CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM Bequest of ROG"PR P. CLAHK 1940 Cornell University Library E 176.S62 Sketches of men of progress. 3 1924 028 697 898 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028697898 SKETCHES MEN OF PEOG-EESS. JAMES PARTON. BAYARD TAYLOR. HON. AMOS KENDALL. REV. E. D. MAYO. J. ALEXANDER PATTEN. AND OT£LBB TTBITEES. EMBELLISHED WITH HANDSOME STEEL POETEAITS Bt KITCHIE, PEEINE, AMD HALL. \o ipeclM of writing Hema mote worthy of cnltivntion tban blogrnphy -ianj/Atw NEW YORK AND HARTFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY. GREER & COMPANY, CINCINNATI. 1870-18V1. :.llj|;AUY Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 18T0, By the new YORK AND HAETFOKD PUBLISHING CO. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PREFACE. This volume is now offered to the public, containing bio- graphical sketches, and steel engravings, of many prominent Americans who are entitled to appreciative memoirs— states- men, lawyers, financiers, manufacturers, merchants, and in- ventors, who by their own unaided talents and efforts have risen from comparatively humble circumstances to some of the highest and most responsible places in this republic — men who were not nursed in the " lap of luxury ; " men who, in early life, had neither advantages in education nor pecuniary means ; but who, nevertheless, have become emi- nently distinguished for ability, industry, perseverance, and gi'eat attainments. Such men are really the bone and sinew of this great republic. In compiling this work, " Men of Progress," the editor and publishers claim no credit for performing their tasks, but have earnestly endeavored to do their best, and to make the work fully equal and even superior to what was prom- ised. Some of the first talent in the country has been employed on the engravings. Much labor has been in- volved in bringing it to completion. Such persons have been selected as examples, who seemed to illustrate some particular genius, or special trait of character, worthy the imitation of our American youth. Hundreds of letters 4 PREFACE. liave been written to the subjects of sketclies, and all infor- mation that could be obtained, has been sought for from reliable data. The sketches are plain descriptions of worthy " Progressive Men." The aim of the editor has been to give authentic facts and dates, rather than elegant diction or iowery style. Some of the sketches have been prepared by some of our most popular wTiters. By the particular request of others, their names are not given. Possibly some subjects may not have been sufficiently estimated, and par- ticular traits and virtues made prominent. None can regret more sincerely than the writers any failure on their part to appreciate true merit, or to have omitted any noble deeds worthy of recording. Biographies of eminent self-made men are instructive moral, lessons for the young. It may stimulate them to exertion ; for all attainments that have been accomplished may be repeated. It kindles in the heart and mind lauda- ble ambition, a desire to excel in the march for fame and distinction in the great and grand enterprises of the present day, which are so well illustrated by the peculiar freedom of our own American institutions. Steel engravings are the most pleasant and attractive features of a book ; and especially are they so when accoin- panied by the memoirs of our friends. Kenowned persons of the Eoman Commonwealth used to say " that whenever they beheld the images of their ancestors, they felt their minds incited to virtue." In the compilation of this work we have met wdth various delays and difficulties that could not be surmounted ; but have spared no effort or pains to make the work creditable. PREPACK. 5 We tender our many thanks to the writers and to others, for favors extended to us. The sketch of Geo. W. Childs was written by James Parton for this volume. The biography of Geo. H. Boker was prepared expressly for this work by Bayard Taylor. The life of Daniel Drew was originally written by Dr. McClintock, and published in the "Ladies' Repository." Some additions to it have been prepared for this work by T. N. Parmlee, Esq., of New Haven. We acknowledge our indebtedness to the " Evemng Mail " for a part of Rev. George Hepworth's sketch. The article on James W. Gerard was written some time since by L. A. Hendrick, for the " New York Herald." To Mr. J. Trainor King, editor of " Leisure Hours," we are indebted for the article on Gen. G. W. Cass. J. G. Hollaitd's sketch was originally published in the " Phrenological Journal," and kindly famished us by the publisher, S. R. Wells. New Toek, Peb'y, 1871. CONTENTS FOUO Chapiu, Edwin Hubbell 1 Bryant, "William Cullen T Hoffman, John T 13 Field, David Dudley 23 MoCormick, Cyrus Hall 31 Grow, Galusha A 61 Morgan, Edwin D 69 Childs, G. W 75 Gerard, James "W 91 Webb, W. H 103 Pierrepout, Edwards 113 Smith, E. Delafield 117 Drew, Daniel 143 Johnston, John Taylor 155 English, James B 163 Kelley, William D 171 Tilden, Samuel J 181 Gough, John B 191 Garrison, C. K 195 Willmarth, Arthur F 203 Tanderbilt, William H 209 Barnes, Alfred S 213 Weed, Thurlow 221 Leland, Stanford 227 Durant, Thos. C 245 Scott, Thomas A 233 Boker, George H. 257 Clews, Henry 267 Allison, W. C 275 Hepworth, Rev. G. H 279 Gould, Jay 287 Holland, Josiah G 301 Burohard, Eev. S. D 307 Newberry, J. S 313 Peak, William 1 321 Vanderpoel, Jacob 325 Pomeroy, S. C 327 Pratt, Zadock 337 Griswold, John A 343 Webb, James Watson 349 Roosevelt, James 1 405 Bement, William B 411 Morgan, Charles 419 POLIO Phillips, Philip 425 Hooker, Joseph 433 Taylor, James B 439 Baird, Matthew 441 Clay, Cassius Marcellus 447 Hatch, Rufus 453 Wilson, Henry 457 Saxe, John G. 465 Cass, Gen. George W , ; . . . 469 Singerly, Joseph .~ 475 Heintzelman, S. P 481 Spencer, James C 489 Stranahan, J. S. T 493 Parnum, Henry 501 Corning, Erastiis ,. 509 De Peyster, John W 517 Hulburd, Calvin T 527 Hastings, S. Clinton 533 Seymour, S 541 Van Anden, Isaac. . .^ 555 Kimball, H. I 565 Bullock, Rufus B 569 Quintard, George W 573 Talmage, Rev. T. De Witt.' 577 Beckwith, N. M ,. 583 Dillon, Sidney 587 Lawrence, Wm. B., LL. D 595 Lawrence, Albert G 611 Selover, A. A 617 Hulburd, Hiland R 623 Vanderpoel, Aaron J 631 Hazard, Augustiis G 635 Blaine, James G 647 Palmer, Oliver H 657 Lefferts, Marshall 661 Barnes, Demas i 669 Plimpton, James L 675 De Graaf, Henry P 683 Divine, William » 687 Hoadley, David 697 Bradford, George P 691 Smith, John Gregory 701 Smith. M. C 70T 'C^<:^^o^ EDWIS" HUBBELL OHAPEN". BY DR. MAYO. IDWIN HUBBELL CHAPUST was born in Union Village, Washington County, N. T., December 29, 1814 The county of Washington might be selected as a model county to illustrate the working of republican institutions in the United States, being originally peopled bj' a substantial race of Scotchmen, and remarkable for the intelligence, prosperity, and progressive spirit of its people. The academical education of Dr. Chapin w^as received at a seminary in Bennington, Vt., and his early tastes are said to have inclined to the study of law. From this he was soon attracted to the associate editorship of the Magazine and Advocate, one of the early Universalist newspapers in Utica, and at the age of twenty-three, after some experience of preaching, commenced his ministry as pastor of the Independent Ciiristian Church of Rich- mond, Yirginia. Although successful in his Richmond ministry, he soon discovered that the old Virginia of thirty years ago was a field too limited for his professional aspirations and order of mind. On a journey to the North, in September, 1839, he was invited to preach in the Universalist church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, whose pulpit had recently become vacant by the death of the lamented Thomas F. King. In his first sermon, on " Faith," preached in this pulpit, his con- gregation were electrified by a most touching tribute to their beloved pastor, and no time w'as lost in securing so worthy a successor. For six years Mr. Chapin was minister of ' the church in Charlestown, and rose daily in reputation, both as a preacher and a stirring orator in many of the reforms of the day. His efforts in the cause of temperance. Odd-fellowship, and education, were marked 1 2 EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIU. and widelj' influential. Indeed, liis eloquent voice never refused to obey the call of humanity. These years were doubtless the most fruitful in self-culture of the whole period of his ministry. Among his parishioners and constant hearers were the eminent historian and journalist, Richard Frothingham, Professor Tweed, perhaps the most careful literary critic of Hew England, and Thomas Starr King, just then contemplating an entrance into the ministry. It was a liberal education to preach for six years to such a congre gation, and never were pastor and people more happily adjusted to each other. The writer of this sketch remembers the first discourse of Mr. Chapin to which he listened, in company with Starr King, as one of those eventful evenings which tell so powerfully on the future career of a minister of Christ. At this time it was his privi- lege frequently to listen to sermons and addresses from the same source, which have never been surpassed in the most brilliant days of the doctor's metropolitan ministry'. From this enviable position Mr. Chapin removed to the School Street Church, in Boston, in 1846, becoming associate pastor with Hosea Ballon, and in 1848 made his final removal to New York, where he has been known as pastor of the Fourth IJniversalist Church for the last twenty years. He began his New York minis- try in the church in Murray Street, which soon ovferflowed. The society then purchased a beautiful church on Broadway, originally occupied by Dr. Bellows. In this large and central audience-room for many years Mr. Chapin gathered a Sunday congregation largely representative of the best elements of progressive Northern life. We have heard the most eminent of American statesmen declare that their visits to New York were often timed to include a Sunday of Dr. Chapin's preaching. Here, at the American center of theological and popular influence, Dr. Chapin entered largely into the profession of lecturer, and soon became as eminent in the lecture-room as he had already become in the pulpit and on the platform. In the midst of this exhausting life of public speaking, his liter 2 EDWIN H0BBELL CHAPIN. 3 ary pursuits were never forgotten. His library of English litera- tnre is probably one of the most valuable private collections in America, and no man better knows where to find or more keenly to appreciate the treasures of our language. In 1856 he received from Harvard University the degree of D. D., although he never had enjoyed the opportunity of a collegiate education. Under this accumulated weight of professional duty, the health of Dr. Chapin a few years since became seriously impaired. A timely journey to Europe, his second foreign tour, restored his health, and on his return he wisely determined to concentrate his future efforts chiefly upon his ministry. The profession of metro- politan preacher and lecturer can not be many years combined in safety. Parker, Mann, and King had already fallen nnder the double professional work, and the country has reason to be grateful that Chapin, Beecher, and Bellows at nearly the same time heeded the prudential warning and withdrew their forces within the ample field of a broad Christian ministry. Three years ^go the Fourth Universalist Society made its final removal to the spacious and elegant church on Fifth Avenue, where Dr. Chapin now ministers in the fullness of his great preaching powers. Like every man of commanding genius, Dr. Chapin struck the key-note of his great success in his eai'lier ministry, and has done little but develop- his own truly original method of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ One of his great sermons is the most complete answer to that shallow criticism which declares that the day of the preacher has passed. We venture to say that during the last quarter of a cen- tury a score of American preachers have raised the sermon to a higher point of effectiveness as a means of popular influence than it ever before attained ; and in his own peculiar sphere Dr. Chapiti has no rival in this illustrious company. The grand element of his success as a preacher is a large, generous, and inspiring manhood which envelops and interfuses his entire discourse, and compels tlie 3 4 EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN. most indifferent hearer to acknowledge tliat a true-liearted and large-minded man is talking to him, in dead earnest, on the greatest themes of life. It is this manhood, in which the child-like spirit is 80 wonderfully blended with ■ strength and volume, that tunes the wonderful voice and informs the earnest features, and lifts both speaker and hearer to the loftiest heights of religious exaltation. The intellect of Dr, Chapin is not logical, and to an over-critical mind would be regarded too neglectful of details, but it has the decisive test of genius in looking every subject into grand propor- tions. The first statement of his theme is always so comprehensive and suggestive, that the hearer might then go away feeling that he had never before conceived the vast relations of the most ordinary fact of the Christian life. But perhaps the crowning splendor of his genius is that power of imagination, without which no man can become a great Christian preacher, and in this exalted faculty he stands pre-eminent among American divines. By this power he penetrates the secret places of human nature, reads the motives, feels the temptations, and knows the spiritual conflicts of his fellow-men. When blended with his power of pathos, it is impossible to withstand the efiect of its tender and touching appeals. When it rises to its loftiest range of obser- vation over human experience, social and national affairs, and the great common interest of humanity, its effect is truly indescribable. Dr. Chapin is not the favorite minister of that cool, deliberate class who believe in salvation according to Whately and Blair. One thrilling passage upsets their coolness, melts their logical theories and throws them into the distressing posture of bowing like a bul- rush before a tempest of the Word of God. But he will always be the favorite preacher of the great class of Americans in whom the human, religious, and executive faculties are pre-eminent — the class which controls American affairs. Dr. Chapin, like his lamented' friend, Thomas Starr King, has always borne himself amid theo- logical disputes of the day in a manner most creditable to his char- acter of Christian consecration, and saving common sense ; no man 4 EDWIN HUBBBLL CHAPIN. 5 . is more familiar with that whole field of critical radical speculation in which so many of the lesser lights of theology, science, and litera- ture have gone out through skepticism to the blankness of atheistic negation. His brilliant imagination and tender affections have never been seduced into the advocacy of any tendency to an ultra- ritualism and conservatism. His entire manhood instinctively gravitates to the person of Jesus Christ, and his whole ministry is an eloquent commentary on Christ's law of love. Karely indulging in technical, theological discussions, averse to every form of dispu- tation or controversy, not distinguished as an executive manager in ecclesiastical affairs, his preaching is theological, reasonable, prac- tical in the highest sense, always setting before men those few central ideas and principles of the Christian life from which all just, holy, sweet, and successful living must naturally descend. Thus, while always maintaining his denominational relations, there is no American preacher to whom Christian people of every sect more gladly listen, who is more powerful to reach and move the great masses of his countrymen who are outside of any division of the Christian Church. 5 Ym^..,^ ^/^^^ ^/..../- '''n'l^pTVT.ij i WILLIAM OULLEE" BRYANT. "With the exception of some modifications and additions, we acknowledge our in- debtedness to the Eclectic Magazine, Eev. W. H. Bidwell, editor, for this slietoh. ^R, BEYANT is now the Yetevsjn, par excellence, of American letters — one of the honored few who, in the early years of the century, rocked the cradle of our literature, and have lived to see it attain its present stalwart and manly, if somewhat rugged, growth. But this is not all. For Mr. Bryaiht has the rare distinction not only of having assisted at the birth of a new litera- ture, but of having, as poet, critic, orator, and jouriialist, contributed to the development of every department in which American thought has since illustrated itself, except those of philosophy and juris- prudence. Unlike most of those who .entered, the field with him, he has kept up with the age— borne onward upon its current, not stranded upon " some green and grassy shore," which, however pleasant when the century was young, is now far in the wake of our intellectual progress. It is peculiar to Mr. Bryant, amon^f^ those early pioneers of our letters, that his genius sought no models, ran into no ruts, and ignored the evanescent themes of political and social life. From the first, he drew his inspiration from Nature, and the profounder moral problems which challenge the thoughts of humanity ; and as long as man shall seek solace from the bosom of " our common mother," the poems of Bryant will remain a guide and a consolation. Most of the writings of those who were the contemporaries of his youth have passed into the " storehouse of oblivion," which Time has prepared for so much of literary endeavor: but with the growth and elevation. of our intellectual culture, Bryant has but obtained a larger, more secure, and more 7 2 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. appreciative audience. Fifty -four years have elapsed since " Thana- topsis " was published, and it remains one of the simplest, most finished, and impressive poems in the language. When " Thanatopsis ""was written, Bryant was a youth of nine- teen. Since then, as we have said, he has constantly contributed to nearly every department of our literature. His poems iill a large volume ; his " Travels " embrace letters from all parts of Europe ; his editorial experience comprises the whole period since 1825 ; and for many years past scarcely any public meeting has been held connected with literature, art, free-trade, or cognate sub- jects, over which he has not presided. He has taken an active interest in, and was chairman of, the meeting to establish in New York a Metropolitan Museum of Art; and, should the scheme prove successful, his name will doubtless be prominently identified with it, as it has been with every other liberal and refining tend- ency of the past half century. Among the more recent productions of his genius, we remark his " Letters from the East," issued in 1869 by G. P. Putnam & Sons, publishers. The crowning literary work of Mr. Bryant's life is his transla- tion of the Iliad, the first volume of which was published in February, 1870, and the second in May following, by Fields, Osgood & Company. This translation is in unrhymed blank verse, and is ihe offspring of many years of labor and reflection. It is more simple, literal, and unaffected than any of its predecessors, and is Burely an honor to American scholarship, and a fitting cxxlmination to the poet's labors. In a recent number of Appletovus Journal^ there is an appreci- ative criticism upon the poetry of Mr. Bryant from the pen of Mr. Eugene Benson, entitled " The Poet of Our Woods " : — " Mr. Bryant's ' Forest Hymn,' in grave and measured language appropriate to the solemhity of the columned aisles of aged woods, and expressive of the majesty of solitude and thought in that dirn sanctuary, the forest, has associated his name with the most serious 8 "WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 3 love of Nature, and sliowu that his personal intercourse with the grand-mother of us all has something of the religiousness which less simple and less reflecting' men find only in the cere- monial pomps of the Roman Church, or in the dreary hymns of fanatics. " The ancestral and virginal life of the forest — its stillness, its expressive and admirable forms, its dignity, its remoteness — seems to have called forth the homage of our poet as nothing else in itfature. Mr. Bryant may be said to have gone to the woods as other men have gone to cathedrals ; and, under green and dusky domes of leaf and branch, under verdant roofs, festooned and arabesqued by trailing vine, or drooping tassel, or spicy cone, he has let his soul breathe apart from the less austere, less pure wor- shipers of the Universal Spirit. He has come from his religious musings in the woods charged with no trivial word, but with lessons of the integrity of Nature, and the dignity of a life conformed to the harmony and order of her own. More than any poet, he has expressed the understanding of Nature as the manifestation of one supreme God. Nothing of the Greek's worship of Nature is in Mr. Bryant's homage. His communion has been with one Spirit, not with many spirits. It is tliis whicli may be said to make his poetry so austere and simple. Mr. Bryant is not the man of simple sen- sation, siirrendered in gladness of heart and completeness of mere being to Nature ; he^ is tlie man of reflection, thoughtfully seeking to interpret Nature as the unimpeachable manifestation of Deity. And yet his most universally read poem, ' Thanatopsis,' might have been written by a Stoic, and is, save "Wordsworth's ' Ode,' the most impersonal poetic expression that was ever made of Pan- theism — a poem so religious, so instinct with the very sovereignty of mind and courage, that the young religious enthusiast who read it on the shore of Lake Leman, under the shadow of Mont Blanc, and the disciple of Emerson on the Hudson, alike found it the suf- ficient expression of their personal sense of life and Nature, and felt that the processioned harmony of noble words was never more 9 4 WILLIAM OtJLLEN BRYANT. equal to the reason of the mind, in face of all that it so mutely interrogates. " Seriousness of mind, which is at the bottom of the American character, is naturally reflected in such still and solemn intercourse with Nature — and it is this which makes Bryant the poet of our maturest reflection, apart from the life of men. The poetry of the American is not expressive of the revolt and energy of the human heart, but of his most sacred thoughts, of his most chastened ex- perience ; for this reason our poets are poets of the religious and moral sentiment, not of the individual and detaching experience of love and passion. " The death of the flowers, the falling of the autumn leaf, suggest thoughts common to us all, but which never have been rendered in more pathetic and yet reserved verse than Mr. Bryant's. ' The Death of the Flowers,' ' Jxme,' and the ' Forest Hymu,' have made Mr. Bryant's name dear to us in the sweet and serene and chastened life of the family. Pathetic and austere poet, his inspi ration naturally comes from solemn and placid tilings ; and the refrain, the under-voice of all, is the unavoidable question of man's mortality. In the expression of this, Bryant is supreme among our poets. Neither Whittier, nor Emerson, nor Longfellow, can be said to have so religious and solemn an inspiration. "Emerson is even jaunty and democratic in his intercourse with Nature ; she is a smiling sphinx, and has no tormenting enigma to his pure soul, but an equal and serene being to reward her lover. Longfellow describes Nature from his study-window. Whittier makes pictures with words of his home-walks. Bryant alone is the severe and abstracted worshiper, who visits the woods as a place of religion and peace. " Emerson's verse is brisk and abrupt, and he goes from rhyme to rhyme, as a squirrel from branch to branch, more nimble than mu- sical, and, with his carefully-chosen store of simple words, expresses his satisfied sense of Nature ; but Bryant is always sedate and lonely, and both the thought and diction of his verse seem bom of the 10 WILLIAM CULLBN BETANT. 5 spirit, and not of matter. In his communion with Nature, Bryant seems to be a poet preoccupied with the thought of death, and sad. dened by the history of the human race. Abstract as Shelley, and reflective like "Wordsworth, loving sonorous words, yet never se- duced by mere pomp of sound from his natural love of simplicity and purity of diction, he has written several poems not unworthy of either of the two great English poets of Nature. "So long as we are students of the past, so long as we are delicate and thoughtful, we must find in Bryant's poetry the interpretation of Nature, as the only compensation for all that tries and disgusts us with our fellow-men ; and, like the ' poet of our woods,' we will go from society to solitude, and under green arcades, in spicy groves, on the forest floor of leaf and moss, beneath great branches of pine that throw shadows as of twilight, or under Druid oaks of older lands, we will refresh ourselves with the antique and yet virginal show of things, or sit, like Old Mortality meditating on death and decay, — on every lugubrious and pallid thing, — seeing in Nature nothing but a vast sepulcher : in the trees i'estooned withgray moss, nothing but funereal cerements, wind-blown shrouds, mortuary draperies that veil the gladness of things, and, like cowled monks, are fit only to bend over the dying, and chant the requiems of the dead. Better it is, while woods are green, to listen to the cool music of the wind- stirred leaves, and feel the lyric exultation of mere youth for the odors, the sounds, the fairest visions of beauty; and, unsaddened by time and history, use Nature as the pasture-land of our senses. But for the saddened hour that comes to us all, for the dimmed and wailing beauty of November days, for the solemn and pathetic revery in the autumn woods, we must turn to Bryant, who is more of a seer and less of a child in the presence of Nature than any English poet but Gray. Something of the magic of "Wordsworth's best poetry is in Bryant's ' June ; ' and never has the pathos of our part in Nature been more tenderly expressed, certainly never with a more placid and resigned soul." " Cedar Mere," the beautiful country home of Mr. Bryant, be- 11 6 WILLIAM CULLEN BBTANT. speaks, in all its pleasing appointments and picturesque surround- ings, the cultivated tastes of its worthy master. It is here that he is delighted to retreat and give himself up to that loving com- munion with !N"ature which has kept his spirit fresh through all the turmoil of politics and journalism ; it is here, under trees of his own planting, and surrounded by rural prospects of which he knows every forest hem, every break in the line of the horizon, every bush and flower by the wayside, — and their habits, periods, and varieties as well, — that he finds the quiet he loves so much, and girds himself for his powerful intellectual efforts. Mr. Bryant was born at Cummington, Massachusetts, on the 3d of November, 1794, and is now in his seventy-seventh year. The portrait herewith shows the venerable poet as he looks now, with "all his honors," and the snows of nearly fourscore winters " thick upon him." 12 GOY. JOHN" T. HOFFMAK The folio-wing sketch we extract from " Life Sketches," published by S. C. Hutchins & H. H. Boone, Albany. ^OHN T. HOFFMAN, twenty-third Governor of the State of New York, was born at the village of Sing Sing on the 10th day of January, 1828. His grandfather, Philip Livingston Hoffman, was a resident of Columbia County, where he was educated to the law. He married Helena Kissam, a lady whose family was well known throughout the State. Adrian Kissam Hoffman, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Columbia County. The family subsequently moved to Montgomery County, where he studied medicine. After completing his studies, Dr. Hoffman married the daughter of Dr. Jx)hn Thomp- son of Saratoga County, and removed to Westchester County, where he entered upon the practice of his profession. He is still living and is widely known and universally respected, both for his skill as a physician and for his cliaracter as a man. John Thompson Hoffman, as a boy, displayed the germs of those qualities which, ripening in the growth, of later years, have ren- dered his name famous. The Rev. Dr. Prime, editor of the New York Observer, who was the Governor's first teacher, spoke, a few years ago, in the follow- ing terms of his former pupil : — " While yet a student he won some reputation as a public speaker. But his calm self-possession, independence of asaociatioa, and deliberate judgment, with great firm- ness of adherence to conclusions reached after careful examination, were qualittos so rarely developed in a young man that he early attracted attention as one in whom high trusts could be safely confided. . . . . .1 take no credit to myself for his career. The man at the head of the school, my father, had exalted ideas of justice, and inculcated in his daily instructiotis those notions of stern integrity, the in- flexibility of principle, the abstract duty of doing right irrespective of expediency, that go to make up the character of every really great man." 13 2 JOHN T. HOFFMAN. With such instrnction at school, and with Christian precepts and worthy examples to guide his footsteps at home, young Hoffman's early boyhood was passed. At the age of fifteen he entered the Junior class of Union College. This was in 1843, at a time when Dr. Nott was in the full enjoyment of his well-deserved fame. The practical lessons of that sound old philosopher produced a lasting impression on the mind of the youthful collegian, who, in despite of uncertain health, which compelled him to suspend his college course for one year, made rapid progress in his studies. He was graduated with the honors of the institution in 184:6. His oration on that occasion rose so much above the ordinary level of such efforts as to be note- worthy. He chose for his theme " Sectional Prejudices," and in the treatment of the subject he displayed a breadth of reasoning power and a knowledge of political science quite remarkable. With the ardor of boyhood he espoused then the cause of Democracy, and to its principles he has remained steadfast always. After leaving college, Mr. Hoffman commenced the study of law in the office of General Aaron Ward and Judge Albert Lockwood at Sing Sing. Mr. Hoffman's-political career began before he had attained his majority. In the year 1848, at the age of twenty, he was made a member of the State Central Committee by the Convention of Hunker or Hard-Shell Democracy. That year will long be remem- bered in tlie political history of the State. Martin Van Buren's candidacy for the office of President divided the Democracy of New York, causing strong and bitter feeliug between his supporters and those of the regular nominee, Lewis Cass, and resulting in -the overwhelming triumph of the Whig party. Taylor carried the State by a plurality of about 100,000, and Hamilton Fish was elected Governor — this, in face of the fact that the aggregate Democratic vote exceeded that of the Whigs. Pending the can- vass, the State Committee, of which Mr. Hoffman was a member put forth " An Address to the people," in which the claims of their 14 JOHN T. HOFFMAN. 3 principles and of their candidates were advocated with marked ability. Although not then a voter, Mr. Hoffman took the stump for Cass and Walworth and did effective service as a speaker. On the 10th of January, 1849, — his twenty -first birth-day, — Mr. Hoffman was admitted to the bar. In October of that year he removed to K'ew York, where, soon after, he formed a law partnership with the late Samuel M. Wood- ruff and Judge William H. Leonard, the firm name being Wood- ruff, Leonard & Hoffman. For ten years Mr. Hoffman devoted himself to the practice of his profession, and so marked was his success that in 1859 he was urged by some of the most pi-ominent citizens of New York for the position of United States District Attorney. But President Buchanan objected to him on account of his youth, and Judge Roosevelt was appointed to tlie place. In the year 1860 Mr. Hoffman was nominated for Recorder of the city of New York, and after a spirited canvass, was elected to that position. In this instance the office sought the man ! Mr, Hoffman had declined to have his name presented as a candidate, but he was, nevertheless, nominated by the Tammany Convention, on the second formal ballot. At the election which followed, he was the only candidate on the Tammany ticket who, without the support of other organizations, was chosen by tlie people. He en- tered upon his duties as Recorder on the 1st of January, 1861. None so young as he had ever before filled the place, but none made a deeper and more favorable impression on the public mind. His strict ideas of justice, tempered by the influence of a mer- ciful heart; his ample legal acquirements, laid on the foundation of rare good sense; his unhalting firmness in the discharge of duty and his unquestioned integrity, combined to render him a good and upright judge. So firm a hold did he gain on the popular heart during his first term as Recorder, in the course of wliich he tried and sentenced many of those engaged in the famous riots of July, 1863, that the Republican Judiciary Convention named hira, 15 4; JOHN T. HOFFMAN. on tlie 12th of October, 1863, for re-election, Tammany and Mozart also united on him; the newspaper press, regardless of party affiliations, indorsed him, and the people rallied enthusiasti- cally to his support and forgot party preji^dice in their admiration for an honest man. Under such flattering circumstances, he was again chosen Recorder by an almost unanimous vote of the electors. On the 21st of November, 1865, John T. Hoffman was nomi- nated for the office of Mayor of the city of New York by the Tammany Hall Democratic Convention. An effort to unite the then hostile factions of Tammany and Mozart had proved unsuc- cessful. Fernando Wood was nominate'd by the last-named organi- zation, but declined in favor of John Hecker, the candidate of the Citizens' Association, who was warmly advocated by the New York Tribune. 0. Godfrey Gunther, the then incumbent, had pre- viously announced himself as a candidate for re-election, and his claims were indorsed by what was known as the McKeon Democ- racy. The Republicans saw in the divisi3n of the Democratic vote a chance for their own success. They nominated Marshall O. Roberts, and under his leadership they inaugurated a most vigor- ous campaign. At the election- which followed 81,702 votes were cast, of which Judge Hoffman received 32,820 ; Mr. Roberts, 31,- 65T; Mr. Hecker, 10,390, and Mayor Gunther, 6,758. On the 1st of January, 1866, Mr. Hoffman entered npon his duties as Mayor. His administration of this office, joined with his previous reputation as Recorder, rendered his name faniiliar throughout the State, and during the summer he was frequently mentioned as the probable candidate of the Democracy for Governor. I'he convention which assembled at Albany on the 11th of Sep- tember was found to be composed of elements which had never before mingled in Sta.te politics. Old-Line Democrats joined hands with Conservative Republicans in an effort to unite all the varied forces which opposed the Radical course of Congress. One-third of the delegates had acted up to that time witli the Republican 16 JOHN T. HOFFMAN. 5 party. These were they who favored Andrew Johnson's policy and indorsed the Philadelphia Convention. They scarcely had faith, however, in the President's ability to carry his ideas to a successful issue. They were inclined to sing with Tennyson — " 'Tia true we have a faithful ally, But only the Devil knows what he means." The Democrats had just lost their great organizing leader, Dean Richmond, and these accessions to their ranks, at such a juncture, did not promise to promote harmony. But the convention at Albany .was a very large one, and it soon became apparent that', if a proper nomination were made for Governor, a vigorous campaign could be prosecuted with a reasonable hope of success. Under these circumstances, an unusual number of distinguished names were canvassed by the delegates. Sanford E. Church, Henry C. Murphy, William F. Allen, John T. Hoffman, Henry TV". Slocum, John A. Dix, William Kelly, and others, were mentioned as avail- able candidates. After a fair interchange of opinion it was found that a majority of the convention favored the choice of Mayor Hoffman, and on the second day^he was nominated by acclama- tion, amidst the wildest enthusiasm. The convention then ad- journed until afternoon, and on reassembling it was addressed by the candidate himself, who had been telegraphed for. His manly speech on that occasion made a lasting impression on the minds of the delegates, many of whom saw him then for the first time. After his nomination, Mayor Hoffman canvassed the State, speaking at Elmira, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, Brooklyn, ]^ew York, and other places. His earnest and con- vincing arguments were well received by the masses of the people everywhere. But frequent defeat had engendered amongst the Democrats a want of confidence in their ability to succeed, and the ill-timed tour of Johnson and Grant united the columns of the opposition, while it injured rather than benefited the party whoso interests the President sought to subserve. But, notwithstanding 2 17 6 JOHK T. HOFFMAN. these disheartening circumstances, the election returns showed a decided gain in the Democratic vote over the preceding year. After the election, the Democrats awofee to the knowledge of the fact that, had they made more effort, they might have overcome the small majority by which Governor Fenton was re-elected. The lesson came late, but it was not altogether lost, as the next year's contest showed. In the fall of 186Y, Mayor Hoffman was chosen temporary Chairman of the Democratic State Convention, and delivered a speech on that occasion in which he enumerated with admirable succinctness the governing principles of the party, and defined its attitude in relation to current questions with remarkable clearness. The ticket nominated by this Convention, headed by the Hon. Homer A. Nelson for Secretary of State, was successful at the en- suing election, its candidates being chosen by an average majority of over 47,000. Mr. Hoffman's first term as Mayor was then drawing to a close. The popularity which he had gained in the discharge of his duties made his renomination a foregone conclusion. The Tammany Convention met on the Saturday evening succeeding the State election. A great concourse of people gathered around the hall and when it was announced that Hoffman had been nominated without a dissenting voice, the air rang with the cheers of the sat- isfied populace. In this canvass, Mayor Hoffman had two com- petitors, Fernando "Wood, Mozart Democrat, and William A. Darling, Eepublican, The result of the election was significant. Hoffman carried every ward in the city. His vote was the largest ever given to any candidate in New York. His majority over both his competitors was nearly equal to the total vote of either. "With this unmistakable indorsement he entered upon his second term as Mayor, on the first ot January, 1868. His third annual message as Mayor contained a reiteration of his views on the question of city government ; which views were sim- ply the old theory of Jefferson, that in local affairs the local 18 JOHN T. HOFFMAN, 7 authorities should rule. Simple and sensible as this doctrine ap- pears, its enunciation gained the Mayor some vigorous abuse from his political opponents. But in despite of this, his popularity had grown so great that, when the National Democratic Convention met at New York in July, Mayor Hoffman's name was suggested by many of the Western delegates in connection witjh the Vice-Presidency. But he neither sought nor desired this honor, and the nomination of Gov- ernor Seymour for President placed it out of the power of the Convention to urge it upon him. On the 13th of August, 1868, the State Committee, together with many prominent Democrats, met in Utica, for consultation. This meeting developed the fact that Mayor Hoffman would again be the Democratic candidate for Governor. The canvass of 1866 had brought him in contact with the people who, everywhere, felt that he had earned this honor, by the earnest and effective service he performed in that disastrous year. "When the convention met in September the name of Senator Murphy, who was Mayor Hoffman's chief competitor, was with- drawn and John T. Hoffman was, for a second time, nominated by acclamation, for Governor of the State of New York. The Kepublicans had previously placed in nomination John A. Griswold, of Kensselaer. He was heralded as the builder of the first "Monitor," and this service, togetlier with his record in Congress, was dwelt upon until considerable enthusiasm was aroused among the people in his behalf. Both the candidates were young men, and the personal qualifi- cations of each were admitted by all ; but the canvass was one of peculiar bitterness. Victory seemed within the grasp of either party, and the pendency of the Presidential campaign roused pai-- tisans to extraordinary efforts and lent additional interest to the gubernatorial contest. Mayor Hoffman canvassed the State in person and addressed the electors at many of the principal towns. His presence inspired 19 8 JOHN T. HOFFMAN. confidence among his supporters, and his speeches, although they evolied sharp criticism from . Republican sources, cemented the elements of his strength. At the election which occurred on the 2d of November, 1868, he, was chosen Governor by a majority of 27,946. But opposition to Governor Hofi'man did not cease with the closing of the polls. The cry of "fraud" was set up and persisted in by those whose candidates had met defeat. This cry is no new catch-word for politicians of either party; but the vigor with which it was pressed in this particular instance made it somewhat effective in producing a feeling of popular prejudice against Governor Hoffman. How quickly this feeling was dissipated, after the Governor had taken his seat, is a matter of common knowledge. His bitterest enemies became his eulogists ; Kepublican newspapers commended his course, and an opposition Legislature indorsed, almost without a dissenting voice, every veto message which he submitted to their consideration. These vetoes were numerous and were aimed chiefly ■ at the evil system of special legislation which cumbers our statute- books with innumerable unnecessary laws that seldom prove bene- ficial except to individuals whose personal schemes are accomplished at the cost of the tax-payers. In personal appearance Governor Hoffman is above the medium height and has a strong well-knit frame. His weight is, perhaps, a hundred and seventy pounds. His hair is dark and abundant ; his forehead is broad and particularly developed in what phrenolo- gists call the perceptive faculties ; his eyes are of a deep brown color; his nose is large; his chin prominent, and his mouth shapely and indicative of firmness. He weara a full mustache but no beard. As a speaker he is plain, clear, and straightforward in manner as well as in matter. His voice is full, round and sonorous but he practices few of the tricks of the orator and seldom embel- lishes his speeches with rhetorical flourishes. As a writer he is ■argumentative rather than imaginative, and his style is too analyt- ical to be florid. He possesses, however, a certain happy power of 20 JOHN T. HOFFMAN 9 poetical description, which he displayed to good advantage in the Agricultural Address delivered by him before the Ulster County Fair, last September. In his intercourse witli his fellow-men Governor Hoffman is frank and genial ; he has nothing of the demagogue's overbearing pom- posity, and he is free from the sycophant's affectation of cordiality. He makes no promises which he does not keep ; he holds out no false hopes to applicants for his favor; he is loyal to truth, and he cherishes his personal integrity as something more valuable than any political power. Note. — Since the sketch of Governor Hoffman -was written, he has been re-elected Governor of New York by 33,066 majority. His public career has been one of signal triumph ; commencing at the bottom round of the political ladder, he has ascended step by step to the gubernatorial chair of the Empire State, and is now the prominent leader, and, to all appearances, the coming man of the Democracy in the next Presidential contest. 21 Z'i^^bvG-F:PenD- 'z^~^7^^:^^t ^5^^^^^ DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. f AYID DUDLEY FIELD was born, February 13, 1805, at Haddara, Connecticut, where hi? father, the Rev. David D. Field, was the Congregational minister. Instructed first in the common school of the district, he was at ten years of age transferred to his father's study, and there taught Latin, Greek, and Algebra. When he was fourteen his. father removed to Stock- bridge, Massachusetts, to become pastor of the church there. Here the son pursued his studies under the care of the Rev. Jared Curtis, then preceptor of the Stockbridge Academy, except that for one summer he attended Mr. Gleason's Academy at Lenox. In the fall of 1821, he entered Williams College. On leaving college he began the study of law in the office of Harmanus Bleeeker, at Albany, and, after a few months with him, went to the city of New York, where he continued his studies in the office of Henry and Robert Sedgwick. He was admitted first as attorney and solicitor, in February, 1828, and a year or two after as counselor at law. Henry Sedgwick, in the mean time, having died, Mr. Field, on his admission as attorney, became the partner of Robert Sedgwick, and continued so until 1835. In May, 1836, he went to Europe, and for upward of a year traveled in various countries, returning to New York in July, 1837. From that time to the present, he has been constantly at work as an advocate, writer, and citizen. His practice as counsel in the diflferent courts has been very large. Among the celebrated cases in which he has been engaged, are those which grew out of the controversy respecting a railway on Broadway from 1852 to 1863; the Metropolitan Police controversy from 1857 to 1863; the Street 23 2 DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. Commissioner controversy from 1857 to 1858; the Milligan case in 1867, respecting the constitutionality of military commissions for tlie trial of civilians; the Cummiugs case, respecting the constitu- tionality of test oaths ; the McArdle case in 1868, respecting the constitutionality of the Reconstruction acts; the Erie Railway cases from 1868 to 1870; and the Albany and Susquehanna case from 1869 to 1870. His career as a law-reformer began in 1839, by the publication of " A Letter to Gulian C. Verplanck, on the Reform of the Judicial System of New York." The following imperfect list of his pub- lished writings and speeches will show the variety and extent of his labors. Beginning with the letter to Mr. Verplanck, in 1839, we have, in 1839 and 1840, "Sketches over the Sea," Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, published in the Democratic Review. In 1851, he pub- lished an article in the New Yorlc Review on the writings of Wil- liam Leggett. In 1842., he wrote a letter to John L. O'Sullivan, member of Assembly, on Law Reform, accompanied by drafts of bills, which were printed by the Legislature. In 1852-3-4-5, he wrote articles for the Democratic Review, on " The Rhode Island Question," "American Names," " Cost Johnson's Forlorn Hope," " Duer on Insurance," " Study and Practice of the Law," " Law of Progress of the Race," "Journey of a Day," "The Oregon Question," "British Reviews on Oregon," and two poems, "King of Men," and " Greylock." In 1846 he published a pamphlet on the " Reorganization of the Judiciary ; " in 1847, one upon the question " What shall be done with the Practice of the Courts," and " Some Suggestions respecting the Rules to be estab- lished by the Supreme Court." From 1847 to 1865 he was en- gaged in the work of codification for the State of New York, the result of which is contained in nine volumes, the 1st, being the " Code of Civil Procedure ;" the 2d, the " Code of Criminal Pro- cedure ; " the 3d, the " Political Code ; " the 4th, the " Pend Code • " the 5th, the " Civil Code ; " the 6th, the " Book of Forms ; " the 7th, 8th, and 9th, containing the successive drafts of these codes and 24 DA.TID DtTDLRT FIELD. 3 ten diiferent reports. These were accompanied by six auxiliary tracts : No. 1, on " The xidministration of the Code ; " No. 2, " Evi- dence on the Operation of the Code ; " No. 3, " Codification of the Common Law ; " No. 4, " Competency of Parties as Witnesses for Themselves ; " No. 5, A Short Manual of Pleading under the Code," and No. 6, " The Completion of the Code." His public addresses began with an address at Tammany Hall, in 18i2, on the nomination of Eobert H. Morris for mayor. Next came a speech at the Broadway Tabernacle, in 1844, on the An- nexation of Texas. This was followed by the famous " Secret Circular," and the '' Joint Letter," which it preceded. Li 184T, he attended the Eiver and Harbor Convention at Chicago, and made a speech in favor of a strict construction of the Constitution in that respect. The same year he was chosen delegate to the Syracuse Convention, where the Democratic party was split into two over the question of slavery extension, and on that occasion he introduced the famous resolution, long afterward known as the " Corner-Stone," which was for years displayed at the head of the leading columns of the Albany Atlas, as the last and rallying cry of the Free Democracy. It was in these words : — ^^ Resolved, That while the Democracy of Now York, represented in this convention, will faithfully adhere to all the compromises of the Constitution, and maintain all the reserved rights of the States, they declare, since the crisis has arrived when that ques- tion must be met, their uncompromising hostility to the extension of slavery into terri- tory now free, or which may be hereafter acquired by any action of the government of the United States," About the same time he made a speech at the demonstration in New York for Italy and the reforms of Pius the Ninth. In 1848, he wrote the address for the mass meeting of New "Y ork Democrats to hear the report of the delegates to Baltimore, and afterward acted in support of Mr. Van Buren's nomination to the Presidency. He spoke at the Park meeting, New York, and at meetings in Stockbridge and Springfield, Massachusetts, in Faneuil Hall, Boston, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Bangor, Maine, and 3 25 4 DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. be wrote the address of the Democratic-Eepublican Committee to the electors of the State. In 1852, he made an argument before a committee of the ISTew York Common Council, on the proposed Broadway Eailway, and in the winter of 1853, before a committee of the Legislature. Then followed in 1854, a speech at the Broad- way Tabernacle, in favor of religious liberty for Americans abroad ; in 1855, a speech as chairman of a dinner to J. Hosford Smith, United States Consul at Beyrout ; in 1856, speeches in support of Fremont, at Philadelphia, at Poughkeepsie, at Troy, and at Stuy- vesant Institute, ISTew York ; an address at the Albany Law School on Law Eeform ; the address and resolutions of a mass meeting at Syracuse ; and the address of the State Committee. We can only give the subjects and times of the subsequent speeches and addresses: In 1857, at the meeting in Bleecker Buildings, ISTew York, to ratity the Eepublican State nominations ; in the New York Common Pleas, upon a trial against the Church- man for libel; in the New York Supreme Court, upon the constitu- tionality of the new Police Act; and the address of the State convention. — In 1858, at the demonstration in New York, for the Atlantic Telegraph; and the address of the Democratic State con- vention. — In 1859, on the opening of the Law School at Chicago; before the joint committee of the two houses of the Legislature on the Parallel Eailway ; at the mass meeting in Wall Street in favor of Mr. Havermeyer's election to the mayoralty; and on the death of Theodore Sedgwick. — In 1860, at Philadelphia, on the danger of throwing the election of President into Congress ; at the Eepub- lican festival in the Eighteenth Ward of New York, February 22d ; and at the New England dinner. — In 1861, at the Peace Conference in Washington ; at Union Square, New York, on the uprising of the people ; at the meeting of ladies in the Cooper Institute ; at the Opdyke ratification meeting; and the address to the Twentieth Massachusetts Eegiment passing through New York. — In 1863, address of the loyal citizens of New York, at the Union Square, meeting; and speeches at the ratification meeting in the Eighteenth 26 DATID DUDLET I"IELD. 5 Ward, and at Owego, Elmira, Geneva, Norwich, Oswfego, and Greene, in support of General Wadsworth's nomination as gover- nor. — In 1863, at the mass meeting in the Cooper Institute; at the complimentary dinner to Governor Morton, of Indiana; at the meeting on the anniversary of the fall of Sumter ; at the mass meeting in Madison Square ; at Wilmington, Delaware ; and at the banquet to the officers of the Russian fleet. — In 1864, at the dinner to Mr. Romero, Mexican minister ; at the meeting of the mer- chants and bankers held at the Exchange before the election ; at the celebration in Cooper Institute of Mr. Lincoln's re-election ; at the banquet in the Metropolitan Hotel for the same purpose ; and upon the occasion of the death of William Curtis Noyes. — In 1865, in the Weed libel suit ; on the conclusion of the war ; and on the death of Mr. Lincoln.— In 1866, at the meeting in support of President Johnson's veto message; on the constitutionality of mili- tary commissions, in the Milligan case ; on the constitutionality of test oaths, in the Cummings case ; and in the autumn of the same year an address before the British Social Science Association at Manchester, England, on an " International Code ; ",and an address before the Law Amendment Society, London, on the " Ifew York Code." In 1867, he published " Suggestions respecting the Revision of the Constitution of New York ; " and again attended the meetings of the Social Science Association, at Belfast, Ireland, and made an address on the "Community of Nations." — In January, 1868, he presided at the Free-trade banquet in honor of Mr. William Cullen Bryant upon his return from abroad, and made the address of welcome. The same month he made an argument in the Supreme Court of the United States, on the constitutionality of the Reconstruction acts, in the McArdle case. In May follow- ing, he spoke at the banquet given to the Chinese Embassy, at the head of which was Mr. Burlingame ; on the 28th of July, he de- livered the address at the unveiling of the monument erected at Williams College to the graduates and undergraduates who fell 27 Q DAVID DUDLET FIELD. in the eivil war ; and in December, spoke at the banquet given to Professor Morse.— January 14, 1869, he made a speech at the ban- quet given to Mr. James W. Gerard, ojq his retirement from the bar; on the 25th, he presided at the festival in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of Burns' birth ; and later at the annual dinner of the alumni of Williams College ; and in October, he de- livered an address on an " International Code," before the Ameri- can Social Science Association, in Kew York.— In 1870, he again presided at the annual dinner of the Williams alumni, and at the Burns' festival ; made an address on judicial abuses before the State Judiciary Committee , and read a lecture on " Proportional Representation," at the Lowell Institute, Boston. During all this time, he has not relaxed his efforts in pro- moting social and political progress. He helped to procure the nomination of Mr. Yan Buren, in 1848, and of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, and was active in the Presidential elections of those years, as well as in the canvass of 1856 for Fremont. In politics he has always been a Democrat, in the sense in which he understands Democracy. B!is position is defined in a letter which he wrote to the Albany Atlas aud Argus on the 22d of May, 1856 : — " Though I have not hitherto acted with the Republican party, my sympathies are of course witli the friends of freedom wherever they may be found. I despise equally the fraud which uses the name of Democracy to cheat men of their rights ; the cow- ardice which retracts this year what it professed and advocated the last ; and the falsehood which affects to teach the right of the people of the Territories to govern themselves, while it imposes on tnfem Federal governors and judges and indicts them for treason against the Union because they make a constitution aud laws which they prefer, and collects forces from the neighboring States and the Federal army to compel them to submission." He has written many articles on current topics for the newspapers ; had a public correspondence with Professor Morse and Keverdy Johnson on the Peace Conference andthe war ; was an active mem- ber of the National War Committee raised in New York ; and, during the riots of 1863, did such service as to receive the follow- ing commendation from the mayor of New York, Mr. Opdyke, in the history of his mayoralty : "To many eminent private citi- 28 DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. 7 zens also my acknowledgments are due for most valuable services, and to none more than to David Dudley Field, Esq., whose cour- age, energy, and vigilance were unsiupaBsed and without abatement from the beginning to tlie end of the riots." . He was last year president of the American Free-Trade League. He is now president of the Personal Eepresentation Society of New York, and his latest address was the one on "Proportional Rep- resentation." He is at present engaged in the preparation of the draft of an international code, to which he has devoted much of the last four years, and in which he is aiming not only to set forth the existing rules of international law, but to suggest such modifi- cations as seem to be required by the present state of civilization. 29 i^- C /V, ?U "Th~ OTEUS HALL MOOORMIOK 'here are few tasks more difficult than to write the life of an Inventor. The world is quick to appreciate the exploits and herald the fame of the successful soldier. His laurels are won upon a field toward which every eye is turned with in- tense interest, and upon whose issue the destiny of a nation pal- pably hangs. A single masterly movement of his columns kindles a thousand bonfires, and. makes his name live in the memorial- bronze or the stately shaft. Not so, , however, with- the inventor. " Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war ; " but the victories of peace are silent, and the victor must often be content with the reflection that cheered the immortal Kepler, " my work is done ; it can well wait a century for its readers, since God waited full six thousand years before there came a man capable of comprehending and admiring his work." Happily, in the case of the man whose name is now before us as foremost in the history of agricultural invention and progress during the present age, the quiet achievement of his early life, and the arduous toils of his riper years, have, in his world-wide fame as well as his commercial success, already received in a measure their merited reward. It is related of Cromwell, by the historian Macaulay, that when he sat for his last portrait, it was with the stern but noble injunc- tion to Sir Peter Lely — " Paint all my scars and my wrinkles or I will not pay you a farthing ; " and, in undertaking the present memoir, it is with no desire to offer encomium, but simply to in- terpret living facts for the benefit of the living. It was Virginia that, in 1780, in response to the appeal of Con- 31 2 CTKUS HALL MoCOEMICK. gress, opened her princely hand and gave away the Northwestern Territory to the Union, and it was the same old State that afterward gave to the JSTorthwest the Reaper by which its unequaled develop- ment has been effected. Mr. McCormick was born February 15, 1809, at " "Walnnt Grove " (the family residence), in Rockbridge County, Yirginia. His father, Robert McCormick, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Hall, were both of Scotch-Irish descent, and natives, the former of Rockbridge, the latter of Augusta County The father was a farmer, owning several farms, with saw and grist mills, and having shops for blacksmithing, carpentering, machinery, etc., in which his own mechanical ingenuity and that of young Cyrus found scope for exercise and experiment. The son did not have the advantages of a collegiate education. His studies were limited ta the English branches, such as could be obtained in the common schools of the country — " the old field scliool^'' sometimes called — an institution, however, which, if judged by its fruits, did a great work in training some of Virginia's most elegant writers and forcible orators, as Patrick Henry, Henry Clav, and others. The old Virginia school did its work upon the subject of this notice, not without co-operative agencies.. The workshop is, to a boy that thinks, an arena in which he is to put into practice all that he has learned. The yoiitli who ferrets out the mechanism of a locomotive and constructs one for his amusement, if you choose though it be only a plaything to run across his yard, has done more for his education than if he had mastered a book in geome- try,; and in the end he has more mental muscle and sinew to show for it. When Cyrus was fifteen years old he employed his inventive gift in the construction of a " cradle,^'' which he used in cnttino- with the harvestmen in the field. During his son's youth, the elder McCormick busied himself with the invention of several valuable machines, upon some of which he obtained letters patent, embracing thrashing, hydraulic, hemp-break- 32 CYRTTS HALL MoCORMIOK. 3 ing, etc.; and in 1816 he contrived a machine for reaping which would cut the grain when standing up straight, but which proved wholly unavailable when the grain was in a matted or tangled state. His experiment was made on the plan of having a number of ver- tical cylinders, 8 or 10 inches in diameter, placed in line at right angles to the line of draft of the machine, which cylinders, in their revolutions, gathered the standing grain to stationary serrated cut- ting hooJcs, and when the stalks were severed on these hooks the grain was carried by leather straps to the side of the machine and delivered ifi swath. " At the commencement of tlie harvest of 1831 Mr. Robert McCormick made another trial of liis machine, again without a practical success, and when, being satisfied tliathis principle of operation could not succeed, he laid it aside and abandoned the further prosecution of his idea. His son, who had this time been witnessing his father's experi- ments with much interest, then perceiving the rlifBculties in the way of his father's suc- cess — while never liimself having seen, or heard of, any otlier experiments or principles tried but his father's in connection with grain reaping hy horse-power — devoted himself most laboriously to the discovery of a principle of operation upon which to carry out the great object for which his father had labored both mentally and physically for fifteen years. " Finding, as his father also had, found, that the difficulty of separating the grain to be cut between each two of the cylinders, when in a fallen or tangled state, was insur- mountable ; and that, therefore, to succeed, the grain must be cut in a body without such separation, except at the line of division between the swath to be cut and the grain to be left standing (at which point the ascertained difficulty of separating had to be overcome), the question first to be solved was how tliat was possible. In his reflections and rea- soning on this point it occurred to him that to effect the cutting of tlie grain by a cutting Instrument, a certain amount of motion was only necessary, which yas demonstrated by the action on the grain of tlie cradle then in common use. The next thought was that while the motion forward as drawn by horses was not sufficient, a lateral motion must at the same time be communicated to the cutting instrument, which, combined with the forward motion, would be sufficient to effect the cutting process as tlie machine advanced upon the grain. How then was this to be effected ? i'Two different methods occurred to the mind of the inventor before he undertook to put either to the test of a trial in the field. One was that of a revolving wheel placed horizontall}' (as the wheel of a cart) and drawn forward against the grain, while caused to revolve rapidly on its axis, having a cutting edge placed on its periphery. "Not satisfied however with this idea — many objections and difficulties in the way of its success presenting themselves to the mind of Mr. McCormick — his next idea, which proved to be the foundation upon which his great invention was finally based, was that of communicating by a crank the requisite lateral reciprocating motion tc a straight cutting blade, placed at right angles to the line of draught of the machine. This first principle he immediately put to the test by (himself) constructing in a temporary manner the required gear-wheels and frame-work, and applying it to the cutting of grain, when the cutting, 3 33 4 CYRUS HALL McCOEMICK. then by a smooth edge, was well done, but when he immediately discovered the import- ance of supporting the grain at the edge of the blade by guard-fingers, with which he united the serrated edge to the cutting blade ; and also the importance of having a device forgathering the grain to the cutting apparatus. This done he at once applied himself to supplying what seemed now required to make a working machine, and soon origi- nated and placed over tlie cutting apparatus the revolving and gathering reel, for gath- ering and throwing hack the grain, and a frame-work in rear of the cutting blade, which he called the platform, for receiving the grain as cut by the machine. " "With these important original principles combined, and with a vigorous effort, he con- structed a machine, placing it on one driving-toheel at the stubble side of the machjne, which operated the gear-wheels and crank, upon which the main frame of the machine, containing the cog-wheels, was placed, and from which the platform was extended to the grain side, then supported by a slide, the wheel at the side having been substituted the next year. " From the main frame of this machine, and outside of the standing grain, projected a pair otshnfis within which it was drawn by one horse. And on the opposite side of the platform was constructed the divider for separating the grain to be cut from that to be passed by the machine. " From this machine the cut grain was drawn from the platform and deposited on the ground at the side by a man with a rake, walking on the ground." " The child is father to the man," and it may have been the im- perfections of his father's machine that first suggested to the younger MeCormick the necessity of a construction upon a principle wholly difi'erent. As early as 1831, Mr. MeCormick, then in the twentyrsecond year of his age, made the invention which has given liis name a world-wide reputation, and which is now accomplishing the work of considerably, more than a million harvesters. In 1831, the Reaper triumphed in the harvesting of several acres of oats. The following year it cut fifty acres of wheat. For several years, while experimenting with, exhibiting its oper- ation in the field, and working the Eeaper himself, though operat- ing well in his hands, he deemed it best — while still undergoing important improvements — to postpone its sale. In the mean time Mr. MeCormick, with a disposition to do business for himself, and thus try his fortune on his own responsi- bility — while his Eeaper could not yet be relied upon as a source of profit (and he was indeed advised by his father not so to depend upon it) — intimated to his father that, if approved by him, any 34 CYRUS HALL Mccormick. 5 thing he might be disposed to give him in that connection would be gratefnllj accepted. Whereupon his father gave him a farm, and stocked it iuj a niodei'ate way ready for business, and tlie son farmed it for one year. About that time an opportunity was pre- sented to engage in an iron-smelting business, which seemed to promise larger profits than farming, and soon Mr. McCormiek entered into it But during the financial revulsion of about 1837, and in connection with some misfortunes in the working of their smelting furnace, his business partner, foreseeing the coming storm, covered his private property with deeds of trust in favor of his friends ; and when, subsequently, failure overtook the firm, the ruin fell mainly upon the inventor. This failure, like similar fail- ures, proved, perhaps, a "blessing in disguise." Stripping himself of all his capital, Mr. McCormiek met and liquidated all the liabil- ities he had incurred. Applying himself then to his work with renewed vigor, in 1839 the sale and introduction of the Eeaper into general use commeuced, and its reputation extended rapidly into tlie great centers of agricultural interests and improvement. Iq 1845 he removed to Cincinnati, resolved to devote himself to the one thing of establishing himself in the then emporium of the grain-growing West, and in widening the introduction of his machines. They were first patented in 1834, but in 1845 he obtained a second patent for several valuable improvements in tliem. In 1846-7-8 he had also some of his machines manufactured in Broekport, New York, the makers paying him a "royalty" on all they sold, and taking, as security for advances, farmers' orders for machines, as procured by Mr. McCormiek. In 1847 a third patent was granted him for improvements still more valuable; and in 1858 another valuable patent was granted to him, and still another to himself and brothers. Foreseeing prior to 1847 that Chicago was to become the center of the agri- cultural empire of the West, from its commanding position at the head of lake navigation, Mr. McCormiek then made this city his 35 g CTRTJS HALL MoCORMICK. home and prosecuted bis enterprise far and wide in radiating lines. In 1848, seven hundred of his machines were made and sold. The year 1849 saw the annual sale of the McCormick Eeapers and Mowers reach the high figure of fifteen hundred. Since then the number sold has regularly increased, until now the annual sales exceed ten thousand, including what are termed plain reapers, com- bined reapers and mowers, and plain mowing machines — employing for several years past, in their manufacture, from five to six hundred men, with a large amount of machinery adapted particularly to this work. The demand for the invention is perpetually multiplied in proportion as its great labor and grain saving merits become the subject of inquiry and investigation. At the commencement of Mr. McCormick's manufacturing busi- ness in the Northwest, to effect sales he found it necessary to sell his machines on time and with a guaranty of their performance, which system he has continued to the present time, thus enabling purchasers not only to prove the value of the article they purchase, but to realize in advance of payment a large proportion of the purchase-price of the machine. About the year 1850, the two brothers of Mr. MeCormidk, William S. and Leander J., both younger than himself, were in- troduced into his business at Chicago. In 18.59 they were associ- , ated with him as partners in the manufacturing, and have rendered important assistance in the business — the former at the head of the office department, and the latter at the head of the manufacturing department. In the death of his brother William S., in 1865, Mr. McCormick sustained a great loss. He was a man of rare excellcTice of charac- ter and superior business abilities. His loss was irreparable. In 1859, the Hon. Eeverdy Johnson, in an argument before the Commissioner of Patents, from testlviony tahen in the case, said, that the McCormick Eeaper had ali-eady " contributed an annual income tb the whole country of fifty-five millions of dollars at least, which must increase through all time." 36 CYRUS HALL MoCOEMICK. 7 The quantity of land which can be cultivated, by using these machines, is proved to be doubled, and most proof goes higher still. Each of these machines has paid its price to the owner ; the saving of the cost of reaping is at least seventy-five cents an acre, in labor, alone. It has been again and again proved tliat the saving of grain alone, as compared with "cradling," is from one to two bushels in an acre cut. These facts have been established in the courts by a large number of witnesses, and accepted as evidence. From the long time and perseverance necessary to improve and perfect this implement, in consequence of the great variety of situ- ations in which the crop to be cut is found — green, ripe; wet, dry ; tall, short ; standing, fallen ; straight, tangled ; and on rongli as well as smooth ground — and from the short period in each year during which experiments could be made (so different from other improve- ments), it will be observed that the first patent of Mr. McCormick (in 1834) expired (in 1848) before he had accomplished much finan- cially with his invention (its extension having been refused at the Patent Oifice and by Congress), and that the important original principles of the invention were thus early thrown open to public competition, leaving to him only tlie protection of his subsequent patents. In this way, at that early day commenced a competition in the Keaper and Mower business, with the various modifications in construction (made on the same general principles) that the world of intellect employed in the business would be likely to work out, which has been kept up to the present time. With the free use, also, of the important improvements covered by the expired patents of 1845 and 1847 other manufacturers have been and are makino- large numbers of these macliines throughout all parts of this country and the world : so that, at present, there are anmially added to the supply in use more than 100,000 of these machines. On the ground, of the great value, to the pvUio of McOormick's invention, the opposition to the extension of his patents thus de- prived him of those advantages of protection against competition which have been granted to every other prominent inventor in the 37 8 OYETJS HALL McCORMICK. country, and without regard to the greater delays in his case in perfecting the invention, consequent upon the limited time in the harvest season of each year for experimenting. The continued success of Mr. McCormick, under such circum- stances, in the manufacture and sale of his invention during a period of thirty years, declining from the beginning to sell patent rights to others, improving and patenting in detail from time to time as required, and retaining throughout the first position in the business, is perhaps without a parallel, and only second in merit to the invention itself. Tillage was beautifully called by a groiit Rinnan writer, "the nursing breast of the State." If this were felt so true in the little narrow peninsula of Italy, how much more forcibly does the figure apply to our vast and almost limitless country, on which the sun scarcely sets? One has only to glance over the physical geography of the United States, to see that the great interests of our people are agricultural and mining interests. And, in the development of material resources, the sphere of usefulness for Mi*. McCormick' s invention is beyond measurement. An invention such as the Heaper is also of a general utility to science. A distinguished meteorologist, speaking of the ba- rometer and thermometer, remarked that " each of these inven- tions had laid open a new world." As much may be said of the Reaper. No such mechanism can be given to any branch of human industry, without stimulating the energies and quickening the ardor of scientific investigation everywhere. Experiment and theory are inseparable. Science has many votaries whose adoration is unrestrained, and whose offerings at her shrine are of the costli- est nature. But it is by utilizing the simplest elements of science, as Mr. McOormiek has done, that she is elevated to her true dig- nity. This is, in Mr. Hallam's words, " to turn that which has been a blind veneration into a rational worship." But to resume the history of the invention itself: a field 38 CTRITS HALL McCORMICK. 9 trial of the macliine, with that of Obed Hus8ey, was made near Eichmond, Virginia, in cutting wheat, in the harvest of 1843, in the presence of a large number of the inost skillful farmers and agriculturists of that part of the State, most expert in the husband- man's art. A committee, selected bj and from those assembled on this occasion,, made a report in favor of the McCormick machine. Mr. Hassey, whose invention was two years later than that of Mr. McCormick, was his only competitor in the business until about 1849 or 1850, when Manny in the West, and Seymour & Morgan in the East, commenced business — after the expiration of McCormick's first patent of 1834. In 1845 the Gold Medal of the American Institute was awarded to Mr. McCormick for his invention. At the World's Fair, in London, in 1851, the first international institution of the kind convened in history, after two trials in the field — the first on Mechi's celebrated " model farm," and the second on that of the Hon. Philip Pusey, M. P. — -Mr. McCormick was awarded the " Council Medal " of the Exhibition, " for the most valuable article contributed to it," and its " originality and value " — awarded by the Council of Juries, and one of only four such medals awarded by the Exhibition to the United States. The London Times, which, prior to the trial of the reaper in the field, had — in ridicule of it and of the meagreness of the American department of the Exhibition — characterized it as " a cross between an Astley chariot, a wheelbarrow, and a flying machine," writing after the trial, said it was "the most valuable article in the Exhibition, and of sufficient value alone to pay the whole expense of the Exhibition." Mr. Hussey's machine competed at this Exhibition, himself being present. In 1855, after a field trial with all other machines, the Grand Gold Medal was given to Mr. McCormick, at the Paris Exposition, for his Reaper and Mower, as furnishing " the type after which all others were made, as well as for the best operating machine in the 39 10 CTEUS HALL ifcCORMICK. field." This was one of three such medals oniy that were awarded in the agricultural department of the Exposition. Id 1862, the Prize Medal was awarded the American inventor by the London International Exhibition. The first prize, in the only field experiment made in England of all the rival machines at the Exhibition, was presented to Mr. McCormick. The first prize was awarded to the McCormick Eeaper at the International Exhibition held, at Lille, France, as late as 1863, after a field trial of the sharpest competition with all other machines. During the harvest of the same year (1863), in a most spirited and hard-fought field-contest of Reapers at the great International Exhibition of Hamburg, the Gold Medal was unanimously awarded to Mr. McCormick, in the language of the judges, for the best machine exhibited, and for "the practical introduction and im- provement or perfecting of the Reaping Machine." From this Exhibition, Governor Joseph A. Wright, United States Commissioner, in a communication made to the press of this country, said : " McCormick thrashes all nations, and walks oflF with the Golden Medal." Many other European Exhibitions, to say nothing of immerous State Fairs in America, have, with unanimity, awarded the McCor- mick Reaper and Mower their highest premiums. The National United States Agricultural Society, after a great trial of Reaping Machines, extending through nine days, at Syracuse, New York, in 1857, awarded Mr. McCormick the highest prize, their Grand Gold Medal of Honor. Next, and more striking still, we mention the Great Exposition of all Nations, meeting in Congress at Paris, in 186Y. In the report of the International Jury of this Universal Expo- sition, published by the Imperial Commission, occurs this statement : "The man who has labored most in the general distribution, perfection, and discov- ery of the first practical Reaper, is assuredly Mr. McCormick, of Chicago, Illinois. It was in 1831 that this ingenious and persevering inventor constructed the first ma- 40 CYRUS HALL McOORMICK. n chiaes of this kind, rude and imperfect when first tried. In all the Universal Exposi- tions, the first prize has been awarded to this admirable implement, and at this time, at Viucennes, as at ITouiUeuse, under the most difficult conditions, its triumph has been complete. Equally as a benefactor of luimanity, and as a skillful mechanician, Mr. McCormiek has been judged worthy of the highest distinction of the Exposition." This report was made by Eugene Tisserand, Director-General of the Imperial Domains. M. Aureliano, of the Danubian Principalities, in an independent report, published by the Exposition, says : — "It is Mr. McCormiek who invented the first Reaper. He occupied himself with this question from 1831, and in 1851 there was seen, for the first time, figuring at the Exposition in London, a model Reaper. We have thought it necessary to give some details on the origin of Reapers, and in particular on those of Mr. McCormiek, which are, it may be said, the type after which all others have been constructed." After the triumph of McCormick's machine in the two great public trials on the Emperor's farms at Fouilleuse and Yincennes, he was invited by the Emperor to a private exhibition of his Reaper on his farm at Chalons, for the inspection of himself and officers of his army, then stationed at that military camp. It was accordingly put in operation there, under the superintendence of Mr. McCormiek, and witnessed with great interest and satisfac- tion for some three-quarters of an hour by the Emperor, Marshal McNeil, Director-General Tisserand, and others. At this field trial, his Majesty was so pleased with the Keaper, that, acting under the impulse of the moment, he proposed to decorate Mr. McCormiek with the cross of the Legion of Honor on the spot, and was only deterred from so doing by one of the officers, who suggested that such a course, not being en regie, would tend to give dissatisfaction to rival exhibitors. Among the entries of the most magnificent awards of the ExDosition are : — "Geand Prize. 0. H. McCoBMicK — Reaper. Gold Medal. C. H. MoCOEMIOK — Reapeb akd Moweb. DrpLOMA OF Chevalier. Imperial Okdeb of the Legion op Honoe. Nomination op Character. 41 12 CYRUS HALL McCORMICK. His Majesty, the Emperor, hy decree of the Uh January, 1868, has named Chevalier of tJie Imperial Order of the Legion of Honor, Mr. Mc Oormick, of Chicago, inyentoe of a NEW REAPING MACHINE, Exhibitor, to take rank from this day. Paris, Sth January, 1868." * The originality, as well as value, of the invention was further emphasized in the official report : " The man," it says, " wlio has worked the most to the discovery of the first practi- cal Reaper, and to the perfection and generalization of the machines, is assuredly Mr. McCormick, of Chicago, lUinois. It was in 1831 that this ingenious and assiduous in- ventor constructed the first machine of this kind." Mr. McOormick was the only exhibitor, in this greatest of all the great international exhibitions, who received the Decoration of the Legion of Honor for '' the invention " of his machine ; and also the only person in tlie Exposition who received hoth the Deco- ration and its Grand Prize. In a great trial of Reapers at Altenberg, Hungary, held in July, ttt the recommendation of the Hungarian government, at which not less than thirty-eight competing machines were catalogued, the first prize, a Gold Medal, and sixty ducats were awarded to the McCormick Reaper. And, finally, in the last harvest, of 1869, in the special Inter- national Exhibition of Reapers held at Altona, Prussia, there was awarded to the McCormick Reaper a diploma called the '■ Rappell of previous Gold Medals," which, in the language of the official correspondent, communicating the intelligence, " the Exhibition placed above the Gold Medal." Inventors are sometimes unfairly reckoned among those erratic specimens of the race, who, poet-like, are "born, not made." They are, in fact, not generally what are called business men. They are in many cases inclined to be visionary, and without sufficient stability of purpose to pursue any one thing long and perseveringly enough to make it a success, even when success is attainable; such are often the difficulties through which a great success is achieved by an inventor. * The distinction of the Legion of Honor is, by a recent law in France, to be con- ferred only for gallantry on the field of battle. 42 CTEUS HALL McOORMICK,. 13 The subject of this sketch is an illustration of the important truth that the genuine talents of the human mind are ayailable and will pass current in any market, whether it be mechanical, mercantile, scientific, or literary. Mr. McCorraick's originality has only been equaled by his tenacity and versatility. The steady assiduity and unswerving purpose with which, over a wide and ever-expanding field of usefulness, he has pushed forward his work, afford an example of a mind in easy equi- poise, capax rerum, and one of which it may be said, as of Isaac Barrow's, " it is characterized by a certain air of powerful and of conscious facility in the execution of whatever it under- takes, seeming always to feel itself superior to the occasion, and which, in contending with the greatest difficulties, puts forth but half its strength." As a writer, Mr. McCormick is easy, graceful, and strong. "When interested in his theme his pen moves with great power and au- thority, as those who have provoked him to discussion will avouch. This was strikingly shown in the famous controversy in Scotland in 1863, 'concerning the merits and invention of the Reaper. There, on foreign soil, alone, browbeaten by Scotchmen for having beaten them in the Reaper, and combating the leading agri- cultural journal of Scotland, the North British Agriculturist, representing the -ungenerous pride and stubborn prejudice of its countrymen, Mr. McCormick, in the judgment ■ of the more disinterested press, came off victor. The correspondence with this journal originated about the award of the Gold Medal to Mr. McCormick by the Implement Jury at the Hamburg International Exhibition. The editor of the Agrioulturist desired to make it appear that this award was only an honorary thing. But a letter from one of the jury, published in the course of the correspondence, confirmed the fact that the award "means exactly what it says." The Mark Lane Express, of London, the first agricultural paper of England, on the 26th of October, in an editorial on the " Battle 43 14- CYRUS HALL McCOEMICK. of the Eeapers," said that " while the editor of the North British Agriculturist shows much zeal for his countryman's (Eev. Pat- rick Bell) machine, we must say that we think the facts and ar- guments of Mr. McCormick are presented with a clearness and force which seem unanswerable in establishing that he was the first to invent the leading features of the successful Reaping Machine of the present day ; that he continued regularly the improvement and prosecution of the same to the perfection of the machine, and that this— in the slightly-varied language of the different scientific juries of the various Great International Exhibitions of the world — consti- tutes the invention of the Reaping Machine." " In fact," says this London journal, " before the Great l^ational Exhibition of 1851, if Reaping Machines were invented, they were unknown to the English farmers. "We extract some paragraphs from Mr. McCormick's letter, which appeared in the North British Agriculturist of October 15th, which seems to have closed the dis- cussion and appears to us to settle the question." {Mar]c Lane Express?) The following is the letter referred to by the Marh Lane Express : — - Palace Hotel, Buckingham Gate, London, Ocbibtr 12, 1863. Sir : — As stated in my letter of last week, I did hope there would be no occasion for my further use of the columns of the jijj'j'cttBjimi. I felt so for two reasons : one of which was, tliat while I could neither doubt my rigM fairly to defend myself, through the same medium, against assaults made upon my rights or interests, through a public jour- nal, nor your " generous " diaposilion to accord to me that righi. yet I did not like, even under these circumstances, to stand debtor as the recipient of "commercial" benefit without a quidpro quo. The other reason was my desire to close a controversy with the editor not anticipated; and, though in self-defense at any rate, reluctantly entered into. Nevertheless, I must beg to say that I can not consent to be cut short just as the matter now stands ; nor would I acknowledge the Scotch blood that courses through my own veins, if the Scotch public could justify such an excision. The public can now judge, even with your latest comments before them, of my posi- tion on the first question raised in the case through the " British Press ;" and as to the question of the "invention of the Reaping Machine," so far as the views and feelings of the editor are concerned, and had been expressed, I was not only quite satisfied, but felt, as I said, that my thanks were due to him. I can well understand and appreciate his national feeling upon the question; but when he afterward not only changes his own ground upon that question, but undertakes my disparagement — not only by tlio u CY-RUS HALL McCORMICK. 15 reproduction of a description of matter deemed unworthy of notice by the Commissioner of Patents, who sat in judg-ment upon it, but with a correspondin'g spirit on his part — I must claim to bo lieard in reply. If, as the editor says, ''Mr. McCormick is a foreigner, and entitled to at least tlio claim which he makes," he places himself in a singularly inconsistent position in refusing me in the next breath that very " opportunity," after further characterizing my connec- tion with tlie Reaping Machine as " ratlier that of a commercial and successful speculator than that of a real inventor I" And this, while I have carefully avoided the slightest disparagement of the Rev. Patriolc Bell, although it now appears that the notice, by the editor, of the " American machines, chietiy imitations of Bell's Reaper," disposed of in my last, and " the words of the Remonstrance by Citizens of New York " against the extension of my patent in 1834, now adopted by the editor as his reply to me, are but the reproductions of what Mr. Bell has himself in years past had published in the columns of the North British Agriculturist. But I am happy to have learned that, while the correspondence has been dosed in its past form, the editor does yet recognize my right of reply tlirough his correspondence columns, as an "advertisement," which also removes my first objection to its continuance, and will, I trust, make it more pleasant to tlie taste of my respected anonymous assailants, whose ear-marlis are still visible. And how does " its commercial character betray its origin, and almost confirm — if confirmation were needed — what we contended for ?" I surely need not say to the editor of the North British Agriculturist, that in Reaping M-ichines, that which has no " commercial value, has really no value at all ; and if I have furnished the best evidence of the great commercial value of my Reaping Machine in the demand which has been found ftjr it, is that to be taken as proof against me as a '■ real inventor ?" "With a simple statement of "established facts," I shall leave others to characterize such a course by an intelligent and responsible editor of a public journal — not by interested and irrespon- sible signers of a remonstrance, proved also by the very face of their own paper to have been wholly unworthy of notice. But the editor says my "communication does not give a single new fact as to the invention of the Reaper." 'While this as a " fact," as already stated, was not pretended, how does it apply to the readers of the North British Agriculturist, which is the proper test of the correctness of the statement made by the editor? What I want is a knowl- edge of existing facts. The position taken by the North British Agriculturist, whether by its editor, or others writing for its columns, and upon which the whole superstruc- ture of its reasoning has been founded, has been that my invention origuiated with my patent in 1834; while upon this assumption only could the "American inventors" referred to, even with their abortive experiments, be made available. And the report of Examiner Page to Commissioner Burke has, on the same ground, been used to show priority of Obed Hussey to me. The explanation and proof on this point, furnished in my last and conceded by the editor, establishe.s my priority to Hussey and all tlie other " American inventors," and places them, therefore, in the position to have "borrowed " from me, instead of me from them. And still the editor, in his last commentary, witii the evidence also before liim of Commissioner Burke to the originality and value of my Reaping Machine, wholly ignores this fact in his statement that nothing '■ new" hns been presented, and also in his use of the references of the remonstrants. Now, one or two observations on the facts further elicited : First, although I did not patent my Reaper till 1834, and whilst I "preferred not to sell a Reaper until I S.S9 " (for use in 1840), Bell never patented his, and never sold one until about the time when he adopted my cutting apparatus, when it was of course no longer a Bell's Reaper — and 45 16 CTEUS HALL MoCOEMIOE after tlie character of my Reaper had been established throughout the world. If Bell was then a "divinity student," I was at the same time a " farmer's boy." Second. While Hu?sey may have sold a very few Reaping Machines between 18.Si and 1840, using in them prominent features of my prior invention, mine was operating regularly and successfully every year from 1831 onward, in numerous public exhibitions abroad, as well as in the home harvest, having cut with it fifty acres of corn in 18a2, while at the same time undergoing improvements, so that, when I commenced the sale of it, that sale increased uniformly and rapidly. And thus being the first to invent the loading features of the ultimately successful Reaping Machine, and having continued reg- ularly the improvement and prosecution of the same to tlie perfection of tlie machine, it is respectfully submitted that this, in the slightly varied language of the different scien- tific juries of the great international exhibitions of the world, constitutes the invention of the Reaping Machine. "What then are these original features of the successful Reaping Machine of the present day? They are, first, the application of the draught forward and at one side of the machine, called the side-draught machine, which was successfully done in my first machine of 1831, as shown in my patent — the application of the power at the rear as referred to by the New York remonstrants, only having been experimented with in a machine constructed immediately preceding my application for the patent, but wliich was not continued afterward. The side-draught had first been used with a sin<>-le horse in shafts, when it was thought a wider machine might be propelled to advantage from the rear: hence the experiment. Second, the cutting apparatus, with a serrated reciprocating blade operating in fingers or supports to the cutting, over the edge of the sickle. This was also done by me suc- cessfully in 1831, with the single bearing or support on one side of the sickle, and with the double hearing (on both sides) in 1832, as proved by the testimony taken in the ease when this machine cut fifty acres of grain. Third, the fixed platform of boards for receiving and retaining the corn as out and de- posited thereon by the gathering reel, until collected in a sufficient quantity or size for a sheaf. Fourth, discharging it from the platform on the ground in sheaves at the side of tlie machine, out of the track of the horses in their next passage round. Fifth, a divider for separating, in connection with the reel, the corn to be cut from that to be left standing— a further improvement upon which (with still other improvements in detail), having become the subject of a patent in 1845 ; while the arrangement of a suitable seat on the machine so as to enable the attendant the more easily and com- pletely to deliver the corn from it, was also a subject of a third patent in 1847. And now, while in law he who fails to reach the point of practical and valuable suc- cess does nothing, and he who continuously and vigorously prosecutes his invention and improvements to that point is allowed to prove ba/jk to his first experiments with these foundation principles claimed in my machine, how does Mr. Bell stand on the editci 's idea of " the great similarity of the general principles adopted in Reaping Machmes ? " Propelling them from the rear was the method adopted in nearly all tlie experiments made from the time of the Gauls to the time of Bell's connection with the Reaping Machine. The editor has shown that Salmon's machine cut by shears (in 1807 as Bell's), and Smith's laid the corn in swath in 1811— which was also done by my' fa- ther's machine in 1816; while I must again be permitted to repeat that Bell's machine while lost to the public at least in 1851, never would have been practically and com- mercially valuable with his cutting shears, and his impracticable gathering reel of ' two 46 CYRUS HALL MoCORMICK. 17 and a half feet in diameter," instead of mine of six to eight feet, as first used in its con- nection with my cutting apparatus, afterward adopted by him. To leave nothing; of the adopted "reply, in the words of the remonstrance," a word fiirtlier on it. " The team attached to the rear " has been explained in this letter. The ' remonstrance says my " platform is described as about six feet broad. Bell's machine is described as jnst six feet broad." The editor knows that "Boll's machine has no platform!" "Bell's reel," like other unsiiccessful " gathering racks " and reels before it, has also been explained. The remonstrance then refers to one of two methods for cutting described in my patent, which also out well but was not continued, the former being found the simpler. The claims of " the American inventors," Randal, Schnebly, and Hussey, have been di.sposed of as subsequent to my invention; and that of " Moore and Hasoall " was simply the application of my original serrated edge to the " scal- loped (or saw) edged " blade (by Manning), while the draw cut principle in mine was entirely different and superior — and, as perfected in the patented combination of the open (or very obtuse) angle of the sickle with the angular linger, is yet superior to all others. And the seat, with its importance and value, as patented by me in 1847, was in vain sought to be overthrown in the courts by the introduction of the " Hussey and Randal seats." I am, etc., 0. H. MoCOEMIOK. Tims, after winning the battle of the Reapers in the harvest-fields of Europe, the inventor won them over again in the columns of an unfriendly British press. Without singleness of aim and indomitable perseverance in pur- suit of his object, an inventor can hardly hope for success. The Roman poet's description of the man, " Justum ao tenacem propositi," emphatically marked the career of our subject. On one occasion, in 1859, in the great suit of McCormiclc v. Seymour & Morgan, for an infringement of his patent, in the ab- sence of a witness fur his patent of 1845, the defendants, upon a pretense, desired to put off' the trial for the term ; but the plaintiff, against the advice of his lawyers, boldly pressed forward the trial upon his patent of 1847 alone, and obtained a judgment for dam- ages to an amount exceeding $1Y,000. In the final trial by the Supreme Court of the United States of the great case of McCor- mick V. Manny & Co., when the verdict was in favor of the latter, in 1858, as not infringing McCormick's patents of 1845 and 1847 — when they had the free use of all the original principles in the expired patent of 1834 — the decision was made by four oat of seven 47 IS CYRUS HALL MoCORMIOK, of the judges sitting, the other three being in faTor of a verdict for plaintiff, but only one of whom wrote out his dissenting opinion. This, too, when it was argued that a verdict for plaintiff would not only ruin defendant, but prevent the manufacture of a single Heap- ing Machine without a license from plaintiff", while a verdict for defendant would leave plaintiff in possession of his patents and business unaffected. Nevertheless, it was believed by counsel for plaintiff that, had a fall court of nine judges been sitting, the ma- jority would have rendered a verdict for plaintiff. The result, however, did not discourage Mr. McCormick. He appears to have learned at an early period of his life the difficult art of turning defeat into victory, and securing the fruits of eveiy success by chas- tening it with moderation and prudence ; for without these success was unattainable, the path of the inventor lying amid chilling dis- appointments, not less forbidding than those which often beset the track of the Arctic explorer. "With the invention of the Eeaper, Mr. McCormick's fertility of mind was by no means exhausted, but rather quickened and stim- ulated. Prior to his invention of the Eeaper, he invented and patented two plows for horizontal plowing on hilly ground. The second of these ingenious contrivances, especially, called a " Sdf- Sharjpening Horizontal Plow," while skillfully arranged, wag simple and effective in its construction and a very valuable and superior implement to the agriculturist in hilly countries. But, suffering delay (as did the Eeaper at first) in getting the merits of the invention prominently before the public, and not procuring the extension of the patent, it gradually fell into disuse for want of the requisite attention and perseverance in its introduction. Although his great invention must be regarded as the distin- giiishing triumph of Mr. McCormick's life, there are other fields in which his character has been developed and his influence felt. He is known to the public not only by his former connection with the religious and secular press of Chicago, but by the contro- versies, like those we have already alluded to, into which he has is CYRUS HALL MoCOEMICK. I9 been drawn, in the prosecution of his leading aims of life and defense of his course as a public man. In his political course Mr. McCormick has ever acted with de- cision and consistency, following without faltering or corapromiso his convictions of riglit. AVitli this fact in view, it will not seem surprising that in times of great national excitement, his opinions have been misrepresented by some and misunderstood by others. Born and reared in the South, having his home in the "West, and his business associations leading him into close intercourse with the East, he has ever been in the iroadest sense of the term, a national man, free from those sectional prejudices which have resulted so unfortunately for the nation. The platform on which he firmly stood during the war was that of national union and the rights of the respective States under the Federal Constitution. Convinced that the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860, by a purely sectional vote, would afford an excuse or serve as a pretext for precipitating disorder and civil strife upon the country; and impressed with the belief, by his intimate knowledge of Southern character, that the war, if inaugurated, would be prolonged and disastrous, he labored earnestly for the success of the Democratic party, regarding it as the only party that could present a successful barrier against disunion on the one hand, or Federal encroachments on the other, and thus bring peace to a divided people. He at- tended the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, and it is due to him to state that had his counsels been followed the disruption that ensued would not have taken place. In 1864, dur- ing the spirited Presidential contest between Lincoln and McClel- lan, he was presented by the Democratic and Conservative voters of Chicago as their candidate for Congress, and, although unsuc- cessful, conducted the most vigorous political contest ever known in that city. Mr. McCormick was an advocate of peace, on a basis honor- able alike to the North and to the South. During the contest it was charged by the Eepublicans that the Democratic party de- 4 49 20 CTRUS HALL McCORMICK. signed a dishonorable peace with the South ; and subsequent to the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, when no such suspicion could be enter- tained, Mr. McCormick published a proposition that the Demo- cratic party, by convention, should select a commission from the Democracy, with the sanction of President Lincoln, to meet a similar delegation from the South, to effect a termination of the war, in a restoration of the Union — a proposition received with much favor by prominent Democrats and conservative Kepublicans, and by some leading newspapers on both sides ; but the measure failed from the difficulty of obtaining a call of the convention. In 1859, the subject of this notice founded and munificently en- dowed the Theological Seminary of the Northwest, at Chicago. After the institution, however, had fairly entered upon its career, it, unfortunately, fell into the hands of a small but irresponsible and unreliable party, determined to pervert the endowment from the purpose it was originally designed to accomplish. Unwilling that the fund lie had bestowed for a specific object should be used in violation of the terms and conditions on which it had been given, the donor firmly refused to pay over the last installment on his bond as demanded of him, or so long as the seminary remained under the control of those who grossly misrepresented its founder, and the friends with whom he co-operated. The professor who had caused himself to be put in the " McCormick Chair of Theology," in " a long and severe tirade," printed in a church paper, went so far as to charge Mr. McCormick with simony. But, in a series of letters (published in 1868 and 1869, in the Northwestern Presbyte- rian), which, for dignity, chasteness of style, and clear analysis have seldom been excelled in controversial discussions, Mr. McCor- mick vindicated himself from the charges made against him, and proved that, like Shylock of old, his adversary had harped only on " the bond ! the bond 1 " In answer to this malicious attack Mr. McCormick replied by a dignified and unvarnished recital of facts, supported by a weight of evidence crushing to his opponent. Subsequently the com- 50 CYRUS HALL MoCORMICK. , £1 mittee appointed by the General Assembly to investigate these Seminary difficulties made a unanimous report, fully sustaining Mr. McCormick in the course he had pursued and releasing him from the payment of the " simony " bond ! "Within a few years Mr. McCormick has endowed a Professorship in Washington College, Virginia, an institution founded by and named in honor of " the father of his countrij^'' — recently under the presidency of General Robert E. Lee. He also has made large dona- tions to the Union Theological Seminary of Virginia, and to other societies in connection with the Presbyterian Church. During his eventful struggle, on many fields of ardent and painful rivalry, Mr. McCormick remained single until the year 1858. He then married a daughter of Melzar Fowler, an orphan niece of Judge E. G. Merick (at the time, of Clayton, Jefferson County, New York, but at present a citizen of Detroit), a highly gifted and accomplished lady, whose elegant and kindly attractions grace her hospitable mansion. He has four interesting children, one son and three daughters. The eldest, eleven years of age, is a boy of more than ordinary intelligence. The valley of Virginia, especially that portion around Lexing- ton, was largely settled by families adhering in sentiments to the political cause of Cromwell, and by the Old School Presbyterians, in whose creed Mr. McCormick was instructed, and which he afterward embraced, in about the twenty-fifth year of liis age. In 1865 he removed from Chicago to New York, where he became interested in some important enterprises, including the Union Pacific Railroad, in which for some years he has been a Director. And, now, in bringing this imperfect notice to a close, we may add a word upon the story it conveys. The individuality of the inventor is lost in the value of the invention. A late writer, after brilliantly portraying the events which led to the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Vasco Nunez, remarks: "Every great and 51 22 CYRUS HALL MoCOKMICK. original action lias a prospective greatness — ^not alone from the thought of the man who achieved it, but from the various aspects and high thoughts which the same action will continue to present and call up in the minds of others to the end, it may be, of all time." The result of human activity has an unlimited divergence like the rays of the sun. In the instance just quoted, Nunez, with folded arms and bent knees, offered thanks to God for having re- vealed to him the famed South Sea ; so little did he dream that he had discovered the great ocean whose mighty waters cover more than One half of our entire planet. Nor is this disproportion be- tween the value of the discovery, as at first estimated and as finally realized, a tiling of rare occurrence. An English mechanic once constructed an engine for pumping water out of a coal-pit, little thinking he was thus revolutionizing the world by machinery moved by steam. The early philosophers of Greece in treating the Conic Sections never suspected that they were furnishing means for the mensuration of the heavens, and were unconsciously laying the foundations of astronomy. " Human inventions," to use the words of Captain Maury, '" are important geographical agents, and the various mechanical improvements of the age have greatly changed the face of our country and the industrial pursuits of the people. Before "Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin, the culti- vation of cotton in the South was confined to a small ' patch ' on each farm. About seventy years ago, an American ship from Charleston, arriving in England with ten bales of cotton as part of her cargo, was seized on the ground that so much cotton could not be produced in the United States. In 1860 the production had reached four millions of bales and upward." Eaiment is to the human family second in importance to food. When the Eeaper, by which the harvests of the world's breadstuffs are sickled, attains the age of "Whitney's invention, how vast, how bright, the prospect of its use and its utility ! 52 ^c^c^ GEOEGE LAW. EOE.GE LAW was of Irish extraction, his father, John Law, having been born in the north of Ireland. He came to this country in 1784, and settled in Jackson, "Washington connty, New York, where the subject of this sketch was born, in 1S06. His father was a substantial farmer, raising a large number of cattle, and keeping the most extensive dairy in the county. His son assisted in the labors of the farm until he attained the age of eighteen, enjoying such means of education as were afforded by the schools of the country. He contracted a strong taste for reading in his early days, which increased with advancing years, until his habit of studying the best works on history, science, and the higher branches of literature became inflexible, and by dint of patient and careful investigation he got to be one of the best informed men of the day. His memory was uncommonly tenacious, and what he once perused he never forgot, so that his mind was well stored j and his information always available. There never lived a man more exclusively self-made. He instructed himself thoroughly in everything necessary to a perfect comprehension of the important part he was to perform on the world's stage. From the time he left his father's house up to the year 1839, when he contracted to build the High Bridge which spans the Harlem Kiver, conveying the Croton water at a giddy heiglit across that stream, he was continuously employed on the public works of dif- ferent States, principally IS^ew York and Pennsylvania. He began in a subordinate capacity, but soon advanced to the position of superintending and sub-contracting, and then to be one of the most extensive contractors of his time, in which he laid the foundation 53 2 GEOEGB LAW. of his fortune. His engagements were always in constructing rail- roads and canals. He was popular with his men, always treating them with humane consideration, and fulfilling his engagements with them to the letter. While the High Bridge — which will stand for ages as a monument of his unerring judgment and consummate skill — was in process of construction, he sailed for Europe. He was in Paris in December, 1 840, when the body of JSTapoleon was brought there from St. Helena. He remained abroad until the summer of ISil, visiting all the most interesting places on the continent, and spending some time in London. He described what be saw in a vivid and graphic manner, presenting a distinct image to the mind of the listener, and rendering intelligible and satisfac- tory what was before vague, misty, and incomprehensible. His language is simple, natural, and unambitious, and his narrative power is something extraordinary. He examined the battle- ground of Waterloo with patient care, understanding the disposi- tion and movements of the contending armies with perfect clear- ness ; and his account of that momentous struggle is as impressive a picture as that painted by the pen of Victor Hugo. He saw Vesuvius under the most auspicious conditions, and he so describes the spectacle that his hearers seem to witness the volume of smoke and flame issuing from the crater, and the burning lava pouring down the sides of the mountain. On liis return to the United States, Mr. Law engaged successively in many different enterprises, for constant occupation was indispensable to him, all of which he conducted with that practical intelligence, wise discretion, and persistent energy that never fail to achieve great results. In 1842 he bought largely into the Harlem Eailroad. The affairs of tho company had been so grossly mismanaged that the property of the shareholders was nearly all dissipated. The stock had a nominal value of five per cent., but there was no market for it even at that low figure. The company was overwhelmed with debt. It was not earning even the running expenses of the road, and hopeless bankruptcy seemed inevitable. At this juncture Mr. Law pur- 54 GEORGE LAW. 3 chased a majority of the stock, and 'took upon himself the sole management of the road. He infused new life into its direction, provided for its outstanding debts, introduced a wise economy where all before had been foolish extravagancCj and in an incred- ibly short period of time, the stock rose from five to sfeventy-five per cent. He was next persuaded to undertake the resuscitation of the Hudson and Mohawk Eailroad, running between Albany and Schenectady, then swamped by a floating debt of a quarter of a million. The capital stock was a million and a quarter, and its market value was then twenty-seven per cent. There was an in- clined plane at Albany and another at Schenectady. The road was badly managed, the stockholders discontented and ready to accept any terms which Mr. Law might be disposed to offer. He bought into it, and immediately assumed the control of its aff'airs. He dispensed with the inclined planes, changed the line of the road, carrying it around the hills, bringing it into the centre of Albany, and connecting its western terminus with the Utica road. He reduced the yearly expenses more than a hundred per cent, re-stocked the road, and wlien he left it, at the end of two years, its market value had increased two hundred per cent. The stock soon rose to par, and at the time of the consolidation it bore a handsome premium. In 1847, Mr. Law embarked in the crowning enterprise of his life. In that year he commenced the preparations which ended in his becoming the owner, by building and purchase, of sixteen ocean steamers. The vast treasures of California had become partially known to the world. Colonel Sloo, of Ohio, had contracted with the United States Government to transport the mails between the Atlantic coast and California by the way of T^ew Orleans and Chagres. Sloo had not the means to fulfill his contract, and he opened negotiations with Mr. Law in order to obtain his aid in carrying out the project. With the eye of a statesman as well as a sagacious business man, Mr. Law discerned the importance to the nation of securing this immense trade against the competition 55 4 GEORGE LAW, of Great Britain. The commerce of tLe Soutli Pacific was monop- olized by lier far-seeing merchants, and nothing but the bold enter- prise and almost illimitable resonrces of George Law prevented them from gaining possession of the entire trade of the North Pacific and California. His great movement was inspired by the highest motives of patriotism, the vast returns from the investment being a secondary consideration. The steamer " Falcon," which he bought in 1S4S, took the first passengers to Chagres which reached California by steam. Soon after he built the " Ohio " and "Georgia," which commenced running in January, 1849. But we have not room for further details of his operations on the ocean. One transaction, however, was so characteristic of Mr. Law, and illustrates so fully his fii-mness, independence, and sense of fairness and i-ectitude, that in justice to him it should not be omitted. In 1852, the authorities of Cuba issued an order prohibiting the " Crescent City," or any other vessel having on board Mr. Smith, the purser of the " Crescent City," from entering the harbor of Havana ; he having in some way given offence to the Captain- General of the Island. Mr. Law refused to submit to this arbitrary demand, and appealed to the Government at Waslimgton. The timid and temporizing policy of the Administration led them to evade the real question, and to recommend that the Cuban author- ities should be appeased by the removal of the obnoxious purser. This course was repugnant to Mr. Law's sense of what was due to himself as well as Smith, and he peremptorily declined to accept the suggestion. The President — whose infirmity of purpose was notorious — told Mr. Law Ihat if his steamer was destroyed he would have no claim for damages. Mr. Law replied, with much spirit, that if the Government could not x)rotect its own citizens in their rights, the fact ought to be known. That, for his part, he was confident that the American people would not look with com- posure upon any dereliction of the Government in that regard. The result was, that although the Captain-General threatened to sink the " Crescent City" if she attempted to pass the Moro Castle 56 GEORGE LAW. 5 with Siuitli on board, lie wa3 retained. The vessel continued her trips, and the order was finally withdrawn. In 1852, the great enterprise of crossing the Isthmus from Aspin- wall to Panama by rail was languishing from want of confidence in the undertaking, and the difficulty of providing the requisite means to surmount the almost invincible difficulties presented by the obstacles of high mountain ranges, deep ravines, and a climate so charged with miasma as to be dangerous to human life. The vast importance of an early completion of the road so impressed Mr. Law, that he visited Chagres and Panama in order to inform himself by personal examination in respect to the feasibility of the undertaking. After purchasing into the road to the extent of half a million of dollars, he went to Aspinwall and Panama, located a terminus, and set men at work on the road, and in constructing a dock and station for steamers, which was the first accommodation of the kind for commerce between the two oceans ever provided in that country. He came home in April, 1852, having visited Havana, Jamaica, Porto Bello, San Juan, and ISTew Orleans, and made a careful scrutiny into the resources and capacity of those important places. On his return he made a report respecting the difficulties of the undertaking, and the prospective advantages of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The judgment of Mr, Law was accepted as undoubted authority, and the money to com- plete the work was forthcoming. When he bought into the road, the market value of the stock was seventy-five per cent. The fol- lowing year it rose over one hundred per cent. His connection with the Eighth Avenue Railroad, one of the most important thoroughfares in the city, was made under similar circumstances. Certain parties had procured a grant for the road, but they were unable to complete the work, and the charter was about to lapse by its own limitation — two and one-half months only remaining of the time in which it was required to be built. Mr. Law advanced $800,000, and completed the work within the specified period. He has been engaged in many other entei-prises 57 6 GEORGE LAW. of more or less magnitude, all of them being of public utility and importance. But it is bardly necessary to rehearse them in detail ; suffice it to say that no man ever lived in America who has accom- plished one-half that which has been achieved by Mr. Law in pro- moting public internal improvements, enlarging the field of our ocean traffic, and augmenting the prosperity of the country. In the early stage of the Eebellion, the Government at "Wash- ington was wholly unequal to the exigencies of the situation. The tremendous issues which the Administration had to confront, over- whelmed the President and his Cabinet. There was neither states- manship, firmness, nor confidence in Congress or the Executive Department. The news of the appalling and wholly unexpected defeat of the Federal forces at Bull Run fell upon the country with crushing force, while it created such a panic in Washington that Mr. Lincoln and the timid and incompetent men arourid him cast about for the means of escaping the impending danger. A.n . immediate attack from the victorious Confederate army was gener- ally apprehended. So abject and utter was the pervading terror, that Mr. Lincoln ordered an armed vessel lying at Greenleaf Point to be kept under a full head of steam, ready to transport himseK and family to a place of safety; and it was currently reported, without contradiction, that he frequently visited the steamer to ascertain by personal examination that his directions were strictly obeyed. The Secretary of War, equally overcome by his fears, had a train in readiness on the Northern Central Eailroad, with steam constantly up, with which to fiee with his family to the in- terior of Pennsylvania. And but for the calm intrepidity and the wise and soldierly assurances of General Scott, by which the terrors of the President and Cabinet were allayed and partially removed, it may be doubted whether there would not have been an utter rout of the Administration, leaving the Capital of the nation to the mercy of the rebels. The whole North was distressed, disgusted, almost paralyzed, by the magnitude of the perils by which we were menaced. So strong and all-pervading was the sense of inse- 58 GEOEGE LAW. 7 curity and danger, tiat extraordinary measures were clamorously demanded. At this juncture Mr. Eaymond. ofthelTew York Times, proposed a revolutionary movement as the only means of saving the nation. His outcry seemed to embody the popular sentiment, and when he suggested that the authorities at Washington should he deposed as unequal to the emergency, and a Provisional Govern- ment created with George Law for its head, with the power of a Dictator, the country stood aghast at the audacity of the man who could contemplate such a proceeding. Still there was a sensation of relief produced by the reflection that the services of one so com- petent, so self-contained, with such a prof6und knowledge of men, and means so ample, were at the disposition of the people. The proposition, although startling at the outset, soon came to be calmly considered, and there seemed to be a general concurrence of opinion tha,t something had to be done immediately, if the seat of government was to be successfully defended, and that if it became necessary to set aside the Washington Government, Mr. Law was the man to be invested with supreme authority. This brief description of the situation in 1861 is given as an indication of the popular estimate of the practical wisdom, the sound judg- ment, and the vast resources of George Law. For many years of his life, and even after he had acquired much of his large wealth, the character and attributes of Mr. Law were utterly misunderstood and misconceived throughout the country. Up to a late period of his life, there was the strangest discrepancy between the popular estimation of Mr. Law and the man himself. He had been con- cerned in so many important enterprises in connection with the public works in different parts of the country, and his name was so identified with steam navigation on our inland waters, as well as on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, that he was as generally known as any other private American citizen. And notwithstand- ing the uniform skill, intelligence, and success with which his busi- ness operations were conducted, none but his intimate friends and those who became acq_uainted with him in the prosecution of these 69 8 GEORGE LAW. undertakings had the remotest idea of the intellectual or moral nature of George Law. The general impression was that he had attained to opulence by lucky speculations and thrifty contracts, into which he had been led by an overmastering desire for gain, avarice being his master passion. "Whereas, in fact, his large estate has been acquired by wise forecast, intelligent calculation, and the energetic prosecution of immense enterprises conceived for the twofold purpose of promoting the gMieral good and receiving a fair return therefrom. If a hackneyed phrase could be excused in this connection, we might say that Mr. Law is one of the most remarkable man of the age. Considering his humble origin and the privations of his childhood and earlier youth, what he has accom- plished by his own unaided exertions, the extent to which he has educated himself, his solid acquirements in many branches of useful knowledge, his wonderful skill in managing men, and his general eifective power, are a marvel to all who know him. He is an origi- nal and profound thinker, with a brain as clear as a bell, working with the precision of the most perfectly ordered machine. We have never known a more self-contained man, or one who brings to the consideration of every subject of which he takes cogni- zance a healthier or stronger intellect, or who is more certain to arrive at a correct conclusion. His mental structure is as massive and potent as his physical. He is a giant in stature, and his mind is correspondingly large, operating sloAvly and with great delibera- tion, but with ponderous force. He is methodical and systematic in his habits and mode of doing business. He is equable in tem- per, self-poised, rarely excited, and never thrown from his balance. He is an eminently just man ; he fulfils all his engagements with fidelity, and never prosecuted an enterprise by dishonorable and questionable means. In politics, he sympathizes with the Democratic party, but of late years has taken no active part in elections. But he has all the elements requisite in a great leader, and is capable of exerting a controlling influence in any sphere, however extended. 60 HOE". GALUSHA A. GEOW. [We are indebted to the enterprising publisliiag Kbuae of Zeigler, McCurdy & Co., Plii- ladeiphia, publishers of. " Men of Our Day," for the greater part of this sketch.] ,ALUSHA A. GEOW is a native of Ashford (now East- ford), "Wiudliam County, Connecticut, where he was born, August 31, 1824:. At the tender age of three years, he lost his father, Joseph Grow, who died, leaving six children, the eldest of whom was but fourteen years old and the youngest an infant, and a property', the proceeds of which were barely sufficient to pay his debts. Galusha was sent to live with his grandfathei-, Captain Samuel Eobbins, of Yoluntown, in the eastern part of tlie county, with whom he remained until he was ten years old, performing tlie work common to farmei's' boys of his age, viz., driving oxen to plow, milking, 'vriding horse" to furrow oat corn, " doing chores," etc. — and attending district school in the winters. About that time his mother removed to Pennsylvania, where she purchased a farm in Susquehanna County, on the Tunkhannock Creek, at a place called Glenwood, where she resided until her death, in 1864:; and which is still the home of her four sons, of whom all, except Galusha and his oldest brother, are married. The farm which this good matron purchased was paid for partly at that time, and partly in annual payments ; and it required the exercise of much thrift on her part, as well as the united industr ,' of all her children, to make, as the saying is, "both ends meet." She opened a small country-store, which one of her boys tended, while two others worked the farm and engaged in lumbering. Galusha, being the youngest boy, assisted his brother in the store, and accompanied him, in the spring seasons, in rafting lumber 61 2 GALUSHA A. GROW. down the Susquehanna Eiver. In 1838 he commenced a course of study at Hartford Academy, preparatory to a collegiate edu- cation ; and, in 1840, entered the Freshman class at Amherst C-ollege, Massachusetts. From this excellent institution, al- though slenderly fitted by his scanty preparatory studies to cope with his well drilled New England classmates, he graduated in 1844, with high honors, and with the reputation of being a ready debater, and a line extemporaneous speaker. As fre- quently happens, however, the assiduity with which he had ap- plied himself to his studies had seriously impaired his health ; yet, nothing daunted, he plunged earnestly into the study of law, was admitted to the bar of Susquehanna County, in the fall of 1847, and continued to practice successfully until the spring of 1850, when broken health compelled him to leave the office for outdoor and more iuvigorating pursuits. The following year, therefore, was spent in surveying, farming, peeling hemlock bark for tanning use, etc., and his enfeebled frame began soon to show encouraging results of such labors. In the fall of 1850, he received and declined a unanimous nomi- nation for a seat in the State Legislature, tendered by the Dem- ocratic County Convention. But, a few months later, while engaged with a gang of men in rebuilding a bridge over the Tunkhannock, which had been swept away by a freshet, he was informed that he had been nominated for Congress. The campaign into which he now entered was a most spirited one — the Demo- cratic party in his district being divided on the Wilmot proviso, the breach had become more fully developed after the pas-, sage of the compromise measures 'of 1850. One wing of the party renominated Mr. Wilmot, while the other selected James Lowrey, Esq., of Tioga County, each candidate canvassing the district in person, and their respective friends becoming warmly enlisted. The Whig candidate was John C. Adams, a lawyer of Bradford County. The district, which then comprised Susquehanna, Bradford, and Tioga counties, usually gave a Democratic majority 62 GALtrSHA A. GROW, 3 of about two thousand five hundred. Eight days before the elec- tion, Wihnot and Lowrej' agreed, after consultation with respective friends, to withdraw from tlie contest, if the Democratic confer- ence of the district would reassemble and nominate Grow, who was then unknown in Tioga County, but had taken a very active part in his own county, in the presidential elections of 1844 and 1848, had been a warm supporter of Wilmot, and was his law part- ner for two years. The conference composed of both sets of conferees met at Wellsboro, Tioga County, the week before the election, and all agreed on Grow as a candidate. He was elected by twelve hundred and sixty-four majority, and took his seat in December, 1851, the youngest member of Congress. He continued to represent the district for twelve consecutive years, being elected by majorities ranging from eight thousand to fourteen thousand, and once by the unanimous vote of the district, so that he was often styled " Great Majority Grow." With the exception of Wilmot, who was elected six years, no representative had ever been elected in the district to exceed four years. A new Congressional apportionment of the State, in 1861, unitcx. Susquehanna County with Luzerne County, and made the district Democratic, by which he was defeated in the election of 1862 ; since wliich time he has been engaged in lumbering a,nd his old pur- suit of surveying, trying' to regain health, which had become very feeble when he left Washington in the spring of 1868. In 1855 he spent six months in Europe, and most of the summer of 1857 in the Western Territories. He was one of the victims of the National Hotel poisoning, in the winter and spring of 1857, from which he has never fully recovered. In Congress, the most important committees on which he served were the committees on Indian Affairs, Agriculture, and Terri- tories. For six years he was on the Committee on Territories, and four years its chairman ; embracing all the time of the Kansas 63 4 GALUSHA A. GKOW. ■ troublei ; and so devoted was he to the interests and affairs of Kan- sas, that his fellow-members often designated him (good-naturedly) as the member from Kansas. His twelve years of service extended through a most important period of the Republic : the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, election of Banks, Speaker, the Kansas troubles, Lecorapton Eill, the Homestead Bill, the Pacific Railroad, etc., as well as the Fre- mont and Lincoln campaigns, etc. Mr. Grow's maiden speech in Congress was made on the " Home- stead Bill," a measure which he continued to press at every Con- gress until its final passage as a law in 1861. Indeed, the persistency of his efforts for its success, gained for him the appropriate sobri- quet of " The Father of the Homestead bill." In the speecli to which we allude, delivered March 30, 1852, Mr. Grow remarked : " The struggle between capital and labor is an unequal one at best. It is a struggle between the bones and sinews of men and dollars and cents; and in that struggle it needs no prophet's ken to foretell the issue. And in that struggle, is it for this government to stretch forth its arm to aid the strong against the weak? Shall it continue, by its legislation, to elevate and enrich idleness on the weal and the woe of industry ? * * * While the public lands are exposed to indiscriminate sale, as they have been since the organization of the government, it opens the door to the wildest system of land monopoly, one of the direst, deadliest curses that ever paralyzed the energies of a nation or palsied the arm of industry. It needs no lengthy dissertation to portray its evils. Its history in the Old "World is written in sighs and leare." * * * " If you would raise fallen man from his degradation, and elevate the servile from his groveling pursuits to the rights of man, you must first place within his reach the means for supplying his pressing phvsi- cal wants, so that religion may exert its influence on the soul, and soothe the weary pilgrim in his pathway to the tomb. * * * If you would make men wiser and better, relieve your almshouses, close the doors of your penitentiaries, and break in pieces your 64 6ALUSHA A. GROW. 5 gallows, purify the influences of the domestic fireside." For that is the school in which human character is formed, and there its destiny is, shaped; there the soul receives its first impressions, and man his first lesson, and they go with him for weal or for woe through life. For purifying the sentiments, elevating the thoughts, and developing the noblest impulses of man's nature, the influences of a moral fireside and agricultural life are the noblest and the best. In the obscurity of the cottage, far removed from tlie seductive influences of rank and affluence, are nourished the vir- tues that counteract the decay of human institutions, the courage that defends the national independence, and the industry that sup- ports all classes of the state." In all the exciting discussions of public affairs, since 1850, Mr. Grow has taken an active and influential part, especially in those relating to the extension or perpetuity of slavery. Mr. Grow, although educated a Democrat, and his family con nections aU belonging to that party (but now being Eepublican), has been thoroughly anti-slavery in his convictions and his utter- ances, asserting boldly that "slavery, wherever it goes, bears a sirocco in front and leaves a desert behind." He resisted with all his energies the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and, from the date of its consummation, he wholly severed his connection with the Democratic party. When, upon the floora of Congress, Southern bullies adopted the bludgeon and revolver as their logic, he met their insolence with a muscular argument, which proved the sincer- ity of his declaration to Keitt, the South Carolinian, that " no nig- ger-driver could crack his whip over him." And soon after the infamous assault upon Sumner by this same Keitt and his friends, Mr. Grow took occasion, in a speech on the admission of Kansas, to assert that " tyranny and wrong rule with brute force one of the Territories of the Union, and violence reigns in the capital of the Republic. In the one, mob-law silences with the revolver the voice of men- pleading for the inalienable rights of man ; in the other, the sacred guaranties of the Constitution are violated, and reason 5 65 6 GALUSHA A. GROW. and free speech are supplanted hy the bludgeon ; and, in the coun- cil chamber of the nation, men stand up to vindicate and justify both. Well may the patriot tremble for the future of his country when he looks upon this picture and then upon that !' In 1859, he was mainly instrumental in defeating the attempt in the Senate to increase the rates of postage from three to five and ten cents on letters and double the old rates on printed matter. On the 4th of July, 1861, Mr. Grow was elected Speaker of the House of Kepresentatives, an office which he held during the first two years of the war, receiving, at the close of his term, the first unanimous vote of thanks which had been given by that body to any Speaker in many years. The eloquent and patriotic words which he uttered upon taking the chair of the House, at a time when the rebel flag of the new Confederacy was flaunting in the very sight of Washington, were made good by the alacrity with which — when the mob held possession of Baltimore, severing the connection with the North — he seized a musket, and, as a member of Clay's brigade, stood " on watcli and ward," until the arrival of New York Seventh and other troops, via Annapolis, brought safety to the capital. He was drafted under the first draft ; and, although exempted by the board of examination, as unfit for military duty, by reason of liis health, he still furnished two substitutes who served through the war. During the Presidential election of 1868 he was chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Pennsylvania. At the session of tlie Legislature of 1869, most of the Eepublican papers of the State zealously urged his election to the Senate of the United States, but other influences prevailed. For the past year he has been engaged in Philadelphia in the manufacture of a vitreous porcelain, out of a mineral imported from Greenland, called krvolith. Though absorbed in business, he has lost none of his interest in the public questions of the day which aflect the rights of men or the interests of the laboring classes. 66 GALUSHA A. GRQ-W. 7 ' At the celebration of the adoption of the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment, at Philadelphia, by the colored people of the State, he said : — " The second great epoch in our history is passed, and we meet on this occasion to commemorate the third. The ideas that made the fathers the fanatics of their day- have been incorporated into organic law, and are stamped in indelible characters upon tiie pillars of the Republic. The Goddess of Liberty can now rear her altars without shuddering at the clauk of the chain riveted by her professed votaries. Henceforth the land of Washington is the home of the emigrant and the asylum of the exile of every clime, and of all races of men. We stand on the line that divides the old from the new ; the dispensation of hate, oppression, and wrong from that of liberty and right. . . Grievously the nation sinned, generously it has atoned. God so ordained in the retributions of His providences, that for the sighs and tears wrung from the bondmen through ages of sorrow, He exacted the sighs and tears of a nation mourning its unreturning brave. The wealth coined in the sweat of the laborer's unrequited toil He scattered to the winds in the havoc and devastation of war. Will the Republic learn from this terrible visitation of anguish and woe that the only sure foundation for social peace and national perpetuity is in equal and just laws administered ahke for the protection of every citizen? Nations live by the practice of justice, and they die by injustice and wrong." His prediction in the following extract from his closing address, 4th March, 1863, as Speaker of the Thirty-seventh Congress, has been fnlly verified. " Whether the night of our adversity is to be long or short, there can be no doubt of the final dawn of a glorious day. For such is the physical geography of the continent that there can be, between the Gulf and the Lakes, but (me nationality. No matter what changes may be wrought in its social organization, its territorial limits will continue the sjme. The traditions of the past, and the hopes of the future, have crystallized in the American heart the fixed resolve of one union, one country, and one destiny. And no human power can change that destiny any more than it can stay the tide of the 'fatlier of waters,' as it rolls from the mountains to the sea. "If the people between the Gulf and the Lakes can not live together in peace as one nation, they certainly can not as two. This war then, though it cost countless lives and untold treasure, must, in the natuie of things, be prosecuted till the last armed rebel is subdued, and the flag of our fathers is respected on every foot of Ameri- can soil." Mr. Grow's public career, as will be seen, has been prominently marked by his persistent advocacy of free homesteads, free territory, human freedom, cheap postage, and, indeed, every measure by which the people were to be made wiser, purer, or happier. It is a record of which every public man may well be proud ; a record peculiarly 67 8 GALUSriA A. GBOW. befitting one who, brought up a farmer's boy, has never forgotten or hesitated to acknowledge the interests which the working-men of the Republic have upOn his services. Though young in years, and far from robust in health, and with no adventitious aid from wealth or family influence, he has already achieved a national reputation. His long public career as a politician has been marked by a straightforwardness and fidelity which excite the admiration of the people. It has been marred by no wavering, no eccentricities, no lapses from the path of principle, but he has carried the flag of the party and the country, undismayed, through battle, through defeat, and victory, Telying upon the immutability and truth of the cause, with "Not a star tarnished, not a stripe polluted." Vigorous outdoor exercise during the past six years has tended greatly to re-establish his health, and may, we sincerely hope, fit him for a still more extended career of public influence and usefulness 68 HOI^. EDWIN D. MORGAlfr. BY J. ALEXANDER PATTEK. HE name of Edwin D. Morgan has a national renown. Throughont our vast country his eminent services in mu- nicipal, State, and National offices have obtained for him universal public praise. Honest and patriotic, intelligent and effi- cient, he has displayed those qualities which are at once the highest in manliood and in official station. Edwin D. Morgan, eighteenth governor of New York, and late senator of the United States, was born in the town of Washington, Massachusetts, February 8, 1811. He attended the public schools of that section until he was twelve years of age, when his father removed to "Windsor, Connecticut, where he was a pupil of the high school, and subsequently a student in the Bacon Academy at Col- chester. He was a boy of remarkable energj"^ and intelligence. When the family removed to Windsor, a distance of some fifty miles, young Edwin drove an ox-team, loaded with the household effects, performing a large share of the journey on foot Having reached the awe of seventeen he went to Hartford, where he became a clerk in tlie wholesale grocery arid commission house of his uncle. This was a great step for him. Filled with bright anticipations of a success- ful future, to be gained by integrity and industry, lie devoted him- self to his duties with great zeal. He mastered the details of the bus- iness with 'surprising ease, and showed a tact -and penetration in bargaining that proved him to have rare capacity for business. At the end of three years his uncle adniitted him to a partnership, and he remained in Hartford some five years longer, carefully accumulating a capital. In 1836 he came to the city of New York to reside, and ■ established himself in the same kind of trade. His capital was not 69 2 EDWIX D. MORGAN. more than a few thousand dollars, and in the infancy of his business he was obliged to pass through the terrible financial crisis of 1837, which he did successfully. The house then established is still in prosperous business, after a period of more than thirty years. Mr. Morgan was a most intelligent and high-toned representative of the mercantile character. He gave dignity to all the transac- tions of the mart and the counting-room. No man of his day had more judgment, foresight, or nerve. He devoted thought and energy to his pursuit, and embarked in ventures before unattempted. Something of his disposition in business matters is shown in an anecdote which is related of him. He was engaged in a great sugar speculation, and went to Louisiana to buy the article. A rival was there doing the same thing. One evening Mr. Morgan approached the house of a planter, and found dancing and merriment going on. When the planter appeared, he invited Mr. Morgan to enter, and partake of his hospitality in company with another guest, already present, whose name was mentioned. This guest was Mr. Morgan's rival, and he knew that his errand was to buy the ci-op of the planter. Under these circumstances, Mr. Morgan declined the invitation, but at once entered into a negotiation for the crop of sugar, which he bought, and rode on. Next morning when the rival opened business he learned, to his astonishment, that the entire crop had been pur- chased the evening before by Mr. Morgan. His whole business career was characterized by an enterprise which was both bold and successful. His transactions at home and in foreign markets were on the most extensive scale, and the inteo-- rity and soundness of his house were beyond all question. He gave his influence and pecuniary aid to the railroads of the country. He was an early friend of the Hudson Eiver Eailroad, and at one time the president of the company. As early as 1840 he began to give attention to pubb'c affairs. While there was a Whig party he labored with untiring assiduity for its success, and on the organization of the Eepublican party became one of its leaders. At the Republican National Convention held at 70 EDWIN D. MOEaAN. 3 Pittsburgh, in 1856, he acted as vice-president and was there made Chairman of the National Committee. In that capacity he opened the convention at Philadelphia, in 1856, that nominated Fremont; that at Chicago in 1860, which nominated Lincoln ; and also that at Baltimore, which re-nominated Mr. Lincoln. In 1866 he was made chairman of the Union Congressional Committee. It is needless to say that in all of these positions and duties he exhibited a dignity and efficiency that gave great satisfaction to his party. Going back to 1849, we find Mr. Morgan a member of the Board of Assistant Aldermen in 'Hew York, of which he was chosen presi- dent. During the prevalence of the Asiatic cholera at that period he served on the Sanitary Committee, and won the everlasting grat- itude of the people by his courageous and persevering services in behalf of the public health. Subsequently he was twice elected from the Sixth Senatorial District to a seat in the Senate, w^here he was placed at the head of the Standing Committee on Finance. At the regular session of 1851, and at the extra meeting of that summer he was made president pro tempore of the Senate. In 1852 the Democratic party had gained control of the Senate, but Mr. Mor- gan was unanimously chosen again as its temporary president, and also, for the fourth time, in the following year. He held the office of a commissioner of emigration from 1855 to 1858, when he was elected governor. He served two terms as governor, and at his election in 1860 received the largest majority ever given for this office in the State of New York. The administration of public afiairs by Governor Morgan wafe enlightened and comprehensive in the highest degree. State credit, canal enlargement, defenses of the harbor of New York, and finally- the duty of iilling the quota of the State in a prolonged and bloody war, were all matters which fell to his executive care. All were managed with signal ability and success. His messages showed a clear and searching insight into the affairs of the State, and his recomendations were always judicious and practical. At the end of his term of office he had sent no less than 320,000 men into the 71 4 EDWIN D. MORGAK. field, being more than a fifth part of all that had jet entered tlie service. In addition to these the State militia were on three sev- eral occasions, dispatched to Washington to answer emergencies. "When he left his office, New York stood credited with an excess over all quotas. The aggregate sum expended in bounties under the direction of Governor Morgan was $3,500,000, which the Leg- islature at its next session, acting on the recommendation of Gov- ernor Seymour, lost no time in legalizing. The tlianks of the Pres- ident and tlie Secretary of War were frequently tendered to Gov- ernor Morgan, for his promptness and efficiency in responding to the wants of the government. As an expression of the President's sense of these important services, and to secure other practical ad- vantages, in September, 1861, Governor Morgan was appointed a raajor-general of volunteers, and the State has erected a military department under his command. He made contracts in behalf of the general government for rations, clothing, arms, and ordnance to the extent of many millions of dollars, which were all approved. In all his public duties and obligations Governor Morgan had tlie public good solely in view. Charged with the manifold and momentous interests of a great State, he devoted to them his whole intelligence and energy. As the time for the election of a United States senator drew near. Governor Morgan became a prominent candidate. In Feb- ruary, 1861, he was elected for the term of six years, to succeed Preston King. He took his seat at the called session of Marcli of that year, and has served on the Committees on Commerce, Finance the Pacific Eailroad ; as chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library, on Manufactures, Military Affairs, Mines and Minino', and on Printing. In February, 1865, on the retirement of Mr. Fessen- den, he was asked by Mr. Lincoln to accept the position of Secre- tary of the Treasury, which he declined. His career in the Senate was marked by the same dignity and purity of action that had characterized him in all other public stations. Leaving to others the oratorical displays, he confined himself to the severe duties of 72 EDWIN D. MORGAN. 5 tlie committees, and to a rule of being in his seat to vote on all important measures. No senator exercised a wider influence among Lis associates of both parties, or commanded more public respect. In July, 1867, Williams College, which is located in Mr. Morgan's native county of Berkshire, Massachusetts, conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. As an earnest friend of the learned institutions of the country, and a statesman of tried ability and virtues, this was an act that gave not less honor to the institution than to Mr. Morgan. He is a man of massive frame and tall stature. Erect, self-pos^ sessed, and courtly, he has a most dignified and impressive pres- ence. His head is of a size in proportion to his large body, and the fine intellectual face has every feature prominent and noble. The brow is full and high, the nose and mouth are prominent and expressive. The eyes, though not by any means small, are deep set beneath the overhanging forehead. His face shows the amiable, virtuous character, and at the same time a fixedness of purpose and courage. Neither his manners nor conversation partake of any thing like conceit of opinion or position. But there is an elevation in the one and a decision in the tone of the other, that never fail to produce an impression. A man of splendid fortune and of the highest social station, he is not an aristocrat in his feelings or actions, but he always maintains the dignity properly belonging to the refined and exalted life. Our country has produced no man superior to Edwin D. Morgan in varied and useful talents for the walks of commerce and public duty. With the most insignificant advantages in youth, he has achieved business success and national fame. Never untrue to principle, never faithless to friends or obligations, he stands in his private and public career an example to his own and all coming times. 73 l^-in TKtrAU-^:^ GEORGE W. OHILDS. BT JAMES PAETON. tS^^^ young man entering now npon a career of business may Avell be discouraged at times when he considers the little chance he has of ever attaining a place among the masters and possessors of the world. A business establishment must now be immense or notliing. It mnst absorb or be absorbed. It must either be a great, resistless maelstrom of business, drawing countless wrecks into its vortex, or it must be itself a wreck, and contribute its quota to the all-engulfing prosperity of a rival. This is the law of modern business, against which it were idle to declaim. It is one of the results of man's reducing to subjection the mighty power of steam, by which he must first be enabled, and then compelled, to transact all his afiairs on the great scale. Nor ought we to regret the change ; for, although the period of transition is one of loss and disaster to many, yet the result, 1 firmly believe, will be a universal advance in all that constitutes civilization. No man likes to see his business absorbed into the giant establishment of his neighbor. No cobbler relishes being swallowed up into a great manufactory of shoes ; and no wayside blacksmith welcomes the invention which now turns out, in a single factory, a million horseshoes a week, better made and cheaper than the most dexter- ous of human hands could produce them. But, suppose the revolu- tion complete ; imagine the time when all the world's work shall be done in establishments which must be well-ordered and ably- conducted, merely because they are immense; when every man, instead of aiming to be the chief of a petty shop, subject to all the narrowing influences of its smallness and uncertainty, shall be a member of a concern which by its very vastness shall dignify all that belong to it, and which will, by its stability, afibrd that safe foot- 75 2 GEORGE W. CHILDS. hold ia the world which a small business rarely can ! I see glorious promise for the future of our race in that irresistible tendency, which so many deplore, that is creating everywliere businesses of enormous proportions. The proprietors of them will be expanded and elevated by the largeness of their transactions, and they will be compelled to employ, encourage, and justly compensate every grade of talent. They must do this. It will be no affair of senti- ment and generosity. That concern will everywhere be strongest which will know best how to attract and retain men of ability. Nevertheless, we can blame no young man if he looks back with regret to the time when Franklin could suppose that a capital of two hundred dollars was sufficient to set a mechanic up in business. Modern establishments certainly do look disconragingiy vast to young ambition. A youth who begins life in a store like Stewart's, of New York, which is exactly two hundred times as extensive as the ordinary dry-goods store of former days, and which expends more money in a day than his salary would an}ount to in a century, may well stand confounded when he considers the obstacles in the Avay of liis attaining mastership. But if steam is mighty, man is mortal. These great concerns are controlled by men who grow old, who withdraw, who must one day resign the reins to younger men ; and in them all tliere is going on a process of sifting out from the mass of persons employed the few who will at length govern departments, and the one who will finally bear sway over the whole. Under tlie regime of the steam-engine, as in the times pre- ceding it, the rule still holds good that a man usually gets into as high a place as he is really fit for, and rises about as fast as it is safe he should. Providence being a good economist, first-rate men do not long continue in second-rate places. These familiar truths are strikingly illustrated in the career of Mi'. Childs, the proprietor of the most important and lucrative news- paper of Philadelphia, one of those rooted newspapers which grow with the growth of their city, and which seem capable of declining only with its decline. 76 GE ORGE W. CHILDS. g Twrenty-five years ago, when I was a resident of Philadelpliia, there was one spot of that sedate and tranquil city wiiich seemed like home; for it exhibited the vitality whicli New Yorkers are accustomed to witness on every hand. This was the corner of Third and Chestnut streets, where was published the Pvilic Ledger, and where there was also the most flourishing depot of newspapers and cheap publications then existing in the city. It was always exhilarating to pass that corner ; such was the bustle and bright display of the fugitive wares of literature. The Ledger then seemed as firmly established in the habits and confidence of the people as a newspaper could be, and it was still owned by the three able men who had founded it many years before. The Ledger building was solid, tall, and imposing, and the ofiice wore that air of immutable prosperity which old banks and old newspaper establishments alone possess. It had begun in the quiet way in which things of lasting import- ance usually do ; and it had had that tough struggle for life which the strong never escape. On half a sheet of paper three journeymen printers from New York had drawn up, in 1836, their articles of partnership, had hired a small office, bought a hand-press, engaged an editor, and launched their enterprise — a penny paper — a novelty then in Philadelphia. They would have failed if they had been cowards, for they had not the capital to wait long for success. Luckily for them, questions arose which gave them the chance of risking destruction by doing right. They did right ; they took tiic side of law against influential mobs. When the medical students — a numerous brotherhood in Philadelphia — were disorderly, the little Ledger defied and rebuked them. When the Irish were hunted down by Native Americans, and Catholic churches were burned bj rioters, the Ledger courted odium by denouncing lawless vio- lence, and nearly incurred ruin. When the abolitionists were mobbed, the Ledger, though its corps of proprietors and editore disapproved their proceedings, defended their right to assembla and discuss public questions. 77 4 GEOEGE W. CHILDS. Such conduct as this makes a newspaper strike down its roots deep in the gratitude and esteem of the stable and the subscribing portion of the public. A newspaper gains by daring to lose. It never does so well for itself as when it gives wide-spread offense by being right a month before its readers. In 1848, when the Ledger had been in existence twelve years, it had grown past the perils of its youth, and yielded to its proprietors incomes ample and secure. They were still in the prime of life, and with powers strengthened by use and success ; nor were there wanting in the establishment men of mature and tried ability, who might be supposed capable of taking their places when age should have disposed them to withdraw. At that very time the future master of the Ledger worked in a portion of the Ledger building. He was not its chief editor. He was not foreman, book-keeper, or confidential factotum. He was not in the line of promotion at all. If any one had been asked to go over the edifice and name the person employed in it who was most likely to succeed to the pro- prietorship, he would not have so much as taken into consideration the chances of a youth, named Childs, who occupied a small office in the building. I should have passed him by as a person totally out of the question. And yet he, the almost unknown lad of eighteen, without capitaled friends or connections, with nothing to aid him but his own brain, hands, and habits — he, George W. Childs, was the predestined person! The editor, who was a forci- ble and fluent writer, attempted mastership and failed. Other leading men in the building tried for the same prize, but with no memorable success. That boy was the man ! ILe was the born master. He was the heir, though not the heir-apparent. And, what was still more remarkable, he had already distinctly set before himself, as an object to be accomplished, the proprietorship of the Ze/^^e/" establishment. He had said to himself: "■ I will own all this some day P^ It was not the random utterance of a light-hearted bov. He meant it. It was his deliberate purpose ; and he had grounds, even 78 GEORGE W. CHILDS. 5 in his boyish successes, for believing in its fufiUiiieut. In the years that followed, he made no secret of his intention ; but often said to his intimate friends, " If I live, I will become the owner of the Pub- lic LedgerP He said so to Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie, nine years before he accomplished his purpose, and at a time when there seemed no likelihood of its ever being for sale, or of his possessing the means of buying it. The audacity of such a thought in a boy of eighteen can hardly be appreciated by any one who was not familiar with Philadelphia at the time, and with the solid basis of prosperity upon which the Ledger stood. It was as though a poor boy who had struggled to London from a distant town, and obtained some obscure employment about Printing House Square, should quietly say to himself: " I will one day own the London Times I " The lad was a stranger in Philadelphia, recently arrived from Baltimore, his native city. His early friends in Baltimore do not depict him as in the least resembling the ideal boy of modern novels — the Tom Browns, who put forth their whole soul in foot- ball and cricket, and bestow the reluctant residue upon the serious business of school. "With sincere deference to our honored guest, Mr. Thomas Hughes, I must beg leave to state, that superior men, who learn to govern themselves and direct affairs do not spend their boyhood so. Not in the Eugby style do the Jeffersons, Franklins, Pitts, Peels, Watts, nor the great men of business, nor the immortals of literature and art, pass the priceless hours of boyhood and youth. Such boys do not despise the oar and the bat, but they do not exalt the sports of the playground to the chief place in their regard. This boy certainly did not. He exhibited, even as a child, two traits seldom found in the same individual: a remarkable aptitude for business, and a remarkable liberality in giving away the results of his boyish trading. At school he was often bartering boyish treasures— knives for pigeons, marbles for pop-guns, a bird-cage for a book ; and he displayed an intuitive knack in getting a good bargain by buying and selling at <«• 79 6 GEOliaE W. CHILDS. tlie right moment. At a, very early age, be had a sense of the value of time, and a strong inclination to become a self-supporting indi- v^idual. He has told his friends that, in his tenth year, when school was dismissed for the summer, he took the place of errand-boy in a bookstore, and spent the vacation in hard work. This was not rom'antio, but it was highly honorable to a little fellow to be willing thus to work for the treasures that boys desire. At thir- teen, he entered the United States Navy, and spent fifteen months in the service; an experience and discipline not without good results upon his health and character. He was a favorite among his boyish friends. One of them, Hon. J. J. Stewart, of Maryland, has recently said : "He was then what you find him now. His heart was always larger than his means. There is but one thing he always despised, and that is meanness ; there is but one character he hates, and that is a liar. When he left Baltimore, a little boj', the affectionate regrets of all his companions followed him to Philadelphia ; and the attachment they felt for him was more like romance than reality in this every- day world. ... I remember that he wrote to me years ago, when we were both boys, that he meant to prove that a man mndd he libe7'al and successful at the same time." Let us see if the career of the man has fulfilled the dream of the boy. Upon reaching Philadelphia, a vigorous lad of fourteen, he knew but one family in the city, and they, soon removing, left hira friend- less there. He found employment in his old vocation of shop-boy in a bookstore. But he was no longer a boy. Experience had given him an early maturity of mind and character, and he was soon discharging the duties of a man. Paying strict attention to busi- ness, working early and late for his employer, disdaining no honest service, he soon had an opportunity, young as he was, of showing that he possessed the rarest faculty of a business mun—Judgmenf. After shutting up the store in the evening, he was intrusted by his employer with the duty of frequenting the book auctions and 80 GEORGE W. CHILDS. rj making purchases ; and by the time he was sixteen, it was he who was regularly deputed to attend the book trade-sales at New York and Boston. After serving in this capacity for four years, being then eighteen years of age, having saved a few hundred dollars capital, and accumulated a much larger capital in character, in knowledge of business, and in the confidence of business men, he hired a small slice of the Ledger building, and set up in business for himself. Already he felt that his mission was to conduct a great daily paper; already, as before remarked, he had said to himself, that paper shall be the Publio Ledger. In his narrow slip of a store in the Ledger building, he be- stirred himself mightily, and throve apace. Faculty is always in demand; and I say again, a yoiing man generally gets a step for- ward in his career about as soon as he is able to hold it. Be- fore he was quite twenty-one, we find him a member of that publishing firm which afterward obtained so much celebrity and success under the title of Childs & Peterson. The intelligent head of the old firm of E. E. Peterson & Co. had the discernment to see his capacity, and sought an alliance with him. It was a strong firm; for the talent it contained was at once great and various. Mr. Peterson and his family had considerable knowledge of science and literature, and Mr. Childs possessed that sure intuitive judgment of the public taste and the pubUc needs without which no man can succeed as a publisher. He had, also, that strong confidence in his own judgment, which gave him courage to risk vast amounts of capital, and even the solvency of the firm, upon enterprises at which many a more experienced publisher would have shaken his head. There is no business so difficult as that of publishing books. Few succeed in it, and still fewer attain a success at all commensurate with the energy and risk which it demands. The very knowledge and taste which a publisher may possess arc more likely to mis- lead than to guide him aright ; and, accordingly, we find that some of the greatest publishing houses in every country, are conducted 6 81 8 GEORGE W. CHILDS by grossly ignorant men, who never read the books they publish, and who consider nothing but the reputation of authors, or follow implicitly the judgment of experienced readers. Such persons are never led astray by tastes of their own. They never think the public will like a book because they happen to like it, or suppose the public interested in a subject because it is interesting to them. There are publishers, however, whose tastes and preferences are in such harmony with those of the public, that their own personal approval of a book is a sufficient guide. In the firm of Childs & Peterson, there was much of both kinds of judgment — that which comes of general knowledge, and that which results from a knowledge of the world. Consequently, nearly all of its ventures were successful. They published few books, but they frequently contrived to make a great hit once a year. Mr. Peterson com- piled a work from various sources, called " Familiar Science," which Mr. Childs' energy and tact pushed to a sale of two hun- dred thousand copies, secured for it a footing in many schools, which it retains to this day. We all remember with what skill and persistence Mr. Childs trumpeted the brilliant works of Dr. Kane upon " Arctic Exploration," and how he made us all buy the volumes as they appeared at five dollars, and how glad we were we had bought them when we came to read them. Nor was Dr. Kane ill pleased to receive a copyright of about seventy thousand dollars. Parson Brownlow's book was one of Mr. Childs' successes. It was not his fault that the book turned out to be absolute trash. He could not foresee that. Before a copy of the work existed, he had so provoked public curiosity, that it sold to the extent of fifty thousand copies. He had the pleasure of handing over to the patriotic author the handsome copyright of fifteen thousand dollars. Mr. Childs, either by himself, or in connection with partners, was a publisher of books for a dozen years or more ; during which he gave the public several works of high utility, involving an outlay such as few young publishers have ever been in a condition 82 GEORGE W. CHILDS 9 to undertake. No publisher's list lias ever contained less of tlie sensational — Mr. Brownlow's book being his only venture of that kind, and that was an accident of an exceptional period. Among the massively useful books bearing his imprint, there is that truly extraordinary enterprise, " Dr. Allibone's Dictionary of English and American Authors," which is dedicated to Mr. Childs. It ie questionable if there has ever been produced by one man a book involving a greater amount of labor, or one containing a smaller proportion of errors, than this colossal dictionary. Often as I have had occasion to use it, I have never done so without a new sense of its wonderful character. Probably when Mr. Childs undertook its publication, there was hardly another publishing house in the world that would have given the laborious author any encouragement; and it is safe to add that, but for the outbreak of the war, he would have pushed it to a compensating sale. Other costly works pub- lished by Mr. Childs are " Bouvier's Law Dictionarj'," " Bouvier's Institutes of American Law," " Sharswood's Blaekstone," " Fletch- er's Brazil,"' and " Lossing's Illustrated History of the Civil "War." But it is not a detail of his particular enterprises that is required in a brief sketch like this. It is important to know in what spirit and manner he has conducted these extensive aifairs, and what are the real causes of his success in them. His career has not been all triumph ; nor can he, any more than other men, justly claim that his success is due to his unassisted powers. The strongest man needs the aid of his fellows, and he is the strongest man who knoWs best how to win and deserve that assistance. Such a man as Mr. Childs makes friends. It belongs to his hearty, hopeful, and generous nature to inspire regard in kindred minds ; and even minds that have little in common with his own, love to bask in the sunshine of his influence. It so chanced that among the friends who were drawn to him, early in his Philadelphia career, was the celebrated banker, Mr. Anthony J. Drexel, a gentleman whose name in the metropolis of Pennsylva-- nia is suggestive of every thing honorable, liberal, and public- 83 10 GEORGE W. CHILDS. spirited. Mr. Childs is proud to acknowledge tliat, at mavy ? crisis in his life, Mr. Drexel's sympathy and ever-ready help have been a tower of strength to him. They have usually been side by side at the turning-points in Mr. Childs' career the capitalist being always prompt to lend the support of his credit and wealth to the execution of Mr. Childs' well-considered schemes. In the long run, however, a man stands upon his own individual merits. No external aid can long avail if there are radical defi- ciencies in his own character. It is his own indomitable heart and will that carry every man forward to final victory. " There have been times in my business career," Mr. Childs once said, "when eyery thing looked discouraging, and many- would have given up in despair ; but I always worked the harder, and never lost hope." He was sure to remember a kindness, and was never backward in reciprocating it. It has been a principle with him in business, not to be blind to all interests but his own, and he has endeavored to act in the spirit of tiie old maxim : " Live and let live." " I have never been aggressive," he sometimes says, " but I am very determined in self-defense." While he has refrained from all operations foreign to his own business, he has given his whole mind to that; shrinking from no labor which its exigencies required, and never considering that any thing was done while any thing remained to do. He thinks that many who started with him in the race have failed to reach any valuable success, merely from not giving their whole attention to their business, unwilling to defer the enjoyment of life until they had earned the right to enjoy. " Meanness," says Mr. Childs, " is not necessary to success in business, but economy is." He lias been an economist, not only of money, but of his health, his strength, his vital force, the energy and purity of his brain. It has been his happiness to escape those habits which lower the tone of the bodily health and impair the efficiency of the mind — such as smoking and drinking — ^w^liicb, at this moment, lessen the efiicient energies of civilized man by, per- haps, one-half ! He tells the young men about him that Franklin's 84 GEORGE W. CHILDS, H rule for success in business is about the best that can be given — simple as it is. It consists of three words : " Temperance, industry, and frugality." During his career as a publisher of books, he never lost sight of his favorite object, the control of a leading daily newspaper. The time came when he could gratify his ambition. The Public Ledger had fallen upon evil days. Started as a penny \ paper in 1836, the proprietors had been able to keep it at that price for a quarter of a century. But the war, by doubling the cost of material and labor, had rendered it impossible to continue the paper at the original price except at a loss. The proprietors were men naturally averse to change. They clung to the penny feature of their system too long, believing it vital to the prosperity of the Ledger. They were both right and wrong. Cheapness was vital : but in 1864 a cent for such a sheet as the Public Ledger was not a price at all ; it was giving it half away. Eetaining the original price was carrying a good principle to that extreme which endan- gered the principle itself; just as we are now putting in peril the principle of cheap government by condemning important servants of the people — ^judges, mayors, governors, presidents, cabinet min- isters, and heads of bureaus — to pinching and precarious penury. Xor were the proprietors then in a condition to superintend a radical change. One of them was dead. Another was absorbed in the management of another enterprise; and the third was indifferent. This firm, once so capable and vigorous, had outlived its opportunity, and the Puhlic Ledger was for sale. The establishment was then losing four hundred and eighty dollars upon every number of the paper which it issued. • This was not generally known ; the paper looked as prosperous as ever ; its circulation was immense, and its columns were crowded with advertisements. And yet there was a weekly loss of three thousand dollars— a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. Upon learn- ine this fact, the friends of Mr. Childs, whose opinion he sought, eaid with decision: don't buy! Nevertheless, he looked the 85 12 GEORGE W. 0HILD3. ground carefully over ; lie made minute calculations; he kept 'on his thinking cap day and evening. He bought the Public Ledger — the whole of it, just as it stood — for a sum a little exceeding the amount of its annual loss. The purchase was completed December 5, 1864. A week after, the new proprietor announced the two simple and obviously just changes that were necessary to the prolonged existence of the paper. He doubled its price and increased th6 advertising rates to the compensating point. The first shock to the establishment was severe : subscribers fell off, and the columns were lightened in some degree of their burden of advertisements. But a daily news- paper of any great importance is to large classes of people a necessity ; and the Public Ledger was eminently such, for it had been for twenty years the established medium of communication between employers and employed, between buyers and sellers, be- tween bereaved families and their friends, and between landlords and tenants. The subscribers, too, comprehended the reasonable- ness of the change, and Mr. Childs was not the man to neglect the means of bringing it home to their minds. He knows the power of advertising, and how to use that power. In a few days the tide turned. At the end of a month he made a concession of which no one who does not know Philadelphia intimately can understand the importance ; he reduced the paper from two cents a day to ten cents a week. What a trifling matter this seems to us lavish New Yorkers ! But Philadelphia — leaving out a few hundred very rich people, who are the same everywhere — is composed of a prodigious number of highly respectable families, whose means are limited, and to whom severe economy is a thing of conscience, necessity, and life-long habit. Not because they earn less than the inhabit- ants of other cities, but because they are ambitious for their chil- dren, and because it is the custom of the place for all but the very poorest people to live witli a certain decent and orderly respeet- ability, incompatible with waste. Poverty is not regarded there as an excuse for squalor and dirt. Hence, the change in the cost of 86 GEOKGE v. OHILDS. 13 the Ledger — the sole luxury to many virtuous families — was really an important stroke of policy, which restored the paper to more than its former ascendency. Behold, then, Mr. Childs at length in the enjoyment of the position upon which he had fixed his hopes sixteen years before ! He assumed, at once, personal control of the paper, both as a busi^ ness and as a vehicle of communication with the public mind. For four years he rarely left the editorial rooms before midnight. Him- self a man of the people, in full sympathy with the people, he has conducted the paper in the interests of the people ; and yet there is no paper in the world, the tone of which is more uniformly unsen- sational than that of the Public Ledger of Philadelphia. There is a certain sincerity in the editorials which contrasts most pleasingly with the mockery, the chaff, the hypocrisy, and the cowardly in- directness, which are such hideous characteristics of some of the newspapers of New York. Mr. Childs evidently feels that a lie is a lie, that an insult is an insult, and that a calumny is a calumny, whether it be spoken or printed ; and he does not consider that it is less atrocious to inflict a stab at midnight from the safe seclusion of an editorial room, than to take an assassin into pay for a similar purpose. It is an honest, clean, industriously edited paper — an honor to journalism, to Philadelphia, and to its proprietor. Noth- ing is admitted to its columns, not even an advertisement, which ought not to be read in a well-ordered household. The adoption of this rule by Mr. Childs exchided from the paper a class of adver- tisements which yielded a revenue of three hundred dollars a week. The people of Philadelphia have responded to his efforts with a liberality which has enabled him to serve them better and better. A new Ledger building, ample in proportions, and furnished with elegant completeness, now adorns the city, and invites the approval of visitors. The public seems sometimes to bestow its favors ca- priciously — as if indifferent to the worth or worthlessness of those competing for its suffrages. In this instance, the people of Phila- delphia have rallied warmly to the support of a man whose ambition 87 14 GEORGE W. CHILDS. and constant endeavor have been to render them solid and lasting; service. No one can patiently examine a few numbers of the Public Ledger without perceiving that, in every department of the paper, there is an honest effort to give the reader the most and the best that can be put into the space assigned. It is gratifying to know that a newspaper conducted in this spirit is one of the most profitable in the country. Mr. Childs, now in the enjoyment of a princely income, honors himself by his constant consideration of the comfort, pleasure, wel- fare, and dignity of the persons who assist him. He has provided for them apartments to work in as handsome and commodious as the nature of their employment admits, and the building abounds in such conveniences as bath-rooms and ice-fountains. He takes pleasure in compensating faithful service liberally, and loves to see happiness and prosperity around him. He has presented his assist- ants recently with insurances upon their lives, and has given to the Typograpliical Society an elegant improved lot in Woodlands Cem- etery, besides contributing liberally' to the Society's endowment. Care was taken, in furnishing the compositors' room, to give the walls and ceiliiig the subdued tone most agreeable to the over- tasked eyes of the compositors. On days of festivity, such as the 7^'ourth of July and Ciiristinas, Mr. Childs is accustomed to provide for those in his employment and their families an entertainment of some kind, in which all can participate — the happy effects of which siiine in tlieir countenances and animate their minds for many a day after. In a word, his is a generous heart, and finds happiness in diffusing happiness, and loves to make all around and about him sharers in his prosperity. How much nobler is this than to scrimp and screw for fifty yeara, blasting all the life within range by a cold, grudging spirit, and then le^ve behind, as a heavy burden upon posterity, a huge mass of property, whicli the owner parts with only because he can not carry it with him ! Posterity will have care and perplexity enough •without being saddled with crude, injudicious bequests. But nearly 88 GEORGE W. CHILDS. 15 the whole eflScieiit population of the globe sustains the relation of employer and employed ; and as far as we can discern, this is an unchangeable necessity of human life. Hence we may say, that the welfare and dignity of man depend upon the degree to which the duties involved in this relation are understood and performed. A man in the position of Mr. Childs can, if he will, render the lives of many vi those who serve him bitter and shameful ; he can discour- age them by a hard, pitiless demeanor ; he can corrupt them bj' a bad example; he can wound them by unjust reproaches; he can weaken them by excessive indulgence ; he can keep them anxious by his caprice ; he can foster ill-will, and relax honest effort by favoritism ; or, he can simply hold aloof, and regard his assistants merely as part of the apparatus of his business. Mr. Childs, on the contrary, chooses to be the friend and benefactor of those who labor with him ; and as he lias himself labored faithfully in every post, from errand boy to chief, he knows where and how to apply the balm that solaces the hearts of the toiling sons of men. It is for this that I honor him. 89 4^e't /yy(r^^^i IIFMOUHf^PMUl IMS JAMES W. GEEARD. BT L. A. HENDRICK. P HERE IS not a max) in New York City who holds a 'rfs^;! nearer and a dearer place iii the heart of the public tlian J. W. Gerard. His field of usefulness has been varied. One thing which makes him desire the city's welfare is that he is not a foreigner or an outsider even but one born in our midst and whose entire interests center liere. The following sketch we extract from the ISTew York Herald. Mr. Gerard is of Scotch and French extraction, both Iiis parents being born in Scotland but their parents were among the Huguenots who fled from their lovely land, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. However, we may claim Mr. Gerard as irz^Zy American for his grandparents came to our glorious land before the Revolution. During the war they went to Nova Scotia but returned at its close. The greatest pains were taken with his education, going first through the finest private schools of the city, and then through Columbia College, which was at that time at the height of its glory. His college duties were a delightful and easy task to him. He graduated with honor, being the third in his class. Severe appli- cation to study was not to him a necessity in the attainment of high scholarship. Though a finislied classical scholar and a fine mathematician, his natural tastes and glowing ambition took a higlier range than the dull and dry formulas of the texl-books. The indispensable value of these studies to tliorough mental disci- pline he early felt and appreciated ; but in his philosophical studies, in helles lettres, and in broader and pleasanter fields of general lit- erature he found the most hallowed delight. Studying the mighty 91 2 JAME3 "W. GERAKD masters of oratory and the intellectual liglitof the Old "World was his pleasure: the works of men who swayed Athens and Sparta in their glory ; men who moved nations ; men who sang sweet songs for youth and for old age, in their day, and for the same classes for all time ; men whose glorious deeds still remain to im- mortalize their names. Mr. Gerard's sympathy was nevertheless with the living present. He studied men and things as they were presented to him in daily life. His hopes and his ambitions linked themselves with the great unbosomed future with whose revolving cycles and evolutions of the unknown were interwoven his duties, his destiny, his future being, his coming life-battles, and their vie tories and defeats. Having taken his degree of Bachelor of Arts^ — and the records of the college show that he took in order also the degree of Master of Arts ; and a few years since, as will be remembered, the college conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, a title which he never assumed — he entered upon the study of law. Mr. Gerard began his legal studies in the law ofBce of George Gi'iffin, at that time the Gamaliel of the bar, and then in the zenith of his fame. He read law with avidity, and soon had at his fingers' ends, so to speak, the contents of the legal text-books. Its tech- nical principles, its subtle distinctions, and its nice logic speedily became familiar to him. Few law students in their preliminary- reading attain a more exact, thorough, and methodized knowledge of the general principles of law. His studies were not confined to the text-books alone ; he thoroughly explored the abstruse doctrines of modern tenures and titles, and extended his research, in fact, into every department of equity and jurisprudence. But all this did not satisfy him. An essential part of preliminary legal training he early saw was to be able to acquire the art of speaking with facility and perspicuity. Accordingly he and a few of the associates of his early legal days, Hiram Ketchum, Thomas Fessenden, Ogdep Hoffman, and other young lawyers, formed a debating society called the Forum. Their place of meeting was in one of the 92 JAMES W. GEEAED. 3 largest and best rooms of the old City Hotel on Broadway, near Cedar Street. At first six cents was charged for admission, but the growing popularity of the young and brilliant debaters filled the large room, and, as the receipts were given away in charity, the price of admission was raised to twenty-five cents. Many who afterward became distinguished at the bar made here their first appearance before the public as debaters, and by their practice here in the forensic art acquired that excellence in oratory character- izing their subsequent efforts at tlie bar. Large numbers still living well remember the efforts of Mr. Gerard, Mr. Hoffman, Hugh Maxwell, Hiram Ketchum, and others, at these weekly dis- cussions. It was a constellation of brilliant talent. The first people in the city went to hear the debates. Often when some specially exciting topic was to be discussed the old Park Theatre, crowded on other nights, would on these nights present a beggarly array of empty benches. " —-The rapid argument Soared in gorgeous flight, liaising earth With heaven hj golden chains of eloquence." The City Hotel has passed out of existence, and of all the active participants in those early scenes of forensic strife only Mr. Gerard, Mr. Maxwell, and Mr. Ketchum are now living. The Forum was still in the full tide of its splendid success and growing popularity when Mr. Gerard was admitted to the bar. At this time a bright and dazzling array of great advocates adorned the New York bar. Emmet and Wells, GritEn and Ogden, Jones and Slosson were its shining ornaments — men not only of great acquirements as lawyers, but men of genius and surpassing elo- quence, and who cultivated oratory as an important adjunct to their profession. Hiring a humble ofiice in William Street, at a rent of one hundred dollars a year, he placed in it a desk, gave the utmost compass of display to his limited law library, put up his sign, and waited for clients. For some time none came. As he said in his Bpeech at the banquet given him, ho waited with patience, and 4 JAMES W. GEBARD. wondered at the stupidity of people in not employing him. Every lawyer has, however, his first case, and he had his. Talent, industry, and obstinate perseverance formed the basis of Mr. Gerard's eminent success as a lawyer. The advice he, gave to young lawyers in his banquet speech tells the whole story. The pathway he indicated as the one they should choose is the one he chose himself. He showed them how genius avails but little in getting into practice — how men of great genius rarely make great lawyers — how energy, untiring perseverance, and patience are the elements that enter into a lawyer's success. He also advised them to become masters of the facts, not minding much the law, but leaving the latter to the judges. His theory is not to cross-examine too much, and not to save all the energies for the summing up, but make the opening equally effective. As a general rule, he thinks the colloquial the most effective style of addressing juries. Such is the programme he long since mapped out for himself. His style of speaking, both in the courts and out of them, is his own, borrowed from no one — an imitation of no one. Simplicity of diction is its most striking feature, and an afiluence of language that never tires. To him may be applied the line of the old Latin . poet : — "Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit." Although never writing ont his speeches, legal, political, or otherwise, he has always shown the happiest faculty of saying the happiest things on all occasions. The letters of Governor Hoffman, Judge Latrobe, Chief Justice Hunt, ex- Attorney-General Evarts, and Judge l^!"e]8on read at the banquet testimonial, and the speeches of Mr. Cutting, Judge Blatchford, David Paul Brown, David Dud- ley Field, Luther R. Marsh, the late James T. Brady, and other?, set forth in words of glowing euloginm the salient points of his character, and the causes that contributed to give him his proud eminence at the bar. It is unnecessary to repeat these kindly- expressed and well-merited eulogiums, as showing the basis of his 94 JAMES W. GERARD. >$ successful career. There is a cliaracteristic, however, largely con- tributing to this result, to which allusion should be made, and that is, that no person, however poor or humble, ever required his services that he did not command them witli the same zeal he would have given them to the richest and the most powerful Again, he did not belong to that class of lawyers who — "So there were quarrels, cared not for the cause, Knowing tliey must be settled by the laws ;" but, on the contrary', he always sought to avoid litigation and only advised to resort to it when every other means failed to accomplish the end's of justice. Altogether the cause of his success is clear — a disposition glowing with sunshine, a perpetual geniality, lively humor, integrity, talents, zeal, energy, and great capacity for labor. A voluminous book might be written revealing the wit ana humor of Mr. Gerard. No matter what the case or its surround- ings, he always managed to bring into pleasant prominence its humorous points. While the mock gravity of the owl was foreign to his nature, he never strove to be witty. His wit was spontane- ous, quick, lightning flashes — the fire struck from the flinty rock. His humor was perpetual — the long summer day of golden sun- shine. It was as much in his manner as in any thing he said. From the multitude of cases showing his humorous traits as a lawyer which we might give we will cite but one. On one occa- sion he was cross-examining a party who had previously been on very intimate terms with his client, but were then estranged and hostile. The witness had evinced inimical feelings to such an ex- tent in giving his testimony that he thought it best to make an explanation. " My relations with the plaintiff," said the witness, " were once of the closest character; we were, in fact, like brothers; but now — " " But now you are brothers in law," interrupted Mr. Gerard, finishing the sentence before the witness could go further. 95 Q JAMES W. GKEABD. The circumstances connected with Mr. Gerard's first criminal case, which was the defense of a boy fourteen years of age, indicted for stealing a canary bird, led him to think that something might be done for the reformation of juvenile criminals. He was asked to deliver a public address. He visited all the city prisons, saw liow old and young offenders were mixed up together, consulted the police justices, and from the mass of the material thus collected took as the subject of his address the necessity of a house of refuge for juvenile delinquents. Tiie proposition met at once with public approval, and the House of Eefuge was built. What the House of Eefuge is to-day need not be told. Its reformatory influence is most salutary. Thousands of young offenders, who, if brought iu contact with persons hardened in crime, would themselves become hardened criminals, are here educated for future usefulness in life by being taught trades, and thence go forth into the world thor- oughly reformed and prepared to become good citizens. It is now one of the most useful institutions in the country, and has been adopted in nearly every State in the Union. The spirit of public enterprise forming such a large element in Mr. Gerard's career has in nothing shown itself more effectively than in his efforts to increase the efficiency of our police force. In the course of a European tour he stopped in London some time, and while there was particularly struck with the efficiency of the London police as contrasted with the inefficiency of the police of this city. It became his settled conviction that the wearing of uni- forms would give additional respect to the men, and in every way be attended with good results. On coming back, he wrote a series of able articles in the Journal of Commerce^ spoke repeatedly in public on the topic, and in every way sought to impress upon the city government the importance of adopting his suggestions, and particularly the uniforming of the police and making it a military organization. Everybody remembers how our police used to look in their shabby coats of many colors and every variety of hat and cap, and with no badge of office but a star at the breast, that was 96 JAMES W. GERARD. >j half the time in an eclipse. Having convinced the Police Com- missioners of the utility of the propobed uniform they ordered it to be worn, but the men rebelled and refused to wear it, calling it Mr. Gerard's " d d aristocratic livery." About this time, Mrs. Coventry Waddell gave a fancy ball at her residence in Fifth Avenue. " The police object to wearing the new uniform," said Mr. Gerard to Mr. Matsell, who was then Chief of Police. " Will you lend me a suit ? I am not ashamed to wear it." " Certainly," replied the chief; but where are you going to wear it?" " At a ball on Fifth Avenue." " That is a fashionable place to introduce the uniform," said the robust and smiling chief. Mr. Matsell gave him a complete uniform, hat, clnb, and all. The police heard of it, and said if Mr. Gerard was not ashamed to wear it they certainly ought not to be. And so it was adopted without further objection. In almost every city of the United States police uniforms are now worn. A somewhat memorable event in the history of Mr. Gerard is his crusade some years ago against newsboys. Ho does not object to newsboys; thinks them a great institution — an indispensal)ie insti- tution in our nineteenth century of civilization. His only objection was to their vociferous style of crying out Sunday papers on Sunday morning, waking everybody from sleep and disturbing ministers and congregations at the Sabbath worship. The Sunday officers wore powerless against the noisy urchins, and Mr. Gerard, deter- mined to abate the nuisance, directed an officer, althougli he had no warrant, to arrest an editor, who, as an exponent of the rights of newsboys, had taken on himself to cry out and sell papers. On Mr. Gerard promising to indemnify the officei', the latter arrested the editor and marched him off to the Tombs, whei-e he was thrown into a cell, to answer a charge of disorderly conduct. An action for false imprisonment was brought by the editor. "We will not 7 97 8 JAMES W. GERAED. pursue the case through all its lengthy details. Tliere were several trials and appeals. Mr. Gerard earned his point, and was -success- ful in abating the nuisance. It was in contemplation to give Mr. Gerard a piece of plate for his success in the matter, but lie never accepted the honor. N^o man in the city has taken a livelier interest in the cause of pub- lic education than Mr. Gerard. It has been ho ephemeral, opas- modic interest. It has been the interest of a lifetime. His warm and generous aud sunny nature has a special afiinity for children. His soul overflows with tenderness and love for them. He is never 80 happy as when surrounded with their smiling faces. With his growing years this love has grown in its intensity, and in the sweet- ness and purity of his devotion to their interests. For over twenty years he has been an officer of our public scliools. ' No one has con- tributed more than he to perfecting our present splendid system of popular education. Tiiere is not a public school in this city every child of which does not know his face, and look more smiling and happy when he comes. As is well known, he has been in the habit of delivering frequent lectures to the older children, and he always has a pleasant word to say to all, from the youngest to the oldest. Our public schools was the closing theme of his great banquet speech. His soul dilated with joy, and a beautiful and almost sacred inspir- ation clothed his utterances. No more beautiful thought and more beautifully expressed was ever uttered than that embodied in his his closing words, which we can not refrain from quoting: "There "is one hour in the day, which is sacred in this great city, and " which is enough to redeem it from much of its sin and wicked- "ness. As the city bells toll out the hour of nine in the mornin" " a hundred thousand children are engaged in praj'cr in more than "a hundred lofty buildings; a hundred thousand tongues, with "eyes cast upward to the skies, are repeating in solemn, subdued "accents that beautiful prayer to their God which our Saviour " taught on earth ; a hundred thousand voices pour forth a solemn '• chant in praise of the great Creator who has given tliem the li^ht 98 JAMES W. GERAED. 9 " of another day, and the sweet music of children's voices pouring " forth strains of solemn music is more acceptable to Heaven than " any holy incense ever thrown from silver censer. There is sub- ' " limity in the thought." His interest in our public schools and his labors for their benefit will only terminate with his life. Never having been an active politician, it requires but few lines to give a. summary of Mr. Gerard's political life. He was a Federal- ist of the old school and became a member of the Whig party, but when that became an abolition party, under the leadership of Seward and others, he left it, and although he has since acted with the De- mocracy, but not with its ring by any means, he has always been independent and voted for the best men, without regard to party. .Having almost uniformly acted with the minority, he has never been put up for any ofiice, nor held any except that of Inspector of Pub- lic Schools. It is well known, however, that he has never had any political nor judicial aspirations, although once offered the nomina- tion for Congress, and once that of Judge of the Superior Court. Being devoted to his profession he would not give it up for ofiice of any kind. In early life Mr. Gerard was married to a daughter of Governor Sumner, of Massachusetts, and sister of General Sumner. They had four children, of whom only two— a son and daughter —are now liv- ino-. His wife died some five years ago, leaving him a large landed estate in Boston. Since 1844 he has lived at his present residence on Gramercy Park, then the most northerly house in New York, and the second stone house in this city. He is an Episcopalian, and attends Dr. "Washburne's church. He is as free from bigotry in re- ligion as he is from partisanship in politics. In private life he is the most companionable of men. In society his address is the most charmincr that can be imagined, and its lonhommie irresistible. He keeps up with the times, its literature, its socialities, its amuse- ments, its busy, animated life. No one is more often to be seen at the opera, concert, or lecture room if there is promise of a good entertainment. Advancing years do not dampen his 99 ]0 JAMES W. GEBARD. spirits nor his vivacity. He lias always known how to enjoy him- self, and in this regard shows no departure froTii tlie habits of a life- time. ISText to his taste for the opera and mnsic is his passion for fine paintings. He has several times made the tour of all the picture galleries in Europe, and the walls of hig parlors are adorned with some of the finest works of the old masters. There is, in fact, no more valuable collection of private |)aintings in this city. Every- body knows the perwfinel of Mr. Gerard. Probably no one is more widely known. As we have already stated, he is in tlie enjoyment of excellant health, and it is to be hoped he may be long spared to scatter about him the blessings of geniality and public usefulness and charities, which are abundant, though unostentatious. On Mr. Gerard's withdrawal in 1868 from the practice of his pro- fession, there was a magnificent banquet given him at Delmonico's, It was a tribute iinprecedeuted in its character — a tribute to his eminent abilities as a lawyer, to his zeal and unbending integrity in his profession, aud to the general kindliness of disposition he has shown at all times during his long and honorable service at the bar — a tribute of which any man may be justly proud. This tribute — magnificent as it was, and wliile all the great legal lumi- naries of our city and the leading notabilities of other professions graced the banquet with their presence ; and, while learning, taste, wit, imagination, and eloquence gave force and brilliancy to the speeches — is only feebly expressive of the more extended and broader universality of regard entertained for Mr. Gerard as a citizen. His fame has gone beyond the boundaries of court rooms, preparing briefs and opening cases, examining witnesses and summing up, that climax of legal efibrt in which the lawyer summons up all the tact and brilliancy and eloquence and power there is in hiiri to accomplish a verdict fi>r his client. His uame has long been a household word. His activity of enterprise as a citizen has been sleepless. No one need to be told that to him we owe the establish- ment of the House of Refuge, that it was through his efforts our police were uniformed, and that to his devotion to our educatioual 100 JAMES W. GERARD H interests we are mainly indebted for the present perfected system of our public schools. He has not stopped here. In all matters of public interest his voice and influence have been heard and felt. Ennobling charities, reforms in government and politics, literature, science and art, each have always had in him a strong and faithful ally. A pure and broad philanthropy welling up from a nature warm and generous and bubbling over with kindly sympathies, and a humor, giving perpetually pleasing beauty and brightness to his life, pervades his whole soul and being. His life has been an active one in his profession and out of it. To him lahor est voluptns. He can not live without labor. His labors in his profession were always on the side of justice and right. His labors out of the profession have been unceasing labors of love for all that elevates manhood and makes life and goodness and joy synonyms of each other and sweetlj' kin to all that is pure and true and beautiful. A life made up of his varied professional experiences, and electric with the vital- izing influences of his genial temperament, sprightly humor, and expansive benevolence, is replete with incidents giving; to narrative a livelier glow than the most vivacious records of flction. In con- clusion we give a part of his speech at the banquet : — "I have no apprehension that I shall slide down into listless apathy. My time will be fully occupied. I shall have enough to do. I go from the bustle of tlie law, not into listlessness, but into a large and active scene of usefulness. I shall give the principal part of my time and energies to the public schools — the largest and most splendid system of popular education, which is known in any part of the world ; and that is one great motive of my giving up the practice of the law. I have been for twenty years a peripatetic educational missionary ; a;nd although my especial ground is con- fined to the Fifteenth and Eighteenth wards, yet my walks have extended over the whole city from the Battery to Harlem ; from the East to the North rivers ; and I intend to devote my energies to the welfare and interest of the i-ising generation of the working classes of the city. The school system as organized in this city is 101 12 JAMES "W. GERARD. perfect; it requires no change, no amendment: and only let the politicians keep clear of it, and its success will be certain. " The doors of its attractive school-houses are opened to receive, without money and without price, the children not only of the native, but of all immigrants, no matter from what part of the world they come or what language they speak ; no matter what is their nationality, what their social condition, or their religion. The doors are open to Jew and Gentile, and Christians of all denomi- nations — the Protestant, the Catholic, the Episcopalian, the Pres- byterian, Methodist, or Baptist — all meet on neutral ground, and they acquire as good a practical education (botli sexes) as any boarding or day-school in the country or in any country can afford. To a gentleman of any taste or refinement, nothing is more agree- able, and I may say instructive, than to pass an hour or two in the morning in the class-room, and see the development of mind an d the ambitious strife between the different nationalities, of the masses of children, who, witli happy faces, go through their exer- cises under a mild, but beautiful and gentle discipline, with no harsh or loud orders given, but the discipline of the whole school led by the music of a piano or the sound of a little bell. In any discussions relative to the merits of the public schools, remember that universal iiitelligence is the bulwark of a republic, and if you will have universal suffrage, yon must have its aTitidote, imiversal education. " I shall now conclude my remarks. This beautiful banquet will ever be a green spot in my memory, which I never, never can forget. It is the greatest compliment could possibly be paid nie. It is unprecedented to a mere lawyer who never wore the ermine or held judicial office, and was simply in the rank and file of the bar. As we now part, I wish you all, individually, health, happi- ness, and prosperity for many years to come. May yo\ir lines be cast in pleasant places. May you be plagued with few of the ills of life which flesh is heir to. May your paths be strewed with roses, and may there be but few thorns among them." 102 in.g'l waC5B-i=!i -jjnni-z'f" W. H. WEBB. «R. WEBB was born in the city of ISTew.Tork, June 19, 1816, of parents whose ancestors were English and Huguenot on the paternal side, and Huguenot and Scotch on the aiaternal. The former had settled in Connecticut and the latter in New York long before our War of the Revolution. His father, Isaac Webb, was born in Stamford, Connecticut. He removed to the city of New York- with his parents, when quite young, and early engaged in the business of ship-building. He afterward became the leading member of the well-known ship- building fii-ms of Isaac Webb & Co. and Webb & Allen of l^ew York. For several years, he was also associated with the renowned ship-builder Henry Eckford, prominent during and after the War of 1812. The subject of our sketch received his education at the private schools of New York and New Jei'sey. For awhile he attended the grammar school of Columbia College, wliei-e he won the regard of the professors and attained the highest rank in mathematics. In his early years he evinced little fondness for youthful sports, but rather a taste for rare and beautiful natural curiosities, collec- tions of which were made during his school- boy days. At the age of thirteen, our future ship-builder constructed his first boat (a small skiif), during his summer vacation. Others followed (among them a paddle-boat), being built during the following two years. The fondness displayed by tlie son for such pursuits was not pleasing to thp father. When the summer vacation came round, the latter intimated that he wished his son, who was then fifteen 103 2 W. H. WEBB. years of age, to resort during the vacation only to tlie molding-loft of his father's ship-yard for occupation and amusement. A molding- loft is a buildiTig expressly arranged for laying off plans of vessels in full size, which are built from patterns made after these plans. Here, much to the surprise and regret of the parents and his school-teachers, with whom he Was a favorite and who had formed other plans of life for the boy, he determined to leai-n the art of constructing ships. He therefore sought permission, which was never given, to stay in the ship-yard. The lad, however, was suf- fered ^to remain at the molding-loft, his parents hoping that a brief experience would suffice and a return to school follow. But their hopes were doomed to disappointment. Exposure at the yard during the next winter, caused (as he was not robust) severe illness. On recovery, parents and friends en- deavored to dissuade the boy from his purpose, but without iavail, and work in the ship-yard was resumed. Two years had rolled round and the age of seventeen was reached, by which time the boy discovered he had embraced a profession most difficult to learn, requiring constant and extraordinary appli- cation. He was now ready to relinquish his object, fearing that his dreams of becoming a master of the business would never be realized. But remembrance of the determination shown in the beginning, contrary to his parents' desire, knowledge of the humili- ation attending an abandonment after snch action, together with the fact that others had succeeded, and therefore he ought to succeed, induced the boy to persevere. I^early six years were spent in constant work by day, and hard study at night, in order to obtaiti the scientific and practical knowl- edge necessary to become a complete master of the art of ship- building. He took only one week of vacation during this time, which was principally spent in a visit of examination to the dry-dock at the Boston Navy Yard, then new and the first of the kind built in this country. At the early age of twenty, having been previously intrusted 104 W. H. "WEBB. 3 with the direction of principal portions of the work in the construc- tion of ships and the management of men, he undertook, under a subcontract made with his father, the building of the New York and Liverpool packet-ship Oxford of the old Black Ball Line. He continued the business of constructing vessels as sub-con- tractor until the age of twenty-three, having in the mean time built the Havre packet-ship Duchesse d! Orleans (still doing good service), the Liverpool packet-ship New Yorl\ alnd two smaller vessels. About this time the young man's health began to fail, and he took a trip to Liverpool in the last-named ship on her iirst voyage — partly with a view of becoming more fully acquainted with the performance of a ship at sea. After a short tour of Great Britain and a visit to tbe- Continent, he was unexpectedly recalled by the death of his father, whose business affairs were found to be involved. Soon after his return home, he formed a partnership, April 1, ' 1840, with his father's former associate, under the new iirm of- Webb & Allen. This lasted three years, when Mr. Allen retired, and the then prosperous business has since been conducted b^' Mr. Webb alone with increasing and remarkable success. He has built, up to the present time, one hundred and thirty -four vessels. Many of these are London, Liverpool, and Havre packets, as well as steam-ships of the largest tonnage and in the aggregate greater than that of any other constructor in this country. Mr. Webb never built ships on speculation, but always under contract. Having early given evidence of his ability iil the model- ing of steam-vessels, he was engaged to construct the first steam- ships to run between New York and Savannah. He also built the first large steamer for the New Orleans trade, as well as the first steamer for the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, carrying the United States Mail between Panama and San Francisco. He con- structed all the steamers subsequently built for that company. The first steamer that entered the Golden Gate (harbor of San Fran- cisco), also the first three steamers selected to carry the first United 105 4 W. H. WKBB. States Mail from New York to China, via Aspinwall, Panama, and San Francisco, were built by Mr. Webb. About the year 1850 he conceived the idea of constructing a model vessel of war for the United States navy, and application was made at Washington with this view. This application brought an offer from Mr. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy, for the construction of a model steam-frigate, but on the condition that the vessel should be built in the United States' government dock-yards. This condi- tion was so inconvenient, on account of other engagements, and the jealous hostility manifested by the Bureau of Construction at Washington was so great, that Mr. Webb had to abandon Lis cherished idea. Application was next made to the Emperor of the French, who listened favorably to Mr. Webb's proposal, but returned answer, that the objections made by the Marine Department were such tliat he declined ordering a vessel to be built put of their own dock-yards. Determined to pursue his object, Mr. Webb sent in the spring of 1851 an agent to St. Petersburg, with proposals to the Kussian gov- ernment, who returned the same year unsuccessful. He reported sufficient encouragement, however, to induce hia being sent again the following year. During the agent's second visit, the Russian government consid- ered Mr. Webb's proposals to construct for them one or more large model war-steamers, but were disinclined to treat with other than the principal himself. Something of the hesitancy on the part of the government arose from the fact that the then Eussian minister at Washington, Mr. Bodisco, would not favor the project, having (as he said) had too much trouble with parties in this country who had previously obtained contracts from his government. The favorable report forwarded by his agent, induced Mr. Webb to repair to St. Petersburg in person, during the summer of 1852, at great inconvenience to his business at home. On arriving there, he found his agent had misled him, and that the Emperor Nicholas, 106 W. H. "WKBB. 5 ■for the same reasons tliat influenced his minister, Mr. Bodisco, had decided not to order a vessel to be bnilt in America. This was a dilemma : the apparent defeat of the long-cherished object of his visit, which was known to his countrymen and entailed much loss of time and sacrifice of business, was crushing to the pride and hopes of Mr. Webb. However, he decided to make further efforts to gain his end. Here the determination of character shown in the boy was evinced in the man. Other proposals were made and additional inducements offered to the naval committee, who expressed a willingness to consider them, but saying it would be more than their heads were worth to receive new proposals without orders irom liigher autliority. The influence of the Grand Duke Constantine, General Admiral of the Eussian uavy, was now sought. But as he was leaving for the ann ual re- view of the fleet at sea, Mr. "Webb was obliged to suffer a vexatious delay. On his return, the grand duke accorded a personal interview, when he was so favorably impressed, that he promised (provided Mr. Webb would agree to deliver the vessel, when built, at Cronstadt) to bring the subject once more to the notice of the emperor. This condition, wliich entailed enormous risk and responsibility, having been agreed to, the matter was again referred to the naval commit- tee. The latter soon made a favorable report to the general admi- ral, and the result was that the emperor was induced to rescind the order previously given. Mr. Webb then left St. Petersburg, in six weeks after his arrival, with an order for the construction of a large steam line-of battle ship after his proposed model and plans, as well as other orders of magnitude. Immediately on his return home, Mr. Webb commenced the necessary preparatioas for the construction of the first ship ; but before sufficient materials could be collected for the building of so large a vessel, the war between Russia and the Allies (England, France, and Turkey) broke out and put a stop to the work. The neutrality laws of the United States rendered questionable the pro- 107 6 W. H. WEBB. priety of proceeding under the contract. On the restoration of peace, the work nnder the contract was resumed, bnt upon a differ- ent plan and a new model, designed and submitted by Mr. Webb, with a less number of guns, though of larger caliber and mounted on fewer decks. This idea, originating with him and presenting great advantages over the plans formerly accepted, has since been adopted in the navies of all maritime countries. The vessel was built strictly in accordance with these plans and this model, notwithstanding the Russian oflScers, who had been sent to America to superintend her construction and who had remained in tliis country during the Crimean War, withheld their approval. But when the vessel was tried at sea, they were not sparing of their expressions of satisfaction. Her performances exceeded, especially in the matter of speed, all expectations and the promises made to the general admiral when the contract was entered into. On the 21st day of September, 1858, just one year after the lay- ing of the keel, this screw frigate of T2 guns, 7,000 tons displace- ment, and named the General Admiral — in honor of the Grand Duke Constantine — was launched from Mr. Webb's yard in the city of New York. It has proved to be tlie fastest vessel of war yet built (except the Steam Eam Dunderlerg, since constructed by him), having made the passage from New York to Cherbourg in the unprecedented time of eleven days and eight hours, mostly under steam alone. Mr. Webb delivered this magnificent and most powerful steamer at the port of Cronstadt, in person, in the summer of 1859. He received from the imperial Eussian government very valuable testimonials, both written and substantial, of the satisfaction with which they received the vessel, as well as the high opinion enter- tained of the manner in which all promises and the details of the contract were carried out. The unexampled success of the frigate General Admiral soon became known to the naval authorities in Europe, and especially attracted the attention of the Italian govern- 108 W H WEBB. 1 inent, wliich had jnst about that time been created tlirougb the agency of Count Cavour. This eminent and far-sighted statesman invited Mr. "Webb to visit Turin, tlien the -seat of government. The latter here entered into contract with the ro_yal Italian govern- ment to construct two iron-clad screw frigates, each of thirty-six large guns and six thousand tons displacement, afterward named the lie d' Italia and the Re di Portogallo. The contract for these two frigates having been made jnst previous to the breaking out of the Rebellion in the United States, great obstacles interposed, consequently, to its fulfillment, especially as these were, the first iron-clads ever built in this country. Never- theless, both vessels were delivered within the time agreed upon. Mr. Webb was engaged at the same time in rebuilding and re- fitting for war purposes many steam- vessels for his own govern- ment, as well as constructing several large steamers for the mer- chant service. The lie d' Italia was the first iron-clad steamer that crossed the Atlantic, and gave proofs of extraordinary sea-going qualities and speed. The same may be said of her sister ship, tlie lie di Poi'to(/allo. The former made the passage in the winter season from New York to Naples, a distance of over five thousand miles, in eighteen days and twenty hours, mostly under steam alone. The literal fulfillment of the contract for these two frigates and their performances were so satisfactory to the Italian government, that King Victor Emmanuel conferred on Mr. "Webb the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (one of the oldest in Europe) as a token of his esteem. "While the frigates were in course of construction, Mr. "Webb accepted an order from our own government to build a sci-ew ram of large tonnage, expressly adapted for the heaviest armament, to possess the highest speed and the best sea-going qualities — the model and plans to be designed by himself. The task thus imposed was a very difficult one, never having been accomplished before; but Mr. Webb in a short time presented 109 8 W. H. 'WEBB. a model and plans entirely original, designed by himself, for the consideration and approval of tlie naval authorities at Washington. The plans were submitted to a board of naval experts, consisting of the chiefs of the bureaus of both construction and engineering, and otliers, by whom they were condemned. Here again arose a difficulty, Mr. Webb oiferinghis opinions and experience in opposition to those of the Navj' Department, and in- sisting that the experts were wrong and could not appreciate the advantages of his plan. He persevered till the then Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Welles, relying entirely on Mr. Webb, entered into contract M'ith him for the construction of that remarkable vessel known as the Dunderherg. Its dimensions are three hundred and seventy-eight feet on deck, sixty-eight feet breadth of beam, and thirty-two feet depth of hold. It has a displacement of seventy-two hundred tons, being the largest iron-clad yet built. It also affords more room for fuel, stores, provisions, as well as accommodation for officers and crew, with a less draft of water, than any other large armored vessel of war. Tiie performances of this ship surprised the Navy Department and the country, surpassing all the promises made by Mr. Webb, as well as the requirements of the contract. Her speed has not yet been equaled in any vessel of war, being fifteen knots at sea fully armed and in commission. The model of this iron-clad is new and distinct from the turret or Monitor system. It embodies many novelties, as well as a ram of peculiar construction. The engines have also several new and important features. With her extraordinary speed, enormous weight of broadside battery (four thousand and twenty-four pounds of solid shot), and the prow, her destructive power is immense — far greater than that of any other ship ever yet constructed. The Eebellion having ended before the completion of this vessel, the Secretary of the Navy favored Mr. Webb's proposition to be allowed to sell her to some foreign government. With this view, 110 ■W. H. WKBB. 9 Mr. Webb procured tbe passage of an act of Congress, directing the Secretary of the Navy to release the former from his contract. This encountered decided opposition on the part of General Grant, Secretary Stanton, and others, who said so powerful a vessel of war ought never to be allowed to become the property of another power. Mr. Webb, now enabled to treat with other governments for the sale of his steamer, soon found applicants, and without much delay sold her to the Emperor of the French for a larger sum than had been agreed to be paid by the United States. As the purchase of the Dnnderherg provided only for delivery at the port of New York, the French Admiralty engaged Mr. Webb to deliver her at Cher- bourg. He sailed contrary to the advice of his friends, who seemed to think it a perilous undertaking in a vessel of such novel con- struction. The Dimderherg arrived safely at the port of Cherbourg after a rough passage of fourteen days. Mr. Webb has received from high naval authorities of France, also from the Emperor Napoleon, assurances of their great satisfac- tion with the performances of the Dunderberg (now Hochamheau), his majesty having promised to confer the Order of the Legion of Honor on its constructor. Among the vessels since built by Mr, Webb are the steamers Bristol and Providence running from New York on the route to Boston, being the largest of their class and magnificently fitted up. They are the first of this class ever built by Mr. Webb, and their models differ from those heretofore constructed for the trade by others. They were consequently objected to by experts, and their performances awaited with much interest. Suffice it to say, that at their first trials they surpassed in speed any steamers previously built, accomplishing twenty miles per hour continuously. Our constructor was employed by the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company to build the model steamer (afterward called the China) for their new line to run between San Francisco and China. This vessel one of the largest merchant-steamers ever constructed in this country, accommodates twelve hundred passengers, and carries at 111 10 W. H. "WEBB. the same time about two thousand tons of freight. It also combines the greatest strength witli the liighest speed. New elements of strength, originated by Mr. Webb, were introduced in the construc- tion of this ship. She has encountered several hurricanes in the Chinese and Japanese seas, and performed wonders in the opinion of nautical men. To enumerate all the important vessels that have been constructed by our subject during the past thirty years, would be a tedious task. However, we may mention the Guy Mannering {\AVQ:r\>oo\ packet), the first full three-deck merchant vessel built in this country ; and the ship Ocean Monarch, possessing the greatest freigiit capacity of any ever constructed up to the pi'esent time. Siie has received on board over seven tliousand bales of cotton at one loading, drawing no more than eighteen and a half feet of water. Among the few clippers built by tliis gentleman are the Chal- lemje, Comet., Inviiioible, and Young America. Tliese ai-e all cele- brated, one of them (the Cy/wcV), under the command of Captain Gardner, having n)ade five successive voyages, averaging one liuii- di-ed days, between New York and San Francisco ; and one voyage from San Francisco to New York in seventy-six days. This is the shortest passage ever made between the two ports. In additidu to the building of vessels, Mr. Webb has been en- gaged in the steauiship business, liaving run an opposition line of steamers for several years between New York and San Francisco. However, he finally amalgamated his interests with those of the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, and his line was withdrawn. At present, he is running the only American steamers in the European trade, and recently sent the first American steamer into the Baltic. He now purposes establishing a line of steam-ships to run between San Francisco and Australia, nia Honolulu and other islands in the Pacific Ocean. Such a record of successful enterprise, in an im- portant and a ditficult department of business, requirino- mental qualities of a high oi'der, as also indomitable persevei'ance, is its own eulogy, and stamps Mr. Webb as a man of progress. 112 HON". EDWAEDS PIEEREPOIi^T. BY F. H. GREER. iUDGE PIEEREPONT* is of an old Connecticut family, being a descendant of James Pierrepont, one of the f^^ founders of Tale College. He is a native of N'orth Haven, and was graduated at Tale College, in the class of 1837, with very high honors. His legal education was received at the New Haven Law School, of which Judge Daggett was then the head. In 1840 he went to Columbus, Ohio, and became the partner of P. B. Wilcox, a distinguished lawyer of that city. After five years he returned to practice in New Tork, and in 1846 he married the daughter of Samuel A. Willoughby, her mother being of the old Dutch family of De Bevoise, in Brooklyn. In 1857 he was elected Judge of the Superior Court of New Tork, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Chief Justice Oak- ley. In 1860 he resigned 'his seat upon the bench and resumed the practice of the law, and has, for many years, been one of the most eminent men at the New Tork bar. Until the breaking out of the war he had always been a Demo- crat, but from the first he took an active part against the Rebel- lion. , He was a member of the Union Defense Committee, and a zealous supporter of the administration of Mr. Lincoln. In 1S62 he was appointed, with General Dix, to .try the prisoners of state, then confined in the various prisons and forts of the Federal government. * Pierrepont is the old English mode of spelling the name ; in this country many shortened it to Pkrpont : the original and correct spelling is now pretty generally 8 113 2 EDWARDS PIKRREPONT. In 1864 lie was one of the most active in organizing tlie War Democrats in favor of the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. In 1867 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention of the State of New York, and one of the Judiciary Committee. In the spring of 1867 he was employed by the Attorney-General and the Secretary of Slate, to conduct the prosecution on the part of the government against John H. Surratt, indicted for aiding in the murder of President Lincoln. This celebrated trial com- menced before the United States District Court in the city of Washington on the 10th day of June, and lasted until the 10th day of August, 1867. In the Presidential contest of 1868, Judge Pierrepont was an ar- dent supporter of G-eneral Grant, making very large contributions in money, and effective speeches upon the Republican side. General Grant upon his accession to the Presidency in 1869 ap- pointed Judge Pierrepont, Attorney of the United States for the Southern District of New York, which office he resigned in July, 1870. The Pierrepont family are of Norman origin. At the time of the Conquest, Robert de Pierrepont came over to England with the Conqueror. The family name was Robert ; Pierrepont was the designation or title ; the head of the family taking the name of the castle and estates, which derived their name from a stoTie-lridge built in Normandy in the time of Cliarlemagne, to take the place of a ferry, which was then considered a great work. In the time of Edward I., Sir Henry de Pierrepont, possessed of large landed estates, married Annora de Man vers by whom he acquired the Lordship of Holme in the County of Nottingham, now called Holme-Pierrepont. Sir George Pierrepont, of Holme-Pierrepont, had three sons: from the elder was descended the Earls of Kingston ; and from the Earls, the Dukes of Kingston. From the younger, was descended John Pierrepont, who came to Roxbnry, now a part of Boston, and his eldest son was the Rev. James Pierrepont, of New Haven, lU EDWARDS PIEEEEPONT. 3 whose descendant, eldest in the male line, was the rightful heir to the dignities and estates of the second Duke of Kingston, who was grandson to the tirst duke, and who died without issue just before the American Revolution ; which event prevented the recovery of the titles and estates by the American branch of the Pierrepont family, and cast the estate upon the female line of the English branch. Lady Frances Pierrepont, grand-daughter of the first Duke of Kingston, married Sir Philij) Meadows, and her son, Charles Meadows, on the death of the last duke, assumed the name of Pierrepont and took the estates in right of his wife, though he could not inherit the titles of the Pierrepont family. The present Earl Man vers is the son of Charles Meadows and grandson to Lady Frances Pierrepont. Lady Mary Pierrepont, afterward the celebrated Lady Mary Montagu, was the eldest daughter of the first Duke of Kingston, and her daughter married the Marquis of Bute, from which mar- riage came in direct line the present Marquis of Bute. The Eev. James Pierrepont, of New Haven, had six sons and two daughters. Through this common ancestor the families of Pierrepont, Edwards, and Dwight are connected. Sarah, daughter of the Kev. James Pierrepont, was married to the eminent divine, President Jonathan Edwards. The celebrated Pierrepont Ed- wards was her son. Judge Ogden Edwards, of New York, and Governor Henry W. Edwards, of Connecticut, were her grandsons. The late Henry Pierrepont Edwards, judge of the Supreme Court of New York, was her great-grandson. Timothy Dwight, D. D., so long the distinguished President of Yale College, was her grandson, and from him is descended Hon. Theodore W. Dwight, Professor of Law, in the city of New York. The Hon. Theodore Dwight Woolsey, now the learned and eminent President of Yale College, is directly descended from the same stock. Judge Pierrepont, of New York, the subject of this sketch, is a 115 4 EDWARDS PIEEREPONT. direct descendant of Joseph, the third son of the Kev. James Pierrepont. William C. Pierrepont, of Pierrepont Manor, and Henry E. Pierrepont, of Brooklyn, are direct descendants of Heze- kiah, the sixth son of the Rev. James Pierrepont. The original portraits of the Rer. James Pierrepont and Mary his wife, are in the possession of Judge E. K. Foster, of l^ew Haven, who is a direct descendant, through the female line, of the sixth son of the Rev. J ames Pierrepont. Judge Pierrepont ranks liigh as an impressive and eloquent speaker. He is a cogent logical reasoner, and an able debater. His clear utterances, his earnest manner, his dignified, polished diction, render him at all times an agreeable and pleasing speaker. He is quiet, fond of literature, and a close student. In addressing public audiences, he commands the closest attention. His private life is without a blemish. His independent nature, and his devotion to a principle, command the respect of his political opponents. He has always dared to pursue the course his sense suggested. He is exclusive in his social taste, but with a high standard of integrity ; more proud than vain, and more cordial than familiar. Intimately known but to few, he is respected by all as a gentleman of culture and of elevated character. He has, for some years, been prominent in public afl'airs, and distinguished among the foremost in the legal profession : noted for his clear perceptions, energy, and strong common-sense, he is much employed in important business. He started with the best advantages of education, and has con- tinued to be exceedingly industrious. Nature gave him a remark- ably cool and even temper, wliich nothing disturbs ; this, united with firm courage and great determination, has contributed to his success. Few men are more self-poised or self-reliant, and none more completely follow their own judgment, or more readily take the responsibility and accept the consequences of their own acts. 116 HOlif. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. BY GEOBGE P. ANDREWS, Assistant Attoi-ney of the United States daring the official terms of District Attorneys Tlieodore Sedgwick, James I. liooseveU, K Selajield Sm,Uh, and Danid S. Dickinson. ""■'^li^ ^ "^ ^^^ *^® S^'-"^y "^ *^^ United States, that as early as (A the year 1820, their national Congress declared the Slave °^| Trade piracy, and threatened its infamous participants with the penalty of death. It was the shame of the Ee- public that from that time till 1861, a period of forty-one years, a law which the publicists of the world had eulogized, remained a dead letter. Ships had been seized and mariners arrested ; naval officers had been active and marshals demonstrative; but no prosecuting officer had followed the one to condemnation and sale, nor the other to conviction and execution. It was reserved to E. Delafield Smith, District Attorney of the United States at New York during the administration of Abraham Lincoln, a .young and untitled lawyer, to bring to the scaffold, after the iniquity of a third voyage, the captain of a slave ship. Humanity had long demanded a terrible example to deter cupidity from this cruel crime. The difficulties of proof and the perversities of juries had become proverbial, and public sentiment did not then coin- cide with the severity of the declared penalty. The law had been pro- nounced by men of legal eminence too defective in detail to admit of enforcement. This very culprit had, in 1860, been offered immu- nity from the punishment of death if he would plead guilty and accept a commutation of sentence to mere imprisonment. To bring him to justice, i-equired ability, energy, persistency, a power of persuasion, rare courage, and perfect integrity. The result, in the execiition of ISTathaniel Gordon, master of the slave ship 117 2 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. " Erie," is at once a monuinent to the public services, and a key to the character, of the subject of this sketch. Its consequences to the country, at a time when foreign nations were seeking to intervene against us in our late struggle for national existence upon the ground that in our lust for dominion we were indifferent to the question of slavery, were at the time acknowledged by the press of Europe. In an oration delivered in the city of I^ew York, February 22d, 1862, the historian George Bancroft referred to this celebrated case in the following language : — " The centuries clasp hands and repeat it one to another ! Yesterday the sentiment of Jefferson, that the slave trade is a piratical warfare upon man- kind, was reaffirmed by carrying into effect the sentence of a high tribunal of justice; and to save the lives and protect the happiness of thousands, a slave trader was executed as a pirate and an enemy of the human race." From a genealogical pamphlet prepared by a relative of Mr. Smith, we leam that his father was Doctor Archelaus G. Smith, long an eminent physician and surgeon in Western New York, who with meagre advantages rose from a farmer's boy to a man of scientific acquirements, — assiduous, upright, and benevolent. In perfecting himself in his profession, he attended in the city of IS^ew York the medical lectures of Doctor Edward Delafield, and named his son after that distinguished man. E. Del-afield Smith was born at Eochester, New York, May 8th, 1826. The family removed to the city of New York when he was ten years of age. " He is a New York boy," used to say old Alderman James Kelly, formerly of the Fourth "Ward, and more recently Postmaster of the city, " for I have seen him roll hoop on the Battery and play marbles in the City Hall Park." Ill the earliest years of the settlement of tliis country, the grand- father of Dr. Smith emigrated from England to Connecticut, being one of two brothers, the other of whom settled in Virginia. Both wore planters. The names of his maternal ancestors were Preston and Bundy. The latter name was derived from the forest of 118 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 3 Bondy, near Paris, the Buiidys being among the adventurers who accompanied William the Conqueror to England, subsequently turning farmers and settling in Kent. . The American progenitor came, over with Governor Winthrop in 1630. The immediate ancestors of Doctor Smith fought in the American revolution, and he was himself a surgeon in the war of 1812. On the ma- ternal side, Mr. Smith is a descendant of the Boughtons, an English family, originially from Wales. His mother's maternal ancestor was a Penoyer, a family which left France for England in the time of Louis fourteenth, at the revocation of the edict of Nantes. To Eobert Penoyer, Harvard University owed one of its early endowments ; and a scholarship in that college still belongs to the descendants. Jared Boughton, Mr. Smith's maternal grand- father, a man of integrity, intelligence, and enterprise, emigrated from Old Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to the country of the Genesee, in Western New York. He was one of the pioneers of civilization in that region. His wife was the first white woman, and his eldest daughter — the mother of Delafield Smith, a woman of superior intelligence — the first white child ever in Victor, in the county of Ontario, where " Boughton Hill " was one of the oldest settlements. This was in 1790. Deer were then plenty, and bears and wolves were then often seen, in a wilderness which now wears no trace of savage life. A journey from Massachu- setts to Western New York was at that period accomplished in winter by sleighs, and in summer on horseback, men and women being borne over the streams upon the ice in January, and upon the saddle in July. During his childhood, Delafield was half the year upon the farm of his maternal grandfather, where he imbibed a love of rural scenes, of horses, and of stock which has never deserted him ; and for the remainder of the year a student in one of the severest of seminaries, located at Rochester, where he acqiiired a hatred of the exactions of a school which ever afterward confirmed his char- acteristic impatience of arbitrary restraints. But he was a good 119 4 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. reader, and his infant declamation, in a church of that place, at the age of eight, at a school exhibition, was long remembered. In New York, the old Quaker school of Solyman Brown, in Broadway, below Broome Street, the grammar school of the University, Coudert's French Academy at Wheatsheaf, New Jersey, and a New England seminary at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, were his haunts up to the commencement of his college course. Entering the New York University, under Theodore Freling- huysen, Tayler Lewis, Draper, Loomis, Johnson, Henry, and other eminent professors, he was the poet of his class, and by the common testimonials of both teachers and students, its best writer and speaker. He has since returned to this institution as a pro- fessor in its faculty of law. Graduating at the age of twenty, he pursued his legal studies, first with an elder brother, and subsequently in the offices of K. M. & E. H. Blatchford, Judge William Kent, and Judge Henry E. Davies. In 1848, he was admitted to the bar, and in January 1849, commenced alone the practice of his profession. In 1851 he formed a partnership with Mr. Smith Clift ; and subsequently vnth Mr. Isaac P. Martin and Mr. Augustus F. Smith — the latter being his brother and a man of professional distinction. Perhaps no legal business in the city of New York has been more lucrative than that in which he participated for many years in the partnership last mentioned. Four large volumes of selected judicial decisions were published by him from 1854 to 1859. These are widely known to the legal profession of the country, and are often cited, under the name of E. D. Smith's Keports. "With a solid reputation as a mercantile lawyer, pecuniarily in- dependent, and deeply interested in public affairs, he accepted, in April, 1861, the position of law officer of the United States in New York, and at the close of a term of four years resumed the ordinary practice of his profession. "With the exception of the United States District Attorneyship, 120 HON. E. DELAPIELD SMITH. '5 and also excepting the use of Mr. Smith's name, in 1859, in connection with the position of counsel to the corporation at New York, he has never accepted office nor permitted his friends to seek it for him. On one occasion, in 1869, the Eepuhlican Party of the metropolis, in a canvass confessedly hopeless, bestowed their full suffrages upon him for District Attorney of the State, and many not of his political affinities added their votes. But it has been his practice to decline both executive appointments and party nominations, frequently given or tendered, for county, legis- lative, judicial, and congressional positions. An account of the public services of Mr. Delafield Smith during the four years of his official term as District Attorney and Counsel of the United States at ISTew York, would involve the writing of a judicial history of the nation during the most momentous period of its existence. It is simply true and just to say, that his successes before Courts and juries in vindicating the laws of the land were unprecedented. In a four years' term, for example, he procured six capital convictions — six verdicts involving the death penalty — against a number no, greater obtained for thirty years immediately preceding his term, and none since. At the same time, no prosecuting officer was ever more glad to drop a prosecution the instant the least gleam of innocence appeared, or the moment any exercise of mercy seemed reconcilable with the demands of public justice. The young, the poor, and the first offender were often released, while the more powerful culprit was relentlessly pursued. . ]!fotwithstanding the extraordinary demands of legal business growing out of the war, the civil litigations of the government and especially its revenue suits were constantly pressed, and the sums annually realized were matter of remark, at the time, for their number and magnitude. The office is one of multifarious duties, which cannot be performed by any one individual, without well-drilled assist- ants. Its greatest need is an organizing, administrative, cxecil- tive ability in its chief. And this, among his other qualificationis, 121 6 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. was recognized in Mr, Smith by all who had business with the office. The condemnations procured in the cases of the British steamers Peterhoflf, Springbok, Stephen Hart, and others, dealt a blow at trade with the Southern insurgents carried on through Nassau, Matamoras, and other intermediate points, while like forfeitures were inflicted upon the owners of domestic sliips and cargoes at- tempting to sail with similar destinations and pui'poses. Wo pass with less f)articular mention the earlier prize cases of the Hiawatha and others, in which Mr. Smith, contrary to his custom, employed associate counsel. Among the celebrated cases successfully conducted, may be mentioned that of the rich capitalist Kohnstamm, where, with valuable aid, frauds upon the Government amoimting in their ramiiications to half a million dollars were exposed, and an example made which saved to the national treasuiy millions more. We may also reler to the convictions procured by Mr. Smith, of John TJ. Andrews, the leader of the New York rioters in July, 1863 ; the Parkhill murderers ; the negro Hawkins, hanged for the butcliery of a ship's master ; the Italian man-slayer, Dimarchi ; the Port Jervis and East New York counterfeiters ; to cases of cruelty to seamen, and of mutinies against officers ; convictions and forfeitures for frauds upon the customs and the internal revenue. The prosecutions under the laws for the suppression of the slave trade did not stop with the execution of the Captain of the Erie. The imprisonment of the merchant Albert Horn, for fitting out slave ships; the conviction — after juries under Mr. Smith's pre- decessors had twice disagreed — of Eudolph Blumenburg for perjury, as a surety for the discharged slave ship Orion ; the sentence of a number of mates ; the condemnations of the Kate, the "Weather- guage, the Nightingale, the Sarah, and the Augusta ; the narrow escape from the gallows of Haines and Westervelt, by a disagree- ment of juries standing nine and ten to three and two for convic- tions — all taught the new lesson that seizures and arrests meant 122 HON. E. DBLAFIELD SMITH. • 7 unsparing prosecutions. "Witliout enumerating other cases, it is sufficient to say that in a few months the foreign slave trade -was forever extirpated from the port of New York. To the wives of Union prisoners and the widows of deceased sol- diers, Mr. Smith, throughout his term, rendered systematic and gratuitous services in procuring the payment of dues and pensions, and saving the deductions and delays of the systems of claim agency. From the age of eighteen, Delafield Smith has been widely known as a terse, strong, and stirring public speaker. The following extract from the commencement and the close of his published address, July 10th, 1863, in the case of the Peterhofi", is a specimen of the clear and direct style in which he addresses a legal argument to a court without a jury: Extract jteom Akgdment to the Coukt i:^ the Case of the Petkrhoef. " May it please the Court: — This case is clothed with profound interest in the public mind, both of Europe and America. It is brought to the bar of a court, commissioned by the government of a great country, and charged with the determination and applicar tion of international law. Ifot solely individuals, but nations, are parties to this controversy. !Not alone an august judicial tri- bunal at Washington, but the imperial courts of a distant conti- nent will sit in review of the judgment which shall be pronounced here. Yet the testimony spread upon this record is within a nar- row scope. The facts marshaled before us are few. A decision may be reached without straining the eye in search of precedents, beyond such familiar adjudications as have long ago sunk to the level margin of an elementary treatise. It is true, indeed, that consequences of magnitude have become entangled in the issue. But for them, the world might well wonder that so simple a case should have so aroused the populace of one country, and so in- terested the publicists of many. 123 S HOX. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. " Was the recent enterprise of the Peterhoff honest or fraudulent ? "Was her voyage lawful or illegal ? "Was her destination real or simulated ? " In deciding the issue involved in this capture, two classes of facts demand attention. First, such as are of a public character, too general to require specific proof, and sutficieutly notorious to come, of their own force, within the range of unaided judicial cog- nizance. And, secondly, those established by the testimony taken in prejxiratorio, consisting of the responses of witnesses to the stand- ing interrogatories administered by the prize commissioners, together with such light as an inspection of the ship's papers and of her cargo may throw upon the intent of those by whom her course has been directed. " In the summer of 1801 the foundations of this land trembled with an earthquake of territorial war. The country was aroused as from a sleep. Guards, of her own appointment, still lingering in her high places, were prepared to trample out her life if she lay still, and to assassinate licr if she arose. Peijured treachery and audacious f(^rce vied with each other to destroy a government, which discovered its worst enemies amongst the most pampered and caressed of the children of her protection. The war was not for a boundary, a province, or a form of government. Its purpose, sorrowfully seen at homo, was to annihilate the unity and life of the nation. Its consequences, greedilj'- predicted abroad, were to open the best portion of the western hemisphere to insolent foreign footsteps, which periodically humiliate the States of Mexico and South America. It was a rising, not to overthrow tyranny, but to establish it. Guilty leaders and deluded communities affected to reproduce the drama of the American revolution, making oppres- sion perform now the part that liberty enacted then. " Words and acts of attempted conciliation were wasted. Awak- ened to its own defence, the government is forced at length to the arbitrament of war. The Executive establishes a blockade of the insurrectionary ports. The Emperor of the French, dreaming of 124 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 9 liis personal aggrandizement, and hating the principles of republi- can government, weaves wily arts for our embarrassment ; and Britain, withoiit his excuses, green with jealousies which our ova- tions to her prince should have cleansed away, whets with the stone of national animosity the cupidity of her tradesmen. Gov- ernment and people, emulating each the bad faith of the other, hasten to confer rights upon one belligerent and to heap wrongs upon the other. Ships, clad in iron, start from her docks to jjrey upon the merchant marine, of a friendly power, while vessels crowd the harbor of New York flying the red signals of England, to the exclusion of the flag which was once the protection oi American commerce. In defiance of the public law of the world, English bottoms infest our southern seas, violate the belligerent right of blockade, and bear food, medicines and arms to the enemies of hu- man freedom and of stable government. " Such was the situation of public aflTairs, when the naval forces and the federal courts of the United States, the one with untiring energy, the other with intelligent firmness, surroimded with in- creasing hazards the bold breaches of blockade and the wholesale indulgences in contraband trade, with which this unnatural conflict was fostered and prolonged. " Then cmming greed invoked frauds and subterfuges, to do by indirection what had proved at length too dangerous and impracti- cable for the open arts of enterprise. The little harbor of Nassau, in the island of Now Providence ; the port of Cardenas, on the northerly coast of Cuba, and, at last, the unfrequented region of Matamoras, in Mexico, are magnified into vast marts of trade, and become the rivals of Liverpool, Havre and New York. Ships of ponderous tonnage traverse the seas and swarm in the vicinity of these inconsiderable places. Owners, shippers and masters, with remarkable effrontery, claim that they are centres of substantial, legitimate and independent trade. At the same time, the common sense and common knowledge of the world acknowledge that they are mere stopping places and ports of transhipment, by or 125 10 HON. E. DBLAFIELD SMITH. through which munitions of war and articles of necessity, of com- fort and of luxury, may be carried from the British Isles to the in- surgent section of the American Union. So the British bark " Springbok " sets her chaste sails for iN'assau. So the British schooner " Stephen Hart" turns an honest face toward Cardenas. And thus, we say, the steamer " Peterhoif " pursues her virtuous pathway to Matamoras. But the rough sailor follows in the track of each. He sees through the thin disguises. He thrusts aside the flimsy veil. He arrests the pretender and sends her where she must submit to the scrutiny of a court of justice. " In the light, then, of the notorious fraud, the simulation, the circuity, the indirection, with which this contraband trade to the Southern ports has been projected and persisted in, we approach the proofs in the case now under consideration. IsTo intelligent examination of the testimony now before us can be attempted without a recognition of the public facts to whicl) I have ad- verted. " Sailing under such circumstances, it must be conceded that the Peterhoff, if guilty, would shroud her purpose in the depths of dissimulation ; and, if innocent, would fail in no mark of frankness. "We shall observe, in the course of our inquiry, how much she has displayed of the one, and how little of the other." Want of space compels us to omit the body of the argument. The following are the closing sentences : " A vigorous administration of the public law both of blockade and of contraband of war, has been maintained by Great Britain in aid of her own wars, as well those that were unjust as those that were just. It is the right of nations. The American government will not surrender it — never, certainly, in a conflict for its exis- tence. It is vital to an early and thorough suppression of the war of insurrection which has desolated so large a portion of its territory. " Eebellion, indeed, exhibits ' waning proportions,' but it can- 126 HON. E. DELAPIELD SMITH. H not bb speedily subdued and extirpated unless want and privation exhaust, while armies overthrow. We march upon an extended country, sparsely populated, without any one geographical or com- mercial key to its military or political power. It has no Gibraltar, no Sebastopcl, no Paris, no London, and no 'Hew York. The end, indeed, is certain. The national authority will be established, vindicated, enlarged. But that consummation will be near or far, as tbe law of nations, violated without .home rebuke by British tradesmen, shall be sustained and executed by judicial tribunals. " The speedy establishment of freedom and order upon this con- tinent, and the consequent termination of a bloody war, is the as- piration of pariotism here, and of humanity the world over. The achievement of a good so substantial and so general, may be pro- •moted or retarded by the lessons which cases like this shall teach as well to the merchants and statesmen of Europe, as to the power which maintains, and the people who suffer from the Great Kebellion." Before a jury, Mr. Smith is earnest and impressive. On the trial of one of the mates of the slave ship Nightingale, before Jus- tices Nelson and Shipman^ the defence was represented by Charles O'Conor, James T. Brady, and John McKeon, who had brought out in the testimony the fact that the defendant was the son of a wealthy gentleman of Staten Island and a grandson of a former Vice-Presi- dent of the United States. Mr. Smith said : " Against crime clearly proved, respectability is not a valid plea. As regards the prisoner, his surroundings certainly furnish no ex- cuse for this felonious enterprise. As respects his example, they add tenfold to the public mischief of his acts. It is not easy to keep a common sailor from a slave bark, when such as he lead the way. You can hardly blame poor Jack for thrusting slaves into the loathsome hold, while gentlemen mates, as proved in the evi- dence here, keep tally on the deck ! Dissatisfied with the paternal 127 12" HON. E. DELAPIELD SMITH. home on the slopes of Staten Island, he aspires, perhaps, to build for his own pleasure, in the metropolis itself, a mansion with the gains of adventures which involve the transportation of human beings from their homes in Africa to the strange coast of Cuba, in stifling pens, beneath tropic suns, with the actual calculation, founded upon terrible experience, that if two thirds die and one third land, the venture is a fair success ! Might it not have occurred to him, that a fortune so constructed would trouble his future dreams with insufferable remorse ? Ought it not to have been plain to his intelligence, that the carved columns, the expanded arches, the dizzy domes of a palace so erected, would, in a futm-e guilty imagination, rest, for their caryatides, upon the shoulders of slave men, the breasts of slave women, and the bodies of slave children ? Oh God ! How many costly stone structures raise • their ornamented fronts impudently to heaven, while their foun- dations are laid — ^literally laid — in hell." Upon returning to general practice, Mr. Smith achieved profes- sional successes against the government almost as important as those which he had oificially gained in its favor. For instance, in the mercantile case of B.-;nkard and Hutton against Schell, late collector of the customs, to recover duties paid under protest, he obtained from judge and jury, in the United Sta.tes courts, the reversal of a class of statute-constructions immediately involving several millions of dollars. The treasury department, erroneously believing that Mr. Smith's experience in revenue law had taken the then district attorney at a disadvantage, demanded a new trial, and sent an officer from Washington to aid in the' de- fence. The result of the second adjudication was the establish- ment of principles which required a still larger refund of illegally exacted duties. The case is now an established precedent, and its just determination is matter of felicitation among the importing merchants of the country. The following is extracted from a stenographic report of the first trial : 128 HON. E. DELAPIELD SMITH. 13 EXOEDITTM OF CLOSING ADDKESS TO THE JUEY, BEEOEE JUDGE SMAXLET, IN THE CASE OF BENKAED AND HI7TT0N AGAINST SOHEI.L, COLLECTOE OF THE CUSTOMS. '■'■May it please the Court, and you, Oentlemen of the Jury : — The dark day of battle and rebellion is ended. The laws, long silent, again lift up their voices. The national tribunals of justice, wearied with long contests between neutral and belligerent, once more, give access to the citizen as well as to the government. Neither may now assume to be above the law. " "With the serene reign of order and tranquillity at length re- stored, may we not pause for a moment to pay a passing tribute to those in the council and the field, to whom that restoration is due. And in this, shall we not remember that in the darkest days of all, when the national credit was almost exhausted and the national treasuiy well nigh collapsed, the one was restored and the other replenished "by the generous action of the merchants of Ifew York. " Shall it be said that the gratitude of the government to them finds its sole expression in a rude denial of legal rights on the one hand, and in vexatious prosecutions for penalties and forfeitures, sustained by unfoimded imputations of fraud, on the other ? " Shall it not rather be said, that having in vain petitioned for justice at governmental departments, they at last have sought and , found it in the courts of their country ? And when that , justice shall have been administered, may they not proudly remember that it was awarded by a judge who found in the circle of his judicial action ways efiectually to aid his country in her life and death struggle, and at the same time inexorably to guard against infraction every provision of the law and every line of the Consti- tution, even in the midst of the din of arms." From the published spe'eches of Mr. Smith, we insert in full the following brief specimen of a popular appeal : 9 129 14 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. ADDRESS AT tTNION SQrAEE, AT THE WAE MEETING, CALLED ET THE COMMITTEES OF THE NEW TOEK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, THE COMMON COL'NCIL, THE rNION DEFENCE COMMITTEE, AND OTHEE BODIES, IN RESPONSE TO AN APPEAL OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES FOE ADDITIONAL MILITARY FORCES. [Extracted from a printed report of the proceedings, prepared Tinder the supervision of the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.] " Mr. Smith, being introduced by General Fremont, who pre- eided at the stand near the Spingler Institute, was received with great enthusiasm, and spoke as follows : " Men of New York : — This is, in truth, a colossal demonstra- tion. The eye can hardly reach the boundaries of these compact thousands. It would be vain for the voice to attempt it. The people have come in their might. They have come in their maj- esty. They have 'come as the winds come when forests are rended.' They have ' come as the waves come when navies are stranded.' We are here to-day, not to speak and acclaim, but to act and incite to action. [Applause.] "We know that this mon- ster rebellion cannot be spoken down ; it must be fought down. [Cheers.] " We are assembled to animate each other to renewed efforts and nobler sacrifices, in behalf of our imperilled country. There ia hardly one of us who has not, at this hour, sonie endeared relative on the bloody fields of Viiginia. The voices of our armed and suf- fering brethren literally cry to us from the ground. To-day we hear them. To-day let us heed them. [Applause.] The call for fresh troops comes to us from a loved and trusted President — from faithful and heroic generals. [Loud cheers.] This day determines that it shall be answered. [Ecnewed cheers.] Let each act as though specially commissioned to obtain recruits for a sacred service. [Applause.] " Fremont is here. You have heard his voice. He has told us 180 HON. E. DELAPIELD SMITH. 15 I to uphold our government and sustain our generals in the field. "Whatever officer may go 'to battle with the President's commission, will be made strong by a loyal people's prayers and confidence. [Loud cheering.] " The Army and Navy, the President, the Cabinet and the Con- gress, have done all that can now be effected by them. The issue to-day is with the people. Do you ask activity on the part of the President ? Recall his personal labor and supervision in the coun- cil and the field. Do you seek a policy ? Look to his solemn con- ference with the loyalists of the border States. [Cheers.] Do you demand legislation ? Witness the matured laws that Congress has spread upon the statute-book. A jurist, from the bench of our highest tribunal, once declared a maxim which shocked the coun- try and the world. It is ours, with our representatives, to respond : A rebel has no rights which a white man is hownd to respect. [Loud and long continued cheering, with waving of hats and handker- chiefs.] " A traitor cannot own a loyalist of any race. Nor can ' ser- vice be due ' to national conspirators, except at the call of public justice. [Laughter and applause.] " The limits of civilized warfare must and will be observed ; but those limits are broad as the boundaries of the ocean, and they lie far beyond the lives and the treasure of traitors in arms. [Cheers.] In this mortal combat between the enemies and the friends of republican liberty, wherein treason scruples at no'thing, patriots must neglect no means that God and nature have placed in their hands. [Loud cheers.] "These institutions were reared on, the ruins of British pride. Their foundations must be reconstructed on the crumbled preten- sions of southern oligarchs. [Renewed cheers.] We must, and wc will, repel force by force. They who press an iron heel upon the heart of our noble nation, must perish by the sword of her avenging sons. God grant the time may be near, when every rebel leader may say his prayers, and bite the dust, or hang as high as Haman. 131 16 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. If we are wise, and true, and brave, the American Union, like the sun in the heavens, shall be clouded but for a night. Still shall it move onward, and every obstacle in its pathway be withered and crushed. [Renewed and continued cheering.] " Victory, indeed, cannot be won, except by arms. Our institu- tions were the gift of the wounded and dead of the armies of Wash- ington. Shakespeare said, and we re-utter in a higher sense, ' Things bought -with blood must be by blood maintained.' ^ " Look to our armies, and rally the people to swell their wasted ranks. Go, you who can. And spare neither labor nor money to enable others to march to battle. [Cheere.] " Let loyal men permit no question to distract or divide them. Care not what a man's theories may be, so that his heart feels and his hand works for the Union. Every citizen, North or South, who prays for the success of our arms, and who labora for the vin- dication of our Constitution, whatever may be his politics or opin- ions, is a patriot. [Cheers.] They who condemn any class of our fellow-citizens, because of differences on collateral issues — those who declare that a loyal abolitionist is on a level with an armed secessionist — are wrong in head, or at heart unsound. [Applause.] " Let assertions like this be at an end. Let all loyal men, and ail loyal journals, abandon arguments which bear the dull and counterfeit ring of traitor philosophy. [Loud applause.] " For the rest — for those who not alone seem, but are, disloyal — let the people arise in their might, and silence them all, whether ■they speak in the street to the few, or seek, through the public press, to poison the many. Law, in many things, cannot go so far, nor accomplish so much, as determined public opinion. [Cheers.] While men in Is or th Carolina and Tennessee, with manly courage, strike in their districts, at the hydra of rebellion, shall not we, in New York, war upon the spirit of secession in every form ? . [Ap- plause, and cries of ' Wo will.'] The old flag must be the para- 132 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH 17 mount object of all. It will be loved by the fiiithful. By the false, it must be feared. [Vociferous cheering.] " They talk of a distinction between fidelity to the government and devotion to the administration. In the day of national danger or disaster, the two sentiments are inseparable. Distrust him who professes the one only to disclaim the other. [Applause.] When the tempest howls, no prayer breathed for the ship, forgets the pilot at her helm. [Applause and cheers.] " Loyalty knows no conditions. Stand by the government ! Scrutinize its action ; but do it like earnest patriots — not like covert traitors. Stand by the administration! In times like these, party spirit should be lulled. That spirit was hushed in the era of the Eevolution — in the days of Madison and Monroe^and when the hero of New Orleans crushed the rising form of Nullifica- tion. Our fathers stood by Jackson as their sires sustained "Wash- ington. It is our privilege to uphold the arm of a President, great and pure, who will share their glory on the page of history. [Loud cheering.] " I must trespass no longer. [Cries of ' go on, go on.'] No, fel- low-citizens ; I will bid you farewell. Our illustrious Secretary of State has this day given to the army the only son not already in the public Service. Let us emulate his spirit of sacrifice, and think nothing too dear to oflfer on the altar of our country. " Mr. Smith spoke with a clear, loud voice, and retired in the midst of most enthusiastic cheering." The following tribute to the memory of the gifted and lamented James T. Brady, was delivered at a meeting of the bar in New York, in February, ] 869, and we find it published with the pro- ceedings : SPEECH OF E. DELAFIELD SMnil ON THE DEATH OF JAMES T. BEADY. "Mr. E. Delafield Smith said: — Mr. President: — ^I know well that occasions like this are beet adorned by those who bring to 133 18 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. them the dignity of years, the lustre of learning, the glory of re- nown. And I rejoice that while the scythe of death has been busy xn our midst, peers of our illustrious friend still remain to honor his obsequies. Yet it must be acknowledged that James T. Brady possessed characteristics, extraordinary in degree if not in kind, calculated to inspire and to justify, in younger and humbler mem- bers of his profession, a desire to press forward and stand among the foremost at his bier. " Juniors and even juvenals at the Bar ; aspirants upon the very threshold of manhood; youths still lingering in academies and schools ; and little children, tender as those our Saviour caressed, were as dear to his presence as the most accomplished of the crowned intellectual princes with whom it was his pride to cope in the forum, and his delight to mingle in social festivities. " To all who approached him in his life, rang out the welcome of his cheerful voice. By its dying echoes, all alike are summoned to his tomb. The greatest who kneel there must make room for the least. If, at the home so lately his, where we looked upon his face for the last time ; if, from the coffin, which was buried in flowers before the cold earth had leave to press it, his eyes could have opened and calmly viewed the scene — no floral harp, no cross nor crown, however beautiful or elaborate, would have won a sweeter smile than the simplest wreath that struggled for its place in the general profusion. " His kJadness and courtesy were universally bestowed ; and in view of this, it is remarkable that they were so singularly accepta- ble and flattering to every individual who came within their reach. But they were a matter of heart, not of manner — too respectful to offend, too genuine to be resisted. As the generous light of the Sim may illumine half the world, yet the rays that fall on us seem peculiarly our own ; so the genial glow of his kindness cheered U8 all, and yet each felt himself the special recipient of his favor. "There were times, however, when his generosity became marked and demonstrative. It was interesting to obsc/ve with 134 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. IS what judgment and taste it even then was guarded and directed- In the celebrated trial of the 'Savannah Privateers' — to which a preceding speaker referred with great kindness to both the living and the dead — where we felt the blows which he delighted to deal upon a prosecution, he was associated with some eminent advocates and also with some unknown to professional fame or experience. In his matchless address to the jury, he repeated, with careful credit, some of the arguments which these humbler allies had used, and paid them a tribute of praise not less just in conception than delicate in expression. Of four leading counsel there arrayed — Lord, Evarts, Brady, Larocque — three have gone to their long home. " In the prominent cases of Home and of Ilaynes, arising under the laws for the suppression of the slave trade, and in the great fraud case of Kohnstamm, it will not be easy to forget either the ability of his defenses, or his subsequent assurance of sympathy in the anxious labors which those prosecutions involved. " He never entered a court-room but smiles from Bench and Bar responded to his presence. He never appeared upon a platform but to be greeted by thronging auditors. No banquet saw dimin- ished guests while he remained to speak. ' From tlie cliarmed council to the festive board. Of human feelings the unbounded lord.' " A lawyer, an orator, a scholar, a gentleman — all that these made him was given to his country in her day of danger, and to the land of his ancestors in every hopeful struggle. " Great in intellect, great in heart — ' See, what a grace was seated on this brow ; Hyperion's curls ; the front of Jove himself.' " Our hearts may well be touched as they rarely have been. "Words, unless of fire — tears, unless of blood — should only mock their grie£ 135 20 HON. E. DKLAPIELD SMITH. ' Te orators, whom yet our councils yield, Mourn for the veteran hero of your field 1 Te men of wit and social eloquence. He was your brother — bear his ashes hence I While powers of mind almost of boundless range. Complete in kind, ag various in their change. While eloquence, wit, poesy, and mirth. That humbler harmonist of care on earth. Survive within our souls — while lives our sense Of pride in merit's proud preeminence. Long shall wo seek his likeness — long in vain.' " Wlieii ' a mighty spirit is eclipsed ' — when deatli comes to tlie noble and brave, we cannot but be glad it is tbe common lot. We would not sbrink forever from the dark path which they are forced to tread. We would not fail to seek them at last in the better world beyond. " Gentle, genial, generous spirit ! Our hearts shall long resound with the sweet music of the solemn Cathedral, which breathed a prayer for thy peace and rest. ' Stay not thy career ; I know we follow to eternity 1' " The following after- dinner speech we copy from the "Ameri- can Scotsman" of February, 1870, containing a report of a celebration in New York of the birth of Kobert Burns : — SPEECH ON SCOTLAND DELIVERED AT BTJKNs' ANNIVEESAET DINNEB. " The Hon. E. Delafield Smith, on being called on, responded to the next toast, Scotland, as follows : " As Daniel "Webster said of Massachusetts, Scotland ' speaks for herself.' History and philosophy, science and learning, poetry and romance are steeds to the chariot of her fame as onward it moves from generation to generation. Like the morning it advances, growing brighter as it dawns on each succeeding age. 136 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. ^1 " It is a luxury to tnow that we may indulge in limitless praise of Scotland without arousing the jealousy of either of the countries in lier immediate neighbourhood. For Englishmen and Irishmen will impute all her glory to the blood of their own ancestors, sown across the border centuries ago! Do we not read that Saxons conquered the Lowlands and made them their own in the year of our Lord 449 ? And do we not learn that a Celtic tribe from Erin settled on the west coast in A. D. 603, became the dominant race, and even gave the very name of Scots to the Picts who preceded them ? (Applause.) "If we extol her for her Presbyterianism — that sturdy church which she planted on American soil^— may it not afford a malicious delight to her rivals, as well as some special satisfaction to her friends — ^for she is always hospitable — to know that whiskey and ale are among her principal productions? (Laughter.) If we praise her salmon, her opponents may gnaw at her herrings. If we admire her tartan, her enemies may hang on her hemp. (Re- newed laughter.) If we exalt her schools, it may console her competitors to confess that the salaries of her schoolmasters depend upon the fluctuating price of oatmeal. [Continued laughter.] If she is the land of books, we must acknowledge her alike the ' land o' cakes.' If she produces a brilliant literature, it is kind to her neighbors to drench it with cold ' reviews,' so that its fame shall not glow too brightly in the admiration of the world. If she launches great steamers you may still taunt her on her canal-boats. If she glories in her steam-engines, she yet furnishes the navies of the world with sails, but leaves them, it must be confessed, the 'airs' that swell them. " And here, to be serious, I cannot refrain from alluding to the personal manners of Scotchmen, by. which they are sometimes prejudiced in the minds of those who fail to realize the value of sincerity in human intercourse. They have not the formal polite- ness of the English, the cordiality of the Irish, nor the suavity of the French. But a Scotch smile is a reality. It intensely means 137 22 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. all it indicates. Esse quam mderi. You remember tlie story of the Frenchman who discovered a neighbor in his carriage, and told him to get out. ' Sir,' said the intruder, ' you asked me to get in.' ' Ah,' was the mild response, ' you were welcome to the compliment, but I want the carriage myself.' A true Scotchman would grudge the politeness, but give you the drive. [Laughter and aijplause.j " No man can do justice to this steadfast, heroic, beautiful, wild and classic land, without recalling the valor of her historic battle- fields — without recounting her an-ay of names inscribed at every goal of human achievement — nor without rising to a sublime description of her lakes and rivers, her heaths and highlands, her cataracts and torrents. [Cheeis.] " But here we approach the domain, not of eloquence, but of poetry ; and upon him that may not without presumption invoke either muse, silence is doubly imposed. [Go on.J " Yes, I would not sit down without pointing to one immortal name on Scotland's roll of honor, to illustrate that grandest feature of Scottish character, intrepid integrity. I allude not now to the glorious humanity of Burns. I refer to his great successor, "Walter Scott. [Applause.] My theme is not to-night the charm of his song, nor the witchery of his romance. I would recall your memory to that chapter in his biography which relates that when his fame was at its height aud his fort^me supposed to have bee^ made, the failures of certain publication-houses carried with them his pecuniary destruction. As endorser upon their paper, he was overwhelmed with debts amoimting to seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Brave as Alexander, he faced his calamities without complaint, aud at the age of fifty-five went to work to retrieve them. At his death five hundred thousand dollars had been paid, and the remainder was in the way of speedy discharge. Eefusing all composition or settlement, he laid down life on the altar of his Scotch honesty. Born in the year and on the day that gave the first Napoleon birth, his courage was of a typo that warriors might QrvN^. [Cheers.] 138 HON. E. DELAFIBLD SMITH. 23 " The magnaniinity of Walter Scott toward his literary rivals illustrates another manly trait of Scottish character. The greatest of his poetical competitors was the illustrious Byron. Acknowledging that Byron ' bate ' him, he yet forgot an early thrust received in the satire, and became as kind to his brother poet through his life as he pi'oved tender and just to his mangled memory, [Loud cheering.] And the genius of that brilliant bard must itself be largely credited to Scotland. For he himself says : ' 1 am half a Scot by birth, and bred A whole one, and my heart flies to my head, — As ' Auld Lang Syne ' brings Scotland, one and all, Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills and clear streams. The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's brig's black wall. All my boy feelings, all my gentler dreams Of what I then dreamt, clothed in their own pall. Like Banquo's oflspring. Floating past me seems My childhood in this childishness of mine — I care not — 'tis a glimps of ' Auld Lang Syne.' And though, as you remember, in a fit Of wrath and rhyme, when juvenile and curly, ' I rail'd at Scots to show my wrath and wit, Which must be owned was sensitive and surly, fet 'tis in vain such sallies to permit. They cannot quench yoimg feelings fresh and early ; I ' scotch'd not killed ' the Scotchman in my blood. And love the land of ' mountain and of flood.' [Cheering and Applause."] While Delafield Smith is a sound and laborious lawyer, he is by no means a mere lawyer. When, in the heat of our late national struggle, the war department determined upon a seizure of all the recorded telegraphic dispatches, he was selected to arrange a simultaneous descent upon the telegraphic offices in the city of Ifew York. And the task was performed with such proficiency as to receive the commendation of the government, and at the 139 24 HON. E. DELAFIEIiD SMITH. same time with such delicacy as to induce the thanks of the companies for his avoidance of all public exposure of private business and social sommunications. Again. When a public mail, made up at Liverpool, was found on the Peterhoff, and a special attorney of the Navy Department clamored for its violation and exposure in coui't, Mr. Smith, sinking the lawyer in the statesman, ordered the seals to remain unbroken. The State Department and also even the President himself returned to him their special acknowledgments for his sagacity in saving the country from a most awkward complication, which would have been likely to result in a war with England at a time when the rebellion was too formidable to rendei- other entanglements at all safe. And again. When ships, bound for blockaded ports, were brought for adjudication, the ordinary process of obtaining, for the urgent use of the government, arms found on board, was slow and tedious ; but the task was habitually accomplished by Mr. Smith with such promptitude, as to wi'ing from Secretary Stanton the " wish that the energy of the District Attorney at New York could be imparted to every agent of the War Department."' Mr. Smith has accumulated a large librarj^ of standard works in almost every department of science, learning, and literature. He delights in original editions, in unique illustrations, and in works of permanent value, not always so popular as to escape be- coming '' out of print." He is a man of calture, of scholastic tastes, of literary dis. comment and capacity, — -just and generous in his dealings, true and honorable under all circumstances, bountiful but discriminat- ing in his benevolences, devoted to his home, of genuine wit and genial humor — though with an apparent under-current of sadness. A warm partizan, he has yet no acerbities. It is often'remarked that his personal friends are quite as numerous among political opponents as in the ranks of his own party. Perhaps no man ever carried the obligation of gratitude for political, professional, or personal favor, further than he ; while at 140 HON. E. DELAPIELD SMITH. 25 tlio same time no personal disappointment seems to lessen his friendship for a public man whom he has thoroughly admired, nor his zeal for a cause which he has heartily espoused. That the reader may foim a judgment of his own of Mr. Smith's ability, we have given specimens of his oratory. Our limits do not permit additional selections from his literary and poetical writings. Thege, like his speeches, are both stamped with a certain intensity and force ; and in a notice of one of his early poems, Mr. Bryant remarked — "the versification is un- commonly easy and flowing, and among' the thick-coming fancies of the writer, are many of great beauty and brillancy." Mr. Smith resides in N^ew York ; but enjoys, for more than merely the summer months, his country home and farm at Shrewsbury, near Long Branch, New Jersey. Early in life, he married a daughter of Rev. Doctor Gilbert Morgan, a scholarly gentleman, of Bradford Springs, Sumter, South Carolina. Of their seven children five are living. At Greenwood the graves of two, early deceased, bear the following inscription, penned by Mr. Smith : — With chastened pride We give them back to God to keep , Too grateful for their lives to weep That they have died. 141 Phoc.:'^va.pb"hv hvn.'Jv :iL))AMn:iFUL, )i);ih^.jKw. DAKIEL DREW, ESQ. BY KEY. J. M'CLTNTOOK, D. D. 'N a certain sense it is true that, in this age, " Commerce is King." The lives of " successful merchants " are found to be, subjects of story as attractive to the men of this gen- eration as those of, monarchs or heroes. And why not ? There is no reason why the power of genius and, industry should not be rec- ognized in the great achievements of commerce, as well as in tlie masterpieces of the pencil or the chisel, in the creations of the poet, the discoveries of the philosopher, ^ or the triumphs of the sword., The keen sagacity, the conaprehensive judgment,' the ready memory, and perhaps, more than all, the prompt and bold decision needed in grand, commercial enterprises and combinations, are some of the most powerful attributes of the human mind. And when we find men combining these great qualities with personal integrity and an earnest Christian life, it is fitting, not merely that they should re- ceive due honor, but that their example should be held up for the imitation of the young. Mr. Drew's height is about five feet ten inches ; his form is slender, but lithe ; his head is well shaped, witli predominance in the reflect- ive and observing organs ; his eye is clear and keen ; his features strongly marked ; his general expression; mild, but firm. He was born, July 29, 1797, at Carmel, Putnam County, New York. His early years were spent on the farm, and his education included habits of industry and frugality, with the rudiments of knowledge gathered at the winter country school. In 1812 his father died, leaving little or no property, and at eighteen the lad began business on his own account. Five years he spent in driving cattle 143: 2 DANIEL DRKW, from Putnam CouMty to the city for Sd\e, and at the end of tha,t tiia3 he had hiid up uo luoiiey. Bat he had gained what was bet- ter than money, a thoi-ough knowledge of the trade, and he made use of this knowledge in after years with great success. He had been converted and united with tlie Methodist Church in ISU ; but a:nid the temptations and perils of the business in which he had embarked he lost his religious life about 1S14. But the godly train- ing of his pious mother, and the early operations of the Holy Spirit on his heart were never entirely fjrgotten ; and he was enabled to avoid the chief vices of men in the cattle trade, such as intemper- ance and profanity. In IS'Jo he married, and the home influences now brought about him aided in keeping him from evil habits and associations. A striking incident that occurred not long before his marriage made a deep and permanent impression upon his mind. He had driven out, with a companion, from [fTew York to Manhat- tanville, in a gig. Fastening the horse under a white-wood tree, they walked out into a field to examine some cattle. A storm came up suddenly, and they returned to the gig for shelter. Hardly were they seated, when Mr. Drew and his companion were stuimed by liglitning. When they revived, the horse lay dead before them, in his harness. It was a marvelous escape, and Mr. Drew has never forgotten it. In 18:^9 Mr. Drew removed to the city of Xew York, where he continued the cattle trade for some ten years longer. Part of that time he kept the ohl " Bull's Head," in the Bowery, a famous resort of butchers and drovers, and, in fact, a sort of cattle-dealers' ex- change. His iirst ventures lay in near trade with adjacent counties in New York, but ho and his partners gradually extended their field, first into Pennsylvania, afterward into the great West. They brought the first large drove of cattle that ever crossed the Alle- ghanies— two thousand head — in droves of one hundred each. The~ statistics of this trade, if we had space for them, would be full of curious interest. The '-attle were purchased in the valleys of Ohio and Kentucky, paid for in cash, collected in droves, and then broiu'ht 144 DANIEL DREW". 3 over by careful hands. The transit required nearly two months, and cost $12 per head, with allowance also of $i3 for beof " driven off" in the journey. Now, cattle are brought even from Illinois in five or six days. The business of the old-time drover is extinct. The cars and steamboats bring thousands of four-footed passengers a day into the great metropolis. Mr. Drew's introduction to the steamboat business was apparently accidental. In 183i Jacob Yanderbilt's steamer, General Jackson, running to Peekskill, blew up at Grassy Point, and a number of persons were killed and wounded. A new steamer, the Water- witch, was put on the route by a friend of Mr. Drew's, Mr. H. Bailey, who induced him to take a share of $1,000 in the enterprise. Commodore Yanderbilt — brother of Jacob — then, as now, a great steamboat man, built the Cinderella for his brotlier, and put her on the line against the Waterwitch. The opposition ran high ; the fare was reduced to a shilling ; p^iblic opinion was with the Water- witch, and she carried some six hundred passengers a day to twenty or thirty on the Cinderella. The Waterwitch got great glory, and was welcomed daily with huzzas and uproar from thronging crowds at the landings ; nevertheless, at the end of the season, she was in debt some $10,000. Mr. Bailey was sick of the enterprise, and sold the steamer to Drew, Kelly & Raymond, for $20,000. A compro- mise was made with Mr. Yanderbilt, and the Waterwitch was run as a day-boat to Hartford., Her speed was a wonder for those times — she left New York at 7 A. M., and reached Hartford by sun- set. In 1836 she was exchanged by her owners for the Westcheis- ter, which was pitted for the season, on the North River, against the " Hudson River line," then consisting of boats supposed to be the finest that ever could be built — the De Witt Clinton, North America, Ohio, and others, which monopolized the traffic at a fare of $3 to Albany. Our older readers on the Hudson— and we have many of them — will remember the exciting contest of that year. The public support to the " opposition " was excellent ; another boat was needed. None could be had in J^ew York. Yanderbilt's ad-^ 10 1*5 4 DANIEL DREW. vice was sought. " The ^inerald^'' said he, " is running from Phila- delphia to "Wilmington — you can. buy her." The advice was taken without a day's delay ; the Emerald was bought for $26,000 ; and before the first of August she and the Wtstchnster were runnino- as night-boats on the Hudson, crowded with passengers at fl fare. During the year the firm of Drew & Co. built the Rochester, at a cost of $56,000, and the Hudson line the Swallow, both admir- able models. But instead of competition, there was compromise ; the old fare was restored, and the profits were shared, to a fixed extent, between the two lines. To follow this extending business year by year would be full of interest, doubtless ; but it would require a volume. We must leap over a few years. Mr. Isaac Newton, who was largely engaged in freighting by tow-boats, had built in 1838 two fine steamers, the Worth America and South America. In 18i0 the boats and apparatus of Drew & Co. and of Mr. Newton were brought together, and a joint stock company was formed, which purchased the entire property, and assumed the business. There were four or five stockholders, but Mr. Drew held by far the largest share. The new " People's line " was re-enforced, on the breaking up of the Hudson River line, by the De Witt Clinton, her owner being admitted as a shareholder. For several years the line held almost undisputed possession of the river ; the boats were large, elegant, comfortable, and well managed ; the public were amply accomodated ; and the steamboat navigation of the Hudson became the praise and wonder of the world. But in 18i5 a great step in advance was taken, in the building of the Isaac Newton, a floating palace, three hundred feet long, with berths for five hundred passengers. The New World, since built, has even grander proportions. No one who has not seen these mag- nificent vessels can form a just idea of their vastness, their elegance of finish and furnishing, and the completeness of their equipment. Some notion of their costliness may be had from the fact, that, in 1857 and 1858, three hundred thousand dollars were spent in refit- ting these two boats with new engines and furniture. 146 DANIEL DREW. 5 Tn 1847 Mr. George Law built the steamer Oregon, and put her on the Hudson as an opposition boat. This contest was ended by a contract made in partnership, by Drew & Law, to run the Knick- erbocker and Oregon to Stonington, to connect with the railroad from that point to Boston. A new and vast field for Mr. Drew's activity was opened, and it was so skilfully occupied, that by the end of 1850 a splendid line of steamers was working on this route, and Mr. Drew, in connection with Mr. Vanderbilt, had obtained possession of a preponderating interest in the Stonington railroad. The principle of making the interest of the traveling and husitiess puhlic to coincide with the interest of the owners of the line, which had been so steadily and successfully adhered to on the Hudson, was adopted on the Stonington route. The old Knickerbocker was sold ; the Commodore and G. Vanderbilt, two of the finest seaboats ever built, were added to the line, and the public confidence was secured, and has been kept ever since, by the punctuality, safety, and promptitude of the entire service for passengers and freight, as well as for the mails. In 1852 the Hudson Eiver Railroad was opened, and everybody thought that the passenger-trade of the steamers was doomed. The president of tlie road had told Mr. Drew before, that, " on the open- ing of the road to Albany, he might bid good-bye to the steamboats." But these fears and predictions were very wide of the mark. So rapid has been the growth of the country, and so excellent and cheap the accommodations for travel and freight afibrded by the steamers, that now, while thousands of passengers are carried daily-by rail, the number conveyed in the steamers is greater than ever before. Mr. Drew's business was still more widely extended by the pur- chase, in 1849 — ^by Drew, Kelley & Eobinson — of the Champlain Transportation Company's stock, a capital of f 150,000, with five steamboats, running from Whitehall to Canada. The line was run successfully till 1856, when it was sold to the Saratoga and White- hall Kailroad Company. Of all these varied and gigantic operations Mr. Drew has been 147 ^ DANIEL DEE'W. the master spirit. "When he first entered into the business, Mr, Yan- derbilt often said to him, "You have no business in this trade; you don't understand it, and you can't succeed." In fact, not one man in a hundred who has attempted the business has succeeded in it. Since 1836 there have been forty opposition boats on the river, not one of which has been a complete success, while many of them have ruined their owners. Something more than capital is needed in a trade like this, and that is, the personal attention, skill, and watch- fulness of the capitalists themselves. From the beginning Mr. Drew has conducted this trade on clear and well-defined principles, and he has had associates — especially the late Isaac JS^ewton, Esq. — ca- pable of appreciating and executing vast and tliorough plans. One rule of the line is to cJioose the hest man that can be found for each post, and then to keep him. The captain of the j^ew World has been in the service-since 1834, and many of the other employees have had very long terms. Another rule is to keep the boats always in perfect order. No break in wood or iron is allowed to go a day un- repaired ; the paint is kept fresh ; the brass is shining ; the ropes are in order ; in short, every thing is in its place, and not only fit for use, but in the highest state of efiSciency. A third rule is, that no law of the service shall be broken with impunity. In this re- spect the regime of the lines is despotic; every officer knows that while faithful he will be cherished and rewarded, but that careless- ness or neglect will be fatal to his prospects. The best proof of the skill and wisdom with which these great steamboat lines have been conducted can be given in one sentence: no traveler has ever lost his life by accident on any steamer of which Mr. Drew has had con- trol ! When it is remembered that he has been in the business for a quarter of a century, and dm-ing part of that time more largely engaged in it, perhaps, than any single man in the world, the fact appears wonderful indeed. So f&r as we know, it is entirely with- out parallel in the history of steamboat navigation. Mr. Drew has never insured his steamboat property. His motto is, that vigilance and juSt outlays on the service are the best insur- 148 DANIEL DREW. 7 ance. The result has justified his sagacity. Insurance would have cost him near half a million in twenty years ; his losses by accident have been covered by little more than a tenth of that sum. The business above sketched would be sufficient, one would think, to occupy all the time and thoughts of any man, however eminent in capacity. But it has only formed one department of Mr. Drew's activities. About the year 1836, to give occupation to another per- son, he embarked a sraaH capital in the banking business in Wall Street. His partner indorsed the extension notes of a friend with- out consulting Mr. Drew, which caused a loss of over $30,000. In 1840 he associated with himself Nelson Robinson and E. W. Kelley, under the firm of Drew, Robinson & Co. Mr. Robinson had no capital, but his character and talent had been well tested by Mr. Drew in a previous business connection. The details of the busi- ness were conducted by the junior partners, but its leading opera- tions were controlled by Mr. Drew. The success of the firm was remarkable; indeed, no large operation of the house, except one, ever turned out a mistake. The single exception was a loan of near a million to a Trust Company in 1846, a loan made — in deviation from the general rule of the house — contrary to Mr. Drew's advice. Even in that case the securities for the loan — which included a mortgage of a Western railroad — have been so well managed, that no ultimate loss is apprehended. In 1853, wishing to contract his cares and labors, Mr. Drew re- tired from the banking business, giving it up to his son-in-law, Mr. Kelley. The house was then as strong in position and character as any in Wall Street. In one year Mr. Drew was called back from liis country seat by the death of Mr. Kelley, and had to take up the threads of finance again. Acting on his old principle of using well-tried agents, he took into partnership, in 1855, Mr. E. B. Stan- ton, who had been one of his clerks. What its success has been no one knows, we suppose, outside of the firm. But the name of the house on a piece of paper gives it currency for more thousands than would build a Western city. Indeed, the single name of Daniel 149 8 DANIEL DREW. Drew, indorsed on the acceptances of the Erie Kaih-oad in 1855, to the extent of a million and a half of dollars, sufficed to guarantee their value and to give them currency. These acceptances were duly met. In the summer of 1857 Mr. Drew was called upon again to indorse acceptances to the same amount — a million and a halt^ — and again the money was procured on the credit of his single name. The financial crash came a few months after, and' a man of great nerve might well have trembled, in such a time of universal panic, at a responsibility so enormous. But Mr. Drew never flinched — the acceptances were known to be safe, with his name on them, in spite of panic and pressure ; and, as they came due, they were all paid off or renewed. They are all now liquidated. A friend asked Mr. Drew, in the height of the panic, whether he " could sleep in these times?" "I have never lost a night's rest, on account of business, in my life," was the reply. In 1857 Mr. Drew was elected a director of the Harlem Eail- road. The property was in a very depressed condition, and the floating debt amounted to over $600,000. Mr. Drew and Mr. Vanderbilt indorsed the acceptances of the road to pay ofl" this debt. The new directors changed the policy of the road; an energetic and capable man, Mr. Campbell, was made President, and the floating debt was paid ofl" by an issue of second mortgage bonds. The profits of the road now pay interest on all its bonds, leaving a surplus to be applied to repairs, renewal of the track, etc. After long adversity, this vast property now gives promise of being regularly productive, and there is a chance that its stockholders may some day begin to get some return for their outlays. Amid all the cares of this vast and varied business, Mr. Drew has foimd time for practical agriculture. In this, as in his otlier pursuits, he has succeeded. He has an estate of nearly a thousand acres, about fifty miles distant from the city, on tlie Harlem Rail- road. His lands are mostly grazing farms, on which "Western cattle are fattened for market. In 1858, out of one hundred and twenty cattle eold from the estate, one hundred weighed a thousand pounds 150 DANIEL DRE-W. 9 each in the beef, and brouglit $100 a head. The farmers are allowed their homes and various perquisites for the care of the cattle, etc., and their interest is made to coincide with that of the owner. It has already been stated that Mr. Drew was converted and had joined the Methodist Church in 1811J But the " cares of this world clioked the word " and he " became unfruitful." For twenty- five years he lived " without God in the world^" though not without a certain degree of moral restraint. In 1839 he removed into Bleecker Street, New York. The "Mulberry Street Church," then but a few years old, stood opposite his house, and he attended wor- ship there occasionally, simply because it was "convenient." In 1841, during the pastorate of the Rev. James H. Perry, a protracted meeting was held in the church. Mr. Drew began to attend at night from curiosity. Under the earnest and faithful preaching of the Gospel many souls were touched ; the Spirit of God was pow- erfully poured forth upon the people. Mr. Drew heard the divine voice and obeyed. After going to the altar some eight or ten times, he was reclaimed from his sins, and received the seal of forgiveness. Yery soon after, his wife was brought in, and both united with the church. He soon began to take part in the service of the church, praying in the class and prayer meetings, and ready to " wait upon the Lord " in any capacity in which he could be useful. For many years he has been a trustee of Mulberry Street Church —now St. Paul's ; and his money and time have always been at the service of the church in which he was brought to know again' the " peace of the Lord Jesus." At his country home he is also steward and trustee. Some years ago a church was built on his home farm, under the direction of his daughter, Mrs. Clapp. It is a tasteful structure, neatly furnished tliroughout, and capable of seating from one hundred and fifty to two hundred persons. A few years ago there was a gracious revival here, and many souls were converted. In the rear of the church is a school-room, also got up •and furnished by Mrs. Clapp, with a library, maps, etc. A classical ochool has been kept up for several years, and the neighbors have 151 10 DANIEL DREW. the privilege of thorough training, gratis, for their children. The ■ church and school cost about $6,000, and the annual cost to Mr. Drew is about $1,500 a year. Mrs. Clapp — who is a Baptist — superintends the Sunday school, and her husband, the Rev. Mr. Clapp, of the Baptist Church, unites with the circuit preachers in filling the pulpit of the chapel. All Mr. Drew's children and grand- children over fifteen years of age, are members of the church — either Methodists or Baptists— a striking instance of the power of Christian example and of a well-ordered and godly household in counteracting the corrupting influence of wealth. Mr. Drew has been for several years a trustee of the Wesleyan University, and of the Biblical Institute at Concord, to both of which he has been a patron and contributor. He is also a trustee of the Troy University. To liim, and to a number of other noble Christian men in St. Paul's Church, New Tork, the church is indebted for examples of missionary contribution in some degree befitting the cause of Christ and the duty of Christians in this age. As might be expected, a man of his wealth is called upon for every charity and public movement in the city, and for very many out of it. Yet we believe that none go empty away, who bring a valid and substantial claim for his assistance. The foregoing sketch, by Dr. McClintock, brings the biography of Mr. Drew down to the year 1860. Since that thne he lias been extensively engaged in business, has prosecuted many important enterprises with characteristic intelligence and energy, all of which have been crowned with signal success. Meanwhile his acts of benevolence and philanthropy have been multiplied until the amount bestowed aggregates an enormous sum, exceeding that given by any other individual in the country for the cause of education and the promotion of religion and piety. His benefactions have been spon- taneous, the suggestion of his abounding liberality without osten- tation or the hope of any other reward than an approving conscience and the satisfaction of improving and elevating the condition of hia fellow-men. In 1866 he built a Methodist church in his native 152 DANIEL DREW. U town, and endowed a school in connection thei'ew-ith, at a cost in all of two hundred and ninety thousand dollars. The following year he built and established the Drew Theological Seminary, in Madison, New Jersey. This costly gift involved an expense of six hundred thousand dollars. About this time he made a donation to the Wes- leyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, of a hundred thou- sand dollars, after having made the institution several presents in money besides, amounting in all to about twenty thousand dollars. He has given liberally to different churches in the South and "West, and to St. Paul's Church in Fourth Avenue, l^ew York, he donated the handsome sum of thirty thousand dollars. In addition to the numerous steam-vessels, enumerated by Dr. McCIintock, as having been put upon the Hudson by Mr. Drew, he has since built the St. John, the Dea7i liichmond, and the Drew, three as beautiful specimens of nautical architecture as float upon our waters. Our sketch of Mr. Drew is necessarily brief and imperfect. The plan of the publishers precludes that fullness of detail which is necessary to a complete presentation of the attributes of this extra- ordinary man. Mr. Drew is still in robust health, and apparently has many years of active labor before him. His various enterprises liave added largely to the wealth and prosperity of New York, and in this sense he has been one of the benefactors of the metropolis. But he has been a benefactor, in a far higher and nobler sense, in affording an example of industry, energy, and business talent of the highest order, combined with a sense of personal honor, and unimpeachable integrity. In the church, his modest but steadfast testimony, given in the class-room, the prayer meeting, and the love-feast, has been of incalculable value, especially to young men of business. May he long be spared to enjoy the fruits of his in- dustry, and to share in advancing the kingdom of Christ on earth, not merely by his Christian use of the large wealth of M'hich God has made him the steward, but also by his personal services to the church and by his living example of peaceful and yet active piety! 153 JOKN" TATLOE JOHT^STON. 4 [ipHE subject of this sketch was born of wealthy parents, in the city of New York, on the 8th of April, 1820. His father was John Johnston, of the well-known firm of Boorman and Johnston, one of our stanchest merchants, respected both in our own land and in Europe for his business integrity and enterprise, and for his Christian benevolence and patronage of learning. His mother, who still lives to exemplify the Christian virtues in a vigorous and cheerful old aoje, was the daughter of John Taylor, another merchant of the antique stamp, wliom we trace back into the Revolutionary war for the independence of our country, from his parents, John Taylor Johnston inherited a vig- orous constitution and an even temper ; and from them he received such wholesome counsels — moral, religious, and intellectual — as are best fitted to start a boy on a successful career. His success in life may be traced to these primary causes as easily as a river to its sources in the springs and rivulets of hills and mountains. Both his parents were of Scotch ancestry, and it was not strange that they should wish their first-born son to have the benefit of the • bracing air and the vigorous instruction of old Scotland. Accord- ingly, at the age of twelve, while on a visit to their native land, they placed him at the High School of Edinburgh, where he re- mained a year and a half, receiving such stimulus to his Scotch blood and laying up such pleasant stories for future reminiscence, that he has ever since been known for his love of " the land o' cakos." At the age of nineteen, he graduated at the University of the City of New York, in the class of 1839. He was regarded as one of the best scholars in his class. Choosing the legal profession ho 155 2 JOHN TATLOE JOHNSTON. at once entered the Law Scliool of 'New Haven, and subsequently the office of Daniel Lord in New York City, in both of which he showed the same application and industry which had characterized him at the university, an example rare enough among the sons of wealthy parents. In his studies he doubtless laid the foundation of his success as a business man, by the formation of those habits of patient inquiry, assiduous attention, and untiring perseverance, which, regulated by method and system, give him absolute command of all his faculties and of all his time. In the investigation of a subject, nothing seems to escape his observation which could have the least bearing on the case. He was admitted to the bar in 1843. Soon afterward he went abroad, and continued traveling in Europe during two years or more, when he returned to New York and resumed the practice of law. Another course was, however, marked out for him ; for " there is a divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will." And little by little he loosed himself from the law, for pursuits more congenial to his constructive tastes, until the spring of ISiS, M'hen, at the early age of twenty-eight, he took the presidency of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. This railroad, then known as the Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad, was at that time only a few miles long, and struggling for existence. It now reaches from its extensive station-grounds and princely property on the Hudson river, opposite New York, across the State of New Jersey to Easton, Pennsylvania, where it connects with the net-work of railways ramifying through the anthracite coal-fields of Pennsyl- vania, all built since and in connection with the main road ; and in the construction of most of which Mr. Johnston was largely and actively interested. The stimulus given to the coal trade has been so great, that the products of the Leliigh, Lackawanna, Wyoming, and companion coal-fields have risen from less than 5,000,000 tons in 1852, when the road was opened to Easton, to nearly 16,000,000 tons in 1870. A great impetus was also given to 156 JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTON. 3 business between the West and New York by the subsequent opening over this road of a new and shorter line than any in existence ; and the benefits derived from the Allentown Line will long be felt, though the company have now, in a measure, abandoned the through trade for more profitable business. The local business of the line has always received great attention from Mr. Johnston, and under his fostering care the country has improved with great rapidity. Towns have grown into cities, villages into towns, and new settlements are constantly springing up. The almost unexampled growth of Plainfield, his summer residence, and where he is the largest landed proprietor, shows the stimulus given by his presence. As much of the road is a tangent line, two parallel highways have been planned and opened, afibrding unrivalled facilities for reaching the railway stations, as well as giving base-lines for improvements, and enabling the com- pany to do away with many dangerous level crossings. Great changes are always made by a railroad ; but it would be difficult to find a road which has produced as many and great changes as this has caused ; and still more difficult would it be to find one more deservedly popular with all those who depend upon its facili- ties. The courtesy shown to all by its chief is followed by the subordinates, and few complaints of incivility are heard, and fewer still left unattended to. Considering how much Mr. Johnston's business life has been identified with the anthracite coal trade, it is somewhat of a coin- cidence that the very first shipment to market of hard coal (or stone coal as it was then called) was made in 1820, the year in which he was born. In connection with this railway and resulting from the necessary- purchases of water front when the road was carried to the Hudson, opposite New York, Mr. Johnston has projected a vast system of wharfs, basins, and docks, involving an extensive reclamation of lands on the Jersey Flats, on the plan of raising the reclaimed parts abovei water with the mud dredged from the slips and basins. 157 4 JOHK TAYLOR JOHNSTON. In this way, while no appreciable injury will be done to the har- bor of New York, almost boundless facilities can be_ provided for commerce. Thus a great work has already been done, and exten- sive facilities provided for the railway and for general commerce ; but the whole plan is too large for one generation, and is only intended for execution as the business of New York and of the road shall require. In 1850 Mr. Johnston M'as married to the daughter of James Colles, of New Orleans. His head and heart were in their usual harmony in the aiFair, and hence he was as fortunate in this, as in all his other transactions, and has been eminently happy in this relation for the very best reasons in the world. In all his domestic relations he has ever been, and is, among the most fortunate of men. Having all that the affections can impart, together with all the adornments which wealth and taste can add to make home happy, his well-regulated household affords hira the purest enjoy- ment and recreation after the cares of the day. At his business he seems to have no heart and no time for any thing else but the par- ticular bu-siness on hand ; at home he seems to have devoted all his time and all his heart to his family. His library is among the best private libraries in the city, and 'his picture-gallery is scarcely surpassed by any in the country. Here among the choicest paintings of the best artists stands that gem of the sculptor's art, Cleopatra, by our native Story. Such are the sources of enjoyment for himself and friends which Mr. Johnston has provided in the midst of his busy life. The fine arts have seldom foand a more devoted friend in our country ; and it is a great part of his pleasure to have his friends participate in his happiness. Every fifth year it is his custom to invite his uni- versity classmates to a dinner at his house, and his friendships have ever been uniform, pleasant, and constant. The University, his Alma Mater, has had good reason to rejoice in his friendship. His father was one of its founders and largest benefactors, and the son has not been less devoted to its interests 158 JOHN TATLOE JOHNSTON 5 than tlie father -wliom he succeeded as vice-president of its Coun- cil. The father's portrait hangs on tlie walls of its conncil-chamber, and the son's name is inscribed on the Law Libi-ary as its donor. Its Alumni Association owes its vitality to his liberal attention, and for a long time has annually re-elected him its president. His Scotch proclivities crop out in a friendly way. For thirty years he has been a genial member of the St. Andrew's Society, and has held all its otfices in regular rotation. He enjoys " auld acquaintance" and "auld langsyne" prodigiously, and has not the least objection in the world to " whang at the bannocks of barley meal." He is also a member of numerous boards and committees of benevolent, literary, and business institutions ; in all of which he performs his duties punctually and faithfully. No office with him, great or small, is a sinecure. If he thinks a thing worth doing, he does it ; otherwise he has nothing to do with it. "What he does, he does thoroughly. Notwithstanding all these various labors and enterprises, he has found time to gratify his scholarly tastes and to keep up with the current literature of the day ; and at intervals has made several visits to Europe with his family. Mr. Johnston is well known as a liberal contributor to the various religipus and benevolent institutions. In this he follows in the steps of his noble-hearted father, whose maxim was, " Giving does a man good f^ and whose benefactions are like orchards which yield fruit long after the men who planted the trees are dead. He exer- cises caution in this as in other matters, and always inquires before he gives, so as to be sure that his giving shall do others as much good as himself. The writer of this remembers hearing him say, full twenty-five years ago, ^' I consider it just as much my duty to give to these benevolent institutions as to jpay my 'butcher's bills" Giving seems to have done him no hurt, but good, as it did his father before him. His wealth has steadily increased. It has accumulated on hia 159 6 JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTOK hands apparently witliout effort. His ambition lias never descended to the mere pursuit of money, nor has he ever seemed to regard it as more than a secondary object ; but as a consequence of the de- veh)pment of his plans, channels have been opened through which it has flowed into his profession as naturally as the Croton flows into its reservoirs, which of course receive it when it comes, and what is better still, distribute it again as freely as it was received. There have been times when he could have put thousands, perhaps millions, in his pockets with no cause of complaint by anybody ; but he chose rather to put them to the advantage of the company whose welfare has been more to liim than mere personal advantage. In this sort of disinterestedness Mr. Johnston stands head and shoulders above most "railroad kings." But his very efforts to make his road an honor to the State, as well as a sure and constant source of revenue to the stockholders, have resulted in proportionate rewards and benefits to himself. Thus the ample fortune which he inherited from his father has greatly increased and he is commonly termed a millionaire. But he is not proud of the title. The humblest employee on his road receives recognition and a friendly bow and a kind word from Mr. Johnston. Mr. Johnston is generally regarded as one of the most fortunate of men. He evidently was meant by the old Hebrew poet where he says, "And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." But his good fortune has its causes. Like most successful men he has the qualities that command success. Far-reaching foresiglit, patient inquiry, untiring energy, inflexible straightforwardness, and tenacity of purpose, together with a love for work and almost unexampled industry, aided by good digestion and an even temper, have laid tlie track and driven the engine by which he has reached his pres- ent high station as a successful man. Never over-elated by success, nor much cast down by reverses, he has pursued patiently and perseveringly his course, when once marked out, until he has reached tlie end proposed. "With industry seldom equaled in one of his ample fortune, favored by a constitution of iron strength, and 'with 16U JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTON. 7 almost uninteiTupted health through forty years of study and toil, Avith a cheery face, and a hopeful heart, and -a high purpose, it is not to be wondered at that ho has not lived, and is not living, in vain. Ycry few men have been more highly favored. In his father's f.imily ; in schools and colleges ; among his comrades and friends ; in his own family with the best of wives and children, and the happiest of homes ; in business eminently successful ; in a conscious- ness of talents rightly employed ; and in a conscience void of otfense (for Mr. Johnston is a good Presbyterian, and has been long an elder in the church of his fathers), from childhood up to his ripe manhood lie stands pre-eminently a man of progress. 11 161 6«, & JAMES E. ENGLISH. BY T. N. PAEMELEE. ||sHE man who springs from no elevated rank in life, and becomes opulent, and of high social consideration, by dint of his own unaided eiForts — and if to that be added high political preferment and offices of responsibility and power, conferred spontaneously by those who appreciate his worth — has a higher claim upon popular admiration, every thing else being equal, than one of aristocratic lineage and ancestral estate. We are not of those who unduly magnify indigence and toil, and regard self- made men as pre-eminently worthy of the respect and confidence of the community. On the contrary, we hold early advantages, careful nurture in childhood, and a thorough training, which is so much more effective in youth, as blessings of incalculable value, and for whose absence there is no adequate compensation. What we mean is, that the man of humble origin, whose industry, energy, and power of will have enabled him to surmount those drawbacks and place himself on the same plane with his more favored contemporary, commands our good opinion in a higher degree, in so far as we are better assured of his capacity to pro- mote the good of his fellows, in the senate or the executive council, or in the walks of every-day life. The artificer of his own fortune has a clearer perception of what is due to others tlian the man who inherited what he possesses, and he has a more active and gen- erous sympathy for those who are struggling to make their way in the world. A truly representative man of this class is James E. English, the present governor of the State of Connecticut. His ancestor, Benjamin English, removed from Salem, Massachusetts, to New Haven, early in the last century, and the family have ever 163 2 , JAMES E. ENGLISH. siuce resided there. They have always held a respectable position in society, and enjoyed the general respect and esteem of their contemporaries. This was especially true of James English, the father of the governor. He acquired a competent estate and reared a large family, comprising six sons and three daughters, all of whom lived to years of maturity. The sons were prosperous busi- ness men in the place of their nativity. The grandfather of Gov- ernor English, Captain Benjamin English, was a shipmaster, and commanded several vessels plying between !New Haven and foreign ports. Duiing the Presidency of Mr. Jefferson he was appointed to an office in the custom-house of his native town, Vi'liich he held ny to the time of his death, in 1807. The father of Captain English was killed by the British troops nnder General Tryon, who invaded Connecticut in ] 779. And it may be added here that both the governor and his paternal ancestors have been uninterruptedly identified with the Democratic party since the organization of the government under the Federal Constitution. Tlie educational advantages enjoyed by the subject of our sketch were limited to the rndimental teachings common to the schools of the day. That they were circumscribed, is attested by the fact that they were interrupted at a period of his life when the tender mind is most susceptible to instruction. Mr. English gave evidence in his early youth of that remarkable self-reliance and independence of thought and action which have distinguished him, in his private as well as public life, from childhood .to mature age. It has been his uniform habit to think and act for himself under all circumstances. He has always been firm and decided, without obstinacy persistent and determined, without rashness or presumption. From the time when, a mere child, he insisted upon earning his own livelihood, and obtained his father's reluctant consent to strike out a course for himself, and engaged to labor on a farm some thirty miles from home, and through all the various enterprises by which he accumulated an ample fortnne, he relied on his own resources, and prosecuted his extended busineSiS 164 JAMES E. ENGLISH. 3 ■with tliat intelligence, activity, and perseverance, wliicli conld not fail to command success, and all by his own unaided exertions. When about to embark in the lumber trade, a wealthy friend, who appreciated his capacity, integrity, and aptitude for the manage- ment of an extended business, offered to advance a large sum of money and become interested in the transactions — the industry and intelligence of Mr. English to constitute an equivalent for the cap- ital to be invested. This proposition, although a liberal one, he gratefully declined, -^preferring to work out his fortune himself. He remained away from home for two years, diligently assisting in the labors of the farm, wlien he returned to his parents. He attended school for two years after he came back, devoting himself specially to the study of architectural drawing, in which he became signally proficient. He was then, apprenticed to a master carpenter, and during his term of service made plans for several conspicuous edifices in I^ew Haven, some of which still remain as ornaments of the city. On attaining his majority, in 1833, he immediately became a mas- ter-builder, and continued that pursuit for two years with great suc- cess. For a period of more than twenty years he was engaged in the lumber trade, both in New Haven and Albany. During this time he became the owner of several vessels, and- established a freight line between New Haven and Albany, and Philadelphia. He prosecuted this extensive business with his accustomed intelligence and energy, and his exertions were rewarded with ample returns. For the last fifteen years he has been interested in large manufac- turing establishments in different parts of the State, to the number of fifteen, to which he has given much time and attention. He has been the principal manager of the business of the New Haven Clock Company, the largest concern of the kind in the world ; and in that capacity has visited Europe three several times to promote the sale of its wares. On the last occasion be remained abroad nearly a year, making a complete tour of Europe. He is also president of the Goodyear Metallic Eubber Shoe Company, one 165 4 JAMES E. ENGLISH. of the largest establishments of the kind in the United States, and au active director in several other large and well-managed companies, all successfully prosecuting their several branches of industr3^ As a business man he is distinguished for practical sagacity, fore- cast, and sound judgment. In the numerous enterprises with which he has been connected, his penetrati