339 38 >y 1 E 339 -f \ .L68 Copy 1 CIRCULAR. incrican lurtrait 6alUrg, CONTAINING PORTRAITS AND MEMOIRS OF MEN NOW LIVING A NEW and elegant edition of this great work, in four volumes, com- prising about 2,000 pages of letter press, and two hundred and thirty-eight fine steel portraits^ some of which are among the finest specimens of artistic skill, has just been published, at an expense of nearly twenty-four thousand dollars. The portraits form the most complete and valuable collection in existence in this country. The volumes present to the world truthful likenesses and biogra- phies of men now living, including clergymen, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, statesmen, financiers, merchants, manufacturers, planters, and those of other respectable vocations. In the following table of contents will be found the names of President Pierce, with every member of his cabinet, Justices of the Supreme Court of the U. S., Governors, Army Officers, and many others deservedly standing among the first in the United States. While transmitting to posterity the memory of persons of the j^resent day, these memoirs will instill in the minds of our children the impo]'tant lesson, that honor and station are the sure reward of continued exertion — and that, compared to a good education, with habits of honest industry and economy, the greatest fortune would be but a poor inheritance. If the work contains the names of many who have enjoyed every advantage which affluence and early education could bestow, it also traces the his- tory of those who, by their own unaided efforts, have risen from obscurity to the highest and most responsible trusts in the land. The value of biography, as a study for the young, has always been highly appreciated ; but it has been too much the fashion to direct our youth to the lives of Plutarch rather than to the achievements of men in our own time. Not oijly is much of the moral force, which it is the pe- culiar advantage of biography to impart, lost by the purely ideal aspect in which the youthful imagination contemplates a Grecian sage or a Ro- man hero, but the spheres of distinction in which they were illustrious were so different from those to Avhich men are now attracted, that very little either of wholesome incentive or needed encouragement can be de- 11 AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY CIRCULAR. rived from them. Great antiquity, far-off distance of time, invests the character of even a common mind with a jjlory beautiful as a picture, but noways encouraging as an example. We look at them to admire, but not to imitate. In full harmony, therefore, not only with the spirit of the age, but no less with the wants of our nature, we are gratified to see a growing tendency toward the publication and study of a cotempo- raneous biography, not in a few departments of Hfe only, but in every walk in which the human mind may usefully and honorably exert itself. Every pursuit needs the encouragement of successful examples. Instruction is often most effectually given by example. Not a few men, it is believed, pass their lives in obscurity and want, mainly because from the unfavorable circumstances in which their lives commence, they pass the period of youth under a vague but general impression that emi- nence, in any important respect, is unattainable by them; and hence they form no fixed purpose to attain it. A better means of dissipating this delusion, rousing the minds of young men and lads to high and noble aims, and stimulating them to the achievements of such aims, can hardly be adopted than holding before them the example and history of others who have pushed their way upward into affluence, honor and usefulness, from amid circumstances not less discouraging than their own. Success, though sometimes apparently flowing from the caprices of fortune, is, after all, the surest test of real merit; and it is encouraging to every young man who, repining not at the accidents of his birth, looks up with a trustful spirit to higher spheres of usetulness and fame, to know that others have gone before him with prospects no fairer than his own, and have triumphed. The success of others gives us confidence in ourselves. What they have done, we may do ; and thus the example of those who have successfully trod any of the diversified paths of life be- comes the mental heritage of every aspiring spirit, more valuable than houses or lands. It is the capital which plumes the pinions of hope — the stock in trade which gives confidence to the mind, when failure might else point to despair. This work exhibits, as all biography Avill, that those who are most successful in obtaining honors, public respect and wealth, have not pur- sued these as the end of their labors, but have obtained them as incidents to active virtues. When we make reputation, honor or riches the motives instead of the rewards of our conduct, we reverse the order which Provi- dence has established, and fail of obtaining what we are perversely seek- ing. When Solomon was asked what he most desired, he said, "Give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people. And God said unto him. Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, nor riches, nor the life of thine enemies, lo ! I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart ; so that there was none like thee before, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee what thou hast not asked, both riches and honor." He asked to perform well his duties, and the performance brought with it riches and honor as incidents of duty. > If a lawyer discharges well and faithfully his legal duties, riches and honor will follow as natural incidents; but should he make riches the object of his efforts, he will not necessarily perform faithfully his legal (S i v-O CIRCULAR. ^mtrican portrait ^allerj), CONTAINING PORTRAITS AND MEMOIRS OF MEN NOW LIVING. A NEW and elegant edition of this great work, in four volumes, com- prising about 2,000 pages of letter press, and tivo hundred and thirty-eight fine steel portraits^ some of which are among the finest specimens of artistic skill, has just been published, at an expense of nearly twenty-four thousand dollars. The portraits form the most complete and valuable collection in existence in this country. The volumes present to the world truthful likenesses and biogra- phies of men now living, including clergymen, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, statesmen, financiers, merchants, manufacturers, planters, and those of other respectable vocations. In the following table of contents will be found the names of President Pierce, Avith every member of his cabinet. Justices of the Supreme Court of the U. S., Governors, Army Officers, and many others deservedly standing among the first in the United States. While transmitting to posterity the memory of persons of the present day, these memoirs will instill in the mine's of our children tlic important lesson, that honor and station are the sure reward of continued exertion — and that, compared to a good education, with habits of honest industry and economy, the greatest fortune would be but a poor inheritance. If the work contains the names of many who have enjoyed every advantage which affluence and early education could bestow, it also traces the his- tory of those who, by their own unaided efforts, have risen from obscurity to the highest and most responsible trusts in the land. The value of biography, as a study for the young, has always been highly appreciated ; but it has been too much the fashion to direct our youth to the lives of Plutarch rather than to the achievements of men in our own time. Not only is much of the moral force, which it is the pe- culiar advantage of biography to impart, lost by the purely ideal aspect in which the youthful imagination contemplates a Grecian sage or a Ro- man hero, but the spheres of distinction in which they were illustrious were so different from those to which men are now attracted, that very little either of wholesome incentive or needed encouragement can be de- ii AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY CIRCULAR. rived from them. Great antiquity, far-off distance of time, invests the character of even a common mind with a glory beautiful as a picture, but noways encouraging as an example. We look at them to admire, but not to imitate. In full harmony, therefore, not only with the spirit of the age, but no less with the wants of our nature, we are gratified to see a growing tendency toward the publication and study of a cotempo- raneous biography, not in a few departments of life only, but in every walk in which the human mind may usefully and honorably exert itself. Every pursuit needs the encouragement of successful examples. Instruction is often most effectually given by example. Not a few men, it is believed, pass their lives in obscurity and want, mainly because from the unfavorable circumstances in which their lives commence, they pass the period of youth under a vague but general impression that emi- nence, in any important respect, is unattainable by them; and hence they form^ no fixed 2)urpose to attain it. A better means of dissipating this delusion, rousing the minds of young men and lads to high and noble aims, and stimulating them to the achievements of such aims, can hardly be adopted than holding before them the example and history of others who have pushed their way upward into affluence, honor and usefulness, from amid circumstances not less discouraging than their own. Success, though sometimes apparently flowing from the caprices of fortune, is, after all, the surest test of real merit ; and it is encouraging to every young man who, repining not at the accidents of his birth, looks up with a trustful spirit to higher spheres of usefulness and fame, to know that others have gone before him with prospects no fairer than his own, and have triumphed. The success of others gives us confidence in ourselves. What they have done, we may do ; and thus the example of those who have successfully trod any of the diversified paths of life be- comes the mental heritage of every aspiring spirit, more valuable than houses or lands. It is the capital which plumes the pinions of hope — the stock in trade which gives confidence to the mind, when failure might else point to despair. This work exhibits, as all biography will, that those who are most successful in obtaining honors, public respect and wealth, have not pur- sued these as the end of their labors, but have obtained them as incidents to active virtues. Whfen we make reputation, honor or riches the motives instead of the rewards of our conduct, we reverse the order which Provi- dence has established, and fail of obtaining what we are perversely seek- ing. When Solomon was asked what he most desired, he said, " Give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people. And God said unto him. Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, nor riches, nor the life of thine enemies, lo ! I have' given thee a wise and an understanding heart ; so that there was none like thee before, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee what thou hast not asked, both riches and honor." He asked to perform well his duties, and the performance brought with it riches and honor as incidents of duty. If a lawyer discharges well and faithfully his legal duties, riches and honor will follow as natural incidents ; but should he make riches the object of his eftbrts, he will not necessarily perform faithfully his legal AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY CIRCULAR. lU duties, but by subordinating them to avarice, he will lose his business and character without in the end obtaining the riches thus viciously pursued. A politician who interests himself usefully in public matters will obtain official station as an incident of his usefulness ; but should he make office the motive of his political conduct, he will be as often uselessly busy as actively useful, and give offence by officiousness rather than gain favor by usefulness. So, an officer who discharges faithfully his public duties will obtain popularity as an incident of his faithfulness ; but should he pur- sue popularity as the object of his actions, he will not, necessarily, dis- charge faithfully bis duties, but will subordinate them to his popularity, and so waver in his conduct and fluctuate in his sentiments as to f;ul in reaching the desired end. A physician who skillfully performs his prac- tice will obtain celebrity and patronage as incidents of his skill ; but should he pursue celebrity and patronage as motives, he will magnify slight ailments, that he may obtain the merit of achieving astonishing recoveries. He will publish miraculous cures which never occurred, and he will be contemned rather than obtain patronage and celebrity. A like principle pervades, necessarily, all the business occupations of life. The organization of man, of society, and of the universe, are alike favorable to honesty and virtuous conduct. Duties fjiithfully discharged lead to wealth and honor ; duties selfishly performed to poverty and dis- grace. There are many memoirs in this work illustrative of these truths. It is needless to remark further on the extended information and de- light we derive from the multiplication of portraits by engraving, or on the more important advantages resulting from the study of biography. Separately considered, the one afibrds an amusement not less innocent than elegant, inculcates the rudiments, or aids the progress of taste, and rescues from the hand of time the perishable monuments raised by the pencil or the daguerrean art. The other — while it is, perhaps, the more agreeable branch of historical literature — is certainly the more useful in its moral effects ; stating the known circumstances, and endeavoring to unfold the secret motives of human conduct ; selecting all that is worthy of being recorded, it at once informs and invigorates the mind, warms and mends the heart. It is, however, from the combination of portrait and biography that we reap the utmost degree of utility and pleasure which can be derived from them. As, in contemplating the portrait of a person, we long to be instructed in his history, so, in considering his actions, we are anxious to behold his countenance. So earnest is this desire, that the imagination is ready to coin a set of features or to con- ceive a character to supply the painful absence of one or the other. It is impossible to conceive a work which ought to be more interesting than one which will exhibit before our progeny their fathers as they lived, accompanied with such memoirs of their lives and characters as shall furnish a comparison of persons and countenances with sentiments and actions. J^^ See following pages for Table of Contents of the four volumes. See the last page for the price of the work. IV AMERIOAN PORTRAIT GALLERY CIRCULAR, A FEW NOTICES OF THE PRESS. In a recent notice the New- York Commercial Advertiser says : The portraits are all engraved from daguerreotypes, in the finest style of the art, and are undoubtedly correct. We can vouch for the remark- able fidelity of the likenesses of those persons with whose faces we are familiar. This truly national work is creditable to the ability and enter- prise of Mr. Livingston, and should adorn every public and private library in the country. To expatiate on the value of such a work would be superfluous, as it must commend itself to imiversal favor. The Boston Daily Bee says : The volumes contain exquisitely finished steel plate engravings, which alone are Avorth far more than the cost of the work. It would be a tame compliment to remark that these portraits and memoirs form one of the most interesting works of the age. They are more — they are the most valuable. Here is a vast amount of information, which must have cost immense toil, and which none but an intellectual giant could or would have collected. One remarkable and most encouraging feet shines from every page of these volumes, viz. : that nearly all our men of eminence have risen from the ranks of the masses ; risen by the most indomitable energy, industry and integrity. We cordially recommend Mr. Livingston's great American work. It should be on every table and in every library, that the young of our land may draw inspiration and courage from the noble men it portrays. The Neio-York National Democrat says : So far as we know, this is the first book of any sort that purposes to hand down to after times, in an authentic form, the portraits and char- acters of men distinguished in the walks of private as well as of public life. The author's conception of the great work of living biographies was fortunate in the extreme. No other plan of the kind has before been so fully undertaken and so well carried out. We cannot but regard this large and splendid production as one of the most remarkable and valuable this country has yet seen. The New- York Tribune says : It exhibits a remarkable catalogue of self-made men, and illustrates the steps by which they arose from obscurity to wealth and consideration. It is pleasing to remark that the individuals of whom sketches are here given are indebted for their success in life to genuine, sturdy, straightfor- ward qualities ; to energy, diligence and enterprise, rather than to the arts by which so many manage to swindle themselves into a good repu- tation. The Washington Daily Union says : By a large expenditure of means the author has attained to that point which he had in view when he commenced his labors upon it — that is, to make it a work which, while it might elicit admiration and praise as to its mechanical arrangement, should at the same time be a true histo- rical record of the lives and services of those eminent citizens whose por- traits adorn its columns. CONTENTS OF VOLUMES I, II, III. AND IV. NAMES OF SUBJECTS CLASSIFIED ALPHABETICALLY. PAGE ALCORN, JAMES L., of Coahoma Co., Mississippi ; Lawyer and A^taiesmaw ; Vol. IV., 106 ALLEN, STEPHEN M., of Boston, Massachusetts; Merchant and Banker; Vol. TIL, , 57 , ANDERSON, SAMUEL, of Murfreesboro', Tennessee ; Lawyer; Judo-e of the Circuit Court for the Fifth Circuit ; Vol. II., 419 ANSPACH, JOHN, Junior, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; if ercAan^- Vol. III., 309 AMONETT, JAMES J., of Richmond, Louisiana; Statesman and Jurist ; Vol. IV., . . . . . • 32 AYER, RICHARD IL, of Manchester, New Hampshire ; Manu- facturer; [deceased;] late President of the Amoskeag Bank; Vol. I., ........ 113 BADGER, LUTHER, of Bingham ton. New York ; Lawyer; for- merly a Member of Congress ; Vol. IL, .... 595 BARBEE, WILLIAM, of Troy, Ohio ; Statesman and Jurist ; Vol. IV., 125 BARNARD, WILLIAM T., of Issaquena County, Mississippi ; Planter and Statesman ; Vol. IV., .... 149 3ARRINGER, DANIEL M., of Cabarras County, North Caro- lina ; Lawyer ; formerly Member of the United States Congress, and Minister to the Court of Spain; Vol. I., . 51 BASH, HENRY M., of Baltimore, Maryland ; Merchant; Vol. TIL, 43 1 BATTLE, WILLIAM H., of Chapel Hill, North Carolina ; Xcm- yer; Judge of the Superior Court ; Vol. IL, . . . '771 BAXTER, ELI H., of Sparta, Georgia ; Lawyer and Jurist ; for- merly Judge of the Supreme Court ; Vol. III., . . 285 BELL, MONTGOMERY, of Williamson County, Tennessee; Iron Manufacturer ; Yol.YV.^ 275 VI CONTENTS. PA6B BIDDLE, HORACE P., of Logansport, Indiana; Lawyer and Author; President Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit ; Vol. I., 257 BIERCE, LUCIUS V., of Akron, Ohio ; Lawyer, Statesman and Soldier; Vol. III., 247 BOTTUM, NATHAN H., of Shaftesbury, Vermont ; Jurist and Statesman ;Yo\.lY., 286 BOWLES, JOSHUA B., of Louisville, Kentucky ; Financier ; President of the Bank of Louisville ; Vol. 11. . . 645 BOWMAN, JAMES L., of Brownsville, Pennsylvania; Mer- chant; President of the Monongahela Bank; Vol. I., . 357 BOUTELLE, TIMOTHY, of Waterville, Maine ; Lawijer and Statesman ; Yo\.Ill., . . . . . . . 41 BRIERLY, BENJAMIN, of San Francisco, California; Clergy- man ; Vol. IV., 427 BRIGHAM, JOSIAH, of Quincy, Massachusetts ; Merchant ; President of the Quincy Stone Bank ; Vol. I., . . 31 BRISBANE, A. H., of Charleston, South Carolina ; Soldier and Planter ;Yo\. III., 317 BROOKS, CHARLES, of Medford, Massachusetts ; Author and Clergyman ; Vol. III., .257 BROOKS, NATHAN C, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Author and Teacher ;Yo\. III., 161 BROWN, AARON V., of Nashville, Tennessee ; Lawyer ; late Governor of Tennessee, and Member of Congress ; Vol. I., 89 BROWN, EDWIN R., of Gallatin, Mississippi ; Planter and Statesman ;Yo\.Y^,, 320 BROWN, SAMUEL A., of Jamestown, New York ; Lawyer ; formerly Member of the New York Assembly; Vol. I. . 53 BROWN, WILLIAM G., of Kingwood, Virginia ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. III., ....... 333 BULLOCK, WILLIAM F., of Louisville, Kentucky ; Lawyer ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the Sixth Circuit; Vol. I., 283 BURNET, JACOB, of Cincinnati, Ohio ; Lawyer ; late United States Senator, and Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio ; Vol I., 265 CALHOUN, JAMES M., of Atlanta, Georgia ; Lawyer, States- man and Soldier; Vol. IV., 52 CAMPBELL, DAVID, of Newark, New Jersey ; Merchant ; Vol. IV., 72 CAMPBELL, JAMES, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lawyer and Statesman; Postmaster-General ; Vol. III., . . 239 CAMPBELL, JOHN C, of Wheeling, Virginia ; Physician ; President of the Northwestern Bank of Virginia; Vol. L, 161 CATCHINGS, THOMAS J., of Hinds County, Mississippi ; PAy- sician undi Statesman ; \o\. TV., ....'. 281 » CONTENTS. Vll PAQB CATRON, JOHN, of Nashville, Tennessee ; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Vol. IL, . . 805 CHAMBERLAIN, EBENEZER M., of Goshen, Indiana ; Laxo- yer and Statesman ; Member of Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. IV., 150 CHAPMAN, JOHN BUTLER, of Oberlin, Ohio ; Statesman ; Vol. IV., 436 CHAPMAN, JOHN GRANT, of Glen Albin, Maryland ; Lawyer and Planter ; Vol. IV., 252 CHRISTY, WILLIAM, of New Orleans, Louisiana ; Lawyer and Soldier ; Vol. HI., 375 CHURCH, LEONARD, of Lee, Massachusetts ; Paper Manu- facturer ; President of the Lee Bank ; Vol. I., . . 35 CLARK, LINCOLN, of Du Buque, Iowa ; Lawyer and States- man ; Vol. IV., 155 CLARKE, WILLIAM B., of Hagerstown, Maryland ; Laxoyer ; Member of the House of Delegates in 1844, and Senate in 1846 ; Vol. 1 299 CLAY, JOHN RANDOLPH, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; Diplomatist; Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Peru, South America ; Vol. I., .... 133 CLEVELAND, ELIJAH, of Irasburg, Vermont ; Jurist and Statesman ; Yq\.1Y.^ ....... 145 COALE, JAMES M., of Frederick, Maryland ; Laioyer ; Vol. III., 299 COLT, JAMES B., of St. Louis, Missouri; Laioyer; late Judge of the Criminal Court of St. Louis ; Vol. I., . . .149 CONVERSE, E. A., of Tolland, Connecticut; Banker and Mer- chant ; Vol. III., . . . . . . . . 91 COOPER, DAVID, of St, Paul, Minesota; Lawyer and Jurist; formerly Judge of the Supreme Court of Minesota • Vol. IV., 15 COOPWOOD, THOMAS, of Aberdeen, Mississij^pi ; Lawyer and Planter; Vol. IL, . . . . . , .631 COTHREN, WILLIAM, of Woodbury, Connecticut; Lawyer and Author ; Vol. IV., ...... 391 COXE, RICHARD S., of Washington, District of Columbia ; Lawyer ; Vol. I., ••..... 247 CRAWFORD, JOEL, of Early County, Georgia; Lawyer, Statesman and Planter ; Vol. 111., . . . . 177 CREY, FREDERICK, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Vol. IIL . . 433 CROSKEY, JOSEPH R. K., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; U., S. Consul at Southampton, England ; Merchant ; Vol. IV., 297 CULLOM, E. NORTH, of Opelousas, Louisiana ; Lawyer ; Mem- ber of the House of Representatives of Louisiana ; Vol. IV. 360 \ Vni CONTENTS. PAGE CULVER, REUBEN, of Logan, Ohio ; Lawyer; President of the Logan Branch Bank ; Vol. L, . . . . . 95 GUSHING, CALEB, of Newburyport, Massachusetts ; Lawyer^ Soldier and Statesman ; Attorney-General for the United States ; Vol. IIL, 243 CUSHMAN, HENRY W., of Bernardston, Massachusetts; Statesman ; formerly Lieutenant Governor ; Vol. HL, . 29 CUTLER, PLINY, of Boston, Massachusetts ; Merchant ; Presi- dent of the Atlantic Bank ; Vol. I., . . . . 327 DARBY, JOHN F., of St. Louis, Missouri ; Lawyer ; late Mem- ber of the Thirty-second Congress ; Vol. I., . . . 333 DAVIS, CHARLES D., of Monroe, Georgia ; Lawyer and States- man ; Vol. IV., ........ 134 DAVIS, D. A., of Salisbury, North Carolina ; Banker; Cashier of the Branch of the Bank of Cape Fear ; Vol. IV., . . 130 DAVIS, JEFFERSON, of Mississippi ; Soldier, Planter and Statesman; Secretary of War ; Vol. IIL, . . . 235 DAY, JOSEPH, of Jones County, Georgia ; Jurist and Planter ; Vol. IV., 238 DEAN, GILBERT, of Poughkeepsie, New York ; Lawyer; late Member of Congress ; now Judge of New York Supreme Court ; Vol. I., 339 DEAN, HOSEA J., of Spartanburg, South Carolina ; Lawyer and Planter ; Clerk of the House of Representatives of South Carolina ; Vol. IV., ....... 5 DEFORD, BENJAMIN, of Baltimore, Maryland; Manufac- turer and Merchant ; Vol. IV., . . . . .143 DE FOREST, RICHARD, of Rochester, New York ; Cleryy- man; Vol. IV., 223 DEVENS, DAVID, of Charlestown, Massachusetts ; Merchant ; President of the Bunker Hill Bank ; Vol. L, . . 21 DE WITT, ALEXANDER, of Oxford, Massachusetts ; Financier and Politician; President of the Mechanics' Bank at Wor- cester ; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. I., . 315 DEXTER, S. NEWTON, of Whitestown, New York ; Merchant and Banker ; President of the Bank of Whitestown ; Vol. II., 819 DICKERSON, CORNELIUS S., of Dover, New Jersey; Farmer and Banker ; Vol. IV., ...... 253 DIFFENDERFFER, HENRY, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Author; Vol. IV., 343 DIXON, ABCHIBALD, of Henderson, Kentucky ; Laivyer ; United States Senator ; Vol. II., .... 737 DOBBIN, JAMES C, of Fayetteville, North Carolina ; Lawyer and Statesman; Secretary of the Navy ; Vol. IIL, . 65 CONTENTS. IX PAQE DOBBINS, MILES G., of Griffin, Georgia ; Financier ; Agent Bank State of Georgia ; Vol. IV., .... 114 DOBYNS, JOHN PORTER, ofMaysville, Kentucky ; Merchant; President of the Maysville Branch of the Farmers' Bank of Kentucky ; Vol. I., ...... 7 DOWDELL, JAMES F., of Lafayette, Alabama ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. IV 1 DOWNES, GEORGE, of Calais, Maine ; Financier ; President of the Calais Bank ; Vol. I., . . ... . . 239 DUFFEE, FRANCIS H., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Banker; Member of the Select Council of Philadelphia ; Vol. IV., 169 BUTTON, HENRY, of New Haven, Connecticut ; Laivyer; late Professor of Law in Yale College ; Governor of Connec- ticut ; Vol. II., 687 EAVES, NATHANIEL R., of Chesterville, South Carolina; Laioyer; Member of the Senate of South Carolina ; VoL II., 597 EDDY, ZECHARIAH, of Middleboro', Massachusetts ; Lawyer; EDMONDS, JOHN W., of New York ; Lawyer; late Judge of the Supreme Court of New York ; Vol. II., . . . 797 EMMONS, H. H., of Detroit, Michigan ; Zaii'yer; Vol. IL, . 451 EVERHART, WILLIAM, of West Chester, Pennsylvania ; States- man; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. IV., . 471 EVERITT, ABRAHAM, of South Amboy, New Jersey ; States- man; Vol. IV., 139 FAERAR, EDWIN, of Richmond, Virginia; Merchant; Vol. IV., 161 FINLAYSON, JOHN, of Jefferson County, Florida ; Planter ami Statesman ; Vol. TIL, . /. . . . . 453 FISHER, GEORGE, of San Francisco, California ; Editor, &c. ; now Secretary of the Californian Land Commission ; Vol. IH., . . 441 FOGG, FRANCIS BRINLEY, of Nashville, Tennessee ; Lawyer; Member of the State Constitutional Convention of Ten- nessee, in 1834 ; Vol. II., 067 FONTxilNE, EDMUND, of Richmond, Virginia ; Soldier and Statesman ; President of the Virginia Central Rail-Road ; Vol. IV., 103 FOSTER, LAFAYETTE S., of Norwich, Connecticut ; Law- yer ; formerly Mayor of Norwich, and Speaker of the Con- necticut House of Representatives ; U. S. Senator ; Vol. I., 1 FLETCHER, ELIJAH, of Amherst, Virginia; Planter and Statesman; Vol. IV., . . . . , . 15 X CONTENTS. FA.ax FKEELON, THOMAS W., of San Francisco, California ; Law- yer ; County Judge ; Vol. IV., 425 FULLER, HENRY H., of Boston, Massachusetts, Lawyer; (de- ceased since the publication of his memoir ;) Vol. L, . 1*73 GARLAND, HUGH A., of St. Louis, Missouri ; Lawyer and Author; Vol. H., 657 GEORGE, ROBERT, of Scroggsfield, Ohio ; Vol. IV. . . 502 GILMER, JOHN A., of Guilford County, North Carolina; Lawyer ; Vol. I., ....... 343 GOODWYN, ROBERT H., of Columbia, South Carolina ; Phy- sician, Financier and Planter ; President of the Bank of the State of South Carolina; Vol. I., . . .193 GORDON, GEORGE H., of Woodville, Mississippi; Lawyer and Planter ; Delegate to the Democratic Convention, 1852 ; Vol. I., . . - 45 GOTT, JAMES R., of Rockport, Massachusetts; Banker; VohllL, 64 GOULD, JACOB, of Rochester, New York ; Merchant ; former- ly United States Marshal for the Northern District of New York ; now President of the Farmers' and Me- chanics' Bank ; Vol. I., "75 GOVE, CHARLES F., of Nashua, New Hampshire ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. IV., ...... 242 GRACE, WILLIAM P., of Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Lawyer ; Vol. I., 323 GRAVES, CALVIN, of Locust Hill, North Carolina ; Laioyer ; formerly Speaker of the House of Commons; Vol. I., . 187 GRIDLEY, ALBERT GALLATIN, of Clinton, New York ; Merchant and Banker; President of the Kirkland Bank ; Vol. I., 63 GRIER, EGBERT COOPER, of Philadeli^hia, Pennsylvania; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Vol. II., 813 GRISWOLD, HIRAM, of Cleveland, Ohio ; Lawyer ; late Re- porter for the Supreme Court; Vol. L, . . . . 373 GUTHRIE, JAMES, of Louisville, Kentucky; Lawyer and Statesman; Secretaiy of the Treasury ; Vol. HI., . . 223 HALDEMAN, S. S., of Columbia, Pennsylvania; Author; Vol. IV., 88 HALL SAMUEL, of Princeton, Indiana ; Lawyer and Farmer ; formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana; Vol. I., . 259 HALL WILLARD, of Wilmington, Delaware ; Lawyer ; Judge 'of the United States District Court for Delaware ; Vol. IL, 421 HAMILTON, ALLEN, of Fort Wayne, Indiana ; Financier ; President of the Branch Bank at Fort Wayne ; Vol. I., 275 CONTENTS. II PAGE HANLY, THOMAS BURKE, of Helena, Arkansas ; Lawyer ; Vol. IV., 445 HAEPER, JOSEPH M., of Concord, New Hampshire ; Physi- cian ; President of the Mechanics' Bank ; Vol. I., . . 107 HARRINGTON, SAMUEL MAXWELL, LL. D. of Dover, Del- aware ; Laiuyer and Author ; Justice Superior Court ; President of the Delaware Rail-Road; Vol. I., . . 129 HARRIS, JAMES C.,> of Wetumpka, Alabama ; Physician ; Vol. IV., 110 HARRIS, THOMAS, of Washington, District of Columbia; Physician ; formerly Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery ; Vol. IV., 176 HAYNE, ISAAC W., of Charleston, South Carolina ; Lawyer ; Attorney-General for the State of South Carolina; Vol. I., 383 HAYT, SAMUEL A., of Fishkill, New York ; Banker and Mer- chant ; President Fishkill Bank ; Vol. III., . . . 365 HITCHCOCK, PETER, (deceased,) late of Painesville, Ohio ; Jurist ; for many years Chief Justice of Ohio ; Vol. III., 183 HOGG, JOSEPH L., of Rusk, Texas ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. IV., 227 HOOD, CHARLES C, of Somerset, Ohio ; Jurist ; Vol. IV., . 273 HOWARD, W. G., of Rochester, New York ; Clergyman ; Vol. IV., ... 63 HOYT, HIRAM, of Syracuse, New York ; Physician ; Vol. IV., 75 HUBBS, PAUL K., of Benicia, CaHfornia; Merchant and Statesman; Superintendent of Public instruction in CaHfornia ; Vol. IV., 271 HUMPHREYS, WEST H., of Nashville, Tennessee; Lawyer; Judge U. S. District Court ; Vol. II., .... 829 HUNT, BENJAMIN F., of Charleston, South Carolina ; Lawyer; Vol.IL, 401 JANUARY, ANDREW M., of Maysville, Kentucky ; Merchant; President of the Maysville Branch of the Bank of Ken- tucky ; Vol. II., 445 JONES, LAZARUS J., of Paulding, Mississippi ; Planter and Author ; Vol. IV., 328 KEITH, CHARLES F., of Athens, Tennessee; Lawyer and Planter ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the Third Cir- cuit ; Vol II., 763 KNAPP, ISxiAC, of Freemont, Ohio ; Statesman; Vol. IV., . 120 KNOWLES, JOHN A., of Lowell, Massachusetts; Lawyer; President of the Appleton Bank ; Vol. II., . . . 727 KOCK, CHARLES, of New Orleans, Louisiana ; Planter and Merchant ; Vol. III., ....... 407 LABAUVE, ZENON, of Plaquemine, Louisiana ; Lawyer and Planter ; Member of the Louisiana State Senate ; Vol. I., 11 xn CONTENTS. LANDES, JOHN, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; Farmer ; Presi- dent of the Lancaster County Bank ; Vol. II., . . 629 L'AMOREAUX, JAMES, of Albany, New York ; Law7/er and Jtirist; Vol. IV., 12 LAWRENCE, WILLIAM, of Bellefontaine, Oliio ; Lawyer; late Member of the State Legislature, and Supreme Court Reporter ; Vol. I., . . . . . . .365 LAYTON, WILLIAM E., of Newark, New Jersey ; Statesman ; Member Board of Council of Newark; Vol. IV., . . 231 LEE, OLIVER H., of New York ; Engineer; Vol. III., . . 271 LONG, STEPHEN H., Lieut. Colonel United States Topo- graphical Engineers ; Vol, IV., 477 LUMPKIN, JOSEPH HENRY, of Athens, Georgia ; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia ; Vol. II., . 757 MANN, HORACE, of Yellow Springs, Ohio; Author; Presi- dent of Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio ; Vol. IV., 178 MARCHBANKS, ANDREW J., of McMinnville, Tennessee; Lawyer ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the 13th Cir- cuit; Vol. II., . I 563 MARCY, WILLIAM L., of Albany, New York ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Secretary of State ; Vol. III., . . 215 .MARSHAL, BENJAMIN, of Troy, New York ; Merchant and Manufacturer ; Vol. III., ...... 1 MARSH, MULFORD, of Savannah, Georgia; Lawyer; Vol. L, 289 Mx\SON, WILLIAM, of Taunton, Massachusetts ; Manufactu- rer ; President of the Machinists' Bank ; Vol. I., . . 13 MEEKER, BRADLEY B., of St. Paul's, Minesota ; late Justice of the Supreme Court of Minesota; Vol. I., . . 319 MERRICK, PLINY, of Worcester, Massachusetts ; Justice of the Supreme Court of Massaehusetts ; Vol.1., ... 39 MILLS, WILLI AIM H., of Bangor, ISfaine ; Financier ; formerly Mayor of Bangor ; Cashier of the Eastern Bank ; Vol. II,, 665 MINER, HIRAM J., of Fredonia, New York ; Merchant and Financier ; President of H. J. M.'s Bank ; Vol. II., . 509 MONKUR, J. C. S., of Baltimore, Maryland ; Physician, Pro- fessor, &c., in the Washington University; Vol. III., . 435 MOODY, DEXTER, of Troy, New York; Builder; Vol. IV., . 284 MORELAND, JOHN F., of Heard County, Georgia ; Physician and PZaw^er ; Vol, III., 289 McCLELLAND, ROBERT, of Lansing, Michigan ; Lawyer and Statesman; Secretary of the Interior ; Vol. III., . . 231 McCLURE, WILLIAM B., of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; Law- yer ; Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the 5th District; Vol. I., .381 CONTENTS. XIU JAGE McDUGALD, JOHN" G., of Elizabetlitown, North Carolina; Statesman; Vol. IV., 335 McHENRY, JOHN H., of Hartford, Kentucky; Lawyer; Vol. m., 413 McKAY, DONALD L,, of Georgetown, South Carolina ; Banker and Planter ; Vol. HI, 21 McLEAN", JOHN, of Cincinnati, Ohio ; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Vol. H., . . '789 MUNN, IRA Y., of Woodford Co., Illinois ; Merchant; Vol. IV., 355 NASH, JOHN W., of Powhattan, Virginia ; Lawyer ; Judge of Second Circuit Court ; Vol.11., . . ; . . 577 NELSON, THOMAS, of Oregon City, Oregon ; Lawyer ; late Chief Justice of Oregon ; Vol. II., .... 559 NORTON, GEORGE W., of Russellville, Kentucky ; Merchant ; President of the Southern Bank of Kentucky; Vol. II., 575 ORR, JAMES L., of Anderson, C. H., South Carolina; Law- yer ; Member of Congress ; Vol. II., .... 393 OVERTON, ARCHIBALD W., of Carthage, Tennessee ; Law- yer and Planter ; formerly on the Bench ; Vol. II., . 565 OWEN, C. M., of Stockbridge, Massachusetts ; Banker ; Vol. IV., 291 PADDOCK, LOVLAND, of Watertown, New York ; Merchant and Financier ; President of the Black River Bank ; Vd!. I., 67 PARKER, WILLIAM, of Boston, Massachusetts ; Lawyer and Merchant; President of the Boylston Bank ; Vol.1., . 23 PARKHURST, NATHAN C, of Pontiac, Michigan ; States- man; Vol. IV., 341 PATTERSON, ANGUS, of Barnwell District, South Carohna ; Lawyer and Planter ; [deceased ;] late President of the State Senate ; Vol. I., 387 PEABODY, GEORGE, of Danvers, Massachusetts ; Banker and Merchant in London ; Vol. III., . . . . 137 PERRY, BENJAMIN F., of Greenville, South Carolina; Lawyer and Planter ; Vol. H., 581 PERRY, HORATIO J., of New Hampshire ; Statesman ; Sec- retary U. S. Legation, at Madrid ; Vol. IV. . . . 448 PETERS, FREDERICK G., of Nelson County, Virginia ; Phy- sician and Planter ; Vol. HI., ..... 255 PHILLIPS, WILLARD, of Boston, Massachusetts; Lawyer, and Author of Phillips on Lnsurance, and other works ; Vol. L, 301 PICKENS, EZEKIEL, of Selma, Alabama; Lawyer m6. Plan- ter ; formerly Circuit Judge and Member of the Ala- bama Legislature; Vol. I., . . . . . . 215 XIV CONTENTS./ PAQB PIERCE, FRANKLIN, of Concord, New Hampshire ; Laivyer and Statesman ; President of the United States ; Vol. III., 203 PILLOW, GIDEON J., of Cohimbia, Tennessee ; Lawyer and Planter ; Major-General in the Mexican War ; Vol. II., 691 PIRTLE, HENRY, of Louisville, Kentucky ; Laivyer ; Chan- cellor of the Louisville Chancery Court; Vol, II., . . 731 POMEROY, NOAH, of Meriden, Connecticut ; Manufacturer ; President of the Meriden Bank ; Vol. I., . . . 243 POPE, JOHN, of Memphis, Tennessee ; Planter ; President of the Union Bank; Vol. II., ...... 628 PRATT, O. C, of Portland, Oregon ; Jurist; formerly Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, in and for the Territory of Oregon ; Vol. IV., . . 56 PRENTISS, SAMUEL, of Montpelier, Vermont; Lawyer; Judge of the United States District Court for Vermont ; voLiL, ni PRESCOTT, WILLIAM B., of Louisiana; Planter; Voh IV., 378 PRINTUP, DANIEL S., of Rome, Georgia ; Lawyer ; Agent for the Bank of the State of South Carolina; Vol. II., . 443 REEDER, ROBERT S., of Port Tobacco, Maryland ; Lawyer and Statesman ; States' Attorney for Charles County, Maryland ; Vol. IV., 19 RICE, HARVEY, of Cleveland, Ohio ; Lawyer and Statesman; Vol. IV., 42 ROSS, WILLIAM, of Pittsfield, Illinois ; Merchant ; Vol. IH., . 427 ROST, PIERRE A, of New Orleans, Louisiana ; Laivyer and Planter ; one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Louisiana; Vol, I,, ...... . 121 ROTHWELL, ANDREW, of Washington, District of Colum- bia; ^m^Ao/-, &c. ; Vol. IV., 279 ROWLAND, JOHN S., of Cass County, Georgia; Planter; Vol. IV., 266 RUSSELL, WM. J., of Lawrenceville, Georgia; Physician and Planter ; Vol, HI., 281 SAUNDERS, ISAAC, of North Scituate, Rhode Island ; Manu- facturer ; President of the Citizens' Union Bank ; Vol. I., 79 SCHAEFFER, EMANUEL, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; Jurist ; President of the Lancaster Savings' Institute ; Vol. IV., . 144 SCOTT, CHRISTOPHER C, of Camden, Arkansas ; Lawyer; Vol. IV., 287 SEAL, RODERICK, of Biloxi, Mississippi ; Lawyer and States- man ;Yo\.lY., 294 SEIBELS, JOHN J., of Alabama ; Statesman ; U. S. Minister Resident at Brussels ; Vol. IV., 4 58 CONTEN M XV SHELTON, GEORGE, of Rochester, . ,S Merchant; Vol. III., /, ' . . .275 SILLIMAN, R. D., of Troy, New York ; A , 'th(^t ; Vol. IV., . 59 SIMMONS, JAMES P., of Lawrenceville,\ Georgia; Lawyer, Statesman and Planter ; Yo\, HI., \. . , . "79 SIMON, EDWARD, Saint Martinsville, Louisiana ; Lawyer and Planter ; Vol. III., 409 SISSON, DAVID, of Providence, Rhode Island ; Manufacturer; Vol. IV., 103 SMITH, JOHN P., of Franklin, Connecticut; Statesman; Vol. IV., 346 SMITH, JOSEPH, of Waterbury, Connecticut ; Statesman and Clergyjiian; No\.iy., 379 SMITH, JOSEPH H., of Dover, New Hampshire ; Physician and Statesman ; Vol. III., 45 SMITH, WILLIAM R., of Fayette, C. H., Alabama ; Member of Congress ; Vol. L, 207 SNYDER, JACOB R., of San Francisco, California; Statesman; U. S. Assistant Treasurer for California; Vol. IV,, . 347 STARR, PiVRLEY, of Windham County, Vermont ; Physician ; Vol. IV., 475 TALLMADGE, DARIUS, of Lancaster, Ohio ; Financier ; Presi- dent of the Hocking Valley Bank ; Vol. L, , . . 295 TAYLOR, JOHN, of Albany, New York ; Merchant and Manu- facturer ; Vol. IV., 64 TAYLOR, WILLIAM, of Findlay, Ohio ; Statesman ; Vol. IV., 434 TEALL, OLIVER, of Syracuse, New York ; Manufacturer and Financier ; President of the Onondaga County Bank ; Vol. L, 101 TOLAND, HUGH H., of San Francisco, Cahfornia; Physi- cian; Vol. IV., 3g8 TOWSON, NATHAN, of Maryland ; [deceased ;] late Paymas- ter-General of the U. S. Army ; Yo\. III., ... 95 TRAIN, ASA W., of Milford, Connecticut ; Clergyman and Statesman; Vol. III., ....... 455 TURNER, JESSE, of Van Buren, Arkansas ; Lawyer ; Vol. L, . 235 VAN ANTWERP, VERPLANCK, of Keokuk, Iowa ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. III., ...... 337 WALBRIDGE, HIRAM, of New York ; Laioyer and Statesman ; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. IV., . , 365, WALKER, IIENR\ C., of Memphis, Tennessee; Merchant; Vol. IV., 160 WALKER, THOMAS A., of Jacksonville, Alabama ; Z«?/»yer ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the Fifth Circuit ; Vol. I., 225 WALLIS, JOHN C, of Chapel Hill, Texas ; Vol. IV., . . 373 \ XVI I £NTS. PAGE WALWORTH, REx\3B. jf Saratoga Springs, New York ; ' the last of the 'J e\. rk Chancellors; Vol.11., . . 487 WARD, MARCUS L.,of ^ ewark, New Jersey; Vol. IV., . 68 WARNER, HIRAM, of Gr/eenville, Georgia ; Lawyer ; Judge of the Supreme Cour,t of Georgia ; Vol.1., . . . 255 WARREN, LOTT, of Albany, Georgia; Lawyer ; formerly Judge of the Superior Court ; Vol. II., 747 WASHINGTON, W/H., of Newbern, North Carolina ; Lawyer and ^S^tai^smifirw ; Vol. III., ...... 359 WHEELER, ALFRED, of San Francisco, California ; Lawyer ; late Attorney for the United States in California ; Vol. II., 435 WHITE, JOHN BLAKE, of Charleston, South Carolina; Lawyer^ Author sxv6i Planter i^oX.V^ .^ . . . 306 WHITE, JOHN J., of Sumner County, Tennessee ; Lawyer and Statesman; Vol. IV., 34 WHITE, PHILO, of Wisconsin ; JSditor and Statesman; U. S. Minister, resident at Quito, South America ; Vol. IV., . 398 WHITTEMORE, THOMAS, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Clergyman and Financier, Editor and Author ; Presi- dent of the Cambridge Bank ; Vol. I., ... 135 WILLIAMS, ARCHIBALD, of Quincy, Illinois; Lawyer; for- merly U. S. Attorney for the State ; Vol. H., . . 679 WILSON, DANIEL A., of Lynchburgh, Virginia ; Lawyer ; formerly one of the Judges of the General Court of Virginia ; Vol. H., 429 WILSON, JOEL W., of Tiffin, Ohio ; Laivyer and Statesman ; Vol. III. 447 WOODRUFF, EDWARD, of Cincinnati, Ohio ; Lawyer ; Judge of the first Judicial District of the State of Ohio ; Vol. IV., 260 WOODSON, DAVID M., of Carrolton, Illinois ; Lawyer; Judge of the First Circuit Court; Vol. II., .... 681 WOODWARD, JOHN L., of Gulloden, Georgia ; Pfon^er ; Vol. IV., : . 116 PRICE OF TeE AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY. Bound in cloth, plain, |3 a volume, or the four vols, complete for $12 00 Bound in cloth, full gilt, $4 a vol., or the four vols, complete for 16 00 Bound in morocco or calf extra, full gilt, $6 a volume, or the four vols, complete for . . . . . .24 00 J^W The whole complete, or any separate volume, may be purchased of booksellers in the city of New York, or will be sent by mail or express to any part of the United States, on receipt of the money, by John Liv- ingston, 157 Broadway, New-York. Being of very expensive character, the work is published by subscrijjtion, and the best Avay to obtain it is to send the money by mail or otherwise direct to the jiublisher. AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY CIRCULAR. Ul duties, but by subordinating them to avarice, be will lose his business and character without in the end obtaining the riches thus viciously pursued. A politician who interests himself usefully in public matters will obtain oflBcial station as an incident of his usefulness; but should he make office the motive of his political conduct, he will be as often uselessly busy as actively useful, and give offence by officiousness rather than gain favor by usefulness. So, an officer who discharges faithfully his public duties will obtain popularity as an incident of his faithfulness ; but should he pur- sue popularity as the object of his actions, he will not, necessarily, dis- charge faithfully his duties, but will subordinate them to his popularity, and so waver in his conduct and fluctuate in his sentiments as to fail in reaching the desired end. A physician who skillfully performs his prac- tice will obtain celebrity and patronage as incidents of his skill ; but should he pursue celebrity and patronage as motives, he will magnify slight ailments, that he may obtain the merit of achieving astonishing recoveries. He will publish miraculous cures which never occurred, and he will be contemned rather than obtain patronage and celebrity. A like principle pervades, necessarily, all the business occupations of life. The organization of man, of society, and of the universe, are alike favorable to honesty and virtuous conduct. Duties faithfully discharged lead to wealth and honor ; duties selfishly performed to poverty and dis- grace. There are many memoirs in this work illustrative of these truths. It is needless to remark further on the extended information and de- light we derive from the multiplication of portraits by engraving, or on the more important advantages resulting from the study of biography. Separately considered, the one affords an amusement not less innocent than elegant, inculcates the rudiments, or aids the progress of taste, and rescues from the hand of time the perishable monuments raised by the pencil or the daguerrean art. The other — while it is, perhaps, the more agreeable branch of historical literature — is certainly the more useful in its moral effects ; stating the known circumstances, and endeavoring to unfold the secret motives of human conduct ; selecting all that is worthy of being recorded, it at once informs and invigorates the mind, warms and mends the heart. It is, however, from the combination of portrait and biography that we reap the utmost degree of utility and pleasure which can be derived from them. As, in contemplating the portrait of a person, we long to be instructed in his history, so, in considering his actions, we are anxious to behold his countenance. So earnest is this desire, that the imagination is ready to coin a set of features or to con- ceive a character to supply the painful absence of one or the other. It is impossible to conceive a work which ought to be more interesting than one which will exhibit before our progeny their fathers as they lived, accompanied with such memoirs of their lives and characters as shall furnish a comparison of persons and countenances with sentiments and actions. JSW See following pages for Table of Contents of the four volumes. See the last page for the price of the work. IV AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY CIRCULAR. A FEW NOTICES OF THE PRESS. In a recent notice the New- York Commercial Advertiser says : The portraits are all engraved from daguerreotypes, in the finest style of the art, and are undoubtedly correct. We can vouch foi- the remark- able fidelity of the likenesses of those persons with whose faces we are familiar. This truly national work is creditable to the ability and enter- prise of Mr. Livingston, and should adorn every public and private library in the country. To expatiate on the value of such a work would be superfluous, as it must commend itself to universal favor. The Boston Daily Bee says : The volumes contain exquisitely finished steel plate engravings, which alone are worth far more than the cost of the work. It would be a tame cojtnpliment to remark that these portraits and memoirs form one of the most interesting works of the age. They are more — they are the most valuable. Here is a vast amount of information, which must have cost immense toil, and which none but an intellectual giant could or would have collected. One remarkable and most encouraging fact shines from every page of these volumes, viz. : that nearly all our men of eminence have risen from the ranks of the masses ; risen by the most indomitable energy, industry and integrity. We cordially recommend Mr. Livingston's great American work. It should be on every table and in every library, that the young of our land may draw inspiration and courage from the noble men it portrays. The JVeiu-York National Democrat says: So far as we know, this is the first book of any sort that purposes to hand down to after times, in an authentic form, the portraits and char- acters of men distinguished in the walks of private as well as of public life. The author's conception of the great work of living biographies "was fortunate in the extreme. No other plan of the kind has before been so fully undertaken and so well carried out. We cannot but regard this large and splendid production as one of the most remarkable and valuable this country has yet seen. The New-York Tribune says : It exhibits a remarkable catalogue of self-made men, and illustrates the steps by which they arose from obscurity to wealth and consideration. It is pleasing to remark that the individuals of whom sketches are here given are indebted for their success in life to genuine, sturdy, straightfor- ward qualities ; to energy, diligence and enterprise, rather than to the arts by which so many manage to swindle themselves into a good repu- tation. The Washington Daily Union says : By a large expenditure of means the author has attained to that point which he had 'in view when he commenced his labors upon it — that is, to make it a work which, while it might elicit admiration and praise as to its mechanical arrangement, should at the same time be a true histo- rical record of the lives and services of those eminent citizens whose por- traits adorn its columns. CONTENTS OF VOLUMES I., II., III. AND IV. NAMES OF SUBJECTS CLASSIFIED ALPHABETICALLY. PAGE ALCORN, JAMES L., of Coahoma Co., Mississippi ; Laioyer and Statesman ; Vol. IV., .106 ALLEN, STEPHEN M., of Boston, Massachusetts ; Merchant and Banker; Vol. TIL, 57 ANDERSON, SAMUEL, of Murfreesboro', Tennessee ; Lawyer; Judge of the Circuit Court for the Fifth Circuit ; Vol. IL, 419 ANSPACn, JOHN, Junior, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Merchant ; N o\. 111., 309 AMONETT, JAMES J., of Richmond, Louisiana; Statesman and Jurist ; Vol. IV., 32 AYER, RICHARD H., of Manchester, New Hampshire ; Manu- facturer; [deceased;] late President of the Amoskeag Bank; Vol. I., 113 BADGER, LUTHER, of Binghamton, New York ; Lawyer; for- merly a Member of Congress; Vol. IL, .... 595 BARBEE, ■WILLIx\M, of Troy, Ohio ; Statesman and Jurist ; Vol. IV., 125 BARNARD, WILLIAM T., of Issaquena County, Mississippi ; Planter and Statesman ; Vol. IV., . . . .149 BARRINGER, DANIEL M., of Cabarras County, North Caro- lina ; Lawyer ; formerly Member of the United States Congress, and Minister to the Court of Spain ; Vol. I., . 51 BASH, HENRY M., of Baltimore, Maryland ; Merchant; Vol. IIL, 431 BATTLE, WILLIAM H.,of Chapel Hill, North CaroUna; Law- yer; Judge of the Superior Court; Vol. IL, . , . 771 BAXTER, ELI H., of Sparta, Georgia ; Latvyer and Jurist ; for- merly Judge of the Supreme Court ; Vol. III., . . 285 BELL, MONTGOMERY, of Williamson County, Tennessee; Iron Manufacturer ;Yo\.Y^., 275 Vl CONTENTS. PAOfi BIDDLE, HORACE P., of Logansport, Indiana; Lawyer and Author; President Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit; Vol. L, 257 BIERCE, LUCIUS V., of Akron, Ohio ; Lawyer, Statesman and Soldier; Vol. III., 247 BOTTUM, NATHAN H., of Shaftesbury, Vermont ; Jurist and Statesman ;Yo\. TV., 286 BOWLES, JOSHUA B., of Louisville, Kentucky ; Financier ; President of the Bank of Louisville ; Vol. 11. . . 646 BOWMAN, JAMES L., of Brownsville, Pennsylvania; Mer- chant; President of the Monongahela Bank ; Vol. I., . 357 BOUTELLE, TIMOTHY, of Waterville, Maine ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. HI., ....... 41 BRIERLY, BENJAMIN, of San Francisco, California; Clergy- man ; Vol. IV., 427 BRIGHAM, JOSIAH, of Quincy, Massachusetts; Merchant; President of the Quincy Stone Bank ; Vol. I., . . 31 BRISBANE, A. H., of Charleston, South Carolina ; Soldier and Planter ;yo\. III., 317 BROOKS, CHARLES, of Medford, Massachusetts ; Author and Clergyman ; Vol. HI., . . . . . . .257 BROOKS, NATHAN C, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Author and Teacher ;yo\. III., 161 BROWN, AARON V., of Nashville, Tennessee ; Lawyer ; late Governor of Tennessee, and Member of Congress ; Vol. I., 89 BROWN, EDWIN R., of Gallatin, Mississippi ; Planter and Statesman; Vol. IV,, 320 BROWN, SAMUEL A., of Jamestown, New York ; Lawyer ; formerly Member of the New York Assembly ; Vol. I. . 53 BROWN, WILLIAM G., of Kingwood, Virginia; Laivyer and Statesman ; Yo\. III., ....... 333 BULLOCK, WILLIAM F., of Louisville, Kentucky ; Lawyer ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the Sixth Circuit; Vol. I., 283 BURNET, JACOB, of Cincinnati, Ohio ; Lawyer ; late United States Senator, and Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio ; Vol. I., 265 CALHOUN, JAMES M., of Atlanta, Georgia; Laivyer, States- man and Soldier; Vol. IV., 52 CAMPBELL, DAVID, of Newark, New Jersey ; Merchant ; Vol. IV., 72 CAMPBELL, JAMES, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lawyer and Statesman; Postmaster-General ; Vol. HI., . . 239 CAMPBELL, JOHN C, of Wheeling, Virginia ; Physician ; President of the Northwestern Bank of Virginia; Vol. I., 161 CATCHINGS, THOMAS J., of Hinds County, Mississippi ; Phy- sician and Statesman ; Vol. IV., 281 CONTENTS. Til PAGB CATRON, JOHN, of Nashville, Tennessee; Laimjer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Vol. II., . . 805 CHAMBERLAIN, EBENEZER M., of Goshen, Indiana; Law- yer and Statesman ; Member of Thirty-third Congress ; VohlV., 150 CHAPMAN, JOHN BUTLER, of Oberlin, Ohio; Statesman; VoLIV,, 436 CHAPMAN, JOHN GRANT, of Glen Albin, Maryland ; Lawyer and Planter ; Vol. IV., ...... 252 CHRISTY, WILLIAM, of New Orleans, Louisiana ; Lawyer and Soldier ; Y oh III., 375 CHURCH, LEONARD, of Lee, Massachusetts ; Paper Manu- facturer ; President of the Lee Bank ; Vol. I., . ' . 35 CLARK, LINCOLN, of Du Buque, Iowa ; Lawyer and States- man ; Vol. IV., 156 CLARKE, WILLIAM B., of Hagerstown, Maryland; Lawyer; Member of the House of Delegates in 1844, and Senate in 1846 ; Vol. I. 299 CLAY, JOHN RANDOLPH, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; Di2ylomatist; Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Peru, South America ; Vol. I., .... 133 CLEVELAND, ELIJAH, of Irasburg, Vermont ; Jurist and Statesman ; Vol. IV., ....... 145 CO ALE, JAMES M., of Frederick, Maryland ; Lawyer ; VoLIIL, 299 COLT, JAMES B., of St. Louis, Missouri ; Lawyer; late Judge of the Criminal Court of St. Louis ; Vol. I., . . . 149 CONVERSE, E. A., of Tolland, Connecticut; Banker and Mer- chant ; Vol. III., ........ 91 COOPER, DAVID, of St. Paul, Minesota; Latvyer and Jurist; formerly Judge of the Supreme Court of Minesota; Vol. IV., 15 COOP WOOD, THOMAS, of Aberdeen, Mississippi ; Lawyer and Planter; Vol. II., . . . . . . .631 COTHREN, WILLIAM, of Woodbury, Connecticut; Lawyer and Author ; Vol. IV., 39I COXE, RICHARD S., of Washington, District of Columbia ; Lawyer ; Vol. I., 247 CRAWFORD, JOEL, of Early County, Georgia; Lawyer, Statesman ?ai^ Planter ; Yo\.\ll., .... 177 CREY, FREDERICK, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Vol. IIL . , 433 CROSKEY, JOSEPH R. K., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; U., S. Consul at Southampton, England ; Merchant ; Vol. IV., 297 CULLOM, E. NORTH, of Opelousas, Louisiana ; Lawyer ; Mem- ber of the House of Representatives of Louisiana ; Vol. IV., 360 Vlll CONTENTS. I>AOS CULVER, REUBEN, of Logan, Ohio ; Lawyer; President of the Logan Branch Bank ; Vol. L, . . . ' . . 95 GUSHING, CALEB, of Newburyport, Massachusetts ; Lavnjer^ Soldier and Statesman ; Attorney-General for the United States ; Vol. IIL, 243 CUSHMAN, HENRY W., of Bernardston, Massachusetts; Statesman; formerly Lieutenant Governor ; Vol. HL, . 29 CUTLER, PLINY, of Boston, Massachusetts ; Merchant; Presi- dent of the Atlantic Bank ; Vol. L, . . . . 32T DARBY, JOHN F., of St. Louis, Missouri ; Lawyer ; late Mem- ber of the Thirty-second Congress ; Vol. L, •. ^ . 333 DAVIS, CHARLES D., of Monroe, Georgia ; Lawyer and States- man ; Vol. IV., ........ 134 DAVIS, D. A., of Salisbury, North Carolina ; Banker; Cashier of the Branch of the Bank of Cape Fear ; Vol. IV., . . 130 DAVIS, JEFFERSON, of Mississippi ; Soldier, Planter and Statesman; Secretary of War ; Vol. IIL, . . . 235 DAY, JOSEPH, of Jones County, Georgia ; Jurist and Planter ; Vol. IV., 238 DEAN, GILBERT, of Poughkeepsie, New York ; Lawyer; late Member of Congress ; now Judge of New York Supreme Court ; Vol. I., 339 DEAN, HOSE A J., of Spartanburg, South Carolina ; Lawyer and Planter ; Clerk of the House of Representatives of South Carolina ; Vol. IV., ....... 5 DEFORD, BENJAMIN, of Baltimore, Maryland; Manufac- turer im(^. Merchant ; Vol. IV., . . . . .143 DE FOREST, RICHARD, of Rochester, New York ; Clergy- man ; Vol. IV., 223 DEVENS, DAVID, of Charlestown, Massachusetts ; Merchant ; President of the Bunker Hill Bank ; Vol. L, . . 21 DE WITT, ALEXANDER, of Oxford, Massachusetts; Financier and Politician; President of the Mechanics' Bank at Wor- cester ; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. L, . 315 DEXTER, S. NEWTON, of Whitestown, New York ; Merchant and Banker ; President of the Bank of Whitestown ; Vol. II., 819 DICKERSON, CORNELIUS S., of Dover, New Jersey; Farmer and Banker ; Vol. IV., . . . . . .253 DIFFENDERFFER, HENRY, of Baltimore, Maryland; Author; Vol. IV., 343 DIXON, ABCHIBALD, of Henderson, Kentucky ; Lawyer ; United States Senator ; Vol. II., . . . .737 DOBBIN, JAMES C, of Fayette^alle, North Carolina ; Lawyer and Statesman; Secretary of the Navy ; Vol. IIL, . 65 CONTENTS. \ IX PAOE DOBBINS, MILES G., of Griffin, Georgia ; Financier ; Agent Bank State of Georgia ; Vol. IV., . . . .114 DOBYNS, JOHN PORTER, of Maysville, Kentucky; Merchant; President of the Maysville Branch of the Farmers' Bank of Kentucky ; Vol. I., '7 DOWDELL, JAMES F., of Lafayette, Alabama ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. IV., 1 DOWNES, GEORGE, of Calais, Maine ; Financier ; President of the Calais Bank ; Vol. I., 239 DUFFEE, FRANCIS H., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Banker; Member of the Select Council of Philadelphia ; Vol. IV., . . . . ' 169 BUTTON, HENRY, of New Haven, Connecticut ; Latoyer; late Professor of Law in Yale College ; Governor of Connec- ticut; Vol. II., 68f EAVES, NATHANIEL R., of Chesterville, South Carolina; Lawyer; Member of the Senate of South Carolina ; Vol. II., 597 EDDY, ZECHARIAH, of Middleboro', Massachusetts ; Lawrjer ; Vol. III., ......... 5 EDMONDS, JOHN W., of New York ; Lawyer; late Judge of the Supreme Court of New York ; Vol. II., . . . 79Y EMMONS, H. H., of Detroit, Michigan; Lawijer; Vol. IL, . 451 EVERHART, WILLIAM, of West Chester, Pennsylvania ; States- man; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. IV., . 4*71 EVERITT, ABRAHAM, of South Amboy, New Jersey ; States- man; Vol. IV., ....... 139 FARRAR, EDWIN, of Richmond, Virginia; Merchant; Vol. IV., . 161 FINLAYSON, JOHN, of Jefferson County, Florida ; Planter and Statesman ; Vol. III., 45S FISHER, GEORGE, of San Francisco, California ; Mitor, &c. ; now Secretary of the Californian I^nd Commission ; Vol. III., / . . . . 441 FOGG, FRANCIS BRINLEY, of Nash/iHe, Tennessee ; Lawyer; Member of the State Constitn<.^onal Convention of Ten- nessee, in 1834 ; Vol. IL, / 667 FONTAINE, EDMUND, of Richmond, Virginia; Soldier and Statesman ; President of tba Virginia Central Rail-Road ; Vol. IV., 163 FOSTER, LAFAYETTE S., o.' Norwich, Connecticut ; Law- yer ; formerly Mayor of Norwich, and Speaker of the Con- necticut House of Representatives ; U. S. Senator ; Vol. I., 1 FLETCHER, ELIJAH, of Amherst, Virginia; Planter and Statesman; Vol. IV., 15 CONTENTS. FREELON, THOMAS W., of San Francisco, California ; Law- yer ; County Judge ; Vol. IV., 425 FULLER, HENRY H., of Boston, Massachusetts, Lawyer; (de- ceased since the publication of his memoir ;) Vol. L, . 1*73 GARLAND, HUGH A., of St. Louis, Missouri ; Laxoyer and Author ; Vol. H., 657 GEORGE, ROBERT, of Scroggsfield, Ohio ; Vol. IV. . . 502 GILMER, JOHN A., of Guilford County, North Carolina; Lawyer ; Vol. L, ....... 343 GOODWYN, ROBERT H., of Columbia, South Carolina ; Phy- sician, Financier and Planter ; President of the Bank of the State of South Carolina; Vol. L, . . . 193 GORDON, GEORGE H., of Woodville, Mississippi; Lawyer and Planter ; Delegate to the Democratic Convention, 1852 ; Vol. L, . . - 45 GOTT, JAMES R., of Rockport, Massachusetts; Banker; Vol. III., . 54 GOULD, JACOB, of Rochester, New York ; Merchant ; former- ly United States Marshal for the Northern District of New York ; now President of the Farmers' and Me- chanics' Bank ; Vol. I., 76 GOVE, CHARLES F., of Nashua, New Hampshire ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. IV., ...... 242 GRACE, WILLIAM P., of Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Lawyer; Vol. L, 323 GRAVES, CALVIN, of Locust Hill, North Carolina ; Lawyer ; formerly Speaker of the House of Commons; Vol. I., . 187 GRIDLEY, ALBERT GALLATIN, of Clinton, New York ; Merchant and Banker; President of the Kirkland Bank ; Vol. I., 63 GRIER, ROBERT COOPER, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of the United. States ; Vol. II., 813 GRISWOLD, HIRAM, of Clevet?nd, Ohio ; Laivyer ; late Re- porter for the Supreme Court ; Vol. L, . . . . 373 GUTHRIE, JAMES, of Louisville, Kentucky; Lawyer and Statesman; Secretary of the 'Ireasury ; Vol. HI., . . 223 HALDEMAN, S. S., of Columbia, Pennsylvania; Author; Vol. IV., 88 HALL, SAMUEL, of Princeton, Indiana ; Lawyer and Farmer ; formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana; Vol. I., . 259 HALL, "WILLARD, of "Wilmington, Delaware ; Lawyer ; Judge of the United States District Court for Delaware ; Vol. II., 421 HAMILTON, ALLEN, of Fort Wayne, Indiana ; Financier ; President of the Branch Bank at Fort Wayne ; Vol. L, 275 CONTENTS. XI PAGE HANLY, THOMAS BURKE, of Helena, Arkansas ; Lawyer ; Vol. IV., 445 HARPER, JOSEPH M., of Concord, New Hampshire ; Pki/si- cian ; President of the Mechanics' Bank ; Vol. I., . . 107 HARRINGTON, SAMUEL MAXWELL, LL. D. of Dover, Del- aware; Lawyer and Author; Justice Superior Court; President of the Delaware Rail-Road ; Vol. I., . . 129 HARRIS, JAMES C, of Wetumpka, Alabama; Physician; Vol. IV., 110 HARRIS, THOMAS, of Washington, District of Columbia; Physician ; formerly Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery ; Vol. IV., 176 HAYNE, ISAAC W., of Charleston, South Cai'olina ; Lawyer ; Attorney-General for the State of South Carolina ; Vol. I., 383 HAYT, SAMUEL A., of Fishkill, New York ; Banker and Mer- chant ; President Fishkill Bank ; Vol. III., . . . 365 HITCHCOCK, PETER, (deceased,) late of Painesville, Ohio; Jurist ; for many years Chief Justice of Ohio ; Vol. III., 183 HOGG, JOSEPH L., of Rusk, Texas ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. IV., 227 HOOD, CHARLES C, of Somerset, Ohio ; Jurist ; Vol. IV., . 273 HOWARD, W. G., of Rochester, New York; Clergyman; Vol. IV., ... 63 HOYT, HIRAM, of Syracuse, New York ; Physician ; Vol. IV., 75 HUBBS, PAUL K., of Benicia, California; Merchant and Statesman; Superintendent of Public instruction in Cahfornia ; Vol. IV., 271 HUMPHREYS, WEST H., of Nashville, Tennessee; Lawyer; Judge U. S, District Court ; Vol. II 829 HUNT, BENJAMIN F., of Charleston, South Carolina ; Lawyer; Vol. IL, 401 .JANUARY, ANDREW M., of Maysville, Kentucky ; Merchant; President of the Maysville Branch of the Bank of Keu- tucky ; Vol. IL, 445 JONES, LAZARUS J., of Paulding, Mississippi ; Planter and Author ; Vol. IV., 328 KEITH, CHARLES F., of Athens, Tennessee; Lawyer and Planter ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the Third Cir- cuit ; Vol H., 763 KNAPP, ISAAC, of Freemont, Ohio ; Statesman; Vol. IV., . 120 KNOWLES, JOHN A., of Lowell, Massachusetts; Lawyer; President of the Appleton Bank ; Vol. IL, . . .727 KOCK, CHARLES, of New Orleans, Louisiana ; Planter and Merchant; Vol. III., , . 407 LABAUVE, ZENON, of Plaquemine, Louisiana ; Lawyer and Planter ; Member of the Louisiana State Senate ; Vol. I., 11 Xll CONTENTS. PAGS LANDES, JOHN, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; Farmer ; Presi- dent of the Lancaster County Bank ; Vol. IL, . . 629 L'AMOREAUX, JAMES, of Albany, New York ; Laiuyer and Jurist; Vol. IV., ....... 12 LAWRENCE, WILLIAM, of Bellefontaine, Ohio; Lawyer; late Member of the State Legislature, and Supreme Court Reporter ; Vol. L, ...... . 365 LAYTON, WILLIAM E., of Newark, New Jersey ; Statesman ; Member Board of Council of Newark; Vol. IV., . . 281 LEE, OLIVER H., of New York ; Engineer; Vol. III., . .271 LONG, STEPHEN H., Lieut. Colonel United States Topo- graphical Engineers ; Vol. IV., ..... 47Y LUMPKIN, JOSEPH HENRY, of Athens, Georgia ; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia ; Vol. IL, . 75*7 MANN, HORACE, of Yellow Springs, Ohio; Author; Presi- dent of Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio ; Vol. IV., 178 MARCHBANKS, ANDREW J., of McMinnville, Tennessee; Lawyer ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the 13th Cir- cuit; Vol. IL, 563 MARCY, WILLLAM L., of Albany, New York ; Laioyer and Statesman; Secretary of State ; Vol. HI,, . . 216 MARSHAL, BENJAMIN, of Troy, New York ; Merchant and Manufacturer ; Vol. HI., ...... 1 MARSH, MULFORD, of Savannah, Georgia; Lawyer; Vol. I., 289 MASON, WILLIAM, of Taunton, Massachusetts ; Manufactu- rer ; President of the Machinists' Bank ; Vol. I., , . 13 MEEKER, BRADLEY B., of St, Paul's, Minesota ; late Justice of the Supreme Court of Minesota; Vol. I., . . 319 MERRICK, PLINY, of Worcester, Massachusetts ; Justice of the Supreme Court of Massaehusetts ; Vol. I., . . . 39 MILLS, WILLIAM H., of Bangor, Maine ; Financier ; formerly Mayor of Bangor ; Cashier of the Eastern Bank ; Vol. II., 665 MINER, HIRAM J,, of Fredonia, New York ; Merchant and Financier ; President of H. J. M.'s Bank ; Vol. II., . 509 MONKUR, J. C. S,, of Baltimore, Maryland; Physician, Pro- /essor, &c., in the Washington University ; Vol. HI., . 435 MOODY, DEXTER, of Troy, New York; Builder; Vol. IV., . 284 MORELAND, JOHN F., of Heard County, Georgia ; Physician and PZanier ; Vol. HI., 289 McClelland, Robert, of Lansing, Michigan ; Lawyer and Statesman; Secretary of the Interior ; Vol. HI,, . . 231 McCLURE, WILLIAM B., of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; Lazv- ' yer ; Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the 5th District ; Vol, I., . . . \ . . .381 ^CONTENTS. Xlll PASE McDUGALD, JOHN G., of Elizabethtown, North Carolina; Statesman; Vol. IV., 335 McHENRY, JOHN H., of Hartford, Kentucky ; Lawijer ; Vol. HI, 413 McKAY, DONALD L,, of Georgetown, South Carolina; Banker and Planter ; Vol. HI, 21 McLEAN, JOHN, of Cincinnati, Ohio ; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; Vol. E., . , "ISO MUNN, IRA Y., of Woodford Co., Illinois ; Merchant; Vol. IV., 355 NASH, JOHN W., of Powhattan, Virginia ; Lawyer ; Judge of Second Circuit Court ; Vol, II., 577 NELSON, THOMAS, of Oregon City, Oregon ; Lawyer ; late Chief Justice of Oregon ; Vol. II., . , . .559 NORTON, GEORGE W., of Russellville, Kentucky ; Merchant ; President of the Southern Bank of Kentucky; Vol. II., 575 ORR, JAMES L., of Anderson, C. H., South Carolina ; Xaw)- yer ; Member of Congress ; Vol. II., .... 393 OVERTON, ARCHIBALD W., of Carthage, Tennessee ; Law- yer and Planter ; formerly on the Bench ; Vol. IL, . 565 OWEN, C. M., of Stockbridge, Massachusetts ; Banker ; Vol. IV., 291 PADDOCK, LOVLAND, of Watertown, New York ; Merchant and Financier ; President of the Black River Bank ; Vol. L, ■ .... 67 PARKER, WILLIAM, of Boston, Massachusetts ; Lawyer and Merchant ; President of the Boylston Bank ; Vol. I., . 23 PARKHURST, NATHAN C, of Pontiac, Michigan ; States- man; Vol IV., 341 PATTERSON, ANGUS, of Barnwell District, South Carolina ; Lawyer and Planter ; [deceased ;] late President of ,the State Senate ; Vol. I., 387 PEABODY, GEORGE, of Danvers, Massachusetts ; Banker and Merchant in London ; Vol. HI., . . . .137 PERRY, BENJAMIN F., of Greenville, South Carolina; Lawijer and Planter ; Vol. II., 581 PERRY, HORATIO J., of New Hampshire ; Statesman ; Sec- retary U. S. Legation, at Madrid ; Vol. IV. . . . 448 PETERS, FREDERICK G., of NelsonljOounty, Virginia ; Phy- sician and Planter ; Vol. III., ..... 255 PHILLIPS, WILLARD, of Boston, Massachusetts ; Lawyer, and Author of Phillips on Insurance, and other works ; Vol. L, 301 PICKENS, EZEKIEL, of Selraa, Alabama; Lawyer Sin^ Plan- ter ; formerly Circuit Judge and Member of the Ala- bama Legislature ; Vol, I., 215 XIV CONTENTS. PAGB PIERCE, FRANKLIN, of Concord, New Hampshire ; Lawyer and Statesman; President of the United States; Vol. III., 203 PILLOW, GIDEON J., of Columbia, Tennessee ; Lawyer and Planter ; Major-General in the Mexican War ; Vol. II., 691 PIRTLE, HENRY, of Louisville, Kentucky ; Lawyer ; Chan- cellor of the Louisville Chancery Court ; Vol, II., . . TSl POMEROY, NOAH, of Meriden, Connecticut; Manufacturer ; President of the Meriden Bank ; Vol, I., , . . 243 POPE, JOHN, of Memphis, Tennessee; Plantei- ; President of the Union Bank; Vol. II., 623 PRATT, O. C„ of Portland, Oregon ; Jurist ; formerly Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, in and for the Territory of Oregon ; Vol. IV., . . 56 PRENTISS, SAMUEL, of Montpelier, Vermont; Lawyer; Judge of the United States District Court for Vermont ; Vol. IL, '71'J' PRESCOTT, WILLIAM B., of Louisiana ; Planter ; Vol. IV., 3*78 PRINTUP, DANIEL S., of Rome, Georgia ; Lawyer; Agent for the Bank of the State of South Carolina ; Vol, II., . 443 REEDER, ROBERT S., of Port Tobacco, Maryland ; Lawyer and Statesman ; States' Attorney for Charles County, Maryland ; Vol. IV., 19 RICE, HARVEY, of Cleveland, Ohio ; Lawyer and Statesman; Vol, IV., 42 ROSS, WILLIAM, of Pittsfield, Illinois ; Merchant ; Vol. III., . 427 ROST, PIERRE A, of New Orleans, Louisiana ; Lawyer and Planter ; one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Louisiana; Vol. I., ...... . 121 ROTHWELL, ANDREW, of Washington, District of Colum- bia; ^wiAor, &c, ; Vol, IV,, 279 ROWLAND, JOHN S,, of Cass County, Georgia; Planter; Vol. IV., 266 RUSSELL, WM. J., of Lawrenceville, Georgia; Physician and Planter ; Vol. IIL, 281 SAUNDERS, ISAAC, of Norfh Scituate, Rhode Island ; Manu- facturer ; President of the Citizens' Union Bank ; Vol, I,, Y9 SCHAEFFER, EMANUEL, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; Jurist ; Pl'esident of the Lancaster Savings' Institute ; Vol. IV., . 144 SCOTT, CHRISTOPHER C, of Camden, Arkansas ; Lawyer; Vol. IV., 287 SEAL, RODERICK, of Biloxi, Mississippi ; Lawyer and States- man ;Yo\.IY., 294 SEIBELS, JOHN J., of Alabama ; Statesman ; U. S, Minister Resident at Brussels ; Vol. IV., 458 CONTENTS. 3CV SHELTON, GEORGE, of Rochester, New York; Merchant; Vol! III., -..275 SILLIMAN, R. D., of Troy, New York ; Merchant ; Vol. IV., . 59 SIMMONS, JAMES P., of Lawrenceville, Georgia; Lawyer, Statesman and Planter ; Vol. III., . . . • '^^ SIMON, EDWARD, Saint Martinsville, Louisiana ; Laivtjer and Planter ; Vol. III., 409 SISSON, DAVID, of Providence, Rhode Island ; Manufacturer; Vol. IV., 103 SMITH JOHN P., of Franklin, Connecticut; Statesman; Vol. iv., 346 SMITH, JOSEPH, of Waterbury, Connecticut ; Statesman and Clergyman ; Vol. IV., 379 SMITH, JOSEPH H., of Dover, New Hampshire ; Physician and Statesman ; Vol. HI., ....•• ^5 SMITH, WILLIAM R., of Fayette, C. H., Alabama ; Member of Congress ; Vol. I., 20^ SNYDER, JACOB R., of San Francisco, California ; Statesman ; U. S. Assistant Treasurer for California ; Vol. IV., . B41 STARR, PARLEY, of Windham County, Vermont ; Physician ; Vol. IV., 475 TALLMADGE, DARIUS, of Lancaster, Ohio ; Financier ; Presi- dent of the Hocking Valley Bank ; Vol. I., , . . 295 TAYLOR, JOHN, of Albany, New York ; Merchant and Manu- facturer ; Vol. IV., ....... "4 TAYLOR, WILLIAM, of Findlay, Ohio ; Statesman ; Vol. IV., 434 TEALL, OLIVER, of Syracuse, New York ; Manufacturer and Financier ; President of the Onondaga County Bank ; Vol.1., 101 TOLAND, HUGH H., of San Francisco, California; Physi- cian ; Vol. IV., .388 TOWSON, NATHAN, of Maryland ; [deceased ;] late Paymas- ter-General of the U. S. Army ; Yo\. III., ... 95 TRAIN, ASA W.. of Milford, Connecticut ; Clergyman and Statesman ;'Yo\.lll., .455 TURNER, JESSE, of Van Buren, Arkansas ; Lawiyer ; Vol. I., . 235 VAN ANTWERP, VERPLANCK, of Keokuk, Iowa ; Lawyer and Statesman/, Vol. III., ...... 33t WALBRIDGE, HIRAM, of New York ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. IV., . . 365 WALKER, HENRY C, of Memphis, Tennessee; Merchant; Vol. IV., .160 WALKER, THOMAS A., of Jacksonville, Alabama ; Xatoyer ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the Fifth Circuit ; Vol. I., 225 WALLIS, JOHN C, of Chapel Hill, Texas ; Vol. IV., . . SYS XVI CONTENTS. PAGE WALWORTH, REUBEN H., of Saratoga Springs, New York ; the last of the New York Chancellors ; Vol. II., . . 48Y WARD, MARCUS L., of Newark, New Jersey; Vol. IV., . 68 WARNER, HIRAM, of Greenville, Georgia ; Lcmtjer ; Judge of the Supreme Court of Georgia ; Vol. I., . . . 255 WARREN, LOTT, of Albany, Georgia ; Zawyer; formerly Judge of the Superior Court ; Vol. II., . . . . . V47 WASHINGTON, W. H., of Newbern, North Carolina ; Laioyer Siud. Statesman ;Yo\.lll.i ...... 359 WHEELER, ALFRED, of San Francisco, California ; Lawyer ; late Attorney for the United States in California ; Vol. II., 435 WHITE, JOHN BLAKE, of Charleston, South Carolina; Lawye7', Atithor and Planter ; Yol.W., . . . 306 WHITE, JOHN J., of Sumner County, Tennessee ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol, IV., 34 WHITE, PHILO, of Wisconsin ; Bditor and Statesman; U. S. Minister, resident at Quito, South America; Vol. IV., . 398 WHITTEMORE, THOMAS, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Clergyman and I^inancier, Editor and Author; Presi- dent of the Cambridge Bank ; Vol. I., , . . 135 WILLIAMS, ARCHIBALD, of Quiucy, Illinois; Lawyer; for- merly U. S. Attorney for the State ; Vol. II., . . Ql9 WILSON, DANIEL A., of Lynchburgh, Virginia ; Lawyer ; formerly one of the Judges of the General Court of Virginia ; Vol. II., 42& WILSON, JOEL W., of Tiffin, Ohio ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. HI. 447 WOODRUFF, EDWARD, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Laioijer ; Judge of the first Judicial District of the State of Ohio ; Vol. IV., 260 WOODSON, DAVID M., of Carrolton, Illinois ; Lawyer; Judge of the First Circuit Court; Vol. II., .... 681 WOODWARD, JOHN L., of Culloden, Georgia ; Planter ; Vol. IV., 116 PHICE OF TOE AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY. Bound in cloth, plain, $3 a volume, or the four vols, complete for $12 OO' Bound in cloth, full gilt, $4 a vol., or the four vols, complete for 10 00 Bound in morocco or calf extra, full gilt, $6 a volume, or the four vols, complete for 24 00 ^W The whole complete, or any separate volume, may be purchased of booksellers in the city of New York, or will be sent by mail or express to any part of the United States, on receipt of the money, by Johi Liv- ingston, 157 Broadtvay, Neiv-York. Being of very expensive character, the work is published by subscription, and the best way to obtain it is to send the money by mail or otherwise direct to the publisher. WILLIAM T. BARNARD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 149 dent of the Bank of Orleans, we believe it is no injustice to liis associates to say, that the cliief financical management of the institution has been contidecl to him, and in every exigency his fidelity and ability have never been questioned, and the result of his labors has always shown that the confidence reposed in him was not misplaced. WILLIAM T. BARNARD, OF ISSAQUENA COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI, Was born September 10th, 1821, in Adams county, Mississippi. His parents were natives of the same place, both his grandfathers ha\ang emigrated there at an early date. His father dying when our subject was quite young, and he being the eldest of the family, the duties of the management of the estate devolved principally upon him. He was married to Miss Sarah Elhaney, of West Feliciana, Louisiana, at the age of 19. At the age of 20 years, by the advice and influence of friends, he was emancipated by the State Legislature, to enable him legally to take charge of his father's estate, it having become very much embarrassed. But by a few years of judicious and prudent management, greatly assist- ed by the high confidence placed in Mr. Barnard by the creditors, he succeeded in relieving the estate of all incumbrances. In the fall of 1847 he removed to Issaquena ccunty, Mississippi, where he now resides, following his father's occupation of cotton planting. In the fall of 1851 he was elected member of the lower branch of the State Leo-islature. EBENEZER M. CHAMBERLAIN, OF INDIANA, Ebenezer M. Chamberlain, formerly President Judge of the Nintli Judicial Circuit in the State of Indiana, now a member of the XXXIV th Congress from the tenth Congressional district of the same State was, born in Orrington, Penobscot county, Maine, on the 20th August, 1805. His early education was hmited to such as could be obtained under the New England system of common schools, and these privileges were only enjoyed in the winter season, when his labor on the farm could, not be made available to the support of his father's family. At the age of six- teen he left the farm, and for six years wrought in a ship-yard, his father, according to the New England custom, receiving liis earnings until the sun went down on the day he completed his minority. After reaching his majority, he continued his labors in the ship-yard, until he had realized a sufficient sum from his earnings to enable him to spend six months at an academy, after which he entered the office of Elisha H. Allen, Esq., of Bangor, as a student at law\ He remained in this gentleman's office some three years, but his reading was necessarily much interrupted by the necessity of resorting to school-teaching to meet his current expenditures. It was while he was a student at law in 1831 that the Sunday Mail question engrossed so much of the public attention. In January of that year the question was formally introduced for discussion in the Bangor Forensic Club, of which he was a member. He took a leading part in the discussion, and delivered two arguments against its prohibition, which were thought to evince so much ability and independence in the then peculiar and immature state of public sentiment on that question in puri- tanical New England, as to be thought worthy of publication by a goodly portion of the large audience who heard them. They were accordingly published in pamphlet form by those who coincided with them in senti- ment, and extensively circulated. The laws of Maine requiring a preliminary study of seven years to qualify the applicant for admission to the bar, Mr. Chamberlain, in con- sideration of his age and limited means, determined to emigrate to the young, more liberal and vigorous West. Accordingly, in June, 1832, solitary and alone, with a few dollars in his pocket, the proceeds of the last winter's school, he set his face for Indiana, and arrived in Fayette county in the month following. After replenishing his exhausted treasury by a resort to the Yankee's universal remedy, the common school, he en- tered the office of Samuel W. Parke, Esq., of Connersville, a gentleman of high legal attainments, and at the present writing a member of the lower house of Congress. Associated with him in this office was An- drew Kennedy, another self-made man, who was destined to run a brief but brilliant career. They were examined and admitted to the bar to- gether on the 9th August, 1833. In the fall of that year Mr. Chamberlain removed to Elkhart county, Sngrayed. 'by J C Buttce / T^ OF U'WI^MA^ MBMBBTt OF TSE 33-"^ Sn^r^ei fir Buaraf^hu^ ShstJias of Rminaic ^mmc^ EBENEZER M. CHAMBERLAIN, OF INDIANA. 151 then just emerging from the condition of an unbroken wilderness, and commenced the practice of his profession. In the summer of 1835 he was elected one of the two representatives in the Legislature from the whole northern portion of Indiana, embracing a territory of nearly one fifth part of the entire State. In December of the same year he was ex- amined and licensed by Judge Blackford and his associates, to practise at the bar of the Supreme Court of the State. He was re-elected a representative in 1837, and occupied a prominent position on the committee to investigate the affairs and condition of the State Bank of Indiana. On the 28th day of November, 1838, he was united in marriage to Phebe Ann Hascall, eldest daughter of Amasa Ilascall, Esq., of Le Boy, New York, a lady pre-eminent for all those amiabler qualities which adorn as they sanctify the domestic relations. In the summer of 1839 he was elected to the State Senate for a term of three years. During the stormy session of 1841, by request of the State Central Committee, he delivered an address before the Democratic State Convention on the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans. The address furnishes strong evidence of the high state of party spirit which then pervaded the Union. Com- mencing with the administration of Mr. Jefferson, he traced with a vigor- ous hand the history of the two great political parties down, through the second war with England, and through all the conflicts of party to that time, and was not over-choice in his denunciation of the opposition. President Van Burea had just been defeated in a conflict unparalleled for excitement, detraction, and abuse in the history of the country, and it was but natural that the speaker should regard him and his administra- tion as pi'oper subjects for eulogy. We make a few extracts : " The administration of Andrew Jackson formed an epoch in the his- tory of this mighty republic, as did that of his great political model, Thomas Jefferson. Such vigor, however, had the Hydras and Gorgons of Fedei'alism acquired by long feasting upon the very vitals of the Con- stitution, that they were not to be exterminated by one efibrt of Hercules. And as his successor, to carry out his measures, to perpetuate his prin- ciples, to finish the task of political regeneration which Jackson had so gloriously begun, the democracy of th)3 country turned their eyes on that sworn enemy of Federalism, Marlin Van Buren. "Raised from obscurity to eminence by the unaided energies of his own gi-eat mind and unblemished moral worth, endeared to the democracy by his bold and manly vindication of our principles, and by liis noble and unwavering devotion to his country, which, in times that tried men's souls, found deliverance in the wisdom and patriotism of his measures in her councils, when a Hull had bel rayed, and a Harrison had abandoned her in the field — proscribed, hated, and vindictively hunted down by the Federal party, he was the man pre-eminently entitled to our confidence and support, and worthy of that high lionor. With all his principles distinctly avowed, the honor was conferied. As chief magistrate of the nation, he neglected no duty, violated no pledge, betrayed no trust, dis- .'ippointed no expectation, abandoned no principle, usurped no power, but in all things has been faithful, and adhered strictly to the simple, self-denying ordinances of the Consiitution." 152 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. After denouncing the means and appliances resorted to in tlie cam- paign of 1840, and predicting the dissohition of tlie Whig party into its orio'inal elements, he closes with the following: word of encouraGfement to his political friends : '•In all that we have seen, and all that as a party we have suffered, is there any cause of alarm or despair ? No, my friends. The apparent success of our political opponents is but the more positive evidence of their final and more complete prostration. It is but the last unnatural effort, to which they have been stung by expiring agony, which but the more fearfully betokens their final dissolution. Does any one doubt their utter overthrow, at the expiration of four years' career of madness and folly, in the abuse of their ill-gotten power ? Le tthose doubt v/ ho dis- trust the people, but wofully deceived are they who flatter themselves that we are about to surrender at discretion. Courage tlien. Democrats ! Our principles are left us, if for a time our power is gone, and that, thank God, is the greater consolation of the two." The session of 1841 was one of unusual partisan violence. The whirl- Avind of 1840 had reduced the democratic strenolh in the Senate to thir- teen members in a body of fifty — the Whigs having in fact a quorum in both branches of the Legislature. On all occasions during the discussion in the Senate of the measures wJiich occupied the attention subsequently of the extra session of Congress, Mr. Chamberlain was the prominent debater on the Democratic side of the House, and if he failed in con- vincing his antagonists, he at least made his mark in the intellectual con- flict, and encouraged the forlorn hope who recognised him as a leader. His labors on the committee of investigation of the management of the internal improvement system, and of the committee on corporations, will not soon be forgotten. He never permitted an act of incorpoi'ation to pass througli his hands without an effort to require individual liability on the part of stockholders, and to resei;ve to the people, through their representatives, the right of amendment and repeal. In 1842 he was elected by the Legislature Prosecuting Attorney of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. - In 1843 he was put in nomination for Congress in a district which, three years previous, had given an opposition majority of more than six- teen hundred votes ; and after a laborious canvass succeeded in reducing that majority to less than three hundred. In December of the same year he was elected by the Legislature Presi- dent Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, and again without opposition w^as re-elected, upon the expiration of his term of office in January, 1851. Coming to the bench fresh from a series of political conflicts of unex- ampled bitterness, in v>hich quarter was neither given nor demanded, he had to encounter prejudices of no ordinary character. The:^e have all been buried and long since forgotten, and at this day no man occupjying a similar position commands more of tlie confidence and esteem of the bar, and of parties litigant. During his term upon the bench, although many cases of great im- portance have been brought before him, involving the rights, liberties, and lives of men, there have been few cases of appeal from his decisions, and still fewer reversals of thorn. His earnest endeavors to administer strict justice, his character for unbending integrity, and his clear exposi- EBENEZER M. CHAMBERLAIN, OF INDIANA. 153 tions of law, liav'e most generally satisfied contending parties of the cor- rectness of his decisions. Having been previously engaged somewhat actively in politics, imme- diately on his coming to the bench, Judge Chamberlain became the sub- ject of the most unmeasured abuse of the Whig press, and a portion of the party, in soma of the counties of the circuit. In view of this fact, at the close of the first term of his court in Laporte county, the entire bar in attendance at that term, sixteen in number, and without distinction of party, addressed to him the following note : — '' Lajjorte, M((rch 14, 1844. "Hon. E. M. Chamberlain — Dear Sir: The undersigned, members of the bar of the Ninth Judicial Circuit of the State of Indiana, having seen with regret the attacks made upon you, in the Laporte County Whiff of the 9th, and the Michigan City Gazette of the 11th inst., deem it but an act of justice to say, that since you took upon yourself the high and responsible duties of President Judge of this circuit, your course, as such judge, has been highly creditable to yourself, and satisfactory to us ; and that the dignified, courteous, and gentlemanly manner in which you have discharged those duties, evinces the capacity as well as desire to perform them with honor to yourself and credit to the bench. " With sentiments of esteem and respect we remain yours, cfec." The associate judges of that court, both Whigs, upon the same oc- casion, also addressed to him the following note : — Li bane, gentlemanly, and efficient manner in which you, sir, have discharg- ed the arduous and responsible duties of President Judge, and the plea- sure of an association with you. '' With cordial and unfeigned desires for your peace and prosperity, we subscribe ourselves, &c." Precisely the feelings of mutual courtesy and respect, above indicated, remained unabated during the nine yeai's he presided over the courts of that circuit. He has prominently participated in political matters in but two in- stances, since his election to the bench. In 1844 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, was a member of the committee on resolutions, and as such, sought to make an issue with the opposition on the principles and policy of Thomas Wilson Dorr, of Rhode Island. In 1848 he was one of the Senatorial candidates for Presidential Elector, canvassed the State very generally, except in Ins own judicial circuit, and aided raaterially in o-ivino- the vote of the State to General Lewis Cass. He was also a candidate before the nominating caucus in 1845, for United States Senator, and on being defeated, made this memorable re- ply to all overtures still to remain a candidate : " As Democrats we must sustain our party for the sake of our principles, and must sustain our principles for the sake of our country." 154 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The result of Uie congressional election of 1851, in tlie lOtb district of Indinn.-i, much disconcerted and disheartened the Democrats of that district. Their candidate, Judge Borden, was defeated by a large ma- jority, by Mr. Brenton, the Whig candidate. By the apportionment under the census of 1850, the districts were so changed as to strike off several counties from the southern pai't of the 10th, and incorporate into it from the 9th the counties of Elkhart and Kosciusko, in the former of which Judge Chamberlain resides. On the 11th day of August, 1852, the time of holding the elections having also been changed, the Democratic Congressional Convention of the 10th district was held, at which con- vention Judge Chaniberlain, as the published proceedings show, " was unanimously nominated for Congress, by acclamation." As an index to the spirit of harmony and zeal by which the convention was character- ized and animated, we quote the following additional extract from its published proceedings : — " Mr. Chamberlain was then presented to the convention, and after the applause with which he was greeted had subsided, he accepted his nomi- nation, and returned his thanks, in a brief and eloquent address." He remarked, among other things, that in the then opening campaign, what- ever course his competitor might choose to pursue, the contest on his part should be purely a contest of principle ; that he would stoop to none of the tricks of the demagogue ; that in canvassing the district, he should only ask the people for their votes, and expect to receive them as he might succeed in commending himself to their confidence, by the cor- rectness of his principles, and the ability with which he advanced them. In the evident reconcihation of all conflicting interests amono- the De- mocrats of the district, by this nomination, and the entire Jiarmony which distinguished the proceedings of this convention, all its auguries indicated an auspicious result, and so it proved. Judge Chamberlain in due time resigned his judgeshijo, and in accordance with the customs of the country, entered actively into the canvass, with his characteristic earnestness. In all his numerous addresses to the people, in every part of the district, he strictly conformed to his pledges to the convention. He treated his competitor (Mr. Brenton, who was the Whig candidate for re-election) with marked courtesy and fairness ; took his stand firmly by the Constitution and its compromises, on the broad platform of De- mocratic principles and measures, not only as they are, but as they should be developed, under the influence of our peculiar political institutions, and the progressive spirit of the age ; and was elected to the 33d Con- gress by nearly one thoumnd majority, in a district composed of counties which only the year previous had, in the Congressional election, given a Whig majority of about three hundred. Did space permit, we would gladly conclude this sketch by making extracts from the published speeches of Judge Chamberlain. Those speeches are numerous and rich in passages well worthy of repetition ; they are filled with that ardor and energy so characteristic of the youth- ful but vigorous West — and equally characteristic of their author, who has become thoroughly identified with that section of the country. In his addresses to the people, Judge Chamberlain always expressed himself in plain, simple, but forcible language, depending more upon the vigor of bis thought than the elegance of his style to produce the desired im- -^3 -iW Sc^aved'by J C 3'attre ivon^^ c OF D UB UQ TIE , IOWA . Erw>-ai/e3.iirr BioarofihiaibSiu^hes cf SminentyAirjrLcafti! LINCOLN CLARK, OF IOWA. 155 pression. He has ever been the advocate of reform and progress, and has been mainly instrumental in producing many beneficial changes in the laws and constitution of his adopted State. HON. LINCOLN CLARK, OF IOWA, LATE OF ALABAMA. The Honorable Lincoln Clark, a member of the XXXJId Congress, from the State of Iowa, and but recently Judge of the Circuit Court of Alabama, was born in Hampshire county, Massachusetts, in the year 1800. He is the son of one of those plain New England farmers, whose chief pride is to gain an honest and independent livelihood for themselves and'families, out of the sterile soil of their native hills, literally compelling nature, amid a bleak and rugged region, to yield the recompense due to the sweat of the brow. The writer of this sketch has heard the subject of it remark of his parents, that they realized the blessings of Agur's petition, for they had neither poverty nor riches, and were as far removed from vanity and lies. Surely this is sufficient pedigree to boast of. His mother was a lineal descendant of the Rev. James Keith, a celebrated Scotch divine, who came to America in the 17th century; a man, according to tradition, of talents, learning, and influence. His paternal grandfather was a Cape Cod whaleman, who removed to Conway, the town of Mi'. Clark's nati- vity, in western Massachusetts, during the revolution. He there died and was buried, and there many of his descendants lived, died, and were buried after him. . In his youth, Mr. Clark labored at the same occupation with his father, and there are not many kinds of work, incident thereto, in which he did not engage, including the swingling of flax, making maple sugar, and laying stone wall. Being the oldest son, his tasks were not light, and when at the age of eighteen the. subject of a college education came to be agitated in the family, his father could ill spare from the farm so important an assistant ; but appi-eciating the advantages of education, he soon made up his mind to make the sacrifice. He was himself a man of much reading for his occupation, and truly coveted the blessings of knowledge for his children. But notwithstanding a ready consent to release and to aid young Lincoln, the problem as to the means still remained to be solved ; nor did either father or son see any way to solve it, save by the eye of faith. The latter embarked upon the enterprise pretty much as Abraham left his country, "not knowing whither he went." He did not, however, put out so far to sea during the two first years of his preparatory studies, that he could not retnrn home to assist his father in the busy season of summer. This he cheerfully did, as a matter both of economy and necessity. Up to this period, the candidate 156 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. for college honors had shared only the common educational advantages of the district school of New England. Before our youthful student entered college, he went to the State of New Jersey and tausjht school nine months at Paterson. He was there a member of the family of the Rev. Samuel Fisher, D.D., which was in itself an excellent school for him. The Doctor was a man of great talents, extensive learning, a powerful orator, and in all respects a good model for a young man. Young Clark's acquaintance with this distinguished man was without doubt a great advantage to him, and some compensa- tion for the loss of time. But to be thus compelled to teach school, as he did every winter of his preparatory years, and the four years of his subsequent college course, greatly retarcled his progress. In a letter to a young friend on the subject of struggling against discouragements in the acquisition of knowledge, Mr. Clark affords us a glimpse of his own experiences : " I was twenty-one when I entered college, and twenty-five when I graduated. It was almost more than I could do to accomplish my course. During my junior year I was on the point of abandoning my Alma Mater, solely for the want of money, but a distant relative furnished me a small sum on my father's security, and afterwards more money was borrowed in the same way. I was thus'onabled to complete my course, but came out of college with a debt of $500 upon my hands." Judge Clark is an Alumnus of Amherst, a college located in his native county of Hampshii'e. Such was his setting out in the world, loaded with a debt of ,$500, to be paid as speedily as possible. His most available resource was that of many other young men in like circumstances, to bring his hard-earned education into practical use in imparting his knowledge to others. Judging that a southern State would afford the best encouragement, and having a friend in the u]>per part of North Carolina, he repaired thither, and was soon installed as principal of the Germanton Academy, Stokes county, in that State. He rehnquished this situation at the end of one year, and the next took a class of young gentlemen in Greek and Latin, meanwhile reading Blackstone, Coke, and Chitty. He had no reguhy instructor, but found here a friend in the Hon. Nathaniel Boyden, who furnished him with law books, and occasionally opened to the solitary student a little of their mysteries. He subsequently went to Virginia, where for three years he combined the •two laborious pursuits of teach- ing and studying law, as best he could for the advantage of himself and pupils. And now considering himself prepared to begin to practise his profession, at the end of this period he departed to the then distant State of Alabama, with that purpose. When he reached his destination he found that his expenses thither, after having paid his college indebt- edness, purchased a small law library, and the horse by which he travelled, had exhausted every dollar of his late earnings. He had the world before him, and he had it to begin anew. He sold his horse, and hung out his si[/n ! His prospect there was not encouraging ; month after month wore away, and no clients darkened his office doors. Without money, and Avithout patronage, a stranger in a strange land, he was, as once before in college, almost tempted to yield up the race in despair ! But it was hard to do LINCOLN CLARK, OF IOWA. 157 this ; he resolved to succeed or die ! He made another removal ; he se- lected another county where less competition seemed to insure more im- mediate success. Pickens was then a border county, and its courthouse town but just laid out; the stumps were fresh in the middle of its streets, and there were in it but three offices which deserved the name : these were already occupied by other members of the legal profession, at a rent of live dollars per month ! How fortunate, thoui^-ht Mr. Clark, are those fellows who are able to pay five dollars a month for a respectable office ! He was obliged to take a rude log hut at two dollars ! " There is a tide in the affairs of men" — a summit-level, where the waters begin to flow two ways, or cease to flow^ against the traveller who is advancing upward. There is an apex to misfortune and disappoint- ment, above which the tears of anguish cannot rise ; and, in the lives of most men of the right stamp, it is when matters have cOme to about this point, that the tide of their aftairs takes a favorable turn. It was so with the subject of this sketch. He hei-e found one friend who thouoht he saw in him something worth cherishing; he soon found many tVi^'uds. He was elected Justice of the Peace, an office in Alabama of considera- ble fees, sufficient of itself to aftbrd him a support. He now began to be noticed as a lawyer, and, at the end of two years, had a fair ])ractice. About this time he was elected to the State Legislature, as a Jackson Democrat, in a canvass in which the issues were Union and JSFuUificaiion. One of his acts at the ensuing session was to vote to invite the Hon. Gabriel Moore, then United States Senator, to resign because he had be- come obnoxious to the Democracy of Alabama.* Mr. Clark was re-elected the ensuing year. During this session, that is, in the winter of 1834-5, an effort was made in the Alabama Legislature, which was largely democratic, to pre- sent Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, as the democratic candidate for the Presidency. This movement Mr. Clark strenuously opposed, on the ground that it was premature, and that Judge White's leanings were against the Democratic party. White's friends however persevered, and at the very next session were compelled to admit the correctness of Mr. Clark's course and to retrace their steps. Another act of that session which he took much pleasure in performing, was the opportunity to vote for the late lamented Vice President, the Hon. Wm. E,. Kino-, Ibr the Senate of the United States. It is his pleasure and good fortune to have been always honored with the confidence and friendship of that distin- guished man. In the year 1836 Mr. Clark, for the first time, it is believed, since his residence south, and after many years of absence, paid a visit to his father and brethren in Massachusetts. He was still a bachelor, butdui'ino- this visit was married to an accomplished young lady of the same neio-h- borhood where he was himself born and reared, who is still the })artner and pride of her husband, as she has been the counsellor and faithful com- panion of his subsequent life. *Tlie writer of this sketch, being of opposite politics, does not undertake to express liis own opinions upon this, or other political acts of his personal friend, Judge Clark. What he states are facts either within his own knwledge, or which . have become matters of history, and, as such, are leftto speak for themselves. 158 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS, On returning to the South, he was invited by the Hon. E. Woolsey Peck of Tuscaloosa, the then seat of government of Alabama, to a copart- nership with him, which he accepted, and with whom he continued ten years, enjoying a lucrative and honorable practice. In Chancellor Peck lie found a partner of the very highest order of talents, and profound legal learning ; a friend whose kind regard has never abated. To accept this copartnership it was necessary for him to remove to the State capi- tal, having resided in the county of Pickens about four years. Describ- ing his residence there, he says : "I saw much of the strife, riot and bloodshed which often prevail in frontier localities. I saw men shot and wounded — men shot and killed. Convictions for murder could not then be had, but there is a better state of things now." In 1839 Mr. Clark received from Governor Bagby the appointment of Attorney General of the State of Alabama. In 1845 Governor Fitz- patrick (now United States Senator) conferred upon him, without solicit- ation, the office of Judge of the Circuit Court of that State. To accept this appointment, he resigned his seat in the House of Representatives, to which he had been just elected for Tuscaloosa by a respectable majority, although a Whig county. His labors that summer were of the most arduous nature. During the brief space of six weeks he was required to canvass for the Legislature, and also attend to a large practice in the Su- preme and Chanceiy courts. In the spring of 1846, Judge Clark was urged by his political friends to permit his name to be used in the Democratic Convention of the Fourth Congressional District, as a candidate for Congress — a district where such a nomination was equivalent to an election. He did not consent, but was balloted for against his consent, and frequently received a majoriUf of the votes cast, two thirds being required to nominate. The county of Fayette, the residence of the present member, and the strongest Democratic county in that district, was not represented in the conven- tion. The leading Democrats of Fayette, for reasons not necessary to be here disclosed, would not send a delegation, unless Judge Clark would consent to become a candidate. Had Fayette been represented, he would have been nominated by the requisite two thirds upon the first ballot. For some time previous to 1846, Judge Clark had been seriously con- templating a removal and settlement upon the Mississippi river, that great commercial artery of the country. This design was hastened by the removal of the seat of government from Tuscaloosa, the city of his residence, to Montgomery, on the Alabama river — a removal which took with it the most important courts, thus materially decreasing the busi- ness of the profession, and affecting the general importance and interests of the place. Deeming this to be a fit time for him to carry out his intention of establishing himself upon the " great father of waters," after a tour of exploration, Mr, Clark, in 1847, removed to the Northwest, and located himself at Dubuque, a fiourishing city of Iowa. There, in the young State of his adoption, it was not long before honors began to crowd thick upon him. The very next year, the presidential election coming on, the Judge was put upon the Democratic ticket as elector, and canvassed the State for " Cass and Butler." Iowa having cast her vote for these gentlemen, he was selected by his electoral col- LINCOLN CLARK, OF lOAVA, 159 ieagues to carry the vote to Washington. During tliis canvass tlie question of political abolitionism had to be met. Judge Clark attacked it as heretical and mischievous ; it tottered to its fall, and has not since troubled L^wa elections. In 1850, Judge Clark was nominated for Concrress without the slio-htest knowledge that such a thing was in contemplation, and was electdi by a majority of 1000 — more than double the majority ever before given to any of his predecessors in that district. Having served through this (32d) Congress with honor and credit, he was re-nominated in 1852 by the regular convention of his party. The nomination was not unanimous. For the first time in his life, having never been a seeker of office — all his honors hitherto having been thrust upon him rathei- than souo-ht — oiu- friend found himself in the awkward dilemma of belona,-inof to a house divided against itself. Tlie division was of a local character — that most fatal of all political distractions. He received the majority in the con- vention by a strictly local vote. No less than four railroad schemes had been projected in the district, each in antagonism to the other ; jealousy and rivalry ensued, and defeat was the consequence. The subject of railroads became the chief element of the canvass, from the desire to ob- tain for the rival schemes grants of land from the general ffovernment. Having, for the most part, confined this sketch to a simple narration of the prominent incidents in the life of the subject thereof, we leave them to speak for themselves. The narrative might have swelled jnto a vol- ume, but the writer preferred to present a connected chain of facts with- out comment or embellishment. We have seen him strua-oflino- on through all the gradations of toil as a boy-student, then a schoolmaster, next a college student and pedagogue alternately — a graduate, still teach- ing to pay oft' that #500 debt, studying law ad interim, and next with his sign out ! Now intervenes a dark hour of despair, away in distant Alabama, at the age of thirty, still battling with poverty, and the battle has been a terrible one ! Lo ! a bright spot in the sky ! — " One friend !" — other friends — is elected Justice of tlie Peace ! — What a God-send ! Then, in quick suc- cession, come elections to the Legislature — business — co-partnership — marriage to a beautiful, lovely, and accomplished young lady— Attorney- Generalship — Judgeship — Electorship— oratorical honors, and election to Congress. Let such a beginning and ending speak for themselves ! Judge Clai'k's manner of speaking is grave, dignified, and impressive. He is a serious-minded, and we may add, a religious man. He has for jnany years been a professor of Christianity, and while he is a scrupulous observer of the forms, and a sincere believer in the tenets of his church, lie is liberal and tolerant to all. There is a tendency to scriptural illus- trations and quotations in his public addresses and speeches, and an apt- ness therein which sometimes almost smacks of the clerical. No man has less of cant or hypocrisy, and if a familiarity with the best of books enables him to illustrate and enforce great truths, he is not the first American orator whose productions have been enriched from the same source. It shows the timber he is made of, the sober New England origin grafted upon the old Scotch ancestry — an origin and ancestry not the' worst in the world. Judge Clark is not a professed politician ; he has devoted but a small IGO SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. portion of liis life to politics. That office has sought Am, rather than he it^ has been seen ; when it has coine in his way, he has considered it well enough to accept it, whenever he could without any sacrifice of his principles or too much sacrifice of his interests. He has made his poli- tical aspirations subservient to his professional standing and character as a lawyer. The law is his forte, what the sti'uggle of his life has been to cherish, follow, and master, and upon which to found a reputation. As a lawyer, Judge Clai'k is not so remarkable for great readiness, as for correctness and soundness. He is an honest and safe counsellor, an eloquent and powerful advocate. One of his maxims for his law students is, "Never advise a suit vou ought not, or cannot gain." No lawver ever practised the profession more conscientiously, or felt deeper anxiety for the interests of his clients, and few have been more successful in gain- ing causes for a series of years, in a responsible and laborious practice. As a man, a neighbor, or a member of society, Mr. Clark is full of kindliness and charities. He is a man for counsel for those in need of friendly advice, to be sought by such as need ]5rotection, to be supplicated by those needing alms — these will not go empty away. His kindness and urbanity towards young members of the bar, contrast strikingly with the crabbedness of some old practitioners, who keep up their dig- nity and importance by a frowning brow and sour aspect towards "juniors." Mindful, perhaps, of his own early struggles and trials, and prompted by a kind and benevolent heart, the subject of this sketch de- lights to tiTlve the novice by the hand, and to aid him in various ways — by gratuitous counsel, by an encouraging word, by inducting him into one of his own cases, and helping him onward in a maiden speech with points of law. Upon his return from Washington, at the close of the thirty-second Congress, Judge Clark resumed the practice of his profession, to whicb he is devotedly attached, and which he still pursues with zeal and energy unabated, and as is believed with the success of former years when he was the familiar acquaintance of the writer of this sketch. HENRY C. WALKER OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, Is a native of Virginia, and the third son of Colonel James Walker, of Buckingham county, Virginia, who died in the year 1828, while Henry was at school. He was considered a wealthy planter, and his children were reared in the belief that they would inheiit a fortune. The estate was nearly absorbed to p^y the debts, and the minor child- ren were deprived of advantages in education bestowed on the older. Henry, through the efforts of his oldest brother, then in Tennessee, re- ceived the appointment of Cadet at West Point, in the year 1830. As EDWIN FARRAR, OF VIRGINIA. 161 ■ he was the oldest son then with His mother, in Virginia, he was induced by her, rehictantly, to decline it. In 1832 his mother and family re- moved to Tennessee. In 1833 he entered as a merchant's clerk in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In 1835 he was elected assistant clerk of the House of Representatives, over the old incumbent of the ofHce. In April, 1836, he was elected a clerk in the Union Bank of Tennessee, at Nash- ville. In the fall of the same year he was promoted to the office of teller of said bank, which he held until May, 1843, when he was elected Cashier of the Union Bank of Tennessee, at Memphis. The deranged afl'airs of the bank requiring constant application and great labor, im- paired his health to such an extent that he was compelled, in 1846, by the advice of his physician, to go to Havana, and thence to the south of France and Italy. In the fall of 1847 he returned home, restored to health, and resumed his duties as cashier. He held the office until August of 1850, when he resigned, and became a partner of the house of S. O. Nelson & Co., cotton factors and commission merchants of New Orleans, of which house he is now a member. Since the commencement of his business life, his industry and appli- cation to business have secured to him many friends in his adopted State, and marked out for him success in all his undertakings. EDWIN FARRAR A LIKENESS of whom accompanies this sketch, was born on the 4th day of September, 1806, in the county of Chesterfield, in the State of Vir- ginia. His father, Peter Field Farrar, was the son of John Farrar, of the county of Chesterfield. His mother, Susan Tompkins, was the daughter of Col. Christopher Tompkins (of the county of King William, in the State of Virginia), who figured with distinction at the siege of Yorktown, and was a colonel in the regular service of the United States. Edwin Farrar, the subject of this sketch, displayed in early youth a quickness of apprehension, a ready business tact, and an indefatigable energy of will, with a sterling moral worth, which promised a life of use- fulness and honorable exertion, in whatever pursuit he might elect to fol- low. His education was limited, yet he ever displayed a reverence for the wisdom, virtue, and learning of " the fathers of the Republic." His mind was quick to apprehend, as his heart was ready to respond to the examples presented in the lives of the good and enlightened men around him. A Virginian by birth, he was essentially a Virginia gentle- man in every impulse of his heart. With a keen sense of honor, and a natural repugnance to every species of deceit or duplicity, he cherished the honor of his State next to that of his own family. Commencing life with such principles as these, and with an energy of VOL. IV. 11 162 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. purpose rarely surpassed, his prospects -were bright and his success sure. He selected, at an early period of youth, a commercial life as his choice, and while yet quite young entered one of the first houses in Richmond. He soon disjjlayed the sterling qualities of his head and heart, and rapidly rose in the estimation of his employers and business acquaintances. In a few years he set up for himself, and rapidly secured, by his energy and fidelity, the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens. He married Martha Ann Lewis (daughter of Francis Lewis, of Henrico county, Virginia, and granddaughter of old Madam Lewis, of Marion Hill, Henrico county) on the 28th March, 1832. Blessed with the confidence and love of so beautiful and accomplished a wife, he redoubled his ener- gies, and followed the calling of his choice with great success until the pecuniary revulsion in 1837, which ruined so many fortunes and disap- pointed so many hopes. The unprecedented reverses of that year greatly deranged his business, and materially retarded his success. Nothing daunted, he was equal to every call upon his energies, and withstood the "tide of ill success" with a fortitude equal to the occasion. From his earliest }^oulh he was a supporter of the most liberal system of internal improvements, popular education, and home development. He was ever a true republican. When the Whig party was foimed, he espoused its cause, and rallied in support of its great founder and leader with a zeal which never abated, and a devotion which never weakened. At all times, under all circumstances, his purse was open as his heart was wedded to the service of the i^arty on the success of which he believed the prosperity of the country depended. Li this particular he eminently displayed the integrity of his nature, and the inflexibility of his purpose, when under a deliberate conviction of duty. No reverse of fortune, no defeat, however severe, could ever dampen his ardor or abate his zeal. He rallied to each successive contest with a resolution equal to every exertion, yet tempered by an urbanity of manner and softened by a social regard for his friends of the opposing party, which endeared him to all who knew him. He is now what he has ever been, a true Whig, a high- toned republican, and a most worthy gentleman — not the less useful be- cause he is in the private walks of life. For several years he has been elected an alderman in the city of Rich- mond, Virginia. On the bench he has ever maintained the same high character for integrity and firmness which he displayed in the private walks of life. A rigid and inflexible impartiality, a stern and unyielding sense of duty, and an imperturbable sense of justice, with a quick appre- hension and a well arranged and self-poised judgment, he analyses with ease and decides with promptitude alike the law and evidence in the cases before him ; while he ever displays on the bench the equanimity of temper and suavity of manner which characterize his private inteucourse with his fellow-citizens. This sketch might well be extended, and innumerable incidents in the life of Mr. Farrar given in detail, which would illustrate what we have already said of him. But this is needless. We write rather to sketch the main outlines of his character and give the general tenor of his life, than to furnish in detail the incidents of a life as useful as it is private, and honorable as it has been and is unostentatious. As a man, a mer- chant, a patriot, .a justice, and a private citizen, Mr. Farrar has exemplified EDMUND FONTAINE, OF VIRGINIA. 163 in life the promise of his youth, and is now the respected and esteemed gentleman, with energies unsubdued, and with a life of usefulness before him. We may add, that John Farrar, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, married Rebecca Wathen, who was the granddaughter of Charles Hudson of the county of Hanover. George Hudson, the brother of Charles, was the grandfother of Henry Clay. These two brothers married the two Miss Jennings, who, it is believed, are the regular de- scendants in line, and right heiis to the great Jennings estate of seventy- two millions of dollars, in England. This estate, which has attracted so much general attention, and has been so long locked up in chancery, may yet be distributed, through the descendants of Charles and George Hudson, to citizens of the United States, and a goodly portion would go to the subject of this brief memoir and his brothers and sisters, who are, Chastain, John, Robert, Dr. Joseph C, Susan Ann, Catharine, and Mai'tha E. Farrar. EDMUND FONTAINE, OF RICHMOND, PRESIDENT OF THE VIRGINIA CENTRAL RAILROAD COM- PANY. If History be " philosophy teaching by example," Biography should belong to the department of experimental philosophy ; for whilst the former commends itself to us by its great truths and its general lessons of civil and political wisdom, the latter presents us with the record of the practi- cal life and the personal experience of those whose actions form the sub- ject of our contemplation. In this point of view, biography affords us the experimental results of principles and rules in action — brings us into closer contact with the thoughts and character of those whose talents, in- tegrity and enterprise have exerted a marked influence on society, and become to the young and emulous, who may come after them, at once an incentive and a guide to that goal " where Fame's pround temple shines afer." It is a just occasion of felicitation to every American citizen to reflect that in no other country are there to be found so many examples of men who, by solid merit, have won their way to a high place in the general esteem and confidence, as in his own favored land. This result is due in a great degree to the admirable political institutions transmitted to us from our sagacious and patriotic forefathers. It should be admit- ted, however, that much is due also to the influence of circumstances con- nected with the early ancestral history of the families and races which peo- pled this western continent in the beginning. Who can fail to disceris in the peculiarities which distinguish the various inhabitants of this great country (comprehended, for want of a better, under the general but non-dis- tinctive name of Americans), the strong features, and the prominent na- 164 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. tional traits that belong to us, as descendants of English, Scotch, Irish, French, and German parents ? The names are not less significant of the peculiar, mosaic origin of the "Universal Yankee Nation," than the na- ture we inherit from our respective ancestral stock, and these appellatives become, not unfrequenth', the key to the comprehension of the distinctive qualities which mark their possessor in the particular department of life to which he may be devoted. An illustration of these observations is furnished in a remarkable degree by the personal as well as family his- tory and character of the subject of this imperfect sketch. Edmund Fontaine, a native of Hanover county, Virginia, was born January 20th, 1801. He is, as his name imports, of French extraction — being a descendant of the Huguenots, of one of those Protestant refu- gees whose cruel sufferings and persecution for conscience' sake, endured with undaunted and heroic fortitude, form one of the most thrilling and romantic episodes ever recorded on the page of history. His own family especially, from the days of their great founder, Jaques de la Fontaine, in 1535, seem to have been visited by a larger measure of Popish in- tolerance and ferocity than fell to the lot of others. On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 22, 1685, James Fontaine, one of his sons, then a Protestant pastor in France, who had previously been sub- jected to a long imprisonment and confiscation of his estates, as the price of his fidelity to the stern claims of conscience and duty, fled from his native country, and with many other exiled pilgrims, took refuge from the bloody persecution of Louis XIV. in England. Ha\ang encountered many hardships^ and misfortunes in England, and afterwards in Ireland, several of his sons and one of his daughters, Mrs. Maury, with her hus- band, Matthew Maury, emigrated to the colony of Virginia, and about the year 1720 settled in the counties of Lunenburg, King William, Louisa, and Hanover. From one of these, Peter, descended William Fon- taine, the father of the subject of this memoir. Col. William Fontaine was an officer in the revolutionary army, and participated with distinction in the capture of Yorktown, and the suri'ender of Cornwallis and his army on that memorable occasion. It is only a few years ago, that Wm. 0. Rives, Esq., then a Senator in Congress from Virginia, and more recently the American minister at the court of France, enriched the valuable archives of the Virginia Historical Society by the presentation to them of an ori- ginal letter from Col. Wm, Fontaine (which had been fortunately pre- served among the family records), dated October 26, I'ZSl, less than one week after the event, detaiHng in glowing and patriotic terms the particu- lars of the surrender of York.'" The descendant, in the paternal line, of the Huguenot pilgrim and the Revolutionary patriot, Col. Fontaine's maternal ancestry were scarcely less favorable to the transmission and development of those hereditary qualities, which he has illustrated in his less conspicuous, but useful and * These particulars are gleaned from a spii'ited and interesting Avorli just is- sued from the press of Putnam & Co., entitled "Memoirs of a Huguenot Fami- ly, translated and complied from the original autobiography of the Rev. James Fontaine, by Ann Maurj^," herself a descendant of the distinguished familj' whose memoirs she has gracefully edited. EDMUND FONTAINE, OF VIRGINIA. 165 honorable career. His mother, Mrs. Ann Fontaine, was the daughter of WilHara Morris of Hanover, and the sister of Richard Morris of the same county — an eminent hiwyer and statesman, whose high reputation for talents, social virtue, and chivalrous honor is familiarly known through- out Virginia. This little sketch of the family antecedents of Col. Fontaine is not drawn with any view of inviting the attention of the public to any con- sideration he may be supposed to claim from a noble ancestry. No one would condemn more severely than himself so unworthy an object; in- asmuch as no one more fully appreciates the wisdom of our republican system, and the simplicity of republican manners which makes merit, not family distinctions, the only criterion of public consideration and respect. It is to exhibit the spirit of manly freedom, the love of liberty, and the bold independence of his early progenitors, not the nobility of their de- scent, that these facts are useful and worthy of recital. Reared in habits of sobriety and industry, and inheriting a small pa- trimony, Edmund Fontaine devoted himself with diligence and perse- verance to the pursuits of agriculture, and soon exhibited to his neighbors and countrymen the fruits of a mature judgment in the system, e^iergy, and thrift which distinguished his management. In Virginia he has been well known as a successful farmer, and has ever been i-eady and prompt to give every impulse in his power to progress and improvement in the beneficent work of husbandry. This earnest and active spirit of enterprise early attracted the attention of his countrymen, and led to his be- ing called from his avocations as a farmer to a more enlarged theatre of action. In 1834 he was nominated by a convention and was elected to represent the senatorial district composed of the counties of Hanover, Louisa, Fluvanna and Goochland, in the Legislature of Virginia, beating, by a handsome majority, a most estimable gentleman, the" late Horatio Gates Winston, who had been the late incumbent and was candidate for re-election. At the expiration of his term, his re-election was opposed in an active canvass by I)r. Joseph M. Shephard of Hanover, but he was again elected by his confiding constituents. During this term, Col. Fontaine, who had been a decided and active member of the Democratic party, felt con- strained by a high sense of public duty to oppose the administration of Mr. Van Buren. His course on this occasion, and his affiliation with the conservative party of that day, brought down upon him the thunders of the party press, and the bitter hostility of some of his late political allies. Great excitement prevailed, and threats of indignant instructions from the constituent body were freely used as a means of intimidation. The in- trepid firmness of Col. Fontaine was proof against all such menaces. He did not falter for a moment in his course. His opponents made the eftbrt to get up instructions to him, in accordance with the Virginia doctrines, to support the administration or to resign his place. The attempt was, however, a signal failure, and the Senator was thus left free to follow the direction of his own judgment and discretion. At the end of this second term, he retired from the Senate to the more quiet and congenial em- ployment of domestic and agricultural life. He had pre\iously been married at the age of twenty-four to Maria Louisa Shackleford — a lady whose personal attractions, united to her aniiable disposition and culti- 166 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. vated intellect, rendered their union a constant source of domestic tran- quillity and happiness. Under such benign home influences, Col. Fon- taine has been blessed with a numerous offspring, whose training and edu- cation he has directed with the most anxious and assiduous care. It was duriuo; his service in the State Senate that Colonel Fontaine was called on, as the representative of his district, to take an active inte- rest in the affairs of the then Louha, and now Virginia Central Railroad Company, with whose fortunes he has ever since been closely identified. Having taken the leading part in the passage of a law for the construc- tion of this road from a point on the Richmond and Potomac railroad, in the direction of Harrisonburg, in the valley of Virginia, Colonel Fon- taine was appointed by the Board of Public Works the proxy to represent the interest of three fifths of the stock then held by the State in that work. Soon after the road was completed to Gordonsville, in Orange county, he was appointed a delegate to a convention held at Harrison- burg, the object of which w-as to devise means to bring the road across the mountains to that point. It was on this occasion that the enterprise and forecast of Colonel Fontaine were strikingly displayed in the propo- sition he brought forward, for the first time, to extend this road to the Ohio river. At that early day, in the infancy of such enterprises in Virginia, the bare idea of reaching the Ohio thi'ough or over the moun- tain barriers of Virginia was denounced as chimerical, and it required a man of some nerve to expose himself to the jeers and reproaches with which such a pi'oposal would be greeted. The energy, zeal, and intelligence with which Colonel Fontaine sus- tained the claims and the capability of this little Louisa road, as it was then regarded, to be the great western pioneer in bringing to the Atlan- tic seaboard the heavy trade and travel of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, and the boldness and vigor with which he pressed his views, united to his known business habits and qualifications, soon pointed him out to the public and to the stockholders as the safest and wisest guar- dian to whom its rising fortunes could be confided. Accordingly, in the year 1845, he was elected the President of the company. The first measure in reference to which he was called on to act afforded an occasion to display his fitness for the station to Avhich he had been called. The question was submitted to the stockholders, at their first meeting after his election, whether the road should continue to be a mere feeder to the Richmond and Potomac road, or, by assuming its proper rank as an independent work, become one of the great lines of national com- merce and importance. At this time, the Richmond road was actually doing the transportation of the Louisa — furnishing their own cars and engines, running at such hours as to suit their own convenience or ca- price, and paying to the Louisa company a fixed sum by way of remu- neration, for the surrender to them of the valuable trade and travel over their road. Colonel Fontaine resolved to break up this miserable depend- ence — to shake off this grasping monopoly of the resources of his own road, which preyed like a vampyre on the vitals of his little bantling. It was, however, no easy task. The annual stipend derived from the Richmond road paid a dividend to the Louisa stockholdei's. This might be endangered, and a large party among the stockholders loudly insisted EDMUND FONTAINE, OF VIRGINIA. 167 that the connection should continue, and that the perilous experiment of i^ustaining an independent existence should not be hazarded. Such ar- guments, it may well be conceived, possessed no weight in the eyes of one whose fathers had always preferred independence in honorable poverty to the most successful affluence at the unworthy sacrifice of prin- ciple anartisan newspaper article of his is anywhere to be found, and for the best of reasons, for he never made or wrote one. His first speech in the Massachusetts House of Representatives was in favor of religious liberty. For many years, the legislation of Massa- chusetts, together with the decisions of the Supreme Court, and a change in the Constitution of the State, had tended to put all religious opinions on a footing of entire equality before the law. In consequence of these events, a scheme had been projected for the creation of estates in a kind of mortmain, vesting them in a corporate body of trustees, perpetually renewable by itself, — what is called a close corporation, — and limiting the 190 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. income of the property for ever to the support of a particular creed, or set of doctrines. Mr. Mann was too well read in the ecclesiastical history of Europe, and especially of England, not to see that this Avas an attempt to transfer one of the worst institutions of the dark ages bodily into the nineteenth century. He was one of the youngest members of the house ; this was his first term. Similar charters of incorporation had been granted within the two or three preceding years ; another had been re- ported by the appropriate committee, and no token of opposing it had been given. Opposition, therefore, might well seem desperate, and an attempt to thwart the purposes of the most powerful religious body in the State would have been deemed by time-servers an act of useless hardihood and recklessness; But to an honest man, conscious of being morally, and convinced of being intellectually right, resistance to wrong, however formidable the shapes it may assume, is easy. We think up- right men often receive undue credit for moral courage. For a thoroughly upright man to do right, is the easiest thing in the world. The hard thing for him would be to do wrong. Wlien the bill came up, Mr. Mann, unexpectedly to every one, arose. In an earnest and solemn manner, he laid down the great principles of religious freedom and equality, and exposed the injustice of carving out and setting aside any portion of the earth, or any portion of tlie property of the earth, and de- termining by law what particular religious creed or doctrine that property should .be made the instrument of upholding through all future time. He showed that it was the very essence of bigotry, in all nations and at all times, to ari-est religious progess and petrify religious opinions at the point where the bigot haj^pened to find them. The result was decisive. Not only was the bill rejected, but no attempt at a similar measure has since, at any time, been made in Massachusetts. His second eftbrt was a speech in behalf of railroads. A report of this was printed in some of the Boston papers, and we believe it was the first printed speech made in any legislative body in the United States, in behalf of a policy wliich has since worked such wonders for the country at large, and has secured to his native State nearly one half of its present population, and doubtless quite one half of its present wealth. After this speech was made, one of the most prominent of his Dedham fellow-citizens wrote several articles for the newspapers against Mr. Mann, for having advocated a policy which, as he predicted, would be the ruin of the small towns in the vicinity of Boston. Had that gen- tleman left Dedham, after writing those articles, to return to it now, he would hardly know it, so wonderfully has it advanced in wealth, num- bers, and improvement of all kinds, in consequence of the system which he condemned, but Mr. Mann's foresight counselled. From this time, Mr. Mann became a conspicuous and leading mem- ber of the House. He was appointed on many of its principal commit- tees (the judiciary, &c.), and took an active part in the discussion of all important questions. Especially all matters pertaining to morals, to public charities, to education, and whatever involved the principles of civil and religious liberty, were sure to find in him a champion always ready and earnest. His voice was ever raised in behalf of the poor, the ignorant, and the Unfortunate classes of society. HOKACE MANN, OF OHIO. 191 lie advocated laws for improving the system of common schools. He, more than any other man, was the means of procuring the enact- ment 'of what was called the "Fifteen Gallon Law," for the suppression of intemperance, — a law which would have effected the work of reform in Massachusetts but for the defection of a few pohticians, who sacrificed the cause of morality for partisan success. He was a member of the committee who reported the resolves which sub- sequently resulted in the codification of the statute laws of Massachusetts, He took a leading part in preparing and carrying through the law whose stringent provisions for a long time, and almost effectually, broke up the traffic in lottery tickets. The evils and the abominations of the lottery traffic being chiefly of a moral kind, are seen and felt most keenly by men of high moral sense, while they escape the notice of those who are only technically moral and religious. Hence lotteries are not only tolerated in many Christian countries, but openly encouraged ; nay, they are managed, or mismanaged, by many governments; and at Rome they are publicly drawn with church "'ceremonial and blessing in the presence of the deluded crowd of gamblers who fill the square. It was against the inm-iorality of this and kindred institutions that Mr, Mann has been wont to di'aw from the full armory of his mind the fiery bolts of a moral indignation ; for to him immorality is irreligion ; and immoral men are the enemies of his God, as well as of his fellow-creatures. With this key to his character, one can find the purpose, unseen of many, which has animated him in his attacks upon men and lueasures, and roused him to deal blows which some have condenmed as severe and merciless. It is to be borne in mind that the very eai'nestness and in- tensity of nature which have enabled him to build up and establish so many good work^, incapacitate him from compromising with wrong, or striking softly at wrong doers. Few have ever objected to the_ rigor and fire of 1iis onslaught until he happened to attack some pet gratification of their own. A c^ilm review of his controversial writings will show that he never lost sight of moral principles or stooped to low aims even in the heat and excitement of controversy. But the act by which Mr. Mann most signalized his legislative life in the House of Representatives was the establishment of the State Lunatic Hospital of Worcester. This benevolent enterprise was conceived, sus- tained, and carried through the House by him alone, against the apathy and indifterence of many, and the direct opposition of some prominent men. He moved the appointment of the original committee of inquiry, and made its report, drew up and reported the resolve for erecting the hospital, and his was the only speech made in its favor. One of the most distinguished members of the House, a gentleman who has since filled one of the most responsible offices in the State, spoke of the measure when first introduced as " a project of boyish en- thusiasm." j\Ir. Mann was chairman of the committee appointed to make the preliminary inquiries. After the law was passed, he was ap- pointed chairman of "^ the Board of Commissioners to contract for and supermtend the erection of the Hospital. When the buildings were completed, in 1833, he was appointed chairman of the Board of Trustees for administering the institution, and remained on the Board until rotated out of office by the provisions of the law which governed it. 192 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The execution of this great Avork ilhistrated those characteristics of the subject of this memoir which have signaHzod his life. The novelty and costliness of the enterprise demanded boldness. Its motive sprung from his benevolence. , Its completion witliout loss or failure illustrated his foresight. It vpas arranged that no ardent spirits should ever be used on the work, and the whole edifice was completed without accident or injury to any workn:an. The expenditure of so large a sum as fifty thousand dollars without overrunning appropriations proved his recogni- tion of accountability. The selection of so remarkable a man as Dr. Woodward for the superintendent showed his knowledge of character. And the success which, after twenty years of experience, lias finally crowned the work, denotes that highest kind of statesmanship, which holds the succor of human wants and the alleviation of human woes to be an integral and indispensable, as it is a most economical part of the duties of a paternal government. That Hospital has served as a model for many similar institutions in other States and countries, which, through the benevolent influence of its widely known success, have been erected because that was erected. At first the Hospital was opposed and its author ridiculed ; but it is remarkable that during the many years Mr. Mann was connected with it, the Legislature of Massachusetts never refused a single appropriation which was asked for by the Trustees in its behalf. In claiming this degree of merit for Mr. IMann, we know that injustice would be done to his feelings were not great credit given to his coadju- tors in the work. Associated with him for erecting and organizing the institution, were the Hon. Wm. B. Calhoun of Springfield, and the Hon. B. Taft of Uxbridge, gentlemen of the highest character for intelligence and wisdom. It must also be admitted that no amoiUit of knowledge, prudence, or sagacity, in any supervising board of trustees, could ever have given to the institution the elevated rank it has so deservedly lield, or enabled it to accomplish the immense amount of good it has achieved, without that most remarkable combination of excellences, any one of which would have made a reputation for a common man, of which its superintendent, Doctor Woodward, was the universally acknowledged possessor. In 1838, as a token of regard for establishing this hospital. Doctor Ray, now superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane at Providence, R. I., dedicated his admirable " Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity" to Mr, IMann. We subjoin a sketch of Mr. Mann's speech in behalf of the resolve for establishing the Hospital, which is taken from a contemporary news- paper : — " Mr. Mann, of Dedham, requested the attention of the House to the numbers, condition, and necessities of the insane within this Common- wealth, and to the consideration of the means by which their suffei'ings might be altogether prevented, or at least assuaged. On reviewing our legislation upon this subject, he could not claim for it the praise either of pohcy or humanity. In 1816 it was made the duty of the Supreme Court, when a grand jury had refused to indict, or the jury of trials to convict any person, by reason of his insanity or mental derangement, to commit such person to prison, there to be kept until his enlargement HORACE MANK, OF OHIO. 193 should be deemed compatible with the safety of the citizens, or until some friend should procure his release by becoming responsible for all damages which, in his insanity, he might commit. " Had the human mind been tasked to devise a mode of aggravating to the utmost the calamities of the insane, a more apt expedient could scarcely have been suggested ; or had the earth been searched, places more inauspicious to their recovery could scarcely have been found. " He cast no reflection upon the keepers of our jails, houses of correc- tion, and poor houses, as humane men, when he said, that as a class they were eminently disqualified to have the supervision and management of the insane. The superintendent of the insane should not only be a hu- mane man, but a man of science ; he should not only be a physician, but a mental philosopher. An alienated mind should be touched only by a skilful hand. Great experience and knowledge were necessary to trace the causes that first sent it devious into the wilds of insanity ; to counteract the disturbing forces, to restore it again to harmonious ac- tion. None of all these requisites could we command under the present system. " But the place was no less unsuitable than the management. In a prison little attention could be bestowed upon the bodily comforts and less upon the mental condition of the insane. They are shut out from the cheering and healing influences of the external world. They are cut off from the kind regaid of society and friends. The construction of their cells often debars them from light and air. With fire they cannot be trusted. Madness strips them of their clothing. If there be any re- cuperative energies of mind, suffering suspends or destroys them, and re- covery is placed almost beyond the reach of hope. He affirmed that he was not giving an exaggerated account of this wretched class of beings, between Avhom and humanity there seemed to be a gulf, which no one had as yet crossed to carry them relief. He held in liis hand the evi- dence which would sustain all that he had said. "From several facts and considerations, he inferred that the whole num- ber of insane persons in the State could not be less than 500. Whether 500 of our fellow-beings, suffering under the bereavement of reason, should be longer subjected to the cruel operation of our laws, was a ques- tion which no man could answer in the affirmative, who was not himself a sufferer under the bereavement of all generous and humane emotions. But he would for a moment consider it as a mere question of ■saving and expendituie. He would argue it as if human nature knew no symjm- thies, as if duty imposed no obligations. And in teaching Avarice a lesson of humanity, he would teach it a lesson of economy also. "Of the 298 persons returned, IGl are in confinement. Of these, the duration of the confinement of 150 is ascertained. It exceeds in the aggregate a thousand years ;— a thousand years, during which the mind had been sequestered from the ways of knowledge and useful- ness, and the heart in all its suflferings inaccessible to the consolations of religion. "The average expense, Mr. Mann said, of keeping those persons in con- finement, could not be less than $2.50 per week, or if friends had fur- nished cheaper support, it must have been from some motive besides cupidity. Such a length of time, at such a price, would amount to VOL. IV. 13 194 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. $130,000. And if 150 who are in confinement exhibit an aggregate of more than a thousand years of insanity, the 148 at large might be safely set down at half that sum, or 500 years. Allowing for these an average expense of $1 per week, the sum is |52,000, which added to $130,000 as above, makes $182,000. Should we add to this $1 per week for all, as the sum they might have earned had they been in health, the result is $234,000 lost to tlie State by the infliction of this malady alone ; and this estimate is predicated only of 298 persons, returned from less than half the population of the State. " Taking results then, derived from so large an experience, it was not too much to say, that more than one half of the cases of insanity were susceptible of cure, and that at least one half of the expense now sus- tained by the State might be saved by the adoption of a different sys- tem of treatment. One fact ought not to be omitted, that those wdio suifer under the most sudden and violent access of insanity were most easily restored. But such individuals, under our system, are immediately subject to all the rigors of confinement, and thus an impassable barrier is placed between them and hope. This malady, too, is confined to adults almost exclusively. It is then, after all the expense of early edu- cation and rearing has been incurred, that their usefulness is terminated. But it had pained him to dv/ell so long on these pecuniary details. On this subject he was willing that his feelings should dictate to his judg- ment and control his interest. There are questions, said he, upon which the heart is a better counsellor than the head, — where its plain exposi- tions of right encounter and dispel the sophistries of intellect. There are sufferers amongst us whom we are able to relieve. If, with our abundant means, we hesitate to succor their distress, we may well envy thein their incapacity to commit crime. " But let us reflect, that while we delay they sufi'er. Another year not only gives an accession to their numbers, but removes, perhaps to a re- turnless distance, the chance of their recovery. Whatever they endure, which we can prevent, is virtually inflicted by our own hands. Let us restore them to the enjoyment of the exalted capacities of intellect and virtue. Let us draw aside the dark curtain which hides from their eyes the wisdom and beauty of the universe. The appropriation proposed was small — it was for such a charity insignificant. Who is there, he demanded, that, beholding all this remediable misery on one hand, and looking, on the other, to that paltry sum which would constitute his proportion of the expense, could pocket the money, and leave the victims to their sufterings? How many thousands do we devote annually to the cultivation of mind in our schools and colleges ; and shall we do nothing to reclaim that mind when it has been lost to all its noblest prerogatives t Could the victims of insanity themselves come up before us, and find a lanofuaffe to reveal their historv, who could hear them unmoved ? But to me, said Mr. Mann, the a[)peal is stronger, because the)/ are unable to make it. Over his feelings, their imbecility assumed the form of irre- sistible power. No eloquence could persuade like their heedless silence. It is now, said he, in the power of the members of this House to exercise their highest privileges as men, their most enviable functions as legis- lators ; to become protectors to the wretched, and benefactors to the miserable." HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 195 Mr. Mann continued to be returned by large majorities as a repre- sentative from Dedliam, until the year 1833, when he removed to Bos- ton, and entered into partnership in the practice of law with the Hon. Edward G. Loring. But his legislative duties were not at an end. At the very first election after liis becoming a citizen of Boston he was chosen a senator from the county of Sufiblk to the State Senate. By re-elections he was continued in the Senate for four years. In 1836 that body elected him its President; and again in 1837, in which year he retired from political life. During the four years he was a member of the Senate, his name con- tinued to be connected with all reformatory movements, and with almost every etibrt, whether legislative or social, for ameliorating the condition of men. The report of the Commissioners for codifying the statute law of Massachusetts, which originated in the recommendation of a committee of the House of which he was a member, as before stated, was made in 1835, but before being finally acted upon, it was deemed advisable that it should ])ass under the hands of a joint legislative committee. Of this committee Mr. Manu was a member, and for a portion of the tin:e chairman. This committee made many important modifications of the commissioners' report^ and it is no disparagement to the valuable contributions made by others, to say, that a large number of most salu- tary provisions were incorporated into the code at his suggestion. In particular, that grand provision which distinguishes between poor debtors and fraudulent debtors was drawn up by him, and its views sustained in a long and elaborate report, which first offered the true solution of the long vexed question respecting " poor debtors," by providing certain tan- gible means and tests for distinguishing between the honest and the dis- honest debtor, punishing the latter, but rescuing the former from the arbitrary power of his creditor. At his procurement also the provisions were introduced by which " any person who shall be guilty of the crime of drunkenness by the voluntary use of intoxicating liquors" is punishable, and by Avhich the public execution of criminals was abolished. We suppose this to have been the first time that voluntary drunken- ness was ever called a crime, in the statute laws of England or America. After the " Revised Statutes," as they were called, had been enacted, Mr. Mann was associated, by a legislative resolve, with the Hon. Thomas Metcalf, now Judge Metcalf of the Supreme Court, to edit the work. It is understood that Mr. Metcalf prepared the index to the code, Mr. Mann the marginal notes and the references to judicial decisions. Other editorial duties were performed by them in common. , While a member of the Senate, he reported and sustained the bill for the enlargement of the Worcester Hospital ; and while its presiding offi- cer, he several times left the chair to take part in the debates of that body. The two most important occasions were the jmssage of the bill for incorporating the Western Railroad Company, and loaning the credit of the State for the work, and a bill to improve the common schools of the State by increasing the amount of money to be raised for their sup- port. Of course, he spoke in the affirmative on both these measures. In 1837, Mr. Mann left political and professional life to enter upon a 196 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. new and more congenial sphere of labor. In bringing this portion of his history to a close, it may be remarked, that though he was on many of the most important committees, and often chairman of them, and though few, if any, ever originated more projects for amending the laws, for pro- moting the pecuniary prosperity or ameliorating the condition of society, yet he never failed to carry through a single measure which he under- took. He saw effects in causes. He was cautious in the inception of measures ; but, once undertaken, he was earnest and invincible in their support. While a member of the House, he was for a time Judge Advocate in the militia. This fact is worthy of notice only because he officiated during the trial of Lieut. Col. Winthrop — a trial which attracted no in- considerable attention at the time. It lasted thirty days. The published proceedings of the court filled a large octavo volume, and they contain several elaborate opinions of Mr. Mann, on broad legal and constitu- tional questions, which, considering his age Vi'hen they were written, have been thought remarkable. In sketching his legislative career, we have noticed only incidentally his connection with the causes of temperance and education. Having been brought up where ardent spirits were comnionly used as a beverage, and universally esteemed a luxury, he has often been heard to say that " he and all his playmates were educated to become drunkards." " Many of them," he added, " became so ; and such was the imminence of my own peril, that when I look back to my early life, I feel like a soldier coming out of battle who puts his hand up to his head to see if it is on." When he commenced the student's life, he found that ardent spirits, though taken in the most moderate quantities, and far within the limits which custom then allowed to sober men, impaired his power of mental application. This was an intimation of duty which Heaven made through the laws of his organization, and he therefore abstained. For a number of years he drank wine occasionally, but never as a habit ; and now for many years past he has discarded, not only wine, but even tea and cof- fee, using heaven's " pure element " alone, to the incalculable benefit of his own powers as a working man, and of his life as an example. May not these facts be presumed to have suggested the following passage in his Lecture to Young Men ? — " Such a young man reverences the divine skill and wisdom by which his physical frame has been so fearfully and wonderfully inade ; and he keeps it pure and clean, as a fit temple for the living God. For evo-jj in- dulgence of appetite that would enervate the body, or dull the keen sense, or cloud the luminous brain, he has a ' Get thee behind me .f so stern and deep, that the balked Satans of temptation shrink from before him in shame and dexjMir.'' " Soon after he became a resident in Dedham, its citizens formed a large and most respectable temperance society. He was elected its president, and wrote a vigorous address to the public in behalf of its object. When first chosen a representative to the General Court, he broke in upon the habit, until then uniform in that town, of "treating" the electors after the election was over ; but lest his conduct should seem to spring from improper motives, he gave for charitable purposes a larger sum than the " treating " would have cost. HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 197 Thus, in various ways, and on all suitable occasions, he manifested his zeal in this cause at a time when its advocacy incurred reproacli, obloquy, and tlie loss of professional business; and wlien, in June, 1837, he ac- cepted the office of Secretary of the Board of Education, he was a mem- ber of the " Council of the Massachusetts State Temperance Society," and President of tlie " Suffolk County Temperance Society." These offices were then resigned, so that, wholly unincumbei-ed by other things, he might bear tlie weight of the harness he was about to put on, and wield the weapons of the new warfare in which he had engao-ed. We believe it will be found almost universally true, in regard to men who have'distinguished themselves in any particular department, that they gave early indications of their ultimate eminence. In the moral, no more than in the natural world, does the fruit come without the bud and the flowering. An impulse derived from nature or from education, starts and grows in the deep recesses of the soul. For a time, it may be nursed in secret, now and then throwing out signs of its gathering force. But when the time and the occasion come, it bursts forth, full orbed and com- plete, with the helmet on its head and the sword by its side, panting for the battle. Such seems to have been the case with Mr. Mann in regard to popular education. From the earliest day when his actions became publicly no- ticeable, universal education, through the instrumentality of free public schools, was commended by his words and promoted by his acts. Its ad- vocacy was a golden thread woven into all the texture of his writings and his life. One of his eai'liest addresses was a discourse before a county association of teachers, almost all of whom were older than himself, and many of whom might have been his parent or grandparent. After he entered the profession of law, it was his invariable practice to give legal advice and to prepare legal papers gratuitously, on all matters pertaining to public education.* When he became Secretary of the Board of Education, he was for twelve years a kind of Attorney-General for the State in regard to school law ; and since he left that office, so numerous are the applications made to him for professional advice, that, were he to charge the common fees of a counsellor, they would amount to no inconsiderable income. While other aspiring young men were writing political articles for the news- papers, he was writing educational ones. lie aided the poor to acquire knowledge, loaned them books and pecuniary means, and trusted to their future ability to earn and repay. When practicable, he gave gra- tuitous instruction. As soon as eligible, he was chosen a member of the Superintending School Committee of Dedham, and continued to fill the office until he left the place, — an office in that large town of great labor, * In a letter of his which, by accident, we have just seen, dated Washington, Dec. 19, 1851, not intended for publication, but which has been published in con- sequence of some legal proceedings, we find the following: "You ask me to for- ward mj bill for my opinion. My dear sir, such has always been my interest in schools, that from the first day I opened a law oflice to tlie jiresent time, though 1 have probably given more legal opinions on school matters than any other fifty men in tlie Statie, yet I have never charged a cent for one of them; and 1 think it is now rather too late to begin." 198 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS, and then without any reimbursement even of its necessaiy expenses. There he began his lessons in the very diflBcult art of addressing cbildreUo With all his knowledge, whenever he arose to speak to the young, he became " as one of these little ones." Hence his success before the young, which is thought by those who have heard him to be more remarkable than his power of addressing men/' In the General Court, he was always on the side of schools, advocating them in debate, and still more actively seeking occasions to converse with members and to ingraft his ideas upon their minds. He did not care who had the merit of proposing a good measure, he had his reward in seeing it carried. In his " Reply" to the Thirty-one Boston Schoolmasters, written in 1844, the following account is given of the establishment of the Board, and of the appointment of himself as its Secretary, which we prefer to copy here because it has long since passed into history, and its correctness has never been questioned : — " It was," says he, " at this point in my personal history, that the plan of a Board of Education as now established was projected. After many private conferences with an honorable friend of mine (Mr. Dvvight), who has since evinced the sincerity of his attachment to this cause, a meeting was called at his house in the winter of 183*7, to consider the subject of a Board of Education for the State, I need not recite details. The Board of Education was established by Act of April 20tli of that year. Previous to and at that time, the suggestion had never been made to me, nor had the idea ever arisen in my own mind, that I should be appointed to the office I now hold. When that proposition was first made, though all the affinities of my nature leaped out towards it, yet I thought it to be forbidden by insurmountable circumstances. But at the organization of the Board, June 29, 1837, I was elected its Secretary. ... I humbly hoped that while other fiiends of the cause were contributing of their abundance, I might, in this way, cast my mite into the treasury of the Lord." The truth was, that on casting about for an appointee, the Board found but few who would accept the office of Secretary, which was to be poorly requited by pecuniary remuneration (its salary at first was but one thousand dollars), and promised to be so thankless in social rewards. At the first election there was one other candidate, and Mr. Mann was not chosen unanimously ; but for the next eleven years he was annually re-elected to the same office, and each time it is believed by a unanimous vote of the Board.f * If any one wishes to see a speciiuen of his skill in addressing children, let him read the letter to the children of Chautauque county, N. Y. See Common School Journal, vol. ix., p. 1*7. f The late Hon. Edward Dwight, who was an early and generous friend and promoter of the caiise, in 1838 gave ten thousand dollars towards establishing the Normal Schools. Aftei'wards, in ] 845, he gave a thousand dollars towards defray- ing the expenses of the first Teachers' Institute ever held in Massachusetts, an experiment so successful that the Legislature at its next session made a grant for the same purpose, which is still continued. Mr. Dwight's heart and purse were open to appreciate the teacher's wortli and to contribute for his encouragement. HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 199 Mr. Mann accepted the office ajrainst the advice and persuasion of ahiiost his whole circle of friends. His more intimate associates dissuaded liim from a field which promised neither honor nor emolument. His political supporters assured him that higher offices in the gift of the people might already be seen looming up in the distance and beckoning his approach. The judges of the courts before whom he practised expressed surprise that the pursuit of the distinctions and emoluments of the profession should be abandoned just at the period when they might be won. But though he could not answer their arguments, he had an instinct which was surer than the conclusions of logic. A strong pur- pose, both of the higher sentunents and the intellect, is a voice of prophecy. Where this voice is clear, all dissuasives, all threats, all allurements in other directions become sounds in an unknown tongue, for the inspired heart cannot understand them. He saw that the pro- posed work involved all the elements of true greatness. Education was the condition precedent of all human welfare. It is the vital element without which thei'e can be no life. The dignity and powei' of indi- viduals, the grandeur of nations so far as human agency is concerned, have no other enduring basis. AVithout education, the attributes of God cannot be known, and therefore cannot be aspired to ; the infinite calami- ties of evil and sin cannot be comprehended, and therefore will not be resisted ; the degrading vassalage of superstition cannot be understood, and therefore its reign will never be abolished. He saw in an enlight- ened education peace, glory, and life, the only atmosphere in which true Christianity can flourish ; and he trusted that through all the hours of present darkness and toil, the light that shines out of the future would warm and illumine his course. Among all his acquaintances there was but one man who fully appreciated the motives of his choice, and ten- dered him a hearty congratulation.*" * The late Dr. William Ellery Clianning, who wrote him the following letter : New York, Aug. 19, 1837. My Dear Sir, — I understand that you have given yourself to the cause of edu- cation in our commonwealth. I rejoice in it. Kothing could give me greater pleasure. I have long desired that some one uniting all your qualifications should devote himself to this work. You could not iind a nobler station. Govern- ment has no nobler one to give. You must allow me to labor under you accord- ing to my opportunities. If at any time I can aid you, you must let me know, and 1 shall be glad to converse with you always about your operations. When will tlie low degrading party quarrels of the country cease, and the better mind.^ come to think what can be done towards a substantial, generous improvement of the communit}' J "My ear is pained, my very soiil is sick" with the monotonous yet furious clamors about currency, banks, &c., when the .sjiiritual interests of the community seem hardlj' to be I'ecognised as having any reality. If we can but turn the wonderful energy of this people into a right channel, what a new heaven and earth must be realized among us ! And I do not de- spair. Your willingness to consecrate yourself to the work is a happy omen. You do not stand alone, or form a rare exception to the times. There must be many to be touched by the same truths which are stirring you. My hope is that the pursuit will give you new vigor and health. If you can keep strong outwardly, I have no fear about the efficiency of the spirit. I write in haste, for I am not very strong, and any effort exhausts me, but I wanted to express my sympathy, and to wish you God speed on your way. Your sincere friend, Wm. E. Cuanning. See Dr. Channing's Memoirs, vol. iii., p. 89. 200 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICAN?. The duties of the Secretary were not defined with any minuteness in the Act which created the office, nor was it possible that they should be. The Legislature or the Board, indeed, might say that the Secretary should hold school conventions in every county in the State. But should he go into those conventions as a "dead-head," or as a " tongue of flame"? They might say he should call teachers together periodically at institutes for instruction. But should he teach them and inspire them with undying power when they assembled ; or should he sit idly by and employ others to do the work ? They might say he should prepare " abstracts of the school committee reports ;" but should he study the whole body of these documents, and then prepare a volume of four hundred or five hundred pages, or should he take at random some forty or fifty short extracts and give them the required heading ? They might require him to make an annual report ; but a pop-gun makes a " report" as well as a jaark of artillery. In fine, it was impossible for law or order to prevent an incumbent from growing fat and sleek in this office. Nothing but the indwelling spirit of duty and enthusiasm could se- cure from its incumbent the utmost quantit}^ and the highest quality of service. No member of the Board had any salary, and they were not appointed for hard work. They were to counsel and advise beforehand, and, as far as practicable, to ratify and sanction afterwards. When some one asked Mr. Mann if he were not the fac-totum of the Board, he replied that he was the fac but not the totum. Immediately on accepting the office, Mr. Mann withdrew from all other professional and business engagements whatever, that no vocation but the new one might burden his hands or obtrude upon his contemplations. He transferred his law business then pending, declined re-election to the Senate, and — the only thing that cost him a regret — resigned his offices and his active connection with the difterent temperance organizations. He abstracted himself entirely from political parties, and for twelve years never attended a political caucus or convention of any kind. He resolved to be seen and known only as an educationist. Though sympa- thizing as much as ever with the refoi'ms of the day, he knew how fatally obnoxious they were to Avhole classes of people whom he wished to influence for good ; and as he could not do all things at once, he sought to do the best things, and those which lay in the immediate path of his duty, first. Men's minds, too, at that time were so fired with partisan zeal on various subjects, that great jealousy existed lest the interest of some other cause should be subserved under the guise of a regard for education. Nor could vulgar and bigoted persons comprehend why a man should drop from an honorable and exalted station into comparative obscurity, and from a handsome income to a mere subsistence, unless actuated by some vulgar and bigoted motive like their own. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of his course. The Board was soon assailed with violence by political partisans, by anti-temperance demagogues, and other bigots after their kind, and nothing but the impossibility of fastening any pui'pose upon its Secretary save absolute devotion to his duty saved it from wreck. During a twelve years' period of service, no opponent of the cause or of Mr. Mann's views in conducting it was ever able to specify a single instance in which he had prostituted or perverted HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 201 the influeuce of his office for any personal, partisan, or collateral end whatever. It is obvious on a moment's reflection that few works ever undertaken by man had relations so numerous, or touched society at so many points, and those so sensitive, as those in which Mr. Mann was now engaged. The various religious denominations were all turned into eyes, each to watch against encroachments upon itself, or favoritism towards others. Sordid men anticipated the expenditures incident to improvement. Many teachers of private schools foresaw that any change for the better in the public schools would withdraw patronage from their own ; though to their honor it must be said that the cause of public education had no better friends than many private teiichers proved themselves to be. But hundreds and hundreds of wretchedly poor and incompetent teachers knew full well that the daylight of educational intelligence would be to them what the morninir dawn is to niuht birds. Book-makers and book- sellers were jealous of interference in behalf of rivals ; and where there were twenty competitors of a kind, Hope was but a fraction of one twen- tieth, while Fear was a unit. Mr. Mann for many years had filled im- portant political offices; and if political opponents could not find any- thino" wronof in what he was doinc', it was the easiest of .all things to foresee something wrong that he would do. Many persons who have some conscience in their statements about the past, have none in their predictions about the future. And however different or contradictory might be the motives of opposition, all opponents would coalesce ; while the friends of the enterprise, though animated by a common desire for its advancement, were often alienated from each other through disagree- ment as to methods. There was also the spirit of conservatism to be overcome ; and more formidable by far than this, the spirit of pride on the part of some in the then existing condition of the schools — a pride which had been fostered for a century among the people, not because their school system was as good as it should and might be, but because it was so much better than that of neio'hborino- communities. And be- sides all this, it was impossible to excite any such enthusiasm for a cause Avhose liighest rewards lie in the remote future, as for one where the in- vestment of means or efforts is to be refunded with heavy usury at the next anniversary or quarter-day. Then questions respecting the education of a whole people touched the whole people. Politics, commerce, manu- factures, agriculture, are class interests. Each one is but a segment of the great social cii'cle. While the few engaged in a single pursuit may be intensely excited, the great majority around may be in a state of qui- escence or indilference. But so far as education is regarded at all, it is a problem which everybody undertakes to solve ; and hence ten thousand censors rise up in a day. It is an object not too low to be noticed by the highest, nor too high to be adjudicated upon by the lowest. Do not these considerations show the multifarious relations of the cause to the community at large, and to the interests and hopes of each of its classes? And now consider the things indispensable to be done to superinduce a vigorous system upon a decrepit one, — changes in the law, new organi- zations of territory into districts, the building of school-houses, classifica- tion of scholars, supervision of schools, improvements in books, in methods of teaching, and in the motives and ways of discipline, qualifications of 202 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. teachers, the collectiou of statistics, the necessary exposure of defects and of mal-administration, &c. &c., — and we can form some more adequate idea of the wide circuit of the work undertaken, and of the vast variety of the details which it comprehends. A more pohtic or less earnest man would have begun gradually, and stolen upon the public by degrees. Mr. Mann laid his hand upon every- thing at once, — upon the abuses to be corrected, the deficiencies to be supplied, and the reforms to be begun. His first Report, and his first address or lecture, both written within the first six months after his ap- pointment, foreshadowed everything that has since been accomplished. They were thouglit to be somewhat remarkable productions at the time ; we think they will be regarded as much more remarkable, if examined now in the light of sixteen years of experience. The very boldness of his first strokes was the salvation of himself and of all concerned. A less adventurous course would have been ruinous. Special interests were, indeed, alarmed, but the malcontents were silenced by the resounding voice of the hopes he awakened. A holy chord of the public heart had been touched, and the contemplation of gi'eat principles enfranchised the mind from sordid motives. When the carol of the ascending lark turns all eyes heavenward, the cry and flutter of owls and bats are no longer heeded. He followed vip his victory. His object was to commit the State to great measures of reform and progress before the day of reaction should come. Extensive changes in the law were pj'oposed and carried. Union schools were provided for. School committees were paid. A system of county educational conventions was instituted. By means of " School Registers," a far-reaching plan was adopted to look mici-oseopi- cally into the condition of the schools, and ascertain what may be called their " vital statistics." The school committees were required to make " detailed reports " respecting the good and the evil of their respective schools ; and from the whole body of these reports " abstracts " were made with immense labor on the part of the Secretary, but with immense benefit also to the cause. Above all, the normal schools were established, first under the plea of being an experiment ; but long before that hold was released, they made a gi'asp upon the public good will, by success achieved and benefits bestowed, which has now incorporated them among the permanent and most valued institutions of the State. All these instrumentalities were so many anchors with which the Seci'etary provided his vessel while the weather was yet calm, and by which he was enabled to ride out the storm, when at length it arose. After three or four years (the very time predicted by the Secretary at the outset of his career), the various antagonisms to progress which were too weak to efi'ect anything separately combined their forces, and under an unscrupulous leader were clandestirely marshalled for the assault. The miser began to feel literally "to his cost" the advance of the system.* The book-maker who had sought in vain to make the Board or its Secre- * During the ten years after Mr. Mann's Report on School-houses was pre- sented to the Legislature, the sums raised by tlie self-taxation of the several dis- tricts, towns, and cities in the State, and expended for tlie building or repairing of school-houses alone, was two million, two hundred thousand dollars. HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 203 taiy subserve bis private interests, could no longer discern any public, reason for tbcir existence. The sectarian who wished to turn the schools into proselyting agencies to stamp bis dogmas upon the youthful mmd, was otTended b^eca'lise be was balkfd. All these, joined with the nameless tribe who always think the world is coming to an end unless regulated according to their plan, combined their forces for the extermination ot the Boai'd. The attack was made in the Legislature of 1840. A majority of the Committee on Education sprang a bill upon the House for the abolition of the Board, the discontinuance of the normal schools, and for setting things back to the point from which they had started three years before. The scheme was unknown even to the minority of the Committee, who were friends of the Board, until a few hours before the report was made. They sought for time to present a counter report, but it was refused, first by the'Committee. and afterwards by a majority of the House. The plot was to choke otf all discussion, and drive the bill tlirough the House without delay or debate. But the first hour of notice enabled the Secretary and his friends to gain a day ; with that day they gained a week; and' with the week they defeated the measure. How ditferent now would have been the condition of the public schools, not only in Massachusetts, but in New England— not only in New Eng- land, but throughout the country— had that machination been crowned with success ! . It is not our purpose to dwell at length upon the two or three formi- dable controversies in which Mr. Manu'was engaged in defence of the cause of education, or of himself as identified with that cause. We shall consult his feelings far better by practising upon the sentiment of Cicero, which was always his favorite motto, "■Amicltice sempiterncc, im- micifm placabiles^' let friendships be eternal, and all enmities be appeased. His former adversaries too will rejoice if we give but the brietest ac- count of the warfare they waged, or of the blows they received. Mr. Mann certainly does not belong to the sect of non-resistants ; we think he rather followed the counsels of Polonius : " Beware Of entrance to a quarrel ; but being in, Bear it that the opi>oser may beware of thee." Always forbearing to the last, he adopted Gen. Washington's advice that we should wait until our adversary has put himself clearly in the wrong. His uniform course was, when attacked in a way that threat- ened ^injury to the cause, or to himself as its representative, to seek a personal interview with the assailant, or to write a private and concilia- tory letter, offering explanation and deprecating contest ; and thus he crushed many an Qgg before the young adders were hatched. Two prin- ciples governed his conduct in relation to all public attacks made upon him : first, he never noticed such as were merely personal, accusing him of want of ability, and so fbrth, but only such as were aimed directly at the cause intrusted to his care, or to him as its administrator •, and second, the retributions he inflicted always had reference to the future, and were designed to prevent further injury or the repetition of ^rong, and were never mere punishment for past misdeeds, however well de- 204 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS' served. We challenge bis most watchful enemy to cite a single instance where he enforced redress or demanded it, either when no injury had been done by an attack upon him, or when the injury done was remedi- less. Though ever so much personally wronged, yet as a revival of the past could effect no good for the future, he facilitated its descent to oblivion. With these remarks we can abbreviate the history of Mr. Mann's con- troversies into a very few lines. In 1843, under the auspices of the Board of Education (but at his own private expense), Mr. Mann visited Europe, to examine schools, and to obtain any such information as could be made available at home. His Seventh Annual Report, made on his return, embodied the results of this tour. Probably no educational document ever had so wide a circu- lation as this Report. Edition after edition of it was printed, not only in Massachusetts, but in different States of the Union, sometimes by order of State Legislatures, sometimes by private individuals. Sevei'al editions were printed in England. It was largely copied into newspapers every- where. It was matter of great surprise, therefore, that the first question- ing of its facts and criticism of its doctrines should be made in Boston. But in the autumn of 1844, a pamphlet of one hundred and forty-four pages appeared, entitled "Remarks on the Seventh Annual Report of the Hon. Horace Mann," &c., beaiiug the name of thirty-one of the Boston schoolmasters, contesting several of the facts, and impugning some of the views, especially on the subject of school discipline, set forth in that report. To this Mr. Mann immediately replied in a pamphlet of 176 pages, entitled " Reply to the ' Remarks' of Thirty-one Boston Schoolmas- ters," &c. In May following, a portion of the above masters rejoined in another pamphlet of 215 pages; and in July following, Mr. Mann re- plied in a pamphlet of 124 pages, which closed the controversy. From various independent sources the facts averred by Mr. Mann, and ques- tioned by his opponents, have been since irrefragably proved ; and in regard to the soundness of his views on discipline, or corporal punish- ment, the Boston masters became the agents of their own reformation ; for when the merits of the question were publicly discussed, the commu- nity compelled them to conform in practice to the doctrines they had as- sailed. Other controversialists may have been as thoroughly vanquished in argument, but it is rare to see a body of assailants compelled not merely to abandon their own grounds of argument, but to conform their practice to the views of the party they had attacked. . In 1844, an individual of some prominence made an anonymous attack through the newspaper organ of a religious sect upon Mr. Mann, and upon the Board of Education, charging them, in substance, with being irreligionists or infidels. To this Mr. J^Iann replied at length through the same paper. A rejoinder followed ; but when Mr. Mann offered a reply to this, the paper (the " Christian Witness and Church Advocate"), which had opened its columns to the attack, now closed them against the defence. It was therefore published in another paper. As the controversy embraced the question of the connection of public schools with religious teaching, it excited a great deal of public attention, and many of the leading-papers in the State contained articles upon it. These were after- wards collected, and published in a pamphlet entitled " Common School Controversy," &c., &c. The whole affair redounded greatly to the credit HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 205 of Mr. Mann, and of the Board. While the importance of rehgious in- struction in the schools was ably maintained, the freedom of all systems of public schools from sectarianism was unanswerably vindicated. The only other noteworthy controversy in which Mr. Mann was en- gaged during his secretaryship, was with a clergyman of various reputa- tion, between whom and himself there jiassed several pamphlet letters, in 1846-47. Of the utter demolition of this assailant, the public entertained but one opinion. This was the last attempt ever made to subvert the Board, its Secre- tary, or the normal schools. Like oaks under storms, their roots struck deeper and grappled stronger, with every blast that threatened to over- throw them. It may be mentioned, as characteristic of Mr. IMann, that during all these controversies, he never wrote or published an anonymous article against his opponents. Though often assailed by enemies in ambush, he never skulked behind a fictitious signature to reply, but always presented himself under his own name as a fair mark for their arrows. Of Mr. Mann's labors, during the twelve years of his secretaryship, it is difficult to speak without the appearance of exaggeration. Some of the products, however, are before us. He wrote twelve long Annual Re- ports, of one of which — the tenth — the Edinburgh Review says, " This volume is indeed a noble monument of a civilized people ; and if America were sunk beneath the waves, would remain the fairest picture on record of an Ideal Commonwealth !" From an immense mass of documents, he prepared eleven Abstracts of the Massachusetts School Reportsand Returns, six of which are large octavo volumes in fine print. The statistical part of the school abstracts were formerly made up in the office of the Secre- tary of State, and three months was the usual allowance of time made to a clerk for executing the task. By the law establishing the Board of Education, this work was transferred to its Secretary. Mr. Mann made up the first one in the nights of four weeks, after his laboi'ious c/i/y*' work had been done ; and none can appreciate what those days' works were who did not occasionally obtain a view of the thousands of pages of al- most illegible and bad-spelled manuscripts from which he cumpiled his abstracts. The Common School Journal, which he edited, and a large portion of whose contents is from his pen, consists of ten volumes octavo. He published a volume of Lectures on Education, at the request of the Board. He travelled over the State every year (except the year when he visited Europe), to hold conventions or Teachers' Institutes. He often taught at the Institutes all day (sometimes alone), and then li?ctured to the people at large in the evening, thus instructing in the dift'erent com- mon school branches, and in the methods of instruction also, unaided and alone. His correspondence amounted to more than all his other writings, and was carried on more or less with all parts of this country, and with the more enlightened nations of Europe. This was exceedingly volumi- nous, and has amounted to thii-ty letters in a day. Always giving legal advice in regard to schools gratuitously, he was called upon in all cases of doubt or difficulty; and we believe his legal opinions, when the cases on which they were given have been afterwards brought before the courts, have been invariably sustained. He superintended the erection of two State normal school-houses, and has drawn plans and given direc- 206 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. tions for hundreds of others, adapted, in regard to size and expense, to the wants and abilities of diiferent localities. He often attended educa- tional meetings in other States, to extend the cause and breathe enthu- siasm into its friends ; and he always considered it a part of his official ns well as his social duty to receive and entertain all visitors, who came on any errand pertaining to the great work in which he was engaged. Well might he say, as he did in his Supplementary Report, in 1848, that, " from the time when I accepted the Secretaryship, in June, 1837, until May, 1848, when I tendered my resignation of it, I labored, in this cause, an average of not less than fifteen hours a day ; that, from the beginning to the end of this period, I never took a single day for relaxation, and that months and months together passed without my withdrawing a single evening from working hours, to call upon a friend. My whole time was devoted, if not wisely, yet continuously and cheerfully, to the great trust confided to my hands." Only in a single instance was any public appointment made by him during this whole period unfulfilled, and in that case his physician for- bade his rising from a sick-bed to meet it. Of the results of these labors, the educational world seems to liave settled down into a clear and unanimous opinion. The labors were great, but they brought forth " an hundred fold." Compare the schools of Mas- sachusetts with what they were in 1837, and it will be seen that order has been educed from chaos, vigor substituted for debility, and that a high degree of intelligence in educational processes has succeeded to a lamentable ignorance. Nor have the beneficent results of these labors been (confined to Massachusetts. Most of the free States have followed in the march of improvement, and several of the slave States have en- deavored to imitate the example ; but, alas ! with their institutions such a result is impossible. Many of Mr. Mann's Reports have been repub- lished in this country and in England. His opinions are cited as author- ity in the Legislatures of the Union and in the British Parliament, and quoted in Reviews and in standard educational works. " It was my for- tune," said the Hon. Anson Burlingame, in a public speech lately made, " to be, some time since, in Guildhall, London, when a debate was going on. The question was, whether they should instruct their representative in favor of secular education. They voted they would not do it. But a gentleman then rose and read some statistics from one of the Reports of Horace Mann. That extract reversed the vote in the Common Coun- cil of London. I never felt prouder of my country." It might be supposed that one of Mr. Mann's energy and fervor would sometimes commit himself to measures whose soundness would not be ratified by results ; and that, occasionally at least, he might find it ne- cessary to retrace his steps. But it is a remarkable fact, that neither in his legislative life, which covered a period of ten years, nor during his secretaryship, covering a period of twelve years, did he ever propose a single measure which he did not carry through, or ever carry one through which, upon trial, it was found necessary to abandon. Whether in coun- selling and in executing plans for revising the whole civil code of a State, in erecting and administering a hospital for the insane, in establishing normal schools, or in projecting comprehensive measures for renovating the common school system of a commonwealth, prosperity and success, HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 207 in every instance, attended, his exertions. Finis coronal opus may be written at the end of all his enterprises. In one of the darkest and most perilous houi's of his secretaryship, a proposition was made to him to accept the presidency of a college at the West, with a salary of $3000 a year, besides the perquisites of house, gar- den, and so forth. This he promptly and peremptorily declined, saying that he had devoted himself, body, mind, and estate, to the cause of Popular Education in Massachusetts, and the only alternative on which he would leave it was success or death. On the 23d of February, IS-tS, Mr. John Quinc}^ Adams, who was a representative from the Congressional district in which Mr. Mann re- sided, died in the United States House of Representativ^es, which for almost twenty years had been the theatre of his noble labors in behalf of human freedom. A successor was to be chosen, but where should one be found ? In passing the broad chasm which separated the " old man eloquent" from common politicians, all other men seemed about equally well qualified. Hence almost every town in the district had its candi- date for the successorship. The nominating convention met with pre- ferences almost equalling in numbers the individuals who composed it. Mr. Mann was named, and at once the only question was whether he would accept the offer if tendered. Even with this uncertainty, he was put in nomination ; and though he was strongly disinclined at first to quit his favorite field of labor, and even wrote a letter declining the office, yet he eventually yielded his objections. His overruling motive lay in the fact that the country had just conquered an immense extent of territory, and the great question of questions — " the question of the age " — was, whether that territory should be rescued and consecrated to freedom for ever, or for ever cursed with slavery. As he correctly said, " A state of true and uni- versal education would imply the highest state of earthly existence, but free- dom was the prerequisite of education." He was elected 'at the first trial by a majority over all competitors, and immediately took his scat in Congress. As soon as elected, he tendered the resignation of his secretaryship to the Board. They declined to accept it, urging his retention of the ofHce for the residue of the then current year. He assented ; and to this we are indebted for that crowning work of his educational life — his Twelfth Annual Report. On the 30th of the ensuing June he made his debut as a speaker in Congress, in a speech " On the right of Congress to legislate for the terri- tories of the United States, and its duty to exclude slavery therefrom." This speech was read by his constituents and fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, and indeed by the lovers of human liberty throughout all the free States, with almost unexampled approval. We would commend those who have since disapproved his course in regard to the slavery question and inci- dents growing out of it, to reperuse that speech which they once so ear- nestly praised, and see if its doctrines do not logically necessitate every- thing he has since said on the subject; and whether, if that speech be assumed as a datum, everything which has since followed on his part was not indispensable to political and moral consistency. In the ensuing November he was re-elected to Congress by an over- whelming majority', receiving eleven tJiousand out of about thirteen thou- sand votes. 208 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. We need not enumerate Lis subsequent eflforts in opposing the aggres- sions of slavery and the spread ot" its dominion, and particuhu-ly of its spirit, over free territory ; because his leading Speeches in Congress, Let- ters to Conventions, and so forth, have been collected and published in a volume, where they vi^ill remain as an enduring memorial that no love of office, no seduccment of sordid friendships, lior threats of partisan ven- o-eance, could ever shake his steadfast soul from its allegiance to the im- mortal principles of freedom and humanity/'" Though attending diligently to all liis legislative duties, he did not whollv abandon his tavorite fields of education and charity. During his first session, he was appointed chairman of a select committee on the sub- ject of the United States Penitentiary in the District of Columbia, and drew up the committee's report. He volunteered as counsel for Drayton and Sayre, indicted for stealing seventy-six slaves in the District of Co- lumbia, and, at the trial in the court below, was engaged for twenty-one successive days in their defence ; and he afterwards argued their case in the appellate court, where the false rulings of the Judge below weva so sio-nally overthrown. A sketch of his argument, and an interesting ac- count of this trial, may be found in the volume above referred to. As Secretary of the Board of Education, he still carried on all its correspond- ence, and on his return home at the close of the session, presided, lec- tured, and tauo-ht at all the Teachers' Institutes, and wrote his final Report. In 1849, the Massachusetts Legislature, by joint resolution, requested him to digest and prepare a full account of the school system of the State as then existing by law, to be founded upon the basis of his Tenth Annual Report, but to incorporate all the subsequent legislation of the State. Of this work the State printed (en thoumnd copies for gratuitous distribution. It is the standard w^ork on the various subjects of which •it treats. He now found time also to superintend the execution of another work, the idea of which he had been revolving in his mind for many years. It was a series of common school arithmetics, based, so far as its principal materials arc concerned, upon an original idea. Instead of taking mere moneyed operations, or boxes or bales of goods, as the material out of which arithmetical questions were to be prepared, it surveyed the whole circle of arts, sciences, statistics, history, chronology, biography, geo- graphy, and so forth, and so forth, and framed its questions out of such of their facts as were found susceptible of an arithmetical statement ; so that the questions, as far as practicable, contained not only a pi'oblem to be solved, but an interesting and valuable fact worthy of being remem- bered. Ill the general arrangement and execution of his original plan, he had the very viiluable assistance of P. E. Chase, Esq., whose name is as- sociated with that of Mr. Mann in the work. His speech on " Slavery and the Slave-trade in the District of Colum- bia," made in the House of Represenratives, Feb., 1850, was most favor- ably received at the North, and had i, very extensive circulation at the * "Slavery: Letters and Speeches by Horace Mann," pp. 564. B. B. Mussey & Co. Boston, 1851. HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 209 South. Up to tills pei-iod, Mr. Mann was on (lie floocl-tido of popularity. Having officially retired from the field of education, and being therefore no longer engaged in carrying forward educational measures distasteful to any party, or pi'cjudicial to any private interest, all had come to ac- knowledge his merits, and to appreciate his past services. His friends had witnessed the triumph of liis measures, and could point to a long train of beneficent consequences, in legislation, in charity, in social reform, in education, of which he had been the author ; while time and expe- rience had falsified all the adverse predictions of his opponents. In ad- dition to this, he had won new laurels in the political sphere, — not of a partisan or ephemeral character, but had connected his name with great principles which time nor decay can ever impair. Perhaps at this period there were few men so widely known who enjoyed a reputation less alloyed by censure or criticism than his. But a new scene v/as now to open upon him, and a year of the bit- terest opposition to arise from a quarter where least of all it could have been expected — from his own j^olitical fi'iends. Mr. Webster's speech in the Senate of the United States, on the 7tli of March, 1850, initiated the events we are about to narrate, and of which we sliall speak in the im- partial spirit of history. By that speech, Mr. Webster changed his atti- tude on the slavery question. In military language, he " faced right about." No other man ever became so suddenly popular, Avhere he had been unpopular before ; or so suddenly unpopular, where he had before been an object of admiration. The South, which for years had rung with hostility to him as a politician, now changed its censures to the loudest plaudits ; and the North, which had always turned its ear towards the Capitol where he was expected to speak, was now struck with dis- may and with temporary dumbness. At first none attempted to justify, and but few to palliate. Of Mi-. Webster's motives for this change we here sa}' nothing. Of facts, in this connection, we are bound to speak. Mr. Mann was among the first to see and predict the consequences of this step, so disastrous to the great question of human freedom then pending before the country. On the occasion of a visit, which he shortly afterwards made to his home, a numerous body of gentlemen belonging to his district, who declared that they " approved the course he had pur- sued in Congress, in maintaining so ably the sentiments and convictions which we maintain and cherish on the great national questions of the day," requested him to meet and address them " more at length than the one hour rule would allow." On the 3d of May, 1850, Mr. Mann addressed to these gentlemen a public letter, in which he commented on the course taken by Mr. Clay, General Cass, Mr. Webster, and others. Towards Mr. Webster, this letter was couched in most respectful language. We believe a perusal of it now will show that it contains not one word at which Mr. Webster or the most jealous of his friends could justly take offence. Nay, it era- ployed towards him language of high encomium. It said Mr. Welster had spoken " more eloquent words for liberty than any other 11 vino- man," — a compliment which, after all that has been said in behalf of freedom by contemporary orators, nothing but kindness could have prompted. We say that Mr. Mann himself had spoken more eloquently for liberty than Mr. Webster had ever done. Mr. Mann goes on to ex- VOL. IV. 14 210 SKETCHES OF EMINEKT AMERICANS, press " my admiration for his powers, my gratitude for his past services, and the diffidence with which 1 dissented at first from his views," He then proceeds to examine Mr. Webster's arguments, which he does with candor and eminent fairness. The examination is close, the language eloquent, the refutation triumphant. But the tone is modest and conci- liatory, lie said others had commented on points in Mr. Webster's speech more pungently than he w-as willing to do. The manner of the letter was eminently respectful towards Mr. Webster, excessively so, as it seemed to us, and to others of Mr. Mann's friends at the time. Still he did prove, with invincible force, the sophistry of Mr. Webster's arguments and the enormity of his conclusions. Here are two specimens we are anxious to insert. Mr. Webster had said that slavery was excluded from California and New Mexico " by the law of nature, of physical geography, the law of the formation of the earth ;" that " California and New Mexico are Asiatic in their formation and scenery. They are composed of vast ridges of mountains of enormous height, with broken ridges and deep valleys." And hence he declared that, " If a resolution or a law were now before us to provide a territorial government for New Mexico, I would not vote to put any prohibition [of slavery] into it whatever." To this Mr. Mann replied : " Now, this is drawing moral conclusions from physical premises. It is arguing from physics to metaphysics. It is determining the law of the spirit by geographical phenomena. It is undertaking to settle by mountains and rivers, and not by the ten com- mandments, a great question of human duty. It abandons the second commandment of Christ, and all bills of rights enacted in conformity thereto, and leaves our obligations to our neighbor to be determined by the accidents of earth, and water, and air. To ascertain whether a people will obey the divine command, and do to others as they would be dono by, it looks at the thermometer. What a problem would this be : ' Re- quired the height above the level of the sea at which the oppressor will undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke,' — to be determined barometrically. Alas ! this cannot be done. Slavery depends not upon climate, but upon conscience. Wherever the wicked passions of the human heart can go, there slavery can go. Sla- very is an effect. Avarice, .sloth, pride, and the love of domination are its cause. In ascending mountain sides, at what altitude do men leave these passions behind them ? Different vegetable growths are to be found at different heiglits, depending also upon the zone. This I can under- stand. There is the altitude of the palm, the altitude ,of the oak, the altitude of the pine, and, far above them all, the line of perpetual snow. But in regard to innocence and guilt, where is the ivhiie line '( How high up can a slaveholder go, and not lose his free agency ? At what eleva- tion will the whip fall from the hands of the master, and the fetter from the limbs of the slave ? There is no such point. Freedom and slavery on the one hand, and climate and geology on the other, are incommen- surable quantities. We might as well attempt to determine a question in theology by the cubic root, or a question in ethics by the black art. Slavery being a crime founded on human passions, can go wherever those passions are unrestrained. It has existed in Asia from the earliest ages, notwithstanding its formation and scenery. It labors and governs on the flanks of the Ural mountains now. There are today forty-eight mil- HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 211 Jions of slaves in Russia, not one rood of which comes down so low as the northern boundary of California and New Mexico." By the resolutions for annexing Texas, not more than three additional slave States could by any fair construction ever be claimed. But Mr. Webster had stated and argued the case so as to give Texas a right to four. After demonstrating the fallacy, Mr. Mann says: "Here Mr. Webster gives outright to the South and to slavery one more State than was contracted for — assuming the contract to be valid. He makes a donation, a gratuity, of an entire slave State, larger than many a Euro- pean principality. ' He transfers a whole State, with all its beating hearts, present and future, with all its infinite susceptibilities of weal and woe, from the side of freedom to that of slavery in tlie ledger-book of human- ity. What a bridal gift for the harlot of bondage !" This letter, in the then excited state of the public mind, created great sensation. Mr. Webster immediately broke off all personal intercourse with Mr. Mann, and in a letter written on the 15th of the same May, to some citizens of Newburyport, a town in the northeastern part of the county of Essex, in Massachusetts, he attacked Mr. Mann in the following language : " This personal vituperation does not annoy me, but I lament to see a public man of Massachusetts so crude and confused in his legal apprehensions, and so little acquainted with the constitution of his country, as these opinions evince Mr. Mann to be." Here was a charge of " personal vituperation," and of ignorance of the laws and constitution of the country, under which no fair disputant, and no jui'ist, having a reputation to defend, could be expected to remain silent. Mr. Mann replied in a long and elaborate letter, published in the Boston Atlas in the following -June, but still in a tone of respect and courtesy, though with somewhat more plainness of language. We quote the conclusion of his letter : " I am not unmindful of the position in which I stand. I am not un- aware that cir-cumstances have placed me in an antagonistic relation to a man whose vast powers of intellect the world has so long and so vividly enjoyed, and so profoundly admired. I well know that a personal contest between us seems unequal, far more than did the impending combat be- tween the Hebrew stripling and the champion of the Philistines, who had a helmet of brass upon his head, and greaves of brass upon his legs, and the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. But the contest is not between us. It is" between truth and error ; and just so certain as the spirit of Good will prevail over the spirit of Evil, just so certain will Truth ultimately triumph. In such a case as this, there is one point of view in which Mr. Webster is a desirable antagonist ; for the thick and far-beaming points of light which he has left all along his former course of life, cannot fail to expose, to all eyes but his own, the devious path into which he has now wandered." On the 17tli of June, just seventy-five years after the battle of Bunker Hill, and twenty-five after his masterly speech commemorative thereof, Mr. Webster made another speech in the Senate, seeking to fortify that of the 7th of March. This speech he sent to some "gentlemen on the Kennebec river," with a letter, in which, as it seems to us, he forgot not only all courtesy but all gentlemanly propriety towards Mr. Mann. In- stead of offering a word of argument in confutation of Mr. Maan's con- 212 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. elusive reasonings, he treats them with language such as the following : — - "One hardly knows which most to contemn, the nonsense or the dis- honesty of such commentaries on another's words. I know no passion more appropriate to devils than the passion for gross misrepresentation and slander." To this Mr. Mann replied in " Notes," added to a new edition of his preceding " Letters," which had been called for, and now, under the en- forced change in the relation of the parties, he commented on the stric- tures of his opponent with just and appropriate severity. By this time, many of the leading Whig merchants and manufacturers and the jour- nals of the Whig party in the Atlantic cities had changed tlieir ground on the slavery question, and espoused the side of Mr. Webster. All these now assailed Mr. Mann with a fury and a bitterness which, hereafter, it will be difficult to credit. It was immediately proclaimed that he should not be returned to Congress at the ensuing fall election. At a packed convention of the Whigs of his district, he lirst failed of being nominat- ed by a single vote, and afterwards another was declared to be unani- mously nominated in his place. Every eftort was now made by pro- slavery men to defeat him. Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State, came to Massachusetts, where he spent five or six weeks ; and here he exerted all his influence against his most dangerous political antagonist. The day of election was rapidly drawing nigh. An intense interest was felt in the result, not only in Mr. Mann's district, but throughout Massachusetts, and even beyond its borders. It was instinctively felt that the contest would have an important bearing, not only upon the State election, but upon national questions, and even upon that state of public opinion out of which the policy of the nation will hereafter flow. Considering the high oflicial influence that was thus brought to " in- terfere with the freedom of elections," the amount of money expended, and the grossness of the misrepresentations circulated, in order to defeat Mr. Mann, it was considered proper, whatever the law of custom might be, that he should take the field in his own person, and vindicate what was at once his own cause and the cause of liberty. This he did before a series of mass meetings, held at various localities in the district. These meetings were unlike common political gatherings. There was no parade, and no noise. The empty drum was not the herald of the empty speech. On the contrary, a soberness amounting almost to solem- nity everywhere prevailed. The audiences consisted of intelligent, con- scientious men, earnestly seeking for truth. The speaker, disdaining all clap-trap and all appeal to passion, addressed their reason and their moral sense ; but addressed them in such earnest and solemn strains of argu- ment and of expostulation, as kindled the intensest feeling. The meet- ings seemed like those of the old Puritans, addressed by one of the stern pilgrims, to whose soul, glowing with religious enthusiasm, the obligations and the solemnities of both worlds were alike present. A Sabbatli of rest came between the last meeting and the day of election ; and then the people went to the polls as Cromwell's soldiers went to battle, and gave their verdict in favor of Mr. Mann by re-electing him to Congress by a triumphant majority over both the oj^posing parties. Following this result, there was great joy and gratulation on the one side ; great mortifi- cation and chagrin on the other. It was well said that Mr. Webster was HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 213 the only man who could break down the Whig party in Massachusetts — and he did it ; and that Mr. Mann was the only person in his district, who, against the influence of money, of party machinery and party press, and moreover, against the personal and political eftbrU of Mr. Webster himself, could have upheld the banner of free principles — and he did it. This he did, however, as may well be supposed, at great personal cost to himself. To dare to enter the lists against a man having such an armory of individual and official weapons at his command, and backed by such a host of oflSce-holding and of office-expecting adherents, would be cer- tain to bring down a storm of indignation upon him ; but to do it suc- cessfully, and to worst the giant in the conflict, would make that storm a hurricane. The controversy between the parties, in which these two gentlemen had now become so conspicuous, still continued, and the views and prin- ciples they respectively espoused made up a great part of all the political disquisitions of the day. On the 28th of February, 1851, Mr. Mann de- livered his speech in the House of Representatives, on the Fugitive Slave Law, in which he exposed still further its unconstitutional and cruel cba- racter; and on the 19th of May following, pending the canvass for a re- presentative to Congress from the fourth Congressional district of Mas- sachusetts, he delivered a speech at Lancaster, the greater part of which was devoted to a consideration of the same law, and to an examination of the opinion then recently given by Mr. Commissioner Curtis, of Bos- ton, in the case of Thomas Sims, who was stripped of his liberty and doomed to life-long bondage, without the sentence of any court or the verdict of any jury. Mr. Mann was never more eloquent. The iniquity of slavery, the unconstitutionality and atrocity of the Fugitive Slave Law, the wickedness of its authors and abettors, were set forth in language surpassing even the ordinary eloquence of the speaker. He who, by his great powers, had done more than all other men to bring this calamity upon the country, could not escape the lightnings of the indignant phi- lanthropist. In this speech, too, Mr. Mann set forth a doctrine which gave occasion for a display of the fiercest bitterness of his opponents. It was the doc- trine that the personal vices of public men have no title or pretence to be considered as belonging to private character, and therefore to be ex- empted from public animadversion. He said, " In selecting men to be our political leaders, we have sometimes committed the gravest moral error. We have assumed the falsity of a distinction between a man's public and his private life. We have supposed that the same individual might be a bad man and a good citizen ; a patriot and an inebriate ; a faithful officer and a debauchee at the same time ; might serve his coun- try during otfice hours, and the powers of darkness the rest of the twenty- four. But I say, as of old, no man can serve God and mammon." . . . " When public men openly and notoriously practise vice, they make the vice public and bring it within public jurisdiction. If it is public for example, it is public for criticism ; and under such circumstances, the moral and religious guides of the community are as solemnly bound 'truly to find and due presentment make' of these oflfences, as the grand jury is in the case of crimes against the laws of the land." Mr. Maun well knew that the personal character of great states- 214 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. men is among the public forces which elevate or debauch the people ; for, "That sin doth ten times aggravate itself That is committed in a holy place ; An evil deed done by authority Is sin and subornation." He knew, " That poison shows worst in a golden cup, Dark night seems darker by the lightning's flash, Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. Of every glory that inclines to sin The shame is trebled by the opposite." Consider the question as a theorem in morals; abstract it from all sus- picion of application to any particular man, whom wealth or power may surround with adherents, and bow demoralizing and flagitious is the doc- trine that would make the public j'jariiceps criminis in the profligacies of life, by rewarding with high office and honors the man in whose keep- ing, for instance, the chastity of maidens and the sobriety of youth would not be safe ! Our politicians thrust themselves in every way upon public notice ; they bespeak our attention to their aptitude for public service; and then they claim, in behalf of what they call their private characters, an immunity from animadversion. Private, forsooth ! Have they not voluntarily placed themselves in the public eye ? Is not their influence as men vastly increased by the addition of official rank, honor, and con- spicuousness ? If their talent have a greater field for display, so does their vicious example become more potent for evil. The truth is too plain to be contested by any morally sane man, that the public and the private character of men belong together. They are indissoluble by na- ture. Their influences on others are inseparable. They universally go together in history. It is therefore false philosophy and false morals to attempt to separate them in contemporary treatment. Mr. Mann's doctrine and practice on this subject have been uniform and consistent. In all his public teachings, he has always preached the sound and healthy doctrine, that a public man ought not to have any private vices ; nay, that he cannot have private vices. In so doing, he only preached a natura"l law. A city set upon a hill cannot be bid. As little can immoralities and profligacies be hid, when those who are guilty of them are exalted to high places. The exaltation is wrong, and in the end will bring its retribution. The country had a thousand times better forego the use of the ability with which vice may be associated, than to accept the evil influences of the vice for the benefit of the ability. Or, as Mr. Mann has expressed it, " I know that it is also said we must have great talents in the public councils at whatever price. Well, if this be your philosophy, don't do the work by halves, but import Lucifer at once !" Surely, surely, in an age like this, when all moral and Christian men are lamenting that there should be such lack of religion and of principle in the public functionaries and public measures of the country, they, should hail with pleasure the appearance of a Cato, even with all his sternness. But it is time, after a few brief statements, to close this sketch. Mr. HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 215 Maim came very early into public life ; tliat is, the ability and zeal he displayed made him early conspicuous. A glance at what we have written will show that he has engaged in a great variety of enterprises, calling for varied talents and acquirements. Of several of these enter- prises he was tlie originator ; in all of them, a leading and working spirit. Now thi'ce things may be remarked of them all. First, they were of a character to commend themselves to the moral sense and humanity of the people. In all cases, the end and aim were noble. All had in view human improvement. None of them were such as would be attractive to men of a selfish and ambitious character. Second, it is to be remarked that success has crowned his efforts. Where is the enterprise he has undertaken which has failed ? This is not only a proof of his industry and ability, but of sound judgment and sterling sense. It is an answer to those who, untouched by the enthu- siasm which has inspired him in his zealous pursuit of high objects, and lacking his faith in the progressive capabilities of the race, have pro- nounced him an enthusiast and a dreamer. And thirdly, the proof is abundant, and all on one side, that the spirit . in which Mr. Maun has pursued those high objects has been eminently unselfish and untainted with personal arabitiou. His self-esteem is so small, and his devotion to whatever cause he has in hand so intense, that it is easy to understand how he should have disregarded his per- sonal interests. He espoused the cause of Temperance at a time when its advocates needed a strength of character acquired in some other social relation to bear up against the obloquy and opposition it incurred. Without propei-ty, and burdened by debts incurred for the expenses of his collegiate and professional education, he began his legal life by giving gratuitous advice and counsel in all cases where the interests of schools or teachers were concerned. Afterwards, Avhen overtaken by the pecuniary misfortune that so often befalls a surety, and not only all the property he had acquired was lost, but he was involved to a large amount beyond his means to pay, he adopted a system of the most rio-id economy, and even subjected himself to great personal pi'ivations, until every claim against him both of principal and interest was fully paid. He left the oflica of President of the Massachusetts Senate, and a pro- fessional income then amounting to three thousand tk>llars a year, and what may be considered at least a fair chance of political promotion, for what was then regarded as a very humble office, at a low salary, with- out perquisite or patronage, and necessarily attended with considerable expense — as administered by him, now known to have cost him not lesa than a third of his annual salary. At a time when this new enterprise, so fraught with benefits for all coming time, encountered a crisis of peril, and when a mere worldly sagacity would gladly have seized upon any occasion for an honorable escape, a proposition was tendered to him to accept the presidency of a western college, with a salary twice the amount of that he was receiving, and with valuable accompanying per- quisites ; he promptly rejected the offer, choosing to live or die by the cause he had espoused. In 1843 he visited Europe to examine their systems of education and methods of instruction, in hopes to learn and transfer something for the benefit of his own country ; and this journey 216 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. he made at his own expense. In 1845, the Board of Education request- ed him by a formal vote to prepare a vohime of his " Lectures on Edu- cation" for the poor, to be incorporated into the " Common School Library," which was then publishing under its sanction. This request he promptly executed, and in his letter informing the Board that the work had been done, we find the following statement : " Having prepared said volume at the request of the Board, it is not consonant with my views of propriety to receive for my own personal benefit any part of the profits arising from the sale thereof, for the purpose above specified." He accordingly devoted all the copyright money received from that source to advance the cause in Avhich he was engaged ; so jealously did he guard the possibility of making use even of his own earnings, where they had so much as the savor of an official origin. This letter, accom- panied by a vote of thanks, the Board ordered to be placed upon their official files, where we have examined them, and where the original now remains as a monument of the Secretary's almost fastidious honor in everything relating to pecuniary transactions. A year after Mr. Mann had been elected to Congress, and while he was absent at Washington, some friends of the cause of education in the Legislature of Massachusetts, who were not before particularly acquainted with the pecuniary sacrifices which he had made for it (among whom was the Hon. Charles W. Upham, of Salem, the chairman of the joint Committee on Education), became apprised of the extraordinary devotion of his means, as well as of himself, to the cause that had been intrusted to him ; and through their agency this Committee was instructed " to ascertain what sums, if any, were paid by the late Secretary of the Board of Education out of his private means, for the erection of normal school- houses, and for other purposes of a public nature, with power to send for persons and papers." In March following, the Committee made their report, which consisted mainly of statements made by various individuals, of such facts as they personally knew, concerning the pecuniary contributions made by Mr. Mann, out of his own private means, to carry forward the public work with which he had been charged. From this report, and the statements it contains, we shall quote largely. Biographies are rarely swelled by any great accumulation of similar details. The Committee first introduce a letter from Mr. Mann himself, dated Washington, February 9, 1849, from which we make the following ex- tracts : — " The order empowers the Committee to send for persons and papers. You are pleased to put your requisition upon me in the imperative mood ; though doubtless for no other reason than that of overcoming a repugnance I might be supposed to feel, against speaking upon the subject " You must permit me to say, in the first place, that, until the receipt of your letter, I was entirely ignorant that any such movement had been made, or was contemplated, by any one. I could never have brought myself to ask, nor even to ask a friend to ask, for any remuneration for the sacrifices iTiade, or the expenses incurred, in promoting the objects of my office. However much it may prejudice the end you have in vie^y, I must, nevertheless, say, that those sacrifices and expenses were incurred without any expectation of reimbursement. When I left a lucrative pro- HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 21*7 fessioii for the Secretaryship, I cheerfully surrendered all hopes of wealth or promotion. And, from the day when I accepted that office, I held myself personally responsible for the success of the enterprise; and though it might cost me my means, my health, my life, or a hundred lives, if I had them, I held the triumph of the cause to be paramount to them all. " On entering upon the office, it is well known that numerous, and in some cases heavy expenses were connected with it, such as never had been contemplated, either by the fi'amers of the law, or by myself. Not a cent has ever been allowed me for clerk-hire or office-rent. At first, no provision v.as made for postages or stationery. Since provision was made for these latter items, I have never charged half their cost, lest the expenses of the office might excite opposition against it. Whatever books I needed, either in our own or other languages, I have been obliged to pui'cliase and pay for myself. For other expenses incurred in travel- ling over the State, for the first five years, — occupying about four months each year, — no allowance has ever been made me. "What I have paid for clerk-hire must, of course, be known to those who have received it ; and what I have spent for educational works and documents, to be distributed over the State, must be known to those who have furnished, and who have received them. If there have been still other expenses, perhaps they had better come under the rule of not letting the left hand know what the right hand doeth " In what I have already said, although said at your request, I may be thought by some to be treading on delicate ground. This movement did not originate with me. I cannot present myself in the form of a petitioner, asking for a return of what was voluntai'ily given. I must take care of my honor. Tiie State is the proper judge of its own. If the State chooses to consider any part of the sums I have paid as paid on its account, — as paid for property of which it now has the benefit, or now enjoys the actual use and possession, — it will be gratefully received, both as a token of its approbation, and as the refunding of moneys I must otherwise lose. But let what will come, no poverty, and no esti- mate of mAJ" services, however low, can ever make me repine that I have sought, with all the means and the talents at my command, to lay broader and deeper the foundations of the prosperity of our Common- wealth, and to elevate its social and moral character among its confede- rate States, and in the eyes of the world. " With tlie most respectful regards for yourself, and your colleagues on the committee, and with an earnest request that, in whatever you may deem it right to do in relation to this movement, you will take care of my honor, whatever may become of my purse, " I remain, &c., &c." The Hon. A. Hale, then a member of Congress, in whose place of re- sidence — Bridgewater — one of the normal school-houses had been erect- ed, made, among other things, the following statement : — " The Board then advertised for proposals for the erection of the [Nor- mal School] buildings, according to the plans and specifications which had been furnished by the Board. " The proposals being very much above the amount at the disposal of 218 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the Board for that object, alterations were made in the plans and speci- fications, reducing the expense of the buildings very considerably ; but still the Board could not find any person to erect the buildings lor the sum in their hands — and it seemed that the enterprise must be aban- doned. Under these circumstances, Mr. Mann came forward, and gave his private obligation to pay the excess of the cost of the buildings, over and above the amount at the disposal of the Board. With this indemnity, the Board caused the buildings to be erected, and, on a settlement of the bills, it was found that the excess amounted to about $'740, of which an individual of the town of Bridgewater paid $100, and Mr. Mann the residue." The following facts were detailed by the Hon. Josiah Quincy, jr., then Mayor of Boston : — "I cannot withhold my testimony as to the disinterested liberality with which Mr. Mann has endeavored to forward the great cause of pub- lic education. "I shall confine myself to pecuniary sacrifices on advances made by him, of a comparatively large amount. " Five or six years ago, Mr. Mann applied to me for a loan on his law library, of some five or six huudred dollars, for the purpose of furnishing the lodo-ino-diouse of the Normal School at Lexington. Knowino; his cir- cumstances, I endeavored to dissuade him from giving so much to the public, and refused, on that ground, to lend him the money ; the result was, he sold his librar}^, and furnished the house, losing, I have no doubt, in the result, the whole amount. " Shortly after this, the land and school-house at West Newton were given to the public,'-' with the undei'standing that the citizens of that place, and the fiiends of education, would fit wp the building in the most approved style. " Some months after the building was completed, I learned, accident- ally, that the necessary funds had not been raised, and that Mr. Mann and Mr. Pierce had expended and paid a large amount of their own money [-$1,300] for the repau-s. A meeting of friends of the cause was immediately called at my house, without the knowledge of either of the gentlemen, to provide means for its payment " Massachusetts owes the existence of two of her normal school build- ings to the advances made by two gentlemen to complete the first. " After the erection of the schools at Westfield and Bridgewater, Mr. Mann applied to me for a loan of $2,000. On inquiry, I found that the appropriations for these buildings fell short of the contract prices, and, rather than run the risk of losing them, My. Mann had made himself personally liable for the difference. lie insisted on borrowing the money, and giving security for it, and forbade my applying to any individuals, or to the State, on the subject. As it was a business transaction, I have never mentioned it, and should not have done it now, except at the order of the State. He gave as security almost, I believe, all his personal property — and still owes the debt." Mr. George B. Emerson enumerated various items, varying from *This donation was, made by Mr, Qumcy himself, though from his letter one would never surmise it. HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 219 to 1640 at a time, of whose. payment by Mr. Mann from time to time, for the promotion of the cause, he happened to be personally cognisant, and then adds : — "The expenses of printino- the papers he has written, in defence of the cause of the Massachusetts Board of Education, fell principally upon him, and must have amounted to a very large sum " It has always seemed to me that giving, as he did, his life to this work, and having made a very great personal sacrifice, in a pecuniary point, by accepting the office of Secretary to the Board of Education, he was less bound than any other individual to contribute towards these objects from his private purse. But he was in the habit of doing, at his own expense, what he saw was necessary for the cause, whenever no one else came forward to do it." Messrs. Dutton & Wentworth, "Printers to the State," volunteered to send the chairman of the Committee the following letter : — " Dear Sir, — Learning that a movement is about to be made in the Legislature, to make some remuneration to the Hon. Horace Mann, late Secretary of the Board of Education, for personal and other expenses, incurred during his term of office, we beg leave to volunteer in his behalf. During the twelve years of his term of office, all the Reports of the Board and its Secretary have been printed by us. In regard to the printing he has ordered, he has always had it done in the most econo- mical manner, and we wish to bear our testimony to the fact. Whenever he has wanted, for distribution, extra copies of his Reports, he has ordered J them printed on his private account, and paid for them himself; we are unable to state the exact amount he has paid us for these documents, but should say it must have been $15 or $100. The documents he has pur- chased of us were his own Reports, school abstracts, lectures, &c. &c., besides circulars he has issued for teachers' meetings, where addresses were to be delivered by himself and others. The amount stated above, we are aware, is not large, but the spirit of the transaction is more than the amount. He never would take a sheet, or a copy, belonging to the State, at any time. If he wanted copies for distribution, he has ordered them, and paid for them out of his own purse. In the matter of postages, he has also not been less scrupulous and conscientious, having always paid the expresses for letters and proof sheets, to and from himself, v/hen he was in the country while his Reports were printing. In everything in relation to the duties of his office, he has always been very exact ; scrupulous and uniform in the discharge of his duties, so far as the matter of printing is concerned. We believe the State owes Mr. Mann a great debt, and if the simple facts here stated will help his cause, we feel we are only doing an act of justice to him as an officer of the strictest in- ii tegrity. With sentiments of respect and esteem, " Your obedient servants, " DuTTON & Wentworth, " State Frinters^ On this letter the Report remarks : — " The letter from Messrs. Dutton & Wentworth is quite remarkable, as proving the scrupulous sense of justice and honor that has marked Mr. Mann's discharge of his late office. To use an expression which bears the stamp of his own peculiar richness of illustration, he has been careful 220 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ' to shake the gold dust from liis garments, whenever he has had occasion to go into the public mint.' "* Wm. B. Fowle, Esq., bookseller and publisher of the Common School Journal, during the last six years of the time that Mr. Mann was its editor, being called upon for information by the Committee, attested as follows : — " It always appeared to me, that Mr. Mann had set his lieart upon the great work of resuscitating the school system, at any sacrifice to himself, of ease or property. I never knew what resources he had, but I often wondered at the liberality, or what to me seemed the prodigality, of his donations; and yet the expenditure of his money must have been to him a trifle, compared with the outlay of strength which I often witnessed. I often warned him of his danger, when I saw him suifering from an over- worked brain, but he never desisted, though he admitted the danger, for the woik was to be done, and, if neglected, though beyond human strength, the community, not knowing this, would consider him imfaith- ful. This was his greatest sacrifice in the cause of education, but, as no pecuniary estimate can be set upon this, perhaps I should not have alluded to it. I have known, him for weeks to be unable to sleep. When Mr. M. entered upon his duties, it was evident that his efforts would be very restricted, if he did not contrive to scatter the information he collect- ed. Indeed, the law required that he should both collect and distribute, but the State made no provision for the disti-ibution ! As the most popular and economical method of complying with the requirements of the law, Mr. M. commenced the Common School Journal. At the end of the fourth year, when I became the publisher, the receipts had fallen short of the expenditures. Since that time, viz., for six years, the loss has not fallen upon Mr. M., but he has continued to edit the Journal, because he considered it essential to the success of the great cause. "The vols, contain many valuable documents, which it was important to scatter widely over the State. It was Mr. M.'s custom to print extra numbers of these, and distribute them gratuitously to the schools. I recollect three or four cases, in which he sent a copy to every district, of which there must have been three or four thousand " Probably each of these donations cost him seventy-five dollars. Many single volumes of the Journal, and sometimes whole sets, were given away for the general good, but of this I have no record, though I know the volumes amounted to hundreds. " The compilation of the volume of Abstracts was a heavy task, but, besides making this, be actually paid for the making of the index, which, I know (for I made one of them), is no slight affair " Two other items have occurred to me, and they should be mentioned * While Mr. Mann was a candidate for the office of Governor of Massachusetts (as hereafter mentioned), he was informed tliat an emissary of one of the political parties opposed to him had been at the State-house for tliree days, overhauling the accounts and official records made by him while Secretary of the Board of Education, in hopes to find or create some pretext for impeaching his conduct. "Let him get a microscope," said Mr Mann, "and blind himself with looking. He will not only find no stain in my official conduct, but I hope the examination of it will make him an honester man." HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 221 as helping to illustrate the perfect forgetfulness of self, which marked the official course of Mr. Mann. " Three or four years ago, when outline maps began to be used in schools, it became proper that the pupils of the Normal Schools should be taught how to use them. As the Board of Education had no funds, Mr. Mann paid for three sets, one for each school. The price is $25 a set. " Before Mr. M. went to Europe, I had frequent conversations with him on the subject of European schools, and he regretted that he had not that personal knowledge which could enable him to com])are them with our own, and to propose such improvements as would really advance our own. I think this was his only motive in going, for he visited nothing but schools, and returned as soon as possible. The expenses of his visit must have exceeded his salary 1000 or 1500 dol- lars, and, on his return, I proposed to him to put his notes into the foim of a book, and let me publish them, assuring him that the copyright would produce more than he had expended beyond his salary. His reply was, that he was a public officer, and went for the public, and the public were entitled to the information, free of any such tax. His remarks, therefore, were thrown into his Seventh Annual Report, and given to the State." After paying a merited tribute of respect to the Hon. Edmund D wight for his well known liberality in the same cause, the Committee close their report with the following paragraph, and with a resolve for payino* out of the treasury of the Commonwealth "the sum of tw^o thousand dollars, in favor of Horace Mann, late Secretary of the Boai'd of Edu- cation " : — "The Committee do not propose, as they feel confident that it would not be agreeable to Mr. Mann, to make out an exact account of what the State may owe him, in dollars and cents. He does not desire, and would not be willing, to be fully reimbursed, but, before all money that the treasury of the Commonwealth contains, lie prefers to cherish the happv and noble thought that he has labored and suffered in her behalf He asks for nothing, and has had no voluntary agency in this movement. Nothing would be more repugnant to his well-known sensibilities than to have a claim urged upon the State for an exact settlement of his accounts with it, upon mere business principles. What he has done he meant, at the time, for a gift, and the Committee do not propose to deprive him of the title of a benefactor. They do not propose to pay him o^', but, under the circumstances, they are of opinion that the passage of the following resolve, although not amounting by half to what upon a strict computa- tion is equitably due to him, would be more agreeable to his feelings than a moie precise remuneration." From authentic information we are able to say that this sum w'as but a very small part of what had been paid by Mr. Mann from his own pocket, in furtherance of the cause of education, while he was Secretary of the Board ; but, inadequate as a remuneration though it was, it was in the highest degree honorable both to giver and receiver. Before any one complains of Massachusetts for not doing more, let him point to a single State in our Union, or to a single government in the world, which, under such circumstances, and for suck a class of services, would have done as 222 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. much. We believe the resolve was passed, in both Houses, without a dissenting vote. The same spirit has signalized the course of Mr. Mann in whatever other cause he has been engaged. In 1848, the first year of his being in Congress, with his new legislative duties on his band, and still dis- charging those of Secretary of the Board, when the excited people of Washington threatened to mob Mr. Giddings merely for appearing as counsel for Drayton and Sayre (the prisoners charged with stealing and abduct- ing seventy-six slaves, in the schooner " Pearl "), Mr. Mann volunteered to become their counsel, battled their case in the court below for twenty- one successive days, appealed from the verdicts rendered by the jury un- der the false rulings of Judge Crawford, got all those verdicts set aside in the District Court, and then again, after the cases were remanded for a new trial, contested them for ten days more, and finally saved the prison- ers from all but a pecuniary penalty ; and for all these services, he never asked nor received a cent of compensation. The principal of Mr. Mann's published works are the ten volumes (oc- tavo) of his Common School Journal ; a compilation called Abstracts of the Massachusetts School Returns and Reports (in which the amount of printed matter far exceeds that of all the volumes of Sparks's " Life of Washington ") ; his twelve Annual Reports as Secretary of the Board of Education ; his volume of " Lectures on Education ;" his " Speeches and Letters on the subject of Slavery ;" his controversial writings, which are voluminous ; his " Thoughts for Young Men," a lecture of which some twenty thousand copies have been sold ; two lectures on temperance, one addressed to the "poor and ignorant," the other to the "rich and edu- cated ;" two lectures on the Powers and Duties of Woman ; Fourth of July orations, &c., (fee. Of his last speech in Congi-ess, delivered August l7th, 1852, more than a dozen editions have been printed in different States, and more than a hundred thousand copies sold. A few years ago, the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on Mr. Mann by Harvard College. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, &c., &c. On the 15th of September, 1852, Mr. Mann was nominated for the office of Governor by a Convention of the Free Democracy of Massachu- setts, held at Lowell ; and on the same day he was chosen President of Antioch College, a new institution situated at Yellow Springs, Greene co., Ohio. The trustees had voted that the college be opened on the first Wednesday of October, 1853. Thus from the day Mr. Mann entered public life, he has always been elected or appointed to a new office before the time of his previous election or appointment had expired. The political organization with which, Mr. Mann's sentiments and con- victions in behalf of human freedom had led him to act, was numericallv the smallest of the three political parties in Massachusetts. Of course, he was not elected, but his vote ran thirty per cent, ahead of that thrown by the party. The peculiarities of the college over which Mr. Mann is called to pre- side are those for which, during the whole course of his life, he has shown the strongest affinity. It is founded on a most liberal basis as to deno- minational tenets. Those under whose auspices it has been started take the Bible for their rule of faith and practice, rejecting all man-made RICnARD DE FOREST, OF NEW YORK. 223 creeds ; they hold that the tree is known by its fruit, and therefore that Christian character and a Christian life are the true tests of Christian fel- lowship. The institution is also founded to secure the realization of one of Mr. Mann's most cherished objects during his whole educational career — namely, to give to the female sex equal opportunities of education (we do not say equal education, or, in all respects, the same, but equal 02)por- tunittes of education) with those which are aftbvded to males. We are glad to see INIr. Mann restored to the sphere of educational eftbrt, and rejoice that he will have an opportunity to put in practice his favorite ideas on this grandest of subjects. It will be grateful for all who honor him to think of him again as a laborer in the glorious fields of learning, surrounded by the young and emulous whose aspirations he knows so well how to guide to noble ends. He is still in the vigor of mature age ; and though he has labored as few men can labor and live, yet he has been so temperate, and so regular in those habits on which strength and life depend, that his ordinary health promises to hold out for many years* Of one thing we may be sure, that, so long as life is in him, so long will he strike for the right and at the wrong. RICHARD DE FOREST, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK. The Rev. Richard De Forest, as his name implies, is of French descent. We find that his earliest ancestor in this country migrated front France to escape persecution for his religious principles. His name was Isaac De Forest, and he was a member of that persecuted sect, the Huguenots, whose sufterino-s will always excite the sympathy of enlightened minds, and whose constancy under affliction entitles them to the highest rank in the "noble army of martyrs." This o-entleman, flying from the tyranny that condemned all those who held his opinions to an ignominious death, sought refuge and an asylum on these western shores, and landed on the spot then called New Am- sterdam, where now stands the great commercial metropolis of New York. He was a man of influence and wealth, and was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Collegiate Churches of New York, who received the original deed of real estate from the King of Great Britain about the year 1G38. The paternal progenitor of the subject of this sketch, Abraham De Forest, was a native of SouierviUe, Somerset county. New Jersey.^ He had been taught the honorable trade of a carpenter, and pursued in his youth the calling hallowed as that which the Son of Joseph and Mary is said by the Evangelists to have used for the support of his parents before he commenced his divine mission of Saviour of the world. His mother, 224 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. .1 Miss Catharine Fulkerson, also a native of New Jersey, was born and reared upon the bcautilul banks of the Raritan, on a farm about four miles from the cily of New Brunswick, which had been in the possession of the l'"ulkersons and occupied by that family for nearly two centuries. After their union his parents removed to the city of New York, where they were blessed with two children, an only son and a daughter. Richard, the son, was born on the 24tli of May, 1802, and is consequently at the time of writing this memoir in his fifty- first year. When he was about seven years old, his parents removed with him to Scoharie county, in the State of New York ; from whence, after a residence of two years, they clianged their home to the town of Ovid, in Seneca county, where they remained until he had attained his fourteenth year, when they removed to Chili, Moni-oe county, a town about ten miles from the city of Rochester. At the early age of eighteen, impressed with the truth of the injunc- tion, " Remend)er thy Creator in the days of thy youth,'' and feeling the necessity of looking beyond this world and its vanities for solace when " the days should come Avhen he could have no pleasure in them," he made a public profession of religion, and united himself with the Congre- gational church in Chili. At this time the greatest desire of his soul was to become a preacher of the gospel of Christ, and he became very solicitous to prepare himself for the ministry by the study of theology ; but his means not pei'mitting him to enter college for that purpose, and no way appearing to obtain the necessary qualification for that important office, he was reluctantly compelled to give up his cherished hope, and to turn bis attention to some pursuit by which to support his family, for he had united himself in marriage with Miss Charlotte McKee, daughter of Francis McKee, of Adams, Jeii'erson county, N. Y. But "There's a divinity wliich shapes our cnd?^" and in his case the operation of this providence became plainly visible. In the year 1828, his attention was .-igain directed to the call, and his mind strongly impressed with the feeling that it was his duty to preach the "everlasting gospel." Reflecting deeply upon this serious matter, he was induced to apply for advice to Josiah Bissell, Esq., an active and energetic Christian citizen of Rochester, and the Rev. Joel Parker, now of New York city. These gentlemen both agreed in urging him to follow the dictates of his conscience, and obey what appeared to them an evident vocation. In accordance with their advice, he relinquished his worldly pursuits, and commenced a preparation for the ministerial office under the instructions of the Rev. Joel Parker. Up to this time his attainments in knowledge had not been very great, but having had the benefit of an excellent common school education, he possessed a founda- tion upon which to build. After continuing his studies wiih the Rev. Mr. Parker until he had made considerable advances towards his contemplated profession, he entered a classical school in Rochester, of which the present Professor of Mathematics in Burlington College, Vermont, Farrand N. Benedict, Avas the principal. He remained under the instruction of this amiable man and successful teacher for two years, and to the aid extended by him, BICHAED DE FOREST, OF KEW YORK. 225 and the deep and friendly interest exhibited he attributes the proficiency attained during that period, whilst liis remembrance of the kindness and patience displayed in unfolding to his mind the hidden lore of the ancients still elicits fi-om him the warmest expressions of gratitude. He then entered the Auburn Theological Seminary, of which at that time the Rev. James Richards was President. During the time he was occu- pied in these preparatory studies his family consisted of his wife, and Jane M., an only daughter. He received a license to preach the gospel from the Black River Asso- ciation, in the State of New York, on the 26th of January, 1832, and immediately entered upon his duties, preaching his first sermon on the following Sabbath in Adamsville, Jeflerson county. Returning to the seminary at Auburn, he remained there until April following, when he was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry by the above named Association on the 5th of April of the same year. He then entered fully upon his ministerial labors in western New York as pastor of different churches in that section until the year 1840, when he was led by the providence of God to commence laboring as an evangelist. In thus approaching the position of the earlier apostles he followed their example, and wherever two or three could be collected together he extended to them the free gifts of the gospel. In this capacity he labored for seven years, and his efforts were blessed by the great Head of the church in the hopeful conversion of many in every regular series of meetings at which he officiated during this period. Four of the seven years occupied by his evangelical labors were spent in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois, and Wisconsin. In the course of his apostolic dispensation he felt it his duty to travel extensively. " The world was all before him, and Providence his guide." And in fulfilling the divine behest to preach the gospel to every creature, he visited the British possessions in Canada, and besides the States above mentioned, proclaimed the solemn and cheering truths of Christianity throughout Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, 'Massachusetts, Connecti- cut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Kentucky, Mis- souri, and Iowa. In Indiana he organized two churches. During his ministry he has preached nearly four thousand sermons, and in the course of one year he delivered four hundred and twenty-six, averaging over one sermon for each day. On his return from the field of his labors in the Western States, he purchased a lot in the city of Rochester, and erected thereon a building containing one room for the purpose of preaching on the Sabbath. It was in a part of the city inhabited by the poor and destitute, to whom the Word had seldom been preached, and for whom a place of worship was much required. This was done before he had preached a single sermon in the neighborhood. When the edifice was completed, and the room prepared, he went through that section of the city, from door to door, visiting every cabin and hovel, to inform the inhabitants that there would be a school commenced on the following Sabbath, in the forenoon, and preaching in the afternoon and evening. The Sabbath-school opened with forty scholars, and in the afternoon and evening the people crowded the room. He .preached his first sermon in this room on the 12th of December, 1847, and continued to preach on every succeeding Sabbath VOL. IV. 15 226 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. until the latter part of February following, when indications of a revival becoming apparent, and upon one Sabbath in particular perceiving that his words had made a dee]^ impression on his hearers, he gave notice that he would preach every evening in that week ; accordingly he com- menced these evening exercises, and continued them regularly for four successive weeks. Aid was given him from above, and the Head of the church signally blessed his endeavors in the hopeful conversion of a goodly Dumber of those who had listened to his preaching of the Word. As the result of this manifestation of divine grace, a church was organ- ized on the 26th of March, 1848, consisting, at first, of twenty-two mem- bers, under the name of " St. Paul Street Congregational Church." In the month of May following, Mr. De Forest commenced building a house in which this newly formed congregation might worship ; this was to be a building of brick, seventy-five feet long and forty-two feet wide. Whilst erecting this church, besides fulfilling his duties as pastor of the congregation for whom it was intended, he had also to exercise the func- tions of trustee, and assume the responsibilities of a building committee. He furnished all the materials, superintended the workmen, circulated subscription lists, collected the funds required for the work, paid the laborers, and amid these various employments, had to find time to pre- pare the sermons which he delivered every Sabbath to his infant congre- gation. He also made a purchase of a lot of ground adjoining the church, which he. presented to the societ}^ as the site for a parsonage. This place of worship was at length completed, and the congregation — which may justly be called his, having had its origin through his minis- trations in that little room — have now acquired a suitable temple in which to offer up their sacrifice. "But in the midst of his useful and laudable exertions he was called upon to weep the consequence of " Man's disobedience and the fall ;" for death entered his household and tore from his embrace the wife of his bosom, who had been his loved consort for twenty-seven years. This was a heavy stroke, and he keenly felt the blow, but his confidence in the benignity of the Supreme Ruler of human affairs, in all his dispensa- tions, brought with it the consoling power of resignation, enabling him to check the rising sorrow, and exclaim submissively, " Thy will be done." Notwithstanding his great bereavement, he did not allow his own mis- fortunes to interfere with the great objects he had in view ; he still con- tinued to devote himself to the building up of his church, and brought, as we have seen, the little flock he had gathered and increased into a commodious edifice. His second wife was a daughter of Joseph Dart, Esq., of Middle Had- dam, Connecticut ; a lady of devoted piety and amiable disposition. But the ways of Providence are inscrutable. In the midst of his use- fulness Mr. De Forest was seized with a sudden deafness, which so far interfered with his professional duties as to compel him to retire from the pulpit, and although he is not now able, as formerly, to exhort in public, yet he is devoted to the cause of Christ, in which he still success- fully labors with all the powers he possesses, and which he considers the only object in this world worth living for. f LiBRftRV OF CONGRESS h) > LIVINQSTON'S LAW REGISTER FOR 1855. The "Law Register for 1855" ia a most invaluable work, worth much D'ore than its price. It is not only an Ofi&cial and Legal Directory, but a manual and form- book, embodying an array of practical information which renders it more valualtle, as a work for daily reference, than any other published in this country. While its preparation by the editor, with the aid of the secretai-ies of the different states, and other state and country officers, has been a work of great labor, insuring such completeness, accuracy, and reliability as can not be expected in most other works, it has involved an expense of many thousand dollars, which can only be met by the most liberal support of those to whom the book is offered. 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The editor will only add, that the special laws of every state on the several subjects mentioned are correct and full down to the present time ; and it is believed the same will be found more complete and Reliable than any thing now before the public. Law Register for 1855— Terms: ^^ "The Law Register for 1855" is a large volume of over 650 closely printed, triple column, large octavo pages. Price of the work, two dtllars. It is for sale at 157 Broadway, JVew York, and by the principal booksellers in the city of JtTew York. The best way to obtain the book is to send two dollars direct to the publisher, by mail, and on receipt of the money, he will forward the work, free of postage, to any part of the United States. The "Law MegLoter for 1855" will be sent with the Monthly Law Magazine, from January, 1854, to December, 1854, inclusive, for four dollars in advance. 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