, he went thither, with his eldest son. Both died in "West Florida," in 1775, and the following year, his wife and all her family, except her second son, went thither. She soon died ; and a few years afterward, difficulties with the Spaniards caused the whole company of settlers, near Natchez, to fly for their safety across the country, a thousand miles, to Savannah. The history of General Lyman's family is a melancholy one. He died at the age of fifty-nine years, a victim of ingratitude and injustice. 1. From Bishop Berkeley, who was a patron of Yale College. He endowed a professorship known as the Berkeleyan. 114 JOHN MANLEY. JOHN MANLEY. THE naval operations of the United States during the Revolution were far more extensive and important than is generally supposed, especially in the privateer department. It is asserted, by good authority, that the number of vessels captured by American cruisers, during the war, was eight hundred and three ; and that the value of merchandise obtained, amounted to over eleven millions of dollars. Among the earlier and most intrepid of the naval com- manders of that period, was John Manley, who received his commission from "Washington, at Cambridge, on the 24th of October, 1775, 1 and was put in com- mand of the schooner LEE, with instructions to cruise in Massachusetts Bay. He made a great many captures, and his services became the theme of eulogium throughout the whole country. Among his prizes was an ordnance brig, which contained heavy guns, mortars, and intrenching tools, of great value to the army then besieging the British, in Boston. When Congress organized a navy, the services of Captain Manley were appreciated, and he was'raised to the command of the Hancock, thirty-two guns. He cruised with success, but on the desertion of a colleague, while engaged with the Rainbow (afterward the flag-ship of Admiral Collier, in the Autumn of 1777, when on our coast with a small fleet). he was made a prisoner, on the 8th of July, 1777. Manley suffered a long and rigorous confinement in the Rainbow, and at Halifax, and his services were lost to the country for almost the entire remainder of the war. He was released in 1782, and the frigate, Hague, was placed under his command. While cruising in the West Indies, he was chased by a British seventy-four, and driven on a sand bank. Three other ships of the line attacked him, but after sustaining their heavy fire for four days, he got his vessel off, hoisted the continental flag, fired thirteen guns as a parting salute, and escaped. On his return to Boston, he was tried on some charges made against him by one of his officers, and his reputation was under a partial cloud, for a time. He died in Boston on the 12th of Feb- ruary, 1793, at the age of fifty-nine years, and was buried with military honors. OIL BERT CHARLES STUART. IN the beautiful region of Rhode Island, at a place called Narraganset, the handsome wife of a Scotch snuff-maker gave birth to a son, who became the most distinguished portrait-painter in America. His father's name was Stuart, and his loyalty to the young claimant of the English throne, 2 made him add Charles to the name of Gilbert, given to his boy. Gilbert Charles Stuart was born in 1754, and at a very early age manifested great energy of character and a decided talent for art. At the age of thirteen years he practised drawing likenesses with black-lead pencil, and at the age of eighteen he commenced a course of instruction, in painting, under an amateur artist, named Alexander. He was pleased with the lad, took him with him on a tour in the Southern States, 1. Washington caused six vessels to be fitted out for the purpose of cruising on the New England coast. These were very efficient. They made many prizes, from which the American army, early in 1776, was quite well supplied with cannon, mortars, balls, ammunition, and stores. The siege of Boston and expulsion of the British therefrom, could not have been accomplished without those supplies from captured British vessels. Toward the close of 1775, the Continental Congress adopted measures for organizing and employing a navy. 2. Charles Edward Stuart, a grandson of James the Second, who was driven from the throne in 1688. His son made an effort to gain the throne of his father, in 1716. The efforts of his grandson were put forth in 1745, but after the great battle at Culloden, he became a fugitive. GILBERT CHARLES STUART. 115 and finally invited him to go to Scotland with him. Mr. Alexander died soon after his arrival at Edinburgh, and left his pupil in the care of Sir George Cham- bers. He, too, died, and young Stuart returned to Newport, as a competent portrait-painter. The late Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse was Stuart's intimate friend, through life; and in the "Winter of l773-'4, they practiced the drawing of the human figure from life, by procuring a muscular blacksmith for a model. This was the first "Life School of Design," in America, and Stuart and his friend Waterhouse were the only students. The troubles of the Revolution affected Stuart's business, and in the Autumn of 1775, ho went to England. Being a skilful musician, as well as painter, Stuart gained a subsistence by practicing both arts. 1 His friend "Waterhouso was then in London, perfecting his" medical studies, and he procured Stuart some sitters, but his eccentric habits were a continual bar to permanent pros- perity. After two years' residence there, he became acquainted with West, and found in him a friend and benefactor. In the studio of that great artist he be- came an industrious pupil, and there he first became acquainted with Trumbull. In 1781, he set up an easel for himself, had continual and highly-remunerative employment, and might have become the successor of Reynolds, as the first portrait-painter in Great Biitain, had not intemperate habits, which were increasing 1. While in extreme poverty, in London, Stuart was attracted by the sound of an or pan in an open church. He went in, ascertained that several persons were exhibiting their skill as candidates for or- panist, and boldly asked permission to enter the lists. It was granted, and the young stranger was choseu at a salary quite sufficient to meet his wants. 116 WILLIAM TENNENT. in proportion to his prosperity, thwarted the aspirations of his genius. He went to Dublin, where he was courted for his wit and conviviality, and finally re- turned to America, in 1793. His fame had preceded him, and his studio in New York was thronged with sitters and admirers. Filled with an ardent desire to paint a portrait of "Washington, he visited Philadelphia, and there he produced that great picture of the Patriot, which is regarded as the perfect model for all correct likenesses of the revered Father of his Country. Stuart was so pleased with Pennsylvania, while residing in Philadelphia and at Germantown, that he contemplated purchasing a farm at Pottsgrove, and making that his permanent residence. His irregular habits, as usual, interfered with his plans, and we find him in "Washington City, after the removal of the seat of government thither. In 1805, he settled in Boston, where ho continued in the practice of his pro- fession, until his death, which occurred in July, 1828, at the age of seventy -four years. The original portrait of "Washington, from his pencil, is the property of the Boston Athenasum. His last work is a head of John Quincy Adams, in- tended for a full-length portrait of that statesman. WILLIAM TENNENT. MEN sometimes become more distinguished by their connection with remark- able circumstances, than for any achievements of their own, and their real fine gold of character is lost in the glitter of extraneous events. At this day, that powerful preacher and indefatigable servant of Christ, William Tennent, is better known to the world "as a man who lay in a trance," than as a laborer for the good of his fellow-men. He was born in Ireland, on the 3d of June, 1705, and came to America when in the fourteenth year of his age. Under the care of his brother, Gilbert, he studied theology so ardently, at New Brunswick, in New Jersey, that his health gave way, his body became emaciated, and one morning, while conversing with his brother, in Latin, on the state of his soul, he fainted, and seemed to expire. He was prepared for burial, and the funeral procession was about to move, when his physician, who had been absent, re- turned, and thought he discovered indications of lingering life. But his body was cold and stiff, and his brother insisted upon his burial. The funeral, how- ever, was postponed for awhile, and just as they were about to start again for the grave, Mr. Tennent opened his eyes, gave a groan, and again appeared life- less. He revived, slowly recovered, but for a long time he was totally ignorant of every past transaction of his life. Suddenly his faculties began to resume their functions, and in 1733, he was ordained a minister of the church at Free- hold, New Jersey. That church, and the house in which he lived, are yet [1854] standing. He never forgot the scenes of that cataleptic state in which he lay when his friends thought him dead. He seemed to have been wafted to a region of ineffable glory, where he heard things unutterable. He was accom- panied by a heavenly conductor, and on asking permission to join the happy throng of beings before him, the guide tapped him upon the shoulder, and said, "You must return to earth." That was the moment when he opened his eyes, and saw his brother disputing with the doctor. Although he had been insen' sible for three days, the time did not seem to him more than twenty minutes. After a life of great usefulness as pastor of the flock at Freehold, for forty-three years, the storm of the Revolution disturbed him, an* with his family, he went to reside with his son, in South Carolina. On his journey from Charleston to the interior, when about fifty miles from the sea-board, he sickened and died. Elias Boudinot was his executor, but he could never discover any trace of Ten- nent's papers. His death occurred on the 8th of March, 1777. JOEL BARLOW. 117 JOEL BARLOW. 0" F Barlow, the youngest of the triad of American poets during the struggle for independence, 1 it might have frequently been said, " The Minstrel Boy to the war has gone, In the ranks of death you '11 find him," for during his vacations at Yale College, he would shoulder his musket, offer himself as a volunteer, at the nearest camp, and fight bravely when opportunity occurred. Joel Barlow was the youngest of the ten children of a respectable farmer, and was born at Reading, in Connecticut, in the year 1755. He was graduated at Yale, in 1778, when he bore a slight scar, received in the battle at White Plains two years before. Four of his brothers were in the Continental army, and his whole being was thoroughly imbued with republican principles. He married a sister of Abraham Baldwin, a distinguished statesman of Connec- ticut, and in 1783, he settled at Westford, arid commenced the publication of a paper, called The Mercury. Although, at the close of his collegiate course, he had studied theology six weeks, and was licensed to preach, he preferred the profession of the law; and in 1785, he was regularly admitted to the bar, as a practitioner. His poetic talents were now widely known and appreciated ; and that same year, at the request of several congregational ministers, he prepared and published a revised edition of Watts' poetic version of the Psalms, 2 and added to them a collection of hymns, several of them from his own pen. In 1787, he published his most ambitious poem hitherto attempted, entitled, " Vision of Columbus" which was dedicated to Louis the Sixteenth of France, and was re- published in London and Paris, with applause from the critics. With Trumbull, Humphreys, D wight, and others, he published a satirical poem, called The An- archiad. Others soon followed ; when, becoming enamored with the principles of the French Revolution, he went to Paris, was honored by the gift of citizen- ship, made France his home for many years, and by successful commercial pur- suits, he amassed a large fortune. During the worst of the Revolution (whose horrid scenes disgusted him), he travelled over portions of the Continent, and in Piedmont he wrote his celebrated poem, called Hasty Pudding. On his return to Paris, in 1795, Washington appointed him consul at Algiers, with power to negotiate a treaty with that government, and those of Tunis and Tripoli. After an absence of seventeen years, ho returned to America, with his fortune, and built an elegant mansion on the east branch of the Potomac, near Washington city, which he afterward called " Kalorama." He enlarged his original " Vision of Columbus" and i n!808, it was published under the title of The Columbiad, in a splendid quarto volume, richly illustrated, and inscribed to his friend, Robert Fulton. In 1 81 1, he commenced the preparation of a History of the United States, when President Madison appointed him minister plenipotentiary to the French government. The following year, the Duke of Bassano invited him to a con- ference with Napoleon, at Wilna, in Poland. The call was urgent, and he travelled thither, night and day, without rest. The fatigue and exposure brought on a disease of the lungs, which terminated his life at Zarnowica, near Cracow, on the 2d of December, 1812, when in the fifty-fourth year of his age. 1. John Trumbull, David Humphreys, and Joel Barlow. 2. On one occasion Mr. Barlow met Oliver Arnold, a cousin of the traitor, in a book -store in New Haven, and asked him for a specimen of his talent for making extempore rhymes. Oliver at once said, in allusion to Barlow's version of the Psalms : " You 've proved yourself a sinful cre'tur ; You 've murdered Watts and spoiled the meter ; You 've tried the word of God to alter, And for your pains deserve a halter." 118 SAMUEL BARD. SAMUEL BARD. THE medical profession in the United States has included many of our noblest JL citizens, distinguished alike for their patriotism, learning, and benevolence. Samuel Bard, who adorned the profession by the exercise of all these qualities, was the son of an eminent physician, in Philadelphia, where he was born on the 1st of April, 1742. His early moral and intellectual training was thorough, and the associations of his childhood and youth were favorable to the develop- ment of his genius. While residing a short time in the family of Doctor Cad- wallader Golden, he acquired a taste for botany, under the teachings of an ac- complished daughter of that gentleman. A genius for drawing and painting enabled him to make beautiful copies of plants, some of which are yet in his family. He was graduated at Columbia College, in 1761, and the same year he went to Europe, to obtain a thorough medical education. He was absent in France, England, and Scotland, five years ; and such was his skill in botany, that he obtained the annual medal given by Professor Hope, at Edinburgh, for the best collection of plants, in 1765. He there received his degree, returned home, entered into partnership with his father, and in 1768, married his beauti- ful cousin, Mary Bard. He made New York his residence the same year, and there he formed and executed the plan of founding the Medical School of New York, where degrees were conferred in 1769. He delivered a course of chemical lectures in 1774, but the breaking out of the Revolution deranged all his plans for the improvement of his profession. His father was then residing at Hyde Park, in Dutchess county, New York, and thither he took his family, for safety. By special permission of the British commander, he went to New York, in 1777, and engaged anew in his business. But his old friends, who were chiefly Whigs, had all fled, and he did not obtain practice sufficient to pay his expenses. He returned to the country, and remained there until the British evacuated the city in the Autumn of 1783, when he again resumed his practice there. He did not remain long. Four of his children died by prevailing scarlatina, and at the 'same time the health of his wife began to fail. He withdrew from business to attend upon her; and at her recovery, in 1784, he again commenced the practice of his profession, in New York. He was very successful, and with his own means, he liquidated all the debts of his father, which misfortune had burdened him with. Having acquired a competency, he resolved to retire from active business, and for that purpose he formed a partnership with the late Dr. David Hosack, on the 1st of January, 1796. This connection continued four years, when Dr. Bard withdrew wholly from the practice of his profession, and left the extensive busi- ness in the hands of his skilful young partner. At his beautiful seat, near the residence of his father at Hyde Park, he sat down in the retirement of private life ; but when, three years afterward, the yellow fever appeared in New York, he yielded to the calls of duty, and was "the beloved physician " of the rich and poor during that trying time. He finally took the disease himself, but the care- ful nursing of his wife, and his own skilful prescriptions, carried him safely through. Then again he left the field of active duty as a physician, never to return to it. In 1813, he was elected president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York, and held that office until his death, which occurred on the 24th of March, 1821, at the age of seventy-nine years. His disease was pleurisy. He and his wife had often expressed a desire to both die at the same time. The privilege was vouchsafed to them. The faithful wife died the clay preceding the death of her husband, of the same disease, and they were buried in one grave. MARTHA WASHINGTON. 119 MARTHA WASHINGTON. THE reflected glory of Washington's character gave distinction to all who were I. connected with him by domestic ties or the bonds of consanguinity. There were many matrons of his day, equally noble and virtuous as she who bore him, yet "Mary, the mother of Washington," appears the most illustrious of them all. Beauty, accomplishments and noble worth belonged to Martha Dandridge as a maiden, and Martha Custis as a wife and mother, but her crowning glory in the world's esteem is the fact that she was the bosom companion of the Father of his Country. Martha Dandridge was born in New Kent county, Virginia, in May, 1732, about three months later than her illustrious husband. In 1749, she married Daniel Parke Custis, of New Kent, one of the wealthiest planters of Eastern Virginia, and settled, with her husband, on the banks of the Pamun- key river, where she bore four children. Her husband died when she was about twenty-five years of age, leaving her with two surviving children and a large fortune in lands and money. 1 She became acquainted with Colonel Washington, in 1758, when his greatness was fast unfolding ; and on the 6th of January, 1759, they were married. By the bequest of his half-brother, Lawrence Wash- ington, he owned the beautiful estate of Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, and 1. He left her thirty thousand pounds sterling (about $148,000) in certificates of deposits in the Bank of England. These were in an iron chest, yet in the possession of her only surviving grand-child, George Washington Parke Custis, Esq., of Arlington House, Virginia. 120 JOSHUA BARNEY. there they made their home during the remainder of their lives. Occasionally, during the War for Independence, Mrs. Washington visited her husband in camp, and shared his honors, his anxieties, and his hopes. Almost at the very hour of his great victory at Yorktown, her only son, who was Washington's aid, expired a few miles distant from the scene of carnage ; and with the shout of triumph, that filled . his mother's heart with joy, came a stern messenger with tidings that poured it full of woe. 1 While her husband was President of the United States, Mrs. Washington presided with dignity over the executive mansion, both in Now York and Phil- adelphia ; but the quiet of domestic life had more charms for her than the pomp of place, and she rejoiced greatly when both sat down again, at Mount Vernon, to enjoy the repose which declining age coveted. But that pleasant dream of life soon vanished, for her companion was taken away by death a little more than two years afterward. When she was certified of the departure of his spirit, she said, " "Tis well; all is now over; I shall soon follow him; I have no more trials to pass through." In less than thirty months afterward the stricken widow was laid in the tomb, at the age of almost seventy-one years. In marble sar- cophigi their remains now lie together, at Mount Yernon that Mecca of many pilgrims. JOSHUA BARNEY. SEVERAL of the naval commanders who won glory for themselves and coun- try during the war with England in 1812-'15, commenced their nautical career, and learned their earliest nautical lessons, during the War of the Revo- lution. In that earlier naval school, Joshua Barney was educated for his pro- fession. He was born in the city of Baltimore, on the 6th of July, 1759. Ho made several sea voyages while yet a lad, and at the beginning of the War for Independence, he entered the sloop, Hornet, as master's mate, and accompanied the fleet of Commodore Hopkins to the West India seas, in 1775. He was at the capture of New Providence, 2 and for his bravery there was promoted to a lieutenantcy. After being made prisoner and released three different times, ho assisted in conquering a valuable prize, in the Autumn of 1779, which was taken into Philadelphia. The following year he married the daughter of alderman Bed- ford of that city, spent the honey-moon with his bride, and then repaired to Bal- timore to resume his naval duties. He was soon afterward made a prisoner, and sent to England, where he escaped from a cruel confinement and returned to America. In 1782, he was placed in command of the Hyder Alhj, of sixteen guns, belonging to the State of Pennsylvania. In April, of that year, ho cap- tured the British ship, General Monk, after an action of twenty-six minutes. This vessel was bought by the United States, and in September, it sailed for France, with Barney as commander, who bore dispatches for Dr. Franklin, at Paris. In that vessel he brought back the French loan to the United States in chests of gold and barrels of silver. Peace soon came, and ho left the service, for awhile. 1. Mr. Custis died at Eltham, about thirty-five miles from Yorktown, from the effects of camp fever. Washington hastened thither as soon as public affairs at camp would allow him. Mrs. Washington and Dr. Craik were already there. The latter informed the chief, that his beloved step-son had just ex- pired, on his arrival. He wept like a child ; and when he recovered himself, he said to the weeping mother, " I adopt his two younger children as my own, from this hour." These were the present pro- prietor of Arlington House, and the late Eleanor Parke Custis, wife of Major Lawrence Lewis, the favorite nephew of Washington. 2. One of the Bahama Islands. They took possession of the town now called Nassau, and made the governor prisoner. He was afterward exchanged for Lord Stirling, who was made prisoner at the battlo near Brooklin, at the close of August, 1776. JOHN BARRY. 121 In 1796, Captain Barney went to France, with Mr. Monroe, as the bearer oi* the American nag to the National Convention. He there accepted an invitation to take command of a French squadron, but resigned his commission in 1800, and returned to America. Commodore Barney was among the most efficient commanders in service, when the United States declared war against England, in 1812 ; and the following year, he had charge of a flotilla in the Chesapeake Bay for the protection of the coast. When the British invaded Maryland, and pressed forward toward "Washington city, near the close of the Summer of 1814, Barney abandoned his flotilla, and with his marines, engaged in a battle with the enemy at Bladensburg, where he wa^ wounded in the thigh by a musket ball, which was never extracted. In May, 1815, he was sent on a mission to Europe, and on his return in the ensuing Autumn, he retired to private life, after having been in service forty-one years, and fought twenty-six battles and one duel. He visited Kentucky, in 1817, and started to emigrate thither the following year. When about to embark on the Ohio, at Pittsburg he was taken ill, and died there on the 1st of December, 1818, at the age of fifty-nine years. JOHN BAR II Y. " THE first commodore in the American Navy," was not the brave John Barry, L as is generally asserted. Yet he was in active service as commander, about as early as Esek Hopkins, to whom that honor, conferred by Congress, properly belongs. Barry was a native of "Wexford, in Ireland, where he was born in 1745. He was educated for the sea, and at the age of fifteen years he came to America, and was employed as commander in the merchant service, until the Revolution commenced. When, in February, 1776, Commodore Hop- kins sailed with a small squadron against the fleet of Dunmore, then committing depredations on the Virginia coast, Barry left the Delaware, in the Lexington, of sixteen guns, to clear the Virginia waters of the numerous small cruisers of the enemy which infested them. He performed that service well ; and prior to the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, he was promoted to the frigate, Effingham. Circumstances prevented his departure in that vessel from the Del- aware, and at the head of a volunteer company, under the command of General Cadwalader, he assisted in some of the operations which resulted in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, near the close of 1776. He was with the army during the succeeding Winter ; and when, the next Autumn, the British took possession of Philadelphia, he went up the Delaware with the Effingham, and endeavored to save her, at the same time indignantly refusing an offered bribe to employ her in the king's service. He greatly annoyed the British shipping in the Delaware, by secret night enterprises in small boats. In September, 1778, his sphere of usefulness was enlarged by being appointed to the command of the Raleigh, of thirty-two guns, in which he sailed from Boston. He fell in with a British fleet, and after a severe action of many hours, he was compelled to run his vessel ashore, upon a barren island. IIo had terribly handled his antagonists, and but for tho treachery of one of his men, he would have burned the Raleigh, and deprived the enemy of all advantage. A court-martial honorably acquitted him of all blame. Early in 1781, Captain Barry took command of the frigate Alliance, and in that vessel ho conveyed to L'Orient, Colonel John Laurens, a special ambassador to the court of France. In May ho had an engagement with two English ves- sels, in which he was severely wounded. Ho was victorious, and his antag- 6 122 RICHARD GRIDLEY. onists became prizes. In the Autumn, Captain Barry conveyed La Fayette and Count Noailles to France, in the Alliance, and then he cruised successfully among the West India islands, until March, 1782, when he encountered a British squadron. His skill, coolness, and bravery, were eminently displayed in that engagement. He fought chiefly in defence of the American sloop-of-war, Luzerne, which was conveying a large amount of specie. It was saved, and contributed to found the Bank of North America, 1 the first institution of the kind in the United States. After the close of the war, Captain Barry continued in the ser- vice, and he was efficient in protecting our commerce from the depredations of French vessels, when war between France and the United States commenced on the ocean, in 1797. Captain Barry died at Philadelphia, on the 13th of September, 1803, at the age of fifty-eight years. RICHARD GRIDLEY. YERY few Americans directed their attention to military engineering, previous to the Revolution, and therefore those French engineers who proffered their services to the Continental Congress, were eagerly accepted and commis- sioned. At the opening of the war, near Boston, in 1775, Richard Gridley was the only efficient American engineer in the army. He was a native of Boston, where he was born in 1711. His brother, Jeremy, was the able attorney-general of Massachusetts, who defended the Writs of Assistance, 2 and other government measures, against the patriotic attacks of James Otis, and his compatriots. We have no record of the early life of Richard. His first appearance before posterity was as an engineer in the provincial army, sent to capture the strong fortress of Louisburg, on Cape Breton, in 1745. After that event, he entered the reg- ular army, and in 1755, he was lieutenant-colonel of infantry, and chief engineer. He accompanied General Winslow, in that capacity, to Albany, in the Summer of 1756, preparatory to an expedition against Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. He proceeded to erect fortifications at the head of Lake George. The expedi- tion failed, through the tardiness of Lord London. In 1758, Colonel Gridley served under General Amhefet, and was with Wolfe, at Quebec. When the War for Independence began at Lexington and Concord, the patriotism and skill of Colonel Gridley caused his appointment of chief engineer of the army that soon gathered around Boston ; and under his directions, all the fortifications erected during the Summer of 1775, and Winter of 1776, in that vicinity, were constructed. Up to that time he had received the half-pay of a British officer, and possessed Magdalen Island as a gift for his services under Wolfe. He was wounded in the battle on Breed's ["Bunker's"] Hill, yet not so as to disable him. In September, 1775, Congress gave him the commission of a major- general, and made him commander-in-chief of the Continental artillery, to which office Colonel Henry Knox succeeded in November following. After the British left Boston, in March, 1776, General Gridley was engaged in throwing up for- tifications at several points about the Harbor. He died at Stoughton, Massa- chusetts, on the 21st of June, 1796, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. 1. See sketch of Robert Morris. 2, General search-warrants, -which allowed the officers of the king to break open any citizen's store or dwelling to search for contraband merchandise. It opened a way to many abuses, and the people violently opposed the measure. This was among the first of those government measures which drove the Americans into rebellion. THOMAS JEFFERSON. 123 THOMAS JEFFERSON. THE only material memorials of the author of the Declaration of Independence, JL in our country, are a dilapidated granite obelisk over his neglected grave at Monticello; 1 a bronze statue in front of the President's House at Washington city, erected by private munificence ; a fine statue upon a monument to "Wash- ington, erected by the State of Virginia, at Richmond, and a few busts. The nation has quarried no stone for his monument, nor is it requisite. The DEC- LARATION" OF INDEPENDENCE, written on parchment, and preserved in the mem- ory of generations, is a nobler monument than can be wrought from brass or marble. Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 13th of April, I 1 ? 43. He was of "Welsh descent. "When his father died, his mother was left with Thomas and another son, and six little daughters. They 1. It is within an enclosed family burial -ground, just in the edge of the forest which covers the western portion of Monticello. Visitors, with Vandal hand, have so broken off pieces of the obelisk, to carry away with them, that it now presents a sad appearance. To preserve the marble tablet, on which is the following inscription, written by Jefferson himself, the present [1855] proprietor has removed it to his house : "Here lies buried, THOMAS JEFFERSON, Author of the Declaration of American Independence; of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom ; and Father of the University of Virginia." 124 THOMAS JEFFERSON. were blessed with a handsome estate, and that portion of it called Monticello (little mountain), near the then hamlet of Charlottesville, fell to Thomas when he reached his majority. He was a student in William and Mary College, at Williamsburg, about two years, and then commenced the study of law with George "Wythe, afterward Chancellor of Virginia. While yet a student, in 1765, he heard Patrick Henry's famous speech against the Stamp Act, and it lighted a flame of patriotism in young Jefferson's soul that burned brighter and brighter until the hour of fearless action arrived. In 1767, ho commenced the practice of law; and in 1769, he first appeared in public life as a member of the Virginia Assembly. He was one of the most active workers in that body, until called to more influential duties as member of the Continental Congress, in 1775. He was always remarkable for his ready pen ; and as a member of the committee of correspondence, and by pamphlets and newspaper paragraphs, from 1773, until the culmination of public sentiment in the Declaration of Independence, he labored intensely and potential^. 1 When Eichard Henry Lee's resolution in favor of independence was under consideration, early in the Summer of 1776, and a committee of five were appointed to prepare a preamble in the form cf a Declaration, Mr. Jefferson, the youngest of the committee, was chosen to make the draft, chiefly because of his facile use of the pen in elegant and appropriate expressions of sentiment. At his lodgings, in the house of Mrs. Clymer, in Phil- adelphia, that famous document was written, and after some modifications, it was adopted on the 4th of July, 1776. Tho author's name is appended to it, with fifty-five others. Soon afterward, Mr. Jefferson resigned his seat in Con- gress, and became a leading actor in the civil events of the Revolution in Vir- ginia, from that time until the peace in 1783. He assisted in revising the laws of Virginia; and in June, 1779, he was elected governor of the State, as suc- cessor of Patrick Henry. From about the beginning of that year, until the close of 17 80, the British and German troops, captured at Saratoga, were quartered in his vicinity, and ho greatly endeared himself to them lay his uniform kindness. During his administration, Arnold, the traitor, invaded Virginia, and Cornwallis and his active officers overran portions of the State along the James river, from Richmond to its mouth. The fiery Tarleton attempted the capture of Governor Jefferson, in June, 1781, and almost succeeded. 2 It was a most trying time for Virginia, and Jefferson, sagaciously perceiving that a military man was needed in the executive office, declined a re-election, and was succeeded by General Nelson, of Yorktown. Mr. Jefferson now sought the retirement of private life, to indulge in the ge- nial pursuits of literature and science. 3 He was not permitted to find happiness in repose there. His wife died, and his heart was terribly smitten. Then came a call from his countrymen to represent them abroad, and at the close of 1782, he departed for Philadelphia, to sail for France, to assist the American com- missioners in their negotiations for peace with England. Intelligence of the accomplishment of that duty reached him before his departure, and he returned home. He was at Annapolis when Washington resigned his commission, in December, 1783, and the Address of President Mifflin to the chief was from Mr. Jefferson's pen. In 1784, he went to France, as associate diplomatist with Franklin and Adams, and the same year he wrote his essay on a money-unit, to which we are mainly indebted for our convenient coins. He succeeded Dr. Franklin as minister at the French court, in 1785 ; and on his return to America, 1. His pamphlet entitled "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," was so much ad- mired, that Edmund Burke caused it to be reprinted in London, with a few alterations. 2. Jefferson was advised of the approach of Tarleton, when he was within half a mile of his house, and escaped by fleeing to the dark recesses of Carter's Mountain, lying southward of Monticello. Tarle- ton captured some members of the Virginia Legislature, then in session at Clmrlottesvillc. 3. His Notes on Vi'-ginia is the most important cf the various productions of hi.s pen. THOMAS CHITTENDEN. 125 in 1789, before he reached his home at Monticello, he received from "Washington the appointment of Secretary of State. He resigned that office in 1793, and be- came the head of the republican party, in opposition to Washington's adminis- tration. In the Autumn of 1796, he was chosen vice-president of the United States, and in the Spring of 1801, he took his seat as chief magistrate of the nation. After eight years of faithful service in that exalted office, he retired forever, from public life. "With untiring perseverance he succeeded in establish- ing that yet flourishing institution, the University of Virginia ; arid until the last, his life was spent in pursuits of public utility. The latter years of his life were clouded by pecuniary embarrassment. He sold his library to the Federal Government, in 1815, consisting of six thousand volumes, for twenty -four thousand dollars. He survived that great sacrifice eleven years, and then his spirit took its flight, while his countrymen were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the United States. He died on the 4th of July, 1826, at the age of eighty-three years. 1 THOMAS CHITTENDEN. THERE are crises in the history of States, sometimes occurring in their infancy, 1 at other times in their maturity, when the concentration of influence in one man has made him instrumental in conferring great benefits upon the public. Thomas Chittenden, the first governor of the independent iState of Vermont, was an illustration of this fact. He was born at East Guilford, Connecticut, on the 6th of January, 1729; received only the meagre rudiments of an English educa- tion, then furnished by the common schools, and married at the early age of twenty years. Then he made his residence at Salisbury ; and his natural abil- ities, combined with a pleasing person and address, soon made him popular. He was chosen commander of a militia regiment, and for several years he represented his district in the legislature of Connecticut. Unlearned as he was, he became a leading man ; and by performing the duties of a justice of the peace for Litch- field county, for several years, he became acquainted with the laws and the proper manner of administering them. Agriculture was his delight, and every day spared from his official duties was devoted to a personal engagement in the affairs of his farm. His family had a rapid growth, and he emigrated to the borders of the Onion river, 2 in 1774, on what was known as the New Hampshire Grants, on the east side of Lake Champlain, for the purpose of laying the foun- dations of a fortune for his children. There, separated by an almost trackless wilderness from his early friends, he opened many fertile acres to the blessed sunlight, and invited settlers to come and form the nucleus of a State. Soon, political agitations disturbed his repose; and, in 1775, he was appointed one of a committee to visit the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and ask political advice. The threatening aspect of affairs in the North, toward the close of the Summer of 1776, caused the settlers to flee southward, and Mr. Chittenden took up his abode in Arlington, in the present Bennington county, where he was made president of the committee of safety. He warmly espoused the cause of the people of the New Hampshire Grants, in their controversy with New York. 3 1. Sec sketch of John Adams. 2. The Indian name of this river was Ouinooxlit. His location was in the present town ofWilliston, Vermont, south-east from Burlington. 3. The State of New York claimed jurisdiction over the present territory of Vermont, then known as the New Hampshire Grants, and a very warm dispute arose. Bloodshed was often threatened, but the matter was finally settled by a purchase of the claims of New York for $30,000. 126 PATRICK HENKY. He was one of the committee who drafted a declaration of the independence of Vermont, 1 adopted on the 15th of January, 1777. He also assisted in the for- mation of a State constitution, in July, 1777, and was elected the first governor under it. That office he held until his death, with the exception of one year. When, in 1780, the British authorities in Canada supposed the people of Ver- mont to be royally inclined (because they would not join the confederation of States), and appointed a commission to confer with the dissatisfied colonists, Governor Chittenden was chosen one of the committee on the part of the Ver- mont people. That whole matter was so adroitly managed by Chittenden, Allen, and others, for three years, that the authorities of both Canada and the United States were deceived. They thus secured Vermont from easy British invasion until peace was sure, when that State became a member of the great confederac}-. The course of the Vermont leaders, though highly patriotic, was regarded with suspicion, until the mask was removed. At the close of the war, Governor Chittenden returned to Williston, with his family, where he passed the remain- der of his days. He resigned the office of governor in the Summer of 1797, and on the 25th of August, of that year, he died, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. PATRICK HENRY. "/^IVEme Liberty, or give me Death!" were the burning words which fell \T from the lips of Patrick Henry, at the beginning of the "War for Independ- ence, and aroused the Continent to more vigorous and united action. 2 He was the son of a Virginia planter in Hanover county, and was born on the 29th of May, 1736. At the age often years he was taken from school, and commenced the study of Latin in his father's house. He had some taste for mathematics, but a love of idleness, as manifested by his frequent hunting and fishing excur- sions, for sport, and utter aversion to mental labor, gave prophecies of a useless life. At twenty-one years of age, he engaged in trade, but neglect of business soon brought bankruptcy. He had married at eighteen, and passed most of his time in idleness at the tavern of his father-in-law, in Hanover, where he often served customers at the bar. As a last resort, he studied law diligently for six weeks, obtained a license to practice, but he was twenty-seven years of age be- fore he was known to himself or others, except as a lazy pettifogger. Then he was employed in the celebrated Parsons' cause, 3 and in the old Hanover court- house, with his father on the bench as judge, and more than twenty of the most learned men in the colony before him, his genius as an orator and advocate beamed forth in that awful splendor, so eloquently described by "Wirt. From that period he rose rapidly to the head of his profession. In 1764, he made Louisa county his residence, and his fame was greatly heightened by a noble defence of the right of suffrage, which, as a lawyer, he made before the House of Burgesses, that year. In 1765, he was elected to a seat in that house, and during that memorable session, he made his great speech against the Stamp 1. Partly owing to the troubles with New York. Vermont would not join the confederacy in 1777, but, at a convention at Westminster, it was declared an independent State. It was admitted into the Union m February, 1791. 2. In the Virginia convention, held in St. John's chnrch at Richmond, in March, 1775. It was one of the most powerful speeches ever made by the great orator, and ended with the words quoted above. They were afterward placed on flags, and adopted as a motto nnder many circumstances. 3. This was a contest between the clergy and the State legislature, on the question of an annual stipend claimed by the former. A decision of the court had left nothing undetermined but the amount of damage. Henry's eloquence electrified judge, jury, and people. The jury brought in a verdict of one penny damages, and the people took Henry upon their shoulders, and carried him in triumph about the court-house yard. PATRICK HENRY. 127 Act. 1 In 1769, he was admitted to the bar of, the general court, and was recog- nized as a leader, in legal and political matters, until the Revolution broke out. He was a member of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and gave the first impulse to its business ; 2 and when, in 17 75, Governor Dunmore attempted to rob the colony of gunpowder, by having it conveyed on board a British war-vessel, Patrick Henry, at the head of resolute armed patriots, compelled him to pay its value in money. In 1776, Henry was elected the first republican governor of Virginia, and was reflected three successive years, when he was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson. During the whole struggle, he was one of the most efficient public officers of the State; and in 1784, he was again chosen governor. Patrick Henry was a consistent advocate of State Rights, and was ever jealous of any infringement upon them. For that reason, he was opposed to the Fed- 1. He had introduced a series of resolutions, highly tinctured with rebellious doctrines, and supported them with his wonderful eloquence. The house was greatly excited ; and when, at length, he alluded to tyrants, and said, " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third" there was a cry of " Treason ! treason!" He paused a moment, and then said, "may profit by their example. If that be Treason, make the most of it." 2. When all was doubt and hesitation'at the opening of the session, and no one seemed ready to take the first step, a plain man, dressed in ministers' grey, arose and proposed action. "Who is it? who is it?" asked several members. " Patrick Henry," replied the soft voice of his colleague, Peyton Randolph. 128 ETHAN ALLEN. oral Constitution, and in the Virginia convention, called in 1788, to consider it, he opposed its ratification with all the power of his great eloquence. He finally acquiesced, when it became the organic law of the Republic, and used all his efforts to give it a fair trial and make it successful. Washington nominated him for the office of Secretary of State, in 1795, but Mr. Henry declined it. In 1799, President Adams appointed him an envoy to France, with Ellsworth and Mur- ray, but feeble health and advanced age compelled him to decline an office he would have been pleased to accept. A few weeks afterward, his disease became alarmingly active, and he expired at his seat, at Red Hill, in Charlotte county, on the 6th of June, 1799, at the age of almost sixty-three years. Governor Henry was twice married. t By his first wife he had six children, and nine by the second. His widow married the late Judge Winston, and died in Halifax county, Virginia, in February, 1831. ETHAN ALLEN. np'HE name of Green Mountain Boys is always associated with ideas of personal 1 valor and unflinching patriotism; and Ethan Allen has ever been regarded as the impersonation of the proverbial independence of character, of the early settlers along the eastern shores of Lake Champlain. He was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, near the borders of New York, and at an early age emi- grated to the region above alluded to, known as the New Hampshire Grants, now Vermont. At about the year 1770, a violent controversy arose between the settlers of this tract and the civil authorities of New York, respecting ter- ritorial claims. Ethan Allen took an active part in the controversy, and became a leader of the Green Mountain Boys, as the settlers were called, against the alleged usurpations of the New York government. 1 The latter finally declared Allen and his associates to be outlaws, offered fifty pounds colonial currency for his apprehension, 2 and contemplated an armed invasion of the territory. Allen believed himself in the right, and boldly maintained his position, until a common danger alarmed all the colonies, and made them unite as brethren for common defence. When the news of the affair at Lexington reached those remote settlers, they were electrified with zeal for the maintenance of freedom ; and in less than thirty days afterward, we find Colonel Allen and some of his Green Mountain boys and Massachusetts militia, in concert with Colonel Benedict Arnold and some Connecticut men, wresting the strong fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point from the British. 3 Early in the following Autumn, Colonel Allen was sent to Canada, to ascertain tire temper of the people there ; and in an attempt, with Colonel Brown, to capture Montreal, with a small force, he was made a prisoner, put in irons on board a vessel, and sent to England, with the assurance that he would be hanged. Great crowds flocked to see him, on his arrival, for the fame of his exploits had reached England. His grotesque garb attracted great attention. He was regarded almost as a strange wild beast of the forest, and for more than a year he was kept a close prisoner. In January, 1776, Colonel Allen was sent, in a frigate, to Halifax, where he 1. See Note 3, p. 125. 2. He came very near being captured by a party of New Yorkers, while on a visit to his friends in Salisbury. They intended to seize him, and convey him to the jai! at Poughkeepsie. 3. When Allen thundered at the door of the commander of the garrison of Ticonderoga, after the soldiers were subdued, and that affrighted official a*ked by what Authority he demanded a surrender, the colonel's reply was. " By the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress !" It was on the morning of the day when Congress was to assemble at Philadelphia. WILLIAM FKANKLIN. 129 remained in jail until the following October, when he was conveyed to New York, then' the British head-quarters. There he was kept, part of the time on parole on Long Island, and part of the time in the Provost and other prisons in New York, until May, 1778, when he was exchanged for Colonel Campbell of the British army. His health had suffered much during his imprisonment, yet he repaired to head-quarters, and offered his services to Washington, when his strength should be restored. He arrived at Bennington, his place of residence, on the evening of the last day of May, and he was welcomed by booming can- nons and the huzzas of the people. The civil authorities of the now independent State of Vermont commissioned him major-general of the State militia, but an opportunity for the exercise of his bravery and military skill did not again occur. He was active, with Governor Chittenden and others, in the adroit political game played by Yermont with the authorities of the United States and of Can- ada ; and his patriotism ever burned pure, even at a time when General Clinton wrote to Lord George Germain, "There is every reason to suppose that Ethan Allen has quitted the rebel cause." General Allen continued active in public affairs after the war, until his death, which occurred suddenly at Colchester, on the 13th of February, 1789, when he was about sixty years of age. Colonel Allen was the author of several political pamphlets ; a theological work, entitled Oracles of Reason, and a Narrative of his Observations during his captivity. 1 WILLIAM FRANKLIN. JT is worthy of note, that one of the most distinguished Loyalists during the War for Independence, was the only son of one of the noblest Patriots in that struggle. That Loyalist was William, the first-born child of Benjamin Franklin. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1731, and was carefully educated by his father, for professional life. He was postmaster of the city of Philadel- phia ; clerk of the Assembly for awhile ; and entered the provincial army as captain, early in the French and Indian war. He was warmly commended for his services at Ticonderoga. After the war, he went to England with his father, and in Scotland he became acquainted with the Earl of Bute, who, for almost ten years, had great influence in the councils of George the Third. In 17 63, William Franklin was appointed governor of New Jersey, and was very popular for a time. Like all other royal governors, he soon assumed undue personal dignity, and quarrelled with the legislature. Ho was a thorough monarchist in principle, and when the disputes between the colonists and the imperial government com- menced in earnest, he did not hesitate in taking sides with the crown, in opposi- tion to his distinguished father. At the beginning of 1774, all intercourse be- tween father and son was suspended, and as the political troubles thickened, the breach widened. Month after month the breach between the governor and the New Jersey Assembly also widened ; and finally a Provincial Congress a,t Tren- ton assumed political authority, and royal government ceased in that province. A State Constitution was adopted in July, 1776, and William Livingston became 1. The stern integrity and truthfulness of Colonel Allen were well illustrated on one occasion, when he was prosecuted for the payment of a note for sixty pounds, given to a man in Boston. It was sent to Vermont for collection, but it was inconvenient for him to pay it then, and he was sued. The trial came on, and his lawyer, in order to postpone the matter, denied the genuineness of the signature. To prove it, it would be necessary to send to Boston for a witness. Allen was in a remote part of the court-room, when the lawyer denied the signature. With long strides Allen rushed through the crowd, and, stand- ing before his advocate, he said, in angry tone, " Mr , I did not hire you to come here and lie. That is a true note I signed it I '11 swear to it and I '11 pay it. I want no shuffling I want time. What I employed you for was to get this business put over to the next court, not to come here and lie and juggle about it." The time was given, and Allen paid the note. 6* 130 JOSEPH GREEN. Franklin's successor, by the choice of the people. The Whigs went still further. Franklin was declared to be an enemy of his country, and was sent, *a prisoner, to East Windsor, Connecticut. He was kept under the eye of Governor Trum- bull, until 1778, when he was exchanged, released, and took refuge with the British army in New York. There he was secretly active in fomenting discon- tents among the people, wherever he could make an impression. He was pres- ident of the Board of Loyalists, who had their head-quarters near Oyster Bay, Long Island, but went to England before the close of the contest. In the picture of the Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain, in 1783, painted by Benjamin West, Governor Franklin appears at the head of a group of figures. After an estrangement of ten years, he solicited and obtained a reconciliation with his father. Although Dr. Franklin accepted the olive branch thus filially held out, and proposed " mutually to forget " the past, he seems to have re- membered the estrangement, when he made his will, for, after making a com- paratively small bequest to William, he remarks, "The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of." Governor Franklin continued in England until his death, and enjoyed a pension, from the British government, of four thousand dollars a year. He died in November, 1813, at the age of about eighty-two years. His wife died of grief, while he was a pris- oner, in 1778, and a monumental tablet was erected to her memory in St. Paul's church, New York city. JOSEPH GREEN. IN the same year when Dr. Franklin first saw the light, a genuine wit and poet was born in the same city of Boston. His name was Joseph Green. He was first instructed in the South Grammar School, and then entered Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1726. He became an accomplished scholar, and man of business ; and by successful mercantile life, for a few years, he ac- quired a competent fortune. Generous, polite, elegant in deportment, and ex- ceedingly popular with all classes, Mr. Green might have acquired almost any mark of public distinction, but he loved private life, and could never be prevailed upon to accept office. He took very little part in politics, yet when Hutchinson left the government of Massachusetts, he was one of those who signed a com- plimentary address to that functionary. This act offended the republicans, and the royal party claimed him; but when, in 1774, Massachusetts was deprived of her charter, and a number of counsellors were appointed by mandamus, Green refused to serve, and sent his resignation to General Gage. Yet the tendencies of Mr. Green were so decidedly loyal, that he was included in the act of banish- ment, of 1778. He had been absent from Boston about three years already, and he never returned to his native country. He died in London, on the llth of December, 1780, at the age of seventy-four years. Mr. Green's poetry was generally humorous. He wrote a burlesque on a psalm written by his fellow wit, Doctor Byles. Also a burlesque on the Free Masons, and a " Lamentation on Mr. Old Tenor " (paper money), which gained him great applause. He was a member of a club of sentimentalists, who published several pamphlets; and he attacked the administration of Governor Belcher, exposed its anti-republican tendencies, and ridiculed the chief magistrate by putting his speeches into rhyme. Mr. Green was a Loyalist of the milder stamp, and was governed by a pure heart and clear head in his choice of government. JAMES JACKSON. 131 JAMES JACKSON. TI7HEN the British army was about to leave Savannah, in July, 1782, General T T Wayne, then in command in Georgia, chose an accomplished young man of twenty-five, whose valor was the theme for praise in the Southern army, to receive the keys of the city from a committee of British officers. That young officer was Major James Jackson, a native of Devonshire, England, where he was born on the 21st of September. 1757. He came to America, with his father, in 1772, and studied law in Savannah. He loved his adopted country, and in 1776, shouldered his musket, and was active in repelling an invading force that menaced Savannah. In 1778, he was appointed brigade major of the Georgia militia, and was wounded in a skirmish on the Ogeechee, in which General Scriven was killed. At the close of that year he participated in the unsuccess- ful defence of Savannah ; and when it fell into the hands of Colonel Campbell, he was among those who fled into South Carolina and joined Moultrie's brig- ade. His appearance was so wretched and suspicious, during that flight, that he was arrested by some Whigs, and tried and condemned as a spy. They were about to hang him, when a gentleman of reputation, from Georgia, recognized him, and saved his life. He was active in the siege of Savannah by Lincoln and D'Estaing, in October, 1779, and in 1780, he was in the battle at Black- 132 ELI WHITNEY. stocks under Colonel Elijah Clarke, of Georgia. General Andrew Pickens made him his brigade major, in 1781, and his fluent speech expressing his ardent patriotism, infused new zeal into that corps. He was at the siege of Augusta, in June, 1781, and when the Americans took possession, Jackson was left in command of the garrison. Subsequently he performed more active and arduous services, as commander of a legionary corps ; and at Ebenezer, on the Savannah, he joined*General Wayne, and was the right arm of his force until the evacua- tion of the Georgia capital, in 1782. As some reward for his patriotic services during the war, the legislature gave him a house and lot in Savannah. Ho married in 1785, and the next year was commissioned brigadier-general of the State militia. In 1788, he was elected governor of Georgia, but modestly de- clined the honor on account of his youth and inexperience, being then only little more than thirty years of age. He was one of the first representatives of Georgia in Congress, after the organization of the Federal Government; and from 1792 to 1795, was a member of the United States Senate. In the meanwhile he was promoted to major-general, and never failed in the faithful performance of his duties, civil and military. The State Constitution of Georgia, framed in 1798, was chiefly the work of his brain and hand. From that year until 1801, ho was governor of the State, when he was again chosen United States' senator. He held that office until his death, which occurred at Washington city, on the 19th of March, 1806, at the age of forty-nine years. His mortal remains lie beneath a neat monument in the Congressional burial-ground, upon which is an inscription, written by his personal friend and admirer, John Randolph, of Roanoke. Governor Jackson made many powerful enemies in the South, be- cause of his successful exposures of stupendous land frauds, but his course in- creased the zeal and number of his friends. There never lived a truer patriot or more honest man, than General James Jackson. ELI WHITNEY. EYERT labor-saving machine is a gain to humanity ; and every inventor of such machine is a public benefactor. High on the list of such worthies is the name of Eli Whitney, the inventor of a machine for cleaning cotton to pre- pare it for the bale, known by the technical term of gin. He was born at West- borough, Massachusetts, on the 8th of December, 1763. His mechanical genius was early manifested ; and while yet a mere child, he constructed many things with great skill. He entered Yale College in 1789, and was graduated in 1792. He then engaged to go to Georgia as a private tutor in a family, and on his way, he fell in with the widow of General Greene, who was returning to Savannah, with her family. On his arrival, he found himself without occupation and with very little money, for the person with whom he had made an engagement had hired another preceptor. Mrs. Greene had become much interested in young Whitney, and at once invited him to make her house his home, to pursue what studies he pleased. He commenced the study of law, but his mind was much on mechanics. Several distinguished visitors at the house of Mrs. Greene, from the interior, on one occasion, expressed their regret that there was not some machine for cleaning the green seed cotton, 1 as its culture, with such aid, would 1. This labor was then performed chiefly by female servants. To separate one pound of clean staple cotton from the seeds was considered a good day's work for one person. ELIAS BOUDINOT. 133 be very profitable at the South. The great mechanical genius of young "Whitney was known to Mrs. Greene, and she said, " Apply to my young friend here, he can make anything." Although he had never yet looked upon a cotton seed, his mind began to plan. He procured a small quantity of uncleaned cotton, and with such rude tools as a plantation afforded, he went to work and constructed a machine, under the kind auspices of Mrs. Greene and Phineas Miller, who be- came her husband. The machine was examined with delight, for it would do the work of months in a single day. With it, one man could do the work of a thousand. It opened a way to immense wealth to the Southern planters. Great excitement prevailed ; and when the people found that they could not see the great invention until it was patented, they broke open the building in which it stood, carried it away, and soon many similar machines were in use. Whitney went to his native State, patented his invention, and in partnership with Mr. Miller, commenced the manufacture of machines for Georgia. Before he could secure a patent, it was in common use; 1 and to complete his misfortunes, his shop with all its contents, and his papers, were consumed. He was made a bankrupt ; and the inventor of the cotton gin, which has been worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the people of the South, never received a sufficient amount of money from it, to reimburse his actual outlays and losses. He was treated with the utmost unfairness by some southern legislatures, as well as by individ- uals ; and everywhere among those who were profiting immensely by the in- vention, his rights were denied. Even Congress denied his application to extend his patent. Disappointed, and disgusted with the injustice of his fellow-men, Mr. Whitney turned his attention to other pursuits. He commenced the manu- facture of fire-arms, in 1798, for the United States. But misfortune seemed to be uniformly his lot in life, except in his choice of the excellent Henrietta, daughter of Pierpont Edwards, for his wife. After great sufferings from disease, he died near New Haven, on the 8th of January, 1825, at the age of fifty-nine years. ELIAS BOUDINOT. THE American Bible Society, whose labors have accomplished a vast amount of good, in the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, was established in 1816 ; and Elias Boudinot, one of its founders, and a warm patriot of the Revo- lution, was its first president. He was born in Philadelphia, on the 2d of May, 1740. He inherited a love of freedom and religious devotion from his Huguenot ancestors, and when the colonists began to question the right of Great Britain to tax them without their consent, he took a stand for his countrymen. He had received a classical education, studied law with Eichard Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and married that patriot's sister. Boudinot practiced his profession in New Jersey, and soon rose to distinction. In 1777, he was appointed commissary-general of prisoners, by Congress, and the same year he was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress. In Novem- ber, 1782, he was elected president of that body, and in that capacity he signed the preliminary treaty of peace with Great Britain. At the close of the war he resumed the profession of the law, but was again called into public life in 1789, 1. On one occasion, when suits for the infringement of the patent in Georgia were commenced, Fr. Miller wrote, " The jurymen at Augusta have come to an understanding among themselves, that they will never give a cause in our favor, let the merits of the case be as they may." 134 JOSEPH HABERSHAM. by an election to a seat in Congress, under the Federal Constitution. He was a member of the House of Representatives six years, when Washington appointed him Director of the Mint, on the death of Rittenhouse. He held that position until 1805, when he retired from public life, and made his residence the re- mainder of his days, at Burlington, New Jersey. In 1812, he was elected a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to which he made a donation of five thousand dollars ; and when he was elected president of the American Bible Society, in 1816, he gave that institution ten thousand dollars. He was a trustee of the College at Princeton for many years, and there founded a cabinet of natural history, at a cost of three thousand dollars. His whole life was one of usefulness ; and at his death, he bequeathed a great por- tion of a large fortune to institutions and trustees, for charitable purposes. The remainder of his estate he left to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, of which he was a member. He died at Burlington, on the 24th of October, 1821, at the age of eighty-one years. JOSEPH HABERSHAM. riEORGIA may boast of many noble patriots, but she had none, in the "War \JT for Independence, of truer stamp, than Joseph Habersham, the son of a merchant of Savannah, where he was born in 1750. He was one of the earliest advocates of popular rights in the Georgia capital, and, with other young men, acted, as well as spoke, against unjust royal rule. Early in the Summer of 1775, a letter from Sir James "Wright, the royal governor of Georgia, to General Gage, was intercepted by the vigilant Whigs of Charleston, who had seized the mails. It contained a request for that officer to send some troops to Savannah, to sup- press the rising rebellion there. The letter was sent to the committee of safety at Savannah, and aroused the fiercest indignation of the Whigs. At about that time, a British vessel arrived at the mouth of the Savannah, with many thousand pounds of powder. It was determined to seize the vessel and secure the powder, for the use of the patriots. On the night of the 10th of July, thirty volunteers under young Habersham (then holding the commission of colonel) and Commo- dore Bowen, captured the vessel, placed the powder, under guard, in the mag- azine at Savannah, and sent five thousand pounds of the ammunition, to General Washington at Boston. In January, 1776, Colonel Habersham was a member of the Georgia Assembly; and on the 18th of that month, he led a party of volunteers, to the capture of Governor Wright. They paroled him a prisoner in his own house, from which, on a stormy night in February, he escaped, made his way to the British ship, Scarborough, and went to England. Thus Colonel Habersham put an end to royal rule, in Georgia. He was active in the council and field, during the whole war, and held the commission of lieutenant-colonel in the Continental army. In 1785, he was chosen a member of Congress, to represent the Savannah district; and in 1795, President Washington appointed him Postmaster-general of the United States. He resigned that office in the year 1800, and two years afterward, was made president of the Branch Bank of the United States, at Savannah. He filled that office with distinguished ability until a short time before his death, which occurred in November, 1815, at the age of sixty-five years. BENEDICT AKNOLD. 135 BENEDICT ARNOLD. " ~W7"E accept the treason, but despise the traitor," was the practical expression I V of British sentiment when Arnold, one of the bravest of the American generals, was purchased with British gold, and attempted to betray the liberties of his country. He was a native of Norwich, Connecticut, where he was born on the 3d of January, 1740. He was a descendant of Benedict Arnold, one of the early governors of Rhode Island, and was blessed with a mother who, ac- cording to her epitaph, was " A pattern of patience, piety, and virtue." But he was a wayward, disobedient, and unscrupulous boy; cruel in his tastes and wicked in his practices. 1 He was bred to the business of an apothecary, at Norwich, under the brothers Lathrop, who were so pleased with him as a young man of genius, that they gave him two thousand dollars to commence business with. From 1763 to 1767, he combined the business of bookseller and druggist, in New Haven, when he commenced trading voyages to the West Indies, and 1. While yet a mere youth, he attempted murder. A young Frenchman was an accepted suitor of Arnold's sister. The young tyrant (for Arnold was always a despot among his play-fellows) disliked him, and when he could not persuade hislisler to discard him, he declared he would shoot the French- man if he ever entered the house again. The opportunity soon occurred, and Arnold discharged a loaded pistol at him, as he escaped through a window. The young man left the place forever, and Hannah Arnold lived the life of a maiden. Arnold and the Frenchman afterward met at Honduras, and fought a duel. The Frenchman was severely wounded. 136 BENEDICT ARNOLD. horse dealing in Canada. He was hi command of a volunteer company, in New Haven, when the war broke out, with whom he marched to Cambridge, and joined the army under Washington. Then commenced his career as the bravest of the brave. His first bold exploit had been in connection with Ethan Allen in the capture of Ticonderoga, in May, 1775. In September folio wing he started from Cambridge for Quebec, by way of the Kennebeck and the wilderness be- yond its head waters, in command of an expedition ; and after an unsuccessful attempt to take the capital of Canada, he joined Montgomery, and participated in the disastrous siege of that walled town on the last day of the year. There he was severely wounded in the leg, but escaping up the St. Lawrence, held command of the broken army until the arrival of General Wooster in April fol- lowing. Arnold retired to Montreal, then to St. Johns, and left Canada alto- gether, in June, 1776. During the Summer and Autumn of that year, he was active in naval command on Lake Champlain. He assisted in repelling the in- vasion of Connecticut, by Try on, in April, 1777; and during the latter part of that Summer, he was with General Schuyler, in his preparatipns for opposing the attempt of Burgoyne to penetrate beyond Fort Edward, or Saratoga. "While the American army was encamped at the mouth of the Mohawk, Arnold marched up that stream, and relieved the beleagured garrison of Eort Schuyler (or Stanwix), on the site of the present village of Rome. 1 He was in the battles at Stillwater; and despite the jealous efforts of Gates to cripple his movements, his intrepidity and personal example were chiefly instrumental in securing the victory over Burgoyne, for which the commanding general received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal, while Arnold was not even mentioned in the official despatches from Saratoga. This was one of the first affronts that planted seeds of treason in his mind. He was again severely wounded at Saratoga, and suffered much for many months. "When, in the Spring of 1778, the British evacuated Philadelphia, Arnold was appointed military governor there, because of his incapacity for active field service, on account of his wounds. There he lived extravagantly, married the beautiful daughter of Edward Shippen, a lead- ing Tory of Philadelphia, and commenced a system, of fraud, peculation, and oppression, which caused him to be tried for sundry offences by a court-martial, ordered by Congress. He was found guilty on some of the charges, and deli- cately reprimanded by "Washington. Indignant and deeply in debt, he brooded upon revenge on one hand, and pecuniary relief on the other. He opened a correspondence with the accomplished Major Andre, adjutant-general of the British army, and after procuring the command of the fortresses at "West Point, on the Hudson, and vicinity, he arranged, with Andre, a plan for betraying them into the hands of Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander at New York. His price for his perfidy was fifty thousand dollars and a brigadier's commission in the British army. After a personal negotiation with Arnold, Andre was captured, 2 the treason became known, but the traitor had fled to his new friends in New York. He soon afterward went on a marauding expedition into Vir- ginia, 3 and then on the New England coast, near his birth-place, everywhere exhibiting the most cruel spite toward the Americans whom he had sought to injure beyond measure. The war ended, and he went to England. There ho 1. While Burgoyne penetrated the State from the North, St. Leger, with Tories and Indians, attempted to take Fort Schuyler, and then sweep the Mohawk Valley. 2. Andre was hanged as a spy, at Tappan, on the west side of the Hudson, in Octoher, 1780. He had been drawn into that position by the villany of Arnold, and could the traitor have been caught, Andre would have been saved. 3. In a skirmish between Richmond and Petersburg, some Americans were made prisoners. One of them was asked by Arnold, what his countrymen would do with him, if they should catch him. _ The young man promptly replied, " Bury the leg that was wounded at Quebec and Saratoga, with military honors, and hang the rest of yon." Great efforts were marie to capture the traitor, while he was in Virginia. That was the chief object of La Fayette's expedition to that State. WILLIAM BARTON. 137 was everywhere shunned as a serpent, and he made his abode in St. Johns, New Brunswick, from 1786 until 1793. He went to the West Indies, in 1794, and from thence to England. He died in Gloucester Place, London, on the 14th of June, 1801, at the age of sixty-one years. Just three years afterward, his wife died at the same place, aged forty-three. 1 WILLIAM BARTON. " What hath the gray -haired prisoner done? Hath murder stained his hand with go.e? Ah, no ! his crime 's a fouler one God made the old man poor 1" THUS indignantly did the gifted pen of "VVhittier refer to the brave Colonel Barton, in his noble protest against imprisonment for debt. Barton was a worthy scion of old llhode Island stock, and was born in Providence in 1750. Of his early life we know nothing, but when the War for Independence appealed to the patriotism and romance of the young men of America, we find him among the most daring of those who gave the British great annoj^ance after they had taken possession of Rhode Island, in 17 7G, and were encamped at Newport and vicinity. Young Barton had passed through the several grades of office, until the opening of 1777, when we find him holding the commission of lieutenant- colonel of militia, and performing good service in preparations for driving the British from Rhode Island. General Prescott, an arrogant, tyrannical man, was the commander- in-chief of the enemy there, and the people suffered much at his hands.' 2 They devised various schemes to get rid of him, but all failed until a plan, conceived by Colonel Barton, was successfully carried out. Prescott's head-quarters were at the house of a Quaker, five miles north of Newport. On a sultry night in July, 1777, Barton, with a few trusty followers, crossed Nar- raganset Bay from Warwick Point, in whale boats, directly through a British fleet, and landed in a sheltered cove a short distance from Prescott's quarters. They proceeded stealthily in two divisions, and secured the sentinel and the outside doors of the house. Then Barton boldly entered, with four strong men and a negro, and proceeded to Prescott's room on the second floor. It was now about midnight. The door was locked on the inside. There was no time for parley. The negro, stepping back a few paces, used his head as a battering- ram, and the door flew open. Prescott, supposing the intruders to be robbers, sprang from his bed and seized his gold watch. The next moment Barton's hand was laid on his shoulder, and he was admonished that he was a prisoner, and must be silent. Without giving him time to dress, he was conveyed to one of the whale-boats, and the whole party returned to Warwick Point, undis- covered by the sentinels of the fleet. Prescott's mouth was kept shut by a pis- tol at each ear. The prisoner first spoke after landing, and said, ir Sir, you have made a bold push to-night." Barton coolly replied, "We have been fortunate." At sunrise the captive was in Providence, and in the course of a few days he was sent to the head-quarters of Washington, in New Jersey. 3 For this brave 1. Their son, James Robertson Arnold, born at West Point, became a distinguished officer in the British army. He passed through all the grades of office, from lieutenant. Oil the accession of Queen Victoria, he was made one of her aids-de-camp, and rose to the rank of major-general, with the badge of a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order. 2. This was the same Prescott who commanded at Montreal, in 1775, and treated Colonel Ethan Allen so cruelly when he was made prisoner. 3. Prescott's haughty demeanor was not laid aside in his captivity. On his way to New Jersey, he 138 GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE. service, Congress presented their thanks and an elegant sword, to lieutenant- colonel Barton, and in December following, he was promoted to the rank and pay of colonel in the Continental army. He was also rewarded by a grant of land, in Vermont. In the action at Butt's Hill, near Bristol Ferry, in August, 1778, Colonel Barton was so badly wounded, that he was disabled for the re- mainder of the war. In after years, the land in Vermont proved to be an un- fortunate gift. By the transfer of some of it he became entangled in the meshes of the law, and was imprisoned for debt, in Vermont, for many years, in his old age. " For this he shares a felon's cell,' 1 The fittest earthly type of hell ! For this, the boon for which he poured His young blood on the invadei's sword, And counted light the fearful cost His blood-gained liberty is lost." "When La Fayette was "our nation's guest," in 1825, he heard of the situation of his old companion-in-arms, paid the debt and set him at liberty ! It was a significant rebuke, not only to the Shylock who demanded the "pound of flesh," but to the American people. Colonel Barton died at Providence, in 1831, at the age of eighty-four years. GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE. ONE of the most interesting episodes in the history of our country, is that which relates to the conquest of the region long known as the North- western Territory, 1 from the motley masters of the soil English, French, and Indians. The chief actor in those events, was George Rogers Clarke, a hardy Virginia borderer, whose youth was spent in those physical pursuits which give vigor to the frame and activity to the mind. He was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 19th of November, 1752, and first appeared in history as an adventurer beyond the Alleghanies. in 1772. He had been engaged in the business of land-surveyor, for some time and that year he went down the Ohio, in a canoe, as far as the mouth of the Great Kanawha, in company with Rev. David Jones, then on his way to preach the gospel to the western tribes.* He was captain of a company in Dunmore's army, which marched against the In- dians on the Ohio and its tributaries, in 1774. 3 Ever since his trip in 1772, he ardently desired an opportunity to explore those deep wildernesses in the great vallies; and in 1775, he accompanied some armed settlers to Kentucky, as their commander. During that and the following year, he traversed a great extent of country south of the Ohio, studied the character of the Indians, and made himself master of many secrets which aided in his future success. He beheld a beautiful country, inviting- immigration, but the pathway to it was made dan- and his escort dined at the tavern of Captain Alden, at Lebanon, Connecticut. The common dish of corn and beans was set before him. He supposed the act to be an intentional insult, and strewing the succotash on the floor, exclaimed, " Do you treat me with the food of hogs." Captain Alden hated the tyrant, and for this act he horsewhipped him. After Prescott was exchanged for General Charles Lee, and was again in command on Rhode Island, he treated a gentleman, who called upon him on business, with much discourtesy. He said in excuse, " He looked so much like a cursed Connecticut man that horsewhipped me, that I could not endure his presence." 1. It embraced the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 2. See sketch of David Jones. 3. The Shawnees and other tribes had committed many depredations on the Virginia frontier for several years, and in 1774, Lord Dnnmore, then governor of' that province, led quite a large force against them. A severe battle was fought at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the great Kanawha ; and at Chil- licothe, Dunmore made a treaty of peace and friendship with them. GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE. 139 gerous by the enemies of the colonists, who sallied forth from the British posts at Detroit, Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, with Indian allies. Convinced of the necessity of possessing these posts, Clarke submitted the plan of an expedition against them, to the Virginia legislature, and early in the Spring of 1178, he was at the Falls of the Ohio (now Louisville), with four companies of soldiers. There he was joined by Simon Kenton, another bold pioneer. He marched through the wilderness toward those important posts, and at the close of Summer all but Detroit were in his possession. Clarke was now promoted to colonel, and was instructed to pacify the western tribes, if possible, and bring them into friendly relations with the Americans. While thus engaged, he was informed of the re-capture of Vincennes. "With his usual energy, and followed by less than two hundred men, he traversed the drowned lands of Illinois, through deep morasses and snow-floods, in February, 1779; and on the 19th of that month, 'appeared before Vincennes. To the astonished garrison, it seemed as if those rough Kentuckians had dropped from 140 DAVID JONES. the clouds, for the whole country was inundated. The fort was speedily sur- rendered, and commander Hamilton (governor of~ Detroit), and several others, were sent to Virginia as prisoners. Colonel Clarke also captured a quantity of goods, under convoy from Detroit, valued at $50,000; and having sufficiently garrisoned Vincennes and the other posts, he proceeded to build Fort Jefferson, on the western bank of the Mississippi, below the Ohio. When Arnold invaded Virginia, in 1781, Colonel Clarke joined the forces under the Baron Steuben, and performed signal service until the traitor had departed. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier, the same year, and went beyond the mountains again, hoping to organize an expedition against Detroit. His scheme failed, and, for awhile, Clarke was in command of a post at the Falls of the Ohio. In the Autumn of 1782, he penetrated the Indian country between the Ohio and the Lakes, with a thousand men, and chastised the tribes severely for their marauding excursions into Kentucky, and awed them into comparatively peaceful relations. For these deeds, John Randolph afterward called Clarke the "American Hannibal, who, by the reduction of those military posts in the wil- derness, obtained the lakes for the northern boundary of our Union, at the peace in 1783." Clarke made Kentucky his future home; and during Washington's administration, when Genet, the French minister, attempted to organize a force in the West, against the Spaniards, Clarke accepted from him the commission of major-general in the armies of France. The project was abandoned, and the hero of the north-west never appeared in public life afterward. He died near Louisville, Kentucky, in February, 1818, at the age of sixty 'Six years. DAVID JONES. THE ministers of the "church militant" frequently performed double service in the righteous cause of truth, during the War for Independence, for they had both spiritual and temporal enemies to contend with. Among these, the Rev. David Jones was one of the most faithful soldiers in both kinds of warfare. He was born in New Castle county, Delaware, on the 12th of May, 1736, and, as his name imports, was of Welsh descent. He was educated for the gospel ministry under the Rev. Isaac Eaton, at Hopewell, New Jersey, and for many years was pastor of the Upper (Baptist) Freehold church. Impressed with a desire to carry the gospel to the heathen of the wilderness, he proceeded to visit the Indians in the Ohio and Illinois country, in 1772. On his way down the Ohio river, he was accompanied by the brave George Rogers Clarke, whose valor gave the region, afterward known as the North-western Territory, to the struggling colonists, toward the close of the Revolution. Mr. Jones' mission was unsuccessful, and he returned to his charge at Freehold. Because of his zealous espousal of the republican cause, he became very obnoxious to the Tories, who were numerous in Monmouth county. Believing his life to be in danger, he left New Jersey, settled in Chester county, in Pennsylvania, and in the Spring of 1775, took charge of the Great Valley Baptist church. He soon afterward preached a sermon before Colonel Davie's regiment, on the occasion of a Continental Fast, which was published, and produced a salutary effect. It was entitled, Defensive War in a Just Cause, Sinless. In 1776, Mr. Jones was appointed chaplain to Colonel St. Glair's regiment, and proceeded with it to the Northern Department. He was on duty at Ticonderoga, when the British approached, after the defeat of Arnold on the Lake below, and there preached a characteristic sermon to the soldiers, which was afterward published. He served JOHN EAGAR HOWARD. 141 through two campaigns under General Gates, and was chaplain to General Wayne's brigade in the Autumn of 1777. He was with that officer at the Paoli Massacre, 1 where he narrowly escaped death, but lived to make an address at the erection of a monument there, over the remains of his slaughtered comrades, forty years afterward. He was in the battles at Brandy wine and Germantown, suffered at White Marsh and Valley Forge, and continued with Wayne in all his varied duties from the battle at Monmouth in June, 1778, until the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, in October, 1781. Such was his activity as a sol- dier, that General Howe offered a reward for him, while the British held pos- session of Philadelphia ; and on one occasion, a detachment of soldiers were sent to the Great Valley to capture him. 2 At the close of the war, he returned to his farm, and resumed his ministerial labors. When General Wayne took command of the army in the North-western Ter- ritory, in 1794, Mr. Jones was appointed his chaplain, and accompanied him to the field; and when, again, in 1812, a war between the United States and Great Britain commenced, the patriotic chaplain of the old conflict entered the army, and served under Generals Brown and Wilkinson, until the close of the contest. He was then seventy-six years of age. When peace came, he again put on the armor of the gospel, and continued his warfare with the enemy of souls until the last. His latest public act was the delivery of the dedicatory address on laying the corner-stone of the Paoli Monument, in 1817. On the 5th of Feb- ruary, 1820, this distinguished servant of God and of the Republic, died in peace, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and was buried in the Great Valley church- yard, in sight of the pleasant little village of Valley Forge. JOHN E A Q A R H O W A R D . MARYLAND may boast of many lovely sons, but she cherishes the memory of none more warmly than that of John Eagar Howard. He was born in Baltimore county, on the 4th of June, 1752. He was a very young man when the War for Independence commenced, and entered eagerly into the plans of the republicans. He became a soldier in 1776, and commanded a company of militia in the service known as The Flying Camps, under General Hugh Mercer. In that capacity he served at White Plains, in the Autumn of that year; and when, in December, 1776, that corps was disbanded, he accepted the commission of major in one of the Continental battalions of his native State. Then commenced his useful military career. In the Spring of 1777, he joined the army under Washington, at Middlebrook, in New Jersey, but returned Home in June, on account of the death of his father. He again joined the army, a few days after the battle on the Brandywine, in September ; distinguished himself for cool courage in the engagement at Germantown ; and afterward wrote a graphic account of the whole affair. He was also at the battle on the plains of Mon- mouth the following year; and in June, 1779, he was commissioned a lieuten- ant-colonel in the 5th Maryland regiment. " to take rank from the 1 1th day of May, 1778." In 1780, he went to the field of duty, in the South, when De Kalb 1. Near the Paoli Tavern, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. General Wayne was surprised a few nights after the battle on the Brandywine, by General Grey of the British army, and a large number of his command were slain. That event is known in history as the Paoli Massacre. 2. While reconnoitring alone one night, Chaplain Jones saw a dragoon dismount, and enter a house for refreshments. Mr. Jones boldly approached, seized the horseman's pistols, and going into the house, claimed the owner as his prisoner. The unarmed dragoon was compelled to obey his captor's orders, to mount and ride into the American camp. The e_vent produced great merriment, and Wayne laughed immoderately at the idea of a British dragoon being captured by his chaplain. 142 RICHARD BLAND. marched thither with Maryland and Delaware troops, with the vain hope of aiding the besieged Lincoln, at Charleston. He served under Gates until after the disastrous battle near Camden, in August, and his corps formed a part of the Southern army, under General Greene, at the close of that year. In January following, he won unfading laurels by his skill and bravery at the Cowpens, under Morgan, and received a vote of thanks and a silver medal from Congress. At Guilford, a month afterward, he greatly distinguished himself when Greene and Cornwallis contended for the mastery. There he was wounded, returned home, and did not engage in active military services afterward. When peace came, the intrepid soldier was conquered by the charms of Margaret, daughter of Chief Justice Chew, around whose house, at Germantown, he had battled manfully, and they were married. He sought the pleasures of domestic life, but in the Autumn of 1788, he was drawn from his retirement, to fill the chair of chief magistrate of his native State. He held that office three years. In 1794, he declined the proffered commission of major-general of militia, and the follow- ing year he also declined the office of Secretary of "War, to which President "Washington invited him. He was then a member of the Maryland Senate ; and in 1796, he was chosen to a seat in the Senate of the United States, where he served until 1803. Then he retired from public life forever; yet when, in 1814, the British made hostile demonstrations against Baltimore, the old veteran, un- mindful of the weight of threescore years, prepared to take the field. The battle at North Point rendered such a step unnecessary, and he sat down in the midst of an affectionate family, to enjoy thirteen years more of his earthly pilgrimage. His wife was taken from him, by death, early in 1827; and on the 12th of October, of that year, he followed her to the spirit land, at the age of seventy- five years. Honor, wealth, and the ardent love of friends, were his lot in life ; and few men ever went down to the grave more truly beloved and lamented, than John Eagar Howard. RICHARD BLAND. A MONG the galaxy of patriots who composed the real strength of the Virginia J\. House of Burgesses, in 1774, no one was more beloved and reverenced, than Richard Bland, who was born early in the last century. He was a mem- ber of the colonial legislature of Virginia many years, and a leader of the pop- ular branch, or House of Burgesses. Although a true republican, he was not prepared, at the moment, to stand by Patrick Henry in his denunciations of British tyranny, in 1765, yet he did not flinch, soon afterward, when duty de- manded bold action. He was one of the committee to prepare a remonstrance with parliament, in 1768 ; and in 1773, he was one of the first general committee of correspondence, proposed by Dabney Carr. He was chosen a delegate to the first Continental Congress in 1774, but declined the appointment the following year, because, as he said, he was " an old man, almost deprived of sight." Francis Lightfoot Lee, who signed the Declaration of Independence the following year, was appointed in his place ; and three years afterward, the aged patriot went to his final rest. Mr. Wirt speaks of him as " one of the most enlightened men in the colony ; a man of finished education, and of the most unbending habits of application. His perfect mastery of every fact connected with the settlement and progress of the colony, had given him the name of the Virginia Antiquary. He was a politician of the first class, a profound logician, and was also considered as the first writer in the colony." CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. 143 CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. " 1TILLIONS for defence, but not one cent for tribute," were the noble words 1*1 uttered by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney when, as an ambassador to the French government, some unaccredited agents demanded a loan from the United Slates, as a prerequisite to a treaty which he had been sent to negotiate. That sentiment expressed the national standard of independent integrity, ever main- tained in our intercourse with foreign nations. 1 The author of it was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 25th of February, 1746. His father was chief justice of South Carolina, and held a high social position there. At the age of seven years Charles, with his brother Thomas, were taken to England by their father, to be educated. He was first at "Westminster, then at Oxford, and when his collegiate course was completed, he studied law in the Temple. On his return to Charleston, in 1769, he commenced a successful professional career, and at the same time became an active participator in the popular movements against the imperial government. He had taken a part against the Stamp Act, in England, and he was a full-fledged patriot on his arrival home. When, in 1775, Christopher Gadsden became colonel of a regiment raised by the Provin- 1. Jackson's instructions to foreign ministers were, " Ask nothing but -what is right, and submit to nothing that is wrong." 144 BARON DE STEUBEN. cial Congress, Pinckney received the appointment of captain of one of its com- panies, and he went up into North Carolina, as far as Newborn, on recruiting service. He wjis active in the defence of his native city the following year, and remained in service until the fall of Charleston, in 1780. He accompanied Gen- eral Robert Howe in his unfortunate expedition to Florida, in 1778, and assisted in the repulse of Prevost, from Charleston, the following year. 1 When, early in 1780, the British fleet, bearing General Clinton and an invading army, appeared off Charleston, Pinckney, now holding the commission of colonel, was appointed to the command of the garrison at Fort Moultrie, in the harbor. When the city and its defences finally yielded to superior numbers, and were surrendered, Colonel Pinckney was made a prisoner. He suffered much from sickness and ill-treatment during a captivity of almost two years, and was not allowed to par- ticipate in the struggle in the field during that time. In February, 1782, he was exchanged, and was soon afterward breveted brigadier-general. On the return of peace he resumed the practice of his profession, and was a member of the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, in 1787. He declined a proffered seat in Washington's Cabinet, but in 1796, he accepted the appoint- ment of minister to the French Republic, then controlled by a Directory. 2 It was while in the midst of personal peril there, that he uttered the noble senti- ment just quoted. When war with France seemed inevitable, in 1797, and Washington was chosen commander-in-chief, Pinckney was appointed the second major-general in the army. 3 He retired from active life at about the year 1800, and for a quarter of a century lived in elegant ease, though taking much in- terest in the progress of public affairs. He found exquisite enjoyment in the bosom of his family and the companionship of books, until the latest hours of his long life. He died on the 16th of August, 1825, in the eightieth year of his age. BARON DE STEUBEN. II UCH of the success of the Continental army in its more skillful achievements, il during the greater portion of the War for Independence, was due to the science and valor of several foreign officers engaged in its service ; and the names of La Fayette, Steuben, De Kalb, Pulaski, Koskiusczko, and Du Portal], will ever be held in grateful remembrance by the American people. To Frederick William Augustus, Baron de Steuben, the army was indebted for that superior discipline displayed on the plains of Monmouth, and afterward. He had been an aid-de-camp of Frederick the Great of Prussia; and the Prince Margrave, of Baden, in whose service he afterward engaged, gave him the commission of lieutenant-general, and decorated him with the Order of Fidelity, as a special mark of favor. He received titles and emoluments^ from other monarchs, and splendid offers for the future, but he left them all, came to America to help a struggling young people in their efforts to be free, and joined the Continental army, as a volunteer, at Valley Forge. Congress appointed him inspector-gen- eral, with the rank and pay of major-general, in May, 1778, and his thorough 1. General Prevost marched from Savannah, with a strong British force, to attack Charleston, 1n 1779, and appeared before the city. The rapid approach of General Lincoln caused him to retreat sud- denly by way of the numerous islands along the shore from Charleston to Savannah. 2. The Directory was the executive power of the French government, after the Revolution, and was established in 1795. It consisted of five persons elected for four years, and ruled in connection with 1v,-o representative Chambers, called respectively TJif. Council of Ancients, and The Council of Five Hundred. 3. One of his aids, George .Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington House, Virginia, is yet living. Seo note 1, page 55. JOHIST BEOOKS. 145 discipline prepared the Americans for more efficient action in future. As a volunteer, he fought at Monmouth ; and his services throughout the war were of the greatest benefit. He was active in Virginia from the invasion of Arnold, in January, 1781, until the capture of Cornwallis, in October following. At the siege of Yorktown, his skill and valor were particularly conspicuous, for he fought bravely and well in the trenches there. 1 At the close of the war, he remained in America. The State of New Jersey gave him a small farm ; that of New York presented him with sixteen thousand acres of wild land, in Oneida county; and the Federal government granted him a pension of twenty-five hundred dollars a year. He took up his abode on his New York domain, gave one-tenth of the whole to his aids (North and Walker) and servants, and par- celled the remainder among twenty or thirty tenants. He built himself a log hut on the site of the present Steubenville, New York ; and there the once courted companion of kings and nobles the ornament of gay courts lived in chosen obscurity, during the Summer months. His "Winters were spent in the best society in the city of New York. He died suddenly of apoplexy, at his log-built residence, on the 28th of November, 1795, at the age of sixty -four years. His neighbors buried him in his garden ; but afterward, according to his written request, he was wrapped in his military cloak, placed in a plain coffin, and buried in the woods near by. "When a public road passed over the spot, his remains were taken up and buried a third time, in the town of Steuben, a few miles from Trenton Falls. There a plain monument, erected in 1826, covers his grave. 2 JOHN BROOKS. FROM many a district school-house in our favored land have issued youths of humble origin, who, by their virtues and attainments, have adorned society, and honored their country. John Brooks, one of the most eminent chief magistrates of Massachusetts, was a graduate of one of those " colleges for the people," and his boyhood and early youth were spent in the obscure labors of a farm. He was born at Medford, in 1752. At the age of fourteen years he was apprenticed to Dr. Simon Tufts, and his fellow-student in medicine was Benjamin Thompson, afterward the celebrated Count Rumford. He always evinced a fondness for military exercises, and organized the village boys into train-bands, with himself as commander. He commenced the practice of medicine at Read- ing, and then, in 1774, he took command of a company of minute-men. "With these, he assisted in annoying the British forces in their retreat from Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, and soon afterward he was commissioned a major in the army that gathered around Boston. He assisted Prescott in throwing up the redoubt on Breed's Hill, but was absent on duty during the battle the next day. He remained with the Continental army at Boston until the following year, and then participated in the battles on Long Island and at White Plains. He was with Arnold in his expedition against St. Leger, at Fort Schuyler, on the Mohawk, in 1777, and bore the commission of lieutenant-colonel. At the 1. On one occasion, when a bomb-shell was about to burst, the Baron leapt into a ditch, followed by Wayne, who fell on him. " Ah, my dear fellow," said the Baron, " I know you are always good at covering a retreat." 2. General William North, one of his aids, erected a mural monument to the memory of Steuben, in a German church in Nassau Street, New York. It is now in the church edifice of that congregation, in Forsyth Street. General North was United States senator, and was twice Speaker of the New York Assembly. He passed the latter years of his life in New London, Connecticut, but died in the city of New York, on the 4th of January, 1836, at the age of eighty-three years. 146 CHARLES CARROLL. battles at Saratoga, in September and October following, he performed signal services at the head of a regiment, and he is a conspicuous person in Trumbull's picture of the Surrender of Burgoyne. At the battle of Monmouth he was acting adjutant-general ; and during the whole war he was a most valuable officer, especially while assistant inspector, under Baron Steuben. Washington always had the greatest confidence in his integrity and patriotism ; and in the crisis at ' Newburgh, in the Spring of 1783, when sedition and mutiny appeared rife, the commander-in-chief made Brooks his special confidant. 1 At the close of the war, Colonel Brooks, poor in purse but rich in character, resumed the practice of his profession, at the same time he held the office of major-general of militia. He was a zealous friend of the Federal Constitution, and received local offices under it, from the hands of Washington. When war with England was declared in 1812, General Brooks was appointed adjutant- general of Massachusetts, by Governor Strong; and in 1816, he succeeded that gentleman as chief magistrate of his native State. For seven consecutive years he performed the duties of governor with dignity and fidelity ; but declined a reelection in 1823, and retired to private life. He continued to evince much interest in societies to which he belonged, especially that of the Massachusetts Medical Society, of which he was president. Admiring his abilities as a states- man, the Faculty of Harvard University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Governor Brooks died on the 1st of March, 1825, at the age of about seventy-three years. CHARLES CARROLL. rE last survivor of the glorious company of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, was Charles Carroll, who, to enable the British ministers to identify him as an arch-rebel, and not mistake his cousin of the same name, added "of Carrollton" to his signature on that great instrument. He was of Irish descent, 2 and was born at Annapolis, in Maryland, on the 20th of Septem- ber, 1*737. His father was a Roman Catholic gentleman of large fortune, and sent Charles to the Jesuits' College at St. Omer, in France, when he was eight years of age. There he remained six years, when he was transferred to another seminary of learning at Rheims. He was graduated at the College of Louis the Grande at the age of seventeen years. He then commenced the study of law at Bourges, remained there a year, then went to Paris and studied until 1757, and finally completed his professional education in London. After an absence of twenty-two years, he returned to Maryland, in 1765, a finished scholar and well-bred gentleman. He found his countrymen in a state of high excite- ment on account of the Stamp Act, and at once espoused the popular cause with great zeal. He held a fluent and powerful pen; and as early as 1771, Mr. Car- roll was known throughout the colonies as an able advocate of popular liberty. 1. The remnant of the Continental army, stationed at Newburgh in 1783, became much discontented by the prospect of being soon disbanded without being paid the amount of arrears due, or any provision for the future being made for them. An anonymous writer (afterward acknowledged to be Major Armstrong), called a meeting of the officers to adopt measures to compel Congress to make a satisfactory arrangement, or else to take redress in their own hands. Washington took immediate steps to prevent the convention, and called a meeting, himself, of the officers. It resulted in a noble exhibition of patriot- ism on the part of the great body, and the army was saved the disgrace of a mutiny, after so much Buffering in the glorious cause. 2. His grandfather, Daniel Carroll, was a native of Littemourna, in Ireland. He was a clerk in the office of Lord Powis, and under the patronage of the third Lord Baltimore, principal proprietor of Mary- land, he emigrated to that colony in the reign of James II. CHARLES CARROLL. 147 In 1772, he engaged in an anonymous newspaper discussion with the secretary of the colony, in which he opposed the assumed right of the British government to tax the colonies without their consent. The unknown writer was thanked by the Legislature, through the public prints, for his noble defence of popular rights. When the author became known, he was at once regarded as the favorite of the people. Mr. Carroll early perceived, and fearlessly expressed the necessity of a resort to arms, and he was among the most zealous advocates for the political inde- pendence of the colonies, even before that question assumed a tangible form in the public mind. He was chosen a member of the first committee of safety, at Annapolis, and in 1775, took his seat in the Provincial Congress. The Mary- land convention had steadily opposed the sentiment of independence which was taking hold of the public mind, and that fact accounts for the delay in sending Mr. Carroll to the Continental Congress. He visited Philadelphia early in 1776, and Congress appointed him one of a committee, with Dr. Franklin and Samuel Chase, to visit Canada on a political mission. 1 Soon after his return, the views of the Maryland convention having changed, he was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress, too late to vote for independence, on the 4th of July, but 1. See sketch of Archbishop Carroll. 148 EBENEZER STEVENS. in time to affix his signature to the instrument on the 2d of August. 1 Ten days afterward he was appointed a member of the Board of "War, and held that posi- tion during the remainder of his service in Congress. He assisted in framing a constitution for his native State, in 1776, and in 1778, he left the national coun- cil to take a more active part in the public affairs of Maryland. He was a mem- ber of the Maryland Senate, in 1781, and in 1788, he was elected one of the first senators from that State in the Federal Congress. There he remained two years, when he again took his seat in his State Senate, and retained it for ten consec- utive years. He then retired from public life, at the age of sixty-four years, and in the quiet seclusion of a happy home he watched with interest the progress of his beloved country for more than thirty years longer. When Adams and Jefferson died, in 1826, Mr. Carroll was left alone on earth, in the relation which he bore to his fifty-five colleagues who signed the Declaration of Independence. He lived on, six years longer, an object of the highest veneration ; and finally, on the 14th of November, 1832, his spirit passed peacefully and calmly from earth, when he was in the ninety-sixth year of his age. ERENEZER STEVENS. MANY of the meritorious officers of the artillery service in the "War for Inde- pendence have not found that prominence in history which they deserve. Among those thus overlooked was General Stevens, who, from the earliest until the latest period of the contest, was one of the most efficient and patriotic sol- diers of the time. He was born in Boston, in 1752, and at an early age became thoroughly imbued with the principles of the Sons of Liberty. 2 He was one of those who "made Boston Harbor a tea-pot," 3 in December, 1773, when fearing unpleasant consequences, he withdrew to Rhode Island. He went with the Rhode Island Army of Observation to Roxbury, under General Greene, in 1775, and his skill in the artillery and engineering department was such, that early in December of that year, Washington directed him to raise two companies of ar- tillery in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and proceed to join Montgomery in his attack on Quebec. The commission was speedily executed by the young soldier, and after great fatigue in dragging cannons through snow and over rough hills, the little expedition reached Three Rivers on the St. Lawrence, and heard of the disastrous blow given to the Americans, at Quebec. Stevens returned to St. John's on the Sorel, and rendered efficient service in the Northern Department during 1776. He was in command of the artillery at Ticonderoga, in 1777, and shared in the mortifications of St. Clair's retreat before Burgoyne, in July. He joined General Schuyler at Fort Edward, and was so distinguished as the com- mander of the artillery in the battles which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne, that Trumbull, in his picture of that scene, introduced Captain Stevens in a con- 1. Mr. Carroll was elected on ihe 4th of July, and took his seat on the 18th of the same month. He affixed his signature to the Declaration, with most of the others, a little more than a fortnight aftsrward. See sketch of John Carroll. 2. During the excitement incident to the Stamp Act, the patriotic opposers of the measure formed associations for the purpose in the different colonies, and styled themselves Sons of Liberty. In like manner a large association of ladies was formed in Boston, who pledged themselves not to use tea, while an obnoxious duty was upon it, and called themselves Daughters of Liberty. A full account of these associations will be found in Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution. 3. The people of Boston and other sea-ports resolved that cargoes of tea, which the East India Com- pany had sent to consignees in America, should not be landed so long as an impost duty was levied on the article. An attempt to land two cargoes in Boston caused a large company, some of them in the disguise of Mohawk Indians, to go on board of the vessels on a moonlight night, in December, 1773, and break open and cast into the waters of the harbor, all the chests of the obnoxious article. ISAIAH THOMAS. 149 spicuous position. He continued in command of the artillery, at Albany, until the Autumn of 1778, when he became attached to Colonel Lamb's regiment, in the New York line. He was made lieutenant-colonel, by brevet, in April, 1778. For the contemplated invasion of Canada, La Fayette selected him as the chief of his artillery; and early in 1781, he accompanied the Marquis into Virginia, to oppose Arnold. General Knox, the commander-in-chief of the artillery, had the highest confidence in his excellence, and invested him with full powers, in the Autumn of 1781, to collect and forward artillery munitions for the siege of Yorktown. In the decisive actions which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis and his army, Colonel Stevens was eminently efficient ; and in Trumbull's pic- ture of that event, he is seen mounted, at the head of his regiment. From that time until the close of the war, he was with Colonel Lamb at "West Point and vicinity ; and when peace came, he commenced mercantile life in the city of New York. He accepted office in the military corps of his adopted State, and rose to the rank of major-general, commanding the division of artillery of the State of New York. In 1800, he superintended the construction of the fortifi- cations on Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York. He held the office of major-general of artillery when another war with England occurred, in 1812, and he was called into the service of the United States, in defence of the city of his adoption. He was senior major-general until the return of peace, in 1815. For many years he was among the most distinguished merchants of the com- mercial metropolis, and died at the green old age of about seventy-one years, on the 2d of September, 1823. ISAIAH THOMAS. PRINTING, "the art preservative of all arts," has been represented, at all -L times in its history, by men eminent for their intellectual greatness and extensive social and political influence. Philosophers, statesmen, and theolo- gians, of the highest order of genius, have been fellows of the craft. Eminent among the best was Isaiah Thomas, the historian of the art. He was born in Boston, in 1749, and at six years of age, being the son of a poor widow, he was placed in charge of Zechariah Fowle, a ballad and pamphlet printer, to learn the great art. After an apprenticeship of eleven years, he went to Nova Scotia, where he worked for a Dutch printer, awhile. There, as well as in the other colonies, the Stamp Act was just beginning to create much opposition to the imperial government, and young Thomas, who had been nurtured in the Boston school of politics, took a prominent part against the measure. He was threat- ened with arrest, but the repeal of the act lulled the storm, and in 1767, he returned to New England. He afterward went to Wilmington, North Carolina, and also to Charleston, in search of employment, but without success. Disap- pointed and poor he returned to Boston, in 1770, and formed a business partner- ship with his old master. It continued only three months, when Thomas pur- chased the printing establishment of Fowle, on credit, worked industriously and well, and in March following he issued the first number of " The Massachusetts Spy ; l a weekly political and commercial Paper ; open to all Parties, but influ- enced by None." It gave the ministerial party a great deal of uneasiness, and vain efforts were made to control or destroy it. 2 When the British held martial 1. Fowle & Thomas had issued a tri- weekly paper with this name the previous year, but it did not continue long. The new weekly paper was printed on a larger sheet than any yet published in Boston. 2. An article against the government, which appeared in the Spy toward the close of 1771, caused Governor Hutchinson to order Thomas before the council, to answer. The bold printer refused com- 150 RUFUS KING. rule in Boston, in 1775, Thomas took his establishment to Worcester, and four- teen days after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, he commenced the publication of the Spy, there. He continued in Worcester after the war, and was blessed with prosperity. He formed a partnership, in 1788, and opened a printing-house and book-store in Boston, under the firm of Thomas and Andrews. They planted similar establishments in other places, to the number of eight ; and in 1791, they published a fine folio edition of the Bible. By industry and economy, Thomas amassed a handsome fortune, and was an honored citizen of his adopted town. He was one of the principal founders of the Antiquarian Society at Worcester, and was its president and chief patron. In 1810, he printed and published his History of Printing in America, in two octavo volumes, which has ever been a standard work on the subject. He lived more than twenty years afterward, the Patriarch of the Press. His death occurred at Worcester on the 4th of April, 1831, when he was eighty-two years of age. RUFUS KINO. ALMOST every young man of talent, at the commencement of the War for Independence, engaged in the public service, civil or military, and often- times in both. Young men of every profession and from every class became soldiers, as volunteers or levies, or took part in the public councils. These were schools of the highest practical importance to those who were to be par- ticipants in the founding of the new republican confederation. Among the worthiest and most active of these, was Rufus King, son of an eminent merchant of Scarborough, Maine. He was born in the year 1755, and received a good pre- paratory education under Samuel Moody, of Byfield. He entered Harvard College, in 1773, and remained there until the students were dispersed when the American army gathered around Boston. Young King resumed classical studies with his old teacher in the Autumn of 1775. He returned to college in 1777, and was graduated with great reputation as a classical scholar and expert orator. He studied law under Judge Parsons, at Newburyport. after having served as aid to General Glover, for a short time, in Sullivan's expedition against the British on Rhode Island, in the Summer of 1778. In 1780, he was admitted to the bar, and his first effort, as a pleader, was as adverse counsel to his eminent law- tutor. It was an effort of great power, and opened at once the high road to proud distinction in his profession. The people appreciated his talent ; and in 1784, he was elected to a seat in the legislature of Massachusetts. He was chosen a representative of Massachusetts, in Congress, the same year ; and in 1785, he introduced a resolution, in that body, to prohibit slavery in the terri- tories north-west of the Ohio river. In 1787, he was chosen a delegate to the Federal Convention, and there he was one of the most efficient and zealous friends of the constitution framed by that body. In the Massachusetts conven- tion called to consider that instrument, he nobly advocated its high claims to support. He soon afterward made New York city his residence, for there he had married Miss Alsop, daughter of one of the delegates in the first Continental Congress; and there was a wider field for his extraordinary mental powers. He was chosen a member of the State Legislature, in 1789, and in the Summer pliance ; and the attorney-general tried, but in vair., to have him indicted by the grand jury. Such resistance was made to these measures, that the government at length deemed it prudent to cease efforts to silence his seditious voice. RUFUS KING. 151 of that year, he and General Schuyler were elected the first senators in Congress, from New York. On the promulgation of the treaty made by Jay, with the British government, in 1794, there was much excitement, and King and Hamil- ton warmly defended it, in a series of papers signed Camillus, all of which, ex- cept the first ten, were written by the former. In the United States Senate, he was one of the most brilliant of its orators, and his influence was everywhere potential. In the Spring of 1796, President Washington appointed Mr. King minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, where he continued to represent his country with great dignity and ability during the whole of Mr. Adams' administration, and the first two years of Mr. Jefferson's. During his sojourn in London, he successfully adjusted many difficulties between his own government and that of Great Britain, and he possessed the warmest personal esteem of the first men in Europe. After his return home, in 1803, he retired to his farm, on Long Island, and remained in comparative repose until aroused to action by the events im- mediately preceding the war declared in 1812. While at the court of Great Britain, he had made unwearied efforts to induce that government to abandon its unjust and offensive system of impressing seamen into the naval service, and ho took an active part in public affairs during the first year of the war. Ho was 152 HENKY LEE. elected to the United States Senate, for six years, in 1813, and in 1820, he was reflected for the same length of time. Hoping to be useful to his country in the adjustment of some foreign relations, Mr. King accepted the appointment of minister to Great Britain, from Mr. Adams, in 1825, and took up his residence in London. Severe illness during the voyage disabled him for active duties, and after being absent about a year, he returned home. His health gradually failed, and on the 29th of April, 1827, he died at his seat, near Jamaica, Long Island, at the age of seventy-two years. HENRY LEE. THE right arm of the Southern army, under General Greene, was the legion of lieutenant-colonel Henry Lee, and its commander was one of the most useful officers throughout the war. He was born in Virginia, on the 29th of January, 1756. His early education was intrusted to a private tutor under his father's roof, and his collegiate studies were at Princeton, under the guidance of the patriotic Dr. Witherspoon. There he was graduated in 1774; and two years afterward, when only twenty years of age, he 'was appointed, on the nom- ination of Patrick Henry, to the command of one of the six companies of cavalry raised by his native State for the Continental service. These were at first under the general command of the accomplished Colonel Theodoric Bland. 1 In 1777, Lee's corps was placed under the immediate command of Washington, and it soon acquired a high character for discipline and bravery. Its leader was pro- moted to major, with the command of a separate corps of cavalry ; and with this legion he performed many daring exploits. In July, 1779, he captured a British fort, at Paulus's Hook (now Jersey City), for which Congress gave him thanks and a gold medal. He was at Tappan when Andre was tried and con- demned, in the Autumn of 1780; and from his corps Washington selected the brave Sergeant Champe to attempt the seizure of Arnold, in New York, so as to punish the really guilty, and let the involuntary spy go free. 2 Lee was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, in November, 1780, and early in 1781, he joined the army under Greene, in the Carolinas. In connection with Marion, and other Southern partisans, he performed efficient service for many months, in the region of the Santee and its tributaries. He was active in Greene's famous retreat before Cornwallis, from the Yadkin to the Virginia shores of the Dan, and in the battles at Guilford, Augusta, Ninety-Six, and Eutaw Springs, the services of his legion were of vast importance, for Lee was always in the front of success as well as of danger. Soon after the latter battle, he left the field, returned to Virginia, and married a daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee, of Stratford. He bore to civil life the assurance of his Southern commander, that his services had been greater than those of any one man attached to the army. Mr. Lee resided with his father-in-law, and in 1786, was elected to a seat in 1. He was a native of Virginia, qualified himself for the practice of medicine, but cast it aside for the duties of a soldier, when the war broke out. He performed many brilliant services wilh his corps of dragoons, and he was in command of the British and German captives, taken at Saratoga, while on their march to, and residence in Virginia. In 1780, he was elected to a seat in Congress. He was op- posed to the Federal Constitution, but acquiesced in the will of the majority, and represented his district in the Federal Congress. He died at New York, in June, 1790, while attending a session of Congress, at the age of forty -eight years. 2. Washington was anxious to save Andre, and made great efforts to secure the person of Arnold. Sergeant Champe went to the British in New York, as a deserter, enlisted in Arnold's corps, and just as his scheme for seizing the traitor and conveying him across the Hudson, on a dark night, was per- fected, that corps embarked for Virginia, with Champe. He afterward deserted, and joined Lee's legion in North Carolina. JOHN RUTLEDGE. 153 the Continental Congress, where he served his constituency faithfully until the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In 1791, he succeeded Beverly Randolph as governor of Virginia, and held that office three consecutive years. "When, in 1794, resistance to excise laws was made in Western Pennsylvania, and the speck of civil war, known as The Whiskey Insurrection, appeared, "Washington appointed Governor Lee to the command of the troops sent to quell the rebellion. He performed his duty well, but made many bitter enemies among the con- temners of the law. In 1799, he was a member of the Federal Congress, and was chosen by that body to pronounce a funeral oration, on the death of Wash- ington, in the hall of the House of Representatives. He retired to private life, in 1801, and for many years was much annoyed by pecuniary embarrassments. It was while restrained^ within the limits of Spottsylvania county, by his creditors, in 1809, that he wrote'his interesting Memoirs of the War in the Southern Depart- ment of the United States. He was active in attempts to quell a political mob, in Baltimore, in 1814, and was so severely wounded, that he never recovered. Towards the close of 1817, he went to the West Indies, for his health, but found no sensible relief. On his return the following Spring, he stopped to visit a daughter of General Greene, on Cumberland Island, on the coast of Georgia, and there he expired on the 25th of March, 1818, at the age of sixty-two years. JOHN RUTLEDGrE. LIKE Governor Trumbull in New England, John Rutledge was the soul of patriotic activity in South Carolina, during the darkest period of the Revo- lution, whether in civil authority or as general director of military movements. He was a native of Ireland, and came to America with his father, Doctor John Rutledge, in 1735. After receiving the best education that could bo obtained in Charleston, he went to London, and prepared for the profession of the law, at the Temple. 1 In 1761, he returned to -Charleston, became an active and highly esteemed member of his profession, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Gadsden, Laurens, and others, in defence of popular rights. He was chosen one of the representatives of his adopted State, in the first Continental Congress, with his brother, Edward, as one of his colleagues. When, in the Spring of 1776, the civil government of South Carolina was revised, and a temporary State Consti- tution was framed, Rutledge was appointed president of the State, and com- mander-in-chief of its military. Under his efficient administration, Charleston was prepared for the attack made in June, by Clinton and Parker, and the enemy was repulsed. His patriotism was never doubted, yet, like many others of the aristocracy, he had not entire faith in the wisdom and integrity of the people. When, therefore, in 1778, a permanent constitution for South Carolina was adopted, he refused his assent, because he thought it too democratic. His preju- dice yielded, however, and in 1779, he was chosen governor under it, and was invested with temporary dictatorial powers by the legislature. He took the field at the head of the militia, and managed both civil and military affairs with great skill and energy, until after the fall of Charleston, in 1780.2 "When Greene, aided by the southern partisan leaders, drove the British from the interior, to 1. This was the most celebrated place for law students in London. The building or buildings were so called, because they formerly belonged to the Knights Templars. They are designated as the Inner ana the Middle Temple. The original Temple-hall, or house of the Templars, was erected in 1572 ; and lemple-bar was built just one hundred years afterward. 2. Charleston was besieged in the Spring of 1780, by a combined land and naval force, under General Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot. It was defended by Lincoln, with a feeble force, for nearly three months. On the 12th of May, 1780, it was surrendered to the British 7* 154 JOHN LANGDON. the sea-board, in 1*781, Rutledge convened a legislative assembly at Jackson- borough, and thoroughly re-established civil government. After the war ho was made judge of the Court of Chancery. He was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the United States; and in 1789, was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court of the Republic, as associate justice. He was appointed chief justice of South Carolina, in 1791; and in 1796, he was called to the duties of chief justice of the United States. In every official station he displayed equal energy and sterling integrity ; and while yet bearing the robes of the highest judicial office in the Republic, he was summoned from earth. His death occurred in July, 1800, when he was about seventy years of age. JOHN LANQDON. " "V" OUR head will be a button for a gallows rope," said Secretary Atkinson to JL young John Langdon, toward the close of 1774, after he and others, among whom was the future General Sullivan, had seized the fort at Portsmouth, and carried off a hundred barrels of powder, and a quantity of small arms, before Governor "Went worth even suspected such a daring enterprise. 1 That brave hero and future statesman was born in the town of Portsmouth, New Hamp- shire, in 1740. He was educated at a public grammar school, prepared himself for mercantile life, and prosecuted business upon the sea until the great ocean of public feeling began to be agitated by the tempest of the Revolution. Then he espoused the republican cause, and his first overt act of rebellion and treason was the seizure of the powder and arms, above alluded to. In January, 1775, he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress. There he remained until 1776, when affairs in his own State demanded his presence there. He also served as a volunteer in some military expeditions. In 1777, he was Speaker of the New Hampshire Assembly ; and when Burgoyne was approaching the Hudson with his invading army, and the whole North and East were in com- motion, Langdon offered to loan the State three thousand hard dollars, and the avails of his silver plate and some West India goods, to equip men for the army under Gates, remarking that if the American cause should triumph, he would get his pay, if not, his property would be of no value to him. He did more, for, with many members of the New Hampshire legislature, he served as a volunteer in the battles at Saratoga, which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne. Mr. Langdon was president of the New Hampshire convention that framed the State Constitution, in 1779; and the same year he was appointed Continental agent to contract for building some ships for the service of Congress. He was again elected to a seat in Congress, in 1783, and in March, 1785, he was chosen chief magistrate of his native State. He represented New Hampshire (with Nicholas Gilman) in the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, was its zeal- ous supporter, and after serving another term as governor, or president of his State, was chosen to a seat in the United States Senate, where he served about ten years. He was afterward an active member of the State Legislature, and was governor of the State almost four years. He retired into private life, in 1812, whither he carried the most profound respect of his countrymen. That venerable patriot died at his birth-place, on the 18th of September, 1819, at the age of seventy-eight years. 1. Atkinson was Langdon's personal friend, and was in earnest. The crowd present assured Langdon that they would protect him at all hazards. Atkinson advised him to flee from the country, but the young patriot remained, and in all the trying scenes that soon followed he was nobly sustained by his fellow-citizens. ROBERT FULTON. 155 ROBERT FULTON. THE genius of Fulton was of no ordinary mold. It began to unfold in less than ten years after his birth, which occurred at Little Britain, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1765. His parents were industrious and virtuous natives of Ireland, in easy but not affluent circumstances, and Protestants in religious faith. His early education was meagre, but application in after life supplied all deficiencies. At the age of seventeen years he was painting land- scapes and portraits in Philadelphia, and educating his mechanical faculties by observations in the workshops of that capitol. Pleased with his love of art, his friends sent him to London, at the age of twenty-one years, to receive instruc- tion in painting, from the eminent Benjamin West. He formed one of that artist's family for several years ; and then, for a season, he resided in Devon- shire, and enjoyed the society of the Duke of Bridgewater and Earl of Stanhope, 1 whose tastes for mechanics developed and encouraged those of Fulton. Internal navigation by canals, and improvements in machinery, now engrossed his attention, and having heard of Fitch's experiments in the application of i. use unt lanhope was the inventor of the printing: press, known by his name, and which was in general til succeeded by the invention of Andrew Ramaere. 156 HUGH WILLIAMSON. steam to the propulsion of boats, a new and glorious vision filled his mind with its splendors. He abandoned the profession of a painter, and became a civil engineer. In the Summer of 1797, he entered the family of Joel Barlow, in Paris, and there, for seven years, he assiduously pursued the study of the nat- ural sciences and of modern languages. There he became acquainted with the wealthy and influential Robert R. Livingston. That gentleman fired the zeal of Fulton, by representing the immense advantages to be derived from the use of steam in navigating the inland waters of the United States. Wealth, talent, and genius joined hands, and Fulton and Livingston navigated the Seine, by a steam-boat, in 1803. They came to America, and in 1807, the steamer Cler- mont, Fulton's experiment boat, made a voyage from New York to Albany, one hundred and fifty miles, in thirty-six hours, against wind and tide ! His triumph was complete and his fame was secured. Fulton received his first patent in 1809, and for several years he was engaged in the perfection of steam-boat machinery, and in the improvement and con- struction of submarine explosive machines, called Torpedoes, to be used for blow- ing up vessels of war. He was successful in the construction of submarine batteries; and his great heart was delighted, in 1814, by the appropriation by Congress of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, for the construction of a steam ship-of-war, under his directions. The Fulton was launched in July of that year; and he who saw in -her another triumph of his own genius and skill, was marching onward in the pathway of renown to great emoluments, when he was suddenly laid in the grave. He died on the 24th of February, 1815, at the age of fifty years. Six steam-boats were then afloat on the Hudson, and the honor of first crossing the ocean by steam power was just within his grasp, for he was building a vessel, designed for a voyage to St. Petersburg, in Russia. HUGH WILLIAMSON. ONE of the most distinguished of the adopted sons of North Carolina, both for his intellectual acquirements, and his varied public services, was Hugh Williamson, a native of Nottingham, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 5th of December, 1735, the eldest of ten children. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1757, and then prepared himself for the gospel ministry. He was licensed to preach, but ill health com- pelled him to abandon that vocation, and in 1760, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics, in the institution where he was educated. He resigned his professorship in 1764, and went to Edinburgh to study the science of medicine. He pursued the same studies, for awhile, at Utrecht; and in 1772, he returned to Philadelphia, and commenced the successful practice of his profession. He took much interest in the subject of popular education, and near the close of 1773, he sailed from Boston for England, with Dr. Ewing, to solicit aid for an academy at Newark, in Delaware. The vessel in which they sailed conveyed the first intelligence to Europe of the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. As Dr. Williamson saw the occurrence, he was summoned before the Privy Council, in February, 1774, to give information on the subject. He gave a lucid account of the public feeling in America, and assured the Council that a persistance in enforcing parliamentary measures offensive to the colonists, would result in civil war. Soon after thia he went to Holland and the Low Countries, and re- mained on the Continent until intelligence of the Declaration of Independence RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 157 by the Continental Congress reached him, when he sailed for America. Off the capes of the Delaware the vessel was captured by a British cruiser, but Dr. "Wil- liamson escaped in an open boat, with some important despatches. In 1777, Dr. Williamson went to Charleston, and with a younger brother engaged in mercantile speculations. To avoid capture, he ordered his vessel, which he had laden with merchandise for Baltimore, to proceed to Edenton, North Carolina, where he disposed of the cargo, and settled as a practising physician. The following year, he served as surgeon under Colonel Richard Caswell, and was at the head of the medical staff of that officer in the disastrous battle at Camden, in August, 1780. He was permitted to attend his wounded countrymen within the British lines, and was instrumental in relieving much suffering. He resumed his profession, at Edenton, when peace was promised; and in 1782, he represented that district in the North Carolina legislature. He was elected to Congress, in 1784, where he represented his adopted State for three years; and in 1787, he was a member of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution. That instrument was not regarded with favor, in North Carolina, and because of his zealous advocacy of it, Dr. "Williamson lost much of his popularity, for awhile. The cloud soon passed away, and from 17 90 until 1792, he represented the Edenton district in the Federal Congress. He then retired to private life, and devoted himself to literary pursuits, making the city of New York, (where he married his wife in 1789), his place of residence. His most important production was a History of North Carolina, in two volumes, published in 1812. Two years afterward, he was associated with Dewitt Clinton in establishing the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York ; and ho was active in social life until the last. Dr. Williamson died suddenly, while taking an evening ride, on the 22d of May, 1819, at the age of eighty-four years. RICHARD MONTOOMERY. IN September, 1759, the accomplished General Wolfe perished in the arms of victory on the Plains of Abraham, at Quebec, at the early age of thirty -two years. Near him, when he fell, was a handsome young soldier, ten years his junior, who, a little more than sixteen years later, was the commanding general in a siege of the same city, and also perished in the midst of his troops. That young soldier was Richard Montgomery, who was born in the north of Ireland, in 1736, and entered the British army at the age of twenty years. After the con- quest of Canada, he was in the campaign against Havana, under General Lyman ; and at the peace in 1763, he took up his residence in New York. He finally left his regiment, returned to England, and made unsuccessful attempts to purchase a majority. He sold his commission in 1772, came to America, and purchased a beautiful estate on the Hudson, in Dutchess county, New York. He soon after- ward married a daughter of Robert Livingston. It was a happy union, but those dreams of long years of domestic peace were soon disturbed by the gather- ing tempest of the Revolution. Montgomery, with all the ardor of the people of his birth-land, espoused the patriot cause, joined the army under General Schuyler, destined for the invasion of Canada, and was second in command, in the Autumn of 1775, bearing the commission of a brigadier. Illness of the chief devolved the whole duty of leadership upon Montgomery, and he went on suc- cessfully until St. John, Chambly, and Montreal, were in his power. Congress gave him the commission of major-general, and amid the snows of December, ho pressed forward to join Arnold in an assault upon Quebec. For three weeks ho 153 JOSEPH BRANT. besieged that city; and early on the morning of the 31st of December, while snow was fast falling, an attempt was made to take the town by storm. Mont- gomery was killed while leading a division along the shores of the St. Lawrence, beneath the precipitous Cape Diamond. Arnold was also wounded at another point of attack, and the great object of the expedition failed. For forty years the remains of Montgomery rested within the walls of Quebec. At the request of his widow, in 1818, they were disinterred, conveyed to New York, and placed beneath a mural monument, erected by order of Congress, on the external wall of the front of St. Paul's church, in that city. Millions of people, passing along Broadway, have looked upon that monument, the memorial of one whose praises were spoken in Parliament by the great Chatham and Burke, and of whom Lord North said, "Curse on his virtues; they have undone his country." He was in the fortieth year of his age when he fell. 1 JOSEPH BRANT. THAYENDANEGEA, one of the most renowned of the warriors of the Six JL Nations of Indians in the State of New York, was a Mohawk of the pure native blood. His father was an Onondaga chief; and Thayendanegea (which signifies a bundle of sticks, or strength], was born on the banks of the Ohio, in 1742. There his father died, and his mother returned to the Mohawk Valley with her two children this son, and a sister who became a concubine of Sir William Johnson. She married a Mohawk, whom the white people called Barent, which, in abbreviation, was pronounced Brant. Sir William Johnson placed the boy in Dr. Wheelock's school, at Lebanon, in Connecticut, where he was named Joseph, and was educated for the Christian ministry among his own people. Sir William employed him as secretary and agent in public affairs, with the Indians, and his missionary labors never extended much beyond the services of an in- terpreter for Mr. Kirkland and others. He was much employed in that business from 1762 to 1765. Under the stronger influence of Johnson and his family, Brant resisted the importunities of Mr. Kirkland to remain neutral when the war of the Eevolution approached, and he took an active part with the British and Tories. In 1775, he left the Mohawk Valley, went to Canada, and finally to England, where he attracted great attention, and found free access to the nobility. The Earl of Warwick caused Romney, the eminent painter, to make a portrait of him, for his collection, from which the prints of the great chief have been made. Throughout the Revolution, he was engaged in predatory warfare, chiefly on the border settlements of New York and Pennsylvania, with the Johnsons and Butlers ; and he was generally known as Captain Brant, though he held a colonel's commission, from the king. Brant again visited England, in 1783, to make arrangements for the benefit of the Mohawks, who had left their ancient country, and had settled on the Grand River, west of Lake Ontario, in Upper Canada. The territory given them by the government embraced six miles on both sides of the river from its mouth to its source. There Brant was the head of the nation until his death. He translated a part of the New Testa- ment into the Mohawk language, and labored much for the spiritual and tem- poral welfare of his ruined people. There he died on the 24th of November, 1807, at the age of sixty-five years. One of his sons was a British officer on the Niagara frontier, in the war of 1812 ; and a daughter married W. J. Kerr, Esq., of Niagara, in 1824. 1. The inscription on his monument says that he was thirty-seven years old. This is a mistake. JOHN HANCOCK. 159 JOHN HANCOCK. EVERY American reader is familiar with the name and the bold, clerkly sig- nature of the president of the Continental Congress, in 1776. 1 With a hand as firm as his heart, he affixed that signature to the Declaration of Independence, saying, "The British ministry can read that name without spectacles; let them double their reward." 2 He was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1737, and at an early age was left to the care of a paternal uncle, a wealthy merchant of Boston, who cherished his future heir with great affection. At a proper age, John was placed in Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1754, when only seventeen years old. He then entered his uncle's counting-room as clerk ; and such was his integrity and capacity, that in 1761, he was sent to England on a business mission. There he saw the coronation of George the Third, and 1. The fac-simile above given is a third smaller than the original. It was reduced to accommodate it to the page. 2. This was in reference to a large reward that had heen offered for the apprehension of John Hancock and Samuel Adams, early in 1775, they being considered arch-rebels. 160 JOHN HANCOCK. became acquainted with some of the leading men in London. "When he was twenty-six years of age, his uncle died, and left him a large fortune the largest in New England and he became not only one of the most eminent of the Boston merchants, but a leader in the best society of Massachusetts. Fond of popularity and the excitements of public life, he entered the arena of politics, and became a leader of the republican party in New England. He represented Boston in the G-eneral Assembly, in 1766, and was much esteemed by those noble col- leagues, Otis, Gushing, and the Adamses. He stood shoulder to shoulder with those patriots in resistance to the obnoxious measures of parliament, which suc- ceeded the Stamp Act; 1 and one of the earliest of the popular outbreaks in Boston was in consequence of the seizure of one of Mr. Hancock's vessels by the officers of the customs. 2 He was an abettor of the tea-riot, in 1773; and in March following, he boldly delivered the annual oration, in commemoration of the "Boston massacre." 3 The same year he was chosen president of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, and also a delegate to the Conti- nental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia, in September. He was a member of that body the following year, and on the resignation of its president, Peyton Eandolph, Mr. Hancock was chosen to fill that exalted seat. He performed his arduous duties with dignity and fidelity; and when, in July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted, it was sent forth to the world with the names of only President Hancock and Secretary Thomson attached.* Mr. Hancock's health became impaired, in 1777, by the ravages of gout, a disease hereditary in the family, and he resigned his seat in Congress, and re- turned home, with a hope and desire for happiness in the repose of domestic life. 5 But his fellow-citizens soon sought his aid in the preparation of a constitu- tion for the new republican State of Massachusetts. He assisted them with cheerfulness, and he was honored by an election to the chief magistracy of the commonwealth under its new organization. He held the office five con- secutive years, and then declined a reelection. In 1787, he was again elected governor, and held that position, by the annual choice of the people, until his death, which occurred on the 8th of October, 1793, at the age of fifty-six years. From the first appearance of Mr. Hancock in public life, until his death, a period of about thirty years, no man was more popular in New England. He did not possess extraordinary talent, but was endowed with great tact, a clear percep- tion of human character and the secret of its control, and made a liberal and judicious use of his large fortune in acts of benevolence, and for public good. He was beloved by all his cotemporaries for his courtesy and kindness of heart, and his enemies were only those who foolishly allowed political differences to engender ill-will in their own hearts. 1. In 1767, Mr. Hancock was elected a member of the executive council, but the governor rejected him. He was again and again elected, and as often rejected. At last the governor, who knew his character well, and feared his popularity, admitted him to a seat. Previous to his first election to the council, the governor, hoping to win him to the cause of the crown, presented him with a lieutenant's commission. Mr. Hancock perceived the bribe in the proffered honor, and tore up the commission in the presence of the people. 2. His sloop Liberty was seized by the officers of customs, under a charge of concealing contraband goods. The people turned out, beat the officers, burned the government boat, and drove the officials to the fort in the harbor, for safety. 3. See notes on pages 69 and 87. For several years a public oration was pronounced on the anniversary of the event alluded to. 4. The other signatures were attached to the document on the 2d of August following, when the Dec- laration was duly engrossed on parchment. 5. When, in 1778, General Sullivan prepared to attack the British on Rhode Island, and called upon the New England militia for aid, Mr. Hancock took the field, for a short time, as commander of those of his own State. He was a participator in the stirring events near Bristol Ferry, at the northern end of Rhode Island, in August, 1778. HENRY LAURENS. 161 HENRY LAURENS. THE descendants of the Huguenots, or French Protestant refugees, who fled JL to America toward the close of the seventeenth century, were all faithful to the principles of their ancestors when the War for Independence was kindling, and almost to a man were found on the side of the republicans. Of these, Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, was one of the most active and uncompromis- ing patriots of that period. He was born in Charleston, in 1724, became a suc- cessful merchant, and in 1770, retired from business with a large fortune. He had already taken part in the political movements in the province, and when he went to England, in 1771, for the pleasure of change, he there heartily espoused the patriot cause, in the disputes then growing warmer and warmer. He even justified the people of Boston, in the destruction of the tea, in 1773, for he per- sisted in regarding it in its political aspect only ; and in the British metropolis he was looked upon as a rebel, though he had not yet committed an overt act of rebellion. Mr. Laurens returned to Charleston, in 1774, and presided over the first Provincial Congress, held in that city in January, 1775. "When the Congress appointed a council of safety to act in its stead, Mr. Laurens was chosen president of that body. It was an office equivalent to that of governor, and consequently he may be regarded as the first republican chief magistrate of South Carolina. When a temporary constitution for the new State was framed in 1776, he was made vice-president under it; and the following year he was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress. He was chosen its president, in November, 1777, but resigned the office in December, 1778. In 1779, Congress appointed him minister plenipotentiary to Holland, to negotiate a commercial treaty with that power, but he did not sail for Europe until the Summer of 1780. The vessel that conveyed him was captured by a British frigate. Mr. Laurens cast his papers into the sea, but as they did not sink immediately, they were recovered, and disclosed the fact that Holland had already been in secret nego- tiation with the revolted colonies. That discovery led to a declaration of war by Great Britain against Holland. Laurens was taken to London, and imprisoned in the Tower about fourteen months, under a charge of high treason. For some time he was not allowed the solace of conversation, books, pen, ink, paper, or the receipt of letters. That rigor was abated, yet his confinement made terrible inroads upon his constitution. At length public sentiment expressed its dis- pleasure because of his treatment, and the ministry, fearing retaliation on the part of the Americans, desired an excuse to release him. One of his friends was instructed to say, that he should be pardoned, if ho would write a note to Lord North, and express his sorrow for what he had done. " Pardon 1" exclaimed Laurens indignantly. " I have done nothing to require a pardon, and I will never subscribe to my own infamy and the dishonor of my children." He could never be induced to make the least concessions ; and finally, when public clamor for his release became too vehement to be longer disregarded, the ministry had him admitted to bail 1 on security procured by themselves, and he was discharged 1. In that ceremony, -when the words of the recognizance, "Our Sovereign Lord the King," were read, Mr. Laurens immediately said, " Not my sovereign 1" On another occasion, when he was requested to write to his son, John, then on a mission to France, and advise him to leave that country, Mr. Laurens replied, ' ' My son is of age, and has a will of his own ; if I should write to him in the terms you request, it would have no effect, he would only conclude that confinement and persuasion had softened me. I know him to be a man of honor. He loves me dearly, and would lay down his life to save mine ; hut I am sure he would not sacrifice his honor to save mine, and I applaud him." That son was worthy of such a father. He was sent to France to solicit a loan. He was assured by Vergennes, the French minister, that his king had every disposition to favor the Americans. Young Laurens withdrew to the opposite side of the room, and said, with emphasis, " Favor, sir ! The respect which I owe to my country will not admit the term. Say that the obligation is mutual, and I cheerfully subscribe to the obligation. But as the last argument I shall offer to your excellency, the sword which I now wear in defence of 162 JAMES OTIS. before the allotted time of trial. Lord Shelburne was then premier, and he solicited Mr. Laurens to remain in Europe, and assist in the pending negotiations for peace. Laurens complied; and in November, 1782, he signed the prelimin- ary treaty between the United States and Great Britain. Soon after that event, he returned home, suffering much from the effects of his rigorous confinement. His constitution was shattered beyond recovery, and he steadily refused the honors of official 'station frequently offered him by his grateful countrymen. His health gradually failed, and on the 8th of December, 1792, he expired, when almost sixty-nine years of age. The following remarkable injunction, expressed in his Will, was literally complied with: "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 burnt until it be entirely consumed, and then, collecting my bones, deposit them wherever he he may think proper." JAMES OTIS. t " ATIS was a flame of fire. With a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth \J of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eyes into futurity, and a rapid tor- rent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him. American Inde- pendence was then and there born." Such was the expressed estimate of the power and influence of James Otis, by John Adams, when writing of that early patriot's great speech against Writs of Assistance, 1 before the General Court of Massachusetts. He was the son of Colonel James Otis, of Barnstable, and was born there on the 5th of February, 1725. He was educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1743. Choosing the law for a profession, he studied it under the eminent Jeremy Gridley, and commenced its practice at Plymouth when he was twenty-one years of age. Two years afterward, he went to Boston to reside, where his talent and integrity soon raised him to a front rank in his profession. It was in 1761 that he made the powerful speech above alluded to, on which occasion he was opposed by his law-tutor, Mr. Gridley, then attorney- general of the province. " Every man of an immense crowded assembly," wrote John Adams, "appeared to go away, as I did, ready to take up arms against Writs of Assistance." The following year Mr. Otis was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts General Assembly, and he became the head and front of opposi- tion to aggressive ministerial measures, in New England. In the Colonial Con- gress of delegates at New York, in 1765, gathered inconsequence of the passage of the Stamp Act, Mr. Otis was an efficient member ; and the same year ho wrote and published, in pamphlet form, a powerful vindication of the rights of the colonies. It was re-published in London, and awakened the ire of ministers to such a degree that they threatened the author with arrest on a charge of France, as well as my own country, unless the succor I solicit is immediately accorded, I may be com- pelled, within a short time, to draw against France as a British subject. I must now inform your ex- cellency that my next memorial will be presented to his majesty, in person." This bold reply had great effect upon Vergennes, for he most dreaded a reconciliation between the United States and Great Britain. True to his promise, Laurens attended at the audience chamber of the king, the next day, and presented his memorial, in person, to his majesty. It was handed to Count Segur, and on the following day Laurens was officially informed that the re.'inired aid should be given. The succor came, and in the Autumn, by the assistance of French funds, and French soldiers and seamen, Cornwallis was captured, and the dealh blow to British power in America was given. That noble young man was killed in a skirmish on the banks of the Combahee, at the close of hostilities, in August. 1782, when he was only twenty-nine years of age. He had been Washington's aid, and that chief loved him as a child. G;eene wrote. " The Stale will feel his loss." 1. See note 2, page 122. JAMES OTIS. 163 sedition. For several years, Mr. Otis held the office of judge advocate. Becom- ing disgusted with the continually developing government schemes to enslave the colonies, he determined to dissolve all personal connection with the crown party, and resigned that lucrative office, in 1767. Mr. Otis was sometimes unnecessarily caustic in the use of his tongue and pen. In the Summer of 1769, he published some severe strictures upon the conduct of the commissioners of customs, and early in September, he had a per- sonal affray with one of them, named Robinson, and others. Robinson struck Otis a severe blow on the head, with a bludgeon, from the effects of which ho never recovered. His brain was injured and his reason was dethroned. A jury, in a civil suit against the ruffian, awarded a verdict of ten thousand dollars, damages. Otis had lucid intervals, and during one of them, he magnanimously forgave his destroyer when he craved the boon, and generously refused to re- ceive a dollar of the sum awarded to him. For many years afterward the patriot lived on, with his great intellect in ruins, a comparatively useless man and a deep grief to his relatives. 1 None loved him more devotedly, or grieved more 1. The following anecdote is related of Mr. Otis as illustrative of bis ready rise of Latin even during moments of mental aberration. Men and boys, heartless and thoughtless, would sometimes make them- selves merry at his expense when he was seen in the streets afflicted with lunacy. On one occasion ho was passing a crockery store, when a young man, who had a knowledge of Latin, sprinkled some water upon him from a sprinkling-pot with which he was wetting the floor of the second story, at the same time saying, Pluit tantum, nexcio quantum, Sris ne tu f " It rains so much, I know not how much. Do you know ?" Otis immediately picked up a missile, and, hurling it through the window of the crockery 164 JAMES CRAIK. bitterly, than his gifted sister, Mercy Warren, and to her hand and voice his occasionally turbulent spirit lent a quick and willing obedience. When, at times, the cloud was lifted from his reason, he talked calmly of death, and often expressed a desire to die by a stroke of lightning. His wish was gratified. On the 23d of May, 1783, he stood leaning on his cane, in the door of a friend's house at Andover, watching the sublime spectacle of a hovering thunder-cloud, when suddenly a bolt leaped from it like a swift messenger from God to his spirit, and killed him instantly. 1 All through the great struggle for independence, to which his eloquence had excited his countrymen, James Otis was like a blasted pine on the mountains like a stranded wreck in the midst of the billows. It was just as the sunlight of peace burst upon his disenthralled country, that his spirit departed for the realm of unclouded intelligence. JAMES CRAIK. OF the family physician of the great Washington, and the companion-in-arms of that beloved Leader in his earlier military career, there are but few rec- ords left, and these cluster like parasites around the huge proportions of the biography of the Father of his country. Dr. Craik was a native of Scotland, and settled in Virginia, while yet quite a youth. He accompanied lieutenant-colonel Washington in his expedition against the French and Indians in Western Penn- sylvania, in 1754, and was a surgeon in one of the provincial corps, under Brad- dock, the following year. He dressed that officer's fatal wounds on the night of the battle of the Monongahela, and stood by Colonel Washington when he read the impressive funeral service of the Church of England, over the body of the fallen commander. Fifteen years afterward, while Dr. Craik was exploring some wild lands near the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, he met a venerable chief, who said, that in the battle when Braddock was killed, he fired his rifle at Washington fifteen times, but could not hit him ! His young warriors did the same, with a like result, and all believed that the Great Spirit specially pro- tected the young hero. Dr. Craik served in his professional capacity during portions of the War for Independence ; and at the siege of Yorktown, he was director-general of the hospital there. He accompanied Washington to the death-bed side of Mr. Custis one of the children of Mrs. Washington ; and at the close of the war, he settled near Mount Vernon, by invitation of the Chief, and became his family physi- cian. When the good Patriot was suddenly prostrated by the disease which terminated his life, a servant was dispatched, in great haste, for Dr. Craik. With all the attention of a dear friend, and the skill of a good physician, he watched his noble patient until the last. He lived to take an interest in another war for independence, but died in the midst of its tumult. It was on the 6th day of February, 1814, when the spirit of the family physician of Washington left earth for the world of light and immortality. He was then in the eighty-fourth year of his age. store, it smashing everything in its way, exclaimed, Fregi tot, nestio quot, Scis ne tuf "I have broken so many, I know not how many. Do you know?" 1. Honorable Thomas Dawes wrote a commemorative ode. in which he thus referred to the manner of Otis' death : " Hark ! the deep thunders echo 'round the skies I On wings of flame the eternal errand flies ; One chosen, charitable bolt is sped. And Otis mingles with the glorious dead." TIMOTHY PICKERING. 165 TIMOTHY PICKE11ING-. ' Through Salem strait, without delay, The bold battalion took its way ; Marched o'er a bridge, in open sight Of several Yankees armed for fight ; Then, without loss of time or men, Veer'd 'round for Boston, back again, And found so well their projects thrive, That every soul got back alive." wrote Trumbull, in his McFingal, 1 concerning an event at Marblehead, 1 in Massachusetts, in which Colonel Timothy Pickering, one of the most useful of the military and civil officers of the Republic in its earlier days, was chief actor. Pickering was a native of the ancient town of Salem, in Essex county, Massachusetts, where he was born on the 17th of July, 1745. He en- tered Harvard College, as a student, at the age of fourteen years, and was grad- uated at nineteen, with the usual college honors. He studied law, and entered upon its practice at the moment when the tempest of popular indignation, raised by the Stamp Act, was sweeping over the land. He entered the arena of polit- ical discussion, and was at once the avowed champion of popular freedom. For several years he was register of Salem, and colonel of the Essex militia ; and when, in 1774, the people of Salem resolved to address General Gage on the subject of the Boston Port-Bill, Colonel Pickering was chosen to prepare it, and present it in person to the governor. 2 A few months afterward, he had the honor of making the first resistance to the invasion of the province by British troops. He was informed that a body of them had landed at Marblehead, for the purpose of marching through Salem to seize some American stores in the interior. It was Sunday, the 25th of February, 1775. The ministers of the churches dismissed their congregations. The men gathered at the call of Colonel Pickering, and when the invaders approached the Salem drawbridge, these minute-men boldly confronted them. Perceiving prudence to be the better part of valor, the British marched back to Marblehead, and returned to Boston. This was the event alluded to by the poet. Early in the Spring of 1775, Colonel Pickering was chosen judge of the Court of Common Pleas, of Essex; and when, on the 19th of April, intelligence of the skirmish at Lexington reached him, he hastened, at the head of his regiment, to intercept the invaders. After that he exercised the duties of his judgeship, until the Autumn of 1776, when, at the head of seven hundred Essex men, he joined the army under Washington, near New York, and was with him in his memorable retreat across the Jerseys, toward the close of that year. He continued with the chief until the Winter of l777-'8, when he was appointed, by Congress, a member of the Board of War. In the battles at Brandy wine and Germantown, he had acted as adjutant-general, and his military skill and experience, com- mended him highly to his commander and the national council. In 1780, he succeeded General Greene in the important office of quartermaster-general. He performed the duties of that office efficiently until the close of the war, and then he made Philadelphia his residence. Difficulties soon afterward occurred among the Connecticut and Pennsylvania people, in the Wyoming Valley, and Mr. Pickering was appointed by his adopted State, to attempt a settlement of the 1. See sketch of John Trumbull, the poet. 2. For the purpose of punishing the people of Boston for the destruction of the cargoes of tea, in 1773, pirliament decreed that the port of that city should be closed that no vessels should enter or clear there, and that the Custom House and other public offices should be removed to Salem. The act took eifoct on the 1st of June, 1774. Great distress ensued. The people of Marblehead gave the Bostonians free use of their docks, and in the Address alluded to in the text, the people of Salem refused to receive any favors at the expense of their neighbors of Boston. 166 WILLIAM GORDON. troubles. There he suffered personal ill-treatment, his life was endangered, and he finally returned to Philadelphia. In 1790, he was a member of the conven- tion to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania; and the following year Wash- ington appointed him Postmaster-general, as successor to Mr. Osgood. He con- tinued in that office until the resignation of General Knox, almost four years afterward, when he succeeded that officer as Secretary of War. The same year he was appointed Secretary of State, and held the position until 1800, when Mr. Adams removed him for political causes. Mr. Pickering was then fifty-five years of age, poor in purse, but rich in integrity. He built a log cabin for his family on some of his wild land in Pennsylvania, and commenced the arduous task of clearing it for cultivation. Generous friends purchased the tract at a liberal price, and he returned to his native State, out of debt and possessing a moderate competence. The legislature of Massachusetts chose him to represent that State in the United States Senate, in 1803; and, in 1805, he was reflected for six years. He was a member of the Board of War, of Massachusetts, in 1812, and, in 1814, he was elected a member of the United States House of Representatives. Old age now began to demand repose, and he retired from public life, in 1817. Ho was permitted to live about twelve years longer ; and on the 29th of January, 1829, he died at Salem, when almost eighty-four years of age. WILLIAM OORDON. TVHE most faithful and Impartial History of the American Revolution, by a 1 cotemporary author, was written by William Gordon, an English independ- ent clergyman, who was in America during the struggle of the colonists for civil and political freedom. He was born in Hertfordshire, England, about the year 1740, and at an early age was pastor of an Independent congregation at Ipswich, where his faithfulness in reproving Sabbath-breakers, made him many enemies, and gave him an uneasy place. He became successor to Dr. Jennings, as pastor of a church at Wapping, and was so much beloved, that he might have passed his life pleasantly there. But he had long yearned to make America his home, and, in 1770, he sailed for Boston. For about a year he preached in one of the churches at Roxbury; and in July, 1772, he was chosen its pastor. He was a republican, and soon became identified with the popular party, in Massa- chusetts, in opposition to the crown. When the Provincial Congress of that colony was formed, in 1774, Dr. Gordon was chosen its chaplain, and lie con- tinued a faithful adherent to the patriot cause, After the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, he conceived the idea of writing a history of the progressing struggle, and he kept full notes during the entire war. When it was ended, he was allowed free access to public records, and to the papers of Washington, Greene, Gates, and other distinguished officers. In 1786. he returned to his native country, completed his history, and published it in Lon- don, in 1788. It was soon afterward re-published in New York, in three volumes. The work is now very scarce. The author received about fifteen hundred dollars for his service in its preparation. In 1793, he was settled as a pastor at St. Neots, in Huntingdonshire, but his unpopularity as a preacher, on account of evidently failing intellect, caused his friends to persuade him to resign. He afterward made his residence at Ipswich, where he preached a few occasional sermons. Soon his memory became a blank, he sunk into imbecility, and thus remained, until his death, on the 19th of October, 1807, when about seventy- seven years of age. DAVID KAMSAY. 167 DAVID RAMSAY. THE authors of our country are indebted to Dr. David Ramsay, of South Carolina, one of the earliest historians of the War for Independence, for the first suggestions and efforts in relation to a copyright law. 1 He was born of Irish parents, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of April, 1749, and at a suitable age was placed in the College at Princeton, New Jersey. There he was graduated in 1765, and after performing the duties of tutor in a private family in Maryland for about two years, he commenced the study of medicine, in Philadelphia. In 1772, he entered upon its practice there, but, at the solicit- ation of friends, he made the city of Charleston his residence, the following year. There he soon took a front rank as a physician and scholar, and being an ardent patriot, he became a political leader by the side of Gadsden, Laurens, and others. His pen and tongue were ever busy in the good cause ; and he also attended 1. Soon after the assembling of the first Federal Congress, under the new Constitution, in 1789, Dr. Ramsay sent in a petition, asking for the passage of a law for securing to him and his heirs the exclusive right to vend and dispose of his books, respectively entitled, The History of the Revolution in South Carolina^ and A History of the American Revolution. A bill for that purpose was framed and discussed. Finally, in August, it was "postponed until the next Congress." A similar bill was introduced in January, 1790, and on the 30th of April following, the first copyright law recorded on the statute books of Congress, was passed. 168 ROGER SHERMAN. the republican army ag a surgeon much of the time until after the siege of Savannah, in which he participated. Dr. Ramsay was an efficient member of the Council of Safety, and also of the Legislative Assembly of South Carolina, and became a distinguished object of British and Tory hatred. He was in Charleston during the memorable siege in 1780 ; and when it fell into the hands of the British, he was made a captive, and with many other eminent citizens, suffered banishment to, and imprisonment at, St. Augustine, in Florida. After an absence of eleven months, he returned, resumed his seat in the legislature at Jacksonborough, in the early part of 1182, and therein, after all his sufferings, he was one of the most earnest advocates of leniency toward the Tories. He was elected a member of Congress that same year, and continued to represent his adopted State, in that body, until after the close of the war. He was again elected to Congress, in 1785, and in November, 1786, he was chosen its president, pro tempore, during the protracted absence of President Hancock. His first historical work, mentioned in his petition referred to in the note on the preceding page, was published in 1785, and his History of the American Revolution was issued in 1790. He now declined all official stations and honors, and devoted himself to his profession, and to literary pursuits. He wrote a life of Washington, and published it in 1801 ; and in 1808, he published a History of South Carolina. 1 He then wrote a History of the United States ; and he continued the employment of all of his leisure hours in the preparation of a series of historical works, intended to illustrate the state of society, literature, religion, and form of government of the United States of America, by a general historical view of the world. These he did not live to complete, according to his original intention, yet they were sufficiently perfect to warrant their pub- lication, in twelve octavo volumes, in 1819. His History of the United States was brought down to the treaty of Ghent, in 1814, by the reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith, and other literary gentlemen, and published in three octavo volumes, in 1817. In the midst of his useful and unwearied labors, 2 literary and professional, Dr. Ramsay was snatched from earth. He was shot by a maniac, near his residence, and on the 8th of May, 1815, his labors and his mortal life closed forever, when he was little more than sixty-six years of age. ROGER SHERMAN. IT is said that " Love laughs at locksmiths." So true Genius laughs at im- pediments, and gathers strength for conquests in proportion to the severity of its conflicts. The life of Roger Sherman, a humble shoe-maker, illustrates the fact. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on the 19th of April, 1722. While Roger was an infant, his parents removed to Stonington, where they resided until the death of his father, in 1741. Roger was then nineteen years of age. He had been apprenticed to a shoemaker, but now the necessities of his mother required him to take charge of a small farm that her husband had left. They sold the estate in 1744, and went to reside in New Milford, Connec- ticut, where Roger's elder brother had married and settled. The journey was performed on foot by Roger, and he carried his " kit " of shoemaker's tools, on his back. There he worked industriously at his trade, and at the same time he applied himself assiduously to study, for his early education was exceedingly 1. This was an extension of a work, published in 1796, entitled, " A sketch of the soil, climate, weather and diseases of South Carolina." 2. Dr. Ramsay seldom slept more than four hours of the twenty-four, each day. EICHAED PETERS. 169 limited. He learned rapidly, for his mind was quick, comprehensive, and logical, and at his bench he acquired a vast amount of knowledge from books. 1 After awhile, he became a partner of his brother, in mercantile business, and employed his now more numerous leisure hours in the study of the law, but without a tutor or guide. He soon became proficient in the requisite knowledge, and at the close of 1754, he was admitted to the bar. His talents at once drew public attention toward him, and in 1755, he was elected to a seat in the General As- sembly of Connecticut. He was appointed a justice of the peace the same year ; and after a law-practice of about five years, he received the appointment of judge of the court for Litchfield county. He made his residence in JSTew Haven, in 1761, where he received the same officicil honors and emoluments. He was also chosen treasurer of Yale College ; and that institution conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In 1766, he was elected to the State Senate, and he fearlessly took part with the people in their opposition to the Stamp Act. He was a leading patriot in Connecticut, until the commencement of the Revolution ; and all through that struggle he was ever at his post of duty, for he regarded eternal vigilance as the price of liberty. He was elected a delegate for Connecticut in the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and he held a seat there during a greater portion of the war. He advocated independence, and signed the great Declaration. In 1783, he assisted in the revision of tho laws of Connecticut, and he was a representative of that State in the convention that framed the Federal Constitution. In his State convention called to act upon it, he ably advocated its ratification, and for two years after the organiza- tion of our present government, he represented Connecticut in the Federal Congress. He was then promoted to a seat in the Senate of the United States, and occupied that honorable position at the time of his death, which occurred on the 23d of July, 1793, when in the seventy-third year of his age. He then held the office of mayor of New Haven, having been the first chosen to that post of duty, after the borough was organized as a city. RICHARD PKTERS. THE first Secretary of War, of the United States, was Richard Peters, an em- inent jurist and agriculturist of Pennsylvania. He was born near Phila- delphia, on the 22d of August, 1744, and was educated at the college in that city, where he was graduated in 1764. He had acquired a thorough knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, and spoke the French and German fluently. He chose the profession of law as a pursuit, and his knowledge of the German language was of essential service to him in the management of property cases in the interior of Pennsylvania. He was distinguished for wit and humor, and when he accompanied a delegation to confer with some of the Six Nations of Indians, his vivacity so pleased the children of the forest, that he was formally adopted as a son, by the Senecas. At the opening of the Revolution he appeared in the field as captain of a company of volunteers; and when, in June, 1776, a Board of War was appointed by Congress, Mr. Peters was chosen its Secretary, and thus became the first incumbent of that office, now one of the cabinet bureaus. He held that position until 1781, and performed the duties of his sta- 1. He always had an open book by his side, on the bench, and read at intervals, when his eyes were not required upon his work. He thus acquired a fair knowledge of mathematics, and before he was twenty -one years of age he made astronomical calculations for an Almanac published in New York. 8 170 EDMUND RANDOLPH. tion with great ability. 1 He was succeeded by General Lincoln, and retired with the expressed thanks of Congress. IIo was then elected a member of that body, and was a representative of his State therein for several years. On the organization of the Federal Government, in 1789, Mr. Peters declined a fiscal office tendered to him by "Washington, but accepted that of judge of the United States District Court of Pennsylvania. He bore the ermine with great honor to himself and country, for thirty-six years, and was always zealous in the promo- tion of the material interests of his State. In the construction of public works of utility he was always foremost ; and to him the country is indebted for the use of gypsum in agriculture, and the introduction of clover. The subject of farming occupied much of his attention, and he was one of the founders, and for a long time president of the Philadelphia Agricultural Socictjr. Judge Peters died at Blockley, near Philadelphia, on the 21st of August, 1828, at the age of eighty -four years. EDMUND RANDOLPH. 4 MONG the most important members of the convention which framed the i\ Constitution of the United States, was Edmund Eandolph, the only son of John Randolph, attorney-general of Virginia. Of his birth and youthful .career History bears no record. He was quite a young man when the Revolution commenced, and was one of "Washington's aids, at Cambridge, in 1775. He left the army in November following, and returned to Virginia, on account of the death of his relative, Peyton Randolph, president of the Continental Congress. Four years later he was elected a member of that body, and represented his native State there until March, 1782. He succeeded Patrick Henry as gov- ernor of Virginia, in 1786, and it was chiefly through his agency that Washing- ton was persuaded to represent that State in the Federal Convention, in 1787. Randolph was very active in that convention, but, like Patrick Henry, he was so jealous of State Rights, that he declined to affix his name to the Constitution, desiring to be free to act upon it afterward, as his judgment or the opinions of his constituents might dictate. 2 "When the time came to act, his desire for union overcame his narrower scruples ; and in the Virginia State Convention he elo- quently advocated the adoption of the Federal Constitution. "Washington made him the first attorney-general of the United States, under that compact ; and in 1794, Randolph succeeded Mr. Jefferson as Secretary of State. He resigned that office in August, 1795, and turned his attention to his embarrassed private affairs. His resignation was in consequence of some misunderstanding with the administration; and in the Autumn of that year he published a Vindication. He then withdrew from public life, and never again entered the arena. He died in Frederick county, Virginia, on the 12th of September, 1813. 1. Next to Robert Morris, Mr. Peters was one of the most efficient men of the Revolution, in providing the " ways and means " of carrying on the war. In the Summer of 1781, Washington prepared to attack the British in New York, and was expecting the aid of Count De Grasf-e, with his squadron of French ships of war. He received notice that De Grasse's aid could not be given. Washington was greatly disappointed, but instantly he conceived the expedition to Virginia, which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis. Peters and Morris were then both in Washington's camp, on the Hudson. At the moment when he conceived the Virginia expedition, he turned to Peters, and said, " What can you do for me?" With money, everything without it, nothing," Peters replied, at the same time casting an anxious look toward Morris, the great financier. "Let me know the sum you desire," said Morris. Before noon Washington had completed his plans and estimates. Morris promised the money, and raised it upon his individual security. 2. He endeavored to procure a vote in the convention, authorizing amendments to be submitted by the State conventions, and to be finally decided on by another general convention. This proposition was rejected. JOHN JAY. 171 JOHN JAY. A MONO- the many thousands of the Huguenots of France who fled to England j\. and America toward the close of the seventeenth century, to escape fiery persecutions, was Augustus Jay, a young merchant. He landed at Charleston, in South Carolina, but soon proceeded northward, and settled in the city of New York. There he married the daughter of Balthazar Bayard, one of the refugees who cnme with the New Rochelle colony. 1 These were the grand-parents of John Jay, the venerated American patriot and statesman. He was born in the city of New York, on the 12th of December, 1745. At eight years of age he was placed in a boarding school at New Eochelle, and at fourteen he entered King's (now Columbia) College, as a student. He was an apt scholar, and gave early promises of his subsequent brilliant career. He was graduated in 1764, bearing the highest honors of the college, and commenced the study of law under Benjamin Kissam. He was admitted to the bar in 1768, and ascended rapidly to eminence in his profession. In 1774, he was married to the daughter of that sturdy patriot, William Livingston (afterward governor of New Jersey), and entered the political field, with great ardor, as the champion of popular 1. See sketch of Jacob Leisler. 172 JOHN JAY. rights. Ho was one of the most prominent members of the New York committee of correspondence, in the Spring of 1774, and in September following, he took a seat in the first Continental Congress. He was the youngest member of that body, being less than twenty-nine years of age, and he was the latest survivor. His genius as a statesman was exhibited in the Address to the People of Great Britain, put forth by Congress. Jefferson, ignorant of its authorship, said, " It is the production of the finest pen in America." From that time Mr. Jay was identified with most of the important civil measures in his native State ; and he also performed much duty in the Continental Congress, until the Summer of 1776, when all his energies were devoted to public business in New York. "With tongue, pen, and hand, ho was indefatigable ; and as a member of the convention at Kingston, in the Spring of 1777, he was chosen to draft a State Constitution. Under that instrument he was appointed chief justice of New York, and held his first term at Kingston, in September, 1777. He was an efficient member of the Council of Safety, appointed to act in place of the legis- lature, when not in session. In the Autumn of 1778, ho was again elected to Congress, and three days after taking his seat there, ho was chosen its president. He filled the chair with dignity and vigor, until September, 1779, when he was appointed minister to Spain to obtain the acknowledgment of the. independence of the United States, to form a treaty of alliance, and to borrow money. We cannot even refer to his numerous and efficient diplomatic services from that time until 1782, when he was appointed one of the commissioners for negotiating a peace with Great Britain. In all of them he exhibited consummate skill and statesmanship ; and to his vigilance we are indebted for advantages obtained by the treaty, of which the artful French minister attempted to deprive us. Ho signed the preliminary treaty, in November, 1782, with Adams, Franklin, and Laurens, and the following year he affixed his signature to the definitive treaty. Mr. Jay returned to the United States, in July, 1784, and immediately entered upon the duties of chief of the foreign department of the government, to which he was chosen before his arrival. He occupied that station until the new or- ganization of government under the Federal Constitution, when he was appointed the first chief justice of the United States. He was a zealous advocate of the Constitution, with his pen, 1 and in the verbal debates in the State convention called to consider it. In 1794, Mr. Jay was appointed an envoy extraordinary to negotiate a commercial treaty, and settle some disputes between the United States and Great Britain. The treaty was not satisfactory to a great portion of his coun- trymen, and as it also offended France and the "French party" here, intense ex- citement prevailed throughout the country. Yet he was sustained, and on his return home, in 1795, he found the office of governor of his native State awaiting him. He was chief magistrate of New York until 1801, when he withdrew from public life to enjoy repose at his beautiful seat at Bedford, in Westchester county, although he was then only fifty-six years of age. He succeeded Elias Boudinot as president of the American Bible Society, and he was a generous patron of every moral and religious enterprise. Greatly beloved by all his friends, and respected for his many virtues by his political enemies, that patriarch of the Kepublic went peacefully to his rest, on the 17th of May, 1829, in the eighty- fourth year of his age. 1. He was a colleague with Madison and Hamilton, in writing the series of papers known, in the collected form, as The Federalist. In that labor he was interrupted, for some time, on account of a severe wound in the bead, from a stone, hurled during a riot in New York, known as The Doctors' Mob. ROBERT HOWE. 173 ROBERT HOWE. BECAUSE of the excess of their patriotic zeal, Samuel Adams and John Han- cock, of Massachusetts, were denounced as arch-rebels, and were excluded from the offered advantages of a general amnesty. In like manner, Sir Henry Clinton denounced Robert Howe and Cornelius Harnett, of the Cape Fear region, in North Carolina, in the Spring of 1776, and they were honored with the ban of outlawry because of their patriotism. Howe was born in Brunswick, North Carolina, but, strange to say, history bears no record of his private life, and both it and tradition are silent respecting the time of his birth and his death. When Josiah Quincy was in Wilmington, in 1773, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Howe, and said in a letter, descriptive of an evening spent in political discussion : "Robert Howe, Esq., Harnett, and myself, made the social triumvirate of the evening." So bitter were the Tories against Howe, that his property was several times injured; and when Clinton appeared in the Cape Fear region, early in 1776, he sent Cornwallis, with nine hundred men, to indulge his petty spite by ravaging that patriot's plantation, near old Brunswick village. Howe was appointed colonel of the first North Carolina regiment, in 1775, and in December of that year, he joined Woodford, of Virginia, at Norfolk, in opposition to Governor Dunmore and his motley army. 1 For his gallantry there, Congress appointed him a brigadier in the Continental army, and ordered him to Virginia. He was with the army, at the North, during portions of 1776 and 1777 ; and in the Spring of 1778, he was promoted to major-general, and placed in chief command of the Southern army. At his head-quarters at Savannah, he planned a campaign against the British and Tories in Florida, in the Summer of 1778. It failed in its execution: and at the close of that year, he was driven from Savannah, by a British force under lieutenant-colonel Campbell. These reverses caused him to be censured unjustly; 2 and when General Lincoln took command of the Southern army, Howe attached himself to that of the northern department, the following year. Ho cooperated with Wayne in his attack upon Stony Point, on the Hudson, in 1779. He was on duty in the vicinity of West Point and the Hudson Highlands from that time until near the close qf the war. Washington appointed him, in two instances, to discharge the important duty of quelling a mutiny, first in the New Jersey line, and then in that of Pennsylvania. He always had the unbounded confidence of the com- mander-in-chief. Though always a very useful officer, Howe never became distinguished for any great achievement. Like the actions of General Heath and many others, his line of duty lay in the useful rather than the brilliant their military history is an epic, not an epigram. 1. Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, having been driven from Williamsburg, by (he people, commence 1 a depredatory warfare upon the coast of that State. His force consisted of Tory refugees and negroes, yet, with the aid of some British ships, he succeeded in burning Norfolk, on the 1st of January, 1776. 2. Among those who raised their voice against General Howe, was Christopher Gadsden, of Charles- ton. Howe required him to deny or retract. Gadsden would do neither, and a duel ensued. All the damage sustained by the parties, in the fight, was a scratch upon Gadsden' s ear, by Howe's ball. Major Andre wrote a humorous account of the duel, in eighteen stanzas, to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Ho concludes by saying : " Such honor did they both display, They highly were commended, And thus, in short, this gallant fray, Without mischance, was ended. No fresh dispute, we may suppose, Will e'er by them be started ; And now the chiefs, no longer foes, Shook hands, and so they parted." 174 EDWARD LIVINGSTON. EDWARD LIVINQSTON. THE Livingston family in America, an off-shoot of. a stock noted among the Scotch nobility of Queen Mary's time, 1 has always been remarkable for fine specimens of talent, public spirit, and genuine patriotism. Among the later members, Edward Livingston appears conspicuous as a statesman and jurist. He was truly "to the manor born," for his birth occurred at Clermont, Columbia county, New York, on the feudal estate known as Livingston's Manor, in the year 1764. He was at school in Kingston, Ulster county, when that village was burned by the British, in 1777, and two years afterward he entered Princeton College, and pursued his studies in the midst of alarms and interruptions incident to the war then in progress. He graduated, in 1781, with only three others. Two of these were associated with him, thirteen years afterward, as members of the House of Eepresentatives, at Washington. He studied law under Chan- cellor Lansing, at Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1785. Mr. Livingston was called into public life, in 1794, by being elected a repre- sentative of the counties of New York, Queen's, and Richmond, in the Federal Congress, where he soon became a distinguished leader of the Republican party. 1. See ske'.ch of Robert R. Livingston. WILLIAM PRESCOTT. 175 lie maintained a seat there until 1801, when ho declined a reelection, and resumed the practice of his profession. President Jefferson soon afterward appointed him United States Attorney for the District of New York. lie had filled the office with great ability, until the yellow fever broke out in the city of New York, in 1803, when he was called to the performance of holier duties. Thousands fled, but Edward Livingston remained amid the pestilence, to visit the sick and bury the dead. He was filially smitten by the destroyer, but his useful life was spared. His public and private business had suffered greatly*, and the unfaithfulness of some of those unto whom ho had entrusted the performance of public duties, placed upon his shoulders almost crushing pecuniary responsibilities. Ho re- signed his office, took up his residence in New Orleans, and by assiduous atten- tion to his profession, was enabled to liquidate every debt, with interest. When the British attempted the invasion of Louisiana, in 1814, Mr. Livingston offered his services to General Jackson, and they were accepted ; and his pen wrote the noble defence of Jackson, when that officer was unjustly arraigned* before the civil tribunal for alleged military tyranny. Mr. Livingston was the principal of a commission appointed to codify the laws of Louisiana ; and he is the sole author of the penal code of that State, adopted in 1824. On the very night when the last page of manuscript was prepared for the press, a fire con- sumed the whole, and he was two years engaged in reproducing it. That work is his noblest and most enduring monument. Mr. Livingston was chosen a delegate to the Federal Congress, in 1823; and in 1829, the legislature of Louisiana appointed him United States Senator. He became one of the brightest ornaments of that higher house, but after serving two sessions, he was called to the cabinet of President Jackson, as Secretary of State. In 1833, he was appointed minister to France, an office held, thirty years before, by his distinguished brother, Robert R. Livingston. His health failed soon after his arrival in Paris, and he returned to America, not, however, until he had satisfied his countrymen that he was fully competent to perform any duty to which they might call him. lie was with his relatives in Redhook, Dutchcss county, New York, when, on a bright morning in May (23d), 183*7, the spirit of this laborious public servant departed for the land of rest. WILLIAM PRESCOTT. HISTORIANS have disputed concerning the chief command at the earliest regular battle of the Revolution, known as that of "Bunker's Hill," some awarding that honor to General Israel Putnam, and others to Colonel William Prescott. Documentary evidence is conclusive in favor of the claim of Prescott, and its justice is not questioned at the present day. He was born in Goshen, Massachusetts, in 1726. Of his early life we have no reliable record. His father was for some years a member of the Massachusetts council. We first find a notice of William's public life, in his commission of lieutenant, under General Winslow, in the expedition against Cape Breton, in 1758. There he was dis- tinguished for his bravery. On his return, ho left the service, and settled at Pepperell, as the inheritor of a large estate. He took quite an active part in the popular movements while the Revolution was ripening, and had command of a regiment of minute-men, in the Spring of 1775. The events at Lexington and Concord called him to the field, and he was very active in assisting General Ward in the organization of the impromptu army that gathered around Boston, in May and June following. Confidant in his military skill, General Ward 176 CHARLES WILSON PEALE. selected Colonel Prescott to fortify and garrison Bunker's Hill, and on the even- ing of the ]6th of June, 1775, he crossed Charlestown Neck, for that purpose, with a thousand men, and intrenching tools, after an impressive prayer in their behalf was offered up on the green at Cambridge, by President Langdon, of Harvard College. Breed's Hill being nearer Boston, Prescott proceeded to for- tify that, and at early dawn the next morning, the British in the city and on the shipping in the harbor, ' were astonished and alarmed by the apparition of a strong redoubt, almost finished, in a position which commanded their most im- pressible points. In the action that ensued, the following day the memorable 17th of June Prescott was chief commander. Putnam was on Bunker's Hill, urging forward reinforcements, and General Warren was in the redoubt, as volunteer. Though driven from the Charlestown peninsula, the gallant colonel wished to attack the conquerors the next day, but was overruled by prudent counsellors. Colonel Prescott continued under the command of Washington until after the battle at White Plains, in the Autumn of the following year ; and he served as a volunteer under Gates, until the surrender of Burgoyne, in October, 1777. After the war, he represented his district in the State legislature, and he was acting magistrate of Pepperell from 1786 until his death. That event occurred on the 13th of October, 1795, when he was about sixty-nine years of age. CHARLES WILSON PEALE. me, Mr. Hesselius," said a saddler's apprentice a handsome JL young man of twenty to an eminent portrait-painter in Annapolis, Maryland, as he stood before him with a good specimen of his mechanical skill " pray tell me how you mix such beautiful tints for your canvas." That saddler's apprentice was Charles Wilson Peale, afterward one of the most eminent painters in our country. He was born at Charlestown, Maryland, in 1741, and in Annapolis he successively learned the trades of saddler, watch-maker, silver- smith, and carver. From the day when he asked Hesselius that important question, his artist life began, for the generous painter cordially complied with his wishes. Peale studied the art and practised his mechanical trade, until an opportunity offered for him to go to England and place himself under the tutor- ship of the great West. He remained with that famous artist during the years 1770, and 1771, when he returned to America, and practiced his art, as a portrait- painter, without a rival for fifteen years. When the Revolution broke out, he joined the army, and was at the head of a company in the battles at Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. While at Valley Forge, in the Winter of l777-'8, he conceived the grand design of making a gallery of portraits of all the distinguished actors in the Revolution, American and foreign, and commenced the task with vigor. 1 In the Spring of 1778, when the army moved, he gathered up his art materials, and, at the head of his company, he fought gal- lantly at Monmouth. He had commenced a full-length portrait of Washington, 1. One of the vessels, named Falcon, anchored within short cannon shot of Breed's Hill, was com- manded by Captain Linzee, of the British navy. It is a singular fact in the curious history of coin- cidences, that William H. Prescott, the eminent historian, and grandson of Colonel William Prescott, married a grand-daughter of Captain Linzee. The swords used by Colonel Prescott and Captain Linzee, Jit the time of the battle on Breed's Hill, are crossed in a conspicuous place in the library of the His- torian. 1. He also painted many in miniature, some of which I have seen in the possession of his son, at Washington city. JONATHAN EDWARDS. 177 at Valley Forge ; after the Monmouth battle, he had another sitting, and at Princeton he completed it. 1 Mr. Peale paid much attention to the preservation of animals after death, and possessed a decided antiquarian taste. After tho war, he opened a picture gallery, for exhibition, in Philadelphia, and then estab- lished a museum of Natural History and miscellaneous curiosities. He also practiced dentristry, invented machinery, and in various ways was one of the most active and industrious of men. He lectured on Natural History, and was a zealous supporter of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. He lived tem- perately and frugally, and practiced his art in colors when past eighty years of age.2 He died in February, 1827, at the age of almost eighty-six years. His son, Rembrandt Peale, a worthy successor of his father in the line of art, is yet [1855] living, in Philadelphia, at the age of seventy-six years. JONATHAN ED WAR13S. THE most acute metaphysician and sound theologian which our country has yet produced, was Jonathan Edwards, who was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, on the 5th of October, 1703. The remarkable analytical powers of his mind were developed in early childhood, and at the age of ten years he read with delight the profound essay of Locke on the Human Understanding. A few days before the completion of his thirteenth year', he entered Yale College, as a student, and was graduated there before he was seventeen years of age. Ho remained in that then infant institution for two years longer, in the eager study of theology, preparatory to the assumption of the Christian ministry as his pro- fession. He received a license to preach, in the Summer of 1722, and almost immediately afterward, he was selected by several New England ministers to preach to a small body of Presbyterians in the city of New York. In 1724, ho was appointed a tutor in Yale College, where he remained until called to a pas- toral charge in Northampton, Massachusetts, in the Summer of 1726. There ho was ordained as a colleague of his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, who, for more than fifty years, had been the pastor of the Congregational church in that town. That continued to be the home-field of labor, of Mr. Edwards, for twenty-three years, when an increasing dislike of his pure church discipline alienated his people from him, and, in June, 1750, he was dismissed by an ec- clesiastical council. 3 In 1751, Mr. Edwards was appointed a missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and in that field ho labored for about six years. His duties being comparatively light, he devoted much of his time to theological and metaphysical studies, and in that comparative retirement ho wrote his great work on The Freedom of the Will, which has been considered by 1. That portrait, having Nassau Hall, at Princeton, for a back-ground, is in the gallery of the National Institute, at Washington city. When the Americans, under Washington, drove the British out of Nassau Hall, on the morning of the 2d of January, 1777, they sent a cannon ball into the building, -which destroyed a portrait of King George. Washington presented the college with a sum of money, because of the damage done to the building. The Faculty employed Peale to paint a full-length portrait of the great Patriot, and placed it in the frame occupied by that of the king, where it yet remains. 2. I have seen a full-length portrait of himself, which he painted at the age of eighty. In October, 1854, all of his paintings remaining in the museum at Philadelphia, were sold at auction. Many of them we re purchased by the City Council, and now decorate the walls of Independence Hall. 6. Mr. Edwards had been informed of immoralities in which many of the young people of his congre- gation indulged, and he thought the matter ought to be inquired into. The church readily favored his views, but when it was found that the accused persons belonged to some of the wealthiest and most influential families in the place, it was impossible to proceed with the inquiry. The conscientious pastor n u swerve from dutv but tne failure of his attempt to correct the morals of the young people, strengthened their hands. For six years before his dismissal he fought the enemy manfully. 8* 178 JONATHAN EDWARDS. the most learned men in Europe and America, to be one of the greatest efforts of the human mind. In 1754, a severe illness, and the troubles incident to the French and Indian war, then progressing, interrupted his labors, and, beyond the efforts of his pen, his field of usefulness was very limited. It was soon en- larged. In the Autumn of 1*757, his son-in-law, Rev. Aaron Burr, president of the college of New Jersey, at Princeton, died, and Mr. Edwards was invited by the Trustees of that institution to take his place. He was formally elected president, toward the close of September, 1757. He reluctantly accepted the call, for he knew there were more delights to himself in the quiet pursuits in which he was engaged, than in the duties of such official station, and he re- garded his labors with his pen as more useful than any others in which he might engage at that time of life. He was inaugurated in February, 1758. Five weeks afterward, that great and good man was laid in the grave. The small- pox was prevalent in Princeton at the time of his arrival, and a skilful physician was brought from Philadelphia to inoculate 1 President Edwards and his family. He seemed to do well, but when all danger appeared to be over, a secondary fever supervened, his throat became so obstructed that medicines could not bo swallowed, and the disease, gathering increased strength, terminated his life on the 22d of March, 1758, when he was in the fifty-fifth year of his age. The 1, See Note 2? pa^o Cl. JOHN WITHERSPOON. 179 published theological writings of President Edwards are voluminous, and are ranked among the most valuable uninspired contributions to religious literature, of any a^e. JOHN WITHERSPOON. IN the family circle, the temple of worship, the hall of learning, and the forum of legislation, few men ever performed their whole duty more faithfully than did John Witherspoon, of New Jersey, in whose veins ran the blood of the great Scottish reformer, John Knox. He was born in the parish of Tester, near Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 5th of February, 1722. His father was a Scottish minister, and the loveliness of his mind and temper was transmitted to his son. He educated the intellectual and moral faculties of that promising boy with the greatest care, for he designed him for that gospel ministry which he afterward adorned. At the age of fourteen years he was placed in the University of Edinburgh, where he became a close student, especially of sacred literature. He went through a regular course of theological studies, and at the age of twenty-two he was graduated, with a license to preach. He accepted a call to Beith, in the west of Scotland; and in 1745, while, with some others, he was gazing upon the battle of Falkirk, where the troops of the Scotch Pretender to the throne of England 1 were victorious, he was made a prisoner, and was con- fined in the castle of Donne, for some time. He afterward took charge of a parish in Paisley ; and the fame of his learning and piety caused him to receive invitations to settle in Dundee, Dublin, and Eotterdam in Holland. In 1766, the trustees of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, invited him to accept the presidency of that institution, and through the influence of Eichard Stockton (afterward Witherspoon's colleague in the Continental Congress), then in Scot- land, he was persuaded to accept the office. He came to America, in 1768, was inaugurated in August of that year, and under his efficient administration the affairs of the college prospered wonderfully. Its usefulness had been greatly impaired by party feuds ; these were soon healed, and that seminary, which seemed past resuscitation, was becoming one of the most flourishing in the land, when the blight of the Revolution fell upon it. Its pupils were then scattered, its doors were closed, and early in 1776, Doctor Witherspcon employed his talents and influence in another field of usefulness. He assisted in forming a republican constitution for New Jersey, and in June he was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress, where he nobly advocated independence, and signed his name to the Declaration thereof. 2 He was a faithful member of Congress until 1782, and took a conspicuous part in military and financial matters. In 1783, he endeavored to revive the prostrated College at Princeton, and found an efficient co-worker in his son-in-law, Vice-President Smith. Contrary to the dictates of his own judgment, Dr. Witherspoon went to Great Britain for pecu- niary aid to the institution, and he collected scarcely enough to pay the expenses of the journey. He came back with a heavy heart but determined purpose, and labored on faithfully in the pulpit and in the college, while his powers of life remained active. About two years before his death he lost his eye-sight, yet he maintained his place in his pulpit with unabated zeal, until a few weeks before his departure. His useful life closed on the 10th of November, 1794, at the age of almost seventy-three years, _ 1. Charles Edward, grandson of James the Second, who was dethroned in 1688. 2. In the course of debate on the subject of independence, John Dickenson, of Pennsylvania, ventured to assert that the people were not " ripe for a declaration of independence." Doctor Witherspoon warmly observed, "In my judgment, sir, we are not only ripe, but rotting." 180 RICHARD HENDERSON. RICHARD HENDERSON. 4 LTHOUGrH Daniel Boone may be considered the first thorough explorer of J3. the wilderness of Kentucky, and James Harrod built the first log-house in all that beautiful land, yet Colonel Richard Henderson must be regarded, polit- ically, as the father of that commonwealth. He was a native of Virginia. He was born in Hanover county, on the 20th of April, 1735. His father emigrated to G-ranville county, North Carolina, in 1745, and being appointed sherifl' of that district, Richard had an opportunity of learning many useful lessons in mat- ters pertaining to law. He prepared himself for the legal profession, arose rap- idly to the highest rank, accumulated a competent fortune, and, when the in- surrectionary movements in that section of the county, known as the Regulator War * occurred, he was a judge of the superior court. As such, he was driven from the bench at Hillsborough, by the Regulators, in the Autumn of 1771, and the courts of justice, in that region, were closed. He was an ambitious and ostentatious man. By extensive speculations, at about this time, he had become somewhat embarrassed in pecuniary affairs, and had gained the ill-will of the common people. Bold, ardent, and adventurous, he resolved to go beyond the mountains, and there, in the beautiful country traversed by Boone, he commenced a scheme of land speculation, in 1774, more extensive than any known in the history of our country. He formed a company, of which he was chosen pres- ident, and by a treaty held at Wataga with the heads of the Cherokee nation, he purchased the whole land lying between the Cumberland river and mountains, and the Kentucky river, which comprised more than one-half of the present State of Kentucky. Henderson took possession of the country in the name of the company, in the Spring of 1775. Governor Martin, of North Carolina, pro- claimed the purchase to be illegal. The legislature of Virginia did the same, but Judge Henderson paid no regard to their fulminations against him, and pro- ceeded to establish a proprietary government, in imitation of the old colonies. Its capital was Boonesborough, and its title was TRANSYLVANIA. Under a large elm tree near Boone's fort, the first legislature of the new State met on the 23d of May, 1775.- The session was opened with prayer by the Rev. John Lythc; and Colonel Henderson in his verbal "message" as president, expressed the very essence of republican government, when he said, "If any doubts remain among you, with respect to the force and efficiency of whatever laws you now or hereafter make, be pleased to consider that all power is originally in the people ; make it their interest, therefore, by impartial and beneficent laws, and you may be sure of their inclination to see them enforced." The State of TRANSYLVANIA as an independent republic did not long exist, for Virginia and Carolina took efficient means to destroy it. The treaty with the Cherokees, and the purchase of their lands, were declared null. Yet they did not deprive the company of all advantages. North Carolina and Virginia each granted to them two hundred thousand acres. Relinquishing all political claims, Judge Henderson opened a land office on the site of Nashville, in 1779, for the sale of this legally-granted domain. The following Summer he returned to Grranville county, and sought repose in the bosom of his family. Old diffi- culties were forgotten, for the great question of independence was then in process 1. See note on page 97 ; also sketch of John Ashe. 2. It was composed of Squire Boone, Daniel Boone, William Coke, Samuel Henderson, Richard Moore Richard Galloway, Thomas Slaughter, John Lythe, Valentine Hammond, James Douglas, James Har- rod, Nathan Hammond, Isaac Hite, Azariah Davis, John Todd, Alexander S. Dandridge, John Floyd, and Samuel Wood. Thomas Slaughter was chosen chairman, Mathcw Jewett clerk, and John Lythj chaplain. ALEXANDER WILSON. 181 of solution by the whole people of the newly-proclaimed Union. Judge Hen- derson did not take part in public affairs, but lived on in quiet until the 30th of January, 1785, when he died at the ago of fifty years. Henderson county, Kentucky, was named in his honor. ALEXANDER WILSON. 1TTE may justly claim Alexander "Wilson as an American, though born in T T North Britain, for here the genius which has made him world-renowned, as The American Ornithologist, was developed, and cultivated, and bore fruit. He was born in Paisley, Scotland, and in a grammar school, in that large town, he acquired a rudimental knowledge of the classics. His father designed him for the clerical profession, but the expansive mind of the youth would not allow him to be a sectarian, and the scheme was abandoned.. From earliest boyhood he loved the fields and the sky ; and he regarded the towering mountains and grand old forests as the most appropriate temples wherein man should worship the Creator of all. Pecuniary misfortune compelled his father to suspend Alex- ander's literary pursuits, on which he had entered with enthusiasm, and finally the necessity of learning some mechanical trade seemed imperative. The ardent youth could not brook the idea of having his powers confined to such a narrow sphere, for he felt a great soul stirring within ; yet he reverently bent his in- clinations to his father's wishes. Every leisure moment, however, was employed in study, and in the midst of his mechanical employment, he composed articles, in prose and verse, which attracted public attention, before he was nineteen years of age. He soon became the life of a select literary circle, yet his daily avocations, so repugnant to his nature, burdened his spirit with gloom. He saw no chance for expansion in his native country; and in 1794, he embarked for America, to profit by the free air and as free institutions. For more than a dozen years afterward he was engaged in the humble but honorable employment of a district school teacher. His lot seemed a hard. one, but he found consolation in poetry, music, and his favorite study of birds. The latter became a passion with him, and he had the good fortune, at length, to form an acquaintance with William Bartram, of Philadelphia, the celebrated American Botanist. 1 From him he obtained a standard work on ornithology, the perusal of which was the commencement of a new era in Wilson's life. Ho found the work quite inac- curate in many particulars concerning the birds of the United States, and ho formed the idea of making a complete system of American Ornithology. He at once applied himself successfully to the study of drawing and coloring from nature. At about this time, he became clerk to a bookseller in Philadelphia, with a liberal salary, and to him he disclosed his scheme of a work on American birds. Mr. Bradford was delighted with the idea, and at once gave Wilson every facility for preparing that magnificent work, The American Ornithology, in seven volumes, which appeared in 1808. Every portion of our country, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, was traversed by Wilson, all alone, with the sublime ardor of a man conscious of performing a great work. His splendid volumes at once attracted the earnest attention of the learned in both hemispheres, and fame and fortune awaited him. But he did not live long to enjoy either. The hardships and privations to which he had been exposed, impaired a never rugged constitution, and on the 23d of August, 1813, he died, peacefully, at Philadelphia, when at the age of about forty years. 1, See sketch of Bartrara. 182 RUFUS PUTNAM. RUFTJS PUTNAM. THE name of Putnam is suggestive of bold daring border exploits, and true patriotism, notwithstanding of the. eighty males of that name, living in America, in 1*740, only two (Israel and Rufus) appear conspicuous in our country's annals. Rufus was born at Sutton, "Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 9th of April, 1738. On the death of his father, in 1745, he went to live with his maternal grandfather, in Danvers, where he attended a district school for two years. His mother married again, and Rufus lived with her until his step- father died, in 1753. That illiterate man denied the lad all opportunities for education. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a mill-wright. At that time the French and Indian war was kindling brightly, and the campaign of Braddock, and the bold exploits of his kinsman, Israel, warmed a martial spirit within him. At the age of nineteen .years he entered the provincial army as a private soldier ; and he mentions, in his journal, the note-worthy fact, that the captain of his company 1 prayed with the men every night and morning during the campaign. He remained in service until 1761, when he resumed his em- 1. Captain Ebenezer Learned, who was a colonel in the army under General Gates at the capture of Burgoyne, in 1777, and afterward a brigadier in the Continental army. MESHECH WEARE. 183 ployments of mill-building and farming. Having acquired n knowledge of sur- veying, he practiced it successfully for several years before the clarion of the Revolution called him again to the field. He was one of the military land com- pany, who sent General Lyman to Lngland, in 1763 ;' and 1773, he accompanied Colonel Israel Putnam and others to the " Yazoo country." Mr. Putnam joined the revolutionary army at Cambridge, in 1775, and there his knowledge of surveying was brought into requisition. He assisted efficiently in the construction of those works on Dorchester Heights, which caused the British to prepare for leaving Boston. After that, he was employed elsewhere in the engineering department; and in August, 1776, he was appointed by Congress, an engineer, with the rank of colonel. In February, 1778, he succeeded Colonel Greaton in command of troops in the northern department, and during the remainder of the war he was actively connected with the engineering corps of the army. On the 8th of January, 1783, he was commissioned a brigadier- general in the Continental army, but peace was now exchanging the olive branch for the laurel and the palm, and he soon afterward retired to his farm. From 1783 to 1788, he was engaged in organizing a company for emigrating to and settling in the Ohio country, and thither he went, as the general agent, in the Spring of 1788. He was accompanied by about forty settlers. They pitched their tents at the mouth of the Muskingum river, formed a settlement there, and called it Marietta. Suspecting hostility on the part of the neighboring Indians, he built a fort near by, and called it Campus Martins. That year they planted one hundred and thirty acres of corn. This was the beginning of that tide of emigration to Ohio which soon flowed so deep and broad; and General Putnam lived to S33 a nourishing State organized, and having, at the time of his death, seventy counties, and three-quarters of a million of inhabitants. In 1789, Pres- ident Washington appointed him judge of the supreme court of the North-west Territory, and, in 1792, he was appointed a brigadier, under General Wayne. In 1796, he was made surveyor-general of the United States, and held that office until after the accession of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency. He was a member of the convention that framed a constitution for the State of Ohio, in 1802, and this was his last public service of much moment. He made Marietta his resid- ence, and enjoyed the repose of private life until the first day of May, 1824, when he died. No individual did more for securing the benefits to be derived from the conquests of George Rogers Clarke north of the Ohio, 2 than General Rufus Putnam, and he has been justly styled the FATHER OF OHIO. MESHECH WEARE. " 1TE dared to love his country and be poor," was the epigramatic encomium JLl bestowed upon Meshech Weare, the first republican governor of New Hampshire, by one who knew and estimated his worth. He was not possessed of brilliant genius, superior intellect, nor extraordinary abilities of any kind, but exhibited a happy combination of good sense, stern integrity, pure heart, and clear intelligence. He was precisely the man for the place and times in which his lot was cast. Mr. Weare was a native of Hampton, New Hampshire, where he was born in 1714. He was educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1735. In the disputes between Governor "Wentworth and the 1. See sketch of General Lyman. 2. See sketch of George Rogers Clarke. 184 FRANCIS MARION. Colonial Assembly, Mr. "Weare, (for a number of years a member of that body), was always found on the side of the people. In 1752, he was chosen Speaker of the house. "When, in 1754, delegates from the several colonies assembled at Albany to discuss plans for mutual defence, and to consider the expediency of a political union, Mr. Weare represented New Hampshire in that body, and warmly approved a plan of confederation, proposed by Dr. Franklin. And when, ten years later, the disputes between the colonies and Great Britain grew warm, Mr. "Weare was a staunch supporter of all republican measures. In January, 1776, a hastily-prepared Constitution went into operation in New Hampshire, and Mr. "Weare was chosen to an office equivalent to that of gover- nor of the embryo State. He was also appointed chief justice of the supreme court ; and in such high estimation was he held by his fellow-citizens, that they virtually invested him with dictatorial prerogatives, for he wielded the powers of the highest offices in their gift, legislative, executive, and judicial. In 1779, a new Constitution was framed by a convention, of which John Langdon was president, but the people rejected it. Again, in 1784, a convention framed ,1 Constitution, and it was accepted. Again, Meshech "Weare, the faithful servant of the people, was elected chief magistrate, but the duties of public life, combin- ing with the decay of age, had now produced great feebleness in his vital powers, and before the expiration of the year, he was compelled to resign the office which he had held with so much dignity for nine years. He retired to private life, a worn out public servant, and died at Hampton Falls, on the 15th of Jan- uary, 1786, at the age of seventy-two years. His voluminous papers, comprised in several large manuscript volumes, are now in the custody of the New York Historical Society. FRANCIS MARION. 'THERE is scarcely a plantation within thirty miles of the banks of the Cori- -L garee and Santee, from Columbia to the sea, that has not some local tradi- tion of the presence of Marion, the great partisan leader in South Carolina during the Revolution. He was a descendant of one of the Huguenots who fled from France toward the close of the seventeenth century, and was born at "Winyaw, near Georgetown, South Carolina, in 1732. His infancy gave no promise of mature life, much less of greatness in achievements ; for, according to "Weems, he was as "small as a New England lobster, at his birth, and might have been put into a quart pot." His education was very limited, and, except a few months at sea, while a youth, his life was spent in agricultural pursuits, until his twenty-seventh year. Then the hostilities of the Indians on the western frontiers called the young men of the Carolinas to arms, and Marion became a soldier, with Moultrie and others, who afterward fought nobly for freedom. In the wild Cherokee country he obtained great applause for his bravery ; and when the Revolution broke out, he was offered a captain's commission, which he accepted. He was successful in the recruiting service, early in 1776; and during the attack on Charleston, in the Summer of that year, he fought bravely under Moultrie, in the Palmeto fort, in the harbor. He was afterward engaged in the contest at Savannah, and was in Charleston while the siege of that city, by the British, in the Spring of 1789, was progressing. Disabled by an accident, 1 1. Marion was dining with some friends at a house in Tradd Street, Charleston, when, on an attemrl being made to cause him to drink wine contrary to his practice and desire, he leaped from a window, and sprained his ankle. The Americans yet kept the country toward the Santee, open, and Marion was conveyed to his home. FRANCIS MARION. 185 he loft the city before its surrender, and made his way home, where he remained until just before the defeat of Gates near Camden, in August following. Then, notwithstanding he was quite lame, he mounted his horse, collected a score of volunteers, and offered his services to Gates. They were not readily accepted by that proud general, because of the uncouth appearance of the men. 1 Soon afterward, being called to the command of the militia of the "Williamsburg Dis- trict, in the vicinity of the Black and Pedee rivers, he formed his famous Brigade, with which he performed such wondrous feats during the remainder of the war. I need not stop to detail his exploits during the two years succeeding the forma- tion of his brigade, for they are, or ought to be, familiar to every American reader, young or old. Suffice it to say, that to Marion's Brigade, more than to any other corps in the South, the credit of the expulsion of the British from the Carolinas and Georgia, is due ; and General Greene regarded him as his strong right arm, especially after the siege of Ninety-Six, in the Summer of 1781. 1. According to Colonel Williams, they must have appeared worse than FalstafPs " ragged regiment." 486 RICHARD HENRY LEE. Just before the war, Marion had occupied a seat in the legislature of South Carolina, and early in 1782, when that body was reorganized by Governor Rut- ledge, he was again elected to the Senate. Circumstances soon called him from the council to the field, and he did not relinquish his sword until the British evacuated Charleston toward the close of 1782, and the sun of peace arose. Then he disbanded his Brigade, and retired to his farm near Eutaw Springs, on the Santee. There all was utter desolation ; and at the ago of fifty, he com- menced the world anew, as a planter, with scarcely money enough to purchase utensils for his laborers. An almost sinecure office commander of Fort John- son, in Charleston harbor was created for him, and the emoluments ^vere of essential service to the veteran. At length a Desdemonia, enamored of the hero because of his exploits, offered him her hand and fortune, through the kind mediation of friends. She was a Huguenot maiden of forty years, comely and rich. The hitherto invincible soldier was conquered, and his home at Pond Bluff was made happy during the remainder of his life, by a loving wife and the means for dispensing a generous hospitality to his friends. lie enjoyed these pleasures for about ten years, alternating them occasionally with legislative duties, and then went to his rest, without having a child to perpetuate his name or blood. He died on the 29th of February, 1795, at the age of about sixty- three years, and was buried in the church-yard at Belle Isle, where a neat marble slab denotes the resting-place of his remains. RICHARD HENRY LEE. IN" the midst of the doubt, and dread, and hesitation, which for twenty days had brooded over the Continental Congress, after the first step had been taken in the direction of political independence of Great Britain, a clear, musical voice was heard uttering a resolution, " That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown ; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." It was the voice of Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia. He was a scion of one of the early cavalier families of that State, and was born at Stratford, in "Westmoreland county, on the 20th of January, 1732. According to the fashion of that time, his father sent him to England to be educated. Ho was in a school at Wakeneld, in Yorkshire, for several years, where he was a thoughtful student, and lover of ancient classic and historical literature. At the ago of nineteen years he returned to Virginia, and his time was spent in athletic exercises and study. He formed a military corps among his youthful companions, was elected to the chief command, and first appears in history at the council called at Alex- andria, by Braddock, in 1755. 1 There young Lee appeared and offered the ser- vices of himself and volunteers, in the proposed expedition against the French and Indians on the Ohio. The proud Braddock refused to accept the services of these plain young provincials, and the deeply-mortified Leo returned homo with his troops. Then was planted in his bosom the first seeds of hatred and disgust of the insolence of British officials, and it germinated and bore abundant fruit twenty years afterward. 1. General Braddock called a council of colonial governors, at Alexandria, on the Potomac, to consult upon a campaign against the French and Indians. Several of those magistrates, with Admiral Keppel, met there, arranged satisfactory plans, and Braddock started OH his unfortunate march toward the Alleghanies. JOSIAH QULNCY, JR. 187 In 1757, Governor Dinwiddio appointed Mr. Lee a justice of the peace. At about the same time he was elected to a seat in the House of Burgesses of Vir- ginia, though only twenty-five years of age. He was extremely diffident, but at times his zeal would master his bashfulness, and then those powers of oratory, afterward so conspicuous in the Continental Congress, would beam out in won- drous splendor. He was one of the earliest opposers of the Stamp Act, and was the first man in Virginia to stand forth in public as its avowed opponent. From that time until the war broke out, he was a leader among the patriots in his State ; and long before the idea became general, he spoke of tho necessity of independence. Ho was a member of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and while in that body he was always upon the most important committees. In June, 1776, ho fearlessly offered the resolution above quoted, and took upon himself the fearful responsibility of being branded by tho imperial government as an arch-traitor. 1 After considerable debate, that resolution was made the special order of the day for tho 2d of July following, 2 and a committee of five were ap- pointed to draw up a preamble or declaration, in accordance with it. On the day when the resolution to. appoint a committee was proposed, Mr. Lee was summoned, by express, to his home in Virginia, on account of illness in his family, and for that reason he was not a member of that committee. He after- ward affixed his signature to the Declaration, and thus became one of the im- mortal Fifty-Six. He was active in Congress, in tho Virginia Assembly, or in the field at the head of militia, until the close of the war. In 1783, he was again elected to Congress, and was chosen president of that body. He was opposed to the Federal Constitution, because he reverenced State rights ; but, like Patrick Henry, he yielded cheerful acquiescence when it became the organic law of the Republic. He was chosen the first United States Senator, from Virginia, under it, and held that office until the infirmities of premature age compelled him to retire to private life, at his beautiful seat at Chantilly, in his native county. Ho was greatly beloved by his relatives, friends, and the whole people, and he was sincerely mourned by the nation, at his death. Mr. Lee went to his rest on the 19 th of June, 1794, when in tho sixty-third year of his age. JOSIAH Q1JINCY, JR. " T ET mo tell you one very serious truth, in which we are all agreed; your JJ countrymen must seal their cause with their blood." So wrote a young man of thirty, from London, toward the close of 1774. He was Josiah Quincy, junior, grandson of Judge Edmund Quincy, and the child of a wealthy Boston merchant. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on the 23d of February, 1744. Eagerness for knowledge, and assiduity in study, marked his whole col- legiate career in Harvard University; and when he was graduated, in 1763, ho entered upon the study of the law, under Oxenbridge Thacher, of Boston, with equal eagerness. After two years' close study, he was admitted to the bar, and was soon regarded as one of the most promising young men in the profession. His attention was soon drawn to the agitation of the political waters of his 1. At that time, a son of Mr. Lee was at school at St. Bees, in England. One day, while standing near his tutor, a gentleman asked, "What boy is this?" The professor replied, " He is the son of Richard Ileury Lee, of America." The gentleman put his hand upon the boy's head, and said, " We shall yet sea your father's head upon Tower Hill." The boy promptly answered, "You may have it when you can get it." That boy was the late Ludwell Lee, Esq., of Virginia. 2. The resolution was adopted on the 2d of July, but tho Declaration was debated until the 4th, and then agreed to. 188 JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. country, and as early as 1767, he began to write political essays in favor cf popular liberty. From that time, Otis and Quiucy were the boldest denunciators of the oppressive measures of Great Britain. 1 He was the colleague of John Adams in defending Captain Preston and others after the "Boston Massacre," in 1770, and eloquently pleaded their cause. 2 During the three years of compar- ative quiet, after that event, he pursued his avocations in the law with great assiduity; but early in 1773, a pulmonary disease compelled him to seek relief in a warmer climate. He visited Charleston and several places in North Car- olina, everywhere mingling with the most ardent friends of freedom. 3 On his return home he was active in the movements which resulted in the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. 4 He wrote several powerful papers, the most important of which was signed "Marchmont Nedham." He also published, in 1774, severe strictures on the Boston Port Bill, 5 which included Thoughts on Civil Society and a Standing Army. For the double purpose of seeking renewed health and to serve his country in the dark hour of its trial, he secretly embarked for London, in September, 1774, and at once obtained interviews with the ministry and the leading men of both parties. He attended the debates in parliament, took full notes of all current political events, and kept his friends in America advised of all important movements in which they were concerned. He became thoroughly convinced of the necessity for his countrymen to prepare for war, and in less than two months after his arrival in England, he expressed the sentiment quoted at the opening of this memoir. After becoming thoroughly acquainted with the dis- positions and intentions of the king and his ministers, and hopeless of reconcili- ation, Mr. Quincy resolved to return home, and, if his health would permit, to arouse his countrymen to immediate and powerful action. He embarked for Boston, in March, 1775, with a heart big with revolution, and a brain teeming with noble ideas and dreams of the glorious future of his beloved country. He had said to Dr. Franklin, on parting, '* New England alone can hold out for ages against Great Britain, and, if they were firm and united, in seven years they would conquer them." But Providence did not permit him to realize any of his aspirations, nor again to set his feet upon his native shores. He was blessed with the sight of his dear land, but before the vessel reached the port of Glou- cester, the tooth of consumption destroyed the thread of life, and he expired. It was on the 26th of April, 1775, when he was about thirty-one years of age. His son, then a little child, has erected a noble monument to the memory of his father, by writing and publishing a record of his life. 1. In 17C8, he asked, " Shall we hesitate a moment in preferring death to a miserable existence in bondage?" And, In 1770, he boldly ^ajd, " I wish to see my countrymen break ofl : off forever ! all social intercourse with those whose commerce contaminates, whose luxuries poison, whose avarice is insatiable, and whose unnatural oppressions are not to be borne." 2. See note on page 87. 3. See sketches of Harnett and Howe. 4. On the day when the destruction of the tea occurred, a great concourse of people were assembled at the " Old South Meeting-house," and were harangued by young Quincy. " It is not, Mr. Moderator," he said, " the spirit that vapors within these walls, that must stand us in stead. The exertions of this day will call forth events which will make a very different spirit necessary for our salvation. Whoever supposes that shouts and hosannahs will terminate the trials of this day, entertains a childish fancy. He must be grossly ignorant of the importance and value of the prize for which we contend ; we must be equally ignorant of the power of those who have combined .against us. We must be blind to that malice, inveteracy and insatiable revenge which actuate our enemies, public and private, abroad and in our bosoms, to hope that we shall end this controversy without the sharpest, the sharpest conflicts to flatter ourselves that popular resolves, popular harangues, popular acclamations, and popular vapor, will vanquish our foes. Let us consider the issue. Let us look to the end. Let us weigh and consider before we advance to those measures which must bring on the most trying and terrible struggle this country ever saw." When he concluded, the question was put whether the people would allow Ihe tea to be landed. As with one voice, the multitude said, No ! At twilight, a voice in the church gallery shouted, " Boston harbor a tea-pot to-night !" A man disguised as an Indian gave a war-whoop, and the people rushed to the wharf. A pale moon was shining upon the snow. In a short time three hundred and forty-two chess of tea were broke open, and their contents were cast into the water. 5. See note 2, page 165. PHILIP SCHUYLER. 189 PHILIP SCHUYLER. T)URE patriotism, unselfish benevolence, unflinching integrity, and unwavering L public and private virtue, were the marked characteristics of Philip Schuyler, a grandson of the valiant mayor of Albany, in 1690, when the scouts of Fron- tenac alarmed all the border settlers of New York, and French and Indians laid Schenectada in ashes. Philip was born at Albany, on the 22d of November, 1733. He was the oldest child of his parents, and by the law of primogeniture, he inherited his father's real estate. That parent died while Philip was young, and he was left to the care of his mother. With that noble generosity which marked his career through life, he divided the estate, to which he was entitled, equally with his brothers and sisters. At the age of twenty-two years, he en- tered the provincial army, and commanded a company under Sir "William John- son, at Fort Edward and Lake George. He continued in the service until 1758, and accompanied the young Lord Howe, as colonel of a regiment, in the expe- dition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. When that nobleman was killed, 190 JOSEPH WARREN. Colonel Scliujlor conveyed Iris body to Albany, for interment. 1 After the peace in 1763, he was quite active in several civil capacities; and as member of the Colonial Assembly of New York, he was marked for his devotion to the cause of the colonists. He was a member of the second Continental Congress, in 1775, and was appointed by that body the third of the four major-generals, under "Washington, commissioned for the command of the American army. He took command of the Northern Department, and started with a considerable force to invade Canada, in the Autumn of 1775. He sickened on Lake Champlain, placed the chief command in the hands of his lieutenant, General Montgomery, and re- turned to Albany. During the following year he was active among the Six Nations of Indians, and also in perfecting the discipline of his Division of the army. In March, 1777, he was superseded by General Gates, without any good reason, but was reinstated in May following. In June, Burgoyne penetrated the northern frontier, and General Schuyler was active in preparations to check his invasion. At the moment when all was ready to strike a decisive blow, Gates was again placed in command, and unfairly received the laurels of con- quest. Schuyler's love for his country was stronger than his resentment, and as a simple citizen ho aided the Americans greatly in the accomplishment of the victory over Burgoyne, at Saratoga. He demanded and obtained a trial before a court of inquiry, and received a highly flattering verdict. Washington then urged him to accept military command, but he preferred to aid his country in a less public but not less efficient way. He was a member of Congress under the first confederation, and after the ratification of the Federal Constitution, the legislature of New York chose General Schuyler, with Rufus King, to represent that commonwealth in the Senate of the United States. He served until 1791, when he was elected to the Senate of his native State. He was again chosen United States Senator, in place of Aaron Burr, in 1797, but did not retain his seat long, for his health was failing. In 1803, his wife, the companion of all his joys and sorrows, died; and, in July, 1804, his spirit was terribly smitten by the murder of his accomplished son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton, by the duellist's hand. 2 JOSEPH WARREN. " \[OT all the havoc and devastation they have made has wounded me like the 1M death of Warren," wrote the wife of John Adams three weeks after the battle of Bunker Hill. "We want him in the Senate; we want him in his pro- fession ; we want him in the field. We mourn for the citizen, the senator, the physician, and the warrior." The death of Joseph Warren was indeed a severe blow to the patriot cause. He was the son of a Massachusetts farmer, and was born in Roxbury, near Boston, in 1740. He was graduated at Harvard College, in 1759, and then commenced the study of medicine. Soon after commencing its practice, he took a prominent place in the profession, in Boston ; and he had few superiors, when inclination called him to participate in the political move- ments of the day. Patriotism was a ruling emotion of his heart, and he never lacked boldness to express his opinions freely. He was one of the earliest members of the association, in Boston, known as Sons of Liberty; and from 1768 until the fierce kindling of war on Breed's Hill, he was extremely efficient in 1. As an example for his men, Lord Howe had his hair cut short, that it might not become wet and produce colds in the region of the neck. Many years after the interment of his remains at Albany, they were removed, and it was found that his hair had grown several inches, and was smooth and glossy. 2. See sketch of Alexander Hamilton. ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE. 191 fostering a spirit of rational liberty and independence among the people. His suggestive mind planned many daring schemes in secret caucus, and he was ever ready to lead in the execution of any measures for resisting the encroachments of imperial power. He delivered the first annual oration on the subject of the "Boston Massacre," in 1771; and, in 1775, he solicited the honor of performing the perilous service again, because some British officers had menaced the life of anyone who should attempt it. The " Old South " was crowded, and the aisles, stairs, and pulpit, were filled with British soldiers, full armed. The intrepid young orator entered by a window, spoke fearlessly, in the presence of those bayonets which seemed alive with threats, of the early struggles of the colonies of New England, and then, in sorrowful tones and deep pathos of expression, told of the wrongs and oppressions under which they were then suffering. Even the soldiers wept ; and thus the young hero, firm in the faith that "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God," triumphed, and fearlessly bearded the lion in his den. From that day Gage regarded him as a dangerous man. When John Hancock went to the Continental Congress, Warren was chosen to fill his place as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly. He held that position when the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord occurred ; and before and after the events of that day, he was very active, secret and open. Four days before the battle of Bunker's Hill, he was commissioned a major- general. He hastened to Breed's Hill, on the memorable 17th of June, 1775, and toward the close of the action, placed himself under Colonel Prescott, as a volunteer. When the Americans were compelled to retreat, Warren and Pres- cott were the last men to leave the redoubt. He had proceeded but a short way toward Bunker's Hill, where Putnam was trying to rally the fugitives, when a musket ball passed through his head, and killed him instantly. He was left on the field. His body was recognised the next day by his intimate acquaint- ance, Dr. Jeffries, of the British army, and it was buried where it fell. After the British left Boston, in the Spring of 1776, it was taken up, carried to the city, and interred with masonic and military honors, beneath St. Paul's church. Almost upon the spot where he fell, the great Bunker Hill monument now stands, a memorial alike for the noble Warren, and of the deeds which con- secrated that eminence. Congress expressed its sorrow by resolutions, and its gratitude by ordering that his "eldest son be educated at the expense of the United States." Congress also ordered a monument to be erected. It yet re- mains to be done. ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE. ONE of the earliest explorers of the wilderness around the head waters of the Mississippi, now known as the Minnesota Territory, was the brave Pike, who died in the hour of victory near York, in Upper Canada, with the captured British flag under his head. He was the son of an officer in the United States army, and was born at Lamberton, New Jersey, on the 5th, of January, 1779. lie entered the army while yet a mere boy, and his whole life was devoted to the military profession. He was early subjected to athletic exercises, and he grew to manhood with a frame of uncommon vigor. His education was neglected, but by his own exertions he mastered the Latin, French, and Spanish languages. Love of study was a characteristic of his early youth, and he read with avidity the few books that foil in his way. Soon after the purchase of Louisiana from the French, in 1803, the United States government determined to explore that vast and mostly unknown territory. Under the enlightened direction of Pres- 192 DANIEL BOONE. ident Jefferson, Captains Lewis and Clarke were sent to explore the Missouri to its source, and young Pike was commissioned to make a similar exploration in search of the sources of the Mississippi. He left St. Louis, in August, 1805, with twenty men, and made a most wonderful journey, during eight months and twenty days, an account of which was published in an octavo volume. 1 Soon after his return, General Wilkinson selected Pike to command another expedi- tion in the interior of Louisiana, in the direction of Northern Mexico. After great sufferings, he returned, in the Summer of 1807, and received the thanks of Congress. Passing through several promotions, in military rank, he reached that of colonel of infantry, in 1810. Ho was stationed on the northern frontier at the commencement of the war with Great Britain, in 1812, and early the following year he was promoted to brigadier. In the Spring of 1813, he was chosen, by General Dearborn, to command the land troops hi an expedition against York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada. He sailed from Sackett's Harbor, in a squadron under Commodore Chaunccy, on the 25th of April, and on the 27th he landed, with seventeen hundred men, in the face of a galling fire from a large force of British and Indians. Pike pressed forward, and the British fled to their fortifications, while the Indians scattered in all directions. The general led his troops in person, and after capturing a battery, he rushed forward toward the main works. The British fired their magazine, and a ter- rible explosion took place. A heavy stone struck the breast of the brave leader, and wounded him mortally. He was conveyed to the commodore's ship, in a dying condition. While on the way, there was a shout, and one of his attend- ants said, " The British union jack is coming down, and the stars are going up !" Pike could not speak, but sighed heavily, and then smiled. He lingered a few hours on ship-board ; and when the British flag was brought to him, he signified his desire to have it placed under his head. It was done, and a moment after- ward the hero died. He was only a little more than thirty-four years of age. His name and memory is perpetuated, not only in his country's annals, but by the titles of ten counties and twenty-eight townships and villages, chiefly in tho Western country. DANIEL, BOONE. FEW men of such humble pretensions occupy so large a space in history, as Daniel Boone. His heroism as an explorer, pioneer, settler, and patriotic defender of the soil he had won by his courage in the path of the discoverer, partakes so largely of the spirit of chivalry and true romance, that we incon- tinently look upon him with a sentiment of hero-worship. Daniel Boone was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1734. His parents were from Bradninch, near Exeter, England ; and while Daniel was a small boy, they left Pennsyl- vania, and settled near the banks of the Yadkin, in North Carolina. At that time the region beyond the Blue Ridge was an unknown wilderness to the white people, for none had ventured thither, as far as is known, until about the year 1750. It was almost twenty years later than this, when Boone was ap- proaching the prime of life, that he first penetrated the great Valley of the Mis- sissippi, in company with others. He had already, as a bold hunter, been within the eastern verge of the present Kentucky, but now he took a long "hunt," of 1. Lieutenant Pike did not discover the true source of 1he Mississippi. Thrxt achievement was reserved for Henry K. Schoolcraft, who, in 1832, discovered the chief fountain of the Father of Waters to be Itaska Lake, in latitude 47 deg., 13min., 35 sec., north, and that its whole majestic course is within the territory of the United States. DANIEL BOONE. 193 about three years. He had made himself familiar with the wilderness ; and, in 1773, in company with other families, he started with his own to make a settle- ment on the Kain-tuck-ee river. The hostile Indians compelled them to fall back, and Boone resided on the Clerich river until 1775, when he went forward and planted the settlement of Boonesborough, in the present Madison county, Ken- tucky. 1 There he built a log fort, and in the course of three or four years, sev- eral other settlers joined him. His wife and daughters were the first white women ever seen upon the banks of the Kentucky river. He became a great annoyance to the Indians ; and while at the Blue Licks, on the Licking piver, in February, 1778, engaged with others in making salt, he was captured by some Shawnee warriors from the Ohio country, and taken to Chillicothe. The Indians became attached to him, and he was adopted into a family as a son. A ransom of five hundred dollars was offered for him, but the Indians refused it. He at length escaped (in July following his capture) when he ascertained that a large body of Indians were preparing to march against Boonesborough. They attacked that station three times before the middle of September, but were repulsed. 1. On the 14th of July, 1776, one of Boone's daughters, and two other girls, were seized by the Indians, while they were in a boat, near Boonesborough, and carried away. Their screams alarmed the people at the fort, and Boone and others started in pursuit. It was then just at sunset. They came up with the kidnappers on the 16th, about forty miles from Booncsborough, rescued the girls, and conveyed them safely back to their home: 9 194 ANDREW PICKENS. During Boone's captivity, his wife and children had returned to the house of her father, on the Yadkin, where the pioneer visited them in 1779, and remained with them for many months. He returned to Kentucky, in 1780, with his family, and assisted Colonel Clarke in his operations against the Indians in the Illinois country. He was a very active partisan in that far-off region beyond the Al- leghanies until the close of the war. From that time, until 1798, he resided al- ternately in Kentucky and in "Western Virginia. He had seen that ''wilderness blossom as the rose;" and in less than twenty years from the time when he built his fort at Boonesborough, he saw Kentucky honored as a sovereign State of an independent union of republics. Yet he was doomed to lose all personal advantages in the growth of the new State. Neglecting to comply with new land laws, of whose details he was probably ignorant, he lost his title to lands which he had discovered and subdued; and the region which so recently seemed all his own, now filled with half a million of his fellow-citizens, afforded him no home in fee simple! Indignant at what he considered base ingratitude, he shouldered his rifle, left Kentucky forever, and, with some followers, plunged into the interminable forests of the present Missouri, beyond the Mississippi river. They settled upon the Little Osage, in 1799, and the following year, Boone and his companions explored the head waters of the Arkansas. A long time after- ward, when he was almost eighty years of age, he trapped beavers on the Great Osage. Soon after his return from that "hunt," he sent a memorial to the legis- lature of Kentucky, setting forth that he owned not an acre of land on the face of the earth, had nowhere to lay his head, and asked a confirmation of title to lands given him in Louisiana, by the Spanish governor, before that territory was ceded to the United States. Congress secured two thousand acres to him, and so his old age was made comparatively happy by the prospect of a grave in the bosom of his own soil. The brave old hero died in Missouri, on the 26th of September, 1820, at the age of almost ninety years. His remains now lie beside those of his wife, in a cemetery at Frankfort, Kentucky. ANDREW PICKENS. /CELTIC blood flowed in the veins of very many of the sages and soldiers who \J laid the foundations of our Republic. In those of Pickens, the eminent partisan soldier of South Carolina, it was unmixed, for his parents were both natives of that portion of Ireland where there had been no infusion of the English or Scotch element. He was born in Paxton township, Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, on the 19th of September, 1739, and while he was yet a child, his parents emigrated to the Waxhaw settlement, in the upper part of South Carolina. His first military lessons, in actual service, were received while serving as a volun- teer under lieutenant-colonel Grant, against the Cherokees, in 1761, having for his companions, Marion and Moultrie. He was a warm republican ; and when the war of the Revolution was kindled, he took the field as captain of militia. His zeal, courage, and skill, immediately attracted attention, and he arose rapidly to the rank of brigadier-general. In the region watered by the Savannah, in both Georgia and South Carolina, General Pickens performed very important services during the war, especially in the year 1781. He completely humbled the Cherokees and the Creeks ; broke the power of the Tories in the upper country around Augusta ; and was distinguished for bravery at the Cowpens, the siege of Augusta, and at Eutaw Springs. He and Marion commanded the militia of South Carolina in the latter engagement, and in the early part of the conflict, FRANCIS ASBUEY. 105 Pickens was severely wounded by a musket ball. From the close of the war until 1794, he was continually in public life, chiefly as a legislator, and then ho was elected to a seat in the House of Representatives of the United States. Ho was also appointed one of the two major-generals of the militia of his State; and in 1796, he declined a reelection to Congress, but took a seat in the legislature of South Carolina. He held that position until 1801, at the same time often acting as commissioner to treat with the Indians, Washington had also solicited him to accept the command of a brigade of light troops to act under Wayne against the tribes of the North-west, but he declined the honor. He retired to private life, in 1801, and there he remained in the peaceful repose of a planter, in Pendleton District, South Carolina, until 1812, when he accepted a seat iu his State legislature. He declined the proffered office of governor the following- year, and again sought repose in the bosom of his family. There he went to his final rest, on the 17th of August, 1817, at the age of seventy -eight years. Gen- eral Pickens married Rebecca Calhoun, in 17G5. They lived together fifty years. She was aunt of the late John C. Calhoun; and at the time of her marriage was considered one of the most beautiful young ladies in the South. Her nuptials were attended by a great number of relatives and friends, and " Rebecca Cal- houn's wedding " became an epoch in the social history of the district, from which old people used to reckon. The remains of husband and wife lie together in the grave-yard of the "old stone meeting-house," in Pendleton. FRANCIS ASBUilY. T)ERHAPS no Christian minister, since the settlement of America, has travelled A. as extensively, and labored as untiringly in the face of every kind of ob- stacle, as Francis Asbury, the senior Bishop of the Methodist Church 1 in the United States. He was born near Birmingham, England, on the 20th of August, 1745, and came to America, in 1771, at the age of twenty-six years, as a preacher of the gospel in the simplicity of the new sect. Two years afterward, the first annual conference of the American Methodists was held at Philadelphia. The converts under the preaching of John and Charles Wesley had widened the circle of the denomination greatly, and at that conference there were ten preachers, representing a membership of about eleven hundred. Mr. Asbury continued to travel and preach continually from that time until 1784, when Dr. Coke, whom Mr. Wesley had appointed a presbyter of the church in England, and missionary to America, consecrated him a superintendent or Bishop of the Methodist Epis- copal Church in the United States. With the zeal of an ancient apostle, ho entered upon the discharge of his great duties, and visited and organized churches, and planted others, in all parts of the republic. In 1790, ho crossed the great mountains, and held a conference five miles from the present Lexington. It was the first general assemblage of the Methodists in the wilderness of the West. That conference then numbered only twelve preachers. They were "indiffer- ently clad," said Bishop Asbury, "with emaciated bodies, and subject to hard fare, but, I hope, rich in faith." 1. This sect was founded, in 1729, by John Wesley and a minister named Morgan. Their doctrine is the same as that of the Church of England, but they discarded most of its rituals. They adhere to the Episcopal form of church governmenl, though varying somewhat from the Church of England in its administration. The name, as applied to a religious sect, is older than the organization of Wesley and others. It was given to two kinds of Popish Doctors of Divinity, in France, about the middle of the seventeenth century, who violently opposed the Huguenots. In England, it was applied to those church members who were evangelical in their views, and zealous in their preaching. Methodism has been well defined by an English writer, as " Christianity in earnest." 196 JOHN TKUMBULL. From the time of his consecration until his death, a period of thirty-two years, Bishop Asbury travelled yearly through every State in the increasing Union, and kept in efficient action the great machinery of the travelling connection. In the exercise of his episcopal office, ho ordained not less, probably, than threo thousand preachers, and uttered seventeen thousand sermons. After spending fifty -five years in the ministry (forty-five in America), that faithful servant of Christ was called to his rest, at the house of his old friend, George Arnold, in Virginia, on the 31st of March, 1816, in the seventy-first year of his age. His remains, by order of the General Conference, were taken to Baltimore, and de- posited in a vault prepared for the purpose under the recess of the pulpit of the Methodist Church in Eutaw Street. JOHN TRUMBU1.L. 'PHE name of Trumbull, the painter, ' like Trumbull, the magistrate, will ever be JL associated with the noblest chapter of American history, because his pencil illustrated its noblest events. The painter was the youngest son of the magis- trate, and was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on the 6th of June, 1*756. After receiving an excellent education at Lebanon, he entered Harvard College, where he remained about a }*ear, and was graduated in 1772. He had early felt the inspirations of art and the aspirations of genius ; and during much of his college years at Harvard, he was studying books on the subject of drawing and painting, or was engaged in copying some pictures there. He painted his first original picture The Battle of Cannes soon after leaving college, and resolved to devote his life to art, when the gathering storm of the Revolution diverted him from that pursuit, and caused him to exchange his pencil for a sword. His father wished him to become a clergyman, but the church militant had not for him the charms of martial life, and he became adjutant of the first Connecticut regiment, which was stationed at Roxbury, in the Summer of 1775. A drawing which he made of -the enemy's works, by request of "Washington, so pleased the com- mander-in-chief, that ho made the young painter his aicl-de-camp, in August. He was promoted to major of brigade, in the Autumn, and in that capacity ho attracted the attention of adjutant-general Gates. He was appointed, by Gates, adjutant-general of the Northern Department, with the title of Colonel, in June, 1776, and accompanied that officer to Ticonderoga. Ho did not receive his commission from Congress until the following Spring, and then it was dated in September. The young soldier was offended, and returned the commission with a spicy letter tendering his resignation. Then ended his military career, and he went to Boston to resume the study of art. In 1780, he sailed for London, to place himself under the instruction of Benjamin "West. The great painter re- ceived him kindly, and Trumbull was pursuing his studies quietly, when, late in the year, he was arrested as a rebel, and cast into prison on a charge of treason. "West immediately interceded for him, before the king, and received the royal assurance that the young painter's life should be spared. After an imprisonment of eight months, he was admitted to bail on condition that he should quit the country immediately. "West and Copley became his sureties. He went to Amsterdam, and then embarked for America, but the ship was compelled to 1. The great painter was a lineal descendant of Rev. John Robinson, the "father of the Pilgrims." His mother's name was Faith Robinson, and was the fifih in descent from the minister at Delft. While at the house of the late governor of Connecticut, J. (1. W. Trnmbull, at Norwich, in 1849, the writer was shown a silver cup, bearing the initials of the Rev. Jlr. Robinson, which was brought to America, in 1621, and has been carefully preserved in the family. JOHN THUMB ULL. 197 put back, and he did not reach home until the beginning of 1*782. He visited the army on the Hudson, toward Autumn, but peace soon came. His father then urged him to pursue the profession of the. law, but the Artist would not listen; and, in November, 1783, he again went to England, and resumed his studies, under West, with great zeal, industry, and success. He was so success- ful in the treatment of Priam bearing back to his Palace the body of Hector, in 1785, that he matured a plan for producing a series of historical paintings, rep- resenting events in the American Revolution, Before the close of 1786, he had produced his Battle of Bunker Hill and Death of Montgomery. These were engraved. Then followed his superb painting The Sortie of the Garrison of Gibraltar, which he sold for twenty-five hundred dollars. He came to America, in 1789, and painted as many of the portraits of the signers of the Declaration as were then present in Congress. In 1791 and 1792, he was chiefly employed in painting heads for his four great national pictures, now in the Rotunda of the capitol, at "Washing- ton city, namely, Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Surrender ofBurgoyne, Surrender of CornwdlMs, Washington Surrendering his Commission. He then went to England as private secretary to Mr. Jay. He went to Paris and en- gaged in commercial pursuits, for awhile; and, in August, 1796, he was appointed fifth commissioner to carry out the designs of one article of Jay's treaty with Great Britain. His duties did not end until 1804, when he returned to the United States, and resumed his pencil at New York. Lacking encouragement, 198 THOMAS PAINE. he again went to England, and remained there until 1815, when he returned to New York. The following year he received a commission from our government to paint the four pictures above alluded to. He was engaged seven years on them. He was chosen president of the American Academy of Arts, in 1817, and was annually elected to that office for many years. Finding no purchasers for his collection of paintings, he presented them to Yale College, and they are all in New Haven, in a building erected for the purpose, called The Trumbull Gal- lery. The venerable artist, soldier, and patriot, died in the city of New York, on the 10th of November, 18-43, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. THOMAS PAINK. FEW men have ever received so large a share of the odium of common public opinion (which Hood denned as " the average prejudice of mankind ") as Thomas Paine, whose pen was almost as powerful in support of the republican cause in the early years of the Revolution, as was the sword of Washington ; be- cause it gave vitality to that latent national sentiment which formed the necessary basis ot support to the civil and military power then just evoked by the political exigencies of the American people. He was a native of Thetford, England, where he was born, in 1737. He was bred to the business of stay-maker, car- ried on by his father, but his mind could not long be chained to the narrow em- ployment of fashioning whale-bone and buckram for the boddices of ladies. Ho sought and obtained an interview with Dr. Franklin, when that statesman first went to England as agent for Pennsylvania, and by his advice Paine came to America, in 1774, and at once employed his powerful pen in the cause of the aroused colonies. Many of his articles appeared in Pennsylvania papers, over the signature of Common Sense; and at the beginning of 1776, he wrote a pam- phlet, at the suggestion of Dr. Rush, bearing that expressive title. It was the earliest and most powerful public appeal in favor of the independence of the colonies, and did more, probably, than any other instrumentality, to fix that idea firmly in the minds of the people. Within a hundred days after its appearance, almost every provincial assembly had spoken in favor of independence. 1 Paine also commenced a series of papers called The Crisis, the first number of which was written in the camp of Washington, near the Delaware, at the close of 1776. They were issued at intervals, during the Avar. In the Spring of 1777, Paine was appointed, by Congress, Secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy dollars a month. It was a position of great trust and respon- sibility, and he performed the duties satisfactorily until 1779, when, in a public dispute with Silas Deane, he revealed some secrets of his bureau, and was threat- ened with dismissal. He at once resigned his office, but remained a firm friend to his adopted country. After the war, he used his pen for a livelihood ; and in 1790, he visited his native country. There he wrote his Rights of Man, which offended the government, and he went to Paris on the eve of the French Revo- lution. He participated in the opening scenes of that struggle, was made a member of the National Assembly, and finally, having offended the Jacobins, he was imprisoned and sentenced to the guillotine. While in prison, he wrote the 1. So highly was fhit essay esteemed, that (he legislature of Pennsylvania voted the author twenty-five hundred dollars. Washington regarded it as his most powerful aid. In a letter to Joseph Reed, ha s.xid, " By private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find that Common Sense is work- i.iS a powerful change there in the minds of many men." EDWARD FEEBLE. 199 chief portions of his Age of Reason. Ho escaped death by a seeming accident. 1 In 1802, he returned to America, and resided a part of the time upon a farm at New Rochelle, presented to him by the State of New York, for his revolutionary services. Paine became very intemperate, and fell low in the social scale, not only on account of his beastly habits, but because of his blasphemous tirade against Christianity. His Age of Reason is a coarse and vindictive assault upon revealed religion, exhibiting neither sound logic nor honest argument. The corruptions of Christianity as he saw them in France and England, at that time, a.Tord extenuating apologies for his vindictiveness. Had Thomas Paine lived at this day, he would never have written his Age of Reason and other libels upon G-od and humanity. As a patriot of truest stamp, his memory ought to be re- vered as an enemy to that religion on which man's dearest hopes are centered, he is to be pitied and condemned. Mr. Paine died in New York, in 1809. Jarvis, the painter, took an impression of his face in plaster, after his death. That impression is now in possession of the New York Historical Society. His friend and admirer, William Cobbett, had his bones exhumed, and conveyed to England; and in 1839, his friends in political and religious sentiment erected a beautiful monument to his memory over his emptied grave, near New Rochelle, on which is inscribed, beneath a medallion bust, "THOMAS PAINE, AUTHOR OF COMMON SENSE." ED WARD PREBLE. rPHE sons of revolutionary fathers often inherited the courage and patriotism 1 of their ancestors ; indeed, the contrary was the exception to a rule, and true philosophy has a reason for it. The father of Edward Preble, one of the most distinguished of our naval commanders, was the honorable Jedediah Preble, of the ancient town of Falmouth (now Portland), Maine. He was a brigadier under the government of the Massachusetts colony, one of the first commanders of the army at Cambridge, in 1775, and a civilian of eminence when the Revolu- tion had fairly commenced. Edward was born at the homestead, on the 15th of August, 1761, and received an academic education at Newbury. In early childhood ho was noted for great resolution, and a love of athletic exercises. Like many lads of that seaport, he had a great desire for ocean life, and he made a voyage to Europe, in a privateer, in 1778. The following year he became a midshipman in one of the Massachusetts vessels, and was captured during the second cruise. Through the influence of Colonel Tyng, a friend of } r oung Preble's father, the young man was released at New York, while the remainder of the crew were sent to England. He now entered as first lieutenant, on board the sloop of war, Winthrop, in which he continued during the remainder of the con- test, and performed many deeds of valor. After the war, Preble was a ship- master in many successive voyages, but stood ready for public service when his country should call him to duty. When, in 1798, our hostile relations with France made it necessary to prepare our little navy for service, Preble was one of the five first-lieutenants, appointed by Congress. In the Winter of l798-'9, he made two cruises, and the following Spring he commanded the Essex, under a captain's commission. In the year 1. He was saved by a singular providence. Every night an officer passed along the rows of cells in the prison, and with a piece of chalk marked the doors from which prisoners were to be taken to the scaffold. Paine's door happened to be open. It was 'marked, but when it was closed for the night, the fatal sign was on the inside, and he escaped. 200 JOHN H. LIVINGSTON. 1800, he was sent to convoy our merchantmen from the East India seas. He was afterward appointed to the command of the Adams, on the Mediterranean station, but ill-health soon compelled him to leave the service, for awhile. In 1803, he was placed in command of the frigate Constitution, and with the Phila- delphia and several smaller vessels, he proceeded to the Mediterranean to humble the Algerine pirates who infested those waters. The principal powers engaged in that system of commercial robbery were those of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli, known as the Barbary States. Preble first brought the Emperor of Morocco to terms, and then appeared before Tripoli, with his squadron. There he lost the Philadelphia, which struck upon a rock in the harbor, was captured by the Tripolitans, and the officers and crew were made prisoners. 1 Preble was soon afterward relieved by his senior, Commodore Barron. The value of his gallant services on the African coast was recognized by a vote of Congress, con- ferring upon him the thanks of the nation, and an elegant medal. These were presented to him, on his return home, by the President of the United States. On leaving his squadron, his officers expressed their esteem in a highly com- plimentary address. His services were soon afterward lost to his country, at a moment when they were needed more than ever. His health gave way toward the close of 1806, and on the 25th of August, 1807, he died, when in the forty- sixth year of his age. He was buried in his native town, with military honors. JOHN H. LIVINGSTON. TTEIE friend and earliest biographer of President Livingston says of him, " He JL was a man whose praise is in all the churches ; first in her councils first in her honors first in her affections." He was born at Poughkeepsie, Dutchess county, New York, on the 30th of May, 1746. 2 He received parental instruc- tion, only, until his seventh year, when he was placed under other tutors, among whom was the father of the late Chancellor Kent. At the age of twelve years, he entered Yale College, as a student, and was graduated in 1762, when only sixteen. The profession of the law opened a brilliant future for him, and he commenced its study under Bartholomew Crannel, of Poughkeepsie. His habitual seriousness was deepened into strong religious convictions, by hearing a sermon from the lips of the eminent Whitefield, and he resolved to abandon the law, and become a minister of the gospel. He accordingly went to Holland, in 1766, to prosecute theological studies in the University of Utrecht, and there he re- mained until 1770, and acquired the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He returned to America the same year, and became pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in the city of New York. Through his influence, internal dissensions, which had prevailed for some time, were healed ; the two parties formed a union, and, in 1772, the Dutch churches became independent of the classis of Amsterdam; a result for which he had labored while in Holland. When the Eevolution broke out, all was confusion in New York, and Dr. Livingston went to reside at Kingston, in October, 1775, where, a month after- ward, he was married to Sarah, daughter of Philip Livingston. Until the British took possession of the city of New York, the following year, Dr. Livingston went 1. See sketches of Bainbridge and Decatur. 2. The house iu which he was horn is yet in possession of the family of his only child, the late Colonel Henry A. Livingston. When the Britis'h went up the Hudson, in 1777, to hum Kingston, they fired a huavy round shot at this mansion, because its proprietor was a staunch Whig. It passed into the build- ing, and the ball is preserved by the family. The house stands on the margin of the river. It was built in 1714, the year when the father of Dr. Livingston was born. JOHN" H. LIVINGSTON. 201 down frequently, and preached to the remnant of his flock, who were compelled to remain. 1 He officiated ministerially at Albany and Livingston's Manor; and, in. 1781, he took up his abode at his father's mansion, in Poughkeepsie. and oc- cupied the pulpit of the Dutch Church there, for about two years. When the British left New York, Dr. Livingston resumed his pastoral charge there, and the following year he was chosen, by the first convention, Professor of Theology. He performed his new duties, with those of his ministerial services, with great zeal, in New York and its immediate vicinity, until 1810, when, on the removal of Queen's College (the theological school in which he was professor) to New Brunswick, in New Jersey, he was chosen its president. His inaugural address is a model of its kind, full of learning and the purest Christian spirit. In 1813, he completed a version of the Psalms and Hymns used in the church, pursuant to the request of the general Synod, and that collection is now the standard book throughout that denomination. As the college under his charge did not flourish as a literary institution, an effort was commenced, in 1815, to make it a Theo- logical Seminary, exclusively. That measure was carried into effect, and from that time, until the present, it has held that character. Its name has been changed to Rutger's College, in honor of a distinguished citizen of New York who nobly patronised it. 1. Dr. Livingston administered the Lord's Snpror in the Middle Dutch Church (now [1855] the city Post OSfice), in June, 1776, the last until the British Ipft the city, in November, 1783. 9* 202 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. Dr. Livingston's health began to fail many years before his death, yet ho labored on and hoped on, until the last. Finally, in January, 1825, he was at- tacked with acute pain, but was soon relieved. On the evening of the 28th he prayed fervently, in his family, and went to bed in usual health. When his grandson called him to arise for breakfast the next morning, the spirit of the good man had departed to the bosom of his God whom he so dearly loved and so faithfully served. He was then in the seventy-ninth year of his age. QOIJVERNEUR MORRIS. r'E preparation of the Constitution of the United States in the form adopted by the convention, in 1787, and ratified by a majority of the States, the following year, was the work of the accomplished scholar and statesman, Gou- verneur Morris, brother of Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. He was born at Morrisania, on the Westchester shore of the Harlem River, New York, on the 31st of January, 1752. The death of his father left him to the care of his mother at the age of twelve years. He was graduated at King's (now Columbia) College, in the city of New York, in May, 1768, at the age of sixteen years, and his oration on that occasion, on the subject of Wit and Beauty, made a marked sensation among the polished circles of the day. He studied law under William Smith, the historian of New York, and afterward chief justice of the province, and was licensed to practice, in the Autumn of 1771. He was not yet twenty years of age, yet he had already engaged in political discussions of the day, especially upon financial subjects, and had at- tracted the attention of many leading men. He continued much before the public in speech and in print, until 1775, when he was elected to a seat in the New York Provincial Congress. There he made a most favorable impression, and was soon an acknowledged leader, although then only twenty -three years of ago. He was one of the committee of correspondence for the city of New York, and his pen was continually busy for the patriot cause. In the Summer of 1776, he was sent as special agent to the Continental Congress, on the subject of payment to troops ; and in the Autumn of the following year, he was elected to a seat in that body. He was placed on a committee to confer with General Washington on the subject of a new organization of the Continental army, and he spent nearly three months in the camp at Valley Forge. From the moment of presenting his credentials, Mr. Morris was one of the most active and highly esteemed members of Congress ; and finally, when the government was newly organized, in 1781, under the Articles of Confederation, he was made assistant financial agent with his great namesake of Philadelphia. He was now a per- manent resident of that city, where, by an accident, he lost a leg. 1 He remained there until 1786, when he purchased the paternal estate at Morrisania from a Tory brother, and soon afterward made it his abode. He was a delegate from Pennsylvania in the convention that framed the Federal Constitution, and when the various articles had been thoroughly discussed and agreed upon, the task of putting the whole instrument into proper form and language was entrusted to Mr. Morris. The following year he went to Paris, and resided there until early in 1790, when, having received from President Washington the appointment of 1. He was thrown from a carriage in the streets of Philadelphia, and the bones of one of his legs were to much shattered, that amputation became necessary. He always wore a rough stick, as a substitute, and would never consent to have a handsome leg made. THOMAS M'KEAN. 203 private agent to transact Important business with the British ministry, he went to London. After accomplishing his business, ho made a brief tour on the Con- tinent. Early in 1792, he received intelligence of his appointment as minister plenipotentiary to the French court, and that important station he filled until the Autumn of 1*794, when he made another Continental tour, chiefly for the purpose of gathering information for the benefit of himself and country. He finally returned to America in the Autumn of 1798, and retired to private life at Morrisania, after an absence of ten years, during which time he had been en- gaged in the most arduous public and private duties. He was soon afterward elected to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, and held a seat there from May, 1800, until March, 1803. He travelled most of the remainder of 1803, in the United States and Canada. His thoughts were ever active on the subject of the internal improvement of his native State. He was among the earliest to appreciate Jesse Hawley's plan for connecting the waters of Lake Erie and the Hudson, by a canal, and was one of the most ardent friends of the project. He did not live to see it consummated, for death suddenly terminated his career, on the 6th of November, 1816, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Mr. Morris was a fine writer, and his pen wielded an extensive influence during half a century. THOMAS M'KEAN. AMONG the numerous men of note, in Pennsylvania, who received an aca- demic education under Francis Allison, 1 was the eminent Chief Justice M'Kean, of that State. He was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 19th of March, 1734. He studied law with his relative, David Finney, at New Castle, in Delaware ; and during his student life, he was clerk of the prothono- tary Court of Common Pleas, for that county. He was admitted to practice before he was twenty-one years of age, and his upward course in his profession was rapid and highly honorable. In 1756, he was appointed deputy of the at- torney-general, to prosecute in the county of Sussex, and the following year he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He was ap- pointed clerk of the assembly of Delaware, at about the same time ; and that body, in 1762, appointed him a colleague, with Caesar Rodney, to revise and print the laws of the province enacted during the preceding ten years. That same year he was chosen a member of the Delaware Assembly, 2 and then he commenced his distinguished political career, in earnest, which continued for almost half a century. He was annually reflected to the Assembly for seventeen years, against his continually expressed desire to leave public life, and even while, for six years of the time, he was a resident of the city of Philadelphia. This was an extraordinary proof of his ability and fidelity. 3 In 1784, the legislature appointed him one of three trustees of the provincial loan office, and he performed the duties of that station until 1772. He was a delegate to the "Stamp Act Congress" held in New York, in 1765, and was 1. See sketch of Francis Allison. 2. The present State of Delaware, which William Penn obtained by grant and purchase, in 1682, ar.d annexed to hts province of Pennsylvania, was originally known as The Territories, comprising the three counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. Penn gave the people of Pennsylvania a new and more liberal charter, in 1701, but the people of The Territories preferred a separate and independent govern- ment. A compromise was effected. The Delaware counties were allowed a dist n~t and independent assembly, under the same governor and council as Pennsylvania. Such was the political condition of the two commonwealths, until finally separated in 1776. 3. When he finally positively declined a re-election, in 1777. the people insisted that he should name some of the best men in Delaware, for their representatives. He did so, and all were elected. THOMAS BALDWIN. one of the most energetic friends of popular liberty in that assembly. In 1771, he was appointed collector of the customs at New Castle, and was a commissioner of the revenue. In the Autumn of 1772, he was chosen Speaker of the As- sembly. He was a delegate for his adopted province "in the first Continental Congress, in 1774; and he was a member of the national council from that time until the return of peace, in 1783. As such he advocated independence, and signed the great Declaration. He was one of the committee appointed to draw up the Articles of Confederation ; and while acting as a senator in Congress, and president of the newly-organized State of Delaware, he was also distinguished as a soldier, in New Jersey, with the commission of colonel. In July, 1777, he was commissioned chief justice of Pennsylvania, and held that exalted office for twenty years. It was a position of great responsibility, but Judge M'Kean was equal to the task he had assumed. He was president of Congress, in 1781 ; and, in 1787, he was a member of the Pennsylvania convention which ratified the Federal Constitution. He was its earnest advocate, and was extremely in- fluential iu procuring its ratification, by Pennsylvania. In 1789, Judge M'Kean assisted in amending the constitution of his native State ; and ten years after- ward, at the end of a warm party contest, he was elected governor of Pennsyl- vania. He was rather violent in his party zeal, and his course as chief magis- trate created the most bitter animosity against him. His political enemies tried to impeach him, but his stern integrity never allowed him to deviate from the strict line of duty, and they found no true basis for their attempts to degrade him. For nine years he governed Pennsylvania with firmness, ability, and great discretion, and then retired from public life. Only once again did he appear in a popular assembly. It was in Independence Hall, in 1814, when the safety of Philadelphia seemed in jeopardy from the British. He presided, and reminded the people that there were then only two parties, " our country and its invaders." The venerable patriot went down into the grave, on the 24th of June, 1817, when past the eighty-third year of his age. THOMAS BALDWIN. ONE of the most eminent lights of the Baptist Church, in America, was the Reverend Thomas Baldwin, D.D., who was born at Bozrah, 1 Connecticut, on the 23d of December, 1753. His early education was very limited, yet his ardent aspirations for knowledge overcame many obstacles in his way. When he was sixteen years of age his parents went to Canaan, then a frontier town in New Hampshire, to reside, and there his youth was spent in the laborious voca- tion of a blacksmith, the business of his step-father. He was frequently called upon to read sermons to the people on the Sabbath, when the minister was ab- sent, he being the only young man in the place capable of performing such ser- vice. Only a few books could then be obtained, yet so thoroughly did he study all that fell in his way, that, when arrived at manhood, he possessed a stock of miscellaneous knowledge much greater than that of most young men of his time, out of cities. Young Baldwin was married to Ruth Huntington, of Norwich, in 1775, and 1. The origin of this name is a little amusing. A plain man, -who lived where Fitchville now is, was not remarkable for quoting Scripture correctly. On one occasion, in quoting the sentence from Isaiah, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah," &c., he stated that the Prophet Bozrah said thus and so. He was ever afterward called the Prophet, and his place was named Bozrah. When the town was incorporated, that name was given to it. THOMAS BALDWIN. 205 soon afterward became a member of the Baptist Church. He was ordained for tho Christian ministry, in the Summer of 1*783 ; and at about the same time he was elected to a seat in the Connecticut legislature. Never was a man more devoted to his calling, than was this eminent young servant of Christ. He soon declined political office, because it interfered with his ministerial labors. Like Paul, his own hands ministered to his necessities, for, during the first seven years of his pastoral labors, his salary did not amount to forty dollars a year. Yet he travelled on horseback over a large district of country. The fame of Mr. Baldwin, as a zealous preacher, was soon in all the churches ; and, in November, 1790, he was installed pastor of the Second Baptist Church, in Boston. The change from the ruder society of the frontier, to the more re- fined of the metropolis, was very great, yet his services were most acceptable, from the beginning. His fervid and persuasive eloquence captivated all hearts, and remarkable revivals occurred under his preaching. "Within the space of two years [1803-1805], over two hundred communicants were added to his congregation. In 1803, the Faculty of Union College, New York, conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity, upon Mr. Baldwin; and the same year he commenced the publication of the American Baptist Magazine. He was its sole editor until 1817, and senior editor until his death. It was a powerful auxiliary in his hands, in promoting the growth of the Baptist Church in this country ; and, for a long 206 SETH WARNER. time, it was the only publication issued by that denomination on this side the Atlantic. Although eminent as a preacher and editor, Dr. Baldwin is more widely known to the reading world as an author. The number of his published works is thirty- four, a large proportion of which consists of sermons, printed by special request. His writings on Baptism have always been regarded as expressing the opinions of the standard authorities of his denomination. Dr. Baldwin was a zealous friend of institutions of learning, especially of those fostered by the Baptist Church ; and during his long life, until his steps began to totter, he was an active laborer. He literally "died in harness," for he expired at Waterville, Maine, on the day after preaching two instructive sermons at Hallowell. His departure was on the 29th of August, 1825, at the age of seventy-two years. Temperate and regular in his habits, his old age was like a sunny landscape just at evening, suffused with golden light. SETH WARNEK. 4 MONO- the Green Mountain Boys of the last century, the man next to Ethan Allen in their esteem, for daring courage, unflinching patriotism, and pleas- ant companionship, was Seth Warner, a native of Woodbury, Connecticut, where he was born at about the year 1744. We have no reliable records of his early life, except that he was fond of athletic sports and the excitements of the chase. He took up his abode at Bennington, in the present Vermont, in 1773, and was famous throughout that whole region as a deer and bear hunter. In the contro- versy with the authorities of Vermont, he was one of the leaders of the people ; and in March, 1774, the legislature of New York passed an act of outlawry against him. He was with Ethan Allen at the capture of Ticonderoga, in May, 1775, and commanded the little force that took possession of Crown Point immediately afterward. He received a colonel's commission from Congress, raised a regiment of Green Mountain Soys, 1 and joined the army in Canada, under General Montgomery ; but on the approach of Winter, they were discharged. He had been of great service after the capture of Ethan Allen, at Montreal, and on the 1st of Novem- ber, had repulsed a considerable British force, under Governor Carleton, which attempted to land at Longueuil for the purpose of driving the invading Amer- icans back to Lake Champlain. The following Spring, Warner raised another regiment, marched toward Quebec, and was very serviceable in the final retreat of the Americans from Canada. In all the operations in the vicinity of Lake Champlain, in 1776, Colonel Warner was an efficient participator; and he was at Ticonderoga, in the Summer of 1777, when Burgoyne compelled the Amer- icans to abandon that post. He commanded a part of St. Clair's troops in that retreat, and gallantly fought the pursuing enemy at Hubbardton, on the 7th of July. Defeated in that engagement, he made a successful retreat to Manchester, and on the 16th of August following, he was with the gallant Stark in the en- gagement known as the Battle of Bennington. He then joined General Gates on the Hudson, assisted in humbling Burgoyne, and participated in the glory of his defeat and capture. He engaged very little in public life, after that event, be- cause his health was greatly impaired by a complication of disorders. He lin- gered on until 1785, when death ended his sufferings. He died at his birth-place, at the age of about forty-one years. Grateful for his services, his adopted State granted a valuable tract of land to his widow and children. 1. See sketch of Ethan Allen. JOSEPH REED. 207 JOSEPH REED. " T AM not worth purchasing:, but, such as I am, the King of Great Britain is 1 not rich enough to do it," are the noble words attributed by tradition to Joseph Reed, of Pennsylvania, and uttered when a bribe was offered for his influence in favor of Great Britain, in 1778. He was born at Trenton, New Jersey, on the 27th of August, 1741. His father soon afterward made Phila- delphia his residence, for several years. Joseph was designed for the profession of the law, and was educated in the college at Princeton, where he was grad- uated in 1757, with a Bachelor's degree, at the early age of sixteen years. He first studied law with Richard Stockton, and completed his legal education in the Temple, in London. On his return home, he made Philadelphia his residence, entered warmly into political life, and was one of the committee of correspond- ence in his adopted city, in 1774. He was chosen president of the first popular convention in Pennsylvania; and, in 1775, he accompanied Washington to Cambridge as his aid and secretary. He remained with the chief during that campaign, and the following year, when Gates was appointed to the command in the Northern Department. Mr. Reed was then appointed adjutant-general of the American army, with the rank of colonel. He performed efficient service in the battle near Brooklyn, in August, 1776, especially in the management of the admirable retreat of the Americans. In the Spring of 1 7 7 7, he was appointed a brigadier, in command of cavalry, but declined the honor, yet he remained at- tached to the army until after the battle at Germantown, in the Autumn of 1777. He was soon afterward elected to a seat in Congress, and was a member of that body when, in the Spring of 1778, commissioners came from England to negotiate a peace on the basis of the submission of the colonists to the crown. It was to the agent of one of these commissioners that he is said to have ad- dressed the words above quoted. 1 The fact became known, and Congress re- fused farther intercourse with the commissioners. In 1778, General Reed was chosen president of the newly-organized commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and filled that station with great ability until October, 1781, when he retired from public life, and resumed the practice of the law. Like all dutiful men, he was the target for unmeasured abuse from his political opponents ; but when time dissipated the clouds of party rancor, all men beheld in Joseph Reed a patriot and an honest man. His health became impaired in 1784, and he went to Eng- land to seek its restoration, but without beneficial results. 2 He died on the 4th of March, 1785, at the age of forty-four, years. 1. The agent chosen was Mrs. Ferguson, a native of Pennsylvania, whose husband was a relative of Adam Ferguson, the secretary of the commission. She was a woman of superior attainments, and loved her country. She was a passive, rather than an active agent in the matter. In her account of her in- terview with Mr. Reed, she says his words were, "My influence is but small, but were it as great as O-overnor Johnstone [the commissioner who approached General Reed, through Mrs. Ferguson] would insinuate, the King of Great Britain has nothing within his gift that would tempt me." Alluding to this, Trumbull, in his "M'Fingall," says : " Behold, at Britain's utmost shifts, Comes Johnstone, loaded with like gifts, To venture through the Whiggish tribe, To cuddle, wheedle, coax, and bribe ; And call to aid his desp'rate mission, His petticoated politician ; While Venus, joined to act the farce, Strolls forth embassadress of Mars." 2. Mr. Reed married a daughter of Dennis de Berdt, a London merchant, in 1770. Though in delicate health, she was active in her sphere of duty in relation to public events. She was at the head of an association of ladies, formed in Philadelphia in 1780, to furnish clothing for the army. No less than twenty-two hundred ladies joined the association, and contributed by their money and needles to the comfort of the soldiers. 208 JAMES RIVINGTON. JAMES RIVINGTON. T)ERHAPS one of the most acute and successful political gamesters in this JT country, was James Rivington, "the king's printer," in New York, during a greater portion of the "War for Independence. He was a native of London, well-educated, courtly in deportment, and a general favorite among his acquaint- ances. He was a bookseller in London, but failing in business, he came to America, in 1760, and opened a book-store in Philadelphia. The following year he opened another at the foot of Wall Street, New York; and, in 1762, he established a third, in Boston. His partner in the latter died three years after- ward, and it was closed. In the course of a few years he again failed in busi- ness, but settling his affairs satisfactorily, he resumed it in New York, and thereafter confined his operations to that city. He commenced printing books, in 1772 ; and, in the Spring of the following year, he published the first number of his Royal Gazetteer, a weekly newspaper. It was conducted with considerable fairness, but after the hostilities in Massachusetts, in the Spring of 1775, he took strong ground against the "Whigs, and excited their fiercest indignation. Their ire took tangible shape in November of that year, when Isaac Sears (a leader of the Sons of Liberty ten years before), at the head of a troop of Connecticut mil- itia, marched into the city at noon-day, destroyed Rivington's press, and car- ried off his type to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Rivington soon afterward went to England, but returned in the Autumn of 1776, when the British had taken possession of New York. Early in 1777, he resumed the publication of his paper, and from that time till the close of the war, he dealt hard and unscrupu- lous blows upon the patriots, from Washington and Congress down to the most obscure official. And yet, toward the close of the conflict, while his press was the vehicle of the coarsest abuse of Washington and his friends, it is a well-at- tested fact that Rivington was secretly furnishing the American commander-in- chief valuable information concerning the movements and plans of the enemy within the city. Such was the case from early in 1781, until the evacuation of the city by the British near the close of 1783. 1 This fact accounts for the other- wise inexplicable circumstance, that Rivington, the arch-loyalist, was allowed to remain while thousands of less offending Tories were compelled to flee to Nova Scotia. Rivington sagaciously perceived the inevitable result of the con- flict, and thus made a peace-offering to the Americans. His business declined after the war, and he lived in comparative poverty for many years, simply be- cause he would not relinquish his expensive mode of living. 2 He died in July, 1802, when at the age of about seventy-eight years. 1. By means of books -which he printed, he performed his treason without suspicion. He wrote his information upon thin paper, and hound those billets in the covers of books which he adroitly managed to sell to persons employed by Washington to buy of him, but who were ignorant of the transaction. Wash- ington removed the covers, and found the desired information. Referring to the change in the tone of Rivington's paper, at the close of the war, Philip Frenau, the vigorous epic and lyric poet of the Revolution, wrote, in the editor's name : " You know I was zealous for George's command, But since he disgraced it, and left us behind, If I thought him an angel I've altered my mind. On the very same day that his army went hence, I ceased to tell lies for the sake of his pence ; And what was the reason the true one is best, I worship no sun that declines to the west." 2. Referring to this, Frenau wrote : " Long life and low spirits were never my choice, As long as I live I intend to rejoice ; When life is worn out, and no wir.e 's to be had, 'Tis time enough then to be serious and sad, 'Tis time enough then to reflect and repent, When our liquor is gone, and our money is spent." JOHN DICKENSON. 209 JOHN DICKENSON. THE " Letters of a Farmer of Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies," published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, during the Summer and Autumn of 1767, had a powerful influence on the American mind, in preparing it for the great struggle for freedom, even then impending. The author was John Dickenson, a native of Maryland, where he was born, on the 13th of November, 1732. His father was first judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in Delaware, and being wealthy, his son had every advantage of social position and pecuniary ease, at the beginning of life. He was well educated by private tutors, and then went to England and studied law in the Temple, for three years. He first appeared in public life as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, in 1764, where the readiness of his pen attracted general attention. He was also a member of the Stamp Act Congress, in 1765. He soon afterward commenced writing political essays ; and during the whole conflict, which commenced in earnest in 1775, his pen was always active and efficient. His Letters of a Penn- sylvania Farmer, above alluded to, were published in London, by Dr. Franklin, in 1768, and the following year they were translated into French, and published at Paris.' 1. The people of Boston passed a vote of thanks to Mr. Dickenson for those Letters, and the Society of Fort St. David, of Philadelphia, presented him with an address in " a box of heart of oak." 210 PETER MUHLENBE11G. Mr. Dickenson was a member of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and his pen was instrumental in the preparation of two of the State papers put forth by that body. He wrote the Declaration of the Congress of 1775, setting forth the causes and the necessity for war ; yet ho steadily opposed the idea of polit- ical independence, for he hoped for a reconciliation. For that reason, he was intentionally absent from Congress on the 4th of July, 1776, for he was unwill- ing to vote on the subject of independence, contrary to the expressed wishes of his constituents. In the Autumn of 1777, President M'Kean, of Delaware, commissioned him a brigadier-general, but his military career was short. Ho was again elected to Congress, in 1779, and there, as before, his pen was em- ployed in the preparation of important State papers. In 1780, he took his seat, as a member, in the Delaware Assembly; and, in 1782, he was elected president or governor of Pennsylvania. He held that office until October, 1785. He was one of the mqst accomplished and efficient members of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution ; and over the signature of Fdbius he published nine ably-written letters in its defence. In 1792, he assisted in forming a Con- stitution for Delaware; and, in 1797, he published another series of political letters over the signature of Fdbius. At about that time he retired from public life, and the remainder of his days were passed in the enjoyment of domestic and social happiness, at Wilmington, where he died on the 14th of February, 1808, at the age of seventy-five years. Dickenson College, at Carlisle, Pennsyl- vania, is a noble monument to perpetuate his memory. It is now [1854] under the control of the Baltimore and Philadelphia conferences of tho Methodist Episcopal Church. PETEK MUHLENBERG. OPIRITUAL and temporal warfare was the lot of many Gospel ministers, dur- ing the War for Independence. Of those who wielded weapons manfully, in both fields of conflict, was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, who generally wrote his name with the John and Gabriel omitted. He was a native of Trappe, a village in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, whore ho was born on the 1st of October, 1746. He was the son of Dr. Melchoir Muhlenberg (the founder of the Lutheran Church in America), and the daughter of Conrad Weiser. the great Pennsylvania Indian agent. Peter was educated for the ministry, partly in this country, and partly in Europe. He was ordained in 1768, and commenced his pastoral labors in Western New Jersey the following year. He was called to the charge of a congregation in Virginia, in 1771, and it being necessary to ob- tain ordination from an English Bishop, before he could enter upon his duties tliero, he went to London for the purpose, at the beginning of the following year. He and Mr. (afterward Bishop) White were ordained at the same time. On his return, he became minister of the parish of Woodstock, Virginia, and was soon an acknowledged leading spirit of that section among those who opposed British aggressions. He was chairman of the committee of safety in that county, in 1774, and was elected to a seat in the House of Burgesses. At the close of 1775, he was appointed colonel of a Virginia regiment, and, relinquishing his pastoral duties, 1 he joined the army, and was in the battle at Charleston, in 1. In concluding his farewell sermon, he quoted the language of Holy Writ, which declares that there is " u time for all things," and atl led, -with a trumpet voice, " there is a time to fight, and that time has now come !" Then laying aside his gown, he stood hefore his flo^k in the fill uniform of a Virginia colonel. He then ordered the drums to be bea en at the church door fr recruits, and alrcon three hundred men, chiefly of his congregation, were enrolled under his banner, that day. SILAS TALBOT. 211 June, 17 76. Congress commissioned him a brigadier, in February, 1777, and he was ordered to take charge of all the Virginia Continental troops. He joined the army, under Washington, at Middlebrook, in May, and was with the chief in all his movements from that time until 1779 Brandywine, Germantown, White Marsh, Valley Forge, and Monmouth. He was with Wayne at the cap- ture of Stony Point, in July, 1779, and was very active afterward, in Virginia, until the capture of Cornwallis, in the Autumn of 1781. He was a brave par- ticipator in that last great battle of the Revolution. At the close of the war he was promoted to major-general, and removed to Pennsylvania. Ho never re- sumed his ministerial labors, but served his native State in several civil offices. He was a member of the first and third Congress, after the organization of the Federal Government, and was also a United States Senator, in 1801. He was appointed supervisor of the revenue of Pennsylvania the same year; and, in 1802, ho was made collector of the port of Philadelphia. In that office he re- mained until his death, which occurred at his country seat, near Philadelphia, on the 1st of October, 1807, when ho was precisely sixty-one years of age. His remains lie buried in the burial-ground at Trappe, near the church wherein ho was baptized.