Columbia (Hnitiersfttp THE LIBRARIES f ^^ «fe^ EKC-RAyeb>QR THE ECLECTIC BT EEKISE ^ GUiS.H : MIN^STER TO ENGLAND SKETCHES REPRESENTATIVE MEN, NORTH AND SOUTH. REPRESEVTATmES OF MODERN PROGRESS, OF THE PRESS, TUB PULPIT, THE BENCH, THE BAR, THE ARMY AND NAVY, OF LEGISLATION, INVENTION, AND THE GREAT IN- DUSTRIAL INTERESTS OF THE COUNTRY. WITH PORTRAITS ON STEEL. EDITED BY AUGUSTUS C. ROGERS. THIKD EDITION. NEW YORK: ATLANTIC PUBLISHING CO.MPANY. 1874. .>!^Vi^< A> \ T ^ a^-^ t^'^^ a TO MY FATHER, Dr. CUERAN ROGERS, OF THO>[ASTON, fJICORGIA, THE 15EST AND NOBLEST OP MEN, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED AS A TRIBUTE OP LOVE AND ORATITUDE, BY AUGUSTUS CURRAN ROGERS. 174378 PREFACE. It has been our purpose, in this work, to assemble a number of Biographies, drawn from a well-defined class of public reputa- tion in our country. We have proposed to publish some account of the lives of Representative Men — men prominent in forwarding the development of the resources of the country — men of our country and our times, who, by their force of char- acter, or a particular genius, have achieved those remarkable and brilliant successes illustrative of American triumphs in public and private life, in business enterprise, and the useful arts ; national in their importance, and contributing largely to the public fund of industry and usefulness. In our limited space, we lay no claim to comprehensiveness or perfection : we have simply chosen a number of good names determined by the above- mentioned tests, and have thus been able to constitute a definite group of character. In the compilation of the work, we have not been influ- enced by any personal or party feeling. We have felt, that, to yield to such motives, would be to defeat the very object of our enter- prise. That object has been to present in a single volume, whose character shall be truly national, the life-stories of prominent rep- resentatives of the arts, sciences, professions, religious denomina- tions, political parties, &c. The sketches have been prepared, in most cases, with the sanction of the subjects ; and, where this has been impracticable, the judgment and correction of their intimate friends have been iv PREFACE. sought and oblbined. The hiographical notices may. tlierefore, be looked i;pon as in the highest degree faithful and accurate The design has the attraction of novelty, and discovers, we are persuaded, a distinct and fruitful field in the literature of the day. In the lives of those men who have achieved the suc- cesses we have described, and who illustrate the rapid ascents peculiar to the genius of America, there is a valuable fund of interest and instruction. In those early struggles in which they conquered fortune, there is frequently much of the dramatic, and in their triumphs is often to be found an interesting story of daring adventure or of quiet heroism. But, even beyond the personal interest of such narratives, we believe that the work will have a popular and permanent value, and that it will prove an important addition to the bio- graphical literature of America. The biographical accounts of our Representative Men, justly composed as they have been, illustrate the peculiar free- dom and elasticity of American life, reflect the beneficence of our institutions, and afford to the intelligent student an impor- tant insight into the habits of our country. More than this, it suo-o-ests a lesson to our vouth, a guide to honorable and useful distinction, and may serve, not a little, to train the generous ambition of those who now struggle on the ladder of fortune. The most eminent masters of mental culture have all appre- ciated and extolled the advantage of biography as an instru- ment of education ; and with their opinions concurs the experi- ence of all who have given any attention to the training of the young. It is in this broad and yet distinct view that we have designed our collection of Biographies. It is of a class of men who are well entitled to appreciative memoirs, who compose a group of fame that should not be overlooked ; and we aspire that it will be a contribution to the stock of American Biography, as use- ful as it is unique, taking its place among the permanent liter- ary records of the country. CONTENTS. FOLIO. Adams, Charles Frautis 9 Alden, James 37 Allen, Etliau 27 Allen, John 113 Alvorcl, AVilliam 39 Andrews, Chnstopher C 45 Bamuger, Kufiis 59 Beecher, Heury Ward 53 Bigler, William 63 Blair, Fraucis 69 Blair, Montgomery 87 Bonner, Robert 93 Brewster, Frcdericlv Carroll 101 Cadwalader, Georjje 137 CamochaD, John Mnrray 145 Chase, Salmon Portland 149 Cockrill, Sterli ng Robertson 157 Cogswell, Alfred C 127 Cosad, John W 121 Cumback, William 165 De Peyster, John Watts 169 Dewitt, Thomas 175 Dudley, Thomas H 179 English, William H 191 Evans, Thomas William 205 Faulkner, Charles James 215 Foster, Lafayette S 541 Funias, Robert W 231 Gatling, Richard Jordan 239 Gazzam, Joseph M 235 Geary, John W 249 Greeley, Horace 255 Hickman, John 267 FOLIO, Hilliard, Henry W 273 Hunter, R. M T 279 Jay, John 287 Kimball, Charles P 311 Koerner, Gustavus 307 Littlejohn, A. N 317 McAllister, Robert 503 McCloskey, John 321 Miller, Ezra 327 Morgan, Nathan D 333 Palmer, Oliver H 339 Parker, Joel 345 Parrish, Joseph 489 Peck, John J 351 Pennypacker, Galusha 357 Pierrepont, Edwards 367 Pleasonton, Alfred 387 Powell, James R 513 Powers, Ridgley C 379 Randolph, Theodore F 393 Read , John Meredith, Jr 403 Roberts, Charles H 497 Roberts, Walter B 53 1 Scott, Jesui> Wakemau 413 Scott, Thomas A 419 Scribner, Charles H 539 Smith, E. Delafield 423 Stei)heus, Alexander H 441 Thomas, George H 545 Vanderbilt, Cornelius 465 Vanderpoc), S. Oakley 461 Warren, Fitz Heury. 487 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 5||%^|^5 '^ IS remarkable how seldom fjither and son have ac- ^^"^1% 1'ii''ec^ distinction of the first class in any line of cm- %f '^^ inence. In English histor)-, one calls to mind the f/\ two Cecils, the two Pitts, and the two Foxes. The two flM^ii" ^ Bacons, so unequal was their importance, make scarcely S^ an exception to the rule. Of the two Shaftesburys, one was ''Ma^ the other's grandson. In the uppermost circle there is no positive instance of the hereditary prominence in question but that of Edward III. and his strenuous namesake. In French history it is sought to still less purpose ; while among American states- men, since the Union was established, there is as yet but one exam- ple ; and that example is much the more striking as having been duplicated through two immediate successions. In the history of our diplomatic service — to say nothing now of public services and other kinds — there is no name to be i^laced by the side of that which has been borne by the diplomatists of our three wars. Full biographies of the first two who have illustrated it have been long in possession of the public. An attempt to sketch briefly the caieer uf the third, though premature and incomplete, is forbidden by no considerations of delicacy, connected as his life has been with the course of public events through parts of a quarter of a century. Charles Francis Adams was born in the year 1S07, in Boston, where his fiither was then residing, after being in the public service for seven years, under appointments from President Washington as Minister to the Hague and to Berlin, and for three years as a Senator of the United States, which position he still filled. In August, 1809, the subject of this notice, the youngest of thi-ee sons, of whom he is now the only survivor, went to St. Petersburg with his father, who at that critical period of our affairs had been commissioned by Mr. Madison as Minister to the Emperor Alexan- der. From Russia, where he remained five years, till the capture 9 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. of Paris and the abdication of Napoleon, Mr. Adams went to Ghent, to meet Mr. Bayard, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Russell, who were associated with him to negotiate with British commissioners a treaty of peace. After its conclusion on the 24th of Decembei', 1814, Mr. Adams was rejoined by Mrs. Adams and their son at Paris, whence in a few months he went over to England as Minister to that court. At Ealing, a suburb of London, where Mr. Adams took up his residence, his son first went to an English school. But it was wisely thought that the time was come when he should be getting his education among the young fellow-countrymen with whom in after years he was to live and act, and he came home in 1817, to be fitted for college at the Boston Latin School. At Cambridge, where he graduated in 1825, the year in which his father became President of the United States, he was the classmate of Judge Ames, of the late Mayor Chapman, of Admiral Davis, of the sculp- tor Horatio Greenough, of Dr. John B. S. Jackson, of the Eev- erends Dr. Hedge and Dr. Lothrop, of Sears Walker, the astronomer, and of other distinguished men. On leaving college, Mr. Adams went to Washington, and there studied law two years under his fathei-'s direction. He completed his course by another year in the office of Daniel Webster in Boston, and was admitted to the bar in 1828. The first years of Mr. Adams's manhood were mostly passed with his books, and, allied and educated as he was, it was impossi- ble that his studies should not, to a great extent, take the direction of political history and science, and of whatever goes to the forma- tion of a statesman. Meantime, he exercised his pen in the news- papers. In the Boston Daily Advertiser, the National Advocate, and especially the Boston Courier, he frequently took a part in the controversies of the day, treating of matters of currency, finance, secret societies, and constitutional law. A list of writers in the North American Revieio shows some fourteen pajjers contributed by him to different numbers, between forty and twenty-five years ago, mostly on subjects belonging to political economy, and to political history and biography, American and English. Among pamphlets issued by him within twelve years after leaving college, two bore the title of " Reflections and Further Reflections on the Present State of the Currency of the United States ;" and another " An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, by a Whig of the 10 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Old School," discussed with great learning and ability ; the ques- tion, moved in General Jackson's time by Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay, and recently revived in our own, of the constitutional power of the President to remove office-holders without the consent of the Senate. In 1843, Mr. Adams pronounced the Fourth-of-Juiy oration before the municipal government of Boston. In 1841, Mr. Adams came into the Massachusetts House of Eepresentatives as a member for Boston, elected by Whig votes. At the end of the session of the Legislature, a committee of the Whig members issued a pamphlet, entitled " A Review of its Pro- ceedings, with an Appeal to the Peojile against the Violent Course of the Majority," — a vigorous paper, understood to be from the pen of Mr. Adams. He was a member of a committee which pub- lished an elaborate address of the Whig members of the Senate and House of Eepresentatives of Massachusetts to their constitu- ents, occasioned by the inaugural address of the Governor, and may have been the author of that document. Through the three years of his service, he was House Chairman of the Joint Commit- tee on Public Lands. In 1842, he was at the head of the important House committee for dividing the Commonwealth into districts for the choice of members of Congress, and took an active part in breaking down the discrimination against colored people as travel- ers in public conveyances, — a measure which, unobjectionable as it seems to us now, was opposed then with no little passion. In 1844 and 1845, Mr. Adams was a member of the Senate of Massachusetts, and Chairman of the Committees on Public Lands and on the Library. As yet there was no recognized split in the Whig party, but still less was there any entente cordiale. In 1845, the increase of the domain of slavery, by the annexation of Texas, was imminent, and annexation was for the moment the crucial question between the promoters and the opponents of the extension of the patriarchal institution. The treaty, made for the purpose by Mr. President Tyler and Mr. Secretary Calhoun, had failed in the National Senate, tor want of the constitutional majority of two thirds. In his message to Congress, in December, 1844, the President advised, that the annexation should be eifected by a joint resolve of the two Houses. The House sanctioned the proposal in the last week of the following month, and the Senate five weeks later. But it was the short session, and the Congress expired without 11 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. having pushed through any formal legislative act, so that there was still a glimmer of hope for escape. The exigency brought men into association who had not, or not lately, acted together before, as Mr. Adams, Mr. (lately Attorney-General) Hoar, Mr. Stephen C. Phillips, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Sumner, Judge Allen, of the Con- science Whigs ; Mr. Whittior, Mr. Sewall, Mr. Wright, Mr. Pier- pout, of the Liberal party ; Mr. Garrison and Mr. Wendell Phil- lips, of the Abolitionists proper. In October, 1845, at a meeting . held in Cambridge, barely five weeks before the assembling of the Twenty-ninth Congress, a committee of fifty persons was raised to obtain an expression of the peojile of Massachusetts on the annex- ation of Texas. The committee circulated a campaign newspaper called The Free State Rally, and arranged meetings in all parts of the Commonwealth, which were earnestly addressed by opponents of the annexation plot. The result was, that remonstrances went from Massachusetts to Washington, with nearly sixty thousand signatures, against the admission of Texas into the Union "as a slave State." The catastrophe was not averted, but the public mind of the N(Mth took important steps towards that revival of sense and virtue which finally shivered the system of slavery to atoms. In the manly enterjirise of that time, no one had a more conspicuous or effective part than Mr. Adams. And it was not a part to be taken except at heavy cost. Whoever chose it, was pur- sued by the Whigs of the Cotton wing with an animosity the like of which was, perhaps, never before seen in this country ; certainly not since the lively times of tlio War of 1812. Friendships going back for their beginning to the days of childhood and youth, were furiously broken. In the streets, men passed without recognition those wliom they had loved like brothers. People, whose living in any way depended on their neighbors' good-will, learned that it was contingent on hard, new conditions. Mr. Adams's unquestionable position and easy fortune made him less assailable than others, but only less so. The. cold shoulder of those whom one has esteemed and obliged is no exhilarating sight, even to the most self-sus- tained and the most sufficient to themselves. Some stepped back- ward sand escaped the annoyance ; but that was not Mr. Adams's way. And the circles, like the newspapers, did their little best against him, though, one may believe, not as vigorously as they might have done, could they have flattered themselves that they would be able to deter, or distress, or disturb him. 13 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. In the important movement of that aiitumn, which nltimately led to the formation of the Free-soil party, Mr. Adams was con- stantly active with speech and pen. On the dissolution of the Massachusetts State Anti-Texas Committee, an elaborate " Ad- dress to the Public," which he prepared, recited the action of the committee, re-stated its principles, and committed the seed of future patriotic endeavors to the good soil of a wide field. " The committee," he said in this paper, "entertain no shadow of doubt of the necessity of making resistance to slavery paramount to every other consideration of a political nature." The aggressive- ness of pro-slavery Whiggism demanded a stout resistance, and Mr. Adams, for the first and last time in his life, became connected with a newspaper. The Boston Whig, which he consented to con- duct for several months in the political department, did not a little in that critical time to keep the adversary in check and uphold the courage of good men. In the summer of 1847, it had become probable that General Taylor, recently brought into notice by his successors in Mr. Polk's Mexican war, would be the candidate of the Whig slave-holders and their Northern friends for the Presidency at the next election. Mr. Webster hoj^ed that the nomination might fall to himself. In the last week of September a convention for nominating State officers for Massachusetts met at Springfield. Mr. Webster, though not a member, came to it with some of his intimates, and made a speech designed to win the favor of the growing anti-slavery sec- tion. A delegate who wanted, if possible, to get on record some- thing definite, introduced a resolve, " Tiiat the Whigs of Massa- chusetts will support no men as candidates for the ofiiees of Presi- dent and Vice-President but such as are kn(jwn by their acts or declared opinions to be opposed to the extension of slavery." This led to a stormy debate and a rougli scene. The supporters of Gen- eral Taylor united with the supporters of Mr. Webster in hooting down the friends of the resolve. Amidst tumultuous outcries and other interruptions, Mr. Adams, Mr. Sumner, Judge Allen, and others, got what could scarcely be called a hearing in favor of it ; while Mr. Winthrop, and two other gentlemen of Boston, devoted to General Taylor or Mr. Webster, opposed it with equal earnest- ness. The vote was taken after nightfall, when in so crowded an assembly the count was difficult, and when numerous delegates from the western towns, where the doctrine of the resolve was pop- 13 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. ular, had retired to their liomes. The president, Mr. Ashman, who was not in favor of it, had aiipointed two tellers, both of his own inclining, who reported that it was defeated by a small ma- jority. The better opinion on both sides was that the tellers had counted incorrectly. In nearly all, if not all, the county conven- tions held presently afterwards,except Suffolk (Boston, and a suburb or two), the resolve, defeated in the convention, was passed in the same words, or in substance. The Whig party of Massachusetts, if it could be trusted as speaking the mind of its majority, would not listen to any further extension of slavery. A reconciliation of two policies so discordant and so vital was impossible. The Whig party of the nation could no longer hold together. In the Thirtieth Congress, which presently met, a small number of Whigs (two or three only, for party bonds were im- mensely strong) refused their votes to Mr. Winthrop as Speaker of the House, and he was only chosen by an adhesion of members from Mississippi and South Carolina. Nor was the Democratic party any longer without its divisions and anxieties. The Banquo head reared itself at the Democratic feasts in New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and elsewhere. The two healthy organizations having nominated their respec- tive candidates— General Cass and General Taylor— for the next Presidency, it was felt to be time for the Free-soil party, so in- sensibly and yet so loosely constituted, to take form and action. Three weeks after the nomination of General Taylor, a meeting of citizens of Massachusetts— to the number, it was said, of five thousand— was held in Worcester. In spirited resolves they de- clared their adherence to the often-professed principles of Massa- chusetts on the subject of slavery, and their purpose to maintain them in political action. On the 9th of August, a national con- vention of the citizens of the same way of thinking came together at Buffalo, in New York. Delegates appeared from seventeen or eighteen States, and the number of sympathizers who had assem- bled were variously estimated at from thirty to fifty thousand. The ])rominence of Mr. Adams in the Free-soil ranks was recog- nized by his appointment to preside over the convention. It was probably the general expectation of those who had conao into the Free-soil party from among the Whigs— at all events, it was their general wish— that the new party's nomination for the Presidency should fall upon Judge John McLean, of Ohio, a per- 14 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.. son in universal esteem for the best qualities of man. In the fluid state of the great Whig party, and indeed of both parties, at that time, it is not highly improbable that, had that nomination been made, it might have been carried in a sufficient number of States to bring the election into the House of Kepresentatives, and there ultimately have been sustained by an election through the alterna- tive constitutional process. But the great influence of Mr. (since Chief-Justice) Chase, of the same State as Judge McLean, was against that nomination, and it was opposed by that preponderat- ing force of New York Free-soilers who had come from the Demo- cratic ranks. Mr. Butler, formerly Mr. Van Buren's Attorney- General, with other scarcely less able and distinguished intimates of the late President, exerted themselves to satisfy the convention that that gentleman's recent assertion of Free-soil convictions might be relied upon, and that he, and he only, could carry the large electoral vote of New York for the new party, and shiver the Democratic combination throughout the Northern States. Mr. Van Buren was accordingly nominated as candidate for the Presi- dency, and Mr. Adams, representing in former years a very different type of political thought and character, was named for the second office. The nomination of Mr. Van Buren was a staggering blow to the Free-soil party in New England, in which region lay its greatest strength. A portion of tlat party still retaining their Whig affinities, could not make up their minds to give a vote for one who had so long had a front place in their maledictions ; and numbers, on their tremulous transition way, were rei^elled and driven back. Ultra Whiggery revived, as by a i-ejuvenating spell. Contrary to all the indubitable recent tendencies of thought. General Taylor, or rather Mr. Lawrence and his co-workers, had their way in Mas- sachusetts, though there, in sjjite of the immense discouragement, the new party cast nearly one third of the whole number of votes. A worse thing than defeat befell the Free-soil party of Mr. Adams's State. There was a portion of it too impatient of present ill-success. For more reasons than one, they thought they could not afford to wait for the healthy triumph of the doctrine they maintained to install them in the seats of power. That "success is a duty " was a maxim adopted by them with too little consider- ation of its sense and bearings. " Flectere si nequeo," etc. It soon 15 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. appeared that Mr. Wilson and some others differed from Mr. Adams and some others in respect to the further course incumbent on the bafSed friends of freedom. Mr. Adams had great faith in principles, and not so much in expedients, and in some sorts of plausible expedients he had no faith whatever. Mr. Wilson looked more to quick achievement, and was less averse to instru- mental inconsistencies and indirections. The difference bet Teen the two policies is well known, so often have they come into con- trast and conflict. The instructed statesman, with the reach of a " large discourse, looking before and after," trusts confidently to the ultimate success of righteous principles, which never ftiiled yet, nor will till tlie "pillared firmament is rottenness." A different class of actors esteem unduly an immediate appearance of success, however embarrassed by concomitants that strip it of its integrity and worth. At the annual election of 1850 in Massachusetts, when the exasperation at Mr. Webster's then recent advocacy of the Fugitive- slave Bill was at the highest, members were returned to the Legislature by the three parties respectively, — Whig, Free-soil, and Democratic, — according as one or another had a majority in the different constituencies. Some compact or understanding for joint action had been supposed to exist between a few persons active in the two latter parties, but in all or most of their newspapers the plan had been disavowed. When, however, the Legislature cam3 together, it was announced in potential quarters that such an understanding existed. Scrupulous men of the Free-soil party were solicited to acquiesce, on the ground that one result of it would bo Ihe return of Mr. Sumner to the Senate of the United States ; while, on the other hand, it was urged that the compact alleged had not been made by, or known to, the body of the electors ; that the policy urged, besides being more than questionable on higher grounds, was not even recommended by considerations of present expediency ; that even the election of Mr. Sumner, the great lure to friends of the cause which he had been so con- spicuously maintaining, would be as likely or more likely to be secured by a consistent and untrammeled action on their part ; and that, at the worst, the indications were that the popular will would bring him in at the next election, without any trading with his enemies. Such considerations, however, failed to convince. The compact presumed was now made, if it had not been made before — 16 V CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. at least between certain busy leaders. By the Legislature, which had to select between the thiee candidates, — since in the tripartite contest there had been no choice by the popular vote, — Mr. Bout- well, the candidate of the Democrats, was chosen Governor, and the first fruit of the unpleasant alliance of the Free-soil party was that the chief magistrate of Massachusetts, made so by their votes, delivered in his inaugural address an argument in defense of the Fugitive-slave Bill. And, after all, the sanguine Free-soil managers barely escaped the mortification of that enthusiast for Whitefield's preaching, who found on better information that he had soiled his dress for nothing. The Democrats, having secured their share, did not come up to their engagement, if engagement they made, and, after a contest of many weeks, Mr. Sumner was chosen by a change of the vote of a Whig representative, given under instructions from his town. Ml-. Boutwell, under another election of the same hybrid kind, was Governor for a second year, two successive candidates mean- while accepting the nomination of the Free-soil party, in hopes of keeping it together for service in better times. At the nominating convention held in 1852, the candidate of the preceding year, in consideration of the divided sentiments of the party, withdrew his name. It was thought by many that Mr. Wilson would be nom- inated in his place, but the choice fell on Mr. Horace Mann, who had served iu two Congresses as successor to Mr. John Quincy Adams. The canvass of the Free-soil party was not so spirited as it might have been had not Mr. Wilson, the most active member of the State committee, and perhaps at that time its chairman, been absent from the State during the first month. Some of the party were made uneasy and dispirited by the deflections which they had witnessed, and for which they could not consent to be responsible. Whigs who had recently come to them, or were on their way, found an easy excuse for turning back ; and again a Whig administration was inaugurated in Massachusetts, with Mr. Clifibrd at its head. If there is to be relief from this, thought the concocters of the late coalition, it must be had by another move in the same direction. They stirred for a convention to amend the State Constitution. Into such a body it was likely that there might be brought a conglomeration of indifferents and malcontents, subjects for such manipulation as might combine them iu joint action for the tempo- 17 CHAEuL£S FRANCIS ADAMS. rary purpose in hand. The point seized upon in justification of the measure was, that for a considerable time there had been well- founded complaint of an unequal adjustment of power among the towns as represented in the lower branch of the State Legislature. If there was anything else in the Constitution that demanded a chano-e, it was not of such importance as to attract much attention; and, at all events, any change that was really desirable might easily and deliberately be made by the method pointed out in the Constitution itself, — that is, a resolve of two successive Legislatures, confirmed by a vote of the whole people in the towns. But this would not have served the present turn. The sight of Whigs in power was irritating to many : to many more it was justly painful. The Whigs wanted no convention. Democrats and numerous Free-soilers voted for it : their johit vote prevailed, and the con- vention met. Against the meeting of the convention in the summer of 1853 the coalition tactics had been assiduously worked over by the parties concerned, and the resulting rules were stringently applied. Some men seemingly competent to contribute something to the deliberations of such a council were carefully excluded by the con- tracting parties. It is safe to say that no man in the Common- wealth was more largely qualified for that service, whether by integrity, ability, study, or experience, than Mr. Adams. He might have been returned as a member (so was the electing system arranged) by any town in the Commonwealth; but he was under the ban of the present guides of all parties, — of the Whigs and Democrats,— because of his testimony against the pro-slavery leaning ; of the new Free-soil leaders, because he held oif from their abnormal alliance ; so that, in Cromwell's phrase to the Parliament, there was " no longer need of him." Mr. Boutwell and Mr. Wilson were of the innermost council of the convention, and prime agents in its busy scenes. In their interest, Mr. Presi- dent Banks, though not ignorant of parliamentary law, ruled wildly. The confident body lost sight of the ostensible purpose of its convocation, and branched out into various schemes, as the theoretical vagaries of individual members prompted, or the expediencies incident to welding more closely together the two unsympathizing parties. The result of its three months' discussion was the composition of a full draft of an amended Constitution, to be passed upon by the popular vote. In the place of that unequal 18 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. representation in the lower branch of the Legislature which had been the avowed occasion of its meeting, it proposed another system still more unequal in the same way, and more objection- able in various ways. Several offices hitherto conferred by the appointment of the Executive, the Legislature, or the Judicial y (the ofiices of attorney-general, secretary, and treasurer, sheriffs and prosecuting officers, clerks of courts), it made elective, throwing them into the party scramble of the primary meetings. Above all, it proposed to banish from Massachusetts the institution of an independent, capable, andimpartial judiciary, by limiting the terms of judicial service, and making the appointment of judges from time to time by the Governor an element in the party contests of the successive years. The danger of the time, and a disposition to concede much for the sake of saving something when a comprehen- sive wreck seemed to be threatened, must be supposed to have helped the reckless powers that were in their successful endeavors to win over to their plans men not often known to fail in bringing courage and good sense to the public service. So late as three weeks before this disastrous project was to be voted on by the people, there was extremely little doubt, on the part whether of friend or foe, that it would be carried through^ so overpowering seemed the motley union, in act, of the parties per- sisting in their opposite professions in general politics. Mr. Adams was one of those who did not lose hope. In speech and print he addressed his fellow-citizens with vigorous expositions of the danger which was upon them. The danger was averted, though by a most narrow escape. A majority of 4,859 in 123, 8G3 votes, sent the portentous scheme to its place. If life, liberty, property, and repu- tation are at this day in Massachusetts secure under safeguards such as contrast with the processes of judicial administration in New York, no name more than Mr. Adams's deserves honor for the constancy and wisdom that stood for them victoriously in that time of appalling peril. The alliance in the convention had overleaped itself; and, having no principle of cohesion connected with the public good, it was demoralized by its dafeat, and the Whig dynasty kept its power in the State through the next year. In the autumn of 1854, Mr. Wilson being then the candidate of the Free-soil party for the office of Governor, the advancing rush of the Know-nothing train was unmistakably heard. A brisk leap brought Mr. Wilson 19 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. upon the thundering engine as it neared the watering-place at the Election Station, and he was presently set down by it on the plat- form of the Senate of the United States. Within a fortnight before the time for the fall election, it was announced that Mr. Wilson withdrew himself from the service of the Free-soil party as their candidate for the chief magistracy of the State. It was too late to do anything with any other candidate, and the party was effectually disarmed. If it had not been so intensely sad on the score of public morality, it would have been amusing to see the clean sweep which, in that dislocated state of politics, the extemporized Know- nothing party made. Leaves driven before a tornado were a faint image of the fury with which it scattered things along the track. The lately multitudinous Democratic party, the lately firm-seated Whig party, found themselves nowhere. Not enough was left of either in Massachusetts to pick up and splinter and dress. Till revived under another title after two or three years, the Free-soil party had no longer, anywhere, more than a name to live. The story of the extraordinary career of the Know-nothing party is not savory, nor is there any occasion now for memory to revive the sensations imparted by that unpleasant atmosphere. The saving quality of the reign was that it was short. Mr. Adams had not liked the Massachusetts coalition project in its different phases ; to the scheme, for spoiling the Constitution he had stood in victorious resistance ; he did not like the Know-nothing move- ment ; and his disaffection was cordially requited by the ill-yoked leaders, not so much to his own cost as to that of the iiublic which he might have served so well. Kelegated by an absolute ostracism to private life, while the electors of the Congressional district of his residence, or the jobbers, who wrought upon them, considered Mr. Damrell to be more competent to appear for them in the councils of the nation, he was not left without the means of digni- fied employment for his time, nor without opportunities to be useful to his countrymen in labors to which their votes were not needed to introduce him. He devoted himself, as his main occupa- tion, to preparing for the press a portion of the writings of his grandfather, the second President. Of this great work, which, after rigid selection and condensation of matter, had to extend over ten closely-printed octavo volumes, the first volume was pub- lished in 1850 ; the last, containing a biography, in 1856. 20 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. The life of a statesman can only be fitly written by a statesman. The life of John Adams — coeval, till beyond middle age, with the colonial times, of importance second only to that of one other life in the struggle from which our country came forth as one of the family of nations, and intimately complicated with all the contro- versies of our early interior national politics — could only be satisfactorily recorded by a scholar of the best historical knowledge, and could only be worthily analyzed by a thinker who, in addition to having within his mind's range of view the whole political field of the time, understood the weakness and the strength, the dangers and the securities, of the various jiolitical systems, and the motives, worthy and generous, selfish and threatening, which more or less through all recorded time have acted on the minds of men intrusted with the conduct of public aflairs. As a tribute to ancestral services and greatness, Mr. Adams may well have thought the time well spent which was devoted to this carefully finished com- position. But he had a right to think far more highly of it still as a contribution to the knowledge of his fellow-citizens on matters of the weightiest practical concern, and to wholesome influences upon the national character. Literary critics will extol the merits of this memoir as a felicitous essay in one of the most attractive departments of fine writing. Lovers of historical truth will prize the information and conviction they obtain from it on grave matters disputed in our fathers' days, as the designs of our French ally in connection with the peace of 1783, the wisdom of the undertaking to deal with the French Directory in 1797, and the military appointments at the time of our quarrel with the French in 1798. But what will most take the attention of the reflecting patriot is the high and strict standard of rectitude and public spirit in public action which is everywhere upheld throughout this work. si sic omnes I The grandson was no indiscriminating champion of the illustrious character which he undertook to exhibit. He was equal to judging, better than most men, what there was to criticise, as well as what to defend or applaud, and he was equally true to both offices as occasions arose. But, whether censure or commen- dation was the theme, one thing, as far as this specimen was concerned, was always apparent — that at the bar of American history the question respecting American rulers would be, whether with unselfish purpose they had striven for the public good. Disintegrated and fsj^parently demolished as the Free-soil party 31 CnARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. had been, its priuci|)les proved to have an indestructible vitality, and their vigor was quickened by the course of the Southern politicians. * * * * "'■' * i?epM6/ica« was an inoffen- sive name. It provoked no angry pride of consistency. So, under a salutary lead of prevailing public sentiment, hack politicians of the old parties, having their eyes anointed to see which was going to be the winner in the struggle and the giver of gifts,— along with much larger numbers of better men, honest champions long ago of the Free-soil doctrine, and recent converts to it, — became banded in a formidable party, and were training under the name of Re- publicans as early as some time in 1S55. The comprehensive character of this arrangement, and still more a conviction, enforced by the thickening perils of the time, opened a door for the admission of more character and capacity into the public service than of late had seemed to bo thought needful. In 1858, Mr. Adams, having then, since 1845, with the consent of the guides of the " inside of politics " of all descriptions, filled that post of honor, a private station, was chosen by the third district of Masacliusetts to represent it in the Thirty-sixth Con- gress of the United States. The crisis had beeu approaching with steady and not slow pace. Under the lead of Mr. Douglas, the Missouri Compromise had been repealed (May 13th, 1854), after all the benefits for which it was designed had been reaped by the slave-power advocates, and when the time had come for it to work the other way. Represen- tatives from South Carolina had made an all but fatal assault upon a Massachusetts Senator in his place in the Capitol (May 22d, 1856). The National Republican party, organized in a convention at Philadelphia (June 17th, 1856), had been defeated (November, 1856) in the attempt to raise Mr. Fremont to the Presidency, and the Democracy had chosen Mr. Buchanan. ••■■ * * * "'•'" Such was the state of parties— the Know-nothing party being still in flower— that till the end of the first eight weeks of Mr. Adams's first service in Congress the House did not get farther than the choice of a Speaker. The ultimate election of Mr. Pennington, of New Jersey, to that place was a triumph for the Republican party. In both Houses the session was an excited one. A series of resolves, introduced into the Senate by Mr. Jefl'erson Davis, indicated the policy to be pursued by his party in the approach- ino- Presidential election. In the debate upon them, as well as ou ° 23 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. other occasions, SeDatois and Representatives from the South dealt freely in the threat that if a Republican President should be chosen, the slave-holding States would detach themselves from the Union, and the expectation was confidently expressed that they would have so much aid from their party friends at the North as would make it impossible to resist them. Mr. Adams, as has been usual with judicious men entering on an untried sphere, abstained from using opportunities for promi- nence, while he watched closely the course of proceedings and the characters of men. He was the acting member of the important Joint Committee on the Library, and Chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, which, as things turned out, had little business referred to it during the session. Toward the close of the first session, he addressed the House (May 31st, 1860) in an elaborate and forcible speech, vindicating the principles of the Republican party, and exhibiting its "indispensable necessity to the actual salvation of our free institutions." Just at the same time, he attracted the surprised attention of the House by a characteristic act. It was alleged that members of the controlling party, professing to act for their associates, had made a bargain with a person named Defrees, that they would choose him to the place of public printer for the House, with a very large compensation, if he would give them half the profits for the circulation of electioneer- ing documents; and a member (Mr. Clopton, of Alabama) affirmed in debate that the job was defeated for want of the one Republican vote of Mr. Adams. That it was defeated, there is no doubt. That in defeating it Mr. Adams stood alone, it would be painful to believe, though there is no doubt he would have held such a position calmly, notwithstanding his finding himself solitary in it. In the interval between the two sessions of his Congressional service, Mr. Adams, in company with Mr. Seward, made a journey in some of the North-western States, where personally he had not hitherto been much known, and addressed several popular assem- blies on the Presidential election which was approaching. When Cono-ress met again in December, the choice of electors had been made, determining the succession of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency ; and within the next two weeks the South Carolina Senators had resigned their seats, and the Legislature of Georgia had appropri- ated a million of dollars to arm its militia. ■■-■ Immediately after the inauguration of President Lincoln, Mr 13 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Adams was commissioned as Minister Plenipotentiary to England, in the place of Mr. Dallas, and he sailed from Boston for that service in the first week in May. He was now in the sphere for the exercise and manifestation of his rare qualities. They were illus- trated by the great discouragements which he had to encounter. The great civil war had broken out. The ministry and the ruling classes of England were unfriendly. The Tory party could not but welcome the prospect of a downfall of the great republic, whose prosperity had so potently backed up the argument of English friends to free principles and free institutions. The Whig aristocracy, alarmed by the progressive radicalism of their own allies at home, were not unwilling that it should receive a check from the failure of the American experiment. Except the great names of the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Cobden, there were few in the first rank of English statesmen who looked favorably or justly on the rights or prospects of this country. In the commer- cial circles, in which, since the squirarchy has become more enlightened, the intensest burliness of John-BuUism resides, the ruin of the groat maritime power across the water was a welcome conclusion. The suffering that would fall on the laboring classes in consequence of the stoppage of the supply of cotton from America was apparent ; and the decision with which, as it proved, they nt)t only refrained from pressing their government into hostile measures, but pronounced their advocacy of that cause of freedom in America which they instinctively felt to be their own, showed a sense and magnanimity which it would have seemed visionary to look for. The clergy, from Cornwall to the Tweed, rejoiced in the new demonstration that social order was only to be had under the shadow of a church-sustaining throne. The Carlton Club was elate. The Reform Club was bewildered and double-minded. Lord Palraerston, even beyond his wont, was flippant and cheerful. Mr. Adams stepped into the circle collected, prepared, grave, dignified, self-poised, with the port of one who felt that he had great rights to secure, that he knew how to vindicate them, and that he had a stout power behind him for their maintenance. The British ministry — not over-reluctant themselves — were pressed by solicitations from across the Channel, as well as by taunts and importunities at home, to espouse the cause of the insurgent States. That they were held to a neutrality, however imperfect, instead 24 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. of proceeding to an active intervention, was largely due to the admirable temper and ability with which our diplomacy was con- ducted. A short time sufficed to make it appear that Mr. Adams was not to be bullied, or cajoled, or hoodwinked, or irritated into an imprudence, and every day of his long residence uear the British court brought its confirmation to that profitable lesson. Under provocations and assumptions the more offensive for being sheathed in soft diplomatic phrase, not a petulant word was to be had from the American Minister, nor a word, on the other liand, indicative of a want of proud confidence in the claims and in the future of his country. A timid and yielding temper would have invited encroachments ; a testy humor or discourteous address would have been seized upon as excuse for reserve or counter- irritation. Nor by the preparation of study was he less equal to th.; difficult occasion than by native qualities of mind and charac- ter, as was proved more than once when. Lord John having flattered himself that he had discovered some chink in our mail in some passage of our treatment of Spain and the South- American republics, the pert diplomatist had to learn that it would be prudent for him to go into a more careful reading of the records of past American administrations. It is of less consequence- to say that Mr. Adams's personal accomplishments, his familiarity with the usages of elegant society, his cultivated taste in art, and the good scholarship of his acquaintance with the classical historians, orators, and poets (a sort of attainment nowhere more considered than in England), added to the estimation which attached to him. Going to that country in circumstances of the extremest perplexity and trial, he left it, after seven years, the object of universal respect, and of an extent and earnestness of private regard seldom accorded, in any circumstances, to the representative of a foreign power. To maintain at once an inflexible and an inoffensive attitude; to assert, without a jot or tittle of abatement, a country's unconceded right, yet expose no coigne of vantage to the aggressor by a rash advance; to enforce justice and tranquilizc passion at the same time, — are the consummate achievement, the last crowning grace, of diplomacy. Since Mr. Adams was recalled from England at his own request, he has, as in former years, lived in Boston in the winter, and ill the summer months has managed his extensive farm at Quincy, eight miles from town, where he has occupied the ancient house 25 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. which John Adams, attached to it by early recollections, purchased before his return from Europe in 1788. His later connection with public affairs has almost entirely grown out of this well-accomplished diplomatic duty ; for, since his return to America, he has taken no part in politics at home, but has devoted his time to matters con- nected with international law. In December, 1870, he delivered an address upon American neutrality before the New York Historical Society, at their request. When, by the terms of the Treaty of Washington, it was decided to submit the Alabama and kindred claims to arbitration at Geneva, Mr. Adams was unhesitatingly selected as the arbitrator to be ap- pointed on the part of America. His discharge of that duty is too fresh in the minds of all to need recounting here. By special invitation of the New York Legislature, Mr. Adams was chief orator in the Memorial Service held in hopor of the late William H. Seward, at Albany, N. Y., April 18th, 1873. His oration on that occasion was a splendid scholarly tribute to the character and services of the deceased statesman, and fitly crowned the great career which it commemorated, " It was," as expressed by another, " one of the most earnest and impassioned eulogies ever uttered by one friend over the grave of another." Mr. Adams, in speaking of his own relation to the day's event and its subject, feelingly referred to the fact that in the same place, twenty-five years ago, Mr. Seward was the eulogist of his illuslrious father ; " and," to continue the authority above quoted, " impressed the audience with the fact that his heart, as well as the best gifts of his mind, was fully enlisted in the task he had set before him." He then proceeded to give an in- teresting review of the political history of the country with which Mr. Seward was so intimately identified, following him through his active career in State and National affairs, touching meantime upon some of the secret springs which guided campaigns and influenced public events, and referring with delicacy and judgment to the prominent events in the life of Mr. Seward, giving, in doing so, a kaleidoscopic picture of the past of rare beauty and singular com- pleteness. In person, Mr. Adams is rather below than above the middle height His figure, as he advances in life, tends somewhat to full- ness, as did that of his father and grandfather. His head and features are strongly marked with the family Ukeness, and express the vigor, decision, and repose of his mind and character. 26 .^L^^ ^^^^^^^p^ ^ ^/^^. ETHAN ALLEN. By William Ij. Stone. THAN ALLEN, the subject of the present sketch, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, upon the beautiful banks of the Manasquan, on the 12th day of May, 1832, and amid its scenery spent the boy- hood of his life. For fishing, fowling, sailing, skating, and other aquatic spoits this picturesque river afforded u^nequaled opportunities ; and no one, except the " Giver of all good," knows how great an influence such rural childhood life exerts in moulding the coming man. His great grandfather, a descendant of one of the Pilgrim Fathers, removed to this place from Long Island about the year 1750. The grandfather, Samuel Allen, was a patriot in the war of the American Revolution, and commanded the " Minute Men," whose duty it was to guard the coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May against the common enemy ; and his daring exploits during that contest would furnish much material for a thrilling history. Upon the close of the war he set- tled down to the quiet routine of a country farmer, and became one of the largest landed proprietors of the State, his possessions com- prising nearly the entire northern shore of the river referred to. Samuel F. Allen, the father of Ethan, who is yet living being one of many children born and reared within the old homestead, served in the War of 1812 as a captain in the military service, in whicli capacity he discharged the same duties as faithfully as his father had done before him. Devoting himself in early life to public affairs to the neglect of his personal interests, and dispensing favors with a too liberal hand, he at length became so much embarrassed as to be obliged to sell all that remained to him in New Jersey, and, with a large famUy of children, move to New York City, in the year 1845. Ethan was not much over twelve yeai-s of age when, withwonder- 27 ETHAN ALLEN. ing gaze, he first walked through the streets of the City of New York, finding at every step new cause for astonishment. It was, however, only in externals that the country boy showed inexperience. From infancy he had attended school, and already he was well grounded in the rudiments of knowledge. In debate, especially, he had early given evidence of coming proficiency ; and it is still remembered that in the meetings of the Debating Society, which were held in the old country School-house, usually oiie night in each week during the winter, this youth (not yet in bis teens) would stand up with the Schoolmaster, Doctor, and other magnates of the place, and discuss, with as much zeal and learning as the best of them, whether " Bru- tus was a patriot," or whether " Mary Queen of Scots was an angel or a fiend." Upon his arrival in the metropolis, he at once re-entered school, taking from the first high rank, and graduating at the expiration of two years, in the company of some whose names have since become of national prominence. Leaving school, young Allen was invited by tlie late Mahlon Day, the venerable Quaker, whom all New York then knew, and whose subsequent loss on ihe steamer Arctic, in the year 1854, was generally mourned, to enter his book store, in Pearl street Elated with the thought of beginning business, the boy joyfully accepted the invitation ; but, after one year's expei-ieuce, he decided that his /o7-le did not lie in making and selling books, and therefore he resolved to study law. He entered the ofiice of the late Hon. Elijah Paine, with whom he remained till that gentleman was elected Judge of the Superior Court of the City of New York. Young Allen, however, continued his studies in the New York Law Institute, where he remained some little time. A digres- sion was here temporarily made fi-om the com-se in life which he had marked out for himself, and an engagement was accepted upon The New York Herald, an engagement that lasted for two years, when Allen withdrew from " newspaper life " to enter college ; and here a characteristic incident may be mentioned. By the manager of the Herald, Allen was at once assigned to "Washing- ton as its correspondent, at a time just following the inauguration of President Pierce. Thither he went, bearing with him of course his proper credentials, and also letters of introduction to the leading men of the nation. Among other letters was one to Mr. Asbury Dickens, at that time Clerk of the Senate, and who was justly esteemed by all for the purity of Ids character, preserved through ■ 28 ETHAN ALLEN. nearly half a century of official life. Mr. Dickens read the letter, and looking at Allen, who had not then reached his majority, and whose appearance was very youthful, said, pleasantly : " Tell Mr. Allen to come and see me, and I shall be glad to afford him any proper facility." " I am Mr. Allen," was the reply. " You !" said Mr. Dickens, in astonishment — impossible I The Herald made, and is the tongue of this Administration. Mr. Bennett certainly would not send a boy to represent a paper so powerful." " The manager of the Herald generally understands his business," was the quiet answer ; and a service of two years in the position of correspondent condrmed the good judgment evinced in the selection. As soon as he was properly prepared for college, Allen termi- nated his connection with the newspaper press, and entered the Freshman Class of Brown University in 1856. In his collegiate course that personal popularity, which seems inseparable to him, was conspicuous. He was elected president of his class organization shortly after matriculation, and in the Senior year delivered the class oration, usually regarded as a high collegiate honor. While in college he was eminently distinguished for his gentle- manly treatment of his fellow students. He was fond of all manly sports ; and while loving a good joke — even a practical one — would never descend to any meanness or unkindness to effect it. He was, I think, always loyal to bis professors, though this was shown rather in a quiet influence among his comrades than in any active demonstrations. The last year that he was in college he made very great efforts to awaken a martial spirit, believing that it would be an excellent thing for the physique of the students. For the accomplishment of this end, he labored for a long while unceasingly, neglecting some- what perhaps, his collegiate studies. Finally, he, together with Livingston Satterlee, Charles P. Williams, Charles L. Kneass (the latter of whom is since dead), and the writer, interested a sufficient number of students to authorize the formation of a military com- pany. Kneass was our Captain, and Allen and Satterlee our Lieu- tenants. A lot of broom-handles, picked up on the college cam- pus and in various rooms, supplied the place of muskets ; and thus equipped, juniors, as well as " grave and reverend seniors," for four months spent the time, usually devoted to foot-ball, in the drill, unmindful of the playful sneers of our fellow-students. Had Allen remained through his entire course, it was the intentioi) of himself 29 ETHAN ALLEN. and his intimate friend and secret-society brother Kneass, to lay before the Faculty of " Brown " the desirableness of the introduc- tion of the study of military tactics as a part of the regular college curriculum. Events, however, have since demonstrated that, in this particular, they were only in advance of their age. Before entering college Mr. Allen had made some reputation as a public speaker ; and the excitement of the canvass between Fremont and Buchanan being at its highest while he was a freshman, the dif- ferent classes were all thrown into great astonishment, when one morning a delegation of prominent citizens waited upon Freshman Allen, and requested him to address a mass meeting that evening ia the Public square in favor of Fremont's election. The invitation was accepted ; and that night, in company with a distinguished United States senator, young Allen called forth rounds of applause, in which all the classes of the college — and they were all present — joined. The next day President Wayland had an interview with Allen, and, while fully appreciating his talent, requested that no more such invitations should be accepted, as it disturbed the quiet of collegiate life. Mr. Allen left college in 1859, a year before gra- duating, taking the studies of the Junior and the Senior years at the same time, but returned and graduated with his class in 1860. Mean- while he had entered the University Law "School, in the City of New York, in 1859, and had delivered the valedictory of his class. Shortly after he was admitted to the practice of the law by an order of the Supreme Court, in May, 1860. The bitter political and sectional controversy was now opening between the North and the South, represented by the respective candidates for the Presidency ; and Mr. Allen, with all the ardor of an enthusiast, threw himself into the contest in favor of Abraham Lincoln. Allen labored from a sense of duty, and not from the desire of gain, regarding it as a sacred duty, second to none, for every citizen to interest himself zealously in public affairs. And here it may be stated, that through all his life he has steadily refused to join local political clubs and ward associations, for the reason that such bodies, in his j udgment, are too often the mere agencies by which dishonest place-seeking aspirants are enabled to secure noto- riety. " The public good, regardless of self-interest," most nearly expresses the rule by which Mr. Allen has guided his steps. Throughout New York and the adjoining States his voice was heard most etfectively upon the stump during this canvass. 30 ETHAN ALLEK. In April, 1861, the Hon. E. Delafield Smith, the newly- appointed United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, under the incoming Lincoln Administration, invited Mr. Allen to fill the place of Chief Assistant— a position which was accepted. Entering heartily into the trial of causes, he participated in some of the most important of that time. Perhaps no official ever secured by his conduct a greater popularity. Always gen- erous and frank in his dealings, entirely honest, firm and courageous in the discharge of every official duty, courteous to every one, yet above all, specially distinguished by a perfect impartiality, which granted to the most poverty-stricken suitor the same favor that was extended to the richest or most powerful, he secured by these charac- teristics general praise. The war for the National existence, by the dis- aster of the year 1862, seeming to demand the help of every patriot, Mr. Allen, in August of that year, resigned his position of Assistant District Attorney, in order to enter the army. His four brothers were already in the field. From Washington City he forwarded hia resignation to Mr. Smith — not knowing that his colleague, the Hon. Stewart L. Woodford, had also resigned a similar position the day previous with the same intent, and that his (Woodford's) resignation had been accepted. Mr. Smith, unwilling to lose the services at the same time of both of his assistants, refused to allow Mr. Allen to withdraw. Eesolved. however, to contribute what he could to aid the National cause, Mr. Allen then applied to the Governor of the State for authority to raise a regiment. Having obtained this, he threw himself heartily into the work at such times as he could spare from his offi- cial duties, and with such eSect that he presently recruited over thirteen hundred men, who afterwards rendered efficient service in the field. These men, moreover, were secured at a time when volun- tary enlistments were relied upon, and before bounties were offered — a circumstance which made success much more difficult than after- wards. Nor were Mr. Allen-'s efforts for the country confined to rais- ing troops. On the Eostrum his voice was heard in the same cause. At the gi-eat " Uprising " of the citizens of New York, in Union Square, which followed the firing on Fort Sumter, on the 20th of April, 1861, Mr. Allen participated. He was also the first speaker at the stand over which the Hon. Hamilton Fish presided, at the " Grand mass meeting to sustain the Nation," held at the same place July 15th, 1862. Afterwards at the " Anniversary of the Grand Uprising of our Citizens," held in Madison square, on the 20th day of April, 31 ETHAN ALLEN. 1863, when Winfield Scott presided— he spoke from the same stand together with John Van Buren and other prominent citizens. Elo- quent as he always is, he was particularly so on these occasions. In 1865 Mr. Allen again publicly espoused the election of Abraham Lincoln, and was among those who contributed essen- tially to his success. At the beginning of Mr. Lincoln's second administration, the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson having been named as United States District Attorney, in place of the Hon. E. Delafield Smith, whose term of office had expired, one of Mr. Dickinson's first acts was to invite Mr. Allen to remain with him as one of his As- sistants. Between Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Allen the strongest attach- ment was at once formed. It is the delight of Mr. Allen to speak of him as one of the purest public men he ever knew. Patriotic in every act, and honest in every thought, it was but natural that such a character should secure — as it did — the entire admiration, loyalty and devotion of one who saw in Mr. Dickinson his ideal of what a public official should be. Mr. Dickinson dying suddenly in 1866, his son-in-law, Hon. S. G. Courtney, was named his successor by President Johnson— an appointment which was partly influenced by Mr. Allen, from the affection that he cherished for his deceased friend. The disinterestedness of this conduct, moreover, becomes the more striking when it is remembered that in the judgment of many Allen was himself in the line of promotion, his services and expe- rience, it was thought, entitling him to the honor of the appointment of District Attorney, which many powerful friends stood ready to secure. It was announced, however, to Mr. Allen on . the day that Mr. Dickinson died, that his last expressed wish was that Mr. Court- ney should succeed him, and in response to such wish Mr. Allen, that very day, telegraphed to friends in "Washington positively for- bidding the use of his name for the vacant office, and urging the name of Mr. Courtney. After Mr. Courtney's appointment, Allen continued with him as Assistant. In the Presidential contest of 1868 he again entered the lists, and, with his usual zeal, advocated the election of General Grant Some of his speeches were used as campaign documents, and circu- lated by thousands throughout the country. Upon the inauguration of General Grant, Mr. Allen became an applicant for the place of United States Attorney (the only time he ever was an aspirant for office), and being defeated by Judge Edwards Pierrepont, in April, 32 ETHAN ALLEN. 1869, he forthwith resigned his place as Assistant, and returned to the practice of his profession. Since the day of his retirement from public service, perhaps no man of his years has been more successful. Business of the most lucrative character forthwith poured in upon him, and he found himself rapidly becoming financially independent. On returning to private life in 1869, he firmly determined that if he ever again accepted public ofiice, it would not be until he was willing to retire entirely from his profession — a rule to which he has thus far strictly adhered. In 1870 he was tendered the nomination for Congress in the City of New York, but declined in a letter dated October 24, 1870, made public at the time, from which the following extract is taken : " As I have long since resolved that I would accept of no official posi- tion, I must, in accordance with such resolution, decline the nomina- tion tendered." Many other public nominations to office and offers of appointment have been in like manner refused. In the Spring of 1870, Mr. Allen, impressed with the heroic efforts made in behalf of the independence of Cuba, at once enlisted in her cause. He was one of the originators of the " Cuban League of American Citizens," and was the author of the resolution of organ- ization upon which the whole structure rested, and the object of which was "to so arouse public sympathy by mass meetings, etc., that the rights of belligerents should be secured to the Cuban patriots." In March, 1870, he prepared and issued the "address" of the League to the people of the United States, which exerted a marked influence upon the nation, and which has since been repub- lished in nearly every language. An active promoter of the grand mass meeting of the League held in April, 1870, in the Cooper Insti- tute, Mr. Allen was selected to di-aft the resolutions expressive of the sense of that meeting. In connection with this duty an incident may be mentioned which aptly illustrates the character of the sub- ject of this biography. At this time the policy of securing St. Domingo as a part of the national territory was exciting pub- lic attention, and this was supposed to be a matter dear to the heart of the President of the United States. Mr. Allen was approached with a request that in his resolutions he would incorporate one favor- ing the acquisition of St. Domingo, so that its endorsement by the people might aid the scheme, but this Allen positively refused to do. The help of others in the " League " was then secured in an attempt to oveiTule his refusal ; but he would not be overruled, nor brook any 33 ETHAN ALLEN. interference. It was then that some officials and officers of the army of exalted rank, using the name of General Grant, said that it would be particularly acceptable to him (the President) if such a resolution as suggested was drafted, and the promise of personal favor was in- dicated if the request was acceded to. Thoroughly indignant, Mr, Allen at length said : " You may say to General Grant from me, that were his power as President a thousand times increased, and were it all at my disposal. T would never consent to any resolution in regard to St. Domingo being read." This ended the matter, and it is needless to add that no resolution was prepared on St. Domingo. Subsequent to the mass meeting Mr. Allen satisfied himself that the President's name was used without his knowledge or authority, but doubtless was thus referred to without warrant to advance personal schemes. At this very time Mr. Allen was personally in favor of the acquisition of St. Domingo, as he has ever been, but his sense of honesty revolted at the idea of loading down with this proposition an effisrt in behalf of the straggling Cuban patriots. He regarded it as a treacherous betrayal of a trust to use the Cuban cause to advance any other measures, and, of all men in the world, he was the least likely to accede to it. In the Presidential canvass of 1872 Mr. Allen advocated the claims of Horace Greeley. His natural impulses could not have directed him otherwise. He regarded Mr. Greeley as a giant in all intellectual endowments, and almost without a compeer in moral purity among our public men. At the convention of Liberal Ke- publicans in Cincinnati, he was very active in securing Mr. Greeley's nomination, and after this event he was chosen as the " chairman of the National Committee " of the party, making liim practically the leader of the movement — the youngest man perhaps upon whom a similar distinction was ever bestowed. If zeal, hard labor, untiring watchfulness could have commanded success, Mr. Allen would have saved Mr. Greeley from defeat. Devoted to the Liberal Republican candidate by a personal attachment that was heightened by an admiration for the character of this truly great man, he never tired in his servica Unable, however, to descend to the ignoble means which generally degrade political contests, Mr. Allen, early in the campaign, issued a circular letter with a view to suppress the gross personalities which he foresaw, but which he had not the power to prevent His ringing address to the citizens of the United States, after the flagrant frauds of the October elections in Pennsylvania, in 34 ETHAN ALLEN. condemnation of such corruption and its necessary result to the nation if unrestrained, was regarded as one of the ablest papers put forth by either party. In August, 1861, Mr. Allen was married to Eliza, daughter of the late Darms Clagett, of Washington City, and who died, the year previous to his daughter's wedding, at " Pomona," D. C, his country residence, venerated and esteemed as the City's most philanthropic and enterprising citizen. Phrenology has long since been regarded as a science beyond cavil. The correctness with which it generally delineates character can only be explained by the admission that it has truth for its basis. The Phrenological Journal, for September, 1872, published an outline of Mr. Allen's life, from which we make the following extract. By it the reader may judge how faithfully, in this instance, at least. Phrenology describes the subject of the present sketch. It says : " Though not large, Mr. Allen has a striking presence. The head is high, and the moral sentiments are well developed. There is large Benevolence, Conscien. tiousneas. Veneration and Hope. Spirituality is not wanting, but is subordinate to the intellect, which is prominent. He has a compact and wiry organization. He is full of energy, positiveness and persistency. He is organized to be healthy, and is capable of accomplishing a great deal of work through his mental activity and physical endurance. Few men are so sharp, intense, and so earnest, and few have as much persistent endurance and elasticity. He is a man of decision and of deter- mination. He is firm almost to obstinacy; he is self-reliant, generally measures his own strength and duties, and proceeds without waiting for help. He loves his liberty and will defend it, but is just and considerate of the rights of others. He is sociable, friendly, kindly, neighborly. He aims high, is aspiring, but not self- ishly ambitious. He is willing to earn the right to promotion, and, his habits being good, he will inevitably work his way up, either in Law, Legislation or Literature. We predict favorably of his future. " As a lawyer, Mr. Allen takes high rank. He has conducted some of the most important cases before the courts, and won them. He tries a case closely, is a good advocate, a sound reasoner," and ex- erts much influence before a jury. As his history indicates, his leading characteristic is a keen love of justice, truth and right, and he unflinchingly does what he deems to be his duty, regardless of consequences. He is manly and outspoken in his relations with others, while his frank nature commands the friendship of all. His reputation is without a blemish. Throughout his whole ofiicial career, he never gave even cause for censure. He is, in fact, the true t^'pe of a Reform leader — honest, courageous, unselfish — and, like his Puritan ancestor, he would dare all and sufier all for princi- ple and the right. 35 JAMES ALDEN, ^EAE-ADMIRAL JAMES ALDEN, who recently left this country to take command of the European Squad- ron of United States war-vessels, is a brilliant repre- sentative of the American Navy, and has probably seen more active service and hard fighting than any other of- ficer of his grade. He was bom in Maine, and appointed Midshipman from that State on April 1, 1828. During the three years succeeding he was attached to the Naval station at Boston, Mass., and entered in 1832 upon active sea service in the sloop-of-war John Adams, of the Mediterranean Sqaudron. On the lith of June, 1834, he was promoted to Passed Midshipman ; and a few months later was ordered to the Navy Yard, at Boston. He was on duty on an exploring expedition from 1839 to 1842, and while absent received the commission of Lieutenant. During the Mexican War, Lieutenant Alden was attached to the Home Squadron, and participated in the engagements at Vera Cruz, Tuspan and Tobasco. From 1848 to 1860 he was on coast survey duty, receiving on the 14th of September, 1855, his commission as Commander. The opening of the Great American Conflict found him in com- mand of the steamer South Ca/-oZ»ia, blockadmg the port of Galveston. On the 3d of August, 1861, one of the tenders of the South Carolina, while returning fi-om a cruise to the southward, was fir.d upon from two Confederate batteries. The fire was returned vigorously, and the fact being communicated to the commander, he took measures to ascer- tain the cause of the action. No explanation coming from the au- thorities. Commander Alden prepared his vessel for a fight, and in the afternoon steamed toward the batteries. The General Rush, a large ocean steamer which had long been preparing for sea, undertook to escape, but Commander Alden giving chase, she was compelled to retreat. Shortly after, she made a second attempt, but this was also 37 JAMES ALDEN. unsuccessful. The Smth Carolina then stood direct for the batteries, and in a few moments wa? in the midst of a heavy fire, which was maintained until her commander, fearing he was inflicting greater injury on the city, and perhaps on unoffending citizens, than the bat- teries, or those who sought the collision, withdrew his ship. During the passages of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, April 24:th, 1862, Commander Alden was in charge of the steam sloop Richmond, and handled his ship with great skill at that important time. He also made two passages of the Vicksburg batteries, in April, 1863. In Jiinuary, 1864, he received his commission as Captain. The memorable engagement with Forts Morgan and Gaines, and a number of Confederate gunboats in Mobile Bay, August 5th, 186-4, found Captain Alden in command of the steam sloop Brooklyn, that vessel having, at the earnest request of the captains and commanding of- ficers of the fleet, been designated by Ren-- Admiral Farragut as the leading ship of the line. The Brooklyn was particularly fitted for this advanced position, as she had four chase guns and an ingenious arrangement for picking up torpedoes. Fort Morgan opened the ball by firing on the Brooklyn, which was instantly returned, and the ac- tion immediately became general. Captain Alden also commanded the Brooklyn in the two attacks on Fort Fisher, after which, it will be remembere 1, Congress voted thanks to Rear-Adrairal Porter, his ofl&cers and men, for their gallant conduct on that occasion. His commission of Commodore was issued July 2oth, 1866. Dur- ing the two following years he was in command of the steam frigate Minnesota, engaged on special service. In April, 1869, Commodore Aldeu was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation and Detail, Navy Department, and resigned his position a few months ago, on being promoted to the rank of Rear- Admiral, and receiving orders to take command of the Europeon Squadron of United States vessels. During his long term of service. Rear-Admiral Alden has spent twenty-six years at sea, engaged for the most part on important pub- lic duty. He is an accomplished gentleman and a fine model of the American fighting sailor. Tall, commanding in presence, experi- enced in his profession, courteous to all, he is well and ably qualified to represent our Navy in foreign waters. 3a WILLIAM ALVORD HE name of Mr. Alvord has long been familiar in business and social circles as the head of a well xTb^ known mercantile house in California and New York, ;^^j and has become especially prominent since his election, f^ in 1871, to the Mayoralty of San Francisco, in which honorable station he continues at the present writing. During this term he has devoted hims:lf so earnestly to the public duties incumbent upon him that in the fulfillment of them the merchant seems to have been transformed into the otficial ; his time being given almost exclusively to muncipal affairs, which, in variety and extent, have increased even more than in proportion to the growth of the gi-eat city of the Pacific coast The subject of this sketch was bom in Albany, N. Y., in 1833, and graduated at the Academy there, in 1850, under Dr. Beck, taking, on that occasion, the prize medals as the best scholar in math- ematics and natural philosophy — mementoes which sei-ve to keep fresh, recollections of an institute of learning which was founded in 1804, and has prepared for future usefulness graduates who have become eminent in the learned professions, politics, and literatura As a token of the regard in which he holds the venerable Academy, Mr. Alvord, some years since, endowed it with an annual gold medal, known as the "Alvord Medal," for the highest proficiency in pen- manship. The taste for mathematics, which he continues to cultivate, seems to be a distinguishing family trait^iis uncle. Gen. Benjamin Alvord, U. S. A., Paymaster General of the Army, being one of the most accomplished mathematicians in America. By reference to the genealogical records, it appears that the family of Alvord, or " Alford," as it was formerly, and in some parts of England is still written, is of great antiquity. The first of the name who settled in America came from Somerset County, England, early in the seventeenth century, and from these are descended the present Alvords of New York, New England and Virginia. WILLIAM ALVORD. Immediately upon his graduatio ;, Mr. Alvord, preferring a busi- hess to a professional life, entered a New York hardware house, where he soon became chief clerk, and remained until 1853, when his failing health, undermined by a pulmonary complaint, compelled his removal to California, where he settled in Marysville in the same year — his condition requiring an interior rather than a sea-coast cli- mate. There, in the firm of Alvord & Haviland, he commenced the hardware business, and remained until the summer of 1856, when he removed to San Francisco, and soon after established the house of William Alvord & Co., wholesale importers and dealers in hardware. Having energetically prosecuted this business for several years, his health again broke down, and he sold out his interest to his partner — the firm thereafter and still being known as Kichard Patiick &Co. lu pursuit of health, as well as to gratify a desu-e he had long felt to see the Old World, Mr. Alvord availed himself of this interval of leisure — the first he had known in California— for an extended tour in Europe, visiting the principal capitals, watering places, and objects of historical and artistic interest, and returning greatly improved. His withdi-awal, however, from mercantile persuits was by no means a retirement from business. He identified himself with a large manu- facturing interest which has become one of the most important and useful in the Stata The want of rolling mills had for some time been felt in California. In 1866, the Pacific Rolling Mills Company, with Mr. Alvord as its President, was organized in San Francisco, and, soon after, while in the Eastern States, he purchased the machinery. These works, the only ones of the kind on the Pacific coast, cost half a million of dollars, and give employment to about two hundred men, whose monthly pay-roll amounts to some $10,000. They have supplied a part of the iron for several railroads, including the California Pacific, the Central Pacific, the Virginia and Truckee, and the Northern Pacific, as well as for railroads in Japan, where the Company is ex- tending its business, besides making the heavy iron work for all the bridges on the Western Slope of the continent, and maintaining a forge department capable of turning out shafts for the largest ocean steamships. These facts indicate the value to California of such an establishment, fjrming, as is does, the key to so many industries, and retaining there, capital which would else be spent in Europe and the Atlantic States. This, however, is only one of a number of busi- ness enterprises with which Mr. Alvord is associated in California, inckidiug the Risdon Iron and Locomotive Works, in which he is a 40 WILLIAM ALVOKD. stockholder and trustee. He is an honorary and life member of so many associatious and societies that a mere enumeration of them would exhibit a curious variety of engagements, in the success and usefulness of which he takes an active part, being known, always, as a working member. Among them are a number of religious, literary and benevolent institutions ; for his sympathies are ever ealisted in whatever tends to advance moral and intellectual improvement, to aid the distressed and alleviate suffering. During his sojourn in Europe, he had ample opportunities to in- dulge his taste for art and aesthetic culture, and made some additions to his already considerable library and collection of choice paintings. After his return he was instrumental, with others, in organizing the San Francisco Art Association, of which he is the President, its objects being "the promotion of Painting, Sculpture and the Fine Arts akin thereto, the ditfusion of a cultivated taste for Art in the community at large, and the establishment of an Academy or School of Design." In the furtherance of these purposes Mr. Alvord earn- estly assists whatever tends to inci'ease the resources and usefulness of the institution ; by his own gifts of rare books for study and refer- ence, to serve as the nucleus for an art library ; by enlisting friendly co-operation wherever practicable at home and abroad, and influenc- ing contributions of works of art from private collections containing gems by eminent painters, to swell the attractions of the quarterly exhibitions. The interest taken by the members — numbering over six hundred — to popularize art in San Francisco, has produced re- sults highly encouraging ; while the generous donation by the French Government of a valuable collection of casts from the antique, ensures success in the main object of the Association — the establishment of a School of Design, and eventually of making still higher progress in technical and art education. A member of the Republican party — a cause to which he has from the first contributed, fijancially and by his personal influence, Mr. Alvord has never taken an especially active part in politics, although on several occasions unsuccessful efforts have been made to secure his name for the Republican and People's Reform tickets. At the nominations for the September elections in 1871, however. Mayor Selby having declined to serve another term, the conventions of both the above parties united upon Mr. Alvord as their candidate. He did not feel at liberty to refuse, and allowed his name to be placed at the head of the municipal ticket. The condition of city politics at 41 WILLIAM ALVORD. that time, embracing so many issues, was such that the campaign was regarded as likely to be very closely contested. The Democratic candidate had been selected owing to his great local strength, and at the closing of the polls the friends of Mi-. Alvord believed that he was defeated; but the result showed a substantial Republican victory — he having received thii-teen thousand four hundred and two votes out of twenty-four thousand four hundred and ninety-five cast for that office. In most cities, the position of Mayor is not in every respect a desirable honor. This is especially so in San Francisco, where it must be a great sacrifice for any man of lai^e business connections to assume the discharge of its functions, demanding constant watch- fulness and thought, as an equivalent for which th e compensation is but trifling. The Mayor is burthened with an endless amount of labor and responsibility, embracing the several presidencies of the Board of Supervisors, where the laws governing the city originate ; the Board of Health, where is lodged the sanitary and quarantine sys- tem of the city and harhor ; the Board of Works involving important public improvements ; the Board of Police Commissioners, who ap- point and control the police force ; and of numerous Commissions and Committees, embracing the entii-e round of municipal affairs ; besides a special supervision and examination by the Mayor, of' the manner in which all public officials perform their several duties, and necessarily requiring a familiarity with the working and routine of each department Where the details of the office are so onerous and exacting, and its advantages so inconsiderable, the community may be considered fortunate which can secure in the incumbent disintei-- ested zeal and an economical and energetic administration of public affiiirs. In the discharge of his duties, it has devolved upon Mayor Alvord to decide and act upon questions of the gi-eatest importance in their bearing upon both State and local interests. The youngest of tlios • who have been elevated to the Mayoralty during the cor- porate history of San Francisco, he has displayed a promptitude and clearness of judgment which meets the fullest anticipation of all who knew him intimately prior to his election, and which has se- cured for him an enviable reputation for executive ability. In his frank and manly address to the members of the muncipal govern- ment, upon the commencement of his term, he gave a concise review of the financial and general condition of the city, specifying the several chief depaitments, and suggesting a number of measures 43 WILLIAM ALVORD. wLicli he thought needful. Having expressed his resolve " to be and do right in every matter pertaining to the interests of the city," he closes as follows : " I trust that in all our meetings we shall act harmoniously. A diversity of opinion on questions of great moment is of course to be expected ; but permit me, gentlemen, to say that when you assem- ble in this chamber, or meet together in your committee-rooms to attend to 3'our official duties, you should lay aside all personal con- siderations and friendships, and each one strive to guard the honor, as well as protect the true interests of the whole city." Hardly had the new Mayor entered upon his duties when sub- jects arose requiinng the exercise of all his decision of character. Under an^Act of the Legislature, approved in April, 1870, the city government was empowered to issue bonds to an amount not ex- ceeding five per cent of her taxable property, in aid of the construc- tion of railroads, to be voted upon at the next general election. This subsidy question had become the all-absorbing one in San Francisco, and had been for some months hotly discussed, both by tbe press and in business circles. In September, 1872, the Board of Supervisors, by a vote of ten to two, passed ordinances granting to the Southern Pacific and the Colorado Kiver Eailroads respec- tively $2,500,000 and $10,000,000 in seven per cent city bonds to aid in those enterprises. The action of the Mayor, as to his exer- cise of the veto power, was now awaited with great interest, and deputations representing both sides of the question besieged his ofiice and residence. Mr. Alvord, however, gave no intimation of his intention, though those who knew him best could not have been doubtful that he would be governed solely by motives of duty, regardless of outside i^ressure. At the next meeting of the Board, both subsidies were vetoed, in messages which, though disappointing the hopes of all interested in the success of the measui-es, were everywhere received as clear and impartial summaries of the facts, and consistent with justice, both as regards the rights of the city and her relations with those powerful corporations. The Board, having sustained the veto of the first above-named measure, overruled that relating to the Colorado River Railroad, and passed the ordinance by the same votes that had originally carried it The public mind was intensely excited — expressing itself both at popular meetings and through the press, and at this point the company prudently withdrew the whole matter for the time being, preferring to await a favorable change in public opinion. It was thought proper, however, by the WILLIAM ALVORP. legal advisers of the city, for greater securit}', to submit the questioD at the then approaching election, when the Mayor's veto was endorsed by fifteen thousand against, to one hundred and forty -five in favor of, the subsidy, out of a total of twenty-three thousand votes cast. Mr. Alvord's action in this vitally important issue, to which only passing allusion can hei-e be made, immediately became the text for extensive editorial commendation, not only throughout California, but in the Eastern States, whither the news was telegraphed, while congratulations, both written and verbal, came to him from all direc- tions applauding the act as tending to shield the city from what would have caused a crushing indebtedness. Meetings were called in different wards to the same effect. At the Chamber of Commerce, where a large assemblage convened on the night following the pub- lication of the veto message, he was unanimously tendered the Inde- pendent or People's nomination to Congress for the San Francisco district, a tribute which he declined in a card over his own signature, esteeming it his first duty, as he happily said, to discharge the obli- gations imposed upon him by his election to the position he then filled. It is not proposed here to enter more fully upon the merits of an issue whereon probably more has been written and said than upon any ever agiiated in California. Many other instances of a like con- scientious zeal and firmness by Mayor Alvord might be mentioned. On all questions connected with the i-ights and welfare of San Fran- cisco, his opinion, after patient investigation, having once been formed, he has not hesitated as to the course to be pursued. This remark applies to all the acts of his administration relating to every department To obtain correct information, and secure practical efiiciency in these, no amount of labor has been spared. Public con- fidence is thus habitually ]-eposed in him, creating an ever-widening sentiment of personal regard and popular esteem. The above brief sketch seems to convey this moral — that, while it has generally been assumed that responsible public trusts should be filled only by politicians, as possessing especial qualifications for such service, the counting-room has occasionally been called upon, and has furnished, on important occasions, men whose acts have dignified the office and reflected honor on the community. These examples show that the duties of public station are no exclusive mystery, to be comprehended by the few, but that the business capacity and integrity that can successfully manage a com- mercial house are exactly what are needed to conduct the affairs of cities and States. ^^ CHRISTOPHER C. ANDREWS. ^J AJOE-GENEEAL C. C. ANDEEWS, of Minnesota, ]l the present Minister Eesident to Sweden and Nor- ^'XSi way, was born at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, V; October 27, 1829. His ancestors were among the early [^ '"^ settlers of Massachusetts. His great-grand lather on his father's side was Ammi Andrews, a lieutenant in the Revolu- tionary War. His grandfather on his mother's side, Elijah Beard, emigrated with his wife from Wilmington, Mass., a few years after the Revolution, and settled in Hillsborough, N. H., a mile west of the Centre, on a rocky, forest tract, where he built a grist and saw-mill and a two-story dwelling. The house and a noble elm, which he planted in front of it, still stand. Elijah Beard, when he died at the age of iifty, was a member of the State Legislature, and had been elected to that position, annually, for the six or seven pre- vious years. The parents of General Andrews were Luther Andrews and Nabby Beard Andrews. He was the youngest of four children, and was born at the upper village of Hillsborough. His father owned and carried on a small farm of about thirty acres of field and wood- land. The dwelling is agreeably situated amidst fi-uit and shade trees, and commands an interesting view of distant hills and mount- ains. Here Christopher did the farm work of a boy, attending also the district school eight or ten weeks each summer and winter, until May, 1843, being in his fourteenth year, he went to Boston, to work in a provision store. No. 9 Bromfield street, in which his eldest bro- ther was a proprietor. He received eight dollars a month and board, and was allowed certain afternoons to attend a private school. In June of that year, he heard or rather saw Webster deliver his oration on the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument In March, 1844, he was sent to the Academy at Francestown, N. H. — Harry Brickett 45 CHRISTOPHER C. ANDREWS. being the teacher ; remained there two terms, and in the autumn of the same year resumed work with his former employers in Boston. He joined the Mercantile Library Association, took part in its literary exercises, and attended its lectures. He heard the address of ex President John Quincy Adams, before the Clay Club of Boston in 1844, and the gi-eat orators who spoke in Faneuil Hall. He attended the Francestown Academy the Fall term of 1846, a' d the next winter taught a district school in Deering at $11 per month, "boarding round." Early in 1847, acting under the advice of Hon. Samuel H. Ayer, and with the assent of his parents, he commenced studying law with that attorney in Hillsborough. In 1848 he attended the Law School at Cambridge one term of about six months ; afterwards pur- sued his studies in the office of Brigham and Loring, Boston, and in 1850, when just twenty-one, was admitted by the Supreme Court to practice in all the courts of the Commonwealth. Up to this time, the expenses of his education had been, for the most part, defraj'ed by his two elder brothers. He began immediately the practice of law at Newton Lower Falls, twelve miles from Boston. During his residence in Newton, a town distinguished for its educators, Horace Mann and Barnas Sears, he served two years on its Superintending School Committee, receiving at his election the votes of both politi- cal parties. In the Spring of 1853 he removed to Boston, opening an office at 35 Court street, and in 1854 was more than paying ex- penses in his profassion ; yet, in June of that year, he removed to Kansas. Although he had shared in the indignant feeling against the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, yet, arrived in Kansas, he advocated a faithful execution of its principle, as it had been ex- plained on its passage by its authors, namely, that the introduction or exclusion of slavery was for the bona fide residents of the Territory to determine. As early as July, 1854, in a speech before a public meeting at Salt Creek, near Fort Leavenwortli, he declared his pre- ference that Kansas should be a Free State. He cori-esponded gratu- itously with a number of Eastern newspapers to encourage Free State immigration, and some of his letters were extensively copied by the Northern press. In November he went to Washington to further the interests of Kansas during the short session of Congress. But the change of climate had begun to affect his health ; on his journey he suffered with chills and fever, and, almost immediately on his arrival at Washington, was taken ill with a severe attack of typhoid fever. The expenses of this sickness and of his stay in Kan- 46 CHRISTOPHER C. ANDREWS. gas lei't him with such limited means that he felt obliged to seek em- . ployment from the Government. President Pierce, being a native of the same town as himself and acquainted with him, assisted him t._> an appointment, after his recovery the following March, in the Office of the Solicitor of the Treasury, where for two years he pei^ formed the duties of Law Clerk at a salary of $1400 per annum. During this time he was on one occasion detailed by Mr. Secretary Guthrte to take testimony for the Government in a mail contract case, involving $200,000 in the cities of Louisville, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg. He prepared an elaborate argument in the ease, which was adopted and signed by the Postmaster General Meantime, the troubles in Kansas had been at their height, and An- drews was known in Washington as a zealous defender of the Free State party. He addressed an earnest recommendation to the Presi- dent to send an impartial Commissioner to Kansas to report as to the condition of affairs. Walter HaiTiman was sent on such a mis- sion, and made a report favorable to the Free State settlers. On many accounts Mr. Andrews would have been glad to have returned to Kansas. He could not have done so to his satisfaction without mingling in its politics, then so turbulent, which would have involved a neglect of the business he was dependent upon for support. He, therefore, determined to locate in Minnesota, and in the spring of ■ 1857 resigned his place in the Treasury Department and settled at St Cloud. When the question of the Lecompton Constitution for Kansas came up (1858) Mr. Andrews took earnest ground against the course of Buchanan's Administration in respect to it. In 1859 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the State Senate of Minnesota for a term of two years. In 1860 his name was placed at the head of the Douglas-Democratic electoral ticket, and he took an active part in the canvass. In the summer of 1861 he was nominated for Lieu- tenant Governor by a Union Convention, but the ticket was soon withdrawn, and the party merged with the Republicans. He assisted in bringing out, and, for a time, edited the Minnesota Union, sup- porting°the Lincoln Administration in the prosecution of the War. He had, in April, put his name down as a volunteer in the war, and had gone to Fort Ripley for a week to drill under the regulars in the manual of arms. He assisted in raising an infantry company; was mustered into the service as a private October 11, 1861 ; commissioned Captain of Company "I" 3d Minnesota Vol. Infantry, November 4, CHRISTOPHER C. ANDREWS. and the same month moved with the regiment to Kentucky, where it was employed during the winter guarding the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The next Spring he moved with his regiment to Nashville, thence to Murfreesboro and Columbia, and, in June, marched over the Cumlierland mountains to Pikeville. He was in the fight with Forest at Murfreesboro, July 13th, 1862. On the surrender of the regiment to Forest, which he, still a captain, earnestly opposed, he was confined three months in the Confeder- ate prison at Madison, Georgia. Asa company commander, he had entered into the study and practice of the military art, with zeal and fondness. His six months residence at Fort Leavenworth, in 1854, almost daily observation of drill and manceuvres, attendance on inspections, &c., had given him useful hints as to discipline and sani- tary regulations. While in prison he wrote, " Hints to Company Officers," (published by Van Nostrand). He was elected by the piis- oners — from 200 to 300 Commissioned Officers — to visit Washing- ton, to draw their pajr and urge their exchange; but an order for their exchange being made, the mission was not executed. Prepar- atory to an exchange, he was taken with other prisoners in cattle cars, via Columbia, S. C, aud Raleigh, N. C, to Libby Prison, Rich- mond, where, after a few days, he was paroled. He then made a short visit to his native place,, in New Hampshire, and to the Military Academy at West Point On the reorganization of his regiment, he was, December, 1862, appointed its Lieutenant-Colonel, and pro- ceeded with it to Columbus, Kentucky ; was on an exjaediti'on up the Tennessee ; served for some time as President of a Military Com- mission at Columbus : was with his regiment in the operations before Vicksburg; appointed and mustered as Colonel of his regiment; Aug- ust and September (1863) was with General Steele, on the campaign, which resulted in the capture of Little Rock, and was placed in com- mand of the post of Little Rock with a brigade. January, 1861:, his regiment re-enlisted as veterans. Being sent on a scout up White River, with but little over one hundred men, he, on the 1st of April, 1864, near Augusta, Arkansas, successfully repulsed an attack of a much larger force of the enemy, under General McCrae, in a severe combat, during which his horse was shot under him. The distance traveled in the round trip was 836 miles, thirty of which were on foot, and his command was absent from Little Rock not quite three days. April 19th, he was sent on another expedition up White River with a stronger force, and captured a Confederate Colonel and 48 CHRISTOPHER C. ANDREWS. a number of other prisoners, his own force meeting \vith no loss nor accident. April 27th, 1864, he received a commission as Brigadier- General of Volunteers, bearing date January 5th, and was put in command of a column of 3000 men, to take supplies to Steele's armv at Camden. June 16th, took command of the 2d Division, 7th Corps, consisting of eleven regiments of infantry, six regiments of cavalry, and three batteries of arti lery— aggregate 12,000 men— with headquarters at Little Rock. Being assigned to the command of Duvall's Bluff, on White Elver, Steele's base of supplies, his Division headquarters were moved there July 7th. He had been in command of the post of Little Rock about eight months, and in that time the Free State Government of Arkansas was completely organ- ized He had encouraged and aided tlie Loyalists in that important movement, from its first weak beginning to its successful close, and he received a unanimous vote of thanks from the Free State Consti- tutional Convention, and afterwards from the State Senate. He remained in command of Duvall's Bluff five months. For a short time after his ffoing there, the whole number of men present was about 7 000 ma'ny of whom were dismounted cavalry, and there was much si'cknkss. There was heavy fatigue duty to be done in con- structing fortifications and unloading supplies. To inspect the troops and their camps, and to attend to their sanitary needs ; to visit frequently the picket line; to examine and pass upon the pro- ceedings of two or three General Coiu-ts Martial, and of frequent Board^ of Survey; to instruct and send out ft-equent scouting par- ties" to plan and supervise field earthworks; promote military instruction, discipline, efficiency and economy :-such were some ot the duties which employed a division commander at such a place, and whose men were for the most part detached at difi^erent outposts. The failure of the Red River Campaign had, everywhere in the South-west, emboldened and multiplied the enemy. Shelby, and other partisan leaders, were, during the summer and autumn, con stantly threatening Steele's communications. Duvall's Bluff was a vital point ; nevertheless, as fast as his command became avaihible for active duty. Gen. Andrews had to spare men for detached out- posts along the radway, or at other places deemed necessary to be protected, and for active field duty. His force under hand became so small, therefore, in a few weeks, that he was under the necessity of organising and arming the civilians m the Quartermaster s ..emce to provide against a threatened attack. While there, his command CHKISTOPHER C. ANDREWS. saved to the United States upwards of $550,000 in the single item ol rebel beef cattle, which it captured. Even the hides, to the value of $2,000, were turned over to the government During the two months preceding liis leaving Duvall's Bluif, his scouts captured eighty prison- ers of war, including fourteen commissioned officers, with a hjss of only one man. Ilaviug been designated by that able commander. General Canby, for field duty, in the campaign of Mobile, he was relieved at Duvall's Bluff, Dec. 27, by Gen. Shaler; and Jan. 3, 1865, at Morganzia, La., took command of the 3d Brigade Reserve Corps, comprising nine infantry regiments, stationed at different points along the river. He afterward moved with his forces to Kenner, near New Orleans; thence to Barancas, Fla., where, after some weeks of military exer- cises, his command was increased and organized into the 2d Division, 13th Corps — a well drilled and splendid body of veterans. March 9th, he was commissioned by Pi-esident Lincoln Major General by brevet. On the 11th of March, with two brigades, upwards of 5,000 effective men, of his division, he began the advance movement of Steele's column, which made a circuitous and most difficult march (actually corduroying fifty miles of road) via Pensacola, Pollard and Stockton to Fort Blakely. In the investment and siege of Blakely, which began April 2d, and lasted seven days, his division was in the centre confronting the strongest works and best manned part of the rebel line. In the victorious assault of the 9th of April — -the last of the great battles of the war — his division moving on the double quick, over ground mined with torpedoes, in thu'ty minutes carried all the strong line of works in its front, including three redoubts, captured several stands of colors, a number of guns, and thirteen hundred prisoners, including a General commanding a division, and seventy-one other commissioned officere. His loss was thirty killed and two hundred wounded. Aftenvards he was, for a short time, m command of Selma, Ala. ; May 27th, was placed in command of the district of Mobile ; July 8th, assumed command of a district in Texas, with headquarters at Houston ; was ordered to accompany Gov. Hamilton to the State Capital, Austin ; was present at his re-in- statement in civil authority, and presented by him to the people in the Capitol. In his order of July 26, Gen. Andrews said: "The humblest person should feel secure from unlawful violence ; threats or persecution for political opinions will not be allowed ; and neigh- borhoods and communities will be held responsible that Union 50 CKRISTOPHER C. ANDREWS. refugees are no longer persecuted." He was carrying these principles fully into practice, when, August 1-itb, being relieved by General Mower, he was ordered by Sheridan to report to Steele on the Klo Grande. But the volunteer armies were rapidly undergoing reduc- tion, and in compliance with the order of the War Department relieving a large number of general oflScers, he proceeded to his home in Minnesota, and was mustered out of service the 15th of the follow- ing January. The records of the War Department show that during the whole term of his service, except the single time he was a prisoner of war, he was not oflF duty on any account over ten days in all. Though General Andrews was not originally an Abolitionist, he was never a pro-slavery man. In his speech before the Union Club, at Little Eock, Nov. 4th, 1863, he said: "We have found slavery a destructive element in popular government, and principally because it tends to keep the masses ignorant. I am, therefore, heartily glad to see it expiring. It must and will go under." He encouraged the education of the colored people, and, while in command of the post of Little Rock, he visited and addressed a colored school While in command of Mobile, he issued an order requiring the testimony of witnesses to be received in courts of justice without any distinction of color. In the autumn of 1865, in Minnesota, he, in public addresses, urged the adoption of negro sofifi-age, and continued to advocate it till the principle was adopted in the Constitution of his State and of the United States. In his speech at St. Paul, Oct. 26th, 1865— afterwards published by the Congressional Eepublican Com- mittee as a campaign document — he said: "I warn you, as you desire peace to the country, you do not permit the rebel States so to re-enter the Union, that loyalty will still have to hide in the moun- tains and freedom skulk in the canebrakes." In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican Convention at Chicago, that nominated Grant and Colfax. The same year he accepted, three weeks only before the canvass closed, the regular Republican nomination for Con- gress in his district. An independent Republican candidate ha 1 for some time been in the field, and the residt was the election of a Democrat. General Andrews, however, received 8,598 votes, having a majority of the Republican votes in seventeen out of the twenty- four Republican Counties in the district His literary labors have been considerable. While yet a student at law in Boston, he began to write for the " Prisoner's Friend," con- tributing articles on the " Prevention of Crime," the " Rights of '^ 51 CHRISTOPHER C. ANDREWS. Women," and biographical sketches of Romilly, Mackintosh, Grattan, O'Connell, Brougham and Talfourd. In 1853 he published a pam- plilet on education. In 1856 he wrote a number of letters to the Boston Pusl, desLi-iptive of a tour in Minnesota, which were after- wards repul)lished in a book. He was, afterwards, the regular coirespondent irom Minnesota of the Boston Post, and, during its first year, of tlie New York World. He also corresponded with the Evening Post. Previous to 1861 he had visited all the settled portions of Minnesota, including the Red River Valley and Lake Superior ; and his letters, descnptive of its resQurces and industries, that have been published in different journals, would fill a large volume. The North American Review for January, 1860, and July, 1861, contain articles by him on " The Condition and Needs of the Indian Tribes," and " The Public Lands of the United States." He is the author of a " Practical Treatise on the Revenue Laws of tlie United States," of a "Digest of the Opinions of the Attorneys General of the United States." He also edited two or three volumes of the "Opinions of the Attorneys General." His "History of the Campaign of Mobile" was published in 1.867. In order the better to prepare the work, he, in 1866, revisited the battle fields near Mobile. A dozen or more of his speeches and addres'ses have been published. General Andrews was first appointed and confirmed as Minister to Copenhagen, May, 1869 ; but his appointment was vei»y soon changed to Stockholm, where he was accredited July 24th, 1869. He has assisted in bringing to a conclusion a treaty for the reduction of postage between the United States and Sweden and Noi-way. It appears, from the printed volumes on Foreign Relations and Commer- cial Relations of the United States, that he has made elaborate reports to his government on many impoi-tant subjects, including the produc- tion of iron, agriculture, commerce, manitfactures, sanitary institutions, finance, taxes. He has also made a valuable report on the tree and forest culture in Sweden, comprising a practical description of the manner of growing, and the economical management and use of for- ests, as well as a translation of some of the principal laws on the ad- ministration, care and preservation of public forests. His report on Public Instruction in Sweden, was issued as a circular of information by our Bureau of Education. Gen. Andrews is five feet, eleven inches in height, has black hair and beard, and dark eyes. He was married in 1868, and has one child. His mother and father died November, 1870, in their 77th and 80th vearsrespectivelv. 'Er.g-.-5'.-9a for the Eo'.ec::-^ 'r/ GE Perme KewTcrk ^^^/ //^e^/UUkj^^^^ REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER, PA^TOK OF PLYltfOTJTH CONGIIEGA.TIONA.1^ CHUKCJtl, BKOOKLlLiYN. By J. AlEIANDEE PiTTEN. P£S? ^0 CLERGYMAN in the United States has attracted , ^ to himself the wide-spread attention which has been bestowed upon the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. His _^ position in the religious, political, literary, and social world is one of commanding influence, and his great and ™_ - varied talents are always most conspicuous. He has been discussed from every standpoint of criticism, and still is a man of the widest popularity. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is the son of the late Rev. Dr. Ly- man Beecher, and was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, June 24th, 1813. Dr. Lyman Beecher was one of the most distinguished Con- gregational clergymen and scholars of his day, and he reared a large family, all of whom have obtained distinction in some of tlie scholariy walks of life. Several of the sons are clergymen,^ and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, authoress of •' Uncle Tom's Cabin," and other works, is a distinguished daughter. Henry Ward was grad- uated at Amherst College, in 1834, and studied theology with his father at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati. In 1837, in his twenty-fourth year, he accepted his first charge as a Presbyterian minister at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he remained two years. He next removed to Indianapolis, where he continued eight years, until 1847. He was a popular preacher in the West, having those powers— natural eloquence and feariess independent character— which are so highly valued by the people of that section. In 1847, he accepted a call to his present charge as pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn. He left the West with many regrets, scarcely believing that a city like Brooklyn was the proper field of labor for him. His peculiar style of preaching had 53 HENKY WARD BEECHER. never been heard there ; and, in fact, it was so muoh of an innova- tion upon the kind which was in vogue, that its success might well bo deemed doubtful. The congregation which called him was a new organization of orthodox Congregational believers. They had purchased the church property on Cranberry and Orange streets, formerly occupied by the Presbyterian Congregation of the Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Cox, and were chiefly New England people. The following is an interesting historical account of this congre- gation : " Plymouth Church stands upon ground comprising seven lots, running through from Craubei-ry to Orange streets. It was pur- chased in 1823 of John and Jacob M. Hicks for the erection of an edifice for the use of " The First Presbyterian Church." The population of Brooklyn was then less than 10,000. It was re- garded by cautious men as a hazardous enterprise, for the church was built in what was then cultivated fields, and far out from the settled portion of the village, though now in the densest part of Brooklyn Heights. The pastors who labored on this ground were Rev. Joseph Sandford, from 1823 to 1829 ; Rev. Daniel L. Carroll, D. D., from 1829 to 1835 ; Rev. Samuel H. Cox, D. D., from 1837 to 1847, when the Presbyterian Society built their present house of worship upon Henry street. In 1846 John T. Howard, then a mem- ber of the Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn, Rev. R. S. Storrs, Jr., pastor, learning that the premises were for sale, obtained the refusal of them from the trustees at the price of $20,000, and con- sulted with David Hale, of the Tabernacle Church, New York, as to the expediency of establishing a new Congregational Church at this location. Encouraged by the support of Mr. Hale, Mr. Howard completed the contract of purchase on June 11th, 1846. Possession was given on the 10th of May, 1847. The first meeting of those interested in the establishment of the new Church was held at the house of Henry C. Bowen, on Saturday evening, May 8th, 1847. There were present David Hale, of New York ; Ira Payne, John T. Howard, Charles Rowland, David Griffin, and Henry C. Bowen, of Brooklyn. It was there resolved, ' that religious services shall be commenced, by Divine permission, on Siinday, the 16th day of May ;' and on that morning, in 1847, the meeting house in Cranberry street was opened for religious worship. " Henry Ward Beecher, who was then pastor of the Second Pres- 54 HENRY WARD BEECHER. byterian Church, in Indianapolis, had visited New York at this time, at the request of the American Home Missionary Society, to make a public address a-t its anniversary. He was invited to preach at the opening of this Church, and accordingly preached, both in the morn- ing and evening, to audiences which crowded every part of the building. On Monday evening, June lith, 184:7, the Chui-ch, by a unanimous vote, elected Henry Ward Beecher to be their pastor. On the 19th of August, Mr. Beecher wrote from Indianapolis accept- ing the pastorate. On Sunday, the lOtli of October, 1847, he com- menced his labors. In the morning the Chui-ch was about three- fourths full, and entirely full in the evening. This continued to be the case for about four months, after which the building was gen- erally crowded both morning and evening. From the year 1849 to 1866 there was a frequent recurrence of revivals at the Church, and large accessions to the number of its members. With a few excep- tions, consequent upon ill health, a visit to Europe and a lecturing tt)ur in behalf of the abolition of slavery, Mr. Beecher has labored steadily at his post since 1847. He has a Summer vacation every year, which generally lasts upon an average about six weeks. '' On the 13th of January, 1849, Plymouth Church was seriously damao-ed by Are, and it was decided that the Church should be entire'ly rebuilt. The corner-stone of this edifice was laid May '29th, 1849, and the building was completed so as to be occupied by the congregation on the first Sunday in January, 1850. The Church is lOS^'feet long, 80 feet broad, and accommodates 2,800 people. Lec- ture rooms and school rooms were also built, and the entire cost of the Church was about $36,000, and the former also a large sum. In 1866 a new organ was purchased at an expense of $22,000. In 1869 the pew rents realized about $53,000. The Bethel, in Hicks street, has been built by the Church at a cost of about $75,000. School services on Sunday evenings, lectures and a free reading room are a part of the agencies of this Bethel. It has done and is doing the greatest amount of good to the more neglected part of the population. A new Bethel has been erected in another part of the city. In view of all these facts, Plymouth Church may be said to be a Church in earnest." In October, 1872, seiwices took place during several days to com- memorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of the congregation. A movement was inaugurated to raise fifty thousand dollars for the support of their missions. At the annual business HENRY WARD BEECHEE. meeting of the trustees it was shown that there were 2,184 names upon the registry of the Church. From the treasurer's report, it appears that the annual collection amounted to $15,554 97 ; for the poor, $1,079 18; pew rentals, $60,000; contributions of three schools, $3,054 56. Total, $79,683 65. In 1856, Mr. Beecher took an active part in the Presidential con- test in favor of Fremont — not only with his pen, but by addressing mass meetings in difterent parts of the Northern States. As a popu- lar lecturer he has appeared very generally before the Lyceums of the country. He was one of the founders of the religious weekly paper called the Independent, of New York, and was for some time its editor. Later he founded the Christian Union, aad is still its editor, and a large owner. He has published a volume of " Lectures to Young Men," a volume of " Star Papers," made up of his con- tributions to the Independent, and other volumes of popular litera- ture. He edited the "Plymouth Collection of Hymns," which is one of the best and most diversified collections of sacred poetry in the English language, and is now in. use in the Congregational and other Churches. Six series of his sermons have been published iu uniform volumes. Many of his occasional addresses have been pub- lished, and he has contributed much to the literary press. During the late war he went to England, where he addressed immense audiences in the principal cities in behalf of the cause of the Union, He produced a marked effect, particularly as the Con- federate agents made an attempt to put him down ; and probably accomplished more in influencing the English masses than any man who went abroad. There is a collection of handbills and posters, some of them printed in red ink, at the Brooklyn Historical Society, which were used to incite public feeling against him. In April, 1865, he went to Charleston, at the request of the Government, and deliv- ered an oration on the occasion of the raising of the old flag over Fort Sumter. Mr. Beecher is of medium height, solid siiiewy figure, and has a large head, with a rather florid complexion. His features are regu- lar, and highly expressive of intellectuality, and a genial disposition. His step is quick, and he shows in every way that he is a thorough- going man, and as bold as he is generous. His eloquence is charac- terized by originality, logic, pathos, and not a little humor. While his voice is not a pleasant one, it is full of feeling, distinct and 5ti HENRY WARD BEECHER. Strong. He has a great deal of gesticulation, and sometimes hia voice rings out to the utmost power of his capacious lungs. At the close of some very fine congregational singmg, Mr. Beecher rises to begin his sermon. He commences in a moderate tone of voice, and confines himself to a pretty close reading of his notes. As he proceeds he warms up in his subject, grows eloquent, and succeeds in fixing the deepest attention by the force of his argu- ments, and the original and often humorous similes which he con- stantly introduces. He shakes back his hair, draws a long breath to be sure that his lungs are in order, withdraws a step or two from the desk, and folds his arms across his breast, as if for bands to keep him from breaking his ribs in the coming eflbrt. After all this pre- paration, instantaneously made, he at once soars to the highest efi^orts of oratory. At one moment tears are starting to almost every eye, and the next the congregation are in a broad smile, which sometimes ends in a loud laugh." He utters words of the keenest sarcasm, and then he -melts away into thoughts of holiness and love. At another time he gesticulates most violently ; he paces up and down the pulpit in great agitation ; he runs to first one corner of the desk and then the other r pounds and shakes his fist, bends forward and backward ; and, finally, in a whirlwind of excitement, and in a voice of thunder, pours forth a torrent of language which the want of breath only induces him to suspend. He makes your heart bound with emotion ; he tempts the most solemn into smiles, and stands a wonder as an orator. That he is a mighty tliinker, and one of the most powerful of living orators, cannot be denied. While he is speaking the old and young are held in wrapt attention, and there is no subject but what he cbscusses with singular originality and brilliancy. His ser- mons are very long, but neyer tiresome. The thoughts are profound and new, and they are demonstrated with ability and eloquence. His learning, mgenious arguments, and interweavings of pathos and humor make the whole discourse most eflective. He is a man of genial disposition, and of warm attachments ; and he has secui-ed idolizing friends. His sympathies are with all works of education and philanthropy, and he is altogether without sectarian prejudices. In truth, he is one who for many noble qualities of character, joined with extraordinary gifts as a preacher, has secured a wider public and private esteem than any man of his day. RUFUS BARRINGER. Wl^-^? ENERAL RUFUS BAREINGER is of German '^'Fv^^tX:^;^ descent. His grandfather, Paul Barringer, Sen., f|o ft,.-"^';"*' came to this country as early as 1748. He settled u*"' first in Pennsylvania; afterwards removed to Virginia, and, finally, located in Mecklenburg County, North ^-'f, Carolina, where he brought up a large family. His oldest son, Paul Barringer, Jr., succeeded to the paternal estate on Dutch Buffalo Creek in the present county of Cabarrus, where Gen. Rufus Barringer was born on the 2d of December, 1821. His mother's name was Elizabeth Brandon, of Rowan County, N. C, an extensive family of Scotch-Irish descent On both sides his ancestors were distinguished for patriotic sei^vices in the War of the Revolution. His father was able to give his children good educations. Rufus received his classical course at Sugar Creek Academy in Mecklenburg, and was graduated at the State Univer- sity at Chapel Hill in 1842. He read law with his brother, Hon. D. M. BaiTinger, and with Hon. R. M. Pearson, He began the prac- tice in 1844, and settled in Concord, K. C, where he soon acquired high character as an able, honest, and successful practitioner, and where he was fortunate in accumrdating a handsome estate, mainly by his profession. He had no taste for political life, but on two occasions consented to serve his native county in the State Legisla- ture — the Commons in 1848-9 and the Senate in 1850-1, when he was elected by large majorities. In each House he served with distinction, and acquired reputation as the advocate of judicial reform in the Old North State. The late Civil War found Mr. Bamnger blessed with a happy home, and surrounded with all the comforts of life. A Whig in politics, he had bitterly denounced Secession as fraught with untold troubles and dangers to the country. But when the struggle came, 59 BUFUS BAREINGER. and he saw that war was inevitable, he frankly changed his course, and boldly declared that the only hope of the South now lay in all standing together and making a gigantic effort to secure victory on the field of battle. With these convictions he at once entered the Con- federate service as a private. He was shoi-tly aftei-wards elected captain of a company of cavalry raised by him in his native county of Cabarrus. In May, 1861, his company was attached to the famous First North Carolina Cavalry Eegiment, with which be remained until June, 1864, when he was promoted from the Lieut. -Colonelcy of that regiment to the position of brigadier-general of cavalry, in which he served until the 8d of April, 1865, when he was captured on Lee's retreat, and sent to Fort Delaware, where he remained a prisoner of war four months. Gen. Barringer is noted for his strong convictions, bold utter- ances, and his singular fidelity to duty. He opposed the war ; but when he went into it, he gave the cause his whole heart; and it is a remarkable fact, that during the four years he was never absent from a tour of duty, except when wounded. He was in seventy-six actions, received three wounds, and had two horses struck under him. He was never defeated in action except on the last retreat, when his noble brigade was cut to pieces, especially at Chamberlain Eun, Five Forks, and Namozine Cliurch. Since the war Gen. Barringer has settled in Charlotte, N. C, where he devotes himself exclusively to his profession. He lost almost his entire estate by the war; but with that energy and enterprise pecu- liar to him, he has succeeded in measurably retrieving his fortune. Gen. Barringer has become somewhat noted since the surrender of the Confederate armies by his prompt and unequivocal acceptance of the situation. He came out decidedly for negro suffrage as early as 1865 ; accepted the Ee-construction Acts of 1867, and has ever since co-operated with the National Eepublican Party. He has occasionally opposed the men and measures of that party, but has stood unswervingly by its principles, which he is honestly convinced are the only principles that can pacify and save the country in its new and changed conditions. He refuses all office, but always takes a deep interest in public affairs, and his opinions are eageriy sought for by good men of all parties. Men of Gen. Barringer's stamp are destined to exert marked influence on the fature of the country. Notwithstanding his retire- ment from public life, his name is now (February, 1872) brought 60 RUFUS BARRINGER. prominently forward as a candidate for Governor of North Carolina. On this subject, and, touching his fitness for the position, a coitcs- pondent, signing himself "Newbei-ue," thus writes to the Carolina Era: THE GOVERNORSHIP. " Mr. Editor : The people — the honest people — the politicians find the demagogues throughout the State, are already looking about for a suitable candidate for Governor. This is well for the honest people, but for the rest 'tis folly. The newspapers, it is supposed, will become very kind, and, withal, quite liberal in their suggestions and advice as to who shall receive the nomination. And in a case like this they ought to re- flect the virtuous sentiments and serve as an index to the real wishes and needs of all the people. But will they ? So far other- wise is the casa But we hope for the best The Republican party, of which the writer hereof claims to be an orthodox member for those great principles as laid down by Washington, Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln, cannot exist, and will be utterly defeated at this year's election in North Carolina, as it ought to be, should any attempt be made to hide away, or apologize for, the .frauds and corruption already too well known to exist in it, or essay to place any man in power who is known or believed to be tainted with dishonesty. The party must be purged as with fire, and every ofiice in the State, from Governor down ,to the lowest, must be filled with men of intelligence, strict integrity and unblem- ished moral character. It is better for our success that we should nominate a gentleman of great Executive ability who has not held office, either State or National, since the war. General success will depend largely upon the nominee for Governor, and in my opinion there are but few men in the State who can achieve a Republican victory. "Who, then, should be the standard-bearer of the Republicnn party of this State ? I feel quite sure that I not only express my own preference, but of our people generally, when I name Gen. Rufus Barringer, of Mecklenburg, as the man before any other in the State for that position. In every capacity to which he has been called, both civil and military, he has shown superior ability, and by his industry, faith- fulness and ability, he has won the respect and confidence of all his RUFUS BAREINGER. fellow-citizens. Intellectually he is the peer of any man in the State, and in the knowledge and comprehension of the law, of pub- lic affairs — especially Executive and financial affairs — he will stand the test of the most perilous and trying time in the State's history. North Carolina's financial and political interests are too vast, and her future holds in reserve too much for good or ill, to commit her destinies to statesmen whose reputation is prospective, whose ability to do good can be measured by a profession of promises only. No second-rate man will answer our purposes now. Large public inter- ests cannot safely be committed to mere dabsters in politics. They, particularly at this time, require men of solid worth, men of expe- rience, who can grasp the future of this good old State. Gren. Barringer was the first gentleman, native of the State, to become an uncompromising member of the Eepublican party, since the war, and who alone sti-uck the key-note to North Carolina's future greatness. Whenever he has spoken, victory has crowned his efforts. His letters in 1867-'68-'71, at once stamp their author as a man of great political sagacity and prescience— a true states- man. I am sure the nomination for Governor ought to, and I believe it will, be given to Eufus Barringer by acclammation. It is no doubt true that he does not seek the position. Indeed I know he does not. It is well known to all that he has persistently refused all overtures heretofore made to him for office of any kind whatever. Let the people and the office seek the man, instead of the man the office. His is one of the most distinguished and honored names in the State, and I am quite sure I am not mistaken when I affirm that there are to-day a great number of leading and influential men throughout the State who will cordially support Gen. Barringer, but who could not be induced to sustain any other Republican nominee." The General has been thrice married. His first wife was a sister of Mrs. Stonewall Jackson : he. Gen. Jackson, and Gen. D. H. Hill having all married daughters of Eev. R. H. Morrison, J). D., of Lincoln County, N. C. Notwithstanding his present national proclivities, he remains devotedly true to the sentiments and memories of the Confederate cause. He often writes for the press in illustration and vindication of that cause as it then stood, and is most liberal and generous to its war-worn heroes and defenders. 62 iZc^/ ecu WILLIAM BIGLER. HE HON. WILLIAM BIGLER, of Pennsylvania, is one of a class of men, so peculiar to America, who, without the aid of fortune or influential friends, have rapidly advanced to places of distinc- tion and honorable trust He was peculiarly the archi- tect of his own fortune, commencing the struggle of life destitute of means, and having no one to counsel him in liis youth, save only a pious mother. He soon showed him- self an apt student in whatever he undertook, and he has had a part in nearly all the practical departments of life, and that with remark- able success. It may be claimed that his strongest characteristics are a clear forecasting mind, a sound judgment, sustained by singular energy, zeal, and perseverance. He may be rated a wise, rather than a brilliant man. In his intercourse with his fellow-men he is uniformly gracious, showing a nice sense of propriety. While, on all public questions, maintaining his own views with firmness, he hears with deference and respect the opinions of those who difter with him ; and for this reason, perhaps, as much as any other, he has always been regarded as a fair and candid politician. But Mr. Bigler's qualities of mind appear to most advantage in presenting his views on any subject in a private conversation or discussion. He shows remarkable facility in presenting the strong and salient points in a case, and thereby displays much power of persuasion. He was born at Shermansburg, Cumberland Co., Penn. in December, 1813, and as a singular coincidence it may be stated that Gen. Gibson, Chief Justice Gibson, Dr. Burnheisel, of Eulah, John Bigler, at one time Governor of California, and William Bigler, the subject of this sketch were all born in the same stone house. When still quite a youth William Bigler's parents moved from Cumberland to Mercer Co., Penn., a region then spoken of as the far West The parents settled on a large tract of land for which the elder Bigler had traded his estate in Cumberland. He commenced the usual frontier life of felling the forest and cultivating the soil to gain the means of subsistence ; but this enterprise proved too severe for his impaired constitution, and he sank under it and died 63 WIL LIAM B r G LER. ill 1824. Among the group of mourners that followed his remains to the grave were two sons, John, aged twenty years, and William, aged eleven. Twenty-eight years thereafter, when a number of the same group followed the remains of the mother of these two sons to the same grave yard, John was the acting governor of Califomia, as was "William at the same time, of Pennsylvania. Six years later and John was a minister plenipotentiary to a foreign country, and William a senator of the United States. William, in his minority, had the advantage only of a common school education ; but he soon graduated with honors in a printing office, one of the best institutions to develop the talents of a bright boy. This he attained to in the office of his brother John, at Belle- fonte, Penn. In 1833 he was selected by certain political friends of his brother to print and edit a Democratic newspaper at Clear- field, Penn., the place of his present residence.' This enterprise was regarded by young Bigler as rather hazardous, but after due con- sideration and consultation with his friends, he concluded to under- take it. Just here it may be mentioned that among those who urged Bigler to go to Clearfield, was ex-Gov. A. G. Cui-tin, then a school boy. Equipped for the battle of life, with an old hand-press, a set of sheep skin balls, a molasses roller, a font of second-hand type, and $40 of borrowed money, young Bigler arrived at Clear- field, in Aug., 1833. A few days sufficed to get his printing office in order, and to present to the public the first copy of the Clearfield Democrat. Thus introduced, Bigler soon became an object of special care and friendship on the part of the most substantial men of the county, and in a brief period, through his extraordinary industry and tireless energy, he was on the highway to prosperity, and also to commanding political prominence in the Western section of the State. In March, 1836, he was married to Maria J., daughter of Alex- ander B. Eeed, one of the early settlers of the County, and one of the most respected and influential in that section of the State. Soon after this event, Bigler parted with the Clearfield Democrat^ and entered into a business partnership with Mr. Reed, remaining never- theless, a leading spirit in politics. It is now thirty-six years since he first represented the Democracy of Clearfield in a State Convention, and thirty-one years since he was first elected to the State Senate from thecoiinties of Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria, and Clearfield. At thia U4 WILLIAM BIGLER. election, although the regular nominee of the Democratic party, against the nominee of the Whig i:iarty, he received every vote in the county of Clearfield, save one, whereas his jsarty cast less than two-thirds • of the whole vote. Nothing of this character ever occurred in the State before or since. In the Senate he gained early distinction, and did himself great honor by a bold resistance to the idea of repudiating the debt of the State, which in 1842 and 1843 manifested itself in different sections of the State, and it is but just to say that he has uniformly ever since maintained the same policy, as well to National as to State debts. He had a prominent part in the abolition of imprisonment for debt in Pennsylvania, and in founding the insane asylums at Philadelphia and Harrisburg. His voice was always raised for the cause of education, and especially for the common school system. In 1844, much against his will, he was returned to the Senate, and it was during this second term that he showed remarkable foresight about railroad enterprises. It is almost incredible, but true, that in maintaining the policy of constructing the present central railroad, connecting Philadelphia and Pittsburg, Bigler en- countered the vigorous opposition of all the senators from Pittsburg and one of those from Philadelphia. These senators preferred the Baltimore and Ohio road as a means of communicating between Philadelphia and Pittsburg ! 1 Mr. Bigler's useful career in the Senate brought his name promi- nently before the people in connection with the oifice of goveroor, and as far back as 1848 he had a large vote in the nominating con- vention. In June 1851 he was nominated for governor by acclama- tion, and was elected after a most vigorous contest on the stump with W. F. Johnson. It is said that from August till the 11th of October, there were but two days on which he did not make one or more speeches. In 1854 he was again nominated by acclamation, but he was defeated through the power of the Know-nothing organization, he being one of its first victims. The distinguishing policy of Grovernor Bigler's administration was a watchful care over the rights of labor in its relations to capi- tal, resistance to the careless granting of corporate powers and privileges and restriction upon special legislation. He went so far, finally as to withhold his signature from any bill containing more than one object He differed seriously with the legislature with 65 WILLIAM BIGLEB. regard to banking institutions, and encroachments upon private rights, and felt called upon to veto twenty-nine bills in the space of sixty days. One of these embraced eleven banks. Whilst lie was severely criticized by the ojDposition press as to certain appointments, the general policy of Ms administration was acceptable. No one ever impeached his integrity or purity. Within a few days after the expiration of his term as governor he was elected President of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, in which capacity he evinced his characteristic energy and intcgiity. In the political contest of that Fall the Know-nothing party that defeated him was in turn utterly defeated, and Bigler was elected to the United States Senate, which high station he filled until the 4th day of March, 1861. Mr. Bigler's career in the Senate, though he did not participate in debate so frequently as many others, was one of much labor and troublesome responsibility. He came into the Senate under the administration of President Pierce, and, being the intimate friend of the President, he necessarily had much to do with the appoint- ments and other matters relating to his State. In the Senate he was placed on the Committee on Commerce ; on that on the Patent and the Patent office, as also on that on Post offices and Post roads, and of the two first named, he became chairman. In 1856 he made an elaborate report from the Committee on Commerce on the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus, with the view of connecting tlie Atlantic and Pacific oceans by ship navigation. In 1858 he delivered a very careful and thoughtful speech on the construction of the Pacific railroad, prefemng the Southern route. He was for subsidies to the ocean telegraph, as he was also of rewards and dignities for that band of brave men con- nected with the expedition of Dr. Kane to the arctic regions. He entertained peculiar views on the subject of the tariff, and in 1859 he presented them to the Senate at much length ; and although they were not entirely acceptable to his party friends, they added much to his reputation as a man of industry and earnest thought. On the great sectional controversy of the times, growing out of slavery, while he had no partialities whatever for the institution, being a life member of the coloni^iation society, he seemed to be with the South. But his real standpoint was obedience to the Con- stitution and good faith amongst the members of the Federal Union. He maintained the execution of the fugitive slave law, not to favor WILLIAM BIGLER. slavery or slave-holders, but because the law was provided for in the Constitution. He embraced the doctrine of Mr. Webster, that the Constitution if broken in one part was broken in all. He held that slavery was a domestic institution of the States, and that under the Constitution each had a right to have it or not as the people might determine. He was uniformly the unfaltering advocate of the Union, and never in his life uttered a qualified sentiment in reference to its maintenance. He afiirmed that it should be main- tained "peaceable if it could, forcibly if it must" He was very earnest against the extension of slavery into the territory of Kansas, and in the Summer of 1857 made a tour of tITe territory uj-ging the free state men to attend the polls and elect a free slate convention ; but when they refused to exercise their rights, Mr. Bigler held that they were bound by the result And out of these things grew the controversy between himself and the late Mr. Douglass, on the floor of the Senate, in Dec. 1857. An examination of the Congressional Globe of that session will convince any one that Mr. B. had made himself perfectly familiar with every phase of that protracted controversy. He was among those who first became alarmed about secession and civil war. In a speech delivered in the Senate, on the 18th day of December, 1860, he attempted to arouse the country on this sub- ject, maintaining that without "concession and compromise, secession and civil war were inevitable." In January following, and on the same day on which the senators from the Cotton States withdrew, he made another ajjpeal, in the course of which he denounced seces- sion as uttarly unwarranted — that it was the climax of a great folly and wickedness, and that it would magnify rather than mitigate the evils of which the South complained. {See Congressional Globe.) In that last struggle for peace he took the middle gi-ound occu- pied by Messrs. Crittenden, Douglass, Pearce, and others, laboring with unceasing dilligence to bring about an adjustment of the national troubles. Amongst the most remarkable measures of peace proposed was one by Mr. Bigler, submitting the main features of the Crittenden resolutions to a vote of the people of the several States as a basis of settlement But the radicals of the North and of the South refused to have it considered. He was an active mem- ber of the committee of thirteen to whom was refeiTed all proposi- tions looking to a settlement of the national troubles. He was also a member of the committee of five to whom was referred the proceed- 67 WILLIAM BIGLER. iiigs of the Peace Conference, the last of all the efforts made in Congress to settle the strife between the North and the South. In a speech made in March, 1860, that great patriot, John J. Crittenden, alluded to the part Mr. Bigler had taken in that eventful struggle in the following earnest terms : " I shall never forget the zeal and industry with which my hon- orable and honored friend from Pennsylvania, Mr. Bigler, has dis- played in this great matter. With a zeal untiring and a hope unex- tingiiishable he has labored on from day to day in an effort that few others could have borne." Mr. Bigler was a leading member of the famous Charleston Con- vention, as he was also of that held at Chicago and at New York. ' Although an effective speaker on the stump, before tbe people, he showed but little inclination to speak in the Senate ; nor was that the field in which his abilities shone to most advantage. The Coun- cil Chamber was the department in which he appeared best He still resides at Clearfield, Pena, and has been in piivate life since he left the Senate, except that in 1864, against his will, he was run for Congress, showing his usual pei-sonal strength by running largely ahead of his party vote. In the recent political contest in Pennsylvania, Mr. Bigler held that the Liberal Republicans were entitled to, at least, one repre- sentative in the Constitutional Convention, and, hoping thereby to aid in the election of Mr. Buckalew to the Gubernatorial chair, he withdrew his name from the Democratic ticket, in order that the name of A. G. Curtin, a Liberal Eepublican, might take its place. As his election, by reason of the restricted vote, was certain, the de votion thus evinced by Mr. Bigler, in a matter which he believed to greatly concern the public welfare, elicited the highest commenda- tions of his party -friends. He spent most of the years 1865 and 1866 on the Pacific coast He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and as chairman of a building committee, gave general dii-ection to the erection of one of the most beautiful stone church buildings in the State. Mr. Bigler is still in the enjoyment of much vigor of body and mind. Sur- rounded and comforted by his wife and three sons, honored with the continued confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and blessed with a fair share of this world's goods, his later life promises to be as peaceful and happy as his former has been eventful and suc- qessful. 68 /}y^^t^^y^ /■ /Z^^^h- HON FRANX P B1.AIR . SENATOR PROM MISSOURI- FRANCIS P. BLAIR. EANCIS PRESTON BLAIE, Jb., United States Senator from Missouri, third son, and youngest child of Francis Preston Blair, the editor of the Washington Globe, in President Jackson's time, was born on the 19th day of February, 1821, in Lexington, Kentucky. Senator Blair was educated at Princeton College, New Jersey, and was graduated in 1841, studied law in the oiEce of his elder brother, Montgomery, at St. Louis, Missouri, and was associated with him in practice. In 1845, he went to the Rocky Mountains for the benefit of his health, and on the breaking out of the Mexican War, he joined a company of Americans, resident in New Mexico, commanded by Captain George Bent, which formed part of the force of General Kearney, and served as a private soldier until 1847, when he returned to Missouri, and resumed the practice of law. Our territorial acqui- sitions from Mexico, and the claim made by Mr. Calhoun, that slavery was carried into these territories by force of the constitution, made slavery a national question. Mr. Blair opposed the extension of slavery into the territories he had helped to conquer; and in 1848 gave his support to Mr. Van Buren, the candidate of the Free-soil party for the Presidency, and was the leader and founder of that party in Missouri. From his own means, chiefly, he established a daily paper called the Barnburner, the name given to the Free-soil division of the Democratic party in the State of New York. He was the editor of the paper, and the orator of the party in its public meetings. This paper became afterwards the Missouri Demo- a-at, a successful business enterprise, of which he was chief owner ; but he gave it to a friend to secure his talents to the cause as editor. He supported Mr. Clay's compromise measures of 1850, by which California was admitted as a free State, and New Mexico remained a fi-ee territory under the Mexican law. He was elected to the Missouri Legislature in 1852, the only Free-soiler elected that year to the 69 FRANCIS P. BLAIR. Legislature, and the only man elected on the ticket on which his name was found. In 1854, it was the wish of many of his party to ran him for Congress, but, ascertaining that some of Colonel Benton's friends desired the nomination for him, Mr. Blair peremptorily with- drew his name, although Colonel Benton at the time was also a can- didate for the Senate of the United States. Mj-. Blair became a can- didate for, and was again elected to the Legislature. In 1856, he was nominated for Congress, and defeated Mr. Kennett, who had beaten Colonel Benton at the preceding election, by a large vote. Colonel Benton, who was the candidate for Governor on the same ticket, in 1856, had taken ground for acquiescing in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which Mr. Blair had publicly refused to do. Colonel Benton thought this refusal would hurt the ticket, and urged him earnestly to retract. He told the Colonel he would agree to with- draw from the ticket, but he could not acquiesce in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and he would not support Mr. Buchanan for the Presidency. He entered Congress, as he had entered the Missouri Legislature, the only Free-soiler from a Slave State in the body. His first speech in Congress was delivered in January, 1857. It was an elaborate discussion of th'e Slave question, and also of the Negro question. He recalled the prophecy of Mr. Jefferson : that nothing was more certainly written in the book of fate than that slavery would come to an end, and that it would end in blood if the Southern people did not obviate that catastrophe by adopting gradual emancipation and colonization. Mr. Jefferson had also said that the whites and black-s could not live together as equals. Mr. Blair insisted that the time liad come when the safety of the South, and the good of the whole country, required that a system of coloni- zation should be instituted by the government of the United States, in some neighboring and congenial clime, where such of the free blacks as chose to emigrate should have lands procured for them, and where they should be protected by the government of the United States in such form of government as they might establish for them- selves. Such a colony once established, emancipation and emigration would take place gradually, and complete emancipation and sepa- ration of the races would be effected in the course of a few gen- erations. No speech was ever delivered in Congress which produced a gi-eater impression upon the country. It was received with general approval by the Eepublican press ; and even such men as Gerritt FRANCIS P. BLAIB. Smith and Theodore Parker -warmly approved the scheme. The leading Eepublicans in the two houses gave it their sanction, and among others Senators Wade, Preston King, and Trumbull. Abra- ham Lincoln also approved this policy at the time it was announced, and recommended its adoption afterwards as President. But the Southern leaders identified their political power with slavery ; and hence, what their fathers all recognized as an evil, they had come to regard as their most precious possession. It was the pedestal of their power, and they resolved not only to maintain it, but to spread it as the territory of the Union expanded, or withdraw from it, and, therefore, they were insensible to the teachings of their own most revered ancestoi's, even when the mutterings of the fearful stonn they had predicted were already audible throughout the land. Mr. Blair was re-elected to Congi-ess in 1858 and in 1860. Colonel ^eckham, in the introduction to his book, entitled, " General Lyon and Missouri, in 1861," (from which work all of the facts hereinafter stated relating to this period are taken,) thus speaks of Mr. Blair: " The leading spirit and chief adviser of the Eepublicans, in 1860 and 1861, was Frank Preston Blair. No history of Missouri, in the momentous crisis of 1861, can possibly be complete without having that name stamped upon its pages in splendid coloring. Himself a Southerner and a slaveholder, the stereotyped cry of "Yankee Prejudice," "New England Education," and "Nigger Equality," could not be raised against him in efforts to intensify passions and excite hate. His own personal courage and coolness silenced the pretensions of the insolent, and forced opponents from the employ- ment of abuse into the arena of debate. Even in his personal inter- course with opposing partizans, he exhibited not only the courteous- ness of a gentleman, but an equanimity of temperament and appa rent forgetfulness really wonderful. The antagonist who expected at the first meeting a rupture, because of bitter attacks made on Mr. Blair in recent speeches, was surprised at the placid countenance and nonchalance of manner of his political foe. This power over self made Mr. Blair powerful with others. Serving a great cause in the interests of humanity, warring against an institution deep seated in the hearts of a powerful class, he knew exactly the work before him, and the depths of feeling he would necessarily stir. He made it his purpose to disregard passion, and to answer declamation with argument His example was infused into his partizans. The effect 71 FRANCIS P. BLAIR. was visible in the rapidly increasing strengtli of the Eepublican brotherhood." Until 1860, the Free-soil party had in Missouri been known as the " Free Democracy ;'' but, having sent a full delegation to the Republican Convention at Chicago in that year, they became identi- fied with that organization. This gi-eatly increased the bitterness of feeling towards them, and put their leaders in constant peril. Even before this time, Mr. Blair had been waylaid by two assassins and fired upon at night in front of the court-house as he left a public meeting. His escape on this occasion was really wonderful. On a signal given by a confederate stationed at the door, by striking the pavement heavily with a cane, a man covered by the darkness ad- vanced to within a few feet and fired four shots rapidly at Mr. Blair. The first ball passed very near his head. Mr. B. immediately drew a double-ban-eled pistol, and whilst doing so threatened vio- lently his assailant, who retreated, but continued firing. Mr. ^ fired one shot at him, which wounded him slightly. His other shot he resei-ved for the confederate, who approached rapidly, but fled when Mr. Blair turned upon him. Mr. Blair would have been jus- tified, in order to protect himself, in hunting down these wretches and killing them like wild beasts, as party feeling was such that the law aflbrded him no protection, but he did not fear, and therefore spared, them. For the same reason he subsequently spared a person better known to the country, who came from Washington heralded by a published card saying he came to call Frank Blair to account Just at this time this man received a fee from the administratien for some imaginary law service. It is believed to have been, in fact, a retainer for this St Louis mission. If it was, the administration was cheated, for the courage of their champion oozed out very suddenly when Mr. Blair confronted him. But after the inauguration of the Lincoln campaign, it became im- possible to hold Republican meetings, without an organization to pro- tect them. For this purpose Mr. Blair organized the " Wide Awakes." Shortly after South Carolina seceded, about a dozen of the leaders of the organization were convened to talk over the situation, and Mr. Blair insisted earnestly that a military organization of their friends could alone save the city and the arsenal, which contained nearly all the arms which the government possessed in the Valley of the Mis- sissippi. His opinion and advice was ably sustained by Mr. Samuel T. Glover. Shortly afterwards what is called the "Parent Company," 72 FRANCIS P. BLAIR. of which Mr. Blair was chcsen captain, was enrolled. This was quickly extended throughout the city, and, within two weeks, 1,442 men were enrolled, and they were speedily armed with muskets and rifles purchased by the leaders of the organization. But, as the organi- zation was extended, heavy subscriptions were obtained from friends in the Eastern States. " There was," says Colonel Peckham, who was a member of the " parent company," and afterwards Lieutenant- Colonel of the 8th Eegiment, " an inside and an outside organization. The latter were the companies themselves, and the ' inside' the power which controlled them. Mr. Blair was President of the inside organi- zation." These vigorous measures were not taken a moment too soon. The Secession " Minute Men " were incorporated into the Militia, com- manded by General Frost, an ex-officer of the U. S. Army, of high reputation for skill and efficiency, in thorough sympathy with the South, and ready to seize the St. Louis Arsenal. In tliat arsenal were stored 60,000 stand of arms, 1,500,000 ball cartridges, with many field-pieces and siege guns, extensive machinery, 90,000 pounds of powder, and much other material of war. This was a prize more coveted by the Secessionists than any possession the government held. Without that the government would have been disarmed in the Valley of the Mississippi, and with it the Secessionists contem- plated fortifying the river below Cairo, and not merely holding Missouri and Kentucky, but seducing Southern Illinois to their cause. Major Bell, who was in chat^e of the arsenal, was willing to surrender to the State authorities. Frost's letter to this effect was discovered at the Capitol, after the Governor's flight. On the 8th of January, Frost issued a secret order informing his command that their instant assembly was required upon a certain signal which should be given by church bells. This circular, although secretly cn-culated, did not escape the vigilance of Mr. Blair, who understood it, and prepared to meet the attempt on the arsenal which it foreshadowed. Although without color of legality for his military organiza- tion, (the national. State and city governments being in hos- tile hands,) and confronted by one created and commanded by General Frost in accordance with law, such was the confidence of his associates in his judgment, watchfulness, and coolness in danger, that his authority was absolute. This is the testimony of Colonel Peckham who was one of those FRANCIS P. BLAIR. who voluuiarily subjected themselves to Mr. Blair's command, in those dark days, with no fear of being exposed to useless peril by either the rashness or timidity of their leader, and ready to be sacrificed if necessary to prevent the seizure of those arms upon which the relations of great States to the Union certainly depended, and which, therefore, might involve the fate of the Union itself And no one can read the minute details given by Colonel Peckham without being filled with admiration for ihe skill and courage by which Mr. Blair postponed the rebel attack, whilst his military or- ganization was unauthorized, and immediately surprised and cap- tured the beleaguering forces under General Fi'ost, as soon as his troops were mustered into the service of the United States. He kept General Scott minutely advised of the situation, through letters written to his brother, and read to the General, and thus procured the order, first of Sweeney's company from Newport, Kentucky, in January, and then of Lyon's company from Fort Scott, in February. These ofiicers were advised in advance that application would be made for them, and urged to be prepared to move instantly. These arrivals and the removal of Bell, and, above all, the certainty with which the rebels were impressed that they could not take the arsenal without a bloody battle with a numerous, resolute, and well-armed foe, deterred them. The Legislature met on the 31st December, 1860, and prepared at once for Secession by passing military bills to force it on, and calling a convention for Febraary to pronounce it It was a principal point of policy with them to make the issue in the election one between Secession and Abolition, and thus to combine the Bell and Everett, and the Breckenridge and Douglas parties, which cast 146,000 votes, against the Eepublican party, which cast less than 20,000 votes in the election of 1860. More than half of this vote was cast in St. Louis, where Mr. Blair had been elected to Congress, and he would, if he had thought only of his own importance, or listened to many of his friends, have insisted on taking the control of the nominations in that county for the Eepublican party. This was the feeling of many of his associates. But Mr. Blair said this would play into the hands of the enemy ; and when an ardent Republican said, " I don't believe in breaking up the Repub- lican party just to please these tender-footed Unionists," Mr. Blair replied, "Let us have a Countrt first, and then we can talk about parties." In pursuance of this policy he gave the lead in St Louis 74 FRANCIS P. BLAIR. to the Bell and Everett and Douglas Unionists, though they were but a small body comparatively in that locality. On a ticket of fourteen names for the convention, there were but four very moderate Eeijublicans. Mr. Blair said in a speech, in support of this ticket, that he was for a 7rewpa,rtj — a party that would stand by the Union, and hold St. Louis in the Union, even if the State attempted to secede. This movement was decisive not only in St Louis, which was carried by a two-third vote, but it shaped the contest in the State also where it was equally decisive. His refusal to accept the Brigadier-Generalship tendered to him by the President, on the recommendation of General Scott, for the capture of Camp Jackson, is another striking illustration of the gen- erosity of his nature, and of the entire subordination of his personal ambition to the public interests. Immediately after the capture of Camp Jackson, he recommended that Captain Lyon, by whose pro- fessional skill that movement had been conducted, should be made a Brigadier-General for the achievement. Btrt General Scott op- posed the appointment. Mr. Blair had organized the force, and had insisted on the capture against the remonstrances of all his friends, and had been held responsible for it by friends and foes. This was true, but Lyon had done the professional work well and cordially, and was entitled to the professional honors for the achievement, and Mr. Blair refused peremptorily to accept what belonged to Lyoa Lyon had been put in command at his instance, and he insisted that he should have the proper rewards belonging to the command. But, why, did not Mr. Blair himself take the command? He commanded a regiment on the occasion, and was the mark at which the only shots fired by the rebels that day were aimed ; and Mr. Bates said to Mr. Lincoln, often in those days that he looked at the papers every morning, expecting to see that Colonel Blair had been shot the day before in the streets of St. Louis. The reason was that whilst Mr. Blair felt -it to be important that the actual commander should have the benefit of his knowledge and counsel, and be sup- ported by his influence in Missouri and in Washington, it was better on account of the state of political feeling in Missouri, that the command should be exercised by an officer of the regular army. The rebels taunted iLe Unionists with being '' Frank- Blair men,'" to prevent his old political opponents from supporting the government. There was great indisposition on the part of many of the truest friends of the government in the outbreak of the rebellion to act 75 FRANCIS P. BLAIR. with vigor against it. Many hoped tliat some means would yet be found to avoid war ; others were apprehensive that the democracy, which constituted nearly half the Northern people, would resist any attempt at coercion upon the South. Others could not be made to discredit the professions of Unionism with which many of the most dangerous enemies of the government covered their designs ag:iinst it. This feeling entered largely into that Union element in Missouri drawn from the old parties which it was necessary to reorganize and give prominence to in oi'der to vote down Secession. Mr. Gamble, who became the Provisional Governor, was one of the best represen- tative men of this class. He was a very able lawyer and judge, of the old Whig school in politics, a Virginian by birth, but a resident in Missouri for forty years. General Harney, of the army, a Tennesseean by birth, who had married a lady belonging to one of the old families of the city, was in command of the department till within a few days prior to the capture of Camp Jackson, and had been removed from command because distrusted by the active Unionists. He was captured by the rebels on the railway train in Virginia, on his way to Washing- ton to get reinstated, but was released by them. By the advice of Mr. . Edwin M. Stanton, who prepared the letter for him, he addressed a published letter to Colonel John O'Fallon, of St Louis, taking strong ground against Secession. Mr. Gamble and his fiiends, and amongst them Mr. Bates, supported him, and he was reinstated in command by Mr. Cameron without the consent of the President, or of the Postmaster-General, who was entitled to be heard because of his former residence in Missouri, his constant coirespondence and his active co-operation witli the Union men there from the beginning. Harney's restoration was received with great joy by the disunionists, and proportionate sorrow by the friends of the government. He immediately opened negotiations with the rebels, the effect of which was to tie the hands of thfe Unionists, who were outraged and driven away from their homes in crowds from the inte- rior of the State. Mr. Blair, and other friends of the government insisted on his removal, and, finally, the order was sent under cover to Mr. Blair, with a letter from the President, urging him to forbear to use it if possible, and putting the responsibility upon him. He could not forbear long, although averse to thwart the President's wishes, and unwilling to wound Harney's feelings. But it was mani- fest that if true, he was utterly incompetent to deal with the wily 7G FRANCIS P. BLAIR. and treacherous commander of the State troops. As soon as this re- moval was announced, the railroad bridges between St Louis and Jef- ferson were destroyed. To relieve the people, Lyon was compelled to move against Price by steamers up the Missouri River. The State troops retreated to Booneville, where the first battle took place, on the 17th of June, 1861. Lyon's force consisted of two regiments, one of which was Colonel Blair's, and a company of regulars — in all about 2,000 men. Price had about 4,000 men. The rebels did not stand long before the steady fire opened upon them in their selected position, but retreated, leaving all their camp equipage and large numbei's of prisoners. General Lyon had not the transporta- tion to pursue Price and Jackson in their flight towards the South- west. Colonel Blah- advised him to impress a large number of wagons with which a colony of Mormons were making their way to Salt Lake, and pursue and capture the fugitives. But he told Colonel Blair that if he had had his experience with the red tape of the War Department, he would not advise him to venture on such a step ! Colonel Blair shortly afterwards left his regiment to take his seat in Congress, summoned to meet on the 4th of July. He was made Chairman of the Committee of Military Affairs, and cairied through the House all the war measures. After he left St. Louis, the Mis- souri Democrat wound up a long article, reciting his services in these words: "The traitors of Missouri are overthrown. The State is safe, and has been saved by a stroiie of genius, with little bloodshed, from the horrors of a protracted conflict. The ' indiscretion' of a far-reaching sagacity, and a lofty courage in a single man, has done the work. We do believe that the same policy would have saved Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas from Secession ; hut, they had no such man^ Bull Run and Fremont changed all this — our defeat in Virginia revived the confidence of the rebels, and Fremont's incapacity sacrificed Lyon at Springfield, and Mulligan at Lexington. From the 25th of July, when he arrived at St Louis and took command, till the 2nd of November, when he was relieved, he did nothing but waste the means of the Government About the middle of Septem- ber, Mr. Blair recommended his removal for incapacity, and preferred charges against him for corruption in office. His accomplice, McKinstry, though less guilty, was tried and cashiered ; but Fremont did not ask a trial, and was not tried, because his conviction would 77 FRANCIS P. BLAIB.. have been regarded as a persecution for his emancipation procla- mation by many earnest Kepublicans. Mr. Blair had previously given offence to all but the most decisive union men. The rebels, of course, hated him and the moderate union men, represented by Governor Gamble and Mr. Bates, were dissatis- fied, because of his support of Lyon. Fremont had, however, pro- claimed martial law in St Louis, and the newspaper organs of these classes were compelled to speak with bated breath. But, when Mr. Blair struck at Fremont, they were unmu;5zled, and all burst out in full cry against biin, lead on by the Eepublican organ — the Bemocrai — the paper which he himself had founded and presented to the Editor. Thus, within three months, the man who had left his home, covered with victory and honor, hailed as the aviour of his people from the horrors of civil bloodshed, found himself without a party, and a prisoner — for Fremont had arrested him for writing to the President — and universally denounced by the public press, and es- pecially by that press which had most exalted him. Why was this ? Certainly he had not faltered in any duty, abandoned any principle, or ceased to give his whole soul to the cause of the Union. Nor had he sought his own elevation. He had declined the Brigadier- Generalship offered by General Scott, and he had again declined that advancement from Fremont The secret of this sudden revulsion of feeling against Mr. Blair lies in the pollution infused into the Republican leaders in Missouri by Fremont, and the flock of California vultures who followed him there; and it has, clung to the organization from that hour like the shirt of Nessus. Whilst that organization had been inspired by Frank Blair, and lead in battle by Lyon, the Eebellion had been overthrown and driven to the remotest corners of the State by their own efforts, and almost without means or countenance from the gov- ernment, and in the very outset of the administration ; but with the advent of Fremont came lavish and wastefid expenditures, contracts for clothing, arms, provisions, horses, etc., in which politicians drove a brisk business for themselves and others. The era of patriotism and Frank Blah had passed away, and that of plunder and Fremont had succeeded. But the orators and presses of the country had made a deep lodgement for Fremont in the hearts of the Eepublican masses in 1856. This had been greatly strengthened by his emancipation proclamation, annulled by Mr. Lincoln. That class particularly, since known as Radicals, were predisposed to sustain him, and to re- 78 FRANCIS P. BLAIR. gard any charges against him as unfounded. And accordingly, the Eepublican press generally did sustain him, not only against Mr. Blair, but against the President himself, when finally he was forced to remove him, and. to send a commission to St Louis, headed by Judge Davis, to protect the Treasury fi-om his fraudulent contracts. Mr. Winter Davis and Mr. Colfax, and other leaders of that faction of the party, lost no time, on the assembling of Congress in December, in throwing down the gauntlet to the Administration and to Mr. Blair. It was a long and arduous session to him. The Democratic opposition was powerful, and lead with skill by able men, and the Eadicals were bitter for the removal of Fremont, and the retention of McClellan. In response to a request by General McClellan, Mr. Blair gave him, in writing, and in detail, his views on the best mode of con- ducting the War. He advised that his great operations should be conducted from the West, and that he should come into Eichmond, as he expressed it, "by the back door," first opening the Mississippi river, which would itself break the back-bone of the Eebellion. The result of the war has verified the soundness of this view in a remark- able manner. McClellan and Grant both failed in the " on to Eich- mond" plan, and it was not until FaiTagut, and Grant leading western men, Mr. Blair among them, had opened the Mississippi, and Sherman had marched from the West into North Carolina, that Eichmond fell. The most gloomy period ot the War was fi-om the 2nd of July, 1862, — the date of McClellan's retreat to Harrison's Landing, — and the 18th of September, the date of his victory at Antietam. The peo- ple were greatly disheartened, and extraordinary efibrts were required to procure enlistments. Among other means resorted to, the Admin- istration sought to avail itself of the popularity of the leaders in Con- gress, and Mr. Blair, among others, was applied to, and most earnestly urged by Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, to raise troops to be lead by himself in the field. He complied at once, and in a short time raised seven regiments, was commissioned a Brigadier-General and joined Sherman's command. In the first attack on Vicksburg he lead the assault on the enemies' works at Chickasaw Bluffs made on the 29th of December, 1862. He entered the works at the head of his Brigade and drove out the enemy ; but he was not supported, and the enemy being heavily re-enforced, returned and dislodged liim. It was a very desperate struggle, and General Blair's courage and conduct were conspicuous. He was the last to leave the works, and his bearing was 79 FRANCIS P. BLAIR. SO gallant and so excited the admiration of the enemy as he marched slowly and alone (his horse having been shot under him) down the hill under their fire, that they ceased to fire on him. This is the state- ment of their commanding ofiicer, who adds, that they ascertained his name from his orderly, who was badly wounded at his side, and fell into their hands. His conduct was also the theme of admiration in the Union army, and even the correspondent of the Missouri Democrat, which had become so inimical, says, " the heaviest loss (in this battle) was in General Blair's Brigade. This Brigade acted most heroically, and General Blair showed himself an able and brave commandei-." He participated in the capture of Arkansas Post on the 10th of Jan- uary, 1863, by General McClernand, his Brigade forming part of Steele's Division, of the 15th Corps (Sherman's), which McClernand reports as very effective and ably commanded on the occasion. For this sei-vice he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and assigned to the command of the division, and took an active part in all the operations which resulted in the capture of Vjcksburg on the 4th of July, 1863. He was on several occasions intrusted with separate commands by Grant, whose confidence in his capacity as a commander grew steadily till the close of the war, when he pronounced him the best of the volunteer Generals. He succeeded to the com- mand of the 15th CorjDS, when Sherman was promoted to the com- mand of the Army of the Tennessee. He marched his Coi-ps to Tennessee when Grant took command there, relieved Knoxville with it, and commanded it in the battle of Chattanooga, where it bore the brunt of the battle. After that battle, which took place in December, and when militaiy operations were suspended, he resigned his commission in the army, (having been requested to do so by Mr. Lincoln,) and took his seat in Congress, with the understanding that when military operations should be resumed, he could withdi-aw his resignation and resume his duties as a Corps commander. He had been re-elected by a large majority, defeating both the Eadical and the Democratic candidate. The President himself communicated the letter containing his request to General Blair, to the House of Kepresentetives, in response to a resolution of enquiry passed in April, 1864, after the assignment of the General to the command of the 17th Corps. It was understood by Gen. Blair to be an appeal by Mr. Lincoln to him for help. The President, in fact, needed his support in the House. The issue had already been made between the President and the Eadicals 80 FKANCIS P. BLAIR. on reconstruction, and Mr. Chase was pitted against him as their caa- didate for nomination before the regular Republican Convention ; and to force that Convention they nominated Fremont at Cleveland as an independant candidate, to be withdrawn if Chase was nominated at Baltimore. There was no one in the House who would defend the plan which Mr. Lincoln, in the proclamation of the 8th of December, had adopted for reconstruction. The Republican speakers in the House, with the exception of Mr. Blair, were opposed to it, and it was attacked with great vigor and ability by Mr. Stephens, Mr. Davis, and others. Mr. Blair answered them in a conclusive constitutional argument on the 5 th of February. But, whilst the reconstruction issue was the doctrine on which the Radical party finally consolidated, and was then gathering strength to defeat Lincoln's nomination, it started into life with his annulment of Fremont's proclamation, strengthened with the removal of Fre- mont and became a chronic discontent with every military officer he entrusted with command in Missouri, and with every civil o&cer in whom he had confidence. They were especially severe towards the Blairs, who supported Lincoln's policy, and advocated his renomination. Mr. Chase had openly taken part with the Radicals, and one of his subordinates took occasion, at St Louis, to make the most gross and ri- diculously false charges against General Blair. His partizans in Missouri had organized a grand committee of seventy, which moved on Washington, ha\'ing its progress chronicled throughout the country in the most sensational style, and waited on the President to lay be- fore him and the country the wrongs which the Union men of Mis- souri were suffering at the hands of General Schofield, who was characterized as a rebel sympathizer. Having spent their malice on the President, they waited on the Secretary of the Treasury to express their thanks for his sympathy in their grievances and efforts to relieve them, and toasted him as the man for the times, and to whom the true Union men looked as their candidate. It was necessary that Mr. Blair should defend himself, and defend the President, and he did so very effectually. In a speech, on the 27th of February, he dissected the Jacobins of Missouri and Maryland, and showed that their leaders in Missouri had been secessionists till Jackson was driven out, and the danger- was over, and that Mr. Davis the leader in Maryland, who now complained of Lincoln's hesitation 81 FE ANCIS P. BLAIR. about slavery had denounced his administration at Brooklyn for its anti-slavery policy within two years. Having called for a committee, which, though appointed by Colfax, exploded the charges made by Mr. Chase's subordinate against him, he asked for a committee to set on the charges which he prefered against the Secretaiy. Bat Mr. Chase's friends opposed, and defeated the proposed enquiry. Mr. Blair had collected a mass of testimony showing the greatest abuses and frauds and favoritism in the ex- ecution of the law relating to intercoursa with the rebellious States. This he proceeded to detail amidst interuptions from the Speaker aud Mr. Chase's friends on the floor, and amidst a scene of excite- ment rarely ever witnessed in the House. The charges were of a charac- ter and were supported in a manner that it was folly to attempt to stifle, and the attempt then made by Mr. Chase's friends was fatal to his candidacy. He had Congress, but did not carry a State. Gen. Blair then took the command of his Corps, and conducted it throughout that celebraterl and arduous march to the sea, and along the coast, which terminated the war in North Carolina, and ended in the grand review in Washington City. No Cor^DS of the Army did more marciiing or fighting than the 17th in that memorable campaign. It is impossible in such a sketch as this to give any account of its services or of its organization. It may be remarked, however, that whilst the record of its service is unsurpassed by that of any other body of men which engaged in this conflict, — and it was by many thought to be the crack Corps of the Army,— it had not the advantage of having a single regular officer in it. Its fighting at Atlanta, on the 22nd of July, never was excelled. It held the extreme left of our line, and was the more exposed at the moment because our cavalry was away breaking up a railroad. Hood, who had just super- seded Johnston as Confederate commander, adopted the hazardous expedient of withdrawing Hardee's Corps in front of Thomas, and marching it at night to the rear of the 17th Corps, intending to pour out upon it another Corps from the city simultaneously, whilst attacking also Logan's Corps to the right of the 17th; and the movement came near being successful. The centre of Logan's Corps was driven from its position, so that for the moment the 17th Corps was unsupported on the right, and on the left it was overwhelmed, by Hardee's flank movement, and lost a whole regiment. But it stood its ground and drove off Hardee. It had hardlv done so when it had to 'bout face and receive the 83 FRANCIS P. BLAIB. Confederate Coi-ps which poured out from the city. It repelled this attack only in time to turn about and receive a second attack from Hardee. It continued to fight in this manner the whole day, but gradually swung round on its right as a pivot till it drove Har- dee from its rear and came into line with the 16th Corps, which had come to its support. On the next morning more than 2,000 Confederate dead were found on the gi'ound which had been fought over by the 17th Corps. It was the steady courage of the men that carried them through this terrible conflict But even that would not have availed had they not been aided by the foresight and skill of their commander in taking from the enemy the evening before, at some sacrifice of life, a position on the right, which enabled him to sweep his ffont and rear with artillery on the 22nd. This, and the gradual shifting of his line and the heroic courage of the men and officers, saved the Corps and the army. At Bentonville, N. C, the fight commenced by an attack on Slo- cum's corps on the left The 17th was moving to Wilmington, at some distance to the right Moving promptly to the rescue at the sound of the guns, Gen. B. had got in the rear of Johnston, and one of his divisions almost into Johnston's camp, and must have cap- tured him there, but that Sherman, not being advised of the situa- tion, sent a peremjDtory order to withdraw. He captured Pocotalago, in South Carolina, a strong work which had repelled several previ- ous attacks fi-om the coast, and was thought to be impregnable. South Carolina was thought to be impenetrable, from its swamps and fortified causeways. But he flanked the causeways with new ones easily made, and with little delay by his western axe-men, under the protection of tlie heavy timber and brushwood of the swamps. At the close of the war he was without means. He had spent a handsome fortune in the struggle with the rebellion. His father had given him some means when he settled in St Louis, and he was suc- cessful in his profession, and had invested his means in property which rapidly advanced, so that when he commenced his battle with Secesr sion he was wealthy. He expended his money without stint in sujiporting the Press, withdrew from his profession, loaned money to his political friends, and assumed liabilities for them. These were crowded upon him when the war came, and reduced the value of his property, and it had to be sacrificed. Having to start the world anew with a large family of young 8o FRANCIS P. BLAIR. children to support, be undertook planting in Mississippi ; but the army worm and the govenrment tax made that unsuccessful. And rew Johnson nominated him to the office of Collector of Internal Eevenue at St. Louis, but the Eadicals in the Senate promptly rejected him. He then gave him the place of Commissioner on the Pacific Eail- road, and, although he was on his way to inspect a division of the road at the time of Grant's inauguration, it y\'-as among the first, if not the very first, official act of Grant to remove him. He entered vigorously on the work of redeeming Missouri fi-om Eadical dominion at the close of the war, and canvassed the State thoroughly. Freedom of speech had been abolished in the State for years. Tlie disfranchising constitution had been put into ojDcration by false election returns, and despotism prevailed everywhere outside of St. Louis. No one else dared attempt to speak of constitutional rights to the people ; and it was, in fact, attended with more personal danger to him than actual war. The Eadical power depended upon repressing free speech, and despotism is not scrupulous of life to preserve its power. It was possible for him to confront it, because now, as under Buchanan's administration, there was a body of men in Missouri who would follow and stand by him in support of right, either against rebel or Eadical despotism. After several very disorderly meetings, the crisis was brought on at Warrensburgh. There an organized and armed gang broke into the meeting, and the leader marched through the people straight upon the speaker, at whom he had drawn and aimed his pistol, when his bowels were ripped open with a bowie knife by a devoted friend of the speaker, and he fell dead. Others of the gang were badly wounded, and all were driven off. The corpse was removed, and Gen. Blair continued and finished his speech. One other slight demonstration was made on another occasion to stop his speaking, but that was promptly sup- pressed also, and free speech was re-established in Missom-i. It re- mained to restore popular government, and to do this without vio- lence it was necessary to bear with the fraudulent counting of the existing officials. In time the honest portion of the Eepublican party were revolted at this scandalous system, and broke from the organi- zation, and their leader, B. Gratz Brown, was elected Governor by the aid of Democratic votes. This uprising of the people brought Gen. Blair into the Senate of the United States in January, 1871, to which he was elected by about thirty majority, more than half of his majority being Eepublicans. 84 FRANCIS P. BLAIR. In this contest tbe Radicals supported ex-Senator Henderson, who had voted against them, and with Mr. Blair in the recent election. Mr. Henderson made great use in this Senatorial contest of what is known as " the Broadhead letter,^' written in 1868. In that letter Mr. Blair had taken the ground that the reconstruction measures were wholly unconstitutional, and that the Democratic party should, in this election of '68, submit the question to the people distinctly whether the Carpet-Bag governments established by those meas- ures should stand ; that he was in favor of using the army which had put these governments up to put them down, and allowing the people of the Southern States to choose their own State officers, and man- age their own affiiii's subject to the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Blair was nominated for Vice-President, but Mr. Seymour repudiated this platform. The New York World, which had ad- vocated the nomination of Chase, by the Con-veution, after the Octo- ber elections, suggested the declination of both the nominees, with the view of then bringing forward Cliase. Mr. Blair promptly indicated his willingness to retire if that was the wish of the party, or of Mr. Seymour. But instead of agreeing to his resignation, he was called to New York by the head men of the party there, to speak, in order to help save the State for them. As his election'to the Senate, in 1871, depended on his being able to secure Republican votes, it was naturally supposed by Mr. Hender- son that he must either abandon the principles avowed in the Broad- head letter, or that lie would lose the Republican votes necessary to his election, and Mr. Blair's most earnest friends advised him to yield. But he refused to do so, and made a speech which electiiiied the House, saying that he was more than ever convinced of its soundness in doctrine, and the necessity for its application, by the steady advance of usurpation upon the liberties of the people. In the face of this speech, he was elected triumphantly by Republican votes. His presence in the Senate has been useful to the country. He has dealt the administration many heavy blows. He is so earn- est and fearless, and well-informed in politics, and his course has been so patriotic that, although acting with a small minority in the Senate, he exercises great power in the country. His recommen- dation gives the so-called " passive policy " much of its strength with the Democratic party. It is the policy of self-dem'al in which he has been schooled, and has so frequently submitted to, that it has become easy to him, whilst to the indulged pride aud delusive hopes of some of the Democratic leaders it is too severe an ordeal. 85 MONTGOMERY BLAIR. MONTGOMERY BLAIR, Postmaster-General of the k\ United States, from March, 1861, to October, 1864, X/5(i was born in the county of Franklin, State of Ken- .^'i, tiicky, on the 10th of May, 1813. He is the eldest ''"'4 child of Francis Preston Blair, the editor of the Globe during General Jackson's administration. He was edu- cated at the Military Academy, where he graduated in 1835, served in the Florida War until the following year, when he resigned, finished his law studies at the law-school of Transylvania University, settled in St. Louis in 1837, was appointed United States District- Attorney for Missouri in 1839, was removed from that office by President Tyler, became a State Judge in 1845, resigned in 1849, changed his residence to Maryland in 1853, and commenced the practice of law in the Supreme Court of the United States, and was the first Solicitor of the United States Court of Claims. The connection of his fother with the political press initiated his sons very early in politics ; but Montgomery declined all polit- ical office until he was ofiered a place in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. His refusal to accept political office did not prevent him from active participation in political controversies, and he became dis- tinguished both as a writer for the press, of addresses, resolutions for conventions, and as a public speaker. He was a member of the Democratic National Conventions of 1844, 1848, and of 1852. Having acquired ii moderate fortune by his attention to his profession in Missouri, he removed to Maryland, where his parents lived. He resided there many years without taking any part in politics ; but, becoming impressed with the conviction that the Union was in real danger, and that it was the duty of every citizen to exert himself for its preservation by working with the party which labored in that direction, he supported the candidate of the 87 MONTGOMERY BLAIR. American party for Governor in 1857. He drew resolutions, and supported them in St. Louis, approving Mr. Clay's Compromise measures. He argued the Dred Scott case with great earnestness, from conviction of the mischief which a decision of the Supreme Court against the power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Ter- ritories would produce. He was the first to take the ground that the test oaths were violations of the Constitution, and argued that question in the Cumming's case, before the Supreme Court, and in his brother's case. When the Southern leaders began to drive Mr. Buchanan, by the Lecompton question, from the stand he had taken for the Union by the constitution of his Cabinet, Mr. Blair endeav- ored to induce him to hold out against them, and assured him of support by tlie Republican party if he would be firm. When Mr. Buchanan yielded, he endeavored to effect a combination of the Republicans with Mr. Douglas. Mr. Blair presided at the first Republican convention held in Maryland, and was a delegate to the Chicago convention in 1860. He favored the nomination of Edward Bates, who was not then iden- tified with the Republican party, to avoid the sectional issue, and hoping to carry Missouri and Maryland with such a candidate. He opposed strenuously Mr. Seward's nomination. Finding Mr. Bates couid not be nominated, he went for Mr. Lincoln on the second ballot. Having endeavored to prevent the issue of disunion, Mr. Blair, when forced to meet it, did not hesitate An earnest dis- cussion commenced in the Cabinet immediately after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration in regard to the use of the military to maintain pos- session of the forts in the Southern States. Conferences were had with members of the Virginia Legislature, and the Confederate Commissioners were in Washington in correspondence with the Secretary of State. Mr. Blair insisted from first to last upon maintaining and reinforcing the forts, and that an attempt to save Fort Sumter should be made, even if it failed, and declared that he would not remain in the Cabinet if the fort was surrendered without an effort to save it. Mr. Lincoln often said afterward that Mr. Blair alone sustained him at that critical time, and he con- tinued to sustain him (Mr. Lincoln) to the end of his life. It was because of his thorough sympathy with Mr. Lincoln's views, and the active support of his policy in reference to reconstruction, that he was compelled to leave the Cabinet. Mr. Blair, alone of the Cabinet, openly opposed the claim of Con- 88 MONTGOMERY BLAIR. gress to frame governments for the Southern States, and denounced the doctrine when first broached as akin to, and worse than, secession itself. For this, great efforts were made to procure his removal from the Cabinet, and by many who then professed not to differ with him on the question, but insisted that Mr. B. injured the party, by falsely imputing to the reconstructionists a design to establish negro suffrage, which they generally denied. The Republicans in Congress, and party leaders generally, supported the Congressional power, and but few of them favored Lincoln's renomination. Mr. Blair was very active for the renomination, and very early, in public addresses in the East and West, counseled the people to take the matter in their own hands, and not to leave the question to the politicians' convention. The President's refusal to remove Mr. Blair, even when urged to do so by a committee appointed for that purpose by the convention which renominated him, and his refusal to sign the Wade and Davis reconstruction bill, showed plainly his opposition to the secret purposes of the leaders of the party as to reconstruction. They continued to urge the removal of Mr. Blair ; and, for the purpose of coercing him into terms, they kept Mr. Fremont in the field as a candidate against him, and a call was issued for a new convention to meet in September to nominate a new candidate. The battle of Atlanta, on July 22d, 1864, brightened Lincoln's prospects, and a compromise was effected. The new convention was abandoned. Fremont was withdrawn ; Mr. Blair resigned. Some important ofHcial positions were as- signed to leading Radicals, and reconstruction was abandoned till Lincoln was slain. An attempt was made to effect a compromise with Mr. Lincoln during the session of 1864-'5, by which repre- sentation should be admitted to Congress from the States which had already reorganized themselves under his proclamations, with- out further conditions, leaving the other insurrectionary States to be dealt with by Congress. But Mr. Lincoln rejected the propo- sition, and no further legislation was attempted whilst he lived. Mr. Blair was invited by Mr. Lincoln to a conference on this sub- ject, although no longer in the Cabinet, at which he opposed the efforts made by some who had hitherto sustained him to induce Mr. Lincoln to yield. It was on Mr. Blair's suggestion that his father was sent to Richmond by Mr. Lincoln, in December, 1864, and January, 1865, to obtain the submission of the rebel authorities. Mr. Blair urged, 89 MONTGOMERY BLAIB. that, besides the useless effusion of. blood, further military opera- tions could only strengthen the Radicals, and enable them to over- whelm him in any effort to maintain Constitutional government. On the failure of the conferences at Hampton Eoads, Mr. Blair urged Mr. Lincoln to issue a proclamation offering the rebels amnesty on submission. His only objection to doing this was, that they would misconstrue it as evidence of weakness. This objection Mr. B. combated, and Mr. L. seemed to yield— said he would endeavor to frame a proclamation on the boat, as he went to General Grant's head-quarters, for which he was about starting. There was no necessity for immediate action, he thought ; for General Grant had said he did not intend to strike Lee, unless he attempted to retreat. Mr. Seward strenuously resisted Mr. Blair's advice ; and, when Mr. Lincoln went to the front, followed him. His opposition served to delay Mr. Lincoln's action, till Grant, having changed his mind, commenced the final attack on Lee's lines. General Lee told Grant, at Appo- mattox, that he would have closed with the terms then offered and accepted, if tendered before the attack. This fact, stated by a cor- respondent of the Herald, was confirmed by General Grant him- self to Mr. Blair. Mr. Blair opposed Mr. Chase's financial views generally, and labored to sustain those of the bankers of New York, who opposed the suspension of specie payment, as unneces- sary and as injurious to our credit, and insuring a vast increase of the public debt. He opposed the National Banking system and the cotton-permit trade with the enemy, allowed both by Mr. Chase and by Mr. Fessenden. Mr. Blair insisted on the surrender of Mason and Slidell, not only after the demand of England, but before it was made, believing that the British Ministry would not lose any occasion to make war on us at that time, which would carry their people with them. He opposed the removal of McClellan from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and got him replaced after Pope's failure ; urged McClellan, by letter, to sustain the Emancipation proclama- tion in general orders, to identify himself with the President's policy, and so counteract political intrigues going on against him ; induced Mr. Lincoln to offer him the command of an army under Grant, after Grant was made Lieutenant-General ; and endeavored, through his father, who went to New York for the purpose, to per- ° 90 MONTGOMERY BLAIR. suade McClellau to take the command, and refuse to antagonize himself to the President as the candidate of the Democratic party, whilst the war lasted. On Mr. Johnson's accession to the Presidency, Mr. Blair ad- vised him to change his Cabinet, for the reason that those who then composed it had not the hold on the country necessary to sustain him in carrying out the policy of Mr. Lincoln, to which he was committed, and recommended that Governor Andrew, of Massa- chusetts ; Horace Greeley, of New York ; Governor Morton, of Indiana ; and General Grant, should be appointed. Mr. Blair has participated actively as public speaker in every canvass since the war on the Democratic side, endeavoring to stay the tide of Rad- icalism. He has also made speeches on other important subjects which attracted much attention, and, among others, on the French invasion of Mexico, and the countenance and support given to that invasion by the State Department, under Mr. Seward, and by the War Department, under Mr. Stanton. He was the first to call attention to the fact that Mr. Bigelow, under instructions from Mr. Seward, was assuring the French Em- peror that the American people took no umbrage at this invasion, and that the War Department was seizing the refuse arms bought here by the Mexicans, to defend themselves after our war had closed, whilst the French Emperor was allowed to supply his army with provisions of all kinds. Mr. Blair, though always opposed to slavery, and anxious for its abolishment by State action, with compensation to own- ers, exerted himself to keep the subject out of national poli- tics ; when the issue came, however, he went with the emancipa- tionists. He supported the constitution of Maryland of 1864, be- cause it abolished slavery. The proscriptive features of that con- stitution he was opposed to, and pledged himself, while advocating its adoption, to aid in expunging those features. Accordingly, on the 26th of August, 1865, he commenced the agitation for that purpose in a speech made at Clarksville, Howard county, and there first broached the doctrine, subsequently sustained by the Supreme Court in the Cumming's case, that the disfran- chisement imposed was a bill of attainder. Mr. Blair was President of the Anti-Registry Convention which met on January 25th, 1866, and, as the organ of that body, delivered an address before the Legislature then in session. But the Legislature was Radical, and 91 MONTGOMERY BLAIR. refused to act. The succeeding Legislature was overwhelmingly Democratic, and called the convention which abolished disfran- chisement. As as executive of&cer, all parties agreed that Mr. Blair was attentive, efficient, and judicious, and the postal system was greatly simplified and improved in his hands, and was conducted with rigid economy. He established uniform rates of postage, the free-delivery and money-order systems. He recommended a governmental telegraph in connection with the postal system on the expiration of the patents. He put in operation the dii-ect overland maU, began the establishment of distributing- offices in the mail cars, recommended measures to protect the Department from extortion by the railroad companies, and many other measures of practical importance. During his entire term of service there was never a suggestion in any quarter that there was favoritism or disregard of the public interest in the administra- tion of the department. ROBERT BONNER. ROBERT BONNER, editor and proprietor of the New- York Ledger, was bom within twelve miles of the city of Londonderry, Ireland, on the 28th day of April, 1824. When he was fifteen years of age, a letter reached his family from an uncle in Hartford, Connecticut, inviting Mr. Bonner's older brother to come to America. The transit across the ocean in those days was slow and wearisome ; a dread of the sea was general, and when anybody contemplated a voyage to America, it was heralded far and near, and was a nine days wonder. Preparations were made for weeks previous; relations and friends were visited ; and, amidst sobs and tears, a last adieu was exchanged, and prayers were offered and benedictions given. The invitation to come to America was looked upon very soberly by Mr. Bonner's brother, and he lialf declined. Some member of the family said jocosely, " Let the old man go with him." The " old man " (as Robert was then called in his father's family) was a strip- hng of fifteen, with a big head and two flashing hazel eyes looking out from under a great, solid white dome of a forehead. Nothing more was said. The " old man " turned the joke to sober earnest, and in 1839 Robert Bonner arrived in Hartford, Connecticut, where he found his uncle a prosperous farmer, and the owner of much land in the city limits. Soon after taking up his residence in that city, young Bonner entered the printing-office of the Hartford Courant as an apprentice to the printer's trade. His engagement with the pro- prietors was, that he should have his board and washing and twenty- five dollars the first year, and ten dollars increase each year afterward. The rule of the Courant establishment was to take a new apprentice every year, and promote in gradation of time and not by merit After his second year in the office, young Bonner saw that he set type much faster and more correctly than the older apprentices. 93 ROBERT BONNER. Entering the office one morning, one of the journeymen ordered Robert to go and draw some water. As that work devolved on the youngest apprentice, and Robert was justified in declining, he showed at once what constantly occupied his mind, by saying : " I shall bring the water if you teach me how to feed the press." The journeyman consented, and in a few months from that time the am- bitious apprentice had a good knowledge of presswork. As soon as young Bonner acquired the knack of feeding the press, he would come down early to the office, put the latest news in print, send the paper to press, and go to work at feeding. For this he received extra pay. It was very small, yet it was an incentive, and he worked the harder. One week his overwork reached the amount of three dol- lars. Small as this sum appears, it was more, he has been heard to say, to Mr. Bonner then than three thousand doUai-s are to- day. One of the apprentices at once grew jealous, and appealed to the proprietors for the young man's position, and, in consideration of seniority, succeeded. He held the place only a short time, however. The editor entered the office one morning in a very perturbed state of mind. He was angry, and wished to know who was the novice who made so many blunders in the " latest news." On learning who he was, the editor gave instructions to have Mr. Bonner reinstated immediately. Mr. Bonner made up the columns of the paper, worked at case, and gained a thorough knowledge of presswork. In 1844 he left the Courant office, and came direct to New York, where he has resided ever sinca After Mr. Bonner had been in the city some time he was employed on the Evening Mirror, which was edited by the poets, N. P. Willis and George P. Morris. He had his evenings to himself, and he turned them to account by dotting down the cream of the city's news, and sending it to the Hartford Courant. He wrote under the nom deplume of -'Threads," suiting the name to the subject matter. After the Courant had published the fourth of his letters, he was agreeably surprised by the receipt of ten dollars. The letter which contained the ten dollars for Mr. Bonner contained also a request that the correspondent reveal his true name. This was a poser. He entertained the very natural idea that as soon as the proprietors of the Courant learned that their crispy, chatty New York corres- pondent was none other than one of their late apprentices, he would lose his prestige, and his letters would be lightly and critically treated. With many misgivings he sent his name as requested, 94 ROBERT BONNER giving his reasons for previously witliliolding it. They wrote him back that their knowledge of him enhanced the value of his corres- pondence, as it was a guaranty of the truth of his statements. His confidence was now established, and he soon became the New York correspondent of papers in Albany, Washington, and Boston. While in the daily Mirror office, Mr. Bonner displayed great skill in setting advertisements. His method was very much appreciated by advertisers, and it was of marked advantage to the paper. An advertising clerk in the office with Mr. Bonner left the Mirror to take charge of the advertising in the Merchanti' Ledger. During a conversation with Mr. Pratt, the proprietor, about the display of ad- vertisements, his clerk told him there was a young man in the Mirror office who had excellent taste and judgment in this line. Mr. Pratt re- quested that he should be sent for. Mr. Bonner went to the Ledger of- fice, but the wages first offered were declined The clerk communicated the fact to Mr. Pratt, and he increased the weekly amount, in order that he- might secure Mr. Bonner's sei-vices. An advertisement would come into the office, to be inserted a month, with orders to send a proof before it would appear in the paper. Mr. Bonner would go to work, and, with masterly ingenuity, give it such a striking display and form such an appositeness between the letters of the different lines, that when the advertiser would see the handi- craft, he would often change his mind, and, instead of one month, would order the advertisement to be published in the paper three oi six months. After a short time in tlie of&ce, he hired the type of the Ledger., and not only printed that paper for the proprietor, but two other weeklies. Mr. Bonner contributed spicy articles and bril- liant sketches to the Merchants' Ledger. While in a humorous vein, he inserted, one day, in a corner of the paper, a few brief, ringing sentences on some subject before the people, and accredited to Dr. Chalmers. He enjoyed the amusement of seeing his short article copied and praised all over the country. Mr. Pratt took it into his head one day to sell out the Merchants' Ledger. Mr. Bonner entered into negotiation with him, and after a little delay succeeded in clos- ing a bargain for its purchasa He had made it an invariable rule to limit his expense inside of his income, and had already accumu- lated a small capital. Soon after Mr. Bonner became proprietor of the Ledger, being a man of literary tastes, he formed a purpose to graft The Ledger on a literary basis. Fannv Fern was then at the zenith of her fame. 95 ROBERT BONNER. Her " Ruth Hall " was the conversation and excitement of all literary circles, and its authors name was famous through the land. Mr. Bon- ner was bending his efforts to make his paper a literary success. He addressed a letter to Fanny Fern, offering her twenty-five dollars a column, for ten columns of The Ledger. This she refused- He then offered her fifty dollars. She declined, stating she had made up her mind not to write anything more for newspapers. Nothing daunted, he proposed seventy-five dollai-s, but with the same result. He then offered one hundred dollars. Here was pluck that she ad- mired, and her resolution was somewhat staggered. She was pleased with Mr. Bonner's appreciation of her talents. After a consultation with her publishers. Mason & Co., at her request a gentleman from that establishment was sent to Mr. Bonner's ofSce, bearing a letter from her to the effect that she would accede to Mr. Bonner's pro- position to write a story of ten columns for the Ledger, for one thou- sand dollars. Mr. Bonner accepted the offer, and soon after received the manuscript of "Fanny Ford." The news flashed abroad that Mr. Bonner was paying the celebrated Fanny Fern a hundred dol- lars a column for writing for the New York Ledger. Atter that, an an-angement was entered into with Fanny Fern to write regularly for the Ledger. His rapid and wonderful success, and his bold ven- tures in advertising sui-prised everybody. He often took his last dollar from the bank and invested it in advertising. Twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars was not unfrequently a weekly appro- priation to advertise the Ledger all over the country. Many a vil- lage newspaper looked on Mr. Bonner's favors as a godsend, and many a poor printer received his back pay when the Ledger adver- tisement appeared in the country paper. He was asked one day why he persisted in repeating, in column after column of the Herald, the words, "Fanny Fern writes only for the Ledger V "To attract your attention. You would not have asked the question had I in- serted it but once," answered Mr. Bonner. He never advertised twice alike. The Ledgei- has numbered among its contributors many of the leading men of this country and of the world. Everett, Bancroft ; Bryant, Beecher— the Rev. Drs. Tyng, John Hall, McClintock, and a host of other celebrities have been in the ranks of its original wri- ters at different times. Gen. Grant's father wrote a biographical sketch of his son, the present President of the United States, for its 96 ROBERT BONNER. columns; Charles Dickens wrote Lis only story ever ^Titten exclu- sively for an American publication, for the Lechjer. The purest literature that ever entered a household is the Keio York Ledger, and its teachings have done a world of good. Every- tiling in the paper is healthy, pure, chastening and elevating, and Mr. Bonner is a benefactor to his race for the good morals he incul- cates, and the cheerful evenings he gives to millions of readers. Mr. Bonner's principal, and almost his sole amusement, is in driv- ing very fine horses. His ambition is to own the best in the world ; and in this he has been successful. The sun never shone upon any other such stable of trotters as his. He is one of the best horsemen in the country. He always drives his own horses. His stables on Fifty-fifth street are worth a visit. Outside of the stables is a track- on which the horses are daily exercised. Three men are constantly employed to take care of them. Mr. Bonner gives his personal at- tention to them daily, and takes good care that nothing goes wrong. The sums he has invested in these horses are very large. But while Mr. Bonner devotes so much of time and money to fast horses, he never bets. He is reported to have once made a wager— the only one he ever made in his life. In composition he was extraordinarily rapid, and long before he was twenty, he could beat any printer in Hartford setting type. When he came to New York he soon acquired fame with the printers for his swift composi- tion. There was one man — a Canadian named Hand — in the city, who could beat him setting type ; but that man denied it ; but Mr. Bonner believes that this was out of generous consideration for his youth. The feat of setting twenty-four thousand ems of type in twenty-four consecutive hours had been often tried by printers every- where, and always foiled. While at work one day in the Mirror office, somebody suggested the trial +o Mr. Bonner— some jealous printer, who wished to badger him : and a wager of ten dollars was offered to Mr. Bonner. He accepted, and a day was appointed. When the day came Mr. Bonner was indisposed, but he thought if he asked for a postponement, it would create the impression that he was afraid to risk it. He went to work, and set up twenty-five thousand five hundred ems of solid type in twenty hours and twenty-eight minutes. We believe there is nothing on record among printers that approaches this for rapidity and endurance. The reader can form some idea of this feat when we say that eight thousand ems a day is more than a printer's average. All he ate or drank during this her- 97 ROBERT BONNER. culean task was two-thirds of a lemon pie and two cups of coffee. As we statei, he was sick and could not eat. He won the ten dol- lars, but, when tendered him, he refused to take it. So, in reality, Mr. Bonner never made a bet in his life. Mr. Bonner is five feet seven and a half inches in height, and weighs one hundred and seventy-five pounds. He is broad-shoul- dered, broad-chested, with great respiratory powers. His build is straight, firm and well proportioned. He has a resolute, determined step, and he walks with an air of decision. He has a most remark- ably large head. His forehead is massive, and is in shape the very coimterpart of that of the late Stephen A. Douglas. Brilliant hazel eyes, well set, sparkle with every word lie uttera His hair is dark- brown, of a fine quality. His full beard is sandy, darkly shaded. His skin is fair. The nose is keen and pointed. The mouth is small, with two rows of as fine white and evenly set teeth as were ever seen. His manner is cheerful, frank and open, and his address is free and courteous. He is a man of set principles, and does every- thing by rule. The Ledger is a transcript of his character. He is positive and earnest, temperate and moral. He gives his personal attention to all his business. Friday is his busy day. It is the day the Ledger goes to press, and Mr. Bonner confines himself to his office. If anything in his press-room goes wrong, he can instruct the pressman how to make it right, lie is master of the situation in all departments. Yet, while he devotes his time to hard work, there is no man so liberal of his means. It. will be remembered by many of our readers that on Mr. Bonner's visit, some time ago, to Princeton College, he took such a hearty liking to the students that he proposed to bear one-half the cost of building a gymnasium for the use of the students. His pro- . position was accepted. The whole cost fixed upon was twenty thou- sand dollars, and Mr. Bonner gave his check for half the amount. But instead of twenty thousand, the gymnasium has cost thirty- eight thousand dollars, and Mr. Bonner paid over, in all, nineteen thousand dollars for that gymnasium — a fact which we doubt few people are aware of. A more recent instance of Mr. Bonner's well-directed benevolence was his contribution of ten thousand dollars to the sufferers by the Chicago fire, to be distributed among those connected with the news- ■ paper business. Mr. Bonner has been especially open-handed in his support of 98 ROBERT BONNER. cbarches ; and he has given many thousands of dollars in charitiei the particulars of which are only known to the private recipients oi his bounties. Mr. Bonner is a warm and faithful friend, and a square and hold opponent. His rule is to give no man just cause of offence, and, in turn, he does not wish that any man should give just cause of offence to him. He is a striking and original character — a man of mark — as both his friends and enemies soon come very well to understand. Mr. Everett, in the last number of " The Mount Vernon Papers," referred to Mr. Bonner and the Ledger as follows : " It may be mentioned as the most extraordinary, the most credit- able, and, as an example to others, the most salutary feature of Mr. Bonner's course, that, in the entire progress of this great enterprise, and in its present management, he has never signed nor endorsed a note of hand, nor borrowed a dollar ; and that in every part of his immense establishment, Sunday is a day of best." 99 FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER. ON. R CARROLL BREWSTER, Attorney-General of the State of Pennsylvania, was bom in Philadel- phia, May 15th, 1825. His father, Francis E. Brewster, was a gentleman recognized as one of the leaders of the Philadelphia bar in the days of its most reputed brilliancy. He placed his son in the Pennsylvania University, from which institution he graduated early, and of the Alumni of which he is to-day President. Three years after his graduation he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law. He was then but nineteen years of age. In his profession he has achieved marked success. His position to-day is perhaps at the head of the bar of Pennsylvania. With the exception of Ex-Chief-Justice Black there is no man connected with the profession in whose hands cases of greater moment and more extended financial influence have been lodged. His principal prac- tice has been confined to the Civil Courts, but in his early legal life he was interested in some of the leading criminal trials of a time when a case, which involves the safety of human life, had unusual significance. His early days at the bar were days of good fortune. He man- aged cases with an application and careful study that rarely failed to secure his purpose, but the first great criminal suits -were red letter days in his legal life. The Cunningham murder trial was one of these. Samuel Cunningham, a policeman, was sent to arrest a mechanic. The wan'ant was served upon him in his workshop when he was very much inebriated. He resisted the policeman, ordered him from the premises, and finally attacked him with a knife. Cun- ningham shot liim to death, and was tried for murder. The case aroused popular excitement to fever heat, the legal question being the nature of the resistance that would justify an ofiBcer of the law to take human life to enforce the law or to protect himself. Mr. 101 FREDEEICK CARROLL BREWSTER. Brewster defended the policeman and secured his acquittal. A point of law settled by that trial, as precedent for many subsequent cases in that and other Commonwealths, was the argument of this coun- sellor that a well-founded apprehension on the part of an assailant to inflict bodily harm is sufficient cause for the exercise of self- defence, even to the extremity of taking life. Similar also was the great ti-ial of Lenairs for mtuxler. The interest that attended this case extended to both sides of the Dela- ware river. The garden fanns in New Jersey were objects of fre- quent pillage, which with undue harshness were laid by the people of Camden and Amboy at the doors of Philadelphia. Lenairs, while gunning near Camden, crossed meadow land belonging to a farmer wliose melon patch had been subjected to unwarranted hai-vesting, and who was keeping watch and ward over the remaining fruit. He accused Lenairs of trespass, and ordered him to surrender into custo- dy. This was refused, and the farmer attempted the arrest He was a man of large frame and threatening presence. Lenairs was of lighter build and nervous almost to weakness. He fled from the farmer until forced into the marsh that bounded the river, and at that extreme point of retreat he shot his pursuer. The truck farmers combined to secure the conviction of Lenairs and enlisted against him the ablest criminal lawyers of the New Jersey bar. They were resisted almost single-handed by Mr. Brewster and defeated. At the close of a protracted trial in which the young advocate eloquently pleaded the same principle of self-defence, successfully asserted in the Cunningham case, Mr. Lenairs was vindicated. After this, the Kirkpatrick poisoning case stirred Philadelphia society to its centre. The principal parties were brothers, Edward and Eobert D. Kirkpatrick, but the case involved several others, and all with one or two exceptions are now living. The brotheis had been partners in business, but separated in anger, and a, family feud resulted. On Christmas morning a large pie was left at the house of Edward Kirkpatrick. That gentleman and some of his household ate a portion, and found it of bitter though pleasant taste. Severe sickness ensued, and the remainder of the pie was analyzed. It contained large quantities of arsenic Eobert Kirkpatrick and others were arrested on the charge of conspiracy to poison. In this case public opinion exercised peculiar force and exclusively against the defendant. It was established that the brothers had dissolved pai'tnership in anger, and had subsequently maintained strife. It 112 FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER. was proved that the poisoned pie had been left at the house of one brother by a negro, who was employed as confidential messenger by the other, and it was shown that pecuniary advantage would result to the remaining brother should either die. Judge Kelley and George A. Coffee prosecuted this case with unflagging purpose to convict They were aided by those most efficient auxiliaries — public opinion and the press, and yet they lost their cause. Mr. Brewster, at the close of a month's trial, succeeded in acquitting his clients on all points included in the indictment for conspiracy. His manage- ment of the case was thorough in every respect, and the sober second judgment of popular thought justified the verdict To the coun- sellor it was a victory that established his reputation as a leader of the bar. In 1856 the celebrated contest for the District-Attorneyship be- tween Wm. B. Mann and Lewis C. Cassiday was pressed to success- ful issue by Mr. Brewster. In the many election contests that have occurred in that city since that date, this case has been a standard precedent It was the most remarkable question of its kind ever solved in a Pennsylvania Court, and was attended by an extreme political excitement Philadelphia rarely holds an election without the struggle at the polls being supplemented by an appeal to the courts, but no subsequent contest has equaled the political stir which this question of fourteen years ago created. This great cause was heard before Judge Allison, and lasted for months, Mr. Brewster bringing it to successful termination for Col. Mann. Immediately subsequent to these cases came the collapse of the Pennsylvania Bank. Thomas Allibone, the president of this institu- tion, had enjoyed to its fullest extent the confidence of the public. When the fiscal corporation under his management failed, the popu- lace condemned him as bitterly as it had confided in him a few hours before. The press assailed him. The Simdai/ Dispatch, then as now, the leader of independent journalism in Philadelphia, criticized Mm with a severity that knew no mitigation. On all sides he was denounced and by all parties regarded as a swindler of uncommon depravity. The matter was brought to the notice of the courts, and an indictment for conspiracy to defraud the Bank was framed, and Mr. Alliboiie arraigned before President Judge Allison. Joseph P. Lloyd pressed the ca e for the prosecution with all the energy of which he was capable, and the defence led by Mr. Brewster was equally earnest Legal talent of eminent experience was retained FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER. for the defence. Wm. M. Meredith, Ex-Chief-Justice Lewis, and Judge Thayer were Mr. Brewster's associates, and George M. Whar- ton also participated in the trial. He represented no less a personage than the late George Peabody, who was made a co-defendant in the suit, and was connected with the case in this wise. During his pre- sidency Mr. Allibone, as President of the Bank, executed a draft for fifty thousand pounds sterling upon Mr. Peabody in London. The draft was accepted, and the money duly accredited to the Pennsyl- vania Bank. In the indictment against the president it was charged that the proceeds of this draft, nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of American gold, were appropriated by Mr. Allibone to individual use. This charge was refuted. The trial lasted three weeks, in which time Mr. Brewster and his colleagues proved that the Bank had received the sterling exchange, and also exonerated Mr. Allibone on the other points included in the indictment The result was unexpectedly favorable. The jury, without leaving their box, decided Mr. Allibone innocent After these great suits came the war and its great legal issues. In its need for means to prosecute the struggle laid at the nation's door, it issued paper money stamped with the broad seal of the Treasury of the United States, and made it a legal tender for the payment of all indebtedness, public and private. Consequent upon the issue of paper currency came the rapid appreciation of gold and silver, the metals named as the stipulated payments of deeds, and bonds, and mortgages throughout the Union. Holders of such secu- rities refused legal tenders in liquidation of their obligations and demanded specie; This brought before the courts the constitution- ality of the legal tender act, a question freighted with more import- ance to the success of the nation than the safety of an army. A test case was made in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and its history was this. A lady, named Brinton, had a ground rent deed requiring interest to be paid in silver coin, and containing a clause of extinguishment for non-fulfilment of this contract Under the deed, Mr. Shollenberger 'was ground-rent tenant In the winter of 1862 he offered payment in legal tender notes which was refused, and the extingviishment of the ground rent demanded. He demur- red, and Mrs. Brinton appealed to the court of Nisi Prius to compel the execution of the papers anniilling the contract She came into court supported by Wm. M. Meredith and Joseph B. Townsend. Mr. Brewster represented Mr. Shollenberger. The case was ably 104 FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER. argued and won by Mr. Brewster. He claimed that Congress, the law-making power of the nation, had authority to pass a law which could change a contract executed before the date of the law. Justice Agnew, sitting in A^isi Prius, affirmed the soundness of this argu- ment, and gave decision against Mrs. Brinton. She appealed to a full bench and was again defeated, Mr. Brewster twice successfully contesting her claim. In other States the same question was sub- mitted to the courts, and decided in the same manner upon the same point of law raised by Mr. Brewster in Pennsylvania. The question carried with it consequences which, in the extremity of the country's necessities, no man could then have estimated. Up to this time Mr. Brewster had held no political office. He had been repeatedly pressed for nomination to high public trusts, yet had steadily declined to enter the political field. But, at that period, a special necessity arose. Vital legal questions were being forced to the surface by the war. The city was issuing millions of loans to further the enlistment of troops. Financial interests of a value unknown in previous years were demanding attention. The Girard Trust was in peril. The Chestnut St Bridge act was ques- tioned by interested capitalists, and issues, in the proper solution of which the people of Philadelphia were deeply concerned, were agi- tated by the press and foreshadowed in the courts. It was necessary to commit the interests of the city to no unsafe hands, and the Demo- cratic party, recognizing the fact, placed Wm. L. Hirst in nomina- tion for City Solicitor. The Republicans, without any consultation with that gentleman, nominated Mr. Brewster. An independent movement outside of party influence was at once organized to elect him. The most prominent merchants and business men of the city endorsed the nomination, and laying aside party influences, recom- mended his election. He was elected by a large majority, and his course as Solicitor gave to that office for the first time in its histoiy the credit and importance which had always been its due. Soon after his induction into office he was called upon to try the validity of the bequests of Stephen Gii-ard to the city of Philadel- phia. That merchant at the close of a long and eccentric life, dis- tributed his fortune in princely charities. To Philadelphia he gave the bulk of his wealth, stipulating that it should be employed to educate the destitute orphans of tiiat great municipalit}'. The legacy was known as the " Girard College Trust," and consisted of huge tracts of real estate. The block of ground between Chestnut and 106 FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER. Market, Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, was one of the grants of this will. So also was the corner at Third and Chestnut, so long known as the newspaper headquarters of Philadelphia. So also was a broad belt of land in Kentuckj^, and a section of the coal fields of Schuyl- kill county no less than 28 miles square. The heirs of Mr. Girard sought to overturn the will of the founder of Girard College, and divide the estate which is the source of income to that institution They commenced operations in the district court of Schuylkill coun- ty, and attacked the will upon the legal quibble that it created a pei"petuity. It has long been a recognized principle of law that no perpetual investiture of real estate can be made by a testament. The law steps in and limits the period for which property may be devised to one-and-twenty years after the life of the person to whom the real estate be willed. On this stand-point the heirs contested the will. They brought the matter to issue before Judge Higgins, and the case was decided in their favor. The best men of the Pennsylvania bar were engaged in the controversy. H. D. Foster, Ex-Judge Par- ry, Frank Hughes, Ex-Judge Knox, Mr. Dewees, and Mr. Coats were retained for the heirs. Ed. Olmstead, J. H. Campbell, Wm. M. Meredith, and David Sellers represented the city. This was the situation when Mr. Brewster entered upon his duties as City Solici- tor. He at once appealed, and carried the case into the Supreme Court. In 1863 it was re-argued before that tribunal at HaiTisburg, and he conducted the defence. The same eminent counsel were em- ployed, and every effort made to break down the will of Mr. Girard. His heirs cited the case of Mr. Thelusson in England, who, years ago, willed a certain piece of real estate handicapped with restric- tions that prohibited transfer or sale for centuries. At the end of that time, the quaint old Englishman reasoned that his real estate would be the most valuable individual property in Europe, and the name of Thelusson the most honored among men. The courts of Great Britain disquieted the ashes of the devisee by declaring his will void, because it created a perpetuity. Mr. Brewster resisted this argument with two-fold reasoning. First, he argued that the charity saved the perpetuity, and that the alienation of the lands was sustained by the charity. Second, that if the condition of alienation could not be sustained, and the lands had to be sold to avoid a per- petuity, the benefit of the sale would belong not to the heirs, but to the city of Philadelphia, to be employed in trust for the support of Girard College. This doctriue was afl&rmed by the Court, and the X06 FRKDEKICK CARROLL BREWSTER. city retained the magnificent dower of'its noblest educational institu- tion, TLie heirs made an etfort to secure the interference of the Su- preme Court of the United States, but that high judiciary wisely concluded they had no business to meddle in Pennsylvania's local matters, and the curtain fell upon the last act But to Mr. Brewster tlie credit of the successful defence of this great property is mainly due. The wisdom of those who induced hun to become the legal guardian of the city's interests was abundantly proved by his man- agement of this great suit. Defeat in it would have been alike a shame upon our civilization and a blot upon our humanity. Following closely on this came the Chestnut Street Bridge case, in which the right of the city to bridge the Schuylkill was called into so serious question that only one majority in the Supreme Court of the United States saved to Philadelphia this invaluable privilege. The legislature at different times authorized many bridges over this river. Of these few were built The old permanent bridge first wedded the lands on either side of the Schuylkill, and after it came the bridges at Fairmouut, Gray's Ferry, and Girard Avenue. To the erection of these no opposition was made. The railroad bridge was provided with a dr.iw, but the rest were closed bridges. When however it was proposed to bridge the Schuylkill at Cliestnut street, trouble arose. A Mr. Gilman owned a wharf on the river near Market street, and owned also a schooner which could not pass under the proposed bridge without abbreviating her rigging. He therefore appealed to the Supreme Coui-t of the United States to re- strain the city from erecting the bridge. The case was one of pecu- liar interest to Philadelphia. The need of the bridge was impera- tive, and the right of the State to govern its own rivers was a ques- tion that went point blank to the State pride of every Peunsylvanian. Mr. Gilman claimed that under a clause of the Constitution, vesting in Congress jurisdiction over navigable rivera, the State had no put in the matter. Mr. Brewster, as Citj- Solicitor, conducted the case for the city, assisted by Mr. Sellers. George Harding and Courtland Parker, of New Jersey, were counsel for the claimant Mr. Brewster's argument in this case was pronounced by all parties one of the ablest legal efforts made before the national court during Mr. Lincoln's Administration. He argued that the Schuylkill tidal, seven and a half miles from its mouth, lying entirely within the boundaries of that commonwealth and the outlet of its great coal fields, was exclu' sively subject to State jurisdiction, and the court so decided. But 1J7 FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER. the decision was too close to be comfortable. Justices Swayne, Grier, Miller, and Field gave the decision. Justices Crawford, Warper, and Davis dissented. The success of Mr. Brewster in this case was signal and almost unexpected. The hearing was immediately subsequent to that of the Wheeling bridge case which was adversely decided. To the city the results of the decision were immeasurable. Practi- cally it gave to Philadelphia the right to cover a river which other- wise it would have been necessary to bridge at the height of the house tops and cross by Ijalloon posts, A few months after this, there came up the most important case in which Pennsylvania, during the war, had pecuniary interest It was the testing of the validity of the act of the legislature authorizing loans for bounties. How the bonus of liberal bounties was every- where offered to stimulate recruiting is matter of history. No less than thirty milli(5ns of dollars were pledged for that purpose in Pennsylvania alone, raised by loans of cities, towns, boroughs, and school districts, and all this vast interest was imperilled by legal action brought before the court. It happened after this wise. The school directors of Blaii-sville, under the authority of the act of As. sembly, commenced contracting a loan for the payment of bounties. A bill was filed to restrain them from carrying out this purpose, and the issue opened in the Common Pleas of Indiana county. That tribunal pronounced adversely to the contestants, and an appeal was made to the Supreme Court. The appeal was heard before three of the judges of that body, and a re-argument before the full bench ordered. The city of Philadelphia, having pledged her faith for the payment of a large amount of bounties under this act of the legisla- ture, applied for pennjssion to be made a party to the suit and was permitted to become a participant. Mr. Brewster represented the city and conducted the defence. He argued the constitutionality of the question against counsel no less able than Ex-Chief-Justices Black and Lowrie, and at the close of the case was awarded decision in his favor on every constitutional point submitted during the case. The decision in this cause excited deep interest in every loyal State in the Union. Political partisanship and misguided economy alike dictated opposition to the bounty acts in hundreds of localities throughout the North. The case before the Supreme Court was therefore regarded as a test issue, and an unfavorable judgment would have opened the matter in a hundred courts. That the matter ^ 108 FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER. was settled and put to rest forever, was principally owing to the management it received at the hands of Solicitor Brewster. During his jjublic service in behalf of Philadelphia, Mr. Brewster conducted many private causes. One of them, perhaps, the most exciting trial of his life, and one in which he displa^'cd his finest powers as a pleader at the bar. It was a case that had no public interest, and few knew even by name the contest attached to the wHl of Adam Mintzer. That gentleman was a retired merchant of large means and respectable connections. lie had thi-ee grown daughters, and over this little family presided a housekeeper by whose agency the deepest distress was brought under his roof. She was a woman of intriguing disposition, destitute of womanliness and of charity. Yet Mr. Mintzer married her, and as his wife, gave her authority over his children. To these girls, tenderly and luxu- riously reared, she proved a fiend, for by no other word can her heartlessness be expi-essed. One she drove from under the father's roof into a house of prostitution. Another she expelled to find refuge with strangers, and the third died broken-hearted at the sor- row that had entered the once happy home. This latter was the wife of Geo. C. Evans, Collector of Internal Revenue in the Third District, and a woman whose life was blameless. Yet even upon this dead girl the stepmother poured the venom of a pitiless woman's tongue. Mr. Mintzer died, leaving a will, bequeathing to his wife all his property. T'his the living daughters contested, claiming that undue influence had been exercised to induce the devisor to cut off his children without a penny. The case came before Judge Ludlow, with Wm. Henry Eawle as the advocate of the wife, and Mr. Brews- ter the counsellor of the children. Those who heard that trial will never forget it It was a strange scene for a Philadelphia court house to be filled with weeping audiences, and yet during the entire days of the trial there were few dry eyes in the court room. Mrs. Evans had no connection with the case. She was dead when it commenced, died before her father, but when the contest about the will came into court, Mrs. Mintzer calumniated the dead and tra- duced her chastity. Mr. Brewster's counter to this came with ter- rible force. There were scenes of tragic interest during the testhnony given in the case. One of the witnesses, a gray-haired father, de- scribed with broken voice the exit of the daughter from Mr. Mint- zer's house, the night she entered a home of prostitution. The girl for hours sat facing lier father's home, looking with stony eyes at the 109 FREDEEICK CARROLL BREWSTER. lighted windows, recounting the buried days of pleasure, thinking of the touch and voice of her dead mother, and then with hesitating feet and broken heart went down into the social death which for woman knows no resurrection. But when Mr. Brewster denounced the living for its slander of the dead, the Common Pleas of Phila- delphia seemed like a moui-ner's bethel. The advocate said that more than three thousand years ago it was written in letters of gold upon a heathen idol, " Say nothing of the dead save that which is good." The heathen learning their lesson from nature, saw that in the animal kingdom respect was paid the dead. The king of beasts, the lion, met his foe with tameless fury, but passed by the dead body of his enemies with softened tread. The tiger fought with savage desperation until its adversary lay lifeless by its side, when it stepped from the corpse that in death it could not mutilate. Only to one animal, the hyena, was it given to feed upon the dead. Only to one woman, the stepmother, was it permitted to strike down the reputa- tion of children gathered home by God to their eternal resting place. " The time will come," said Mr. Brewster, " when this woman shall stand before a Judge greater than you, your Honor ; when she will be tried by a power mightier than yours, gentlemen of the jury ; when she will be met before the judgment seat of Christ by this poor homeless girl, who was driven from her father's door into a life of prostitution and shame, and whea this poor girl comes to that judg- ment seat with her bleeding hands uplifted for justice against her destroyer, this woman will call upon the mountains to fall upon her, and forever cover her from the sight of God and of men." The spell in the court room was such as no court room in the United States had seen since the days when S. S. Prentiss swayed with his eloquence the mobile people of Mississippi. The jury were in tears. Sobs were heard from every part of the room, and Judge Ludlow wept like a child. When the argument of Mr. Brewster was concluded, the jury, with oue voice, gave verdict against the will. Mr. Eawle appealed for a new trial, and, in his application, gave the almost unexampled reason, that so irresistible had been the eloquence of Mr. Brewster that no twelve sane men in the world could have failed to be controlled by it. The new trial was granted by Judge Ludlow upon that point, that inflexible arbiter stating that it was impossible for any jury to resist so eloquent an appeal as had been addressed to their feelings by the counsellor for the children. The case was, however, never re-tried. Mrs. Mintzer compromised it, 110 FREDERICK CARROLL BREWSTER. ceding to the contestants the major portion of her husband's estate. Had the case reached a second issue, she would have left the coiirt room penniless. At the close of his first term as City Solicitor Mr. Brewster was re-elected, but his second term was very brief An additional Judge was required in the Philadelphia courts, and the legislature provided for the election of another member of the judiciary. To this posi- tion he was elected. He presided during the celebrated Twitchell trial, and his rulings in that case were noted for their justness and clearness. His judicial record gave him new credit, and he left the station to accept the Attorney-Generalship of the Commonwealth. That eminent post he still retains, and will leave it, no doubt, to assume new and more responsible positions where his enlarged expe- rience may prove of benefit to Pennsylvania. How Mr. Brewster has been so signally successful may be readily explained. The secret of his life-long fortune at the bar has been application. Added to his habits of industry, he has been one of the best informed men in our midst His private life is but a duplicate of his public service, and the shadow of suspicion has never attached to an act of either. He is a lawyer who never browbeated a witness ; a pleader who never tried to win a cause by personal abuse of those contesting it; a citizen whose views of public questions were always conservatiye but progressive; a Christian gentleman whose influence has been that of an upright example and consistent walk. Such men are the hope and ti-ust of the nation. Ul J^^ u JOIIX ALLKX. «:^, mi '(;• ^?|JR. JOHN ALLEX. of Ne^y York City, is a descendant f the Ethan Allen familj-, of Vermont. For more =T%^ tlian forty years past he has been conspicnously iden r titled with the progress and development of dentistry m tlie United States, and now ranks as one of the most prominent representative men of his ]irofession. He was one of the early practitioners of Dental Surgery in tlie State of Ohio, where he commenced his labors in 1S30, in Cincinnati. At that time human teeth were inserted as artificial substitutes, also tlie teeth of cows and other animals. In preparing these for use the crowns of the teeth were cut off from the roots and the pulps removed, after which they were preserved in spirits of wine until ready for service. Carved dentures from the tusk of the hippopot- onms were also used for this purpose, as porcelain teeth had not at that period been brought into practical use, althou;.ih some fruitless experiments had been attempted both in France and in this country. When the practicability of mineral teeth as artificial substi- tutes became established, Dr. Allen sought and obtained a thorough knowledge of their manufacture, that he might be better able to meet the requirements of the various cases which occur in dental practice. Single and block teeth, when well mounted upon gold plates, were considered the highest style of artificial dentis- try that had been attained. But still there were defects that even this method had failed to overcome. And although he had reached the maximum in the production of this style of work, yet the seams and fissures, the stiff, mechanical appearance, and in many instances a failure to restore the natural form and expres- sion of the mouth and face, were serious obstacles yet to be re- moved, and to rest satisfied with such an imperfect method was to stop short of what was required for artificial dentistry. 113 JOHN ALLEN. To meet this apparent demand for some mode by which more perfect results could be obtained, Dr. Allen resolved to commence various experiments with a view of working out a new system he had conceived, but which was yet vague and chaotic, a mere germ. But the how to develop his system led through a dark and tangled way, along an untrodden path, with no light but that which he had made for himself as he advanced towards the goal where he had placed his mark. His first steps ia this direction were to test the practicability of raising the sunken portions of the face, in cases where the orig- inal form and expression had become sunken or changed by the loss of teeth and consequent absorption of the alveolar processes. This was a new feature in dental practice, for, as yet, there were no records to show that it could be done by artificial means without doing injury to the parts raised. This was a question he resolved to settle by thoroughly testing its feasibility. The re- sult of his efforts proved successful. He then brought the sub- ject before the American Society of Dental Surgeons and clearly demonstrated to that body its practicability. The Society signified their appreciation of this contribution to dental science by award- inw him a gold medal, upon one side of which is a beautilul en- graving representing the temple of science with a light upon the top reflecting its rays in all directions. To this device the follow- ino- sentence is prefixed : " Societas Americana Qui Dentium Vitia Curant." Upon the other side are these words, "Awarded to Dr. John Allen for his invention for restoring the contour of the face, Aug. 1845." This question being settled for all future time, his next efforts were directed to the working out of his conceived idea of a pro- cess by means of which to overcome the defects that existed in what was called plate work. As teeth were then mounted on metallic plates, three different parts or substances were employed, viz. : the teeth, the plate and the solder, but to accomplish his purpose, another substance must be added in the form of a fusible^ flesh-colored enamel with which to form an artificial gum, roof and ruo-a' of the mouth, without seam or crevice. If this fourth substance could be obtained and properly adapted to dentures, he deemed it of sufficient importance to justify the most earnest re- searches. But to get this substance out of chaos required various preparations of minerals, metals, oxides, pigments, fluxes, precipi- 114 JOHN ALLEN. tates, etc., etc. These, together with the exact proportion of each constituent necessary to produce the desired result.s, were brought into requisition. Tliis required much time, perseverance and ex- penditure, attended with successive series of experiments, ever Tarying with the quality, quantity and manipulations of the ma- terials used. Here was a large field for explorations, in which he could make haste slowly, as he had no borrowed light from any successful predecessor. Many of his earlier experiments were made upon gold plates, as they were considered the best for dental pur- poses that were then in use. But experience proved to liim that an enamel that would flow upon a gold plate wotild not stand the secretions of the mouth, for the reason that too much flux was re- quired in the compound in order to make it flow at a less heat than the melting point of gold, which is below two thousand de- grees ; consequently this line of experiments proved a failure. Another series of experiments was then commenced, with platinum plate ; which was difficult to obtain, as no plate of this kind was then in the market for such a purpose. But it must be had, and was procured at a price corresponding with the scarcity and value of this metal. With this j^late for a base, which no furnace heat would melt, and with new formulas of different prep- arations and proportions, a much harder, flesh-colored enamel was at length obtained, which could not be affected by the secretions of the mouth, and in point of appearance (with proper manipula- tion) produced results true to nature. This achievement, together with the one previously made by him for restoring the contour of the face, completed his system for constructing artificial dentures. This method combines four important advantages not previously obtained : FiKST. — By means of a beautiful flesh-colored enamel, the teeth are garnished with an artificial gum, roof and ruga^ of the mouth (without seam or crevice), witli all the delicate tints and shades ])eculiar to those of nature. Second. — A trutliful expression is given to the teeth by arranging them either symmetrically or irregularly, as the patient may require. Third. — The sunken portions of the face can be restored by means of attachments or prominences, made upon the denture, of such form and size as to meet the requirements of each particular -case. 115 JOHN ALLEN. Fourth. — No metal plate or unnatural appearing substance can be seen in the mouth of the wearer, when laughing, singing or yawning. This advance in dental science elicited many comments at the time, not only in dental and medical journals, but also in various scientific and other works of art. But as we have not space here to make extracts from them, we will present to the reader Dr. Allen's views as to the various requirements of artificial teeth, which are gathered from some of his writings upon this subject. " lu Older f o inotliice a pleasing aud natural expression of the teeth, they should be in iierfect harmonj' with all the other features of the face. It is not always the most beautiful and symmetrical artificial teeth which appear best in the mouth. On the contrary, slight irregularities often appear the most nat- ural. The teeth give character to the physiognomy of persons ; therefore, as great a variety of expressions should be given to them as there are individuals for whom they are intended. Those of bold and strongly marked featiu'es re- quire prominent aud irregular teeth; persons of thiu small visage should have small convex teeth ; and a broad full face should have larger teeth, with less convexity. If the teeth are set very true and even, they will appear stiff and mechanical, and serve as a walking advertisemeut for the dentist who inserted them. There should be a graceful irregularity in most cases, so that each tooth may display its natural individuality. "That artificial teeth may lie useful for masticating, they shoulil bo placed ui>on the plate aud articulated in such a manner as to have the pressure in chewing come upon the inner rather than the outer margin of the alveolar ridges. This position of the teetli will prevent the plates from becoming dis- lodged from one side, while chewiug upou the opposite, aud secures permaueuce in mastication. " There are also several other points to be taken iuto consideration, viz. : The length, the size, the shade, aud the positiou of the teeth. " The length should tlepend upon the width of the lips that are to cover them aud the degree of aljsorption of the alveolar ridge. If the teeth are too short the muscles which connect the jaws become contracted ; this brings the nose and chin into closer proximity with each other; aud when closed the lips are compressed or protruded, which changes iu a greater or less degree the fonn aud expression of the mouth, aud other itortions of tlie face. If too long, they ex- hibit a ghastly look, and the lips will uot close over them without a muscular effort which produces distortion. As a general rule the frout teeth should be long enough to disjilay their points, or cuttiug edges, a little below the upper and above the under lip, wheu iu their natural iJositiou. The side and back teeth should be of such length as to allow the lips to come together \\ithout compression or distortion ; this will give to the face its due proportion of length, and display a jdeasaut expression of the teeth. The size of the teeth should hiar adi.e [iroportion to the other features of the iiice. The shade should har- monize with the complexion of the person for whom they are intended. If they are too white, they exhibit a glaring uunatiual appearance, which tells they are artificial. If too dark, they will uot appear sweet and healthy. They should be a little darker next th" gum thau at the points. In short, there should be a harmonious blending of the shades of the teeth, gums, lips, and complexion. 116 JOHN A L I. i: N . Here the skill of the iirtist is re([iurea, iu order to avoid an uiiuatiiral contrast tbat would lead to detection. The deutist who is a true art izau, is not aiiilii- tions to have his work bear the impress of artiticial teeth, but on the contrary, that they should iiossess that depth of tone, natmal form, and truthful expres- sion which characterize the natural organs. Varying the pomtion of the teeth ■will change the appearance of the mouth, just in propiution as tlicy differ from the natural teeth. Hence, in many persons, their former expression is almost entirely lost, and distortion takes the place of symmetry. A want of taste aud skill in the construction and adaptation of artilicial teeth results in rude and graceless work, which contrasts -widely with that of the true artizan, who carefully studies the tone, position, and expression of every tooth, and restores the harmony which nature had originally stamped upon the features of his patient. A few slight touches of the brush iu the hands of a skillful artist will change the whole expression of his picture. So with the teeth; a slight inclination, outward or inward, or variation in length, will change the entire ex- jtression of the mouth. , The face is formed of different muscles, which give it shape aud expression. These muscles rest upon the teeth and alveolar processes, which sust.ain them in their proper position. When the teeth are lost, and a consciiuent absorption of the alveolus takes i^lace, the muscles fall in, or become sunken iu a greater or less degree, according to the temperament of the person. If the lymphatic predominates, the change will be but slight. If nervous sanguine, it may be very great. There are four points of the face which the mere insertion of the teeth does not always restore, viz : one upon each .side, beneath the malar or check bone ; and one upon each side of the baae of the no.se, in a line towards the fi-out portion of the malar bone. The muscles situated upon the sides of the face, and which rest upon the molar or back teeth, are the Zygomatieus Major, Masseter and Buccinator. The loss of the above teeth causes these muscles to iall in. The principle muscles which form the front portion of the face and lips are Zygomatieus minor. Levator lalvii superioris aheque nasi and Orbicularis oris. These rest upon the front, eye and biscupid teeth ; which, when lost, allow the muscles to sink iu, thereby changing the form and expression of the mouth. The insertion of the firont teeth will, in a great mea-siue, biiug out the lips, but there are two miisdes in the front portion of the face which cannot, iu many cases be thus restored to their original position ; one is the Zygomatieus minor, which arises from the front part of the malar bone, and is inserted into the upper lip .above the angle of the mouth. The other is the Levator labii superioris aheque nasi, which arises from the nasal process aud from the edge of the orbit above the infra orbitar foramea. It is inserted into the ala nasi or wing of the nose and upper lip. The attachments before mentioned, ajiplied to these four points of the face, beneath the muscles thus described, bring cuit that narrowness and suidicn expression about the upper lip aud cliceks to the same breadth aud fullness which they formerly displayed, thus restoring the original pleasing and natuial expression. Here the artistic skill of the dentist is brought into requisition. He should study the face of his patient as the artist studies his picture, for he displays his genius not upon canvas, but upon the living features of the face; and of how much moie importance is the living picture, that reflects even the emotions e clear, lull, and nu-lodious, a perfectly natural form should be given to artificial teeth and gnms, that they maybe pro- perly adapted to the tongue. For example, there is tbe Kev. Dr. D., whose voice, once BO clear and audible, is now tame and indistinct ; his enunciation has be- come laborious to himself, and painful to his hearers. The cause of this change is owing to the loss of his natural teeth, and the substitution of artificial dentures, which are so unnatural in form and adaptation, that the tongue can- not articulate with them. To prevent this defect, the form of the lingual sur- face of tbe teeth, giuns, and roof of the mouth should be a perfect fac-simile of the original. Theu the tongue can articulate clearly, and the worthy divine can a"ain pour forth his accust(uned strains of eloquence without restraint. We will now examine a full set of teeth, which combines all the recinirements of artificial dentures. The i>lates are well adapted to the mouth of the wearer ; the teeth display a pleasant expression, and are garnished with a continuous artificial gum, roof, and ruga of the mouth, without seam or crevice, which vie with those of nature. The inside fonn is well adapted to the tongue, the sunken face rejuvenated, and the patient is now ready to exclaim " Richard is liimself again !" AU these essential points can now be attained by this mode of constructing artificial dentures. But too much reliance should not be placed upon the modr, for however perfect this may be in itself, artistic taste, skill and judgment are necessary to direct the operator in his manipulations. Two artists (so called), may employ the same method, use the same paints, brushes, canvass, &c., in painting a picture. One will produce a perfect prototype of nature, which is considered almost priceless, while the other makes a mere daub that is worth- less. Thesame diftercnce exists among men in various other branches of art, and especially in dentistry. After perfecting his system, Dr. Allen removed from Cincin- nati to the City of New York, where he was desirous of bringing it in fair competition with all other modes wrought by skillful dentists, both in this country and Europe. The historical records of this system, as devised and perfected by the inventor, presents the following exhibit, viz. : All the awards that have been made by the American Institute for artificial dentistry within the last seventeen years have been granted to J. Allen & Son, in the form 118 JOHN ALLEN. of medals, bearing dates 1857, 1863, 1867, 1872, and 1873. Also one fiom the World's Exposition at Paris, bearing date 1867, and still another from the great exposition at Vienna of 1873, to J. Allen & Son, of New York. The foregoing historical sketch presents but one branch of Dr. Allen's professional career. As a manipulator in all operations pertaining to Dental Surgery, he has displayed consummate skill and efficiency. As an earnest worker in behalf of the pro- gress and advancement of his profession, his efforts have been long known and appreciated, while as an educator and teacher his labors have been characterized by an ability that ensured suc- cess. The Dental Register of Cincinnati. Ohio, speaking of his removal from the West, paid him the following tribute : " We learn that Dr. J. Allen, who has enjoyed the confidence and patronage of this community, as a dental practitioner, for more than twenty years, is about establishing his business in the City of New York, with a view of directing his exchisive attention to his improved style of work. This change in his business o])erations has rendered it necessary for him to resign his Professorship in the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, a chair which he has filled with ability and general satis/action ; and loe regret the necessity lohich impels him to leave the school. Our wish is, that he may meet with many friends and great success in New York, where most of his time will be likely spent. We can commend him to our brethren in New York, as a gentleman devoted to the profes- sion, courteous, affable, and obliging." Dr. Allen is esteemed a worthy and useful citizen, a lover and supporter of law and order, and an active promoter of good works. As a member of the church he is consistent and exem- plary. In his profession he has ever maintained a high and hon- orable position, preferring to secure commendation by industry, faithfulness, honesty and kindness, as evinced, not only in his social relations, but also in the many essays, lectures and scientific contributions from him, which we find published through various dental, medical and other journals, embracing a ijeriod of more than thirty years. These, together with his code of dental ethics, (the first in the dental profession,) furnish the outlines of his pro- fessional career. 119 4 ey^o^ c>.^^^^c^c^^ ^^^^/^^-^ f>'-^Z-^?r^_<^(^ -?7^ JOHN W. COSAD. BY REV. R. B. YARD. l('-^>^|r^ SNATCH victory from defeat and to compel tribute r-, 'i from the most adverse circumstances of human life, is HJi) to evince a nature above the ordinary- level, to attest the highest qualities of true heroism, and well deserves public recognition, as well as a golden reward. To chronicle the inspired purpose, the conscious power, and the patient and persistent toil, by which an individual has struggled upward from poverty and obscurity to competence and honor, is a pleas- ant task, as well as a duty to humanity. In a world where so many ingloriously yield to the clamorings of ease and sense, and become the slaves of self and sin only to be requited with chains and misery, it is refreshing to record the victory of one, who, gathering strength from the invisible, and purification in faith, presents to society a redeemed manhood, and consecrates at the feet of the Crucified, a success which is, at once, the admiration and the example of the beholder. The illustration of these remarks is found in the subject of the present sketch. Doctor John W. Cosad, who is well worth the careful study of young men, and to such especially we dedicate this inadequate tribute. If it may encourage the weary heart, stimulate the halting step, and illumine the twilight way of any soul, the object of this portraiture will have been richly gained, and its jjreparation amply recompensed. John Woodward Cosad was born in Seeleyville, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1827. His father, Samuel Cosad, who was of French descent, as his name would infer, enjoyed a good education, possessed much natural talent, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. His mother came of German parentage, whose ancestors were illustrious descendants of royalty. Thus .in him are blended the qualities of French, German and American 121 JOHN W. COS AD. chai-actur— the German purpose and thoroughness, tlie French skill, delicacy of manipulation, and polite consideration, and the thoroughly American push and husiness energy, which have characterized him in every i elation in life, whether of office, church, or council. His parents removed to New Jersey when he was three years old and remained about three years, when they removed to Honesdale, Pa. For two years only, after this, was he permitted to enjoy the comforts of his childhood'.s home. Necessity compelled his being placed, at eight years of age, at service on a farm, and in the severe labors incident to such a life, and under different employers, he continued to toil, often in bodily weakness, and with slender opportunities for education, until he was fifteen years of age. The pursuits of agriculture have often proven the cradle of sturdy and lofty purpose, even as hardships ever become the nurse of manly energy. Noble names grace the annals of bucolic toil. Virgil, Washington, Webster and Lincoln, immortal names, gathered ^inspiration from tree and turf, from furrow and field, and from seed-time and harvest. However dark and discouraging to the youthful Cosad this period must have been, or marke^l by harsh treatment and absence of sympathy on the part of employers, or however lacking in home sunshine, or a mother's care, it is clear that it was a period of preparation, in God's prov- idence, for a wider sphere of usefulness and success. The olive tree of Palestine will gather strength and fruitfulness trom the rocky crevices of Lebanon, while the fig tree requires the utmost care, and the best conditions, in order to yield its less valuable products. So, in our race, there are natures which grow sturdier and more productive amidst the severe necessities to whicii they are subjected, and become better fitted for a career which* neither prosperity can spoil nor adversity discourage. Outgrowing the slower life of a farmer's boy, the subject of this sketch i^s soon found a man among men, and acting as confidential Lgent of a large and important corporation, where his efficiency and devotion received distinguished recognition, and where it was his study and toil, most conscientiously to fulfill the spirit of his office, as well as the mere routine duty assigned him. He made his work part of himself, doing well whatever he undertook to do at all and illustrated the wisdom of Chesterfield's advice to his JOHN W. COSAD. son, concerning the secret of success, when he said " Make your- self wanted." It was during this period, that, still aspiring to higher conquests, and with a soul expanding beyond the limits of dependent toil, the subject of dentistry filled his mind. Employ- ing hours when not engaged in the duties of his vocation, he com- menced the study of this beautiful and beneficient art, giving to it a thorough investigation, and obtaining an intelligent mastery of its mechanics, as well as its physiology and pathology. It was in the spring of 1857 that he ventured, a beginner, un- known as an operator, lacking the prestige of name, education or success, to nail up his modest sign at 139 Grove street, Jersey City, and to ask for the patronage of an unbelieving public. A period of bitter trial and disappointment followed, embracing several years of discouragement and of destitution, but not of des- |)air. Resorting to no arts of trade or tricks of sensationalism, he asked an honest trial of his skill. Conscious of his own ability, inspired by a noble ])ride in his chosen profession, and sustained by a brave faith in God and himself, he waited in patience the hour of victory, turning a deaf ear to the croakings of doubters and the mistaken counsel which advised a retreat. Instead of yielding to despair he conquered doubt and drew from disappointment only higher incentives to exertion. His pro- fession became the ardent study of his best hours. Nothing in this delicate and humanitarian art escaped his earnest and patient examination. He knelt to art, a vassal, and she raised and crowned him a chief At length came the dawn of a brighter day. The night had been a long and a dark one, but does not more certainly succeed the night, than does success follow real worth and sin- cere devotion to duty. His work began to speak for him. Bet- ter than staring advertisements and tinselled announcements, was his wise yet tender ti-eatment, his firm yet gentle hand and the profound satisfaction of happy patients. The tide of public favor turned towards flood. Business increased until two assistants because a necessity and his position in public favor was assured and commanding. An unforeseen and dangerous foe, in the form of a life-long physical weakness, threatened to disturb this interesting history. With a delicate constitution, and frequent seasons of prostration, he, however, continued witii remarkable success to maintain a JOHN W. COS AD, proud eminence in his profession. True to the law of develop- ment which had led him thus far, his nature could allow no rest- ing place. New conquests were yet in the yielding future. '' Ex- celsior" became the banner text of his life. Whether in his rela- tions to his profession, his religion, or his race, Dr. Cosad's was not a soul to ask any one to go where he was not willing to lead. As a dentist he magnified his profession, honored and believed in it, mastered it, developed it, and taught it. It could surprise no one, therefore, who knew him, that he was in July, 1873, made President of the New Jersey State Dental Association, and about the same time, also, President of the Hudson County Dental So- ciety. It is scarcely necessary to say that Dr. Cosad is an artist in his profession. His work challenges the admiration of the be- holder, while it gladdens the consciousness of the patient. As' a Christian and a member of the Hedding Methodist Epis- copal Church, for the last eighteen years, he gave to the questions of religion, earnest thought, and to its work his warmest devotion. In the duties of trustee, class-leader, steward, Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, visitor in the homes of suffering and need Chairman of the Devotional Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association, member of the Executive Committee of the N. J. State Sunday School Association, member of the Executive Committee of the Hudson County Bible Society, and- of the Jersey City Mission and Tract Society, he accepted no merely nominal place. With him it was not the honor but the service which he assumed. Life has seemed to him too real, the need of humanity too urgent, the Gospel too grand a provision, to allow of questions of ease or honor. Many souls in the jail, the hospital, on the docks, or in the more favorable conditions of home, Sunday school or church, will bless him in eternity that he could' find time amidst the exactions of a large business to sow the seeds of truth in their hearts, and to bring the sunshine of love, of prayer, and of sympathy into their gloom. With a ready and forceful utterance, profound sympathy with human needs, and warm appieciation of goodness, Dr. Cosad is a speaker whom Christian audiences love to hear. He is at home on religious and humanitarian themes, and chooses the field of moral and evangelical teaching rather than the social ami. political. 134 JOHN W. COSAD. Appreciating the symbolism and the high aims of Free Masonry, and more especially the suggestive and eloquent degrees of the Ancient and Accepted rite, he sought their inspiration and support, while at the same time, he lent to them his calm counsel and pure character. There can be little doubt tiiat these Masonic scenes and interviews helped to relax tlie strain u[ii)n mind and body, diverted the too intense purpose, and nerved a system which otherwise might have broken in life's unequal struggle. Yet, in Masonry, as well as elsewhere, it was impossible for Dr. Cosad to be an idle spectator. Where there was useful work to do, it was his to bear his share, and ere long it was the pleasure of the Order to call him to posts of duty, where, without care or anxiety, he might illustrate the grandest lessons of Truth. Duty, Fidelity, Purity and Hope, to the reclamation of men from the bondage of habit and passion, and at the same time to his own acquisition of stores of entertainment and delight. Through the various De- grees of Symbolic Masonry he has passed, until, ^standing on the highest I'ound, among the few who have passed to the 33d Degree, he occupies honored positions in the New Jersey State Consistory. 125 o S" "'■^Ss*. AAl A. C. COGSWELL, jR. ALFRED C. COGSWELL was born in Coniwallis, Queens County, Nova Scotia, on the 17th July, 1S34. His father, Winkworth Allan Cogswell, nephew of the Honorable Hezekiah Cogswell of Halifax, njoved from Cornwallis to Port Medway, near Liverpool, when Alfred was still in his infancy. There he remained, attending school, until he was fifteen years of age, when his earnest wish to acquire a collegiate education was gratified by his father, who sent him to Acadia College, Wolfville, a flourishing university located in the neighborhood of the lovely valley of the Gaspereau, immortalized by Longfellow in his poem Evangeline. In that institution young Cogswell pursued his studies diligently under able masters, and gave good promise of success, when his health broke down after a residence of two years, 1849 to 1850. Pie had never been very strong, and close application to his books brought on painful headaches, which recurred so frequently that it was deemed advisable to remove him from college and give him a chance of recruiting his health. His father had, in the meantime, been highly successful as a merchant and ship owner, and deeming that the States would present greater advantages for the education of his family, and that the change would benefit his son, he removed to Portland, Me., where he purchased a large farm near the city. Young- Alfred was now ordered to enjoy out-door life to the full, and in- dulge in such moderate exercise as would restore his impaired strength. But the youth, after three years of this treatment, dur- ing which he quite regained his health, longed to enter on some profession. He had no taste for farming, cared little about the rotation of crops and the changes of the seasons; his heart was away from his employment, and all his parents' efforts to reconcile 127 ALFRED C. COGSWELL. him to an agricultural life failed. Very much against their own wishes they yielded to his pressing entreaties to resume his studies, their efforts to give him a part of the farm and build a house on it for him proving as futile as their previous attempts. He felt himself irresistibly drawn to dentistry, and at last he was allowed to have his own way. Nor was the opposition offered by his family unjustifiable. The state of dentistry at that time was far different from its present flourishing condition; there were few, if any, Dental Colleges; the art was not much practiced; old fashions were still adhered to and but a small number of men iiad lisen to eminence in this branch of chirurgy. Almost any other profession seemed to offer a better standing and a surer prospect of becoming lucrative. Nevertheless young Cogswell's determination made him resolve to embrace dentistry and achieve fame through it. It was some time before arrangements could be made with either of the leading dentists of Portland, there being only two who had high standing and reputation, or, at least, the best practice, namely. Dr. Edwin Parsons and Drs. Coffin and Bacon. Alfred Cogswell finally entered the office of the former and served faithfully his two years, paying his preceptor a premium of $400 and receiving in return instruction in the different branches of his profession. But it must not be supposed that he enjoyed all the advantao'es now offered to students of the dental art. for this had not yet reached the perfection attained of late years, and many im- provements in the way of instriiments, chairs, etc., were then un- known. Dr. Parsons was a dentist of the old school and preferred to have his patient seated, during operations, in an ordinary rock- ino- chair, and fortunate was it for him that he possessed the strong- built frame and robust constitution of the Englishman, or he could not have practiced for so many years in the stooping position requir- ed by the lowness of the chair he used. As regards the materials used by dentists, we must note that gold, silver and platina plates were used entirely for dentures, while for full sets the finest kind of work consisted of block teeth carved and baked in the office, mounted on gold plates and neatly finished. Vulcanite rubber had not yet been introduced, and the labor required to produce artificial sets of teeth was considerably more severe than in the present day, when the various materials are furnished ready to 123 ALFRED C . COGS W ELL. liand. A student charged with the manixfacture of a full set of teeth, from the taking of the impressions to the final completion of the structure, with all the intermediate processes of swaging plates, making joints, hacking up, banding, lining the teeth, sold- ering and neatly finishing the plates without springing, required to know very much more and had to work at a greater disadvan- tage than the operator of to-day entrusted with the manufacture of a set on vulcanite rubber. It took days, as a rule, under the old systeui, to do what now may occupy but a few hours, and the trouble did not begin merely at the flitting of the block teeth on the plate; the tooth body required to be ground for hours and days before being fit to mould and carve into shape prejiaratory to biscuiting and baking. These were some of the difficult lessons which the young pupil had to master during his stay with Dr. Parsons, and it speaks well for his assiduity and perseverance that he rapidly excelled in these multifarious and complicated pro- cesses, all of which demanded great skill and the closest attention. On leaving his first employer, Alfred Cogswell associated him- self with Dr. Boynton, and practiced his art in Portland, for a twelvemonth. But he was not yet satisfied with his stock of knowledge ; it seemed to him that very much more might be learned, that perfection was not yet attained, and the same resolution which had carried him through the hardships of initiation suggested to him to study with Drs. Goodman and Salmon, of Bos- ton. He engaged himself for a year, for the purpose of making him- self a greater pi-oficient in the manufacture of teeth, and so thorough was his work, so constant his application, that, ere three months had elapsed, his delighted employers voluntarily increased his salary. At the expiration of nine months, an opportunity offered to purchase the office-right and practice of L. P. Hanson, of South Reading, Mass., who was about to remove to Milwaukee. Alfred Oogswell had, by dint of economy, saved up a sum sufficient to enable him to pay the stipulated price, and thus he was enabled to set up in business on his- own account, but, finding that the work would only occupy a part of his time, the town being but small and the practice not very extensive, he continued to construct artificial dentures for Drs. Goodman and Salmon, — who were very unwilling to lose his services, — devoting the forenoon to this occupation and attending to his own office 129 ALFRED C. CO.G SWELL. in the afternoon. It was at this time that he succeeded in con- structino- an upper set of block teeth in probably the sliortest pos- sible time. Arriving at his office at nine in the morning, he ground the blocks on to the gold plate, jointed, banded, lined, sol- dered and finished up the set complete and in perfect order in such good season that he was able to take the 2 p. m. train to Reading, a distance of ten miles, where he wound up his laborious day's work by attending to the patients who were waiting for him. Such rapidity, combined with high excellence of workmanship, has never been equalled and certainly is yet unsurpassed, and it will easily be understood that testimonials and certificates from men of reputation, among others Dr. Hanson, Dr. Haskell and many more, pronouncing him to be a. first-class artist, were being continually received by him. Every piece of work he undertook was invariably marked with the same neatness ami dispatch, and he met with his reward for indefatigable industry, his practice in South Reading increasing rapidly and bringing him an income of several thousand dollars a year. He remained in South Reading, now Wakefield, until 18.58, when he deemed it advisable to return to his native couniry ; mar- ried an American lady and repaired to Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia. There he entered into partnership with L. E. Van Buskirk, M. D., a dentist of long standing, alone patronized by the elite of the city and province, and who was glad to welcome an energetic and thoroughly well-informed colleague. Two years afterwards. Dr. Van Buskirk retired, owing to ill health and ad- vanced age, dying in 1862 of heart disease. The younger partner now found himself alone, able to carry out his own views, it is true, without meeting with any difference of opinion in his office, but confronted by much more serious difficulties, which might well have dismayed him as they had dis- mayed many another. Dentistry was at a very low ebb; practice was both small and unrenumerative, it being next to impossible to keep up a first- class establishment, owing to the singular apathy of the people. who were absolutely ignorant of the first principles of the preser- vation of the teeth. Time and again had trained dentists taken up their abode in Halifax, or other parts of Nova Scotia, and, after a more or less prolonged struggle, found themselves obliged 130 ALFEED C. COGSWELL. to give up and return to the States, where they had a chance of being supported in their efforts. Apparently, energy was useless and failed to conquer the vis inertia of carelessness and incredulity. With a population in the city of at least 25,000 souls, and in the whole Province of not less than 300,000, six dentists could scarcely manage to make a living, several of them, indeed, barely paying expenses. In the city itself there were at this time, (1860) three practitioners, who, finding the work hard and unprofitable, abandoned the field. Nor must it be supposed that the reason of these repeated failures lay in the poverty of the people; on the contrary, there was a good deal of wealth in the country, but the inhabitants wei-e not educated up to the mark and could not per- ceive the mateiial advantages to be derived by them from hearty support of a really able and conscientious dentist. They did not know, and when told, refused to believe that their own teeth and those of their children required just as much attention as the other parts of their bodies; that the aches which afiiicted them could be relieved without the loss of the organs, that, in a word, there was an art of dentistry just as much as of surgery or medicine. This was quite beyond the comprehension of the masses, who knew but one remedy for toothache, and that was extraction. The "fill- ing " of teeth was disbelieved in as worse than useless and entail- ing only prolonged pain without giving final relief, and this be- cause some poor wretch having rej^aired to some inferior practi- tioner, and finding the stuffed tooth (as it was termed) ulcerate or break after a short time, spread abroad the report that stuffing was a deception and a snare, and the opinion was adopted, with- out discussion, by nearly every one who heard it. Thus people were led to insist on extraction, and hundreds of teeth that could and should have been saved, were sacrificed to the prejudices of the ignorant and the assiduous deceptions of quacks and such like people. * * ■••'■■ ■■•' '•■■■ * * It is not difficult to understand, therefore, that at the very out- set an intelligent and highly trained dentist, accustomed to work in the States, where abuses of the kind referred to above are the exception and not the rule, would meet with many obstacles apparently insuperable, and would require extraordinary pluck and perseverance to cope with his task. It might be thought that if no encouragement was received from the lower and middle 131 ALFRED C. COGSWELL. classes, it could be looked for from the upper, but that this was- not the case, a very few words will suffice to show. Artificial sets, worn only by the wealthy, were seldom required of the local dentists, the majority of patients in want of them preferring to travel over to England for the purpose. They certainly obtained excellent work, Dr. Cogswell himself testifying to the beauty and solidity of workmanship of such sets, but they paid very large prices for them and had to bear heavy travelling expenses besides. The sets were composed of human ieeth attached to ivory by means of gold screws, and kept in their place by spiral springs. The price of a partial denture of six teeth was eleven guineas, or $55, and to this must be added passage money to England and b.ick, which, with incidental expenses, was not less than .$300. Several cases of this style of work are kept by Dr. Cogswell as curiosities. Such was the state of dentistry in Nova Scotia at the time of Dr. Van Buskirk's death, and such the difficulties which Dr. Cogswell had to encounter at the outset of his professional career there. For one moment he hesitated whether it would not be better to follow the example of liis predecessors and quit the field, but the hesitation was only momentary; he saw there was work to be done, work that demanded an unusual degree of tenacity and vigor, true pioneer's work, and he sternly resolved that, hav- ing once put his hand to the plow, he would not look back. Accordingly he struggled on bravely, breasting the waves of ignor- ance and narrow-minded prejudice, fighting the hydra-headed opposition, constantly renewed by those inferior practitioners whose bungling work contrasted so strongly with his own artistic per- formances, and steadily carving out his way to the brilliant jjosi- tion he has now achieved as the leading dentist in the lower Pro- vinces and the Nova Scotian representative of his profession. In 1867, he entered into a co-partnership with 0. P. Mac- Callarth and Th. Macky, the object being to extend the business and open first-class offices in dift'erent parts of Nova Scotia, and also in the Province of Newfoundland. The association lasted several years, meeting with such scant success that the two partners, un- able to face difficulties with the same firmness as Dr. Cogswell, retired and imigrated to the States, thoroughly digusted, like too many before them, with the Provinces and their inhabitants. 132 o» ALFRED C. COGSWELL. Once more alone, Dr. Cogswell purchased a desirable dwellin fitted up spacious and expensive apartments, introducing new- chairs, hot and cold water, and, in brief, all modern imi)rovements, and continued to work unremittingly at his self-imposed task of elevating his position and educating the people around him to a just appreciation of dental chirurgy. Eight well did he now deserve the title of Pioneer Dentist, for alone of the eleven dentists who, during the previous fifteen years, had come and gone, he remained true to his post, unflinchingly striving to effect the desirable reformation he aimed at, and gain- ing more and more every day the sympathies of the enlightened public, and compelling the admiration of friends and foes alike Isolated from the other eminent members of his profession, de- prived of the many advantages enjoyed by his brethren in Canada and the United States, he kept himself well informed in his art by attentive perusal of dental journals and periodicals, never suffering an improvement to pass by unheeded, a suggestion unacted upon. With a view of posting himself still more fully, and guaran- teeing to his numerous patients the very bf'st advice procurable, Dr. Cogswell, at considerable inconvenience to himself, left his practice during the winter of 1868-69, and attended the courses at the Philadelphia Dental College, passing, at the end of that time, a highly creditable examination before the Professors. Dur- ing his residence he gave proof of his ingenuity by inventing a con- venient portable stand for students taking notes, which could be adjusted to an ordinary cane, and at once became in great rei|uest. He presented a model stand to the college. From 186 — Dr. Cogswell's practice began to increase steadily, and his high reputation gained for him the patronage of the Mar- (|uis and Marchioness of Normanby ; Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Hastings Doyle, Lieutenant-General of Nova Scotia and Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's forces in British North America; all the Admirals in command on the North Americaa and West Indian Station — Admiral Sir P. Hope, Sir Rodney Mundy, Faushawe and Wellesley — and he has had the honor of being in professional attendance on His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales during his visit to Halifax. The general public began to estimate his worth, and the repeated confirmations of his ability as an artist of the first-class, freely afforded by leading dentists 133 ALFRED C. COGSWELL. both in England and the States, deepened the confidence reposed in him hy his numerous patients, and gave him a place of honor among American dentists in New England. He is a corresponding member of the Philadelphia Odonto- graphic Society; a member of the Alumni of the Philadelphia Dental College, and correspondent of the Dental Cosmos and of the Canadian Journal of Dental Science. He has written several valuable and interesting brochures, intended for circulation in families, in which he has treated in a popular and lucid manner the importance of careful attention to the dental organs. He has also contributed a paper on "Comparative Anatomy and Pathology of the Human Teeth," which was read before the Haliftix Scien- tific Association, and published in the transactions of that body for 1872. He still publishes in the newspapers occasional articles on the teeth, and their care and treatment, all for the purpose of educating the people of the Province to the requisite standard. In 1870-71, he endeavored to pass through the Legislature a bill entitled " A Bill to regulate the practice of Dentistry," which made it incumbent on all who practiced to obtain a license and pass an examination before a Board appointed expressly for that purpose. Failing to accomplish this laudable object the first time, he renewed his attempt, assisted, it may be remarked, by only one other dentist. The bill passed through the House of Assembly but was thrown out by the Legislative Council; this unfortunate result being due to the factious and interested oppo- sition of one member of the Committee. Yet Dr. Cogswell does not despair of ultimate success, and con- fidently hopes to see the bill become law during the next session of the Legislature. He is borne out in this by the recollection of so many hard-fought battles crowned with victory, and by the fact that his publication of the bill in the newspapers of the Province has directed public attention to the subject and demonstrated the necessity of legislation in the matter, for the country is already beino- overrun by men who have of dentists nothing but the name, beino- ignorant even of the principles of dentistry. Dr. Cogswell has trained up four students, two of whom have graduated at the Philadelphia Dental College, he making it in- cumbent on all his pupils to take their degree as speedily as possi- ble, with the hope that, in a few years. Nova Scotia may have a 134 ALFRED C. COGSWELL. Dental Bill and a well-organized Society of its own, so that it may send its delegates to the Conventions held in the United States and Canada, and thus take its stand with her sister Pro- vinces and her American cousins. ■ His unremitting exertions and heavy labors told at last on his constitution, and, his health becoming impaired, he was advised to suspend, for a time, his close application to work, and seek, in a warmer climate, the strength he had lost. Accordingly he left Halifax in the fall of 1872, visited California, where he remained some time, travelled South, through part of Mexico, crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and returned home via New York, fully re- cruited and ready to resume the large practice which he had suc- ceeded in building up after so very many years of struggles and difficulties, during all of which he never flinched from his set pur- pose, giving a brilliant example to his pupils, and gathering around him a numerous circle of friends and admirers, whose sincere wish is that he may be long spared to enjoy the fruits of his laborious life and reap the rich harvest he has sown. 135 L^^£..€^~^^J-^-^l^^€^^^^^t GEORGE CADWALADER, BRKVKT BIAJOR-GKlsrKRAX. XTNITEID STATES ARIetY. By EUGENE L. TOWNSEND. )^HE Cadwalader family is of Welsh origin. The , j^ name is derived from cad, meaninsr battle ; and ~ gwaladr — a leader or lord. Owaladr would seem to have its origin in gwal — a wall or defense ; and adre, signifying at home or abroad — everywhere. History informs us that Cadwalader was the last king of the Britons, and that he slew in battle Lothaire, king of Kent, and Ethelwold, king of the South Saxons. The Cadwaladers appeared in America about the middle of the seventeenth century. Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, a celebrated physi- cian, was the son of John Cadwalader, and was born in Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, in 1707. His son. General John Cadwalader, was distinguished for his zealous and steadfast adherence to the cause of American Independence. He participated in many of the engagements of the war of '76, and, in order to maintain General Washington's integrity, fought a duel with General Conway, severely wounding him. His son. General Thomas Cadwalader, was born in 1779, and was admitted to the bar in 1801. He com- manded the Light Brigade of Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1814, being only thirty-four years of age. For many years after the close of the war, he was the commandant of the troops belonging to the city and county of Philadelphia, and retained the esteem and high considerations of his fellow-citizens during the entire period of his life. His son, and the subject of this sketch, Major-General George Cadwalader, was born in Philadelphia in 1806, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1823. Sur- 137 GEORGE CADWALADER. rounded on every side by subjects relating to military affairs, his associates being almost entirely military men, his inclinations natn- rally turned in the direction which such associations would lead him ; and thus was laid the foundation of a future brilliant mili- tary career. At an early age he familiarized himself with the tac- tics of the three arms of the service — Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry ; and, in 1824, joined the 1st troop, "Philadelphia City Cavalry." In 1832, he was chosen Captain of the " Philadelphia Grays," and, in 1842, was elected Brigadier-General of the First Brigade, First Division Pennsylvania State Militia, consisting of the volunteers and unenrolled militia of the city proper of Philadel- phia, and continued to hold the commission by successive elections until he was mustered into the United States service as Major- General of Volunteers in 1861 ; and, although he tendered his resig- nation to the Governor of Pennsylvania at the commencement of the Mexican War in 1847, it was not accepted. We now approach a melancholy period in the history of the City of Philadelphia — a time when the citizens were to learn by dreadful experience the terrors of a mob dynasty. On the 6th of May, 1844, in the district of Kensington, there was inaugurated a series of conflicts between members of the Native- American Party and the Irish population, which resulted in the loss of many lives. It was here that the services of General Cadwalader were called into requisition, and the experience of past years eminently quali- fied him to fill a position where a thorough military education, com- bined with courage, firmness, and moderation, was to carry out to a successful issue a struggle in which the civil authorities were impo- tent to protect the rights of the citizens. His command having reached the locality where riot ran rampant, General Cadwalader briefly addressed the crowd assembled below Master street, urging them to preserve peace, assuring them that he made no distinction, knowing neither friend nor foe, and was determined at all hazards to see the majesty of the law vindicated. For many days the public press recorded the triumph of mob power over legal authority, of brutal passions over human reason. Finally, however, the combined strength of the civil and military forces subdued the spirit of disorder which sought vent in the destruction of property and attack upon life. On the 6th of July following, a repetition of those horrible scenes was enacted in another portion of the city, entitled the dis- 138 GEORGE CADWALADER. trict of Southwark. The aspect of the locality, to quote the words of a daily journal, was " black, suffocating, and bloody." Once more General Cadwalader, with the troops under his com- mand, came to the rescue of the j^osse comitatus. He exposed him- self constantly to the fury of the rioters ; and, so incensed were the mob against him, that a gallows was erected at the Wharton street Market, upon which he was to be hung the moment he should be captured. As in the previous instance, order was restored, and tranquility reigned. There is nothing more dangerous to the peace and safety of a community than an unrestrained mob ; and nothing more yielding and submissive than a mob when handled in a legal, seri- ous, and determined manner. To Philadelphia is due the credit of having established the point which had hitherto been questioned, that the civil authorities were vested with the power to call upon the citizen soldiery to en- force the laws, which they had found themselves inadequate to maintain. In consequence of the efforts made by the enemies of General Cadwalader to hold him personally responsible for the deaths caused by the fire of the military, the Legislature of the State of Pennsylvania enacted a law preventing thereafter a civil magistrate from holding a military officer for his acts, when his services were invoked by, and while acting under, the civil authori- ties. Thus was swept away once and forever all opposition against the employment of a military force, with full power to use every means, even the most deadly, to maintain the honor and dignity of the laws. At the outset of the war with Mexico, General Cadwalader ten- dered to the President of the United States the services of the "Philadelphia Grays;" and, disregarding considerations of rank, offered, as their Captain, to accompany them to the seat of war. This offer, however, was not accepted ; but in the spring of 1847 he was appointed a Brigadier-General in the United States Army. At the time General Cadwalader received his commission, the sit- uation of General Taylor at Monterey, from a military point of view, was considered very critical. The Regular troops had been withdrawn from his command to reinforce General Scott, about to invest Vera Cruz. Santa Anna, taking advantage of his situation, advanced with a much superior force to attack him. General Cad- walader was selected by the President, and immediately ordered to 139 GEORGE CADWALADEB. proceed to the Rio Grande, clothed with authority to charge the destination of the troops about to leave New Orleans and the Rio Grande for Vera Cruz, and to hasten to the relief of General Taylor. In the event of his ascertaining that a portion of the force could be spared for General Scott, full discretionary powers were accorded him to make such disposition of them as he might consider appro- priate, and in case he should supply General Scott with reinforce- ments, and if compatible with the interests of the service, he should accompany them in person. Arriving near Mataruoras with a col- umn thus organized, information of the successful issue of the battle of Buena Vista was received from General Taylor, thus rendering his position secure, and enabling General Cadwalader to restore the troops en route to General Taylor to their original destination, viz.. General Scott, at Vera Cruz ; commauding tliem in person, in accordance with the discretionaiy poweis from the War Depart- ment. Thereafter General Cadwalader actively participated in the fol- lowing important battles : National Bridge, June 11th, 1847; La Hoya, June 20th, 1847; Village of Contreras, August 19th, 1847; Fortress of Contreras, August 20th, 1847 ; Fortress of Cherubusco, August 20th, 1847 ; Molino del Rev, September 8th, 1847 ; Chapul- tepec, September 12th and 13th, 1847 ; San Cosme Gate, City of Mexico, September 14th, 1847. In all of which engagements he is mentioned in the rej^orts of his superior officers as having " dis- played great judgment, high military skill, and heroic courage." According to the evidence of General Persifor F. Smith, General Cadwalader's position in the battle of Contreras, on the 19th of August, insured " the success of the operations on the morning of the 20th." Early in the storming of Chapultepec, General Pillow having been wounded, the command devolved upon General Cad- walader, who directed the operations of the American troops to a successftil issue ; and, being the onl}' general officer who entered the fortifications with the assaulting forces, he received personally from General Bravo, the Mexican commandant, his sword, in token of surrender. The flag of the fortress was duly forwarded, with hia report of the transaction. In recognition of services on this occa- sion, the Government conferred upon him the brevet rank of Major- General in the United States Army, "for gallant and meritorious conduct," the commission bearing date, September 13th, 1847. In January, 1848, in accordance with instructions from Genera! 140 GEOEGE CADWALADER. Scott, witli about 4,000 regulars of his own selection, Greneral Cad- walader occupied the great city and fertile valley of Tolusca, and assumed the duties of Military Governor, filling that office for the period of two months. During the interval, from the close of the Mexican War in 1843 to the opening of the great national conflict in 1861, General Cad- walader remained at his home in Philadelphia. In April, 1861, in puisuance of a requisition from the Presi- dent of the United States for troops, the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania detailed General Cadwalader to be mustered into the service of the United States, being one of the general officers then in commission from the State. On the 15th of May he accompanied the Pennsylvania regi- ments to Baltimore, where was awaiting his arrival a telegram from General Scott directing him to assume command of the Department of Annapolis, establishing his head-quarters at Fort McHenry. It was at this locality that the first writ of habeas corpiis issued during the war was served upon him in i\xe case of Mr. Merryman. Gen- eral Cadwalader refused, however, to acknowledge the validity of the summons, in which action he was sustained by the Govern- ment. On the 9th of June he left Baltimore to join the column com- manded by General Patterson, then marching upon Harper's Ferry. At Greencastle, Pennsylvania, he assumed the command of the 1st Division, consisting of the brigades of Colonel George H. Thomas, General Williams, and Colonel Longnecker, and marched to Wil- liamsport, Md., subsequently crossing the Susquehanna, and ad- vancing to Martinsburg, Va. In the Council of General and Staff Officers convened by General Patterson at this locality, General Cadwalader, in due course of opinion, recommended either an attack upon the Confederates under General Johnston at Winchester, or the assuming of a position upon his right flank at or near Berry- ville, with a view to the prevention of his junction with General Beauregard, otherwise the column should unite by the way of Aldie, ■with General McDowell's forces advancing on Bull Run from Wash- ington. The disaster of Bull Run ensuing, and the term of service of a greater portion of the soldiers having expired, the balance of the troops were ordered to Washington. General Cadwalader received the commission of Major-General 141 GEORGE CADWALADEB. of Volunteers the 25tli of April, 1862, and on the 5th of August following, by orders from the War Department, he assumed com- mand of'the 2d and 6th Divisions of the Army of West Tennessee, constituting the post and garrison of Corinth, Mississippi. In consequence of a telegram dated the 13th of August, for- warded from the War Department, referring to the return of the army from the Peninsula, and the reorganization of the same, and announcing that no further advance would be made by the forces under his command. General Cadwalader immediately reported to the Oeneral-in-Chief at Washington. At this time the numerous newly-organized regiments were pouring in, and were assigned to the existing commands. The contemplated reorganization of the army, therefore, did not take pla-ce. From this period General Cadwalader was occupied in fulfilling the important duties to which he was assigned by the ensuing orders. By Special Orders No. 222, Head-quarters of the Army, Ad- jutant-General's Office, Washington, September 5th, 1862, he was detailed as President of a Court of Inquiry in the cases of Major- General Fitz-John Porter, General Franklin, and General Griffen. Requesting to be relieved from duty in this caso, a Court-Martial was ordered in place of the Court of Inquiry. By Special Orders No. 256, War Department, Adjutant-Gen- eral's Office, Washington, September 23d, 1862, he was detailed to sit upon a Special Commission for the trial of such cases as might be brought before it. By Special Orders No. 350, Head-quarters of the Army, Ad- jutant-General's Office, Washington, November 17th, 1862, he was detailed as President of a Court of Inquiry regarding certain charges against Major-General McDowell. By Special Orders No. 399, War Department, Adjutant-Gen- eral's Office, Washington, December 17th, 1862, he was detailed to sit upon a Board of Officers, with the view to propose amendments to the Rules and Articles of War, and a Code of Regulations for the Government of Armies in the Field. By Special Orders No. 159, War Department, Adjutant-Gen- eral's Office, Washington, April 7th, 1863, he was detailed as a member of the Court-Martial of which General Hitchcock was Presi- dent. By orders from War Department, Washington, July 16th, 142 GEORGE CADWALADER. 1863, he proceeded to PhUadelphia, and assumed the commaud of the forces in and around that city. By Special Orders No. , War Department, Adjutant-Gen- eral's Office, Wasliiugton, January 9th, 1864, he was detailed on a Court of Inquiry to investigate the conduct of Generals McCook. T. L. Crittenden, and Negley, and to be held at Nashville, Tennes- see. On completion of the duties and adjournment of the Court, he returned to Philadelphia. The opposition to the draft in Northern Pennsylvania havins assumed formidable proportions. General Cadwalader, by instruc- tions from the War Department, proceeded on the 26th of Aus^ust, 1864, to Columbia, Pennsylvania, with a detachment of troops^ and broke up the armed resistance to the Provost-Marshal in the execu- tion of the draft About this period Brevet Major-General Crossman, Assistant- Quartermaster-Generai on duty in Philadelphia, reported to General Cadwalader the failure of the contractors of the Government in fur- nishing a supply of coal, and that he had been notified by the Quartermaster-General of the scarcity of the article at Old Point Comfort— in effect, that there was a quantity on hand sufficient only for a few days' supply. Considerable consternation was created in that locality by this state of affairs. Upon investigation, it was ascertamed that the operatives had struck for higher wages, and would not allow the coal to be forwarded from the mines. General Cadwalader, in the name of the Government, immediately seized the rolling stock of the Reading Railroad, and telegraphed to the Secretary of War to furnish a sufficient number of railroad experts to enable him to run the road. In a few hours' time one hundred and fifty engineers and firemen had arrived at Philadelphia from Washmgton, and were speedily forwarded, under the escort of a sufficient detachment of troops, to the coal regions. Having there made the necessary arrests, an ample supply of coal was Imme- diately shipped to Norfolk and the surrounding localities, in order to meet the requirements of General Grant's army in front of Peters- burg. Had not General Cadwalader in this emergency acted with determination and expedition, one could easily imagine what fearful results might have ensued. The army could not have remained there witliout subsistence, nor could adequate means have been pro- vided for its withdrawal. General Cadwalader was subsequently engaged in protecting the GEORGE CADWALADEE. frontiers of Pennsylvania, causing to be made a topogi-aphical sur- vey of the Susquehanna river from its mouth to some distance north of Harrisburg with a view to its defense, and superintending the forwardin"' of hirge numbers of convalescents to their regiments at the front. By Special Orders No. 17, Head-quarters Middle Military Division, Washington, May 15th, 1865, he was detailed as Presi- dent of a Board to prepare lists of officers, who, it was considered desirable, should be retained in or discharged from the United States service. On the 1st of July, 1865, the troops having returned from the seat of war. General Cadwalader tendered his resignation as Major- General of Volunteers, which was duly accepted by the Govern- ment. Since that period he has resided in Philadelphia. In addition to filling the position of President of the Mutual Assurance Com- pany, to which he was elected over thirty-five years ago, he is the Commandant of the Loyal League of the United States. ly/. Ca^^ a JOHN MURRAY CARNOCHAN, M. D. •, f -PC 0^^ MURE AY CARNOCHAN, late Health-Officer |\{(«,j^'tjj([ of the port of New York, and, one of the most V^;-,^ /f^t^ celehrated surgeons of this country, was born in iMktsUfiM j.]-jg ^[^j Qf Savannah, Georgia, in 1817. His paternal ancestors were Scotch, and he is descended on his mother's side from General Putnam, famous in our War of Independence. When quite a boy he was removed to Edinburgh, the capital of his father's native land, where he in time made good use of the educational facilities extended him, and graduated iu the high school and university of that city. Returning to the United States, he entered the office of the celebrated Dr. Valentine Matt, of New York, as a student of medicine. He hero diligently prose- cuted his studies under most superior advantages ; and, after taking his degree, again visited Europe, and passed several years in attend- ance upon the clinical lectures of Paris, London, and Edinburgh. In 1847, he fixed his residence in New York, and commenced the practice of the profession he has adorned with rare genius, and in which numerous brilliant and original acliievements have gained for him an honorable name, both at home and abroad. He was appointed, in 1851, Surgeon-in-Chief of the New York State Emigrant Hospital, a station which he has held for the past twenty years. In the practice of his profession. Dr. Carnochan has performed many wonderful operations, which signalized him as one of the most daring, brilliant, and skillful surgeons of the day. In 1852, he inaugurated the practice, and first successfully treated, a case of Elephantiasis Arabum, by ligature of the femoral artery, and, in the same year, performed the operation of amputating the entire lower jaw, with disarticulation of both condyles. In 1854, he extracted the entire ulna, for extensive enlargement and disease of 145 JOHN M. CARNOCHAN. that bone, saving the arm. with it3 functions unimpaired ; and, subsequently, in another case of similar disease of the bone, he removed the entire radius with equal success. He performed, for the first time, in 1856, one of the most startling and original oper- ations on record, in exsecting, for neuralgia, or iic-douloureux, the entire trunk of the second branch of the fifth pair of nerves, from the infra-orbital foramen, as far as the foramen rotundum at the base of the skull, — giving, at the same time, a new pathology to this disease, locating the source of pain and disease on the trunk of the nerve anterior to the Gasserian ganglion. Amputation at the hip-joint he has performed four times ; once on the 18th of May, 1864, at the battle of Spottsylvania, where he was, for the time being, acting in his professional capacity, under direction of the Surgeon-Greneral of the United States. From 1851 to lb63. Dr. Carnochan was professor of the prin- ciples and operations of surgery in the New York Medical College, associated with Dr. Horace Green, and other distinguished profess- ors. This institution had attained great celebrity from the high reputation and practical talent of the professors connected with it, but was discontinued during the war on account of the loss of Southt rn patronage, by which it was, to a great extent, supported. In addition to a most comprehensive and successful practice, Dr. Carnochan has also made valuable contributions to the surgical literature of the day, thus evidencing both the wisdom and research of the theorist, and the skill and tact of the operator. Among his other productions, he has published his lecture on partial am- putations of the foot, lithotomy and lithothrity, and also a '' Trea- tise on Congenital Dislocations" (New York, 1850); "Contribu- tions to Operative Surgery" (Philadelphia), &c. Since the fon'going, gathered chiefly from the " New American Encyclopedia," Dr. Carnochan has performed many other impor- tant operations ; amongst which may be mentioned the ligature Upon both common carotid arteries in a case of Elephantiasis of the head, face, and neck ; the ligature of the common carotid on one side, and of the external carotid on the other, for hypertrophy of the tongue. He has also operated frequently, and with success, in cases of large ovarian tumors which required removal. In following up the different modes of practice upon extensive varicose enlargements of the veins of the leg and thigh, he has tied the femoral artery on six different patients. This practice, which 146 JOHN M. CaHNOCHAN. had not been theretofore employed, was attended with indifferent results. In the paths and pursuits of science, particularly as regards medicine and surgery, it is a rare thing to develop anything really new in practice. These have been cultivated with all the powers of intelligent application and diligent research by so many of the great minds of the world for centuries past, that little, apparently, has been left to learn. Dr. Valentine Mott, with an originality peculiarly his own, struck out in unexplored fields, and accomplished much in the way of professional progress ; and his pupil, the subject of our sketch, no less enterprising, has proved himself worthy of his instructor^ in a successful practice, attended with a number of new and bril- liant operations, avouching a genius as emphatic iu originality as beneficent in scientific results. In 1870, Dr. Carnochan was appointed by G-overnor Hoffman, and the unanimous vote of the State Senate, Health-Officer of the port of New York. In assuming the duties of this responsible position, he went to work understandingly, and soon developed the same characteristic ability which had assured such distinguished success in his professional career. His administrative talent, together with his iutelligeDt discrimination and foresight, enabled him to establish a prompt and effective quarantine, without un- necessarily embarrassing the pursuits of commerce ; in fact, he re- duced his administration to a system based upon principles and laws which preside over and govern all quarantinable diseases. In his report for the year ending December 31st, 1870, he says : "The subject of quarantine, as now properly understood, has numerous recip- rocal relations in connection with the interests of commerce and the preservation of the public health. It should be considered with the view of reducing its management to a regular system, in order that the various details may be carried oat with promptness and discrimination, and in such a manner as to impose the least possible restraints upon commercial enterprise compatible with the public safety. The quarantine laws were originally made to guard against the introduc- tion of pestilential diseases into our country by the arrival of infected vessels at the various seaports. Sanitary and commercial interests are thus apparently, by an imi)lied necessity of restraint, thrown into a kind of antagonism. By a proper knowledge, however, of the history, progress, and laws which govern the course of pestilential maladies, the regulation of quarantine can Ije so systematized as to accomplish, in a great degree, the objects for which quarantine was instituted, and yet not necessarily embarrass the pursuits of commerce, except so far as to insure the general safety of the community. To carry on properly, however, ^ U7 . JOHN M. CARNOCHAN. system with these ends in view, the necessary facilities for administration must be provided. It is of great importance that persons arriving from infected localities who are sufiering with disease shall be completely isolated, at the same time that they be well cared for, and receive good medical attention. The second class of persons who should be subjected to quarantine are those who have been exposed to infection, and who may have the seeds of disease lurking in their systems. These should, also, be isolated for a certain length of time, in order to afford opportunity for observation of their condition, during the period of incubation which is common to contagious diseases. Persons who have been exposed to a malarial atmosphere, or who have been breathing for a time a close air charged with pestilential poison, should not be permitted to mingle freely in a healthy community, as thereby disease is apt to be developed; still, it would be inju- dicious and inhuman to keep those who have been merely exposed to disease in contact or communication with the sick. To meet the requirements of this class of persons, means must be provided to secure positive isolation, and the various hygienic appliances for the prevention of disease, and the elimination of the pesti- lential influences with which their systems may be charged, while the various comforts of good diet, pure air, clean bedding, etc., shall be provided. The con- struction of artificial islands in the lower bay, with an area of from two to three acres, sutlicient in extent for the erection of hospitals, and other appropriate build- ings, for the accommodation and hygienic management of the sick and infected, and placed sufficiently remote to insure immunity from danger of the spread of disease, will secure incalculable benefits to the citizens of New York and the adjoining cities of Brooklyn and Jersey City. From the extensive and wide- spread ramifications of the mercantile interests of the city of New York, pestilen- tial diseases must necessarily liud their way to the harbor of the great commercial emporium of tiie country ; y^t, with such structures located at the mouth of the harbor, offering every comfort to the unfortunate sufferers, combined with a well- regulated administration of quarantine, the public may rest in tranquil safety while pestilence is kept at bay at the very gates of the city." The suggestions contained in the report, of which the foregoing is an introductory extract, were generally adopted and approved by the legislative authorities ; and the quarantine establishment of the Port of New York attained a degi-ee of perfection unequaled, perhaps, and certainly not surpassed elsewhere, and which may be still further enhanced by the system of warehouses for the storage of infected . goods, and other appointments, which Dr. Carnochau labored to in- troduce, with a view to make up the general complement of facilities necessary for an efiicient quarantine. During his administration cholera and yellow fever appeared fre- quently in the Port of New York, but, through his foresight and careful management, the' disease was coniiued to the Funits of the harbor, and did not reach the citf. Dr. Carnochan's term of office, as Health Officer, expired in Febru- ary, 1872, since which time he has resumed the practice of surgery and medicine in New York city, still retaining the position of Sur- aeon-in-Chief to the State Hospital. SALMON PORTLAND CHASE, ciiiE;F-.jusTicrc of thk united states. (EEPLY graven upon the hearts and memories of /-v J the people are the philanthropic, juridical, financial, t^S and political services rendered our country and the world by tlie distinguished subject of this brief memoir. As the impress of the die upon the metal of our na- tional currency is a portion of, and identical with, the coin itself, even so have his public acts become a part of the history and glory of our country. We regret that compelled brevity confines us to but a cursory review of the most salient points in a grand and noble career. Salmon Portland Chase, son of Ithamar and Jeannette Chase, was born at Cornish, away up among the "everlasting hills" of New Hampshire, on the SOth of January, A. D. 1808 ; he is there- fore at this period in the very prime of a ripe and vigorous manhood. His youthful peculiarities, in many respects, were prophetic of the renown of his after years. He was noted in his school-days as being remarkably intelligent — very studious and persevering, accomplishing all his tasks with ease and satisfaction — as being par- ticularly attentive to all his moral and social duties — truthful and magnanimous in his disposition — carrying ever a soul and temper high above all littlenesses ; and though delicate and refined in all his tastes as a woman, yet in his sports and pastimes a very David in activify, endurance, and manly strength. When but seven years of age, he displayed such a marked fondness for books and the acquisition of instructive information, that he was placed by his parents at an excellent school, at Keene, N. H., adapted to the education of much older pupils. Here, as m all subsequent new positions, he proved equal to the situation, and marked his juvenile progress with results most gratifying to his preceptors. 149 SALMON P. CHASE. When twelve years old, the death of his excellent father having tianspired, he became the protege of his uncle, the Right Rev. Philander Chase, Bishop of Ohio (Episcopalian). Under the kindly benefactions and tutelage of this worthy prelate, the future Governor of the State of his adoption pursued and completed with great credit liis academic course. At the age of sixteen years (1824), he matriculated as a junior fellow at Dartmouth College, from which, after a period of two years of faithful devotion to the high standard of study prescribed at that time-honored institution, he graduated with honor (1826). And then began his practical life. Theretofore he had been engaged upon the study of abstruse theories and the elements of systems. He was now to practically apply these in solving the problems of existence. At the commencement of this new era in his affairs, he found himself in the very usual predicament so often remarked of many of the greatest men at the outset of their respective careers. He was without means, opulent or influential friends, or any flattering prospects. He most decidedly had his own way to make. The great world — all untried — a terra incog- nita, lay before him. But in lieu of estates, potential friends, mature experience, and fortunate prestige, he possessed vigorous^ healthy youth — a mind well-trained — perceptions strong — a splendid elementary education such as few older men of his time had acquired — a reputation unsullied, joined to determined energy, and a high am- bition to make the very best use of all his faculties and opportunities. With this stock in hand, the " Ferry-boy " (as he had been sur- named in allusion to some episode of his earlier years) embarked on his future course. He first proceeded to Washington, D. C, where he opened a classical school ; and though he made there his advent unheralded and unknown, and planted himself amid a people entertaininn- sentiments upon many subjects (and especially upon the subject of slavery) entirely at variance with his own, nevertheless, his sterling merits conquered all prejudices ; and when they became apparent, as soon they did, his school was liberally patronized, and he continued to carry it on with great success for several years, pursuing at the same time a thorough, judicious course of legal study in the ofSce of William Wirt, then one of the most popular and celebrated members of the Southern bar. In 1829, after a critical examination, he was admitted to the 150 SALMON P. CHASE. District-of-Colnmbia bar. He then broke up his school, and, in the spring of 1830, took up his residence in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he at once entered diligently into the practice of the law, and success, far beyond his most extravagant expectations, disclosed the measure of his ability and honest worth. Witli his professional victories, young Chase did not become a drudge, and, for the sake of success, neglect all things but his pro- fession. On the contrary, amid all the absorbing labors and inter- ests of his rapidly-growing practice, to which he assiduously devoted himself, " working in that probation through whicli many sleep," he found time in which to cultivate and improve his rare intellect, by always keeping " well up " in his belles-lettres and in paying his proper devoirs to society. In fact, his strict regard for social conventionalities throughout his whole life has become pro- verbial, and his home at this day is the school of refinement and punctilious obsei'vance of every sensible conventionalism. He soon acquired the reputation of being an earnest, deep thinker, a clear and instructive writer, a forcible and eloquent debater ; and, moreover, he was considered as a most valuable acquisition to the more elevated circles of social intercourse, as the pages of many of the leading periodicals and the literary and social annals of the day will bear witness. He was a favorite contributor to the North- American Revieto and to the Western Monthly Magazine, at that time the leading literary organs issued remote from the Atlantic sea-board, and was an influential and popular member of the various philanthropic and educational organizations of Cincinnati, to which was then accorded the palm as being the center of refinement, wealth, and intelligence of the great West. About this time he achieved a marked reputation as the editor of a carefully annotated and indexed Revision of the Statutes of Ohio, with a prefatory history of the State, comprised in three large volumes. In the year 1834 (aged 26), he was retained, under Federal auspices, as the senior solicitor for the United States Bank in Ohio, and soon after received a similar mark of preference from one of the leading State banking organizations. In 1837, he was more prominently brought into public notice as principal counsel in the celebrated Fugitive- Slave Case, wherein a colored woman was claimed from freedom under the law of 179.'5 ; 151 SALMON P. CHASE. and in the same year he signalized himself before the Supreme Court of Ohio iu his eloquent defense of James G. Bu-ney, who was being prosecuted under the Ohio statutes for harboring a slave. These forensic achievements, • together with many other successful displays of legal ability, established him in the first rank of his profession ; and from thenceforth, as a pleader and advocate, his superiority as a lawyer was certified to the world. In the year 1841, at the early age of 33 years, he may be said to have first entered upon his career of statesmanship. From that period until 1849, he was a zealous, diligent, and conspicuous participant in the political affairs of his State and of the West. During the latter year he was chosen to represent Ohio in the United States Senate ; and in that distinguished office, as the compeer of Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Crittenden, and Seward, he conscientiously served his State and country with characteristic patriotic zeal and signal ability. In 1855, he received the popular vote of his State for Governor, and, in 1857, was again elected to the same high office. In both terms, it was accorded by his fellow-citizens, without distinction of party, that his able, prudent, and dignified administration enhanced and confirmed the rapidly- growing credit, prosperity, and impor- tance of the State. In 1861, he was again chosen United States Senator. Hardly had he taken his seat, when Mr. Lincoln, desirous of surrounding himself (in the crisis which his proj^hetic eye saw too surely must come) with a wise aud sagacious cabinet, sought Mr. Chase, and tendered him the important position of Minister of Finance. Yielding to the urgent pressure brought to bear upon him, he vacated his Senatorial office, and accepted the laborious and self- sacrificing duties of Secretary of the Treasury. In the prompt, decisive action with which he inaugurated his advent as the nation's financier, during a political convulsion the limits and efiects of which no human foresight could determine, we behold with pro- foundest wonder the remarkable adaptability, the grand mental proportions, and the moral intrepidity of the man. He found the Government coffers empty — depleted by a reckless and corrupt administration ; he filled them to overflowing. He found the places of trust either vacated or filled with seditious incumbents ; he cleared them out, svrept and garnished the public treasury, and 152 SALMON P. CHASE. infused new, vigorous, patriotic, loyal life into evei-y branch of the Grovernment suboi-dinate to that department. He literally, by a scheme of finance such as never before, in any previous age, had been dreamed of, from nothing evoked substance — from the very dross of the earth he brought forth gold. Ho gave the country unlimited credit, where before was discredit ; and from the utter weakness of poverty in financial resources, he com- manded all the strength and prestige of boundless national wealth. The extent of his services to the Republic rendered during the long, dark, anxious period of the rebellion, and the measure of their benefits to his country and the human race, no pen can depict, no human power can calculate. To quote from a celebrated writer: "His brilliant career in this Department (Treasury), the nerve he displayed, the breadth of intellect he manifested, the ardor and zeal of his patriotism, and the wonders wrought by his financial wisdom and skill throughout the first three years of the rebellion, are so recent, so well-remem- bered, and live so freshly in the hearts of his grateful countrymen, as to render unnecessary anything more than this simple reference. His enduring monument is built of his measures. His finest eulogy is written in his acts. He vindicated the wisdom of Lincoln's selection. He both justified and rewarded the confidence of the people." His administration of the national exchequer, under the heavy responsibilities occasioned by that most burdensome and terrible crisis (the most formidable in all its proportions, and more sangui- nary, destructive, and heart-rending in its results than any modern calamity of war, pestilence, or famine), has astounded the world, and demonstrated a problem of national financial expediency which had never before been solved. Thus nobly, and true to all the highest inspirations of patriot- ism and duty, did he acquit himself The dark cloud of civil war had nearly passed — in this last role of statesmancraft no more grand systems of national finance and of taxation were necessary to be settled; his grand occupation of helping to save his country from the utter ruin which threatened it was done ; then, and not till then, did he voluntarily lay down his high ofiice (to which he had given so remarkable a character that to this day, in this Gov- ernment so proverbial for constant change, all his measures remain respected and permanent) and prepare to return to his private 153 SALMON P. CHASE. labors ; when, once again, as if Heaven had anointed him as an especial instrument to rebuild the war-shattered walls of the great Republic, and to unravel and settle — as well for the conquered as for the conquerors — the abstruse legal entanglements which sucli a conflict must necessarily have caused, he was selected by Presi- dent Lincoln and the representatives of the country to take up the mantle of the great Marshall, then fallen by the demise of Taney ; and on the 6th day of December, 1864, in the 56th year of his age, he took his seat as the Sixth Chief-Justice of THE United States. In this truly exalted position, Mr. Chase has more than justi- fied the wisdom which prompted his appointment. During his administration, the weightiest and most complicated questions — involving, some of them, the very principles upon which our Gov- ernment is based — have been determined and settled forever; and the energy and sterling ability which he has displayed in disposing of these, confirm and strengthen all that ever has been uttered or inscribed in eulogy of his previous career, and give token and promise of justice and peace for his country in the future In 1868 Chief-Justice Chase presided over the High Court of Impeachment, for the trial of President Johnson ; and, in July of the same year, was a candidate for the Presidency at the National Demo- cratic Convention, held in New York. To the foregoing, published in our first edition, we have to add the recent and unexpected death of Chief-Justice Chase, which oc- curred in New York city May 7th, 1873. For several years past he had been in delicate health, having suffered once or twice from strokes of paralysis. Possessed naturally of a most robust physique, it had been hoped by his friends that his life would be prolonged for many years, but latterly the progress of decay had been rapid, and he sank quietly to rest on the day above mentioned, in the house of his friends, surrounded by those nearest to his heart. The funeral ceremonies of the great Chief Justice, both in New York and Wash- ington, were impressive in the extreme. His loss was felt as a na- tional bereavement, and he was mourned by the whole people as public men are seldom mourned. He leaves a brilliant example to his profession, and the world will write high up in its long list of the illustrious dead of 1873, the name of Salmon P. Chase, In closing a review of his great life, in the various public offices 15i SALMON P. CHASE. he had filled, a leading journal of the city pays him the following well-deserved tribute : — " When the struggle began for which he ha 1 done more than any one else to prepare the people of the North, he assumed, according to his habit, the most exacting and responsible post. He took his place in a bankrupt treasury and prepared to organize the finances upon which the issue of the war depended. How he accomplisned this, tlie world knows and will never forget. Here, at least, there is no room for discussion. Of him may more exactly be said what Webster said of Hamilton, ' he touched the dead corpse of the pub- lic credit and it rose to its feet' The vast resources necessary to the support of an array of a million of men were supplied with the apparent ease and regularity of a natural phenomenon. There was no halting, no shaking in the wind, during all those days of dark- ness, even when three millions a day were required for the immense and consuming machinery of war. And this colossal undertaking, which ranks its author among the greatest financiers of all time, w^as begun and carried through by this statesman, orator, lawyer, who had had no preliminary training for this special work, and who, dur- ing its progress, relied solely upon himself While he used the best powers of all with whom he came in contact, receiving their sugges- tions and criticisms with equal liberality, he always rigidly reserved to himself the most absolute prerogative of ultimate decision. "Chief-Justice Chase's judicial career was only remarkable in its splendid possibilities. His time was too short to allow him to stamp his name indelibly upon our legal history. When he went upon the Bench, it was seriously questioned whether his long disuse, his life passed in politics, would not disqualify him for this august judicial position. But the way in which he discharged its duties was a new surprise to his friends and the profession. He showed from the be- ginning an easy mastery of legal principles, which increased and broadened continually up to the hour when the malady which de- stroyed him made its first tei-rible attack. With ten years more of life he would have gained as a jurist the same unquestioned pre- eminence which belongs to liim as a statesman and a financier. Of coui'se, from the hour of his investiture as Chief Justice he retired from active politics. Every public utterance, as well as his entire judicial record, shows how utterly he had overcome the partisan habit of the past, and how clear and far-reaching his views of government bad become. He was the first to foresee the evils which w