Washington Township (part 3 of 21)

MARTIN VAN BUREN was the eighth president of the United States, 1837 to 1841. He was of Dutch extraction, and his ancestors were among the earliest settlers on the banks of the Hudson. He was born December 5, 1782, at Kinderhook,

New York. Mr. Van Buren took up the study of law at the age of fourteen and took an active part in political matters before he had attained his majority. He commenced the practice of law in 1803 at his native town, and in 1809 he removed to Hudson, Columbia county, New York, where he spent seven years gaining strength and wisdom from his contentions at the bar with some of the ablest men of the profession. Mr. Van Buren was elected to the state senate, and from 1815 until 1819 he was attorney-general of the state. He was reelected to the senate in 1816, and in 1818 he was one of the famous clique of politicians known as the "Albany regency." Mr. Van Buren was a member of the convention for the revision of the state constitution, in 1821. In the same year he was elected to the United States senate and served his term in a manner that caused his re-election to that body in 1827, but resigned the following year as he had been elected governor of New York. Mr. Van Buren was appointed by President Jackson as secretary of state in March, 1829, but resigned in 1831, and during the recess of congress he was appointed minister to England. The senate, however, when it convened in December refused to ratify the appointment. In May, 1832, he was nominated by the Democrats as their candidate for vice-president on the ticket with Andrew Jackson, and he was elected in the following November. He received the nomination to succeed President Jackson in 1836, as the Democratic candidate, and in the electoral college he received one hundred and seventy votes out of two hundred and eighty-three, and was inaugurated March 4, 1837. His administration was begun at a time of great business depression, and unparalled financial distress, which caused the suspension of specie payments by the banks. Nearly every bank in the country was forced to suspend specie payment, and no less than two hundred and fifty-four business houses failed in New York in one week. The President urged the adoption of the independent treasury idea, which passed through the senate twice but each time it was defeated in the house. However the measure ultimately became a law near the close of President Van Buren's term of office. Another important measure that was passed was the pre-emption law that gave the actual settlers preference in the purchase of public lands. The question of slavery had begun to assume great preponderance during this administration, and a great conflict was tided over by the passage of a resolution that prohibited petitions or papers that in any way related to slavery to be acted upon. In the Democratic convention of 1840 President Van Buren secured the nomination for re-election on that ticket without opposition, but in the election he only received the votes of seven states, his opponent, W. H. Harrison, being elected president. In 1848 Mr. Van Buren was the candidate of the " Free-Soilers, " but was unsuccessful. After this he retired from public life and spent the remainder of his life on his estate at Kinderhook, where he died July 24, 1862.

WINFIELD SCOTT, a distinguished American general, was born June 13, 1786, near Petersburg, Dinwiddie county, Virginia, and was educated at the William and Mary College. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, and in 1 808 he accepted an appointment as captain of light artillery, and was ordered to New Orleans. In June, 1812, he was promoted to be lieutenantcolonel, and on application was sent to the frontier, and reported to General Smyth, near Buffalo. He was made adjutant-general with the rank of a colonel, in March, 1813, and the same month attained the colonelcy of his regiment. He participated in the principal battles of the war and was wounded many times, and at the close of the war he was voted a gold medal by congress for his services. He was a writer of considerable merit on military topics, and he gave to the military science, "General Regulations of the Army " and " System of Infantry and Rifle Practice." He took a prominent part in the Black Hawk war, and at the beginning of the Mexican war he was appointed to take the command of the army. Gen. Scott immediately assembled his troops at Lobos Island from which he moved by transports to Vera Cruz, which he took March 29, 1847, and rapidly followed up his first success. He fought the battles of Cerro Gordo and Jalapa, both of which he won, and proceeded to Pueblo where he was preceded by Worth's division which had taken the town and waited for the coming of Scott. The army was forced to wait here for supplies, and August 7th, General Scott started on his victorious march to the city of Mexico with ten thousand, seven hundred and thirty-eight men. The battles of Contreras, Cherubusco and San Antonio were fought August 19-20, and on the 24th an armistice was agreed upon, but as the commissioners could not agree on the terms of' settlement, the fighting was renewed at Molino Del Rey, and the Heights of Chapultepec were carried by the victorious army of General Scott. He gave the enemy no respite, however, and vigorously followed up his advantages. On September 14, he entered the City of Mexico and dictated the terms of surrender in the very heart of the Mexican Republic. General Scott was offered the presidency of the Mexican Republic, but declined. Congress extended him a vote of thanks and ordered a gold medal be struck in honor of his generalship and bravery. He was candidate for the presidency on the Whig plat form but was defeated. He was honored by having the title of lieutenant-general conferred upon him in 1 85 5 . At the beginning of the Civil war he was too infirm to take charge of the army, but did signal service in behalf of the government. He retired from the service November 1, 1861, and in 1864 he published his "Autobiography." General Scott died at West Point, May 29, 1866

EDWARD EVERETT HALE for many years occupied a high place among the most honored of America's citizens. As a preacher he ranks among the foremost in the New England states, but to the gen - eral public he is best known through his writings. Born in Boston, Mass., April 3,

1822, a descendant of one of the most prominent New England families, he enjoyed in his youth many of the advantages denied the majority of boys. He received his preparatory schooling at the Boston Latin School, after which he finished his studies at Harvard where he was graduated with high honors in 1839. Having studied theology at home, Mr. Hale embraced the ministry and in 1846 became pastor of a Unitarian church in Worcester, Massachusetts, a post which he occupied about ten years. He then, in 1856, became pastor of the South Congregational church in Boston, over which he presided many years.

Mr. Hale also found time to write a great many literary works of a high class. Ymong many other well-known productions af his are " The Rosary," " Margaret Percival in America," "Sketches of Christian distory," "Kansas and Nebraska," "Letters on Irish Emigration," " Ninety Days' Worth of Europe," " If, Yes, and Perhaps," "Ingham Papers," "Reformation," "Level Best and Other Stories, " "Ups and Downs, " "Christmas Eve and Christmas Day," " In His Name, " ' ' Our New Crusade, " 1 ' Workingmen's Homes," " Boys' Heroes," etc., etc., besides many others which might be mentioned. One of his works, " In His Name," has earned itself enduring fame by the good deeds it has called forth. The numerous associations known as ' 'The King's Daughters," which has accomplished much good, owe their existence to the story mentioned.

AVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT stands pre-eminent as one of the greatest naval officers of the world. He was born at Campbell's Station, East Tennessee, July 5, 1801, and entered the navy of the United States as a midshipman. He had the good fortune to serve under Captain David Porter, who commanded the " Essex," and by whom he was taught the ideas of devotion to duty from which he never swerved during all his career. In 1823 Mr. Farragut took part in a severe fight, the result of which was the suppression of piracy in the West Indies. He then entered upon the regular duties of his profession which was only broken into by a year's residence with Charles Folsom, our consul at Tunis, who was afterwards a distinguished professor at Harvard. Mr. Farragut was one of the best linguists in the navy. He had risen through the different grades of the service until the war of 1861-65 found him a captain residing at Norfolk, Virginia. He removed with his family to Hastings, on the Hudson, and hastened to offer his services to the Federal government, and as the capture of New Orleans had been resolved upon, Farragut was chosen to command the expedition. His force consisted of the West Gulf blockading squadron and Porter's mortar flotilla. In January, 1862, he hoisted his pennant at the mizzen peak of the "Hartford" at Hampton roads, set sail from thence on the 3rd of February and reached Ship Island on the 20th of the same month. A council of war was held on the 20th of April, in which it was decided that whatever was to be done must be done quickly. The signal was made from the flagship and accordingly the fleet weighed anchor at 1:55 on the morning of April 24th, and at 3:30 the whole force was under way. The history of this brilliant struggle is well known, and the glory ofit madeFarragut a hero and also made him rear admiral. In the summer of 1 862 he ran the batteries at Vicksburg, and on March 14, 1863, he passed through the fearful and destructive fire from Port Hudson, and opened up communication with Flag-officer Porter,, who had control of the upper Mississippi. On May 24th he commenced active operations against that fort in conjunction with the army and it fell on July 9th. Mr. Farragut filled the measure of his fame on the 5th of August, 1864, by his great victory, the capture of Mobile Bay and the destruction of the Confederate fleet, including the formidable ram Tennessee. For this victory the rank of admiral was given to Mr. Farragut. He died at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August 4, 1870.

GEORGE W. CHILDS, a philanthropist whose remarkable personality stood for the best and highest type of American citizenship, and whose whole life was an object lesson in noble living, was born in 1829 at Baltimore, Maryland, of humble parents, and spent his early life in unremitting toil. He was a self-made man in the fullest sense of the word, and gained his great wealth by his own efforts. He was a man of very great influence, and this, in conjunction with his wealth, would have been, in the hands of other men, a means of getting them political preferment, but Mr. Childs steadily declined any suggestions that would bring him to figure prominently in public affairs. He did not choose to found a financial dynasty, but devoted all his powers to the helping of others, with the most enlightened beneficence and broadest sympathy. Mr. Childs once remarked that his greatest pleasure in life was in doing good to others. He always despised meanness, and one of his objects of life was to prove that a man could be liberal and successful at the same time. Upon these lines Mr. Childs made a name for himself as the director of one of the representative newspapers of America, ' ' The Philadelphia Public Ledger," which was owned jointly by himself and the Drexel estate, and which he edited for thirty years. He acquired control of the paper at a time when it was being published at a heavy loss, set it upon a firm basis of prosperity, and he made it more than a money-making machine - he made it respected as an exponent of the best side of journalism, and it stands as a monument to his sound judgment and upright business principles. Mr. Childs' charitable repute brought him many applications for assistance, and he never refused to help any one that was deserving of aid; and not only did he help those who asked, but he would by careful inquiry find those who needed aid but were too proud to solicit it. He was a considerable employer of labor and his liberality was almost unparalleled The death of this great and good man occurred February 3d, 1894.

PATRICK HENRY won his way to undying fame in the annals of the early history of the United States by introducing into the house of burgesses his famous resolution against the Stamp Act, which he carried through, after a stormy debate, by a majority of one. At this time he exclaimed " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell and George III " (here he was interrupted by cries of " treason ") " may profit by their example. If this be treason make the most of it."

Patrick Henry was born at Studley, Hanover county, Virginia, May 29, 1736, and was a son of Colonel John Henry, a magistrate and school teacher of Aberdeen, Scotland, and a nephew of Robertson, the historian. He received his education from his father, and was married at the age of eighteen. He was twice bankrupted before he had reached his twenty-fourth year, when after six weeks of study he was admitted to the bar. He worked for three years without a case and finally was applauded for his plea for the people's rights and gained immense popularity. After his famous Stamp Act resolution he was the leader of the patriots in Virginia. In 1769 he was admitted to practice in the general courts and speedily won a fortune by his distinguished ability as a speaker. He was the first speaker of the General Congress at Philadelphia in 1774. He was for a time a colonel of militia in 1775, and from 1776 to 1779 and 1781 to 1786 he was governor of Virginia. For a number of years h.e retired from public life and was tendered and declined a number of important political offices, and in March, 1789, he was elected state senator but aid not take his seat on account of his death which occurred at Red Hill, Charlotte county, Virginia, June 6, 1799.

general and traitor of the Revolutionary war, is one of the noted characters in American history. He was born in Norwich, Connecticut, January 3, 1740. He ran away and enlisted in the army when young, but deserted in a short time. He then became a merchant at New Haven, Connecticut, but failed. In 1775 he was commissioned colonel in the Massachusetts militia, and in the autumn of that year was placed in command of one thousand men for the invasion of Canada. He marched his army through the forests of Maine and joined General Montgomery before Quebec. Their combined forces attacked that city on December 31, 1775, and Montgomery was killed, and Arnold, severely wounded, was compelled to retreat and endure a rigorous winter a few miles from the city, where they were at the mercy of the Canadian troops had they cared to attack them. On his return he was raised to the rank of brigadiergeneral. He was given command of a small flotilla on Lake Champlain, with which he encountered an immense force, and though defeated, performed many deeds of valor. He resented the action of congress in promoting a number of his fellow officers and neglecting himself. In 1777 he was made major-general, and under General Gates at Bemis Heights fought valiantly. For some reason General Gates found fault with his conduct and ordered him under arrest, and he was kept in his tent until the battle of Stillwater was waxing hot, when Arnold mounted his horse and rode to the front of his old troop, gave command to charge, and rode like a mad man into the thickest of the fight and was not overtaken by Gates' courier until he had routed the enemy and fell wounded. Upon his recovery he was made general, and was placed in command at Philadelphia. Here he married, and his acts of rapacity soon resulted in a courtmartial. He was sentenced to be reprimanded by the commander-in-chief, and though Washington performed this duty with utmost delicacy and consideration, it was never forgiven. Arnold obtained command at West Point, the most important post held by the Americans, in 1780, and immediately offered to surrender it to Sir Henry Clinton, British commander at New York. Major Andre was gent to arrange details with Arnold, but on his return trip to New York he was captured by Americans, the plot was detected, and Andre suffered the death penalty as a spy. Arnold escaped, and was paid about $40,000 by the British for his treason and was made brigadier-general. He afterward commanded an expedition that plundered a portion of Virginia, and another that burned New London, Connecticut, and captured Fort Trum- bull, the commandant of which Arnold murdered with the sword he had just surrendered. He passed the latter part of his life in England, universally despised, and died in London June 14, 1801.

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, one of the most brilliant orators that America has produced, also a lawyer of considerable merit, won most of his fame as a lecturer. Mr. Ingersoll was born August 24, 1833, at Dryden, Gates county, New York, and received his education in the common schools. He went west at the age of twelve, and for a short time he attended an academy in Tennessee, and also taught school in that state. He began the practice of law in the southern part of Illinois in 1854. Colonel Ingcrsoll's principal fame was made in the lecture room by his lectures in which he ridiculed religious faith and creeds and criticised the Bible and the Christian religion. He was the orator of the day in the Decoration Day celebration in the city of New York in 1882 and his oration was widely commended. He first attracted political notice in the convention at Cincinnati in 1876 by his brilliant eulogy on James G. Blaine. He practiced law in Peoria, Illinois, for a number of years, but later located in the city of New York. He published the following: "The Gods and other Lectures;" "The Ghosts;" "Some Mistakes of Moses;"

' ' What Shall I Do To Be Saved;" ' ' Interviews on Talmage and Presbyterian Catechism ;" The "North American Review Controversy;" "Prose Poems;" " A Vision of War;" etc.

Joseph Eccleston Johnston

JOSEPH ECCLESTON JOHNSTON, a noted general in the Confederate army, was born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, in 1807. He graduated from West Point and entered the army in 1829. For a number of years his chief service was garrison duty. He saw active service, however, in the Seminole war in Florida, part of the time as a staff officer of General Scott. He resigned his commission in 1837, but returned to the army a year later, and was brevetted captain for gallant services in Florida. He was made first lieutenant of topographical engineers, and was engaged in river and harbor improvements and also in the survey of the 'Texas boundary and the northern boundary of the United States until the beginning of the war with-Mexico. He was at the siege of Vera Cruz, and at the battle of Cerro Gordo was wounded while reconnoitering the enemy's position, after which he was brevetted major and colonel. He was in all the battles about the city of Mexico, and was again wounded in the final assault upon that city. After the Mexican war closed he returned to duty as captain of topographical engineers, but in 1855 he was made lieutenant-colonel of cavalry and did frontier duty, and was appointed inspector-general of the expedition to Utah. In ] 860 he was appointed quartermaster-general with rank of brigadiergeneral. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1861 he resigned his commission and received the appointment of major-general of the Confederate army. He held Harper's Ferry, and later fought General Patterson about Winchester. At the battle of Bull Run he declined command in favor of 'Beauregard, and acted under that general's directions. He commanded the Confederates in the famous Peninsular campaign, and was severely wounded at Fair Oaks and was succeeded in command by General Lee. Upon his recovery he was made lieutenantgeneral and assigned to the command of the southwestern department. He attempted to raise the siege of Vicksburg, and was finally defeated at Jackson, Mississippi. Having been made a general he succeeded General Bragg in command of the army of Tennessee and was ordered to check General Sherman's advance upon Atlanta. Not daring to risk a battle with the overwhelming forces of Sherman, he slowly retreated toward Atlanta, and was relieved of command by Fresident Davis and succeeded by General Hood. Hood utterly destroyed his own army by three furious attacks upon Sherman. Johnston was restored to command in the Carolinas, and again faced Sherman, but was defeated in several engagements and continued a slow retreat toward Richmond. Hearing of Lee's surrender, he communicated with General Sherman, and finally surrendered his army at Durham, North Carolina, April 26, 1865.

General Johnston was elected a member of the forty-sixth congress and was appointed United States railroad commissioner in 1885. His death occurred March 21, 1891.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS, known throughout the civilized world as "Mark Twain," is recognized as one of the greatest humorists America has produced. He was born in Monroe county, Missouri, November 30, 1835. Hespenthis boyhood days in his native state and many of his earlier experiences are related in various forms in his later writings. One of his early acquaintances, Capt. Isaiah Sellers, at an early day furnished river news for the New Orleans " Picayune ," using the nomde- plume of "Mark Twain." Sellers died in 1 863 and Clemens took up his nom-deplume and made it famous throughout the world by his literary work. In 1862 Mr. Clemens became a journalist at Virginia,

Nevada, and afterward followed the same profession at San Francisco and Buffalo, New York. He accumulated a fortune from the sale of his many publications, but in later years engaged in business enterprises, particularly the manufacture of a typesetting machine, which dissipated his fortune and reduced him almost to poverty, but with resolute heart he at once again took up his pen and engaged in literary work in the effort to regain his lost ground. Among the best known of his works may be mentioned the following: ' ' The Jumping Frog, " ' ' Tom Sawyer," " Roughing it," " Innocents Abroad," "Huckleberry Finn," "Gilded Age," "Prince and Pauper," "Million Pound Bank Note," "A Yankee in King Arthur's Court, " etc.

CHRISTOPHER CARSON, better known as "Kit Carson was an American trapper and scout who gained a wide reputation for his frontier work. He was a native of Kentucky, born December 24th, 1809. He grew to manhood there, developing a natural inclination for adventure in the pioneer experiences in his native state. When yet a young man he became quite well known on the frontier. He served as a guide to Gen. Fremont in his Rocky Mountain explorations and enlisted in the army. He was an officer in the United States service in both the Mexican war and the great Civil war, and in the latter received a brevet of brigadier-general for meritorious service. His death occurred May 23, 1868.

JOHN SHERMAN. - Statesman, politician, cabinet officer and senator, the name of the gentleman who heads this sketch is almost a household word throughout this country. Identified with some of the most

John Sherman was born at Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio, May 10th, 1823, the son of Charles R. Sherman, an eminent lawyer and judge of the supreme court of Ohio and who died in 1829. The subject of this article received an academic education and was admitted to the bar in 1844. In the Whig conventions of 1844 and 1848 he sat as a delegate. He was a member of the National house of representatives, from 1855 to 1861. In i860 he was reelected to the same position but was chosen United States senator before he took his seat in the lower house. He was re-elected senator in 1866 and 1872 and was long chairman of the committee on finance and on agriculture. He took a prominent part in debates on finance and on the conduct of the war, and was one of the authors of the reconstruction measures in 18 66 and 1867, and was appointed secretary of the treasury March 7th, 1877.

Mr. Sherman was re-elected United States senator from Ohio January 1 8th , r88i, and again in 1886 and 1892, during which time he was regarded as one of the most prominent leaders of the Republican party, both in the senate and in the country. He was several times the favorite of his state for the nomination for president.

On the formation of his cabinet in March, 1897, President McKinley tendered the position of secretary of state to Mr. Sherman, which was accepted.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, ninth president of the United States, was born in Charles county, Virginia, February 9. 1773, the son of Governor Benjamin

Harrison. He took a course in Hampden- Sidney College with a view to the practice of medicine, and then went to Philadelphia to study under Dr. Rush, but in 1791 he entered the army, and obtained the commission of ensign, was soon promoted to the lieutenancy, and was with General Wayne in his war against the Indians. For his valuable service he was promoted to the rank of captain and given command of Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. He was appointed secretary of the Northwest Territory in 1797, and in 1799 became its representative in congress. In 1801 he was appointed governor of Indiana Territory, and held the position for twelve years, during which time he negotiated important treaties with the Indians, causing them to relinquish millions of acres of land, and also won the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Pie succeeded in obtaining a change in the law which did not permit purchase of public lands in less tracts than four thousand acres, reducing the limit to three hundred and twenty acres. He became major-general of Kentucky militia and brigadier-general in the United States army in 1812, and won great renown in the defense of Fort Meigs, and his victory over the British and Indians under Proctor and Tecumseh at the Thames river, October 5, 1813-

In 1816 General Harrison was elected to congress from Ohio, and during the canvass was accused of corrupt methods in regard to the commissariat of the army. He demanded an investigation after the election and was exonerated. In 1819 he was elected to the Ohio state senate, and in 1824 he gave his vote as a presidential elector to Henry Clay. He became a member of the United States senate the same year. During the last year of Adams' administration he was sent as minister to Colombia, but was re- called by President Jackson the following year. He then retired to his estate at North Bend, Ohio, a few miles below Cincinnati. In 1836 he was a candidate for the presidency, but as there were three other candidates the votes were divided, he receiving seventythree electoral votes, a majority going to Mr. Van Buren, the Democratic candidate. Four years later General Harrison was again nominated by the Whigs, and elected by a tremendous majority. The campaign was noted for its novel features, many of which have found a permanent place in subsequent campaigns. Those peculiar to that campaign, however, were the " log-cabin" and " hard cider" watchwords, which produced great enthusiasm among his followers. One month after his inauguration he died from an attack of pleurisy, April 4, 1841.

CHARLES A. DANA, the well-known and widely-read journalist of New York City, a native of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, was born August 8, 1819. He received the elements of a good education in his youth and studied for two years at Harvard University. Owing to some disease of the eyes he was unable to complete his course and graduate, but was granted the degree of A. M. notwithstanding. For some time he was editor of the " Harbinger," and was a regular contributor to the Boston " Chronotype." In 1847 he became connected with the New York " Tribune, " and continued on the staff of that journal until 1858. In the latter year he edited and compiled "The Household Book of Poetry," and later, in connection with George Ripley, edited the "New American Cyclopaedia."

Mr. Dana, on severing his connection with the " Tribune " in 1867, became editor of the New York "Sun," a paper with which he was identified for many years, and which he made one of the leaders of thought in the eastern part of the United States. Pie wielded a forceful pen and fearlessly attacked whatever was corrupt and unworthy in politics, state or national. The same year, 1867, Mr. Dana organized the New York " Sun " Company.

During the troublous days of the war, when the fate of the Nation depended upon the armies in the field, Mr. Dana accepted the arduous and responsible position of assistant secretary of war, and held the position during the greater part of 1863 and 1864. He died October 17, 1897.

ASA GRAY was recognized throughout the scientific world as one of the ablest and most eminent of botanists. He was born at Paris, Oneida county, New York, November 18, 1810. He received his medical degree at the Fairfield College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Herkimer county, New York, and studied botany with the late Professor Torrey, of New York. He was appointed botanist to the Wilkes expedition in 1834, but declined the offer and became professor of natural history in Harvard University in 1842. He retired from the active duties of this post in 1873, and in 1874 he was the regent of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, District of Columbia.

Dr. Gray wrote several books on the subject of the many sciences of which he was master. In 1836 he published his "Elements of Botany," " Manual of Botany" in 1848; the unfinished "Flora of North America," by himself and Dr. Torrey, the publication of which commenced in 1838. There is another of his unfinished works called "Genera Boreaii-Americana, " published in 1848, and .the "Botany of the United States Pacific Exploring Expedition in ] 854." He wrote many elaborate papers on the botany of the west and southwest that were published in the Smithsonian Contributions, Memoirs, etc., of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which institution he was president for ten years. He was also the author of many, of the government reports. ' ' How Plants Grow, " " Lessons in Botany," " Structural and Systematic Botany, " are also works from his ready pen.

Dr. Gray published in 1861 his "Free Examination of Darwin's Treatise " and his " Darwiniana," in 1876. Mr. Gray was elected July 29, 1878, to a membership in the Institute of France, Academy of Sciences. His death occurred at Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 30, 1889.

ILLIAM MAXWELL EVARTS was one of the greatest leaders of the American bar. He v/as born in Boston, Massachusetts, February 6, 1818, and graduated from Yale College in 1837. He took up the study of law, which he practiced in the city of New York and won great renown as an orator and advocate. He affiliated with the Republican party, which he joined soon after its organization. He was the leading counsel employed for the defense of President Johnson in his trial for impeachment before the senate in April and May of 1868.

In July, 1868, Mr. Evarts was appointed attorney-general of the United States, and served until March 4, 1869. He was one of the three lawyers who were selected by President Grant in 1871 to defend the interests of the citizens of the United States before the tribunal of arbitration which met at Geneva in Switzerland to settle the controversy over the " Alabama Claims." public addresses have been preserved and published. He was appointed secretary of state March 7, 1877, by President Hayes, and served during the Hayes administration. He was elected senator from the state of New York January 21, 1885, and at once took rank among the ablest statesmen in Congress, and the prominent part he took in the discussion of public questions gave him a national reputation.

OHN WANAMAKER. - The life of this great merchant demonstrates the fact that the great secret of rising from the ranks is, to-day, as in the past ages, not so much the -ability to make money, as to save it, or in other words, the ability to live well within one's income. Mr. Wanamaker was born in Philadelphia in 1838. He started out in life working in a brickyard for a mere pittance, and left that position to work in a book store as a clerk, where he earned the sum of $5.00 per month, and later on was in the employ of a clothier where he received twenty-five cents a week more. He was only fifteen years of age at that time, but was a " money-getter " by instinct, and laid by a small sum for a possible rainy day. By strict attention to business, combined with natural ability, he was promoted many times, and at the age of twenty he had saved $2,000. After several months vacation in the south, he returned to Philadelphia and became a master brick mason, but this was too tiresome to the young man, and he opened up the " Oak Hall " clothing store in April, 1861, at Philadelphia. The capital of the firm was rather limited, but finally, after many discouragements, they laid the foundations of one of the largest business houses in the world. The establishment covers at the present writing some fourteen acres of floor space, and furnishes employment for five thousand persons. Mr. Wanamaker was also a great church worker, and built a church that cost him $60,000, and he was superintendent of the Sundayschool, which had a membership of over three thousand children. He steadily refused to run for mayor or congress and the only public office that he ever held was that of postmaster-general, under the Harrison administration, and here he exhibited his extraordinary aptitude for comprehending the details of public business.

DAVID BENNETT HILL, a Democratic politician who gained a national reputation, was born August 29, 1843, at Havana, New York. He was educated at the academy of his native town, and removed to Elmira, New York, in 1862, where he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1864, in which year he was appointed city attorney. Mr. Hill soon gained a considerable practice, becoming prominent in his profession. He developed a taste for politics in which he began to take an active part in the different campaigns and became the recognized leader of the local Democracy. In 1870 he was elected a member of the assembly and was re-elected in 1872. While a member of this assembly he formed the acquaintance of Samuel J. Tilden, afterward governor of the state, who appointed Mr. Hill, W. M. Evarts and Judge Hand as a committee to provide a uniform charter for the different cities of the state. The pressure of professional engagements compelled him to decline to serve. In 1877 Mr. Hill was made chairman of the Democratic state convention at Albany, his election being due to the Tilden wing of the party, and he held the same position again in 1881. He served one term as alderman in Elmira, at the expiration of which term, in 1882, he was elected mayor of Elmira, and in September of the same year was nominated for lieutenant-governor on the Democratic state ticket. He was successful in the campaign and two years later, when firover Cleveland was elected to the presidency, Mr. Hill succeeded to the governorship for the unexpired term. In 1885 he was elected governor for a full term of three years, at the end of which he was reelected, his term expiring in 1891, in which year he was elected United States senator. In the senate he became a conspicuous figure and gained a national reputation.

ALLEN G. THURMAN. - "The noblest Roman of them all " was the title by which Mr. Thurman was called by his compatriots of the Democracy. He was the greatest leader of the Democratic party in his day and held the esteem of all the people, regardless of their political creeds. Mr. Thurman was born November 13, 1813, at Lynchburg, Virginia, where he remained until he had attained the age of six years, when he moved to Ohio. He received an academic education and after graduating, took up the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1835, and achieved a brilliant success in that line. In political life he was very successful, and his first office was that of representative of the state of Ohio in the twenty-ninth congress. He was elected judge of the supreme court of Ohio in 1851, and was chief justice of the same from 1854 to 1856. In 1867 he was the choice of the Democratic party of his state for governor, and was elected to the United States senate in 1869 to succeed Benjamin F. Wade, and was re-elected to the same position in 1874. He was a prominent figure in the senate, until the expiration of his service in 1881. Mr. Thurman was also one of the principal presidental possibilities in the Democratic convention held at St. Louis in 1876. In 1888 he was the Democratic nominee for vice-president on the ticket with Grover Cleveland, but was defeated. Allen Granberry Thurman died December 12, 1895, at Columbus, Ohio.

CHARLES FARRAR BROWNE, better known as " Artemus Ward," was born April 26, 1834, in the village of Waterford, Maine. He was thirteen years old at the time of his father's death, and about a year later he was apprenticed to John M. Rix, who published the " Coos County Democrat " at Lancaster, New Hampshire. Mr. Browne remained with him one year, when, hearing that his brother Cyrus was starting a paper at Norway, Maine, he left Mr. Rix and determined to get work on- the new paper. He worked for his brother until the failure of the newspaper, and then went to Augusta, Maine, where he remained a few weeks and then removed to Skowhegan, and secured a position on the "Clarion." But either the climate or the work was not satisfactory to him, for one night he silently left the town and astonished his good mother by appearing unexpectedly at home. Mr. Browne then received some letters of recommendation to Messrs. Snow and Wilder, of Boston, at whose office Mrs. Partington's (B. P. Shillaber) ' ' Carpet Bag " was printed, and he was engaged and remained there for three years. He then traveled westward in search of employment and got as far as Tiffin, Ohio, where he found employment in the office of the "Advertiser," and remained there some months when he proceeded to Toledo, Ohio, where he became one of the staff of the "Commercial," which position he held until 1857. Mr. Browne next went to Cleveland, Ohio, and became the local editor of the "Plain Dealer," and it was in the columns of this paper that he published his first articles and signed them " Artemus Ward." In i860 he went to New York and became the editor of " Vanity Fair," but the idea of lecturing here seized him, and he was fully determined to make the trial. Mr. Browne brought out his lecture, "Babes in the Woods" at Clinton Hall, December 23, 1861, and in 1862 he published his first book entitled, " Artemus Ward ; His Book." He attained great fame as a lecturer and his lectures were not confined to America, for he went to England in 1866, and became exceedingly popular, both as a lecturer and a contributor to "Punch." Mr. Browne lectured for the last time January 23, 1867. He died in Southampton, England, March 6, 1867.

THURLOW WEED, a noted journalist and politician, was born in Cairo, New York, November 15, 1797. He learned the printer's trade at the age of twelve years, and worked at this calling for several years in various villages in central New York. He served as quartermaster-sergeant during the war of 1812. In 1818 he established the "Agriculturist," at Norwich, New York, and became editor of the "Anti-Masonic Enquirer," at Rochester, in 1826. In the same year he was elected to the legislature and re-elected in 1830, when he located in Albany, New York, and there started the ' * Evening Journal, " and conducted it in opposition to the Jackson administration and the nullification doctrines of Calhoun. He became an adroit party manager, and was instrumental in promoting the nominations of Harrison, Taylor and Scott for the presidency. In 1856 and' in i860 he threw his support to W. H. Seward, but when defeated in his object, he gave cordial support to

Fremont and Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln prevailed upon him to visit the various capitals of Europe, where he proved a valuable aid tc the administration in moulding the opinions of the statesmen of that continent favorable to the cause of the Union.

Mr. Weed's connection with the ' ' Evening Journal " was severed in 1862, when he settled in New York, and for a time edited the "Commercial Advertiser." In 1868 he retired from active life. His " Letters from Europe and the West Indies," published in 1866, together with some interesting ' ' Reminiscences, " published in the "Atlantic Monthly," in 1870, an autobiography, and portions of an extensive correspondence will be of great value to writers of the political history of the United States. Mr. Weed died in New York, November 22, 1882.

William Collins Whitney

WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY, one of the prominent Democratic politicians of the country and ex-secretary of the navy, was born July 5th, 1841, at Conway, Massachusetts, and received his education at Williston Seminary, East Hampton, Massachusetts. Later he attended Yale College, where he graduated in 1863, and entered the Harvard Law School, which he left in 1864. Beginning practice in New York city, he soon gained a reputation as an able lawyer. He made his first appearance in public affairs in 1871, when he was active in organizing a young men's Democratic club. In 1872 he was the recognized leader of the county Democracy and in 1875 was appointed corporation counsel for the city of New York. He resigned the office, 1882, to attend to personal interests and on March 5, 1885, he was appointed secretary of the navy by President Cleveland. Under his administration the navy of the United States rapidly rose in rank among the navies of the world. When he retired from office in 1889, the vessels of the United States navy designed and contracted for by him were five double-turreted monitors, two new armor-clads, the dynamite cruiser "Vesuvius," and five unarmored steel and iron cruisers.

EDWIN FORREST, the first and greatest American tragedian, was born in Philadelphia in 1806. His father was a tradesman, and some accounts state that he had marked out a mercantile career for his son, Edwin, while others claim that he had intended him for the ministry. His wonderful memory, his powers of mimicry and his strong musical voice, however, attracted attention before he was eleven years old, and at that age he made his first appearance on the stage. The costume in which he appeared was so ridiculous that he left the stage in a fit of anger amid a roar of laughter from the audience. This did not discourage him, however, and at the age of fourteen, after some preliminary training in elocution, he appeared again, this time as Young Norvel, and gave indications of future greatness. Up to 1826 he played entirely with strolling companies through the south and west, but at that time he obtained an engagement at the Bowery Theater in New York. From that time his fortune was made. His manager paid him $40 per night, and it is stated that he loaned Forrest to other houses from time to time at $200 per night. His great successes were Virginius, Damon, Othello, Coriolanus, William Tell, Spartacus and Lear. He made his first appearance in London in 1836, and his success was unquestioned from the start. In 1845, on his second appearance in London, he became involved in a bitter rivalry with the great English actor, Macready, who had visited America two years before. The result was that Forrest was hissed from the stage, and it was charged that Macready had instigated the plot. Forrest's resentment was so bitter that he himself openly hissed Macready from his box a few nights later. In 1848 Macready again visited America at a time when American admiration and enthusiasm for Forrest had reached its height. Macready undertook to play at Astor Place Opera House in May, 1849, but was hooted off the stage. A few nights later Macready made a second attempt to play at the same house, thistime under police protection. The house was filled with Macready'sfriends, but the vioolence of the mob outside stopped the play, and the actor barely escaped with his life. Upon reading the riot act the police and troops were assaulted with stones. The troops replied, first with blank cartridges, and then a volley of lead dispersed the mob, leaving thirty men dead or seriously ' wounded.

After this incident Forrest's popularity waned, until in 1855 he retired from the stage. He re-appeared in i860, however, and probably the most remunerative period of his life was between that date and the close of the Civil war. His last appearance on the stage was at the Globe Theatre, Boston, in Richelieu, in April, 1872, his death occurring December 12 of that year.

one of the most noted educators, authors and scientific writers of the United States. He was born December 14, 18 11, at Farmington, Connecticut, graduated at Yale College in 1831, and was master of Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven in

1 83 1: - 3 3 . During 1833-35 he was a tutor at Yale, and at the same time was pursuing his theological studies, and became pastor of the Congregational church at New Milford, Connecticut, in April, 1836. Dr. Porter removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1843, and was chosen professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy at Yale in 1846. He spent a year in Germany in the study of modern metaphysics in 185 3 - 54, and in 1871 he was elected president of Yale College. He resigned the presidency in 1885, but still remained professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy. He was the author of a number of works, among which are the following: " Historical Essay," written in commemorationofthe 200th aniversary of the settlement of the town of Farmington; " Educational System of the Jesuits Compared;" "The Human Intellect," with an introduction upon psychology and the soul; " Books and Reading;" "American Colleges and the American Public;" " Elementsof Intellectual Philosophy;" " The Science of Nature versus the Science of Man;" "Science and Sentiment;" "Elements of Moral Science." Dr. Porter was the principal editor of the revised edition of Webster's Dictionary in 1864, and contributed largely to religious reviews and periodicals. Dr. Porter's death occurred March 4, 1892, at New Haven, Connecticut.

JOHN TYLER, tenth president of the United States, was born in Charles City county, Virginia, March 29, 1790, and was the son of Judge John Tyler, one of the most distinguished men of his day.

When but twelve jrnars of age young John Tyler entered William and Mary College, graduating from there in 1806. He took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1809, when but nineteen years of age. On attaining his majority in 1 8 1 1 he was elected a member of the state legislature, and for five years held that position by the almost unanimous vote of his county. He was elected to congress in 1 8 1 6, and served in that body for four years, after which for two years he represented his district again in the legislature of the state. While in congress, he opposed the United States bank, the protective policy and interna] improvements by the United States government. 1825 saw Mr. Tyler governor of Virginia, but in 1827 he was chosen member of the United States senate, and held that office for nine years. He therein opposed the administration of Adams and the tariff bill of 1828, sympathized with the nullifers of South Carolina and was the only senator who voted against the Force bill for the suppression of that state's insipient rebellion. He resigned his position as senator on account of a disagreement with the legislature of his state in relation to his censuring President Jackson. He retired to Williamsburg, Virginia, but being regarded as a martyr by the Whigs, whom, heretofore, he had always opposed, was supported by many of that party for the vice-presidency in 1836. He sat in the Virginia legislature as a Whig in 1839-40, and was a delegate to the convention of that party in 1879. This national convention nominated him for the second place on the ticket with General William H. H. Harrison, and he was elected vice-president in November, 1840. President Harrison dying one month after his inauguration, he was succeeded by John Tyler. He retained the cabinet chosen by his predecessor, and for a time moved in harmony with the Whig party. He finally instructed the secretary of the treasury, Thomas Ewing, to submit to congress a bill for the incorporation of .a fiscal bank of the

United States, which was passed by congress, but vetoed by the president on account of some amendments he considered unconstitutional. For this and other measures he was accused of treachery to his party, and deserted by his whole cabinet, except Daniel Webster. Things grew worse until he was abandoned by the Whig party formally, when Mr. Webster resigned. He was nominated at Baltimore, in May, 1844, at the Democratic convention, as their pres- f idential candidate, but withdrew from the canvass, as he saw he had not succeeded in gaining the confidence of his old party. He then retired from politics until February, 1861, when he was made president of the abortive peace congress, which met in Washington. He shortly after renounced his allegiance to the United States and was elected a member of the Confeder- j ate congress. He died at Richmond, January 1 7, 1862.

Mr. Tyler married, in 1813, Miss Letitia Christian, who died in 1842 at Washington. June 26, 1844, he contracted a second marriage, with Miss Julia Gardner, of New York. *

Collis Potter Huntington

COLLIS POTTER HUNTINGTON, one of the great men of his time and who has left his impress upon the history of our national development, was born October 22, 1821, at Harwinton, Connecticut.

He received a common-school education and at the age of fourteen his spirit of getting along in the world mastered his educational propensities and his father's objections and he left school. He went to California in the early days and had opportunities which he handled masterfully. Others had the same opportunities but they did yot have his brains nor his energy, and it was he who I overcame obstacles and reaped the reward of his genius. Transcontinental railways were inevitable, but the realization of this masterful achievement would have been delayed to a much later day if there had been no Huntington. He associated himself with Messrs. Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker, and they furnished the money necessary for a survey across the Sierra Nevadas, secured a charter for the road, and raised, with the government's aid, money enough to construct and equip that railway, which at the time of its completion was a marvel of engineering and one of the wonders of the world. Mr. Huntington became president of the Southern Pacific railroad, vice-president of the Central Pacific; trustee of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, and a director of the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company, besides being identified with many other business enterprises of vast importance.

GEORGE A. CUSTER, a famous Indian fighter, was born in Ohio in 1840. He graduated at West Point in 1861, anserved in the Civil war; was at Bull Run id 1861, and was in the Peninsular campaign, being one of General McClellan's aides-de, camp. He fought in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam in 1863, and was with General Stoneman on his famous cavalry raid. He was engaged in the battle of Gettysburg, and was there made brevetmajor. In 1863 was appointed brigadiergeneral of volunteers. General Custer was in many skirmishes in central Virginia in 1863-64, and was present at the following battles of the Richmond campaign: Wilderness, Todd's Tavern, Yellow Tavern, where he wasbrevetted lieutenant-colonel ; Meadow Bridge, Haw's Shop, Cold Harbor, Trevillian Station. In the Shenandoah Valley 1 864 -65 he was brevetted colonel at Opequan Creek, and at Cedar Creek he was made brevet major-general for gallant conduct during the engagement. General Custer was in command of a cavalry division in the pursuit of Lee's army in 1865, and fought at Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks, where he was made brevet brigadier-general ; Sailors Creek and Appomattox, where he gained additional honors and was made brevet major-general, and was given the command of the cavalry in the military division of the southwest and Gulf, in 1865. After the establishment of peace he went west on frontier duty and performed gallant and valuable service in the troubles with the Indians. He was killed in the massacre on the Little Big Horn river, South Dakota, June 25, 1876.

Daniel wolsey voorhees, ceibrated as " The Tall Sycamore of the Wabash," was born September 26, 1827, in Butler county, Ohio. When he was two months old his parents removed to Fountain county, Indiana. He grew to manhood on a farm, engaged in all the arduous work pertaining to rural life. In 1845 he entered the Indiana Asbury University, now the De Pauw, from which he graduated in 1849. He took up the study of law at Crawfordsville, and in 1851 began the practice of his profession at Covington, Fountain county, Indiana. He became a law partner of United States Senator Hannegan, of Indiana, in 1852, and in 1856 he was a'n unsuccessful candidate for congress. In the following year he took up his residence in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was United States district attorney for Indiana from 1857 until 1861, and he had during this period been elected to congress, in i860. Mr. Voorhees was re-elected to congress in 1862 and 1864, but he was unsuccessful in the election of 1866. However, he was returned to con- gress in 1868, where he remained until 1874, having been re-elected twice. In 1877 he was appointed United States senator from Indiana to fill a vacancy caused by the death of O. P. Morton, and at the end of the term was elected for the ensuing term, being reelected in 1885 and in 1891 to the same office. He served with distinction on many of the committees, and took a very prominent part in the discussion of all the important legislation of his time. His death occurred in August, 189 .

Alexander graham bell, famous as one of the inventors of the telephone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 3rd, 1847. He received his early education in the high school and later he attended the university, and was specially trained to follow his grandfather's profession, that of removing impediments of speech. He emigrated to the United States in 1872, and introduced into this country his father's invention of visible speech in the institutions for deaf-mutes. Later he was appointed professor of vocal physiology in the Boston University. He worked for many years during his leisure hours on his telephonic discovery, and finally perfected it and exhibited it publicly, before it had reached the high state of perfection to which he brought it. His first exhibition of it was at the Centennial Exhibition that was held in Philadelphia in 1876. Its success is now established throughout the civilized world. In 1882 Prof. Bell received a diploma and the decoration of the Legion of Honor from the Academy of Sciences of France.

William Hickling Prescott

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, the justly celebrated historian and author, was a native of Salem, Massachusetts, and was born May 4, 1796. He was

Our subject in 1808 removed with the family to Boston, in the schools of which city he received his early education. He entered Harvard College as a sophomore in 1 8 1 1 , having been prepared at the private classical college of Rev. Dr. J. S. J. Gardijner. The following year he received an inury in his left eye which made study through life a matter of difficulty. He graduated in 1814 with high honors in the classics and belle lettres. He spent several months on the Azores Islands, and later visited England, France and Italy, returning home in 1817. In June, 1818, he founded a social and literary club at Boston for which he edited "The Club Room," a periodical doomed to but a short life. May 4, 1820, he married Miss Susan Amory. He devoted several years after that event to a thorough study of ancient and modern history and literature. As the fruits of his labors he published several well written essays upon French and Italian poetry and romance in the " North American Review." January 19, 1826, he decided to take up his first great historical work,' the " History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella." To this he gave the labor of ten years, publishing the same December 25, 1837. Although placed at the head of all American authors, so diffident was Prescott of his literary merit that although he had four copies of this work printed for his own convenience* he hesitated a long time before giving it to the public, and it was only by the solicitation of friends, especially of that talented Spanish scholar, George Ticknor, that he was induced to do so. Soon the volumes were translated into French, Italian, Dutch and German, and the work was recognized throughout the world as one of the most meritorious of historical compositions. In 1843 he published the "Conquest of Mexico," and in 1847 the "Conquest of Peru." Two years later there came from his pen a volume of " Biographical and Critical Miscellanies." Going abroad in the summer of 1850, he was received with great distinction in the literary circles of London, Edinburgh, Paris, Antwerp and Brussels. Oxford University conferred the degree of D. C. L. upon him. In 1855 he issued two volumes of his "History of the Reign of Philip the Second," and a third in 1858. In the meantime he edited Robertson's "Charles the Fifth," adding a history of the life of that monarch after his abdication. Death cut short his work on the remaining volumes of " Philip the Second," coming to him at Boston, Massachusetts, May 28, 1859.

OLIVER HAZARD PERRY, a noted American commodore, was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, August 23, 1785. He saw his first service as a midshipman in the United States navy in April, 1799. He cruised with his father, Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, in the West Indies for about two years. In 1804 he was in the war against Tripoli, and was made lieutenant in 1807. At the opening of hostilities with Great Britain in 1812 he was given command of a fleet of gunboats on the Atlantic coast. At his request he was transferred, a year later, to Lake Ontario, where he served under Commodore Chauncey, and took an active part in the attack on Fort 'George. He was ordered to fit out a squadron on Lake Erie, which he did, building most of his vessels from the forests along the shore, and by the summer of 1 8 1 3 he had a fleet of nine vessels at Presque Isle, now Erie, Pennsylvania September 10th he attacked and captured the British fleet near Put-in-Bay, thus clearing the lake of hostile ships. His famous dispatch is part of his fame, " We have met the enemy, and they are ours." He co-operated with Gen. Harrison, and the success of the campaign in the northwest was largely due to his victory. The next year he was transferred to the Potomac, and assisted in the defense of Baltimore.- After the war he was in constant service with the various squadrons in cruising in all parts of the world. He died of yellow fever on the Island of Trinidad, August 23, 1819. His remains were conveyed to Newport, and buried there, and an imposing obelisk was erected to his memory by the State of Rhode Island. ' A bronze statue was also erected in his honor, the unveiling taking place in 1885.

JOHN PAUL JONES, though a native cJ of Scotland, was one of America's most noted fighters during the Revolutionary war. He was born July 6, 1747. -His father was a gardener, but the young man soon became interested in a seafaring life and at the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a sea captain engaged in the American trade. His first voyage landed him in Virginia, where he had a brother who had settled there several years prior. The failure of the captain released young Jones from his apprenticeship bonds, and he was engaged as third mate of a vessel engaged in the slave trade. He abandoned this trade after a few years, from his own sense of disgrace. He took passage from Jamaica for Scotland in 1768, and on the voyage both the captain and the mate died and he was compelled to take command of the vessel for the remainder of the voyage. He soon after became master of the vessel. He returned to Virginia about 1773 to settle up the estate of his brother, and at this time added the name "Jones," having previously been known as John Paul. He settled down in Virginia, but when the war broke out in 1775 he offered his services to. congress and was appointed senior lieutenant of the flagship "Alfred," on which he hoisted the American flag with his own hands, the first Vessel that had ever carried a flag of the new nation. He was afterward appointed to the command of the "Alfred," and later of the "Providence," in each of which vessels he did good service, as also in the "Ranger," to the command of which he was later appointed. The fight that made him famous, however, was that in which he captured the " Serapis," off the coast of Scotland. He was then in command of the "Bon Homme Richard, " which had been fitted out for him by the French government and named by Jones in honor of Benjamin Franklin, or " Good Man Richard," Franklin being author of the publication known as " Poor Richard's Almanac." The fight between the " Richard " and the "Serapis" lasted three hours, all of which time the vessels were at close range, and most of the time in actual contact. Jones' vessel was on fire several times, and early in the engagement two of his guns bursted, rendering the battery useless. Also an envious officer of the Alliance, one of Jones' own fleet, opened fire upon the "Richard " at a critical time, completely disabling the vessel. Jones continued the fight, in spite of counsels to surrender, and after dark the " Serapis " struck her colors, and was hastily boarded by Jones and his crew, while the "Richard" sank, bows first, after the wounded had been taken on board the "Serapis." Most of the other vessels of the fleet of which the " Serapis" was convoy, surrendered, and were taken with the

"Serapis" to France, where Jones was received with greatest honors, and the king presented him with an elegant sword and the cross of the Order of Military Merit. Congress gave him a vote of thanks and made him commander of a new ship, the "America," but the vessel was afterward given to France and Jones never saw active sea service again. He came to America again, in 1787, after the close of the war, and was voted a gold medal by congress. He went to Russia and was appointed rear-admiral and rendered service of value against the Turks, but on account of personal enmity of the favorites of the emperor he was retired on a pension. Failing to collect this, he returned to France, where he died, July 18, 1792.

THOMAS MORAN, the well -known painter of Rocky Mountain scenery, was born in Lancashire, England, in 1837. He came to America when a child, and showing artistic tastes, he was apprenticed to a wood engraver in Philadelphia. Three years later he began landscape painting, and his style soon began to exhibit signs of genius. His first works were water-colors, and though without an instructor he began the use of oils, he soon found it necessary to visit Europe, where he gave particular attention to the works of Turner. He joined the Yellowstone Park exploring expedition and visited the Rocky Mountains in- 1871 and again in 1873, making numerous, sketches of the scenery. The most noteworthy results were his "Grand Canon of the Yellowstone," and " The Chasm of the Colorado," which were purchased by congress at $ro,ooo each, the first of which is undoubtedly the finest landscape paintingproduced in this country. Mr. Moran has subordinated art to nature, and the subjects, he has chosen leave little ground for fault finding on that account. "The Mountain of the Holy Cross," "The Groves Were God's First Temples, " ' ' The Cliffs of Green River," " The Children of the Mountain," " The Ripening of the Leaf," and others have given him additional fame, and while they do not equal in grandeur the first mentioned, in many respects from an artistic standpoint they are superior.

L ELAND STANFORD was one of the greatest men of the Pacific coast and also had a national reputation. He was born March 9, 1824, in Albany county, New York, and passed his early life on his father's farm. He attended the local schools of the county and at the age of twenty began the study of law. He entered the law office of Wheaton, Doolittle and Hadley, at Albany, in 1845, and a few years later he moved to Port Washington, Wisconsin, where he practiced law four years with moderate success. In 1852 Mr. Stanford determined to push further west, and, accordingly went to California, where three of his brothers were established in business in the mining towns. They took Leland into partnership, giving him charge of a branch store at Michigan Bluff, in Placer county. There he developed great business ability and four years later started a mercantile house of his own in San Francisco, which soon became one of the most substantial houses on the coast. On the formation of the Republican party he interested himself in politics, and in i860 was sent as a delegate to the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln. In the autumn of 1861 he was elected, by an immense majority, governor of California. Prior to his election as governor he had been chosen president of the newly-organized Central Pacific Railroad Company, and after leaving the executive chair he devoted all of his time to the construction of the Pacific end of the transcontinental railway. May 10, 1869, Mr. Stanford drove the last spike of the Central Pacific road, thus completing the route across the continent. He was also president of the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company. He had but one son, who died of typhoid fever, and as a monument to his child he founded the university which bears his son's name, Leland Stanford, Junior, University. Mr. Stanford gave to this university eightythree thousand acres of land, the estimated value of which is $8,000,000, and the entire endowment is $20,000,000. In 1885 Mr. Stanford was elected United States senator as a Republican, to succeed J. T. Farley, a Democrat, and was re-elected in 1 891 . His death occurred June 20, 1894, at Palo Alto, California.

TEPHEN DECATUR, a famous commodore in the United States navy, was born in Maryland in 1779. He entered the naval service in 1798. In 1804, when the American vessel Philadelphia had been run aground and captured in the harbor of Tripoli, Decatur, at the head of a few men, boarded her and burned her in the face of the guns from the city defenses. For this daring deed he was made captain. He was given command of the frigate United States at the breaking out of the war of 1812, and in October of that year he captured the British frigate Macedonian, and was rewarded with a gold medal by congress. After the close of the war he was sent as commander of a fleet of ten vessels to chastise the dey of Algiers, who was preying upon American commerce with impunity and demanding tribute and ransom for the release of American citizens captured. Decatur captured a number of Algerian vessels, and compelled the dey to sue for peace. He was noted for his daring and intrepidity, and his coolness in the face of danger, and helped to bring the United States navy into favor with the people and congress as a means of defense and offense in time of war. He was killed in a duel by Commodore Barron, March 12, 1820.

TAMES KNOX POLK, the eleventh J president of the United States, 1845 to 1849, was born November 2, 1795, in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, and was the eldest child of a family of six sons. He removed with his father to the Valley of the Duck River, in Tennessee, in 1806. He attended the common schools and became very proficient in the lower branches of education, and supplemented this with a course in the Murfreesboro Academy, which he entered in 1813 and in the autumn of 1815 he became a student in the sophomore class of the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, and was graduated in 1818. He then spent a short time in recuperating his health and then proceeded to Nashville, Tennessee, where he took up the study of law in the office of Felix Grundy. After the completion of his law studies he was admitted to the bar and removed to Columbia, Maury county, Tennessee, and started in the active practice of his profession. Mr. Polk was a Jeffersonian "Republican " and in 1823 he was elected to the legislature of Tennessee. He was a strict constructionist and did not believe that the general government had the power to carry on internal improvements in the states, but deemed it important that it should have that power, and wanted the constitution amended to that effect. But later on he became alarmed lest the general government might become strong enough to abolish slavery and therefore gave his whole support to the " State's Rights" movement, and endeavored to check the centralization of power in the general government. Mr. Polk was chosen a member of congress in 1825, and held that office until 1839. He then withdrew, as he was the successful gubernatorial candidate of his state. He had become a man of great influence in the house, and, as the leader of the Jackson party in that body, weilded great influence in the election of General Jackson to the presidency. He sustained the president in all his measures and still remained in the house after General Jackson had been succeeded by Martin Van Buren. He was speaker of the house during five sessions of congress. He was elected governor of Tennessee by a large majority and took the oath of office at Nashville, October 4, 1839. He was a candidate for re-election but was defeated by Governor Jones, the Whig candidate. In 1844 the most prominent question in the election was the annexation of Texas, and as Mr. Polk was the avowed champion of this cause he was nominated for president by the proslavery wing of the democratic party, was elected by a large majority, and was inaugurated March 4, 1845. President Polk formed a very able cabinet, consisting of James Buchanan, Robert J. Walker, William L. Marcy, George Bancroft, Cave Johnson, and John Y. Mason. The dispute regarding the Oregon boundary was settled during his term of office and a new department was added to the list of cabinet positions, that of the Interior. The low tariff bill of 1846 was carried and the financial system of the country was reorganized. It was also during President Polk's term that the Mexican war was successfully conducted, which resulted in the acquisition of Califor- nia and New Mexico. Mr. Polk retired from the presidency March 4, 1849, after having declined a re-nomination, and was succeeded by General Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican war. Mr. Polk retired to private life, to his home in Nashville, where he died at the age of fifty-four on June 9, 1849.

ANNA DICKINSON (Anna Elizabeth Dickinson), a noted lecturer and public speaker, was born at Philadelphia, October 28, 1842. Pier parents were Quakers, and she was educated at the Friends' free schools in her native city. She early manifested an inclination toward elocution and public speaking, and when, at the age of 18, she found an opportunity to appear before a national assemblage for the discussion of woman's rights, she at once established her reputation as a public speaker. From i860 to the close of the war and during the exciting period of reconstruction, she was one of the most noted and influential speakers before the American public, and her popularity was unequaled by that of any of her sex. A few weeks after the defeat and death of Colonel Baker at Ball's Bluff, Anna Dickinson, lecturing in New York, made the remarkable assertion, " Not the incompetency of Colonel Baker, but the treachery of General McClellan caused the disaster at Ball's Bluff." She was hissed and hooted off the stage. A year later, at the same hall and with much the same class of auditors, she repeated the identical words, and the applause was so great and so long continued that it was impossible to go on with her lecture for more than half an hour. The change of sentiment had been wrought by the reverses and dismissal of McClellan and li is ambition to succeed Mr. Fincoln as president.

Dickinson was not heard of on the lecture platform, and about that time she made an attempt to enter the dramatic profession, but after appearing a number of times in different plays she was pronounced a failure.

OBERT J. BURDETTE. - Some personal characteristics of Mr. Burdette were quaintly given by himself in the following words: "Politics? Republican after the strictest sect. Religion ? Baptist. Personal appearance ? Below medium height, and weigh one hundred and thirty- five pounds, no shillings and no pence. Rich ? Not enough to own a yacht. Favorite reading? Poetry and history - know Longfellow by heart, almost. Write for magizines ? Have more ' declined with thanks ' letters than would fill a trunk. Never able to get into a magazine with a line. Care about it? Mad as thunder. Think about starting a magazine and rejecting everbody's articles except my own." Mr. Burdette was born at Greensborough, Pennsylvania, in 1844. He served through the war of the rebellion under General Banks "on an excursion ticket" as he felicitously described it, "good both ways, conquering in one direction and running in the other, pay going on just the same." He entered into journalism by the gateway of New York correspondence for the "Peoria Transcript," and in 1874 went on the "Burlington Hawkeye" of which he became the managing editor, and the work that he did on this paper made both himself and the paper famous in the world of humor. Mr. Burdette married in 1S70, and his wife, whom he called "Her Little Serene Highness," was to him a guiding light until the day of her death, and it was probably the unconscious pathos with which he described her in his work that broke the barriers that had kept him out of the maga- zines and secured him the acceptance of his "Confessions" by Lippincott some years ago, and brought him substantial fame and recognition in the literary world.

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, one of the leading novelists of the present century and author of a number of works that gained for him a place in the hearts of the people, was born March i, 1837, at Martinsville, Belmont county, Ohio. At the age of three years he accompanied his father, who was a printer, to Hamilton, Ohio, where he learned the printer's trade. Later he was engaged on the editorial staff of the " Cincinnati Gazette " and the ' 1 Ohio State Journal." During 1861-65 he was the United States consul at Venice, and from 1871 to 1878 he was the editor-inchief of the "Atlantic Monthly." As a writer he became one of the most fertile and readable of authors and a pleasing poet. In 1885 he became connected with " Harper's Magazine. " Mr. Howells was author of the list of books that we give below: "Venetian Life," " Italian Journeys, " "No Love Lost," " Suburban Sketches," "Their Wedding Journey," "A Chance Acquaintance," "A Foregone Conclusion," "Dr. Breen's Practice," "A Modern Instance," "The Rise of Silas Lapham," "Tuscan Cities," "Indian Summer," besides many others. He also wrote the " Poem of Two Friends," with J. J. Piatt in i860, and some minor dramas: "The Drawing

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL was a son of the Rev. Charles Lowell, and was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 22, 1819. He graduated at Harvard College in

1838 as class poet, and went to Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated in 1840, and commenced the practice of his profession in Boston, but soon gave his undivided attention to literary labors. Mr. Lowell printed, in 1841, a small volume of poems entitled "A Year's Life," edited with Robert Carter; in 1843, "The Pioneer," a literary and critical magazine (monthly), and in 1848 another book of poems, that contained several directed against slavery. He published in 1844 a volume of "Poems" and in 1845 " Conversations on Some of the Old Poets," "The Vision of Sir Launfal," " A Fable for Critics, " and "The Bigelow Papers," the lattei satirical essays in dialect poetry directed against slavery and the war with Mexico. In 1851-52 he traveled in Europe and resided in Italy for a considerable time, and delivered in 1854-55 a course of lectures on the British poets, before the Lowell Institute, Boston. Mr. Lowell succeeded Longfellow in January, 1855, as professor of modern languages and literature at Harvard College, and spent another year in Em ope qualifying himself for that post. He edited the " Atlantic Monthly " from 1857 to 1862, and the "North American Review" from 1863 until 1872. From 1864 to 1870 he published the following works: "Fireside

Travels," "Under the Willows," "The Commemoration Ode," in honor of the alumni of Harvard who had fallen in the Civil war; "The Cathedral," two volumes of essays; "Among My Books" and "My Study Windows," and in 1867 he published a new series of the " Bigelow Papers." He traveled extensively in Europe in 1872-74, and received in person the degree of D. C. L. at Oxford and that of LL. D. at the University of Cambridge, England. He was also interested in political life and held many important offices. He was United States minister to Spain in 1877 and was also minister to England in 1880-85. On January 2, 1884, he was elected lord rector of St. Andrew University in Glasgow, Scotland, but soon after he resigned the same. Mr. Lowell's works enjoy great popularity in the United States and England. He died August 12, 1891.

JOSEPH HENRY, one of America's greatest scientists, was born at Albany, New York, December 17, 1797. He was educated in the common schools of the city and graduated from the Albany Academy, where he became a professor of mathematics in 1826. In 1827 he commenced a course of investigation, which he continued for a number of years, and the results produced had great effect on the scientific world. The first success was achieved by producing the electric magnet, and he next proved the possibility of exciting magnetic energy at a distance, and it was the invention of Professor Henry's intensity magnet that first made the invention of electric telegraph a possibility. He made a statement regarding the practicability of applying the intensity magnet to telegraphic uses, in his article to the ' 'American Journal of Science " in 1831. During the same year he produced the first mechanical contrivance ever invented for maintaining continuous motion by means of electro-magnetism, and he also contrived a machine by which signals could be made at a distance by the use of his electro-magnet, the signals being produced by a lever striking on a bell. Some of his electro-magnets were of great power, one carried over a ton and another not less than three thousand six hundred pounds. In 1832 he discovered that secondary currents could be produced in a long conductor by the induction of the primary current upon itself, and also in the same year he produced a spark by means of a purely magnetic induction. Professor Henry was elected, in 1 832, professor of natural philosophy in the College of New Jersey, and in his earliest lectures at Princeton, demonstrated the feasibility of the electric telegraph. He visited Europe in 1837, and while there he had an interview with Professor Wheatstone, the inventor of the needle magnetic telegraph. In 1846 he was elected secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, being the first incumbent in that office, which he held until his death. Professor Henry was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1849, and of the National Academy of Sciences. He was made chairman of the lighthouse board of the United States in 1871 and held that position up to the time of his death. He received the honorary degree of doctor of laws from Union College in 1829, and from Harvard University in 1851, and his death occurred May 13, 1878. Among his numerous works may be mentioned the following: "Contributions to Electricity and Magnetism," " American Philosophic Trans, " and many articles in the "American Journal of Science," the journal of the Franklin Institute; the proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in the annual reports of the Smithsonian Institution from its foundation.

rear-admiral of the Confederate navy during the rebellion, was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He became a United States midshipman in 1815 and was promoted through the various grades of the service and became a captain in 1855. Mr. Buchanan resigned his captaincy in order to join the Confederate service in 1S61 and later he asked to be reinstated, but his request was refused and he then entered into the service of the Confederate government. He was placed in command of the frigate " Merrimac " after she had been fitted up as an ironclad, and had command of her at the time of the battle of Hampton Roads. It was he who had command when the " Merrimac" sunk the two wooden frigates, " Congress" and "Cumberland," and was also in command during part of the historical battle of the "Merrimac" and the "Monitor," where he was wounded and the command devolved upon Lieutenant Catesby Jones. He was created rear-admiral in the Confederate service and commanded the Confederate fleet in Mobile bay, which was defeated by Admiral Farragut, August 5, 1864. Mr. Buchanan was in command of the "Tennessee," an ironclad, and during the engagement he lost one of his legs and was taken prisoner in the end by the Union fleet. After the war he settled in Talbot county, Maryland, where he died May 11, 1874.

RICHARD PARKS BLAND, a celebrated American statesman, frequently called "the father of the house," because of his many years of service in the lower house of congress, was born August 19, 1835, near Hartford, Kentucky, where he received a plain academic education. He moved, in 1855, to Missouri, from whence he went overland to California, afterward locating in Virginia City, nowin the state of Nevada, but then part of the territory of Utah. While there he practiced law, dabbled in mines and mining in Nevada and California for several years, and served for a time as treasurer of Carson county, Nevada. Mr. Bland returned to Missouri in 1865, where he engaged in the practice ot law at Rolla, Missouri, and in 1869 removed to Lebanon, Missouri. He began his congressional career in 1873, when he was elected as a Democrat to the forty-third congress, and he was regularly re-elected to every congress after that time up to the fifty-fourth, when he was defeated for re-election, but was returned to the fifty-fifth congress as a Silver Democrat. During all his protracted service, while Mr. Bland was always steadfast in his support of democratic measures, yet he won his special renown as the great advocate cf silver, being strongly in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and on account of his pronounced views was one of the candidates for the presidential nomination of the Democratic party at Chicago in 1896.

FANNY DAVENPORT (F. L. G. Davenport) was of British birth, but she belongs to the American stage. She was the daughter of the famous actor, E. L. Davenport, and was born in London in 1850. She first went on the stage as a child at the Howard Athenaeum, Boston, and her entire life was spent upon the stage. She played children's parts at Burton's old theater in Chambers street, and then, in 1862, appeared as the King of Spain in " Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady." Here she attracted the notice of Augustin Daly, the noted manager, then at the Fifth Avenue theater, who offered her a six weeks' engagement with her father in "London Assurance." She afterwards appeared at the same house in a variety of characters, and her versatility was favorably noticed by the critics. After the burning of the old Fifth Avenue, the present theater of that name was built at Twenty-eighth street, and here Miss Davenport appeared in a play written for her by

Compendium Of Biogra Put

Mr. Daly. She scored a great success. She then starred in this play throughout the country, and was married to Mr. Edwin F. Price, an actor of her company, in 1880. In 1882 she went to Paris and purchased the right to produce' in America Sardou's great emotional play, "Fedora." It was put on at the Fourteenth Street theater in New York, and in it she won popular favor and became one of the most famous actresses of her time.

of the greatest merchants America has produced, was born in Milford, Massachusetts, a son of John Claflin, also a merchant. Young Claflin started his active life as a clerk in his father's store, after having been offered the opportunity of a college education, but with the characteristic promptness that was one of his virtues he exclaimed, "No law or medicine for me." He had set his heart on being a merchant, and when his father retired he and his brother Aaron, and his brother-in-law, Samuel Daniels, conducted the business. Mr. Claflin was not content, however, to run a store in a town like Milford, and accordingly opened a drygoods store at Worcester, with his brother as a partner, but the partnership was dissolved a year later and H. B. Claflin assumed complete control. The business in Worcester had been conducted on orthodox principles, and when Mr. Claflin came there and introduced advertising as a means of drawing trade, he created considerable animosity among the older merchants. Ten years later he was one of the most prosperous merchants. He disposed of his business in Worcester for $30,000, and went to New York to search for a wider field than that of a shopkeeper. Mr. Claflin and William M. Bulkley started in the drygoods business there under the firm name of Bulkley & Claflin, in 1843, and Mr. Bulkley was connected with the firm until 1851, when he retired. A new firm was then formed under the name of Claflin, Mellin & Co. This firm succeeded in founding the largest dry goods house in the world, and after weathering the dangers of the civil war, during which the house came very near going under, and was saved only by the superior business abilities of Mr. Claflin, continued to grow. The sales of the firm amounted to over $72,000,000 a year after the close of the war. Mr. Claflin died November 14, 1885.

CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN (Charlotte Saunders Cushman), one of the most celebrated American actresses, was born in Boston, July 23, 1816. She was descended from one of the earliest Puritan families. Her first attempt at stage work was at the: age of fourteen years in a charitable concert given by amateurs in Boston. From this time her advance to the first place on the American lyric stage was steady, until, in 1835, while singing in New Orleans, she suddenly lost control of her voice so far as relates to singing, and was compelled to retire. She then took up the study for the dramatic stage under the direction of Mr. Barton, the tragedian. She soon after made her debut as " Lady Macbeth." She appeared in New York in September, 1836, and her success was immediate. Her "Romeo" was almost perfect, and she is the only woman that has ever appeared in the part of " Cardinal Wolsey." She at different times acted as support of Forrest and Macready. Her London engagement, secured in 1845, after many and great discouragements, proved an unqualified success.

Her farewell appearance was at Booth's theater, New York, November 7, 1874, in the part of "Lady Macbeth, " and after that performance an Ode by R. H. Stoddard was read, and a body of citizens went upon the stage, and in their name the venerable poet Longfellow presented her with a wreath of laurel with an inscription to the effect that "she who merits the palm should bear it." From the time of her appearance as a modest girl in a charitable entertainment down to the time of final triumph as a tragic queen, she bore herself with as much honor to womanhood as to the profession she represented. Her death occurred in Boston, February 18, 1876. By her profession she acquired a fortune of $600,000.

NEAL DOW, one of the most prominent temperance reformers our country has known, was born in Portland, Me., March 20, 1804. He received his education in the Friends Seminary, at New Bedford, Massachusetts, his parents being members of that sect. After leaving school he pursued a mecrantile and manufacturing career for a number of years. Fie was active in the affairs of his native city, and in 1839 became chief of the fire department, and in 1851 was elected mayor. He was re-elected to the latter office in 1854. Being opposed to the liquor traffic he was a champion of the project of prohibition, first brought forward in 1839 by James Appleton. While serving his first term as mayor he drafted a bill for the "suppression of drinking houses and tippling shops," which he took to the legislature and which was passed without an alteration. In 1858 Mr. Dow was elected to the legislature. On the outbreak of the Civil war he was appointed colonel of the Thirteenth Maine Infantry and accompanied General Butler's expedition to New Orleans.

In 1862 he was made brigadier-general. At the battle of Port Hudson May 27, 1863, he was twice wounded, and taken prisoner. He was confined at Libby prison and Mobile nearly a year, when, being exchanged, he resigned, his health having given way under i the rigors of his captivity. He made several trips to England in the interests of temperance organization, where he addressed large audiences. He was the candidate of the National Prohibition party for the presidency in 1880, receiving about ten thousand \ votes. In 1884 he was largely instrumental in the amendment of the constitution of Maine, adopted by an overwhelming popular vote, which forever forbade the manufacture or sale of any intoxicating beverages, and commanding the legislature to enforce the prohibition. He died October 2, 1897.