YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES If you would understand history, study men Charles Kingsley THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES I 789- 1 894 BY JOHN FISKE, CARL SCHURZ, WILLIAM E. RUSSELL, DANIEL C. GILMAN, WILLIAM WALTER PHELPS, ROBERT C. WINTHROP, GEORGE BANCROFT, JOHN HAY, AND OTHERS EDITED BY JAMES GRANT WILSON ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1894 Copyright, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1894, Bv D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. Electrotvped and Printed at the Appleton Press, U. S. A. PR EFACE Many of the brief biographies of the twenty-three Presi dents of the United States contained in this volume were written by distinguished scholars and statesmen who were pe culiarly fitted by their training or contact with our chief magis trates to render ample justice to their subjects, and also to treat them with what Edmund Burke describes as "the cold neutrality of an impartial judge." Several of the monographs were especially prepared for this work, while the larger num ber were written for " Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography." In some instances they have been revised and enlarged for the present volume. These three-and-twenty ar ticles contain a complete record of the most important events in the nation's history from the inauguration of our first Presi dent to the summer of 1894, a period of more than one hun dred and five years, and including twenty-seven administra tions. The well-known writers of these model biographies of our chief magistrates are not responsible for the brief notices of the ladies of the White House, for the sketches of other persons connected with the families of the Presidents, for the bibliographies accompanying their monographs, nor for the selection of the many illustrations in the text, which it is be lieved will enhance the interest and value of the volume. These have been added by the editor. The twenty-three steel portraits have been engraved from the best originals obtain able, and the interesting series of facsimiles, with three excep- vi LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. tions, were taken from the editor's complete collection of let ters written by the Presidents, concerning some of whom — such as Washington, the elder Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Grant — it may safely be said, " upon the adamant of their fame the stream of time beats without injury." For those of John Adams, James Monroe, and Andrew Johnson the pub lishers are indebted to the courtesy of William Evarts Ben jamin, the New York dealer in autographs and engravings, as those three examples in the editor's set of letters of our chief magistrates were not well adapted for use in this work. New York, August, iSg4- CONTENTS. ARTICLE. AUTHOR. PAGE George Washington . Robert C. Winthrop I John Adams . John Fiske . . 36 Thomas Jefferson James Parton . . 62 James Madison . John Fiske 88 James Monroe . . Daniel C. Gilman 107 John Quincy Adams . John Fiske 120 Andrew Jackson . John Fiske • 137 Martin Van Buren . . James C. Welling . . 169 William Henry Harrison . Arthur E. Bostwick 185 John Tyler . John Fiske 195 James K. Polk . . George Bancroft 216 Zachary Taylor . Jefferson Davis • 233 Millard Fillmore . James Grant Wilson 246 Franklin Pierce . Bainbridge Wadleigh . 262 James Buchanan . George Ticknor Curtis 277 Abraham Lincoln . John Hay ¦ 300 Andrew Johnson . James Phelan . • 336 Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield . . William Walter Phelps < 426 Chester A. Arthur . . William E. Chandler • 444 Grover Cleveland . . .William E. Russell . 468 Benjamin Harrison . . William P. Fishback . 4Q2 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAITS ON STEEL. ARTIST. Washington, George Stuart Adams, John Stuart Adams, John Quincy . Marchant Arthur, Chester A. . Bell Buchanan, James Smith Cleveland, Grover . Bogardus Fillmore, Millard . Baker Garfield, James A. Sarony Grant, Ulysses S. Kurtz Harrison, Benjamin . Bogardus . Harrison, William Henry . Marceau . Hayes, Rutherford B. . . Landy Jackson, Andrew . Longacre . Jefferson, Thomas . Brown Johnson, Andrew . Brady Lincoln, Abraham . Hesler Madison, James . Stuart Monroe, James . Vanderlyn Pierce, Franklin . Healy Polk, James Knox . Poole Taylor, Zachary . Brady Tyler, John . Longacre . Van Buren, Martin . Brady FACING PAGE Frontispiece 36 120 444 277 468 246 426 347 492 135 397 137 62 336 300 S8 107 262 216233 195169 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. FACSIMILES OF LETTERS BY THE PRESIDENTS. FarTNr FACING PAGE George Washington to James Madison (last page) 18 John Adams to Judge William Cranch 55 Thomas Jefferson to Mrs. Margaret Harrison Smith .... 81 James Madison to Mrs. Margaret Harrison Smith . . . 100 James Monroe to the General Assembly of Virginia . . . 173 John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams . ... 124 Andrew Jackson to James K. Polk ....... 149 Martin Van Buren to Fitz-Greene Halleck .... .178 William Henry Harrison to David K. Este 190 John Tyler to David S. Gardiner (last page) . . . . . .211 James Knox Polk to Mrs. Sarah C. Polk (last page) . . . 222 Zachary Taylor to John J. Crittenden (last page) . ... 239 Millard Fillmore to James Grant Wilson .... . 256 Franklin Pierce to William L. Marcy . ..... 269 James Buchanan to Aaron V. Brown . . . . 296 Abraham Lincoln to John S. Stuart . ..... 325 Andrew Johnson to David D. Patterson (last page) .... 342 Ulysses S. Grant to James Grant Wilson . ... 377 Rutherford B. Hayes to the Editor ... ... 422 James Abram Garfield to James H. Rhodes .... 437 Chester Alan Arthur to James Grant Wilson . . . . 460 Grover Cleveland to Mrs. James Grant Wilson . . . 475 Benjamin Harrison to the Editor 498 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Mary Washington The Birthplace of George Washington . Drawing of the Locality by General Sherman Portrait and Autograph of Washington in Early Life The Episcopal Church at Pohick, Va. . Trumbull's Portrait of Washington .... Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, N. Y. . Marble Bust of Washington, by Houdon Wertmuller's Portrait of Washington Portrait of Washington, by Du Simitiere The Tomb of George Washington, at Mount Vernon PAGE 2 3 4 7 n1316 20212526 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XI The Washington Obelisk, in Washington, D. C. . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Martha Washington View of Mount Vernon, Virginia . Arlington House, near Washington, D. C. . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. E. P. Lewis Houses in which John Adams and his Son were born Early Portrait and Autograph of John Adams Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Abigail Adams . Monticello, the Home of Thomas Jefferson Impression of Thomas Jefferson's Seal . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Martha Randolph Portrait and Autograph of James Madison Montpelier, the Residence of James Madison Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Dolly Madison Oak Hill, the Residence of James Monroe . Tomb of President Monroe, Richmond, Va. . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Elizabeth Monroe Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Louisa C. Adams Portrait and Autograph of Charles Francis Adams Jackson's Headquarters near New Orleans The Hermitage, the Home of General Jackson Valle's Early Portrait of Jackson, and Autograph . Portrait and Autograph of Martin Van Buren John Van Buren's Portrait and Autograph Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Angelica Van Buren Portrait and Autograph of Benjamin Harrison, the Signer General William Henry Harrison Campaign Medal Mrs. Anna Harrison's Portrait and Autograph Sherwood Forest, the Residence of John Tyler Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Julia Gardiner Tyler James K. Polk's Residence in Nashville, Tenn. Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Sarah C. Polk General Taylor's House as it now appears Monument and Statue of General Taylor Portrait and Autograph of Millard Fillmore . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Abigail Fillmore Birthplace of Franklin Pierce, Hillsborough, N. H. The Tomb of President Pierce, Concord, N. H. . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Jane M. A. Pierce PAGE 2730 32333436 37 60 72 77 87 98 102106 no 117 118129 133146 159 165 173 182 184186 192 194 202 215225 231 241 243 252258265 272 275 Xll LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Wheatland, the Residence of James Buchanan Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston Early Portrait of Lincoln, and Autograph Lincoln's Residence in Springfield, 111 Statue of Lincoln, by St. Gaudens, in Chicago Lincoln's Statue, by Henry K. Browne, in New York . Statue of Lincoln, by Randolph Rogers, in Philadelphia House in Washington where Lincoln died Death Mask of Lincoln, taken by Leonard W. Volk . President Lincoln's Tomb, Springfield, 111. Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Mary Lincoln Portrait and Autograph of Robert T. Lincoln Andrew Johnson's Workshop, Greenville, Tenn. Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Eliza M. Johnson Birthplace of General Grant, Mount Pleasant, Ohio Portrait of Grant as a Lieutenant, and Autograph Grant's Last Portrait, taken at Mount McGregor McLean House, the Scene of Lee's Surrender Gold Medal voted by Congress to General Grant House at Mount McGregor where Grant died Equestrian Statue of Grant, by Rebisso, in Chicago Eastern Facade of the Structure and Statue . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Julia D. Grant Home of President Hayes, Fremont, Ohio Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Lucy W. Hayes Birthplace of James A. Garfield, " The Wilderness," Ohio Statue of President Garfield, Washington, D. C. Tomb of General Garfield, Cleveland, Ohio . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Lucretia R. Garfield . Tomb of President Arthur, in Rural Cemetery, Albany, N. Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Mary A. McElroy Northeast View of the White House, Washington, D. C. Gray Gables, Grover Cleveland's Summer Residence Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Francis Cleveland Benjamin Harrison's Portrait and Autograph Residence of President Harrison in Indianapolis . Portrait and Autograph of Mrs. Caroline S. Harrison . PAGE 287299301 304308312315 319 324329333335337345348352361370379384388391 395 403425 427435 441 443465467472479 491494 500506 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. GEORGE WASHINGTON. George Washington, first president of the United States, born at Pope's Creek, near Bridge's Creek, Westmoreland co., Va., 22 Feb., 1732; died at Mount Vernon, 14 Dec, 1799. Of his English ancestry various details are given in more than one formal biography of him, and very recently several ques tions of his genealogy have been satisfactorily solved by Mr. Henry F. Waters, Mr. Moncure D. Conway, and Mr. W. C. Ford, which had eluded even the labors of the late Col. J. L. Chester. It is perhaps too early to regard his English ances try as beyond all further question. At all events, this memoir may well be allowed to begin with his American history. His earliest ancestor in this country was John Washington, who had resided for some years at South Cave, near the Hum- ber, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and who came over to Virginia, with his brother Andrew, in 1657. Purchasing lands in Westmoreland county and establishing his residence at Pope's Creek, not far from the Potomac, he became, in due course, an extensive planter, a county magistrate, and a mem ber of the house of burgesses. He distinguished himself, also, as colonel of the Virginia forces in driving off a band of Seneca Indians who were ravaging the neighboring settlements. In honpr of his public and private character, the parish in which he resided was called Washington. In this parish his grand son, Augustine, the second son of Lawrence Washington, was born in 1694. By his first wife Augustine had four children. Two of them died young, but two sons, Lawrence and Augus tine, survived their mother, who died in 1728. On 6 March, 1730, the father was again married. His second wife was Mary Ball, and George was her first child. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. If tradition is to be trusted, few sons ever had a more lovely and devoted mother, and no mother a more dutiful and affection ate son. Bereaved of her husband, who died after a short illness in 1743, when George was but eleven years of age, and with four younger children to be cared for, she discharged the responsibilities thus sadly devolved upon her with scrupulous fidelity and firmness. To her we owe the precepts and example that governed George's life. The excellent maxims, moral and religious, which she found in her favorite manual — " Sir Mat thew Hale's Contemplations " — were impressed on his memory and on his heart, as she read them aloud to her children ; and that little volume, with the autograph inscription of Mary Washington, was among the cherished treasures of his library as long as he lived. To her, too, under God, we owe especially the restraining influence and authority, that held him back, at the last moment, as we shall see, from em barking on a line of life that would have cut him off from the great career that has rendered his name immortal. Well did Dr. Sparks, in his careful and excellent biogra phy, speak of " the debt owed by mankind to the mother of Washington." A pleasing conjectural picture, not without some weight of testimony, has been adopted by Mr. Los- sing in his " Mary and Martha," representing her at the age of twenty-three.* She delighted in saying simply that " George had always been a good son " ; and her own life was fortunately prolonged until she had seen him more than fulfil every hope of her heart. On his way to his first in auguration as president of the United States Washington came to bid his mother a last farewell, just before her death. That parting scene, however, was not at his birthplace. The primitive Virginia farm-house in which he was born had long ceased to be the family residence, and had gradually fallen into (Mn/na^t- See vignette, from the original in the possession of Mrs. S. F. B. Morse. GEORGE WASHINGTON. 3 ruin. The remains of a large kitchen-chimney were all that could be identified of it in 1878, by a party of which Secretary Evarts, General Sherman, and the late Mr. Charles C. Perkins, of Boston, were three, who visited the spot with a view to the erection of a memorial under the authority of congress. Not long after the birth that has rendered this spot forever memor able, Augustine Washington removed to an estate in Stafford county, on the east side of the Rappahannock, opposite Fred ericksburg, and resided there with his family during the remain ing years of his life. That was the scene of George's early child hood. There he first went to school, in an "old-field " school- house, with Hobby, the sexton of the parish, for his first master. After his father's death, however, he was sent back to the old homestead at Pope's Creek, to live for a while with his elder half-brother, Augustine, to whom the Westmoreland estate had been left, and who, on his marriage, had taken it for his resi dence. There George had the advantage of at least a better school than Hobby's, kept by a Mr. Williams. But it taught him nothing except reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a little geometry and surveying. For this last study he evinced a marked preference. Many of his copy-books of that period have been preserved, and they show no inconsiderable pro ficiency in the surveyor's art, even before he finally left school, toward the close of his sixteenth year. One of those manuscript books, however, is of a miscellane ous and peculiarly interesting character, containing carefully prepared forms for business pa pers ; a few selections or, it may be, original compositions in rhyme ; and a series of " Rules of Behavior in Company and Conversation," most of them translated from a French Book of " Maximes," discovered by Mr. Conway, of which the last and most noteworthy one, not in the French series, and which he may have added himself, must never be omitted from the story of Washington's boy hood : " Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, Conscience." All these schoolboy manuscripts bear witness alike to his extreme care in cultivating a neat, clear, LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. and elegant handwriting, and his name is sometimes written almost as if in contemplation of the great instruments and state papers to which it was destined to be the attesting signature. Meantime he was training himself for vigorous manhood by all sorts of robust exercises and athletic sports. He played soldier, sometimes, with his school-mates, always asserting the authority of captain, and subjecting the little company to a rigid discipline. Running, leaping, and wrestling were among his favorite pastimes. He became a fearless rider, too, and no horse is said to have been too fiery for him. " Above all," as Irving well says, " his inherent probity, and the principles of justice on which he regulated his conduct, even at this early period of his life, were soon appreciated by his school-mates; he was referred to as an umpire in their disputes, and his decisions were never reversed." A crisis in Wash ington's life occurred before he left school. His eldest half-brother, Lawrence, had already been an offi cer in the English service, and was at the siege of Carthagena under Ad miral Vernon, for whom he formed a great regard, and whose name he afterward gave to his estate on the Potomac. Observing George's mili tary propensities, and thinking that the English navy would afford him the most promising field for future distinction, Lawrence obtained a midshipman's warrant for him in 1746, when he was just four teen years old, and George is said to have been on the point of embarking on this English naval service. The earnest remon strance of his mother was interposed, and the project reluc tantly abandoned. He thereupon resumed his studies, and did not leave school till the autumn before his sixteenth year. Soon afterward he went to reside with his brother Lawrence, who had married a Fairfax of Belvoir, and had established him self at Mount Vernon. Washington's education was now finished, so far as schools and schoolmasters were concerned, and he never enjoyed or sought the advantages of a college. Indeed, only a month GEORGE WASHINGTON. 5 after he was sixteen he entered on the active career of a sur veyor of lands, in the employment of William Fairfax, the father of his brother's wife, and the manager of the great estate of his cousin, Lord Fairfax. In this work he voluntarily subjected himself to every variety of hardship and personal danger. Those Alleghany valleys and hills were then: a wilder ness, where difficult obstructions were to be overcome, severe exposures to be endured, and savage tribes to be conciliated or encountered. For three successive years he persevered un dauntedly in this occupation, having obtained a commission from the president and master of William and Mary college as a public surveyor for Culpeper county, which entitled his sur veys to a place in the county office, where they were held in high esteem for completeness and accuracy. During these three years he allowed himself but little relaxation, yet found time in the winter months for an occasional visit to his mother, and for aiding her in the management of her affairs. And now, at nineteen years of age, he received an appoint ment as adjutant-general, with the rank of major, to inspect and exercise the militia in one of the districts into which Vir ginia was divided in view of the French encroachments and the Indian depredations with which the frontiers were menaced. Before he had fairly entered on this service, however, he was called to accompany his brother Lawrence to the West Indies, on a voyage for his brother's health, and was absent from home for more than four months, during which he had a severe attack of small-pox. His brother remained longer, and re turned at last only to die, leaving George as one of his execu tors, and involving him in large responsibilities as well as in much personal affliction. Meantime his appointment as ad jutant-general was renewed by Gov. Dinwiddie, and he was assigned to the charge of one of the grand military divisions of the colony. A wider field of service was thus opened to Washington, on which he entered with alacrity. War between France and England was now rapidly approach ing, involving a conflict for the possession of a large part of the American continent. French posts were already established on the banks of the Ohio, with a view of confining the English colo nies within the Alleghany mountains. Gov. Dinwiddie, under instructions from the British ministry, resolved upon sending a commissioner to the officer commanding the French forces to in- 2 6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. quire by what authority he was invading the king's dominions, and to ascertain, if possible, his further designs. Washington was selected for this delicate and dangerous mission, after several others had declined to undertake it. He accepted it at once, and toward the end of November, 1753, he set out from Williamsburg, without any military escort, on a journey of nearly 600 miles — a great part of it over " lofty and rugged mountains and through the heart of a wilderness." The perilous incidents of this expedition cannot be recounted here. His marvellous and providential escapes, at one time from the violence of the savages, at another from assassination by a treacherous guide, at a third from being drowned in cross ing the Alleghany river on a raft, have been described in all the accounts of his early manhood, substantially from his own journal, published in London at the time. He reached Williamsburg on his return on 16 Jan., 1754, and delivered to Gov. Dinwiddie the reply of the French commander to his message of inquiry. No more signal test could have been afforded of Washington's various talents and characteristics, which this expedition served at once to display and to develop. " From that moment," says his biographer, Irving, " he was the rising hope of Virginia." He was then but just finishing his twenty-first year, and im mediately after his return he was appointed to the chief com mand of a little body of troops raised for meeting immediate exigencies ; but the military establishment was increased as soon as the governor could convene the legislature of Virginia, and Washington was appointed lieutenant-colonel of a regi ment, with Joshua Fry, an accomplished Oxford scholar, as his colonel. Upon Washington at once devolved the duty of going forward with such companies as were enlisted, and the sudden death of Col. Fry soon left him in full command of the expe dition. The much-misrepresented skirmish with the French troops, resulting in the death of Jumonville, was followed, on 3 July, 1754, by the battle of the Great Meadows, where Washington held his ground, in Fort Necessity, from eleven in the morning to eight at night, against a great superiority of numbers, until the French requested a parley. A capitulation ensued, in every way honorable to Washington as it was trans lated and read to him, but which proved, when printed, to con tain terms in the French language which he never would have GEORGE WASHINGTON. signed or admitted had they not been suppressed or softened by the interpreter.* The course now adopted by Gov Dinwiddie in the reorgan ization of the Virginia troops, against which Washington re monstrated, and which would have reduced him to an inferior grade, led at once to his resignation, and, after a brief visit to his mother, he retired to Mount Vernon. He was soon so licited by Gov. Sharpe, of Maryland, then the commander-in- chief of the English forces, to resume his station, but under circumstances and upon conditions incompatible with his self- respect. In declining the invitation he used this memorable language : " I shall have the consolation of knowing that I have opened the way, when the smallness of our numbers ex posed us to the attacks of a superior enemy ; and that I have had the thanks of my country for the services I have rendered." But now Gen. Braddock was sent over from England with two regiments of regulars, and Washington did not hesitate to accept an appointment on his staff as a volunteer aide-de-camp. The prudent counsels that he gave Braddock before he set out on his ill-fated expedition, and often repeated along the road, were not followed ; but Washington, notwithstanding a violent attack of fever, was with him on the bloody field of the Monon- gahela, behaving, as his fellow aide- de-camp, Col. Orne, testified, " with the greatest courage and resolution," witnessing at last Braddock's defeat and death, and being the only mount ed officer not killed or disabled. "By the all - powerful dispensations of Providence," wrote he to his brother, " I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation ; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet I escaped unhurt, although death was levelling my companions on every side." It fell to him by a striking coincidence — the chaplain being wounded — to read the funeral service at the burial of Braddock at the Great ^a^n^^^yi. ' See note at end of chapter xii., vol. i., of Irving's " Life of Washington." 8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Meadows, the scene of his own capitulation the year before. In a sermon to one of the companies organized under the impulse of Braddock's defeat, and in view of the impending dangers of the country, the Rev. Samuel Davies, an eloquent and accom plished preacher, who, in 1759, succeeded Jonathan Edwards as president of Princeton college, after praising the zeal and courage of the Virginia troops, added these prophetic words : "As a remarkable instance of this, I may point out to the pub lic that heroic youth, Col. Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to his country." A force of 2,000 men having now been ordered to be raised by the Virginia assembly, Washington was appointed to the chief .command, and established his headquarters at Winchester. He broke away from the perplexing cares of this place in February, 1756, to make a hurried visit to Gov. Shirley in Bos ton, where he settled successfully with him, then the com mander-in-chief of the English forces on this continent, a vexatious question of precedence between the provincial offi cers and those appointed by the crown. On his return he devoted himself to measures for the security of the frontier. In the course of the following year he was again the subject of a violent fever, which prostrated him for several months. "My constitution," he wrote to a friend, " is much impaired, and nothing can retrieve it but the greatest care and the most circumspect course of life." Under these circumstances he seriously contemplated again resigning his command and retir ing from all further public business. But his favorite measure, the reduction of Fort Duquesne, was at length to be under taken, and, after much disappointment and delay, Washington, on 25 Nov., 1758, was privileged to "march in and plant the British flag on the yet smoking ruins " of that fort — henceforth to be known as Fort Pitt, in honor of the great minister of England, afterward Lord Chatham. Meantime Washington had chanced to meet on his way to Williamsburg, at the house of a hospitable Virginian with whom he dined, a charming widow, who at once won his heart. Most happily he soon succeeded in winning hers also, and on 6 Jan., 1759, she became his wife. Martha Custis, daughter of John Dandridge and widow of John Parke Custis, was henceforth to be known in history as Martha Washington. He had now GEORGE WASHINGTON. g finally resigned his commission as a colonial officer, and was preparing to enjoy something of the retirement of private life. But while he was still absent on his last campaign he had been chosen a delegate to the Virginia house of burgesses, and he had hardly established himself at Mount Vernon, a few months after his marriage, when he was summoned to attend a session of that body at Williamsburg. He was not allowed, however, to enter unobserved on his civil career. No sooner did he make his appearance than the Speaker, agreeably to a previous vote of the house, presented their thanks to him, in the name of the colony, for the distinguished military service he had rendered to his country, accompanying the vote of thanks with expressions of compliment and praise which greatly embar rassed him. He attempted to make his acknowledgments, but stammered and trembled and " could not give distinct utter ance to a single syllable." "Sit down, Mr. Washington," said the Speaker, with infinite address ; " your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language I possess." Fourteen or fifteen years more elapsed before the great struggle for American independence began, and during all this time he continued to be a member of the house of burgesses. He was punctual in his attendance at all their sessions, which were commonly at least two in a year, and took an earnest interest in all that was said and done, but " it is not known," says Sparks, " that he ever made a set speech or entered into a stormy debate." He had a passion for agricultural pursuits. He delighted in his quiet rural life at Mount Vernon with his wife and her children — he had none of his own — finding ample occupation in the management of his farms, and abundant enjoyment in hunting and fishing with the genial friends and relatives in his neighborhood. He was a vestryman of two parishes, regular in his attendance at one or the other of the parochial churches, at Alexandria or at Pohick, and both he and his wife were communicants. Meantime he was always at the service of his friends or the community for any aid or counsel that he could render them. He was often called on to be an arbitrator, and his judgment and impartiality were never questioned. As a commissioner for settling the military ac counts of the colony, after the treaty of peace of 1763, he spared himself no labor in the execution of a most arduous and complicated task. In a word, he was a good citizen, an exem- IO LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. plary Christian, a devoted father, a kind master to the slaves who had come to him by inheritance or marriage, and was respected and beloved by all. At length, at forty-three years of age, he was called upon to begin a career that closed only with his life, during which he held the highest and most responsible positions in war and in peace, and rendered inestimable services to his country and to mankind. To follow that career in detail would require noth ing less than a history of the United States for the next five- and-twenty years. Washington was naturally of a cautious and conservative cast, and by no means disposed for a rupture with the mother country, if it could be avoided without the sacrifice of rights and principles. But as the various stages of British aggression succeeded each other, beginning with the stamp-act, the repeal of which he hailed with delight, and fol lowed by the tea tax and the Boston port bill, he became keenly alive to the danger of submission, and was ready to unite in measures of remonstrance, opposition, and ultimately of resistance. When he heard at Williamsburg, in August, 1773, of the sufferings resulting from the port bill, he is said to have exclaimed, impulsively : " I will raise a thousand men, subsist them at my own expense, and march with them, at their head, for the relief of Boston." He little dreamed at that moment that within two years he was destined to be hailed as the deliverer of Boston from British occupation. He accepted an election as a delegate to the first Continental congress in 1774, and went to the meeting at Philadelphia in September of that year, in company with Patrick Henry and Edmund Pendleton, who called for him at Mount Vernon on horseback. That congress sat in Carpenter's Hall with closed doors, but the great papers that it prepared and issued form a proud part of American history. Those were the papers and that the con gress of which Chatham in the house of lords, in his memorable speech on the removal of troops from Boston, 20 Jan., 1775, said : " When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must declare and avow that in all my reading and observation — and it has been my favorite study — I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world — that for solidity of reasoning, GEORGE WASHINGTON. It force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a com plication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadel phia." The precise part taken by Washington within the closed doors of Carpenter's Hall is no where recorded, but the testi mony of one of its most distin guished members cannot be for gotten. When Patrick Henry returned home from the meeting, and was asked whom he consid ered the greatest man in that congress, he replied : "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, is by far the greatest orator ; but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Col. Washington is unquestionably the great est man on that floor." It is an interesting tradition that, dur ing the prayers with which Dr. Duch6 opened that meeting at Carpenter's Hall on 5 Sept., 1774, while most of the other mem bers were standing, Washington was kneeling. He was again a delegate to the Continental congress (the sec ond) that assembled at Philadelphia on 10 May, 1775, by which, on the 15th of June, on the motion of Thomas Johnson, a delegate of Maryland, at the earnest instigation of John Adams, of Massachusetts, he was unanimously elected commander-in- chief of all the Continental forces raised, or to be raised, for the defence of American liberty. On the next morning he accepted the appointment and expressed his deep and grateful sense of the high honor conferred upon him, " but," added he, " lest some unlucky event should happen, unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gen tleman in the room that I this day declare, with the utmost sincerity, that I do not think myself equal to the com mand I am honored with." "As to pay," he continued, "I beg leave to assure the congress that, as no pecuniary considera tion could have tempted me to accept this arduous employ ment, at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit of it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, and that is all I desire." "You may believe me," he wrote to his 12 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. wife at once, " when I assure you, in the most solemn manner, that so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwilling ness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity." Washington's commission was agreed to by congress on 17 June, and on the 21st he set out from Philadelphia on horseback to take com mand of the American army encamped around Boston, of which place the British forces were in possession. The tidings of the battle of Bunker Hill reached him at New York on the 25th, and the next day he was in the saddle again on his way to Cambridge. He arrived there on 2 July, and established his headquarters in the old Vassall (afterward Craigie) mansion, which has recently been known as the residence of the poet Longfellow. On 3 July he took formal command of the army, drawing his sword under an ancient elm, which has of late years been suitably inscribed. The American army numbered about 17,000 men, but only 14,500 were fit for duty. Coming hastily from different colonies, they were without supplies of tents or clothing, and there was not ammunition enough for nine cartridges to a man, Washington's work in combining and organizing this mass of raw troops was most embarrassing and arduous. But he persevered untiringly, and, after a siege of eight months, succeeded in driving the British from Boston on 17 March, 1776. For this grand exploit congress awarded him a splendid gold medal, which bore an admirable likeness of him on one side, and on the other side the inscription " Hostibus primo fugatis Bostonium recuperatum." Copies of this medal in silver and bronze have been multiplied, but the original gold medal has found a fit place, within a few years past, in the Boston Public Library. The way was now opened, and the scene of the war was soon transferred to other parts of the country. The day after the evacuation of Boston, five regiments, with a battalion of riflemen and two companies of artillery, were sent to New York. But, as the British fleet was still in Nantasket road, Washington did not venture to move more of his army, or to go away him self, until the risk of a return was over. On 13 April he reached New York, and was soon summoned to Philadelphia for a con ference with congress. On his return to New York, while he was anxiously awaiting an attack by the British forces, the GEORGE WASHINGTON. 13 Declaration of Independence, signed on 4 July, was transmitted to him. The regiments were forthwith paraded, and the Declara tion was read at the head of the army. " The General hopes," said he in the orders of the day, " that this important event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer and soldier to act with fidelity and courage, as knowing that now the peace and safety of his country depend, under God, solely on the success of our arms." He hailed the Declaration with delight, and had written to his brother, from Philadelphia, that he was rejoiced at " the noble act " of the Virginia convention, recommending that such a declaration should be adopted. But his little army, according to the returns of 5 Aug. following, hardly numbered more than 20,000 men, of whom six or seven thousand were sick or on furlough or otherwise absent, while the British forces were at least 24,000, supported by a large and thoroughly equipped fleet. The battle of Long Island soon followed, with disastrous results to the Ameri cans, and the British took posses sion of New York. Other reverses were not long delayed, and the strategy of Washington found its exhibition only in his skilful retreat from Long Island and through the Jerseys. But he was not disheartened, nor his confi dence in ultimate success im paired. When asked what was to be done if Philadelphia were taken, he replied : " We will retreat beyond the Susquehanna, and thence, if necessary, to the Alleghany mountains." His masterly movements on the Delaware were now witnessed, which Frederick the Great is said to have declared " the most brilliant achievements recorded in military annals." " Many years later," Mr. Lossing informs us in his interesting volume on Mount Vernon and its associations, " the great Frederick sent him a portrait of himself, accompanied by the remarkable words : ' From the oldest general in Europe to the greatest general in the world ! ' " Meantime he had a vast work to accomplish with entirely inadequate means. But he went along with heroic fortitude, unswerving constancy, and unspar- 14 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. ing self-devotion, through all the trials and sufferings of Mon mouth and Brandywine and Germantown and Valley Forge, until the grand consummation was at last reached at Yorktown, on 19 Oct., 1781. There, with the aid of our generous and gal lant allies, he achieved the crowning victory of independence on the soil of his beloved Virginia. The details of this protracted contest must be left to history, as well as the infamous cabal for impeaching his ability and depriving him of his command and the still more infamous treason of Arnold, in September, 1780. Standing on the field of Yorktown, to receive the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and the British army, Washington was at length rewarded for all the labors and sacrifices and disappointments he had so bravely en dured since his first great victory in expelling the British from Boston nearly seven years before. Massachusetts and Virginia were thus the scenes of his proudest successes, as they had been foremost in bringing to a test the great issue of American inde pendence and American liberty. The glorious consummation was at last accomplished. But two years more were to elapse before the treaty of peace was signed and the war with England ended ; and during that period Washington was to give most signal illustration of his disinterested patriotism and of his political wisdom and foresight. Discontent had for some time been manifested by officers and soldiers alike, owing to arrearages of pay, and they were naturally increased by the apprehension that the army would now be disbanded without proper provision being made by con gress for meeting the just claims of the troops. Not a few of the officers began to distrust the efficiency of the government and of all republican institutions.r^TJne of them, " a colonel of the army, of a highly respectable character and somewhat ad vanced in life," whose name is given by Irving as Lewis Nicola, was put forward to communicate these sentiments to Washing ton, and he even dared to suggest for him the title of King. Washington's reply, dated Newburgh, 22 May, 1782, expressed the indignation and " abhorrence " with which he had received such a suggestion, and rebuked the writer with severity. " I am at a loss to conceive," wrote he, " what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my coun try. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 5 cotdd not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. . . . Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, from yourself or any one else, a sentiment' of the like nature." Nothing more was ever heard of making Washington a king. He had sufficiently shown his scorn for such an overture. The apprehensions of the army, however, were by no means quieted. A memorial on the subject of their pay was prepared and transmitted to congress in December, 1782, but the resolu tions that congress adopted did not satisfy their expectations. A meeting of officers was arranged, and anonymous addresses, commonly known as the Newburgh addresses, were issued, to rouse the army to resentment. Washington insisted on attend ing the meeting, and delivered an impressive address. Gen. Gates was in the chair, and Washington began by apologizing for having come. After reading the first paragraph of what he had prepared, he begged the indulgence of those present while he paused to put on his spectacles, saying, casually, but most touchingly, that " he had grown gray in the service of his coun try, and now found himself growing blind." He then proceed ed to read a most forcible and noble paper, in which, after acknowledging the just claims of the army on the government, and assuring them that those claims would not be disregarded, he conjured them " to express their utmost horror and detesta tion of the man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our country, and who wickedly at tempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood." The original autograph of this ever- memorable address, just as it came from Washington's own pen, is in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and a lithographed copy was published by them, together with the letters of eye-witnesses to the scene, as a contribution to the centennial papers of 1876. Washington retired at once from the meeting, but resolutions were forthwith unanimously adopted, on motion of Gen. Knox, seconded by Gen. Putnam, reciprocating all his affectionate expressions, and concurring entirely in the policy he had proposed. "Every doubt was dispelled," says Maj. Shaw in his journal, "and the tide of patriotism rolled again in its wonted course." The treaty of i6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. peace was signed in Paris on 20 Jan., 1783. On 17 April fol lowing, a proclamation by congress was received by Washing ton for .the cessation of hostilities. On 19 April, the anniver sary of the shedding of the first blood at Lexington, which com pleted the eighth year of the war, the cessation was proclaimed at the head of every regiment of the army, after which, said Washington's general orders, "the chaplains of the several brigades will render thanks to Almighty God for all his mer cies, particularly for his over ruling the wrath of man to his own glory, and causing the rage of war to cease among the na tions." On the following 8th of June, in view of the dissolution of the army, Washington addressed a letter to the governors of the several states — a letter full of golden maxims and consum mate wisdom. " The great object," he began, " for which I had the honor to hold an appointment in the service of my country being accomplished, I am now preparing to return to that domestic retirement which, it is well known, I left with the greatest reluctance — a retirement for which I have never ceased to sigh through a long and painful absence, and in which, remote from the noise and trouble of the world, I medi tate to pass the remainder of my life in a state of undisturbed repose." Then, after remarking that " this is the favorable moment for giving such a tone to the Federal government as will enable it to answer the ends of its institution," he pro ceeded to set forth and enlarge upon the four things that he conceived to be essential to the well-being, or even the exist ence, of the United States as an independent power : " First, an indissoluble union of the states under one federal head; second, a sacred regard to public justice; third, the adoption of a proper peace establishment ; and, fourth, the prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States which will induce them to forget their local prejudices and policies, to make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity, and, in some in stances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest GEORGE WASHINGTON. 17 of the community. These are the pillars," said Washington, "on which the glorious fabric of our independency and na tional character must rest." Washington took final leave of the army in general orders of 2 Nov., in accordance with a proclamation by congress of 18 Oct. He accompanied Gov. Clinton in a formal entry into New York, after its evacuation by the British, on 25 Nov. On 4 Dec, after taking affectionate leave of his principal officers at Fraunce's tavern, he set off for Annapolis, and there, on 23 Dec, 1783, he presented himself to "the United States in con gress assembled," and resigned the commission that he had received on 17 June, 1775. "Having now finished," said he, "the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and, bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of pub lic life." " You retire," replied the president of congress, "from the theatre of action with the blessings of your fellow- citizens ; but the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your military command : it will continue to animate re motest ages." The very next morning, as we are informed by Irving, Washington departed from Annapolis, and "hastened to his beloved Mount Vernon, where he arrived the same day, on Christmas eve, in a frame of mind suited to enjoy the sacred and genial festival." Once more, at the close of the fifty-second year of his age, Washington was permitted to resume his favorite occupations of a farmer and planter, and to devote himself personally to his crops and cattle. Indeed, throughout his whole military cam paign, he had kept himself informed of what was going on in the way of agriculture at Mount Vernon, and had given care ful directions as to the cultivation of his lands. His corre spondence now engrossed not a little of his time, and he was frequently cheered by the visits of his friends. Lafayette was among his most welcome guests, and passed a fortnight with hifti, to his great delight. Afterward Washington made a visit to his lands on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, travelling on horseback, with his friend and physician, Dr. Craik, nearly seven hundred miles, through a wild, mountainous country, and de vising schemes of internal navigation for the advantage of Virginia and Maryland. His passion for hunting, also, was 1 8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. revived, and Lafayette and others of the French officers sent him out fine hounds from their kennels. But the condition of his country was never absent from his thoughts, and the insufficiency of the existing confederation weighed heavily on his mind. In one of his letters he writes : " The confederation appears to me little more than a shadow without the substance, and congress a migratory body." In another letter he says : " I have ever been a friend to adequate powers in congress, without which it is evident to me we shall never establish a national character. . . . We are either a united people under one head and for federal purposes, or we are thirteen independent sovereignties, eternally counteracting each other." In another letter, to John Jay, he uses still more emphatic language: " I do not conceive we can exist long as a nation without lodging somewhere a power which will per vade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the author ity of the state governments extends over the several states. . . . Retired as I am from the world, I frankly acknowledge I can not feel myself an unconcerned spectator. Yet, having happily assisted in bringing the ship into port, and having been fairly discharged, it is not my business to embark again on the sea of troubles." Meantime the insurrection in Massachusetts, commonly known as "Shays's rebellion," added greatly to his anxiety and even anguish of mind. In a letter to Madison of 6 Nov., 1786, he exclaimed : " No morn ever dawned more favorably than ours did, and no day was ever more clouded than the present. . . . We are fast verging to anarchy and confusion." Soon afterward he poured out the bitterness of his soul to his old aide-de-camp, Gen. Humphreys, in still stronger terms : " What, gracious God ! is man, that there should be such inconsistency and perfidiousness in his conduct ? It was but the other day that we were shedding our blood to obtain the constitutions under which we now live — constitutions of our own choice and making — and now we are unsheathing the sword to overturn them." He was thus in full sympathy with the efforts of his friends to confer new and greater powers on the Federal Government, and he yielded to their earnest solicitations in consenting to be named at the head of the Virginia delegates to the convention in Philadelphia on 14 May, 1787. Of that ever-memorable convention he was unanimously elected presi- GEORGE WASHINGTON. 19 dent, and on the following 17th of September he had the supreme satisfaction of addressing a letter to congress an nouncing the adoption of the constitution of the United States, which had been signed on that day. " In all our deliberations on this subject," he said in that letter, " we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American— the consolidation of our Union — in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, and perhaps our na tional existence." This constitution having passed the ordeal of congress and been ratified and adopted by the people, through the conventions of the states, nothing remained but to organize the government in conformity with its provisions. As early as 2 July, 1788, congress had been notified that the neces sary approval of nine states had been obtained, but not until 13 Sept. was a day appointed for the choice of electors of president. That day was the first Wednesday of the following January, while the beginning of proceedings under the new constitution was postponed until the first Wednesday of March, which chanced in that year to be the 4th of March. Not, however, until 1 April was there a quorum for business in the house of representatives, and not until 6 April was the senate organized. On that day, in the presence of the two houses, the votes for president and vice-president were opened and counted, when Washington, having received every vote from the ten states that took part in the election, was declared president of the United States. On 14 April he received at Mount Vernon the official announcement of his election, and on the morning of the 16th he set out for New York. " Re luctant," as he said, "in the evening of life to exchange a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties," he bravely added : " Be the voyage long or short, although I may be deserted by all men, integrity and firmness shall never forsake me." Well does Bancroft exclaim, after recounting these details in his " History of the Constitution " : " But for him the country could not have achieved its independence ; but for him it could not have formed its Union ; and now but for him it could not set the government in successful motion." Reaching New York on the 23d, after a continuous tri umphal journey through Alexandria, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Trenton, he was welcomed by the two houses 20 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. of congress, by the governor of the state, the magistrates of the city, and by great masses of the people. The city was illuminated in his honor. But he proceeded on foot from the barge that had brought him across the bay to the house of the president of the late confederation, which had been appointed for his residence. John Adams had been installed in the chair of the senate, as vice-president of the United States, on 21 April, but congress could not get ready for the inaugura tion of the president until the 30th. On that day the oath of office was administered to Washington by Robert R. Living ston, chancellor of the state of New York, in the presence of the two houses of congress, on a balcony in front of the hall in which congress held its sittings, where a statue has recently been placed. Washington then retired to the senate-chamber and delivered his inaugural address. " It would be peculiarly improper to omit," said he, " in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the uni verse, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect — that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves. . . No people can be bound to ac knowledge the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of man more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have ad vanced to the character of an inde pendent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of provi- \dential agency. . . . These reflections, V: ; ' :''l \*L arising out of the present crisis, have .JWffli ' forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence." In accordance with those sentiments, at the close of the ceremony, Washington and both branches of congress were escorted to St. Paul's chapel, at the corner of Broadway and Fulton street, where the chaplain of the GEORGE WASHINGTON. 21 senate read prayers suited to the occasion, after which they all attended the president to his mansion near Franklin square. Thus began the administration of Washington, as first president of the United States, on 30 April, 1789. This is a date never to be forgotten in American history, and it would be most happy if the 30th of April could be substituted for the 4th of March as the inauguration-day of the second century of our constitutional existence. It would add two months to the too short second session of con gress, give a probability of pro pitious weather for the ceremony, and be a perpetual commemora tion of the day on which Wash ington entered upon his great office, and our national govern ment was practically organized. An amendment to the constitu tion making this change has twice been formally proposed and has passed the U. S. senate, but has failed of adoption in the house of representatives. From first to last, Washington's influence in conciliating all differences of opinion in regard to the rightful interpretation and execution of the new constitution was most effective. The recently printed journal of William Maclay, a senator from Pennsylvania in the 1st congress, says, in allusion to some early controversies : " The president's amiable deport ment, however, smoothes and sweetens everything." Count Moustier, the French minister, in writing home to his govern ment, five weeks after the inauguration, says : " The opinion of Gen. Washington was of such weight that it alone con tributed more than any other measure to cause the present constitution to be adopted. The extreme confidence in his patriotism, his integrity, and his intelligence, forms to-day its principal support. . . All is hushed in presence of the "trust of the people in the saviour of the country." Washington had to confront not a few of the same perplexi ties that all his successors have experienced in a still greater de gree in regard to appointments to office. But at the earliest moment he adopted rules and principles on this subject which 3 22 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. might well be commended to presidents and governors in later days. In a letter to his friend James Bowdoin, of Massachusetts, bearing date 9 May, 1789, less than six weeks after his inaugura tion, he used language that might fitly serve as an introduction to the civil-service reform manual of the present hour. " No part of my duty," he says, " will be more delicate, and in many instances more unpleasing, than that of nominating or appointing persons to office. It will undoubtedly often happen that there will be several candidates for the same office, whose pretensions, ability, and integrity may be nearly equal, and who will come forward so equally supported in every respect as almost to require the aid of supernatural intuition to fix upon the right. I shall, however, in all events, have the satisfaction to reflect that I entered upon my administration unconfined by a single engagement, uninfluenced by any ties of blood or friendship, and with the best intentions and fullest determination to nominate to office those persons only who, upon every consideration, were the most deserving, and who would probably execute their several functions to the interest and credit of the American Union, if such characters could be found by my exploring every avenue of information respect ing their merits and pretensions that it was in my power to obtain." Appointing Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, as his secretary of state ; Alexander Hamilton, of New York, as his secretary of the treasury ; ana Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, as his secretary of war, he gave clear indication at the outset that no sectional interests or prejudices were to control or shape his policy. Under Jefferson, the foreign affairs of the country were administered with great discretion and ability. Under Hamilton, the financial affairs of the country were extricated from the confusion and chaos into which they had fallen, and the national credit was established on a firm basis. The preamble of the very first revenue bill, signed by Wash ington on 4 July, 1789, w^s a notable expression of the views entertained in regard to the powers and duties of the new government in the regulation of trade and the laying and collecting of taxes : " Whereas, it is necessary for the support of government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encouragement and protection of manufac turers, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and merchandise imported, Be it enacted, etc." The incorporation of a national GEORGE WASHINGTON. 2\ bank and kindred measures of the highest interest soon fol lowed. The supreme court of the United States was organ ized with John Jay as its first chief justice. Important amend ments to the constitution were framed and recommended to the states for adoption, and congress continued in session till the close of September. But in the course of the summer Washington had a severe illness, and for some days his life was thought to be in danger. Confined to his bed for six weeks, it was more than twelve weeks before he was restored. With a view to the re-establish ment of his health, as well as for seeing the country, he then set off on a tour to the eastern states, and visited Boston, Portsmouth, New Haven, and other places. He was welcomed everywhere with unbounded enthusiasm. No " royal prog ress " in any country ever equalled this tour in its demonstra tions of veneration and affection. A similar tour with the same manifestations was made by him in the southern states the next year. As the four years of his first term drew to an end, he was seriously inclined to withdraw from further public service, but Jefferson and Hamilton alike, with all their respect ive followers, while they differed widely on so many other matters, were of one mind in earnestly remonstrating against! Washington's retirement. " The confidence of the whole coun- 1 try," wrote Jefferson, "is centred in you. . . . North and south t will hang together if they have you to hang on." "It is i clear," wrote Hamilton, " that if you continue in office nothing ' materially mischievous is to be apprehended ; if you quit, much is to be dreaded. ... I trust, and I pray God, that you will determine to make a further sacrifice of your tranquillity and happiness to the public good." Washington could not find it in his heart to resist such appeals, and allowed himself / to be again a candidate. He was chosen unanimously by the electors, and took the oath of office again on 4 March, 1793. He had but just entered on this second term of the presidency when the news reached him that France had declared war against England and Holland. He lost no time in announcing his purpose to maintain a strict neutrality toward the belliger ent powers, and this policy was unanimously sustained by his cabinet. His famous proclamation of neutrality was accord ingly issued on 22 April, and soon became the subject of violent partisan controversy throughout the Union. It gave 24 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. occasion to the masterly essays of Hamilton and Madison, under the signatures of " Pacificus " and " Helvidius," and con tributed more than anything else, perhaps, to the original for mation of the Federal and Republican parties. The wisdom of Washington was abundantly justified by the progress of events, but he did not escape the assaults of partisan bitterness. Mr. Jay, still chief justice, was sent to England as minister early in 1794, and his memorable treaty added fuel to the flame. Meantime a tax on distilled spirits had encountered much opposition in various parts of the country, and in August, 1794, was forcibly resisted and defied by a large body of armed in surgents in the western counties of Pennsylvania. Washington issued a proclamation calling out the militia of the neighboring states, and left home to cross the mountains and lead the troops in person. But the insurrection happily succumbed at his approach, and his presence became unnecessary. The arro gant and offensive conduct of the French minister, M. Genet, irreconcilable dissensions in the cabinet, and renewed agita tions and popular discontents growing out of the Jay treaty, gave Washington no little trouble in these latter years of his administration, and he looked forward with eagerness to a release from official cares. Having made up his mind un changeably to decline another election as president, he thought it fit to announce that decision in the most formal manner. He had consulted Madison at the close of his first term in regard to an address declining a second election. He now sought the advice and counsel of Alexander Hamilton, no longer a member of the cabinet, and the farewell address was prepared and published nearly six months before his official term had expired. That immortal paper has often been printed with the date of 17 Sept., 1796, and special interest has been expressed in the coincidence of the date of the address with the date of the adoption of the constitution of the United States. But, as a matter of fact, the address bears date 19 Sept., 1796, as may be seen in the autograph original now in the Lenox library, New York. Mr. James Lenox purchased that precious original from the family of the printer Claypoole, by whom it was published in Philadelphia, and to whom the manuscript, wholly in Washington's handwriting, with all its in terlineations, corrections, and erasures, was given by Washing ton himself. GEORGE WASHINGTON. 25 On the following 4th of March, Washington was present at the inauguration of his successor, John Adams, and soon after ward went with his family to Mount Vernon, to resume his agricultural occupations. Serious difficulties with France were soon developed, and war became im minent. A provisional army was au thorized by congress to meet the exi gency, and all eyes were again turned toward Washington as its leader. Presi dent Adams wrote to him : " We must have your name, if you will permit us to use it. There will be more efficacy in it than in many an army." Hamil ton urged him to make "this further, this very great sacrifice." And thus, on 3 July, 1798, Washington, yielding to the entreaty of friends and a sense of duty to his country, was once more commissioned as " Lieu- tenant-General and Commander-in-chief of all the armies raised, or to be raised, in the United States." The organization and arrangement of this new army now engrossed his attention. Deeply impressed with the great responsibility that had been thrust upon him, and having selected Alexander Hamilton as his chief of staff, to the serious disappointment of his old friend Gen. Knox, he entered at once into the minutest details of the preparation for war, with all the energy and zeal of his earlier and more vigorous days. Most happily this war with our late gallant ally was averted. Washington, however, did not live to receive the assurance of a result that he so earnestly desired. Riding over his farms, on 12 Dec, to give directions to the managers of his estate, he was overtaken by showers of rain and sleet, and returned home wet and chilled. The next day he suffered from a hoarse, sore throat, followed by an ague at night. His old physician and surgeon, Dr. Craik, who had been with him in peace and in war, was summoned from Alexandria the next morning, and two other physicians were called into consulta tion during the day. At four o'clock in the afternoon he re quested his wife, who was constantly at his bedside, to bring him two papers from his study, one of which he gave back to her as his will. At six o'clock he said to the three physicians .26 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. around him: "I feel myself going; I thank you for your at tentions, but I pray you to take no more trouble about me." He had previously said to Dr. Craik : " I die hard, but I am not afraid to go." About ten o'clock he succeeded with diffi culty in giving some directions about his funeral to Mr. Lear, his secretary, and on Mr. Lear's assunng him that he was un derstood, he uttered his last words : " It is well." And thus, between ten and eleven o'clock on Saturday night, 14 Dec, 1799, the end came, and his spirit returned to God who gave it. The funeral took place on the 18th. Such troops as were in the neighborhood formed the escort of the little procession ; the general's favorite horse was led behind the bier, the Free masons performed their ceremonies, the Rev. Thomas Davis read the service and made a brief address, a schooner lying in the Potomac fired minute-guns, the relatives and friends within reach, including Lord Fairfax and the corporation of Alex andria, were in attendance, and the body was deposited in the vault at Mount Vernon. At Mount Vernon it has remained to this day. Virginia would never consent to its removal to the stately vault prepared for it beneath the capitol at Washington. Congress was in session at Philadelphia, and the startling news of Washington's death only reached there on the day of his funeral. The next morning John Marshall, then a representa tive from Virginia, afterward for thirty-four years chief justice of the supreme court of the United States, announced the death in the house of representatives, concluding a short but admirable tribute to his illustrious friend with resolutions pre pared by Richard Henry Lee, which contained the grand words that have ever since been associated with Washington : " First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens." Gen. Lee pronounced a eulogy, by order of both houses of congress, on 26 Dec, in which he changed the last word of his own famous phrase to " countrymen," and it is so given in the eulogy as published by congress. Meantime congress adopted a resolution recommending to the people of GEORGE WASHINGTON. 27 the United States to assemble on the following 22d of Febru ary, in such manner as should be convenient, to testify pub licly by eulogies, orations, and discourses, or by public prayers, their grief for the death of George Washington. In conformity with this recommendation, eulogies or sermons were delivered, or exercises of some sort held, in almost every city, town, vil lage, or hamlet, throughout the land. Such was the first ob servance of Washington's birthday ; — thenceforth to be a na tional holiday. But not in our own land only was his death commemorated. Napoleon Bonaparte, then first consul, an nounced it to the army of France, and ordered all the standards and flags throughout the republic to be bound with crape for ten days, during which a funeral oration was pronounced in pres ence of the first consul and all the civil and military authori ties, in what is now the Hotel des Invalides. More striking still is the fact, mentioned by Jared Sparks, that the British fleet, consisting of nearly sixty ships of the line, which was lying at Torbay, England, under the command of Lord Bridport, lowered their flags half-mast on hearing the intelligence of Washington's death. In later years the tributes to the memory of Washington have been such as no other man of modern or even of ancient history has com manded. He has sometimes been compared, after the manner of Plu tarch, with Epaminondas, or Timo- leon, or Alfred the Great of Eng land. But an eminent living English historian has recently and justly said that the place of Washington in the history of mankind " is well-nigh without a fellow." Indeed, the gen eral judgment of the v/orld has given ready assent to the care fully weighed, twice repeated declaration of Lord Brougham : " It will be the duty of the historian and sage in all ages to let no occasion pass of commemorating this illustrious man ; and, until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington ! " Mod- IV1 28 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. '\ est, disinterested, generous, just, of clean hands and a pure heart, self-denying and self-sacrificing, seeking nothing for himself, declining all remuneration beyond the reimbursement of his outlays, scrupulous to a farthing in keeping his accounts, of spotless integrity, scorning gifts, charitable to the needy, forgiving injuries and injustice, fearless, heroic with a pru dence ever governing his impulses and a wisdom ever guiding his valor, true to his friends, true to his whole country, true to himself, fearing God, believing in Christ, no stranger to private devotion or public worship, or to the holiest offices of the church to which he belonged, but ever gratefully recognizing a divine aid and direction in all that he attempted and in all that he accomplished — what epithet, what attribute, could be added to that consummate character to commend it as an ex ample above all other characters in merely human history ? Washington's most important original papers were be queathed to his favorite nephew, Bushrod Washington, and were committed by him to Chief-Justice John Marshall, by whom an elaborate life, in five volumes, was published in 1804. Abridged editions of this great work have been published more recently. " The Writings of Washington," with a life, were published by Jared Sparks (12 vols., Boston, i834-'7). A new edition of Washington's complete works in 14 vols., edited by Worthington C. Ford, containing many letters and papers now published for the first time, has very recently been com pleted (New York, i888-'93). Biographies have also been published by Mason L. Weems, David Ramsay, James K. Paulding, Charles W. Upham, Joel T. Headley, Caroline M. Kirkland, and Edward Everett Hale. Benson J. Lossing made an interesting contribution to the illustration of the same theme by his " Mount Vernon and its Associations " in 1859. Meanwhile the genius of Washington Irving has illuminated the whole story of Washington's life, public and private, and thrown around it the charms of exquisite style and lucid nar rative (5 vols., New York, 1855-9). An abridgment and re vision of Irving's work, by John Fiske (New York, 1888), and "General Washington," by Bradley T. Johnston (1894), have recently appeared. A sketch was prepared by Edward Everett, at the request of Lord Macaulay, for the eighth edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " (1853-1860), which was afterward published in a separate volume. To Edward GEORGE WASHINGTON. 2Q Everett, too, belongs the principal credit of having saved Mount Vernon from the auctioneer's hammer, and secured its preservation, under the auspices of the Ladies' Mount Vernon association, as a place of pilgrimage. He wrote fifty-two arti cles for the New York " Ledger," and delivered his lecture on Washington many times, contributing the proceeds to the Mount Vernon fund. The marble statue in the capitol at Richmond, Va. (for bust of this, see page 20), by the French sculptor Houdon, from life, must be named first among the standard likenesses of Washington. Excellent portraits of him by John Trumbull, by both the Peales, and by Gilbert Stuart, are to be seen in many public galleries. Stuart's head leaves nothing to be desired in the way of dignity and grandeur. Among the numerous monu ments that have been erected to his memory may be mentioned the noble column in Baltimore ; the colossal statue in the Capitol grounds at Washington, by Horatio Greenough; the splendid group in Richmond, surmounted by an equestrian statue, by Thomas Crawford ; the marble statue in the Massa chusetts state-house, by Sir Francis Chantrey ; the equestrian statue in the Boston public garden, by Thomas Ball ; the equestrian statue in Union square, New York, by Henry K. Brown ; and, lastly, the matchless obelisk at Washington, of which the corner-stone was laid in 1848, upon which the cap stone was placed, at the height of 555 feet, in 1884, and which was dedicated by congress on 21 Feb., 1885, as Washington's birthday that year fell on Sunday. See vignette (page 27), and also illustration of his birthplace by Charles C. Perkins (page 3) ; a drawing of the locality by Gen. William T. Sherman (page 4), the church at Pohick (page 11), the Newburgh headquarters (page 16), Mount Vernon (page 32), Washington's tomb, (page 26), a portrait of him in youth (page 7) ; also the pictures by Trumbull (page 13), Wertmuller (page 21), and Du Simitiere (page 25). The steel engraving, which appears as a frontis piece to this volume, is from Stuart's original in the Boston Athenaeum. The vignette which follows of Mrs. Washington, is from the portrait by the same distinguished artist. His wife, Martha, born in New Kent county, Va., in May, 1732; died at Mount Vernon, Va., 22 May, 1802, was the daughter of Col. John Dandridge, a planter in New Kent 30 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. county. Martha was fairly educated by private tutors, and became an expert performer on the spinet. She was intro duced to the vice-regal court, during the administration of Sir William Gooch, at fifteen years of age, and in June, 1749, mar ried Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy planter, with whom she removed to his residence, the White House, on Pamunkey river. They had four children, two of whom died in infancy, and in 1757 Mr. Custis also died, leaving his widow one of the wealthiest women in Virginia. About a year after her hus band's death she met Col. Washington, who was visiting at the house of -Maj. William Chamberlayne, where she too was a guest. In May, 1758, they became engaged, but the marriage was de layed by Col. Washington's northern campaign, and it was not till Janu ary, 1759, that it was solemnized, at St. Peter's church, New Kent county, the Rev. John Mossum performing the ceremony. The wedding was one of the most brilliant that had ever been seen in a church in Vir ginia. The bridegroom wore a suit of blue cloth, the coat lined with red ^^%t^7 /£^_ silk, and ornamented with silver trimmings; his waistcoat was em broidered white satin, his knee-buckles were of gold, and his hair was powdered. The bride was attired in a white satin quilted petticoat, a heavily corded white silk over-dress, diamond buckles, and pearl ornaments. The governor, many members of the legislature, British officers, and the neighboring gentry were present in full court dress. Washington's body-servant, Bishop, a tall negro, to whom he was much attached and who had accompanied him on all his military campaigns, stood in the porch, clothed in the scarlet uniform of a soldier of the royal army in the time of George II. The bride and her three attendants drove back to the White House in a coach drawn by six horses led by liveried postilions, Col. Washington and an escort of cavaliers riding by its side. Mrs. Washington's life at Mount Vernon for the subsequent seventeen years partook much of the style of the English aristocracy. She was a thor ough housekeeper, and entertained constantly. Her daughter, rhn GEORGE WASHINGTON. 3! Martha Parke Custis, who died in the seventeenth year of her age, was known as the " dark lady," on account of her bru nette complexion, and was greatly loved by the neighboring poor, to whom she frequently ministered. On her well pre served portrait, painted by Charles Wilson Peale, is inscribed "A Virginia Beauty." Mrs. Washington ardently sympathized with her husband in his patriotic measures. To a kinswoman, who deprecated what she called "his folly," Mrs. Washington wrote in 1774: " Yes, I foresee consequences — dark days, domestic happiness suspended, social enjoyments abandoned, and eternal separa tions on earth possible. But my mind is made up, my heart is in the cause. George is right ; he is always right. God has prom ised to protect the righteous, and I will trust him." Patrick Henry and Edmund Pendleton spent a day and night at Mount Vernon in August, 1774, on their way to congress. Pendleton afterward wrote to a friend : " Mrs. Washington talked like a Spartan to her son on his going to battle. ' I hope you will all stand firm,' she said ; ' I know George will.' " After her husband became commander-in-chief she was burdened with many cares. He visited Mount Vernon only twice during the war. She joined him at Cambridge, Mass., in 1775, subsequently accom panying Gen. Washington to New York and Philadelphia, and whenever it was possible joined him in camp. During the win ter at Valley Forge she suffered every privation in common with the officers, and " was busy from morning till night providing comforts for the sick soldiers." Although previous to the war she had paid much attention to her attire, as became her wealth and station, while it continued she dressed only in garments that were spun and woven by her servants at Mount Vernon. At a ball in New Jersey that was given in her honor she wore one of these simple gowns and a white kerchief, "as an exam ple of economy to the women of the Revolution." Her last surviving child, John Parke Custis, died in November, 1781, leaving four children. The two younger, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis, Gen. Washington at once adopted. After Mrs. Washington left headquarters at Newburgh in 1782, she did not again return to camp life. She was residing at Mount Vernon (see illustration) at the time Washington was chosen president of the United States. When she assumed the duties of mistress of the executive mansion in 32 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. New York she was fifty-seven years old, but still retained traces of beauty, and bore herself with great personal dignity. She instituted levees, that she ever afterward continued, on Friday evening of each week from eight to nine o'clock. " None were admit ted but those who had a right of en trance by official sta tion or established character," and full dress was required. During the second term of the president ^Jmmm^mmmm^" they resided in Phila- delphia, where their public receptions were conducted as those in New York had been. An English gentleman, describing her at her own table in 1794, says : " Mrs. Washington struck me as being older than the president. She was extremely simple in dress, and wore her gray hair turned up under a very plain cap." She greatly disliked official life, and rejoiced when her husband refused a third term in 1796. She resided at Mount Vernon during the re mainder of her life, occupied with her domestic duties, of which she was fond, arid in entertaining the numerous guests that visited her husband. She survived him two and a half years. Before her death she destroyed her entire correspondence with Gen. Washington. " Thus," says her grandson and biographer, George Washington Parke Custis, " proving her love for him, for she would not permit that the confidence they had shared together should be made public." See " Memoirs of the Mother and Wife of Washington," by Margaret C. Conkling (Auburn, N. Y., 1851), "Mary and Martha," by Benson J. Lossing (New York, 1887), and "The Story of Mary Washington," by Marion Harland (Boston, 1892). His adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis, author, born at Mount Airy, Md., 30 April, 1781 ; died at Ar lington House, Fairfax co., Va., 10 Oct., 1857. His father, Col. John Parke Custis, the son of Mrs. Washington by her first husband, was aide-de-camp to Washington at the siege of Yorktown, and died 5 Nov., 1781, aged twenty-eight. The GEORGE WASHINGTON. 33 son had his early home at Mount Vernon, pursued his classical studies at St. John's College and at Princeton, and remained a member of Washington's family until the death of Mrs. Wash ington in 1802, when he built Arlington House on an estate of 1,000 acres near Washington, which he had inherited from his father. After the death in 1852 of his sister, Eleanor Parke Custis, wife of Major Lawrence Lewis, he was the sole surviving member of Washington's family, and his residence was for many years a favorite resort, owing to the interesting relics of that family which it contained. Mr. Custis married in early life Mary Lee Fitzhugh, of Virginia, and left a daughter, who married Robert E. Lee. The Arlington estate was confiscated during the civil war, and is now held as national property and is the site of a national soldiers' cemetery. The house is rep resented in the accompanying illustration. Mr. Custis was in his early days an elo quent and effective speaker. He wrote orations and plays, and during his lat ter years executed a number of large paintings of Revolu tionary battles. His " Recollections of Washington," origin ally contributed to the " National Intelligencer," was published in book-form, with a memoir by his daughter and numerous notes by Benson J. Lossing (New York, i860). Washington's brother-in-law, Fielding Lewis, patriot, born in Spottsylvania county, Va., in 1726 ; died in Fredericks burg, Va., in December, 1781. He was the proprietor of half the town of Fredericksburg, Va., of which he was the first mayor, and of much of the adjoining territory, and during the Revolution he was an ardent patriot, superintending a large manufactory of arms in that neighborhood ; the site of this establishment is still known as " Gunny Green." He was a magistrate and a member of the Virginia legislature for many years. He married Elizabeth, sister of George Washington, and built for her a mansion that is still standing, called Ken- 34 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. more House, which was handsomely constructed and orna mented with carvings that were brought from England for the purpose. His wife was majestic in person and lovely in mental and moral attributes. Later in life she so much resembled her brother George that, by putting on his long military coat and his hat, she could easily have been mis taken for the general. Mary, the mother of Washington, died on Mr. Lewis's farm and is buried there. Of their sons, George was a captain in Washington's life-guard, Robert one of his private secretaries, and Andrew was aide to Gen. Daniel Mor gan in suppressing the whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania. Another son, Lawrence, was Washington's favorite nephew. His wife, Eleanor Parke Custis, born at Abingdon, Fair fax co., Va., in March, 1779 ; died at Audley, Clarke co., Va., JS July, 1852, was the daughter of John Parke Custis, the son of Martha Washington. At the death of her father, in 1781, she, with her brother George, was adopted by Gen. Washington, and lived at Mount Ver non. Eleanor was regarded as the most brilliant and beautiful young woman of her day, the pride of her grandmother, and the favorite of Washington, who was the playmate of her childhood and the confidant of her girlhood. How ever abstracted, she could always com mand his attention, and he would put aside the most important matter to at-. tend to her demands. She was accom plished in drawing, and a good musi cian. Washington presented her with a harpsichord at the cost of a thousand dollars. Irving relates an anecdote that illustrates their relations : " She was romantic, and fond of wandering in the moonlight alone in the woods. Mrs. Washington thought this unsafe, and forced from her a promise that she would not visit the woods again unaccompa nied, but she was brought one evening into the drawing-room where her grandmother, seated in her arm-chair, began in the presence of the general a severe reproof. Poor Nellie was re minded of her promise, and taxed with her delinquency. She GEORGE WASHINGTON. 35 admitted her fault and essayed no excuse, moving to retire from the room. She was just closing the door when she over heard Washington attempting in a low voice to intercede in her behalf. ' My dear,' he observed, ' I would say no more — perhaps she was not alone.' His intercession stopped Miss Nellie in her retreat. She reopened the door and advanced up to the general with a firm step. ' Sir,' said she, ' you brought me up to speak the truth, and, when I told grandmamma I was alone, I hope you believe I was alone.' Washington made one of his most magnanimous bows. ' My child,' he replied, ' I beg your pardon.'" In February, 1799, she married his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, the son of his sister Elizabeth. Young Lewis, after Washington's retirement from public life, had resided at Mount Vernon, and after their marriage they continued there till the death of Mrs. Washington in May, 1802. The portrait of Mrs. Lewis is from the picture by Gilbert Stuart, and is now in the possession of her descendant, Edwin A. Stevens Lewis, who is also the owner of the valuable silver service presented to her by Gen. Washington. Their grandson, Edward Parke Custis Lewis, diploma tist, born in Audley, Clarke co., Va., 7 Feb., 1837 ; died in Ho- boken, N. J., 3 Sept., 1892. He was educated at the University of Virginia, and studied law, but subsequently became a planter. He served throughout the War of the Rebellion in the Confederate army, rising to the rank of colonel, and for fifteen months was a prisoner of war. He settled in Hoboken, in 1875, having previously married Mrs. Mary Garnett, eldest daughter of Edwin A. Stevens, of New Jersey, and widow of Muscoe R. H. Garnett, Member of Congress from Virginia, served in the New Jersey legislature in 1877, was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in 1880, and in 1885 was appointed by President Cleveland United States minister to Portugal. JOHN ADAMS. John Adams, second president of the United States, born in that part of the town of Braintree, Mass., which has since been set off as the town of Quincy, 31 Oct., 1735 > died there, 4 July, 1826. His great-grandfather, Henry Adams, received a grant of about 40 acres of land in Braintree in 1636, and soon afterward emigrated from Devonshire, England, with his eight sons. John Adams, the subject of this sketch, was the eldest son of John Adams and Susanna Boylston, daughter of Peter Boylston, of Brookline. His father, one of the selectmen of Braintree and a deacon of the church, was a thrifty farmer, and at his death in 1760 his estate was appraised at ^1,330 9s. 6d., which in those days v might have been re garded as a moderate competence. It was the custom of the family to send the eldest son to col lege, and according ly John was gradu ated at Harvard in 1755. Previous to 1773 the graduates of Harvard were arranged in lists, not alphabetically or in order of merit, but according to the social standing of their parents. In a class of twenty-four members John thus stood fourteenth. One of his classmates was John Wentworth, afterward royal governor of New Hampshire, and then of Nova Scotia. After taking his degree and while waiting to make his choice of a profession, Adams took charge of the grammar school at Worcester. It was the year of Braddock's defeat, when the smouldering fires of a century of rivalry between France and ;;,'¦ ' * Painted fe/'G Stuart JOHN ADAMS. 37 England broke out in a blaze of war which was forever to settle the question of the primacy of the English race in the modern world. Adams took an intense interest in the struggle, and predicted that if we could only drive out " these turbulent Gallics," our numbers would in another century exceed those of the British, and all Europe would be unable to subdue us. In sending him to college his family seem to have hoped that he would become a clergyman ; but he soon found himself too much of a free thinker to feel at home in the pulpit of that day. When accused of Arminianism, he cheerfully admitted the charge. Later in life he was sometimes called a Unitarian, but of dogmatic Christianity he seems to have had as little as Franklin or Jefferson. "Where do we find,"' he asks, "a pre cept in the gospel requiring ecclesiastical synods, convocations, councils, decrees, creeds, confessions, oaths, subscriptions, and whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find religion en cumbered with in these days ? " In this mood he turned from the ministry and began the study of law at Worcester. There was then a strong prejudice against lawyers in New England, but the profession throve lustily nevertheless, so litigious were the people. In 1758 Adams began the practice of his profes sion in Suffolk co., having his residence in Braintree. In 1764 he was married to Abigail Smith, of Weymouth, a lady of social position higher than his own and endowed with most rare and admirable qualities of head and heart. In this same year the agitation over the proposed stamp act was begun, and on the burning questions raised by this ill-considered measure Adams had already taken sides. When James Otis in 1761 delivered his memorable argument against writs of assistance, John Adams was present in the court-room, and the fiery eloquence of Otis wrought a wonderful effect upon him. As his son after ward said, " it was like the oath of Hamilcar administered to Hannibal." In his old age John Adams wrote, with reference to this scene, " Every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Independence was born." When the stamp act was passed, in 1765, Adams took a prominent part in a town-meeting at Braintree, where he presented resolutions which were adopted word for word by more than forty towns 4 38 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. J/rmjftitwij in Massachusetts. The people refused to make use of stamps, and the business of the inferior courts was carried on without them, judges and lawyers agreeing to connive at the absence of the stamps. In the supreme court, however, where Thomas Hutchinson was chief justice, the judges refused to transact any business without stamps. This threatened serious interruption to business, and the town of Boston addressed a memorial to the gov ernor and council, praying that the supreme court might overlook the absence of stamps. John Adams was unexpectedly chosen, along with Jeremiah Gridley and James Otis, as counsel for the town, to argue the case in favor of the me morial. Adams delivered the open ing argument, and took the decisive ground that the stamp act was ipso facto null and void, since it was a measure of taxation which the peo ple of the colony had taken no share in passing. No such measure, he declared, could be held as binding in America, and parliament had no right to tax the colonies. The governor and council refused to act in the matter, but presently the repeal of the stamp act put an end to the disturbance for a while. About this time Mr. Adams began writing articles for the Boston "Gazette." Four of these articles, dealing with the constitutional rights of the people of New England, were afterward republished under the somewhat curious title of "An Essay on the Canon and Feudal Law." After ten years of practice, Mr. Adams's business had become quite extensive, and in 1768 he moved into Boston. The attorney-general of Massachusetts, Jonathan Sewall, now offered him the lucrative office of advocate-general in the court of admiralty. This was intended to operate as an indirect bribe by putting Mr. Adams into a position in which he could not feel free to oppose the policy of the crown ; such insidious methods were systematic ally pursued by Gov. Bernard, and after him by Hutchinson. But Mr. Adams was too wary to swallow the bait, and he stubbornly refused the pressing offer. JOHN ADAMS. 29 In 1770 came the first in the series of great acts that made Mr. Adams's career illustrious. In the midst of the terrible excitement aroused by the " Boston Massacre " he served as counsel for Capt. Preston and his seven soldiers when they were tried for murder. His friend and kinsman, Josiah Quincy, assisted him in this invidious task. The trial was judiciously postponed for seven months until the popular fury had abated. Preston and five soldiers were acquitted ; the other two soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter, and were barbarously branded on the hand with a hot iron. The verdict seems to have been strictly just according to the evidence presented. . For his services to his eight clients Mr. Adams received a fee of nineteen guineas, but never got so much as a word of thanks from the churlish Preston. An ordinary American politician would have shrunk from the task of defending these men, for fear of losing favor with the people. The course pursued by Mr. Adams showed great moral courage; and the people of Boston proved themselves able to appreciate true manliness by electing him as representative to the legislature. This was in June, 1770, after he had undertaken the case of the soldiers, but before the trial. Mr. Adams now speedily became the principal legal adviser of the patriot party, and among its fore most leaders was only less conspicuous than Samuel Adams, Hancock, and Warren. In all matters of legal controversy between these leaders and Gov. Hutchinson his advice proved invaluable. During the next two years there was something of a lull in the political excitement ; Mr. Adams resigned his place in the legislature and moved his residence to Braintree, still keeping his office in Boston. In the summer of 1772 the British government ventured upon an act that went further than anything which had yet occurred toward driving the colonies into rebellion. It was ordered that all the Massa chusetts judges holding their places during the king's pleasure should henceforth have their salaries paid by the crown and not by the colony. This act, which aimed directly at the in dependence of the judiciary, aroused intense indignation, not only in Massachusetts, but in the other colonies, which felt their liberties threatened by such a measure. It called forth from Mr. Adams a series of powerful articles, which have been republished in the 3d volume of his collected works. About this time he was chosen member of the council, but he at 40 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. choice was negatived by Gov. Hutchinson. The five acts of parliament in April, 1774, including the regulating act and the Boston port bill, led to the calling of the first continental congress, to which Mr. Adams was chosen as one of the five delegates from Massachusetts. The resolutions passed by this congress on the subject of colonial rights were drafted by him, and his diary and letters contain a vivid account of some of the proceedings. On his return to Braintree he was chosen a member of the revolutionary provincial congress of Massachu setts, then assembled at Concord. This revolutionary body had already seized the revenues of the colony, appointed a committee of safety, and begun to organize an army and col lect arms and ammunition. During the following winter the views of the loyalist party were set forth with great ability and eloquence in a series of newspaper articles by Daniel Leonard, under the signature of " Massachusettensis." He was answered most effectively by Mr. Adams, whose articles, signed " No- vanglus," appeared weekly in the Boston " Gazette " until the battle of Lexington. The last of these articles, which was actually in type in that wild week, was not published. The series, which has been reprinted in the 4th volume of Mr. Adams's works, contains a valuable review of the policy of Bernard and Hutchinson, and a powerful statement of the rights of the colonies. In the second continental congress, which assembled May 10th, Mr. Adams played a very important part. Of all the delegates present he was probably the only one, except his cousin, Samuel Adams, who was convinced that matters had gone too far for any reconciliation with the mother country, and that there was no use in sending any more petitions to the king. As there was a strong prejudice against Massachusetts on the part of the middle and southern colonies, it was desir able that her delegates should avoid all appearance of undue haste in precipitating an armed conflict. Nevertheless, the circumstances under which an army of 16,000 New England men had been gathered to besiege the British in Boston were such as to make it seem advisable for the congress to adopt it as a continental army ; and here John Adams did the second notable deed of his career. He proposed Washington for the chief command of this army, and thus, by putting Virginia in the foreground, succeeded in committing that great colony to JOHN ADAMS. . 4 1 a course of action calculated to end in independence. This move not only put the army in charge of the only commander capable of winning independence for the American people in the field, but its political importance was great and obvious. Afterward in some dark moments of the revolutionary war, Mr. Adams seems almost to have regretted his part in this selection of a commander. He understood little or nothing of military affairs, and was incapable of appreciating General Washington's transcendent ability. The results of the war, however, justified in every respect his action in the second continental congress. During the summer recess taken by congress Mr. Adams sat as a member of the Massachusetts council, which declared the office of governor vacant and assumed executive authority. Under the new provisional government of Massachusetts, Mr. Adams was made chief justice, but never took his seat, as continental affairs more pressingly demanded his attention. He was always loquacious, often too ready to express his opinions, whether with tongue or pen, and this trait got him more than once into trouble, especially as he was inclined to be sharp and censorious. For John Dickinson, the leader of the moderate and temporizing party in congress, who had just prevailed upon that body to send another petition to the king, he seems to have entertained at this time no very high regard, and he gave vent to some contemptuous expressions in a confidential letter, which was captured by the British and published. This led to a quarrel with Dickinson, and made Mr. Adams very unpopular in Philadelphia. When congress reassembled in the autumn, Mr. Adams, as member of a com mittee for fitting out cruisers, drew up a body of regulations, which came to form the basis of the American naval code. The royal governor, Sir John Wentworth, fled from New Hampshire about this time, and the people sought the advice of congress as to the form of government which it should seem most advisable to adopt. Similar applications presently came from South Carolina and Virginia. Mr. Adams prevailed upon congress to recommend to these colonies to form for them selves new governments based entirely upon popular suffrage ; and about the same time he published a pamphlet entitled " Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies." By the spring of 1776 the popular iy 42 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. feeling had become so strongly inclined toward independence that, on the 15th of May, Mr. Adams was able to carry through congress a resolution that all the colonies should be invited to form independent governments. In the preamble to this resolution it was declared that the American people could no longer conscientiously take oath to support any government deriving its authority from the crown ; all such governments must now be suppressed, since the king had withdrawn his protection from the inhabitants of the united colonies. Like the famous preamble to Townshend's act of 1767, this Adams preamble contained within itself the gist of the whole matter. To adopt it was to cross the Rubicon, and it gave rise to a hot debate in congress. Against the opposition of most of the delegates from the middle states the resolution was finally carried; "and now," exclaimed Mr. Adams, "the Gordian knot is cut." Events came quickly to maturity. On the 7th of June the declaration of independence was moved by- Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, and seconded by John Adams. The motion was allowed to lie on the table for three weeks, in order to hear from the colonies of Connecticut, New Hamp shire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and New York, which had not yet declared their position with regard to independence. Meanwhile three committees were appointed, one on a declaration of independence, a second on confedera tion, and a third on foreign relations ; aad„Mr_Adams_was_ a member of the first and third of these committees. On the 1st of July Mr. Lee's motion was taken up by congress sitting as a committee of the whole ; and as Mr. Lee was absent, the task of defending it devolved upon Mr. Adams, who, as usual, was opposed by Dickinson. Adams's speech on that occasion was probably the finest he ever delivered. Jefferson called him "the colossus of that debate"; and indeed his labors in bringing about the declaration of independence must be con sidered as the third signal event of his career. On the 12th of June congress established a board of war and ordnance, with Mr. Adams for its chairman, and he dis charged the arduous duties of this office until after the sur render of Burgoyne. After the battle of Long Island, Lord Howe sent the captured Gen. Sullivan to Philadelphia, solicit ing a conference with some of the members of the congress. Adams opposed the conference, and with characteristic petu- JOHN ADAMS. 43 lance alluded to the unfortunate Sullivan as a decoy duck who had much better have been shot in the battle than sent on such a business. Congress, however, consented to the confer ence, and Adams was chosen as a commissioner, along with Franklin and Rutledge. Toward the end of the year 1777 Mr. Adams was appointed to supersede Silas Deane as com missioner to Ffance. He sailed 12 Feb., 1778, in the frigate " Boston," and after a stormy passage, in which he ran no little risk of capture by British cruisers, he landed at Bordeaux, and reached Paris on the 8th of April. Long before his arrival the alliance with France had been consummated. He found a wretched state of things in Paris, our three commissioners there at loggerheads, one of them dabbling in the British funds and making a fortune by privateering, while the public ac counts were kept in the laxest manner. All sorts of agents were drawing bills upon the United States, and commanders of war vessels were setting up their claims for expenses and sup plies that had never been ordered. Mr. Adams, whose habits of business were extremely strict and methodical, was shocked at this confusion, and he took hold of the matter with such vigor as to put an end to it. He also recommended that the representation of the United States at the French court should be intrusted to a single minister instead of three commis sioners. As a result of this advice, Franklin was retained at Paris, Arthur Lee was sent to Madrid, and Adams, being left without any instructions, returned to America, reaching Boston 2 Aug., 1779. He came home with a curious theory of the decadence of Great Britain, which he had learned in France, and which serves well to illustrate the mood in which France had undertaken to assist the United States. England, he said, " loses every day her consideration, and runs toward her ruin. Her riches, in which her power consisted, she has lost with us and never can regain. She resembles the melancholy spectacle of a great, wide-spreading tree that has been girdled at the root." Such absurd notions were quite commonly entertained at that time on the continent of Europe, and such calamities were seriously dreaded by many Englishmen in the event of the success of the Americans. Immediately on reaching home Mr. Adams was chosen delegate from Braintree to the convention for framing a new constitution for Massachusetts; but before the work of the 44 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. convention was finished. he was appointed commissioner to treat for peace with Great Britain, and sailed for France in the same French frigate in which he had come home. But Lord North's government was not ready to make peace, and, more over, Count Vergennes contrived to prevent Adams from mak ing any official communication to Great Britain of the extent of his powers. During Adams's stay in Paris a mutual dislike and distrust grew up between himself and Vergennes. The latter feared that if negotiations were to begin between the British government and the United States, they might lead to a reconciliation and reunion of the two branches of the English race, and thus ward off that decadence of England for which France was so eagerly hoping. On the other hand, Adams quite correctly believed that it was the intention of Vergennes to sacrifice the interests of the Americans, especially as con cerned with the Newfoundland fisheries and the territory be tween the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, in favor of Spain, with which country France was then in close alliance. Amer icans must always owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Adams for the clear-sightedness with which he thus read the designs of Vergennes and estimated at its true value the purely selfish intervention of France in behalf of the United States. This clearness of insight was soon to bear good fruit in the manage ment of the treaty of 1783. For the present, Adams found himself uncomfortable in Paris, as his too ready tongue wrought unpleasantness both with Vergennes and with Franklin, who was too much under the French minister's influence. On his first arrival in Paris, society there had been greatly excited about him, as it was supposed that he was " the famous Mr. Adams " who had ordered the British troops out of Boston in March, 1770, and had thrown down the glove of defiance to George III. on the great day of the Boston tea-party. When he explained that he was only a cousin of that grand and picturesque personage, he found that fashionable society thence forth took less interest in him. In the summer of 1780 Mr. Adams was charged by congress with the business of negotiating a Dutch loan. In order to give the good people of Holland some correct ideas as to American affairs, he published a number of articles in the Ley- den " Gazette " and in a magazine entitled " La politique hollandaise " ; also " Twenty-six Letters upon Interesting Sub- JOHN ADAMS. 45 jects respecting the Revolution in America," now reprinted in the 7th volume of his works. Soon after Adams's arrival in Holland, England declared war against the Dutch, ostensibly because of a proposed treaty of commerce with the United States in which the burgomaster of Amsterdam was implicated with Henry Laurens, but really because Holland had joined the league headed by the empress Catharine of Russia, de signed to protect the commerce of neutral nations and known as the armed neutrality. Laurens had been sent out by con gress as minister to Holland ; but, as he had been captured by a British cruiser and taken to the tower of London, Mr. Adams was appointed minister in his place. His first duty was to sign, as representing the United States, the articles of the armed neutrality. Before he had got any further, indeed be fore he had been recognized as minister by the Dutch govern ment, he was called back to Paris, in July, 1781, in order to be ready to enter upon negotiations for peace with the British government. Russia and Austria had volunteered their serv ices as mediators between George III. and the Americans; but Lord North's government rejected the offer, so that Mr. Adams had his journey for nothing, and presently went back to Holland. His first and most arduous task was to persuade the Dutch government to recognize him as minister from the independent United States. In this he was covertly opposed by Vergennes, who wished the Americans to feel exclusively dependent upon France, and to have no other friendships or alliances. From first to last the aid extended by France to the Americans in the revolutionary war was purely selfish. That despotic government wished no good to a people strug gling to preserve the immemorial principles of English liberty, and the policy of Vergennes was to extend just enough aid to us to enable us to prolong the war, so that colonies and mother country might alike be weakened. When he pretended to be the disinterested friend of the Americans, he professed to be under the influence of sentiments that he did not really feel; and he thus succeeded in winning from congress a confidence to which he was in no wise entitled. But he could not hood wink John Adams, who wrote home that the duke de la Vau- guyon, the French ambassador at the Hague, was doing every thing in his power to obstruct the progress of the negotiations ; and in this, Adams correctly inferred, he was acting under 46 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. secret instructions from Vergennes. As a diplomatist Adams was in a certain sense Napoleonic ; he introduced new and strange methods of warfare, which disconcerted the perfidious intriguers of the old school, of which Vergennes and Talley rand were typical examples. Instead of beating about the bush and seeking to foil trickery by trickery (a business in which the wily Frenchman would doubtless have proved more than his match), he went straight to the duke de la Vauguyon and bluntly told him that he saw plainly what he was up to, and that it was of no use, since " no advice of his or of the count de Vergennes, nor even a requisition from the king, should restrain me." The duke saw that Adams meant exactly what he said, and, finding that it was useless to oppose the negotiations, " fell in with me, in order to give the air of French influence " to them. Events worked steadily and rapidly in Adams's favor. The plunder of St. Eustatius early in 1781 had raised the wrath of the Dutch against Great Britain to fever heat. In November came tidings of the surrender of Lord Corn- wallis. By this time Adams had published so many articles as to have given the Dutch some idea as to what, sort of people the Americans were. He had some months before presented a petition to the states general, asking them to recognize him as minister from an independent nation. With his wonted bold ness he now demanded a plain and unambiguous answer to this petition, and followed up the demand by visiting the represent atives of the several cities in person and arguing his case. As the reward of this persistent energy, Mr. Adams had the pleas ure of seeing the independence of the United States formally recognized by Holland on the 19th of April, 1782. This suc cess was vigorously followed up. A Dutch loan of $2,000,000 was soon negotiated, and on the 7th of October a treaty of amity and commerce, the second which was ratified with the United States as an independent nation, was signed at the Hague This work in Holland was the fourth signal event in John Adams's career, and, in view of the many obstacles over come, he was himself in the habit of referring to it as the great est triumph of his life. " One thing, thank God ! is certain," he wrote; "I have planted the American standard at the Hague. There let it wave and fly in trumph over Sir Joseph Yorke and British pride. I shall look down upon the flag-staff with pleas ure from the other world." JOHN ADAMS. 47 Mr. Adams had hardly time to finish this work when his presence was required in Paris. Negotiations for peace with Great Britain had begun some time before in conversations be tween Franklin and Richard Oswald, a gentleman whom Lord Shelburne had sent to Paris for the purpose. One British min istry had already been wrecked through these negotiations, and affairs had dragged along slowly amid endless difficulties. The situation was one of the most complicated in the history of diplomacy. France was in alliance at once with Spain and with the United States, and her treaty obligations to the one were in some respects inconsistent with her treaty obligations to the other. The feeling of Spain toward the United States was intensely hostile, and the French government was much more in sympathy with the former than with the latter. On the other hand, the new British government was not ill-dis posed toward the Americans, and was extremely ready to make liberal concessions to them for the sake of thwarting the schemes of France. In the background stood George III., surly and irreconcilable, hoping that the negotiations would fail; and amid these difficulties they doubtless would have failed had not all the parties by this time had a surfeit of bloodshed. The designs of the French government were first suspected by John Jay, soon after his arrival in Paris. He found that Vergennes was sending a secret emissary to Lord Shelburne under an assumed name; he ascertained that the right of the United States to the Mississippi valley was to be denied ; and he got hold of a despatch from Marbois, the French secretary of legation at Philadelphia, to Vergennes, opposing the American claim to the Newfoundland fisheries. As soon as Jay learned these facts he proceeded, without the knowledge of Franklin, to take steps toward a separate nego tiation between Great Britain and the United States. When Adams arrived in Paris, Oct. 26th, he coincided with Jay's views, and the two together overruled Franklin. Mr. Adams's behavior at this time was quite characteristic. It is said that he left Vergennes to learn of his arrival through the newspa pers. It was certainly some time before he called upon him, and he took occasion, besides, to express his opinions about republics and monarchies in terms that courtly Frenchman thought very rude. Adams agreed with Jay that Vergennes should be kept as far as possible in the dark until everything 48 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. was completed, and so the negotiation with Great Britain went on separately. The annals of modern diplomacy have afforded few stranger spectacles. With the indispensable aid of France we had just got the better of England in fight, and now we proceeded amicably to divide territory and commercial privi leges with the enemy, and to make arrangements in which our not too friendly ally was virtually ignored. In this way the United States secured the Mississippi valley, and a share in the Newfoundland fisheries, not as a privilege but as a right, the latter result being mainly due to the persistence of Mr. Adams. The point upon which the British Commissioners most strongly insisted was the compensation of the American loyalists for the hardships they had suffered during the war; but this the American commissioners resolutely refused. The most they could be prevailed upon to allow was the insertion in the treaty of a clause to the effect that congress should recommend to the several state governments to reconsider their laws against the tories and to give these unfortunate persons a chance to recover their property. In the treaty, as finally arranged, all the disputed points were settled in favor of the Americans ; and, the United States being thus virtually de tached from the alliance, the British government was enabled to turn a deaf ear to the demands of France and Spain for the surrender of Gibraltar. Vergennes was outgeneralled at every turn. On the part of the Americans the treaty of 1783 de serves to be ranked as one of the most brilliant triumphs of mod ern diplomacy. Its success was about equally due to Adams and to Jay, whose courage in the affair was equal to their skill, for they took it upon themselves to disregard the explicit instructions of congress. Ever since March, 1781, Vergennes had been intriguing with congress through his minister at Philadelphia, the chevalier de la Luzerne. First he had tried to get Mr. Adams recalled to America. Failing in this, he had played his part with such dexterous persistence as to prevail upon congress to send most pusillanimous instructions to its peace commissioners. They were instructed to undertake nothing whatever in the negotiations without the knowledge and concurrence of " the ministers of our generous ally, the king of France," that is to say, of the count de Vergennes; and they were to govern themselves entirely by his advice and opinion. Franklin would have followed these instructions; JOHN ADAMS. 49 Adams and Jay deliberately disobeyed them, and earned the gratitude of their countrymen for all coming time. For Ad ams's share in this grand achievement it must certainly be cited as the fifth signal event in his career. By this time he had become excessively home-sick, and as soon as the treaty was arranged he asked leave to resign his commissions and return to America. He declared he would rather be " carting street-dust and marsh-mud " than waiting where he was. But business would not let him go. In Sep tember, 1783, he was commissioned, along with Franklin and Jay, to negotiate a commercial treaty with Great Britain. A sudden and violent fever prostrated him for several weeks, after which he visited London and Bath. Before he had fully recovered his health he learned that his presence was required in Holland. In those days, when we lived under the articles of confederation, and congress found it impossible to raise money enough to meet its current expenses, it was by no means unusual for the superintendent of finance to draw upon our foreign ministers and then sell the drafts for cash. This was done again and again, when there was not the smallest ground for supposing that the minister upon whom the draft was made would have any funds wherewith to meet it. It was part of his duty as envoy to go and beg the money. Early in the winter Mr. Adams learned that drafts upon him had been presented to his bankers in Amsterdam to the amount of more than a million florins. Less than half a million florins were on hand to meet these demands, and, unless something were done at once, the greater part of this paper would go back to Amer ica protested. Mr. Adams lost not a moment in starting for Holland, but he was delayed by a succession of terrible storms on the German ocean, and it was only after fifty-four days of difficulty and danger that he reached Amsterdam. The bank ers had contrived to keep the drafts from going to protest, but news of the bickerings between the thirteen states had reached Holland. It was believed that the new nation was going to pieces, and the regency of Amsterdam had no money to lend it. The promise of the American government was not regarded as valid security for a sum equivalent to about $300,000. Adams was obliged to apply to professional usurers, from whom, after more humiliating perplexity, he succeeded in ob taining a loan at exorbitant interest. In the meantime he had 5o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. been appointed commissioner, along with Franklin and Jeffer son, for the general purpose of negotiating commercial treaties with foreign powers. As his return to America was thus in definitely postponed, he sent for his wife, with their only daughter and youngest son, to come and join him in France, where the two elder sons were already with him. In the sum mer of 1784 the family was thus re-united, and began house keeping at Auteuil, near Paris. A treaty was successfully negotiated with Prussia, but, before it was ready to be signed, Mr. Adams was appointed minister to the court of St. James, and arrived in London in May, 1785. He was at first politely received by George III., upon whom his bluff and fearless dig nity of manner made a considerable impression. His stay in England was, however, far from pleasant. The king came to treat him with coldness, sometimes with rudeness, and the royal example was followed by fashionable society. The American government was losing credit at home and abroad. It was unable to fulfill its treaty engagements as to the payment of private debts due to British creditors, and as to the protection of the loyalists. The British Government, in retaliation, re fused to surrender the western posts of Ogdensburg, Oswego, Niagara, Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, and Mackinaw, which by the treaty were to be promptly given up to the United States. Still more, it refused to make any treaty of commerce with the United States, and neglected to send any minister to represent Great Britain in this country. It was generally supposed in Europe that the American government would presently come to an end in general anarchy and bloodshed ; and it was be lieved by George III. and the narrow-minded politicians, such as Lord Sheffield, upon whose cooperation he relied, that, if sufficient obstacles could be thrown in the way of American commerce to cause serious distress in this country, the United States would repent of their independence and come straggling back, one after another, to their old allegiance. Under such circumstances it was impossible for Mr. Adams to accomplish much as minister in England. During his stay there he wrote his " Defence of the American Constitutions," a work which aft erward subjected him at home to ridiculous charges of monarch ical and anti-republican sympathies. The object of the book was to set forth the advantages of a division of the powers of government, and especially of the legislative body, as opposed JOHN ADAMS. jt to the scheme of a single legislative chamber, which was advo cated by many writers on the continent of Europe. The argu ment is encumbered by needlessly long and sometimes hardly relevant discussions on the history of the Italian republics. Finding the British government utterly stubborn and im practicable, Mr. Adams asked to be recalled, and his request was granted in February, 1788. For the "patriotism, persever ance, integrity, and diligence " displayed in his ten years of serv ice abroad he received the public thanks of congress. He had no sooner reached home than he was elected a delegate from Massachusetts to the moribund continental congress, but that body expired before he had taken his seat in it. During the summer the ratification of the new constitution was so far com pleted that it could be put into operation, and public attention was absorbed in the work of organizing the new government. As Washington was unanimously selected for the office of president, it was natural that the vice-president should be taken from Massachusetts. The candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency were voted for without any separate speci fication, the second office falling to the candidate who obtained the second highest number of votes in the electoral college. Of the 69 electoral votes, all were registered for Washington, 34 for John Adams, who stood second on the list; the other 35 votes were scattered among a number of candidates. Adams was-somewhat chagrined at this marked preference shown for Washington., His chief foibkTwas enormous pel-sonaTvanityT" besides which he was much better fitted by temperament and training to appreciate the kind of work that he had himself done than the military work by which Washington had won in dependence for the United States. He never could quite under stand how or why the services rendered by Washington were so much more important than his own. The office of vice-president was then more highly esteemed than it afterward came to be, but it was hardly suited to a man of Mr. Adams's vigorous and aggressive temper. In one respect, however, he performed a more important part while holding that office than any of his successors. In the earlier sessions of the senate there was hot debate over the vigorous measures by which Washington's administration was seeking to reestablish American credit and enlist the conservative interests of the wealthier citizens in be half of the stability of the government. These measures were 52 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. for the most part opposed by the persons who were rapidly be coming organized under Jefferson's leadership into the repub lican party, the opposition being mainly due to dread of the possible evil consequences that might flow from too great an increase of power in the federal government. In these debates the senate was very evenly divided, and Mr. Adams, as presid ing officer of that body, was often enabled to decide the ques tion by his casting vote. In the first congress he gave as many as twenty casting votes upon questions of most vital importance to the whole subsequent history of the American people, and on all these occasions he supported President Washington's policy. During Washington's administration grew up the division into the two great parties which have remained to this day in American politics — the one known as federalist, afterward as whig, then as republican ; the other known at first as repub lican and afterward as democratic. John Adams was by his mental and moral constitution a federalist. He believed in strong government. To the opposite party he seemed much less a democrat than an aristocrat. In one of his essays he provoked great popular wrath by using the phrase " the well born." He knew very well that in point of hereditary capacity and advantages men are not equal and never will be. His notion of democratic equality meant that all men should have equal rights in the eye of the law. There was nothing of the communist or leveller about him. He believed in the rightful existence of a governing class, which ought to be kept at the head of affairs ; and he was supposed, probably with some truth, to have a predilection for etiquette, titles, gentlemen-in-waiting, and such things. Such views did not make him an aristocrat in the true sense of the word, for in nowise did he believe that the right to a place in the governing class should be heritable ; it was something to be won by personal merit, and should not be withheld by any artificial enactments from the lowliest of men, to whom the chance of an illustrious career ought to be just as much open as to "the well-born." At the same time John Adams differed from Jefferson and from his cousin, Samuel Adams, in distrusting the masses. All- the federalist leaders shared this feeling more or less, and it presently be came the chief source of weakness to the party. The disagree ment between John Adams and Jefferson was first brought JOHN ADAMS. 53 into prominence by the breaking out of the French revolution. Mr. Adams expected little or no good from this movement, which was like the American movement in no respect whatever except in being called a revolution. He set forth his views on this subject in his " Discourses on Davila," which were pub lished in a Philadelphia newspaper. Taking as his text Davila's history of the civil wars in France in the 16th century, he argued powerfully that a pure democracy was not the best form of government, but that a certain mixture of the aristo cratic and monarchical elements was necessary to the perma nent maintenance of free government. Such a mixture really exists in the constitution of the United States, and, in the opinion of many able thinkers, constitutes its peculiar excel lence and the best guarantee of its stability. These views gave great umbrage to the extreme democrats, and in the elec tion of 1792 they set up George Clinton, of New York, as aj rival candidate for the vice-presidency ; but when the votes were counted Adams had 77, Clinton 50, Jefferson 4, and Aarom Burr 1. During this administration Adams, by his casting vote, defeated the attempt of the republicans to balk Jayjs mission to England in advance by a resolution entirely pro hibiting trade with that country. For a time Adams quite for got his jealousy of Washington in admiration for the heroic strength of purpose with which he pursued his policy of neu trality amid the furious efforts of political partisans to drag the United States into a rash and desperate armed struggle in sup port either of France or of England. ^/ In 1796, as Washington refused to serve for a third term John Adams seemed clearly marked out as federalist candidate for the succession. Hamilton and Jay were in a certain sense his rivals; but Jay was for the moment unpopular because of the famous treaty that he had lately negotiated with England, and Hamilton, although the ablest man in the federalist party, was still not so conspicuous in the eyes of the masses of voters as Adams, who besides was surer than any one else of the in dispensable New England vote. Having decided upon Adams as first candidate, it seemed desirable to take the other from a southern state, and the choice fell upon Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, a younger brother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Hamilton now began to scheme against Mr. Adams in a manner not at all to his credit. He had always been jealous 5 54 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. of Adams because of his stubborn and independent character, which made it impossible for him to be subservient to a leader. There was not room enough in one political party for two such positive and aggressive characters. Already in the elec tion of 1788 Hamilton had contrived to diminish Adams's vote by persuading some electors of the possible danger of a unani mous and therefore equal vote for him and Washington. Such advice could not. have been candid, for there was never the smallest possibility of a unanimous vote for Mr. Adams. Now in 1796 he resorted to a similar stratagem. The federalists were likely to win the election, but had not many votes to spare ; the contest was evidently going to be close. Hamilton accordingly urged the federalist electors, especially in New England, to cast all their votes alike for Adams and Pinckney, lest the loss of a single vote by either one should give the victory to Jefferson, upon whom the opposite party was clearly united. Should Adams and Pinckney receive an exactly equal number of votes, it would remain for a federalist congress to decide which should be president. The result of the election showed 71 votes for John Adams, 68 for Jefferson, 59 for Pinckney, 30 for Burr, 15 for Samuel Adams, and the rest scat tering. Two electors obstinately persisted in voting for Wash ington. When it appeared that Adams had only three more votes than Jefferson, who secured the second place instead of Pinckney, it seemed on the surface as if Hamilton's advice had been sound. But from the outset it had been clear (and no one knew it better than Hamilton) that several southern feder alists would withhold their votes from Adams in order to give the presidency to Pinckney, always supposing that the New England electors could be depended upon to vote equally for both. The purpose of Hamilton's advice was to make Pinck ney president and Adams vice-president, in opposition to the wishes of their party. This purpose was suspected in New England, and while some of the southern federalists voted for Pinckney and Jefferson, eighteen New Englanders, in voting for Adams, withheld their votes from Pinckney. The result was the election of a federalist president with a republican vice-president. In case of the death, disability, or removal of the president, the administration would fall into the hands of the opposite party. Clearly a mode of election that presented such temptations to intrigue, and left so much to accident, was S (h4<*n*^&rr JOHN ADAMS. 53 vicious and could not last long. These proceedings gave rise to a violent feud between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, which ended in breaking up the federalist party, and has left a legacy of bitter feelings to the many descendants of those two illustrious men. The presidency of John Adams was stormy. We were en tering upon that period when our party strife was determined rather by foreign than by American political issues, when Eng land and France, engaged in a warfare of Titans, took every occasion to browbeat and insult us because we were supposed to be too feeble to resent such treatment. The revolutionary government of France had claimed that, in accordance with our treaty with that country, we were bound to support her against Great Britain, at least so far as concerned the defence of the French West Indies. The republican party went almost far enough in their sympathy with the French to concede these claims, which, if admitted by our government, would imme diately have got us into war with England. On the other hand, the hatred felt toward France by the extreme federalists was so bitter that any insult from that power was enough to incline them to advocate war against her and in behalf of Eng land. Washington, in defiance of all popular clamor, adhered to a policy of strict neutrality, and in this he was resolutely followed by Adams. The American government was thus obliged carefully and with infinite difficulty to steer between Scylla and Charybdis until the overthrow of Napoleon and our naval victories over England in i8i2-'i4 put an end to this humiliating state of things. Under Washington's administra tion Gouverneur Morris had been for some time minister to France, but he was greatly disliked by the anarchical group that then misruled that country. To avoid giving offence to the French republic, Washington had recalled Morris and sent James Monroe in his place, with instructions to try to reconcile the French to Jay's mission to England. Instead of doing this, Monroe encouraged the French to hope that Jay's treaty would not be ratified, and Washington accordingly recalled him and sent Cotesworth Pinckney in his place. Enraged at the ratifi cation of Jay's treaty, the French government not only gave a brilliant ovation to Monroe, but refused to receive Pinckney, and would not even allow him to stay in Paris. At the same time, decrees were passed discriminating against American 56 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. commerce. Mr. Ajjams_w-as._np_soqner inaugurated jis presi- dent than he called an extra session of congress, to consider how~ war with France should be avoided. It was decided to send ITspecial commission to France, consisting of Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry. The directory would not acknowledge these commissioners and treat with them openly ; but Talleyrand, who was then secretary for for eign affairs, sent some of his creatures to intrigue with them behind the scenes. It was proposed that the envoys should pay large sums of money to Talleyrand and two or three of the directors, as bribes, for dealing politely with the United States and refraining from locking up American ships and stealing American goods. When the envoys scornfully re jected this proposal, a new decree was forthwith issued against American commerce. The envoys drew up an indignant re monstrance, which Gerry hesitated to sign. Wearied with their fruitless efforts, Marshall and Pinckney left Paris. But, as Gerry was a republican, Talleyrand thought it worth while to persuade him to stay, hoping that he might prove more com pliant than his colleagues. In March, 1798, Mr. Adams an nounced to congress the failure of the mission, and advised that the preparations already begun should be kept up in view of the war that now seemed almost inevitable. A furious de bate ensued, which was interrupted by a motion from the fed eralist side, calling on the president for full copies of the de spatches. Nothing could have suited Mr. Adams better. He immediately sent in copies complete in everything except that the letters X., Y., and Z. were substituted for the names of Talleyrand's emissaries. Hence these papers have ever since been known as the " X. Y. Z. despatches." On the 8th of April the senate voted to publish these despatches, and they aroused great excitement both in Europe and in America. The British government scattered them broadcast over Europe, to stir up indignation against France. In America a great storm of wrath seemed for the moment to have wrecked the republican party. Those who were not converted to federalism were for the moment silenced. From all quarters came up the war-cry, " Millions for defence ; not one cent for tribute." A few ex cellent frigates were built, the nucleus of the gallant little navy that was by and by to win such triumphs over England. An army was raised, and Washington was placed in command, JOHN ADAMS. 57 with the rank of lieutenant-general. Gerry was recalled from France, and the press roundly berated him for showing less firmness than his colleagues, though indeed he had not done anything dishonorable. During this excitement the song of " Hail Columbia " was published and became popular. On the 4th of July the effigy of Talleyrand, who had once been bishop of Autun, was arrayed in a surplice and burned at the stake. The president was authorized to issue letters of marque and reprisal, and for a time war with France actually existed, though it was never declared. In February, 1799, Capt. Trux- tun, in the frigate " Constellation," defeated and captured the French frigate " L'Insurgente " near the island of St. Christo pher. In February, 1800, the same gallant officer in a desper ate battle destroyed the frigate " La Vengeance," which was much his superior in strength of armament. When the direct ory found that their silly and infamous policy was likely to drive the United States into alliance with Great Britain, they began to change their tactics. Talleyrand tried to crawl out by disavowing his emissaries X. Y. Z., and pretending that the American envoys had been imposed upon by irresponsible ad venturers. He made overtures to Vans Murray, the American minister at the Hague, tending toward reconciliation. Mr. Adams, while sharing the federalist indignation at the behavior of France, was too clear-headed not to see that the only safe policy for the United States was one of strict neutrality. He was resolutely determined to avoid war if possible, and to meet France half-way the moment she should show symptoms of a return to reason. His cabinet were so far under Hamilton's influence that he could not rely upon them; indeed, he had good reason to suspect them of working against him. Accord ingly, without consulting his cabinet, on 18 Feb., 1799, he sent to the senate the nomination of Vans Murray as minister to France. This bold step precipitated the quarrel between Mr. Adams and his party, and during the year it grew fiercer and fiercer. He joined Ellsworth, of Connecticut, and Davie, of North Carolina, to Vans Murray as commissioners, and awaited the assurance of Talleyrand that they would be properly re ceived at Paris. On receiving this assurance, though it was couched in rather insolent language by the baffled Frenchman, the commissioners sailed Nov. 5. On reaching Paris, they found the directory overturned by Napoleon, with whom as 58 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. first consul they succeeded in adjusting the difficulties. This French mission completed the split in the federalist party, and made Mr. Adams's re-election impossible. The quarrel with the Hamiltonians had been further embittered by Adams's foolish attempt to prevent Hamilton's obtaining the rank of senior major-general, for which Washington had designated him, and it rose to fever-heat in the spring of 1800, when Mr. Adams dismissed his cabinet and selected a new one. v Another affair contributed largely to the downfall of the federalist party. In 1798, during the height of the popular fury against France, the federalists in congress presumed too much upon their strength, and passed the famous alien and sedition acts. By the first of these acts, aliens were rendered liable to summary banishment from the United States at the sole discretion of the president; and any alien who should venture to return from such banishment was liable to im prisonment at hard labor for life. By the sedition act, any scandalous or malicious writing against the president or either house of congress was liable to be dealt with in the United States courts and punished by fine and imprisonment. This act contravened the constitutional amendment that forbids all infringement of freedom of speech and of the press, and both acts aroused more widespread indignation than any others that have ever passed in congress. They called forth from the southern republicans the famous Kentucky and Virginia reso lutions of i798-'99, which assert, though in language open to some latitude of interpretation, the right of a state to " nullify " or impede the execution of a law deemed unconstitutional. In the election of 1800 the federalist votes were given to John Adams and Cotesworth Pinckney, and the republican votes to Jefferson and Burr. The count showed 65 votes for Adams, 64 for Pinckney, and 1 for Jay, while Jefferson and Burr had each 73, and the election was thus thrown into the house of representatives. Mr. Adams took no part in the intrigues that followed. His last considerable public act, in appointing John Marshall to the chief justiceship of the United States, turned out to be of inestimable value to the country, and was a worthy end to a great public career. Very different, and quite unworthy of such a man as John Adams, was the silly and puerile fit of rage in which he got up before daybreak of the 4th of March and started in his coach for Massachusetts JOHN ADAMS. 59 instead of waiting to see the inauguration of his successful rival. On severaJ_o«^ioris_Jk)hn Adams's carxex_show5_iis striking exampies-^f__Uie_jlemoj^lizin^_cffects of stupendous personal vanity, but on no occasion^more strikinglyjhan this. He went home with a feeling that he had been disgraced by his failure to secure a re-election. Yet in estimating his char acter we must not forget that in his resolute insistence upon the French mission of 1799 he did not stop for a moment to weigh the probable effect of his action upon his chances for reelection. He acted as a- true patriot, ready to sacrifice him self for the welfare of his country, never regretted the act, and always maintained that it was the most meritorious of his life. " I desire," he said, " no other inscription over my grave-stone than this : Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of the peace with France in the year 1800." He was entirely right, as all disinterested writers now agree. After so long and brilliant a career, he now passed a quarter of a century in his home at Quincy (as that part of Braintree was now called) in peaceful and happy seclusion, devoting himself to literary work relating to the history*of his times. In 1820 the aged statesman was chosen delegate to the con vention for revising the constitution of Massachusetts, and labored unsuccessfully to obtain an acknowledgment of the equal rights, political and religious, of others than so-called Christians. His friendship with Jefferson, which had been broken off by their political differences, was resumed in his old age, and an interesting correspondence was kept up between the two. As a writer of English, John Adams in many respects surpassed all his American contemporaries ; his style was crisp, pungent, and vivacious. In person he was of middle height, vigorous, florid, and somewhat corpulent, quite like the typical John Bull. He was always truthful and out spoken, often vehement and brusque. Vanity and loquacity, as he freely admitted, were his chief foibles. Without being quarrelsome, he had little or none of the tact that avoids quarrels ; but he harbored no malice, and his anger, though violent, was short-lived. Among American public men there has been none more upright and honorable. He lived to see his son president of the United States, and died on the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of independence and in the ninety-first year of his age. His last words were, " Thomas 6o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Jefferson still survives." But by a remarkable coincidence, Jefferson had died a few hours earlier the same day. See " Life and Works of John Adams," by Charles Francis Adams (10 vols., Boston, i85o-'56) ; "Life of John Adams," by J. Q. and C. F. Adams (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1871); and "John Adams," by J. T. Morse, Jr. (Boston, 1885). The portrait .that accompanies this article is copied from a painting by Gilbert Stuart, which was executed while Mr. Adams was president, and is now in the possession of a great- grandson. The one on page 38 was taken when he was a youth. The houses represented on page 36 are those in which John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were born. Abigail Adams (Smith), wife of John Adams, born in Weymouth, Mass., 23 Nov., 1744; died in Quincy, Mass., 28 Oct., 1818. Her father, the Rev. William Smith, was for more than forty years minister of the Con gregational church in Weymouth. Her mother, Elizabeth Quincy, was a great- great - granddaughter of the eminent Puritan divine, Thomas Shepard, of Cambridge, and great-grandniece of the Rev. John Norton, of Boston. She was among the most remarkable women of the revolutionary period. Her educa tion, so far as books were concerned, was but scanty. Of delicate and nerv ous organization, she was so frequently ill during childhood and youth that she was never sent to any school ; but her loss in this respect was not so great as might appear ; for, while the New England clergymen at that time were usually men of great learning, the education of their daughters seldom went further than writing or arithmetic, with now and then a smattering of what passed current as music. In the course of her long life she became exten sively acquainted with the best English literature, and she wrote in a terse, vigorous, and often elegant style. Her case may well be cited by those who protest against the exagger ated value commonly ascribed to the routine of a school edu cation. Her early years were spent in seclusion, but among J Ma tion and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or con- ' Il6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. trolling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." At the close of Monroe's second term as president he re tired to private life, and during the seven years that remained to him resided part of the time at Oak Hill, Loudon co., Va., and part of the time in the city of New York. The illustration on page no represents both the old and the new Oak Hill mansions. He accepted the office of regent in the University of Virginia in 1826 with Jefferson and Madison. He was asked to serve on the electoral ticket of Virginia in 1828, but declined on the ground that an ex-president should not be a party- leader. He consented to act as a local magistrate, however, and to become a member of the Virginia constitutional conven tion. The administration of Monroe has often been designated as the " era of good feeling." Schouler, the historian, has found this heading on an article that appeared in the Boston "Centinel"of 12 July, 1817. It is, on the whole, a suitable phrase to indicate the state of political affairs that succeeded to the troublesome period of organization and preceded the fearful strains of threatened disruption and of civil war. One idea is consistently represented by Monroe from the beginning to the end of his public life — the idea that America is for Americans, that the territory of the United States is to be pro tected and enlarged, and that foreign intervention will never be permitted. In his early youth Monroe enlisted for the de fence of American independence. He was one of the first to perceive the importance of free navigation upon the Missis sippi ; he negotiated with France and Spain for the acquisition of Louisiana and Florida; he gave a vigorous impulse to the second war with Great Britain in defence of our maritime rights when the rights of a neutral power were endangered ; and he enunciated a dictum against foreign interference which has now the force of international law. Judged by the high stations he was called upon to fill, his career was brilliant; but the writings he has left in state papers and correspondence are inferior to those of Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and others of his contemporaries. He is rather to be honored as an up right and patriotic citizen who served his party with fidelity and never condescended to low and unworthy measures. He deserved well of the country, which he served faithfully during JAMES MONROE. 117 his career. After his retirement from the office of president he urged upon the government the judgment of unsettled claims which he presented for outlays made during his pro longed political services abroad, and for which he had never received adequate remuneration. During the advance of old age his time was largely occupied in correspondence, and he undertook to write a philosophical history of the origin of free governments, which was published long after his decease. While attending congress, Monroe married, in 1786, a daughter of Lawrence Kortright, of New York. One of his two daugh ters, Eliza, married George Hay, of Virginia, and the other, Maria, married Samuel L. Gouverneur, of New York. A large number of manuscripts, including drafts of state papers, letters addressed to Monroe, and letters from him, have been preserved. Most of these have been purchased by con gress and are preserved in the archives of the state depart ment; others are still held by his descendants. Schouler, in his " History of the United States," has made use of this mate rial to advantage, particularly in his account of the administra tions of Madison and Monroe, which he has treated in detail. Bancroft, in his " History of the Constitution," draws largely upon the Monroe papers, many of which he prints for the first time. The eulogy of John Quincy Adams (Boston, 1831) and his diary afford the best contemporary view of Monroe's characteristics as a states man. Jefferson, Madison, Webster, Calhoun, and Colonel Benton have each left their appreciative esti mates of his character. The remains of James Monroe were buried in Marble cemetery; Second street, between First and Second avenues, New York, but in 1858 were taken to Richmond, Va., and there reinterred on the 28th of April, in Hollywood Cemetery. (See illustration.) See Samuel P. Waldo's "Tour of James Monroe through the Northern and Eastern States, with a Sketch of his Life " (Hartford, 1819); " Life of James Monroe, with a Notice of his Administration," by John Quincy Adams Q 1 18 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. (Buffalo, 1850); "Concise History of the Monroe Doctrine," by George F. Tucker (Boston, 1885) ; and Daniel C. Gilman's life of Monroe, in the "American Statesmen " series (Boston, 1883). In the volume last named is an appendix by J. F. Jame son, which gives a list of writings pertaining to Monroe's career and to the Monroe doctrine. President Monroe's por trait by Gilbert Stuart is in the possession of Thomas J. Coo- lidge, of Massachusetts, late American minister to France, and that by John Vanderlyn is in the City-hall, New York, both of which have been engraved. His wife, Elizabeth Kortright, born in New York city in 1768; died in Loudon county, Va., in 1830, was the daugh ter of Lawrence Kortright, a captain in the British army. She married James Monroe in 1786, accompanied him in his missions abroad in 1794 and 1803, and while he was U. S. minister to France she effected the release of Madame de Lafayette, who was confined in the prison of La Force, hourly expecting to be executed. On the accession of her husband to the presidency Mrs. Monroe became the mistress of the White House ; but she mingled lit tle in society on account of her delicate health. She is described by a contemporary writer as " an ele gant and accomplished woman, with a dignity of manner that peculiarly fitted her for the station." The accompanying vi gnette is copied from the only portrait that was ever made of Mrs. Monroe, which was executed in Paris in 1796. His nephew, James, soldier, born in Albemarle county, Va., 10 Sept., 1799; died in Orange, N. J., 7 Sept., 1870, was a son of the president's elder brother, Andrew. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1815, assigned to the artillery corps, and served in the war with Algiers, in which he was wounded while directing part of the quarter-deck guns of the " Guerriere " in an action with the " Mashouda " off Cape de Gata, Spain. He was aide to Gen. Winfield Scott in i8i7-'22, became 1st lieutenant of the 4th artillery on the reorganization fy-&Lajkyyka JAMES MONROE. ng of the army in 1821, and served on garrison and commissary duty till 1832, when he was again appointed Gen. Scott's aide on the Black Hawk expedition, but did not reach the seat of war, owing to illness. He resigned his commission on 30 Sept.," 1832, and entered politics, becoming an alderman of New York city in 1833, and president of the board in 1834. In 1836 he declined the appointment of aide to Gov. William L. Marcy. He was in congress in i839-'4i, and was chosen again in 1846, but his seat was contested, and congress ordered a new elec tion, at which he refused to be a candidate. During the Mexi can war he was active in urging the retention in command of Gen. Scott. In i85o-'2 he was in the New York legislature, and in 1852 was an earnest supporter of his old chief for the presidency. After the death of his wife in that year he retired from politics, and spent much of his time at the Union club, of which he was one of the earliest and most popular members. Just before the civil war he visited Richmond, and, by public speeches and private effort, tried to prevent the secession of Virginia, and in the struggle that followed he remained a firm supporter of the National government. He much resembled his uncle in personal appearance- JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, born in Braintree, Mass., n July, 1767; died in Washington, D. C, 23 Feb., 1848. He was named for his mother's grandfather, John Quincy. In his eleventh year he accompanied his father to France, and was sent to school near Paris, where his pro ficiency in the French language and other studies soon became conspicuous. In the following year he returned to America, and back again to France with his father, whom, in August, 1780, he accompanied to Holland. After a few months at school in Am sterdam, he entered the university of Leyden. Two years after ward John Adams's secretary of legation, Francis Dana, was appointed minister to Russia, and the boy accompanied him as private secretary. After a stay of fourteen months, as Catha rine's government refused to recognize Mr. Dana as minister, young Adams left St. Petersburg and travelled alone through Sweden, Denmark, and northern Germany to France, spending six months in the journey. Arriving in Paris, he found his father busy with the negotiation of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, and was immediately set to work as secretary, and aided in drafting the papers that " dispersed all possible doubt of the independence of his country." In 1785, when his father was appointed minister to England, he decided not to stay with him in London, but to return at once to Massachusetts in order to complete his education at Harvard college. For an American career he believed an American edu cation to be best fitted. Considering the immediate sacrifice of pleasure involved, it was a remarkably wise decision in a lad of eighteen. But Adams's character was already fully formed ; he was what he remained throughout his life, a Puritan of the sternest and most uncompromising sort, who seemed to take a grim enjoyment in the performance of duty, especially when MMmM 3, oL- t-//cic»-0'VL4 D.ApplelOTi & Go l.App JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 121 disagreeable. Returning home, he was graduated at Harvard college in 1788, and then studied law in the office of Theophilus Parsons, afterward chief justice of Massachusetts. In 1791 he was admitted to the Suffolk bar, and began the practice of law, the tedium of which he relieved by writing occasional articles for the papers. Under the signature of "Publicola" he criti cised some positions taken by Thomas Paine in his " Rights of Man " ; and these articles, when republished in England, were generally attributed to his father. In a further series of papers, signed " Marcellus," he defended Washington's policy of neu trality ; and in a third series, signed " Columbus," he discussed the extraordinary behavior of Citizen Genet, whom the Jaco bins had sent over to browbeat the Americans into joining France in hurling defiance at the world. These writings made him so conspicuous that in 1794 Washington appointed him minister to Holland, and two years later made an appointment transferring him to Portugal. Before he had started for the latter country his father became president of the United States, and asked Washington's advice as to the propriety of promoting his own son by sending him to Berlin. Washington in strong terms recommended the promotion, declaring that in his opin ion the young man would prove to be the ablest diplomat in the American service. In the fall of 1797 Mr. Adams accord ingly took up his residence at the capital of Prussia. Shortly before this he had married Miss Louisa Johnson, a niece of Thomas Johnson, of Maryland. During his residence at Berlin Mr. Adams translated Wieland's " Oberon " into English. In 1798 he was commissioned to make a commercial treaty with Sweden. In 1800 he made a journey through Silesia, and wrote an account of it, which was published in London and afterward translated into German and French. When Jefferson became president, Mr. Adams's mission terminated. He resumed the practice of law in Boston, but in 1802 was elected to the Massa chusetts senate, and next year was chosen to the senate of the United States instead of Timothy Pickering. The federalist party was then rent in twain by the feud between the partisans of John Adams and those of Hamilton, and the reception of the younger Adams in the senate was far from flattering. Af fairs grew worse when, at the next vacancy, Pickering was chosen to be his uncongenial colleague. Mr. Adams was grossly and repeatedly insulted. Any motion he might make 122 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. was sure to be rejected by the combined votes of republicans and Hamiltonians, though frequently the same motion, made soon afterward by somebody else, would be carried by a large majority. A committee of which he was a member would make and send in its report without even notifying him of its time and place of meeting. At first Mr. Adams was subjected to such treatment merely because he was the son of his father ; but presently he rendered himself more and more amenable to it by manifesting the same independence of party ties that had made his father so unpopular. Independence in politics has always been characteristic of the Adams family, and in none has this been more strongly marked than in John Quincy Adams. His first serious difference with the federalist party was occasioned by his qualified approval of Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana, a measure that was bitterly opposed and fiercely censured by nearly all the federalists, because it was feared it would add too much strength to the south. A much more seri ous difference arose somewhat later, on the question of the em bargo. Questions of foreign rather than of domestic policy then furnished the burning subjects of contention in the United States. Our neutral commerce on the high seas, which had risen to very considerable proportions, was plundered in turn by England and by France, until its very existence was threat ened. In May, 1806, the British government declared the northern coast of Europe, from Brest to the mouth of the Elbe, to be blockaded. By the Russian proclamation of 1780, which was then accepted by all civilized nations except Great Britain, such paper blockades were illegal ; but British ships none the less seized and confiscated American vessels bound to any port on that coast. In November Napoleon issued his Berlin decree making a paper blockade of the whole British coast, whereupon French cruisers began seizing and confiscating American ves sels on their way from British to French ports. Two months later England issued an order in council, forbidding neutrals to trade between any of her enemy's ports; and this was followed by orders decreeing fines or confiscation to all neutral ships daring to violate "the edict. In December, 1807, Napoleon re plied with the Milan decree, threatening to confiscate all ships bound to England, or which should have paid a fine to the British government or submitted to search at the hands of a British commander. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 123 All. these decrees and orders were in flagrant violation of international law, and for a time they made the ocean a pan demonium of robbery and murder. Their effect upon Ameri can commerce was about the same as if both England and France had declared war against the United States. Their natural and proper effect upon the American people would have been seen in an immediate declaration of war against both England and France, save that our military weakness was then too manifest to make such a course anything but ridicu lous. Between the animus of the two bullies by whom we were thus tormented there was little to choose; but in two re spects England's capacity for injuring us was the greater. In the first place, she had more ships engaged in this highway robbery than France, and stronger ones ; in the second place, owing to the difficulty of distinguishing between Americans and Englishmen, she was able to add the crowning wickedness of kidnapping American seamen. The wrath of the Americans was thus turned more against England than against France ; and never perhaps in the revolutionary war had it waxed stronger than in the summer of 1807, when, in full sight of the American coast, the "Leopard" fired upon the "Chesapeake," killed and wounded several of her crew, and violently carried away four of them. For this outrage the commander of the " Leopard " was promoted in the British service. In spite of all these things, the hatred of the federalists for France was so great that they were ready to put up with insult added to in jury rather than attack the power that was warring against Napoleon. So far did these feelings carry them that Mr. John Lowell, a prominent federalist of Boston, was actually heard to defend the action of the " Leopard." Such pusillanimity incensed Mr. Adams. " This was the cause," he afterward said, " which alienated me from that day and forever from the councils of the federal party." He tried to persuade the fed- ¦ eralists of Boston to hold a meeting and pledge their support to the government in any measures, however serious, that it might see fit to adopt in order to curb the insolence of Great Britain. But these gentlemen were too far blinded by party feeling to respond to the call ; whereupon Mr. Adams attended a republican meeting, at which he was put upon a committee to draft and report such resolutions. Presently the federalists bowed to the storm of popular feeling and held their meeting, 124 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. at which Mr. Adams was also present and drafted resolutions. For his share in the proceedings of the republicans it was threatened that he should " have his head taken off for apos tasy." It was never of much use to threaten Mr. Adams. An extra session of congress was called in October to consider what was to be done. Mr. Jefferson's government was averse to war, for which the country was ill prepared, and it was thought that somewhat milder measures might harass England until she would submit to reason. For a year and a half a non-importation act had been in force ; but it had proved no more effective than the non-importation agreements of 1768 and 1774. Now an embargo was laid upon all the shipping in American ports. The advantage of such a measure was very doubtful ; it was damaging ourselves in the hope of damaging the enemy. The greatest damage fell upon the maritime states of New England, and there the vials of federalist wrath were poured forth with terrible fury upon Mr. Jefferson and the em bargo. But the full measure of their ferocity was reserved for Mr. Adams, who had actually been a member of the committee that reported the bill, and had given it his most earnest sup port. All the choicest epithets of abuse were showered upon him; few men in our history have been more fiercely berated and reviled. His term of service in the senate was to expire on 3 March, 1809. In the preceding June the Massachusetts legislature chose Mr. Lloyd to succeed him, a proceeding that was intended and accepted as an insult. Mr. Adams instantly resigned, and Mr. Lloyd was chosen to fill the remainder of his term. In the course of the next month the republicans of his congressional district wished to elect him to the house of rep resentatives, but he refused. In 1806 Mr. Adams had been appointed professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres at Harvard college, and in the intervals of his public duties had delivered lectures there, which were published in 1810, and for a time were held in esteem. One of Mr. Madison's first acts on succeeding to the presi dency in 1809 was to nominate Mr. Adams minister to Russia. Since Mr. Dana's failure to secure recognition in 1782, the United States had had no minister in that country, and the new mission was now to be created. The senate at first declined to concur in creating the mission, but a few months later the object ors yielded, and Mr. Adams's nomination was confirmed. He & -f JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 125 was very courteously received by Alexander I., and his four years and a half in Russia passed very pleasantly. His diary gives us a vivid account of the Napoleonic invasion and its disas trous ending. In the autumn of 1812 the czar offered his serv ices as mediator between the United States and Great Brit ain. War had only been declared between these powers three months before, but the American government promptly ac cepted the proposal, and, in the height of the popular enthusi asm over the naval victories of Hull and Decatur, sent Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard to St. Petersburg to act as commissioners with Mr. Adams. The British government refused to accept the mediation of Russia, but proposed instead an independent negotiation, to which the United States agreed, and the com missioners were directed to meet at Ghent. Much time was consumed in these arrangements, while we were defeating England again and again on the sea, and suffering in return some humiliating reverses on land, until at last the commis sioners met at Ghent, in August, 1814. Henry Clay and Jona than Russell were added to. the American commission, while England was represented by Lord Gambier, Dr. Adams, and Mr. Goulburn. After four months of bitter wrangling, from which no good result could have been expected, terms of peace were suddenly agreed upon in December. In warding off the British attempts to limit our rights in the fisheries Mr. Adams played an important part, as his father had done in 1782. The war had been a drawn game, neither side was decisively vic torious, and the treaty apparently left things much as before. Nothing was explicitly done to end the pretensions of England to the right of search and the impressment of seamen, yet the naval victories of the United States had taught the British a lesson, and these pretensions were never renewed. The treaty was a great disappointment to the British people, who had hoped to obtain some advantages, and Mr. Adams, for his share in it, was reviled by the London press in a tone which could not but be regarded as a compliment to his powers. After the conclusion of the treaty he visited Paris and witnessed the return of Napoleon from Elba and the exciting events that followed up to the eve of Waterloo. Here his wife and chil dren joined him, after a tedious journey from St. Petersburg, not without distress and peril by the way. By this time Mr. Adams had been appointed commissioner, with Clay and Gal- 126 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. latin, to negotiate a new commercial treaty with England. This treaty was completed on 13 July, 1815 ; but already, on 26 May, when Mr. Adams arrived in London, he had received the news of his appointment as minister to England. The series of double coincidences in the Adams family between missions to England and treaties with that power is curious. First John Adams is minister, just after his share in the treaty that concluded the revolutionary war, then his son, just after the treaty that conclud ed the war of i8i2-'i5, and then the grandson is minister during the civil war and afterward takes part in the treaty that disposed of the Ala bama question. After an absence of eight years, John Quin cy Adams was called back to his native land to serve as secretary of state under President Monroe. A new era in American politics was dawn ing. The war which had just been concluded has sometimes been called our second war of independence ; certainly the year 1815, which saw the end of the long strife between France and England, marks an important era in American his tory. Our politics ceased to be concerned mainly with foreign affairs. So suddenly were men's bones of political contention taken away from them that Monroe's presidency is traditionally remembered as the "era of good feeling. " So far as political parties were concerned, such an epithet is well applied ; but as between prominent individuals struggling covertly to supplant one another, it was anything rather than an era of good feel ing. Mr. Adams's principal achievement as secretary of state was the treaty with Spain, whereby Florida was ceded to the United States in consideration of $5,000,000, to be applied to the liquidation of outstanding claims of American merchants against Spain. By the same treaty the boundary between Louisiana and Mexico was established as running along the Sabine and Red rivers, the upper Arkansas, the crest of the Rocky mountains, and the 42d parallel. Mr. Adams defended the conduct of Gen. Jackson in invading Spanish Florida and JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 127 hanging Arbuthnot and Ambrister. He supported the policy of recognizing the independence of the revolted colonies of Spanish America, and he was the principal author of what is known as the " Monroe Doctrine," that the American continent is no longer open to colonization by European powers. His official report on weights and measures showed remarkable scientific knowledge. Toward the close of Monroe's first term came up the first great political question growing out of the purchase of Louisiana : Should Missouri be admitted to the union as a slave-state, and should slavery be allowed or pro hibited in the vast territory beyond ? After the Missouri com promise had passed through congress, and been submitted to President Monroe for his signature, two questions were laid before the cabinet. First, had congress the constitutional right to prohibit slavery in a territory ? and, secondly, in prohibit ing slavery " forever " in the territory north of Mason and Dixon's line, as prolonged beyond the Mississippi river, did the Missouri bill refer to this district only so long as it should re main under territorial government, or did it apply to such states as might in future be formed from it ? To the first ques tion the cabinet replied unanimously in the affirmative. To the second question Mr. Adams replied that the term " forever " really meant forever ; but all his colleagues replied that it only meant so long as the district in question should remain under territorial government. Here for the first time we see Mr. Adams taking that firm stand in opposition to slavery which hereafter was to make him so famous. Mr. Monroe's second term of office had scarcely begun when the question of the succession came into the foreground. The candidates were John Quincy Adams, secretary of state ; William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury ; John C. Cal houn, secretary of war; and Henry Clay, speaker of the house of representatives. Shortly before the election Gen. Jackson's strength began to loom up as more formidable than the other competitors had supposed. Jackson was then at the height of his popularity as a military hero, Crawford was the most dexterous political manager in the couutry. Clay was per haps the most persuasive orator. Far superior to these three in intelligence and character, Mr. Adams was in no sense a popu lar favorite. His manners were stiff and disagreeable ; he told the truth bluntly, whether it hurt or not ; and he never took 128 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. pains to conciliate any one. The best of men in his domestic circle, outside of it he had few warm friends, but he seemed to have a talent for making enemies. When Edward Everett asked him if he was " determined to do nothing with a view to promote his future election to the presidency as the successor -Y' of Mr. Monroe," he replied that he " should do absolutely nothing," and from this resolution he never swerved. He de sired the presidency as much as any one who was ever chosen to that high office ; but his nature was such that unless it should come to him without scheming of his own, and as the unsolicited expression of popular trust in him, all its value would be lost. Under the circumstances, it was a remarkable evidence of the respect felt for his lofty character and dis tinguished services that he should have obtained the presi dency at all. The result of the election showed 99 votes for Jackson, 84 for Adams, 41 for Crawford, 37 for Clay. Mr. Calhoun, who had withdrawn from the contest for the presi dency, received 182 votes for the vice-presidency, and was elected. The choice of the president was thrown into the house of representatives, and Mr. Clay now used his great in fluence in favor of Mr. Adams, who was forthwith elected. When Adams afterward made Clay his secretary of state, the disappointed partisans of Jacksoa pretended that there had been a bargain between the two, that Adams had secured Clay's assistance by promising him the first place in the cabi net, and thus, according to a usage that seemed to be estab lishing itself, placing him in the line of succession for the next presidency. The peppery John Randolph characterized this supposed bargain as "a coalition between Blifil and Black George, the Puritan and the Blackleg." There never was a particle of foundation for this reckless charge, and it has long since been disproved. During Monroe's administration the Federalist party had become extinct. In the course of John Quincy Adams's ad ministration the new division of parties into Whigs and Dem ocrats began to grow up, the Whigs favoring internal improve ments, the national bank, and a high tariff on importations, while the Democrats opposed all such measures on the ground that they were incompatible with a strict construction of the constitution. In its relation to such questions Mr. Adams's administration was Whig, and thus arrayed against itself not JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 129 mM ^Li-Ouuta* (jo/I&uiamJl •ICcLowia only all the southern planters, but also the ship-owners of New England and the importers of New York. But a new and powerful tendency now came in to overwhelm such an admin istration as that of Adams. The so-called "spoils system" was already germinating, and the time had come when it could be put into operation. Mr. Adams would have nothing to say to such a sys tem. He would not reward the men who worked for him, and he would not remove from office the men who most vigorously opposed him. He stood on his merits, asked no favors and granted none; and was, On the whole, the most independent president we have had since Wash ington. Jackson and his friends promised their supporters a share in the government offices, in which a " clean sweep " was to be made by turning out the present incumbents. The result of the election of 1828 showed that for the time Jackson's method was altogether the more potent ; since he obtained 178 electoral votes, against 83 for Adams. The close of his career as president was marked by an inci dent that increased the odium in which Mr. Adams was held by so many of the old federalist families of Boston. In the excitement of the election the newspapers devoted to Jackson swarmed with mischievous paragraphs designed to injure Adams's reputation. Among other things it was said that, in 1808, he had suspected some of the federalist leaders of enter taining a scheme for carrying New England out of the union, and, fearing that such a scheme would be promoted by hatred of the embargo, and that in case of its success the seceded states would almost inevitably be driven into alliance with Great Britain, he communicated his suspicions to President Jefferson and other leading republicans. These tales, published by unscrupulous newspapers twenty years after the event, grossly distorted what Mr. Adams had actually said and done; and thirteen eminent Massachusetts federalists addressed to him an open letter, demanding that he should bring in a bill of particulars supported by evidence. Adams replied by stating 130 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. the substance of what he had really said, but declining to mention names or to point out the circumstances upon which his suspicion had been based. In preserving this reticence he was actuated mainly by unwillingness to stir up a furious con troversy under circumstances in which it could do no good. But his adversaries made the mistake of attributing his for bearance to dread of ill consequences to himself — a motive by which, it is safe to say, Mr. Adams was never influenced on any occasion whatever. So the thirteen gentlemen returned to the attack. Mr. Adams then wrote out a full statement of the case, completely vindicating himself, and bringing forward more than enough evidence to justify any such suspicions as he had entertained and guardedly stated. After finishing this pamphlet he concluded not to issue it, but left it among his papers. It has been published by Prof. Henry Adams, in his " Documents relating to New England Federalism," and is not only of great historical importance, but is one of the finest speci mens of political writing to be found in the English language. Although now an ex-president, Mr. Adams did not long remain in private life. The greatest part of his career still lay before him. Owing to the mysterious disappearance of William Morgan, who had betrayed some of the secrets of the Masonic order, there was in some of the northern states a sudden and violent prejudice against the Freemasons and secret societies in general. An " anti-mason party " was formed, and by its votes Mr. Adams was, in 1831, elected to congress, where he remained, representing the same district of Massachusetts until his death in 1848. He was shortly afterward nominated by the anti-masons for the governorship of Massachusetts, but was defeated in the legislature, there being no choice by the people. In congress he occupied a perfectly independent atti tude. He was one of those who opposed President Jackson's high-handed treatment of the bank, but he supported the presi dent in his firm attitude toward the South Carolina nullifiers and toward France. In 1835, as the French government de layed in paying over the indemnity of $5,000,000 which had been agreed upon by the treaty of 1831 for plunder of Amer ican shipping in the Napoleonic wars, Jackson threatened, in case payment should be any longer deferred, to issue letters of marque and reprisal against French commerce. This bold policy, which was successful in obtaining the money, enlisted JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. i^l Mr. Adams's hearty support. He defended Jackson as he had defended Jefferson on the occasion of the embargo ; and this time, as before, his course was disapproved in Massachusetts, and he lost a seat in the U. S. senate. He had been chosen to that office by the state senate, 'but the lower house did not concur, and before the question was decided the news of his speech in favor of reprisals turned his supporters against him. He was thus left in the house of representatives more inde pendent of party ties than ever, and was accordingly enabled to devote his energies to the aid of the abolitionists, who were now beginning to appear conspicuously upon the scene. At that time it was impossible for the opponents of slavery to effect much. The only way in which they could get their case before congress was by presenting petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. Unwilling to receive such petitions, or to allow any discussion on the dreaded ques tion, congress in 1836 enacted the cowardly "gag rule," that " all petitions, memorials, resolutions, or papers relating in any way or to any extent whatsoever to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table; and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon." After the yeas and nays had been ordered on this, when Mr. Adams's name was called he^ rose and said : " I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the constitution of the United States, the rules of this house, and the rights of my constituents." The house sought to drown his words with loud shrieks and yells of "Order!" " Order ! " but he raised his voice to a shout and defiantly finished his sentence. The rule was adopted by a vote of 117 to 68, but it did more harm than good to the pro-slavery party. They had put themselves in an untenable position, and fur nished Mr. Adams with a powerful weapon which he used against them without mercy. As a parliamentary debater he has had few if any superiors ; in knowledge and dexterity there was no one in the house who could be compared with him ; he was always master of himself, even at the white heat of anger to which he often rose ; he was terrible in invective, matchless at repartee, and insensible to fear. A single-handed fight against all the slave-holders in the house was something upon, / which he was always ready to enter, and he usually came off with the last word. Though the vituperative vocabulary of 132 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. the English language seemed inadequate to express the hatred and loathing with which the pro-slavery party regarded him, 1 though he was more than once threatened with assassination, nevertheless his dauntless bearing and boundless resources compelled the respect of his bitterest opponents, and members from the south, with true chivalry, sometimes confessed it. Every session he returned to the assault upon the gag-rule, until the disgraceful measure was rescinded in 1845. This"part of Mr. Adams's career consisted of a vast number of small incidents, which make a very interesting and instructive chapter in American history, but can not well be epitomized. He came to serve as the rally ing-point' in congress for the ever-growing anti-slavery sentiment, and may be regarded, in a certain sense, as the first founder of the new republican party. He seems to have been the first to enunciate the doctrine upon which Mr. Lincoln afterward Tested his great proclamation of emancipation. In a speech in congress in 1836 he said: "From the instant that your slave-holding states become the theatre of war — civil, servile, or foreign — from that instant the war powers of the constitution extend to interference with the insti tution of slavery in every way in which it can be interfered with." As this principle was attacked by the southern mem bers, Mr. Adams from time to time reiterated it, especially in his speech of 14 April, 1842, on the question of war with Eng land and Mexico, when he said : " Whether the war be civil, servile, or foreign, I lay this down as the law of nations: I say that the military authority takes for the time the place of alf municipal institutions, slavery among the rest. Under that state of things, so far from its being true that the states where slavery exists have the exclusive management of the subject, not only the president of the United States, but the commander of the army unquestionably has power to order the universal emancipation of the slaves." After the rescinding of the gag-rule Mr. Adams spoke less frequently. In November, 1846, he had a shock of paralysis, which kept him at home four months. On 21 Feb., 1848, while he was sitting in the house of representatives, came the second shock. He was carried into the speaker's room, where he lay ^ two days, and died on the 23d. His last words were : " This is the last of earth ; I am content." See " Life and Public Serv ices of John Quincy Adams," by William H. Seward (Auburn, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 133 1849) ; " Life of John Quincy Adams," by Josiah Quincy (Bos ton, 1858) ; " Diary of John Quincy Adams," edited by Charles F. Adams, 12 vols., 8vo (Philadelphia, 1874-7); and " John Quincy Adams," by John T. Morse, Jr. (Boston, 1882). The steel portrait of Mr. Adams, facing page 120, is from a picture by Marchant, in the possession of the New York His torical Society. The mansion represented on page 126 is the Adams homestead at Quincy, in which the two presidents lived, was the summer residence of Charles Francis Adams, and is now occupied by his oldest son, John Quincy Adams. Charles Francis Adams, diplomatist, son of John Quincy Adams, born in Boston, 18 Aug., 1807; died there, 21 Nov., 1886. When two years old he was taken by his father to St. Petersburg, where he learned German, French, and Russian. Early in 1815 he travelled all the way from St. Petersburg to Paris with his mother in a private carriage, a difficult journey at that time, and not unattended with dan ger. His father was soon after ward appointed minister to Eng land, and the little boy was placed .at an English boarding - school. The feelings between British and Americans was then more hostile than ever before or since, and young Adams was frequently called upon to defend with his fists the good name of his country. When ^rb^ 4\/ O 7 2^^^y ^^/3^yc^^ n appi .ETOir MARTIN VAN BUREN. Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States, born in Kinderhook, Columbia co., N. Y., 5 Dec, 1782; died there, 24 July, 1862. He was the eldest son of Abraham Van Buren, a small farmer, and of Mary Hoes (originally spelled Goes), whose first husband was named Van Alen. Martin stud ied the rudiments of English and Latin in the schools of his native village, and read law in the office of Francis Sylvester at the age of fourteen years. Rising as a student by slow grada tions from office-boy to lawyer's clerk, copyist of pleas, and finally to the rank of special pleader in the constables' courts, he patiently pursued his legal novitiate through the term of seven years and familiarized himself with the technique of the bar and with the elements of common law. Combining with these professional studies a fondness for extemporaneous debate, he was early noted for his intelligent observation of public events and for his interest in politics. He was chosen to participate in a nominating convention when he was only eighteen years old. In 1802 he went to New York and there studied law with William P. Van Ness, a friend of Aaron Burr. He was admitted to the bar in 1803, returned to Kinderhook, and associated him self in practice with his half-brother, James J. Van Alen. Van Buren was a zealous adherent of Jefferson, and sup ported Morgan Lewis for governor of New York in 1803 against Aaron Burr. In February, 1807, he married Hannah Hoes, a distant kinswoman, and in the winter of i8o6-'7 he removed to Hudson, the county-seat of Columbia county, and in the same year was admitted to practice in the supreme court. In the state election of 1807 he supported Daniel D. Tompkins for governor against Morgan Lewis, the latter, in the factional changes of New York politics, having come to be considered less true than the former to the measures of Jefferson. In 1808 Van Buren became surrogate of Columbia county, displacing 170 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. his half-brother and partner, who belonged to the defeated fac tion. He held his office till 1813, when, on a change of party predominance at Albany, his half-brother was restored. Atten tively watching the drift of political events, he figured in the councils of his party at a convention held in Albany early in 181 1, when the proposed recharter of the United States bank was the leading question of Federal politics. Though Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury, had recommended a rechar ter, the predominant sentiment of the Republican party was adverse to the measure. Van Buren shared in this hostility and publicly lauded the "Spartan firmness" of George Clinton when as vice-president he gave his casting-vote in the U. S. senate against the bank bill, 20 Feb., 181 1. In 1812 Van Buren was elected to the senate of New York from the middle district as a Clinton Republican, defeating Edward P. Livingston, the candidate of the "Quids," by a ma jority of 200. He took his seat in November of that year and became thereby a member of the court of errors, then com posed of senators in connection with the chancellor and the supreme court. As senator he strenuously opposed the charter of " the Bank of America," which, with a large capital and with the promise of liberal subsidies to the state treasury, was then seeking to establish itself in New York and to take the place of the United States bank. He upheld Gov. Tompkins when, exercising his extreme prerogative, he prorogued the legislature on 27 March, 181 2, to prevent the passage of the bill. Though counted among the adherents of the administration of Madison, and though committed to the policy of declaring war against Great Britain, he sided with the Republican members of the New York legislature when in 1812 they determined to break from " the Virginia dynasty " and to support De Witt Clinton for the presidency. In the following year, however, he dis solved his political relations with Clinton and resumed the en tente cordiale with Madison's administration. In 1814 he carried through the legislature an effective war-measure known as " the classification bill," providing for the levy of 12,000 men, to be placed at the disposal of the government for two years. He drew up the resolution of thanks voted by the legislature to Gen. Jackson for the victory of New Orleans. In 1815, while still a member of the state senate, he was appointed attorney-general of the state, superseding the venerable Abra- MARTIN VAN BUREN. 171 ham Van Vechten. In this same year De Witt Clinton, falling a prey to factional rivalries in his own party, was removed by the Albany council from the mayoralty of New York city — an act of petty proscription in which Van Buren sympathized, according to the " spoils system " then in vogue. In 1816 he was re-elected to the state senate for a further term of four years, and, removing to Albany, formed a partnership with his life-long friend, Benjamin F. Butler. In the same year he was appointed a regent of the University of New York. In the legislative discussions of 1816 he advocated the surveys pre liminary to Clinton's scheme for uniting the waters of the great lakes with the Hudson. The election of Gov. Tompkins as vice-president of the United States had left the " Bucktails " of the Republican party without their natural leader. The people, moreover, in just resentment at the indignity done to Clinton by his removal from the New York mayoralty, were now spontaneously minded to make him governor that he might preside over the execution of the Erie canal which he had projected. Van Buren acqui esced in a drift of opinion that he was powerless to check, and, on the election of Clinton, supported the canal policy ; but he soon came to an open rupture with the governor on questions of public patronage, and, arraying himself in active opposition to Clinton's re-election, he was in turn subjected to the pro scription of the Albany council acting in Clinton's interest. He was removed from the office of attorney-general in 1819. He opposed the election of Clinton in 1820. Clinton was re-elect ed by a small majority, but both houses of the legislature and the council of appointment fell into the hands of the anti-Clin ton Republicans. The office of attorney-general was now ten dered anew to Van Buren, but he declined it. The politics of New York, a mesh of factions from the beginning of the century, were in a constant state of swirl and eddy from 1819 till 1821. The old party-formations were dissolved in the " era of good feeling." What with "Simon-pure" Republicans, Clintonian Republicans, Clintonian Federalists, " high:minded " Federal ists cleaving to Monroe, and Federalists pure and simple, the points of crystallization were too many to admit of forming a strong or compact body around any centre. No party could combine votes enough in the legislature of i8i8-'i9 to elect its candidate for U. S. senator. Yet out of this medley of factions I72 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. and muddle of opinions Van Buren, by his moderation and his genius for political organization, evolved order and harmony at the election for senator in the following year. Under his lead all parties united on Rufus King, a Federalist of the old school, who had patriotically supported the war against Great Britain after it was declared, and who by his candor had won the confidence of President Monroe ; and Rufus King was re elected with practical unanimity at a time when he was fresh from the hot debate in the U. S. senate against the admission of Missouri without a restriction on slavery. His anti-slavery views on that question were held by Van Buren to " conceal no plot " against the Republicans, who, he engaged, would give " a true direction " to that momentous issue. What the " true direction " was to be he did not say, except as it might be in ferred from his concurrence in a resolution of the legislature of New York instructing the senators of that state " to oppose the admission, as a state in the Union, of any territory not com prised within the original boundaries of the United States with out making the prohibition of slavery therein an indispensable condition of admission." In that Republican resolution of 1820 "the Wilmot proviso'' of 1847 appeared above our polit ical horizon, but soon vanished from sight on the passage of the Missouri compromise in 1821. On 6 Feb., 182 1, Van Buren was elected U. S. senator, re ceiving in both houses of the legislature a majority of twenty- five over Nathan Sanford, the Clintonian candidate, for whom the Federalists also voted. In the same year he was chosen from Otsego county as a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state. In that convention he met in de bate Chancellor Kent, Chief-Justice Ambrose Spencer, and others. Against innovations his attitude was here conservative. He advocated the executive veto. He opposed manhood suf frage, seeking to limit the elective franchise to householders, that this "invaluable right" might not be " cheapened " and that the rural districts might not be overborne by the cities. He favored negro suffrage if negroes were taxed. With offence to party friends, he vehemently resisted the eviction by con stitutional change of the existing supreme court, though its ^members were his bitter political enemies. He opposed an elective judiciary and the choice of minor offices by the people, as swamping the right it pretended to exalt. MARTIN VAN BUREN. 173 He took his seat in the U. S. senate, 3 Dec, 182 1, and was at once made a member of its committees on the judiciary and finance. For many years he was chairman of the former. In March, 1822, he voted, on the bill to provide a territorial gov ernment for Florida, that no slave should be directly or indi rectly imported into that territory " except by a citizen re moving into it for actual settlement and being at the time a bona-Jide owner of such slave." Van Buren voted with the northern senators for the retention of this clause; but its exclu sion by the vote of the southern senators did not import any countenance to the introduction of slaves into Florida from abroad, as such introduction was already prohibited by a Fed eral statute which in another part of the bill was extended to Florida. Always averse to imprisonment for debt as the result of misfortune, Van Buren took an early opportunity to advo cate its abolition as a feature of Federal jurisprudence. He opposed in 1824 the ratification of the convention with England for the suppression of the slave-trade (perhaps because a quali fied right of search was annexed to it), though the convention was urgently pressed on the senate by President Monroe. He supported William H.Crawford for the presidency in 1824, both in the congressional caucus and be fore the people. He voted for the protective tariff of 1824 and for that of 1828, though he took no pjirt in the discussion of the economic prin ciples underlying either. He voted for the latter under instructions, maintaining a politic silence as to his personal opinions, which seem to have favored a revenue tariff with incidental protection. He vainly ad vocated an amendment of the con stitution for the election of president ^^T^-^fe^t^?^^^^-, by the intervention of an electoral college to be specially chosen from as many separate districts as would comprise the whole country while representing the electoral power of all the states. The measure was designed to appease the jealousy of the small states by practically wiping out state lines in presidential elections and at the same time proposed to guard against elections by the house of representa- 174 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. tives, as in case of no choice at a first scrutiny the electoral col leges were to be .reconvened. After voting for a few " internal improvements," he opposed them as unconstitutional in the shape then given to them, and proposed in 1824 and again in 1825 to bring them within the power of congress by a constitutional amendment that should protect the " sovereignty of the states '' while equally distributing these benefits of the government. In a debate on the Federal judiciary in 1826 he took high ground in favor of " state rights " as against the umpirage of the supreme court on political questions, and deplored the pow er of that court to arraign sovereign states at its bar for the passage of laws alleged to impair " the obligation of contracts." He confessed admiration for the Republicans of 1802 who had repealed "the midnight judiciary act." He opposed the Pana ma mission, and reduced the " Monroe doctrine " to its true his torical proportions as a caveat and not a " pledge." On all questions he was strenuous for a " strict construction of the constitution." He favored in 1826 the passage of a general bankrupt Jaw, but, in opposing the pending measure, sharply accentuated the technical distinction of English law between "bankrupt" and "insolvent" acts — a distinction which, in the complexity of modern business transactions, Chief-Justice Mar shall had pronounced to be more metaphysical than real, but which to-Van Buren was vital because the constitution says nothing about "insolvent laws." He was re-elected to the senate in 1827, but soon resigned his seat to accept the office of governor of New York, to which he was elected in 1828. As governor he opposed free banking and advocated the "safety-fund system," making all the banks of the state mutual insurers of each other's soundness. He vainly recommended the policy of separating state from Fed eral elections. After entering on the office of governor he never resumed the practice of law. Van Buren was a zealous supporter of Andrew Jackson in the presidential election of 1828, and was called in 1829 to be the premier of the new ad ministration. As secretary of state he brought to a favorable close the long-standing feud between the United States and England with regard to the West India trade. Having an eye to the presidential succession after Jackson's second term, and not wishing meanwhile to compromise the administration or himself, he resigned his secretaryship in June, 1831, and was MARTIN VAN BUREN. 175 sent as minister to England. The senate refused in 1832 to confirm his nomination, by the casting-vote of John C. Cal houn, the vice-president. Conscientious Whigs, like Theodore Frelinghuysen, confessed in after days the reluctance with which they consented to this doubtful act. A clause in one of Van Buren's despatches while secretary, containing an invidi ous reference to the preceding administration, was alleged as the ground of his rejection. The offence was venial, com pared with the license taken by Robert R. Livingston when, in negotiating the Louisiana purchase, he cited the spectre of a Federalist administration playing into the hands of " the British faction." Moreover, the pretext was an afterthought, as the clause had excited no remark when first published, and, when the outcry was raised, Jackson "took the responsibility" for it. The tactical blunder of the Whigs soon avenged itself by bringing increased popularity to Van Buren. He became, with Jackson, the symbol of his party, and, elected vice-president in 1832, he came in 1833 to preside over the body which a year before had rejected him as foreign minister. He presided with unvarying suavity and fairness. Taking no public part in the envenomed discussions of the time, he was known to sympa thize with Jackson in his warfare on the United States bank, and soon came to be generally regarded by his party as the lineal successor of that popular leader. He was formally nominated for the presidency on 20 May, "^ 1835, and was elected in 1836 over his three competitors, Wil liam H. Harrison, Hugh L. White, and Daniel Webster, by a majority of 57 in the electoral college, but of only 25,000 in the popular vote. The tide of Jacksonism was beginning to ebb. South Carolina, choosing her electors by state legislature and transferring to Van Buren her hatred of Jackson, voted for Willie P. Mangum. During the canvass Van Buren had been opposed at the north and championed at the south as " a north ern man with southern principles." As vice-president, he had in 1835 given a casting-vote for the bill to prohibit the circula tion of " incendiary documents " through the mails, and as a candidate for the presidency he had pledged himself to resist the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia without the consent of the slave-states and to oppose the " slightest in- v terference " with slavery in the states. He had also pledged himself against the distribution of surplus revenues among the 176 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. states, against internal improvements at Federal expense, and against a national bank. Compelled by the fiscal embarrassments of the government, in the financial crash of 1837, to summon congress to meet in special session, 4 Sept., 1837, he struck in his first message the key-note of his whole administration. After a detailed analy sis of the financial situation, and of the causes in trade and \ speculation that had led to it, he proceeded to develop his ^ favorite idea of an independent treasury for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys. This idea was not new. It was as old as the constitution. The practice of the government had departed from it only by insensible degrees, until at length, in spite of the protests of Jefferson, it had been consolidated into a formal order of congress that the revenues of the government should be deposited in the United States bank. On the removal of the deposits by Jackson in 1833, they had been placed in the custody of " the pet banks," and had here been used to stimulate private trade and speculation, until the crisis in 1837 necessitated a change of fiscal policy. By every consideration of public duty and safety, conspiring with what he believed to be economic advantage to the people, Van Buren enforced the policy of an independent treasury on a reluctant congress. There was here no bating of breath or mincing of words ; but it was not until near the close of his ad ministration that he succeeded in procuring the assent of con gress to the radical measure that divorced the treasury from private banking and trade. The measure was formally repealed by the Whig congress of 1842, after which the public moneys were again deposited in selected banks until 1846, when the independent treasury was reinstalled and has ever since held its place under all changes of administration. He signed the independent treasury bill on 4 July, 1840, as being a sort of "second Declaration of Independence," in his own idea and in that of his party. Von Hoist, the sternest of Van Buren's critics, awards to him on " this one question " the credit of -"courage, firmness, and statesman-like insight." It was the chef a'auvre of his public career. He also deserves credit for the fidelity with which, at the evident sacrifice of popularity with a certain class of voters, he adhered to neutral obligations on the outbreak of the Canada rebellion late in 1837. / The administration of Van Buren, beginning and ending MARTIN VAN BUREN. 177 with financial panic, went down under the cloud rising on the country in 1840. The enemies and the friends of the United States bank had equally sown the wind during Jackson's ad ministration. Van Buren was left to reap the whirlwind, which in the " political hurricane" of 1840 lifted Gen. Harrison into the presidential chair. The Democratic defeat was overwhelm ing. Harrison received 234 electoral votes, and Van Buren only 60. The majority for Harrison in the popular vote was nearly 140,000. Retiring after this overthrow to the shades of Lindenwald, a beautiful country-seat which he had purchased ? in his native county, Van Buren gave no vent to repinings. In 1842 he made a tour through the southern states, visiting Henry Clay at Ashland. In 1843 he came to the front with clear-cut views in favor of a tariff for revenue only. But on the newly emergent question of Texas annexation he took a ^ decided stand in the negative, and on this rock of offence to the southern wing of his party his candidature was wrecked in the Democratic national convention of 1844, which met at Bal timore on 27 May. He refused to palter with this issue, on the ground of our neutral obligations to Mexico, and when the nomination went to James K. Polk, of Tennessee, he gave no sign of resentment. His friends brought to Polk a loyal sup port, and secured his election by carrying for him the decisive vote of the State of New York. Van Buren continued to take an interest in public affairs, and when in 1847 the acquisition of new territory from Mexico raised anew the vexed question of slavery in the territories, he gave in his adhesion to the "Wilmot proviso." In the new elective affinities produced by this " burning question " a re distribution of political elements took place in the chaos of New York politics. The " Barnburner " and the "Hunker" factions came to &% sharp cleavage on this line of division. The former declared their " uncompromising hostility to the exten sion of slavery." In the Herkimer Democratic convention of 26 Oct., 1847, the Free-soil banner was openly displayed, and delegates were sent to the Democratic national convention. From this convention, assembled at Baltimore in May, 1848, the Herkimer delegates seceded before any presidential nomi nation was made. In June, 1848, a Barnburner convention met at Utica to organize resistance to the nomination of Gen. Lewis Cass, who, in his " Nicholson letter," had disavowed the 1 78 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. "Wilmot proviso." To this convention Van Buren addressed a letter, declining in advance a nomination for the presidency, but pledging opposition to the new party shibboleth. In spite of his refusal, he was nominated, and this nomination was reaffirmed by the Freesoil national convention of Buffalo, 9 Aug., 1848, when Charles Francis Adams was associated with him as candi date for the vice-presidency. In the ensuing presidential elec tion this ticket received only 291,263 votes, but, as the result of the triangular duel, Gen. Cass was defeated and Gen. Zach ary Taylor, the Whig candidate, was elected. The precipitate annexation of Texas and its natural sequel, the war with Mexi co, had brought their Nemesis in the utter confusion of national politics. Van Buren received no electoral votes, but his popu lar Democratic vote in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York exceeded that of Cass. Henceforth he was simply a spectator in the political arena. On all public questions save that of slavery he remained an unfaltering Democrat, and when it was fondly supposed that " the slavery issue " had been forever ex orcised by the compromise measures of 1850, he returned in full faith and communion to his old party allegiance. In 1852 he began to write his " Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States" (New York, 1867), but it was never finished and was published as a fragment. He supported Franklin Pierce for the presidency in 1852, and, after spending two years in Europe, returned 'in time to vote for James Buchanan in 1856. In i860 he voted for the combined electoral ticket against Lincoln, but when the civil war began he gave to the administration his zealous support. Van Buren was the target of political accusation during his whole public career, but kept his private character free from reproach. In his domestic life he was as happy as he was ex emplary. Always prudent in his habits and economical in his tastes, he none the less maintained in his style of living the easy state of a gentleman, whether in public station at Albany and Washington, or at Lindenwald in his retirement. As a man of the world he was singularly affable and courteous, blending formal deference with natural dignity and genuine cordiality. Intensely partisan in his opinions and easily startled by the red rag of " Hamiltonian Federalism," he never carried the contentions of the political arena into the social sphere. The asperities of personal rivalry estranged him for a time from SsUft^-e- ybr??^*— sf?e^~*-~^=' "2^5 *yy<^ y /f^^e^C' _ a- <^y~y, 2?*^2*»~y'x*7 y& <*?^Zf MARTIN VAN BUREN. 179 Calhoun, after the latter denounced him in the senate in 1837 as "a practical politician,'' with whom "justice, right, patriot ism, etc., were mere vague phrases," but with his great Whig rival, Henry Clay, he maintained unbroken relations of friend ship through all vicissitudes of political fortune. As a lawyer, his rank was eminent. Though never rising in speech to the heights of oratory, he was equally fluent and facile before bench or jury, and equally felicitous whether expounding the intrica cies of fact or of law in a case. His manner was mild and in sinuating, never declamatory. Without carrying his juridical studies into the realm of jurisprudence, he yet had a knowledge of law that fitted him to cope with the greatest advocates of the New York bar. The evidences of his legal .learning and acute dialectics are still preserved in the New York reports of Cowen, Johnson, and Wendell. As a debater in the sen ate, he always went to the pith of questions, disdaining the arts of rhetoric. As a writer of political letters or of state pa pers, he carried diffusiveness to a fault, which sometimes hinted at a weakness in positions requiring so much defence. As a politician he was masterful in leadership — so. much so that, alike by friends and foes, he was credited with reducing its practices to a fine art. He was a member of the famous Albany- regency which for so many years controlled the politics of New York, and was long popularly known as its " director." Fertile in the contrivance of means for the attainment of the public ends which he deemed desirable, he was called "the little ma gician," from the deftness of his touch in politics. But com bining the statesman's foresight with the politician's tact, he showed his sagacity rather by seeking a majority for his views than by following the views of a majority. Accused of " non- committalism," and with some show of reason in the early stages of his career, it was only as to men and minor measures of policy that he practised a prudent reticence. On questions of deeper principle — an elective judiciary, negro suffrage, univer sal suffrage, etc. — he boldly took the unpopular side. In a day of unexampled political giddiness he stood firmly for his sub- treasury system against the doubts of friends, the assaults of enemies, and the combined pressure of wealth and culture in the country. Dispensing patronage according to the received custom of his times, he yet maintained a high standard of ap pointment. That he could rise above selfish considerations !8o LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. was shown when he promoted the elevation of Rufus King in 1820, or when he strove in 1838 to bring Washington Irving into his cabinet with small promise of gain to his doubtful po litical fortunes by such an " unpractical " appointment. As a statesman he had his compact fagot of opinions, to which he adhered in evil or good report. It might seem that the logic of his principles in 1848, combined with the subsequent drift of events, should have landed him in the Free-soil party that Abraham Lincoln led to victory in i860; but it is to be re membered that, while Van Buren's political opinions were in a fluid state, they had been cast in the doctrinal moulds of Jeffer son, and had there taken rigid form and pressure. In the nat ural history of American party-formations he supposed that an enduring antithesis had always been discernible between the " money power " and the " farming interest " of the land. In his annual message of December, 1838, holding language very modern in its emphasis, he counted " the anti-republican tend encies of associated wealth " as among the strains that had been put upon our government. This is indeed the main thesis of his "Inquiry," a book which is more an apologia than a his tory. In that chronicle of his life-long antipathy to a splendid consolidated government, with its imperial judiciary, funding systems, high tariffs, and internal improvements — the whole surmounted by a powerful national bank as the "regulator " of finance and politics — he has left an outlined sketch of the only dramatic unity that can be found for his eventful career. Confessing in 1848 that he had gone further in concession to slavery than many of his friends at the north had approved, he satisfied himself with a formal protest against the repeal of the Missouri compromise, carried through congress while he was travelling in Europe, and against the policy of making the Dred Scott decision a rule of Democratic politics, though he thought the decision sound in point of technical law. With these reservations, avowedly made in the interest of " strict construction " and of " old-time Republicanism " rather than of Free-soil or National reformation, he maintained his allegiance to the party with which his fame was identified, and which he was perhaps the more unwilling to leave because of the many sacrifices he had made in its service. The biography of Van Buren has been written by William H. Holland (Hartford, 1835) ; Francis J. Grund (in German, 1835); William Emmons MARTIN VAN BUREN. 181 (Washington, 1835) ; David Crockett (Philadelphia, 1836) ; Wil liam L. Mackenzie (Boston, 1846) ; William Allen Butler (New York, 1862) ; and Edward M. Shepard (Boston, 1888). Mac kenzie's book is compiled in part from surreptitious letters, shedding a lurid light on the " practical politics " of the times. Butler's sketch was published immediately after the ex-presi dent's death. Shepard's biography is written with adequate learning and in a philosophical spirit, which may also be said of a brief and appreciative biography that appeared from the practiced pen of the venerable historian of the United States, in his ninetieth year, entitled " Martin Van Buren to the End of his Public Career, by George Bancroft" (New York, 1889). His wife, Hannah, born in Kinderhook, N. Y., in 1782 ; died in Albany, N. Y., 5 Feb., 1819, was of Dutch descent, and her maiden name was Hoes. She was educated in the schools of her native village, and was the classmate of Mr. Van Buren, whom she married in 1807. She was devoted to her domestic cares and duties, and took little interest in social affairs, but was greatly beloved by the poor. When Mrs. Van Buren learned that she could live but a few days, she expressed a desire that her funeral be conducted with the utmost simplic ity, and the money that would otherwise have been devoted to mourning emblems be given to the poor and needy. Their son, Abraham, soldier, born in Kinderhook, N. Y., 27 Nov., 1807; died in New York city, 15 March, 1873, was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1827, and attached to the 2d infantry as 2d lieutenant. He served for two years on the western frontier, and for the next seven years as aide- de-camp to the general-in-chief, Alexander Macomb, except during several months in 1836, when he accompanied Gen. Win- field Scott as a volunteer aide in the expedition against the Seminole Indians. He was commissioned as a captain in the ist dragoons on 4 July, 1836, resigning on 3 March, 1837, to become his father's private secretary. He brought daily re ports of the proceedings of congress to President Van Buren, who was often influenced by his suggestions. At the begin ning of the war with Mexico he re-entered the army as major and paymaster, his commission dating from 26 June, 1846. He served on the staff of Gen. Zachary Taylor at Monterey, and 13 182 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. subsequently joined the staff of Gen. Scott as a volunteer, and participated in every engagement from Vera Cruz to the capture of the city of Mexico, being brevetted lieutenant- colonel for bravery at Contreras and Churubusco on 20 Aug., 1847. He served in the paymaster's department after the war till 1 June, 1854, when he again resigned, after which he resided for a part of the time in Columbia, S. C. (where his wife inherited a plantation), till 1859, and afterward for four teen years leading a life of leisure in New York city. Another son, John, lawyer, born in Hudson, N. Y., 18 Feb., 1810; died at sea, 13 Oct., 1866, was graduated at Yale in 1828, studied law with Benjamin F. Butler, and was admitted to the bar at Al bany in 1830. In the following year he accompanied his father to London as an attache of the legation. In Feb ruary, 1845, he was elected attorney- general of the state of New York, serving till 31 Dec, 1846. He took an active part in the political canvass of 1848 as an advocate of the exclu sion of slavery from the territories, but did not remain with the Free-soil party in its later developments. He held high rank as a lawyer, appearing in the Edwin Forrest and many other important cases, was an eloquent pleader, and an effective political speaker. He died on the voyage from Liverpool to New York. He was popularly known as " Prince John " * after his travels abroad during his father's presidency, ^^?4£k^D * Walking in Broadway with Fitz-Greene Halleck the year before the war, he exclaimed, " Ah ! there's Little Van and Prince John ! " when I saw ap proaching arm-in-arm the silvery-haired ex-president and his handsome son. The former was perhaps the smallest, physically, of our chief magistrates, and it was a constant delight to his political opponents to designate him as " Little Van." In this respect, however, he in no way differed from the other twenty- two presidents, who without exception were labelled with more or less inim ical or popular nicknames. Washington was called the " Father of his Coun try" and the "American Fabius" ; John Adams, the " Colossus of Independ ence " ; Jefferson, the " Sage of Monticello," and " Long Tom " by his political opponents; Madison, "Father of the Constitution"; Monroe, "Last Cocked MARTIN VAN BUREN. 183 was tall and handsome, of elegant manners and appearance, a charming conversationalist, and an admirable raconteur. The accompanying excellent vignette is copied from a photograph by Brady, presented, in 1865, to the editor by Mr. Van Buren. Hat," from the circumstance of his being the last of the revolutionary presi dents to wear the cocked hat of that period ; John Quincy Adams, the " Old Man Eloquent " ; Jackson, the " Hero of New Orleans " and " Old Hickory " I Van Buren, the "Little Magician," in allusion to his political sagacity and astuteness, " King Martin the First," and " Little Van " ; Harrison, the " Wash ington of the West " and " Old Tippecanoe " ; Tyler, " Accidental President " ; Polk, " Young Hickory," so christened by his admiring adherents of the presi dential campaign ; Taylor, " Rough and Ready " and " Old Zach " ; Fillmore, the "American Louis Philippe," owing to his dignified, courteous manners and supposed resemblance to the French king ; Pierce, " Poor Pierce," pronounced Purse; Buchanan, "Old Public Functionary" and "Old Buck"; Lincoln, " Honest Old Abe " and " Father Abraham," used in the famous war-song, "We're coming, Father Abra'am, three hundred thousand strong" ; Johnson, " Sir Veto " and the " Tailor President " ; Grant, " Unconditional Surrender," and by his political adversaries the " American Ca?sar," in allusion to his third- term candidacy and their claim that Grantism was a synonym of Csesarism ; Hayes, " President de Jacto " ; Garfield, the " Teacher President " and " Martyr President " ; Arthur, " The First Gentleman in the Land," and by his New York, admirers " Our Chet," a contraction of Chester ; Cleveland, the " Man of Destiny" and " Old Grover" ; and Benjamin Harrison, "Backbone Ben" and the " Son of his Grandfather," the latter's hat being a conspicuous object in the campaign cartoons of 1888 and afterward. At the Broadway meeting referred to, the poet mentioned a pleasant visit to Van Buren at Lindenwald, where he had met Washington Irving, and that the latter had written the concluding chapters of his " History of New York " when in retirement there for two months after the death of his betrothed, Miss Matilda Hoffman. At that time (1809) it was the estate of Irving's intimate friend, William P. Van Ness, an eminent lawyer and jurist, who acted as Burr's second in his duel with Hamilton. The ex-president purchased the property, Halleck informed me, from the heirs of Judge Van Ness, and incidentally re marked that he had seen all the presidents except Washington, and had known most of them. The poet also alluded to the circumstance of Irving having been offered by President Van Buren the portfolio of the secretary of the navy, which, on his declining its acceptance, was conferred on the amiable author's friend and literary partner, James K. Paulding. Halleck on several occasions introduced the name of Van Buren in his poems, and in " Fanny," which first appeared in 1819, he remarks : " What, Egypt, was thy magic, to the tricks Of Mr. Charles, Judge Spencer, or Van Buren ? The first with cards, the last in politics, A conjurer's fame for years has been securing." — Editor. 1 84 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Abraham's wife, Angelica, born in Sumter district, S. C, about 1820; died in New York city, 29 Dec, 1878, was a daughter of Richard Singleton, a planter, and a cousin of Will iam C. Preston and of Mrs. James Madison, who, while her kinswoman was completing her education in Philadelphia, presented her to Presi dent Van Buren. A year later she married Maj. Van Buren, in No vember, 1838, and on the following New-Year's-day she made her first appearance as mistress of the White House. With her husband she vis ited England (where her uncle, An drew Stevenson, was U. S. minis ter) and other countries of Europe, in the spring of 1839, returning in the autumn to resume her place as hostess of the presidential mansion. The accompanying vi gnette is from a portrait painted by Henry Inman. Ingihy E. H.Kjttgjtt. JWsw'Srk fa/^/^t^^/*^ D Applet WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States, born in Berkeley, Charles City co., Va., 9 Feb., 1773 ; died in Washington, D. C, 4 April, 1841, was the third and youngest son of Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independ ence, born in Berkeley, Charles City co., Va., about 1740; died in April, 1791. He was a descendant of Colonel John Harri son, a distinguished officer during the civil wars of England, and one of the judges who tried and condemned the unfortu nate Charles the First, for which, and for his active participation in the affairs of the commonwealth under Cromwell, he was himself tried and executed after the restoration. As a mem ber of the burgesses in 1764 he served on the committee that prepared the memorials to the king, lords, and commons ; but in 1765, with many other prominent men, opposed the stamp act resolutions of Henry as impolitic. He was chosen in 1773 one of the committee of correspondence which united the colonies against Great Britain in 1774, appointed one of the delegates to congress, and four times re-elected to a seat in that body. As a member of all the Virginia conventions to organize resistance, he acted with the party led by Pendle ton in favor of "general united opposition." On 10 June, 1776, as chairman of the committee of the whole house of congress, he introduced the resolution that had been offered three days before by Richard Henry Lee, declaring the inde pendence of the American colonies, and on 4 July he reported the Declaration of Independence, of which he was one of the signers. On his return from congress he became a member of the Virginia house of delegates under the new constitu tion, was chosen speaker, filling that office until 1781, when he was twice elected governor of the commonwealth. As a delegate to the Virginia convention of 1788, he opposed the ratification of the Federal constitution, taking the ground of LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. #be*y J% frr-r-L*t< '£z^ Patrick Henry, James Monroe, and others, that it was a na tional and not a Federal government, though when the instru ment was adopted he gave it his hearty support. At the time of his death he was a member of the Virginia legislature. In person Benjamin Harrison was large and fleshy ; and, in spite of his suf fering from gout, of unfailing good humor. Although without conspicu ous intellectual endowments, he was a man of excellent judgment and the highest sense of honor, with a courage and cheerfulness that never faltered, and a " downright candor " and sincerity of character which con ciliated the affection and respect of all who knew him. William Henry was educated at Hampden Sidney college, Virginia, and began the study of medicine, but before he had finished it accounts of the Indian outrages that had been committed on the western frontier raised in him a desire to enter the army for its defence. Rob ert Morris, who had been appointed his guardian on the death of his father in 1791, endeavored to dissuade him, but his pur pose being approved by Washington, who had been his father's friend, he was commissioned ensign ia the ist infantry on 16 Aug., 1791. He joined his regiment at Fort Washington, Ohio, was appointed lieutenant of the ist sub-legion, to rank from June, 1792, and afterward united with the army under Gen. Anthony Wayne. Being made aide-de-camp to the command ing officer, he took part, in December, 1793, in the expedition that erected Fort Recovery on the battle field where St. Clair had been defeated two years before, and, with others, received thanks by name in general orders for his services. He parti cipated in the engagements with the Indians that began on 30 June, 1794, and on 19 Aug., at a council of war, submitted a plan of march, which was adopted and led to the victory on the Miami on the following day. Lieut. Harrison was specially complimented by Gen. Wayne, in his despatch to the secretary of war, for gallantry in this fight, and in May, 1797, was made captain, and given command of Fort Washington. Here he was intrusted with the duty of WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. I87 receiving and forwarding troops, arms, and provisions to the forts in the northwest that had been evacuated by the British in obedience to the Jay treaty of 1794, and also instructed to report to the commanding general on all movements in the south, and to prevent the passage of French agents with mili tary stores intended for an invasion of Louisiana. While in command of this fort he formed an attachment for Anna, youngest daughter of John Cleves Symmes, one of the judges of the northwest territory, and the founder of the Miami set tlement in Ohio. Peace having been made with the Indians, Capt. Harrison resigned his commission on 1 June, 1798, and was immediately appointed by President John Adams secre tary of the northwest territory, under Gen. Arthur St. Clair as governor, but in October, 1799, resigned to take his seat as territorial delegate in congress. In his one year of service, though he was opposed by speculators, he secured the sub division of 'the public lands into small tracts, and the passage of other measures for the welfare of the settlers. During the session, part of the northwest territory was formed into the territory of Indiana, including the present states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and Harrison was made its governor and superintendent of Indian affairs. Resigning his seat in congress, he entered on the duties of his office, which included the confirmation of land-grants, the defining of town ships, and others that were equally important. Gov. Harrison was reappointed successively by President Jefferson and Presi dent Madison. He organized the legislature at Vincennes in^ 1805, and applied himself especially to improving the condition of the Indians, trying to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors^" among them, and to introduce inoculation for the small-pox. u' He frequently held councils with them, and,_ although his life was sometimes endangered, succeeded by his calmness and courage in averting many outbreaks. On 30 Sept., 1809, he concluded a treaty with several tribes by which they sold to the United States about 3,000,000 acres of land on Wabash and White rivers. This, and the former treaties of cession that had been made, were condemned by Tecumseh and other chiefs on the ground that the consent of all the tribes was necessary to a legal sale. The discontent was increased by the action of specu lators in ejecting Indians from the lands, by agents of the Brit ish government, and by the preaching of Tecumseh's brother, 1 88 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. the " prophet," and it was evident that an outbreak was at hand. The governor pursued a conciliatory course, gave to needy In dians provisions from the public stores, and in July, 1810, invited Tecumseh and his brother, the prophet, to a council at Vincen nes, requesting them to bring with them not more than thirty men. In response, the chief, accompanied by 400 fully armed warriors, arrived at Vincennes on 12 Aug. The council, held under the trees in front of the governor's house, was nearly terminated by bloodshed on the first day, but Harrison, who foresaw the importance of conciliating Tecumseh, prevented, by his coolness, a conflict that almost had been precipitated by the latter. The discussion was resumed on the next day, but with no result, the Indians insisting on the return of all the lands that had recently been acquired by treaty. On the day after the council Harrison visited Tecumseh at his camp, ac companied only by an interpreter, but without success. In the following spring depredations by the savages were frequent, and the governor sent word to Tecumseh that, unless they should cease, the Indians would be punished. The chief prom ised another interview, and appeared at Vincennes on 27 July, 181 1, with 300 followers, but, awed probably by the presence of 750 militia, professed to be friendly. Soon afterward, Harri son, convinced of the chief's insincerity, but not approving the plan of the government to seize him as a hostage, proposed, instead, the establishment of a military post near Tippecanoe, a town that had been established by the prophet on the upper Wabash. The news that the government had given assent to this scheme was received with joy, and volunteers flocked to Vincennes. Harrison marched from that town on 26 Sept., with about 900 men, including 350 regular infantry, completed Fort Harrison, near the site of Terre Haute, Ind., on 28 Oct., and, leaving a garrison there, pressed forward toward Tippe canoe. On 6 Nov., when the army had reached a point a mile and a half distant from the town, it was met by messengers demanding a parley. A council being proposed for the next day, Harrison at once went into camp, taking, however, every precaution against a surprise. At four o'clock on the following morning a fierce attack was made on the camp by the savages, and the fighting continued till daylight, when the Indians were driven from the field by a cavalry charge. During the battle, in which the American loss was 108 killed and wounded, the WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 189 governor directed the movements of the troops. He was highly complimented by President Madison in his message of 18 Dec, 181 1, and also received the thanks of the legislatures of Kentucky and Indiana. On 18 June, 181 2, war was declared between Great Britain and the United States. On 25 Aug., Gov. Harrison, although not a citizen of Kentucky, was commissioned major-general of the militia of that state, and given command of a detach ment that was sent to re-enforce Gen. William Hull, the news of whose surrender had not yet reached Kentucky. On 2 Sept., while on the march, he received a brigadier-general's commission in the regular army, but withheld his acceptance till he could learn whether or not he was to be subordinate to Gen. James Winchester, who had been appointed to the command of the northwestern army. After relieving Fort Wayne, which had been invested by the Indians, he turned over his force to Gen. Winchester, and was returning to his home in Indiana- when he met an express with a letter from the secretary of war, appointing him to the chief command in the northwest. "You will exercise," said the letter, "your own discretion, and act in all cases according to your own judgment." No latitude as great as this had been given to any commander since Washington. Harrison now prepared to concentrate his force on the rapids of the Maumee, and thence to move on Maiden and Detroit. Various difficulties, however, prevented him from carrying out his design immediately. Forts were erected and supplies forwarded, but, with the ex ception of a few minor engagements with Indians, the remain der of the year was occupied merely in preparation for the coming campaign. Winchester had been ordered by Harrison to advance to the rapids, but the order was countermanded on receipt of information that Tecumseh, with a large force, was at the head-waters of the Wabash. Through a misunderstand ing, however, Winchester continued, and on 18 Jan. captured Frenchtown (now Monroe, Mich.), but three days later met with a bloody repulse on the river Raisin fron Col. Henry Proc tor. Harrison hastened to his aid, but was too late. After establishing a fortified camp, which he named Fort Meigs, after the governor of Ohio, the commander visited Cincinnati to obtain supplies, and while there urged the construction of a fleet on Lake Erie. On 2 March, 1813, he was given a major- 190 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. general's commission. Shortly afterward, having heard that the British were preparing to attack Fort Meigs, he hastened thither, arriving on 12 April. On 28 April it was ascertained that the enemy under Proctor was advancing in force, and on 1 May siege was laid to the fort. While a heavy fire was kept up on both sides for five days, re-enforcements under Gen. Green Clay were hurried forward and came to the relief of the Americans in two bodies, one on each side of Maumee river. Those on the opposite side from the fort put the enemy to flight, but, disregarding Harrison's signals, allowed themselves to be drawn into the woods, and were finally dispersed or cap tured. The other detachment fought their way to the fort, and at the same time the garrison made a sortie and spiked the enemy's guns. Three days later Proctor raised the siege. He renewed his attack in July with 5,000 men, but after a few days again withdrew. On 10 Sept. Com. Oliver H. Perry gained his victory on Lake Erie, and on 16 Sept. Harrison embarked his artillery and supplies for a descent on Canada. The troops followed between the 20th and 24th, and on the 27th the army landed on the enemy's territory. Proctor burned the fort and navy- yard at Maiden and retreated, and Harrison followed on the next day. Proctor was overtaken on 5 Oct., and took position with his left flanked by the Thames, and a swamp covering his right, which was still further protected by Tecumseh and his Indians. He had made the mistake of forming his men in open order, which was the plan that was adopted in Indian fighting, and Harrison, taking advantage of the error, ordered Col. Richard M. Johnson to lead a cavalry charge, which broke through the British lines, and virtually ended the battle. With in five minutes almost the entire British force was captured, and Proctor escaped only by abandoning his carriage and tak ing to the woods. Another band of cavalry charged the In dians, who lost their leader, Tecumseh, in the beginning of the fight, and afterward made no great resistance. This battle, which, if mere numbers alone be considered, was insignificant, was most important in its results. Together with Perry's vic tory it gave the United States possession of the chain of lakes above Erie, and put an end to the war in uppermost Canada. Harrison's praises were sung in the president's message, in congress, and in the legislatures of the different states. Cele- ^ ^ ¥ ^ <^ ^1 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. I9I brations in honor of his victory were held in the principal cities of the Union, and he was one of the heroes of the hour. He now sent his troops to Niagara, and proceeded to Washington, where he was ordered by the president to Cincinnati to devise means of protection for the Indiana border. Gen. John Arm strong, who was at this time secretary of war, in planning the campaign of 1814 assigned Harrison to the 8th military district, including only western states, where he could see no active service, and on 25 April issued an order to Maj. Holmes, one of Harrison's subordinates, without consulting the latter. Har rison thereupon tendered his resignation, which, President Madison being absent, was .accepted by Armstrong. This ter minated Harrison's military career. In 1814, and again in 1815, he was appointed on commissions that concluded satisfactory Indian treaties, and in 1816 chosen to congress to fill a vacan cy, serving till 1819. While in congress he was charged by a dissatisfied contractor with misuse of the public money when in command of the northwestern army, but was completely exonerated by an investigating committee of the house. At this time his opponents succeeded, by a vote of 13 to 11 in the senate, in striking his name from a resolution that had already passed the house, directing gold medals to be struck in honor of Gov. Shelby, of Kentucky, and himself, for the victory of the Thames. The resolution was passed unanimously two years later, on 24 March, 1818, and Harrison received the medal. Among the charges made against him was this one, that he would not have pursued Proctor at all, after the latter's aban donment of Maiden, had it not been for Gov. Shelby; but the latter denied it in a letter read before the senate, and gave Gen. Harrison the highest praise for his promptitude and vigilance. While in congress, Harrison drew up and advocated a general militia bill, which was not successful, and also proposed an ad mirable measure for the relief of soldiers, which was passed. In 1819 Gen. Harrison was chosen to the senate of Ohio, and in 1822 was a candidate for congress, but defeated on account of his vote against the admission of Missouri to the Union with the restriction that slavery should be prohibited there. In 1824 he was a presidential elector, voting for Henry Clay, and in the same year sent to the U. S. senate, where he succeeded Andrew Jackson as chairman of the committee on military affairs, introduced a bill to prevent desertions, and 192 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. exerted himself to obtain pensions for old soldiers. He re signed in 1828, having been appointed by President John Quincy Adams U. S. minister to the United States of Colom bia. While there he wrote a letter to Gen. Simon Bolivar urg ing him not to accept dictatorial powers. He was recalled at the outset of Jackson's administration, as is asserted by some, at the demand of Gen. Bolivar, and retired to his farm at North Bend, near Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived quietly, fill ing the offices of clerk of the county court and president of the county agricultural society. In 1835 Gen. Harrison was nominated for the presidency by meetings in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and other states; but the opposition to Van Buren was not united on him, and he received only 73 electoral votes to the former's 170. Four years later the National Whig convention, which was called at Harrisburg, Pa., for 4 Dec, 1839, to decide between the claims of several rival candidates, nominated him for the same office, with John Tyler, of Virginia, for vice-president. The Democrats renominated President Van Buren. The canvass that followed has been often called the " Log-cabin and hard-cider campaign." The eastern end of Gen. Harrison's house at North Bend consisted of a log-cabin that had been built by one of the first settlers of Ohio, but which had long since been covered with clapboards. The re publican simplicity of his home was ex tolled by his admir ers, and a political biography of that time says that "his table, instead of being covered with exciting wines, is well supplied with the best cider." Log-cabins and hard cider, then, became the party emblems, and both were features of all the political demonstrations of the canvass, which witnessed the introduc tion of the enormous mass-meetings and processions that have since been common just before presidential elections. The re sult of the contest was the choice of Harrison, who received 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. He was inaugurated at Washington on 4 March, 1841, and immediately sent to the senate his nominations for cabinet officers, which were con- WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 193 firmed. They were Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, secre tary of state ; Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, secretary of the treas ury ; John Bell, of Tennessee, secretary of war ; George E. Badger, of North Carolina, secretary of the navy ; Francis Granger, of New York, postmaster-general ; and John J. Crit tenden, of Kentucky, attorney-general. The senate adjourned on 15 March, and two days afterward the president called congress together in extra session to consider financial meas ures. On 27 March, after several days of indisposition, he was prostrated by a chill, which was followed by bilious pneu monia, and on Sunday morning, 4 April, he died. Amid the shadows of approaching death, he imagined he was addressing his successor, and exclaimed : " Sir, I wish you to understand the principles of the government. I desire them carried out. I ask nothing more." The end came so suddenly that his wife, who had remained at North Bend on account of illness, was unable to be present at his death-bed. The event was a shock to the country, the more so that a chief magistrate had never before died in office, and especially to the Whig party, who had formed high hopes of his administration. His body was in terred in the congressional cemetery at Washington ; but on 7 July of the same year, at the request of his family, removed to North Bend, where it was placed in a tomb overlooking the Ohio river. This was subsequently allowed to fall into ne glect, and afterward Gen. Harrison's son, John Scott, offered it and the surrounding land to the state of Ohio, on condition that it should be kept in repair. Several unsuccessful efforts have been made to induce the state to raise money by taxation for the purpose of erecting a monument to Gen. Harrison's memory. " He was not," it has been well said, " a great man, but he had lived in a great time, and had been a leader in great things." Harrison's inaugural address is the longest ever delivered by any of our presidents (the shortest is Wash ington's second address, consisting of but 134 words, while Harrison's is 8,578), and he was also the author of a " Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio " (Cincinnati, 1838). His life has been written by Moses Dawson (Cincin nati, 1834) ; by James Hall (Philadelphia, 1836) ; by Richard Hildreth (1839) ; by Samuel J. Burr (New York, 1840) ; by Isaac R. Jackson ; and by Henry Montgomery (New York, i94 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. % His wife, Anna, born near Morristown, N. J., 25 July, 1775 ; died near North Bend, Ohio, 25 Feb., 1864, was a daughter of John Cleves Symmes, and married Gen. Harrison 22 Nov., 1795. After her hus band's death she lived at North Bend till 1855, when she went to the house of her son, John Scott Harrison, a few miles distant. Her funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell, and her body lies by the side of her hus band at North Bend. (^> '-tfexsisis^> > Their son, John Scott, born in Vin cennes, Ind., 4 Oct., 1804; died near North Bend, Ohio, 26 May, 1878, received a liberal education, and was elected to congress as a Whig, serving from 5 Dec, 1853, till 3 March, 1857. His third son, Benjamin, became the twenty-third presi dent of the United States. A daughter, Lucy, born in Richmond, Va., in 1798; died in Cincinnati, Ohio, 7 April, 1826, became the wife of David K. Este, an eminent lawyer and jurist of the latter city, and was noted for her piety and benevolence. Erig^ljy KEHaT -". " D-APPLETOJ? & C? JOHN TYLER. John Tyler, tenth president of the United States, born at Greenway, Charles City co., Va., 29 March, 1790; died in Rich mond, Va., 18 Jan., 1862. He was the second son of Judge John Tyler and Mary Armistead. In early boyhood he attend ed the small school kept by John McMurdo. who was so dili gent in his use of the birch that in later years Mr. Tyler said " it was a wonder he did not whip all the sense out of his schol ars." At the age of eleven young Tyler was one of the ring leaders in a rebellion in which the despotic McMurdo was over powered by numbers, tied hand and foot, and left locked up in the school-house until late at night, when a passing traveller effected an entrance and released him. On complaining to Judge Tyler, the indignant school-master was met with the apt reply, " Sic semper tyrannis ! " The future president was gradu ated at William and Mary in 1807. At college he showed a strong interest in ancient history. He was also fond of poetry and music, and, like Thomas Jefferson, was a skilful performer on the violin. In 1809 he was admitted to the bar, and had al ready begun to obtain a good practice when he was elected to the legislature, and took his seat in that body in December, 181 1. He was here a firm supporter of Mr. Madison's adminis tration, and the war with Great Britain, which soon followed, afforded him an opportunity to become conspicuous as a forci ble and persuasive orator. One of his earliest public acts is especially interesting in view of the famous struggle with the Whigs, which in later years he conducted as president. The charter of the first Bank of the United States, established in 1791, was to expire in twenty years; and in 181 1 the question of renewing the charter came before congress. The bank was very unpopular in Virginia, and the assembly of that state, by a vote of 125 to 35, instructed its senators at Washington, Rich- T96 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. ard Brent and William B. Giles, to vote against a recharter. The instructions denounced the bank as an institution in the founding of which congress had exceeded its powers and grossly violated state rights. Yet there were many in congress who, without approving the principle upon which the bank was founded, thought the eve of war an inopportune season for making a radical change in the financial system of the nation. Of the two Virginia senators, Brent voted in favor of the re- charter, and Giles spoke on the same side, and although, in obedience to instructions, he voted contrary to his own opinion, he did so under protest. On 14 Jan., 1812, Mr. Tyler, in the Virginia legislature, introduced resolutions of censure, in which the senators were taken to task, while the Virginia doctrines, as to the unconstitutional character of the bank and the binding force of instructions, were formally asserted. Mr. Tyler married, 29 March, 1813, Letitia, daughter of Robert Christian, and a few weeks afterward was called into the field at the head of a company of militia to take part in the defence of Richmond and its neighborhood, now threatened by the British. This military service lasted for a month, during which Mr. Tyler's company was not called into action. He was re-elected to the legislature annually, until in November, 1816, he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the U. S. house of rep resentatives. In the regular election to the next congress, out of 200 votes given in his native county, he received all but one. As a member of congress he soon made himself conspicuous as a strict constructionist. When Mr. Calhoun introduced his bill in favor of internal improvements, Mr. Tyler voted against it. He opposed the bill for changing the per diem allowance of members of congress to • an annual salary of $1,500. He opposed, as premature, Mr. Clay's proposal to add to the general appropriation bill a provision for $18,000 for a min ister to the provinces of the La Plata, thus committing the United States to a recognition of the independence of those revolted provinces. He also voted against the proposal for a national bankrupt act. He condemned, as arbitrary and in subordinate, the course of Gen. Jackson in Florida, and con tributed an able speech to the long debate over the question as to censuring that gallant commander. He was a member of a committee for inquiring into the affairs of the national bank, and his most elaborate speech was in favor of Mr. Trimble's JOHN TYLER. \gy motion to issue a scire facias against that institution. On all these points Mr. Tyler's course seems to have pleased his con stituents; in the spring election of 1819 he did not consider it necessary to issue the usual circular address, or in any way to engage in a personal canvass. He simply distributed copies of his speech against the bank, and was re-elected to congress unanimously. The most important question that came before the 16th congress related to the admission of Missouri to the Union. In the debates over this question Mr. Tyler took ground against the imposition of any restrictions upon the extension of slavery. At the same time' he declared himself on principle opposed to the perpetuation of slavery, and he sought to recon cile these positions by the argument that in diffusing the slave population over a wide area the evils of the institution would be diminished and the prospects of ultimate emancipation in creased. " Slavery," said he, " has been represented on all hands as a dark cloud, and the candor of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Whitman] drove him to the admission that it would be well to disperse this cloud. In this sentiment I en tirely concur with him. How can you otherwise disarm it ? Will you suffer it to increase in its darkness over one particular portion of this land till its horrors shall burst upon it ? Will you permit the lightnings of its wrath to break upon the south, when by the interposition of a wise system of legislation you may reduce it to a summer's cloud ? " New York and Pennsylvania, he argued, had been able to emancipate their slaves only by reducing their number by exportation. Disper sion, moreover, would be likely to ameliorate the condition of the black man, for by making his labor scarce in each particu lar locality it would increase the demand for it and would thus make it the interest of the master to deal fairly and generously with his slaves. To the objection that the increase of the slave population would fully keep up with its territorial expansion, he replied by denying that such would be the case. His next argument was that if an old state, such as Virginia, could have slaves, while a new state, such as Missouri, was to be prevented by Federal authority from having them, then the old and new states would at once be placed upon a different footing, which was contrary to the spirit of the constitution. If congress could thus impose one restriction upon a state, where was the 14 ICJ8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. exercise of such a power to end ? Once grant such a power, and what was to prevent a slave-holding majority in congress from forcing slavery upon some territory where it was not want ed ? Mr. Tyler pursued the argument so far as to deny " that congress, under its constitutional authority to establish rules and regulations for the territories, had any control whatever over slavery in the territorial domain." (See life, by Lyon G. Tyler, vol. i., p. 319.) Mr. Tyler was unquestionably foremost among the members of congress in occupying this position. When the Missouri compromise bill was adopted by a vote of 134 to 42, all but five of the nays were from the south, and from Virginia alone there were seventeen, of which Mr. Tyler's vote was one. The Richmond " Enquirer" of 7 March, 1820, in denouncing the compromise, observed, in language of pro phetic interest, that the southern and western representatives now " owe it to themselves to keep their eyes firmly fixed on Texas; if we are cooped up on the north, we must have elbow- room to the west." y Mr. Tyler's further action in this congress related chiefly to the question of a protective tariff, of which he was an unflinch ing opponent. In 182 1, finding his health seriously impaired, he declined a re-election, and returned to private life. His retirement, however, was of short duration, for in 1823 he was again elected to the Virginia legislature. Here, as a friend to the candidacy of William H. Crawford for the presidency, he disapproved the attacks upon the congressional caucus begun by the legislature of Tennessee in the interests of Andrew Jackson. The next year he was nominated to fill the vacancy in the United States senate created by the death of John Tay lor ; but Littleton W. Tazewell was elected over him. He op posed the attempt to remove William and Mary college to Richmond, and was afterward made successively rector and chancellor of the college, which prospered signally under his management. In December, 1825, he was chosen by the legis lature to the governorship of Virginia, and in the following year he was re-elected by a unanimous vote. A new division of parties was now beginning to show itself in national politics. The administration of John Quincy Adams had pronounced itself in favor of what was then, without much regard to history, described as the " American system " of government banking, high tariffs, and internal improvements. Those persons who JOHN TYLER. igg were inclined to a loose construction of the constitution were soon drawn to the side of the administration, while the strict constructionists were gradually united in opposition. Many members of Crawford's party, under the lead of John Ran dolph, became thus united with the Jacksonians, while others, of whom Mr. Tyler was one of the most distinguished, main tained a certain independence in opposition. It is to be set down to Mr. Tyler's credit that he never attached any impor tance to the malicious story, believed by so many Jacksonians, of a corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay. Soon after the meeting of the Virginia legislature, in December, 1826, the friends of Clay and Adams combined with the opposite party who were dissatisfied with Randolph, and thus Mr. Tyler was elected to the U. S. senate by a majority of 115 votes to no. Some indiscreet friends of Jackson now attempted to show that there must have been some secret and reprehensible understanding between Tyler and Clay ; but this scheme failed completely. In the senate Mr. Tyler took a conspicuous stand against the so-called " tariff of abominations " enacted in 1828, which Benton, Van Buren, and other prominent Jacksonians, not yet quite clear as to their proper attitude, were induced to support. There was thus some ground for the opinion enter tained at this time by Tyler, that the Jacksonians were not really strict constructionists. In February, 1830, after taking part in the Virginia convention for revising the state constitu tion, Mr. Tyler returned to his seat in the senate, and found himself first drawn toward Jackson by the veto message of the latter, 27 May, upon the Maysville turnpike bill. He attacked the irregularity of Jackson's appointment of commissioners to negotiate a commercial treaty with Turkey without duly inform ing the senate. On the other hand, he voted in favor of con firming the appointment of Van Buren as minister to Great Britain. In the presidential election of 1832 he supported Jackson as a less objectionable candidate than the others, Clay, Wirt, and Floyd. Mr. Tyler disapproved of nullification, and condemned the course of South Carolina as both unconstitu tional and impolitic. At the same time he objected to Presi dent Jackson's famous proclamation of 10 Dec, 1832, as a "tre mendous engine of federalism," tending to the " consolidation " of the states into a single political body. Under the influence of these feelings he undertook to play the part of mediator be- 200 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. tween Clay and" Calhoun, and in that capacity earnestly sup ported the compromise tariff introduced by the former in the senate, 12 Feb., 1833. On the so-called "force bill," clothing the president with extraordinary powers for the purpose of en forcing the tariff law, Mr. Tyler showed that he had the cour age of his convictions. When the bill was put to vote, 20 Feb., 1833, some of its opponents happened to be absent ; others got up and went out in order to avoid putting themselves on record. The vote, as then taken, stood : yeas, thirty-two ; nay, one (John Tyler). As President Jackson's first term had witnessed a division in the Democratic party between the nullifiers led by Calhoun and the unconditional upholders of the Union, led by the president himself, with Benton, Blair, and Van Buren, so his second term witnessed a somewhat similar division arising out of the war upon the United States bank. The tendency of this fresh division was to bring Mr. Tyler and his friends nearer to co-operation with Mr. Calhoun, while at the same time it fur nished points of contact that might, if occasion should offer, be laid hold of for the purpose of forming a temporary alliance with Mr. Clay and the National Republicans. The origin of the name "Whig," in its strange and anomalous application to the combination in 1834, is to be found in the fact that it pleased the fancy of President Jackson's opponents to repre sent him as a kind of arbitrary tyrant. On this view it seemed proper that they should be designated "Whigs," and at first there were some attempts to discredit the supporters of the administration by calling them "Tories." On the question of the bank, when it came to the removal of the deposits, Mr. Tyler broke with the administration. Against the bank he had fought, on every fitting occasion, since the beginning of his public career. In 1834 he declared emphatically: " I believe the bank to be the original sin against the constitution, which, in the progress of our history, has called into existence a nu merous progeny of usurpations. Shall I permit this serpent, however .bright its scales or erect its mien, to exist by and through my vote ?" Nevertheless, strongly as he disapproved of the bank, Mr. Tyler disapproved still more strongly of the methods by which President Jackson assailed it. There seemed at that time to be growing up in the United States a spirit of extreme unbridled democracy quite foreign to the spirit in JOHN TYLER. 201 which our constitutional government, with its carefully arranged checks and limitations, was founded. It was a spirit that prompted mere majorities to insist upon having their way, even at the cost of overriding all constitutional checks and limits. This spirit possessed many members of Jackson's party, and it found expression in what Benton grotesquely called the " de mos krateo" principle. A good illustration of it was to be seen in Benton's argument, after the election of 1824, that Jackson, having received a plurality of electoral votes, ought to be de clared president, and that the house of representatives, in choos ing Adams, was "defying the will of the people." In similar wise President Jackson, after his triumphant re election in 1832, was inclined to interpret his huge majorities as meaning that the people were ready to uphold him in any course that he might see fit to pursue. This feeling no doubt strengthened him in his determined attitude toward the nulli fiers, and it certainly contributed to his arbitrary and overbear ing method of dealing with the bank, culminating in 1833 in his removal of the deposits. There was ground for maintain ing that in this act the president exceeded his powers, and it seemed to illustrate the tendency of unbridled democracy to ward despotism, under the leadership of a headstrong and popular chief. Mr. Tyler saw in it such a tendency, and he be lieved that the only safeguard for constitutional government, whether against the arbitrariness of Jackson or the latitudina- rianism of the National Republicans, lay in a most rigid ad herence to strict constructionist doctrines. Accordingly, in his speech of 24 Feb., 1834, he proposed to go directly to the root of the matter and submit the question of a national bank to the people in the shape of a constitutional amendment, either expressly forbidding or expressly allowing congress to create such an institution. According to his own account, he found Clay and Webster ready to co-operate with him in this course, while Calhoun held aloof. Nothing came of the proj ect : but it is easy to see in Mr. Tyler's attitude at this time the basis for a short-lived alliance with the National Republic ans, whenever circumstances should suggest it. On Mr. Clay's famous resolution to censure the president he voted in the affirmative. In the course of 1835 the seriousness of the schism in the Democratic party was fully revealed. Not only had the small body of nullifiers broken away, under the lead of Cal- 202 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. houn, but a much larger party was formed in the southern states under the appellation of " state-rights Whigs." They differed with the National Republicans on the fundamental questions of tariff, bank, and internal improvements, and agreed with them only in opposition to Jackson as an alleged violator of the constitution. Even in this opposition they dif fered from the party of Webster and Clay, for they grounded it largely upon a theory of state rights which the latter states men had been far from accepting. The " state-rights Whigs " now nominated Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, for president, and John Tyler for vice-president. The National Republicans, wishing to gather votes from the other parties, nominated for president Gen. William H. Harrison as a more colorless candi date than Webster or Clay. The Democratic followers of Jack son nominated Van Buren, who received a large majority of both popular and electoral votes, in spite of the defections above mentioned. There was a great deal of bolting in this elec tion. Massachusetts threw its vote for Webster for president, and South Carolina for Willie P. Mangum. Virginia, which voted for Van Buren, rejected his col league, Richard M. Johnson, and cast its twenty-three electoral votes for William Smith, of Ala bama, for vice-president. Mr. White obtained the electoral votes of Tennessee and Georgia, twenty-six in all, but Mr. Tyler made a better showing; he carried, besides these two states, Maryland and South Carolina, making forty -seven votes in all. The unevenness of the results was such that the election of a vice-president devolved upon the senate, which chose Mr. Johnson. In the course of the year preceding the election an incident occurred which empha sized more than ever Mr. Tyler's hostility to the Jackson party. Benton's famous resolutions for expunging the vote of censure upon the president were before the senate, and the Democratic legislature of Virginia instructed the two senators from that state to vote in the affirmative. As to the binding force of such instructions Mr. Tyler had long ago, in the case of Giles and Brent, above mentioned, placed himself unmistakably upon JOHN TYLER. 203 record. His colleague, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, was known to entertain similar views. On receiving the instructions, both senators refused to obey them. Both voted against the Benton resolutions, but Mr. Leigh kept his seat, while Mr. Tyler re signed and returned home, 29 Feb., 1836. About this time the followers of Calhoun were bringing forward what was known as the " gag resolution " against all petitions and motions re lating in any way to the abolition of slavery. Mr. Tyler's resignation occurred before this measure was adopted, but his opinions on the subject were clearly pronounced. He con demned the measure as impolitic, because it yoked together the question as to the right of petition and the question as to slavery, and thus gave a distinct moral advantage to the Abo litionists. On the seventh anniversary of the Virginia coloni zation society, 10 Jan., 1838, he was chosen its president. In the spring election of that year he was returned to the Virginia legislature. In January, 1839, his friends put him forward for re-election to the U. S. senate, and in the memorable contest that ensued, in which William C. Rives was his principal com petitor, the result was a deadlock, and the question was in definitely postponed before any choice had been made, t Meanwhile the financial crisis of 1837 — the most severe, in many respects, that has ever been known in this country — had wrecked the administration of President Van Buren. The causes of that crisis, indeed, lay deeper than any acts of any administration. The primary cause was the sudden develop ment of wild speculation in western lands, consequent upon the rapid building of railroads, which would probably have brought about a general prostration of credit, even if President Jackson had never made war upon the United States bank. But there is no doubt that some measures of Jackson's administration — such as the removal of the deposits and their lodgment in the so-called " pet banks," the distribution of the surplus followed by the sudden stoppage of distribution, and the sharpness of the remedy supplied by the specie circular — had much to do with the virulence of the crisis. For the moment it seemed to many people that all the evil resulted from the suppression of the bank, and that the proper cure was the reinstatement of the bank, and because President Van Buren was too wise and clear-sight ed to lend his aid to such a policy, his chances for re-election were ruined. The cry for the moment was that the hard-heart- 204 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. ed administration was doing nothing to relieve the distress of the people, and there was a general combination against Van Buren. For the single purpose of defeating him, all differ ences of policy were for the moment subordinated. In the Whig convention at Harrisburg, 4 Dec, 1839, no platform of princi ples was adopted. Gen. Harrison was again nominated for the presidency, as a candidate fit to conciliate the anti-Masons and National Republicans whom Clay had offended, and Mr. Tyler was nominated for the vice-presidency in order to catch the votes of such Democrats as were dissatisfied with the adminis tration. In the uproarious canvass that followed there was probably less appeal to sober reason and a more liberal use of clap-trap than in any other presidential contest in our history. Borne upon a great wave of popular excitement, " Tippecanoe, and Tyler too," were carried to the White House. By the death of President Harrison, 4 April, 1841, just a month after the inauguration, Mr. Tyler became president of the United States. The situation thus developed was not long in produc ing startling results. Although no platform had been adopted in the nominating convention; it soon appeared that Mr. Clay and his friends intended to use their victory in support of the old National Republican policy of a national bank, a high tariff, and internal improvements. Unquestionably many people who voted for Harrison did so in the belief that his election meant the victory of Clay's doctrines and the re-establishment of the United States bank. Mr. Clay's own course, immediately after the inauguration, showed so plainly that he regarded the elec tion as his own victory that Gen. Harrison felt called upon to administer a rebuke to him. " You seem to forget, sir," said he, "that it is I who am president." Tyler, on the other hand, regarded the Whig triumph as signifying the overthrow of what he considered a corrupt and tyrannical faction led by Jackson, Van Buren, and Benton ; he professed to regard the old National Republican doctrines as virtually postponed by the alliance between them and his own followers. In truth, it was as ill-yoked an alliance as ever was made. The elements of a fierce quarrel were scarcely con cealed, and the removal of President Harrison was all that was needed to kindle the flames of strife. " Tyler dares not resist," said Clay ; " I'll drive him before me." On the other hand, the new president declared : " I pray you to believe that my back JOHN TYLER. 205 is to the wall, and that, while I shall deplore the assaults, I shall, if practicable, beat back the assailants " ; and he was as good as his word. Congress met in extra session, 31 May, 1841, the senate standing 28 Whigs to 22 Democrats, the house 133 Whigs to 108 Democrats. In his opening message Presi dent Tyler briefly recounted the recent history of the United States bank, the sub-treasury system, and other financial schemes, and ended with the precautionary words : " I shall be ready to concur with you in the adoption of such system as you may propose, reserving to myself the ultimate power of re jecting any measure which may, in my view of it, conflict with the constitution or otherwise jeopard the prosperity of the country, a power which I could not part with, even if I would, but which I will not believe any act of yours will call into requisition." Congress disregarded the warning. The ground was cleared for action by a bill for abolishing Van Buren's sub- treasury system, which passed both houses and was signed by the president. But an amendment offered by Mr. Clay, for the repeal of the law of 1836 regulating the deposits in the state banks, was defeated by the votes of a small party led by Wil liam C. Rives. The great question then came up. On con stitutional grounds, Mr. Tyler's objection to the United States bank had always been that congress had no power to create such a corporation within the limits of a state without the con sent of the state ascertained beforehand. He did not deny, however, the power of congress to establish a district bank for the District of Columbia, and, provided the several states should consent, there seemed to be no reason why this district bank should not set up its branch offices all over the country. Mr. Clay's so-called " fiscal bank " bill of 1841 did not make proper provision for securing the assent of the states, and on that ground Mr. Rives proposed an amendment substituting a clause of a bill suggested by Thomas Ewing, secretary of the treasury, to the effect that such assent should be formally secured. Mr. Rives's amendment was supported not only by several "state- rights Whigs," but also by senators Richard H. Bayard and Rufus Choate, and other friends of Mr. Webster. If adopted, its effect would have been conciliatory, and it might perhaps have averted for a moment the rupture between the ill-yoked allies. The Democrats, well aware of this, voted against the amendment, and it was lost. The bill incorporating the fiscal 2o6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. bank of the United States was then passed by both houses, and on 16 Aug. was vetoed. An attempt to pass the bill over the veto failed of the requisite two-third majority. The Whig leaders had already shown a disposition to en trap the president. Before the passage of Mr. Clay's bill, John Minor Botts was sent to the White House with a private sug gestion for a compromise. Mr. Tyler refused to listen to the suggestion except with the understanding that, should it meet with his disapproval, he should not hear from it again. The suggestion turned out to be a proposal that congress should authorize the establishment of branches of the district bank in any state of which the legislature at its very next session should not expressly refuse its consent to any such proceeding ; and that, moreover, in case the interests of the public should seem to require it, even such expressd refusal might be disregarded and overridden. By this means the obnoxious institution might first be established in the Whig states, and then forced upon the Democratic states in spite of themselves. The presi dent indignantly rejected the suggestion as "a contemptible subterfuge, behind which he would not skulk." The device, nevertheless, became incorporated in Mr. Clay's bill, and it was pretended that it was put there in order to smooth the way for the president to adopt the measure, but that in his unreason able obstinacy he refused to avail himself of the opportunity. After his veto of 16 Aug. these tortuous methods were renewed. Messengers went to and fro between the president and mem bers of his cabinet on the one hand, and leading Whig mem bers of congress on the other, conditional assurances were translated into the indicative mood, whispered messages were magnified and distorted, and presently appeared upon the scene an outline of a bill that it was assumed the president would sign. This new measure was known as the " fiscal cor poration " bill. Like the fiscal bank bill, it created a bank in the District of Columbia, with branches throughout the states, and it made no proper provision for the consent of the states. The president had admitted that a " fiscal agency " of the United States government, established in Washington for the purpose of collecting, keeping, and disbursing the public reve nue, was desirable if not indispensable ; a regular bank of dis count, engaged in commercial transactions throughout the states, and having the United States government as its princi- JOHN TYLER. 207 pal share-holder and Federal officers exerting a controlling in fluence upon its directorship, was an entirely different affair — something, in his opinion, neither desirable nor permissible. In the " fiscal corporation " bill an attempt was made to hood wink the president and the public by a pretence of forbidding discounts and loans and limiting the operations of the fiscal agency exclusively to exchanges. While this project was ma turing, the Whig newspapers fulminated with threats against the president in case he should persist in his course ; private letters warned him of plots to assassinate him, and Mr. Clay in the senate referred to his resignation in 1836, and asked why, if constitutional scruples again hindered him from obey ing the will of the people, did he not now resign his lofty posi tion and leave it for those who could be more compliant ? To this it was aptly replied by Mr. Rives that "the president was an independent branch of the government as well as congress, and was'not called upon to resign because he differed in opin ion with them." Some of the Whigs seem really to have hoped that such a storm could be raised as would browbeat the presi dent into resigning, whereby the government would be tempo rarily left in the hands of William L. Southard, then president pro tempore of the senate But Mr. Tyler was neither to be hoodwinked nor bullied. The "fiscal corporation '\ bill was passed by the senate on Saturday, 4 Sept., 1841 ; on Thursday, the 9th, the president's veto message was received ; on Satur day, the nth, Thomas Ewing, secretary of the treasury, John Bell, secretary of war, George E. Badger, secretary of the navy, John J. Crittenden, attorney-general, and Francis Granger, post master-general, resigned their places.* The adjournment of * John Tyler, Jr., the son and private secretary of President Tyler, speaking to a friend of his father's hold-over cabinet, said : " When my father succeeded to the presidency he continued Harrison's cabinet in office until he found that they were working against him. His first cabinet meeting was held on the day succeeding the death of President Harrison, and it was perhaps the most re markable cabinet meeting in history. When all the members were present and the doors were closed Daniel Webster, the secretary of state, arose and ad dressed my father, saying : ' Mr. President, I suppose you intend to carry out the ideas and customs of your predecessor, and that this administration, inaugu rated by President Harrison, will continue in the same line of policy on which it has begun. Am I right ? ' " My father, much astonished, nodded his head almost involuntarily and 208 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. congress had been fixed for Monday, the 13th, and it was hoped that, suddenly confronted by a unanimous resignation of the cabinet and confused by want of time in which to appoint a- new cabinet, the president would give up the game. But the resigna tion was not unanimous, for Daniel Webster, secretary of state, remained at his post, and on Monday morning the president nominated Walter Forward, of Pennsylvania, for secretary of the treasury; John McLean, of Ohio, for secretary of war; Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, for secretary of the navy ; Hugh S. Legar£, of South Carolina, for attorney-general ; and Charles A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, for postmaster-general. These ap pointments were duly confirmed. Whether the defection of Mr. Webster at this moment would have been so fatal to the president as some of the Whigs were inclined to believe, may well be questioned, but there can be no doubt that his adherence to the president was of great value. By remaining in the cabinet Mr. Webster showed him self too clear-sighted to contribute to a victory of which the whole profit would be reaped by his rival, Mr. Clay, and the president was glad to retain his hold upon so strong an ele ment in the north as that which Mr. Webster represented. Some of the leading Whig members of congress now issued addresses to the people, in which they loudly condemned the conduct of the president and declared that " all political con- looked at Mr. Webster with wonder. Daniel Webster straightened himself up at this and continued : " ' Mr. President, it was the custom in our cabinet meetings of President Harrison that he should preside over them. All measures relating to the ad ministration were to be brought before the cabinet and their settlement was to be decided by the majority of votes, each member of the cabinet and the presi dent having but one vote.' " My father was always courteous, but he was also firm. He rose to his feet, and looking about the cabinet apartment he said : ' Gentlemen, I am very proud to have in my cabinet such able statesmen as you have proved yourselves to be. I shall be pleased to avail myself of your counsel and advice, but I can never consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do. I am the presi dent, and I shall be held responsible for my administration. I hope I shall have your hearty co-operation in carrying out its measures. So long as you see fit to do this I shall be glad to have you with me. When you think otherwise I will be equally glad to receive your resignation.' This," concluded Mr. Tyler, " settled the question, and there was no further trouble as to who was the head of the cabinet."— Editor. JOHN TYLER. 2pg nection between them and John Tyler was at an end from that day forth." It was open war between the two departments of government. Although many Whig members, like Preston, Talmadge, Johnson, and Marshall, really sympathized with Mr. Tyler, only a few, commonly known as "the corporal's guard," openly recognized him as their leader. But the Democratic members came to his support as an ally against the Whigs. The state elections of 1841 showed some symptoms of a reac tion in favor of the president's views, for in general the Whigs lost ground in them. As the spectre of the crisis of 1837 faded away in the distance, the people began to recover from the sudden and overmastering impulse that had swept the country in 1840, and the popular enthusiasm for the bank soon died away. Mr. Tyler had really won a victory of the first magni tude, as was conclusively shown in 1844, when the presidential platform of the Whigs was careful to make no allusion what ever to the bank. On this crucial question the doctrines of paternal government had received a crushing and permanent defeat. In the next session of congress the strife with the president was renewed; but 'it was now tariff, not bank, that furnished the subject of discussion. Diminished importations, due to the general prostration of business, had now dimin ished the revenue until it was insufficient to meet the ex penses of government. The Whigs accordingly carried through congress a bill continuing the protective duties of 1833, and providing that the surplus revenue, which was thus sure soon to accumulate, should be distributed among the states. But the compromise act of 1833, in which Mr. Tyler had played an important part, had provided that the protective policy should come to an end in 1842. Both on this ground, and because of the provision for distributing the surplus, the president vetoed the new bill. Congress then devised and passed another bill, providing for a tariff for revenue, with in cidental protection, but still contemplating a distribution of the surplus, if there should be any. The president vetoed this bill. Congress received the veto message with great indigna tion, and in the motion of ex-President John Q. Adams it was referred to a committee, which condemned it as an unwarrant able assumption of power, and after a caustic summary of Mr, Tyler's acts since his accession to office, concluded with a ref erence to impeachment. This report called forth from the 2IO LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. president a formal protest ; but the victory was already his. The Whigs were afraid to go before the country in the autumn elections with the tariff question unsettled, and the bill was ac cordingly passed by both houses, without the distributing clause, and was at once signed by the president. The distributing clause was then passed in a separate bill, but a " pocket veto " dis posed of it. Congress adjourned on 31 Aug., 1842, and in the elections the Whig majority of twenty-five in the house of rep resentatives gave place to a Democratic majority of sixty-one. On the remaining question of National Republican policy, that of internal improvements, the most noteworthy action of President Tyler was early in 1844, when two river-and-harbor bills were passed by congress, the one relating to the eastern, the other to the western states. Mr. Tyler vetoed the former, but signed the latter, on the ground that the Mississippi river, as a great common highway for the commerce of the whole country, was the legitimate concern of the national government in a sense that was not true of any other American river. An unsuccessful attempt was made to pass the other bill over the veto. The rest of Mr. Tyler's administration was taken up with the Ashburton treaty with Great Britain, the Oregon question, and the annexation of Texas. Texas had won its independence from Mexico in 1836, and its governor, as well as the majority of its inhabitants, were citizens of the United States. From a broad national standpoint it was in every way desirable that Texas, as well as Oregon, should belong to our Federal Union. In the eastern states there was certainly a failure to appreciate the value of Oregon, which was nevertheless claimed as indis putably our property. On the other hand, it was felt, by a cer tain element in South Carolina, that if the northern states were to have ample room for expansion beyond the Rocky moun tains, the southern states must have Texas added to their num ber as a counterpoise, or else the existence of slavery would be imperilled, and these fears were strengthened by the growth of anti-slavery sentiment at the north. The Whigs, who by reason of their tariff policy found their chief strength at the north, were disposed to avail themselves of this anti-slavery sentiment, and accordingly declared themselves opposed to the annexation of Texas. In the mean time the political pressure brought to bear upon Mr. Webster in Massachusetts induced resignation of his portfolio, and he was succeeded in the state i * * H 5 * . ? (¦ i ] » i JOHN TYLER. 211 department by Hugh S. Legare, 9 May, 1843. In a few weeks Legar£ was succeeded by Mr. Upshur, after whose death, on 28 Feb., 1844, the place was filled by John C. Calhoun. After a negotiation extending over two years, a treaty was concluded, 12 April, 1844, with the government of Texas, providing for annexation. The treaty was rejected by the senate, by a vote of 35 to 16, all the Whigs and seven Democrats voting in the negative. Thus by the summer of 1844 the alliance between the Whig party and Mr. Tyler's wing of the Democrats had passed away. At the same time the division among the Demo crats, which had become marked during Jackson's administra tion, still continued ; and while the opposition to Mr. Tyler was strong enough to prevent his nomination in the Democratic national convention, which met at Baltimore on 27 May, 1844, on the other hand he was able to prevent the nomination of Mr. Van Buren, who had declared himself opposed to the immediate annexation of Texas. The result was the nomi nation of James K. Polk, as a kind of compromise candidate, in so far as he belonged to the " loco-foco " wing of the party, but was at the same time in favor of annexation On the same day, 27 May, another convention at Baltimore nominated Mr. Tyler for a second term. He accepted the nomination in order to coerce the Democrats into submitting to him and his friends a formal invitation to re-enter the ranks; and accordingly a meeting of Democrats at the Carleton house, New York, on 6 Aug., adopted a series of resolutions commending the principal acts of his administration, and entreating that in the general interests of the opposition he should withdraw. In response to this appeal, Mr. Tyler accordingly withdrew his name. The northern opposition to the annexation of Texas seemed to have weakened the strength of the Whigs in the south, and their candidate, Henry Clay, declared himself willing to see Texas admitted at some future time. But this device cut both ways ; for while it was popular in the south, and is supposed to have acquired for Clay many pro-slavery votes, carrying for him Tennessee, North Carolina, Delaware, and Maryland by bare majorities, it certainly led many anti-slavery Whigs to throw away their votes upon the " Liberty " candidate, James G. Birney, and thus surrender New York to the Democrats. The victory of the Democrats in November was reflected in the course pursued in the ensuing congress. One of the party 212 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. watchwords, in reference to the Oregon question, had been " fifty-four forty, or fight," and the house of representatives now proceeded to pass a bill organizing a territorial govern ment for Oregon up to that parallel of latitude. The senate, however, laid the bill upon the table, because it prohibited slav ery in the territory. A joint resolution for the annexation of Texas was passed by both houses. Proposals for prohibiting slavery there were defeated, and the affair was arranged by extending the Missouri compromise-line westward through the Texan territory to be acquired by the annexation. North of that line slavery was to be prohibited ; south of it the question was to be determined by the people living on the spot. The resolutions were signed by President Tyler, and instructions in accordance therewith were despatched by him to Texas on the last day of his term of office, 3 March, 1845. The friends of annexation defended the constitutionality of this proceeding, and the opponents denounced it. After leaving the White House, Mr. Tyler took up his resi dence on an estate that he had purchased three miles from Greenway, on the bank of James river. To this estate he gave the name of " Sherwood Forest," and there he lived the rest of his life. (See illustration on page 202.) In a letter published in the Richmond " Enquirer " on 17 Jan., 1861, he recommend ed a convention of border states — including New Jersey, Penn sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, as well as Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri — for the purpose of devising some method of adjusting the difficul ties brought on by the secession of South Carolina. The scheme adopted by this convention was to be submitted to the other states, and, if adopted, was to be incorporated into the Federal constitution. In acting upon Mr. Tyler's suggestion, the Virginia legislature enlarged it into a proposal of a peace convention to be composed of delegates from all the states. At the same time Mr. Tyler was appointed a commissioner to President Buchanan, while Judge John Robertson was appoint ed commissioner to the state of South Carolina, the object be ing to persuade both parties to abstain from any acts of hos tility until the proposed peace convention should have had an opportunity to meet and discuss the situation. In discharge of this mission Mr. Tyler arrived on 23 Jan. in Washington. President Buchanan declined to give any assurances, but in his JOHN TYLER. 213 message to congress, on 28 Jan., he deprecated a hasty resort to hostile measures. The peace convention, consisting of dele gates from thirteen northern and seven border states, met at Washington on 4 Feb. and chose Mr. Tyler as its president. Several resolutions were adopted and reported to congress, 27 Feb. ; but on 2 March they were rejected in the senate by a vote of 28 to 7, and two days later the house adjourned without having taken a vote upon them. On 28 Feb., anticipating the fate of the resolutions in congress, Mr. Tyler made a speech on the steps of the Exchange hotel in Richmond, and declared his belief that no arrangement could be made, and that nothing was left for Virginia but to act promptly in the exercise of her powers as a sovereign state. The next day he took his seat in the State convention, where he advocated the immediate passing of an ordinance of secession. His attitude seems to have been substantially the same that it had been twenty-eight years before, when he disapproved the heresy of nullification, but condemned with still greater emphasis the measures taken by President Jackson to suppress that heresy. This feeling that secession was unadvisable, but coercion wholly indefensi ble, was shared by Mr. Tyler with many people in the border states. On the removal of the government of the southern Confederacy from Montgomery to Richmond, in May, 1861, he was unanimously elected a member of the provisional congress of the Confederate states. In the following autumn he was elected to the permanent congress, but he died before taking his seat. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, where as yet his grave, near that of James Monroe, is, strange to say, unmarked.* His biography has been ably written by Lyon Gardiner Tyler, "The Letters and Times of the Tylers" (2 vols., Richmond, i884-'5). See also "Seven Decades of the Union," by Henry A. Wise (Philadelphia, 1872). * Mr. Tyler was interred with great honors in what is known as the Presi dents' Section, being about ten yards to the east of the grave of Monroe. When the writer visited the cemetery, in 1893, no stone marked his own or Mrs. Julia Tyler's grave. Before the war Virginia passed resolutions authorizing the gov ernor to erect an appropriate monument from the funds of the state, but owing to the condition of her finances this has not yet been done. By his will Mr. Tyler's remains were to be buried at his home, Sherwood Forest, in Charles City County, and but for Virginia's interposition his family would long since have erected a suitable monument to his memory. — Editor. IS 214 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. His wife, Letitia Christian, born at Cedar Grove, New Kent co., Va., 12 Nov., 1790; died in Washington, D. C, 9 Sept., 1842, was the daughter of Robert Christian, a planter in New Kent county, Va. She married Mr. Tyler on 29 March, 1813, and removed with him to his home in Charles City coun ty. When he became president she accompanied him to Wash ington; but her health was delicate, and she died shortly after ward. Mrs. Tyler was unable to assume any social cares, and the duties of mistress of the White House devolved upon her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Robert Tyler. She possessed great beauty of person and of character, and, before the failure of her health, was especially fitted for a social life. Their son, Robert, born in New Kent county, Va., in 1818; died in Montgomery, Ala., 3 Dec, 1877, was educated at Wil liam and Mary, and adopted the profession of law. He mar ried Priscilla, a daughter of Thomas Apthorpe Cooper, the tragedian, in 1839, and when his father became president his wife assumed the duties of mistress of the White House till after Mrs. John Tyler's death, when they devolved upon her daughter, Mrs. Letitia Semple. Mr. Tyler removed to Phila delphia in 1843, practised law there, and held several civil of fices. In 1844 he was elected president of the Irish repeal asso ciation. A little later he became prothonotary of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and in 1858 he was chairman of the Democratic executive committee of the state. He removed to Richmond at the beginning of the civil war, and was appointed register of the treasury. After the war he edited the " Mail and Advertiser " in Montgomery, Ala. He published " Ahas- uerus," a poem (New York, 1S42) ; " Death, or Medora's Dream," a poem (1843); "Is Virginia a Repudiating State? and the States' Guarantee," two letters (Richmond, Va., 1858). President Tyler's second wife, Julia Gardiner, born on Gardiner's island, near Easthampton, N. Y., 4 May, 1820; died in Richmond, Va., 10 July, 1889, was a descendant of the Gar- diners of Gardiner's island. She was educated at the Chegary institute, New York city, spent several months in Europe, and in the winter of 1844 accompanied her father to Washington, D. C. A few weeks afterward he was killed by the explosion of a gun on the war-steamer " Princeton," which occurred dur- JOHN TYLER. 21$ ing a pleasure excursion in which he and his daughter were of the presidential party. His body was taken to the White House, and Miss Gardiner, being thrown in the society of the presi dent under these peculiar circum stances, became the object of his marked attention, which resulted in their marriage in New York city, 26 June, 1844. For the succeeding eight months she presided over the White House with dignity and grace, her residence there terminating with a birth-night ball on 22 Feb., 1845. Mrs. Tyler retired with her husband to " Sherwood Forest " in Virginia at * /? /y ~ the conclusion of his term, and after ^~p/to£as •? sCjyC&r^ the civil war resided for several years at her mother's residence on Castleton Hill, Staten island, and subsequently in Richmond, Va. She was a convert to Roman Catholicism, was devoted to the charities of that church, and is buried by the side of her husband in Hollywood Cemetery. Her son, Lyon Gardiner, born in Charles City county, Va., 12 Aug. 1853, was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1875, and then studied law. During his college course he was elected orator of the Jefferson society, and obtained a scholar ship as best editor of the "Virginia University Magazine." In January, 1877, he was elected professor of belles-lettres in William and Mary college, which place he held until November, 1878, when he became head of a high-school in Memphis, Tenn. He settled in Richmond, Va., in 1882, and entered on the prac tice of law, also taking an active interest in politics. He was a candidate for the house of delegates in 1885, and again in 1887, when he was elected. In tnat body he advocated the bills to establish a labor bureau, to regulate child labor, and to aid William and Mary college. In 1888 he was elected president of the college, which office he now fills. He has published "The Letters and Times of the Tylers " (2 vols., Richmond, i884-'5) ; " Parties and Patronage in the United States " (New York, 1891); and he is the editor of the "William and Mary College Quarterly," established in 1892. JAMES K. POLK. James Knox Polk, eleventh president of the United States, born in Mecklenburg county, N. C, 2 Nov., 1795; died in Nashville, Tenn., 15 June, 1849. He was a son of Samuel Polk, whose father, Ezekiel, was a brother of Col. Thomas, grandson of Robert Polk, or Pollock, who was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States. His mother was Jane, daughter of James Knox, a resident of Iredell county, N. C, and a captain in the war of the Revolution. His father, Sam uel, a farmer, removed in the autumn of 1806 to the rich valley of Duck river, a tributary of the Tennessee, and made a new home in a section that was erected the following year into the county of Maury. Besides cultivating the tract of land he had purchased, Samuel at intervals followed the occupation of a surveyor, acquired a fortune equal to his wants, and lived un til 1827. His son James was brought up on the farm, and not only assisted in its management, but frequently accompanied his father in his surveying expeditions, during which they were often absent for weeks. He was inclined to study, often busied himself with his father's mathematical calculations, and was fond of reading. He was sent to school, and had succeeded in mastering the English branches when ill health compelled his removal. He was then placed with a merchant, but having a strong dislike to commercial pursuits, he obtained permission to return home after a few weeks' trial, and in July, 1813, was given in charge of a private tutor. In 1815 he entered the sophomore class at the University of North Carolina, of which institution his cousin, William, was a trustee. As a student *y young Polk was correct, punctual, and industrious. At his graduation in 1818 he was officially acknowledged to be the best scholar in both the classics and mathematics, and de livered the Latin salutatory. In 1847 the university conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. In 1819 he entered the law- %)y Qytx^ut-^z s^y D.APPLETON&C? JAMES K. POLK. 217 ' office of Felix Grundy, who was then at the head of the Ten nessee bar. While pursuing his legal studies he attracted the attention of Andrew Jackson, who soon afterward was appoint ed governor of the territory of Florida. An intimacy was thus begun between the two men that in after-years greatly influ enced the course of at least one of them. In 1820 Mr. Polk was admitted to the bar, and established himself at Columbia, the county-seat of Maury county. Here he attained such ., immediate success as falls to the lot of few, his career at the bar only ending with his election to the governorship in 1839. At times he practised alone, while at others he was associated successively with several -of the leading practitioners of the state. Among the latter may be mentioned Aaron V. Brown and Gideon J. Pillow. Brought up as a Jeffersonian, and early taking an interest in politics, Mr. Polk was frequently heard in public as an ex ponent of the views of his party. So popular was his style of oratory that his services soon came to be in great demand, and ,, he was not long in earning the title of the " Napoleon of the Stump." He was, however, an argumentative rather than a rhetorical speaker, and convinced his hearers by plainness of statement and aptness of illustration, ignoring the ad-captandum effects usually resorted to in political harangues. His first public employment was that of chief clerk to the Tennessee house of representatives, and in 1823 he canvassed the district to secure his own election to that body. During his two years in the legislature he was regarded as one of its most promising members. His ability and shrewdness in debate, his business tact, combined with his firmness and industry, secured for him a high reputation. While a member of the general assembly he obtained the passage of a law to prevent the then common^ practice of duelling, and, although he resided in a community where that mode of settling disputes was generally approved, he was never concerned in an "affair of honor," either as prin cipal or as second. In August, 1825, he was elected to congress v from the Duck river district, in which he resided, by a flatter ing majority, and re-elected at every succeeding election until 1839, when he withdrew from the contest to become a candidate ' for governor. On taking his seat as a member of the 19th con gress, he found himself, with one or two exceptions, the young est member of that body. The same habits of laborious applica-V 2i8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. tion that had previously characterized him were now displayed on the floor of the house and in the committee-room. He was prominently connected with every leading question, and upon all he struck what proved to be the key-note for the action of his party. During the whole period of President Jackson's administration he was one of its leading supporters, and at times, on certain issues of paramount importance, its chief reliance. His maiden speech was made in defence of the pro posed amendment to the constitution, giving the choice of presi- ; dent and vice-president directly to the people. It was distin guished by clearness and force, copiousness of research, wealth of illustration, and cogency of argument, and at once placed its author in the front rank of congressional debaters. During the same session Mr. Polk attracted attention by his vigorous oppo sition to the appropriation for the Panama mission. President Adams had appointed commissioners to attend a congress pro posed to be held at Panama by delegates appointed by differ ent Spanish-American states, which, although they had virtually achieved their independence, were still at war with the mother- country. Mr. Polk, and those who thought with him, contended that such action on the part of this government would tend to involve us in a war with Spain, and establish an unfortunate precedent for the future. In December, 1827, he was placed on the committee on foreign affairs, and some time afterward was also appointed chairman of the select committee to which was referred that portion of the message of President Adams calling the attention of congress to the probable accumulation of a surplus in the treasury after the anticipated extinguish ment of the national debt. At the head of the latter commit tee, he made a report denying the constitutional power of con gress to collect from the people for distribution a surplus be yond the wants of the government, and maintaining that the revenue should be reduced to the requirements of the public service. Early in 1833, as a member of the ways and means committee, he made a minority report unfavorable to the Bank of the United States, which aroused a storm of opposition, a meeting of the friends of the bank being held at Nashville. During the entire contest between the bank and President Jack son, caused by the removal of the deposits in October, 1833, Mr. Polk, now chairman of the committee, supported the executive. His speech in opening the debate summarized the material facts JAMES K. POLK. 2\g and arguments on the Democratic side of the question. George McDuffie, leader of the opposition, bore testimony in his con cluding remarks to the boldness and manliness with which Mr. Polk had assumed the only position that could be judiciously taken. Mr. Polk was elected speaker of the house of represent atives in December, 1835, an. Jj-iWC ing no children, Mrs. Polk devoted herself entirely to her duties as mistress of the White House. She held weekly receptions, and abolished the custom of giving refreshments to the guests. She also forbade dancing, as out of keeping with the character of these entertainments. In spite of her reforms, Mrs. Polk was extremely popular. " Madam," said a prominent South Carolinian, at one of her receptions, " there is a woe pronounced against you in the Bible." On 232 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. her inquiring his meaning, he added: "The Bible says, 'Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.' " An English lady visiting Washington thus described the president's wife : "Mrs. Polk is a very handsome woman. Her hair is very black, and her dark eyes and complexion remind one of the Spanish donnas. She is well read, has much talent for conversation, and is highly popular. Her excellent taste in dress preserves the subdued though elegant costume that characterizes the lady." Mrs. Polk became a communicant of the Presbyterian church in 1834, and maintained her connection with that de nomination until the close of her long life. After the death of her husband she continued to reside at Nashville, in the house seen in the illustration on another page and known as " Polk Place." In the foreground is the tomb of her hus band, by whose side she was buried. The courts, in 1891, having decided that Mr. Polk's will, leaving his estate "to the worthiest of the name forever," was void, as constituting a per petuity, the tomb, with the remains of President and Mrs. Polk, were removed by the State and reinterred with appro priate public ceremonies on Capitol Hill, Nashville, 19 Sept., 1893, with a view to the division of the land among the heirs. iSteiiee. Ir/ HBEfll 22^- D.APPLETOS" & C? ZACHARY TAYLOR. Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States, born in Orange county, Va., 24 Sept., 1784; died in the ex ecutive mansion, Washington, D. C, 9 July, 1850. He was fifth in descent from James Taylor, who came to this country from Carlisle, on the English border, in 1658. His father, Col. Richard Taylor, an officer in the war of the Revolution, was conspicuous for zeal and daring among men in whom personal gallantry was the rule. After the war he retired to private life, and in 1785 removed to Kentucky, then a sparsely occupied ¦ county of Virginia, and made his home near the present city of Louisville, where he died. Zachary was the third son. Brought up on a farm in a new settlement, he had few scholastic opportunities; but in the thrift, industry, self- denial, and forethought required by the circumstances, he learned such lessons as were well adapted to form the character illustrated by his eventful career. Yet he had also another form of education. The liberal grants of land that Virginia made to her soldiers caused many of them, after the peace of 1783, to remove to the west; thus Col. Taylor's neighbors in cluded many who had been his fellow-soldiers, and these often met around his wide hearth. Their conversation would natu rally be reminiscences of their military life, and all the sons of Col. Taylor, save one, Hancock, entered the U. S. army. The rapid extension of settlements on the border was productive of frequent collision with the Indians, and almost constantly re quired the protection of a military force. In 1808, on the recommendation of President Jefferson, congress authorized the raising of five regiments of infantry, one of riflemen, one of light artillery, and one of light dragoons. From the terms of the act it was understood that this was not to be a permanent increase of the U. S. army, and many of 234 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. • the officers of the " old army " declined to seek promotion in the new regiments. At this period questions had arisen be tween the United States and Great Britain which caused serious anticipations of a war with that power, and led many to regard the additional force authorized as a preliminary step in prepa ration for such a war. Zachary Taylor, then in his twenty- fourth year, applied for a commission, and was appointed a ist lieutenant in the 7th infantry, one of the new regiments, and in 1810 was promoted to the grade of captain in the same regi ment, according to the regulations of the service. He was happily married in 1810 to Miss Margaret Smith, of Calvert county, Md., who shared with him the privations and dangers of his many years of frontier service, and survived him but a short time. The troubles on the frontier continued to increase until 1811, when Gen. William H. Harrison, afterward president of the United States, inarched against the stronghold of the Shawnees and fought the battle of Tippecanoe. In June, 1812, war was declared against England, and this increased the widespread and not unfounded fears of Indian invasion in the valley of the Wabash. To protect Vincennes from sudden assault, Capt. Taylor was ordered to Fort Harrison, a stockade on the river above Vincennes, and with his company ofinfantry, about fifty strong, made preparations to defend the place. He had not long to wait. A large body of Indians, knowing thesmallness of the garrison, came, confidently count ing on its capture ; but as it is a rule in their warfare to seek by stratagem to avoid equal risk and probable loss, they tried various expedients, which were foiled by the judgment, vigi lance, and courage of the commander, and when the final attack was made, the brave little garrison repelled it with such loss to the assailants that when, in the following October, Gen. Hop kins came to support Fort Harrison, no Indians were to be found thereabout. For the defence of Fort Harrison, Capt. Taylor received the brevet of major, an honor that had seldom, if ever before, been conferred for service in Indian war. In the following November, Maj. Taylor, with a battalion of regulars, formed a part of the command of Gen. Hopkins in the expe dition against the hostile Indians at the head-waters of the Wabash. In 1814, with his separate command, he being then a major by commission, he made a campaign against the hostile Indians and their British allies on Rock river, which was sc ZACHARY TAYLOR. 235 successful as to give subsequent security to that immediate frontier. In such service, not the less hazardous or indicative of merit because on a small scale, he passed the period of his employment on that frontier until the treaty of peace with Great Britain disposed the Indians to be quiet. After the war, 3 March, 1815, a law was enacted to fix the military peace establishment of the United States. By this act the whole force was to be reduced to 10,000 men, with such proportions of artillery, infantry, and riflemen as the president should judge proper. The president was to cause the officers and men of the existing army to be arranged, by unrestricted transfers, so as to form the corps authorized by the recent act, and the supernumeraries were to be discharged. Maj. Taylor had borne the responsibilities and performed the duties of a battalion commander so long and successfully that when the arranging board reduced him to the rank of captain in the new organization he felt the injustice, but resigned from the army without complaint, returned home, and proceeded, as he said in after-years, " to make a crop of corn." Influences that were certainly not employed by him, and are unknown to the writer of this sketch, caused his restoration to the grade of major, and he resumed his place in the army, there to continue until the voice of the people called him to the highest office within their gift. Under the rules that governed promotion in the army, Maj. Taylor became lieutenant-colonel of the ist infantry, and for a period commanded at Fort Snelling, then the ad vanced post in the northwest. In 1832 he became colonel of the ist infantry, with head quarters at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien. The barracks were unfinished, and his practical mind and conscientious at tention to every duty were manifest in the progress and com pletion of the work. The second Black Hawk campaign occurred this year, and Col. Taylor, with the greater part of his regiment, joined the army commanded by Gen. Henry At kinson, and with it moved from Rock Island up the valley of Rock river, following Black Hawk, who had gone to make a junction with the Pottawattamie band of the Prophet, a nephew of Black Hawk. This was in violation of the treaty he had made with Gen. Edmund P. Gaines in 1831, by which he was required to remove to the west of the Mississippi, relinquishing all claim to the Rock river villages. It was assumed that his 236 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. purpose in returning to the east side of the river was hostile, and, from the defenceless condition of the settlers and the horror of savage atrocity, great excitement was created, due rather to his fame as a warrior than to the number of his fol lowers. If, as he subsequently declared, his design was to go and live peaceably with his nephew, the Prophet, rather than with the Foxes, of whom Keokuk was the chief, that design may have been frustrated by the lamentable mistake of some mounted volunteers in hastening forward in pursuit of Black Hawk, who with his band — men, women, and children — was going up on the south side of the Rock river. The pursuers fell into an ambuscade, and were routed with some loss and in great confusion. The event will be remembered by the men of that day as " Stillman's run." The vanity of the young Indians was inflated by their success, as was shown by some exultant messages ; and the sagacious old chief, whatever he may have previously calculated upon, now saw that war was inevitable and immediate. With his band, recruited by warriors from the Prophet's band, he crossed to the north side of Rock river, and, passing through the swamp Koshkenong, fled over the prairies west of the Four Lakes, toward Wisconsin river. Gen. Henry Dodge, with a battalion of mounted miners, overtook the Indians while they were crossing the Wisconsin and attacked their rear-guard, which, when the main body had crossed, swam the river and joined the retreat over the Kickapoo hills toward the Missis sippi. Gen. Atkinson, with his whole army, continued the pur suit, and, after a toilsome march, overtook the Indians north of Prairie du Chien, on the bank of the Mississippi, to the west side of which they were preparing to cross in bark canoes made on the spot. That purpose was foiled by the accidental arrival of a steamboat with a small gun on board. The Indians took cover in a willow marsh, and there was fought the battle of the Bad Axe. The Indians were defeated and dispersed, and the campaign ended. In the mean time, Gen. Winfield Scott, with troops from the east, took chief command and established his headquarters at Rock Island, and thither Gen. Atkinson went with the regular troops, except that part of the ist infantry which constituted the garrison of Fort Crawford. With these Col. Taylor returned to Prairie du Chien. When it was re ported that the Indians were on an island above the prairie, he ZA CHA RY TAYL OR. 237 sent a lieutenant with an appropriate command to explore the island, where unmistakable evidence was found of the recent presence of the Indians and of their departure. Immediately thereafter a group of Indians appeared on the east bank of the river under a white flag, who proved to be Black Hawk, with a remnant of his band and a few friendly Winnebagoes. The lieutenant went with them to the fort, where Col. Taylor received them, except the Winnebagoes, as prisoners. A lieu tenant and a guard were sent with them, sixty in number — men, women, and children — by steamboat, to Rock Island, there to report to Gen. Scott for orders in regard to the prisoners. Col. Taylor actively participated in the campaign up to its close, and to him was surrendered the chief who had most illustrated the warlike instincts of the Indian race, to whom history must fairly accord the credit of having done much under the most disadvantageous circumstances. In 1836 Col. Taylor was ordered to Florida for service in the Seminole war, and the next year he defeated the Indians in the decisive battle of Okechobee, for which he received the brevet of brigadier-general, and in 1838 was appointed to the chief com mand in Florida. In 1840 he was assigned to command the southern division of the western department of the army. Though Gen. Taylor had for many years been a cotton-planter, his family had lived with him at his military station, but, when ordered for an indefinite time on field service, he made his family home at Baton Rouge, La. Texas having been annexed to the United States in 1845, Mexico threatened to invade Texas with the avowed purpose to recover the territory, and Gen. Taylor was ordered to defend it as a part of the United States. He proceeded with all his available force, about 1,500 men, to Corpus Christi, where he was joined by re-enforcements of regulars - and volunteers. Discussion had arisen .as to whether the Nueces or the Rio Grande was the proper boundary of Texas. His political opinions, whatever they might be, were subordinate to the duty of a soldier to execute the orders of his government, and, without uttering it, he acted on the apophthegm of Decatur : " My country, right or wrong, my country." Texas claimed pro tection for her frontier, the president recognized the fact that Texas had been admitted to the Union with the Rio Grande as her boundary, and Gen. Taylor was instructed to advance to 238 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. that river. His force had been increased to about 4,000, when, on 8 March, 1846, he marched from Corpus Christi. He was of course conscious of the inadequacy of his division to resist such an army as Mexico might send against it, but when ordered by superior authority it was not his to remonstrate. Gen. Gaines, commanding the western department, had made requisitions for a sufficient number of volunteers to join Taylor, but the secre tary of war countermanded them, except as to such as had al ready joined. Gen. Taylor, with a main depot at Point Isabel, advanced to the bank of the Rio Grande, opposite to Mata- moras, and there made provision for defence of the place called Fort Brown. Soon after his arrival, Ampudia, the Mexican general at Matamoras, made a threatening demand that Gen. Taylor should withdraw his troops beyond the Nueces, to which he replied that his position had been taken by order of his government, and would be maintained. Having completed the intrenchment, and being short of supplies, he left a garri son to hold it, and marched with an aggregate force of 2,288 men to obtain additional supplies from Point Isabel, about thirty miles distant. Gen. Arista, the new Mexican command er, availing himself of the opportunity to interpose, crossed the river below Fort Brown with a force estimated at 6,000 regular troops, 10 pieces of artillery, and a considerable amount of auxiliaries. In the afternoon of the second day's march from Point Isabel these were reported by Gen. Taylor's cavalry to be in his front, and he halted to allow the command to rest and for the needful dispositions for battle. In the evening a request was made that a council of war should be held, to which Gen. Taylor assented. The prevalent opinion was in favor of falling back to Point Isabel, there to intrench and wait for re- enforcements. After listening to a full expression of views, the general announced : " I shall go to Fort Brown or stay in my shoes," a western expression equivalent to " or die in the attempt." He then notified the officers to prepare to attack the enemy at dawn of day. In the morning of 8 May the ad vance was made by columns until the enemy's batteries opened, when line of battle was formed and Taylor's artillery, inferior in number but otherwise superior, was brought fully into action and soon dispersed the mass of the enemy's cavalry. The chaparral, dense copses of thorn-bushes, served both to con ceal the position of the enemy and to impede the movements ZA CHA RY TAYL OR. 239 of the attacking force. The action closed at night, when the enemy retired, and Gen. Taylor bivouacked on the field. Early in the morning of 9 May he resumed his march, and in the afternoon encountered Gen. Arista in a strong position with artillery advantageously posted. Taylor's infantry pushed through the cliaparral lining both sides of the road, and drove the enemy's infantry before them ; but the batteries held their position, and were so fatally used that it was an absolute neces sity to capture them. For this purpose the general ordered a squadron of dragoons to charge them. The enemy's gunners were cut down at their pieces, the commanding officer was captured, and the infantry soon made the victory complete. The Mexican loss in the two battles was estimated at a thou sand ; the American, killed, forty-nine. The enemy precipi tately recrossed the Rio Grande, leaving the usual evidence of a routed army. Gen. Taylor then proceeded to Fort Brown. During his absence it. had been heavily bombarded, and the commander, Maj. Brown, had been killed. The Mexicans evac uated Matamoras, and Gen. Taylor took possession, 18 May. The Rio Grande, except at time of flood, offered little obstacle to predatory incursions, and it was obviously sound policy to press the enemy back from the border. Gen. Taylor, therefore, moved forward to Camargo, on the San Juan, a tribu tary of the Rio Grande. This last-named river rose so as to enable steamboats to transport troops and supplies, and by September a sufficiently large force of volunteers had reported at Gen. Taylor's headquarters to justify a further march into the interior, but the move must be by land, and for that there was far from adequate transportation. Hiring Mexican pack ers to supplement the little transportation on hand, he was able to add one division of volunteers to the regulars of his com mand, and with a force of 6,625 men 0I a^ arms he marched against Monterey, a fortified town of great natural strength, garrisoned by 10,000 men under Gen. Ampudia. On 19 Sept. he encamped before the town, and on the 21st began the attack. On the third day Gen. Ampudia proposed to surrender, com missioners were appointed, and terms of capitulation agreed upon, by which the enemy were to retire beyond a specified line, and the United States forces were not to advance beyond that line during the next eight weeks or until the pleasure of the respective governments should be known. By some strange ? 240 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. misconception, the U. S. government disapproved the arrange ment, and ordered that the armistice should be terminated, by which we lost whatever had been gained in the interests of peace by the generous terms of the capitulation, and got noth ing, for, during the short time that remained unexpired, no provision had been or could be made to enable Gen. Taylor to advance into the heart of Mexico. Presuming that such must be the purpose of the government, he assiduously strove to collect the means for that object. When his preparations were well-nigh perfected, Gen. Scott was sent to Mexico with orders that enabled him at discretion to strip Gen. Taylor of both troops and material of war, to be used on another line of operations. The projected campaign against the capital of Mexico was to be from Vera Cruz, up the steppes, and against the fortifications that had been built to resist any probable in vasion, instead of from Saltillo, across the plains to the com paratively undefended capital. The difficulty on this route was the waterless space to be crossed, and against that Gen. Taylor had ingeniously provided. According to instructions, he went to Victoria, Mexico, turned over his troops, except a proper escort to return through a country of hostiles to Monterey, and then went to Agua Nueva, beyond Saltillo, where he was joined by Gen. Wool with his command from Chihuahua. Gen. Santa-Anna saw the invitation offered by the with drawal of Gen. Taylor's troops, and with a well-appointed army, 20,000 strong, marched with the assurance of easily recovering their lost territory. Gen. Taylor fell back to the narrow pass in front of the hacienda of Buena Vista, and here stood on the defensive. His force was 5,400 of all arms; but of these only three batteries of artillery, one squadron of dragoons, one mounted company of Texans, and one regiment of Mississippi riflemen had ever been under fire. Some skirmishing occurred on 22 Feb., and a general assault along the whole line was made on the morning of the 23d. The battle, with varying fortune, continued throughout the day ; at evening the enemy retired, and during the night retreated by the route on which he had advanced, having suffered much by the casualties of battle, but still more by desertions. So Santa-Anna returned with but a remnant of the regular army of Mexico, on which reliance had been placed to repel invasion, and thenceforward peace was undisturbed in the valley of the Rio Grande. At ZACHARY TAYLOR. 241 that time Gen. Taylor's capacity was not justly estimated, his golden silence being often misunderstood. His reply to Sec. Marcy's strictures in regard to the capitulation of Monterey exhibited such vigor of thought and grace of expression that many attributed it to a member of his staff who had a literary reputation. It was written by Gen. Taylor's own hand, in the open air, by his camp-fire at Victoria, Mexico. Many years of military routine had not dulled his desire for knowledge; he had extensively studied both ancient and mod ern history, especially the English. Unpretending, meditative, observant, and conclusive, he was best understood and most appreciated by those who had known him long and intimately. In a campaign he gathered information from all who approached him, however sinister their motive might be. By comparison and elimination he gained a knowledge that was often surpris ing as to the position and designs of the enemy. In battle he was vigilantly active, though quiet in bearing; calm and consid erate, though stern and inflexible; but when the excitement of danger and strife had subsided, he had a father's ten derness for the wound ed, and none more sincerely mourned for those who had bravely fallen in the line of their duty. Before his nomina tion for the presidency Gen. Taylor had no political aspirations and looked forward to the time when he should retire from the army as the beginning of a farmer's life. He had planned for his retreat a stock-farm in the hills of Jefferson county, behind his cotton-plantation on the Mississippi river. In his case, as in some other notable instances, the fact of not desiring office rather increased than diminished popular confidence, so that unseeking he was sought. From early manhood he had served continually in the U. S. army. His duties had led him to consider the welfare of the country as one and indivisible, and his opinions were free from party or sectional intensity. Conscious of his want of knowledge of 242 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. the machinery of the civil service, he formed his cabinet to supplement his own information. They were men well known to the public by the eminent civil stations they had occupied, and were only thus known to Gen. Taylor, who as president had literally no friends to reward and no enemies to punish. The cabinet was constituted as follows : John M. Clayton, of Delaware, secretary of state; William M. Meredith, of Penn sylvania, secretary of the treasury ; George W. Crawford, of Georgia, secretary of war ; W. Ballard Preston, of Virginia, secretary of the navy ; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, attor ney-general ; Alexander H. H. Stuart, of Virginia, secretary of the interior. All these had served in the U. S. senate or the house of representatives, and all were lawyers. Taylor was, the popular hero of a foreign war which had been victoriously ended, bringing to the United States a large acquisition of ter ritory with an alluring harvest of gold, but, all unheeded, bringing also a large addition to the elements of sectional con tention. These were soon developed, and while the upper air was calm and the sun of prosperity shone brightly on the land, the attentive listener couid hear the rumbling sound of ap proaching convulsion. President Taylor, with the keen watch fulness and intuitive perception that had characterized him as a commander in the field, easily saw and appreciated the dan ger ; but before it had reached the stage for official action he died. His party and local relations, being a Whig and a south ern planter, gave him the vantage-ground for the exercise of a restraining influence in the threatened contest. His views, matured under former responsibilities, were tersely given to confidential friends, but as none of his cabinet are living (Stuart was the last survivor), their consultations cannot be learned unless from preserved manuscript. During the brief period of his administration the rules that would govern it were made manifest, and no law for civil-service reform was need ful for his guidance. With him the bestowal of office was a trust held for the people ; it was not to be gained by proof of party zeal and labor. The fact of holding Democratic opinioris was not a disqualification for the office. Nepotism had with him no quarter. Gen. Winfield Scott related to the writer an anecdote that may appropriately close this sketch. He said he had remarked to his wife that Gen. Taylor was an upright man, to which she replied : " He is not " ; that he insisted his long ZACHARY TAYLOR. 243 acquaintance should enable him to judge better than she. But she persisted in her denial, and he asked : " Then what man ner of man is he ? " when she said : " He is a downright man." As president he had purity, patriot ism, and discretion to guide him in his new field of duty, and had he lived long enough to stamp his character on his administration, it would have been found that the great soldier was equally fitted to be the head of a government. He was buried in the family cemetery, five miles from Louisville. The accom panying illustration is a representation of his monument. It is a granite shaft surmounted by a marble statue, in full uniform, and was erected by the State of Kentucky. The height, including the statue, is thirty-seven feet. The illustration on page 241 is a picture of Gen. Taylor's home, and the birthplace of several of his children. Gen. Taylor's life was written by Joseph R. Fry and Robert T. Conrad (Philadelphia, 1848), by John Frost (New York, 1848), and by Gen. O. O. Howard, in the "Great Commanders" series (1892). His wife, Margaret, born in Calvert county, Md., in 1790; died near Pascagoula, La., 18 Aug., 1852, was the daughter of Walter Smith, a Maryland planter. He was descended from Richard Smith, who was appointed Attorney-General of Mary land by Oliver Cromwell. She received a home education, married early in life, and, until her husband's election to the presidency, resided with him chiefly in garrisons or on the frontier. During the Florida war she established herself at Tampa bay, and did good service among the sick and wounded in the hospitals there. Mrs. Taylor was without social ambi tion, and when Gen. Taylor became president she reluctantly accepted her responsibilities, regarding the office as a "plot to deprive her of her husband's society and to shorten his life by unnecessary care." She surrendered to her youngest daughter the superintendence of the household, and took no part in 244 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. social duties. Her eldest daughter, Ann, married Dr. Rob ert Wood, Assistant-Surgeon-General of the Army. Another daughter, Sarah Knox, became the wife of Jefferson Davis, the marriage taking place near Louisville, Ky., the bride's uncle, Hancock Taylor, acting for her father, who was then with his command on the frontier. Another daughter, Elizabeth, born in Jefferson county, Ky., in 1824, was educated in Philadelphia, married Maj. Wil liam W. S. Bliss in her nineteenth year, and, on her father's inauguration, became mistress of the White House. Mrs. Bliss, or Miss Betty, as she was popularly called, was a graceful and accomplished hostess, and, it is said, " did the honors of the establishment with the artlessness of a rustic belle and the grace of a duchess." After the death of her distinguished father in 1850, and her husband in 1853, she spent several years in re tirement, subsequently marrying Philip Pendleton Dandridge, of Winchester, Va., whom she survives. His only son, Richard, soldier, born in Jefferson county, Ky., 27 Jan., 1826; died in New York city, 12 April, 1879, was sent to Edinburgh when thirteen years old, where he spent three years in studying the classics, and then a year in France. He entered the junior class at Yale in 1843, and was graduated there in 1845. He was a wide and voracious though a desultory reader. From college he went to his father's camp on the Rio Grande, and he was present at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. His health then became impaired, and he returned home. He resided on a cotton-plantation in Jefferson county, Miss., until 1849, when he removed to a sugar-estate in St. Charles parish, Louisiana, about twenty miles above New Orleans, where he was residing when the civil war began. He was in the state senate from 1856 to i860, was a delegate to the Charleston Democratic convention in i860, and afterward to that at Baltimore, and was a member of the Secession con vention of Louisiana. As a member of the military committee, he aided the governor in organizing troops, and in June, 1861, went to Virginia as colonel of the 9th Louisiana volunteers. The day he reached Richmond he left for Manassas, arriving there at dusk on the day of the battle. In the autumn he was made a brigadier-general, and in the spring of 1862 he led his ZA CHA RY TAYL OR. 245 brigade in the valley campaign under " Stonewall " Jackson. He distinguished himself at Front Royal, Middletown, Win chester, Strasburg, Cross Keys, and Port Republic, and Jackson recommended him for promotion. Taylor was also with Jack son in the seven days' battles before Richmond. He was pro moted to major-general, and assigned to the command of Lou isiana. The fatigues and exposures of his campaigns there brought on a partial and temporary paralysis of the lower limbs; but in August he assumed command. The only com munication across the Mississippi retained by the Confederates was between Vicksburg and Port Hudson ; but Taylor showed great ability in raising, organizing, supplying, and handling an army, and he gradually won back the state west of the Missis sippi from the National forces. He had reclaimed the whole of this when Vicksburg fell, 4 July, 1863, and was then com pelled to fall back west of Berwick's bay. Gen. Taylor's prin cipal achievement during the war was his defeat of Gen. Na thaniel P. Banks at Sabine Cross-Roads, near Mansfield, De Soto parish, La., 8- April, 1864. With 8,000 men he attacked the advance of the northern army and routed it, capturing twenty- two guns and a large number of prisoners. He followed Banks, who fell back to Pleasant Hill, and on the next day again attacked him, when Taylor was defeated, losing the fruits of the first day's victory. These two days' fighting have been frequently compared to that of Shiloh — a surprise and defeat on the first day, followed by a substantial victory of the National forces on the second. In the summer of 1864 Taylor was promoted to be a lieutenant-general, and ordered to the command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, etc. Here he was able merely to protract the contest, while the great armies decided it. After Lee and Johnston capitu lated there was nothing for him, and he surrendered to Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, at Citronelle, 8 May, 1865. The war left Taylor ruined in fortune, and he soon went abroad. Return ing home, he took part in politics as an adviser, and his counsel was held in esteem by Samuel J. Tilden in his presidential can vass. During this period he wrote his memoir of the war, entitled " Destruction and Reconstruction " (New York, 1879). 17 MILLARD FILLMORE. Millard Fillmore, thirteenth president of the United States, born in the township of Locke (now Summerhill), Ca yuga county, N. Y., 7 Feb., 1800; died in Buffalo, N. Y., 7 March, 1874. The name of Fillmore is of English origin, and at different periods has been variously written. Including the son of the ex-president, the family can be traced through six gener ations, and, as has been said of that of Washington, its history gives proof "of the lineal and enduring worth of race." The first of the family to appear in the New World was a certain John Fillmore, who, in a conveyance of two acres of land dated 24 Nov., 1704, is described as a "mariner of Ipswich," Mass. His eldest son, of the same name, born two years before the purchase of the real estate in Beverly, also became a sea-faring man, and while on a voyage in the sloop " Dolphin," of Cape Ann, was captured with all on board by the pirate Capt. John Phillips. For nearly nine months Fillmore and his three com panions in captivity were compelled to serve on the pirate ship and to submit, during that long period, to many hardships and much cruel treatment. After watching and waiting for an opportunity to obtain their freedom, their hour at length came. While Fillmore sent an axe crashing through the skull of Bur- rail, the boatswain, the captain and other officers were de spatched by his companions, and the ship was won. They sailed her into Boston harbor, and the same court which con demned the brigands of the sea presented John Fillmore with the captain's silver-hilted sword and other articles, which are preserved to this day by his descendants. The sword was in herited by his son, Nathaniel, and was made good use of in both the French and Revolutionary wars. Lieut. Fillmore's second son, who also bore the name Nathaniel, and who was the father of the president, went with his young wife, Phebe & MILLARD FILLMORE. 247 Millard, to what at the close of the past century was the " far west," where he and a younger brother built a log cabin in the wilderness, and there his second son, Millard, was born. Na thaniel Fillmore was one of " God Almighty's gentlemen," whose creed was contained in two words, " do right," and who lived to see his son elevated to the highest position in his native land. Of the president's mother, who died in the sum mer of 1831, little is known beyond the fact that she was a sen sible and, in her later years, a sickly woman ; with a sunny nature that enabled her to endure uncomplainingly the many hardships of a frontier life, and that her closing days were gladdened by the frequent visits of her son, who was then in public life, with every prospect of a successful professional and political career. From a brief manuscript autobiography prepared by " worthy Mr. Fillmore," as Washington Irving described him, we learn that, owing to a defective title, his father lost his property on what was called the " military tract," and removed to another part of the same county, now known as Niles, where he took a perpetual lease of 130 acres, wholly unimproved and covered with heavy timber. It was here that the future president first knew anything of life. Working for nine months on the farm, and attending such primitive schools as then existed in that neighborhood for the other three months of the year, he had an opportunity of forgetting during the summer what he ac quired in the winter, for in those days there were no news papers and magazines to be found in pioneers' cabins, and his father's library consisted of but two books — the Bible and a collection of hymns. -He never saw a copy of " Shakespeare " or " Robinson Crusoe," a history of the United States, or even a map of his own country, till he was nineteen years of age ! Nathaniel Fillmore's misfortunes in losing his land through a defective title, and again in taking another tract of exceedingly poor soil, gave him a distaste for farming, and made him de sirous that his sons should follow other occupations. As his means did not justify him or them in aspiring to any profes sion, he wished them to learn trades, and accordingly Millard, then a sturdy youth of fourteen, was apprenticed for a few months on trial to the business of carding wool and dressing cloth. During his apprenticeship he was, as the youngest, treated with great injustice, and on one occasion his employer, 248 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. for some expression of righteous resentment, threatened to chastise him, when the young woodsman, burning with indig nation, raised the axe with which he was at work, and told him the attempt would cost him his life. Most fortunate for both, the attempt was not made, and at the close of his term he shouldered his knapsack, containing a few clothes and a supply of bread and dried venison, and set out on foot and alone for his father's house, a distance of something more than a hun dred miles through the primeval forests. Mr. Fillmore in his autobiography remarks : " I think that this injustice — which was no more than other apprentices have suffered and will suf fer — had a marked effect on my character. It made me feel for the weak and unprotected, and to hate the insolent tyrant in every station of life." In 1815 the youth again began the business of carding and cloth-dressing, which was carried on from June to December of each year. The first book that he purchased or owned was a small English dictionary, which he diligently studied while attending the carding machine. In 1819 he conceived the design of becoming a lawyer. Fillmore, who had yet two years of his apprenticeship to serve, agreed with his employer to relinquish his wages for the last year's services, and promised to pay thirty dollars for his time. Making an arrangement with a retired country lawyer, by which he was to receive his board in payment for his services in the office, he began the study of law, a part of the time teaching school, and so strug gling on, overcoming almost insurmountable difficulties, till at length, in the, "spring of 1823, he was, at the intercession of several leading members of the Buffalo bar, whose confidence he had won, admitted as an attorney by the court of common pleas of Erie county, although he had not completed the course of study usually required. The writer has recently seen the dilapidated one-story building in Buffalo where Mr. Fill more closed his career as a school-master, and has also con versed with one of his pupils of sixty-five years ago. The wis dom of his youth and early manhood gave presage of all that was witnessed and admired in the maturity of his character. Nature laid on him, in the kindly phrase of Wordsworth, " the strong hand of her purity," and even then he was remarked for that sweet courtesy of manner which accompanied him through life. Millard Fillmore 'began practice at Aurora, where his MILLARD FILLMORE. 249 father then resided, and fortunately won his first case and a fee of four dollars. In 1827 he was admitted as an attorney, and two years later as counsellor of the supreme court of the state. In 1830 he removed to Buffalo, and after a brief period formed a partnership with Nathan K. Hall, to which Solomon G. Haven was soon afterward admitted. By hard study and the closest application, combined with honesty and fidelity, Mr. Fillmore soon became a sound and successful lawyer, attaining a highly honorable position in the profession. The law-firm of Fillmore, Hall & Haven, which continued till 1847, was perhaps the most prominent in western New York, and was usually engaged in every important suit occurring in that portion of the state. In 1853, while still in Washington, Mr. Fillmore made an arrangement with Henry E. Davies to renew, on retiring from the presidency, the practice of his profession in New York in partnership with that gentle man, who, after occupying a judge's seat in the court of appeals, returned to the bar. Family afflictions, however, combined with other causes, induced the ex-president to abandon his purpose. There were doubtless at that time men of more genius and greater eloquence at the bar of the great city ; but we can not doubt that Mr. Fillmore's solid legal learning, and the weight of his personal character, would have won for him the highest professional honors in the new field of action. Mr. Fillmore's political career began and ended with the birth and extinction of the great Whig party. In 1828 he was elected by Erie county to the state legislature of New York, serving for three terms, and retiring with a reputation for ability, integrity, and a conscientious performance of his public duties. He distinguished himself by his advocacy of the act to abolish imprisonment for debt, which was passed in 1831. The bill was drafted by Fillmore, excepting the portion relative to proceedings in courts of record, which were drawn by John C, Spencer. In 1832 he was elected to congress, and, after serv ing for one term, retired until 1836, when he was re-elected, and again returned in 1838 and 1840, declining a renomination in 1842. In the 27th congress Mr. P'illmore, as chairman of the committee on ways and means — a committee performing at that period not only the duties now devolving upon it, but those also which belong to the committee on appropriations — had herculean labors to perform. Day after day, for weeks and 250 LIVES OF' THE PRESIDENTS. months, Fillmore had to encounter many of the ablest debaters of the house, but on all occasions he proved himself equal to the emergency. It should not be forgotten that, in the opinion of John Quincy Adams, there were more men of talent and a larger aggregate of ability in that congress than he had ever known. Although Mr. Fillmore did not claim to have discov ered any original system of revenue, still the tariff of 1842 was a new creation, and he is most justly entitled to the distinction of being its author. It operated successfully, giving immedi ate life to our languishing industries and national credit. At the same time Mr. Fillmore, with great labor, prepared a digest of the laws authorizing all appropriations reported by him to the house as chairman of the committee on ways and means, so that on the instant he could produce the legal authority for every expenditure which he recommended. Sensible that this was a great safeguard against improper expenditures, he pro cured the passage of a resolution requiring the departments, when they submitted estimates of expenses, to accompany them with a reference to the laws authorizing them in each and every instance. This has ever since been the practice of the United States government. Mr. Fillmore retired from congress in 1843, and was a can_ didate for the office of vice-president, supported by his own and several of the western states, in the Whig convention that met at Baltimore in May, 1844. In the following September he was nominated by acclamation for governor, but was de feated by Silas Wright, his illustrious contemporary, Henry Clay, being vanquished at the same time in the presidential contest by James K Polk. In 1847 Fillmore was elected comp troller of the state of New York, an office which then included many duties now distributed among other departments. In his report of 1 Jan., 1849, he suggested that a national bank, with the stocks of the United States as the sole basis upon which to issue its currency, might be established and carried on, so as to prove a great convenience to the government, with perfect safety to the people. This idea involves the essential. principle of our present system of national banks. In June, 1848, Millard Fillmore was nominated by the Whig national convention for vice-president, with Gen. Taylor, who had recently won military renown in Mexico, as president, and was in the following November elected, making, with the late MILLARD FILLMORE. 25 I occupant of the office, seven vice-presidents of the United States from New York, a greater number than has been yet furnished by any other state. In February, 1849, Fillmore re signed the comptrollership, and on 5 March he was inaugurat ed as vice-president. In 1826 Calhoun, of South Carolina, then vice-president, established the rule that that officer had no au thority to call senators to order. During the heated contro versies in the sessions of 1849-50, occasioned by the applica tion of California for admission into the Union, the vexed ques tion of slavery in the new territories, and that of the rendition of fugitive slaves, in which the most acrimonious language was used, Mr. Fillmore, in a forcible speech to the senate, an nounced his determination to maintain order, and that, should occasion require, he should resume the usage of his predeces sors upon that point. This announcement met with unanimous approval of the senate, which directed the vice-president's re marks to be entered in full on its journal. He presided during the exciting controversy on Clay's " omnibus bill " with his usual impartiality, and so perfectly even did he hold the scales that no one knew which policy he approved excepting the president, to whom he privately stated that, should he be re quired to deposit a casting vote, it would be in favor of Henry Clay's bill. More than seven months of the session had been exhausted in angry controversy, when, on 9 July, 1850, the country was startled by the news of President Taylor's death. He passed away in the second year of his presidency, suddenly and most unexpectedly, of a violent fever, which was brought on by. long exposure to the excessive heat of a fourth of July sun, while he was attending the public ceremonies of the day, It was, a critical moment in the history of our country when Millard Fillmore was on Wednesday, 10 July, 1850, made president of the United States. With great propriety he re duced the ceremony of his inauguration to an official act to be marked by solemnity without joy ; and so, with an absence of the usual heralding of trumpet and shawm, he was unostenta tiously sworn into his great office in the hall of representatives, in the presence of both houses. The chief justice of the cir cuit court of the District of Columbia — the venerable William Cranch, appointed fifty years before by President John Adams — administered the oath, which being done, the new president bowed and retired, and the ceremony was at an end. Mr. Fill- 252 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. more was then in the prime of life, possessing that which to the heathen philosopher seemed the greatest of all blessings — a sound mind in a sound body. The accompanying vignette portrait was taken at this time, while the large steel engraving is from a picture made some twenty years later. Of Fillmore's keen ap preciation of the responsibility devolv ing on him we have the evidence of letters written at that time, in which he says he should despair but for his humble reliance on God to help him in the honest, fearless, and faithful discharge of his great duties. Presi dent Taylor's cabinet immediately re signed, and a new and exceedingly ^/ttc&aodj -%S**ktw? able one was selected by Mr. Fillmore, with Daniel Webster as secretary of state; Thomas Corwin, secretary of the treasury; William A. Graham, secretary of the navy ; Charles M. Conrad, secretary of war ; Alexander H. H. Stuart, secretary of the interior ; John J. Crittenden, attorney-general ; and Nathan K. Hall, postmaster-general.* Of these, Mr. Webster died, and Messrs. Graham and Hall retired in 1852, and were respectively re placed by Edward Everett, John P. Kennedy, and Samuel D. Hubbard. Stuart, of Virginia, who died 13 Feb., 1891, was the last survivor of the illustrious men who aided Mr. Fillmore in guiding the ship of state during the most appalling political tempest, save one, which ever visited this fair land. It is certainly not the writer's wish to reawaken party feel ings or party prejudice or to recall those great questions of pith and moment which so seriously disturbed congress and the country in the first days of Fillmore's administration, but * Buffalo enjoys the distinction of being the only city in the United States that has given the country two presidents. It is a singular coincidence that both these chief magistrates should appoint their former law partners to the office of postmaster-general. Mr. Fillmore selected his partner, Judge Nathan Kelsey Hall, for that office. Judge Hall studied law in the office of Mr. Fill more at Aurora. He was admitted to the bar in 1832, and became a copartner with his preceptor, who in the meantime had removed to Buffalo. For post master-general in his second administration, Mr. Cleveland selected Wilson Shannon Bissell, for many years his law partner in Buffalo. MILLARD FILLMORE. 253 yet, even in so cursory a glance as we are now taking of his career, some comment would seem to be called for in respect to those public acts connected with slavery which appear to have most unreasonably and unjustly lost him the support of a large proportion of his party in the northern states. What ever the wisdom of Mr. Fillmore's course may have been, it is impossible to doubt his patriotism or his honest belief that he was acting in accordance with his oath to obey the constitution of his country. The president's dream was peace — to preserve without hatred and without war tranquillity throughout the length and breadth of our broad land, and if in indulging this delusive dream he erred, it was surely an error that leaned to virtue's side. There is a legend that " he serves his party best who serves his country best." In Mr. Fillmore's action it is confidently believed that he thought not of party or of per sonal interests, but only of his bounden duty to his country and her sacred constitution. One of the president's earliest official acts was to send a military force to New Mexico to protect that territory from invasion by Texas on account of its disputed boundary. Then followed the passage by a large majority of the celebrated compromise measures, including the fugitive-slave law. The president referred to the attorney-general the question of its constitutionality, and that officer in a written opinion decided that it was constitutional. Fillmore and the strong cabinet that he had called around him concurred unanimously in this opinion, and the act was signed, together with the other com promise measures. The fugitive-slave law was exceedingly obnoxious to a large portion of the Whig party of the north, as well as to the anti-slavery men, and its execution was re sisted. Slaves in several instances were rescued from the custody of the United States marshals, and a few citizens of Christiana, in Pennsylvania, were killed. Although it was admitted that Fillmore's administration as a whole was able, useful, and patriotic, although his purity as a public man was above suspicion, and no other act of his administration could be called unpopular, still, by the signing and attempted en forcement of the fugitive-slave law and some of its unfortunate provisions, of which even Mr. Webster did not approve, the president, as has been already stated, lost the friendship and support of a large portion of his party in the north. 254 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Mr. Fillmore's administration being in a political minority in both houses of congress, many wise and admirable measures recommended by him failed of adoption ; nevertheless we are indebted to him for cheap postage ; for the extension of the national capitol, the corner-stone of which he laid 4 July, 185 1 ; for the Perry treaty, opening the ports of Japan, and for various valuable exploring expeditions. When South Carolina in one of her indignant utterances took Mr. Fillmore to task for send ing a fleet to Charleston harbor, and he was officially ques tioned as to his object and authority, the answer came promptly and to the purpose, " By authority of the constitution of the United States, which has made the president commander-in- chief of the army and navy, and who recognizes no responsi bility for his official action to the governor of South Carolina." With stern measures he repressed filibustering, and with equal firmness exacted from other countries respect for our flag. Mr. Fillmore carried out strictly the doctrine of non-intervention in the affairs of foreign nations, and frankly stated his policy to the highly-gifted Kossuth, who won all hearts by his sur passing eloquence. At the same time, however, it was clearly shown how little the administration sympathized with Austria by the celebrated letter addressed to her ambassador, Hulse- mann, by Daniel Webster, who died soon after. His successor as secretary of state was Edward Everett, whose brief term of office was distinguished by his letter declining the proposition for a treaty by which England, France, and the United States were to disclaim then and for the future all intention to obtain possession of Cuba. In his last message, however, the presi dent expressed an opinion against the incorporation of the island with this Union. Nothing in Mr. Fillmore's presidential career was, during the closing years of his life, regarded by himself with greater satisfaction than the suppressed portion of his last message of 6 Dec, 1852. It was suppressed by the advice of the cabinet, all of whom concurred in the belief that, if sent in, it would precipitate an armed collision, and he readily acquiesced in their views. It related to the great political problem of the period — the balance of power between the free and the slave states. He fully and clearly appreciated the magnitude of the then approaching crisis, and in the document now under consid eration proposed a judicious scheme of rescuing the country MILLARD FILLMORE. 255 from the horrors of a civil war, which soon after desolated so large a portion of the land. His perfectly practicable plan was one of African colonization, somewhat similar to one seriously entertained by his successor, Mr. Lincoln. Had President Fill more's scheme been adopted, there are some' who think that it would have been successful, and that our country might have been blessed with peace and prosperity, in lieu of the late war with its loss of half a million of precious lives and a debt of more than double the amount of the estimated cost of his plan of colonization. Mr. Fillmore retired from the presidency, 4 March, 1853, leaving the country at peace with other lands and within her own borders, and in the enjoyment of a high degree of prosperity in all the various departments of industry. In his cabinet there had never been a dissenting voice in regard to any important measure of his administration, and, upon his retiring from office, a letter was addressed to him by all its members, expressing their united appreciation of his ability, his integrity, and his single-hearted and sincere devotion to the public service. The last surviving member of Fillmore's cabinet, who also sat in the 27th congress with him, in a communication, with which he favored the writer, says: " Mr. Fillmore was a man of decided opinions, but he was always open to conviction. His aim was truth, and whenever he was convinced by reasoning that his first impressions were wrong, he had the moral courage tb surrender them. But, when he had carefully examined a question and had satisfied himself that he was right, no power on earth could induce him to swerve from what he believed to be the line of duty. . . . There were many things about Mr. Fillmore, aside from his public character, which often filled me with surprise. While he enjoyed none of the advantages of early association with cultivated society, he possessed a grace and polish of manner which fitted him for the most refined circles of the metropolis. You saw; too, at a glance, that there was nothing in it which was assumed, but that it was the natural out ward expression of inward refinement and dignity of character. I have witnessed, on several occasions, the display by him of attributes apparently of the most opposite character. When assailed in congress he exhibited a manly self-reliance and a lofty courage which commanded the admiration of every specta tor, and yet no one ever manifested deeper sensibility, or more 256 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. tender sympathy, with a friend in affliction. . . . He seemed to have the peculiar faculty of adapting himself to every position in which he was called to serve his country. When he was chair man of the committee of ways and means, members of congress expressed their sense of his fitness by declaring that he was born to fill it. When he was elected vice-president, it was predicted that he would fail as the presiding officer of the senate, yet he acquitted himself in this new and untried position in such a manner as to command the applause of senators. And when advanced to the highest office of our country, he so fulfilled his duties as to draw forth the commendation of the ablest men of the opposite party. . . . For the last two years of my official association with Mr. Fillmore," adds Mr. Stuart, " our relations, both personal and political, were of an intimate and confiden tial character. He knew that I was his steadfast friend, and he reciprocated the feeling. He talked with me freely and without reserve about men and measures, and I take pleasure in saying that in all my intercourse with him I never knew him to utter a sentiment or do an act which, in my judgment, would have been unworthy of Washington." His gifted contemporary, Henry Clay, thought highly of Fillmore's moderation and wisdom, said his administration was an able and honorable one, and on his death-bed recommended his nomination for the presidency (by the Baltimore conven tion of 1852), as being a statesman of large civil experience, and one in whose career there was nothing inconsistent with the highest purity and patriotism. After leaving Washington for the last time, Webster said to a friend that Fillmore's admin istration — leaving out of the question his own share of its work — was no doubt the ablest the country had possessed for many years. The same great statesman, in his speech at the laying of the corner-stone of the capitol extension, said: " President Fill more, it is your singularly good fortune to perform an act such as that which the earliest of your predecessors performed fifty- eight years ago. You stand where he stood ; you lay your hand on the corner-stone he laid. Changed, changed is everything around. The same sun, indeed, shone upon his head which shines upon yours. The same broad river rolled at his feet, and now bathes his last resting-place, which now rolls at yours. But the site of this city was then mainly an open field. Streets and avenues have since been laid out and completed, squares f /? y / a**^ tyyu* ff~ir>~ #y $y y yfr^i^tAu^ ffi-pycy? yy/^^^y^ y^y^HyiA^x^, MILLARD FILLMORE. 257 and public grounds inclosed and ornamented, until the city, which bears his name, although comparatively inconsiderable in numbers and wealth, has become quite fit to be the seat of government of a great and united people. Sir, may the con sequences of the duty which you perform so auspiciously to-day equal those which flowed from his act. Nor this only : may the principles of your administration and the wisdom of your political conduct be such that the world of the present day and all history hereafter may be at no loss to perceive what example you made your study." It should be stated as a part of Mr. Fillmore's public record that he was a candidate for nomination as president at the Whig convention of 1852 ; but although his policy, the fugitive- slave law included, was approved by a vote of 227 against 60. he could not command 20 votes from the free states. Four years later, while at Rome, he received the news of his nomi nation for the presidency by the American party. He accepted the nomination, but before the close of the campaign it became evident that the real struggle was between the Republicans and Democrats. Many, with whom Fillmore was the first choice for president, cast their votes for Gen. Frdmont or James Buchanan, believing that there was no hope of his election, and, although he received the support of large numbers in all the states, Maryland alone gave him her electoral vote. In the summer of 1864 Col. Ogle Tayloe, of Washington, wrote to Mr. Fillmore on the subject of the presidential nomination, and his response was : " I can assure you in all sincerity that I have no desire ever to occupy that exalted station again, and more especially at a time like this." Apropos of letters, the writer had the privilege of perusing a collection of confidential correspondence written by President Fillmore during a score of years while in public life ; and, after a most careful examina tion, failed to find a single passage that would not stand the light of day, not a word of ignoble office-seeking, no paltry tricks to gain notoriety, no base designs of fattening upon public plunder. Having thus glanced at the professional and political career of Mr. Fillmore, it now only remains to allude very briefly to his private life from 1853 onward. "The circles of our felici ties make short arches." Who shall question the wise axiom of Sir Thomas Browne, the brave old knight of Norwich, a 258 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. favorite author with the president ? Three weeks after the close of his administration he sustained a severe affliction in the loss of his wife, Abigail Powers, the daughter of a clergyman, whom he married 5 Feb., 1826, and who was emphatically her husband's " right-hand." She had long been a sufferer from ill health and was looking forward most eagerly to a return to her old home, when she was taken away to those temples not made with hands. Irving says that she received her death- warrant while standing by his side on the cold marble terrace of the capitol, listening to the inaugural address of Mr. Fill more's successor. To this Christian lady the White House is indebted for the books which to-day make the library one of the most at tractive rooms in the presidential man sion. In the following year their only daughter, who had grown to woman hood, also passed away, leaving a mem ory precious to all who had the privi lege of her acquaintance. His home, now lonely from the loss of those who spread around it sunshine and happi ness, induced Mr. Fillmore to carry out a long-cherished project of visit ing the Old World, and in May, 1855, he sailed in the steamer "Atlantic." During his visit to Eng land he received numerous and gratifying attentions from the queen and her cabinet ministers, and was proffered the degree of D. C. L. by the University of Oxford, through its chancellor, the Earl of Derby, the gifted orator who was known as the "Rupert of debate." This honor he however declined, as did Charles Francis Adams a few years later while American min ister to the court of St. James. They were alike indisposed to submit to the scenes usual on such occasions. We can not dwell as we could wish on Mr. Fillmore's pa triotic attitude during the early years of the late war; of his warm interest in all the charitable Christian work of the city in which he passed nearly half a century ; of his establishing the Buffalo historical society ; how, as the first citizen of Buffalo, he was called upon to welcome distinguished visitors, including Mr. Lincoln, when on his way to Washington in 1861, and frequently to preside over conventions and other public gather- MILLARD FILLMORE. 259 ings, for the control of which he was so admirably qualified by his thorough parliamentary abilities, his widely extended knowl edge, his broad views, and a personal urbanity which nothing could disturb ; of the method and exactness, the precision and punctuality, with which he conducted his private affairs, as in earlier years he had performed his professional and public duties; of another visit to Europe in 1866, accompanied by his second wife, Caroline C. Mcintosh, who survived him for seven years ; of his manner of life in dignified retirement, surrounded by all the comfort and luxuries of a beautiful and well-appoint ed mansion, including a large library, and with an attached wife to share his happy home (see accompanying illustration). In a letter written to his friend Mr. Corcoran, of Washington, but a few weeks before the inevitable hour came, he remarks: " I am happy to say that my health is perfect. I eat, drink, and sleep as well as ever, and take a deep but silent interest in public affairs, and if Mrs. Fillmore's health can be restored, I should feel that I was in the enjoyment of an earthly paradise." The ex-president accepted an invitation to meet the surviv ing members of his cabinet and a few other valued friends at the residence of Mr. Corcoran. The month of January, 1874, was designated as the date of the meeting, but was afterward changed to April, by Mr. Fillmore's request. Before that time he was no longer among the living. After a short illness, at ten minutes past eleven o'clock, on Sunday evening, 8 March, Millard Fillmore " Gave his honors to the world again, His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace." He was gathered to his fathers at the ripe age of seventy- four years, and passed away without the knowledge that his former partner, Judge Hall, with whom he had been so long and so closely united in the bonds of friendship, as well as in professional and political life, had also, a few days previous, rested from his labors, and was then lying in the Forest Lawn cemetery, where the ex-president now sleeps by his side. A phenomenal instance of literary vandalism occured in the city of Buffalo, early in 1891, when all the valuable letters and documents relating to the administration of Millard Fillmore were destroyed by the executor of the ex-president's only son, Millard Powers Fillmore, whose will contained a mandate to 260 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Ss<, ^ 0'-N that effect. Why he should have wished in this way to destroy an important part of the history of his country, as well as of his father's honorable career, or why any intelligent lawyer should have consigned to the flames thousands of papers by Webster and other illustrious men without at least causing copies of the most valu able of them to be made, is entire ly beyond the comprehension of or dinary mortals. To the writer, in pointing out his carefully preserved papers, contained in the library of his beautiful home in Buffalo, repre sented in the accompanying vignette, the ex-president said : " In those cases can be found every important letter and document which I received dur ing my administration, and which will enable the future historian or biog rapher to prepare an authentic ac count of that period of our country's history." The only opportunity probably that ever would pre sent itself for properly defending and explaining the signing of the fugitive-slave bill; the existence of an unquestioned and strong public sentiment in favor of the president's doing so ; the recommendations that the act be done, made by Mr. Fill more's most eminent advisers — the proof of all these things unquestionably would have been presented by the letters and documents referred to ; and now every one of these is gone. Among the chief magistrates of our country there appear more brilliant names than Fillmore's, yet none who more wisely led on the nation to progress and prosperity, making her name great and preserving peace in most perilous times, without in voking the power of the sword, or one who could more truth fully say, "These hands are clean." Without being a genius like Webster or Hamilton, he was a safe and sagacious states man. He possessed a mind so nicely adjusted and well bal anced that he was fitted for the fulfilment of any duty which he was called to perform. He was always ready to give up everything but conviction when once convinced. A single public act honestly and unflinchingly performed cost him his popularity. Posterity, looking from a distance, will perhaps be MILLARD FILLMORE. 26l more just. All his acts, whether daily and common or deliberate and well-considered, were marked with modesty, justice, and sincerity. What Speaker Onslow said of Sir Robert Walpole was equally true of President Fillmore : " He was the best man from the goodness of his heart, to live with and under, of any great man I ever knew." His was an eminently kindly nature, and the last time the writer saw him, in 1873, he was relieving, with a liberal hand, the necessities of an old and unfortunate friend. He was a sound, practical Christian " without knowing it," as Pope remarked of a contemporary. His temper was perfect, and it is doubtful if he left an enemy on earth. Fred erick the Great announced with energy that " Peter the First of Russia, to govern his nation, worked upon it like aquafortis upon iron." Fillmore, to win his way, like Lincoln and Gar field, from almost hopeless poverty to one of the most eminent positions of the world, showed equal determination, oftentimes working, for weeks and months together, till long past mid night, which happily his powers of physical endurance permit ted him to do with impunity, and affording a fine illustration of the proud boast of our country, that its loftiest honors are the legitimate objects of ambition to the humblest in the land, as well as to those favored by the gifts of fortune and high birth. See Chamberlain's " Biography of Millard Fillmore " (Buffalo, 1856) ; Benton's " Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856," vol. xvi. (New York, 1861); Thompson's "The Presidents and their Administrations" (Indianapolis, 1873); Address before the Buffalo Historical Society, by James Grant Wilson (Buffalo, 1878) ; Von Hoist's " Constitutional and Po litical History of the United States," vol. iv. (Chicago, 1885). 18 FRANKLIN PIERCE. Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United States, born in Hillsborough, N. H., 23 Nov., 1804; died in Concord, N. H., 8 Oct., 1869. His father, Benjamin Pierce (born in Chelmsford, Mass., 25 Dec, 1757 ; died in Hills borough, N. H., 1 April, 1839), on the day of the battle of Lex ington enlisted in the patriot army and served until its disband- ment in 1784, attaining the rank of captain and brevet major. He had intense political convictions, was a Republican of the school of Jefferson, an ardent admirer of Jackson, and the leader of his party in New Hampshire, of which he was elected governor in 1827 and 1829. He was a farmer, and trained his children in his own simple and laborious habits. Discerning signs of future distinction in his son Franklin, he gave him an academical education in well-known institutions at Hancock, Francestown, and Exeter, and in 1820 sent him to Bowdoin college, Brunswick, Me. His college-mates there were John P. Hale, his future political rival, Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, Sergeant S. Prentiss, the distinguished orator, Henry W. Longfellow, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, his future biographer and life-long per sonal friend. His ambition was then of a martial cast, and as an officer in a company of college students he enthusiastically devoted himself to the study of military tactics. This is one reason why he found himself at the foot of his class at the end of two years in college. Stung by a sense of disgrace, he de voted the two remaining years to hard study, and when he was graduated in 1824 he was third in his class. While in college, like many other eminent Americans, he taught in winter. After taking his degree he began the study of law at Portsmouth, in the office of Levi Woodbury, where he remained about a year. He afterward spent two years in the law-school at Northamp ton, Mass., and in the office of Judge Edmund Parker at Am- - "9v_- - dm Hsp^^ir BSBlfe' -s3&tM sffiS? — f- ¦ If Pllllp FRANKLIN PIERCE. 263 herst, N. H. In 1827 he was admitted to the bar and began practice in his native town. Soon afterward he argued his first jury cause in the court-house at Amherst. This effort (as is often the case with eminent orators) was a failure. But he was not despondent. He replied to the sympathetic expres sions of a friend: "I will try nine hundred and ninety-nine cases, if clients continue to trust me, and if I fail just as I have to-day, I will try the thousandth. I shall live to argue cases in this court-house in a manner that will mortify neither myself nor my friends." With his popular qualities it was inevitable that he should take a prominent part in the sharp political contests of his na tive state. He espoused the cause of Gen. Jackson with ardor, and in 1829 was elected to represent his native town in the' legislature, where, by three subsequent elections, he served four years, the last two as speaker, for which office he received three fourths of all the votes of the house. In 1833 he was elected to represent his native district in the lower house of congress, where he remained four years. He served on the judiciary and other important committees, but did not partici pate largely in the debates. That could not be expected of so young a man in a body containing so many veteran politicians and statesmen who had already acquired a national reputa tion. But in February, 1834, he made a vigorous and sensible speech against the Revolutionary claims bill, condemning it as opening the door to fraud. In December, 1835, he spoke and voted against receiving petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In June, 1836, he spoke against a bill making appropriations for the military academy at West Point. He contended that that institution was aristocratic in its tendencies, that a professional soldiery and standing armies are always dangerous to the liberties of the people, and that in war the republic must rely upon her citizen militia. His experience in the Mexican war afterward convinced him that such an institution is necessary, and he frankly acknowledged his error. It is hardly necessary to add that while in congress Mr. Pierce sustained President Jackson in opposing the so- called internal improvement policy. In 1837 he was elected to the U. S. senate. He was the youngest member of that body, and had barely arrived at the legal age for that office when he took his seat. In January, 1840, he spoke upon the Indian war 264 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. in Florida, defending the secretary of war from the attacks of his political opponents. In December of the same year he ad vocated and carried through the senate a bill granting a pen sion to an aged woman whose husband, Isaac Davis, had been among the first to fall at Concord bridge on 19 April, 1775. In July, 1841, he spoke against the fiscal bank bill, and in favor of an amendment prohibiting members of congress from bor rowing money of the bank. At the same session he made a strong speech against the removal of government officials for their political opinions, in violation of the pledges to the con trary which the Whig leaders had given to the country in the canvass of 1840. During the five years that he remained in the senate it numbered among its members Benton, Buchanan, 'Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Woodbury, and Silas Wright, an array of veteran statesmen and intellectual giants who had long been party leaders, and who occupied the whole field of debate. Among such men the young, modest, and comparatively ob scure member from New Hampshire could not, with what his biographer calls " his exquisite sense of propriety," force him self into a conspicuous position. There is abundant proof, however, that he won the friendship of his eminent associates. In 1842 he resigned his seat in the senate, with the intention of permanently withdrawing from public life. He again re turned to the practice of law, settling in Concord, N. H., whither he had removed his family in 1838, and where he ever afterward resided. In 1845 he was tendered by the governor of New Hampshire, but declined, an appointment to the U. S. senate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the appointment of Levi Woodbury to the U. S. supreme bench. He also declined the nomination for governor tendered to him by the Democratic state convention. He declined, too, an appointment to the office of U. S. attorney-general, offered to him in 1845 by President Polk, by a letter in which he said that when he left the senate he did so " with the fixed purpose never again to be voluntarily separated from his family for any considerable time, except at the call of his country in time of war." But while thus evincing his determination to remain in private life, he did not lose his interest in political affairs. In the councils of his party in New Hampshire he exercised a very great influ ence. He zealously advocated the annexation of Texas, de claring that, while he preferred it free, he would take it with FRANKLIN PIERCE. 265 slavery rather than not have it at all. When John P. Hale, in 1845, accepted a Democratic renomination to congress, in a let ter denouncing annexation, the Democratic leaders called an other convention, which repudiated him and nominated another candidate. Through the long struggle that followed, Pierce led the Democrats of his state with great -skill and unfaltering courage, though not always to success. He found in Hale a rival worthy of his steel. A debate between the two champions, in the old North church at Concord, aroused the keenest interest throughout the state. Each party was satisfied with its own advocate; but to contend against the rising anti- slavery sentiment of the north was a hopeless struggle. The stars in their courses fought against slavery. Hale was elected to the U. S. senate in 1846 by a coalition of Whigs and Freesoil- ers, and several advocates of free-soil principles were elected to congress from New Hampshire before 1850. In 1846 the war with Mexico began, and New Hampshire was called on for a battalion of troops. Pierce's military ardor was rekindled. He immediately enrolled himself as a private in a volunteer company that was organized at Con cord, enthusiastically began studying tactics and drilling in the ranks, and was soon appointed colonel of the 9th regiment of infantry. On 3 March, 1847, he received from President Polk the commission of brigadier-general in the volunteer army. On 27 March, 1847, he embarked at Newport, R. I., in the bark " Kepler," with Col. Ransom, three companies of the 9th regi ment of infantry, and the officers of that detachment, arriving at Vera Cruz on 28 June. Much difficulty was experienced in procuring mules for transportation, and the brigade was de tained in that unhealthful locality, exposed to the ravages of yellow fever, until 14 July, when it began its march to join the main army under Gen. Winfield Scott at Puebla. The junction was effected (after a toilsome march andi several encounters with guerillas) on 6 Aug., and the next day Gen. Scott began 266 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. his advance on the city of Mexico. On 19 Aug. the battle of Contreras was fought. The Mexican General Valencia, with 7,000 troops, occupied a strongly intrenched camp. Gen. Scott's plan was to divert the attention of the enemy by a feigned attack on his front, while his flank could be turned and his retreat cut off. But the flanking movement being much de layed, the attack in front (in which Gen. Pierce led his brigade) became a desperate struggle, in which 4,000 raw recruits, who could not use their artillery, fought 7,000 disciplined soldiers, strongly intrenched and raining round shot and shells upon their assailants. To reach the enemy, the Americans who at tacked in front were obliged to cross the pedregal, or lava-bed, the crater of an extinct volcano, bristling with sharp, jagged, splintered rocks, which afforded shelter to the Mexican skir mishers. Gen. Pierce's horse stepped into a cleft between two rocks and fell, breaking his own leg and throwing his rider, whose knee was seriously injured. Though suffering severely, and urged by the surgeon to withdraw, Gen. Pierce refused to leave his troops. Mounting the horse of an officer who had just been mortally wounded, he rode forward and remained in the saddle until eleven o'clock at night. The next morning Gen. Pierce was in the saddle at daylight, but the enemy's camp was stormed in the rear by the flanking party, and those of its defenders who escaped death or capture fled in confusion toward Churubusco, where Santa-Anna had concentrated his forces. Though Gen. Pierce's injuries were intensely painful, and though Gen. Scott advised him to leave the field, he insist ed on remaining. His brigade and that of Gen. James Shields, in obeying an order to make a detour and attack the enemy in the rear, struck the Mexican reserves, by whom they were largely outnumbered, and a bloody and obstinate struggle fol lowed. By this diversion Gens. AVorth and Pillow were en abled to carry the head of the bridge at the front, and relieve Pierce and Shields from the pressure of overwhelming numbers. In the advance of Pierce's brigade his horse was unable to cross a ditch or ravine, and he was compelled to dismount and proceed on foot. Overcome by the pain of his injured knee, he sank to the ground, unable to proceed, but refused to be taken from the field, and remained under fire until the enemy were routed. After these defeats, Santa-Anna, to gain time, opened negotiations for peace, and Gen. Scott appointed Gen. FRANKLIN PIERCE. 267 Pierce one of the commissioners to agree upon terms of armistice. The truce lasted a fortnight, when Gen. Scott, dis- coving Santa-Anna's insincerity, again began hostilities. The sanguinary battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec soon followed, on 14 Sept., 1847, the city of Mexico capitulated, and the war was virtually over. Though Gen. Pierce had little opportunity to distinguish himself as a general in this brief war, he displayed a personal bravery and a regard for the wel fare of his men that won him the highest credit. He also gained the ardent friendship of those with whom he came in contact, and that friendship did much for his future elevation. On the return of peace in December, 1847, Gen. Pierce returned to his home and to the practice of his profession. Soon after this the New Hampshire legislature presented him, in behalf of the state, with a fine sword. In 1850 Gen. Pierce was elected to represent the city of Concord in a constitutional convention, and when that body met he was chosen its president by a nearly unanimous vote. During its session he made strenuous and successful efforts to procure the adoption of an amendment abolish ing the religious test that made none but Protestants eli gible to' office. But that amendment failed of adoption by the people, though practically and by common consent the restriction was disregarded. From 1847 till 1852 Gen. Pierce was arduously engaged in his profession. As an advocate he was never surpassed, if ever equalled, at the New Hampshire bar. He had the external advantages of an orator, a hand some, expressive face, an elegant figure, graceful and impressive gesticulation, and a clear, musical voice, which kindled the blood of his hearers like the notes of a trumpet, or melted them to tears by its pathos. His manner had a courtesy that sprang from the kindness of his heart and contributed much to his political and professional success. His perceptions were keen, and his mind seized at once the vital points of a case, while his ready command of language enabled him to present them to an audience so clearly that they could not be misunderstood. He had an intuitive knowledge of human nature, and the numerous illustrations that he drew from the daily lives of his strong-minded auditors made his speeches doubly effective. He was not a diligent student, nor a reader of many books, yet the keenness of his intellect and his natural "268 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. capacity for reasoning often enabled him, with but little prepa ration, to argue successfully intricate questions of law. The masses of the Democratic party in the free states so strongly favored the exclusion of slavery from the territory ceded by Mexico that their leaders were compelled to yield, and from 1847 till 1850 their resolutions and platforms advocated free-soil principles. This was especially the case in New Hampshire, and even Gen. Pierce's great popularity could not stem the tide. But in 1850 the passage of the so-called "com promise measures " by congress, the chief of which were the fugitive-slave law and the admission of California as a free state, raised a new issue. Adherence to those measures became to a great extent a test of party fidelity in both the Whig and Democratic parties. Gen. Pierce zealously championed them in New Hampshire, and at a dinner given to him and other personal friends by Daniel Webster at his farm-house in Franklin, N. H., Pierce, in an eloquent speech, assured the great Whig statesman that if his own party rejected him for his 7th of March speech, the Democracy would " lift him so high that his feet would not touch the stars." Finally the masses of both the great parties gave to the compromise measures a sullen acquiescence, on the ground that they were a final settlement of the slavery question. The Democratic national convention met at Baltimore, 12 June, 1852. After thirty-five ballotings for a candidate for president, in which Gen. Pierce's name did not appear, the Virginia delegation brought it forward, and on the 49th ballot he was nominated by 282 votes to 11 for all others. James Buchanan, Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, and William L. Marcy were his chief rivals. Gen. Winfield Scott, the Whig candidate, was unsatisfactory both to the north and to the south. Webster and his friends leaned toward Pierce, and in the election in November, Scott carried only Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with 42 votes, while Pierce carried all the other states with 254 votes. The Whig party had received its death-stroke, and dissolved. In his inaugural address, 4 March, 1853, President Pierce maintained the constitutionality of slavery and the fugitive- slave law, denounced slavery agitation, and hoped that " no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement might again threaten the durability of our institutions, or obscure the light of our prosperity." On 7 March he announced as his cabinet jy<^& jjf^y^t, ^i /^ ^yy^ /^fe c^t^*y~ ^y~ yvvt ~. ^k t ay^A^~ /L ±. y~ ^- 853- At the close of his administration, on 4 March, 1889, Mr. Cleveland retired to New York city, where he re-entered upon the practice of his profession. As a private citizen he continued to exert a powerful influence upon his party and public senti ment by frequent expression of his opinions on important pub lic questions. These expressions were always based upon an implicit belief that the integrity and justice of the people would not tolerate dema'gogism, but demanded of any leader the truth fearlessly spoken. Conscious of a strong public demand that he should again be the democratic candidate for president, and of the personal consequence to him of his every word and act, he constantly stated his views with the courage and candor 480 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. which had characterized his whole public life. A notable in stance of this was his famous letter of 10 Feb., 1891, addressed to a public meeting in New York city, which had been called to protest against a bill then pending in congress for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. There was grave danger that the bill would be enacted. Behind it was a strong public senti ment, including probably a majority in congress of his own party. His opposition insured, it was believed, the failure of the bill, but also of all chance for his renomination. Yet, im pelled by a sense of public duty which would not consider per sonal consequences, he declared his belief " that the greatest peril would be invited by the adoption of the scheme " ; and he denounced " the dangerous and reckless experiment of free, un limited, and independent silver coinage." The bill was defeated. Notwithstanding the opposition and predictions of many lead ers of his party, the demand for his renomination steadily increased. The great cause of tariff reform, which as president he had championed and which had carried the country in the elections of 1890, was evidently to be the principal issue in the campaign of 1892, and he was the natural and logical leader. At the national democratic convention which met in Chicago 22 June, 1892, he was nominated on the first ballot, receiving more than two thirds of the votes of the convention, though bitterly and unanimously opposed by the delegation from his own state. In his speech of acceptance delivered to a great audience in Madison Square Garden, New York, and later in his formal letter of acceptance of 26 Sept., 1892, he emphasized the need of tariff reform, and made it the leading issue between the parties. In his letter he said of tariff taxation: "Such taxes, representing a diminution of the property rights of the people, are only justifiable when laid and collected for the pur pose of maintaining our government, and furnishing the means for the accomplishment of its legitimate purposes and func tions. . . . Opposed to this theory, the dogma is now boldly presented that tariff taxation is justifiable for the express pur pose and intent of thereby promoting especial interests and enterprises. . . . The struggle for unearned advantage at the doors of the government tramples on the rights of those who patiently rely upon assurances of American equality. Every governmental concession to clamorous favorites invites cor ruption in political affairs by encouraging the expenditure of GROVER CLEVELAND. 481 money to debauch suffrage in support of a policy directly favor able to private and selfish gain. This in the end must strangle patriotism and weaken popular confidence in the rectitude of republican institutions. . . " Tariff reform is still our purpose. Though we oppose the theory that tariff laws may be passed having for their ob ject the granting of discriminating and unfair governmental aid to private ventures, we wage no exterminating war against any American interests. We believe a readjustment can be accomplished, in accordance with the principles we profess, without disaster or demolition. We believe that the advan tages of freer raw material should be accorded to our manu facturers, and we contemplate a fair and careful distribution of necessary tariff burdens, rather than the precipitation of free trade." He denounced "the attempt of the opponents of democ racy to interfere with and control the suffrage of the states through federal agencies " as " a design, which no explanation can mitigate, to reverse the fundamental and safe relations be tween the people and their government." He advocated "sound and honest money," declaring: "Whatever may be the form of the people's currency, national or state — whether gold, silver, or paper — it should be so regulated and guarded by governmental action, or by wise and careful laws, that no one can be deluded as to the certainty and stability of its value. Every dollar put into the hands of the people should be of the same intrinsic value or purchasing power. With this condition absolutely guaranteed, both gold and silver can safely be utilized upon equal terms in the adjustment of our currency." He also urged " an honest adherence to the letter and spirit of civil service reform," " liberal consideration for our worthy veteran soldiers and for the families of those who have died," but insisting that "our pension roll should be a roll of honor, uncontaminated by ill desert and unvitiated by demagogic use." After a most vigorous campaign and a thorough discussion of important principles and measures, the democratic party won an overwhelming victory, reversing the electoral vote of 1888 and largely increasing its popular plurality, and carrying both the senate and house of representatives. The ticket carried twenty-three states, including the doubtful states of 482 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Indiana, and for the first time in years in a presidential contest Illinois and Wis consin. The popular vote was 5,553,142 for Cleveland, 5,186,- 931 for Harrison, 1,030,128 for Weaver, of "The People's Party," and 268,361 for Bidwell, the prohibitionist. In the electoral college Mr. Cleveland received 276 votes, General Harrison 145, and Mr. Weaver 23. On 4 March, 1893, Mr. Cleveland was for a second time inaugurated president, being the first instance in this country of a president re-elected after an interim. In the midst of a blustering snowstorm he de livered, uncovered, his inaugural address from the eastern steps of the capitol and took the oath of office administered by Chief-Justice Fuller. He immediately nominated, and the senate promptly confirmed, as his cabinet Walter Q. Gresham, of Indiana, secretary of state ; John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky, secretary of the treasury ; Daniel S. Lamont, of New York, secretary of war ; Richard Olney, of Massachusetts, attorney- general ; Wilson S. Bissell, of New York, postmaster-general ; Hilary A. Herbert, of Alabama, secretary of the navy ; Hoke Smith, of Georgia, secretary of the interior ; and J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska, secretary of agriculture. Grave and difficult questions at once confronted his admin istration. A treaty for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the territory of the United States had, on 14 Feb., 1893, been concluded between President Harrison and commissioners representing a provisional government of the islands, and had been transmitted to the senate on the day following, but had not yet been acted upon. The provisional government had been established on 17 Jan., 1893, by the overthrow of the constitutional ruler of the islands. Serious doubts existed as to the authority and validity of the pro visional government and as to the part taken by our govern ment, through our minister and troops, in aiding its establish ment. President Harrison, in his message to the senate sub mitting the treaty, declared that " the overthrow of the monarchy was not in any way promoted by this government." On the other hand, the queen and her ministers filed with the treaty a protest, asserting that when she- yielded to the pro visional government she had yielded to the superior force of the United States. In order that this vital question of fact might be impartially investigated and determined, President GROVER CLEVELAND. 483 Cleveland at once withdrew the treaty from the senate and despatched to the islands Hon. James H. Blount, of Georgia, as a special commissioner to make full examination and report. On 18 Dec, 1893, in a special message to congress, he trans mitted the report of the commissioner with all the evidence and papers connected with the case. In his message, after re viewing all the facts and confirming the finding of the commis sioner, he declared that he believed "that a candid and thor ough examination of the facts will force the conviction that the provisional government owes its existence to an armed in vasion by the United States. . . . The lawful government of Hawaii was overthrown, without the drawing of a sword or the firing of a shot, by a process every step of which, it may safely be asserted, is directly traceable to and dependent for its suc cess upon the agency of the United States acting through its diplomatic and naval representatives." Referring to the principles which should govern the case, he said: "I suppose that right and justice should determine the path to be followed in treating this subject. If national honesty is to be disregarded and a desire for territorial exten sion or dissatisfaction with a form of government not our own ought to regulate our conduct, I have entirely misapprehended the mission and character of our government and the behavior which the conscience of our people demands of their public servants. . . . " The law of nations is founded upon reason and justice, and the rules of conduct governing individual relations be tween citizens or subjects of a civilized state aVe equally applicable as between enlightened nations. The consider ations that international law is without a court for its enforce ment, and that obedience to its commands practically depends upon good faith instead of upon the mandate of a superior tribunal, only give additional sanction to the law itself, and brand any deliberate infraction of it not merely as a wrong but as a disgrace. A man of true honor protects the unwritten word which binds his conscience more scrupulously, if possible, than he does the bond, a breach of which subjects him to legal liabilities; and the United States, in aiming to maintain itself as one of the most enlightened of nations, would do its citi zens gross injustice if it applied to its international relations any other than a high standard of honor and morality. On 484 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. that ground the United States cannot properly be put in the position of countenancing a wrong after its commission any more than in that of consenting to it in advance. On that ground it can not allow itself to refuse to redress an injury inflicted through an abuse of power by officers clothed with its authority and wearing its uniform; and on the same ground, if a feeble but friendly state is in danger of being robbed of its independence and its sovereignty by a misuse of the name and power of the United States, the United States cannot fail to vindicate its honor and its sense of justice by an earnest effort to make all possible reparation. . . . " These principles apply to the present case with irresistible force when the special conditions of the queen's surrender of her sovereignty are recalled. She surrendered not to the pro visional government, but to the United States. She surren dered not absolutely and permanently, but temporarily and conditionally until such time as the facts could be considered by the United States. . . ." He concluded by informing congress that he should not again submit the treaty of annexation to the senate ; that he had instructed our minister " to advise the queen and her sup porters of his desire to aid in the restoration of the status ex isting before the lawless landing of the United States forces at Honolulu on 16 Jan. last, if such restoration could be effected upon terms providing for clemency as well as jus tice to: all parties concerned"; and he commended the subject " to the extended powers and wide discretion of congress " for a solution of the problem "consistent with American honor, integrity, and morality." On 8 Aug., 1893, the president convened congress in special session because, as stated in his message of that date, of " the existence of an alarming and extraordinary business situation, involving the welfare and prosperity of all our people," and to the end that " through a wise and patriotic exercise of the legis lative duty . . . present evils may be mitigated and dangers threatening the future may be averted." The country was in the midst of a financial crisis, largely due, it was believed, to past unsound legislation, under which the gold reserve had been diminishing, silver accumulating, and expenditures ex ceeding revenue. Confidence had become impaired and credit shaken. Business interests and the conservative sentiment of GROVER CLEVELAND. 4§5 the country demanded the repeal of the provisions of the act of 14 July, 1890 (popularly known as the Sherman act), which required the monthly purchase of four and one half million ounces of silver and the issue of treasury notes in payment therefor. Such repeal the president strongly recommended, declaring that "our unfortunate financial plight is not the result of untoward events, nor of conditions related to our natural resources ; nor is it traceable to any of the afflictions which frequently check natural growth and prosperity," but is " principally chargeable to congressional legislation touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the general govern ment." Reviewing such legislation, he said : " The knowledge in business circles among our own people that our government cannot make its fiat equivalent to intrinsic value, nor keep in ferior money on a parity with superior money by its own inde pendent efforts, has resulted in such a lack of confidence at home in the stability of currency values that capital refuses its aid to new enterprises, while millions are actually withdrawn from the channels of trade and commerce, to become idle and unproductive in the hands of timid owners. Foreign investors, equally alert, not only decline to purchase American securities, but make haste to sacrifice those which they already have." He insisted that " the people of the United States are entitled to a sound and stable currency, and to money recognized as such on every exchange and in every market of the world. Their government has no right to injure them by financial ex periments opposed to the policy and practice of other civilized states, nor is it justified in permitting an exaggerated and un reasonable reliance on our national strength and ability to jeopardize the soundness of the people's money. This matter rises above the plane of party politics. It vitally concerns every business and calling, and enters every household in the land." The house promptly, and by a large majority, repealed the obnoxious provisions. In the senate a strong and determined minority resisted the repeal, and, taking advantage of the un limited debate there permitted, delayed action for many weeks. In the heat of the contest a compromise was practically agreed upon in the senate, which was defeated only by the firm oppo sition of the president. He insisted upon unconditional repeal, which was finally enacted 1 Nov., 1893. Soon after, one of the suggested measures of compromise, 32 486 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. which provided among other things for the immediate coinage of so much of the silver bullion in the treasury as represented the seigniorage (declared to be $55,156,681), was embodied in a bill which passed both houses of congress. This bill the president vetoed as "ill-advised and dangerous." He said: " I believe that if the bill under consideration should become a law, it would be regarded as a retrogression from the financial intentions indicated by our recent repeal of the provision forc ing silver bullion purchases ; that it would weaken if it did not destroy returning faith and confidence in our sound financial tendencies ; and that as a consequence our progress to renewed business health would be unfortunately checked, and a return to our recent distressing plight seriously threatened." He added: " Sound finance does not commend a further infusion of silver into our currency at this time unaccompanied by fur ther adequate provision for the maintenance in our treasury of a safe gold reserve." At the first regular session of the fifty-third congress, opened 4 Dec, 1893, the question of tariff revision was at once considered. In his message of that date the president, after reviewing the work and needs of the various departments of government, dwelt with special emphasis on the necessity of immediately undertaking this important reform. " After a hard struggle," he said, " tariff reform is directly before us. Nothing so important claims our attention, and nothing so clearly presents itself as both an opportunity and a duty — an opportunity to deserve the gratitude of our fellow-citizens, and a duty imposed upon us by our oft-repeated professions and by the emphatic mandate of the people. After full discus sion, our countrymen have spoken in favor of this reform, and they have confided the work of its accomplishment to the hands of those who are solemnly pledged to it. " If there is anything in the theory of a representation in public places of the people and their desires; if public officers are really the servants of the people; and if political promises and professions have any binding force, our failure to give the relief so long awaited will be sheer recreancy. Nothing should intervene to distract our attention or disturb our effort until this reform is accomplished by wise and careful legislation. "While we should stanchly adhere to the principle that only the necessity of revenue justifies the imposition of tariff GROVER CLEVELAND. 487 duties and other federal taxation, and that they should be limited by strict economy, we cannot close our eyes to the fact that conditions have grown up among us which in justice and fairness call for discriminating care in the distribution of such duties and taxation as the emergencies of our government actually demand. " Manifestly, if we are to aid the people directly through tariff reform, one of its most obvious features should be a re duction in present tariff charges upon the necessaries of life. The benefits of such a reduction would be palpable and sub stantial, seen and felt by thousands who would be better fed and better clothed and better sheltered. These gifts should be the willing benefactions of a government whose highest function is the promotion of the welfare of the people. " Not less closely related to our people's prosperity and well-being is the removal of restrictions upon the importation of the raw materials necessary to our manufactures. The world should be open to our national ingenuity and enterprise. This cannot be while federal legislation, through the imposition of high tariff, forbids to American manufacturers as cheap materials as those used by their competitors. It is quite ob vious that the enhancement of the price of our manufactured products resulting from this policy not only confines the mar ket for these products within our own borders, to the direct disadvantage of our manufacturers, but also increases their cost to our citizens." A tariff bill substantially following the lines suggested by the president and providing among other things for free wool, coal, iron ore, and lumber was framed by the committee on ways and means, and, with the addition of free sugar and an income tax, passed the house on 1 Feb., 1894. In the sen ate the bill was amended in many items, and generally in the direction of higher duties. After five months of prolonged discussion the bill, as amended, passed the senate by a small majority, all the democrats voting for it except Senator Hill, of New York. It was then referred to a conference committee of both houses to adjust the differences between them. A long and determined contest was there waged, principally over the duties upon coal, iron ore, and sugar. It was understood that a small group of democratic senators had, contrary to the express wishes and pledges of their party and by threats of de- 488 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. feating the bill, forced higher duties in important schedules. While the bill was pending before the conference committee the president, in a letter to Mr. Wilson, the chairman of the ways and means committee, which later was read to the house, strongly urged adherence to the position which the house had taken. He said : " Every true democrat and every sincere tariff reformer knows that this bill in its present form and as it will be submitted to the conference falls short of the consumma tion for which we have long labored, for which we have suf fered defeat without discouragement, which, in its anticipation, gave us a rallying cry in our day of triumph, and which, in its promise of accomplishment, is so interwoven with democratic pledges and democratic success that our abandonment of the cause or the principles upon which it rests means party perfidy and party dishonor. " One topic will be submitted to the conference which em bodies democratic principle so directly that it can not be com promised. We have in our platforms and in every possible way declared in favor of the free importation of free raw ma terials. We have again and again promised that this should be accorded to our people and our manufacturers as soon as the democratic party was invested with the power to deter mine the tariff policy of the country. The party now has that power. We are as certain to-day as we have ever been of the great benefit that would accrue to the country from the inauguration of this policy, and nothing has occurred to release us from our obligation to secure this advantage to our people. " It must be admitted that no tariff measure can accord with democratic principles and promises, or bear a genuine democratic badge, that does not provide for free raw material. Under the circumstances it may well excite our wonder that democrats are willing to depart from this the most democratic of all tariff principles, and that the inconsistent absurdity of such a proposed departure should be emphasized by the sug gestion that the wool of the farmer be put on the free list and the protection of tariff taxation be placed around the iron ore and coal of corporations and capitalists." The house, however, finally receded from its position in the belief that any other course would defeat or long delay any re duction of the tariff, and that the business interests of the coun- GROVER CLEVELAND. 489 try demanded an end to the conflict. The bill, as amended, passed both houses, and at midnight of 27 Aug., 1894, became a law without the signature of the president. In a published letter of the same date he gave his reasons for withholding his approval. While he believed the bill was a vast improvement over existing conditions, and would certainly lighten many tariff burdens which rested heavily on the people, he said : " I take my place with the rank and file of the democratic party who believe in tariff reform and well know what it is, who re fuse to accept the results embodied in this bill as the close of the war, who are not blinded to the fact that the livery of democratic tariff reform has been stolen and worn in the serv ice of republican protection, and who have marked the places where the deadly blight of treason has blasted the councils of the brave in their hour of might. The trusts and combinations — the communism of pelf — whose machinations have prevented us from reaching the success we deserved, should not be for gotten nor forgiven." In July, 1894, serious labor troubles arose in Illinois and other states of the west, beginning with a strike of the em ployes of the Pullman Palace Car Company, and spreading over many of the railroads centering in Chicago. Travel was interrupted, the mails delayed, and interstate commerce ob structed. So widespread became the trouble, involving con stant acts of violence and lawlessness, and so grave was the crisis, that military force was necessary, especially in Chicago, to preserve the peace, enforce the laws, and protect property. The president, with commendable firmness and promptness, fully met the emergency. Acting under authority vested in him by law, he ordered a large force of United States troops to Chicago to remove obstructions to the mails and interstate commerce, and to enforce the laws of the United States and the process of the federal courts; and on 8 and 9 July issued proclamations commanding the dispersion of all unlaw ful assemblages within the disturbed states. The governor of Illinois objected to the presence of the troops without his sanc tion or request. In answer to his protest the president tele graphed : " Federal troops were sent to Chicago in strict accord ance with the constitution and laws of the United States upon the demand of the post-office department that obstruction of the mails should be removed, and upon the representations of 490 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. the judicial officers of the United States that process of the federal courts could not be executed through the ordinary means, and upon abundant proof that conspiracies existed against commerce between the states. " To meet these conditions, which are clearly within the province of federal authority, the presence of federal troops in the city of Chicago was deemed not only proper, but neces sary, and there has been no intention of thereby interfering with the plain duty of the local authorities to preserve the peace of the city." To a further protest and argument of the governor the president replied : " While I am still persuaded that I have transcended neither my authority nor duty in the emergency that confronts us, it seems to me that in this hour of danger and public distress discussion may well give way to active effort on the part of the authorities to restore obedience to the law and to protect life and property." The decisive action of the president restored order, ended the strike, and received the commendation of both houses of congress and of the people generally. The president then ap pointed a commission to investigate the causes of the strike. It is interesting to note in this connection that by special mes sage to congress of 22 April, 1886, President Cleveland had strongly recommended legislation which should provide for the settlement by arbitration of controversies of this character. Mr. Cleveland is the first of our chief magistrates who served a second term without being elected as his own suc cessor.* He is as distinguished for forcible speech as for * Except Grover Cleveland, no president has been re-elected unless he was a military man, or held a chief executive office during a war period. Washing ton was a soldier of the Revolution ; Jefferson, governor of Virginia during that war ; Madison, president during the second war with Great Britain ; Monroe, a Revolutionary officer; Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812 ; Lincoln, a soldier and president during the war of the rebellion ; and Grant, a soldier of the Mexican and civil wars. Referring to the post-official career of the presidents, it appears that six of the twenty-three — Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Johnson, and Hayes — became planters or farmers upon retiring from public life ; that five — Van Buren, Fillmore, Tyler, Grant, and Cleveland — openly endeavored to ob tain another term ; that five — Van Buren, Polk, Fillmore, Pierce, and Grant — traveled extensively at the close of their official career ; and that three — John Adams, Pierce, and Buchanan — sooner or later became recluses. — EDITOR. GROVER CLEVELAND. 491 forcible action. His many addresses, both while in and out of office, are marked by clearness of thought and directness of ex pression, which, with his courage and ability, have always ap pealed to the best sentiments of the people, and have formed and led a healthy public opinion. Several campaign lives of Mr. Cleveland appeared during his three presidential contests, President Cleveland married, in the White House (see illus tration, page 472), on 2 June. 1886, Frances Folsom, daugh ter of his deceased friend and part ner, Oscar Folsom, of the Buffalo bar. Except the wife of Madison, Mrs. Cleveland is the youngest of the many mistresses of the White House, having been born in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1864. She is also the first wife of a president married in the White House, and the first to give birth to a child there, their second daughter having been born in the executive mansion in 1893. — His youngest sister, Rose Elizabeth, born in Fayetteville, N. Y., in 1846, removed in 1853 to Holland Patent, N. Y., where her father was settled as pastor of the Presbyterian church, and where he died the same year. She was educated at Houghton semi nary, became a teacher in that school, and later assumed charge of the Collegiate institute in Lafayette, Ind. She taught for a time in a private school in Pennsylvania, and then prepared a course of historical lectures, which she delivered before the students of Houghton seminary and in other schools. When not employed in this manner, she devoted herself to her aged mother in the homestead at Holland Patent, N. Y., until her mother's death in 1882. On the inauguration of the president she became the mistress of the White House, and after her brother's marriage she returned to Holland Patent, subse quently for a time connecting herself as part owner and in structor in an established institution in New York city. Miss Cleveland has published a volume of lectures and essays under the title "George Eliot's Poetry, and other Studies" (New York, 1885), and "The Long Run," a novel (1886). ~t%«^c_4J£. (y^y^-^-^-. BENJAMIN HARRISON. Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third president of the United States, born in North Bend, Ohio, 20 Aug., 1833. He is the third son of John Scott Harrison (who was a son of President Harrison). It has been stated that his lineage can be traced to Harrison the regicide. He came directly from the Virginia Harrisons, who were distinguished in the early history of that colony ; his great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison, was one of the seven Virginia delegates to the congress which made the Declaration of Independence.* The Harrisons owned large landed estates on the bank of the Ohio near the mouth of the Big Miami. Benjamin assisted in the work on his father's farm, which contained about four hundred acres. The prod ucts of the farm were annually shipped in flat boats to New Orleans, and his father usually went with the cargo, the crew being composed of men from the neighborhood who were fa miliar with the perils of transportation on the Mississippi river. His first studies were prosecuted in the log school-house, and at the age of fifteen he went to Farmers (now Belmont) Col lege, at College Hill, a suburb of Cincinnati. After a two years' stay there he became a student at Miami University, Oxford, where an acquaintance formed at College Hill ripened into a permanent attachment for Miss Caroline L. Scott, who afterward became his wife. The young lady had faith in his star, and did not hesitate to ally her fortunes with his. They were married while. he was yet a law student and before he * The descent of Benjamin Harrison from Pocahontas, daughter of Pow hatan, is outlined in a recent work by Wyndham Robinson, entitled " Poca hontas and her Descendants through her Marriage at Jamestown, Virginia, in April, 1614, with John Rolfe, Gentleman." It may also be mentioned that he is among the eight presidents who have been of Welsh descent — John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, James A. Garfield, and Benjamin Harrison. — Editor. En^Ey liil-Holi IOT BENJAMIN HARRISON. 453 had attained his majority. He graduated fourth in his class in 1852, Milton Sayler taking first honors and David Swing standing second. As a boy he distinguished himself as an off hand debater in the Union Literary Society. From the first he showed an aptitude for thinking on his legs, and a gift of utterance which enabled him to express himself in apt words. At a town meeting, where an abolitionist abused Webster and Clay for the part they took in the Compromise measures of 1850, the citizens were amazed to see a slender, tow-headed boy of seventeen mount a bench and make a vigorous speech in vindication of the great statesmen. He studied law with Storer & Gwynne, of Cincinnati, and in 1853 married and was admit ted to the bar. In 1854 he put up his sign as attorney at law in Indianapolis, where he has kept his residence ever since. It was not long before his ability became known. His first effort at the bar was in prosecuting a man charged with bur glary. He received a few dollars by acting as crier for the United States Court, and was glad to take a five-dollar fee now and then for a case before a country justice, though one half of the fee was necessary to pay for the hire of a horse to take him to the place of trial. Whoever employed him could count on his doing his very best, whether the interests involved were small or great. Promptness and thoroughness are char acteristics which have been manifest in his whole career, pro fessional and political. In 1855 he formed a partnership with William Wallace, and when that gentleman was elected county clerk in 1861 he formed a partnership with W. P. Fishback, which was interrupted by his enlisting in the army in 1862, but the connection was resumed again in 1865, when the firm became Porter, Harrison & Fishback, and so continued until 1870, when Mr. Fishback retired, Judge Hines taking his place. Gov. Porter retiring, W. H. H. Miller became a partner in the firm, and upon Judge Hines retiring, Mr. John B. Elam be came a member of the firm of Harrison, Miller & Elam, which continued until it was dissolved by Gen. Harrison's election to the presidency in 1888. While not always the senior in years, he was the senior in fact in every firm of which he was a member ; such is the ungrudging testimony of all those who have been his partners. Though breaking the chronological order of events some what, it is as well to complete here the sketch of his profes- 494 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. sional career. He has been concerned in the most important litigation in Indiana for nearly thirty years. He was em ployed in all sorts of cases, such as came to attorneys engaged in general practice before the era of professional specialists. The panorama of human life with all its disappointments and successes is unrolled before the busy lawyer who has such a practice. The exclusive devotion to special branches makes men strong in their lines; it narrows them also, and the lawyer whose work has a wider range acquires greater breadth of view, a happy versatility, and a flexibility of mind which enable him to pass from one subject to another without weari ness and without distraction. Benjamin Harrison has amazed his associates in professional and official life by the ease and ability with which he despatches so much important business in a masterly style. For the exigencies of high station the discipline of his professional life was an excellent preparation. As a lawyer he was thorough in the preparation and study of his cases, in the preliminary statement he was clear and exhaustive, putting court and jury in full posses sion of his theory of the case ; as an examiner of witnesses he had no rival ; and as an advocate his performances were characterized by clearness, cogen cy, and completeness which left nothing further to be said on his side of the case. It often happened that his col leagues who had prepared to assist in the argument threw away their notes and rested the case upon his single speech. As a cross-examiner he was unsurpassed. No rascally witness escaped him. No trumped-up story or false alibi could pass muster under his searching scrutiny. In a case where Gov. Hendricks was defending a man in the Federal Court against a charge of conspiring to violate the election laws, the Gov ernor injudiciously put his client in the witness box. He de nied his participation in the crime in the most positive manner; but little by little under Harrison's cross-examination he was driven to admit fact after fact, the cumulative force of which drove him at last to a practical confession of his guilt. In the celebrated Clem murder case several alibis, fabricated for the *<** *£r %***yfa£. &<++£+ Timothy Pickering, f GEORGE WASHINGTON, F. * George Clinton, R. Thomas Jefferson, R. Thomas Jefferson, ) Edmund Randolph, \ Sec. State. Timothy Pickering, ) Edmund Randolph, William Bradford, J- Att. Gen. Charles Lee, JOHN ADAMS, F. Thomas Pinckney, F. Aaron Burr, R. Timothy Pickering, ) „ ~ John Marshall, \ &ec' btate" Oliver Wolcott, ) g _ Samuel Dexter, f ^ l reas' 1789. John Adams. Alexander Hamilton, Sec. Treas. Henry Knox, Sec. War. Edmund Randolph, Att. Gen. 1793. John Adams, F. Aaron Burr, R. !• Sec. Treas. Alexander Hamilton, Oliver Wolcott, Henry Knox, Timothy Pickering, }• Sec. War. James McHenry, Timothy Pickering, ) Joseph Habersham, ) Post. Gen. 1797. Thomas Jefferson, R. Samuel Adams, R. ¦ Sec. War. James McHenry, ) , Samuel Dexter, ) ' Benjamin Stoddert, Sec. Navy. Charles Lee, Att. Gen. Joseph Habersham, Post. Gen. * The names of unsuccessful candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency are printed in italics. 508 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. THOMAS JEFFERSON, R. John Adams, F. James Madison, Sec. State. Henry Dearborn, Sec. War. Levi Lincoln, Att. Gen. Joseph Habersham, ) post „en Gideon Granger, ) THOMAS JEFFERSON, R. C. C. Pinckney, F. James Madison, Sec. State. Albert Gallatin, Sec. Treas. Henry Dearborn, ) „ w William Eustis, f^- War- Gideon Granger, Post. Gen. 1801. Aaron Burr, R. Charles C. Pinckney, F. Samuel Dexter, ) c ™ Albert Gallatin, f &ec' 1 reas" Benjamin Stoddert, ) < Robert Smith, J ' ¦ Sec. Navy. 1803. George Clinton, R. Rufus King, F. Robert Smith, \ J. Crowninshield, ) Levi Lincoln, Robert Smith, J. Breckenridge, Caesar A. Rodney, Sec. Navy. -Att. Gen. JAMES MADISON, R. C. C. Pinckney, F. Robert Smith, \ ( James Monroe, William Eustis, Sec. War. Caasar A. Rodney, Att. Gen. ¦ Sec. State. 1809. George Clinton, R. Rufus King, F. Albert Gallatin, Sec. Treas. Paul Hamilton, Sec. Navy. Gideon Granger, Post. Gen. JAMES MADISON, D. De Witt Clinton, F. James Monroe, Sec. State. George W. Campbell, Alexander J. Dallas, J- Sec. Treas. William H. Crawford, William Jones, B. W. Crowninshield, .,[ Sec. Navy. 1813. Elbridge Gerry, D. Jared Ingersoll, F. John Armstrong, > War James Monroe, \ William Knkney, ) A G Richard Rush, ) Gideon Granger, > Return J. Meigs, ) JAMES MONROE, D. Rufus King, F. John Quincy Adams, Sec. State. John C. Calhoun, Sec. War. William Wirt, Att. Gen. Return J. Meigs, Post Gen. 1817. Daniel D. Tompkins, D. J. E. Howard, F. William H. Crawford, Sec. Treas. B. W. Crowninshield, ) c XT Smith Thompson, \ Sec- Navy- JAMES MONROE, D. John Q. Adams, Sec. State. William H. Crawford, Sec. Treas. William Wirt, Att. Gen. R. J. Meigs, ) John McLean, \ Post. Gen. 1821. Daniel D. Tompkins, D. John C. Calhoun, Sec. War. Smith Thompson, ) „ „ Samuel L. Southard, \ bec' JNavy- APPENDIX. 509 JOHN Q. ADAMS, D. Andrew Jackson. William H. Crawford. Henry Clay. Henry Clay, Sec. State. James Barbour, ) „ „. P. B. Porter, \ Sec- War- Samuel L. Southard, Sec. Navy. ANDREW JACKSON, D. John Q. Adams. 1825. John C. Calhoun, D. Nathan Sanford. Nathan Macon. Andrew Jackson. Richard Rush, Sec. Treas. William Wirt, Att. Gen. J. McLean, Post. Gen. 1829. »n, C Martin Van Buren Edward Livingston John H. Eaton, ) c ,,, Lewis Cass, [ Sec- War- John McPherson Berrien, Roger B. Taney, Sec. State. Att. Gen. John C. Calhoun, D. Richard Rush. William Smith. Samuel D. Ingram, ) „ „ Louis McLant, \ Sec- Treas- John Branch, ) „ -T Levi Woodbui7, \ Sec' Nayy- William T. Barry, Post. Gen. 1833. ANDREW JACKSON, Henry Clay. John Floyd. William Wirt. D. Edward Livingston, Louis McLane, John Forsyth, Lewis Cass, / B. F. Butler, \ Levi Woodbury, Mahlon Dickerson, Sec. State. Sec. War. Sec. Navy. Martin Van Buren, D. John Sergeant. Henry Lee. Amos Ellmaker. William Wilkins. Roger B. Taney, / Benj. F. Butler, j Louis McLane, William J. Duane, Roger B. Taney, Levi Woodbury, William T. Barry, Amos Kendall, Att. Gen. -Sec. Treas. Post. Gen. 1837. MARTIN VAN BUREN, D. William H. Harrison, W. Hugh L. White. W. Daniel Webster, W. Willie P. Mangum, W. John Forsyth, Sec. State. Joel R. Poinsett, Sec. War. Benj. F. Butler, Felix Grundy, r Att. Gen. Henry D. Gilpin, WILLIAM H. HARRISON, W. Martin Van Buren, D. James G. Birney, L. P. Daniel Webster, Sec. State. Thomas Ewing, Sec. Treas. John Bell, Sec. War. Richard M. Johnson, D. Francis Granger, W. John Tyler, W. Levi Woodbury, Sec. Treas. Mahlon Dickerson, ) „ .. James K. Paulding, \ Sea Navy- Amos Kendall, / „ . „ John M. Niles, \ Post' Gen' 1841. John Tyler, W. Richard M. Johnson, D. Littleton W. Tazewell, D. James Knox Polk, D. Thomas Earl, L. P. John J. Crittenden, Att. Gen. George E. Badger, Sec. Navy. Francis Granger, Post. Gen. Sio LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Daniel Webster, Abel P. Upshur, John C. Calhoun, Thomas Ewing, Walter Forward, John C. Spencer, John Bell, James M. Porter, John C. Spencer, William WilkinsJ Sec. State. Sec. Treas. Sec. War. 1841. JOHN TYLER, W. John J. Crittenden, Hugh S. Legare, John Nelson, George E. Badger, Abel P. Upshur, David Henshaw, Thos. W. Gilmer, John Y. Mason, Francis Granger, Charles A. Wickliffe, Att. Gen. Sec. Navy. Post. Gen. 184S. George M. Dallas, D. Theodote Frelinghuysen, W. Thomas Morris, L. P. Robert J. Walker, Sec. Treas. George Bancroft, j „ N JohnY. Mason, f bec" JNavy" William L. Marcy, Sec. War. 1849. Millard Fillmore, W. William 0. Butler, D. Leicester King ( — ). Charles Francis Adams, F. S. William M. Meredith, Sec. Treas. William B. Preston, Sec. Navy. Reverdy Johnson, Att. Gen. 18SO. MILLARD FILLMORE, W. Daniel Webster, Sec. State. Thomas Corwin, Sec. Treas. Charles M. Conrad, Sec. War. Alex. H. H. Stuart, Sec. Interior. William A. Graham, Sec. Navy. John J. Crittenden, Att. Gen. Nathan K. Hall, Post. Gen. JAMES K. POLK, D. Henry Clay, W. James G. Birney, L. P. James Buchanan, Sec. State. John Y. Mason, ) Nathan Clifford, J- Att. Gen. Isaac Toucey, ) Cave Johnson, Post. Gen. ZACHARY TAYLOR, W. Lewis Cass, D. John P. Hale (— ). Martin Van Buren, F. S. John M. Clayton, Sec. State. George W. Crawford, Sec. War. Thomas Ewing, Sec. Interior. Jacob Collamer, Post. Gen. FRANKLIN PIERCE, D. Winfeld Scott, W. John P. Hale, L. P. William L. Marcy, Sec. State. Jefferson Davis, Sec. War. Robert McClelland, Sec. Interior. James Campbell, Post. Gen. JAMES BUCHANAN, D John C. Fremont, R. Millard Fillmore, A. Lewis Cass, Jeremiah S. Black Howell Cobb, ) John A. Dix, \ T^T^/MsecWar. Joseph Holt, j Isaac Toucey, Sec. Navy. Sec. State. • Sec. Treas. 18S3. William R. King, D. William A. Graham, W. George W. Julian, L. P. James Guthrie, Sec. Treas. James C. Dobbin, Sec. Navy. Caleb Cushing, Att. Gen. 1887. John C. Breckenridge, D. William L. Dayton, R. Andrew J. Donelson, A. Jacob Thompson, Sec. Interior. Jeremiah S. Black, ) . „ Edwin M. Stanton, \ Att" Uen" Aaron V. Brown, ) Joseph Holt, >¦ Post. Gen. Horatio King, \ APPENDIX. 5" ABRAHAM LINCOLN, R. Stephen A. Douglas, D. John C. Breckenridge, D. John Bell, C. U. William H. Seward, Sec. State. Simon Cameron, / „ ... Edwin M. Stanton, \ bec- Wan Caleb B. Smith, ) c T . John P. Usher, \ Sec' Intenor- Gideon Welles, Sec. Navy. 1861. Hannibal Hamlin, R. Herschel V. Johnson, D. Joseph Lane, D. Edward Everett, C. U. Salmon P. Chase, ( , Wm. P. Fessenden, J ' Edward Bates, / . . . „ James Speed, \ Att Gen- Montgomery Blair, | D „ William Dennison, f ™st- Uen- - Sec. Treas. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, R. George B. McClellan, D. William H. Seward, Sec. State. Edwin M. Stanton, Sec. War. John P.Usher, £ Sec. Interior. James Harlan, \ 1865. Andrew Johnson, R. George H. Pendleton, D. Hugh McCulloch, Sec. Treas. ¦ Gideon Welles, Sec. Navy. James Speed, Att. Gen. William Dennison, Post. Gen. William H. Seward, Sec. State Edwin M. Stanton, ") Ulysses S. Grant, Lorenzo Thomas. John M. Schofield, J Hugh McCulloch, Sec. Treas. Gideon Welles, Sec. Navy. 1865. ANDREW JOHNSON. James Harlan Orville H. Browning, Sec. War. Iames S-Pee? Henry Stanbery, William M. Evarts, William Dennison, Alex. W. Randall, Is Sec. Interior. Att. Gen. Post. Gen. ULYSSES S. GRANT, R. Horatio Seymour, D. E. B. Washburne, ) ge(. gtate Hamilton Fish, \ George S. Boutwell, Sec. Treas. fehn w ^fnlinS' r Sec. War. Wm. W. Belknap, ) 1869. Schuyler Colfax, R. Francis P. Blair, Jr., D. Jacob D. Cox, ) Sec. Interior. Columbus Delano, Adolph E. Borie, ) Sec N George M. Robeson, f ' '' George H. Williams, Att. Gen. John A. J. Creswell, Post. Gen. ULYSSES S. GRANT, R. Horace Greeley, D. Charles 0' Conor, S. 0. D. James Black, P. Hamilton Fish, Sec. State. William W. Belknap, , Alphonso Taft, \ Sec. War. J. Donald Cameron, John A. J. Creswell, Marshall Jewell, James N. Tyner, George M. Robeson, Sec. Navy. Post. Gen. 1873. Henry Wilson, R. Benjamin Gratz Brown, D. John Q. Adams, S. 0. D. ¦ Sec. Interior. Columbus Delano, ) , Zachariah Chandler, f ' Wm. A. Richardson, j Benj. H. Bristow, >• Sec. Treas. Lot M. Morrill, ) George H. Williams, j Edward Pierrepont, r Att. Gen. Alphonso Taft, 512 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 1877. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, R. William A. Wheeler, R. Samuel J. lllden, D. Thomas A. Hendricks, D. Peter Cooper, I. N. P. Green C. Smith, P. G. T. Stewart, P. William M. Evarts, Sec. State. R. W. Thompson, j „ N _ Nathan Goff, Jr., \ bec' JNav7- David M. Key, ) ¦ Horace Maynard, ) ' • Post. Gen. JAMES A. GARFIELD, R. Winfeld S. Hancock, D. James B. Weaver, G. B. Neal Dow, P. James G. Blaine, Sec. State. R. T. Lincoln, Sec. War. W. H. Hunt, Sec. Navy. Wayne MacVeagh, Att. Gen. John Sherman, Sec. Treas. George W. McCrary, ) „ Alexander Ramsey, , Sec' War' Carl Schurz, Sec. Interior. Charles Devens, Att. Gen. 1881. Chester A. Arthur, R. William II. English. D. William Windom, Sec. Treas. S. J. Kirkwood, Sec. Interior. Thomas L. James, Post. Gen. 1881. CHESTER A. ARTHUR, R. James G Blaine, ? Sec. State. i . 1 . i relinghuysen, ) Robert T. Lincoln, Sec. War. William H. Hunt, ) g „ W. E. Chandler, ^^cssavy. Wayne MacVeagh, ) A Gen Benj. H. Brewster, ) a, | r, i Sec. Treas. William Windom, Charles J. Folger, S. J. Kirkwood,. H. M. Teller, T.L. James, __ ' J post e> ) ¦ Sec. Interior. Timothy O. Howe, GROVER CLEVELAND, D. James G. Blaine, R. Benjamin F. Butler, L. John P. St. John, P. Thomas F. Bayard, Sec. State. William C. Endicott, Sec. War. William C. Whitney, Sec. Navy. William F. Vilas, i ] Don M. Dickinson, J ' 1885. Thomas A. Hendricks, D. John A. Logan, R. Post. Gen. William Daniels, P. Daniel Maiming, ) , Charles S. Fairchild, f ' Augustus H. Garland, Att. Gen. Lucius Q. C. Lamar, ) , William F. Vilas, \ ' ¦ Sec. Treas. • Sec. Interior. BENJAMIN HARRISON, R. Grover Cleveland, D. Clinton P. Fisk, P. Belva A. B. Lockwood, N. E. R. James G. Blaine, Sec. State. Redfield Proctor, ) Q w Stephen B. Elkins, J bec' War- Benjamin F. Tracy, Sec. Navy. John Wanamaker, Post. Gen. D. GROVER CLEVELAND, Benjamin Harrison, R. James B. Weaver, P. Walter Q. Gresham, Sec. State, Daniel S. Lamont, Sec. War. Hilary A. Herbert, Sec. Navy. Wilson S. Bissell, Post. Gen. 1889. Levi Parsons Morton, R. Allen Granbery Thurman, D. William Windom, ) c x Charles Foster, j °ec- lreas' William H. H. Miller, Att. Gen. John W. Noble, Sec. Interior. Jeremiah M. Rusk, Sec. Agric. 1893. Adlai E. Stevenson, D. Whilelaw Reid, R. James G. Field, P. John G. Carlisle, Sec. Treas. Richard Olney, Att. Gen. Hoke Smith, Sec. Interior. J. Sterling Morton, Sec Agric. INDEX. Adam and Eve, 76. Adams, Abigail, 60, 61, 87. Charles Francis, 60, 61, 133, 134, 135, 178, 258, 319. Henry, 36, 130, 136. John, biography of, 36-60 ; mentioned, 10, 20, 23, 60, 61, 68, 72, 84, 121, 187, 251. John Quincy, biography of, 120-133 ; mentioned, 60, 78, 109, no, 113, 117, I52> 153, 154, 159. l67> I98. r99. 2°9, 219, 228, 250, 278, 279, 291. Samuel, 39, 52, 54, 79, 442. African colonization, 255. Agassiz, Professor Louis, 397. Akerman, Amos T., 387. Alabama claims, 382. Albany regency, 179. Alexander of Russia, 125. Alexandria, Va., 25, 26. Alfred the Great, 27. Alleghany mountains, 13. Allen, Lewis F., 468. William, 404. Ambassador to England, 335. Ambrister, Robert, 127, 151. Amelia Court-House, Va., 368. American college, Rome, 458. constitutions, 50. credit, 51. Herd book, 468. loyalists, 48. merchant marine, 459. system, 198. Speaker, 336. Ames, Oakes, 437. Amiens, treaty of, 104. Ampudia, General, 238, 239. Anderson, Major Robert, 297, 302. Andrew, John A., 135. Anti-masons, the, 130, 162. Antietam, battle of, 311, 319. Appalachicola massacre, 150. Appleton, William H., 326. Appomattox Court-House, 327, 370, 372. Arbuthnot, Alexander, 127, 151. Arctic expedition, 461. Arista, General, 223, 238, 239. Arlington estate, Va., 33. Armistead, Miss Mary, 195. Armstrong, General John, 144, 147, 191. Army of the Cumberland, 359, 432, 442. Northern Virginia, 360. the Potomac, 311, 319, 359, 360, 362, 3fi6, 447. Arnold, Benedict, 14, 71. Isaac N., 333. of Rugby, 441. Arthur, Chester Alan, biography of, 444-467 ; mentioned, 335, 416, 447. Mrs. Ellen Herndon, 464. Rev. William, 444, 467. Ashburton, Lord,' 284. treaty, 210. Asken, John A., 337. Atkinson, General Henry, 235. Atlanta captured, 322. Atlanta, siege of, 497. Bacon, Edmund, 85. William R., 346. Bad Axe, battle of, 236. Badeau's Life of Grant, 394. Badger, George E., 193, 207. Ball, Thomas, 29, 332. Ballou, Miss Eliza, 426. ' Bancroft, George, 19, 85, 108, 117, 181, 222, 230. 5'4 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Banks, Nathaniel P., 245, 358, 359, 360. Barbary pirates, 80. Barnburner faction, 117. Barry, William T., 155. Bass, Lyman K. , 469. Bates, Edward, 307. Bayard, James A., 125. Richard H., 205. Thomas F., 335, 475. Beaumarchais, P. A. C. de, 73, Beauregard, Pierre G. T., 309, 354. Beecher, Henry Ward, 394. Belknap, William W., 387. Bell, John, 193, 219, 307, 337. Belmont, battle of, 351. Benicia barracks, 345. Benton, Thomas H., 117, 144, 153, 154, 162, 164, 166, 199, 200, 204, 261, 281. Bering sea case, 503. Berlin decrees, 104. Bermuda Hundred, 361. Bernard, Governor, 38. Berrien, John M., 155. Biddle, Nicholas, 161. Bienvenu plantation, 148. Big Bethel, battle of, 431. Birney, James G., 211. Bissell, Wilson S., 252, 482. Black Hawk, 119, 235, 236, 237, 302. Black, Jeremiah S., 290. Blair, Francis P., 158, 163, 166, 200, 326. Montgomery, 200, 307. Blaine, James G., 405, 435, 438, 439, 440, 448, 464, 467, 473, 502, 503- Blatchford, Samuel, 462. Bliss, Miss Elizabeth, 244. Blount, James H., 483. Boice, Adolph E., 387. Bolivar, General Simon, T92. Bonaparte, Napoleon, 27, 80, 112. Boone, Daniel, 300. Boston Athenaeum, 29. Gazette, 38, 4c. Latin school, 133. Massacre, 39. Public Library, 12. Tea-party, 44. United States frigate, 43. Botetourt, Lord, 65. Botts, John Minor, 206. Boutwell, George S., 387. Bowdoin, James, 22. Bowen, General, 357. Boylston, Miss Susannah, 36. Braddock, General, 7, 36. Brady, John R., 452. Branch, John, 155. Brandywine, battle of, 14. Breckinridge, John C. , 273, 290, 307, 360, 361. Brent, Richard, 196, 202. Brewster, Benjamin H., 454. Bridport, Lord, 27. Bristow, Benjamin H., 387, 405, 448. Commercial treaty, 49. British flag honored, 454. and Hessian prisoners, 71. Brooks, Peter C, 133. Brougham, Lord, 27. Brown, Aaron V., 217, 290. Henry K., 29, 332. Major Jacob, 239. Matthew, 85. Browne, Sir Thomas, 257. Bryant, William C, 166. Buchanan, James, biography of, 277- 299 ; mentioned, 178, 212, 222, 257, 270, 272, 338. Buckland, Ralph P., 397. Buckner, General Simon B., 353. Bucktails, the, 171. Buell, General Don Carlos, 310, 353, 354, 430, 431. 432- Buena Vista, battle of, 240. Buffalo Historical Society, 261. Bull Run, battle of, 309, 460. Bunker Hill, battle of, 12. Burgoyne's army, 70. surrender, 42. Burke, Edmund, Reflections, 75. Burnside, General Ambrose E., 318, 320. in Knoxville, 359. monument, 464. Burr, Colonel Aaron, 53, 54, 58, 78, 143, 169. Samuel J. , 193. Burt, Silas W. , 449, 450. Bushnell, Dr. Horace, 194. Butler, Benjamin F., 171, 182, 473. General Benjamin F., 360. William Allen, 181. Cabell, Joseph C, 83, 85. Calhoun, John C, mentioned, 113, 117, 127, 128, 149, 157, 158, 160, 166, 17s, 179, r96, 201, 211, 251, 282. INDEX. S'S Calhoun, Mrs. John C, 157. John, surveyor, 303. Calumet Club, Chicago, 394. Cameron, J. Donald, 387. Simon, 307. Campbell, James, 269. Canada rebellion, 176. Canadian sealers, 503. Canby, General E. R. S., 245, 367. Cannon, Newton, 219. Carleton House, New York, 211. Carlisle, John G., 482. Carpenter, Frank B., 332. Carpenter's Hall, 10, n. Carroll, Arthur E. , 275. Cartwright, Rev. Peter, 303. Cass, General Lewis, mentioned, 158, 177, 178, 268, 272, 290. Catherine of Russia, 45. Cedar Creek, battle of, 400. Central American affairs, 285, 286. Cerro Gordo, battle of, 348. Chalmette plantation, 147. Chamberlain, Daniel H., 409. Chamberlayne, William, 30. Champion Hill, battle of, 358. Chancellorsville, battle of, 320. Chandler, William E., 454. Zachary, 387. Chantrey, Sir Francis, 29. Chapultepec, battle of, 267, 349. Charles the First, 185. Charlotte, Queen, 61. Chase, Salmon P., 307, 317, 340. Chatham, Earl of, 8, 10, 107. Chattanooga, battle of, 359. Chegary institute, N. Y., 214. Cherokees and Creeks, 14s, 159- Chesapeake and Ohio canal, 93. Chesapeake, United States frigate, 81, 104. Chester, Thomas L., 1. Chicago conventions, 451, 464, 499. Chickamauga, battle of, 432. Childress, Joel and Elizabeth, 231. Choate, Rufus, 205. Christian, Letitia, 196. Robert. 196, 214. Churubusco, battle of, 349. Cipher despatches, 414. Civil-service reform, 380, 406, 410, 421 442. Clarendon, Lord, 289. Clarke, George Rogers, 71, 333. Clay, General Green, 190. Henry, mentioned, 104, 125, 127, 128, 152, 153. 154, 158, 177, 179, I91! x9°, 199, 201, 202, 204, 206, 221, 222, 224, 225, 250, 256. Claypole, the printer, 24. Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 284, 286, 288, 291, 45°- John Middleton, 242. Clem murder case, 494. Cleveland, Grover, biography of, 468- 491 ; mentioned, 35j 252, 466, 498. Moses, 468. Mrs. Frances, 491. Richard Falley, 468. Rose Elizabeth, 468. Clifford, Nathan, 462. Clinton, DeWitt, 105, 170, 171. George, 17, 53, 104, 170. Henry L., 445. Clintonian Federalists, 171. Republicans, 171. Cobb, Howell, 290. Cobbett, William, '167. Coke upon Lyttleton, 64. Cold Harbor, battle of, 322. Coleridge, Chief- Justice, 502. Coles, Miss Mary, 106. Colfax, Schuyler, 433. Commercial treaties, 453. Compromise measures, 268, 271, 287, 493. Confederate envoys, 326, 331. States, 307. Congressional nullification, 442. Conkling, Mrs. Margaret C, 32. Roscoe, 385, 405, 439, 448, 449, 452, 462. Conrad, Charles M., 252. Robert T., 243. Constellation, United States frigate, 57. Constitution, History of the, 117. Constitutional amendment, 343. Conway, Miss Nelly, 88. Moncure, D., 1. Coolidge, Thomas J., 118. Cooper Institute, New York, 306. Cooper, J. Fenimore, 166. Thomas Apthorpe, 214. Corcoran, William Wilson, 259. Corinth, battle of, 355. Cornell, Alonzo B., 416, 448, 450. Cornwallis, Lord, 14, 46, 71, 72, 90, 454. 5i6 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Corporal's guard, the, 209. Corwin, Thomas, 252. Cowen's law reports, 179. Cox, General Jacob D., 387. Craigie mansion, 12. Craik, Dr. James, 17, 25, 26. Crampton's dismissal, 269. Cranch, Judge William, 251. Crawford, George W., 242. Thomas, 29. William H., 113, 127, 128, 149, 153, 156, 157, '73, 198. Credit Mobilier, 437. Creek Indian treaty, r49. Creswell, John A. J., 387. Crittenden compromise, 296. John J., 193, 207, 252, 296. Crockett, Colonel David, 146, 181. Cromwell, Oliver, 185, 243. Crook, General George, 398. Culver, Erastus D., 444. Cumberland Gap, Va., 432. road bill, 114. Curtis, George Ticknor, 298. George William, 448. Cushing, Caleb, 269, 296. Custis, Eleanor Parke, 31, 34, 35. George W. P., 31, 32. John Parke, 9, 31, 34. Martha Parke, 9, 31. Dallas, George M., 221, 230. Dana, Francis, 120, 124. Richard H., 136. Dandridge, John, 9, 29. Mrs. Elizabeth, 244. Darwin, Erasmus, 63. Davie, William R., 57. Davies, Henry E., 249. Rev. Samuel, 8, Davis, Judge David, 452. Henry Winter, 433. Jefferson, 269, 273, 307, 325, 326. Mrs. Sarah K.. 244. Rev. Thomas, 26. Davila, Discourses on, 53. Dawson, Moses, 193. Deane, Silas, 43, 69. Dearborn, Henry, 79. Decatur, Commodore Stephen, 80. Decatur's apophthegm, 237. Declaration of Independence, 13, 69, 492. De Golyer contract, 437. Delano, Columbus, 387. Democratic party, 442. Dennison, William, 308, 430. Dent, Captain George, 395. Ellen Wrenshall, 395. Frederick, 395. Miss Julia, 395. Miss Julia B., 349. Depew, Chauncey M., 499. Derby, Earl of, 258. Devens, General Charles, 408. Dickinson, Charles, 143. college, Pennsylvania, 277. Daniel S., 340. John, 41, 42, 61. Dix, General John A., 296. Dobbin, James C, 269. Dodge, General Henry, 236. Donelson, Andrew J., 168. Colonel John, 139, 140, 167. Fort, capture of, 352. Mrs. Emily, 168. Rachel, 139. Douglas, Stephen A., 268, 271, 272, 273, 289, 304, 305, 306. Downing, Major Jack, 167. Draper, Lyman C, 88. Dred Scott decision, 180. Drexel, Joseph W., 393. Duane, William J., 163, 164. Duche, Rev. Dr. Jacob, 11. Du Simitiere, Pierre Eugene, 29. Dutch government, the, 45. Early, General Jubal, 322, 363, 364. Eaton, John H., and wife, 155, 157, 168. Edward, Ninian W., and wife, 333, 334. Edwards, Dr. Jonathan, 8. Elberon, N. J., 440. Elliot's Debates, 106. Ellsworth, Oliver, 57, 89. Emancipation proclamation, 316. Embargo act of 1807, 82. Emmons, William, 180. Emory, General William H., 384. Endicott, William C, 475. Enforcement act, 378, 380. Epaminondas, 27. Eppes, Francis, 82. John Wayles, 87. Era of good feeling, 116, 126. Ericsson's inventions, 166. Este, Judge David K., 194. ^ INDEX. 517 Evarts, William M., 3, 408, 446. Everett, Edward, 28, 128, 133, 252, 270. Ewell's army corps, 361. Ewing, Andrew, 345. Thomas, 193, 205, 207. Fairfax of Belvoir, 4, 5, 26. William, 5, Faneuil Hall, Boston, 434, 463. Farragut, Admiral D. G., 160, 310. Fauquier, Governor Francis, 63. Federal taxation, 90. Federalists, the, 128, 153. Fenian outbreaks, 372. Fessenden, William P., 308. Fifty-four forty, or fight, 212. Filibustering expeditions, 270. Fillmore, Millard, biography of, 246- 261 ; mentioned, 183, 466, 493. Millard Powers, 259. Mrs. Abigail, 258. Mrs. Caroline C. , 259. Nathaniel, 246, 247. Finch, Judge Sherman, 397. Fish, Hamilton, 387. Fishback, William P., 493. Fisher's Hill, battle of, 399. Fiske, Professor John, 28. Fitzhugh, Mary Lee, 33. Five Forks, battle of, 327, 368. Fleming, Miss Anna, 106. Sir Thomas, 106. Florida acquired, 126, 152. Floyd, General John B., 163, 290, 353. Folger, Charles J., 454, 470. Folsom, Miss Frances, 491. Foot's resolutions, 160. Foote, Admiral, 352. Force bill, the, 199. Ford, Worthington C, 1, 28, 84. Ford's theater, Washington, 329. Forest Lawn cemetery, 259. Forrest, Edwin, 182. General N. B., 345, 353- Fort Barrancas, 147. Bowyer, 147. Crawford, 235, 236. Donelson, 310. Duquesne, 8. Harrison, 234. Henry, 310, 352. Mimms, 145. Necessity, 6. 34 Fort Pitt, 8. Sumter, 273. Forward, Walter, 208. Franklin, Benjamin, 37, 43, 47, 48, 50, 68, 69, 7°, 72, 73- Square, New York, 21. Fraunce's Tavern, New York, 17. Frederick the Great, 13, 261. Fredericksburg, battle of, 320. Freeman, Edward A., 134. Freemasons, the, 130. Freesoil banner, 177. party, 180. Frelinghuysen, Frederick T., 454. Theodore, 175, 280. Fremont, General John C, 257, 289, 290, 312, 43°, 446. French Directory, the, 142. indemnity, 130. in Mexico, 326. spoliation claims, 165, 462. West Indies, 55. Frothingham, Rev. N. L., 133. Fry, Colonel Joshua, 6. Joseph R. , 243. Frye, William, 405. Fugitive slave law, 253, 268. Fuller, Chief-Justice, 482. Gag rule in Congress, 131, 132. Gaines, General Edmund P., 235, 238. Gallatin, Albert, 79, 125, 136, 170. Gambier, Lord, 125. Gardiner, Miss Julia, 214, 215. Gardiners of Gardiner's island, 214. Gardner, Henry G. , 447. Garfield, Abram, and wife, 426. Garfield, James Abram, biography of, 426-443; mentioned, 261, 334, 392, 421, 451, 465, 498. Mrs. Lucretia R., 443. Garland, Augustus H., 348, 475. Mrs. Mary S., 35. Garnett, Muscoe R. H., 35. Garrison, William Lloyd, 44s. Gates, General Horatio, 15, 17. Gay, Sidney Howard, 106. Geauga seminary, 427. Genet, Edmund Charles, 24, 96, 121. Geneva arbitration, the, 135. Gentleman's Magazine, the, 69. Gentry, Meredith P., 338. George the Third, 44, 45, 50, 61. 5i8 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Germantown, battle of, 14. Gerry, Elbridge, 56, 57. Gettysburg, battle of, 320. Gibraltar, surrender of, 48. Giddings, Joshua R., 432, 442. Giles, William B., 196, 202. Gilman, Daniel C, 118. Goose Nest Prairie, 302. Gordon, General John B., 424. Gouverneur, Samuel L., 117. Graham, William A., 252. Granger, Francis, 193, 207. Gideon, 79. Grant Club, New York, 447. Frederick D., 395, 396. Jesse R., 347. Matthew, 346. Mrs. Julia D., 395. Grant, Ulysses Simpson, biography of, 347-394 ; mentioned, 155, 310, 320, 321, 334, 341, 39°, 4°°, 403, 416, 438, 447- Gray, Judge Horace, 462. Grayson, William, 99, 109, no. Greeley, Horace, 135, 326, 382. Lieutenant A. W., 461. Green, General Duff, 155, 158. Greenough, Horatio, 29. Gresham, Walter Q., 454, 482. Greytown bombarded, 269. Gridley, Jeremiah, 38. Grierson's raid, 359. Grinnell Land, 461. Grover, Rev. Stephen, 468. Grund, Francis J., 180. Grundy, Felix, 217, 283. Gun-foundry board, 459. Guthrie, James, 269. Haines's Bluff, battle of, 355. Hale, Edward Everett, 28. John P., 262, 265. Sir Matthew, 2, 64. Hall, Nathan K , 249, 252. Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 182, 183. General Henry W., 311, 352, 354. Hamer, Thomas L., 347. Hamilton, Alexander, 22, 23, 24, 25, 53, 54, 55, 58, 7°, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 89, 94, 95, 97, 98, no, 116, 260. Hamiltonian Federalism, 178. Hammond, George, 76. Hampden Sidney college, 186. Hampton Roads, 331. General Wade, 409, 4ro. Hancock, John, 39. General Winfield S., 363, 373, 374, 439- Harris, Isham G., 345. Senator Ira, 329. Harrison, Benjamin, of Virginia, 68, 69, 185, 186, 492. Harrison, Benjamin, biography of, 492- 506 ; mentioned, 396, 479, 482. Colonel John, 185. gold medal, 191. John Scott, 193, 194, 492. Landing, Va., 310. Mrs. Anna, 194. Mrs. Caroline L., 506. the Regicide, 492. Harrison, William Henry, biography of, 185-193 ; mentioned, 175, 177, 202, 204, 207, 220, 283, 334. Hartranft, General John T., 405. Harvard university, 36, 133, 136. Hatton, Frank, 454. Haven, Solomon G., 249. Hawaiian Islands, 482. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 166, 262, 275. Hayes, Rutherford B. , biography of, 379-425 ; mentioned, 387, 448, 467. Mrs. Lucy Ware, 425. Hayne, Robert T. , 160. Healy, George P. A., 275, 332. Hendricks, Thomas A., 472, 494, 495, 498. Henry, James B., 286. Patrick, 10, 31, 64, 67, 68, 74, 99, 106, 186, 333- Herbert, Hilary A., 482. Hermitage, the, 137, 166. Herndon, Ellen Lewis, 464. Captain William L., 464. Hessians and British, 70. Hoar, Ebenezer, 337. George F., 435. Hoes, Hannah and Mary, 169. Hoffman, Miss Matilda, 183. Ogden, 446. Holland, William H.. 180. Hollywood Cemetery, 117, 213, 215. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 166. Holy Alliance, the, 147. Holt, Judge Joseph, 297. Hone, Mayor Philip, 84. INDEX. 519 Hood, General John B., 322, 365. Hooker, General Joseph, 320. Hopkins, General, 234. President, 429. Horseshoe Bend, 145. Houdon, Jean Antoine, 29. Houston, General Samuel, 146. Howard, General Oliver O., 243. Howe, Lord William, 42. Timothy O., 454. Howells, William D., 333, 425. Hubbard, Samuel D., 252. Hull and Decatur, 125. Captain Isaac, 105, 148. General William, 189. Hulseman letter, the, 254. Humphrey, General David, 18. Hunker faction, the, 177. Hunt, Judge Ward, 462. William H., 439. Hunter, General David, 313, 362, 363. Hutchinson, Elizabeth, 137. Governor, 39, 40. Inaugural addresses, 193. Indian legislation, 462. Territory, 475, 476. Inflation bill, the, 385. Ingham, Samuel D., 155. Inman, Henry, 184. Insolvent laws, 174. Instructions, draft of, 66. Irving, Washington, 6, 17, 34, 166, 174, 180, 183, 247. Italian republics, 51. Jackson, Andrew, biography of, 137- 167; mentioned, 105, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 170, 191, 198, 200, 201, 202, 204, 213, 217, 218, 263, 279, 280, 282, 283, 337. Hugh, 137. Isaac R., 193. Mrs. Rachel, 141, 167, 168. Mrs. Sarah T., 168. Thomas J., 245. Jacksonians, 175, 199- James, Thomas L., 416, 439, 452. Japanese treaty, the, 254. Jay, John, 23, 47, 49, 53, 55, 58, 73, 78, 90, 97, 98, no. Jay's English treaty, 77, 10I> I02, J42, 187. Jefferson, Thomas, biography of, 62- 85 ; mentioned, 22, 23, 37, 50, 52, 54, 58, 59, 60, 86, 87, 101, 102, 107, 108, 112, 114, 115, 117, 124, 142, 169, 176, 180, 187, 195, 291, 333. Lucy Elizabeth, 86. Mary and Martha, 74, 86. Peter, 62. portraits, 85. Jewell, Marshall, 387. Johnson, Andrew, biography of, 336- 346 ; mentioned, 135, 317, 372, 374,435- Louisa, 121. Thomas, 121. Mrs. Andrew, 345. Reverdy, 242. Richard M., 202, 220. Sarah Bush, 301. Johnson's law reports, 179. Johnston, Albert Sidney, 310, 353, 354. Harriet L., 299. Henry E., 299. Joseph E., 309, 322, 327, 341, 357, 360, 361, 365, 367, 370. Jones, James C, 220. John P., 385. Joseph, 167. Juarez, President, 318. Jumonville, death of, 6. Kansas and Nebraska, 270, 271, 272, 338. Kendall, Amos, 155, 156, 157, 158, 163. Kennedy, John P., 252. Kent, James, 172. Kenyon college, Ohio, 397, 424. Keokuk, Indian chief, 236. Key, David M., 408. King, Rufus, 97, 113, 172, 180. King's Mountain, battle of, 147. Kirkland, Mrs. Caroline M., 28. Kirkwood, Thomas J., 439. Kitchen cabinet, the, 155, 158, 161. Knox, General Henry, 15, 22, 25, 74, 75. James and Samuel, 216. Kortright, Elizabeth and Lawrence, 117, 118. Kosciuszko, Thaddeus, 79. Kossuth, General Louis, 254. Koszta, Martin, 269. Lady Franklin bay, 461. Lafayette, General, 74, 75, 114, 118. Madame, ti8. 520 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. La Force, prison of, 118. Lake of the Woods, 108. Lamar, Lucius Q. C, 475. Lamont, Daniel S., 482. Lane, Elliott T., 299. Miss Harriet, 286, 289. Laurens Court-House, 336. Henry, 45. La Vengeance, frigate, 56. Lear, Colonel Tobias, 26. Lee, Arthur, 43. Francis Lightfoot, 70. General Robert E., 33, 311, 314, 322, 326, 341, 361, 366, 369, 370, 371. Henry, of Massachusetts, 163. Mrs. Robert E., 276. Richard Henry, 26, 42, 68, 99, no, 185. Legare, Hugh S., 208, 211. Leigh, Benjamin Watkins, 203. Lemmon, Jonathan, 445. Lenox Library, 24. Leonard, Daniel, 40. Leopard and Chesapeake, 81, 104, 123. Lewis, Andrew, 34. Captain George, 34. Edward P. C, 35. Fielding, 33. Lawrence, 33, 34, 35. Morgan, 169. William B., 152, 155, 157. Lexington, battle of, 16. Leyden, ministry of, 120. Lincoln, Abraham, biography of, 303- 335 ; mentioned, 132, 134, 161, 178, 180, 255, 258, 261, 290, 293, 294, 297, 339, 367, 37°, 431, 442, 443, 4&°- John, 300. Levi, 79. Mordecai, 300. Mrs. Mary, 333, 334. Park, Chicago, 394. Robert T., 332, 334, 439, 454. Samuel, 300. Thomas, 301. William W. , 332, 334. Lindenwald, 177, 178, 183. L'Insurgente, frigate, 57. Lippincott's Magazine, 135. Literary vandalism, 259, 260. Little Belt, sloop of war, 104. Livingston, Edward, 158, 160. Edward P., 170. Robert R., 20,, 68, 112, 175. Longacre, James B., 104. Longfellow, Henry W., 12, 166, 262, 397. Long Island, battle of, 13. Longstreet, General James, 359, 360. Lossing, Benson J., 2, 13, 28, 32, 33. Louisiana difficulties, 384. Loyal legion, order of, 424. Luzerne, Chevalier de la, 48. McCardle, Miss Eliza, 336, 345. McCarte mansion, 148. McCay, Spruce, 138. McClellan, General George B., 309, 311, 323, 324- McClelland, Robert, 269. McCloskey, Cardinal, 458. McCrary, George, 408. McCulloch, Hugh, 454. McDowell, General Irwin, 309. McDuffie, George, 219. McElroy, John E., 467. Mrs. Mary A., 467. Mcintosh, Mrs. Caroline C, 259. McKee, James R. , 506. McLane, Louis, 158, 163. McLean, John, 208. House, Virginia, 369. McMurdo, John, 195. McNeil, General John H. , 274. Macaulay, Lord, 28. Mackenzie, William L., 181. Maclay, William, 20. Macomb, General Alexander, 181. MacVeagh, Wayne, 439. Madison, Ambrose, 88. and Jefferson, 136. Captain Isaac, 88. Madison, James, biography of, 88, 106 ; mentioned, 14, 24, 65, 73, 79, 81, 82, 109, 113, 115, 116, 117, 170, 187, 189, 191, 195- Mrs. Dolly, 184. Madison Square Garden, 480. Mahone, Senator, 452. Malvern Hill, battle of, 310. Mangum, Willie P., 175, 202. Manning, Daniel, 475. Marble cemetery, New York, 117. Marbois, Count F. Barbe-, 81, 112. Marcellus, a signature, 121. Marcy, William L., 119, 156, 222, 268, 269. Marshall, General Humphrey, 431. Chief-Justice, 26, 28*, 56, 58, 99, 109, 174. INDEX. 521 Marshall's Life of Washington, 73, 76. Martin, Rev. Thomas, 88. Mason and Dixon's line, 127, 273. Mason, George, 7c, 94, 99, 109. James M., 318. John Y., 270. Mason and Slidell, 134. Massachusetts cavalry, 135. Historical Society, 15. Matthews, Senator, 435. Maximilian, Emperor, 292, 318. Mayo, Robert, 167. Mead, Larkin G., sculptor, 329. Meade, General George G. , 320, 360, 365. Meadows, Great, battle of, 6, 7. Meikleham, Mrs. S. R., 87. Mercer, Colonel Hugh, 107. Merchant marine, the, 379. Meredith, William M., 242. Merritt, General Edwin A. , 416, 449, 450. Mexican boundary, 126, 435. treaty of 1883, 455. Milan decrees, the, 104, 722. Miller, William H. H., 439. Millions for defence, 56. Missionary Ridge, battle of, 321. Mississippi valley, the, 48, 90. Missouri compromise, the, 127, 198, 212, z93- Mobile evacuated, 371. Molino del Rey, battle of, 267, 349. Monmouth, battle of, 14. Monroe, Colonel James, 118. doctrine, the, 114, 115, 127, 147, 174, 285, 292, 326, 378, 456, 475. Mrs. Elizabeth, 118. Monroe, James, biography of , 107-118; mentioned, 55, 81, 99, 150, 171, 172, 186, 213, 278, 414. Spence, 107. Montgomery, Henry, 193. Monticello, Va., 64, 66, 67, 70, 71, 72, 74, 82, 83. Montpelier, Va., 102, 104. Morgan, General John, 399. Governor Edwin D. , 446, 447, 454. William, 130. Mormon polygamy, 475, 476. Morrill, Lot M., 387. Morris, Gouverneur, 55, 72, 93, no. Robert, 186. Morse and Henry, 442. John T., Jr., 60, 84, 133. Morse, Mrs. S. F. B., 2. Morton, J. Sterling, 482. Oliver P., 405, 496. Mosquito Indians, 285, 286. Mount McGregor, 393. Mount Vernon, 7, 9, 10, 17, 19, 25, 26, 28, 29, 3i, 35- . Moustier, Count, quoted, 20. Mulligan, Colonel James, 399. Murphy, Colonel, dismissed, 355. Murray, William Vans, 57. Napoleon, Emperor, 57, 104, 122, 123, M3, 147- . the Third, 134, 292, 318. Nashville, battle of, 323, 365, 497. National United States banks, 458. debt reduced, 387. republicans, 201, 202. Nebraska bill, the, 305. Nelson, General Thomas, 72. Nesselrode, Count, 279. New England governments, 69. New Orleans, battle of, 147. New Orleans expedition, 463. New York city riots, 319. New York Historical Society, 85. Newfoundland fisheries, 44, 48. Nicholas, Colonel W. C, 78. of Russia, 280. Nichols, Francis T., 409, 410. Nicholson, A. O. P., 177, 231. Nickajack expedition, 139. Nicola, Colonel Lewis, 14. Nicolay, John G., 333. North, Lord, government of, 44, 45. Northwest Territory, 187. Norton, Rev. John, 60. Notes on Virginia, 73. O'Conor, Charles, 446. Offensive partisanship, 476. Offutt, Denton, 302. Okechobee, battle of, 237. Old Hickory, 144, 166. Old Point Comfort, 81. Olney, Richard, 482. Omnibus bill, the, 251. Ord, General E. O. C, 365. Oregon question, the, 210, 224. Orne, Colonel, 7. Orth, Godlove S., 497. Ostend manifesto, the, 270. 522 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Oswald, Richard, 47. Otis, James, eloquence of, 37, 38. Overton, Judge Thomas, 139, 143, 150. Page, William, 332. Paine, Judge Elijah, 445. Paine's Rights of Man, 75. Thomas, 79, r2i, 137. Pakenham, Sir Edward, r47. Palfrey, John G., 135. Palmerston, Lord, 134. Palo Alto, battle of, 244, 348. Panic of 1837, 165. Panthemont, convent of, 87. Parker, Edmund, 262. General Ely S., 377. Parsons, Theophilus, 121. Parton, James, 84, 137, 167. Patterson, David T., 346. Mrs. Martha, 346. Paulding, James Kirke, 28, 183. Payne, John, 106. Miss Dorothy, 106. Peace Congress, the, 1882, 455. Peale, Charles Wilson, 29, 31. Rembrandt, 29, 85. Pemberton, General John C, 320, 357. Pendleton, Edmund, 10, 31, 68, 99. George H., 402, 434. Perkins, Charles C, 3, 29. Perry's Japanese treaty, 269. Peter the Great, 261. Petersburg evacuated, 327, 328. Philippe, Louis, 281. Phillips, Captain John, 246. Exeter academy, 334. Pickens, Governor, 296. Pickering, Thomas, in, 121. Pierce, Benjamin, 262. Pierce, Franklin, biography of, 262- 276; mentioned, 178, 287, 289. Mrs. Jane A., 275. Pierrepont, Edwards, 387. Pierson, Hamilton W., 85. Pillow, Gideon J., 217, 266, 353. Pinckney, Charles C, 53, 55, 58, 78, 104, in. Thomas, 53, 54. Pinkney, William, 112. Pitt, William, 89. Piatt, Thomas C, 439, 452. Pleasant Hill, battle of, 245. Pocahontas of Virginia, 492. Pocket veto, 158. Polk, Colonel Thomas, 216. Polk, James Knox, biography of, 216- 232 ; mentioned, 177, 211, 250, 264, 284, 337- Mrs. Sarah C, 231, 232. Samuel, 216. Pollock or Polk, Robert, 216. Polygamy in Utah, 420, 462. Ponca Indians, 422. Pontiac, Indian chief, 144. Pope, General John, 311, 350, 367. Pope's Creek, Va., 1, 3. Popular sovereignty, 305. Port Hudson surrendered, 358. Porter, Admiral David, 365, 367. General Fitz-John, 310, 392, 460. Postage, reduction of, 461. Potter, Clarkson N., 414. Prentiss, Sergeant S., 262. Prescott, William H., 166. President, United States frigate, 104. Presidential nicknames, 182. Preston, Captain, 39. W. Ballard, 242. William C, r84, 209. Price, General Sterling, 35r. Priestly, Dr. Joseph, 79. Prince of Wales, 299, 389. Prince, John, 182. L. Bradford, 449. Princeton College, 33. Princeton, United States steamer, 214. Proctor, Colonel Henry, 189. Prophet, the Indian, 188. Public debt, the, 379, 420. Publicola, a signature, 121. Puritan and Blackleg, 128. Putnam, General Israel, 15. Quincy, John, 120. Josiah, 39, 133. Railway strikes, 411, 489. Raleigh tavern, the, 66. Ramsay, David, 28. Randall, Henry S., 84. Randolph, Edmund, 74, 94, 95, 109, in. Isham, 62. John, 128, 136, 154, 199. Mrs. Maria, 87. Sarah N., 85, 87. Thomas J., 85. INDEX. 523 Randolph, Thomas M., 74, S6. Ransom, Colonel, 265. Rathbone, Major Henry R., 329. Rawlings, John A., 387. Raymond, Henry J., 340. Red river expedition, 360. Reed, William B., 293. Reeder, Andrew H., 272. Religious Freedom act, 70. Resaca de la Palma, 244, 348. Resumption act, 415. Richardson, William M., 387. Richmond captured, 327. Inquirer, 198, 212. evacuated, 368. Riverside park, New York, 394. Rives, William C, 106, 203, 205, 207. Robards, Captain Lewis, 139, 140, 141, 167. Robertson, Donald, 88. General, 139. William H., 439, 452. Robeson, George M., 387. Robinson, Wyndham, 492. Rogers, Randolph, 332. William K., 398. Rolfe, John, Gentleman, 492. Roosevelt, Theodore, 449. Rosecrans, General W. S., 355, 359, 398, 433- Rudolph, Miss Lucretia, 443. Rupert of debate, 258. Rutledge, John, 11, 43, 97. Russell, Jonathan, 125. Lord John, 319. Sabine Cross-Roads, battle of, 245. St. Augustine, seizure of, 151. St. Clair, General Arthur, 186. St. Eustatius, plunder of, 46. St. Gaudens, Augustus, 332. St. John, John P., 473. St. John's church, 67. college, 33. Salisbury, Marquis of, 503. Sanford, Nathan, 172. Santa Anna, General, 240, 266. Santo Domingo treaty, 378, 455. Sartoris, Mrs. Algernon, 395. Saviour of society, 163. Schell, Augustus, 450. Schley, Captain W. S., 461. Schofield, General John M., 387, 467. Schouler, James, 116, 117, 167. Schurz, General Carl, 408. Scott, Miss Caroline L. , 492, 506. John W., 506. General Winfield, 118, 149, 160, 181, 182, 236, 237, 240, 242, 266, 268, 270, 288, 294, 298. Scylla and Charybdis, 55. Seminole Indians, 145, 181. Semple, Mrs. Letitia, 214. Seneca Indians, 1. Seven Pines, battle of, 310. Sevier, General John, 143. Sewall, Jonathan, 38. Seward, William H., 132, 306, 307, 317, 33i, 341- Seymour, Horatio, 375, 447. Sharpe, Governor, 7. Shaw, Major, quoted, 15. Shays's rebellion, 18. Sheffield, Lord, 50. Shelburne, Lord, 47. Shelby, Governor William, 191. Shepard, Edward M., 181. Rev. Thomas, 60. Sheridan, General Philip H., 322, 323, 361, 362, 364, 366, 368, 371, 373, 384, 457, 4^7, 476, 497- Sherman, General William T., 3, 29, 322, 360, 362, 363, 366, 370, 396. Roger, 68. Senator John, 403, 407, 435, 438, 449, 499- Sherwood Forest, 212, 213, 215. Shields, General James, 266, 304. Shiloh, battle of, 148, 310, 353, 354. Shirley, Governor, 8. Sigel, General Franz, 360, 361. Silver coinage, 413, 414, 458, 480, 486, 504. Simpson, Miss Hannah, 347. Singleton, Richard, 184. Skelton, Bathurst, 86. Mrs. Martha, 66, 86. Slater education fund, 424. Slidell, John, 284, 318. Small, Dr. William, 63. Smith, Caleb B. , 307. General E. Kirby, 327, 371. Gerrit, 445. Hoke, of Georgia, 482.' Miss Abigail, 37. Richard, 243. Robert, 79. 524 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Smith, William, 60, 202, 207. Soule, Pierre, 270. Southard, William L., 207, 280. South Mountain, battle of, 311. Spanish reciprocity, 475. Sparks, Dr. Jared, i, 9, 28. Spartan firmness, 170. Specie payments, 385, 420. Speed, James, 308. Spencer, Ambrose, 172. John C, 249. Spoils system, 129, 156. Squatter sovereignty, 293. Stalwart Republicans, 440. Stanford university, 505. Stanton, Edwin M., 297, 308, 344. Stark, Colonel John, 140. State department, 503, 504. rights, 202. sovereignty, 436. Stevens, Edwin A. , 35. Stevenson, Andrew, 184. Stewart, Alexander T., 387. Stirling, Earl of, 107. Stone, Uriah, pioneer, 444. Stoneman, General George S., 367. Stowe, Mrs. Harriet B., 333. Professor Calvin E., 262. Story, Judge Joseph, 397. Strikes in Illinois, 489. Stuart, Alexander H. H., 242, 252, 256. General J. E. B., 322. Gilbert, 29, 35, 60, 105, 118. John T., 303. Sullivan, General, 42. Sumner, William G., 167. Sumter, Fort, attack on, 295, 297. General, 137. Swing, Professor David, 493. Symmes, Miss Anna, 187. John Cleves, 187. Taft, Judge Alonzo, 387, 404. Talcott, General S. V., 447. Talleyrand, Marquis, 46, 56, 57, 102, 112. Talmadge, Nathaniel P., 209. Taney, Roger B., 158, 164. Tariff bill, 1884, 488. of abominations, 159. reform, 481. Tayloe, Colonel Ogle, 257. Taylor, Colonel Richard, 333. General Richard, 244, 245. Taylor, Hancock, 233, 244. James, Mrs. Margaret, 243. Taylor Zachary, 233-245; mentioned, i55, 178, 222, 250, 25*1, 304, 348. Tazewell, Littleton W., 198. Tecumseh, 144, 145, 187, 188, 189. Teller, Henry M., 454. Tennessee legislature, 153. Tenure-of-office bill, 374. Terry, General Alfred H., 365. Thames, battle of the, 190, 191. Thomas, General George H., 323, 359, 365, 431, 432, 442, 443- General Lorenzo, 344. Thompson, Colonel Jeff., 351. Jacob, 290. Richard W., 408. Thompson's Presidents, 261. Thurman, Allen G., 401. Tilden, Samuel J., 245, 386, 406, 414. Timberlake, Mrs., 157. Tippecanoe, battle of, 189, 234. Todd, John, 333. Mrs. Dorothy P., 101, 106. Miss Mary, 332. Robert S., 333, 334. Tompkins, Daniel D., 113, 169, 170. Topeka convention, 293. Toucey, Isaac, 290. Trumbell, John, 29. Lyman, 304. Truxton, Captain, 57. Tucker, George F., 118. Professor George, 84. Twiggs, Colonel David E., 150. Tyler, Judge John, 94, 99, 195. Tyler, John, 195-213 ; mentioned, 192, 222, 283. Lyon Gardiner, 198, 213, 215. Mrs. Julia Gardiner, 213-214. Mrs. Letitia, 214. Mrs. Priscilla, 214. Tyner, James A., 387. Underwood, Judge, 372. Union Club, New York, 119. Pacific railway, 136, 437. United States bank, 161, T62, 170, 195, 200, 203, 205. navy, 46r. University of New York, 171. Upham, Charles W. , 28. INDEX. 525 Upshur, Abel Parker, 208. Usher, John Palmer, 308. Utah commission, 462. Valentia, General, 266. Vallandigham, Clement L., 319, 323. Valley Forge, sufferings of, 14. Van Alen, James J., 169. Van Buren, Abraham, 169, 181, 182, 183. John, 181, 182. Van Buren, Martin, biography of, 169- 181 ; mentioned, 134, 155, 157, 162, 166, 192, 199, 200, 203, 205, 211, 219, 221, 283. Mrs. Angelica, 184. Mrs. Hannah, 181. Vanderbilt, William H., 394. Vanderlyn, John, 118. Van Ness, William P., 169, 183. Van Vechten, Abraham, 171. Vassall mansion, the, 12. Vauguyon, Due de la, 45, 46. Vergennes, Count, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 73. Vernon, Admiral, 4. Vicksburg, siege of, 320, 356, 358. Victoria, Queen, 389. Vilas, William T., 475. Virgil, the poet, 69. Virginia dynasty, the, 170. Jefferson's, 62, 63. University Magazine, 215. University of, 35. Virginius outrage, the, 383. Volk, Leonard W., 332. Volney, Count C. F., 79. Von Hoist, Herman E., 167, 176, 261. Voorhees, Senator, 495. Waite, Chief-Justice, 452, 466, 475. Waldo, Samuel P., 117. Wales, Prince of, 299, 389. Walker, Robert J., 222. William, 269. Wallace, General Lewis, 26T, 505. War Democrats, 166. War of 1812, the, 104. Ward, John Q. A., 443. Warren, General Gouverneur K., 364. General Joseph, 39. Washburne, Elihu B., 376, 387. Washington, Andrew, 1. Augustine, 3. Bushrod, 28. Washington, capture of, 147. Washington, Elizabeth, 33. Washington, George, biography of, 1-29 ; mentioned, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 4i, 52, 68, 74, 76, 83, 93, 97, 101, 106, 107, 142. Henry A., 84. John, 1. Lawrence, 4, 5. Levi, 158. Mrs. Martha, 29, 31, 32, 35. Mrs. Mary, 2, 34. Washington treaty, 381, 457. Waters, Henry F., 1. Wayles, John, 66, 86. Martha, 86. Wayne, General Anthony, 186. Waxham settlement, 137. Webb, Miss Lucy Ware, 425. Webster, Daniel, 85, 117, 133, 142, 160, I75, 193, 201, 202, 205, 207, 208, 210, 252, 253, 256, 260, 268, 284, 436. Historical society, 463. Weed, Thurlow, 288. Weems, Mason L., 28. Welles, Gideon, 307. Wellington, Duke of, 147, 155, 157. Wentworth, John, 36, 41. Wertmuller, Adolph U., 29. Western Reserve, the, 426. West India trade, 174. Wheatland, Pa., 286, 298, 299. Whisky frauds, 386. White House, the, 86, 142, 215, 276, 346, 425, 467, 491- White, Hugh L., 175, 202, 219, 337. Whitney, William C, 475. Whittier, John G., 166. Wickliffe, Charles S., 208. Wileland's Oberon, 121. Wilderness, battle of, 322, 361, 467. William and Mary college, 5, 62, 63, 71, 107, 195, 198, 2r5. Williams college, 428, 429. Williams, George H., 387. Wilmot proviso, 172, 177, 178, 223, 227. Wilson, James Grant, 261, 350, 359, 394. James M., 437. Winchester, battle of, 364, 369. Winchester, General James, 188, 189. 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His work is popularly written, and every page is replete with solid instruction of a kind that is just now lamentably needed by multitudes of our people who are victimized by the grossest fallacies."— Popular Science Monthly. CLEMENTS OF ECONOMICS. By Henry Dunning J—-* MACLEOD, M. A., Barrister-at-Law, selected by the Royal Com missioners for the Digest of the Law to prepare the Digest of the Law of Bills of Exchange, Bank Notes, etc. Lecturer on Political Economy in the University of Cambridge. In two vol umes. i2mo. Cloth, $1.75 each. "The author attempts to establish an exact science of economics on a mathemat ical basis— to establish ' a new inductive science ' ; and he presents what he calls ' a new body of phenomena brought under the dominion of mathematics.' "—New York World. " A work which is destined to be of inestimable value to publicists and students. Mr Macleod treats of the relation between value and quantity of labor and cost of production, holding that the relation between supply and demand is the sole regu lator of value, and that value is the inducement to the production of profits, —it. Louis Republican. . New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. n^HE FARMER'S SIDE. By Hon. W. A. Peffer, U. S. ¦*¦ Senator from Kansas. i2mo. Cloth, $1.00. "This politico-economical treatise discusses such subjects as the General Average Progress of the Country, the Progress of Agriculture, the Mortgage Burden, the Changed Condition of the Farmer, the Farmer's Competitors, the Settlement of the New West, the Destroying Power of Usury, Contraction of the Currency, etc. These are all stirring questions of the day, and Senator Peffer states his side quite clearly. The book will ba of great interest to politicians and politico-economists generally." — Rochester Union and Advertiser. " The book will be interesting not only as an exhibit of what a leading advocate of paternal governmenc thinks on that subject, but as a valuable compilation and collec tion of statistics on a question of living interest." — Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. ' ' The author performed a very useful service in the compilation of this work. In it he has condensed a vast amount of valuable statistical matter bearing upon the vari ous industries of the country during the past forty years. ... It deserves a wide circu lation and a careful reading." — Farm, Stock, and Home, Minneapolis, Minn. (SELECTED SPEECHES AND REPORTS ON FI- v3 NANCE AND TAXATION, FROM 1859 TO 1878. By John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury. 8vo. Cloth, $2.50. " Whatever opinions sound thinkers may entertain with respect to some of the doc trines which Mr. Sherman has upheld upon occasion, there is no man in the country whose opinions with respect to financial matters are subjects of greater interest than are Mr. Sherman's." — New York Evening Post. CURRENCY AND BANKING. By Bon amy Price, Pro fessor of Political Economy in the University of Oxford. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. "The idea that the government stamp on the coin gives to money its value, the author disposes of in a sentence, yet it is a large part of the money argument." — Hartford Courant. " This discussion on the subject of currency is very clear and satisfactory, as well as timely." — New-Englander. pAPER-MONEY INFLATION IN FRANCE: How ¦*- it Came, What it Brought, and How it Ended. By Andrew D. White, President of Cornell University. 8vo. Paper, 50 cents. A paper read before several Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, of both political parties, at Washington, April 12, and before the Union League Club, at New York, April 13, 1876. ATOMISMA ; or, "Legal Tender." By Henri Cernuschi, ->- » author of "Bi-Metallic Money." i2mo. Cloth, $1.25. CONTENTS.— Evidence given before the United States Monetary Commission, by the author and others, February 5, 6, 7, and 8, 1877. — Monetary Pacification by the Rehabilitation of Silver. — Silver Vindicated. —Appendix. New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.