♦* "^oS^ '^O'^ * ^p-^^^ I % ' '^^ '^ '^ fc«K^ " " >t^:^^5;r ' '^f-r f >^ " ^u;;^ o O X"* ^'^ -ov-^ *bv^^ r^ % ^-^S:° ' ^ v^--X ' • ^-.^- ^ ^ VS- -X: - ::^- ^/> ^<""°:>>A°;\>*:o<-'X'°-":>!-/,-x '/i^A f^-^S: " :;<^-^V° • ">f'r ^<^ " " 5 te * z o o ^^'% L'*.^^ ]S:°^ ^"^^^/JjT*; ^^ f POETRAITS EMINENT AMERICANS NOW LIVING: WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF THEIR LIVES AND ACTIONS. BY JOHN LIVINGSTON, OF THE NEW-yOEK BAK. V L U M E I V . . Nero ^ r k : 15 7 BROAD WAY. £onbon •• SAMPSON LOW, SON fRY M., of Baltimore, Maryland ; Merchant; Vol. TIL, 431 -BATTLE, WILLIAM H.,of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Zazi-- 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. TIL, . . 285 IV CONTENTS- rxsB BELL, MONTGOMERY, of Williamson County, Tennessee; Iron Manufacturer ; Yo\.\Y., . . . . .275 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; Yol.lY., 286 BOWLES, JOSHUA B., of Louisville, Kentucky ; Financier ; President of the Bank of Louisville ; Vol. II. . . 645 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. III., 41 BRLERLY, BENJAMIN, of San Francisco, California; Clerpy- m,an ; 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 ; Yol III., 317 BROOKS, CHARLES, of Medford, Massachusetts ; Author and Clergyman ; Vol. HI., ....... 257 BROOKS, NATHAN C, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Author and Teacher ;Yo\.lIl., 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; Yol.lY., 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 ; 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 / CONTENTS. * PAQB CAMPBELL, JAMES, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lawyer and Statesman; Postmaster-General ; Vol. lU., . . 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 ; Phy- sician and Statesman ; Vol. IV., . . . . .281 CATRON, JOHN, of Nashville, Tennessee ; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Vol. H., . . 805 CHAIVIBERLAIN, EBENEZER M., of Goshen, Indiana ; Law- 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 A^oMer ; Vol. III., 3V5 ■ 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 ; Lawyer ; Member of the House of Delegates in 1844, and Senate in 1846 ; Vol. L, * 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 ; Vol. IV,, ....... 145 - CO ALE, JAMES M., of Frederick, Maryland ; Lawyer ; Vohni., 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 ; \ o\. 111., 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, Mississippi ; Lawyer and Planter; Vol. IL, 631 Vi CONTENTS. f^QS COTHREN, WILLIAM, of Woodbury, Connecticut; Lawyer ?in(\ Author; Vol. IV., 391 COXE, RICHARD S., of Washington, District of Columbia ; Laimjer ;. Vol. I., 247 CRAWFORD, JOEL, of Early County, Georgia; Laivyer, Statesman andi Planter ; YoX.TH., . . . . IVV CREY, FREDERICK, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Vol. III. . . 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., 3G0 CULVER, REUBEN, of Logan, Ohio ; Lawyer; President of the Logan Branch Bank ; Vol. I., . . . . . 95 CUSHING, CALEB, of Newburyport, Massachusetts ; Laivyer, Soldier and Statesman ; Attorney-General for the United States ; Vol. IIL, . ' 243 CUSHMAN, HENRY W., of Bernardstou, Massachusetts; Statesman; formerly Lieutenant Governor; Vol. IIL, . 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. HI., . . . 23.5 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. L, 339 DEAN, HOSE A J., of Spartanburg, South Carohna ; Lawyer and Planter ; Clerk of the House of Representatives of South Carolina ; Vol. IV., ....... 5 DEFORD, BENJAMIN, of Baltimore, Maryland; Manufac- turer siad 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. I., . . 21 CONTENTS. VU 9ket DE WITT, ALEXANDER, of Oxford, Massachusetts ; Financier and Politician ; President of the Mechanics' Bank at Worcester ; 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. n., 819 DICKERSON, CORNELIUS S., of Do'^er, New Jersey ; Farmer andBanker;Yo\.lY., 253 DIFFENDERFFER, HENRY, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Author; Vol IV., 343 ^- DIXON, ABCHIBALD, of Henderson, Kentucky ; Lawyer ; United States Senator ; Voh II., . . . .737 ^ DOBBIN, JAMES C, of Fayetteville, North Carolina ; Lawyer and Statesman; Secretary of the Isslyj ; Vol. HI., . &o ■-•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. ■ XV •> • • •• • • • • • *■ 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 - DUTTON, HENRY, of New Haven, Connecticut ; Lawyer; late Professor of Law in Yale College ; Governor of Connec- ticut; Vol. II., G8? --EAVES, NATHANIEL R., of Chestcrville, South Carolina; Lawyer; Member of the Senate of South Carolina ; Vol. H., 597 - EDDY, ZECHARIAH, of Middleboro', Massachusetts ; Laivyer ; Vol. HI., ......... 5 -- EDMONDS, JOHN W., of New York ; Laivyer; late Judge of the Supreme Court of New York ; Vol. H., . . .797 ^EMMONS, H. H., of Detroit, Michigan; Zazi»yer; Vol. IL, . 451 EVERHART, WILLIAM, of West Chester, Pennsylvania ; Statcs- maiv; Member of the Thirty-third Congress ; Vol. IV., . 471 VIU CONTENTS. PA8B 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. HI., ...... 453 FISHER, GEORGE, of San Francisco, California ; Uditor, &c.*; now Secretary of the CaHfornian Land Commission ; Vol. HI., 441 FOGG, FRANCIS BRINLEY, of Nashville, Tennessee ; Lawyer; Member of the State Constitutional Convention of Ten- nessee, in 1834; Vol. II., 667 FONTAINE, EDMUND, of Richmond, Virginia ; Soldier and Statesman ; President of the Virginia Central Rail-Road ; Vol. IV., 163 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 FREELON, THOMAS W., of San Francisco, California ; Law- yer ; Connty Judge ; Vol. IV., ..... 425 FULLER, HENRY H., of Boston, Massachusetts, Lawyer; (de- ceased since the publication of his memoir ;) Vol. I., . 173 GARLAND, HUGH A,, of St. Louis, Missouri ; Lawyer and Author ; Vol. II., 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. L, . . . 193 GORDON, GEORGE H., of V^oodville, Mississippi; Lawyer and Planter ; Delegate to the Democratic Convention, 1852; Vol. I., . . - 45 GOTT, JAMES R., of Rockport, Massachusetts; Banker; Vol. lU., 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. L, 75 CONTENTS. IX PAOB GOVE, CHARLES F., of Nashua, New Hampshire ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. IV., . . * . . . . 242 GRACE, WILLIAM P., of Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Lawyer; Vol.1., 323 GRAVES, CALVD^, of Locust Hill, North Carolina; Lawyer; formerly Speaker of the House of Commons; Vol. L, . 18*7 GRIDLEY, ALBERT GALLATIN, of CUnton, 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. IL, 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; Secretary 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. H., 421 HAMILTON, ALLEN, of Fort Wayne, Indiana ; Financier ; President of the Branch Bank at Fort Wayne ; Vol. I., 2*75 HANLY, THOMAS BURKE, of Helena, Arkansas; Lawyer; ^ Vol. IV., 445 ^ -HARPER, JOSEPH M., of Concord, New Hampshire; Physi- cian ; President of the Mechanics' Bank ; Vol. I., . . 10*7. -HARRINGTON, SAMUEL MAXWELL, of Dover, Delaware; Lawyer and Author ; Justice of the Superior Court of Delaware ; 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. rV., 173 HAYNE, ISAAC W., of Charleston, South Carolina; Lawyer; Attorney- General for the State of South Carolina ; Vol. L, 383 HAYT, SAMUEL A., of Fishkill, New York ; Banker and Mer- chant ; President Fishkill Bank ; Vol. HI., . . . 365 HITCHCOCK, PETER, (deceased,) late of Painesville, Ohio; Jurist ; for many years Chief Justice of Ohio ; Vol. HI., 227 273 63 X CONTENTS. PASS HOGG, JOSEPH L., of Rusk, Texas ; Lawyer and Statesman ; Vol. IV., . . • HOOD, CHARLES C, of Somerset, Ohio ; Jurist ; Vol. IV., HOWARD, W. G., of Rochester, New York ; Clergyman ; Vol. IV., . . - HOYT, HIRAM, of Syracuse, New York ; Physician ; Vol. IV., 75 HUBBS, PAUL K., of Benicia, California; Merchant and Statesman; Superintendent of Public instruction in California ; 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. H., 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 ^M^Aor ; Vol. rV^, 328 KEITH, CHARLES F., of Athens, Tennessee; Lawyer and Planter ; Judge of the Circuit Court for the Third Cir- cuit ; Vol IL, 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 ; Laivyer and Planter ; Member of the Louisiana State Senate ; Vol. I., 1 1 LANDES, JOHN, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; Farmer ; Presi- dent of the Lancaster County Bank; Vol. IL, . . 629 L'AMOREAUX, JAMES, of Albany, New York ; Lawyer and Jurist; Vol. IV., 12 -LAWRENCE, WILLIAM, of Bellefoutaine, Ohio; Laxvyer ; late Member of the State Legislature, and Supreme Court Reporter ; Vol. L, 3G5 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. HI., . . 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. H., . 757 CONTENTS. XI FAOB MANN, HORACE, of Yellow Springs, Ohio ; Author ; Presi- dent of Antiocla College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio ; Vol. IV., 178 MARCHBANKS, ANDREW J., of McMinnviUe, Tennessee; Laivyer ; Judge of tlie Circuit Court for the 13th Cir- cuit; Vol. II., 563 MARCY, WILLIAM L., of Albany, New York ; Lawyer and Statesman; Secretary of State ; Vol. IIL, . . 215 MARSHAL, BENJAMIN, of Troy, New York ; Merchant and Manufacturer ; Vol. III., ...... 1 MARSH, MULFORD, of Savannah, Georgia; Lawyer; Vol. L, 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., G65 " 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, etc., 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 Planter ; Vol. IIL, 289 McClelland, Robert, of Lansing, Michigan ; Laipycr and Statesman ; Secretary of the interior ; VoL IIL, , . 231 • McCLURE, WILLIAM B., of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; Law- yer ; Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the 5th District ; Vol. L, 381 McDUGALD, JOHN G., of Elizabethtown, North Carolina; Statesman ; Vol. IV., ...... 335 McHENRY, JOHN H., of Hartford, Kentucky; Lawyer ; Vol. IIL, 413 McKAY, DONALD L., of Georgetown, South Carolina; Banker and Planter ; Vol. IH., 21 McLEAN, JOHN, of Cincinnati, Ohio ; Lawyer ; Justice of the Supreme Couit of the United States ; Vol. II., . . JSO 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., , . . ■ . . 5*1*1 Xll CONTENTS. NELSON, THOMAS, of Oregon City, Oregon ; Lawyer ; late Chief Justice of Oregon ; Vol. II., .... 559 NOHTON, GEORGE W., of Russellville, Kentucky ; Merchant ; President of the Southern Bank of Kentucky ; Vol. II., 5*75 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. TV., 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. III., . . . .137 PERRY, BENJAMIN F., of Greenville, South Carolina; Lawyer and P/a«ut though rich in honors and in the respect of all who knew them, the parents of Major Dean possessed at their marriage but little of this world's goods, her faithful nurse being the only servant that accompanied his mother when she exchanged a father's roof for that of her husband. Children came rapidly, and mostly of the feebler sex, so that, when the number reached nine, the subject of this sketch was still an only son. Rarely has it been the case, even under the humblest roof, that one placed in his position has escaped the ruinous efi'ects of the indulgence too often accoided to the "only son," who is most usually the idol of 6 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the domestic circle, and to whose gratification the comfort, happiness, and ■wishes of all must yiM. But the parents of Major D. were both ])ersons of unusual strength uf character. Dearly as they loved their only son, it Avas not by foohsh indulgence they evinced it; his sisters -were never compelled to submit to and wait upon the little tyrant of the household, but ever looked up to him as their friend and protector, and he was early impressed that his manhood only made him superior to thom in the ability which it conferred to protect them and to shield them from the lieat and burden of the day, in assisting in the support of their large familv. These influences had the happiest eft'ect in the formation of his character, and made him, while yet a boy, remarkable for a certain dignified manliness of deportment, combined with the most delicate and assiduous care of his mother and sisters. Self-reliance^ fortitude, and truth were the most prominent traits of his character. Early made to feel himself the protector of his mother and sisters, he was frequently called on to perform acts of courage that seemed far beyond his strength and years. When only ten years of age, his father, on one occasion, went to a place called Hobbie's, about six miles distant trom his residence, to pay taxes. I)uriiig his absence a fearful storm arose, which tore up trees by the roots, carried oft' the roofs of some houses, and levelled others with the ground. In one of these, preparations were making for a wedding, and days afterwards the garments of the bride were found three miles distant in the tops of the highest trees. The anxiety of the family at home for the absent husband and father was painfully great. Night drew on, and the rain continued to pour with unabated violence, accompanied witli vivid lightning and heavy peals of thunder. The mother, sisters, and son sat with aching hearts listening for every sound. At length, about midnight, the neigh of a horse was heard at the gate. " That's father's horse!" exclaimed the children as they rushed to the door. There indeed was the horse, but " Alas ! no rider is there." A l)ang shot through the mother's heart, but feeling that now everything depended upon her calmness, she said, suppressing all signs of emotion, " My son, you must go and seek your father." " When must I start, mother?" "This in- stant," was the reply. Without another word, the little fellow prepared for his fearful journey. Putting on some thicker clothing and tightening " Lightfoot's '' girth, he sprang into the saddle and turned to say " Good bye I" to the anxious group around him. "Not yet," said his mother; " we must see you safe over Two Mile creek." Through the pelting rain the mother and sisters accompanied him to the bank of the creek, which, swollen anil angry, was now far out of its banks. Without the least sign of fear the brave boy })luuged in, and in an instant both horse and rider sank beneath the foaming torrent. All seemed lost for a moment, but above the rushing of tlit; storm and the roaring of the water, he heard the calm clear voice of his mother : " Hold on, my son ! hold on /" He did hold on, and after a fierce struggle the faithful "Lightfoot" bore him safe to the opposite bank. One long shout assured his mother of his safety ; then on he sped in search of his father, not knowing but the next fl;ish would reveal his dead body in the road. Within a mile of Hobbie's the road became so blocked up with fallen trees that he was compelled to alight and lead his horse. Every few minutes he shouted " Father I" and just as day was dawning he lieard a voice in reply ; it was his friend HOSEA J. DEAN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 7 and neighbor, Robert Alexander. In another moment he met his father, on foot, in search of his horse, and in the next was clasped to his heart. Such acts as these early imparted to the boy's character a calm bravery and moral strenean and his venerable father, the respectful tenderness of the son only equalled by the aft'ectionate respect and confidence of the father. Indeed, one of the most marked traits in the character of the son, is his defer- ence and attention to the a^'ed. He is a most tender and indulorent husband and father, and kind and considerate master. • In his manners, ^lajor Dean is remarkably graceful and dignified, and while treating even the poorest and humblest with respect, he is the last man with whom you would be tempted to take a liberty. Early in his career, his bark was tossed upon the stormy waters of both adversity and persecution ; but patience and industry have overcome the one, wliile a brave heart and strong arm have conquered the other ; and now beyond the reach of either, he enjoys the reward of virtue, " health, peace and competence." In the prime of life, with a constitution unimpaired, and his habits of early rising and temperance, his friends may justly regard him as but at the bemnninir of his career of honor and usefulness. JAMES L'AMOREUX, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK. The subject*of this sketch was born in the town of New Rochelle, Westchester count v, N. Y. His ancestors were natives of Rochelle, in France. His great grand- father, being a Huguenot, fled from that city with his family, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; and emigrating to this country with a little colony of fellow-exiles, among whom were the Monroes and Jays %-'=^-ei-.. .- c 3u:tre ±rco a Jatf-Aerreotrje .Zinjr^v^.-^c^Bicarjjphi,:^ Sksdh^s :t Ei>^':J~'Sr,,t jbru^u:^ u JAMES l'aMOREDX, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK. 13 of this state, he settled in the - ^ighborhood of the future city of Xe\v York ; the place of settlerr ( named after the " proud city" which he had left. When our subject was 'ive years old, his father, pressed by unfavorable circumstances and the necessities of a large and growing family, removed from New Rochelle to the town of Rensselaerville, county of Albany. This town was then a wilderness. The precise locality which tlie new settler desired to reach was quite inaccessible by conveyances ; and leav- ing behind him all the members of his family not old enough to render assistance, he proceeded to cut a road, some two miles, through the forest, and to construct a rude building for their reception. Here, amid the woods and rocks of the Helderberg — thirty miles from the then small city of Albany, and two miles from any neighbor — our subject spent his boy- hood. Till he was nine years of age, no school-house or teacher had been seen in the settlement; and the cabin then erected for juvenile in- struction was distant about a mile and a half. The "school-marm" was young, and, as may be imagined, not transcendent in acquirements, or in the art of iiianaging the crude minds around her. Webster's Spellino-- book, Dilworth's Arithmetic, the Testament and the Catechism, composed the entire course of studies. These select influences our subject enjoyed for two summers ; and thereafter his services becoming valuable, were required in the field and woods. He continued to attend school during the winter months, pushing his way through snow and storms along the lonely road ; and at night, long after the family had gone to rest, he used to indulge his ardent desire for learning, with some book, read by the light of the fire or of a rag dipped in a saucer of fat, before which he stretched himself on the floor. His "pursuit of knowledge under diflii- culties" at last met encouragement and reward in a general request from the neiixhbors that he would himself undertake the ofiice of teacher. He was then only fifteen years old, but consented to assume the rod of pedagogic power, and conducted affairs to the perfect satisfaction of all concerned. In summer, he still worked on the paternal farm. Afterwards, he was called to teach in districts so far from home as to permit only weekly returns to the fauiily. The intellectual influences operating daring these years of boyhood and youth, were such as may be inferred from the condition of that entire section of country at the time. Books were rare. The Almanac was the onlv annual, the Psalm-book almost the only poetry, and Robinson Crusoe about the only regular work of fiction. The religious education of the vouDO', however, was not neglected. Soon after the school was esta- blished, the preachers of the Methodist persuasion penetrated to the settle- ment and found a welcome from all. The house of the parents of the subject of our sketch became their place of rest, and was for a long while the only place of worship for the region round about. The influence, moral and mental, of these preachers, must have been strong upon the young minds which had received no other models of thought and feeling. Still, all these causes were most partial, vague, and desultory in their action. There was no person capable of taking the young individual mind and guiding it through the mazes of rudimental learning. It was left to grope its way painfully along, or fall back disheartened in the attempt. 14 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. At leiifjth, teaching became irksome, and of course not furnishing super- abundant moans of sustenance, it was deserted temporarily for an occu- pation which might give a livelihood, independently of the father's aid. This was tanning, in the employ of a large establishment in the neighbor- hood, which was soon thoroughly mastered by the young workman, when the proprietor suddenly gave up the business. Then teaching was resumed, but with hardly the same enthusiasm as before; and at length our subject began to agitate the subject of entering a profession. Which one of the professions? then became the question. His father favored medicine, and offered him a maintenance during the preparatory course of studv. As to the law, the old gentleman was unmeasured in his con- demnation. So the young man went to consult with the doctor of the viliao-e. This gentleman was a sort of back-woods Abernethy — rough but kindly — and learning that the bent of the young candidate's mind was towards the law, told him to "get along home," but promised to set matters right with the father. He was as good as his word, and reconciled the old gentleman to his son's entering the profession of the law. His legal readings were pursued mostly during intervals of teaching, in the afternoons and long evenings of the winter. " Woodison's Lec- tures" was the only volume at command for several months, and this was " marked and learned " as best could be, without guide or hint to the objects or modes of application. Thus a few more years passed on, in alternate labor on his father's farm, teaching in the schools of his own and neighboring towns, and studying law, when, one day, it was sug- o-ested to him by an accidental acquaintance, that he should seek Albany as the sphere of future action. Soon after, the same individual procured him a situation in the office of a practitioner in the city, which, however, brought with it as remuneration only his board. He contrived, however, by teaching a few scholars and performing the simpler professional duties, to procure himself decent clothes. And one fact, most worthy of remark, is, that, during all this time, tempted as he was by the example of young- men around him, and naturally social and imitative, he never contracted a debt which he had not the means of paying at the time. His sobriety, regular'ty, honesty, and modesty were all this while procuring him many friends; and when his patron subsequently retired from business, offers were speedily made him of clerkships in one or two legal offices, which, though unimportant in themselves, were yet a welcome object to a young and penniless beginner. A most respectable and promising partnership was tendered him, but some circumstances unforeseen prevented the com- pletion of arrangements. In anticipation of himself being appointed to the post of Attornej'- General of tlie State, the Hon. John Woodworth introduced the subject of our sketch into his office as Assistant. About this time, the young lawyer married — a degree of success having already attended his profes- sional efforts. A partnership was then entered into with an energetic voung man, which opened very favorably. And just here occurred the first step in his accumulation of property — his receipts hitherto having been but little more than sufficient for his moderate wants. A suit had been left in his hands by the honorable gentleman whose office he had recently left, in which the fees amounted to some $500. The clients were unable m- ,#' '''ifiaiijAaaMW'BiS^^^^^^^ ,ltlilUl!llll!UJlili'Hlili'U!iiiu ^ DAVID COOPER. 15 to pay the sxim, and desired it to remain on mortgage. Finding liimself, after several months, quite as comfortable without the use of this $500 as before he could call it his own, he took the hint of his necessity and allowed the capital to accumulate. By degrees other considerable sums, also the result of professional labor, were disposed of voluntarily in like manner; so that the third or fourth season of his partnership found him in possession, almost indeed to his own surprise, of several thousand dollars. He had been admitted to practise as attorney and counselor in the supreme court of the state of New York, in the year 1815, and after- wards as solicitor and counsellor in the court of chancery. In 1820, he was appointed to the Judgeship of the county court of the city and county of Albany ; and under the new constitution he retained the office, as First Judge, during two successive terms of five years each. Wealth now flow-ed in rapidly. The professional receipts increased with every season, and several very successful speculations were completed, especially in real estate in the city of Albany and its vicinitv — lots and dwellings and stores ; farms in Bethlehem, New Scotland, and Guilder- laud, and in the neighboring counties of Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Sco- harie ; timber lands in Essex, Clinton, Franklin, AVarrcii. and Fulton counties ; and improved lands upon the Mississippi. Judge L'Amoreux retired from official life in 1833. He was singularly fortunate in his decisions during his long judicial career. These were seldom appealed from, and never reversed. His judgment is sound, rather by natural, intuitive apprehension than by conscious logic. He has a fluencv of utterance and an abundant fancy, together with this natural judgment — a combination which would have made of him an admirable advocate at nisi priu^ ; but the forensic orator was lost in the judge. Of the various minor offices bestowed upon him by his fellow-citizens, we need hardly speak. He was repeatedly chosen as alderman, and at a period when aldermanic dignity was somewhat different from its pre- sent estate. He took an active and official part in the proceedings of various local associations. He never mingled in general politics, and never sought office. AVhatever he has received from the public, has been the gift of their honest and free appreciation. The contrast between his earlv disadvantages and present position is an encouraging and instructive lesson to aspiring and poor young men. It shows that scrupulous ho- nesty, sobriety, and systematic perseverance in duty, will command suc- cess amid circumstances the most dubious and disheartening. DAVID COOPEK, FORMERLV JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF MIN'XESOTA. I It is a fiict often to be notad in history, that those who have made the most brilliant figure before men, and whose names and a knowledge of 16 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. whose actions are familiar to all, liave achieved their greatest triumphs while TouiifT in years. It is a characteristic of genius that it bids defi- ance to slow experience, and leaps at once to the desired result, while narrower minds plod on through weary years to accomplish that which the ijifted have secured almost on the instant. The character of genius in an enlarged sense may fairly be ascribed to the subject of the follow- ing brief memoir. David Cooper was born on the second day of July, 1821, at a place known as '' lirooks' Keserve," in Frederick county, Maryland. At an early age he was sent to common school, near the family estate, where he was taught the rudiments of an English cduc'ntion. While there, his retentiveness of memory and his unfailing application to studv dis- tinguished him, and he almost uniformly stood at the head of his class. In 1831 his brother James, the present distinguished Senator in con- gress from I'ennsylvania, having completed his collegiate course, and being desirous of pursuing his legal studies in Pennsylvania, his father removed Avith his tamily to Gettysburg, in Adams county, wheie he re- mained until 1833, when he returned to Maryland, and took up his abode at Graceham, a village some two miles distant from his former residence, "Brooks' Keserve.'' While a resident in Gettysburg, young Cooper pro- secuted his elementary studies with great credit and benefit to himself, and laid the solid basis u})on whicli, some years afterwards, he raised a structure of extended and comprehensive classic and legal knowledge. After leaving the common school in 1834, he assisted his father upon the farm at Brooks' Keserve, of which possession had been resumed, and was so occupied until 1838. During that period he acquired an accurate and practical knowledge of the business pertaining to, and the economy in the management of a faim ; and the knowledge so gained has been beneficially felt in Minnesota, whei'e he has done much to promote the interests of agriculture by establishing farms and introducing stock and approved seeds and implements. The death of his father in 1837 caused a serious alteration in his pro- spects and his views, and he decided upon passing through a regular course of study in the higher branches of education, with a view ulti- mately to devote himself to the practice of the law. The business of the farm, however, detained him, and it was not until the expiration of a year, that, being freed from this restraint, he felt himself at liberty to devote his energies to the severe and comprehensive course of study which he proposed. To secure its completion, he set aside all the little patri- mony left him by his father, and in the outset and during his course he was most fortunate in having as his tutor the Kev. Mr. Brooks, a Method- ist clergyman, and a gentleman of great accomplishments and know- ledge of the world. L'nder his guidance the young student rapidlv ac- quired a very considerable and valuable store of classical knowledge and of the exact sciences, while he drew from his conversations much of his experience of men — a priceless teaching to one so voung. In 1839, in pursuance of his plan of study, Mr. Cooper left the private school of his reverend friend and tutor, and proceeded to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. L pon his ai'rival there he made application for admission into Pennsylvania College, and Mas matriculated immediately ; the faculty admitting him into the Freshman fclass in classics, into the Sophomore DAVID COOPER. 17 class in mathematics, and into the Junior class in belles lettres. His course of study lasted until 1841, during which period he was known as a close and promising student ; and in the Philomathean Society, attached to the college, he stood eminent as a wrangler. His forensic and aro^u- mentative powers were so conspicuous that he was chosen ]>i-esident of the society ; and to its influence upon him may in a great degree be attri- buted the rapid growth and perfection of the mental faculty, by which, in later years, he distinguished himself as a law student, as a lawyer, and upon the bench for liis promptness of action and fulness of decision upon matters connected with his profession. The mind of the young scholar was early an'd severely disciplined, and it is to his credit that his studies were prosecuted for a considerable period while laboring under the enfeebling eti'ects of disease, which eventually confined him to his bed during several months. Perseverance and energy were marked traits in his character during his collegiate coui-se. As it had not been his intention to seek for college honors, and his course of study had been regulated accordingly, he quitted his Alma Mater without application for the distinction of an alumnus, but with a high character as a scholar, a ready speaker and elegant writer ; and better than all, with a mind well stored wIlIi the knowledge best calcu- lated to prepare him for his entrance upon the study of the law. After leaving college he was admitted into the law office of his brother Senator Cooper in Gettj-sburg, and from the extensive practice of that eminently distinguished lawyer, he drew an abundant knowledge of the practice, as well as of the theory of his profession. To his office studv he also added the advantages derivable from a moot court, of one of which, for more than twelve months, he was a distinguished member. His period of preparation for his profession being passed, he was, in April, 1845, admitted to the bar of Adams county ; and his Honor, Judgi Durkee, on that occasion complimented the young aspii'ant for legal dis- tinction bv saving that he had rarely, if ever, examined a candidate who was more thoroughly proficient. The higii opinion so expressed gave the pre ^iiffe of the success and eminence afterwards attained. After being admitted to practice he removed to Lewistown, in Mifflin county, where he settled, and devoted himself with such earnestness to his profession, that he quickly became a most successful lawyer — his practice extending throughout Mifflin, Huntingdon, Centre, Union, and Juniata counties. His integrity and ability gathered about him a host of friends and clients, and the asbertion may well be vcutuied, that in the history of the bar of Pennsylvania, pregnant as it is with instances, there cannot be found one of a more biilliant ])romise. or of such a jiromisc more faithfully and quickly redeemed. His services were most fie- quently called into requisition in civil cases ; but he had mueh and im- portant practice as a criminal lawyer, and in that capacity won an envi- able reputation. In both bi-anches of practice he often elicited the warm and marked commendations of his Honor, the president judge of his dis- trict. Politics had always possessed a charm for him, and as early as 1840 he rushed into them with an enthusiasm which soon made for him a marked ]>osition in the AVhig ranks. His reputation as a writer, a speaker, and an efficient laborer in the Whig cause, extended over the State, and in VOL. IV. 2 e 18 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. 1848 lie was appointed a member of the Whig State Central Committee, in -which capacity he canvassed, by appointment, what is known as the " Iron District," of which he was tlie representative in the committee. The duty was discharged with signal success, and by bringing him pro- minently before the people and severely testing his power, prepared the Avav for solid and enduring honors. The brilliant legal and political course which he had run marked him for public distinction; and in March, 1849, the lamented President Taylor ap]>ointed him to the position of First Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States for the Territory of Minnesota. This appointment was the more honorable to the recipient, because it was conferred Avithout solicitation from himself or his friends ; and from the fact also, that he is the youngest appointee to whom such a high station has been given by the government of the United States. On arriving in the Territory, which lie did in June, 1849, to as- sume and discharge the duties of his office, he settled at Stillwater, on Lake St. Croix, and was assigned by Gorernor Ramsey to the second judicial district. The first term of his court was held at Mendota ; and on that occasion he delivered an able and elaborate address to the grand jury, in which its origin, the object of its institution, the modifi- cations made in its regulations from time to time, and the scope of its present duties and powers, were set forth. This address was published, and was extensively copied by the newspaper press of the United States with great approbation. At the same term of court he delivered an address to the bar, which excited much attention. In it he spoke of the connection between the bar and the bench, and enforced the just rule, that courtesy and high- toned etiquette must govern both judge and lawyer in the transaction of business in courts of justice. The doctrine thus set forth he practised uniformly, and his adherence thereto has been the frequent cause of otf'ence to those who, unmindful of the dignity of their vocation, depart- ed from the propriety of action which should unfailingly characterize it. The task of moulding the judicial character of that beautiful and pros- perous Territory devolved in a great measure upon him, and to this onerous duty he at once devoted all his energy and ability, and thus far has ])rosecuted his labors with honor to himself, to his position, and to the Territory. A prominent feature of this duty was giving judicial construction to many of the sections of the Organic Act of the Territory, and preparing rules of practice for the government of its courts. The labor was arduous and enofrossinof, and was made the more severe bv the passage of an act bv the Legislature of 1849, transferring to his district and to his charge the entire judicial business of the Territory up to the commencement of the year 1850. Many of the cases were of a delicate and complicated nature, requiring nice distinctions to be drawn, mature reflection, and yet instant and numerous decisions during tLe progress of the trials. His conduct during this period of severe labor created for him a most favorable impression throughout the Territory, and won the respect and confidence of the members of the bar. The feeling thus created has since been confirmed. In March, 1852, the territorial Legislature passed an act by which the county of Pembina, in the unceded Indian country, lying in the valley ■^'■ff^-v, '= ^y J O bums rroir. a iJ^' , I.a^i^'^'^ '^ ^ MA.h}2..i. ROBERT S. REEDER, OF MARYLAND. 19 of the Red River of the North, Avas erected into a separate judicial dis- trict, and Judge Cooper was assigned to hold the courts therein. This assignment he promptly refused to recognise, upon the ground that the Legislature possessed no power to do any act of lagislation for, or exercise any jurisdiction over, the unceded Indian country ; and held that such power is vested exclusively in Congress, and can only be exercised by it, or by direct authoritv emanating from it. The deportment of Judge Cooper when on the bench is mild but firm. Exceedingly careful himself not to violate any of the courtesies of the profession, he will not tolerate any infraction of them by those who practise, or are brought before him. His rebuke is instant, final, and to be dreaded by practitioners, for it is never given without just cause. His character of mind peculiarly fits him for the bench^ for it is eminently vigorous, quick, and bold. His decisions are given promptly, and with an accuracy and method which leave nothing unexplained or to be desired. His written opinions are marked by force, aptness of language, and brevity ; and by discrimination, analytic power, and fulness of illus- tration. He has ever stood above the charge of prejudice, and in all his actions has maintained the purity of the ermine unsullied. The portrait which precedes this memoir is not as good a likeness as could be desired, for the reason that it lacks a frequent and animated expression which belongs to him. Tn person he is of medium height, slender, and of easv carriage. To the lawyer and the jurist he adds the accomplishments of the gentleman, and whether on the bench or in the social circle, bears a prominent and enviable character. The career so well begun and so brilliantly marked, will, it is to be hoped, be long continned, and in a wider sphere of action. ROBERT S. REEDER, THE state's attorney FOR CHARLES COUNTY, MARYLAND. It is, as all experience shows, the peculiar excellence of the genius of our government, that it opens its paths for preferment and honor to all classes alike ; and our country exhibits the pleasing spectacle of having produced a greater number of self-made men than any country that has yet existed for the same length of time. Robert Sennett Reeder, the subject of this sketch, was born in Charles county, Maryland, on the 24th November, 1815, and is emphatically a self-made n^an. His father, Thomas Harrison Reeder, was a physician of eminence. He married Elizabeth Sennett, the daughter of Major Ro- bert Sennett, an oSicer in the revolutionary war. Mrs. R.'s paternal an- cestors are said to have been of Welsh descent, and first settled in St. Mary's county, Maryland. On the mother's side they were of English descent. They had seven children, three sons and four daughters ; all of whom died early except two, the subject of this sketch and Sarah Eliza- 20 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. betb, who is married to James Arnold, Esq., of King George county, Virginia, and is now living. Wlien Robert was about seven years old, his father became dispossessed of all his property. The means for obtaining a liberal education being wanting, the youth for several years attended a common country school. Under these circumstances a Mr. Francis Adams, who possessed a high reputation as a classical scholar, and of whom Mr. Reeder has often been heard to express the most grateful remembrance, opened an English and classical school in his neighborhood, and made a request of Dr. Reeder that he would place his son under his charge. The invitation was at first refused on the ground of inability to pay the price of instruction. Mr. Adams, however, insisted upon it, and expressed an ardent desire that it should be done, and that he intended no charge. The invitation was at length accepted, and he commenced the study of the Latin language. After he had progressed as far as Caesar, Mr. Adams dissolved his school, and Mr. Reeder slitdied at home, and visited his preceptor twice a week to recite his lessons. About the year 1828 his father removed seven miles from the residence of Mr. Adams, and he was then con}pelled to continue his studies at home, and to ride twice a week to recite his les- sons in Virgil and Horace, laboring during the busy seasons. Under the charge of this gentleman he acquired a slight knowledge of the Greek, having learned something of the Greek grammar, and translated a portion of Matthew's Gospel. In the summer of 1831 he was sent to Kenyon College in Knox county, Ohio. He arrived at the College in the midst of its session, and consequently, not being able to enter then the Fresh- man class, he recited lessons in Virgil in a grammar school class, and applied himself to the study of the Greek, so as to qualify himself for admission into the Freshman class. He had studied Greek but a short time when he was examined, in the fall of that year, for admission into the Freshman class, tlie members of which had passed through a regular course of preparation. He believes it was through the influence of the Rev. William Sparrow, then acting President, that he was permitted to enter, with an admonition that it would require much exertion and indus- try to keep up with his class. At the next examination he occupied the third place in his class. In the summer of 1834, his means having failed, he was compelled to return home. Shortly after his return his father informed him that he could not give him a profession, and that he would have to make his own way in the world, telling him there Avere a few cords of wood on the bank which he might ship, sell, and make the most he could of the pro- ceeds. He thinks he realized fourteen dollars from the sale, and this constituted his capital, with which he was to embark on the tempestuous voyage of life. With this sum of money, and his books, he went to Prince William county, Virginia, where he taught a country school until the fall of 1836, when "he was called home" by the death of his father. He found his father's affairs so embarrassed by pecuniary diiE- culties, from which he had never been able to relieve himself, tliat his whole property was disposed of for the payment of his debts, still leaving a large balance unpaid. Under these distressing and depressing circum- stances, he was elected, through the influence of his friend Walter Mitchell, Esq., assistant classical teacher in Charlotte Hall Academy, in ROBERT S. REEDER, OF MARYLAND. 21 St. Mary's county, Maryland. There being no English teacher during "the succeeding year, he discharged the duties of both the English and classical departments ; and acquired for himself a high character for strict fidelity in the discharge of the duties of liis trust, and for a high order of scholarship. At the end of the year he resigned. lie then engaged in the culti- vation of a farm, and continued in that occupation until the fall of 1840 ; when, his mother having died during that year, he took charge of a country school, which he taught durinjr the year 1841. At the March term of Charles County Court, upon the motion of his friend General John G. Chapman, he was aduntted to the bar, after having undergone a formal examination by Judge Clement Dorsey, then one of the assist- ant Judges of the first judical district of Maryland. He removed to Port Tobacco, and commenced the practice of the law in the spring of 1842. Mr. R. studied law under no one. He borrowed books here and there as he could, and read them during his moments of leisure from his other pursuits, profiting as well as he could by his own reading and reflection. He has been heard to say that he was never in a court of justice but twice before he was admitted to the bar, and then but for a short time. When he entered upon the practice of the law, his law library consisted of but two volumes, Latrobe's Justice and Blackstone's Commentaries. He has paid the remaining debts of his father, and a large portion of the money applied to his education at college. In the fall of 1843 he was elected to the Legislature of Maryland. He has been a AVhig upon principle, never blindly following his party in every conventional measure. AVashington and Madison have been his models — the former for political precepts, the latter for princi])les of constitutional law. He is essentially conservative in principle. During the session of the Legislature succeeding his election, a bill was introduced to chanfje the sessions of the Lecfislature from annual to biennal. He warmly opposed the bill, in a speech of con- siderable length, whi(;h indicated much research and historical reading. He took the ground, that innovations suddenly eflected were always dangerous, and, as all history showed, invariably attended with injurious consequences. He quoted numerous historical examples, and boldly asserted that the undivided opinion of the wise and great men of every age was against them. He contended that change is not reform ; that reform was a plant of slow growth, and could only be achieved with safety, under anv circumstances, slowly and progressively ; that the goodness, and efficiency, and safety of a government depended upon the character of the people, their intelligence, virtue, and patriotism, and particularly their knowledge of their own government ; that as were the people so would be the government ; that the framers of all our Consti- tutions, Slate and Federal, had designedly made it difficult to change them ; that this was particularly shown in the fifth article of the Federal Constitution, bv which the amending power was pushed to the remotest pai't of the system ; and that all experience shows that no human insti- tution can prosper, or be productive of benefit, when liable to change. This bill failed at that session. At the same session a proposition was introduced to abolish the franking privilege of the members. It was regarded as a Whig measure of reform. Mr. R. delivered a short, though 22 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. conclusive speech against it, taking the ground that it was an illegal act as to the members, "because they were entitled by law to the exercise of the franking privilege at the moment of their election, and that they came there with ^he belief that they were to exercise it; that it was the duty of the representative to furnish the constituent with all the information possible ; that the expense of receiving the information would foil upon the constituent if the'franking privilege was abolished, and very heavily upon the poorer classes, as they must pay for the means of information, if the privilege was abolished, and the members did not transmit infor- mation at their own expense, which their per diem would not justify them in doing ; that the law for the payment of the postage as it now stood was lev-ied upon all the property alike throughout the State, and this was equal and right. One view taken against the franking privi- lege was, that the money was transmitted at the end of the session to the general government, and that this was so much taken from the State treasury, was a loss to the State, and not economy. Mr. K. replied that, if thev transmitted sources of information to their constituents, as it wa^ their "dutv to do, the same result would follow, as the postage would only take" a dit^erent road to the general government through the I'ost- masters of the State ; that the poorer classes were particularly benefited by it as it now stood ; that he was in favor of liberal compensation ; that it was a legal as well as common life maxim, thai good pay will procure good workmen, of skill, ability, and dignity. IVue, there had been some instances where men had served the State without pay, as Washington in part, and some of the early Romans ; but such instances were rare, and almost political miracles. This speech was I'egarded as decisive against the proposition, and it foiled. During this session resolutionswere introduced by the Hon. John Johnson, at present Chan- cellor of Maryland, then Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, to authorize the sale of coupons and certificates of interest, and that they should be received in payment of the direct and income tax. This was regarded as a Whig measure. Mr. Reeder took a decided stand against it," on the ground that it was both unconstitutional and inexpedient. He relied for his constitutional views upon the forty-fourth number of the Federalist by Mr. Madison, which is a commentary on that clause of the Federal Constitution which says that no State shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation, grant letters of marque and reprisal, coin money, emit bills of credit, make anyiltmfi but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debt. He contended that the coupons or certifi- cates of interest were made mone;/, or a paper circulation, or currency ; that by the law thev were made to take the place of money, because thev were to be received in pa?/ment of taxes; that they were made to take place of money, and substituted in its place, and con.-equently expelled from use to the extent of their circulation, and that these expul- sions and substitutions were authorized by law, or i-ather by a usurpa- tion of the powers of the general government. On the ground of inexpediency, he contended that great disadvan- tages would grow out of the use of different currencies by the dift'ereut States ; that a paper money, or circulation, would be productive of highly immoral consequences; and that different currencies in the dift'er- eut Slates would produce confusion without hmit. Under the old con- ROBERT S. REEDER, OF MARYLAND. 23 federation exactly these evils were experienced. We did not live then, but were told by Mr. Madison, a high authority, that he lived tlien, and saw and experienced the numerous ills growing out of the exercise of the money power by the States, lie told us it produced debts ; it ex- hausted or deranged the springs or fountains of public property. And his belief founded on experience was, that it would endanger the exist- ence and integritv of the Union. He concludes his speech in these words : ''Without indulging in senseless and boisterous declamation, I will pro- nounce our system of government the must perfect that has existed. I do not except the Jewish, for that government labored under many de- fects, which were peculiar to the age, and could not be avoided. If his- tory is to be believed, all usurpations have been effected by men of elo- quence, or by warriors using the power of money. How happily are the States of this Union relieved from the fear of this defect, or evil, if they would strictly adhere to the exerciie of those powers alone with which they are clothed, and to which they are restricted. All those powers which have contributed to the downfall of other nations, and which con- tribute by their exclusive exercise to the cultivation entirely of the ani- mal properties of man, have been delegated to the general government : while we are left to the exercise of those which contribute to the intel- lectual culture, and consequently to our moral and social improvement. The protecting powers are those which are always the destructive powers, when not legitimately used. From the exercise of these we are relieved, while they are placed in other hands for our defence and protection. And so organized, how haj)py would be the consecjuences if we would rigidly adhere to the exercise of those powers alone with which we are clothed, and which in their culture exalt a nation ; and if we would adopt and pursue such a course, no one can doubt but that a degree of excel- lence would speedily grovv' up among the States of this Union, such as was never before witnessed on this earth." Ihcse resolutions passed at this session, but were repealed a short time afterwards. And some time prior to this period the question of the assumption of state debts had been strongly agitated in Maryland, by many of her prominent men ; by some. as Mr. Reeder believed, as a practical measure of relief, and by others in the hope of personal advantage. The ])eople of the State began to be strongly influenced in its favor, and it had come to be regarded as a Whig measure. From the first Mr. Reeder had regarded it as unconsti- tutional, inexpedient, and impraeticahle and wild. During this session of the Legislature, a resolution was introduced by the Hon. John M. S. Causiu, requesting our senators and representatives in Congress to urge the assumption of the debts of the States. Mr. Reeder gave it a decided opposition. He submitted a series of resolutions as a substitute, pronounc- ing the proposition as unconstitutional, inexpedient, and impracticable, and denvinor the riu-lit of the Lejifislature to instruct. His argument was con- sidered conclusive against the eonstilutionality of the measure and against the right of instruction. His resolutions asserted that the power to pay the debts of the States was nowhere granted in the Federal Constitution, and the exercise of such a power by the general government would be a violation of the Constitution, and a usurpation of the rights of the States ; and on the subject of instruction, his second resolution declared that the government of the State of Maryland is clothed with those 24 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS, powers only which have not been delegated to the general governraenl, and that instructions to the senators and representatives in Congress ■would constitute a usurpation of the authority of Congress, and an as- sumption bv the States of that supremacy of the laws of Congress, which was delegated bv the adoption of the Federal Constitution. On the first point of tiie constitutional power, he contended that the debts of the States had been contracted by the reserved rights, and consequently that the delegated rights could exercise no control over them ; that if Con- gress did assume the payment, it would be an act done by that body, not in its legislative capacity, but as an association of private individuals out- side of the Constitution ; that the assumption would endanger the ex- istence and integrity of the debt, because the act would be unconstitu- tional, and that the creditor would have no legal and constitutional claim upon the general government ; that before it could be done, the Consti- tution must be amended according to the terms of the fifth article, so as to make the grant sufficiently large to authorize Congress to exercise the power. Upon his support of his second resolution, denying the right of instruc- tion, he contended that the Constitution, and laws made in pursuance thereof, were the supreme laws of the land, and that if senators and re- presentatives were instructed, and obeyed, the supremacy of the Constitu- tion and laws would be obstructed and controlled by the State legisla- tion, and were no longer supreme ; that the States would be thus legisla- tive within the supremacy of Congress; that they exhibited a solemn farce by the passage of the resolution, because if passed it ought to be a law which could be enforced, but if passed it must fall lifeless, impotent, still-born, from the action of the Legislature; that the Legislature had undertaken to control another tribunal, which was supreme within its particular sphere of action, and to legislate within that supremacy. He ontended the Constitution did not allow senators and representatives to be questioned in any other place for freedom of debate and proceedings, and yet the Legislature undertook to control and dii'ect the freedom of their proceedings. lie contended the Constitution provided for the elec- tion of two senators, by each State, for six years ; and that, the Consti- tution under which they should act being supreme, they must be supreme in their conduct for six years. As they swore to support that Constitu- tion, he contended that the senators in Congress are the senators of the United States, and not of the States ; that each State had, to the extent of the delegated powers, an equal interest in the senators, and that when one State instructs, she undertook to control not only the supremacy of her own senators, but that jiortion of each which belongs equally to all the States of the Union, lie contended that assumption would be re- moving legislation still furtherfrom the understanding of the ])t-ople, and concludetl his speech in these remaikable words : " This is the secret of the foundation, growth, great prosperity, and death of nations. The illus- tration is very simple. I here assume as a fundamental principle of so- ciety this proposition, that all the legislation of this State is as much the property of the citizen as his plough, his hoe, or his axe, or any one of his possessions ; and all the legislation of this State ought to be as inti- mately known to each citizen as is the process of ploughing up a piece of land, properly preparing it, sowing it in grain, and reaping the fruits c ROBERT S. REEDER, OF MARYLAND. 25 for the maintenance of himself and family. This is, I repeat, the secret of the success and downfall of all the nations that have preceded us ; that so long as the legislation was used and enjoyed as the property of the citizen as accurately and intimately as the most common transactions of life, nations were free, prosperous, happy, and great ; and as soon as the opposite rule begins to work, then comraences tyranny, anarchy, confusion, decay, and then follows the sad result, national death." This proposition lived but a short time after in the State of Maryland. At this period the question of the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was deeply agitated throughout the State, and great anxiety was felt and manifested on this subject. It had warm friends and bitter enemies. It was then standing in a state of non-completion. A proposition was introduced to lift the lien of the State in favor of any who would loan the money for its completion. The State was under no circumstances to be liable for the money borrowed. Sonie opposed it because their constituents were opposed to it, and instructed them to go against it. In reply to these, a brief extract will show Mr. R.'s peculiar mode of thought and reasoning: '• But, sir, I musty be permitted to dift'er from the gentleman, both as to the tendency of this proposition, and also as to the mode by which the will and wish of our constituents are to be ascertained, and as to the manner in which we are to be controlled bv that will and that wish, while acting in our legislative capacity. The human passions are as variable, and versatile, and unstable as the wind, and in many instances a slight circumstance would cause a degree of popular prejudice, and jiopular excitement, that would overwhelm evervthing in its temponivy though impetuous course ; and if we resort to the expressions of opinion by our constituents as to the rule of conduct in all cases, there would be found as many interpreters of the Constitution as there are human })asMons, or as many as there could be produced j)0pular delusions by the use of tit in- struments of deceptive excitement. In fact, such a mode of interpreting our constitutional duty is placing those temporary delusions and excite- ments, to which all popular masses are accustomed, above the Constitu- tion ; and so situated, no man could know what was a fixed, certain, and settled rule of conduct. Thus political parties are always changing, in their undulating ascendency, and what is opinion to-day is not opinion to-morrow. In this manner will the gentleman and all those governed by the same rule be liable to have their legislative conduct measured by prejudices growing out of ignorance, or arising from misrepresentations; and in how many instances may there be a temporary ascendency of a partisan through blind opinion produced by the action of weak and de- signing men. In truth, the Constitution under such circumstances, and according to such a law of interpretation, would be easily tossed about by every ripple of impulse, and submerged by every wave of passion. The great ship of State, freighted with her rich cargo, mind, soul, and matter, would be out on the bosom of a boundless ocean of passion, des- titute of a helm, and with rigging and sails alone for guidance." It was urged against the bill that the State had already expended money enough upon the canal, and that if completed, the produce brought by it to market would ruin the southern and eastern sections of the State. In reply, Mr. 11. contended that the State could lose nothing, as she would be responsible for nothing ; that she was already liable for what 2G SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. had been done, could lose nothing, and if it should prove profitaLle when completed it would bring relief. As to the supply of the produce from the AVost diminishina' the price of our produce, it was certainly an error ; that all experience taught that all commercial prosperity is in exact proportion to the abundance and durability of the supply, and all ex]>erience equally tauoht that the demand was adequate to the commer- cial prosperity ; that if the produce of the West did not take its road through T3altiniore, and the District cities, it inu.st lind an outlet else- where to sujiply the foreign demand, and thus the demand would receive abroad the same supply as if it passed through Baltimore. The speech in this case was considered strong and original. The bill failed at this session, but was jiassed at the next. At this session of the Legislature, Mr. li. first brought before the public mind Avhat he termed the free uegTO institution, or policy, lie made a long report upon the subject, showing their increase from 1790 u]^ to 1840, from four hundred and four to se- venty thousand. He urged the necessity of sending them out to Africa; that as they now were thev were a nuisance : that thev contributed nothing by their industry to the capital and resources of the State ; that their condition and example were injurious to the institution of slavery, that they worked cheaply and inefficiently, and in this way were injuri- ous to the character and interests of the white working classes, and par- ticulaily the mechanical class. This ended Mr. Ii.'s legislative career for the present, and returning homo he continued the prosecution of his ])ro- fession. not mingling in politic > until the tall of 1845, when he was again elocti'd to the Legislature, leading the AVhig ticket. L)uring this session he found fewer occasions when he deemed it his duty to oppose his party. The storm had blown ovei', and his party seemed to have ascertained its correct course to the slioies of perpetual freedom. He cheerfnliy co- operated with it in every important measure. lie again at this session took up what he termed the free negro institution, or ])olicy. He deli- vered a speech, and made an elaborate report, in which he showed great research, showing their inordinate and dangerous increase, their habits of idleness, and contended that it was unconstitutional to set them free, be- cause it was conferring privileges upon one portion of the slave popula- tion above what the other enjoyed, and that this was contrary to the ge- nius of our government, which granted equality to all classes in their pe- culiar sphere, and exclusive advantages to none. That their existence was at war with the integrity, efhciency, and character of the institution of slavery, that their ciiea]) labor was injurious, and adverse to the labor of the white laboring class. That tliey never in their present condition could be skilful and cunning architects, and that all our architecture, so long as it was the fruit of their workmanship, could never be adorned with elegance, or endowed with stability, and would ever be unworth-\- of a free, enlightened, and impronng people. That the true organiza- tion of southern society should be like that of the Egyptian — a confine- ment of the slave population to agriculture, while the mechanical pur- suits should be left to the white class. That there wei'e three primary bonds of society recognised in the Scripture, the matrimonial, parental, and servile ; and Christianity sought to humanize and rule them by per- suasion, as distinguished from the force of the idolatrous law. In other words, the institution of slavery was to become a Christian institution. ROBERT S. REEDER, OF MARYLAND. with forbearance, docility, persuasion, judicious correction, affection, and confidence, as contradistinguished from idolatrous and pagan shiver}-, with its stripes, tortures, degradation, barbarities, and cruel and brutal treatment. Idolatry ruled by brutal force. Christianity rules by persuasion. Religion of some kind, government of some kiud, and slaverv of some kind, are all of primal antiquity, and have all received equallv the sanction of God. He finally urged their removal by the action of the Legislature, saying that it ought to be done to rid ourselves of them as soon as possible, as it was a matter of grave doubt whether tliev were capable of self-govern- ment ; and if upon experiment it should turn out to ha so, the hope of removal through colonization would be destroyed. 'J'hat their capacity for self-government would depend upon the fact whethei- they were or were not gifted with the element of invention. Their removal was opposed upon the ground that it was unconstitutional, and the convention which recently changed our Constitution, in guaiauteeing the rights of freemen, annexed this proviso, " that nothing in this article shall be so construed as to prevent the Legislature fi'om passing all such laws for the government, regulation, and disposition of the free colored population of this State as they may deem necessary." The speech and rej)orL of this session, together with Mr. R.'s previous report on the subject, made a deep and lasting impression upon the public mind of Maryland. At this period the State was deeply agitated with the proposition of calling a convention, to change the Constitution as a matter of reform. Hei'e Mr. K. again took the ground that change was not reform, and from the first opposed the call of a convention, but desired that the laws should be first thoroughly digested, and codified, and presented to the intelligent consideration of the whole peoph', so that they should see through the whole system, and learn and know existing de- fects. That whatever reforms were made ou^ht to be the slow, progressive, and instinctive effusion of the popular intelligence, just as the vigorous growth of a healthy tree will gradually throw oft' all its carious and im- perfect particles. Mr. R. has always contended that the government of the majority was not the true organization of government, but that every government ought to be organized on the principle of ununiviity — no act to become a law without the unanimous sanction of both branches of the legislature; that the government of the majority had been the great elementary error committed in the organization of every govern- ment, and that it had wrought the destruction of all into which it had entered as an organic feature. The advocates of a call of a convention contended that the majority had the right to call a convention through a single act of the legislature, although the Constitution prescribed a difterent mode ; and that the article which prescribed the mode of alter- ing, changing, or abolishing the Constitution, only bound the legislature, and as to the people it was a nullity. Mr. R. strongly and earnestly, in a speech of much length and great constitutional research, opposed the proposition, contending that you could not separate the legislature from the people ; that the act of the legislature was the act of the people, because the act of the agent and principal were one. That there could, as was contended, be no contract between the legislature and the people, as the former was only an agent or trustee. That our government was founded in and not on a compact, between the people individually, be- 28 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. cause tlie Bill of Rio-hts declared the government was founded in and not on compact. TJuit it was a compact between each and all, and all and each, and that the legislature was only the agent of this compact, and consequently that whatever act was done by the legislature was done by the people, because you cannot distinguish the agent from the principal, the creature from the creator. He showed that the eolony of Maryland was originally formed by f/rant from the king ; that the Declaration of Independence broke up this ground, and left the people in their natural condition, and that being in that condition they formed the present Constitution, which was the source of the government, and which declared that it was founded in and not on compact. He showed from Mairiia Charta, that the government of England was a compact between the king and people, as contracting parties, on terms of equality, and that that which was there a compact between the king and people as contractinrr parties on terms of equality, was a compact here between the people themselves as contracting parties, each with all and all with each, and not a compact between the legislature and people ; because the former was a creature, and there could be no compact between a creature and creator; because, if there were, it would be a recognition of equality. The bill failed at this session, but passed at the next, and Mr. R. was solicited to become a member of the convention, but positively refused on the grounds already stated, that it was an unconstitutional act, and a usurpation bv the majority upon the rights of the minority, and that he could never lend it his sanction, either directly or indirectly, believ- ing that although it might be apparently beneficial for the present, it would be ultimately destructive to our peculiar form of government and to our liberties. The fundamental principle with Mr. R., in government, has always been that scIf-[;overn7ncnt is omniscience, and that omniscience is siif-governineut ; and hence that any people were capable of self- government exactly to the extent of their intelligence and knowledge. On this principle it is that he has always contended, that every govern - ment of every form, whether free or despotic, is always necessarily the essential effusion, either directly or indirectl}', of the popular will. Entertaining these views of what he has always considered the science of government, and having at this session been appointed chairman of the Committee on Education, he availed himself of the opportunity to express his peculiar views in part upon what lie considered government among a free people, in a report of considerable length. "VVe take the ]")rivilege of inserting a few extracts : " Government is intelligence, intelligence is government. It is recognised as a cardinal or seminal principle of Christianity, that knowledge is light, ignorance is darkness. Men can see in the light of day, but in the darkness of night they stumble and fall, and cannot see what is or what is not doing. Such is the nature of free government, and this brings us at once to a definition of government ; because it is one and the same with education, knowledge, or intelligence. It has been said, and is received doctrine, that language takes its origin from the resemblance between the sound and the sense ; and it will be observed that in the use of words, the organs of speech, in the act of utterance, move towards the object named. In this manner it Avill be found, that the word government means the controlling action of mind. ROBERT S. REEDER, OF MARYLAND. 29 It will be found upon examination that all the words in the Englisli language, terminating with the syllable meat, have reference to the action of the mind. Such is the word government, and such it was intended to be, when used to express that species of organization into which men enter and call it government. And it is on the ground, that in propor- tion as you give the supremacy to intelligence, will there be certainty, safety, purity, permanency, and usefulness in material actiuu. Thus it was the omnipotence of mind or intelligence that furmed tlie world, and preserves it. Just as the creative intelligence of Omnipotence made and governs the material world, so ought the creative intelligence of omnipo- tence in the popular to govern the social world. Our government takes its character from the influence of Christianity, working out in its struc- ture an identity with the character and structure of the creation. In the old countries, and indeed in modern Europe, it was not and is not so. There it was acted out as a principle that the monarch is the fountain of power, or that the rulers and not the people are the govtMimient. It was the converted action of this principle which brought our forefathers to this country, and achieved our independence. The people assumed to be the fountain of power. Thus it was that the rulers, instead of being- recognised as tlie government, were but the agents of the government of the people, and acted under certain directions, indicated in our country by charters or written instruments. Now whence comes tliis I It is easy of explanation : God, the Creator, is a general jirincijile, and acts out his purposes bv special agents. " It cannot be conceiv^ed that the agent could possess more knowledge than the Creator — God, the general principle. If such were to become the fact, all must perceive that all things would be speedily returned to chaos. Such is exactly the nature of our government. The people are the creator — the general principle; and in proportion to the decrease of the intelligence of the people, the creator, the general principle, will there be a tendency to disorder, confusion, chaos, and then destruction. All the nations of antiquity violated this rule, and hence of the many thou- sands of those nations that have lived, there remain only a few scattered remnants of their former grandeur to denote they once lived. If the creative source of all being was vpiorance, all would be unutterable con- fusion. The creative source of all being is intelligence, and all is unalter- able order. If the people, the creative source of all organization, was ignorance, all would be unutterable confusion or destruction. Govern- ment or intelligence ought to be with the people, and not with the rulers or agents. The principle is a very simple one. The extent of the know- ledge of the peo})le. the creative power, ought to be perfectly equal to the extent of the social organization. In other words, intelligence ought as perfectly to fill the social system as light fills space. Knowledge enables the mind to understand things with the same accuracy, and to the extent, that light enables the eye to see things. Knowledge is the medium through which the mind's eye sees abstract or mental things, just as light is the medium by which the natural eye sees material things ; and the knowledge of the people to the extent of the social system ought to be perfect. In this mode alone can we understand what education is or ought to be among a free people as we are, and what is its appropriate action. It has already been said that the State of Massachusetts presents 30 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the first Gxainple of a people making ediiCHtion a part of their constitu- tion of g-nvernmont. Among the ancient nations, education was the fruit of individual etl'ort and resources. The Jews proceeded further on this subject than any other nation, for their laws and their doctrines of government wcie taught by public lectures ; and it is remarkable that among all the nations of antiquity, there existed in their infancy the greatest degree of practical intelligence and purity, and in proportion to the length of time their governments existed did ignorance and corrup- tion increase. Among the Jews their law-giver, in order to maintain the doctrines we have described above, exhorted his countrymen that they should learn the laws by heart; that they should talk of them when they should lie down, when thev should rise up, when thev should go on a journey ; and that their laws and the wisdom that was in them should be commingled with all their domestic pursuits. Such a degree of know- ledge is indispensable to the stability of government, the maintenance of liberty, and the protection of right ; for how can a people preserve that of which they are ignorant ■ A people can no more preserve their rights and liberties when they are ignorant than a ploughman can solve a mathematical problem of great intricacy ; and indeed their knowledge of their rights and constitution of government ought to be as perfect as that of a profound mathematiciau of a simple problem. It must appear to all, after an exact and complete knowledge of the elements of an edu- cation, that the history of our own country is of primary importance ; it furnishes facts of a character superior to that of any people that have existed, whether they be for declamation, for reasoning, or for lessons of ])atriotism and wisdom ; and this heing the case, why travel into antiquity and consume there the prime of life, until it is too late to learu our own history ? The next question of importance should be, the origin and structure of our government, and an acquaintance with and accurate knowledge of our constitutions. State and Federal. " These last should be made a text-book with questions in every school, and so studied that every citizen should know them by heart. The subject next in importance should be our own natural history, and then the natural history of the world. The study of the latter would be an inexhaustible source of knowledge and reasoning; for it furnishes a sys- tem of logic infinitely superior to any to be found in our schools. A general comparison of the different tribes of the birds and animals of the earth, and reasoning upon them attentively, will be always the source of the finest moral suasion. The beneficial effects of such a system is not a question of speculation, but of palpable and overpowering experience. Massachusetts furnishes the first example of a State entering into it, and all the northern States have followed her example. The results are such as bring upon us an immortal shame. Almost all, if not quite all our text-books in our schools, ticademies, and colleges, and in our different professions, are furnished from the northern section. We are in a state of intellectual servitude ; and nothing can enable us to retrieve our lost ground, but the establishment of a permanent system of such an extent as to fill the social organization full of the fruits of instruction. The social organization itself ought to be an intellectual or educa- tional institution ; so that it should operate actively upon every citi- zen, and intellectual light would become as plenary in the social ROBERT S. KEEDER, OF MARYLAND. 31 mind as light in space." Here ended Mr. H.'s leo-islative career for tlio present. Unanimity has been one of his favorite doctrines in reference to go- vernment ; that n-overnment ought to be so organized, that no act should become a law without the unanimous concurrence of both branches of the legislature, and that the majority has been the source of the destruction of every government that has existed. lie has been at different times an advocate of the cause of temperance, and as early as 183G advocated the propriety of legislative enactments to prohibit tlie abuse of ardent spirits. In the fall of 1851, when, under the reformed constitution of Maryland, the office of State's Attorney had become elective, Mr. Reeder was prevailed upon by his many friends and admirers of his learning and talents, to become a candidate for the office of State's Attorney for the county of Charles ; and such were his popularitv and acknowledged high ijualifications for the station, that there was no opposition, and l;e received the whole vote of his countymen, and since his election he has entirely fulfilled the liigh expectation of his friends, showing himself fully equal to every duty of his responsible office. As State's prosecutor, his indus- try is indefatigable, and though in the trial of cases he has often to con- tend with advocates eminent for their learning, ability, and eloquence, as compared with the greatest of his opponents, it may be truly said of Mr. R. that he comes oft' " non superatus ;" and he is all the time adding to his reputation already great as a learned lawyer, eloquent advocate, and most accomphshed gentleman and scholar. To others who may be endeavoring to "climb the steep, where fame's proud temple shines afar," Mr. Reeder's example is trulv encouraging. lie has overcome every difiiculty that could beset the aspirant to fortune and to fame, and not the least among them, poverty's almost unconquerable bar, and is most emphatically fabcr suae fortunoe. "Lives of great men .all remind us, Wo can make our lives subhme, And departintr leave beliind us Footprints on tlie sands of time : " Footprints, which perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solenui main, A forlorn, a shipwrecked brother, Seeing, may take heart again. "Let us then be u]) and doing. With a heart for any fate. Still achieving, still jiursuing. Learn to labor and to wait." JAMES J. AMONETT, OF LOUISIANA, Was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the first of August, 1810. His father, Thomas Amonett, is a plain, respectable man, hekl in high estimation for his integrity and moral -worth. He is a mechanic by pro- fession, and erected or superintended the erection of most of the buildings of the University of Virginia. He was a captain in the army during the late war uitli England, and served until peace was declared. For the last thirty years he has been a farmer; arid, believing the cultivation of the soil to be the most honorable of all occupations, he inurtd his five sons to toil, and taught them to regard manual labor as dignified and honorable. From youth to manhood they labored in the field, without receiving even a common English education. When the subject of this sketcli was twenty-one years of age, he had received instruction in a school for eighteen months, and since that time he has entered no school or other institution of learning as a student. After receiving wages tor one year, a scanty pittance for the toil he endured, he took leave of his friends, and, on the 3d of September, 1832, started in search of fortune in the far west. By the aid of the few dollars he had succeeded in accumulating, and by working along the road, he travelled through the States of Ivenlucky, Indiana, and Illinois, reaching St. Genevieve in Missouri on the 12th of October, 1832. Here he endea- vored to find employment which would furnish him with means for fur- ther pi'ogress. Labor being very cheap, he proceeded to St. Louis, where he was met by the cholera, which was prevailing, and driven back. He now returned upon his steps to Kentucky, where he engaged to woi'k for $120 per annum. He assisted in opening and improving the Grayson Springs in 1833, and in the winter of that year returned home. On the 4ih of January, 1834, he again took leave of his friends, and on the 20th of the same month he arrived at Millikin's Bend, Louisiana, Here he met with success ; labor commanded a high price, and he was soon enabled to command a salary of $1000 per annum, as manager of a cotton plantation. The cash he received he remitted to his elder brother, who meantime had emigrated to Missouri, and was there engaged in trade. At length this brother failed, and all the invested capital was required to meet the liabilities of the concern. This severe reverse, instead of depressing, served to invigorate his spi- rits. He immediately and energetically applied himself to the accumu- lation of more capital, and in 1839 he engaged in the business of buying produce in the north, and transporting it in boats to the New Orleans market. L>uring the summer of that year he again visited Missouri, Illi- nois, Kentucky, and Viiginia. Reaching his father's house in August, he remained one month ; at the expiration of that time he returned to Milli- kin's Bend. To retrieve losses he had austained, he applied himself to business until 1841, when he declined further engagements. During the entire period, the principal events of which we have hastily sketched, Mr. Amonett availed himself of every means of mental improve- °^"^^^J:B^trc=..T.aX-"^' /2/^z^ C"-!^ -^-Li . J- '':,iiraa-oA r'or J:i%onrapru.ca.t Sk\- JAMES J. AMONETT, OF LOUISIANA. 33 -ment within his reach, and greatly increased his scanty stock of know- ledge. In the quiet seclusion of his rural abode, unnoticed by those around him, he laid^he foundation of his present success and future greatness. All his leisure moments were devoted to the study of medi- cine, with the intention of adopting it as a profession. This project was, however, soon abandoned, and he turned his attention to the study of the law. He commenced the study of the common and civil law in January, 1841, and labored incessantly, day and night, until October, 1842, when he applied to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, was examined and admitted to the bar. Mr. Amonett now settled at Richmond, the seat of justice for the parish of Madison, where he has since resided. He rose rapidly in his profes- sion, and soon occupied a prominent position at the bar. His powers in forensic debate were such as at once to give him influence with court, jury, and spectator. Habits of industry and close application to business soon gained him a lucrative practice. His coiirse is distinguished for promptness, assiduity, and fidelity. Before Mr. Araonett's admission to the bar, he was employed by the defendant in the important case of Lawry Curcitor vs. Erwin ; a suit for the recovery of a cotton plantation, slaves, ^^vn^4^ ^^^- A ^ ^^IJ^^^nr^f^'^^ VOL. IV. JOHN J. WHITE,^ OF SUMXER COUNTY, TENNESSEE, Was born in AVilliamsburgh, Massachusetts, on the 3d of April, ] 793. His family, on both the paternal and maternal sides, is one of the oldest and most respectable in New England. His father, Asa White, was a native of Massachusetts, and a merchant in Williamsburgh during the greater part of a long life, and died there in the year 1829, at the age of 82 years. He was a plain, direct, unostentatious man, of liberal and en- larged views, sound judgment, unquestioned integrity, and deeply religious in his sentiments and feelings. This, combined with an extensive know- ledge of men, enabled him to exercise an important influence in the com- munity in which he lived. He was not ambitious of public honors and distinction, but as a private citizen and in the somewhat enlarged sphere in which he moved, perhaps no man had more of the respect and confi- dence of his cotemporaries. Great wealth was rarely to be acquired in mercantile pursuits in a small village in that part of New England at the time ; nor did he desire it for his children. He preferred rather to give them the best education within his means, instill into their minds a love of virtue and religion, form in them good habits, and teach them to rely upon their own energies and character for success in life. The mother of the subject of this sketch was originally from Connecti- cut; her maiden name was Hayes. She was a woman of fine intellect, great equanimity and sweetness of temper, religious, but not an enthusi- ast, devoted to the moral and intellectual training of her children, and doing good to all within her reach. She died in the same place about three years after her husband, at the age of 72, beloved and respected by all who knew her. They had a family of eight children, five of Avhom survived them. One of them, the eldest son, who was a merchant, removed to the city of New York, where he died several years since. Chester, the third son, is a graduate of Yale College, in the State of Connecticut, has been a success- ful lawyer and merchant, and is now living in Racine, Wisconsin. Addi- son, the fourth son, is hkewise a graduate of Yale College, has travelled extensively in the South and West, been a merchant and lawyer, pros- perous in his career, and is now a retired farmer living upou the old family homestead in the State of Massachusetts. Zilphia, the only sur- viving daughtei", after the death of her parents, married a gentleman of the highest respectability, Mr. Hubbard, a merchant of Stanstead, Lower Canada, but whose family was originally from Massachusetts. She is a woman of remarkable endowments, both natural and acquired, has latelv become a widow, and is now living at that place Avith an ample estate both for herself and her only child. We come now to their second son, the subject of this memoir, whose early and domestic salutary influences we have thought proper thus briefly to commemorate. At the age of five he was sent to the village school, at which he continued until* he was suflSciently advanced to prepare for college. He then commenced the study of the Latin '-=5''»"M b, J .; ^^^ j^^ ^ Vin"""^^ <^=^i^^^ .^.^^^C^ r / or gallat:? JOHN J. WHITE, OF TENNESSEE. 35 and Greek languages with Dr. Collins in Williamsburgli, a somewhat eccentric but learned man, who, although he was then 3-oung, had acquired a high character in his profession, which he has continued to enjoy undiminished for nearly half a centur}-, and is still upon the stage in the full vigor of his powers. He continued his studies with this gentleman and the Kev. Mr. Lord, the Congregational minister of the town, now deceased, but whose memory is cherished with great affection by all who knew him, until he was placed under the charge of tlie Kev. Mr. Hallock, a Congregational minister in the neighboring town of Plain- field, a most amiable man, and who, in addition to his pastoral duties, devoted much of his time in fitting boys for college, for which he had great reputation. He prosecuted his studies with Mr. Hallock with considerable diligence and success until the fall of 180G. He then entered the Freshman class in Williams College in Massachusetts, con- tinued his collegiate course in this institution for four years, and graduated in the class of 1810, being then but little more than seventeen years of age. There \\ei\t several very distinguished members of his class; among others, "William H. Maynard, a profound jurist and scholar, who died in 1832; Luther Rice, the devoted missionary, who died in 1836 ; and the Rev. Justin Edwards, the late learned President of the Theological School at Andover. There was at the same time in college, but in the class of the pre- ceding year, Samuel A. Talcot, afterward Attorney-General of the State of New York, a man of wonderful genius, and whose collegiate career Avas most brilliant. There was nothing remarkable in the college life of the subject of this sketch. It was only respectable. He entered college too young tho- roughly to master the exact sciences. He made some attainments in the languages and polite literature, and had the honor to deliver the salutatorv oration in Latin in his junior year. Upon leaving college he began to think of his future destiny in life. His father, although in comfortable circumstances, had a numerous family, and had expended upon his education as much as he could with propriety at that time, in justice to his other children. Being at an age buoyant with hope, and having confidence in himself, he determined at once to seek a better field for talent and enterprise than that which seemed to present itself in his native village. He had friends and ac- quaintances in North Carolina who were teaching school there with great success. He concluded to go to that State and engage in the same pur- suit, at least for a limited period, having assurances that he would find immediate and profitable employment ; and in one short month after leaving college, bidding adieu to family and friends, his native hills and streams, and all the associations of his youth, with but little money in his pocket, he was on his way to the State which he then expected would be his future home. But " There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough hew them how we will." Upon his arrival in Philadelphia he fell in with some Kentucky mer- chants, and upon their representations in regard to their beautiful coun- try and the prospect there presented, he was induced to change his course 3G SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICAKS. in that direction, went on to Pitt8buro;li, took passage in a fiat boat and descended the Ohio river to Maysville, Kentucky, and having no par- ticular place in view, went througli the country to Paris, wheie he met with Colonel Irvine, of Richmond, Ky., who was there upon a visit. He was a very polished and true-hearted old gentleman, clerk of the court in Ptichmond, who, understanding his business and that he wished to teach a school, invited him to that place and to his home. Upon his arrival there he had thirteen dollars left, which was the extent of his worldly possessions. lie opened at once what was called a subscription school, one for day scholars, and another at night for such young men as could not conveniently attend in the day. He was successful in both, and remained there during the year 1811. In 1812 he was invited to a somewhat larger field, to take charge of an academy in the neigh- boring town of Winchester, at a salary of $500, which he accepted, and remained there that year ; be was then nineteen. His school was veiv larcre, vounof men and srirls — from children in the rudiments of language to those engaged in the study of science and the classics. The next year he determined upon a d liferent theatre, and embarking in a flat boat in the Kentucky river directed his steps to New Orleans, where he arrived in the spring of 1813. He knew no one there, but in- troduced himself to Dr. Flood, who had then a high professional reputa- tion and was engaged in an extensive practice. The doctor invited him to his house, and rendered him every assistance in obtaining a school in the city, which was the object of his wishes. Here his success was complete. He remained in the city the whole of the summer in good health, which was considered rather a dangerous experiment for northern constitutions ; and he had seen the companion of his voyage from Kentucky, the nephew of Judge Porter, of Louisiana, falling a victim to the climate within a few weeks after their arrival in the city. lie was now twenty-one years of age, had seen something of the world, and it was time for liim to think seriously about the profession which he ultimately had in view. Pie had a near relative in Nashville, Tennessee, Mr. O. B. Hayes, a distinguished lawyer and advocate, who was origin- ally from South Hadley, Massachusetts, and the son of the Rev. Joel Hayes, the Congregational minister of that town. He then determined to leave Louisiana for Tennessee ; and partly from the love of adventure, as well as with the view to greater economy, he performed the whole route on foot, a distance of more than 800 miles, passing through the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, with some boatmen for his comp'anions, who were on their return home from New Orleans. This was a very interesting trip to him, for it gave him an opportunity of see- ing something of nature in its rudest and most savage forms. He arrived in Nashville in the summer of 1814, and commenced the study of tiie law in the office of the gentleman before alluded to, and con- tinued his studies with much assiduity until January, 181G, when he ob- tained license, but did not open an office, nor pretend to practise to any extent, till the summer of 1817, when he removed to the town of Gallatin, where he has ever since resided. But in the meantime and after, he con- tinued to prosecute his studies till he completed a very thorough course of reading, both upon the ancient and modern law, in equity as well as the common law, the law of nations, and to some extent the civil law. JOHN J. WHITE, OF TENNESSEE. 37 He likewise included an extensive course of historical reading, both ancient and modern, and has endeavored to keep up ever since with the current literature of the dav, as well as the decisions of the courts in Ensfland and the several States. About the time here mentioned (1817) there was an array of talent at the bar of Tennessee which has rarely been surpassed. There was Grundy^ unrivalled as an advocate, particularly in criminal cases and bafore a jury; Trimble, an able and efficient lawyer, an admirable judge of men, although an indifl'erent 'speaker ; and Robert H. Adams, who afterwards removed to Mississippi and was elected senator from that State, a fine popular orator, and in true pathos and depth of feeling never equalled at the bar of Tennessee. There was Hayes, an acute and subtle reasoner, and a ready and efficient debater; and Cooke, b. profound lawyer, who published a volume of the reports of the State in 1814. Crabhc, a voung man of great promise, who was afterwards one of the judges of the supreme court, was just making his appearance at the bar. WiUiam L. Brown, afterwards judge of the same court, had already given indications of his brilliant and successful career; and there too was Patrick Darby, who became so conspicuous soon after in the litigation of the land titles in the State, and was very learned and able in that branch of the law. But among the rest, and above them all, it will not be invidious to mention the name uf Jaikin Whitesides. "Micat inter onines, volut inter ignes Luna minores." He was exceedingly awkward and uncouth in his personal appearance, slovenly in his attire, deficient in voice, and without the graces of oratory. But notwithstanding this, such was the majesty of his intellect and his power to comprehend himself, and to present to the understand- ing of those who heard him, the most difficult questions both of law and fact, that he never failed to secure the attention of either court or jury. He would commence in the most bungling, stammering manner, apparently with but little knowledge of his subject, — and there was no atfectation in all this, — and yet as he proceeded in the discussion, he seemed to acquire, as it were bv the collision of his own intellect with the cause, new and stronger views of the subject under debate, which he presented with great simplicity aud earnestness of maimer, till at last nothing was left unsaid or undone to insure success and defeat his adver- sary. This was strikinglv manifested in the great case of DeadericFs Will, which was tried in Wilson county about the year 182U, removed by change of venue from Davidson. There was much feeling in the cause and great ability eidisted on both sides, and the cause was under exami- nation and discussion for several days. Whitesides concluded. Every topic seemed to be exhausted t»v the previous counsel — and yet for three hours he enchained the attention of the court and jury and a large crowd that witnessed the trial ; and everything which he said seemed to be as fresh and glowing as if the subject had not before been touched. He gained the cause. This was a display of genius, and of the highest order. 38 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Since that time the bar of Tennessee has never been without its great names ; but has had an amount of forensic talent and learning equal to that of anv other State in the Union during the same period. And the decisions of the su])reme court of the State, including argu- ments of counsel so far as reported, will compare favorably with those of any other judicial tribunal. Mr. White at once took a high stand in his profession, and had an ex- tensive and profitable practice. He attended the courts of several of the adjoining counties, extending his circuit for a while to the chancery and supreme courts at Sparta, nearly 100 miles from his residence. He continued to follow his profession with great diligence and success until the spring of 1834. He never sought business, except by the resolute and faithful discharge of his duties and the most thorough and careful preparation of his causes. It has been frequently remarked of him that he never went into the trial of a cause, if the responsibility of it was upon him, in which he was not fully prepared. He never shunned the most intense labor in his profession, but cheerfully encountered it ; and he al- Avavs attributed any success which he has achieved mainly to this cause. He has always, therefore, inculcated upon those over whom his opinions would be likely to have influence, that if they would achieve professional eminence thev must work for it, a truth which there is great danger of being lost sight of by young lawyers. Up to this period, 1834, Mr. White had never filled any political station, except that in 1820 he was chosen elector for the district in which he lived, when he cast his vote for Monroe and Tompkins. Nor had he filled any judicial station, except that at the January terms 1830, and 1831, of the supreme court, there were two causes, one of Breedlove and others vs. Stump and others, and the other Cox and Catron vs. Breedlove and others, in which two of the regular judges were incompetent to sit, and Mr. White, with another gentleman, was appointed special judge in connection with the regular judge to decide the causes. In the first case he delivered the unanimous opinion of the court, and in the other, which was brought to review the former case, he delivered the opinion of himself and the other special judge, the regu- lar judge dissenting, deciding that a bill of review will not lie to review a decree rendered in the supreme court. These cases, involving a large amount and important principles, created much interest at the time ; were published in pamuhlets, particularly examined and commented on by Chancellor Kent in his correspondence, and met with his especial com- mendation. Chancellor Kent, speaking of the first case, in his letter of June 8, 1830, savs : "1 have not been inattentive to the case. I studied it thoroughly to see the application of the law. and I am entirely satisfied of the pertinence of the principles of equity law to the facts, and of the irresistible equity of the decision." With regard to the latter case, in his letter of June 1, 1831, he says, speaking of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, " I assume that under the act of 1822 it is only a court of appellate jurisdiction" — and ''assuming it to be so, then certainly a court of mere appellate jurisdiction cannot sustain a bill of review, or a supplemental bill in the nature of one. The process, the pleadings, the examination and decision on new facts, Arc, all denote a court in possession of original jurisdiction, and it strikes JOHN J. WHITE, OF TENNESSEE. 39 me as quite novel and anomalous and disorderly, txD concede such powers to a court merely appellate." Mr. White has not filled any judicial station since, except occasionally one of the same character. In one of the cases thus decided, that of Green et als. vs. Allen ct ols., involving a very important question in I'egard to charities, after reviewing, in an opinion of thirty pages, the decisions both in England and the different States, as well as the statute of 43 Elizabeth, ch. 4, in regard to charitable uses, he comes to the conclusion that the charity is a good one and should be sustained. But the other two judges were of a different opinion, and it was declared invalid. A convention was called by the General Assembly of the State in Nov., 1S33, to sit in Xashville'on the 19th May, 1834'. Mr. White, who had been an advocate for the convention, became a candidate for a seat in it. The State was laid oft" into districts, and the district in which he resided, consisting of the two large counties of Smith and Sumner, was entitled to three members. lie had numerous competitors, and the can- vass was a very animated one. It commenced the latter part of Decem- ber, and continued to the day of election in March following. And al- though it was in the winter and the weather inclement, yet he mounted the stump, as did most of the other candidates, and addressed the people in every part of the district, in between forty and fifty speeches. Anil the result was, although he Avas upon the unpojnilar side of a local issue in the district, being against the fuvmntiun of new counties, and taking strong ground in favor of an independent judiciary, he was elected by a decisive majority. Itobert Allen, who had been a mem- ber of Congress for eight years, was elected one of liis colleagues, and Isaac Walton, a venerable man who had been a member of the con- vention that formed the first constitution, the other. The Convention continued in session from the 19th May, 1834, to the 30th August ensuing; and during which time Mr. White was rarely absent from the deliberations of the body. It would be out of place here to go into detail in regard to all the vnri- ous measu)es before the Convention. Mr. White was conservative in his course, but in favor of such changes as time and experience had shown to be necessary. Ou the third day of the session he embodied some of his views in a series of resolutions which were presented to the Convention. He proposed to strike out the clauses in the old Constitu- tion which required a freehold estate of 500 acres of land for the Ex- ecutive and 200 acres for members of the General Assembly ; likewise that clause requiring the lands of the poor to be taxed ctpially with those of the rich, and inserting in its place a provision for their taxation in pro- portion to value. He was for prohibiting the General Assembly, at ex- traordinary sessions, from legislating upon any subject except that for which they were convened ; for providing that all elections by the General Assem- bly should be viva voce, but all other elections should be by ballot ; that various ofti(;ei-s, such as attorneys for the State, clerks of the difi'erent courts, and justices of the peace, should be elected for a limited period, in- stead of during good behavior ; justices of the peace and clerks of the county courts to be elected by the people, but clerks of the other courts to be appointed by the courts ; that sheriffs, constables, and registers should 40 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS, be elected by the people instead of appointed by the county courts ; but that the coroner, trustee and ranger should be appointed by tlie county court. He offered a provision for specific amendments to the Constitution without calling a convention, which was required by the old Constitution, where evervthing is afloat. He proposed Avhat he regarded would be a salutary check upon hasty and unconstitutional legislation — that a bill after passing both houses should be presented to the Governor for his approval ; if he signed it, it became a law ; but if not, it was to be returned by him with liis objec- tion ; and it then required a majority of the whole number elected to each house to pass the bill before it became a law. This was not a veto in the proper sense of the term, it was only giving full effect to the prin- ciple that the will of the majority should govern. With regard to the judiciary, one evil existed ; there was no way of reaching an obnoxious or incompetent judge except by impeachment. He proposed his removal by the concurrent vote of both houses of the emocrat ever sent to the Legislatui'c from this county, and while servintr in that body, was considered one of its ablest and most influential members. He was appointed by the House one of the select, committee for revising the statutes of the State, and while in that capa- city, introduced and advocated with acknowledged ability many new provisions which still retain their place upon our statute book. He was regarded as a decided friend of reform and progress, and an efficient advocate of popular rights. " It was owing to the personal eftbrts of Mr. Rice that the first Demo- cratic paper was established in Cleveland. It was commenced for the pur- 44 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. pose of advocating the claims of Gen. Jackson to the Presidency, and to estabhsh a Democratic party in the county. Tlie paper commenced its career in the summer of 1828, with but two hundred snbscribers, under the title of the '■Independent News Letter^ published by Messrs. Mc- Laine. In 1829 the subject of our sketch assumed the editorial chair, but finding its duties diverted his attention too much from his profession, he transferred his interest to Mr. McLaine, one of its first proprietors, though still continuing one of its warmest friends and ablest con- tributors. After performing divers and sundry changes, it found its wav into the hands of its present well known proprietor, was christened the ' Plaindealer^ and now, with a large and extensive circulation, both as a daily and weekly journal, established on a firm and perma- nent basis, it stands pr«-eminent as one of the best conducted, most read- able and popular papers in Ohio. " The natural abihties of Mr. Rice are of a very high order. His mind is thoroughlv disciplined and cultivated, and for the comparatively short time he practised at the bar, obtained an enviable reputation for legal ability, sound, practical, discriminating jiidgment, and gentlemanly de- portment. Though never hesitating, when his duty to his clients de- manded, to argue cases to the court or jury, we believe he avoided as much as possible, rather than sought to perform, the duties of the advo- cate. We think the forum is not the best place for the display of his talents ; he is far too retiring in disposition and habits to have particu- larlv distinguished himself as a public speaker. " He is well known as an able contributor to many of the best periodi- cals of the day, and is a graceful, accomplished, and exceedingly vigor- ous and beautiful writer. His imagination is rich and glowing, and his mind well stored by a long and judicious course of mental training. We have seen some articles of Mr. Rice's, which compare favorably with those of the best writers of tlie day. " The following article, which we find in the ' Nineteenth Century^ we take the liberty of publishing here, and look upon it as an exceedingly meritorious and beautiful poem : — ONWARD. With heart that trusteth still, Set liigli your mark ; And thouirh with luiinan ill The warfare may be dark, Resolve to conqiier, and you will ! Resolve, then onward press. Fearless and true ; Believe it — Heaven will bless The brave — and still renew Your faith and hope, e'en in disti-ess, Press on, nor stay to ask For friendship's aid ; Deign not to wear the mask Nor wield a coward's blade, But still persist, though hard the task. HARVEY RICE, OF OHIO. 45 Rest not — inglorious rest Unnerves the man ; Struggle — 'tis God's behest! Fill up life's little span With God-like deeds — it is the test — Test of the high-born soul, And lofty aim ; The test in History's scroll Of every honor'd name — None but the brave shall win the goal I Go act the hero's part, And in the strife, Strike with the hero's heart For liberty and life — Ay, strike for Truth ; preserve her chart ! Her chart unstain'd preserve ; 'Twill guide you right. Press on, and never swerve, But keep your armor bright, And struggle still with firmer nerve. En or must fall at last. It is ordain'd — Old creeds are crumbling fast ; But ere the vietor3''s gained. Heroes must strike — the die is cast I What though the tempest rage, Buffet the sea ! Where duty calls, engage ; And ever strive to be The moral hero of the Age ! Strike till the oppressor's pride Be made to yield ; Nor quail, though life's warm tide Crimson the battle-field ! God for the right will sure decide. "In all situations in whicli Mr. liice lias been placed, whether public or private, he has maintained a character for strict and unwavering- inegritv. He is six feet in height, has dark eyes, black hair, marked with grey, and is kind, affable and gentlemanly in manners. In disposition and habits he is modest and retiring, inclined to shun observation rather than court it." In his domestic relations, surrounded as he is b. a happv family, few men have been more fortunate or more blessed. He has been twice mai- ried. His first wife, who died in 1837, ten years after the marriage, was sister to the wife of Governor Wood. Born and educated in ^*ermont, she possessed in an eminent degree those amiable qualities of character which fling around the hearthstone of home a peculiar charm, a felicity which is nowhere else to be found. His second wife, with whom he has been made equally happy, was also a native of Vermont, and, being endowed with all the graces and virtues of the first, is justly regarded by her 46 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. friends and acquaintances as a pattern in her domestic sphere, and an ornament in society. In the fell of 1851, Mr. Rice was put in nomination by the Democracy of the county in which he resides, for the State Senate, and was elected by a majority exceeding seven hundred votes over his opponents, the AVhigs, and Freesoil candidates. Tlie General Assembly to which he was now returned, was the first that convened under the new Constitution. Upon this body devolved the responsibility of reconstructing the statutes of the State, and adapt- ing- them to the requisitions of the Constitution, so as to secure to the people the practical benefits of the great reforms which had been achieved by its adoption. Mr. Rice contributed quite as much as any other member to the important legislation of the two sessions held by that General Assembly. It Avas said of him that he was always at his post. The degree of influence which he exercised as a legislator, was such as few have the good fortune to wield. Among the variety of measui-es which eno-aged his attention, he took a prominent part in procuring the passage of the act which authorized the establishment of two additional lunatic asylums in the State. His course in relation to the subject of common schools attracted pub- lic attention throughout the State, and called forth from the press commendations of a very complimentary character. The correspond- ent of a paper published at Newark, in the interior of the State, writing from Columbus, I'emarks as follows : — " Senator Rice, of Cuyahoga, has in charge a bill for the reorganiza- tion of schools and providing for their supervision. The friends of the system think it an excellent plan, and it has received the endorsement of a State Common School Convention. Of its details I may hereafter speak. They may, and probably will, need some change. The bill was introduced at the last session, and an extra number of copies printed and distributed so as to act upon it at this session. The great curse of our school system, it seems to me, lies in an eternal chancrinor of the laws — changes so frequent, that school officers act upon a section of a law, even after it is repealed and of no efiect. In politics, a.s you know, I am as far from being touched with that hold-back doctrine called conservatisin as any man in the land, yet on tliis subject I do hold that changes are generally wrong, — frequent changes radically so. The bill of Mr. Rice, if it passes, will, I venture the prediction, stand a long time on the sta- tute book unchanged. School officers will have a chance to see and to understand its provisions, and the great curse of which I have spoken, having its origin in frequent changes, will be done away. " IS'o better man than Mr. Rice could have been selected for this work. He is a model man and a model senator. Clear headed, sound minded, carefully and fully educated, with a pains-taking disposition, he is the ablest chairman of the standing Committee on Schools that any Ohio Legislature ever had. Deeply impressed with the great importance of the subject — of the stern necessity which exists for basing our whole re- publican form of government on the intelligence of the people, he has carefully provided a bill, which, if enacted into a law, will give a good common school education to every child in the State, and in so doing, has been equally careful that the money raised for that purpose is not squan- HARVEY RICE, OF OHIO. 47 dered. The bill provides for a State Commissioner of common schools, and it has been mentioned to me as a matter of deep regret, that the Constitution excludes Mr. Rice from beinfi: a candidate tor that office — no member of the Lesfislature beinsf elimble to an office created while he was a member, until one A^ear after tlie expiration of his term of office." On the question of the final passage of the bill, Mr. Rice addressed the Senate in a concluding speech, wdiich was publiaheil, and very gene- rally noticed by the press. Among these notices a leading paper pub- lished at Cleveland, with a magnanimity rarely possessed by a j)olitical opponent, makes the following comments : — " Mr. Rice made the closing speech on the School Bill, in the Senate, on the 24th. It was his own. He had labored over it, and for it, a long time, and given to it every consideration, and gained for it every counsel, which, by any possibility, he cotdd give or gain. "The text of his speech was the language of the Constitution itself; the duty of securing ' a thorough and efficient svstem of common schools throughout the State.' "The present system was adopted in 1838. Since, nearly thirtv enact- ments have been passed on the subject, often without retV'rence to -what had been done, sometimes in seeming contradiction to existing law. The present system, great as is the good it has achieved, had neither congruity nor intelligibility to recommend it. ''Mr. Rice felt, as the public felt, that the old garment had worn out. A new one was needed, fit for the State to wear, and becoming its cha- racter. Not a garment of patchwork, but strong, harmonious;, durable; so that, cost what it might, ' the means of education should be made free as the air and the sunlight.' " But the cost after all will not be large. In 1838 Ohio had less than a million of souls ; in 1852, two millions. In 1838, the taxable pro- perty of the State was valued at one hundred and seven millions; in 1852, at seven hundred millions. Our ahilit// to do what is needed to be done in behalf of free schools, is clear. Xobody can doubt that. " The difterence in the number of the youth to be educated is great. The number between four and twenty-one in 1852 exceeded eight hun- dred and thirtv-five thousand. The Constitution declares what we should do for them. The duty of the State makes right action imperative. * Shall Ohio, the second State in the Union, in point of wealth and na- tural resources, occupy a position less honorable or less praiseworthv than her sister States, in her efibrts to advance the cause of popular educa- tion ?' We have the ability to be among the foremost; if we fail, lack of will, and that alone, shall cause it. •' Mr. Rice refers thus to the school statistics of 1850 of other States : — " 'The population of New York was then 3.097.394 — her school fund $5,100,450. She paid to teachers 81,439,051 — had furnished to district libraries 1,507,097 volumes — and has, within the last year, paid to teachers $2,249,814 ; distributed to her common schools 8,500 copies of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, and expended $90,579 to increase her libraries. " ' The population of Pennsylvania was 2,311,780 — she paid to teachers 81,153,167, and liad furnished to district libraries 8,231 volumes. 48 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. '•'The population of Massachusetts was 994,469 — she paid to teachers 8] ,021,776, and had furnislied to district libraries 91,539 volumes. " ' Tlie po])ulation of Michigan was 397,654 — she paid to teachers 8129,666, and had furnished to district libraries 47, '220 volumes. "'Indiana, considering her ability, is equal to any State. Her Legis- lature has passed an act establishing an admirable system of com- mon schools, with a superintendeucy. By the provisions of the act au ample school fund lias been created ; and for the purpose of supplying school libraries to the districts, a tax of one fourth of one mill on the dollar has been imposed on the taxable property of the State, together with a poll tax of twenty-five cents upon the citizens for two years.' " \¥hat has Ohio done ? " She has a school fund of $1,745,322, and spends annually $750,000 I'or school teachers ; yet she has never furnislied a school library worthy the name. There aie 15,000 teachers in the State ; but these live on a mere pittance. True, the State has spent twenty millions in internal improvements, and our people are putting a much larger sum in railroads, so that no charge of illiberality can be brought against her. Still we must be judged by our abilit//, and with two miUions of souls, and a taxable ])roperty of seven hundred millions, what might we not do for universal education ? " The people judge rightly on this subject. They have taxed themselves to support the union or voluntary system of schools, besides paying the county and State tax. They have in some instances built fine school- houses. And the noble school teachers of the State, so j^oorly paid, and vet so richlv meriting the largest pay, have worked in the most self-sacri- licing spirit. Says Mr. Kice : — " ' Intiuenced by a high regard for their profession, and a desire to ele- vate its character, the school teachers of the State have formed associa- tions, and expended from their earnings hberal sums of money, annually, in sustaining institutes, and a superintendent to teach the art of teaching. These noble eftbrts on the part of the teachers, I trust, will be duly ap- preciated and gratefully acknowledged by every true-hearted citizen.' "Cities and towns may tax themselves; schools have been maintained therein ten months in the year, in the rural districts only five. Mr. Rice would not diminish the facilities of the former ; he would only increase those of the latter. Full three quarters of the population of the State are agriculturists, who, as a class, possess, perhaps, more of the true ele- ments of manhood both moral and physical than any other class. There- fore, says Mr. Rice, the school bill decrees — " That each township shall be regarded as one district. " That the educational interest of each township shall be intrusted to a Board of Education. " That this board shall be composed of certain local directors by rotation. " Thus this board in the rural districts has power to establish graded, central or high schools in such townships, is directed to estimate the amount necessary to sustain these schools ; in short, it is authorized to do whatever the educational interest of the township may require. The evils of the old system are avoided in the new. Equality and advance- ment are the basis of the latter. HARVEY RICE, OF OHIO. 49 " Mr. Rice goes into detail on the school bill, and, regretting that we iiave not room for the detail, we close our synopsis of his very sensible speech, by quoting its conclusion : — " ' It is certainly much cheaper, as well as much wiser, to cducat-j, than to punish. How much of crime would be prevented, if a higher order of education were generally diffused among all classes. A well educated and enlightened people will have but little occasion for criminal courts, jails and penitentiaries. The educated man has ordinarily too much self- respect, too much regard for moral principle, and tlie value of a good character, to stoop to crime. In short, sir, the perpetuity of the govern- ment, and security of the citizen and of property, depend upon the virtue and intelligence of the people. " "By the provisions of this bill, it is intended to make our common schools what they ought to be — the colleges of the people — " cheap enough for the poorest, and good enough for the richest." With but a slight increase of taxation, schools of different grades can be established and niaintainc'l in every township of the State, and the sons and daughters of our farmers and mechanics have an opportunitv of acquiring a finished education, equally with the more favored of the lanil. And in this way, the elements of mind, now slumberinir amonrr the uneducated masses, like the fine unwrought marble in the quarry, will be aroused, and brought out to challenge the admiration of the world. Philosophers and sages will abound every where, on the farm and in the worksho}). And many a man of genius will stand out from among the masses, and ex- hibit a brilliancy of intellect, which will be recognised in the circling years of the great future, as " A light, a landmark on the cliffs of time." " ' It is only the educated man who is competent to interrogate nature, and comprehend her revelations. Though I would not break down the aristocracy of knowledge, of the present age, yet, sir, I would level up, and equalize, and thus create, if I may be allowed the expression, a demo- cracy of knowledge. In this way, and in this way only, can men be made equal in fact — equal in their social and political relations — equal in mental refinement, and in a just appreciation of what constitutes man the brother of his fellow man. " ' In conclusion, sir, allow me to express my belief, that the day is not far distant when Ohio, in the noble cause of popular education and of human rights, will " lead the column," and become what she is capable ■of becominii- — a star of the first mao-nitude — the briehtest in the Q-alaxy of our American Union.' " A proud hour now came for INIr. Rice ! A good and a glorious one for the State ! The roll of the Senate was called, and that body, on the 19th day of January, 1853, proceeded to cast its final vote u])ou the bill, when only two negatives were announced." The bill passed tlie House by a large majority, and without material amendment. It now stands a law upon the statute book of the State. By its practical operation, a new and a strong impulse will be given to her common schools ; and, when the libraries, which are to be accessible to all classes in the community, shall have been furnished, as contem- VOL, IV. 4 50 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS, plated by the act, to every school district in the State, the time will soon come when the masses in Ohio, for intelligence and refinement, will not be surpassed by the people of any other state or country. Another bill of scarcely less importance than tlie school bill was introduced into the Senate by Mr. Rice, near the heel of the adjourned session, which with him was a favorite measure, and which seemed to meet with the hearty approbation of the public. It bad for its object the establishment of a " State Reform School," expressly designed for juvenile ofi'enders. But owing to the late day of the session in which the bill was intro- duced, though very favorably received by the Senate, a motion was made to postpone it until the next session. In reference to this motion, without attempting to make a formal speech, Mr. Rice explained briefly the object contemplated by the bill. His remarks, relating as they did to a subject of public interest, were reported -and published. We trans- fer them from an opposition paper, with the prefatory notice of its editor : — " The Senator from Cuyahoga is entitled to the thanks of the people of the whole State for bringing forward a plan for the establishment of a Slate Reform School for juvenile ofi'enders. The bill has been postponed by the Senate to the next session, and on the motion to postpone Mr. Rice addressed the Senate as follows : — "Mr. President : It is not my intention, sir, to discuss at length the subject of prison discipline. The principal object I have in view, at this time, is to call the attention of the Senate to the provisions of this bill, and to the importance of modifying our penitentiary system in reference to juvenile offenders. "The leading object of punishment should be the reformation of the ofi'ender. The age and capacity of the accused should be taken into consideration in the administration of criminal justice. There is much more hope of relbrming the juvenile convict than the hardened villain who has grown gray in the commission of crime. " The fact cannot be disguised, I am sorry to say, that there has been within the last few years an alarming increase of crime in this State, especially among the juvenile portion of the community. At the present fearful rate of increase, the State will soon be under the necessity of establishing one or more additional penitentiaries. Though crime may be expected to increase with population, yet the alarming evil to which I have alluded cannot, as it seems to me, be satisfactorily accounted for on this principle. What then is the cause ? Is there not something defective, something radically wrong in our legislation, or in our system of juvenile education ? Or is it true that there are characteristics pecu- liar to this boasted age of progress — this money-loving age — incom- patible Avith the stern morality of our early history as a State ? What- ever may be attributed to the influence of moral or other causes, much may be traced to the defects in our present system of prison dis- cipline. "There are, at this time, at least 515 convicts in the penitentiary, one fifth of whom are minors. The whole number of minors sent to the penitentiary in the last twenty years is 528 ; in the last ten years, 281 ; in the last five years, 177 ; and in the last year, 44. From forty to fifty HARVEY RICE, OF OHIO. 51 minors are cominitted to the peiiitentiary yearly. In some instances, yoiuifr lads from ten to fifteen years of age have been sentenced — or rather sent to this hiah school of vice and crime, to complete their edu- cation under the instruction and debasing influences of old and accom- plished masters. " Ought a system so inconsistent with everv reasonable hope of reform- ing the juvenile delinquent to be continued in this enlightened age? 1 think not. It is the object of this bill, sir, to afford a remedy ; to reform as Well as to yunhli^ by placing all minors, convicted of penitentiary oftences, in a separate institution — a Keform School — with a view to train them to industrious habits in some of the mechanic arts, in agriculture, or in some other useful occupation, combined with a suitable course of mental cultivation and moral instruction. "The bill ])rovides for the acquisition, bv donation or purchase, of not less than one hundred and fifty, nor more than three hundred acres of land, at some convenient point in the State, and for the erection of suit- able buildings at a cost not to exceed thirty thousand dollars. It also provides for the ap})ointment of trustees, a superintendent, and the requi- site number of teachers and assistants, and for the transfer of the juvenile convicts now in the penitentiary. The object of the bill, therefore, is of an important character, both in a moral and social point of view. If the Senate, liowever, should deem it advisable to postpone its further con- sideration until the next session, I trust its passage or the passage of a similar bill will then be effected.*' At the Democratic State Convention, held in January, 1852, the name of Mr. Rice, without solicitation on his part, was presented bv his fri'.-nds as a candidate for Lieutenant (jovernor, in connection with several otlier individuals. Thougli his name had not been suggested until the morning of the convention, he received a large, and under the circumstances, a very complimentary vote. In August of the same vear, in compliance with an appointment which he had previously accepted, he delivered before the Society of Alumni of \Yilliams College a poem, which elicited from the audience, during its delivery, frequent expressions of their marked approbation, and which was regarded as a production of no ordinary merit. In the fall of 1853 he was re-7iominated liy tho Democratic Convention of Cuvahoga countv, for the State Senate, with a degree of unaniniitv by no means usual. The Democratic ]iapers of the State very generally expressed their gratification. Among editorial notices which appeared, we subjoin the following : — "The democracy of Cuyahoga have nominated this gentleman for the State Senate. He received 1)9 votes, while his competitor received but 7 votes, which is an eloquent expression of confidence in the man ; and what adds force to this expression — it is just. Refusing to be a candi- date for School Coinmi.--sioner and for the Lieutenant Governorship, we know he sought not this nomination ; but his untiring and extended labors in framing a law that would render our common school system one of vast importance to the youth of the State, combined with his gentlemanly deportment, his high acquirements and legislative skill, seem to demand that he should be returned to the Senate to guard against ruthless mutilation of the law which cost him so much labor, and which, 52 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. if executed in the spirit it was framed, will so uiuch redound to tbe intelligence and honor of the State. To use the language of a prominent man in the State, ' Harvey Rice is a man to whom any man could point with pride and say, He belongs to our party ;' and we hope to see this nomination ratified by the people of Cuyahoga county by an unprece- dented majority. They owe it to the cause of education and to moral and intellectual worth to so ratify it." As it happened, the Whig and Freesoil parties of the county were nearly equal in point of numbers, yet neither of them strong enough to defeat the Democratic .party in a triangular contest; and being fully satisfied that the Democratic party must succeed as it formerly had done under like circumstances, thev became alarmed, and carinij more for the " loaves and the fishes" than for principles, agreed, in what was called a People's Convention, to unite as ngainst the Democrats, and divide the spoils between themselves. This coalition, or fusion^ as it was significantly called, defeated the Democratic legislative ticket, by a majority much less than had been anticipated. The result was much more regretted by the friends of Mr. Rice than by himself; yet, under the circumstances, it was not regarded as having darkened, in the least, his future prospects. The eminent service which he has rendered the State in the promotion of her educational interests, will be long and gratefully remembered by those of his fellow-citizens who properly appreciate the true objects of life, and who wish to secure to themselves, to their children, and to the generations which will follow them, the social blessings whicu flow from a high degree of refinement, intelligence, and moral virtue. JAMES M. CALHOUN, GEORGIA. The subject of this sketch was born February 12, 1811, at a place called Calhoun Settlement, in Abbeville District, South Carolina. His father, a cousin of the late Hon. John C. Calhoun, was a planter, in mode- rate circumstances, possessed of an ordinary English education ; his mother was a lady distinguished for her Christian virtues, great perseverance, and earnest efforts in endeavoring to train her children to virtue, honor, Christianity, truth, and industry : both his parents were members of the Presbyterian church. Calhoun Settlement was a sickly locality ; and when James was about fourteen years old, death, which had already visited many members of the family, black and white, deprived him of his father, who died leaving only a very small property for the support of the mother and children. Being the only son residing at home, it devolved upon James to work upon the farm, and contribute to the support of his mother : for four JATMES M. CALHOUN, OF GEORGIA. 63 years Tie toiled on the plantation las a day laborer; at tlie end of that period the mother died, and the family separated. At the age of eighteen, Mr. Calhoun set forth without a cent in his pocket, in search of the means of livelihood. His eldest brother, Dr. Ezekiel JN". Calhoun, resided at Decatur, De Kalb county, Georgia, and he first bent his steps towards his residence. When but a short distance on his way, he arrived at the residence of a cousin. Captain Joseph Cal- houn, told his story and his purpose, and borrowed ten dollars to defray travelling expenses. With this sum he pursued his way, and arrived, without having experienced any remarkable adventure, at the residence of his elder brother. Having explained the purpose of his visit, and be- sought his brother to assist him in finding employment, the generous heart of the doctor was touched, and he repudiated the idea of his engag- ing in manual labor, contending, that as his education was very imperfect, it was necessary that he should receive further schooling, and offering to board and clothe him during the prosecution of his studies. Such an oft'er was not to be refused, and for the next two years Mr. Calhoun at- tended the school of David Kiddoo, a native of Pennsylvania, a ripe scholar and excellent teacher, at Decatur. Just before leaving home Mr. Calhoun had experienced a severe attack of bleeding at the nose, accompanied with fever, and while at Decatur he suffered much, and was retarded in his studies, by ill health ; even at the present day he has not entirely recovered from the effects of the attack. While at school he acquired an ordinary English education, together with a tolerable know- ledge of the Latin language. It is pleasing to record in this place, that in after years, when Mr. Calhoun occupied an independent position, those to whom he became indebted in youth were not forgotten ; and that he has not only relieved himself of all pecuniary obligations, but that he is still willing to ac- knowledge the debt of gratitude to the friends of his youth, which it is pleasant to owe, and which he feels himself unable to repay. During his two years' attendance at school, Mr. Calhoun was a member of a debating society, of which the Hon. Hines Holt, of Georgia, was u member; toward the close of the term a friendh'' intimacy grew up be- tween these two gentlemen, and Mr. Hdlt earnestly persuaded his young friend to commence the study of the law, assuring him that the talent he had displayed as a member of the club would insure his success in the practice of the profession. Mr. Calhoun from boyhood had desired to become a member of the bar, and though his modesty suggested that the vision of his friend might be clouded by partiality, yet when Mr. Hines still further enforced his arguments by offering to take him into his own office as a student, and to defray his expenses while engaged in study, his objections vanished, and he commenced reading law in the spring of 1831, and was admitted to the bar on the 22d of February, 1832. During the first year of Mr. Calhoun's practice, he met with some- what unusual encouragement, and since that time he has always been en- gaged in an extensive, laborious, and piofitable business. His reputation as a collecting lawver soon extended to the northern as well as the southern cities, and from distant localities he has received a continued stream of patronage, which is constantly increasing, as he never loses a 54 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. client who has become acquainted witj|| his manner of doing business. He lias probably transacted as much collecting business as any lawyer of his age in Georgia. His reputation and practice in the trial of litigated cases is equally great, and he occupies a prominent position both on the civil and criminal sides of the court. During the same year in which Mr. Calhoun was admitted to the bar, he married Miss Emma Eliza Dabney, daughter of Anderson Dabne)^ of Jasper county, Georgia, a lady highly accomplished, of an amiable dis- position, and numerous friends. Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun are now the pa- rents of seven children, on whose education the greatest care is expended, the father being desirous that his children shall escape those troubles, vexations, and annoyances which he has experienced in consequence of the want of early mental training. In 183G Mr. Calhoun entered the service of the United States, in the war with the Creek Indians. Bv the unanimous vote of the members he was elected captain of a company of mounted infantry. He remained in the service three months. In July he was engaged in a severe and bloody battle with the Indians, in Stewart county, which lasted nearly two hours. He was then young, possessed neither of military knowledge nor experience ; but owing to the partiality ui Major J. C. Alford, com- mander of the battalion, he was placed in command during the absence of that officer, notwithstanding the fact that in the battalion were to be found many deserving and experienced officers. Before the return of Major Alford, and before the new commander had found an opportunity for drilling and mustering his men, the trail of a large body of the ene- my was discovered near the encampment at Fort McCrary. But four companies were present, and out of these, on account of the prevalence of sickness, only eighty etiective men could be mustered for the pursuit. This small force started, and about noon came up with the enemy, when one of the bloodiest engaijements that occurred during the war eusued. The troops fought gallantly, and many officers and men ])articularly dis- tinguished themselves, among whom their conmiander has made honor- able mention or Captain Eli Glover, who commanded the Jasper compa- ny, and Lieutenant Charles Parr, who commanded the company formerly conuuanded by himself. The right flank of the enemy was driven nearly half a mile from the spot where the engagement commenced, and a com- plete victory seemed secure, when a report spread through the ranks that the ammunition was exhausted ; this impression becoming general, a somewhat confused retreat commenced, and the utmost etforcs of the com- mander to rally his forces, and conduct them again to the attack, were fruitless, notwithstanding the fact that many of the soldieis and officers expressed an earnest desire to return and grasp the victory within their reach. Much time being occupied in attempts to rally his forces, when retreat became inevitable, the commander found it necessary to advance about fifty yards towards the enemy, in order to mount his horse, which he had left secured to a tree ; while untying the bridle, the enemy fired several shots at him, and he was forced to make the best of his way, leading his horse, over an open space,, about seventy-five yards in extent, to ■& sheltered spot, before he could mount and rejoin his forces. About •one third of the command were either killed or wounded, and the loss of the enemy was very great, about tour hundred warriors having been JAMES M. CALHOUN, OF GEORGIA. 55 engaged. Mr. Calhoun conducted himself nobly in this affair, especially when we consider his limited military knowledge, and his entire want of military experience. His deportment upon the field was such as to elicit warm eulogiums from his officers and men. In 1837, Mr. Calhoun was nominated for the Legislature, and elected over a very popular candidate of the Democratic party, owing, in part, to the support received from the members of his company, his clients, and personal friends in the Democratic ranks. In 1848 he was nomi- nated candidate for Congress, without his consent, and without having been previously consulted, and contested the election in a district which had hitherto been Democratic by a majority of about five thousand ; and through his personal popularity, and the high esteem in which he was held, the Democratic majoritv was reduced to about two thousand. His high esteem for General Taylor and Millard Fillmore, and an earnest de- sire for their election, alone induced him to accept the nomination. In 1850 an election took place for delegates to a State Convention, called in pursuance of an act of the Legislature, to take into considera- tion the series of laws known as the Compromise Measures, then lately enacted by Congress. The friends of Mr. Calhoun, who were favorable to an acquiescence in those measures, named him as their candidate. At first, the political horizon was dark, and it appeared that the disunionists ■would be successful. But, together with a few friends, Mr. Calhoun can- vassed the district, and urged their arguments upon the minds of the people with earnestness and untiriuij energy. When the election took place, the result was shown : Mr. Calhoun was elected to the; convention by a majority of from seven to eight hundred, and after- wards took an active part in procuring the passage of those resolutions in favor of the Union and the Constitution, which became so popular as soon as the storm of secession had spent its force. In 1851 he was elected to a seat in the Senate ; the battle was fought on the same ground as in 1850, and the result was nearly the same, the majority in his favor being about eight hundred. During this session he was an active mem- ber, servinn^ on several important committees, and procuring the passage of several laws, some ot great general importance and benefit; others particularly favorable to his immediate constituents. Since 1830, Mr. Calhoun has been largely engaged in politics. From 1832 to 1840, he belonged to the States Rights party in Georgia, and was a zealous advocate of its principles, in the general truth and utility of which he is still a firm believer. From 1840 to 1850, he adhered to the Whig party, principally on account of its high conservatism, diftering from that party on several impoitatit questions. Since 1850 he has been a member of the Union party. Though Mr. Calhoun has suft'ered much from the want of an early liberal education, he has in a great measure supplied the defect, if detect it may be called in one of so great native strength of mind and cha- racter, by persevering industry and application. He has directed the studies of many youno^ men preparing for the practice of law ; and, re- membering his own early years, and his obligations to his early friends, he has always been ready to assist and encourage. Some of his students have attained enviable positions at the bar. Mr. Calhoun is highly gifted as a public speaker; in private life he is 56 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS, prompt and active in the transaction of business ; social in his disposition ; kind, mild, and charitable. These qualities render him highly esteemed and loved by a large circle of friends. The subject of our sketch is now a resident of Atlanta, a flourishing city, six miles distant from Decatur. Interest as well as convenience prompted his removal from the latter place in December, 1852. O. C. PRATT, FORMERLY ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES IN AND FOR THE TERRITORY OF OREGON. The subject of the present memoir is yet in the prime of life, and a ceaseless toiler on the great arena of human action. We do not there- fore propose to write a panegyric upon his past life, or pronounce a eulog}- upon his character ; but will leave both, where they more properly belong, to the judgment of the future, when contemporary incidents that enhance or detract from the merits of either shall have passed away, and content ourselves with a faithful outline of the leading eveuts of that career in which he has risen from comparative obscurity by his own unaided energies and ability to a place among the Federal Judiciary. " Some men are born to greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them, and others achieve it for themselves." Perhaps few men of the present day are less indebted to the accident of birth, or the pnstipe of ancestral honors, for their position and juridical attainments, than he whose career we are now sketching. He was born at Rushville, Ontario county, New York, on the 24th of April, A.D. 1819. His paternal grand- father was one of the earliest pioneers of Western Xew York, a man of great bodily strength, and of sterling honesty and integrity. His father was, and still is, a man of great physical endurance and strong natural talent. His mother was a woman of considerable personal beauty, with a remarkable combination of mildness and firmness of character. Fond to excess of her children, she ever manifested great solicitude in their future welfare, and strove by all means in her power to facilitate and encourage the correct development of their minds and the early formation of proper and useful habits. To her guardianship may be attributed in a great measure the success of her son in after life. When young Pratt was seven or eight years old, his father moved to Cattaraugus county, and it was here that he first manifested a predilection for those walks of life where intellect, thought, and labor contend for the mastery over the minds of men. As his fathers circumstances and the number of his family precluded the possibility of educating them to any great extent, this son's means of information must have been extremely limited ; and we are almost at fault to conjecture how he was enabled to O. C. PRATT. O * qualify himself and engage in the business of teaching at the early age of fourteen. He continued this employment with success, devoting his leisure hours assiduously to the study of law and othtr kindred pursuits, until 1835. Upon the passage of the law establishing common school libraries in that year, he commenced travelling through Western New York, and lecturing in the school districts, for the purpose of calling public attention to the importance of the measure, and to thereby create an interest in its favor. He had the pleasure to find success so far follow his efforts as to favorably attract the notice of James AVadsworth, Esq., and other distin- guished men of New York, who made him liberal pecuniary oti'ers to continue his labors in that held. In 1836 he became a correspondent of the newspapers. His productions at this early period gave abundant promise of the vigor of intellect and severe discipline of mind, which he has since so fully realized. In the fall of the same year he was recom- mended to the notice of President Van Buren, who appointed him a cadet at West Point. Whilst there, he acquired and maintained a stand- ing as a student and tactician of a high order. From credible sources we have been informed that at West Point it was his invariable practice to rise each morning, regardless of the weather, before I'eveille, and per form a long walk previous to the mustering of the cadets for inspection and exercise. It is to earlv habits like these that he is now indebted for that physical constitution which has enabled him to endure the toil and labor which have since been incident to his situation as judge in the new Territory of Oregon. After continuing at West Point nearly three vears, he resigned in 1839, and repaired to Albany to commence a regular course of study in the profession he had chosen for his future pursuit. Much to the credit of his attainments and character at this age, he was received into the office of the distinguished Samuel Stevens, Esq., where so many applications for similar purposes are yearly rejected, lie brought to aid him in his studies a mind well cultured and disciplined by the severe regimen of West Point, and in July, 1840, was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of New York, after a rigorous examination undei' the old rules. Shortly afterwards he formed a partnership with F. M. Haight, Esq., an eminent lawyer (now of St. Louis), and commenced practice at Rochester, New York, where he remained until 1843. During this time he was dis- tinguished for his succe=-s and abilitv in conducting difficult cases under the bankrupt laws of 1841. In May, 1841, he was married to Cordelia, daughter of Col. H. P. Cul- ver, of Honeoye Falls, New York, but was deprived of her by death in the month of October of the same vear. In the year 1843 he was again united in marriage to Miss Anna Par- ker, of Kochester, and removed to Galena, Illinois, and immediately en- tered into an extensive and lucrative practice in both the circuit and supreme courts of that State. In 1847 he was a member of the Consti- tutional Convention of Illinois, and was distinguished for his services in the committees on finance and sufti-age. Upon those two questions — the most important perhaps that came before the convention — he rendered important aid by his untiring eftbrts to settle them upon a sound and elevated ba.sis. By an act of Congres's approved August 14th, 1848, the Territorv of Oregon was organized : and in the same vear President Polk. 58 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. upon the united recommendation of the Judges of the Supreme Court and the delegation in Congress from Ilhnois, appointed him one of the Judges of that new and distant Territory. He reached Oregon in De- cember, 1848, travelling on foot and with mules, via New Mexico and California, and was the first United States officer in the Territory after its regular organization. Judge Pratt had now entered upon a field new and untried, at a period when it required no small "fehare of capacity and firmness to settle satis- factorily the numerous perplexing questions that were constantly arising under our anomalous system of territorial goveinment. The government was in a transition state. That styled provisional, which had been adopted by the people on the 26th day of July, A.D. 1845, had become functus officio, while the new government had not yet gone into full operation. l)urina: much of the time after his arrival, until August, 1850, he was the only Judge in the Territory ; and his services both in term and at cham- bers were constantly in demand. At the session of 1850-51, during the absence of Judge Pratt, the Le- gislature passed an act to locate the public buildings of the Territory, and provide for their speedy erection. By this the state house was to be at Salem, the penitentiary at Portland, and the university at Marysville. This law was said by the Governor and government officers generally to be null and void, by reason of a supposed disregai'd of the direction contained in the last clause of the sixth section of the Organic Act. By the organic law the Judges were empowered to hold a term of the supreme court "at the seat of government annually;" and by an act of the Legislature the first Monday in December was fixed upon as the time for holding the term, coincident with the meeting of the legislative body. By the funda- mental law of the Territory, " the seat of government " required for its establishment «n act of Ufiislation. Only one act on the subject had passed, and that named Salem as the seat of government. It would seem, then, most plainly to follow, that if that act was bad, the power to hold a terra of the Supreme Court was entirely wanting. But notwith- standing this, it was early understood that his associates. Judges Strong and Nelson, had determined to prejudge the Salem act invalid in advance, and meet at Oregon City to hold a term of the Supreme Court ; violent cflforts were made by those opposed to the locations to induce a majority of the Legislature to do likewise ; and local and personal feeling ran high. On the first Monday in December, 1851, Judges Strong and Nelson assembled at Oregon City, and there undertook to hold what they called a term of the Supreme Court ; and on a motion made for that purpose, proceeded at length to decide the location law null and void in all its parts. Whilst all this was going on at Oregon City, Judge Pratt repaired to Salem to hold a term of the Supreme Court. The Legislature met at Salem on the same day, organized, and pro- ceeded to the regular order of business. Shortly after assembling, that body by joint resolution propounded three inquiries to Judge Pratt, involving the validity of the act in question. To these a written opinion was returned by him, sustaining the validity of the act, and demonstrat- ing that the assumption of power upon the part of Judges N. and S. to hold a term of court at Oregon City was unwarranted by any law known in the Territory. At this session, Judge Pratt's sphere of action and —^' ^ » t ^>^:^i^^^^^ ^nsr^ru '^•*'2usa''M>his!U. Jkeech^^ ctJi^muwriD ^m^z^iuJiS' R. D. SILLIMAN, OF NEW YORK. 59 duties were greatly enlarged by adding to his district three of the four counties which had heretofore comprised the district of Judge Nelson. This act gave fresh incense to the Governor and the party opposed to the locations. Through their public organs, and in public meetings of their friends, exciting appeals were made to the people of the district, to disregard the laws of the Assembly and prevent Judge Pratt from hold- ing courts in tbe district ; but all to uo purpose. He travelled the whole round of the district, a distance of some four hundred miles, and dis- charged his judicial duties fearlessly and without molestation ; and per- haps no greater tribute could be paid to him, as a jurist and impartial Judge, than ^here, under circumstances like these, he was enabled to hold his courts, rendering judgments and decrees of large amounts for and against the parties litigant, without disturbance, sustained alone by the mere force of public opinion, against a majoritv of his brother judges and the whole force of the executive department of the territorial govern- ment. He has since had the satisfaction to find his position upon the question triumphantly sustained, in the passage of a joint resolution unanimously by both Houses of Congress, and approved by the President May 4th, 1*852. He retired from the bench in Oregon, the last of Mr. Polk's appointees in the country in office. His career there, as elsewhere, was one of untiring activity, as well in the study of his profession and in the discharge of his judicial duties, as in the management of his private affairs. By the former, his reputation as a jurist and faithful public ofiicer rests upon no questionable basis ; and by the latter he finds himself, even be- fore the noon of life, possessed of an ample fortune. R. D. SILLIMAN, OF TROV, NEW YORK. It is much to be regretted that so slight an estimation is placed by the mass of mankind upon those who have distinguished themselves by the possession of moral qualities alone. The heroic deeds of the soldier are emblazoned upon the rolls of his country's fame, and the successful efforts of the scholar and statesman receive the admired plaudits of thousands. Far be it from us, however, to detract from the meed of praise so justly due to the defender of the country or the devotee of art and learning; but if there be aught of truth or justice in the poetical declaration that "An honest man's the noblest work of God," then do we affirm that stainless integrity, disinterested benevolence, strict devotion to the business of life, and a morality above the breath of sus- picion, should be given to the world in characters of living light, as 60 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. furnishing to all ages and conditions in life bright examples for imi- tation. These general observations are elicited by a contemplation of the cir- cumstances which surround the life of one whose name, wherever known, is synonymous with energy, persevering industry, and a keen sense of honor. The subject of the following sketch was born on the 26th of De- cember, 1790, in the town of Ballston, New York. He was the sou of highly respectable parents. His father came from Connecticut, the ori- ginal location of all those bearing the family name ; and his mother, whose maiden name was Wright, from Greene county, New York. His early life was passed in the village of Waterford, to which place his father had removed towards the close of the last century. Here he received a fair English education — the opportunities for obtaining which at that time being, as is well known, exceedingly limited. His father, Daniel Silliman, soon after the close of the revolutionary war, and until the year 1793, was engfaged in the coasting trade between Boston and Wa- terford. But being shipwrecked oif Montauk Point, and meeting with the total loss of vessel and cargo, he determined to confine himself to the less precarious navigation of the Hudson, and, accordingly, for several years he followed the business of trading and forwardinjj between New York and Waterford, which was at that time the head of sloop naviga- tion. The son, in selecting an occupation, very naturally directed his thoughts to the same careei', and at an early age became a cabin boy upon the Hudson. At the close of navigation, it was his custom to ap- ply himself carefully to study. In this manner several successive seasons were passed, until, at the age of twenty-one, and just before the last war with England, he assumed the management of a vessel on his own ac- count. By economy and well-directed effort, he succeeded in acquiring property, and in the year 1819, with his brother-in-law. Deacon Gordon Grant, a co-partnership was formed in the mercantile, lumber, and for- warding business, under the name of Silliman & Grant. This firm was located at Troy. His business connections rapidly increased, and in a short time an excellent character and credit were established. The posi- tion it occupied upon all questions affecting the prosperity and perma- nent welfare uf the community, was firm and highly creditable. Although engaged with other mercantile firms in the liquor traffic, and deriving nmch pecuniary profit therefrom, at the first sound of the alarum, they were found foremost in the ranks of the temperance movement, and the .sale of liquors from their establishment was immediately discontinued. Mr. Silliman retired from active business in the year 1838, and de- voted his attention to the private interests of himself and friends. He was at this time President of the Commercial Bank. But an entirely sedentary occupation proved tuo sudden a change from the scenes of activity and excitement in which he had previously been immersed, and accordingly he decided lo enter once more upon the uncertainty of mercantile life. The connection formed at this time — the spring of 1841 — proved to be an unfortunate one. The severe pressure of 1 842-3 immediately followed, and the measure of relief — the famous bankrupt law — then adopted by Congress, so crippled the house with which he was engaged, that it was forced to suspend payment. The R. D. S-ILLIMAN, OF NEW YORK. 61 honorable course pursued by the subject of this sketch, in unreservedly appropriating nearly all of his private means to the settlement of the debts of the company, is deserving of especial praise. Seasons of trial like this serve to develop true qualities of soul. Many cannot resist the pecuniary temptation presented to keep back a portion of the earnings of years ; while others sink beneath the load of misfortune, and end their lives in despondency and neglect. Mr. Silliman passed through the or- deal with untiinching firmness, fully sustaining his previously acquired reputation as a strictly upright man, and a sincere Christian. Witli a bold heart, he laid again the foundation of his fortune, and as the result of industry and skill, prosperity has once more crowned his efforts. He is still engaged in the mercantile and forwarding business, and to the protection of the large and daily increasing interests intrusted to his care he devotes unwearied zeal. But, apart from the daily transaction of business, we find that there has been much to occupy his mind. From his well known business talent and strict integrity of principle, important pecuniary trusts have from time to time been reposed in him. He has long acted as executor and administrator for several large estates, and has often preserved the pro- perty of the widow and orphan from the attacks of those who had dis- guised themselves as friends. His attention was early directed to the subject of banking, and in the year 1831 he, with others, was instrumental in obtaining from the Le- gislature of New York a charter for the " Troy City Bank." This mea- sure met with much opposition from the friends of rival institutions, as well as from those who declined upon principle to grant special powers to private corporations. In the choice of officers, Mr. Silliman was elected Vice-President, and remained in that capacity until the year 1839, when another association was formed under the general bank- ing law of the State. This was called " The Commercial Bank of Troy," and Mr. Silliman was invited to the discharge of the duties of President. It is worthy of mention, that during the period of embar- rassment which overtook the house with which he was connected, most of his bank stock was surrendered to his ci^editors, and his resig- nation of the office of President presented to the Board of Directors. This, however, was not accepted, and he continued for two years longer to assume the responsibility of the post, until the pressure of mercantile business admonished him to persist in an entire withdrawal. All those enterprises which, by developing the resources, add to the prosperity of a community, have found in the subject of this notice a Avarm and efficient support He was one of the originators, and most important stockholder of the " Troy and New York Steamboat Com- pany ;" and in the different railway communications, and many of the manufactories which have been projected for the benefit of the city of Troy and its vicinity, for the last twenty-five years, he has been more or less interested. His own city has ever found in him a reliable guardian of its rights ; and, in asserting this of Mr. Silliman, it is but just to award the same noble and generous ambition to hundreds of her citizens. During those eventful periods, which may be termed crises in her history, when the passage of the monstrous Albany Bi'idge Bill by the Legislature of the G2 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. State of New York was threatened, the untiring efforts put forth by him- self and friends, together witli the practical character of the evidence then offered as to the serious detriment which the navigation of the Hud- son would receive, with which lie was well acquainted, having been reared, as it were, upon its bosom, and the manifest loss which would accrue to the entire trade of the north and west, mainly contributed to the decisive defeat of this measure. Although, as we have before observed, Mr. Silliman enjoyed but limited facilities in early life for obtaining an education, yet this subject has always been one of the nearest and dearest to his heart. He has for years been a warm patron and trustee of the Troy Female Seminary, well known 'or the high literary and scientific character it has attained, chiefly through the efforts of its first principal, Mrs. Emma Willard. All of his children have enjoyed unlimited educational opportunities. Two of his sons have been members of collegiate institutions. The eldest, now deceased, was for some time connected with Union College, Sche- nectadv, and the youngest recently graduated with much distinction at Columbia College, New York city. In the private relations of life, the subject of this sketch has always maintained a character above suspicion or reproach. Quiet and unos- tentatious in his manners, kind and generous to all who are brought into social communion with him, earnest and severe in his denunciation of every species of evil, he presents a character whose virtue it is pleasant to record. The young have always found in him a friend, and the un- fortunate a benefactor. Those whom he has employed in subordinate situations have been encouraged to aim higher, and many a business man, wlio is now enjoying the fruits of prosperity, can testify, not only to the value of his advice, but also to the substantial aid with which it was frequently accompanied. The same zeal and prudence which characterized the management of his secular affairs, has met with beautiful illustration in his religious course. It was not until the meridian of life that he made a public pro- fession of his attachment to the cause of Christ, by joining the Second Presbyterian Church of the city of Troy ; but the importance of the sub- ject must have been ever present with him, controlling and directing his thoughts and actions. 'I"he following affectionate tribute to the character of his deceased mother was recently communicated by him to the author of this sketch : — " My mother first instilled into me the principles of that holy religion which 1 profess ; taught my infant lips to say, ' Our Father who art in heaven,' and 'Now I lay me down to sleep;' nurtured ray youth, and prevented my steps from falling into divers snares and tempta- tions. How can I lielp revering her memory, and uttering the fervent prayer, that wiien time with me shall be no more, I may be re-united to her in heavtn ?'' — clearly showing that the turmoil of passing years, and the engrossing schemes of the world, have no power to efface from his memory the kindness and love of her who was the guide of infancy and manhood. In 1839 he was appointed an elder of the church with which he was connected. But this notice is already reaching undue limits. It remains for us to add, that Mr. Silliman is now in the sixty-third year of his age. He has two sons, both of whom are associated with him in business, and two "•S'-'«lq>-JC.BuUl^irnn. 5.T>a?^' .>^' e«S'- ''Cf^rj^'-c^ d^ 7 '.■'JHESJt.t' f/P'iV YOKf-:. W. G. HOWARD, OF NEW YORK. 63 daughters. Although misfortune has harassed him, and affliction lias often laid its unsparing hand upon the objects of his warmest affection, he has still been enabled, through divine assistance, to sustain himself with fortitude and Christian resignation. May he long be spared to his family, of which he is the staff and strong support; to the church, as a pillar and bright ornament; and to ihe city of Troy, to whose prosperity he has freely contributed, and with all of whose interests he is identified. REV. W. G. HOWARD, OF ROCHESTER, N. Y. Rev. W. G. Howard was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on the 6th of September, 1813. He was the eldest child and only son of Cap- tain William and Lydia E. Howard. His father, who was of English extraction, was a seaman by profession, and for several years commanded a ship in the merchant service. He died of yellow fever at St. Pierre, Martinique, in 1818, five years after the birth of his son. His mother, whose maiden name was Evans, is of Welsh descent ; she is still living, a woman of superior mind and most exemplary piety ; and to her, under the guidance of Providence, does her son feel indebted for the high posi- tion he now holds in society. Although passionately fond of all the sports of youth, and possessed of an iron constitution, enabling him to enjoy them, he had an unusual relish for books ; and his purpose was early formed, to acquire a thorough collegiate education. He pursued his preparatory studies under the charge of Mr. Amos Pettengill, who was cut oft" in the midst of remark- able promise while tutor in Yale College, and Mr. Alfred W. Pike, who is still living. In the year 1831, he entered Amherst College, and gradu- ated with an honorable appointment in 1835. During his collegiate course his rank was very high in the classics and in belles letti'es, but low in ma- thematics ; in oratory he was not excelled by any member of his class. After leaving college, he took charge of an academy in Brooklyn, Con- necticut; afterwards he was appointed principal of a female seminary in Chillicothe, Ohio, and remained at the west and south as a teacher nearly five years. During the entire period while he was engaged in teaching, his mind was strongly impressed with the idea that his duty called upon him to become a preacher of the gospel. Accordingly, in 1843, following the dictates of his conscience, he was ordained to the ministry in Middle- town, Connecticut. Here he remained nearly four years. For two years he was a member of the Board of Examiners of the Wesleyan Univer- sity, and received from the Trustees the honorary degree of A. M. In 64 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. 1847 he received a pressing invitation to become pastor of the Baptist church in Essex, Connecticut ; he accepted the call, and remained three years in charge of the society. From thence he removed to Albany, where he remained two years. He has now been pastor of the second Baptist church of Rochester about two years. His present position is a very important one ; his church is large, intelligent and flourishing, and in addition to his duties as its pastor, he is burthened with responsibility as President of the Board of Trustees of the Rochester Theological Semi- nary. Rev. W. G. Howard is now about forty years old ; he is happily located, and is in the enjoyiuent of a remarkably vigorous constitution. He was married in 1836 to Miss Ellen Law Baker, and is now the father of four children, three sons and one daughter. JOHN TAYLOR, OF ALBANY, N. Y. John Taylor, senior, the father of the subject of this memoir, emi- grated to this country from Durham county, England, in 1791, accompa- nied by his wife, one son, and one daughter. From early life he had been a member of the Methodist communion, and John Wesley, the founder of that sect, dying on the day he sailed from England, he was the first to announce his decease in the tJnited States. The wife of the emi- grant belonged to the Burnop family, the members of which boasted many high connections, and claimed heirship to a large landed property in the north of England, escheated to government in consequence of the destruction of records. Extravagant and exaggerated accounts of America induced Taylor to emigrate. While on the passage from Sunderland to New York, a fellow- passenger calling himself Thomas Dawson succeeded in gaining his con- fidence, and finally prevailed upon him to intrust him with funds, which he proposed to invest in eligible lands. As might have been foreseen, this investment proved a total loss ; and the emigrant, soon after landing upon our shores, found himself entirely destitute of pecuniary means. He succeeded in finding a retreat for himself and tamily in Brooklyn, and engaged in the service of a respectable gentleman, a Mr. Fox, of that village. Soon after, while crossing the ferry to New York, he found a purse containing a large amount of money ; he endeavored to find the owner by advertising, but without success, and appropriated the money to the re- lief of his own immediate wants. During the year 1792, Taylor met with a Mr. John Thurman of New- York, who had purchased a tract of land containing about one hundred thousand acres situated at a place called Elm Hill, a little north of Albany, and with this gentleman he made an engagement to superintend the ope- -^^aTe:. ^t J C :;-' " JT >;-»--••- ZSJV TC'Jtl j-^iaroi/^d. forIiioaraDh2A^l^i'K£icn^ .'.- .'.Tunnnr -t-jt^t-j.^.t JOHN TAYLOR, OF NEW YORK. 65 rations of fifty laborers and the requisite stock employed in improving the estate. The country around Ehn Hill was a perfect wilderness, and our pioneers were nightly entertained by the serenades of catamounts and other wild beasts ; the nearest dwelling was twenty miles distant, and the want of all social enjoyments, together with the absence of almost every domes- tic comfort, induced Mr. Taylor to abandon his labors and seek the means of subsistence among his fellow-racn in the settlements. For this pur- pose, in 1Y93, he removed with his family to Albany, at this period in- habited by natives of Holland, whose language was principally used in the transaction of business. The business of baking seemed to present the fairest prospect of ob- taining the means of immediate support ; and from this period for twen- ty-five years Mr. Taylor was engaged in this business with various success. Twice during his residence in Albany was Mr. Taylor's dweUing burned to the ground, the family barely escaping with their lives. On the second occasion the subject of this sketch was found crying for his parents by Thomas Mauncy, a rich citizen, who clothed, fed, and educated him until his father was again able to receive him under his roof. The son re- members distinctly his first \isit to his parents after the conflagration ; he found them weeping with their three children on their knees around them, the father fervently supplicating his heavenly Father to sustain, protect, and smile upon them in their misfortune. This interview left an indelible impression upon the mind of the son, which time has not ef- faced. The father removed to New York in 1818, and fell a victim to the yellow fever in 1822 ; a year during which that scourge was particularly fatal in the city. He was highly respected for the honesty and upright- ness of his character, and his decease was mourned by a large circle of friends, and by the members of the Methodist society, with which he had been connected for more than fifty years. An interesting anecdote is related of the elder Taylor during his resi- dence in Albany, and while political excitement was intense, and mingled with much rancor and bitterness of feeling. In the party to which he was opposed was a man of wealth, high standing, and influence, and of the same name ; in consequence, several letters, highly spiced with political secrets and management, fell into his hands. This induced his opponent publicly to caution correspondents when directing letters to spell the name " Tayler," meaning gentleman, not " Taylor," meaning mechanic. This called out a rejoinder in which it was stated that though " Taylor" might mean mechanic, a letter so directed was sure to reach an honest man. John Taylor, the subject of this memoir, was born in England in 1791, emigrated to this country with his parents, and removed with them to Albany when three years of age, and in that city he has ever since re- sided. In early life he received such an education as the limited means of his parents and the opportunities of the place could aflbrd, working at home in the intervals between school hours. Having passed the ordeal of Dilworth's spelling book, and the arithmetic to decimal fractions, he was instructed in mathematics, navigation, mensuration, gauging and drawing, in which branches he made considerable progress, and on many VOL. IV. 5 66. SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. occasions later in life he found a knowledge of them to be of essential service. At the age of twelve he was placed under the charge of a French refugee, Peter Meruier, to learn the art and mysteries of a confectioner. He remained but a short time in this service, his mother, a very enter- prising and intelligent woman, requiring his services in a store she had opened for the sale of dry-goods and groceries. When the mother visited New York to purchase goods, her son accompanied her, to calculate her bills and attend auction sales, where, perched upon a stool, he bid off goods, guided by signals from his parent ; by such a course of life he very early acquired some knowledge of commercial business. When seventeen years of age his father, as silent partner, having in- vested a large amount of money in the tallow chandling business, which he thought in jeopardy, appointed him to take charge of, and close up the concern ; while thus engaged he found the business so profitable that he determined to prosecute it, but being a minor his father's name, as well as his capital, was used. Soon after this debut in business he was induced to endorse a note for a neighbor and particular friend, who failed before its maturity. Being a minor, he was counselled not to pay the note as he was not legally bound. The father, hearing of this, insisted upon its payment, even should it re- quire all he possessed, and charged his son never to dishonor his name and disgrace his family by such a subterfuge. The note was paid, and economy and exertion soon made good the loss. He was now engaged in the chandlery business, in which he continued without interruption until 1808, when his factory and its contents were entirely destroyed by fire. Numerous friends immediately offered to furnish the means for again starting in business, but his father interposed, saying, " You are young, perseverance and energy will soon retrieve your losses; accept no gratuity. I have some means left to spare you ; take what I have, my boy, and go ahead." He followed the directions of his father, purchased a lot of land in the neighborhood, erected a factory, and was soon again engaged in prosperous business, which enabled him to recover his losses and to make large additions to his stock. For future security, he now effected an insurance on a part of his property, through an agent of a London company, this being the only method of insurance at that time. Two brief years of prosperity had scarcely elapsed, when the fierce destroying element paid him a brief midnight visit, during which it level- led to the ground his property, and at the same time crushed and pa- ralysed his spirit. On the next day, sunk in despair, he was found seated near the ruins by an intimate friend, who succeeded in rousing his ener- gies, and conducted him from the scene of mouldering ruin. At this time he was attached to a uniform company of riflemen, wlio were ordered to repair to Plattsburg. Such was the deranged state of his affairs that he was strongly advised to remain and attend to their set- tlement. This advice he followed, and was court-martialled for not obeying the- order ; when G. Y. Lansing, Esq., judge advocate of the court, who had been an eye-witness of his misfortune, voluntarily made a statement of the facts of his case, when the court unanimously agreed to give him an honorable discharge. Soon after the fire he hired a small factory, and, his credit being rather increased than diminished by his repeated misfortunes, he was enabled JOUN TAVLOR, OF NEW YORK. 67 to engage anew in business, to pay his debts, which amounted to several thousand dollars, and to accumulate a small capital. His period of pros- perity was short. His old enemy, fire, made another attack upon him, and destroying his factory, forced him into the street with his stock badly damaged. His father now came again to the rescue, built a new factory, and started him in business. For three years he enjoyed unin- terrupted prosperity, and succeeded in paying off all his former indebted- ness. He now flattered himself that the Fire King, weary of the strife, would leave him in the peaceful possession of his own. He was unde- ceived, however, late onee vening, when hearing the alarm bells he hast- ened to his buildings, and found them enveloped in bright sheets of flame. Owing to the highly combustible materials with which they were filled, they were burned to the ground, a very small portion of their contents being saved. Mr. Taylor now seriously considered the propriety of abandoning a busi- ness that doomed him to constant poverty, and directing his energies to the prosecution of some other enterprise. For the purpose of carrj'ing out such an intention, he removed the remnant of stock saved to a factory occupied by a Mr. Grant, who was about retiring from the business, for the purpose of working it up to the best advantage. While thus en- gaged, a government agent, Mr. Anderson, who was deeply interested in his misfortunes, ofi'ered him the contract for supplying the army. As the execution of this contract would greatly increase the business audits profits, he determined to continue in defiance of his bitter enemy, fire. From this period the fortunes of Mr. Taylor changed. His old enemy seemed weary of the strife, and paid him only occasional scorching visits, as reminiscences that though hitherto defeated in his attempts at ruin, he was not conquered. In 1818 he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Richmond, of Columbia county, a beautiful and accomplished lady, with whom he lived in mutual happiness and affection until the year 1843, when death suddenly divided the cord which had so long bound them together. Three sons and one daughter, the fruits of this union, still survive. In 184G he again married, selecting for a partner an amiable lady. Miss Esther Wiltsec, by whom he has one daughter. In 1822, rather from necessity than choice, he embarked in the brew- ing business, which he prosecuted in partnership for ten years, when he purchased his partner's interest, and continued alone for some time. He is now engaged in brewing, in co-partnership with his three sons, at the new brewery, near the south ferry in Albany, erected in 1852. This es- tablishment is of large capacity and capable of considerable extension ; it is modelled after the Lion brewery in Southwark, London, and con- tains all the late improvements in machinery. In this, and three large malting establishments, belonging to the co-partnership, a very large amount of capital is invested. In his early years, Mr. Taylor indulged in, and has since cultivated a taste for reading and mental improvement, and from his extensive and varied reading he has acquired a reputation for great intelligence and much general information. He is in possession of a very large library, which now constitutes an appendage to the brewery. In politics, Mr. Taylor's predilections and opinions have always been 68 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. favorable to the Whigs, and when he has approved of the candidate pre- sented by that part)-, all his energies have been devoted to insure his elec- tion. In 1838 he was nominated for member of the Assembly, and though the vote of the city in his favor was unusually large, his unpopularity with the Anti-renters caused his defeat in the county. In 1848 he was nominated by the Whigs for the mayoralty, against a very popular can- didate, and after a hotly contested campaign he was elected by about one hundred and thirty majority. He was afterwards selected with two others to examine the various projects proposed for supplying the city with pure and wholesome water, and appointed one of four water commissioners to introduce the same; this office he now holds. He is one of the Loan Commissioners of the United States deposit fund for the county; one of the governors of the Albany hospital ; and President of the " Deep River Mining and Transportation Company." He is a member of the St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal church of Al- bany, and, on the first establishment of Sunday schools in the city, he was araonff the first and the most active in collecting; the children of the congregation, and in organizing them in classes. About thirty years since, in connection with other citizens, he collected the emancipated co- lored population into a large school, for the purpose of giving them the rudiments of an English education, and for I'eligious instruction, thereby fittinof them for the ordinary business of life ; this establishment was con- tinued for many years with great success. He is identified with almost every enterprise having for its object the improvement of the city, or the benefit of society and of his fellow-citizens. May he reap his re- ward ! The writer of this hasty sketch is at a loss which most to admire among the prominent traits of Mr. Taylor's character — his scrupulous honesty in paying to the last farthing all his liabilities, when a bankrupt in consequence of fortuitous losses, or the iron energy displayed in early life, when battling with misfortune. The numerous attacks he sustained from his great enemy, fire, though successful for a time, seemed only to arouse latent strength and courage ; and, armed with hope, and a deter- mination to continue the conflict, he was in the end triumphant. The memoir, thus rapidly sketched, may form a useful lesson to the young men of the present day, teaching them that well directed and long continued industry and courage will in the end meet with success ; and encouraging them when oppressed in spirit by disheartening and difficult circumstances. MARCUS L. WAED, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY. The standard by which society estimates character, cannot fail of exercising a strong influence on its moral condition. The sanction of error, in this respect, is one of those violations of truth which, by a reciprocal action, produces a constantly accelerating power for evil. To Sna'^ if J. Jtcfers TUa-tCyCu -yjAl^^ c{^ ^ \'r ^ E R 3 "E T L>/^//A- rt ArnifT/MT ^rnff/caf.T MARCUS L. WARD, OF NEW JERSEY. 69 acknowledge the mere attainment of distinction or influence as the standard of character, without a due regard to the means by which they are attained, would justly be considered a broad foundation of mischief. The objects of emulation held up to society should be only those of virtue. Extraordinary distinctions are generally the result of extraordi- nary circumstances. Society everywhere presents inducements to exertion, but, fortunately, these exist for the most part in the ordinary concerns of life. The man who faithfully discharges the duties of his station, deserves our esteem ; and the one who employs his wealth or influence for the advancement of his fellow, should receive our gratitude ; and if to these be added the attractions of genius or talents, he cannot fail to win our admiration. But genius or talents may not always meet with the opportunity for dis- play, and in the common walks of life a sound judgment is more valu- able than the more gorgeous attributes of the mind. A sober judgment, which must always result from the exercise of reason and a clear dis- crimination into the relations of cause and effect, is at least more to be appreciated, because more clearly connected with the general good. We live in a day when a sounder criticism is exerting its influence than was known to the times gone by, and, although the present standard of judg- ment may be liable to objection, it is still very far removed from the grosser taste of the past. If not perfect, we may yet claim the tendency is to refinement and truth. We are pleased to see among the marks of a more correct mode of estimating character, which cannot fail of bene- ficial influence, the disposition to search for models in the quiet and business walks of life. The community which has learned to esteem moral greatness, receives through its sympathy a transforming agency no less potent than the direct effect of emulation. If habit constitute a second nature, the subjects of our contemplation must serve to harmonize our feelings to the things with which they render us familiar. The subject of this sketch received, through his Puritan ancestors, a claim to integrity and honor which his life has fully sustained. TI:is we conceive constitutes his highest claim to our esteem. Highly influ- ential he has been in many designs of usefulness and benevolence ; but this he might have been without gaining our thorough approval. We love his good deeds as the legitimate fruits of a virtuous character, and although where we find these we would not be disposed to lightly ques- tion the motive, we must still regard the principle from which they spring as the superior object of our reverence. Marcus Lawrence Ward was born in Newark, New Jersey, where his paternal ancestors have resided from the settlement of that place in 1666. Amona: the thirty families who landed at that time on the shore of the Passaic, was that of John Ward. The son, of the same name, who ac- companied his father to the settlement, was shortly after married to Abigal Kitchell, the granddaughter of the Kev. Abraham Pierson, the first preacher who ministered to the little flock of emigrants. From this stock, on the side of the father, the subject of this notice is descended. He is the son of Moses AVard, who married Fanny, daughter of Gilbert Brown, of New York, whose ancestors came from England in 1675, and settled in Boston. On the mother's side his ancestors have been attached to the Society of Friends. Shortly after the settlement of Newark, the 70 SKETCHES OF EMINEJIT AMERICANS. elder John Ward purchased a tract of land in the northwest part of the town. This became the family residence, and has so continued through all the changes of near two hundred years, being now in the occupancy of the sixth generation. Mr. Ward was married, in 1840, to a daughter of the late John Morris, senior, and Elizabeth his wife, who was a daugh- ter of Thomas Longworth, deceased, of Newark, New Jersey. Mrs. Ward's ancestors, we believe, came to Newark at, or shortly after, the time of the settlement. Of the late James Ward, the father of Moses Ward, the Newark Daily Advertiser, in a notice of his death, remarks : " He leaves a numerous posterity, nearly all of whom live among us, to perpetuate his substantial virtues. He was eminently an honest man and a good citizen, and so lived that he never incurred a suspicion of his essential integrity — thus leaving to his family an inheritance richer and more to be prized than the wealth of Croesus. We are further told, that neither his father nor his grandfather nor his great-grandfather were ever sued for debt in the course of their lives." This must be grateful commendation to relatives and friends, and this character has not lost its influence on the survivors. The family has always been opposed to litigation, and though it can hardly be supposed they should altogether escape controversy, yet there is no instance of a judgment against one of them. This circumstance is one of no ordinary note to those who are acquainted with the extensive business of M. Ward & Son, both in their associated and individual characters. Mr. Ward has been eminently distinguished as a man of his word. Some years since the writer was conversing with a distinguished citizen of New Jersey, on business to which Mr. W ard was a party. There was no legal evidence, however, of his connection with the matter, and his honor, as pledged by his word, was the only claim in existence against him. It was a pleasure to observe the confidence placed in Mr. Ward's integrit}'. The gentleman remarked, " Here we consider his word suf- ficient." This circumstance, however, conveyed no new impression to the writer. He knew of others, beside the gentleman alluded to above, who had trusted to that word and had not been disappointed. In several instances, in which a bad memory might have prevented loss, the obli- gation of his promise had been maintained. " I consider," he remarked, " the old adage, ' Honesty is the best policy,' as strictly true ; I cannot admit, however, that simply as a matter of policy I adhere to it." If we claim to act from a higher motive than pecuniary interest, it is but doing justice to virtue to acknowledge a nobler inducement. In bis politics, Mr. Ward is connected with the Whig party, but has never held nor solicited a political station. Fully disposed to " render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's," and to count those worthy of honor who faithfully discharge the duties of oflBce, he has claimed for himself the privilege of following his own taste. Believing, from his own obser- vation, that the demands of business cannot well harmonize with the exactions of politics, he has preferred to avoid the latter, considering, justly, that he might render as essential service to society in another line of duty. He has, however, never neglected his obligation to the use of his franchise ; as it, is the duty of every citizen to take part in the govern- ment of the country by the influence of his vote, so he has considered it a serious obligation to qualify himself to exercise that influence intelli- MARCUS L. -WARD, OF TfTEW JERSEY. Yl gently. He has never acted as a partisan, but has always endeavored to select such men for advancement as were disposed to carry out his views of policy, and whose characters were worthy of confidence. Mr. Ward commenced his career in business at an early age, as clerk in a large wholesale establishment in his native place. In this he con- tinued for several years, giving assiduous attention to all its duties. From this source he derived a minute and extensive knowledge of busi- ness, with habits of industry and an acquaintance with men which proved highly useful to him in after life. On leaving this establishment he started on a tour to the West, with a view of gaining some knowledge of the country from personal inspection. He returned home about the time the speculations in real estate commenced. He engaged in these, and was highly successful, although he began with very limited means. He knew that his father was both able and willing to assist him, but it was no part of his plan to call upon him for further aid than the use of his name. This was given to a large amount. Beheving, however, that these operations were carried to a very hazardous extent, he resolved to withdraw from them in time to avoid the catastrophe which he an- ticipated. He accordingly ceased to purchase, and improved all fair opportunities for sales. The events which followed manifested the wis- dom of his course. Shortly after he had arranged his business for the event, the revulsion came, and to many- the results were disastrous in the extreme. Mr. Ward, however, was able to go through the whole without inconvenience. He had gained a reputation for punctuality and a business character. It was during the depression that Mr. Ward en- gaged in mercantile business; but shortly after, on the invitation of his father, he joined him in a manufacturing operation which they have continued successfully to the present time. In addition to this, he is largely interested in various other manufacturing establishments, in joint stock companies, and in several financial and other institutions, in most of which he is also an active and efficient director. He is distinguished for his skill in finance, and as he is esteemed for a sound judgment, he is very frequently solicited to interest himself in new projects ; his name, in many instances, being regarded as a recommendation to their feasible- ness. But it is not in his attention to his own business proper, or in that in which he has a direct pecuniary interest, that Mr. Ward has espe- cially deserved our notice. The friend of the fine arts, he has sympathized with the young artist, and has cheerfully given his assistance to help for- ward the work of genius. Some of those who have thus received his aid are now rising to distinction, and he has the satisfaction to reflect that he contributed to the result. A number of young men, in various departments of life, and now esteemed members of society, would grate- fully acknowledge the obligations which had forwarded their advance- ment. He has been eminently a man of benevolence and good deeds. These do not appear so much by his connection with works of a public character, but he has freely indulged his good feelings in many ways, and means of conferring benefit not the less efficient because less liable to attract observation. Few persons have been intrusted with more business of almost every description. As trustee or agent for his friends and acquaintance, his services have been numerous and important ; and as he has been well known, his aid and counsel have been much solicited 72 8KETCHE8 OF EMINENT AMERICANS. and freely given. Probably more than one half of his time is devoted to works of this character, and notwithstanding this onerous exaction, he has never, in any case, charged or received the slightest compensation for his services. With one remark we would close this very brief sketch. Mr. Ward's appearance here is under the duress of his friends. It was his intention, when the subject was proposed to him, to decline with a proper acknow- ledgment of the compliment, but in this he finally suftered himself to be overruled by those in whose kindly feeling he had habitually confided. The conduct which had gained for him the notice, had appeared to him so natural and so much in the ordinary course, under the circumstances in which he was placed, that it was with reluctance he yielded his own judgment. To the writer then, and the friends who urged the writing, must attach the responsibility. This they assume, under the conviction that nothing has been said which might justly ofl:end his sense of deli- cacy. It was our wish to extend the notice to some of the transactions in which Mr, Ward had taken a conspicuous part, but in this we know we should be trespassing on the bounds of his good nature. DAVID CAMPBELL, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY. David Campbell, a brief sketch of whose Hfe is here presented, was born at Caldwell, Essex county. New Jersey, October 27th, 1810. His parents were in humble circumstances, and his father dying when he was ,but a few months old, his mother was left with two children, David being the youngest. Without other means of support than such as her own industry could procure, necessity required that as soon as possible David should endeavor to support himself. At the tender age of seven years he was placed with a farmer in the neighborhood, with whom he worked for his board and clothes until he was fourteen years of age, when he lost his mother and became an entire orphan. His constitution was delicate and unfitted for the labors of a farm ; he therefore sought another occupation, and entered a tobacco manufactory at Caldwell as an apprentice. Here he remained three years, but as his employers could not instruct him in certain branches of the business, he removed to Newark, where he served the remainder of his apprenticeship, which expired in 1830. During the period which elapsed between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, he was deprived of the benefit of parental counsel and advice, was without a home — employed in shops where numbers were associated together, and where temptations and examples were spread thick before him, to lead him into habits of dissipation and vice. At this turning period of his life, without friends to advise or direct, without opportunity of acquiring the education usually obtained at this / vl^^ ^-r^' f - Knarm'r-d t^r hwffrapkicoL Sxxic^ir.^ of J'.mutrn* yiTn/ru:c:n.. DAVID CAMPBELL, OF NEW JERSEY. 73 period of life, it is surprising that be escaped the contagion through which he passed. But his case is another illustration of the assertion that '' the child is father of the man." It was during this very period of trial and tempta- tion, when all influences seemed leading him in the broad way of igno- rance, vice and ruin, that be formed the strong determination to obtain knowledge, to become thoroughly acquainted with business, and above all to walk in the paths of honesty and virtue. Hence, while his associates were spending their hours of relaxation in idleness or vice, he was em- ployed in the study of history, and in storing his mind with useful know- ledge. While others were wasting their time aad earnings in dissipation, he was striving by honest industry to earn that " good name which is more to be desired than much riches," A short time after concluding his apprenticeship he was married ; but sickness and the death of his wife in 1833 caused the loss of all he had acquired, and left him in some embarrassment. Having by steady indus- try paid his debts, and saved a small capital, he again lost all in 1834, by the failure of a house with which he had dealings. By the kindness of two friends who had confidence in his integrity, he was furnished with means to purchase stock and enabled to commence a small business. His success was such that in 1835 he was able to pur- chase an interest in the manufactory at Caldwell, where he had served his apprenticeship. Here the results of his constant application, steady industry, and purity of character soon became apparent in the increase of the establishment, which has grown under his management, until it has become the largest and most successful one of the kind in the State. The business becoming extended, it was necessary to open a house in Newark, where Mr. Campbell removed in 1840, and where he now re- sides, engaged in managing and directing a business which has raised him to wealth ; and in him the city of Newark finds one of its best and most useful citizens. Having re-established and built up the business above referred to, tlie industry, order, and talent displayed in its management soon made him conspicuous as one on whom the public could safely rely for the discharge of important trusts. He was consequently often solicited to accept office, and occupy a prominent place in the public aftairs of the city and State, but his innate modesty and retiring disposition have led him to dechne occupying any position which would interfere with his business or social relations. He has been pei-suaded, however, at difterent times to accept local office, and has filled various important offices connected with the city and its councils, in all of which he has discharged the duties imposed on him with an intelligent and conscientious regard to duty, ^vhich has met the full approbation of his constituents. ^ As an officer in the moneyed institutions of Newark with which he has been connected, he has developed the same intelligent and faithful atten- tion w^hich has alwavs insured success. The cause of education has always found in him one of its warmest supporters. He took an active part in founding the " Newark Wesleyan Institute," one of the best literary institutions in the State, and was a member of the first board of trustees. 74 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. In any cause to which he has given his exertions, Mr. Campbell has been alwavs found equal to any emergency. The religious denomination witli which he is connected has been obliged to extend its eftbrts in order to meet the wants of its members, and the rapid growth of the city. As trustee of one of its churches he was called on for much labor and effort, and one of the largest and most commodious houses of worship in the city was erected as the result of the labors of himself and associates. The leading traits of Mr. Campbell's character are, a sound and dis- criminating mind united with great candor and earnestness. The result of this combination of mind, though connected with a physical frame far fl-om robust, has been seen, first, in the order, system, and enterprise which have appeared in his own business ; and the natural consequence has been, that notwithstanding the various changes and reverses in the has business world, he has steadily and successfully progressed, until placed in independent circumstances. His business engagements have always been promptly met, and the knowledge that his word was his bond has enabled him to conduct the most difficult transactions without the impu- tation of dishonor. Next, as a philanthropist and Christian, his moral constitution required room for action which the limits of business, however large, could not afford. The cause of education, of morals — the wants of the poor — the improvement of the city which he has made his home — all these objects have had a place in his mind and heart, rendering him always ready to participate in every good work by which humanity was to be relieved, and the minds or bodies of any of his fellow-men could be benefited. These have been with him objects, not of cold approval, but of earnest, persevering, and continuous effort. Instead of seeking his own personal advancement in the muddy stream of political Hfe, he has sailed on the broad tide of philanthropy, seeking nothing but the privilege of doing good to his fellow-men. He has had his reward in the esteem and confidence of all who know him. Warm and consistent in his attachments, he has notwithstanding been able to earn the reputation of being " no man's man." When he has been called on to engage in an enterprise, his first question has always been, "Is it right?" — then, "Is it practicable?" and if satisfied on these two points, he could be relied on for supporting the cause he espoused as a " friend that sticketh closer than a brother." The traits of character to which attention has been called in this sketch are worthy of all imitation ; they shine, not with a mellow light, but with the brilliant effulgence of the sun at noon-day ; they are traits which must insure success. They are not unnatural or impossible of acquirement by the humblest aspirant ; and it is to such men, and such a character, that young men of America should turn their attention when seeking objects for imitation. If all would learn that " worth makes the man, and the want of it the fellow," we might hope to see not "tens," but hundreds and thousands of young Americans who would yearn so to distinguish them- selves, that at last it could be said of them, as we can now say of the subject of this brief sketch, that he is " Not great like Caesar, stained with blood ; But only great as he is good." c/^, Ji^ ^ _ - ^•yjj'Ji'J: ^Tmricaru- niRAM HOYT, OF SYRACUSE, NEW YORK. Medicine is a branch of natural science, and sprung from the purest and deepest fountains of human sympathy. Scanty at first in its re- sources, and loaded with superstition and bigotry, it was slow in gathering strength ; but as it progressed, it passed from the hands of its early cul- tivators, the priesthood, into those of men of more liberal and extended views, and has come down to us, stripped of much that was false in phi- losophy and in fact ; and we now behold it, at once a useful, liberal, and learned profession. Of this science, the subject of our sketch is a true and worthy disciple. In giving to the world a sketch of the life and character of Dr. Hiram Hoyt, of Syracuse, N. Y., we shall notice only such points in his history as appear to us to lie at the foundation of his professional success. Dr. H. has been the artificer of his own professional fame ; and it is thought that a brief inquiry into the means he has applied in securing it, would not be uninteresting or unprofitable to those who, like himself, have sprung from " low degree." Dr. Hoyt was born in St. Johnsbury, Vt., on the 27th of April, 1800, and is therefore now nearly 54 years of age. St. Johnsbury is near the Canada " line," and is a locality which, for long and severe winters and deep snows, is hardly paralleled in our country. He is the fifth of seven sons, and the eleventh of thirteen children. His father, William Hoyt, emigrated from Concord, Massachusetts, soon after the close of the revo- lutionary war. At that time, this portion of Vermont had just begun to resound with the echo of the woodman's axe. It was at or near this time, too, that Vermont paid to the State of New York the sum of thir- ty thousand dollars, good and lawful money, to induce her to forego or release a claim to sovereignty over her domain, which was not founded, perhaps, in strict justice. Vermont, therefore, now stood doubly redeemed — redeemed alike from tyranny across the Atlantic, for which she had fought and bled, and from across Lake Champlain, for which she had paid. Perhaps these circumstances were not without their influence in the development of that determined and ready resistance to oppression in all its forms, for which the people of the Green Mountain State have ever been distinguished, not only at home, but wherever they may have been found on the face of the globe. The Doctor's father was a soldier during the greater part of the revo- lutionary war — having in his possession, to the day of his death, a good supply of continental money, in which he was paid off" : a glorious and honorable certificatB of good service in the hour that " tried men's souls." He was in sight of Warren when he fell at Bunker Hill, and was at that eventful moment engaged with compatriots in pressing back, at the point of the bayonet, a company of British regulars. A part of the youthful education of the subject of our sketch consisted in listening to recitals, from the lips of this venerated and patriotic parent, of stirring 70 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMEKICANS. sceues of courage, heroism and suffering, enacted by the noble men of that age, of which he was witness, and in which he participated. The Doctor's mother was a native of Vermont, and was eminently dis- tinguished for the qualities which characterized the sterling women of the Revolutionary era — a strong physical constitution, and good sense. In those days, and especially among those in the circumstances of the pa- rents of Dr. Hoyt, woman was emphatically a " help meet for man." It is true, as with thousands of others among the most intelligent and distin- guished men of our country, that the Doctor does not possess the data by which be can trace far bis genealogy, on the paternal or maternal side. And it is not out of place here to remark, that, in singular and fitting contrast with the social institutions of England from whose iron yoke we rebelled, it is true in America, to a remarkable extent, that those of our men who can thus trace back their genealog}' are usually those who never traced anything else of which notice ever was or ever will be taken. The parents of Dr. H. were of the nobility of Vermont — of those who did its work and worship. " Blessed" — that was the word — " with a numerous family," they went on their way rejoicing ; and, though poor, ever maintained that " wealth and rank are but the guinea's stamp." And thus, without vain desires or heartburning envy, they passed on peacefully through a life of usefulness and honor, because it was a life of integrity and of activity. It is worth while to state here, in so many words, the fact, that the parents of Dr. H. knew what it was to fear for their numerous children every suffering from want of food, this side of starvation. Their suffer- ings and privations, if related in simple terms, would now appear incre- dible. The dread of winter they often experienced would now seem vi- sionary. They could often look to heaven, and say they did not know whence the supply which nature demanded would come. " Necessity is" truly said to be " the mother of invention ;" and never is this more true than when parental instinct, impelled by fear, is the stimulus to needful expedients. An instance will illustrate this. In 1813, snow fell in every month. A late and hard frost in the spring destroyed nearly all the corn crop. This crop was the main reliance of that region for bread-stufi"; and the consequence was, not only an unprecedented scarcity, but one verging on famine. The frightful visage of starvation looked them in the face. The solicitude and even agony of the parents may not even be imagined by those toward whom, on every hand, is outstretched the hand of plenty. Yet such was the position of the senior Hoyt, in the winter of 1813-14. To provide food for his children — a baker's dozen — during that terrible winter, he shouldered his axe, went into the forest and felled trees to make potash, or '• salts," as this rudely attained chemi- cal product is more commonly called, among those who make it. When he had manufactured a sufficient quantity, he took it on a hand sled — him- self shod with snow-shoes — and would draw his load sometimes ten, and sometimes fifteen miles, to find corn he could get in exchange ; and then in the same way draw the corn as far in another direction to get it ground into meal. The cattle, this winter, lived on the buds and small twigs of bushes, or of trees felled for the purpose ; and most vividly does the sub- ject of this sketch, then thirteen years of age, remember the scanty joo6m- bim of life on which the children and the cattle were browsed. HIRAM HOYT, OF NEW YORK, 77 The love of children was a largely developed feeling in both the parents of Dr. H. ; and, though stimulated to extraordinar}- growth by the circumstances narrated, we find it fully equalled in his character, constituting, as it does, the source and centre of his affections. The laws of the transmission of hereditary qualities are now understood by so many, that it is unnecessary to do more than make this statement. The intensity of this feeling was of course greatly heightened in his pa- rents, by the fact that, from their poverty and by the force of all other surrounding circumstances, no other object than their children could furnish food for their ambition or their love. To have "raised" — to quote the language of the times — such a familv, under such circum- stances, and with so much credit, is evidence enough of the possession, in an eminent degree, by the parents of Dr. Hoyt, of those qualities which the wise and good love and admire ; and well may their characters, and their unmeasured and unwearied kindness, challensfe the love and vene- ration which he so freely and so gratefully yields to their memory. William Hoyt died at the age of 63, and his wife at 06 — before either had been gratified with witnessing the professional success of the subject of our sketch. Like many other men of real worth, in our country. Dr. H. was born in a log cabin. The floor was made of split bass-wood logs, hewed on the upper side ; while the roof was covered with elm-bark, fastened to its place by poles lashed to the rafters. He was cradled in a sap-trough, which is yet in existence — having been preserved with pious care, as a precious relic, illustrative of family history. His home was among the mountains ; and when the storm gathered and raged most fearfully, he, like the petrel, was in it, and delighted himself in making his " Alpine stand" from some high cliff that overhung the rest, and witnessing the scene below. These mountains were surrounded by one of the most beau- tiful and picturesque landscapes that nature, in her profusion, ever spread out for the admiring gaze of man. On one side, extending to the head waters of the Saco, as far as the eye could reach, mountain peak rose on mountain peak, and, lost in the azure-arched heavens, above them all, towered one — Mount Washington — hoary with the frosts of countless ages. On the other side, stretched toward the setting sun, there came up from the " Old Bay State" — whence came most of the first settlers — the Green Mountain range, with its Killington Peak and Camel's Rump. Lying off north, there arose Burke Mountain, the old and famous " cloud splitter" — Jove's electrometer, where, from time immemorial, he has dis- charged the plus of all his thunders. Overhung by these sublime up- heavings of nature, there stood the cabin — the home of young Hoyt, and the cradle of his boyhood and youth. To this loved spot, hallowed by all these associations of nature and parentage, his thoughts often turn, and he is ready to exclaim — * " Breathes there a man Avith soul so dead, Who never to himself liath said, This is my own, my native land ?" It is said that the geology of a country has much to do with the phy- sical formation or constitution of man ; that chmate has, we know. Has 78 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. not scenery, also ? Is it not a law of the human mind, that hke begets Hke I — and is it not a law, also, that growth of any faculty is promoted by exercise ? And in the subject of our sketch, not only were the facul- ties which delight in such scenery well developed, but his temperament of fire was calculated to make them drink in to the full the grand, the terrific, the sublime I Hence, the inference is a reasonable one, that the grand panorama of Nature by which young Hoyt during the forming pe- riod of life was surrounded, had much to do in giving to his mind that tone of heroic and resolute daring in the overthrow of obstacles, and in the accomplishment of settled purposes, for which, from the hour he left the parental roof, he has been distinguished. As trifles are the unmistakable and indelible stamp of character, so the rustic sports or pastimes of boyhood and youth are a far surer index of organization than any achievements to which the observation and reflec- tion of maturer years may lead. So of young Hoyt. One of his favor- ite sports was to engage with the boys and youth of his neighborhood, on "general training" days, in the game of "base-ball." It is a game which calls into requisition, in a remarkable degree, activity, precision, quick perception, and muscular energy. His " side" — they always " chose sides" — was sure to win. His place, when his " side" was '• out," was always behind the bat ; and so intensified were his perceptions, and such his energy and certainty in execution, that he would as often as otherwise catch the ball before it reached the club — leaving his disconcerted and chagrined fellow-player to beat the air — while the same qualities made him ever sure, in throwing the ball, to bring his man. Thus was illus- trated, in his sports, his power of will — his ability, with the utmost rea- diness and precision, to concentrate all its energies in the accomplishment of its purposes, and of which the history of his eminent success as a sur- geon is but an extended illustration. This is derived from a compact, firm muscle, kept in tone by ample exercise in the open air at all periods of his life, and from a mental organization and nervous system which give peculiar intensity and directness to all his actions. To complete the combination, an electrical energy rarely met with, enables us to say of Dr. Hoyt, that with hira, to will is to execute. Whilst, as all know, this organization is not peculiar to him, yet, in his case, as in all others, causes invariably produce equality of efi"ects. Dr. H. early manifested, in a most positive degree, that mental feeling which is ever the precursor of success — personal ambition. Succeed he must. Some children, as every one knows, are so organized as always, instinctively, to grasp the reins and drive, while others as readily and as naturally submit to their direction. It matters not what the work or the cause thev are engaged in, common consent gives to one more than to another the right to command. The language of this element of cha- racter is, '■'•Aut Ccesar,aut iiihiV — "Be Ciesar or nothing ;" and of this language, the whole life of the subject of our sketch has been but a living utterance. It was this which led him, when in not the best of pecuniary circumstances, to encounter the trouble and incur the expense of a visit to Albany, 150 miles over a rough and frozen road, to witness a demon- stration of the human brain, by George Combe, one of the first living philosophers. A circumstance that occurred when Dr. Hoyt was fifteen years of age, HIRAM HOTT, OF NEW YORK. 79 determined his mind in favor of the medical profession, and is illustrative of his instinctive mechanical genius, the indispensable qualification of the surgeon. He then witnessed the amputation of a leg, wherein the ope- rator made his covering for the bone in the old way, by the " circular in- cision." Young Hoyt, on the spot, conceived the idea that tliat was a clumsy performance, and thought that a stump better for a wooden con- tinuation could be prepared by opposing the sides of the flesh, after the manner of what is now called the " flap operation." With him, it was simply a mechanical operation, and he thought he could do it better than he then saw it done. In striking contrast to these times, pocket-money in the early days of young Hoyt was a thing almost, if not wholly, unknown. To obtain it, he used to " take stints," and what time be gained, he would devote to other people, for hire, and thus replenish his purse for " general train- ings," for "shows," and other equally important occasions in the life of boyhood. One of these occasions of " working out " is worth putting on record here, as illustrative of the times. He agreed with a neighbor to "fell" an acre of trees for one dollar. The timber was on a side-hill. The mode of operation was what wood-choppers call " notching," that is, commencing at the foot of the hill, each tree receiving on the upper side a cut, to a depth sufiicient for the object in view, and so on to the top, or upper side of the acre. Some trees would have to be cut more, some le&s, according to size or strength of fibre. When in this way the brow of the hill had been reached, lielp was procured and a number of trees cut entirely ofi' and pitched simultaneously upon those below. The scene that now follows cannot well be described. A large field of Ver- mont forest trees is now seen to be in violent commoiion, and tottering in their diminished strength, they make a fearful plunge headlong to the earth. The crash of this falling mass of woodland is like the roar of heavy thunder, and is repeated and prolonged in strange, but dying ac- cents on the distant hill-tops and in the valleys ; exciting in the mind of the hearer no other than the most profound awe and astonishment ! So strong was the desire for mechanical operations, begotten by his large faculty of constructiveness, as his head shows, that at the age of fourteen there was hardly an implement of husbandry then in use which young Hoyt had not constructed ; and actually, at the age of sixteen, he borrowed the tools of a neighbor, and went into the woods, cut, scored, hew^ed, and framed the timbers for a barn. And to gratify this feeling, so powerfully implanted by nature, he now keeps a chest of tools and a place to work, with which, when circumstances permit, he either amuses himself, or does work of immediate practical value, as the case or the demand may be. Though it may be deemed a humble matter by some, it is not improper to say, that he has invented a splint, which has given hours of comfort to many a patient with a broken leg, and which he always manufactures himself; and, simple as it is, it is not the less efiiect- ive. And, moreover, it is, perhaps, equally proper to say, that Dr. Hoyt's "carpenter shop" contains a variety and excellence of apparatus for dis- locations and fractures, not excelled by the " shop " of any man in Eu- rope or America ; all manufactured with his own hands, and their pecu- liar adaptation growing out of what his varied and extensive practice as a surgeon had taught him to be neither more nor less than necessities. 80 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. At the age of twenty-one, then, we find young Hoyt possessing a physical constitution which, for elasticity, vigor, and power of endurance, any human being might envy. What mechanical labor, farming, and hard fare, could do for him, bad been done. His weight, though he was of medium height, was 180 pounds; bis form erect, his chest broad and deep, and lungs perfect ; while, in the language of Combe, he could plant his foot firmly on the soil, with arras folded, and eyes upturned to hea- ven, and say, " he was not conscious of having a stomach." He could follow a fox across hill and valley and mountain ridge, from sunrise till sunset, without a hurried respiration ; could mow his four acres of grass in a day ; and, being ambidextrous, could perform more than his share of field labor with perfect ease. Dr. H. had seen society only in its more simple and unsophisticated form. At this time he did not possess the common rudiments of an Enghsh education. Indeed, it is stated, he could not legibly write his name. If he was not coarse and repulsive in his manner, neither was he accom- plished or refined. Such, then, were the stuff and stamina of the ma- terial out of which Professor Mussey and others were to reconstruct, and mould into a scholar, a physician, and a man. How well they performed their task, the sequel of this sketch will show. At this age (21) he left the parental roof, destitute of means, and with no moneyed friends on whom he could rely, and applied to Dr. Jo- siah Miles, of the s^ame town in which he resided, for admission into his oflfice as a student of medicine. He was at once admitted. Young Hoyt's first lesson was on the bones and sutures of the skull, which were delineated by the Doctor with a jack-knife on the top and sides of a green pumpkin — this being the most expedient method within his reach to convey to the mind of his student, through the eye, the form of the bones of the skull, their locality and union. This fact is mentioned that me- dical students of this day may know the difficulties the subject of our sketch has encountered, to which they are happily strangers. By agree- ment, young Hoyt this year worked six weeks on a farm, to pay for his tuition ; while a brother — money being out of the question — generously gave Dr. M. a horse for his board. At the time our student was rolling the carved pumpkin from side to side with his hands and in his dreams, to get at the joinings of the cra- nial bones, he was taking his first lessons in grammar, under the tuition of the Doctor's daughter. Young Hoyt was an intense lover of home. The Laplander and the Swiss, in their untutored philosophy, are impressed with the idea, that the horizon of their vision is the extent of the earth ; and it not unfre- quently happens, that, upon leaving their native spot, they are fatally at- tacked with ranz des vaches, or homesickness. To a degree, this was the experience of young Hoyt, whose " suft'erings were intolerable." Up to the time of his majority, he had never broken away from the scenes of his childhood. Poets and philosophers have, as laudably as instinctively, attempted, but ever in vain, to give expression to the vivid pictures which throng the mind at the thought of home. With young Hoyt, the past and the future, most vividly to his apprehension, now, for the first time, met. After a pleasant and profitable year with Dr. Miles, our student was HIRAM HOYT, OF NEW YORK. 81 irresistibly attracted to another preceptor. Dr. Calvin Jewett, of tbe same town, deservedly enjoying a wide reputation as a scholar, as well as a bold and skilful operator, determined young Hoyt to change bis location as a student of medicine. He spent three years under Dr. Jew- ett's tuition ; and from him, as well as from Dr. Miles, be received nu- merous proofs of respect and kindness, for which both have ever been held in grateful remembrance. The time had now arrived for a wider sphere of action and attain- ment. And it so happened, that Professor Mussey passed through the town, on his way to perform a difficult surgical operation, and calling at Dr. Jewett's, met our student. So pleased was he with young Hoyt's appearance, and determination to excel, that he at once suggested his at- tendance upon the Dartmouth Medical Lectures. " But 1 have no mo- ney," replied young Hoyt. " Then pay for them when you do have mo- ney," was the generous Professor's response. And on such terms did Hoyt enter and go through the course — fully justifying by his assiduity and progress all that Professor Mussey had expected of him. After having attended his second course of lectures, young Hoyt took his de- gree in medicine, at the college commencement in the fall of 1825 — and left with the best of vouchers and the best of wishes, from the learned and distinguished Professors. An incident here will show what difficulties young Hoyt encountered at every step, in attaining his profession. During the last course of lec- tures at Dartmouth, he was obliged to live on one dollar per week ; and at its close, to travel home, a distance of one hundred miles, on foot, on the frozen ground ; and so worn were his shoes, that a portion of the way he was compelled to walk bare-footed. At this time, Dr. Hoyt commenced business with Dr. Frederick Adams, of Barton, now Montpelier, Vt, Their practice was extensive, and, at seasons, severe. They frequently travelled twenty leagues, in a Vermont winter, over Vermont roads, to perform an operation. Dr. Hoyt often travelled all day, when the mercury was 25'' below zero; and on more than one occasion, when it was congealed in the bulb — so devoted was he to the professional wants of his patients. On one occasion, during a bitter storm of sleet and snow, in Novem- ber, a messenger came from Potton, Lower Canada, for Dr. Adams to amputate a limb. Dr. Hoyt begged the privilege of answering the call, which was granted. To reach his patient he was compelled to cross a ridge of the Green Mountains. The distance was 40 miles; and, start- ing late in the afternoon, a niijht of Cimmerian darkness found him and his guide on the summit of the mountains. Proceed they could not, with ■safety ; and their rendezvous for the night was under the body of a large tree which the winds had prostrated. At break of day they pur- sued their journey, reaching the place of destination at noon. The ope- ration was performed, and the next day saw the Doctor at home again with his patients. The friendship between Dr. Adams and himself has ever been sincere and constant. His connection with Dr. A. closed in 1826, in which year he married Miss McKeige, of Boston ; a lady of rare endowment, learning and accomplishment. Four children — two sons and two daugh- ters — have been the fruit of this union. To say that her talents, attain- VOL. IV. 6 82 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. nients, and devotion have been of the biijhest value to the Doctor, in his scientific investigations — to say nothing of the beauties of domestic life — is but a feeble tribute to a lady whose courage and true heroism are but types of her eminent worth. During the year 182Y, Dr. Hoyt practised in Ilardwick, Vt. ; the next three years at Meredith Bridge, N. H. ; the next two, at Charlestown, N. H., known during the French war, and still in common parlance, as " Number Four." This may be called the chrysalis state of his pro- fessional career ; the period in which he not only acquired facility in the use of knowledge already possessed, but in which he did much towards developing principles which he had a right to call his own. In 1832, Dr. Hovt bade a final adieu to his loved New England, and located at Syracuse, N. Y. ; where he has since resided, in the unremit- ting practice of his profession, with unparalleled success, and with the faithfulness and devotion of a martyr. With him, the medical profession has ever been first — second — third : the single object of his energies and ambition. Surgery, as may have been inferred, was ever prominent if not uppermost in his thoughts, as the field in which his fame, if not his fortune, was to be won. At this time, his professional skill may be said to have been quite matured ; though the Doctors idea is, that the edu- cation of a true medical man goes on, uninterruptedly, to the portals of the grave. It was not long after his arrival at Syracuse, before his sur- gical skill was called into requisition. His first operation was upon the aged father of the late Dr. George Smith, of Syracuse, and consisted in the removal of the cataract. The subject had been blind for many years, and his sight was completely restored. The next was opening the ivind-2')i2ye of a child, and the removal of a bean. This was soon followed by the removal of a diseased parotid gland. And not long after, he successfully trepanned the upper portion of the thigh-bone, for a deposit of matter within its cavity : the ever to be remembered agony and cries of the sufierer leading us to add, long before the blessed advent of Chlo- roform.'^' These are mentioned, as showing the confidence reposed in * On or about the middle of October, 1846, Dr. AV. T. G. Morton, of Boston, Massachusetts, discovered tlie ancvuthetic jn'opcrties of sulphuric ether. It is stated, ill a communication made in November following:, to K. H. Eddy, Esq., by John C. Warren, " being at that time in attendance as tturgeon of the Massachu- setts General Hospital," that on the 17th day of October, of this year, he, assisted by Dr. Morton, first tried the stupefying effects of ether, in a surgical operation. The result of the trial, it is said, was satisfactorj'. Di'. "Warren further observes, that the use of this article in producing insensibility, in surgical operations, was suggested to Dr. Morton by Dr. Charles T. Jackson, a gentleman, to use his own language, " distinguished for his philosophical spirit," een limited. His first teacher was the well-known Rev. Daniel l^)uflee, who then taught in Hancock county, to whom he went two years, and from the circumstance that Mr. Woodward retains less feeling remembrance of his discipline than many others, we are led to suppose he must have been a bright scholar ; for no idler or laggard ever staid two years with the stern Dufiee who did not carry away inef- faceable marks of his lessons. This was when he was about ten years of 118 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. age. From this time till manhood he had few advantages for education. In 1825 he returned to Hancock, and was one year in the school of Mr. Andrew Hannay. The next year he returned to Monroe, and spent a year in a school under Mr. Henry Maugham, with whom he studied the higher Enijlish branches, including surveying. He had now obtained a good English education. He had also become deeply impressed with the importance of a thorough education, and besought his father to give him the great privilege of obtaining it. He earnestly entreated his fathers permission to attend college. But his father being firmly impressed that children should be brought up to useful labor, and imbibing the notion that learning unfits men for useful employment, he conscientiously op- posed the education of his son ; remarking, that he " had rather raise a S[ood man than a great one." Others saw the natural abilities of young- Woodward, and urged his entrance upon the study of the law ; Colonel Welbourne and Judge King both urged the matter upon his father, and lie was finally prevailed upon to give his consent. Mr. Woodward com- menced the study, and read with much interest and delight some of the preliminary authors. But the knowledge that his father, although consenting, was still unwilling that he should study law, induced him finally to abandon the pursuit. After abandoning the idea of obtaining a liberal education or of prepar- ing himself for a learned profession, he set about, with indomitable zeal, in raisinfj himself to a high position among the yeomanry of the county. One of his peculiar traits in youth, and which perhaps is most uncom- mon with those of that age, was exhibited in his calculating and provid- ing for future years. In this relation also we see exhibited a character- istic most worthy of imitation — his untiring industry. It is related by those who knew his boyhood, that he always had his patch of cotton, and when the general work of the plantation demanded his time during the day, he would work by torch-light to keep in perfect cultivation his own little property. The proceeds of the crops he always placed in his fa- ther's hands, and he never called for any portion of them till after he was married and was about leaving his father's house. How worthy of imitation are the lessons taught by these examples, and how few imitators do they find among the youth of our communities. Indolence and dis- regard of the future are the prevailing elements of youthful character. How difterent the characteristics of the subject of this article. We should fail in our duty to the young as well as to Mr. AYoodward did we omit to notice his perfect obedience to parental control. His father on his dying bed bore testimony to this noble trait in his character, by say- ing that no father ever leared a more obedient child. This speaks vol- umes in his praise. It is a true test of sterling character. An obedient child is loved of God and man, and the real essential element of true greatness dwells in the heart of such a youth. On the contrary, the youth who contemns parental control, and sets at naught parental author- ity, lacks the essential element of true greatness, and his success, if he attain it, is founded on factitious conditions. There can be no real no- bleness of soul when the express command of the decalogue is held in open repudiation. The mother of Mr. Woodward was an uncommon woman. Her deep piety, her strong good sense, her great decision of character, gave her unbounded influence over her children, who yielded JOHN L. WOODWARD, OF GEORGIA. 119 spontaneous obedience to her guidance and counsel. Slie possessed those qualities naturally that correct systems of female education aim to de- velop, and the want of which we see exhibited in numerous lamentable instances in every community. Mr. AYoodward was married in December, 182G. There is an anec- dote told of him in relation to his wedding' suit, that he would perhaps be unwilling I should relate, but it brings out so distinctly the element to which we have referred that he must pardon the relation. His father went to Macon and purchased him fine broadcloth for a suit of clothes. In those days young men in the countiy did not wear broadcloth every day and Sunday too, but were dressed in the products of their own looms. He seemed to think the purchase rather extravagant, and re- quested the control of the cloth. He sold it, and appropriated the pro- ceeds to the preparation of his new home, and was married in a suit of much less expensive character. The examples related above might be very easily misconstrued as indicating the character of the man, especial- Iv by strangers. They might be thought to indicate a penurious dispo- sition, a close-fisted parsimony. Nothing is farther from the truth. Mr. Woodward's course has been characterized by a noble liberality and a right use of the wealth his industry and sagacity have brought him. The writer never heard of an appeal being made to him for any laud- able purpose that Avas not pi-omptly and liberally responded to. The church, learning, charity, never made an appeal to him in vain. He left his father with but one female servant ; he started in the world on his own responsibility, and never expected to succeed by any other means than his own unaided efforts, governed by the strict prin- ciples his father had inculcated. He did expect by them to succeed, and he has not been disappointed. Wealth and honor have come to him, although not sought for their own sake. He has been honored by his fellow- citizens, although he has not sought honor at their hands. His counsels in the State Legislature have bt'cn hio-hlv esteemed bv his colaborers for the sfood of the State. Thev have been distinguished bv liberalitv in ad- vancing all the great interests of the State, in internal improvements and learning ; bv sagacity in keeping out individual interests ; by wisdom in laving hold of those objects that would contribute most to the good of the great mass of the people. "We claim for him no higher honor than these facts confer ; we ask for him no higher meed of praise than these facts demand. We claim for ■Mr. AYoodward simply the honor of being a self-made man, possessing all the attributes required in a member of that class, and one to whom good men could intrust Avith perfect safety the destinies of our noble country — one whose wisdom would guide, whose sagacity would seek out, and whose energy would set in operation the best means for our country's glory, safety, and happiness. In all the relations of life Mr. Woodward is an example foi- imitation to every good American citizen. He is active, honest, benevolent, and j^ersevering. These traits mark his character. He is iR-ld in high esteem by the greatest men of the time. Had circumstances called him to wider fields of action, we conceive his mind to be of that character that would have well fitted him for the councils of the nation. He is most emphatically a practical man, and takes enlarged views of subjects ])laced for his con- sideration. He decides upon sufficient evidence promptly, and acts with 120 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. decision on the conclusion drawn. In fine, we consider Mr. Woodward to be what we have endeavored to prove him, a proper person to be held up before every youth of our land for imitation in all the great elements that go to make up the character of an honored member of society. He has no striking claims to popular applause, arising from distinguished actions, but he has what is better for imitation — the character of an ho- nest man, which bv the immortal bard is said to be the noblest work of God. ISAAC KNAPP, OF FREMONT, OHIO, Was born in Detroit, Michigan, August 19th, 1795. His ancestors were from the west of England, but his father was a native of Connecticut, who, at the age of eighteen, enlisted in the American army at New York, about the commencement of the revolutionary war. He served his native land during her struggles, and was with Col. Butler when the latter drove the Indians and British out of the Genesee country. Shortly after his dis- charge, he became acquainted with his future wife, who, having been taken prisoner three years before and held captive by an Indian tribe, was ransomed by Col. Butler, from whose family Benjamin Knapp mar- ried her. This lady, mother of the subject of our notice, was a native of New York ; her maiden name was Catharine Murphy. At the time of her capture by the Indians, she lived in the family of Col. \Velles, who were all massacred by the savages. Benjamin Knapp emigrated from New York to Detroit in 1792. He was then very poor, sup]iorting his family with difficulty by hard days' work. There being at that time no land for sale in Michigan, the emi- grant purchased four hundred acres in Canada, from a British officer named Ruff; and here he subsequently raised a family of eleven children. In those days the country north of Lake Erie was almost entirely a wil- derness, and the location of Mr. Knapp's farm, fifteen miles below Maiden, afterwards called the New Settlement, and occupied mainly by Americans, was not favorable to the education of a growing family ; nevertheless, the father, from his scanty means, managed to have a teacher in his family, from whom his third son and seventh child, Isaac, gleaned the first rudi- ments of education, until at the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to the hatter's trade in Maiden. Here he was employed at the breaking out of the war of 1812 ; having purchased his time of his master, and endeavor- ing to amass by his wages sufficient to defray the expense of a school education, which he had never yet enjoyed. The Canadian authorities were at that time collecting all the western Indians, with the object of concentrating a force at Maiden. Gen. Hull, at the head of an American army, was on his march to Detroit, and the Canadians sent out runners among all the tribes of their red allies en- 1 '^^o^, .e^' ^rit^'^ r^ ?/" FJiSifCNT o:e:c ^Tuirm^ fJ>r'3i^urjj:}iLz^SKiLviiiy cT I^TTiifL^^l ^-imcruzaJis ISAAC KXAPP, OF OHIO. 121 camped upon tlie line. There -was in Maiden a storehouse (the king's store) from which the Indians were supplied with provisions and clothing; and a man named Murphy was employed, with a number of hands, in the manufacture of tomaha\\ks and war clubs for the ruthless mercenaries, who were instigated to murder all the Americans upon the frontier, by the offer of five dollars for everv scalp bi'ounfht in to Government. Youno- Knapp was at Maiden at the period when Hull crossed the Detroit river, and took possession above and below Windsor, with the intention, as was believed, of marching against the interior ; and was near the landing when two canoes filled with Indians approached from the American shore, yell- ing their horrible whoop of triumph. Many British officers and some citizens were there to welcome them ; and one of the former cried out, as the savages landed, "There are five Yankee scalps, and that's as good as twenty-five dollars !" The Indians were then escorted to the colonel's quarters. Isaac Knapp could not resist the expression of his sentiments in refer- ence to this scene, and some of his fellow-citizens avowed their regret that #uch things were permitted. "But," said they, "the home govern- ment justifies it." Mr. Knapp replied that any government which could justify such proceedings, exciting the passions of savages, and furnishing them with weapons to massacre women and children, ought to be regard- ed with contempt by every man who called himself a Christian. They rejoined by stigmatizing the young man as " a Yankee ;" and subsequently a fellow-workman of his, named Robertson, advised him to leave the town as soon as possible, lest he should be made prisoner as an enemy of the king. This counsel was not to be despised, in the then excited state of public feeling; and so, that very night, Isaac Knapp left Maiden, and proceeded down the lake to a point called the " Round 0," crossed the wilderness, and reached the camjt of Hull a few days before that general surrendered his post at Detroit. This event placed our adventurer in a dif- ficult position, as the Indians were in great force on every side, and all the southern roads leading to Ohio were in their possession. Under the circumstances, therefore, he deemed it most prudent to recross the Detroit, and seek his father's house in Canada. In executing this design, travel- ling down the Canadian shore, he encountered many Indians encamped between Windsor and Maiden, and saw numbers of canoes landing from the American shore, loaded with household goods plundered from the hapless inhabitants of Michigan, who, either massacred or fiying before their merciless foes, k-ft their houses to be sacked and burned to the ground, Isaac remained at his father's for some months after Hull's surrender, during which the times assumed a more quiet aspect, and the Canada militia were disbanded. In the fall of 1812 he resumed work with his former employer, and remained busy till the 25th of December, when, it being rumored that the xVmericans were approaching the lines, a new draft was made upon the militia, and the young tradesman was ordered to enroll himself at once in some company of his district. This he had no inclination to do, and accordingly left the neighborhood, proceeding to the upper district on the river Thames, where he became known to a gentleman named McGregor, a wealthy and influential citizen, who gave him employment, promising security against the militia draft. Here he 122 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. worked at his trade until the spring of 1813, when be fell in with a Mr. Xewcome, who stated to him that he was from Pennsylvania, and had come to Canada before the commencement of the war, to build a mill for a person who afterwards failed to pay him for his work. He informed Mr. Knapp that he had been arrested by the ]3ritish, imprisoned, and liberated on paiole, and was now anxious to escape to bis home in Penn- sylvania. The young man agreed to join him in his plans, and accord- ingly Newcome made arrangements for their depaiture. lie procured a fine canoe, and concealed it in a small creek leading into Lake Erie, and then wrote to ^Ir. Knapp stating that all things were ready, that the American army were on the Sandusky and Maumee rivers, and that there would be no difBcultv in crossing the lake in one night. Mr. Knapp had all confidence in the undertaking, and at the appointed hour was at the canoe to start with his companion, when they were suddenly surrounded and made piisoners by a company of militia, and marched to the fort at Maiden. Newcome was, however, soon released, while young Knapp was kept alone in the guard-house, until some citizens of the place, his acquaintances, were allowed to visit him. These, however, only advised him to volunteer in one of the militia companies, to which he returned answer ihat be would not fight for any government that employed In- dians to scalp and butcher women and children. A British officer called upon him, and promised that, if he would join a volunteer company commanded by Cai)tain Caldwell, he would be well treated, and his past conduct excused ; but Mr. Knapp persisted in declaring that he would never join soldiers who painted themselves, and went out with savages to the killing of women and infants. This enraged the Briton, who threat- ened the stubborn citizen that if he did not comply with the law of the province, he would be put on board a marine ship; which threat was soon after put into effect, by his transfer to a shi|) on Lake Erie, and thence to a gun-boat emjiloyed in the siege of Fort Meigs. Here he was compelled to assist in unloading cannon balls and shells, and, arriving at the lower rapids of the Maumee, where a portion of the British army was encamped, he was sent ashore with the marines, to warp up cannon to the batteries erected on the western bank. The artillery of Fort Meigs was at this time in full play upon the be- siegers, and several of the British marines were killed, and one or two officers wounded by the American balls. Mr. Knapp was at the batteries when the British cannon were dismounted on the day that Col. Dudley stormed the lines. He was on board a gun-boat, lying in Swan Creek, and heard the firing commence ; after which Dudley drove the Indians down the creek, till they made a stand. He saw from his position Col. Miller march out of Fort Meigs, and charge the batteries on the east bank, driving Indians and British before him, and taking one company prisoners. At the same moment, Dudley, engaged in confiict with the savages on the west side, was surrounded by the regular troops, and made prisoner with his command. These were brought into the camp at Swan Creek, and the savaijes at once commenced to massacre and hew, thouofh the Canada militia complained against Proctor and Eliott, and even went so far as to revolt and march homewards. Next day the camp was broken up, and the troops returned to Maiden, whereupon Isaac Knapp was sent to the fort again, and allowed to quarter with a militia company ISAAC KNAPP, OF OHIO. 123 from the New Settlement (his own neighborhood), among whom he found several old acquaintances — one in particular, a man named Armstrong, who had formerly lived with the elder Knapp, when Isaac was quite young. To this person the young man talked freely, and by his assist- ance procured a British officer's uniforju, in which disguise he clothed himself, and between sunset and dark, one evening, walked past the sen- tinel at the gate, and the picket guard near the river, traversed a back street through Maiden, and travelling fifteen miles that night, found him- self, the next morning, in the wilderness, between Lake Erie and the Thames. Shortly afterwards, he arrived at the residence cf John Mc- Gregor, his former protector, with whom he remained till ten or twelve davs after Perry's victory on Lake Erie. But, receiving intelligence through hisyoungest brother, Walter, that General Harrison's army was approach- ing and the British preparing to abandon Maiden and Detroit, and fall back to the forks of the river Thames, he provided himself with a canoe, and leaving McGregoi's at ten o'clock at night, in companv with his brother, proceeded down the Thames, arriving at Lake Stullau about daybreak. From this point he could discern the British and Lidians as- cending on the other shore. He bore away toward the middle of the lake, descrying regular troops, militia, and Indians, in various squads, and about dark entered the Detroit river. At Detroit, the public stores, set on tire by the retreating enemy, wei'e yet burning, and passing the city, the brothers continued their course to the lower point of Fight- ing Island, until they ran their canoe into the rushes at the head of Turkey Island. Here Isaac Knapp lay down in his slight Lark, and slejjt till morning, when he directed his course to Maiden. At this place, as at Detroit, the public buildings had been fired and were yet burning. Among the citizens remaining, Isaac Knapp met his old acquaintance John llobertson, who had before given him timely ad- vice to leave the town. He said the trouble was doubtless all over, as the American arrny was immediately expected ; and in a few days in- deed the latter arrived, and passed up the lake in pursuit of the British. In Maiden, Isaac worked at his trade for his friend Robertson until the 1st of October, when, with his younger brothers, James and Walter, he joined Captain McDonald's Mounted Ftiflemen. In this service he assisted in building the little iort below Maiden, and was likewise em- ployed in reconnoitering that portion of the province of which the Ame- ricans held possession. He was engaged in several expeditions upon the lake and the river Thames, and was one of the Imndred and fifty-eight men who com])osed the conmiand of Major Holmes, when that oflicer encountered the British in the long woods of the Thames, in March, 1814. His company was discharged from service some time in April, soon after which Isaac Knapp left Maiden, and went to Dayton, where he worked at his business for a short period, and thence, after a short sojourn at Arbovii, in Cham[ilain coimty, journeyed alone through a wilderness country, to Lower Sanduskj^ (now called Fremont). Here he engaged to carry the United States mail between Fort Stevenson and Fort Meigs, until November, when he took passage on board of a boat conveying fiour from Sar.dusky to the American troops stationed at Mai- den. Soon after his arrival at this scene of his early difficulties, the river became frozen, and he consequently remained in the town all win- 124 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ter, occupied in a contract with a gentleman named Burgen, who was employed by the United States Government, to purchase provisions for the army. While thus engaged, buying up quantities of corn, wheat, and beef, or whatever other supplies were demanded — his duties carry- ing him sometimes fifteen miles from Maiden — lie was made prisoner by a scoutmg party of British volunteers, but escaped at the relief hour of the night, under a fire from the guard, from which he had the good for- tune to suffer no harm. Peace being declared that winter, our army evacuated Maiden in the spring of 1815; and Mr. Knapp, with seven companions, set out for Lower Sandusky, coasting the shore, crossing the Maumee, and touching at Port Clinton, called at that time Portage River. Arrived at Sandusky, he concluded to make this place his home, though at that period it was little more than a military depot. Fort Ste- venson being still garrisoned by a portion of the American army. The inhabitants could not have then numbered over forty families, prin- cipally composed of persons who had been driven from their homes by the Indians, and had clustered under the protection of the fortress. A man named Davis had received permission from the commanding officer of the fort to occupy some land situated on the east bank of the Sandusky river ; and from this individual Isaac Knapp took part of the grant, helped to fence it in, and went at once into its cultivation. He had but little to begin with, and the country was as yet hardly rid of the Indians, while the nearest market-town was Detroit. However, he pro- ceeded with vigor, made his own rails and fences, and inclosed his land, and soon began to like the business of farming so well, that he conclud- ed to attempt the raising of stock. His brothers, Walter and James, now joined him at Sandusky, but did not remain long, the latter going to Newark to learn a trade, and the former becoming home-sick, and returning back to Canada in April, 1816, where he was soon after ar- rested and thrown into prison for having spoken some imprudent words against the loyalists. As soon as Isaac Knapp learned of his brother's difficulty, he wrote to James to join him, and together they set off for Canada. At Detroit they were informed that the Court of King's Bench for tke Province would sit at Windsor in August, whereupon they await- ed its decision before proceeding farther. J3ut this tribunal took no action in young Walter's case ; and, as his brothers did not like to go back without him, they came to the conclusion to rescue hira from the prison in which he was confined. Accordingly, hiring a canoe from a French ferryman who kept boats on the Detroit river, they proceeded at night to the Canada side, and landed under a bluff bank, directly op- posite Detroit, and an old French church, the spire of which could be discerned from a very great distance. They walked down to the town of Windsor, examined the prison walls, and then, scaling the pickets, succeeded in effectinir an entrance to the back yard, and thence into the central room, between the jail and jailor's apartment. They then un- locked the door of Walter's cell, took hira by the hand, and all three scaling the walls, hurried to the canoe, and pushed off from the bluff, ar- riving in a short time safely at Detroit. Isaac Knapp, after this exploit, returned once more to his farming and stock-raising, which he conducted with energy and perseverance, con- veying his cattle and produce to Detroit through what was then a wide ^'J'a.':^"iy7 7C B-tiire rro=i2.-'a^-2^'^^'^ e^ (:z^t.-c^ V OF TP^OY OS JO jiTwra^ed Tor j::,ic ciT^izprucuiy S>c£tc/ies .->' ^nuJienc^JiTrz^'^LXu:. "WILLIAM BARBEE, OF OHIO. 125 wilderness. He was one of those who organized the first battalion of militia in Sandusky county, and commanded a company in the first re- giment, brought the first statutes of Ohio to the county, and was present at the organization of the first court, September 20, 1822. He married Elsie, the eldest daughter of Judge Newman, a widow with one daugli- ter, who, after receiving an education under the care of her mother, married and died in early life, leaving four cliildren, now the 'proiegis of their grandfather. Mr. Knapp has led a useful life, engaged in vaiious branches of busi- ness. In 1825, he kept a public house, farming at the same time; in the next year he engaged likewise in mercantile pursuits ; in the next was appointed a Judge of Common Pleas, by the Ohio Legislature. In 1839-40-43, he was engaged on public works; and in 1847, assisted in raising a company of volunteers for the Mexican war, marched them from Sandusky to Cincinnati, where they were mustered into the United States service, went to Mexico, where he remained till peace was declared in August, 1848, and then returned to his home, much broken in health from his campaign. In 1851, he was chosen by the electors of Sanduskv county a member of the Ohio Legislature, in the first session under the new Constitution. Mr. Knapp now resides in the town of Fremont, Sandusky countv. He has always been in politics a consistent Democrat, and at the division of party lines, in 1824, there were but five Uemocrats in Sanduskv, of Avhom Mr, Knapp was one. AVILLIxVM BARBEE, OF TROY, OHIO. William Barbee, of Troy, Ohio, the subject of this notice, was born in Favette county, Kentucky, Nov., 1789. His paternal grandtather was from England, and his maternal grandparents from Germany, who at an early day settled in Virginia, but subsequently removed to Kentucky, among the first settlers of that State; descending the Oiiio river, landed at the mouth of Beargrass, where the city of Louisville now stands — fi-om thence to Fisher's Station, near the now fiourishing town of Danville, where they fortified themselves in the midst of hostile Indians, who at that day held almost undisputed control over that part of the country. His father and five uncles were all soldiers in the revolutionary war — some of whom held high and responsible stations. Gen. Thomas J^arbee, the eldest of the six brothers, was with Gen. Wayne, and fought the last battle with the Indians at the rapids of the Maumee, a short time previous to Wayne's treaty at Greenville in 179G. 126 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. His father was with Washington tlie memorable night that he with his httle army of veterans, ahnost as still as death, crossed the Delaware amid tloating ice, darkness and storm, and captured one thousand Hessians at Trenton, with the loss of but few men. He was also at the bloody battle of Bluelicks, where he lost his horse and barely escaped with his life. He took a conspicuous part in the war of 1812, but died before its close. He was a true lover of liberty in its fullest sense, a man of great in- dependence and intellectual powers, and eminent in debate. He left Ken- tucky for Ohio in 180G, with a family of five daughters and one son, the subject of this memoir, and settled on the Miami river, then almost a wilderness, leaving one son and daughter (Ins elder children) in Kentucky. The education of this son, the removal of the family to Ohio, and the pur- chase of a small tract of land, exhausted most of his means, and left the family located in a log cabin in the woods, with no male help except the younger son, then a lad of some sixteen years, who up to this time had been a very indolent and unpromisinrr vouth — who had received only a common country school education, with but a limited knowledge of reading, Avriting, and arithmetic, gave little or no evidence of business qualifications, and with great difticulty could be kept at labor ; but was untiring in his pursuit of sport and amusement, much inclined to indolent dissipated habits; hence he was looked upon by the family as only qua- lified to clear up the forest, and cultivate the soil. And as the necessities of the family were urgent, he was pressed into the service, in which he engaged with great energy and untiring perseverance ; throwing off" at once his former indolent and profligate habits, as if everything depended upon his industry and application, and soon became as remarkable for his assiduous application and industry, as he had been for his indolence ; so that in about four years, mainly with his own hands, he cleared, amidst a dense forest, and brought into cultivation, a very considerable farm for his father and family. Before he was twenty-one years of age, he married Miss M. Marshall, then late of Kentucky, a lady of gi'cat moral worth and lespectability, with whom he lived many years, till her death in 1849, in great domestic en- joyment, yet without issue. She was a lady of great benevolence and (Christian philanthropy, with habits of strict economy and industry, which ran through every department of life ; aftectionate to all, and in return, revered and loved by all with whonl she associated. A lady whose life was characterized as that of the true Chrhtian, and although her place among friends on earth is vacant, yet her memory is dearly cherished, and her example stands forth in bold relief, an admonition to others to follow in her footsteps. Especially dear is the memory of Mrs. B. to the writer, who knew her from his early boyhood to the hour of her death. To this early and fortunate marriage, much is doubtless to be attri- buted of his success in pecuniary matters, as well as respectability in after life. Both had pious parents, and a good moral training, with an experi- mental and practical knowledge of agricultural and domestic labor. This was the only capital with which they commenced life, in a log cabin in the beech woods, on a small piece of land, a part of his father's tract, to which he had promise of title ; but his father died before it was executed. Here his first winter was spent in clearing a few acres of land for plant- WILLIAM BARBEE, OF OHIO, 12? ing in corn the following spring, and in laboring for others at fifty cents per day to procure a living; for tlie same purpose he spent the winter nights in making common coarse slioes for his neighbors : it was his custom to do a day's work, either in his own field or for his neighbor, and at night make a pair of shoes; so that during the day he was a common laborer, and at night a mechanic. lie never enjoved Hfe better than during this pressure of labor (not less than nineteen hours daily) ; though he could not command at any one time the amount of five dol- lars, he felt that every day's oftbrt increased by a few (x'Uts his little means, and that by untiring energy and a punctual performance of every engagement he could place himself in possession of a home and means for comfortable living. The second year of his marriage he had a few acres of land cleared for cultivation, but having neither horse nor instruments of husbandry, and these articles being exceedingly high and diflicult to obtain, he abs'ndoned the idea of making a liveliliood by farming, to learn the trade of a blacksmith. Up to this time he knew nothing of this branch of business, but saw that it was profitable and commanded money. He left his little farm and went to Troy, the county seat of Miami county, then but re- cently laid out in the woods, where he rented a small house, hired a practical mechanic, rented tools, became indebted for a small stock of materials, and at once established himself as a blacksmith. For nearly three years he worked as a blower, and striker until he acquired a know- ledge of the business ; during which time it required every dime he could command to pay his foreman, on whom he was dependent, his rents and living. About this time tho war of 1812 was declared, and some Indian depredations were committed in the neighborhood. Volunteers being- called for the defence of the frontier, young liarbee was among the first to turn out for a six months' service. He made with his own hands a rude tomahawk, shouldered his ritie and left his shop, in defence of tlie frontier. After spending somj wcks in the erection of blockhouses, the excitement and alarm sub-iding, he employed a substitute and returned to his shop. Soon after his I'eturu Fort Wayne was besiege.], and he volun- teered a second time for its relief; he spent several weeks in this last service, when he returned ])ermanentlv to his shop. Having acquired a know- ledge of the business, he applied himself day and night for about five years, when he found himself in possession of a little real estate and about five hundred dollars in cash. About this time he was induced to enter into a partnership in the mercantile business with two young gentlemen of high respectability, who possessed a limited knowledge of the business, and who took charge of the concern. Mr. Barbee continued to carry on his shop, and once a year making an adventure with produce to the north of Ohio (then a wilderness) by way of the St. Mary's and Maumee river.-, to lake Erie and Uelroit, then dej)endent on the interior of Ohio for sup- plies. This he carried on, on his own account, borrowing the means with which to prosecute the enterprise. Many times was he obliged to obtain a loan with which to repay amounts previously borrowed, but in no instance can he be charged with a failure to meet promptly all his pro- mises and contracts. Hence he made his credit his capital, and perhaps very few, if any, ever used this kind of capital with more caution and success than he. 128 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. About this time, aiid while he was engaged in an adventure with pro- duce in the north, his partners loaded and started two large flat boats out of the Miami river at Troy, tor the south ; both of which were wi'ecked and most of their cargoes lost. This, with some other heavy losses by the large credits given to parties proving insolvent, caused the concern to fail, and he was diverted of all Ins earnings, surrendering everything he possessed for the benefit of creditors. During the ])ecuniary embar- rassment which occurred in 1818 and continued up to 1 823, he continued his shop and northern trade, and engaged in a contract with Government to supply tlie troops then at Chicago and Green Bay with fresh provisions. Under his own direetion he had beef cattle driven from Ohio and Indiana to these posts, through a wilderness of near five hundred miles, then inhabited only bv Indians. This was an enterprise of great hazard and danger, requii'ing an energy and resolution that few men possessed, and one which fewer would have undertaken as a means to realize funds for the payment of his debts and the recovery of losses which seemed irrecoverably gone. The Department at "Washington, finding him prompt in fulfilling his obliijation, awarded to him the conti-act a second and third year ; during which time, and bv the aid in part of otlier means, lie paid his debts and commenced the wurld anew, not in the least discouraged, but satisfied, on reviewing his paft life, that he could yet, by untiring energy, gain a competency and establish and maintain a high standing among his fellow- men. There are many thrilling incidents and occurrences connected with this three years' enterprise among and with the aborigines of the north- west, a recital of which cannot find a place in this brief sketch. Many of his bold adventures, in times of imminent danger, show that Mr. Barbee is a man of great courage and determined resolution in the face of every opposition. In his life is an exemphfication of the fact, that any young man with good intellect, a good moral training, with industrious habits, constant and assiduous application in business, can accomplish almost any- undertaking, and thus become master of his own fortune, respectability, usefulness atid happiness. In 1826 Mr. Barbee made his last t)ip of adventure with produce to the lake ; during many years having prosecuted this trade successfully. In 1827 he gave up his shop, and in 1828 engaged in the mercantile business, and continued it successfully in Ohio and various points in In- diana for twenty-three years up to 1851 ; during which time he was called by the community in which he lived to fill high and responsible public stations. Mr. Barbee was elected in 1829, and for three successive sessions, a representative in the Legislature of Ohio. Pending the question of the extension of the Miami canal from Dayton to Lake Erie, in 1828, Congress granted to the State of Ohio for this purpose a quantity of land equal to one half of five sections in width on each side of the canal from Dayton to the mouth of the iVuglaze river, on the condition that the work be commenced in five, and finished in twenty years, or the State be bound to pay the United States the price of thelands. The State was also required to pass a law expressly accept- ing the said conditions, without which the grant should be inoperative. The Leo-islature, fearful of the embarrassment that mis:ht result to the WILLIAM BARBEE, OF OHIO. 129 State, as that part of Ohio was then a wilderness, and the lands being considered of little or no value, refused to pass the required law, and the grant was lost. Through the influence and masterly efforts of Judge Bur- net in 1829-30, who at that time was in the Senate of the United States, a law was passed reviving the former grant, revokiugthe forfeiture, and making an additional grant of about two hundred and fifty sections of land, all of which would have been a second time lost without an act of Legislature accepting the grant and its terms. This subject was brought before the Legislature at Mr. Barbee's first session, and advocated by him with much zeal; but met with great opposition, as the proceedings will show. Tlie measure failed that session, the Legislature refusing to ap- propriate the small sum of fifteen hundred dollars to defray the expense of a survey of the canal route through the lands proposed. Mr. Barbee was returned by almost a unanimous vote of his constituents to a seat a second and third term before the measure was carried through and the grant secured. True to his purpose in carrying out whatever he undertook even in the face of all opposition, with an untiring energy he presented this .subject to the consideration of members in such a clear light and courteous man- ner as to gain it friends. Perhaps there is no man to whom the north- west of Ohio is more indebted than to Mr. Barbee for the extension of this great enterprise — the Miami canal. lie was also a warm and able advocate for an amendment in the mode of taxation. Instead of making lands the principal basis for taxation, as the law then was, he advocated the doctrine that every species of property, real and personal, should be the basis — thus making every citizen bear the burden of taxation in pro- portion to liis or her estate. Mr. Barbee in 1834 was generally looked upon as the choice of his district for Congress, and at a general convention of the district he re- ceived the nomination by a large majority, but declined acceptance, and at his urgent request his name was withdrawn as a candidate. In 1845 he was elected by the Legislature of Ohio one of the associate judges of Miami county, which place he filled with great ability and in- dependence of character; his opinions ■wore the result of a strong and clearly discriminating mind, generally founded in a clear perception of truth and justice. Judge Bai-bee was elected in his district a member of the Convention which framed the new Constitution, took his seat in that body in May, 1850, in Columbus, and shared in its labors until its close in the city of Cincinnati in March, 1851. Being one of the Committee on Finance and Taxation, he labored, yet without success, to engraft an article in the new- Constitution for taxing all bv uniform rule in proportion to their w^ealth ; failing in this, and there being some other objectionable features, he was amongst the few who voted on its final passage against its adoption. Mainly through Judge Barbee's influence and enterprise the Miami County Branch of the State Bank in Troy was established. He being the largest stockholder, was unanimously elected President at its organi- zation, and continues to preside with ability and financial skill. He is also President of one of the principal railroads in the State, and although considerably advanced in life and in possession of an ample fortune, accu- mulated by his own eftbrt, he is still engaged in active business, believing VOL. IV. 9 130 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. it more productive of good, health and happiness, to wear out, than rust out. Judge Barbee has been for many years a liberal and regular contribu- tor to the spread of the gospel, and the support of its ministers, especially in the Presbyterian church, of which he is a member. In the spring of 1850 Judge Barbee formed a second matrimonial connection with a Miss Tullis, late of Illinois, a lady of accomplishment and moral worth, by whom he has one daughter, an only child. The writer of this brief sketch has known Mr. Barbee many years — knew him in poverty and obscurity, and now in wealth and high respecta- bility. He has been a close observer of his life and progress, and can truly say he is a t^elf-made man, of great moral firmness and reliability of character. Although he possesses strong intellectual powers of mind, vet his rise and success may be mainly attributed to his personal appli- cation to business and a prompt compliance with his promises, with an unconquerable resolution to carry out whatever he undertakes. He is cautious in business transactions, and seldom fails in his undertakings. His habits of life are strictly temperate, his health and constitution remarkably good ; in his manners and address s^era, yet courteous and o;entlemanly. D . A . DAVIS, CASHIER OF THE BRANCH BANK OF CAPE FEAR AT SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA. The morbid anatomy of eccentric or even pious minds, spread out on record as stimulants and models of the rising generations, must be con- sidered as of doubtful propriety, if not a downright evil. As no history is so captivating as the well written biography of a congenial spirit, so none can have a paramount influence in the forming periods of life. And while much may be said as to the uses and abuses of biography, it must be admitted on all hands, that the truthful history of a well-balanced, ]:>ious, and intellectual mind, is of gi'eat importance to all those who may fall under its infiuence. The success of others always gives confidence to ourselves — what they have done we may do. If they have trod success- fully the diversified paths of life, and have been benefactors of their race, this mental and moral inheritance belongs not only to their children, but to all aspiring men. One mind cives spring to another, not only as u pioneer, but as an example of success, whether it be in the battle-field, or in the departments of science and morals. Thus a commendable and scriptural emulation may be awakened, and brought into lively exercise, saying with the Grecian hero, '• The trophies of Miltiades will not let me sleep." Feeling confident that we shall add to the list of wholesome biography, in the following sketch of a life that has been guided with uncommon propriety, and worthy of imitation, we record a few incidents in the life of D. A. Davis. D. A. DAVIS, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 131 Mr. Davis was born in Fayetteville, N. C, in the year 1802. His fatlier, who was a native of Halifax, Va., was a soldier in the revolution, and endured the toils incident to those trying times with commendable fortitude. He participated in most, if not all the important battles fought in the Carolinas, and especially in that of King's Mountain. Soon after the close of the war he settled in Fayettevjlle, and married Ann Stevenson, whose father emigrated from Scotland, soon after that disastrous battle of Culloden, in which he took an active part. The fruits of that marriar>'e were five sons and three dauo^hters. D. A. Davis v.'as the youngest son, and next to the youngest child ; he, with one brother, 0. D. Davis, now of Alabama, and one sister, are the only mem- bers of that family now living. The subject of this sketch lost his parents in his early youth ; his father died when he was sixteen years of age, and his mother one year afterwards. The patrimony left him was small, but the inheritance in a Christian father's blessing, his exemplary life, and judicious training, was a legacy that contributed much to the development of those principles that characterized his after life. His education was limited, owing probably to the early death of his father and mother ; he enjoyed, how- ever, the advantages of the best schools and academies of that day, which made him a ripe English scholar. Soon after the death of his father, he was appointed clerk in the Fayetteville branch of the Bank of the United States. He thought this favor was conferred more from a desire to aid an orphan of a revolutionary soldier, than from any traits he possessed at the time, — feeling that one so young could hardly have established such a character as to give a claim to so responsible an office. In connection with his other duties as clerk, the pension ofiice was under his charge for several years. Seven years was the time of his training as a banker, under the officers of that institution, where that model of a Christian patriarch and methodical book-keeper, David Anderson, was constantly before him. With his paternal instruction, he was much aided both in moral and intellectual attainments. And to this school may be traced much of the system, method, .and attention to business, for which Mr. Davis is distinguished. In the year 1S24 he was induced, by a hope of bettering his condition, to resign his post in the branch Bank of the United States, and accept an appointment in a new bank about to be established in Cheraw, S. C. He entered on his new field of duty in the fall of 1824, but finding that bank was not conducted on those principles that should always govern such institutions, he was dissatisfied, and resigned his post in the bank in the beginning of the year 1825. In May of the same year, he returned to Fayetteville, and purchased the plantation on which the first steam- boat that ever agitated the waters of the Cape Fear was built. In this retired spot he improved and cultivated his farm with success, until the year 1837, when he \vi\s elected cashier of the Branch Bank of Cape Fear, that was about to be established in Salisbury. He accepted the appoint- ment, and removed to Salisbury, where he opened the bank, and has man- aged it fiom that time till the present. Although Mr. Davis never sought ofiice from the hands of the people, he has been more or less engaged in public business, always spending much of his time and means in advancing the peace and happiness of 132 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the community in which he Hved. His own words are, " I have no taste or desire for political distinction ; and if I had, I could never so far depart from what I believe to be the performance of duty, as to be a popular favorite with the mass of the people." In the year 1828 he was appointed magistrate in Cumberland City by the Legislature, and about the same time he was elected a member of the Committee of Finance. To these I'espective duties he gave his attention during his residence in that county. When he removed to Rowan City he was again appointed magistrate by the Legislature, and also a member of the Committee of Finance by the county. To each of these depart ments of duty he has given diligent attention from that time to this. As a member of the Committee of Finance, the fact of his re-election annually, for a period of fifteen years, is sufficient to show his diligence and atten- tion to the duties it involves. An occurrence that took place in the history of common schools in Rowan City, may serve to show not only his deep concern for education, but his tact in managing the school funds to the greatest advantage. For several years Rowan City declined to avail herself of the advantages of the common school system, during which time her portion of the funds was accumulating. The county finally came into the arrangement, by a vote of the citizens. On exami- nation, her portion of the school fund amounted to $10,000. Mr. Davis . was then elected by the court a member of the Board of Superintendents of public schools. Through his influence the Board invested $8,000 in bajik stock, which yielded for several years 7 per cent. He also as a member of the County Court voted, and used his influence, in raising annually by taxation a sum equal to the amount received by the literary fund of the State. It was by the adoption of this policy, that Rowan county has expended for common schools annually $4,500, a sum larger than that of any other county in the State, of the same population. Mr. Davis has been a trustee of Davidson College for many years. In the service of this institution, he has contributed a liberal portion of his means, and much of his time ; and it may be said that the present pros- perous condition of that college is in no small degree owing to his counsel and untiring eftbrts. When he arrived in Salisbury there was no bank, no manufacturing establishment, and but little business of any kind, and less of public spirit among the people. It was not long before he was actively engaged ■with others, not only in opening a bank, but in erecting and putting in operation a very extensive factory. And although, in common with the other stockholders, he lost all his capital invested, he has been heard often to say, that he never for a moment regretted his individual loss, because in changing hands the establishment was managed with increased efficiency, and was not only profitable to the owner, but gave employment and support to a large number of operatives. It created a home market for near a thousand bales of cotton annually, and contributed in no small degree to the business and prosperity of Salisbury. There are indeed but few important enterprises, either in this county or State, in which Mr. Davis is not more or less concerned. His name is in the charter of the Salisbury and Taylorsville Plank Road Company, as one of its directors. When the Central Railroad, that great scheme of internal improvement, that was to redeem North Carolina from her D. A. DAVIS, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 133 former and long continued lethargy, was first agitated, he was earnestly and anxiously engaged in awakening the people to the importance of the enterprise. And when the charter was obtained, and the books opened, he subscribed as large an amount as he could atibrd. Thus he did much, not only by example, but by precept and argument, to induce others to do the same. At the second annual meeting of the stockhold- ers, he was elected one of the directors of the company, — a post which be has held ev< r since with honor to himself, and known profit to the stockholders. But in his own sphere as a banker, Mr. Davis appears to the greatest advantage. To this he has devoted the most of his life. If, then, success in the management of important transactions with men in business, is a criterion by which we can be safely guided to a correct judgment of the fidelity, energy, and ability of public men, Mr. Davis will not fail to reap his reward for the manner in which the Branch Bank of Cape Fear has been conducted. in Salisbury. For it may be presumed, that few similar institutions that have done an equal amount of business, during a period of fifteen years, have it to say, that they have never yet been obliged to charge to profit and loss a single bad debt for a note discounted, and that their loss would not on this account exceed one thousand dollars, if its affairs were closed up to-day. It must not be forgotten, however, that he has been aided by a board of prudent and discreet directors ; yet it is well known by all those acquainted with the management of banks, that their prosperity depends to a very great extent on the fidelity and ability of the cashier. It is to these traits that Mr. Davis is indebted for much of his influence in society. As to business, he endeavors to follow a rule which he seems to have adopted in early life, — to do things at the right time, and in the right way. The rigid adliei-ence to this rule, together with his quick- ness of perception, has elevated him to a commanding position among business men, wherever he is known. It has also placed him, under Providence, in that condition of affluence, which has enabled him not only to attend liberally to all calls of true benevolence, but to take young men of promise by the hand, and point them to the path of prosperity and usefulness. Mr. I)avis possesses that clearness of foresight that is not easily batfled ; and that firmness of purpose, with judgment, that is not easily shaken by adverse opinions — which have rendered him capa- ble of giving advice, and not a few of our young men in business have availed themselves of it. As to moral rectitude and love of truth, Mr. Davis is not easily sur- passed. Intemperance, corruption and folly cannot have a more terrible enemy, one whom it is so impossible to bribe, so hopeless to elude, and so difficult to face. On account of these traits, it is not strange that he should be by some bitterly assailed, if not openly persecuted. For thirty years he has been a decided temperance man. He was present in Fayetteville at the organization of perhaps the first tem])er- ance society that was formed in North Carolina, and was one of its original members. From that time to tliis, he has been actively engaged in forwarding the temperance reformation, warning the youth against the seductions of the sparkling bowl, both by precept and example. "When the Sons of Temperance were formed into a division in Salisbury, he was a charter member, and has filled most of the offices of the ■•#- 134 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. division ; and has been a member of the Grand Division for several years. Mr. Davis is a Whig in politics, and a Presbyterian in religion, in both of which his principles are fixed and unyielding, but not intolerant or bigoted in either ; and while he claims the right in such matters to judge for himself, he freely accords to others the same privilege. He has a large and growing family sprung up around him, consisting of four sons and four daughters, several of whom are already liberally educated, while the others are in process of training; all of whom give promise of future usefulness, and with his wise training he may experience the blessedness of the "man that hath his quiver full of them." In 1822, Mr. Davis connected himself 'with the Presbyterian church in Fayetteville, which was then under the pastoral care of the Rev. R. H. Morrison, D.D. Not long afterwards, he was elected by the congrega- tion to the office of ruling elder. He was again elected to the same office after removing to Salisbury, where he still continues to labor as an office-bearer in the church of his choice, with his characteristic efficiency. As to his Christian and patriotic feehngs, they are h^ippily expressed by himself, in the following words : " If I am a Christian, I owe it under God to the precept and example of a pious father, who was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church for many years before his death, — his dying advice, wiis, ' My son, strive to be a Christian, not one in name only, but in truth and reality ,'^as well as to the prayers of a mother, whose con- stant practice it was, long before her death as I can remember, to spend a season in private prayer for her children and family every night before she retired to rest. If I have in me any love of country, I have justly inherited it from my father, whose life Avas jeoparded in the revolution, to free his country from a foreign yoke ; and as a Presbyterian, I am justly entitled to my predilections, as I have descended directly on the maternal side from the Scottish Covenanters." CHARLES D. DAVIS, OF MONROE, WALTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, Kow turned of fifty years, was born in Windham county, Vermont — that home of sturdy independence which imparts its higli, selt-sustenant ch;i- racteristics to so many noble sons. Mountains have been Cidltd the nourishing spots of freedom; and perhaps the bold scenery of his birth- place had no small influence in developing the energy, as well as mould- ing the intellect of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Davis is of Welsh extraction on the paternal siile, his mother's ancestors were French ; and from the days of the elder Adams to the present, his kindred have pro- fessed in politics the democratic creed. At the early age of sixteen, acting from the promptings of that self-reliant spirit which has ever con- stituted a marked element in his character, he resolved to achieve a ;Sf:' >-^^^ CHARLES D. DAVIS, OF GEORGIA. 135 university education through his own individual labor, or in other words to procure the means requisite to defray his college expenses, bv personal exertions in teaching a common school. Accordingly, we find him, in his seventeenth summer, journeying with knapsack and staff eighty miles over the Green Mountains into the State of New York, till he reached the city of Troy, where resided a maternal uncle, at that time a practising physician, but long since numbered with the dead. After several fruitless applications to different districts, our young stu- dent succeeded in effecting an eno^ao-ement to instruct a small school in the vicinity of Troy ; but the sum of seven dollars, which he received for his first month's services, was so inadequate a compensation, that hi? hopes of ever being able by such a vocation to amass sufficient means to compass his dearest object were almost " nipped in the bud ;" nevertheless, it was the first money earned by his own work, and as such constituted an epoch in his after recollections. His next situation was more remu- nerative, yielding him ten or eleven dollars per month, and this he held for a year and a half. His school was located in a beautiful neighborhood. near the Mohawk river, of whose quiet banks, shaded Avith wavy willows reflected in the glassy waters, he ever afterwards retained a vivid remem- brance ; for it was there that he mastered the Greek alphabet and gram- mar, and thus crossed the threshold of academic preparation ; and it was thence that he set out, with one hundred and forty dollars — a fortune to the ambitious student — to reach the academy at Middlebury, Vermont, distant a hundred miles from the scene of his eighteen months' labors. He essayed this journey, like the former one, on foot, the better to husband his small stock ; but the frosts and snows of a severe winter soon com- pelled him to avail himself of the stage-coach, not, however, without bewailing the expense of his two-dollar fare, diminishing as it did the scanty means which he had rehgiously devoted to the shrine of know- ledge. At Middlebury, Mr. Davis applied himself assiduously to the studies necessary to his qualification as a candidate for admission to college ; but in spite of the most rigid economy in his living, he coukl not prevent the exhaustion of his pecuniary means before the completion of this design ; and he was about to return once more to the labor of teaching, when a letter from his father, with the promise of assistance in the prose- cution of his stndies, summoned him to the paternal roof. It was, as he afterwards expressed himself, "a ray of light upon the pathway of his early life," and he availed liimself of his parent's ofler, not merely with alacrity, but with the joy which only those can appreciate who have felt the passion for learning absorbing every other feeling of their souls. The four years of young Davis's college life were given to unremitting application by day and night. Allowing himself only five hours' sleep, and devoting nearlv all the remainder of his time to his books, the student's health must inevitably have been injured, had not his constitution been naturally a most excellent one. On accepting the assistance of his father as regarded his collegiate expenses, he had promised that he would never require of him any further aid in life; and true to his word, he resolved that if labor could qualifv him for futui'e self-support, that should not be wanting on his part. And it is here apposite to remark, that fidelity tu his en2:ac:ements has ever since been a distinffuishino; trait in the charac- 136 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ter of Mr. Davis ; be has been known to remark tl)at should he borrow a new?paper to peruse until twelve o'clock, he would experience positive uneasiness were it to be retained till two. This disposition to regard the strict signification of his word has been the means of gaining for him, as a lawyer, many friends among his clients, for the reason th;it they could always confide implicitly in whatever he asserted. It thus, undoubtedly, contributed in no trifling degree to his success in life, since it accustomed him to transact his business at all times, while every fact relating to it was fresh in his memory, insuring by this method the best understanding of his own rights and interests, as well as those of the parties for whom he acted. Consequently, in Mr. Davis's practice, every transaction con- stituted a finality, as regarded itself. At the completion of his collegiate course, Mr. Davis graduated in a class of nearly one hundred, among all of whom he had but one rival in scholarship ; and, receiving his diploma as Bachelor of Arts, bade adieu to his Alma Mater, and entered upon the great world of active life. He first sought and obtained employment in the ofiice of Register of Chan- cery, at Albany, N. Y., where he occupied whatever leisure was allowed him from his duties in the reading of Blackstone and the study of the French. While there he attracted the notice and received the friendly advice of the late Chancellor Kent, that distinguished jurist, so well known and honored on both sides of the Atlantic ; who, likewise, on our stu- dent's departure for the south, gave him a letter of presentation, couched in that terse and lucid style for which the writer was so eminent, and warmly testifying to the moral character, industry, and intelligence of his young acquaintance. It was, moreover, by the Chancellor's advice, that Mr. Davis selected the new Empire State of the South as his point of des- tination in locating a field for successful practice. The adventurous youth arrived in Georgia with but fifteen dollars in his pocket. No definite term had at that time (nor indeed has it since) been fixed for the reading of law by students in that State before their admission to the bar ; and, after a year's preparation, Mr. Davis was accepted as a practitioner in the Superior Courts, the highest legal tri- bunals, exercising jurisdiction both in common law and equity. Previous to 1845, no Supreme Court existed in Georgia; consequently every Su])erior Judge w;is independent, paramount in his own circuit, and alternating with no others ; and the decisions of one circuit pos- sessed no binding authority in a succeeding one. These judges were appointed by the Legislature, and held position for only three years ; and it was a matter of repeated occurrence, that the most solemn de- cisions of an incumbent of this oflice were overiuled by his successor in the same circuit, with no opportunitv for an aggrieved party to obtain redress by appeal or writ of error. The judges never considered themselves answerable to the people ; and when some counsel, more deejily read, perhaps, than the judge himself, ventured respectfully to complain of the illegality of some procedure, the reply of the bench, in more than one instance, has been, "If it is not law, my decision shall make it so." Counsel, as may be seen, were thus helpless before the presiding officer, while the people, in their ignorance, were ever ready to bow to the dicta of the bench, how much soever against their own real interests. It was under such an administration of the judiciary, however, that John Mc- CHARLES D. DAVIS, OF GEORGIA. 137 Pherson Berrien (once Attorney General of the United States, and late U. S. Senator), AYilliam Law, and the elder and young;er Charltons, together with all the judges of the present Supreme Court of Georgia, and a host of other eminent lawyers, acquired their legal knowledge and ex- perience. These complicated difficulties, surrounding legal practice at the time of his admission to the Georgia bar, induced Mr. Davis to delay for a period the pursuit of his profession, and to accept the position of a tutor in the State University, which situation he filled with gratifying success. So sedentary an emplovment, however, began speedily to affect his health, and he relinquished it, to open an office in Monroe, Walton county, where, during twenty-nine years, he has since resided, and at the present time enjoys a lucrative practice ; with no diminution of energy in his personal and professional character. Mr-. Davis presents a notable instance of the almost uninterrupted enjoyment of excellent health, he having suffered severe pain but once during upwards of a quarter of a century ; and medical men attribute this exemption from much of the common "ills that flesh is heir to," to his uniformly industrious and strictly temperate habits. Throughout his professional career, it has been his endeavor to effect timely settlements in every case where it could be justly done, never allowing the prospect of a fee to influence his advice to a client. Regarding the declaration, " Blessed are the peace-makers," to be as worthy of regard in municipal law as in the gospel system, he has been happily successful in its appli- cation ; so much so, indeed, that during ten years, but one action for slan- der was broucrht in the county wherein he lived ; and this, through the influence of their neighbors, the parties consented to settle at once. Mr. Davis, in the early portion of his career, served one term in the Legis- lature of his adopted State, and was regarded while in that position as a man of promise, possessing in a great degree the elements of sound poli- tical knowledge, and acquitting Iiimself in debate with credit to himself and constituents. But the life of a politician soon grew distasteful to the young lawyer. lie speedily discerned the insincere character of mere office-seekers, and full}' realized the hollowness of their professions ; while their harano-ues to the multitude, conaratulatino' them that the places of honor and trust were alike open to all, appeared sadly at vari- ance to his mind with the disappointment which they evinced when unsuccessful in their own search for preferment. Besides, the expedients and manoeuvres so customary in party tactics were little calculated to attract a man who, like Mr. Davis, always admired, in political as well as private life, a sincere, open line of conduct. He could never, therefore, be induced to make what he considered a holocaust of his moral dicfnitv upon the altar of party, but rather chose, in answering the question which he often asked himself, "How shall I make the most of human life?" to adopt in his practice the poet's conclusion — " Honor and fame from no condition rise : Act well 3'our part — tliere all the honor lies." The ploughman in boots is higher than the gentleman on his knees, is an aphorism explained in this country by the assumption that the 138 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. people are the true sovereigns ; and if tins be the case, why is it not well to consider -a station among them as sufficiently honorable and dignified ? Such a view, at any rate, seemed to influence Mr. Davis, for, with one exception, he strictly adhered to his determination neither to seek nor obtain public office. This determination comported with the opinion which Mr. Davis ever maintained, that every man owes to posterity the legacy of a good ex- ample ; that the object of each should be to so fill his place upon the great stage of human existence, that the world should be benefited by his having lived. 'Jlie mere drone or man of pleasure lives to no pur- pose, though his inheritance be princely. Mr. Davis was rigidly utili- tarian in his ideas. He beheved that those are the happiest who add most to the productive interests of their country, while their example operates to the teaching of others ; that these, moreover, are the true conservators of public morals, because persevering industry allows no time for dissipation and crime. If honor and celebrity were conferred by usefulness to mankind and personal integrity, then thousands, now occupying small space in popular memory, would have descended to their graves with a reputation as benefactors of their country, greater than that of multitudes whose names are never sounded by " fame's trumpet blast.'' The simple citizen who, like the subject of this sketch, has passed an irreproachable life in the constant exercise of useful employ- ment, acquiring a comfortable independence for himself and family, would then be considered to have accomplished more actual good for mankind, and deserved more praise, than any mere conqueror of men upon a battle-field. Military chieftains are the children of circumstances. It required the mad folly of the first French Revolution to produce a Bonaparte, while every age and nation of the civilized world \s rich in thousands whose brows are emblazoned with the moral dignity of private worth.* Mr. Davis married early in life, and in this step he was actuated by well considered views of the sanctity and utility of this relation. " 1 have always," said he, " looked upon marriage as a matter of absolute duty, not as a thing of mere convenience — an institution of Divine ap- pointment, obligatory, with some rare exceptions, upon all the human family. He who declines its responsibilities comes far, very far, from making the most of human life, either for his own good or that of his fellow-creatures ; because he lives in continued violation of one of Heaven's ordinances. Without marriage, what would be the fate of pub- lic morals ? How could even the young be educated in the way of virtue and piety where the sanctity of the married state does not exist ?" Enter- taining these ideas, Mr. Davis entered upon the marriage relation at as early a stage as prudence permitted, and dwelt in great conjugal har- mony and aft'ectiou with his first wiffe during fifteen years, at the close of which period Heaven saw fit to remove the partner of his choice. They were never blessed with children ; and under the sad bereavement of * The present Governoi- of Georgia, soon after his retirement from tlie office of Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, remarked to Mr. Davis — "Sir, I would much prefer your situation to my own. You liave the respect of all who know vou. I am," he continued, " tired of public life." ^«MB(»r«; 3»BW3sre»?Etf « l LTj^rav:-.' 0', I.RioEr??c xrcir a I'teusj- C>' SOVl'ri AMBOXl^r.J. .■^^ruYf.o /■•'■ IJi-^-.-rai'^^_ -j! SH-ttrh.c!i Of Sn^- ABRAHAM EVERITT, OF NEW JERSEY. 139 this, his nearest human friend, Mr, Davis learned to appreciate the value of that religion of Avhich both had been professors from the time of their union till it was broken by death. " Before this period," writes Mr, Davis, " I had thought myself aware of the value of religion, but now I was taught that I had hitherto remained a comparative stranger to the sublime depths of its consolations. "When I determined to make the most of human existence, I sought instruction in the science of Christian philosophy, as well as in worldly wisdom ; and now I learned that he alone makes the most of it who prepares while he may for a happy immortality," At a suitable time after the demise of his first wife, Mr. Davis became joined in marriage to the daughter of a pious clergyman, some years since deceased ; and from this second union have resulted two children — a son and daughter. It is in the mercantile world that Mr. Davis has been a special legal favorite. His promptitude and energy of character, united with busi- ness talent, have always insured for him, among the commercial commu- nity, a professional harvest in money and celebrity ; and as he studied the law as a science, endeavoring to elucidate all its mysteries, he has gained the reputation of a sound lawyer in every department of the profession. The career of Mr. Davis is an illustration of the value of untirino- diligence and sound judgment in the acquisition of fortune. Blessings in the storehouse and in the basket are conferred alone through the bounty of Providence, but human eflPort is powerful to desei've, and human energy to hasten the day of success and prosperity. And if, in imitation of the spirit which has actuated the subject of this notice, throughout his life, to inquire " how he could make the most of human existence," others in the struoffifle of life should '" do likewise," who shall say how great may be their reward ? ABRAHAM EVERITT, OF SOUTH AMBOy, NEW JERSEY. In every sphere of life, no matter what it may be, men are to be found who deserve to be distinguished from their fellow-men, either because they excel in that department to which they have devoted their energies, by improving all the opportunities which friends and wealth have thrown in their way, or because without wealth, without friends, and notwith- standing difficulties of the gravest kind, they force themselves by indo- mitable perseverance and industry into a position which bespeaks the respect of the community in which they dwell. In every branch of active life, whether in commerce or in legislation, in scientific or mecha- nical pursuits, are to be found at all times men who stand far above their compeers, and whose history serves to encourage the youth who aspire 140 SKETCUES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to similar avocations. This pre-eminence may arise from many causes which redound to the honor of those who possess it, although, at times, it may be the result of accident, rather than of any superior qualities of mind. Wealth and family, or political influence, will often place men in prominent positions in life, and thus bring their names before the public. Hence, if such persons possess only mediocre talent, it is thought, as a matter of course, that they should succeed. This is particularly the case in such countries as England and the like, where nobility and gentility monopolize all the avenues leading to greatness. In a country like ours, where there is no distinction of caste, where family interest nor •wealth can necessarily make a great man, and where industry and perse- verance can raise a man to the highest position in the land, every man, no matter how obscure his origin, how slender his means, can by honest labor and unceasing activity gain any position he may aspire to. He has only to will it, and it will be brought within his grasp ; and the men who thus acquire wealth, honor, and a position in society solely by their own industry, are more respected by their fellow-men than those who owe their wealth, their position in life, rather to accidental causes, than to any energy or industry of their own. Self-made men are, and ever should be, the pride of a country like ours. They tend to develop the beauty of our peculiar republican system, and manifest that equality which is the boast of our Constitution. Indeed, we may venture to assert that they, of all classes of our citizens, are the most loyal, and the strongest admirers of everything that is American. There are those who wou'd snub them, because of their obscurity of birth, because they cannot trace their ancestry to remote periods. Ancestry, however, or noble birth, are no virtues, unless the virtues they may accidentally entail are preserved untarnished ; for unfortunately, now-a-days, the heirs of great and rich families are of little account. Of all those who have held and now hold distinguished positions in our country, those who have risen from the ranks of the people, and owe everything they have to their own industry, by far out-number those who have sprung from old and wealthy families. It is a duty, then, we owe to the vouth of our country to place before them the Htos of those of our citizens who, by their perseverance and industry, have acquired honorable positions from their fellow-men, in order that, encouraged by their example, they, too, may become useful citizens, and faithful children of their country. The subject of this memoir, Abraham Everitt, was born in the year 1805, at Everittstown, Hunterdon countv, New Jersev. His grandfather, William Everitt, and his brother x\brahani, emigrated from England some ten years previous to the Revolution, and settled on the Big Nas- sau Creek, Hunterdon county, New Jersey. William Everitt, having brought some money with him from England, purchased a large tract of country comprising some thousand acres, and in a few years he erected thereon a grist and saw-mill, a blacksmith shop, and some dwellings, so that at the commencement of the revolutionary struggle, he saw quite a village grown up around him, which, in honor of its founder, was called Everittstown. When the news of the first conflict between the colonists and the troops of the mother country aroused the indignation of the whole country, William and his brother Abraham hastened to enroll themselves under the republican flag, and did duty in almost all ABRAHAM EVERITT, OF NEW JERSEY. 141 the battles which consecrated the soil of New Jersey to the cause of freedom. Abraham Everitt, the brother of William, lost his life at the battle of Monmouth. After England, unable to cope with her colonies, acknowledijed their independence, William retired to his farm, happy in the knowledge that his brave arm had been lifted in the cause of his adopted country. In the year 1790, death took him away from the midst of a flourishing settlement. lie was succeeded in the estate by Major David Everitt. Abraham, the subject of this memoir, was the eldest son of David Everitt, yet living, and grandson of William Everitt, the founder of Ever- ittstown. He spent the early part of his youth in the capacity of clerk with his cousin, Adam Everitt, of Everittstown. Anxious to improve his mind, he employed the time he could snatch from his occupation as clerk, in acquiring the elements of a plain education. While iu the em- ployment of his uncle, he w^as remarkable for his prudent management of the business committed to his charge. And so tenacious was he of truth, that once having passed his word, what he promised was sure to be fulfilled. Indeed, if his after life be taken as a proof of his early habits, we can vouch for the truth of this statement. At that time gam- bling, horse-racing, betting and such like vices were very prevalent among the young men. Abraham, however, was never known to participate in these practices, so ruinous in their consequences. In the year 1821, his cousin. Major David Everitt, having sold out the family estate at Everittstown, went to live at Hackettstown, Sussex, now W^arren county. Abraham, wishing to acquire some business which would be the means of making him independent of his family and enable him in after life to live by his own industry, resolved to leave the pater- nal roof, and seek his fortune away from his native place. His parents raised every possible objection to such an undertaking, and strove to per- suade him to remain at home, but with no eft'ect. Wrapping up his clothing in a cotton handkerchief, he left home secretly during the night ; having a few shillings in his pocket, together with a watch and gun. Making his way to his cousin, at Hackettstown, he engaged with a car- •penter named Leake, in the service -of his uncle, and bound himself to remain with Leake until his twenty-first year, receiving as compensation the half of his earnings. A little instance will show how early in life he learned to economize. When he first arrived at Hackettstown, he traded his gun for a pair of boots, which lasted him for the space of three years. While serving his time with Leake, Abraham's father, finding that the oil business in which he was engaged was unprofitable, resolved to sell out and abandon his native place, and to emigrate to western New York, called the Lake countrv. Knowing the valuable services his son Abraham could render him in his new home, he wished to buy out his son's time. Abraham, however, feeling that the opportunity he en- joyed of learning his trade, if lost, would injure his future prospects, de- clined going. He was strengthened in this determination, because he thought that his brothers, who were to accompany their parents, were amply able to render them all the assistance tliey required. Abraham remained, therefore, with Leake until ho had served out his time, when he was the possessor of a good stock of tools and eighty odd dollars. After the completion of his apprenticeship he went to New York, where he re- 142 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. mained for six mouths. He then returned to Hackettstown and com- menced business as a master carpenter. He married, in the year 1828, Annie Emery, the daughter of a ■wealthy farmer of the neighborhood. Mr. Emery at first opposed the marriage, because he thought Abraham Everitt too poor for a girl who had been accustomed to such a comfort- able home as his house afiorded. However, love won the battle, and they were married. When the Morris Canal Company commenced operations, he applied to them for employment, and, with a Mr. Goulder, was engaged in 1829-30 in building wood-work on various parts of the canal, and was appointed a superintendent of the inclined planes by Major Sykes, With A. H. tt: J. J. Scofield, he was employed in building bridges, and doing other wood-work along the canal, during the year 1836 and part of 183V. In the year 1837, Mr. Everitt, his brother-in-law, and a Mr. Shields, took a contract from the Morris and Essex Railroad Company to build four miles of the road. Mr. Everitt bought Mr. Shields's share of the contract, and, with his brother-in-law Mr. Emery, commenced operations. The pressure of money matters at that pe- riod, and other causes, forced them to resign the contract, because they saw that they could not by any means finish the contract with- out losing all they had. The railroad company, not wishing to lose Mr. Everitt's services, made him many advantageous oft'ers, which, how- ever, he declined. He then returned to the service of the Morris Canal Company, and remained with A. H. & J. J. Scofield for eighteen months. In May, 1838, he, with Mr. A. H. Scofield, commenced a contract with the Camden and Amboy railroad, to grade the branch road from Brunswick to Trenton, and finished his sections of the work in less than three months. They th«i contracted to lay the rails of the whole road from Trenton to Brunswick, a distance of twenty-five miles, and completed the contract by the first of January, 1839, to the satisfaction of the company. While fulfilling this contract, Mr. Everitt, at the special request of the company, through their chief engineer. General Cook, undertook to build a bridge across the Millstone river, and finished it before Christmas, and thus enabled the company to comply with the requisitions of their charter, which required them to run over the road by the first of January. At the completion of his contract of laying the track, he was appointed general superintendent of the road from New Brunswick to Trenton. In 1839, Mr. Everitt was engaged, by General Cook, to go to Missis- sippi to superintend the laying of the track and the running of the cars on the Grand Gulf Road, and remained there six months, after Avhich he returned to New Jersey. On his return, he was appointed one of the superintendents of the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, at South Amboy, and still fills that position. With the exception of his absence at the South, Mr. Everitt has been with the Camden and Amboy Company for the last sixteen years. During his residence at South Am- boy, he has filled almost all the offices, both of town and county, such as coroner, school commissioner, &c., f^ruj.cU y ■" ^u:^fu//fusM/KjfCJiC'u. , ■ Ji.m.^Ji£:ni .^'m^''i ELIJAH CLEVELAND, OF VERMONT. 145 severance Mr. SchaelTer succeeded in amassing a considerable sum of money. When twenty-five years of age lie entered the married state ; seven years after, his wife died. He was again married, and is now the father of five children, three of whom are married, his eldest son being in partnership with him. In 1841 Mr. Schaeff"er was ap- pointed by Govei'nor David li. Porter to the commission of associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the county, for five years ; at the expiration of which term he was re-appointed by the late Governor Francis 11. Shunk, and continued to hold office until the amended Con- stitution took eflect, by which the elections were made by the people. Mr. Schaefler, therefore, held the office of associate judge for nine years, and discharged the duties of the appointment faithfully. In the same year (1841) Mr. Schaefter was elected President of the Lancaster Savings Institution, which position he still holds. For thirteen years Mr. Schaefler was President of the City Councils. Besides these, he has been chosen to fill various other offices of trust and responsibility, all of which he has discharged in such a manner as to reflect credit on him- self and give entire satisfaction to the public. Mr. Schaefter is an ardent supporter of the temperance cause, and has during the whole of his life adhered strictly to those principles of sobriety, honesty, and proper ob- servance of religious duties, which result in that success and prosperity which he now enjoys. ELIJAH CLEVELAND, OF IRASBURG, VERMONT. Elijah Cleveland was born in the town of Hanover, New Hamp- shire, on the 29th day of June, 179G, being the eldest of three children, two sons and one daughter. His father, Elijah Phillips Cleveland, was a native of the town of Brooklyn, "Windham county, Connecticut, who at an early age entered the army of the Pievolution, in which he served durino- the last three years of that memorable contest. At the conclusion of the war, having been discharged at West Point, he returned to his native town. In November, 1*792, he married Mary Kinne, of Abington, and in the January following removed to Hanover. Being possessed of very limited ])ecuniary means, the elder Cleveland hired a farm on which he lived about seven years. In March, 1800, he removed to the town of Waterford, situated on the Connecticut liver, in Caledonia county, Vermont ; here he purchased a tract of wild land, which he commenced clearing, and, in the fall of the same year, erected thereon a small house, into which he moved with his family, at that time consisting of a wife and two children. Here were experienced all those privations incident to settling in a new country with very limited pecu- niary means at command. As may readily be supposed, the means of obtaining an education in this new settlement were very limited. When VOL. IV. 10 146 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Elijah was seven years old, lie attended a school kept in a common farm barn bv a female. Here he pursued his studies during- three months of each summer, for five summers, and during the same period each -winter, for six winters. His text books consisted of the far-famed Webster's Spelling-book, Alexander's Grammar, and Adams's Arithmetic ; these were all the school books to which he had access. During his carlv vears. while Elijah's time was not occupied in his studies, he assisted his father in clearing the forest, and in performing the various labors of the farm. In the midst of these toils, however, he evinced a desire to engage in som.e mechanical pursuit, and a very strong aversion to the labors of the farm. In liis love for mechanical labor, he visited all the shops to which he could obtain access, frequently attempting to manu- facture sleds, and various other articles. During one fall and winter, he spent all his leisure time in the manufacture and sale of birch brooms; at another time he worked at basket making. Entering the swamps in the morning, he would gather stock all day, and in the evening prepare it for weavnng. In all these pursuits he was constantly opposed by his father, who was of opinion that a lad of such varied "talents never could succeed in any one thing. Finally, however, the father yielded so far to the importunities of his son, as to purchase for him a few shoemaker's tools, with which he eagerly set to work mending shoes for the family, and occasionally doing some jobs for the neighbors, and even manufactur- ing some rude articles which could scarcely be called shoes. In this pur- suit he met with many discouragements, his friends being of opinion that shoe-making was a poor trade. But Elijah had heard that Billy Gray was once a shoemaker, and referring to him he persisted in his inten- tion. When Elijah was fifteen years old, he succeeded in obtaining the per- mission of his father to enter into an agreement with Mr. Rowell, of Little- boro, N. H., by which he engaged to work in Mr. Rowell's shop for three months each autumn for two years, Mr. Rowell giving him board, lodg- ing, and instruction in his trade, as recompense for his labor. Mr. Cleveland looks back upon the day on which he commenced work for Mr. Rowell as one of the happiest of his life ; from that day he labored on the farm with his father during the summer, and worked at his trade, sometimes in shops, and sometimes at home, during the winter. In March, before he became of age, voung Cleveland bought the re- maining three months of his time from his father, paying him therefor thirty-six dollars, and began to look about for a proper place in which to begin liis career as a business man. He finally determined to settle in a place called Passumpsic, in the town of Barnet, in Caledonia county. Ac- cordingly, about the 15th of May, he removed to that place and com- menced working at his trade under favorable auspices, the people of the place being friendly and encouraging him in his enterprise. On the loth of < Jctober, 181G, after making for himself a pair of wed- ding shoes and riding eight miles on horseback, he married Miss Maria Farrington. Mr. Cleveland's first experience in housekeeping was on a very limited scale. With his young wife he occupied two rooms, one of which was used for a shop, the other for parlor, kitchen, drawing-room, dining-room, &c. In these two rooms Cleveland passed the next two years of his life, at the ELIJAH CLEVELAND, OF VERMOKT. 147 termination of wliicli period he found himself in sucli circumstances as permitted him to rent a comfortable house and shop. Until December, 1824, Mr. Cleveland continued carrying on his shoe busiuef^s, to which he added the manufacture of harness, trunks, weaver's rods, and shoe blacking; in all of which he met with success. About this period Mr. L. P. Parks, of Passumpsic, an old friend, offered to furnish capital sufficient to enable him to engage in mercantile business ; this offer was accepted, and in February, 1825, he commenced business in the town of Coventry, Vermont, in connection with Mr. L. P. Parks, and Messrs. John and Luther Clark, of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, three very prominent business men at that time. Having had no experience in mercantile pursuits, Mr. Cleveland labor- ed under many disadvantages. He soon found, however, that there was a quick demand for his goods, which he increased bv introducing the system of barter, taking all kinds of couirtry produce in payment for his store goods. In a short time he was doing a very heavy business. The partnership was continued until August, 1837, when Mr. John Clark died. Cleveland then continued the business alone until April, 184G, when he admitted as a partner Mr. Wm. U. Baxter, a young man, with whom he continued until May, 1850, when he relinquished mercantile business en- tirely, having been eno-ao-ed in it for tweutv-five years without interruption. Durinof his business career, Mr. Cleveland retained his earlv love for mechanical labor, which he gratified by taking occasional jobs of build- ing, and erectincT on his own account mills and machinerv of various kinds. In 1836 he erected a building and machinery for the manufac- ture of potato starch, in which he is still engaged. In 1837 he com- menced farming on a small scale ; having gradually extended his opera- tions, he is now cultivating one hundred and seventy-five acres of im- proved land. In 1832 a charter was obtained for the Bank of Orleans, at Irasburg. Mr. Cleveland was one of the commissioners named in the charter, and on the organization of the companv, he was elected one of the directors, which office he has held until the present time. Since January, 1848, he has been President of the institution. In 1839 he yielded to the importunities of his friends, and became a candidate for representative to the State Legislature, and was elected in 1839, '40, '41, and '4G. In 1844 he was elected by the State Lsgistature first assistant justice of the county court in Orleans county. In 1848, he was elected one of the presidential electors for the State of Vermont, and cast his vote for Zachary Taylor. Mr. Cleveland was an early frienl and supporter of the various rail- road enterprises in his State. He was a warm friend of the Connecti- cut and Passumpsic River Railroad from its commencement, and spent much time and money in promoting the interests of that corporation. In 1849 he was elected one of its directors, which office he still holds. As a citizen, Judge Cleveland has been distinguished for his liberaHty. In his devotion to business, he has not been unmindful of the claims of society, but has always generously contributed to the support of those institutions calculated to improve the general interests and character of 148 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the community. In 1830 he invested several hundred doHars in the erection of a house of worship. He has uniformly aided in sustaining the institutions of the gospel, by affording liberal pecunary aid. He never turned from his door with an empty hand one who asked of him an alms : aware that he might sometimes be deceived in the objects of his charity, he thought it safer to give to all ; then there could be no danger of turning the deserving poor away. In 1819 Mr. Cleveland united with the fraternity of Freemasons: this step served as an introduction to a higher grade of society than that to ■which he had been accustomed, and also as a strong incentive, inducing him to endeavor to become worthy of his associates. He subsequently became master of a lodge and high priest of a Koyal Ai-ch Chapter. We close this brief sketch by the following from a letter recently received from a neighbor of our subject : — Judge Cleveland has for nearly thirty years been a business man in the town where he now resides, extensively engaged as a farmer, merchant, and manufacturer ; during much of the time, too, employed in managing the affairs of cor- porations of which he has been a member, director, &c. In these varied occupations he has ever been distinguished for pru- dence, far-seeing financial skill, and laithfid devotion to every enterprise in which he has been engaged. Until within a few years. Judge Cleveland mainly devoted his energies to the business of merchandising, and on this employment chiefly relied for the accumulation of wealth ; and although residing in a sparsely populated country, and selling his goods to the pioneers of the town and county, to those not able to pay as they are now able, yetselling at prices and profits that no dealer could now realize, still it has always been and now is the rare good fortune of Judge Cleveland to possess a most enviable character as a business man. Those among whom he has so long lived, and with whom he has constantly dealt, and from whose trade he has become wealthy, all accord to him the praise of an honest, trustworthy, and reliable dealer, above resorting to any of the tricks of trade, demanding and receiving the same price for the same or similar article from the rich and the poor, and spurning the too common mode of pricing, " as one can light o' chaps." From this uniform and consistent manner in business. Judge Cleveland undoubtedly failed to make many a good bargain, but any such loss has been amply repaid by the confidence reposed in him and his widely ex- tended reputation, that his recommendation of his own wares depended upon his opinion of their intrinsic value, and not upon his anxiety to sell them ; and the mere child could buy at his counter at the same price as could the sharpest customer. As a member of the State Legislature, Judge Cleveland has ranked deservedly righ. Although he never made any pretensions as a debater, and therefore seldom made a set speech, yet in the more ard-uous duties of a member of committees, no one was more competent or industrious. We believe he was every year during the term he was in the Legislature a member, and part of the time chairman, of the Committee of Ways and Means, wherein his sound, practical common sense, and excellent financial ability, made him a most valuable legislator. During the twenty years Judge Cleveland has been Director and Presi- m m w,^^^ ■,i^ ' - ^' 9r^ "y^ >^. *£^^-?^ ■c3 WILLIAM T. BARNARD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 149 dent of the Bank of Orleans, we believe it is no injustice to his associates to say, that the chief financical nianageraeut of the institution has been confided to him, and in every exio-ency 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. WILLIA]\f T. BARNARD, OF ISSAQUENA COUNTT, MISSISSIPPI, Was born September 10th, 1821, in Adams county, Mississippi. His parents were natives of the same place, both his grandfathers having emigrated there at an early date. His father dj'ing 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 county, 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 Legislature. EBENEZER M. CHAMBERLAIN OF IKDIAKA. Ebenezer M. Chamberlain, formerly President Judge of tlie Ninth Judicial Circuit in the State of Indiana, now a member of the XXXlVth 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 limited 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 his earnitigs until the sun went down on the day he completed his minorit3^ After reaching his majority, he continued liis 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 Jaw. 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 lo 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, -sjifirayed bv J C Bu'-nc C<^ Z 1^ OF Il,WIjiKA . MEMBSR OF TS£ 33 "" CONGRSSS ^nj/ray^^ r^r tiD^raziru^il SloBtrhej ^' AnuuK^ t^im^ rw t i n^ , EBEKEZER M. CHAMDERLAIN, OF INDIANA. 151 then just emergiiig from the condition of an unbroken wilderness, and commenced the practice of his profession. In the summer of 1835 he Avas elected one of the two representatives in the Lep^islature 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 aftairs 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 Plascall, Esq., of Le Koy, New York, a lady pre-eminent for all those amiable 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 Buren 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 proper subjects for eulogy. We make a few extracts : " The administration of Andrew Jackson formed an epoch in the his- tory of tliis mighty republic, as did that of his great political model, Thonjas Jefterson. Such vigor, however, had the Hydras and Gorgons of Federalism acquired by long feasting upon the very vitals of the Con- stitution, that thev were not to be exterminated by one effort of Hercules. And as his successor, to carry out his measures, to pei'petuate his prin- ciples, to finish the task of political regeneration which Jackson had so gloriously begun, the democracy of the country turned their eyes on that sworn enemy of Federalism, Martin Van Buren. " liaised from obscurity to eminence by the unaided energies of his own great mind and unblemished moral worth, endeared to the democracy by his bold and manly vindication of our principles, and by his 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 betrayed, 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 honor. With all his principles distinctly avowed, the honor was conferred. As chief magistrate of the nation, he neglected no duty, violated no pledge, betrayed no trust, dis- appointed no expectation, abandoned no principle, usurped no power, but in all thino's 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 the cam- paign of 1840, and predicting the dissokition of the Whig party into its oriffinal elements, he closes with the following word of encouragement to his political friends : '•In all that we have seen, and all that as a party we have suffered, is there anv cause of alarm or despair ? Xo, 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 who dis- trust the people, but Avofully deceived are they who flatter themselves that we are about to surrender at discretion. Courage then, 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- wind of 1840 had reduced the democratic strength 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 which 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 incorporation to pass through his hands without an effort to require individual liability on the part of stockholders, and to reserve to the people, through their representatives, the right of amendment and repeal. In 1842 he was elected bv 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 was 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 which 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 occupying a similar position commands more of the 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 them. His earnest endeavors to administer strict justice, his character for unbending integrity, and his clear exposi- EBENEZER M. CUAMBERLAIK, OF INDIANA. 153 tions of law, have 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 some 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 : — '' Laporte, March U, 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 Whig 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 perforin them with honor to yourself and credit to the bench. " With sentiments of esteem and respect we remain yours, ^^^-^ . JiLijy.'JA . ED^W-IN FARRAR, OF VIRGINIA. 161 lie was the oldest son then with his mother, in Virginia, he was induced by her, reluctantly, 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 affairs of the bank requiring constant application and great labor, im- paired his health to such an extent that he was compelled, in 1646, by the advice of his phvsician, to g"0 to Havana, and thence to the south of France and Italy. In the fall of 1847 he returned home, restored to health, and resun:ied 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 bis undertakings. EDWIN FAERAE, or RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, 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 fathei-, 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 lionoi'able exei'tion. in whatever pursuit he might elect to fol- low. His education was limited, yet he ever displaved a reverence for the wisdom, virtue, and learning of " the faihers 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 vnth an energy of VOL. IV. 11 162 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. purpose rarely surpassed, liis prospects were bright and his success sure. He selected, at an early period of youth, a commercial lite as his choice, and while yet quite young entered one of the first houses in Richmond. He soon displayed 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 youth 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 formed, 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 party on the success of which he believed the prosperity of the country depended. In 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 intercourse 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 \ ^.ie^erj. ■!<■ . J-?/. £. W.TT. Y > J'HJ^SIZi.CN'J' CJ-' rjJ'J:.' V^ CS:7r7'IlAZ JiAII. JiOAS OOJ^PAIf^ 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 grandfather of Henry Clay. These two brothers married the two Miss Jennings, who, it is believed, are the regular de- scendants in line, and right heirs 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 Martha 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 afar." 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 forefiithers. 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 discern, in the peculiarities which distinguish the various inhabitants of this great country (comprehended, for want of a better, under the general butnon-dia- tinclive name of Americans), the strong features, and the prominent iia- 164 SKETCHES OF EMIKEK^T 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 unfrequently, 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 ^'^sited 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, tied from his native country, and with many other exiled pilgrims, took refuge from the bloody persecution of Louis XIV. in England. Havdng 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 jMaury, emigrated to the colony of Vii-gir.ia, 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 surrender of Cornwallis and his army on that memorable occasion. It is only a few years ago, that Wm. C. 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, 1781, less than one week after the event, detailing 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 r[uaHties, which he has illustrated in his less conspicuous, but useful and * These particulars are gleaned from a sjiirited and interesting work just is- sued from the press of I'utnani it Co., entitled "Memoirs of a Huguenot Fami- ly, translated and complied from the original autobiography of the Eev. James Fontaine, by Ann Maury," herself a descendant of the distinguished family^ whose memoirs she has gracefully edited. EDMUND FONTAINE, OF VIRGINIA. 165 honorable career. His mother, Mrs. Ann Fontaine, was the daughter of William Morris of Hanover, and the sister of Kichard IMorris of the same county — an eminent lawyer and statesman, whose high reputation for talents, social virtue, and chivalrous honor is familiarly known throuofh- 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 tiie simplicity of republican manners which makes merit, not family distinctions, the only criterion of public consideration and respect. It is to exliibit tlie spirit of manly tVeedom, 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, energy, and thritt 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 Legislatui'e 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 L)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 previously been married at the age of twenty-four to Maria Louisa Shackleford — a lady whose persona! attractions, united to her amiable disposition and culti- 16G 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 oftspring, whose training and edu- cation he has directed with tlie most anxious and assiduous care. It was durino" 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 aft'airs of the then Louim^ 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 ot'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 was 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 through 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 proposal 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 which 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 stockholders. This might be endangered, and a large party among the stockholders loudly insisted OF VIRGINIA. 167 that the connection should continue, and that tlie perilous experiment of sustaining- 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 and the spirit of liberty. Amid much excitement and warm but ineft'octual opposition, he succeeded in convincing the stockholders that honorable independence was no less politic than right. From that day this little local road received an impulse which has steadily urged it onward in the path of prosperity and success. Following up this separa- tion by a subsequent and more effectual emancipation of all control of, and connection with its early and envious neighbor, by the construction of an independent road to Richmond, crossing the Richmond and North- ern road at the junction, the old Louisa road, now known to fame as the Virginia Central Railroad, has become, under the fostering and careful management of President Fontaine, emphatically the leading road of the State, stretching itself far beyond its first mountain barrier, and now under contract by its connections with the Blue Ridge and the Covington and Ohio railroads, to the long wished for waters of the Ohio river. This result has not been attained without great exertions and the most untiring perseverance on the part of the president and directors. On President Fontaine especially and almost exclusivelv devolved the heavy task of sustaining the road, under many adverse circumstances. Having procured a naked charter from the Legislature for the extension by an independent road to Richmond, against heavy opposition, he set about the difficult task of raising the necessary funds to build the road. In this enterprise he encountered pecuhar difficulties from the timid, the lukewarm, and the disaff"ected in his own company, and especially from the ceaseless hostility to the whole scheme on the part of his old rivals, the Richmond and Potomac company, who 'complained of the infringe- ment of their monopoly, of the violation of their chartered privileges, and even invoked the interposition of the judiciary of both the State and Federal authority, to stop the construction of the work. Resolute in his purpose, and sustained by the generous confidence of a majority of the stockholders, Colonel Fontaine was not to be driven for a moment from the prosecution of the object he had undertaken. Perhaps the most formidable shape assumed bv the opposition at this crisis, consisted in the steady and systematic attempt to discredit the financial ability of the company, to exaggerate its liabilities, and thus to destroy its credit in the market. Reckless and ungenerous as was this species of opposition, it served onlv to call forth fresh energy and to display a bolder determination on the part of the president of the company. The actual subscription to the new stock to construct this section of the road of some twenty-five miles, reached only the inadequate sum of $38,000. Nothing daunted by such discouragements, and resolved to accomplish a work which he knew would enhance the value of the stock and infuse new life into the road, with real generosity he did not hesitate to pledge his own private re- sources in aid of the enterprise, and thus sustain the assailed credit of the company; after appropriating the entire sales of his crops to supply 16S SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. deficiencies in the company's fund. With some of his colleagues in the board of directors, he endorsed the company's paper to a heavy amount, at a time when its finances were low, and when, without such aid, the most serious embarrassments would have ensued. Such zeal, public spirit, and indefatigable energy, soon told in the rising prominence and prosperity of this, company. When called to the presidency, he found the road a mere local highway, extending from the junction in Hanover to Gordonsville, in Orange county, a distance of fifty miles. As a na- tural result of its limited business, its obscure position, and especially its ruinous dependence for its transportation on another company, to which it had become a mere tender, its stock of the original value of $100 had fallen to about ii>20 in the market, and many of the stockholders had ceased to take any active interest in its fortunes. Under the auspices of Colonel Fontaine, and deriving an invigorating vitality from his ener- getic administration, the whole aspect of its affairs is changed. Charters have been granted for its extension to the waters of the Ohio, in Avhicb the State has liberally and wisely embarked her own money to the extent of three fifths of the entire capital of near four millions of dollars. Its stock has rapidly advanced in the market to an honorable competition with the most profitable roads in the State, and it is now generally admitted that the most speedy, certain, and practicable connection of the Atlantic sea- board with the Ohio river is to be eff'ected by the Virginia Central Rail- road^ when united with the State's tributary lines already referred to. Indeed, if we regard the great Atlantic and Pacific railway as already decreed, there is every reason to believe that the Central railroad must constitute the Virginia link in that great chain which is to bind together our American Union in the stronc; bands of mutual commerce and association, unite by a direct line the shores of the two oceans, open the illimitable fields of oriental trade to our enterprise, and in time, by our steam connections with the Sandwich and South Pacific islands and the Chinese Empire, encircle the earth itself with a bright and unbroken girdle, diflfusing in its track the intelligence, the wealth, the refinement, and civilization of the age and country in which we live. That these ulterior advantages and this imposing mission of the railroad ■with which he has been so closely identified, seem not to have escaped the just anticipations of President Fontaine, is manifest from the manner in which he recites its objects and capabilities in the last annual report which, under date of October 29th, 1852, he made to the stockholders. He says : " With reference to the transportation of the heavy productions of the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, it will thus be seen that the James River canal, and the railroad from its terminus to the Ohio, present a line for its directness, the mild temperature of its location, and its ge- neral capacity for cheapness of transportation, unequalled by any which aims at connecting the West with the Atlantic coast A glance at the map of the United States is enough to show that the great outlet for Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee ought to be through Virginia to the Atlantic ; and the movements recently made and being made by these States in the work of improvement and intercommunication, have demon- strated most clearly, not only that the central railroad line through Vir- ginia is called for as a great medium of trade and travel, but that when made it must be a source of great profit from the investment." FRANCIS HAROLD DUFFEE, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 169 In person Col. Fontaine is of about the usual stature. He has the rather sliafht figure, the delicate features, blonde complexion, light hair, quick movements, and mild blue eyes which are usually characteristic of the Huguenot refugees. His manners are affable, frank, and cordial. Personal firmness, quick sagacity, and uncommon energy of puipose are plainly marked in his countenance and bearing. He has proved himself on more than one occasion no unequal match for some of the ablest and most skilful debaters in Virginia, whom it has been his fortune to encoun- ter in the political as well as the internal improvement conflicts in which he has been called to engage. It is this conviction of his valuable prac- tical talents, derived from thorough attention to his previous career, that drew from one of the most sagacious and prominent men in Virginia, himself a political opponent, a strong and emphatic rebuke of the sugges- tion that Col. Fontaine, under the new regime of the Board of Public Works in Virginia, would probably be osti'acized for some party favorite. He said with emphasis : " Never — never ! He has rendered too much ser- vice to the State, he has too much energy, perseverance, and practical good sense, for his services to be dispensed with. He has fought his way through the gibes and ridicule of enemies and lukewarm friends, and has forced him- self and his road to be respected. Such a tiian as that caii't be 2)ui down.'''' FRANCIS HAROLD DUFFEE, MEMBER OF THE SELECT COUNCIL OF PHILADELPHIA. It has been truthfully averred that the most difficult of all literary tasks, is to write an unexceptionable memoir of a living man. If the life is worth the record, there is always danger of oflending that delicacy Avhich is inseparable from merit ; for even moderate praise, which may meet the eyes of its subject, is apt to be fulsome, while a nice sense of propriety would not be the less wounded by a dry abstract which should contain nothing but names and dates. Notwithstanding this seeming di- lemma, we hold, however, to the opinion that there is much salutary infor- mation to be gleaned from the memoirs of those who may be emphati- cally termed self-made men — and hence it is that the various incidents of their lives frequently form so pleasing as well as monitory an infiuence. Of such a class is the subject of our present sketch, and although he has hitherto deservedly appeared in print as a " City Notable," and re- ceived high encomiums from another quarter as one confessedly of fine literary abilities, we purpose furnishing an entiiely new sketch, blend- ing a description of him both in an intellectual and business point of view, so as to embrace the distinguishing features of character which have rendered him worthy of being considered as an accomplished and useful citizen. Francis Harold Dufiee was born in the city of Philadelphia, on the 170 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. 9th day of October, 1813. The occupation of his father we are unac- quainted with, but we know he was not rich, notwithstanding he gave his two sons a most hberal education, thus fitting- them for the higher walks of hfe. His good intentions were not unrewarded, for Francis has gained himself a distinguished social and literary position ; and his brother, as a surgeon, has done sufficient to make his name associated with honor both in medical and sciientific circles. Mr. Duttee was, we believe, orififinallv intended for the counting-house, in which he was placed at an early age. But amid the summing up of long accounts and the wearisome investigation of ledgers and day books, he first gave in- dications of his fine literary powers. He set to work and produced seve- ral domestic dramas, which attracted the attention and charmed the fancy of some youthful Thespians, who had them immediately produced at one of their minor dramatic establishments. A now celebrated actor, who was an amateur at the time of their representations, has informed us that they made a most decisive hit, and that in the green-room gossip there were frequent speculations in regard to the author's future success as a play writer.* Mr. Duffee's next step in the classic but thorny path of litera- ture was to give vent to his poetic eft'usions through the columns of the " American Sentinel." At this period it was not every man who could be " connected with the press." The men who had control of the columns could read and understand, if they could not write good poetry ; and a piece, to insure insertion, must at least possess" merit. Now things have changed, and we really believe there are as many poets and authors as there are doctors and lawyers. But we cannot touch these things now ; all we have to do is to attend to Mr. Duffee. His poems were, to say the least of them, good if not great, and always received the sanction of the public and the approbation of those who indulged in reading the in- spiration of others. The folio wiag we clip from an old paper, which we give by way of justification for our remarks : — LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. Like dew-drops to the opening flower Is friendship to the soul ; Our bosoms feel its chastening power, And own its sweet control. But love is like the morning's befim O'er beds of roses early stealing; It wakens fancy's earliest dream, And warms to life each dormant feeling. "When reft of fortune's sunny smiles, We turn to friendship for relief; 'Tis this that every woe beguiles, And calms the aching throbs of grief. * See " Dramatic Authors of America." FRANCIS HAROLD DUFFEE, OF PENNSYLVANIA. l7l But love ! let that entwine our hearts, Its t^uiden links time cannot sever; Friendship's fond smile sometimes departs, But fervent love, it changeth never. After our author became somewhat known to the public by means of his articles in the " Sentinel," he commenced to contribute to other papers, that professed to be the leading ones of the country. The " Saturday Evening Post" got its share of his articles, as did the " Mechanic's Free Press." Ml'. I)uftee was an industrious young writer, and brought forth his articles in quick succession, although not sufficiently fast as some of the publishers would have liked. While engaged in contributing to the " Free Press," he got into a newspaper difficulty with some gentlemen •who seemed to be alarmed at his success. This only appeared to stimu- late him ; he went to work in earnest, replied to his opponents in a gen- teel manner which silenced them, and made new friends who have since turned out to be true ones. Shortly after this Mr. Duffee engaged to furnish the publisher of the "American Pioneer" with a series of Indian sketches, a task for which he was fully qualified, both by reason of his experience and fancy. They made an excitement as soon as they appeared, as the books of the paper can most fully and explicitly testify. One of them, the "Pequod Maid," we have read time and again with exquisite pleasure ; had we a copy of it we would gladly make extracts. " The Rival Chiefs," " The Eagle Plume," " The Last of his Tribe," and a number of others make up the series. They showed a lively imaginative power and a close observation to be their author's portion. They appeared without any name to them, however, and on that account some were adopted by a literary gentleman who, not having much originality of his own, prized himself on his good taste. The cheat was discovered, however, by some of the author's friends, who stripped the literary magpie of his stolen plumes, and gave them to their owner. We understand that our author has no copy of his sketches, but has scattered them like sybilline leaves to the future, whence they will at least ever be kept green in the memory and recollection of those by whom ihey are perused. From early life Mr. Diiftee has been an ardent admirer of the drama. He had studied it in detail, and there was scarcely a passage in any standard production upon the stage but what he had read and was familiar with. With this knowledge he had a fine conception, which was greatly improved by his becoming a pupil under I)wyer, the celebrated elocutionist. In perusing a file of the " Dramatic Mirror" which is before us, we find some very able criticisms published as editorial, that became celebrated among the lovers and judges of dramatic excellence. In one paper we find that the editor speaks of them as able contributions, and in almost every number we find commu- nications from persons endorsing and praising the articles for their inde- pendence, honesty, and beauty of style. It was while in connection with the " Dramatic Mirror" that Mr. DufFee became acquainted Avith Mr. James Recs, a well known critic and author. It appears somewhat singu- lar that two individuals of nearly the same school of thinking should thus come together with the same determination. They immediately be- came bosom friends, and remain so still, and it is to their combined eftbrts 172 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. that the patrons of the drama owe much in regard to the correction of stage abuses. Those who are cynical may exclaim with truth, " There is not much done as yet," but the articles of " Mac-duff" and " Colley Gib- ber" have begun the good work that must eventually be perfected. In mu- sical matters, Mr. Duffee has also some good pretensions. His knowledge of the divine art is practical, and he is perfectly familiar with all its techni- calities. Quite a number of operatic reviews from his pen appeared some time ago in the " Pennsylvanian" and " Daily Keystone," evincing much taste and scientific knowledge. After Mr. Duffee had spent some lime in his regular occupation as an accountant, destiny ordered him to under- take a journey to the " far West." When he arrived in Louisville, he found that his reputation had preceded bin], and where he expected to }neet the cold courtesy of strangers, he found the warm welcome of friend- slnp, and the extended hand of hospitality. He immediately became a regular contributor to the Louisville Journal, one of the best western pa- pers, edited by that well known poet, wit, and gentleman, George D. Pren- tice, Esq., whose kindness to Sumner Lincoln Fairfield at once showed the true spirit of philanthropy that held its place in his heart. This talented gentleman was so pleased with one of Mr. Duft'ee's productions, descriptive of the v.-estern prairies and Indian mounds, that he openly expressed himself in the following complimentary manner : " For graphic description and glowing imagery this piece has been but seldom equalled, and never surpassed." When a man Hke George D. Prentice thus ex- presses himself, we can in truth say that the production must be meri- torious. Whilst engaged in the stern rounds of a business life, away from home and kindred, he found time to add much to his literary reputation, and at the same time exhibit his strong versatile powers. He wrote some fine graphic sketches of the most prominent western lite- rati ; showing that, to a fine imagination and an amiable disposition, he possessed a highly critical and analytical mind. They were extensively copied, and eagerly sought after, both by the friends of the parties and the public generally. After Mr. Duffee had reaped some laurels in Louisville, he departed further westward, in the hope of gaining suflicient wealth to allow him to enjoy the beauties of nature he so much admired, and at the same time render him capable of assisting others, and contributing his por- tion to the wealth and business capital of the country. His fine business knowledge gave him confidence in himself, and his amiable habits and gentlemanly bearing gave him the facility of acquiring a position that other men would not have dared to assume. In his business habits he was distinct from other men who enter the arena of a literary life. We find too often that men, possessed of the most splendid abilities, are mere children in the ordinary aftairs of life. Like loving mothers, they gaze upon their written children, conceived by fancy, with a jealous eye ; and in striving to give them that much coveted and hoped for immortality, forget the duties they owe to their own personal welfare. But not so with our author : he had been early cast upon the woild, and knew its cold charity and hypocritical philan- thropy. He had seen the child of genius wandering, lonely and for- lorn, down life's dark path, flinging around him, as it were, " the bright- est and holiest gems of thought," which were either trodden under foot FRAXCIS HAROLD DUFFEE, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1*73 by the unfeeling crowd, or grasped by others, to swell their coffers, while their owner laid himself down to die. He had- a few grains of common sense in his composition, that preserved him in a groat measure from the fate of those whose ways and inclinations are after his own heart. Mr. Duffee's first speculation was the chartering of a steamboat on the Ohio and Wabash rivers. This enterprise, we can say without wishing to pun, for a time went on swimmingly, but afterwards it ran ao-ainst a snag and keeled over. This cured our friend of his nautical desires; so after discharging all liabilities, he drew on some of his eastern friends for funds to return home. "When he arrived, he found sufficient places open to receive him; so mounting a clerk's stool in a broker's office, he com- menced with pen in hand to rebuild what little fortune he had lost in his steamboat speculation. In this connection he became associated with the late Henrv Ewino', Esq., of Nashville, Tennessee, one of the most amiable, urbane, and busi- ness-like gentlemen with whom we ever had the pleasure of making an acquaintance. Upon Mr. Ewing's decease, which occurred three years subsequent, Mr. Duffee succeeded him as the agent of the Merchants' Insurance and Trust Company of Nashville, Tennessee, In this position, Mr. D. exhibited financial talents of the highest order, and sustained the credit of the company through a period of extraordinary pecuniary em- barrassment. His conduct, however, received the highest encomiums from the Directors of the company ; and, upon his resignation as agent, hfi was sent to Europe as the confidential agent of the Ohio Life Insur- ance and Trust Company, of New York, on a business mission of con- siderable importance, involving the settlement of a large amount of money. While there, he made the acquaintance and friendship of the principal bankers of London and Liverpool. His mission was entirely successful, and upon his return he received the most complimentary ac- knowledgments from the company whose interests he had so ably and faithfully represented. So much indeed were his business talents appre- ciated while in London, that the extensive and well known firm of Messrs. A. A. Gower, Nephews & Co. extended him unusual civilities, residing with them at their princely mansion in Finsbury Square, and receiving through their courtesy, in connection with that of Messrs. Ba- ring, Brothers & Co., and Barnett, Hare & Co., invitations to the Lord Mavor's dinner, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, the Tower, Royal Mint, and other celebrated " lions of the town." While at the Royal Mint he kindly received from the superintendent various beautiful specimens of the coinage of the kingdom. During his entire sojourn in England, Mr. D. was entertained with juarked hospitality, rendering his trip to Europe replete with the most pleasing and satisfactory reminiscences. Upon his return to Philadfl- phia, he made application and was immodiatelv admitted a member of the l^oard of Brokers. He forthwith commenced business as a stock broker, in connection with a partner ; but shortly after, the firm met with an almost ruinous loss, by the failure of a fellow-member of the board, to whom they had loaned, the preceding day, a large sum of money. Nothing daunted, but severely chagrined, Mr. D. dissolved the partnership so recently formed, and with renewed energy soon succeeded in building himself up again to his former station as a business man. 174 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Such in fact is the pecuharity of the American character, which, cast down in one place, rises triumphant in another. There is no nation on the face of the globe that exhibits more truly heroic traits of character, in this respect, than that of the American people. We do not purpose, however, to digress ; suffice it, that Mr. D. has, we learn, realized for him- self and family almost a competency, by the dint of indefatigable indus- try. We have understood that it is one of Mr. D.'s proverbs to " owe no man, woman, or child a dollar," but always to adhere to the maxim, " Pay as you go." We will now advert briefly to Mr. DufFee's political position, which is one of high distinction, as one of the Whig representatives of the city in the Select Council. Mr. D. owes his preferment mainly to his reputation as an energetic and persevering business man, in connection with superior intellectual attainments. lie has contributed liberally to the Whig cause in a pecuniary sense, and also by the free use of his pen, in advocacy of the cause. His articles are written in a masterly manner, and give him considerable reputation. He was first taken up by the Whigs of High Street Ward, to fill an unexpired term ; voted for at large by the people, and elected by a handsome majority. His subsequent course, during the period of the term for which he was elected, meeting with the marked approbation of his constituents, he was re-nominated over the President of the Select Council, and re-elected for the term of three years, the first of which has not yet expired. Mr. D. maintains, by his aflable and con- ciliatory course, a high position in the Select Chamber. He is also a prominent member of the Finance, Police, and other committees. In connection with Mr. D.'s career as a councilman, we clip the follow- ing from the " Wheeling Times" and "Memphis Express," which fully endorses all that we have previously remarked in regard to this gentle- man's talents and business habits : — Philadelphia, February 8. When I last wrote you, there had been no decision in our city councils respecting the Hempfield subscription, although the action of that body was, to a great extent, anticipated, in the case named. The meeting was largely attended by those interested in the welfare of our city, and in spite of oposition, the subscription was carried by a vote at once gratify- ing and emphatic. This result is mainly owing to the strenuous and manly course of Colonel F. H. Dufl'ee, of the Select Council. He under- stands the value of the Hempfield road to Philadelphia, and understand- ing it, made it clear to the minds of all. He deserves well of Wheeling, and stands high in public estimation here. Young, talented, refined, and brilliant, he claims and receives adjniration. And gifted with a far seeing vision, he leads the way in the new that is good, without injury to the old that is valuable. If all our councilmen were like him, Kew York would soon lose vantage ground at the West. But they are not, although he has infused the right spirit into many of them. He recommended the subscription in the Finance Committee, and carried double the amount there recommended through councils. His heart is right for the Marietta road, and through his exertions and untiring energy our authorities di- rected their delegate in the late meeting of the stockholders of the Cen- tral Pennsylvania Railroad to subscribe $750,000 to the capital stock of FRANCIS HAROLD DUFFKE, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1*75 the Marietta line. We are all in the wagon now, and won't wait long for the ride. Pittsburgh growls, but that's her nature, and while she snarls about these appropriations, we have the consolation of knowing that she is allowing other things to rest. — Wheeling Times and Gazette. " Steubenville AND Hempfield Railroad. — The signs are favorable now, and the election of Judge Conrad to the presidency of the company is a guaranty that the road will be finished at the earliest possible time. This community have confidence in that gentleman's abilities, judgment, and business tact, and since his election to the post nained, the Finance Committee of our City Councils has recommended the appropi'iation of $250,000, which sum will be voted by councils on Thursday evening next. The road is indebted, mainly, to Colonel F. 11. Duftbe, of the Select Council, for this recommendation, and his endorsement of such a contri- bution to the stock of the company by Philadelphia, is proof that the Hempfield road is one whose claims for our aid are paramount to those of the Steubenville line. He is a gentleman of sagacity, and devoted to the interests of the city and State, and if he could see that there is no sectionalism in the Steubenville line, would as readily give that road his support, as he has extended his aid to the Hempfield work. "Pittsburgh is grasping. She don't want Philadelphia to connect with Wheeling, and expects the entire trade passing east and west to go through and pay toll in her borders." The Philadelphia Comjnercial Rerjister speaks as above of Judge Con- rad and our esteemed friend, Colonel F. H. Duffee, of the Select Council of the city of Philadelphia. It is but a justly merited compliment to this worthy gentleman — whose reputation is not less prominent as a financial agent in the Board of Brokers of the Quaker city, than as a member of the Select Council. We had occasion lately to present him to our readers, then associating his name with that of the late Henry Ewing, Esq., of Philadelphia, formerly of Tennessee. He was the pride and boast of his friends, and confided in fully by all who knew him. Colonel Duftee enjoyed his confidence most fully — he is worthy of every good man's confidence, and of the confidential trust of the public or of individuals. — Memphis [Tennessee) Daily Press. Having thus glanced briefly at the prominent points in Mr. D.'s his- tory, both as a literary and business man, we will remark in conclusion, that within the last few years he has sufl'ered his pen to rest from its labors, and with the exception of a sketch " now and then," seldom gives out anything to make the literary caldron " boil and bubble." His contributions to the " Beauties of Sacred Literature " have elicited much admiration in certain circles. The editoi-. Professor Wyatt, I'e- marked to us that he thought that the article entitled " The Peifidy of Judas," from Mr. D.'s pen, was in reality worth the price of subscription. As a letter writer Mr. D. has frequently figured in the columns of the New York Herald, and those of other large cities. In personal appearance Mr. Duff'ee is prepossessing. He is tall, well formed, with a pleasing cast of countenance. In manners, he has no use for a pocket edition of Chesterfield. In conversation, he is friendly and engaging, always endeavoring to make those around him feel sensible that 17G sketches of eminent AMERICANS. he entertains towards them both respect and esteem. He is mild in his disposition, and we should judge him to be a good friend, but rather an annoying enemy. He has been recently appointed as aid-de-camp to the Governor, witli the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, having served several years in a cavalry company, in all ranks from private to captain in com- mand. He is a gentleman we both respect and admire, and it affords us plea- sure to hold him up to the " rising generation," as one who has always been exemplary in all the relations of both public and private life. Such men are, indeed, the architects of their own fortunes, and command both the love and respect of the whole community. THOMAS HARRIS, OF PENNSi'LVANIA, FORMERLY CHIEF OF BUREAU OF MEDICINE ANT) SURGERY. Dr. Thomas Harris, previous to his elevation to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, occupied a distinguished and well-earned professional posi- tion. AVith an extensive and lucrative general practice, he combined a high reputation as a surgeon, lecturer, and clinical instructor. Dr. Harris was born in Chester county, in the State of Pennsylvania, on the 3d of January, 1784. He is the second son of the late General William Harris, who served with distinction in the war of the Revolution. His paternal grandfather, a native of Ireland, was a large landholder in the fertile valley of Chester county. In the spring of 1804 he com- menced the study of medicine with Dr. Davis, of the same county, and after attending the lectures alt the University of Pennsylvania, obtained his degree in 1809. For three years afterwards he practised his profes- sion in Chester county, with considerable success. In 1812, during the war with Great Britain, he received from Mr. Madison a commission as surgeon in the navy, and joined the Wasp sloop of war, under the command of the gallant Commodore (then Com- mander) Jacob Jones. Hardly in the ser\ace. Dr. Harris had the good fortune to take part in one of the most brilliant actions of the war. A week after sailing from New Castle, the W^asp encountered the sloop of war Frolic, of superior force, and after an action of little more than half an hour captured her. An hour subsequently, however, both the prize and her captor fell into the hands of the Poictiers, seventy-four, which carried them into Bermuda. Here they remained a few weeks, until they were exchanged. Upon returning home. Captain Jones, and all his ofKcers, including, of course, Surofeon Harris, were ordered to the Macedonian frigate. The Macedo- nian was blockaded in New London for a yeai-, and thence transferred to the lakes. After serving a year on the lakes in this ship, and in the fri- THOMAS HARRIS, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 17*7 j^ate Mohawk, Dr. Harris was again ordered to the Macedonian, Captain Jones, to form part of Decatur's squadron against Algiers. The Algerine frigate Mazouda, and a brig of war, were captured by -Commodore Decatur. The Mazouda was unprovided Avith a surgeon, and had sutiered greatly during the action. Dr. Harris was placed on board of her, where lie had his hands full with amputations and other operations. After cruising among the Barbary and other ports on the Mediterranean, he returned to the United States with the squadron in the autumn of 1815. These three years of active service gave Dr. Harris an admirable op- portunity of making himself a skilful operator. He had the qualities necessary to turn his advantages to account — judgment, coolness, readi- ness, and dexterity — and he came out of the war with an estabhshed repu- tation and solid experience. Upon returning home, Dr. Harris was placed on furlough for a year ; then ordered to the Guerriere at Boston, where he remained till 1817 ;. and afterwards stationed at the hospital of the Navy Yard at Philadel- phia. At this station he remained till 1842, with the exception of a short cruise to the West Indies in 1823. In this year he was sent, with Commodore Rodgers, at the head of a commission, to examine into the condition of the seamen suffering from yellow fever at Key "West, and to report as to the eligibility of that port as a station for our squadrons. During his residence in Philadelphia, Dr. Harris has been employed in various capacities in the naval service. He was chosen to select the site for the Naval Asylum in that city, and to superintend its erection ; and has repeatedly served on the board to examine candidates for the medical corps. With the advantage of an excellent reputation. Dr. Harris commenced the practice of his profession in Philadelphia in 1817. His success has been brilliant. In 1840, when he was compelled by ill health to relin- quish active business, he was in receipt of a professional income that has seldom been reached in Philadelphia. Dr. Harris possesses, in an emi- nent degree, those minor qualifications for professional success, without which the strongest combination of talent and knowledge is unavailing. To an agreeable address, a pleasant flow of conversation, and a cordiality of manner, the more attractive because felt to be sincere, he unites sl. ready command of resources, therapeutic and dietetic, and the happy capacity of almost endlessly varying them, and adapting them to the tastes of his patients. Dr. Harris has been, for a number of years, a lecturer on si;rgery. In 1823 he formed one of a private association with Doctors Hewson, Meigs, and Bache, with whom he continued till 1826, when he was ap- pointed to lecture on surgery in the Medical Institute. His courses in this school have been eminently popular. We have never heard a better practical lecturer. His style is familiar, sometimes conversational, and his matter has the great attraction of appearing to emanate more from his own experience than the gleanings of books. Dr. Harris has long been a champion of the non-specific doctrines of syphilis,, and of the anti- mercurial treatment of this disease. He devotes a considerable portion of his lectures to this subject, and defends his visws ably and in- geniously. VOL. IV. 12 178 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Most of our readers will probably take issue with Lim on this point ; at least our own opinion is that the mass of evidence, particularly the recent experiments bv inoculation, tend to confirm the view of John Hunter, " that the venereal disease arises from a poison which is capable asfain of producing a similar disease." Dr. Harris has had much reputa- tion in the treatment of syphilitic affections. As he pursues a strictly anti-mercurial course, his success may be fairly adduced to show that the primary svmptoms of the disease are very manageable without mercury. In 1826 he published an elaborate memoir on this subject in the North American Medical and Surgical Journal, which was extensively copied into tbe European journals. Dr. Harris was for twelve years one of the surgeons to the Pennsylvania Hospital, having held the post from 1829 to 1841, when he resigned from ill health. During this long clinical service, he has been distinguished, for the success as well as the number of his oj^erations. In 1837 he excised the elbow-joint for caries — the first time this operation was per- formed in this country. He amputated the tongue in two instances for hypertrophy. These cases were published in the American Journal for the years 1830 and 1837. A series of excellent chnical lectures by Dr. Harris have appeared in this journal. Dr. Harris has contributed a number of articles to difierent medical periodicals. In 1821 he published a paper on "Metastasis" in the Me- dical Recorder, which, like the article on syphilis, went the rounds of the European journals. A life of Commodore Bainbridge, published in 1837, is extremely creditable to Dr. Harris's literary powers. This spirited sketch of the hero of the Java may fairly rank with any of our naval biographies. After 1842, Dr. Harris was so far restored to health as to be induced again to return to practice. In 1844 he was selected by the Government for the responsible post of chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. This was an oflBce altogether unsoHcited on his part, but the high position he had taken in the medical corps of the navy, as well as his distinguished professional reputation in the country, naturally pointed him out as the most proper person to be called to the head of the corps. He discharged the duties thus devolved upon him, with what success the sen'ice and the country will bear witness. HORACE MANN, FORMERLV OF MASSACHUSETTS, NOW PRESIDENT OF ANTIOCII COLLEGE AT XBLLOW SPRINGS, GREENE COUNTY, OHIO. Horace Mann was born in the town of Franklin, Norfolk county, Mas- sachusetts, May 4, 1790. His father, ^Ir, Thomas Mann, supported his family by cultivating a small farm. He -died when the subject of this memoir was thirteen years of age, leaving him little besides the example HORACE MAXN, OF OHIO. 179 of an upright life, virtuous inculcations, and hereditary thirst for know- ledge. His only surviving sister. Miss Lydia B. Mann, crowns a life of benevo- lent exertion by devoting her time and energies almost gratuitously, as principal of a school for poor colored children, in Providence, R. I. Silver and gold has she none; but her labors, her influence, her life, she gives to the poor. The narrow circumstances of the fatlier limited the educational advat.. tages of his children. They were taught in the district common school; and it was the misfortune of the family that it belonged to the smallest district, had the poorest schoolhousc, and employed the cheapest teachers, in a town which was itself both small and poor. When the obscure boy of this obscure school afterwards became Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, it is well known with what earnestness he used to dwell upon the importance of schoolhouse architecture, and with what graphic touches of description he would paint the houses which had never been painted in fact. Doubtless, many of his pictures were drawn, not from fancy, but from memory. That old weather-beaten and time-stricken house, with its curtainless, blindless, and sometimes its almost paneless windows, illustrated a kind of ventilation which he might well call " preter- natural." Its rude, high, and backless seats made " the verb io sit an active verb." The wide-throated chimney, creating when in full blast a tropical heat around the fire-place, Avhile at the distance of ten feet on either side the cold was almost arctic, furnished a "fine opportunity for geographical illustration, because five steps would carry one through the five zones." In winter, the congealing of the ink in his pen while he was writing, perhaps furnished him with the anecdote of the boy who excused himself from the non-production of his composition, by assuring the master that "though his ideas might flow his ink wouldn't;" while in summer it was "the lone hermit-house standing out of sight and hearing of any fellow-tree." He has somewhere described a schoolhouse " the roof of which, on one side, was trough-like ; and down towards the eaves there was a large hole, so that the whole operated like a funnel to catch all the rain and pour it into the school-room." " At first," says he, " I did not know but it might be some apparatus designed to explain the deluge. I called and inquired of the mistress if she and her little ones were not sometimes drowned out. She said she should be, onlv that the floor leaked as badly as the roof, and drained off the water." His father was a man of feeble health, and died of consumption. Horace inherited weak lungs, and from the age of twenty to thiity years he just skirted the fatal shores of that disease on which his father had been wrecked. This inherited weakness, accompanied by a high nervous temperament, and aggravated by a want of judicious physical training in early life, gave him a sensitiveness of organization and a keenness of susceptibility, which nothing but the iron clamps of habitual self-restraint could ever have conti'olled. As the apostle of education, he has often illustrated the responsibilities of other teachers by the shortcomings of his own. At that time, however, few families were brought up advisedly on physiological principles. If the great laws of health and life were any- where kept, it was the result of a happy accident and not of applied science. The dreadful consequences of that universal ignorance are now 180 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. stamped upon every feature of society. The census of the nation can alone present us with tlie full number of its victims. The blessings of health have been so extensively forfeited by bad training, that it is noAv rare to find the health that is a blessing. His mother, "whose maiden name was Stanley, was a woman of supe- rior intellect and character. In her mind, the flash of intuition superseded the slow processes of ratiocination. Results always ratified her predic- tions. She was a true mother. On her list of duties and of pleasures her children stood fii-st, the world and herself afterwards. She was able to impart but little of the details of knowledge ; but she did a greater work than this, by imparting the principles by which all knowledge should be guided. Mr. Mann's early life was spent in a rural district, in an obscure county town, without the appliance of excitements or opportunity for display. In a letter before us, written long ago to a friend, he says : " I regard it as an irretrievable misi'ortune that my childhood was not a happy one. By nature I was exceedingly elastic and buoyant, but the poverty of my parents subjected me to continual privations. I believe in the rugged nursing of Toil, but she nursed me too much. In the winter time, I was employed in in-door and sedentary occupations, which con- fined me too strictly; and in summer, Avhen I could work on the farm, the labor was too severe, and often encroached upon the hours of sleep. I do not remember the time when I began to work. Even my play-days, — not plav-days, for I never had any, — but my play-hours were earned by extra exertion, finishing tasks early to gain a little leisure for boyish sports. My parents sinned ignorantly, but God affixes the same physical penalties to the violation of His laws, whether that violation be wilful or ignorant. For wilful violation, there is the added penalty of remorse, and that is the only difterence. Here let me give you two pieces of advice which shall be gratis to you, though they cost me what is of more value than diamonds. Train your children to work, though not too hard ; and unless they are grossly lymphatic, let them sleep as much as they will. I have derived one compensation, however, fi'om the rigor of my early lot. Industry, or diligence, became my second nature, and I think it would puzzle any psychologist to tell where it joined on to the first. Owing to these ingrained habits, work has always been to me what water is to a fish. I have wondered a thousand times to hear people say, 'I don't like this business;' or, '1 wish I could exchange for that;' for with me, whenever I have had anything to do, I do not remember ever to have demurred, but have always set about it like a fatalist ; and it was as sure to be done as tlie sun is to set. " What was called the love of knowledge was, in my time, necessarily cramped into a love of books ; because there was no such thing as oral instruction. Books designed for children were few, and their contents meagre and miserable. My teachers were very good people, but they were very poor teachers. Looking back to the school-boy days of my mates and myself, I cannot adopt the line of Virgil, ' fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint,' I deny the bona. "With the infinite universe around us, all ready to be HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 181 daguerreotyped upon our souls, we were never placed at the right focus to receive its glorious images. I had an intense natural love of beauty, and of its expression in nature and in the fine arts. As ' a poet was in Murray lost,' so at least an amateur poet, if not an artist, was lost in me. How often, when a boy, did I stop, like Akenside's hind, to gaze at the glorious sunset; and lie down upon my back, at night, on the eartli, to look at the heavens. Yet with all our senses and our faculties glowing and receptive, how little were we taught; or rather, how much obstruction was thrust in between us and nature's teachings. Our eyes were never trained to distinguish forms and colors. Our cars were strangers to music. So far from being taught the art of drawing, which is a beautiful language by itself, I well remember that when the impulse to express in pictures what I could not express in words was so strong that, as Cowper says, it tingled down to my fingers, then my knuckles were rapped with the heavy ruler of the teacher, or cut with his rod, so that an artificial tingling soon drove away the natural. Such youthful buoyancy as even severity could not repress was our only dancing master. Of all our faculties, the memory for words was the only one specially appealed to. The most comprehensive generalizations of men were given us, instead of the facts from which those generalizations were formed. All ideas outside of the book were contraband articles, which the teacher confiscated, or rather flung overboard. Oh, when the intense and burning activity of youthful faculties shall find employment in salutary and pleas- ing studies or occupations, then will parents be able to judge better of the alleged proneness of children to mischief. Until then, children have not a fair trial before their judges. " Yet, with these obstructions, I had a love of knowledge which no- thing could repress. An inward voice raised its plaint for ever in my heart for something nobler and better. And if my parents had not the means to give me knowledge, they intensified the love of it. They always spoke of learning and learned men with enthusiasm and a kind of reverence. I w'as taught to take care of the few books we had, as thouofh there was somethinG: sacred about them. I never dogseared one in my life, nor profanely scribbled upon title pages, margin or fly-leaf, and would as soon have stuck a pin through my flesh as through the pages of a book. When very A^oung, I remember a young lady came to our house on a \-isit, who was said to have studied Latin. I looked upon her as a sort of goddess. Years after, the idea that I could ever study Latin broke upon my mind with the wonder and bewilderment of a reve- lation. Until the age of fifteen I had never been to school more than eight or ten weeks in a year. " I said we had but few books. The town, however, owned a small library. When incorporated, it was named after Dr. Franklin, whose repu- tation was then not only at its zenith, but, like the sun over Gibeon, was standing still there. As an acknowledgment of the compliment, he ofli'ered them a bell for their church, but afterwards saying that, from what he had learned of the character of the people, he thought they would prefer sense to sound, he changed the gift into a library. Though this library consisted of old histories and theologies, suited perhaps to the taste of the ' conscript fathers ' of the town, but miserably adapted to the ' proscript ' children, yet I wasted my youthful ardor upon its 182 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. martial pages, and learned to glory in war, which both reason and con- science have since taught me to consider almost universally a crime. Oli, when will men learn to redeem that childhood in their offspring which was lost to themselves ! AVe watch for the seed-time for our fields and improve it, but neglect the mind until midsummer or even autumn comes, when all the activism of the vernal sun of youth is gone. I have endeavored to do something to remedy this criminal defect. Had I the power, I would scatter libraries over the whole land, as the sower sows Lis wheat field. " More than by toil or by the privation of any natural taste, was the inward joy of my youth blighted by theological inculcations. The pastor of the church in Franklin was the somewhat celebrated Dr. Emmons, who not only preached to his people, but ruled them for more than fifty years. He was an extra or hyper-Calvinist — a man of pure intellect, whose logic was never softened in its severity by the infusion of any kindliness of sentiment. He expounded all the doctrines of total de- pravity, election, and reprobation, and not only the eternity but the ex- tremity of hell torments, unflinchingly and in their most terrible signifi- cance, while he rarely if ever descanted upon the joys of heaven, and never, to my recollection, upon the essential and necessary happiness of a virtuous life. Going to church on Sunday was a sort of religious ordi- nance in our family, and during all my boyhood I hardly ever remember staying at home. Hence, at ten years of age, I became familiar with the whole creed, and knew all the arts of theological fence by which objec- tions to it were wont to be parried. It might be that 1 accepted the doctrines too literally, or did not temper them with the proper qualifica- tions, but in the way in which they came to my youthful mind, a certain number of souls were to be for ever lost, and nothing, not powers, nor principalities, nor man, nor angel, nor Christ, nor the Holy Spirit, nay, not God Himself could save them, for He had sworn before time was to get eternal glory out of their eternal torment. But, perhaps, I might not be one of the lost ! But my little sister might be ; my mother might be ; or others whom I loved ; and I felt that if they were in hell, it would make a hell of whatever other part of the universe I might inhabit, for I could never get a glimpse of consolation from the idea that my own nature could be so transformed, and become so like what God's was said to be, that I too could rejoice in their sufterings. " Like all children, I believed what I was taught. To my vivid ima- gination, a physical hell was a living reality, as much so as though I could have heard the shrieks of the tormented, or stretched out my hand to grasp their burning souls, in a vain endeavor for their rescue. Such a faith spread a pall of blackness over the whole heavens, shutting out every beautiful and glorious thing, while beyond that curtain of darkness 1 could see the bottomless and seething lake filled with torments, and hear the wailing and agony of its victims. I am sure I felt all this a thousand times more than my teachers did, and is not this a warning to teachers ? " What we phrenologists call causality — the faculty of mind by which we see effects in causes, and causes in effects, and invest the future with a present reality — this faculty was always intensely active in my mind. Hence the doom of the judgment day was ante-dated ; the torments 183 which, as the doctrine taught me, were to begin with deatli, began im- mediately, and each moment became a burning focus on which were con- centrated, as far as the tiniteness of my nature would allow, the agonies of the cominff eternity. " Had there been any possibility of escape, could penance, fastmg, self-inflicted wounds, or the pains of a thousand martyr-deaths, have averted the fate, my agony of apprehension would have been alleviated ; but there, beyond eflbrt, beyond virtue, beyond hope, was this irrevers- able decree of Jehovah, immutable, from everlasting to everlasting. The judgment had been made up and entered upon the eternal record mil- lions of years before we, who were judged by it, had been born ; and there sat the Omnipotent upon His throne with eyes and heart of stone to guard it ; and had all the beings in all the universe gathered them- selves together before Him to implore but the erasure of only a single name from the list of the doomed, their prayers would have been in vain. " I shall not now enter into any theological disquisition on these matters, infinitely momentous as they are. 1 shall not stop to inquire into the soundness of these doctrines, or whether I held the truth in error, my only object here being, according to your request, to speak of my youth biographically, or give you a sketch of some of my juvenile experiences. The consequences upon ray mind and happiness were disastrous in the extreme. Often, on going to bed at night, did the objects of the day and the faces of friends give place to a vision of the awful throne, the inexo- rable Judge, and the hapless myriads, among whom I often seemed to see those whom I loved best, and there I wept and sobbed until nature found that counterfeit repose in exhaustion whose genuine reality she should have found in freedom from care and the spontaneous hap])iness of child- hood. What seems most deplorable in the retrospect, all these fears and sufferings, springing from a belief in the immutabihty of the decrees that had been made, never prompted me to a single good action, or had the slightest efficacy in deterring me from a bad one. I remained in this condition of mind until I was twelve years of age. I remember the day, the hour, the place, the circumstances, as well as though the event had happened but yesterday, when, in an agony of despair, I broke the spell that had bound me. From that day, I began to construct the theory of Christian ethics and doctrine respecting virtue and vice, rewards and penalties, time and eternity, God and His providence, which, with such modifications as advancing age and a wider vision must impart, I still retain, and out of which my life has flowed. I have come round again to a belief in the eternity of rewards and punishments, as a fact necessarily resulting from the constitution of our nature ; but how infinitely difi'erent in its eft'ects upon conduct, character, and happiness, is this belief from that which blasted and consumed the joy of my childhood ! " As to mv earlv habits, whatever raav have been mv shortcomings,! can still say that I have always been exempt from what may be called com- mon vices. I was never intoxicated in my life — unless, perchance, with jov or anger. I nevei' swore — indeed profanity was always most disgust- ing and repulsive to me. And (I consider it always a climax) I never used the ' vile weed ' in any form. I early formed the resolution to be a slave to no habit. For the rest, my public life is almost as well known 184 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to others as to myself; and, as it commonly happens to public men, others know my motives a great deal better than I doT Mr. Mann's father having died when he was thirteen years of age, he remained with his mother on the homestead until he was twenty. But an irrepressible yearning for knowledge still held possession of him. "I know not how it was," said he to a friend in after life, " its motive never took the form of wealth or fame. It was rather an instinct which im- pelled towards knowledge, as that of migratory birds impels them north- ward in spring time. All my boyish castles in the air had reference to doing something for the benefit of mankind. The early precepts of benevolence, inculcated upon me by my parents, flowed out in this direc- tion ; and I had a conviction that knowledge was my needed instrument." A fortunate accident gave opportunity and development to this pas- sion. An itinerant schoolmaster, named Samuel Barrett, came into his neighborhood and opened a school. This man was eccentric and ab- normal both in appetites and faculties. He would teach a school for six months, tasting nothing stronger than tea, though in this Dr. Johnson was a model of temperance compared with him, and then for another six months, more or less, he would travel the country in a state of beastly drunkenness, begging cider, or anything that would intoxicate, from house to house, and sleeping in barns or styes, until the paroxysm had passed by. Then he would be found clothed, and sitting in his right mind, and obtain another school. Mr. Barrett's speciality was English grammar, and Greek and Latin. In the dead languages, as far as he pretended to know anything, he seemed to know everything. All his knowledge, too, was committed to memory. In hearing recitations from Virgil, Cicero, the Greek Testa- ment, and other classical works then usually studied as a preparation for college, he never took a book into his hand. Not the sentiments only, but the sentences, in the transposed order of their woids, were as familiar to him as his A, B, C, and he would as soon have missed a letter out of the alphabet, as article or particle out of the lesson. When a sentence in the ^neid, or in the Oration for the poet Archias (which was his favorite), had been torn and mangled by a bad recitation, it was grateful to hear him repeat it all over to himself, in the most soothing and mo- therly voice, as though he would bind up and heal its wounded and dis- located parts. Sometimes he would croon ofi" (as the Scotch would say) page after page of the author, winding up each paragraph with such an inarticulate chuckle of delight, as only a very fat man like him could give. It must have been to him that Mr. Mann referred, when in his controversy with the " Thirty-one Boston Schoolmasters," he speaks of the inspiring eft'ect of a teacher's knowledge upon the progress of his pupils. " I know that this ability of his inspired one of his pupils, at least, with sentiments of respect towards him, with conceptions of excel- lence, and with an ardor for attainment, such as all the places and prizes ever bestowed, and a life of floggings into the bargain, could never have imparted. I well remember that when I encountered a difKculty either in translation or syntax, and was ready to despair of success in overcom- ing it, the mere thought hoiv easy that would be to my teacher, seemed not only to invigorate my effort, but to give me an enlargement of power, so that I could return to the charge and triumph." HORACE MAKN, OF OHIO. 185 This learned Mr. Barrett was learned in lancruatres alone. In arith- inetic he was an idiot. He never could commit the multiplication table to memory, and did not know enough to date a letter or tell the time of day by the clock. In this cliance school Mr. Mann first saw a Latin grammar ; but it was the Vent, vidi, vici of Ctesar. Having obtained a reluctant consent from his guardian to prepare for college, with six months of schooling he learned his grammar, read Corderius, yEsop's Fables, the ^Eneid, with, parts of the Georgics and Bucolics, Cicero's Select Orations, the Four Gospels, and part of the Epistles in Greek, parts of the Graeca Majora and Minora, and entered the Sophomore class of Brown University, Provi- dence, in September, 181G. With this hurried preparation, it was of course impossible to obtain that critical knowledge of syntax, or that acquaintance with collateral works, without which the studv of the ancient lantjuacres confers but little other benefit than an enlargement of one's stock of words, and a general improvement of the diction. He could not then foresee the opportunity (which was soon, however, to occur) for making up these deficiencies ; and he therefore determined to supply them at once by extra study. This addition to the performance of ordinary tasks prompted the very extremity of self-imposed labor. Under the burning stimuli, too, which entering upon new fields of knowledge supplied, he forgot all idea of bodily limitations to mental eftbrt ; and at the end of his first cohege year he found himself utterly prostrated by illness, from which neither the resuscitative energies of nature, nor all the care which his laborious life has since allowed him to take, have ever enabled him to recover. What strength he has since possessed has been only the salvage on a wreck. How sad the fate of students in our colleges and universities ! Taken from the guidance and care of home, exposed to the temptation of vice on the one side, and of ambition on the other, finding abundant and delightful instruction in languages and in science, but no counsel, no direction, no knowledge, in the art of arts — the great art of Living — how often do those of vicious susceptibilities plunge into vice, while those of ambitious aspirations ruin health in the pursuit of knowledge. Thus many genial and companionable natures are turned into profligates, while the lofty-minded and emulous are broken down by disease. Illness compelled him to leave his class for a short period; and again he was absent in the winter to keep school as a resource for paying col- lege bills. Yet when his class graduated in 1819, the first part or "Ho- nor" in the commencement exercises was awarded to him, with the unanimous approval of faculty and classmates. The theme of his oration on graduating foreshadowed the history of his life. It was on the Pro- gressive Character of the Human Race. With youthful enthusiasm he portrayed that higher condition of human society when education shall develop the people into loftier proportions of wisdom and virtue, when philanthropy shall succor the wants and relieve the woes of the race, and when free institutions shall abolish that oppression and war which have hitherto debarred nations from ascending into realms of grandeur and happiness. For an obscure young man, known only by the merits he had evinced and the hopes he inspired, it was an occasion of no incon- siderable eclat. 186 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The strongest original tendencies of character are usually shown in early manhood, before cautiousness has been trained by worldly discipline to take the lead in action. Those who knew Mr. Mann in college, and have watched him since, know how true this is in his case. He was a marked man among his young associates ; marked and remembered for those peculiarities of character which have distinguished him ever since : first, bold and original thinking, which led him to investigate subjects "without veneration for anything but the truth and right that he found in them ; second, a horror of cant and sham which made him attack, with invective and satire, all who resorted to them for selfish purposes. The boldness and force with which he has manifested these two pecu- liarities have kept out of the sight of the indiscriminating many the third peculiaritv, which is an uncommon activity and acuteness of the religious sense. Hence it is that, while many, in their technical sense, may not call him a religious man, in the highest sense he is truly and eminently religious. Ever searching for the laws of the natural and moral world, and referring them as fast as found to God, he pays to them and their Author the true worship of obedience and veneration. This is done in matters the most minute. He sees not only Ten Commandments, but ten thousand. Hence the delicacy of his moral sense ; hence his uniform and stern purity of life ; hence his uncompromising hostility to the im- piousness and sin of immorality of any kind, or by whomsoever com- mitted. Immediately after commencement (indeed some six weeks before, and immediately after the final examination of his class, so that no time might be lost; for the law then required three years' reading in a lawyer's office, or rather three years to be spent in a lawyer's office without any reference to reading), he entered his name in the office of the Hon. J. J. Fiske, of Wrentham, as a student at law. He had spent here, however, only a few months when he was invited back to college as a tutor in Latin and Greek. This proposal he was induced to accept for two rea- sons : first, it would lighten his burden of indebtedness (for he was living on borrowed money) ; and, second, it would afford the opportunity he so much desired of revising and extending his classical studies. Everybody knows, that, other things being equal, the studious teacher will learn faster than it is possible for the most studious pupil to do. He now devoted himself most assiduously to Latin and Greek, and the instructions given to his class were characterized by two peculiarities, whose value all will admit, though so few have realized. Li addition to rendering the sense of the author, and a knowledge of syntactical rules, he always demanded a translation in the most elegant, choice, and eu- phonious language. He taught his Latin classes to look through the whole list of synonymes given in the Latin-English dictionary, and to select from among them all, the one which would convey the author's idea in the most expressive, graphic, and elegant manner, rendering- military terms by military terms, nautical by nautical, the language of rulers in language of majesty and command, of suppliants by words of entreaty, and so forth. This method improves diction surprisingly. The student can almost feel his organ of language grow under its training ; at any rate, he can see from month to month that it has grown. The other particular referred to, consisted in elucidating the text by geo- HORACE MANN, OF OHIO. 18V graphical, biographical, and historical references, thus opening the mind of the student to a vast fund of collateral knowledge, and making use of the great mental law, that it is easier to remember two or even ten associated ideas, than either of them alone. Though liberal in granting indulgences to his class, yet he was in- exorable in demanding correct recitations. However much of priva- tion or pain the getting of a lesson might cost, yet it was generally got as the lesser evil. One day a student asked the steward of the college what he was going to do with some medicinal preparation he had. " Mr. So and So," said the steward, " has a violent attack of fever, and I am going to give him a sweat." " If you want to give him a sweat," said the inquirer, " send him into our recitation room without his lesson." While in college, Mr. Mann had excelled in scientific studies. He now had an opportunity to improve himself in classical culture. A com- parison of the two convinced him how infinitely inferior in value, not only as an attainment, but as a means of mental discipline, is heathen mythology to modern science ; the former consisting of the imaginations of man, the latter of the handiwork of God. In the latter part of 1821, having resigned his tutorship, he entered the law school at Litchfield, Connecticut, then at the zenith of its repu- tation under the late Judge Gould. Here he remained rather more than a yeai', devoting himself with great assiduity to the study of the law under that distinguished jurist. Leaving Litchfield, he entered the office of the Hon. James Richardson, of Dedham, where, as they say in London, he finished " eating his terms," and was admitted a member of the Norfolk bar, in December, 1823. He immediately opened an ofiice in Dedham. Shakspeare makes the " law's delay " one of the causes of suicide ; but if lawyers provoke suicide among their clients, by delaying their suits after they are obtained, do not the clients provoke suicide among the lawyers first, by delaying to give them the suits ? Mr. Mann's lot in this respect was the common one. But absence of business gave opportunity for study ; and instead of performing the drudgery of attending to par- ticular cases, he expended himself in mastering great principles, which, in his subsequent professional life, were always brought to bear with such success upon the point in controversy. Before a court or an intelligent jury, there is an immense difference between the method of groping round to see where an individual case can lay hold of some great principle for support, and that of first giving an imposing and instructive exposition of great principles, and then applying them to the case in hand. The man who has mastered principles, when brought into conflict with one who has not, can always think outside of his opponent. At length, however, an opportunity was offered to Mr. Mann to display his powers as an advocate, and from that time business flowed in in a more copious stream, until he left the profession in 1837. We believe the records of the courts will show that, during the four- teen years of his forensic practice, he gained at least four out of five of all the contested cases in which he was engaged. The inflexible rule of his professional life was, never to undertake a case that he did not believe to be right. He held that an advocate loses his highest ])ower when he loses the ever-conscious conviction that he is contending for the truth ; 188 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. that though the fees or fame may be a stimulus, yet that a conviction of being right is itself creative of power, and renders its possessor more than a match for antagonists otherwise greatly his superior. He used to say that in this conscious conviction of right there was a magnetism, and he only wanted an opportunity to be put in communication with a jury in order to impregnate them with his own belief. Beyond this, his aim always was, before leaving any head or topic in his argument, to condense its whole force into a vivid epigrammatic point, which the jury could not help remembering when they got into the jury room ; and by graphic illustration and simile to fasten pictures upon their minds, "which they would retain and reproduce after abstruse arguments were forgotten. He endeavored to give to each one of the jurors something to be " quoted " on his side, when they retired for consultation. He argued his cases as though he were in the jury room itself, taking part in the deliberations that were to be held there. From the confidence in his honesty, and these pictures with which he filled the air of the jury room, came his uncommon success. In 1824 the citizens of Dedham invited him to ascend the rostrum as a fourth of July orator, a low platform to which the friends of young men in this country always raise them, that they may have one chance, at least, to show their mental stature. In 1826 he delivered a eulogy on the deceased presidents, Adams and Jefi"erson, who, as everybody will remember, died on the 4th of July of that year ; or rather lived till the 4th of Julv ; for had the 2:reat anniversary come on the third or second of the month, they would doubtless have died on its arrival. They illustrated what is undoubtedly true, that life, to some extent, is the subject of direct human volition. In 1830 Mr. Mann was married to Miss Charlotte, youngest daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Messer, for many years President of Brown Uni- versity. Than this lady, a lovelier being never gladdened the earth with her existence. Moulded in form and in feature after the choicest ideal of the painter or the statuary, her person was a fit temple for the spirit by whose residence it was hallowed. She was educated in the repose of a family circle, over the sunshine of whose domestic affections a cloud was never known to pass. She was exuberant in the spontaneous joy of a spirit that had never felt an ungenerous or an unworthy emotion. Those who had known her longest and best, who had laid their ear closest to her heart to listen to the sweet music with which it was for ever vocal, all say with one voice, they never heard from it a discordant tone. Under no provocation did a word of envy, of rivalry, or of un- kindness ever pass from her lips. Her presence was the exorcism of evil, and her look, so radiant of purity and loveliness and peace, was not an emotion merely, but a sensation of calm and of holy joy. Was this boon of heaven unnatural to the earth, that it was so soon withdrawn 1 She died August 1, 1832, and the celestial light which she had shed upon her earthly friends can never be restored until they meet her glori- fied spirit in another life. The manner in which he was afiected by her death shows most strik- ingly the depth and strength of his afiections. He was then in the prime and vigor of manhood, known and admired in the highest circles ; but he would not be comforted nor weaned from the memory of his lost HORACE MANK, OF OHIO. 189 love. He would work for the living and give them all his strength and his talents, but he would give his afiections to the dead alone. There was something touching in his long loyalty. For years he wore the trappings of woe, and when, in conformity to custom, they were laid aside, their abandonment betokened no lightening of the shadow within. For more than ten years, those who knew him intimately enough to divine the cause of the sadness which seldom expressed itself in words, could say, in view of his unfading aft'ection for her whose image was fading from the memory of others, " Oh ! wliat are thousand living loves To one that will not quit the dead ?" In 1843 he married Miss Mary Peabody, in whom he found not onlv a most afi'ectionate and worthy companion, but an earnest assistant and sympathizer in all his educational labors. We have now spoken of Mr. Mann as a lawyer, but from his entry upon the stage of life, he exercised his influence and exerted his powers in so many different fields of labor, that we are obliged, as it were, to write several biographies of him ; that is, to go over his life several times, collecting different classes of events under distinct heads. In 1827 he was elected a representative to the General Court for the town of Dedham. We may as well remark here as anywhere, that Mr. Mann was never a political partisan. He loved truth better than he loved any party. He was not of age to vote until those "piping times of peace " which ushered in Mr. Monroe's administration. At that period, and for more than four years after, he was absent from the State either as student or tutor in Providence College ; the succeeding twelve or fifteen months he spent at Litchfield, Connecticut, at the law school ; so that the first po- litical contest in which he ever had an opportunity to take an active part was that of Mr. Adams, as President, in 1824. He espoused the cause of Mr. Adams, and strenuously defended him against the charges of "bargain and corruption," then so vehemently made, now so uni- versally disbelieved. From that time Mr. Mann voted for National Ke- publicans, or Whigs, as they were successively called; but in his legis- lative and subsequent life, always advocated or opposed measures on their merits, and without reference to the party which introduced them. It is worthy of remark, that among all his speeches and writings, touch- ing as they do almost the whole circle of moral, social, and economical subjects, not a single partisan speech or partisan 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 Piepresentatives 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 was 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 Avrong, 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 liard thing for him would be to do wrong. When 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 the property of the earth, and de- termining by law what particular religious creed or doctrine that property should bo 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'cst religious progess and petrify religious opinions at the point where the bigot happened 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 pf^Ders, and we believe it was the first printed speech made in any legislative body in the United States, in behalf of a policy which 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 lie 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 libert}', 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. HORACE MANX, OF OHIO. 191 He 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 politicians, 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 eft'ectually, broke up the traflfic 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 Kome 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 immorality of this and kindred institutions that Mr. Mann has been wont to draw 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 manv, which has animated him in his attacks upon men and measures, and roused him to deal blows which some have condenmed as severe and merciless. It is to be borne in mind that the very earnestness and in- tensity of nature which have enabled him to build up and establish so many good works, incapacitate him from compromising with wrong, or striking softly at wrong doers. Few have ever objected to the rigor and fire of liis onslaught until he happened to attack some pet gratification of their own. A calm 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 hi« 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 Lis was the only speech made in its favor. One of the most distinguished members of the House, a gentleman who has sino3 filled one of the most responsible offices in Uie State spoke- of the measure when first introduced as '' a project of bovish en- thusiasm." Mr. 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 supenntend 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 work ilhistrated those characteristics of the subject of this memoir which have signaHzed his life. The noveUy and costliness of the enterprise demanded boldness. Its motive sprung from his benevolence. Its completion without loss or failure illustrated his foresight. It was arranged that no ardent spirits should ever be used on the work, and the whole edifice was completed without accident or injurv to any workman. 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, has 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 iptegral 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. Mann, 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 amount 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 held, 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, DSctor 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. Mann. 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 Dedhara, 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 sufferings 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 policy 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 193 should be deemed compatible with the safety of the citizens, or until some friend should procure his release by becoming responsible for all damao^es 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 whom and humanity there seemed to be a gulf, winch no one had as yet crossed to carry them relief. He held in his 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 r;ot 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 alhrmative, 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 expenditure. He would argue it as if human nature knew no sympa- 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 aie 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 sufferings 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 EMINEKT AMERlCAKS. Si 30,000. 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 852,000, which added to $130,000 as above, makes 8182,000. Should we add to this 81 per week for all, as the sum thev might have earned had they been in health, the result is 8234,000 lost to tiie State by the intiiction 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 who suffer 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 dwell 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 them their incapacity to commit crime. " But let us reflect, that while we delay they suffer. Another year not only gives au accession to their numbeis, but removes, perhaps to a re- turnless distance, the chance of their recovery. Whatever they endure, which Ave 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 approjiriation proposed was small — it was for sucli 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 sufferings? 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 wlieu it has been lost to all its noblest jirerogatives ■ Could the victims of insanity themselves come up before us, and find a language to reveal their history, who could liear them unmoved 'I But to me, said Mr. Mann, the appeal is stronger, because, theij are unable to make U. Over his feelings, their imbecility assumed the form of irre- sistible power. Xo 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 protectoi-s 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 Dedham, 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. x\t the very first election after his 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 lie retired from political life. During the four vears he was a member of the Senate, his name con- tinued to be connected with all reformatory movements, and with almost every eflbrt, 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 pass under the hands of a joint legislative committee. Of this committee Mr. Mann was a member, and for a portion of the time 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 )>oor 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 which 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 lelt the chair to take part in the debates of that body. The two most important occasions were the passage of the bill for incorporating the Western Railroad Company, and loanmg 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 bis 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 j^ecuniary prosperity or ameliorating the condition of society, yet he never failed to carry through a single measure which be 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 Avhich attracted no in- considerable attention at the time. It lasted tiiirty 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 when they were written, have been thought remarkable. In sketching his legislative career, we have noticed only incidentally bis connection with the causes of temperance and education. Having been brought up where ardent spirits were commonly 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 bis 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 made; and he keeps it pure and clean, as a fit temple for the living God. For every 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 V so stern and deep, that the balked Satans of temptation shrink from before him in shame and despair.'' " Soon after he became a resident in Dedham, its citizens formed a large and most respectable temperance society. Pie was elected ils 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 the loss of professional business; and when, in June, ISSV, 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 the " Suffolk County Temperance Society." These offices were then resigned, so that, wholly unincumbered by other things, he might bear the weight of the harness he was about to put on, and wield the weapons of the new warfare in which he had engaged. 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 tbrce. 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 earliest addresses was a discourse before a county association of teachers, almost all of whom were older than himself, and many of Avhom 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. He 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 Dedliam, 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 acci